Hong Kong: Education chief bound for GZ, SZ

Secretary for Education Choi Yuk-lin will depart tomorrow on a visit to Guangzhou and Shenzhen, before returning to Hong Kong on January 11.



During the visit, Dr Choi will officiate at a plaque unveiling ceremony for the first teacher training and exchange base on the Mainland, and at the launch of Mainland study tours for new teachers at South China Normal University (SCNU).



The education chief will also conduct exchanges with SCNU leaders and Hong Kong students studying at the university, and tour the Affiliated High School of SCNU and Sun Yat-sen University.



Additionally, she will join secondary school students visiting Shenzhen on a Mainland study as part of their Citizenship & Social Development subject studies.



During her absence, Under Secretary for Education Sze Chun-fai will be Acting Secretary.

This story has been published on: 2024-01-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Nation's military mobilized for annual training

China Daily) 09:33, January 08, 2024

People's Armed Police Force soldiers engage in combat training in Hezhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on Tuesday, as the Chinese military opened its annual training sessions. ZHANG BIHAI/FOR CHINA DAILY

The Chinese military has opened its annual training sessions for 2024, focusing on improving combat capability.

On Tuesday, the People's Liberation Army Ground Force held a launch ceremony at a training ground in Guangdong to mark the beginning of the annual training.

General Li Qiaoming, commander of the Ground Force, and General Qin Shutong, the force's political commissar, took part in the ceremony and addressed more than 3,000 troops from a combined brigade.

After the ceremony, Li and Qin and other top commanders instructed troops and also checked other units' training via video link.

Combat ships, submarines and aircraft from the PLA Navy have been mobilized for live-fire exercises. Sailors and naval aviators honed their skills in gunfire, missile launching, electronic warfare operations and air-defense and anti-submarine tasks.

The PLA Air Force said its aviation and air-defense units have taken part in intense drills since the beginning of the new year, publishing a video showing aircraft, radars and missile launchers in action.

The People's Armed Police Force also organized mass gatherings at its units' training grounds across the country, putting officers and soldiers in realistic battle scenarios.

Meanwhile, all of the PLA's regional theater commands  central, northern, eastern, southern and western  have ordered forces under their direct control to carry out training and exercises according to the latest annual plans. Commanders stressed that troops must continue to improve their joint operational capabilities.

In another development, the PLA Southern Theater Command announced that it has organized naval and air forces to conduct routine patrols in the South China Sea on Wednesday and Thursday.

It said its forces always remain on high alert and will resolutely defend national sovereignty, security, and maritime rights and interests.

Any military activities by foreign forces aiming to cause disturbances and tensions or sensationalize regional situations in the South China Sea are under close watch by the armed forces, the command noted.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Workers assemble vehicles at a factory in a free trade zone in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo/Xinhua]



China will retain its position as a key global manufacturing hub, as the supply chain diversification moves by certain multinational companies are gradual and limited only to low-end sectors, according to senior analysts and business leaders.

They also emphasized that the country's continuous efforts to promote industrial upgrade and deepen opening-up will further cement its status in the global supply chains.

However, they suggested that the country should make more efforts to strengthen international cooperation and create a level playing field for market entities, while leveraging the advantages of a huge domestic market and manufacturing capability to attract more foreign investors, especially in advanced manufacturing, consumer products and services industries.

Their comments echoed a recent report by Fitch Ratings, which said the move by global and Chinese companies to relocate production away from China amid rising trade barriers and geopolitical tensions remains limited to sectors involving low-skill assembly and mass production, such as textiles, apparel and footwear, with manufacturers persisting with higher value-added production in China.

"We believe the supply-chain shift is likely to be gradual, as China's competitive advantages of a large and relatively high-skilled workforce, well-developed infrastructure, industrial expertise and efficient and complete manufacturing value chain are unlikely to be overtaken by other countries in the near term," the report said.

Besides, thanks to its increasing production of higher value-added products underpinned by the government's continued efforts to encourage manufacturing upgrades and movements up global value chains, China's share of global manufacturing output has continued to grow despite the supply-chain shift, the report said. It cited data that showed the country's share of global manufacturing output reached around 30 percent in 2022, compared with 28.5 percent in 2018 and 22.3 percent in 2012.

Zhao Zhongxiu, president of the University of International Business and Economics, said: "Some manufacturing companies are moving factories out of China, implementing the so-called China-plus strategy. But that is just part of the picture."

"China is strengthening efforts to move up global value chains while further stabilizing foreign direct investment. No global company can ignore a market as big as China," Zhao said.

Despite some developed economies leaning toward protectionism, China has unwaveringly expanded high-standard institutional opening-up, and is seeking to integrate deeper into global industrial and supply chains through proactive opening-up measures. That will add resilience to its appeal to foreign investors, he said.

Ge Shunqi, a professor at Nankai University's Institute of International Economics, said he believes it is natural that some companies in labor-intensive industries are relocating production away from China as the country upgrades industry structure and moves up global value chains, just like they came to China decades ago to produce and then export those products.

Currently, it is important for China to maintain a stable and consistent approach of proactively expanding opening-up to deepen international cooperation, with bold opening-up measures, Ge said.

He also said the country can encourage Chinese enterprises, private ones in particular, to take the "going global" approach, because their increased presence overseas will strengthen China's ties with global markets, therefore building up the country's strength in global industrial and value chains.

Zhao, from UIBE, suggested that the country should further lower tariffs on intermediate goods  probably on a large scale  to reinforce willingness of companies to retain production capacity in China.

He said he expects the country to treat all types of enterprises more equally, ensure policy stability and transparency, and most importantly, encourage innovations and fair competition to boost confidence of market entities, especially those in the private economy.

Such efforts will further unleash development potential of enterprises, to help expand the domestic market and shore up economic recovery, and eventually, to further leverage the country's advantages of a huge market to attract more foreign investors, Zhao said.

David Lynne, head of corporate banking at Deutsche Bank, said that China will remain a significant destination for FDI, and a number of large multinationals are planning to or are already expanding their manufacturing capability within the country to supply the China market.

"The (Western) companies are increasing their manufacturing capability and investment in China," said Lynne. "China remains a significant marketplace for a large number of our multinational clients. Consumer wealth will continue to go up over time here, (so will) requirements around automobiles, consumer goods, chemical products and industrial manufacturing."

Market confidence in the Chinese economy has been growing as the authorities have been ramping up efforts to adjust policies to further revive the economy and support financing demands from companies of all categories.

At a work conference in Beijing on Thursday and Friday, the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, vowed to provide strong and effective support for steady economic growth and high-quality development this year.

A variety of monetary policy tools will be used to maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity, and keep the scale of social financing and money supply in line with expected targets for economic growth and price levels, the PBOC said in a statement.

The central bank will also focus on ensuring a balanced allocation of new credit, enhance the efficiency of existing funds and improve the credit structure, so that social financing can achieve a relatively rapid growth in a sustainable way throughout the year, the statement added.
BYD plans a new plant in Szeged, Hungary, as imports of EVs from China continue to grow amid an EV boom.

The Shenzhen-based automaker already has an electric bus manufacturing site in Komarom, Hungary.

BYD has seen quick growth over the past few years in China and other markets, and has plans to add more EVs to its lineup over the next 12 months.

There has been no shortage of Chinese auto brands that have eyed the European market with interest, especially in the EV era. And a number of these brands are currently on sale in Europe, just as the continent is starting to take more substantial steps toward a ZEV future.

But until recently, these automakers have preferred to keep their production footprint in the Middle Kingdom, even as the subject of vehicle importation has become a politically charged topic in the EU.

This will change in the coming years as BYD, one of China's fastest-growing car makers and one that has seen the most growth in the past few years, plans to open a factory in Hungary.

The automaker, which has recently received plenty of publicity for its affordable electric models, recently revealed that it plans to build a manufacturing and production center in Szeged, Hungary, in the south of the country. The facility, which won't be far from the borders of Serbia and Romania, will feature what BYD calls highly automated production processes, with the automaker also planning to create a green ecosystem on a local level as well as thousands of jobs.

"With a mature infrastructure and a well-established industrial foundation, Hungary has been chosen by several premium European manufacturers as a production location for passenger cars," BYD noted.

However, the company did not say just when the new plant is expected to open.

The Shenzhen-based automaker has seen exceptional growth internationally within the past few years, having opened 230 retail locations in 19 countries just in its first year of European operations. This has allowed BYD to field five models early on, with plans for an additional three to join in the lineup in the next 12 months, the company noted.

BYD's choice of Hungary is logical, in many respects, with the country already hosting production facilities for a number of German automakers including Audi and Mercedes-Benz, in addition to component suppliers. BYD already has a site in another city in northern Hungary that produces electric buses, which opened in 2016.

The automaker's plans for a factory in Hungary also come amid fears of a pullback by European automakers from Europe itself due to rising energy costs, as well as other economic stresses, which have already sparked open discussions regarding several automakers possibly being forced to move production elsewhere in the coming years, possibly to southern Europe or to China. These fears have already caused plenty of consternation from worker unions in Germany and elsewhere.



Hearst Owned

In revealing plans for a Hungary facility, BYD is also pushing back on calls for tariff measures in the EU that have been threatened by several bloc politicians taking aim at an alleged "flood" of cheaper electric cars from China.

Europe's embrace of EVs, which caught several established European automakers off guard earlier in the decade, has also played a major role in Chinese automakers' entry into the EU market, and not just because of the promise of inexpensive EVs. To the contrary, many of the models launched in Europe thus far have been premium or luxury offerings.



Will demand for EVs in Europe favor Chinese automakers in the longer term in Europe, or is this largely a temporary situation sparked by demand for EVs? Let us know what you think.
FILE - The Evergrande Group headquarters logo is seen in Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong province on Sept. 24, 2021. A top executive of China Evergrande's electric vehicle company has been detained by police in the latest sign of trouble for the world's most heavily indebted property developer. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

BANGKOK (AP)  A top executive of China Evergrande's electric vehicle company has been detained by police in the latest sign of trouble for the world's most heavily indebted property developer.

China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle announced the detention of Liu Yongzhuo, its vice chairman and an executive director, in a notice Monday to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Its shares sank 6% after they resumed trading later in the day.

That followed news over the weekend that Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, a major shadow bank in China that has lent billions in yuan (dollars) to property developers including Evergrande, filed for bankruptcy liquidation after it was unable to pay its debts.

A crackdown on excessive borrowing that began several years ago has left dozens of Chinese developers out of business or struggling for survival. The industry-wide meltdown has snagged a vital cog in Chinas economic engine, reverberating through financial markets.

Share prices sank Monday in Hong Kong and Shanghai, with the benchmark Hang Seng index down 1.9%. Evergrande Groups shares lost 1.8%.

Evergrande has been in crisis since it defaulted on its debt obligations two years ago. It is in the midst of a restructuring that includes selling off assets to avoid defaulting on $340 billion in debt, and the company has said its chairman Hui Ka Yan is facing mandatory measures in accordance with the law." His status is unclear.

Evergrande New Energy Vehicle saw its shares tumble nearly 20% last week after it said a deal to sell shares to Dubai-based NWTN Motors had lapsed. The brief announcement of Liu's detention on suspicion of illegal crimes made no mention of that or other details.

The company has delayed its plans for beginning manufacturing after running into difficulties in attracting enough funding.

Troubles at the EV unit could complicate Evergrande's restructuring efforts since some plans have involved swapping of assets within the group. A Hong Kong court is due to hold a hearing on its debt restructuring plans on Jan. 29. The developer faces possible liquidation if creditors reject its restructuring scheme.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court said late Friday that it had approved Zhongzhi Enterprise Group's application for bankruptcy liquidation as the company was facing a severe shortage of working capital and is unable to recover most of its accounts receivable.

Zhongzhi, one of China's largest private asset management companies, said in November that its debts of up to 460 billion yuan ($64 billion) were more than twice its assets of 200 billion yuan ($28 billion). Soon afterward, Beijing police said they were investigating suspected crimes of a Chinese wealth company owned by Zhongzhi.

According to the Chinese financial magazine Caixin, it manages nearly 1 trillion yuan ($130 billion) in assets, but the company's finances have suffered as the once thriving property market has languished.

Shadow banks play an important role in Chinese finance, operating outside the realm of traditional banking regulations. Zhongzhi expanded rapidly after it was founded by the late tycoon Xie Zhikun in 1995, and operates in insurance, leasing, trust, and other financial industries.
Heres a bright idea: if an MP insists on calling a by-election, they have to pay for it out of their own pocket.

Chris Skidmore has announced hes quitting Parliament in protest at Rishi Sunak watering down net zero, forcing a poll in a seat thats due to be abolished at the general election  so the winner will hold it for less than a year. The cost to the taxpayer of this epic flounce has been estimated at 250,000. Thats enough to pay for almost 10 junior doctors to emigrate to Australia.

Cynics assume Skidmores got a better job offer and couldnt be bothered with another year of replying to letters about the bins. True or not, it is worth noting that being green is no longer the preserve of modest librarians called Willow. In 2023, Skidmore was receiving annual payments totalling 160,000 working for the eco-friendly Emissions Capture Company and the Global Insight Exchange.

Lets assume, though, that he really is horrified by Sunaks U-turn and the biblical floods of Gloucestershire. Skiddys reasoning still doesnt make any sense. Last month Britain became the first rich country to cut its emissions in half. Skidmore has specifically resigned over the granting of new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea, yet theres evidence that domestic supply is cleaner than imports.

The notion that Britain has some God-ordained mission to impoverish itself in order to make a tiny impact upon global emissions is mad, and very middle class, for it assumes consumers have the cash to splash on home renovations.

Every generation has its elite consensus, from economic planning in the 1960s to save fuel, hang witches in the 1660s. Skidmores problem is that hes committed to a religion just as its going out of style.

The rest of us are paying the price for David Camerons invitation, in the late noughties, to anyone to run as a Tory MP, so long as they shared his vague values. This should have resulted in a greater diversity of background and opinion. Instead, it led to a lot of people being selected in 2010 who had scant loyalty to conservatism but were attracted to Camerons patrician style and took his generations Blairite ethic as axiomatic.

Elected that year were Skidmore, Sarah Wollaston, Anna Soubry, Phillip Lee, Rory Stewart and more  a list of would-be wets, bolters and defectors. Party managers require two things from parliamentary candidates: discipline and ideological coherence. The Conservatives sacrificed both in pursuit of being nice. As the Government now collapses into bitterness and recrimination, it looks nastier than ever.

Brexit re-inserted a healthy bit of nationalism into the Tory ranks, but the long-term consequence of Cameronian selection is a significant body of Tory MPs who think to the Left of the Conservative ecosystem.

Skidmore, unusually for his cohort, was until recently regarded as a solid loyalist; he even served under Liz Truss. But last year he suddenly warned that his party was headed in a very dark direction, attacking this newspaper and GB News.

It tallied with earlier comments that Tory members dont care about net-zero targets because 90 per cent of them will be dead. I am a liberal Conservative, he explained in November, as if the formula were an open sesame to peoples hearts: an MP who came in under David Cameron and hasnt changed at all. Hes right about this much. It is the leadership that has moved to the Right, because Britain has moved on.

Take net zero. In an age of low prices, its a very attractive idea, but in the midst of a cost of living crisis, many voters can no longer afford the absurd pace set by Boris  so Sunak has slowed (not stopped) the agenda.

The PM is generally starting to look more pro-consumer than expected, and it could be a vote-winner. But he faces a basic structural challenge: thanks to wet MPs, his majority is sometimes conservative in name only.

The Rwanda plan, for instance, will continue to be undermined by the courts because Tory MPs wont vote to revise the human rights laws. Perhaps in this sense Skidmore is temperamentally conservative: he represents an older political generation restraining the ambitions of the present, like Cnut standing on the beach, yelling stop!

Except hes not even doing that, is he? In his resignation letter, Skidmore wrote: To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained. I am therefore resigning my whip and instead intend to be free from any party-political allegiance.

But Chris, old dear, you can do all that and stay in Parliament simply by sitting as an independent! Or, if you insist on having your silly by-election, you could run in it. Contrast with the behaviour of Robert Jenrick, who gave up his ministry and perks, but not his party or constituents; compare with those Tories with tiny majorities who, knowing defeat is inevitable, stay on and face it. Instead, Skidmore sails off early on the Tewkesbury tide.

What example is that to set to our children? He should do what Ive always done when I find myself stuck in a job I dont enjoy. Just do it badly.

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US investigators have recovered a part of the fuselage that blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet from the backyard of a school teacher in Portland, Oregon.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the incident, said that the part of the fuselage had been located on Sunday by a school teacher named Bob.

He reportedly sent the agency two photos of the wreckage in his backyard.

The federal agency had requested people to keep an eye out for the door plug in the Cedar Hills region, west of Portland.

Earlier on Sunday, a group of local residents searched through a stretch of land full of dense thickets, situated between bustling roads and a light rail train station.

According to the Associated Press, a searcher identified as Adam Pirkle said he had ridden 22km, manoeuvring his bicycle through the overgrowth.

Ive been looking at the flight track, I was looking at the winds, he said. Ive been trying to focus on wooded areas.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters on Sunday: Im excited to announce that we found the door plug.

She thanked the school teacher, identified by his first name only. Thank you, Bob.

Were going to go pick that up and make sure that we begin analysing it, Ms Homendy said.

Two cell phones have also been found, one in a yard and another on the side of the road, she added.

It was also reported that Alaska Airlines pilots experienced pressurisation warning lights on three prior flights of a two-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet before it made an emergency landing due to a torn door plug.

Ms Homendy mentioned on Sunday night that the auto pressurisation fail light had activated on 7 December, 3 January, and 4 January. However, she stated that it remained unclear whether there was any connection between those incidents and the rapid depressurisation incident.

On Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a directive to temporarily ground 171 Boeing MAX 9 jets equipped with the same panel after the Alaskan Airlines plane had to make an emergency landing due to a gap in the fuselage.

They heard a bang, Ms Homendy told reporters on Sunday, of the flight deck crew.

Communication was a serious issue... It was described as chaos, she added.

It must have been a terrifying event to experience, Ms Homendy said.

After takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, the door plug on the left side of an Alaska Airlines jet tore off. This incident compelled the pilots to turn back and execute a safe landing, ensuring the well-being of all 171 passengers and six crew members on board.

NTSB also said that the cockpit voice recorder from the Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet was overwritten by the time it was recovered.

Ms Homendy said that there was no data available on the cockpit voice recorder after it was sent to NTSB labs because it was not retrieved by the two-hour mark, when recording restarts and previous data is erased.

Its a very chaotic event. The circuit breaker for the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) was not pulled. The maintenance team went out to get it, but it was right at about the two-hour mark, she added.

If that communication is not recorded, that is unfortunately a loss for us and a loss for the FAA and a loss for safety because that information is key not just for our investigation but for improving aviation safety, she said.

Additional reporting with agencies
At their first meeting of 2024, Gastonia City Council members voted unanimously to approve a large-scale change to the citys public transportation system.

Beginning July 1, 2024, the city will transition away from fixed bus routes and move to a microtransit service.

According to Randi Gates, the Gastonia Department of Transportation director, the move will improve several aspects of the citys current public transportation system and cut costs.

Currently, the city has six fixed bus routes, serviced by nine buses and two light traveling vehicles, and an ADA Paratransit service, which offers public transportation to Gastonia residents with disabilities.

Both the new system and the ADA Paratransit system function vary similarly to rideshare services like Uber and Lyft.

Residents in need of public transportation will be able to use an app or make a phone call to schedule a time to be picked up at their chosen location and dropped off directly at their destination.

Timeliness

Under the current system, each bus stop has an hour headway, meaning that it takes an hour for a bus to pass back by any given stop.

Gates said these wait times can turn a short errand into a long event.

At the Jan. 2 City Council meeting, Gates gave an example of a passenger living at Loray Mills who traveled to Summit Crossing for a doctors appointment.

The one-hour doctor's appointment took four hours due to lengthy wait times for buses.

The new service will only have a 15-minute headway, meaning that riders can expect their ride to arrive at their location 15 minutes after the scheduled time.

Substituting fixed bus routes with the microtransit service in the previous example, Gates said the rider would save nearly two hours of their time with the new service.

Cost

The cost to use the new rideshare program will be an increase from the current cost to ride the bus.

Bus fare in Gastonia is currently $1.25, and the city has currently not decided if it will increase. Gates said she believes fare in another city using this system is $2.50 per ride.

The total cost of the program for the city, however, will decrease.

The fiscal year 2024 budget funding the fixed bus route system costs the city $1.55 million for the year, while the total cost of the new system for fiscal year 2025 is set at $1.54 million.

The city will implement the new program using Via, a transportation company with a focus on Microtransit.

The $1.54 million budget includes vehicle costs, which the city of Gastonia will be responsible for providing. They will be eligible to get 80% of those initial purchase costs and maintenance expenses reimbursed by the Federal Transit Authority.

The FTA will fund driver pay, which is expected to be $20-$22 per hour.

Safety and more

The new transit vehicles will be able to accommodate car seats and small children, but there will be age restrictions that require children to be a certain age to travel by themselves.

Much like other ride-share services, vehicles operating under the new system will be able to make multiple stops along any given route to pick up more passengers.

Each of the new transit vehicles will also be equipped with a camera for security purposes.

The city plans to keep the current fleet of buses for the time being until the new system has become undeniably successful, Gates said.

Seven other North Carolina communities have successfully implemented a microtransit system, according to Gates.

The ADA Paratransit system will remain intact and as-is.

Gates said at the meeting that the microtransit system does have the potential to eventually go to the county Board of Commissioners to seek a county-wide expansion.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: City of Gastonia to get rid of fixed bus routes
The second half of the school year is in full swing for students in St. Johns and Clay counties.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

Hundreds of kids went back to classes on Monday morning after nearly a two-week-long winter break.

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Now we are getting back into a routine, Tanja Bokius-Smith, a parent of a third grader at Kettlelinus Elementary School said.

Some St. Johns County Parents said they are ready for their kids to get back into the swing of things.

Getting him to bed early, Theis Carcaba, a parent said.

Read: A strong storm and cold front will move across Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia

Action News Jax Alexus Cleavenger was at Kettlelinus Elementary School, and asked students if they had a good winter break.

Yeah, I did! I loved it, Addison, a third grader said.

It was great, Kailliana, a student at Ketterlinus Elementary School said.

While some students walked into campus with tired eyes, others were bright-eyed, smiling, and ready to go.

I want to see my friends, Addison said.

Tanja said its important to re-establish a routine, to finish the school year strong.

For us, its reading in our house, every day, every night we are doing our readings, Tanja said.

Read: Biden administration holds back payments to student loan servicers over poor service

Tanja also said a big part of her sons routine is putting down the electronic devices.

Im actually really happy that hes back at school, that we get our routine back and you know we are ready to learn, Tanja said.

Students in Duval, Nassau, Columbia, Baker, and Union Counties head back to school on Tuesday.

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Putnam County students go back to classes on Wednesday.

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Photo taken on March 13, 2019 shows the Boeing logo at its headquarters in downtown Chicago, the United States. [Photo/Xinhua]

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Saturday ordered the temporary grounding of some Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in U.S. territory.

The order was issued following a serious mid-air incident on Friday when a part of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 fuselage blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight out of Portland, U.S. state of Oregon.

The plane had been in service for just eight weeks.

"The FAA is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight," FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said. "Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282."

The FAA said its Emergency Airworthiness Directive will affect approximately 171 airplanes. Boeing has delivered a total of 218 MAX 9s worldwide.

Turkish Airlines also removed its fleet of five Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft from operation for examination, company spokesperson Yahya Ustun stated on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

According to local reports, Copa Airlines and Aeromexico, the flag carriers of Panama and Mexico, together grounded about 40 Boeing 737 Max 9s after the depressurization incident of the Alaska Airlines aircraft.

Copa Airlines, which temporarily suspended 21 737 MAX 9 aircraft, expressed confidence in returning them to the flight schedule safely and reliably within the next 24 hours. The airline also acknowledged potential delays and cancellations during this period.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has embraced the FAA's MAX 9 directive, although it emphasized that no airlines from EU member states are currently utilizing an aircraft in the specified configuration. A British air safety regulator stated that any 737 MAX 9 operator must adhere to the FAA directive to gain access to its airspace.

Numerous blemishes mar the history of Boeing aircraft.

On Oct. 29, 2018, a new Boeing aircraft with 189 passengers took off from Jakarta, Indonesia, bound for Pangkal Pinang on a one-hour flight. Twelve minutes following takeoff, the Lion Air-operated plane crashed into Jakarta Bay at an almost vertical angle, traveling at 500 mph. There were no survivors.

After five months, an eerie coincidence: A Boeing 737 Max 8, identical to the one involved in the Lion Air tragedy, departed from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, en route to Kenya. Just six minutes into the flight, it plummeted to the ground, claiming the lives of all 157 passengers.

The impact was so intense that a significant portion of the aircraft disintegrated, leaving investigators to scour the area around the resulting crater for clues, evidence and human remains.

On Jan. 9, 2021, a Boeing 737-500 tragically plunged into the Java Sea shortly after departing from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The ill-fated Sriwijaya Air Flight, en route from Jakarta to Pontianak on the island of Borneo, carried 62 individuals, comprising six crew members and 56 passengers. The devastating incident resulted in the loss of all lives on board, with all reported fatalities being Indonesian nationals.

In October of that year, a former Boeing test pilot named Mark Forkner was charged by a federal grand jury. He was accused of misleading the FAA and engaging in a plot to defraud airlines during the development of the 737 Max, which suffered two fatal crashes within five months, resulting in the deaths of 346 people.

Alaska Airlines announced Friday night that it is temporarily grounding all 65 of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections.

According to multiple reports, a piece of the fuselage blew out on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 Friday, leaving a large hole and decompressing the passenger cabin.

The plane, destined for Ontario, California, made an emergency landing back in Portland 20 minutes after taking off.

"All 171 passengers and 6 crew were safe, with only some minor injuries," Alaska Airlines said.
The city of Columbus has lost another round in a lawsuit over the death of a white jail inmate allegedly slain by a Black cellmate angered by online video of police killing a Black man in 2020.

The lawsuit accuses Muscogee County Jail staff of failing to protect inmate Eddie Nelson Jr., who investigators say was strangled by cellmate Jayvon Rayshawn Hatchett days after Hatchett stabbed a white auto parts store worker.

Hatchett, who was convicted of aggravated assault for stabbing store worker Michael Hunt, told police he attacked Hunt on Aug. 25, 2020, because Hunt was the first white person he saw.

Hatchett said he was angered by a video related to the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wis., investigators said.

The jail housed Hatchett with white cellmates, and he allegedly killed Nelson when they were alone in their cell on Sept. 5, 2020.

Nelsons brother and widow filed suit, claiming a corrections officer and a nurse who heard why Hatchett stabbed Hunt should have reported that to jail workers deciding where to place Hatchett.

The officer, Keyvon Sellers, claimed to have qualified immunity, which means he cant be held liable just for doing his job, unless he clearly breaks the law. The legal protection is intended to ward off trivial lawsuits over routine law enforcement procedures.

The nurse, employed by an independent contractor providing jail medical services, is not entitled to that same protection.

U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land decided in 2022 that the suit filed by Nelsons family raised a valid issue worth presenting to a jury, which could find Sellers was at fault. Land rejected Sellers immunity claim.

Attorneys representing Sellers, on behalf of the city government, appealed Lands decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Friday affirmed Lands ruling.

That means the lawsuit could proceed to a jury trial, possibly by September, said attorney Craig Jones of Washington, Georgia, who represents Nelsons brother Jerry Nelson and widow Michele Dushane.

The city, represented by attorneys from Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford, could appeal the 11th Circuit opinion, which came from a three-judge panel of the appeals court. They could appeal to the entire circuit court, or to the U.S. Supreme Court.

We are disappointed with the ruling, but appreciate the courts attention to the matter, and we are evaluating all options, attorney Thomas Gristina with Page-Scrantom said in a statement Monday.

The background

Hatchett was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a jury in March 2023 found him guilty in the attack on the AutoZone worker. He has yet to face trial in Nelsons homicide.

The evidence showed Hatchett walked from his girlfriends apartment to the Auto Zone a few blocks away at at 950 32nd St., and asked Hunt about a temperature gauge before stabbing him seven times in the back, puncturing Hunts right lung.

Hatchett, who was 19 at the time, ran from the store after Hunts coworkers intervened. He returned to his girlfriends apartment, where he was arrested for Hunts stabbing on Aug. 26, 2020, and booked into the jail.

No report detailed the nature of Hunts assault, at the time, but the police corporal bringing Hatchett to jail told Sellers about it, and so did Hatchett.

After a jail nurse gave Hatchett a medical screening, the police corporal took him to Sellers, to have him booked in.

Tell this officer what you did, the corporal told Hatchett.

I was watching the news and I decided I was gonna stab a white guy, Hatchett said.

He also told the jail nurse why he stabbed Hunt, but neither Sellers nor the nurse reported his comments.

Hatchett was housed with another white cellmate before Nelson joined them, and no disputes between the men were reported until around 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2020, when an inmate next door flagged down a corrections officer, directing him to Hatchetts cell.

The officer saw Hatchett atop Nelson, strangling him as Nelson lay on his back covered in blood. Hatchett would not desist, when ordered to, and told the officer, He put a hair in my sandwich.

Nelson, 39, could not be revived, and was pronounced dead in the cell.

Eddie Nelson Jr.

The court ruling

Nelsons family first filed suit Sept. 7, 2020 against those who at the time were running the jail: then-Muscogee County Sheriff Donna Tompkins and her staff.

Those administrators since have been removed from the suit, and Judge Land has found that others were not liable.

Land narrowed the remaining defendants to Sellers, to the jail nurse who heard Hatchetts motivation for the stabbing, and to her employer.

Though Sellers no longer works for the city, Page-Scranton still represents him on behalf the Columbus Consolidated Government, as it was his employer at the time.

Under the 14th Amendment ensuring equal protection, corrections officers can violate an inmates civil rights if through deliberate indifference if they put those in their care at risk. That can include housing them with a notably violent cellmate.

The circuit panel heard arguments in September, when attorneys for Sellers said no court decision was precisely on point in deciding whether a corrections officer in these peculiar circumstances is entitled to immunity.

As they posed it in their court filings, the question was:

If a jail intake officer is aware that an inmate was imprisoned for aggravated assault motivated by race, is it deliberate indifference to not take steps to isolate the inmate?

The courts ruling could have set a precedent for dealing with inmates endangering others based on a racial motivation, they argued.

In Fridays decision, Judge Nancy Abudu wrote a concurring opinion saying the court had broken new ground, with its ruling.

She said the court had just recognized that any evidence of racial animus  even when there may be other motivations behind the assailants actions  is sufficient to overcome qualified immunity under these circumstances, and added, I hope these tenants remain true for subsequent cases brought by plaintiffs regarding the threats and violence they have faced while incarcerated.

Another circuit court judge, Ed Carnes, refuted that, in a concurring opinion responding to Abudu.

It was not Hatchetts motivation that mattered, he wrote, but the danger he presented to other inmates, regardless of the reason for it.

Carnes said our circuit law does not suggest, let alone establish, that any time an inmate assaults another inmate for racial reasons some prison official has in some way violated the Constitution. And our decision today does not suggest that either.

He added: A prison official violates the Constitution only when the inmate can show that he was incarcerated under conditions posing a substantial risk of serious harm ... and that the official knew of and consciously disregarded that substantial risk, and that the officials action or inaction caused injury.

The panels decision does not strip Sellers of his immunity claim, as a trial jury still could decide hes entitled to that protection, and hold him blameless in Nelsons death.

Hatchett now is incarcerated at the Wilcox State Prison in Abbeville, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. He started serving his sentence on April 20, 2023, and he is 23 years old now.

Jayvon Rayshawn Hatchett enters the courtroom Thursday morning. 03/23/2023
NATICK  Louie may only be an 9-week-old silver Labrador, but he's training for an important job with the Natick Fire Department  comforting and helping to lessen the stress firefighters feel while doing their job.

"The last three or four years, with all of the calls and all of the different things going on, I started noticing guys were burned out and stressed," said Natick fire Capt. Chris Hampton. "I started noticing that when we were going to calls and there were dogs there, the guys would just melt."

Hampton began researching the idea of having a comfort dog work at the station to help firefighters when they're feeling stressed or overwhelmed. He found that departments in Denver and Ohio did have such dogs.

Louie, a 9-week-old silver Lab, looks out the front doors of the fire station toward East Central Street, while visiting the Natick Fire Headquarters, Jan. 5, 2024. Louie is the departments comfort dog.

His name is Rico: Sudbury's new police dog accompanies school resource officer

Jake Wark, spokesman for the state Department of Fire Services, said he was not aware of any Massachusetts fire departments that had comfort dogs.

But in Natick, Hampton said the more he looked into it, the more he thought it was a great idea. So he pitched it to Chief Jason Ferschke.

Ferschke was immediately receptive.

"It really goes along with our internal mental health and awareness techniques," he said. "Labs, in general, have a gentle demeanor. Not many people will pass up the opportunity to walk by a dog like that and not stop to pet him."

Rhode Island breeder donates Louie to Natick Fire Dept.

After working on the plan with Ferschke and the firefighters union, Hampton began searching for the right dog. He contacted Dame Dogs Labradors, LLC, of Rhode Island, a lab breeder, and its owner donated the puppy to the Natick Fire Department.

Louie currently lives with Hampton and his family, and will eventually come to work with him daily.

"His primary mission is for trauma response  being a comfort dog for the guys and girls who work here," said Hampton. "He'll be here to give them a day-to-day blood pressure drop. He's an instant blood pressure drop."

Natick firefighter Al Gentile gets a lick from Louie, a 9-week-old silver Lab who is the departments new comfort dog, at the Natick Fire Headquarters, Jan. 5, 2024.

'True asset to FSU police': English Lab is comfort K-9 for college students

Hampton said he envisions that after firefighters respond to a tough call, he can bring Louie to whatever station they're working at to help lower stress levels.

Eventually, he said it's possible that Louie will respond to calls with him and participate in community events. Hampton has started an Instagram page for the dog called firedog_louie.

"The people in the community will really love him," Hampton said.

Capt. Hampton, comfort dog to attend several training courses

So far, there has been no cost to the town, Ferschke said. The dog was donated, and Hampton has been absorbing other costs. He said the department will eventually start fundraising to defray those costs.

Natick fire Capt. Chris Hampton holds Louie, a 9-week-old silver Lab and the departments new comfort dog, at the Natick Fire Headquarters, Jan. 5, 2024.

Louie has had a chance to meet several firefighters and has proven to be popular. Hampton and Louie will attend several training courses for therapy and being a comfort dog. Once Louie completes the classes and gets a little older, he'll be a fixture at the Natick Fire Department.

Comfort dogs support a person's mental health by providing attention and comfort. Therapy dogs, along with their owners, are certified to volunteer in clinical settings, such as hospitals and nursing homes, where they provide comfort and affection.

Natick Fire Shift 3 gets together at headquarters for a picture with Louie, a 9-week-old silver Lab and the departments new comfort dog, at Natick Fire Headquarters, Jan. 5, 2024. Louie is being raised by Capt. Chris Hampton, who is holding him.

Hampton said he has not decided whether he and Louie will do all the training needed to become a certified therapy dog. But he said that even as a comfort dog, Louie will provide emotional support to those who need it.

Hampton said he thinks Louie will be a hit.

"In my own made-up statistics, I think 90% of people love dogs," he said.

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date public safety news, follow him on X @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Natick Fire Department gets silver Labrador to serve as comfort dog
Because a majority of the Folsom City Council seems incapable of resolving the citys looming structural budget deficit, some long-standing citizens are circulating a solution - a special one-cent sales tax initiative.

There is nothing particularly special about Folsoms financial predicament. It is a version of the same challenge that many cities in the region have already confronted and addressed with a local sales tax increase. It is Folsoms unique political ecosystem, one that both distrusts funding government while loving its community, that is generating a very Folsom solution.

Opinion

Any sales tax proposal that happens to make it on the fall ballot would be a great local investment. There is a structural fiscal problem, inadequate future revenues to pay for future costs, that is begging for a solution.

Inaction would be a self-inflicted wound for one of Californias premiere exurbs.

That the city council doesnt appear to have the votes to do anything achievable demonstrates political dysfunction on the council and the wall of questions about any new tax in fiscally conservative Folsom.

The general sentiment is that we just dont want to give government more money, said Robert Goss, the former director of the citys parks and recreation department who is among the leaders of the sales tax drive. But the same residents are willing to pay for more service or better service.

So how does Folsom somehow sustain the citys services without giving the government more discretionary money?

A special sales tax.

This is going to take some explanation. It involves Howard Jarvis and cannabis.

In California, a special tax tells voters exactly how the money will be spent. Thanks to the tax crusader Jarvis and his infamous Proposition 13 initiative of 1978, a special tax proposed by government has been hard to pass, long requiring a two-thirds supermajority.

A general tax allows the government to spend the money however it wants. Paradoxically, this has been easier to pass, only a bare majority is required.

Many cities in the region have proposed general sales tax increases in recent years to help meet local needs and succeeded. They include Galt, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento and Roseville as noted examples. Their respective city councils all described the need. And the voters responded.

And then there is Folsom.

A city council supermajority placed a half-cent sales tax on the ballot in 2018. And then it went down to a spectacular defeat.

It didnt have a campaign budget, Goss said.

Translation: City leadership failed to make a case.

To this day, a general sales tax increase in Folsom, the tried and true way to raise local revenues everywhere else, has all the local appeal of a communicable disease.

The solution? A special tax that is now easier to pass.

Why easier? Some upstart cannabis businesses in the Southern California city of Upland a few years back wanted to tax themselves to get licenses. The tax was approved by a bare majority. The businesses argued to the State Supreme Court that a bare majority was enough under all of Californias anti-tax laws. Howard Jarvis back in 1978 was specifically targeting taxes proposed by governments. This cannabis tax was proposed by citizens via the initiative process.

The high court agreed with the weed businesses. Ever since private interests have enjoyed a powerful new tool to get a local tax passed.

Meanwhile, at Folsom City Hall, which has failed to grapple with the structural budget problem since that 2018 sales tax failure, the Council does not appear to have the votes to do anything.

At a notable October meeting, Councilwoman Anna Rohrbough summed it up best.

Throwing money at a problem will make us feel good for a while, but it doesnt solve the bigger issue, she said near the beginning of lengthy comments. Later, she said, Im not a denier that we dont need more revenue.not just the police department, not just the fire department, every single department.

It was an argument perfectly suited for a general sales tax increase.

Which she opposes.

The City Council is scheduled to discuss sales tax proposals Tuesday. It would take four of the five council members to put any proposal on the ballot in November. Only three of them in October could agree on how to discuss the matter this month. The math looks bleak for a breakthrough.

Meanwhile, Goss and his fellow Folsom long-timers have organized through a group known as Folsom Takes Action. It drafted a one-cent sales tax proposal. At Red Bus Brewing Company on a mid-December night, they and 150 supporters launched a signature-gathering campaign that must enlist by April a tenth of the citys voters, about 5,500 valid signatures in all.

The special tax directs that all new revenues be spent on six popular categories, including police, fire and economic development. None can be spent on greater pensions for city employees.

However, if a citizens initiative were passed, it would come with an ironic twist because of the limitations on how the money could be spent. Ultimately, increasing the number of police and firefighters is the responsibility of the same city council that wont lead on this issue.

The sales tax would generate an estimated $29 million towards a general fund budget that is now about $108 million. The council will have full discretion to spend the overwhelming majority of city funds. Citizens would have done the heavy lifting of getting an initiative passed and dealing with the politics of a tax increase in a town opposed to them. But once passed, in charge is the same council majority (I see at least one leader in this crowd).

Folsom is an inviting community for a reason - this councils predecessors got things more right than wrong. Investing in Folsoms future shouldnt be this hard.
Blood drives will be held Jan. 8-12, 2024, in Perry to help support the community following the shooting tragedy.

Perry community members have sprung into action to find ways to provide support within the Perry community after Thursdays tragic incident at the Perry High School. In less than 48 hours, a weeklong community blood drive has been planned, with four additional opportunities added to the regularly scheduled blood drive at Dallas County Hospital.

I knew right away that we needed a blood drive, said Perry resident Chris Vinzant, so I checked to see if something was already in the works and then offered my support to help coordinate.

This was something Hy-vee was able to jump on board with right away, Larry Vodenik added, knowing that this was one way we could provide immediate support to our community while we plan a community meal for a later date.

More: Here's how you can help the victims and families from the Perry school shooting

Together, Vinzant and Vodenik were able to connect with key resources to secure additional dates and locations for the LifeServe Bloodmobile to set-up in Perry for a community blood drive:

"Within 24 hours of the signups being posted, all of Monday's slots were filled," said Lynsi Pasutti, Executive Director of the Perry Chamber of Commerce. "That just goes to show how much support there is embracing this community as everyone is looking for different ways that they can help."

Scheduling a blood donation time is encouraged, but walk-ins will be welcome at the mobile sites.

We are overwhelmed by the amount of support we have seen for the Perry community in the wake of yesterday's tragic events, said a statement released by LifeServe Blood Center in Des Moines. If you are interested and able, we encourage you to donate as soon as you can to help replenish our community blood supply. It's the blood products on the shelf that save a patient in need which is why it's so important to have consistent blood donations.

LifeServe Blood Center is the main blood provider to hospitals in Dallas County, the home to Perry High School, including Dallas County Hospital, UnityPoint Health  Methodist West Hospital, and metropolitan hospitals MercyOne Des Moines, UnityPoint Health  Lutheran Hospital, Broadlawns and Iowa Methodist Medical Center.

For more information about the Perry Community Blood Drive or eligibility requirements to donate blood, visit www.lifeservebloodcenter.org/about-us/promotions/perry-community or lifeserve.info/perry or call LifeServe at (515)309-4852. To volunteer during the Perry Community Blood Drive to assist as a greeter or refreshment server, sign up via Sign-up Genius: shorturl.at/rxLP5

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Community rallies to bring blood drives to Perry after school shooting
To those who say self-driving cars will be perfectly safe, I ask: Would you ride one that operates on Horizon?

There was an outbreak of New Year unity in the Commons during a statement on the Post Office scandal  horror at the lives destroyed by a bug-filled computer system, disgust at the Post Offices bizarrely ruthless persecution of innocent people.

Did the organisation not wonder, asked Peter Bottomley, why its sub-postmasters were suddenly going crooked on that scale? Its zealous prosecution of 736 citizens makes one wonder if, instead of exchanging currency and selling stamps, we ought to put the Post Office in charge of the police service. Alas, Im not sure we have enough jail cells to keep up with their sense of mission.

The Government and Labour both praised the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which seems to have galvanised popular opinion. It is a bittersweet moment, said the SNPs Marion Fellows, for those journalists and politicians who have been hammering away at the issue for years with scant attention.

Im told that last time it was debated, the chamber was sparsely attended. On this occasion, the Tory benches were near-full, and about 30 Labour MPs dragged themselves away from din-dins to have their say  the Commons schedule having run into the evening due to an earlier, very long ding-ding about Israel.

The Gaza statement had been packed to the rafters with Lefties. Of course. Ill never understand the Lefts obsession with injustices committed overseas in preference to the outrages being perpetrated by our own state against our own people. Had one of the post offices been located on the West Bank, or the counter of a WH Smith in East Timor, the scandal would have been a socialist cause celebre. John Pilger wouldve made a film about it.

Back to reality: how rare, and nice, to hear Labours Jonathan Reynolds compliment the Governments Kevin Hollinrakes handling of compensation for the victims. But then just as compassion unites the House, so does a tinge of guilt.

Why, some ask, didnt Keir Starmer intervene in the Horizon scandal when he was director of public prosecutions? Why did Ed Davey refuse to meet Alan Bates, the leader of the campaign, in May 2010? The latter protests that he was lied to by the Post Office, but isnt it the business of ministers to insist on contact with the public  to find out the facts for themselves?

Its funny how the Lib Dems are still recovering from the trauma of their five minutes in government a decade ago, still haunted by their brief experiment in responsibility. Oh, theyre very good at winning by-elections and knocking over polystyrene blue walls, but on this occasion they were as horribly establishment as everyone else.

David Davis, the eternal voice of reason, said the Government must accelerate investigatory procedures of the real villains  ongoing cases mean he couldnt use names, but we know who they are  and several MPs observed that it might be time to question the honours received by people associated with the scandal.

Sir Ed Davey did not attend the debate.

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You are here: China

Upon the designation of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), the Liaoning Provincial People's Procuratorate has ordered the arrest of Xu Wenrong, a former deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corporation, for suspected bribe-taking.

Xu's case was investigated by the National Commission of Supervision before being handed over to prosecutors, the SPP said in a statement on Monday.
Consequences of the attack on the Kharkiv oblast

While Russia attacked Ukraine in a mass multi-wave missile and drone attack for the third time in 10 days on Jan. 8, they did not use any novel tactics, military analyst Denys Popovych explained to Radio NV.

Explosions were heard in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, and Khmelnytsky Oblasts, leaving at least four dead and 33 injured.

One oblast was targeted at first, followed by the Russian missiles changing their direction en route to target other areas.

"This is not something new, he said.



I observed this back in the summer, when missiles were launched and then changed direction."



The same tactic was used during the last mass bombing of the capital on Jan. 2.

Read also: Explosions heard in 5 oblasts as Russia launches third mass missile attack on UA in last two weeks

"We could observe this during the previous attack, when Kyiv was the main target, he said.



The cruise missiles were initially targeted the west, before returning to Kyiv. This was not the first time Russia used this maneuver either.

Most of the rockets flew to western and southern Ukraine, where it was very loud on the morning of Jan. 8, said Popovych.

"Their top priority is to confuse air defense systems. he said.



The second goal is to simultaneously find out where the air defenses are located, since the Russians understand very well that to intercept these missiles, Ukrainian interceptors must be guided, which requires radar equipment to be turned on. Thats how they track their location."

Air defense forces destroyed 18 cruise missiles and eight UAVs during the attack, reported Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Read also: At least 4 dead, 33 injured in multiple oblasts after Russias latest mass missile & drone attack

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Congolese presidential candidate Moise Katumbi arrives for an election rally in Kitutu village within Mwenga territory of South Kivu province

Congolese presidential candidate Moise Katumbi arrives for an election rally in Kitutu village within Mwenga territory of South Kivu province

KINSHASA (Reuters) -Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday ordered security forces to leave the home of main opposition politician Moise Katumbi, which they had surrounded in what the provincial governor called a "faux pas".

A spokesman for Katumbi, who came second in disputed presidential elections last month, said earlier on Monday that security forces had surrounded his secondary home in the southern province of Upper Katanga, where the politician is staying, and were preventing him from leaving.

Provincial Governor Jacques Kyabula Katwe condemned the incident, saying it was a "faux pas" committed by some law enforcement authorities to protect the property from vandalism.

"We immediately ordered the barrier to be lifted, which was immediately done," he said in a post on X.

Congo has been on tenterhooks since logistical setbacks, an election day over-run, and an opaque vote count have fuelled a dispute that threatens to further destabilise the world's top producer of cobalt and other prized industrial commodities.

Both the opposition and independent observers have criticised the way the Dec. 20-24 election was conducted and raised doubts about the transparency of the vote in which President Felix Tshisekedi won a second term.

Katumbi, who came second with 18%, was among several main opposition contenders who ruled out mounting a legal challenge to the results, citing an alleged lack of independence of state institutions.

He has added his voice to opposition calls for the election to be annulled, citing "massive fraud", and in a statement on Sunday urged the international community not to recognise the provisional results announced by Congo's election commission.

Only two opposition candidates out of 18 presidential contenders filed petitions to challenge the results to the Constitutional Court, which is due to deliver its verdict by Jan. 12.

(Reporting by Ange Kasongo; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Ed Osmond and Richard Chang)
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR)  House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer have agreed on a funding framework.

President Joe Biden said there is still a long way to go as Republicans and Democrats must fulfill their funding responsibilities.

Federal spending must be addressed in a very serious and sober manner, said House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Johnson and Schumer agreed to a $1.59 trillion deal for the 2024 fiscal year. More than $800 billion for military spending and more than $700 billion for non-defense spending.

We have to be good stewards of precious taxpayer resources, said Johnson.

Despite the deal, Democrats and Republicans still have an uphill battle ahead on key issues. In a joint statement from Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries they wrote, The framework agreement to proceed will enable the appropriators to address many of the major challenges America faces at home and abroad.

Johnson recognized that not all members of his party would be satisfied as the House Freedom caucus is sounding the alarm on the deal, calling it a total failure.

California Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi says Congress must avoid a shutdown at all costs.

We cant have a government shutdown. Lets be grown-ups about how we deal with our responsibilities, she said.

The House and Senate have until January 19th when partial funding runs out for federal agencies.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC.
Lawmakers returning to Washington this week face a critical government funding deadline, and  despite a deal on top-line spending numbers announced over the weekend  more work remains to avert a shutdown.

In a rare event, Congress is confronting not one but two government shutdown deadlines early this year  on January 19 and February 2.

In a sign of progress Sunday afternoon, the top-line numbers agreed to by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer include $1.59 trillion for fiscal year 2024, with $886 billion for defense spending and $704 billion in non-defense spending. They also agreed to a $69 billion side deal in adjustments that will go toward non-defense domestic spending.

The side deal brings the non-defense spending figure to nearly $773 billion, a Democratic source told CNN, with spending close to $1.66 trillion overall.

Agreeing on an overall spending level is a key first step in funding the government, but Congress will have to either pass a series of funding bills to keep the government open through September  a massive task riddled with potential pitfalls  or approve a stopgap measure known as a continuing resolution to extend funding  a possibility that lawmakers from both parties have warned would not adequately address policy challenges and operational needs.

Schumer has warned that if conservatives attempt to add controversial policy riders  also known as poison pills  to spending bills, they could risk a shutdown.

Democrats have made clear to Speaker Johnson that we will not support the inclusion of any poison pills in any of the 12 appropriation bills before the Congress, he said Monday in remarks on the Senate floor. If the hard right chooses to spoil this agreement with poison pills, theyll be to blame if we start careening towards a shutdown.

In a sign of the potential issues facing congressional leaders, the far-right House Freedom Caucus called the deal a total failure, presenting a challenge for Johnson, who is leading an extremely narrow majority. Freedom Caucus members have been adamant that spending levels be cut dramatically more than what congressional leaders announced Sunday.

In addition to the high-stakes effort to avert a shutdown, a push to enact border security measures has drawn increasing scrutiny from both sides of the aisle and complicated an effort to pass aid to Ukraine and Israel, two key US allies facing war.

A bipartisan group of senators has been in talks to try to strike a deal over border security that could clear the way for passage of aid for Ukraine and Israel. But a growing number of House Republicans warn that a Senate compromise over border security stands virtually no chance of passing their chamber, making clear instead they will only accept a deal that mirrors the hardline immigration bill they passed last year  known as HR 2  even though Senate Democrats and the White House strongly oppose that plan and call it a nonstarter.

The warning from House Republicans underscores the grim prospects for border security as well as aid to Ukraine and Israel. House Republican demands over border security may also put the effort to avert a shutdown at risk as some conservatives have begun calling to shut down the government if their demands arent met.

We must make funding for federal government operations contingent on the President signing H.R.2, or its functional equivalent, into law and stopping the flow across our border, GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas wrote in a recent letter to colleagues.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan told CNN on Monday that the House GOP should use the upcoming funding bills to keep the government open as leverage for tougher immigration restrictions.

We should use every opportunity, every must-pass bill, we should be looking to put on that legislation language that would address the problem, he told CNNs Manu Raju.

What I think we should do is fund our government and deal with the border situation, he said.

Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, one of the key GOP negotiators in the chamber, said in an interview that aired Sunday, Were hoping to get text out by later on this week, but warned, nothings been done in this area for decades.

Everybody will have time to be able to read and go through it. No ones going to be jammed in this process, but its a matter of trying to be able to get this out, Lankford told Fox News Sunday. But, to make law, weve got to have a Democratic Senate, a Democratic White House and a Republican House to be able to go through this.

The focus on border security comes as House Republicans plan to ratchet up their criticisms of the Biden administrations immigration policies in an effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Johnson has telegraphed to his members that hes interested in getting more directly involved in talks with the White House over border security. The Louisiana Republican discussed this on a call last week with freshman lawmakers, a source familiar told CNN.

White House budget chief Shalanda Young expressed concern about a government shutdown last week.

Pressed on whether she would predict a shutdown, Young, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said during an appearance at The Monitor Breakfast Friday morning that she is not optimistic, pointing to comments from House Republicans who have threatened to shut down the government over border policy.

Speaker Johnson faces tough vote math and narrow margin

Johnson is facing an extremely narrow majority, which will make wrangling votes that much harder.

Republicans control just 220 seats, while Democrats control 213, which means the House GOP can afford only a few defections on party-line priorities. Additionally, House Majority Leader Steve Scalises office has announced that he will work remotely until February as he recovers from a stem cell transplant.

The majority is poised to shrink even further by the end of the month with Ohio GOP Rep. Bill Johnson set to resign from Congress on January 21 to take a job as president of Youngstown State University.

As a result, Johnson will have little margin for error as Congress faces major policy battles in the weeks ahead.

If you can get some policy wins in the border, which I think Democrats are more and more interested in talking about now, because the border is becoming a bipartisan issue, anything is going to be a win when youve got a three-vote majority in the House, Mick Mulvaney, former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Donald Trump, told The Axe Files with David Axelrod podcast.

Congress passed stopgap legislation in mid-November extending government funding until January 19 for priorities including military construction, veterans affairs, transportation, housing and the Energy Department. The rest of the government will be funded until February 2.

The goal was to give lawmakers more time to try to pass full-year spending bills, but there is now very little time ahead of the rapidly approaching deadlines.

In addition to navigating government funding and border policy, Johnson must steer his narrow majority through the GOP impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, which will be under a microscope in the weeks to come, as well as other GOP oversight efforts aimed at the Biden administration.

House Republicans are also forging ahead with steps to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of the border crisis.

In a statement provided to CNN, a committee spokesperson said, the House Committee on Homeland Security has conducted a comprehensive investigation into Secretary Mayorkas handling of, and role in, the unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border for nearly a year.

Following the bipartisan vote in the House to refer articles of impeachment against the secretary to our Committee, we will be conducting hearings and taking up those articles, the statement said.

The Department of Homeland Security responded in a statement, arguing that House Republicans are pursuing a baseless political exercise that has been rejected by members of both parties and already failed on a bipartisan vote.

Additionally, House Oversight Committee Republicans have announced they will consider a resolution this week to hold Bidens son Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for not complying with a subpoena for a closed-door deposition. Hunter Biden instead addressed reporters outside the Capitol and has said he is willing to testify publicly.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNNs Manu Raju, Kristin Wilson, Betsy Klein, Annie Grayer and Casey Gannon contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
WASHINGTON  House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a deal Sunday on how much the U.S. government will spend in the new year, a significant step toward avoiding a shutdown.

But while the agreement on a topline spending level breaks a logjam that had stalled the process, it doesnt necessarily extinguish the shutdown threat as the first of two deadlines nears on Jan. 19, when some parts of the government will run out of money.

The bipartisan topline appropriations agreement clears the way for Congress to act over the next few weeks in order to maintain important funding priorities for the American people and avoid a government shutdown, Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, said in a statement.

The deal would establish an overall spending level of $1.59 trillion in fiscal year 2024, reflecting the bipartisan budget deal struck last year by President Joe Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Johnson, R-La., told colleagues in a letter. The breakdown is $886 billion for the military and $704 billion for nondefense spending, Johnson said.

Johnson added that there will be key modifications to the agreement in order to reduce nonmilitary spending with a $16 billion offset. That includes $6.1 billion in unused Covid funds and $10 billion in IRS money under the Inflation Reduction Act, Johnson said.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

While these final spending levels will not satisfy everyone, and they do not cut as much spending as many of us would like, this deal does provide us a path to: 1) move the process forward; 2) reprioritize funding within the topline towards conservative objectives, instead of last years Schumer-Pelosi omnibus; and 3) fight for the important policy riders included in our House FY24 bills, Johnson wrote in his letter to colleagues.

A senior Democratic aide said the Biden-McCarthy deal included $20.2 billion in IRS cuts spread over two years; the new agreement with Johnson just means theyll happen over one year instead.

After the agreement was announced, Schumer told his caucus its a good deal for Democrats and the country on a briefing call with senators, according to a source on the call.

Schumer and Jeffries said that when factoring in the added $69 billion, the nondefense discretionary spending level will be $772.7 billion in the new fiscal year under the deal.

The framework agreement to proceed will enable the appropriators to address many of the major challenges America faces at home and abroad. It will also allow us to keep the investments for hardworking American families secured by the legislative achievements of President Biden and Congressional Democrats. Finally, we have made clear to Speaker Mike Johnson that Democrats will not support including poison pill policy changes in any of the twelve appropriations bills put before the Congress, they said.

The Republican-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate still need to establish  and agree on  how to allocate those funds. Then theyll need to write and publish legislation to that effect and pass that through both chambers.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a conservative hard-liner, sounded unhappy with the emerging details in Iowa on Sunday while campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.

I dont like what Im hearing, Roy said.

Roy said the spending level after including the nondefense spending adjustments is $1.644 trillion. $1.644 is s---, and you can quote me on that, he said.

The House Freedom Caucus said Sunday night on X that the deal was "even worse than we thought," calling it a "total failure."

Another obstacle to passing funding legislation is that conservative hard-liners like Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., have threatened a shutdown unless Congress acts to toughen immigration and asylum laws by the funding deadline.

Biden praised the agreement in a statement Sunday.

The bipartisan funding framework congressional leaders have reached moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities. It reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring, he said. Now, congressional Republicans must do their job, stop threatening to shut down the government, and fulfill their basic responsibility to fund critical domestic and national security priorities, including my supplemental request. Its time for them to act.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
This is a photo of the Connecticut Board of Education voting.

This article was originally published in CT Mirror.

The state Board of Education unanimously voted Wednesday to adopt a bill of rights for non-English speaking parents a piece of legislation from the 2023 session that will ensure families understand they are entitled to enroll their child in public education, regardless of immigration status, and receive translation services and important documents in their native language.

The law, which ultimately became part of the omnibus education legislation, House Bill 6762, garnered overwhelming support last year, after advocates, many of whom were parents who only speak Spanish, recounted stories about their inability to communicate with school officials or receive updates about their childrens education.

This will ensure that other parents dont have to go through the frustrating experience that I have been through, Flor Galindo, a Manchester resident and parent of two, said in Spanish at the board meeting Wednesday morning. For me, it has been a big challenge to simply be able to speak with any teacher or know about the services that schools provide to our children. For years, I watched as other children participated in extracurricular activities and my children were excluded because their first language is Spanish.

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After passage in the state legislature, the state Board of Education was responsible for drafting a document to organize and elevate the rights that parents have related to language access through translation and interpretation and to clarify and affirm the access that children identified as [English Learners] have to grade-level content area instruction, language instruction programs and interventions, according to the bill.

The states Department of Education plans to provide the document to districts already translated, and starting in July, parents will receive a copy of the bill of rights in their native language.

Additional copies will be available online on the website of local boards of education.

Related

California Celebrates Its Linguistic Diversity While Shortchanging Bilingual Ed

The rights include:

The right for students to attend a public school in the state, regardless of the students or parents immigration status and without the need to submit immigration documents.

The right for parents to have translation services provided during critical interactions, including parent-teacher conferences and meetings with administrators.

The right for students to participate in a bilingual education program provided by the local or regional board of education.

The right for parents to receive written notice in both English and their native language that their child will participate in a bilingual program.

The right for students and parents to receive a high-quality orientation session in their native language.

The right for parents to receive progress reports and meet with school staff to discuss the childs English language development.

The right for students to have equal access to all grade-level programming and core subject matter.

The right for a student to receive yearly language proficiency testing.

The right for a student to receive support services aligned with any intervention plan that districts provide to all students.

The right for parents to contact the states Department of Education with any questions or concerns regarding these rights and accommodations.

On behalf of the states Department of Education, Irene Parisi, the chief academic officer, told board members that the state will continue this work.

It doesnt stop with just today, Parisi said.

The department said its next steps will include offering information sessions to stakeholder groups, creating a new page on its website to easily access information regarding the bill and the development of processes to monitor district implementation, as well as a way for families to reach out with concerns.

This story was originally published in CT Mirror.
It isn't just Labour that isn't working now: The Tories made the case for shrinking the state under Mrs Thatcher, Those days are long gone - Chris Ware/Hulton

You know that politics is a busted flush when the big issue of the week doesnt have a chance in hell of getting any traction. So hopeless is the cause that the Prime Minister could only mutter it under his breath during the Sunday media rounds, hitting the kind of sorrowfully stern tone oft-mastered by Big Four accountants. He was prepared, he said, to take difficult decisions to control welfare in the pursuit of Spring Budget tax cuts. Those words are already a forgotten echo. One can barely hear anything over the battle cries and blood-letting as the Tory civil war over Rwanda recommences.

What is doubly frustrating is that a frank national conversation about the grotesque size of Britains welfare state is the key to solving so many problems. It is the missing part of the puzzle when it comes to controlling immigration. Government rebel Robert Jenrick recently intimated that the Tories are scrambling to solve the small boats crisis as consolation for the record levels of legal immigration. Yet this is so high in part because millions of Britons are on benefits instead of retraining to fill job shortages.

Britains bloated welfare state is the biggest obstacle to ending the countrys economic stagnation; we cannot afford the package of tax cuts and stimulus investments that will deliver growth because the tax coffers are being splurged on benefits for those incapacitated by anxiety and an unsustainable triple lock pension.

Now more than ever, then, the Tories ought to be making the case for cutting the welfare state. Instead, Rishi Sunak has pretty much already lost the argument. This is for the painfully simple reason that neither he, nor his party, are willing to make the moral argument for a rollback. Instead the PM relies on the abacus argument that we must cut the welfare state to balance the books, even though this approach will be no match for the grandiose pietism of the anti-austerity movement.

Lest we forget, David Cameron ultimately abandoned his own plan for radical welfare cuts after a two-year war of attrition. Already, Left-wing activists are polishing their new narrative that after 14 years of mean, cruel, punitive Tory austerity, the party is about to make things worse for societys most vulnerable.

Despite the Conservatives having little choice but to make a spirited moral case for cutting welfare, this obviously hasnt happened. Whether thats because the party is being compromised by cowards or infiltrated by political crossdressers who in truth find real conservatism rather ghastly is a moot point. What is clear is that making a principled argument for work would take the Tories well out of their comfort zone. One must go back 40 years, to the Thatcher era, to find a Tory government willing to make the ethical case for a smaller state.

Yet there is no shortage of arguments that the Tories ought to be advancing. Take the medicalisation of everyday stress, which threatens to reduce us to self-pathologising amoebas, a paradoxically flaccid yet also uptight new breed of modern human.

Consider the egregious tragedy of wasted human talent in a country where millions are not realising their potential through work. While the anthropological theories of underclass families trapped in a culture of poverty, popularised by Margaret Thatcher, might today seem outdated, Tories need to find new ways to talk about the transfer of deprivation and multi-generational welfare dependency  ideally avoiding rants about crap parents. And even if ministers cant realistically be expected to advocate raising the pension age this close to an election, surely there are backbenchers who might point out the indignities of encouraging idleness among fit and dynamic septuagenarians.

Then there is the curious rise of the middle-class welfare queen. One seriously wonders whether a culture of prosperity has developed in parallel to the culture of poverty. Although it has deviously cloaked itself in social democratic righteousness, the bourgeoisie has increasingly adopted a regal sense of entitlement. More than half of the population now receives more from the state than they contribute in taxes. There is mounting evidence that the middle-class benefit from welfare more than the most vulnerable, most recently with the expansion of free childcare. The triple lock pension effectively ensures that working families raising children in accommodation sprayed with mould can subsidise millionaire retirees.

Not that your average Tory MP would ever dare to go there. One can almost see the awkwardness radiating from the PM and others, espousing the nobility of work as if they were incanting the phrases of a dead religion. Perhaps that is because, in truth, the Right long ago lost its zeal for the glories of proper graft. On the Left, thanks to millennial socialists like Aaron Bastani popularising concepts like fully automated luxury communism (FALC)  a Left-wing utopia in which technology liberates us from work  Marxs claim that labour-alienating capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction has acquired a modern gloss.

The question is, what is the conservative equivalent to the FALC Shangri-La? Surely it is a society in which everyone is earning a good wage doing skilled and rewarding job; where the UK has transitioned from a low-wage economy in which a quarter of jobs only require primary level education, to a high-skill, high-wage power, specialising in the creative industries, life sciences and AI.

To be truly compelling, such a vision surely has to be anchored in an actual conservative philosophy. One that stresses the obvious that work is not only the lynchpin of free market capitalism but also crucial to each person becoming the best version of themselves. As the Scottish-American moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre has eloquently argued, not only do we derive pleasure from the excellence of the final product or performance of work, but the act of work should also help us to develop virtues that are crucial to us becoming the best versions of ourselves.

It is surely not beyond the capability of a moderately skilled politician to capture such lofty yet simple ideas. Instead it seems we are doomed to endure Rishi Sunaks talk of trading tax cuts for welfare cuts as if all of politics, hollowed of all meaning, has been reduced to barter.

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Ivan Ablov, the son of the controversial judge Yevhen Ablov, has been declared wanted on murder charges, according to the Interior Ministry's website.

The suspect's father was a judge of the Kyiv District Administrative Court (OASK), which has been involved in major corruption scandals. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill on the court's dissolution in December 2022.

The Interior Ministry's website listed Ivan Ablov's place and date of disappearance as Jan. 5 in Bilohorod-Dnistrovskyi, Odesa Oblast.

Official sources have not provided further information in connection to the case.

The OASK's deputy head, Yevhen Ablov, and the court's chief, Pavlo Vovk, played a role in several controversies since their appointment in 2010 during the tenure of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Amid the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013, Ablov mandated law enforcement to clear the Kyiv's Independence Square of the demonstrators and tents.

The court's judges also opposed the adoption of a new Ukrainian spelling, the nationalization of PrivatBank from oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, and reinstated officials suspected of corruption.

In 2020, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) charged Vovk, Ablov, and five other OASK judges with forming a criminal organization aimed at seizing power by taking control over key judiciary bodies.

Following pressure from activists and the public, the law on the OASK's dissolution was adopted by the parliament on Dec. 13, 2022, and signed by the president a day later.

Read also: US sanctions Ukraines most notorious judge charged with corruption

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
WEST MANHEIM TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WHTM)  Two people have died and three firefighters were injured after a house caught fire when it exploded in York County on Monday morning.

York County Coroner Pam Gay says 79-year-old Ronald Richard and 4-year-old Chase Bucher died after a fire that broke out at the 2000 block of Black Rock Road in West Manheim Township.

According to the coroners office, the fire broke out following an explosion caused by smoking, a PSP Fire Marshal discovered. Richard was said to have been wheelchair-bound and on oxygen tanks while smoking inside a closed garage at the home when the explosion happened.

The cause of death for Bucher, who was visiting the home, was identified as smoke inhalation and thermal burns and the manner of death was accidental. The cause and manner of death for Richard, Buchers great-uncle, are pending.

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Ted Czech with York County Emergency Management, said that there was a fire call made at 10:42 a.m. When units arrived on the scene, they reported that the home was fully involved in a fire. Czech has told abc27 that a helicopter was required to fly Bucher to UPMC Hanover Hospital where he later died.

Pleasant Hill Fire Department Chief Ted Clousher says five people, a dog and a cat were in the home at the time of the fire.

2000 block of Black Rock Road fire, from Lineboro Volunteer Fire Facebook



Clousher also noted that the closest fire hydrant was a mile and a half away, making it hard for firefighters to treat the fire.

Three firefighters were taken to a local hospital for treatment. One firefighter for smoke inhalation and the other two for high blood pressure. Clousher says they have been released and are doing ok.

West Manheim Township Police are investigating the fire.

This is a developing story. Stay updated on the latest from abc27 News

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on Jan. 8, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Monday called for advancing the Party's self-reform and winning the tough and protracted battle against corruption.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

After persistent anti-corruption efforts over the past 10 years of the new era, an overwhelming victory has been achieved in the fight against corruption, with the gains fully consolidated, Xi said.

"But the situation remains grave and complex," Xi noted.

"We should be fully aware of new development in the fight against corruption and the breeding grounds and conditions for corruption," Xi said, urging more efforts to win the tough and protracted battle.

Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi and Ding Xuexiang attended the meeting.

Li Xi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CCDI, presided over the meeting.

Xi noted that 2023 marks the first year that the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress are implemented on all fronts.

The CPC Central Committee has unswervingly advanced the Party's self-reform and deepened its efforts to promote full and rigorous Party self-governance, which has guaranteed that the new journey gets off to a good start, he said.

As the world's largest Marxist governing party, the CPC faces the strategic question of how to escape the historical cycle of rise and fall, and how the Party can remain steadfast in its commitment to never change its nature, its conviction, or its character, he said.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, in its great endeavor of promoting full and rigorous Party self-governance, the CPC has, based on Comrade Mao Zedong's first answer of "putting the government under the supervision of the people," found a second answer to the question -- advancing the Party's self-reform, he noted.

Over the past 10 years, through the practice and theoretical exploration of exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance, a series of important theoretical results have been accomplished, Xi said, adding that these results theoretically answer the major questions including why the CPC should carry out self-reform, why it is capable of self-reform, and how it can promote self-reform.

Xi pointed out nine important issues to advance the Party's self-reform:

-- the fundamental guarantee is to uphold the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee;

-- the fundamental purpose is to guide the great social revolution;

-- the fundamental guidance stands as the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era;

-- the strategic target is to break the historical cycle of rise and fall;

-- the main direction is to tackle the special challenges that a large party like the CPC faces;

-- the effective method is to improve the systems for exercising full and rigorous self-governance;

-- the focus is to forge strong Party organizations and cultivate highly-committed Party members;

-- the key task is to improve Party conduct, enforce Party discipline and fight corruption;

-- the strong impetus is from the integration of self-regulation and oversight from the people.

Xi stressed that, in order to advance the anti-corruption campaign in the new era, continuous efforts should be made to eliminate the breeding grounds and conditions for corruption.

He called for coordinated actions to ensure that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity or desire to become corrupt, as well as persistent efforts to expand the scale and extent of anti-corruption campaigns, and regular and long-term measures to prevent and curb corruption.

Xi underlined the importance of enhancing the Party's centralized, unified leadership in the fight against corruption.

He also stressed the importance of maintaining a tough stance against corruption and said that in the continued grave and complex situation, there is no possibility of stopping, slackening or compromising the anti-corruption campaign.

Combating corruption in the form of collusion between officials and businesspeople should be the priority, Xi said, urging efforts to crack down resolutely on the profit-driven abuse of power and prevent various interest and power groups from infiltrating the political arena.

Xi called for greater efforts to rectify corruption in the finance, state-owned enterprise, energy, medicine and infrastructure project sectors, as well as efforts to punish graft occurring on people's doorsteps.

Deepening reform is necessary to stem the spread of corruption, Xi noted, calling for an integrated early warning and punishment mechanism, and for the strengthened handling of new and disguised forms of corruption.

Underscoring the need to improve the legal system that fights corruption, Xi said national anti-graft legislation should be promoted continuously, and the Supervision Law should be amended in pace with the times. He also called for an education campaign on discipline within the Party.

Xi urged redoubled efforts to tackle and punish acts of bribery, and efforts to retrieve and address the illicit interests gained by those who give bribes.

He urged constant and rigorous efforts to purify the political eco-system, prevent the rules of business dealings from entering into the Party, and persistently rectify misconduct in the selection and appointment of officials.

Efforts should be made to promote a culture of integrity in the new era, carry forward the proud traditions and venerable conduct of the Party, and ignite Party members' lofty ideals and pursuits, Xi noted.

Stressing the importance of fostering strengthened familial ties, values and traditions, Xi urged efforts to ensure leading officials establish good discipline values among their families and relatives.

Noting that discipline inspection and supervision agencies are important forces driving the Party's self-reform, Xi said that these agencies should be loyal, reliable and pure in an absolute manner.

Xi ordered efforts to build a strengthened contingent of disciplinary inspection and supervision cadres, as well as efforts to forge them into an "iron army" that the Party can trust and that can meet the people's expectations.

While presiding over the plenary session, Li Xi said that Xi's speech made strategic plans for the advancement of the fight against corruption, calling for the thorough study and implementation of the spirit of the speech, as well as Xi's important ideas for the Party's self-reform.

Li urged efforts to advance full and rigorous Party self-governance and self-reform to provide a strong guarantee for building a strong country and realizing national rejuvenation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization.

The third plenary session of the 20th CPC CCDI opened on Monday. Li delivered a work report on behalf of the CCDI standing committee on Monday afternoon.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on Jan. 8, 2024. Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi attended the meeting. [Photo/Xinhua]
We Could Not Be Silent

We Could Not Be Silent

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta on Jan. 15, 1929. Celebrated as one of the most influential Black leaders in American history, the Baptist minister, scholar, civil-rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis.

The shot was heard around the world. A life was severed as a legacy was born.

Inspired by his Christian beliefs and mentored by American Baptist Minister Benjamin Hays, King dedicated his life to achieving racial equality through nonviolent civil resistance.

King entered the national spotlight in 1956, at age 26, to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, after refusing to give her seat to a white male passenger while riding a bus. At the time, African Americans were required to sit in the back of city buses and grant white passengers their seats if none were available up front. As a result of Parks arrest, the Black citizens of Montgomery boycotted taking any city buses.

Lasting over a year, the boycott ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, on appeal, in favor of a Montgomery federal court ruling that stated segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed equal protection to every citizen, regardless of race.

Bolstered by the success of the boycott, King and his fellow activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a committee dedicated to achieving equality through nonviolence. Chosen as president, King remained at the helm until his assassination.

Jetted into the spotlight, the public figure traveled across America, giving lectures and engaging in peaceful civil discourse while meeting religious and White House political leaders. Influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, King also travelled to India, Jerusalem, Ghana in West Africa, and the Bahamas.

As the years ensued, so did the violence against King and his fellow activists. Rocks, bottles, bricks, gunfire and bombs, including those in St. Augustine, were launched at will. King was even stabbed by a mentally disturbed Black woman in 1958. According to Stanford Universitys Martin Luther King Jr.s Research Institute, Izola Ware Curry drove the blade of a 7-inch steel letter opener into the upper left side of Kings chest as the 29-year-old signed copies of his book "Stride Toward Freedom" at Blumsteins Department Story in Harlem. Doctors described the wound as a being so dangerous, a sneeze couldve made the difference between life and death.

Undeterred, King pursued his quest to end poverty, segregation in public facilities, and Black inequality for voting rights and employment opportunities through peaceful resistance and civil disobedience.

Spotlight on St. Augustine

While Kings influence on race relations is well documented, the role St. Augustine played in in the Civil Rights Movement and the signing of the Civil Rights Act remains virtually undocumented.*

In 1964, the Civil Rights Act, first proposed by President John F. Kennedy, who was also assassinated, languished by filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

As America remained embedded in the Cold War while facing the onset of the Vietnam War, St. Augustines Lincolnville, a residential Black community sitting west of the railroad, became a hotbed for violence after four black teenagers  Audrey Nell Edwards, JoeAnn Anderson Ulmer, Willie Carl Singleton, and Samuel White  were arrested for sitting at the whites only lunch counter at the Woolworth on King Street.

The four were offered leniency of punishment by government officials if they accused the towns only Black dentist, Dr. Robert B. Hayling, of convincing the teenagers to protest. At the time, Hayling was the figurehead for coordinating peaceful demonstrations against segregation and discrimination in the coastal town.

Upon refusal, the four teens were sentenced to correctional facilities instead of detention centers, a sentence considered harsh.

Lincolnvilles Black citizens were so outraged, they organized what became known as the St. Augustine Movement. Spearheaded by Hayling, Blacks gathered as one, peacefully marching and protesting as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) burned and destroyed their homes with fire-bombs and gunfire.

The attacks were vicious. Hayling and three activists were even beaten with chains and clubs and rescued within minutes of being lynched and burned at a KKK rally held a stones throw away from US 1. Haylings broken ribs, maimed hand, and the loss of 11 teeth garnered him a fine for assault.

Beaten but not broken, Hayling called the reverend and the SCLC to assist in taming the violence, now out of control. King and his men descended upon St. Augustine and organized peaceful marches, sit-ins, and wade-ins as the KKK, law enforcement officers and government officials retaliated.

A week in June in the ancient city would then forever change American history.

On June 12, King was arrested while attempting to eat at St. Augustines bayfront Monson Motor Lodge whites only restaurant. Documents show that while locked in the county jail, King telegrammed his friend, Rabbi Israel Dresner  a Freedom Rider from the 1961 interfaith clergy Freedom Ride  requesting assistance in the form of the presence of Jewish rabbis. The plan was one of distraction for a wade-in scheduled simultaneously in the pool of the Monson Motor Lodge.

Dresner read the telegram on Tuesday, June 16, as rabbis gathered for the 75th Central Conference of American Rabbis. Dresner not only heeded the call, but he was also joined by Rabbis Eugene Borowitz; Balfour Brickner; Daniel Fogel; Jerrold Goldstein; Joel Goor; Joseph Herzog; Norman Hirsch; Leon Jick; Richard Levy; Eugene Lipman; Michael Robinson; B.T. Rubenstein; Murray Saltzman; Allen Secher; and layman Clyde T. Sills to descend upon the ancient city.

Two days later, on June 18, Dresner, Sills and the rabbis were arrested for praying at the entrance of the Monson Motor Lodge. Two rabbis were also arrested for sitting with three Black students in the restaurant. To date, the arrests remain the largest mass arrest of rabbis in America.

Within minutes on the same Thursday, the motel's manager, James Brock was photographed pouring two jugs of muriatic acid - undiluted hydrochloric acid - into the motel's white only pool to force out Black students during their wade in. The students were able to gain access into the pool as the rabbis were arrested for praying in the courtyard. Although no one was hurt, the images sparked national public outrage.

While in jail, the rabbis wrote a letter to the Jewish community explaining why they heeded Kings call.

"We came because we realized that injustice in St. Augustine, as anywhere else, diminishes the humanity of each of us," they wrote, while describing King's request as a heed to witness the convictions of equality and racial justice.

We came because we know that, second only to silence, the greatest danger to man is loss of faith in mans capacity to act, they wrote. .... We could not say no to Martin Luther King, whom we always respected and admired and whose loyal friends we hope we shall be in the days to come. We could not pass by the opportunity to achieve a moral goal by moral means  a rare modern privilege  which has been the glory of the non-violent struggle for civil rights.

The rabbis shared how they relied on each other while sweltering in the hot jail, writing by the light of one naked lightbulb that hung in the corridor.

Never have the bonds of Judaism and the fellowship of the rabbinate been more clearly expressed to us all or more deeply felt by each of us, they wrote.

The rabbis' words depicted their conviction to faith and obedience in heeding the call to service their brothers.

"We hope we have strengthened the morale of St. Augustine Negroes as they strive to claim their dignity and humanity; we know they have strengthened ours," they wrote.

Ironically, they said, their three-page letter was composed on the back of the mimeographed report of the bloody assaults made by the KKK in St. Augustine.

Documents show that The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) bailed out the rabbis for $900 each the following morning. The men were charged with trespassing, conspiracy and disturbing the peace.

The story made national headlines including The New York Times which touted on its frontpage 16 Rabbis Arrested as Pool Dive-In Sets off St. Augustine Rights Clash.

As St. Augustines drama unfolded center stage, the U.S. Senate, who could no longer feign its ignorance of the civil rights argument, ended its 83-day filibuster and signed the Civil Rights Act into law two weeks later.

The LJD Jewish Family & Community Services (JFCS) is currently hosting "We Could Not Be Silent," a free exhibit that features the storyline and photographs of those who aligned themselves with King, Hayling, the SCLC, Dresner, his rabbis and fellow activists in St. Augustine in their quest for racial equality in June of 1964.

Presented in panels of quotes, pictures, and storylines, the exhibit is both informative and heart-wrenching. Anguish and fear sidle determination and perseverance. King, Hayling, activists - black and white - and the rabbis are connected like historic puzzle pieces with each piece showing the role they played in changing the course of American history.

Colleen Rodriguez, CEO of JFCS, described the exhibit as a catalyst to educate the community about events that occurred in our own backyard.

'We Could Not Be Silent' commemorates a remarkable act of solidarity at a critical time in our history, she said. The exhibit is a reminder to stand up and not be silent. Silence is painful.

Rodriguez spoke of the violence that exists today; of hate groups emboldened in their public displays of hate and the need to acknowledge the power of community and solidarity as history reminds us of who we can be.

"'We Could Not Be Silent' is about the relationship between the two communities who got it right," she said. "My hope is that people leave feeling empowered to seek out ways to be a part of history, to be a part of what can be done, because it was done."

Rodriguez underscored the importance of all Americans standing in solidarity against hate groups, reiterating words penned from jail by rabbis arrested for praying in a courtyard almost 60 years ago.

Silence has become the unpardonable sin of our time, she concluded.

According to Rodriguez, virtual tours may be scheduled. Click here for more information.

"We Could Not Be Silent" is showing at the Frisch Family Holocaust Memorial Gallery located at 8540 Baycenter Road, in Jacksonville. The exhibit is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

*The research for this article includes a review of documents found in St. Augustine's Accord Museum and interviews with historian David Nolan, Cora Tyson and Colleen Rodriguez.

This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: 'We Could Not Be Silent' at Frisch Family Holocaust Memorial Gallery
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  The El Paso County Commissioners Court will discuss future capital spending at its meeting on Monday, Jan. 8.

The Commissioners Court will discuss its Fiscal Year Multiyear Capital Plan.

The discussion is expected to take place in the afternoon and will be in a hybrid format both in person at the County Commissioners Courtroom at 500 E. San Antonio, 3rd floor, and virtually.

County officials say they are using last years process as a blueprint for what they are doing this year. Last year, they held over 20 public meetings and discussions with civic groups to ensure widespread public input.

The upcoming series of discussions and meetings aims to mirror this inclusive approach, according to the County.

We are preparing to begin a process that considers all of our capital needs over the next several years, said Director of Strategic Development Jose Landeros said. We are going to start off with a presentation that outlines what the year ahead looks like.

The discussion will potentially cover improvements to parks, public safety, and other crucial County services.

El Paso County residents are encouraged to attend the meeting, either in person or virtually, to share their perspectives and priorities.

To watch the meeting, visit: https://www.youtube.com/@elpasocountycommissionerscourt. To

participate in public comment, call (888) 835-7276 or 888-8 EL PASO. Members of the public may also participate via videoconference by visiting: https://www.epcounty.com/public-comment.htm.



Agendas will be posted online at: https://elpaso.novusagenda.com/AgendaPublic/. If you have any questions or need additional assistance, call (915) 546-2215

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
An Australian couple were forced to pay more than 2,500 to fly to London after they mistakenly used a nickname on one of their plane tickets.

Phil and Kate, from Brisbane, bought two return tickets to London for 4,800 Australian dollars on a travel website named StudentUniverse.

But as they tried to board the flight they were pulled aside and reprimanded because Phil had booked his wifes ticket under Kate, but the name on her passport reads Katherine, Australias Nine Network reported.

It was an administrative error  I think I married Kate in church and not Katherine, Phil said.

Virgin initially told the aggrieved couple that they could alter the booking for a small administrative fee.

But with just minutes to take off booking agent StudentUniverse told them they would need to cancel Katherines ticket and buy a new one under the correct name at a cost of AU$4,700 (2,468).

They didnt have time  that was their reasoning  to issue a name change on the ticket. But they had time to sell us a new ticket, Phil told the programme adding he felt exploited by the fee being charged.

Katherine added: I begged them on the phone: Please, you cant do that. Thats all our holiday money gone in a flash.

A StudentUniverse spokesperson told Business Insider it could only go along with cancellation policies set by airlines.

In this instance, name changes were not permitted, meaning the only option was to cancel and rebook the ticket. As we were only made aware by the customer of their error within 3 hours of the flight departure, this led to further airline imposed charges which could have been avoided by acting earlier, they said.
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People walk near the venue of the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Aug. 21, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

The BRICS doubled its size after more than 40 countries showed interest or formally applied to join the young international organization, signaling an evolution toward a more multipolar world.

The Global South, designated as the word of the year 2023 by the Financial Times, is clearly treading its own path to weather a transforming global order.

Global South in ascent

A new pole of the global economy is forming. Before expansion, BRICS states accounted for 32 percent of global GDP, more than 15 percent of global trade, and more than 40 percent of the world's population.

According to statistics from the Britain-based Acorn Macro Consulting, based on purchasing power parity, the gross domestic product of the BRICS countries before expansion exceeded that of the G7.

The latest ranking by the International Monetary Fund shows that Brazil has surpassed Canada to become the world's ninth-largest economy. After expansion, the BRICS nations will further consolidate Global South strength, demonstrating more robust economic prowess.

The IMF estimates also showed that based on purchasing power parity, the world's top five economies in 2030 will, in sequence, be China, the United States, India, Japan and Indonesia.

Global South leaders are pushing against foreign interventions in geopolitical affairs. The readmission of Syria into the Arab League in May after 11 years of suspension signals a new consensus among Arab countries -- only a regional solution can end the protracted crisis.

In June, Latin America and Caribbean leaders jointly urged Washington to end its illegal political, commercial and financial blockade on Cuba.

A report from the World Trade Organization also suggested that developed economies are still major participants in world trade but no longer dominate.

"I think this is a historic moment for humanity -- in which, for the first time, countries from the South may use their strength," said Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva before BRICS' Johannesburg summit in August 2023.

Faltering steps of West

Along the wax comes the wane. Over the years, with Brexit, divisions in the United States, the spread of Western populism, the surge of right-wing extremism, and escalating racial conflicts and hate crimes, social turmoil and disorder have proven to be common in Western countries.

The Ukraine crisis and the most serious Israel-Palestine conflict in decades have also left the West struggling.

"The internal stress" in the West-dominated world order is leading to "more doubts around the world about its effectiveness and legitimacy," said Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz Global Advisers.

At the 2023 Munich Security Conference, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "shock" at how much credibility the West was losing from the Global South before the French ambassador was expelled from Niger, French troops pulled out from Mali and the coup epidemic spread to a few more francophone West African countries later in the year.

Former colonies now harbor a collective sense of disillusionment, if not anger and resentment, toward the Euro-Atlantic hegemony. This sentiment is rooted in the solutions it provided, or the lack of which, to the global challenges that unfairly burden people at the bottom of the global wealth pyramid.

Along the Black Sea, U.S.-dominated NATO is seeking unilateral security at the cost of having more kids going to bed on an empty stomach in Africa and the Middle East.

Along the Red Sea, Washington watches the humanitarian crisis explode and spill over while continuously curbing international efforts at the UN to protect civilians and restore peace.

"They lost credibility with the veto. What is good enough for Ukraine is not good enough for Palestine. The veto told us that Ukrainian lives are more valuable than Palestinian ones," an African diplomat was quoted by Reuters after the United States vetoed the "humanitarian pause" at the Security Council on Oct. 18, 2023.

The old order led by the West can no longer keep pace with the times, and developing countries are increasingly aware of the reality.

Western research institutions and media outlets wonder if this is the beginning of a new world order.

Voices louder, getting heard

Last August, media outlets worldwide were preoccupied with the wildfires that ravished the historical town of Lahaina, Hawaii.

Only a few weeks later, the flooding that hit Eastern Libya, killing more than 4,300 people, received disproportionately small attention in the West.

Global South countries have endured such injustices for far too long and are speaking up on the global stage.

"The days when a few nations set the agenda and expected others to fall in line are over." Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's foreign minister, said at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

And the voice is catching the attention of Global North leaders, observed Anjali Dayal, an associate professor of international politics at the New York-based Fordham University.

"We saw that more leaders were paying attention to the biggest constituency of UN countries -- countries that are not big powers but that suffer the biggest consequences and very seldom get to cast the decisive vote," she said.

"Increasingly, the poor are saying to the rich that your priorities won't mean more to us until ours mean much more to you," said Howard W. French, a columnist at Foreign Policy and a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Cooperation for better

While calling out the West for its broken promises, including an annual 100 billion U.S. dollars in climate funding, the Global South is building an alternative path forward for South-South cooperation.

In 2023, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a leading international infrastructure investor, priced its first five-year Climate Adaptation Bond and raised 335 million dollars. Platforms such as the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition and the South-South Cooperation Center for Technology Transfer also assist developing countries with clean energy governance, planning and capacity building.

Green cooperation is only part of the closer South-South partnership. With a total value of 4 billion dollars, China has set up a Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund and has implemented more than 130 projects in nearly 60 countries, including Ethiopia and Pakistan, covering poverty reduction, food security and epidemic prevention.

Three decades ago, the pioneer in decolonial theory, Argentine-Mexican philosopher and historian Enrique Dussel, elaborated on the Eurocentrism in the concept of modernity: "Modernity as such was 'born' when Europe was in a position to pose itself against an Other ... Europe could constitute itself as a unified ego exploring, conquering, colonizing an alterity that gave back its image of self."

Three decades later, in a confident and united voice, the Global South is resisting universal modernity or the West's roadmap for modernization.

As the Gulf News put it, there is "a sense of urgency by countries to ... strengthen partnerships away from Western influence."
WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  The U.S. Attorneys Office said a D.C. man pleaded guilty after he conspired to commit mail fraud.

Twenty-year-old Raekwon Malik Harrod, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to using the UPS accounts of two American companies to create shipping labels that he and another person later sold online.

Elderly couple bound, held at gunpoint during North Carolina home invasion; FBI investigating

Harrod pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, which has a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

In his plea bargain, Harrod admitted that in 2020, a person in California involved in the scheme was able to obtain access to one companys UPS account and provide Harrod with the accounts log-in information. Harrod then provided the information to another person involved in the scheme who lived in Maryland.

At the beginning, Harrod and the Maryland co-conspirator, who both re-sold shoes online, used the account to create UPS shipping labels to mail the shoes that they sold.

This scheme reduced their shipping costs to zero.

The California co-conspirator intended that they use the account just for creating shipping labels to mail the shoes sold.

Commanders fans react to Rivera firing

However, in late 2020, Harrod and the Maryland co-conspirator decided to use the account to sell UPS shipping labels to third parties.

They advertised the service online and each created thousands of UPS labels using the account.

Harrod admitted that this scheme caused the company to lose more than $900,000.

In late July 2021, Harrod and the Maryland co-conspirator lost access to the account, which forced them to tell the California co-conspirator that they had been selling labels using the account.

The California co-conspirator then asked the two men two pay him $120,000, which would be used to compensate the person who gave the California co-conspirator access to the account.

In August 2021, Harrod and the Maryland co-conspirator withdrew about $70,000 in cash and flew with the money to Los Angeles, where they gave the money to the California co-conspirator.

While in California, they withdrew another $50,000 in cash and provided it to the California co-conspirator.

DC to activate hypothermia alert Monday evening

Eventually, the California co-conspirator secured access to a second American companys UPS account, which he provided to Harrod and the Maryland co-conspirator.

The two men then continued selling UPS shipping labels online, this time the California co-conspirator was involved in the scheme.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC.
Early last year, a deer euthanized as part of a study at the Kerr Wildlife Management Area research facility in Texas tested positive for chronic wasting disease  the deer equivalent of the brain disorder called mad cow in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

It was an alarming find for state wildlife officials, who have spent the last three years struggling to contain a recurring outbreak of the disease. Wildlife biologists widely view the highly contagious illness as the single greatest threat to the long-term health of the countrys cervids, a family of animals that includes deer, elk, moose and caribou. CWD causes brain proteins called prions to misfold, leading to a prolonged death by neurodegeneration.

The disease is present in free-ranging cervids in at least 32 states, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A buck whitetail deer, Odocoileus virginianus, stands near Goose Island State Park in Texas.

A buck whitetail deer, Odocoileus virginianus, stands near Goose Island State Park in Texas.

It also might have been a false positive. Follow-up tests failed to confirm the deers infection.

But environmental samples taken through the summer showed diseased prions lurking in feed and water troughs. When wildlife officials live-tested every deer in the herd in October, they turned up another positive. On Nov. 20, they killed all of the roughly 90 deer in the herd, depopulating the Texas Parks and Wildlife Departments only deer research facility.

The infection at the Kerr research facility capped off a record year of CWD spread in Texas by raising the same question that has confounded officials since the case count started climbing in 2021: How does the disease keep working its way into new sites, when infected deer arent the ones spreading it?

The research facility is double high-fenced to keep the penned deer away from the wild ones roaming the 6,400-acre Kerr Wildlife Management Area outside. The facility maintained a closed herd that did not accept new deer from outside its fences. Researchers working there followed biosecurity protocols that included disinfecting boots and tools and using dedicated on-site vehicles. No deer had yet tested positive for CWD in the county.

Everybody has been asking, including myself and our staff, how CWD showed up in the deer research facility, Texas Big Game Director Alan Cain told HuffPost. And we dont have a good answer. Everything is just speculation.

The disease first appeared in free-ranging mule deer Texas in 2012, along the states western border with New Mexico. Cases slowly ticked up in the years that followed, mostly concentrated in the original area and the panhandle. In both of those regions, the disease likely spread from free-ranging deer in neighboring states.

But CWD cases have skyrocketed since 2021, when the disease popped up at two separate deer breeding operations, kicking off a statewide search for all the deer that those breeders had sold to others. Its not clear how CWD entered either of their operations. And in the years since, seemingly spontaneous outbreaks have continued to occur at far-flung deer breeder sites across the state, without a clear explanation.

Whats become increasingly clear, as the Kerr facility cases highlight, is that infected deer themselves arent always the ones spreading it.

No one can say with certainty how the disease is moving. Diseased prions can persist in the environment for years. Its possible that carrion-feeding birds like vultures can pick up diseased prions and vomit them into water troughs, or that people can unwittingly spread prions after passing through a contaminated area or moving an infected carcass. Its also possible that the disease can just happen for no reason at all.

Those prions can move into the environment in numerous different ways  thats one of the challenges with the disease, University of Minnesota molecular biologist Pete Larsen said at a Texas Wildlife Commission hearing in November. Some amount can occur spontaneously. What we dont know for deer is how often that happens.

CWD appeared at 12 new captive deer-breeding facilities last year, and for the first time in free-ranging deer in Bexar and Coleman counties, making it by far the most new areas for CWD detections in a single year, Cain said.

The concentration of the disease on deer breeding sites has cast new scrutiny on the lucrative corner of the Texas hunting industry that uses pen-raised deer to stock high-fenced game ranches. By controlling genetics and feed, breeders can raise bucks with antlers that dwarf those found on wild deer. Some deep-pocketed customers will pay tens of thousands of dollars to shoot one.

While its unclear how the disease first worked its way into Texas breeder sites, concentrating deer in pens facilitates the spread of any contagious disease. Moving deer from one site to another, as Texas deer breeders historically have done, also makes it easier for diseases like CWD to spread.

The disease has become an existential threat to Texas deer breeders, whose numbers have dropped by half since peaking at nearly 1,400 in 2014, the year before the first positive case hit a breeder pen. Wildlife officials generally slaughter all captive deer on facilities that test positive for CWD in order to contain the spread, then require the breeder to disinfect the property. A positive case typically destroys the business.

The state wildlife commission voted in November to require live testing before transferring captive deer to another facility.

But facing an outcry from deer breeders and at least seven state senators, the commission tabled several measures proposed by wildlife officials, including one that would have required captive-bred deer to retain their ear tags permanently. The commission will reconsider the proposals when it meets later this month.

As the commission weighs how to contain the spreading disease, the state faces the prospect of losing some of its authority to speedily euthanize infected captive herds.

Robert Williams, owner of RW Trophy Ranch in Terrell, has refused to let state wildlife officials kill the deer in his breeding pens, despite more than 100 positive tests. A Kaufman County judge has scheduled a jury trial for next month to decide the case.

Like with the Kerr facility, Williams has no idea how the disease got onto his ranch. He hadnt received a deer from off site in five years by the time one of the deer he bred yielded a positive CWD test.

The Kerr facility case may offer an opportunity for wildlife officials to study the question. For now, however, the sites future is unclear.

The facility is going to stay there for now, Cain said. At this point, it will sit vacant until weve had time to contemplate the options and opportunities.

Related...
Two people injured in the Russian large-scale attack on Kyiv and Kharkiv on 2 January have died in hospital.

Source: Oleh Syniehubov, Head of Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration; Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Quote from Syniehubov: "At night, one of those wounded in the attack on Kharkiv on 2 January died in hospital."

Details: Syniehubov clarified that it was a 56-year-old man. He had been in a critical condition for a long time.

In addition, one more person injured in the 2 January Russian attack on Kyiv died in hospital.

Quote from Klitschko: "This is the third casualty from the building in the Solomianskyi district that was hit in the attack.

A total of 22 people from those taken to hospital on 29 December and 2 January are currently in Kyiv hospitals. One of them is in a critical condition."

Background:

Russia launched a massive missile strike on Kharkiv on the morning of 2 January. In the first hours after the attack, more than 40 people were reported injured and one killed.

On 4 January, it was reported that an elderly woman who had been injured in the attack on 2 January had died in hospital, and a girl with concussion was also admitted to hospital. Thus, as a result of a large-scale Russian missile attack on 2 January, two women were killed and another 62 civilians were injured.

In addition, powerful explosions were heard in Kyiv on the morning of 2 January. As a result of the Russian missile attack, residential buildings, warehouses, private cars and car dealerships were damaged in the Solomianskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, Pecherskyi, Desnianskyi, Obolonskyi and Holosiivskyi districts of Kyiv.

The Air Defence Forces managed to down 61 Russian missiles in the sky above Kyiv, 10 of which were ballistic Kinzhal missiles. A total of 72 aerial targets were downed during the attack.

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DNA testing has identified a decapitated woman who was found in a California vineyard 13 years ago, according to Kern County officials.

The body has been identified as Ada Beth Kaplan, 64, of Canyon Country, California, NBC News reported.

Police found her remains on 29 March 2011, at the Grapevine Vineyard in Arvin, according to the Kern County Sheriff's Office.

The body was missing a head and thumbs when it was discovered. Police also determined the remains had been posed, according to KGET, a broadcaster in nearby Bakersfield.

Previous attempts to identify the body were unsuccessful, and the woman was eventually interred as a Jane Doe at Union Cemetery.

The nonprofit group DNA Doe Project, a group that uses DNA testing to identify previously unidentified remains, took interest in the case and began testing in an effort to determine the woman's name. The project began building a family tree for the woman based on a DNA profile, which they hoped would lead them to potential relatives.

The group located a pair of family members living on the East Coast they believed may have been related to the woman. They provided DNA for testing, which ultimately led the group and the sheriffs to positively identify the body as Ms Kaplan.

Kern County detectives found that a missing person's report was never filed for Ms Kaplan, which made identifying her more difficult.

Kern County Sheriff detectives followed up on the investigation and interviewed family members and it was learned that a missing person report was not filed on her, they said.

The sheriff's spokesman at the time, Ray Pruitt, told KGET at the time of the discovery that he was shocked by the scene.

Ive never seen anything like that in my life, Mr Pruitt said. Ive seen some pretty gruesome crime scenes and this was just  it was creepy.

He explained that the remains appeared to have been posed for discovery.

It appeared that the blood had been drained from the body, he said. Why did they take the time to drain the blood from the body? The crime scene itself was very clean. Honestly it looked like somebody had taken a mannequin, removed the head of the mannequin and posed it on the dirt road.

The coroner's office has yet to formally determine a cause of death for Ms Kaplan. No suspects have been arrested in her death.
The man who attacked a judge in a Las Vegas courtroom last week was back in front of the same judge Monday in shackles and a spit mask.

Deobra Redden faced Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus in person Monday for the first time since he jumped from the defendants table, over the judges bench and began attacking her Wednesday.

Redden was pulled off the judge by her clerk and other bystanders, who in turn punched and kicked Redden in defense. One courtroom marshal was hospitalized for a gash and dislocated shoulder.

Mondays hearing completed his sentencing on a prior battery charge, the purpose of the hearing that was interrupted by his attack. He will face a hearing on new charges related to the attack at a later date, Holthus said.

Held by two bailiffs, with his hands chained and bound in orange protectors and wearing a webbed spit mask, Redden was sentenced to four years in prison for the battery charge. At least 19 months must be served before he is eligible for early release.

After the attack last week, Redden was additionally charged with battery of a protected person, extortion and intimidating a public official.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A Virginia lawmaker on Friday introduced legislation to prohibit people convicted of insurrection from serving in public office and positions of public trust within the Commonwealth.

Del. Dan Helmer (D  Fairfax) filed his bill Friday, ahead of the start of the 2024 legislative session and one day before the third anniversary of January 6, 2021, when more than 2,000 people broke into the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

The bill defines the attack on the United States Capitol as an insurrection and notes that the provisions of the bill apply to any person convicted in connection to Jan. 6.

All patriotic Americans should want to ensure that we have a democracy, its what I fought for in the military, its why I serve in office today, Helmer said in an interview with USA Today. Political violence has no place in our society, and the perpetrators of that violence should not serve in positions of leadership in our Commonwealth.

Helmer anticipates bipartisan support for the legislation.

Stop the Steal attendee seeking Senate office

Helmers bill would apply to those seeking public office who haven been or may be convicted of rioting or insurrection related to elections.

There is at least one candidate seeking to represent Virginia in the U.S. Senate who attended the Stop the Steal rally that led up to the violent Capitol Building breach that left five dead on January 6, 2021.

Kimberly Lowe, the only candidate born in Virginia among the field of Republicans seeking to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine, posted photos on social media of herself at the rally and of people scaling the sides of the Capitol Building, one year after the event. It is unclear if she entered the Capitol Building. Her name did not appear in the database of Capitol breach cases on the Department of Justice website.

Kimberly Lowe, a candidate seeking to represent Virginia in the U.S. Senate, posted pictures on X (formerly Twitter) of herself attending the Stop the Steal rally, one year after the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on January 6, 2022, she wrote: Remembering January 6th, a day in which patriots peacefully assembled and the fake media turned Americans against Americans with lies and division. Prayers for the political prisoners who are currently held with no due process. We are living under a communist regime.

Jan. 6 sympathizers seeking office

Four other candidates in the field of eight Republicans seeking to represent Virginia in the U.S. Senate have expressed sympathy for those who were arrested in connection to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

As Virginias next Senator, I will introduce legislation to grant immediate release and amnesty to any person incarcerated who did not assault police or destroy government property for whom actual evidence is limited to that of criminal trespass, Jonathan Emord, a Republican Senate candidate from Clifton, said in an email on Friday.

Hung Cao, who lost the 2022 race to represent Virginias 10th Congressional District, pledged to release insurrectionists from prison in his response to a Virginia Constitutional Conservatives candidate questionnaire. He also compared Jan. 6 to the French Revolution during a campaign event that year.

Scott Parkinson, a Republican Senate Candidate from Arlington, defended Alex Bruesewitz, an organizer of the Stop the Steal rally in a January 14, 2022, post on X (formerly Twitter).

Scott Parkinson, a candidate seeking to represent Virginia in the U.S. Senate posted in X (formerly Twitter) support of an organizer of the Stop the Steal rally.

Alex stands against a political farce that wants nothing more than to rehash J6 again and again rather than confront Bidens destruction of US economy & weakening of USA abroad, he said.

Chuck Smith, a candidate for Virginia Attorney General who lost the Republican primary in 2021, wrote a lengthy post on Facebook on January 7, 2021, that both condemned the violence that occurred the prior day, and perpetuated former President Donald Trumps lie that the election was stolen.

The reality is that government is in for a shock if anyone thinks these elected officials can simply install a non-elected person as President of the United States, he wrote.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Legislation to bar insurrectionists from office introduced in Virginia
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A schoolgirl is seen inside a "wood shack" classroom at a school in Abs District, Hajjah Province, northern Yemen, Feb. 23, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg met with Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Chairman Rashad Al-Alimi in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh on Sunday to brief him on the latest developments of the UN-led peace process.

According to the state-run Saba news agency, Grundberg updated Al-Alimi on his coordinated efforts with international partners to resume comprehensive political talks between the Yemeni warring sides under UN auspices.

The meeting touched on the current situation in Yemen and the need for greater international pressure on the Houthi militia to seriously engage in peace efforts and end the suffering of the Yemeni people, said the report.

Al-Alimi reiterated the support of the PLC and the Yemeni government for the UN envoy's efforts and pledged to facilitate his work toward fulfilling his mandate.

In a statement after the meeting, Grundberg said he discussed the UN roadmap with Al-Alimi, which aims to operationalize commitments by the parties to a nationwide ceasefire, measures to alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis, and the resumption of inclusive political negotiations.

But in an interview with the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper earlier on Sunday, Grundberg cautioned that any peace plan would require a gradual approach and hinge on securing a durable cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Yemen.

While the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels have participated in several rounds of UN-brokered peace talks, a long-term solution remains elusive. Skirmishes between government forces and the Houthis continue sporadically across the war-torn country.

Yemen has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2014, with the Houthis battling the internationally recognized government. In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in support of the Yemeni government.

The humanitarian toll has been immense. The UN designates Yemen as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with millions on the brink of starvation, susceptible to disease, and displaced from their homes.

Continuous fighting has decimated infrastructure, crippled the economy, and left most people dependent on aid to survive.
Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis scoffed at former President Trumps recent claim that he could have negotiated the end to the Civil War in the 19th century.

I dont even know what hes talking about, DeSantis, the governor of Florida, told ABC News when asked in an interview Sunday in Iowa about Trumps recent remarks.

I mean, Lincoln did what he had to do. He ended up ushering in the abolition of slavery and he saved the Union. Thats a huge victory for the Republican Party, DeSantis added. So, I dont know. Relitigating that doesnt make much sense to me.

On Saturday, Trump said he thinks many mistakes were made during the Civil War and suggested so much bloodshed could have been avoided through negotiations. He also said the war was so horrible, was so horrible, but so fascinating.

And it was, I dont know, it was just different, I just find it  Im so attracted to seeing it, so many mistakes were made, he said.

See there was something I think couldve been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you couldve negotiated that. All the people died, so many people died, he said.

Trump did not specify what details he thought could be negotiated to avoid the estimated 620,000 soldiers who died from 1861 to 1865. He noted, however, that President Lincoln would not have been as well remembered.

Abraham Lincoln, of course if he negotiated it, you probably wouldnt even know who Abraham Lincoln was, Trump said. He would have been president, but he would have been president, and he wouldnt have been the Abraham Lincoln. Wouldve been different, but that wouldve been OK.

The remarks come as fellow GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley recently took heat for her answer during a town hall about the cause of the Civil War. Her answer at first omitted any mention of slavery, prompting widespread rebuke from her fellow GOP candidates, as well as from Democrats.

She later said she thought it was a given that the war was about slavery.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
As part of a security assistance package in February 2023, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands collectively pledged to send over 100 Leopard 1A5 tanks to Ukraine. The first have already been delivered and are reported to be in service.

Entering production in 1964, the Leopard 1 has long since been replaced by new generations of main battle tanks in Western militaries, although some remain in service. Many served in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. Proven in combat, the Leopard 1 was an effective Cold War-era main battle tank.

However, many question its effectiveness and survivability in modern wars.

European coalition to give refurbished Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine

The German defense companies Rheinmetall and FFG each bought 90 Leopard 1A5 tanks in the early 2000s from Denmark and kept them in storage for resale, however, their conditions varied and most remained in need of refurbishment. Many of these mothballed tanks are the Leopard 1A5 DK, previously used in the Dutch Army and modified in an attempt to stay on par with modern threats.

The 1A5 DK variants have several preexisting upgrades that improve their fighting capabilities. These models have been upgraded with improved stabilization systems for their 105mm canon, composite armor to help defend against anti-tank projectiles, improved detection and communications systems, a more powerful diesel engine, and upgraded suspension.

A Turkish Army Leopard 1 tank drives through a test range at a military base near the western town of Arifiye, Turkey, on Nov. 12, 2009. (Selcan Hacaoglu/AP)

The purpose of main battle tanks in combat has been evolving for decades, and their potency has been reduced by the advancements in anti-tank weaponry, however, their utility has by no mean expired. In the past, the Leopard 1 has often been more comparable to the Russian T-55 and T-62.

The Leopard 1 is maneuverable but only has 70mm armor while later models of the T-72s armor are 700mm at its thickest. Its armor may not be as resistant, however, and the survivability of most tanks today is more dependent on their active protection systems that can eliminate anti-tank guided missiles and UAS threats.

While there is debate on whether the Leopard can consistently penetrate the armor of the T-72, its main gun is undoubtedly accurate. Where the Leopard has seen action, it has consistently out-shot Russian tanks, both in accuracy and rate of fire.

The T-72, the most common tank used by Russia in Ukraine, first entered production in 1971 and has since been modified to meet modern standards. This version, the T-72B3, has improved reactive armor, a new 125mm main cannon, and night/day sights for improved targeting. However, these additions do not remedy the tanks fatal flaw - its ammunition storage for its autoloader, which sits directly below the turret. When sustaining a hit to this area, the resulting blast tends to blow the turret clean off and kill the entire crew..

The T-80 has problems of its own, primarily concerning heavy fuel consumption and thus limited range. In the First Chechen War, the T-80 failed to perform, taking heavy losses from rebels armed with RPG-7V and RPF-18 rocket launchers. Russia has already lost at least 1,500 of its tanks, mainly these two models, in Ukraine. Despite these issues, the T-72 and T-80 are still used by Russia and other armies across the globe, primarily due to their historic availability and low cost of production and purchase.

Russian T-80 tank fires during the International Military Technical Forum Army-2018 in Alabino, outside Moscow, Russia, Saturday, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

These comparisons may not be significant when measuring the effectiveness of the Leopard 1A5 in Ukraine. The Leopard may not need to be on par with modern Russian MBTs to be effective on the battlefield. Tank-on-tank engagements are rare in Ukraine, and most Leopard 1A5s may never engage tanks such as the T-72, T-80, or T-90. Instead, they can serve a vital role as fire support for infantry units and be used to eliminate Russian APCs and IFVs. Their 105mm main gun, although not as powerful as modern 120mm tank weaponry, allows the Leopards to carry more ammunition and may be more suited to the missions being performed in Ukraine.

This raises another question  is it worth sending NATO armor when Ukrainians are already trained to use Warsaw Pact-era armored vehicles? If the Wests intention is the maintain a long-lasting military relationship with Ukraine - the answer is yes. Training on NATO platforms would be most sustainable as there are only a limited number of older Russian tanks available for future use.

Older T-72s and T-80 which were in Ukraines arsenal have and will continue to be destroyed and will become increasingly difficult to replace as stocks in the West are depleted. The last T-72 was produced in 1991 and the last T-80 in 2001. It will take time and resources to train Ukrainian soldiers on the Leopard 1A5, however, this is necessary if NATO platforms are to become the standard in coming years.

Were out of money: US exhausts security funds for Ukraine

While the Leopard 1A5 is many other tanks on the Ukrainian battlefield, what will matter most is how Ukrainian commanders choose to use the Leopard 1A5, and if they can be refurbished effectively. Drawing on its strengths, staying mobile and shooting from long distances could maximize the Leopards potency. Purposed to support infantry units or other armored vehicles, they could save lives, striking targets and clearing Russian fortifications from a distance.

Used to defend locations in the rear, they could free other more advanced MBTs to fight on the frontlines. The nature of combat and the function they can serve as fire support renders them useful in modern warfare. So, while they are not the most advanced or the most lethal on the battlefield, they can still perform a vital role.

Ethan Walton is a graduate of NYUs MA in International Relations and currently maintains the Ukraine Weapons Tracker at The Forum on the Arms Trade, a network of civil society experts and a point of contact for strengthening public efforts to address the humanitarian, economic and other implications of arms transfers, security assistance, and weapons use.
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  A former Clovis resident pleaded guilty on Monday to his part in a scheme to steal nearly $5 million worth of canola to buy luxury homes and hire private karate teachers, among other expenses, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

47-year-old Shawn Sawa, formerly of Clovis, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in the nearly $5 million worth of canola from international food processors, according to federal prosecutors.

The DOJ says the proceeds from the scheme were used to purchase luxury homes and multiple vehicles, take trips, and hire private karate teachers.

According to court documents, from 2015 through 2017, Sawa and Richard Best, who has charges pending, stole $4.8 million worth of canola from the food processors. Officials say they then sold the canola for a windfall. Prosecutors say Sawa was the manager of a victim food processors branch office in Fresno and had a close relationship with Best.

According to court documents, Sawa and Best sold the stolen canola through an acquaintance in Texas who used to work in the livestock feed industry. The acquaintance sold the stolen canola to farms and dairies and distributed the proceeds according to Bests instructions. This included wire transfers to Sawa, RBT, and Bests bank accounts. The account that Sawa used was opened in his spouses name to try to conceal the scheme, prosecutors say.

Throughout the scheme, officials say Sawa and Best caused RBT to email fraudulent inventory reports to the victim food processors representing that RBT had certain amounts of their canola in stock when, in fact, RBT had significantly lesser amounts.

Sawa faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The United States Attorneys Office says Best was also charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, but adds that the charges against him are pending and are only allegations.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com.
 Flash

The Qatari emir stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire during his meeting on Sunday with the visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani stressed the necessity of working towards an immediate ceasefire and protecting civilians, a sufficient and sustainable humanitarian aid delivery into all areas of the Gaza Strip, and working to reduce the escalation to ensure stability and security in the region, reported Qatar News agency.

Later in the day, Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani held a press conference in Doha with Blinken.

The Prime Minister of Qatar told reporters that the recent killing of a senior Hamas leader has impacted Qatar's mediation efforts in the Israel-Hamas conflict, while Qatar remains committed to continuing its mediation efforts.

He also emphasized that hostile actions in the Red Sea are unacceptable, constituting unfortunate consequences of the Gaza conflict.

For his part, Blinken stated that he would raise the issue of protecting civilians during his upcoming visit to Israel, adding that Palestinian civilians must be allowed to return to their homes and should not be forced to leave Gaza.

Blinken is currently on a tour of several Middle Eastern countries, seeking to de-escalate the situation in the wake of the killing of a senior Hamas leader, which has further intensified the crisis in the region.
Federal officials on Monday warned people who have made claims for compensation under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act to be aware of scammers seeking to extract money or personal information from them. Photo courtesy of U.S. Marine Corps

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The federal government on Monday issued warnings about scammers attempting to extract money and personal information from people filing claims or lawsuits under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act.

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Navy sent out alerts over "unscrupulous people and companies" seeking to exploit claimants in what could be one of the largest mass tort cases in United States history.

"Due to growing concerns over reports that unscrupulous people and companies are seeking or sought to obtain personal information from CLJA claimants or otherwise defraud them, the Justice Department and Navy advise claimants and their attorneys to be cautious of potentially fraudulent activity through telephone calls or email solicitations," the DOJ said in a statement.

Officials warned that "phishing" scammers are misrepresenting themselves as being from the U.S. government or military, asking people who have filed claims under the law to give up their personal information in emails or telephone calls.

"The Justice Department and the Navy will never request money or payment from you," the DOJ said.

The U.S. government has acknowledged its responsibility for environmental contamination at the North Carolina Marine Corps base that, over the course of decades, may have exposed as many as 1 million people to toxic water.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services determined in 2020 that exposures from the 1950s through 1985 to trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), vinyl chloride, and other contaminants in the drinking water at Camp Lejeune likely increased the risk of cancers, adverse birth outcomes, and other adverse health effects of residents, civilian workers, Marines and Naval personnel.

The CLJA, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022, culminated a years-long struggle by ex-Marines, their families and civilian workers to gain legal recourse for those who drank contaminated water while living at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987 -- a group that includes as many a 1 million people.

The measure allows people to file claims in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Northern Carolina, essentially overriding previously insurmountable legal hurdles such claimants faced in North Carolina state courts.

"The Justice Department and Navy are committed to reviewing every claim submitted and resolving every claim as fairly and efficiently as possible," the agencies said Monday in their scam warning.
The News

Add this to the list of political norms and precedents that Donald Trump has shattered: Campaigning in Iowa.

Trumps opponents have been blanketing the state for months: Ron DeSantis completed the Full Grassley  hitting up all 99 counties in the state  on Dec. 2. Vivek Ramaswamy recently doubled that effort. Nikki Haley has held over 60 events in the state, and in recent weeks has blanketed Iowa with ads.

Trump, meanwhile, has been less present even as his polling lead has ballooned: Last year he made 18 visits to Iowa, according to ABC News. While his campaign has held a number of other events without Trump aimed at getting Iowans to commit to caucus, the contrast between Trump and his opponents appearances has been stark.

That is, until now. With roughly one week to go until the Iowa caucus, Trump, who is leading by wide margins in the Hawkeye State, is ramping up his in-person appearances compared to past months, speaking at rallies over the weekend and preparing for more events as Jan. 15 approaches.

This coming week, Trump will host two rallies each on Saturday and Sunday, a Fox News town hall mid-week to counterprogram the Haley-DeSantis debate, and his campaign has also added a caucus night watch party on Jan. 15 (his attendance is not yet confirmed).

Thats fewer events than what one might expect this close to caucus  and certainly less than his multi-state tour back ahead of the 2016 caucus. But its a step up from previous months, and his team is organizing some of their top surrogates like Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Dr. Ben Carson for Iowa Faith and Commit to Caucus events throughout the week as well.

Hes taking nothing for granted, one Republican close to the campaign said. You always run like youre 10 points behind, no matter what the polls say. Until the last votes cast, you are going at 100%.

Trumps team is also going to the right spots in Iowa leading up to Jan. 15, the person argued: His campaign is hosting events in places like Boone and Marion, while Trump himself will be speaking in Atlantic, Cherokee, and other smaller cities. The effort is aimed at making sure that voters, who appear to largely back Trump by all available metrics, actually turn out to vote on caucus day.

Advisers have said in the past that one of the main challenges to hosting a schedule as full as Trumps opponents is the practical reality that he is a former president: Its more costly for Trumps team to get him places, and Trumps signature large rallies add to that cost. But theyve also noted that hes a former president who has done the groundwork in past elections: Voters know him well, and know what he did during his first term in office.

Theyre introducing themselves for the first time. Hes introducing himself for the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth time, the person close to the campaign said.

Shelbys view

Trump may have paid a price for snubbing Iowa  in 2016. He lost the caucus to Sen. Ted Cruzs, R-Texas more traditional campaign and, by his own account, took a hit with voters after skipping a debate in the state to protest Fox News moderators.

But things have changed since then. This time, hes sitting at over 50% in RealClearPolitics polling average even after skipping the debate, showing up less in person, feuding with pro-DeSantis Gov. Kim Reynolds, and ignoring demands from anti-abortion activists otherwise known for their clout in the state.

One reason: Even when Trump isnt in Iowa, hes there  the whole field seems to be constantly forced to react to him. Nowhere was this more evident than with his various indictments, which galvanized the base from afar and forced his rivals largely to defend him as well. In December, DeSantis complained that the indictments had distorted the primary and sucked out all the oxygen.

Room for Disagreement

Trumps opponents, particularly DeSantis, have argued Trumps lack of personal attention to the state will catch up to him eventually. The Florida governor told the Fox News Rundown podcast in an interview published Jan. 5 that candidates who spend all the money on TV but arent actually down on the ground visiting folks tend to underperform, and the candidates that have that organization tend to overperform. DeSantis has set a high bar for himself in the state, repeatedly saying during past interviews that he planned to win Iowa.

Notable

The Trump campaign has revamped its strategy heading into Iowa: Trump is urging voters to turn out on Jan. 15 during his speeches, and his campaign is playing videos during events to explain the caucus process, ABC News reported.
Donald Trumps weird campaign rally tangent about magnets attracted mockery on social media.

The Republican 2024 front-runner on Friday complained to a crowd of supporters in Mason City, Iowa, about electric catapults and magnetic elevator systems for U.S. aircraft carriers.

The four-times-indicted former president polarized with this line: All I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, thats the end of the magnets.

Trump: All I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, thats the end of the magnets pic.twitter.com/TopK4BRsOq  Acyn (@Acyn) January 6, 2024

On X (nee Twitter), a video that was shared of Trumps comment was fact-checked with a community note.

Magnets work underwater and are not affected by water. Magnetic fields are not the same as electrical circuits, read the reader-contributed context.

MSNBCs Lawrence ODonnell called Trumps comment relentlessly stupid.

Other critics agreed:

If youre worried about your president being senile or out of it, this is totally the guy to vote for in November. https://t.co/Os5VjmyiLK  Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 6, 2024

Donald Trump said that magnets dont work in water, that no one would know who Lincoln was if we hadnt had a Civil War & that there were airports during the Revolutionary War, all while bragging about being able to identify an elephant correctly.

Because hes a fucking moron. pic.twitter.com/ZNpyFqAfXZ  Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) January 7, 2024

you know i think this is going to make it hard for them to argue biden is mentally unfit  Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) January 6, 2024

When Donald Trump rants on wetting magnets he becomes "Will Deny the Science Guy"  Mr. Newberger (@jeremynewberger) January 6, 2024

It feels like this is the point where @BillNye has some narration to do https://t.co/vpDEu1Cefu  Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 6, 2024

Sorry! Sorry! I know that the Fanta Fuhrer is not a welcome sight on the timeline for many of you, but this morons take on magnets is pretty hilarious- https://t.co/fwYfgfoqOt  Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 6, 2024

Scientists always tell me, sir, you have the most amazing science. Its true, I have tremendous science and science loves me. No one know more about tremendous science than me https://t.co/mBgsk8K2Xn  Simon Scarrow (@SimonScarrow) January 6, 2024

Yep. Trump should definitely have nuclear codes and access to classified documents.  Outspoken (@Out5p0ken) January 6, 2024

The war on magnets begins! https://t.co/9RPaYaVx3p  Steve Doherty  (@SteveDoherty1) January 6, 2024

If Biden said something this dumb, Fox would pronounce him brain-dead. https://t.co/nHW4Gl2VEF  David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 6, 2024

Related...
The cryptocurrency industry has spent the Biden era in a losing battle with Washington. If Republicans take power in 2024, it can still win the war.

Donald Trump derided crypto during his presidency, but if he returns to the White House he is expected to usher in policy and personnel that would be more aligned with digital asset firms. GOP lawmakers and conservative groups have drafted regulatory proposals in line with the industrys wish list, and Republicans are already floating the names of potential regulators who would play a key role in turning the tide.

It would mark a major shift from President Joe Biden, whose administration and regulators are consistently taking a skeptical approach to crypto over what they see as risks to consumers and the broader financial system. Leading Democrats in Congress, including Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, are likewise ramping up scrutiny. The crypto lobby in response is fighting back hard against policies designed to rein in the industry, including in court.

If the second Trump administration takes place, [the] president will be a lot more friendly to the crypto industry, said House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who endorsed Trump this month and is one of Capitol Hills leading crypto proponents.

The potential swing in Washingtons crypto posture illustrates how policy concerns around bitcoin and other digital assets have taken on an increasingly partisan tinge in the last few years as the $1.7 trillion market experienced a dramatic boom and bust. It means 2024 is likely the most consequential U.S. election in the industrys history  one that will determine the extent to which the federal government grants it legitimacy and a rulebook that will support its growth.

While crypto advocates see an opening, critics are warning of the possible consequences.

The only reasonable expectation is that Trump will bring his overall financial deregulation mindset to the crypto arena, said Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of the financial watchdog group Better Markets. It's going to be to the extreme disadvantage of investors and customers  and ultimately, in our view, for financial stability."

Trump would be an unlikely crypto champion. He disparaged digital assets during his presidency, and key officials in his administration were skeptical of the industry.

I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air, Trump wrote on Twitter in 2019.

But since leaving office, he has invested in crypto and issued his own non-fungible token, or NFT. More importantly, key Republican officials on Capitol Hill have rallied around crypto and pushed for industry-friendly regulations.

The people that [Trump] would put in regulatory roles are much more likely to at least be crypto-open, if not overtly crypto-friendly, than this administration, said Brian Brooks, a veteran crypto executive and a former top bank regulator under Trump.

Crypto has gained steam on the right in recent years, thanks in part to privacy concerns. Republican presidential candidates including Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have touted pro-crypto policies on the campaign trail and rejected the concept of a central bank digital currency as government overreach. Trump is backing an Ohio Senate candidate, Bernie Moreno, who made a name for himself in part by championing Cleveland as a hub for crypto-related technology.

A recent poll by the Crypto Council for Innovation trade group showed that 51 percent of crypto owners would vote for Trump, versus 41 percent for Biden. House Republicans campaign arm accepts donations in crypto via a payment-processing partnership with Coinbase, the largest U.S. digital asset exchange and a major player in the Washington crypto lobby.

At the moment, in the populist movement on the right, theres more fear about the Fed manipulating monetary policy, theres more fear about central bank digital currencies, which would tend to drive you in a crypto-friendly direction, said Brooks, who served as chief legal officer at Coinbase before becoming acting Comptroller of the Currency under Trump.

If crypto regulation is viewed as a partisan or ideological issue, it could present risks for the industry as it tries to appeal to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Crypto advocates say their cause remains nonpartisan.

An industry-backed super PAC network that has raised more than $74 million to influence the 2024 elections plans to support Democrats and Republicans. On Capitol Hill, some Senate Republicans have supported stricter oversight of crypto trading, in part because of concerns about digital currency's use in financial crime. A handful of House Democrats have voted in favor of pro-crypto legislation in the past year.

I dont think its gotten more partisan, said Ron Hammond, director of government relations at the Blockchain Association, a top industry lobbying group. He said he isnt taking it for granted that a second Trump administration would be kinder to crypto firms, given national security concerns from some GOP defense hawks.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who was Trumps ambassador to Japan and now serves on the Senate Banking Committee, is among those calling for a lighter regulatory touch, though he said in an interview that he started out as a crypto skeptic himself.

Hagerty expects Trump to bring in people that are receptive to innovation happening here on American soil, rather than pushing it offshore, and the liberty and freedom that crypto brings about.

The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

The general thrust of Republican opinion on this is, we should have proper consumer protections without destroying a very nascent industry, said Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a vocal Trump ally who also serves on Senate Banking.

The top target for the crypto industry and its allies in a Republican administration would likely be the Securities and Exchange Commission, the arm of the government that has had the most heated conflict with crypto players over the last several years. The SEC under Trump and now Biden has pursued a series of enforcement actions against crypto firms that it says are subject to federal securities laws. The industry is fighting back in court.

Republicans who want pro-crypto appointees are floating names for the next GOP SEC chair, including Brooks, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and former SEC Division of Investment Management director Dalia Blass. Brooks declined to comment. Blass and Peirce didn't respond to requests for comment. Peirce has said she would not seek renominationwhen her term is up in 2025.

Brooks has been a crypto proponent and served as an executive at digital asset firms, including Coinbase and Binance.US, which are both being sued by the SEC. Peirce, who was nominated to the SEC by Trump in 2017, has frequently criticized the agencys approach to crypto regulation under Chair Gary Gensler. Blass has also criticized Genslers rulemaking agenda and crypto enforcement.

You have talented folks that could chair the SEC and the CFTC, said House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who has drafted a sweeping regulatory revamp that would set up a new regulatory pathway for crypto. He pointed to Blass, Peirce and Brooks as potential Gensler successors.

Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan, a senior Republican on House Financial Services, said in an interview that he would encourage Trump to nominate an SEC chair who is interested in letting an emerging market like that properly flourish.

A presidential transition road map organized by the Heritage Foundation calls for the SEC and its sister agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to issue a joint rule defining when a digital asset will be treated as a security or a commodity  a move that could help some in the industry escape the SECs enforcement crackdown.

"The president himself is inclined towards aspects of freedom, but an organized finance system," McHenry said. "So I think theres an opportunity  But I dont think he has views written in stone on crypto."
The piece of an Alaska Airlines plane that blew out midflight and opened a hole in the side of the aircraft has been discovered in a Portland, Oregon, backyard.

A teacher named Bob found the missing door plug on Sunday, according to National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy.

We are really pleased that Bob found this, she said at a Sunday night press conference.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was about 16,000 feet in the air on Friday night when part of the fuselage blew out shortly after the planes departure from Portland International Airport. The flight was supposed to land in Ontario, California, but instead quickly turned around and landed back in Portland about 35 minutes after departing.

Investigators found that the missing section of the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane was an emergency exit door plug. It weighs an estimated 63 pounds.

Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft can have different numbers of emergency exits depending on the airline. Some airlines pack more than 200 seats into the planes and need all the emergency exits. But other carriers, such as Alaska and United Airlines, use fewer seats and therefore dont need all the exits to meet safety regulations. On such planes, a door plug is used instead.

The aircraft that broke in mid-air was almost brand new. It was deemed airworthy on Oct. 25 and received an FAA registration number on Nov. 2.

But the plane had already encountered a few problems. During flights on Dec. 7, Jan. 3 and Jan. 4, an auto pressurization fail warning light illuminated. Those flights all landed with no issues, but the plane was set for investigation, and its schedule was changed to prevent any flights over open ocean. The door plug blew out the very next day.

Following the accident, the FAA ordered 171 Boeing 737 Max 9s to be grounded.

_____
The St. Johns County Sheriffs Office has reported that a driver is facing DUI charges for seriously injuring two pedestrians in downtown St. Augustine.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

The incident reportedly occurred near the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument and the Nights of Lights.

Action News Jax reporter Nick Gibson spoke with people who are now concerned about their safety in the area, especially since St. Augustine is such a tourist-friendly destination.

Shannon King, 21, and Lamar Johnson Jr., 22, have been arrested in connection with the incident. According to the St. Johns County Sheriffs Office, King is charged with DUI, while Johnson is accused and charged with resisting officers without violence.

The incident unfolded around 2:00 a.m. when the car, driven by King and carrying Johnson Jr., struck two people on a pedestrian walk on A1A near the Fort. The car reportedly continued into the Fort parking lot, hitting a sign and park kiosk before coming to a stop.

Detectives reported that Johnson Jr. refused to obey commands by law enforcement and attempted to cause a disturbance while first responders were treating the victims.

Chelsea Hudson, a traveling tourist said this is never good to hear especially since so many people walk in downtown St. Augustine, especially near the Fort and Nights of Lights.

You want to be able to come here and just walk around safely and not worry that you are going to get hit, says Chelsea Hudson.

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Hudson and her husband, Matthew Hudson, visited St. Augustine for the first time on Sunday while on vacation from Chicago heading to Sarasota. They emphasized the importance of not drinking and driving.

People can Uber, they can call a friend. There is no need for someone to be drinking to get in a car and do something like this, states Matthew Hudson.

As of now, both victims hit by the car are in critical condition.

The incident has raised concerns about pedestrian safety in the area, prompting a call for heightened awareness and responsible choices, especially during tourist events in the city.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  A person was arrested after leading police on a chase through the northwest side of Oklahoma City Sunday night, according to Oklahoma City Police.

| MORE LOCAL NEWS > UPDATE: Person dies after being hit by car in SW OKC >

Officials said that it started as a call of a stolen vehicle near Northwest 122nd.

Eventually, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol got involved to help out OKCPD.

Officials said that OHP initiated a Tactical Vehicle Intervention (TVI) maneuver that caused the vehicle to crash near NW 10th and Meridian.

Officials didnt release too many details but said the driver was put into custody shortly after.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
The Prince of Wales, centre, was unable to be deployed due to his future status as king - PA

The Duke of Sussex has been left out of a Sandhurst alumni book that included a foreword written by his brother, the Prince of Wales.

In They Also Served: 200 People Who Trained At Sandhurst, author Vaughan Kent-Payne explores exceptional graduates who have gained recognition beyond the Armed Forces.

However, while alumni mentioned include the Prince of Wales, Winston Churchill and Tim Peake, Prince Harry only receives a small mention in a passage about his brother.

It reads: His [Williams] status as a future king meant that he could not be deployed on operations like his younger brother, Harry.

Ben McBean, a former Royal Marine and double amputee who inspired Prince Harrys Invictus Games, said the omission from the book was a bit petty.

Hes done enough to be in there, he told The Telegraph. Hes done more than most but people forget that. Afghanistan, twice. Pilot, set up Invictus Games.

I just think hes done enough to be in there. The reason hes not is probably because hes fallen out with his family. Im pretty sure if he hadnt hed be in there.

Prince Harry, 39, was accused of betraying the military and putting serving British soldiers and the greater public at risk after claiming in his memoir, Spare, that he killed 25 Taliban insurgents.

He revealed how in 2012 he flew on six missions during his second tour in Afghanistan and killed 25 Taliban fighters, whom he viewed as chess pieces removed from the board.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said the omission was likely a combination of the Prince having fallen out with members of his family and the comments over his tours in Afghanistan.

Harry is a notable graduate of Sandhurst due to his royal status, he said. Beyond that he insisted on deploying to Afghanistan despite senior level opposition and did a great deal to help wounded veterans, such as through the Invictus Games.

I think the reasons he was omitted were his efforts to undermine the Royal family in recent years plus his comments about how he was trained in the army to see the enemy as less than human and pieces on the chess board which could easily be used to radicalise jihadists.

He added: I suspect the editors would have considered him as a suitable candidate and omitted him for those reasons, although with a cast of only 200 many even more notable Sandhurst alumni have also been left out.

Mr Kent-Payne is the executive director of The Sandhurst Trust, the academys official charity. All proceeds from his book will go to the trust. Defence sources stressed the trust was entirely separate from the Sandhurst Academy.

During his research the author wrote biographies of over 300 notable RMAS alumni, they added. The most difficult editorial choice was to decide which of these deserving stories would not be in the finished book, and there were many exceptional individuals that were not included  including other Royals.

A Sandhurst spokesman said: They Also Served highlights the breadth of accomplishments and experiences across Sandhurst graduates rather than just focusing on the most well-known. It showcases a small and carefully selected cross section of more than 40,000 British and 5,500 international officers who have trained at the Academy since 1947.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
It was 3:47 on a Wednesday afternoon when patrol Officer Danielle Danforth was sent to a car wreck on Moye Road along Columbus eastern border with Fort Moore.

What she found was not just a wreck, though Joseph Dukes had rolled his white BMW convertible off a curve as he tried to drive while bleeding from gunshot wounds.

Danforths body camera was recording as he told her who shot him, according to court filings in his alleged killers impending murder trial.

Help me, he told Danforth and other first responders.

Yeah, I got shot, he said. Deante Caruthers.

Asked who shot him, he again said, Deante Caruthers.

He lost consciousness as an ambulance took him to Piedmont Columbus Regional, where he was pronounced dead an hour later.

That was on Jan. 20, 2021. Police arrested Caruthers the following Feb. 4.

He faces trial Jan. 22 on charges of murder, aggravated assault, using a gun to commit a felony, and having a gun while he was a first offender on probation.

Now 32, Caruthers has a July 7, 2019, conviction for possessing stolen property, court records show.

Prosecutor Austin Hammock has asked that Caruthers be treated as a repeat offender, if convicted, and that the jury hear what Dukes told Danforth the day he died.

Judge John Martin is to hear arguments about Dukes last words in a pretrial hearing on Tuesday. Caruthers is represented by Columbus attorney William Kendrick.

Police have other evidence they say shows Caruthers shot Dukes on Bayberry Drive, a subdivision off Buena Vista Road. Dukes was trying to get to his mothers home when he lost control on a curve, less than a mile away.

He was shot twice in the chest, and had a bullet wound in his back, investigators said.

Hammock wrote in a court motion that Dukes told Danforth of being shot everywhere and bleeding everywhere.

The other evidence

At least three witnesses saw Caruthers shoot Dukes, and neighborhood security cameras recorded it, Detective Sherman Hayes testified at Caruthers first court hearing.

Hayes said the two men were seen face to face, nose to nose in the street, before Caruthers stepped back, pulled a pistol and fired three times as Dukes tried to duck away, falling to the pavement.

Police tracked both mens cell phones, showing the two were practically on top of each other on Bayberry Drive, where police found three 9-millimeter shell casings, Hayes said.

A violent year

Dukes was among those killed in a spate of early 2021 violence that continued, marking a recent peak in Columbus homicides with 70 reported that year.

Columbus had 12 slayings by mid-February, six of them in just 12 days.

Dukes mother Delilah Dukes was among those interviewed in a Ledger-Enquirer report on the rash of homicides.

Every death in the news meant another mother was grieving, she said.

It always hurts me when I hear that, she said. It just saddens me because a young person is gone.

Joseph Dukes had three sons and two daughters, and a baby boy was born after his death, she said: He loved being around kids.

Joseph Dukes Photo courtesy of the Dukes family

Columbus murder cases from 2021 now are coming to trial after the courts cleared a backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, which caused court lockdowns.

The dying declaration

Because the confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment says anyone accused of a crime has the right to be confronted with the witnesses against him, a judge must decide whether the words of a dying man are admissible in the suspects trial.

Dukes cannot be cross-examined, and having another witness testify to what he said could be hearsay, which is inadmissible in most cases.

An exception, as specified in the law, is a statement made by a declarant while believing that his or her death was imminent, concerning the cause or circumstances of what the declarant believed to be impending death.

The prosecution argues Dukes was clearly aware of his imminent death, as shown by his condition and his statements, so what he told Danforth was a dying declaration excluded from the prohibition on hearsay.

Georgia courts have long recognized that, the admission of dying declarations does not contravene that provision of the constitution of the United States which declares that in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall be confronted with the witnesses against him, Hammock wrote.
EASTLAKE, Ohio (WJW)  Longtime Eastlake Mayor Dennis Morley has died.

The city confirmed the news to FOX 8 on Monday.

Polar jet stream: How its about to change our winter

Morley died Sunday after a short battle with an aggressive cancer, the city said in a statement.

Morley was mayor for the last 10 years in Eastlake and served on the city council prior to that.

He absolutely loved serving as the mayor of such a great community, Eastlake administrators told FOX 8.

Jackpot hit! Winning ticket sold locally

Morley leaves behind two daughters.

Everyone that knew him knows his first concern while he fought, was for his two amazing daughters, the city shared.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced. Further details on his diagnosis have not been shared.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.
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The military units of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday conducted a live-shell firing drill off its western coast, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Military units in charge of the southwest coastal defense mobilized 23 coastal artilleries and fired 88 live shots toward four areas in the southwest waters, said KCNA in a statement by the General Staff of the Korean People's Army.

The district for the naval live-shell firing drill was not related to the Military Demarcation Line in terms of (firing) direction and posed no intentional threat to South Korea, the statement said.

It added that the drill was conducted according to a plan within the Korean People's Army's regular training system.
Thousands of authorities in Ecuador remain engaged in a manhunt to locate one of the countrys most-wanted criminals, after officials revealed Sunday that notorious drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as Fito, had disappeared from his prison cell at a detention center in the port city of Guayaquil.

In response to Fitos disappearance as well as violence that broke out in prisons after, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared on Monday a 60-day state of emergency over the nation, which reportedly entails nightly curfews and a suspension of the right of assembly.

These narcoterrorist groups try to intimidate us and believe that we will give in to their demands, Noboa said in a video on social media announcing the declaration. We are not going to negotiate with terrorists nor will we rest until we return peace to all Ecuadorians.

To date, Fitos whereabouts and means of escape remain unknown. The countrys Prosecutors Office said Monday that it had filed charges against two prison officials allegedly involved in the disappearance.

Government spokesperson Roberto Izurieta said at a press conference on Sunday that more than 3,000 law enforcement personnel are now trying to locate Fito.

We cannot, as you understand, give many details of this operation, Izurieta said. We are convinced that with the support of the armed forces and the police, and their professionalism, we will finish this search successfully.

Who is Fito?

Known as one of Ecuadors most dangerous criminals, Fito is the leader of Los Choneros, a prison gang that engages in drug trafficking and extortion. With many of its members imprisoned, it holds sway over the South American countrys penitentiaries that have been consistently neglected by the government. Like other gangs, Los Choneros criminal activity is believed to extend outside the prison walls, even reportedly functioning as an operating arm of Mexicos Sinaloa cartel.

Fito had been detained since 2011, but he only became leader of Los Choneros after the murder of former head Jorge Luis Zambrano Gonzalez (who was known as Rasquina) in 2020. Fito, now age 44, was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime, and homicide.

But the gang leader already had a history of getting out of his imprisonment: in February 2013, he escaped from La Roca, a maximum security prison in the infamous Guayas Penitentiary Complex, with 17 others and had been on the run for months before being caught in May that year.

Fito has also been linked to a more recent prominent political assassination. In the lead-up to the countrys presidential election last year, candidate Fernando Villavicenciowho spoke out against Ecuadors powerful drug cartelswas killed in the capital Quito in August. Days before his death, Villavicencio said he and his team had received threats from Fito and Los Choneros.

How did Fito escape?

Fito was supposed to be in La Regional prison in the Guayas Penitentiary Complex, but news of his disappearance first emerged after General Cesar Zapata told reporters during a press conference on Sunday that armed forces noticed an unnamed inmate in the prison complex was missing.

In an interview with local TV station Teleamazonas, government spokesperson Izurieta said Fito likely escaped just hours before prison officials noticed his absence over the weekend, after he was warned that he would be transferred back to the more secure detention facility, La Roca.

Izurieta added that Fitos escape is the result of a completely failed prison system.

What is happening in Ecuador?

Violence has shaken up Ecuador, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, and governments have failed to rein in organized crime. The country now has one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America.

Experts and politicians blame the scourge partly on gangs fight for powerespecially after the death of Los Choneros Rasquina. Cocaine trafficking groups have also had increasing influence in recent years, flourishing amid a weak domestic economy.

At the beginning of 2024, Noboa said he plans to hold a referendum to tighten security measures in Ecuadorincluding lengthening jail terms for serious crimes.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
Motorists in Edinburgh can now be fined for pavement parking, double parking plus parking at dropped kerbs - NEWSANDMORE/ALAMY

Edinburgh residents have been warned that they face 100 fines for parking on pavements in an attempt to tackle inconsiderate motorists.

The city council has reminded 6,500 households in areas where pavement parking was deemed a problem about new rules that comeinto force on Jan 29.

People who park on pavements or dropped curbs, or double park, will face fines after councils were handed new powers to enforce bans.

Edinburgh is the second city in the UK to implement the policy after London.

Following an assessment of 5,000 roads, Edinburgh city council said it had identified areas of significant pavement parking and had written to residents to help them prepare for the measures.

Cllr Scott Arthur, the citys transport and environment convener, said: These new rules are about making our streets safer and more accessible for everyone, in particular those with visual impairments or mobility issues.

Ive heard from many people who say the change will make their day-to-day life much easier. I am proud that Edinburgh is leading the way on enforcing the ban, and that all political parties here agree that no street should be exempt.

The prohibitions first featured in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, though the regulations required to support the enforcement and appeals procedures have only recently been finalised by Transport Scotland.

Anyone found to be parked on a pavement, double parked, parked at a crossing point or parked on a verge between roads and pavements could be subject to a 100 fine, reduced to 50 if paid within 14 days.

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Few industries are covered in such obsessive detail as aviation. Whether its the news-breaking X account @JonNYC, Dan Eleffs DansDeals or Gary Leffs smart, well-informed blog View From the Wing, every schedule change, union dispute or customer service issue is unearthed, dissected and debated. Traditional media rarely keep up.

So it went with the latest controversy surrounding United Airlines, which calls itself Chicagos Hometown Airline and has thousands of employees in Willis Tower and Arlington Heights. United, its clear, is playing footsie with Denver, a city where it has both extensive current operations and a long history, given that Continental Airlines was headquartered there between 1937 and 1963. (Continental merged with United in 2010, a deal that followed the separate merger of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines and was similarly bad for airline competition.)

We read Leffs report Thursday, noting the careful choice of adjective uttered in public by United Chief Financial Officer Gerald Laderman when he told an aviation conference there were no imminent (our italics) plans to move Uniteds headquarters from Chicago to the Mile High City, a less than enthusiastic endorsement of a long-term Chicago future. By contrast, Crains Chicago Business initially reported that statement as shooting down any such move. Fair enough, but we tend to share Leffs take that Uniteds Chicago HQ is at risk, notwithstanding that long-term lease in Willis Tower.

This wasnt all about Ladermans adjective, of course. Last summer, we read at the time, United spent $33 million to acquire 113 acres near Denver International Airport, strikingly convenient to both city and airport and along a rail line. When you develop land, you have to file a zoning request, inconveniently public as they tend to be. Other airline obsessives dug into the text of Uniteds request and found this statement: United is actively investigating programmatic needs to support corporate campus activity accommodating 5,000 employees in future phases of the project.

Five thousand employees! United does not even have that many in Willis Tower. That that sure sounds like an HQ, not merely a place to put flight simulators as United has suggested.

Corporate campuses are popular among airlines such as American, which has one by the Dallas Fort Worth airport. Of course, campuses can be vertical, too, as in Wills Tower, but those future phases of the Denver property development look like an ominous tell.

Now Im thinking it is a lock they are moving no matter what, wrote the blogger Enilria, noting that the flashy Denver locale did not scream back-office operations. The location is prime. They could still pull a Boeing and leave the sign on the door in Chicago, but all those jobs are moving Id say. (Boeing, you may recall, kinda took the sign on the door too).

It took a few days for local news outlets to catch up to the United issue. So far, United has stuck with its denial, or non-denial, depending on your point of view.

Weve already said that in our view the city is deluding itself when it thinks it can simply hold the airlines feet to the flame over the massively costly Global Gateway program at OHare Airport. They know how to play hardball and can simply move their flights, and/or their headquarters, elsewhere. Negotiations with a view to cut capacity not yet needed and reducing overall costs are called for. Maintaining a United HQ here must be part of that.

Were not confident that Brandon Johnson can make the citys case effectively, but wed like to see Gov. J.B. Pritzker do so on behalf of Illinois. After all, United also has a major impact on the suburbs.

That said, United also has an ethical obligation to let its hometown know its long-term plans for those 113 acres and 5,000 employees, a head count it presumably does not plan to add out of thin air. The cat is out of the bag, it seems. And, if this is all nonsense, whats the deal, United? Let many of your best customers know.

Wed additionally note that the comments sections on some of these sites make depressing reading. Anonymous United employees can be read saying the bloom is off the rose of a downtown Willis Tower workplace, given the public safety issues in the Loop. And many commenters note the frosty relationship between business interests and the Johnson administration, making Denver more attractive.

This is one of the most egregious blind spots of our openly anti-capitalist administration: They have to compete for jobs and economic development with the likes of Denver, where such political sensibilities are not in control. And Seattle and Austin and, well, everywhere. Thats the simple reality they have not yet grasped.

We think our justly beloved Loop remains a great place to work, far better than Colorado farmland, but perception always threatens to become reality.

Pritzker and his people have to get on top of all of this before Chicago potentially loses one of its most important headquarters in a few years time.

Join the discussion on Twitter @chitribopinions and on Facebook.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
Gov. Kristi Noem speaks to lawmakers during the budget address on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023 at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre.

Teacher pay, tax relief, election processes, and tweaks to medical marijuana laws are among the topics of bills filed ahead of the annual legislative session.

More than 100 bills have been introduced so far. More than 500 bills were filed during the 40-day session last year.

The 99th South Dakota legislative session kicks off Tuesday with Gov. Kristi Noems State of the State address. The State of the Judiciary and the State of the Tribes speeches will be delivered Wednesday.

South Dakota Searchlight combed through bills filed as of Friday and selected some of the most notable legislation and trends.

Teachers & education

Education is set to be one of the major themes of the 2024 session, including teacher pay and a potential fourth tuition freeze for public universities.

More than 10 education-related bills have been filed ahead of session.

The focus on teacher pay comes after Gov. Kristi Noem drew attention to the issue in her December budget address.

Landmark 2016 legislation aimed to boost teacher pay and increase competitiveness with surrounding states average teacher salaries, by raising the state sales tax rate for the first time in decades. The legislation created an accountability board to track teacher salaries and compensation among South Dakota public school districts.

New legislation introduced at the request of the state Department of Education would update the accountability formula, which currently states that any school district with an average teacher salary higher than it was in 2017 is in compliance with the law. Education experts have called the standard outdated.

The departments legislation would establish a benchmark teacher salary, directly influenced by the percent adjustment to educational aid adopted by the Legislature each session. By 2028, school districts would be expected to reach that benchmark salary or be subjected to an accreditation review.

Another bill introduced by Rep. Tony Venhuizen, R-Sioux Falls, would require high school juniors to take the ACT instead of the state assessment test, and require school districts to pay the registration fees with reimbursement from the state Department of Education.

South Dakota students average ACT score was down for the third consecutive year in 2023, but it remains higher than the national average. About 59% of 2023 high school graduates took the exam, earning an average composite score of 21.1 out of 36.

ACT participation rates vary among South Dakota students. During the 2022-2023 school year, 77% of white students took the ACT, 7% of Native American students took it and 5% of Hispanic students took it.

Other bills addressing education include:

Taxation

The first bill filed for the 2024 legislative session is an effort to repeal the sunset clause on last years tax cut. Rep. Chris Karr, R-Sioux Falls, is the sponsor of the bill.

Discussions around taxes  sales tax, food sales tax and property taxes  dominated the 2023 session and ended with a $100 million sales tax cut thats set to end in 2027.

That conversation will continue with Karrs bill, and another bill capping property valuation increases, which figure into the formula for calculating property taxes. The legislation would reset the assessed values of owner-occupied, single-family homes back to 2020 amounts and limit annual valuation increases to 3% for property owners who acquired their homes before or during fiscal year 2020.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Trish Ladner, R-Rapid City, and Sen. Jack Kolbeck. R-Brandon, has already seen pushback. The Pennington County director of equalization told the Rapid City Journal that the legislation would adversely affect South Dakotans purchasing a new home and will shift the tax burden onto agricultural, commercial and residential rental properties.

Other taxation bills introduced include:

Law enforcement and crime

More than 15 bills have been introduced ahead of session regarding law enforcement and crime in the state, including:

Medical marijuana

The Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee met multiple times in 2023 to discuss issues surrounding the states medical cannabis program and changes to it.

One bill, introduced by Sen. Erin Tobin, R-Winner, would require that a patients primary or referring practitioner be notified when a patient is certified for medical cannabis from a practitioner who isnt the patients normal provider.

Seven bills have been introduced regarding medical cannabis so far, including:

Restricting medical cannabis use for certain jobs.

Restricting a practitioner from referring patients to a medical cannabis clinic the provider is financially connected to.

Elections

Only one bill introduced so far concerning elections is not being introduced at the request of the Secretary of States Office.

That bill aims to revise the nomination process for lieutenant governor candidates. Currently, political party convention delegates nominate candidates for lieutenant governor.

This bill would have governor candidates nominate their own running mates.

Gov. Kristi Noem almost had former Sioux Falls lawmaker Steve Haugaard as her running mate, instead of Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden, in 2022 due to the current process. Haugaard unsuccessfully challenged Noem in the gubernatorial primary and then gained support from some convention delegates to be placed on the ticket with her.

Lawmakers last session attempted to overhaul the party nomination process for multiple positions, but the effort failed in the House.

The secretary of states election bills include:

Modifying residency requirements for voter registration by specifying that the states 30-day residency requirement before voter registration must be achieved within one year before registering. KELO-TV asked the secretary of states office whether the bill is an attempt to disqualify people who live full-time in recreational vehicles and register in the state, but the office declined to answer the question.

Allowing the secretary of state to make the cast vote record and ballot images collected from a tabulator public record. Ballot images are digital copies of every paper ballot tabulated in an election, and cast vote records are electronic records of how the marks on a ballot are tabulated. While other jurisdictions post such information publicly, there is a risk to voter privacy, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Making it a crime for threatening or intimidating election officials or election workers.

Medicaid work requirements, daylight savings time

Other notable bills filed ahead of session include another attempt to put Medicaid work requirements on the ballot, which failed in committee after passing the House last year. If the resolution passes this year, itll head to the November 2024 ballot for voters to decide whether to authorize work requirements.

A bill filed by Rep. Ben Krohmer, R-Mitchell, aims to get rid of the twice-a-year time adjustment, instead sticking to summer hours year-round. A 2022 bill would have established permanent daylight saving time for South Dakota once federally permissible, but it quickly died in a committee.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Notable bills filed ahead of South Dakotas 2024 legislative session
Imelda Padilla joined the Los Angeles City Council not quite six months ago, after winning a special election to replace former council President Nury Martinez, who resigned midterm in October 2022 after she was heard on a leaked audio making racist comments.

Now the council member is running for a full, four-year term to represent her San Fernando Valley district, which includes Van Nuys, Lake Balboa, Panorama City, Arleta and Sun Valley. Voters in District 6 should feel comfortable supporting her again, even though she has had hardly enough time to do more than hire staff and learn the many things one needs to know as a representative of the nation's second-largest city.

Read more: L.A. Times electoral endorsements for 2024 March primary

Padilla's pragmatic, district-centered agenda and experience working with the community are what made her the best candidate on the June 27 ballot, and they remain the reason she's the best candidate on the March 5 primary ballot.

What makes Padilla stand out is her long history of involvement with community issues, beginning when she was a teenager serving on the L.A. City Youth Council. She has worked in a variety of community engagement and outreach roles for Pacoima Beautiful, the Los Angeles County Women and Girls Initiative, and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and she served on the Sun Valley Area Neighborhood Council. As a result, she has a wide range of support among community and business organizations, elected officials, labor unions and regular Angelenos.

Read more: Column: The People's Daughter? May Imelda Padilla live up to a ranchera classic

And, so far, Padilla has done the things she said she would do in her last campaign. She has been quickly learning about the issues facing the city and her district, such as neighborhood concerns about Van Nuys Airport, a debate over bike path improvements at Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area and the challenges of addressing homelessness.

She has, as promised, focused on bread-and-butter constituent services in a district that has been historically shortchanged by City Hall: specifically, cleaning up trash and graffiti, working to connect homeless services to the people living in RVs that line many of the industrial streets in her district and maintaining Sheldon Skate Park.

It's too soon to assess Padilla's policy efforts. The majority of the motions she's made concern district issues. But that's to be expected. This is a big job, and no one becomes an expert after six months. We do hope that she will develop the independence to fight for her constituents' needs and interests and not become a rubber stamp for City Hall leadership.

There are two other people competing for this seat: Ely De La Cruz Ayao, a real estate broker, and Carmenlina Minasova, a respiratory care practitioner. Neither has demonstrated the skills or the experience for the job.

Padilla is the only real choice for L.A. City Council District 6, and a good one.

If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Wide swathes of Ukraine were without power on Jan. 8 due to poor weather conditions and Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said.

Twelve oblasts throughout Ukraine were affected, causing at least 560 settlements to lose power. Poor weather impacted eight regions, particularly affecting settlements in Odesa, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.

In Odesa Oblast, accumulated snow and ice caused power outages in 225 settlements, affecting 68,000 people.

The ministry also wrote earlier on Jan. 8 that the city of Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast was bearing the brunt of the winter weather, causing 15,000 people to lose power and preventing trams and buses from working.

Russian attacks also impacted the power supply in Donetsk, Kherson, and Kharkiv oblasts. More than 20,000 people lost power in the city of Kherson as a result of Russian attacks.

Read also: Russia unleashes morning airstrikes on Ukraine, killing 4, injuring over 30

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
WASHINGTON  Donald Trump is opening 2024 in what is likely to be a familiar place for him this election year: the courtroom.

The former president and 2024 GOP frontrunner previewed on social media Monday his reasons why he should be shielded from charges of election interference. The crux of his argument, which his lawyers will make in a D.C. appeals court hearing Tuesday: he was president when the events occurred, so he is immune.

Of course I was entitled, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief, to Immunity, Trump said in a post Monday on Truth Social.

The case just one of the matter's on Trump's courtroom docket for the week. On Thursday, lawyers will make their closing arguments in the New York real estate fraud case in which $370 million in damages are at stake.

Don't expect Trump himself to take the stand in either case this week. That's for the lawyers, with lots of questions from the judges. But Trump may weigh in outside the courtroom, and most certainly will make his case on social media.

Given that, expect a fiery rebuttal Tuesday from one of Trump's chief legal adversaries. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has argued that Trumps logic would allow a president to commit crimes like bribery, murder and treason without consequence.

Former President Donald Trump addresses the audience during a campaign event Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024, at the DMACC Conference Center in Newton.

Why does Trump think he deserves immunity?

Trump contends he is immune to the charges because he was president in the weeks between the election and the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, when he allegedly took part in a multi-state conspiracy to defraud voters by thwarting Joe Biden's election victory. He also argues that when the Senate acquitted him at an impeachment trial on charges he incited the insurrection, lawmakers also blocked a criminal prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trumps argument, ruling his time as commander in chief "did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens."

Trump appealed her decision to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel will hear arguments. The case will be heard by Judges Karen Henderson, who was appointed by George H.W. Bush; and Michelle Childs and Florence Pan, who were each appointed by Biden.

Another Supreme Court case for Donald Trump?

The case could eventually reach the Supreme Court  which has already agreed to hear another Trump case, about whether he can appear on the ballot in Colorado. That Supreme Court argument is scheduled for Feb. 8.

Trump is in the process of balancing his campaign and courthouse schedules. He held rallies in Iowa on Friday and Saturday. After taking time out for the hearing on Tuesday, Trump returns to Iowa for a Fox News town hall on Wednesday and more campaign rallies over the weekend heading into Mondays caucuses.

The day after the caucuses, his trial on defamation damages begins to determine what he owes writer E. Jean Carroll, who won a $5 million judgment against Trump last year over a sexual abuse incident from the 1990s.

Trump faces criminal trials on federal charges of election interference tentatively scheduled March 4 and mishandling classified documents on May 20, Georgia charges of election racketeering and New York charges of falsifying business records.

Trumps complaints about the legal actions against him are a staple of his campaign stump speech. The former president claims the criminal trials and civil lawsuits against him are politically motivated, and he often threatens to retaliate against political opponents should he be reelected.

In his announcement Tuesday, Trump suggested that President Joe Biden would be ripe for Indictment, for allegedly accepting millions of dollars from foreign countries.

By weaponizing the DOJ against his Political Opponent, ME, Joe has opened a giant Pandoras Box, Trump said on Truth Social.

The House voted to open a formal impeachment inquiry to investigate Bidens potential influence. Biden and the White House have dismissed the accusations as lies and baseless.

Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee released a report Thursday detailing how Trump's businesses received $7.8 million during his presidency from foreign governments such as China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump to attend hearing to fight election interference charges
A new trove of unsealed records tied to Jeffrey Epstein drove a burst of misinformation on social media Monday about debunked sex tape allegations involving former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, as well as Prince Andrew.

The accuser, Sarah Ransome, describes in the documents footage of a friend having intercourse with Clinton and the royal. She also says a friend confided in her about having been sexually intimate with former President Donald Trump.

Ransome has separately claimed to also possess a Trump sex tape, according to the New Yorker. However, she told that publication in 2019 that she invented the sex tape claims "to draw attention to Epsteins behavior, and to make him believe that she had 'evidence that would come out if he harmed me.'"

Partisans lined up to tee off on the latest documents, spreading the previously debunked claims of videos to wide networks of followers. Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a headline on X, formerly Twitter, stating the documents alleged there were tapes of Clinton and Prince Andrew while adding, "This seems like a big deal and if true why has nothing been done about it?"

This seems like a big deal and if true why has nothing been done about it?



Breaking News: Court documents allege Jeffrey Epstein recorded sex tapes of Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and Sir Richard Branson.  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 8, 2024

It's the latest in a wave of conspiracy theories fueled by the recent unsealing of the "Epstein list" documents, which are from a lawsuit brought against Epstein's convicted sex trafficking accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

Theres a word for it: hopium, Mike Rothschild, an author who researches conspiracy movements, told USA TODAY. It's this addictive hope that the next big thing is going to come and  forget about all the failures  this is going to be the thing that finally brings down your enemy, whether your enemy is liberal or conservative.

Neither Clinton nor Trump have commented on the previous releases of Epstein documents; aides refer to statements in previous years in which both men denied knowledge of illicit activities by Epstein. Supporters of both former presidents, meanwhile, have been busy claiming there is more information about wrongdoing by both, though there is no evidence of that.

Southern District of New York displays a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at a press conference to announce charges against them for sex trafficking. A judge has now ordered the release of names associated with the case.

Prince Andrew also hasn't commented on the recent releases, although he has previously denied allegations of wrongdoing tied to Epstein, including Virginia Giuffre's accusation that she was trafficked to him as a minor. He settled a lawsuit from her in 2022 for an undisclosed sum.

Ransome couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

In her 2021 book, "Silenced No More," Ransome describes moving to New York in her 20s and having her dreams destroyed after meeting Jeffrey Epstein and ultimately being trafficked by him. Ransome spoke at a court hearing in 2019 a couple weeks after Epstein died in his jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

"Please, please finish what you have started," she urged prosecutors and law enforcement. "We all know he did not act alone."

In 2018, Epstein agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against him by Ransome for a confidential amount. Her lawyer told the Chicago Tribune the settlement was "long overdue" and would give her "economic security."

Contributing: Dan Morrison, Kevin McCoy, and John Bacon

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New Epstein records fuel debunked Clinton, Prince Andrew video claims
An Erie lawyer is pleading for probation rather than a license suspension as discipline for being high on cocaine at a court hearing in 2022.

In making his case before the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the lawyer, Nathaniel Strasser, said he is in rehabilitation for drug addiction and that he erred in representing himself at a hearing before a disciplinary panel in September.

Strasser "recognizes that his self-representation was inappropriate and deficient," the attorney who is now representing Strasser, veteran Erie lawyer Philip Friedman, said in a brief filed in the disciplinary case on Jan. 3. "He should have retained counsel."

Lawyer Nathaniel Strasser attends the swearing-in ceremony of judicial and county elected officials inside courtroom H at the Erie County Courthouse in Erie on Jan. 2. He is facing discipline for being high on cocaine at a court hearing in 2022.

Also at the hearing in September, "evidence of his substance abuse history and treatment should have been admitted," Friedman said in the brief, referring to Strasser. "The evidence was readily available and was highly relevant to the question of disposition."

Strasser at the disciplinary hearing admitted to using cocaine ahead of the court hearing in 2022, but he denied being a drug addict. He said his use of cocaine enhanced his abilities as a lawyer.

"Despite his testimony, he is in fact an addict," Friedman said of Strasser in the brief. "Like many other professionals, he has a difficult time acknowledging that fact."

Strasser says enrollment in rehab helps his case

Strasser, 44, who got his law license in 2007, is currently enrolled in an Erie outpatient program for substance and undergoes urine screenings, and he attended in-patient programs in 2018 and 2019, according to the brief that Friedman filed. Strasser's enrollment in the program and his admission that he is an addict are reasons that Strasser should be placed on substance abuse probation for two years, rather than have his license suspended, Friedman said in the filing.

While on probation, Strasser would be allowed to continue to practice law but would continue counseling, get help from a "sobriety counselor" and abide by whatever conditions the Disciplinary Board imposes, Friedman said in the brief.

Strasser "is a good candidate for substance abuse probation," according to the brief. Friedman emphasized that Strasser "has absolutely no prior discipline history" and said his "misconduct caused no harm to any client."

Brief filed to counter disciplinary counsel's push for suspension

Friedman filed the brief in response to a disciplinary counsel's recommendation that Strasser get suspended for a year and a day. The disciplinary counsel, who is prosecuting the case, made his recommendation in a brief in November.

The counsel, Daniel S. White, of Pittsburgh, decried as "absurd" Strasser's assertion that cocaine makes him a better lawyer.

Strasser's "refusal to express remorse for appearing at a hearing on a clients behalf while under the influence of cocaine  and his suggestion throughout the disciplinary hearing in this matter that cocaine enhances his performance as an attorney  presents an unacceptable risk that Respondent (Strasser) will repeat this intolerable misconduct," according to White's brief.

White's filing and Friedman's response are before the three-member disciplinary panel that heard Strasser's case in September in Pittsburgh. Following the hearing, the panel found that Strasser's use of cocaine violated the rules of professional conduct for lawyers in Pennsylvania. The finding set in motion the process to determine his discipline.

The disciplinary panel will make a recommendation to the full Disciplinary Board. The board will make a final recommendation to the Supreme Court, which will impose the discipline.

State trooper noticed Strasser's 'fidgety' behavior at hearing

The court hearing at which Strasser was high occurred on Nov. 2, 2022. It was a preliminary hearing in the courtroom of District Judge Lisa Ferrick in Harborcreek Township.

Strasser was working as a part-time assistant public defender for Erie County and was representing a woman who was charged with driving under the influence of a controlled substance, according to records filed in Strasser's disciplinary case. Strasser also has his own law office.

The woman at the hearing waived charges to Erie County Common Pleas Court, according to court records. The records show she later entered Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, a program of probation for nonviolent and largely first-time offenders.

A Pennsylvania State Police trooper who was at the preliminary hearing noticed Strasser's dilated pupils and his "very hyperactive, fidgety" behavior and reported the suspected cocaine use, according to the disciplinary records.

Strasser admitted at the disciplinary hearing that he had used cocaine ahead of the preliminary hearing. The state trooper, Christopher Weber, was a witness for the disciplinary counsel at the disciplinary hearing.

Strasser at the hearing likened cocaine to "caffeine on steroids" and told the disciplinary panel that, in small doses, cocaine can make the user more alert and attentive and "have a positive effect on someone's cognitive ability."

Strasser was not charged with a crime.

His use of cocaine immediately cost him his $37,000-a-year job as a part-time assistant public defender, a post he had held for two years and five months, according to county records. The Public Defender's Office fired him after he tested positive for cocaine following the preliminary hearing, according to the disciplinary records.

Before he was an assistant public defender, Strasser was an assistant district attorney for Erie County from 2007 to 2016. He unsuccessfully ran for a district magistrate post in Erie County in 2015. Strasser maintains a private practice in Erie.

Strasser argues that suspension would be inappropriate punishment

In the brief he filed on Strasser's behalf, Friedman noted Strasser's work as an assistant public defender and assistant district attorney. "Despite his issues, he has served his clients well," according to the brief.

Strasser deserves probation for his conduct, but not punishment in the form of a license suspension, Friedman said in the brief. Citing precedent, he said the disciplinary system for lawyers in Pennsylvania is designed not to punish lawyers but "to protect the public from unfit attorneys and maintain the integrity of the legal system."

Strasser, according to the brief, "clearly has a substance abuse problem which requires continued treatment and monitoring. His substance abuse is not a cause of his misconduct. It is the only cause."

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie lawyer seeks probation for being high on cocaine at court hearing
Northvolt Labs building. Swedish company Northvolt was authorized by the European Commission on 08 January to build a large battery cell factory for electric cars in northern Germany. Britta Pedersen/dpa

Swedish company Northvolt was authorized by the European Commission on Monday to build a large battery cell factory for electric cars in northern Germany.

The German and Schleswig-Holstein state governments are subsidizing the project to a tune of around 700 million ($766 million), with guarantees for a further 202 million.

"This measure totalling 902 million is the first individual aid approved to prevent an investment from being relocated to a country outside Europe," said Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner responsible for competition.

It was subject to approval by the European Commission under state aid laws. Northvolt is also looking at the United States and Canada.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said: "I am very, very pleased that this is happening today."

Northvolt plans to manufacture battery cells for electric cars in a factory in Heide from 2026. The 4.5 billion investment is expected to create 3,000 jobs. The company has already invested around 100 million in the construction project, according to sources close to it.

The project will be the largest industrial project in Schleswig-Holstein for decades.

Northvolt had always emphasized the advantages of the west coast location of Heide. A lot of wind power is generated there on land and at sea - which the factory needs in large quantities.

The German government will supply around 564 million and the regional state up to 137 million of the funding, which will be spread over several annual instalments.
Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport, has written a letter to Dariusz Klimczak, Polish Minister of Infrastructure, expressing her concern about the continued blockade of border crossing points with Ukraine by Polish hauliers.

Source: This was reported by RMF FM, European Pravda writes

Details: In her letter, Valean reminded the Polish minister "of Poland's commitment to ensure the free movement of vehicles at border crossings with Ukraine in accordance with the EU-Ukraine Road Transport Agreement".

To resolve the situation, the European Commission offered cooperation and support, adding that it "continues to monitor the situation closely".

A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed that the letter was sent, adding that the agency "remains very concerned about the blocking of the Dorohusk border crossing, as well as the fact that other border crossings between Poland and Ukraine remain blocked".

He also reiterated that violation of the obligations of EU member states "may lead to measures provided for by the treaties to remedy such violations"  that is, to a lawsuit in the Court of Justice of the European Union.

RMF FM's EU source did not rule out that, "if necessary," another trilateral meeting between representatives of Poland, Ukraine and the European Commission would be held to resolve the border blockade, the last of which took place on 18 December.

Since early November, Polish hauliers have been blocking three checkpoints on the border with Ukraine, demanding, first of all, the return of the permit system for Ukrainian drivers, which was cancelled in 2022 under the 'transport visa-free regime' agreement.

At the end of December, it was reported that the governments of Ukraine and Poland had agreed on an action plan to unblock the border, but full unblocking has not yet occurred.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, it was announced that Czesaw Siekierski, Polands Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, and representatives of the Oszukana Wies (Deceived Village) movement have signed an agreement to end the blocking of the border crossing point with Ukraine at Medyka.

Read also the editorial by European Pravda: Poland Must Recognise It's Waging War' against Ukraine's European Future

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The European Commission has condemned Russia's use of ballistic missiles originating from North Korea in recent attacks on Ukraine.

Source: Peter Stano, spokesperson for the EU External Action Service, during a press briefing

Details: Stano said the European Union had repeatedly made it clear to its international partners that anyone who assisted Russia in its aggression against Ukraine, in violation of the UN Charter and international law, would be brought to justice for the consequences.

"Therefore, of course, we condemn any foreign arms supplies to Russia... Potential arms deliveries from North Korea to Russia might also constitute a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and UN sanctions, so of course we take this very seriously," Stano said.

He added that the EU is discussing the situation with its international partners and within the European Union, since Brussels strongly condemns it and is calling on everyone to continue not to support Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

"This also underlines the need for continued support to Ukraine to enable it to defend itself against this brutal aggression. The EU has shown in the past - for example, in the case of Iran over drone supplies - that we take action when we see sufficient evidence to impose sanctions," Stano emphasised.

Background:

Earlier, John Kirby, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, noted that the United States had proof that Russia had received ballistic missiles from North Korea and launched them on Ukraine, and that Moscow and Tehran have been negotiating with regard to similar weapons, as has also been reported by the media.

Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, said Ukraine had no information regarding Russia's use of ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea.

There have been reports that the United States is preparing additional sanctions against those involved in the transfer of military aid from North Korea and Iran to Russia, including ballistic missiles.

Russia and Iran signed a declaration in December in which they pledged to jointly counter Western sanctions.

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Civil defense workers search for survivors inside an apartment following a massive explosion in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024. The TV station of Lebanon's Hezbollah group says top Hamas official Saleh Arouri was killed Tuesday in an explosion in a southern Beirut suburb.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In the last week alone, an Israeli airstrike has killed a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, Hezbollah struck a sensitive Israeli base with rockets and Israel killed a senior Hamas militant with an airstrike in Beirut.

Each strike and counterstrike increases the risk of the catastrophic war in Gaza spilling across the region.

In the decades-old standoff pitting the U.S. and Israel against Iran and allied militant groups, there are fears that any party could trigger a wider war if only to avoid appearing weak. A U.S. airstrike killed an Iran-backed militia leader in Baghdad last week, and the U.S. Navy recently traded fire with Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

The divisions within each camp add another layer of volatility. Hamas might have hoped its Oct. 7 rampage across southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza would drag its allies into a wider conflict. Israelis increasingly talk about the need to change the equation in Lebanon even as Washington aims to contain the conflict.

As the intertwined chess games grow more complicated, the potential for miscalculation rises.

GAZA IS GROUND ZERO

Hamas says its Oct. 7 attack was a purely Palestinian response to decades of Israeli domination. There is no evidence that Iran, Hezbollah or other allied groups played a direct role or knew about it beforehand.

But when Israel responded by launching one of the 21st centurys most devastating military campaigns in Gaza, a besieged enclave home to 2.3 million Palestinians, the so-called Axis of Resistance  Iran and the militant groups it supports across the region  faced pressure to respond.

The Palestinian cause has deep resonance across the region, and leaving Hamas alone to face Israels fury would have risked unraveling a military alliance that Iran has been building up since the 1979 Islamic Revolution put it on a collision course with the West.

They dont want war, but at the same time they dont want to let the Israelis keep striking without retaliation, said Qassim Qassir, a Lebanese expert on Hezbollah.

Something big has to happen, without going to war, so that the Israelis and Americans are convinced that there is no way forward, he said.

HEZBOLLAH THREADS THE NEEDLE

Of all Irans regional proxies, Hezbollah faces the biggest dilemma.

If it tolerates Israeli attacks, like the strike in Beirut that killed Hamas deputy political leader, it risks appearing to be a weak or unreliable ally. But if it triggers a full war, Israel has threatened to wreak major destruction on Lebanon, which is already mired in a severe economic crisis. Even Hezbollahs supporters may see that as too heavy a price to pay for a Palestinian ally.

Hezbollah has carried out strikes along the border nearly every day since the war in Gaza broke out, with the apparent aim of tying down some Israeli troops. Israel has returned fire, but each side appears to be calibrating its actions to limit the intensity.

A Hezbollah barrage of at least 40 rockets fired at an Israeli military base on Saturday sent a message without starting a war, though it may have triggered Monday's strike.

Would 80 rockets have been a step too far? What if someone had been killed? How many casualties would warrant a full-blown offensive? The grim math provides no clear answers.

And experts say it might not be a single strike that does it.

Israel is determined to see tens of thousands of its citizens return to communities near the border with Lebanon that were evacuated under Hezbollah fire nearly three months ago. After Oct. 7, it may no longer be able to tolerate an armed Hezbollah presence on the other side of the frontier.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly threatened to use military force if Hezbollah doesn't respect a 2006 U.N. cease-fire that ordered the militant group to withdraw from the border.

Neither side wants a war, but the two sides believe it is inevitable, said Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at Israels Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. Everybody in Israel thinks its just a matter of time until we need to change the reality so that people can return to their homes, he said.

US DETERRENCE ONLY GOES SO FAR

The U.S. positioned two aircraft carrier strike groups in the region in October. One is returning home but is being replaced by other warships. The deployments sent an unmistakable warning to Iran and its allies against widening the conflict, but not all seem to have received the message.

Iran-backed militant groups in Syria and Iraq have launched dozens of rocket attacks on U.S. bases. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea, with potential consequences for the world economy. Iran says its allies act on their own and not on orders from Tehran.

Washington has struggled to put together a multinational security force to protect Red Sea shipping. But it appears hesitant to attack the Houthis on land when they appear close to reaching a peace deal with Saudi Arabia after years of war.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials have said the window for its allies to get both Hezbollah and the Houthis to stand down is closing.

HOW DOES THIS END?

The regional tensions are likely to remain high as long as Israel keeps up its offensive in Gaza, which it says is aimed at crushing Hamas. Many wonder if thats possible, given the groups deep roots in Palestinian society, and Israels own leaders say it will take many more months.

The U.S., which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support for Israels offensive, is widely seen as the only power capable of ending it. Irans allies seem to believe Washington will step in if its own costs get too high  hence the attacks on U.S. bases and international shipping.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock are all back in the region this week, with the aim of trying to contain the violence through diplomacy.

But the most important messages will likely be sent by rocket.

The Americans do not want an open war with Iran, and the Iranians do not want an open war with the United States, said Ali Hamadeh, an analyst who writes for Lebanons An-Nahar newspaper. Therefore, there are negotiations by fire.

___

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

___

Find more of APs coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
An explosion in the kitchen of the Musume restaurant rocked the Sandman Hotel in downtown Fort Worth on Monday.

Everything fell, the walls, the floor, everything, said Jose Mira, 49, of Dallas, who works in the kitchen of the Asian fusion restaurant. He was covered in dust and had a cut on his arm. Its a miracle Im alive.

Witnesses described people coming out of the hotel at 810 Houston St. with bloody faces and people on stretchers. People said they had family members in the hotel, and that they were injured.

Barbara Jacobs, 58, a resident of the Historic Electric Building Apartments at 410 W. Seventh St., said she normally walks by the building on her way home from the bus stop but something told her not to.

When I heard the boom I was in the middle of the street, she said. To see it firsthand, oh my God it was scariest thing I ever seen.
The big day is here. After months of campaigning, Republican presidential candidates will face the first-in-the-nation test during the Iowa Caucuses tonight.

To prepare for the caucuses, read up on how to participate, where to caucus, and where candidates stand on the issues.

More: The latest news on Republican presidential candidates in the final hours before Iowa Caucus

This story will be updated as the Des Moines Register continues to cover the Iowa Caucuses and candidates criss-cross the state to make their final pitches to caucusgoers. Check back often for more information and be sure to watch desmoinesregister.com on caucus night for results.

What time do the Iowa Caucuses start?

7 p.m.

State parties advise caucusgoers to get to their caucus site early to be sure they're properly registered and inside on time. Doors open at 6 p.m. Follow live results and see county-by-county maps here. We'll also gather results by precinct as it becomes available.

More: Why is the 2024 Iowa Caucus the nation's first primary test for Republicans?

Where do I caucus?

The Republican and Democratic parties of Iowa have released caucus site locations, based on your address and county. Be sure to check back before caucus night in case your site has changed.

Republicans: Where do I caucus? Republicans release Iowa Caucus sites for presidential nominations

Democrats: Where do I caucus? Iowa Democrats release 2024 sites for party business on caucus night

Who can caucus?

You can caucus if you meet the following requirements:

You must be eligible to vote in the state of Iowa.

You will be 18 years old by Nov. 5, 2024. That means if you're 17 and turn 18 between the date of the caucuses and the general election, you can caucus.

You must be registered as a Republican to participate in the Republican caucus or as a Democrat to participate in the Democratic caucus. If you're registered under a third party or no party, you won't be able to caucus, unless you change your registration to Republican or Democrat, which you can do on caucus night.

More: Everything you need to know about the Iowa caucuses ahead of the 2024 presidential race

What do I need to bring to caucus?

Be sure to bring a valid ID like a driver's license, passport, Iowa Voter Identification Card, or a tribal ID.

If you plan to register on caucus night, bring a valid ID and proof of residency like a signed lease, utility bill, or paycheck. If you recently registered, bring these items with you in case the caucus site doesn't have your updated information.

What will happen on caucus night?

Our Chief Politics Reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel has some key things to watch for as results come in:

More: Turnout, key counties and evangelicals: What to watch for as GOP Iowa Caucus results come in

How do I caucus as a Republican in Iowa?

Good question. We've got you covered with this guide on what to expect on caucus night.

More: How do Iowa's Republican caucuses work? Heres what you should know for 2024

More: What's the difference between the Iowa Caucus and a presidential primary?

How do the Iowa Democratic caucuses work?

Iowa Democrats have dramatically changed the way they caucus in 2024 and instead of an in-person system will do an entirely mail-in system. Iowa Democrats can request an absentee presidential preference card, which functions like a ballot, that they can fill out and return to the state party until March 5, when results will be announced.

The party will still hold in-person caucuses on Jan. 15, but only to conduct other party business unrelated to picking a presidential nominee.

More: Iowa Democrats can make their presidential pick in the 2024 mail-in caucus. How it works:

I want to see a Republican presidential candidate in Iowa. Where are they?

The Des Moines Register's Candidate Tracker is the best place to look for where candidates will be and when.

More: Des Moines Register Candidate Tracker

Who should I caucus for in Iowa?

Republican candidates for president include former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Texas businessman Ryan Binkley.

Democratic candidates include President Joe Biden, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and author Marianne Williamson.

To help you make a decision, here's where they stand on key issues:

Voter guide: Compare the candidates on the issues, find caucus locations, how to register

How can I see results on caucus night?

Iowa Republican Presidential Caucus 2024: Live Results and Analysis

The Des Moines Register has dozens of journalists, photographers and videographers with Republican presidential candidates in the lead-up to the caucus. They also will bring live coverage on caucus night and at caucus sites across the state. Read our coverage and see results on desmoinesregister.com.

Download the Registers app and enable push alerts for notifications as coverage and results happen. And follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok to see videos and get updates from our journalists across the state.

Subscribe to the Register for unlimited coverage of all the news and analysis related to the Iowa Caucuses.

More: Who won past Republican, Democratic Iowa Caucuses? See 2020, 2016 and earlier results

How do I report problems on caucus night?

If you have problems registering, question the integrity of your caucus site's counting, or suspect any other sort of foul play on caucus night, email iowacaucuswatch@gannett.com or call 515-778-6670 with details.

What will the weather be on Caucus Day?

Bitterly cold. In fact, it's expected to be the coldest Caucus Day on record.

More: Iowa Caucus Day is expected to be bitterly cold. Here are the records for coldest caucuses:

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Caucus start time: When it is, the rules and what to bring
A former U.S. ambassador arrested at the beginning of December on charges of being a longtime secret agent for Cuba has agreed to be detained while he awaits trial rather than fight prosecutors who want him held in a federal lockup because they say hes a flight risk.

Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, who was indicted by a grand jury on Dec. 5, also asked a judge to postpone his arraignment until Feb. 16 to enter a plea in Miami federal court  a long gap for a routine proceeding that suggests he might be cutting a deal with prosecutors.

Rochas defense attorney, Jacqueline Arango, filed a motion Friday to delay the Miami mans detention hearing and arraignment, which was scheduled for Jan. 12 after a previous postponement. She noted that the government does not oppose her request. On Monday, Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres granted the motion, which has a provision allowing Rocha to revisit the detention issue.

READ MORE: Former U.S. official arrested in Miami on charges of being secret agent for Cuba

Arango, a former federal prosecutor in private practice with the Akerman law firm in Miami, did not respond Monday to emailed questions about why her client decided not to challenge his detention and proceed with the arraignment.

Some legal observers said the ongoing delay of Rochas arraignment suggests that he and his lawyer are possibly negotiating with prosecutors in the U.S. Attorneys Office to resolve the highly sensitive case through a plea deal.

Rocha has been held at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami since his Dec. 1 arrest. Although it has been canceled, his detention hearing promised to delve into some of the evidence supporting the FBIs national security case and into whether his dual citizenship would be deemed a flight risk. Another critical factor is whether he would still be considered a danger to the community.

Prosecutors Jonathan Stratton and John Shipley have already indicated that they want to continue to detain Rocha, who was living in a Brickell Avenue condo tower and has both U.S. and Dominican Republic passports. But Arango said in a prior hearing that she planned to challenge his detention before trial, which has been scheduled by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom for Jan. 29, 2024. It will likely be delayed for months.

Working as Cuban agent since 1981: Indictment

Rocha, who was initially arrested on an FBI criminal complaint on Dec. 1, was indicted four days later on charges of conspiring to act as an unregistered Cuban agent over the span of a 40-year career in the State Department and private sector for the purpose of turning over classified information to the intelligence service in Havana.

READ MORE: Indictment: Diplomats purpose as agent for Cuba was to hand over classified information

Rocha, a former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia who was arrested by FBI agents in Miami, is accused in the new indictment of conspiring as an agent for Cuba since 1981 to obtain sensitive U.S. government secrets and provide such information to agents or representatives of the Republic of Cuba.

The indictment, which expands upon the criminal complaint unsealed Dec. 4, further accuses Rocha of using access to [classified] information for the benefit of Cuba and disclosing such information without authorization.

The 15-count indictment charges Rocha, who ended his government career in 2002 but continued to work in the national-security field, with conspiracy to defraud the United States, which carries up to five years in prison. Hes accused of failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department (maximum 10-year sentence), wire fraud stemming from his State Department pension (maximum 20-year sentence), and making false statements related to his U.S. passport applications (maximum 10-year sentence).

But while the 35-page indictment hits Rocha harder than the FBI criminal complaint made public earlier, it does not cite any particular overt act in the conspiracy accusing him of handing over classified materials to his Cuban intelligence handlers.

In other words, Rocha is not accused of committing espionage  though in a news release Attorney General Merrick Garland described him much like a spy, saying the case exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent.
The entrance to the South Dakota Supreme Court at the state Capitol in Pierre.

As the state Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments Monday about what constitutes a conflict of interest, the former legislator whose situation sparked the question is repaying money her business received from the government.

Jessica Castleberry, R-Rapid City, resigned from the state Senate last year. Gov. Kristi Noem had publicly revealed that Castleberrys business, Little Nest Preschool, received about $603,000 in federal pandemic relief funds routed through the state.

Sen. Jessica Castleberry, R-Rapid City, at the Capitol during the 2022 legislative session.

Noem and Attorney General Marty Jackley alleged that the situation violated a state constitutional ban on legislators having a direct or indirect interest in a state contract.

Castleberry resigned and signed a settlement agreement in August. She will ultimately pay $499,129.79 plus interest to the state, at a rate of $2,390.94 per month, which is nearly $29,000 per year.

She has so far paid over $7,000, on schedule. Her repayments go into the states general fund to be spent as legislators see fit.

Meanwhile, Noem has declined to appoint Castleberrys successor or fill another open legislative seat in the Black Hills. Noem has said shes waiting until the state Supreme Court issues her requested advisory opinion clarifying the meaning of the constitutions conflict-of-interest language.

That means the two seats will be open when the Legislature convenes today for its annual lawmaking session.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Ex-legislator Jessica Castleberry repaying money on schedule
MSNBCs Jen Psaki on Sunday praised former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann for what she described as his graceful and very disciplined response to Donald Trumps attack on him.

Over the weekend, Trump lashed out at Weissmann, who investigated him in former special counsel Robert Muellers Russia probe. Trump falsely claimed that Weissmann is now the slimeball Boss of special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trumps attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

Weissmann, who is now an analyst for MSNBC, made two points in response to Trumps claim.

"Adjectives and adverbs is not a way of arguing, especially for someone who had been the leader of the free world.@AWeissmann_ responds to Trumps attacks on him this week. pic.twitter.com/aOSd1UVNTC  Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) January 7, 2024

One is the use of adjectives and adverbs. That is not legal argument. That is not a factual argument, any more than if you say the election was stolen, Weissmann said.

You need to have facts, he went on. Adjectives and adverbs is not a way of arguing, especially for someone who had been the leader of the free world, let alone anyone else. And I think thats really important.

He then dismantled Trumps claim that he is somehow linked to Smith.

On the substance, which is to suggest that somehow I am Jack Smiths boss  again, where are the facts of that? Weissmann asked. I have had zero communications with Jack Smith or his team. They are independent, both within the Department of Justice and certainly for a legal analyst on MSNBC.

Well, that is a very disciplined and graceful response, Psaki replied.

Related...
A massive winter storm system has unleashed dangerous blizzard conditions in parts of the central United States, shutting down highways and stranding drivers in frigid temperatures Monday, and its pummeling parts of the South with hail storms, heavy flooding and tornado threats.

The fast-moving storm is making its way east and will cover over 1,800 miles in 72 hours, producing notable snowfall across more than half a dozen states.

The system strengthened as it tracked out of the Four Corners region  where it dumped snow that brought some travel to a halt Sunday  and into the southern Plains Monday afternoon.

By Monday evening, heavy snow and powerful winds stretched from the Texas Panhandle to Nebraska, where authorities had already responded to dozens of weather related-incidents on the road and urged residents not to travel because of the dangerous whiteout conditions.

In Kansas, one highway patrol trooper warned the blizzard conditions and blowing snow were making it so difficult to see that authorities were having difficulty with rescues.

Please stay home, the trooper said on social media. We will not be able to rescue you if you get stuck because we are having trouble getting around.

Further south, heavy showers and hailstorms were moving through Mississippi and parts of Louisiana, while millions of people were also at risk of tornadoes.

The first tornado watch of 2024 was issued Monday for parts of Texas and southwest Louisiana. A second tornado watch was issued through Monday night for southeast Louisiana and coastal Mississippi and covers cities including Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

A forecast model shows where heavy rain and snow is expected from Monday into Wednesday. - CNN Weather

All that comes as more states prepare for severe weather Tuesday, including parts of the Northeast, where leaders have warned of potentially dangerous rain and coastal flooding.

Heres what more to expect as this powerful January storm keeps moving.

Tornado risk will increase Monday night

The threat of flooding, damaging winds and tornadoes is at a risk level more typical of spring than the second week of January.

More than 9 million people were under a Level 3 out of 5 severe storm threat Monday from Texas to Florida. More than 11 million people face the same threat level Tuesday from the Panhandle of Florida to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

The tornado risk will increase Monday night  an incredibly dangerous situation for parts of the Gulf Coast. Tornadoes at night are twice as deadly as those that occur during the day, mainly because a large portion of the population is asleep and miss warnings.

Meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Mobile, Alabama, warned of an extremely high impact event for our area that could be one of the more impactful non-tropical systems to hit their forecast area.

The same system is forecast to move across the Southeast throughout Tuesday. There is a Level 3 out of 5 risk of severe storms for Tallahassee, Florida, Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida. Tornadoes and damaging winds are also threats with the strongest storms.

Significant inland and coastal flooding likely

An equally serious concern is the potential for significant flooding from the storms strong winds blowing water onshore and its potent rainmaking storms. Flood watches are in place across the Southeast on Monday and in the Northeast on Tuesday.

Widespread and potentially significant river and flash flooding are likely from the central Gulf Coast through much of the Eastern U.S. early this week, the Weather Prediction Center said. Powerful onshore winds will lead to widespread coastal flooding along the eastern Gulf Coast and much of the East Coast.

Widespread rainfall totals of 1 to 3 inches are expected from the Gulf Coast to New England with isolated locations exceeding 4 inches.

A Level 3 of 4 risk for excessive rainfall and flooding is in place from eastern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle on Monday.

Theres serious concern for flooding in the Northeast with this next wave of rain coming right after the first snowstorm dropped more than half a foot of snow in multiple Northeast states.

New York City issued a travel advisory and flood watch thats set to start Tuesday evening, warning of heavy rain, strong wind and the potential of coastal flooding.

Let me be clear, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a Monday news briefing. This will be an emergency, it will be serious and were urging all New Yorkers to exercise extreme caution at this time.

Heavy rain will accelerate snowmelt and increase the amount of water running off into waterways, raising the ceiling on the flood potential in these areas. As a result, there is a Level 3 out of 4 risk for excessive rainfall in portions of the Northeast and the Carolinas on Tuesday. A Level 2 of 4 threat stretches from Georgia through Massachusetts. In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency ahead of the expected rain, warning the strong winds may also mean widespread power outages.

The rainfall is both a gift and a concern for Louisiana and Mississippi  both still grappling with serious droughts, though drought has already improved substantially since November from a recent overabundance of rain.

Locations along the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Tallahassee, Florida, are more than 5 inches above normal for rainfall since December 1, so it wont take much for the saturated ground to flood.

Strong winds to buffet a large portion of the US

Wind is another concern with saturated ground. It makes trees more vulnerable to toppling over onto power lines or homes. And the winds Tuesday will be strong enough to cause such damage.

Widespread wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph are likely across a wide swath of the central and eastern US as the storm reaches its full strength Tuesday.

The Weather Prediction Center warned people to prepare for power outages from the potentially damaging winds.

More than 100 million people across the US are under wind alerts that span Monday, Tuesday or both days.

Coastal areas are likely to endure some of the strongest winds from the storm.

The National Weather Service office in Boston noted they might need to issue hurricane-force wind watches  warning of winds akin to a Category 1 hurricane  for coastal areas if the storms worst forecast fears came to pass.

Winds will also trigger high surf from 8 to 11 feet and significant beach erosion is possible. Dangerous rip currents are also likely and will continue through at least the middle of the week.

Blizzard conditions to create treacherous travel

Winter storm alerts stretch over 1,000 miles from Arizona to Michigan as the storm carves its path.

Blizzard warnings are in effect Monday in parts of New Mexico, eastern Colorado, the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles, western Kansas and southwest Nebraska. Up to a foot of snow could bury parts of the area Monday.

Poor visibility and difficult-to-near-impossible driving conditions have already begun for the central and southern Plains on Monday and shift to the Midwest on Tuesday. Heavy snow is likely to target areas from eastern Nebraska and northern Missouri into Michigan Tuesday.

Strong winds will also push wind chill values below zero for some locations in the Plains, especially Monday night and Tuesday night.

Snowfall will then spread into the interior Northeast Tuesday afternoon and evening. Snow will linger, mainly in elevated areas of New York and New England through Wednesday.

The storm looks to wrap up by the end of the week, but another storm could follow a similar path and affect some of the same areas from Friday into the weekend.

CNNs Robert Shackelford, Taylor Ward, Joe Sutton, Rob Frehse and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Suspended Greater Sacramento NAACP president Betty Williams and an executive officer appear to have used their own businesses to manage a multi-million dollar county-sponsored pandemic-era food delivery program, according to financial filings obtained by The Sacramento Bee.

Williams, the California civil rights stalwart and longest serving president in the Sacramento chapters history, and branch education chair Salena Pryor, were among six executive officers suspended in October by the national civil rights organization for alleged financial improprieties, including the use of their positions for financial gain.

County documents show Williams Sacramento outreach and staffing firm, 1Solution LLC, and Pryors Pryor Consulting were paid as independent contractors as part of a $2.5 million contract to administer Sacramento Countys food insecurity pilot program, which ran from March 2022 through June 2023.

The program, known as Dine-In 2, teamed local restaurants affiliated with the nonprofit Family Meals Sacramento and the NAACP to deliver meals to local residents during the pandemic. The NAACP held administrative and community outreach responsibilities.

In all, $225,600 in salaries for independent contractors were charged to the contract, the countys documents show.

Pryor, whose consultancy was listed as a business compliance officer would be paid $8,000 a month or $120,000. Williams 1Solution LLC, listed as both executive director and administrative assistant, would receive $21,600 and $48,000, respectively, in total salary. An accountant and chef adviser to the participating restaurants were also paid from the salary pool.

The countys contract prohibited contractors from having financial interests in work agreed to in the contract.

Thomas Joo, a professor and contracts expert at University of California, Davis School of Law, said the terms are clear.

The contract prohibits the nonprofits officers from using their own businesses, Joo said. The counter-argument could be that their businesses were the best suited, though they would have to show they went through a bidding process.

Without a formal bidding process, Joo said it puts the nonprofit in a bad light.

Unless they went through a bidding process, theyre going to be seen as enriching themselves at the cost of the nonprofit, Joo said.

It is unclear if these contract payments led to the dismissals, but national NAACP auditors put Williams on notice of suspected financial impropriety as early as May 2023, one month after the Greater Sacramento branch submitted its annual financial report in April.

In an October letter to Williams suspending her membership, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson contended Williams may have engaged in financial impropriety benefiting her or her business.

I am satisfied that your continued membership in the Association presents a danger of harm to the NAACP and the Sacramento Branch NAACP. Action is necessary to prevent or mitigate that harm, Johnson wrote in his letter ousting Williams.

Local NAACP members in October reacted in anger and surprise at the seemingly sudden suspensions. Some claimed the discipline was politically motivated to quash Williams bid to unseat the state NAACP president in Octobers election.

Supporters picketed outside the Burlingame hotel that hosted the NAACPs California/Hawaii state convention, days after Williams and the others were ordered to step down.

Now, months after the October suspensions, the details of the allegations remain unclear. Williams was given 15 days from the date she received the Oct. 23 letter to request a hearing. It is not known whether she requested one.

Williams and Pryor did not respond to requests for comment.

National NAACP officials have not responded to repeated requests for comment, including answering questions about the local chapters operation of the food program. Williams and the other senior officers remain barred from the Sacramento chapter.

County monitoring local NAACP

As the national NAACP investigates the allegations of financial misdeeds, Sacramento County officials have requested records related to the chapters management of the Dine-In 2 program under Williams watch, according to documents and Sacramento County officials.

The Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance inquiry is not related to the national NAACPs investigation, county officials said on last week. But its review will be thorough.

Inspectors seek records related to the branchs contracts for the food pilot program and outreach campaign, including recent audited financial statements, invoice claims, transactions and other documents.

The Dine-In 2 program served nearly 58,000 meals as of April 2023, chapter officials said. But behind the scenes, participating restaurant owners cooking the meals expressed frustration over how the program was being managed. One participating restaurant owner pointed to late compensation payments and questioned where the money was going.

The restaurateur said owners waited months for reimbursement checks for the meals they prepared and delivered. The restaurant owner, who signed a non-disclosure agreement with chapter president Williams, wished to remain anonymous fearing repercussions.

Ethan Dye, the countys Human Assistance director, said in a December notification letter to Sacramento NAACP officials that the countys review is not an audit.

Our primary objective is to review the documentation supporting the amounts that are invoiced to us, read the Dec. 18 letter obtained by The Bee.

There were serious concerns about both the chapters record keeping and the staffing needed to stand up the program, a county spokeswoman said last week in response to questions about the upcoming review. Those concerns led the county to classify the Sacramento NAACP chapter as a high risk to receive contracts.

New NAACP leaders in place

Bobby Bivens, the longtime Stockton NAACP branch president and a former national NAACP board member, now serves as an administrator of the Sacramento branch. The chapters first vice president, Ardell LaMond Harrison, now serves as interim president, while other members have moved into the positions vacated with the October suspensions.

Bivens, who spoke with The Bee last week, said national NAACP officials are still in the process of conducting its investigation, but that their inquiry is nearing an end.

It takes time. The board wants to be fair to everybody, Bivens said. Im looking forward to (national officials) quickly reaching a conclusion to this.

Bivens also said the Greater Sacramento branch continues its work, saying its role in the community has not changed.

What we do, no one else does. Were not stopping the services that are being provided, Bivens said. We want to make sure they keep going as theyve been going.
China-US direct flights set to increase in 2024

China Daily) 09:35, January 08, 2024

China aims to greatly increase direct flights to and from the United States this year to boost exchanges between the world's two largest economies and promote the use of domestically made jets such as the C919 around the world, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Thursday.

The number of direct flights between China and the US has recovered to 63 round trips a week, Song Zhiyong, the head of the administration, said at the civil aviation sector's annual conference in Beijing.

The international civil aviation market is continuing to grow, and the administration has set the target of increasing the total number of international flights to and from China to 6,000 a week by the end of this year, about 80 percent of the number before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of international flights to and from China each week now stands at 4,600, up from less than 500 at the beginning of last year.

The number of flights between China and Europe has returned to about 60 percent of the level before the pandemic.

The number of countries with flights to and from China is about 89.2 percent of the total before the pandemic.

Due to the pandemic, direct flights between China and the US were drastically reduced, but last year China-US air services started to rebound.

During their meeting in November, top leaders from both countries agreed to increase flights between China and the US to boost people movement.

At the beginning of last year, there were eight direct flights between the two countries per week. Although the number saw a great increase last year, China-US air services have far from fully resumed, according to Lin Zhijie, a civil aviation industry analyst.

Speaking of the performance of services between China and the US last year, Lin said they lagged behind the overall recovery of international civil aviation in China and the US.

In 2019, more than 300 round trips operated every week between China and the US, he said.

"China and the US are the world's two largest economies, and should offer more direct flights to support communication.

"Ticket prices between China and the US still remain high. If more flights are offered, ticket prices will continue to fall," he said.

Before the pandemic, a budget price two to three months in advance was about 5,000 to 6,000 yuan ($700 to 840). There is still room to lower the current price, Lin added.

According to a search on a popular ticket booking application on Thursday, the ticket price from Shanghai to San Francisco in March is about 7,700 yuan.

Lin said the increase in flights will also boost the demand for passengers.

To fulfill the goal of increasing the number of flights, more measures can be carried out to make travel easier, such as cutting the time it takes to get a visa and extending visa durations, he said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
A rain and snow mix is expected Tuesday and Wednesday with gusts possibly reaching up to 40 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

A windy rain and snow mix will greet Tuesday morning commuters traveling throughout Northeast Ohio, making roads across the region slippery, including in Summit County.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service predict snow will fall before 9 a.m. before transitioning to a snow-rain mix. Rain, not snow, is expected after 11 a.m.

With a 100% chance of precipitation, less than half an inch is possible, according to the NWS.

Temperatures across the area will start the day at about 32 degrees before rising into the mid-40s at the highest. Tuesday night could see the mercury fall to about 34 degrees.

A dusting of snow is possible Tuesday night.

Wind gusts could vary from 16 to 23 mph, possibly reaching upwards of nearly 40 mph on Tuesday, according to the forecast.

Wednesday's weather forecast

A rain-snow mix is likely before 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Less than half an inch of snow is possible in the evening and nighttime hours, the NWS predicted.

There is an 80% chance of precipitation across Summit County.

Temperatures are expected to rise to 36 degrees before dropping to 29 later Wednesday night.

Wind gusts will range from 20 to 22 mph, possibly reaching upwards of nearly 40 mph on Wednesday, according to the forecast.

To learn more about the daily forecast, visit the National Weather Service Cleveland office website.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron weather: Windy, snow-rain mix expected for Tuesday morning
Terror Flight

Last week, passengers aboard an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California experienced the fright of their lives.

Shortly after taking off, a substantial piece of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 fuselage tore off, causing air to rush out and pressure to drop. Fortunately, all 171 passengers and six crew members on board made it back to the ground largely unscathed after the pilots successfully turned back to land.

Now, regulators have kicked off an investigation and grounded 171 of the Boeing commercial airliners to check them for any signs of damage to ensure such an incident won't happen again. Alaska Airlines has also had to cancel hundreds of upcoming flights.

"I can't imagine what these passengers experienced," Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University air safety expert Anthony Brickhouse told Reuters. "The wind would be rushing through that cabin. It was a probably pretty violent situation, and definitely a scary situation."

MAX Unplugged

It's still unclear just how widespread the grounding is. In the US, only Alaska Airlines and United are affected.

Nonetheless, it's the last thing Boeing needs, since the company has been struggling with one crisis after the other over in recent years. In early 2019, Boeing announced that it had grounded the entire global fleet of its 737 MAX aircraft following two fatal crashes, one in 2018 that killed all 189 people on board, and a second in 2019 that killed 157.

The culprit in both crashes turned out to be related to the plane's "enhanced flight control" system that caused the nose of the planes to dip rapidly.

In the latest instance, the offending component was a section of the fuselage that in some high-capacity configurations is used as an additional door. In the case of the Alaska Airlines flight, the opening was closed with a "plug door," per the BBC.

The MAX 9 makes up only 220 of the 1,400 MAX jets Boeing has delivered to customers. Most of these planes are owned by US airlines.

"We are very, very fortunate here that this didn't end up in something more tragic," National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jennifer Homendy said in a statement.

More on Boeing: Boeing CEO Caught Commuting by Private Jet
Claim:

If you find a lost child in Denmark you can claim it as your own if a parent doesn't show up within two hours.

Rating:

Rating: Unfounded

Maps, memes, and visuals are often used to spread false or misleading information, quickly capturing attention of social media users and conveying complex ideas in a simplified, yet sometimes distorted, manner. At least since December 2022, a bogus image has circulated on social media, showing a map of European countries with a caption that claimed, "Countries where you can claim someones lost child after 2 hours."

The map was shared by @TerribleMaps X and Facebook profiles whose description read, "The home of terrible maps with a pinch of humour." Reverse-image search results showed that the map was also shared on other social media platforms such as Instagram and Reddit.

We also found the rumor was spread on various niche websites. For instance, the information about claiming someone's child after two hours in Denmark was included in an article with the title, "40 Bizarre Laws in Europe to Make You Wonder." It read:

Bizarre Laws in Denmark If a person finds a lost child, they can claim the child as their own if a parent doesn't show up within 2 hours.

Another article, published on travelaway.me website with the title "51 Crazy Stupid Laws in Europe," also claimed that, "In Denmark, if a person finds a lost child, they can claim the child as their own if a parent does not turn up within 2 hours."

However, various comments under the posts with the in-question map suggested that it was originally created as a joke. For instance, one comment sarcastically read, "I'm from denmark, this is 100% true, I have collected 136 children as of today, soon I shall have an army." Moreover, social media users underscored that no other sources confirmed the claim. "... literally the only source I've seen for this is this picture," one comment on Reddit read. "Im from Denmark, have never heard of this? So explain please," another comment on Facebook read.

We found that no reputable, English-language sources confirmed the in-question claim. However, some websites seemed to give some clues about the origins of the rumor. One article on the subject suggested that the alleged Danish "2 hour rule" referred to the "legal requirement for institutions like schools and daycares to notify the police if a child is missing for more than 2 hours without a valid reason."

What is the 2 hour rule for lost children in Denmark? In Denmark, the 2-hour rule refers to the legal requirement for institutions like schools and daycares to notify the police if a child is missing for more than 2 hours without a valid reason. Furthermore, this rule ensures a swift response to cases involving lost or missing children to ensure their safety.

We used Google Translate to search for any information on the topic on Danish-language websites, but found no evidence either for the viral rumor or the alleged explanations of its origins. Therefore, we have rated this claim as "Unfounded."

In October 2022, we investigated another claim about Denmark: whether parents there let their babies nap alone outside. We found that the practice of setting babies outdoors in strollers to nap was common in Scandinavia.

We will update this article if/when new information comes to light about the rumor's origins.

Sources:

Palma, Bethania. Do Danish Parents Let Their Babies Nap Alone Outside? Snopes, 25 Oct. 2022, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/danish-babies-nap-alone-outside/.
Claim:

A photograph authentically shows former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence signing an Israeli army artillery shell in January 2024.

Rating:

Rating: Research In Progress

Context:

Israeli outlet Ynet appears to be the only source of the photograph. We are looking for independent confirmation about the photograph's origins and context.

In January 2024, former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Israel in a show of support after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas fighters. A photograph of Pence soon went viral, showing him apparently signing Israeli army artillery shells with a pen.

One post claimed he was signing bombs intended for Gaza. An article said he signed the weaponry with his own name.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1wjP8purfn/?hl=en

Nothing to see here, just Mike Pence ex US VP signing bombs before they are fired into South Lebanon. A genocidal state supporting its genocidal Israel#CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/mD7HlzuSji  Ahmed Masoud (@masoud_ahmed) January 6, 2024

The above photograph was posted by Ynet, an Israeli news organization that reported on Pences Jan. 5, 2024, visit to Israels border with Lebanon. Ynet appears to be the only source of the photograph and we are looking for independent confirmation of its authenticity. As such, we have rated this story as a "Research in Progress."

The article is in Hebrew and according to Google Translate, Pence was following a custom of signing artillery shells and wrote "For Israel. Pence was also on the northern border with Lebanon, so the weapons on display were presumably intended to be used against Lebanon, according to The New Arab. Photographs in the same Ynet report showed Pence walking alongside Israeli soldiers and officers. The report stated he ate lunch with them.

The unfurled link to the article also revealed a closeup of the artillery shells with Pence's supposed note and signature:

Pence described his visit in a post on X, writing: Traveled to Israels Northern Command today to meet with military leaders and joined @IDF soldiers stationed near Israels border with Lebanon.

Traveled to Israels Northern Command today to meet with military leaders and joined @IDF soldiers stationed near Israels border with Lebanon. Ever since October 7th, these courageous Israelis, several of whom are also American citizens, left families and home to stand strong pic.twitter.com/2vj3mmArSl  Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) January 5, 2024

The weapons shown in the photograph according to Ynet were shells of the artillery forces. Shells are a form of ammunition.

Maya Lecker, an editor at Israeli news outlet, Haaretz, criticized Pences signing of the weapons in an opinion piece. She described how many Israelis had begun the practice of signing mortar shells or missiles with poems or dedications to their loved ones before launching them into Gaza or Lebanon, calling the action morbid and revengeful.

She wrote:

To some of us watching, especially from afar, this seems counterintuitive, even grotesque: Why would someone who has just lost a friend or family member in an awful terror attack want to take part in hurting another person? In continuing the circle of violence? For others, it all makes perfect sense: People find comfort in the symbolic act that makes them feel like they are part of fighting back. And anyway, are missiles with a few squiggles made in black marker deadlier than others? Aren't the missiles themselves the problem? But what ordinary people with little control over any aspect of their lives should be forgiven for, powerful heads of state and decision makers shouldn't be. When Israeli President Isaac Herzog signed a mortar shell in a photo op with IDF soldiers on the border last month, he was saying  like Haaretz journalist Netta Ahituv pointed out  that "revenge" is an official goal of the war. And when former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence  a representative of a country that has the power to use military and financial support to Israel to change the course of the war  signed a mortar while on a visit to the Lebanese border last week, he was sending a message of gleeful killing and uncritical thinking.

Since fighting broke out between Hamas and Israel in October 2023, armed groups in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, have engaged in an exchange of fire with Israel. Thousands of people along the Lebanon and Israel border were displaced as a result.

In sum, we were unable to independently confirm what exactly Pence wrote on the shell or find an additional media source for the above photograph. Until we know more, we rate this story as a "Research in Progress."

Sources:

Israeli Minister Gantz Says Situation on Lebanon Border Demands Change. Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/27/israeli-minister-gantz-says-situation-on-lebanon-border-demands-change. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.

Lecker, Maya. Mike Pence Shouldnt Have Signed His Name on an Israeli Bomb. Haaretz, Jan. 7, 2024. Haaretz, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/haaretz-today/2024-01-07/ty-article/.highlight/mike-pence-shouldnt-have-signed-his-name-on-an-israeli-bomb/0000018c-e4a6-d765-ab9d-f4ffc84e0000. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.

"Mike Pence Visits Sderot, Israel." Associated Press, www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bunw130cWeE. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.

"Shell | Types, Calibers, Uses." Britannica, Jan. 7, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/technology/shell-ammunition. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.

US Mike Pence signs Weapons for Lebanon Strikes in Israel. The New Arab, Jan. 6, 2024, https://www.newarab.com/news/us-mike-pence-signs-weapons-lebanon-strikes-israel. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.

", .     :      ,   ." Ynet, Jan. 5, 2024. www.ynet.co.il, https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/s1pviobua. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.
Claim:

Photographs shared in January 2024 showed Taylor Swift posing with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Rating:

Rating: Miscaptioned

In early January 2024, court documents were set to be released, exposing names linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In that context, the photograph surfaced on X (formerly Twitter), allegedly depicting Epstein posing with pop star Taylor Swift. The post's description read (we translated it from Spanish):

The best thing about the Epstein case is seeing how people who attacked Kanye West turned out to be ped*ph*les, like Taylor Swift. The world is putting the pieces into place.

"Here is a photo of when Taylor visited Epstein in 2004," another X post captioned the photo. Another Reddit post read "Did y'all know Taylor Swift was close friends with Jeffrey Epstein?" However, we later found a comment of the post's author that suggested the pic did not show Epstein "I saw the pic on r/taylorswift and didn't read the title and for a horrifying second, I genuinely thought that was Epstein ."

Posts from the popheadscirclejerk

community on Reddit

Reverse-image search results showed that the photograph was first shared on Dec. 16, 2021, and therefore could not show Epstein, who committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial in 2019.

In December 2021 the photograph was shared on various social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, with captions stating it showed Taylor Swift posing not with Jeffrey Epstein, but with Monte Lipman, the CEO of Republic Records, an American record label.

The "Taylor Swift Switzerland" website run by a Taylor Swift fan and the "Taylor Swift Style" fashion blog also identified the man in the pic as Lipman.

In a new photo with @republic records CEO @taylorswift13 wears a #ChristyDawn dress ($198) and #LeMondeBeryl mary janes ($390). The shoes first made their appearance in the #folklore Long Pond Sessions. Shop the shoes https://t.co/vVTcyyJxLD pic.twitter.com/nLlhxz21CK  Sarah Chapelle (@tswiftstyle) December 16, 2021

Although we were not able to find the original poster of the in-question photo, when we compared it with the photographs of Lipman available online we came to the conclusion that the viral photo showed Taylor Swift posing with Lipman. Therefore, we have rated this claim as Miscaptioned.

For reference, here's a photograph of Lipman:

(Getty Images)

If you want to understand more about the list of court documents connected with Jeffrey Epstein, we recommend reading our article with the title "Exposed: What To Know About the List of Names Connected to Jeffrey Epstein."

We have also published other fact checks regarding Epstein and Trump. For instance, we debunked a photograph allegedly depicting Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein seated together on a private plane. What's more, we investigated whether a photo authentically showed Donald Trump with two of his children alongside Jeffrey Epstein in 1993.

Sources:

Izzo, Jack. Exposed: What To Know About the List of Names Connected to Jeffrey Epstein. Snopes, 2 Jan. 2024, https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/01/02/epstein-maxwell-list-explained/.

PerryCook, Taija. Is This a Real Photo of Trump and Epstein on a Private Plane? Snopes, 2 Jan. 2024, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-and-epstein-on-private-plane/.

---. Were Trump and 2 of His Kids, Ivanka and Eric, Seen with Jeffrey Epstein in 93? Snopes, 3 Jan. 2024, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-ivanka-and-eric-with-epstein/.
During a Sacramento mayoral online forum Thursday, California Assemblyman Kevin McCarty claimed that the county has yet to spend a penny of the $25 million it received to shelter homeless people camping along the American River Parkway.

Last year in the budget I got $25 million for the County of Sacramento to build emergency shelter to get people off the Parkway, McCarty said during the online forum hosted by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. Were now going on two years, they havent spent one penny. I think we need more of an urgency to get things done in Sacramento.

McCarty was correct that the county has not yet spent any of the money, county spokesman Janna Haynes confirmed Thursday.

But the county received the $25 million check about nine months ago, in April, not two years ago.

In July McCarty sent a letter to Board of Supervisors Chairman Rich Desmond July 5 to nudge county leaders to spend it. The funds were supposed to cover the start up costs to shelter roughly a whopping 620 people per year in tiny homes, the letter stated.

County staff found an undisclosed piece of land that was available and spent months negotiating to buy it but it fell through in September when the owner entered into a contract to sell it to someone else, officials have said. The county then published a Request for Qualifications, asking for private entities who want to help the county find sites.

That effort has yielded a few promising bids, county spokeswoman Janna Haynes said Thursday. So hopefully well be able to move forward soon.

The city Thursday announced plans to open a shelter for up to 240 people on Roseville Road. Additionally the county is placing tiny homes for 200 people on Stockton Boulevard. Neither of those sites are near the American River Parkway, however, where hundreds live in encampments in wooded areas and along the bike trail, walkable to Loaves and Fishes for meals and supplies.

There are an estimated 9,300 homeless people living in the county. The city and county as of December had about 2,600 shelter beds. As of the week of Nov. 27, there were over 2,400 people on the citys shelter wait list.

The Sacramento mayoral primary will be held March 5, while the general election will be held Nov. 5. Mayor Darrell Steinberg is not seeking re-election. In addition to McCarty, former state senator Richard Pan, epidemiologist Flojaune Cofer, and former councilman Steve Hansen are running for mayor.
ALBANY, New York  In her second year heading the state Assemblys Higher Education Committee, Pat Fahy has a long list of priorities. But it starts with securing funding to support the states colleges.

Fahy said she is confident SUNY will receive an additional $54 million in operating aid in the coming fiscal year, as promised in the past.

Beyond that, she couldnt predict.

The 64-campus system has what Fahy described as jaw dropping asks that include $84 million to cover salary increases negotiated with the faculty union; a $500 million increase in funds to cover capital needs and a $100 million clean energy fund.

Additionally, there are non-budget issues like expanding the states tuition assistance program (TAP) and making FAFSA a requirement for high school graduation to help students get federal help for college.

And if the money doesnt come through, SUNY officials plan to go back to their traditional request that is usually rebuffed: allowing them to raise tuition.

Its complicated, Fahy, the Albany-area Democrat, said in an interview with POLITICO ahead of Gov. Kathy Hochuls State of the State where the governor Tuesday will lay out her priorities, including for SUNY.

Its shocking how much higher education has really become front and center on a number of issues, good and bad, Fahy said.

SUNYs requests are always heavily scrutinized as lawmakers look to keep the public institutions affordable for all  especially this year as the state is facing a $4.3 billion deficit and Hochul has ordered state agencies to keep funding flat.

Fahy also noted the pressure to ensure that colleges are protecting healthy civil discourse while also combating hate speech.

She noted that while bailouts for struggling independent and private colleges are unprecedented in the state amid closures, including St. Rose in her district, there are growing conversations around the challenges that campuses face.

The interview has been edited for clarity and length.



What are you hoping to achieve this legislative session?

Starting with the incredible enrollment challenges that we have at SUNY and CUNY, as well as the challenges that we have with our private schools, that's a big deal.

We've seen cutbacks at Potsdam and Fredonia. St. Rose is in my backyard; that's my neighborhood. So theres lots of challenges with higher education; affordability continues to be an issue. The overwhelming number of parents in every survey say college has become out of reach. So TAP is my number one budget issue.

And at the same time, theres healthcare shortages that we desperately need to help further address. We have a number of bills; we made some progress on a few things last year, and I am doubling down.

What are you hoping to secure for higher education in the state budget?

TAP, TAP, TAP.

If we don't grow enrollment, it's hard to justify increasing operating aid, and it's hard to justify capital investments. So the first priority for me is going to be TAP.

I've talked to both chancellors. I've talked to everybody I can talk to, to say, if I'm missing something, tell me. But we need to make sure TAP is not just focused on lower-income students. We've got to include middle-class families in that too  to make sure that their students can afford college. And its expanding TAP to graduate students and to microcredentials.

Secondly, we do need to maintain the operating aid. I said last year: The governor ended up doing us a favor. It ended up catching tremendous press when she proposed to raise tuition. She was doing it because you can't keep starving academic institutions and expect them to compete with out-of-state institutions. We have way too many New York students going out of state because it's pretty affordable out of state.

You also need the capital dollars, the vast majority of these campuses were built in the 50s, 60s and 70s. They're all aging. They all need major energy investments. We can't meet our energy goals if you can't transition them from fossil fuels. So that alone takes a huge upfront [investment], but it saves you in the end.

SUNY had some large asks for this year's budget: a $54 million increase in operating aid, $84 million to cover faculty salary increases and an additional $500 million increase to address capital needs  to name a few. How realistic is it to get these requests into the budget?

Yeah, they are somewhat jaw-dropping numbers.

At the same time, some of the numbers are spread out over 10 years and the contract, thats a huge number. But this is part of the challenge. We have to keep SUNY and CUNY competitive. We dont have a single SUNY or CUNY campus ranked in the top 25 universities nationally. So investments matter.

We have all seen the testimonies by college presidents at the federal level regarding hate speech on campuses. Have there been talks about potential action by the Legislature on this issue in New York?

SUNY alone has done hundreds of trainings of their presidents, of their staff and their faculty to make sure they all understand the rights, whats acceptable, what is not acceptable and what needs to be investigated.

Weve got to make sure that our colleges can focus on academics, but the first priority is making sure all students feel safe. There is not pending legislation at this point, but there are many conversations. At this point, we dont want an Elise Stefanik 2.0, we want to make sure that campus leadership is doing the work they need to do to make sure staff and faculty are trained.

We dont need to do this in hearings. And so far  with a few egregious incidents  I feel were in a decent place. But we need to be vigilant.

Is there anything the state can do to assist private and independent colleges that are struggling financially?

I know St. Rose very well, and its personally devastating to me. That said, we do not have a precedent for bailouts  thats the term that was used.

Did I seek some bridge funding to try to get them a little more time? Sure, I did. But in the end it was not going to sustain them.

We want to make sure we dont lose those students permanently. We want them to transition into any of the other colleges and to keep them in the Capitol Region. But in terms of operating dollars, its not there.

It puts a lot of other colleges on notice. I worry it wont be the last one. But the best way to address it holistically is growing enrollment. And you cant do that without expanding TAP.
DAPHNE, Ala. (WKRG)  A Fairhope man is behind bars after a Sunday shooting during a custody exchange in the Sams parking lot in Daphne.

The Candy Stores closure means one less strip club in Mobile  but questions remain

Police say Burak Duzgit, 38, fired one shot into a Toyota Tundra after the child swap. No one was injured.

The biological father and his girlfriend were returning the kids to the biological mother and Duzgit when accusations were made and words exchanged, according to police.

Duzgit pulled a pistol and, as the biological father was leaving, fired one shot, police said.

He now faces a felony charge of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling and remains in the Baldwin County Jail.

Shooting reported at Mobile motel Sunday night

Bond is set at $15,000, according to the Baldwin County Jail View.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan was the victim of swatting. - Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

The federal judge overseeing the election subversion case against former President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, was the victim of a swatting call on her home late Sunday night, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

The source told CNN that a male caller said he had shot his girlfriend and would kill himself. The address the caller provided on the call was federal Judge Tanya Chutkans. Swatting incidents are dangerous prank calls that are made to authorities to lure them to a location under the false pretense that a crime has been committed or is in progress.

According to the DC Metropolitan Police Department, officers responded to a reported shooting on Sunday night, but when they arrived to the location, they determined there was none.

CNN reported in August that security for Chutkan was increased in the days after Trumps indictment in the election subversion case in DC and the judge was assigned the case.

The federal election interference case is a result of special counsel Jack Smiths investigation into alleged efforts by the former president and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all four counts. Chutkan scheduled the trial to begin on March 4, the day before voters in more than a dozen states will cast their primary ballots.

Chutkan has faced threats before, including from a Texas woman arrested last summer and charged with threatening in a voicemail to kill the judge if Trump doesnt get elected in 2024.

Sundays incident marks the latest swatting call on a government official. Late last month, police responded to a swatting call at the home of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a day after she removed Trump from the states 2024 primary ballot. Also last month, Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scotts Naples home was swatted, and Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greenes home in Rome, Georgia, was swatted on Christmas Day, officials said.

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ROME  As the builder of the U.S. Navys new Constellation frigates tries to ramp up schedules in Wisconsin, it is sending in the robots.

Seeking to shift up a gear and build two of the frigates every year at its Marinette Marine yard, faster than the current schedule of three every two years, shipbuilder Fincantieri says it is getting serious about automation.

Welding is one of the skills it is hard to find, while the robot welding we plan to introduce triples productivity and increases quality, said Pierroberto Folgiero, the CEO of the Italian company.

Fifteen years after buying Marinette Marine, Fincantieri is now building the first Constellation-class frigate for the US Navy with a planned completion date of 2026, part of an expected program of 20 vessels based on the FREMM frigate the firm has already built for the Italian navy.

In July Fincantieri unveiled MR4Weld, a tracked welding robot it developed with Italian firm Comau, which is active in the automotive industry. Equipped with a welding torch, the robot also has a video system which can autonomously identify welding joints or be told by a human operator where to weld.

We are placing orders to start large-scale use of the robot in Italy and we want to export this as soon as possible to the US, Folgiero told Defense News, adding, thats the big priority since we struggle to find welders in the U.S.

He said, The fact that Comau is part of the Stellantis group, which has operations in the U.S., should help.

The robots are the latest tool Fincantieri hopes to use to accelerate production of the frigates.

With the experience of the first of class being built now we have the objective of building two a year, up from the current contract which specifies three in two years, Folgiero said.

That is faster than the rate of one FREMM frigate a year Fincantieri managed in Italy.

U.S. Navy officials have mulled exercising a contractual right to buy the frigates technical data package, or blueprints, from Fincantieri in order to qualify an additional shipyard to build the vessel, doubling annual production to four.

But Fincantieri said the Navy has yet to request the package.

The firm currently has a shortfall of 400 staff across its three Wisconsin yards which currently directly employ 2,100: Marinette Marine, Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay and Fincantieri ACE Marine in Green Bay.

We still have the problem of finding people, and, as importantly, retaining them with incentives, said Folgiero.

The shortfall is an improvement on this time last year, though, when it stood at 1,000.

Since then around 400 blue-collar and 150 management staff have been hired.

Folgiero said the reduction in the staff shortfall was due in part to recruitment, but also due to increases in productivity already underway, starting with transferring assembly work from on board vessels to dry land.

Doing more assembly of modules on land is boosting productivity and helping reduce the workforce required, said Folgiero, who visited Marinette in December for the inauguration of a new painting building.

Sub-sea ambitions

Back in Italy, with ten naval vessels and two submarines under construction, not to mention cruise ships, Fincantieri has a substantial workload at its eight Italian yards, just as the firm ventures into sub-sea technology for the civil and naval sectors.

The Italian state-controlled firm is a partner at a new sub-sea center in La Spezia, Italy, which brings industry, the Italian navy and academia together to study a domain drawing attention since the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic last year.

Fincantieri, which predicts military sub-sea spending will total  94 billion ($103 billion) between 2024 and 2030, also signed a deal with fellow Italian defense giant Leonardo in November to work on drones to protect undersea cables and pipelines.

European navies try to keep up in cat-and-mouse game of seabed warfare

In December it purchased Italian firm Remazel, which manages sub-sea operations for the oil and gas sector as well as offshore wind power and launch and recovery systems for sub-sea mining robots.

Also in December, Fincantieri signed an agreement to work with W-Sense, an Italian start-up using Norwegian technology to develop underwater communications based on acoustic and optical signals.

We will be an integrator, deciding whether to make or buy systems, said Folgiero when asked about Fincantieris sub-sea ambitions. There are drones out there, they are not difficult to find, although we could build larger unmanned drones of nine meters, he said.

We are following the new sub-sea naval doctrine in which a mother ship is a center for command and control and communications, interacting with submarines and drones measuring three or nine meters, he added.

Folgiero said the harnessing of oil and gas technology for sub-sea defense needs was typical of Fincantieris cross-over work between the civil and defense sectors, just as it has used techniques from building cruise ships to improve naval vessels.

We were born for this, he said.
A fire was seen in Odesa Oblast after Russia attacked the area with Shahed kamikaze drones as part of its most recent multi-wave mass missile and drone attack on Jan. 8, Ukraines Southern Defense Forces reported on Telegram.

All eight Russian Shahed-131/136 drones launched from the Black Sea at the Odesa and Mykolaiv oblasts were eliminated, the military stated.

Read also: Russians intensify drone attacks in frontline regions, shifting focus, says Air Force

Seven drones were taken out over Odesa Oblast, with the eighth drone neutralized over Mykolaiv Oblast.

The debris of one downed drone fell on an open area of Odesa Oblast caused a fire in the area. The blaze has since been extinguished. No casualties or damage has been reported.

Russia launched another multi-wave missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight on Jan. 8. Explosions have been heard in Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Khmelnytsky oblasts.

Read also: Khmelnytsky air defense systems working overtime as Russia launches latest mass missile attack on UA

The Russians hit a private house in Zmiiv, Kharkiv Oblast early on Jan. 8, resulting in two injuries and two others trapped under the rubble, Kharkiv regional governor, Oleh Synehubov, reported.

24 people were injured after a blast wave overturned a minibus in Novomoskovsk.

Four residents were injured due to an attack in Zaporizhzhya.

Read also: Fatalities rise in wake of Russian strike on Kharkiv

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Yanko the dog, who had been missing for a couple of days, was found wedged between two warehouses in Hialeah, Florida and rescued Jan. 2.

A missing dog found stuck between two warehouses in Florida has been rescued, thanks to the help of local firefighters.

Yanko the dog had been missing for a few days when a neighbor heard his cries for help on Jan. 2 in Hialeah, Florida, a city about 13 miles northwest of Miami. Yanko lives in one of the warehouses, a mechanic told local TV station WSVN, and probably became stuck when he was chasing another animal.

Hialeah Fire Rescue Paramedic Roly Medina told WSVN rescue crews found the dog wedged in the building tapers, facing the opposite way.

A crew of 11 from Hialeah Fire Rescue worked for the next two hours to free Yanko. They tried "everything," Medina said, including putting a lasso over his neck to lift him, but nothing was working. Eventually, they had to cut through a wall after failing to reach the dog through open spaces.

After only suffering a few scratches, Yanko is now free and back in his home where he hopefully avoids any tight spaces.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Yanko the dog rescued after found stuck between Florida warehouses
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  Las Cruces firefighters extinguished a fire that caused significant damage to a mobile home on Friday, Jan. 5, according to the Las Cruces Fire Department.

The Fire Department says they were called out to a mobile home shortly before 5:30 p.m. that Friday, located on 120 E. Madrid Ave.

Crews arrived to find flames and smoke coming from the mobile home. However, firefighters had the fire under control within 20 minutes.

Crews then conducted a search of the home and found no occupants. No injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation and damage estimates have not yet been determined.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
Firefighters battled a residential fire in North Auburn Sunday afternoon. The flames have since been extinguished.

units arriving on the scene of a working residential fire in North Auburn, said a spokesperson.

Officials say that at least ten units were sent to the fire.

HAPPENING NOW- Units arriving on scene of a working residential fire in North Auburn pic.twitter.com/ObYUDRrvrC  Valley Fire Fighters (@IAFFLOCAL1352) January 7, 2024

This is an ongoing story, check back for updates.




In Zaporizhzhya, there are casualties as a result of Russian shelling

Five people were injured in Russias targeting of Zaporizhzhya during its latest multi-wave mass missile and drone attack on Ukraine on Jan. 9, said Zaporizhzhya City Council secretary Anatoliy Kurtev.

Four men and a woman were injured. Two were sent to hospital, with one in serious condition. The others were treated on-site.

Read also: Khmelnytsky air defense systems working overtime as Russia launches latest mass missile attack on UA

The attack shattered windows in nine multi-story buildings and caused damage to six homes. Emergency workers are on-site and have begun clean-up efforts.

Tents and municipal buses have been set up on-site, where social workers and emergency workers are aiding the affected individuals.

Kurtev underscored the gravity of the situation by presenting photos depicting the aftermath of the shelling.

Consequences of the shelling of Zaporizhzhya on January 8, 2024   / Telegram

  / Telegram

  / Telegram

Read also: At least two dead, 10 injured as Russia pummels small towns in Kyiv Oblast

Russia launched another multi-wave missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight on Jan. 8. Explosions have been heard in Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Khmelnytsky oblasts.

The Russians hit a private house in Zmiiv, Kharkiv Oblast early on Jan. 8, resulting in two injuries and two others trapped under the rubble, Kharkiv regional governor, Oleh Synehubov, reported.

24 people were injured after a blast wave overturned a minibus in Novomoskovsk.



Read also: Fatalities rise in wake of Russian strike on Kharkiv

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Early in his first term, Gov. Ron DeSantis boldly declared that Florida would be the No. 1 state in the nation for workforce education by 2030. He and his colleagues in the Florida Legislature have followed those words with actions, making critical investments into K-12, technical schools, and the Florida College System (FCS), a collective of 28 colleges that graduate about 120,000 specialized workers each year.

Gov. Ron DeSantis congratulates Sen. Ben Albritton on his new role as Senate president-designate after a ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023.

The affordable, flexible, and local pathways to career development offered by the FCS are essential for the growth of Floridas skilled workforce and bolster the states attractiveness as a home for high-wage industries. As FCS colleges lead the charge in achieving the governors 2030 goal, it is crucial that they can retain and attract the best talent and identify ways to operate more competitively.

Currently, the diligent public servants of the FCS do not have access to the State Group Insurance Program (SGIP), which offers attractive health insurance options to those employed by or retired from the State of Florida. Unlike the State University System (SUS), which has had access to SGIP benefits since the 1970s, the nearly 20,000 FCS employees enrolled in their employers healthcare plans are not eligible to enroll in this low-cost, high-value health insurance program, leaving them carrying an enormous burden.

Thats why, at the urging of Indian River State College  a member of the FCS  Florida TaxWatch reviewed this issue in February 2023, using IRSC college as a case study.

FCS colleges must self-insure or self-fund using money from their operating budgets. To help reduce the cost, most FCS colleges insure within a collective called the Florida College System Risk Management Consortium (FCSRMC) and many pay for employees' healthcare premiums. For example, an IRSC employee enrolled in a family health plan must additionally pay between $1,235 and $1,509 per month  between 225% and 275% more than the national employee contribution toward an employer-sponsored insurance plan  to cover a spouse and child.

This cost is exorbitant for anyone and virtually out of reach for young professionals and lower-salaried staff members providing for their families. It has directly hurt the FCSs ability to attract and retain employees, a key component of the Governors Focus on Floridas Future 2024 budget recommendations.

Turnover at publicly funded institutions not only disrupts the delivery of educational services to Floridians, but it also limits the return on investment of taxpayer dollars, as money is repeatedly spent on recruiting and training new faculty and staff.

Further, a report released by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Governmental Accountability (OPPAGA) confirms the high cost of health insurance also discourages FCS employees from enrolling in family plans. Although the composition and roles of FCS employees are similar to those employed by the SUS, only 25% of FCS health insurance enrollees choose a family plan compared to 61% of SUS health insurance enrollees. This disparity is not right  the hardworking state employees of the FCS should earn the same health benefits as all other state employees.

Senate President Kathleen Passidomo gives brief remarks on the success of the 2023 legislative session following the hanky drop Friday, May 5, 2023.

We commend the Florida Legislature for following Florida TaxWatchs recommendation by taking action. Last session  with the approbation Gov. DeSantis, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, and House Speaker Paul Renner  the Florida Legislature allocated $500,000 in nonrecurring funds to the Department of Management Services to contract for a comprehensive analysis to determine the fiscal impact and feasibility of extending SGIP to employees of the Florida College System. The analysis was submitted to government officials on Dec. 1, 2023, placing the total first-year cost of implementation at $372.4 million.

During the 2024 legislative session, as the Florida Legislature reconsiders the standards of eligibility for SGIP, they should heed the findings of the analysis to wisely invest taxpayer dollars into the integrity of the FCS in a way that ensures all state employees have access to these benefits.

Dominic M. Calabro

Dominic M. Calabro has led Florida TaxWatchs world-class research team  the eyes and ears of taxpayers  as President and CEO for nearly all of the organizations 41-year existence.

Dr. Timothy Tim Moore, President of Indian River State College

Timothy E. Moore is President of Indian River State College, which serves more than 22,000 students annually throughout Floridas Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie counties.

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Send letters to the editor (up to 200 words) or Your Turn columns (about 500 words) to letters@tallahassee.com. Please include your address for verification purposes only, and if you send a Your Turn, also include a photo and 1-2 line bio of yourself. You can also submit anonymous Zing!s at Tallahassee.com/Zing. Submissions are published on a space-available basis. All submissions may be edited for content, clarity and length, and may also be published by any part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FL Legislature must expand state health insurance to FCS employees
The police may have never learned about the disgraceful conditions two Florida boys were living in if one of those children hadnt called 911 for help.



A 6-year-old boy called the Miami-Dade police the evening of Jan 3. to report that his mother left him alone with his 2-year-old brother in their home near Miami Shores. When the police responded to the home, they were met with a horrifying scene.

The police described finding the two boys by themselves in the dark with no power and no food. They also described the home to be in absolute filth and said the two boys appeared to be dirty as if they hadnt been bathed.

The boy gave the authorities a number to reach their mother, Demetria Spencer, but she didnt pick up when they tried to contact her, per Local 10 News. Its unclear how long the boys were left alone prior to the 911 call being made.

The report says it took about four hours for the Florida Department of Children and Families to arrive on the scene and take the children into their custody. However, it also took double the amount of time for the police to locate Spencer. She was arrested and charged with two counts of child neglect causing no great bodily harm  a third-degree felony under child abuse.

Spencer failed to provide and protect her sons with care, supervision, and the services necessary to maintain their physical and mental health, authorities say, per Local 10.

The report says shes currently being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a $5,000 bond. If convicted, she faces anywhere between 5 and 15 years in prison with a fine of $5,000.
Christian Ziegler was ousted as chairman of the Florida's Republican Party on Monday in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations leveled at him last month. Photo courtesy of Christian Ziegler/Facebook

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The Florida Republican Party announced Monday it has elected a new leader months after former chairman Christian Ziegler became embroiled in a rape investigation.

The state GOP issued congratulations its new chairman, Evan Power, in a social media post following an emergency meeting of its executive committee at the Tallahassee Conference Center.

The vote to replace Ziegler was unanimous, sources told The Sarasota, Fla., Herald-Tribune and NBC News.

Power, a lobbyist and vice chairman of the state party since February, had the backing of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and a majority of the state party's leadership, according to political analysts who widely expected the move to oust Ziegler.

The party last month censured Ziegler, stopping just short of firing him, over the salacious allegations that also included his wife, Bridget Ziegler, a co-founder of the Moms for Liberty conservative activist group.

Court documents revealed a police investigation was launched in October when a woman said she had been raped by Ziegler. According to an affidavit filed by investigators, the woman said she was sexually assaulted by the GOP chairman during an encounter in which Bridget Ziegler was also intended to participate but decided to skip at the last minute.

She also claimed the trio had had previous three-way sexual encounters, police said.

Ziegler denies the rape accusations, asserting any sexual relations between he and the woman were consensual.

DeSantis called for Ziegler to resign his post in early December, telling reporters, "I don't see how he can continue with that investigation ongoing, given the gravity of those situations, and so I think that I think he should step aside, I think he should tend to that."

Power, who lost a close contest for party chairman in February, said after Monday's vote the party is "moving forward" after the Ziegler scandal, dismissing concerns it has damaged its standing with voters.

"I think it's a blip on the radar," he told the News Service of Florida. "I think we're going to be able to pick up today fundraising-wise and move the party forward. So, I don't think there's going to be a long-term impact. I think you're going to see us win big again in November."
The Florida Republican Party voted to remove chair Christian Ziegler in a Monday meeting as he faces rape accusations, The Associated Press reported.

Ziegler was suspended by party leadership last month and refused demands to resign amid the claims. The turmoil comes as Florida is set to play a central role in the 2024 elections and as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) competes in the GOP presidential primary.

DeSantis, as well as fellow Florida Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, have all called on Ziegler to step down.

Former party chair and state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R) said on X, formerly Twitter, that only two people in the partys Monday meeting spoke against a voice vote to remove Ziegler.

We have to move past this and have to focus on 2024, state Sen. Joe Gruters (R), who preceded Ziegler as party chair, told the AP. Floridas one of the most important states for the Republicans and we have to continue to bring home victories, especially for Rick Scott and the top of the ticket with Trump as our nominee, eventually.

Ziegler admitted to having sex with the woman who accused him of rape, but he and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, claimed they had a consensual relationship. Bridget Ziegler is a co-founder of the conservative activist group Moms of Liberty.

The accuser claims she agreed to a threesome with the Zieglers, but Bridget Ziegler was not able to attend. The woman said Christian Ziegler then raped her. Sarasota Police said they are investigating the claims.

Ziegler also faces a second investigation of video voyeurism. He has denied wrongdoing to both allegations.

We are confident that once the police investigation is concluded that no charges will be filed and Mr. Ziegler will be completely exonerated, his attorney Derek Byrd said in a statement last month.

The Hill has reached out to the Florida Republican Party for comment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Homeowners associations have drawn the ire of many residents in Florida, lawmakers say.

Florida lawmakers will consider more than a dozen bills in 2024 that would increase transparency and accountability of homeowners associations across the state.

In advance of the 60-day legislative session that begins on Jan. 9, lawmakers say the bills are in response to complaints about HOAs. We did receive a lot of those complaints, said Rep. Kristen Arrington, D-Osceola, who has filed two bills on the subject.

One of her bills (HB 431) would prohibit an HOA from imposing more than a $100 fine for any single violation; fines that may be levied for each day of a continuing violation could not exceed $500 unless it is specifically written into the HOAs governing documents.

Currently, the fines that one can receive are up to $1,000 per violation, Arrington said. Folks on a fixed income, especially like our seniors, were receiving notices for pressure washing or vines growing up on their fence or their building, and receiving fines up to $1,000 for that, which is obviously hard for them.

Arrington says homeowners associations should not be run like a business where some are trying to profit, she said. I don't believe that that's the purpose or what they were intended for.

Her other bill (HB 59) would require an HOA to provide copies of the associations rules and covenants to every member before Oct. 1, 2024, and every new member thereafter. It would also authorize an HOA to post a complete copy of the rules and covenants on the home page of its website and require an association to provide notices to its members by email or letter.

Arrington said people in her district moved into neighborhoods not knowing they would be dealing with an HOA. Folks that are on fixed income, some folks that retired there ... and didn't know about homeowners associations and have a whole list of rules and regulations that that they didn't even know existed.

Arrington says she and other lawmakers were encouraged after a bill dubbed the Homeowners Associations Bill of Rights, filed by Rep. Juan Carlos Porros of Miami-Dade County, passed last year.

That big piece of legislation last year, I think, was a really big deal, Arrington said. And so, obviously, a lot of folks like myself are trying to strike while the iron is hot.

At a town hall meeting in October, Porros said alleged abuses by HOA boards prompted him to take action. We're seeing harassment of homeowners, Porras said. We're seeing selective enforcement of bylaws and covenants. And really there's no form of accountability.

Last year's legislation sought to beef up the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations ability to investigate suspected wrongdoing at HOAs and condo associations. However, the funding for increased enforcement was stripped from the bill.

This year, Porras says, he'll try again to add the funding. I can tell constituents that more is coming.

But as of Dec. 15, the only bill he has filed involving HOAs is one that would require the DBPR to create a searchable database of information regarding each homeowners association in the state.

Legislators have until the 60-day session's first day to file a bill.

Other bills that have been filed dealing with HOA and condo associations include:

 HB 293: Hurricane Protections for Homeowners' Associations. Filed by Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Brevard. This bill would require associations to adopt hurricane protection specifications, including the color and style of hurricane protection products; would prohibit associations from denying application to install certain hurricane protection, including metal roofs, permanent fixed storm shutters, rolldown track storm shutters, impact-resistant windows and doors, polycarbonate panels, reinforced garage doors, and erosion controls. (A companion bill (SB 600) was filed by Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R- Citrus.)

 HB 173: Not-for-Profit Corporations that Operate Residential Homeowners Associations. Filed by Rep. Kimberly Daniels, D-Duval. This bill would require not-for-profit HOAs to donate or use at least 15% of the association's annual income to benefit the community in the county in which the community served by the association is located. It would also require an HOA to maintain, and make available upon request, documentation and records detailing how such funds were used or where such funds were donated.

 SB 426: Community Associations. Filed by Rep. Alina Garcia, R-Miami-Dade. This bill will create the Condominium Fraud Investigation Pilot Program within the Department of Legal Affairs in the Office of the Attorney General, funded from the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes Trust Fund; creating the Office of the Homeowners Association Ombudsman within the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation .(An identical companion bill (SB 600) has been filed by Sen. Shevrin Jones, D- Miami-Dade.)

 HB 595: Homeowners Associations Database. Filed by Rep Juan Carlos Porros, R-Miami-Dade. This bill requires the state to establish a searchable database that contains specific information regarding each homeowners association in state; requires homeowners association to notify department of any changes to information listed in database. (A companion bill (SB 942) has been filed by Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, R-Monroe.)

 HB 627: Disclosure Requirements for Prospective Purchasers. Filed by Rep. James Buchanan, R-Sarasota. This bill would require prospective purchasers of a parcel subject to association membership to be provided with certain documents, in addition to disclosure summary, before executing a contract; authorizes prospective purchasers to cancel their contract within specified time frame; specifies that three-day cancellation period does not include Saturdays, Sundays, or legal holidays.

 HB 979: Estoppel Certificates. Filed by Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Lee. This bill would prohibit community associations from charging fees to prepare and deliver estoppel certificates. An estoppel certificate confirms the current status of a lease term for a third party. In practice, a lender or bank requires an estoppel letter or certificate from the homeowners association prior to closing on a property within the HOA.

Jim DeLa is a reporter for the Community News Collaborative. Reach him at jdela@cncfl.org

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Florida lawmakers ready to consider multiple bills regulating HOAs
The 2023 Celebration Bowl, where Florida A&M University clinched a national football championship with a 30-26 win over Howard University, was more than a meeting between two top athletics programs at HBCUs. That Saturday also brought together two schools that are powerhouses in preparing blacks for the highest level of scholarly study.

Florida A&M University celebrates its graduating class with the Fall commencement ceremony at the Lawson Center on Friday December 15, 2023. The Commencement address was delivered by FAMU Journalism graduate and President of ABC News, Kimberly Godwin Manning.

A recent National Science Foundation report on the Baccalaureate Origins of Underrepresented Minority Research Doctorate Recipients reveals that FAMU is the No. 1 public baccalaureate institution of origin for blacks who earn research doctorates. Howard, a private institution, is No. 1 overall.FAMUs success is no surprise given its history of admitting students with strong academic records. For 29 years, all FAMUs freshman classes have had at least a B (3.0 or better) average high school GPA. Since 2019, all FAMUs freshman classes have had an A (3.5 or better) average high school GPA.Howard tops the overall list of institutions that prepare blacks for research doctorates, in large part, because it has more than 30 Ph.D. programs, far more than any other HBCU. Every day, its undergraduate students can observe doctoral training in-progress and receive advisement from the professors who teach those doctoral students. Howards baccalaureate recipients can also apply for admission to Howards Ph.D. programs to continue learning with the faculty members who served as their college mentors.Ever since its founding in 1867, national security has been a cornerstone of Howards mission. This helped lead to the federal investments that set the university on the path to becoming a robust center for doctoral instruction. The universitys third president and namesake, Gen. Oliver Howard, used funding from the U.S. Department of Wars Freedmens Bureau to support the schools work to train students for skilled professions that were vital to rebuilding to the post-Civil War South.Still funded heavily through Congressional appropriations, Howard continues to contribute to national security by conducting research and educating scientists in its Ph.D. programs. It is accompanied in this work by neighboring D.C.-based institutions such as Georgetown University and George Washington University.

Florida A&M University celebrates its graduating class with the Fall commencement ceremony at the Lawson Center on Friday December 15, 2023. The Commencement address was delivered by FAMU Journalism graduate and President of ABC News, Kimberly Godwin Manning.

The Sunshine State, like D.C., should have an HBCU with Ph.D. programs in the science fields that are critical to national security. Florida, due to its status as the third most populous state, a leading food producer, a hub for space exploration, and its location on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, plays an integral role in protecting the country.During the late 1990s, FAMU received state approval, but not funding, to establish Ph.D. programs in a cluster of disciplines that included agricultural sciences, biology, chemistry, computer science, and mathematics. These fields are essential to securing the nations food supply and fighting threats such as bioterrorism, chemical warfare, and cyberterrorism.

The Florida Legislature should provide FAMU with the appropriations it needs to start Ph.D. programs in these crucial areas of study. By supporting the development of more science Ph.D. programs at FAMU, Florida can do even more to enhance the United States safety.

Larry O. Rivers

Larry O. Rivers, Ph.D., is an historian and a FAMU alumnus. He resides and works in the metro Atlanta area.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMUs successful record shows its readiness to expand Ph.D. programs
In a special meeting Monday, the FloridaRepublican Party removed its chairman amid a police investigation into allegations he raped a woman with whom he and his wife had previously engaged in consensual sex.

Christian Ziegler had resisted calls for his resignation from other top Republicans in the state, forcing the emergency closed-door vote that led to his ouster.

In a subsequent vote, the committee elected Vice Chairman Evan Power to fill Zieglers seat.

The political infighting has sparked alarm among Florida Republicans, who acknowledged the state plays a pivotal role in the partys national ambitions.

We have to move past this and have to focus on 2024, state Sen. Joe Gruters, who preceded Ziegler as party chair, told the AP.

Floridas one of the most important states for the Republicans and we have to continue to bring home victories, especially for Rick Scott and the top of the ticket with Trump as our nominee, eventually.

Zieglers wife, Bridget Ziegler, has also refused to step down from her position on the Sarasota school board, despite a 4-1 vote last month in favor of her resignation.

In addition to her role on the board, Bridget co-founded Moms for Liberty, a conservative extremist group that pushes an anti-LGBTQ+ agenda and works to ban books from school libraries it deems too woke.

Bridget has not been accused of committing any crime.

Florida Party of Florida Chairman Christian Ziegler addresses attendees at the Republican Party of Florida Freedom Summit, Nov. 4, 2023, in Kissimmee, Florida.

Florida Party of Florida Chairman Christian Ziegler addresses attendees at the Republican Party of Florida Freedom Summit, Nov. 4, 2023, in Kissimmee, Florida.

Last month, the Orlando Sentinel obtained a search warrant affidavit that alleges Christian raped a woman in her apartment in October. The Zieglers had planned a sexual threesome with the woman, who backed out after learning Bridget would no longer be able to attend.

Sorry I was mostly in for her, the unidentified woman texted Christian, according to the affidavit.

Surveillance cameras show Christian went to her apartment anyway and, according to the affidavit, proceeded to sexually assault the woman.

The victim advised Christian did not wear a condom, and he stated Im leaving the same way I came in, the affidavit says.

While acting on a search warrant, Sarasota police later recovered a video of the incident that Christian recorded, in addition to a second video showing Bridget engaging in sexual relations with a woman.

The conservative power couple has claimed credit for helping pass the states Dont Say Gay law, which prohibits teachers from talking about sexual orientation and gender identity.

Need help? Visit RAINNs National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Centers website.

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The Florida Republican Party overwhelmingly voted on Monday to remove its chairman, Christian Ziegler, as police investigate him for a rape allegation.

More than 200 members attended the meeting, and almost all voted to oust Ziegler, according to multiple reporters on scene. The party had already suspended Ziegler last month when the rape accusation first came to light and demanded he resign, but he had refused.

Police in Sarasota, Florida, began investigating Ziegler late last year after a woman said he raped her at her apartment in October. Ziegler and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, a co-founder of the far-right group Moms for Liberty, have admitted they had previously had a consensual sexual relationship with the accuser.

The woman says she and the Zieglers had planned to have a threesome on October 2, according to police reports. Bridget Ziegler was unable to attend. Christian Ziegler allegedly arrived at the womans apartment alone and assaulted her.

Neither of the Zieglers has been charged with a crime, but Christian Ziegler is currently under investigation. He is also being investigated for video voyeurism. According to police documents, Ziegler allegedly filmed the sexual encounter and then sent it to the woman on Instagram using vanish mode. Messages sent in vanish mode disappear after a certain period of time.

The Florida Republican Party said one of its main reasons for asking him to leave was the concern the investigation would hinder his ability to successfully lead the party during a competitive election cycle. Ziegler has denied the allegations.

Bridget Ziegler was asked to leave the Sarasota School Board, but she has refused. The Zieglers have repeatedly pushed anti-LGBTQ laws and regulations, particularly in schools. Their consensual relationship with another woman has led manyincluding other conservative parental rights activiststo accuse Bridget Ziegler of hypocrisy.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  The Republican Party of Florida could be in for a major leadership change Monday, as leaders are expected to hold a special meeting to vote to remove Chairman Christian Ziegler from his position.

The Republican Party had no choice, said St. Petersburg College professor Tara Newsom. The conflict that is following the Zieglers is now following the Republican Party.

The unprecedented vote comes after a woman accused Ziegler of rape in October. According to police documents, Ziegler and his wife, Bridget Ziegler  a member of the Sarasota School Board  had a sexual relationship with another woman and planned to meet at her apartment. But after Bridget was unable to attend, the accuser said Ziegler showed up and assaulted her.

Ziegler has maintained his innocence and said the sexual encounter was consensual.

The incident was reported to the Sarasota Police Department on October 4, and the investigation was made public on November 30.

Mondays vote is expected to take place in Tallahassee during an afternoon closed door meeting.

The Republican Party in the state of Florida positioned itself as a leader in culture wars, explained Newsom. They took that onto the presidential campaign trail, and now, what theyre finding is, their own home is a little bit untidy.

In a December meeting, Florida GOP leaders stripped Ziegler of his authority and slashed his salary to $1 after he refused to resign.

We wish Christian well in his legal endeavors if he did not do it, said Republican Party of Florida Vice Chair Evan Power. We feel for the victim if he did do it  what shes gone through. But he needs to handle the legal problem on his own time, and we need to move the party forward.

Power is expected to take over the state GOP if Ziegler is removed.

Ziegler and his wife have admitted to police they previously had a consensual sexual relationship with the accuser. Plus, recent court documents revealed Ziegler showed investigators a video of himself engaging in the sexual encounter in question.

Bridget Ziegler has not been accused of any crime, and Christian Ziegler has not been charged with any crime.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
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Secretary of State Frank LaRose answers a question during a Republican U.S. Senate forum in Akron in October.

A group backing Secretary of State Frank LaRose's U.S. Senate bid laid low in 2023 as LaRose's campaign struggled to keep up with his wealthy opponents.

Now, the Leadership for Ohio Fund is back  thanks to $3 million from an Illinois billionaire and GOP megadonor.

The super PAC spent nearly $1.5 million for an ad released Monday that focuses on LaRose's military service and the U.S.-Mexico border. LaRose, a former Army Green Beret, is running in the Republican primary against Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno and state Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls.

The winner on March 19 will challenge Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in a race that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

"When I take the oath to serve in the United State Senate, just like I did as a soldier, my first priority is to American security," LaRose said in a clip featured in the ad.

What is the Leadership for Ohio Fund?

Leadership for Ohio formed last year as an IRS-registered political organization to promote election integrity and LaRose's work as secretary of state. LaRose raised money for the group as he laid the groundwork for his Senate bid. The partnership appeared to be legal, but critics cast it as an example of the problems with dark money in politics.

When LaRose joined the race, Leadership for Ohio pivoted to a super PAC so it could advocate for his candidacy. The PAC reported roughly $155,000 last year on digital advertising, although Meta removed several ads because they didn't follow the company's disclaimer rules.

The ad released Monday, which will air around Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, marks Leadership for Ohio's first major media buy of the race. It was made possible by $3 million from shipping magnate Richard Uihlein, who bankrolled the failed effort last year to make it harder to amend the Ohio Constitution.

Cleveland.com first reported Uihlein's donation to the PAC, which was later confirmed to the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau.

The money came at a pivotal time for LaRose. While polls last year showed him ahead of the pack, LaRose can't match Moreno's and Dolan's ability to self-fund their campaigns. And polling indicated that many Republican voters were still undecided.

The candidates will report their latest fundraising numbers at the end of this month.

Moreno, meanwhile, has enjoyed positive momentum in recent weeks. He secured the support of former President Donald Trump, which prompted nods from Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Troy. The Club for Growth PAC, a prominent conservative group with deep pockets, is also backing Moreno.

Ohio's Nexstar stations, which include NBC 4 in Columbus and Fox 8 in Cleveland, will host a debate between LaRose, Moreno and Dolan at 7 p.m. on Jan. 22.

Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Senate race: Frank LaRose PAC launches ad with Dick Uihlein cash
Volunteers from all walks of life and a Girl Scout troop braved grey skies and chilly weather Saturday to help the Franklin nonprofit One Generation Away give groceries to dozens of residents at Centennial High School.

Founded in 2013, One Generation Away works by redistributing the high-quality, surplus food items it receives from grocery stores, restaurants, farms and caterers to individuals and families experiencing food insecurity.

Anyone can receive food with no questions asked and no registration required.

The nonprofit's name stems from a message received in a prayer, cofounder Elaine Whitney said.

My husband was praying and the phrase one generation away kept popping up, Whitney said. He felt that God was telling him that, so he reserved the domain name.

The organization now serves communities throughout Middle Tennessee, North Alabama and the Florida panhandle. It also provides long-term disaster relief to help people get back on their feet, Whitney said.

Every time we get to serve in our home base of Franklin is special, said cofounder Chris Whitney. We know that 1 in 10 Americans are making a choice between buying food and paying for another critical need, such as utilities, rent or medication, even in Williamson County. We are grateful to be part of a community that works together to help eliminate those impossible decisions.

As cars filled Centennial High School's parking lot Saturday, volunteers rushed to fill them with groceries and wish community members a Happy New Year.

OneGenAway volunteers filling cars with groceries

With the mission of, Hope, Honor and Dignity shared through food, the nonprofit has touched hundreds of lives, organizers said.

We had Ms. Raina who was in our food line, and shes 70 years old. She said, 'thank you so much.' And I said, 'youre welcome.' She then said, 'you dont understand, I can now by my meds,' Elaine Whitney said. People are forced to choose between food and medicine, and thats just unacceptable.

For the Whitneys, the organization and its mission is important because they see themselves in the people they serve.

Thirty-three years ago, when I was pregnant with my daughter, she required 17 surgeries and we lost everything we had, Elaine Whitney said. I remember being in the food line and feeling ashamed. Thats why we dont ask questions.

"If youre in line, youre going to get food. I think its so impactful for people because were helping to bring them a sense of hope, honor and dignity through food.

The nonprofit's mobile pantry travels to different cities every Saturday. In upcoming weeks, there are plans to visit and serve residents in Cheatham and Maury Counties, organizers said.

For those interested in helping, visit www.OneGenAway.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Franklin nonprofit serving locals, giving hope through free groceries
Elisabeth Borne, Prime Minister of France, gives a speech during the Congress of French Regions 2023. The centre-right government of French prime minister Elisabeth Borne has resigned, the presidential palace in Paris says. Damien Meyer/AFP/dpa

The centre-right government of French prime minister Elisabeth Borne has resigned, the presidential palace in Paris said on Monday.

The move comes in connection with political wrangling over a controversial immigration law aimed at tightening state controls on immigration and improving integration.

The legislation adopted last month caused controversy in President Emmanuel Macron's own party, with 20 voting against it and 17 abstaining.

Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau resigned in protest and other left-wing cabinet members had reportedly also considered leaving the government.

Borne has been prime minister since mid-May 2022.

It is initially unclear when a new government will be formed and who will lead it.
By Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne resigned on Monday, as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to give a new impetus to his second mandate ahead of European parliament elections and the Paris Olympics this summer.

Macron did not immediately name a successor for Borne, who will stay on as a caretaker along with the rest of the government until a new one is formed, the presidential palace said in a carefully choreographed move.

The change was made after a year marred by political crises triggered by contested reforms of the country's pension system and immigration laws.

The move will not necessarily lead to a shift in political tack, but rather signal a desire to move beyond the pension and immigration reforms and focus on new priorities, including hitting full employment.

In her resignation letter, Borne said she and Macron agreed in their last meeting that "it was more necessary than ever to push on with reforms".

European Parliament elections are scheduled to take place in June, with eurosceptics expected to make record gains at a time of widespread public discontent over surging living costs and the failure of European governments to curb migration flows.

In France, opinion polls show Macron's party trailing that of far-right leader Marine Le Pen by some eight to ten percentage points ahead of the elections.

Speculation of a government reshuffle had been rife in the weeks since the French parliament narrowly adopted toughened immigration rules, a battle that exposed deep cracks in Macron's centrist majority. Macron promised a new political initiative.

Among those cited as potential candidates to replace Borne are Education Minister Gabriel Attal, 34, and Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, 37, either of whom would be France's youngest prime minister.

"With a young, dynamic profile who can communicate well, the prime minister would be a campaigner, which shows that Emmanuel Macron's priority is the election rather than passing bills," Benjamin Morel, a political analyst, said on Franceinfo.

Former Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, have also been mentioned by political sources as possible options for the prime minister's job.

TURBULENT ENVIRONMENT

A soft-spoken career bureaucrat who served numerous Socialist Party ministers before joining Macron's governments, Borne, 62, had been prime minister since May 2022. She was only the second woman to serve in the post.

Macron and his government, led by Borne, have struggled to deal with a more turbulent parliament to pass laws since losing their absolute majority shortly after he was reelected for a second mandate in 2022.

The French president's advisers say Macron has managed to pass the most challenging parts of his economic manifesto in the first year and a half of his second mandate, despite the lack of an absolute majority, and that future reforms, on education and euthanasia for instance, will be more consensual.

But the president's decision to use executive powers last year to pass a contested increase in the pension age to 64 triggered weeks of violent protests. Borne had become known as "Madame 49.3" for invoking the special powers laid out in article 49.3 of the French constitution some 23 times to ram bills through.

The reshuffle is likely to intensify the race in Macron's camp to succeed him in the next presidential election in 2027, with former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, Darmanin and Le Maire all seen as potential candidates.

But with Le Pen having spent the past 18 months in parliament working to detoxify her image and burnish her credentials as a potential president, many politicians now speculate she could win the next presidential election in 2027.

(This story has been refiled to add dropped words in paragraph 2)

(Reporting by Michel Rose, Benoit van Overstraeten and Piotr Lipinski; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Michel Rose; Editing by Richard Lough and Paul Simao)
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  The Fresno Police Department is asking for the publics assistance in identifying a man who is allegedly involved in multiple convenience store robberies within Fresno.

Police say around 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 6, a man entered a 7-Eleven located at 6015 East Kings Canyon Road and paid for a drink.

The man then walked behind the counter where officers say he confronted the clerk with a pocketknife. The suspect told the clerk to open the register and took about $700 in cash.

Detectives believe the suspect is responsible for three other similar cases at different 7-Elevens in Fresno.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact police at (559) 621-6328.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com.
Amanda Butler, of auctioneers Hanson Ross, with one of the scripts that was found by a studio worker in 1998 - BNPS

Two original scripts for the classic sitcom Friends, which were found in a bin in London, are going up for auction.

The scripts, The One With Rosss Wedding Part I and Part II, were thrown away after the episodes were filmed in London in 1998.

Despite the cast and crew asking for all the scripts to be destroyed to prevent the plot leaking, they were found by a studio worker.

The vendor salvaged them from Fountain Studios in Wembley and took them home, keeping hold of them for 26 years.

The 60-year-old Londoner, who wished not to be named, is now selling them at Hertfordshire auctioneers Hanson Ross, which have given the scripts an estimated price of between 600 and 800. The sale takes place on Friday, Jan 12.

The man, who admitted he is not a big Friends fan, said: I found them in a bin a couple of weeks after filming had finished.

It was part of my job to ensure everything was tidy and no rubbish was left around. I wasnt sure what to do with them, so I just put them in my office drawer.

The two Friends scripts which should have been destroyed following filming in London in 1998 - HANSON ROSS/SWNS

I remember wondering which member of the cast they might have belonged to.

I left Fountain Studios in 1999 and when I came to clear my desk I just swept everything into a big cardboard box. I forgot the scripts were there. They were mixed up in a pile of paperwork.

It wasnt until I checked through the box a few months later that I found them. They ended up in a bedside drawer and theyve been there ever since. I could quite easily have thrown them out.

Recently Ive been clearing my house ahead of a move and I came across them again.

Im not a big Friends fan

Funnily enough, Im not a big Friends fan. I dont dislike the show, but I only recently watched the episodes I have the scripts for. American humour is different to ours. These scripts deserve to be owned by a big Friends fan.

In the two-part episode, Ross, Monica, Joey, Chandler and Rachel travelled to England to see Ross marry his English fiancee Emily, played by Helen Baxendale.

Friends, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, aired on NBC from 1994 to 2004 and lasted for 10 seasons.

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and the late Matthew Perry, it is one of the most popular television series of all time.

The series finale, which aired on May 6 2004, was watched by 52.5 million American viewers.

Amanda Butler, of Hanson Ross, said: They [the scripts] were brought along to our saleroom for valuation and we were amazed.

Friends fans will absolutely love these. They sweep us back to 1998 when Ross, Monica, Joey, Chandler and Rachel travelled to England to see Ross marry his fiancee, Emily, in London.

The two scripts were found at a television studio which is no longer there.

Apparently, the cast and crew were ordered to destroy their copies so the ending wouldnt be leaked. However, these two slipped through the net.

Were guiding them at 600-800, but thanks to the shows huge global appeal, who knows where the hammer may fall.

Friends final show aired 20 years ago in 2004, but the series is still watched and enjoyed by millions.

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Ministers are considering chasing Fujitsu for millions of pounds in compensation for the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.

Around 138 million has already been paid to victims and hundreds of others are still waiting, with the bill covered by the taxpayer.

More than 700 Post Office branch managers were convicted after Horizon, the faulty accounting software created by Fujitsu, made it look like money was missing from their shops.

However, Post Office bosses are still using the Japanese technology firm, with Fujitsu handed a 37 million contract just two months ago to keep data centres powering Horizon running for two more years.

On Monday, Kevin Hollinrake, the government minister who oversees the Post Office, vowed to quicken the pace at which sub-postmasters can overturn convictions and get compensation.

Mr Hollinrake said in the House of Commons: The time for quibbling is over. It is a case now of action, action on this day, and delivering that by overturning convictions.

He added that the Government would consider urging Fujitsu to help cover compensation if a public inquiry into the scandal concluded that the firm carried some blame for what happened.

Ministers are leaning towards a mass exoneration of all those convicted in the scandal that would speed up the process of convictions being overturned, The Telegraph understands, but are seeking advice from senior judges first before announcements on next steps.

Just 93 sub-postmasters have had their convictions quashed and many of them are still awaiting full compensation.

Meanwhile, Downing Street said on Monday that Rishi Sunak would strongly support a review into whether Paula Vennells, the former chief executive of the Post Office, should be stripped of her CBE.

At a press briefing, the Prime Ministers official spokesman was asked whether Fujitsu should pay for some of the compensation owed.

The spokesman replied: I think the culpability of Fujitsu or otherwise is something thats being examined as part of the independent inquiry process.

So Im unable to fully opine at this point. But obviously it should not be the taxpayer alone which picks up the tab for Horizon compensation.

The remark comes amid mounting calls for Fujitsu to contribute in some form to the compensation expected.

Jonathan Reynolds, Labours shadow business secretary, told MPs: If it is found that Fujitsu knew the extent of what was occurring there will have to be consequences that match the scale of the injustice.

Lord Arbuthnot, who sits on the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, also calls for Fujitsu to pay up in an article for The Telegraph.

The Tory peer writes: And who is to pay for all of this? Sadly the taxpayer will bear some of the cost, because we took (in profits from the Post Office suspense accounts) some of the ill-gotten gains. But Fujitsu, which has kept a very low profile throughout, should also contribute generously.

Large amounts of public money is still being handed to Fujitsu with the company awarded public sector contracts worth 3 billion since 2013.

Alan Bates, founder of the Justice for Sub-Postmasters Alliance, told Computer Weekly magazine at the time: It has been like squeezing blood out of a stone getting compensation for those that have suffered in the scandal, which was caused by the Post Office and Fujitsu, but the government seems happy to continue to throw money at Fujitsu.

A Fujitsu spokesman said: The current Post Office Horizon IT statutory inquiry is examining complex events stretching back over 20 years to understand who knew what, when, and what they did with that knowledge.

The inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering.

More than 100 new potential victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal have now come forward after an ITV drama about the issue, The Telegraph can reveal.

Neil Hudgell, a lawyer acting for former sub-postmasters, said his firm had heard from in excess of an additional 100 people since Mr Bates vs The Post Office aired on ITV last week.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
A gay, interracial couple from New York City faced backlash after sharing a now-viral kiss during CNNs New Years Eve special.

Corin Christian and Jake Eriksson told Out magazine they were shocked at how much attention they received as people watched them share a kiss on CNNs New Years Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen.

I have a TikTok presence, so I woke up the next day and Im like, Jake, my phone is blowing up. I was so confused as to what was going on, Christian told the magazine. Im going through [my phone], scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. I see the things on CNN. And Im like, Oh my God, this is crazy. We were literally the first thing that people saw in 2024.

It was a little sad to see some of the negative comments and how negatively [people] were affected by that, being forced to see two men kissing on live TV, Eriksson explained.

Overall, though, Eriksson believes that people are just scared of things they dont know, cant understand, or feel insecure about.

I lived in fear for so long, he added. I lived in shame, and I thought something was wrong with me. I thought I was going to hell, and Im just not willing to live like that anymore. Im happier when I treat people with love and kindness, regardless of how they identify and who they love.

According to Christian, it was surprising to see so many people online who are afraid to come out to their loved ones.

For me, its sad seeing the comments that I was getting. Ive seen all the Reddit comments and Im like, People are really scared to open up to their families and parents because of what we did on live TV. And its just shocking to see that people are really devastated and scared to come out to their families, Christian said.

While the couple received some negative comments, they also received praise from those who were proud to see people from the LGBTQ+ community featured on CNNs New Years Eve special.

At the end of the day, were still supported, and the positive outweighs the negative, Christian said.

The pairs love story began after meeting on the popular dating site Bumble six months ago.

While they both moved to New York City to follow their dreams, they also established what appears to be a lasting relationship with each other.
The U.S. Department of Commerce is reviewing the National Income Accounts, which measure the size and composition of our economy. This process is undertaken every few years, as better measurement tools are available. Right now, the data only extends back to 2017, but it tells a few interesting stories about the Hoosier economy.

From 2017 through 2022, the Indiana economy grew more slowly than the nation as a whole. In inflation-adjusted terms, the Hoosier economy expanded by 10.8%, while the nation as a whole grew by 11.3%.

That trend continues our long-term underperformance. But the dismal growth of 2017 through 2020 accounts for all the lagging performance of the Hoosier economy. The expansion from 2009 to 2019 was the worst relative performance of our economy in state history. By 2019, the Indiana economy was slipping into recession due primarily to the tariffs put in place by the Trump administration.

Michael Hicks

During the post-COVID period, Indianas economy has grown steadily. No matter which period you examine from 2020 to 2022, we ranked among the top six states for economic growth post-COVID. There are two clear reasons for this.

The first is the American shift of consumption towards manufacturing.

From 2017 to 2022, American household consumption of durable goods grew by $316 billion, or 17.7%. All of this shift occurred from the start of the pandemic through late 2022. This shift is partially attributable to the low levels of travel and tourism the nation experienced in 2020. But the vast majority of increased demand for manufactured goods came from federal stimulus payments in the CARES and Pandemic Recovery Act.

A whopping 46.4% of Indianas GDP growth since the pandemic comes from the manufacturing of goods. However, almost all of that growth was due to federal pandemic spending. That spending boom ended in mid-2022, and the Indiana manufacturing sector has actually shrunk over the past six quarters. In fact, most of Indianas economy shrank over the past 18 months, since the pandemic stimulus spending ran out.

In fact, just four sectors account for 85.8% of our states growth since the end of stimulus. These are retail, transportation, information services and professional and scientific services.

Taken together these data tell a pretty clear story. Indianas slow growth during the last expansion from 2009 to 2019 hit a tariff wall in 2018. That pushed us into an early recession. Then COVID hit, and the U.S. economy slumped to Great Depression levels of joblessness.

The quick rebound was concentrated in the manufacturing sector. Some of that shift was due to consumers substituting RVs, patio furniture and new carpet for the Disney vacation they couldnt safely take.

The largest causal factor in Indianas rapid post-COVID growth was the series of federal government stimulus checks. Those stimulus payments have been spent, and the result was a shrinking manufacturing sector since mid-2022.

The Hoosier economy is now returning to a more pre-COVID trend with growth that is slower than the nation as a whole.

A more interesting story is where that growth is occurring.

Before COVID, the geography of economic activity continued to occur overwhelmingly in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. So far in this century, Indianapolis and its suburbs have captured 82% of the states population growth and 105% of its jobs. Over the last year for which we have data, that has fallen to 70% of population growth and 50% of job growth.

The post-COVID world is one in which remote work is now common, and as many as one in three Hoosiers have some remote work options. That allows families far more flexibility in their choice of locations. This has meant departure from the largest city centers, for suburbs and smaller towns.

From 2000 to 2022, Hamilton, Hendricks and Marion County alone accounted for half the states population growth.

However, from 2020 to 2022, Marion County was one of 34 Hoosier counties that lost population.

According to the IRS files from 2020-2021, Hamilton County was the No. 1 destination of previous Marion County residents. In fact, the growth in Hamilton and Hendricks counties were so strong, that together they accounted for more than half of all the states new residents since 2020.

The other counties that accounted for more than 5% of the states population growth were Allen, Johnson, Boone, Clark, Hancock and Tippecanoe. Altogether, eight Hoosier counties accounted for 97.2% of post COVID population growth. Five of these were in the Indianapolis metropolitan area.

The new GDP data offers some tantalizing evidence that we are seeing an increasing separation between businesses and household location.

The Indy metro area is the perfect place to explore this.

From 2017 to 2022, the period of revised data, the Indy metro area claimed 38.3% of the states GDP growth.

Marion County alone collected a quarter of the states GDP growth, along with 7.1% of the states population growth. But since the COVID downturn, Marion County continued to hold 25% of the states total GDP growth while losing more than 7,000 residents.

I apologize for all the data here, but a quick narrative summary might pull it all together.

Since the end of the Great Recession, the Hoosier economy has performed poorly, growing slower than the nation. This left us slipping farther and farther behind in terms of income and prosperity.

The one astonishing bright spot has been the performance of the manufacturing sector in the first 18 months after COVID. This burst in manufacturing production was caused primarily by the federal government stimulus, which was exhausted by the middle of 2022.

In the six quarters since, Indianas manufacturing sector shrunk modestly.

At the same time, population growth is happening in a modestly broader set of counties.

The shock of the pandemic is too recent to make clear if this is a permanent trend, but it does suggest that as Indiana returns to a pre-COVID economy, more Hoosier counties might expect to pull in a larger share of new residents. This, of course, means places must becoming more like the successful counties of Hamilton, Hendricks, Allen, Johnson, and Boone.

Michael J. Hicks, PhD, is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and the George and Frances Ball distinguished professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: New data indicates that Hoosier economy is shrinking
The words "GDL strike" are written on the display board at the main station. Germany's GDL train drivers' union is again calling for a strike lasting several days in the wage dispute with state-owned Deutsche Bahn and other railway companies. Bernd Wustneck/dpa

A labour court has ruled that Germany's GDL train drivers' union may go ahead with a planned strike on the railways from Wednesday.

It rejected on Monday an injunction from the railway company Transdev against the strike in the first instance, the court announced.

The presiding judge explained that the mere allegation that the company was financially overwhelmed was not enough to prohibit a strike.

Deutsche Bahn had also filed for an injunction with the Frankfurt Labour Court in the same matter. A decision should be made on Monday. The labour court heard the two applications separately.

Transdev, which operates regional railways in eastern Germany and the north-west, can appeal the decision from Frankfurt to the Hesse State Labour Court. A verdict is expected there on Tuesday.

In passenger transport, the strike is to begin overnight in the early hours of Wednesday and last until Friday evening. In freight transport, GDL members plan to stop working on Tuesday evening.

Since the start of wage negotiations at the beginning of November, the GDL has already brought passenger trains to a standstill twice with 20-hour and 24-hour strikes.
COLOGNE, Germany  The German government is no longer concerned over a proposed sale of 48 Eurofighter Typhoons jets to Saudi Arabia, following the kingdoms help intercepting Houthi-fired missiles aimed at Israel, according to German media reports.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday backed up Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbocks overture from the day prior, the press agency dpa reported, citing a statement to that effect from government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

Baerbock had broached the Eurofighter blockade during a visit to Israel, saying Germany would no longer object to a U.K. sale of the aircraft.

Germany, as a co-producer of the jets along with the U.K., Spain and Italy, can veto Eurofigher sales to countries outside of the core user group. The aircraft are made by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.

Saudi Arabia already operates a fleet of more than 70 Eurofighters. Saudi officials have said they want more, threatening to buy other fighter types elsewhere if their request goes unfulfilled.

The policy of Germanys governing coalition  composed of the Social Democratic, the Green and the Free Democratic parties  was to prohibit weapons sales to parties involved in Yemens civil war. Saudi Arabia supports the Yemen government in fighting Houthi rebels, who have aligned themselves with Hamas against Israel. Berlins blockade was also grounded in human rights violations committed by Riyadh.

The German governments about-face, which has led to backlash, especially in Baerbocks Green Party, has its roots in what Scholz and his foreign minister consider Saudi Arabias constructive role in averting an expansion of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Speaking in Jerusalem, Baerbock specifically mentioned Ryadhs use of its Eurofighters in intercepting Houthi missiles and drones aimed at Israel, according to the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Dan Darling, a defense analyst at Forecast International, said he is surprised German leaders changed their tune.

The country has long held a critical view on Saudi Arabias human rights record, and the Saudis already field a large inventory of capable combat aircraft, Darling told Defense News. But British pressure on Germany to lift its export objections, coupled with a newfound bit of realpolitik in Berlin following Russias invasion of Ukraine, appears to have altered the current governments stance on the matter.

According to Richard Aboulafia, a managing director with AeroDynamic Advisory who has tracked aircraft programs for more than 30 years, said Berlins new approach will alleviate its neighbors concerns that future arms cooperation with Germany effectively means most export plans are dead on arrival.

Given whats at stake, theres a good chance of a German policy change here, Aboulafia said. Germanys credibility as an arms program partner is very much in doubt without a change. Saudi Arabia is one of the worlds largest export markets, and given recent developments, Germanys government certainly has the rationale for a policy change.

The move would also invigorate the industrial complex behind the Eurofighter, argued Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.

German arms export policy has placed it increasingly at odds with defense industrial partners, including those in the Eurofighter consortium, Barrie said. In effectively blocking the sale of additional Typhoons to Saudi Arabia, Berlin was also risking damaging its domestic defense aerospace sector as well as hindering other export opportunities.

Sebastian Sprenger reported from Cologne, Germany. Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo reported from Milan.
During a rally by the German Train Drivers' Union (GDL) in front of the main station, a participant wears an orange vest with the word "GDL" on it. Germany's GDL train drivers' union is again calling for a strike lasting several days in the wage dispute with state-owned Deutsche Bahn and other railway companies. Soeren Stache/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

Germany's GDL train drivers' union is again calling for a strike lasting several days in the wage dispute with state-owned Deutsche Bahn and other railway companies, the union announced on Sunday evening.

In passenger transport, the strike is to begin overnight in the early hours of Wednesday and last until Friday evening. In freight transport, GDL members plan to put down work on Tuesday evening.

The German rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) has called on passengers to postpone journeys planned during the strike.

On Sunday evening DB also announced it intends to offer an emergency timetable.

"The emergency timetable only ensures a very limited train service on DB's long-distance, regional and S-Bahn services. Please refrain from unnecessary journeys during the GDL strike and postpone your journey to another time," it said in an online statement.

According to DB, all passengers who wish to postpone journeys which were planned during the strike period can use their ticket at a later date.

Tickets would be valid for the journey to the original destination, even if the route is changed.

Deutsche Bahn criticized the action and announced that it would take legal action.

The strike marks the return of the GDL after the "Christmas truce." The union had ruled out industrial action over the Christmas period and the turn of the year up to and including Sunday.

Now the union plans the third and longest strike in the ongoing dispute. "The DB Group has not used the Christmas truce to counteract industrial action with a negotiable offer," GDL said.

Since the start of wage negotiations at the beginning of November, the GDL has already brought passenger trains to a standstill twice with 20-hour and 24-hour strikes.

The railway announced that it would take legal action against the planned industrial action. A corresponding urgent application for a temporary injunction will be submitted to the Frankfurt Labour Court.

"This strike is not only completely unnecessary, but we also consider it to be legally inadmissible," said Martin Seiler, head of human resources, according to the press release.

Seiler said that only two days ago, Deutsche Bahn had presented an extended offer in which the company had taken a major step towards the union's core demand regarding working hours.

"DB is prepared to compromise. It is now time to negotiate again. The GDL leadership has overreached, it must finally come to its senses."

Among the sticking points in the wage dispute is the union's demand for a reduction in working hours.

GDL boss Claus Weselsky has called for a cut in the working week for shift workers from 38 hours (where it is now) to 35, but remain at full pay.

The company already operates optional different working-hour models, and the current offer aims to extend the system.

Last month, Weselsky said the GDL was planning strikes lasting between three and five days for 2024.

The GDL had also ruled out further industrial action over Christmas and the New Year after two rounds of strikes.

The words "GDL strike" are written on the display board at the main station. Germany's GDL train drivers' union is again calling for a strike lasting several days in the wage dispute with state-owned Deutsche Bahn and other railway companies. Bernd Wustneck/dpa
(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholzs government signaled its prepared to reverse course and back the sale of additional Eurofighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia, though it said it might take several years for them to be delivered.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Scholz said as recently as July that his ruling coalition wouldnt support exports of the aircraft to Saudi Arabia in the near future. The policy pushed by the Greens was part of an agreement between the three parties in the alliance in Berlin not to supply weapons to countries involved in the conflict in Yemen.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced the policy reversal Sunday during a visit to Jerusalem, potentially paving the way for a contract worth billions of euros. She said that the Saudi role in thwarting attacks on Israel by Yemen-based Houthi rebels means that Germany can no longer justify blocking Britains wish to supply the fighters  a joint project between the UKs BAE Systems Plc, Airbus SE and Italys Leonardo SpA.

Her argument was echoed Monday by Economy Minister Robert Habeck, a member of Baerbocks Greens party who is also the vice chancellor, who said that the Hamas attack in October had changed the security policy situation in the Middle East.

The Houthis are attacking Israel and Saudi Arabian missile defenses are protecting Israel, Habeck said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD.

At the same time, its also right that the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia still doesnt in any way meet our standards, he added. In that sense, its an ambivalent situation and that cant be ignored.

Why Yemens Houthi Rebels Joined Fight Against Israel: QuickTake

Baerbocks comments had earlier prompted immediate pushback from Greens Co-leader Ricarda Lang.

While she acknowledged that the government in Riyadh has provided important support for Israel in recent weeks, she said the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia means she continues to oppose selling Eurofighters to the Gulf power.

I think it would be right for us to stick to the position that no Eurofighters will be delivered to Saudi Arabia, Lang told German public broadcaster RBB on Monday. The Saudi government wants to buy an additional 48 aircrafts, DPA reported.

Any eventual sale would require approval from Germanys security cabinet and it could then take several years for the aircraft to be built and delivered, Steffen Hebestreit, Scholzs chief spokesman, said at Mondays regular government news conference.

--With assistance from Michael Nienaber and Arne Delfs.

(Updates with comments from Habeck, Scholz spokesman)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

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German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks with residents of the community of Al-Mazra'a al-Qibliya, who have been displaced by settler violence, during her visit to the West Bank. Michael Kappeler/dpa

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on the Israeli government on Monday to better protect Palestinians in the West Bank from attacks by Israeli settlers and to punish acts of violence.

Amid Israel's war on the Gaza Strip following terrorist attacks on the Jewish state by Hamas Islamists on October 7, settler violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank has grown.

"It is the responsibility of the Israeli government to implement and enforce the rule of law in the event of attacks on people who live here legitimately and are attacked illegally," Baerbock said during a visit to a Palestinian community in the West Bank.

It is the responsibility of the Israeli army to protect Palestinians from violent settlers, she added.

Baerbock talked to residents in the Palestinian village of al-Mazra'a al-Qibliya, north-west of the de-facto Palestinian West Bank capital of Ramallah. The village, which has a population of over 5,000, is surrounded by several Israeli settlements.

One of the residents - a farmer - described how he was no longer able to cultivate his fruit and vegetable fields because of the settlers.

He had been hit on the head and sprayed with pepper spray while his daughters were also attacked, the 70-year-old retired teacher said.

The Israelis also tried to set fire to houses and drove him out of his home, which is located in a valley between the Palestinian village and the settlement, he added.

The allegations could not be independently verified.

Baerbock said what is happening around the village is "illegal under Israeli law and illegal under international law" and that the increase in settle violence since October 7 "also shows that stability in Gaza and the West Bank are closely linked."

She again called for a two-state solution, adding: "Settlement construction is illegal. It undermines lasting peace and jeopardizes the two-state solution, thereby also endangering Israel's security."

In Ramallah, Baerbock met Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki to discuss the issue. She later plans to hold talks in Israel, including with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant before heading to Egypt and Lebanon.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also travelling the region.

During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, among other territories. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers now live there, surrounded by around 3 million Palestinians, who have Western backing to form their own state in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The political focus may have temporarily switched to the West Bank but the war rages on in Gaza and threatens to spill into Lebanon, with Houthi rebels in Yemen also occasionally attacking Israel, prompting a possible fourth front.

The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to 23,084 since the start of the war three months ago, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority.

Almost 59,000 people have been injured, a statement added. Within the last 24 hours, 249 people had been killed in Israeli attacks in the coastal strip and around 70% of those killed are said to be women and children. The figures cannot be independently verified.

An aid organization also said medical workers have been forced to leave the al-Aqsa hospital in the central Gaza Strip due to increasing Israeli military operations.

It remains "the only functioning hospital in the centre of Gaza," the New York-based International Rescue Committee (IRC) said.

Israel meanwhile assumes that 136 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip and 25 of them are probably no longer alive, an Israeli government spokeswoman announced.

The hostages also include the bodies of two soldiers who were kidnapped during the last major Gaza war in 2014, as well as two other Israelis who have been held in the coastal strip since then.

In southern Lebanon, a military commander of the pro-Iranian and pro-Hamas Hezbollah movement was killed in a suspected Israeli drone attack, a Lebanese security source said.

Wissam al-Tawil, code-named Haj Jawad, was killed when an Israeli drone hit the car he was in. The Hezbollah press office also confirmed his death but did not give his rank.

The Israeli armed forces confirmed they had again fired on several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Air force fighter jets attacked a military facility and a rocket launcher near the border while an Israeli drone and a helicopter also attacked positions from which Israel had been fired upon, they added.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (C) speaks with residents of the community of Al-Mazra'a al-Qibliya, who have been displaced by settler violence, during her visit to the West Bank. Michael Kappeler/dpa
Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz (R), and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (L), at the start of her trip to the Middle East. Her first stop will be talks in Israel on the situation in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank and the tense situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Michael Kappeler/dpa

Visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock met her new Israeli counterpart Israel Katz in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Katz thanked her for Germany's support for Israel and the commitment to the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, his office said on Sunday evening.

This also applied to regional efforts to remove the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah from the border with Israel, the statement said.

This is Baerbock's fourth trip to Israel and the region since the Hamas attacks on Israeli communities in October.

Relatives of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip also attended her meeting with the Israeli foreign minister.

Katz said he also asked Baerbock for support with regard to what she called South Africa's "absurd" lawsuit against Israel before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Before departing, Baerbock on Sunday called for an end to the cycle of violence in the Middle East.

"Terrorism must end, people's humanitarian need must end, the region must emerge from the eternal cycle of violence," she said before leaving for Israel, where she met Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday.

While Israel had the right to defend itself against terrorism, civilians had to be better protected during military operations, she said. Baerbock called for a substantial increase in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip to combat hunger, disease and the cold.

Talks in Jerusalem are to focus on efforts to free hostages being held by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian conditions for the population there and on moves towards a two-state solution once the current war ends.

Gaza should not be permitted to pose a threat to Israel in the future, Hamas should lay down its arms and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and Houthis in Yemen had to end their dangerous activities, she said.

Both sides would be able to live in peace only if "each sees the suffering of the other," she said.

Baerbock's trip is her fourth to Israel and the region since the Hamas attacks in October.

Baerbock also noted that "the script of terror must not continue to unfold."

The foundation must finally be laid for sustainable peace and security, the German foreign minister asserted.

To achieve this, Gaza must no longer pose a threat to Israel's existence, Hamas must lay down its arms and the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen must "stop their dangerous bombing."

Baerbock is to visit a Palestinian village in the West Bank on Monday and meet Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki in Ramallah. Afterwards, the onward journey to Egypt is planned, followed by a visit to Lebanon on Wednesday.

After her visit, the German official is to fly to the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

On Sunday, the German Red Cross (DRK) organized a flight of 33 tons of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including tents, tarpaulins, lifting devices and rescue backpacks.

The flight took off from Leipzig/Halle airport and was due to land in Egypt, from where it was to be transported to the Gaza Strip with the aid of the Egyptian Red Crescent for distribution by the Palestinian Red Crescent.

"There is huge demand for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. More of practically everything is needed," DRK head secretary Christian Reuter said. The aid was aimed at the most urgent needs and would support the work of the Palestinian Red Crescent, he added.

A second plane carrying 26 tons is to take off from the same airport on Monday. The flights are receiving financial support from the German Foreign Ministry.

According to the DRK, there is a lack of medicines, drinking water, food, fuel and clothing. Most of the population have lost their homes.

Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz, welcomes German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (L), at the start of her trip to the Middle East. Her first stop will be talks in Israel on the situation in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank and the tense situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Michael Kappeler/dpa

Israel's President Izchak Herzog (R) welcomes German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (C), at the start of her trip to the Middle East. Her first stop will be talks in Israel on the situation in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank and the tense situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Michael Kappeler/dpa

Israel's President Izchak Herzog welcomes German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (L), at the start of her trip to the Middle East. Her first stop will be talks in Israel on the situation in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank and the tense situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Michael Kappeler/dpa
KATHMANDU, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Nepali government on Monday confirmed the presence of a new coronavirus subvariant JN.1 in the South Asian country.

The JN.1 strain was found in seven out of 16 coronavirus positive samples taken from people of different ages for examination through the gene sequencing method, the Ministry of Health and Population said in a press statement.

"It is the first time that the presence of the JN.1 strain was confirmed in Nepal," the ministry said.

Coronavirus cases re-emerged in Nepal in recent days as neighbouring India has witnessed increasing infections with the JN.1 strain. The Nepali ministry has urged health desks at the border points to increase screening of people and asked people to avoid crowds, maintain physical distance and use masks.

Last month, the World Health Organization classified the JN.1 strain as a separate variant of interest, citing the strain's rapidly increasing spread around the globe. 
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks with residents of the community of Al-Mazra'a al-Qibliya, who have been displaced by settler violence, during her visit to the West Bank. Michael Kappeler/dpa

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has visited the West Bank to find out about the situation of the Palestinians.

On Monday morning, the minister first visited a Palestinian community that is close to Israeli settlements, where she planned to talk to residents, among other things.

A meeting with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki was then planned in Ramallah.

In the evening, Baerbock plans to travel on to Egypt, where she is set to meet Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri on Tuesday, followed by a visit to Lebanon on Wednesday.
Exterior view with lettering on a building at the headquarters of the biotechnology company Evotec in the Langenhorn district. German biotechnology company Evotec SE said on Monday that progress had been made within its strategic partnership with US pharmaceutical firm Bristol Myers Squibb. Evotec said it has received a $25 million payment to progress further research. Christian Charisius/dpa

German biotechnology company Evotec SE said on Monday that progress had been made within its strategic partnership with US pharmaceutical firm Bristol Myers Squibb.

Evotec said it has received a $25 million payment to progress further research.

A first programme, EVT8683, was in-licensed by Bristol Myers Squibb in September 2021 as BMS-986419. A Phase II study for BMS-986419 is scheduled to commence in 2024.

The companies entered their strategic neuroscience collaboration in December 2016.

In March 2023, the companies extended and expanded the partnership for an additional eight years.

Cord Dohrmann, chief scientific officer of Evotec, said: "As the first asset from our neuroscience partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb is moving towards a Phase II study, our partnership is still growing in the drug discovery phase as well."
Teachers no longer lead parent conferences at Arundel Elementary School.

The school, which serves 400 students pre-kindergarten through second grade in Marylands Baltimore City Public Schools, is rethinking the way it operates to boost parental involvement, said first-grade teacher Kaylah Crawford.

Crawford, who is in charge of family engagement at Arundel, said every student will lead their own parent-teacher conference this year, giving their families a glimpse of what they do in the classroom.

Students will be leading their conferences by saying, This is what Im doing in school and then parents will be able to see (their childs work) firsthand, Crawford said. Its more engaging for families to hear from the student about how theyre performing.

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Parent perception of their childs educational progress is tricky for many schools around the nation. A recently released national study has unveiled theres a stark gap between parents knowledge of their childs performance in school and their actual achievement in the classroom.

The study, released in November by Gallup and the nonprofit Learning Heroes, surveyed roughly 2,000 parents of K-12 public school students nationwide about their experiences with and perceptions of their childs educational achievement.

Learning Heroes founder Bibb Hubbard (Learning Heroes)

What researchers found was that parents dont have a complete understanding of their childs progress, said Bibb Hubbard, founder of Learning Heroes, a national parent advocacy organization.

Nearly 9 out of 10 parents surveyed believe their child is performing at grade level in reading (88%) and math (89%) despite standardized tests showing far fewer students are on track. Federal data released in February showed that at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, public schools reported on average half of their students were below grade level.

Related

Bridging the Parent Perception-Child Performance Gap in St. Louis Schools

We just cant afford to leave parents on the sidelines right now. We absolutely dont have 9 out of 10 students performing at or above grade level, unfortunately, Hubbard told The 74. We need to give parents more information.

The study also found that nearly two-thirds of parents (64%) said report cards  often considered the holy grail of measurements, Hubbard said  were important in determining whether their child is at grade level. And for 79% of parents surveyed, those report cards showed their children getting mostly B grades or better.

Hubbard said oftentimes, good grades equal on grade level for parents.

Thats because theyve not been told otherwise, she said. Grades dont necessarily reflect grade-level mastery. You can also have your fourth grader getting an A or B in reading and thats because they are reading at a second-grade level and they are getting Bs on their quizzes at a second-grade level.

Arundel Elementary School Principal Kaylah Crawford (Kaylah Crawford)

Crawford said her building principal strives to be transparent with parents about grades, but recently it has become more evident that some students complete homework without understanding all of the content.

(Turning in finished homework) doesnt necessarily mean that theyre able to read or even always able to complete work independently, Crawford said. So one of the things that weve done to target some of those discrepancies is starting different family programming.

Arundel Elementary School launched a program called Family University in December, Crawford said. Parents can communicate with school staff to learn more about whats happening in the classroom. They will also get feedback about what their child needs to work on academically.

We learned through every program that we have within the building that the goal is to teach the parents something that would better prepare them to have a scholar within the school system, Crawford said.

When parents are more informed about their childs academic progress, they are more likely to take action and discuss concerns with their childs teacher, Hubbard said.

The study found that 97% of parents who know their child is below grade level in math are worried about their childs math skills. Only 22% of the parents who knew their child was at or above grade level in math were concerned about their childs math skills.

Related

Rose-Colored Recovery: Study Says Parents Dont Grasp Scope of Learning Loss

Parents were also asked about what worries they have about their children.

For the parents who perceive their child to be at or above grade level, their top worries are social media and emotional well-being  reading and math fall to the very bottom of their worries, Hubbard said. For those parents who have information that their child is not performing at grade level, their number one worry is math or reading.

Researchers also unearthed racial differences in parents perceptions of how well their child was doing in school. The study introduced a hypothetical scenario to participants where their child receives a B in math but has two below-grade-level math test scores. While more than half of parents (56%) said they would be very or extremely concerned, Black parents were more likely to say they would be concerned (72%) compared with Hispanic (56%) and white parents (52%).

Black and Hispanic parents were also more aware of their childs academic performance in the study, Hubbard said.

Black (42%) and Hispanic (40%) parents were found less likely than white parents (54%) to say their child was performing above grade level in reading, with a similar finding in math.

Contradicting a false narrative that Black parents dont care about their childs education, Hubbard said, Black parents in particular are taking more action, thinking and more deeply worrying. The Black parent in this dataset really emerges as the super active parent thats really focused on academics.

Oakland REACH founder Lakisha Young (Oakland REACH)

Lakisha Young, co-founder of Oakland REACH, a parent empowerment group that recently launched a large-scale parent-led tutoring program, said Black parents in Oakland have been more aware that something isnt right with their childs achievement, but they dont know what to do about it.

Theyre definitely plugged in around something not being right, Young said. We asked our parents what was keeping them up at night and they just said, I know my childs not reading on the level they should be. But Im not really getting a lot of help from the school to figure out the best thing for me to do to move forward. 

Related

Oakland Study Finds Parents as Effective as Teachers in Tutoring Young Readers

The parent perception problem in education is solvable, Hubbard said  parents need to look beyond their childs grades and engage with teachers to get to the bottom of their achievement.

Teachers say that the number one way to know how your child is achieving is to ask them, Hubbard writes in the study. Asking teachers to unpack those factors and focus on grade-level learning is how to know where to lean in and help.

Young said when her own son is struggling in his eighth-grade classes, hes not the one to inform her  his teachers are.

I think things that continue to be helpful for families is to be able to feel like they can engage with the school and I think it really starts with building a relationship early, Young said. Kind of (letting) the school know, Im here, Im accessible. I care. I want to understand these things about whats going on with my kid. 

Learning Heroes has been working to boost parent engagement across the nation, most recently with its Go Beyond Grades campaign. The campaign partners with local nonprofits to connect parents with teachers and helps them understand achievement scores, among other resources.

In addition to the national project, Go Beyond Grades has local campaigns, most recently launched in St. Louis, Missouri, but is also in New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, Boston and Sacramento.

Grades are important, but we need to unpack that a little bit and get some additional information about how your child is doing, Hubbard said. The call to action is pretty simple.

Disclosure: The Carnegie Corporation of New York provides financial support to Learning Heroes and The 74.
A girl was rushed to the hospital after a tree branch fell and struck her in the head as she boarded a school bus in Hudson on Monday morning.

Officers responding to a person struck by a fallen tree limb in the area of Falls Brook Road and Laurel Drive around 9:30 a.m. found a Quinn Middle School student suffering from injuries, according to the Hudson Police Department.

The girl, 10, was taken to a hospital in Marlboro for the treatment of minor injuries.

Police noted that the girl had just gotten out of a car to get on the bus when the limb fell on her.

Schools in Hudson were delayed by two hours due to Sundays snowstorm, according to Hudson Public Schools.

There were many reports across the state of downed trees and branches snapping under the weight of heavy snow, including an instance of this happening in Dracut that a Boston 25 viewer captured on their Ring camera.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

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(STACKER)  The evolving landscape of social media is constantly creating new trends that capture the collective imagination of social media users with a blend of humor and relatability. This has been the case with girl math and its counterpart boy math  terms that have transcended meme culture and for many, have become shorthand for gender-specific reasoning in everyday scenarios.

Beyond the likes, shares, and occasional eye-rolls, though, what do actual math educators think about these trends? Are they just harmless fun, or can they enforce gender stereotypes that may impact young minds and their academic choices?

Study.com turned to news reports to figure out what is the girl math and boy math phenomenon and spoke with math educators to gain their insights on this trending topic.

Unpacking the Trend of Girl and Boy Math

Girl math started as a lighthearted way for women to share the often humorous and convoluted logic behind their daily decisions, such as aligning hair-washing schedules with social events or justifying shopping sprees for free shipping.

According to a UK-based online newspaper the Standard, the term was coined on the morning radio show Fletch, Vaughan, and Hayley in New Zealand but soon spread around the world thanks to TikTok.

On the flip side, boy math has emerged as a playful response, encompassing its own set of stereotypes, like overestimating ones ability to perform heroic feats or contemplating historical trivia.

One of my favorite things has been seeing other peoples variations of [girl math], Hayley Sproull, who originally coined the trend, told Capsulenz.com. Theres girl measuring which is that classic thing where we try and measure stuff with our hands and get it wildly wrong. People are putting their own spin on it.

Math Educators Weigh In

As these terms swirl through the corridors of social media, theyve inevitably reached the ears of those who deal with actual mathematical equations daily: math teachers. We talked to a few of them to get their thoughts on this social media trend and its influence on young minds.

Cianetta Saunders, currently a reading teacher at Indian Trails Middle School and formerly a 6th-grade math teacher in Seminole County, Florida, recognizes a positive side, noting that the trend can make math feel more relatable and accessible to students. They spark conversation around math and get people thinking about their thought processes in a lighthearted and humorous way, she told Study.com.

Aaron Wertheimer, a former full-time math teacher turned marketing writer who still tutors math part-time, has mixed feelings. Initially, he was concerned that girl math might perpetuate stereotypes about women in STEM fields, but he soon realized that this was not necessarily the case. Many social media posts around girl math and boy math had nothing to do with the ability of a person to be involved in mathematics professions, he observed.

Abi Ruiz, a mathematics and science educator and National Science Foundation fellow at the University of Central Florida, raised concerns about the oversimplification of math based on gender. Its like theyre painting math with a broad brush based on gender, and that can be problematic, Ruiz remarked. She emphasized the importance of breaking down the notion that math is just for a select few and highlighted that research shows girls consistently outperform in mathematics until high school, but theres a drop-off in STEM careers later on.

The Role of Social Media in Shaping Perceptions

Social medias tendency to amplify content can often distort nuanced concepts. Saunders pointed out that the girl math and boy math conversations could lead to overgeneralization and poor perceptions of each gender.

Wertheimer agrees: Considering that the corpus callosum and brains of young boys and girls are still developing, if we dont unpack the importance of having conversations about what math is, who can do it, how it can help, and why we learn it, young people will learn that math is for some people only and that some people are good at it, and that others are not.

Finding the Balance

Educators face the challenge of using humor in education without reinforcing stereotypes. As an educator and millennial, Saunders is embracing meme culture and uses it to make math and reading more approachable for students. Humor and meme culture allow teachers to meet students where they are and apply intimidating content in ways that pique their interest, she said.

Saunders, Ruiz, and Wertheimer share a common view on the educational opportunities presented by the girl math and boy math social media trends. Ruiz emphasizes the importance of using these trends as teaching moments in the classroom, highlighting the need for sensitivity and context. Her focus is on facilitating discussions around gender equality in STEM fields and addressing stereotypes in math education, underscoring the significance of an inclusive approach.

Echoing this sentiment, Wertheimer also sees the value in leveraging these trends for educational purposes. He suggests using them to prompt critical thinking and discussions among students. His approach involves questioning societal norms and stereotypes about math and gender, asking, Why do certain people think certain types of math are only available to and practiced by certain genders? He encourages exploring the messaging around mathematics and what it reflects about societal values.

Overall, while these trends have sparked conversation, the experts emphasize the need for careful consideration of how theyre used in educational contexts, ensuring they dont inadvertently reinforce gender stereotypes.

This article has been re-published pursuant to a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

This story was produced by Study.com and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.
A patriot is generally defined as someone who loves his country and is willing to do anything for it.

I have no reason to doubt that the embattled Sen. Bob Menendez, New Jersey's senior senator, loves his own country. But, as federal prosecutors charge, hes also been willing to do just about anything on behalf of other countries in the past few years  all while allegedly reaping lucrative bribes in exchange for his efforts.

The question of Menendezs patriotism was brought to the fore last week, when his lawyer, Adam Fee, issued a blistering defense of his client after the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York appended the bribery indictment against Menendez with the outlines of a new cash-for-influence scheme, this time to secure an investment from Qatar for a Bergen County developer.

Senator Bob Menendez is shown as he walks toward federal court in the Southern District of New York, in lower Manhattan, Monday, October 23, 2023.

In September, authorities accused him of being on the take for Egypt. This time, he allegedly moved over to the Persian Gulf for profit. Bob Menendez, a Middle East envoy, Jersey style.

Fee said there was nothing inappropriate about interactions Menendez had with officials from Qatar, Egypt and other countries during his tenure as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Those interactions were always based on his professional judgment as to the best interests of the United States because he is, and always has been, a patriot," Fee asserted.

More Charlie Stile: These are the political stories that will dominate NJ headlines in 2024

Are patriots often accused of being foreign agents?

Im sure Menendez will assert that he is exercising his patriotic duty as a duly elected member of the U.S. Senate, participating in the slow but vital work of democracy. In defending his actions, he will no doubt list his work on immigration reform, health care and natural disaster relief as important for the long-term health and viability of the nation  and New Jersey.

But the portrait of Menendez that emerges from the Southern District's 50-page indictment is not likely to leave the reader swelling with national pride but rather with disgust.

It's hard to see whats so patriotic about handing Egyptian intelligence officials sensitive information about the personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, information that could pose significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government. How is that helping the home team?

Its equally hard to imagine Old Glory wafting in the breeze while reading allegations of how Menendez secretly ghost-wrote a lobbying letter on behalf of Egyptian officials seeking to convince his fellow senators to release a hold on $300 million in aid.

Manhattan, NY  October 18, 2023 -- Nadine Menendez, wife of Senator Robert Menendez enters the Federal Courthouse in lower Manhattan for a hearing on corruption charges.

The Founding Fathers didnt imagine senators running interference on criminal investigations of allies. Nor did they envision senators protecting a monopoly of an inexperienced U.S. certifier of halal meat bound for Egypt  a certifier who just also happened to be friendly with Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, and who is also charged in the scheme.

And you wont find any suggestion in the Federalist Papers that it was OK to accept $480,000 in cash, gold bars and other items of value as compensation for the services, as alleged by prosecutors. This is far afield from the Patrick Henry Give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death school of patriotism.

Yet, it's much closer to Trump-era, Orwellian double-speak, where officials try to diminish corrupt and criminal casts by declaring themselves the polar opposite. Over the weekend, former President Trump and one of his leading MAGA parrots in Congress, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, called the jailed Jan. 6 rioters "hostages," a deliberate attempt to soft-pedal and legitimize their violent, treasonous conduct. Menendez defenders are following the same playbook.

Gold Bar Bob is now Patriot Bob. But no one in his own party is buying it. Most of his Senate colleagues and the Democratic leadership in New Jersey, from Governor Murphy down to Democratic leaders in Menendez's home county of Hudson, have called on him to resign. (That's also a sharp contrast to Trump who is emerged as the runaway front-runner for the GOP despite his 91 felony counts and his persistent lies about Jan. 6 and the 2020 election.)

Fee's "statement is the kind of verbal barrage in which criminal defense attorneys specialize, and as the accusations pile up they will become more elaborate, more baroque and more extravagant," said Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist.

Mike Kelly: It's time. NJ's Sen. Bob Menendez, indicted a third time, must resign

A glimpse of Menendez's defense strategy?

Despite its bombast, the statement does offer what could be an early glimpse of the Menendez defense if he faces trial in early May, as scheduled.

Fees stinks of desperation comment was in response to the latest update in the case against Menendez  the senator is now accused of using his power and influence to help notable North Jersey developer Fred Daibes secure crucial financing from officials in Qatar.

Manhattan, NY  October 18, 2023 -- Fred Daibes, involved in the bribery case involving Senator Robert Menendez exits the Federal Courthouse in lower Manhattan for a hearing on corruption charges.

The expanded indictment alleges that the now-infamous gold bars found in Menendezs Englewood Cliffs home were payment for helping Daibes get a Qatari investment company with ties to that countrys government to invest in a Daibes property by doing things that were viewed as favorable to the government of Qatar.

Prosecutors say Menendez allegedly made public statements supporting the government of Qatar. After attending a private event in Manhattan hosted by the Qatari government, Daibes sent Menendez a picture of a luxury watch website with models priced up to $23,990 and asked, How about one of these, before messaging the senator again two days later about a Senate resolution in support of Qatar.

According to the federal indictment, Sen. Bob Menendez allegedly made public statements supporting Qatar and after attending a private event hosted by the Qatari government, developer Fred Daibes sent Menendez a picture of a luxury watch website.

Menendezs lawyer suggests a defense that has echoes of his 2017 trial that ended in a hung jury. In that case, Menendez was accused of taking bribes in the form of free travel, campaign donations and stays at a luxury resort from a south Florida ophthalmologist, Salomon Melgen, in exchange for Menendezs help in resolving a dispute with Medicare and in protecting a port contract in the Dominican Republic.

In that case, Menendezs attorneys argued that they were not bribes but gifts from a close friend of 20 years. Maybe not the greatest look, but nothing criminal about a couple of friends helping each other out, they argued at the time.

Will 'routine' be enough to justify alleged conduct?

This time around, Menendez may be laying the groundwork for a defense that argues that his routine conduct also doesnt rise to criminality.

Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said the details about Menendezs conduct are unseemly, such as being consulted for a possible luxury wristwatch as a possible reward for his help.

Terrible optics, but is there something illegal about that? I don't know. But I begin to see  where they're going to defend him," Rasmussen said. Of course, this doesn't make any of this worthy of what a U.S. senator should be doing with [his] time.

Nor will any of this diminish the publics disgust with Menendez's alleged conduct, Rasmussen said.

Rutgers Baker, an expert on Congress, suggests that the defense is going to be a hard sell.

Constituent service is never rendered with the expectation of gratuities," he said. Acting on behalf of a constituent is normal. Menendezs interventions on behalf of Fred Daibes that involve a quid pro quo is distinctly out of normal channels.

Menendez has rejected the calls to resign, and his colleagues in the Senate do not seem in any rush to show him the door. For now, hell remain in office carrying out his patriotic duty  with a trial date on his calendar.

Charlie Stile is a veteran New Jersey political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jerseys political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bob Menendez lawyer may have previewed defense strategy
YANGON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Shwedagon Pagoda also known as the golden pagoda in Myanmar attracted over 10 million visitors including nearly 80,000 foreign visitors in 2023, U Boe Thin, a member of the Shwedagon Pagoda Board of Trustees told Xinhua on Monday.

The country with the most visits to the pagoda is China, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan, he said.

"Shwedagon is a landmark in our country. So the pilgrims from other regions and states think that they must visit the Shwedagon Pagoda when they come to Yangon," he explained why the pagoda is famous in the country.

The number of visitors still needs to catch up to the pre-COVID period, but this year, the number of visitors has increased more than the previous year, U Boe Thin said.

The visiting hour to the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon is set from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time, according to the Shwedagon Pagoda Board of Trustees. 
This article was originally published in Wisconsin Examiner.

A bill from Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature would require University of Wisconsin schools to provide out-of-state students with information on how to vote absentee in their home states.

The bills authors say the proposal is a way to encourage civic participation from students in communities they know better than their college campuses, but opponents say its an effort to remove the largely Democratic student vote from close statewide elections. Students would still be able to decide if they want to vote in Wisconsin or their home states.

We want to encourage maximum civic participation, but out-of-state students are not often provided the information on how to vote in their state of residence, the bills co-sponsorship memo states. This bill would require the Universities of Wisconsin to provide non-resident students information on how to vote absentee in their home state. The goal is to make sure that every UW student has the best information on how to vote before they vote. A 2020 study shows that only 15% of non-Wisconsin resident students stay in Wisconsin after graduating.

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College students from out of state typically move back to their home state after graduating and do not stay here in Wisconsin, the memo continues. Students are typically more involved in their home state where they grew up and have ties to. This bill would simply require the UW System to give students information on voting absentee so they are able to vote in their home state.

The student vote in Wisconsin is often consequential. In the spring 2023 election, long lines were seen at campus polling locations across the state and the heavy turnout among students was cited as a reason for Janet Protasiewiczs comfortable margin of victory in last springs Supreme Court race.

In Madison, the large student population is one source of the Democratic Partys strength in Dane County, yet Wisconsin residents make up less than half of the approximately 37,000 undergraduate students.

Rep. Clint Moses (R-Menomonie) told Wisconsin Public Radio his concern is college students casting deciding votes in local races when they arent fully entrenched in the community and dont pay property taxes.

Why should a student be voting on these when they are not gonna have any of the impact of it? Theyre not paying any of the property taxes in our area, Moses, one of the bills co-authors, said.

Rep. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) said that paying property taxes isnt a requirement to vote and noted that college is often when students become more politically engaged and informed about local issues where they live. He added that the Legislature should be finding ways to keep out-of-state students in Wisconsin after graduation.

We are constantly talking about workforce challenges and we know that the only way to solve that is gonna be to bring people into our state, he told WPR. And bringing them here for college and then spending those four years convincing them that Wisconsin is where they wanna spend their rest of their lives is one of the ways that we can do that.

Wisconsin Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Wisconsin Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Ruth Conniff for questions: info@wisconsinexaminer.com. Follow Wisconsin Examiner on Facebook and Twitter.
The Republican presidential candidates were out in full force in Iowa over the weekend, with just days left to sway voters to come out to support them on a night that could be in the single digits or even colder in some parts of the state.

You just have to put on that warm coat and get out there, former President Donald Trump told supporters gathered at a community college in Newton, Iowa.

The weekend marked the third anniversary of the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, but that date was not foremost in the minds of Iowans attending campaign events or the candidates making final pitches to them.

The GOP contenders focused on emphasizing Iowans outsize influence in the nomination process and hammering home the importance of turnout for the January 15 caucuses, whose outcome can help build or break candidates momentum in the race.

The unusual caucus process has delivered some surprises in past elections, but Trump has dominated the polling by such a wide margin that other GOP candidates have played down expectations. Iowas going to be a great way for us to start the process, but we certainly have a lot of road after that, and, you know, were girded for that long battle, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whos staked much of his campaign on the Hawkeye State, said at a campaign event on Sunday.

Trump, who campaigned in Iowa on Friday and Saturday, aired some of his sharpest attacks to date against his own former UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, a sign that his campaign perceives Haley as a greater threat than DeSantis.

Crunch time for trailing candidates

As the window narrows to take down Trump, supporters of DeSantis and Haley are feeling the heat and hoping their candidates will ramp up attacks on the former president.

On Saturday, Haley was confronted by a supporter who said she wishes the former South Carolina governor would criticize Trump more directly. Haley declined.

If he lies about me, Ill call him out on it. If hes done something wrong, whether its the economy or how he talks about dictators, Ill call him out.  But I just think politics is personal enough and I think lets focus on the issues and getting America back on track, she said to a crowd in Indianola.

DeSantis, too, has faced pressure from supporters who feel that he has gone too easy on the former president.

But at least one self-described Trump guy liked what he heard from DeSantis this weekend.

After hearing this guy, I might be changeable. I think hes solid. Rock solid, Max Willhite of Polk County told CNN after an event in Grimes on Sunday.

While he wasnt 100 percent certain he would show up to caucus, he did sign a commit-to-caucus card for the Florida governor before heading out.

Doing so would be unusual in his circle, Willhite said. All my friends are (for) Trump.

Stephen Plom, a 20-year-old college student, plans to caucus for the first time and is backing DeSantis, citing the governors good track record of leadership.

Im excited to have someone I can really get behind. Its not like, Oh, whos the lesser evil? Its someone I can really support, he said after hearing DeSantis in Ankeny.

Perry tragedy, Capitol riot anniversary loom over weekend

Saturday was the third anniversary of the attack at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

While he didnt address the topic at length, Trump on Saturday spoke sympathetically of prisoners convicted for their roles in the riot as hostages and called on President Joe Biden to release them. And GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has largely defended Trump throughout the campaign, reiterated conspiratorial claims about the days events.

DeSantis, asked by reporters how he would have handled the events if he had been president, said, I wouldve won the election and it wouldve never even been an issue.

But voters mostly focused their questions on the economy, immigration, health care and how to improve school safety without affecting gun rights in the wake of a school shooting in Perry on January 4.

In Monticello, Iowa, on Friday, Ramaswamy recalled his experience learning of the shooting as he arrived in Perry that same morning for a campaign event. He said speaking with residents in the wake of the shooting was one of the most meaningful events of his campaign.

School shootings, said voter Steve Prall of Polk County, are a problem that weve had in our country for a very long time.

I think Ron (DeSantis) is one of the people that will do something about it, said Prall, a registered Republican. Prall said he had voted for a Democrat in the past two presidential elections because of his concerns about Trump, adding, I cannot understand this countrys fascination with him.

CNNs Kate Sullivan and Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.

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HANOI, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's rice export volume and prices hit an all-time high of 8.3 million tons and 4.78 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, Vietnam News Agency reported Monday, citing the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

According to the ministry, Vietnam's export prices averaged 663 dollars per ton as a result of high demand.

The total rice output in the country increased 1.9 percent to 43.5 million tons thanks to increasing farming areas and productivity, meeting both domestic demand and export, said the ministry.

Rice exporters said as global supply is still low, demand for Vietnamese rice will surge in 2024, especially from the Philippines and China.

Vietnam targets producing 43-43.5 million tons of rice in 2024.

Rice exports are forecast to bring 5.3 billion dollars to the country this year, local media reported. 
A 3-year-old California girl is now paralyzed after her family says she choked on a gummy candy that got stuck in her airway, according to a lawsuit filed by the girls parents.

Amelie Paredes was described as a vibrant and thriving child, until she ate a Candy Land Gummy Dot on Dec. 13, 2022, according to a Jan. 4 news release from the familys attorney, Thomas Bosworth.

Amelie choked on the candy, and it became lodged in her throat, blocking her airway, the lawsuit said.

Her parents rushed to help her and drove her to the hospital. Medical professionals tried to suction the candy out of her throat, but it was extremely difficult due to the excessive stickiness of the product and its extraordinary lack of pliability, the lawsuit said.

Eventually, doctors removed the candy from her airway. But by then, Amelie had suffered profound hypoxia due to a prolonged lack of oxygen, Bosworth said.

Amelie Paredes in the hospital.

Amelie sustained irreversible brain damage and spastic quadriplegia as a result of her injuries from choking on the candy, the lawsuit said.

These candies were a ticking time bomb. Bosworth said. (Amelie is) now permanently disabled, unable to speak, unable to swallow, and unable to move, for the rest of her life.

The lawsuit says that once chewed, the Candy Land Gummy Dots become an extremely sticky, gluelike mass that becomes almost impossible to extract. There are no safety or hazard warnings on the candy, according to the lawsuit.

The pastel-colored candy is made by Philadelphia-based Frankford Candy and toy giant Hasbro, the release said. McClatchy News reached out to both companies but did not immediately hear back.

Amelie Paredes.

It is shocking that this level of brain damage caused by just one single piece of this dangerous gel candy, Bosworth said.

The lawsuit, filed Dec. 28 in Philadelphia, is seeking more than $50,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

Hershey lied about its Reeses holiday-themed candy, lawsuit says. Monstrosity

Man kept offering teen candy, began to massage her leg on flight to Seattle, fed say

Homeowner pulls gun on 6-year-old dropping candy off at wrong home, New York cops say
Update: This article was updated on Jan. 11 with more information about the deceased and the charges in this case.

Indianapolis police have arrested a man after his fiancee was shot in the head, according to court documents.

Jomal Tyler, 32, was preliminarily charged with attempted murder after the shooting, which occurred in the couples home shortly before 1:30 a.m. Saturday. His formal charges were downgraded to "criminal recklessness committed with a deadly weapon," according to online court records.

A preliminary probable cause affidavit states Tyler told 911 dispatchers the gun just went off and his wife had been shot. He stated he was going to prison, then disconnected the call.

Officers responding to the call in a home on North Euclid Avenue found a woman, 27-year-old Britney Danielle Long, with a gunshot wound to her head lying on the bed. She was taken to a hospital with catastrophic injuries, according to the affidavit. Four days later, on Jan. 10, Long died, the Marion County Coroner's Office announced Thursday.

Investigators further found a Canik 9mm handgun at the foot of the bed with a shell casing inside.

Four children were inside the home at the time. The Indiana Department of Child Services, when contacted, told officers they had reports about domestic violence against the couple.

Tyler was detained at the scene after he repeatedly said, the gun was in the bed, and went off, according to court records. Police in the affidavit said an ambulance was called because of his hysteric state and he was taken to a hospital.

After a few hours there, Tyler told homicide detectives he helped put their kids to bed about 8 p.m. and left shortly later to get liquor and cocaine. He went back and forth between the home and a friends house for cocaine. The third time, he went to lay in bed with his fiance with the handgun between them over their heads, the affidavit stated. Tyler told police he sleeps with the gun for safety.

Tyler said he heard a loud bang and thought the sound came from the home's side door. He said as he jumped out of bed, he grabbed his gun to see who was banging on the door and the weapon fired.

He told police he thought he had shot the gun into the ground, then realized his fiancee had been shot. Police in the affidavit stated Tyler continually said he did not intentionally shoot her and when asked about the domestic violence reports, he responded the couple argues like everyone.

The Marion County Prosecutors Office will determine final charges.

Contact reporter Sarah Nelson at 317-503-7514 or sarah.nelson@indystar.com

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis crime: Man arrested after fiancee shot in head
Halle Bailey and her boyfriend DDG have welcomed their first child together. Bailey announced the birth of her baby boy, Halo, in an Instagram post on Saturday.

Even though were a few days into the new year, the greatest thing that 2023 could have done for me, was bring me my son.. welcome to the world my halo  the world is desperate to know you , Bailey wrote on Instagram.

The 23-year-old actress has been dating DDG, founder of the Zooted Music record label, for more than a year, People reported. Bailey and DDG officially announced their relationship on Instagram in March 2022.

The Little Mermaid actress, who keeps much of her life private, never revealed her pregnancy to the public. However, Bailey responded to a Snapchat user in November when the person said one of her recent photos shows that she has a pregnancy nose.

Listen, if I see one more person say something about my nose one more time, its going to be hell to pay, Bailey responded.

The Hollywood star made it clear that she is proud of her nose.

You know why? Because Im Black. I love my nose, she said. What are you concerned about my nose for? Leave me the hell alone.

Speaking to People in May, Bailey described DDG as a real Prince Charming.

I think the best thing about young love is that youre able to continue to find yourself through this journey of loving somebody else, she told PEOPLE. And youre discovering new parts of yourself and maybe things that you didnt notice before about your heart.

The couple now look forward to a new chapter with their family.

My biggest blessing by far, DDG wrote on his own Instagram after the birth of Halo.  son son.. never been so in love  baby halo.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by DDG (@ddg)
FILE - A marker stands outside the Statehouse in Concord, N.H., Nov. 15, 2023, describing the history of the state's first-in-the-nation presidential primary. New Hampshire's attorney general Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, ordered national Democratic party leaders to stop calling the states unsanctioned presidential primary meaningless, saying do so violates state law. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer, File)

CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  New Hampshires attorney general on Monday ordered national Democratic party leaders to stop calling the states unsanctioned presidential primary meaningless, saying doing so violates state law.

The cease-and-desist notice came three days after the co-chairs of the Democratic National Committees rules committee told New Hampshire party leaders to educate the public that January 23rd is a non-binding presidential preference event and is meaningless. In a letter to Chairman Ray Buckley, they also called the primary detrimental and said non-compliant processes can disenfranchise and confuse voters.

But Attorney General John Formella said its the DNC that is in danger of harming voters. Formella, appointed by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, did not say whether he is considering criminal charges, but his office later said he hasn't ruled it out. He released a statement saying the comments amount to an illegal attempt to deter voters from participating in the primary and cited state laws against criminal solicitation and voter suppression. The latter, a felony, makes it illegal to attempt to deter someone from voting based on fraudulent, deceptive or misleading information.

Regardless of whether the DNC refuses to award delegates to the partys national convention based on the results of the January 23, 2024, New Hampshire democratic Presidential Primary Election, this New Hampshire election is not meaningless, Formella said. Statements to the contrary are false, deceptive and misleading.

New Hampshires secretary of state scheduled the primary in accordance with a state law that requires both the Republican and Democratic primaries to be held at least seven days before any similar contest. But that put the state at odds with the DNCs calendar, which starts with a primary in South Carolina on Feb. 3 followed by Nevada. Aimed at giving Black and other minority voters a larger, earlier role, the schedule also moves Michigan into the group of early states voting before Super Tuesday on March 5, when most of the rest of the country holds primaries.

President Joe Biden, who sought the changes, kept his name off the ballot in New Hampshire, though Democrats have organized a write-in campaign on his behalf.

Republicans will kick off the nominating process with the Iowa caucus on Monday. New Hampshires primary eight days later will be a crucial opportunity for GOP candidates to show they can remain competitive against former President Donald Trump, the early front-runner for their partys presidential nomination.

A spokesperson for the DNC declined to comment Monday. Buckley, the New Hampshire chairman, released a statement reiterating that the secretary of state followed the law in picking the date.

Well, it's safe to say in New Hampshire, the DNC is less popular than the NY Yankees, he said. Nothing has changed, and we look forward to seeing a great Democratic voter turnout on January 23rd.
ST. LOUIS  It was another Sunday morning of sometimes heated but always civil political debate on Hancock and Kelley for Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024.

Republican consultant John Hancock and Democratic consultant Michael Kelley discussed the following topics:

The City of St. Louis is reporting major drops in crime, but critics dont trust the numbers.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson issued an executive order banning foreign adversaries from owning Missouri farmland within 10 miles of military installations. Fellow Republicans say its too little, too late.

There are growing calls for Governor Parson and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to take action against the owner of the Northview Village Nursing Home in St. Louis. The home was closed with little warning and without full accounting for the 175 residents. One resident with schizophrenia has been living on the street without his medication since Dec. 15.

Longtime Republican Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer makes a surprising announcement with his party clinging to a slim majority in the House of Representatives: he is not running for reelection. He represents Missouris 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from Jefferson and St. Charles counties to Jefferson City and the Lake of the Ozarks.

As the nation marks the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, President Biden makes the riots the top issue of his reelection campaign, jettisoning his focus on Bidenomics.

The U.S. Supreme Court will review the removal of former President Donald Trump from primary election ballots in Colorado. This comes as a new effort is launched to remove Mr. Trump from the primary ballot in Illinois.

Big names turn up on unsealed court documents in a lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned accomplice of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Our quote of the week was from St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, who undid a mask mandate for city employees just hours after it was issued. Upon further review, she said masking was recommended but no longer mandated.

Remember, if its Sunday in St. Louis, its Hancock and Kelley on FOX 2. We hope to see you next Sunday morning at 8:30.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.


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Catch up with the first four episodes of Lifetimes new docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard in our recaps of night one and night two.

The third and final night of The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard began with information about the courtship of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her now-husband Ryan Anderson. Episodes 5 and 6 of the Lifetime documentary count down to their wedding on July 21, 2022. Anderson appears in a series of interviews, with he and Blanchard telling parts of their love story, which is then juxtaposed with the upsetting footage from when Blanchard was arrested and questioned by police.

Gypsys Arrest

The June 2015 arrest of Blanchard and ex-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn in Waukesha, Wisconsinthanks to tracking the IP address of those unforgettable Facebook postsis a pivotal part of night three. A lot of the police footage has already been featured in other coverage of the case, but interviews from Blanchard, her lawyer Michael Stanfield, and her family show how high the stakes really were.

Blanchard recounts being made to hide in a closet with Godejohn as full swat teams gathered outside, so he could come up with the story they would tell police. But once Blanchard stepped outside, to guns with lasers pointing at her, everything kind of fell apart. I was completely in the dark about what Nick was saying. I kept thinking that he was going to stick with the story that he created, and that our stories would line up, and we would be released, Blanchard said. Thats not at all how that went down.

She seems honest and sincere in her recollection of her arrest, admitting that she genuinely didnt think cops would be able to figure out the full story. A particularly dramatic moment comes when Blanchards family and lawyer discover Dee Dees immaculate and overwhelming medical cabinet in July 2015. The discovery of a stolen prescription pad, which allowed Dee Dee to abuse Gypsy without even needing to rely on a doctor, had everyone reeling. The guilt of Gypsys father, Rod, in subsequent interviews is palpable, and at one point he says, I just should have been there. I dont I wish I would have, you know? I regret that a lot.

At Blanchards preliminary hearing that same month, the home movie she made (that debuted during night two of the docuseries and proved she was involved in planning the murder) came back to bite her, shocking her entire family, and her lawyer, who called it a very hard pill to swallow. It was then he realized that if the case went to trial, and they didnt win, Blanchard would likely die in prison.

So when she was presented with a plea deal for second-degree murder and a 10-year sentence, Blanchard said yes, like accepting a marriage proposal. That meant she would have the possibility of probation after serving 8 years. I think I would have been a whole mess if they would have just let me out of prison scot-free, didnt do any time, Blanchard said. I dont think that I would have had the mental stability to transition as smoothly as I have with 10 years in between the two.

Gypsys Romantic Relationships and Marriage to Ryan Anderson

In early 2019, after Godejohn had been convicted of first-degree murder partially due to Blanchards testimony, he reached out to her with a letter, saying that he still loved her and didnt regret what he had done. Blanchard replied to end things for good, writing, Were both paying consequences of our choices I dont want a relationship with you, and Im happy.

Shocking her then-fiance Anderson, Blanchard also reached out to her ex-fiance Ken one month before her wedding to Anderson, because she was struggling with letting go of the man who bailed on their relationship after reading about it in the press. She and her stepmother Kristy worried that Anderson would end up doing the same thing.

At the end of the day, Im a murderer. Thats just the harsh reality of it, Blanchard said. And I always feel like the reality of who I am, and the gravity of what he got himself into, he might run. He already had an opportunity though, as Anderson recounts the heartbreak of having to resign from his job as a sixth-grade teacher because the Christian school felt he was putting the children in danger by being with Blanchard.

Blanchard gave insight as to why they had to get married so quickly, saying, I dont think that [people] understand that when someone is on parole, they have to parole to a family member. The weeks leading up to the wedding play out like a will-they or wont-they romance, but after receiving her fathers blessing, Blanchard decides to go through with it.

An argument three months after the wedding brings the reality of their relationship into perspective, with Blanchard saying: I dont know how to be healthy for him. I said I need help. I need therapy, and I think that you do, too. So, he got a therapist, and he has gotten me a therapist. And that has been the last argument that we have had. The couple plan to have a bigger wedding now that Blanchard is out of prison with a fancy white dress and Blanchards father walking her down the aisle.

Everything builds to an uplifting end, with Blanchards family cheering her on and imagining positive things for her following her December 2023 release. I want to live a simple life that everybody else takes for granted, just doing the simple things, like driving a car, having dinner with friends. I want a job, Blanchard said. I want to look in that mirror and see everything that my mother said that I wouldnt be. I dont expect it to be easy. But I think thats part of the fun, too. And Im just ready. Im ready to take it on.



Overall Rating: 4

Drama Rating: 4

How to Watch The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard

You can stream the first two episodes of The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard for free on mylifetime.com through January 15. The remaining four episodes are also available to watch on the platform with a subscription. You can also purchase episodes on Amazon Prime Video and Vudu.

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Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question youd like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

What would happen to the ocean if we took out all the fish?  Reny, age 12

The ocean is massive and covers most of the surface of our planet. In addition to its size, its packed with life, ranging from an astounding diversity of plants, microbes, worms, corals and crabs to squids, whales and, yes, even fish. The ocean is full of fish, so much so that they make up the second-largest amount of all carbon  the material that makes up living things  in the entire animal kingdom. Theyre just behind the group containing insects and crustaceans.

Most people only interact with the ocean from a beach or in a boat, so it can be hard to wrap your head around how many fish there really are. But the ocean is swarming with them, from its surface to its depths.

These fish also come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, ranging from the tiny sardines, guppies and blennies that you might see on a coral reef to massive tunas and whale sharks that you might find out in the open ocean.

These fish perform all kinds of roles in their ecosystems that support the lives of other organisms around them. If they disappeared one day, the ocean would look very different.

School of slopehead parrotfish. NOAA, Kevin Lino

Im a scientist who studies fish, their diversity and all the ways they contribute to ocean environments.

Fish as food

Fish play important roles as both predators and prey in ocean ecosystems. Thousands of species throughout the ocean and terrestrial ecosystems rely on fish for food  including people.

In coral reef ecosystems, small fish are eaten by larger fish and other marine animals. This means the little fish form the base of the food web  they provide energy to the bigger fish and other creatures.

Links between different species of coral reef animals. Global Change Biology, Rogers et al., 2015

Outside of the water, many birds, mammals and reptiles eat fish and rely on them as an essential source of protein.

Even land plants can benefit from the presence of fish. On the western coast of the United States, salmon returning to small streams after spending several years at sea function as a conveyor belt of nutrients. The salmon feed not only animals that catch them, like bears, but also the plants that border the streams. Studies have shown that some plants get 70% of their nitrogen from salmon that die on or near the river banks.

Humans also depend on fish as a food source. Fish and other seafood products are an important protein source for nearly 3 billion people. Human populations have been eating and following fish around the world for thousands of years.

Fish maintain habitats

Fish are also more than just food. As fish themselves forage for food, they can create and maintain important habitats for other organisms. In coral reef ecosystems, plant-eating fish control the growth of algae by constantly grazing it down. Without the help of these herbivores, or plant-eating fish, the algae would rapidly grow and smother the coral, effectively killing it.

One type of herbivorous fish, the parrotfish, feeds directly on the corals. At first, this may seem bad for the corals, but the grazing done by parrotfish can actually increase a coral colonys rate of growth. And the poop  yes, the poop  from parrotfish has been shown to be particularly nutritious for corals. Parrotfish poop also forms part of the beautiful white sand beaches that you may have enjoyed on a family vacation.

Other fish create habitats for other animals and influence their environment by disturbing sand while they feed. By moving the sand around, theyre exposing tiny organisms hiding in the sand, which other animals can eat.

Despite the fact that many types of fish are confined to the ocean, their presence can be felt across many habitats. They can directly and indirectly affect the lives of the organisms that depend on them for food and shelter. Without fish, Earth would gradually lose its beautiful white sand beaches, the coral reef ecosystems would be overgrown with algae, lots of people would run out of food to eat, and we would lose some of the planets most fascinating creatures.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question youd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit  adults, let us know what youre wondering, too. We wont be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Kory Evans, Rice University.

Read more:



Kory Evans receives funding from National Science Foundation.
A Harlem pizzeria employee watched as a gunman fired shots into a parked car, killing one of his regular customers.

Omar Espinal, 39, was sitting in the drivers seat of a gray Honda Civic on W. 135th St. near Broadway when a man approached him around 6:20 p.m. Sunday, according to police.

He came with a gun and shot the person in the car two times, said the employee at Pizza del Valle on the corner near the shooting scene. It was one guy.

Police responding to a 911 call discovered the victim behind the wheel with a gunshot wound to his chest.

Medics rushed Espinal to Mount Sinai Morningside, but he could not be saved.

Espinal drove his car daily and would often stop by the pizzeria after work to pick up a slice, despite living in Washington Heights.

He always was in the car, said the employee. He used to come here to buy pizza. He was nice.

In 2013, Espinal was charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance, police said.

He spent over five years in prison for the crime and was released on parole in 2020, records show.

Espinals uncle was left wondering Monday who wouldve wanted to hurt his nephew and said his relative was working to turn his life around.

Im feeling very bad, said Evangelisto Espinal. He got a job now. I think it was at a grocery store.

Police were still working to track down the gunman as of Monday afternoon.
Harvard interim President Alan Garber released a statement to the university community Monday addressing the high tension on campus in the wake of his predecessors highly publicized resignation.

We have been through an extraordinarily painful and disorienting time for Harvard. Since I first arrived here as an undergraduate in 1973, I cannot recall a period of comparable tension on our campus and across our community, said Garber, who previously served as Harvards provost.

That tension has been exacerbated by concerns about how we address and combat antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of bias; safeguard free expression; and foster a climate of mutual understanding, he added.

Last week, Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned after she was the subject of plagiarism allegations and strong pushback over her testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism.

Garber said Gays resignation added a deep sense of loss to Harvards troubles and that he had great hopes for her presidency.

Gays departure was celebrated by those upset with her antisemitism testimony and by conservative critics more broadly who see her resignation as a platform for other reforms in higher education.

After Gay left, she said in an op-ed for The New York Times that she made mistakes but the campaign against me was about more than one university and one leader. This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society.

In Garbers statement, he called for the Harvard community in the new year to bridge the fissures that have weakened our sense of community said that faculty and students will have to take a willingness to approach each other in a spirit of goodwill, with an eagerness to listen as well as to speak, and with an appreciation of our common humanity when we encounter passionately held but opposing convictions.

Our task is difficult yet essential, and we have much work ahead of us. Although I regret the circumstances that have me writing to you as your interim president, please know that I will serve with a dedication to the Harvard I know and cherish, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Alan Garber, the Harvard official tapped to temporarily lead the school in the wake of former President Claudine Gays ouster, acknowledged Monday that the campus has been through an extraordinarily painful and disorienting time, but urged its community to come together. Since I first arrived here as an undergraduate in 1973, I cannot recall a period of comparable tension on our campus and across our community, Garber said in a written statement to the community. Its crucial that we bridge the fissures that have weakened our sense of community and, through our words and deeds, affirm the immense worth of what we do here, notwithstanding our shortcomings. Garber previously served as Harvards provost for 12 years before being appointed to the presidency on Tuesday, the same day that Gay resigned. Gay departed the university under a cloud after just six months in office, brought down by the controversy provoked by her congressional testimony and academic plagiarism allegations.

Read it at Politico

Read more at The Daily Beast.
China releases first national security-themed comic series adapted from real-life espionage cases

Global Times) 09:45, January 08, 2024

China's first national security-themed comic series Photo: screenshot from the official WeChat account of China's Ministry of National Security

China's Ministry of National Security unveiled its first national security-themed comic series on Sunday, which is adapted from real cases of counter-espionage operations cracked down upon by frontline officers.

In bright-colored pictures and with an intriguing plot, the first episode tells the story of national security police officers who outsmart overseas spies, which, Chinese observers say, is particularly appealing to younger generations and can better improve public awareness of the importance of national security.

The ministry on its official WeChat account released the first episode, titled "The Secret Special Investigation Division (SPD)." The episode features several excerpts including a scene where a person of Western appearance is being interrogated for suspected violation of the anti-espionage law. The comic series introduce several main characters.

Xiao'an, an experienced scout, has six years of experience in the national security organization. Dandan, a long-haired female police officer, excels in wrestling. Azhe, who wears glasses, is skilled in technical tactics and enjoys bubble tea while working. Laotan is an experienced police officer with undisclosed skills. Tan, the division head within the national security organization, has 25 years of experience.

The first episode concludes on a suspenseful moment as the SPD embarks on a case at the Xishan Mining Area, based on a crucial piece of intelligence.

According to the Ministry of National Security, the comic series is a salute to the Chinese People's Police Day that falls on January 10 annually.

The comics gained wide attention and positive reviews from the public soon after it was published.

Li Wei, an expert on national security at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Sunday that the comic series is visually appealing to teenagers and children in particular and the impressions they form after watching the comic series are likely to be deeper, which can better foster awareness of national security among the young generation.

In recent years, China has released multiple films and TV series in the national security genre, such as "Storm Eye," "In the Silence," "Enemy," and "Spy Game." All of these efforts aim to continuously improve public awareness of national security and bring this concept into the life of everyday people.

Li explained that as both the international and domestic environments are becoming increasingly challenging for national security, the areas and aspects touching national security are also expanding.

Only when every one of us considers safeguarding national security as our own responsibility and obligation can national security be better protected, Li said.

Since the official WeChat account of the Ministry of National Security launched in August 2023, the ministry has released 98 articles as of Sunday. The authority said in its first article on August 1, 2023, that counter-espionage work requires the mobilization of all parts of society, noting that national security is the foundation of national rejuvenation, while social stability is the prerequisite for national prosperity.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
JUBA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) condemned the violence that resulted in nearly 28 civilian deaths last week in Duk County of Jonglei State.

Local authorities in Jonglei State attributed the attack, which left about 19 people wounded, to armed Murle youth from the neighboring Greater Pibor Administrative Area.

In a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, the UNMISS noted its engagement with national, state, and county authorities to de-escalate the situation.

"UNMISS calls on all parties involved to cease the violence, avoid reprisal attacks and resort to peaceful means to resolve their grievances. The Mission urges the Jonglei state and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area authorities to enter into dialogue, bring the perpetrators to justice, and prevent further violence," it said.

The UNMISS reaffirmed its commitment to civilian protection and durable peace across the country.

Philip Thon Leek Deng, a member of parliament representing Duk County in the national legislative assembly, said that the death toll from the violence could be higher as more bodies continue to be discovered in the bushes.

"The total number of dead is now 28, with 19 wounded, but this toll could increase as we search for more bodies in the bushes," Leek told Xinhua.

He added that 13 of the wounded individuals were airlifted to Juba for medical treatment.

Leek said that the attackers are suspected to have taken over 7,000 heads of cattle.

Abraham Kelang, minister of information for Greater Pibor Administrative Area, said that they are monitoring the attackers' movements, with plans for their arrest and the return of stolen cattle to the owners.

Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area often experience retaliatory violence, involving cattle raiding, revenge killings and child abduction. 
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is all set to assume office for her fourth straight and fifth overall tenure as her ruling Awami League (AL) party made a clean sweep in a parliamentary election that was boycotted by the main opposition party.

Hasinas party won in more than two-thirds of the seats in Sundays election to the unicameral parliament of 300 lawmakers. Fifty other lawmakers in the seats reserved for women are elected by the MPs from regular seats once the new parliament gets down to business.

The Awami League secured 223 seats out of 298 parliamentary seats, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said at a news conference on Monday.

The authorities suspended voting in two constituencies, one because of violence during Sundays election, and the other was suspended over the death of an independent candidate of natural causes a week ago.

According to Awal, the current opposition in parliament, the Jatiyo Party, won only 11 seats while independent contenders, mostly AL rebels who were allowed to run freely as part of a strategy to drum up enthusiasm among voters amid the absence of largest opposition party, bagged 61 seats.

The Workers Party of Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantri Dal and Kalyan Party each secured one seat in the election that was marred by low turnout and sporadic violence that killed at least one person on Sunday.

Voter turnout was 41.8%, the Chief Election Commissioner said according to the final tally, compared to more than 80% in the 2018 general election. Nearly 50 million out of 120 million voters cast their vote.

Awal earlier said the election authorities tried their best to ensure fairness in the election amid the boycott of a major political party and its allies.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, Hasinas main political rival, rejected Sundays election as a farce.

The party, which boycotted the election over fears that the polls would be rigged and called on the people not to vote, claimed that its call was successful.

The people of this country rejected the stage-managed election, where the real voters turnout was not more than 2%, Abdul Moyeen Khan, a senior leader of the BNP, told reporters.

He told reporters on Monday that his party would continue its actions against Hasinas government to restore peoples voting rights in Bangladesh.

Hasina, now 76, the longest serving leader in Bangladesh, is credited for her efforts in the social and economic fronts that eventually helped raise the South Asian nation to a developing one from the status of "least developed country" ever since she took over in 2009 for her second tenure as prime minister.

To her supporters, Hasina is a "herald of change," but her critics call her an authoritarian thanks to her handling of her political rivals with an iron fist.

Rights group accuse her of silencing critics, curbing freedom of speech and the media, and violation of human rights during her three consecutive terms stretched over one and a half decades  allegations that her party denies.

Her fourth straight term in office would not be much more comfortable, political analysts say.

It is really very difficult to predict as to how her new government would handle the situation amid the global economic slowdown and a possible pressure of more home-grown street agitations in the coming days, said Ataur Rahman, a retired professor of political science at Dhaka University.

In line with the constitution, the Bangladeshi president will invite Hasina, as the leader of the majority party, to form the next government.

Election officials count ballots after polls closed during the 12th national general election in Bangladesh. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is guaranteed to serve a fifth term in office following a boycott led by an opposition party she branded a "terrorist organisation." Habibur Rahman/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Election officials count ballots after polls closed during the 12th national general election in Bangladesh. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is guaranteed to serve a fifth term in office following a boycott led by an opposition party she branded a "terrorist organisation." Habibur Rahman/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
The Los Angeles Police Department has launched hate crime investigations after multiple Jewish-owned businesses in Woodland Hills were vandalized, including two stores two doors from each other.

An LAPD spokesperson confirmed to KTLA that officers responded to a call of vandalism at a business in the 20900 block of Victory Boulevard just after 8 a.m. on Saturday morning.

When they arrived, they found that a rock had been thrown at a business with a note written in Aramaic.

Video released of fatal traffic collision involving LAPD squad car, pedestrian

Surveillance video captures a man walking up to the business before throwing a rock through the storefront.

A Jewish-owned business two doors down on the same property was also vandalized, likely by the same suspect or suspects, one business owner believes.

Hate crime investigations underway after multiple Jewish-owned businesses vandalized

Apparently, only me and my neighbor who have a mezuzah outside got broken into, one storeowner said. So, we know its a hate crime, and oddly enough, when we came in, there was a rock that said payback and glory, and I dont know what that means.

Obviously, these guys are not happy with us being Jewish in the neighborhood, he added.

Serial burglar targeting Orange County homes remains at large

The owners of the vandalized businesses told KTLA that another business  a dance studio  was vandalized on the same morning, and that another nearby Jewish-owned establishment had been vandalized two days prior.

The owner of the dance studio confirmed that she is not Jewish.

No injuries were reported in any of the vandalisms. No suspect descriptions were immediately released.

KTLA photojournalist Phil Ige contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
The latest chapter in the saga of the Boeing 737 Max planes, prompted by a door that blew off an Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight on Jan. 5 and led to grounding of the 737 Max 9, will not affect passengers flying into or out of McGhee Tyson Airport.

Knoxville's airport does not service any Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, though it might be getting them in the future through Delta, said the airport's vice president of public relations Becky Huckaby.

The two U.S. airlines that fly 737 Max 9 aircraft, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines, have grounded some of their aircraft for inspections mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration.

United is one of five airlines offering flights at McGhee Tyson. As of the morning of Jan. 8, all United arrivals and departures in Knoxville were on time, according to the airport's website.

The airport had not experienced any cancellations in the last 24 hours, according to FlightAware, which tracks commercial flights.

United led all airlines for cancellations on Monday with 223 flights, or 8% of its scheduled departures, and Alaska cancelled 141 flights, or 20% of its scheduled departures, according to FlightAware. Both airlines said they would work with passengers to find other flight options, though passengers reported long wait times for customer service.

The Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon. No passengers or crew were killed, though some sustained minor injuries. The FAA inspections will take between four and eight hours to complete and affect about 171 planes worldwide.

Even though flights out of Knoxville are not directly affected, travelers should check to see if their flights to final destinations are impacted, Huckaby said.

"People connect into larger cities, and that might impact their flight," Huckaby told Knox News. "Their destination might not be a point-to-point from here, so it doesn't mean that they won't be impacted. But as a result of the fleet that's at McGhee Tyson, we do not have Max 9s."

Flight information can be found on an airline's mobile app or website, on a ticket or on sites like FlightAware.

The Max aircraft is Boeing's most popular, though it has been plagued with safety issues. Two crashes, one in Indonesia in 2018 and one in Ethiopia in 2019, killed 346 passengers and crew and led to a worldwide grounding of Max aircraft that lasted for two years and cost Boeing billions.

The company's share prices fell 8.6% on Jan. 8, totaling about $13 billion in market value. The share price of Spirit AeroSystems, which manufactured and installed the fuselage component that failed, fell 13.8%, furthering its troubled partnership with Boeing.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.

Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: McGhee Tyson Airport does not fly grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 airplanes
Investigators identified the body of a woman missing her head and thumbs and drained of blood as 64-year-old Ada Beth Kaplan.

A woman's headless body, missing its thumbs and drained of blood, was identified through DNA analysis as 64-year-old Ada Beth Kaplan nearly 13 years after deputies found the body in a California vineyard.

Officials first made the gruesome discovery of Kaplan's partially decomposed, unclothed body in March 2011 in Arvin, California, a town about 15 miles southeast of Bakersfield, according to the Kern County Sheriff's Office.

Although investigators determined the body belonged to a Caucasian woman 45 to 55 years old who was the victim of homicide, they found few clues to her identity.

Two missing persons cases in different counties initially appeared to be promising leads, but both were ruled out when DNA samples did not match. Investigators also submitted DNA samples to the Justice Department, but the agency's database of missing persons still didn't turn up any matches.

With all leads exhausted, the body was laid to rest.

The case went cold for nine years until investigators brought on the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit dedicated to solving cases using DNA analysis.

A group of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists with the project spent three years piecing together Kaplan's family tree after they hit on a DNA match to several of her distant cousins, according to a news release.

Our team worked long and hard for this identification, said Missy Koski, the team's leader.

When they found that three of Kaplan's grandparents were immigrants with an Eastern European background, they enlisted the help of an expert in Ashkenazi Jewish genealogy.

Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry is often complicated to unravel," Koski said. "When we brought in an expert in Jewish records and genealogy, that made a huge difference.

The team finally found two possible relations of Kaplan's on the other side of the country. When DNA samples from the relatives came back a match, the team knew they had uncovered the identity of the body.

Law enforcement officials later learned through interviews that a missing persons report on Kaplan had never been filed.

Although the mystery of Kaplan's identity was solved, the person responsible for her death and the place where she died remain unknown.

The Kern County Sheriff's Office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her on email at cmayesosterman@usatoday.com. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Found headless in 2011. DNA analysis reveals her name: Ada Beth Kaplan
BOSTON  Six months of disappointing tax revenue has prompted Gov. Maura T. Healey to cut spending for the current fiscal year by $375 million  mostly in funding for MassHealth, social programs and college supports  to help close an anticipated $1 billion budget gap.

Layoffs are not in the picture, state officials say.

The $769 million shortfall in tax collections through the last six months, compared to what had been projected, reflects slower economic growth than anticipated, said Matthew Gorzkowicz, the states administration and finance secretary.

Matthew Gorzkowicz, Massachusetts secretary for administration and finance for the Healey/Driscoll Administration announced budget cuts Monday prompted by shortfalls in tax collections over the last six months. Cuts and readjusting the spending for fiscal 2024 also affect the base for the 2025 budget.

State officials expect the shortfall in tax revenues to reach $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year in June. In addition to the $375 million in spending cuts, state officials have earmarked $625 million from other sources, including agency and department fees as well as anticipated interest on investments, to fill the gap.

Revenue derived from interest earnings is traditionally not included in the budgetary process due to its volatility. Those funds are held in reserve and incorporated into general revenue at years end and can be used to fill funding shortfalls to close out the fiscal year budget.

To ensure the long-term financial heath of Massachusetts, we cannot wait to rebalance the fiscal year 2024 budget, said Healey in a prepared statement, Our administration is decreasing the fiscal year 2024 tax revenue estimate by $1 billion to $40.41, including of surtax revenue.

State officials have also agreed to revise their revenue forecast for next fiscal year down to $40.202 billion.

Where will the spending cuts come from?

The bulk of the cuts, $294 million, target MassHealth, the state's Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program.

The cuts will come from reimbursement rates paid to doctors treating patients in the system and are also the result of savings from people enrolled in state-subsidized health insurance using fewer services than expected.

The cuts to MassHealth will not affect eligibility requirements, according to officials.

Also being cut are services to families and in the mental health field:

Commonwealth Care Trust Fund: $50 million

Community Residential Services: $35 million

Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children Grant: $13 million

Center-based child care rate increase: $12 million

Community Day and Work: $13 million

Behavioral Health Supports: $5 million

Housing Services and Counseling: $5 million

Massachusetts State Scholarship Program: $4 million

In their comments explaining the cuts, officials said these programs were targeted due to lower-than-anticipated use, the presence of sufficient funding or rollover funds to accommodate anticipated use, and revenue sources from other agencies or programs. None of the programs will lose 100% of their funding.

The cuts represent 0.6% of the states $56 billion for the current fiscal year.

Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, called the cuts "unfortunate, but necessary."

Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, discussing the closeout budget passed in December. He called the cuts announced Monday, "unfortunate, but necessary."

"The necessity of these cuts is a clarion call for all of us in state government to reevaluate and reform the things that continue to drive dramatic increases in state spending, which threaten our fiscal stability and the essential things people depend on from our state," Tarr said in a prepared statement. "We must boldly confront the high costs of living in Massachusetts that have driven thousands of taxpayers to leave, taking with them the revenue that our budgets depend on. We cannot continue the trends of spiking costs and declines in the population of the people needed to support those costs without risking the financial present and future of our state."

In her statement, Healey said her administration is focused on making Massachusetts more affordable.

"That's why we passed an historic tax cut package last year to provide relief for families at a time when costs are rising," Healey said. "The tax package was fully paid for in the budget and had no impact on spending reductions."

Gorzkowicz said those affordability programs were preserved and so were the October tax cuts that favored lower-income earners, allowed greater deductions for renters, and addressed family and child poverty and senior housing issues.

Are disappointing revenues a sign of recession?

Gorzkowicz said tax withholding has remained consistent and there has been an increase in sales tax revenue in the prepared food category, but revenues from other categories have fallen.

Gorzkowicz described it as a 12- to 18-month cycle of belt-tightening; we dont see a recession.

Officials also do not see a need to dip into the states rainy day fund, which, Gorzkowicz said, is reserved for extraordinary circumstances, where revenues decline year after year.

The governor last month proposed that the state use a different fund, the $700 million Transitional Escrow Fund, to shore up the Emergency Housing Assistance Program.

Using the escrow fund insulates the state budget, protects services and programs from being affected by the shelter crisis, Gorzkowicz said.

Skinnier budget for next fiscal year

The legislators responsible for overseeing the budgetary process noted that the slow growth of tax revenue this year will have ramifications for the next fiscal year as well. They note that the slow growth of tax revenue this year has fiscal ramifications for the coming year.

The new revenue estimate for next fiscal year represents a 2% increase to the revised estimate for this year. The legislators anticipate there will be enough revenue from the state's new tax on high earners to support $1.3 billion in education and transportation spending, an increase of $300 million in available funds over this fiscal year's budget.

Remaining clear-eyed about our current fiscal environment, this fiscal year 2025 consensus revenue agreement provides a road map to develop a balanced FY 2025 budget plan built on sound fiscal discipline, while responsibly adjusting for the pressures and impacts caused by the slowdown in FY 2024 tax revenue growth to date, said Sen. Michael Rodrigues, D-Westport, chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. I am confident with this agreement that we are well positioned to address our collective challenges head on and support our commonwealths long-term fiscal health.

Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, D-Boston, chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said, this fiscal year 2025 consensus revenue figure will allow the Legislature and the Healey-Driscoll administration to collectively construct a reasonable and appropriate budget for the upcoming fiscal year. By being ever watchful of the commonwealth's finances and basing the budget on a judicious consensus revenue figure, we will be able to make fiscally sound decisions over the next few months as we work to make the necessary investments that our constituents deserve.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Mass. Gov. Healey announces spending cuts to close budget gap
Hearing loss is associated with a 7% higher risk of dementia, according to new research, leading experts to call for more routine hearing checks and broader use of hearing aids. Bernd Weissbrod/dpa

Using hearing aids could delay the onset and progression of dementia, research suggests. Experts said further work to better understand the link between hearing loss and dementia risk has never been more important.

The study by Danish academics comprised 573,088 people aged 50 years and older and was conducted in southern Denmark between January 2003 and December 2017.

Hearing loss has been suggested as a risk factor for dementia, researchers said, with potential factors including the reallocation of brain resources to process sound, hampering other cognitive processes, as well as a decline in social interaction and stimulation due to hearing loss.

The team found hearing loss was associated with a 7% higher risk of dementia.

However, people who had hearing loss and did not use hearing aids were associated with a 20% risk, compared to 6% among people who had hearing loss and used the devices.

Researchers said although the clinical relevance of these findings is still unclear, the study results suggest that treatment of hearing loss with hearing aids may be associated with reduced risk of dementia.

They added that this calls for a better understanding of the association between hearing loss and dementia as a critical step for the development of prevention strategies.

Gill Livingston, a professor of psychiatry of older people at University College London (UCL), said: The consistency of this evidence means that this is very important in the real world.

Prevention is more important than cure and being able to hear also improves functioning and quality of life without toxic effects which drugs may have.

Dr Leah Mursaleen, head of clinical research at Alzheimers Research UK (ARUK), said the findings, published in the journal JAMA OtolaryngologyHead & Neck Surgery, add to the growing evidence that losing your hearing increases your risk of dementia.

She added: Although the effects of using hearing aids are notoriously difficult to unravel, because researchers cannot be sure if people use them consistently, there is building evidence suggesting that using them can help reduce the impact of hearing loss on dementia risk.

Further research is needed to help us better understand this link, and with around one million people now affected by dementia in the UK, and 12 million people estimated to have some type of hearing loss, this has never been more important.

Mursaleen said dementia and hearing loss are not an inevitable part of ageing and early intervention is crucial.
Stress levels at Heathrow Terminal 5 are set to reduce... but some British Airways passengers will be waiting significantly longer for connections.

The airline is to increase the minimum connection time (MCT) at Heathrow from an hour to 75 minutes, to reduce the risk  and commercial cost  of missed onward flights.

By lengthening connections, the airline hopes fewer passengers will end up being stranded or rebooked.

However, it will mean longer journey times for passengers connecting at the hub, putting the flag carrier at a commercial disadvantage compared to European rivals. For example, it is now three times longer than the MCT at Vienna airport for passengers connecting between Star Alliance flights.

Passengers from Nice heading for Los Angeles can no longer arrive in California at lunchtime by transiting through London. Up to 8 January, travellers on the first flight from the south of France had 65 minutes to connect with the British Airways departure at 10.10am, giving an arrival time of 1.25pm. While a lunchtime arrival is still feasible on KLM via Amsterdam, Lufthansa via Frankfurt or Air France via Paris, the first legal connection on BA reaches Los Angeles at 4.10pm.

From Berlin, a passenger hoping to connect on the British Airways afternoon flight to Miami will need to leave the German capital 70 minutes earlier than previously.

A spokesperson for British Airways said: Following customer feedback, were increasing the minimum connection time for some of our flights through Heathrow T5.

This will give customers more time to make their next flight and reduce the risk of missing their onward service, which we know is incredibly frustrating.

Connections between Terminals 3 and 5  which require a bus connection taking around 10 minutes  retain the existing 90-minute minimum.

British Airways says passengers who made bookings before the change and have connections shorter than 75 minutes have been contacted and offered alternative connections.

Terminal 5 opened almost 16 years ago as the solution to British Airways big structural problem: most intercontinental flights used Terminal 4, while Terminal 1 served domestic and most European flights. Connections between the two were fraught.

The 2.5bn new structure at the west of the airfield was the solution. After some industrial-scale teething problems, Terminal 5 is now working well for British Airways and its sister airline, Iberia.

The change was first picked up by the frequent-flyer website Head for Points  whose editor, Rob Burgess, said: British Airways has been very public about its desire to reduce aircraft delays at Heathrow, and ensuring transit passengers dont get stuck in Flight Connections is a help.

It would make more sense to tackle the root of the problem at Heathrow, however, rather than simply enforce longer connecting times. When Zurich can guarantee a connection in 40 minutes and Frankfurt in 45 minutes, BA is simply making itself less attractive to transit passengers.

The minimum connecting times for international-to-international flights at European competitors for British Airways  and Heathrow  are now significantly shorter:

Amsterdam: 50 minutes

Frankfurt: 45 minutes

Paris CDG: 60 minutes

Vienna: 25 minutes

Zurich: 40 minutes

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and other carriers with connecting traffic at Heathrow face another threat to their transit business: the UKs Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).

The new permit is currently obligatory for Qatari travellers, with Gulf and Jordanian nationals requuring the permit by next month.

The government says that by the end of the year, an ETA will be required by every non-visa national flying to the UK, even if they merely wish to spend two hours between flights.

At other major aviation hubs outside the US, passengers transferring from one international flight to another need only documentation valid for their final destination.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) released a report this month forecasting a sharp global increase in the humanitarian crisis in 2024. In its 2024 Emergency Watch list, IRC President David Miliband wrote, its the worst of times.

The report lists armed conflicts, rising debt crisis, climate change and donor apathy as contributing factors to what it described as heightened humanitarian crisis in 2024. Eleven of the 20 countries reported as high risk of experiencing worsening Humanitarian outcomes are Sub-Saharan African nations. The ongoing war in Sudan made the nation the most vulnerable with South Sudan coming second in the emergency watch list.

Empowering women, people-first banking for people displaced, climate adaptation strategies and a fight against impunity might be the best antidote to the impending crisis, Miliband said.

Dechasa Hirpessa, the peace and advocacy officer at the Evangelical Fellowship Churches of Ethiopia (ECFE) reflected on the growing humanitarian crisis in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia.

Regrettably, food aid assistance to Ethiopia had been suspended by most humanitarian agencies at the time of our intervention, exacerbating an already dire situation, Hirpessa said. The resulting scarcity has placed the health and well-being of IDPs at great risk with over 2.2 million individuals, displaced by the war, struggling for survival in Tigray.

With support from Giving Hands Germany in collaboration with the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA) and the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Business Coalition, the national evangelical alliance in Ethiopia formulated a crisis response aimed at those most affected by the conflict in Welo area, Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia.

Our projects swift response provided essential sustenance to 950 households, ultimately saving thousands of lives, he said.

Jude Simion is the CEO of Philoi Global  an organization that responds to the humanitarian gaps of persecuted minorities through relief, relocation, and resettlement. He is also a member of the global leadership team of the Refugee Highway Partnership. He affirmed the Churchs responsibility to care for the aliens, widows and orphans.

Unlike the aid agencies, the Church journeys with the displaced, it is among the displaced, first to respond and it never leaves the community. Aid agencies may come and go depending on donor tractions, but the local church remains among the people.

Simon further expounded on the attention needed to address the impacts of forcible displacement on food, security and livelihoods while speaking during the Refugee Highway Partnership Global leadership meetings in Helsinki held from December 16-19, 2023. He said, When we think of the emerging humanitarian crisis, the impact is not only limited to the forcibly displaced communities, but it also significantly affects the host communities especially in Africa. Donor fatigue, and funding limitations affects displaced populations.

According to Simon, durable solutions for forcible displacement should be based on enabling the host communities, facilitating returning possibilities through peace building and rebuilding efforts. Ultimately, he added, We should not forget, not even one percent of the global displaced population get to resettle in the western world, and it should not be the ultimate solution. Ninety percent of the refugees are hosted by the developing world.
A nightmarish sea creature caught off New South Wales, Australia, has ignited debate after a professional angler admitted he was baffled by it.

The snake-like creature appears to be a type of large eel, with startled-looking eyes, a cavernous mouth and teeth like twisted nails.

Its a new one for me and Ive been commercially fishing for 50 years, Trapman Australia, also known Jason Moyce, wrote in a Jan. 3 Facebook post.

Ive never seen anything like it. Its not a pike eel, or a silver eel. The teeth look like some kind of Moray eel. But the face is very blunt. It was about 9 (feet) long.

Multiple photos were shared with Trapman Australias 250,000-plus Facebook followers, including one showing the beast trailed nearly the length of the boat. Trapman Australia Facebook screentgrab

Details of who caught it were not revealed, but it came out of the Pittwater estuary in southeast Australia.

Multiple photos were shared with Trapman Australias 250,000-plus Facebook followers, including one showing the beast trailed nearly the length of the boat.

It was tan in color, with a muscular body, angular snout and an extra set of teeth growing from the roof of its mouth.

The photos had racked up 1,350 reactions and comments as of Jan. 8, including some who couldnt help but notice it looked old and very angry. Others said the creature represented everything they found terrifying about the ocean.

Thats a horror movie, Elle McFerguson posted on Facebook.

Thats not coming in the boat, just saying, Colin Thompson wrote.

Cut the line & let it go. It looks evil, DarrellnNorma Long said.

Just imagine that coming up your swimsuit! Jeremy D. Huxol posted.

Many commenters offered guesses, including conger eel, long tail moray and green moray. But Trapman Australia said the creature doesnt coincide with accepted descriptions for any of those eel species.

Most of the comments were not even close, he told McClatchy News.

Australias waters are home to more than 60 described species of moray eel, so even the most-experienced angler can be forgiven for not knowing them all.

They are largely nocturnal carnivores, ranging from 8 inches to more than 13 feet, and their teeth are often referred to as fangs, Fishes of Australia reports.

Morays, especially large species with long, sharp teeth are often feared, the site reports. While usually not aggressive, they may inflict a nasty bite when molested.

Talk grows of mega predator off Australia, but the grim reality may be more sobering

Grotesque fish caught off Australia ignites debate. Put it back in its space ship

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DEPTFORD TWP.  A Delaware-based hotel company interested in setting up rooms with a view near the Deptford Mall is back with a smaller version of a proposal it first offered almost a year ago.

SSN Hotels LLC still needs the township to loosen some construction guidelines for its proposed two hotels to fit into a site off Route 41 and Harmony Lane.

But residents of nearby Melvina Road, sitting across Route 41 from two existing hotels, have had their fill of hotels.

More: Company sees room for hotels on vacant land near Routes 41, 42 in Deptford

More: Mom still calls them 'the boys' but South Jersey sons will be mayors of neighboring towns

Will Vogenitz, whose house sits on one corner of the road, blames existing hotels and other commercial development for creating permanent traffic congestion and related issues. A native, he remembers growing up with farm fields where buildings are now.

"Theres an exit right by the U-Haul to go on (Rt.) 42 North," Vogenitz said. "On the opposite side of the street, there used to be an exit off of 42 South right up onto (Rt.) 41 here. They took that out so that they can drive traffic to the Walmart to make it go round, which causes a big (problem) all around. Especially the holiday season and stuff like that and weekends."

The entrance to a property at the rear of Harmony Lane in Deptford Township. The property, off Route 41, is proposed for two hotels. PHOTO: March 6, 2023.

Vogenitz also said the existing hotels bring a share of undesirables. He said he found a drunken man in his bushes a few weeks ago. Many business people use the hotel but some residents are those with no homes to go to, he said.

"Before you had hotels, you didnt have riffraff coming around here," he said, "Deptford was a quiet town. Maybe a couple stores, the mall. But, now? I guess they figure hotels drum up more traffic. Whoever that benefits, I guess. The politicians."

The Planning Board was expected to hold a public hearing on Wednesday evening. And while the matter was listed on the agenda posted for the meeting, it was announced the application had been pulled until Feb. 7. The hotel company will not have to re-advertise to notify residents of the new date.

The SSN Hotels proposal was to be heard at least twice in 2023 only to be postponed.

The proposal calls for a Townplace Suites hotel and a Home 2 Suites hotel. Delaware-based SSN has a catalog of hotels in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida under brands like La Quinta, Four Points and Hampton Inn.

Kris Waskosky, a former township employee, and her husband have lived in Deptford for more than 30 years. They were noticed by mail about the project.

"Im not too thrilled about it because these two hotels already affect the traffic," she said. "So, we are concerned about the additional traffic because they seem to be putting up these hotels."

The revised project plans call for a pair of four-story hotels  one at 17,068 square feet and the other at 17,280 square feet  and a total of 206 rooms. The early 2023 application had the first hotel larger, at 18,390 square feet, and a total room count of 218.

Like the original version, the present site plan does not meet several yard setback and buffer requirements. For example, township code asks for front yard space of a least 150 feet while the company seeks a variance to stop at about 85 feet. It also would be short on parking, by 19 spaces.

Interest in hotels in the mall area is not new, given major highways straddle it and four hotels already operate nearby. And Deptford has encouraged hotel development since at least 2007 and collects a hotel tax.

This article was updated Jan. 10.

Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.

Have a tip? Reach out at jsmith@thedailyjournal.com. Support local journalism with a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: SSN Hotels eyes Deptford for two-building complex
Suspected Fulani terrorists on Wednesday (Jan. 3) killed 41 Christians and kidnapped many others in two counties of southern Kaduna state, Nigeria, sources said.

The assailants in the early morning attacked Dokan Karji, Ungwan Sako and Kunkurai villages in the Dawaki area of Kauru County and Gefe village in Kajuru County, area resident Sunday Isuwa said.

The attacks in Kauru claimed the lives of 17 Christians, and those in Kajuru claimed the lives of 24 Christians, Isuwa told Morning Star News in a text message.

Another resident, Samaila Musa, said in a text message, The terrorists who were armed with deadly weapons invaded the communities, killing children, women, men and the elderly who were unable to escape from the attackers.

The Rev. Joseph John Hayab, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State Chapter, said in a press statement on Friday (Jan. 5) that the attacks were the handiwork of evil bandits and terrorists who have been attacking our communities without relenting.

We are appealing to the governor of Kaduna state and Nigerias security agencies not to relent but ensure that these evil-doers are brought to face the wrath of the laws of our country, Hayab said.

Police confirmed the attacks and said officers were making efforts to curtail them.

A former Dawaki Ward council member, Aminu Khalid, told Nigerian news outlet Punch that the assailants entered the communities on foot and took up vantage positions.

The terrorists always come from parts of Kajuru and Kachia forest, where their camp is, Khalid told Punch. The camp is situated at Dutsen Magunguna, in Kajuru Local Government Area of the state.

The Nigerian military has raided the terrorist camp, but nearby communities never experience peace, he added.

Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith in 2022, with 5,014, according to Open Doors 2023 World Watch List (WWL) report. It also led the world in Christians abducted (4,726), sexually assaulted or harassed, forcibly married or physically or mentally abused, and it had the most homes and businesses attacked for faith-based reasons. As in the previous year, Nigeria had the second most church attacks and internally displaced people.

In the 2023 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria jumped to sixth place, its highest ranking ever, from No. 7 the previous year.

Militants from the Fulani, Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and others conduct raids on Christian communities, killing, maiming, raping and kidnapping for ransom or sexual slavery, the WWL report noted. This year has also seen this violence spill over into the Christian-majority south of the nation Nigerias government continues to deny this is religious persecution, so violations of Christians rights are carried out with impunity.

Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdoms All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.

They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity, the APPG report states.

Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigerias Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
Washington  House Republicans on Monday released a resolution recommending that the chamber find Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress, after the president's son failed to comply with a subpoena for closed-door testimony.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, released the resolution and an accompanying report Monday. The panel will consider the resolution Wednesday morning.

"Mr. Biden's flagrant defiance of the Committees' deposition subpoenas  while choosing to appear nearby on the Capitol grounds to read a prepared statement on the same matters  is contemptuous, and he must be held accountable for his unlawful actions," the House Republicans' report said. "Accordingly, the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability recommends that Congress find Robert Hunter Biden in contempt for his failure to comply with the committee subpoena issued to him."

A majority of the GOP-controlled House must approve the resolution.

"Hunter Biden's willful refusal to comply with our subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney's Office for prosecution," said Comer and House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan in a joint statement. "We will not provide him with special treatment because of his last name."

The president's son appeared on Capitol Hill on Dec. 13, the day he was called to testify before closed doors, and spoke to the media but did not appear for testimony. Hunter Biden said he would be willing to testify publicly, but Comer declined that offer, saying the president's son must provide private testimony first.

"I'm here today to make sure the House committee's illegitimate investigations of my family do not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence and lies, and I'm here today to acknowledge I have made mistakes in my life and wasted opportunities and privileges I was afforded," Hunter Biden said. "For that, I am responsible. For that, I am accountable. And for that, I am making amends."

For years, House Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings, and any connection to President Biden. They have been unable to establish criminal wrongdoing by the president. Republicans in the House voted last month to formalize their impeachment inquiry into the president.

"There is no precedent for the U.S. House of Representatives holding a private citizen in contempt of Congress who has offered to testify in public, under oath, and on a day of the committee's choosing," said Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the oversight committee. "Chairman Comer repeatedly urged Hunter Biden to appear at a committee hearing, and Hunter Biden agreed. Instead of taking yes for an answer, Chairman Comer has now obstructed his own hapless investigation by denying Hunter Biden the opportunity to answer all the committee's questions in front of the American people and the world."

When Republicans threatened Hunter Biden last week with a contempt of Congress vote, Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden's lawyer, said in a statement to CBS News that House Republicans "continue to play politics."

"It's clear the Republican chairmen aren't interested in getting the facts or they would allow Hunter to testify publicly," Lowell said. "Instead, House Republicans continue to play politics by seeking an unprecedented contempt motion against someone who has from the first request offered to answer all their proper questions," he said. "What are they afraid of?"

Melissa Quinn contributed to this report.

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House and Senate Republicans have introduced bills to ban minors under 16 from having social media accounts, at the request of House Speaker Paul Renner.

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The House version of the bill (HB 1), filed by Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island, and Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, was released Friday night, while the Senate version (SB 1788) was filed Monday by Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach. They came as the 2024 legislative session prepares to start Tuesday.

During an appearance last month in Tallahassee, Renner said social media is having a devastating effect on kids and that lawmakers should be able to impose online regulations in a meaningful way.

I want to hear from everybody on what that looks like, Renner said at the time. You know, the idea that we can be libertarians where our kids are concerned? Were not libertarians with our kids on anything. Adults are a different story. They wanted to do all that stuff. Thats their business. And its a free country. But for our kids, weve got to protect them.

The bills would require social media platforms to bar minors under 16 from creating social media accounts and use reasonable age verification methods to check the ages of people when accounts are created. It would require platforms to use independent organizations to conduct age verifications and would require the denial of accounts for people who do not verify their ages.

The bills also would require social media platforms to terminate existing accounts that are reasonably known by the platforms to be held by minors younger than 16 and would allow parents to request that minors accounts be terminated.

READ: Florida and Texas social media censorship laws headed to the U.S. Supreme Court

The attorney general would be able to file civil lawsuits alleging unfair and deceptive trade practices for violations of the law, with social media platforms potentially facing fines.

The House version of the bill received a number, HB 1, that has been traditionally reserved for priorities of House leaders. Sirois is chairman of the House Regulatory Reform & Economic Development Subcommittee, while McFarland last year shepherded through an online data-privacy bill that was closely watched by tech companies and other businesses.

But attempts across the country to crack down on social media use by minors have proven complicated  and, at least in some cases, contentious. Among the issues is how to verify ages.

Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, on Monday questioned how the bill could be enforced.

It seems performative to me, Driskell said. I do think social media can have bad effects on our society and kids specifically, but I dont know that this bill is going to solve the problem at all.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody in October filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, uses manipulative features to keep minors hooked on the social media platforms. Moodys lawsuit came the same day that other states joined together to file a similar lawsuit in California against the company.

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Moodys lawsuit contended that Meta had violated a law known as the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, which prohibits unfair methods of competition, unconscionable acts or practices, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce. The lawsuit also alleged the company violated the federal Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act.

Meta in December filed a motion to dismiss the case, which has been moved to California. The motion is pending. In a statement provided to the News Service in October, Meta pushed back against the allegations in both lawsuits.

Were disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path, the statement said.

The company, for example, cited its terms of service, which it said prohibits minors under 13 from using Instagram. It also described how it restricts ads for teens and contended that research on the negative impacts of social media on teens mental health is not conclusive and pointed to the positive impacts that social media can have on young peoples lives.

Meanwhile, Rep. Chase Tramont, R-Port Orange, and Grall have filed additional bills (HB 3 and SB 1792) that would require age verification to try to prevent people under age 18 from having access to material harmful to minors on websites and apps. Tramont filed his bill Friday, while Grall filed the Senate version Monday.

Those bills would set a series of standards for determining whether the material would be harmful, such as whether it appeals to the prurient interest and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.

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The annual Consumer Technology Association (CES) trade show is nearly upon us, having already turned Las Vegas into a high-tech wonderland. Sonys holding a press conference the day before CES 2024 exhibitions open, on January 8 at 8PM EST. You can stream it live via Sony Square or on the companys YouTube channel.

What we expect

Sony is being particularly cagey about what it has in store, saying it will showcase various technologies and initiatives that support creators. An official company press release also says Sonys purpose here is to fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology.

There was a holding image on Sonys website that seemed to indicate that the presser would focus on technology involving movie production, professional sound and VR. Those three together could certainly, uh, fill the world with emotion. The original teaser image showed the Ghostbusters logo, a man singing into a microphone and a film crew. However, Sony replaced this image with a simple visual showing a bunch of nondescript circles.

While we dont know what Sony will focus on, we have some ideas of what the company is likely to avoid. Last year, Sony didnt mention TVs at all, saving that for an event in March. Its possible well get something PlayStation related, but with the recent launch of the PS5 Slim and the befuddling PlayStation Portal, dont hold your breath.

We could, however, get some game announcements for the PSVR2. Sony revealed a VR Gran Turismo 7 update at last years press conference. Its also possible that Sony will announce some home theater products to go along with that whole creativity and technology thing.

Sony likes to use CES to reveal experimental tech that may or may ever see an actual release. Last year we got the Afeela EV concept vehicle, a partnership with Honda, so who knows what wacky tech will take center stage this year. Sony also revealed a truly innovative kit for PS5 controllers to help players with disabilities during 2023s event.

What Sony announced

According to our own reporters on the ground, Sony's CES 2024 news conference didn't have much actual news for the first 25 minutes, at which point things took an interesting turn. The company unveiled a new mixed reality headset for 'spatial content creation,' which Sony's partner in the venture, Siemens, later said will power "whatever the industrial metaverse is." Also, for good measure, someone drove Sony's Afeela EV onto the stage. If you missed it all live, we have a sub-six-minute recap live on our site and YouTube page ready for you to watch.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

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Humza Yousaf has denied indulging in fantasy economics after facing mockery over his claim that Scottish independence would lead to households being 10,200 better off.

The First Minister claimed the figure would be the huge prize of independence if Scotland could reach the average income of small countries such as Norway and Denmark.

In a speech at Glasgow University, he insisted he was not arguing there will be rivers of milk and honey and the manna will fall from the sky the day after independence.

Pressed that it was fantasy economics, he said the 10,200 was based on a report by the Resolution Foundation think-tank claiming that the average household would be 8,300 better off if the UK had the average income inequality of similar countries.

He called the UK the poor man of north-west Europe as he set out his views on industrial policy in an independent Scotland.

Delusional speech

But Craig Hoy, the Scottish Tory chairman, said: This delusional speech reaffirmed how out of touch Humza Yousaf is with the Scottish people, who are sick and tired of him obsessing over independence.

The First Ministers case for ripping Scotland out of the UK rests on myths, fantasy economics and the fanciful hope the public forget that last months disastrous tax-and-axe budget was the product of years of waste and dismal growth under the SNP.

Scottish Government figures show tax revenue per person in Scotland was 696 higher than the UK average in 2022-23 as a result of North Sea oil and gas, but public spending was 2,217 per person more thanks to the Barnett formula.

Combining the differences in the spending and revenue figures, Scotlands Union dividend was 1,521 per person. However, this would disappear after independence.

Citing the Resolution Foundations 8,300 figure, Mr Yousaf said: If we use the same analysis for countries that are similar to Scotland, the prize for the typical Scottish household would be even greater.

They would be 10,200 better off. That then is the huge prize of independence. Not to match the performance of those independent countries overnight, no one is saying that, but to start catching up  so that Scotland becomes more normal for nations that are like us.

He unveiled a three-point industrial strategy for an independent Scotland, the first of which was joining the EU.

However, experts have warned this would mean creating a hard border with the rest of the UK, which is by far Scotlands largest export market.

Mr Yousaf also announced a plan to set up another Scottish government agency, to drive industrial policy, and to spend public money on key areas of comparative advantage.

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Farm land is flooded near Bendigo, Australia, Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Hundreds of people were ordered to evacuate their homes after parts of Victoria state were inundated by flooding as wild weather continues to batter Australia's east coast. (Diego Fedele/AAP Image via AP)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)  Hundreds of people were ordered to evacuate their homes on Monday after flooding inundated parts of Victoria state, as wild weather continues to batter Australias southeast.

The issue was ordered for badly hit areas in the small towns of Seymour and Yea, about 70 miles north of Melbourne. Authorities told residents and tourists to leave immediately as floodwaters rose to dangerous levels.

Multiple flood and thunderstorm warnings were in place across Victoria with the deluge filling streets with water. Authorities rescued 38 people from flooding and almost 1,000 calls were made for help, Victoria State of Emergency Services said.

Rainfall in the northeast of Victoria was expected to reach more than 200 millimeters (7.88 inches). Authorities warned that flooding above the floor level of a single-story house was likely, and access to key roads would be difficult.

The area is popular with vacationers.

If you live in a flood-prone area, please make the necessary plans. Especially people living in caravan parks and camping along creeks and other waterways, Victoria emergency management commissioner Rick Nugent said. Falling tree branches and flash floods are the highest risk. Please dont drive through flood waters.

There have also been reports of contamination in the local water supply system in the southeast of Victoria. Authorities warn that drinking un-boiled tap water could lead to stomach problems.

Melbourne has been spared the worst of the weather but has received a large amount of rainfall.

The states of South Australia and New South Wales are also bracing for storms as the countrys populous east coast continues to be hit by bad weather.
Today, January 6, is the 12th day of Christmas in the traditional church calendar, the official end to Christmastide and the start of Epiphany, which lasts through to the day before Lent.

The Feast of Epiphany commemorates the visit of the Magi, or Three Kings, from the east who experienced the revelation, or epiphany, of the Incarnation of the Christ as the infant Jesus.

Until a century or two ago, Epiphany was actually more important than Christmas Day. In the Spanish-speaking world, for example, Dia de los Reyes (Three Kings Day) is when most children receive their Christmas presents. Last night, many Spanish children would have left their shoes by the door hoping to have them filled with gifts from the three kings.

Many Ukrainians broke with Orthodox tradition this year to celebrate Christmas on December 25 following Western practice. Russia, along with other Orthodox nations like Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan, continued to follow the older and less accurate Julian calendar by commemorating Christmas today or tomorrow.

In 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar, most Protestant countries feared the switch as a plot to suppress the Reformation. While Catholic Europe adopted it immediately, German, Dutch, Swiss and Nordic Protestants only did so in 1700. Only in 1752 did the British and their American colonies also change, leaping from September 2nd to the 14th the next day. (Benjamin Franklin jested in his almanac: what an indulgence for those who love their pillow to lie down in peace on the second of this month and not perhaps awake till the morning of the fourteenth!)

Sign of hope

While we may think of Epiphany as marking the end of the Christmas season, it should remind us that the Incarnation points to a message to be lived out all year long. It is the promise of things to come, a sign of hope no matter how bleak current news may be.

A Saviour is born announced the angels. Exactly how he would bring this salvation was not clear to the shepherds or to the wise men  nor to Joseph and Mary. Pregnant with Gods future, Mary had simply to ponder all these things in her heart. What was clear was that something was happening, a new stage was being reached in Gods plan. There was something to look forward to.

As we return to our usual routine, lets also ponder the meaning of the Incarnation for this coming year. We too should live as pregnant with Gods future, expecting the unfolding of his purposes, yet knowing that full understanding will elude us for the present. Jesus has come to restore Gods original purposes for everything. So our lives in all areas are to be lived now in the light of that future.

Epiphany, or Three Kings, reminds us of Gods mission to all peoples. The Magi were the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as king and thus to make him known to the wider world. Simeon proclaimed that this child would be a light for revelation to the Gentiles (Luke 2:32). Epiphany calls for the healing of divisions of bigotry and prejudice, a theme worth contemplating in todays climate of growing xenophobia in Europe.

Hospitality

This openness to others starts in our own homes. That is the meaning of a practice seen in many European countries of chalking doors  as in the photo above. Written in chalk during Epiphany on door lintels, these series of numbers and letters remain all through the years seasons. This may seem rather esoteric and mysterious for those like myself from less traditional church backgrounds. But actually it has deep biblical meaning and reminds us of our call to flesh out hospitality to all.

The formula begins and ends with two-digit numbers, representing the calendar year just beginning. The letters C, M, and B are written between the numbers, and linked by crosses: e.g. 20+C+M+B+24 for the yearv 2024. The crosses represent Christ. The letters C, M, and B are the initials for the traditional names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar), a way of remembering the Latin blessing Christus Mansionem Benedicat  meaning May Christ bless this house.

Chalking doors invites Gods presence into the home, just as the Holy Family showed hospitality to the Magi (and thus all Gentiles). It has been described as a consecration of the home as a place of Christian hospitality, a safe and peaceful outpost of the Kingdom of God in the world, a habitation of healing and rest.

May our homes this year be the starting point for that future to be fleshed out as safe and peaceful outposts of the Kingdom of God.
Joseph Glynn, 70, has been arrested on suspicion of killing his wife Jackie Glynn, 76 (Metro Nashville Police Department)

A Tennessee man has been arrested on suspicion of beating his wife to death with a hammer, then telling their children that she had terminal cancer.

Joseph Glynn, 70, allegedly killed his wife, 76-year-old Jackie Glynn, inside their home on New Years Day, then drove to another county to bury her remains on property they owned.

Mr Glynn has been arrested on charges of criminal homicide, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse, police announced.

According to an affidavit obtained by WTVF, after allegedly beating his wife to death, the suspect then told his children that their mother had left home because she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her medical provider later refuted this claim and told the children that their mother had never had a diagnosis of cancer.

Jackie was initially reported as missing and was last seen at her home in Nashville driving a Toyota.

A Silver Alert was issued for the missing woman by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) on Friday, stating that she had a medical condition that may impair her ability to return safely without medical assistance.

However, Jackie was then found deceased in Smithville that same day, the TBI said.

A day after she was found, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department announced her husband had been arrested. The police said that Mr Glynn is believed to have driven her body the day after he killed her to a property in DeKalb County and buried her remains in a pit in a plastic vehicle cargo box, covering it up with brand-new roofing shingles and dirt, according to WTVF.

Jackie Glynns remains were found by police in a plastic vehicle cargo box in a grave at their property (Metro Nashville Police Department)

Jackies Toyota had also been towed and hidden by the suspect, the affidavit said, that was later found by police.

As police were conducting their investigation into Jackies disappearance, they spoke to her husband, who said he had been at the couples property in DeKalb County where he lit a bonfire, the outlet reported.

The police then contacted the DeKalb County Sheriffs Office to request a welfare check on the property.

As the local police arrived, they ran into Jackies son, who was also looking for his mother at the time.

After speaking to a neighbour, the police learned that a large hole had been dug at the Glynns property a few weeks earlier and had recently been filled with dirt.

The hole was dug on 16 December and was 6ft wide, 10ft long, and 6ft deep; Mr Glynn claimed it was to be used as a burn pit, DeKalb County Sheriff Patrick Ray told WTVF.

After the discovery of Jackies remains, she was transported to Nashville for an autopsy.

Mr Glynn confessed to police upon his arrest that he hit his wife with a hammer at their home on the night of New Years Day, then buried her at his other property the following day.

It is unclear what motivated Mr Glynn to allegedly kill his wife.

He added that he threw the murder weapon away into a trash compactor, sold some of her belongings, and tried contacting a local realtor to sell the property.

Jackie has been remembered by her friends and colleagues as an influencer, mentor and a friend.

She owned the Riverwood Mansion, an events space and wedding venue in Nashville, her colleague Tricia Alsup told WTVF.

I started working for her in 1997. I actually got married there [in Riverwood Mansion]. She was part of making my dreams come true, as well as so many brides, workers, and vendors, Ms Alsup said.

Mr Glynn remains in custody in Nashville on a $1,030,000 bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in court on Tuesday.
Sahra Wagenknecht addresses the media during the founding news conference of her new party in Berlin

Sahra Wagenknecht addresses the media during the founding news conference of her new party in Berlin

By Thomas Escritt

BERLIN (Reuters) - An icon of Germany's far left launched her own party on Monday, promising to rescue democracy in the European Union's largest economy from the threat posed by voters deserting traditional centrist parties for the far right.

Sahra Wagenknecht, a former leader of the Left party, said she would inspire disillusioned voters with measures such as reversing unpopular environmental initiatives, ending weapons deliveries to Ukraine, cutting immigration, and improving state-provided services like education and pensions.

"To my great regret, you no longer find in the German party spectrum a party that seriously advocates for these issues: good pay, solid pensions, a strong social state," she told reporters when introducing her top team.

In Ukraine, it is time to end the war by negotiating, she said. Wagenknecht added, incorrectly, that even Ukraine's generals now say its battle against Russia's invasion cannot be won.

In November, Kyiv's commander-in-chief was reported as saying Ukraine needed more advanced weapons to break out of a "stalemate" in the war, but no Ukrainian general has been heard saying the war cannot be won.

After a 15-year boom, Germany's economy has been in the doldrums since the pandemic, with the shift to a green economy and Russia's war in Ukraine compounding a mood of disenchantment that has cost both Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-way coalition and the conservative opposition in the polls.

The conservatives, on around 30%, are on twice the level of Scholz's Social Democrats and his Green allies, but that is still historically low for a party that until recently commanded almost half of all votes cast.

As Wagenknecht spoke, Berlin was filled with farmers protesting over cuts to their subsidies that the coalition blames on a court ruling that torpedoed its budget planning - among many headwinds buffeting Berlin's government quarter.

"You're experiencing a government that has no plan other than taking ever more money out of pockets and ... a chancellor who seems speechless even when he goes on and on," she said.

Wagenknecht is not the only person to have spotted room for a new party. Last week Hans-Georg Maassen, a former domestic security official popular with anti-immigration voters, also said he would launch a new party.

"Wagenknecht is a danger for virtually all the parties except for the Greens," Hermann Blinkert of pollster INSA said of the prospects for her new grouping, which will be named Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance - Reason and Justice (BSW).

While some of her positions, especially on migration and Ukraine, share ground with the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is on up to 23% in polls, Wagenknecht said she would not be open to members joining directly from the far-right AfD - though she would be open to their voters.

With no responsibility other than to campaign, her party is in an easy position for now.

The BSW's first outing will be in June's European Parliament elections, where its lead candidate will be Thomas Geisel, a former mayor of Duesseldorf, who said the BSW better expounded the Social Democrat values he had espoused as a member of Scholz's party until four weeks ago.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt and Sarah Marsh; Editing by Miranda Murray and Mark Heinrich)
In his State of the State address Monday, Idaho Gov. Brad Little was correct in touting that what Idaho is doing is mostly working: Fewer regulations and lower taxes have created a business-friendly environment, which has led to continued growth and continued increase in state tax revenues, even while cutting tax rates for most Idahoans.

Idahos income growth is the fastest in the nation (though still 40th overall), and our economy is one of the strongest in the nation.

I can confidently stand before you for the sixth straight year and say  the state of our state is strong, stronger than ever before, Little said. What were doing is working.

At the same time, particularly, over the past three years, Idaho has made necessary investments in public education (raising teacher pay so that Idaho now ranks 10th in the nation), transportation and public safety.

Little highlighted more such investments in what are the necessary and proper roles of government, including, notably, a $2 billion investment in school facilities, which the Idaho Statesman has been highlighting with ProPublica over the past year.

Folks, we can do better, Little said, noting that he visited a school where raw sewage was seeping under the cafeteria. The can were kicking is getting heavier and were running out of road.

We support his proposal, for which Little received a standing ovation Monday.

Little also proposed $25 million to build a state mental health facility for those deemed dangerously mentally ill, people who are now being housed in state prison.

Little proposed doubling the funding for school advisers and establishing a new Statewide Student Behavioral Health Initiative for suicide prevention, an issue this editorial board has been highlighting in recent weeks. He proposed new water projects, funding for the Idaho Launch scholarship program and plans to try to increase the number of physicians in Idaho, which is last in the nation in physicians per capita.

At the same time, Idaho has wisely been putting money into rainy-day reserve funds to weather any downturns in the economy, and Little is proposing more.

We must continue to lead the nation in fiscal responsibility, tax relief and strategic investments to keep up with record growth, Little said.

Little is right: What Idaho has been doing under his watch is generally working well.

So why, then, did he feel the need to pander to the far-right legislators sitting in the House chambers, those who were likely seething at the prospect of any government spending? They would prefer to hear the governor say hes cutting public education funding, cutting state spending across the board, funding school vouchers and canceling Medicaid expansion.

And yet, Little made several nods in an apparent attempt to appease the far right, as if to say, See, Im really just as extreme as you all are.

He felt the need to mention that Idaho banned critical race theory, introduced political indoctrination with an ideological history curriculum and banned diversity statements. He bragged about cracking down on a homeless encampment. He even proposed money in his budget to provide state troopers to help out at the Idaho-Mexico border  whoops, U.S.-Mexico border  once again, this time under the guise of combating human trafficking.

We find it ironic that Little invoked the spirit of the late former Republican Gov. Phil Batt, who, at the age of 86, championed Adding the Words to the Idaho Human Rights Act  something this Legislature and Little will never do. Meanwhile, Little bragged during his speech about Idahos ban of transgender girls and women from participating in womens sports, and Little signed the big-government bill to criminalize doctor-approved medical care for transgender youths.

During his speech, he included a video of House Speaker Mike Moyle complaining about the economy under President Joe Biden  an economy that is quite strong  and he even gave U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher time to complain about federal government spending.

Little, himself, with a straight face, took a swipe at the feds.

Unwilling to put the time and safety of Idahoans  and the maintenance of our states roads and bridges  at the whims of the feds, in Idaho, we have taken control of transportation, Little said in a prerecorded video played during the address. Instead of looking to Washington, D.C., to solve our problems, we are funding known gaps with no new taxes and providing long-term funding for long-term needs.

Forget the fact that Idaho will happily take $445 million in federal highway funding this year, and that billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief money poured into the state to help prop up Idahos economy and budget.

All of this, we suppose, was to try to appease the extreme faction that has seized control of the Idaho Republican Party and represents the 100,000 or so people who voted for Ammon Bundy for governor.

But why?

Little has plenty of good, solid, fair reasons to brag about the states performance during his time in office. There was no need for him to pander to those in his own party who dont support the policies that made Idaho successful in the first place.

Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion of the Idaho Statesmans editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members Mary Rohlfing and Patricia Nilsson.
An East St. Louis man was shot and killed Sunday at the OReilly Auto Parts store in the 2600 block of State Street.

Dantrell Smith, 31, whose last known address was in the 500 block of North 69th Street, was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:15 p.m., according to St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr.

Police are releasing few details about the shooting.

It is unclear whether he was shot inside of the business or if he was an employee or a patron of the business.

According to the Illinois State Police and its Public Safety Enforcement Group, agents responded to a report of a shooting at 6:27 p.m.

The investigation is active and no further information will be released at this time, a press statement said.

A BND reporter has reached out to the OReilly corporate office seeking more details.
Actor Idris Elba is leading a campaign against knife crime in Britain, saying his country is at a boiling point.

The Luther star launched his Dont Stop Your Future initiative on Monday with a demonstration outside Parliament in London, according to The Associated Press.

Zombie knives [and] machetes need to be banned, Elba said in a Monday interview with the BBC.

Zombie knives, which are often made with especially sharp and serrated blades, reportedly got their name from the types of weapons traditionally used in horror movies.

Elba said that legislation to place an absolute ban on the weapons in Britain needs to be pushed into priority.

We all feel the pain when we see on the news, but theres very little done that reverberates into actual action. And so for me, there needs to be a consistent voice or a fixed point where we can point a finger and say, Hey, lets do something together, the 51-year-old British performer said.

The number of people killed with a knife in England and Wales in 2021 was the highest on record for 76 years, according to a report last year from The Independent, citing the U.K.s Office for National Statistics.

Asked what he would tell critics who might argue that police and politicians should handle combatting knife crime and entertainers should stick to the script, Elba replied, Its not about being an actor or a politician. Were all human beings and we live in a society, and we all have the right to feel safe in that society.

If I dont feel safe, just because Im an actor, should I not say that? Elba said. I think we should all speak up when we should. And this is a moment where we should speak up.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
(Bloomberg) -- Indias Supreme Court quashed the early release of 11 men sentenced to life in prison, convicted of gang-rape and murder during the 2002 communal riots in western state of Gujarat.

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The top court said the Gujarat state government did not have the jurisdiction to reduce the mens prison sentence. The court directed the men to report back to prison within two weeks.

In the aftermath of the riots, the 11 men were charged with gang-raping Bilkis Bano, a Muslim woman, and killing her family members. They were tried and convicted in the neighboring state of Maharashtra, given the sensitivity of the case and concerns over security.

Only the Maharashtra government could have passed an order for remission of the sentence, the top court said today, adding that the Gujarat state governments executive order commuting the sentences was passed by usurping the power.

A large number of criminal cases lodged in the wake of the riots remain pending, more than two decades after the riots. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gujarats chief minister at the time of the riots, was accused of condoning the violence that left more than 1,000 people dead, mostly Muslims. Modi was exonerated by a Supreme Court-appointed special investigating team.

Bilkis Bano petitioned Indias top court in 2022 after her perpetrators were released by the Gujarat government before their prison terms ended, citing good behavior. While ruling on her plea, the top court said that depriving the men of their liberty was justified in this case.

Remission has to be viewed alongside the rights of victims and the idea of justice, Justice B. V. Nagarathna, the Supreme Court judge heading a two-bench panel said, while reading the ruling. A woman deserves respect howsoever low she is regarded in the society or whichever faith she follows.

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Indian women sanitation workers gather at Jantar Mantar in the heart of New Delhi to protest against death in the dangerous work of cleaning septic tanks and drains. The #StopKillingUs campaign was organized by the Safai Karmachari Andolan, a women workers' movement. Sunrita Sen/dpa

Sher Singh is barely 50. He wheezes as he tries to sit up in the tiny, rented room in a suburb of the Indian capital.

A little over three years ago, Singh climbed into a 10-foot deep septic tank  a concrete chamber where the untreated filth of toilets collect  to clear a blockage.

He followed three others down into the stinking pit. Two of them did not come out alive and Sher Singh has been an invalid since then.

As the others went in, they just sat there inside with their back against the pit wall... The same with me, we lost consciousness. Later they said it could have been methane gas.

All Sher Singh wore when he entered the pit was a pair of shorts. No mask, no gloves, no other protective equipment.

The practice of manually cleaning human excrement was banned under Indian law in 1993 and then again with stricter provisions in 2013.

Engaging a person for manual scavenging can fetch a jail term of two years and a hefty fine. It is also unlawful for anyone, including municipal and village bodies, to employ any person to clean a sewer or a septic tank without the necessary protective gear.

A recent statement by the government in parliament said there was no report of any manual scavenging from any region of India and listed nine deaths while cleaning sewers in 2023.

Another statement said 330 people had died cleaning sewers and septic tanks in the five-year period between 2018-2022.

Bezwada Wilson, founder of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), an organization that campaigns to end the practice of manual scavenging in India, says the government is ignoring a constant stream of deaths and all one has to do is to look at newspaper reports.

Fifty-nine Indian citizens were killed in sewer and septic tanks since January 2023, the government is lying when it says only nine people died, he says. More than a thousand people die annually, Wilson claims.

SKA records show that almost every day somewhere in the country men, usually employed by contractors who are tasked with cleaning sewers by civic authorities, climb into stinking, toxic pits and chambers crawling with bugs, snakes, poisonous fumes and other unknown hazards.

They are rarely provided any protective gear and are paid a pittance - around 350 to 400 rupees ($4.20 to $4.80) a day.

The consequences are deadly.

Suman scrambles in her bag for a handkerchief. Amrik Singh mops his eyes on his sleeve. They are overcome by emotions as they hold up photographs of loved ones they have lost.

Amrik Singh and Suman were among the few hundred safai karmacharis (sanitation workers) and their family members who gathered at New Delhis Jantar Mantar on a sultry August afternoon to support a campaign to stop deaths of people while cleaning sewers and septic tanks.

Amrik Singhs 30-year-old son Sukhwinder Singh, nicknamed Happy, had been working as a sewer cleaner for a few years in Punjabs Sangrur district. The contractor made him go into the sewer without any safety gear. The noxious fumes made him unconscious, two others went in to rescue him. They survived but my son died.

The dead mans sister holds up a placard that reads: Average Life Span; Male - 72 years; Sewer worker - 32 years.

It's the same story all over again.

The cleaners are usually employed for a daily pittance by contractors of municipal bodies and agencies. Often the contractors are chosen by the cheapest bid.

The deaths are caused by poisonous gases, drowning, snake and spider bites and lack of oxygen. Thousands of these cleaning workers develop skin diseases, have broken bones, says Ashok Kumar Taank of the Dalit Adivasi Shakt Adhikari Manch (DASAM), a non-profit that works for the welfare of sewer workers and waste collectors in the Indian capital.

They routinely suffer from diseases like typhoid, cholera and tuberculosis. Many become alcoholics as they try and cope with what may well be one of the worst jobs that exist.

Suman (l) takes part in a protest in New Delhi. Her husband Vikram, 26, and another man, Aman, 24, died of asphyxiation while cleaning a sewer in the city of Gwalior in central India in June 2023. Sunrita Sen/dpa

Sher Singh and his 14-year-old son. Sher Singh is always out of breath. He can only walk for a short time. Yet he is only about 50 years old, he doesn't know that for sure. Singh lives in the Indian capital of New Delhi and has been suffering from a lung disease since he climbed into a septic tank around three meters deep around three years ago to clear a blockage that had collected solid waste from toilets. Sunrita Sen/dpa
Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) announced Monday he will retire once his term is up next year.

Scripture teaches us, For everything there is a season, and it became clear to me over the Christmas holiday with much discernment and prayer that the time has come to bring my season in public service to a conclusion, Bucshon said in a statement.

Therefore, I will not seek reelection to an eighth term and conclude my service in the House of Representatives at the end of the 118th Congress, he added.

Bucshon, 61, represents Indianas 8th Congressional District and has served in Congress since 2011.

He handily won his most recent reelection bids with more than 65 percent of the vote in 2020 and 2022. The Cook Political Report rates the district as solid Republican.

In his statement, Bucshon said that recent disputes in Congress have not negatively impacted his view of government.

Congress  in many cases through very trying times in our history  and Im honored to be included among their ranks. Recent disputes in Congress and difficulties advancing policy on behalf of the American people have not soured my faith in our Constitutional Republic form of government. In fact, it has strengthened that faith, he said.

Bucshon serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where he is also a member of the subcommittees of Health, Energy and Consumer Protection and Commerce.

Bucshon is just the latest House incumbent to announce plans to not seek reelection. At least 11 other Republican lawmakers have revealed they are retiring from the lower chamber and will not be seeking reelection in 2024.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The 2024 legislative session begins today, and lawmakers hope it'll be a quick two and a half months.

They took care of the biennial budget last year, so what's left for this year is a tighter schedule and a shorter list of priorities. At the top of that list appears to be education, which makes up half the state budget  specifically, reading literacy among third graders and chronic absenteeism.

During the first week, the Republican and Democratic caucuses will share their official priorities, as will Gov. Eric Holcomb. Holcomb will also deliver his final State of the State address. Then, the work of lawmaking will begin.

Here's everything to know on this first day of Session.

Legislators attend Org Day, the ceremonial first day of the 2024 legislative session on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023, at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis.

Short and sweet, and low on controversy?

Leaders in the House and Senate continue to drive home their intention for a short, uncontroversial session that will mostly focus on tweaks to state law rather than large, wholesale change.

They have a "get in and get out" mentality, House Speaker Todd Huston has said.

That may not prevent individual lawmakers from going rogue.

"Sometimes we cant help ourselves so dont go to sleep on us," State Rep. Chris Jeter, R-Fishers, said at the Dentons Legislative Conference in December.

House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers calls the session to order on Org Day, the ceremonial first day of the 2024 legislative session on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023, at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis.

It appears to be an education session

Leaders have said their top concerns have to do with chronic absenteeism and reading proficiency in schools  both of which have been getting worse  though they haven't yet landed on what to do about them.

The pandemic had a significant effect on absenteeism: About a fifth of Indiana students miss at least 10% of school days, or about three and a half weeks of school; before COVID-19, about 11% of students were chronicly absent, according to the state Board of Education.

The statistics vary from school to school, grade to grade. In 84 Indiana schools, half of students are chronicly absent. Attending school less than 94% of the time can lead to negative academic impacts, according to the state Board of Education.

Literacy rates among Indiana's third-graders have dropped nearly 10% in the last decade. This decline started before the pandemic, but certainly worsened during. Last year, a fifth of third-graders did not pass the I-READ, the state's standardized reading test.

And far more students who fail the test are being pushed on to fourth grade. In 2012, nearly all of the 2,000 students who failed the test were held back in third grade; in 2023, only about 5% of the 8,300 students who failed were held back.

Last session, lawmakers passed a law requiring teacher preparation programs to incorporate the science of reading, the theory of reading that emphasizes phonics and has been at the center of a broiling national debate around how to properly teach reading.

Republican leaders are talking about finding ways to narrow the exemptions for being held back in third grade; Democrats want to focus more on adding supports for students before they reach the point of failure, such as lowering the mandatory minimum age for schooling.

Plus: Republican Sen. Jeff Raatz, chair of the Senate education committee, said he plans to file a bill restricting cell phone use in classrooms.

Sen. Jeff Raatz leads the Senate education committee hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. The committee would hear House Bill 1041, which could ban transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams level K-12.

Childcare gets bipartisan interest

Both Republicans and Democrats this year have talked about the need to do something to address access to affordable childcare  the subject of an hours-long interim study committee meeting over the summer.

It's a big priority for the Indiana Chamber, too, which sees it as a workforce issue: Access to childcare means more participation in the workforce.

Indiana's licensed childcare providers can serve about 188,000 children, or about 40% of the 500,000 children who may need care, according to Brighter Futures Indiana.

But it's unclear what can be done to increase capacity without spending money, and leaders have no intention of reopening the budget. Sen. Kyle Walker, R-Lawrence, hinted at possible legislation in the Senate loosening regulations to allow more players in the space.

The study committee came up recommendations for legislation that the bipartisan committee unanimously approved, including making child care workers eligible for public subsidies for their own children, and reducing the minimum age for being alone with a child from 21 to 18.

Legislators attend Org Day, the ceremonial first day of the 2024 legislative session on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023, at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis.

Bills we're seeing so far

Senators have until Jan. 9 to file their bills, and representatives until Jan. 11. Only a handful of bills have been filed as of Thursday, none addressing the priority issues yet.

A few bills that stand out so far include:

Senate Bill 14, allowing the attorney general, secretary of state, state comptroller, or treasurer to carry a handgun in the Statehouse.

Senate Bill 17 and House Bill 1036, requiring age verification on an "adult oriented website" that has "material harmful to minors."

Senate Bill 52, banning the use of dedicated bus lanes for IndyGo's Blue Line.

Senate Bill 98, making a fetus a "dependent child" for tax purposes.

House Bill 1024, requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations during pregnancy according to the Americans with Disabilities Act and to not deny job opportunities due to pregnancy.

What we likely won't see

Marijuana: Republican leaders are still uninterested in making moves on marijuana legislation, despite momentum from Indiana's neighbors like Ohio, where voters approved legalizing recreational use through a ballot initiative.

Gaming: Former State Rep. Sean Eberhart's guilty plea in a public corruption conspiracy involving the casino industry has put the kibosh on any gaming legislation this session.

What's happening the first week?

Monday: Session begins. Gov. Holcomb will share his legislative priorities and administrative agenda in the morning at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. That afternoon, House and Senate will gavel in, introduce bills in rapid succession and assign them to committees.

Tuesday: Senators have until 4 p.m. to file any remaining bills. Holcomb will give his final State of the State address at 7 p.m.

Thursday: Representatives have until 2 p.m. to file any remaining bills. Meanwhile, several committees will have already started meeting to hear other bills.

There is no Session on Fridays.

More: Here's what Hoosiers can expect Indiana lawmakers to do in 2024

How do I track a bill?

Go to iga.in.gov and click "Legislation" and then "Bills" from the dropdown menu. Click the bill you're interested in.

If you're on a desktop, you can view "Bill Actions" on the left side of the screen to track the progress of the bill. If on a cell phone, click "Bill Information" to expand your options, and then you'll see "Bill Actions."

Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter @kayla_dwyer17.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana's 2024 legislative session begins: Here's what to expect
FILE PHOTO: A worker walks past Boeing's new 737 MAX-9 under construction at their production facility in Renton, Washington

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia temporarily grounded three Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes on Jan. 6, operated by Lion Air, despite different configurations from the plane that had to make an emergency landing in the U.S. last week, the transport ministry said on Monday.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing jets installed with the same panel that tore off an eight-week-old Alaska Airlines jet on Friday, forcing an emergency landing with a gap in the fuselage.

The door plug blew off the left side of the Alaska Airlines jet following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board.

Three Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes, the only ones Indonesia had, were grounded starting from January 6 until further notice, said Adita Irawati, a transport ministry spokesperson.

The Lion Air planes had a "mid cabin emergency exit door type II" whereas the Alaska Airlines plane had a "mid exit door plug," Adita said.

"This means the system in the mid-section of emergency doors were functional and could be used for evacuation," Adita added.

The ministry will coordinate with the FAA, Boeing and Lion Air to monitor the situation, adding that "operational safety will be our priority."

A Lion Air spokesperson said the airline is conducting further inspection of the planes to ensure the emergency door mechanism works normally.

(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman and Stanley Widianto; Editing by Louise Heavens and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Patrick Mullins (left) took umbrage at the ride his cousin, Danny, gave to Il Etait Temps at Limerick - Racing TV

One of the eccentricities of Irish racing is that its authorities appear to get institutional paralysis when it comes to taking disciplinary action.

There is always the feeling that kicking the can down the road might make tricky situations go away. The Grade One Faugheen Novice Chase, run at Limerick on Dec 28, undoubtedly falls into this category. But dithering and letting events rattle around in a state of inertia inevitably gives the impression that they are uncertain as to what action to take.

The fact that there are two strong schools of thought on the Limerick race magnifies that suspicion. The bare result was not contentious. It was another resounding success for the all-powerful Willie Mullins and his son Patrick, probably the most successful amateur rider in the history of the sport.

The issue is that Patrick felt entitled to berate his cousin, Danny Mullins, as the horses pulled up in full view of the crowd and the stewards.

I told Danny going out that there will be a gap down my inside at the second-last, do not come for it. He hasnt listened to me, was Patricks rant to the press after the race. Danny had decided to ignore his cousin and had rightly ridden his mount, the winner Gaelic Warriors stablemate Il Etait Temps, for the gap to give his own horse the best possible chance.

 He's a monster



A seismic performance from Gaelic Warrior to land the Guinness Faugheen Novice Chase to lead home a 1-2 for Willie Mullins in the @LimerickRaces feature pic.twitter.com/9Io8AGZmBY  Racing TV (@RacingTV) December 28, 2023

Had Patrick waited until they both got back into the weighing room to vent his anger, I would not be writing this column. But the fact that he made such a public display of his dissatisfaction begs a few questions.

The ever-elegant Willie Mullins has dismissed the whole episode as a family storm in a tea cup. And he can rightly point out that both his runners were ridden on their merits. Others, however, feel that Patricks outburst was an astonishingly arrogant disregard of the rules, which do not permit jockeys to ride more than one horse, so to speak.

There simply cannot be a perception that in races where Mullins Sr has multiple runners  which is every big race in Ireland  his pre-eminent son feels that he can order his fathers other jockeys around to suit himself.

 Patrick Mullins having a word with cousin Danny Mullins pic.twitter.com/tRdhNi8DXO  Racing TV (@RacingTV) December 28, 2023

There is, however, a golden rule of riding in National Hunt races, which decrees that if you are going to poke up the inside of another rider, you had better be able to carry out the manoeuvre very quickly. Because if you do not, you can expect the other jockey to slam the door shut in your face.

In the days before patrol cameras followed the runners, senior jockeys would push cheeky young thrusters over or through the inside rail if they tried to sneak up the inside.

When he was champion jockey, Peter Scudamore was famous for owning the inside rail. But given that we both rode for trainer Fred Winter, I did not see any harm one day in walking towards the starting tape at Stratford on his inside. After all, I had given him a lift to the races.

Where the f--- do you think youre going? was his blunt response, as his left hand grabbed my right rein and gave it a jab. And as you can see from the photo, he never did let me get anywhere near the inside.

That was mild compared to his fury when Bruce Dowling tried to slip up his inside at Newbury one day. Blind with rage, Scu presumably forgot about the patrol camera and rode Dowling off the track, earning himself a three-week suspension, about which he was no doubt outraged.

Leaving a gap on the inside has also been used as a trap by some jockeys. Should another be foolish enough to try to take it, but fail because they did not have enough petrol left in the tank to get through it quickly, having the door slammed shut on them could cost them momentum and the chance of winning the race. But how that sits with the rules of interference is a bit of a grey area.

The manner in which the Irish stewards eventually deal with this incident is a pivotal moment. If punters lose trust in the integrity of the sport, they will take their custom elsewhere. And that will be the moment when Irish racing gets bitten on its backside.

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An infamous Stalin-era military unit called SMERSH is being re-created by Putin as he steps up his search for spies: UK intel

Russia is re-forming an infamous Stalinist counterintelligence unit, UK intelligence said.

SMERSH was used during the Communist era to catch spies.

The Kremlin has intensified its search for dissidents and perceived traitors.

Russia has re-established the infamous Stalin-era counterintelligence unit SMERSH that was used to catch spies and dissidents, UK intelligence said.

The unit, whose name is an acronym for "death to spies", was formed by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin as a specialist counter-intelligence unit in 1941.

"In late 2023, Russian politicians claimed that the Soviet counter-intelligence (CI) organisation 'Smersh' was being re-established," the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

"In early January 2024, an open-source image showed operatives apparently wearing Smersh uniform patches," it said.

It noted that the unit became infamous after its inclusion in Ian Fleming's James Bond spy novels, such as "From Russia With Love" and its 1963 movie spin-off starring Sean Connery. It had been disbanded though by the time Fleming started writing the books.

The MoD noted that it's unclear if the resurrected SMERSH is a new unit, or the new name of an existing unit rebranded for propaganda purposes.

Its renewal, the MoD said, was an example of how the Kremlin is seeking to portray the Ukraine War "in the spirit of the Second World War" and the Kremlin's obsession with "infiltration of external threats into the country."

The unit was originally formed to combat Nazi infiltration in the Red Army during World War II, and repress dissent and insurgency in territory occupied by the Soviet Union in East Europe and Germany.

It was renowned for its brutality, executing thousands of people accused, rightly or wrongly, of being traitors to Russia.

It was SMERSH operatives who discovered Adolf Hitler's remains after he committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin in 1945 as the Red Army drew closer.

Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Putin has sought to boost public support for the war by portraying it as a fight for survival against the forces of NATO that he claims are determined to undermine and destroy Russia.

The Russian president has been creating an atmosphere of paranoia some critics have likened to the Stalin era.

Russia has clamped down on criticism of the war and introduced stiffer penalties for military deserters.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A German-based developer will be soliciting feedback on its plans to renovate Fisherman's Wharf in Channel Islands Harbor this month.

The German-based developer whose Strawberry-themed attractions are a focus of renovations to Fishermans Wharf in Channel Islands Harbor is seeking public input on the project this month.

Developer Robert Dahl's company KARLS will host public forums daily between Jan. 18 and Jan. 22 at the Channel Islands Boating Center in Oxnard to collect feedback on the direction of the project. To view the time slots and reserve a seat, visit ChannelIslandsHarbor.org.

Harbor Director Michael Tripp said plans have been updated since the project was presented to the public in February. The developer has a new site plan and detailed renderings.

The proposed project is the latest effort to renovate the dilapidated wharf, which fell into disrepair after Oxnard real estate magnate Martin V. Bud Smith sold his harbor properties in 1996.

KARLS is proposing a number of improvements, including an expanded wooden boardwalk, a seafood restaurant, bakery, artisan market, a potential hotel and playground. An early rendering of the project shows a strawberry theme throughout the area.

A rendering shows early plans for Fisherman's Wharf at Channel Islands Harbor.

The rendering also shows a number of amusement park rides and attractions, such as a climbable strawberry, a water slide, coin-operated go-karts and remote-control boats.

KARLS operates seven similar parks in Germany. The potential Oxnard location would be the first park in the country.

Tripp noted the amusement park area would only be a small aspect of the project. He said the public mistakenly thought the area would become a large amusement park.

Thats not what it is, he said. Its a place for families and singles to come and visit.

KARLS entered into a 12-month negotiation period with the County of Ventura in April. Since then, the developer has been working on a long-term lease agreement with the county for use of the wharf.

Tripp said the project is expected to go before the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in March or April.

Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or at 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Input sought on strawberry-themed upgrades at Fisherman's Wharf
The Ohio Department of Transportation said a portion of the westbound lane of Interstate 70 would reopen before Monday morning's rush hour.

The Ohio Department of Transportation reopened a portion of the westbound lane of Interstate 70 before Monday morning's rush hour.

A part of the interstate closed shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday after a semi hauling heavy equipment slammed into the 4th Street bridge. The crash also impacted the Interstate 71 South ramp that connects to I-70 and a single lane of 4th Street, which reopened around 6 a.m. Monday.

Authorities set up multiple detours as crews worked through the weekend to repair the damage caused by the semi's impact.

As of Monday morning, the western turn lane from Livingston Avenue onto 4th Street remained closed, as did the sidewalk.

Authorities said there were no citations issued in the crash as of Monday morning.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: I-70, South Fourth Street reopen days after semi slammed into bridge
Iowa is bracing for frigid weather next week as the states critical GOP caucus kicks off the Republican presidential nominating cycle.

A major winter storm is set to bring widespread, significant impacts to much of the U.S. this week, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), and Iowa is already being hit by snow and freezing temperatures as candidates continue to campaign in the run-up to the Jan. 15 caucus.

Heres what you should know about the Iowa caucus day forecast:

Whats the forecast?

Swathes of the state were under a winter storm warning on Monday, a week out from the GOP caucus.

The NWS in the state issued caution about travel in the potentially hazardous conditions, with heavy snow expected in parts of Iowa in the coming days.

Its still going to snow. A lot, the NWS for Des Moines said Monday on X, the platform previously known as Twitter. In another post, the service noted its going to get nasty out there.

The NWS weeklong forecast for Des Moines predicts snow continuing over the next few days, with temperatures for Sunday  the day before the caucus  expected to reach a high of just 5 degrees. Similar single-digit highs are expected in Cedar Rapids and Ames on Sunday, and in Sioux City, temperatures that day arent expected to climb past 0 degrees.

The Weather Channel predicts caucus day could see negative temperatures in several parts of the state.

How is the weather affecting campaigns?

The GOP presidential hopefuls are campaigning in high gear in the critical days before the caucus, crisscrossing the early states before voters cast their ballots  but the weather could prove a hurdle to their plans.

Haley and DeSantis in particular are set for a media blitz in the Hawkeye State: After two back-to-back town halls on CNN last week, theyre slated for more with Fox News this week, as well as a CNN debate in Des Moines on Wednesday.

Historically, weather really does have impacts on elections, whether it be snow or rain, and can depress turnout, said Aaron Kall, director of the University of Michigans debate program.

The weather is likely causing nervousness for the campaigns, Kall said.

On Monday, Haleys campaign reportedly canceled an event in Sioux City, unable to make it to the site amid the storm, according to CNN.

Fellow candidate Vivek Ramaswamy mocked the move on X, arguing if you cant handle the snow, you cant handle Xi Jinping, referring to the Chinese leader.

The New York Times also reported that a Trump campaign event, in which former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) and current Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were set to appear on the former presidents behalf, was also postponed due to the weather.

And Roseanne Barr was scrapped from another Trump campaign event scheduled for Tuesday, which will still be held with former Attorney General Matthew Whittaker.

How could the weather impact voter turnout?

Observers say the forecast doesnt look great for the campaigns in the final stretch before the caucus as candidates seek to seize every chance they can to get in front of voters and get out the vote.

Bad weather can sometimes deter casual voters from going to the polls, and that usually hurts candidates whose supporters are less motivated, said Iowa-based GOP strategist Michael Zona.

That said, Iowa caucusgoers are not casual voters. They are highly engaged and motivatedthats why theyre first. Theyre not going to be deterred by some bad weather, which is common in Iowa in January.

At the same time, Zona noted, campaigns will need to make sure their infrastructure is ready to get voters to the polls amid the stormy conditions.

Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann told the Iowa Capital Dispatch on Monday that the weather could prevent record-breaking turnout. Good weather, by contrast, has been linked to strong voter turnout.

Iowans are hearty and take their responsibility as first-in-the-nation Caucus-goers seriously, said Iowa-based Republican strategist Jimmy Centers. I expect Iowans will be quite willing to brave the cold on Jan. 15.

Who could be hurt by bad weather?

If some Iowans are deterred from voting on Monday, the looming question is which candidate could be hurt most by voters hesitance to brave the cold.

Dave Peterson, a professor of political science at Iowa State University, suggested Haley could be most impacted, as DeSantis polls second to Trump in the state.

But Haleys team shrugged off the stormy conditions, and the former South Carolina governor is set to be back in northwest Iowa later this week.

Were prepared for everything, and we know some bad weather wont stop Iowans from caucusing for Nikki, said spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas.

How does the weather compare to prior years?

In 2020, the high temp for Des Moines was at 36 degrees, according to Weather Underground. The last time that figure dipped below freezing on a caucus day was in 2008, when it hit 30 degrees  and it hasnt been in single digits this decade.

A roundup of 7 p.m. temperatures in Des Moines for caucus days in recent decades, shared by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet at Iowa State University, found figures at 15 degrees or higher between 1976 and 2016.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A Press helmet is placed over the grave of Hamza Dahdouh, a Palestinian journalist who worked for Al Jazeera and was killed in an Israeli air strike on Rafah. Hamza is the son of Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, who has previously lost his wife, two other children and a grandson and was injured himself during the war. Mohammed Talatene/dpa

The son of an Al Jazeera journalist, also a correspondent, who was killed in an Israeli attack was travelling in a car with a Palestinian militant, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

"An IDF aircraft identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF troops. We are aware of the reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorist were also hit," the Israeli army said.

The 27-year-old Hamza Dahdouh and another Palestinian journalist were killed on Sunday in the south of Gaza after an attack on a vehicle in the west of the city of Khan Younis, according to Al Jazeera.

A third passenger in the car was injured. According to unconfirmed reports the second journalist who was killed was also working as a freelance videographer for the Hamas Ministry of the Interior in order to document the severe destruction in the south of the Gaza Strip.

According to Israeli reports, Hamas repeatedly uses drones to spy on the movements of soldiers or to attack them.

"The Foreign Press Association [FPA] is deeply saddened by the killing of journalists Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria today in Gaza. Hamza Dahouh was working for Al Jazeera and Mustafa Thuria was a freelancer for AFP [Agence France-Presse] and other international news outlets," the FPA said.

"We convey deep condolences to our member Wael Dahdouh who has suffered yet another tragic and terrible loss of a family member. Hamza was his oldest son," they continued.

"We call on the IDF and all parties to ensure the safety and freedom of reporting of our Palestinian members on the ground in Gaza, who are reporting the news despite extremely dangerous circumstances," the statement ended.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that according to their preliminary investigation, as of Monday, 79 journalists have been killed. Among them were 72 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese, the CPJ said.

Journalists in Gaza are particularly at risk to the devastating air raids, interrupted communication channels, supply bottlenecks and power cuts, following the October 7 terrorist massacre in Israel.

Press vests are placed over the bodies of Palestinian journalists Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya, who were killed in an Israeli air strike on Rafah. Hamza is the son of Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, who has previously lost his wife, two other children and a grandson and was injured himself during the war. Mohammed Talatene/dpa

Wael Dahdouh, Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Gaza, mourns over the body of his dead son Hamza, who also worked as a journalist for Al Jazeera and was killed in an Israeli air strike on Rafah. Dahdouh has previously lost his wife, two other children and a grandson and was injured himself during the war. Mohammed Talatene/dpa
Wissam Hassan Tawil belonged to the Iran-backed groups elite Radwan Forces - Hezbollah Military Media, via AP

Israel has killed a senior Hezbollah commander in one of the most significant assassinations since the war began.

Wissam Hassan al-Tawil, of the Iran-backed groups elite Radwan Forces, was Hezbollahs first senior military leader to be eliminated in three months of cross-border clashes with Israeli forces, adding to fears of a wider conflict in the region.

He was reportedly killed alongside another Hezbollah fighter when their car was hit by a strike on the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm, some 3.7 miles from the Israel border.

This is a very painful strike, an unnamed security official told Reuters. Things will flare up now.

Footage posted on Telegram by an Iranian news agency with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed to show the burnt-out car in which he was killed.

Tawil, known by his nickname Al-Hajj Jawad, was said to have played a leading role in managing Hezbollahs operations in the south.

In a statement, the group said he had risen as a martyr on the path to Jerusalem.

Hezbollah has used the same description for the 130-plus members of its ranks that have been killed since it began exchanging fire with Israeli troops in October, after the war broke out, in a show of support for Hamas.

Born in 1970 in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, Tawil joined Hezbollah at an early age and rose through the ranks to a senior role in the Radwan units, which Israel says aims to infiltrate its northern border.

Hezbollah-affiliated media published pictures of him with leader Hassan Nasrallah, and with former IRGC commander Qassim Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq four years ago.

The images point to Tawils seniority in the network of Iranian-supported militant groups.

Lebanese Hezbollah commanders have played a major role in training and advising other Iran-backed fighters in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

The Hezbollah-Israel conflict has intensified in recent days after Hezbollah vowed to avenge the assassination of Hamass deputy political leader, Saleh al-Arouri, in a Beirut drone strike widely attributed to Israeli forces.

US officials are touring the Middle East in an attempt to calm tensions, with all sides wishing to avoid another war that could lead to major losses.

As part of any de-escalation, Israel wants Hezbollah to move further from its border. It fears that the militants could commit in the countrys north a wider-scale version of Hamas Oct 7 rampage across the south.

We will do whatever is necessary

Visiting north Israel on Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, told troops he would allow residents of the area to return once it was safe.

We will do whatever is necessary, he said. Of course, we prefer that this be done without a wide-ranging campaign, but that will not stop us.

The group claimed an attack on an Israeli observation post the following day, on January 3.

The strike on Tawil raised fears of another full-fronted conflict between Hezbollah-Israel, which last went to war in 2006.

US officials are attempting to de-escalate tensions to avoid such a scenario, which would likely lead to major losses on both sides.

Israel wants further assurances that Hezbollah will move further from its border. It fears that the group could commit in the countrys north a wider-scale version of Hamass Oct 7 rampage across the south.

Israeli officials have said there is a narrow window for a diplomatic solution and are demanding that Hezbollah comply with a long-standing UN resolution that requires its fighters to pull back 18 miles from the border.

We do not want to fight a war on two fronts - if Hezbollah drags us into another war we will hold the Lebanese state responsible, Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, said in a press briefing. Either Hezbollah backs off as part of a diplomatic solution, or we push them back.

Some analysts are urging that Tawils killing does not necessarily mean war is around the corner.

Hezbollah is aware that the status quo suits them but not Israel and they are at pains not to escalate in a way that would draw them into a full-blown war, Firas Maksad, senior fellow at the Washington DC-based Middle East Institute, told The Telegraph.

The Lebanese are also afraid of another wider-scale war that would devastate a country already rocked by economic collapse.

I cannot emphasise how terrified the Lebanese are right now, Chris Doyle, director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border come as a senior IDF official said the campaign in Gaza has begun the shift to a phase of fighting involving fewer ground troops and airstrikes. Some troops deployed to the enclave have been redirected to Israels northern border in anticipation of more fighting there.

The war shifted a stage, Rear Admiral Hagari, the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told The New York Times. But the transition will be with no ceremony. Its not about dramatic announcements.

The Israeli military will continue to reduce the number of troops in Gaza - a process that began last month, Hagari said.

As the civilian death toll in the enclave has continued to rise, Israel has come under increasing international pressure to reduce the scale of bombings on densely populated areas and allow in more humanitarian aid. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry announced that the number of people killed passed 23,000, including around 10,000 children.

Israel has degraded Hamas war machine partly by killing its senior military commanders, officials say.

One that continues to elude them is Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the October 7 terror attacks.

The IDF knows where he is but is prevented from taking him out because he has surrounded himself with a large number of living Israeli hostages, according to the Israel Hayom newspaper.

The Israeli government spokesperson Levy said that he was unable to comment on Israeli intelligence. Hamas terrorists have two options: surrender or die in battle, he said.

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Semafor Signals

Insights from The Institute for the Study of War, Foreign Policy, and Reuters

NEWS

Israel has shifted to a less intense phase of its military offensive in Gaza, its chief military spokesman said Monday, after weeks of efforts by the U.S. to convince the country to scale back its campaign.

The same day, protesters calling for a ceasefire interrupted a speech by U.S. President Joe Biden  who responded by saying he had been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.

The Israeli military confirmed last week it is pulling thousands of troops from the enclave, following weeks of pressure from the U.S. and other nations that have raised alarm about the widespread devastation. More than 22,000 Gazans have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

SIGNALS

Semafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories.

Israel has made progress, but Hamas probably has a deep bench

Sources: The Institute for the Study of War, The Hill, The Economist

Most of Hamass command structure is gone, an unnamed intelligence officer told The Economist in December, while The Institute for the Study of War found that 11 out of the groups 30 battalions have been degraded to the point it would be difficult to perform their missions  but said Hamas likely maintains a deep bench of experienced military commanders.

Those losses have made it possible for Israel to scale back its invasion, Seth Frantzman, a fellow at a think tank in Israel, told The Hill. If Israels claims of having defeated almost all Hamas battalions in the northern Gaza Strip and most in the central Gaza Strip is accurate, there shouldnt be much more to defeat beyond remnants of Hamas in the south, he said.

Israels lack of restraint has made the U.S. look weak, some watchers say

Sources: RTE News, Foreign Policy

The United States is losing respect, its losing credibility as a powerful nation  its looking weak, former Irish President Mary Robinson, speaking on behalf of a group of global leaders, said in an interview on RTE News in December. She pointed to Israel ignoring U.S. calls for restraint, which began around the time the war did, as proof.

Israels military strategy in Gaza is now inextricably linked with the worlds perception of U.S.strength, analysts say. The Biden teams record of holding Israel to account on anything to do with this crisis is extremely weak, columnist Howard W. French wrote for Foreign Policy on Monday, and its willingness to stand up to Israel by denying it military or political support still seems close to nil.

Intensifying fighting on Lebanons border worries U.S.

Sources: PBS, The Washington Post, Reuters

Fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border intensified this weekend as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah struck an air traffic control base in northern Israel, the Israeli military said, and Israel killed one of Hezbollahs commanders in a counterstrike. This is not the first time the war has stretched into Lebanon  more than 130 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since Hamas Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The weekend escalation has complicated U.S. efforts to prevent a broader conflict, PBS reported, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering.
Semafor Signals

NEWS

An Israeli strike Monday reportedly killed a senior leader of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia operating in Lebanon. Hezbollah claimed that Wissam al-Tawil was killed in an airstrike in Lebanon, though it is unclear if he was the intended target.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told IDF troops Monday that the country was ready for a war with Hezbollah, the Times of Israel reported.

We gave them an example of what is happening to their friends in the south; this is what will happen here in the north. We will do everything to restore security, Netanyahu said.

Israel has exchanged fire with Lebanon since its military operation against Hamas began Oct. 7.

SIGNALS

Semafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories.

US believes escalation may be key to Netanyahus political future

Sources: The Washington Post

The Biden administration has warned Israel against engaging in a broader war with Lebanon. U.S. intelligence believe that the military would have limited successes in an expanded war because its resources are already spread thin, The Washington Post reported. The end of the Israel-Hamas war will likely mean the end of Netanyahus career, some U.S. officials believe, meaning the Israeli prime minister is incentivized to broaden the scope of the conflict. The political logic for Netanyahu is to rebound after the historic failure of Oct. 7 and have some kind of success to show to the Israeli public, Bilal Saab of the Middle East Institute told the Post.

Escalation spiral could come at any time, triggering broader conflict

Sources: The Financial Times

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the midst of his fourth trip to the Middle East since the war began, hoping to de-escalate tensions and prevent a regional conflict. But experts believe the threat of a wide-scale war is higher than its been at any point in the crisis so far. Any of the actors in one of those locations could get into a spiral with Israel and/or the US, which could be enough to trigger a full-scale war that brings in the others, Jonathan Panikoff, a former senior intelligence official, told the Financial Times.

Analysts urge US to de-escalate Red Sea tensions with diplomacy

Sources: Bloomberg

Yemens Iran-backed Houthi rebels have targeted ships in the Red Sea for weeks in retaliation for Israels continued military operation in Gaza. The U.S. has debated striking Houthi targets  but analysts believe doing so could escalate tensions even further. The U.S. will need to rely on diplomatic channels to attempt to de-escalate tensions before resorting to military action, and choose options that are clearly defensible if diplomacy fails, one expert told Bloomberg. Many nations, meanwhile, are reluctant to enter the conflict due to the Houthis claims that they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians.
The Israeli military said Sunday that Hezbollah struck an air traffic control base in northern Israel and warned of another war with the Lebanon-based militant group as tensions in the region rise.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah struck the air traffic control base on Mount Meron on Saturday, but its air defenses were not affected because a backup system was in place, The Associated Press reported.

Hezbollah said the attack on the air traffic control base was an initial response to the alleged Israeli assassination of a top Hamas official in Beirut earlier this month, according to the news service.

The Israeli military said no soldiers were injured and that any damage would be repaired. The Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi, cautioned that Hezbollah will either pull back due to military pressure, or we will get to another war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also issued a stark warning to Hezbollah, an ally of the militant group Hamas.

I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months: No terrorist is immune, Netanyahu told his Cabinet. We are determined to defend our citizens and to return the residents of the north safely to their homes.

Hezbollah has been targeting sites near the border with Israel since Israels war with Hamas broke out in October.

The AP also reported an Israeli airstrike killed a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon on Monday, citing a Lebanese security official.

The escalation comes amid Secretary of State Antony Blinkens trip to the Middle East. After meeting with Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Sunday, Blinken emphasized the need to stop the war from spreading even further.

And indeed, thank you for the work that weve been doing from the start, since October 7th and the horrific attacks on Israel, Blinken said. Its now, as you said, been three months since those attacks, and this is a moment of profound tension in the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering.

So from day one, among other priorities, we have been intensely focused on working to prevent the conflict from spreading, and that is indeed a major focus of what is now my fourth visit to the region since October 7, he added.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By Ronen Zvulun

AL BUREIJ, Gaza (Reuters) - Israeli forces located what they said was the largest weapons production site so far found in Gaza, with underground workshops they said were used to produce long-range missiles capable of hitting targets in northern Israel.

The military said that in addition to missiles, the workshops produced copies or adaptations of standard munitions like mortar shells and were connected through underground shafts to a tunnel network used to transport the weapons to fighting units throughout the Gaza Strip.

On Monday, the Israeli military took a group of reporters to visit the site in the Bureij area in the middle of the narrow coastal enclave, which has been devastated by weeks of bombardment and ground fighting.

A variety of metal tubes and components as well as shell casings were stacked in an overground workshop area, while in another area, long metal racks holding missiles could be seen, with an elevator leading down into the tunnel.

"...From the elevator, they contain the rockets in a place which is safe and then it goes down to other areas inside the tunnel system," chief military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

"In one place you make the rockets, another place you launch," he said.

The site was the latest in a series of extensive tunnel installations to be captured by the military since the invasion of Gaza, launched in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas.

Israeli officials say Hamas deliberately locates military infrastructure including tunnels in civilian areas in order to make it more difficult to attack it. Hamas denies this and says Israel attacks civilian targets indiscriminately.

More than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli operation, according to Palestinian health officials, and most of the 2.3 million population has been forced to flee their homes to a small area in the south.

Israel's biggest ever operation in Gaza was launched in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas gunmen who killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel and seized some 240 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has analysed the selection of families of deceased Russian soldiers present at the Christmas meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting that such selections are a regular practice of the Kremlin.

Source: ISW

Details: Russian President Putin continued to "court" Russian servicemen and their families ahead of the March 2024 presidential election during a meeting with the families of deceased Russian servicemen on 6 January.

Putin met with families of Russian servicemen killed in Ukraine at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow to celebrate Orthodox Christmas.

He emphasised "the heroism of the deceased Russian servicemen" who "defend[ed] the interests of [Russia]".

The ISW noted that the Russian President has repeatedly reaffirmed the support of the Russian government for the Russian servicemen's families and delegated responsibility for the continued support of these families to Russian officials at all levels across Russia.

Putin recently attended similar events where he tried to show himself as a "gracious leader" who cares about the welfare of Russian servicemen and demonstrated his ability to accommodate servicemen's requests and solve their problems.

ISW pointed out that Putin is likely to use these periodic, highly publicised meetings as part of his election campaign, as Russian military personnel and their family members make up a large portion of voters. Their public support for Putin is vital to the Kremlin, as it allows him to represent Russian society as one that largely supports the war in Ukraine.

In addition, ISW noted that the Kremlin appears to be carefully selecting the families who attended the meeting with Putin to minimise the risk that they might say or ask uncomfortable things.

ISW also stated that the Kremlin has demonstrated "sensitivity" to recent public complaints from family members of Russian servicemen and continues its efforts to censor these complaints in the public space.

Russian opposition outlet Agentstvo Novosti reported on 7 January that relatives of five killed Russian servicemen were present at the meeting, noting that many of those relatives had ties to the Russian government and military.

Agentstvo Novosti said among those present was a Russian National Guard servicemans widow, who is now the head of the Committee of Families of Soldiers of the Fatherland in Balashikha and advisor to the head of Balashikha. A Russian servicemans widow, who currently works as the head of the Tambov branch of the Kremlin-created Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation, and family members of the former rector of the church at the headquarters of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, who previously participated in the conflicts in Chechnya and Syria and was known as the "paratroopers priest", were also present.

Agentstvo Novosti stated that all five fallen servicemen whose families were present at the meeting were posthumously awarded the Hero of Russia and Order of Courage and that two children who attended the meeting were also present at an event Putin attended on 4 November in Moscow.

ISW emphasised that the Kremlin's practice of carefully selecting those who attend public events with Putin, and sometimes the same person appearing at several events, seems to be standard.

To quote the ISWs Key Takeaways on 7 January:

Russian President Vladimir Putin continued to court Russian servicemen and their families ahead of the March 2024 presidential election during a meeting with family members of deceased Russian servicemen on 6 January.

Head of the Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill of Moscow stated that Russia cannot reject Russian citizens who "understand they made a mistake" by fleeing Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and now want to return home.

Two Russian government officials defended migrants continued presence in Russia amid ongoing migrant crackdowns, generating heavy military blogger criticism and indicating that the Russian government likely still lacks a unified policy toward migrants in Russia.

Russian forces conducted a series of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine on the night of 6 to 7 January.

Ukrainian Air Force Spokesperson Colonel Yurii Ihnat refuted media reports that the Danish Ministry of Defence (MoD) is delaying its first delivery of six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine for up to six months.

Russian forces made confirmed advances west and southwest of Donetsk City amid continued positional engagements along the front.

Ukrainian military observer Kostiantyn Mashovets stated on 7 January that Russia has pushed back the deadline for the establishment of the new Moscow and Leningrad Military Districts (MMD and LMD) for at least the second time due to weapons and personnel shortages and bureaucratic issues.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on 4 January that will allow Russia to forcibly grant citizenship to deported Ukrainian children.

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People gather during a rally to commemorate the slaying in 1978 of two members of a neo-fascist youth group in an attack later claimed by extreme-left militants, in Rome, Sunday Jan. 7, 2024. Opposition politicians in Italy demanded on Monday that Italy's government explain how hundreds of demonstrators were able to give a banned fascist salute at a Rome rally without any police intervention. (Francesco Benvenuti/LaPresse via AP)

ROME (AP)  Opposition politicians in Italy on Monday demanded that the government, headed by far-right Premier Giorgia Meloni, explain how hundreds of demonstrators were able to give a banned fascist salute at a Rome rally without any police intervention.

The rally Sunday night in a working-class neighborhood commemorated the slaying in 1978 of two members of a neo-fascist youth group in an attack later claimed by extreme-left militants.

At one point in the rally, participants raised their right arm in a straight-armed salute that harks back to the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. Under post-war legislation, use of fascist symbolism, including the straight-armed salute also known as the Roman salute, is banned.

Democratic Party chief Elly Schlein, who heads the largest opposition party in the legislature, was among those demanding Monday that Meloni's interior minister appear in Parliament to explain why police apparently did nothing to stop the rally.

Schlein and others outraged by the use of the fascist-salute in the rally noted with irony that last month, when a theater-goer at La Scala's opera house's premier shouted Long live anti-fascist Italy! The man was quickly surrounded by police from Italy's anti-terrorism squad.

"If you shout Long live anti-fascist Italy in a theater, you get identified (by police); if you go to a neo-fascist gathering with Roman salutes and banner, you don't,'' said Schlein in a post of the social media platform X. Then she added: Meloni has nothing to say?

Rai state television said Monday evening that Italian police were investigating the mass salute at the rally.

Deputy Premier Antoni Tajani, who leads a center-right party in Meloni's 14-month-old coalition, was pressed by reporters about the flap over the fascist salute.

We're a force that certainly isn't fascist, we're anti-fascist,'' Tajani said at a news conference on another matter. Tajani, who also serves as foreign minister, noted that under Italian law, supporting fascism is banned. All rallies in support of dictatorships must be condemned," he said.

Leaders of Italy's tiny Jewish community also expressed dismay over the fascist salute.

"It's right to recall the victims of political violence, but in 2024 this can't happen with hundreds of people who give the Roman salute,'' Ruth Dureghello, who for several years led Rome's Jewish community, wrote on X.

Mussolini's anti-Jewish laws helped pave the way for the deportation of Italian Jews during the German occupation of Rome in the latter years of World War II.

The rally was held on the anniversary of the youths slaying outside an office of what was then the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, a party formed after World War II that attracted nostalgists for Mussolini. After the two youths were slain, a third far-right youth was killed during clashes with police in demonstrations that followed.

Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has its roots in neo-fascism, has taken her distance from Mussolinis dictatorship, declaring that  the Italian right has handed fascism over to history for decades now.

The late 1970s saw Italy blooded by violence by extreme right-wing and extreme left-wing proponents. The bloody deeds included deadly bombings linked to the far-right, and assassinations and kidnapping claimed by the Red Brigades and other left-wing extremists.
Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner drew ridicule on Sunday after former President Donald Trumps daughter shared audio to X (formerly Twitter) of Kushner promoting a go-getter attitude to podcaster Lex Fridman.

I just think its just something where, if you want to accomplish something, you know, a lot of people, I hear, complain about what other people do or why its hard, or why its impossible, Kushner told Fridman in the clip, which was recorded in October 2023.

And again, I say this as somebody who has been so blessed with so many things in life, but when Ive had challenges or things Ive wanted to achieve, I just focus and say, What can I do? Donald Trumps son-in-law continued. Ill read everything I can get my hands on. If I fail at one thing, if the door closes, Ill try the window. If the window closes, Ill try the chimney. If the chimney closes, Ill try to dig a tunnel. Its just, if you want to accomplish something, you just have to go at it.

See the post here:

Ive received a remarkable number of gracious compliments on @jaredkushner's recent in-depth discussion with @lexfridman.



I personally love this clip as it reveals the determined optimist who firmly believes that there's always a solution if you're willing to try enough paths. pic.twitter.com/ge8xt6edqR  Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) January 7, 2024

Ivanka Trump claimed to have received a remarkable number of gracious compliments on her husbands comments. She didnt allow comments on the post, however.

I personally love this clip as it reveals the determined optimist who firmly believes that theres always a solution if youre willing to try enough paths. I love this about Jared and its a good reminder as we start the new year! she added.

Critics on social media, though, were quick to point out the wealth that Kushner was born into.

Kushner and Ivanka Trump did not take paychecks when serving as White House advisers to Donald Trump, but they did coin in between $172 million and $640 million in outside income.

In April 2022, a Saudi sovereign wealth fund led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly invested $2 billion in Kushners Affinity Partners fund.

Her husband, Jared, who was born into a family worth billions, explains to us how his tenacity led to his success. I learned that if I never give up on my dreams and work really hard, I can also be born into a wealthy family. https://t.co/7XZpgMLB8L  Carlos Turnbull (@cturnbull1968) January 8, 2024

Most trust fund babies are optimistic. Its built into the free money. https://t.co/Q4s7zzqH7H  Horatio McFlabbergasted (@HMcdoolittle) January 8, 2024

Gracious compliments. Lol. Trying to alter reality. The remarks were so Gracious that she turned them off  https://t.co/eUzJfeN9cp  Julie B(rooklyn) BABY WOKE AF (@JMeanypants) January 8, 2024

Can we please not let these people rehabilitate their images? We should never forget their running of the pandemic https://t.co/bLEDioYGzV  Ernest Defarge (@RingerinNYC) January 8, 2024

Lady, you live in a fantasy world, You will never wash the insurrectionist stink off you no matter how hard you try. https://t.co/6jyh3FjjXy  Jennifer (@jerseymom473) January 7, 2024

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As Jackson County homeowners sound the alarm over dramatic growth in property assessments amid allegations county officials violated state law, Missouri lawmakers are pushing to make the countys assessor an elected position.

The fresh effort comes 13 years after Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state constitution allowing Jackson County to remain the only charter county in the state with an appointed assessor. The 2010 exemption specifically targeted Jackson County and was worded to apply only to charter counties with populations of more than 600,000 people but less than 700,000 people.

Supporters of electing the assessor say the position should be directly accountable to voters. Some even question whether the county, which now has more than 716,000 residents, is still legally allowed to have an appointed assessor. Most officials and legal experts who spoke with The Star said that idea would likely not hold up in court.

But questions surrounding the state constitutions population limits, outcry from residents and a series of lawsuits fighting increased assessments have ramped up the pressure on both Missouri lawmakers and county legislators to act, as Jackson County remains out of step with every other county in the state.

The Jackson County Assessment Department is currently led by Director Gail McCann Beatty, a former Democratic leader of the Missouri House. Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr., a Democrat, appointed her to the position. The agency is tasked with valuing and assessing all real and personal property in the county.

Missouri Republican lawmakers who represent portions of Jackson County have filed four constitutional amendments this year to require elections for the assessor in the Democratic-leaning county. If lawmakers pass one of the measures, it would be placed on a statewide ballot.

I think the time has come for the citizens of Jackson County to be able to have their say on their assessor just like every other county in Missouri, said House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson, a Lees Summit Republican, who argued that a statewide vote would remove any ambiguity about whether Jackson County still applies to the exemption after its population growth.

Its a no brainer for me, said Patterson, who is in line to become the next House speaker. And, you know, theres nothing that would stop the current assessor from running and being elected.

At the same time, the Jackson County Legislature is weighing whether it can propose a county-wide ballot measure asking voters to make the assessor elected without state intervention.

Democratic 1st District Legislator Manny Abarca, after reading the population language in the state constitution, said he would be more than happy to introduce ballot language that would rectify that and require the assessor to be elected as early as this year if thats what we want to do.

I think given the most recent impact, what an assessor can do in a county like ours, I absolutely agree that it should become an elected position, he said. An election doesnt necessarily guarantee a better outcome, it just allows for a true accountability metric for taxpayers.

Abarca said he and 6th District Legislator Sean Smith, a Republican, have asked the Jackson County Counselors Office for an explanation as to why the county is the only one that appoints its assessor and how the legislature would go about changing that. They have not received an explanation, he said.

Smith said he and legal counsel would review the language in the state constitution and state law and if theres enough information that would allow us to have an elected assessor, then I would say we go ahead and pass an ordinance immediately to allow us to do that and get it on the ballot for maybe even this coming November.

While the state constitution limits appointed assessors to counties with populations less than 700,000 people, state law indicates that a countys operation of government would not change based on a shift in population.

Legal experts said it would likely require a court opinion to determine whether the statute is in line with the constitution. However, most suggested the countys appointed assessor likely doesnt violate the constitution.

I think the courts are likely to say that because Jackson County was included at the time the constitution was adopted, it remains within this provision, said Chuck Hatfield, a Jefferson City-based attorney who worked in the attorney generals office under Democrat Jay Nixon.

But there is a legitimate argument to be made that the population change takes them out of this provision, and its not the first time its ever come up.

Two Republicans pushing for an elected assessor, state Rep. Chris Sander of Lone Jack and state Sen. Mike Cierpiot of Lees Summit, acknowledged the county likely still qualifies for the exemption despite its population growth.

A spokesperson for Jackson County said its attorneys and county officials were not available for interviews for this story. But county officials, including Beatty, have previously said the county is working to correct errors in the assessment process. County officials have also painted a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican running for election this year, as politically motivated.

Victor Callahan, a former Democratic state senator from Jackson County, supported the measure in 2009 when he was in office that required all county assessors to be elected except in Jackson County.

Callahan, who now serves as a commissioner for the Missouri State Tax Commission, said there wasnt a big push at the time to make the assessor in Jackson County elected. More attention was focused on St. Louis County, which was having problems.

When asked if he now supports the county having an elected assessor, Callahan said its up to whatever the people want to decide.

Thats really up to the legislature if they want to put it before the voters, he said. The state tax commission is a plaintiff alongside Bailey in the lawsuit against Jackson County over the assessments.

Upset homeowners

Jackson Countys assessment process has sparked outrage for months after assessments jumped significantly this year. Residential property values increased by roughly 40% overall since the last assessment in 2021, according to county data.

Prior to Baileys lawsuit, Republican state Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick released the preliminary findings of an ongoing audit that has found the county used a flawed and inadequate process that violated state law. But last month the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jackson County in a lawsuit related to the property assessments, finding that a series of property owners failed to exhaust other options before suing the county.

Property assessments, which take place every two years, have long been a source of controversy in Jackson County. Many houses were chronically undervalued, Beatty and other officials have said, until she began raising valuations in 2019.

Support for an elected assessor isnt universal. State Sen. Barbara Washington, a Kansas City Democrat, previously told The Star that an election raises the possibility that unqualified individuals will be elected. Washington, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, has argued that Republican-led attacks on Beatty appear to sit at the heart of the matter.

Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, an Independence Democrat, said hes received numerous calls from homeowners upset about their assessments. The question, he said, is whether the process was conducted poorly enough to require a drastic change.

I could see it going both ways, he said. I can see that they want an assessor thats accountable to them directly. But then I could also see the fact that if there is an assessor thats elected, the whole idea would be to never raise, you know, any assessments right? And keep them low, which means the schools dont get funded.

But for Patterson, the Lees Summit Republican, making Jackson Countys assessor elected just goes to the basic fundamentals of American democracy.

This is just basic democracy 101 of taxation without representation, he said.
This article was originally published in Mississippi Today.

The board of the Jackson Public School District approved a plan last week to close 13 school buildings, with one board member dissenting.

In October, JPS district leadership introduced a plan to close 16 school buildings because of declining enrollment in the district. The district has lost around 9,500 students between the 2015-16 and 2023-24 school years, about a third of its population. The district has also previously consolidated schools.

Earlier this month, district leadership presented an amended plan that removed three elementary schools from this list of proposed consolidations, citing feedback they had received at community meetings.

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The following schools are on the updated consolidation plan:

Dawson Elementary School

G. N. Smith Elementary School

Lake Elementary School

Lester Elementary School

Marshall Elementary School

Obama IB Elementary (delayed to 2025)

Raines Elementary School

Shirley Elementary School

Sykes Elementary School

Wells APAC Elementary (delayed to 2025)

Chastain Middle School

Whitten Middle School

Wingfield High School

At the meeting Tuesday, several people spoke for and against the proposed closures, including community activists, current teachers and state legislators.

Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, said he supported the consolidation plan because he did not want financial issues to open the district up to state takeover again.

JPS has risen from the ashes, he said. Under the leadership of Dr. Greene, we have risen to a point where individuals have pretty much washed their hands of trying to take over JPS.

When Superintendent Errick Greene spoke before the vote, he emphasized this decision cannot be delayed or pushed down the road without putting the district in serious jeopardy.

If we do not take drastic action right now  we could, in effect, create a situation where our system cannot survive because we didnt take the measures to stop the bleeding, he said.

Nearly every board member agreed that something needed to be done to decrease costs for the district, but some questioned the way the plan was communicated.

Everybody knows that we have too many buildings and we have too much real estate and we dont have any money to take care of it, said Cynthia Thompson, JPS board member for Ward 6. Its not so much that I, or even the community, is upset with the plan, it was just the presentation.

Thompson motioned to remove Wingfield High School from the list, a measure that failed 3-3. She was also the only board member who did not vote in support of the consolidation plan.

We face, in Jackson, the challenges that we face because of the state of Mississippi (government), said Frank Figgers, board member for Ward 3. People in our communities  should know on whose feet and backs to place this blame that we are in this position.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Jacob Elordi has been tapped in to take over for Andrew Garfield in Guillermo del Toros forthcoming Frankenstein adaptation for Netflix.

According to initial reports, the Oscar-winning director was interested in casting Garfield in the titular role; however, The Hollywood Reporter has now confirmed that Euphoria breakout Elordi, 26, has landed the role.

He will star alongside Oscar Isaac, Christoph Waltz and All Quiet on the Western Front breakout Felix Kammerer in Del Toros second feature for the streamer. Mia Goth, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley and Christian Convery are also set to star.

Garfields departure from the project apparently came down to scheduling conflicts related to last years Hollywood writers strike, Showbiz411 reported.

The Independent has contacted Netflix for further comment.

The casting announcement comes after a busy 2023 for the Australian actor, who recently starred in Sofia Coppolas Priscilla biopic as the King of Rock n Roll opposite Cailee Spaeny as Elviss ex-wife Priscilla Presley. He also appeared in Emerald Fennells divise comedy thriller, Saltburn.

Last week, The Kissing Booth actor subtly shaded his Saltburn co-star Barry Keoghan who earnt a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of devious Oxford University student Oliver Quick.

Jacob Elordi and Andrew Garfield (Getty Images)

In an interview with Vogue UK, Elordi asked Keoghan what drew him to the film, with the latter replying: When I met Emerald, she told me that she had you kind of down to do it. So, Emerald, yourself and the script... what about you?

Definitely yeah, it was Emerald, Elordi added with laughter: Then she said she wanted Timothee Chalamet for it. And I said have you thought about Barry Keoghan?

Keoghan ended up losing Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama to Oppenheimers Cillian Murphy at Sunday nights (7 January) Golden Globes.

Based on Mary Shelleys classic novel about scientist Victor Frankenstein who brings to life the eponymous monster, Frankenstein will be written, produced and directed by Del Toro.

Frankenstein is currently in the pre-production stages. It follows the Mexican filmmakers 2022 award-winning animated Netflix movie, Pinocchio. He has previously worked with Netflix for his horror anthology Cabinet of Curiosities, as well as animated films Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans and Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia. Del Toro is perhaps best known for his 2017 Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water, starring Sally Hawkins.
The Chinese Communist Party will stop at nothing to infiltrate American supply chains and gain insight into our most critical military operations and homeland security practices. Over the past few years, we have witnessed President Xi Jinpings increased aggression within Americas borders  buying up farmland, spying on us with high-altitude surveillance balloons, operating illegal Chinese police stations on U.S. soil and stealing valuable intellectual property.

Now, Americas greatest adversary is setting up shop in Kansas under the guise of Cnano Technology USA, Inc. Cnano Jiangsu Technology Co. Ltd. is an international manufacturing company based in China that produces energy storage products for electric vehicle batteries, cellphones and power tools. Cnano Jiangsu and its CEO Tao Zheng have extensive and alarming ties to President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party.

Cnano Jiangsu operates a CCP Party branch with more than two dozen members, and participates in CCP-backed initiatives, including Project 863 and UWFD, the United Front Work Department. Project 863, which has sent money to Cnano Jiangsu, has been a major CCP initiative to advance Chinas military and civilian science and technology, and according to a report from the office of the Director of National Intelligence, it provides funding to clandestinely acquire American technology and sensitive economic information. The United Front Work Department is a political blueprint that uses influence and intelligence operations to shape how the United States and other nations view the Peoples Republic of China. Not only has CEO Tao participated in UWFD events, but he also presented a report to the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party expressing his commitment to continuing to serve President Xi and the CCP.

Cnano USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cnano Jiangsu operating in the United States, has recently announced plans to invest $95 million in a 330,000-square-foot facility at New Century Commerce Center in Johnson County. This new manufacturing facility is just 34 miles from Fort Leavenworth, 72 miles from Whiteman Air Force Base, 105 miles from Fort Riley, 165 miles from McConnell Air Force Base, and is in the heart of an area critical to the security of Kansas. Its close proximity to these significant military installations and other critical infrastructure opens the door to Chinese espionage and poses a serious threat to the United States and Kansas. Chinese nationals have committed more than 100 known acts of espionage on American military bases in just the last few years. We cant let Beijing use Cnano USA to add to that list.

Cnano USA could also become embedded in our local economy and supply chains, threatening the intellectual property and data security of Kansas businesses and organizations. Chinese law requires CCP-backed companies operating in foreign countries to assist in the state-sponsored theft of information  including collecting, transmitting and storing data they receive from American companies. Simply allowing Cnano USA to operate in Kansas puts our research, trade secrets and employee information at risk of falling into the hands of CCP leaders.

As a member of the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, I am committed to preventing Communist China from exploiting American supply chains, and to ensuring that CCP-backed companies arent gaining access to crucial military bases in Kansas and across the country. We cant stand by and let President Xi steal from, bully and spy on Kansans right in our own backyard. Thats why I wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urging the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to open an investigation into Cnano USA.

The Biden administration has a choice: Fulfill its duty to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from expanding its foothold in Kansas, or roll the dice and hope Cnano USA operates in good faith. I hope it chooses the former. Americas economic and national security depend on it.

Jake LaTurner represents Kansas 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Groundhog Day isn't until next month. But if you were watching cable news over the past few days you certainly got a feeling of deja vu watching all the footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection again and being reminded of the violence and horror of that day. It is still as shocking as it was three years ago. And yet: We are evidently about to embark on a replay of the election that brought us to that awful moment and it feels as if nothing has changed in our politics at all.

Three years ago at this time we were reeling from the effects of a global pandemic that was still taking lives by the tens of thousands and stunned by what had transpired after the election. There was talk of invoking the 25th Amendment against Donald Trump to get him out of office before Inauguration Day, and Congress was considering impeaching him for the second time, mostly to prevent him from ever running again. Even staunch Trump supporters like then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Lindsey Graham stood up to denounce him. There was a strong sense, in other words, that the camel's back had finally snapped.

We should all have known better. Even after the traumatic events of that momentous day, 147 House Republicans came back into the chamber that night, and voted to overturn the election results. As for impeachment, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly told his aides, The Democrats are going to take care of the son of a b**ch for us. If this isn't impeachable, I don't know what is." But in the end Senate Republicans couldn't muster the 10 more votes they needed to reach the two-thirds threshold necessary for conviction.

So here we are. Unless something highly unexpected happens, we will face a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in November. Current polling shows that it is very close, so if Trump doesn't win, I think we can probably expect more disruption and violence just as we saw three years ago. It feels like the entire political system has been frozen in that moment and we're right back where we started.

In the 2020 race we had one of the weirdest presidential campaigns ever, with the pandemic causing massive disruptions. There was social distancing on the rational Democratic side, and major super-spreader events from the Trump campaign. We also saw the most bizarre political conventions ever mounted, with Republicans flouting all norms from public health advisories to stage their event at the White House and major government monuments, as if it were a royal jubilee, while Democrats held theirs outdoors in a parking lot.

We won't exactly be going back to normal this time. Trump's assault on democracy has never been resolved, so we shall have the presumptive Republican presidential nominee facing 91 criminal indictments and a range of other legal problems stemming from his post-election behavior in 2020. Half the campaign may take place inside courtrooms  and outside them as well. And once again, as in the fateful election 24 years ago, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court may end up being the deciding factor.

This past weekend we saw the outlines of how the campaign will likely unfold, and the contrast could not be clearer. On Friday, President Biden gave what many observers called one of the best speeches of his career, appearing at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to mark the Jan. 6 anniversary and lay out the stakes in the election. Today were here to answer the most important of questions," he said. "Is democracy still Americas sacred cause? Its what the 2024 election is all about.

He made clear that he was at Valley Forge to evoke George Washington's decision to leave office after two terms and peacefully hand over the reins of power, establishing one of the bedrocks of American democracy, which Donald Trump upended when he couldn't bear to admit that he'd lost in 2020. Biden contrasted that kind of statesmanship with Trump, saying, He still doesnt understand a basic truth, and that is you cant love your country only when you win. He exhorted America's voters to cling to reality and ensure that Trump doesn't get the chance to do it again:

When the attack on Jan. 6 happened, there was no doubt about the truth. As time has gone on, politics, fear, money  all have intervened. And now these MAGA voices who know the truth about Trump on Jan. 6 have abandoned the truth and abandoned democracy. They made their choice. Now the rest of us  Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans  we have to make our choice.

Trump was in Iowa all weekend, counting down to the caucus there in less than two weeks. He made many incoherent and daft statements and told offensive lies about Biden stuttering through his Valley Forge speech. (He also took a shot at the late Senator John McCain's disability, suffered when he was tortured as a prisoner of war.) In other words he was his usual childish, bullying self, which is of course what his followers love most about him.

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He also talked about Jan. 6 and the 2020 election at each stop.

Trump: You have the J6 hostages. Nobody has been treated ever in history so badly pic.twitter.com/hkBvFc0UAT  Acyn (@Acyn) January 6, 2024

Trump: Release the J6 hostages Joe. Release them Joe pic.twitter.com/irBIb0Eq04  Acyn (@Acyn) January 7, 2024

Trump repeated the false claimed that the FBI had "led the charge" that day and repeatedly asserted that those who stormed the Capitol behaved "peacefully and patriotically," virtually demanding that people believe him rather than their own eyes. And indeed many people do. The latest Washington Post poll found that only 18% of respondents said the Jan. 6 insurrectionists were mostly violent" and 72% of Republicans think that too much is being made" of the Capitol riot.

So the battle lines have been drawn. On the anniversary of Jan. 6, the presumptive presidential nominees both spoke. Joe Biden told the truth, reminding the country of what really happened. He asked that Americans recognize the threat that a second Trump presidency presents to all of us. Trump continued to lie, even more brazenly than usual, once again insisting that he actually won the 2020 election and exhorting his followers to "finish the job."

Those words hold true for the rest of us as well. It's time to end this standoff once and for all.
On Sunday, ABC News reported on new evidence now in the hands of special counsel Jack Smith that signals a turning point for the prosecution against Donald Trump. If and when the trial goes forward after Trumps immunity appeals wrap up, the new evidence will be kryptonite to Trumps hopes for avoiding a conviction.

Progress toward the trial is currently paused during Trumps appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Experts like Norm Eisen expect that Trumps weak appellate claims to immunity and purported protection from double jeopardy are likely to be resolved against him well in time for a trial before the November election.

ABCs latest reporting describes Smiths interviews with Trumps close aides, like Dan Scavino, Trumps communications guru. The interviews put firmly on record Trumps statements during the three hours on Jan. 6 when he refused like a petulant child to ask the Capitol invaders to go home.

The powerful reported testimony goes straight to the crucial issue in the case: Did Trump criminally intend to overturn the 2020 election? His newly reported statements would conclusively establish for any reasonable juror that Trump wanted the siege to succeed in stopping Congress from certifying President Joe Bidens election.

We already knew about Trump resisting the entreaties of aides, family, and political allies who begged him, once violence began, to immediately call off the dogs of insurrection. He fiddled for 187 minutes while Rome burned.

So whats new about the evidence that ABC reported Sunday?

Trumps reported statements are loaded with cruelty, self-interest, and abandonment of allies. It becomes indisputable that he was using his most violent followers to try to override the voters will and keep himself in power.

The statements that ABC reported are new, in part, because witnesses like Scavino and Mark Meadows, the Trump White House chief of staff, didnt speak with the House Jan. 6 committee.

Scavino still works for Trumps campaign. Per ABC, hes been so close and so supportive of Trump over the years that  in 2020  Trump joked that  Scavino was the most powerful man in politics.  That will make his testimony especially compelling.

Scavino has now reportedly confirmed something vital to Smiththat it was Trump and Trump alone who posted his infamous 2:24 p.m. Jan. 6 tweet: Mike Pence didnt have the courage to do what should have been done. The Wall Street Journal has called that tweet the critical moment of the siege because it poured truckloads of kerosene onto an already roaring fire inside the Capitol.

Scavino reportedly told Smiths team that Trump only posted the tweet after Scavino left him by himself in the White House dining room, Scavino having failed to persuade Trump to release a calming statement. After the posting, multiple aides returned to tell Trump that the tweet was not what we need.

Trump reportedly responded, with no concern for the tweets inciting effect: But its true. As Nick Luna, now a former Trump aide, reportedly told investigators, Trump showed he was capable of allowing harm to come to one of his closest allies at the time. This was Lunas assessment of Trumps response to the news that Mike Pence had to be evacuated from the Capitol, which ABC reported was So what?

ABC also reported that Meadows filled in evidentiary gaps about information we had from public reporting. Meadows reportedly confirmed for Smith that he was present to hear Trump tell thenHouse Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.

McCarthy, too, had refused to testify before the House Jan. 6 committee. He has never publicly acknowledged that Trump spoke those words to him on Jan. 6, and we dont know whether hes told Smith about hearing them.

Meadows having done so also corroborates bombshell testimony that the House Jan. 6 committee received from Cassidy Hutchinson, Meadows aidethat during the early moments of violence on Jan. 6, she heard Meadows tell Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, Trump didnt want to do anything to stop it.

Finally, ABC reports notable evidence about Trumps 6 p.m. tweet after the violence ended: These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is  viciously stripped away from great patriots. Remember this day for forever!

ABC reported that Trump posted the message despite Lunas warning that it made him sound culpable for the violence, perhaps even as if he may have somehow been involved in directing it. Thus, he was on notice from a trusted ally that the message conveyed his criminal responsibility for the violence, and he published it anyway, demonstrating that it was no innocent mistake.

On Sunday, Trumps team downplayed the significance of ABCs blockbuster. A campaign spokesman said:

Media fascination with second-hand hearsay shows just how weak the Witch-Hunt against President Trump is.

This hearsay claim is 100 percent wrong. What witnesses told Trump and what he told them are not hearsay because the statements will not be offered in court to prove the truth of what they assert. Only statements offered for that purpose meet the legal definition of hearsay and are barred from being heard by jurors in criminal proceedings.

Take for example, Trumps assertion to McCarthy that the Capitol invaders were more concerned about the election than he was. Smith would not offer that statement to prove its truth. Rather, Smith would offer the evidence to prove Trump criminal state of mind, a necessary element of every offense. Instead, the statement will be introduced to show that Trump wanted the insurrection to continue and succeed in blocking the election certification.

The introduction of such testimony from Trumps closest aides establishes his criminal intent and should seal his fate in the trial to come.
Jim Hobson after taking over the Ripper investigation: there was so much paperwork that the office floors had to be reinforced - ANL/Shutterstock

Jim Hobson, who has died aged 96, was the police officer heading the investigation into the murders committed by the Yorkshire Ripper when Peter Sutcliffe was arrested for them in 1981; Sutcliffe was subsequently convicted of causing the deaths during the previous six years of 13 women and the attempted murder of seven more.

Hobson had only been appointed to his post some weeks earlier, but he had been a key member of the inquiry team for several years as head of CID in Leeds. Indeed, in that capacity he had unknowingly investigated some of Sutcliffes first attacks.

He had worked under Dennis Hoban, who had been among the first to suspect the murders were linked but had subsequently died of diabetes. Hobson had then been deputy to Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, the inquirys leader, until the latter was also sidelined by ill health.

It was the fury in November 1980 of Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister, at the failure of the West Yorkshire force to catch the Ripper that had led to Hobson being promoted. He formed a super squad to find the killer, but Sutcliffes arrest only a few weeks later was almost accidental.

Driving with a prostitute in his car, he was stopped in Sheffield for having false number plates. It was only some time later that an officer following a hunch found a knife and hammer that Sutcliffe had thrown into bushes while being questioned at the scene. After several days of being interviewed at a police station in West Yorkshire about these events, Sutcliffe unexpectedly confessed to being the Ripper.

The task of Hobson and his colleagues had undoubtedly been made considerably more difficult by the scale of the operation in which they were involved and by the volume of information it generated in an age before computers revolutionised police work. The major incident room at Millgarth held four tons of paper  the floors had had to be reinforced  and at any one time thousands of records remained to be logged and cross-referenced.

A hoax tape recording also convinced Oldfield that the killer was from Wearside rather than being local, leading senior officers to discount evidence that might have pointed to Sutcliffe sooner. He had already been interviewed about the crimes nine times in the course of the investigation.

Yet in recent years, criticism has also been levelled at the investigating officers for their prejudices towards those of the victims who were prostitutes, as initially the majority of those attacked by Sutcliffe were.

L-r, Lee Ingleby as Jim Hobson, Steven Waddington as Dick Holland, David Morrissey as George Oldfield and Robert James-Collier as Jack Ridgeway in The Long Shadow: Hobson was unhappy with the programme for what he saw as inaccuracies - Justin Slee/ITV

At a press conference in 1979 which followed the killing of a student, Barbara Leach, Hobson, who had a daughter, said that the murderer has made it clear that he hates prostitutes. Many people do. We, as a police force, will continue to arrest prostitutes. But the Ripper is now killing innocent girls.

It was widely felt by relatives and friends of the earlier victims that the view that prostitutes were somehow deserving of their fate had at first led the force to not take their deaths seriously enough.

Moreover, the assumption that the Ripper only targeted sex workers had prompted the police to ignore detailed descriptions of the killer  Sutcliffe  by two survivors of his early attacks on the grounds that they were not prostitutes. A report in 1982 by Lawrence Byford, the Inspector of Constabulary, strongly criticised the handling of the inquiry, the choice of Oldfield to lead it and the failings of the index system.

This led to major changes in future investigations. In 2020, following Sutcliffes death in prison, West Yorkshire Police apologised to the families of his victims for the language, tone and terminology used by it at the time of the investigation.

James Hobson was born at Gipton, in Leeds, on April 6 1927. He left school without qualifications, but having qualified in signals while in the Sea Cadets he joined the Royal Navy at 16. He sailed on convoys to Murmansk, which subsequently brought him a medal from the Russians, and after the war served in the Mediterranean at the time of the end of the British Mandate over Palestine.

He joined the police in 1951 and by the mid-1970s had risen to the rank of detective chief-superintendent. Not a man to stand for any nonsense, he was commended for his work by judges and chief constables on 10 occasions. After retiring, he headed up security for a chain of shoe shops.

A dedicated Rotarian and a champion crown green bowler into his nineties, Hobson never lost interest in his most famous case. He felt, however, that the recent ITV drama about it, The Long Shadow, in which he was portrayed by Lee Ingleby, was not accurate to his satisfaction.

His wife, Joan, whom he married in 1950, died in 2010. Their daughter survives him.

Jim Hobson, born April 6 1927, died December 12 2023

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President Joe Biden's remarks on Monday were the second of two speeches to commemorate the third anniversary of Trump supporters' efforts to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

President Joe Biden's remarks on Monday were the second of two speeches to commemorate the third anniversary of Trump supporters' efforts to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

Speaking to a predominantly Black audience on Monday at the site of the worst white supremacist terror attack in recent U.S. history, President Joe Biden compared the people who falsely assert that the 2020 election was stolen to defeated members of the Confederacy making spurious claims about the Civil War.

Bidens remarks from the pulpit at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, showed how the president hopes to use former President Donald Trumps role in fomenting the U.S. Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, to excite the Black voters in his base, as well as retain the support of suburban swing voters.

Although a larger percentage of Black voters approve of Bidens performance than virtually any other demographic group, some polling shows that Black voters support for him has waned since 2020.

To make his point on Monday, Biden laid out the historical analogy in some detail. Following the Souths loss, he noted, many Confederates and their sympathizers promoted a Lost Cause theory of the Civil War: that the South had fought nobly to protect states rights, rather than to uphold slavery. The Confederates self-serving lie created the cultural basis for the implementation of the anti-Black caste system in the Jim Crow era, Biden said.

So let me be clear for those who dont seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War, Biden said, taking an apparent swipe at Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor-turned-Republican presidential candidate who omitted slavery as a cause of the Civil War when asked about it in late December. Theres no negotiation about that.

Now were living in an era of a second Lost Cause. Once again, there are some in this country trying to turn a loss into a lie  a lie which, if allowed to live, will once again bring terrible damage to this country, he continued. This time, the lie is about the 2020 election  the election in which you made your voices heard and your power known.

Notwithstanding the veiled jab at Haley, Bidens latest speeches continue to treat Trump as the 2024 Republican nominee in all but name. Trump is ahead of his nearest opponent in Iowa by more than 30 percentage points, but by less than 20 points in New Hampshire.

Biden also paid a visit to the Revolutionary War site at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and delivered a speech about democracy on Friday.

The bookended campaign appearances  respectively a day before, and two days after, the third anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021  make up two complementary parts of Bidens case that the countrys democratic character is at stake in the upcoming November election.

Every stride forward has often been met with ferocious backlashes from those who fear the progress, from those who exploit that fear for their own personal gain, from those who traffic in lies told for profit and power.President Joe Biden

The speech on Friday, at a community college outside of Philadelphia, connected the George Washington-led battles for independence from the British to the effort to safeguard U.S. democracy against figures like Trump in the present. Trump is willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power, Biden declared.

Days later, at Mother Emanuel, Biden effectively argued that Trumps election would also threaten the progress toward racial equality achieved since the Civil War. That is especially true given Trumps efforts to overturn the electoral outcome preferred by the vast majority of Black Americans, and his subordinates intimidation of Black election officials in Georgia, Biden said.

Violence on January 6 was an extension of an old playbook  from the threats and violence and intimidation, Biden said. In Atlanta, Georgia, two brave Black women  mother and daughter Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss  they had their lives upended just doing their jobs.

In that context, Biden even managed to insert a new putdown of Trump that he is likely to reprise on the campaign trail going forward.

In America, we witness to serve all those who in fact participate, Biden concluded. And losers are taught to concede when they lose. And hes a loser.

But he also laid out what he sees as Republicans multi-pronged attack on policies, institutions and cultural phenomena that have helped Americans reckon with the countrys past and present discrimination against Black people.

Theyre trying to erase history and your future  banning books; denying your right to vote and have it counted; destroying diversity, equality, and inclusion all across America; harboring hate and replacing hope, with anger and resentment and a dangerous view of America, Biden said.

The president accused Trump and his Republican allies of fostering a zero-sum view of America in which progress for Black Americans invariably comes at the expense of white Americans.

Thats not new in America, he said. Every stride forward has often been met with ferocious backlashes from those who fear the progress, from those who exploit that fear for their own personal gain, from those who traffic in lies told for profit and power.

Republicans insist that they support equality of opportunity for all people regardless of their races, and that they merely oppose efforts to redress racial injustice by trying to ensure equality of outcomes.

Biden greets Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who played a critical role in helping him secure the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Biden greets Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who played a critical role in helping him secure the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Standing in front of Assistant House Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (S.C.), who delivered an illustrious introduction listing Bidens domestic accomplishments, Biden exuded the confidence of someone speaking to an audience of loyal supporters. Those attending repeatedly broke into applause during Bidens remarks and occasionally shouted affirmations.

While heavily Republican South Carolina is not competitive in the general election, it holds a special place in the story of Bidens political rise. Clyburns endorsement of Biden ahead of the South Carolina primary in February 2020 vaulted him to victory in the Palmetto State, precipitating a series of wins that clinched him the nomination after months as an underdog.

In recognition of Clyburns support in 2020, Biden vowed to name the first Black woman to the Supreme Court  a promise that he fulfilled with the nomination of Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson, as Clyburn noted on Monday. Biden has continued to pay it forward, adjusting the Democratic primary schedule to make South Carolina the first state in the presidential nominating process.

But not even Clyburn could insulate Mondays turn-out-the-base campaign event from the serious political challenges that face Biden outside the confines of the historically Black church.

Pro-Palestine protesters interrupted Biden to demand an end to Israels invasion of Gaza, which Biden has strongly supported and which began after a deadly attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.

If you really care about the lives lost here, you should honor the lives lost and call for a cease-fire in Palestine, the first protester said. The small group of demonstrators then chanted: Cease-fire now! Cease-fire now!

After a few seconds, Bidens supporters drowned the protest out with their own chant: Four more years! Four more years!

Regaining control of the room, Biden spoke respectfully about the protesters and said that he was privately pressing the Israeli government to wrap up their invasion. However, the mostly progressive critics of Bidens Israel policy believe that if the president does not warn of consequences  such as by threatening U.S. aid to Israel  Israeli policies that result in excessive civilian deaths and suffering will continue unabated.

Look, folks, I understand their passion, Biden said. And Ive been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza, using all that I can to do it. But I understand the passion.

Afterward, a woman in the audience praised his compassion for the protesters.

Youre an understanding person. They dont realize that, she said. Youre a good man!

Related...
Former President Donald Trump indicated on Monday that he will be attending a hearing at the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. this week on his claim that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution. Trump has pushed the argument that he is protected from charges that he plotted to subvert the 2020 presidential election. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge overseeing the ex-president's D.C. case, rejected his immunity claim, writing that the presidency does not confer a lifelong get-out-of-jail-free pass. As noted by Axios, however, Chutkan has agreed to pause proceedings while he attempts to appeal the decision.

Trump shared the news of his upcoming appeals court appearance on his Truth Social platform shortly after midnight on Monday. "I will be attending the Federal Appeals Court Arguments on Presidential Immunity in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday," he wrote. "Of course I was entitled, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief, to Immunity. I wasnt campaigning, the Election was long over. I was looking for voter fraud, and finding it, which is my obligation to do, and otherwise running running our Country. If I dont get Immunity, then Crooked Joe Biden doesnt get Immunity, and with the Border Invasion and Afghanistan Surrender, alone, not to mention the Millions of dollars that went into his 'pockets' with money from foreign countries, Joe would be ripe for Indictment. By weaponizing the DOJ against his Political Opponent, ME, Joe has opened a giant Pandoras Box."

"As President, I was protecting our Country, and doing a great job of doing so, just look around at the complete mess that Crooked Joe Biden has caused," Trump continued venting in a follow-up post. "The least I am entitled to is Presidential Immunity on Fake Biden Indictments!"
Mark Leonard's long track record of efficient capital allocation has drawn comparisons with the Oracle of Omaha

Whether managing a business or an investment portfolio, success boils down to the effectiveness of capital allocation. Allocating capital to high-return opportunities is the engine that powers compounding  the money-making magic that over time creates vast fortunes and was famously described by Albert Einstein as the eighth wonder of the world.

Few allocate capital as effectively as Mark Leonard, the founder of Canadian software conglomerate Constellation Software. The proof is in the gains he has delivered to shareholders. Since the shares listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2006, they have delivered a 290-fold return.

Unfortunately, the shares are out of reach for many British investors. Few online stockbrokers offer them, with the notable exceptions of Interactive Investor and Barclays Smart Investor, which both provide access to Canadian shares.

A chunky share price  at 3,349 Canadian dollars, one Constellation Software share costs 1,970  also presents practical issues.

Questor would not normally recommend a share with such limited accessibility to readers. But we will make an exception in this case not only because of Constellation Softwares remarkable investment credentials but in the hope that other brokers may follow suit in allowing access to the shares.

Constellation Softwares backing from some of the worlds best fund managers adds further weight to the investment case. Four of these professional investors, each among the top-performing 3pc of the 10,000 equity fund managers tracked by the financial publisher Citywire, have bought shares in the Canadian business.

The company receives an AA rating  just below a top AAA rating  from Citywire Elite Companies, which rates companies on the basis of their backing by the best-performing fund managers.

Crucial to Constellations investment appeal is its founder and president, who can be regarded as near equal parts investor and entrepreneur.

Leonards track record at the helm of the business has drawn comparisons with legendary American investor Warren Buffett and his Berkshire Hathaway investment vehicle.

Before setting up Constellation Leonard worked in the venture capital industry. While doing so he discovered that few businesses could match the attractions of small, niche-focused software businesses.

These types of company often have oligopoly or monopoly positions because their markets are too small to accommodate many rivals. Meanwhile, the business-critical nature of their products and the time and expense involved in switching to rival software foster life-long customers, reliable revenues and formidable pricing power.

While acquirers normally have to pay a premium for such qualities, this area is something of an exception, as the small size of these businesses limits competition to acquire them. That means Constellation has historically been able to pick up companies at prices that allow it to generate a high rate of return on its investments.

The cash generated from these small businesses has provided the firepower to buy more and more of them, compounding value for shareholders in the process.

But this business model, effective though it has proven, raises two questions: how can such a large and disparate group of businesses be effectively managed? And can Constellation keep up its acquisition standards?

The answer lies in focusing on the measures that really matter to compounding: return on invested capital, cash generation and growth.

Constellation applies strict criteria to its acquisitions, requiring them to generate a high internal rate of return, a favourite measure of private equity investors. The businesses it acquires are then paid bonuses based on their ability to hit targets for return on invested capital.

However, as Constellation has grown, from a business worth C$387m at its 2006 flotation to C$71bn today, that has necessitated some changes.

In early 2021 Leonard lowered the return required on bigger deals in a bid to become more competitive with private equity and other acquirers at the larger end of its market. The criteria for smaller deals remained unchanged.

Leonard was persuaded by the argument from a board director that even though they would generate a lower return than Constellations smaller acquisitions, these larger deals would represent a better use of capital than paying out the cash it was struggling to deploy as special dividends.

Given the companys acquisition record, investors have agreed, sending the shares to new record highs. Some of the worlds best performing fund managers are placing their faith in Leonard to continue to deliver, and this column does too.

Questor says: buy

Ticker: TSE: CSU

Share price at close: C$3,348.61

Algy Hall is investment editor of Citywire Elite Companies

Read the latest Questor column on telegraph.co.uk every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 6am

Read Questors rules of investment before you follow our tips

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Jonathan Majors Says He Was Shocked And Afraid After Guilty Verdict In First Interview Since Trial: How Is That Possible? | Photo: John Nacion/Getty Images

In his first interview since a jury found Jonathan Majors guilty of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, Majors opened up about his experience and doubled down on his innocence.

Authorities arrested Majors following a March 2023 incident between him and Jabbari, during which she alleged that Majors physically assaulted her. A New York jury convicted the actor of two counts of harassment and assault.

The Magazine Dreams star passionately denied Jabbaris allegations before and throughout the trial and continued to do so while appearing in an ABC News interview aired in part on Good Morning America on Monday.

EXCLUSIVE: "This has been very, very, very hard and very difficult and confusing in many ways."



Jonathan Majors speaks out for the first time after conviction in domestic violence trial and shares hopes to work in Hollywood again. @LinseyDavis reports. https://t.co/MyWyLCbpzv pic.twitter.com/W7D3IH3eRW  Good Morning America (@GMA) January 8, 2024

That did not happen, Majors told anchor Linsey Davis, after she asked him if he physically hurt Jabbari.

When asked how he believes Jabbari sustained her injuries, he denied knowing anything.

I wish to God I knew. That would give clarity, that would give me some type of peace about it, he said.

Davis asked Majors if he was confident that he didnt physically hurt Jabbari.

I have no question, the actor responded.

Later, he relived when he heard the jurys decision, sharing that he was absolutely shocked and afraid, ABC News reported.

Im standing there and the verdict comes down, he remembered. I say, How is that possible based off the evidence, based off the prosecutions evidence, let alone our evidence? How is that possible?'

Variety reported that Jabbari and Majors met on the set of Marvels Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. During the trial, Jabbari testified that the incident occurred in the back of an SUV. She grabbed her then-partners phone to see if he was texting another woman. According to her, Majors aggressively grabbed the phone, injuring her head and finger.

Majors recounted the story differently. He denied assaulting Jabbari, and his legal team argued that Jabbari instigated and escalated the incident. They claimed that Jabbari added fuel to the fire to get Majors back following their breakup. They said their relationship lasted two years and ended on the night of the assault.

I shouldnt have been in the car, Majors told Davis. I shouldnt have stepped out of the relationship. I shouldnt have been in the relationship, Majors said. If Im not in the car, none of this is happening. If I leave the relationship, none of this is happening. If Im man enough or brave enough to say, I want to see someone else or Im done now, Im not in that car. Were not here. Im responsible for those things.

Majors described the relationship as not healthy, and he wished he had been brave and walked away before things escalated.

I was reckless with her heart, not with her body, he asserted, adding that he would never hit a woman.

He reiterated, My hands have never struck a woman  ever.

Majors also opened up about the things he lost since Jabbaris allegations. After news of his guilty verdict broke, Disneys Marvel Studios axed Majors, who played Kang the Conqueror in the Marvel universe and was set to star in upcoming Avengers movies, including Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, set for release in 2026.

But what seems to be cutting Majors deeper is his relationship with his daughter. Wiping away tears, he told Davis that he could not see her because of the case.

Everything has kinda gone away. And its just me now, you know, and my lovely, you know, partner, [actress] Meagan [Good], and my dogs, he said.

As for the future, Majors said he hopes to make a comeback in Hollywood one day.

I pray I do, he told Davis. But its Gods plan and Gods timing.

Majors faces up to a year in jail, and his sentencing will be on Feb. 6. He told Davis that he and his legal team are working on appealing his convictions.

An extended version interview will air on ABC News Lives Prime with Linsey Davis, Monday at 7 p.m. ET.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is backing Trump ally Bernie Moreno in the race for his home states Senate seat.

Moreno announced Jordans support in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday as Republicans hope to flip the seat held by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in the upcoming election.

In a statement from Morenos campaign, Jordan said he is proud to stand alongside former President Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in endorsing Moreno.

Bernie is a true America First conservative, and will make us proud in the U.S. Senate, Jordan said in the statement, of the wealthy Cleveland businessman.

Our country needs common sense conservative fighters now more than ever. Bernie is a political outsider who has lived the American Dream. His perspective, his grit and his conservative values will serve Ohio well in the U.S. Senate.

Moreno said on X he was honored to have received Jordans endorsement.

Jim knows that to save America, we must retake the Senate. Thats why so many conservatives are uniting around our outsider campaign to finally retire Sherrod Brown. Time to put America First! Moreno said.

The endorsements from Jordan, Trump and Vance will likely boost support for Moreno in the Ohio GOP primary race for Senate. Moreno is currently vying for the Republican nomination against Frank LaRose, who serves as Ohios secretary of state, and state Sen. Matt Dolan.

But polls show he faces a tough race against Brown in the general election. According to an Emerson College Polling/WJW-TV Fox 8 Cleveland poll released in November, Brown beat Moreno in a hypothetical election with 42 percent of support to Morenos 32 percent.

The poll also showed Brown beating the other candidates, but with smaller margins.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke last February in support of legislation barring gun permit holders from bringing their firearms into many public places. The law has been put on hold pending a federal court challenge. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

A new California law barring licensed gun holders from carrying their firearms in many public places has once again been blocked  meaning it cannot be enforced  as legal challenges proceed in federal court.

The law bars concealed-carry permit holders and those with open-carry permits in more rural parts of the state from carrying their firearms into spaces that California lawmakers deemed "sensitive."

The prohibited places include anywhere that sells and serves liquor; on public transportation and in many parking lots; at public gatherings, special events, parks, playgrounds, stadiums, arenas, casinos, medical facilities, religious and financial institutions; and in any other private commercial spaces where the owners have not explicitly posted a sign allowing guns.

Challengers to the law argue the list is so long that it essentially precludes them from leaving their homes with their weapons and makes their permits worthless  and diminishes their ability to defend themselves in public, a right that they say is guaranteed under the 2nd Amendment. (People without permits, who are not party to the lawsuit, generally cannot carry firearms anywhere in public in California.)

A federal district judge halted major portions of the law from taking effect last month, calling it "repugnant" and unconstitutional. An administrative panel of judges in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals then stayed that judge's ruling on Dec. 30, letting the law, known as Senate Bill 2, take effect as planned on Jan. 1.

Read more: Battle over California's ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines shows a nation divided

However, on Saturday, another 9th Circuit appellate panel issued its own order reversing the administrative panel and restoring the lower court's judgment while the proceedings continue.

The latest order, issued by a court clerk without the names of the judges listed, puts the state law on ice once more as the case proceeds. The 9th Circuit appellate panel will be considering the state's appeal, including during arguments in April.

A spokesperson in the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom called the latest decision "dangerous" in a statement, saying it "puts the lives of Californians on the line."

"We wont stop working to defend our decades of progress on gun safety in our state," the spokesperson said.

Chuck Michel, an attorney for the gun holders suing the state over the law, applauded the ruling and said it preserves "the status quo" for responsible gun owners.

"Had this new law taken effect, it would reverse decades of allowing vetted and licensed [concealed-carry weapon] holders (but not the general public) to carry in places where the need for self-defense can be most acute," Michel wrote in a statement.

Read more: California law removing guns from people under restraining orders survives court challenge

"So the politicians' ploy to get around the 2nd Amendment has been stopped for now," he said. "Now we will focus on stopping it for good."

The legal battle is one of many playing out in courts across the country in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. vs. Bruen in 2022.

In Bruen, the high court held that strict limits on concealed-carry permits in states such as New York and California amounted to unconstitutional restraints on people's 2nd Amendment right to self-defense.

The court also held that gun laws that arent deeply rooted in American history, or analogous to some historical law, are generally unconstitutional. Some gun laws  like those that have traditionally barred guns in sensitive places such as schools and courtrooms  remained valid, the court noted.

Last year, California lawmakers passed SB 2 in response to the Bruen decision and several mass shootings, including in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park. Lawmakers argued that the bill, sponsored by state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank), was permissible under the Bruen decision because it simply extended the list of places deemed sensitive under California law.

Read more: 9th Circuit overturns butterfly knife ban, citing Supreme Court 'history' standard on guns

Gun holders sued in response, and won a victory on Dec. 20 when U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney issued an injunction.

Carney, an appointee of President George W. Bush, wrote that SB 2's "coverage is sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court." He said SB 2 clearly clashed with the Bruen decision, and an injunction blocking it was warranted because the gun holders were likely to win their case against the state and would suffer "irreparable harm" if they werent allowed to carry their firearms in the meantime.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta's office appealed and asked for a stay to allow the state's law to go into effect while the court case continued. An administrative panel of the 9th Circuit granted that stay, but now, with Saturday's order, the law is once more blocked while the case proceeds.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Junior doctors defied the British Medical Association (BMA) and returned to work to keep patients safe during the latest strike, the head of the NHS has said.

The strike, which ends at 7am on Tuesday, has led to clashes between the union and health officials over risks to patient safety.

At least 30 pleas for junior doctors to be allowed to cross picket lines in order to provide safe levels of cover have been rejected by the BMA.

But on Monday, Amanda Pritchard, the NHS chief executive, thanked the many junior doctors who took steps to keep patients safe, including those who returned to work even when such derogations had not been granted.

In a message to all staff, she said: Ive heard accounts of colleagues all the way from the front line to service and board directors working around the clock  and in unfamiliar settings  to keep services running and patients safe.

I include in that the many junior doctors who have chosen not to take action, or who have returned to work to ensure minimum levels of cover, whether or not formal patient safety mitigations were granted.

Thanking those who had shown conspicuous resilience in the face of incredible pressures, Ms Pritchard said it was clearly not sustainable for the NHS to endure repeated periods of ever more drastic action.

Despite the best efforts of everyone in the NHS, it is inevitably patients  many needing time-sensitive treatment  who are left shouldering the greatest personal risk, she said, highlighting concerns about cancer patients.

Since the strike began, critical incidents have been declared in many parts of the country, with hospitals repeatedly urging patients to avoid A&E units unless the situation is life-threatening.

But officials fear the strain will worsen in coming weeks, as the health service attempts to restart routine activity that was stopped during the strikes, while flu and Covid levels are expected to peak.

Ms Pritchard said: Were acutely aware that well continue to see operational impact beyond the end of this strike and over the next couple of weeks, when we also expect seasonal pressure to peak.

Under strike protocols, hospital trusts can ask unions to allow doctors to cross picket lines and cover shifts if patient safety is compromised, but more than 30 requests relating to the current action in England have been rejected by the BMA. Just two have been granted, each for a single doctor to work one shift.

On Monday, junior doctors leaders said they wont be calling for strike action unless and if we need to. Ministers have said they will not negotiate with doctors while strike action has been called.

With the strike due to end at 7am on Tuesday and no further action planned, there are hopes talks will resume this week in an effort to end the dispute.

On Friday, Victoria Atkins, the Health Secretary, said: Ive said throughout this that, please, to the junior doctors committee, the moment you call off the strikes Ill get back around the table with you within 20 minutes.

The BMA said on Monday that it had yet to get an offer for talks to resume. Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of its junior doctors committee, said: It takes two to tango  the Government also need to involve themselves in that process for it to be successful.

Ultimately, what were looking for is an end to this dispute and the first way to do that is to restore the pay cuts that we have had, which will help restore the value in the profession. But until the Government is willing to negotiate with us were not able to unilaterally do that.

So we wont be calling for strike action unless and if we need to, but there is a real future where we dont have to call for strike action ever again, if were able to come to an agreement.

Dr Rob Laurenson, the BMA committee co-chairman, told PA: Our goal is to negotiate a pay deal that gives doctors, Government, taxpayers, the NHS and patients long-term security. We just hope that the Government comes to their senses and come back to the negotiation room so that we can all work collaboratively together to find a resolution.

He added that so far there had been no invitation for talks to resume, adding: There has been no invitation for a minute past 7am tomorrow  or 7.20 tomorrow.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
Editors note: The above video shows KXAN News Todays top morning headlines for Monday, Jan. 8, 2024.

SAN MARCOS, Texas (KXAN)  Jury selection begins Monday in Hays County in the trial of a man facing a capital murder charge in the death of a San Marcos police officer in 2017.

Stewart Mettz, 57, is accused of shooting and killing Officer Ken Copeland on Dec. 4, 2017.

On that day, San Marcos police officers went to Mettzs home to serve a warrant on charges of assault and injury to an elderly person. When officers knocked on his door, police said Mettz opened the door and immediately began shooting, striking Copeland twice. Copeland was rushed to the hospital where he died.

Man indicted on capital murder charge in officers death

A Hays County grand jury in Feb. 2018 indicted Mettz on the capital murder charge, the charge of injury to an elderly person and a retaliation charge.

At that time, Hays County Criminal District Attorney Wes Maus office did not indicate if they will seek the death penalty in this case.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
Kentucky has one of the lowest statewide costs of living in the nation, according to a ranking from online pharmacy store Now Patient.

Comparatively low average prices for gas, groceries and other expenses contributed to the states 46th overall ranking in the US Costly States list.

The Now Patient ranking was based on metrics such as gas prices, grocery bills, funeral costs, a cost of living score, health insurance prices and the cost of gym memberships. Sources included World Population Review, auto club AAA, Zippia, the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, Value Penguin and Statista, according to Now Patient.

The individual category in which Kentucky ranked the lowest for pricing was gas. Now Patient reports the average cost of gas was $3.257 per gallon in July  thats dropped to $3.077 as of Jan. 8, according to AAA.

Does this ranking tell the whole story?

Although the Now Patient ranking named Kentucky one of the least costly states to live in, its unaffordable for those in Lexington to live on the states minimum wage, according to one calculation.

A single Lexington resident without children needs to make $15.62 per hour to afford basic necessities, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Living Wage Calculator.

Kentuckys non-tipped minimum wage is the same as the federal governments at $7.25 an hour, less than half of what MIT estimates is a living wage in the area. The tipped minimum wage in the commonwealth is $2.13 an hour.

To afford a typically priced two-bedroom rental home, a Kentucky resident needs to make $17.90 an hour, according to a report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Using this housing wage, an individual would have to work 99 hours each week at minimum wage to afford to rent a two-bedroom.

Rent prices have climbed in Lexington this year, increasing at a greater rate than New York City over the summer, according to one analysis. Real estate pricing is also up in the city, with a median home listing price of $365,500 in November, according to real estate company Realtor.com.

Grocery costs have risen 1.7% across the nation from November 2022 to November 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, while restaurant prices have increased by 5.3% over the same period. Transportation services have seen a greater jump than most categories, with a 10.1% price increase.

But while prices are up in many cases, one necessity for most residents has seen a significant price decline in the past 12 months. Gas prices are down 8.9% across the U.S., and Kentucky has seen relief of more than 10 cents per gallon since last year, according to AAA.

Cost of living in Kentucky

Heres how Kentucky performed in Now Patients ranking of costly states:

Funeral costs: 33rd place, $7,265 average funeral cost

Gas prices: 40th place, $3.257 per gallon in July

Cost of groceries: 38th place, $315.20 average grocery cost per month per person

Cost of living score (includes housing costs, utilities and more): 32nd place, score of 93.8

Health insurance: 39th place, $479

Gym membership: 31st place, $28.60

Overall place: 46th

The nations most expensive states to live in are New York, Alaska, Vermont, Hawaii and Massachusetts, according to Now Patients report, while the five least costly states are Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, Georgia and Kentucky.

Do you have a question about affordability in Kentucky for our service journalism team? Wed like to hear from you. Fill out our Know Your Kentucky form or email ask@herald-leader.com.
Its shaping up to be a chilly week in Wichita and across much of Kansas.

The National Weather Service forecasts a high of 32 degrees Fahrenheit Tuesday in Wichita, with a low of 22, while Wednesday will warm up with a high of 45.

Thursday evening will take a turn, however, with a low of 12 degrees and a 40% chance of snow. Friday is expecting a high of 21 with that same chance of snow before noon, while Saturday expected to hit a high of 18 and a low of a chilling 2 degrees.

In a tweet Sunday, the NWS credited those chilling temperature forecasts to an arctic airmass making its way through the area Thursday through Sunday.

A arctic airmass is expected to surge southward into Kansas Thursday night and overspread the entire area into the weekend. Bitter cold wind chills well below zero will impact central and southern Kansas. #kswx pic.twitter.com/KyyaQNTEIL  NWS Wichita (@NWSWichita) January 7, 2024

Wind chills in Wichita are expected to reach minus 7 degrees Friday morning and minus 13 Saturday, according to a tweet from the National Weather Service. Meanwhile, Hutchinsons wind chills are supposed to get as low as minus 17 over the weekend, while Russell has the projected coldest wind chills at minus 26 degrees Saturday morning.

But what is an arctic air mass and how should you prepare to stay warm if temperatures hit the single-digits? Heres what to know.

What is an arctic air mass?

When you say Arctic air mass, its an air mass that originates in the Arctic, and stream of air comes down from the pole area ... its just bitterly cold temperatures, Bryan Bearg, a forecaster for the NWSs Wichita office, told The Eagle Monday.

According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, arctic air masses originate in the northern and southern hemispheres and can cause biting winds and truly chilling temperatures.

Bearg said wind chills are supposed to get as low as minus 20 both Saturday and Sunday morning in Wichita. The last time the city saw these kinds of wind chills was due to an arctic air mass was just after Christmas 2022, the forecaster noted.

Wichita is also expected to see another round of snowfall this week.

Were expecting later on this [Monday] afternoon, especially this evening, precipitation will fill back in including Wichita, Bearg said. Its a transition to snow sometime during the evening hours tonight, or this evening into the overnight hours. And were expecting an inch or two locally here in the metro area.

Staying warm in Wichita during cold front

The best way to stay warm during Wichitas cold front is to prepare ahead of time.

To save energy during bitter cold, Kansas Gas Service recommends sealing leaks, reducing your water heaters temperature, changing and checking filters and changing the direction of any ceiling fans.

If youre planning on hunkering down during a cold spell, be sure to wear layers around the house and have plenty of pre-packaged snacks on hand. Dont use the oven as a way to heat your home, as that can be a safety hazard.

Arctic air is expected to arrive later this week. Bitter cold wind chills are likely for the weekend. #kswx pic.twitter.com/q7cgPcZ0Ml  NWS Wichita (@NWSWichita) January 8, 2024
Kansas City will operate a holiday trash pickup service in response to the winter storm affecting the area, according to a news release. The altered schedule includes bulky item pickup.

City officials said drivers are needed for snow plow operations.

A snowplow cleared a parking lot at a shopping center Thursday, March 10, 2022, near Shawnee Mission Parkway and Lackman Road.

If your normal pickup day is Tuesday, your trash will be picked up on Wednesday, and so on.

The following weeks trash pickup will also operate on a holiday schedule in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day next Monday.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the Kansas City area on Monday, including Leavenworth, Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas and Platte, Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, Randolph and Jackson counties in Missouri.

Other areas near Kansas Citys city limits, such as the Northland, have their own trash schedules. If you dont live in KCMO, find information on possible delays below:

Many areas surrounding Kansas City also use private trash collection, so trash pickup may be impacted due to the weather. You can search your address on most private collectors websites to see if your service will be disrupted:
Rep. Jake LaTurner on Monday called on the Biden administration to investigate a company planning a $95 million investment in Johnson County.

LaTurner, a Kansas Republican, wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, asking for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to look into allegations that Cnano Technology U.S. is working with the Chinese Communist Party.

The committee has the power to examine foreign investments in the United States for potential national security risks.

I have strong concerns about granting a company with proven and significant ties to the CCP permission to operate as a critical component supplier to the burgeoning field of electronics and battery production, particularly so close to sensitive military and national security assets, LaTurner wrote.

We must do everything within our power to prevent CCP-backed companies from expanding their foothold in American supply chains.

Cnano specializes in making carbon nanotubes and graphene, which are used in electric car batteries. The proposed investment came after Panasonic announced plans to create a $40 billion electric battery plant in De Soto. Cnanos new factory will be at the New Century Commerce Center  about 21 miles from the Kansas City National Security Campus, 35 miles from Fort Leavenworth and 70 miles from Whiteman Airforce Base in Missouri.

The Star failed to get through to a number listed on the companys website and did not receive a reply from the only email address listed on the companys website.

LaTurner alleges Cnano Jiangsu, the parent company of the U.S. branch, participated in a program intended for companies to secretly collect information about U.S. technology. He also alleges that it participated in the Chinese Communist Partys United Work Front Development Program, which was the subject of a House committee memo warning that the programs intention was to gain access to advanced technology.

LaTurners push against the company  which promised to bring more than 100 jobs to Johnson County  comes as Republicans have become increasingly concerned about Chinas influence on U.S. companies. GOP-controlled measures in Congress and in the Kansas Legislature have been introduced with the aim of preventing foreign investment in farmland, with some specifically targeting Chinese investment.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, also banned the use of TikTok on government issued devices in 2022. TikTok is owned by a Beijing-based company and FBI Director Christopher Wray has accused it of being a tool to collect information on Americans.

The Johnson County factory is not being constructed in LaTurners House district. Instead, its in an area represented by Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat, who visited New Century in September.

Davids office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Beijing Central Axis competition awards 302 works, enhances public awareness

09:48, January 08, 2024 By Lou Kang ( Global Times

Photo: Lou Kang/GT

The award ceremony for the 2023 Competition for the Transmission and Promotion of the Beijing Central Axis took place on Sunday in Beijing, celebrating 302 outstanding works out of thousands of entries from participants home and abroad. The competition aimed to enhance public understanding of this cultural heritage.

Since its inception in 2021, the competition has seen three editions. According to the figure published at the cer-emony, the number of participants nearly tripled compared to that of the previous year, reaching close to 300,000 from 13 different countries and across all age groups. A total of 80,357 works were received, resulting in 302 winning entries across five main tracks and 12 sub-tracks, spanning the creative arts, music, fashion design and digital media.

"The 2023 competition, launched in April and concluded in November, incorporated new elements such as music, distinguishing it from previous years," Chen Mingjie, director of the office for the Protection of the Beijing Central Axis World Heritage Site, told the Global Times on Sunday. "Over the three years of the competition, the number of participants has grown from tens of thousands to over 100,000, showcasing an evolving public engagement with the Central Axis."

At the award ceremony held at the Capital Museum on Sunday afternoon, young participants from both China and abroad showcased their award-winning works on stage. A total of seven groups performed live at the event as well.

"As 80.69 percent of participants belong to the post-2000 and post-2010 generations, this shows that there has been a significant increase in the awareness of traditional Beijing Central Axis culture among young people. It also highlights the strong sense of identity that the new generation has to-ward outstanding traditional Chinese culture," Chen said.

The Beijing Central Axis is a crucial urban axis running through the capital from south to north, connecting his-torical and cultural landmarks such as the Palace Museum, Tian'anmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. It is con-sidered an outstanding representative of ancient Chinese architecture, not only influencing urban planning but also reflecting the unique ancient Chinese architecture and culture.

To better protect the Central Axis, Beijing has established the Cultural Heritage Supervisor and Volunteer System, enabling the public to supervise and provide feedback on the protection and management of this cultural heritage. At the ceremony on Sunday, the first batch of 31 Beijing Central Axis Cultural Heritage Supervisors was announced, representing various sectors such as com-munities, museums, memorial halls, digital technology and school educa-tion. They are expected to provide complementary management support to various cultural heritage protection de-partments.

To integrate the Beijing Central Axis more effectively into urban life, a public participation mechanism for the protection and inheritance of Beijing Central Axis culture was recently published. This mechanism, built on the Bei-jing Central Axis Cultural Heritage Protection Regulations, will further improve the participation of social forces in the protection of the site.

In recent years, attention has been focused on the ancient buildings and cultural heritage along the Beijing Cen-tral Axis. During the process of preservation and restoration of the site, attempts have been made to integrate these ancient buildings with modern urban life to meet the demands of con-temporary society. Some historic structures have been transformed into museums, cultural centers, or commercial areas, injecting new vitality into the city.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ruben Gallego outraised Republican challenger Kari Lake in their first head-to-head quarter in what figures to be one of the nations most closely watched campaigns in the country.

Both campaigns released top-line numbers Monday while U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., whose seat they are seeking, has yet to file her figures. Republican Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb has not yet filed, either.

Gallego collected $3.3 million, about what his campaign has averaged each quarter in the first three reporting periods. He finished with $6.5 million in cash. Once again, Gallego said his campaign relied on small-dollar donors, with 99% of donations being $200 or less.

Lake took in $2.1 million in her first quarter in the race, a figure that ranks second nationally for Republican Senate challengers. She did not include her cash total. Lake also included approving statements from two Republican senators, a reminder that Gallego has yet to receive such open support from his party in a narrowly divided Senate that still depends on Sinema to approve legislation.

Sinema had $10.8 million in cash available at the end of September. Gallego outraised her in the first three quarters of the year.

The race is seen as up for grabs and Sinema potentially could make it a rare, three-way contest.

'Moral cowardice': Ruben Gallego blasts Kari Lake's rhetoric on Jan. 6 in Senate race

Beginning with Sinemas 2018 election, Democrats have won three straight Senate races in Arizona. Before that, Republicans won nine straight races beginning in 1992. Arizona has a vast swath of voters who are registered as independents, a demographic that Sinema hopes to own if she runs.

Sinema has yet to formally announce whether she will seek a second six-year term, though her campaign spending throughout last year suggests she has been running all along.

Lake entered the race in October after months of anticipation.

Lakes campaign began with a videotaped endorsement from former President Donald Trump, and she has made appearances across the country at events for his campaign and other conservative causes.

While she is undeniably one of the more prominent Trump-aligned candidates in the country, her fundraising ability began as an open question. Mondays figures are the first view of how she manages one of the key tasks of a race expected to cost tens of millions just to compete.

Kari Lake is out working everyone, posting a very strong fundraising haul for her first quarter in the race, her campaign said Monday in a written statement. Arizona is the best pick up opportunity for Senate Republicans, and Kari is well positioned to win in November.

The campaign noted that Lakes total ranks second among Republican Senate challengers running this cycle.

The GOP nominee in the 2022 Senate race, Blake Masters, was unable to bring in significant money on his own, and allies of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., largely withheld money that could have aided his run against Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee praised Lakes fundraising efforts in a statement that underscores that the party intends to support her if she is the nominee, as is widely expected.

Kari Lake has strong grassroots support that is clearly translating to fundraising success, said Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who chairs the NRSC.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chair of the Senate Republican Conference, also issued a statement about her fundraising.

Kari Lake is doing everything a candidate for the U.S. Senate needs to do to win, he said. She is reaching out to voters across Arizona, putting forward focused policy priorities, clearly communicating to voters, and now we know building strong financial support for her race. Kari Lake just put up a fundraising quarter that shows she has the support and momentum to win this race.

Lamb entered the race in April and had raised about $1.1 million through September. His campaign has not yet released its fundraising for the last three months of 2023.

Gallegos campaign pointedly noted that it raised $3.7 million in his first three months in the race and more than $3 million in each quarter afterward, a bar that Kari Lake has already failed to meet.

Over the past year, our campaign has built the infrastructure to take on whatever comes our way in 2024 thanks to the support of hundreds of thousands of small-dollar donors who in what they could to elect Ruben Gallego, said Nichole Johnson, his campaign manager. Arizonans know it is time to elect a senator who will actually fight for them  which is why our campaign continues to dominate the competition as we prepare to win this senate race.

Sinemas campaign fundraising has fallen off and changed significantly since she left the Democratic Party in December 2022. She relies heavily on a handful of donors who can provide the maximum allowed and they are concentrated in certain industries, such as financial services, which Sinema oversees in her committee work.

Even so, she maintained an overall cash advantage over her challengers through September.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Did Kari Lake raise more campaign cash that Ruben Gallego?
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego speaks during a World Series press conference on Oct. 27, 2023, outside of the Phoenix Convention Center.

Phoenix on Tuesday approved a prevailing wage ordinance, the first city in Arizona to do so.

The 6-3 vote to boost construction workers pay came after a long and fierce fight, and though lawsuits are likely to be filed against the city over it, this is a significant step for Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego.

Gallego effectively master-minded an effort last year to kill an ordinance that would have required Phoenix to pay construction workers prevailing wages but said she would revive it.

Workers deserve a living wage  and we can deliver that through a robust, public process that doesnt put the city in legal and financial jeopardy, Gallego said in April when the City Council repealed the ordinance.

Gallego could've just killed the idea

I didnt believe her and criticized her at the time for it.

I still wish she would have kept that ordinance because it covered a lot more than the new one.

Still, I like it when people and especially politicians keep their word. A single action doesnt necessarily reflect the whole of ones character, but it does go a long way.

What changed? Politically, not much.

State law that she and others cited to reject the ordinance in the first place still exists. Conservative council members also are unlikely to change their minds.

But Attorney General Kris Mayes issued an opinion indicating that cities, towns and counties can pass prevailing wage regulations, clearing the way to do so.

And Gallego does have enough fellow council members on her corner to do just about anything she wants (another one of her maneuverings).

Phoenix would pay prevailing wages

What changed is the substance and the process of drafting the ordinance, the mayors chief of staff Seth Scott explained.

This time the city really engaged in a thorough process that talked to everyone ... from labor to contractors, he said. If this gets to become law, it is going to make a meaningful difference in peoples lives.

The new ordinance, just like the old one, would require Phoenix to pay construction workers prevailing wages, or the rate contractors and vendors must offer employees working on government-funded projects.

Another view: Phoenix's prevailing wage effort is illegal

A lot is different, though. Under the new ordinance, Phoenix would be required to pay prevailing wages for construction projects of more than $4 million, instead of $250,000.

It also exempts projects under the recently approved $500 million bond program and will phase its implementation to minimize the budget impact to city coffers.

What we think we have here is an ordinance that captures major projects the city is working on and one thats going to benefit working families and the people working on the front lines on those projects, Scott said.

It'll be a fight, but one worth having

Councilwoman Betty Guardado, a former union organizer who has led the prevailing wage ordinance, said shes pleased with the new proposal.

Do I wish it was better? Of course, Guardado said. In the end, tough, there will be a lot more workers whore going to have a better life and going to have a better paycheck.

Its doubtful that critics are just going to fold. Theyll probably go after Phoenix  legally and by other means  if the council approves the ordinance, as I expect theyll do.

But now its a legal and a political fight that apparently the Phoenix mayor is ready and willing to wage. She could have simply forgotten about the whole thing but didnt.

Elvia Diaz is editorial page editor for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego scores a win with new worker pay law
Fox News hots Brian Kilmeade said President Biden went full Hitler in a recent speech attacking former President Trump ahead of a potential rematch between the two candidates in the 2024 presidential election.

Whats resonating is Trump is unelectable. He is not worthy of the seat. Hence the speech on Friday where the president went full Hitler that Trump is the worst thing ever, will destroy the country, Kilmeade said Monday morning on Fox and Friends.

But why, If you believe that, why would you do that in January? Knowing that were going to hear the same thing for nine months? By the time May comes up, were not going to hear this.

Kilmeades comments were first highlighted by Mediaite.

In a speech in Valley Forge, Pa., on Friday, Biden warned of what he called threats to Democracy posed by Trump and his MAGA movement, and said a second Trump term in the White House could inflict lasting damage on the country.

Trump himself has drawn comparisons to the Nazi leader, particularly with his warning last month that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country and comparing his political opponents to vermin.

Biden also took a swipe at Fox News during his speech Friday, mentioning the networks payment to Dominion Voting Systems last spring to settle defamation claims over its coverage of false statements made about 2020 voter fraud that were being promoted by Trump and his allies.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Federal prosecutors announced Friday that a real estate broker had pleaded guilty to bank fraud.

They said Maria Del Carmen Montes, 46, pleaded guilty to three counts of bank fraud.

Each bank fraud count can carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison.

Montes and her accomplice, Carlos Ferrer, were charged July 20, 2022.

Read: Man shoots another man to death during argument in Orlando

The plea agreement said Montes and Ferrer had a mortgage fraud scheme targeting financial institutions.

Montes assisted clients with purchasing homes, and after signing the real estate contract, she would refer her buyers to a loan officer at a mortgage company, knowing they were unqualified.

Read: Alaska Airlines 737 had three pressurization warnings days before mid-air blowout

Federal prosecutors said Montes would send the buyers information to Ferrer to forge clients pay stubs and W-2s, showing false earnings and employment.

Ferrer would submit the documents to financial institutions and would make underwriting decisions.

Read: FHP: Man dies after being hit by 2 semi-trucks on I-95 in Brevard County

The following agencies investigated the case: the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
WASHINGTON  Donald Trumps latest legal battle will take place in a Washington courtroom on Tuesday as the former president attempts to quash his prosecution over efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear oral arguments on Trumps claim that he has absolute immunity from prosecution because of his status as president at the time.

Trump himself plans to be in attendance at the federal courthouse just a few blocks from the Capitol complex.

Heres what to know ahead of the arguments:

Trumps criminal charges

In August, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted Trump on four charges: conspiracy to defraud the U.S.; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction; and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have ones vote counted. Trump pleaded not guilty.

Washington-based U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, wants the trial to go ahead in March, which would allow it to be concluded well before the election, but Trumps appeal threatens that timeline unless courts act quickly.

What has happened so far?

On Dec. 1, Chutkan denied Trumps motion to dismiss his indictment on presidential immunity and constitutional grounds.

The case is on hold while Trump appeals the decision.

Special counsel Jack Smith last month asked the Supreme Court to immediately step in before the appeals court could consider the issue, but the justices turned down that request, meaning the appeals court oral argument could go ahead as planned.

The legal arguments

Trump is making the sweeping argument that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for any official acts taken while in office. Furthermore, his lawyers argue in their briefs that prosecuting Trump over actions for which he was already impeached and acquitted in the Senate following an impeachment proceeding would be a form of double jeopardy.

The indictment of President Trump threatens to launch cycles of recrimination and politically motivated prosecution that will plague our nation for many decades to come and stands likely to shatter the very bedrock of our Republic, Trumps lawyers wrote in court papers.

They argue that Trumps role in questioning the result of the election was within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities as president, citing a 1982 Supreme Court ruling about presidential immunity in a civil case.

The special counsels office argues that the well-established concept of presidential immunity from civil liability for official acts does not extend to immunity from criminal liability.

No historical materials support the defendants broad immunity claim, Smith wrote in court papers. The fact that President Richard Nixon sought and received a pardon after resigning from office as a result of the Watergate scandal reflects the consensus view that a former president is subject to prosecution after leaving office, he added.

Could the court sidestep the immunity question?

In addition to the arguments made by both sides, judges are expected to ask lawyers to address a point raised by third parties who have filed friend-of-the-court briefs. One of those briefs, filed by the liberal group American Oversight, argues that the appeals court actually has no jurisdiction to hear the appeal, meaning the case should be returned to Chutkan so the trial can move forward. The special counsels office has not endorsed this argument and conceded in its briefs that Trump could bring the appeal.

Another brief from former Attorney General Edwin Meese III argues that all proceedings against Trump should be thrown out because Jack Smiths appointment as special counsel is unlawful.

The judges

The all-woman panel includes two Democratic appointees and one Republican appointee. The senior member is Judge Karen Henderson, a long-serving appeals court judge appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

The two Democratic appointees are both recent additions to the court nominated by President Joe Biden. They are Judge Michelle Childs, who was considered for the Supreme Court opening that ultimately went to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Judge Florence Pan, who previously served as a federal district court judge and as a local judge in Washington.

The lawyers

Dean John Sauer, a former Missouri solicitor general and clerk for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, will argue on behalf of Trump. He previously argued before the same court when Trump appealed a gag order imposed on him by Chutkan.

Smiths team will be represented by James Pearce, a career lawyer in the Justice Department.

The arguments

The appeals court has scheduled a 45-minute oral argument, but the session is likely to go on much longer, with judges peppering the lawyers with questions. Live audio of the arguments will be streamed on YouTube.

What happens next?

The court is hearing the case on an expedited schedule, so a ruling could come quickly. Whatever happens, the losing party is likely to immediately appeal to the Supreme Court. The justices would then face a decision on whether to take up the case and issue their own ruling, potentially also on a fast-tracked basis.

But the Supreme Court is not required to take up the case and could simply leave the appeals court ruling in place. If Trump loses the appeal and the Supreme Court declines to hear his case, then the trial could still move forward quickly.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Semafor Signals

Insights from Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal

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Over the past six months, a widening shake-up of Chinas defense establishment has raised questions about leader Xi Jinpings ability to root out corruption in the armed forces and modernize the countrys military. The purge, which has reached as high as the defense minister, ratcheted up at the end of 2023: A dozen senior Chinese defense figures were abruptly removed from their roles.

U.S. intelligence believes Xis crackdown came after it became clear that widespread corruption has weakened Chinas military readiness, Bloomberg reported. Chinas military corruption is reportedly so endemic that missiles have been filled with water instead of fuel and many silos in western China have lids that do not work in a way that would allow missiles to be fired effectively, U.S. intelligence shows, according to Bloomberg.

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Corruption has been a long-standing problem for the PLA

Sources: RAND Corporation, Foreign Affairs, Reuters

In Xis first years in office from 2013-2016, when he was undertaking a widespread anti-corruption crackdown, at least 60 military officials fell victim to efforts to reform and gain oversight over the Peoples Liberation Army. While Xi has asserted more influence over the military than his predecessors, the PLA remains a self-guarding institution where even Xi has limits to his power, an expert in Chinese military affairs wrote in Foreign Affairs. Analysts expect corruption problems to continue to plague the PLA as long as low salaries and opaque military budgets persist.

Reports sparks conflicting conclusions among U.S. foreign policy establishment

Sources: Lyle Morris on X, John Krempasky on X, Elbridge Colby on X

The reports of endemic corruption sparked a debate about whether the threat from China is lower than previously believed among U.S. foreign policy experts. Its mind-boggling that such egregious mistakes could be found in the PLA in 2024, one wrote, saying that he was reconsidering Chinas military capabilities. Even so, a military analyst warned that Beijing still had an unbelievable array of highly advanced missiles that are part of an absurdly frequent test program and the vast majority appear to work really, really well. Elbridge Colby, an influential Republican China hawk, wrote that the reports seem anecdotal rather than revealing widespread problems, and that inferring that Xi was less likely to conduct military operations because of this alone was dubious.

The U.S. has retained its ability to spy on China despite intelligence purge

Sources: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times

The intelligence assessments have come to light at a moment of uncertainty about the U.S. intelligence communitys ability to know what is going on in China. Beijing uprooted the CIAs network of Chinese agents a decade ago, and the U.S. has struggled to regain human sources among Chinas leadership, The Wall Street Journal reported. We have no real insight into leadership plans and intentions in China at all, a former senior intelligence official told the Journal. Chinese counterintelligence has set up advanced artificial-intelligence systems that track possible U.S. spies and other foreign officials in Beijing, U.S. officials told the New York Times. But the U.S. too has ramped up its intelligence efforts, doubling spending on China at the CIA since Biden came to office in 2021.
In the next UN Climate Summit OPEC+ delegates must not back down By Tom Harris

web posted January 8, 2024 In last month's United Nations Climate Change Conference, it appeared at first that OPEC+ nations had injected a note of much-needed realism into the event (OPEC+ is a group of 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 11 other non-OPEC members (the top five producers of which are Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mexico and Oman)). But in the final analysis, they all bowed to political correctness and, while avoiding direct language about phasing out fossil fuels, still ended up supporting "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science." Of course, if they were really paying attention to "the science," they wouldn't be transitioning away from fossil fuels at all. Delegates would be boosting exploration and development of fossil fuels so as to ensure our energy security in an increasingly unstable and unpredictable world. After all, if problematic climate change did happen, in contrast to the "renewable energy" they committed to triple, delegates would want us to have the most solid and dependable energy sources possible, and fossil fuels certainly fit the bill. As ICSC-Canada concluded in last month's report, " A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR GOVERNMENTS AROUND THE WORLD Part 2 ": " a dispassionate examination of the available weather and climate observational data shows that nothing out of the ordinary is happening in the real world. Forecasts of impeding climate doom are based on hopelessly flawed computerized climate models that do not stand up to serious critique. Much of what climate alarmists claim is based on easily disproven myths." Just before COP28 started, it seemed that the conference leader would approach this issue sensibly. At the online She Changes Climate event on November 21, former UN special envoy for climate change Mary Robinson challenged Cop 28 president Sultan Al Jaber to lead in phasing out fossil fuels. Al Jaber was having none of it and answered: "I accepted to come this meeting to have a sober and a mature conversation. I'm not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuels is what's going to achieve 1.5C." Al Jaber was right. Phasing out fossil fuels would have little impact on climate. In response to further pressure from Robinson, Al Jaber final challenged her back: "show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves." He was right there too. As ICSC-Canada explained in Part 1 of the report released in 2022: "Decarbonizing" an entire economy would mean virtually eliminating the use of all fossil fuels used to provide energy services like heat, light, motive power and all the thousands of uses of electricity. Consequently, achieving net-zero for the City of Ottawa would face insuperable technical and cost barriers, and demand unacceptable political changes for a democratic society, placing us back to standards of living of at least 150 years ago." This was not the only time recently that OPEC+ leaders have spoken sensibly about the issue. In his December 6th letter, OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais urged OPEC+ members to reject proposals at COP28 that targeted fossil fuels. Al Ghais wrote: "It seems that the undue and disproportionate pressure against fossil fuels may reach a tipping point with irreversible consequences, as the draft decision still contains options on fossil fuels phase out." He asked OPEC+ delegations at COP28 to "proactively reject any text or formula that targets energy i.e. fossil fuels rather than emissions." Good. That is exactly what they should do. There was another time during the conference when an OPEC representative spoke with courage and common sense about the issue. Hasan Alhamadi, the OPEC Secretariat's head of public relations, also a support services manager with Kuwait Petroleum International, replied to an activist concerned about wildfires, "This has nothing to do with oil. How does it have to do with oil?" Alhamadi was also right when he told another youth delegate who asked whether oil is the only energy solution, "Right now, yesGive me an alternative[solar] is too expensive for people, and no one would like to invest there." Without huge government subsidies, solar is far too expensive, not to mention unreliable and environmentally damaging. Predictably, climate hawks went ballistic over the statements from Al Jaber, Al Ghais and Alhamadi. However, rather than scare them away from their responsible positions, it should have told these OPEC leaders they should double down on their pro-fossil fuel statements. World War II Lancaster bomber pilot Sandy Mutch, who passed away at the age of 98 on April 15, 2018, said in 2013, "On bombing raids over Europe, we could tell we were closing in on the target when we started to get the most flak." That was because important German assets were often surrounded by anti-aircraft guns that filled the sky with AAA fire. Rather than being deterred by the resistance, it told Bomber Command exactly where the next wave of aircraft should concentrate their attack. Mutch, who held a Master of Science degree from the University of Toronto (1951), concluded, "Anyone who wants to kill the dangerous and unfounded climate scare  should focus on exposing the shaky science behind climate alarm. That is the Achilles heel of the whole movement. Shoot it down and you win the war!" But apparently even OPEC are not yet that serious about actually winning the climate war. Or perhaps they are hoping the whole mess collapses of its own weight as the public begins to rebel when the costs of draconian climate and energy policies finally hit home. Or maybe they plan to try to take advantage of the rather large loopholes in the UN statement. But they are taking a dangerous gamble as much damage can be done in the meantime to the world's most important energy sources. Readers will be glad to hear that COP29 will be held next year in oil-rich Azerbaijan, an OPEC+ member, and COP30 in 2025 will be held in Brazil, also an OPEC+ member and one of the largest oil producers in the world. Let's hope OPEC+ countries up their game and fight to win next time! Tom Harris is Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) at www.icsc-climate.com . If you liked this article, please share it and support ICSC through its GiveSendGo crowdfunding webpage at GiveSendGo - THERE IS NO CLIMATE EMERGENCY!: The Leader in Freedom Fundraising. Home
Kudos to the 32 brave Republicans who stood up to the general lunacy in their party this weekend.

According to Herald-Leader reporter Austin Horn, the governing body of the Republican Party of Kentucky, otherwise known as the the Republican State Central Committee, adopted a resolution declaring that many people arrested after the Jan. 6, 2021, attempted coup at the Capitol had been wrongfully held.

Sadly, 34 people voted for it, so it just barely passed.

The 66 voters at the meeting this weekend make up just a fraction of the state central committee, which normally includes the party chairs and co-chairs of every county Republican party, as well as all GOP legislators.

So once again, a fringe minority takes over the possibly more rational majority. Just like the General Assembly because the exact same resolution was introduced Friday by one of the fringiest, Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield.

As Horn described it: A number of false claims about the treatment of rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, have been circulated by national conservative media and politicians. A quarter of Americans believe the false claim that the FBI instigated the Jan. 6 riot, according to a recent poll. Tichenor repeated one of the falsehoods, stating that a number of people arrested for actions that day have been held for more than 1,000 days and still havent had a trial or been charged.

While it is true that many defendants are still awaiting trial, theres no evidence supporting the claim that people have been held that long without being charged. The Associated Press reported in February 2022 that all people arrested in connection with the riot have been charged with crimes.

So even though this resolution was supported by a small slice of Republicans Party officials statewide, its still important to call out.

We are facing another election that Donald Trump might lose, and once again, he might call his supporters in to overturn the election results, a thing that had literally never happened in the history of our country until Jan. 6, 2021.

It is not patriotic to deface the U.S. Capitol, threaten police officers or put the vice-president in fear of his life. Federal prosecutors have  very slowly and methodically  built cases, arrested suspects, charged them and gone to trial.

To say otherwise is a lie and further gaslighting of the American public.

According to the New York Times, about 1,240 people have been arrested in connection with Jan. 6. As Horn noted: The Department of Justice reported in October that nearly 600 people had pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Capitol riot and nearly 100 had been convicted by a jury. The New York Times reports two people have been acquitted.

Its depressing that so many people believe lies from Fox News. Even worse is that one of Kentuckys political parties would try to adopt these kinds of ideas as truth or that our elected leaders would try to put them into the public record.

Lets hope the grown-ups in leadership and the House and Senate leave Tichenors resolution without resolution.

This is not a good start for new Republican Party of Kentucky chairman Robert Benvenuti, a Lexington lawyer. Its not clear where he stands on these kinds of issues, and he declined to clarify them.

It may be hard for Republicans to return to sanity. A few brave Republicans, like Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Crofton, have publicly denounced Trump and the lies of Jan. 6 and beyond.

We need many more to leave the fringe so our democracy will no longer be wrongfully held hostage by Trump and his ilk.
State regulators repeatedly have cited the Popular Smoke and Vape store on Euclid Avenue in Lexington for selling smoking products to minors. The companys stores in Louisville have been cited for the same violation.

In an effort to curb youth smoking, a Kentucky House bill would require that vape stores be licensed by the state, and it would strengthen the penalties imposed on scofflaw vape and tobacco retailers who are caught selling their products to minors.

The lead sponsor of House Bill 142 said current laws fail to protect Kentucky youths from the health risks of smoking.

There needs to be some sort of a deterrent, a deterrent with teeth to it, state Rep. Mark Hart, R-Falmouth, said in an interview Monday.

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In Harts House district, retired U.S. Marine Corps Master Sgt. Brian Melton said that not only is vaping a problem among teenagers at Pendleton County High School, where he teaches R.O.T.C., but some kids use vape products laced with THC, Delta-8 and other drugs.

The small vape devices easily spread through schools because they can be so hard for teachers to spot, Melton said.

You gotta start making somebody be held responsible for putting these dangerous products in kids hands, Melton said.

The minimum legal age to buy tobacco and vape products in the United States is 21. Retailers are required to check government-issued photo identification for anyone who looks younger than 27.

However, the law is often ignored.

The Herald-Leader reported last month that from November 2021 to August 2023, the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control cited stores across the state at least 883 times for selling smoking products to minors.

Employing under-aged buyers in sting operations, the ABC cited at least 114 retailers two or more times during this 21-month period.

The penalties were typically warning letters or small fines of $1,000 or less, which public health advocates warn is not enough to discourage rule-breaking by retailers. Selling smoking products can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for a gas station with a convenience store.

Harts bill would require that vape retailers be licensed by the ABC for each of their locations, a license that could be revoked the third time they are caught selling to minors.

Most states require tobacco or vape retailers to be licensed and sometimes even zoned away from schools and playgrounds, as does the city of Louisville, but Kentucky has resisted such efforts in the past.

The bill also would increase the civil fines for retailers caught selling vape or tobacco products to minors, up to $2,000 for a first offense and up to $3,000 for repeat offenses.

Finally, the bill would impose penalties on minors caught buying or attempting to buy vape or tobacco products.

Those under age 18 would be considered status offenders and could face fines of $100 to $500 for a first or repeat offense. If they couldnt afford to pay the fine, they could perform community service. Those age 18 to 20 could be charged with a violation, which comes with a small fine, or a misdemeanor for repeat offenses.

School districts would be required to enact policies suspending students after a repeat offense for using vape or tobacco products on school property.

Harts bill is a good first step toward closing the loopholes that certain retailers exploit to keep selling smoking products to minors, said Alicia Whatley, policy and advocacy director at Kentucky Youth Advocates.

Obviously, the sponsors of this bill have identified a huge problem across this state thats only growing, Whatley said.

But the bill could use improvements, Whatley said.

For starters, she would like to see tobacco retailers licensed alongside vape retailers, because Kentucky teenagers continue to harm their health by using cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, she said.

Moreover, she said, Kentucky Youth Advocates is skeptical about any legislation that would hit teenagers with criminal penalties for their own reckless behavior, as Harts bill proposes. Better to offer youths anti-smoking education and cessation programs and focus the tougher enforcement on retailers, Whatley said.

In his interview on Monday, Hart said he appreciates both of the concerns raised by Kentucky Youth Advocates. He expects some changes will be made to his bill before its heard by a House committee in coming weeks.

Tobacco retail licensing is a possibility he plans to discuss on Tuesday with state agriculture officials, Hart said, but hes uneasy about trying to load too much material  with too many opponents  into one bill.

On the groups other concern, he said, the law should discourage minors from buying vape and tobacco products, but he is willing to tread delicately there, because does not want to see any teenager arrested or jailed over it.

Right now they can just kind of get it, even if they get caught, and theyre slapped on the wrist. Its not really a deterrent from trying it, Hart said.

But we dont want to make them criminals, and we dont want to mess up their life to the point where its gonna cause them some type of bad long-term effects, you know. We dont want them to have a record because of this, he said.
Is Iran afraid of war? It is time to separate the Iranian octopus from its tentacles By Aviram Bellaishe

web posted January 8, 2024 Soon after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the Iranian regime emphatically denied its involvement. It similarly denied any involvement in the Houthis' attacks on shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Straitand even in the attack, attributed to Iran itself, on an Israel-related ship, the MV Sai Baba, off the coast of India. Notwithstanding Iran's denials, which are part of its proxy strategy, the Pentagon said Iran was "deeply involved" in the Houthis' activity and directly involved in the attack on the abovementioned ship. Can the Ayatollah regime avoid being drawn into an all-out war? Is it ready for war? How should Israel respond to these threats? Threats and Denial: Iran's Rhetoric since October 7 In the months since the 10/7 attack, we are witness to the familiar Iranian rhetoric of sweeping denial of its involvement alongside baseless threats. In his speech on October 10, Khamenei staunchly denied that Iran was behind Hamas' murderous attack on October 7 and claimed that Hamas had not even informed the Iranian regime of its intention to carry out a terror onslaught.

A Houthi hijacker stands on the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea. (Houthi Military Media/Handout) Beyond Iran's empty threats, the regime has offered many excuses for its failure to intervene in the Gaza war from lack of prior notice of the Hamas attack to the claim that Iranian involvement would be in Israeli, not Palestinian, interest and would likely salvage the Zionist entity. On November 19, 2023, the Houthis of Yemen seized the ship Galaxy Leader, which Israeli businessman Rami Ungar partly owns.The Iranians denied involvement in this act. After the American declaration on efforts to form a maritime coalition in response to the Houthis' naval attacks in the Bab el-Mandeb region, the U.S. defense secretary threatened that the emerging maritime coalition would take extraordinary measures. A week earlier, the Iranian representative to the United Nations sent a letter to the Security Council in which he denied the U.S. representative's claim that Iran was responsible for the Houthis' actions and claimed that Iran had not taken part in any action or attack against U.S. forces. According to a December 22, 2023, Wall Street Journal report based on Western intelligence sources, an Iranian spy ship was guiding the Houthis' attacks since they themselves have no such guiding technology. The Journal quoted the White House as saying Iran was deeply involved in the attacks on the vessels. A denial by Iran's deputy foreign minister was not long in coming. On December 23, 2023, the Pentagon reported that the drone that had attacked the "Israel-related" ship off the coast of India had been launched by Iran. Israel gave the same assessment, while the spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry vehemently denied Iran's involvement and those assessments. These denials were an integral, ongoing part of the Iranian proxy strategy of denying its involvement. Iran is trying to balance the multi-arena strategy of its warfare against Israel and the fear that it will be dragged into war. The escalation to a direct attack on an Israel-related vessel stemmed from the fact that Iran is under pressure from Israel's progress in Gaza toward toppling Hamas and is trying to generate pressure that will cause an end of the fighting, though not at the price of an all-out war. The December 25, 2023, killing of the IRGC commander in Syria, Reza Mousavi, attributed to Israel, can be seen as Israel's response to Iran's escalation or as an escalation intended to warn what Israel sees as the head of the octopus while dealing with one of its tentacles. Despite the threats by Iranian senior officials of an imminent response to the assassination an informational film issued by the IRGC's news agency Tasnim bears out the assessment that Iran is afraid of all-out war and will not act directly in a way that would pull it into one. Hence, they claim that the assassination was carried out to drag Iran into a direct conflict with Israel, whereby Israel would gain U.S. support and draw the United States itself into the war. Instead, they say, Iran will respond with the continued backing for the resistance in such a way that Israel will regret the assassination. In other words, it is not a full-scale war. Does Iran Fear an All-Out War? Iran is in the midst of a severe economic crisis, as evidenced, among other things, by poverty and shortages in most strata of the society. The crisis stems, first, from a foreign policy that invests funds in the proxy armies instead of using these monies to enable an economic recovery from the sanctions, and second, from the corrosive corruption of the regime's leadership. Indeed, on December 1, 2023, the worst case of corruption in Iranian history was revealed, involving the theft of $3.7 billion from the state treasury. Iran is beset with problems of both domestic and foreign migration. It is trying to cope, on the one hand, with an unprecedented brain drain of intellectuals and professionals to foreign countries and, on the other, with a massive immigration wave of Afghani refugees who, according to Iran's foreign minister, number at least five million. They are changing the fabric of the population and fostering a rise in crime. Another problem is failing municipal management. For example, at present, schools in many provinces have had to close because of extreme air pollution, with the government helpless to address the matter and simply waiting for the rains to come. This situation produces instability, as evidenced by demonstrations against the economic hardship. Demonstrators are again denouncing the investment of state funds in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon, and surveys indicate that in the upcoming March 2024 elections, only 15 percent of the population will participate. Foreign and Security Policy On the military level, Iran understands that it does not have the upper hand at this stage in many military sectors; any technological advantage over Israel or the United States is not decisive at the moment. (Hadi Kasimi of the Iranian Basij claimed regarding Lebanon, for example, that the war is not a classic war because Israel is a technological superpower and is exploiting its superiority in this arena.) The manpower of Iran's conventional army does not ensure victory, certainly not in light of its varied ethnic composition. Notwithstanding the acceleration of Iran's nuclear program, it does not yet have nuclear weapons. As an Iranian proxy in the current war, Hamas is not achieving its objectives, and it is clear to all that the military stranglehold that helped Hamas build in Gaza will be dismantled. Iran was surprised by the intensity of Israel's reaction, and particularly by the cohesion of its army. Iran had viewed unity as a weak point for Israel in light of the rift that had formed in Israeli society in the months before October 7, as Iran closely followed the demonstrations and covered them extensively in its regime-affiliated media. This could explain why the Iranians have supported a ceasefire or any measure that would leave Hamas, even battered, with a possibility of rehabilitation. So far, the activity against Israel by the armed Shiite organizations in Iraq has not been significant, nor that of the pro-Iranian organizations in Syria. Attempts to open a West Bank front have failed. Hizbullah, which is undoubtedly the superior force among the Iranian proxy organizations and constitutes the most substantial threat among the terror groups on Israel's borders, has launched attacks against Israel. Lebanon as a country, however, is sunk in a severe economic crisis. Its citizens and non-Hizbullah representatives oppose a war with Israel, thereby restricting Hizbullah to limited responsessomething the Iranians also understand. As former Lebanese foreign minister Kamal Hirazi remarked on December 4, 2023, Hizbullah shows great wisdom in limiting its attacks on Israel because its main task is the defense of Lebanon." As for the Houthis, Yemen is ranked almost at the bottom of the world's poverty-stricken countries, and its GDP has kept declining in 2023. The Houthis are very dependent on economic growth for civilian infrastructure, particularly the Al-Hudaydah port, and they understand that a maritime conflict in which it is damaged or destroyed would be a significant blow to their economy. The intensity of the U.S. involvement on Israel's side was a surprise to the Ayatollah regime, especially the deployment of two aircraft carrier strike forces to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, its ongoing weapons supply to Israel, and formation of a maritime coalition on December 18 against the Houthi naval aggression. The Biden administration's actions did not align with the Iranian leadership's view of a feckless U.S. leadership. From the Octopus's Arms to Its Head Like a pyromaniac, Iran derives its power in the Middle East from lighting fires that put Israel in a constant state of war. In activating Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah, and others, the "arms of the octopus," Iran maintains a condition of military conflict  and not to benefit the Palestinian or Lebanese people. Hence, the dismantling of Hamas' military capability in the Gaza Strip, to which the Israeli government has committed itself, signals to Iranbeyond the necessary objective of achieving security for the residents of both the Gaza belt and the interiorthat Hamas' attack on October 7 changed Israel's approach to security. The concept of "relative quiet" no longer exists, and Israel is serious in its intention to destroy the proxy organizations or distance them from its borders. The disarming of Hamas points to a change of approach toward Hizbullah. Israel needs to take a proactive, not just reactive, posture toward Hizbullah. (Of course, the preferred timing is after finishing the work in Gaza, but it depends on the intensity of Hizbullah's aggression.) It is doubtful that any diplomatic process can push Hizbullah's forces beyond the Litani River, 30 km from Israel's northern border, a mission of which the UNIFIL force was never capable. In this context, while UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (in 2006) has not been upheld for a long time, it can serve to a certain extent as a basis of legitimacy for Israel in the international arena. Hizbullah is a well-trained force equipped with quality weapons, and a war against it would be more difficult than one against Hamas. Hizbullah's weak point is its servitude to Iran's command. In light of Lebanon's economic plight, such a war would be devastating to Lebanese interests and is opposed by its residents and by non-Hizbullah elements of the government. Before a military offensive that proves Israel's intentions, Israel needs to convey the message to Lebanon, through all the diplomatic and other channels, that a withdrawal of Hizbullah's forces north of the Litani River will save Lebanon's civilian infrastructure from the wrath of Israel's air force. (Messages with images of the bombed-out Dahiya quarter of Beirut in the Second Lebanon War would warn of the consequences of Hizbullah's aggression and rejectionism.) Indeed, the assassination of Hamas official Salah al-Arouri in the Dahiya quarter sends a dual message to both Hamas and Hizbullah. Firstly, Israel is fulfilling its commitments to eliminate senior Hamas figures implicated in the events of October 7th. Secondly, Israel can eliminate high-ranking Hamas operatives in the heart of the Dahiya region in Lebanon or others designated for elimination; it's simply a matter of decision regarding any response beyond the anticipated reaction from Hizbullah. In this context, when the proposals are made for assembling a multinational force, including contingents from moderate Arab countries, for serving as a buffer between Israel and Gaza on "the day after," Israel should add the issue of a force on the Lebanese border since UNIFIL is incapable of fulfilling that role. As for the Houthis, Israel has succeeded in making clear that they constitute an international problem. The American formation of the maritime coalition may have surprised the Iranians. Beyond the threats of the regime officials, would Iran directly join in the Houthis' fray? It is likely that Iran is aware of the implications of an all-out war and will do everything possible to avoid one. The attack on the "Israel-related" vessel off the coast of India with a drone launched from Iran, according to both the Pentagon and Israel, alongside the Iranians' denial, may reflect the pressures Iranians are feeling by Israel's progress toward toppling Hamas. While the ship that was attacked was Israeli and not American, Israel should make use of the Americans' awareness of Iran's involvement. Iran's many threats against the Americans should serve Israel's diplomatic efforts to convince the Americans to put a halt to Iran's nuclear program and upgrade the surveillance of the sanctions (conveying the message that a nuclear Iran would be less anxious about an all-out conflict and the IAEA report that Iran has "increased its production of highly enriched uranium, reversing a previous output reduction from mid-2023). The issue of the Houthis (including their reported alliances with the Al-Shabab in Somalia and the Dhulbahante militia in Somaliland) constitutes a window of opportunity for Israeli diplomatic efforts (if they do not already exist) toward countries like Eritrea, Somaliland, Somalia, and the anti-Houthi bloc in Yemen, in the vein of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." The Iranian frustration, in the context of the Iranian response to the assassination of Gen. Razi Musawi in an Israeli airstrike in Syria, along with the concern that it could lead to war, is evident in the statement of the Revolutionary Guard spokesman. He asserted that the operation on October 7 against Israel was a response to Qassem Soleimani's assassination four years ago, a statement met with categorical denial by Hamas and by the IRGC commander. Further to the Iranian frustration, which is recognizable in the official Iranian responses accusing Israel regarding the January 3, 2024, explosion in Kerman and the death of more than 200 Iranians on the memorial day for Qassem Soleimani, the Iranians know that this was not an Israeli operation. It was not consistent with the typical Israeli modus operandi and the fact that civilians, not military targets, were affected. The actual list of suspects in the bombing involves numerous opposition groups, such as the Baluchis, Kurds, Afghans, and others. Without a doubt, Iranians aim to convey a threat. However, it can be argued that Khamenei's statements were nuanced and did not explicitly point to the guilty party, possibly to prevent an all-encompassing war or a potential Israeli attack. In this regard, Nasrallah's January 3, 2024, speech can be linked to the same rhetoric of threats and warnings. In practice, he enumerated all the reasons why there is no intention to initiate an all-encompassing war (blaming Israel for its own self-destruction). So, Hizbullah's response will continue along a line that does not create a new threshold leading to war. Considering the intricate nature of Iranian sentiments, balancing honor, religious extremism, and the fear of direct war, the Revolutionary Guard is unlikely to desire war, especially since they have not yet secured a nuclear weapon (while increasing the production of highly enriched uranium). Therefore, it is time to separate the octopus from its arms. Israel should undermine and disarm Hamas while taking action against Hizbullah. Aviram Bellaishe is VP, Strategy, Security, and Communications at the Jerusalem Center. For over twenty-five years, Aviram Bellaishe served in senior government positions as a business intelligence and Middle East specialist, negotiation expert, and international cooperation manager. Aviram was an Israeli director in a regional initiative for business and economic cooperation dialogue in the regions of the Middle East and North Africa, and is presently a member of the executive committee of MENA 2050. Home
Colorado Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert once more finds herself at the centre of a storm after it was revealed that police are investigating an alleged physical altercation between the politician and her ex-husband.

The representative was reportedly involved in an exchange with Jayson Boebert at the Miners Claim restaurant in Silt, Colorado, on Saturday night and police have since confirmed to The Independent that officers are looking into the incident and examining security footage from the venues dining room.

The Daily Beast quoted an aide to the conservative as saying that Mr Boebert had called the police claiming to be a victim of domestic violence  a claim his former wife has refuted.

Ms Boeberts office has since told The Independent: This is a sad situation for all that keeps escalating and another reason Im moving. I didnt punch Jayson in the face and no one was arrested. I will be consulting with my lawyer about the false claims he made against me and evaluate all of my legal options.

The episode is only the latest example of the attention-seeking Maga Republican hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

She recently announced that she would be switching districts for her re-election campaign in 2024, moving from Colorados 3rd congressional district to its 4th and blaming an influx of Hollywood money from high-profile Democratic donors like Barbara Streisand and Ryan Reynolds for driving her away during a recent appearance on Steve Bannons War Room podcast.

The former owner of the Shooters Grill gun-themed restaurant in the inevitably named town of Rifle only entered Congress in January 2021 but was quickly forced to downplay associations with the far-right Proud Boys and distance herself from earlier enthusiastic remarks about the QAnon conspiracy theory and has since established herself as something akin to a Bizarro World answer to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Heres a look at some of her other less-than-flattering brushes with the spotlight.

Tweeting about Pelosis movements during the Capitol riot

Ms Boebert faced calls for her resignation just days into her career as a congresswoman in the aftermath of the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 when it emerged that she had tweeted out sensitive information concerning the whereabouts of House speaker Nancy Pelosi in the midst of the attack.

Speaker has been removed from the chambers, she posted, which, although it did not provide any specific details, led to allegations that she was attempting to guide the rioters who were coming for the Democrat with malicious intent.

Protesters from Rural Colorado United, a state activist group, duly organised demonstrations outside her offices, calling Ms Boebert unfit to serve.

Lauren Boebert has betrayed the American people and is a conspirator in the insurrection that occurred at Capitol Hill on January 6th, the group wrote in a press release.

As the citizens she represents in Congress, we cannot recall her and we cannot impeach her, but we do not accept that she is fit to represent the people of Colorado District 3 in Congress. We can only hope that her colleagues in Congress expel her.

Ms Boebert had made clear her intention to oppose the formal certification of the 2020 election result in Arizona just before the insurrection effort erupted outside.

Islamophobic jokes about fellow representatives

The Republican has a history of making off-colour jokes about her political enemies, notably suggesting that Democratic representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Muslim, is a terrorist, leading to Ms Omar receiving multiple death threats.

Having already accused her rival of being a full-time propagandist for Hamas on social media in May 2021, Ms Boebert was seen on video the following September joking at a Staten Island Conservative Party dinner that she had encountered Ms Omar in a DC elevator and called her a member of the Jihad Squad to her face, embellishing the anecdote for her audience by saying she had told a congressional aide: She doesnt have a backpack, she wasnt dropping it and running, so were good.

At the same event, she was reported as describing Ms Omar and Rashida Tlaib, another Muslim Democrat, as black-hearted evil women.

They declined to accept her reluctant apologies, with Ms Omar calling her a buffoon who thinks bigotry gets her clout.

Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.



Anti-Muslim bigotry isnt funny & shouldnt be normalized. Congress cant be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation. https://t.co/S1APT7RbqW  Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 26, 2021

Heckling Joe Biden at the State of the Union

Ms Boebert also made a spectacle of herself at the presidents State of the Union address in March 2022 when Mr Biden reflected on the recent deaths of American servicemen in Afghanistan, and she shouted out: You put them in there, 13 of them!

She was referring to the killing of US soldiers in a suicide bombing at Kabuls Hamid Karzai International Airport the previous August, the insensitivity of her remark drawing boos from the chamber.

Later, she and Georgia counterpart Marjorie Taylor Greene  who had already pointedly turned their backs on Mr Bidens cabinet  chanted Build the wall! when he discussed the problems of illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border, taking the opportunity to revive the spectre of Donald Trumps famous white elephant infrastructure project, which remains unfinished to this day.

Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene scream Build the Wall as Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address in March 2022 (Getty)

Falling out with MTG

Often thought of as something of a double act, as the above embarrassment illustrated, Ms Boebert and Ms Taylor Greene had a very public confrontation on the floor of the House of Representatives in June 2023, with the former accusing the latter of calling her a little b**** and spitting at her.

The cause of their feud? A dispute over which of them would get to file the latest round of spurious articles of impeachment against President Biden.

Ive donated to you, Ive defended you. But youve been nothing but a little b**** to me, Ms Taylor Greene reportedly said. And you copied my articles of impeachment after I asked you to co-sponsor them.

OK, Marjorie, were through, Ms Boebert allegedly responded, to which her Georgia counterpart is understood to have retorted: We were never together.

Saw this conversation not sure if it was a friendly one pic.twitter.com/tpz3z2Phtv  Acyn (@Acyn) June 21, 2023

Asked about it later, the Colorado representative seethed to CNN: Im not in middle school.

Getting thrown out of a theatre over Beetlejuice-gate

Last September, Ms Boebert was forced to make an undignified exit from a live-action musical stage version of Tim Burtons gothic comedy Beetlejuice in Denver after being asked to leave by the management.

Fellow audience members had complained about her vaping near a pregnant woman, talking too loudly, taking flash photographs, and inappropriately groping her date, Aspen bar owner Quinn Gallagher.

After initially denying having behaved obnoxiously at the show, she was subsequently forced to apologise when video footage emerged revealing her doing precisely as alleged.

On social media, users were quick to contrast Ms Boeberts own public conduct with her homophobic advice to: Take your children to CHURCH, not drag bars.
Boebert announced after Christmas that she was abandoning her campaign for reelection in CD3, instead running for the seat across the state in CD4 (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert has denied punching her ex-husband and asserted that he was part of the reason that the family values candidate was forced to move districts.

Jayson Boebert, the congresswoman's ex-husband, filed a complaint on Saturday claiming Ms Boebert punched him in a restaurant in Colorado.

The Silt Police Department confirmed that there was an active investigation, but did not provide further details, according to The Daily Beast.

Mr Boebert reportedly called for police to respond to the Miner's Claim restaurant in Silt after claiming he was a victim of domestic violence, according to an aide who spoke to the Daily Beast. Ms Boebert denied the allegations that she struck her ex-husband in a statement.

A spokesperson for Ms Boebert told The Independent that the reports were bogus and that the drama surrounding her ex-husband is one of the reasons she is planning to move districts.

This is a sad situation for all that keeps escalating and another reason Im moving, Ms Boebert said. I didnt punch Jayson in the face and no one was arrested. I will be consulting with my lawyer about the false claims he made against me and evaluate all of my legal options.

The incident was first reported by an anti-Boebert super PAC called American Muckrakers, which shared rumours of the incident on X/Twitter.

Breaking and sad news out of Silt, CO. @laurenboebert punched her ex-husband Jayson in the nose 2 times and then continued to beat him up, the post said. Then she called the cops on him. As much as I despise her, it's just sad for the boys. Jayson has a witness. More to come.

Ms Boebert recently announced she was planning to move into a more conservative district before she runs for re-election again in 2024. She was nearly defeated in her own district in 2022, winning by only 500 votes.

The incident on Saturday night reportedly kicked off after Ms Boebert drove to her ex-husband's home to pick up one of her sons, according to a source who spoke to the Daily Beast.

Mr Boebert was reportedly home at the time, and tried to hug his ex-wife. She allegedly pushed him away. Mr Boebert then called Ms Boebert later that evening to apologize and asked if they could meet. The congresswoman reportedly agreed to the meeting, so long as it took place in public.

The aide claimed that Mr Boebert began being disrespectful, an a**hole and lewd to Ms Boebert when the pair met later that evening at the Miner's Claim restaurant. Ms Boebert reportedly did not respond well to her ex-husband's alleged actions, which allegedly aggravated Mr Boebert, the aide claims.

Mr Boebert allegedly reached out to grab Ms Boebert, which she reportedly tried to fight off by putting her hand in his face and on his nose.

He called the police after the altercation, claiming he was the victim of domestic violence. Police arrived at the scene and spoke to both Mr and Ms Boebert. No arrests were made.

Mr Boebert offered a comment to the Daily Beast following the incident.

I made a mistake. We both overreacted. I only want whats best for [the] boys and I still love her very much. We both share some hurt deep down inside... It seems we just keep pushing each other further apart, he said. I want the best for her. Its probably just best that I remain silent.

Mr Boebert has been floating at Ms Boebert's periphery since the pair split last year. In September, he blamed himself after Ms Boebert was tossed out of a performance of Beetlejuice The Musical for vaping and engaging in lewd conduct with her date.

Mr Boebert insisted she was just acting out after their devastating divorce, and claimed it was really his fault that his adult wife became rowdy and lewd in public.

He then practically begged her to take him back.

Lauren, if you are reading this, please know that I am dedicated to doing everything in my power to rebuild the trust that has been shattered. I stand behind you, he wrote. You are the hardest working person I know, selfless and overflowing with love.
A prestigious law firm has belatedly registered as a foreign agent of a Ukrainian energy company linked to Hunter Biden.

The filing is the latest sign of the far-reaching legal fallout related to Burisma, which appointed Hunter Biden to its board in 2014 and has since been central to two presidential impeachment dramas.

The law firm Cravath, Swain & Moore said in an emailed statement that Thursdays retroactive filing came after discussions with the Justice Department regarding the scope of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. A spokesperson declined to elaborate.

It's unusual for foreign agents to register years after their work has concluded. But several have done so in recent years as foreign lobbying efforts figured into a series of high-profile political controversies and prompted renewed enforcement interest from the Justice Department.

A partner at Cravath, John Buretta, met with three Obama administration officials and sent a letter to a fourth in 2016 as part of his work on behalf of Burisma and its owner Mykola Zlochevsky related to potential U.S. and Ukrainian investigations, according to the filing. At the time, the company and its owner faced scrutiny from officials in the U.S., U.K. and Ukraine over possible corruption. Hunter Biden is not named in the FARA filing.

Investigations opened in the U.K. and Ukraine did not result in charges, but the episode has had far-reaching consequences for U.S. politics.

At the time of Hunter Bidens board service, then-Vice President Joe Biden oversaw U.S. policy in Ukraine. As the U.S. government pushed reform efforts in Ukraine, Joe Biden compelled the countrys government to oust its top prosecutor in 2016 by threatening to withhold U.S. aid.

In the run up to the 2020 election, allies of former President Donald Trump claimed that Joe Biden forced the firing in order to help Burisma escape corruption charges.

But U.S. officials involved with Ukraine matters at the time said the firing of prosecutor Viktor Shokin was consistent with U.S. policy goals and stemmed from Shokins reluctance to pursue corruption allegations such as those facing Burisma.

In 2019, the Democrat-controlled House impeached President Donald Trump for his efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens over the matter. He was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Last year, House Republicans opened an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden over his relatives business dealings, including Hunter Bidens Burisma work.

In December, Special Counsel David Weiss indicted Hunter Biden in federal court in California on charges that included alleged failure to pay taxes on his income from Burisma. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Cravath is not the only firm to belatedly file as a foreign agent of Burisma. In 2022, Democratic lobbying firm Blue Star Strategies also registered as a foreign agent of Burismas and Zlochevskys for its efforts to head off corruption investigations. Blue Star reportedly faced a Justice Department investigation of its Burisma work. A lawyer for the firm told the Washington Post in 2022 that the probe had been closed with no finding of malfeasance.

The work registered by Cravath comprises four contacts with U.S. officials.

In March 2016, Buretta, a former top Justice Department official, met separately with under secretary of state Catherine Novelli, assistant secretary of state Amos Hochstein, and Justice Department official Bruce Swartz, according to an exhibit to the filing.

In September of 2016, Buretta also sent a letter to Marie Yovanovitch, who had recently been sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, according to the exhibit.

A representative for Novelli said she does not recall the meeting and declined an interview request. Representatives for Yovanovitch and for the Justice Department, where Swartz still worked as of December, did not respond to requests for comment.

A 2020 report on Hunter Biden produced by House Republicans references Burettas meeting with Hochstein in which the attorney reportedly briefed Hochstein on Zlochevskys legal troubles in the U.K.

Hochstein declined to comment.

Cravath reported receiving about $350,000 from Burisma from March to August of 2016 and spending about $60,000 in connection with its Burisma work between mid-January and mid-September of that year.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has come under scrutiny from a growing number of congressional lawmakers who are demanding answers after the Defense Department delayed informing administration officials, Congress and the public about his hospitalization.

The Pentagon waited three days after Austin arrived at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to inform senior officials in the White Houses National Security Council of Austins condition, including that he had spent four days in the intensive care unit, a U.S. official previously confirmed to NBC News.

Austins deputy, Kathleen Hicks, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico at the time, learned about his condition two days after she took over her duties, a senior defense official told NBC News on Sunday.

On Monday, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that he was informed about Austin's hospitalization on Jan. 2, a day after he was admitted and two days before President Joe Biden and national security adviser Jake Sullivan were told. Ryder briefed reporters on camera on Thursday and did not disclose the secretary's continued hospitalization. He did not provide further details  including whether he was directed not to tell anyone.

Ryder also said Monday that the Pentagon's lawyers are reviewing whether any laws were broken during this failure to notify U.S. leaders and Congress.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, of New York, the No. 4 Republican in the House, on Monday called on Austin to resign. She decried the Pentagons move to wait several days to notify administration officials about Austins hospitalization as a shocking and absolutely unacceptable decision.

This concerning lack of transparency exemplifies a shocking lack of judgment and a significant national security threat, she said in a statement. There must be full accountability beginning with the immediate resignation of Secretary Austin and those that lied for him and a Congressional investigation into this dangerous dereliction of duty.

Austin was still in the hospital as of Sunday night, with no date set for his release, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. Ryder noted that Austin is "recovering well" following complications from an elective surgery and that he has resumed his duties. The Pentagon has declined to share more information about his condition and what led him to be hospitalized, citing "privacy reasons."

During a press gaggle aboard Air Force One, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby on Monday confirmed that the White House and NSC were not told about Austin's condition until Jan. 4, but said that President Joe Biden's focus is on the defense secretary's "health and recovery."

Biden is not considering firing Austin for not disclosing his hospitalization last week, three administration officials told NBC News. The president still has full trust and confidence in Austin, one of the officials said.

Biden and Austin spoke by phone on Saturday evening in what one senior administration official described as a warm conversation, during which the president wished him the best in his recovery.

The Pentagon said that Austin does not intend to offer his resignation.

Secretary Austin has no plans to resign. He remains focused on conducting his duties as Secretary of Defense in defense of our nation, Ryder said Monday in a statement.

Multiple members of Congress signaled that Austin will face questions from lawmakers as they return from their winter recess this week.

Im surprised, I want to hear the whole story, just why was he in the hospital, said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, the number two Senate Democrat. He has all but confessed that he didnt follow the procedure and accepted responsibility. But we need to know more.

We hope Secretary Austin is doing okay, hes an important guy, said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. But the idea that the [the Secretary of Defense] is sort of out of commission and the president of the United States doesnt even know about it strikes me as a monumental screw-up.

Republican Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Pentagons delay is unacceptable and demonstrates the Defense Departments shocking defiance of the law.

Members must be briefed on a full accounting of the facts immediately, Wicker said in a statement.

He added: Worryingly, we now have more questions than answers. Why was the notification process ... not followed and who made the determination not to follow it? What role did the Secretary of Defenses staff play? When exactly was the President notified? What justification did the Department have for withholding information from the National Security Council? To what extent was the Secretary incapacitated by his surgery? The very fact that we have none of this information is an indictment of an administration which consistently holds Congressional authority on national defense matters in contempt.

Cotton demanded that Austin address promptly the troubling report of the Pentagon not immediately notifying Biden or the National Security Council of his inability to carry out his duties.

In a later appearance on Fox News, he said Austin may need to resign. "It would appear that Lloyd Austin is the person who needs to resign, or his chief of staff, or both of them, because it also sounds like many senior Department of Defense officials were also not in the loop," he said.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a member of the House Armed Services Committee who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, told NBC News that Austins delayed disclosure was a terrible mistake in judgment and called for an honest review from the White House on the matter before making a call on whether Austin should resign.

With a 'zero fail' nuclear deterrence mission, the decision by the Secretary of Defense to not tell the White House nor his deputy who was on vacation that he was in the ICU was a terrible mistake in judgment, he said. But not only for our nuclear deterrence mission, we need a clear chain of command everyday with Russia, China, Iran and Hamas.

A Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee did not call for Austin's resignation but told NBC News the defense secretary should hold a news conference to explain himself.

It is very, very egregious in my opinion that the White House was not informed," the Democrat said. "I dont think he needs to step down, but I think he needs to explain this to the public.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D., Calif., echoed that in an interview Monday: I do think he owes an explanation. It strikes me as not correct to have kept this private.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., a former Central Intelligence Agency case officer, said the White House should have known about Austins hospitalization immediately, but acknowledged the possible rationale for why his condition wasnt made public initially.

The fact that there wasnt a public pronouncement to me is wholly acceptable. Theres a variety of reasons why the health and, you know, ongoings of our top nations officials may not need to be broadcast out for foreign governments to hear and learn about," she said during a Monday interview on MSNBC.

But certainly within the [Defense] Department and certainly within the White House, they should have been briefed immediately, she added, calling for "a review to ensure that there wasnt any jeopardizing of national security protocols or processes because of his condition."

Austin in a statement Saturday took full responsibility for the lack of disclosure.

On board Air Force One, Kirby told reporters that Biden "respects the fact that Secretary Austin took ownership for the lack of transparency. He also respects the amazing job hes done as Defense Secretary and how hes handled multiple crisis over the last almost three years now. And very much values his advice, candor leadership, and again, looks forward to having him back.

Asked whether the president wants an official review into the delay in communicating Austins hospitalization to White House officials, Kirby said he expects the NSC will do whats akin to a hot wash to try to see if there are any changes or modifications to improve processes and procedures for Cabinet secretaries to disclose medical procedures and hospitalizations.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR)  Ahead of a critical funding deadline, Congress seems to be making progress on a spending deal.

Leaders just announced theyve agreed on how much the budget should cost but havent decided how to divvy up the money.

Congressional leaders have only agreed to a funding framework, which is a significant step, but they still need to hash out the details and actually get the bill passed with just two weeks until their first government funding deadline.

We will have a time crunch now to avoid a shutdown, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn).

Leaders just agreed to topline spending numbers  giving $886 billion to defense and $704 billion to domestic priorities.

Now they have to decide how much of that money each federal agency gets.

Deliberations can now begin on appropriations bills and we will be fighting for every dollar, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn).

The deal closely follows the spending limits that lawmakers agreed to last year.

House Speaker Mike Johnson say there are additional cuts in the bill, including cuts to the IRS and taking back $6 billion in unspent covid relief money.

We have to be good stewards of precious taxpayer resources. We cannot continue to borrow money to spend it, said Johnson.

But some House Republicans are criticizing this deal for not cutting enough, with the House Freedom Caucus saying in a post on X, formerly TwitterIts even worse than we thought. This is total failure.

President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders support the agreement saying it avoids some of the steeper funding cuts Republicans had been pushing for.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC.
(Bloomberg) -- Lawmakers in Somalias oil-rich semi-autonomous region of Puntland reelected Said Abdullahi Deni as president.

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The incumbent secured 45 of the 66 votes by members of parliament at an election in the capital, Garowe, on Monday, according to the regions electoral commission. He beat Guled Salah Barre, who secured the other 21 votes.

Deni will serve in office for the next five years.

The vote in the territory of about 4.9 million people comes a week after Somaliland, Puntlands self-declared independent neighbor, concluded an agreement with Ethiopia to grant the landlocked country access to the Red Sea in exchange for a stake in Ethiopian Airlines. Somalia, the United Nations-recognized owner of the land, rejected the deal as illegal and recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia.

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Congress returns to Capitol Hill on Monday with just 11 days before another government shutdown deadline, and with little movement on the key issues that have snarled budget negotiations for months.

On Friday, White House budget director Shalanda Young told reporters that she is not optimistic about the possibility of avoiding at least a partial government shutdown. A funding extension for four appropriations areas  Agriculture, Energy and Water Development; Veterans Affairs; and Housing and Urban Development  is set to run out on Jan. 19.

Of those, VA would be the least impacted, because Congress in 2022 approved advanced funding through fall 2024 for most medical and benefits operations. A few thousand employees would still be furloughed, however.

The rest of federal agency operations  including the Defense Department  will see its funding run out on Feb. 2. Without a budget deal by then, hundreds of thousands of federal workers would be furloughed, military paychecks would be delayed and countless offices would be forced to shutter until an appropriations deal is reached.

Wednesday, Jan. 10

House Homeland Security  10 a.m.  310 Cannon

Mayorkas impeachment

The committee will discuss impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.



House Natural Resources  10:15 a.m.  1324 Longworth

National Park Service

Park Service officials will discuss maintenance backlogs within the agency.





Thursday, Jan. 11

House Veterans' Affairs  10 a.m.  360 Cannon

VA rural access

Department officials will discuss outreach efforts to rural veterans.



House Oversight  10 a.m.  2154 Rayburn

Military ideologies

Outside experts will testify on political ideologies in the military.



House Financial Services  10 a.m.  2128 Rayburn

Federal Housing Administration

Department of Housing and Urban Development officials will testify on Federal Housing Administration programs.



Senate Homeland Security  10 a.m.  562 Dirksen

Artificial Intelligence

Homeland Security officials will discuss the use of artificial intelligence in government services.



House Foreign Affairs  2 p.m.  Visitors Center H-210

Afghanistan

State Department officials will testify on the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.




LAYTON, Utah (ABC4)  An Airbnb guest is facing charges after threatening to kill a father in an adjoining unit, who was staying there with his seven-year-old daughter.

Thomas Murphy, 28, was arrested on Dec. 30 for the offenses of property damage/destruction, a third-degree felony; carry a dangerous weapon under the influence of alcohol/drugs, a class B misdemeanor; threat of violence, a class B misdemeanor; and intoxication, a class B misdemeanor, the Layton Police Department said.

Wife kills husband at their Provo home, police say

Murphy was reportedly renting an Airbnb in Layton and had been drinking all day. At some point, police said, he became aware that there was another family renting an adjoining unit in the basement of the home, which made him extremely angry. He called dispatch to report them, saying he was going to kick the door in.

Police said Murphy was seen on the homes surveillance walking down around the back of the house with a gun in his hand. He knocked on the door and made contact with a seven year old girl who was staying there with her father, police said. He then reportedly went back to his unit, but started pounding on the shared locked door between the two units.

The girls father asked Murphy what he wanted and Murphy began screaming that he was going to kill him, according to police.

The father called 911 and the owner of the Airbnb to report what was happening. Police said the father told them he heard wood breaking and glass shattering in the unit Murphy was renting.

Murphy reportedly broke the entire banister that held a wooden handrail leading to the shared door. He also went into the kitchen and smashed out two pane glass windows, police said.

When police arrived, Murphy reportedly told them he had taken his firearm and approached the downstairs sliding glass door with it when he saw the child. He also said he destroyed the handrail and the glass window out of anger and frustration that people were in the shared unit. Murphy told officers that he was wasted and drunk, police said.

The damage to the railing and the two plate glass windows was estimated to be more than $1,500.

Murphy has been booked into the Davis County Jail on the aforementioned charges.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
Erica Ingber has something of a dark past when it comes to handwriting: The future elementary school principal got a C-minus in cursive in the fourth grade. But she's ready to follow the curvy ups and downs of a new California law that requires the teaching of cursive writing, which has been cast aside as obsolete in the digital age.

But cursive is making a comeback amid concerns that learning to use a keyboard had superseded handwriting skills that are important for intellectual development  and also that a new generation of students could not write or read the flowing words of historical documents, old letters and family recipes.

"The ability to sign their name in cursive is important for future job applications, writing checks, signing medical forms, obtaining driver's licenses, and voting," said Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton), a former teacher who sponsored the new law. "Every child should be exposed to learning  as well as the benefits of  cursive writing."

The research on cursive is hotly debated, with some experts saying that it leads to academic gains. Other academics insist that such benefits have not been consistently shown or not shown at all. There appears to be broad agreement, however, that typing should not replace extensive instruction in handwriting  in some form  for young students. And even if printing is good enough, cursive is enjoying a resurgence.

At Longfellow Elementary School in Pasadena, fourth-graders already are carefully practicing their loops, slides and curves.

Tyara Brooks helps guide fourth-grade student Aaliyah Miranda-Garcia, left, and Sophia Ortega during a lesson on cursive writing. Erion Hardy reacts excitedly to her teacher announcing the class will learn how to write in cursive. Matthew Aguilar follows along as Brooks demonstrates how to hold a pencil during a lesson on cursive writing. Christina House/Los Angeles Times

"For some students, it's a great alternative to printing and it helps them be more accurate and more careful with the writing," said Ingber, the school's principal. "And then for others it's just another thing that is difficult for them."

Read more: Readers show off their cursive skills, and then sound off about handwriting

Across the country, cursive writing had been substantially abandoned for more than a decade in favor of teaching elementary school students to type after they learned to print letters. This anti-cursive trend was reinforced in 2010 when many states adopted the influential Common Core learning standards, which had dropped cursive entirely. Under the Common Core framework, states had limited flexibility to teach any skill that fell outside that curriculum. So many chose not to require cursive.

By 2016, only 12 states mandated learning cursive. Since then, however, 11 have reconsidered and restored cursive, with the latest being California and New Hampshire, according to a site that tracks cursive instruction.

Even before the new law took effect on Jan. 1, cursive was a California learning goal in grades 3 and 4, but the state and school districts had not enforced its teaching or tested to see whether students had mastered it. Moving forward, handwriting instruction for grades 1 to 6 is to include writing "in cursive or joined italics in the appropriate grade levels," the law states.

The directive leaves room for flexibility. Pasadena Unified will begin cursive in second grade, setting aside first grade for students to learn to print.

Tyara Brooks teaches her fourth-grade students how to write in cursive at Longfellow Elementary. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Ingber recalls that her mother was shocked that she would bring home a C-minus in anything, handwriting or otherwise, but the setback did not prevent Ingber from becoming a teacher, teaching cursive herself and becoming a well-regarded principal.

Pasadena Unified is in the process of purchasing materials to comply with the cursive law, because many publishers had stopped including it in their materials, said Helen Chan Hill, the district's interim chief academic officer.

Even so, Ingber knew just where to turn for a glimpse of the cursive future: Room 214 and fourth-grade teacher Tyara Brooks  who aced cursive as a child and never lost her love for it.

Principal Erica Ingber will have the job of making sure instructors at Longfellow Elementary are teaching cursive. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Brooks has never stopped teaching cursive. Last month, she announced the beginning of cursive lessons  and excited oohs and aahs reverberated around the room.

Apparently, none of the students had learned cursive in third grade, although a few had experimented on their own, and they were eager to write in this grown-up way.

"People like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln  and of course we know very well Alexander Hamilton  would really be super excited if they came in and saw what you're doing," Brooks told them. "Because you're starting to write like they learned to write. And you're actually ahead of some adults and some college students because they haven't learned how to do this yet."

Nine-year-old Miral Shalalfeh saw the upside: "When I learn cursive, I could teach my dad and mom and my grandparents and everybody."

Brooks projected signatures of people familiar to all the students: the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Walt Disney, Taylor Swift and, somehow, Vincent Price.

"When you're able to write in cursive, that's something that you can own for yourself," she told students. "You can make it any way that you would like  as long as you're following the rules, of course. ... I've seen Ms. Ingber where she writes her signature, and it takes like two seconds to do because she's so good at knowing the rules."

Longfellow fourth-grade teacher Tyara Brooks. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

The teacher also projected an image of the original U.S. Constitution, written in cursive.

Being able to read historical documents in their original form is another benefit of learning cursive, which also helps with handwritten holiday cards and letters from grandparents, she said. Plus, cursive is easier on the hand and faster.

In printing, she noted, you start from the top down, whereas cursive goes from the bottom up.

Brooks described the looping technique for lowercase "L" and then worked her way through lowercase "T," "I" and "E," explaining the differences between print and cursive versions and getting to the fine points of cursive: A cursive lowercase "E" can look like a cursive lowercase "L" if students aren't careful.

Students also began connecting letters for a few simple words.

Soon, the fourth-graders were chanting, over and over: "Slant up, stay on the line, come down, pull away."

"I already knew how to make an 'I' in cursive," said Genesis Aguilar, 10, "because my first and last names have an 'I' and I like to write my name. I'm still practicing different kinds of signatures.

"I've always wanted to write in cursive," she added. "When I write like a lot, my wrist starts to hurt. But in cursive it's relaxing. Because you don't use as much pressure."

For older students, cursive backers say that taking notes in cursive can be more effective than typing notes, because writing by hand requires more comprehension and synthesis. However, they acknowledge that typing on a keyboard is more effective at transcribing exactly what a teacher says.

Joining in official support of California's cursive legislation was the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

Students follow along with Brooks as she teaches them how to hold their pencils during a cursive writing lesson. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

"Most students with reading difficulties also struggle with handwriting and writing structures in general," the education office stated in comments in support of the bill. "As a general rule, reading and writing go hand in hand, and the ability to actually handwrite is key in the development of young learners."

Under the bill, instruction in cursive would "be standard across our state. Every student will be taught this important skill."

Some proponents say students who are dyslexic can derive particular benefit from writing in cursive.

But the county education office's reasoning, as quoted in a legislative analysis, did not actually make a distinction between the benefit of printing versus cursive. Rather, the argument extolled the benefits of writing by hand versus emphasizing keyboarding too early or too much:

"The mechanics of handwriting follows a sequence initiated in the brain, similar to reading  the sound is heard and processed, a letter attached and visualized, then translated into a shape on a page and produced with motor skills that reinforce the direction of lines and shapes to form letters."

Handwriting, the argument goes, reinforces reading skills such as visual tracking, reading left to right, as well as capitalization and punctuation rules, spelling and vocabulary.

A body of research supports this view, but not so much an advantage of cursive over printing.

"Since at least 1922, elementary school children in North America have been taught print first, and then cursive writing in or around third grade," according to an early legislative analysis. "However, practices vary by country and have changed over time. Schools in some countries teach only cursive, some teach print and cursive simultaneously or sequentially, some do not teach cursive at all, and some leave the choice up to individual teachers."

All sides in the debate can find research to support their view. But the return of cursive engenders rare bipartisan accord in California and in other states. In the California Assembly, the bill to require cursive passed 79 to 0.

Originally, the restoration of cursive was "primarily coming from the right," said Morgan Polikoff, an associate professor of education at USC's Rossier School of Education. Promoting cursive was a jab at the Common Core and what critics saw as overreach on education policy by the Obama administration. Cursive also was traditional and provided direct access to historical documents.

Nestor Narvaez Moline, Priscilla Gomez-Vargas and Miral Shalalfeh, from left, follow along with their teacher as she demonstrates how to hold their pencils while writing in cursive. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

On the left, "it's much more about creativity and the arts" and potential benefits for dyslexic kids, Polikoff said. "There are reasons for everyone to love it."

Polikoff doesn't oppose cursive, but sees it as something of a sideshow.

"What I think is really wild is that we're devoting any attention to it at all when chronic absenteeism has doubled and achievement fell off a cliff and we've got all these other crises and culture wars in the schools," he said. "But the one thing we can all agree on is that we must mandate cursive."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act does not do as advertised By Martin Baker

web posted January 8, 2024 In June 2022, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law. This legislation was due to the presumed need for further legislation after the outcry to curtail gun violence and mass shootings. Those on the left have for years been screaming for more gun-control legislation, and those on the right have sought refuge in the Second Amendment. This legislation was the common ground for both sides of the aisle. Among the signature features of this bill was the funding for mental health services in the form of the following: $250 million over four years to provide states with flexible funding to create community mental health services through the SAMHSA Community Mental Health Block Grant program. $240 million over four years to assist students with mental health disorders and educate school personnel on mental health disorders through SAMHSA's Project AWARE. $150 million to implement the 988 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. $120 million over four years for SAMHSA to train first responders engaging with individuals with mental disorders. $80 million over four years to facilitate cooperation between pediatric primary care providers and mental health specialists. $60 million over five years to train pediatric primary care physicians in mental healthcare through the HRSA Primary Care Training and Enhancement Program. $40 million over four years to assist children who have experienced traumatic events through SAMHSA's National Child Traumatic Stress Network. On the surface, this looks like needed funding. However, it is not pertinent to gun control. What makes it worse is the expanded infrastructure and increased criminalization provisions such as: $750 million over five years for Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program crisis prevention programs. This sum is allocated to states to support creating and maintaining crisis intervention programs for state courts, including red flag law programs and mental health court, drug court or veterans court programs. $300 million over five years to fund provisions of the STOP School Violence Act. $250 million over five years for community violence intervention programs. $200 million over five years for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. $100 million to fund FBI expenses. As good as these provisions may sound, in reality, community intervention programs adversely affect minority communities. In a recent study by the Department of Education, Black students are 2.3 times more likely to be referred to law enforcement or subjected to a school-related arrest than their White counterparts. Even further, school-age Black females are six times more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions for disciplinary issues than their White female classmates. Throwing money at a problem has never solved the problem, as history teaches us time and again. Students of color have historically been marginalized and have experienced school discipline at disproportionate levels than their counterparts of other ethnic groups. For already targeted groups, the added layers of surveillance and law enforcement interaction lead to the worst-case scenarios of increased discipline and decreased graduation rates. All this leads to increased contact with the criminal justice system, which leads to diminished attendance rates, fewer persons of color attending post-secondary education and increased minority levels in adult prisons. This is not how to make communities safer. While we applaud the need to address mental health issues, sadly legislation like this puts more focus on "fixing" it too far down the line. According to the National Center for State Courts, jails on all levels have become the largest providers of mental health services across the country. Fixing mental health in jails and prisons, while laudable, is not an area of expertise for already overworked and under-compensated correctional officers, many of whom may also be under their own mental and physical health issues because of their chosen vocation. Accredited mental health institutions and their trained professionals must take the lead early and often and  if need be  intervene where the courts and correctional systems have failed. The path to safety starts with education. It starts with rebuilding broken families. It begins with making a concerted effort to invest in our youth through efforts to uplift their dreams and support them in those dreams. It starts with communities relying on evidence-based strategies instead of arbitrary incarceration without due process of law. Instead of overreaching legislation, we must allow law enforcement officers to do what they are trained and mandated to do: arrest those violating the law. We must have prosecutors who are not afraid to prosecute those bad actors, regardless of public outcry or opinion. We must restore the ability of families to regain their rightful role in the upbringing of children. We must reverse this devastating trend of fatherless homes that were created after the destructive government-initiated War on Poverty. We must encourage fathers and other positive role models to engender positive actions in our youths instead of the negative role models we see prevalent in society that lead to bad lifestyle choices, which can and do lead to lawlessness. Until those issues are addressed, the Safer Communities Act does not deliver as advertised. Martin Baker is a member of the Project 21 Black Leadership Network. He wrote this for InsideSources.com. Home
A shopping center in Kryvyi Rih was damaged as a result of the January 8 attack

A 62-year-old woman was killed after Russian targeted a Kryvyi Rih shopping center and residential neighborhood in its latest massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine on Jan. 8, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast governor, Serhii Lysak, reported on Telegram.

A 59-year-old man received shrapnel wounds, and more than two dozen homes were damaged in the attack.

Read also: Russia strikes Kharkiv as explosions ring out in at least 5 Ukrainian oblasts on Jan. 8

More than 15,000 households had already lost power due to poor weather, reported Oleksandr Vilkul, the citys Defense Council Head.

Four boiler houses that run on generators and two municipal water pump stations were operating on standby power due to the lack of electricity.

Trolleybuses and trams are not operating due to ice, while high-speed transport is only partially operational. Busses, minibuses, and diesel-generator trolleybuses are currently operating in the city, Vilkul stated.

Massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine on Jan. 8: what is known

Read also: Khmelnytsky air defense systems working overtime as Russia launches latest mass missile attack on UA

Russia launched another multi-wave missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight on Jan. 8. Explosions have been heard in Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Khmelnytsky oblasts.

The Russians hit a private house in Zmiiv, Kharkiv Oblast early on Jan. 8, resulting in two injuries and two others trapped under the rubble, Kharkiv regional governor, Oleh Synehubov, reported.

24 people were injured after a blast wave overturned a minibus in Novomoskovsk.

Four residents were injured due to attack in Zaporizhzhya.

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At least four people are dead 33 injured in Russias latest multi-wave mass missile and drone attack on Ukraine on Jan. 8, NV reports.

Significant damage to residential areas and infrastructure was reported in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Khmelnytsky oblasts.

At least two people were killed in Russias missile attack on Khmelnytsky Oblast, the regional administration announced.

A 63-year-old woman was killed in Zmiiv, Kharkiv Oblast after a Russian missile struck her house, Kharkiv regional prosecutors office reported on Telegram. Two elderly men were rescued from the rubble at that location.

One person was killed in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast after Russia targeted a shopping center and residential neighborhood in the city, the regional administration announced.

At least 24 people were injured, including five children, in Novomoskovsk, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast after a blast wave knocked over minibus. Private homes and apartment buildings were also damaged.

Russia launched at least four strikes on Kharkiv, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov reported on Telegram. The weapons used in the assault are still under investigation.

Massive missile attack on Kryvyi Rih and Kryvyi Rih district, reported Presidential Office deputy head Dmytro Kuleba. The enemy hit a shopping center, high-rise buildings, and private homes - civilian objects were targeted. Unfortunately, one woman was killed. One man is wounded.

The enemy [Russia] conducted a widespread attack on Ukraine, using cruise missiles, aviation missiles, ballistic missiles, anti-aircraft guided missiles, and strike UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], wrote Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi on Facebook on Jan. 8.

In total, 59 air targets were recorded, including Shahed attack drones, S-300/S-400 anti-aircraft guided missiles, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and aviation missiles. The targets included critical, civilian, industrial, and military facilities.

The invaders attacked several regions of Ukraine, specifically directing ballistic trajectory missiles at the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Khmelnytskyi regions.

Ukrainian air defenders destroyed eight Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs and 18 cruise missiles X-101/X-555/X-55, Zaluzhnyi said.

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In Zaporizhzhia, there are casualties as a result of Russian shelling in Kharkiv Oblast

Two people were injured in Zaporizhzhya due to another massive Russian missile attack on Jan. 8, Zaporizhzhya City Council secretary, Anatoliy Kurtev, reported.

"Zaporizhzhya is under attack by Russian terrorists. Unfortunately, casualties are reported. Emergency services are starting to work on-site. Stay in safe places," he wrote.

Read also: Russia strikes Kharkiv as explosions ring out in at least 5 Ukrainian oblasts on Jan. 8

Preliminary reports indicate two victims - a man and a woman, regional governor Yuriy Malashko, said.

The Russians hit a private house in Zmiiv, Kharkiv Oblast early on Jan. 8, resulting in two injuries and two others trapped under the rubble, Kharkiv regional governor, Oleh Synehubov, reported.

Russia launched another multi-wave missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight on Jan. 8. Explosions have been heard in Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Khmelnytsky oblasts.

This story is developing.

Read also: Woman injured, fire blazing after Russia hits industrial sites in Kharkiv amid mass missile attack

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is investigating after a Leavenworth police officer fatally shot a man Saturday night.

A 44-year-old man called 911 around 8:58 p.m., requested police to report a crime and said he was armed, according to KBI.

Officers arrived soon after in the 400 block of North 5th Street, where they allegedly saw the man with a knife in the front yard of a home.

Police said they told the man several times to stop and drop the knife, when he charged toward an officer, according to KBI.

The officer fired at the man and struck him multiple times.

The man was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries.

KBI will investigate the shooting and present its findings to the Leavenworth County Attorney.
A six-year legal battle over Dallas Countys bail practices ended Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review an appeals court decision.

Daves v. Dallas County was filed in federal district court in 2018 by criminal defendants who argued the countys pre-trial detention system discriminates against defendants who cant afford bail.

A district court judge issued a temporary order saying the countys post-arrest procedures routinely violate the constitutional rights of inmates who cant afford to pay for release as they await the resolution of their cases. U.S. District Judge David Godbey sided with the plaintiffs allegation that the county uses wealth-based detention by imposing pre-set bail amounts that often keep poor defendants locked up while wealthier ones go free. Godbey gave the county 30 days to change its system.

On appeal, though, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Supreme Court precedent requires federal courts to abstain from revising state bail bond procedures. The court also said Texas new bail laws enacted through 2021s Senate Bill 6 mooted the lawsuit. Signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021, SB 6 banned the release of people accused of violent crimes on personal bonds, requiring that they instead pay cash.

The appeals court decision stands and the case is closed because the highest court on Monday said they would not hear the case.

Bail is a legal mechanism to ensure that defendants who have not been convicted and are awaiting trial show up to court hearings. Most jurisdictions across the country rely on a money bail system, where defendants can pay a bond amount set by a fixed schedule for their release. Defendants can either pay the full bail amount, which is refundable if they show up for all of their hearings. Or they can pay a nonrefundable percentage  usually 10%  to a bail bond company that pays the total bond amount. If a defendant cant afford to pay, they are often stuck in jail for weeks or months.

In Texas jails, about 70% of inmates are awaiting trial, according to data from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.

Existing Texas law requires officials to consider a defendants ability to pay when setting bail. But in Dallas County, a judge found that judicial magistrates set bail amounts based on the alleged crime and prior convictions without determining an inmates ability to pay.

Criminal justice advocates say that cash bail systems are both unconstitutional and contribute to overcrowding in county jails. Research has found that cash bail is associated with an increase in recidivism, job loss and racial disparities and does not improve public safety. People detained pretrial are also more likely to plead guilty than those released.

Theres a false narrative that jailing people is what makes us safe, said Dustin Rynders, legal director at the Texas Civil Rights Project. The reality is that county jails are temporary solutions until a case is addressed and its just this expensive, inhumane process that continues to need to be reformed.

Although the case specifically concerns Dallas County, the decision could have ripple effects across the state and even nationally, as civil rights lawyers have targeted money bail systems nationwide over the past few years. In Harris County, officials agreed to a settlement requiring the prompt no-cash release of most people arrested for misdemeanors. Only people arrested for certain charges would not be granted prompt release, and they are now afforded a bail hearing where they are represented by counsel.

Other states, including New Jersey and New York have crafted similar types of bail systems. And Illinois recently became the first state to fully eliminate cash bail. Illinois law clarifies that everyone is eligible for pretrial release without payment, and its the governments responsibility to prove that pretrial detention is necessary. People charged with certain felonies can still be denied pretrial release.

The 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals has jurisdiction over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, so the courts decision in Daves v. Dallas County could preclude counties in any of those states from challenging bail practices in federal courts.

Civil rights advocates have had some success challenging bail practices in state courts. For example, Civil Rights Corps successfully argued a case in California, where the state supreme court there found that pretrial detention should only be used for those who otherwise cannot be relied upon to make court appearances or who pose a risk to public or victim safety.

Attorneys in Daves v. Dallas County declined to say whether they would take the case to state court.

All options are on the table, said Elizabeth Rossi of Civil Rights Corps, an advocacy group that represented the plaintiffs. State level officials bear a huge responsibility for acknowledging and fixing the devastating bail system theyve allowed to fester across the state.
Donald Trump is once again attempting to claim presidential immunity to avoid prosecution. The former president is seeking to have the criminal charges brought against him by Fulton Country District Attorney Fani Willis in the Georgia election conspiracy case tossed, per a new Monday filing. The indictment in this case charges President Trump for acts that lie at the heart of his official responsibilities as President. The indictment is barred by presidential immunity and should be dismissed with prejudice, the motion reads. The filing serves as another iteration of the argument repeatedly pushed by Trump and his legal team, which is that he was acting as president when he reportedly subverted the 2020 election and is therefore protected. It claims that the acts Willis lays out in her indictment lie squarely within the outer perimeter of the President's official duties, adding that Organizing slates of electors in furtherance of that effort to have Congress exercise its responsibilities falls within the Presidents official duties as well."

Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis rejected the argument. "Trump was acting as a candidate and not as president. Despite using the trappings of his office to browbeat officials, nothing that Trump has been indicted for in Georgia constituted an official presidential act. Engaging in racketeering activity is not shielded by Article II," he wrote on X/Twitter. "The president of the United States does not have any constitutional prerogative to engineer an electoral outcome."

Trump in another filing on Monday argued that he can't be prosecuted because he was already impeached and acquitted by Congress over his role on Jan. 6. Kreis argued that Trump's argument is "so meritless it borders on the comical." Impeachment "is a political question. What constitutes an impeachable offense is essentially a political matter. So, too, is the judgment. And the Constitution's text reinforces the idea that a conviction is not a criminal conviction. So, too, it follow an acquittal," Kreis explained. Since Trump was never indicted in federal court over the Georgia meddling, the Fulton case cannot constitute double jeopardy, he wrote. "To be clear, even Jack Smith's case could not preempt the Fulton County case if someone were to read them as functionally identical prosecutions," he added.
Some 1,600 years ago, a group of Roman empire citizens in Italy received a letter from Emperor Constantine, allowing them to celebrate a religious holiday in their hometown rather than traveling to a faraway festival.

Experts discovered Constantines response, known as a rescript, in the 18th century  and archaeologists have just used it to make a monumental discovery.

A team of researchers from Saint Louis University unearthed three walls of a monumental structure that evidence suggests belonged to a Roman temple that dates to Constantines period, Douglas Boin, a history professor at Saint Louis University, said in a Jan. 5 university news release.

The ruins were found in Spello, a famous medieval hilltop city, the university said. They date to Constantines rule of the Roman Empire, which was between 324 A.D. and 337 A.D.

Boin began searching in Spello after reviewing Constantines rescript, according to the university. In his letter, Constantine granted the townspeople permission to celebrate at home on the condition that they erected a temple honoring his ancestors and worship them.

Constantine was famously the first Roman emperor to practice Christianity. But his request to the Spello people reflects Imperial Cult beliefs, indicating that the transition from paganism to Christianity was not a quick one, experts said.

The Imperial Cult is also known as the Cult of Emperor, according to the Harvard Divinity School. It involves the worship of Emperors and their families as divine which began with Julius Caesars death in 44 B.C.

(The temple) would be a remarkable addition to the landscape of this corner of Italy. It will significantly aid in the understanding of the ancient town, the ancient townscape and city society in the later Roman Empire, Boin said in the release. It shows the continuities between the classical pagan world and early Christian Roman world that often get blurred out or written out of the sweeping historical narratives.

Boin and his team conducted underground imaging in hopes of finding evidence of the temples ruins, the university said. After several weeks, they finally caught a glimpse of something promising  beneath a parking lot.

Archaeologists carefully dug up the parking lot and discovered two adjoining walls, according to the university. Further digging revealed what experts believe is an inside wall of the temple.

Theres evidence from other places throughout the Roman world that Christian rulers supported imperial cult practices, Boin said. It is unlike any temple that I know about from the Mediterranean world of the fourth century Roman Empire...This changes everything about how we perceive the pace of social change and our impression of the impact of social and cultural change.

The team of experts will return to the site next summer to completely excavate the site and examine the ruins in their entirety, the university said.

Spello is about 100 miles north of Rome.

Huge burial mound in Norway stumped archaeologists. Now they know whats inside

Colorful mummies  some with gold tongues  discovered in unique 1,300-year-old graves

Huge tomb  filled with treasures  sat untouched for more than 2,100 years. Until now
To the editor: Every writer who bemoans the devastation in the Gaza Strip without acknowledging its cause is like a person complaining about how horribly theyve been mauled by a bear without admitting that the bear had been sleeping when they poked it in the eye with a stick and slaughtered a few of its cubs. ("Israel's Gaza strategy: Create facts on the ground that can't be undone," Opinion, Jan. 2)

What on Earth did they think would happen?

Enough complaining. Either demonstrate your intention to never slaughter another cub and to let the bear forever live in peace in its ancestral homeland, or expect to continue to reap the overwhelming consequences of your ill-considered provocations.

Rick Goldfarb, Sherman Oaks

..

To the editor: Tariq Kenney-Shawa is quite correct that Israel has executed a long-term program to secure its hold on historic Palestine.

Israel understands public relations and persistence; it has been doing this for a long time. There are very few examples when their words betray their intentions, but I think when viewing the Palestinians and Israelis, we need to look more at what they do than what they say.

The contrast between Gaza and the West Bank is stark, with Gaza being the sacrificial lamb to protect the West Bank. Gaza was turned into a large ghetto, imprisoned on all sides, to demonstrate to the world how Israel could not deal with the Palestinians as negotiation partners.

In contrast, Israel will never yield any of the West Bank for a Palestinian state and is steadily pushing for the Palestinians to just go away.

Now Gaza is a wasteland, and Israel hopes the Palestinians there will fade into Egypt.

William N. Hoke, Manhattan Beach

..

To the editor: If Kenney-Shawa is concerned about "facts on the ground," then he must have been aware that Hamas was bringing into Gaza, through a porous blockade, thousands of rockets that were periodically shot into Israel, necessitating bomb shelters in Israeli homes.

He would have known, as Hamas did, that after the Oct. 7 attack, Israel would strike back with full force. He probably knows that, before Oct. 7, many Gazans worked and received medical care in Israel. My wife's cousin repaired their tractors.

Israel would much rather help Gazans build their country than live with the constant threat of terrorism from a group dedicated to maximum destruction and the killing of as many Jews as possible.

Steven Feig, Beverly Hills

..

To the editor: Thanks to Kenney-Shawa for writing this, and to The Times for printing it.

The U.S. is enabling genocide. If you kill people by starving them instead of bombing them or gassing them, it's still genocide.

And most Americans haven't a clue. Well, maybe they do now.

Elizabeth Block, Toronto

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Fields of solar panels at OCI Solar Powers Alamo 1 Solar Farm are shown in September 2020, with CPS Energys coal-powered electric plant in the background. Pine Gate Renewables wants to build a solar farm in Bandera County. William Luther/Staff

A group of Bandera County landowners are suing a major solar power and battery developer over its plan to build a solar farm, saying they are concerned it could cause environmental harm and reduce their property values.

Pine Gate Renewables wants to build the 123-megawatt solar farm on privately owned land near Montague Lake on both sides of FM 3240, and the company says it could power 22,800 homes. But roughly a dozen neighbors are worried it could create enormously detrimental environmental issues, according to the lawsuit filed in late December.

We dont want them to break ground until we know that theyre protecting the environment, said Jennifer Rosenblatt, the attorney representing the landowners. Were not telling you you cant build. Were just telling you youve got to do it right.

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Removing native vegetation and soil erosion resulting from regrading properties could increase runoff and cause chemicals to flow into nearby wells, creeks and aquifers, polluting the water and flooding their properties, the suit states. The plaintiffs also are concerned about the risk of fire in the rural county and construction interfering with some of their businesses, which include a livestock operation, a exotic animal farm and a bed-and-breakfast.

Pine Gate Renewables is based in Asheville, N.C. Its solar farm has been in the works for over a year, at least.

Preconstruction work is underway, and little information has been shared with the landowners, which is what prompted them to sue, Rosenblatt said. They want Pine Gate to outline plans for managing water and vegetation, hazardous waste and chemicals, erosion control and fire response, and to commission a geotechnical engineering report on the karst terrain in the area.

Just show us that youre doing what youre supposed to do, Rosenblatt said.

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Enel Green Powers Roadrunner solar farm in Upton County in West Texas is the largest operational solar project in the state. Pine Gate Renewables wants to build a solar farm in Bandera County. Provided by Enel Green Power

The landowners are seeking more than $1 million in damages. A judge signed a temporary restraining order, and a hearing on a temporary injunction is scheduled this week.

Pine Gate Renewables is aware of the complaint related to Rio Lago Solar and remains committed to the projects development and construction. However, the company does not discuss ongoing legal matters, a spokesperson said.

The company was founded in 2016 and operates more than 100 solar facilities nationwide, according to its website. It has more than 30 gigawatts of projects in development, including 40 projects in Texas representing 8,260 megawatts.

Pine Gate says on its website that the Bandera solar farm represents a $150 million investment, with construction expected to begin this year and be completed next year.

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In 2022, an affiliate of the company sought property tax breaks from Bandera Independent School District through a state program known as Chapter 313. The school board rejected its application.

Its unclear exactly how many acres the solar farm would occupy. The suit says it would comprise about 1,825 acres across multiple properties, while its previously been described in news reports as encompassing 1,000 acres. A portion will be leased from a pair of property owners, who are named as defendants in the suit. Pine Gate is also under contract to buy land on which it plans to build a substation, according to the complaint.

The solar panels will be surrounded by a wildlife-friendly fence and vegetative buffer, with a 50-foot setback from the property line. Pine Gate says on its website that it works with landowners and local groups to preserve and protect the land, while maintaining the natural look and feel of the area. The solar farm will not produce harmful emissions, and the panels wont emit noise.

The company also states that it believes, and numerous studies indicate, that solar farms do not have a direct negative impact on the values of adjacent homes or properties.

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The solar farm would be in the service area of Bandera Electric Cooperative Inc., a distribution service and transmission service provider.

Under Texas law, the cooperative must interconnect facilities with new power sources, said John Padalino, its general counsel and chief administrative officer. Pine Gate requested that its proposed facility be connected with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, region, Padalino said. He directed questions about the project to Pine Gate.
(Bloomberg) -- Chilean President Gabriel Boric is facing another hurdle to his political agenda: the revelation of undisclosed dinner parties at the house of a political lobbyist attended by members of his cabinet and industrial representatives.

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CIPER, an investigative news website, reported Dec. 29 about meetings at the house of lobbyist Pablo Zalaquett attended by Economy Minister Nicolas Grau and Environment Minister Maisa Rojas as well as local salmon and fishing industry executives. The meetings werent disclosed on the countrys transparency platform. Subsequent reports showed that Interior Minister Carolina Toha and other cabinet members, opposition legislators and pension fund manager executives had also attended some dinner parties.

Days after the gatherings, the government announced it plans to submit a bill to reform Chiles fishing laws and quotas, as well as another push to reform the pension system. This is leading to calls from opposition officials and politicians for further investigation.

The countrys lobby law, which requires meetings between authorities and businessmen to be recorded, was not followed. Zalaquett is a former mayor of two districts in Santiago from the right-wing UDI party.

Borics administration has been marred by controversy and corruption scandals the last few months. Housing Minister Carlos Montes survived an impeachment vote last week amid corruption and influence trafficking accusations in his ministry. Borics close aide Giorgio Jackson resigned from the Social Development Ministry in August over the same case, triggering a cabinet reshuffle.

Boric said his ministers did not break the law and said he has asked his government to meet with all actors to reach agreements that will benefit the people of Chile while his government spokeswoman Camila Vallejo said no record of the conversations was needed as they were intended to address general background issues.

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The decision to close schools for so long during the pandemic lockdowns was arguably the worst mistake made during those dark days. The impact on the education and mental wellbeing of a cohort of children in their mid-teens is still being felt.

But the closures also had a psychological effect on their parents. According to official data, the proportion of pupils classed as persistently absent and missing more than one lesson in 10 has doubled since March 2020. Last year, almost 400,000 parents were handed a penalty notice by local authorities for the unauthorised absences of their children.

Truancy and parental complicity in such behaviour was once widely looked upon as a serious matter and socially unacceptable. Yet a YouGov poll commissioned by the Centre for Social Justice think tank has found that more than a quarter of parents believe the pandemic showed it was not essential for children to attend school daily.

The politicians and teachers who were happy to shut down schools when children were the least likely group to be affected by Covid should now rue the consequences. It has even become necessary for the Government to launch a campaign to reverse this trend and persuade parents that school is essential for the childs future prospects and social development.

This is aimed at a growing group, mostly in under-privileged households, who no longer feel an obligation to force their offspring out of the door even if it is a legal requirement that they do. They were encouraged in this by a cavalier attitude to school attendance that was apparent throughout the pandemic. The new campaign is welcome but it should not have been necessary.

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The DeLorean Alpha5 is displayed at the 2022 Pebble Beach Concours dElegance in Pebble Beach, California, in August 2022.

DeLorean Motor Co. Inc. has withdrawn its promise to create more than 400 local jobs to manufacture an electric version of the car made famous by Back to the Future, according to a letter written to Bexar Countys economic development office.

In the letter, dated Dec. 1, DeLorean Chief Operating Officer Bill Frazer asked the county to terminate its tax abatement agreement, which offered up to roughly $1 million in tax breaks and incentives with the city and county in exchange for creating 450 jobs paying at least $70,000 by 2026.

This decision is prompted by a shift in the economic landscape and a strategic redirection of our business, which leads us to forgo pursuing the incentives at this time, Frazer wrote.

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The San Antonio-based companys pullback from employment commitments is its latest major hiccup, which has customers who paid thousands of dollars to reserve one of the vehicles questioning whether their cars will ever be built. The company confirmed last month that its CEO had stepped down in the fall and said that customers would get more information about manufacturing plans early in the new year.

Bexar County Commissioners Courts agenda for its meeting on Tuesday shows a vote scheduled over the tax break abatement. The economic development office is recommending that commissioners vote to end the agreement.

As part of the tax break agreements commitment schedule, as signed in October 2022, DeLorean said it would have 100 new employees by the end of that year and 300 by the end of 2023. The number would increase until reaching 450 in 2025 and be maintained until 2026, according to the contract.

The company also needed to invest roughly $18.5 million dollars, largely toward creating its headquarters at Port of San Antonio. Currently, a small office sits there.



Documents shared with commissioners ahead of Tuesdays meeting state that DeLorean will continue to operate out of its office at the Port.

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To date no funds have been dispersed to Delorean Motor Company so no reimbursement is necessary, the economic development office wrote.

The company never posted major hiring announcements online in 2023. It did not immediately respond to a request for comments regarding its current employment count after the San Antonio Express-News obtained a copy of its letter Monday.

One of the customers, Ken Brackins, who paid roughly $5,000 to reserve two DeLorean Alpha5 models, said part of the reason he was confident he and his wife would get a vehicle was because of the city and countys support of the company.



Now, some of the roughly 1,200 people who bought nonfungible tokens to reserve one of the futuristic electric vehicles are regularly sharing posts in a public Facebook group about fears they were ripped off.

DeLorean has offered few public updates about its future.

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In October, the company posted to its social media that it would have a timeless drop with Pepsi Co. in December. On Dec. 31, it wrote something exciting is driving down the road from us and Pepsi. But as of Jan. 8, nothing more had been announced.

Brackins said last month the writing is on the wall.

Former CEO Joost de Vries left DeLorean in late October, less than two months after a lawsuit accusing him and the companys three other founders of stealing intellectual property from their former electric vehicle employer was settled out of court. Alan Yuan, previously DeLoreans chief operating officer, is serving as interim CEO.

De Vries said in June 2022 that he was drawn to San Antonio because of its growth. He also said at the time that prototypes of the Alpha5 would be zipping around San Antonio by now.
Former longtime chief of the National Rifle Association Wayne LaPierre enters the courtroom at State Supreme Court in New York City on Monday. LaPierre, 74, resigned as head of the NRA Friday on the eve of the trial. Photo by Louis Lanzano/UPI

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- A long-awaited civil trial brought by the state of New York against the National Rifle Association and senior management got underway Monday as former CEO Wayne LaPierre and others entered a New York City courtroom.

LaPierre, who resigned as the NRA's longtime chief executive Friday on the eve of the trial, was seen entering New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, along with NRA chief counsel John Frazer and others as they prepared to defend themselves and the powerful gun rights lobbying organization from financial misconduct charges brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

With Monday's scheduled opening arguments before Judge Joel Cohen, the NRA, LaPierre and others are facing a jury after more than three years of trying to delay or dismiss the charges against them.

Jury selection began last week, as LaPierre looked on.

James originally filed suit seeking to the dissolve the New York-based nonprofit in 2020, when she charged the NRA with illegal conduct related to the "diversion of millions of dollars" from its charitable mission for the personal use of senior leaders such as LaPierre, Frazer, Chief Financial Officer Wilson "Woody" Phillips and former Executive Director of General Operations Joshua Powell.

John Frazer, general council of the National Rifle Association enters the courthouse at State Supreme Court for his civil trial on Monday. Frazer along with Wayne LaPierre and others face allegations of financial misconduct. Photo by Louis Lanzano /UPI

James charged them with failing to follow numerous state and federal laws, resulting in "the loss of more than $64 million in just three years for the NRA."

Their alleged misconduct includes awarding lucrative contracts to close associates and family as well as "no-show" contracts to former employees "in order to buy their silence and continued loyalty."

LaPierre, 74, is accused of using NRA funds as his "personal piggy bank" to pay for private jets, lavish vacations, and to pay friends and allies for jobs that didn't exist.

Powell was dropped as a defendant on Friday when he reached a settlement with the attorney general in which he agreed to pay a $100,000 fine and admitted to James' claims of wrongdoing.

"Joshua Powell's admission of wrongdoing and Wayne LaPierre's resignation confirm what we have alleged for years: the NRA and its senior leaders are financially corrupt," James said in a statement, noting that three years of legal maneuvering by the NRA had failed to circumvent the start of the trial.

Those moves included the NRA's declaration of bankruptcy in 2021 as well as four separate attempts by the group to have the case dismissed, with the final one coming last week. In that Jan. 3 ruling, New York's First Division court of appeals, essentially serving as the state's highest court, rejected the pro-gun group's claim that the probe violated its First Amendment rights.
An influential and controversial conservative Idaho lobbying group announced Monday that it has parted ways with its longtime president, replacing him with a former state representative known for his far-right policies.

The Idaho Freedom Foundation said in a news release that Ron Nate, who served several legislative terms between 2014 and 2022, would replace organization cofounder Wayne Hoffman as president.

According to the release, Hoffman told the nonprofits board of directors in 2022 that he planned to pursue other opportunities. In a text message, Hoffman told the Idaho Statesman it was time to pass the torch after 15 years with the Idaho Freedom Foundation. Hoffman  who in recent years gave up a permanent residence in Idaho in favor of an RV lifestyle  said he will remain in Idaho to help the group through the leadership transition in the coming months.

Nate, who joined the Freedom Foundation as a senior policy fellow in 2022 after losing in a primary, was known as one of the farthest-right members of the Legislature.

Early in his tenure, Nate was among a small cadre of lawmakers who voted to kill a bill on federal child-support compliance over fears of Sharia law. He was also a critic of so-called social justice curriculum at Boise State University and a proponent of various budget cuts to universities. In his final legislative session, he balked at a bill bringing Idahos tax code in line with federal code and said doing so would violate the portion of the Idaho Constitution that bans same-sex marriage. He declined to comment further Monday.

Since its creation in 2009, the Freedom Foundation has become a driving force behind many of the most conservative issues in Idaho, from anti-transgender sentiment to criticism of public schools. The nonprofit is perhaps best known for its Freedom Index and other related legislative scorecards, which it updates during the session to catalog lawmakers votes by how closely they align with the foundations tenets.

Idaho Freedom Foundation has faced criticism in recent months for its connections to a controversial North Idaho superintendent pick and its decision to hire alt-right personality Dave Reilly to help steer its communications.
One of the newest residents at a Utah Zoo is so cute it could kill, literally.

Utahs Hogle Zoo welcomed Gaia, an eight-month-old black-footed cat, last month as it introduced a furry friend that it described as small in size but large in her feisty personality.

The species is native to Africa, among the smallest in the world and  according to Smithsonian magazine  its one of the deadliest cats on the planet with the ability to capture more prey in a single night than a leopard does in six months.

They have a reputation for being a very fierce cat, pound for pound, said Bob Cisneros, the zoos associate director of animal care, in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune.

Gaia, who weighs less than three pounds, comes from a species of successful hunters.

Black-footed cats have a hunting success rate of over 60%, Cisneros said.

The cats also have accelerated metabolisms so theyre constantly hunting, said Luke Hunter, Chief Conservation Officer at the wildcat conservation organization Panthera, in a 2018 interview with Live Science.

They can kill up to 14 rodents or small birds in a single night and are three times as successful at killing compared to lions, he said.

Gaia arrived at the Salt Lake City-based zoo on a breeding recommendation from the Black-footed Cat Consortium, according to the zoos Facebook page.

The zoo defined the new residents arrival as an important step in the conservation of her species, noting that theres 29 black-footed cats in the consortium.

Ryder, a male black-footed cat, also resides at the zoo. The zoo said the introduction of the two cats is in the cards but noted that theyll get acquainted when Gaia reaches maturity.

Utahs Hogle Zoo, in a Facebook post over the weekend, shared a video of the furry new arrival and declared that she boasts the biggest eyes youve ever seen.

She may look adorable, but looks can be deceiving, the zoo said.

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Grupo Firme performed at the Alamodome in 2022. Now, the venue is attempting to woo the Latin Grammy-winning band to come back.

On Wednesday, the regional Mexican group promoted its latest tour, La Ultima Peda Tour, which is coming to Mexico, the United States, Latin America and Europe this year. The band asked fans where they wanted the group to perform, saying the cities and countries mentioned the most would be where it would go. The post has garnered almost 80,000 comments as of Monday.

On Friday, the Alamodome posted a video to social media of Grupo Firme during the 2022 performance. The venue asked whether residents think there are enough of the band's fans here who would comment "San Antonio" and tag the Alamodome on the group's social posts to lure the group back.

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Grupo Firme formed in 2014. In 2021, the band won four Premios Juventud awards.
The Sacramento Police Department arrested a man accused of threatening a woman with a spear Sunday night and then fleeing from police on a high-speed chase, weaving throughout south Sacramento and Highway 99.

Officers were called by the suspects son about 10:15 p.m. to the 1900 block of 71st Avenue after his parents got into an argument and began slashing each others tires, according to radio dispatches. The father also threatened the callers mom with a spear before fleeing the residence in the Meadowview neighborhood, dispatches said.

The man drove throughout the Meadowview, Valley Hi Laguna and Parkway neighborhoods before getting onto Highway 99, according to radio dispatches and Police Department spokesman Officer Anthony Gamble, where police estimated he drove about 99 mph. Officers attempted to deploy spike strips at Florin Road and Franklin Boulevard but were unsuccessful.

About five minutes later, officers successfully used spike strips to stop him around Florin and 25th Street, radio dispatches said.

Police arrested a 54-year-old Sacramento man, whos also accused of hitting a police car with an officer in it. The officer didnt suffer injuries, Gamble said.

The suspect faces five felony charges: assault on a peace officer, driving under the influence causing injury or death, driving with a blood alcohol level of more than 0.08%, evading police officers causing serious bodily injury and evading peace officers.

He was in custody as of Friday morning at the Sacramento County Main Jail with bail set at $150,000, online jail records showed.
KINGSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)  A man is facing charges after allegedly burning a childs neck and other body parts with a lighter.

According to the Kingston Police Department, in February 2023, Luzerne County Children and Youth Services were called for a 5-year-old who was burned with a lighter on the neck allegedly by Raheam Patterson, 31, of Kingston.

The victim was interviewed at the Childrens Advocacy Center and said Patterson gave them a boo-boo with a lighter on their neck and arms, for being a bad kid, as stated in court documents.

Two teens allegedly stole over $300 from Walmart

An examination was conducted and as a result, numerous injuries, in various stages of healing, were found all over the victims body including the neck, arms, torso, and upper thighs, police said.

Patterson has been charged with aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and simple assault. He remains in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility after being denied bail.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PAhomepage.com.
A man has been arrested and charged with murder following a New Years Day shooting near Cincinnati.

>>Kind of shocked; Neighbors concerned after deadly shooting happens in quiet community

Mount Healthy Police responded to the 7600 block of Hamilton Avenue on reports of shots fired. Hamilton County Sheriffs deputies told our news partner WCPO that the initial calls were about a vehicle that got hit by a bullet.

No victims were found but police say Curtis Long, 27, transported himself to UC Medical Center.

Deputies said to WCPO that Long died at the hospital.

>>Multiple local businesses impacted by power surge, smoke odors Sunday afternoon

Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey and Mt. Healthy Police Chief Jerome Deidescheimer said an arrest was been made Sunday night.

Aaron McFarland, 38, was taken into custody and charged with aggravated murder, WCPO said.

Another man called 911 to report the shooting, in a 911 call obtained by WCPO.

He was driving home on Hamilton Avenue when a bullet went through his car door.

I opened the door and saw that the bullet had passed through the door and into my daughters car seat and passed along a path that wouldve absolutely killed my daughter, he said. It passed through her car seat and lodged itself in the rear passenger side door. The police just pulled the slug out of the door this morning.

The shooting remains under investigation.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  The man recorded on video jumping a table and charging at a Las Vegas judge, attacking her and her staff, appeared before that same judge Monday morning.

Judge Mary Kay Holthus had ordered Deobra Redden, 30, to appear in court by any and all means necessary for the interrupted sentencing hearings continuance as the 8 News Now Investigators first reported.

Redden, who was sentenced from 19 months to four years on an attempted battery charge, appeared in the courtroom wearing a mask and surrounded by court marshals, two Metro police officers held onto him. Before sentencing Redden, Holthus said she did not modify or change her decision on his sentence because of the attack.

Deobra Redden appears in court after attacking a Las Vegas judge. (KLAS)

As the 8 News Now Investigators first reported last Wednesday, Deobra Redden, 30, a three-time felon, was in Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus courtroom for sentencing on a charge of attempted battery with substantial bodily harm. As Holthus was getting ready to sentence Redden to prison, he lunged over the bench and attacked her.

After leaping over the bench, Redden allegedly slammed Holthus head against a wall, struck her once on the head, and pulled some hair out of her head, documents said. She then hid under her desk balled up covering her face. The ensuing struggle lasted several minutes. Holthus marshal received a gash to his head and received 25 stitches.

Following the attack, the Holthus courtroom underwent a hazmat cleaning due to blood in the courtroom from the fight.

Redden also hit and punched a corrections officer who was present in the courtroom, documents said. Holthus law clerk, Michael Lasso, was cut several times on his hand in the melee.

Court minutes posted regarding last Wednesdays hearing said officers remanded Redden into custody due to a disruption in the courtroom.

Las Vegas Metro police released this booking photo of Deobra Redden, 30, taken after the court attack on Jan. 3, 2024. (LVMPD/KLAS)

Redden told corrections officers he had a bad day and tried to kill her, according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators first obtained Thursday.

Mondays hearing is a continuance of Wednesdays. Holthus was preparing to sentence Redden to prison time before he attacked her, video showed. Reddens attorney had asked Holthus to sentence his client to probation. Prosecutor Richard Scow asked Holthus to consider sentencing Redden to 19-48 months in prison.

Redden faces new charges for what happened in court in a completely new case, which he was due to return to court for Tuesday. Redden faced 13 charges in connection with Wednesdays attack.

As the 8 News Now Investigators reported Wednesday, Redden was previously in front of Holthus on charges of malicious destruction of property. Holthus granted him probation in that case. Records show he served prison time on a domestic battery charge for a year, starting in 2021. In that case, a different judge sentenced Redden to prison for a term of 12-30 months.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
A man who was seen on video jumping and attacking a judge sitting behind a bench in Clark County, Nevada, last week was back in court Monday and was sentenced by the same judge for a separate incident.

Deobra Redden, 30, was sentenced to 19 months to four years in prison for a charge of attempted battery with substantial bodily harm.

His hands, mouth and face were covered during his court appearance Monday.

Judge Mary Kay Holthus stressed that was the sentence she planned to impose before Redden attacked her in the now-viral incident.

When we were last here, arguments were concluded and the court had begun to pronounce sentence when an incident occurred, an incident initiated by Mr. Redden, preventing the court from completing the sentencing, Holthus said. Any other issues that may arise from the events that occurred last Wednesday will be handled at a future date by a different court.

Redden was charged with seven counts of battery on a protected person and battery in connection with last weeks attack, according to court records.

The incident last week unfolded Wednesday after Redden and his attorney asked the judge for probation rather than time behind bars, saying the 30-year-old is getting his life back on track with a new job and plans to resume his education.

Holthus then read the defendants criminal history aloud in court, which included three felonies  misdemeanors, multiple DVs (domestic violence)  robberies, attempted home invasion.

Reddens attorney told the judge he believes his client could successfully complete probation.

I appreciate that, the judge replied, but I think its time that he get a taste of something else because  I just cant, with that history.

Seconds later, Redden shouted, F**k that b*tch! and ran toward the judge, leaping over the bench and attacking her. Redden tackled Holthus to the ground, and both disappeared from the cameras view behind the bench, the video shows.

As others in the courtroom tried to restrain him, Redden screamed, F**k you both! and threw several punches.

The judge stayed on the ground for several minutes before standing up, appearing to say she hit her head. Holthus experienced some injuries, a statement from Clark County Courts read.

By Thursday, she was back at work, but remained sore and stiff, Chief Judge Jerry Wiese told reporters.

The district attorney said his office is reviewing evidence and plans to file additional charges against Redden, CNN previously reported.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)  A man was charged with multiple felonies last week in connection to a shooting in Buffalos Kensington neighborhood in December 2023, the Buffalo Police Department announced Monday.

Terrence Coleman, 37, was arrested Thursday and charged with felony attempted murder, assault and criminal contempt as well additional misdemeanors related to the alleged shooting on the 500 block of Stockbridge Avenue on Dec. 23.

Police allege that Coleman violated an order of protection and entered the home of a female victim around 1:30 a.m. before starting to hit the woman. A man who intervened was struck with gunfire during the altercation and suffered multiple gun shot wounds.

The man, who was not identified by police, was taken to ECMC for treatment.

Coleman has been charged with the following:

Second degree attempted murder, felony

First degree assault, felony

First degree criminal contempt, felony

Second degree menacing, felony,

Fourth degree criminal possession of a weapon, misdemeanot

Latest Local News

Justin McMullen is a Western New York native who joined the News 4 team in 2023. You can read more of his work here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo.
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. (DC News Now)  The Office of the Commonwealths Attorney said that a man accused of killing a kitten in 2023, then setting an apartment building on fire weeks later, entered a guilty plea to charges he faced in connection to both.

The Prince William County Police Department (PWCPD) said it went to an apartment in the 14900 block of Potomac Heights Pl. on May 26, 2023 after officers received a call about a fight involving Frederick Pierce, who was 18 at the time, and a family member of the woman who called police. She told them that when she left the home in the Woodbridge area for work that morning, her 3-month-old Siamese/Maine Coon kitten, Misty, was in her room. The woman went on to say that when she came home that evening, she saw her bedroom door was open and that Misty was on the floor with his legs barely moving.

PWCPD said Pierce, whom the woman knew, admitted he hit the kitten with a shoe because Misty was bad and destroyed furniture. Pierce said Misty came into the room and kept bothering him, so he went into the hallway and hit Misty twice in the head with the shoe Pierce was wearing.

Misty died as a result.

Man shot, killed wife in Prince William County, police say

Prosecutors said on or about June 14, 2023, a fire marshal lieutenant went to the same apartment in Potomac Heights Place after receiving a report that Pierce set two fires after he threatened to burn down the apartment.

A witness saw the fire at the foot of Pierces bed and put it out with the help of someone else. They locked Pierce out of the apartment, then heard smoke detectors in the hallway. The witnesses told investigators they saw smoke through the peephole of the apartments door. A neighbor, with the help of police, put out the second fire, which was started in the trash can in the apartment complexs mailroom on the second floor.

After entering guilty pleas on Jan. 4, 2024, Pierces sentencing date was set for Apr. 25, 2024.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC.
FALL RIVER  A man formerly of Somerset will stand before a judge on Tuesday after a deadly car crash on the Veterans Memorial Bridge on Christmas night that killed a family of three.

Adam Gauthier, 41, of New York is scheduled to appear in Fall River District Court. He is accused of driving drunk the wrong way on the bridge and crashing into multiple cars, causing the deaths of Jacoby Arruda, 15, and his grandparents, Floriano and Donna Arruda.

Gauthier suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the crash and was held on $100,000 cash bail. On Tuesday, hell face a pre-trial hearing on multiple charges and be arraigned on new charges. Heres a recap of what happened and a look at what to expect.

'I wish we had more time': Family is devastated after Christmas crash that left 3 dead

From left, Donna, Jacoby and Floriano Arruda of Seekonk are seen in a family photo. The three were killed after a devastating car crash in Somerset on Christmas night.

What happened in the Christmas car crash?

Just after 11 p.m. on Christmas, troopers from the State Police Dartmouth Barracks responded to the westbound side of the Veterans Memorial Bridge between Fall River and Somerset. A preliminary investigation indicated that a 2023 Range Rover SUV with a New York registration was driving east on the westbound side. The Range Rover struck two westbound vehicles, a 2019 Honda Accord sedan with two occupants and a 2014 Infiniti QX50 SUV with three occupants.

The driver and passenger of the Honda, both of them young adult women from Taunton, suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were treated at Charlton Memorial Hospital.

The Arrudas, of Seekonk, were in the Infiniti SUV. Jacoby Arruda was pronounced dead that night at Charlton Memorial Hospital. Floriano Arruda, 73, was pronounced dead the next morning at Rhode Island Hospital.

Donna Arruda, 68, spent several days at Rhode Island Hospital in severe condition, and died Dec. 29 from her injuries.

Floriano and Donna had custody of Jacoby and raised him. The three were buried in Notre Dame Cemetery in Fall River after a triple funeral on Jan. 5.

Arruda family laid to rest: Funeral planned for three family members killed in Christmas night crash in Somerset

From left, Jacoby Arruda, 15, and his grandparents Donna and Floriano Arruda died following a wrong-way crash on Veterans Memorial Bridge in Somerset on Christmas, Dec. 25, 2023.

What is Adam Gauthier charged with?

Gauthier was arraigned from his hospital bed at St. Lukes Hospital in New Bedford on Dec. 26. He was charged with two counts of manslaughter while operating under the influence, two counts of motor vehicle homicide-OUI liquor, and one count each of OUI-liquor with serious bodily injury, reckless operation of a motor vehicle and driving the wrong way on a state highway.

At the time of his arraignment, Donna Arruda had not succumbed to her injuries.

Following her death, the Bristol County District Attorneys Office charged him with additional charges of manslaughter while operating under the influence and motor vehicle homicide-OUI liquor. He will be arraigned on those two new charges Tuesday.

What sentence could he see if convicted of those charges?

According to Massachusetts General Laws, motor vehicle homicide-OUI liquor is a felony, and a conviction results in a mandatory minimum of one year in the House of Correction or minimum 2 and a half years in state prison; OUI-liquor with serious bodily injury is a felony, and a conviction means a mandatory minimum of six months in the House of Correction or 2 and a half years in state prison.

Manslaughter while operating under the influence is a felony, and conviction results in a minimum five-year state prison sentence.

Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Former Somerset man to face OUI manslaughter charges after car crash
A 47-year-old man was stabbed to death in his apartment in Canada more than 41 years ago, police said.

The suspect in the killing of Kevin McBride was recently identified as William Taylor after DNA testing, the Toronto Police Service said in Jan. 8 news release.

However, Taylor died in May  shortly before he was identified as a murder suspect, police said.

McBride was found stabbed to death May 17, 1982, two days after he was killed, police said.

He was supposed to meet friends for dinner, but he never showed up, so his friends contacted police. Authorities found him dead.

During the investigation, police said they learned McBrides vehicle and credit card had been stolen in the days following his death, but a suspect was never named.

The case went cold until it was reopened in 2016.

Forensic genetic genealogy used to identify suspect

Investigators then retested DNA evidence and determined a male profile, not of the deceased had been at the scene, police said.

In 2022, the police department partnered with Othram, a lab in The Woodlands, Texas, that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy.

Othram created a DNA profile from the evidence, helping authorities identify Taylor as a suspect in the summer of 2023.

Taylor was 34 at the time of the killing, and he would have been arrested on a first-degree murder charge if he had been alive, authorities said.

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Boxes of the diabetes drug Ozempic rest on a pharmacy counter on April 17, 2023, in Los Angeles. Mario Tama/TNS

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating new reports of adverse side effects associated with several popular weight loss drugs including Ozempic.

The agency said it was evaluating the need for regulatory action due to the potential new dangers including suicidal thoughts or hair loss linked to medications approved to treat diabetes or weight loss. The drugs in this class, known as GLP-1 receptors, include Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound.

In a quarterly report released last week, the FDA revealed its Adverse Event Reporting System, or FAERS, received reports of suicidal ideation; alopecia, or hair loss; and aspiration, a condition when food or other objects are inhaled into the airway, in people who used the medications, according to CBS News.

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The appearance of a drug on this list does not mean that FDA has concluded that the drug has the listed risk, the FAERS website says. It means the FDA has identified a potential safety issue, but it does not mean that FDA has identified a casual relationship between the drug and the listed risk.

If the agency determines after further evaluation that the drug is associated with the side effects, it may change its labeling or develop a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy, its website says.

The FDA approved Ozempic in 2017 to treat diabetes and Wegovey in 2021 to treat obesity. The active ingredient in both injectable medications, semaglutide, lowers blood sugar levels and helps with insulin production, signaling the brain to reduce appetite.

The so-called miracle drugs have skyrocketed in popularity, due largely to social media platforms like TikTok and celebrity endorsements. Last year, around 1.7% of people in the United States were prescribed a semaglutide medication, up 40-fold over the past five years, according to a report from CNN.

The FDAs investigation into reports of suicidal ideation comes months after the European Medicines Agency said it was reviewing about 150 possible cases of self-injury and suicidal thoughts linked to GLP-1 receptor agonists.

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A new federal study, however, paints a much different picture. The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, showed that people taking the popular diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy had a lower risk of suicidal thoughts than those taking other medications to treat the same conditions.

In statements provided to CBS News, Novo Nordisk, which produces Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly, which manufactures Zepbound and Mounjaro, acknowledged the FDAs review of the medications and said they were working closely with the agency on the potential signals.
A Nashville man was charged with murder and other related crimes over the weekend, after he allegedly killed his wife on New Year's Day and buried her body in a neighboring county, police said.

Authorities on Saturday charged 70-year-old Joseph Glynn in the murder of his wife, 76-year-old Jackie Glynn, who was reported missing one day earlier in a silver alert issued by the Metro Nashville Police Department. The alert, which included two images of the woman, said she was last seen on Jan. 1 at her home in Nashville and had mobility issues. She drove a black 2010 Toyota Rav4 with a Tennessee license plate, police said.

SILVER ALERT: Please help us find Jackie Glynn, 76, who was last seen on January 1 at her Abbott Martin Rd home. She drives a black 2010 Toyota Rav4 SUV with TN plate #224BFCY & has mobility issues. See her? Call 615-862-8600. pic.twitter.com/37wVQqzjW8  Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) January 5, 2024

Her husband was charged the following morning with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering in connection with Jackie Glynn's death. An investigation showed that Joseph Glynn killed her on Jan. 1, and the next day drove her body to a property in Dekalb County, where he buried it, according to Nashville police. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a Facebook post that Jackie Glynn was found dead in the city of Smithville.

"Our thoughts are with those who knew and loved her," the bureau said.

Dekalb County, which includes Smithville, is over an hour outside of Nashville by car.

Joseph Glynn confessed to hitting his wife in the head with a hammer, killing her, on New Year's Day, CBS affiliate WTVF reported, citing police. She owned the seven-acre property in Dekalb County where her body was found, according to the news station.

An affidavit for Joseph Glynn's arrest showed that he towed and hid his wife's car after killing her, according to WTVF. He also allegedly disposed of the murder weapon and sold some of her belongings. Joseph Glynn's confession came after Nashville police contacted the sheriff in Dekalb County and prompted a welfare check Friday at the Glynns' property there, where Jackie Glynn's son was already looking for his mother. A neighbor told authorities and the son that they had noticed a hole on the property that was recently filled.

"We went onto the property and found what we thought to be a burial site. We found out that the hole was dug on December 16 by a contractor who had been told by Mr. Glynn that he wanted the hole for a burn pit. The hole was six feet wide, ten feet long, and six feet deep," said Dekalb County Sheriff Patrick Ray in a statement to WTVF. Joseph Glynn told Nashville police on Friday that he had been at the Dekalb County property earlier in the day making a bonfire.

Sheriff's deputies discovered Jackie Glynn's body buried in the hole inside of a plastic vehicle cargo box, which was beneath a large pile of new roofing shingles and covered with dirt, WTVF reported.

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Steven Lopez has pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the fatal shooting of photographer Tyler Gerth as protesters gathered at Jefferson Square Park in June 2020.

Lopez, 27, also pleaded guilty to 21 counts of wanton endangerment. He faces a recommendation of 30 years in prison, 18 of them for Gerth's death, according to court documents. His sentencing is set for Feb. 13.

"While nothing will ever bring Tyler back and we will never truly have justice for him being taken from us, its an important step for Mr. Lopez to take responsibility for his actions and plead guilty to his crimes," Tyler Gerth's family said in a statement. "We remain focused on carrying on Tylers memory through the works of Building Equal Bridges, the Tyler Gerth Foundation, by continuing in his legacy of compassion and generosity."

His godfather was Joe Gerth, a Courier Journal columnist. Tyler Gerth also was a godfather to the Louisville columnist's daughter.

The shooting occurred June 27, 2020, at Jefferson Square Park - a popular gathering spot in downtown Louisville for people protesting for racial justice in the wake of Breonna Taylor's shooting by police.

A report of multiple gunshots came in to MetroSafe Communications around 9 that night. When Louisville Metro Police officers arrived, they found a person shot - later identified as Gerth - in the middle of the park near a short concrete wall, according to Lopez's arrest citation.

Video surveillance and several witnesses identified Lopez as the shooter who fired into a crowd, as described in the citation.

Lopez had grabbed a gun from a protester who was among a group that had asked Lopez to leave the park for getting into an earlier altercation, according to court testimony in 2020.

Several bystanders returned fire, shooting Lopez in the leg, according to police records.

Explaining why he opened fire at the park, Lopez told police he thought Gerth had a rifle and that others "were coming after him," according to 2020 court testimony. There is no evidence Gerth was armed.

Gerth, 27, had become a vocal supporter of ongoing protests against racism and police brutality and, his family said, a strong supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. He was there to photograph what was happening.

Lopez was a frequent participant in the demonstrations at the time. Court records show he was one of 17 protesters arrested on June 17, 2020 and a Courier Journal photographer captured his arrest that day in a photo. He was charged that morning with inciting a riot, disorderly conduct, harassment and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Lopez's grandparents said in 2020 that Lopez had struggled with mental illness since he was a child.

As part of his plea agreement, Lopez has agreed to obtain his GED or high school diploma and complete a vocational program as well as any treatment programs available to him while in custody. He cannot have any contact with the victims listed in the indictment.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Steven Lopez guilty in shooting of Tyler Gerth at Louisville protest
A man stole thousands of dollars in Social Security benefits by lying about his living situation for 16 years, federal prosecutors said.

During that time, the Massachusetts resident pretended he didnt live with his wife, lied to the Social Security Administration about where he resided and overstated his monthly rent by $575, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts.

This allowed him to collect more than $114,000 in disability benefits he wasnt entitled to, prosecutors said.

If he was honest about his living arrangements, the Social Security Administration would have significantly reduced the monthly disability payments issued to him, prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents.

Now the man, 51, of Belchertown, has been sentenced to 10 months in prison on Jan. 4, the attorneys office announced in a Jan. 5 news release.

Following a four-day trial in August, a jury found him guilty of one count of theft of public funds, prosecutors said.

McClatchy News contacted his court-appointed defense attorney, Peter A. Slepchuk, for comment Jan. 8 and didnt receive an immediate response.

Slepchuk argued in support of a sentence of six months of home confinement with three years probation, instead of prison, for his client in a sentencing memorandum, which refers to the mans wife as his ex-wife.

He was not using his SSI benefits to lead a lavish lifestyle with yachts, private jets, and stays at luxury resorts..(he) lived in a rundown trailer in abject poverty, Slepchuk wrote of his client in the memo.

According to Slepchuk, the man and his ex-wife both received disability benefits issued by the SSA.

They were only receiving between $17,628.00 (2006) and $22,536.00 (2019) annually as a couple, Slepchuck wrote. By comparison the annual Federal Benefit Rate for a couple was $10,848.00 in 2006 and $13,884.00 in 2019. One can only wonder how two disabled people are expected to survive on such little income.

When the man lived with the woman, her income wouldve been considered by the SSA in determining how much in monthly disability payments he was eligible for, prosecutors said.

They sought a lengthier sentence of one year and six months in prison for the man, as he has failed to take any responsibility for his actions, and he should be punished accordingly, documents said.

Around the same time of the Social Security theft, prosecutors said the man embezzled $46,000 from his trailer park association while he was the associations treasurer.

This led to a state superior court judge sentencing him to seven years of supervised probation and ordering him to pay restitution in 2017, according to a report issued that year by the Northwestern District Attorneys Office.

In regards to the Social Security case, Slepchuk wrote in the sentencing memo that his client recognizes that any theft is wrong and worthy of sanction.

However, he said that the case is not one of an already wealthy man stealing to line his pockets even further, but rather, is more akin to a pauper stealing a loaf of bread to avoid starvation.

The man has no assets beyond receiving $940 a month, the amount of disability payments the SSA now issues him, according to Slepchuk.

The man is due back in court for a March 5 hearing, when the judge will determine a restitution and forfeiture amount, according to the attorneys office.

Belchertown is about 85 miles west of Boston.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)  A Buffalo man was sentenced to serve time in prison for fatally shooting a man outside a corner store in 2020, the Erie County District Attorneys office announced Monday.

Mahzhee X. Young, 31, was sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by five years post-release supervision. He previously pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter in the first degree in October 2023.

Buffalo man indicted for murder, gun charge from June 2020 shooting

In June 2020, at approximately 11:18 p.m., Young, authorities said, shot the victim with an illegal weapon outside a corner store on East Ferry and Grider streets during a verbal altercation.

The victim, identified as 27-year-old David D. Moore, was taken to ECMC where he later died from his injuries.

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Emily Miller is a digital producer who has been part of the News 4 team since 2022. See more of her work here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo.
Months after an 18-month-old girl was shot to death through a wall in her home, a man has been accused of trying to cover up the details of her death to protect his son, a Florida sheriffs office said.

On Sept. 3, 2023, deputies responded to a Palm Coast home to reports of a child who had been shot, and arrived to find frantic family members standing outside a home, Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said during a Nov. 16 news conference.

The 18-month-old, identified by the sheriffs office as JaLiyah Allen, had been shot in the head and later died.

Deputies said it was clear the child had not shot herself, according to comments made Sept. 4 on a Facebook Live news conference by the sheriffs office.

Everyone that was at that home gave conflicting statements as to what occurred, the sheriff said in November. The statements, frankly, did not match the evidence. While deputies and paramedics were responding, we believe others in the home were doing their best to destroy and move evidence.

Two months after the shooting, the sheriff said investigators were able to determine what happened inside the home.

The childs mother was going to take a shower but the water was too hot, Staly said, so the mom was playing with her daughter in the hallway as she waited for it to cool.

As they played, a gunshot went off from a nearby room, going through the wall and into the hallway before hitting the baby in the head, Staly said.

In the other room was a man, according to the sheriff, who was high on marijuana while he was handling a gun and showing it off when it discharged.

The man, identified as 22-year-old C.J. Nelson Jr., was indicted by a grand jury on Nov. 15 on a charge of manslaughter with a firearm, in addition to an existing charge of probation violation.

The sheriffs office did not release Nelsons relationship to JaLiyah Allen, or her mother.

JaLiyahs father, JaMari Allen, was not home at the time of the shooting, Staly told WJXT.

She was just learning all she could do, Allen told the outlet about his daughter.

On Jan. 8, 2024, the sheriffs office said Nelson tried to cover up the shooting, but he didnt work alone.

Based on the investigation and forensic evidence, we now know that C.J. Nelson Sr. was called and arrived on site almost immediately after the shooting occurred, Staly said. ... He provided instructions on how to stage the scene. C.J. Nelson (Sr.) was observed taking the firearm used in the shooting from (his son), using a t-shirt to prevent and wipe off fingerprints from being found on the weapon and placing it in the bedroom where deputies found it.

Staly said Nelson Sr. then told other members of the family and witnesses of the shooting a story to be used as an alibi for himself and his son.

Nelson Sr. told everyone to lie to deputies and say he and his son were outside smoking when the baby was shot, Staly said, and then told his son to take a shower at another home while other family members went with the 18-month-old to the hospital.

Staly said the father made phone calls and veiled threats to deputies, members of the media and sheriffs office personnel in the time since his son was arrested.

Nelson Sr. was charged with tampering with evidence and lying to a law enforcement officer, and was taken into custody.

He has since been released on bond, the sheriff said.

Palm Coast is about 60 miles south of Jacksonville.

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A man wanted in connection with a December homicide investigation in Nashville was taken into custody and jailed in the Downtown Detention Center.

Corey Frazier, 43, was booked in about 2 a.m. Monday on a charge of criminal homicide with bail set at $1 million.

Frazier is charged in connection with the Dec. 22 death of 43-year-old Richard Wilder.

Wilder's death first began as a traffic crash investigation in the 1400 block of Brick Church Pike. The car Wilder was driving travelled at a high rate of speed before losing control and crashing through a pole. The car stopped in a nearby parking lot.

Police realized Wilder had been shot and began a homicide investigation.

On Friday, Metro Nashville Police announced Frazier was wanted in connection with the case.

Investigators believe Wilder was shot during an argument with Frazier near the scene of the wreck.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville police: Man wanted after fatal shooting, car wreck jailed
KENS5 personality Clarke Finney Romo has revealed that she suffered a serious brain injury in October and is "currently relearning everything."

"Hey guys, I hope youve missed me on tv and I want yall to know Ive missed you too," Romo, co-host of Great Day SA, said in a Facebook post Monday afternoon.

Romo, who has not appeared on-air since October, said a medical emergency "caused me to have a hypoxic brain injury."

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"Hypoxic" means low in oxygen. A hypoxic brain injury occurs when the brain doesn't receive enough oxygen because blood flow is interrupted or the blood doesn't contain enough oxygen, which causes brain cells to die. Neurological disabilities that affect thinking, vision and movement can result. The severity of the effects depends on how long the brain was deprived of adequate oxygen.

"I am currently re-learning everything but one thing I havent forgotten is how much I love you guys," Romo wrote on Facebook. "I miss serving my community and I cant wait to see you all when I fully recover."

The most common cause of hypoxic brain injury is cardiac arrest, according to the National Institutes of Health. Other causes include smoke inhalation, carbon monoxide poisoning, severe anemia and blood loss from a traumatic injury.

Clarke Finney, seen in a 2020 file photo, revealed Monday that she suffered a serious brain injury in October and is "currently relearning everything." Courtesy, Clarke Finney

Romo did not reveal the cause of her brain injury.

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"I hope that you understand how much I love you, and how important being a journalist is to me," Romo wrote. "I would like to say thank you to everyone who has prayed for me, and a very special thank you to the amazing medical staff and therapists who have taken great care of me. Once I fully recover, I look forward to getting back to what I love, and it starts with loving you.

Romo joined Great Day SA in January 2020 after working as a television journalist in West Texas. She was a reporter and morning anchor for both KMID in Midland and KPEJ in Odessa. She has a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Biola University in Southern California.
By Gwladys Fouche

TYRISTRAND, Norway (Reuters) - Lawyers for Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik told a court on Monday he was suffering from "deep depression" and no longer wanted to live as they launched a legal bid to lift his years of isolation in prison.

The far-right fanatic who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in 2011 is suing the state, arguing that his prison conditions violate his human rights.

Among those watching the proceedings in a court room set up in a gym in Norway's the high-security Ringerike jail was Freddy Lie, one of whose daughters was shot dead by Brevik. Another daughter was wounded. "He must never come out again," Lie told Reuters.

Breivik walked into the hearing flanked by three security guards. Wearing a black suit, white shirt and brown tie, Breivik said nothing and sat impassively as his legal team laid out his case.

"He has been isolated for about 12 years ... He lives in a completely locked world," his lawyer, Oeystein Storrvik, told the judge

"He does not wish to be alive anymore," Storrvik added. In one incident in 2018, Breivik wrote the Norwegian words for "KILL ME" on the wall of his cell using his faeces, the lawyer said.

Breivik murdered eight people with a car bomb in Oslo then gunned down 69 others, most of them teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp on July 22, 2011. It remains Norway's worst peacetime atrocity.

The 44-year-old is due to speak himself on Tuesday. He is also asking the court to lift restrictions on his correspondence with the outside world.

Lawyers representing the justice ministry say Breivik must be kept apart the rest of the prison population because of the continuing security threat he poses.

"An extraordinarily dangerous inmate requires extraordinary measures," lawyer Andreas Hjetland told the court on Monday.

"He is still proud of what he has done. He still holds the same ideological views," Hjetland said.

Breivik shook his head in disagreement.

BREIVIK SAYS HE CAN'T SPEAK TO MEDIA

Breivik spends his time in a dedicated section of Ringerike prison, with a training room, a kitchen, a TV room and a bathroom, pictures from a visit last month by news agency NTB showed.

Government lawyers said in a court filing that Breivik's isolation was "relative" as he has contact with guards, a priest, health professionals and, until recently, an outside volunteer that Breivik no longer wishes to see.

He also sees two inmates for an hour every other week, the lawyers said.

At the end of the first break in Monday's proceedings, Breivik turned to a guard, facing the media, and said he had been told by the head of the prison not to talk to reporters.

"It is not because I don't want to, it is because I can't," he said.

The judge will give a verdict in coming weeks. There is no jury.

Breivik is serving a 21-year sentence - the longest a Norwegian court can impose - which can be extended for as long as he is deemed a threat to society.

His prison is on the shore of Tyrifjorden lake, where the island of Utoeya, the site of Breivik's shooting spree, lies.

Breivik also sued the state in 2016, arguing it was breaching the European Convention on Human Rights, including sections saying no one should be subject to "torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

He initially won the case but that was overturned on appeal a year later before any restrictions were lifted.

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Tyristrand, Norway; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Andrew Heavens)
By Burcu Karakas and Ebru Tuncay

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Opposition Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said in an interview on Monday that local elections in March will deliver a message to President Tayyip Erdogan's government about the Turkish people's desire for "democracy, justice and the rule of law".

Imamoglu, 52, acknowledged his re-election bid will be more difficult than his initial victory five years ago because opposition parties are no longer in alliance against candidates from Erdogan's ruling AK Party (AKP).

But Imamoglu - who governs Turkey's biggest city and is the opposition's highest-profile leader nationwide - told Reuters he is confident of defeating a newly-named AKP challenger Murat Kurum, a former government minister.

"We want to see and experience a process where this city can send its messages to Turkey in terms of democracy, justice and rule of law," said Imamoglu, of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

"If this happens of course there will be several messages sent to the government. Let them worry about that," he said.

Erdogan's critics say that Turkey's judiciary, civil rights and press freedoms have eroded under his watch, charges the government denies.

Last May, Erdogan won re-election as Turkey's president while his AKP and its allies took a majority in parliamentary elections, illustrating the challenge faced by a dispirited opposition in the nationwide municipal elections on March 31.

As part of the fallout, the CHP and other opposition parties, including nationalists IYI and pro-Kurdish DEM, have not agreed to field shared candidates in big cities, many of which they won together in 2019.

Imamoglu said he can win voters from other opposition parties and from the AKP.

"The fact is that it will be tougher than the last election," Imamoglu said at his offices overlooking the Bosphorus Strait intersecting Istanbul. "Back then, the alliances were in a clearer position."

Imamoglu's election in 2019 ended 25 years of rule in Istanbul by the AKP and its Islamist predecessors, and represented a sharp defeat for Erdogan given he too once served as the city's mayor.

The AKP contested the vote and demanded a re-run, but Imamoglu won that by an even larger margin. He called the 2019 vote - in which the AKP also lost the capital Ankara and other cities - a "turning point" for Turkish politics.

Despite what he describes as pressure and obstacles from the central government, Imamoglu said his administration has delivered services and development in Istanbul.

"The public banks did not provide us with any financial opportunities. Despite all this, I would like to say that we had a period of great success," he said.

Erdogan said AKP mayoral candidate Kurum was appointed on Sunday to "bring Istanbul out of the interregnum" of the last five years. Imamoglu said Kurum's candidature has no impact on his chances as both politicians start their campaigns.

In the interview, the mayor also said he was "not concerned at all" about a 2.5-year prison sentence and political ban handed down by a court for insulting public officials after his 2019 election win.

The court of appeals has not approved the sentence, which the opposition said is evidence of Erdogan's willingness to intervene in judicial matters.

(Additional reporting by Birsen Altayli; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Ros Russell)
A representative of the European Commission has sent the Polish government a letter expressing their concern about the ongoing blockade of the Polish-Ukrainian border, the Polish media outlet RMF24 reported on Jan. 8, citing representatives of the commission.

Polish truckers have been blocking three crossings with Ukraine since November 2023 in protest of the EU's liberalization of transit rules for Ukrainian truckers, causing massive lines on the border and negatively impacting Ukraine's economy.

Polish farmers then launched a blockade at a fourth crossing at Medyka. They temporarily suspended the protest over the Christmas period between Dec. 24 and Jan. 4.

The farmers said they launched the protest because the authorities have not taken enough measures to protect their livelihoods, despite an import ban on Ukrainian grain.

EU Transport Commissioner Adina Valean sent Poland's Infrastructure Minister Dariusz Klimczak a letter to stress the country's "obligation to ensure the free movement of vehicles at border crossings with Ukraine in accordance with the road transport agreement between the EU and Ukraine."

The European Commission has offered support in resolving the border dispute. EU representatives told RMF24 that the "(Yahodyn)-Dorohusk blockade has important consequences for Ukraine, Poland and the European Union."

The Polish Agriculture Ministry announced on Jan. 6 that Polish farmers agreed to suspend their border blockade at the Shehyni-Medyka crossing after reaching an agreement with government representatives.

Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski pledged to meet three of the farmers farmers' demands on Jan. 6.

These include launching corn subsidies worth one billion zloty ($251 million), increasing liquidity loans by 2.5 billion zloty ($629 million), and keeping agricultural tax at the 2023 level.

Farmers have also previously asked to expand the import ban on Ukrainian agricultural products to items like sugar, eggs, and poultry, but this was not included in the deal reached on Jan. 6.

Read also: Anger and disappointment in endless lines of Ukrainian trucks at Polish border

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The Medina County Sheriff's Office said they arrested Tyler Philips in connection to one of several pellet gun shootings in Medina County. Medina County Sheriff's Office

Medina County authorities arrested one person in connection to a string of pellet gun shootings around the county.

Last month, The Medina County Sheriffs Office said they were searching for a group of people who were shooting at random vehicles throughout the county.

Incidents had been reported along two-lane highways in Natalia, LaCoste and Castroville. According to KSAT, 11 drivers had reported damage to their vehicles due to the shootings.

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On Friday, the sheriff's office said in a Facebook post that Tyler Phillips was arrested and charged with deadly conduct and criminal mischief for the shooting of a passing vehicle near LaCoste, Texas.

Philips was booked on bonds totaling $4,000, according to the sheriff's office.

"We are continuing to investigate over a dozen other cases where moving vehicles were shot and damaged by BB or pellet guns, and we will not stop, said Sheriff Randy Brown in a statement.

Brown told KSAT that no one had been seriously hurt from the shootings, but it could happen. He said he encourages anyone who may have been struck to report it to the sheriffs office immediately.

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MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan said Sunday he is leaving the network, effective immediately, after his Sunday night show was canceled late last year.

Its been an absolute blast doing this live show on MSNBC, Hasan told viewers during his closing remarks on his final program Sunday. Its been a privilege, its been a pleasure. But, as we begin 2024 with an election coming, a war still ongoing and too many Trump trials honestly to even keep track of  Ive decided its time for me to look for a new challenge.

Some personal news: I've decided to leave MSBNC.



New year, new plans, new challenges:pic.twitter.com/A4ArRYk9d2  Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 8, 2024

Hasan, a former journalist for Al Jazeera English and the Intercept, launched his eponymous show on Peacock in 2020 before MSNBC began showing it in 2021. He quickly drew fans who praised the host for his direct lines of questioning and his takedowns of the Republican Party.

He was one of three Muslim hosts at the network alongside colleagues Ayman Mohyeldin and Ali Velshi, and one of just a few on network TV.

MSNBC canceled Hasans show in November as part of what it described as a weekend lineup change. But the move prompted backlash from those who championed Hasans coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and his fierce critiques of the Israeli governments actions in Gaza.

It is bad optics for MSNBC to cancel @mehdirhasans show right at a time when he is vocal for human rights in Gaza with the war ongoing, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), wrote on X at the time. As a strong supporter of free speech, MSNBC owes the public an explanation for this decision. Why would they choose to do this now?

Hasans coverage often went viral on social media as he took aim at former President Donald Trump and supported the Palestinian people. Recently, Hasan questioned Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israels prime minister, on the thousands of children killed in Gaza since Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7.

Me: "You accept that you [Israel] have killed children [in Gaza]? Or do you deny that?"



Netanyahu adviser Mark Regev: "No, I do not. First of all, you don't know how those people died, those children."



Me: "Oh wow."pic.twitter.com/UGLsEktyFf  Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 17, 2023

The Washington Post reported in November that the decision to cancel his program was not related to his coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

MSNBC initially said Hasan was meant to stay on as a political analyst and fill-in anchor. But he said Sunday the new year merited a change in his professional aspirations.

I am so proud, so so proud, of what weve achieved on this show, on this network, Hasan added. But as I say, new year, new plans.

Related...
A Miami-Dade corrections employee is behind bars at the same jail in which he worked after being accused of sexually battering an inmate.

Johny Jovin, a 46-year-old from the West Little River neighborhood, was arrested Saturday. Police say Jovin directed an inmate working in the kitchen area of the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center to enter a walk-in refrigerator to help him.

But when she did, he grabbed her by the waist and kissed her, according to an arrest report. The inmate pushed Jovin away, but he moved closer and slid his hand into her pants.

Johny Jovin, an employee at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, was charged with sexual battery by a law enforcement officer or correctional officer.

Some time later, the inmate once again entered the refrigerator, with Jovin following her. For a second time, police say he inserted his hands down her pants  and she pushed him away.

A spokesperson for Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation hasnt responded to the Miami Heralds request for comment as of Monday afternoon.

Jovin, who is charged with sexual battery by a law enforcement officer or correctional officer, is being held without bond.

Turmoil at a Miami-Dade jail?

Jovins arrest, however, is the second time an incident at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center has made headlines in January.

Last week, news broke that an inmate identified by loved ones as Daisy Link was pregnant. Link, who is being held at the jail on a second-degree murder charge, told corrections staff on Dec. 23 that she may be pregnant.

Her pregnancy was confirmed after a thorough medical exam, according to Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson Bridgett Johnson.

The care, safety, and rehabilitation of all those in our custody remains our top priority, Johnson said. And while there is no evidence of sexual battery against our inmate at this time, the circumstances surrounding the pregnancy are currently under active investigation.

Links sister Crystal Barreto told Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami that Link called her from jail and said she was sexually assaulted while behind bars.

We dont know whats going to happen to her, Barreto said. But we do know is Daisy should not be 4 months pregnant in that TGK jail.
Former first lady Michelle Obama said shes terrified about the potential outcome of the 2024 election, listing Novembers presidential contest as among the fears that keep her awake at night, in a podcast interview released Monday.

Whats going to happen in this next election? Im terrified about what could possibly happen, because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways sometimes I think people take for granted, Obama told Jay Shetty on his podcast On Purpose.

The fact that people think that government  eh, does it really even do anything?  and Im like Oh my God, does government do everything for us, and we cannot take this democracy for granted. And I worry sometimes that we do. Those are the things that keep me up, she said.

Her comments come as President Joe Biden begins to ramp up his reelection campaign, narrowing in on a message that democracy is on the ballot this year.

Still, many Democrats have expressed concern that his message isnt resonating, pointing to polls showing him in a close contest with former President Donald Trump.

In the interview, the former first lady listed a number of other items that worry her, including: Are people going to vote, and why arent people voting?

Those are the things that keep me up, because you dont have control over them. And you wonder: Where are we in this? Where are our hearts? she said.

Later, Obama suggested there was a double standard when it came to Trumps legal entanglements and what might happen if a similar predicament befell a Black man.

The bars are different for people in life. That Ive learned, she said.

Without naming Trump, she continued: Other people can be indicted a bunch of times and still run for office. Black men cant. You just learn to be good. And in the end, you benefit from that extra resilience.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Russia maintains a force of 19,000 soldiers on the borders with Ukraine's Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts, the spokesperson of Ukraine's northern forces, Yurii Povkh, said on Jan. 8.

Russian forces invaded the two northern oblasts at the onset of the full-scale invasion in 2022 but were pushed back behind the borders in April of that year.

"This number has not changed for several months, so there is no need to discuss signs of the enemy forming any strike groups," Povkh said on television.

The spokesperson added that a contingent of this size could be used to secure the border but not to break through Ukrainian lines.

While not under the threat of a major offensive, the two regions regularly experience cross-border raids by Russian sabotage groups and shelling.

"Currently, we can say that the enemy is carrying out its harassing fire to a greater extent," Povkh said.

Ukrainian forces are maintaining control over the northern border and preventing the crossing of Russian sabotage groups, the spokesperson added.

In the first two weeks of December, Russian forces attempted to cross the border into the Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts seven times, Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev said. Five of these attempts were caught in the act by Ukrainian troops, he added.

Read also: All residents evacuated from 19 villages in northern Ukraine following Russian attacks

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Almost 15 million metric tons of cargo had been exported through the temporary Black Sea corridor in the past five months, including 10 million metric tons of agricultural products, Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Jan. 8.

The shipping route was opened in August 2023, weeks after Russia's unilateral termination of the Black Sea grain deal threatened Ukraine's ability to ship out its grain.

"In the five months of the corridor's operation, 469 new vessels arrived at our Ukrainian ports to receive cargo," Kubrakov said, according to his Facebook channel.

"Currently, 39 vessels are being loaded in the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Pivdennyi."

Some 83 other ships also confirmed they are ready to enter the ports and export an additional 2.4 million metric tons of cargo, the minister added.

The corridor was originally opened to allow the exit of vessels that had been docked at Ukraine's Black Sea ports since February 2022.

Since then, it has become a route for exporting Ukrainian goods such as grain and metal. Ukraine is a major agricultural producer, and its supplies play a major role in feeding countries across the world, namely in the Global South.

Despite successful Ukrainian strikes against Russian naval capabilities, Black Sea shipping continues to face risks wrought by the all-out war, namely floating mines.

Panama-flagged civilian cargo vessel hit a Russian mine in the Black Sea on Dec. 28, leading to two sailors being injured, Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces reported.

Read also: Is Ukraines new Black Sea corridor working? Experts say it has potential

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The Kherson Commercial Seaport will be able to resume work only after two conditions are formed.

Source: Yurii Vaskov, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, in an interview with LIGA.net outlet.

According to Vaskov, the main condition is liberation of the left (eastern) bank of Kherson Oblast.

"Due to the occupation of the left bank and the Kinburn Spit, navigation there is now dangerous," Yurii Vaskov explained.

The deputy minister added that the second necessary condition is the cessation of the attacks on Kherson.

"This is primarily due to regular attacks on the city. The port of Kherson has been idle since 24 February 2022. Even after the city is liberated, we cannot launch it," Vaskov said.

Background:

Kherson Seaport is unique because it combines two components: the river and the sea. The port also boasts of year-round navigation.

The Dnipro river is the main navigable artery of Ukraine. Cargo that went along the Dnipro was transported in transit through the Port of Kherson in the direction of deep water and then loaded on Panamax vessels in the roadstead of Ochakiv or Odesa.

Previously, the State Service for Maritime, Inland Waterway Transport and Shipping of Ukraine reported that the full restoration of the port is possible only after the liberation of the left bank of the Kherson Oblast.

The destroyed Kakhovka gateway was the last Dnipro gateway, which released ships towards the open sea. In addition, the infrastructure of ports and river terminals located along the mouth of the Dnipro river below the Kakhovka gateway was partially destroyed and disabled.

As is known, Ukrainian troops entered Kherson and surrounding settlements, liberating them from Russian occupation, on 11 November 2022.

In August 2023, it became known that the Cabinet of Ministers decided to disband the Kherson Seaport as an entity; it will join the Olvia Stevedoring Company in Mykolaiv.

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China will significantly increase direct flights with U.S. in 2024

Xinhua) 09:52, January 08, 2024

BEIJING, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on Saturday said that it will work toward a significant increase in direct flights between China and the United States in 2024.

Regular, direct passenger flights between the world's top-two economies have risen in number to 63 per week, official data shows.

Also in 2024, China will actively expand air traffic rights arrangements with Belt and Road countries, and deepen cooperation with Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa, the CAAC said.

The administration will also work to improve visa and border control policies, and facilitate customs clearance processes further.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Security video from the Colinas at Medical apartments on the Northwest Side helped police track down and arrest Ramon Preciado and his son, Christopher, in connection with the fatal shootings of Savanah Soto, a pregnant teenager, and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra. Courtesy of SAPD

San Antonio police needed barely a week to track down and arrest two suspects in the shooting deaths of pregnant teenager Savanah Soto and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra.

Now begins a legal process that could last months or years.

Our job is just beginning, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said. In order to bring justice to the family members, its going to be a long road.

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TIMELINE: What we know about the killings of Savanah Soto and Matthew Guerra

The day after Christmas, the bodies of Soto, 18, and Guerra, 22, were found in his Kia Optima, which had been abandoned at an apartment complex on the Northwest Side. Both had been shot in the head in what police said was a dispute over drugs. At the time of her death, Soto was about to give birth to a baby boy named Fabian.

On Thursday, police arrested Christopher Preciado, 19, and his father, Ramon, 53. The younger Preciado is charged with capital murder and other crimes. His father is charged with abuse of a corpse and altering or destroying evidence.

Christophers bail was set at $2 million; his fathers at $600,000. Both remain in the Bexar County jail.

Heres a look at how police broke the case and what happens next.

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A picture of Savanah Soto, 18, with angels wings is displayed at a vigil in her memory. She was about to give birth to a baby boy named Fabian when she and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, were shot dead in what police say was a dispute over drugs. Salgu Wissmath/San Antonio Express-News

Where does the case go from here?

For now, it stays with San Antonio Police Department detectives. Theyre still investigating.

Still? They already charged two suspects.

In a case this serious and complex, police dont stop investigating once theyve made an arrest.

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To obtain arrest warrants for the Preciados, police had to satisfy a county magistrate that they had probable cause to believe the two committed the crimes theyre accused of.

On Wednesday, a detective submitted two nearly identical affidavits of probable cause, one each for Christopher and Ramon, in Bexar County Magistrate Court.

The affidavits summarize the evidence investigators had gathered up to then. After reviewing the affidavits, Magistrate Marilisa Janssen signed arrest warrants for both Preciados late on Wednesday evening. They were arrested the next day.

Probable cause is a much lower threshold than proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard for obtaining a conviction at trial. Thats why detectives will continue to pursue leads and stack up evidence.

Christopher Preciado, 19, center, was arrested on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, and charged with capital murder in the fatal shootings of Savanah Soto, 18, her unborn baby boy and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, 22. Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News

Whats in the affidavits?

Sotos family reported her missing Dec. 23. She was supposed to go to a hospital that morning so doctors could induce labor, but she never showed up. Guerras family couldnt locate him, either. Neither he nor Soto answered their phones.

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On Dec. 26, a resident of the Colinas at Medical apartments at 5903 Danny Kaye Drive on the Northwest Side saw a Kia Optima in the parking lot and recognized it from media coverage as Guerras. The person reached out to Sotos family, who called the police.

Heres where the affidavits fill in some detail: The first San Antonio Police Department detective on the scene looked into the car and saw Soto in the front passenger seat with trauma to her head, the affidavits state.

In the back seat was what appeared to be Guerras body. It bore drag marks, and blood was smeared on the exterior of the Kia. Both were signs the victims had been killed elsewhere and brought to the apartment complex.

What about a motive?

From talking to Guerras and Sotos families, investigators learned that Guerra sold drugs and would post photographs of money and narcotics on Instagram, the affidavits state.

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Their relatives told police that people wanted to rob Guerra and that he had been shot at before, according to the affidavits.

Police Chief William McManus said Soto was part of her boyfriends drug business, not a passive bystander.

Ramon Preciado, 53, was arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse and altering or destroying evidence. Police say he helped his son, Christopher, 19, hide the bodies of Savanah Soto, 18, and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, 22. Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News

What led detectives to the Preciados?

Heres what the affidavits say:

Police reviewed security video from the Colinas at Medical apartments that captured an eerie scene: A gray Chevrolet Silverado pickup, with its headlights off, pulled into the parking lot late on the night of Dec. 21. Moments later, Guerras Kia pulled up alongside it.

A heavyset man got out of the Silverado, approached the Kia and spoke briefly to the driver. The driver stepped out of the Kia long enough for detectives to conclude it was not Guerra or Soto.

The heavyset man retrieved a towel from the pickup and appeared to wipe down the drivers side door of the Kia at the spot where he had just touched it, presumably in an attempt to remove fingerprints or DNA evidence.

Then the video shows the two men driving the vehicles to the rear of an apartment building, where the Kia would be found five days later. A few minutes after the meet-up out front, the Silverado pulled out of the rear parking lot and drove off. The Kia was left behind.

It was believed that the victims were already deceased in the vehicle at the time of the video, the affidavits say.

Then what?

By downloading the contents of one of the victims phones, police learned that shortly before they disappeared, Guerra or Soto had searched for the location of Charlie Chan Drive, according to the affidavits. Its in a neighborhood in the South Texas Medical Center area where streets are named after old Hollywood stars: Cary Grant, Lon Chaney, Dean Martin, Humphrey Bogart.

The Preciados live in a split-level home on Charlie Chan near Cary Grant. Its a few blocks from where the bodies were dumped.

The Kia had pinged from a location very near the house around 11:50 p.m. Dec. 21, the affidavits say. Signals from the Kia indicate that four minutes later, it was driven to 5903 Danny Kaye Drive with the bodies inside, the affidavits state.

Savanah Soto, 18, and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, 22, at a baby shower to celebrate the impending birth of a baby son, Fabian. Police Chief William McManus has said both were involved in the drug trade. Courtesy

How could police be sure the Preciados were the men seen on the video?

They tracked Ramon Preciados Silverado to the house on Charlie Chan. When officers knocked on the front door, he told them he knew why SAPD was at his residence and that they should talk to his son, the affidavits state.

The elder Preciado acknowledged he was the heavyset man in the video and admitted assisting his son in hiding the bodies, according to the affidavits.

What about Christopher Preciado? Did he offer an alibi?

He did. He told detectives that Soto and Guerra went to his house to sell him marijuana, and Guerra pointed a gun at him. He said he struggled with Guerra for control of the weapon, and in the ensuing melee, Soto was shot and then Guerra.

This account was inconsistent with the victims gunshot wounds and other evidence, the affidavits say.

McManus said police discovered in the Preciado home the gun they believe was used to kill Soto and Guerra.

Police Chief William McManus said investigators found in the home of Ramon and Christopher Preciado the gun believed to have been used to kill Savanah Soto, 18, and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, 22. Kaylee Greenlee Beal

Now what happens?

Detectives will look for additional evidence and try to tie up loose ends. For instance, McManus said during a news briefing last week that analysis of the security video from the Colinas at Medical apartments indicates there may have been a passenger in Ramon Preciados Silverado that night. Detectives are trying to figure out if thats so and if the person played any role in the crime.

When theyre done with their investigation, theyll give the case file to the DAs office. Prosecutors call it a prosecution guide. Theyll draw on it in presenting evidence to a grand jury, which will decide whether theres probable cause to indict the defendants. At least nine of 12 grand jurors must vote to issue whats called a true bill of indictment.

When will that happen?

In a felony case such as this one, the DAs office has 90 days from the date of the arrest to obtain an indictment. If prosecutors miss that deadline, the Preciados could be eligible for a reduction in bail or even release on their own recognizance.

Is that a possibility?

A remote one. Its very unlikely that prosecutors will not secure an indictment, given the seriousness of the charges and the evidence already collected.

Then what?

After an indictment, the defendants will appear before a judge for an arraignment. Thats when lawyers on both sides begin discovery, the process of sharing evidence. The judge may set a trial date at this time, and the defendants can enter a plea.

Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said that when the time comes, a committee of senior prosecutors will decide whether to seek the death penalty against Christopher Preciado, 19. Hes charged with capital murder in the killings of Savanah Soto, 18, her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, 22, and their unborn baby son, Fabian. Kaylee Greenlee Beal

Could Christopher Preciado face the death penalty?

Yes. Because hes charged with capital murder in the deaths of multiple people, including a child under the age of 10 (Sotos unborn baby), Preciado is death penalty-eligible under Texas law. That means that if the DA decides to seek the death penalty and Preciado is convicted at trial, the jury could impose the death penalty.

The first step is for the district attorney to pursue capital punishment formally, and that decision is still a ways off.

In the Bexar County DAs Office, a capital crimes committee of senior prosecutors votes whether to pursue the death penalty after weighing the circumstances of the case and considering the wishes of the victims loved ones. Gonzales, who established the committee after taking office in 2019, has the final say.

The DAs office has prosecuted more than 100 death penalty-eligible defendants during Gonzales tenure and has pursued the death penalty only twice. In one of those cases, the defendant ended up pleading guilty in return for life in prison without parole. In the other, a jury sentenced the defendant to death, and the sentence is on appeal.

Gonzales said in a recent interview that he believes the death penalty is justified only in the worst of the worst cases. As an example, he cited the May 2022 school shooting in Uvalde in which 19 children and two teachers were killed. The 18-year-old gunman was shot dead by members of a Border Patrol tactical unit.

If a jury convicts a defendant of capital murder in a case where the prosecution is seeking the death penalty, jurors then must decide two special issues  whether the defendant represents a continuing threat to society and whether there are mitigating circumstances that warrant a life prison term instead.
A missing door plug that could be key to the investigation into what caused it to detach from an Alaska Airlines plane shortly after takeoff has been found in the backyard of a Portland, Oregon-area home, officials said Sunday.

"I'm excited to announce that we found the door plug," National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said at the end of a news conference where she laid out the latest developments in the probe of Friday's near-disaster.

Identifying the resident of the home who sent two photos of the item to the NTSB only as a schoolteacher named Bob, she said, "Thank you, Bob."

"We're going to go pick that up and make sure that we begin analyzing it," Homendy said.

The NTSB shared photos of the recovered door plug Monday, saying it will be sent to a lab in Washington, D.C., for further examination.

NTSB has recovered the door plug from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX. NTSB investigators are currently examining the door plug and will send it to the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, DC for further examination. pic.twitter.com/fqeemNeBPW  NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) January 8, 2024

Two cellphones, apparently belonging to passengers who had been on the plane, have also been found  one in a yard and another on the side of the road, she said.

At the end of the first full day of the NTSB investigation into the accident on board Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, the agency's chair indicated that some factors were complicating the probe: The planes cockpit voice recorders record of the event was inadvertently taped over, and, at the time, the door plug had not been found.

That is unfortunately a loss for us, Homendy said, lamenting the loss of voice data and sounding frustrated during a news conference Sunday night. "Because that information is key, not just for our investigation, but for improving aviation safety.

Homendy said the NTSB is calling for expanding the minimum time recorded on the devices from two hours to 25 hours. Such a time span would have saved the cockpit voice data from Fridays accident.

"I cannot emphasize enough how important that is for safety," she said.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. (Obtained by NBC affiliate KGW)

The device from Fridays flight automatically recorded over the pertinent voice data because someone failed to power it down, she said. It starts a fresh recording, wiping out the last one, every two hours.

The circuit breaker was not pulled, Homendy said.

'They heard a bang'

She described chaos and communication issues on board the Boeing 737 Max 9 as flight crew reported hearing a loud noise and the cabin rapidly depressurized Friday evening over the Portland area.

They heard a bang, she said.

The planes first officer lost her headset in the depressurization, and the captain had headset problems, as well, Homendy said. So they turned on a speaker for communication, she said.

Communication was a serious issue, Homendy said.

At the same time, the cockpit door opened violently, and a laminated checklist pilots use in an emergency situation flew out, the chair said.

It did blow open during the explosive decompression, Homendy said of the cockpit door.

The pilots turned to another quick reference guide, a handbook, she said, as a flight attendant took three tries to shut the cockpit door.

The actions of the flight crew were really incredible, Homendy said. It was very violent when the door was expelled out of the plane. There was a lot going on.

Homendy described some of the damage inside the plane. It included two seats, unoccupied by chance, that sustained such violent force that their frames had torqued.

Both seats in row 26 were missing their headrests, and one was missing a seat back. In all, damage was found along 12 of the planes seat rows, she said.

She expressed concern over three babies who were held in the laps of their caregivers. The NTSB, the Federal Aviation Administration and Alaska Airlines all recommend, but dont require, that young children travel in car seats secured in separate, ticketed seats.

The FAA has ordered some Boeing 737 Max 9 airplanes, the model flown in the Alaska Airlines incident, to be grounded and issued a directive requiring inspections before certain aircraft can fly again. The new directive affects 171 planes worldwide.

Alaska Airlines said it has canceled roughly 140 flights Monday due to the grounding.

When the FAA sent out its airworthiness directive, it is followed by a multi-operator message (MOM) from the manufacturer, in this case Boeing. The document is very specific on what the airline must do to accomplish the process for inspection.

Boeing typically works with the airlines and the FAA to finalize its inspection process, which ultimately must satisfy the FAA. Boeing shares their progress with the FAA as the instructions are drafted and when its final, its submitted for final approval. Once approved, the airlines will follow the memo to inspect the grounded 737-9 aircraft, a process that the FAA said could take between four and eight hours.

A source familiar with the process said the MOM has been sent to United and Alaska airlines and inspections can start as soon as Monday.

Analyzing the door plug

Investigators are looking at how the door plug  a panel where an optional emergency exit can be placed depending on passenger capacity  was fastened before it blew out of the plane, Homendy said during Sunday nights news conference.

They also want to know more about air pressurization alerts that went off on the plane during flights on Dec. 7 and on Wednesday and Thursday, the latter being the days before the accident.

She said the airline prohibited the aircraft from embarking on long flights over water  specifically from traveling to Hawaii  until the issue could be checked out more thoroughly. By Friday nights flight from Portland to Ontario, California, that inspection hadnt been completed, Homendy said.

She said the issue had been described to the NTSB as "benign" and that it was unclear whether there was any correlation between those alerts and Friday's accident.

Homendy said investigators were focused in part on how the door plug was fastened and whether there were failures related to it, although she said the structural integrity of the aircraft was intact following the accident.

She described two hinges at the bottom of the plug that allow a small degree of opening for routine inspections as well as four stop fittings in the shape of circles.

The purpose is to prevent that door plug from being pushed out of the air frame, she said.

All those elements will get a close look, Homendy said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
This image provided by the Marion County Sheriffs Office shows Thomas Ebersole. A missing Ohio teen was recovered in Florida after she logged in to an online video game at the home of the man who took her, authorities said. Ebersole, 31, was arrested last Wednesday at his Dunnellon home, according to the Marion County Sheriffs Office. (Marion County Sheriffs Office via AP)

DUNNELLON, Fla. (AP)  A missing Ohio teen was recovered in Florida after she logged in to an online video game at the home of the man who took her, authorities said.

Thomas Ebersole, 31, was arrested last Wednesday at his Dunnellon home, according to the Marion County Sheriffs Office. The area is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Tampa. Police in Lima, Ohio, about 80 miles ( 130 kilometers) northwest of Columbus, had reported the girl missing on Dec. 28.

The FBI had contacted the sheriff's office earlier that day to request help in locating the missing 16-year-girl. Investigators determined that her World of Warcraft account had been used at a local address, which turned out to be Ebersoles home, authorities said. His World of Warcraft account was also accessed at the location. World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

Investigators made contact with Ebersole at his home, and he initially denied knowing the girl, officials said. But he eventually admitted that he had driven to Ohio to meet the teen and brought her back to his home, authorities said. Ebersole also told investigators that he was in a romantic relationship with the girl and was going to hide her in his home until they could get married.

Ebersole provided detectives with online messages that further outlined his plans to meet the girl in Ohio and have sex with her, despite knowing that he was committing a crime, officials said.

Ebersole faces felony charges of traveling to meet a minor to engage in sexual activity and interfering with child custody, as well as a misdemeanor charge of sheltering an unmarried minor, according to jail records. He was being held on $6,000 bail. Jail records didn't list an attorney for Ebersole.
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) and CNN anchor Boris Sanchez on Monday got into a contentious back and forth over whether former President Trump can be kept off the ballot in 2024.

As Ashcroft joined CNN for an interview on Monday afternoon Sanchez cited a tweet from the Missouri attorney general calling a decision by local courts and state officials in Colorado and Maine disgraceful and asked the Republican why he disagreed with the decisions.

The Constitution gives the criteria for individuals to run for president. The Maine constitution does not do that, Ashcroft said.

But Congress gives the states the ability to determine how their elections are run, Sanchez shot back.

But it does not give them the authority to add conditions to who may run for president, Ashcroft responded. What we saw happen in Maine was a total lack of due process, a total misunderstanding of the 14th Amendment and a decision that was made by someone thats not even an attorney, much less a judge.

Ashcroft then asked Sanchez if hearsay evidence was allowed in Trumps case in Colorado, to which the anchor said he hasnt gone through all the evidence, so he was not in a position to say so, but he noted Trumps legal team had the opportunity to respond to the allegations against it in court and did not do so.

The United States Constitution is supreme over state constitution  I hope you at least understand that, Ashcroft said taking a shot at Sanchez, to which he responded, I do.

Some Republican state officials have suggested barring President Biden from the ballot in response to the decisions in Colorado and Maine.

Sanchez pressed Ashcroft on this point, and asked him how do you justify keeping Biden off the ballot and pressed him by asking whether he engaged in your mind some kind of insurrection?

There are some allegations that he has engaged in insurrection, Ashcroft said before Sanchez quickly interrupted him, asking how and saying you cant say something like that without backing it up.

Are you scared of the truth? Ashcroft said to Sanchez, now shouting.

I am not petrified of the truth at all, it seems like you might be. Lets hear what you have to say, Sanchez responded.

Ashcroft gave no specific answer to how Biden had committed insurrection but cited allegations from officials in Texas and Florida before suggesting Trump was also merely the victim of allegations about his effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to take up whether Trump can be disqualified from appearing on Colorados ballot, over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

It was the second contentious back-and-forth Sanchez has had with a GOP official on CNN News Central in the last week. On Tuesday, he asked the chair of Maines Republican Party seven times why it was wrong to kick Trump off the ballot in his state.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said his Jefferson City house was the target of a swatting late Sunday, with an anonymous call sending police officers to the home and causing him to come outside with his hands up.

Ashcroft, a Republican and candidate for governor, said in an interview that he was on his treadmill at 9:14 p.m. when he received a call from a restricted number that turned out to be the Jefferson City Police Department trying to talk him out of the house.

The officers told him that they received an anonymous call saying a resident at his address had shot and killed his wife and shot several other people, Ashcroft said. Officers checked with Ashcroft and his family to confirm that they were OK, he said.

Once the officers determined that the call was a false report, they were even somewhat apologetic, Ashcroft said, calling the situation surreal.

I just couldnt believe it was happening to me and that this was happening in Missouri, he said. Im just thankful for the police. Its a dangerous situation for them. They dont know if its real or not and I think they were very professional. I think they showed a lot of restraint.

Ashcroft said he expected police to conduct an investigation but did not know who made the call or why. The Jefferson City Police Department did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

Swatting incidents  the practice of making a prank call to police agencies to trigger a large number of armed officers to an address  have been reported at the homes of officials across the country recently.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost have been victims, the Associated Press reported.

It is currently a class B misdemeanor in Missouri to make a false police report, which is punishable by a maximum of six months in jail and up to $1,000 in fines. At least one bill filed this year would increase the penalties for swatting calls.
Misappropriated funds, a misplaced rant, child sex abuse material accusations and no response to client accusations put Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Coral Gables lawyers on the monthly Florida Bar list of attorneys disciplined by the state Supreme Court.

In alphabetical order...

Hector Acosta Carillo, Jr., Miami

A Miami Herald story from Wednesday described why a Florida Bar auditor thinks Hector Acosta (admitted to the Florida Bar in 2019) misappropriated $10,040 and used the money for his personal benefit.

Acosta has been put under emergency suspension.

READ MORE: Miami attorney suspended after a Florida Bar auditor says $10,000 was misappropriated

Jose Font, Fort Lauderdale

Most attorney motions to withdraw from a case come in under five pages. Motions to withdraw from Jose Font, the first name in Fort Lauderdales Font & Nelson, took 189 pages  13 pages of motion and 176 pages of attachments. And, the report from Judge Melanie Surber says, Font filed those motions in about 700 cases around the state involving Southern Fidelity Property & Casualty.

In the motions, Font accused three attorneys of various conspiracies against him and the insurance industry.

Font referred to [a] group of lawyers (Conspirators) that represent insureds (who often time have prearranged referral agreements with large scale criminal enterprises that they maintain a business relationship with) in claims that almost invariably proved frivolous and/or fraudulent, and therefore sought to gain an unfair, deceptive, immoral and/or unethical advantage by way of misconduct

Font also included attachments about those lawyers and other lawyers from their firms, even if those attorneys had nothing to with that particular case.

Fonts 189-page motion to withdraw from Broward County case Estil vs. Southern Fidelity Property & Casualty included the request by a lawyer unaffiliated with the case for a temporary restraining order against Font.

That same attorney testified to Surber that after Font subpoenaed her for a hearing on a case she had nothing to do with, she did not get called to the stand until the second day of the hearing and, after five minutes, the judge questioned why she was there...

Surber found Font guilty of attorney acts that are unlawful or contrary to honesty and justice; prejudicial to the administration of justice; that embarrass, delay or burden a third person; of making claims that arent meritorious; making a frivolous pretrial discovery request; and violating the rules of professional conduct.

Surber recommended a two-year suspension. The state Supreme Court disagreed and sidelined Font for three years.

Fonts suspended until Nov. 29, 2026.

Pedro A Gonzalez, Miami

A grievance committee finding of contempt shows an April 12, 2023, Florida Bar letter to SMGQ founding partner Pedro Peter Gonzalez (admitted in 1994) notifying Gonzalez of a Bar complaint filed against him by a former client. The Bar wanted Gonzalezs answer by April 27. After not getting what it wanted, the Bar sent a second letter to Gonzalez on May 3 that demanded an answer by May 15.

On that day, Gonzalez emailed the Bar that hed come back to Miami from a trip out of state to learn of the Bar complaint. He requested and received a 10-day extension.

Once the facts missing from the Bar complaint are provided to the Bar, I am confident the Bar will dismiss this frivolous complaint and take no further action, Gonzalez wrote in the May 15 email.

But, come May 25, Gonzalez emailed that he needed at least another 20 days after a COVID-19 infection left him unable to do much, including return to my office to review this file to prepare a response and a lawyer he was considering hiring hadnt been able to meet with him about the matter.

Again, Gonzalez claimed his coming reply, will refute the alleged facts asserted in the complaint, provide additional facts that are deliberately missing from the complaint, and provide the rest of the story and the context needed for the Bar to dismiss the complaint and take no further action in this matter.

Alas, Gonzalez filed no reply at all. Well, no reply to the actual complaint. To the Bar, after a June 28 letter requesting a response by July 10, Gonzalez asked for and got another extension on July 11 based on your representations that on or about June 22, 2023, you injured your knee and then had to have surgery.

The docket on Gonzalezs discipline case shows no response by Dec. 12, which is when the state Supreme Court ruled him in contempt. Unless Gonzalez files a full response to the Bar complaint, his suspension will start Thursday and will last until he files that response.

James Leano, Miami

Last week, a Miami Herald article detailed the case of James Leano (admitted in 1998), under emergency suspension since Nov. 30 after a Florida Bar auditors investigation said he misappropriated over $26,500 of a clients settlement.

READ MORE: A Miami attorney misappropriated $26,500 of a clients settlement, Florida Bar says

William McCaughan, Coral Gables

William McCaughan (admitted in 2007), formerly of Coral Gables The Morgan Group, pulled the disciplinary revocation lever after being indicted on receipt of child pornography and attempted receipt of child pornography charges in Miami federal court.

Disciplinary revocation, tantamount to disbarment as the state Supreme Court says, means the Bar discipline case goes away and the lawyer is no longer a member of the Bar for at least five years. It has no effect on any criminal or civil cases.

If McCaughan isnt convicted, he can reapply for Bar membership on Jan. 14, 2028.

READ MORE: Key Biscayne resident asked to be disbarred while facing child porn charges

Paul Silverberg, Fort Lauderdale

Paul Silverberg (admitted in 1998) got a 91-day suspension in 2020 for lying to a court about his availability for hearings and loose staff supervision.

While Silverberg was suspended, a former client desiring a fee refund went back and forth via email with Silverberg over the refund and a release. Silverberg also exchanged emails with his former law firm about communication with that client.

Doing that while suspended counts as violating the suspension, which Silverberg admitted in his guilty plea.

Also, Silverberg admitted a trust account problem from before he was suspended. During a business purchase by a client, he held $23,000 of client funds in escrow in a SunTrust trust account in April 2016. But when the matter was settled in April 2018 and Silverberg wrote his client the check for $21,221.22 (the escrow funds minus fees), he did so from the Citibank operating account.

The SunTrust trust account shouldve had at least $23,000 from April 2016 until April 2018. But a Bar review, Silverbergs guilty plea said, revealed that for a period of time in 2017, the SunTrust trust account did not have the full $23,000 deposited.

Silverberg says he made the mistake of thinking hed put the escrow funds in the firms Citibank trust account which had significant trust account balances at all times material.

Silverberg agreed to a 91-day suspension, which will end on March 13.
Mitch Landrieu, senior adviser and infrastructure implementation coordinator, is leaving the White House to join President Joe Bidens reelection campaign as national co-chair.

Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, joined the Biden administration in 2021 following the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Tasked with overseeing one of the most important legislative accomplishments of the presidents first term, Landrieu served as a key member of the presidents advisers. He managed the dispersal of billions of dollars in new funding for roads, bridges, water pipelines, broadband and more. He also worked on projects such as the reopening of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia.

When I passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, I knew I needed someone by my side who would help deliver real results for the American people. I knew that Mitch Landrieu, a former Mayor and Lieutenant Governor who spent over a decade helping rebuild New Orleans, was the man to help me rebuild the country, Biden said in a statement Monday morning. Mitch has always known that the real measure of success is not about scoring partisan points  its about building bridges, and fixing the problem at hand.

Biden said Landrieu traveled over 119,000 miles to nearly 150 cities across the country to hear from governors, mayors and other local leaders. Mitch has consistently demonstrated that when we work together, we can do big things, the president said in his statement.

Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said Landrieu would bring a unique and valuable experience to the reelection.

His work at the White House to lift up how President Biden is investing in America and rebuilding the backbone of our economy is critical to our reelection effort, and Im thrilled that hell be joining our team as a co-Chair and key voice for our campaign as we continue this fight, she said in a statement.

Landrieus move comes as some top Democrats have raised concerns about the campaign structure and have suggested that some of Bidens top White House advisers should move over to the campaign.
Troy Michler, 40, was arrested Friday after he was accused of possessing child pornography. Bexar County Sheriff's Office

A University of Incarnate Word instructor was arrested after admitting to watching child pornography, according to police.

Troy Mishler, 40, was arrested at his home by Live Oak police on Friday. He was charged with child pornography and released from jail after posting a $125,000 bond.

According to an arrest affidavit, Mishler traveled to Nebraska in November and admitted to church officials that he watched child pornography. Witnesses to the confession then reported it to authorities, according to Live Oak police.

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After police seized Mishlers devices, he told police that his work laptop issued by UIW would most likely contain evidence of child pornography, according to the affidavit.

Investigators later found hundreds of photographs and several videos that were pornographic on Mishlers devices, according to the affidavit.

Mishler is a software and gaming instructor at the university, according to the affidavit. In a statement, the university said it was aware of Mishlers arrest.

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The University is currently investigating the matter and will cooperate fully with local law enforcement. The University will have no further comment at this time, that university said in a statement.
Good evening. Rishi Sunak would strongly support an official review into whether former Post Office boss Paula Vennells should be stripped of her CBE in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal. Nigel Farage has also demanded that Sir Keir Starmer explain why did he not intervene while director of public prosecutions.

Sunak would strongly support review into revoking CBE of Paula Vennells

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said Mr Sunak would back the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at revoking the CBE of Paula Vennells. A petition calling for the former chief executive to lose her CBE has now been signed by more than one million people.

Starmer must explain why he didnt intervene in Horizon scandal, says Farage

Sir Keir Starmer needs to explain why he did not intervene in the Horizon Post Office scandal while director of public prosecutions, Nigel Farage has said.

Senior Tory to rebel against Sunak over North Sea oil

Sir Alok Sharma has vowed to rebel against the Government on Monday in a vote on plans to boost oil and gas fields in the North Sea, arguing it would reinforce the unfortunate perception that the UK is rowing back from climate action.

Evening Briefing: Todays essential headlines

Israel-Hamas War | Israel has killed a senior Hezbollah commander in one of the most significant assassinations since the war began.

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BBC | How the corporations sport coverage lost its way

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Watch | Trump puts on heavy French accent to mock Macron

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Comment and analysis

World news: Iranian woman whipped 74 times for refusing to wear hijab

An Iranian woman received 74 lashes for refusing to wear the hijab, defying the strict dress code even as she was taken to be whipped.

Live to 100: Week 2 of celebrity trainer Matt Roberts exercise guide

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Business news: Britains richest woman paid 265m - despite her business empire making a loss

Britains richest woman Denise Coates saw her pay rise by 7m to just over 220m last year, despite her familys gambling empire Bet365 making a loss. Ms Coates took home a total of 270m in salary and dividends from Bet365 last year, new account filings show.



Live markets news: EU approves 775m state aid for electric car battery plant

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Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte and first lady Susan Gianforte announced their private purchase of the historic Samuel T. Hauser House in Helena, Mont., historic mansion district on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. The home will serve as their primary residence in Helena and they plan to donate it to the State of Montana. (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP)

HELENA, Mont. (AP)  Montana's Gov. Greg Gianforte and first lady Susan Gianforte have purchased a historic Helena mansion for $4 million that they eventually plan to donate to the state for use as the governor's mansion, the governor's office announced Monday.

Gianforte, a Republican, is a multimillionaire who founded a cloud computing company that sold to Oracle in 2011 in a $1.5 billion deal.

Susan and I are fortunate to have achieved the American dream, and with that, we believe we have an obligation to give back," Gianforte said in a statement.

The Hauser House was built in 1885 by Samuel T. Hauser, an entrepreneur and one of Montana's territorial governors. It was also once owned by former Montana Gov. Tim Babcock.

The nine-bedroom property, which is on the National Register of Historic Homes, was listed for sale for $6.18 million in June. Its assessed value with Lewis and Clark County is nearly $1.36 million.

The Gianfortes purchased the home last week and it will be their primary residence in Helena, his office said.

Following my service, we will donate this home to the State and the people of Montana, Gianforte said in a statement.

The existing governor's mansion has near the Capitol has been closed since 2021 for renovations.

The Legislature has appropriated more than $2 million for the work. The Department of Administration, which maintains the house, said the renovations have been put on hold because of supply chain delays and a worker shortage that kept increasing the costs.

The Department of Administration will decide whether to accept the donated mansion and, if so, what the state would use it for. The agency would also decide what to do with the current governor's mansion. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email Monday seeking comment.

Gianforte is committed to ensuring future First Families have a governors residence that is in good repair, safe, healthy, and family-friendly, all while ensuring the state is a good steward of taxpayer resources, the statement said.

Gianforte's first term in office ends in January 2025. He has not said whether he will seek reelection, though he is widely expected to.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) said Monday it arrested 325 pro-Palestinian protesters blocking three bridges in the New York area, as well as the Holland Tunnel.

NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said demonstrators began blocking the structures at 9:40 a.m., and that by 11:15 a.m. the NYPD and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey made the arrests and successfully cleared the locations.

The protesters gathered at the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge and the Holland Tunnel on Monday morning, holding signs that said lift the siege on Gaza and end the occupation. City officials were present on the scene to clear the path for traffic.

Videos circulated online with protesters chanting free Palestine.

Such protests have become common in recent months as Israel continues its ground invasion in Gaza, forcing Palestinians to flee their homes while the state targets Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist organization that began the recent war on Oct. 7 when it launched a surprise attack in Israel, brutally killing and torturing 1,200 Israelis.

In the months since, Israels offensive in Gaza has resulted in nearly 23,000 Palestinian deaths, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

On Dec. 27, one of the busiest travel days of the year, pro-Palestinian protesters similarly demonstrated at Los Angeles International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Also on Monday, pro-Palestinian demonstrators interrupted a speech President Biden gave at Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina.

I understand their passion, Biden said. And Ive been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.

New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) made remarks following the local arrests, according to local news outlets, expressing his support for the right to protest but saying that does not give people the right to block bridges and traffic.

The goal is to peacefully protest without doing major disruption to the city. Some people are not just driving to and from, across our bridges to go to their place of employment, some of them are dealing with some real emergency-type issues, Adams said, per ABC7. I have been extremely clear: It gives us all pain to see innocent lives being lost right now. We need to do whatever is possible to end anything that is going to take the lives of innocent people, but Hamas must be destroyed, they are a terrorist organization.

NYPD said, in lieu of summons, many of the demonstrators will face misdemeanor charges with a desk appearance ticket.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Republicans impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden could be costing them with voters, particularly with Americas moderates.

About twice as many of these middle-of-the-road voters  a crucial bloc for both parties in this years presidential election  said they oppose rather than support the House GOPs recent impeachment inquiry, according to a recent poll by USA TODAY and Suffolk University.

Led by House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Republicans kicked off their formal investigation into Biden at the end of last year over allegations that the president was involved in and profited from his familys foreign business deals.

The inquiry is a step ahead of lawmakers potentially drafting articles of impeachment against Biden, though the process has yet to turn up evidence directly implicating the president.

Congressional support has split on party lines, with every House Republican voting last December to launch the inquiry and every Democrat voting against the move.

When it comes to the general public, though, opposition spans the political spectrum.

President Joe Biden answers a reporter's question as he walks from Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, Dec. 20, 2023, in Washington.

Voters across parties call impeachment 'silly' and 'political theater'

David Jacobs, 42 and a registered Republican, called the effort to impeach Biden political theater.

I think that the House impeachment process is probably going to go nowhere, because there really isn't anything to impeach him for, said Jacobs, a physician from Long Island, New York.

Despite his political affiliation, Jacobs said he voted for Biden in 2020 and would do so again this November if faced with a rematch between the president and former President Donald Trump. His preferred candidate, though, is former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Jacobs is among the 15% of self-reported Republicans who said they oppose the impeachment inquiry, in the latest USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll. Among supporters of Haley in the Republican presidential primary, this opposition number quadruples to 61%.

Backers of fellow Republican candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also reported an outsized share of opposition to the impeachment process, at almost 80%.

Christie and Haley have each managed to pull support from more moderate voters, a group that appears to align more with Democrats, 89% of whom said they are against the inquiry.

And even those who arent keen to see the president back on their ballot are backing Biden on this issue.

Almost three-fourths of those who said they have low enthusiasm for Biden to be the Democratic nominee said they oppose the impeachment inquiry in USA TODAY/Suffolk Universitys poll.

Angela Adams, a Democrat from Waco, Texas, said that even though shell be supporting Biden, she wishes there were more options on the Democratic ballot. The 53-year-old assistant speech therapist called the impeachment effort by Republicans silly.

It's a shame that they're going to spend so much time and energy on that rather than governing, Adams said. Everything's just become about the politicians rather than the policy.

Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Rep. James Comer (R-KY) speak to reporters after the House voted to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, at the U.S. Capitol on December 13, 2023.

Voters say they want the government's attention elsewhere

A Republican-leaning independent, James Traylor, 45, said his top presidential candidates are Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but that he would vote for Trump over Biden.

Traylor, a Forney, Texas city council member and vice president for a real estate development firm was lukewarm on the notion of impeaching Biden, however.

I would venture a guess to say that there are probably much more important things to be tackled than this, Traylor said.

Like Adams, Michelle Derr, a 55-year-old Democrat of Alexandria, Virginia said she plans to support Biden, despite wishing for an alternative. And like Traylor, Derr said she thinks the impeachment effort is a distraction.

I wish that they would instead put their energy into solving problems rather than spending the time and money chasing after something that's going to go nowhere, Derr, a small business owner, said.

Members of the House and Senate return to work in Washington, D.C. this week and will jump back into debates over border security and foreign aid.

Deadlines to fund the government and avoid a shutdown also loom, after Congress passed another extension temporarily funding some federal resources through Jan. 19 and others until Feb. 2.

The front-runners in the presidential race, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, would be well into their 80s before one or the other left office in January 2029.

Should Biden face what Trump did? Voters weigh in

Republicans push to bring an impeachment against Biden follows Democrat-led efforts in not one but two Senate trials during Trump's time in office.

Trump faced abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges in his 2020 impeachment trial. He then became the first president in history to be impeached twice, after being accused of inciting the violent Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump was acquitted both times.

Jacobs, the Long Island voter, said not only does he think Biden is innocent, but that the current investigation into the president is a move to minimize Trumps record.

They're trying to make it seem like Trump got impeached, but look, Biden also did, so not a big deal, Jacobs said. Again, I say this as a Republican, I don't believe that Biden has done anything impeachable. I think they're just trying to minimize what happened to Trump by sticking the same thing on Biden.

Meanwhile, Paco Petelo, a registered Democrat who has become disillusioned with the current administration and is currently undecided on a 2024 candidate, said he thinks the inquiry is just as appropriate as what Trump faced.

I think they need to look into that and do some impeachment hearings, Petelo, 58 and a flight attendant from Huntington Beach, California, said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Voters weigh in on Biden impeachment inquiry, majority oppose
WILLIAMSPORT, LYCOMING COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)  The I-Team continues to seek answers regarding so-called mystery notes containing cryptic messages that are being found in sealed food and other products across the region. Our investigation took us to Central Pennsylvania on Monday night.

Dozens of people from across the region have and continue to reach out to the I-Team with concerns and questions about these cryptic notes.

I-Team Lead Investigative Reporter, Andy Mehalshick was live outside our Central Pennsylvania Bureau on West Fourth Street in downtown Williamsport.

Over the past several days people have been reaching out to the I-Team with stories of notes they found in a wide variety of products. Two main questions remain unanswered Monday night: What do these messages mean-if anything? Plus, and most importantly, people ask how is our food supply being accessed and by whom?

A man from Jersey Shore in Lycoming County found a cryptic note inside a box that contained eye drops. The note is similar to other notes found in our region and beyond. It contained words referring to current world events, controversial issues, and conspiracy theories.

Found a Note? Contact the I-Team

The Lycoming Regional Police Department is investigating the note and urges people to contact the department if they find such a note. 28/22 News spoke with Captain Christopher Kriner about the mystery notes.

He says the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the lead agency dealing with these mystery notes, but they say its important for residents to report such notes to local police. Which could be helpful in the ongoing investigation in the future.

Anytime you have any type of tampering with products you know that obviously gives the consumer some issues and some pause as well as the police department, said Captain Kriner.

Captain Kriner advises consumers to contact law enforcement.

Obviously, its helpful you can call your local police department and make a report, but the most important thing is to know is theres something foreign in the product in that case they should not use the product they should probably return it to the retail outlet they purchased it from, kriner added.

Just this past weekend a woman from Lock Haven says she found a mystery note inside a chocolate bar box. She described the words on the note as incoherent. She says the sheer number of notes being found in Pennsylvania raises her curiosity.

Yeah, thats definitely something intriguing. Like whos doing it? Its like somebody that is stocking things it just seems to be covering such a wide area. Its almost, maybe someone or a group is going around putting things out there, I dont know stated Jennifer from Lock Haven.

The mystery notes are being found in all types of products from a variety of stores. Its not just one or two retailers involved. The I-Team reached out to the FDA for comment but did not hear back.

Sources close to the case tell the I-Team that the FBI is investigating these notes. The I-Team will keep tracking this situation for answers.

For a full list of our reports, visit the Mystery Notes section of our website.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PAhomepage.com.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Sergeant Brandi Allen issues a warning to a driver in Franklin County. About 41% of drivers pulled over by the patrol in 2023 received warnings instead of tickets.

If youre pulled over by an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper  particularly if it's late at night, there is a good chance youll get off with a warning, according to analysis of traffic stop data.

Troopers let drivers off with warnings in 41.4% of 493,000 traffic stops made across Ohio between January and October 2023. More than 60% of drivers stopped between 10 p.m. and 3:59 a.m. got warnings.

That's also the time of night when most people are cited for drunken driving. Of the 13,047 drivers pulled over in the 1 a.m. hour, troopers ticketed 1,774 for suspected drunken driving  13.6%. On average, 8.7% of drivers pulled over between 11 p.m. and 3:59 a.m. received drunken driving tickets.

The takeaway is that troopers are pulling over lots of cars late at night, looking for impaired drivers.

Patrol Lt. Nate Dennis said road safety is a shared responsibility between law enforcement and drivers. "It's also important for the motoring public to keep everyone safe by doing their part: by not driving impaired, not driving distracted, wearing their safety belts and obeying all traffic laws."

The USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau ran the numbers on the traffic stop data and found:

Men are far more likely to be stopped than women. Male drivers accounted for 65% of the stops.

Black drivers account for 17.3% of the patrol traffic stops, which is disproportionate to the 13% of Blacks in Ohios population. But one in four vehicles pulled over by troopers is from out of state so the demographics of people traveling Ohio's interstates may not match the state population.

White drivers are underrepresented in patrol traffic stop data when compared with census data. Whites account for 73.3% of stops, but 81% of Ohios population.

Distracted driving enforcement bump

Ohios new distracted driving law took effect in early April with warnings for the first six months. It took full effect in early October. Troopers made 5,475 distracted driving stops over 10 months, issuing 2,319 warnings and 3,156 tickets. The bulk of those stops occurred in April and October.

Ohio is putting up new signs enforcing the states new distracted driving law.

The new, upgraded law makes distracted driving  texting, checking social media, streaming videos  a primary offense. That means police no longer need to see another traffic infraction before making the stop.

The data only represent stops by state troopers and doesnt include sheriffs deputies and municipal police officers stops.

The new distracted driving law requires local law enforcement to record racial demographics of the drivers they stop for suspected distracted driving violations. The agencies must report that data to the Ohio Attorney General, which is required to deliver an annual report to state leaders. But the AGs office said the local reports go into a special law enforcement portal that is exempt from the state public records laws.

Which counties had the most traffic stops?

Ohios two most populated counties had the most traffic stops - 16,771 for Franklin and 15,309 for Cuyahoga. But the patrol made just 4,295 stops in Hamilton County, which is well below the 10,000-plus stops made in Summit, Butler, Stark, Lorain and Warren counties.

The patrol's only post in Hamilton County is home to a motorcycle unit, which typically only works daylight hours. Most of the warnings are issued in the nighttime hours.

What days are troopers most likely to make stops?

The highest stop day in the first 10 months of 2023 was May 26, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend when troopers pulled over 7,609 drivers. The four days around Memorial Day weekend account for the top 10 stop days in 2023.

The four days around Labor Day turned out to be among the top 10 stop days. Not to be left out: July 3rd and 4th also landed in the top 10.

Around those three holiday weekends, troopers made nearly 60,000 stops.

Troopers call the time period between Memorial Day and Labor Day the "100 deadliest days of summer." Traffic volume and fatalities are highest in that window.

May, September and July are the highest stop months. October, June and August are the lowest stop months.

Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Patrol data shows patterns in tickets, warnings, drunk drivers
The University of Houston-Downtown, left, and the Harris County Jail, right, along the Buffalo Bayou are shown from a window view in the Harris County Criminal Justice Center Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, in Houston. Melissa Phillip/Staff Photographer

A 52-year-old Houston man remains in jail on $100,000 bail after being accused of kidnapping a woman and keeping her locked up against her will in his homes garage for four to five years.

Lee Carter was arrested Thursday and charged with aggravated kidnapping, court records show.

A Houston police officers discovery on April 7 led to Carters eventual arrest. While talking to the woman, the officer noticed she was extremely malnourished, weighed about 70 pounds, had a pungent stench, had crusty hair, was shoeless and her T-shirt and shorts were filthy and dirty, according to court records.

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THE YEAR IN REVIEW: 6 crimes that captured Houstons attention in 2023

She had several encounters with law enforcement before her eventual release, but each time the woman was returned to her alleged captor, records stated.

The same officer who rescued her had visited Carters home a year ago to check on a possible kidnapping. He reportedly heard a womans voice emanating from a window of the house, according to court documents. It is not known if the officer ever made contact with the woman or why it took police another year to rescue her.

Once rescued, the woman told the officer that she met Carter about four or five years ago when she was pregnant and panhandling off Almeda Genoa, court records show. Carter apparently pulled over his vehicle to give her $1, but once he left the area, he returned shortly. The woman reportedly told Carter she was vulnerable. He told her to get into his vehicle and that he would help her, records show.

Once the woman got into the vehicle, Carter then drove to his home in the 5000 block of Perry and kept her locked up in his garage for years, court records show. The woman also accused Carter of forcing her to have sex with him, feeding her drugs and preventing her from leaving his home.

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Its not clear what happened with the pregnancy. Court records made no mention of a child at the home.

The woman told the officer that she contacted police several times through the Text Now app, but it only led to her being hospitalized and then released to Carter, according to court records.

The last time police and the Houston Fire Department came to the home, the woman said she broke the southern-facing window and climbed out to get the authorities attention. This escape attempt resulted in her going to the hospital, being released to Carter and him boarding up several windows, according to court records.

WHITMIRE VOWS TO MAKE HOUSTON SAFER: Mayor John Whitmire pushes back against crime stats, vows to make Houstonians feel safer

While locked in the garage, the woman said there was no shower and that Carter would allow her to bathe in the main home from time to time. The woman explained how she never saw anyone in Carters home, but she could hear him arguing with other women while she showered.

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Anytime the woman tried running away, she told the officer that Carter would grab her, return her to the garage and lock her in it again. She routinely pleaded to Carter to let her leave, but he would just threaten to physically assault her if she left his home, court records show. She accused Carter of giving her crack cocaine, pills and other drugs to make her physically unable to leave.

To survive, she subsided on chips and snacks, she told the officer.

The woman contacted police April 7 because Carter allowed her to use his laptop, according to court documents. With Carters laptop, she used the Text Now app to contact law enforcement and inform them that she was being held against her will. The woman said the last time she saw Carter was the day before police found her.

When Houston firefighters opened Carters garage, they saw boarded windows, a makeshift toilet that didnt flush, a sink with a faucet, a mattress covered in fresh vomit, a 74-inch TV, one box of assorted chips, a few packages of Twinkies and shelf with about four to five folded shirts and 10 to 15 diapers on it, court records show.

Officers did hear what sounded like two womens voices coming from inside Carters home, but after knocking on the door multiple times, they did not get an answer, according to court documents. Curtains covered all the windows in the home.

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KTRK late Friday identified Carter as Houston rapper Viper.

His next court date is Jan. 8 in front of Judge Veronica M. Nelson.
The flyers content looked to be replicas of historical ads for the sale of enslaved people and rewards for their capture.

The Lynchburg, Virginia, chapter of the NAACP is hosting a town hall meeting this month in light of concerns raised after neighbors noticed racist flyers outside their homes on Christmas Eve.

Chapter president Brenda Farmer referred to the flyers distributed to over a dozen community members on Cabell Street and in other areas of Lynchburg as despicable, adding that the Lynchburg NAACP will not tolerate that, according to the Lynchburg News & Advance.

WDBJ-7 reported that the people who received the flyers have various backgrounds, including white, Black and Jewish.

The Lynchburg chapter of the NAACP is hosting a town hall meeting on Jan. 25 to address these racist flyers left outside of dozens of residents homes. (Photo: Screenshot/YouTube.com/WSET ABC 13)

The flyers content  which looked to be replicas of historical advertisements for the sale of enslaved people and offering rewards for their capture  disgusted and angered Farmer, who stated such things shouldnt be allowed in the 21st century.

Im not going back, Im marching forward, said Farmer, according to the News & Advance. We have to embrace each other in love and not bigotry.

The NAACP will hold the town hall meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25 at the Lynchburg Community Action Group building, located at 1010 Main St.

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The Lynchburg Police Department shared on its official Facebook page on Dec. 25 that it was investigating suspicious activity  in reference to citizens discovering racially charged literature being left on their property the night before. The flyers did not contain any threats.

The department requested that residents with security, doorbell or other video footage of a suspicious person between midnight and about 3 a.m. save the footage.

While unsettling, neighbors in Lynchburg said the Christmas Eve incident wasnt the first of its kind, according to WDBJ-7.

They left nooses on peoples porches last year this year, it was letters, said resident Deion Carter, WDBJ-7 reported. People take that very threatening. Thats a very threatening gesture to people, especially if no one knows who it is.

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The post NAACP to hold town meeting after racist flyers distributed in Lynchburg, Virginia appeared first on TheGrio.
Ukrainian SoftServe to develop solutions for construction on the Moon

Ukraine's largest IT company by revenue, SoftServe, is joining an international consortium aimed at developing cutting-edge lunar construction technology under NASA's program, business magazine Forbes reported on Jan. 8.

The consortium, spearheaded by U.S.-based space startup Astroport, will concentrate on advancing technologies for constructing launch pads in the challenging lunar environment and ensuring secure Moon landings.

SoftServe's Robotics & Advanced Automation department will be involved in the project, focusing on simulating robotic systems for actual construction, mechanical interaction, and unrestricted movement on the lunar surface. The project is slated to kick off in January 2024.

"As part of this project, we will be creating models for the terra-mechanical interaction between equipment, construction equipment, and lunar soil, regolith, said SoftServe Robotics Department head, Lubomyr Demkiv.

Read also: International shareholders halt participation in key Russian LNG project

Our work will involve creating a large number of digital simulations of the construction process on the Moon, considering the characteristics and properties of the soil, and various situations."

NASA's STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) program, an annual funding initiative, brings together businesses, startups, and scientific institutions to tackle challenges of interest to the space agency. The program's outcomes are intended for use by researchers or for commercialization in subsequent stages.

SoftServe, with over 12,000 employees in more than 50 offices, is estimated by Forbes to have annual revenue between 25-30 billion hryvnias ($655-785 million). The company serves clients such as IBM, Cisco, Panasonic, Cloudera, Henry Schein, Spillman Technologies, among others.

SoftServe is a member of the consortium led by American Astroport Space Technologies, which secured a $1.3 million grant in December 2023 as part of the NASA STTR 2023 Phase II project.

Read also: Foreign capital needs to be secure and respected in Ukraine

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A US rocket has set off for the Moon, carrying a Nasa lunar lander, for the first time in 50 years.

It is the first time an American spacecraft will have landed on the Moons surface since the Apollo missions, and aims to become the first ever commercial lander to safely arrive on the lunar surface.

It was also the debut launch for the Vulcan rocket, made by the private United Launch Alliance. If the mission is successful, that could become a key technology for the US, and may rival SpaceXs popular rockets.

The United Launch Alliance was formed as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. At the moment it conducts launches with its Atlas V and Delta IV rockets  which are expensive but reliable, and have been used for top-secret launches on behalf of the US government.

It is also carrying a private moon lander, named Peregrine and made by US company Astrobiotic, which was chosen by Nasa. That includes a range of scientific experiments, including small lunar rovers and an array of instruments that will examine the lunar surface.

The spacecraft is also carrying a set of time capsules and some human remains, sent by private companies. That has led to criticism from the Navajo Nation in the US, who described the Moon as deeply embedded in the spirituality and heritage of many Indigenous cultures, including our own and said that placing human remains on it is a profound desecration of this celestial body revered by our people.

The launch comes amid an increased focus on the Moon from both Nasa and other space agencies. In recent years, the Moon has been visited by missions from countries including India, China, Japan and Israel  though not all of them successfully landed, and touching down safely on the lunar surface remains challenging.

Nasas interest in the Moon is in part preparation for its Artemis missions, which it hopes will see humans return to the surface of the Moon next year. Eventually, those missions hope to set up a lunar base that can then be used to send humans to Mars.

Peregrine Mission One, or PM1, set off from Florida at 7.18am UK time. It will aim to arrive on the Moon on 23 February.

Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton said: Today Peregrine Mission One achieved a number of big milestones.

Peregrine powered on, acquired a signal with Earth, and is now moving through space on its way to the Moon.

These successes bring us one step closer to seven nations landing on the Moon, six of which have never been to the Moon before.

Peregrine is carrying a total of 20 payloads from seven countries and 16 commercial customers.

They include the first lunar surface payloads from the Mexican and German space agencies, and the first lunar payloads from the UK, Hungary and Seychelles.

Among these commercial payloads are items which add a touch of human creativity to space exploration, including a time capsule, a bitcoin and even a music album.

A key component of PITMS, which will explore the Moons atmosphere by measuring water and other molecules, was developed in the UK with 14m of Government funding through the UKs membership of the European Space Agency.

The data collected will contribute to our understanding of the Moons potential to provide resources such as water, opening new possibilities for future human presence on the lunar surface.

The UK-built component - called the Exospheric Mass Spectrometer represents the first instrument on the Moon that has been built in the UK and in Europe.

As part of the PITMS, the Exospheric Mass Spectrometer allows researchers to study atoms and molecules in a gas.

Science and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said: The Exospheric Mass Spectrometer will be the first science component developed in the UK destined for the lunar surface, marking a historic moment for the UK space industry.

This significant achievement also lays the groundwork for understanding how to sustain extended human presence on the Moon in the future - changing the way humankind interacts with the solar system around us forever.

Understanding water on the Moon is an important part of the Artemis programme, to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.

Libby Jackson, head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency, said: The Peregrine Lunar Lander will help pave the way for further exploration of our solar system.

Witnessing the first instrument from the UK, and indeed Europe, launch to the Moon is a hugely exciting moment.

We are looking forward to seeing Peregrine safely on the surface and the return of important data from PITMS to help unlock the secrets of water on the moon.

Additional reporting by Press Association
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  A student at Glencliff High School was arrested Monday after police said he was caught bringing a gun onto school property.

During a random search Monday morning, officials with the Metro Nashville Police Department said school administrators found a vape and a handgun magazine.

Shortly after the search, officers said the 16-year-old student ran from the school to a nearby church, where he was found hiding a pistol.

CRIME TRACKER | Read the latest crime news from Middle Tennessee

Police quickly recovered the weapon and apprehended the 11th grader. He is being charged with juvenile handgun possession and bringing a gun on school property.

As of Friday, Jan. 5, a spokesperson for Metro Nashville Public Schools said there had already been six guns confiscated this year compared to eight during the first semester of last year.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
District Attorney Joe Gonzales and Sheriff Javier Salazar hold a news conference on at double fatal shooting at 6403 Port Royal on Wednesday. Dec. 6, 2023 Ronald Cortes/Contributor

In response to a string of police shootings this fall by suspects with violent criminal records, the city of San Antonio and Bexar County teamed up to find ways to reduce the number of violent offenders on the streets.

City and county leaders Public Safety Action Plan includes provisions to better monitor repeat violent offenders and keep them behind bars.

Working together, city and county officials have identified opportunities and strategies for improving criminal justice system outcomes and making our community safer for residents and law enforcement officers, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a news release.

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The San Antonio Police Department and the Bexar County Sheriffs Office have pledged to improve information-sharing to prioritize top violent offenders to arrest. The agencies will also improve communication with the District Attorneys Office so prosecutors can more quickly present criminal cases to grand juries  and obtain indictments.

Six police officers were injured over a 13-day span from late August through mid-September in five shootings, all by suspects with a prior criminal record. One suspect was out on bail after being charged with theft, drug possession, vehicle burglary and unlawful possession of a firearm. Another was on parole.

The violence created a rift between Police Chief William McManus and District Attorney Joe Gonzales, who traded barbs over who was responsible.

The police department and the DAs Office have already taken steps to improve evidence sharing. In October, they upgraded their evidence management systems to be compatible with one another.

SAPD also made Deputy Chief Jesus Salame Jr. the point of contact between the two to discuss and resolve case concerns, the Public Safety Action Plan notes.

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In November, Gonzales unveiled a short-term initiative to tackle a backlog in criminal cases involving violent offenders that have yet to be reviewed so they can be presented to a grand jury  a means of ensuring that a judge doesnt lower a suspects bail amount while they await a criminal charge.

In the long-term, the DAs Office must recruit and retain experienced prosecutors to decrease caseloads, the plan states.

State District Judge Ron Rangel is leading the effort to devise a strategy within the next 90 days to ensure that magistrate judges deny bail to certain suspects with a violent history.

Additionally, the sheriffs office and the countys Pretrial Services division will, within the next 90 days, develop steps the county can take in response to the frequency with which violent offenders are cutting off their ankle monitors while out on bail.

That issue came into renewed focus in December when Shane James Jr. allegedly killed six people, including his parents, and injured three others in a shooting spree that started in northeast Bexar County and ended with his arrest in Austin. The community group Texas Organizing Project had bailed James out of jail in 2022 following his arrest on three misdemeanor assault charges, and he cut off his ankle monitor the day after his release.

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That triggered a warrant for his arrest, which deputies never executed, even when they were called to James parents home in August when he experienced a mental health crisis.

The safety plan states the the Community Corrections and Supervision Department must provided around-the-clock GPS monitoring of probationers so that the probation office is immediately notified if an ankle monitor has been tampered with. Such monitoring is not currently 24/7.

This is just the start of a joint effort by stakeholders to continue to make our community safer, County Judge Peter Sakai said in a news release.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (WHTM)  The National Park Service is proposing the removal of a William Penn statue and a model of his home from Welcome Park in Philadelphia.

The park is located at the site of Penns home, the Slate Roof House, and is named after the ship Welcome which brought Penn to Philadelphia in 1682 when King Charles II granted a charter for lands in North America.

According to the National Park Service, the proposed removal of the Penn statue and the Slate Roof House is part of a plan to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.

Plans for the park, which was completed in 1982, include a new planted buffer on three sides and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches.

New exhibit panels would also be installed to replace the Penn timeline.

Original features such as the street grid, the rivers, and the east wall would be maintained.

The National Park Services says the proposal includes an expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.

A two week public comment period will be open online from January 8 to 21. Comments submitted through social media, phone calls, emails, or mail will not be accepted.

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Pennsylvania House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) said be believes the proposed removal of the statue is an attempt to cancel Penn.

To remove Penns statue to create a more inclusive environment takes absurd and revisionist view of our states history and further seems to serve no purpose other than to check a box for an increasingly dangerous radicalism infiltrating todays left wing political agenda, said Cutler.

On Monday Cutler introduced a resolution honoring the life and accomplishments of William Penn and encouraging the Biden administration and National Park Service to immediately halt their announced plans to remove the statue.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.
At this time last year, a concerned Marla Wantland still was trying to get the word out that Christopher & Banks is back at NewMarket Square.

Now, the manager at the 21st and Maize Road store is telling a different story.

We made it, Wantland said. We made the year. We have seen so much progress.

Christopher & Banks, which serves a more extensive range of sizes than a lot of retail outlets, had been a Wichita-area staple for decades but then went away as the chain closed stores nationally.

In addition to Wichita stores, there were numerous ones in surrounding areas. By 2020, though, they all had closed.

The NewMarket Christopher & Banks is the only one back open in Kansas  an indicator of the stores past performance  but Wantland was concerned it wouldnt be for long if not enough people knew its there.

Now, she said, Definitely the word is out that were here, so thats exciting.

She said she wants customers to know there had be a lull of good products coming in, but thats been fixed.

The trains on the tracks finally, Wantland said. It took us a minute to get our product to be consistently coming in.

That and what she called the stores old-fashioned customer service bode well for the store, Wantland said.

Were very strong, she said. We are fortunate to be here.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD)  The Michigan Attorney Generals Office has released its second of seven reports on the states Catholic Dioceses, detailing allegations against clergy from the Diocese of Gaylord.

In all, Dana Nessels team confirmed there were credible reports against 28 leaders within the diocese: 26 priests and two deacons. Of those 28, 16 are known or presumed to be dead.

Of the 12 who are living or presumed living, only three remain in active ministry  one as a pastor and two in retired ministry. Nessels team says all allegations against those three involved adult victims, not children, and no criminal charges have been filed against them.

Nessel says the vast majority of alleged conduct that may have violated state law occurred before 2002, the year the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops adopted a new process for reporting sexual abuse allegations.

After the Fall: The legacies of Grand Rapids two most notorious priests

Our promise to the victims was that every case of sexual abuse and assault would be thoroughly reviewed and that the results of the investigation would be transparent, Nessel said in a statement. I especially want to thank the survivors who have shared their stories, sometimes for the first time after decades of silence. Their willingness to come forward has helped bring attention to an issue that has affected so many in our state and our country, especially children.

The formal investigation was launched in September of 2018. The Attorney Generals Office, along with several law enforcement agencies, executed search warrants at all seven of Michigans Dioceses  the Archdiocese in Detroit, and Dioceses in Gaylord, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Marquette and Saginaw.

The Gaylord report is the second of the seven to be published. The first involved the Diocese of Marquette, which was released in October 2022.

An estimated 1.5 million documents and 3.5 million electronic documents were seized as part of the complete investigation. Nessel says investigators have met quarterly with lawyers representing each Diocese to keep them updated on the investigation and that all seven Dioceses have cooperated with the investigation.

After the Fall: 8,000 miles from justice

Across the state, criminal charges have been filed against 11 clergymen. Of those 11, seven pleaded guilty to their crimes while two others were convicted of various criminal sexual conduct charges.

Two others are awaiting extradition on state charges. Roy Joseph, a former priest in Marquette County, faces a first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge and is awaiting extradition from India. Jacob Vellian, a former priest from Benton Harbor, was also waiting extradition from India but reportedly has died. Nessels office is waiting for official confirmation of his death.

We must break down the walls of silence that so often surround sexual assault and abuse, Nessel stated. In the end, we hope this investigation provides a voice to those who have suffered in silence for so long and shines a light on those alleged offenders whose actions allowed them to evade true accountability.

after the fall sexual abuse hotlines graphic_1550092154156.jpg.jpg

You can read the full report here.

Anyone who has been victimized by a member of the Catholic church can confidentially report it to the Michigan Attorney Generals Office online or by calling 844.324.3374 during regular business hours. The state also has a hotline for all victims of sexual assault that offers support and resources: 1.855.VOICES4 (864.2374).

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.
As California's lieutenant governor in 2016, Gavin Newsom supported Proposition 64, the ballot initiative that legalized recreational marijuana in his state. As governor, he acknowledges the "exciting" potential of "psychedelic medicines" to "address mental health." Yet Newsom dealt blows to both of those causes on the same weekend in October, vetoing bills that would have decriminalized four naturally occurring psychedelics and authorized Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes.

Senate Bill 58, sponsored by Sen. Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco), passed the California State Legislature in September by a 4315 vote in the Assembly and a 2114 vote in the Senate. The bill, which was similar to a groundbreaking ballot initiative that Colorado voters approved in 2022, would have eliminated criminal penalties for adults 21 or older who use psilocybin, psilocyn, mescaline, or dimethyltryptamine. In addition to possession for personal use, the bill covered noncommercial production, distribution, and transportation.

In his veto message, Newsom said "peer-reviewed science and powerful personal anecdotes" had persuaded him that psychedelics are effective for "people suffering from certain conditions," including depression, post-traumatic stress, addiction, and brain injuries. But without "regulated treatment guidelines," he said, it would be reckless to stop threatening psychedelic users with arrest and jail.

Wiener called the veto a "huge missed opportunity" and "a setback" for Californians "who are safely using and benefiting from these non-addictive substances and who will now continue to be classified as criminals." He said he planned to introduce "therapeutic-focused legislation" that he hoped would satisfy Newsom's concerns about excessive pharmacological freedom.

Assembly Bill 374, sponsored by Assemblymember Matt Haney (DSan Francisco), would have expanded the options for California residents and visitors who want to consume cannabis in a social setting. The bill, which passed the Legislature in September by a 669 vote in the Assembly and a 343 vote in the Senate, would have allowed dispensaries, with local approval, to serve marijuana along with noncannabis food and beverages, which is currently illegal. It also would have explicitly allowed live music.

Again, this was a step too far for Newsom. "I appreciate the author's intent to provide cannabis retailers with increased business opportunities and an avenue to attract new customers," the governor wrote in his veto message. "However, I am concerned this bill could undermine California's long-standing smoke-free workplace protections."

That was news to Haney, who noted that on-site pot smoking is already allowed under Proposition 64. What's not allowed is doing that in a cafe where you can also eat, drink, and maybe listen to music. Haney said permitting such businesses would help "the highly taxed and regulated legal cannabis industry" compete with "a thriving cannabis black market."

The post Newsom Nixes Psychedelic Decriminalization and Cannabis Cafes appeared first on Reason.com.
OREM, Utah (ABC4)  Nicholas Rossi, the man accused of faking his own death and moving to Scotland to avoid multiple charges in multiple states, including rape in Utah, is back in the United States and booked into the Davis County Jail.

The Utah County Sheriffs Office confirmed on Monday, Jan. 8 that Rossi, 36, was back in the U.S. following his extradition from Scotland. Utah County Sheriffs said with Rossi back on American soil, the state will begin moving forward with his prosecution.

Who is Nicholas Rossi?

Rossi has been wanted in the state of Utah since 2020 for a pair of rape charges in both Utah and Salt Lake counties from 2008. According to court documents, Rossi met each victim online before meeting them in person. One victim said Rossi seemed nice and educated at first but soon became manipulative. The second victim said Rossi became more aggressive as the relationship went on.

In both cases, Rossi allegedly trapped the victims in his home and sexually assaulted them. According to Utah County court documents, Rossi also faces charges related to sexual assault, harassment, and possible kidnapping that took place between 2007 and 2019 in Rhode Island, Ohio and Massachusetts.

Following the incidents, Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, allegedly fled the country and moved to Scotland, where he took on a different name and identity. Rossi told Rhode Island media four years ago that he had late-stage, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and only had weeks to live, according to the Associated Press. An obituary published online even claimed he had died on Feb. 29, 2020.

Rossi was spotted at a Glasgow hospital under a different name

In Dec. 2021, Rossi was reportedly arrested at a Glasgow hospital, where he was being treated for COVID-19. Authorities said he was taken into custody after allegedly behaving in a threatening or abusive manner while being treated.

Shortly after his arrest, Rossi was recognized as the U.S. wanted fugitive, beginning a long court process to have him extradited. The wanted fugitive repeatedly appeared in court and interviews in a wheelchair using an oxygen mask and speaking in a less-than-convincing British accent. He insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had never set foot on American soil.

Rossi reportedly claimed he was framed by authorities who took his fingerprints while he was in a coma so they could connect him to Rossi. After a long court battle, Edinburgh Sheriff Court Judge Norman McFadyen ruled in August 2023 that the extradition of Rossi from Scotland to the U.S. could move forward.

During his ruling, Judge McFadyen called Rossi as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.

These unfortunate facets of his character have undoubtedly complicated and extended what is ultimately a straightforward case, said McFayden.

Rossi was officially extradited to the U.S. on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, where he was booked into the Davis County Jail in Utah.

Whats next for Rossi?

The Utah County Sheriffs Office said it would be moving forward with the prosecution and that Rossi would receive all the due process rights that defendants are entitled to. The Utah County Fourth District Court has not yet scheduled an initial appearance for Rossi as of Monday, Jan. 8.

Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
FILE PHOTO: Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted as Niger's president in a coup on July 26, speaks in May.

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's military tribunal granted the son of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, Mohamed Bazoum Salem, provisional release from house arrest in the capital Niamey on Monday, it said in a statement.

Salem, 23, has been in detention at the presidential residence with his parents since his father was toppled during a military coup in July.

The coup, one of eight in West and Central Africa since 2020, was widely condemned, led to sanctions from the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), and prompted widespread calls for Bazoum's release and a return to democratic rule.

The tribunal did not provide details on the fate of Salem's parents.

The ECOWAS Court of Justice last month ruled that the family's detention was arbitrary and ordered Bazoum's reinstatement. The court, whose decisions cannot be appealed, has given the junta one month to say how it will execute the order, the lawyers said.

Bazoum and his son were indicted after the July 26 coup. Salem was charged of conspiracy with the aim of undermining the authority or security of the state.

The family has had no access to running water or electricity, according to Bazoum's party and their relatives. The family's lawyers previously said they have not been allowed to meet a magistrate or informed about any legal proceedings against them.

(Reporting by Moussa Aksar and Boureima Balima; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang)
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's president has suspended the minister of humanitarian affairs with immediate effect and asked the corruption watchdog to investigate financial transactions involving her ministry, the president's spokesperson said on Monday.

Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, is the first minister to be suspended, less than six months after her appointment by President Bola Tinubu, who won last year's disputed elections vowing to revive growth in Africa's biggest economy and fight corruption.

Spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale said the president had directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions involving Edu's ministry.

Edu could not immediately be reached for comment.

Africa's biggest economy and energy producer, Nigeria has struggled for decades with endemic corruption among senior public servants and the political elite, who many Nigerians blame for widespread poverty in the country.

Tinubu asked a panel led by Finance Minister Wale Edun to review the framework of social protection programmes meant for poor households in a bid to win back public trust.

(Reporting by Felix Onuah,; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha,; Editing by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Ed Osmond)
On the last day of 2023, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark announced her abdication, which would take effect on January 14.

Taking her place is her eldest son, Crown Prince Frederik, who would be known upon his accession as King Frederik X.

As the countdown to the transition of power began in Denmark, here are some details about the next Danish king.

Royal Degree-Holder

Frederik Andre Henrik Christian of the House of Glucksburg-Monpezat was born on May 26, 1968, to then-Princess Margrethe and her French diplomat husband Henri de Laborde de Monpezat. He was the eldest of Margrethe and Henrik's two sons, with the younger one being Prince Joachim.

His mother became Queen of Denmark after the death of his grandfather, King Frederik IX, in 1972. This meant he became crown prince at the age of three.

After attending basic education, Frederik became the first Danish royal to complete a university education after graduating with a degree in political science at Aarhus University in 1995. He used the name "Frederik Henriksen" as a student.

Upon graduating from university, he was posted as First Secretary to the Danish Embassy in Paris from October 1998 to October 1999 as a nod to his French heritage.

Soldier and Adventurer

Part of Frederik's royal duties was not only to represent Denmark but also to serve and defend it.

As part of these duties, Frederik completed extensive military studies and training in all three services of the Danish armed forces, including as a combat diver for the Danish Navy's Frogman Corps, which is equivalent to the US Navy SEALs and the British Special Boat Service.

He also completed further leadership training at the Royal Danish Defense College in Copenhagen. Prior to his accession as king, he was promoted to the full ranks of general in the Danish Army and Air Force and admiral in the Danish Navy.

Read Also: Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth: Here's All You Need to Know About Denmark's Future Queen Consort

A Wife from Down Under

While serving as a military officer and royal representative for Denmark at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Frederik met Australian lawyer and marketing consultant Mary Elizabeth Donaldson.

After four years of secret courtship, Queen Margrethe gave her consent to the marriage of Frederik and Mary, with the wedding taking place on May 14, 2004, at Copenhagen Cathedral.

The future king and queen have four children together, with their eldest son Prince Christian set to become the next crown prince upon Margrethe's abdication.

Frederik X

As Margrethe's reign over Denmark is about to end, it would be expected that the next monarch would be known as King Frederik X.

Equally loved like Margrethe, Frederik, and Mary represented a modernized Danish monarchy as they gave their four children as normal an upbringing as possible, including sending them mainly to state schools, the BBC reported.

Like his British counterpart, King Charles III, Frederik has also developed a sense of being close to nature and a drive to pursue solutions that would improve the world's climate issues.

It was also speculated that Margrethe's abdication was a motherly gesture to preserve the marriage of his son and daughter-in-law following rumors that Frederik was allegedly having an affair with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova.

The outgoing monarch was also under pressure after cutting off Prince Joachim and Princess Marie and their family of royal titles and stipend to downsize the House of Glucksburg.

Despite the rumors, Frederik and Mary appeared together in Margrethe's final New Year's Day dinner gala on Monday (January 1) alongside Prince Joachim and his wife Marie.

Related Article: Danish Queen Margrethe II Announces Sudden Abdication 52 Years After Taking the Throne Following Her Father's Death
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley addresses a crowd at Holy City Brewing in North Charleston, S.C., on Sept. 8. File Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI

CLIVE, Iowa, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be the only two candidates onstage at the Republican presidential debate in Iowa on Wednesday.

The debate at Sheslow Auditorium at Drake University in Des Moines will be the first to feature just two candidates. It begins at 9 p.m. EST, and will air on CNN. The network's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate.

It will be the final debate before the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucus on Jan. 15. It is the fifth Republican debate in the Republican primary. The sixth debate is scheduled for Jan. 21 at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, N.H. The New Hampshire primary is on Jan. 23.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who participated in the previous debates, did not meet the polling requirements to participate.

Candidates are required to poll at 10% or better in three national polls or Iowa polls of likely caucus-goers. The deadline to qualify was Jan. 2.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Florida Freedom Summit at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, Fla., on November. 4. File Photo by Joe Marino/UPI

Former President Donald Trump, who has not participated in any of the debates, will appear in a Fox News town hall in Iowa at the same time as the debate, according to Fox. Trump has met the qualifications to participate in each debate.

Haley, DeSantis and Christie have been critical of Trump for not participating in previous debates.

"We are honored to continue playing a central role in the democratic process at Drake University," Marty Martin, president of Drake University, said in a statement. "Des Moines and Drake have long been a hub for political and civic engagement on the national stage, and we are excited to carry on that tradition leading into the 2024 election, inviting our students, our community and thousands of visitors to engage in presidential politics."

This will be Drake University's fifth presidential election cycle in a row hosting a nationally televised debate.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem broke her silence about the issue of the new state penitentiarys location in an interview with KWAT radio station on Dec. 13, in Watertown.

This was after weeks of refusing to answer questions from the media and her constituents about decisions behind the site's selection and allegations about a lack of transparency in the matter, with her office citing pending litigation.

The announcement of the prisons new location in Lincoln County on state-owned property was done Oct. 6. After that, residents responded by actively calling on state and county officials to be a part of community forum discussions and filed a lawsuit looking for answers.

More: Ellsworth crew safe after ejecting from B-1 following crash

Residents got together to form a group called the NOPE, Neighbors Opposed to Prison Expansion, whose fundamental ideology is to make sure residents voices are heard and that officials are exercising transparency while making decisions that directly affect them.

The group filed the lawsuit in early November against the Department of Corrections and the state, after which they held two public forums, where Noem and DOC Secretary Kellie Wasko were invited to address the residents directly. However, officials with both offices stated Noem and Wasko wouldn't be attending the forums, citing the broadness of the pending lawsuit and stating they couldn't talk about the issue because of that.

However, on Dec. 13, a week prior to the the second forum on Dec. 21, where neither attended, Noem spoke about the prison issue publicly for the first time during that radio interview. Days later, but shrotly before the second forum, her office cited the lawsuit as why she and others staff couldn't speak about the issue.

Noem spoke about a wide range of issues with KWAT News Director Mike Tanner during the interview, from covering the upcoming legislative session, to CO2 pipelines, to abortion and to her presence with Donald Trump on the presidential ticket this year.

Noem took roughly 2 minutes of an approximately 29-minute-segment to acknowledge the conversation around the prison location and that she knew certain people were upset.

Well, the site has been chosen. This is where the prison will be built, Noem said in the interview. Its been an interesting conversation. I know theres a few noisy people who maybe dont want it nearby.

More: Sioux Falls Police arrest man for firing gun at 10 people Tuesday

Noem talked about how the current location isnt as conducive as the new one will be and how poor the physical state of the current prison is.

Frankly, our current penitentiary is falling down. We have caution tape around many parts of this building because the bricks are literally crumbling, Noem said. That building was built before South Dakota was even a state.

She continued to elaborate on the need for a new state penitentiary location.

Its not a great place for our correction officers to work in and its certainly no place to help those who are incarcerated heal, get better, go out into our communities and become productive individuals providing for their families again, she said.

Conversations about the new state penitentiary location and its scouting had been publicly ongoing for two years. But when the final location was decided upon, residents were allegedly only made aware at the last stage, NOPE organizers said.

More: 'South Da-Snow-Ta' and 11 others win annual DOT snowplow naming contest

Noem said some of the criticism was that development wont happen around those sites and how absolutely untrue that was, referring to facilities in Pierre or Rapid City and the continued development around those areas.

Since the Nov. 3 lawsuit was filed, the DOC has since asked a Lincoln County judge to dismiss the case, saying NOPE and the county do not have the power to supersede the DOC or Legislatures authority. The state is still waiting on a ruling.

More: 25-year-old sentenced to probation for statutory rape in Pennington County

NOPE Vice President Madeline Voegeli said it was surprising to hear the governor addressed their group in such a negative way, considering Noem was acknowledging the group for the first time on a public platform.

More: Jury: Former Rapid City Marshals football player not guilty of rape

It was unfortunate to hear that she not only recognizes that we do exist but resorted to name calling, when she hasnt reached out once to us as a group, returned any of our calls or emails, or any of our requests for information regarding the site selection, Voegeli said.

Voegeli expressed curiosity on the governors decision to break her silence with this particular media outlet. NOPE members had been trying to reach out for months. Voegeli said she was confused why the governor was able to speak about our organization when she has previously stated that she isnt supposed to be talking about it due to the litigation.

More: Sioux Falls Police arrest man for assaulting, threatening 2 women after hours-long standoff

But Noem and her office's refusal to comment on the issue because of the litigation seemingly continues.

Asked directly by the Argus Leader on Friday about why she spoke to the radio station, which reaches a public audience, and not to her constiuents at the forum, the questions remained unanswered.

When the Argus Leader first reached out to Ian Fury, the governor's chief of communications, for comments on Noem's and Wasko's absence at the second public forum held Dec. 21, reporters were met with a response referring to the pending lawsuit.

A second attempt at reaching out was made Friday after the Argus Leader learned Noem had publicly acknowledged upset residents and discussed the prison location issue on the radio prior to the second forum. However, the response from Noem's office didn't change.

Fury was asked for comments about how or why the governor was able to discuss the prison issue then with KWAT in a public radio interview while not being able to answer the Argus Leader's follow-up questions about that same interview. The Argus Leader asked Fury to specify what Noem's office thinks is the extent of the lawsuit, whether "noisy people" was specifically in reference to NOPE and how the radio interview didn't violate previous reasons given for not talking publicly about the issue.

You are asking me to comment directly on the pending litigation, and I cant do that, Fury said Friday.

Voegeli said Noem's radio interview shows that conversations are taking place in the State Capital regarding the issue even now.

More: Sioux Falls man threatened woman with hammer, then strangled her, police say

Conversations are taking place in Pierre, (but) we continue to be completely left out of the discussion, Voegeli said. Like now we understand that they know who we are. And theyre still dismissing all our questions and all our requests for more information regarding the issue.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Gov. Noem breaks silence on issue of new mens prison in radio interview
HIGHLANDS - One morning in November, Robert King woke up and smelled gas permeating his Highlands home.

The stove was on, he said.

His son, 31-year-old Jared Donnelly, had left it unattended.

Hell put something on the stove and forget about it, Robert said. I try to make him meals he can put in the microwave. I tell him that, and hell forget that I told him.

Jared Donnelly (right) with his father Robert King.

Pedestrian deaths rising: What is causing the accidents in New Jersey?

Robert says Jared has sufferered short-term memory loss since July 26, 2018. That night, according to an investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutors fatal accident unit, a volunteer firefighter responding to a call struck Donnelly while he was walking in a crosswalk.

'We're not giving up'

According to the report, the 2012 Buick driven by John McKay was going 44 mph in a 25-mph zone. It concluded that the collision was precipitated by Mr. McKays high-speed approach to the intersection coupled with his failure to keep to the right during his left turn and his failure to make proper observations of Mr. Donnellys position within a marked crosswalk.

It also noted serious injuries to the pedestrian and documented lacerations on Donnellys face, bruising and swelling in the posterior of his skull, and injuries to his shoulder, thigh, hip and ankle as he recovered in Jersey Shore University Medical Centers intensive care unit in Neptune.

Jared Donnelly during his hospitalization.

Fatal police chase: NJ grand jury exonerates Asbury Park cops in fatal Neptune crash that killed two

McKay was issued five summonses, including one for reckless driving. On Friday, five-and-a-half years later, they finally were resolved with a downgrade to a guilty plea for careless driving. King is not thrilled about the outcome, but his son's civil lawsuit against the Borough of Highlands, the Highlands fire department and McKay can go forward at long last.

I think their goal was to get us to throw our hands up and give up, King said of the attorneys for the defendants, none of whom commented in response to an Asbury Park Press inquiry about the case. Thats not going to happen. Were not giving up.

'A total abnormality'

King is a professional painter, and Donnelly was working with him in 2018 when the accident occured. According to Donnellys civil complaint, pain and cognitive impairment have left him permanently disabled.

I had to relearn how to read, Donnelly said. I turn a little bit and I feel like I turned 360 (degrees). I definitely will not be able to drive.

Jared Donnelly standing at the intersection in Highlands where he sustained a head injury after being struck by a car.

Speaking at a coffee shop at the corner of Bay Avenue and Miller Street  the scene of the accident  Donnelly said the shops light background music was causing him sensory problems.

He has good days and bad, King said. Whenever hes not doing well, I say, OK, well hes alive.

Police report: U-Haul truck damages 3 cop cars during 2-hour, 100-mile chase through 8 towns

Donnelly's civil complaint, filed in 2019, seeks unspecified damages for past and future medical expenses, loss of wages, loss of function, pain and suffering. King said theyve rejected a mediators offer of $1.375 million that will not adequately cover the costs of decades of disability. Donnellys attorney, Brian Schiller, said they are willing to go to trial if necessary. Now that the municipal case is over after more than a dozen postponements, a civil trial is tentatively set for Feb. 20.

Ive never dealt with something like this in my career, Schiller said. This is a total abnormality. Five-plus years weve waited for these traffic tickets to get resolved. This is not normal.

Jared Donnelly during his hospitalization.

Lack of closure

Standing outside the coffee shop, at the intersection where he was struck, Jared Donnelly has no memory of what happened. But he is frustrated by the snail's pace toward closure.

Its been more than five years, Donnelly said. Its stupid.

Jared Donnelly standing at the intersection in Highlands where he sustained a head injury after being struck by a car.

Sometimes, after a bad day, Jared will sleep for 18 straight hours, his father said. King still works as a painter, and now hes a caretaker, too.

Hes a great dad, Donnelly said.

One who has become acutely attuned to the smell of gas.

What are you doing to do, King said, other than make sure there are batteries in the smoke alarm?

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shores interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Delayed justice over 2018 accident that left Highlands man disabled
In a potential outcome, Trump may be compelled to pay $370 million in a fraud case.

Donald Trump has legal issues that run from the attempted overturn of the 2020 election to his recent removal from the state of Colorado's election ballot.

According to a report from The Hill, New York Attorney General, Letitia James, has petitioned the judge, that Trump be compelled to pay an approximate penalty of $370 million and impose a lifetime ban on the former president and two top executives, preventing them from engaging in real estate business in New York.

This is on the basis that the ex-president, along with his business and various high-ranking executives, including his two sons, employed "myriad deceptive schemes" to inaccurately boost his net worth by billions, as stated in court filings just before the closing statements in his ongoing fraud trial.

The report then goes on to cite Trump's statement of "financial condition". These are comprehensive documents outlining the value of assets held by the Trump Organization. These statements were submitted to banks and insurers to facilitate loans and agreements, constituting what the state claims to be evidence of fraud.

To counter Trump's defense teams made the argument that Banks sought collaboration with The Trump Organization, and after conducting thorough due diligence, the banks discovered no evidence of fraud.

The defesne brief also stated, according to The Hill article, that "errors or misstatements happen all the time in accounting, if there are no indicia of fraud such as concealment, forgery, or deceit, then there is no basis to determine that these SFCs are fraudulent, and any misstatements are just accidental errors ".

In their plea to the judge, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have articulated their wish for the dismissal of the case against them. They argue that the Attorney General failed to demonstrate that they "possessed anything beyond a peripheral understanding or involvement in the formulation, preparation, or utilization" of their father's financial statements.



Their lawyer, Clifford Robert also stated, "The record evidence and testimony adduced at trial conclusively establishes that the SFCs were prepared, in their entirety, by others at the company working in conjunction with the company's long time outside accountants."

As the 2024 election approaches, it becomes evident that the former president must expedite legal matters to shift attention to his campaign.
The suspect wanted for a fatal shooting at a Florida mall just before Christmas has finally been arrested, almost two weeks since the attack.

The Ocala Police Department announced in a post on X on Monday that Albert J Shell Jr, 39, had been taken into custody in connection to the shooting at Paddock Mall, Ocala.

The Ocala Police Department, in collaboration with the United States Marshals Service (Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force), has apprehended Albert Shell Jr, the murder suspect involved in the deadly shooting at the Paddock Mall that occurred on 23 December, the department said.

Mr Shell was found at a house 20 miles south-west of Ocala in the Florida Highlands area, chief of police Mike Balken said at a press conference on Monday, noting that well over 100 tips regarding the shooting helped police find and arrest him.

Police had the suspects whereabouts pinned down at around 1am on Monday morning and surrounded the property.

It took police two hours to negotiate with Mr Shell until he ultimately surrendered .

Mr Shell had been wanted on charges of premeditated first-degree murder and attempted premeditated first-degree murder for the deadly shooting of 40-year-old David Nathaniel Barron the weekend before Christmas.

The gunman and the victim had a prior relationship with each other; Mr Balken described what went down between them as beef between two individuals.

The police chief did not go into any motives behind the attack at the press conference, yet they said that from the early days of the investigation the shooting was a targeted act  with Mr Barron the intended target.

A woman was also shot in the attack, and was briefly hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries to her leg, but is on her way to full recovery, Mr Balken confirmed.

He added that she did not know the victim or the suspect prior to the attack and was just an innocent bystander.

Several others were injured in the chaos, with one person suffering chest pain while another said they broke an arm, according to CBS News.

The Ocala Police Department, in collaboration with the United States Marshals Service (Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force), has apprehended Albert Shell Jr., the murder suspect involved in the deadly shooting at the Paddock Mall that occurred on Dec. 23, 2023. pic.twitter.com/c15dzemijI  Ocala Police (@ocalapd) January 8, 2024

Mr Balken said that the arrested suspect is responsible for one of the more heinous acts that weve seen in Ocala in a long time.

His criminal history alone tells me that he should never have been on the street to have been able to commit this crime, and were going to see to it that he serves the rest of his life behind bars, he added.

On 23 December, a gunman opened fire at around 3.40pm at Paddock Mall while locals were doing last-minute Christmas shopping.

By 4.20pm, authorities announced that the shooting was no longer active and that the suspect had fled the scene on foot, leaving a firearm behind.

Law enforcement officials announced they were looking for a suspect dressed in all black, white sneakers, and a red cap and a mask partially covering his face.

The shooting was the worst thing we can imagine this time of the year, police said at a press conference at the time.

Albert J Shell Jr surrendered almost two weeks after the mall killing (Ocala Police)

Earlier in their investigation, police warned the person who took the suspects red cap from the scene of the crime to return it immediately, saying that the hat could contain vital DNA evidence.

We urge you to do the right thing and come forward immediately, police said.

Mr Shell was later identified as the suspect with the public urged to come forward with any information.

A $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest was increased to $20,000 just before the arrest was made. Mr Balken expects the reward to be paid out now he has been captured.
Ballot drop box information at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in downtown Phoenix on Nov. 7, 2022.

For being the part of the electorate that politicians cant count on, infrequent voters continue to get a lot of unwelcome attention from state lawmakers preoccupied with election integrity.

And unnecessary, at that.

The latest is a renewed threat by Senate President Warren Petersen to sue over the manual that guides how elections are carried out in Arizona.

Basically, they're arguing over timing

In updating the Elections Procedures Manual, considered the bible on administering elections, the Secretary of States Office provided guidance on how to apply legislation state lawmakers passed in 2021 affecting voters on the Active Early Voting List  those who automatically receive an early ballot in the mail.

The new law requires county recorders to delete from the list people who havent voted in any primary, general or municipal elections in the last two election cycles.

Doing so, the argument goes, updates the roster of active voters, cuts down the handling and costs of sending out unused ballots and boosts public confidence on elections.

The Elections Procedures Manual adopted in late December advises that voters who fail to cast an election ballot in any of the 2024 and 2026 elections would be subject for potential removal, starting in January 2027.

Petersen and other Republican leaders contend that the clock started with the 2022 elections and that the removal process begins in January 2025  presumably, because the law took effect in the fall of 2021.

Petersen has a mistaken interpretation

Its a mistaken interpretation, however.

An election cycle is defined by Arizona statute as the two-year cycle beginning in January after the year a statewide general election is held.

That means the passage and signing of Senate Bill 1485 took place halfway through the 2022 election cycle. Thus, the 2024 and 2026 elections will determine who on the Active Early Voting List may be at risk of removal.

The difference in interpretation would be fine, even if it took a lawsuit to resolve, if not for the infused political animus.

Another Petersen lawsuit: Would keep 'dark money' in the dark

Petersen lumped the elections manual disagreement with issues he had with other Democrats to make unfounded accusations of Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.

We witnessed a sad trend in 2023 where the Executive branches led by Democrats blatantly disregard the law. 1. Governor violates confirmation laws. 2. SOS rewrites laws with the EPM. 3. AG fails to fully defend our laws leaving making it necessary for us to intervene, he tweeted.

On the removal of infrequent voters, Fontes did not rewrite laws in the Elections Procedures Manual.

Independent voters would be hardest hit

I maintain that both the left and the right overhyped SB 1485.

The left claimed voter suppression, even though the pruning of voter lists based on voting history was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and voters removed from the early voting list are still otherwise able to request an early ballot or vote in-person.

The right exaggerated the laws impact on fair and accurate elections and voter confidence.

The people most adversely affected, I still believe, are independent voters, who for the most part abstain from the states Democratic and Republican primaries and stand to be booted from the Active Early Voting List if they miss two consecutive general elections.

The latest brouhaha serves as a reminder, especially to them, that voting ease and convenience should not be taken for granted.

Reach Abe Kwok at akwok@azcentral.com. On Twitter: @abekwok.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Voters who don't regularly vote really bother the GOP, apparently
Republican New York Representative Elise Stefanik refused to guarantee that the results of the 2024 election would be certified.

NBC News' Meet the Press host Kristen Welker asked Stefanik, a member of the House Republican leadership, in an interview: "Would you vote to certify, and will you vote to certify, the results of the 2024 election no matter what they show?"

Although she supported former President Donald Trump's unfounded accusations of massive election fraud in 2020, Stefanik stated that she would not vote to certify the results in Pennsylvania and other states due to "unconstitutional acts circumventing the state legislature and unilaterally changing election law."

Commitment to Certifying Election Results

Stefanik could not commit to certifying the election results and blasted attempts to remove Trump off the ballot in places like Maine and Colorado when Welker pushed her on the subject. She said, "We will see if this is a legal and valid election. What we're seeing so far is that Democrats are so desperate, they're trying to remove President Trump from the ballot."

After Welker pointed out that Stefanik did not explicitly say that she would certify the election results, she asked whether this was merely a conditional statement if Trump won.

"No, it means if they're constitutional," Stefanik responded. "What we saw in 2020 was unconstitutional circumventing of the Constitution, not going through state legislators when it comes to changing election law."

See Also: Supreme Court Agrees To Take on Donald Trump's Colorado Ballot Disqualification Case

Echoing Trump's Comments, Criticizing Democrats

Meanwhile, the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and are still in jail are being referred to as "hostages" by Stefanik, who echoes Trump's previous comments. Trump urged President Joe Biden to free the rioters held in federal prison at a rally in Iowa on Saturday, January 6.

Stefanik said that she was sticking to her whole January 6 address. She expressed strong opposition to the violence and pointed out the importance of fighting for the integrity and safety of the elections.

Last week, in his first campaign address of the year, Biden criticized Trump and claimed that the former president is attacking democracy and endangering American institutions. But according to Stefanik, Biden and the Democrats are a "threat to democracy."

"We see them attempting to remove President Trump from the ballot. We saw this in Colorado and Maine," she said, as reported by NBC News. "That is the suppression of the American people and the American people's ability to cast their ballots this November. So it's Democrats that are a threat to democracy."

In response to Stefanik, Biden's deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said on Meet the Press: "I'm not sure that this 'I know you are, but what am I' situation is going to work when it comes to democracy."

See Also: Biden and Trump Face-Off in Jan. 6 Anniversary Rally Cries
The firing of Joe Gow as Chancellor at UW-La Crosse is a joke (UW-La Crosse leader removed, Dec. 29).

Why? Because he is still an employee of the university as a tenured faculty member. In other organizations when you are fired, you are out of the organization. Period. You are either an employee or not an employee.

Academic tenure need to be protected. It allowed me to speak out against evils of apartheid.

Who wins from I-794 removal? Developers. Rest of us will be stuck in traffic.

It is time to change the system of having fall-back positions in university administrative appointments.

Robert J. DeRoche, Greendale

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why does UW chancellor fired for porn videos get to keep faculty job?
Hello OnPolitics readers. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is facing mounting criticism after failing to disclose for days that he was hospitalized with a serious medical condition.

Wait, what happened? The Pentagon late Friday announced that Austin had been in the hospital since Jan. 1 related to an elective medical procedure. He was admitted to intensive care, but neither Austin nor other Defense officials have explained what his medical procedure was.

Whats the problem? The failure to disclose that Austin had been hospitalized for days was a breach of the norm in which health issues of senior government officials are released with alacrity.

The Defense Department didn't alert the White House until Thursday about Austin's condition, three days after he had been admitted to the hospital. And while Austin transferred authorities to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks on Jan. 2, she wasnt aware that Austin had been hospitalized until Jan. 4.

What will happen next? Some are warning there could be consequences.

Heads have to roll, said Brett Bruen, a former diplomat and expert in crisis communications who worked in the White House under then-President Barack Obama. This is not a minor miscommunication. Its about the confidence that our national security structure has in its leadership and that the leadership is acting in a transparent way.

Read more here: Why was Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hospitalized? Why is he facing backlash? What to know

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lloyd Austin faces mounting criticism over hospitalization
Please Sir

OpenAI is begging the British Parliament to allow it to use copyrighted works because it's supposedly "impossible" for the company to train its artificial intelligence models  and continue growing its multi-billion-dollar business  without them.

As The Telegraph reports, the AI firm said in a filing submitted to a House of Lords subcommittee that using only content from the public domain would be insufficient to train the kind of large language models (LLMs) it's building, suggesting that the company must therefore be allowed to use copyrighted material.

"Because copyright today covers virtually every sort of human expression  including blog posts, photographs, forum posts, scraps of software code, and government documents  it would be impossible to train today's leading AI models without using copyrighted materials," the company wrote in the evidence filing. "Limiting training data to public domain books and drawings created more than a century ago might yield an interesting experiment, but would not provide AI systems that meet the needs of today's citizens."

OpenAI went on to insist in the document, submitted before the House of Lords' communications and digital committee, that it complies with copyright laws and that the company believes "legally copyright law does not forbid training."

Rank and File

There's a growing chorus of interested parties who strongly disagree with OpenAI's assertion that it's chill and legal to use copyrighted work to train AI.

Just a few weeks ago, the New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, its biggest investor, for profiting from allegedly "massive copyright infringement, commercial exploitation and misappropriation" of the paper's intellectual property.

The paper of record is far from alone in its legal overtures against OpenAI. A few months prior, the Authors Guild sued the firm on behalf of some of the biggest names in fiction  including John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, Jonathan Franzen, David Baldacci, and George R.R. Martin  over objections to those writers' work being used to train ChatGPT.

Without using copyrighted work, OpenAI "would have a vastly different commercial product," Rachel Geman, one of the attorneys in the guild's class action suit, said in a press release about the filing. As such, the company's "decision to copy authors' works, done without offering any choices or providing any compensation, threatens the role and livelihood of writers as a whole."

On OpenAI's end, the company claims that it's seeking to broker new publisher partnerships, The Telegraph reports. All the same, it's hard to imagine every newspaper, website, or publishing house accepting such terms wholesale, much less independent writers who rely on their copyrights to make a living.

More on authors and AI: AI Companies Desperately Hiring Authors and Poets to Fix Their Crappy Writing
In October, voters in Slovakia were surprised to hear a recording on Facebook of an interview between a journalist and Michal Simecka, one of the leading political party officials involved in an election less than two days away.

Wired.com reports that on the recording, which seemed to clearly feature the voices of the people involved, Simecka discussed ways he intended to rig the election.

Simecka and the journalist said the interview never happened. It was faked audio made possible by artificial intelligence.

But the denials may not have been enough, especially on the eve of the election.

Simecka represented a pro-NATO party, which ended up losing narrowly to a party that campaigned on ending support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

As Americans gear up for what promises to be a nasty 2024 presidential election, experts are warning that Slovakia may be a sign of things to come here.

Artificial intelligence and free elections dont mix, and the threats dont always have to come from foreign adversaries.

Reuters reported last June that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis presidential campaign apparently created fake photos showing former President Donald Trump hugging former chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and, in a separate photo, kissing him on the nose. The images were interspersed with actual video and audio of Trump explaining why he didnt fire Fauci, who was a lightning rod for conservative ire during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related

DeSantis supporters countered that Trumps camp had also posted fake pictures of DeSantis, although Reuters noted these seem to have been confined to obvious fakes, such as one of DeSantis riding a rhinoceros.

But the Slovakian fake audio came during a 48-hour preelection blackout period for media and politicians, making it difficult to debunk.

Writing for the Brennan Center for Justice, Daniel I. Weiner and Lawrence Norden note that several states and members of Congress are working on laws to deter and punish this sort of manipulation. But they warn it wont be easy in a nation where First Amendment rights protect free expression.

Truth can be manipulated legitimately, such as the creation of satire or other forms of commentary or art, they write. U.S. law specifies that even outright deception with no redeeming artistic or other licit purpose, while typically entitled to less constitutional protection, cannot be prohibited simply for its own sake.

They argue that effective laws must target paid campaign ads and other widely distributed communications, and should exempt parody, news reports and other types of protected speech. New laws could require transparency  labeling materials as fake  or could outright ban certain types of faked media.

But would they be enough, and would they be effective?

Writing for Foreign Affairs last week, Jen Easterly, Scott Schwab and Cait Conley said the American election system, spread among thousands of individual counties, is resilient because of its dedicated local and state officials.

Indeed, election officials frequently highlight that the only constant in election administration is to expect the unexpected, they wrote. Natural-born crisis managers, they are practiced in the art of adapting to any situation and finding creative solutions.

In recent years, they have implemented effective security measures. They also cooperate and share information with each other and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

And yet, these election workers have been under intense pressure following the false allegations of widespread election fraud in 2020, and many of them have quit.

Also, laws may have difficulty reaching people who create and send false videos and recordings from foreign lands. And social media platforms may have trouble certifying posts as false and misleading in a timely manner.

Easterly, Schwab and Conley said the private sector, the media and voters all must play a part in countering this threat.

Election security should not be a matter of politics or partisanship but rather preserving the integrity of the countrys most sacred democratic process, they write.

All true, and none terribly comforting. In a year when foreign enemies are at least as motivated to influence elections as the candidates themselves, public awareness and skepticism will be needed as never before. But this coincides with a time when people seem less informed than at any time in recent memory.

Maybe a major U.S. candidate talking about rigging elections would be too easy to identify as a fake, but I wouldnt bet on it.
At a campaign event in Iowa this weekend, former President Donald Trump told supporters there was a way to prevent the bloody and intractable Civil War that tore America apart: to strike a deal between the slave-holding states and non-slave holding ones.

Dean Obeidallah - CNN

Describing the conflict as so horrible, but so fascinating, Trump declared at a campaign rally on Saturday that so many mistakes were made in the conduct of the war, which raged between 1861 and 1865, claiming more than 600,000 lives, after secessionist states insisted on leaving the Union rather than ending the barbaric practice of owning Black human beings as property. That was a tough one for our country, Trump said.

He continued: See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that. He later added, Abraham Lincoln, of course, if he negotiated it, you probably wouldnt even know who Abraham Lincoln was.

One has to wonder: What exactly, would Trump have wanted to see negotiated? What did he think was open for discussion? The options at that moment in history were slavery or war, as many historians have noted.

His remarks recall last months gaffe  also on the subject of the Civil War  made by South Carolinas former governor Nikki Haley, who is vying with Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Haley made a massive misstep when asked at a campaign event to name the causes of the conflict, naming a laundry list of reasons, but somehow managing to overlook slavery. It was an inexplicable oversight: The Civil War secession declarations of Haleys own state of South Carolina and other southern states, after all, stated point blank that the reason for leaving the Union was to continue with slavery. It was slavery, or war.

Haley later clarified that slavery was indeed the reason for the Civil War  while continuing to insist that a laundry list of vague factors  basically how government was going to run, the freedoms, and what people could and couldnt do  were also among the causes.

Haleys remarks constituted an enormous blunder, but Trumps were far worse. And it wasnt a situation where the former president could say, as he sometimes does, that he really didnt understand the details of the issue being discussed  in this case, the Civil War.

In fact, just two days before Sundays rally, he slammed Haley for not citing slavery as the cause of that terrible conflict between the states. At that campaign event on Friday, Trump told supporters: She didnt use the word slavery, which was interesting. Trump then added, Id say slavery is sort of the obvious answer.

It all raises the unavoidable question: What would negotiating about slavery would have meant for Trump? Is he suggesting he would have allowed slavery to continue indefinitely as the slave-owning states wanted?

That was the very point made by Liz Cheney, a former Republican House member from Wyoming. Cheney wrote on X: Which part of the Civil War could have been negotiated? The slavery part? The secession part? Whether Lincoln should have preserved the Union? She continued: Question for members of the GOP  the party of Lincoln  who have endorsed Donald Trump: How can you possibly defend this?

Cheney was not the only Republican to criticize Trumps comments. Christian Vanderbrouk, now a writer for The Bulwark, who once served in former President George W. Bushs administration, wrote on X, Trump muses wistfully about allowing the south to have continued the practice of slavery.

Some might dismiss Trumps musings about a negotiated deal to avoid the Civil War. I dont. It seems that with Trump, when a political issue intersects race, his reasons appear to be far more sinister. Cheney and Vanderbrouk were making that very point by raising the question of whether Trump would have negotiated a deal allowing the Southern states to continue to own Blacks as property.

That is a very fair point: This is an individual after all who as president repeatedly and very vocally defended monuments that celebrated the Confederate military offices that had waged a war to defend slavery. Trump even went as far as to call these monuments to White supremacy things of beauty. In contrast, Trump called the Black Lives Matter street mural painting a symbol of hate while never using those same words to describe the Confederate monuments, like the one honoring slave-owning Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who Trump praised again in 2021.

Beyond those remarks, theres Trumps history of spewing racist comments such as decrying immigrants from African countries and Haiti which he dubbed shithole countries. And his refusal to denounce White supremacy during the September 2020 presidential debate. That is the prism through which we have to view Trumps comment that there could have been a way to negotiate an end to the Civil War.

The question for me is not whether Lincoln could have made a deal that would have made the slave-owning states happy enough to remain in the Union. What I wonder about is which side wouldve Trump sided with in the Civil War: The Confederacy or the United States of America? The track record of a president facing accusations of attempting his own insurrection, which he of course denies, would seem to readily answer that question.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Three of Oregons largest universities are teaming up to launch the Oregon Cybersecurity Center of Excellence to improve the states resilience to cyberattacks.

The center, made up of cybersecurity experts from Portland State University, University of Oregon, and Oregon State University, will act as an advisory body to the governor and the state legislature.

The center will also focus on cybersecurity workforce development and will help school districts, libraries and local governments with unmet cybersecurity needs. The schools will begin work later in January.

NTSB: Warning lights came on 3 times on Alaska Air

The center, which will be based at Portland State University, was created under House Bill 2049  which Gov. Kotek signed into law in July 2023.

Cyberattacks hit public agencies, private businesses and individuals daily. Malicious actors are demanding ransom payment in exchange for access to stolen data, said state Rep. Nancy Nathanson, who co-sponsored the bill. Oregon school districts, cities, and businesses arent just vulnerable  they are being attacked.

HB 2049 marks a significant stride in fortifying Oregons digital defense by establishing the Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, a hub for enhancing cybersecurity expertise and resources across public, private, and educational sectors, State Sen. Aaron Woods said. The center will boost Oregons cybersecurity workforce and help fortify Oregon against evolving digital threats.

This is how long $1M in retirement savings will last in Oregon: Analysis

Birol Yesilada  a PSU professor and director of the universitys Mark O. Hatfield Cybersecurity and Cyber Defense Center  will serve as the centers first director.

The opportunity for having such a profound societal impact and working with all these stakeholders make our involvement in the Center uniquely exciting, Yesilada said.

Officials noted having three major universities involved in this type of project is rare; however, UO professor and Computer Science department head, Reza Rejaie, points out that each school offers their own unique experience to help the state against cyberattacks.

Door plug, cell phones from Alaska Air 1282 found

Universities are uniquely positioned to establish or extend relationships with various stakeholders, and collectively offer the required expertise and experiences to support, coordinate, and execute wide range of envisioned activities to address Cybersecurity challenges across the state, Rejaie said.

It is also helpful that the three schools, and the people involved, work incredibly well together  it is a great team, said Rakesh Bobba, associate professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at OSU, who joins Rejaie and Yesilada at the Center as an associate director. Im especially excited by the workforce development opportunities in cybersecurity the Center will help create, and the direct impact this will have on improving Oregons cybersecurity posture.

Efforts to bolster cybersecurity in the state come after Beaverton School District announced a security incident may have compromised students password for email, Google, Canvas and other learning platforms in November.

In June 2023, a massive data breach at the Oregon Department of Transportation impacted 90% of Oregonians drivers licenses and state IDs. The hack was part of a global data breach involving the data software MOVEit Transfer earlier in the month.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
Wichita is already familiar with the term banh mi because of the many Vietnamese restaurants in town that serve banh mi sandwiches, which are made by stuffing a crusty French baguette with meat and usually a mixture of sliced cucumber, picked carrots and strips of a daikon radish.

Later this year, two locations of an Orlando-based banh mi chain will open in Wichita.

One will be owned by Kieu Nguyen, the owner of VIP Nails at 550 N. Rock Road, and her husband, Tuyen Ning. Theyre taking over 3,000 square feet at 2350 N. Greenwich, suite 1000, where Custom RX used to operate. The space is in a strip center that sits south of the new Chick-fil-A.

Nguyen said the couple hopes to have their restaurant open sometime in April, though it could be later in the spring.

Also, another separate franchisee is planning a Paris Banh Mi for the building at 2560 S. Seneca where West Street Burgers recently closed. The franchisee, who prefers not to be named, says that the south-side restaurant will open in the summer. A Facebook page appeared late last month.

The south-side Paris Banh Mi will have a drive-through and will also offer fried chicken, corn dogs and pho.

Nguyen said that she and her husband became interested in the chain after trying out restaurants in both Oklahoma and in Orlando. The restaurants sell pastries, boba and coffee drinks in addition to sandwiches.

We happened to go in and try the food, and we loved it, she said. We wanted to bring something new, something different to Wichita.

And although Wichita has plenty of places to get banh mi, Nguyen said, Paris Banh mi also offers pastries and boba drinks, and its unusual to find all three under one roof.

There will be something for everybody, she said.

Stay tuned for more information as opening day for both restaurants gets closer.
On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on the three-month mark of the Israel-Hamas war to eliminate the Hamas' military framework in the Northern Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip until it attains its goals.

IDF Eliminates Hamas' Military Framework

Netanyahu released a statement towards Israel's friends and enemies at the weekly cabinet meeting. He claimed that the war must not be stopped until they have eliminated Hamas, returned all their hostages, and ensured that Gaza would no longer pose a threat to Israel.

In a news conference, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated that the military's top priority was to destroy Hamas in central and southern Gaza.

"The fighting will continue throughout 2024. We are working according to a plan to achieve the goals of the war: to dismantle Hamas in the center and south, and continue all efforts, intelligence and operational, and military pressure, to return the hostages," he said.

The IDF has killed 8,000 Hamas militants and destroyed millions of documents, and thousands of weapons were taken into custody. Hagari added that the Palestinian militants were now operating in the area sporadically without any commanders. Furthermore, gun battles intensified in the central districts of the densely populated Palestinian enclave and the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

According to the health officials in Nasser Hospital, the Israeli strikes on the east and north of Khan Younis killed 50 people on early Sunday. The IDF in the Gaza Strip has killed gunmen loading weapons into a vehicle and destroyed a launch site that fired rockets toward Israel.

Hamas' armed wing said its fighters in the central Gaza Strip had destroyed a troop carrier in the al-Maghazi refugee camp. The IDF reported that Israeli planes opened fire on Palestinian militants, increasing violence in the occupied West Bank outside of Gaza. The Palestinian health officials said that seven Palestinians died in the strike.

According to the police, an Israeli border police officer was killed and others wounded when an explosive device hit their vehicle during operations in the West Bank city of Jenin.

Read Also: Halle Bailey Welcomes First Child With DDG After Secret Pregnancy: Greetings to Baby Halo!

US Vows to Protect Palestinian Civilians

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently met with King Abdullah on Sunday in Jordan. Blinken emphasized the US opposition to the forcible displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza and the critical need to protect Palestinian civilians in the West Bank from extremist settler violence.

The fighting resulted in the displacement of Gaza's 2.3 million population and the destruction of several civilian infrastructures amid acute shortages of food, water, and medicine. Um Mohamad Al-Arqan said they were hoping that Blinken would look at them with an eye of mercy that would end their misery.

Blinken is scheduled to arrive in Doha to discuss with Qatari leaders efforts to free hostages held by Hamas after an earlier agreement mediated by Qatar broke down.

A US official said that Blinken would also try to press hesitant Muslim countries in the Middle East to help in the reconstruction, governance, and security of the Gaza Strip.

Related Article: Desperate Families in Gaza Cling to Routine for Survival




Though domestic issues tend to motivate most U.S. voters, the war in the Middle East may be the dominant issue in mind for an increasingly important voting block: Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans.

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, members of these communities have watched the rising death toll and heard vivid accounts of the horrors befalling Palestinians in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to bombard the enclave with the support of the Biden administration.

For some Arab Americans, a community that overwhelmingly voted Democratic in the 2020 presidential election, that support may have negative consequences on Bidens attempt to regain the White House in 2024. In fact, numerous Middle Eastern and Muslim American leaders have called for their communities to abandon Biden in the upcoming presidential election.

The question, then, is what effect such defections could have on Bidens chances of winning reelection.

As a whole, the number of Middle Eastern or Muslim Americans is quite small. According to the 2020 census  the first year such data was recorded  3.5 million Americans reported being of Middle Eastern and North African descent, about 1% of the total U.S. population of nearly 335 million citizens.

But the outcome of the 2024 presidential election may come down to results in a few swing states where Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans are concentrated, such as Michigan, Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona.

In the 2020 presidential election, for instance, Biden won the state of Michigan by a total of 154,000 votes. The state is home to overlapping groups of more than 200,000 registered voters who are Muslim and 300,000 who claim ancestry from the Middle East and North Africa.

Working around statistical erasure

As a social scientist, I specialize in statistical analysis and research on how race, ethnicity and religion affect political outcomes in the U.S. I know from firsthand experience that any effort to gauge the attitudes and behaviors of Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans requires a bit of analytic gymnastics.

For starters, since 1977, the U.S. government has categorized those with ancestral ties to the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East as white, according to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

That stipulation is found in that agencys Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting and is used in U.S. census reports.

As a result, members of this community are subsumed within an expansive grouping of whites that effectively renders them invisible in nearly all administrative data and public opinion polls.

Muslim American supporters of Palestine hold a rally on Oct. 21, 2023, in Brooklyn, N.Y. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Similarly, Muslims are not captured in official data, as the U.S. does not record its citizens religious affiliations.

Even public opinion surveys that record religious denomination typically offer little to no insight into this community. When it comes to more prevalent religious groups  Catholics, Protestants, white evangelicals  their opinions are frequently reported and the subject of many polls.

But Muslims are nearly always relegated to the other non-Christian religious category, along with similarly small faith communities.

This is not to say that relevant data on Muslims and Middle Easterners in the U.S. is unavailable. For example, Emgage, a nonprofit Muslim advocacy group, collected such data on eligible voters and turnout in a dozen states during the 2020 presidential election.

By combining the data from Emgage with data collected by AP VoteCast, the Cooperative Election Survey and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one can reach a few general conclusions about these communities.

Impact of defections on 2024 presidential campaign

The Arab American Institute, an advocacy group, says that since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Arab American support for the Democratic Party has plummeted from 59% in 2020 to just 17%.

Among Muslim Americans the drop is worse, from 70% in 2020 to about 10% at the end of 2023.

If these poll numbers hold true until Nov. 7, the 2024 presidential election would be the first time in nearly 30 years that the Democrats were not the party of choice for Arab American voters.

That doesnt necessarily mean that these voters would go to the GOP. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump proved to be an unpopular choice among Arab and Muslim American voters, in large part due to his executive order 13769.

Signed on Jan. 27, 2017, the order immediately prohibited the entry of immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and came to be known by critics as the Muslim ban. Though the order survived numerous legal challenges, it was eventually overturned by Biden shortly after he took office in January 2021.

Trump has already promised during campaign stops to reinstate his policy.

Not surprisingly, Biden won overwhelming majorities in these communities in 2020.

U.S. President Joe Biden, left, takes selfies on May 1, 2023, at the White House during a reception celebrating the end of Ramadan. Alex Wong/Getty Images

But it is not out of the realm of possibility that the votes cast by Middle Easterners and Muslims for the Republican and Democratic candidates for president in 2024 drop by 50% from 2020, as those voters decide to stay home or vote for a third-party candidate.

In Michigan, for example, that could mean Biden would lose about 55,000 votes, or about a third of the 154,000-vote margin of victory he earned over Trump in 2020.

Michigan is not the only state where no-shows in these communities could jeopardize Bidens prospects for victory.

Decreased turnout among Middle Eastern, North African and Muslim Americans alone would be enough to erase Bidens 2020 margins of victory in Arizona  10,457 votes  and nearly do the same in Georgia, where Biden won by 12,670 votes.

Of course, Arab Americans are not the only ones likely to penalize Biden at the ballot box next November over his foreign policy. But even if they were, the numbers show that a presidential election may swing on a lesser-known but potentially crucial voting bloc.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Youssef Chouhoud, Christopher Newport University.

Read more:



Youssef Chouhoud does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
An eyesore gas station in south Richland is ready to be transformed with new development.

The former Circle K gas station and convenience store at Gage Boulevard and Leslie Road will be demolished and the property redeveloped, said Lance Bacon, a real estate broker whose team spent four years working to acquire the site.

Bacon said thats how long it took to remove the four underground tanks that once served an Exxon station and to clean up contaminants that leaked into the soil and ground water.

The Washington Department of Ecology confirmed the property is clean in a letter to the former owner, Circle K Inc., last July. Bacons team closed a deal to buy the 0.4-acre property about two months ago.

This week, public interest in the high-profile parcel revived when the new owners agreed to sell about 1,000 square feet along the two streets to the city of Richland.

The city needs slices of land to upgrade the sidewalks and make the busy intersection at Gage and Leslie intersection more accessible. It agreed to pay $50,000 for the land along the streets in a deal approved by the city council on Tuesday.

That sets the stage to do something new on the smaller parcel.

Bacon said it isnt big enough for a restaurant, but it could be suited for a coffee shop or other use. Roasters Coffee eyed the site in 2019 but never executed on the plan before a series of ownership changes transformed the former local chain into Wake Up Call Coffee.

Bacon said 1,300-square-foot convenience store will be demolished in early 2024. He is soliciting bids from contractors now. Weeds and debris will be cleaned up.

The four fuel tanks were removed in March and April 2019, according to Washington Department of Ecology records. Gasoline, benzene and related contaminants were found in the soil and ground water, the state agency said.

The Pollution Liability Insurance agency determined no further action was required at the site in December 2021 and it entered the voluntary cleanup program for evaluation of arsenic and lead contamination in July 2022.

Six groundwater monitoring wells were sealed in August 2023, freeing it for redevelopment.

The property has a taxable value of $550,000, according to Benton County records.

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View of the Supreme Court of Pakistan building in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday scrapped lifetime bans on contesting elections for people with criminal convictions, paving the way for Nawaz Sharif to run for prime minister for a fourth time.

Sharif's party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), is considered a front runner to win elections scheduled for Feb. 8, with Sharif's main rival, former prime minister Imran Khan, in jail and barred from contesting for five years.

In his ruling, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who headed a seven-member panel of judges, said the life bans "abridge the fundamental right of citizens to contest elections".

The court's decision was six to one in favour of overruling a previous 2018 decision that imposed life bans on politicians convicted under certain provisions of the constitution.

Sharif, 74, was found guilty in 2017 of dishonest practices, which qualified for a ban under the 2018 ruling. Last year, the courts overturned the two convictions.

While Sharif was not an applicant in the latest Supreme Court case, which was filed by other politicians, the ruling makes him eligible to contest the polls as more than five years have elapsed since 2017.

Khan, 71, whose party won the last elections in 2018, will not benefit from the ruling as it abolishes only life bans, which means the cricketer-turned-politician remains disqualified until 2028.

"Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), today the dark chapter of judicial injustice of lifelong disqualification to make Nawaz Sharif a target of political revenge has finally ended," Marriyum Aurangzeb, a PML-N leader, said in a post on social media platform X.

One of Khan's lawyers, Intazar Hussain Panjutha, described the scrapping of the ban as the "death of law and the constitution".

Sharif was removed from the premiership in 2017 and then convicted on the corruption charges. He spent time in jail before leaving for London in 2019, where he remained in self-imposed exile until October 2023.

In previous stints as prime minister, Sharif has favoured policies focused on rapid economic growth, including the inauguration of the mutli-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor development.

His push for closer ties with neighbour and arch rival India is cited as a reason behind his clashes with the country's powerful military, which sees India as a threat. Nuclear powers Pakistan and India have fought three wars and currently have limited diplomatic ties.

Sharif blames the military for being behind his removal from office in 2017, which it denies. A standoff between Khan and the military afforded Sharif the political space to mount a bid to return to Pakistan's top office.

(Reporting by Islamabad Bureau; Wiritng by Asif Shahzad and Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Alex Richardson, Alison Williams and Nick Macfie)
Chinese President Xi Jinping's new economic growth strategy raises concerns about a new trade war as Beijing attempts to reshape the Asian nation's economic model.

The Xi government's solution is to pour money into manufacturing as property-related activity, which once spurred about a fifth of the economy's expansion but has since turned into a drag on growth two years ago.

China's Economic Growth Strategy

A part of the shift in focus is what they call the "new three" growth drivers of electric vehicles, batteries, and renewable energy. This would support the world's de-carbonization efforts and fuel demand for commodities such as copper and lithium.

So far, China's strategy is helping the country avoid the recessions that struck Japan in the 1990s and the United States in 2008. These came when their housing markets melted down. Furthermore, the world's second-largest economy is growing roughly 5% a year.

However, the efforts are also fueling imbalances, setting the stage for renewed global trade tensions between Beijing and the developed world. It also pits China against emerging economies that are working to push and reach the lower rungs of the industrialization ladder, as per Bloomberg.

Recently, the US and the European Union have warned about China's overcapacity. Europe, for one, initiated a series of trade investigations on the Asian country. This led Beijing to launch an anti-dumping probe into EU liquor products such as brandy last week.

Analysts saw the latter's move targeted France, the main backer of the bloc's action on Chinese electric vehicle subsidies. United States President Joe Biden had also moved to tighten measures to deny Beijing advanced technology.

The Chinese president's manufacturing focus is driven by many economic, security, and social stability objectives. The nation's policy advisers and government-linked economists argue that it includes a desire to avoid problems such as widening income inequality and rising populism.

Read Also: China's Military Escalates Tension with the US After Breakthrough Talks

Risk of a New Trade War

With the new efforts, Beijing's manufactured goods surplus relative to the global gross domestic product is around 2%. According to the Straits Times, this level has remained relatively unseen since the US after World War II.

It was also estimated that 45% of China's manufacturing output is being exported as the country's 1.4 billion people cannot buy sufficient goods such as EVs, ships, and household appliances to meet the increased supply.

The Asian nation's "industrial upgrading" efforts means pushing into sectors now dominated by the wealthiest nations. This has led to lower imports from other countries, including Germany, South Korea, and Japan.

These nations have traditionally run trade surpluses with China because they provided their factories with high-tech components. The export value of China's EVs, batteries, and solar panels grew 42% yearly in the first three quarters of last year.

The situation came after Xi acknowledged during his New Year's Eve speech that China's businesses are struggling and that job seekers are having difficulty finding work. According to CNN, it was the first time the Chinese president mentioned the economic challenges in his annual messages since he started giving them in 2013.

Related Article: Xi Jinping, Joe Biden Extend Diplomatic Cheers; Chinese Leader Offers Peaceful Coexistence Between China, US
Israel claims that Iran is helping Hamas terrorists develop precision missile capabilities. This new detail about the ongoing Middle Eastern war in the Gaza Strip was announced by the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday, Jan. 7.

During a press release, Israeli defense officials said that they obtained new evidence proving that the Palestinian militant organization has advanced cruise missile capabilities. They stated that these were discovered during a raid in the Tuffah and Daraj neighborhoods of the Gaza Strip. Here are other details shared by the Israel Defense Forces.

Israel Claims Iran Helps Hamas Develop Precision Missiles

On X (formerly known as Twitter), the Israel Defense Forces posted footage showing the advanced war technologies they discovered during one of their raids in Gaza.

The Times of Israel reported that Israeli soldiers found some components proving that the Hamas terrorist group is being guided by Iranians on how to build and operate strategic weapons, as well as precision components.

"Under Iranian guidance, Hamas operatives learned how to operate and build precision missile production components and strategic weapons," said the IDF via its official X post.

The Israel Defense Forces said that the evidence was found at a weapons production site located in a 100-meter-long Hamas tunnel, which was uncovered by the nation's Nahal Brigade soldiers and special forces.

Read Also: Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Bombing Iranian Memorial Event

What Precision Missile Capabilities Hamas Works On?

Based on the images and video it shared, the IDF claimed that the precision components include a warhead of a cruise missile, as well as a rocket engine. This is surprising since Hamas terrorists are known to be lacking long-range guided missiles.

Although they are Israeli officials know that they possess small explosive drones (used for short-range attacks), makeshift explosive-laden autonomous submarines, underwater drones, and anti-tank guided missiles, long-range precision missiles are not their thing.

Aside from the mentioned war components and technologies mentioned above, Hamas terrorists also allegedly possess shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, which are not efficient against war planes of Israel, as reported by Fox News.

As of writing, the IDF hasn't confirmed if these advanced guided missile capabilities of Hamas have been used or if they are still in the development stages.

The alleged assistance of Iran to Hamas terrorists come as the Israel-Hamas war enters its fourth month ever since the Palestinian terrorist group conducted its deadly Oct. 7 (2023) attack.

Related Article: IDF Vows To Eliminate Hamas' Military Framework in Northern Gaza
General view of the forest, during the migrant crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border, near Bialowieza

General view of the forest, during the migrant crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border, near Bialowieza

WARSAW (Reuters) - The Polish government ordered a state-run company that manages more than 7 million hectares of the country's forests to curtail logging in 10 most cherished forest areas, delivering on a campaign promise following elections last October.

"We have decided to stop logging in the most valuable forest areas. It's time to get saws out of the Polish forests," Climate Minister Paulina Hennig-Kloska told a news briefing on Monday.Hennig-Kloska said the ministry's decision, to be in place for six months, is a first step before a systemic solution that will further limit logging in such woodlands.

According to public opinion polls, 75% of Poles believe that logging should be reduced. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has repeatedly said his government would boost protection of woodlands.

Last month, more than 100 environmental groups called for a moratorium on logging in the oldest and most precious forests.The measures concern 10 locations, including the Carpathian Forest in the southeastern corner of Poland as well as Augustow and Knyszyn Forest in the northeast. A total of 1.5% of the woodlands managed by state forests will be affected, the minister said.

Hennig-Kloska said the ministry supports increasing acreage of existing national parks and creating new ones, including in the Carpathian Forest.

While Poland halted large-scale logging in the ancient Bialowieza Forest after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in April 2018 that it had broken environmental laws, it

started working on resuming it three years later.In a separate verdict last year the ECJ ruled that Polish forestry law breaches European Union law.

Increased logging in the forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site that straddles the border with Belarus, proved a major flashpoint between Poland and the European Union in 2016-2018.

In 2022, UNESCO called on Poland to delay construction of a border barrier with Belarus that runs through Bialowieza Forest until it can prove that it will not harm local wildlife.

(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Consequences of the Russian missile strike on Kharkiv region

Poland has taken measures to protect its airspace following a Russian missile attack on Ukraine on Jan. 8, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces reported on X (Twitter).

The Polish military had observed increased activity in Russian long-range aviation for several hours, which was associated with the launch of missile strikes on targets located in Ukraine.

"All necessary procedures have been initiated to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, and the situation is constantly monitored," the command said.

According to top Ukrainian general Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine, using cruise, air, ballistic, anti-aircraft guided missiles and attack UAVs. A total of 59 air strikes were recorded. The air defense forces destroyed 18 cruise missiles and eight Shahed drones.

Read also: Explosions heard in 5 oblasts as Russia launches third mass missile attack on UA in last two weeks

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A polar bear in Alaska was found dead recently, and the state veterinarian confirmed that the bear had died from bird flu  the first recorded fatal case for a member of its species.

What happened?

This is the first polar bear case reported, for anywhere, Dr. Bob Gerlach, Alaskas state veterinarian, told the Alaska Beacon.

Dr. Gerlach speculated that the bear could have become sick from eating an infected bird, which might have already died from the virus and been preserved by Alaskas cold temperatures. Polar bears normally eat mainly seals, but have been greatly impacted by rising global temperatures, forcing them to scavenge for other types of food.

Why is this concerning?

While this was the first documented case of a polar bear dying from bird flu, other mammals have succumbed to the deadly virus, including three foxes, a brown bear, and a black bear, all in Alaska.

The greatest impact of avian flu has still been on birds, with domestic poultry populations at greatest risk. The avian flu outbreak that began in 2021 has already resulted in the culling of 58 million birds and a shortage of eggs and meat. Hundreds of thousands of wild birds have also died.

This is just another threat that bird populations (as well as all wild animals) are facing, including habitat loss, air pollution, and plastic pollution.

And bird flu is not the only disease spreading to unexpected places  a tropical disease called leishmaniasis was recently found in the mainstream United States, a result of rising temperatures.

What is being done about it?

Efforts are being made to track bird flu outbreaks to give poultry farmers more time to anticipate and build safeguards. And recently, scientists discovered a potential new diagnostic tool that could help them combat the virus.

But unlike previous bird flu outbreaks, it appears that this one is not disappearing as readily. Its not going to go away. Its going to be here, and we have to have some way to deal with it, Dr. Gerlach told the Alaska Beacon.

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Chinese financial watchdog fines three banks 10m yuan

Global Times) 10:08, January 08, 2024

China's financial regulator on Friday disclosed fines of 10 million yuan on three banks - China Construction Bank, Bank of China and China CITIC Bank. It was also the first group of fines issued by the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) in 2024.

The Bank of China was fined 4.3 million yuan, the highest among the three banks, for nine violations, including failure to report the use and changes of important information system to regulatory authorities, the non-standard production and changes of important information system causing major emergency, poorly identifying and handling of operation risks of information system, and imprudent management of outsourcing information technology.

The China Construction Bank was fined 1.7 million yuan ($239,000) for four violations, inadequate internal audit of consolidated management, inadequate case management of overseas institutions by parent bank, failure to report on the employment of senior managers of overseas subsidiaries in a timely manner, and ineffective rectification of found problems, according to a NFRA notice published on its official website.

The China CITIC Bank was fined 4 million yuan for six violations, which are mostly related to its data center operations and management practices that fall short of regulatory requirements.

The fintech-related fines issued by the NFRA at the beginning of 2024, to a certain extent, reflects regulatory focus on strengthening supervision of information systems in the future, a securities analyst, surnamed Liu, told the Global Times on Saturday.

In November 2023, the NFRA established a new department taking care of technology supervision, covering oversight of cybersecurity, data security and critical information infrastructure.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is considering a plan to exonerate the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal whose lives were ruined amid the controversy.

Sunak also confirmed that the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, could strip the Post Office of its powers in order to prosecute after more than 700 branch managers were wrongly handed criminal convictions.

Post Office Horizon Scandal

The situation comes after a national outcry over the treatment of post office operators between 1999 and 2015. It was after fault Fujitsu software made it appear as though money was missing from their outlets when in fact every resource was accounted for.

An ITV drama this week highlighted the scandal and heightened demands for the British government to take action. Hundreds of people were imprisoned or left bankrupt and at least four people desperately took their own lives after the falling out. The majority of the victims have not received compensation for the incident, as per The Guardian.

Sunak was asked about whether or not the justice secretary was looking at plans to exonerate the victims of the controversy. He said that the official in question was looking at the things that were described, adding that it would not be right to pre-empt that process because of legal complexity.

During an interview on Sunday, the British prime minister added that everyone has been shocked after watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond. He described the situation as an "appalling miscarriage of justice."

On the other hand, Chalk is looking at potential options for the Post Office to be stripped of its role in the cases of operators who are now seeking to appeal and overturn their convictions. This would include whether or not the Crown Prosecution Service could take over the case, which could make it easier for convictions to be thrown out.

Read Also: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Suggests General Elections Will be Held in Second Half of 2024

Exonerating the Victims of the Controversy

The Post Office had the power to decide on whether or not to bring the original prosecutions and its appointed lawyers presented the evidence in court. Many of the victims of the scandal are still involved in legal battles to have their convictions overturned, according to BBC.

This comes as many of whom were forced to pay out thousands of pounds of their own money for shortfalls that were caused by Horizon accounting software. A former postmaster, Lee Castleton said that his life was ruined by the Post Office, adding that he is "really, really angry."

However, the chair of the Justice Select Committee, Sir Bob Neill suggested that having the Crown Prosecution Service step in could require extra resources. He also warned that the move could have a knock-on effect on other cases.

The latest developments come as the Metropolitan Police had already been looking into potential offenses of perjury and perverting the course of justice. In January 2020, the force first opened a probe into matters concerning Fujitsu Horizon and the Post Office.

Employees of the Post Office said that they reported issues with the Horizon software from the start but argued that the company brushed off their concerns. The firm also said that the issues were the fault of the individual branch managers, said the Time.

Related Article: US Officials to Nicaragua's Ortega Regime: Release Bishop Alvarez
Police are investigating after a teenager was reportedly shot in the chest near a playground in north Charlotte.

According to a police report, the shooting happened around 4 p.m. on Davis Lake Parkway near Downing Creek Drive.

Channel 9 asked MEDIC if medical responders went to the original call. MEDIC said it wasnt called to that location.

SEE MORE: Arrest made in mass shooting that injured 5 during New Years Eve celebration in Uptown

The police report says a 16-year-old boy was shot in the chest by an unknown suspect. The victims current condition wasnt made available.

A description of the suspect wasnt given.

Channel 9 reached out to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department for more information, but the department hasnt released any additional details yet.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

(WATCH: 1 charged after Myers Park HS senior killed during party, CMPD says)
Israeli police opened fire at a pair of suspected attackers who rammed their vehicle into a West Bank checkpoint, resulting in the fatal shooting of a three-year-old Palestinian girl in a nearby car.

The two suspects were also shot, and a young police officer sustained light injuries during the incident, as per New York Post.

Innocent Girl Killed in Israeli Police Response

The harrowing incident was captured by security cameras as a van passed through a checkpoint near the Palestinian village of Biddu. A second van failed to stop and veered into police officers, prompting the authorities to open fire. Unfortunately, the young girl, who was in the first van, lost her life in the crossfire.

Israeli police, in a statement on Sunday, acknowledged the tragic error, stating, "As a result of shooting at the terrorists, a girl who was in another vehicle at the checkpoint was hurt."

Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency medical agency, confirmed the child's death after a thorough examination. A preliminary investigation by the police revealed that the rapid response toward the suspects' vehicle may have inadvertently affected the vehicle carrying the child. The authorities have pledged to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.

This heartbreaking event adds to the escalating tensions in the West Bank, which have intensified since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war three months ago. The region has witnessed a series of violent clashes, including a fatal drive-by shooting and a roadside bomb explosion near a paramilitary border police vehicle.

The situation has become a cause of concern for the international community, with visits from the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell Fontelles. Both diplomats expressed worries about the potential spread of the conflict, urging efforts to prevent further insecurity and suffering, according to The Sun.

Read Also: Biden Administration Faces Internal Pressure as Israel Signals Expansion of War to Lebanon

Netanyahu Extends Gaza War as UN Labels Crisis

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at a recent cabinet meeting, asserted that the war must continue until all its goals are achieved, including eliminating Hamas, securing the release of hostages, and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.

As the conflict in Gaza enters its third month, the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, pleaded for an immediate end to the war, describing the situation in Gaza as an "epic catastrophe." The Biden administration has been urging Israel to allow more aid into Gaza to address the humanitarian crisis that has unfolded since the war's onset in October.

Despite the Israeli military's claims of gains against Hamas, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari cautioned that dismantling the group's capabilities both above and below ground would take time. The fighting is expected to continue throughout 2024, with concerns over the complexity of the situation in densely populated areas.

The conflict has also seen clashes with Iran's proxies, including skirmishes with Hezbollah along the northern border with Lebanon and attacks on ships by Houthis in the Red Sea. The international community remains committed to preventing the further escalation of the conflict and mitigating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, New York Times reported.

Related Article: US Officials to Nicaragua's Ortega Regime: Release Bishop Alvarez
A prominent Hezbollah commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on Monday.

This is the latest in a series of escalating strikes along the border between the IDF and Hezbollah and raises fears that a wider-ranging war is brewing in the Middle East.

According to the Associated Press, the airstrike on an SUV killed the commander, identified as Wissam al-Tawil, according to a Lebanese security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He is reportedly the most senior militiaman killed by Israel since violence flared anew in the region following the October 7 assault on southern Israel carried out by Hamas, and also small arms exchanges along the northern border with Lebanon.

The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly wishes to head off a wider conflict.

Indeed, military analysts see a slippery slope that will find Israel, the United States, Iran, and its proxies engaging in an all-out conflict that could swiftly become global. Meanwhile, the IDF says it has finished all major operations in northern Gaza and is now moving toward objectives in the central region, and the southern city of Khan Younis.

Casualties In The Middle East Grow

The ongoing goal of Israel is to destroy Hamas and secure hostages who were captured by Hamas. Thus far 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict and 85% of the 2.3 million people who live in the area have been displaced.

Employees at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital have said it has been struck multiple times by Israeli forces in recent days, causing thousands of people to leave after aid groups pulled out due to the increasing danger of operating there.

"We have large numbers of wounded who can't move," he said. "They need special care, which is unavailable."

Gaza's Health Ministry said Monday that 249 Palestinians have been killed and 510 others were wounded across the territory in the last 24 hours. The WHO said late Sunday it has not been able to deliver supplies to northern Gaza in 12 days.

On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike reportedly struck a four-story home in Jabaliya, a refugee camp that was formed following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, resulting in the deaths of 70 people, according to Gaza's civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal.

Israel maintains that Hamas is responsible for civilian causalities because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas. They say they've killed nearly 8,000 militants but have not provided any evidence to support this claim.

The United States has repeatedly implored Israel to modify its tactics to minimize civilian deaths.
Hackers in Lebanon hijacked the display screens at Beirut International Airport to display an anti-Hezbollah message that accused Hezbollah of putting Lebanon at risk for a full-fledged war against Israel.

It was reported by the Associated Press that the message replaces departure and arrival information and displayed logos for Soldiers of God, a Christian group that came to light in 2023 with campaigns against the LGBTQ community in Lebanon, as well as a group called The One Who Spoke.

However, Soldiers of God has since released a statement denying involvement in the hacking incident.

It was revelaed by Albawaba that the message read: "Rafic Hariri Airport is not the airport of Hezbollah and Iran... Hassan Nasrallah, you won't find a supporter if you involve Lebanon in a war. You must bear the responsibilities and consequences,".

"Hezbollah, we won't fight on behalf of someone, you destroyed our port, and now you want to destroy our airport because of the weapons you bring through. Let the airport be liberated from the grip of the mini-state," it continues.

The aforementioned AP article went on to report that that message continued: "Hassan Nasrallah, you will no longer have supporters if you curse Lebanon with a war for which you will bear responsibility and consequences," the message read, unbeknownst to many, Hezbollah has many critics in Lebanon. One such criticism was against Hezbollah allegedly smuggling weapons through Lebanon's only civilian airport, which makes it a potential military target.

Some Background On The Hacking

In 2006, Hezbollah and Israel fought a brief war that resulted in the bombing of the regions only civilian airport. Hezbollah has been striking at Israeli military assets near the country's northern border since October 8, a day after the Hamas assault on southern Israel garnered an overwhelming response from the IDF.

The cyber attack comes days after a warning from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who spoke of consequences in northern Israel if the Gaza war extended to the Israeli-Lebanese border. Hezbollah has been escalating its attacks on northern Israel while Israel's defense minister said this weekend that the country seeks a political solution.

The opposing sides have fought almost daily over the past week following an attack that killed Hamas commander Saleh Arouri. Hezbollah fired 62 rockets toward an Israeli air surveillance outpost on Mount Meron.

The difference between missiles and rockets is missiles are guided, rockets are aimed.

HNGN will update this story as additional details become available.
On Monday two United States Air Force F-16 fighter jets flew over Bosnia in a show of support for the territorial integrity of the country in light of what is being deemed "secessionist activity" by Serbs, who are still opposed to the Dayton Peace accords of the 1990s, reported Rueters.

The flyover was part of an air-to-ground training exercise conducted alongside the Bosnian armed forces in the northern region of the Balkan country-which is not controlled by the Serbians.

The United States embassy in Sarajevo pointed to renewed fervor from nationalist, pro-Russian, Serbian leader Milorad Dodik.

"This bilateral training is an example of advanced military-to-military cooperation that contributes to peace and security in the Western Balkans, as well as demonstrates the United States' commitment to ensuring the territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the face of anti-Dayton and secessionist activity," the statement from the U.S. embassy said.

The Dayton peace accords ended the Bosnian war of 1992-1995 in which 100,000 people were killed and millions displaced. The treaty divided Bosnia into a Serb Republic, and a Federation shared by Croats and Bosnians under a central government.

"The United States has underscored that the Bosnia-Herzegovina Constitution provides no right of secession, and it will act if anyone tries to change this basic element of Dayton," the embassy statement added.

Bosnian Serbs Mark Statehood Day Amid Political Tensions and Legal Battles

This statement comes as Bosnian Serbs have begun celebrating statehood day, a self-designed celebration that was banned for being discriminatory against non-Serbs by Bosnia's constitutional court.

Three years ago, Milorad Dodik, a the pro-Russian president of the Republika Srpska caused a political uproar when he stated that he would pull the Serbian region of from many key Bosnian entities, such as state institutions, the judiciary system, tax system and the joint armed forces.

However, Dodik eventually back down that time. However, he did have this to say on Monday to Reuters.

"We are not calling for revolution. We are not preparing for war, we are preparing for political decisions on the level of the state parliament and on the level of the Republika Srpska parliament," Dodik said.

Dodik currently faces Sarajevo state court charges having signed RS legislation suspending decisions by the constitutional court.

His trail was originally slated to begin in December but was adjourned until January 20 due to procedural concerns raised by the Dodik's legal team.
Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters simultaneously blocked the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges, as well as the Holland Tunnel in New York City, after converging at City Hall Park for the "Shut it Down for Palestine" rally on Monday (January 8).

The protesters effectively shut down traffic in the most vital crossings into Lower Manhattan before the New York Police Department (NYPD) arrested some of them. In total, 40 demonstrators descended upon Brooklyn Bridge, 12 on the Manhattan Bridge, 75 on the Williamsburg Bridge, and 70 within the Holland Tunnel, the NYPD said.

Read Also: New York City Police Under Fire Over Radio Encryption Plans

 BREAKING  Palestine protestors take over the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, and Holland Tunnel to demand an end to the ongoing American-funded, American-led genocide of the Palestinian people in #Gaza pic.twitter.com/StNZwDkaSV January 8, 2024

Protesters Blocking Traffic

In a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, the group standing in front of the entrance to the tunnel held signs reading "Lift the Siege of Gaza, Ceasefire Now," and "End the Occupation, Free All Palestinian Prisoners, USA Stop Arming Israel."

Arrests were made at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge by the NYPD, and at the Holland Tunnel by the Port Authority Police, law enforcement sources told the New York Post.

Brooklyn Bridge was reopened shortly after, with residual delays expected.

Related Article: Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators Disrupt 2 Major US Airports, Leading to Multiple Arrests
Convicted Norweigan mass killer and right-wing extremist, Anders Behring Breivik, executed two terrorist attacks against the government of Norway and the civilian population in which a total of 77 people were killed on July 22, 2011. 12 years into his prison sentence, Breivik is accusing the Justice Ministry of violating his human rights.

Breivik, who has changed his name to Fjotolf Hansen, claims that the isolation he has been placed under amounts to inhumane punishment under the European Convention on Human Rights. His first attempt at suing the state in 2016 and 2017, was ultimately dismissed by the European Court of Justice. His lawyer, ystein Storrvik, told The Associated Press that Breivik's mental health has suffered from additional years in solitary confinement since then, leaving him "suicidal" and dependent on antidepressants. Storrvik said he would argue for an easing of restrictions and more contact with other inmates, and that he believed 12 1/2 years in isolation was "unique" in recent European judicial history.

AP went on to report that on Monday, Storrvik told the court that Breivik had hoped he could have had some form of "human relations" when he was moved from Skien prison to a spacious two-story complex in Ringerike prison near Oslo in 2022, but that the cells had been "turned into an isolation ward."

Breivik was convicted in 2012 of mass murder and terrorism for a bombing that killed eight people in the government block in Oslo, and a shooting massacre on Utya island where he gunned down 69 people at a holiday camp for youth activists from the center-left Labor Party. A self-proclaimed anti-Muslim crusader, pleaded not guilty, claiming he was acting in self-defense at the time to protect Norway from multicultarism.

Breivik was escorted into the hearing surrounded by three security guards. Reuters disclosed that among those watching the proceedings was Freddy Lie, one of whose daughters was shot dead by Brevik. Another daughter was wounded. "He must never come out again," Lie told Reuters.

The government continues to reject Breivik's claim that his prison conditions violate human rights. Government lawyer Andreas Hjetland, who represents the Justice Ministry in the case, stated the conditions are necessary for security. While incarcerated he has proved himself to be unreceptive to rehabilitative work, Hjetland wrote in a written statement to the court ahead of the trial, due to end on Friday.

According to Reuters, the 44-year-old will speak on behalf of himself on Tuesday. He is also asking the court to lift restrictions on his correspondence with the outside world. Lawyers representing the justice ministry say Breivik must be kept apart from the rest of the prison population because of the continuing security threat he poses.

"An extraordinarily dangerous inmate requires extraordinary measures," lawyer Andreas Hjetland told the court on Monday.

"He is still proud of what he has done. He still holds the same ideological views," Hjetland said.

The judge will give a verdict in the coming weeks. There is no jury.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne resigned on Monday after less than two years on the new job in preparation for a highly anticipated reorganization.

The breaking news comes as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to revive his second term ahead of the European Parliament elections and the Paris Olympics. Ahead of the restructuring, Macron's third since his reelection in 2022, the French president postponed the first planned Cabinet meeting for 2024, causing speculation of an upcoming change in governance.

Borne is the second woman to serve as Prime minister of France after Edith Cresson. Macron did not immediately name Borne's successor. The change in prime minister comes as no surprise following a year flawed by political crises prompted by contested reforms of the pension system and immigration laws.

Politico noted, "In 2023, France was likely amongst the Western countries which, in spite of the context, led the most transformations," Macron said in his New Year address. "Some of these, like the pensions reform, were unpopular. I stand by them as they were necessary ... I would like to thank in particular the prime minister and her government."

Politico also reported that other leading left-leaning Cabinet members voiced their concerns as the government gave in to hard-line conservatives on points including limiting access to state benefits for recently arrived immigrants and reforming birthright citizenship. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen voted in favor of the bill.

According to Reuters, opinion polls in France show Macron's party trailing that of far-right leader Marine Le Pen by some eight to ten points ahead of the June vote.

Among those who are being considered as potential candidates to replace Borne are 34-year-old Education Minister Gabriel Attal and 37-year-old Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, either of whom would be France's youngest-ever prime minister. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and former agriculture minister Julien Denormandie have also been alluded to as potential options. However, the change in prime minister will not necessarily lead to a shift in political tack, but rather signal a desire to move beyond the pension and immigration reforms and focus on new priorities, such as hitting full employment, Reuters said.

The reshuffle is likely to intensify the race in Macron's camp to succeed him in the next presidential campaign in 2027. The French government, led by Borne, has grappled to deal with a more tumultuous parliament to pass laws since losing their absolute majority shortly after Macron was reelected for a second mandate in 2022. Advisers to Macron say he has managed to exceed the most difficult parts of his economic manifesto within the first year and a half of his second mandate. But Macron's decision to use executive powers last year to pass a contested increase in the pension age to 64 sparked weeks of civil unrest in the country.

According to the Independent, in a statement on social media platform X, the president said: "Madam Prime Minister, dear Elisabeth Borne, your work in the service of our Nation has been exemplary every day. You implemented our project with the courage, commitment, and determination of women of states. With all my heart, thank you."

Borne will stay on to handle current affairs until a new government is appointed.
Sarah Ransome, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, claims there are sex tapes featuring the Duke of York, former United States president, and billionaire business mogul Sir Richard Branson, according to recently released emails.

Ransome gave her original statement ahead of the sentencing of Ghislaine Maxwell, a British "socialite" who was allegedly Branson's accomplice in the sex trafficking charges he faced before his untimely death while incarcerated. The victim stated the claims in writing.

Speaking on behalf of Mr. Branson, a Virgin Group spokesperson stated in a report published in the New Yorker that Ransome had admitted to that the story was fabricated.

"We can confirm that Sarah Ransome's claims are baseless and unfounded." Furthermore, her comments were flagged by Alan Dershowitz, Epstein's lawyer at the time, to show Ransome's lack of credibility. "We can confirm that Sarah Ransome's claims are baseless and unfounded."

On Monday, a long-awaited collection of emails from Epstein victim Sarah Ransome was released to the public, with certain sections being used as exhibits in one of the filings. In the emails, she mentions an unnamed friend on several occasions.

Prince Andrew, who is named and was a known friend of Epstein's, has largely withdrawn from public life after it was revealed that he was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein. He also paid millions in a civil case with Virginia Guiffre, a woman he claimed to have never met.

Also, the Oxford Mail story goes on to state, the Prince is no longer considered part of the working monarchy and cannot use the acronym HRH (his or her royal highness) on his clothing.

In a letter from Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP to the court, the firm said allegations against Mr. Dershowitz were categorically false."Her (Ms. Ransome) testimony was fabricated from whole cloth...the emails are a necessary antidote to Ms. Ransome's deposition."

A United States Judge ordered the unsealing of hundreds of documents as part of Ms. Giuffre's settle civil claim. Images of former British Labour minister Lord Mandelson with Epstein, as well as with now disgraced French model scout Jean Luc-Brunel alongside several girls in photos. Former United States President Donald J. Trump was also mentioned.

Despite claims that Sarah Ransome had rescinded claims made against the powerful individuals she accused of engaging in sex with underaged girls, she recently doubled down on her claims, according to the Oxford Mail article.

"When my friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson, sex tapes were in fact filmed on each separate occasion by Jeffrey.

"Thank God she managed to get a hold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes, which clearly identify the faces of Clinton, Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her.

"Frustratingly enough Epstein was not seen in any of the footage but he was clever like that!

The email extracts from Ms. Ransome also saw her take aim at Hillary Clinton, with one saying: "I will make sure that neither that evil b*tch Hillary or that pedophile Trump gets elected.

Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in a federal jail in Manhattan, New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial. His death was rule a suicide.

Maxwell has been in jail since July 2020 amid attempts by her defense to have her released on bail. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal court in the Southern District of New York in June 2022.
During President Biden's speech in South Carolina on Monday, protestors demanded a cease-fire in Gaza, highlighting the ongoing internal divisions among Democrats regarding the situation in the Middle East.

Biden was in Charleston, South Carolina speaking to members of Mother Emmanuel Church, where a white supremacist gunman killed nine worshippers in 2015. To garner support from Black voters, Biden spoke from the pulpit of the historic church denouncing white supremacy and political violence.

In an article published by The Hill, Biden was reportedly speaking on how "the truth is under assault in America," when protestors inside the church began to yell out.

"If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a cease-fire in Palestine," one woman could be heard shouting.

Multiple people then broke into chants of "cease-fire now!". It was then revealed by The Hill that Biden stood quietly as the demonstrators were escorted out and supporters began chanting "Four more years!"

He started again proclaiming, "I understand their passion," he said. "And I've been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza."

Trump, Haley, and Slavery

Biden has run into protests throughout his campaign trail in recent months as his administration continues to back Israel's onslaught against Palestinian civilians in its response to Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack that allegedly killed over 1,000 Israelis. The president is under growing pressure from the left to demand a halt to the violence, as Israeli airstrikes and shelling persist, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.

Per Politico, the president resumed his previous address by reiterating that Trump is "a loser," a phrase he uttered last Friday, eliciting cheers from the audience in South Carolina. He also went after former South Carolina Gov., Nikki Haley, who initially declined to say that slavery was the cause of the Civil War during a campaign event last month.

"Let me be clear for those who don't seem to know - slavery was the cause of the Civil War," Biden said. "There's no negotiation about that."

President Biden's address in South Carolina arrives amidst declining poll numbers, especially among Black voters. Influential Black political figures, such as Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), have expressed deep worries about the Biden campaign's capacity to overcome the "MAGA wall" and effectively connect with voters.

Reuters also disclosed that South Carolina has not supported a Democrat for president since 1976. Nevertheless, Democrats argue that the state's diverse population more accurately mirrors the party's voter base . The campaign is investing earlier than ever to reach voters of color, rather than parachuting in closer to Election Day simply to drive turnout, one campaign adviser told Reuters.
Iran-backed militias escalate attacks on U.S. bases in Syria amid regional tensions

Xinhua) 10:21, January 08, 2024

DAMASCUS, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Pro-Iran militias have intensified their assaults in recent hours on U.S. bases in Syria, citing American support for Israel in the ongoing offensive in Gaza and the Israeli targeting of Iranian interests in Syria.

The recent escalation, reported within the past 12 hours, includes attacks on two U.S. bases in the al-Tanf area in the countryside of the central Homs province, and al-Shaddadi in the northeastern province of al-Hasakah, state news agency SANA reported.

The Iraqi Islamic Resistance claimed responsibility for the drone attacks on the two U.S. bases, vowing to continue targeting "enemy strongholds," said SANA, adding that the group targeted the largest U.S. base in Syria, the Al-Omar oil field, the previous night.

Meanwhile, the war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that as many as 77 attacks have been carried out by pro-Iran militias on U.S. bases in Syria since Oct. 19.

The Britain-based watchdog group attributed these attacks to orders from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Simultaneously, Israel has increased its assaults on Iranian interests and militias in Syria, resulting in the death of high-profile Iranian figures, including Seyyed Razi Mousavi, a senior IRGC commander. Following Mousavi's killing, the IRGC pledged "tough revenge" on Israel.

Earlier this month, the IRGC said two of its members were killed by Israeli forces "while conducting an advisory mission in Syria's Islamic resistance front."

The regional conflict, influenced by the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and the U.S. presence in Syria, is witnessing a surge in proxy attacks, making the situation increasingly complex.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Claire Hao is a Hearst Fellow for the Houston Chronicle's business desk, where she is covering electricity, renewable energy and the Texas power grid. She also spends one day a week covering breaking and trending news. Claire can be reached at claire.hao@houstonchronicle.com.

Claire spent her first-year fellowship rotation on the climate and environment team of The San Francisco Chronicle. She has previously interned on the news desks of Bloomberg Law and The Chicago Tribune as well as on the editorial board of The Washington Post.

She is a 2022 graduate of the University of Michigan, where she was the 2021 editor-in-chief of her college paper The Michigan Daily.
Marissa Luck is a senior real estate reporter at Houston Chronicle. She can be reached at marissa.luck@houstonchronicle.com.

Previously, Luck covered commercial real estate in Texas for CoStar News; real estate for Austin Business Journal; energy for Houston Chronicle; and business news for The Daily News in Longview, Wash. Shes won awards from Society of Professional Journalists and National Association of Real Estate Editors, and her byline has appeared in numerous publications nationally. Originally from Hawaii, Luck grew up in the Pacific Northwest and studied international political economy at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. She now lives in Midtown Houston.
With Mardi Gras just around the corner, Houston restaurants and bakeries are selling king cakes that speak to the New Orleans mantra: laissez les bons temps rouler (let the good times roll).

The fluffy, sweet cakes, typically decorated in gold, purple and green, are eaten throughout the Carnival season leading up to Mardi Gras. Warning: These desserts are not an exercise in minimalism. Each treat is usually an over-the-top explosion of sugar, beads, funfetti and even the traditional hidden plastic baby.

Montgomery Bakehouse

King cake from Montgomery Bakehouse Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer

Longstanding Montgomery Bakehouse is selling a wide variety of king cakes, along with king cake-looking cookies and Mardi Gras cupcakes. King cakes come dressed with two beads over the traditional Mardi Gras-colored sprinkles. Choose from cinna-butter, Bavarian, chocolate Bavarian, pecan praline, cherry, cream cheese, cherry cream cheese, apple or strawberry cream cheese for the filling. Each is $17.50. Orders can be made online or bought in-store. 240 Longmire, Conroe; montgomerybakehouse.com

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Eunice

King cake from Eunice Emma Umana

A Creole-Cajun favorite in Houston, Eunice has sold king cake-related dishes before, but this is the first year it is offering homemade king cakes ($45). Each dessert is blanketed with cream cheese frosting and a metallic baby is provided, which can be hidden or placed on top. Customers must order the cakes by 6 p.m. at least two days ahead of pickup time between 11 a.m-4 p.m. until Feb. 12. 3737 Buffalo Speedway; eunicerestaurant.com

HOUSTON EATS: The Chronicles top 100 restaurants

French Gourmet Bakery

King cake from French Gourmet Bakery French Gourmet Bakery

Traditional Gallic pastries, such as croissants, almond tarts and eclairs, are not the only specialties sold at this 50-year-old bakery in River Oaks. Every year, customers also beeline to this family-owned spot for its New Orleans- and French-style king cakes. A 10-inch round serving ($38) serves up to a dozen people and comes with fillings that include almond, cream cheese and cinnamon with all the accoutrements. 2250 Westheimer; fgbakery.com

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La Boulangerie

A custom blueberry cream cheese King Cake from La Boulangerie La Boulangerie / La Boulangerie

In The Woodlands, home bakery La Boulangerie makes a classic Louisiana-style king cake that doesnt skip out on quality. Expect a light and not-too-sweet brioche bread rolled jelly-roll style around a variety of fillings. The purple, yellow and green icing pairs with three fillings, including cinnamon ($38), cream cheese ($43) and pecan praline ($48). The Orleans ($53) has cream cheese filling topped with pecan praline. To order, message La Boulangerie on Facebook. Cakes are custom-made to order. facebook.com/laboulangeriethewoodlands

Common Bond

King cake from Common Bond Heirloom Interactive

This popular mini-chain of bakeries is jumping into Carnival season full throttle: For the traditionalists, theres a cinnamon cake or a raspberry cream cheese-filled one (both $45 each) available in stores. A DIY king cake decorating kit ($25) is also available. Additionally, theres a promotion between Sky High for Kids and social media influencer the Hangry Houstonian, where $5 from every king cake is donated to raise awareness and funds to fight childhood cancer. Various locations; commonbondcafe

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MORE FROM THE CHRONICLE FOOD TEAM: Top 18 pizza spots in the Houston area

Three Brothers Bakery

King cake from Three Brothers Bakery Three Brothers Bakery

All four locations of this beloved family-owned Houston bakery, which is known for its array of Jewish specialties, are selling king cakes and various iterations of the Mardi Gras tradition, with cupcakes, cookies, petit fours and more. Whether its a plain or cheese-strawberry recipe, the team here believes its creations are just as good as the ones in New Orleans. They attended a baking convention in Louisiana over a decade ago and visited nine different bakeries before developing their own bead-covered cakes. Various locations; 3brothersbakery.com

Crescent City Connection

The strawberry cream cheese king cake from Crescent City Connection in Webster takes the sweetness level over the top. Alison Cook / Staff
The Baytown Fire Department and other agencies responded to a fire aboard a cargo ship at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Two crew members died in the fire, officials said. Courtesy/Baytown Fire Department

Two people died in a fire Monday morning aboard a cargo ship at La Porte's Barbours Cut container terminal.

The fire happened around 3:30 a.m. aboard the M/V Stride, a Panama-flagged ship managed by the Danaos Shipping Co.

MORE ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Man stabbed to death Sunday night on Houston Metro, attacker still at large

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According to the Baytown Fire Department, the fire began in the engine room and left three people unaccounted for.

Baytown firefighters went into the ship after arriving at the terminal around 4 a.m. The firefighters recovered two bodies from the engine room and retrieved a third person who was still alive.

The injured crew member was flown by helicopter to a Houston hospital, according to the fire department.

The fire was extinguished around 7:30 a.m., Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

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The cause of the fire wasn't immediately known.

The fire is being investigated by the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board, officials said.

There is no pollution threat to communities near the fire, Hidalgo said, citing Harris County Pollution Control Services.
In this April 11, 2018, file photo, a high school student uses a vaping device near a school campus in Cambridge, Mass. Steven Senne/Associated Press

Hundreds of students in Houston-area school districts were sent to disciplinary alternative education programs in the first three months of a new Texas law meant to curb youth vaping, a move that some school administrators and advocates say is too punitive.

The new state law, House Bill 114, requires public schools to remove any student from class who is caught with an e-cigarette and send them to a separate center designated for students in serious trouble. The law went into effect Sept. 1.

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In the largest five school districts in the Houston region, more than 1,300 students were disciplined for using, possessing or selling an e-cigarette from September through early December, according to data collected by the Chronicle.

The majority of those students were sent to a DAEP, as required by the law, although some received in- or out-of-school suspensions. The law, which has no enforcement mechanism, allows districts to give students in-school suspension when there is no capacity at their alternative discipline programs.

In Houston ISD, the largest district in the state, nearly 370 students were placed in a DAEP for vaping through early December, according to the district, representing a small fraction of the districts roughly 183,000 students.

However, HISD is now exempt from the law under its newly adopted District of Innovation plan, with the district saying it opposes the zero-tolerance policy because it provided no flexibility, even for first-time offenders.

More than 50 other districts have similar innovation plans seeking exemption from the e-cigarette statute, according to the Texas Education Agency.

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In HISD, teachers and principals can handle vaping discipline on a case-by-case basis, according to Joseph Sam, an HISD spokesperson. Placing students in a DAEP setting disrupts their learning and contributes to lower graduation rates, he said.

If this law negatively impacts even one students chances of graduating on time, it is unacceptable, Sam said.

Celeste Barretto Milligan, an HISD parent and member of the District Advisory Committee, said she believes the mandatory, severe consequence was unjust, especially for something that amounts to a very common mistake, and could contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline.

I have two middle school boys, she said. I would hate for them to be held accountable at that level for such a mistake.

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In Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, the second largest district in the area, 267 students were disciplined for e-cigarette use through early December, according to disciplinary records. Most of the students received a DAEP placement, in some cases multiple times, while about a third of them received in-school suspension.

Data shows that high school students made up 78% of the students punished for vaping in the district, although a handful of elementary students were also caught with an e-cigarette, the youngest in first grade.

More than 150 students were disciplined for e-cigarettes in Conroe ISD during roughly the same timeframe, according to the district, with nearly 80 percent of them getting an on-campus DAEP placement for an average of four days.

In Katy ISD, records show that 374 students were disciplined for vaping, with nearly 45 percent of them sent to an off-campus DAEP and 38 percent punished with out-of-school suspension. The average length of the disciplinary placement was 14 days, according to the data, and those punished for vaping include 140 Hispanic students, 112 white students and 94 Black students.

Fort Bend ISD records show that 179 students were disciplined for e-cigarette use, well short of the numbers caught with marijuana.

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Rep. Ed Thompson, R-Pearland, said he introduced the vaping measure after learning that some Brazoria County schools and law enforcement agencies were overwhelmed by the problem. Many students in the area were referred to the criminal justice system for using or selling e-cigarettes containing nicotine or marijuana, he said.

Thompson said he hoped the bill would give schools the ability to deal with those students internally  with a punishment severe enough to "put the fear of God into these kids"  rather than stretching thin county resources. He also hoped to keep kids from getting a criminal record for "making a really dumb decision one time."

It seems to have had the intended effect so far, at least locally, with Brazoria County law enforcement reporting a steep drop in youth vaping cases, Thompson said.

MENTAL HEALTH: How to tell whether your child is struggling with anxiety, and what parents can do to help

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Several advocates said they believe removing a student from their home campus is too severe a consequence.

Charlie Gagan, the Texas advocacy director for the American Lung Association, said his organization disagrees with the new law and instead hopes lawmakers will do more to hold retailers accountable for selling nicotine products to children.

We dont think this punitive response is the right way to deal with what is really an addiction problem, he said. We really wish there was more effort to hold the adults responsible as opposed to just doing more to punish students.

Students additionally should be supported with cessation and education resources, he said, such as programs offered by the lung association or a group called Truth Initiative.

We hear stories of teachers and principals confiscating dozens of these a week, if not a day, so we understand that were asking a lot of them alreadybut removing a kid from a classroom and sending them to a disciplinary program is not going to fix the underlying issue, Gagan said.

More than 2.1 million students reported using e-cigarettes in 2023, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey released in November by the FDA and CDC, with a quarter of them vaping every day. The survey showed a decline in the number of high schoolers using e-cigarettes last year but a rise in overall tobacco use among middle school students.

Vaping devices are easy for kids to hide from parents and teachers, as they can be disguised as pens or highlighters, said Melissa Igo, director of coastal coalitions with the Bay Area Council on Drugs and Alcohol. Other stash gear includes backpacks, water bottles or scrunchies with secret compartments, she said.

"If you are not an engaged adult with your children, it is very, very easy for them to have access to these things," Igo said. "So we encourage conversations, we encourage being a nosy parent. Ask the questions, look at their things."

The council works mostly on stopping kids from vaping in the first place by offering educational programs in schools and posting informative billboards beside highways. Kids vape for a reason, Igo said, whether it is experimentation or stress relief or hunger. Those underlying issues must be addressed with restorative practices and educational curriculum rather than solely punitive measures, she said.

Otherwise, theyre just going to see this over and over and over again, and the same students probably over and over and over again, she said.

RELATED: HISD becomes District of Innovation to waive some state laws

Dr. Steven Kelder, a professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, said he hopes the new bill will heighten awareness around the harms of e-cigarattes, which can be highly addictive, especially for kids. There may additionally be long-term health risks associated with the cancer-causing chemicals and ultra-fine particles contained in e-cigarettes, Kelder said, although it is too soon to say for sure.

In addition to discipline, Kelder agreed that it is important to meet the problem with prevention, intervention and cessation resources. The new law does not require such resources but notes that a student and their parents may receive educational and support services for offenses involving drugs, alcohol or e-cigarettes.
I45 as it appears today  but not as it'll appear someday. Kirk Sides/Staff photographer

One whiny question sums up our feelings about the yearslong saga that is the North Houston Highway Improvement Project  aka the I-45 expansion: Are we there yet? Assuming that all goes according to plan, the project  long delayed by the concerns of residents, local leaders and even the federal government  will at last break ground in September.

Is that a good thing?

Per previous comments from new Mayor John Whitmire, yes, its about time. Estimated costs have ballooned to $9.7 billion.

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Not to mention that this editorial board is running out of traffic metaphors to describe the slow pace of the project that will repair and expand a 25-mile stretch of highway, rerouting its path through the heart of the city, east of downtown. Over the years, questions about the projects environmental and social impacts, from increased air pollution to displaced homes and businesses, have animated an increasingly organized opposition that paused the whole thing for two years via federal intervention. To get un-stuck, the state then made a series of agreements, first with the city and county, then the feds  agreements intended to lessen the havoc the freeway expansion wreaks on neighborhoods, to wrest some funding to soften that impact, and to maintain public engagement throughout the long process.

Now the question is, how sincerely will the state follow through on its side of those bargains?

Its early yet, so its hard to tell. Sure, the state will break ground in September, but the rest of the work is estimated to take 18 years. Not surprisingly, certain parts of the plan are still TBD. For instance, what'll happen with those ever-alluring concrete caps over the freeway that, with investment from other parties, could sprout a new downtown park?

After years of hard-fought concessions that sometimes felt like the absolute bare minimum, community advocacy groups dont trust the Texas Department of Transportation to do the right things.Yeah, in important ways, this project is different from the miles of concrete added since TxDOT, formerly the Texas Highway Department, was founded in 1917. Theres been an unprecedented amount of feedback gathered, a round of celebrated agreements with the state between the local entities with concrete promises, and a promise to steadily plot the progress toward those goals as the project moves forward. This level of engagement wouldve been unthinkable to the residents of Third Ward who once fought the mass displacement of caused by freeways plowing through their neighborhoods.



But clearly, what would have been impressive in the '50s, or even the '70s, isnt good enough for 2024. From the states perspective, its spent real time and money trying to meet critics' demands. And still, many arent satisfied.

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They are covering their bases, Harrison Humphreys, of Air Alliance Houston, told the Houston Landing last year. Theyre doing the bare minimum of what was laid out but without any, you know, good faith attempts to meet what the (agreement with the federal government) is trying to achieve.

For example, in a September progress report, TxDOT noted several instances when the project had been tweaked to maintain street connections along the route of the road, following through on its promise to consider whether the project could reduce the damage it does to neighborhoods. But in other instances, the state determined that such reduction was not possible.



Opponents wanted more. TxDOTs tweaks werent fundamental changes, like reducing the proposed number of lanes, according to an analysis put out in December by LINK Houston, Texas Housers, Air Alliance Houston and other community advocacy groups.

Similarly, the advocacy groups expected more than they got out of TxDOTs recent round of community feedback meetings. All six meetings, including some virtual ones, were crammed into the busy month of December, and critics came away unimpressed. The first meeting, for example, was held in a crowded downtown venue, and some attendees said it was difficult to hear the video presentation.

While we're not blown away by what we've seen, we think its probably too early to judge the progress of those agreements a failure or to write off TxDOTs intention to do right by Houstonians. But we feel sure that the agencys watchdogs  all the activists, community leaders and elected officials  had best keep their eyes peeled and their voices loud. We especially hope that Whitmire won't set aside the city's agreement for the sake of moving things along.

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In the ways that the project has been improved or forced to yield some benefit for the community  for example, by coughing up a little money for parks, or more than originally planned for affordable housing  its largely thanks to activists, a bold county lawyer or two, and the other people who have continually applied pressure, crowding those meeting rooms.
Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Harris County Public Health Executive Director Barbie Robinson attended a news conference on June 5, 2023 to announce the county could launch a guaranteed income pilot program. Jen Rice

Harris County has pushed back the start date for residents to apply for a pilot program that would give some low-income households $500 monthly cash assistance  no strings attached  for a period of 18 months.

The guaranteed income program, called "Uplift Harris," is set to select 1,928 residents through a randomized lottery system. Funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act, the $20.5 million initiative aims to reduce poverty and health disparities, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, county officials said.

The program was supposed to open for applications at 9 a.m. Monday, but Harris County Public Health, the agency hosting the program, announced early in the morning that the launch had been delayed.

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Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones, who called for an executive session for Commissioners Court to further review the program on Tuesday, told the Chronicle that the purpose of the additional discussions was to gather more information "on the administration of Uplift Harris, including outreach, eligibility and timeline.

Harris County Public Health said officials would decide on a new launch date later this week.

MONTHLY CASH ASSISTANCE: What to know about Harris County's guaranteed income program

Under the current guideline, applicants for Uplift Harris must be over 18 years old and reside in Harris County. Additionally, their household income must fall below 200% of the federal poverty line, which is about $60,000 for a family of four or $29,000 for an individual.

Residents who meet these requirements also must fall into one of two categories below.

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Seventy percent of the participants will be selected from 10 targeted high-poverty zip codes in Harris County: 77026, 77028, 77033, 77050, 77051, 77060, 77081, 77091, 77093 and 77547. They encompass Sunnyside, Gulfton, Galena Park and other historically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The remaining 30% of the participants will be chosen from those enrolled in Harris County Public Health's ACCESS program. It is designed to offer vulnerable individuals a comprehensive suite of services, including housing, mental health care, food assistance, child care and job training.

NEW COUNTY PROGRAM: Harris County Public Health program aims to be one-stop shop for helping vulnerable communities

Harris County Commissioners Court voted to approve Uplift Harris in June 2023, joining the dozens of local governments nationwide that have rolled out cash assistance programs following the COVID-19 pandemic. Major cities such as Austin, Minneapolis, Chicago and Los Angeles have all implemented similar programs, and many of those also have been financed by federal relief dollars.

Recent surveys indicate strong support for cash assistance programs in the Houston area. About three-quarters of Houston residents said they supported using public dollars to provide a universal basic income for low-income working adults, according to a recent report by Rice Universitys Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

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Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis, who spearheaded Uplift Harris, said at the time of its approval that the program would not only offer families financial stability but also benefit their physical and mental health as well as fostering their sense of self-determination. He said on Monday that he intends to work with other commissioners to push the program forward.

Harris County is home to some of the worst economic inequality in the country. It is incumbent on us to attack this inequality through strategic and equitable policies that help reduce poverty," Ellis said in a Monday statement. "I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to get Uplift Harris back on track and get desperately needed help to all families who need it.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks during press conference at Calpine, 717 Texas Ave., Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023, in Houston. Melissa Phillip/Staff Photographer

A dominant reelection, eye-popping fundraising and growing national publicity should make Gov. Greg Abbott an unstoppable force in Texas politics.

Yet the Republican continues to struggle with one of the biggest pieces of governing: working with the Legislature.

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Its not just that Abbott failed to pass a highly contentious plan to allow tax dollars to pay for private schooling that has splintered the already fractured GOP. Hes also struggled with easier topics like a property tax reform plan that had broad support conceptually and bail reform proposals that are personally important to him but have received no deferential treatment from the Legislature.

Through it all, Abbott has appeared to hinder his dealmaking with mixed messaging, indiscriminate vetoes and broken promises to lawmakers.

Now, with little chance of passing his school voucher plan until at least 2025, Abbott heads into primary season vowing vengeance against Republicans who opposed him on it, even if they supported most of the other pieces of his agenda. If he loses, it could further empower those holdouts.

Its a matter of political feel on the governors part, Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said of Abbotts style.

By rising through the political ranks in largely judicial roles, Jillson said, Abbott doesnt have the same feel for a legislative process as his predecessor Gov. Rick Perry, who was able to more clearly communicate his priorities thanks to long-developed relationships from having been in the Legislature himself.

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Before becoming governor in 2015, the 66-year-old Abbott was a district court judge in Harris County, a Texas Supreme Court Justice and then Texas attorney general. Abbott is now considered a future contender for higher office, and he sees vouchers as a key feather in his cap.

The Iowa playbook

His voucher push started with subtle intimidation: holding rallies in districts of members who opposed him. Then, after lawmakers rebuffed him on the measure and two other emergency items last spring  bail reform and property tax cuts  the governor retaliated by vetoing a record number of unrelated bills that became collateral damage and by calling a record-tying four special sessions in one calendar year.

He forced multiple special legislative sessions costing taxpayers at least $2 million each and endorsed primary challengers against at least seven GOP holdouts. But the vote to allow tax dollars to pay for private schools has changed little.

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Abbott aids acknowledge they are working heavily off the playbook used by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a fellow Republican who similarly struggled to win support for school vouchers in her states Legislature. While her similarly named education savings accounts passed the Iowa Senate, twice it failed to get out of the Iowa House because of rural Republicans who worried about the effect on their school districts.

After the bill failed to pass the Iowa House in 2022, Reynolds, a former state senator in Iowa, went on the offensive, endorsing and helping support Republican challengers against incumbent Republicans in the Iowa House who had opposed her. Eight of the nine candidates Reynolds endorsed won their primary elections, according to the Des Moines Register. Those victories included three challengers who knocked off the chair of the Iowa House Education Committee, the assistant majority leader and another outspoken rural Republican critic of school vouchers.

When the Legislature met in early 2023, the remade Iowa House finally went along with her voucher program after years of opposition.

In both Texas and Iowa, rural GOP critics worried that the voucher programs would drain funding from public schools. But there is a big difference in what Reynolds pulled off and what Abbott wants to do. Reynolds spent three years aggressively pushing the issue publicly and had been a former state senator. Abbott barely talked about vouchers during his reelection campaign in 2022 against Democrat Beto O'Rourke.

While Abbott had talked about the issue generally for years, he wasn't nearly as aggressive as his predecessors George W. Bush or Perry had been on it. When the House refused to take up a school voucher plan passed by the Texas Senate in 2017, Abbott neither threatened primaries nor forced lawmakers back into another special session.

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The governor insisted at the beginning of last year that the politics around the issue had changed, giving him confidence that he could do what his predecessors couldnt.

Not only do I see something, but the reality is, the facts are different today than they were under Bush and Perry, Abbott said in an interview last spring.

Abbott thought he already was heading for victory in early November, announcing he was on the one-yard line toward reaching an agreement with the House on a plan. But weeks later, when the vote came, the tally against him was almost identical to a vote six months earlier.

Critics chalked it up to the governors flip-flopping and failure to make clear what concessions he was willing to make.

In early fall, Abbott told lawmakers he would add bipartisan-backed school funding and teacher pay raises to the special session agenda only if the Legislature passed vouchers.

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He later added the funding and pay raises to the special session call anyway, leaving lawmakers unclear about whether hed sign them if they passed without the vouchers.

Key details of the voucher program were also in flux. At one point, the plan appeared to be for all students to get $8,000 to help pay for private schooling. At another, it was for $10,500 for a limited number of children, with current private school students eligible.

One of the voucher holdouts, Rep. Travis Clardy, R-Nacogdoches, told a Republican gathering in the summer that Abbott just hadnt been clear about exactly what he wanted and why.

Gov. Abbott says he wants it, but he wont tell us what he wants and what it looks like, he said, according to the Panola Watchman newspaper.

Perplexing vetoes

But maybe the most damaging move by Abbott, according to lawmakers, was in the summer when he vetoed 77 bills by state lawmakers as retribution for not passing a voucher plan or reaching an initial deal on a plan to cut property taxes. Most of the vetoes were over bills that were unrelated to those topics and targeted even state lawmakers who backed both cutting property taxes and the voucher plan.

Sen. Drew Springer, a North Texas Republican, had a bill vetoed that would have exempted small agricultural trailers from title and registration requirements. Sen. Bryan Hughes of Northeast Texas had one vetoed to simplify health insurance forms. And Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, had a bill killed to crack down on organized fuel pump theft.

Yet all three backed Abbotts voucher proposals and all three voted for a property tax cut plan that Abbott eventually signed last summer. For many bills, it can take months, if not years, of work by lawyers, staffers and stakeholders behind the scenes. Abbotts vetoes wiped all that out over issues that had little to do with the merits of the individual proposals.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Senate, wasnt happy with the vetoes, calling them an affront to the legislative process and the people of Texas and noting how many hours of good public policy were being wiped out for an unrelated matter.

Bettencourt said the indiscriminate nature of the vetoes was perplexing. Meanwhile, voucher opponents who had bills vetoed became even more dug in against the governor and his plan.

You can use neutron weapons on some of these members, but they will never change their vote on school choice, said Bettencourt, who supports vouchers.

Abbott then said he would reconsider some bills he vetoed in the future if the property tax plan passed. But he never added those bills to subsequent special sessions, even after the tax plan passed. The governor alone is in charge of setting the special session agenda.

Abbotts political adviser Dave Carney said the governor was always ready for the long haul on the voucher fight, even if it went into 2024 and beyond. Were just starting, he said.

Abbott has told voucher advocates that its taken 30 years of grassroots activism to get to this point and compared himself to the last leg of a relay race.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, second from right, looks up along with U.S Border Patrol agents as a drone flies overhead as he tours a section of the border wall May 17, 2022, in Hidalgo. Joel Martinez, POOL / Associated Press

WASHINGTON  Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled to Eagle Pass on Monday to meet with Border Patrol agents as House Republicans prepare for hearings this week  centered on the Biden administrations handling of the border  that could make Mayorkas the first Cabinet secretary impeached in nearly 150 years.

The GOP has laid the blame for a record number of border crossings on Mayorkas, whose agency oversees immigration enforcement. Eagle Pass has been among the most frequented crossings in the nation. The city is also the epicenter of Gov. Greg Abbotts border security crackdown that has sparked a series of legal battles between the state and the Biden administration.

The secretary used the trip to push back on the GOP narrative and urge Congress to take action on immigration, including approving $6 billion in emergency border security funding the Biden administration requested last year to hire Border Patrol agents and asylum officers and to install inspection machines meant to catch fentanyl at ports of entry.

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We are doing everything we can within a broken system, Mayorkas said. We will continue to do everything we can, and we will continue to enforce the law. But we need Congress to make the legislative changes and provide the funding that our front-line officers so desperately need.

The House Homeland Security Committee, which has been investigating Mayorkas handling of the border for months, is set to kick off the impeachment push with a hearing Wednesday. A spokesperson for the committee said additional hearings are expected and that the panel will draft articles of impeachment at the end of the process.

U.S. Rep. Mark Green, who chairs the committee, told CNN that he expects the process to move fairly quickly and that the first hearing is likely to be a summary of the panels findings so far. Committee Republicans posted on social media Monday that the inquiry found that Mayorkas has refused to enforce the laws of Congress and fulfill his oath of office.

Several Texas Republicans sit on the committee, including Rep. Tony Gonzales, a San Antonio Republican whose district includes Eagle Pass and most of the border.

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Mayorkas trip comes less than a week after House Speaker Mike Johnson and dozens of other Republicans traveled to Eagle Pass. On that trip, Green accused Mayorkas of breaking his oath to defend the nation.

The greatest domestic threat to the national security and the safety of the American people is Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, said Green, R-Tenn., while flanked by dozens of House Republicans during a news conference in front of the Rio Grande.

Border crossings reached new highs in December, and the Biden administration moved to close an international bridge and railroad crossing leading to Eagle Pass, both of which have since been reopened. Many of the people crossing the border are asylum-seekers from nations racked by poverty, violence and political upheaval, and they come amid a rise in global migration in recent years.

Mayorkas pointed to the situation last month as evidence of the need for more resources, including more space to detain migrants and more funding to pay for removal flights.

We need more officers so that migration surges do not force mitigation measures of last resort like bridge closures, Mayorkas said.

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Mayorkas said the administration has taken bold, necessary action during the time that Congress has failed to act. He pointed to new rules allowing tens of thousands of asylum-seekers into the United States each month, if they apply from their home countries instead of after crossing the border, as well as efforts to allow asylum officers to more swiftly adjudicate cases on the border. And he said the administration has ramped up removal efforts, deporting more than 470,000 migrants since May.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, has dismissed the impeachment drive as a political stunt and a distraction. The House effort comes amid bipartisan negotiations in the Senate on a possible border security deal, which negotiators have said could land as soon as this week. Mayorkas has been involved in those talks as President Joe Biden has said he is willing to make serious concessions on the border to secure additional aid for Ukraine.

Its time for House Republicans to get serious, do their jobs and deliver for the American people, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week. Theyre wasting time on impeachment proceedings that make no sense, and thats not what the American people want them to focus on.
Ohio is currently facing a lawsuit from tech group representing TikTok, Meta, X, and Snapchat over its new law restricting social media for its underage users.

Trade group NetChoice filed a federal case against Republican Attorney General Dave Yost to stop the Parental Notification by Social Media Operators Act from taking effect on Jan. 15.

Ohio Law Sets to Impose Parental Supervision on Children's Access to Social Media

The parental act, which was signed last December, seeks to require users under the age of 16 have their parents' permission to create an account on message boards and social media.

Once in effect, social media companies will need to get a parents' or guardians' signed permission to allow minors into their platform.

Ohio touted the new law as a measure to protect children's mental health from social media platforms being "intentionally addictive" and harmful to kids.

NetChoice argued that the Ohio's restriction unconstitutionally hinders free speech as well as overly broad and unclear.

The trade group has filed a similar lawsuit against California and Arkansas. Both of which ended in NetChoice's favor.

Also Read: YouTube, TikTok are the Most Used Social Media Apps Among US Teens

US States Seek to Restrict Social Media Access to Minors

This was not the first time a US state pushed for a law to limit access of underage users to social media like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Calls for social media restrictions have increased over the past months amid reports of Meta and TikTok being unsafe for children.

Recent court documents that social media platforms have been collecting data from minors for its targeted ads despite the restrictions.

The Federal Trade Commission has already filed a petition to add new changes to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 amid growing concerns on children's privacy online.

This is not to count of minors being exposed to adult contents that slip through the platforms' automated content filters.

TikTok has recently experienced a series not safe for work pictures hidden in several slide posts being shown in its "For You" page.

Related Article: FTC Pushes for New Regulations to Protect Kid's Data Privacy
Damages caused by Japan's quakes at nuclear power plant worse than initially disclosed

Xinhua) 10:22, January 08, 2024

TOKYO, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- In the aftermath of the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, oil leakage from the affected equipment at the Shika Nuclear Power Plant in the most-affected central Japanese prefecture of Ishikawa was over five times higher than initially disclosed amount, the plant's operator has said.

Earlier this week, Hokuriku Electric Power Company stated that due to the earthquake's impact, two external power supply transformers for Units 1 and 2 at the Shika plant were damaged. Specifically, one transformer for Unit 2 was reported to have leaked approximately 3,500 liters of oil, rendering a portion of the external power supply system inoperable.

However, the company admitted during a press conference on Friday that the actual oil leakage amounted to as much as 19,800 liters, and the timeline for repairing the external power supply system remains uncertain.

Another transformer for Unit 2 at the plant has been found to have leaked approximately 100 liters of oil, it added.

Moreover, there have been reports of ground subsidence around the reactor building of Unit 1, though the company assured that these conditions will not impact the safety of the Shika plant.

However, local media reported that there were "explosion sounds and a burning smell" near the transformer for Unit 2 at the plant, which the power company explained as the automatic fire suppression system in action.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Honda is reportedly looking to proceed with its $14 billion electric vehicle plan in Canada in an effort to rival US and European competitors in the EV market, according to Nikkei Asia.

The Japanese automaker is currently considering several potential spots for its EV production plant near the US such as the province of Ontario.

A decision on the matter is expected to be finalized by the end of 2024 with the new facility scheduled to start operating as early as 2028, including possible manufacturing of in-house EV batteries.

The news came after Canada announced to effectively end sales of new private vehicles that still run using diesel and engine by 2035.

Honda Joins the EV Market in North America

Honda has been ramping up its EV lines as North America and Europe transition to electric cars to curb carbon footprints.

The passenger automaker aims to capture nearly 40% of its worldwide customers in North America as it delivers more eco-friendly vehicles.

Honda has already started taking steps into the EV industry with its plans to mass-produce EV batteries with South Korea's LG Energy Solution in Ohio starting in 2025.

Sony has also inked a deal with Honda to distribute its first EVs in the US as early as 2026.

Also Read: Sony, Honda's Joint Venture Company To Sell Its First EV in the US by 2026

Market for EVs in the US, Canada

As of writing, over 2 million EVs are currently registered in the US, while Canada has contributed with more than 16,000 EVs in the past couple of years.

This influx of EVs has been pushed by the government, primarily with the US providing subsidies for car owners to switch to EVs.

With the production plant planned to be close to the US borders and operate in both countries, Honda seeks to be eligible for US support as it looks to increase market in the region up to 80% of its worldwide sales.

Related Article: Volkswagen-Backed Startup Claims Their EV Batteries Can Hold Up to 300K Miles
Several Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft were temporarily suspended from taking flight this Sunday after a cabin panel blew out on one of its planes last Friday.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced that 171 737 Max 9 aircraft worldwide are "temporarily grounded" as it continues its investigation on the incident.

The regulators said emergency inspections may "take around four to eight hours per aircraft," CNN reported.

Alaska Airlines, where the incident happened, said flight disruptions are likely to occur in the following days "until details about possible additional maintenance work are confirmed with the FAA."

Alaska Airlines canceled 160 flights following the incident, affecting over 23,000 customers traveling across the globe.

Also Read: FAA Lifts Ground Stop, Delays Flights at NYC Airport Due to Smoke

Alaska Airlines Cabin Panel Incident

The investigations were launched due to Alaska Airlines flight 1282, which was headed to Ontario, California, suddenly having to make an emergency landing when the cabin panel in row 26 suddenly burst open.

No injuries were reported with both seats 26A and 26B were unoccupied during the flight.

Boeing has already notified airlines to inspect its 737 Max jets ahead of the incident for a potential loose bolt after an airline detected similar issues last month.

The aircraft manufacturer is currently working with the FAA and safety regulators to "gather more information" on the next steps following the incident.

The suspension not only affects Alaska Airlines as the Max 9 aircraft is also used by other major airlines including Copa Airlines, Aeromexico, SCAT Airlines, Iceland Air, Turkish Airlines, and FlyDubai.

Alternative Flight Options for Affected Passengers

While Alaska Airlines has already offered refunds and other compensations for all affected passengers, the canceled flight remains a headache for customers who are catching a schedule.

With many coming from their holiday vacations, the best course of action for an immediate flight is to book another flight via United Airlines and American Airlines.

For passengers en route to Canada, WestJet is a better option for a low-budget flight.

All passengers are advised that the airlines might be experiencing more congested traffic in the following days due to the flight cancellations.

Related Article: Boeing Delivers Its First 787 Dreamliner to American Airlines
Education can be provided anywhere. It just needs a teacher, a learner, and a platform where knowledge can be openly shared.

TikTok actually qualifies in this criteria too as more people use the video-sharing site as a way to educate their viewers on various fields of expertise and skills.

Whether it is about Mathematics problems or an introduction to music theory, TikTok can certainly make learning much more enjoyable and interactive.

Here are just some of the people you can follow to expand your knowledge and skills:

Also Read: 5 YouTubers Known for Exploring True Crime Stories

Hank Green is not just the brother of famous American author John Green but a pillar in EducTok (Educational TikTok).

This YouTube science communicator has brought years of knowledge in various fields of science to TikTok to help people understand more about genetics, geology, astronomy, and many more.

Green even engages with the audience from time to time, answering their questions in the comment section with easy-to-understand in-depth explanations.

Green currently has a growing community of enthusiastic learners, both young and old, on TikTok with over 8 million followers.

Kyne bridges two communities previously thought to be totally separate: the Mathematics and Drag Queen fans.

Aside from beauty tips and raising social issues in America, Canada's Drag Race Season 1 contender uses her platform to teach people about algebra, geometry, and even basic calculus.

Kyne believes that bringing STEM-related topics to TikTok will help people understand that the drag community is not exclusive to adults but can also be a source of knowledge for young minds.

Kyne currently has over 1.5 million followers, proving that her beliefs exist in many people around the world.

Interested in the animal world? Then Odd Animal Specimens might just be the account for you.

The account features preserved samples from various animals as the narrator dissects how each body part performs a specific purpose for the species' survival.

Yes, we can learn many things even in death. The account even lets the audience guess the animal based on their bones as added trivia to allow people to use their deductive skills.

If there is one way to describe etymologynerd, it is educational but wild. Their videos are perfect for hyperactive minds eager to learn how certain words came to be.

It is a mix of history lessons and linguistics in a way that anyone can easily understand, much like someone dropping an exposition during a regular conversation.

Sometimes the account posts of baking Egyptian hieroglyphs or ancient cuneiform tablets before proceeding to tell how they evolved into the modern languages we use today. Sometimes, they also invent a whole new language.

Similar to Hank Green's content, magnify discusses various odd topics that someone could have searched on Google in passing.

They provide general information on topics about language, culture, and history and how it applies to our current society.

Watching their videos is a great way to view the world's interesting events in a peculiar but fun manner.

While there are many art accounts on TikTok teaching people how to draw, there are only a few who have provided professional-approved basic guides for those starting.

ProkoTV is a great account for both new and professional artists to gain more knowledge on how anatomy and structures can be translated into illustrations.

The account provides in-depth commentaries while showing the actual procedure of their lessons so that people can do the same thing while watching.

Proko also provides feedback to the audience, adapting their instructions based on how others try to get into the drawing. They are super beginner-friendly and do not gatekeep on how one can draw.

Related Article: 5 Best YouTube Video Essays of 2023
By Lee Yeon-woo

Financial industry leaders are converging in Las Vegas to explore emerging trends and discover opportunities for innovative business models as CES 2024, the world's largest tech show, approaches.

CES has served as a pivotal platform to explore the latest information and communication technologies, such as AI and blockchain. The increased involvement of the financial sector in CES aligns with a strategic emphasis on establishing a substantial competitive edge in the digital era. Earlier this year, each of Korea's four major financial holding firms pinpointed AI as a central theme in their business strategies.

According to financial industry sources, Ham Young-joo, the chairman of Hana Financial Group, will be attending CES 2024. This is the second year he is visiting the show.

Ham is anticipated to closely monitor the latest trends in artificial intelligence (AI), collaborating with the lender's young, forward-thinking employees who are at the forefront of the sector. He also plans to explore the investment strategies and AI utilization cases of foreign tech firms, including a visit to Amazon's headquarters after CES.

"AI is expected to be the keyword of CES 2024," a Hana Financial Group official said. "It is anticipated to facilitate a hands-on experience in integrating industries such as smart homes, health care, fintech, manufacturing and finance, thereby transcending traditional sector boundaries. Such integration is expected to provide valuable insights that could shape the future direction of the financial group."

Shinhan Bank CEO Jung Sang-hyuk will also attend the exhibition along with employees. Building on last year's participation, Shinhan Bank will once again host its own booth at CES, this time unveiling an interactive space designed around the concept of a cutting-edge bank branch. The exhibit will feature AI bank tellers and smart kiosks. Shinhan is the only Korean bank to operate an independent booth at CES.

"Shinhan Bank is dedicated to realizing the concept of 'Everywhere Bank,' providing customers with a seamless experience in our system 24/7, 365 days a year. Our goal is to present the future of banking, encompassing how customers engage with both digital and physical branches," a Shinhan official said.

KB Financial Group will also be dispatching a team of employees to evaluate the offerings at this year's CES.

The banking sector is not the only one keenly interested in the much-waited event. The Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA) also formed a team, which includes Chairman Seo Yoo-seok and 14 CEOs from brokerages and asset management firms, to explore CES and Silicon Valley.

During their tour of CES, the team will meet various officials from both domestic and international firms. Additionally, they plan to visit booths operated by 600 Korean startups.

"CES will present an opportunity for Korean financial companies to broaden their investment scope and foster a spirit of innovation through engagement with global corporations," Seo said.
By Anna J. Park

It's been nearly 10 years since Jean Valjean Bank, a nonprofit foundation, started lending financial help to those who can't afford to pay state-imposed fines or penalties in the country.

Taking the bank's name from Jean Valjean, the iconic character from Victor Hugo's 19th century French novel "Les Miserables," the bank lends money to underprivileged people who face imprisonment for failing to pay modest fines or penalties imposed on them for mostly minor offenses.

Since being established in 2015 as a key campaign by the Citizens' Solidarity for Human Rights (CSHR), a civic human rights institution, the bank has so far helped 1,267 modern-day Jean Valjeans in Korea.

Petty offenders in dire financial need who are unable to pay fines or penalties can submit an application to receive up to 3 million won ($2,279). This bank is funded entirely by citizens' donations, declining any corporate or government sponsorship. The bank does not charge any interest or ask for any collateral for the money lent, relying only on trust.

Cho Yong-cheol, a researcher at the CSHR who is in charge of Jean Valjean Bank's operation, said that the bank was first established to address the underlying problems of the country's fine system.

"It has drawn attention that far too many people are imprisoned simply because they cannot pay fines. These people are not violent criminals, having committed mostly relatively minor crimes. But they face incarceration for failing to pay small fines, just because they lack money. Aiming to fix the vicious cycle, the CSHR has advocated for the introduction of an 'income-proportional fine system' and opposed indiscriminate imprisonment of those who are unable to pay fines," Cho said during a recent interview with The Korea Times.

"The examples of those who receive the support from the bank vary. A person who was fined 500,000 won for stealing a 2,000 won item, people who  in severe financial difficulties  saw an ad on social media and handed over their mobile SIM card to earn living expenses, but their cards were used in voice phishing crimes, resulting in a fine amounting to 3 million won. There are also many people who, struggling with long-term loan repayments, cry and seek forgiveness to bank officials demanding repayment of the loan, saying they don't have a single penny in their bank accounts," Choi illustrated.

While there are touching stories in which previous borrowers from the bank become donors themselves, lending financial support back to those who are in urgent need, Cho expressed concerns that the number of applicants to receive the bank's support has recently been on the rise.

He explained that the number of loan applicants last year stood at 773, which is more than double the 359 applicants of the previous year.

"With the government recently emphasizing strict law enforcement, the number of people going to prison for not paying fines has surged. Accordingly, the requests for loan support from Jan Valjean Bank more than doubled year-on-year from 2022 to 2023," Cho said.

He emphasized that it is crucial for the Korean government to introduce a more reasonable fine system like some European countries, where the amount of fines are proportionate to income and assets.

"The introduction of such a system would significantly reduce the number of people going to prison for unpaid fines in the country. This would also ensure a fairer imposition of fines based on individuals' financial capabilities, mitigating the current challenges faced by those unable to pay fines and helping to alleviate their immediate hardships," Cho highlighted.
Troubled construction company yields to mounting criticism over selfish stance in workout talks

By Anna J. Park

The government has urged Taeyoung Group to implement additional self-rescue measures for its financially troubled construction subsidiary, Taeyoung Engineering & Construction (E&C). This move is seen as essential for the conglomerate to rebuild trust with creditors and secure their agreement on a debt-restructuring plan.

The message was conveyed during Monday's macroeconomy and financial affairs meeting at Korea Eximbank in Seoul. The attendees included Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, Senior Presidential Economic Affairs Secretary Park Chun-sup, Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong, Financial Services Commission Chairman Kim Joo-hyun, Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor Lee Bok-hyun, and Korea Development Bank (KDB) Chairman & CEO Kang Seog-hoon.

The participants jointly urged Taeyoung Group to promptly implement four restructuring measures proposed by the group at the time of the workout application at the end of last year and also to submit additional measures to show the conglomerate's sincerity in making the debt restructuring process work.

Taeyoung Group already submitted four self-rescue measures, including transferring 154.9 billion won ($117 million) from the sale of Taeyoung Industry to Taeyoung E&C, financially assisting Taeyoung E&C through the proceeds from the sale of Ecorbit, offering BlueOne shares as collateral and for eventual sale, and providing Pyeong Taek Silo as collateral.

Emphasizing the importance of adhering to a principle-based restructuring plan, the participants also encouraged bondholders to proceed with the workout process, provided they verify the effectiveness of Taeyoung Group's restructuring efforts.

The group initially failed to fulfill its promise involving the payment of 154.9 billion won from the sale of Taeyoung Industry to support the debt restructuring of Taeyoung E&C. Contrary to committing to pay the entire amount, the group only disbursed a partial sum of 65.9 billion won. The remaining 89 billion won was instead used to repay debts guaranteed by TY Holdings for Taeyoung E&C.

This infuriated the creditors last week, with the state-run KDB, the representative creditor and bondholder of Taeyoung E&C, arguing that the conglomerate is more interested in maintaining the major shareholder family's control over the group, rather than supporting its debt-ridden construction company.

"Instead of exerting efforts to minimize losses shouldered by Taeyoung E&C's subcontractors and creditors, the group seems to prioritize safeguarding the core stake of the group's owner family members," the FSS governor said last week.

Following criticism from the government and financial regulators for not adhering to its self-rescue measures, Taeyoung Group eventually paid the remaining 89 billion won to support its construction subsidiary on Monday.

"Taeyoung's payment of the 89 billion won has been confirmed," an official at the financial watchdog said.

TY Holdings officially confirmed on Monday that it fulfilled the payment commitment, pledging to execute the remaining three measures in the near future after obtaining board approval.

However, meeting this condition was just a fundamental requirement for Taeyoung Group to advance the workout negotiations. The government and creditors are urging more substantial contributions, like the major shareholder family's personal wealth or pledging key shares of the group's holding company as collateral. This is seen as essential to demonstrate the group's sincerity in the workout process.

According to financial industry sources on Monday, Taeyoung is internally reviewing additional restructuring proposals to submit to financial authorities and bondholders. One potential option under consideration is offering a 30 percent stake in TY Holdings held by founder and Chairman Yoon Se-young as collateral.

"Taeyoung will soon come up with specified plans in close consultation with KDB," the group said on Monday.

Gov't remais vigilant

Meanwhile, the government said it is fully prepared to handle any uncertainty arising from the Taeyoung situation, pledging to safeguard financial market stability and provide support to the construction industry.

The plan involves promptly executing market stability measures totaling 85 trillion won, if necessary. Furthermore, the government has stated that it is closely monitoring the construction sector to address concerns raised by subcontractors and partner companies.

"Taeyoung E&C is somewhat of an exceptional case, compared to other construction companies, in that the firm relied heavily on project financing," the finance minister said during Monday's parliamentary session. He added that the impact on the overall construction industry will likely be limited.
The troubled Taeyoung Engineering & Construction has taken steps to fulfill self-rescue efforts and is expected to announce additional measures to win creditors' approval for the initiation of a debt workout program, officials said Monday.

Last month, Taeyoung applied for a debt restructuring program due to a liquidity shortage over real estate project financing (PF) loans and announced a set of self-rescue measures.

But creditors, led by the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB), and the government had said that they fell far short of expectations and requested a better proposal.

On Monday, TY Holdings, the parent company of Taeyoung E&C, supported the outstanding 89 billion won ($67.61 million) from the sale of Taeyoung Industries, the group's overseas trading affiliate, into the construction arm, according to financial authorities.

"The 89 billion-won funding was one of the four self-rescue measures that Taeyoung has pledged, and the move is expected to help the company and the creditors take a step closer to settlement," an industry official said.

"The company is likely to announce a fresh set of measures as early as today," he added.

TY Holdings initially committed to using 154.9 billion won from the sale of the affiliate to support Taeyoung E&C, but it only has provided 65.9 billion won and directed the remaining 89 billion won toward servicing the holding company's joint surety debt.

The group had said that the debt repayment was also a form of support for the builder, but creditors dismissed the claim and warned of seeking court receivership if such "fundamental conditions" are not met.

Other self-rescue efforts include selling its entire stakes in Ecobit and BlueOne.

It requires 75 percent approval from creditors to begin the workout process, and the final decision on the initiation is expected to be made at the creditors' meeting slated for Thursday.

On Monday, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok held a meeting with Bank of Korea Gov. Rhee Chang-yong, KDB chief Kang Seog-hoon and chiefs of financial institutions and discussed the matter.

"The participants shared the need for Taeyoung to come up with sufficient and detailed additional self-rescue measures to gain creditors' trust, while swiftly implementing the pledges that it has presented," the finance ministry said in a release.

KDB said there has been some progress regarding talks on the debt restructuring plan, and the creditors will continue close consultations with the company.

The government also called on the creditors to proceed with a workout process "normally" if they confirm Taeyoung's willingness to implement self-help pledges.

Taeyoung E&C, the 16th-largest builder in Korea in terms of construction capacity, has been suffering from a liquidity shortage amid high interest rates and a slumping property market, and its outstanding PF loans came to 3.2 trillion won.

Real estate PF loans have emerged as a major risk factor for the country's financial sector and the overall economy, and the government vowed to expand liquidity supply programs from the current level of 85 trillion won, if needed. (Yonhap)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited a newly built chicken factory and called for increasing poultry production for a "substantial change" in the people's standards of living, state media reported Monday.

Kim visited Kwangchon Chicken Farm in Hwangju County of North Hwanghae Province on Sunday, accompanied by his daughter, known as Ju-ae, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

He underscored the need to "constantly increase the production capacity so as to provide the people with much more meat and eggs," the KCNA said, adding that the country is planning to build another chicken farm in Pyongyang this year.

The visit comes as North Korea has been focusing on boosting grain production due to the country's chronic food shortages, which have resulted in reported deaths from starvation in some regions.

Kim also called for taking the farm as a standard model for modernizing poultry factories across the nation to "bring about a substantial change in the people's living," the report said.

In July 2020, the North's leader visited the construction site of the Kwangchon chicken factory. The North's state media claimed at that time that the factory could produce thousands of tons of meat and tens of millions of eggs per year.

Kim's latest visit appears to be aimed at portraying himself as a leader who cares about the people's lives in the new year. His daughter Ju-ae also made a rare public appearance at economy-related sites, after mostly accompanying her father to military events before.

South Korea's unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said Friday that she has made 24 public appearances since November 2022 and 19 of them have been to military-related events. (Yonhap)
Possible provocations include spy satellite launch, submarine-launched missile tests

By Nam Hyun-woo

North Korea, who has been ratcheting up tensions with a series of live-fire drills near the maritime border, is expected to stage various types of provocations throughout this year in an apparent bid to maximize its leverage before major elections in Seoul and Washington, according to diplomatic observers, Monday.

According to South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the North has fired approximately 350 rounds into the waters of the West Sea during the three-day provocations dating back to Friday. Of the rounds, some fell into waters as close as seven kilometers north of the Northern Limit Line, a maritime buffer zone between the two Koreas.

This appears to be the Norths first firing of artillery into the West Sea since South and North Korea signed an inter-Korean military agreement in 2018, whose articles prohibit any hostile activities, including military drills, near the border area. The North, in November, threatened to scrap the military pact and restored military assets, such as guard posts and heavy arms, in the border area.

The latest round of incitement came less than 100 days before South Korea is to hold its general elections on April 10 to elect lawmakers and 10 months before the U.S. presidential election. Given this context, experts say that the North is seeking to gain political leverage through the provocations so that it can have the upper hand in possible talks or confrontations with the incoming powers.

Rather than having a direct influence on the general elections, the North appears to be seeking conflicts within South Korea and heightened tensions through the provocations so that it can improve its leverage in inter-Korean relations, said Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

Until the late 1990s, South Korean politics had concerns over the so-called "North Wind," which is a term referring to Seouls conservatives using Pyongyangs provocations before major elections to affect the sense of security that South Korean people felt, thus persuading them to choose a conservative candidate.

Experts said the current situation is far from that, given that the Pyongyang regime detests the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration, nor is seeking talks with the liberal opposition. Rather, the North declared that unification was impossible, defining the South as a hostile nation.

These days, the North seems to like neither South Koreas ruling conservative party nor the liberal main opposition party, Go said.

Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies, also said that the Norths provocations are not an attempt to directly affect the South Korean general elections, but aimed at increasing its leverage in relation to new powers after the elections.

The North claims that it was responding to the South Korean militarys live-fire drill on the first day, detonating explosives on the second day to deceive the South and conducting a planned military drill on the third day, said Yang.

If the Norths explanation is correct, it will be hard to say that the North is staging the provocations to manipulate Seouls general elections.

On Friday when the North fired approximately 200 shells, its official Korean Central News Agency said the firing was a response measure to the Souths military actions. It was referring to the South Korean Armys Jan. 2 live-fire drill.

Regarding the display of power on Saturday, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, claimed that the North conducted a deceptive operation" by detonating explosives simulating the sound of artillery shells. A day later, the North fired more than 90 rounds of artillery shells and claimed it was a normal naval drill.

Experts echoed that the North will continue to stage additional provocations and improve its military capacities to enhance its leverage before the South Korean general elections and U.S. presidential elections in November.

The North has already said that it will launch three more military reconnaissance satellites this year, Yang said.

Also possible are testing submarine launched ballistic missiles or launching the Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile at a normal angle, not at a lofted angle. With the possibility of the former U.S. President being re-elected, the North will step up its military programs to secure its best leverage to the United States.

A second Trump presidency is widely expected to bring an overall shift concerning the U.S. approach to the Norths nuclear programs. Last month, U.S. media outlet Politico reported that Trump is considering a plan to let North Korea keep its nuclear weapons and offer its regime financial incentives to stop making new bombs.

Go also noted that the North will step up provocations at least before the U.S. presidential election in order to prepare the negotiation table with the U.S.
South Korea's spy agency on Monday confirmed suspicions that North Korean-made weapons are being used by the Hamas militant group in its war with Israel despite Pyongyang's repeated denial of its arms transactions.

Releasing a new photo of a North Korean rocket part, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed a Voice of America (VOA) report that Hamas fighters used an F-7 rocket-propelled grenade launcher manufactured in North Korea.

A photo included in the VOA report published Friday showed that the fuse of an F-7 grenade launcher, allegedly used by Hamas, had on it a combination of Korean characters and numbers, such as "-7" and "8-80-53."

Asked about the report, the NIS said its "assessment is the same as the VOA report."

"The fuse with the Korean characters is located in the mid-section of the North Korean-made F-7 rocket," the spy agency told Yonhap News Agency, while providing a photo of a disassembled F-7 grenade launcher.

In the photo disclosed by the NIS, the Korean characters are not identifiable as they are placed on the interior of the fuse.

The spy agency also said it is "collecting and accumulating" detailed evidence of North Korea's suspected supplies of its weapons to Hamas, such as trade volumes and the timing of arms trade.

"But it is currently difficult to provide such evidence due to the need to protect information sources and in consideration of diplomatic ties," the NIS said.

South Korea's military earlier said North Korea appears to be linked to Hamas in the arms trade and other military fields, and could use military tactics similar to those used against Israel for a surprise attack on South Korea.

The NIS also reported during a parliamentary intelligence committee meeting in November, 2023 that it has obtained intelligence that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered officials to come up with measures to provide comprehensive assistance to Palestine.

The F-7s, a type of high-explosive fragmentation rocket, seem to be another name for the RPG-7 produced in North Korea, a military official said.

North Korea has dismissed speculation that Hamas used North Korean weapons for attacks on Israel as "groundless," accusing the United States of cooking up a false accusation against the North.

Meanwhile, in regard to North Korea's suspected arms trade with Russia, the NIS said it has been "consistently" tracking the issue in close cooperation with the United States and called on Pyongyang to "immediately" stop such transactions.

The White House said Thursday (local time) the North recently provided Russia with several dozen ballistic missiles and ballistic missile launchers, and that Moscow used some of the missiles in its latest attacks on Ukraine on Dec. 30, 2023 and Jan. 2.

"North Korea's arms trade with Russia, such as ballistic missiles and artillery shells, violates United Nations Security Council resolutions, and seriously poses a threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," the NIS said. (Yonhap)
Eyeing vast opportunities, multinationals flock to China

Xinhua) 11:01, January 08, 2024

This undated aerial photo provided by Volkswagen Group China shows the modular electric drive matrix (MEB) plant of Volkswagen (Anhui) Components Co., Ltd. in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province. (Xinhua)

With China's mature economic development and immense market size, there remains substantial growth potential in the long run, said Ola Kallenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group.

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Multinational corporations are eager to increase their investments in the prosperous Chinese market as the new year begins. Despite a challenging global environment and lackluster economic recovery, these companies continue to see untapped potential in China.

"NEXT CHINA" IS STILL CHINA

China offers promising opportunities for businesses from different countries to expand, thanks to its solid infrastructure, extensive consumer market and favorable investment climate that is constantly improving.

Ola Kallenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group, said that the company has made significant strides in China over the years, laying a solid foundation for future growth.

With China's mature economic development and immense market size, there remains substantial growth potential in the long run, said Kallenius in an interview with Xinhua, adding that his company hopes to seize this opportunity and further deepen its strategic presence in China.

Germany's Volkswagen Group, another multinational automotive company, is pushing for complete production, research and procurement localization. Last November, the group revealed that Volkswagen China Technology Company (VCTC), its largest development center outside Germany, plans to unveil an electric platform for the entry-level segment within 36 months.

"With the development of a China-specific platform for the entry-level segment, we are taking on significant development tasks for our 'in China for China' strategy," Ralf Brandstaetter, chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, said.

An employee operates at a workshop of the BAIC-Faurecia Automotive Systems Huanghua Branch in Cangzhou City of north China's Hebei Province, Dec. 9, 2020. (Photo by Yuan Liwei/Xinhua)

The rise of China's electric vehicle industry has provided ample business opportunities for French automotive equipment manufacturers such as Valeo and Faurecia.

Faurecia's 2023 third-quarter financial report revealed an 11.8 percent increase in sales in the Chinese market, showcasing robust performance.

Patrick Koller, chief executive of Faurecia, has repeatedly emphasized the Chinese market's strategic importance for the company on different occasions, saying the increasing influence within China's automotive sector is expected to further drive the development and progress of Faurecia's automotive electronics supply chain.

Christian Dreger, senior research fellow at European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), told Xinhua that the European market and enterprises pay significant attention to China's economic development.

The scale of China's market, the population's level of education, high-quality infrastructure, and China's influential role in driving economic growth in Southeast Asia are all crucial factors for the recovery of the European economy, Dreger said.

This photo taken on Nov. 8, 2023 shows a booth of GE HealthCare at the 6th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang)

ENCHANTING MARKET

China's huge market has attracted increasing investments from multinational manufacturing, international food services, high-tech companies and financial institutions, showcasing its resilience amid a sluggish global economy.

Global food service giants continue to thrive. Take Yum China, the operator of KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in the country. The company reported steady growth in operations and added 500 stores as of the third quarter of 2023. It now operates over 14,000 restaurants and aims to have 20,000 stores in China by 2026.

Leading U.S. company Apple revealed that the Greater China market accounted for one-fifth of its revenue last year. CEO Tim Cook said China's market is vital for Apple, and he remains "very optimistic" about the company's long-term prospects there.

For Apple, China is a crucial source in the supply chain. One hundred and fifty-one of the company's 200 major suppliers, including foreign and Chinese, have a manufacturing presence in the country.

Employees work at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory in east China's Shanghai, Dec. 22, 2023. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

The robust support from China's industrial ecosystem also boosts production efficiency. Tesla's Shanghai plant, the U.S. carmaker's first gigafactory outside the United States, delivered 947,000 vehicles in 2023 and can produce a car in less than 40 seconds.

According to Reuters, U.S.-based Citigroup plans to establish a wholly-owned China investment banking unit as early as the end of 2024 and hire roughly 30 people. It will focus on the domestic capital market, with plans to expand its workforce to nearly 100.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
South Korea plans to launch two more military spy satellites this year to better monitor North Korea, the state arms procurement agency said Monday, a move that could heat up the inter-Korean space race.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said two synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites are scheduled to be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in April and November, respectively.

Beginning with an electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) satellite in December, South Korea plans to place four more SAR satellites into orbit by 2025 to enhance space-based intelligence capabilities amid North Korea's growing missile and nuclear threats.

EO/IR satellites capture detailed images of the Earth's surface but cannot penetrate dense clouds, while SAR satellites can collect data regardless of weather, using remote sensing systems.

When operated together, the reconnaissance satellites are expected to enable the prompt detection of early warning signs of a potential North Korean nuclear or missile attack, DAPA said.

South Korea's announcement came days after Pyongyang vowed to launch three more spy satellites this year.

In November, the North put its first spy satellite into orbit following two failed attempts and has claimed it has photographed major South Korea and U.S. military sites. (Yonhap)
The government has asked police to investigate suspicions surrounding English exam text of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) that turned out to be very similar to one from a private publication, the Ministry of Education said Monday.

The ministry said the request was made in July last year amid allegations that the English exam text of the CSAT conducted in November 2022 and exam text in an English workbook published by a private education company earlier that year are almost identical.

The CSAT text is said to be extracted from the book "Too Much Information" published by a Harvard Law School professor. But more than 100 complaints were filed to the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) soon after the annual college entrance exam, insisting that the English text is identical to the private exam text provided by a famous instructor, except for one sentence. They complained that students who took lessons from the instructor may have had an absolute advantage over others.

At that time, the KICE, which manages and operates the CSAT, dismissed the complaints, saying the overlap was a coincidence and the two texts have different question types.

But the education ministry has changed its stance after the government last year launched a crackdown on suspicious collusion between public and private educators. The CSAT, held on the third Thursday of November every year, is one of the nation's most important academic events, as it is the culmination of years of hard work for many students anxious to enter top universities.

Meanwhile, the Board of Audit and Inspection has reportedly begun an investigation into why the education ministry and the KICE had belatedly taken action over the controversial CSAT exam text. (Yonhap)
Police plan to decide this week whether to disclose the identity of the suspect in the stabbing attack against opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, officials said Monday.

The 67-year-old suspect, known only by his family name Kim, was formally arrested Thursday on charges of stabbing Lee, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), in the neck with a camping knife in the southeastern port city of Busan two days earlier.

Lee is recovering following surgery at Seoul National University Hospital to repair a major vein in his neck.

The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency said its identity disclosure committee will convene Tuesday to determine whether to make the suspect's personal information public.

The current law permits the disclosure of the identity of suspects in violent crimes to meet public interest and people's right to know when there is sufficient evidence backing the crime.

Police plan to make the suspect's identity immediately public if the committee decides in favor of disclosure.

Officials said they questioned people Kim met on the day of his suspected crime and the day before and concluded he is highly likely to have acted alone without an accomplice.

Police also decided not to disclose any information on Kim's political party affiliation, officials said, citing the Political Parties Act, which prohibits an investigative organization from revealing such information obtained during the investigation process.

Police plan to announce their final investigation result on the case before the end of Thursday. (Yonhap)
The Nelson County Sheriffs Office found a deceased person inside a burnt-out vehicle in the Gladstone area Sunday morning.

According to a news release from Nelson County Sheriff Mark Embrey, deputies were dispatched at about 9 a.m. to Norwood Road near the intersection of Richmond Highway. Upon arrival deputies observed a vehicle sitting off Norwood Road that was destroyed by fire, the release said.

The fire was put out but still smoldering as deputies arrived, the release said. A local fire department responded to the scene at the sheriffs office request for precautionary purposes, according to the release.

Deputies located an unresponsive individual inside the vehicle: the body was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond for identification, the release said. At this time the investigation remains active and further details will be released.

Anyone with information about circumstances of this event is asked to contact Nelson County Sheriffs Capt. Connor Tobin at (434) 263-7050.

-Justin Faulconer
OKINAWA, Jan 08 ( News On Japan ) - An 81-year-old woman has been arrested after her car mounted a sidewalk and fatally ran over a Nepalese couple in Okinawa on Saturday.

The couple were tourists visiting the area when the light vehicle crashed into a temporary sidewalk in Urasoe City.

During police interrogation, the elderly driver, arrested on the spot, denied any wrongdoing, claiming, "I knew I hit something, but I didn't realize there were people there."
Students will stay home from school Monday in Council Bluffs.

No classes will be held, and students aren't expected to report to school, in the Council Bluffs and Lewis Central districts as well as at St. Albert Catholic School and Heartland Christian School, according to announcements from the schools.

Iowa Western Community College has also called off classes, and the college's employees do not need to report for work.

Students in the Council Bluffs Community School District are expected to independently complete remote learning assigned by their teachers.

The remote learning assignments shouldn't take up the whole snow day, nor should parents be required to assist their students with completing the assignments.

By completing the remote learning, Council Bluffs students are preserving a full spring break and avoiding tacking on days at the end of the year, which would still be required if there end up being more than four snow days in 2024.

"There's new flexibility in Iowa law, just passed last year, that allows us to do this," spokeswoman Diane Ostrowski told the Nonpareil in November.

Additionally, the Council Bluffs school is offering free breakfast and lunch meals for families who want to pick them up. Free meals are available for all families from all schools at Bloomer Elementary, 201 S. Seventh St. in downtown Council Bluffs, from 10 a.m. to noon.

"Nutrition Services staff will approach cars parked in the drop off lane on Willow Avenue," the district said in a news release. "Students do not need to be present in the vehicle. However, parents/guardians will be asked to provide each student's full name and school for verification in order to pick up meals. Each student will receive both a breakfast and lunch meal."

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning that begins at 6 a.m. Monday for southwest Iowa. Heavy snow, with accumulations totaling between 5 and 8 inches, are expected, along with wind gusting up to 35 mph, creating areas of blowing and drifting snow.

Mixed precipitation in the early morning is expected to convert to snow by dawn, with the storm impacting the Monday commute, so motorists who must go out in the storm should be careful and plan for extra time to reach their destination. The snow is expected to continue into Tuesday morning.
Severe storms with probable tornadoes tore through several central U.S. states, damaging homes and businesses and killing at least three people, with more bodies likely to be discovered, authorities said. As the sun rose Friday, officials scrambled to assess the extent of the destruction wit
When I was trying to acquire all the Pulitzer Prize winners of fiction, I spent a lot of time in used bookstores hunting for copies of older, out-of-print books. It was an enjoyable enterprise, and I managed to track down quite a few of the books I wanted, but a couple of them eluded me, so 
A doctors' group filed a complaint against opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Monday, claiming he unfairly used an emergency helicopter to move from the southeastern city of Busan to Seoul when the knife wound he sustained was not serious enough for such an airlift.

Lee, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), was stabbed in the neck with a camping knife during a visit to the southeastern port city of Busan last week.

He was immediately transported to Pusan National University Hospital and underwent emergency treatment for the laceration. Shortly thereafter, he was airlifted by helicopter to Seoul National University Hospital, where he received surgery to repair a major vein in his neck.

Accusing Lee of obstructing the businesses of the two hospitals and violating the emergency medical service law, the Korean Pediatric Association filed a complaint against the opposition leader with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, as well as two other DPK lawmakers.

The doctors' group accused Lee of unfairly using helicopter transportation when he was not in an emergency situation, saying Lee's request to use an emergency helicopter constitutes an abuse of his power toward medical workers and a demand for preferential treatment.

The group also accused Lee of "cutting in line" for those waiting for medical treatment and surgery.

Other medical associations have previously voiced similar complaints, with the Busan Medical Association accusing Lee of "disregarding" the regional medical system of Busan and the inter-hospital patient transfer process.

The surgeon who operated on Lee at Seoul National University Hospital has said Lee's inter-hospital transfer conformed with the regular process, and he was in a medical situation requiring surgery by an experienced surgeon. (Yonhap)
Algeria has been named by the U.S. State Department among the world worst violators of religious freedom. It is the only country in North Africa included in the U.S. black-list.

I have designated Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam as Special Watch List countries for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a press release issued lately.

Advancing the freedom of religion or belief has been a core objective of U.S. foreign policy ever since Congress passed and enacted the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, said Mr.Blinken.

He called on governments of countries included in the Special Watch List and those designated as Countries of Particular Concern as well as non-state actors committing severe violations of religious freedom to end their abuses and respect rights of religious minority communities and their places of worship.

In its latest report, the U.S. States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said religious freedom conditions in Algeria have deteriorated in recent years, affirming that the authorities frequently restrict religious expression and practice.

In recent years, Algerian government has prosecuted individuals for offenses related to their religious identity or the practice of their beliefs. The authorities continue to prevent religious minorities from establishing houses of worship and forcibly closed dozens of Protestant churches.

The Algerian government has not honored its 2014 commitment to reopen synagogues that had been converted to mosques or churches, said the USCIRF, noting that Bahai activities have been banned by law in Algeria since 1969.

The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan federal government body set up by the Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious violations committed abroad.
The Polisario is again involved in the kidnapping of a young girl, adopted by a Spanish family, as she was prevented from returning to Spain after she visited the Tindouf Camps for what she tought would be sort holidays.

The young Filleh mint Chahid mint Laaroussi was actually prevented by her biological family, living in the Polisario-controlled Tindouf camps, in Algerian territory, from returning to Spain after she participated in the Holidays in Peace program. The young girl had been adopted and raised by a Spanish family.

This case is not isolated and is part of a series of incidents where Sahrawi girls adopted by Spanish families were forcibly held by the Polisario after visiting their families in the Tindouf camps. Nadjiba Mohamed Belkacem, Elkouria Badbad Hafed, Maloma Morales de Matos, and Darya Embarek Selma are among the young girls who were prevented from returning to Spain.

Filleh mint Chahid mint Laaroussis biological parents deliberately destroyed her travel documents on the orders of the Polisario. She was thus prevented from returning to her adoptive family in Spain and was forced to stay in the Tindouf camps.

Alarmed by her situation, her adoptive family sought the assistance of a Sahrawi named Hammada ould Essaleh, who succeeded to exfiltrate her from the so-called Laayoune camp and took her to the Spanish Consulate in Oran. She has been there since Wednesday, January 3, 2024, hoping to be repatriated to Spain.

When her biological relatives realized that Filleh had disappeared, they attracted the attention of Algerian security authorities who are currently attempting to forcibly return the girl to the Tindouf camps. However, Filleh refuses to go back to the camps, while her relatives are threatening to kill Hammada ould Essalehs family members, accusing him of her abduction.

Actually, many disenchanted youths seek to flee from the precarious situation in Tindouf, where an authoritarian movement prevails and where its leaders use this situation as a business for their own benefit, while the inhabitants of the camps suffer appalling living conditions.

In recent months, several reports from various institutions, including the European Parliament, have collected the complaints of the Sahrawis about their living conditions, the lack of freedom of movement, expression, and assembly, as well as the shortage of food, water, medicine, gasoline, among other basic products for a dignified life.

Several dissident movements, opposed to the Polisario; have repeatedly denounced the deteriorating living conditions in the Tindouf, where the situation is increasingly worrying not only because of the extreme conditions but also because of the scarce presence and the deficient role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which leaves tens of thousands of people, mainly women and children, without proper protection and assistance.

Another cause for concern for these movements is the lack of freedom and insecurity due to the prevailing restrictions in these camps by the Polisario and the growing activity of drug mafias and organized crime.
Chads Prime Minister Succes Masra announced Sunday he will not take his monthly salary that, he said, will be converted into scholarships for the promotion of excellence in 23 regions of the country.

Im giving up my Prime Ministers salary entirely. Every job deserves a salary, they say, but I dont feel Im working. I feel Im on a mission and privileged to serve the Republic, so 100% of my salary will be devoted to a social scholarship to promote excellence in Chads 23 regions, he told the national television in an interview.

I benefited from excellence scholarships and social grants from very modest backgrounds. Having started school in the village, it only took people believing in who I am. I was built by people who simply banked on the talent they could see, banked on the potential they could see, and didnt look down on my social condition, he added.

Masra, leader of the opposition, became Prime Minister early this month in replacement of Saleh Kebzabo who led the administration for 14 months.

He on January 2nd unveiled a 41-member cabinet dominated by Kebzabos team including Foreign Minister Mahamat Saleh Annadif, Minister of Public Security Mahamat Charfadine Margui, and the Minister of Armed Forces Dago Yacouba.

He also announced that his first task is to bring children back to school.

The first thing we hope to do is get the children back into school. Once the children are in school, the adults, we can work together to dialogue and move forward, he emphasized.

Masra told the state-run media that he will be candidate for 2024 presidential elections set to end the transition led by General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.
The European Union has granted Mauritania 9.5 million earmarked to prop up the national budget of the African country in favor of some reforms in the areas of education and health.

The reforms in education and health seek to support the implementation of the strategy for accelerated growth and shared prosperity, known as SCAPP launched in 2021

The reforms will also contribute to improving the supply, accessibility and quality of services on an equitable basis for the entire population.

For Abdessalam Ould Mohamed Saleh, Mauritanias Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, the assistance illustrates the quality of our partnership with the European Union, and the mutual trust we have built up.

The EU is pleased with the significant progress made in health and education sectors and dialogue so far between the two sides, the EU envoy to Mauritania Gwilym Jones noted.

This year, the European bloc and Mauritania will focus on operationalization of the SCAPP program and consolidation of the African countrys pension and health fund.

The EU is keen to provide additional institutional support to the tune of 26 million.
Somalias President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has signed a law that nullifies the contentious memorandum of understanding between Ethiopia and a breakaway Somaliland region in a largely symbolic move expressing his governments displeasure over the deal to grant port access.

As part of the deal that was announced on 1 January, the landlocked Ethiopia will gain a long-sought access to the Red Sea through Somaliland that also plans to lease a 20-km stretch of land along its coastline to Addis Ababa to establish a naval base. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi said the agreement also includes a statement that Ethiopia would soon recognize the territory as an independent country. Somalia, which considers Somaliland part of its territory, immediately condemned the deal as an act of aggression and a violation of its sovereignty and recalled its ambassador from Ethiopia. The new law, signed by Somalias president on Saturday (6 January), voided the illegal pact signed by Somaliland, a separatist northwestern region over which Somalia exercises little real authority.

Meanwhile, the deal has raised tensions in the Horn of Africa and the African Union (AU), United States, European Union and the Arab League have called for calm, urging all sides to respect Somalias sovereignty and territorial integrity. The African Union chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat has urged Ethiopia and Somalia to engage without delay in a negotiation process to settle their differences. Also Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has pledged his support for Somalia in its face-off against Ethiopia, assuring Somalias president that Egypt will maintain a firm position alongside Somalia and support its security and stability. Since Ethiopia lost its access to the sea after Eritreas secession in 1993, Addis Ababa had initially maintained access to an Eritrean port until the two countries went to war in 1998-2000, and since then it has been using a port in Djibouti for most of its imports and exports.
The UN-authorized, Kenya-led multinational armed force that is expected to begin arriving in Haiti in early 2024 to assist the national police in its fights against gangs besieging much of the country will face multiple challenges, a recent report published by the Belgium-based International Crisis Group (ICG) warns.

The Kenyan-led multinational mission that was approved by the UN Security Council last October aims to help combat violent gangs, restore security and enable long overdue elections. This marks the first time in almost 20 years that a force would be deployed to the troubled Caribbean nation. The ICG report published on Friday (5 January) warns that major challenges lie in wait for the mission once it is on the ground. Among the key challenges highlighted in the report are Haitis gangs that could ally to battle it together and also fighting in Haitis ramshackle urban neighborhoods that will put innocent civilians at risk. The report also highlights links between corrupt police and the gangs that could make it difficult to maintain operational secrecy. For all these reasons, preparation will be of critical importance, the report read.

While less than 10,000 officers are estimated to be on duty at any time in a country of more than 11 million people, the UN says that there should ideally be some 25,000 active officers on the ground. The police are completely outnumbered and outgunned by the gangs, said Diego Da Rin, with ICG, who spent nearly a month in Haiti late last year to do research for the report. Therefore, the report recommends that the mission should not deploy in force until it has sufficient troops, training and equipment to overpower the gangs. It should also prepare for urban combat, and develop community-level sources of intelligence, to help minimize civilian harm. Last but not the least, a political settlement and major reforms will be required for gains to endure. In any case, for the sake of Haitis long-suffering people, every effort must go into helping the mission succeed, the report concludes.
British MP Liam Fox urged his country to recognize Moroccos sovereignty on the Sahara territory, following the US example.

We should offer our full support to Morocco and recognize its sovereignty over the Sahara, Liam, conservative MP for North Somerset, told Moroccan news channel Medi1, noting that the position is conducive to regional security and stability.

After highlighting the beneficial impact of such a recognition on economic and security cooperation with Morrocco, Fox said he sent a letter to the UK foreign Secretary David Cameron highlighting the win-win partnership prospects with Morocco.

An increasing number of British MPs are convinced by Moroccos approach to resolving this dispute. They are even somewhat frustrated by Londons lack of progress on the issue, said Fox.

According to him, it is the realism of the Moroccan approach that is enabling progress to be made on this issue.

Fox also noted that relations between Morocco and the United Kingdom are constantly evolving, stressing that Morocco is increasingly attractive to foreign direct investment (FDI) thanks in particular to its geostrategic importance, as several countries see it as a gateway to Africa.

He added that the UKs exit from the EU is seen as an opportunity for London to develop trade relations with our partners and Morocco is a priority country for the UK in economic, commercial and foreign policy terms.

King Mohammed VI has ensured the implementation of an ingenious strategy that should serve as a model for the creation of an investment-friendly environment, as well as for economic reforms and structuring projects involving renewable energies, water desalination, as well as increased agricultural production and GDP, said Fox.

The Sovereign has also been behind the development of human capital, and it is all these achievements that make Morocco a priority partner for many countries, including the UK, he pointed out.

Morocco stands out as an international crossroads and gateway to Africa, especially as it has excellent bilateral relations with many countries on the continent, added the Conservative MP.

Casablanca stands out as an international aviation hub and the only way to reach several African capitals from the UK, he stressed.

Thanks to its many commercial partnerships, Morocco can facilitate trade between Europe and Africa, concluded Fox.

Asked about his 2023 visit to Dakhla, Fox said he was impressed by the development of the citys education and health infrastructure, not to mention the port of Dakhla, which will be a vital link in African trade.

The Moroccan Sahara shows that economic development is the best way out of conflict and war towards coexistence and a sustainable future, he stressed, adding that this is a very important message for young people and an example that can be reproduced in several regions of the world.
The hijacking of commercial ships and drone attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have disrupted global supply chains and sparked a jump in Asia-Morocco shipping costs by 60% to 100%.

The cost of shipping a 20-foot container from Shanghai to Casablanca increased from $1,450 to $2,800 (from 1,324 to 2,557) since last months 15th, Rachid Tahiri, the president of the Association of Freight Forwarders of Morocco (AFFM) told Spanish news agency EFE.

Tahiri said that if the conflict persists, it will impact imports or exports like perishable products such as tomatoes and fish.

Weeks-long attacks on commercial vessels led global shipping firms- including Denmarkss Maersk and Taiwans Evergreen- to avoid the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, opting instead for the longer detour around the entire African continent via South Africas Cape of Good Hope.

The longer route means additional shipping costs and late deliveries. The new journey will add from a week to ten days or about 6,482 kilometers.

About 60% of Europes imports comes through the Suez Canal, which accounts for about 15% of the global trade.

The disruption of supply chains and trade routes with Asia means that European investors seeking competitive production costs would relocate to closer destinations such as Morocco and Turkey, economy expert Pierre Cariou told French paper lExpress.

A group of countries led by the United States have warned Yemens Houthi rebels of consequences unless they stop their attacks on Red Sea shipping vessels.

The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany and Japan are among the 12 signatories.

The only country in the Middle East to sign the statement was Bahrain, which has a strained relationship with Iran, which is aligned with the Houthis.

The US has sent an aircraft carrier, the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, to the area and earlier announced a coalition of countries to protect movement in the Red Sea.
The greatest crisis in American politics is the right-wing challenge to democracy. Ive been writing about this problem since Bush v. Gore, an illegitimate and undemocratic judicial intervention that cemented in place a mistaken election result. I was one of the first writers to identify Donald Trumps authoritarian instincts as a central component of his worldview, and have written extensively about the threat posed not only by Trumps contempt for democratic norms, but also the rising tide of illiberalism in his party.

One sobering conclusion Ive drawn from experts in the field is that preventing democratic erosion poses a complex challenge without clear answers. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt found in How Democracies Die that the most significant factor in whether a democracy staves off authoritarian challenge is whether a would-be authoritarians natural political allies support him or defect to the opposition to save democracy. Sadly, most Republicans have chosen Trump over democracy.

This has left committed democrats with a series of dilemmas. One of those dilemmas is a court challenge to remove Trump from the ballot based on the 14th Amendments disqualification of insurrectionists. Ive criticized this gambit on political grounds. (Independently  but given the influence theyve had on my thought, perhaps not coincidentally  so have Levitsky and Ziblatt.)

My argument is that the timing and political stakes of this case require incontestable certainty. If the Court were contemplating a Trump disqualification a year or two ago, when the Republicans had more time to organize their alternatives, it might have allowed a more forgiving threshold of truth. Throwing the runaway leader for the nomination off the ballot in 2024 is a momentous step that I would hesitate to endorse if there is a wisp of reasonable doubt to its basis.

And I believe there is. While I think its reasonable and fair to describe Trumps behavior as insurrection  as Ive noted, Ive employed the term myself  I dont believe his behavior matches the definition of the term so clearly that it cannot be rationally disputed. His entire effort to seize an unelected second term was authoritarian and likely criminal. January 6 was one last-gasp element of the scheme, designed to pressure Congress into overturning the election results. The scheme was closer to Bush v. Gore  a plot that also included using a riot to disrupt vote-counting  than secession.

And while the violent mob storming the Capitol was certainly engaging in insurrection, Trump kept just enough distance from it  goading the crowd beforehand, refusing to call it off, but not directing its actions  to create a sliver of ambiguity as to whether he personally engaged in insurrection. In a column arguing that January 6 was undoubtedly an insurrection, Ilya Somin concedes, There is an admittedly more difficult issue over the question of whether Trump engaged in the insurrection that occurred.

David French, contesting my analysis, argues, Its true that Trump wasnt declaring a breakaway republic, but he was attempting to seize and hold far more than the Capitol. He was trying to illegally retain control of the executive branch of the government. I agree Trump was trying to undemocratically retain control of the executive branch of the government. But he was attempting to use legal means, or at least pseudo-legal ones, to subvert the election result.

Adam Serwer complains that my argument defines insurrection in such a way that it precludes someone trying to seize power from a position of authority absent an explicit declaration of secession. But I am not precluding anything. I concede that insurrection is a perfectly reasonable description of Trumps behavior on January 6.

My difference with French and Serwer is that I am arguing (1) that the extraordinary nature and timing of this intervention creates a higher standard of certainty, and (2) this claim doesnt meet that standard. Neither French nor Serwer chose to engage my logic about the need for a higher threshold of certainty. Instead, they expound their belief that Trumps behavior on January 6 meets the definition of insurrection, a point on which I agree.

A more common theme in the responses has been to insist that the law is the law and the Constitution is the Constitution, and if it says that insurrectionists cant hold office, then Republicans have to accept it. Republics are not maintained by cowardice, insists French.

The American Prospects Ryan Cooper makes an even more hyperbolic and much less nuanced version of this argument. What I object to is this pathetic lack of resolve. We are facing an utterly corrupt would-be dictator, who already tried to overthrow the government once, who is plotting his regime consolidation and punishment of his enemies in broad daylight, and these clowns [me and Samuel Moyn, who has also criticized the Court ruling] are making his legal arguments for him, he writes. The amount of loser, kick-me energy on display here is nigh indescribable.

Coopers argument embodies a social-media-fueled sensibility that every fight is a contest of pure willpower. Victory is achieved by forming a tight partisan phalanx and refusing to yield on any point. Making the other sides arguments for him is by definition the dumbest and weakest possible move.

This is an emotionally satisfying model of how to stave off authoritarianism. I dont believe, however, that it aligns with a correct understanding of the history of democratic backsliding. That history shows errors in all directions. One error is complacency or surrender. But another kind of error is to set off an escalatory cycle.

When you evaluate a method of fighting authoritarianism, one question should be its effect on potential allies in the opposing camp. The question isnt what Trump and his mouth breathers will say. It is what persuadable Republicans and centrists will say. And while Republican willpower to resist Trump has dwindled, it has not disappeared entirely. At key moments, figures like Mike Pence, Mitt Romney, Jeff Flake, Liz Cheney, and others have taken real risks to defy Trump. They have done so out of the belief that they are preserving the rules of the road of the American system.

Upending those rules by throwing the Republican candidate off the ballot in the middle of the primaries would strike many of those Republicans as escalatory and anti-democratic. That is a risk that must be weighed when weighing a radical move, even one that is legally justifiable.

Here is another point that I think deserves emphasis. As Ive argued repeatedly, Trump may be the most overt symptom of the Republican Partys authoritarian lurch, but he is not the entirety of it. Even if it were possible to end his career with one weird legal trick, the danger posed by the illiberal right will not go away. In the long run, throwing Trump off the ballot at this late stage will simply undercut the anti-authoritarian standing of the opposition to Trump.

It is going to be difficult to convince the American public that throwing a popular candidate off the ballot after its too late for his party to course-correct is the definition of democracy. Even if it were to succeed, it would bring the kind of short-term victory we might eventually come to regret.
MO Attorney General Jay Ashcroft might remove Biden from the ballot for  insurrection? Photo: David A. Lieb/AP

In response to Colorado and Maine removing Donald Trump from the primary-election ballot, on Friday, Missouri attorney general Jay Ashcroft threatened to remove Joe Biden from the ballot in his state:

What has happened in Colorado & Maine is disgraceful & undermines our republic. While I expect the Supreme Court to overturn this, if not, Secretaries of State will step in & ensure the new legal standard for @realDonaldTrump applies equally to @JoeBiden! https://t.co/Zx2P4k9A8w  Jay Ashcroft (@JayAshcroftMO) January 5, 2024

This looked like a pretty simple matter of partisan retaliation. But there was one little problem: Trump was booted from the ballot over his involvement in the January 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington, as the 14th Amendment bars people who engaged in insurrection from running for various federal offices. How is this applicable to Joe Biden?

Heres Ashcrofts response, per NBC News:

Asked how he would disqualify Biden from the ballot for insurrection, Ashcroft said that hes let an invasion unstopped into our country from the border. Vice President Kamala Harris, he added, supported people that were rebelling against the U.S. government during the riots in 2020, referring to racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyds murder.

The Biden-as-insurrectionist charge didnt originate with Ashcroft, as NBC notes:

Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also suggested last month that his state would consider removing Biden as well, for allowing 8 million people to cross the border since hes been president, disrupting our state far more than anything anyone else has done in recent history.

And the idea got the ultimate sanction from Trump himself as he campaigned in Iowa on the third anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. The former president told Fox News Digital: The only insurrection is the insurrection that is taking place at our border where he is allowing millions of people from parts unknown to invade our country at a level far worse than even a military invasion.

From a constitutional point of view, of course, this is nonsense. Whether or not you view Trumps conduct on January 6 as strictly speaking insurrectionary, it was certainly insurrection adjacent, insofar as he made an inflammatory stop the steal speech to a big crowd just before many of his listeners proceeded to invade the Capitol to prevent the confirmation of the president-elects authority to assume office. Biden has pursued immigration and asylum policies his opponents dont like. Whatever hes doing, its far from insurrection, if the word has any meaning.

Whats happening here is a very common MAGA tactic: accusing Democrats of whatever misconduct Trump has perpetrated. I catalogued several examples of this phenomenon back in 2019:

Accusation: Trump campaign colludes with Russia to affect the 2016 election. Counteraccusation: Obama administration and its Secretary of State Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russian government to undermine U.S. interests.

Accusation: Trump as president obstructed justice by interfering with an FBI investigation of alleged collusion with Russia by his campaign. Counteraccusation: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and deep state Democratic operatives obstructed efforts to investigate internal complicity in efforts to prevent Trumps election, and to fabricate a Russian collusion case.

Accusation: Russia interfered in the 2016 election in order to help Trump win. Counteraccusation: Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election in order to help Hillary Clinton win.

Accusation: Trump threatened to cut off aid to Ukraine if it didnt investigate alleged corrupt conduct by the Bidens. Counteraccusation: Biden as vice-president threatened to cut off aid to Ukraine if it did not fire a prosecutor he disliked.

Thus it was not surprising at all that Trump justified his participation in the January 6 effort to stop the confirmation of the president-elects ascension to power as an act to address a monstrous and unconstitutional injustice, or that he has transformed the Justice Departments prosecution of him for subverting the 2020 election into a supreme act of 2024 election interference.

The recent claim that Biden is engaged in insurrection is part of a broader MAGA misinformation campaign designed to label the democratically elected 46th president as a threat to democracy, as Trump audaciously suggested in a December speech in Iowa, per the Washington Post:

Biden and his radical left allies like to pose as defenders of democracy, Trump told a raucous crowd of a couple thousand supporters here. But Joe Biden is not the defender of American democracy. Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy.  This campaign is a righteous crusade to liberate our republic from Biden and the criminals and the Biden administration.

If Trump wins in 2024 and begins to implement his plan of unconstitutional vengeance against his political enemies and non-MAGA news media, you can be sure it will be couched as a defense of democracy and punishment of insurrection. Perhaps Republicans like Ashcroft would consummate the maneuver by vowing never to permit advocates of liberal policies on the border or elsewhere to appear on ballots as candidates for public office because, after all, they favor insurrection against the self-evidently correct policy prescriptions their own party favors. This ability to turn every criticism into a criticism of the critics is a very handy way to keep the party base fired up with righteous energy while confirming the suspicions of many swing voters that both parties are equally guilty of authoritarian tendencies and corruption. The only real victim is any sense of objective truth.
Police on Monday requested an arrest warrant for 16 university students who were apprehended while attempting to break into the presidential office in central Seoul over the weekend, the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) said.

The 16 are among a group of 20 student activists who were caught after attempting to trespass at the presidential office compound in the Yongsan district at around 1 p.m. Saturday. All of them are said to belong to the Korean Progressive University Student Union, a controversial student activist group.

The KNPA said the arrest warrant was requested for 16 of them in consideration of their degree of participation in the crime and a history of similar types of offenses.

Before the attempt, the students had staged a protest outside the compound, demanding a special probe into first lady Kim Keon Hee and a meeting with presidential officials. (Yonhap)
An Auburn graduate and Atlanta-based artist has earned recognition at an art competition and festival in Wetumpka.

Jared Knox earned Best of Show at the inaugural Alabama Wildlife Fine Arts Competition. Knox won the recognition with Bobcat and Bobwhite, a 36-by-24-inch acrylic painting on canvas that drew on Knoxs hunting background.

It was really cool to be a part of it, because some of the artists I look up to most were there like Dirk Walker and Sue Key, Knox said. Ive been a fan of theirs forever. To be a part of it and win and talk with them, it was really great.

The Alabama Wildlife Fine Arts Competition is part of the second annual Wetumpka Wildlife Arts Festival in November. Knox, who graduated from Auburn in 2021, valued the experience.

When Knox was an AU student, he studied mechanical engineering while art remained a hobby for him and did some commission work. That all changed during his final semester at Auburn when he was invited to showcase some of his artwork at a gallery in Atlanta.

Knox credits that gallery and the encouragement he received from the gallerys owner as inspiration for setting up his own studio after graduation and making art his full-time job.

At a young age, Knox developed a connection to wildlife and the outdoors, something that comes through clearly in his work. While he grew up in Marietta, Ga., Knox said that he remembers his first trip to Alabamas Black Belt during a family hunting trip to Lowndes County when he was a teenager.

I think about it[now], and it created this love for hunting and an admiration of all wildlife, Knox said.

Knox pulled from hunting experiences when putting together his Bobcat and Bobwhite, piece, including the times when he would see bobcats during hunting trips in North Georgia.

There was one field that had a bobcat in it, and once or twice I got to see that bobcat hunt, Knox said. It was at sunset. That image stuck with me. It was a big bobcat. I love that image, and I also love in general the story of different animals going out and catching their food.

That memory is depicted in Bobcat and Bobwhite, which was created specifically for the Wetumpka competition. Knox was encouraged to enter the competition by Cindy Harris, who had seen Knoxs work displayed at a gallery in North Carolina. Harris is the wife of Alabama Black Belt Adventures Association(ALBBAA) founder Thomas Harris.

The Wetumpka Wildlife Arts Festival was created through a partnership that involved the Kelly Fitzpatrick Memorial Gallery, known as The Kelly, the City of Wetumpka and the Smoot Harris Family. The ALBBAA helped promote the second annual festival, and ALBBAA founder Thomas sees the festival as a chance to bring exposure to The Kelly and to Wetumpka overall.

The goal of the festival series is manifold and includes a desire to benefit the Wetumpka area by helping to increase tourism, impact economic development, expose The Kelly to a wider audience, and hopefully, create an ongoing event for this charming community as it continues to grow into a mecca for the arts, Harris said.

For more information on Jared Knox and his work, you can visit his website, www.jaredwknoxart.com.
The shipping industry is one of the focal points of the energy transition, given the amount of hydrocarbon fuels it uses.

Increasingly stringent rules about emissions from that industry have been one tool for pushing it into a transition direction.

Another should have been the regular process of scrapping old vessels and their replacement with new ones that use lower-carbon fuels. Only this is not happening.

The Financial Times reported recently that the average age of container ships has gone up to 14.3 years, which is the highest since 1993. In tankers, things are even worse from the transition perspective. The average age of tankers was 12.9 years in 2023, which is the highest since 2003.

Per shipping industry sources the FT spoke to, there appear to be two reasons for this rising age when it should be falling. Reason number one is sanction avoidance by shippers carrying Russian oil.

Dubbed a shadow fleet, these tankers are often old ones that would normally have been scrapped and replaced. Instead, they are being used actively.

The shadow fleet is also being used to ship other sanctioned oil from Iran and Venezuela, but it really caught everyones attention when the G7 tried to simultaneously stifle Russian oil trade and keep the world well supplied with crude by imposing a price cap for Russian oil.

Attempts are being made to rein in the fleet of old tankers that have a higher risk of an environmental accident due to their age, the latest among them from the European Union.

The European Commission proposed in November last year that the bloc ban sales of old tankers to Russia in a bid to curb its international trade on old tankers. The EC proposal also stipulated that contracts for tanker sales to third parties included clauses that the vessels could not be resold to Russia unless they would carry oil sold below the G7 price cap.

While the EU devises increasingly eccentric measures to enforce sanctions against Russia, shipowners are cashing in on the strong demand for tankers, regardless of their age.

The price for a 15-year-old Aframax tanker has surged by 129% since February 2022, according to data from shipbroker Gibson cited by the FT. Such an Aframax currently costs $40 million. Sending it to the scrapyard, on the other hand, would only generate some $9.2 million on average.

As a result, shipowners arent scrapping because theres so much money to be made, according to a Gibson research director who spoke to the FT. But its not just the money to be made from using and trading old tankers. There is also unease about low-carbon fuels and their availability.

Several alternatives to hydrocarbon fuels are being considered at the moment, including ammonia, methanol, and hydrogen. Large shippers are ordering new vessels operating with these new fuels, but they are still a very small minority of the global fleet.

Maersk Tankers, for instance, recently ordered ten very large ammonia carriers from Hyundai, but reports on the news noted that it has yet to design the vessels to run on that new fuel. Yet the deal is not final since the company said in its news release that a decision to install ammonia capable engines requires both regulatory and customer support.

Methanol, another alternative to hydrocarbons, is also making inroads into the shipping industry. Shipping major COSCO, for example, recently sealed a deal for three Aframax tankers that would have dual-fuel systemfeaturing methanol as one of the fuels. Another three tankers on order by the Chinese company would be methanol-ready, meaning they could be converted to methanol at some point in the future.

All this suggests a certain readiness among the largest players in the shipping industry to do their bit for the transition, but the industry as a whole is not exactly bursting with enthusiasm. And it has a very good reason for this.

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A few years ago, the International Maritime Organization promoted LNG as an alternative to fuel oil to reduce sulfur emissions. Yet LNG has since come into the sights of transition advocates who argue it should not be considered a bridge fuel and its use should be discouraged. With a new focus on methane from regulators in certain jurisdictions, LNG will remain the focus of attention, heightening uncertainty for shippers.

There is also the cost of retrofitting existing tankers for a greener era. According to a Maritime Executive report from September last year, converting an existing tanker or other vessel to ammonia or methanol would cost between $5 million and $15 million. The report notes that retrofitting older vessels makes no sense as they are likely to reach the end of their lives before the investment pays off.

On top of it all, shipbuilding capacity has dropped over the past 13 yearsand by a substantial 35%per Gibson data cited in the FT report. Even if all shipowners decided to go green, the actual process would take decades because of this reduced shipbuilding capacity following a consolidation wave in the past decade.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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More than 6,000 kilometers from Tehran, in treacherous waters off the shores of Singapore, a "dark fleet" of oil tankers waits to offload the precious cargo that helps keep Iran's economy afloat -- a dependency that could also sink it.

The fleet has grown steadily over the past five years, delivering Iranian crude to China as the countries work in concert to circumvent international sanctions that target Tehran's lucrative oil exports. But while the clandestine trade has buoyed Iran's budget, it also comes at tremendous cost and risk to Tehran.

Iran gives China a hefty discount to take its banned oil, taking 12 to 15 percent off the price of each barrel to make it worthwhile for Beijing to take on the liability of skirting sanctions, according to research by the data analysis unit of RFE/RL's Radio Farda.

Additional costs add up as well: ship-to-ship operations to offload the oil, middlemen, hidden-money transfers, and rebranding the oil to mask its Iranian origin and make it appear to come from a third country, said Dalga Khatinoglu, an expert on Iranian energy issues.

Altogether, said Khatinoglu, who contributes to Radio Farda's data analysis unit, Iran's budget figures and official statements indicate that 30 percent of the country's potential oil revenue was wasted last year.

And with the draft budget for the next fiscal year currently being debated by the Iranian parliament, there are no guarantees that Tehran's bet on quenching China's thirst for oil will continue to be a panacea.

With Iran almost entirely dependent on Beijing to take its oil and on other entities to facilitate the trade, Tehran has managed to inject desperately needed revenue into its economy. But Iran has also put itself at risk of seeing its main revenue stream dry up.

"There's definitely an extent to which Tehran has become more dependent on the likes of China or those who would be willing to deal with Iran in spite of Western sanctions," said Spencer Vuksic, a director of the consultancy firm Castellum, which closely tracks international sanctions regimes.

Vuksic said Iran is "definitely put in a weak position by having to depend on a single external partner who's willing to deal with and engage with Tehran."

Oily Deficit

Iran has trumpeted its foreign trade, claiming in December that oil revenue had contributed to a positive trade balance for the first eight months of the year.

But the oil and gas sector, by far the largest part of the Iranian economy, will not be enough to save the current budget of around $45 billion that was approved last year.

The Iranian fiscal year, which follows the Persian calendar and will end in March, is expected to result in a major deficit. In presenting the draft budget to parliament in December, President Ebrahim Raisi acknowledged a $10 billion deficit.

But the shortfall could be much higher -- up to $13.5 billion, the largest in Iran's history -- by the end of the fiscal year, according to Radio Farda. This is because data shows that just half of the expected oil revenues were realized, in part due to lower than expected oil prices and additional costs and discounts related to Tehran's oil trade with China.

Whereas the budget expectations were based on oil being sold at $85 per barrel, the price of crude dipped below $75 per barrel in December and has fluctuated wildly recently amid concerns that tensions in the Middle East could disrupt shipping and production.

And while Iran expected to export 1.5 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), it exported only 1.2 million bpd in the first eight months of the year, according to Radio Farda.

Altogether, Radio Farda estimates that Iran lost some $15 million per day in potential revenue through its trade with China, which accounts for more than 40 percent of the Iranian budget.

For the upcoming budget of about $49 billion, expectations for domestic and foreign oil revenue have dipped by 3 percent, according to Khatinoglu, even as the projected budget itself has risen by about 18 percent.

Accounting for the fluctuation of global oil prices, which fell far short of the average estimated for the current year, the peg has been lowered to $71 per barrel. Tehran is also expecting lower oil-export volumes -- which only briefly met forecasts of 1.5 million bpd, the highest levels seen since 2018 -- with only 1.35 million bpd forecast.

Iran is reportedly expected to plug the gap left by the lower oil revenue by increasing taxes on wealthy individuals and businesses, while Khatinoglu says Tehran will try to boost revenue by raising domestic energy prices.

Shipping Competition

Adding to the uncertainty of Iran's finances is the potential for weaker Chinese demand for its oil and competition from Russia which, like Tehran, sends banned oil to Beijing.

And international sanctions are continuously evolving to punish countries and entities that foster Iran's illegal oil trade, threatening to capsize the dark fleet that helps sustain Tehran's so-called resistance economy.

On the other hand, the mercurial nature of oil price fluctuations and demand could work to Iran's advantage. With Venezuelan oil no longer under sanctions, Russia is left as the only competitor for clandestine oil sales to China.

And Iran's capacity to export oil is greater than ever, allowing it to more easily sell its oil to Beijing when demand is high.

This is largely due to the considerable expansion of the global "dark fleet" of oil since crippling U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's oil exports were restored after the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal that has been agreed with six world powers.

The deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), offered sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Tehran's controversial nuclear program. After the deal went into effect in January 2016, Iran more than doubled its legal oil exports in a few months, eventually reaching a high of 1.54 million bpd in 2018.

But with the U.S. withdrawal from the deal and subsequent reintroduction of sanctions that year, Iranian oil exports plummeted. And after the exceptions granted to a handful of countries -- including China -- that were allowed to continue to import Iranian oil expired in 2019, Iranian oil exports slowed to a trickle.

This was partly because Iran was not equipped to export its oil and had no immediate customers willing to defy the sanctions. But that changed with the fine-tuning of Irans efforts to defy sanctions, the fivefold rise in the number of dark-fleet tankers, and China's willingness to take the risk of doing business with Tehran -- although Beijing has not acknowledged unregistered imports of Iranian oil.

Today the dark fleet of often aging ships -- nearly half of them VLCCs (very large crude carriers) -- has risen to up to 1,000 vessels, according to Vortexa, which tracks international shipping. Many smaller ships are involved in Russian oil exports, which account for about 80 percent of all opaque tanker activity. But Iran had access to nearly 200 tankers, many of them supertankers, as of early 2023, according to Vortexa.

More than 20 ships, 13 of them VLCCs, joined the Iranian fleet in 2023, Vortexa reported in June, contributing to record-high Iranian oil exports under sanctions.

Vortexa attributed the rise to increased Chinese demand, the addition of the new tankers to shuttle Iranian oil after many had switched to shipping Russian oil, and the decline of Iranian inventories drawn down to boost exports amid heightened competition with Russia for the Chinese market.

While Chinese demand for Iranian oil slowed in October, Vortexa noted in a subsequent report, Washingtons removal of oil sanctions on Venezuela that month opened the possibility of higher demand for Iranian oil.

Uncertain Waters

In an October report, the global trade intelligence firm Kpler explained that tankers illegally shipping Iranian oil commonly "go dark" upon entering the Persian Gulf by turning off their transponders, technically known as the automatic identification system (AIS). After visiting Iran's main oil terminal on Kharg Island or other ports, they then reemerge after a few days indicating they are carrying a full load.

From there, the ships offload the oil with ship-to-ship transfers that take place in unauthorized zones, mostly in the Singapore Straits. Eventually the oil, rebranded as coming from Malaysia or Middle Eastern countries, enters China, where it is processed by more than 40 independent "teapot" refiners that have little exposure to international sanctions or the global financial system.

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Sanctions Revisited

The challenge for those trying to halt the illicit trade in Iranian oil as a way to hold Tehran accountable for its secretive nuclear activities and dire human rights record, is how to make the negatives of dealing with Iran greater than the financial benefits.

That has put the illicit seaborne trade of oil -- both Iranian and Russian, owing to the ongoing war in Ukraine -- under greater scrutiny by the international community.

"There's continuous refining of the sanctions programs to include and expand sanctions against those involved in evasion, and that includes sanctioning so-called dark fleets," said Castellums Vuksic, noting that the number of targeted sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities rose by more than 1,000 last year.

The big question is enforcement, an issue that is being debated in the United States and other countries and is leading to increased calls for countries like Panama to de-flag illegal tankers and for countries to clamp down on dark-fleet ships anchored off their shores.

"My expectation is that governments, including the United States, will take action against these dark fleets, especially the facilitators and the [ship] owners when they're identified," Vuksic told RFE/RL.

Other factors, including concerns about the impact of a broader Middle East conflict potentially involving Iran, could also hurt or help Iran's financial standing.

As Kpler noted while reporting that Chinese imports of Iranian oil had dropped significantly in October, the changing global landscape can have a big effect on the independent Shandong-base refineries that purchase Iranian oil.

"Middle East tensions/threat of stricter enforcement of U.S. sanctions may have turned Shandong refiners more risk-adverse," the global trade intelligence firm wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

In the past week, supply fears also exposed the volatility of global crude prices, potentially to Iran's benefit.

Oil prices rose sharply on January 2 on news that Iran had sent a frigate to the Red Sea and was rejecting calls to end support for attacks by Tehran-backed Huthi rebels that have disrupted shipping in the important trade route.

Prices surged again following the deadly January 3 bombing attack in Iran, for which the Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility.

But the week ended with questions about the future of Iran's cut-rate deal with the only country willing to help prop up its economy, with Reuters reporting that China's oil trade with Iran had stalled after Tehran withheld supplies and demanded higher prices.

By Michael Scollon via RFE/RL

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Given that Libya still has 48 billion barrels of proved crude oil reserves  the largest in Africa  recent comments from National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Farhat Bengdara that it is on track to rise oil production from the circa-1.2 million bpd seen in recent months to 2 million bpd within the next three years at the earliest might appear well-founded. So too might his comment that the NOC is also planning major bidding rounds for oil exploration blocks this year. However, politically-driven problems emerging last week at the Libyas largest oil field  Shahara  and the nearby El-Feel field highlight the obstacles that these plans may well run into.

Until the removal of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya had easily been able to produce around 1.65 million barrels per day (bpd) of mostly high-quality light, sweet crude oil. Production had also been on a rising production trend at that point, up from about 1.4 million bpd in 2000. Although this output level was well below the peak levels of more than 3 million bpd achieved in the late 1960s, the NOC had plans in place before 2011 to roll out enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques to increase crude oil production at maturing oil fields. There had also been plenty of interest from a slew of international oil companies (IOCs) to be involved in expanding production on existing fields and exploring new opportunities in oil and gas.

However, after Gaddafis removal, the security and financial risks for IOCs working in Libya skyrocketed. Quite aside from the disjointed government apparatus and the ongoing civil war, the threat of force majeures being implemented in key oil and gas hubs in the country remains ever present, as highlighted by recent events. Indeed, 7 January saw the NOC declare force majeure at the Sharara oil field, after it and the nearby El-Feel oil field were closed after major protests flared over high domestic fuel prices and the parlous state of the countrys economy. These closures removed a combined 370,000 bpd of oil out of Libyas production. At the core of the protests, and all the others that preceded it, are economic problems that arose from a political impasse dating back to an agreement made on 18 September 2020. The deal was signed by General Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the rebel Libyan National Army (LNA), and elements of the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and was aimed at ending the long-running blockade of key Libyan oil assets at the time. Haftar made it clear that the resultant lifting of the blockade would not last unless a precise framework was agreed on how precisely oil revenues would be divided up between various warring factions from then on. As the blockade that had run from 18 January to 18 September had already cost Libya at least US$9.8 billion in lost oil revenues, assurances were made by senior GNA officials that a detailed action plan to resolve the problem would be put into place. Related: India Fuel Demand Hits 7-Month Peak in December

Following this, a joint technical committee to deal with the oil money disbursements was formed towards the end of 2020, comprising representatives from the two key opposing sides. According to the official statement at the time on the role of the proposed technical committee: It will oversee oil revenues and ensure the fair distribution of resources and control the implementation of the terms of the agreement. In order to address the fact that the GNA effectively held sway over the NOC and, by extension, the Central Bank of Libya (in which the revenues are physically held), the committee would also prepare a unified budget that meets the needs of each party and the reconciliation of any dispute over budget allocations and will require the Central Bank [in Tripoli] to cover the monthly or quarterly payments approved in the budget without any delay, and as soon as the joint technical committee requests the transfer.

Given the high economic and political stakes involved in gaining as great a share of Libyas oil money as possible, no agreement that satisfied the opposing sides was made then or since. Instead, several attempts have been made to effectively railroad the oil money towards one side or another through a series of political manoeuvres, which has also involved the stewardship of the NOC. July 2022 saw the then-Government of National Unity (GNU) Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, replace the widely-respected Mustafa Sanalla as chairman of the NOC with Bengdara, who is a long-time associate and friend of Dbeibahs. Sanalla - who had received backing from both of Libyas opposing legislative bodies - rejected Dbeibahs authority to sack him, and warned Dbeibah not to touch the NOC or the oil revenues and contracts that it manages. Bengdara then held his own news conference at the NOC headquarters building and received the backing of two major NOC affiliate companies - Al Waha Oil, and Arabian Gulf Oil - before Al Waha then deleted its message of support.

All of this followed the failed attempt by Fathi Bashagha  appointed prime minister of the alternative government in the east of the country three months before  to seize power in Tripoli. This occurred amid the ongoing refusal of the Dbeibah - who was himself appointed through a United Nations-led process in 2021 - to hand over power until such a time as a properly elected government was voted into office by the people of Libya. As it stands now, the situation has become even more fragmented. Dbeibah remains Prime Minister and leader of the now UN-recognised GNU, which is based in Tripoli. On the other side, based in the east of the country, is the Government of National Stability (GNS), led by Prime Minister Osama Hammad (which is aligned to the Libyan House of Representatives) and the LNA (still under the command of General Haftar). Elections scheduled for December 2021 remain indefinitely postponed.

This said, even a modicum of normality in the oil sector could allow Libya to reach its new oil targets, as there has been progress in the countrys gas sector that could be replicated. Last year, Italian oil and gas giant Eni signed an agreement with the NOC that would see it invest around US$8 billion to produce about 850 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) from two offshore gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea. The deal  as stated by the NOCs Bengdara - would involve the renewal of an existing agreement originally struck in 2008. Eni currently produces gas in Libya from its Wafa and Bahr Essalam fields operated by Mellitah Oil & Gas, a joint venture between the Italian company and the NOC. Around the same time, Bengdara said a programme of offshore and onshore drilling was planned, under the leadership of Eni and BP. We are [also] in talks with TotalEnergies to invest more in Libya and increase production, and other companies of course, he highlighted.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

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Fuel demand in India reached the highest level in seven months in December 2023, topping 20 million tons in total, oil ministry data cited by Reuters shows.

On a monthly basis, demand was up by 6.2%, while on an annual basis, the increase stood at 2.6%. Among fuels, all but gasoline booked increases in demand.

India is widely seen as one of the two biggest drivers of global oil demand, alongside China. The subcontinent is the third-largest oil consumer globally.

Its economy is growing faster than the global average and so is its energy demand. Since last year, India has become a top buyer of sanctioned Russian oil, a lot of which, in the form of fuels, it has been exporting to Europe, which leveled the sanctions on Russian crude.

This soaring demand, however, is seen slowing down this year, shrinking to 150,000 bpd from 290,000 bpd in 2023, according to Rystad Energy. Even so, India is working to secure its long-term supply of hydrocarbons.

Late last year, New Delhi sealed a preliminary oil and gas deal with the Guyanese government, covering everything from offshore exploration to oil and gas supply.

The deal with Guyana should help India diversify its sources of crude oil, boosting its energy and supply security, the Indian government said.

The country imports around 85% of all the crude oil it consumes and has been seeking to diversify supply and procure crude at the cheapest possible price. This made it a top buyer of Russian discount oil last year, with Russia turning into the biggest supplier of crude to India.

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As demand for oil grows, India is boosting its refining capacity, which this year is expected to add 1.12 million bpd and keep expanding at this rate until 2028. The total capacity expansion over the period would amount to 22%.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Tensions are escalating on the Israeli border with Lebanon after an Israeli strike on Monday that resulted in the death of a senior Hezbollah commander and another Hezbollah fighter in southern Lebanon.

Mondays attack follows the assassination in Lebanon last week of deputy Hamas leader Saleh Al Arouri in another Israeli strike.

Unnamed sources confirmed for Reuters that Israel was behind Mondays attack, which killed the deputy leader of Hezbollahs elite Radwan force, Wissam Al Tawil. The Israeli strike targeted the car Al Tawil was driving in along with another Hezbollah fighter.

A source told Reuters that Mondays assassination would see the situation flare up now, suggesting the Israel-Gaza conflict may have definitively moved into Lebanon.



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed to do everything necessary to restore security to the north", the BBC reported.

The past three months have seen dozens killed, including Hezbollah fighters, Israeli soldiers and civilians, though Hezbollah has been holding back in order to prevent an escalation into all-out war with Israel.

Observers are now concerned that two key assassinations in a row, and most significantly, Mondays attack on a prominent Hezbollah figure could push the Iran-backed group over the edge.

Oil prices on Monday did not respond to these dangerous developments on the Israel-Lebanon front, instead shedding over 4% on Monday afternoon in response to demand concerns triggered by Saudi Arabias move to cut the official selling prices (OSPs) for its crude loading in February to all regions. Cuts for Asian importers were the biggest, at $2 per barrel for all Saudi export grades, making the biggest cut in 13 months.

Last weeks oil inventory build in the United States as well as a survey showing increased OPEC production in December have also put downward pressure on oil prices.

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By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Saudi Arabia has reduced the price of its crude oil for February delivery for all buyers rather than just Asian ones as it has done before.

The cut for Asian importers was the deepest, however, at $2 per barrel for all grades that Saudi Arabia exports, Energy Intelligences Amena Bakr said in an X post.

Interestingly, Aramco also cut the price for North American buyers by the same amount, while in previous price adjustments it has cut these prices more modestly.

For European buyers, Aramco cut February prices by between $1.50 and $2 per barrel.

"Saudi crude is still relatively more expensive compared to other regional crude. But we are happy enough to see such prices, making it much more affordable for us," a source from a refinery in North Asia told Reuters in comments on the news.

The news outlet noted that the price cut is the deepest in 13 months but was in line with expectations, which also feature a softer Asian market for crude. A month ago, a survey by Bloomberg among refiners suggested Aramco will cut prices amid intensified competition for the Asian market and cheaper crude from the United States and Europe, as well as Guyana.

Oil from the U.S. had become especially attractive as an alternative to Middle Eastern crudes as Brent crude came near parity with the Dubai benchmarks against with these crudes are prices. The cause of that unusual development was OPEC production cuts.

Meanwhile, just two months ago, Aramco raised the prices of its crude for most of its buyers. For Asian buyers, this was the fifth price increase for the flagship Arab Light in a row as Saudi Arabia curbed output to stimulate higher prices.

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OPEC agreed at the end of last year to reduce production of oil this quarter by 2.2 million barrels daily. So far, this has not prompted any worry about short supply, keeping prices relatively stable. Many traders seem to believe that even a cut of 2.2 million bpdif all complywould be enough to offset greater supply from non-OPEC producers.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Norwegian company Statkraft, Europes largest generator of renewable energy, plans a record investment of up to $6.6 billion (6 billion euros) in Norways wind and hydropower generation.

Up to $3.3 billion (3 billion euros) will go to upgrades and transformations of Norwegian hydroelectric power plants, and another up to $2.2 billion (2 billion euros) is earmarked for rehabilitation of dams and modernization of older power plants, Statkraft said on Monday.

Around $1.1 billion (1 billion euros) is allocated to the renewal of existing and the construction of new onshore wind farms.

Statkrafts investment program will help achieve more than double the current wind power production, which will rise to 2,500 gigawatt-hours (GWh), as well as 1,500-2,500 megawatts (MW) of increased hydroelectric power plant capacity, more than over 20% increase in installed capacity.

The increased power needs of the future in Norway will mainly be covered by new wind power, but hydropower will still be the backbone of the Norwegian energy system with its unique features, the company said.

Norway has an almost entirely renewables-based electricity system, with renewable resources accounting for 98% of generation, including hydropower with a share of 92%.

Hydropower plants accounted for 88% of Norwegian production capacity in 2023, while wind power plants made up 11% of power generating capacity.

Today, Statkraft is presenting the largest investment program of its kind in hydro- and wind power in Norway for decades, Christian Rynning-Tnnesen, chief executive of Statkraft, said on Monday.

This will be a major contribution to the energy system in Norway and to the green transition. It will also have positive effects on the Nordic and European energy markets, Rynning-Tnnesen added.

We have fantastic wind resources in Norway. Onshore wind is the technology that can provide us with new power in the fastest and cheapest way before 2030, said Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal, Statkrafts Executive Vice President for the Nordic region.

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By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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A hallmark of Omahas Harrison Financial Services is its commitment to developing strong relationships that help families build a better life, legacy and community.

The firm accomplishes this with experts on the team  professionals who put the clients interests first and support them with innovative and specialized planning to help them reach their life goals.

Two new staff members  chief investment officer Brett Carson, CFA and director of advanced strategies Emily Jung  recently joined the firm to continue to elevate relationships and build capacity for its clients.

Continue reading to learn about the new faces at Harrison Financial Services.

Brett Carson, chief investment officer

Brett Carson thinks theres an advantage to clients to having an internal chief investment officer.

Were not beholden to anyones investment strategy; we can customize solutions based upon clients needs and bring an added level of personalization by having these capabilities in house as opposed to only using outside parties, he said.

He would know. Carson has been doing investment research and management for over 25 years. Most recently he served as director of research with the Carson Group, where he deepened his insights on the best strategies for helping clients manage their portfolios. In May 2023, the dynamic culture and exciting new challenges at Harrison Financial Services led him to accept his current role as chief investment officer.

As the CIO at HFS, Carson leads the investment department, which includes researching new and existing investments, managing clients portfolios and communicating the firms thoughts on capital markets and individual stocks to clients and prospects.

I had met [HFS founder and CEO] Tim Harrison and wealth adviser Jack McKeegan many years ago and knew they had a great reputation, Carson said. I felt that together we could have a meaningful impact on improving our clients lives. It just was the best fit for me. The quality of people here have exceeded my expectations.

Carson said he fell in love with investment research while working as an intern for an emerging markets hedge fund while attending University of Nebraska  Lincoln.

After graduating, he took a job in Baltimore, Maryland, working for an investment firm that researched individual stocks for large institutional clients, but he decided to move back to Nebraska to raise a family.

Carson has spent most of his 25 years in the industry researching individual stocks  an experience he believes is unique and valuable. Combining those insights with a macro view gives him a different perspective than most other strategists and CIOs who tend to take a top-down view.

We live in a world thats undergoing a lot of positive change, so having a deep understanding of these underlying shifts helps shape our investment strategies and provides additional color for our clients, he said. Its very gratifying to successfully manage a clients investment portfolio, but its even better when they understand it.

Emily Jung, J.D., director of advanced strategies

Emily Jung joined Harrison Financial Services as director of advanced strategies in 2023. With 19 years of experience as an attorney, in both private practice and the wealth management industry, Jung brings a breadth of legal expertise and skills to the HFS team. As an advanced planning strategist, she works closely with HFS advisors to develop and implement personal estate, wealth transfer and business succession plans and solutions, focused on tax-efficient techniques, multigenerational wealth and legacy planning for clients of HFS, all of which are customized to each clients circumstances and objectives. She also works in close collaboration with HFS clients designated team of professionals, including private practice attorneys in law firms and CPAs, in connection with the necessary legal and tax services associated with a clients planning.

Prior to transitioning her career in the financial and wealth management industry, she spent many years advising families, business owners and individuals in all aspects of estate and wealth transfer planning, post-death trust and estate administration, business succession planning and the formation and governance of not-for-profit entities.

Harrison Financial Services, especially Tim Harrison, shared this same desire and vision for creating innovative approaches that offer broad-based and expanded planning services for clients and offered me the opportunity to serve as an advanced planning strategist, said Jung.

She joined HFS because she believes in its core values and wanted to join a team of engaged, dedicated, authentic and bright individuals.

My role with HFS allows me to utilize and leverage my legal expertise, skills and experience and partner with and support the HFS financial advisory team to create a platform for continuous client engagement and service, she said. This brings an integrated and comprehensive approach to HFS clients overall planning needs and expectations for investment management, estate planning, retirement planning, charitable planning and multigenerational wealth planning, among others.

But she doesnt intend to replace HFS clients outside legal counsel.

I coordinate and communicate with a clients designated attorney and law firm in connection with any legal services associated with the clients planning. I do not draft any legal documents in my role with HFS, she said.

She also works to understand clients distinct issues, planning needs and objectives and provides guidance on strategic approach to estate and wealth transfer planning, charitable planning and business succession planning.

I believe that cultivating and building trust in my relationships with clients are the foundation or fundamental basis of exceptional client service and experience, she said. I want to contribute my abilities/skills, ideas and expertise to help continue growing a successful client experience and firm.

To learn more, please visit hfs.nm.com.

This content was produced by Brand Ave. Studios. The news and editorial departments had no role in its creation or display. Brand Ave. Studios connects advertisers with a targeted audience through compelling content programs, from concept to production and distribution. For more information contact sales@brandavestudios.com.
Warm temperatures kept the worst of the winter snow storm at bay in the Omaha area on Monday as meteorologists revised their forecasts.

But many Omaha-area schools already announced plans to be closed for a second day amid concerns about conditions on Tuesday.

An original forecast that projected 7 to 11 inches of snow for the metro area has been knocked down to around 4 inches. Much of that wasnt expected to accumulate until after sunset on Monday, said Taylor Nicolaisen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Valley.

Temperatures that hovered slightly above freezing during the day on Monday kept the snow from piling up.

For basically Omaha, the eastern tier of counties in Nebraska and then parts of southwestern Iowa, its just a little bit too warm, Nicolaisen said. Weve been seeing the roads melting any snow that falls. A lot of it has actually been falling as rain.

Nicolaisen said some reports from west Omaha reported one to two inches of snow during the day on Monday, while snow accumulation was close to zero in the downtown area. Lincoln had about 1 inches of snow.

Areas west of Omaha reported significantly more snow on Monday. Several reports from Columbus showed that 7 to 10 inches had fallen on the small city about 85 miles northwest of Omaha. A report from Norfolk recorded nine inches. One report from Yankton, South Dakota, reported 10 inches. The Nebraska towns of Beatrice, Hebron and Fairbury each had reports of seven inches of snow.

Significant portions of Interstate 80 between Grand Island and North Platte closed due to whiteout conditions, including an approximately 78-mile stretch between Grand Island and Lexington. Before the interstates closure, Nebraska State Patrol troopers responded to dozen of weather-related incidents involving motorists. One incident included a semitrailer truck that jack-knifed across both lanes of westbound traffic on Interstate 80 near Lexington.

U.S. Highway 30, which parallels I-80 in that part of the state, was also impassible between Grand Island and Lexington.

Nicolaisen described the winter storm as pretty powerful and one that is expected to limit visibility into Tuesday with strong winds. Gusts are expected to reach 35 to 40 miles per hour. The strong winds are expected create near blizzard conditions especially in areas located south and west of Lincoln.

In anticipation of the snow, Omaha street crews had pre-treated the citys streets with brine to make for easier plowing. All hands were on deck among the citys snow removal crews and contractors to keep the citys roads passable. Austin Rowser, a city engineer, told reporters the city had about 110 plows ready to work all day and night on Monday.

The storm threat caused many metro area schools to announce Monday evening that they would be closed Tuesday, just as they had canceled in-person classes on Sunday ahead of what turned out to be tame conditions on Monday.

The districts and schools planning to be closed Tuesday included Omaha, Millard, Gretna, Ralston, Bellevue, Westside, Douglas County and Omaha Catholic Schools, with more announcements expected before morning.

The City of Blair declared a snow emergency from early Monday afternoon to 8 a.m. on Wednesday. The Iowa town of Underwood in Pottawattamie County also declared a snow emergency that will last until 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Douglas County Health Department has also extended a deadline for food and drink establishments to pay their permit fees for this year without penalty to Friday. The deadline was originally scheduled for Tuesday.

Near Yankton, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased the discharge of water at Gavins Point Dam from the typical winter level of 13,000 cubic feet per second to 15,000 cubic feet per second at 12 p.m. on Monday. The Corps of Engineers said the increase in the dams discharge would lessen the chances of ice jams forming.

One silver lining to the winter storm is that it brought much needed precipitation even to areas that didnt receive significant snowfall. As of Monday afternoon, the Omaha area had one-tenth of an inch of precipitation. Meanwhile, Lincoln had one-third of an inch of moisture. Norfolk had one-quarter of an inch.

Were appreciative of the moisture, Nicolaisen said. Its been getting dry. We can really make up some ground here with some rain and snow. Thats been the silver lining.

Photos: Winter storm hits the Omaha area
By Jung Da-hyun

Amid a rise in the number of foreign residents and international marriages in Korea, two schools in Seoul stand out with over 70 percent multicultural students, a regional education office found, Sunday.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE), Seoul Younglim Elementary School and Daedong Elementary School, both of which are in Yeongdeungpo District, boast multicultural student ratios of 70.93 percent and 70.88 percent, respectively.

Additionally, there are seven other elementary schools in Seoul with multicultural student ratios exceeding 40 percent.

While the southern regions of Seoul, such as Yeongdeungpo, Guro and Geumcheon, have housed a significant number of multicultural students, there are also noticeable increases of multicultural students across various regions recently.

As of last year, out of 384,439 elementary school students in Seoul, 13,049 were multicultural students, constituting 3.43 percent of the total. This marks a 0.34-percentage-point increase from five years ago in 2019.

The proportion of multicultural students is anticipated to continue growing, especially as the number of new students in elementary schools in Seoul has dropped to 50,000 for the first time in history this year.

In response to these demographic shifts, changes are underway in education policies.

The SMOE is actively implementing multicultural education for all students to provide support for the rising number of multicultural students.

Additionally, it is now mandatory for all teachers to undergo more than 15 hours of multicultural awareness education within three years.

We will continue to enhance support to ensure that multicultural students can adapt successfully to their educational environment, said an official at the SMOE.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP)  The Republican Party of Florida ousted Chairman Christian Ziegler in a special vote on Monday as police investigate a rape accusation against him, a vote that came the week before Gov. Ron DeSantis competes in Iowas first-in-the-nation presidential caucus.

The party suspended Ziegler last month and demanded his resignation, saying he can't effectively lead during a critical election year with the allegations, which Ziegler denies, swirling around him. Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and other Republican leaders have called on Ziegler to step down, but he has refused.

DeSantis is seeking the GOP nomination for president, but ahead of the Jan. 15 Iowa caucus he trails far behind former President Donald Trump, who also is a Floridian. Scott is running for reelection. Florida also will play a key role in determining control of the U.S. House.

We have to move past this and have to focus on 2024," said state Sen. Joe Gruters, who preceded Ziegler as party chair. Florida's one of the most important states for the Republicans and we have to continue to bring home victories, especially for Rick Scott and the top of the ticket with Trump as our nominee, eventually.

Beyond the rape accusation, there is another troublesome element for the party. Under DeSantis, Florida has stripped rights away from LGBTQ+ Floridians and banned instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in schools.

Ziegler and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, have admitted to police that they previously had a consensual sexual relationship with Christian Ziegler's accuser. Bridget Ziegler is an elected member of the Sarasota School Board and co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a national conservative activist group that has successfully gotten members elected to school boards across the U.S. She has not been accused of a crime.

Bridget Ziegler also was appointed by DeSantis last year to the board of the governing district for Walt Disney World. DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature last year took control of the district in retaliation after Disney publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. The law was championed by DeSantis.

The Sarasota Police Department is investigating the womans accusation that Ziegler raped her at her apartment in October. Police documents say the Zieglers and the woman had planned a sexual threesome that day, but Bridget Ziegler was unable to attend. The accuser says Christian Ziegler arrived anyway and assaulted her.

Christian Ziegler has not been charged with a crime and says he is innocent, contending the encounter was consensual.

Bridget Ziegler is not accused of any crime. The Sarasota School Board asked her to resign last month but she refused. DeSantis-appointed board members of the Disney World governing district made no direct mention of Bridget Ziegler's situation at their meeting last month, even though it was raised by a member of the public who said her hypocrisy should disqualify her from serving.

The couple have been outspoken opponents of LGBTQ+ rights and their relationship with another woman has sparked criticism and accusations of hypocrisy.
Noelia Sanchez was born in the rolling farmlands of southwest Missouri, where her Mexican parents worked as seasonal farmworkers in the 1950s.

When she was 1, Noelia and her mother, Aurora, who had no work documents, were rounded up with dozens of other immigrants in a Texas town near the border. The U.S.-born child and her mother were forced to go to Mexico along with hundreds of thousands of other people.

Their deportations were part of a U.S. government effort that was known in official papers and the media as Operation Wetback." The term wetback, which was used to describe Mexicans who swam or waded across the Rio Grande, is considered a racial slur.

Donald Trump has lauded the Eisenhower-era raids without using their name since he first ran for president and is now promising voters he would begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history, exceeding the 1950s. He has escalated his verbal attacks on immigrants as he seeks a second term, telling supporters twice in recent weeks that immigrants were poisoning the blood of our country."

People affected by Operation Wetback and historians on immigration argue Trump is using fragments of history and rhetoric for political reasons while discounting his own administration's failures to carry out mass deportations, even as it separated families at the U.S.-Mexico border and enacted sweeping restrictions on asylum.

Families were divided by misapplied immigration policies and discriminatory immigration policies specifically geared toward Indigenous people, Mexican Americans, Latinos, said Joaquin Sanchez, Noelias son, who is now an immigration attorney in Chicago. These are the types of policies that my family has witnessed for generations.

Operation Wetback coincided with a guest worker program that provided legal status to hundreds of thousands of largely Mexican farm workers. Noelia Sanchez, who was born in Missouri, and her mother were able to get their papers in about a year and return to settle in Chicago.

The administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched a military-style campaign in the summer of 1954 seeking to remove Mexican immigrants who were in the country illegally. The operation followed several other deportation efforts of the 1940s and 1950s.

Scholars have challenged the 1 million arrests reported under that summer operation, saying that they included figures from previous years and that the number for that entire year was actually much smaller at about 250,000.

The government relied on scare tactics to prompt people to self-deport so that they could have another chance to return to the U.S.

Experts have highlighted it was no coincidence the deportation drive happened as farmers were looking for guest workers under the Bracero program that began in the 1940s, aimed at allowing Mexican farmworkers to enter the country and work in the U.S. legally. The program excluded women and children, driving some families to enter the country illegally to remain together.

Adam Goodman, a professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, wrote in his book The Deportation Machine that organizations such as the ACLU contacted immigration authorities in Chicago and ultimately advised immigrants who were in the country illegally to return to Mexico. Those groups sent a press release with a brochure to all newspapers in Illinois to give the deportation campaign more publicity.

It was a terror campaign that was designed to scare people from the country, said UCLA history professor Kelly Lytle Hernandez. It was really a PR campaign designed to terrorize communities into self-deporting.

Hernandez said the administration would round up a sizable number of people, broadcast it and announce they were traveling to other towns. There is no way the United States had that force to affect that number of deportations.

Trump often labels immigration as dangerous in his speeches, suggesting people crossing the border are criminals who are trying to invade the U.S. and bring diseases.

Speaking in Ankeny, Iowa, in September, he said, Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.

He invoked the same operation in 2015 when he was first running for president.

But his administration did not deport millions during his four-year presidency as he promised before and after becoming president. Just as in the 1950s, the U.S. government was limited in how many deportations it could carry out at one time.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, the Trump administration deported about one-third as many immigrants in the country illegally from the interior during its first four fiscal years as the administration of President Barack Obama during the same time frame.

Enforcement sweeps take months of planning, and arresting an immigrant can often require days of surveillance. Officers dont usually carry search warrants, and advocates warn immigrants not to open their doors. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement often struggled to find adequate detention space during the Trump administration, and people can fight their deportation cases for months or years.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for information on why his administration did not come close to deporting millions and how a second term would conduct such a large-scale effort.

The Trump administration was more hostile to immigration than any administration in decades. Trump prevented people from applying for asylum at the southwest border, separated children from their families, and built a border wall in environmentally sensitive areas.

Advocates and extremism experts have noted his language echoes writings from Hitler about the purity of Aryan blood, which Nazi Germany used to justify murdering millions of Jews during World War II.
The protesting Nigerians took their protest to the Nigerian High Commission where they presented a letter asking the Federal Government to declare a State of Emergency there.

They called on President Muhammadu Buhari urgently to come to the aid of the residents of the state, also ensure that killings and other criminal activities are stopped in the state.

Earlier on Sunday, the Federal Government ordered the suspension of all mining activities in the state with immediate effect.

The directive was made known by the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu at a press conference in Abuja.

The IGP revealed that all foreigners on mining sites have been asked to vacate their locations or risk their losing licenses.

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In 2012, researchers pinpointed the location where Julius Caesar was murderedbut the spot was accessible only to a colony of cats. Thatll change come late 2021 thanks to the high-end jeweler Bulgari, which is funding the restoration of the Rome site known as Largo Argentina.

The AP reports the ruins of the temple complex sit below street level, which has given tourists a sight-line from above. With what ANSA reports is about $900,000, walkways will be built within the site so tourists can get close.

As for the location where Caesar was stabbed by rival senators, we always knew that Julius Caesar was killed in the Curia [Theater] of Pompey on March 15th 44 BC because the classical texts pass on so, but so far no material evidence of this fact  had been recovered, said a researcher in 2012. Digging up a concrete structure stone pedestal about 6.5 feet tall and 10 feet wide changed that.

It was erected by Augustus, to condemn the assassination of his father and ostensibly marks the spot where Caesar died, per a 2012 press release. Live Science reports its location was found to be at the base of the Curia of Pompey, providing a necessary historical link. (A key site described by Caesar may have been found.)
National Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Chinedu Okoronkwo has clarified that the association decided to reduce the pump price of petrol from N145 to N140 per litre as part of its contribution to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians travelling to vote during elections.

But the Deputy National President, IPMAN Western Zone, Alhaji Debo Ahmed, said Okoronkwo had no right to direct any member to sell at N140.Okoronkwo told The Nation on phone that the N140 per litre directive would be carried out by IPMAN members nationwide.

He said the reduction was a sacrifice that would be made by IPMAN members since no amount of sacrifice is much for national peace.

Okoronkwo said: Everybody must be involved in nation-building. This reduction of fuel price is our own contribution to nation-building, entrench peace and ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians. This is a sacrifice IPMAN members will make for the nation and Nigerians. No amount of sacrifice is too much for peace. The fuel price reduction will help reduce the expenses of Nigerians during this period of elections.

The reduction will last till March 12 to help reduce transport fares for Nigerians as they travel to vote for their candidates for the presidential, National Assembly, governorship and Houses of Assembly elections. After that date, we will review the price.

On how the association would monitor its members to ensure compliance, Okoronkwo said: We have a mechanism of reaching every member and ensuring that all comply.
From Mohammed Nasir Shuaibu BAUCHI

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State on Saturday reiterated the unwavering commitment of his administration towards protecting the integrity and image of traditional institution in the state.

Speaking at a dinner on the one year anniversary in office of the 9th Wazirin Bauchi, Muhammad Uba Ahmed Kari at Event Centre, Bauchi, the Governor assured that the administration is determined to continue to uphold, protect, and respect the dignity of the traditional institution in recognition of its rich heritage and cultural significance.

Mohammed who noted that the state government has acknowledged the dedication and hard work of traditional leaders, who tirelessly carry the responsibility of upholding the values and traditions passed down through generations, said their invaluable contributions and unwavering commitment deserve the governments respect and support.

Represented by his Deputy, Rt. Hon. Mohammed Auwal Jatau, the Governor said the appointment of Alhaji Muhammad Uba Ahmed Kari as the 9th Wazirin Bauchi is a testament of his antecedent and pedigree as an excellent administrator who managed some of Nigerias biggest and most successful companies.

As we gather here to celebrate the remarkable life and legacy of our revered Wazirin Bauchi, it is imperative for all of us to know that Alhaji Muhammad Uba Ahmed Kari is not an ordinary traditional holder. He personifies the very essence of honor, compassion, and dedication to the people. These attributes informed his appointment as Waziri of Bauchi which makes him a senior member of the Bauchi Emirate Council, a close confidant and chief adviser of the Emir.

As we commemorate his first year anniversary, let us acknowledge the milestones achieved by Alhaji Muhammad Uba Ahmed Kari in the last one year in office. His acumen leadership and courage in the face of adversity have contributed to the rapid development and progress of our dear Bauchi State. I am confident that he will continue to deploy the wealth of his knowledge and experience towards the transformation of the State.

Mohammed pointed out that the renovation and construction of palaces of Emirs and Districts Heads by his administration is a further testimony of the esteem which he holds the traditional institution and he will not relent in working with the institution, nurturing a relationship built on mutual trust, respect, and shared goals.

Responding, the 9th Wazirin Bauchi, Mohammed Uba Ahmed Kari reiterated his determination to continue to be loyal to the state government and the emirate council in the discharge of his assigned responsibilities for the best interest of the state and its people.

Other speakers at the dinner including the immediate past Deputy Governor, Senator Baba Tela who and the representative of the Sultan of Sokoto, Professor Ahmed Tijjani described the appointment of Mohammed Uba Ahmed Kari as the 9th Wazirin Bauchi as a well deserved and urged him to reciprocate the gesture by discharging his responsibilities diligently.

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Justice John Okoro of the Supreme Court of Nigeria has reserved judgment in the Ebonyi State governorship election.

This was during a hearing on Monday after the parties adopted their briefs of argument, stating that the ruling would be communicated to the parties.

Recall that the Court of Appeal Lagos had earlier affirmed the election of Francis Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected governor of Ebonyi State.

In a unanimous decision, the three-member panel, led by Justice Jummai Sankey, dismissed the appeal filed by Chukwuma Odii of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The panel also resolved all the five issues raised against the appellant and dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.

Justice Sankey held that the PDP and its candidate lacked the legal right to meddle in the internal affairs of the All Progressives Congress as it relates to the nomination of candidates.
A single mother of three has expressed joy after finally getting married to the love of her life.

The lady got married at the age of 38.

In a video shared online, the excited bride was seen dancing happily on her special day.

See reactions below:

iamkingdinero1 said: Single mothers sha dont know oo but they are very nice and matured when dating them and act right , our only anger na the Warey own when go go collect money from baby daddy for their kid still pass there collect Brockus join .

shin_dara__ reacted: It can only be delayedit cant be denied.

ovayozarh stated: Love has no barriers , the right person for you will always locate you.

made_in__benin said: Single mothers are marrying every day ,na only for social media they for Dey reject them.congratulations sis you won.

authority_a.y noted: If you like go born 3 baby and think say you too go find love and marry  Dey play.

Watch the video below
A Nashville husband has confessed to the police that he killed his wife with a hammer.

The man identified as Joseph Glynn, 70 has been charged with beating his wife to death with a hammer and then burying her body in a hole.

Police said he hired a worker to dig on the couples land where he buried his wife.

Joseph Glynn, 70, was arrested Saturday after he admitted to investigators he killed his wife, Jackie Glynn, 76, on New Years Day at their Green Hills, Tennessee home, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

The following day, Joseph Glynn allegedly put his wifes body inside a plastic cargo box before driving her remains about 60 miles to the couples other property in DeKalb County to dump her body in a hole previously dug out by contractors.

Joseph Glynn told their children that their mother had left because she was terminally ill, according to police.

Suspicious of their fathers account, the children reached out to their mothers medical provider and were told she was not terminally ill.

Her body was discovered in a freshly covered hole  about six feet wide, ten feet long, and six feet deep  by the DeKalb County Sheriffs Office on Friday, still inside the cargo box and covered in new roofing shingles and dirt, Fox 17 reported, citing police.

A Silver Alert was issued for the missing wife the same day her body was discovered.

Joseph Glynn had a contractor dig the hole on Dec. 16, claiming it would be used as a burn pit, according to investigators.

The allegedly murderous husband reportedly told detectives he disposed of the hammer he used to kill his wife murder in a community center trash compactor.

Jackie Glynns car was also found by police in DeKalb County, with her husband suspected of towing her vehicle in an attempt to hide it.

Joseph Glynn is also accused of selling items belonging to his wife in the days after he murdered her, as well as contacting a realtor to sell their DeKalb County property where he had buried her body, according to Fox 17.

He is currently being held in the Davidson County Jail on a $1,030,000 bond and also faces charges of abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering, according to police.

His first scheduled court date is Tuesday morning.

Jackie Glynn was a beloved member of the greater Nashville area who owned and operated the historic wedding venue, the Riverwood Mansion.

Lesli Emmetts, a friend and vendor regularly hired by Jackie Glynn as a photographer at the venue, described her friend as a tiny woman with Big dreams in a commemorating Facebook Post.

Such a sad day with the tragic news of a friend of over 25 years whose life was horrifically taken, her longtime friend wrote.

Jackie was a tiny woman with Big dreams, and Bill and I were honored to watch her live, create, build, and curate her dream of having the most amazing wedding venue where Nashville Couples could say I Do.
By Lee Hyo-jin

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) urged the police to "thoroughly investigate" the knife attack on party leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung, Sunday, following law enforcement authorities' tentative decision not to disclose the personal identity of the attacker.

The possible disclosure of personal details about the 67-year-old assailant, identified only as Kim, has sparked heated debate, as it could reveal his political affiliation, a crucial factor in determining his motive for the crime. If revealed, the information is expected to be used by political parties to shape the narrative around the opposition leader's attack.

"We hope for a thorough investigation that leaves no suspicion, being mindful that the passive attitude of the police could lead to further controversy and confusion," DPK spokesperson Rep. Park Sung-joon said during a press briefing at the National Assembly.

Park's remarks followed local reports earlier in the day, suggesting that the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, handling the case, had tentatively decided not to reveal the attacker's personal identity after internal discussions.

Under the current law, law enforcement authorities are allowed to disclose the identity of suspects in violent crime investigations, as long as there is sufficient evidence, and it is deemed to be in the public's interest and their right to know.

"The suspect's political affiliation is a crucial clue in revealing his motives," Park continued. " That is why our party actively cooperated (with the police) in accordance with the court's warrant."

Park also mentioned that the police are relatively hesitant to disclose information about their investigation, especially when comparing it to similar cases in the past.

Kim was arrested on site after stabbing Lee in the neck during the latter's visit to the southeastern port city of Busan last Tuesday.

Since launching the investigation, police have reportedly obtained details of Kim's political affiliation history with the cooperation of the DPK and the ruling People Power Party (PPP).

However, the police have apparently decided not to disclose this information in the final announcement of the probe, to be held later this week.

Although the law enforcement authorities did not share the exact reason, it is said the Political Parties Act, prevents investigative bodies from publicly sharing information about a suspect's political affiliation that they learn of during an investigation. Violation of this law may lead to imprisonment of up to three years.
Gov Hyacinth Alia

The Appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate in the Benue gubernatorial polls, Titus Uba has been dismissed by the Supreme Court on Monday, January 8.

Recall that the governorship election petition tribunal and the court of appeal in Abuja had affirmed the election of Hyacinth Alia as governor of Benue state.

Not pleased with the judgments, Uba approached the apex court for redress.


Peter Obi

Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the 2023 polls has urged Nigerian leaders to use their positions for the ultimate benefit of the people who voted them into power.

Obi stated this in a series of tweets after he attended the Thanksgiving Service and Empowerment Day organised by the Senator representing Anambra North Senatorial Zone, Anambra State, Senator Dr Tony Nwoye.

The former governor of Anambra State said he was impressed with the huge empowerment program for the constituents, especially the less privileged ones, saying that it is a true representation, which impacts people positively.

He urged Nwoye to continue to invest in critical projects such as education, health, and poverty eradication that will leave more lasting benefits for the people and society.

He wrote: Today, I joined the Senator representing Anambra North Senatorial Zone, Anambra State, Senator Dr Tony Nwoye, in his Thanksgiving Service and Empowerment Day for the constituents in Onitsha.

I am happy that he realized that only God can raise a true king, and no one must abuse Gods grace upon their lives. His decision to celebrate his victory at the polls with his people and in his constituency is very admirable. We the leaders, must always understand that our leadership positions must always be for the ultimate benefit of the people who gave us access to power.

I was equally impressed with his huge empowerment program for the constituents, especially the less privileged ones. That, for me, is a true representation, which impacts positively on the people. I urge him to continue to invest in the very critical projects that will leave more lasting benefits for the people and society.

Investments in education, health, and poverty eradication remain the best forms of investment and must be prioritized by all. I pray God Almighty always give him the wisdom to do what is right, the strength to serve the people, the boldness to speak truth to power, and the courage to resist the seductions of corruption and rascality that now pervade our society. Together, by doing the right things, we will build the New Nigeria of our dreams. It is possible.
The People Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded the removal of Betta Edu as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation over an alleged misappropriation of N585 million palliative fund.

In a statement released on Sunday, Debo Ologunagba, spokesperson for the PDP, described the ministers remaining in office amid corruption allegations as provocative.

Edu has recently faced severe backlash from the public following the revelation of a leaked memo of her directing Oluwatoyin Madein, the accountant-general of the federation, to transfer N585 million to a private account.

The minister also granted funds for flight tickets and airport taxis for ministry staff travelling to Kogi, a state without an airport.

Meanwhile, Oluwatoyin Madein, accountant-general of the federation (AGF), said she did not carry out any request from Edu.

Madein said no bulk money is supposed to be made to an individuals account in the name of Project Accountant.

READ ALSO: Conditional Cash Transfer: FG has disbursed N25,000 each to 3.5 million Nigerians  Dr. Betta Edu

Reacting to the allegation, the main opposition party urged the president to promptly dismiss the minister and deliver her to security agencies for prosecution.

The continuing stay of Betta Edu as Minister is therefore provocative and amounts to stealing from the people and daring them to do their worst. It further confirms our Partys position that the Tinubu-led APC government is a cesspit of corruption; a haven for thieves and treasury looters.

Nigerians were shocked by reports of how Betta Edu and the suspended National Coordinator of NSIPA, Halima Shehu allegedly engaged in brazen looting of billions of Naira while Nigerians who the funds are meant for are deprived and abandoned to excruciating hardship and misery, Ologunagba said.

READ ALSO: FEC approves annual $5bn Poverty Trust Fund

Speaking further, the party described the ministers action as apparent fraudulent, adding that President Tinubu should demonstrate commitment to the fight against corruption by immediately sacking Edu.

In a viral document signed by her and directed to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Edu directed the disbursement of N585.189 million into one of Bridget Mojisola Oniyelus private accounts.

The leaked document revealed that the money was paid into Oniyelus account.

The minister had, in a statement on Friday by her Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Rasheed Zubair, said the payment followed due process.

Zubair explained that the money was paid into Oniyelus account because she currently serves as the project accountant of Grants for Vulnerable Groups. He said it is legal in the civil service for a staff member to be paid, use the same funds legally and retire with all receipts and evidence after the project or programme is completed.
A former Director of Finance at the Nigeria Defence Academy, Brigadier General Olamide Ohunyeye(retd) has revealed that residents of Ondo state must look out for an experienced and selfless leader who would engineer the socio-economic development of the state.

He explained that the state has the needed natural and human resources to compete with other oil producing states of Rivers, Akwa Ibom and the rest, saying a leader with genuine interest for the people would tap into these potential in the overall interest of the people.

Ohunyeye spoke at the weekend in Ilutitun, Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo state during a civic reception organized for him by the people to mark his recent retirement from the Nigerian Army.

At the event, mammoth crowd of residents, well wishers from the community and the 16 Local Government Areas of the state including traditional rulers were in attendance.

While lamenting the increasing level of unemployment rate among the youths and other negative economic indices in the state, he maintained that the state is too endowed and gifted to be experiencing hardship and lack of infrastructural facelifts.

According to him,  For Ondo state, I want a leader that will place the state at the platform of oil producing states of Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom,Rivers and others. I want to see massive and rapid infrastructural development, I want to see complete capacity building, I want to see complete efficient and judicious use of our numerous resources and agricultural products, which are hidden in the soil of Ondo state.

 I want to see an Ondo state where the unemployed youths are employed, teachers are properly trained, education and healthcare systems are improve upon. A state that will witness development in all ramifications of life.

The retired Army General who appreciated the people for the recognition and honour accorded him during the reception, said he would be more committed and dedicated to the upliftment of the people in the area and the state at large.

 I feel extremely very excited and joyous that after 36 years of my sojourn in the military, my community and even the state are celebrating me that I have done well to serve my fatherland, the federal Republic of Nigeria and welcoming me back to the society for more service to the people,  he said.

Speaking, the chairman of Murobodo Development Council, Sehinde Akinbuwa commended the retired army general for his selfless service to the nation and the community in the last 36 years , adding that the community would continue to support him in his future endeavors.

While congratulating him for his retirement from the active service of the army, the community leader advised Ohunyeye to consider taking up leadership role in the state for the people to benefit from his wealth of experience and expertise in administration.

Akinbuwa said,  As General Ohunyeye transitions into civilian life, it is incumbent upon us to encourage and support him leveraging his wealth of experience and wisdom to continue serving our community, and the state.

 Just as great generals of the past have transcended their military service to lead their nations in times of peace, we urge him to chart a new path in civilian leadership, inspiring and mentoring the next generation towards excellence, he said.
In Yorro Local Government Area of Tarara State, bandits have murdered Jauro Kabiru Gambo, the Head of Wuro Musa village.

During the invasion of the village on Friday, January 5, 2024, the deceased, along with seven women and 16 others, was abducted by bandits

The body of the late village head was found in the forest near a mountain in the area early Sunday morning, January 7.

Sani Adamu, a source from the area, said late Jauro Gambo was buried at Jaka Da Fari Graveyard in Jalingo around 3pm Sunday

The source said that sixteen individuals, including seven women, are still being held by the bandits, who have demanded a ransom of N1 million for each of the sixteen victims

The Taraba Police Commands spokesperson, SP Usman Abdullahi, confirmed the village heads killing. The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Yorro Local Government Area also affirmed the bandits involvement in the murder of Village Head Malam Kabiru Gambo.

Kanyi Daily recalls that Garam, situated along the border of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), had faced continuous assaults by bandits since December 24, 2023.
A 25-year-old man alleged to be mentally ill has been arrested.

The man, Alkasim Yau, was arrested for allegedly killing his wife at Tudun Yola C, in Gwale Local Government Area of Kano State.

The NSCDC Corps Commandant, Mohammed Falala, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano on Sunday, January 7, 2024.

Falala said the incident occurred on Friday, January 5, 2024 at about 1330 hours at the residence of Salisu Bala.

The deceased father, Alhaji Yau Mohammed, brought his mentally ill son, Alkasim Yau, to Psychiatric Hospital Dawanau, for medical treatment, where they booked to see a medical doctor on Saturday January 6.

He explained that instead of going back to Katsina, the deceased decided to sleep at his brothers house at same address.

Our investigation revealed that Alkasim became mentally ill due to his engagement in hard drugs activities, he said.

On their arrival at Tudun Yola, the ill son took a sharp object and injured the father, until the intervention of the NSCDC operatives attached to the area who took the victim to hospital and arrested the suspect, he said.

Falala said that already, the family was making arrangements to return the corpse to Katsina for funeral, while the suspect and the exhibit were handed over to Rijiyar Zaki Divisional Police Office for further investigation.
Ten residents have been abducted by gunmen at Sagwari Layout Estate in the Dutse axis of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Eyewitnesses claimed the kidnappers who appeared like herdsmen, invaded the estate at 7p.m on Sunday, January 7, 2024.

One of the victims, who sent a distress message to the estates WhatsApp group, had initially raised an alarm that his family was in danger before he stopped responding to subsequent messages.

It was gathered that two members of staff were abducted from a hotel, while eight residents were kidnapped from the estate.

A security guard, who was overpowered and beaten by the invaders, has been rescued.

Residents have mobilised security operatives in collaboration with the estate security guards to comb the hills within the vicinity of the estate.


The suspended former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) against the Federal Government and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for violations of his rights.

It issued an order restraining the Federal Government and its agents from re-arresting or detaining Emefiele without a court order.

The embattled Emefiele had initiated legal action against the Federal Government, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), and the EFCC to defend his fundamental rights to life, personal liberty, fair hearing, and freedom of movement

Emefiele petitioned the court to declare as unlawful his continuous detention by the first and second respondents agency since June 10, 2023, followed by his transfer to the custody of the third and fourth respondents on October 26, 2023, as unlawful due to not being arraigned in court.

He claimed that the respondents actions, disregarding numerous valid and standing court orders for his release, amounted to a serious violation of his fundamental rights to life and personal liberty, as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights

He, therefore, sought, among other requests, an injunction to prevent the respondents from arresting or detaining him further upon his release by the court unless they present a criminal charge against him.

He also sought damages totaling N1 billion in his favor for the infringement of his fundamental rights.

Kanyi Daily recalls that An Abuja High Court in Maitama had granted bail to the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele, to the tune of N300 million.
The Gunners want to sign the left-back, along with Napoli, but Lennon says no real progress has been made on a possible deal.

I have taken no notice of the headlines, Lennon said. I am well aware of where we are in terms of the situation.

I spoke to Kieran in Austria and to be honest I havent really seen much of him because he came back early for rehab, so has not been on the training ground as yet.

It can be an unsettling period for any player and that is understandable but until a club comes up with any sort of realistic valuation of the player we dont have to do anything and we wont.

Its as you were. Kieran is getting on with his rehabilitation and we are getting on with what we have to do here.

In other news, the Gunners want to sign the Real Madrid winger, but they have only 40million to spend this summer  and Los Blancos value Vazquez at 36million.

This would decimate Arsenals budget with just a single signing, and Marca claim the north Londoners are yet to offer that amount to Real.

There is no knowing whether Arsenal will negotiate with Madrid to try and lower the asking price.

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Former senate minority leader Godswill Akpabio has joined the league of top politicians who have lost their bid to go or return to the senate. Akpabio, the APC candidate in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district, secured just 67,487 as against 136,373 votes pulled by Chris Ekpenyong of the PDP

Below are some interesting information about the man

A former Deputy Governor during OBJ era

In 2005, Chris Ekpenyong made In 2005, Chris Ekpenyong made history in Nigeria : he was impeached as the deputy governor of Akwa Ibom state but was hurriedly returned to that position in less than seven days. The members of the state house of assembly reversed the impeachment after the intervention of then-President Olusegun Obasanjo , although Ekpenyong was forced to resign afterwards.

Fourteen years later, he has bounced back to secure a place at the senate, defeating Godswill Akpabio, an uncommon senator, in Akwa Ibom north-west senatorial district. Akpabios defeat was shocking to say the least: Apart from being being an incumbent senator, he was a two-time governor who practically had Akwa Ibom as his chessboard.
Opposition lawmakers criticize police over selective leaking of information

By Lee Hyo-jin

The decision by the police not to disclose the political affiliations of the man who attacked Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), with a knife, has sparked controversy. The DPK has criticized law enforcement authorities for sharing investigative information selectively.

The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency announced, Monday, that its identity disclosure committee would convene a meeting on Tuesday to determine whether to release the personal information of the 67-year-old male suspect, identified so far only by the surname Kim.

If the committee decides in favor of further disclosure, Kim's full name, age and photo will be released.

However, the police stressed that the history of his political affiliations would remain undisclosed, irrespective of the committee's decision.

"Technically, it cannot be disclosed as per relevant laws. We are currently discussing with the prosecution about the matter. But if we disclose (his political affiliations), there could be penalties," an official at the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency said during a press briefing.

The official was referring to the Political Parties Act, which bans investigative bodies from publicly sharing information about a suspect's political affiliations that could be ascertained during investigations. Violation of this law may lead to imprisonment of up to three years.

Kim was subdued and apprehended at the site of the attack during the DPK leader's visit to the proposed site for a new airport on Busan's Gadeok Island last Tuesday. The suspect, wearing a paper crown with the inscription "I am Lee Jae-myung," approached the politician amid a crowd of journalists and supporters, and requested an autograph before attacking.

According to the police, Kim worked as a realtor based in Asan, South Chungcheong Province.

The crime is considered premeditated, as the assailant purchased the knife last April and modified the weapon. He arrived in Busan a day before the assault and stayed overnight at a motel approximately 10 kilometers from Gadeok Island.

Police are planning to refer Kim to the prosecution later this week for further investigation on charges of attempted murder.

Since the police launched the probe, Kim's potential political affiliations have garnered significant attention as a crucial factor in determining the motive behind the crime, which occurred less than 100 days ahead of the April 10 general elections.

Law enforcement authorities acquired information about his party membership history through a search and seizure conducted on the offices of the DPK and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) in Seoul's Yeouido.

"It appears that the police don't want to become entangled in political controversy. However, such a passive approach may only deepen confusion, as people might suspect that the police are deliberately withholding certain details," political commentator Rhee Jong-hoon said.

"The law enforcement authorities should provide accurate information to prevent the spread of false information and conspiracy theories."

Some media reports suggested that Kim was a member of the Saenuri Party, the predecessor of the current PPP, from 2015 to 2020. They also speculated that he joined the DPK last April.

However, this information has not been verified by investigative authorities yet.

Meanwhile, DPK lawmakers held their first meeting concerning its countermeasures committee on the party leader's attack, during which they denounced the police for "selective and biased leaking of investigative information."

The committee called on the police to disclose the suspect's party membership history, emphasizing that revealing the motives and the possibility of conspiracy behind the attempted murder suspect is crucial. The DPK also argued that the provision of the Political Parties Act cited by the police is de facto nullified, and therefore not a valid reason not to disclose the information.

"We will not turn a blind eye if the government or investigative authorities attempt to downplay, distort or cover up the incident in any way," said Jeon Hyun-heui, head of the committee.
When opportunity meets with preparedness, the end result is always visible to the blind and audible to the deaf. In another language, one popular saying goes this way, proper planning prevents poor performance.

A gold fish have no hidden place. When you see a destined leader, you do not need a prophet to tell you that he or she is one. By their fruits, we shall know them.

We have come to realise that performance is enhanced, when responsibility is given. Life is a journey and in the journey of life, we learn one thing or another, almost on daily basis and all these lessons in life contributes in no small measure to our leadership abilities. No wonder why they say that experience is the best teacher.

Chief (Barr.) Felix Omi Imoisili as a well trained Psychologist and Lawyer, is a focused and visionary leader who have acquired requisite experiences needed for higher responsibilities at both State and National levels and the records are stirring us in the face.

For those who do not know, Barr. Felix, delivered his assignments diligently, when he was a staff of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), which resulted to almost restlessness as a result of more work, because, management believes that he can always deliver. A colleague of mine jokingly told me that, reward for good work is more work.

Furthermore, Barr Felix contested for Chairmanship of Igueben Local Government Council in 1999, and won in that election with wide margin. His records of achievements gave him the opportunity to win that same seat for the second time. It is on record today that he is a two-time elected Chairman of Igueben Local Government Council of Edo State.

Still talking about Barr Felix, as a Visionary Leader with Experience, he is the pioneer Secretary of Edo State Chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, (ALGON) and also served as Special Adviser on Special duties to the former Hon. Minister of Works, Arch. Mike Onolememen.

Some of his achievements as Chairman of Igueben Local Government Council include, grass root developments and lasting legacies. And while serving as Special Adviser to the Hon. Minister, he established an active link between the Minister and the Party Leadership, especially in Edo State.

From 2016 to date, Barr Felix remains the Secretary of PDP in Edo State and he is still the current Coordinating Secretary of all PDP Secretaries in Nigeria.

With all these high rising and intimidating profile of Chief Barr Felix Omi Imoisili, and his wealth of experience, it is an obvious fact that, if he is voted in as Edo State PDP Chairman in the forthcoming Party congress, the party will witness all round positive turnaround.

It is therefore, my humble opinion that the cap of Edo State Chairmanship of PDP fits Barr Felix Omi Imoisili, judging from his wealth of experience, Vision and Mission.

We also believe that a vote for Barr Felix is an investment into a brighter future for Edo State PDP because he knows the way and he has the capacity to take the party to higher levels in the State.

In the light of the above, we appeal to the leaders and delegates of PDP Edo State to vote for Chief (Barr.) Felix Omi Imoisili as Chairman of PDP Edo State at the next state congress.




United States senator, Rand Paul, who represents Kentucky State, has contracted the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19)

Naija News reports that Senator Pauls office made this known in a statement on his official Twitter handle on Sunday evening, March 22.

The office said Santor Paul was tested out of caution due to his extensive travel and events despite not showing any symptoms.

Naija News reports that the office, however, assured that no staff had contact with the Republican senator because their DC office had been operating remotely for the past ten days.

The statement reads asthus; Senator Rand Paul has tested positive for COVID-19. He is feeling fine and is in quarantine. He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. He was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person, the tweet read.

He expects to be back in the Senate after his quarantine period ends and will continue to work for the people of Kentucky at this difficult time. Ten days ago, our D.C. office began operating remotely, hence virtually no staff has had contact with Senator Rand Paul.

Meanwhile, Paul is the first senator in the United States to contract the deadly coronavirus. More than 323 people have died from the virus in the country and at least 29,235 confirmed cases as of midday Sunday according to CNN.

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A Clinical Microbiologist, Dr Tony Mbume, has advised women to stop wearing tight jeans, synthetic panties and leggings, to prevent vaginal infections.

According to him, most Nigerian females wear these synthetic pants, leggings and tight jeans in the name of fashion, without considering the health implications. Mbume, who works with CIAGIN Medical Laboratory, Oke-Afa, Isolo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that synthetic wears caused the vagina to overheat, which could disrupt its ecosystem.

He said that under wears made of latex, nylon or polyester and synthetic materials could trap moisture and warmth, making the vagina vulnerable to different types of infection Synthetic panties can cause the vagina area to overheat and this can sometimes cause burning sores, itching or irritate the sensitive skin, as well as causing blisters.

The friction caused by walking in tight pants and jeans can irritate the skin, resulting in the formation of blisters, he said.

Mbume said that the vaginal burning and itching was usually accompanied by discharge and bad odour.

He further said that such infections could be dangerous if left untreated, as it might lead to infertility due to damage of the reproductive organs.

The microbiologist, however, recommended cotton underwear, to ventilate the vagina and eliminate infections, adding that wearing cotton underwear helped to keep the vagina free of excessive moisture and allows the area to breathe.

Use cotton menstrual pads too. Cotton absorbs excess moisture and removes buildup heat from the area. It is the only materials that can become stronger when wet and is easily sterilized after use.

Avoid sleeping with pants at night, to keep the vagina area dry throughout the night, he said.

7 Good Habits Which Positively Affect Your Vaginal Health

Always choose natural fabrics especially cotton based under wears

Always change your underwear every day, even more than once if you want!

During workout well-fitting, moisture-wicking underwear is best

Go commando at night to air out the moisture

5. How you wash your under wear matters, its best to wash your underwear in hypoallergenic

soap avoid harsh soaps and detergents

Using under wears for years might be counterproductive consider replacing your underwear every year to give the area a new lease of life

Wearing pants that are too tight or the wrong kind of underwear negatively affects vaginal health avoid them.

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The Ndigbo Unity Forum (NUF), a pan-Igbo socio-political group, claimed that traders have lost about N15 billion since Nigerian authorities shut the borders with neighbouring countries.





The President of NUF, Mr Augustine Chukwudum, disclosed this in Enugu on Saturday.





He decried economic hardship being faced by Nigerians, especially traders nationwide and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to consider re-opening the borders for legitimate trade to ease the gradual economic suffocation in the country.





According to him, NUF, disturbed by the plight of traders, went on a fact-finding mission in Lagos, Aba, Onitsha, Nnewi and Nkpor Markets and discovered that traders have lost over N15 billion in sales already.





According to our findings, 80 per cent of the major customers that trade with Nigeria traders come from Togo, Cameroun, Chad, Gabon, Congo and other African countries.





It is unfortunate that some people are misleading the president by advising him to engage in blanket closure of our official borders that have all government security agencies that are fully in charge of checkmating unwanted imported goods into the country.

This situation has thereby created serious and avoidable economic hardship to the suffering masses by stopping the movement of goods from Nigeria to other countries.





In as much as NUF support President Buharis agriculture agenda, the government must not deprive traders economic right with border closure, which has brought untold hardship on them and Nigerian masses, he said.





The NUF boss noted that the group was raising the alarm because the Federal Government got it wrong by stopping the movement of goods from Nigeria to other countries.
The Onion Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria (OPMAN) said on Monday that the country could generate about $420 million (about N151 billion) annually from onion cultivation.

OPMANs Secretary-General, Mr Aliyu Maitasamu, said this at the 2019 General Assembly of Regional Observatory of Onion Sector in West and Central Africa, in Sokoto.

According to him, Nigeria cultivates 1.1 million tonnes, out of the 2.5 million tonnes being demanded in West Africa.

He said that the existing deficit of oil production was about 1.4 billion tonnes in Nigeria, adding that if the country maximised its full potential in onion production, it could generate up to $420 million every year.

The secretary-general noted that Nigeria was the sixth major onion producer in the world, second in Africa and first in West Africa.

According to him, onion farmers are faced with storage challenges, noting that about 60 percent of onions harvested are lost due to poor storage system.

Maitasamu appealed to federal and state governments to construct modern storage facilities, provide more markets, educate farmers on enhanced production techniques and provide improved seedlings.

He noted that Sokoto was the highest onion producing state, with 169,300 tonnes annually, followed by Adamawa and Kebbi.

El-Hadji Kadri, President, Regional Observatory of Onion Sector in West and Central Africa, said participants were drawn from Nigeria, Niger Republic, Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana.

Kadri said that the present border closure in Nigeria would surely enhance more onion production, and urged farmers to utilise the opportunity to produce more for internal consumption.

He, however, said that the possibilities for re-opening the borders should be considered for producers to export their commodities to foreign markets.

Kadri urged governments and stakeholders to engage in more awareness, to modernise onion processing and increase its value chain, as obtained in developed nations.

In his remarks, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, lauded the associations efforts and assured of supports, in line with efforts on agricultural development package.

Tambuwal, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Arzuka Tureta, enjoined onion farmers to access available farming support.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, who was represented by his Deputy, Col. Samaila Yombe-Dabai (rtd.), also pledged more support and encouragement for onion farmer to enhance increased investment. (NAN)
NORMAL  Theres a magic box in Normal where art appears and disappears, said Emily Serapin.

Just over a year ago, the Normal wife and mother installed a Free Little Art Gallery, or FLAG, on a property near the corner of Florence and Fell streets in south Normal. She primarily built it herself, with assistance from her husband, Tim Serapin, 48.

The little gallery is adorned with bright, crafty signage and a red paintbrush affixed as a door handle. The wooden container features colorfully painted art pedestals, and follows similar concepts of costless caches of food pantries or mini-libraries that have sprouted up around town.

Emily Serapin, 50, said she got the idea to build one after Daniella Ramos Barroquerio, owner of the Little Art School in downtown Bloomington, shared a photo of a free little gallery she found on social media. Ramos Barroquerio had asked in her post who wanted to try out a FLAG, and Serapin said she responded to that call.

She said she believes the free gallery is the first in town, and she is working with Ramos Barroquerio to add one to her art school.Serapin said she loves woodworking and she comes from a crafting family. Whats unique to her FLAG installation, she said, is she provides a stack of placards for artists to sign their name, and for art appreciators to sign out the piece they adopted.

Artists of all ages and experience levels are invited to contribute self-made pieces of art that are smaller than 8 inches by 10 inches in size. While art adopters are not required to contribute, a sign encourages people to help keep the gallery full and spread the word. Adopters are limited to taking one item.

It took a while for the gallery to get started from its November 2022 install, Serapin said, since traffic by the gallery slows down in colder months. But this spring and summer, she said it took off.

Tim Serapin said that with bus stops on either ends of the block, the gallery draws the attention of kids going home, plus the dog walkers. He added not everyone takes an item, as some just appreciate they neat things they see inside.

Some items are stocked by Serapins family, including Emilys 83-year-old father, Oliver Miller, of Girard. Miller has displayed several items of woodworking, such as calligraphy, bowls and a carving of a cat.

Another item displayed Sunday was a digitally produced print depiction of a flapper doll, which was made by Serapins 14-year-old child, Reese. Serapin said they love to draw and sculpt.

Emily Serapin said her favorite item thats been dropped off is a Princess Book, signed by an artist named Lucy. It portrays Cinderella meeting a prince.

I love when kids get involved, just because hopefully it encourages them to do art through their whole life, Serapin said.

She said the idea of a FLAG has become a cool trend thats spread around the country.

As of June 2023, the Free Little Art Galleries website stated 413 of their galleries were registered around the world, with most FLAGs found in the United Stated. Around nine are in the Chicago area, making Serapins the only one registered in Illinois outside of the big city.

Tim Serapin said they had visitor travel in from out of state who was touring all the free little galleries in the country.

Emily Serapin also said its become a social experiment, as we get to see how people interact.

Sometimes the gallery gets emptied and shell wonder who the works are going to, she continued. If theres a lot in the gallery, she said thats great.

She said the tough part has been getting enough contributions to put in the gallery, since a lot of times they have more people take than contribute.

She said thats what they expect, and they have the gallery there for people to just enjoy. She said some people pass by on their walks just to see whats inside.

Thats included Illinois State University students. Tim Serapin said they had handmade pens in the gallery and one was taken by a Redbird, who left a note stating theyd use it for their finals.

My lucky pen, quoted Emily Serapin.

Those interested in following Normals Free Little Art Gallery or who have questions should follow or reach out to the Facebook page BloNo Free Little Art Gallery, at facebook.com/blonoflag.

Photos: Art fans flock to Sugar Creek Arts Fest SUGAR CREEK ARTS FESTIVAL 100223-blm-loc-2sugarcreek .JPG 100223-blm-loc-3sugarcreek .JPG 100223-blm-loc-4sugarcreek.JPG
(CNN)  Dog lovers, meet the Lancashire heeler  the 201st breed recognized by the American Kennel Club and the newest member of its Herding Group, the club recently announced.

The breed of canine, described as one of the smallest herding and working dogs in the world, received official recognition on January 1, when the dogs became eligible to compete, according to the American Kennel Club.

The Lancashire heeler is a medium- to high-energy breed known for its heeler smile, which emulates a human grin. It was first recognized in 1981 by the British Kennel Club, according to the United States Lancashire Heeler Club.

There are an estimated 400 Lancashire heelers in the US, according to Sheryl Bradbury, the US Lancashire Heeler Clubs president.

The breed was placed on the British Kennel Clubs endangered breeds list in 2003 due to the small number of dogs composing the gene pool and the risk of several inherited diseases, according to the AKC.

Bradbury helped the breed along its journey of getting recognized stateside since it was first entered in 2001 in the American Kennel Clubs Foundation Stock Service, a record-keeping service for purebred breeds that arent registrable with the AKC, according to a news release.

The US Lancashire Heeler Club started the process in 2017 of having the breed join the AKCs Miscellaneous Class, and in April 2023, it was announced the breed would become eligible to compete in the Herding Group this year, according to the release.

Getting officially recognized as a member of the Herding Group required proof of a minimum of 20 litters bred with a three-generation pedigree. This ensures that the breed is established and sustainable, according to the AKC.

The energetic, alert and friendly Lancashire heeler, with standard coat colors of either black and tan or liver and tan, is thought to have come from the crossbreeding of Welsh corgis with the Manchester terrier in the 17th century, the release stated.

The dogs can weigh up to 17 pounds and can live up to 15 years.

The-CNN-Wire

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Every new dog breed recognized in the 21st century Every new dog breed recognized in the 21st century 2000: Spinone Italiano 2001: Polish lowland sheepdog 2003: German pinscher 2003: Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever 2003: Toy fox terrier 2004: Black Russian terrier 2004: Glen of Imaal terrier 2004: Neapolitan mastiff 2006: Plott 2006: Tibetan mastiff 2007: Beauceron 2007: Swedish vallhund 2008: Dogue de Bordeaux 2009: Bluetick coonhound 2009: Boykin spaniel 2009: Irish red and white setter 2009: Norwegian buhund 2009: Pyrenean shepherd 2009: Redbone coonhound 2010: Cane corso 2010: Icelandic sheepdog 2010: Leonberger 2011: American English coonhound 2011: Cesky terrier 2011: Entlebucher mountain dog 2011: Finnish Lapphund 2011: Norwegian lundehund 2011: Xoloitzcuintli 2012: Russell terrier 2012: Treeing Walker coonhound 2013: Chinook 2013: Portuguese podengo pequeno 2013: Rat terrier 2014: Coton de Tulear 2014: Wirehaired vizsla 2015: Bergamasco 2015: Berger Picard 2015: Boerboel 2015: Cirneco dell'Etna 2015: Lagotto Romagnolo 2015: Miniature American shepherd 2015: Spanish water dog 2016: American hairless terrier 2016: Pumi 2016: Sloughi 2017: Nederlandse kooikerhondje 2018: Grand basset griffon Vendeen 2019  Azawakh 2020  Barbet 2020  Dogo Argentino 2020  Belgian Laekenois 2021  Biewer terrier 2022  Bracco Italiano 2022  Mudi 2022  Russian toy
NORMAL  Police are investigating a report of shots fired early Sunday morning in Normal.

Normal Police Department Sgt. Brad Underwood said the gunfire was reported at 3:55 a.m. Sunday near Flora Way and Vernon Avenue. He said officers found casings at the scene.

No injuries were reported and no suspect information is available, according to Underwood.

NPD is continuing to investigate. Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact NPD at 309-454-9535.

Anonymous tips can be provided through the department's Tip411 service by texting NORMALPD to 847411; leave a space and then enter the tip.

Tips can also be submitted through NPD's mobile app.

One city's surprising tactic to reduce gun violence: Solving more nonfatal shootings One city's surprising tactic to reduce gun violence: Solving more nonfatal shootings Other cities have woken up to Denver's example
How Time Flies is a daily feature looking back at Pantagraph archives to revisit what was happening in our community and region. 100 years ago

Jan. 8, 1924: It was a great gathering at the Scottish Rite Temple last night when the annual dinner of the Association of Commerce was held, drawing together the various corners of the community. New officers are Milton R. Livingston, president; Adolph Wochner, treasurer; and J.H. Hudson, secretary. The Hon. J. Adam Bede of Minnesota was speaker.

75 years ago

Jan. 8, 1949: Central Illinois residents who will be unable to go to the annual Association of Commerce banquet Tuesday night (Jan. 11) will have an opportunity to meet Alben W. Barkley, vice president-elect, that afternoon. While the reception beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Illinois hotel is sponsored by Democratic party leaders, the affair is open to the public.

50 years ago

Jan. 8, 1974: Among the items under discussion when state lawmakers gather in Springfield may be the creation of a 51st state, carved out of Illinois. Rep. Charles Keller, D-Effingham, said he and about 14 other legislators are giving serious thought to the introduction of a bill that would petition Congress to make the 96 counties beyond the Chicago metropolitan area another state.

25 years ago

Jan. 8, 1999: The city of Bloomington has a new committee and roughly $400,000 to begin enacting a plan to beautify downtown, add character and culture, and make it more prosperous. Chicago consulting firm Camiros Ltd. began drafting the plan, unveiled this week, in 1997.
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The parliamentary legislation and judiciary committee passed a bill Monday banning the butchering and distribution of dog meat in a step to end the traditional practice that has fallen out of favor in recent decades.

Under the bill, raising or slaughtering dogs for meat consumption and distributing or selling dog meat will be banned, with those butchering dogs facing a maximum prison term of three years or a fine of up to 30 million won ($22,768).

Those who raise dogs for meat or distribute them can face a maximum term of two years or a fine of up to 20 million won. The proposed legislation seeks to enforce the penalties after a three-year grace period.

Dog meat farms, distributors and restaurants will also have to register their businesses with regional governments. The bill also includes support measures from the state or regional governments for such businesses to close down.

According to government statistics last year, there were around 1,150 dog meat farms across the country.

The bill is expected to be put to a vote at a plenary session of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

In November, the government and the ruling People Power Party decided to pass special legislation to put an end to dog meat consumption, which has dramatically declined in recent decades amid perceptions that the tradition is becoming an international embarrassment.

Still, advocates argue people should have the freedom to choose what they eat.

Dog meat stew, called "boshintang" in Korean, is no longer popular among younger generations, but some older South Koreans still consider it a delicacy, particularly during the summer months. (Yonhap)
SPRINGFIELD  The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a downstate Illinois lawmaker's request for a review of a 2023 state Supreme Court decision upholding the state's assault weapons ban.

Caulkins told Lee Enterprises that the decision was "disappointing" though not surprising. The court typically receives about 6,000 petitions per term and about 60 to 70 are usually granted, meaning the chances of success were slim.

"They're busy," Caulkins said. "Our case didn't set a legal precedent and was probably not something that they felt that they had time to devote to, I guess."

Caulkins had argued that the Illinois Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling upholding the ban denied plaintiffs their due process right to a fair hearing due to the participation of two justices with perceived conflicts.

Justices Mary Kay O'Brien and Elizabeth Rochford, both Democrats elected to the state's high court in 2022, received $500,000 from Pritzker's campaign and $500,000 from Pritzker's personal trust during the campaign.

The pair also received endorsements from gun control lobbying groups Gun Violence Prevention PAC and Giffords PAC.

Lawmakers passed and Pritzker signed the legislation banning semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines in January. It took effect immediately, making Illinois the ninth state in the country with a ban on the books.

"I still don't feel like we got a fair hearing at the Illinois Supreme Court," Caulkins said. "Just because the Supreme Court did not take our case for review doesn't change the facts that the two Illinois Supreme Court justices accepted millions of dollars in donations from gun control advocates."

Rochford wrote the majority opinion upholding the ban while O'Brien dissented, actually siding with Caulkins in the case.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett last month denied Caulkins' request for an injunction while the cert petition was considered. A day later, the full court declined a similar request to block the law as federal lawsuits continue.

In November, a three-member judicial panel on Chicago-based U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the state's ban in a 2-1 decision. Gun rights advocates are likely to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court.

One city's surprising tactic to reduce gun violence: Solving more nonfatal shootings One city's surprising tactic to reduce gun violence: Solving more nonfatal shootings Other cities have woken up to Denver's example
There was a near-altercation over an attempt to export gold to the Emirates last Tuesday 2 January 2024 as a result of a tussle over ownership of Adamus Resources Ltd, a gold mining Company operating from the Western Region.



The squabble has resulted in an injunction filed by one of the two parties involved in the legal battle.



According to Peacefmonline sources at the KIA, persons who have been restrained by the court, allegedly aided by some powerful political hands in government, attempted to smuggle huge sums of gold to the Emirates,



This was despite a court injunction barring the directors of Adamus involved in the case from further transacting business in the name of Adamus Resources Ltd.



It would be recalled that an Accra High Court, in its order on December 21, 2023, restrained one of the parties in the person of Angela List and the other two directors appointed to the Board of Adamus Ghana, to cease taking decisions that might impact the operations of the mining company until the final determination of the case.



Notices of the said injunction application have also been served on all interested parties at the Aviance Cargo Village, including the PMMC, NACOC, Customs/GRA, National Security, Swissport, and others, to primarily prevent the afore-mentioned parties from engaging in any gold export trade in the name of Adamus.



This move was prompted by an attempt to ship four boxes of gold weighing a total of 58069 grammes to the Emirate via KLM on Tuesday, January 2, 2024, without the prior consent and approval of an Interim Management Committee of Adamus. This was later thwarted by an application for injuction.



Peacefmonline.com is reliable informed that several attempts by some security heads at the KIA to assist in exporting the gold notwithstanding a pending application for injunction were unsuccessful.



This was in spite of counter documents submitted by the alleged directors to the stakeholders who were earlier this week served with the injunction notice restraining them from carrying out further activities in the name of Adamus Resources.



The stakeholders at both the KIA and Aviance Cargo Village have been warned that if they continue to aid those restrained by the court in exporting gold in the name of Adamus Resources, they could be cited for contempt of Court.



The public is therefore urged to avoid any further business activities with unauthorised persons claiming to be director/s of Adamus, particularly in terms of exporting gold in the name of Adamus Resources Ltd, according to court documents.

The Accra High Court ordered the formation of an interim management committee (IMC), where each of the parties is expected to nominate two representatives.



Whereas the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and Adamus Australia have made their appointments to the IMC since the order of the court on the 27th of July 2023, some disgruntled elements who once served in the top echelons of Adamus Resources Ltd, still hold themselves out as directors and continue to transact unsanctioned activities in the company's name.



Background



Adamus Australia, the firm's 90% shareholder, is contesting a supposed transfer of its shares to Angela List via her company, Nguvu Mining, and is preventing her from transacting business for and on behalf of the company.



Concerned about the continuous export of gold by Angela List and the other restrained directors, Adamus Australia filed an injunction application at the high court on 3/1/2024 to prevent any further gold export by the restrained directors unless authorised by members of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) ordered by the Court on the 27th of July 2023.



The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources appointed Lawyer Juliet Osei-Wusu (Mrs) to lead the five-member IMC, while Adamus Australia appointed two members.



Nguvu Mining has yet to indicate its two appointments to the IMC; instead, it has presented to Accra Airport authorities an application purportedly filed on behalf of Adamus Ghana to persuade them to disregard a pending application for an injunction to stop gold shipments by the restrained directors.



On December 21, 2013, the Court determined that processes filed by Ferociter Law on behalf of Adamus Ghana following the instructions of the restrained directors, found that they were not authorised and same were dismissed.



An application for contempt against the restrained directors and the Commissioner for Customs has previously been filed but is yet to be heard.



Customs officials, security personnel, and airport authorities are taking precautions to avoid incurring the Court's wrath by supporting the restrained directors and Brinks SI in exporting gold from Adamus Ghana Ltd until the injunction application is decided on 25/1/24.

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The South African presidency has dismissed social media reports claiming President Cyril Ramaphosa had been taken ill and was admitted to a military hospital in the capital, Pretoria.



This is after Mr Ramaphosa failed to attend a meeting organized by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday in Mpumalanga province.



The ANC announced that Mr Ramaphosa had been excused from the meeting due to an unexplained emergency.



The announcement sparked rumours and speculations about the president's health.



"The president is fine, he was never hospitalised, and there was no emergency," presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.



Mr Magwenya said the president decided to spend the rest of the day at home "ahead of a busy week", terming the rumours "malicious".

Source: BBC









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Elon Musk is allegedly taking illegal drugs including ecstasy and cocaine, a lifestyle choice that is concerning his executives and board members at this companies, the Wall Street Journal reports.



In recent years, some executives and board members at his companies and others close to the billionaire have become increasingly concerned that his drug use is fueling his erratic behavior.



Their concern for the tech tycoon's health extends towards the potential consequences for his six businesses, including Tesla and SpaceX, sources told the Journal.



Musk is bound up with and essential to the value of his companies, potentially putting at risk around $1 trillion in assets held by investors, tens of thousands of jobs and big parts of the US space program.



Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, said that the CEO told the Journal Musk 'regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test.'



Musk smoked marijuana on the Joe Rogan show and has publicly discussed his prescription for the psychedelic-like ketamine.



However, witnesses told the Journal that the X owner has also used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private exclusive parties around the world where guests have to sign NDAs and hand in their phones to avoid photos being taken.



In 2018, for example, he took multiple tabs of acid at a party he hosted in Los Angeles, the Journal reported.



The next year he allegedly consumed magic mushrooms at an event in Mexico and in 2021 took ketamine recreationally with his brother at a house party in Miami.



The billionaire has even taken drugs with current SpaceX and former Tesla board member Steve Jurvetson, according to the Journal.



Those close to the 52-year-old are now reportedly concerned that the extent of his drug taking could cause of health crisis or a crisis for his businesses.



SpaceX is the only U.S. company now approved to transport NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station.



However, illegal drug use would likely be a violation of federal policies that could jeopardize SpaceX's billions of dollars in government contracts.



Musk's drug use and the volatile behavior it can exacerbate has already led to resignations at the top of Musk's businesses, the Journal reports.



Linda Johnson Rice, a former Tesla director, allegedly became increasingly concerned with Musk's drug taking and so frustrated with his behavior that she didn't stand for re-election to the company's board in 2019, people familiar with the matter told the publication.



Serious concerns over Musk's drug taking were raised in 2017 when at a SpaceX meeting about the Big Falcon Rocket prototype Musk was slurring his words and rambled somewhat incomprehensibly for fifteen minutes, according the the Journal's sources.



SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell reportedly stepped in and took over the meeting.



After the meeting SpaceX executives reportedly talked privately about their concerns that Musk was on drugs.



One described told the Journal the event was 'nonsensical,' 'unhinged' and 'cringeworthy.'



In 2018 Musk was in hot water with NASA after publically smoking marijuana with Joe Rogan.



This raised concerns among executives and board members as its showed the potential business impact Musk's behavior could have.



Board members were again concerned that Musk may have been under the influence of drugs when he tweeted his intentions to take Tesla private in 2018.



The tweet brought on an SEC investigation and resulted in Musks agreement to step down as Tesla chairman for a time.

Source: Dailymail









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The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia says Ghanaians have already 'abandoned' the NPP and its followers, hence it'll be better for them to start preparing to hand over.



Truth is Ghanaians have already abandoned the NPP and their followers. Therefore, the NPP ministers, the wisest thing to do now is to start preparing your handing over notes, he said at a Press Conference on Monday.



Indelible Ink



Meanwhile, the NDC has again opposed the Electoral Commission's (EC) decision not to use indelible ink as part of voter identification in the 2024 general elections.



The Electoral Commission says the indelible ink will not be used in the 2024 general elections.



According to the Commission, it is replacing the ink with a biometric authentication system which will serve the same purpose as the ink by disallowing any person from engaging in double voting.



However, highlighting the importance of the ink during the Monday presser, Asiedu Nketiah urged the EC to reconsider its decision.







Source: Peacefmonline.com









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This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Potential for avian influenza viral mixing, and emergence of new variants, among various animal species. Potential mixing vessel hosts are grouped based on frequency of infection, human proximity, high population numbers, and presence of both avian- and human-type receptors. A diverse range of type A subtypes can be found among different animals in each group. "High probability" mixing vessel hosts include humans, pigs, minks, ferrets, seals, dogs, cats, and birds, particularly turkeys, chickens, quails, and ducks. "Medium probability" hosts are nonhuman primates, raccoons, camels, pikas, zoo animals, including tigers and lions, and horses. "Low probability" hosts include foxes, bats, and whales. After Abdelwhab and Mettenleiter (2023). Credit: Frontiers in Veterinary Science (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1310303

Research shows that three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases are passed from animals to humans; an illness of this type is known as zoonosis (plural: zoonoses). Farm animals, especially pigs and poultry, pose a high risk of zoonotic infection.

Zoonoses involve numerous types of animals. Industrialized intensive animal farming (IIAF) destroys wild animal habitats, leading to closer association among wild animals and people, thus raising the risk of infection transmission by wild animals.

However, while existing research shows that approximately 75% of zoonoses can be traced to wild animal species, the rest originate from domesticated animals, including farmed animals. On many farms throughout the world that raise poultry and pigs for meat, animals are kept in crowded, unhygienic conditions, which raise zoonotic risk.

In a new review, researchers from the U.K.'s University of Winchester and Australia's Griffith University examine the risks of keeping chickens and pigs in intensive farming environments and in crowded quarters. The work is published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

Zoonotic agents and high-risk conditions

Zoonotic agents include bacteria, fungi, parasites, protozoa, and viruses that incubate in animal hosts. Of these agents, virusesespecially influenza viruses, which infect the digestive and respiratory tracts of their host animals and humansrepresent the most serious risk.

Zoonotic spread frequently occurs through humans' direct contact with the saliva or droppings of an infected animal, or through environmental contamination.

Overall, the conditions that heighten zoonosis risk throughout the world include:

Record numbers of humans (8 billion as of November 2022); farmed chickens (25 billion at any one time) and farmed pigs (1 billion at any one time)

Close human proximity to farmed animals

Suboptimal breeding and living conditions for farmed chickens and pigs

The worldwide presence and internationalization of IIAF

IIAF disruption of ecosystems due to its outsized land and resource requirements

Specific locations of IIAF operations

Misconceptions that farmed animals both present and are subject to low risk

The new study discusses in detail the ramifications of each of these factors.

Well-known examples of zoonoses include outbreaks of Asian flu (H2N2 virus) in the late 1950s and Hong Kong flu (H3N2 virus) in the late 1960s, both transmitted to humans via infected chickens; and swine flu (H1N1 virus, transmitted to humans via infected pigs), which originated in 1919 and is still in circulation.

Antimicrobial use makes matters worse. A 2023 study in PLoS Global Public Health shows that globally, farmed animals consume 73% of all antimicrobials in use, and that by 2030 this percentage is expected to grow by 8%.

Global number of farmed chickens slaughtered and global cases of H5N1 in humans between 1961 and 2022. An H5 vaccine was introduced in 2017. H5N1 case data are from the CDC with records beginning in 1997; number of chickens slaughtered are from the UN FAO. After Kessler et al., Viruses (2021). Credit: Frontiers in Veterinary Science (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1310303

A brief overview of influenza viruses

A paper published in Viruses in 2023 delineates four types of influenza viruses, each of which has a unique genome and affects a specific group of hosts:

Type A (extensive variety of birds and mammals)

Type B (humans and pigs)

Type C (humans, pigs and seals)

Type D (cattle and a few other ruminants, horses and pigs)

The researchers of this new study have focused their work on type A, as it is the most common. It has been divided into numerous "H" and "N" subtypes based on the presence of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase proteins on its surface, giving rise to specific strain names such as H2N2 virus.

Type A influenza has dominated chiefly because it can both shift and drift antigenically. The researchers explain that when two different strains infect a single host, antigenic shift can take place, possibly resulting in a new strain of type A virus. Meanwhile, if the host has developed any immunity to the virus, it may mutate over a longer period of time and overpower this immunity. This is antigenic drift.

Viruses and mixing vessels

Host animals that can be simultaneously infected by two or more influenza strains are known as mixing vessels, existing as prime sites for virus mutation and emergence of new strains containing genetic material transmitted from existing strains. Infections of this type have great potential to lead to a public health emergency.

"All four major influenza pandemics have stemmed from avian influenzas that formed new types in humans, pigs, or in another currently undetermined mixing vessel host. Further mixing can also occur via reverse zoonotic infection, whereby influenzas within humans can transmit to other animals, allowing further mixing to occur with any other influenza strains present within those animals," the paper states.

Recommended mitigation measures

Recommending definitively against the notion that there is a single, easy way to adequately reduce zoonotic risk among farmed poultry and pigs, the researchers conclude by discussing, in the context of currently existing conditions, specific risk mitigation recommendations. These include:

Biosecurity

Vaccinations

Reduction of farmed animal consumption by the public

Restructuring of poultry and pig farming to boost animal welfare through improving breeding practices while reducing antibiotic use and animal housing density, and

Phasing out approvals of applications for new and expanded industrialized intensive animal farms.

More information: Jenny L. Mace et al, Influenza risks arising from mixed intensive pig and poultry farms, with a spotlight on the United Kingdom, Frontiers in Veterinary Science (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1310303 Journal information: PLOS Global Public Health

 2024 Science X Network
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Hebo Peng is observing the birds. Credits: Hanming Tu. Credit: Hanming Tu

On the mudflats along the Chinese coasts where benign forms of aquaculture are practiced, shorebirds like knots and bar-tailed godwits are doing relatively well. That is shown in the dissertation that NIOZ Ph.D. candidate and biologist He-Bo Peng will defend at the University of Groningen on January 15.

"The culturing of shellfish is by no means a way of nature conservation, but at least it keeps the mudflats in China and the bird food in a better condition than without this aquaculture," Peng says.

Long-term monitoring

Peng was the first to design a systematic survey of large parts of the intertidal mudflats along the 18.000 km of the Chinese coast. Between 2015 and 2023, he and his colleagues sampled 2,000 points in 40 different locations yearly, analyzing soil properties and living organisms found in the mud. The sampling was designed after the SIBES program, which has been running since 2008 on a grid with 5,000 locations in the Dutch Wadden Sea.

"The work of Peng was one of the first that 'exported' our SIBES-design to international waters," the scientific coordinator of this monitoring program, NIOZ biologist Allert Bijleveld says. "We are thrilled to see this long-term program copied to other important nature areas worldwide."

"My main finding was that the majority of the 'bird food' that we found in the mud was linked to the culturing of shellfish," Peng says.

"Overall, the number of waders like the great and the red knot is in decline along the Chinese coast, but at least on the locations where shellfish like Potamocorbula laevis were cultured in an extensive way, red knots, as well as curlew sandpipers, were doing relatively well. You can, therefore, say this aquaculture is a blessing in disguise for the migratory birds that depend on these ecosystems."

Reclaiming land

The coast of the Yellow Sea has a long history of land reclamation for housing and industry. This reclaiming of land has stopped in most locations, and there is even a modest increase in the surface of mud flats in some parts.

Peng says, "On the locations where aquaculture has also stopped, we see an almost unlimited exploitation of the mud flats by the local community. Therefore, the controlled management in aquaculture is a relatively good way to preserve at least some of the natural qualities of the intertidal flats."

In his dissertation, Peng advises to "listen to the mud."

"This work is just a modest start of our understanding of these very important staging areas for birds on migration between eastern Siberia and Oceania. Through the continuation of the long-term monitoring of the mud flats, as well as through tracking of birds with high tech transmitters, we can learn so much more in our quest for understanding of these ecosystems," Peng says.

Professor in global flyway ecology Theunis Piersma stresses the importance of the work of his Ph. D. candidate. "Peng has shown that along the entire 18,000 km of the coastline, from the temperate climate in the north to the tropical parts in the south, biodiversity has homogenized under the influence of aquaculture. Given the intense use by local communities, returning these mudflats to true natural ecosystems will be a daunting task."

"But the incredible amount of work that Peng has doneand hopefully will continue to doto monitor these ecosystems will at least help us guide that process, should China choose to protect both the international traveling birds as well as the benthic biodiversity."
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

NASA has onboarded another integral partner to its lunar plans by striking a deal with the United Arab Emirates to build part of its lunar Gateway space station and send one of the Arab country's astronauts on a future Artemis mission.

The deal with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center means the UAE will be responsible for providing the Crew and Science Airlock module to the small station that will act as a temporary home for astronauts during crewed missions at first to the moon, but in time to deep-space destinations including Mars.

It also means a UAE astronaut will get to fly to the station building on the small country's burgeoning space program that most recently sent its second astronaut to space as part of the six-month-long Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station in 2023.

"As chair of the National Space Council, I have made it a priority to enhance international cooperation in space," said Vice President Kamala Harris in a press release. "Today's announcement and partnership between the United States and United Arab Emirates advances this important work. By combining our resources, scientific capacity, and technical skill, the U.S. and UAE will further our collective vision for space and ensure it presents extraordinary opportunities for everyone here on Earth."

The UAE joins the U.S., European Space Agency, Japan and Canada among partners on Artemis projects. Russia, which is a partner with the ISS, opted out of involvement with NASA's moon plans.

Ahead of his flight on Crew-6, UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi voiced his hopes his country would have a bigger role to play in deep space.

"We are looking toward missions further into space are looking to join Artemis hopefully in the future. I would love to see a UAE flag on the lunar surface carried on the shoulder of a UAE astronaut," he said. "Yes I think the UAE is doing a very good job and in the coming 10 years I think we'll be following the international efforts toward going to space and pushing the boundaries of exploration."

He followed the first UAE astronaut, Hazzaa Al-Mansoori, who flew to the space station for an eight-day stay in 2019 in a Soyuz capsule riding with Russian cosmonauts. AlNeyadi and AlMansoori were the first two selected for the country's program when it put the call out in 2017, chosen in 2018 among 4,000 applicants. Already, two other UAE astronauts continue to train with NASA in Houston for consideration on future flights.

The UAE's space program has a lot of parts in play. It launched a probe to Mars in 2020 that successfully entered orbit in 2021 and in 2022 had sent a rover as a passenger on a commercial lunar lander that was destroyed when that lander failed to make a successful soft landing several months later in 2023. Those missions along with Earth observation satellites and its growing astronaut plans are the realization of the four facets of the UAE space center that was established in 2006. Its new astronaut class includes the country's first woman as well.

Making a flight to Gateway doesn't mean the UAE astronaut will walk on the moon, though.

Having completed the successful uncrewed Artemis I flight in 2022, NASA is gearing up to send Artemis II with three NASA and one Canadian astronaut on a short trip around the moon as early as November this year. NASA's current timeline still puts Artemis III as early as December 2025. That's supposed to be the first mission to send humans, including the first woman, back to the surface of the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.

That mission, though, is dependent on SpaceX completing its Starship and Super Heavy rocket as well as Axiom Space completing new deep-space spacesuits.

NASA's Jim Free, who recently took on the role of Associate Administrator, the top civil servant in NASA, said in 2023 that SpaceX or other commercial partner delays tied to a lunar landing could mean a shuffle in Artemis missions so that Gateway plans move up the manifest.

Gateway's timeline for now is tied to Artemis IV, currently on NASA's long-term budget to not occur until at least 2028. It's designed to fly with a bigger version of the Space Launch System rocket with more payload space that has yet to be constructed.

NASA announced it would detail Artemis mission updates during a press conference this Tuesday.

Gateway, which is planned to be about one-sixth the size of the ISS, will offer pressurized temporary living quarters about the size of a studio apartment, and act as a command center for lunar missions. It will feature docking ports for spacecraft like the Orion but also lunar landers and resupply craft.

The outpost is not meant for continuous human presence, but will have the power element as well as the eventual addition of a habitation space, capable of supporting four astronauts for 30 to 60 days.

For the UAE, which will also provide continued engineering support for Gateway, the airlock its providing will allow for crew and science to move from the station's pressurized habitable environment into the vacuum of space. This will be the entry and exit point for astronauts to perform spacewalks such as maintenance on the station and allow for more deep-space science.

"The United States and the United Arab Emirates are marking a historic moment in our nations' collaboration in space, and the future of human space exploration," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in the release.

"We are in a new era of exploration through Artemisstrengthened by the peaceful and international exploration of space. The UAE's provision of the airlock to Gateway will allow astronauts to conduct groundbreaking science in deep space and prepare to one day send humanity to Mars."

2024 Orlando Sentinel. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Scientists have completed the first comprehensive estimate of mountain lions in California, a vital statistic needed to shape puma-friendly land-use decisions and ensure that the predators can find room to roam, mate and find prey.

The total number of mountain lions is estimated to be between 3,200 and 4,500, which is thousands fewer than previously thought. The count was conducted by state and university scientists who used GPS collar data and genetic information from scat samples to model population densities across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Mojave Desert and Southern California's patchwork of weedy, fire-stripped wilderness.

"The greatest density is in the coastal forests of Humboldt and Mendocino counties of Northwest California, and lowest is the high desert east of the Sierra Nevada range in Inyo County," said Justin Dellinger, a large-carnivore biologist and leader of the California Mountain Lion Project effort. "The Central Valley and portions of the Mojave Desert have no mountain lions."

A report on the project's findings will be reviewed by experts prior to publication in a scientific journal later this year.

"There's never been a study of this scale and over such a large and diverse geographical area with such a variety of habitats," said Winston Vickers, a co-author of the study and a veterinarian at the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife had for decades estimated that the state's mountain lion population was roughly 6,000even despite relentless vehicle strikes, wildfires and encroachment by land-hungry humans throughout their range.

"That old figure was just a back-of-the-envelope calculation without much data to support it," Dellinger said. "The new, more accurate information we collected will be used to conserve and manage mountain lions more appropriately."

In a collaborative effort involving the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, the nonprofit Institute for Wildlife Studies and the nonprofit Audubon Canyon Ranch, Dellinger and others traipsed through mountain forests, canyons and desert badlands in search of tracks. They also set trail cameras and traps, tranquilized lions, took biological samples and fitted animals with tracking collars.

Dellinger said the group spent roughly $2.45 million in state funds over seven years to produce three population estimates: One suggests there are 4,511 cougars living in California, and the other two suggest the number is roughly 3,200.

Deciding which figure is most precise will be challenging for biologists tasked with reviewing the census report.

They already agree on one thing: Humans are the greatest threat to mountain lions. In California, close to 40 million people live within, or adjacent to, cougar habitat.

Mountain lions as a species are not listed as endangered. But in Southern California, vehicle strikes, rat poison, inbreeding, wildfires, poaching, urban encroachment and freeway systems are all contributing to what scientists call an "extinction vortex."

There's an almost 1 in 4 chance that the charismatic cats could be extinct in the Santa Monica and Santa Ana Mountains within 50 years.

The state Fish and Game Commission has granted cougars in six regionsfrom Santa Cruz to the U.S.-Mexico borderextra protection under "candidate status" to be listed as threatened.

The action came in response to a petition co-sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity and the nonprofit Mountain Lion Foundation. It argues that six isolated and genetically distinct cougar clans within those areas comprise a sub-population that is threatened with extinction.

The commission is expected to make a final decision later this year.

"We look forward to getting mountain lions the protection that is clearly warranted and desperately needed," said Brendan Cummings, the Center for Biological Diversity's conservation director.

The effect of the designation would be far-reaching.

If the state Fish and Game Commission agrees, the state Department of Transportation would not be allowed to build or expand highways in core mountain lion habitat without implementing adequate measures to ensure linkages and safe passage over them.

In addition, large-scale residential and commercial development could be prohibited or limited in mountain lion habitats within a region covering roughly a third of the state.

The new mountain lion population assessment comes at a time of ongoing efforts by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to identify and prioritize wildlife movement barriers across the state. It also comes at a time of growing support for wildlife crossings.

One such bridge is the $87-million Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, currently being constructed over a 10-lane stretch of the 101 Freeway near Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills.

In the meantime, officials are preparing new census campaigns to help guide development choices in areas where conflicts with other big predators over territory are testing public fortitude.

"The state is trying to get a black bear census off the ground," Dellinger said. "Having as much data as possible is always best for managing species like that, especially in places where wilderness is overcrowded with people."

2024 Los Angeles Times.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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CHARA Array false-color images of RW Cephei from December 2022 (left) and Jul 2023 (right). The patchy appearance results from dust created by a huge ejection from the star. The star is huge but it is so far away that it appears about one million times smaller than the full moon in the sky. Credit: Georgia State University / The CHARA Array

Astronomers from Georgia State University's CHARA Array have captured the first close-up images of a massive star known as RW Cephei that recently experienced a strange fading event. The images are providing new clues about what's happening around the massive star approximately 16,000 light years from Earth.

Detailed images and observations along with intelligent algorithms created by the team of scientists suggest a grand eruption that launched a gas cloud from RW Cephei, blocking a large fraction of starlight from view. Experts from Georgia State's CHARA Array presented the new findings at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans. The research is published in The Astronomical Journal.

Scientists were surprised last year by the fading of the enormous star, which is an example of a "cool hypergiant," a star that has grown to huge dimensions as it approaches the end of its life. RW Cephei is so large that if it were placed at the sun's location, its outer layers would reach beyond the orbit of Jupiter.

"We made our first CHARA observations in December 2022, just before the winter weather closure, but the results were so remarkable we decided to pursue additional observations once the star was accessible again," said Georgia State University astronomer Narsireddy Anugu, who led an international team of scientists in a quest to make the first close-up pictures of RW Cephei to determine the source of the fading.

Old stars display light variations that are related to changes in their outer layers. The changes are usually small, so scientists were amazed when astronomers Wolfgang Vollmann and Costantino Sigismondi announced in 2022 that RW Cephei had faded dramatically over the previous few years. By December 2022, RW Cephei had faded to about one-third of its normal brightness, an unprecedented drop. Scientists wanted to figure out what was causing this great dimming.

Despite its huge size, RW Cephei is so far away that it appears as a pinpoint even using the largest of conventional telescopes. To see the star close up required the remarkable abilities of the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array telescopes.

The CHARA Array is a six-telescope facility located at the historic Mount Wilson Observatory in California. The telescopes are placed across the mountaintop to act together like one enormous telescope. The combination of their light beams gives the CHARA Array the ability to see details on very tiny objects in the sky, about 30 times smaller than the largest conventional telescopes, and smaller than a human on the moon as seen from Earth.

The CHARA observations showed that the star did not appear round, as expected, but to make a picture with full details required specialized computer programs created by Georgia State University Associate Professor of Astronomy Fabien Baron.

"The spacing of the CHARA telescopes induces a level of uncertainty in the exact details of the pictures, so we need intelligent algorithms to recover the whole image," Baron said.

The final pictures show a star convulsed by motions in its outer layers that create fainter and brighter patches across its surface. Furthermore, the appearance changed significantly over the 10-month period of observations that coincided with the transition from its faintest state to a slow recovery toward its former brightness.

The final piece of the puzzle came from additional observations of RW Cephei that were made by Georgia State University graduate student Katherine Shepard at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. Shepard used a special camera to record the light from RW Cephei from the visible to the infrared, and these measurements showed that the fading was much larger in the visible colors compared to the infrared. This is a tell-tale sign that the starlight was obscured by microscopic dust clouds blocking our view.

Taken together, the observations suggest that RW Cephei experienced a huge eruption that launched a vast cloud of gas. As the cloud moved away, it cooled and created swarms of dust particles that effectively blocked a large fraction of starlight. Now, as the cloud expands away, we are beginning to see the star again and its troubled surroundings.

CHARA Director Douglas Gies thinks that this may be one of several grand eruptions that have wracked RW Cephei over the last century and that such eruptions will continue to play a role in mass loss before the star's demise.

"This one was special because the cloud was ejected in the direction of Earth, so we were in the right place to witness the full effects of the cataclysm," Gies said.

More information: Narsireddy Anugu et al, The Great Dimming of the Hypergiant Star RW Cephei: CHARA Array Images and Spectral Analysis, The Astronomical Journal (2023). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ace59d Journal information: Astronomical Journal
By Abhishek Sharma

The next era of geopolitics will be dictated not by those countries with only military power but by those innovating and investing in critical and emerging technology (CET) and controlling their supply chain.

Some countries have realized this necessity and are already working on developing and strengthening their CET capabilities.

However, this is also a collaborative effort that needs regional and global partnerships.

Partnerships forged in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to be pivotal in shaping global geopolitical and geoeconomic alignments.

The U.S. and India CET collaboration in the areas of AI, semiconductors, cybersecurity and critical minerals among others, stands out in the region.

However, this bilateral technology partnership will be further strengthened with the addition of another vital technology leader and innovator in the region, South Korea.

The idea of potential technology collaboration between India, South Korea and the U.S. was announced at the inaugural launch meeting of the Next Generation CET Dialogue between the U.S. and South Korea held in December last year. This would be India's third CET engagement after the U.S. and EU, and the first informal trilateral dialogue is expected to occur in the first quarter of this year.

Indias partnership in the CET domain was started by the national security agencies of India and the U.S. to establish a technology partnership framework to deepen strategic relations. It aimed to signal Indias increasing importance as a regional technology leader and highlight the importance to build open, accessible, secure and resilient technology systems and value chains, based on confidence and trust.

Such technology partnerships between democratic countries were seen as critical when surveillance and espionage influenced technology and its innovation.

This perspective is borrowed from the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, which reaffirms the importance of international-based rules and order in the region. The trilateral CET dialogue between the three shows that there is interest and recognition in both Seoul and New Delhi to collaborate in the CET sector, building on each others capabilities and reiterating the need to build open, secure and trusted CET.

Although the three countries can collaborate on many CETs, I have initially identified some strategic technology areas where the scope of collaboration between India, the U.S. and South Korea is much needed. These include semiconductor supply chains, AI, cyber security, quantum science and technology and critical mineral supply chains.

The semiconductor supply chain is an important sector led by South Korea and the U.S.

India can leverage the tech partnership to establish a holistic semiconductor ecosystem. The U.S. and South Korea can help India develop a resilient semiconductor supply chain in design, manufacturing and fabrication by identifying opportunities for strategic development between the countries. We have already seen some development through U.S.-India CET cooperation and this trilateral relationship can be used to build upon that foundation. The U.S. and South Korea can assist the Indian workforce in skilling and up-skilling to cater to their domestic demands.

All these efforts would further consolidate Indias role in the semiconductor supply chain. We have already seen some progress in this domain with major companies like Micron and LAM Research investing in India.

AI, cybersecurity and quantum computing are other areas where all countries need to work together to establish a responsible code of conduct, build principles and create standards.

The three countries can work on joint research projects on cyber-physical systems, AI and quantum technologies. Foremost, AI is a technology where all countries need to work together to ensure a balanced approach between mitigating risks and leveraging its commercial opportunities.

To realize this, there is a scope for international collaboration across platforms like the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) and the United Nations General Assembly on creating consensus. Besides, responsible use of AI in the military is an emerging issue where they can work together to build consensus, particularly after the recent incident where AI applications in the military have raised concerns.

South Korea will host the REAIM 2024 summit this year and inviting India would be a good start.

The cyber domain is another area that needs much attention, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, which is witnessing rising cybercrimes and cyber-attacks, like ransomware and attacks targeting critical infrastructure facilities. Democratic countries need to coordinate with each other in areas such as cyber approaches, cyber defense, information sharing and law enforcement.

On the quantum front, there is an opportunity to collaborate between academia, startups and industries to coordinate work towards quantum technologies like quantum communications and quantum science.

Lastly, critical minerals are considered the most important among these areas, as much of the technology stated above can be scaled only with a sustained supply of critical minerals, including rare earth elements. This initiative would add to the existing ones, such as critical mineral dialogue on supply chain stability under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and mineral security partnership, which all three are part of. South Korea and the U.S. can leverage existing bilateral cooperation with India and set up a trilateral dialogue mechanism, as done in the case of the U.S., South Korea and Mongolia, focused mainly on information exchange and cooperation on the critical mineral supply chain.

The U.S. and South Korea can explore joint investment initiatives and projects in India, similar to the rare earth project in Vietnam, after the opportunities in mining have opened up in exploration, with more liberal rules, policies and regulations in place. The trilateral mechanism would further catalyze and encourage private sector cooperation by establishing a critical mineral supply chain across upstream, midstream and downstream segments, and creating a system that adheres to the highest environmental, social and corporate governance standards. This would help India and others fix strategic vulnerabilities, achieve a net-zero target, and provide a secure and stable supply of minerals required in high and clean energy technologies.

The CET trilateral mechanism would help India attract much-needed investments and technology from South Korea and the presence of the U.S. makes the process much easier and trustworthy for Korean companies venturing out to find attractive options.

Going forward, the aim of the trilateral partnership should be to consolidate respective emerging technologies capabilities and capacities to strengthen strategic collaboration, to co-produce and co-develop CET, and to develop a secure and sustainable innovation ecosystem and CET supply chain in the three countries.

The CET partnerships need a robust mechanism through a multi-stakeholder approach between national scientific and academic institutions, startups, and industries working on CET, as we have seen between India and the U.S. under the i-CET initiative. If successful, the partnership can be replicated or expanded by including like-minded countries like Japan, Australia or Taiwan. This CET trilateral signals that this year is the right moment for New Delhi and Seoul to elevate their special strategic partnership beyond traditional domains, adding technology to the earlier stronger economic relationship. The big picture is that through this partnership, India, South Korea and the U.S. would be able to establish secure, safe and trusted supply chains for themselves as well as the Indo-Pacific region.

Abhishek Sharma is a research associate at Centre for Air Power Studies based in Delhi, India.
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The positions of all the stars targeted by COSMIC thus far with data recorded into a database of potential signals. We have collected data on over 485,000 sources across the frequency range of 2 to 45GHz. The coordinates of each small dot are a targeted star, and the filled-in patches of the sky represent regions mapped through the VLA Sky Survey, which surveyed the sky at a rate of 2000 sources per hour. Credit: SETI Institute

In a groundbreaking cosmic quest, the SETI Institute's Commensal Open-Source Multimode Interferometer Cluster (COSMIC) at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

This cutting-edge technology is not a distinct telescope; it's a detector. COSMIC searches for extraterrestrial signals and paves the way for future science using a copy of the raw data from the telescope's observations. At the heart of COSMIC's mission is pursuing the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe? Project scientist Dr. Chenoa Tremblay and the team detailed the project in a paper published in The Astronomical Journal.

What sets COSMIC apart is its adaptability to the future. The system is designed for future upgrades, ensuring it remains at the forefront of cosmic exploration. With the potential to expand its capabilities, COSMIC could soon cover more stars, explore new frequencies, and enhance our understanding of the vast cosmic tapestry.

It is important to note that COSMIC's capabilities go beyond searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. Future upgrades could unlock new explorations, from finding fast radio bursts with a submillisecond temporal resolution to studying spectral line science and axionic dark matter.

"COSMIC introduces modern Ethernet-based digital architecture on the VLA, allowing for a test bed for future technologies as we move into the next generation era," said Tremblay.

"Currently, the focus is on creating one of the largest surveys for technological signals, with over 500,000 sources observed in the first six months. However, the flexibility of the design allows for a wide range of other scientific opportunities, such as studying fast radio burst pulse structures and searching for axion dark matter candidates."

"We hope to open opportunities for other scientists to use our high time (nanoseconds) or our high spectral resolution (sub-Hz) to complete their research. It is an exciting time for increasing the capabilities of this historic telescope."

COSMIC stands on the shoulders of giants like Project Phoenix, with the capacity to search millions of stars and the potential to expand to tens of millionsa leap in scope and sensitivity. Currently operational on the VLA, COSMIC is searching using observations from the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), which will map 80% of the sky in three phases over two years and catalog approximately 10 million radio sources.

COSMIC's Ethernet-based system adds a new collaborative element to the cosmos. The multicasting technology allows other commensal systems to access COSMIC's processing power, enabling a collaborative scientific ecosystem to develop. Imagine multiple telescopes working together to unlock the universe's most profound mysteries.

"The COSMIC system greatly enhances the VLA's scientific capabilities. Its main goal of detecting extraterrestrial technosignatures addresses one of the most profound scientific questions ever. This topic was previously impossible with the VLA," said Dr. Paul Demorest, National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

"By operating in parallel with projects such as the VLA Sky Survey, COSMIC will accomplish one of the largest SETI surveys ever while still allowing the VLA to carry out its usual program of other astronomical research."

As we embark on this cosmic journey with COSMIC, the possibilities are as vast as the universe. Whether searching for signals from distant civilizations or unraveling the mysteries of dark matter, COSMIC is not just a detector on a telescope; it is a cosmic companion in our quest for knowledge.

More information: C. D. Tremblay et al, COSMIC: An Ethernet-based Commensal, Multimode Digital Backend on the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, The Astronomical Journal (2023). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad0fe0 Journal information: Astronomical Journal
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Satellite remote sensing is a unique technique for globally monitoring the Earth's environment. Red and yellow shading indicates regions with a high ammonia (NH 3 ) concentration around the world, e.g., India, West Africa, and East China. Credit: Advances in Atmospheric Sciences

Atmospheric ammonia (NH 3 ) is a trace gas that causes environmental problems and harms human health. Chinese scientists have established a full-physical retrieval algorithm to derive the concentration of the atmospheric ammonia from the Hyperspectral Infrared Atmospheric Sounder (HIRAS) onboard the Chinese FengYun (FY)-3D satellite, presenting the first atmospheric NH 3 column global map observed by the HIRAS instrument.

The research was conducted by Zhou Minqiang, an associate researcher from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Zhang Xingying, a senior researcher at the China Meteorological Administration.

The research paper has been published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, and featured as the cover story.

Lead author of the research paper, Dr. Zhou Mingqiang, underscores the significance of this landmark achievement, saying that monitoring global atmospheric ammonia levels is pivotal to grasping its environmental impact and influence on climate change. "The HIRAS instrument's ability to capture NH 3 hotspots worldwide represents a significant leap in our capacity to track and understand its spatiotemporal distribution," he says.

The HIRAS NH 3 columns were compared with the measurements of the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), a hyperspectral infrared sounder residing on the European Space Agency's MetOp series of polar orbiting satellites, showing good consistency between the two instruments, and thus verifying the reliability of the FengYun (FY)-3D satellite's ammonia observation data.

Professor Zhang Xingying, corresponding author of the research paper, notes, "This aligns with our efforts to utilize multiple satellite instruments for a holistic understanding of atmospheric ammonia dynamics."

Professor Zhang also acknowledges that the challenges still remain ahead. "Although our study marks a significant leap, we are still making efforts to refine the HIRAS NH 3 retrievals. Continued research aims to reduce the uncertainty of satellite-based NH 3 monitoring for a comprehensive understanding of its global impact."

This pioneering work marks a significant stride in Chinese satellite-based atmospheric monitoring, offering crucial insights into global NH 3 distribution. The findings hold promise for advancing our understanding of atmospheric composition and its implications for environmental and climate studies.

More information: Minqiang Zhou et al, The First Global Map of Atmospheric Ammonia (NH3) as Observed by the HIRAS/FY-3D Satellite, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-023-3059-9 Journal information: Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
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Credit: Norbert Kundrak from Pexels

Over the coming few years, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to come to Canada to work, study and settle. This year, the federal government has set a target of welcoming 485,000 new permanent residents.

While many of those people come to Canada with hopes of establishing new and better lives, integrating and finding one's way around a new country can often be challenging.

Imagine moving to another country and rebuilding your life from scratch. Typically, this means learning the language as well as new social norms and expectations, finding accommodation and a job, making new friends and generally trying to make sense of who you are in a new environment.

More than 281 million people living in a country other than their country of birth are contending with these challenges.

A core idea in cross-cultural psychology is that immigrants who integrate more successfully in their new society end up with better mental well-being.

Is it the case, though? Or is it the other way around? Does arriving with greater emotional well-being help migrants integrate?

My research focuses on relations between people from different cultural backgrounds and how immigrants acquire a new culture. Colleagues and I recently published the findings of a longitudinal study conducted in Canada. Our results provide a long-awaited answer to that question.

What comes first?

Since the 1970s, cross-cultural psychology research has tried to understand which migrants do well, which ones struggle and why? The answer to these questions is crucial. Poor psychological health can be devastating for people, but it is also extremely costly for societiesan estimated 2.5 trillion dollars cost to the world economy per year.

A focal point in cross-cultural psychology is the so-called "integration hypothesis." This is the idea that migrants who become bicultural, adopting the new culture while maintaining engagement with their own heritage, will do better psychologically than those who don't. Many studies have shown that participants who score high on biculturalism questionnaires also score high on emotional well-being questionnaires.

Yet, the question remains. What comes first, integration or emotional well-being? Knowing this is essential to develop targeted and effective interventions. The answer even has political relevance as immigration and integration are polarizing topics and increasingly central to election platforms.

Unfortunately, existing research does not settle the issue because most studies are cross-sectional. That is, researchers ask integration and well-being questions at the same time. That doesn't allow us to know how things unfold over time. So the hypothesis that integration leads to psychological health remains just that, a hypothesis.

The opposite is also just as plausible. Integration is mentally costly. Navigating a new cultural environment without well-rehearsed habits to guide oneself is arduous. Reconciling more or less compatible cultural repertoires daily takes a lot of effort. Successfully pulling off this biculturalism challenge may well depend on psychological resources at one's disposal.

Clinically, one can expect emotional well-being issues to have consequences for curiosity, attention, cognitive effort, social confidence and so onall factors necessary to adopt new cultural ways. In short, an alternative "mental resources hypothesis," where greater emotional well-being is a resource leading to integration, is as plausible as the widely touted integration hypothesis.

Our study

So, which hypothesis best fits immigrants' reality? The integration hypothesis, or the mental resources hypothesis? To properly shed light on the issue, we need longitudinal studies, where we ask integration and well-being questions repeatedly over time.

This is exactly what we did with my colleagues Andrew Ryder and Tomas Jurcik at Concordia University, and Catherine Amiot at Universite du Quebec a Montreal. We recruited international students who had just arrived in Montreal and followed them during their first year in the country.

Why international students? Because their arrival is synchronized with the academic year, which allowed us to enlist their participation in our study at the very beginning of their integration journey. This is essential to ensure that their answers don't reflect post-immigration changes that had already happened.

We asked them questions about their integration and their emotional well-being four times throughout the academic year. We used well-validated self-report questionnaires. Participants rated how much they agreed with statements such as, "It is important for me to develop Canadian cultural practices" or "I felt depressed." We then tested whether integration at a given time lead to later emotional well-being, or vice versa.

What we found

Our results are clear. We found that immigrants who arrived with greater emotional well-being reported greater integration later on compared to those with lower emotional well-being. There was no evidence for the reverse direction: that integration leads to later emotional well-being.

What does this mean for Canadian governments and institutions? To help immigrants integrate well, receiving countries need to provide proper emotional support early on. Given the societal cost of failed integration, this initial support is critical.

For governments, this means allocating sufficient resources to immigrant assistance programs. For organizations working with immigrants, this means considering and providing psychological support in addition to practical skills-, work- and housing-related resources. And last but not least, for ordinary citizens, this means extending a welcoming and helping hand. Often, even just a friendly interaction can go a long way.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The number of relatives will decrease worldwide in the future. Credit: MPIDR

The number of relatives that an individual has is expected to decrease by more than 35% in the near future. At the same time, the structure of families will change. The number of cousins, nieces, nephews and grandchildren will decline sharply, while the number of great-grandparents and grandparents will increase significantly. In 1950, a 65-year-old woman had an average of 41 living relatives. By 2095, a woman of the same age will have an average of only 25 living relatives.

Diego Alburez-Gutierrez is head of the Research Group Kinship Inequalities at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock. Together with Ivan Williams of the University of Buenos Aires and Hal Caswell of the University of Amsterdam, he recently published a study projecting the evolution of human kinship relationships worldwide.

The work is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We asked ourselves how demographic change will affect the 'endowment' of kinship in the future," Alburez-Gutierrez explains. "What was the size, structure, and age distribution of families in the past, and how will they evolve in the future?"

For the study, the researchers analyzed historical and projected data from the 2022 revision of the United Nation's World Population Prospects.

"We use mathematical models to represent the relationship between a person, their ancestors, and their descendants in a given time period. The model provides average age and sex distributions for different types of kinship for each calendar year," says Alburez-Gutierrez. One thousand kinship histories were calculated for each country.

Shrinking families

The researchers documented differences in family size around the world, which they defined as the number of living great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, siblings and cousins.

"We expect the overall size of families to decline permanently in all regions of the world. We expect the largest declines in South America and the Caribbean," says Alburez-Gutierrez.

In 1950, the average 65-year-old woman there had 56 living relatives. By 2095, that number is expected to drop to 18.3 relatives, a 67% decline. In North America and Europe, where families are already comparatively small, the changes will be less pronounced. Here, a woman aged 65 had about 25 living relatives in 1950 but by 2095 she will have only 15.9 relatives.

Relatives play a crucial role in providing of informal care

Projections of kinship are critical in the context of rapidly aging populations, as smaller birth cohorts must increasingly care for older adults who have fewer or no relatives.

"Our findings confirm that the availability of kinship resources is declining worldwide. As the age gap between individuals and their relatives widens, people will have family networks that are not just smaller, but also older. Consider the case of grandparents and great-grandparents, who are expected to be in greater supply in the future. While this could theoretically help ease the burden of childcare for parents, these (great-)grandparents may actually need care themselves."

The study underscores the need to invest in social support systems that ensure the well-being of individuals at all stages of life. A large proportion of the world's population does not currently have access to highly developed social support systems. For them, family ties remain an important source of support and informal care, and this is likely to remain the case in the future.

"These seismic shifts in family structure will bring about important societal challenges that policymakers in the global North and South should consider," says Alburez-Gutierrez.
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Image of Pluto obtained by NASAs New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in July 2015, which reveals the smooth, nitrogen plains of Sputnik Planitia (heart-shaped region) and vast, water-ice mountain ranges. (Scale: 35 miles = 56 kilometers). Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Universe Today has examined the potential for sending humans to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, the planet Venus, and Saturn's largest moon, Titan, all despite their respective harsh environments and vast distances. These conversations with planetary science experts determined that humans traveling to these worlds in the foreseeable future could be possible, despite the harsh conditions and travel time, specifically to Titan.

But what if we were to send humans farther out into the solar system, and much farther out than Titan? Here, we will continue this conversation with planetary science experts to determine whether the dwarf planet Pluto could be a viable destination for sending humans, either in the near or distant future. Pluto lacks the harsh environments of Europa and Venus, but like Titan, the extremely vast distance could pose potential concerns for sending humans to this distant world. So, should we send humans to Pluto?

"I think we should send humans everywhere in the solar system, eventually," Dr. Alan Stern, who is the Principal Investigator for NASA's New Horizons mission, tells Universe Today. "But it would be premature to send human beings to most places in the solar system, including Pluto, today, because we don't know enough about the planet to design such a mission. It's also very far beyond our technical capabilities, and there's no present need to spend the kind of money that it would take. But, you know, a hundred, or 200, or 500 years from now could be entirely different."

Launched in January 2006, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft became the fastest human-made object ever launched from Earth, as it was catapulted away from our home planet at an astonishing 16.26 km/s (10.10 mi/s). Despite this incredible speed, which allowed New Horizons to reach Jupiter in just over one year for a gravity assist, it still took another eight years and five months to reach Pluto, flying past the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015, and coming within 12,472 km (7,750 mi) of Pluto's surface.

This lengthy trip is due to Pluto's vast distance in the outer solar system. While Titan has an average distance of approximately 1.4 billion kilometers (886 million miles) from the sun, Pluto has an astounding average distance of 5.9 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) from the sun, orbiting in the outer solar system within a region of icy objects of known as the Kuiper Belt.

Dr. Mike Brown, who is a Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Astronomy at Caltech and is known for his social media handle of @plutokiller, tells Universe Today, "It seems pretty clear that we are unlikely to ever send humans to Pluto, to any other object in the Kuiper Belt, or probably anywhere in the outer solar system. I assume no rational group is actually considering this at this time (and will never consider it). Not to say that it is not a fun thing to speculate about, but, only in a here-is-something-that-will-never-ever-ever-ever happen sort of way."

Even with a direct flight trajectory to Pluto, our present technology would still require many years to reach its destination; even an unmanned Pluto orbiter, because of its need to brake into orbit, is estimated to take 20+ years to reach Pluto from Earth with today's technology. But could things be different in a few hundred years with more advanced technology?

Dr. Stern conveyed to Universe Today how Columbus coming to the New World couldn't envision the present-day world with people traveling cross-country in just a few hours for a tiny fraction of their annual paycheck.

"But it's likely to be much easier in the distant future," Dr. Stern tells Universe Today. "And because it'll be easier, it will be less expensive. And so, if something like Star Trek ever happens, going to Pluto is going to be a walk in the park compared to interstellar travel, and I think there'd be a lot of science to be gained from it."

During New Horizons' brief flyby of Pluto, the spacecraft obtained stunning images of the dwarf planet's surface, revealing a wide range of diversity with smooth, nitrogen plains and vast, water-ice mountain ranges. Along with data obtained about Pluto's mostly-nitrogen atmosphere, scientists have hypothesized that Pluto could possess an interior ocean of water-ice. While these findings have helped shape a completely different picture of Pluto compared to previous models, if we could send humans to Pluto, what would be the benefits and drawbacks, and what additional science could be conducted by a human mission compared to a robotic mission?

Dr. Anne Verbiscer, who is a Research Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, along with being a Deputy Project Scientist and a Co-Investigator on New Horizons, tells Universe Today, "The benefits are that humans are far more efficient explorers than robots and there are myriad drawbacks because of the technical complexities brought on by Pluto's great heliocentric and geocentric distance."

In terms of additional science, Dr. Verbiscer tells Universe Today, "Several in-situ experiments could be conducted by humans that robots would not be able to do. But there is so much that can be done and learned from robotic missions that (several of) these need to be conducted well in advance of sending humans."

This discussion comes as human space exploration, from both worldwide governments and the commercial space industry, is slated to increase in the foreseeable future. In just the next few years, NASA's Artemis program has the goal of landing the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface, Axiom Space hopes to establish the world's first commercial space station in Earth orbit, the China National Space Administration wants to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 as part of its Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, and SpaceX is slowly developing its Starship heavy-lift launch vehicle with the goal of sending humans to Mars, someday.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The shocking events of Jan. 6, 2021, signaled a major break from the nonviolent rallies that categorized most major protests over the past few decades.

What set Jan. 6 apart was the president of the United States using his cellphone to direct an attack on the Capitol, and those who stormed the Capitol being wired and ready for insurrection.

My co-authors and I, a media and disinformation scholar, call this networked incitement: influential figures inciting large-scale political violence via social media. Networked incitement involves insurgents communicating across multiple platforms to command and coordinate mobilized social movements in the moment of action.

The reason there was not more bloodshed on Jan. 6 emerged through investigation into the Oath Keepers, a vigilante organization composed mostly of former military and police. During their trials for seditious conspiracy, members of the Oath Keepers testified about weapons caches in hotels and vans, stashed near Washington, D.C. As one member described it, "I had not seen that many weapons in one location since I was in the military."

The Oath Keepers were following Washington law by not carrying the weapons in the district, while waiting for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, which gives the president the authority to deploy the military domestically for law enforcement.

The militia was waiting for orders from Trump. That was all that kept U.S. democracy safe from armed warfare that day.

Social media as command and control

What happened in D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, does not easily fit into typical social movement frameworks for describing mobilization. The insurrectionists behaved akin to a networked social movement, with online platforms forming the infrastructure to organize action, but its leaders were politicians and political operatives as opposed to charismatic community leaders. On that day in particular, the insurrectionists, who are closely aligned with MAGA Republicans more broadly, functioned like Trump's volunteer army rather than a populist movement.

Even with the availability of social media, networked social movements still need mainstream media coverage to legitimize their cause. Typically, community organizers push a particular issuefor example Black Lives Matter and #MeToointo the media spotlight to get the public to care about their issue. Social movements tend to struggle for exposure and to frame favorable narratives.

The insurrectionists had the advantage of betting on mainstream media coverage for Jan. 6, so they focused on gathering resources and coordinating attendance. As a result, Trump's supporters did not need to expend much effort to bring attention to the event and, instead, concentrated on organizing ride-shares and splitting hotel costs. As in prior social movements, the networking capacity of social media proved to be an important conduit to bring strangers together for the occasion. What the insurrectionists failed to do was convince key stakeholders, such as mainstream media, Vice President Mike Pence and the U.S. Capitol Police, to join their fight.

Networked incitement is different from the legalistic understanding of incitement, where an inflammatory statement immediately precedes unlawful acts or creates a dangerous situation. The call to action for Jan. 6 came from the president himself in a series of social media posts enticing supporters to come to D.C. for a "wild" time.

A participant in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol explained to the House Select Committee investigating the attack how President Trumps words conveyed over social media compelled him to go to Washington.

Tweets like these from a prominent figure became social media's equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theater.

Mobilizing for violence

My colleagues and I sought data to better understand what motivated everyday folks to storm the Capitol that day under great personal risk. Using the method of qualitative content analysis, we assembled 469 charging and sentencing documents for 417 defendants and coded them for the stated reasons for attending the event. We chose these court documents because they represented the fullest narrative accounts available. The purpose of these documents was to explain the rationales and mental states of the accused, while also offering a defense or explanation for their actions.

We analyzed the documents, looking at the multiple motivations for the insurrectionist mobilization. Overwhelmingly, insurrectionists said they were motivated by a desire to support Trump, which was equally split with a rationale to stop a rigged election. In sum, we concluded that disinformation mobilizes and incites political violence under specific conditions, such as a popular public figure calling for help.

For example, the court documents also directly reference social media posts of the accused. On Dec. 22, 2020, Kelly Meggs, an Oath Keeper who was later convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 12 years in prison, wrote on Facebook:

"Trump said It's gonna be wild!!!!!!! It's gonna be wild!!!!!!! He wants us to make it WILD that's what he's saying. He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild!!! Sir Yes Sir!!! Gentlemen we are heading to DC pack your shit!!"

The reference to "it's gonna be wild" was a rejoinder to the now infamous tweet Trump sent after a reportedly difficult six-hour meeting the president had with staff about how to proceed with the fraud inquiry and undo the election results. Oath Keeper Meggs' tweet illustrates that even before Jan. 6, militia groups were looking for signs from Trump about how to proceed. An investigation by NPR also illustrated how Trump's messages emboldened participants and ignited the events of that day.

A dark future

No sitting president before Trump had exploited the capacity of social media to directly reach citizens to command specific actions.

The use of social media for networked incitement foreshadows a dark future for democracies. Rulers could well come to power by manipulating mass social movements via social media, directing a movement's members to serve as the leaders' shock troops, online and off.

Clear regulations preventing the malicious weaponization of social media by politicians who use disinformation to incite violence is one way to keep that future at bay.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Credit: University of Oregon

University of Oregon researchers are adding new details to the geological history of the iconic Columbia River Gorge, a wide river canyon that cuts through the volcanic peaks of the Cascades along the border between Oregon and Washington.

In a recent study, UO researchers show how magma and water have acted as opposing forces to shape this landscape, known for its rugged cliffs and stunning waterfalls. Prolonged upwelling of magma beneath the earth's crust bent the river channel and pushed up cliffs and peaks, as water carved a deep channel between them, the researchers reported on December 20 in Science Advances.

And magma is still influencing the landscape today.

"A lot of people look at volcanic systems and see the volcanoes, the pointy cone-shaped things. But in fact, the volcanoes are just the very top of a vast network of magma transport," said Leif Karlstrom, a geologist in the College of Arts and Sciences at the UO. "Here, we're seeing evidence of that deeper system working at the surface."

The Columbia begins high in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia. All told, it gathers water from an area of more than 260,000 square miles and carries it to the Pacific Ocean. It's been flowing in some form for tens of millions of years, though not always along the same path.

"The gorge is this amazing scenario," said Nate Klema, who led the study as a doctoral student in Karlstrom's lab. "The Columbia is the largest river on earth that bisects a volcanic arc," which is a line of volcanoes associated with a subduction zone, such as the Cascades.

But it's also tricky to interpret geologically.

Klema has spent his life paddling rivers and experiencing firsthand how they shape landscapes. In the new study, he and Karlstrom combed through many different kinds of geological and geophysical data gathered in the gorge and wove together a story about its origins.

Roughly 3.5 million years ago, a sequence of volcanic flows changed the course of the lower Columbia River, filling the channel it was moving through and diverting the river northwards, where it runs today. Before that diversion, the river channel was essentially flat.

But afterward, it began to arch, as magma welling beneath pushed upward. The uplift, in combination with an accumulation of rocks from volcanic eruptions, helped create the gorge's rugged topography.

Karlstrom, Klema and their colleagues used many different kinds of data to show how the movement of magma, rather than other tectonic forces, explain the uplift.

"One of the remarkable things after finding this 'strain marker' associated with the now-abandoned river channela surface of known initial shape that has since been deformedis that all the other data sets correlated so well," Karlstrom said. "It is unusual to see such a simple and compelling pattern, and it's a reason this became a big result."

Measurements of heat flowing out of the earth, plus maps of the earth's structure created via seismic waves, both point to magma pooling beneath the crust under the gorge. Other clues, like the locations of geologically recent volcanic vents, provide further evidence that the deep magma helped shape the gorge.

For example, the team showed how the many tributaries flowing into the Columbia from the south side of the gorge have steepened in response to magma-driven deformation. They noted spots where the tributaries suddenly increase their slope in response to the uplift, creating cliffy topography.

Those cliffs set the stage for the waterfalls that the gorge is famous for, though other more recent events, such as megafloods from the last ice age, have shaped the waterfalls too.

"What we looked at is much larger than an individual waterfall; in each of these tributaries, the entire river system is having to become steeper," said Klema, who is now a professor at Fort Lewis College in Colorado. "The waterfalls are there because these tributaries have to be so steep to get from their headwaters down to the Columbia."

The study also shows how magma is still shaping the gorge and the surrounding landscape today.

A pool of molten magma still lies beneath the gorge, without any volcanoes on top. As the crust beneath the gorge bends, it's pushed magma off to the sides.

"The Cascades have been building for so long, volcanoes layered on top of volcanoes, as magma continues to work its way up," Klema said. "One implication is that there will be more volcanoes in the future, more layering of material on top of what's already there."

More information: Nathaniel Klema et al, The magmatic origin of the Columbia River Gorge, USA, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj3357 Journal information: Science Advances
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Male pipefish (Syngnathus acus) with subcaudal pouch. Credit: Public Domain

If you've ever watched a natural history program on TV, you've probably seen animals performing a wide variety of behaviors to get the attention of the opposite sex.

BBC Earth even released an interview with David Attenborough about some of nature's most spectacular mating displays. Not included, however, was Aotearoa New Zealand's wide-bodied pipefishalthough I think they should have been.

As our recent research explains, our local pipefish species really does confound expectations.

Pipefish are unusual because the males carry their developing babies around on their bodies, often in special broad pouches. In some species, these pouches are the only difference in appearance between males and females.

But that's not the case for New Zealand's wide-bodied pipefish. Females have a torso that can be almost three times as wide as males, and they have brightly colored stripes.

Why females have such a different body shape is a mystery. We set out to solve the puzzle by observing how females use this trait when interacting with other females and with males. To do this, we brought wild fish into aquariums and filmed their behaviors in groups of males and females.

The surprising courtship

We found males initiated courtship displays with females most of the time, using comical wiggles. This was unexpected because the wide-bodied pipefish gets its name from the broad, colorful, striped abdomen of the femalenot the male.

Given this ornamentation, we expected females would approach males for courtship and display more often and for longer than males. Normally, the sex with more ornamentation in a species will lead the courtship display.

But what we observed was surprising. Often, a group of male wide-bodied pipefish would wiggle at a single female. These males would sometimes follow the female around the tank if she swam away. The resulting bouts of courtship display could last for minutes on end.

The results suggest males are more active in making decisions about who they want to court than has been described in other pipefish species.

Our findings also mean we can't necessarily predict which sex will be most active in courtship based on their ornamental traits and the differences in shape between males and females.

The pregnant male

Wide-bodied pipefishlike their close relatives seahorsesalso feature male pregnancy. So males put a lot of energy into caring for their developing embryos.

One possible reason the males are so active in courtship is that they are choosing the most fecund femalesthose with the most available eggs.

Females deposit eggs into the male's pouch, making him pregnant, and he fertilizes those eggs and then cares for the embryos as they develop. Females who can give the male more eggs might therefore be preferred by males.

These findings differ from what we know about pipefish species in other parts of the world.

All pipefish have the unusual male pregnancy capability. But usually females initiate courtship, and males reject some females. Any group behaviors involve more females than males. So even among pipefish, the wide-bodied pipefish is particularly odd.

Our research is the first step in understanding how wide-bodied pipefish males and females interact, and it's raised more questions for us to answer. We now want to know whether males court females in groups when there are more females than males, and vice versa.

Knowing more about these unusual fish behaviors is important in the broader context of mating behaviors scientists are already aware of. Having a diversity of examples can help make sense of unexpected behaviors in other speciesand can challenge our expectations of the world.

There is still so much to learn, but every additional piece of the puzzle helps us understand what influences the weird and wonderful animals living around us.

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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

On a recent research trip to China, I wandered through the Oasis Mall in suburban Shanghai. Like many Chinese shopping centers, this complex was filled with empty stores that reflected the end of China's 30-year-long economic expansion. But there also were surprises.

Along a stretch of the mall's interior walkway, a cluster of parents and grandparents sat on chairs. They were looking through a plate glass window, watching a dozen 5- to 7-year-old girls practice ballet steps, carefully following their teacher's choreography. A space initially designed for retail had been turned into a dance studio.

From 1990 through 2020, large, shiny shopping malls embodied China's spectacular economic growth. They sprouted in cities large and small to meet consumer demand from an emerging middle class that was keen to express its newfound affluence. These centers look familiar to American eyes, which isn't surprising: U.S. architectural firms built 170 malls in China during this period.

Like their U.S. counterparts, many Chinese malls have fallen on hard times. The COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of online shopping have devastated foot traffic, leaving the nation with a huge overhang of retail space. But many Chinese malls are being re-imagined by owners and users as palaces of experiencecivic areas for communities to meet and interact, with new configurations of public and private space.

As a longtime urban policy scholar, I was fascinated by the new uses I saw for malls in China. In my view, these experiments could become models for new, creative uses of retail space in the U.S., where the mall was invented.

Serving a new consumer class

China opened up to foreign trade and investment less than 50 years ago. Since then, it has become the world's second-largest economy, surpassed only by the U.S.

This 2013 news report takes viewers inside the then-deserted New South China Mall in Dongguan.

Rising incomes and a massive population shift from rural areas to cities have created a growing middle class with significant purchasing power. GDP per capita increased from US$293 in 1985 to $12,500 by 2021.

Today, approximately 350 million Chinese25% of the total populationcan be considered middle class. More recent economic growth has generated growing income inequality that now is equivalent to U.S. levels.

Malls became a motif of modernity during the country's economic expansion. They offered consumers year-round protection from heat, humidity, cold and frost, as well as from busy streets and polluting traffic. Malls were safe environments where the steadily increasing numbers of more affluent Chinese families could shop and eat, stroll and meet.

Over the past 30 years, China's malls have faced economic booms and slumps. For example, the New South China Mall in Dongguanwhich is twice the size of Minnesota's Mall of America, its largest U.S. counterpartopened in 2005. But most of its 2,300 storefronts remained closed for over a decade as China fought off recession after the 2008 world financial crisis.

China weathered that downturn through aggressive economic stimulus policies, and within a decade it replaced the U.S. as the world's top driver of economic growth. This expansion buoyed its retail sector, including shopping centers. By 2018, a renovated and modernized New South China Mall was near full occupancy.

Then COVID-19 struck in 2020. The Chinese government adopted a rigid zero-COVID policy, in which local governments could impose lockdowns after detecting just a few cases. Hundreds of millions of people were restricted to their homes for weeks or months at a stretch.

This policy was lifted only in late 2022. China's economy has yet to fully recover, and many experts argue that it will never again reach its previous rates of growth. An aging population, trade wars with the U.S. and a government focused on centralizing power under the Communist Party are all acting as drags on the economy, and online shopping is drawing consumers away from stores.

As a result, Chinese media reports abound with stories about well-known stores and venerable malls closing. In China, as in the U.S., what scholars once described as the "magic of the mall" has become an "allure of ruins."

Malls with Chinese characteristics

But the Chinese are making creative use of excess mall space. New users are filling nonretail areas, such as indoor walkways and atriums that now house cafe tables. Others have become children's play spaces filled with giant inflatable figures. The Raffles City Mall in Shenzen has a rooftop pet playground, a stage, an art display area and a sun-shaded lawn.

China's informal economy of food stalls and sidewalk merchants is also filling the void. Although street vending has a long history in China, government officials sought to suppress it in recent years, calling it unsanitary and a throwback to pre-modern times. Now, however, they are encouraging it as a way to reduce growing unemployment, especially among young people, which currently exceeds 20%.

During my trip, I saw small-scale entrepreneurs selling produce, street food and crafts in mall parking lots and around public entrances. The distinction between public and private spaces is being reconfigured as vendors set up stalls in areas that once were open space.

Empty store spaces are also being repurposed. Some have been converted into electric vehicle showrooms, art museums and children's play centers with dance studios, paddling pools, small skating rinks, gyms and yoga centers. Others have been redesigned as sites for art or cooking classes, or for multiplayer electronic gaming and virtual reality experiences. The Dream Time Mall in Wuhan contains an indoor snow center that offers ski lessons, ice mazes and tubing.

I see these experiments as a shift in the meaning of the mall. What began as a cathedral of retail consumerism is becoming a place where people can connect and enjoy individual and collective experiences that aren't available online.

Some U.S. malls are moving in this direction, but China is doing it on a much larger scale. Just as former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once asserted that his government was pursuing its own version of socialism, with "Chinese characteristics," the U.S.-designed mall is being rewritten with Chinese characters.

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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

More than three years after New York authorities sued the National Rifle Association and four of its current and former leaders, the trial will begin on Jan. 8, 2024.

In her complaint, New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges that outgoing NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre "exploited the organization for his financial benefit, and the benefit of a close circle of NRA staff, board members, and vendors," ultimately diverting over US$63 million from legitimate uses.

And yet, the NRA had a 76-member board of directors, as well as a designated audit committee, which both had mandates to monitor the organization's financial health. By reviewing transactions involving the NRA and its leaders more skeptically, the board might have helped the NRA avert some of its current legal troubles.

I'm a nonprofit law scholar. Together with Claire Hill, a University of Minnesota law professor, I've explored one-way nonprofits might theoretically avert debacles, both large and small, in the future. We believe nonprofit boards should require their members to take turns serving as "designated contrarians." When it's their turn for this role, board members would be responsible for asking critical questions and pushing for deeper debate about organizational decisions.

Board culture

State law in New York, where the NRA is chartered, tasks boards of directors with the ultimate oversight over nonprofits and their leaders.

They're responsible for everything from weighing in on strategies to advance the organization's mission to hiring and evaluating top executives and setting their salaries.

Directors aren't supposed to manage a nonprofit's everyday affairs. But they are supposed to be on the lookout for major problems and speak up if its resources are being wastedor worse.

The NRA's board, like all nonprofit boards, had an obligation to detect the alleged wrongdoing and intervene to stop it.

Some NRA leaders did object to what they perceived as wasteful spending by the nonprofit and its leaders, according to James' complaint. In some cases, concerned trustees resigned or were forced out.

But in general, it appears that NRA board members did little to oversee or restrain LaPierre, even when one top leader unsuccessfully sought big changes.

On Jan. 5, three days before the trial was scheduled to begin, LaPierre announced his resignation  effective Jan. 31. The 74-year-old NRA leader cited "health reasons" rather than board pressure for his exit from the organization he had led since 1991.

James responded to the news by promising that this move "will not insulate [LaPierre] from accountability."

Too passive

Not every nonprofit board needs to rein in leaders squandering millions on personal travel and hundreds of thousands on bespoke suits, as LaPierre allegedly did. But it's too easy for their members to be too passive.

That is, board members often fail to ask hard questions and challenge the organization's paid staffespecially when there are more than a dozen or so people serving as directors.

One reason for this is that nonprofit directors usually volunteer their time and don't get paid for their contributions. In fact, they often donate their own money to their organizations because they value their charitable missions.

The NRA strayed from this norm. The group was paying 18 of its board members when much of the alleged wrongdoing occurred.

It's only natural for nonprofit directors to presume that their colleagues on the board share their good intentions. What's more, it's natural to show deference in the presence of the executives leading the organization full time and the major donors upon whose generosity the group may depend.

No matter the context, many people will simply find it uncomfortable to rock the boat. Sometimes, overly passive and deferential boards turn into rubber stamps that fail to challenge sloppy bookkeeping or question unwise hires.

What should they do?

We propose that trustees take turns being a designated contrarian, temporarily becoming a devil's advocate obliged to challenge proposed board actions.

To be clear, they wouldn't be naysayers out to block everything. They would instead ask probing questions and offer feedback on reports by executives and officers. They would also initiate critical discussions by challenging conventional wisdom.

The goal would be to encourage debate and reflection about the nonprofit's decisions, slowingor halting, if necessarythe approval of business as usual.

Board members might serve as the designated contrarian for only a few meetings. The duration of this role would probably depend on how big a given board is and how often it meets.

While this is primarily just a theory at this point, we anticipate that over time, as more and more directors have served as designated contrarians, boards will become more open to constructive dissent.

Rare examples among nonprofits

Although using designated contrarians is not yet a widely used practice, a few nonprofit boards may have already embraced this concept.

For example, I've been told but have been unable to confirm that one major grantmaker's investment committee tasks one of its members with challenging particular investment decisions.

This technique may have been gleaned from experiences in finance, where some fund managers rely on a devil's advocate to test investment decisions, and at least one study found that this practice can improve outcomes.

Harvard Business Review has published guidelines recommending the designation of "strategic dissenters," and experts from the McKinsey consulting firm cite the value of assigning devil's advocates on high-functioning, for-profit boards.

I've also heard about another unnamed nonprofit tasking a board member as a "process observer." They were responsible for speaking up when their board was either overly passive or the oppositemicromanaging staff.

No sure thing

Of course, embracing a rotating contrarian alone would not be enough to convert the NRA's unusually large board into a lean and engaged governing body able to detect and prevent all of its alleged wrongdoing. And even for nonprofit boards in less dire circumstances, using rotating contrarians has its challenges.

Most serious among these is whether rotating contrarians will offer only inauthentic dissent, which studies show provides limited benefits. Serving a term as contrarian will not magically transform a passive and deferential person into someone who actively challenges dominant voices or forcefully advocates alternatives. And directors wearing the contrarian hat may be too easily discounted if others perceive them as merely mouthing their assigned lines.

To be sure, organizations that adopt this approach would need to be patient.

I doubt that they will be able to summon authentic dissent right away. And newly designated contrarians will be no match for long-standing organizational leaders willing to deceive their boards and punish dissenters.

But I do believe that once board members who have served as contrarians get the hang of articulating authentic dissent, they could begin to make the nonprofits that they oversee more accountable.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
China's procuratorate orders arrest of former executive of oil giant

Xinhua) 15:42, January 08, 2024

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Upon the designation of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), the Liaoning Provincial People's Procuratorate has ordered the arrest of Xu Wenrong, a former deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corporation, for suspected bribe-taking.

Xu's case was investigated by the National Commission of Supervision before being handed over to prosecutors, the SPP said in a statement on Monday.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Drastic steps needed to cope with demographic decline

Undoubtedly, the fast-dwindling population and record-low birthrate are the most pressing and imminent challenges facing Korea. Diverse global institutes and media outlets warn against the possible demise of Korea Inc. unless the unprecedented demographic drop is contained effectively and immediately.

It is worrying that the Yoon Suk Yeol administration has been more focused on political wrangling in the lead-up to the crucial general elections scheduled for April 10, rather than effectively addressing the problem at hand. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is also facing criticism for not taking the necessary steps, despite being the majority party in the National Assembly.

The Ministry of Education recently unveiled data showing the number of children about to enter elementary school nationwide will reach the 300,000 range for the first time, including 50,000 who are set to enroll in Seoul schools. This is the result of a rapid decline in the school-age population amid the worlds lowest birthrate. Global experts have warned, Korea can become the first nation that will face extinction due to an evaporating population.

The ministry has projected that the number of new applicants for elementary schools will reach 390,000 this year. Moreover, the ongoing decline in the number of students is worsening, with the trend gaining momentum. In 2019, a total of 302,676 babies were born, and they are expected to enter elementary schools in 2026. There is a looming concern that, over time, the number of new entrants may drop to the 200,000 range, excluding those who choose to delay or avoid admission.

The ministry added that in Seoul alone, 59,492 children are anticipated to enter school this year, reflecting a 10.3 percent decrease from the previous year. This downward trend is expected to persist. The significant decline in the student population is poised to bring about a profound transformation in the educational landscape. An increasing number of schools will face mergers and a steady contraction in the number of teachers will accordingly be seen. This will also have a far-reaching impact on rural areas now facing the growing danger of extinction.

Korea has been suffering from the worlds lowest fertility rate (0.72). Statistics Korea predicts a persistent decline in the number of newborns per woman, forecasting a decrease to 0.65 in 2025 and 0.59 in 2026.

Such rapid shifts in the demographic structure are feared to shake the very foundations of our society. It will lead to drops in military conscription, heightening the danger of North Koreas potential invasion of South Korea. It will also affect the social welfare service system involving obstetrics and pediatric doctors and hospitals paired with nursery and senior care centers. Some analysts even foresee such a decline in population will lower the GDP growth per capita by 1.13 percentage points per year in the coming 30 years.

This demonstrates that warnings from certain foreign media outlets, stating that "a low birthrate will be the biggest threat to Korea's security," are not an exaggeration.

Given this, the Yoon administration should take extraordinary measures. In his New Year speech, the president emphasized the importance of analyzing the causes of the declining birthrate with a rational and calm approach. "We need to consider alternative approaches different from the steps taken so far," he said.

The Presidential Commission on Ageing Society and Population Policy has not fulfilled its role effectively, as it has become embroiled in political maneuvering rather than focusing on its intended responsibility of formulating policies to address low fertility rates. For starters, the commission has been inactive since its vice chair, former lawmaker Na Kyung-won, stepped down amid a conflict with the presidential office in January last year.

The low fertility rate is a complex problem covering various issues such as housing, employment, childcare, and education. Comprehensive remedies are necessary to help resolve the complex problem. Previous administrations have failed to tackle the matter, despite spending around 380 trillion won ($289 billion) since 2006. Policies should be focused on feasibility to prevent the recurrence of the failures of previous governments. Specific measures should be taken to cure chronic problems such as expenses for housing and education, among others.
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State diagram of hydrocarbons at high pressure and temperature. The diagram shows the differing conditions found to be required for diamond formation, as well as selected phase transitions (solid lines) and planetary interiors (dashed). Studies using static compression (orange area and red area) observe diamond formation at lower pressure and temperature than shock experiments (blue area), which observe it only at conditions corresponding to those where hydrogen is metallic. The results presented here confirm that diamond formation can occur at conditions found in the shallow interiors of Uranus and Neptune, including at lower estimates of the temperature conditions. The conditions for diamond formation in shocked polyethylene terephthalate, (C 10 H 8 O 4 )n (green area), the diamond melt curve and Jupiters isentrope are also shown. Credit: Nature Astronomy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-023-02147-x

An international team of researchers led by Dr. Mungo Frost from the SLAC research center in California has gained new insights into the formation of diamond rain on icy planets such as Neptune and Uranus, using the X-ray laser European XFEL in Schenefeld. The results also provide clues to the formation of the complex magnetic fields of these planets.

In earlier work on X-ray lasers, scientists discovered that diamonds should form from carbon compounds in the interior of the large gas planets because of the high pressure prevailing there. These would then sink further into the interior of the planets as a rain of precious stones from the higher layers.

A new experiment at the European XFEL has now shown that the formation of diamonds from carbon compounds already starts at lower pressures and temperatures than assumed. For the gas planets, this means that diamond rain already forms at a lower depth than thought, and could thus have a stronger influence on the formation of the magnetic fields.

In addition, diamond rain would also be possible on gas planets that are smaller than Neptune and Uranus and are called "mini-Neptunes." Such planets do not exist in our solar system, but they do occur as exoplanets outside of it.

The research is published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

On their way from the outer to the inner layers of the planets, the diamond rain can entrain gas and ice, causing currents of conductive ice. Currents of conductive fluids act as a kind of dynamo through which the magnetic fields of planets are formed.

"The diamond rain probably has an influence on the formation of the complex magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune," Frost said.

The group used a plastic film made from the hydrocarbon compound polystyrene as a carbon source. Under very high pressure, diamonds are formed from the foila process that takes place in the same way as in the interior of planets and which can be duplicated at the European XFEL.

The researchers generated the high pressure and the temperature of more than 2,200 degrees Celsius that prevail inside the icy gas giants with the help of diamond stamp cells and lasers. The stamp cells function like a mini vice in which the sample is squeezed between two diamonds. With the help of the European XFEL X-ray pulses, the time, conditions and sequence of the formation of the diamonds in the stamp cell can be precisely observed.

The international research team also includes scientists from European XFEL, the German research centers DESY in Hamburg and the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf, as well as other research institutions and universities from different countries. The European XFEL user consortium HIBEF, involving the research centers HZDR and DESY, contributed significantly to this work.

"Through this international collaboration, we have made great progress at the European XFEL and gained remarkable new insights into icy planets," says Frost.

More information: Mungo Frost et al, Diamond precipitation dynamics from hydrocarbons at icy planet interior conditions, Nature Astronomy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-023-02147-x Journal information: Nature Astronomy

Provided by European XFEL
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The earth settles following the explosion of the mine beneath Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt on July 1, 1916. Photo by Ernest Brooks. Credit: Ernest Brooks

The spectacular explosion of the mine at Hawthorn Ridgea fortified German front-line position in the First World Warmarked the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, and remains one of the best-known pieces of film from the whole conflict.

More than 60ft below the surface, British miners had dug a gallery for more than 900 meters from their lines and packed it with 40,000 lbs of explosives. It was one of 19 mines placed beneath German front positions that were detonated on July 1, 1916, to mark the start of the offensive.

But the detonation of the mine at Hawthorn Ridge, famously captured by film director Geoffrey Malins, took place 10 minutes before the whistles blew at 7:30am. The early detonation, later described as a "colossal blunder," alerted the Germans the infantry attack was imminent and gave them enough time to take up defensive positions in the newly-formed crater, leading to heavy losses among the attacking British troops.

Now, findings from the first-ever multi-disciplinary scientific investigation of the 107-year-old crater have been published in the Journal of Conflict Archaeology. The team of researchers, scientists and historians, led by Keele University, used a range of cuttingedge technology, including drones with imaging cameras, to examine the area like never before.

Researchers discovered and excavated two sections of trenches, known as fire bays, that were used to consolidate newly-formed craters, highlighting how the Germans successfully incorporated the crater rim into their front line after the blast. They also recovered probable communication wire and distinctive German barbed wire, and found evidence of a previously unknown shallow tunnel, believed to have been dug out from the crater by German forces to provide an advanced position in No Man's Land.

They say their findings reveal new details on the history of the crater, its capture by the Germans and how they successfully incorporated it into their front line after the blast.

Dr. Jamie Pringle, a forensic geoscientist at Keele University, said, "The explosion of the mine was the very first action of the Battle of the Somme, intended to give Allied forces the upper hand. We found physical evidence for the first time of how German soldiers had consolidated part of the crater left behind after the explosion, and actually used it to their advantage as a new defensive position."

The group was given exclusive access to the site in France after the Hawthorn Ridge Crater Association took on a 99-year lease from the local authority in 2018 to protect it for future generations. The association was set up as a Franco-British organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of the site, and carried out extensive clearance works that provided the first opportunity for detailed study.

A second mine was blown by British forces on November 13, causing a new crater to be formed. This explosion was much more effective, aiding the 51st Highland Division to capture the ridge and nearby village of Beaumont Hamel, which had been a prominent feature of the German frontline position.

The researchers were able to pinpoint the epicenters of the two separate mine detonation locations, and identified 27 post-explosion impact shell homes, fired from British lines as they tried to dislodge the Germans.

They also found an unexploded British shrapnel artillery shell with its time-fuse still intact, representative of the large number that failed to explode on the Somme, and an empty ammunition box for a Vickers Machine Gun, reflecting the period of British occupation of the site.

Dr. Kris Wisniewski, a lecturer in Forensic Science at Keele University, said, "The land had been in private ownership for almost 100 years, so this scientific study, the first to be carried out on this historically important crater, was both exciting and significant.

"Using a range of scientific methods, we were able to map out the epicenters of both blasts and the boundaries of the subsequent craters caused by the first and second explosions, as well as post-blast defensive positions and Allied shell impact craters.

"Using drones with imaging cameras, we were able to image remotely a probable sap or shallow tunnel to the northwest of the crater, showing the German mastery of No Man's Land after the initial detonation."

Professor Peter Doyle, a military historian at Goldsmiths, University of London, who was part of the team, said, "The Germans had quickly mastered the art of capturing craters and used this to their advantage. Though they lost many men in the initial blast, the crater became a part of the German frontline, meaning that the chance to break through the line here was lost.

"Our study has provided new evidence of the strongpoint the Germans built from the captured crater in the middle of No Man's Land that doomed the British attack to failure. This reinforces the idea that blowing the mine 10 minutes early, to give the earth time to settle, was a very bad idea. It was only with concerted effort four months later, and a new mine, that Hawthorn Redoubt was captured by the Highlanders."

The research team included representatives from Keele University, London South Bank University, Staffordshire University, Atlantic Technological University, Goldsmiths, University of London, Stoke-on-Trent Archaeology Service and Cotswold Archaeology.

More information: A multidisciplinary scientific investigation of the 1916 Hawthorn Mine Crater, Beaumont Hamel, Somme, Northern France, Journal of Conflict Archaeology (2024). DOI: 10.1080/15740773.2023.2297202
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Graphical abstract. Credit: Remote Sensing (2023). DOI: 10.3390/rs15092248

Scientists say they have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model which would efficiently interpret and recognize the behavior of certain factors in seismic-prone regions to forecast earthquakes before their occurrence.

In their study, published in the journal Remote Sensing, the scientists' investigation centers on the Arabian Peninsula or Arabia located in West Asia and northeast Africa. In seismic research, it is technically referred to as the Arabian Plate, a minor tectonic plate in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres.

Geographically, the Arabian Peninsula is known to cover Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar including southern Iraq and Jordan.

While not an epicenter, the Arabian Peninsula is bordered by active tectonic enclaves. The selected buffer area (2,000 km radius) which the study examines is centroid by Saudi Arabia, which the authors say is either unexplored or partially explored in the literature.

The literature on earthquake prediction is voluminous, the scientists point out; however, their review of previous scholarly work shows that, only very few studies have used artificial intelligence in spatial probability assessment (SPA).

SPA shows the future distribution of earthquakes of a certain magnitude and the possibility of them recurring in a specific area. But the scientists find a great deal of complexity in the available SPA modeling processes due to what they describe as "the involvement of seismological to geological factors."

Despite the plethora of SPA-based studies, earthquake prediction remains an arduous task. Hope for improved accuracy of earthquake prediction only emerged with the publication of some recent AI-based seismic studies whose data included certain integrated factors such as ground shaking gap, and tectonic contacts, the scientists emphasize.

The literature diverges in reporting seismic activity in the geographical boundaries of the Arabian Peninsula. Some studies mention that it is a stable craton, while others report small magnitude events. Within the Peninsula, the authors mention the occurrence of small-to-moderate earthquakes.

The study stands out in developing a hybrid Inception v3-ensemble extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model and shapely additive explanations (SHAP). XGBoost is a powerful efficient algorithm for models relying on classification and regression, while SHAP is a game approach used to explain machine learning output.

The authors claim their study is the first ever to use XAI for SPA.

The inventory data used for analysis in the study was collected from the US Geological Survey (USGS) for the past 22 years ranging the magnitudes from 5 Mw and above. Landsat-8 satellite imagery and digital elevation model (DEM) data were also incorporated in the analysis.

"Results revealed that the SHAP outputs align with the hybrid Inception v3-XGBoost model (87.9% accuracy) explanations," the scientists write.

Drawing on the study's outcome, the scientists attribute failure by previous models to accurately forecast quake occurrence to failure in adding new factors to the body of their data and analysis.

It is essential for earthquake prediction models "to add new factors such as seismic gaps and tectonic contacts, where the absence of these factors makes the prediction model perform poorly," the study points out.

Hitherto, the most missing critical factors for SPA, according to the study, are peak ground accelerations (PGA), magnitude variation, seismic gap, and epicenter density.

"The conclusions drawn from the explainable algorithm depicted the importance of relevant, irrelevant, and new futuristic factors in AI-based SPA modeling," they write.

They say that last year's Turkey earthquakes (Mw 7.8, 7.5, and 6.7), mostly attributed to the active east Anatolian fault, validate the AI-based earthquake SPA results they have obtained.

Conducting their SPA, the scientists used a combined approach of ML and XAL techniques. For the sake of clarity, they developed a hybrid combination of the inception v3-XGBoost model because "feature learning is still unclear in the literature."

"This hybrid model performs both feature learning and prediction better than the standalone models. The model deeply analyzes the features to improve processes, automate tasks, and predict outcomes, based on past experiences," the study says.

The results of the study show that future earthquakes are likely to happen within their mapped seismic zones. However, they write, "This might not happen in the Arabian Plate as few areas in the peninsula have shown seismic quiescence for a long period."

The authors convey that the AI model they have adopted improves the previous works investigating seismic activity in the Arabian Peninsula. However, they stress that "[a] large area of study needs a huge amount of training data for better accuracy. This can be studied using smart predictors to improve the SPA map."

"The proposed hybrid Inception V3-XGBoost model achieved good accuracy as compared to other state-of-the-art ML models. However, the CNN model achieved a better accuracy in prediction which is 90%."

Despite their promising findings, the authors reiterate the challenging character of the earthquakes' spatial probability assessment "among all natural hazards owing to multiple factors and event non-linearity."

The advantages of the study, the authors add, "deal with operationalizing AI that builds confidence in black-box models and monitors the models to optimize."

Of the implication of the research to regions other than the Arabian Peninsula, the scientists say that while their AI-driven model has provided a robust and effective approach to SPA, "its global acceptability should be further tested with new factors and geotectonic conditions."

Among the study's other important findings, the scientists have shown that dominant major parts of the Arabian Peninsula like Central Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan come under low probability levels of seismic events prediction.

"Very high probability index  can be found in the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Iran, and Turkey," they write.

The authors cite the Mw 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey last year and its corresponding aftershocks as an indication of the importance of their study and the validation of the results they have obtained.

In conclusion, the authors hope that their study will "substantially contribute to establishing seismic codes" for construction activities in the geographical regions the study has targeted as it provides some relevant parameters "to determine whether retrofitting is necessary to minimize ground-shaking effects in the Arabian Peninsula."

More information: Ratiranjan Jena et al, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) Model for Earthquake Spatial Probability Assessment in Arabian Peninsula, Remote Sensing (2023). DOI: 10.3390/rs15092248
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Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime that travel at the speed of light. These are produced in some of the most violent events in the universe, such as black-hole mergers, supernovae, or the Big Bang itself. Since their first detection in 2015, and after three observing runs, the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors have detected around 100 such waves.

Thanks to these observations, we are starting to unveil the black-hole population of our universe, study gravity in its most extreme regime and even determine the formation of elements like gold or platinum during the merger of neutron stars.

The LIGO and Virgo detectors are nothing but the most precise rulers ever built by humankind, able to measure the subtle squeezing and stretching of spacetime produced by gravitational waves.

The detection of the waves and determination of their sources, relies on the comparison of the detector data to theoretical models, or "templates," for the waves emitted by each type of source. This is in essence the way the famous Shazam app tells us the details (name, author, year.) of the music being played in a bar.

While there are several ways to compute gravitational-wave templates, the most accurate one (and sometimes the only one) is through extremely accurate numerical simulations performed on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. There is, however, a caveat: most numerical simulations do not output the quantity that the detectors read, known as strain, but its second-time derivative, known as the Newman-Penrose scalar.

This makes scientists need to perform two-time integrals on the result of their simulations. Dr. Isaac Wong, co-lead of the study from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, explains, "While taking integrals may sound simple, this operation is subject to well-known errors that we can only handle for rather simple sources like the merger of black holes in circular orbits that LIGO and Virgo have been detecting so far. Moreover, doing this is not straightforward, requiring quite some hand tuning that involves human choices."

In recent work published in the journal Physical Review X, a team led by Dr. Juan Calderon Bustillo "La Caixa Junior Leader" and "Marie Curie Fellow" at the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics (Spain) and Dr. Isaac Wong, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, have proposed to flip around the way gravitational-wave analyses have been performed since its birth.

Rather than taking integrals on their simulations, the authors propose taking derivatives on the detector data, while leaving their simulations untouched.

Recreation of a boson star merger. Credit: Nicolas Sanchis Gual and Rocio Garcia Souto.

Dr. Calderon-Bustillo explains, "While this may look like quite a trivial tweak, it comes with great advantages. First, this greatly simplifies the process of obtaining templates that can be compared to LIGO-Virgo data. Most importantly, we can now do this safely for any source that supercomputers can simulate."

In fact, the team has long been interested in studying the possibility that some of the current signals may be due to something way more exotic and mysterious, known as boson stars.

Dr. Sanchis-Gual, co-author of the study from the University of Valencia says, "Boson stars behave very much like black holes, but they are fundamentally different, as they lack the two most distinctive (and somewhat problematic) aspects of black holes: their no-return surface known as event horizon, and the singularity in the interior, where laws of physics break down."

While the team knew how to simulate these sources in supercomputers, "we were having real trouble understanding how to transform the output of our simulations into something we could compare with the detector data, due to well-known issues. The idea of taking derivatives from the data, made things extremely simple," says Prof. Alejandro Torres, also from the University of Valencia.

As a first application of their new technique, in a separate work published in Physical Review D, the team compared some gravitational-wave events observed by LIGO and Virgo to a large catalog of simulations for boson-star mergers.

"If existing, boson star mergers exist, these could account for at least part of what we know as dark matter," says Prof. Carlos Herdeiro, from the University of Aveiro.

In fact, the team found that one of the most mysterious events observed to date, known as GW190521, is indeed consistent with such simulations. This reinforces a similar result obtained by the team in 2020, obtained using a significantly smaller catalog.

Samson Leong, Ph.D student from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, involved in both studies says, "It's very exciting to see that GW190521 is consistent with a boson-star merger. This does not underscore the potential role of these exotic objects in the future of gravitational wave astronomy."

Prof. Tjonnie Li, from K.U. Leuven adds, "This result also demonstrates the power of our new approach. By simply taking derivatives, we've opened a broader window for exploring and understanding the cosmos through gravitational waves."
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Brown vs. Board of Education, the pivotal Supreme Court decision that made school segregation unconstitutional, turns 70 years old on May 17, 2024.

At the time of the 1954 ruling, 17 U.S. states had laws permitting or requiring racially segregated schools. The Brown decision declared that segregation in public schools was "inherently unequal." This was, in part, because the court argued that access to equitable, nonsegregated education played a critical role in creating informed citizensa paramount concern for the political establishment amid the Cold War. With Brown, the justices overturned decades of legal precedent that kept Black Americans in separate and unequal schools.

As a professor of education and demography at Penn State University, I research racial desegregation and inequality in K-12 schools. I'm aware that, after several decades of unraveling of desegregation progress, the upcoming Brown vs. Board of Education anniversary comes at an especially uncertain moment for public education and efforts to make America's schools reflect the nation's multiracial society.

Recent setbacks

In June 2023, the Supreme Court ended most race-conscious college admissions efforts. The decision followed the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated racial inequalities in the U.S.

Meanwhile, politicians and school boards have banned or removed books by authors of color from school libraries and restricted teaching about racism in U.S. history. I believe these legal setbacks amid the current political climate make finally realizing the full promise of Brown more urgent.

Resistance to Brown ruling

The Brown vs. Board of Education decision did not immediately change the nation's public schools, especially in the completely segregated South, where there was massive resistance to desegregation. Resistance was so fierce in the first decade after Brown that compliance with desegregation orders at times required federal troops to escort Black students to enroll in formerly all-white schools.

It would be a decade after Brown before the federal courts, a newly enacted Civil Rights Act and expanded federal education funding spurred greater compliance with desegregation requirements.

While only 2% of Southern Black K-12 students attended majority white schools in 196410 years after Brownthe number had grown to 33% by 1970. The South surpassed all other regions in desegregation progress for Black students.

Segregation persists

Public school students today are the most racially diverse in U.S. history. At the time of Brown, about 90% of students were white and most other students were Black.

Today, according to a 2022 federal report, 46% of public school students are white, 28% are Hispanic, 15% are Black, 6% Asian, 4% multiracial and 1% American Indian. Based on my analysis of 2021 federal education data, public schools in 22 states and Washington, D.C., served majorities of students of color.

And yet, public schools are deeply segregated. In 2021, approximately 60% of Black and Hispanic public school students attended schools where 75% or more of students were students of color. Black and Hispanic students who attend racially segregated schools also are overwhelmingly enrolled in high-poverty schools.

A 2019 report by EdBuild, a nonprofit that produced reports on school funding inequities, found that schools in predominantly nonwhite districts received $23 billion less in funding each year than schools in majority white districts. This equates to roughly $2,200 less per student per year. Unequal funding results in less student access to advanced, college-prep courses, to name just one example.

Benefits of diversity

While Brown was an attempt to address the inequality that students experienced in segregated Black schools, the harms of segregation affect students of all races.

Racially integrated schools are associated with reduced prejudice, enhanced critical thinking or simply building cross-racial friendships that teach children how to work effectively with others.

White students are the least exposed to students of other races and ethnicities, and therefore they often miss out on the benefits of diversity. Nearly half of white public school students attend a school in which white students are 75% or more of the student body.

Factors that exacerbate segregation

Although residential segregation is slowly declining, many U.S. communities remain both racially and economically segregated. Segregated schools, therefore, often reflect segregated neighborhoods.

However, how students are assigned to schools and districts can play a key role in how segregated those schools are.

This is because school attendance boundaries often determine which local public school a student may attend. How those boundaries are drawn or redrawn can exacerbate or alleviate school segregation. More than 13,000 U.S. public schools that are predominantly of one race are located within 10 miles of a school that is predominantly of another race.

Studies show that redrawing school attendance zones within school districts could make a substantial number of schools less segregated.

The same is true when it comes to school district boundaries. A high level of income and racial segregation also exists between neighboring school districts. And district secessionwhen schools leave an existing school district to form a new districtis linked to higher segregation. Redrawing district boundaries or preventing the formation of new boundaries could affect segregation.

Another key factor is the rise of public school choice, which allows parents to send children to charter schools or other schools beyond their zoned school. One study found that areas with more students enrolled in charter schools were associated with higher school segregation.

Potential solutions

Several hundred remedial court desegregation orders, which require districts to eradicate segregation that existed prior to the Brown decision, still exist. These are largely concentrated in some Southern states.

For the rest of the country, voluntary integration efforts are attempts to finally achieve the goals of the Brown decision. These include Berkeley, California's elementary school assignment plan and legal cases brought against states including Minnesota that challenge existing segregation under state constitutions.

Finally, since reducing residential segregation could also reduce school segregation, some efforts have combined school desegregation and housing integration policies. Connecticut, for example, has piloted coordinating housing mobility vouchers for eligible participants in its interdistrict school desegregation program.

Like 70 years ago when Brown was decided, addressing public school segregation remains important for a healthy democracyone that today is more multiracial than ever before.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
By Deauwand Myers

To argue that to preserve our freedoms we must suspend our freedoms, that to safeguard elections we must cancel elections, that to defend ourselves from dictatorship we must appoint a dictator  what logic is this?  From Robert Harriss Dictator.

October 2023 marked the 44th anniversary of the death of arguably the most consequential Korean political figure of the 20th century, President Park Chung-hee (Nov. 14, 1917  Oct. 26, 1979).

Whatever President Parks faults, and well get to those momentarily, there would be no LG, Samsung or Hyundai, nor the gleaming skyscrapers and immaculate public infrastructure throughout Daegu, Busan and Seoul without President Park Chung Hees leadership.

My maternal grandparents actually went to Korea for their 50th wedding anniversary, in the late 80s, when Korea was under the brutal heel of President Chun Doo-hwan, himself a president-cum-dictator. My grandmother marveled at how clean Seouls streets were, not unlike ones a person could find in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, yet free of litter. They were clean to the point of looking unreal. (Recently, I thought about this and smiled in irony. If she could only see Seoul today. As beautiful and impressive as the city is, littering is a problem these days).

"Success comes to those who dare to dream, have the courage to act, and the perseverance to overcome obstacles.  President Park Chung-hee

What my late grandparents marveled at while celebrating their anniversary was part of Park and his administration's legacy. Through sheer force of political will, shrewd government policies, like massive investments in public infrastructure (ports and highways, for example), and corporate tax incentives to a blessed few burgeoning industrial companies, family-owned conglomerates (in Korean, chaebol) of which all the civilized world now knows, like the aforementioned Samsung and LG, Korea thrived.

So great were Koreas economic and industrial gains under the Park regime, his successor, Chun, attempted to deploy a total political proscription against Park, a kind of national, historical erasure in the minds of the body politic of the assassinated president and all he and his administration achieved. Of course, Chuns machinations to undo the very memory of Park were a spectacular failure.

Leadership is not about being popular; it is about making tough decisions"  Park said.

The Miracle on the Han River, so dubbed Koreas breathtakingly fast ascension from the ashes of war and poverty to a thriving, advanced, wealthy and well-functioning democracy, owes much of the foundations for said successes (minus democracy) to Park.

Astonishingly, Korea, a true democracy not two generations old, was able to impeach, convict and jail a corrupt head of state, his very own daughter, Park Geun-hye, while the oldest modern democracy in human history, the United States of America, couldnt muster the political and moral courage to convict a far worse government executive, former President Donald Trump.

What Park failed to realize, all too late indeed, is absolute power corrupts; the accretion of said power to ones self leads to a higher chance for failure or fatality or both.

Leadership should not be a popularity contest, for sure, but another word for those who win the most votes in an election is the popular vote. Conversely, political dissent by a plurality/majority of the citizenry is to say, these groups of ideas are unpopular.

Presidents (autocrats) Putin, Xi, and Park Chung-hee also suffered dearly in one way or the other by the very state they sought to protect. The trauma of that suffering certainly informed and informs their actions, and all of them, to varying degrees, employ cruelty, violence, the threat of violence, imprisonment, torture, and murder to achieve their political aims; of these three, Putin is by far the worst of the bunch.

Park did a great deal to advance Koreas economic growth, and in that way, changed human history. Advances in computer chips, smartphone technologies, EV batteries, and more, wouldnt exist without prior decades of the Korean government subsidizing these industries.

But Parks brutal repression of democracy, like fair elections, crushing political dissent, stifling freedom of the press, and the unlawful imprisonment and torture of political rivals laid the groundwork for nearly another decade of misery by the likes of the brutal and incompetent leadership of Chun.

Unfortunately, Park's daughter learned the wrong lessons about effective governance of a democracy. She infamously had a blacklist of artists and academics who criticized her policies. She even had her administration contact American newspapers decrying the slightest of criticisms against her tenure. Her hubris was very much like her fathers. Hers led to impeachment, imprisonment and eternal disgrace; her father's led to the assassination of him and his wife.

And so, President Park Chung-hee was many things: patriot, husband, father, visionary, narcissist and dictator.

Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a masters degree in English literature and literary theory, and is a private English teacher.
Christian Oliver's family 'deeply saddened' by actor's death

Christian Oliver's family are "deeply saddened" by the actor's death.

The movie star and his two daughters - Madita, ten, and Annik, 12 - died in a plane crash in the Caribbean on Thursday (01.04.24), as their plane was flying from J. F. Mitchell Airport in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to St. Lucia, and Oliver's family have now released a statement about the tragic incident.

His wife, Jessica Klepser, and their family said: "We are deeply saddened by the tragic plane accident on January 4, 2024, which took the lives of our beloved family members. Our daughters, Madita (12), and Annik (10), along with their father Christian, were returning from a holiday in the Caribbean when the single-engine plane they were traveling in experienced engine trouble and fell into the ocean. Unfortunately, all four passengers on the small aircraft did not survive. (sic)"

The actor's death will be "deeply felt" by his friends and family.

Read more here:

Lil Nas X to drop new song and video next week

Lil Nas X is returning with his new song next week.

The 'Old Town Road' rapper, 24, took to social media to share artwork and confirm his first track of 2024 and the self-directed music video is coming next Friday (12.01.24).

The art posted to Instagram appears to depict four drawings of Nas X as a priest with the following underneath: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, amen."

Nas X also spoke about being labelled a "one-hit wonder" and at the bottom of the post is where he appeared to confirm the release date for the unnamed track.

He wrote: "I love this constant cycle the world has with me."

Read more here:

Halle Bailey gives birth

Halle Bailey has given birth to a baby boy.

The 'Little Mermaid' actress has confirmed she and partner DDG have welcomed their first child into the world and they have named their son Halo.

The 23-year-old star shared a photo of her hand holding her baby's fingers, with the tot wearing a gold bracelet with his name engraved on it.

She captioned her Instagram post: "Even though we're a few days into the new year, the greatest thing that 2023 could have done for me, was bring me my son.. welcome to the world my halo [love, baby and star emojis] the world is desperate to know you[wink, laughing face and heart emojis] (sic)"

Neither Halle nor her 26-year-old boyfriend had revealed she was pregnant, despite rumours they were expecting a baby swirling for several months.

Read more here:

Kevin Hart hits back at Katt Williams

Kevin Hart thinks Katt Williams' recent criticism of him is "sad".

The 52-year-old comedian recently slammed Kevin, 44, during an appearance on the 'Club Shay Shay' YouTube show.

Katt said: "In 15 years in Hollywood, no one in Hollywood has a memory of going to a sold-out Kevin Hart show, there being a line for him, ever getting a standing ovation at any comedy club."

Katt also claimed that he rejected a series of movies before they were offered to Kevin.

He added: "It's interesting, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Again, I'm on the winning side of these decisions."

Read more here:

***

Get more of this week's celebrity news here:
The selection of the jury in the murder trial of Kevin Monahan began in Washington County Court on Monday morning, Jan. 8. Monahan is alleged to have shot and killed Schuylervilles 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis in April 2023.

Monahan is facing charges of second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence in the shooting death of Kaylin Gillis. Gillis, 20 years old at the time, was shot and killed as she and friends turned their car around in Monahans driveway. He lives in the Town of Hebron.

The jury selection process will continue for three days.

Washington County Judge Adam Michelini heard from both Washington County District Attorney Tony Jordan, First Assistant District Attorney Christian Morris and defense attorneys Kurt Mussert and Arthur Frost regarding the use of specific language by the court and by witnesses who take the stand. Defense attorneys reacted to the use of words such as victim, assailant, or perpetrator.

I looked through the charge that I drafted for this case, and I dont anticipate using any of those terms. They are certainly not in anything Ive written, and I think the people have indicated they dont intend to use those terms as well, Michelini said.

I dont think I have used those words in my 18 years, and I wouldnt start now, Morris responded. The people understand that if there is a legal conclusion being drawn by a witness that could impact the jury, people are not using the word victim.

There were also motions yet to be filed by the court that addressed witnesses when the jury begins.

Morris also said he has informed police witnesses not to use the term victim as well. Michelini said he wont obstruct witnesses to avoid specific terms. Frost then added that he will object to the terms where he sees fit.

The second motion filed was for the right to a fair trial which addressed clothing worn in the courtroom and any potential issues in the parking lot outside of the courthouse with members of the Gillis family.

The issues of if witnesses testify that their testimony shouldnt be about irrelevant things, comments of the defendants expression or demeanor in the courtroom, Michelini said.

Frost said he doesnt want emotion of the witnesses to be applied in the case.

I simply dont want someones emotions that are understandable to get in the way of the proof the jury should receive, Frost said.

Morris responded saying that the characterization of Gillis would be irrelevant in the trial compared to the facts, and that the only fact that will come up in regards to witnesses that were in the vehicle that night, is that Blake Walsh was Gillis boyfriend.

Monahans trial was delayed in October for DNA testing and a possible expert witness was presented by the defense.

Another topic of concern was the recording by Washington County Sheriffs inspection of the 20-gauge shotgun used in the shooting.

The attorneys discussed if the footage from police inspecting the gun in December would be used in the trial. The investigators filmed the inspection in case either side wanted to use information there.

Both the DA and defense said they dont plan to utilize the footage in the trial, but it was taken for the protection of both, had there been anything noteworthy.
Police are asking for help finding a 13-year-old girl who went missing from the Malta area. In a press release, they say that Gabriella Lopez, may have headed to the Schenectady area.

She turned 13 last week, is 4 feet 11 inches tall, brown hair, brown eyes.

She was reported missing on Dec. 21 and the case was filed with NYS Missing Persons Clearinghouse on Dec. 26.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the clearinghouse at 1-800-346-3543
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE  Allaire Health Services has taken over management of the Crest Haven Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.

Cape May County reached a 10-year agreement in November with Allaire on transitioning leadership and management of the 180-bed facility effective Jan. 1.

Under the agreement, Allaire will continue to operate the facility as a nursing home and will retain all staff who are actively employed at Crest Haven.

County counsel Jeffery Lindsay previously said the agreement would give Allaire a brief rent-free period, and after that, the company would pay $1.4 million a year on the lease, with a built-in annual increase of 2%.

Allaire will invest in the facility and staffing to ensure ongoing operations and the ability to implement new services that further elevate the work the county has done there, the county said Monday in a news release.

Cape commissioners approve lease for nursing home, despite objections Despite a last-minute plea from members of a union representing county workers, the Cape May County Board of Commissioners approved a 10-year lease agreement with Allaire Health Services for the operation of Crest Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

As we researched and evaluated potential partners for the ongoing operation and management of Crest Haven, Allaire Health Services stood out as a leader in the industry and as an ideal partner based upon their history of working with county-owned facilities, said Leonard C. Desiderio, director of the county Board of Commissioners. We are confident in Allaires leadership teams ability to work with us and the community to continue existing services and introduce new services for patients and residents. They bring a very personal and engaged approach to patient, resident and staff engagement, and we look forward to working with the Allaire leadership team going forward.

Allaire also will continue the operation of a Meals on Wheels program that is run out of Crest Haven, the county said.

Allaire will evaluate the local and regional population and work with area physicians and hospitals to identify clinical program opportunities that will best serve the region, the county said.

Allaire Health Services is proud to partner with the County of Cape May and the Greater Cape May community to continue the great service of Crest Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, said Ben Kurland, president and CEO of Allaire Health Services. We look forward to building upon the history of excellent care that the county has promoted and provided throughout the facilitys history, and we are committed to ensuring the personal, clinical and spiritual wellbeing of current and future patients and residents.

The plan was opposed by members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who told the county governing body last year that an outside operator would cut staff and reduce the quality of care. County officials said they could not keep operating the nursing home at a loss.
ATLANTIC CITY  The 27th annual East Coast Gaming Congress, the longest-running gaming conference in the United States, will be held April 17-18 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.

The event will include keynote addresses from 11 major industry CEOs. Additional speakers include a range of leading regulators, suppliers, investors and other experts who will address topics that are central to the future of gaming.

The conference will center on ilottery and igaming.

The new reality is that gaming and lotteries are no longer separate industries, but are rather verticals in one broad industry, and that raises a host of difficult questions that need to be addressed, said ECGC co-founder Michael Pollock.

The conference also will present a lifetime achievement award to David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. The cocktail reception April 17 will honor the legacy of late gaming pioneer H. Steven Norton.

Past ECGC speakers have included six New Jersey governors, as well as every CEO who has ever led the American Gaming Association. The conference will again provide opportunities for sponsorships, networking, professional development and business-to-business discussions.
ATLANTIC CITY  A 31-year-old Union City man was arrested with a loaded gun after he fled from an officer investigating a burglary Thursday, police said.

Officer Julian Monsalve saw Julian Hinton walking in the 1300 block of Atlantic Avenue at 11:04 p.m. Hinton matched the description of a suspect involved in a vehicle burglary the night before that occurred nearby, police said Monday in a news release.

Monsalve attempted to detain Hinton, but he ignored the officers directions and continued to walk away before eventually running, police said.

Hinton attempted to climb a chainlink fence to escape but was unsuccessful and was apprehended, police said.

As Monsalve was attempting to take Hinton into custody, Hinton used his free hand to attempt to reach under his body toward his waistband area. After being secured in handcuffs, Monsalve found a loaded handgun on Hinton, police said. Hinton also was found to be in possession of five grams of cocaine.

The vehicle burglary occurred Wednesday at Tennessee and Pacific avenues. Hinton entered the victims vehicle when she was not paying attention and stole her purse, police said.

Hinton was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, possession of a weapon while committing a drug offense, possession of a defaced firearm, possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession with intent to distribute, possession with intent to distribute within 500 feet of a public zone, certain person not to possess a weapon, obstruction of justice, hindering apprehension, resisting arrest, refusing to be fingerprinted, burglary and theft. He was sent to the Atlantic County jail.
LOWER TOWNSHIP  There were no barriers, ropes or signs separating the public and private areas of the expanse of sand in the Diamond Beach section on a sunny January morning.

What would be the point on a deserted beach?

But the distinction remains, on a stretch that has seen protests, legal actions and calls to police over what is public and what is private when crowds pack the strand in the summer.

A plan to build a line of dunes the length of Five Mile Beach has state officials and the private beach owners talking.

The proposed project, which would also bring federal beach replenishment to sand-starved North Wildwood, would need easements from property owners, including the owners of the private beaches.

These are not riparian rights like they are in the rest of Cape May County. We actually own the beach, said Eustace Mita, the owner of Icona Resorts, one of four private beach owners in Diamond Beach.

Mita said the beach is part of a thriving business, with a beach bar, a wedding venue and guest services.

In each case, the private beach owners either offer access to hotel guests or condominium owners, or sell tags for access to the private areas.

DEP says North Wildwood beach work could threaten future state funding Shawn LaTourette, the commissioner of New Jerseys Department of Environmental Protection, scolded North Wildwood Mayor Pat Rosenello in a letter Thursday over the citys work on the beach.

Jim Yost, the general manager for Seapointe Village, which also has a private beach, described the states efforts as government overreach, adding the plans to create a dune the length of Five Mile Beach are unnecessary and delaying the start of a beach project at the other end of the barrier island in North Wildwood.

Mita said he has been in contact with the state Department of Environmental Protection about the possibility of easements. He has not discussed the state acquiring the land but said he understands others have spoken with officials.

Yost also serves as managing agent for The Grand at Diamond Beach and is the owner of Elite Management Advisory Services. He said there have been discussions with the DEP about approving an easement for the dune proposal on the private beaches. If the parties are unable to reach an agreement, he sees the potential for the state to resort to eminent domain.

Yost said the private beach owners and operators are in favor of shore protection but remain skeptical of the plans for a new dune. There are already dunes in Diamond Beach and Wildwood Crest, and a huge beach that just seems to keep growing.

Diamond beach doesnt lose sand. It gains sand, he said. He also pointed to evaluations that put Diamond Beach at a very low risk of damaging floods.

Yost described the project plan as a waste of money, set to spend millions of dollars to build an unneeded dune instead of accelerating the project where it is most needed, in North Wildwood.

There, Mayor Patrick Rosenello has wavered between open conflict and grudging cooperation with the state on shore protection, while a significant amount of the once-wide beaches has washed out to sea. In a recent interview, he said the only viable option to return sand to the beaches at this point is a federal beach project, but that will not happen until all of the easements are in place, which looks like at least two more summers with almost no beach, and two more winters worrying about the potential impact of storms.

Caryn Shinske, a spokesperson with the DEP, said the department is in the process of acquiring easements for public and private property in all four towns with beachfront on the barrier island, which includes North Wildwood, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and Lower Township.

Little hope for improvements to North Wildwood beach before summer NORTH WILDWOOD  Severe erosion will likely mean several blocks of beaches will be inaccessi

The department is not buying property, she wrote in an emailed response to questions, with the not bolded.

Steve Rochette, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the state is leading the efforts for all real estate issues related to the beach project.

Still, officials in Lower Township and neighboring Wildwood Crest are preparing for a potential future of public beaches in Diamond Beach.

Both Lower Township Mayor Frank Sippel and Wildwood Crest Mayor Don Cabrera said last week that the two communities have begun discussions on sharing services for future lifeguard protection and beach maintenance in Diamond Beach.

Wildwood Crest has experience in both, while Lower Township has never needed either. Lower Township has extensive beaches on the bay side but does not provide lifeguard services there.

Its still in the early stages, Sippel said. He said the DEP is in the process of negotiating with property owners in connection to the dune project. One possibility he cited could be a negotiated purchase of the properties, or the invocation of eminent domain to take the private property for public use.

That would mean paying the owners a fair market value, which is usually determined by a court. If that happens, Sippel said, it will likely fall to the communities to look after the beaches, and the bathers.

The state does not want to be in charge of maintaining beaches, he said.

Easements, agreements still in the works for Wildwood dune project WILDWOOD  From the railing of the Boardwalk, with the ocean shining in the distance, it may

The township may be able to work out an agreement with the current beach owners, he said, which already provide lifeguards and other services on the beaches.

Its been a decade since the Army Corps held a public hearing on a feasibility study for an island-wide dune system, according to details posted on the Army Corps website, and in January 2017, a project partnership agreement was approved. The plans were in the works far longer, with a project study authorized in 1987.

The Army Corps study showed beaches in North Wildwood, once among the widest in the state, receding quickly while sand gathered on beaches at the southern end of the barrier island. Erosion has not slowed down. For a while, North Wildwood was spending millions to truck sand from the south and rebuild beaches each winter, but there is no longer enough beach to carry the trucks.

The private beaches of Diamond Beach are unique in Cape May County, and unusual in New Jersey, where many towns require the purchase of beach tags, but private beach clubs are less common.

Years ago, Diamond Beach residents staged protests demanding greater beach access. While a company may own a beach and restrict access to that area, that restriction cannot extend to the waters edge.

Under whats known as the public trust doctrine, members of the public have a right to access the beach where tidal waters flow. That also means the private beaches must allow a path for people to reach the water.

The entire beach at Diamond Beach is about a half-mile from the border with Wildwood Crest to federal land to the south, where former Coast Guard property is now an extensive nature preserve. There are paths through the Two Mile Beach Unit of the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge, but public access to the beach in the unequivocally public property is severely limited in the summer for the protection of nesting birds, with access closed from April 1 to Sept. 30.
DES MOINES  Iowas majority Republicans promised faster tax cuts and a continuation of their conservative agenda as they gaveled in for the first day of the 2024 legislative session on Monday.

Republican and Democratic leaders made opening speeches laying out their priorities for the session, with many expressing their grief and calling for action after a deadly school shooting in Perry last week that left 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff dead and seven others injured. The shooter also died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate promised to accelerate income tax cuts they passed in 2022 and expand business opportunities in the state.

Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, a Republican from Grimes, compared Iowas policies and fiscal standing to those in neighboring, Democrat-run states Minnesota and Illinois. And he highlighted Iowas fiscal health, noting the $2.1 billion state general fund budget surplus  which is projected to grow to $3.1 billion in the next fiscal year  plus another $3.7 billion in the states Taxpayer Relief Fund.

Whitver reiterated the call to accelerate the recent income tax cuts and pledged to reduce the number of state boards and commissions  a process already underway after it was included in Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds state government reorganization plan and studied by a legislative committee.

The goal is to make government more efficient and help Iowans get to work faster, Whitver said. In one sentence, here's the plan: cut taxes, control spending, reform government, and let Iowans be great. Let's get to work.

Iowa Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, described the principles that will guide Senate Democrats work during the 2024 session.

For every item that comes across our desk this session, were going to ask three questions: Does it create more opportunity for Iowans? Does it ensure freedom for Iowans? Does it provide more accountability for Iowans, Jochum said. If the answer is yes, Senate Democrats are ready to work with Republican colleagues to get it done. If the answer is no, were going to fight like heck against it and let the people of Iowa know why.

Beyond tax cuts, Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley of New Hartford said lawmakers would look at improving public safety, making government more transparent and efficient and reviewing standards of both lower and higher education in the state.

House Democratic leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights appealed to Republicans to work with Democrats on policy to address the needs of Iowans rather than pass bills approved and drafted solely by Republicans.

The lawmaking process is generally dominated by Republicans, who hold a large majority in both chambers of the Legislature. Democrats are generally not involved in drafting and making changes to bills even when they are passed in a bipartisan fashion.

How about this year, the fact that Democrats introduce a bill doesnt mean its a bad idea automatically, out of the gate, Konfrst said said. What matters most is that we build policies that Iowans will recognize and have better lives because of. Were here to serve Iowans.

Lawmakers urge action after Perry shooting

Lawmakers took a moment of silence and expressed their grief over the shooting at Perry High School last week. Grassley highlighted it as part of Republicans commitment to improving public safety, while Democrats said the shooting shows the need for stronger gun control measures.

Iowa school students in the Des Moines Metro walked out on Monday and held a protest at the Capitol to demand stronger gun laws.

People choose Iowa because our state is viewed as safe, so when we see these senseless acts of violence in our own home state, in our own schools, it shakes us to the core, House Speaker Pat Grassley said. In Iowa, every parent should be able to send their kids to school and trust that they should return home safely.

Grassley did not say new gun restrictions would be on the list of policy responses to the shooting. Instead, he said Republicans would invest in school security, prioritize school resource officers, bolster childrens mental health and teach resilience over victimhood.

He connected the push for safety in schools to Republicans efforts to prohibit books with sexual content from school libraries.

Democrats also called for action in response to the shooting, including stricter gun control measures.

There is no pain like the pain of losing a child, Jochum said. In our grief, though, you must also ask tough questions and acknowledge hard truths. How do we tame violence in our country, violence that touched East High School here in Des Moines less than two years ago? And now Perry?

The truth is we must address gun safety. We must find a solution to gun violence, Jochum said. No child should go to school fearing for their lives, but today millions do. Gun safety should not be a partisan issue. Protecting kids should not be a partisan issue. It's time for us senators to come together and to find real solutions.

Whitver praised law enforcement officials and emergency responders who acted during the shooting. He appeared to indicate Senate Republicans will not be considering gun safety legislation.

While we cant legislate away evil and get rid of all the bad things in this world, we will keep our thoughts and prayers with those in Perry as we move forward and put in place policies to make our state better and stronger, Whitver said. It is impossible to find words to appropriately convey the sorrow and the sympathy we have to the victims of the shooting. But the people of Perry should know that we share in their grief and support them at this time.

Speaking at a Republican breakfast reception before the session began, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said lawmakers would work with the community as it continues to heal from the tragedy.

We continue every day to keep the families of the victims in the Perry community in our prayers, Reynolds said. We'll continue to work with the community to make sure that they have the whole government behind them as we work through this heartbreaking time in our state's history.

Student activists with the March for Our Lives group rallied in the Capitol rotunda and then marched to deliver a letter to Reynolds office, demanding the state pass gun safety measures. Their proposals include allowing law enforcement to temporarily take guns from individuals experiencing a mental health crisis, preventing gun ownership of an individual convicted of certain crimes like stalking, and requiring the reporting to law enforcement of any lost or stolen firearm.

Our hearts are heavy today and our prayers are with everyone in Perry. Still, nothing has been done, Trey Jackson, the legislative director of March of Our Lives Iowa, said as he read the letter to Reynolds during the Capitol rally. Iowans have had enough of prayers. We need action. You, Gov. Reynolds, have the power to create meaningful change. You have the power to save more lives from being senselessly stolen in this state.

House Republicans consider more library book restrictions

Grassley doubled down on House Republicans efforts to remove books with sexual content from public schools and said Republicans may pass additional legislation to clarify or expand on the existing law.

In December, a federal judge temporarily blocked much of a law passed last year, Senate File 496, that banned books that depicted or described any of a list of sex acts from public schools and prohibited teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation before seventh grade, among a host of other regulations.

Grassley said he was shocked that we actually have people willing to fight this hard to keep pornographic material in our schools.

The language of the law has led school districts to remove works of classic literature like Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and George Orwell's "1984."

Opponents of the law, including civil rights groups and legislative Democrats, say it is overly broad, impedes on the First Amendment rights of students and teachers and discriminates against LGBTQ students.

It should have been an easy policy for schools to implement, but instead some chose to politicize this issue, and if we need to pass additional legislation this session, we will, Grassley said.

Reynolds praises conservative leadership

At the Republican breakfast reception, speaker after speaker touted delivering a conservative agenda that includes lowering taxes, providing taxpayer funding for families to pay for private school expenses, and strengthening parental involvement and steering away from progressive social issues in school curriculum related to instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.

I could not be more proud of the accomplishments that we've achieved since we were able to achieve the trifecta, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said at the event. You know collectively, you truly are making a difference for Iowans and the policies and, most importantly, the results have captured America's attention  from tax cuts to cutting government and red tape to growing the economy.

We saw nearly $4 billion of capital investment in our state last year in 2023. From educational freedom to universal school choice to protecting life, this Republican team has delivered time and time again on the promises that we made to Iowans.

Reynolds urged lawmakers to continue to challenge the status quo and continue to empower Iowans and really continue to maintain, I think, the bold and decisive leadership that Iowans have truly come to expect from our Republican leaders.

We're excited about this next legislative session, she said. We got a great story to tell. We got a lot to be proud of, and we do have more work to do.
A Davenport man who is on parole from the Illinois Department of Corrections is accused of firing off rounds from a rifle early New Years Day, Davenport Police said.

Joseph Lee Richardson Jr., 28, is charged in Scott County District Court with one count each of felon in possession of a firearm, and reckless use of a firearm.

Felon in possession of a firearm is a Class D felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of five years, while reckless use of a firearm is a simple misdemeanor that carries a jail sentence of up to 30 days.

According to the arrest affidavits filed by the Davenport Police at 4:51 a.m. on Jan. 1, officers saw a man shooting a rifle in the 3600 block of West 43rd Street.

Surveillance video from the scene shows a black man with facial hair wearing a gray sweatshirt and black pants exit 3611 W. 43rd St., Apt. 45, and walk to the area of the shooting where distinct muzzle flashes are seen.

The man then ran back into the apartment with the rifle in hand.

On Jan. 5, detectives served a search warrant at the mans apartment and seized a Rossi RS-22 rifle.

In a post-Miranda interview, Richardson admitted to shooting the rifle during the incident early New Years Day.

Richardson was arrested Friday and booked into the Scott County Jail.

During a first appearance on the charges, Magistrate Catherine Cartee scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for Jan. 16.

Richardson was being held Saturday night in the Scott County Jail on a cash-only bond of $5,000 that was set by Cartee.

In March of 2016, Richardson was arrested along with two other men on robbery, conspiracy and theft charges in connection with a series of robberies in Davenport.

On June 10, 2016, Richardson pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree theft, a Class C felony that carries a prison sentence of 10 years. On Aug. 10, 2016, Richardson was sentenced to serve 10 years in the Iowa Department of Corrections on each count with the sentences to run concurrent to one another, or at the same time. He was released from prison in Iowa on Feb. 23, 2021.

In April of 2022, Richardson was arrested in Rock Island County on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He pleaded guilty to the charge on May 26, 2022, during a hearing in Rock Island County Circuit Court. During that hearing Circuit Judge Frank Fuhr sentenced Richardson to serve three years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Richardson was paroled from the Centralia Correctional Center on June 9, 2023. He is scheduled to be released from parole on Aug. 9, 2024. Illinois authorities could revoke his parole and send him back to prison for the remainder of this sentence.
The presidential office is considering deleting records of overdue loan repayments for small business owners and vulnerable groups whose payments were delayed due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, an official said Monday.

The "credit pardons" will likely be granted ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which this year falls on Feb. 10, as the government considers various measures to improve people's livelihoods and revive the economy.

"In the event loan repayments were delayed due to the impact of COVID-19, we're looking into deleting the records," the presidential official told Yonhap News Agency. "We're discussing it with the financial circles, and if we can complete the discussions, we could get it done quickly even before Lunar New Year's Day."

Typically, the Korea Credit Information Services keeps a record of debts that are overdue by three or more months, and shares it with financial organizations and credit ratings agencies, which can limit individuals' ability to take out future loans or use credit cards even after they have repaid their loans.

The government is also considering deleting records of light disciplinary action against public servants in the event it was handed down for minor mistakes, as part of efforts to boost their morale, according to the official.

The official stressed, however, that such measures should not be confused with presidential amnesties granted to senior public servants or politicians serving prison sentences, saying "nothing has been decided yet" on such pardons. (Yonhap)
When Lily Gladstone made history Sunday evening, becoming the first Native American to win best actress in a motion picture drama, Indigenous people nationwide celebrated while simultaneously trying to figure out who beaded her black-and-white earrings.

The answer is Lenise Omeasoo, Montana-based Ermineskin Cree and Blackfeet artist.

When Gladstone reached out a few weeks ago, Omeasoo said she knew she had the perfect earrings to match her style.

The earrings, like many of Omeasoos pieces, can be worn in several ways  as a rectangular stud or with a dangling butterfly attachment. At the Golden Globe Awards, Gladstone wore the top post of the earring set, showing a black-and-white mirrored Blackfeet design framed by pink and gold glass beads.

Omeasoo said she was honored Gladstone wore her work, adding that the earrings perfectly complemented Gladstones Bulgari diamond necklace and white Valentino dress.

Im incredibly proud of my fellow Blackfeet sister, Omeasoo said.

Since Gladstones historic win, Omeasoo said shes received overwhelming support for her company, Antelope Women Designs.

The amount of followers and fans that are sharing the work makes me feel very inspired, she said. I plan to take this energy and create something with it.

In her publicity for Killers of the Flower Moon, Gladstone has intentionally uplifted the work of local Native artists.

On the cover of British Vogue last September, Gladstone wore a large Apsaalooke-style breast plate with vintage brass beads and pink conch pearls by Crow artist Elias Jade NotAfraid. Another photo in the spread shows Blackfeet artist John Pepions Butterfly Dreams blanket. The blanket, made of cotton, is inspired by butterfly images often painted on tipis or found in the beadwork of Blackfeet people.

Find Lenise Omeasoos work on Facebook at AntelopeWomenDesigns or Instagram at Antelope_Women_Designs.
At first, Bob Brainard must have thought that he was the luckiest man alive.

He received three text messages on his outdated Apple 7 iPhone all on the same day. The first was from the post office telling him that they had a very large and heavy package for him, but they were having trouble delivering it to him.

The second was that he had won an Apple Pro Max Blue Titanium 15 iPhone.

And the third was a text from Pat Sajak of Wheel of Fortune fame that told him that his name was picked as the winner of $63,550.00, all cash, the same amount that the TV contestant won on Fan Fridays jackpot Give-Away. Never having registered on Wheel of Fortunes website Bob was confused but naively ecstatic.

Bob could hardly believe his luck. All three messages wanted just two things from him: his Social Security Number and his bank account routing numbers. The phone numbers for all three were identical.

Suddenly, his mail-order wife-to-be, Natasha Komarovsky from Belarus, called to tell him she was waiting for him to pick her up at the Amtrak station on Staples Mill Road.

Wow, said Bob aloud. Before his brainbox had time to say, Wait a minute here. Im already married and my wifes in Paduca visiting her mother.

Then the other shoe fell. Hard. I mean shoes plural. Clatter, clatter, clatter.

His phone dinged for another incoming text message.

Your mother is in the hospital after being hit by a car in Mexico City and surgery is badly needed. Please Western Union $2,500.00 as a downpayment for the surgeon to begin

Ding.

Your cousin is in jail in Timbuktu accused of being a drug mule and needs $2,500.00 for bail. He is in a cell with Abdul and Ahmed the Gigantic Felon Twins and is fearful...

Ding.

Your bank savings account may have been hacked and the IT department is requiring $2,500.00 to unlock and destroy the malware so you can access those funds. Time is of the essence, or your funds may be locked up permanently. Call us at (555)-RAN-SOME.

Ding.

Weve kidnapped your wife and are holding her in a secret location in Powhatan, Virginia and demand $2,500.00 for her release. Or else, buddy-boy.

Bob: My wife? Kidnapped? Well now, let me think $2,500.00, huh? Let me think Thats a lot of money. Hmmm. Should I call the FBI? Let me think TWEN-ty-five-HUN-dred dollars. Thats a WHOLE lot of money. Wife Hmmm. Let me think some more
The parade of storms continues in Virginia, as the next soaker moves in early on Tuesday.

Once this storm moves away early Wednesday morning, two more follow in the pipeline. The next one comes Friday, and it looks like another soaking rain. The one that follows it early next week still has more questions than answers.

Rain moves into Richmond around dawn on Tuesday, and initially it will not be heavy. After some breaks in the rain late in the morning and early in the afternoon, it will pick back up toward evening, with a final surge of heavy rain for a couple of hours.

An additional 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain is expected before all rain ends by midnight. After the rain of the last few weeks, there is a substantial risk of flooding of streams and creeks starting early on Tuesday evening throughout metro Richmond. Roads that typically do not drain well will likely have standing water Tuesday evening, so be especially careful if driving.

On Wednesday, water from its tributaries will flow into the James River, so expect a rapid rise on the river on Wednesday, with the potential for minor flooding by Wednesday night or Thursday.

Wind speeds will increase on Tuesday afternoon, with the strongest winds coming with the most intense rain in the evening. Speeds will regularly be 15 to 25 mph during the late afternoon and early evening with some occasional gusts near 45 mph. In addition to some thunder and lightning during that window of time, there is a small but legitimate chance that some of the stronger individual cells within that heavy rain could rotate enough to form a tornado. That risk is far greater southward into the Carolinas, but even if that risk is relatively low in Virginia, it should be respected.

Widespread power outages are not anticipated, but if your power does go out, it would likely happen Tuesday evening or before daybreak on Wednesday. The consistent winds and soft soils from the recent rains suggest there will be at least some power outages before the storm fully moves away on Wednesday.

During most of Tuesday, the wind will be from the southeast, effectively pushing water westward from the Chesapeake Bay. As a result, 1 to 2 feet of flooding along the tidal James and York rivers is expected at high tide on Tuesday evening.

Although widespread damaging winds are not expected in Richmond, winds will be substantially stronger near the coasts  both the Chesapeake and the Atlantic. During Tuesday evening, wind speeds will be consistently 35 to 45 mph on the open water, with gusts approaching 60 mph.

Interests near the water should secure their watercraft by midday Tuesday.

The next storm, arriving Friday or Friday night, does not look as wet as the previous two. Nonetheless, an additional 0.5 to 1.5 inches of rain is the working idea right now. The storm also looks as if it will be out of Virginia by daybreak Saturday, leaving dry and windy conditions with an afternoon in the 40s.

Next weeks storm bears a much closer look in the following days. Starting this weekend, the air over Virginia will be consistently colder than the past few weeks. Of course, it is too early to promise accumulating snow for next weeks storm, but it is a reminder that there is still plenty of winter ahead of us.

180 dramatic weather photos from the RTD archives
Law enforcement officials on Monday afternoon announced a major breakthrough in three cold case homicides that occurred in the late 1980s, including one double homicide that was part of a string of crimes that became known as the Colonial Parkway murders.

Virginia State Police identified Alan W. Wilmer Sr. of Lancaster County as a suspect in the 1987 double murder of David L. Knobling, then 20, and Robin M. Edwards, then 14, in Isle of Wight County.

Wilmer, who died in December 2017 at the age of 63, is also a suspect in the 1989 murder of Teresa Howell, then 29, in Hampton.

If not for Wilmers death, charges would be filed against him in connection with the three homicides, said VSP spokesperson Corinne Geller.

Police said Knobling and Edwards were last seen alive and together on Sept. 19, 1987. The next day, Knoblings pickup truck was discovered abandoned in the parking lot of the Ragged Island Wildlife Management and Refuge Area on the banks of the James River in Isle of Wight.

DNA EVIDENCE IDENTIFIES FORMER NORTHERN NECK MAN AS SUSPECT IN 1980s COLD CASES IN CITY OF HAMPTON AND ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY https://t.co/UmitFe3npj  VA State Police (@VSPPIO) January 8, 2024

Four days after their disappearance, the bodies of Knobling and Edwards were found on the shoreline of the wildlife refuge. Police said both victims had been shot in the back of the head, and Edwards had been sexually assaulted.

Two years later, in July 1989, the body of Howell  who was last seen on July 1, 1989, outside the now-defunct Zodiac Club in Hampton  was found in a wooded area after construction workers discovered womens clothing at a nearby worksite. Howell had been strangled to death and sexually assaulted, police said.

DNA evidence used: authorities

The three homicides went unsolved for decades, but at a Monday news conference in Suffolk, authorities said they had used DNA evidence to determine that Wilmer was responsible for the crimes.

The DNA was gathered from Wilmer posthumously last year, police said, and proved to be a genetic match with then-unidentified DNA found on the bodies of Knobling, Edwards and Howell. As a result, police were able to mark the cases as solved.

But Geller stressed that resolving cases is not the same thing as closing them.

Were going to revisit the facts, Geller said, and detectives will continue to investigate the murders and look into potential connections with other violent crimes.

Geller declined to comment on how Wilmer had been developed as a suspect and what prompted investigators to collect his DNA.

Wilmer was 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighed 165 pounds, police said. He had brown hair, blue eyes and often sported a close-cropped beard. At the time of the murders, Wilmer drove a distinctive blue 1966 Dodge Fargo pickup truck. He also owned a small commercial fishing boat, named the Denni Wade, in which he sometimes lived and which he docked in marinas around the Northern Neck.

He was a fisherman and avid hunter and ran a business called Better Tree Service, police said.

In a statement released at the news conference, the families of Knobling and Edwards said that the 36 years since the murders had been a vacuum of the unknown.

While the families said Wilmers death prevents them from getting answers to long-asked questions, they said they have a sense of relief and justice knowing (Wilmer) can no longer victimize another.

Lt. Col. Tim Lyon, director of the VSP Bureau of Criminal Investigation, expressed gratitude toward the families for their patience.

Only those who have suffered the loss of a child in this way can truly understand the depth of their sorrow and the frustration over not knowing who was responsible for taking their loved ones life, Lyon said. I do hope the identification of the killer brings some sense of closure and peace for them.

Were asking the public to come forward

Geller said that while the public previously had connected the murders of Knobling and Edwards with a series of four double homicides that occurred between 1986 and 1989 in southeast Virginia, there is no evidence at this time that the killings are linked to the other so-called Colonial Parkway murders.

In addition to the deaths of Knobling and Edwards, the infamous murders included the October 1986 murders of Cathleen Thomas, then 27, and Rebecca Dowski, then 21, outside of Williamsburg; the April 1988 disappearances (and presumed murders) of Cassandra Hailey, then 18, and Richard Call, then 20, in Yorktown; and the September 1989 murders of Annamaria Phelps, then 18, and Daniel Lauer, then 21, in New Kent County.

The bodies of Thomas and Dowski were found strangled, nearly decapitated and doused with gasoline in a car on the side of the Colonial Parkway.

The bodies of Hailey and Call were never found, but Calls abandoned vehicle, in which he and Hailey had been traveling together, was located with the keys and much of the victims clothing inside at an overlook on the York River off the Colonial Parkway.

And the decomposed remains of Phelps and Lauer were found near a wooded logging road about a mile from a rest stop off Interstate 64 in New Kent, where Lauers car had been discovered with the keys still in the ignition.

Authorities did not link the slaying of Knobling and Edwards to the other Colonial Parkway murders, but Brian Dugan, a special agent for the FBI office in Norfolk, said investigators are look(ing) toward solving other crimes the suspect may have committed.

Were asking the public to come forward and share information about any encounters they may have had with (Wilmer), Dugan said.

PHOTOS: 30th anniversary of Parkway Murders
Support for a constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies who have completed their terms is a flagship issue for the Virginia NAACP in the legislative session that starts Wednesday.

Virginias NAACP conference held a virtual news conference Monday to go over its legislative priorities for the General Assembly session, which begins Jan. 10 and runs through March 9.

In Virginia, people convicted of felonies permanently lose their voting rights, unless a governor choses to restore them.

Tyee Mallory, a legislative coordinator with the NAACP, called the matter a long fight because the proposed amendment would need to pass the state legislature in two different years with a House of Delegates election in between before it could appear before Virginias voters in a ballot referendum.

Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, has carried the resolution numerous times, but it might have a better chance now. Though the issue is not totally partisan, it has most often been championed by Democrats  who now control both chambers of the legislature. Constitutional amendments are not subject to governors approval.

Three previous governors from both parties have worked to streamline the process for restoring rights, with the process becoming automatic under Democrat Ralph Northams administration. He had also dropped a requirement for felons to have completed probation before their rights could be restored. In contrast, Gov. Glenn Youngkins administration quietly adjusted the process back to an application-based one, and its not clear what criteria would grant a successful restoration.

However, when the administration responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from Virginias NAACP, an example of a successful application showed a person who had completed their sentence and paid fines. Meanwhile, an applicant labeled ineligible at this time was still on probation and paying fines.

Obviously, the conditions exist now in the General Assembly that we feel favorable that this amendment will pass, Mallory said. We feel good about it, but nothing is a guarantee.

Other voting-specific measures the NAACP plans to support are protections for preregistration at the age of 16, which members believe will create a habit of lifelong voting for people, along with protections of current expanded voting access.

Since Democratic-led legislatures in 2020 and 2021 first expanded the voting window, some Republicans have sought to undo or walk back the 45-day period of early voting or ballot drop boxes for absentee ballots. Last year, Youngkin spearheaded an initiative to promote early and absentee voting in an effort to boost GOP candidates in the legislative elections last fall.

But some Republicans still want to change the voting options. Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, has a bill to reduce early voting to 21 days, while Del. Chad Green, R-Hampton, has a bill to reduce it to 30 days.

The NAACP will oppose those bills.

This is democracy at work, said Gaylene Kanoyton, political action chair with the organization.

The NAACP also plans to advocate for measures in education, housing and environmental policy.

Ideas include support for inclusion of Black history in school curriculum and opposition to censoring of reading materials that include it; support for policies to prevent evictions and pilot programs for low-income, first-time homeowners; and support for Virginias inclusion in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Dubbed RGGI  pronounced Reggie  the multistate carbon market is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Youngkin has long called for withdrawing Virginia from RGGI, which he says is essentially a tax on electricity ratepayers and a bad deal for them and for business. Last year, he urged the states Air Pollution Control Board to vote for Virginias removal, and the process has been subject to legal action from environmental groups.

Two other key issues for Virginias NAACP are mental health and policing.

Both were highlighted last year when Irvo Otieno, a mental health patient from Henrico County, died of asphyxiation after he was pinned on the floor while shackled and handcuffed during his intake at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County. The hospital most recently said in state documents that law enforcement interrupted treatment that might have otherwise prevented the chain of events leading to his death.

NAACP President the Rev. Cozy Bailey said broadly that there have been issues of collaboration between law enforcement and health care personnel along with issues about processes and procedures and availability of mental health care professionals.

Otienos situation underscores longstanding efforts to enhance behavioral health responses to crises and bolster mental health resources in Virginia.

Kanoyton noted how the Marcus Alert  a specialized behavioral health response named for Marcus-David Peters, a 24-year-old man killed by law enforcement in Richmond in 2018 during a mental health crisis  has not been fully implemented across the state. The systems goal is to streamline communication between 911 and 988 operators and to reduce law enforcements involvement in situations where their presence exacerbates a mental health crisis.

Localities have until 2028 to implement the system. The NAACP plans to support additional and ongoing efforts in mental health reform.

The matter is one that both parties have stressed a commitment to working together on during the 60-day session.

7 bills to watch in the upcoming Virginia legislative session Raising minimum wage Mental health support Attempts to reverse Clean Car Act Gun laws Rights restoration Reproductive rights
(Image: Bernama)

Rakuten Trade has said that Malaysia will likely exceed 15 initial public offerings (IPOs) this year, with a focus on three sectors, namely technology, healthcare, and construction. This comes following a recent report by Ernst & Young (EY), which revealed that Malaysia has become one of several new IPO hotspot markets.

For context, the EY Global IPO Trends 2023 report  which was published at the end of 2023  said that Malaysia saw increased IPO transaction volume and proceeds last year, which propelled it to surpass traditional IPO giants like Hong Kong and China. Specifically, Malaysia recorded 32 IPOs last year, and the increased transaction volume outpaced the five-year average by a significant 21%. Meanwhile, the proceeds surged by 25% over the five-year average.

Aside from Malaysia, other new IPO hotspot markets that were also identified in the EY study included Indonesia and Thailand. Together, the three countries dominated ASEANs IPO market, accounting for 148 of the total 157 IPOs in the region.

In response to this, vice president of equity research at Rakuten Trade, Thong Pak Leng said that more companies are expected to aim for IPOs in Malaysia as the economy and businesses continue to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. We believe the landscape of the IPOs this year is based on our positive anticipation of the market. However, investors should be careful in selecting which IPO to invest in given their different business natures. We advise you to focus on the valuations and opportunities in the sectors, he said.

Similarly, the vice president of investment company Tradeview Capital, Tan Cheng Wen anticipates that Malaysias IPO landscape will continue to grow in 2024. He said that there are currently around 20 upcoming IPOs listed with an approximate value of RM1.5 billion  and this figure may increase depending on investors interest.

Tan also noted that with the normalisation and potential rate cuts by the US, interest in the Malaysian capital market is expected to rekindle. The likely improvement of market conditions could spur more listing activities and, hence, IPO trends will remain robust this year, he said.

(Image: Samsul Said/Bloomberg)

Unlike Thong, however, Tan believes that the IPO landscape in Malaysia this year will not be dominated by any particular sectors. Instead, it will be characterised by significant diversity and variation.

Lastly, the chief economist of Bank Muamalat, Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid also agreed that the appetite for IPOs in Malaysia will further improve. The equity market tends to be positive when global central banks start easing their monetary policy, he said, adding that while the market is volatile, it is very much centred upon the prospect of rate cuts in the US.

(Sources: Ernst & Young [1, 2], New Straits Times)

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Aeromexico grounds all MAX-9 aircraft after Alaska Airline door blow out

Riviera Maya, Q.R.  Aeromexico says they will ground 19 MAX-9 aircraft after the Alaska Airlines door blow out incident. The airline says the Boeing 737 MAX-9 planes will be grounded for a fleet inspection.

Over the weekend, Aeromexico announced that it will ground its 737 MAX-9 aircraft, the most current model, from manufacturer Boeing following the incident with Alaska Airlines.

On Friday evening, a piece of the aircraft identified as a door plug broke off of the plane shortly after take off from Portland, Oregon.

Mexican airline Aeromexico said that in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), their 737 MAX-9 will remain grounded.

The inspection of our MAX-9 fleet will conclude as soon as possible to continue with scheduled operations and we will continue working in coordination with Boeing as well as with the competent authorities, the airline reported Saturday.

Aeromexico has at least 19 aircraft of this type, according to data from the Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC).

The National Transportation Safety Board says they have since located the plug from the Alaska Airline plane. According to the Board, the plug was covering an unused exit door. It blew out minutes into an Alaska Airlines flight Friday evening.

The missing door plug, outlined on the plane in red, was located near Portland in a private back yard. Photo: January 6, 2023.

The Board said the discovery could prove vital in the investigation of the cause of the blowout. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said the plug was found near Portland in the backyard of a private home.

In a statement Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all types of Boeing 737 Max 9s involved until its satisfied that they are safe.
Random Felipe Carrillo Puerto shooter captured

Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Q.R.  A man wanted for the random shooting of a passerby in the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto has been taken into custody. The man, who is known to police for similar past actions, was arrested over the weekend after a lengthy search.

The State Attorney Generals Office (FGE) of Quintana Roo reported that local authorities were finally able to locate the alleged shooter identified as Fernando N. The man, who has a known history of mental illness, was arrested Sunday morning from 56th Street in the Leona Vicario neighborhood of the town.

He was spotted shortly after 10:00 a.m. walking the streets of Felipe Carrillo Puerto by patrolling officers. After a 30-minute chase through town streets, Fernando N was captured and taken into custody at 10:40 a.m.

He is known by the alias Tirador (shooter) and was arrested for his probable participation in the commission of acts possibly constituting crimes against the life and integrity of people, the FGE reported.

Fernando N was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant after allegedly taking aim at a male town resident riding a bicycle on December 31, 2023. The man was hit by the gunfire and taken to hospital.

Fernando N was arrested in June of 2023 after a week long jungle search for his whereabouts after nearly a dozen people were hit by gunfire. A majority of those injured in the unprovoked attacks were Maya Train construction workers.

It is the second time Fernando N has been arrested for randomly shooting people. Photo: January 7, 2024.

The man was identified by his family as likely being responsible since he had a history of similar actions. Their help lead police to his location and subsequent arrest in June of 2023. He was admitted to a mental health facility but later released.

According to the FGE, Fernando N has been arrested again based on events that occurred on December 31, 2023, when the male victim was traveling on a road in this municipality on a bicycle. When he stopped to take photos with his cell phone, he was injured by gunshots.
Veracruz fugitive wanted for 2014 murder arrested in Cancun

Cancun, Q.R.  A suspect wanted for murder in Veracruz has been arrested in Cancun. On Sunday, Quintana Roo authorities participated in the arrest of Ulises S from his Cancun home.

The 44-year-old suspect was wanted for the 2014 murder of a woman in the city of Las Chopas, Veracruz. The woman he is accused of murdering, Leticia E, is his mother.

Ministerial Police arrested the fugitive on an outstanding warrant.

Elements of the Ministerial Police of Las Choapas, Veracruz together with authorities from Cancun, Quintana Roo, arrested the subject identified as Ulises M.S., 44 years old, originally from Las Choapas, for the crime of feminicide against his mother named Leticia Sanchez Estrada in 2014, the agency reported.

Ulises S was taken into custody from his home on calle Segunda Privada de Girasol in Cancun from where he ran a cell phone repair shop.

After his arrest, he was immediately transferred to the Duport Ostion Social Reintegration Center in Veracruz.
Samsung Electronics on Sunday unveiled a new high-end TV with more enhanced connectivity and features powered by its latest artificial intelligence processor ahead of CES 2024.

The flagship 2024 Neo QLED 8K TV incorporating the NQ8 AI Gen 3 AI processor, the company's AI-based neural quantum processor technologies, premiered at a showcase named "The First Look" held in Las Vegas before this year's annual tech show slated for Tuesday.

Samsung Electronics said the model is the culmination of its 18 years of technology and know-how as a leader in the global TV market.

The NQ8 AI 3rd Generation processor is the most powerful Samsung TV processor to date, with 512 neural networks, eight times more than the previous year, and boasting a twice as fast Neural Processing Unit (NPU) as the previous one as well, according to Samsung Electronics.

Leveraging AI-based processing, the TV elevates content to 8K resolution, delivering a more vibrant and dynamic viewing experience with enhanced contrast, color and brightness.

Enhanced by wireless speakers and a sound bar featuring Samsung's advanced sound technology, Q-Symphony, the Neo QLED 8K TV promises dynamic tracking sound, clear voice quality and seamless integration.

Samsung Electronics emphasizes that the TV's AI capabilities offer an immersive experience for live sports, concerts and online streaming content, even in lower-quality formats like SD or FULL HD, replicating the feel of VIP seats at events.

Beyond hardware upgrades, the TV operates on Samsung's proprietary Tizen operating system, a versatile platform spanning smartphones, TVs and tablets. The 2024 Tizen OS Home introduces tailored content recommendations for each registered account, providing a personalized viewing experience for family members.

The new TVs showcased at CES 2024 will also be equipped with the Samsung Daily+ function, offering users an overview of content and information, along with popular titles and recently watched content.

Samsung Electronics prioritizes accessibility with the introduction of the world's first Audio Subtitle feature in the 2024 Samsung TVs, using AI and optical character recognition (OCR) technology to convert subtitles to speech in real time. (Yonhap)
FLORENCE, S.C.  The Doctors Bruce & Lee Foundation Librarys Morris Gallery will host an opening exhibit reception at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 25 featuring South Carolina artist Alvin Glen.

Admission is free and light refreshments will be served. Glens paintings will be exhibited in the Morris Gallery through May 15.

Glen presents works about common people, emotions, and ideas. He uses recognizable images, sometimes subtle, allowing the viewers to slowly discover and interpret the works. He explores emotion as well as social and spiritual concepts. Some of his works illustrate Lowcountry Gullah life while other works bring attention to social or political issues.

Glen earned a bachelor of arts in arts education at South Carolina State College. He has presented solo shows at the Charleston Art Institute, the Avery Research Center, and at the Charleston Trident Chamber of Commerce. He has also lectured and taught art education, respectively, at the Goose Creek Artists Guild and in Dorchester public schools.

Glen previously presented a solo exhibit at the Morris Gallery in 2019.

The Doctor N. Lee Morris Gallery is on the second floor of the Drs. Bruce & Lee Foundation Library in Florence. For more information about the exhibit and related events, visit the librarys website at www.florencelibrary.org.
Thousands of Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque during the annual Haj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

SINGAPORE The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) confirmed on Monday (8 January) that all 900 spots for this year's Haj pilgrimage have been allocated to eligible pilgrims.

Last year, Singapore also had an allocation of 900 places, while in 2022, there was an initial 407 slots before the city-state was allotted more places.

Singapore has been allocated 900 places annually since 2018. MUIS did not send any pilgrims for the Haj in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MUIS reveals 54,000 pilgrims await their turn in AHRS queue

MUIS said in its media release that all prospective pilgrims have been contacted based on their queue position in the Advance Haj Registration System. They have confirmed their places and have purchased their Haj packages from authorised travel agents.

MUIS highlighted that there are still around 54,000 potential pilgrims waiting for their turn in the registration system.

The council expressed gratitude to the Saudi Arabia on behalf of the Singapore Muslim community for its "efforts and strong commitment" to enhance the welfare and safety of pilgrims while performing the fifth pillar of Islam.

Application fee changes

Haj registrations have been conducted through the MyHajSG portal since last year, and each registration requires an application fee.

According to MUIS, from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2025, the application fee is S$285 per applicant.

Starting from 1 January 2026, the fee will increase to S$330. These fees do not include prevailing Goods & Services Tax (GST) charges, MUIS added.

Singapore's minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs signs Haj agreement in Jeddah

Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs, Masagos Zulkifli, signed the agreement for Haj with Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Hajj and Umrah during his attendance at the Hajj and Umrah Exhibition and Conference in Jeddah, which is being held from 7 to 11 January.

According to Masagos' Facebook post on Monday, MUIS reached out to potential pilgrims last month through the MyHajSG portal.

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"They received their offer letters to perform Haj this year and the early notice has enabled them to plan ahead, such as applying for leave, arranging caregiving needs for their loved ones as well as preparing themselves physically, financially and spiritually for the journey," Masagos said in his Facebook post.

"For those who have been selected and places confirmed, I wish you a blessed Haj."

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FILE PHOTO: Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. attends a session of the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit Meeting at the Hotel Okura Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan, December 17, 2023. KAZUHIRO NOGI/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

By Clarissa Batino and Cecilia Yap

(Bloomberg)  Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has offered to meet with former leader Rodrigo Duterte amid rumours of a brewing destabilisation being linked to his predecessor.

Duterte on Saturday denied any involvement in moves that will undermine his successor after a former senator said people allied with the ex-president are agitating active military members.

Marcos is always available to meet with Duterte, his Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil said on Sunday after the former president said he wants to talk to his successor about the suspension of a supporters broadcast company.

The recent developments are highlighting the growing cracks in the alliance of the Philippines two biggest political families that produced landslide victories in 2022 for Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte, Rodrigos daughter.

A fractured coalition comes at a time when Marcos is banking on domestic support in his campaign to assert the nations rights in the South China Sea. It may also impact his ability to extend influence after his term ends in 2028.

The discord between the two camps became more visible a year after the May 2022 election as the Dutertes distanced themselves from Marcoss strategy of strengthening ties with the US. Duterte, who spurned Washington and pivoted towards China during his six-year term, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping last July as Manila and Beijing sparred over the disputed sea.

Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in 2022.

Around the same time, Sara Duterte was assailed by Marcoss allies in Congress over her request for confidential funds after questions arose on how she spent a similar slush budget the prior year. The chatter over simmering military discontent allegedly fanned by Duterte supporters was first brought up in November by ex-Senator Antonio Trillanes, a known critic of the former president. Trillanes repeated his accusations over the weekend.

Last month, Philippine regulators halted a television program that regularly featured a Duterte broadcast by Sonshine Media Network International linked to evangelist Apollo Quiboloy. Days later, the government suspended Sonshine for 30 days for violating the terms of its franchise. Quiboloy is a known supporter of Duterte.

Duterte is comfortable with Marcos and isnt looking for someone to replace the current leader, he said during a briefing with reporters in southern Davao City on Saturday.

2024 Bloomberg L.P.
The Seletar Link Flyover will be open to motorists from 22 January 2024. (PHOTO: Google Maps)

SINGAPORE  A new flyover will be opened at 2pm on 22 January to provide new connections between Seletar Link and Tampines Expressway.

The Land Transport Authority said in a media release on Monday (8 January) that the Seletar Link flyover will support the expected increase in traffic due to new developments in Punggol Town and Pulau Punggol Timor.

The flyover, which spans an approximate road length of 1.05 kilometres, will be an alternative route for motorists who are travelling from Punggol Town to Seletar Expressway (SLE) or Central Expressway (CTE). It will also enhance connectivity for industrial developments on Pulau Punggol Timor, serving as a more direct route for vehicles heading to SLE or CTE.

In addition, the flyover will provide a connection to developments in Sengkang Town when the new Sengkang West Drive is completed.

The new Seletar Link Flyover. (PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: LTA)

LTA said that informational and directional traffic signs will be put up to inform motorists ahead of the flyover's opening. Motorists are advised to plan their routes in advance and to follow traffic signs on site to help them get to their destinations.

LTA had recently announced expansions to the MRT network in 2024, with the North East Line extension (NELe), which connects Punggol MRT station to the new Punggol Coast MRT station, is on schedule for its opening this year.

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You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Also check out our Southeast Asia, Food, and Gaming channels on YouTube.
Tia Lee for Grazia Middle East, December 2023. Photo: Grazia Middle East

Tia Lee made big waves in the music industry with her successful song, Goodbye Princess, setting a new record for the fastest C-Pop video to hit 100 million views on YouTube and her #EmpowerHer campaign breaking records and going viral on social media platforms like TikTok. Aside from creating musical hits and championing charitable endeavours that totalled a whopping HKD 3.8 million (approximately USD 480,000) in donations, however, Tia has also been making waves in the fashion industry in 2023.

Starting back in November 2022, Tia graced the cover of Vogue Hong Kong, kicking off a slew of cover features, including UK magazines Rollacoaster and TMRW, US magazine Flaunt, Marie Claire Hong Kong, Icon Malaysia, Elle Thailand, Harpers Bazaar Thailand and, in a surprising announcement, Grazia Middle East.

Tia Lee on the cover of Flaunt and Marie Claire Hong Kong. Photo: Flaunt/Marie Claire Hong Kong

Not only does the inclusion of a magazine in the Middle East region prove that Tias popularity and influence have extended out of the Asian region, but also that shes truly a global fashion icon with appearances in magazine titles across different continents and countries.

Additionally, Tia was invited to her first ever London Fashion Week in February 2023, sitting in the front row and rubbing shoulders with celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Pharrell Williams and Leonardo DiCaprio, designers and A-list guests like David Koma, Richard Quinn and more. She turned heads as she arrived at British designer Julien Macdonalds FW23 show in a gorgeous custom hand-embroidered lace slip dress and chiffon cape from the FW23 collection, tailored just for her.

As the only celebrity who was handpicked by the Macdonald to wear a piece prior to its debut in the FW23 collection show, Tia joined an exclusive international list of celebrities who were dressed by the King of Glamour, including Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez, Heidi Klum and Naomi Campbell.

Tia shared after the show, It was an absolute honor to meet Julien Macdonald in person and receive the gorgeous dress fresh off his latest collection. The intricate details are a testament to Juliens passion for his craft, and I loved putting it on and watching a fabulous showcase of his latest work.

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Tia Lee at London Fashion Week 2023. Photo: Dave Benett, Getty

While attending Richard Quinns FW23 show, Tia showcased an embroidered coat from the designers Spring 2023 Collection that had stunning floral embellishments with encrusted beads, an item that was part of a collection made in tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II. She also made an appearance at the Moncler Spring 2023 Collection show, donning a beautiful and elegant white ostrich feather Moncler Maya coat with a pair of sunglasses from the Moncler Genius line.

Not only did her wardrobe in 2023 consist of major luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Gucci and Prada, Tia also showed off pieces from the collections of regional fashion houses like South Koreas LEE y. LEE y, Shanghai brand SHUSHU/TONG and US denim brand RE/DONE.

Tia Lee for Grazia Middle East, December 2023. Photo: Grazia Middle East

In a recent interview with Grazia Middle East, Tia mused, Fashion builds value and personality. Its another thing that breaks boundaries and unites people seamlessly, as music does. I am a huge fashion fan and am intrigued by the power that fashion brings to the world. I would say fashion is an important statement for all genders. It also helps all individuals build confidence and stay atop of trends at all times.

It seems like fashion is definitely a big priority in Tias books moving forward, with a spokesperson for Tia talking about how happy she is with the success seen in 2023. Having made major strides in working with big luxury brands and aspiring local brands, Tia expects to continue working closely with the fashion world, with exciting announcements and collaborations coming up in 2024.

With Tias style being much more international, it could be a big supporting factor in the aim to globalise C-pop and bring the genre to a much wider audience. The spokesperson also teased that Tia has been working hard on practising her singing and dancing to prepare for large-scale live performances in 2024, which means that fans could be treated to even more incredible outfits when Tia takes to the stage.

Well most certainly be keeping an eye on how Tias fashion choices continue to grow and evolve throughout 2024, with multiple new songs and upcoming music videos also offering an avenue for Tia to show off her sartorial sense.

This content was produced in partnership with Tia Lee Management.
DES MOINES  Iowa is bracing for weather near 0 next week as the state's critical precinct caucuses kicks off the Republican presidential nominating cycle.

Heavy snowfall and dangerous travel conditions were expected by today, followed by frigid temperatures that could drift below 0 degrees by caucus day Monday.

Whats the forecast?

The National Weather Services seven-day forecast for Des Moines predicts snow continuing over the next few days, with single-digit highs expected Sunday  the day before the caucuses  in Cedar Rapids and temperatures not expected to climb above 0 in Sioux City. The Weather Channel predicts caucus day could see negative temperatures in several parts of the state.

How is the weather affecting campaigns?

The weather already has forced former President Donald Trumps campaign to cancel multiple appearances by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who had been scheduled Monday to court Iowa voters on Trumps behalf.

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, canceled a visit to Sioux City due to snow.

Inclement weather prevented Nikki Haley from getting to and from the event in Sioux City. She is here in Iowa through caucus day and we will be back in Northwest Iowa on Friday, said campaign spokesperson Pat Garrett said.

Will the weather impact turnout?

Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann, speaking to reporters Monday in Des Moines, said he still expects high turnout for the caucuses.

If there's not a severe ice storm, I don't think cold keeps people away, Kaufmann said, predicting a robust turnout on caucus night.

I mean, I do think  the weather could prevent a record breaking turnout into a great turnout, he said. But, you know, it remains to be seen.

The state Republican Party has said it expects participation in this years caucus to be on par with 2016, in which a record of over 186,000 Republicans cast their preference for presidential candidate. The previous two contested cycles in 2012 and 2008 saw turnout of about 120,000.

If some Iowans are deterred from caucusing, the looming question is which candidate could be hurt most by voters unwillingness to brave the cold. Trump maintains a commanding lead in Iowa polling, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a distant second and Haley close behind.

Speaking to Iowa reporters Monday during a virtual news conference, DeSantis said his campaign still expects a large turnout of supporters.

"I think they're still motivated to come in and meet and hear from the candidates. And so we're going to have a full schedule, do whatever we can do, said DeSantis, who was back in Florida to deliver his State of the State address today to the Florida Legislature.

He was scheduled to fly back to Iowa for a Fox News town hall later today, weather permitting. On Wednesday, he and Haley are set to participate in a CNN debate at Drake University in Des Moines.

Call for Democrats to be #RepublicansForADay?

Kaufmann also was asked about Democrats registering as Republicans on caucus night to be able to caucus for somebody other than Trump.

Bill Kristol, a Never Trump conservative and editor-at-large at The Bulwark, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that while only registered Republican voters in the state can participate in the Iowa GOP caucuses, Iowans can change their voter registration status at their caucus site, cast their secret ballot, and leave.

They can be #RepublicansForADay to help stop Trump, he wrote.

Kauffman said hes unaware of any concerted, organized effort to get Iowa Democrats to participate in the Republican caucuses.

First of all, shame on the Democrats, he said. I mean, they screwed up first in the nation. They didn't push back on their national party, and now their reaction isn't to rebuild their party while weve got center stage this whole time, but the reaction might be to show up and try to screw up what we've done?

Iowa Democrats will hold party-organizing precinct caucuses Monday, but will express their presidential preference using a new mail-in process and wont announce results until March 5. The change came after national Democrats booted the state from its early nominating spot.

Kaufmann, too, assured Iowa Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird will prosecute any Iowa who attempts to vote in both partys caucuses. State law prohibits an individual from participating in more than one nominating caucus.

"If a Democrat attempts to do that and participate in both, that's against the law. And we're going to be monitoring that very, very carefully, Kaufmann said. So bottom line is, could it happen? Yes. Do I think it will happen? No more, no greater chance than we have before.

In requesting a mail-in presidential preference card, Democrats will be required to attest that they have not participated in any other political party's caucus.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
SIOUX CITY  There was once a large bur oak tree -- affectionately named Council Oak -- inside of what is now known as Riverside Park.

According to legend, the tree -- which started as a sapling in the 1700s -- was the site for many meetings between Native American tribespeople and early settlers.

The tree, which was cut down decades ago, was also pivotal when Dr. John Cook began the original plat for where he envisioned Sioux City to be located.

In latter years, Council Oak lent its name to the well-remembered chain of grocery stores headquartered in Sioux City during the first half of the 20th century.

Council Oak Supply Company Council Oak Supply Company is shown at 101 West Third St. in Sioux City. Brad Lepper, president and founding partner, said Stone Bru's coffee 

Brad Lepper knows the value of a name that has withstood the test of time. This is why he renamed his 101 West Third St. coffee roasting, coffee supply and coffee parlor with the historically significant moniker of Council Oak Supply Co.

That way Lepper can differentiate the West Third Street location -- which supplies coffees, equipment and consultation to coffeehouses throughout the Midwest -- with Stone Bru, the retail coffeeshop and cafe he helped to establish more than seven years ago.

"Our 5822 Sunnybrook Dr. location will still be called Stone Bru," Lepper explained. "Customers will continue to enjoy their favorite breakfast foods in the a.m., a whole menu of subs, soups and sandwiches for the rest of the day as well as plenty of coffee drink options from morning to night."

Council Oak Supply Company Riley Patty pours coffee beans out a roaster at Council Oak Supply Company, 101 West Third St. in Sioux City. Located on Sioux City's historic

Which isn't to say that Council Oak Supply Company's comfy, club-like coffee parlor isn't a bustling place throughout the day.

"We wanted our West Third Street spot to be open and accessible to the public," Lepper said. "It is a great place to purchase some freshly-roasted coffee while grabbing a cup of something special as you wait."

Chances are the coffee aroma will draw you into the space, but the building, with offers a unique view of downtown Sioux City, will keep you there for a while.

"I've always thought we have the greatest view of the city on the second floor of our building," Lepper said, opening up an overhead door window in one of the company's conference rooms. "You can see City Hall, the MidAmerican Energy Co. building and Hard Rock Hotel & Casino without having to strain your neck."

Council Oak Supply Company Freshly-roasted coffee beans cool at Council Oak Supply Company, 101 West Third St. in Sioux City.

Council Oak Supply Company Riley Patty pours green coffee beans into a roaster at Council Oak Supply Company, 101 W. Third St. in Sioux City. Brad Lepper, president and 

Council Oak Supply Company Brad Lepper, president and founding partner of Council Oak Coffee Supply and Stone Bru, talks about the history of coffee in Sioux City and th

That's because Council Oak Supply Company is situated along the curvy Prospect Hill, which was Sioux City's earliest neighborhood.

"Sioux City began its life as a river town and, back in the day, Prospect Hill allowed for quick access to the Missouri River," Lepper said.

Even though his expertise is in coffee, Lepper is also becoming a bit of a local history buff.

For instance, many of Council Oak's signature coffees have Sioux City-centric names.

The Guatemala and Peru medium roast coffee is called Prospect Hill while the Peru dark roast War Eagle is named after Chief War Eagle, a Dakota-born tribal chief of the Yankton Sioux Tribe.

Council Oak Supply Company Brad Lepper, president and founding partner, of Council Oak Coffee Supply and Stone Bru opens an overhead door in a conference room overlookin

Council Oak Supply Company Brad Lepper, president and founding partner, of Council Oak Coffee Supply and Stone Bru talks displays a scoop of coffee beans during an inter

These coffees will soon be joined by the Big Sioux and Little Sioux (the latter is decaffeinated) blends.

Council Oak's product line is in many ways a throwback to Sioux City's rich coffee history.

"For many years, Sioux City was the home for major wholesale grocery dealers," Lepper said. "Many of these companies imported, roasted, ground and packaged their own coffee brands, distributing them to stores across the Midwest."

Council Oak Supply Company Coffee beans are shown for sale, at Council Oak Supply Company, 101 W. Third St. Brad Lepper, president and founding partner, said Stone Bru's

Council Oak Supply Company Council Oak Supply Company, 101 W. Third St. is shown. Brad Lepper, president and founding partner, said Stone Bru's coffee roasting and coffe

Indeed, he has collected a trove of colorful tin containers and promotional crocks featuring logos and brand names of long-forgotten coffees made by William Tackaberry, C. Shenkberg and Robb-Ross.

"We want Council Oak Supply Company to pay homage to Sioux City's colorful history while being on a cutting edge of today's coffee economy," Lepper said.

To that end, he said Council Oak has a customer base as far east as in Washington D.C.

"There is nothing more satisfying than a cup of coffee," Lepper said, "That is something that will never go out of date."
SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man faces numerous charges in connection with a July shooting at a Riverside residence that left one man dead and another seriously wounded.

Michael Lundgren Jr., 42, was arrested Friday and booked into the Woodbury County Jail on charges of attempted murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent, willful injury, assault causing serious injury and reckless use of a firearm. All but the attempted murder charge carry habitual offender enhancements, which would increase the prison sentence to 15 years on each charge if Lundgren is found or pleads guilty.

Lundgren also was charged with second-offense possession of a controlled substance after officers found methamphetamine in his pocket after his arrest.

Lundgren is charged in connection with a July 30 shooting during a disturbance at 2013 Metropolitan Street in which Daniel Winge, 42, of Springfield, South Dakota, was killed and Mark Epstein was shot in the chest and the stomach. Lundgren also was shot in the leg and arm.

Officers responding to the call of a shooting at 4:17 a.m. found Epstein, who had called 911, in the backyard and Winge dead in the front.

According to a complaint filed in Woodbury County District Court, Lundgren's girlfriend told police she was at the house, which is where Epstein lived. The two were friends, and she said Lundgren was jealous and accused her of having sex with him. She told police Lundgren and Winge came to the house looking for her, and Lundgren drew his gun on Epstein, who then retrieved a gun from his bedroom.

The girlfriend said she was standing between the two as they argued, and then the shooting started. The girlfriend said she did not know who fired first, and she ran to the back of the house and heard multiple gunshots. After the shooting stopped, she came out and heard Epstein on the phone with 911 heading toward the back door and saw Lundgren lying in the doorway and Winge in the front yard on his back. She drove away in Lundgren's vehicle, but heard him calling to her, stopped and drove him to their home. She eventually drove him to MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center for treatment of his injuries.

Police went to the hospital to interview Lundgren, who told them he didn't know what had happened and couldn't answer any questions, the complaint said.

Police used video from surveillance cameras on neighbors' homes to identify Lundgren entering and leaving the house. He also was seen on video trying to enter the house of a friend who lived near the shooting scene and blood was found at that man's back door.

Epstein was transported to an Omaha hospital for treatment of his chest wound, which police in court documents said was significant and will require him to live in a long-term care facility once he's discharged from the hospital because he will be unable to care for himself again.

Lundgren was charged in August with felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial in May.
SIOUX CITY -- The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating an officer-involved shooting at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino's parking ramp early Monday morning.

"No officers were seriously injured. There was one officer that had some minor injuries in the incident, but no one was seriously injured as far as the officers go," said Sioux City Community Policing Sgt. Tom Gill, who declined to release any additional information about the shooting. Gill said the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is conducting an investigation and that a joint release of information will be forthcoming.

The shooting occurred at 4 a.m. in the parking ramp, which is located at 205 Pearl St. Standing on the sidewalk on Third Street, several yellow evidence markers were visible lying on the pavement inside the parking ramp. A dark blue DCI truck marked "Crime Scene Unit" was stationed on the street just outside the ramp's entrance.

The parking ramp will be closed until the investigation is complete and the public should avoid the ramp until further notice, the department said in a statement released Monday morning.

"That's still closed off to the public right now, because they're out there doing their investigation," Gill said shortly before noon.
LE MARS, Iowa  After seeing another man leave his ex-girlfriend's home, James Dunn said he was hurt.

While serving as the police chief in Kingsley, Iowa, he then illegally used his position and city computers to search law enforcement data bases for information about his ex-girlfriend, her new boyfriend and the boyfriend's roommate.

"I'm ashamed of what I've done, abusing the system like that. I was just looking for answers. I just made a mistake, your honor, and I'm asking the court for some leniency," Dunn said Monday at his sentencing hearing.

Dunn, 55, pleaded guilty in October in Plymouth County District Court to six counts of unauthorized access to or dissemination of intelligence data, all Class D felonies, and three counts of misconduct in office, all serious misdemeanors.

In his more than 20 years on the bench, District Judge Jeffrey Neary said he'd never seen a such a case, and it bothered him to see a police officer use his position to stalk an ex-girlfriend, especially at a time when law enforcement officers' actions are under increased scrutiny.

"These things detract from the hard work law enforcement officers do," Neary said of Dunn's case. "I don't believe I can ignore what happened and the impact on the victims."

A presentence report from the state probation office recommended Dunn be placed on probation. Neary deviated from that somewhat, sentencing Dunn to 30 days in jail for the three misdemeanor charges. Neary deferred judgment on the six felonies and placed Dunn on three years' probation. Neary said he was willing to craft an order so Dunn's jail time wouldn't affect his work schedule at his new job at a Sioux City meatpacking plant. Neary also ordered Dunn to continue with mental health counseling and extended an order that Dunn have no contact with the victims for five years.

As part of a plea agreement, 10 other charges, including two for stalking, were dismissed.

Dunn was arrested Feb. 15 by Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agents who had been notified by Hinton, Iowa, police officers of complaints about Dunn following his ex-girlfriend and leaving notes for her and her boyfriend.

The DCI investigation revealed that Dunn used Kingsley Police Department computers several times from November 2022 through February to search law enforcement data bases for information about his ex-girlfriend, her boyfriend and his roommate.

Dunn and the woman broke up in November, and when he learned she was seeing another man in Hinton, he began following or searching for her, prompting her to tell him not to contact her.

The woman reported that on Feb. 6, Dunn had left an anonymous letter that included descriptions of his sex life with the woman taped to her boyfriends front door. He also described watching his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend having dinner the night before.

The woman contacted Hinton police, telling them she was afraid of Dunn and that he was armed at all times.

Dunn had served as Kingsleys police chief since, Feb. 1, 2022. He was initially placed on administrative leave after his arrest and later resigned.

Neary said his sentence will prevent Dunn from serving as a law enforcement officer in Iowa again.
By Ko Dong-hwan

Korea's national pavilion at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week is the biggest ever with 443 firms and 32 government bodies in attendance, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Monday.

The pavilion for the global trade show consists mostly of small-to-medium-sized companies. Among the firms are 13 that won innovation awards last November from the show's organizer, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).

Onecom won the authority's special recognition in the Mobile Devices, Accessories and Apps category with its device designed to help visually impaired people with online messaging. As did Mand.ro in the Accessibility and Aging Tech category with its robotic fingers, which were designed for people with hand disabilities.

The city governments of Seoul, Ulsan and Gwangju, and the provincial governments of Gangwon and South Chungcheong are among 32 government authorities participating in this year's CES. The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups have joined the pavilion for the first time.

This year's pavilion drew a record 58 percent of Korea's entire firms (761 ), which are participating in this year's CES.

"The national pavilion gives a comprehensive design and brand identity to the participating firms, offering unity in how the country presents itself to the world," said an official from the ministry's bureau of trade policy.

The country's entire fleet of companies is the third biggest amount that is participating in the CES following the U.S. and China. Out of 310 companies in the world that won the CTO's designation for innovativeness last November, 46 percent were Korean firms.

With the country's international conglomerates  Samsung, LG, Hyundai and SK  also joining, the national delegation will demonstrate its technological prowess on the world stage, which also now includes the mobility, health and beauty sectors.

"The biggest pavilion ever and the outcome of a number of our companies having won recognition by the CTO will spur the country's exports and keep outbound shipment momentum high," said the official.

This year's AI theme for the CES is "All Together, All On." Four out of nine keynote speeches during the event, from Tuesday to Friday, are about AI technologies. One of them is to be delivered by HD Hyundai on Tuesday (local time) about Xite Transformation covering digital twin technology and smart construction solutions.

Starting in 1967 as an electronic appliance show, the CES has gradually shifted its focus from products to technologies. This year's key trends, according to the ministry, include personalization and on-demand technologies in digital health as well as mobility, food security, sustainable futures and agricultural technology.

On the sidelines, K-Innovation Day will be held on Wednesday. Organized by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, it will feature Korean firms and 16 global enterprises including Walmart, FedEx and IBM who will gather for possible future partnerships, according to the ministry.
SIOUX CITY  A nonprofit group wants to construct a residential treatment facility near the new Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center.

Agape Community Services plans to build the facility on 38.82 acres of land at 3500 28th St. The land is currently owned by the City of Sioux City, but the nonprofit has provided a letter of intent to purchase the property, according to city documents.

During its Monday meeting, the City Council will be asked to rezone the property from Business Park to Public and Institutional. Public and Institutional allows for facilities, other than group homes, in which residents live in an institutional environment and are under the care or control of staff. In-patient drug and alcoholism hospitals and rehabilitation centers are allowed under Public and Institutional.

In the spring of 2022, Agape Community Services scrapped plans to turn the old Sioux City YMCA into a faith-based restoration ministry for individuals struggling with addiction. The long-vacant, red brick building at 722 Nebraska St. was subsequently demolished last year at the councils direction.

Only 18 to 20 acres of the 28th Street site would be developable. The rest of the land would be used as greenspace, according to the documents. The property has rolling hills, occupied grasslands, deciduous trees and a large number of invasive eastern red cedars.

The city sent 10 notices about the zoning request to property owners in the area and also posted notices in several locations within nearby mobile home communities. No responses were received, according to the documents.

Convention Center management

The City Council is also expected to vote Monday to terminate the citys agreement with Kinseth Hospitality Inc. for the management and operation of the Sioux City Convention Center.

The agreement with the North Liberty, Iowa-based company has been in place since June 5, 2017, according to city documents.

City Manager Bob Padmore told The Journal Friday that the council requested the termination based on some issues that have transpired at the city-owned Convention Center.

Ultimately, it was determined that there are things that can be optimized and improved upon at the Convention Center, he said. We are looking at other options for operating the Convention Center. Im not at liberty, at this point, to say what it is, but were working towards that.

Under the terms of the current agreement, the city may terminate it by giving Kinseth a minimum of 90 days notice and a $70,000 termination fee. The documents stated that the city sent a letter to Kinseth, dated Dec. 21, 2023, announcing its intent to terminate the agreement.

We fully intend to have a transition without any disruption of the facility, Padmore said.

Nearly two years ago, the City Council voted to reduce Kinseths subsidy to manage the Convention Center by $25,000.

During a Feb. 23, 2022 budget wrap-up session, Mayor Bob Scott took issue with what he described as a lack of events occurring at venue. He also noted that Kinseths costs should have gone down dramatically amid the pandemic, which led to many groups canceling or postponing events.

Under Kinseths current contract, the city incentivizes the company for cutting down on the subsidy taxpayers foot each year to keep the venue running. Kinseth had an approved budget of $340,000 for FY2023 and $372,626 for FY2024.

Since it was built in 1988, the Convention Center has hosted thousands of events. The $22 million, five-story Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, which connects to the Convention Center, opened on May 14, 2020 during the first year of the pandemic. A new addition and renovations to Gallery C were unveiled at the Convention Center in late December 2019. The more than $3 million in renovations included more flexible space for events, enhanced ballroom amenities and convenient restrooms.
YORK  In early October, Janessa Arias, who is incarcerated at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women, said that she began experiencing stomach pains and a burning in her throat, which she initially passed off as an upset stomach. But after hearing that other women at the facility had tested positive for a bacterial infection called H. pylori, she decided to take a test.

Her results came back positive, Arias said. She said that her health care provider told her that she didnt know how (she) got it.

Arias is among 11 women who told the York News-Times that they had tested positive for Helicobacter pylori, or H pylori, while incarcerated at the womens prison  some years ago and at least seven in 2023, including one Dec. 18. Nebraska Department of Corrections spokesperson Dayne Urbanovsky did not respond to a question about how many women at the facility had tested positive for H. pylori in 2023.

Urbanovsky said that H. pylori is not considered a mandatory reportable disease, meaning that cases of the disease do not have to be reported to the state.

In November, Valeisha Walker filed a federal lawsuit in which she said that "some of the inmates are getting sick" with H. pylori. She also mentioned one woman, Holly Green, who had been hospitalized recently for another illness, inflammatory colitis  inflammation of the colon. Green had separately told the News-Times about her illness.

Priscilla Camacho, who said she tested positive in November, said the spread of H pylori is not something that just started. It has been going on. Diane Holbrook, for instance, said that she arrived at the prison in 2014 and since then has tested positive three separate times. Individuals can become infected with H. pylori more than once.

Women at the prison have described a range of symptoms due to H pylori, including cramps, bloating, constipation and general stomach pain. Areli Aragon, who tested positive in January, said she felt ashamed and dirty when she tested positive, comparing it to a sexually transmitted infection.

H. pylori infects about half of the world's population and is more prevalent in low or middle income countries, according to Katia Martinez, a health communication specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It causes anything from no symptoms to gastric cancer, she said.

H. pylori can be treated with antibiotics and stomach acid reducers, according to Jeff Powell, director of communications for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

Powell said that although H. pylori is not considered reportable, meaning individual infections do not have to be reported, all outbreaks are considered reportable.

An outbreak is defined as an increase of disease among a specific population in a geographic area during a specific period of time, Powell said, adding that H. Pylori outbreaks are rare. On Jan. 3, he said that there was no outbreak reported at the York prison.

Still, some women at the prison remain concerned by the number of positive cases for H. pylori. They are trying to understand why, as they claim, it is actively spreading. Jill Walker, for instance, said that she tested positive on Dec. 19 after testing negative in October.

Incarcerated individuals have been raising concerns about stomach issues at the prison for a while, often in connection to the water. In August 2021, Amanda Nelson wrote to the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, which monitors the water at the prison, asking about the water testing at the facility and saying that she had stomach problems. An endoscopy, she said, had found my stomach lining all red and inflamed.

Nelson also wrote that during the time she had been there  less than a year  a few women had had their gallbladders removed. Three women incarcerated at the prison told the News-Times they have had their gallbladders removed while at the prison, and in 2006 a woman unsuccessfully sued prison staff for failing to treat her abdominal pain for five years, alleging, among other things, that the prison had removed her gallbladder for no reason.

NDEE responded to Nelsons letter by explaining that drinking water systems with high levels of copper, such as the prisons water system at the time of Nelsons letter, could cause gastrointestinal issues in certain individuals.

The facility has since reduced its copper levels, but women have continued to complain about gastrointestinal issues.

In her 2021 letter, Nelson also mentioned a case of H. pylori. Water is not a common source for infection of H pylori, according to Powell and Martinez. Person-to-person transmission is more common, Powell said.

In addition, Martinez said that H. pylori is sensitive to common water treatment methods, so it should not be a problem in properly treated water supplies. The womens prison, for instance, chlorinates its water, which would kill pathogens if present, a Department of Environment and Energy spokesperson said.

But some research has indicated that contaminated drinking or well water is linked to H pylori infections, Martinez said. The water at the womens prison is not tested for H. pylori, according to the state Department of Environment and Energy.

Urbanovsky noted that the water at the prison is tested for total coliform bacteria, including E. coli. However, such tests do not accurately track H. pylori contamination, according to Martinez.

While it is not clear what is causing the spread of the bacterial infection, Martinez said that factors in a prison like overcrowding and poor sanitation could contribute.

Dr. Mark Rupp, chief of infectious diseases at the Nebraska Medical Center, agreed, saying, Seeing some sporadic cases in a population doesnt surprise me. If you were to see a clustering of persons above that baseline level, then you would start to have some concerns as to whats the hygienic practices within a facility, how crowded is the facility, how well is it cleaned.

Rupp could not give a specific number for that baseline, but he noted that if you had one or two people in a prison system that had helicobacter, that probably wouldnt give me a whole lot of concern. If I saw a handful, a dozen, then I would say something probably needs to be looked at there.

Regardless of how H. pylori is spreading, women said that it is hard to get tested for the infection. On Dec. 3 Rikki Morrow said that she had asked to be tested for H. pylori two weeks before. But on Dec. 21 she said that she had still not been tested, though she continued to experience symptoms.

Research suggests that women, and in particular women of color  who are overrepresented in Nebraska's prison population  face gender and racial bias when it comes to the treatment of their pain.

As of September the womens prison had three vacancies for licensed practical nurses. Taking into account each facilitys average daily population, this is the highest rate of licensed practical nurse vacancies of any state prison, according to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services most recent quarterly population summary.

Its like pulling teeth to get seen, said Holly Liner, who said she has been at the prison for five years and said she tested positive for H. pylori on Dec. 8. Im sure there (are) worse things, she said about H. pylori, but I didnt have it until I came here.

The Journal Star's most memorable photos of 2023
Keeping up with Donald Trumps court schedule is a dizzying task, since he faces two federal trials, a criminal trial in Georgia, and two separate civil and criminal trials in New York. (Oh, and hes running for president.) To make it easier to follow along, each Monday well be looking back on all the Trump trialrelated developments you might have missed the previous week. (Programming note: Well be skipping next week and back to our regular schedule on Jan. 22)

Happy New Year! While some of us may be going into 2024 bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Trumps legal team seems to have spent the first week of the new year hunkered down with court filings. His attorneys filed a motion seeking to hold special counsel Jack Smith in contempt of court, while the Supreme Court agreed to decide on whether states can remove Trump from 2024 Republican primary ballots and set an expedited briefing schedule.

Trump Wants Jack Smith Held in Contempt

Lawyers for the former president filed a scathing motion railing against special counsel Jack Smith for continuing to send them discovery materials while the federal election interference case is on pause. Prosecutors seek to weaponize the Stay to spread political propaganda, knowing that President Trump would not fully respond because the Court relieved him of the burdens of litigation during the Stay, wrote Trumps attorneys.

In December, Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed to stay Smiths election interference caselegalese for pausing somethingwhile Trump pursues an appeal of Chutkans decision to reject his motion to dismiss the entire case on the grounds that hes protected by presidential immunity. However, she stipulated that proceedings were held in abeyance, which means something is only temporarily suspended until another matter is resolved, and that if the case returns to her jurisdiction, shell determine what to do about the previous scheduleincluding the March 4 trial date.

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Chutkans stay does not explicitly say prosecutors cannot continue to meet pretrial deadlines, including filing motions or sharing discovery materials. So shortly after the Christmas holiday, Smith filed a motion requesting Trump be banned from injecting politics into his trial, in order to meet the currently on hold deadlines and bolster the possibility that the trial will return to the old schedule, if it returns to Chutkans courtroom. Last Thursday, Trumps lawyers said that Smiths team had also been sending them thousands of pages of additional discovery, including hundreds of video and audio recordings. They argued that these actions impose additional burdens of litigation, and therefore Smith and his team of prosecutors should be held in contempt of court.

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Trumps attorneys also want Smith to withdraw the motions hes filed since the stay was imposed, and ask that he be forced to seek permission before filing any future motions or providing more discovery and to pay for incurred attorneys fees and expenses.

The special counsel hit back in a Friday night memo, arguing that he told all the parties involved in this case, through a public filing issued days before Chutkan officially issued her stay, that his team would continue to move forward and meet all the existing pretrial deadlines. Smith also noted that none of the material sent to Trumps attorneys requires any action by the defendant, and he fails to explain how the mere receipt of discovery materials that he is not obligated to review, or the early filing of the Government pleadings to which he does not yet need to respond, possibly burdens him.

An Appeals Court Will Hear Trumps Presidential Immunity Claim

This week, a three-judge panel in D.C. will kick off oral arguments for Trumps appeal of his federal election interference indictment. The central question at play: Can a former president be shielded from criminal prosecution for actions taken while in office?

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Chutkan believed the answer was no. Trumps immunity claim first went through her, and she affirmed last month that just because Trump was president at the time, that position does not confer a lifelong get-out-of-jail-free pass. The former president promptly appealed Chutkans decision, and now its up to the appeals court to decide whether the special counsels entire election interference indictment should be dismissed. If the appeals court does not rule in Trumps favor, his attorneys have signaled theyre ready to take this all the way up to the Supreme Court. (The highest court declined to consider the matter on an expedited basis, after Jack Smith asked them to bypass the appeals process last month.)

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Meanwhile, on Monday, Trump filed a motion to have his Georgia election interference indictment thrown out using the same immunity reasoning. In that case, Judge Scott McAfee will decide.

The Supreme Court Will Decide if States Can Kick Trump Off 2024 Ballots

After the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump was disqualified from appearing on the states 2024 Republican primary ballot, Trump appealed the decision to the Supreme Courtand last week the high court announced it would take the case on. At the heart of the issue is the interpretation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which stipulates that anyone who took an oath to support the Constitution and engaged in insurrection cannot hold public office.

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The Colorado Supreme Court found that Trumps actions on Jan. 6, 2021, disqualified him under Section 3, and shortly thereafter so did Maines secretary of state. Its the first time states are deciding on the eligibility of a national candidate, and more could be comingIllinois, Oregon, and New York are among 34 states challenging Trumps 2024 candidacy.

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To try and nip this trend in the bud, Trumps lawyers quickly appealed the Colorado ruling up to the Supreme Court, arguing that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is misapplied here because Trump took a different oath of office for the presidency than the offices listed under the amendment, thus falling out of its scope. And, as expected, Trumps lawyers also defended his role on Jan. 6, writing that he was in no way engaged in insurrection. 

Legal experts expected Trump would run to SCOTUS, since, as Lawrence Lessig recently explained in Slate, Section 3 does not explicitly mention the president, only a Senator, or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or [to] hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state.

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The Supreme Court now has to decide what is the appropriate definition of Section 3. As Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern recently wrote, constitutional scholars have suggested that the presidency is an office subject to Section 3s restrictions; that Trump did engage with the Jan. 6 insurrection; and that Section 3 is self-executing.

The trouble for SCOTUSand, specifically, for the conservative justicesis that this evidence creates a strong originalist justification for removing Trump from the ballot, Lithwick and Stern write. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Feb. 8.

New York Attorney General Wants Trump to Pay Up $370 Million

Last Friday, Attorney General Letitia James requested that Trump be penalized $370 million for using fraudulent financial documents in order to secure bank loans, more favorable insurance rates, and tax benefits, according to the New York Times.

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When initially filing her lawsuit in 2022, James estimated Trump unlawfully obtained $250 million, but now that the case has gone through trialwith Trump, his children, former and current Trump Organization employees, and more expert witnesses testifying about how those financials were compiledshe recalculated how much Trump has gained through the unlawful conduct. She determined it should be $370 million, over $100 million more than what was originally requested.

On top of that financial penalty, James wants Trump permanently banned from doing any real estate deals in New York and from holding any leadership position at a New York corporation. She also wants three of Trumps children, Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, removed from their roles at the Trump Organization and barred from entering into any New York real estate acquisitions for five years.

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Trump has denied all wrongdoing, chalking up James lawsuit to an election interference witch hunt. Hes also pointed to the disclaimer clause, a standard warning attached to financial documents, that he argues shields him from any liability.

Trump Loses Effort to Delay the E. Jean Carroll Defamation Trial

Trumps appeal of writer E. Jean Carrolls defamation lawsuit was rejected for a second time, and now it looks like the case will go to trial as scheduled on Jan. 16. The former president was asking for it to be dismissed on the grounds that he was protected under presidential immunitysensing a trend here?and this argument was rejected in mid-December by a three-judge panel because Trump failed to raise his immunity claim in 2019 when Carroll initially filed her lawsuit.

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Trump decided to try again, asking for a rehearing of his appeal to delay the trial, and last Wednesday it was promptly denied, with no explanation. He could take it to the Supreme Court, if he so chooses, but theres no guarantee the high court would agree to hear it.

This is Carrolls second lawsuit against Trump, with the first one having taken place last year under a New York state law that waived the statute of limitations for filing sexual assault allegations, with Carroll accusing him of rape. In May last year, a jury found the former president was liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million. Carroll had previously sued Trump for defamation, with the case finally set to go to trial after a lengthy delay. In 2019, shortly after she publicly accused Trump of sexually assaulting her decades prior in a department store dressing room, he said it had never happened and that Carroll was not my type. She promptly sued for defamation.

The bulk of Carrolls second lawsuit has already been decided, as a federal judge ruled in September last year that, given the verdict of her first lawsuit, she does not need to again prove that Trump defamed her. So the January trial will strictly focus on what, if any, damages Trump owes Carroll.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin might well be gone from the Pentagon by the end of the week. A good case can be made that he should be.

In the new years strangest bureaucratic mystery (and one of the strangest in any year), Austin, who is 70, was hospitalized on Jan. 1, but nobody in the White Housenot even President Joe Bidenknew of the fact until Jan. 4. The deputy secretary of defense, Kathleen Hicks, who would stand in for him in an emergency, didnt know until Jan. 3, and even then, she didnt know he was in the hospital.

This is no minor lapse. U.S. military forces are on high alert in the Middle East; two aircraft carriers were moved into the Mediterranean, as a deterrent to Iranian intervention in the Israel-Hamas war, and those carriers and other vessels have come under fire. If Biden wanted any of those forces to take offensive action, his orders to the regional combatant commander would go through the secretary of defense. If Biden or his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, called a Principals Meeting, Austin would represent the Defense Department.

Certainly Austin, like any other Cabinet secretary, even like the president himself, is entitled to take time off for a medical emergency, but he needs to tell the commander in chief, as well as his stand-ins and everyone else around him, whats going on.

If Austin were a vital member of Bidens national-security team, if he were deeply enmeshed in decision-making on the wars in Ukraine or the Middle East, excuses might be made and tolerated. But the fact that Biden learned of Austins absence only after four daysi.e., the fact that Biden hadnt been in touch with his secretary of defense for four days during a period of round-the-clock military operations and crisissuggests that Austin is far from essential.

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This is all the more significant, as Biden nominated Austin in large part because the two had a close relationship, dating from the time when Austin was the last U.S. commander in Iraq and Biden, as Barack Obamas vice president, was supervising the U.S. withdrawal from that country. Another major factor: Bidens beloved son Beau served on Austins staff in Iraq. The twoboth observant Catholicssat together at Mass every Sunday and kept in touch even after both returned stateside.

Finally, both as vice president and as a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden had long railed, privately and sometimes publicly, against stonewalling and resistance from senior officials and officers at the Pentagon. (He warned Obama several times not to get boxed in on false promises and inflated troop levels in Afghanistan.) He knew that Austin, a classic good soldier, would not push back against his decisions. (Biden rejected Michele Flournoyseen by many as the top candidate for the jobbecause she had never been a member of his inner circle and because she would have pushed back. As undersecretary of defense in Obamas term, she advocated the nation-building policies in Afghanistan that Biden opposed.)

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Austinwho had served as head of U.S. Central Command and as operations chief on the Joint Staffhas been a competent secretary of defense. He has been responsive to requests from Capitol Hill on Pentagon budgets and programs. He has effectively lobbied foreign governments for continued military aid to Ukraine. He has been a trusted U.S. spokesman at meetings with counterparts in Taiwan, South Korea, and Israel, among other nations.

But he hasnt made any dents in the Pentagons way of doing business, at a time when innovation and efficiency are more vital than ever. He hasnt cut a high profile as the military establishments top leader (he has held very few press conferences and often travels with only one or two reporters). Andagain, as his unnoticed four-day MIA stint suggestshe hasnt stepped up, or perhaps been allowed to step up, as a constant top-level adviser to the president, as most defense secretaries would at a time like this.

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In a statement released on Saturday, Austin took full responsibility for the decision to keep his hospitalization secret and acknowledged, I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed, adding, I commit to doing better at placating media concerns about transparency.

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This failed to satisfy anyone. Leading Republicans and Democrats on the congressional armed services committees are pressing for more answers, possibly for a formal investigation. It wasnt until Friday, after 5 p.m., that the Pentagon informed Congress and the public that he had been rushed to Walter Reed Medical Center as the result of complications stemming from a voluntary medical procedure. Even since then, we havent been told any more details, except that the procedure (whatever it was) took place on Dec. 22 and that Austin began suffering extreme pains from it 10 days later.

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Biden has said he still has confidence in Austin, which is what a president is expected to say. It wouldnt be a surprise to anyone if Austin himself announced, say, by the end of the week, that he was stepping down due to health issues (which, as a private citizen, he would be under no obligation to specify).

The president has his plate a bit too full for a new defense secretarys long and possibly contentious confirmation hearings. The good news is that Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks, 53, could step up without resistance. A long-standing national-security expert who is widely respected among the senior officer corps, Hicks was a civil servant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1993 to 2006, then, after a brief spell in the think-tank world, became deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans, and forces during the Obama administration.

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Austin was just the third retired general ever to be nominated for secretary of defense less than seven years after leaving the armed forces. The law forbids such people to become defense secretary unless Congress issues a waiver. At his confirmation hearing, Austin pledged to rely heavily on the Pentagons civilian leaders, emphasizing that he would treat Hicksalready nominated deputy secretaryas a partner in setting policy. This was unusual, as deputies are usually administrators, but insiders say he has made good on his promise. A Senate aide, who told me that he and others hope Austin does not resign, added, Kath Hicks is a very good deputy, and I think the national security community at large would be perfectly happy to have her step up, if needed.

Austin has a distinguished military record, but he has broken national-security protocol, violated the public trust, and fallen far short of any presidents expectations of a Cabinet secretarys behavior. He should go.
What is the best cold email software? Back in the day members of sales teams visited businesses without first making an appointment. These visits were cold calling.

Today, a cold email campaign is part of doing business. If you do it right, with a great cold emailing tool, the result may quickly go from cold to warm.

What are Cold Emails?

Businesses launch an email campaign as a sales outreach which targets new customers. By using software, the cold email outreach campaigns go to the inboxes of likely customers.

What is Cold Email Software?

Cold email software develops a list of email addresses and sends a message to each address. The business owner can compose the message.

These emails may be follow ups to recent purchases or website visits. Or they may be sources from a list. The cold email is sent to a specific audience, which in comprised of likely customers.

The best cold email tool gets these emails into inboxes. Some cold emails head to a spam folder, but lets face it  most of us check that folder to make sure were not missing anything.

How to Choose the Best Cold Email Tool for Your Business

There are a number of cold emailing tools available. Nearly all cold email tools have a free trial. Taking advantage of a free trial is a great way to try this marketing tool.

They have a fairly broad range in pricing, based on the number of emails that will be sent and based on specific features.

Well list specific features for each of the 10 software companies weve chosen.

Key features of Cold Email Campaigns

Well list specific features for each of the 10 options weve chosen. Here are main things to consider:

Target the right audience and get into the primary inbox.

Timing  Send during workday hours

Follow Ups  Make sure your first email has a follow up, to a response, or to no response.

Security  As the sender, be sure your information is safeguarded.

Automation  Campaigns can be timed for certain seasons or peak sales times.

Our Methodology: The Best Cold Email Software

In guiding businesses to choose the most effective cold emailing software for their marketing and outreach efforts, we use a specific set of criteria. These criteria help in identifying software that offers the best combination of features, usability, and compliance with email marketing standards. Each criterion is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 indicates the least importance and 5 the highest importance in our review process:

Email Template Quality and Customization Importance: 4

The availability of high-quality, customizable email templates is essential for creating professional and engaging cold emails. Ease of Use and Interface Design Importance: 5

The software should have an intuitive interface, making it easy for users to create, send, and manage email campaigns without extensive technical knowledge. Deliverability and Email Optimization Importance: 5

The ability to maximize email deliverability rates, including features that optimize emails to avoid spam filters, is crucial. Integration with CRM and Other Tools Importance: 4

The capability to integrate seamlessly with CRM systems and other marketing tools enhances workflow efficiency and data consistency. Segmentation and Personalization Features Importance: 4

Advanced segmentation and personalization options allow for more targeted and effective email campaigns. Compliance with Email Regulations Importance: 5

Adherence to email marketing regulations, such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM Act, is vital to ensure legal compliance and maintain recipient trust. Analytics and Reporting Importance: 4

Comprehensive analytics and reporting tools to track the performance of email campaigns, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. Automation and Workflow Capabilities Importance: 4

Features that support email automation and efficient workflow management, such as scheduling and auto-responders, are important for scaling campaigns. Customer Support and Resources Importance: 3

Reliable customer support and access to educational resources are beneficial, especially for businesses new to cold emailing. Pricing and Cost-Effectiveness Importance: 4

The software should offer competitive pricing and cost-effectiveness, providing value for the features and capabilities offered.

By applying these criteria, we aim to identify cold emailing software that not only facilitates effective email campaigns but also ensures user-friendliness, compliance with regulations, and efficient integration with business operations.

10 Best Cold Emailing Software Options

Sending cold emailing as a marketing tool may have been something you hadnt considered.

Here are some things for you to consider:

An average response is 1%. That doesnt sound like much. But if you have a good cold email marketing software, responses range from 5% to 20%.

According to estimates, for every $1 you spend on cold outreach, youll get $44 back.

Software Key Features Pricing Unique Offering MailChimp Transactional email, automated follow-ups, personalized templates, optimized timing $17-$299/month Versatile plans, good for varied business sizes Klaviyo Text and email campaigns, analytics dashboard, detailed reports $30 for 1,000 emails Multi-channel outreach with robust analytics Reply Multi-channel, tracks progress, import from LinkedIn $70 for unlimited contacts Integration with LinkedIn for building contacts Outreach Personalized emails, automated responses, tracking tools $29/month Peer-to-peer network for a personal touch in cold emails SmartReach Superior support, reply automation, time zone delivery $59 for unlimited emails Excellent customer support, ideal for beginners Velocity Easy setup, dedicated account management, email list management $125 for 100,000 emails Fast setup and hands-on account management Woodpecker Deliverability algorithm, automatic campaign reports $39/day for 50 emails Specializes in B2B link building and sender reputation Mailgun Email verification, burst sending, deliverability checks $35/month for 50,000 Burst sending feature for high-volume campaigns MailClickConvert Personalized campaigns, list cleaning, sales automation $199/month for 100,000 Focus on personalization and list quality for better delivery ConstantContact Unlimited templates, list growth tools, social posting $9.99/month unlimited Access to a wide range of tools at a competitive price

1. MailChimp

There are lots of choices within the various plans offered by MailChimp.

Key features: Transactional email, prebuilt automated follow ups, custom triggers for responses, personalized custom email templates and optimized timing for sending.

Pricing: Ranges from $17 for 500 contacts to $299 for 10,000 contacts.

2. Klaviyo

Klaviyo offers multi-channel cold contacts (text and email outreach campaigns).

Key features: text and email cold campaigns, automated follow up emails and email tracking, prebuilt templates for email content, a data analytics dashboard and detailed reports.

Pricing: $30 per 1,000 emails, $40 for 1,000 texts.

3. Reply

Reply uses contact info supplied by your business or from other tools to build your email outreach list using mail merge.

Key features: multi-channel, tracks progress, analyzes responses, supports multiple users and can import contact info from sources such as LinkedIn sales navigator.

Pricing: $70 for unlimited contacts for up to 3 users.

4. Outreach

Outreach relies on a peer-to-peer network of users to send personalized cold emails.

Features: personalized emails, peer-to-peer email network, automated responses and email tracking, tracking tools to integrate your data (such as mail merge) and affordable pricing.

Pricing: $29 month for unlimited emails.

5. SmartReach

This software company is noted for superior customer support for your email campaign. SmartReach is recommended for those new to cold emails as a sales engagement platform.

Features: Good customer support, account-based sales productivity, reply automation tool includes automatic stops, email delivered in customers workday hours based on time zone and focus on email deliverability.

Pricing: $59 for unlimited emails.

Read More: cold email template

6. Velocity

Just as it sounds, Velocity features easy and fast account setup.

Features: Drop email template builder, email validation, dedicated account person to manage cold email campaigns of client accounts, online support, and email list management including a mail merge feature.

Pricing: $125 for 100,000.

7. Woodpecker

Just as it sounds, Woodpecker chips away at barriers to success in a cold outreach campaigns, helping you reach potential customers.

Features: Unique algorithm to enhance deliverability, automatic campaign reports, separate database for each company, focus on B2B link building, and builds sender reputation with email service providers.

Pricing: $39 to send up to 50 per day.

8. Mailgun

Mailgun has a unique burst capability for a hard-hitting cold outreach campaign.

Features: Verifies email addresses, tools increase effective delivery, mailjet feature for fast moving campaigns, burst sending for bulk emails (up to 15 million per hour), and deliverability checks.

Pricing: $35 a user month for 50,000.

9. MailClickConvert

Personalized email campaigns are the focus of MailClickConvert. You can create personalized campaigns using its cold email template.

Features: Choose the outgoing domain, indepth reporting on email marketing campaigns, email personalization including personalized images, sales automation tool to schedule by date and time, and cleaning of email lists to improve deliverability.

Pricing: $199 a user month for 100,000 emails.

10. ConstantContact

Youll get access to most cold email tools with ConstantContact.

Features: Unlimited email templates, customer support, customer list growth tools to help you create an outreach campaign, social posting and unlimited sending (including follow up email) to cold emailing prospects.

Pricing: $9.99 per month, unlimited.

Read More: cold email

Benefits of Using Cold Email Software

Cold email campaigns are a strategic tool for businesses to broaden their reach and connect with potential customers. Cold email software streamlines this process by efficiently managing large-scale outreach efforts. Here are five benefits small businesses can reap from utilizing cold email software:

Precision Targeting: Cold email software often includes advanced segmentation features, enabling businesses to tailor their outreach to the most receptive audiences, thereby increasing the relevance and efficacy of their campaigns.

Cold email software often includes advanced segmentation features, enabling businesses to tailor their outreach to the most receptive audiences, thereby increasing the relevance and efficacy of their campaigns. Timely Follow-ups: Automated follow-ups are a key feature of cold email software, ensuring that every lead is nurtured promptly. This consistent communication can significantly improve response rates and potential conversions.

Automated follow-ups are a key feature of cold email software, ensuring that every lead is nurtured promptly. This consistent communication can significantly improve response rates and potential conversions. Enhanced Deliverability: Using cold email tools can improve the chances of your emails landing in the primary inbox rather than the spam folder, thanks to sophisticated algorithms and sender reputation management.

Using cold email tools can improve the chances of your emails landing in the primary inbox rather than the spam folder, thanks to sophisticated algorithms and sender reputation management. Data Security: Reputable cold email software ensures that both the senders and recipients data are protected with high-grade security measures, maintaining trust and compliance with data protection regulations.

Reputable cold email software ensures that both the senders and recipients data are protected with high-grade security measures, maintaining trust and compliance with data protection regulations. Effortless Automation: The software allows for the automation of email campaigns according to specific seasons, events, or sales cycles, saving time and enabling small businesses to focus on other critical operations.

Implementing cold email software can transform a cold lead into a warm prospect, potentially elevating your businesss outreach endeavors from a shot in the dark to a strategic strike.

How to Send a Cold Email

Teach your sales team how to use an email automation tool.

Choose a sender name, and add from your business name. Fill out the subject line. Use a generic greeting (no genders) such as Hello or Hi. Keep the body of the email short and professional. Be sure to include an Opt Out button or an Unsubscribe link.

What is the best cold email software?

Our choice is MailChimp. We chose MailChimp because of its myriad of choices within plans, allowing you to customize the types and numbers of sales emails you send as you create outreach campaigns. We also like the custom triggers and transactional emails, which allow you to follow up on contacts.

How do I automate cold mail?

Automation is a standard feature of a cold email marketing tool. It allows you to time your campaigns.

Once you choose a software provider, you can select dates and times for your campaign launches.
Craft businesses can be both fun and profitable. However, you first need to find the right idea that will maximize your strengths and appeal to customers. If youre looking for the perfect craft business idea to start, heres a full list of options to consider.

What Crafts Are in High Demand Right Now?

There are a variety of crafts in high demand right now, as consumers value the personal nature of handmade gifts and custom designs. Some of the most popular categories for craft items include jewelry, candles, bath and beauty products, handmade clothing, and artwork.

Selecting the Best Craft Business Ideas: Our Methodology

For crafting business ideas, its important to assess factors that blend creativity, marketability, and practicality. Heres an evaluation of key criteria, along with their importance on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 indicating utmost importance:

Creativity and Uniqueness of Products Importance: Essential (10/10)

The uniqueness and creativity of the crafts are crucial in differentiating the business in a crowded market. Market Demand and Target Audience Importance: High (9/10)

Understanding the preferences and demands of the target market is vital for the success of the craft business. Quality and Durability of Products Importance: High (9/10)

High-quality and durable crafts are more likely to attract and retain customers. Cost Efficiency and Pricing Strategy Importance: High (9/10)

Balancing cost efficiency with competitive pricing is key to maintaining profitability. Scalability and Growth Potential Importance: Moderate (7/10)

The business idea should have potential for growth, either through expanding product lines or reaching new markets. Online Presence and E-Commerce Viability Importance: High (9/10)

A strong online presence and the ability to sell products online are crucial for reaching a wider audience. Brand Building and Marketing Importance: High (9/10)

Effective branding and marketing strategies are vital for attracting and retaining customers. Supply Chain and Material Sourcing Importance: High (9/10)

A reliable supply chain for quality and affordable materials is crucial for consistent production. Environmental Sustainability Importance: Moderate to High (8/10)

Sustainable practices can enhance the brands appeal, especially in a market that values eco-friendliness. Adaptability to Trends and Customer Feedback Importance: Moderate (7/10)

Being adaptable to changing trends and responsive to customer feedback can help in staying relevant and innovative.

50 of The Best Craft Business Ideas

If youre a creative person looking to start your own craft business in this billion-dollar industry, here are some of the best craft business ideas you can start today.

1. Gift Basket Business

Gift baskets can include handmade baskets and a variety of crafts, from candles to fashion accessories, making this an adaptable idea with high market demand.

2. Greeting Cards

Design your own paper goods like holiday cards and stationery and offer them in small packages.

3. Candle Making

Scented candles are some of the most popular gifts around. Make your own blends and offer candles in a variety of sizes and styles.

4. Home Decor

Theres a huge array of home decor items that you can make by hand and sell online or at local shops. For instance, you may weave unique tapestries, create resin coasters, or even craft upcycled furniture.

5. Jewelry-Making Business

Theres a huge array of jewelry to make and sell for profit. Consider specializing in beaded bracelets, simple necklaces, or offer a variety of earrings, rings, and more.

6. Customized T-Shirts

Design and print your own t-shirts with unique designs. You can either customize this by hand or use a printing service to speed up the process. Its easy to offer these items through ecommerce platforms, and they can be quite cost effective.

7. Fashion Industry

If youre handy with a sewing machine, craft your own fashionable clothing items like dresses and stylish tops and offer them at local boutiques or online.

8. Knitting Business

Love knitting? Use your skills to craft hats, scarves, blankets, toys, or a huge array of items. Theres significant room for creativity and adaptability.

9. Sticker Business

Start your own sticker business where you print unique designs and sell them to consumers or offer packs to businesses on a wholesale basis.

10. Dried Flower Business

You can use dried flowers in a variety of crafts, from wall art to paper goods.

11. Calligraphy Business

Start your own business offering hand-lettered greeting cards or other products to consumers. This is also one of the best creative business ideas that can be turned into a service; offer calligraphy to those needing invitations or cards addressed to specific individuals.

12. Essential Oils

Make your own blends of essential oils and offer them in bottles or other home and beauty products. This can be a successful business due to the high demand for natural products.

13. Bath Bombs

Bath products are huge in the craft industry right now, including bath bombs made of salt and other natural ingredients.

14. Digital Art

Create your own designs and offer them as a digital download online. This can be an incredibly lucrative business, since you can sell each design multiple times and dont need to invest in shipping.

15. Picture Frames

Offer handmade frames for sale, or provide custom framing services in your area. This can also be a scalable business idea, with room for various products.

16. Make Christmas Wreaths

If you want to use your artistic skills to create Christmas crafts, make and sell, design and make holiday wreaths. You can use various materials, from real greenery to synthetic fibers.

17. Online Courses in Crafts

If youre looking for a business venture that can be done mainly online, create online courses where you teach your craft of choice to other creatives.

18. Craft Blog

You could also start a blog where you share craft tutorials or a behind-the-scenes look at how you run your craft business.

19. Custom Ornament Business

Another craft business idea thats especially popular around the holidays offer custom ornaments in a specific style. Customers often pay extra for personalization, like names, dates, or images.

20. Costume Business

If you want to create a shop specializing in Halloween crafts, offer handmade costumes for kids or adults.

21. Basket Weaving

Basket weaving is a traditional craft you can turn into a business by selling your handmade creations online or in a local market.

22. Furniture Business

Make your own furniture or upcycle finds from your local thrift store. Since these pieces are large, theyre usually best suited for sale locally.

23. Photography Business

Take beautiful photographs and then offer them as prints or digital downloads. This can be quite an adaptable idea, with lots of room for creativity.

24. Embroidery Business

Offer embroidered products or provide custom embroidery services for customers who want to provide their own garments.

25. Hair Accessories

Sell unique hair accessories like headbands, bows, or barrettes.

26. Handmade Toy Shop

Make toys out of wood, fabric, or felt and sell them to parents or local gift shops.

27. Holiday Decor Business

Whether you specialize in Christmas, Halloween, or Thanksgiving crafts, you can sell tons of decor items to families throughout the year.

28. Sell Original Paintings

If you love painting, sell your creative canvases to consumers at art galleries, local shops, or online.

29. Pottery Business

With a few pieces of pottery equipment, you can make your own mugs, bowls, and ceramic products to sell.

30. Soap Business

Handmade soaps are popular gift items with high market demand. Sell products individually or as part of gift baskets.

31. Glass Blowing

With the right glass blowing equipment, you can create one-of-a-kind vases, beads, and glassware.

32. Craft Supply Business

You can also sell many craft supplies to other hobbyists or small business owners.

33. Weaving Business

Weaving is a traditional craft where you create unique textiles out of fibers like yarn and thread.

34. Custom Illustrations

Use your drawing skills to create portraits or other illustrations requested by customers.

35. Woodworking

For those with some woodworking skills and equipment, there are many creative products you can sell for profit, from furniture to birdhouses.

36. Quilting

Quilting is another popular traditional craft. Sell large pieces locally or offer squares that can be shipped easily.

37. Custom Fabrics

Use your design skills to create fabrics with unique patterns to sell. There are online platforms you can use to create and market these products.

38. Yarn Shop

You may also spin your own yarn using raw fibers and sell these pieces at a premium.

39. Hand-Dyed Textiles

Dye various fibers like yarn and fabric and sell your creations to other crafters.

40. Craft Patterns

Many crafts, like knitting and sewing, use patterns as a sort of instruction manual. You can sell physical patterns or offer them as a digital download on various online platforms.

41. Scrapbooking Business

If you love scrapbooking, offer materials for sale or create custom pages for your customers.

42. Screen Printing

Screen printing can be used on t-shirts, mugs, and a huge range of products that can easily be sold online.

43. Resin Crafts

Resin is an incredibly versatile material that you can use to make jewelry, beads, coasters, and more.

44. Craft Book Author

If you specialize in a particular craft for a niche market, consider writing a book offering tips for other business owners or sharing your story.

45. Craft YouTube Business

YouTube provides a great platform for building an online business. Share tutorials or behind the scenes looks at your operations and earn income from the sites ad sharing program.

46. Craft Podcast

With a craft podcast, you can share tips and insights for crafters in an audio format and earn money from sponsors.

47. Craft Influencer

As an influencer, you can share content on your website and social media channels and partner with brands like craft suppliers.

48. Craft Fair Operator

Start a craft fair in your area and partner with makers looking for places to sell their handmade goods locally. This can be a scalable idea as you host more events and your vendor list grows.

49. Craft Marketplace Website

You can even start your own online store where other craft business owners can sign up for an account to sell their creations. This may be especially useful if you have a specific target market, since there are already plenty of options for general craft DIY craft business owners.

50. Craft Business Consultant

Consult with handmade business owners to help them select the best DIY business ideas, hone their skills, and master search engine optimization.

What are The Most Profitable Craft Business Ideas?

The most profitable craft business ideas include low cost products that can be sold at scale, like jewelry, art prints, and soaps.

Where to Sell Handmade Items from Your Craft Business

Once you determine what crafts to sell, its time to figure out where to sell handmade items to customers. There are a variety of channels you can use, from online to in-person. Some sellers even utilize multiple techniques. Check out the options below to create your own strategy for selling crafts.

Local Retailers

Partner with small shops in your area to sell your crafts on a wholesale basis. This often involves selling larger quantities of items on a wholesale basis. And the shop will mark them up slightly to sell them to consumers.

Retail Shops

There are also larger nationwide retailers that sometimes offer handmade crafts. This is often reserved for craft businesses that are able to produce large quantities.

Social Media Platforms

Sell directly to customers on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. Many platforms have purchasing options built in, or you can facilitate sales through direct messages.

Your Own Website

Set up your own site where you list products for sale and market directly to customers.

Crafts Fairs

Research local events that partner with independent vendors. This is an ideal place to reach local customers without a large upfront investment.

Online Marketplaces

Online marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon Handmade let craft businesses list products and reach shoppers who are searching for specific products on these sites.

Effective Marketing Strategies for Your Craft Business

Once youve decided on the craft business idea that suits you best, its essential to market your products effectively to reach your target audience and boost sales. Here are some marketing strategies to consider for your craft business:

Create a Strong Brand Identity: Develop a unique and cohesive brand identity that reflects the essence of your craft business. This includes a memorable logo, a consistent color scheme, and a clear brand message.

Develop a unique and cohesive brand identity that reflects the essence of your craft business. This includes a memorable logo, a consistent color scheme, and a clear brand message. Build a Website: Set up a professional website where you can showcase your craft products, provide information about your business, and offer an easy way for customers to make purchases.

Set up a professional website where you can showcase your craft products, provide information about your business, and offer an easy way for customers to make purchases. Utilize Social Media: Create business accounts on popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Regularly share high-quality images of your crafts, engage with your audience, and use relevant hashtags to increase visibility.

Create business accounts on popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Regularly share high-quality images of your crafts, engage with your audience, and use relevant hashtags to increase visibility. Content Marketing: Start a blog on your website where you can share craft tutorials, behind-the-scenes glimpses of your creative process, and valuable tips related to your craft niche. This will establish you as an authority in your field and attract potential customers.

Start a blog on your website where you can share craft tutorials, behind-the-scenes glimpses of your creative process, and valuable tips related to your craft niche. This will establish you as an authority in your field and attract potential customers. Email Marketing: Build an email list of interested customers and potential leads. Send out regular newsletters with exclusive offers, new product launches, and updates about your craft business.

Build an email list of interested customers and potential leads. Send out regular newsletters with exclusive offers, new product launches, and updates about your craft business. Collaborate with Influencers: Partner with influencers in your niche to promote your craft products. Influencers with a significant following can expose your brand to a broader audience.

Partner with influencers in your niche to promote your craft products. Influencers with a significant following can expose your brand to a broader audience. Offer Discounts and Promotions: Encourage sales by offering limited-time discounts, bundle deals, or free shipping for a certain order value.

Encourage sales by offering limited-time discounts, bundle deals, or free shipping for a certain order value. Participate in Craft Fairs and Events: Attend local craft fairs, trade shows, and community events to showcase your crafts and interact with potential customers face-to-face.

Attend local craft fairs, trade shows, and community events to showcase your crafts and interact with potential customers face-to-face. Implement SEO Strategies: Optimize your website and product listings with relevant keywords and meta tags to improve your search engine rankings.

Optimize your website and product listings with relevant keywords and meta tags to improve your search engine rankings. Provide Exceptional Customer Service: Offer excellent customer service to build trust and loyalty. Respond promptly to inquiries, handle complaints professionally, and consider adding a personal touch to your packaging.

Offer excellent customer service to build trust and loyalty. Respond promptly to inquiries, handle complaints professionally, and consider adding a personal touch to your packaging. Collaborate with Local Businesses: Partner with local retailers, cafes, or gift shops to display and sell your crafts in their establishments.

Partner with local retailers, cafes, or gift shops to display and sell your crafts in their establishments. Offer Customization: Provide personalized options for your crafts, such as custom engravings, monograms, or color choices, to attract customers looking for unique and one-of-a-kind items.

Provide personalized options for your crafts, such as custom engravings, monograms, or color choices, to attract customers looking for unique and one-of-a-kind items. Showcase Customer Testimonials: Display positive reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers on your website and social media platforms to build credibility.

Display positive reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers on your website and social media platforms to build credibility. Use High-Quality Product Photography: Invest in professional product photography to showcase your crafts in the best light possible. High-quality images can significantly impact the perceived value of your products.

Invest in professional product photography to showcase your crafts in the best light possible. High-quality images can significantly impact the perceived value of your products. Monitor and Analyze Results: Regularly track your marketing efforts, analyze the data, and adjust your strategies accordingly. Use tools like Google Analytics to measure website traffic, conversion rates, and customer behavior.

Marketing Strategy Description Create a Strong Brand Identity Develop a unique and cohesive brand identity for your craft business, including a memorable logo, consistent color scheme, and a clear brand message. Build a Website Set up a professional website to showcase your craft products, provide business information, and offer an easy way for customers to make purchases. Utilize Social Media Create business accounts on popular platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Share high-quality images of your crafts, engage with the audience, and use relevant hashtags to increase visibility. Content Marketing Start a blog on your website to share craft tutorials, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and valuable tips related to your craft niche. Establish yourself as an authority in your field and attract potential customers. Email Marketing Build an email list of interested customers and potential leads. Send regular newsletters with exclusive offers, new product launches, and updates about your craft business. Collaborate with Influencers Partner with influencers in your niche to promote your craft products to a broader audience. Offer Discounts and Promotions Encourage sales with limited-time discounts, bundle deals, or free shipping for a certain order value. Participate in Craft Fairs Showcase your crafts and interact with potential customers face-to-face at local craft fairs, trade shows, and community events. Implement SEO Strategies Optimize your website and product listings with relevant keywords and meta tags to improve search engine rankings. Provide Exceptional Customer Service Offer excellent customer service to build trust and loyalty. Respond promptly to inquiries, handle complaints professionally, and add a personal touch to packaging. Collaborate with Local Businesses Partner with local retailers, cafes, or gift shops to display and sell your crafts in their establishments. Offer Customization Provide personalized options like custom engravings, monograms, or color choices to attract customers seeking unique items. Showcase Customer Testimonials Display positive reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers on your website and social media platforms to build credibility. High-Quality Product Photography Invest in professional product photography to showcase your crafts effectively. Monitor and Analyze Results Regularly track marketing efforts, analyze data, and adjust strategies accordingly. Use tools like Google Analytics to measure website traffic, conversion rates, and customer behavior.

By implementing these marketing strategies, you can effectively promote your craft business, attract more customers, and establish a strong brand presence in the market. Remember that consistency and creativity are key to standing out in the competitive world of craft businesses.

Why Starting Your Own Craft Business is a Great Idea

Craft businesses can be both fun and profitable, allowing you to sell in-demand products that you enjoy making. Many of the craft business ideas listed above can even be run out of your own home.

Turning Your Craft Hobby into a Successful Business

Many people find joy and fulfillment in crafting as a hobby, but have you ever considered turning your craft hobby into a profitable business venture? Its a dream come true for those who are passionate about creating handmade products. In this section, well explore how to transition from crafting for fun to running a successful craft business.

The Transition from Hobbyist to Craft Business Owner

Identify Your Niche: Determine what type of crafts you enjoy making the most and where your skills shine. Consider what sets your creations apart from others in the market. Finding your niche is the first step in crafting a successful business. Market Research: Investigate the demand for your craft products. Are there potential customers who are interested in buying what you create? Look at competitors in your niche to understand pricing, target audience, and product offerings. Create a Business Plan: Develop a clear and concise business plan that outlines your goals, target market, pricing strategy, marketing plan, and financial projections. A well-structured business plan will serve as your roadmap to success. Legal Considerations: Register your craft business and ensure you comply with any local, state, or federal regulations. This may include obtaining licenses, permits, and paying taxes. Set Up a Workspace: Organize a dedicated workspace where you can efficiently create your crafts. Make sure its well-equipped and organized to maximize productivity. Quality Matters: Maintain a commitment to quality craftsmanship. High-quality products are more likely to attract and retain customers. Pricing Your Products: Calculate the cost of materials, labor, and overhead to determine your pricing strategy. Ensure that your prices not only cover expenses but also provide a reasonable profit margin. Create an Online Presence: Build a professional website or establish a presence on craft marketplaces like Etsy or Amazon Handmade. An online platform is essential for reaching a broader audience. Photography Matters: Invest in good product photography. High-quality images are crucial for showcasing your crafts effectively and attracting potential customers. Marketing and Promotion: Develop a marketing strategy to promote your craft business. Utilize social media, email marketing, content marketing, and paid advertising to reach your target audience. Networking: Join local craft communities and online forums to connect with fellow crafters and potential customers. Networking can lead to valuable collaborations and partnerships. Customer Service: Provide exceptional customer service. Respond to inquiries promptly, address concerns professionally, and prioritize customer satisfaction. Continuous Learning: Stay updated on crafting techniques, trends, and industry developments. Attend workshops, take online courses, and read relevant books and magazines to enhance your skills. Inventory Management: Keep track of your inventory and materials. Efficient inventory management ensures that you have the supplies you need to fulfill orders promptly. Financial Management: Maintain accurate financial records and a budget for your craft business. This will help you track expenses, monitor cash flow, and make informed financial decisions. Scaling Your Business: As your craft business grows, consider scaling your operations. You may need to hire additional help, expand your product line, or explore new sales channels.

Balancing Passion and Profit

One of the challenges of turning a craft hobby into a business is striking the right balance between passion and profit. Here are some tips to help you maintain that equilibrium:

Set Realistic Goals: Establish clear and achievable business goals. While passion is essential, its equally important to have realistic expectations about what you can accomplish. Value Your Time: Recognize that your time and expertise have value. Dont underprice your crafts to the point where youre not adequately compensated for your work. Continuous Learning: Invest time in learning about the business side of your craft. This includes understanding finances, marketing, and customer management. Stay Passionate: Remember why you started crafting in the first place. Dont let the business side of things overshadow your love for creating. Passion is what makes your crafts special. Adapt and Evolve: Be open to change and evolution. Craft trends and customer preferences may shift over time, so be ready to adapt your offerings. Time Management: Efficiently manage your time to balance crafting, administrative tasks, and marketing efforts. Time management tools and techniques can be valuable.

Overcoming Challenges

Running a craft business can come with its fair share of challenges. Here are some common hurdles and tips for overcoming them:

Competition: The craft market can be competitive. To stand out, focus on unique designs, high-quality craftsmanship, and excellent customer service. Seasonality: Some crafts may have seasonal demand. Plan for seasonal fluctuations by diversifying your product range or offering complementary items. Marketing Costs: Marketing expenses can add up. Start with cost-effective marketing strategies like social media and email marketing, and gradually explore paid advertising as your budget allows. Burnout: Crafting for profit can sometimes lead to burnout. Take breaks, set boundaries, and practice self-care to avoid burnout and maintain your passion. Inventory Management: Balancing inventory can be challenging. Use inventory management software to track stock levels and reorder supplies when necessary. Scaling: Scaling your craft business can be daunting. Consider seeking guidance from mentors or joining entrepreneurial support networks to navigate the scaling process. Legal and Tax Complexity: Dealing with legal and tax matters can be overwhelming. Consult with professionals or use software to help manage these aspects of your business.

The Bottom Line

Running a successful Etsy shop or other craft businesses can be personally fulfilling. But you first need to find an excellent craft business idea that suits your skills and preferences. Check the list above for tons of profitable craft business ideas to try this year.

Craft Business Ideas FAQs

What is The Best Craft Business Idea?

The best craft business idea is one that you enjoy and where theres demand for your specific type of product. There are many things to make and sell for profit, including knitting projects, resin crafts, and mason jar crafts. See the list above for even more small business ideas in the handmade crafts space.

What are Some Good Craft Business Ideas?

Nearly any craft you are interested in can be turned into a business. Some popular craft business ideas include handmade candles, jewelry, and home decor. See the list above for even more ideas.

How do I Start a Small Craft Business?

To start a small craft business, determine what type of products you want to sell and master your craft. Once youve created some products, take photos and list products online, either on your own website or on marketplace sites like Etsy. You can also sell handmade products in person at craft fairs or flea markets.

What Craft Business Can I do at Home?

You can make many crafts at home and sell online or at local events. For example, you may make jewelry in your guest room or set up a candle making operation in your kitchen.

What is the Best Craft Business to Start?

Many craft business ideas can be profitable and enjoyable. Some examples include making Cricut crafts, creating custom portraits, and starting a candle business. See the list above for even more ideas.

Can a Small Craft Business be a Profitable Business?

Small craft businesses can certainly be profitable. However, you need to price items with both your business costs and time in mind. You also need to market your business to your target customers effectively in order to make enough sales to turn a profit.
Grants can help small businesses achieve a variety of goals for the new year, from trying new retail formats to investing in renewable energy. There are several programs currently running that may impact small businesses in various ways. Heres a closer look at a few.

Chicago Vacant Storefront Grant Program

Chicago is testing a new grant program as a way to fill vacant storefronts. The city just awarded around $3 million in grants to community organizations, which will now be responsible for identifying vacant storefronts in their neighborhoods, negotiating lease terms, and then arranging new ventures by partnering with local businesses. For example, some may host pop-up shops, retail incubators, or markets to showcase unique products from local sellers. This isnt a grant opportunity that will provide direct financial assistance to businesses. However, the 15 organizations that received funds are likely to provide plenty of opportunities for sellers in their communities.

Oklahoma Rural Energy for America Program

The USDA Office in Oklahoma is currently accepting applications for its Rural Energy for America program. The program aims to help small businesses and farms in rural areas throughout the state by providing financial support for energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy projects. Eligible businesses can apply for up to 50 percent financial assistance for projects that meet the programs criteria. This is the second year the program has run in Oklahoma. Applications opened January 1 and must be submitted by March 31.

Braintree Small Business Grants

Braintree, Massachusetts, is setting aside $300,000 from an economic development fund for local business grants. Eligible businesses with a physical presence in Braintree can apply for $5,000 grants to cover various improvements. Eligible projects may include anything from storefront enhancements to tech upgrades and marketing.

Seguin Business Improvement Grant

Seguin, Texas, is currently accepting applications for its Business Improvement Grant (BIG) program. BIG is a reimbursement program that will provide grants that match up to 75 percent of eligible improvements, up to $10,000. Applications are available online now and are due by the last day of each month. The city will then review applications each month on a rolling basis as long as funding remains available.

UT Dallas Community Booster Program

The University of Texas at Dallas Small Business Booster Program Retail Track is a six-week program that provides guidance, resources, and individualized assistance to local businesses. The program is partially funded through a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration and is open to small entrepreneurial teams of two or three members. The program is open to various retail businesses, from physical stores to e-commerce businesses. It will cover various elements, from marketing to accounting. And participants may gain access to other benefits as well.

Greene County American Rescue Plan Act Program

Greene County, Missouri, recently awarded $634,099 to 51 small businesses during the latest funding round for its American Rescue Plan Act program. This paid down much of the countys allocation of federal funds, which must be spent by December 31, 2024. So far, the county has awarded more than $5.4 million. And about $1.4 million remains in the programs fund, with about 100 pending applications to still go through. Once the funds from this round have been finalized, the County Commission will decide how to allocate the remaining funds.
Ive always believed that building a powerful team accounts for 90% of any business success. One of the best ways to achieve that happens through collaboration.

As a result, collaboration keeps your team motivated and turns your employees and co-workers into brand advocates.

I believe in Helen Kellers mantra:

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much

No wonder about 80% of businesses use collaboration tools for enhancing business processes. Any company is as strong as its team behind it, so investing time and effort into setting up active collaboration routine is key to a company success.

Embracing Diversity in Marketing Teams

The inclusion of diverse perspectives in marketing teams enriches the creative process. By bringing together individuals from different backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets, the marketing strategy becomes more inclusive and reflective of a wider customer base.

This diversity fosters creativity and innovation, leading to marketing campaigns that resonate with a broader audience.

Embracing diversity goes beyond cultural and demographic differences. It involves recognizing and utilizing the varied professional skills and life experiences that each team member brings to the table.

Such a diverse team is more equipped to tackle complex marketing challenges and generate comprehensive solutions that address various aspects of the market.

Here are two steps to setting up an effective marketing collaboration to boost productivity and build a happier team.

The Power of Collaboration in Business Success

Setting up a collaborative environment, especially in marketing, is instrumental to thriving. When teams with diverse skills and backgrounds unite under a shared mission, they create a dynamic force that accelerates innovation, sharpens problem-solving, and boosts overall efficiency.

Establishing a cross-team marketing collaboration isnt just about combining resources; its about intertwining varied perspectives to generate holistic strategies that outshine individualized efforts.

An effective cross-team marketing collaboration also fortifies a companys adaptability quotient. As teams jointly tackle projects, they become more agile, responding swiftly to market shifts and harnessing emergent opportunities.

This synergy not only amplifies a companys voice in a crowded marketplace but also ensures that each member feels valued and heard, reinforcing a culture of shared responsibility. The end result? A marketing approach that is cohesive, nimble, and, above all, effective in resonating with the target audience.

How to Set up A Cross-Team Marketing Collaboration Routine

How do you initiate and maintain this collaborative momentum? Here are the essentials of setting up an effective cross-team marketing collaboration routine.

1. Set Up an Effective Cross-team Communication

Communication is key to a companys success:

Utilize your teams for market research by enabling them to contribute their feedback on your marketing initiatives

Save money on usability testing by encouraging your team to share bug reports and comments on a re-design or new landing pages

Come up with a much more effective ad copy by having your non-marketing teams contribute their ideas

Start with Company Structure

Depending on your unique company structure, there are various tools that can overcome organizational silos and encourage departments and management groups to share information, tools, goals, priorities and processes among one another.

For example, Trello and Zenkit help managers build shared to-do lists and mindmaps.

Use Duda, a web design platform, to build new landing pages and introduce new functionality while collecting feedback from across your company:

Get any of your team members access to your design assets, templates and widgets

Let co-workers leave comments all over your site  even while its still being built!

Save and share comment threads allowing you to effectively track changes and updates

With Duda, usability testing and creativity sharing can be brought in-house and unite your whole company!

For remote team collaboration, take a look at Slack (especially with apps like Standuply) and Typetalk.

You can try several tools before you stick with the core solution. Sometimes it is hard to tell why one specific tool has worked better for a specific company then another one.

Regular Collaboration Workshops and Brainstorming Sessions

Facilitating Open Dialogue and Idea Exchange: Hosting regular workshops and brainstorming sessions is crucial in nurturing a collaborative marketing environment. These sessions provide a platform for team members to voice their ideas, engage in open dialogue, and collectively refine marketing strategies.

Encouraging Creative Freedom and Experimentation: Brainstorming sessions should be designed to encourage creative freedom and experimentation. This approach allows team members to think outside the box, propose unconventional ideas, and explore new avenues in marketing. Such an environment not only fosters innovation but also builds team confidence in contributing unique insights.

2. Organize and Share your Content Assets

Theres often an organizational disconnect between sales and content teams. As a result, salespeople are not aware of brand-owned content assets that can help them in nurturing and validating leads.

Sales teams are often left trying to leverage generic pieces of content or struggle to find easily find relevant content: spending as much as 40% of their time locating and adapting relevant sales content.

On the other hand, sales people seldom  if ever  inform content writers of customers struggles and challenges which should be addressed in brand-owned content that will ultimately drive targeted leads to the site.

And this gap exists across the board, not just between sales and content teams. Imagine how much more effective a social media advertising team might be if they could access your past assets and analytics reports? Think about how much faster your customer support team may get if they can easily find and point a customer to a relevant article answering their specific question in much details.

How do you organize your content strategy to make it more efficient as well as easier to access and ultimately evaluate?

Find the right content marketing platform. You will find its the key to bridging the gap between multiple teams. It empowers your marketing strategy. And fosters content planning and collaboration.

Currently, half of B2B organizations say they create content on an ad-hoc basis. Separate departments and new hires frequently spend money creating similar assets. This means spending time and money on creating duplicate or similar content. Instead, allocate those budgets to effective distribution of existing content.

A digital content repository aims at overcoming one of the most common content marketing problems: Lack of planning.

A Look at ContentCal

For example, ContentCal is the content marketing platform that helps cross-team collaboration:

Store and share your marketing to-do list, ideas, or briefs on a Calendar-wide basis.

Save and share commonly used phrases or hashtags as a Snippet for other team members to use

Keep and share past and future content assets in one location, easy to re-use and add to the Calendar.

With ContentCal, you can create a centralized system of governance that oversees both content creation and content distribution can help marketers achieve higher content marketing efficiency.

How to Consolidate Content

Consolidating your content not only streamlines operations but also fosters a collaborative environment where every department is on the same page. By centralizing content assets, businesses can eradicate inefficiencies, improve cross-team collaboration, and ultimately bolster their marketing efforts.

Key steps and benefits of consolidating content include:

Single Repository : Centralize all content assets in an all-in-one repository to: Eliminate organizational silos. Streamline access to various content folders, docs, and tools.

: Centralize all content assets in an all-in-one repository to: Promote Cross-Team Collaboration : With a unified content hub: Enhance content discoverability across teams. Speed up the content production process. Ensure alignment across all teams throughout content creation and distribution phases.

: With a unified content hub: Maintain an Organized Content Library : An orderly content library: Facilitates sharing of information, goals, and priorities between departments. Encourages marketing teams to liaise closely with other departments, like sales, ensuring cohesive strategies and messaging.

: An orderly content library:

Integrating Customer Feedback into Marketing Strategies

Harnessing Customer Insights for Tailored Campaigns: Integrating customer feedback into marketing strategies ensures that campaigns are aligned with customer needs and preferences. Regularly gathering and analyzing customer insights allows marketing teams to tailor their approaches, ensuring relevance and effectiveness.

Building Campaigns Around Customer Experiences: Customer feedback provides valuable insights into their experiences with the brand. Marketing teams should use this feedback to craft campaigns that not only address customer needs but also enhance their overall experience with the brand. This customer-centric approach leads to more engaging and impactful marketing initiatives.

Marketing Collaboration Summary

Marketing Collaboration Team Building & Collaboration Building a strong team is essential for business success, and collaboration is a key driver of this success. It motivates teams and turns members into brand advocates. Business Adoption of Collaboration Tools About 80% of businesses use collaboration tools to enhance their processes. A collaborative approach is crucial for the growth and success of a company. Cross-team Communication Effective communication is foundational to company success. Using tools like Trello, Zenkit, and Duda can streamline processes, break silos, and gather feedback. Content & Sales Disconnect A disconnect often exists between sales and content teams, causing inefficiencies. Bridging this gap can make marketing strategies more targeted and effective. Content Strategy Optimization Centralized content systems, like ContentCal, aid in cross-team collaboration. It ensures both content creation and distribution are aligned for optimal efficiency. Content Consolidation Streamlining content in a central repository removes inefficiencies and promotes collaboration. It ensures that all teams are aligned, from content creation to distribution.

Conclusion: Fostering a Culture of Continuous Learning and Adaptation

In the rapidly evolving marketing landscape, fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation is vital. Encouraging team members to stay abreast of industry trends, new tools, and marketing techniques ensures that the marketing strategy remains dynamic and forward-thinking.

Regular training sessions and development programs for the marketing team play a critical role in maintaining a high level of expertise and motivation. Investment in team development translates into more effective marketing strategies and a more cohesive and competent marketing team.
You might have the best product in the world.

But theres a good chance nobody will know about it  unless you spend time, money, and effort marketing your product.

How to Improve Your Marketing Communications Strategy

To help you out, Ive compiled four ways you can sell your product by improving your marketing communications strategy through targeted messaging, PR, mediums, and channels. Here is a quick preview of the tactics well discuss:

Save time and money by guest posting on relevant publications, Create high-quality content, Boosting your SEO efforts, Sending quality emails to your existing customers and new prospects.

These are marketing, communications, and PR techniques everyone can learn and apply right away. Practice makes perfect so feel free to get started with these and dedicate at very least 30 minutes every work day to one or a few of these activities.

Ready? Lets roll

1. Guest Post On Right Publications With Quality Content

Guest blogging (i.e. writing an article to another publication) has built a bad reputation in the last few years. Many businesses have exploited this strategy to build backlinks (links back to their site).

The key here is not to think about getting a big fat juicy backlink for your own site into the content of the guest post youre submitting but to focus on quality of the content.

If your content is high quality your readers will dig around and find your website in your author bio on the other publication and will be more likely to buy.

Guest blogging can help you:

Establish a strong reputation in your industry Increase traffic by linking to your website in your author bio Boost brand awareness

Steps to Follow

Here are the steps to follow:

Find the right publication: Look for publications where your customers hang out. For example: if you run a sales text software app you might look for sales blogs, or if you run a nut butter company you might look for a health and wellness blog.

Create the right content: Your content should engage your readers and align with your publications guidelines and topics. Look through the last 10 articles published on a publication to get the idea of the type of content you might like to contribute. For best results try to find an editorial calendar for the publication asking for specific topics.

Promote Your Content

Its always a good idea to help promote the content you write for other publications. The publication will of course promote the article themselves but its also good for you to look for ways to promote it as well. One way you can do so is finding broken links to similar pieces of content and asking them to fix the links to point to yours.

For example, lets say you submitted and published an article on Startup Nation about sales management. You can use a tool such as Ahrefs, you type in a URL of a popular sales management blog (since thats the name of your article) and can see all the broken links on that blog and topic:

Or you can type in a keyword on JustReachOut to find all the broken links on different blogs and the email addresses to contact them:

You can send this email pitch to ask them to replace the broken link with your comprehensive post:

2. Utilize SMS Texting For Converting Your Leads Into Customers

Creating content is a fantastic first step to increase your traffic to the site. Once you have some traffic you need to convert the leads who contact you as prospective customers.

While most businesses use email and phone to follow up, communicate and book demos to sell their prospects there is a much better way to do so.

SMS text messages have an insane 85% response rate from prospective customers while email and phone are around 35% at best according to Chris Brisson of SalesMsg. Brissons company processes millions of text messages per day and theyre official HubSpot partner for business text messaging.

Brisson compiled some of the best sample text messages templates their customers send to their customers on his blog recently.

Using SMS, you can create a direct funnel from lead capture to sales demo and follow ups to the actual sales.

The key here is managing your sales team properly, and getting the entire team on board to close calls, create scripts, and engage with potential customers.

Integrating SMS With Multichannel Marketing Strategies

To maximize the effectiveness of SMS texting, integrate it into a broader multichannel marketing strategy. This approach ensures that customers receive consistent messaging across different channels, whether its email, social media, or SMS. A unified marketing communication strategy enhances the customer experience and reinforces your brand message.

Tracking and Analyzing SMS Performance: Monitor and analyze the performance of your SMS campaigns. Use analytics tools to track open rates, response rates, and conversion rates. This data helps in refining your SMS strategy and understanding how it complements other marketing channels for a holistic approach.

3. Create Custom Landing Pages

If you already have a brand, reputation, and loyal customers, you should consider driving your customers towards a custom landing page.

Unlike a homepage website, landing pages only have content specific to your PR campaign (whether that be raising awareness of a new product, driving sales for the new product, capturing emails, etc.).

Landing pages help increase sales conversions by minimizing distractions and having focused and targeted messaging.

For Example:

Housecall Pro is a software for service professionals. While they target cleaning, lawn care, plumbers, pest control, HVAC companies, and many more, they create fantastic landing pages for each industry. Here, theyve designed a landing page to target plumbers.

(Source Image)

If you look at this landing page, you can see that theyve tailored the content to plumbers. Theyve included testimonials from other plumbers, featured their plumbing community, and even include blog posts relevant to any plumber. By explicitly targeting plumbers and not just any service professional, it feels more personal and relevant, which helps boost conversions and sales.

Optimizing Landing Pages for Conversion

User Experience and Design Considerations: An effective landing page should be user-friendly and visually appealing. Focus on creating a seamless user experience with intuitive navigation and a clean design. Use high-quality images, engaging copy, and clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons to guide users towards the desired action, whether its making a purchase, signing up, or downloading a resource.

Personalization and A/B Testing: Personalize landing pages based on user behavior and preferences. Use A/B testing to experiment with different elements of the landing page, such as headlines, images, and CTAs. This approach helps in identifying the most effective combinations that drive conversions.

4. Send Better Emails To Your Customers

In 2018, the number of emails sent and received globally was 281.1 billion and 293.6 billion in 2019.

So if you want to take part in this growth and have your emails read, youll need to optimize them.

Thats why, when it comes to marketing a new product, we recommend you send better emails to your existing customers.

Why?

Customers who have purchased with you two times prior are nine times more likely to convert than a first-time shopper. And email marketing still works! According to DMA, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $32.

But if youre new to business and dont have any customers, you can consider creating a landing page that captures emails.

A landing page can help you begin relationships with your prospects, while emails can help you build this connection.

So How Do You Send Better Emails?

Send Welcome or Activation Emails Immediately

Immediate welcome emails have a higher open rate of 50%, which makes them 86% more effective than standard newsletters.

While many companies send welcome emails right away, we like Invisions Thanks for subscribing email. Not only was it sent immediately, but it also offered additional value by giving subscribers a free UI kit as well.

(Source Image)

When sending activation emails, start off with an email greeting that welcomes people, like this one from RightInbox:

As promised, heres   this email greeting is natural and will help build rapport with your audience.

Send Thank You Emails

Everyone loves polite thank yous! You should send these out after someone subscribes, purchases a product, refers a friend, etc. They boost engagement and will help build your companys relationship with your customers.

Heres an example of Grammarly saying thanks to its users.

(Source Image)

Using humor and personalization like Grammarly, you can improve your brand image and connection with your loyal customers.

Send Educational Emails to Engage Customers and Users

Newsletters is the life and pulse of your brand and business. Educational newsletters should not bore people with verbal diarrhea of how to 10X your traffic but instead share useful and digestible tid bits of information which can help customers scale their businesses.

Each section of your education email should include the following:

Header image

Headline

Body copy

Call to action

For regularly scheduled newsletters, maintaining the same structure is important for consistency, allowing recipients on both mobile and desktop to browse the email and decide what content is most interesting to them. Then, they can quickly go back to the sections they know they want to read.

This email below from HubSpot includes a variety of resources including educational guides, community discussions, tools, and product news. The Grow Better Letter is distributed to a wide audience of the CRM with a section for every reader.

A Look at Hubspots Approach

Here is how Jordan Pritkin Head of Email Marketing at Hubspot CRM describes this email:

The Grow Better Letter is a bi-weekly email newsletter sent to HubSpot CRM users. Its a way for us to help our users, who are largely salespeople and marketers, learn and grow with our content. We can also communicate upcoming events and product updates, and provide a direct connection to speak with our team.

Subject Line: Marketing Email and Ads, now free in the HubSpot CRM

Goal: Readership and Engagement

Performance: Open Rate: 40% | Click Through Rate: 20%

Insights and Takeaways

According to Jordan Pritikin, Email and Growth Marketing at HubSpot, this newsletter has helped the team learn that:

Its best to design newsletter emails for consistency. Try to provide recipients with a brief overview of the content and a clear call-to-action to quickly access the information they want.

The term free increased click-through rates, as high as 30%, when used in both email and web page calls-to-action. For this particular newsletter, HubSpot decided to use these learnings and apply the term free to our subject line. This newsletters subject line and content made it outperform other email sends. Leading to the highest performing newsletter email of the year, encouraging 40% of recipients to open it.

If you can offer your prospects information that is useful and actionable over time, they will continue to open your emails. When your brand is top-of-mind, your audience will think of you when theyre ready to learn more about your company. Its a win-win!

Crafting Compelling Email Campaigns

Segmentation for Targeted Messaging: Segment your email list to deliver more targeted and relevant content to different groups within your audience. Personalize emails based on factors like purchase history, location, and interests. This segmentation leads to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Consistent Branding and Storytelling: Ensure that your emails reflect your brands voice and aesthetics consistently. Use storytelling techniques to make your emails more compelling and memorable. Share stories about your brands journey, customer experiences, or the impact of your products and services. Engaging narratives can create emotional connections with your audience and drive loyalty.

Write Better Press Releases

Press releases are key for keeping both your customers and potential new customers informed.

But, most press releases are still stuck in the 1800s.

Instead of boring press releases that nobody reads, your press releases should follow a specific, consistent format.

This helps to increase your odds of getting journalists to publish it and circulate it beyond your email list.

Heres a great press release format you can follow:

Headline: Grab attention here and focus on the subject at hand. Is it a product launch? New business funding? Get specific. Location: Where this is happening? Lead: First paragraph in your release to summarize the most important info. Body: Provide more details expanding on the lead. Boilerplate: Describe your company in just 1-2 sentences. Press Contacts: Provide name and contact details for the proper employee at your business.

Email Strategy Description Example Immediate Welcome Emails Sending welcome emails immediately boosts open rates by 50% and is 86% more effective than standard newsletters. Invision's 'Thanks for subscribing' email with a free UI kit. Send Thank You Emails Express gratitude after subscriptions, purchases, referrals, etc. Enhances engagement and customer relationships. Grammarly's humorous and personalized thank you email. Educational Emails for Engagement Share useful, digestible information in newsletters. Maintain a consistent structure for readability and relevance. HubSpot's 'Grow Better Letter' offering guides and updates. Optimize Press Releases Modernize press releases with attention-grabbing headlines, location, concise lead, detailed body, and contact info. Effective press release format for wider circulation.

Conclusion

Selling new products can be challenging.

Thats why you should build your reputation by guest posting on relevant publications, write quality content to boost backlinks, create custom landing pages, and send better emails to your customers and prospects.

Dont rush in and try and sell your product immediately.

Pushing a sale rarely works in todays business environment.

If you follow these four techniques above, itll help you gain online exposure, build an audience, and develop a strong relationship over time with your prospects and customers.

Find your target market. Engage with them. And earn your customers trust.

Follow this, and youll be making plenty of sales in no time!
Can You Get Scammed From a Computer Security Software Company Like McAfee?

Getting scammed by the official McAfee company is quite unlikely. However, there are many scammers who try to take advantage of the well-known McAfee name. Scammers trick people and gain access to their money or personal information using malicious software.

READ MORE: McAfee and Visa Form Partnership

Top McAfee Scams Every Small Business Owner Should Know

Like other popular antivirus programs, McAfee is a target for scammers who specialize in identity theft. Here are some of the most common scams related to McAfee that small business owners should be aware of:

1. McAfee Phishing Scams

Phishing emails are one of the most common types of scams. For this phishing scam, fake email messages are sent by a scammer who poses as a legitimate company. They send phishing emails to try and trick you into clicking suspicious links to a fake company website and giving them your personal information or money.

How to Stay Safe:

Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails.

Verify the authenticity of the email by checking the senders address.

Use McAfees official website for any subscription-related actions.

2. McAfee Pop-Ups Scam

Another common scam is fake pop-ups that claim to be from McAfee. These pop-ups usually contain a virus or will install malware that can infect your computer if you click on them. So, be very careful when you see any pop-ups on your computer, even if they claim to be from a reputable company like McAfee.

How to Stay Safe:

Do not click on unsolicited pop-ups, even if they appear to be from McAfee.

Keep your browser and antivirus software updated to block malicious pop-ups.

Use pop-up blockers and avoid visiting untrusted websites.

3. McAfee Scam Emails

Scam emails are another way that scammers try to trick you into giving them your personal information. These fake emails often contain official-looking offers or deals that seem too good to be true. So, be very careful when you receive any emails claiming to be from McAfee.

How to Stay Safe:

Be skeptical of emails with offers or deals that seem too good to be true.

Look for inconsistencies in the email content, such as spelling and grammatical errors.

Always verify offers by visiting McAfees official website.

4. McAfee Renewal Scam

The McAfee renewal scam is when scammers contact you and try to trick you into renewing your McAfee subscription. They do this by providing fake invoices and offering a special deal or a discount on the renewal price. However, if you give them your login credentials or credit card information, they will actually bill you for a much higher amount than what you were originally quoted.

How to Stay Safe:

Renew your subscription directly through the official McAfee website or authorized retailers.

Be cautious of unsolicited calls or emails offering renewal deals.

Do not provide credit card information over the phone to unknown callers.

5. McAfee Antivirus Plus Scam

For this scam, scammers contact you and try to sell you a fake version of McAfees Antivirus Plus program. They may even send you an email with a link to download the program. However, this program is actually a virus that can infect your computer.

How to Stay Safe:

Purchase McAfee products only from the official website or authorized retailers.

Be wary of emails or websites offering discounted McAfee software.

Verify the authenticity of the software before downloading.

6. McAfee Tech Support Scam

First things first, McAfee tech support will never call you unless youve contacted them first. So, if you receive a call from someone claiming to be from McAfee tech support, its a scam. These scammers will try to get you to give them remote access to your computer so they can install a virus or steal sensitive information.

How to Stay Safe:

Remember that McAfees official tech support will not contact you unless requested.

Do not grant remote access to your computer to unsolicited callers.

If in doubt, contact McAfees official support for verification.

7. McAfee Fake Virus Scan Scam

This is a scam where scammers create a fake virus scan and claim that your computer is infected with a virus. They will then try to sell you a fake antivirus program to remove the supposed virus so you no longer have your computer infected.

How to Stay Safe:

Do not trust unsolicited virus scan alerts, especially from unknown sources.

Use McAfees official antivirus tools for scanning your computer.

Avoid downloading software from pop-up alerts or unfamiliar websites.

8. McAfee Free Trial Scam

The McAfee free trial scam is when scammers offer you a free trial of their fake antivirus program. However, once the trial is up, they will bill you for the full price of the program, which is usually a lot more than what you would pay for a legitimate antivirus program.

How to Stay Safe:

Sign up for free trials only through the official McAfee website.

Read the terms and conditions of any free trial offer carefully.

Be cautious of providing payment details for a free trial offer.

9. McAfee Subscription Cancellation Scam

This scam involves fraudsters contacting McAfee users, claiming that their subscription is about to be automatically renewed, and offering to cancel it for a fee. The scammer may ask for remote access to your computer to assist with the cancellation, during which they install malware or steal sensitive information.

How to Stay Safe:

Never give remote access to your computer to unsolicited callers.

If you receive a call about your McAfee subscription, verify its legitimacy by contacting McAfee directly through their official website.

Be aware that legitimate companies like McAfee will not charge you to cancel a subscription.

10. McAfee Refund Scam

In this scam, you might receive an email or call claiming that you are eligible for a refund from McAfee. The scammers will ask for bank details to process the supposed refund, but instead, they use this information to steal money from your account.

How to Stay Safe:

Be skeptical of unsolicited refund offers.

Never share your banking details over email or phone with someone claiming to be from McAfee.

Verify any refund claims by contacting McAfee through their official channels.

11. Fake McAfee Job Offer Scam

Scammers posing as McAfee HR representatives offer fake job opportunities. They may ask for personal information or money for training or equipment as part of the hiring process.

How to Stay Safe:

Verify the job offer by contacting McAfee directly through their official website.

Remember, legitimate companies will not ask for money during the hiring process.

Be cautious of offers that seem too good to be true, especially if you did not apply for the job.

12. McAfee Mobile App Scam

Cybercriminals create fake McAfee mobile apps and upload them to app stores. Once downloaded, these apps can infect your device with malware or steal personal data.

How to Stay Safe:

Always download apps from official and reputable app stores.

Check reviews and ratings before downloading any app.

Look for inconsistencies in the apps description and avoid apps with poor grammar or spelling.

How to Avoid a McAfee Scam

McAfee antivirus software is a popular choice for computer protection, but cybercriminals are now using McAfee branding to scam people. Here are five tips to avoid phishing scams that use the McAfee name and protect your bank account:

Check the URL before you click. Cybercriminals will often create fake websites that look like legitimate companies in order to phish for your personal information. Before you click on any links, check to make sure the URL is correct.

Cybercriminals will often create fake websites that look like legitimate companies in order to phish for your personal information. Before you click on any links, check to make sure the URL is correct. Grammatical errors. Another way to spot a fake website is to look for grammatical errors. Many scammers are not native English speakers, so they may make mistakes in their grammar.

Another way to spot a fake website is to look for grammatical errors. Many scammers are not native English speakers, so they may make mistakes in their grammar. Senders address. Be cautious of any emails that come from a free email service like Gmail or Yahoo. These are more likely to be scams.

Be cautious of any emails that come from a free email service like Gmail or Yahoo. These are more likely to be scams. Hover over links. Before you click on any links in an email, hover your mouse over the link to see where it will take you. If the URL looks suspicious, dont click on it.

Before you click on any links in an email, hover your mouse over the link to see where it will take you. If the URL looks suspicious, dont click on it. Call the company. If youre unsure whether an email or website is legitimate, call the company to verify. Dont use the contact information in the email, look for the companys contact information on their website.

Tip Description Check the URL before you click Verify the authenticity of URLs before clicking on them to prevent falling victim to fake websites and phishing attempts. Grammatical errors Identify potential scams by examining the grammar in communications. Scammers often make grammatical mistakes due to language barriers. Sender's address Exercise caution with emails from free email services like Gmail or Yahoo, as they are commonly used by scammers. Hover over links Hover your mouse cursor over links in emails to preview the actual destination URL. If it seems suspicious, avoid clicking on it to prevent malware installation. Call the company When in doubt about an email or website's legitimacy, contact the company directly using official contact details from their website to verify the information.

Why Do You Keep Getting Fake McAfee Emails?

Spam filters are not perfect, and sometimes fake emails slip through. If you keep getting fake McAfee emails, its likely because your email address is on a list that is being sold to scammers. You can try to block the sender, but its likely that they will just use a different email address. The best thing you can do is to delete the email and mark it as spam.

Is the McAfee Renewal Email Asking for Credit Card Details a Phishing Scam?

The McAfee Renewal email is a phishing scam. The email asks you to update your credit card payment information and renew your subscription. However, the email is not from McAfee, and clicking on the link will take you to a fake website where your personal information can be stolen.

Where Do You Report McAfee Scams?

If you have been the victim of a McAfee scam, you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can also report the scam to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) if you have lost money or personal information as a result of the scam. Finally, you can report the scam to McAfees Anti-Spam Abuse department.

Can You Get Your Money Back From a McAfee Scam?

It is possible to get your money back if you have been scammed by a fake McAfee website. If you have paid with a credit card, you can contact your credit card company and dispute the charges. You will need to provide them with the date of the transaction, the name of the company, and the amount you were charged. If you have paid by wire transfer, it is unlikely that you will be able to get your money back. You can report the scam to the IC3, but they will only be able to help if the scammer is based in the United States.

Protecting Yourself from McAfee Scams: Tips and Actions

As a vigilant McAfee subscription customer, safeguarding your computer and personal information is paramount. In the digital landscape, scams abound, and being aware of potential threats is crucial. Here are valuable insights to help you stay secure and outsmart scammers:

Be Wary of Suspicious URLs: Before clicking on any links, examine the URL closely. Cybercriminals often create fake websites resembling legitimate companies. Verify the URLs authenticity to avoid falling prey to phishing attempts.

Spot Grammatical Errors: Scammers might exhibit poor grammar in their communications due to language barriers. If an email or website displays glaring grammatical mistakes, exercise caution as it could be a fraudulent attempt.

Evaluate Senders Address: Scammers frequently use free email services like Gmail or Yahoo. Emails from such addresses should raise a red flag. Be skeptical of emails originating from suspicious sources.

Hover over Links: Hover your mouse cursor over links in emails before clicking them. This action reveals the actual URL destination. If the link appears suspicious, refrain from clicking to prevent potential malware installation.

Contact the Company Directly: When in doubt about an emails legitimacy, contact the company through official channels. Do not use contact information provided in the suspicious email. Seek out the companys contact details on their official website for verification.

Report Fake Emails and Scams: If you encounter a fake McAfee email or fall victim to a scam, promptly report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), especially if youve suffered financial losses or personal information compromise.

Responding to McAfee Renewal Emails: Beware of McAfee renewal emails asking for credit card details; these are phishing scams. Authentic McAfee renewal communications would never solicit sensitive information via email. Always verify the legitimacy of such requests through official channels.

Recovering from Scams: In the unfortunate event of falling victim to a McAfee scam, take immediate action. If payments were made via credit card, contact your credit card company to dispute charges. For wire transfers, recovery options may be limited. Reporting the scam to the IC3 can help if the scammer operates within the United States.

Educating Yourself is Key: Staying informed about scams and developing a strong sense of digital security is essential. Keep up-to-date with the latest scam tactics and learn to recognize red flags to bolster your defenses against scammers.

By following these precautions and remaining vigilant, you can protect yourself from falling victim to McAfee-related scams and other malicious activities. A proactive stance combined with informed decision-making empowers you to navigate the digital world with confidence and security.

Conclusion

As a McAfee subscription customer, arming yourself with knowledge about prevalent scams is your first line of defense against cyber threats. In this comprehensive exploration of McAfee-related scams, youve gained a deep understanding of the tactics scammers employ to exploit your trust and steal your sensitive information. By staying informed and practicing vigilance, you can effectively safeguard your computer and personal data.

Remember, while scams targeting McAfee users may be prevalent, they are not insurmountable. By implementing the recommended security measures, such as verifying URLs, scrutinizing sender addresses, and staying cautious of phishing attempts, you can significantly reduce your risk of falling victim to these scams.

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybercrime, knowledge is your greatest ally. Educate yourself, stay alert, and leverage the available resources to report scams promptly. Through your proactive efforts, you not only protect yourself but also contribute to a safer digital environment for everyone.

As technology advances, so do the strategies of cybercriminals. However, armed with the insights and precautions provided in this article, you are well-equipped to navigate the digital realm with confidence, resilience, and the ability to thwart even the most sophisticated scams. Stay informed, stay cautious, and stay secure.
Alaska Airlines again grounded all of its Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners on Sunday after federal officials indicated further maintenance might be required to assure that another inflight blowout like the one that damaged one of its planes doesnt happen again.

The airline had returned 18 of its 65 737 Max 9 aircraft to service Saturday following inspections that came less than 24 hours after a portion of one plane's fuselage blew out three miles above (4.8 kilometers) above Oregon on Friday night. The depressurized plane, carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, returned safely to Portland International Airport with no serious injuries.

The airline said in a statement that the decision was made after receiving a notice from the Federal Aviation Administration that additional work might be needed. Other versions of the 737 are not affected.

These aircraft have now also been pulled from service until details about possible additional maintenance work are confirmed with the FAA. We are in touch with the FAA to determine what, if any, further work is required before these aircraft are returned to service, the airline said.

The FAA had ordered the grounding of some 737 Max 9s on Saturday until they could be inspected, a process that takes about four hours. The worlds airlines are currently operating about 171 737 Max 9s globally.

The aircraft make up about 20 percent of the Alaska Airlines fleet. As of midday, Alaska had canceled about a fifth of its Sunday flights, according to FlightAware.com. United Airlines, which also grounded its Max 9s, had about a 10 percent cancellation rate on Sunday.

Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state chairs the chamber's Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and said she agreed with the decision to ground Alaska Air's Max 9 jetliners for comprehensive inspections.

Safety is paramount. Aviation production has to meet a gold standard, including quality control inspections and strong FAA oversight, she said in a statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating Friday's accident and is still looking for the door from the paneled-over exit that blew out. They have a good idea of where it landed, near Oregon Route 217 and Barnes Road in the Cedar Hills area west of Portland, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference late Saturday.

If you find that, please, please contact local law enforcement, she said.

Early Sunday afternoon, some local residents were scouring a patch of land with dense thickets, sandwiched between busy roads and a light rail train station. The area is located across from a sprawling hospital complex.

Adam Pirkle said he had ridden 14 miles (22 kilometers), maneuvering his bicycle through the overgrowth, while searching. Ive been looking at the flight track, I was looking at the winds, he said. Ive been trying to focus on wooded areas.

Daniel Feldt navigated the same thickets on foot, equipped with binoculars after descending from the roof of a parking garage beside the light rail station. I was up on the parking garage and scanning everything. Didnt see any holes in the bushes that looked obvious where something had fallen through, he said.

Gavin Redshaw even brought his drone for an aerial view but hadnt found anything either by Sunday afternoon. Lots of trash, but no door, he said.

There has not been a major crash involving a U.S. passenger carrier within the country since 2009 when a Colgan Air flight crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines flight arriving from Korea crashed at San Francisco International Airport, killing three of the 307 people on board.

Flight 1282 took off from Portland at 5:07 p.m. Friday for a two-hour flight to Ontario, California. About six minutes later, the chunk of the fuselage blew out as the plane was at about 16,000 feet (4.8 kilometers). One of the pilots declared an emergency and asked for clearance to descend to 10,000 feet (3 kilometers), the altitude where the air would have enough oxygen to breathe safely.

Videos posted by passengers online showed a gaping hole where the paneled-over exit had been and passengers wearing masks. They applauded when the plane landed safely about 13 minutes after the blowout. Firefighters then came down the aisle, asking passengers to remain in their seats as they treated the injured.

It was extremely lucky that the airplane had not yet reached cruising altitude, when passengers and flight attendants might be walking around the cabin, Homendy said.

No one was seated in 26A and B where that door plug is, the aircraft was around 16,000 feet and only 10 minutes out from the airport when the door blew, she said. The investigation is expected to take months.

The aircraft involved rolled off the assembly line and received its certification two months ago, according to online FAA records. It had been on 145 flights since entering commercial service Nov. 11, said FlightRadar24, another tracking service. The flight from Portland was the aircrafts third of the day.

Aviation experts were stunned that a piece would fly off a new aircraft. Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said he has seen panels of fuselage come off planes before, but couldnt recall one where passengers are looking at the lights of the city.

The Max is the newest version of Boeings venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane frequently used on U.S. domestic flights. The plane went into service in May 2017.

The president of the union representing flight attendants at 19 airlines, including Alaska Airlines, commended the crew for keeping passengers safe.

Flight Attendants are trained for emergencies and we work every flight for aviation safety first and foremost, Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said in a statement Saturday.

Two Max 8 jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people and leading to a near two-year worldwide grounding of all Max 8 and Max 9 planes. They returned to service only after Boeing made changes to an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.

Last year, the FAA told pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system on the Max in dry conditions because of concern that inlets around the engines could overheat and break away, possibly striking the plane.

Max deliveries have been interrupted at times to fix manufacturing flaws. The company told airlines in December to inspect the planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder-control system. (AP)
The PM doesn't say how he paid for his new property.

Robert Fico during the ceremonial presentation of certificates to members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic. (Source: SME- Marko Erd)

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PM and Smer party leader Robert Fico has consistently avoided providing clear answers about his housing situation. This practice originated during his tenure renting a luxury flat in the Bonaparte complex in Bratislava from businessman Ladislav Basternak, who was subsequently convicted of tax fraud.

The trend persists as Fico recently purchased a flat in a prestigious area of Bratislava, yet refuses to disclose the purchase price or details of the transaction.

This property, located in the Sokolska Residence in Bratislava's Old Town, was initially leased from long-time Smer member and MP Dusan Munko. Fico has resided there for three years.

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His total reported income over an 18-year span (2004-2022) is around 850,000, prompting questions about how he financed the purchase, given that the estimated value of the flat ranges from 750,000 to 1 million.

Fico had income from public functions - MP and prime minister - and for the last two years he also reported income from advocacy. The Smer leader was also an MP between 1992 and 2004, during which time he could earn an estimated 120,000. Fico represented Slovakia before the European Commission and the European Court of Human Rights between 1994 and 2000. However, his asset declarations for this period are not published.

Despite increasing public scrutiny, Fico remains tight-lipped about whether he paid for the flat entirely with his own funds or if he took out a mortgage. The property deed indicates no mortgage.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/belgium-to-nominate-commissioner-reynders-for-post-of-european-council-head---reports-1116047175.html

Belgium to Nominate Commissioner Reynders for Post of European Council Head - Reports

Belgium to Nominate Commissioner Reynders for Post of European Council Head - Reports

Sputnik International

Belgium will nominate European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders for the post of the president of the European Council, Belgian media reported on Sunday.

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The Belgian authorities must announce their decision by January 10, and elections for the presidency of the European Council will be held in June, Le Soir newspaper said. Reynders, in turn, was reportedly hoping to head the list of candidates from the Belgian liberal Reformist Movement party in the upcoming elections to the European Parliament, but this was entrusted to incumbent European Council President Charles Michel. In 2019, Reynders participated in the race for the post of the European Council president but lost the election. He also held various positions in the Belgian government, including the post of foreign minister and finance minister. On Saturday, Michel, whose mandate expires at the end of November 2024, said that he would take part in the elections to the European Parliament and leave the post of the head of the European Council in the summer.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/blinken-makes-fresh-shuttle-diplomacy-run-amid-gaza-spillover-fears-1116048380.html

Blinken Makes Fresh Shuttle Diplomacy Run Amid Gaza Spillover Fears

Blinken Makes Fresh Shuttle Diplomacy Run Amid Gaza Spillover Fears

Sputnik International

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's week-long shuttle diplomacy trip to Mid East.

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Amid growing fears of the Palestine-Israel conflict spreading beyond Gaza, Americas top diplomat Antony Blinken has embarked on a week-long shuttle diplomacy trip. Washington's influence over its top regional ally Israel has so far failed to make a dent in Tel Avivs determination to press ahead with military operations in the Gaza Strip in disregard of the mounting civilian death toll. This time around, the US secretary of states itinerary lists Turkiye, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt from January 4-11.Blinken, who a week ago claimed Israel was in an extraordinary situation, and insisted that America's decision to supply munitions worth around $147.5 million to it was in US national interest, would underscore the importance of protecting civilian lives in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza." He would also urge "securing the release of all remaining hostages; commitment to facilitating delivery of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza, and reaffirm the US commitment to working with partners to set the conditions necessary for peace in the Middle East, which includes comprehensive, tangible steps toward the realization of a future Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, reads a statement from Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the US Department of State. It was also underscored that Antony Blinken would broach with the Middle East nations their future role in the "reconstruction, governance and security of Gaza." The US official would also raise the need to take steps to deter the Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, among other things.The top diplomat of the Biden administration, which has been slammed for not being vested in ending the "Israeli genocide against the Palestinians by supporting Israel with military hardware, has already made four stopovers. Blinken has visited Turkiye, Greece, Jordan, and Qatar. Speaking with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday, Blinken "emphasized the need to prevent the conflict from spreading", as per the US State Department. Erdogan snubbed Blinken during his previous trip across the region in November. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday, a diplomatic source told Sputnik. On Sunday, during his meeting with Antony Bliken, King Abdullah of Jordan warned of the catastrophic implications of the continued war on Gaza. The monarch stressed Washington's role "in pushing towards an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the protection of civilians, while guaranteeing the sustainable delivery of sufficient humanitarian and relief aid" to the Palestinian enclave, said an official statement.Also on January 7, Blinken and Qatari officials focused on ongoing efforts to free remaining hostages believed to be in Hamas' hands. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said that Qatar would continue to mediate talks between Hamas and Israel over the release of the hostages and on a ceasefire.However, al-Thani pointed out that the killing of Hamas Political Bureau Deputy Chief Saleh al-Arouri in a drone strike allegedly perpetrated by Israel on January 2 in Beirut, Lebanon would complicate talks. Al-Arouri, 57, was killed in a drone attack in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh along with five other individuals, with Israeli and US officials unofficially confirming Tel Avivs responsibility.Monday sees Antony Blinken hold talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, after which he will be traveling to Israel.The secretary of state said he would tell Israeli officials that it is imperative they do more to prevent civilian casualties. However, bearing in mind that the close US ally had reportedly failed to notify Washington ahead of time of its alleged drone attack on Beirut last week, it is an open question what Tel Aviv's response will be.Military operations in the Gaza Strip will continue until all Israeli hostages are returned, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday at a meeting with the families of people held hostage by the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.Furthermore, Antony Blinken's trip comes as sources in the Biden White House were cited as voicing fears on Sunday that Israel would launch a major assault on Lebanon in the coming days. Israeli media also indicated that the IDF has reportedly already drawn up strike plans for Lebanon, Israels neighbor to the north, after withdrawing troops from the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy the Palestinian group Hamas in the enclave, but the IDF ground troops have faced heavy casualties, despite Israeli air strikes racking up a death toll of over 22,000 in the territory, including mostly women and children.It is in no ones interest  not Israels, not the regions, not the worlds  for this conflict to spread beyond Gaza, said Matt Miller, a spokesman for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240106/blinkens-gaza-diplomacy-reflects-arrogance-amateurism-of-biden-administration-1116007575.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/china-says-it-has-detained-foreign-consultant-spying-for-uk-1116049508.html

China Says It Has Detained Foreign Consultant Spying for UK

China Says It Has Detained Foreign Consultant Spying for UK

Sputnik International

The situation allegedly involving MI6 conducting espionage in China underscores the continued tense exchanges between the two nations regarding allegations of spying that pose potential threats to their respective national security.

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Chinese authorities have reported that security agencies have uncovered another espionage incident involving the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, using a foreign proxy in China for intelligence gathering.On Monday, China's Ministry of State Security disclosed via WeChat that a foreign individual with the last name Huang was overseeing a consulting agency abroad. This marks the first instance of British espionage allegations on the MSS' WeChat account since its launch last August. However, earlier disclosures from the ministry highlighted alleged US espionage cases in 2023.Furthermore, according to the statement, in 2015, Huang entered into an intelligence partnership with MI6. Subsequently, this individual received instructions to make multiple trips to China, leveraging his public identity as a disguise to collect information for British intelligence operations.China's official statement indicated that MI6 had organized specialized intelligence training for Huang in Britain and other locations, furnishing him with specialized spy gear to facilitate interconnected espionage activities."After careful investigation, the state security organs promptly discovered evidence of Huang's involvement in espionage activities and took criminal coercive measures against him," the authorities said.The British government has also alleged that Chinese spies target officials in key political, defense, and business roles to access secrets. However, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson dismissed the claims as absolutely baseless."We urge the UK to stop spreading disinformation and stop political manipulation and malicious slander against China," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a press briefing.China has actively been addressing national security threats, uncovering multiple spying cases in recent years. The government cautions its citizens at home and abroad about the risks associated with espionage and promotes participation in counter-espionage efforts, including establishing reporting channels for suspicious activities.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/chinas-export-measures-differ-radically-from-us-restrictions---beijing-1116058699.html

China's Export Measures Differ Radically From US Restrictions - Beijing

China's Export Measures Differ Radically From US Restrictions - Beijing

Sputnik International

China's export restrictions are significantly different from those imposed by the United States as they do not target any particular country or company, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday.

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In August 2023, China imposed export controls on such rare earth metals as gallium and germanium to protect national security. In October, the Chinese Commerce Ministry also announced that starting from December 1, all graphite exports would need official approval. In December, the Chinese authorities introduced export restrictions on a number of technologies related to the mining and processing of rare earth elements. In October 2022, the US restricted exports of certain advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment and items to Chinese companies. In October 2023, the US expanded existing export restrictions on advanced semiconductors. Beijing has on many occasions accused Washington of abusing control measures to overwhelm Chinese firms. US-China relations have long been strained by growing restrictions on exports of US goods and services, the persistence of import duties on Chinese goods, the growth of world trade in yuan and the decreased influence of the US dollar across the globe.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/disgraced-prince-andrew-not-going-anywhere-following-epstein-document-dump---report-1116046821.html

Disgraced Prince Andrew Not Going Anywhere Following Epstein Document Dump - Report

Disgraced Prince Andrew Not Going Anywhere Following Epstein Document Dump - Report

Sputnik International

Prince Andrew has previously settled a lawsuit in 2022 with his accused victim, who says she was only 17-years-old when she was trafficked and coerced into having sex with Prince Andrew by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

2024-01-08T03:54+0000

2024-01-08T03:54+0000

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uk royal family

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Prince Andrew has previously settled a lawsuit in 2022 with his accused victim, who says she was only 17-years-old when she was trafficked and coerced into having sex with Prince Andrew by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. As a result, Andrews public standing was irreversibly tarnished and he was made to step back from his royal duties.But recently, unsealed documents from a 2015 defamation suit against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins girlfriend, have unveiled more salacious details of Andrews crimes. The papers also reference other celebrities, including former President Bill Clinton and Stephen Hawking.In light of the Epstein document dump, the Duke of York, 63, has reportedly vowed to fight any attempt to be evicted from his 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor which he shares with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.The King has reportedly considered moving his disgraced brother into a smaller home, such as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Harry and Meghans former home Frogmore Cottage. He has also considered cutting off his brothers security funding at the estate, according to reports.In a 2014 court filing, one victim said she was forced to have sexual relations with this Prince when she was a minor in three separate geographical locations. The locations included Maxwells London apartment, a separate location in New York, and on Epsteins private island in the US Virgin Islands (in an orgy with numerous other underaged girls).Epstein reportedly told a victim to give Andrew whatever he demanded. And another accuser said in her deposition that Andrew touched her breast while they were posing for a photo on a couch at Epsteins Manhattan townhouse in 2001. During that testimony, the victim said he groped another underage girls breast with a puppet that looked like him.And according to Epsteins former butlerwho worked for the sex offender from 1991 until 2002Andrew received daily massages when he spent weeks at Epsteins Palm Beach, Florida mansion. According to a 2019 indictment against Epstein, the late financier would lure his child victims under the impression that they would give him a massage which would then become increasingly sexual in nature. It is not presently clear if the massages Andrew received were such as that.According to a report, the unveiled documents do not reveal any new major allegations, though they mention Andrew nearly 70 times. Many of the new names revealed include victims, members of law enforcement officials, Epsteins household staff, and friends and family. And not everyone mentioned in the documents committed some kind of wrongdoing. More documents are expected to be released in the coming days after 191 of about 250 documents were first unsealed on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.Some of those who were accused of committing wrongdoing include: the American investor Glenn Dubin, American billionaire heir and businessman Tom Pritzker, the late French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, the late New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, and lawyer and former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz. Both former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump appeared in the documents, but were not implicated in anything illegal.American financier Epstein, 66, was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in July of 2019. He died by suicide in jail before he could face trial. While testifying for a 2016 sexual abuse lawsuit, he invoked the Fifth Amendment about 600 times. Maxwell was then arrested in 2020 and accused of assisting Epstein in his abuse scheme. She was convicted by a federal jury in December of 2021 on five federal counts, including sex trafficking a minor and conspiracy, and is now serving 20 years in prison.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240101/court-documents-unveiling-150-associates-of-sex-offender-jeffrey-epstein-to-be-made-public--1115923928.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20220605/doesnt-that-seem-odd-elon-musk-trolls-doj-wonders-why-it-wont-release-epstein-client-list-1096036701.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240105/london-police-say-no-probe-launched-into-prince-andrew-after-epstein-files-unsealed-1116003206.html

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prince andrew, jeffrey epstein, ghislaine maxwell, royal family, sex scandal, court documents, jeffrey epstein, prince andrew, documents to be made public, sex offender, sex trafficker, sex crimes, child molestation, trafficking ring, pedophile, child molester
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/donetsk-peoples-republic-head-slams-zelenskys-lies-about-russias-lack-of-victories-1116049938.html

Donetsk Peoples Republic Head Slams Zelenskys Lies About Russia's 'Lack of Victories'

Donetsk Peoples Republic Head Slams Zelenskys Lies About Russia's 'Lack of Victories'

Sputnik International

The head of the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin has branded Volodymyr Zelenskys remarks about Russias alleged lack of serious victories a lie.

2024-01-08T12:46+0000

2024-01-08T12:46+0000

2024-01-08T12:46+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

russia

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volodymyr zelensky

ukrainian counteroffensive attempt

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The head of the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin has branded Volodymyr Zelenskys remarks about Russias alleged lack of serious victories a lie. This was a kind of forerunner of subsequent failures of the Ukrainian armed forces, Pushilin noted, adding it had been "a landmark moment."Pushilin praised the competent actions of the Russian military in the face of the tasks set before them, which made it possible to achieve those results.In 2023, Russia confronted the entire collective West with their financial power, the power of their weapons, said Pushilin. Nevertheless, Ukraines much-heralded counteroffensive was defeated.Earlier, Ukraines president told The Economist that the Ukrainian summer counteroffensive failed due to information leaks that he claimed helped Russia prepare its defences. Moscow, insisted Zelensky, could not boast of any victories, as Russias Armed Forces had failed to take a single major city in 2023.In late December, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the Russian Armed Forces had fulfilled the main goal of 2023 by thwarting Ukraine's counteroffensive. The Ukrainian military took more than 125,000 casualties and lost 16,000 pieces of heavy equipment during the six-month counteroffensive, said Shoigu.In an interview with Sputnik, Pushilin also said speculation over the identities of Ukrainian political and military leaderrs jostling to replace Zelensky was irrelevant.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231226/russian-armed-forces-fulfill-main-goal-of-2023-by-foiling-ukrainian-counteroffensive---shoigu-1115817509.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/dutch-media-identify-person-behind-2007-sabotage-of-iranian-nuclear-program-1116057100.html

Dutch Media Identify Person Behind 2007 Sabotage of Iranian Nuclear Program

Dutch Media Identify Person Behind 2007 Sabotage of Iranian Nuclear Program

Sputnik International

Dutch engineer Erik van Sabben played a crucial role in a clandestine US- and Israeli-led operation in 2007 to sabotage Iran's nuclear program by planting malware in control systems of an enrichment facility, Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reported on Monday, citing its two-year investigation.

2024-01-08T14:00+0000

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The engineer sneaked into the nuclear facility in the Iranian city of Natanz and delivered the Stuxnet computer worm, which reportedly cost over $1 billion to develop, into the systems, the daily reported. The virus crippled Iran's nuclear program by damaging most of enrichment centrifuges. The operation was initiated by the United States and Israel in 2004, but the Dutch government was kept in the dark about it, the report said. Van Sabben, who worked as an engineer in a Dubai-based shipping company, was recruited in 2005, according to the report. In 2009, the engineer died in a motorbike crash, which his family and witnesses say was an incident. However, an anonymous source from the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) told Volkskrant that van Sabben "paid a high price" for what he did to Iran.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20210412/i-will-twist-your-head-off-benny-gantz-reacts-to-journos-question-about-irans-natanz-incident-1082607061.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/hezbollah-field-commander-killed-in-israeli-attack-on-southern-lebanon-1116055420.html

Hezbollah Field Commander Killed in Israeli Attack on Southern Lebanon

Hezbollah Field Commander Killed in Israeli Attack on Southern Lebanon

Sputnik International

A field commander of Lebanons Hezbollah movement has been killed during an Israeli air attack on southern Lebanon, various media reported on Monday.

2024-01-08T12:23+0000

2024-01-08T12:23+0000

2024-01-08T14:14+0000

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According to the reports, the Israeli airstrike killed Wissam Al-Tawil, one of the commanders of Hezbollahs elite Radwan brigade.Later in the day, the Lebanese movement confirmed the media reports, saying that its senior commander had been inside a car at the moment of his death."With utmost pride and honor, the Islamic resistance mourns the martyr, commander of the fighters for the faith of Wissam Hassan Tawil, 'al-Hajj Jawad', from the town of Kherbet Selem in southern Lebanon, who attained martyrdom," the movement added in a statement.The situation in southern Lebanon deteriorated after the start of Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army and Hezbollah fighters regularly exchange fire in areas along the border.On October 7, Palestinian movement Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip, while its fighters breached the border, opening fire on the military and civilians. As a result, over 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and launched a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 22,800 people have been killed so far in Gaza as a result of Israeli strikes, local authorities said.On November 24, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of some of the prisoners and hostages, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire was extended several times and expired on December 1.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240107/israel-ready-to-settle-hezbollah-conflict-by-political-or-other-means---netanyahu-1116035348.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/iranian-russian-exporters-able-to-conduct-payments-in-national-currencies---central-bank-1116057485.html

Iranian, Russian Exporters Able to Conduct Payments in National Currencies - Central Bank

Iranian, Russian Exporters Able to Conduct Payments in National Currencies - Central Bank

Sputnik International

Russian and Iranian exporters are able to handle transactions in national currencies after the two countries integrated their financial message transfer systems, allowing banks to make direct payments without using the SWIFT payment system, Deputy Head of Iranian Central Bank Mohsen Karimi said.

2024-01-08T14:33+0000

2024-01-08T14:33+0000

2024-01-08T14:33+0000

economy

iran

russia

iranian central bank

javad karimi

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"We have connected the two countries' message transfer systems to each other. This means that the banks of the two countries no longer need Switzerland to connect to each other and commercial banks of both countries can establish intermediary relations. The exporter can issue an invoice in rials to the Russian side and receive money from Russian banks in Iran," Karimi was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency Fars. Transactions can now be made in the national currencies of Russia and Iran, the deputy chief of the Iranian central bank said. Iranian Central Bank governor Mohammad Reza Farzin said in late December 2023 that Iran and Russia would sign a deal to trade in their national currencies instead of the US dollar in the first quarter of 2024. In March of that year, Iranian Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ehsan Khandouzi told Sputnik that banking payment systems of Iran and Russia had been fully connected and would enable banks in both countries to open accounts for national companies and carry out direct payments.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240107/iran-russia-planning-to-create-joint-investment-committees-1116033276.html

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Monday before heading on to Israel after warning that the Gaza war could spread across the region without concerted peace efforts, while Israel vowed to continue fighting until Hamas was eliminated.

Blinken was in Jordan and Qatar on Sunday at the start of a five-day diplomatic effort in the Middle East seeking to avert a wider war in the region. He is also due to visit the West Bank and Egypt this week.

"This is a moment of profound tension for the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and suffering," Blinken told a press conference in Doha before heading to Abu Dhabi.

Blinken said he would tell Israeli officials that it is imperative they do more to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza and that Palestinian civilians must be allowed to return home and not be pressed to leave Gaza.

Jordan's King Abdullah urged Blinken to use Washington's influence over Israel to press it for an immediate ceasefire and warned of the "catastrophic repercussions" of Israel's continued military campaign.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting.

"The war must not be stopped until we achieve all the goals: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," he said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. "I say this to both our enemies and our friends."

Despite global concern over the death and destruction in Gaza and widespread calls for a ceasefire, Israeli public opinion remains firmly behind the operation aimed at wiping out the Hamas group that rules Gaza, although support for Netanyahu has fallen sharply.

Israeli officials say some 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the deadliest day in the country's history, and accounts of atrocities that later emerged left a sense that its survival is at stake. More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held by Hamas.

Israel's offensive since has so far killed 22,835 Palestinians in Gaza, Palestinian health officials said on Sunday, after 111 dead and 250 wounded were added to the tally over the past 24 hours.

Palestinians report 50 killed in Israeli strikes

During the weekend, residents reported intense gun battles in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, as well as in central districts of the densely populated enclave. Israeli strikes on houses in Khan Younis killed 50 people, health officials in the hospital there said on Sunday.

An Israeli air strike on a car near Rafah in southern Gaza on Sunday killed two Palestinian journalists, according to health officials in Gaza and the journalists' union there.

Central Gaza has been the focus of a heavier Israeli ground and air offensive in the past two weeks, with residents reporting tank shelling as explosions lit the skies overnight on Sunday.

The fighting has displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million population, with many homes and civilian infrastructure left in ruins amid acute shortages of food, water and medicine.

In a post on social media platform X, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri lamented that Arab and Islamic countries had yet to back South Africa's call for genocide proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

"We feel pain that the Arab and Islamic countries have not yet submitted any request to the International Court of Justice against the Zionist genocide in Gaza or supported the request of the State of South Africa in this regard," he said.

"?We hope that there will be a remedy, otherwise this official silence will constitute a mandate for the occupation to eradicate what remains of Gaza.

Israel denies targeting civilians and says Hamas militants deliberately embed themselves among civilian populations. Hamas, which is backed by Iran and is sworn to Israel's destruction, denies that.

Blinken discusses hostages

On Sunday, Blinken and Qatari officials discussed efforts to free hostages still believed to be held by Hamas after an earlier agreement mediated by Qatar broke down, something that the Qatari prime minister said was affected by the recent killing of a top Hamas leader.

On his trip, Blinken also aims to press hesitant Muslim nations in the Middle East to prepare to play a role in the reconstruction, governance and security of Gaza if and when Israel manages to eliminate Hamas, a State Department official said earlier.

Outside Gaza, there was more violence in the occupied West Bank, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers over the past weeks.

Israel's military said Israeli aircraft fired on Palestinian militants who had attacked troops in the city of Jenin, and Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians died in the strike.

An Israeli border police officer was killed and others wounded when their vehicle was hit by an explosive device during operations in Jenin, Israeli officials said.

Israeli emergency services also said Israeli police killed a young Palestinian girl in a car at a West Bank crossing when they opened fire on another car suspected of a ramming attack. (Reuters)
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/israel-believes-hostage-deal-needed-before-palestinians-return-to-north-gaza---reports-1116066165.html

Israel Refuses to Allow Civilians to Return to Northern Gaza Until More Hostages Released - Reports

Israel Refuses to Allow Civilians to Return to Northern Gaza Until More Hostages Released - Reports

Sputnik International

The Israeli government will tell US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during meetings on Tuesday that Hamas must agree to a new hostage deal before Palestinians are allowed to return to northern Gaza, Axios reported, citing two senior Israeli officials.

2024-01-08T23:12+0000

2024-01-08T23:12+0000

2024-01-08T23:59+0000

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palestine-israel conflict

israel-gaza conflict

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Blinken is set to visit Israel as part of a broader trip around the Middle East, during which he also met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Israeli officials will tell Blinken that Israel will restrict Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza until Hamas agrees to release more hostages, the report said on Monday. On Sunday, Blinken said that Israel must allow Palestinian civilians to return home as soon as conditions permit. On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, during which they abducted approximately 240 people. In November, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of prisoners and hostages, which also facilitated the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The ceasefire was extended several times, but expired on December 1. Hamas attack on Israel left more than 1,200 Israelis dead, leading to retaliatory strikes and a ground operation in Gaza. More than 23,000 people in Gaza have been killed as a result of the fighting. Israeli negotiators believe that restricting the ability of Palestinians to return to northern Gaza serves as significant leverage in hostage negotiations with Hamas, the report said.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231113/photos-reveal-aftermath-of-israeli-strikes-on-northern--southern-gaza-strip-1114914887.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/japan-records-over-1200-tremors-in-week-after-powerful-earthquake-1116052132.html

Japan Records Over 1,200 Tremors in Week After Powerful Earthquake

Japan Records Over 1,200 Tremors in Week After Powerful Earthquake

Sputnik International

The Noto Peninsula in Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture has recorded 1,214 tremors rated at least 1 on the seven-point seismic intensity scale in the week that followed a powerful earthquake that jolted the region on New Year's Day, the NHK broadcaster reported on Monday.

2024-01-08T09:52+0000

2024-01-08T09:52+0000

2024-01-08T09:52+0000

beyond politics

japan

ishikawa

japan meteorological agency

earthquake

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The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that strong tremors were expected in the week after the quake. The scale of devastation is yet unclear, primarily in the cities of Wajima and Suzu, as rescuers are unable to reach some areas due to damaged roads and communications. The situation is further exacerbated by snow and cold temperatures of 0 to 4 degrees Celsius (32 to 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit) as thousands of households were left without electricity and water. Up to 12 and 9 centimeters (4.7 and 3.5 inches) of snow fell in Suzu and Wajima respectively, increasing the risk of building collapse amid seismic activity. The snowfall is also delaying efforts to repair roads, which is critical for delivering relief aid to the quake-stricken areas. On January 1, a powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake, followed by a series of aftershocks, struck near the city of Suzu on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. The tremors also led to buildings collapsing and left over 23,900 households without power, although no nuclear power plant failures were registered. The quake became the most powerful for the Noto Peninsula region since records began in 1885. At least 161 people died as a result of the disaster and 103 remain unaccounted for. The earthquake also forced more than 28,800 people in Ishikawa to evacuate to government shelters. Japan's Self-Defense Forces deployed 5,900 rescue workers to assist with disaster relief efforts.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240107/woman-in-her-90s-found-alive-in-rubble-five-days-following-earthquake-in-japan-1116023393.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/pence-denounces-conspiracy-that-fbi-was-behind-jan-6-but-claims-riot-was-not-an-insurrection-1116045593.html

Pence Denounces Conspiracy That FBI Was Behind Jan 6, But Claims Riot Was Not an Insurrection

Pence Denounces Conspiracy That FBI Was Behind Jan 6, But Claims Riot Was Not an Insurrection

Sputnik International

On Sunday, former Vice President Mike Pence denounced the debunked conspiracy theory that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation was responsible for instigating the January 6, 2021 attack or insurrection.

2024-01-08T01:35+0000

2024-01-08T01:35+0000

2024-01-08T01:35+0000

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On Sunday, former Vice President Mike Pence denounced the debunked conspiracy theory that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation was responsible for instigating the January 6, 2021 attack or insurrection. Pence was the VP under former President Donald Trump, who is taking on new legal battles as Maine and Colorado have pushed him off of their primary election ballots after citing an insurrection clause in the US Constitution as their reasoning.Weve been assured again and again that it was not the case, he continued.I just must tell you, having been there that day, to see people literally breaking windows, ransacking the Capitol, it just infuriated me. I remember thinking not this, not here, not at the United States Capitol, Pence added.Pences statement is in response to a recent poll which found that a quarter of Americans believe the FBI was responsible for instigating the January 6 US Capitol attack. Even after detailed congressional investigations and about 700 defendants pleaded guilty to crimes committed during the attack, the debunked conspiracy theory has continued to be pushed. At least 34% of Republicans believe this conspiracy theory to be true, compared to 30% of independents and 13% of Democrats. And at least 44% of those who voted for Trump believe the conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the January 6 attack, the poll also found. During the criminal hearings which stemmed from the attack, attorneys for January 6 defendants have blamed Trump for their clients behavior, and cited Trumps encouragements to fight like hell as well as his debunked voter fraud claims.In reference to Trumps struggle to stay on primary election ballots in the states of Maine and Colorado, Pence was asked if he believes Trump engaged in insurrection on January 6, 2021.I was there, it was a riot, the way it broke out. And Ive never seen it any other way. And while I said the president's words were recklessand I believe that history and the American people will hold him ultimately to account for his role in that dayI think these efforts to take the decisions away from the American people are antithetical to the very democracy that President Biden and many Democrats talk about wanting to defend," said Pence.During his rally on Friday in Iowa, Trump warned that the US would be in big, big trouble should the US Supreme Court side with Colorado in their case against Trump.Colorados Supreme Court determined last month that the former presidents name should be barred from the states primary ballot over his role in the January 6 insurrection, citing the 14th Amendment's insurrection clause. He was removed from the ballot in Maine, which cited the same clause. Meanwhile, Trumps legal team continues to battle four criminal indictments against the former president which are spread out across four different states.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230802/trump-indictment-shows-free-fair-2024-election-no-longer-possible-watchdog-says-1112336655.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240105/report-trump-privately-fearing-us-supreme-court-may-back-colorado-ballot-decision-1116003826.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/pentagon-says-austin-remaining-in-hospital-no-specific-date-for-his-release-1116045968.html

Pentagon Says Austin Remaining in Hospital, No Specific Date for His Release

Pentagon Says Austin Remaining in Hospital, No Specific Date for His Release

Sputnik International

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is still in the hospital and there is no specific date for his release yet, the US Defense Department said on Monday.

2024-01-08T01:49+0000

2024-01-08T01:49+0000

2024-01-08T01:49+0000

americas

us

pentagon

lloyd austin

us department of defense (dod)

joe biden

department of defence

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"Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III remains hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center but is recovering well and in good spirits. Since resuming his duties on Friday evening, the Secretary has received operational updates and has provided necessary guidance to his team While we do not have a specific date for his release at this time, we will continue to provide updates on the Secretarys status as they become available," Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. Ryder added that on Saturday, Austin held talks with US President Joe Biden. On Friday, the Pentagon announced that Austin had been hospitalized four days prior after he experienced complications following an elective medical procedure. NBC News reported on Saturday that the US defense secretary spent four days in the intensive care unit following his hospitalization. Politico reported later that the Pentagon had kept the White House in the dark about Austin's hospitalization for three days and notified Congress 15 minutes before releasing the official statement.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240107/criticism-over-secrecy-of-pentagon-chiefs-hospitalization-mounts-as-austin-takes-responsibility-1116025547.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/spain-allows-kosovars-to-enter-country-after-visa-free-regime-comes-into-force---reports-1116046282.html

Spain Allows Kosovars to Enter Country After Visa-Free Regime Comes Into Force - Reports

Spain Allows Kosovars to Enter Country After Visa-Free Regime Comes Into Force - Reports

Sputnik International

Spain recognizes valid passports of Kosovo citizens after visa-free entry into the European Union for them came into force on January 1, Spanish news agency EFE reported on Sunday, citing a source in the Spanish Foreign Ministry.

2024-01-08T02:45+0000

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The report added that all Schengen countries agreed to accept Kosovo passports to allow the entry of Kosovars. On January 1, the Kosovar Foreign Ministry said that visa-free entry into the EU for its citizens came into force.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231228/us-deploying-national-guard-troops-to-kosovo-for-nato-peacekeeping-mission-1115861005.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/top-democrats-warn-biden-campaign-is-too-zen-despite-terrible-polls-and-trumps-rise-1116053881.html

Top Democrats Warn Biden Campaign is 'Too Zen' Despite Terrible Polls and Trump's Rise

Top Democrats Warn Biden Campaign is 'Too Zen' Despite Terrible Polls and Trump's Rise

Sputnik International

Lots of top-level Democrats are seriously concerned about Team Biden's unusual calmness ahead of the 2024 election amid plummeting approval numbers and emerging challenges from the GOP and Donald Trump.

2024-01-08T11:48+0000

2024-01-08T11:48+0000

2024-01-08T11:48+0000

us

americas

joe biden

barack obama

ukraine

ukrainian counteroffensive attempt

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red sea crisis

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Democratic heavyweights consider President Joe Biden and his reelection team "too complacent" and "unimaginative", as per Axios."Someone wants to light a fire under the a**es of some of these people," a top Democratic strategist told the media outlet referring to a recent leak to The Washington Post about a private meeting between Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama.The WaPo reported on January 6 that Obama had discussed the structure of Biden's reelection campaign directly with the incumbent president insisting that the campaign needs to be empowered. The former president recalled, in particular, how his top presidential aides, including David Axelrod and Jim Messina, left the White House to manage reelection operations in Chicago. In contrast, Biden's closest aides remain at the White House while making decisions concerning his 2024 campaign.The newspaper also noted that Obama grew "animated" when discussing Trump's potential return to power, citing an individual familiar with the conversation. Reportedly, Obama urged Biden aides and allies to be more assertive as Trump gets closer to grabbing the Republican nomination.New York Magazine reflected the Biden campaign's mindset on its December cover saying: "The Calmest Democrats in the Country: despite terrible polls and panicked pundits the mood inside Biden headquarters is chill."Indeed, Joe Biden's approval rating is in free fall. The president ended 2023 with just 39% job approval, as per Gallup, while none of his government figures has an approval rating over 50%.But that is not all: the president is bleeding support from the Democratic Party's traditional base  progressives, young Americans, and non-whites. The unfolding Israel-Hamas war and Joe Biden's support for Tel Aviv appears to be alienating American Arabs and Muslims, who have traditionally been considered loyal to the Democrats.Per the media outlet, Team Biden believes that they would manage to sort the Israeli-Palestinian conflict out prior to the election. However, nobody knows how the situation will unfold, given that Tel Aviv has taken a tough stance against Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and Iran. Conservative Israeli media has hinted that Team Biden is getting nervous about the Benjamin Netanyahu Cabinet's resolve to continue the war against Hamas for months.What's more, Axios has somehow failed to mention the Ukraine conflict which the Biden administration appears to be "losing": Team Biden has so far failed to convince House Republicans to provide $60 billion in aid to Ukraine as the latter has nearly completely run out of money. The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft does not rule out that the Kiev regime won't receive funding for a long period of time which would force the Biden administration to seek ways to "freeze" the conflict. For his part, Scott Ritter, a military expert and ex-Marine Corps intelligence officer, told Sputnik that the Ukrainian Army may crumble in mid-2024, as the 600,000-strong Russian contingent is steadily improving its positions along the entire front line, and increasingly supplied with ammo and military equipment.Apparently, top Democrats are well aware of numerous troubles brewing for Biden's domestic and overseas policies.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231228/why-no-economic-miracle-can-fix-bidens-sliding-approval-ratings-1115858280.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231129/arab-americans-disenchantment-with-bidens-palestine-strategy-could-hurt-him-in-2024-1115283746.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231215/scott-ritter-ukrainian-military-to-crumble-by-mid-2024-1115603833.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/triple-threat-pandemic-concerns-sweep-us-1116056691.html

Triple-Threat Pandemic Concerns Sweep US

Triple-Threat Pandemic Concerns Sweep US

Sputnik International

Progress in vaccine roll-out last fall contrasts with waning public trust, largely due to challenges in accessing RSV vaccines. However, COVID-19-related hospitalizations have surged since November. By mid-December 2023, the CDC reported a nationwide increase in flu cases, despite vaccination falling short of 2022's total by 8 million.

2024-01-08T16:34+0000

2024-01-08T16:34+0000

2024-01-08T16:34+0000

americas

newsfeed

houston

texas

centers for disease control and prevention (cdc)

us centers for disease control (cdc)

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e4/07/09/1079840937_0:117:2245:1379_1920x0_80_0_0_bed3c7ce1f98cfc1763fb31104882713.jpg

The US is navigating its first respiratory viral season since the pandemic, with an uptick in flu, COVID-19, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) cases.Now media have raised the spectre of a potential 'triple-threat' epidemic.Last fall saw the US reviewing its infectious disease control plans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Newly-developed jabs targeting RSV were in circulation, and upgraded COVID-19 vaccines were also rolled out.But public confidence is falling due to difficulty in accessing the RSV vaccine, while the take-up rate for the updated COVID-19 vaccines remains low. COVID-19 hospitalization figures have risen since last November. Testing of domestic waste water shows significantly-increased viral concentrations in nearly 69 percent of locations.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported a widespread increase in flu cases nationwide. By mid-December there was a notable decline in flu vaccine uptake, with approximately 8 million fewer individuals vaccinated than in 2022.During the initial pandemic phases, stringent measures to curb COVID-19 transmission seemingly also suppressed flu infections, which almost diappeared.. However, the subsequent 2022-23 flu season indicated a resurgence of flu cases.According to a KFF survey, only about 20 percent of American adults have received the latest COVID-19 vaccine shot. Similarly, the adoption of earlier vaccine versions appeared lackluster, indicating that many individuals might still lack protection from the initial immunizations in 2020 or 2021.Dr Luis Ostrosky from UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann spoke to media about the simultaneous increases in flu and COVID-19, highlighting a steady yet troubling uptick in RSV cases in the Houston area of Texas.Underlining the severity of the situation, the CDC issued a health alert in late December 2023 urging clinicians to prioritize vaccinations and timely testing for patients exhibiting symptoms. According to the CDC's RSV data, test positivity for both antigen and PCR tests peaked by the end of last November and has since started to decline.While there was optimism surrounding the approval of two RSV vaccines for the elderly and a monoclonal antibody for infants to mitigate cases this season, Sanofi, the manufacturer of the jabs, announced a shortage last October due to "unprecedented demand."This led the CDC to instruct doctors to prioritize the highest-risk patients for the available doses. Additionally, the uptake of the RSV vaccine among senior citizens has been notably low. By mid-December 2023, CDC statistics indicated that only about 10 percent of nursing home residents had been vaccinated against the virus.Marcus Plescia, representing the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, expressed apprehension over the escalating viral activity. While the US braces for a potential surge in post-holiday travel, he lamented the relaxed attitudes toward pandemic-era precautions, including staying home when unwell and mask-wearing.However, Plescia acknowledged that many hospitals are re-implementing mask mandates, anticipating more such directives in the coming days. But as yet there is no widespread report of hospitals being overwhelmed by the surge in respiratory cases.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230827/what-to-know-about-the-new-covid-19-variants-1112895460.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230506/who-says-impossible-to-globally-eradicate-covid-19-due-to-transmission-routes-1110147447.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/uae-leader-reportedly-advises-israel-to-ask-zelensky-for-money-to-pay-palestinian-workers-1116059903.html

UAE Leader Reportedly Advises Israel to Ask Zelensky for Money to Pay Palestinian Workers

UAE Leader Reportedly Advises Israel to Ask Zelensky for Money to Pay Palestinian Workers

Sputnik International

UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has rejected Benjamin Netanyahu's request that Abu Dhabi pay unemployment benefits to Palestinian workers banned from entering Israel, advising him to redirect the call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Axios news website reported on Monday, citing sources.

2024-01-08T17:07+0000

2024-01-08T17:07+0000

2024-01-08T17:07+0000

world

benjamin netanyahu

volodymyr zelensky

israel

uae

abu dhabi

hamas

middle east

palestine-israel conflict

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Several weeks ago, the Israeli prime minister asked the UAE leader to pay unemployment benefits to Palestinian workers from the West Bank, whom Israel had banned from entering its territory following the October 7 attack by Hamas, the news portal reported. "Ask Zelensky for money," the UAE president was quoted as saying to Netanyahu by one of Axios' sources. "The notion that Arab countries will come in to rebuild and pay the bill for what's currently happening is wishful thinking," an unnamed UAE official told Axios. On October 7, 2023, Palestinian movement Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip, while its fighters breached the border, opening fire on the military and civilians. As a result, over 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and launched a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 23,000 people have been killed so far in Gaza as a result of Israeli strikes, local authorities said. On November 24, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of some of the prisoners and hostages, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire was extended several times and expired on December 1.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231225/us-seeking-israeli-help-in-retaining-palestinian-authority-for-post-war-gaza---reports-1115810704.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/unga-to-hold-plenary-meeting-tuesday-due-to-us-blocking-russian-amendment-in-unsc-1116065365.html

UNGA to Hold Plenary Meeting Tuesday Due to US Blocking Russian Amendment in UNSC

UNGA to Hold Plenary Meeting Tuesday Due to US Blocking Russian Amendment in UNSC

Sputnik International

The UN General Assembly will hold a plenary meeting on January 9 following the United States veto of a Russia-drafted amendment to a resolution on Gaza at the UN Security Council, according to the United Nations program of work.

2024-01-08T22:43+0000

2024-01-08T22:43+0000

2024-01-08T22:43+0000

us

russia

un general assembly

un security council (unsc)

humanitarian disaster

humanitarian catastrophe

humanitarian crisis

humanitarian aid

humanitarian assistance

us hegemony

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The meeting will start at 10:00 a.m. EST time and it is expected to continue until the afternoon. On December 22, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to facilitate humanitarian aid to Gaza. Before the vote, Russia proposed an amendment to the resolution calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza. The only country that voted against the amendment was the United States. The UN General Assembly session will provide a forum for the United States to explain the reasoning for vetoing the amendment. The United States has regularly impeded any resolution on Gaza that may hinder Israeli military operations. On December 8, the United States blocked a United Arab Emirates-drafted resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a Brazil-drafted resolution on October 18.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231210/us-vetoes-gaza-ceasefire-profits-from-arms-sale-on-same-day-1115505751.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/us-house-oversight-panel-releases-hunter-biden-contempt-of-congress-resolution-1116061780.html

US House Oversight Panel Releases Hunter Biden Contempt of Congress Resolution

US House Oversight Panel Releases Hunter Biden Contempt of Congress Resolution

Sputnik International

The US House Oversight Committee on Monday released a resolution recommending contempt of Congress charges against Hunter Biden for defying a subpoena to provide closed-door testimony to lawmakers, as part of their probe into alleged criminal conduct by the Biden family.

2024-01-08T18:28+0000

2024-01-08T18:28+0000

2024-01-08T18:28+0000

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Resolved, that Robert Hunter Biden shall be found to be in contempt of Congress for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena, the resolution said. The resolution also directs US House Speaker Mike Johnson to take all appropriate action to enforce the subpoena. Biden was set to appear for a closed-door deposition with lawmakers on December 13, but instead held a press conference, where he said he would only answer questions in an open setting. On Friday, the US House Oversight and Judiciary committees said that they are considering charging Biden with contempt of Congress for his conduct. The panels are scheduled to consider a report recommending the contempt of Congress charge on January 10. Accountability is here, US House Republicans said on Monday in a statement on the resolution. The subpoena comes amid House lawmakers probe into Hunter Biden and US President Joe Biden for alleged criminal activity, including foreign bribery and influence peddling.

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The Roman Catholic Church should "seriously think" about allowing priests to marry, a senior Vatican official and advisor to Pope Francis said in an interview published on Sunday.

"This is probably the first time I'm saying it publicly and it will sound heretical to some people," Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, who is also adjunct secretary in the Vatican's doctrinal office, told the Times of Malta.

Pope Francis has ruled out any chance that he would change the Roman Catholic rule requiring priests to be celibate. But it is not a formal doctrine of the Church and so it could be changed by a future pope.

A Vatican spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Scicluna, perhaps best known for his investigations of sexual abuse crimes, noted that priests were allowed to marry in the first millennium of the Church's history and that marriage is allowed today in the Eastern rite of the Catholic Church.

"If it were up to me, I would revise the requirement that priests have to be celibate," he said. "Experience has shown me that this is something we need to seriously think about."

Scicluna, 64, said the Church had "lost many great priests because they chose marriage."

He said "there is a place" for celibacy in the Church but that it also had to take into consideration that a priest sometimes falls in love. He then has to choose "between her and the priesthood and some priests cope with that by secretly engaging in sentimental relationships."

The debate over whether Roman Catholic priests should be allowed to married has been around for centuries.

Priests are allowed to marry in the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church as well as in the Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican Churches.

Opponents of a married priesthood say celibacy allows a priest to dedicate himself entirely to the Church.

In 2021, the pope dismissed a proposal to allow some elderly married men to be ordained in remote areas in the Amazon where in some places the faithful saw a priest as little as once a year. (Reuters)
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/us-intel-fears-hezbollah-may-defeat-israel-with-expanded-weaponry-capabilities-1116064763.html

US Intel Fears Hezbollah May Defeat Israel With Expanded Weaponry, Capabilities

US Intel Fears Hezbollah May Defeat Israel With Expanded Weaponry, Capabilities

Sputnik International

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled in recent days that he plans to launch a war on Hezbollah across Israels northern border, but the United States is afraid the country is biting off more than it can chew.

2024-01-08T21:54+0000

2024-01-08T21:54+0000

2024-01-08T21:50+0000

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled in recent days that he plans to launch a war on Hezbollah across Israels northern border, but the United States is afraid the country is biting off more than it can chew.Thats according to reports in US media over the weekend as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in the Middle East to meet with leaders in the region.Israel maintains a small military during peacetime, mostly relying on reservists when conflict arises. The country has suffered heavy casualties in Gaza. Netanyahu promised to destroy Hamas after their October attack, but months later the Palestinian group remains powerful.Now, US analysts believe Netanyahu is tempted to open up a second front against the group Hezbollah in Lebanon, a move they fear could draw Iran into the conflict and force the United States to enter as well.Israel is widely considered to have lost a war with the armed group in 2006 under former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Now analysts say Hezbollah is even more powerful.Key to the groups might is its expanded arsenal in the years since that conflict.Hezbollah possesses greater numbers of weapons of every variety the group used in 2006, and some powerful new ones as well. Experts believe the group has more than 100,000 rockets, which it says can strike all parts of Israel.Most of them are of the unguided variety, but the groups leader Sayyed Nasrallah has claimed they are able to install guidance systems to transform them into weapons capable of precision strikes.In addition to guided missiles, the group also has rockets capable of hitting tanks, ships, and aircraft.Iranian weaponry makes up much of the arsenal, including Raad, Fajr, and Zilzal rockets. The group also possesses Chinese and Russian missiles.Finally, drone warfare plays an increasingly important part in Hezbollahs strategy as it has in other recent conflicts. The group is able to assemble its Ayoub and Mersad models locally to engage in reconnaissance or deliver a small explosive payload. The unmanned aircraft, which can be easily produced, could be used to deplete Israels Iron Dome defense system.Experts say few other non-state groups possess the weapons capabilities of Hezbollah. Manning its weapons are 100,000 fighters, many of whom are battle hardened by experience fighting in Syria.If Netanyahu launches an attack in Lebanon this week, it will come as the International Court of Justice hears charges of genocide brought by South Africa. The country unveiled an 80-page claim against Israel last week, exhaustively documenting comments by Israeli officials suggesting a deliberate attempt to kill Palestinian civilians. Aggression in Lebanon may only further imperil the countrys case.South Africas charge comes after the Anglican Church of Southern Africa recently adopted a resolution deeming Israel to be an apartheid state.The outlook of South Africas ruling African National Congress is heavily shaped by decades of apartheid rule that imposed a racist and oppressive system on the countrys Black population. In a post-Civil Rights Movement era, the countrys white supremacist government became increasingly untenable until apartheid was abolished in the early 1990s.Western citizens increasing rejection of what many consider to be a similar system in Israel may also contribute to a similar slow-motion collapse there.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/hezbollah-field-commander-killed-in-israeli-attack-on-southern-lebanon-1116055420.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231227/idf-to-push-hezbollah-away-from-border-if-lebanon-other-countries-fail-to-do-so-1115841500.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/us-reportedly-fears-new-israel-lebanon-war-after-netanyahu-struggles-in-gaza-1116046432.html

US Reportedly Fears New Israel-Lebanon War After Netanyahu Struggles in Gaza

US Reportedly Fears New Israel-Lebanon War After Netanyahu Struggles in Gaza

Sputnik International

Senior IDF officers have reportedly already approved strike plans against the neighboring country where Israel is widely considered to have lost a war against Hezbollah in 2006.

2024-01-08T03:17+0000

2024-01-08T03:17+0000

2024-01-30T10:27+0000

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The United States fears Israel will launch a major assault on Lebanon in the coming days, setting off a wider war in the region with all hell breaking loose according to sources in the Biden White House Sunday.The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has sent signals in recent days that its planning an attack on Israels neighbor to the north after withdrawing troops from the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to destroy the Palestinian group Hamas there after militants launched a major attack on Israel on October 7. But IDF ground troops have faced heavy casualties even as Israeli air strikes have killed more than 22,000 in the territory.Faced with a perceived failure in his Gaza campaign and heavy unpopularity among the Israeli public, observers suggest Netanyahu is incentivized to shift his focus elsewhere. The political logic for Netanyahu is to rebound and have some kind of success to show to the Israeli public, said Saab.Israel stunned many observers when it launched a drone strike on Beirut last week, killing a Hamas commander there. The close US ally reportedly failed to notify Washington of the attack ahead of time.The provocative attack in the Lebanese capital occurred on the four year anniversary of US President Donald Trumps killing of popular Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, causing observers to interpret it as a threat against another country in the region.Netanyahu faces multiple corruption charges in Israel and faces the threat of prosecution if dislodged from his position as prime minister. With that in mind, analysts fear the longtime leader will launch a wider war in order to save his political career. US involvement could follow, especially if Iran enters the fray on behalf of its proxy forces.Israel was previously involved in a 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, which it is widely considered to have lost. Observers say the militant group has grown stronger since then.Israeli forces also went to war in Lebanon in the early 1980s. IDF bombing of Beirut was so intense that US President Ronald Reagan called his counterpart in Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin to urge him to cease the attack, labeling it a holocaust. Begin was reportedly offended by the remark, believing the term shouldnt be used to describe Israels killings.The IDF has reportedly already drawn up strike plans for Lebanon, according to Israeli media. Over the weekend Blinken prepared for a trip to Israel, reportedly in order to help de-escalate the situation.But both Blinken and US President Joe Biden have a long history of strong support for Israel, with Biden even referring to himself as a Zionist. Biden once took to the floor of the Senate to stress Israels importance as a proxy for US interests in the Middle East, saying, If there were not an Israel, we'd have to invent one.The Biden administration has occasionally suggested its attempting to control its Middle Eastern ally but has been apparently unwilling to withhold military aid or suggest material consequences for their conduct. US representatives at the United Nations have repeatedly vetoed and watered down resolutions criticizing Israel.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231115/hamas-remains-intact-despite-israeli-operation-in-gaza-1114973626.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231227/some-western-countries-say-netanyahus-end-is-near---erdogans-chief-adviser-1115842086.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/who-cancels-humanitarian-missions-to-northern-gaza-due-to-lack-of-security-guarantees-1116043536.html

WHO Cancels Humanitarian Missions to Northern Gaza Due to Lack of Security Guarantees

WHO Cancels Humanitarian Missions to Northern Gaza Due to Lack of Security Guarantees

Sputnik International

The World Health Organisation has been forced to cancel four humanitarian missions to the northern Gaza Strip since December 26 because it no longer receives necessary security guarantees.

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"Today [January 7], WHO cancelled a planned mission to Al-Awda hospital and the central drug store in northern Gaza for the fourth time since 26 Dec because we did not receive deconfliction and safety guarantees," WHO said on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).The organization emphasized that for this reason it has lacked access to the northern Gaza Strip for 12 days now, which increases the suffering of people there.On October 7, Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip, while its fighters breached the border, opening fire on the military and civilians. As a result, over 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and launched a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 22,800 people have been killed so far in Gaza as a result of Israeli strikes, local authorities said.On November 24, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of some of the prisoners and hostages, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire was extended several times and expired on December 1.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/who-has-no-data-on-over-600-evacuated-al-aqsa-patients-staff-in-northern-gaza-strip-1116049694.html

WHO Has No Data on Over 600 Evacuated Al-Aqsa Patients, Staff in Northern Gaza Strip

WHO Has No Data on Over 600 Evacuated Al-Aqsa Patients, Staff in Northern Gaza Strip

Sputnik International

The World Health Organization (WHO) does not have any information on the whereabouts of medical staff and over 600 evacuated patients of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the only hospital in the central part of the Gaza Strip.

2024-01-08T07:14+0000

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"[The WHO] has received troubling reports of increasing hostilities and ongoing evacuation orders near the vital Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Middle Area of Gaza, which according to the facility's director forced over 600 patients and most health workers to leave. Their locations are not currently known," Tedros said on X on Sunday. The WHO chief also said that the UN health agency had to cancel its another mission in the northern Gaza Strip because of dangerous conditions and the lack of necessary permissions, adding that there were no fully-functioning medical facilities in the enclave's north. At the same time, the WHO's office in the occupied Palestinian territory said it had canceled a planned mission to the Al-Awda hospital and a central pharmacy in northern Gaza for the fourth time since December 26 after failing to receive "deconfliction and safety guarantees." "The mission planned to move urgently needed medical supplies to sustain the operations of five hospitals in the north, including Al-Awda," the WHO's office said on X. It has now been 12 days since the organization was last able to operate in the northern Gaza Strip, it added. On October 7, 2023, Palestinian movement Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip, while its fighters breached the border, opening fire on the military and civilians. As a result, over 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and launched a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 22,800 people have been killed so far in Gaza as a result of Israeli strikes, local authorities said. On November 24, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of some of the prisoners and hostages, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire was extended several times and expired on December 1.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/who-cancels-humanitarian-missions-to-northern-gaza-due-to-lack-of-security-guarantees-1116043536.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240108/zelensky-critic-vitaly-klitschko-had-close-ties-to-bidens-burisma--report-1116055770.html

Zelensky Critic Vitaly Klitschko Had Close Ties to Bidens, Burisma  Report

Zelensky Critic Vitaly Klitschko Had Close Ties to Bidens, Burisma  Report

Sputnik International

The New York Post, the newspaper that broke the "laptop from hell story," has claimed Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko was in bed with Hunter Biden and Burisma Geothermal.

2024-01-08T13:17+0000

2024-01-08T13:17+0000

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kiev

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Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko is believed to be yet another Biden family business associate, as per Miranda Devine, author of "Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide," and the Post's Washington correspondent Steven Nelson. The two cite the infamous laptop's emails and a mysterious "associate with direct knowledge" who spoke with the newspaper.According to the media, Klitschko was a "core shareholder" and active participant in a Hunter Biden-chaired subsidiary of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings  Burisma Geothermal. Hunter sat on the Burisma board at the time and was reportedly paid $83,333 per month beginning in April 2014 even though he had zero experience in energy or Ukraine affairs.Klitschko was allegedly involved in founding Burisma Geothermal in August 2015. This was months before the mayor met with then-Vice President Joe Biden during the latter's December 2015 trip to Kiev. The meeting took place shortly after the elder Biden twisted then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's hand into firing Prosecutor-General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma.Klitschko became Kiev mayor in June 2014; in April 2015 he travelled to Washington and received a warm welcome from then-Vice President Biden. Per the newspaper, the ties between Burisma and Klitschko were established by August 2015, at the time when Burisma Geothermal was launched."[V]ery good news, Klitschko confirmed that he would be on the Board of our geothermal European project!!!" infamous Ukrainian fixer Vadym Pozharsky wrote to the younger Biden and Archer on August 10, 2015."[Klitschkos] value was just a big, powerful, and famous man in Ukraine  national hero, actually  so no reason not to have him on-board," the unnamed former associate told the newspaper.Per the columnists, Klitschko's alleged connection to the US presidential family raises new questions about the Biden administration's close involvement in Ukraine's affairs as the White House is urging the Congress to funnel another $60 billion into Ukraine. Still, it appears that Republicans are fed up with the uncontrollable flow of money into Ukraine without any oversight. The Kiev regime's inability to gain any tangible results during its six-month long counteroffensive has raised the question whether there is any merit in sending good money after bad.Meanwhile, Klitschko's "stormy" relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky adds complexity to the saga, especially given that the Kiev mayor is seen by some as a potential presidential candidate and Zelensky's rival, as per the newspaper.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240105/us-house-panels-say-considering-contempt-of-congress-charges-against-hunter-biden-1115999526.html

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Just after Christmas, attorneys general from 23 states and the District of Columbia urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a federal rule banning bump stocks.

We concur and if the high court doesnt get it right, Congress should get to work and spell out the ban in a new law.

The high court agreed to take up the issue in November after differing lower court decisions over the ban, which was put in place by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives six years ago by the then-President Donald Trump administration.

The ATFE bump stock ban went into effect after a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2017.

You remember that, of course. A crazed gunman in the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel opened fire with bump stock-equipped AR-15s on a crowd of 20,000 people attending a country music festival across the street.

By the time the smoke had cleared and the screaming had stopped, 58 people were killed and an additional 500 were wounded or injured in the rush for cover. The gunman, Stephen Paddock, killed himself before he could be apprehended.

The attorneys general told the court in their petition that the ban aligns with longstanding prohibitions  dating to 1934  against public ownership of most machine guns and that bump stocks, which use the recoil of the weapon to rapidly fire without additional trigger pulls belong in that category.

Bump stocks were deliberately developed and marketed to circumvent federal law banning civilian use of automatic weapons, said District of Columbia Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb, These devices are designed to convert semiautomatic firearms to illegal machine guns, with foreseeable tragic and deadly consequences. We urge the Supreme Court to prioritize public safety and the safety of law enforcement officers by upholding a reasonable, well-established rule classifying bump stocks as banned automatic weapons.

We cant undo the horror and bloodletting at Mandalay Bay, but we can take steps to prevent the next crazed shooting by keeping the ban on bump stocks.

If the Supreme Court cant see its way to support the ban, then Congress should step in and pass a single piece of legislation to enforce it. An exception may be needed for disabled hunters, but for the most part no reasonable purpose justifies nearly full automatic firepower -- not for hunting, and not for self-protection.

Consider that Stephen Paddock, at one point in the tower at Mandalay Bay, was able to fire 90 shots in a 10 second period using bump stocks. A machine gun can fire 98 shots in a seven second period.

Theres not a deer herd or a concert crowd that can stand up to that rain of fire.

The Supreme Court should get that.
The intensification of bombardment in northwestern Syria has heightened the fears and concerns of residents living near the contact lines, Enab Baladi reports.

We seek refuge beneath the sheltering rocks of our homeland, enduring the onslaught until the barrage subsides  our shield in the face of adversity. This sentiment encapsulates the harrowing reality faced by Ali Droubia, a resident of Ehsim in the Jabal al-Zawiya region, situated to the south of Idleb. His predicament mirrors that of those dwelling along the contact lines in northwestern Syria.

In the latest wave of bombardment, Ali, prioritizing the safety of his family, evacuated his wife and children to a secure location. Undeterred, he stood guard over his land, clinging to it amidst the chaos. Speaking to Enab Baladi, Ali revealed that the relentless bombing and military escalation by regime forces and their allies have plagued Jabal al-Zawiya since his sons joined the Syrian revolution in 2011.

Jabal al-Zawiya, freed from regime control in 2012, has been subjected to continuous bombardment by regime forces, militias, and Russia, resulting in the loss of many of its residents. Despite a large-scale military operation in late 2019 pushing regime forces back, the region remains a target, with casualties from bombings occurring almost weekly.

The intensification of bombardment in northwestern Syria has heightened the fears and concerns of residents living near the contact lines. There is a growing apprehension of a recurrence of the displacement scenario witnessed in early 2020, which led to the forced displacement of approximately one million people from the countryside of Idleb, Aleppo, and Hama.

We are still at war

We have acquired resilience and an unwavering connection to the earth from the rugged rocks of Jabal al-Zawiya, Ali emphasized, noting that this challenging reality has become almost commonplace for the mountains inhabitants. However, he added, The constant fear of displacement lingers with each rocket or artillery shell that strikes the area, coupled with the ceaseless presence of reconnaissance aircraft, signalling that the spectre of war still surrounds us.

Upon entering the Jabal al-Zawiya area from the north, the atmosphere is tinged with the unmistakable ambiance of warfare. One must constantly be aware of the imminent danger, susceptible to perils ranging from deceitful shells to airstrikes by warplanes or suicide drones.

A significant number of the mountains residents have secured alternative accommodations, whether with relatives or in tents within camps situated away from the frontlines with regime forces or near the Syrian-Turkish border.

In preparation for the ongoing threat, particularly those residing close to the contact lines, many in the Jabal al-Zawiya area have erected rudimentary shelters to shield themselves from the barrage of shells and rockets launched by regime forces. Positioned as the foremost line of defence for northwestern Syria, Jabal al-Zawiya holds strategic importance for the regime and the opposition.

Its pivotal location serves as a safety buffer for Idleb and northern Aleppo, overseeing the international road (M4) connecting Aleppo governorate with the coastal areas of western Syria.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
University graduates are taking various jobs unrelated to their field, including selling sweets and working at a gas station, according to Syria TV.

In Atarib, a city west of Aleppo, Mohammed Al-Salit, a law graduate from the Free University of Idleb (2020), runs a small shop selling hot drinks as a means of survival. Despite his degree, Al-Salit has faced significant challenges in finding employment in the regions humanitarian and government organizations, leading him to pursue alternative means of livelihood.

Al-Salits experience reflects a broader trend in northwestern Syria, where university graduates struggle to find job opportunities matching their qualifications. Despite continuous efforts to secure positions in humanitarian organizations, Al-Salit, along with many others, has not received any responses, attributing this lack of opportunity to nepotism and a lack of connections.

Supporting a family with three daughters, Al-Salit finds more stability in his small shop than in his university degree, which now hangs in a frame within the shop. His story is emblematic of the difficulties faced by many university graduates in the region.

Educational Institutions and Rising Unemployment

The situation of university graduates in Idleb and Aleppo is bleak. Interviews conducted by the Syria TV website reveal that students have little hope of finding relevant employment post-graduation. Many anticipate joining the ranks of the unemployed, their degrees offering no more than a symbol of their academic efforts.

Imad Bouzgha, an English literature graduate from the Free University of Aleppo, has taken up various jobs unrelated to his field, including selling sweets and working at a gas station. His experience underscores the disconnect between university education and the labour market.

The Response of Educational Institutions

Ahmed Al-Qaddour, Deputy Director of the Free University of Aleppo, emphasizes that the primary role of universities is to impart knowledge, not facilitate employment. He notes the diverse nature of university branches and the varying job prospects for different fields, with medical graduates having better employment prospects due to a shortage of medical staff in the region.

Al-Qaddour stresses the importance of students choosing majors wisely, considering market demands. However, he acknowledges the lack of job opportunities for graduates in fields like law and political science in northern Syria. He criticizes the regional governments for not establishing centers that could utilize these degrees, such as judiciary institutes or police colleges, which could create job opportunities if adequately supported.

The experiences of Al-Salit, Bouzgha, and other graduates in northwestern Syria highlight the disconnect between higher education and the job market, exacerbated by the regions unstable political and economic conditions. The situation calls for a concerted effort from educational institutions and government bodies to bridge this gap and create opportunities that align with the academic qualifications of the regions youth.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Iran engaged in extensive consultations with Iraqi authorities to facilitate Syria's reinstatement into the Arab League, Sawt al-Asima says.

Leaked Iranian presidential documents, disclosed by a rebellious group leading up to the overthrow of the opposition Peoples Mojahedin Organization, expose the Iranian regimes attempts to support the Syrian government and encourage certain Arab nations to establish normalized relations with it.

Cooperation between Iran and the UAE

According to the translated contents of the leaked presidential file by Syria TV website, Iran engaged in extensive consultations with Iraqi authorities to facilitate Syrias reinstatement into the Arab League. The discussions aimed at strengthening the political ties between Damascus and Baghdad, supporting Syrias regional and international influence. On multiple occasions, Iran urged Iraqi authorities to exert additional efforts in enhancing Syrias regional role.

The document also highlighted shifts in the UAEs positions over the past two years on regional matters, including its stance on unrest and collaboration with Western countries and Saudi Arabia. It pointed out that Emirati television stations exhibited more moderate positions on both media and screen levels in comparison to Saudi Arabia. Unlike Saudi Arabia, Emirati channels refrained from offering extensive and provocative coverage of internal developments in Iran, particularly during the Mahsa Amini protest.

Iran halted Turkish military operations

Russia and Iran successfully persuaded Turkey to refrain from launching a new military operation in northern Syria. Since August 2016, Turkey has conducted three military operations, named Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, and Peace Spring, citing the fight against ISIS terrorism, the Kurdish PKK group, and its Syrian branch YPG. These operations resulted in Turkey gaining control over significant portions of northern Syria.

The leaked file highlights that while Turkish authorities express an interest in normalizing relations with Syria, they still maintain the option of conducting new military operations in northern Syria. There are efforts to establish a 30-kilometre-deep safe zone along the shared border with Syria.

Iran accuses Turkey of altering demographics to the detriment of Kurds and the Syrian government, claiming that Turkey is expanding the control of Syrian armed groups and establishing a de facto state in the region. The file suggests that Turkey aims to leverage these actions in negotiations concerning Syrias future or the potential annexation of Syrian territories to Turkish soil.

The dossier reveals Irans endeavours to prevent Turkeys military offensive in northern Syria, including engaging in security talks between Damascus and Ankara on the Kurdish issue within its foreign policy agenda.

Iranian concern over Jordanian military operation

As per the document, increased Jordanian activities in the southern region have coincided with a surge in assassinations, attacks on Syrian forces headquarters, and bombings. These incidents followed reports of a reduction in the presence of Russian forces, previously acting as guarantors of the ceasefire in the Daraa governorate.

The King contends that the withdrawal of Russian forces, coupled with the filling of this void by Iran and Hezbollah, poses a significant threat to Jordans security. He highlights what he deems as accusations from the Jordanian Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior, pointing to the discovery of narcotics and arms shipments along the shared border with Syria.

The leaked file indicates circulating rumours about the potential reorganization of Syrian armed opposition factions in the Daraa governorate or the formation of a military alliance involving Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. This raises the possibility of Jordan and the broader Arab axis taking action similar to Turkeys intervention along the southern border of Syria, under the pretext of securing Jordans borders.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
The Jordanian army conducted airstrikes in the Suweida governorate, as the Syrian government "faces challenges to control the territory", the pro-Damascus Athr Press says.

In the last two days, the Jordanian-Syrian border has experienced heightened tensions due to escalating clashes between the Jordanian army and armed groups involved in drug trafficking, as reported by the Jordanian military.

The Jordanian army, citing an official military source from the General Command of the Armed Forces, stated that armed confrontations between the Jordanian border guard forces and significant armed smuggler groups began on Saturday in the northern border area with Syria. The clashes resulted in five fatalities, 15 arrests, and one injury, according to the Jordanian agency Petra.

On January 5th, the Jordanian army conducted airstrikes in the Suweida governorate, targeting drug manufacturing facilities, as reported by Reuters citing its sources.

These military actions followed the announcement by the Jordanian army of plans to reinforce border security with the implementation of an electronic fence and an upgraded surveillance system. General Youssef Hunaitan, Chairman of the Jordanian Joint Chiefs of Staff, emphasized the need to enhance surveillance to counter infiltration and smuggling, especially during adverse weather conditions such as dense fog and sandstorms.

Muhannad Mubaydeen, Minister of Government Communication and spokesperson for the Jordanian government underscored that drug-smuggling groups pose a serious threat to Jordans security. He called for the development of a regional strategy to combat drug-related challenges, emphasizing the prolonged nature of the conflict with these groups.

Syrian political analyst Kamal al-Jafa explained the challenges faced by the Syrian government in maintaining control over its territory, citing the influence of multiple factions and the prolonged war. Jafa highlighted the existence of areas where state control has weakened, allowing various military forces to retain power and control over significant border areas.

The recent Jordanian military operations along the Syrian border align with the outcomes of the Amman meeting held in May, involving the foreign ministers of Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. The meeting emphasized three key priorities: protecting the common border, combating drug trafficking, and facilitating the return of Syrian refugees in exchange for supporting infrastructure development and contributing to the reconstruction process in Syria.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
As an election in democratic Taiwan looms, Chinese balloons have appeared around the island at various times of the day  in what its military says is a new form of "gray zone" harassment.

China already flexes its military prowess against self-ruled Taiwan daily, sending fighter jets, reconnaissance drones and naval ships around the island.

But since December, Taiwan's defense ministry has said that mysterious balloons were crossing the narrow Taiwan Strait separating China from the island, saying their purpose was "gray zone" harassment.

"Gray zone" tactics are aggressive actions deployed by a state that stop short of open warfare. Experts say that is what China has been doing with its show of military force around the island.

Days before a presidential election, some have flown directly above it, with at least one detected around a Taiwan military airbase.

"Beijing is signalling that it can violate Taiwanese airspace at will and challenge its sovereignty," said Raymond Kuo, Taiwan Policy Initiative director at RAND Corporation.

Self-ruled Taiwan is claimed by China as part of its territory, with Beijing's leadership long vowing to bring the island under its control.

The January 13 election pits the frontrunner candidate Lai Ching-te  whose ruling Democratic Progressive Party says Taiwan is a sovereign nation  against two others who have pledged warmer relationships with Beijing.

The timing of the balloons' appearance is "political," said Kuo.

"The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is attempting to demoralize the Taiwanese public in the run up to next week's presidential and legislative elections," he told AFP.

But its military purpose is "in line with broader China's gray zone coercion strategy towards Taiwan."

"Beijing is adding yet another operational challenge to Taiwan's defense forces, which could erode readiness and resilience," he said.

Initially saying they were weather balloons, Taipei's defense ministry on Saturday called them "an attempt to use cognitive warfare to affect the morale of our people."

It also said its frequent appearances posed a "serious threat" to aviation routes.

When asked about the balloons, China's defense ministry dismissed allegations of interference and accused Taiwan of trying to "manipulate the election."

'A massive nuisance'

Balloons from China became a politically fraught topic last February, when the United States shot down what it called a spy balloon. Beijing has said it was a civilian airship blown off-course.

With commercial flights usually flying at between 24,000 to 40,000 feet (7.3 to 12 kilometers) when in cruise, the balloons around Taiwan "do pose a threat and potentially cause disruption to air traffic," said independent aviation expert Gerry Soejatman.

Sighted during the daytime and evenings, they move at altitudes ranging from 12,000 to 36,000 feet (3.6 to 11 kilometers), according to Taipei's defense ministry.

Weather balloons would disintegrate upon impact, but if they carry a different payload such as those seen over the United States, Soejatman said, they "pose a severe risk of damage to commercial aircraft it collides with."

Either way, they would be "a massive nuisance" for pilots, he told AFP.

Calling it "irresponsible" to send the balloons at such heights, defense analyst Su Tzu-yun said the "political goal is far more than the military goal."

"They (China) want to create doubts and nervousness to go with the 'danger of war' sentiments in an attempt to change Taiwanese people's attitude towards the election," he told AFP.

Su added that the daily number of warplanes and vessels around Taiwan had decreased recently, pointing out that China was making "flexible adjustments."

'Pushed too hard'

In 1996, Beijing conducted a series of missile tests in waters surrounding Taiwan.

The tests were intended to intimidate voters from casting a ballot for then-president Lee Teng-hui, said James Char, China researcher at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies.

"They pushed too hard," he said. "It actually backfired. That caused the Taiwanese to vote in favor of (a president with) non-pro-China, non-pro-unification policies."

Ivy Kwek of the International Crisis Group said "the more Beijing employs coercion on Taiwan, the less effective these actions will have on striking fear in the Taiwanese public".

"This is now an everyday scenario that Taiwanese people live with," she said.

Supporters of Lai said they were not afraid.

"China often tries to intimidate Taiwan, but we Taiwanese are not easily frightened," said a woman surnamed Zheng, 62, adding that "less clear-headed people might get scared and vote for unprincipled politicians."

One proposed just shooting them down.

"I thought it was already too much when their planes came over, and now balloons? They should have been shot down long ago," said Chen, a retired shopowner. (AFP)
Your daily brief of the English-speaking press on Syria.

Recently, a convoy from US forces entered al-Hasakah through the Al Waleed border crossing between Iraq and Syria, as reported by Anadolu. Meanwhile, an Israeli missile attack in Syria last week killed a senior commander of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, leading to criticism of the military partnership between Russia and Iran, according to Middle East Eye.

US sends reinforcements to Syria

According to information obtained by Anadolu, in the last two days a convoy belonging to US forces entered al-Hasakah through the Al Waleed border crossing between Iraq and Syria.

The convoy made up of about 15 vehicles carrying medical supplies and equipment, reached US bases in Deir-ez-Zor, including the Omar oil fields.

Late Saturday, two cargo planes belonging to the US also landed at the Harab Cir bases in al-Hasakah.

The moves marked the US first reinforcements this year to its bases in Deir-ez-Zor and al-Hasakah.

Washington consistently sends reinforcements to its military bases and points located in oil fields under the occupation of PKK/YPG terrorists.

The US claims that it uses YPG forces as allies in the fight against Daesh/ISIL. Turkish officials have long pointed to the contradiction in this approach, saying that using one terrorist group to fight another makes no sense.

It also fiercely objects to the US training and supporting with arms and other supplies a terrorist group that poses a threat to Turkiyes borders as well as local residents of northern Syria, who have suffered under terrorist oppression and attacks.

US citizen wins $50m lawsuit against Assad regime over imprisonment, torture in Syria

An American citizen has won a $50 million lawsuit against Syrias regime of Bashar al-Assad over his abduction, imprisonment, and torture, almost eight years after he was released from detention.

41-year-old Kevin Dawes, an American freelance journalist, was detained by forces loyal to the Assad regime after he crossed over into northern Syria from Turkiye in 2012, and was then transferred to a Syrian military intelligence branch in Damascus. There he was kept in a windowless cell and subjected to repeated torture, a practice commonly conducted by regime authorities throughout its vast prison network.

He was finally released in 2016 through the mediation of Russia, one of the Syrian regimes main allies. According to the judge ruling on the case, the four-year ordeal left Dawes with permanent nerve damage and other physical ailments, all of which continue to cause him profound and lasting agony.

Throughout his detention, the Syrian regime did not notify the US government of the imprisonment, leaving it to a fellow prisoner  British citizen Abbas Khan  to inform his family during a prison visit regarding Dawes. A UK inquiry has since revealed that Khan was later deliberately and intentionally killed, a claim which Damascus denies and maintains that he killed himself under detention.

It was in October 2021 that Dawes filed the lawsuit with the assistance of the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), accusing the Assad regime for its ill-treatment and torture.

Syrian woman makes impassioned plea to UN

A destitute 50-year-old Syrian woman with several medical complaints is asking for the United Nations to relocate her to a third country where she can receive medical care.

Lubna Ali Deeb fled Aleppo, Syria three and a half years ago. She lives in the Qushtapa refugee camp in Erbil province.

I make a living selling water, Deeb said. Suffering from a muscle atrophy disease and several other ailments, this is the only work she can do. When I was a child, I just had three fingers. After suffering a stroke, I lost them. So I cannot work at factories or in houses.

She also has severe back pain and poor eyesight.

Her husband passed away 15 years ago and last month the assistance she received from the United Nations ended. She lives off the small amount of money she makes selling water and the kindness of neighbors.

Since I am sick, I need money. I am forced to work, she said. God is my witness, sometimes I have no money to buy food. Sometimes, I borrow money from my neighbors for food.

Now all she wants is to move to a third country where she can receive medical treatment.

I am pleading for help from the UN, she asked. I need the UN to relocate me to a third country. I want them to take me to a country where I will receive medical care, a country that will take care of me, take me to a hospital and cure me.

I am 50 years old now. I am too old to be in the streets selling water.

There are more than 250,000 Syrian refugees living in the Kurdistan Region.

Iranians question Russia ties after Israel killed key commander in Syria

An Israeli missile attack that killed a senior commander of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force in Syria last week has sparked criticism of the military partnership between Russia and Iran, Middle east Eye reported.

On 25 December, Seyyed Reza Mousavi, a key figure in shaping Irans military presence in Syria, was killed in a missile strike on his residence in the Zainabiyah neighbourhood of Damascus.

Although it wasnt the first time that Israel had targeted Iranian forces in Syria, this incident has drawn attention to Russias failure to deploy its advanced S-300 anti-missile defence system in support of Iran, its primary ally in the region.

Iranian columnist Jafar Gholabi, in a recent piece, questioned Russias stance on defending Iranian forces and its silence on Israels attacks.

He wrote: Why doesnt the Russian government use its advanced S-300 system to protect Iranian advisers in Syria? Why not even condemn those attacks?

Gholabi also raised concerns about Russias apparent lack of action against Israeli and American air forces.

No government or group, aside from the Israeli and American air forces, possesses the ability and motivation to conduct air operations against the Syrian government, he said.

Some Iranian military experts also criticized Irans approach to Israel, linking Mousavis assassination to Irans perceived silence over previous Israeli attacks on its soldiers in Syria.

Jordanian army says five killed in battle to stop Syrian drug smugglers

Jordans army said on Saturday that five drug and weapons smugglers linked to Iranian militias operating in southern Syria had been killed after infiltrating from Syria, according to Reuters.

The kingdom has promised to respond to what it says is an alarming rise in such incursions, accusing Syria of failing to stem Iranian-run smuggling networks.

Jordanian officials, like their Western allies, say the operations are controlled by Lebanons Iranian-backed Hezbollah group and other pro-Iranian militias who control much of southern Syria after supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that has lasted almost 13 years.

The army had earlier said it was pursuing large numbers of smugglers who had crossed the border before dawn in heavy fog.

Last month, Jordan reported clashes with dozens of infiltrators using drones and equipped with rocket launchers.

And on Thursday, it launched air strikes against suspected smugglers warehouses and hideouts in Syria, Jordanian and regional intelligence sources said.

This continued threat to our national security wont end with one raid or confrontation  Its a long war, Minister of Government Communications Muhannad Mubaidin told the public broadcaster Al Mamlaka.

Relentless bombing and constant death: A bleak start to 2024 for Syria

Al-Jazeera published a report in which it tried to look into the year 2024 in Syria. The report says that Northwestern Syria greeted 2024 with relentless bombings and bloodshed, continuing the tragic pattern of the previous year. On January 1, the Syrian regime and Russian allies bombed civilian areas, including a bakery near the home of Shaher Masri in Jakid al-Adas, Darat Izza. This attack was part of a broader offensive in the Aleppo countryside, resulting in the deaths of six people, including a baby, and injuring 11 others.

Tragic scenes unfolded as residents, including children, witnessed the aftermath of bombings that damaged essential infrastructure like markets, mosques, and electricity facilities. These attacks, including one where a man was killed while bringing breakfast home, symbolize the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region.

The Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) director, Nada al-Rashed, highlighted the regimes strategy of destabilizing the population by targeting civilian infrastructure. This, coupled with the lack of accountability for the Syrian regimes actions, has allowed the violence to continue unchecked.

Journalist and researcher Mustafa al-Naimi pointed out the regimes possible motivations, including a response to Israeli air raids and a desire to prevent economic investments in Idleb, deepening the regions economic stagnation. He also mentioned that the military operations might be a diversion from the regimes inability to address internal issues.

Despite the ceasefire agreement brokered in 2020 by Russia and Turkey, the regime and its allies have continually violated it. Opposition leaders, like Khattab al-Shami, remain defiant, claiming they are prepared to respond to the attacks. Al-Shami also noted the regimes bombings even in areas under Turkish control and suggested that the regimes aggression might be an attempt to reclaim sovereignty and distract from its own internal failures.

This ongoing conflict in northwestern Syria, marked by the targeting of civilians and essential infrastructure, perpetuates a cycle of displacement, fear, and suffering for the residents, intensifying their hardships during the winter months.
Longview Parks and Recreation and a local runners group called Cowlitz Valley Runners host local running events throughout the year.

Annual runners dues for Cowlitz Valley Runners is $10 for students, $15 for individuals and $20 for families.

For more information on the group, visit www.facebook.com/RunCowlitz. For more information on Longview parks events, visit www.mylongview.com/196/Recreation.

Schedule:

Friday: 7 p.m., Longview Parks and Recreations Electrifying Shamrock Fun Run, Elks Memorial Building, 2121 Kessler Blvd., Longview. $12.

Saturday: 8:30 a.m., Cowlitz Valley Runners, across from Ostrander Grocery, 2705 Old Pacific Highway. Free. The group will meet at Starbucks after the run.

March 23: 8:30 a.m., Cowlitz Valley Runners, Red Leaf Organic Coffee, 1494 Dike Access Rd., Woodland. Free.

March 30: 9 a.m., Longview Parks and Recreations Running of the Fools, Willow Grove Park, Longview. $12.

April 6: 8:30 a.m., Cowlitz Valley Runners, Vault Books & Brew, 20 Cowlitz St. West, Castle Rock. Free.

April 13: 8:30 a.m., Cowlitz Valley Runners, Red Leaf Organic Coffee, 209 W Main St., Kelso. Free.

April 20 : 8:30 a.m., Cowlitz Valley Runners, Luckman Coffee Company, 254 N Hendrickson Dr., Kalama. Free.

April 21: 8:30 a.m., Longview Parks and Recreations Rainier2Longview 10K bridge run, Rainier City Park, Rainier. For pricing and registration information, visit www.r2lbridgerun.com.

April 27: 8:30 a.m., Cowlitz Valley Runners, Starbucks, 849 Washington Way, Longview. Free.

May 4: 8:30 a.m., Cowlitz Valley Runners, Starbucks in Fred Meyer, 3184 Ocean Beach Highway, Longview. Free.

Editors note: This list has been updated to clarify when the date of the Longview Parks and Recreations Electrifying Shamrock Fun Run.
AI drives 37% growth in tech M&A, valued at $984 billion by 2030; X Japan's Yoshiki calls for AI legislation to protect artists rights; AI researchers stunned by unprecedented pace of development, survey finds; IBM's Sriram Raghavan forecasts 40% surge in demand for AI specialists- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.

1. AI drives 37% growth in tech M&A, valued at $984 billion by 2030

AI propels a 37 percent compound growth in tech M&A, reaching $984 billion by 2030, despite a post-pandemic dip. Corporates anticipate increased deal volumes and values, driven by AI's transformative role and tech giants' continued investment. AI turbocharges diligence, enhancing efficiency and data protection, with legal implications for handling personal data. Investors must address identified risks as a pre-closing action for successful M&A strategies, Business Today reported.

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2. X Japan's Yoshiki calls for AI legislation to protect artists rights

Yoshiki, leader of X Japan, advocates for legislation to safeguard artists' rights amid the rise of AI in music production. Expressing concern about AI-generated songs blurring the line between human and AI compositions, he emphasizes the need for progress in copyright and publicity rights legislation to keep pace with technological advancements. Yoshiki notes the negative impact on artists' income due to increased participation in the music industry through AI, according to a Borneo Bulletin report.

3. AI researchers stunned by unprecedented pace of development, Survey finds

AI researchers are astounded by the rapid pace of AI development, according to a recent survey. The study, conducted by AI Impacts, reveals a widespread perception among 2778 AI experts that AI progress is accelerating. The findings also highlight a divide between AI enthusiasts and cautionary voices, with the former seemingly gaining ground. The survey suggests a notable shift towards earlier feasibility expectations for various AI-related tasks between 2022 and 2023, Mashable reported.

4. IBM's Sriram Raghavan forecasts 40% surge in demand for AI specialists

IBM's Sriram Raghavan predicts a 40 percent surge in demand for AI specialists over 5 years. During the CNBC TV18 & Moneycontrol Global AI Conclave 2023 in Bangalore, Raghavan discussed AI's role in addressing India's population-scale issues. Back in the US, he outlines efforts to leverage AI in weather forecasting and extreme weather warnings, collaborating with NASA to enhance accuracy and efficiency in climate applications, Money control reported.

5. World's first fully-autonomous AI-powered restaurant, CaliExpress, set to open in Pasadena

Pasadena is set to unveil CaliExpress, the world's first fully AI-powered restaurant, integrating Miso Robotics and PopID technologies. This groundbreaking establishment boasts fully automated ordering and cooking processes, including a grill and fry stations operated by AI and robotics. Customers use self-ordering kiosks with PopID accounts to witness real-time burger patty creation and enjoy crispy fries served by Flippy, marking a significant leap in autonomous dining experiences, according to a CBS news report.

Also, read these top stories today.

Lost Airpods? Who You Gonna Call?

X sleuths out there will find them for you! Far from depending on Apple Find My device feature, this Mumbaikar got onto X to find his lost Airpods. Lost in Kerala, found in Goa! Check it out here.

Worried about Climate change?

Play this game and save the world! Some interesting details in this article. Check it out here.

If you enjoyed reading this article, please forward it to your friends and family.

Police get AI power in Ayodhya!

AI-powered CCTV cameras have been installed to ensure security at Ram Temple consecration in Ayodhya.

Read all about it here.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Alaska Airlines N704AL, a 737 Max 9 which made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport after a part of the fuselage broke off mid-flight on Friday, is parked at a maintenance hanger in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer

An emergency landing by an Alaska Airlines jetliner has prompted U.S. federal authorities to ground some Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, adding another episode to the troubled history of Boeing's Max lineup of jets.

Here is what to know about the Max 9 plane involved, and what comes next.

WHAT HAPPENED?

An Alaska Airlines jetliner blew out a portion of its fuselage seven minutes after takeoff 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) above Oregon Friday night, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing. None of the 171 passengers or six crew were seriously injured but the rapid loss of cabin pressure caused oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said the two seats next to the part that tore off were unoccupied.

HOW ARE FEDERAL AUTHORITIES RESPONDING?

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of some Boeing Max 9 operated by U.S. airlines or flown into the country by foreign carriers until they are inspected. The emergency order affects about 171 planes worldwide.

The NTSB has begun an investigation that is likely to last months and focus on the paneled-over exit door that blew off. The so-called door plug is installed on some jets that have fewer seats instead of an emergency exit panel. The jets ordered grounded by the FAA all have those panels installed.

Investigators said Sunday they had found the door plug, and hoped it would provide physical evidence of what went wrong.

HOW ARE AIRLINES RESPONDING?

Alaska Airlines has grounded its entire fleet of 65 Max 9s for inspections and maintenance. The airline initially kept 18 of its Max 9s in service Saturday because they had received in-depth inspections as part of recent maintenance checks. But the airline pulled those jets from service Saturday night to comply with an FAA directive for all operators of Max 9s to conduct specific inspections.

United Airlines, the world's biggest operator of Max 9s, grounded its entire fleet of 79 Max 9s and is seeking to "clarify the inspection process and requirements for returning" them to service.

Alaska and United, the only two U.S. passenger airlines that operate Max 9 aircraft, have canceled hundreds of flights since Saturday due to the Max 9 groundings.

The companies operate nearly two-thirds of the 215 Max 9 aircraft in service around the world, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Six other airlines use the Max 9: Panama's Copa Airlines, Aeromexico, Turkish airlines, Icelandair, flydubai, and SCAT Airlines in Kazakhstan, according to Cirium.

Copa said it had temporarily suspended 21 Boeing 737 Max 9s to comply with the FAA's order. Turkish Airlines said it pulled its five Max 9s from service.

HOW SAFE IS IT TO FLY ON ONE OF THESE PLANES?

Federal officials and airline executives regularly tout the safety of air travel. There has not been a fatal crash of a U.S. airliner since 2009, when a Colgan Air plane operated for Continental crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one on the ground. However, a surge in close calls between planes at U.S. airports in the past year prompted the FAA to convene a "safety summit" last year, in which officials encouraged airlines and pilots to redouble their attention to careful flying.

The incident has also renewed questions about the safety of Boeing's Max aircraft, which the newest version of the company's storied 737. There are two versions of the aircraft in service: the Max 8 and the Max 9, which is the larger of the two.

Regulators around the world grounded Max 8 planes for nearly two years after a Lion Air flight crashed in Indonesia in 2018, and an Ethiopian Airlines Max 8 crashed in 2019. Boeing changed an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.

Last year, the FAA told pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system on the Max in dry conditions because of concern that inlets around the engines could overheat and break away, possibly striking the plane. And in December, Boeing told airlines to inspect the planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder-control system.

However, those past issues are unrelated to Friday's blowout, which is an exceedingly rare event in air travel.

Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said it's too soon to say whether the blowout involved an issue with Max 9s or that specific flight. Brickhouse said passengers should feel confident that regulators and airlines will make sure the grounded Max 9s are safe before returning them to service.

Brickhouse said it was lucky that the emergency occurred shortly after takeoff when passengers were all seated with their seatbelts on. But he said that doesn't mean passengers should feel scared to leave their seats once the pilot turns off the "fasten seatbelt" sign because it's so unlikely for holes to open in the fuselages of airliners.

In 1988, a flight attendant for Aloha Airlines was blown out of the cabin of a Boeing 737 over the Pacific Ocean after an 18-foot-long chunk of the roof peeled away. Metal fatigue was blamed in that case, which led to tougher rules for airlines to inspect and repair microscopic fuselage cracks.

"When passengers board a flight they should feel confident that the aircraft they are flying on is safe," Brickhouse said.

In 2018, a passenger on a Southwest Airlines jet was killed in when a piece of engine housing blew off and shattered the window she was sitting next to. That incident involved an earlier version of the Boeing 737, not a Max.

WHAT IS BOEING'S RESPONSE?

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun called a companywide webcast to talk about the incident with employees and senior leadership for Tuesday.

"When serious accidents like this occur, it is critical for us to work transparently with our customers and regulators to understand and address the causes of the event, and to ensure they don't happen again," Calhoun wrote in a message to employees Sunday. "This is and must be the focus of our team right now."

The company, based in Arlington, Virginia, also has said it supported the FAA's decision to require immediate inspections and said it was providing technical help to the investigators.

 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

In this photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB Investigator-in-Charge John Lovell examines the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, in Portland, Ore. A panel used to plug an area reserved for an exit door on the Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner blew out Friday night shortly after the flight took off from Portland, forcing the plane to return to Portland International Airport. Credit: National Transportation Safety Board via AP

The Boeing jetliner that suffered an inflight blowout over Oregon was not being used for flights to Hawaii after a warning light that could have indicated a pressurization problem lit up on three different flights, a federal official said Sunday.

Alaska Airlines decided to restrict the aircraft from long flights over water so the plane "could return very quickly to an airport" if the warning light reappeared, said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Homendy cautioned that the pressurization light might be unrelated to Friday's incident in which a plug covering an unused exit door blew off the Boeing 737 Max 9 as it cruised about three miles (4.8 kilometers) over Oregon.

The warning light came on during three previous flights: on Dec. 7, Jan. 3 and Jan. 4the day before the door plug broke off. Homendy said she didn't have all the details regarding the Dec. 7 incident but specified the light came on during a flight on Jan. 3 and on Jan. 4 after the plane had landed.

The NTSB said the lost door plug was found Sunday near Portland, Oregon, by a school teacherfor now, known only as Bobwho discovered it in his backyard and sent two photos to the safety board. Investigators will examine the plug, which is 26 by 48 inches (66 by 121 centimeters) and weighs 63 pounds (28.5 kilograms), for signs of how it broke free.

This image from video provided by Elizabeth Le shows passengers near the damage on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, Flight 1282, which was forced to return to Portland International Airport on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. Credit: Elizabeth Le via AP

Investigators will not have the benefit of hearing what was going on in the cockpit during the flight. The cockpit voice recorderone of two so-called black boxesrecorded over the flight's sounds after two hours, Homendy said.

At a news conference Sunday night, Homendy provided new details about the chaotic scene that unfolded on the plane. The explosive rush of air damaged several rows of seats and pulled insulation from the walls. The cockpit door flew open and banged into a lavatory door.

The force ripped the headset off the co-pilot and the captain lost part of her headset. A quick reference checklist kept within easy reach of the pilots flew out of the open cockpit, Homendy said.

The plane made it back to Portland, however, and none of the 171 passengers and six crew members was seriously injured.

Alaska Airlines N704AL, a 737 Max 9 which made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport after a part of the fuselage broke off mid-flight on Friday, is parked at a maintenance hanger in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer

Hours after the incident, the FAA ordered the grounding of 171 of the 218 Max 9s in operation, including all those used by Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, until they can be inspected. The airlines were still waiting Sunday for details about how to do the inspections.

Alaska Airlines, which has 65 Max 9s, and United, with 79, are the only U.S. airlines to fly that particular model of Boeing's workhorse 737. United said it was waiting for Boeing to issue a "multi-operator message," which is a service bulletin used when multiple airlines need to perform similar work on a particular type of plane.

Boeing was working on the bulletin but had not yet submitted it to the FAA for review and approval, according to a person familiar with the situation. Producing a detailed, technical bulletin frequently takes a couple days, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a matter that the company and regulators have not publicly discussed.

Adam Pirkle stands with his bicycle on the edge of a densely thicketed area in the Cedar Hills area of southwest Portland, Ore., Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. Pirkle said he rode 14 miles looking for the wreckage of the fuselage that detached from a Boeing 737 Max 9 shortly after the takeoff of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday, Jan. 5. The National Transportation Safety Board estimated it may have fallen in the area. Credit: AP Photo/Claire Rush

Boeing declined to comment.

Without some of their planes, cancellations began to mount at the two carriers. Alaska Airlines said it canceled 170 flightsmore than one-fifth of its scheduleby mid-afternoon on the West Coast because of the groundings, while United had scrapped about 180 flights while salvaging others by finding different planes.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, chair of the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said she agreed with the decision to ground the Max 9s.

"Aviation production has to meet a gold standard, including quality control inspections and strong FAA oversight," she said in a statement.

Before the discovery of the missing plug, the NTSB had pleaded with residents in an area west of Portland called Cedar Hills to be on the lookout for the object.

In southwest Portland, Ore., Gavin Redshaw shows the drone he used on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, to search for the wreckage of the fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max 9 that detached during an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday, Jan. 5. The National Transportation Safety Board estimated the fuselage may have fallen in the area. Credit: AP Photo/Claire Rush

On Sunday, people scoured dense thickets wedged between busy roads and a light rail train station. Adam Pirkle said he rode 14 miles (22 kilometers) through the overgrowth on his bicycle.

"I've been looking at the flight track, I was looking at the winds," he said. "I've been trying to focus on wooded areas."

Before the school teacher named Bob found the missing door plug, searchers located two cell phones that appeared to have belonged to passengers on Friday's terrifying flight. One was discovered in a yard, the other on the side of a road. Both were turned over to the NTSB, which vowed to return them to their owners.

Alaska Airlines flight 1282 took off from Portland at 5:07 p.m. Friday for a two-hour trip to Ontario, California. About six minutes later, the chunk of fuselage blew out as the plane was climbing at about 16,000 feet (4.8 kilometers).

A sprawling hospital complex in the Cedar Hills neighborhood of southwest Portland, Ore., is seen from a patch of densely thicketed land across from it, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. The National Transportation Safety Board estimated that the fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max 9 that detached from an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday, Jan. 5, may have landed in the area. Credit: AP Photo/Claire Rush

One of the pilots declared an emergency and asked for clearance to descend to 10,000 feet (3 kilometers), where the air would be rich enough for passengers to breathe without oxygen masks.

Videos posted online by passengers showed a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been. They applauded when the plane landed safely about 13 minutes after the blowout. Firefighters came down the aisle, asking passengers to remain in their seats as they treated the injured.

It was extremely lucky that the airplane had not yet reached cruising altitude, when passengers and flight attendants might be walking around the cabin, Homendy said.

The aircraft involved rolled off the assembly line and received its certification two months ago, according to online FAA records. It had been on 145 flights since entering commercial service Nov. 11, said FlightRadar24, another tracking service. The flight from Portland was the aircraft's third of the day.

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy speaks to the media about the investigation on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. Federal officials on Saturday ordered the immediate grounding of some Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners until they are inspected after the Alaska Airlines plane suffered a blowout that left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage. Credit: AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer

Stephanie Shinn from Kenmore waits three hours at this point while her husband waits in line to rebook their flight to Philadelphia after their flight on Alaska Airlines was canceled at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024, in SeaTac, Wash. Alaska Airlines canceled more than 100 flights after grounding Boeing's fleet of 65 Max 9s for inspections following Friday's emergency landing of a Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner. Credit: Karen Ducey/The Seattle Times via AP

On a personal electronic GPS, Beaverton, Ore., resident Adam Pirkle shows the 14 miles he rode on his bicycle in his neighborhood and around southwest Portland, Ore., Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, looking for the fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max 9 that detached shortly after the takeoff of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday, Jan. 5. The National Transportation Safety Board estimated the fuselage may have fallen in the area. Credit: AP Photo/Claire Rush

A patch of land filled with dense, thorny thickets, sandwiched between busy roads and light rail train station, stands across from a sprawling hospital complex in the Cedar Hills neighborhood of southwest Portland, Ore., Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. The National Transportation Safety Board estimated the fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max 9 that detached from an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff on Friday, Jan. 5, may have fallen in the area. Credit: AP Photo/Claire Rush

Road signs show the intersection of Barnes Road and Oregon Route 217 in Cedar Hills neighborhood of southwest Portland, Ore., just next to the suburb of Beaverton, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. The National Transportation Safety Board estimated that part of the fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max 9 that detached shortly after the takeoff of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday, Jan. 5, may have fallen near the intersection. Credit: AP Photo/Claire Rush

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy speaks to the media about the investigation of Alaska Airlines flight 1282 in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. Federal officials on Saturday ordered the immediate grounding of some Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners until they are inspected after the Alaska Airlines plane suffered a blowout that left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage. Credit: AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990ER flight 337 from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., lands at Portland International Airport in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. The FAA has ordered the temporary grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft after part of the fuselage blew out during a flight. Credit: AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer

A Boeing 737 MAX 9 taxis past unpainted planes as it gets ready to takeoff for the aircraft's first flight, Thursday, April 13, 2017, in Renton, Wash. On Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024, U.S. officials ordered the immediate grounding of Boeing 737-9 Max jetliners after an Alaska Airlines plane suffered a blowout that left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage. Credit: AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File

Kelvin Lau, left, waits with his family, including daughter Chloe, 3, to rebook a canceled Alaska Airlines flight, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024, in SeaTac, Wash. Alaska Airlines canceled more than 100 flights after grounding Boeings fleet of 65 Max 9s for inspections following Fridays emergency landing of a Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner. Credit: Karen Ducey/The Seattle Times via AP

Alaska Airlines flight 1276, a Boeing 737-900, taxis before takeoff from Portland International Airport in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. The FAA has ordered the temporary grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft after part of the fuselage blew out during a flight. Credit: AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer

This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, in Portland, Ore. A panel used to plug an area reserved for an exit door on the Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner blew out Jan. 5, shortly after the flight took off from Portland, forcing the plane to return to Portland International Airport. Credit: National Transportation Safety Board via AP

This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, in Portland, Ore. A panel used to plug an area reserved for an exit door on the Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner blew out Jan. 5, shortly after the flight took off from Portland, forcing the plane to return to Portland International Airport. Credit: National Transportation Safety Board via AP

This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, in Portland, Ore. A panel used to plug an area reserved for an exit door on the Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner blew out Jan. 5, shortly after the flight took off from Portland, forcing the plane to return to Portland International Airport. Credit: National Transportation Safety Board via AP

College students Fiona Max, left, and her twin sister Isabel Max check their phones while trying to rebook their flight back to school at Princeton after their Alaska Airlines flight was canceled at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024, in SeaTac, Wash. Alaska Airlines canceled more than 100 flights after grounding Boeing's fleet of 65 Max 9s for inspections following Friday's emergency landing of a Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner. Credit: Karen Ducey/The Seattle Times via AP

The Max is the newest version of Boeing's venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane frequently used on U.S. domestic flights. The plane went into service in May 2017.

Two Max 8 jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. All Max 8 and Max 9 planes were grounded worldwide for nearly two years until Boeing made changes to an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.

The Max has been plagued by other issues, including manufacturing flaws, concern about overheating that led FAA to tell pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system, and a possible loose bolt in the rudder system.

 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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This image from video provided by Elizabeth Le shows passengers near the damage on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, Flight 1282, which was forced to return to Portland International Airport on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. Credit: Elizabeth Le via AP

Federal officials on Saturday ordered the immediate grounding of some Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners until they are inspected after an Alaska Airlines plane suffered a blowout that left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage.

The required inspections take around four to eight hours per aircraft and affect about 171 airplanes worldwide.

Alaska Airlines said in a statement that of the 65 737 Max 9 aircraft in its fleet, crews had inspected the paneled-over exits as part of recent maintenance work on 18 planes, and those were cleared to return to service Saturday. Inspections for the remaining aircraft were expected to be completed in the coming days, the company said.

An Alaska Airlines jetliner blew out a portion of its fuselage shortly after takeoff 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) above Oregon late Friday, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing as its 171 passengers and six crew members donned oxygen masks.

No one was seriously hurt as the depressurized plane returned safely to Portland International Airport about 20 minutes after departure.

Authorities are still looking for the door from the paneled-over exit and have a good idea of where it landed, near Oregon Route 217 and Barnes Road in the Cedar Hills area west of Portland, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference late Saturday.

"If you find that, please, please contact local law enforcement," she said.

It was extremely lucky that the airplane had not yet reached cruising altitude, when passengers and flight attendants might be walking around the cabin, Homendy said.

"No one was seated in 26A and B where that door plug is, the aircraft was around 16,000 feet and only 10 minutes out from the airport when the door blew," she said.

The headrests were gone on seats 26A and 25A and 26A was missing part of its seatback. There were also clothing items strewn about the area, Homendy said.

There has not been a major crash involving a U.S. passenger carrier within the country since 2009 when a Colgan Air flight crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people onboard and one person on the ground. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines flight arriving from South Korea crashed at San Francisco International Airport, killing three of the 307 people onboard.

This photo provided by an unnamed source shows the damaged part of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, Flight 1282, which was forced to return to Portland International Airport on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. Credit: The Oregonian via AP

Passenger Evan Smith said a boy and his mother were sitting in the row where the panel blew out, and the child's shirt was sucked off him and out of the plane.

"You heard a big loud bang to the left rear. A whooshing sound and all the oxygen masks deployed instantly and everyone got those on," Smith told KATU-TV.

Homendy could not confirm reports that anyone had a shirt sucked off by the depressurization or provide details yet about what happened to those sitting closest to the blown fuselage.

Homendy and investigators from the NTSB arrived in Portland on Saturday to begin an investigation that is likely to last months.

Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said the inspection of the company's 737-9 aircraft could take days to complete. They make up a fifth of the company's 314 planes.

"We are working with Boeing and regulators to understand what occurred ... and will share updates as more information is available," Minicucci said. "My heart goes out to those who were on this flightI am so sorry for what you experienced."

Alaska canceled more than 100 flights, or 15% of its Saturday schedule by midday, according to FlightAware. United said the plane inspections would result in about 60 cancellations.

The Port of Portland, which operates the airport, told KPTV that the fire department treated minor injuries at the scene. One person was taken for more treatment but wasn't seriously hurt.

Flight 1282 took off from Portland at 5:07 p.m. Friday for a two-hour flight to Ontario, California. About six minutes later, the chunk of the fuselage blew out as the plane was at about 16,000 feet (4.8 kilometers). One of the pilots declared an emergency and asked for clearance to descend to 10,000 feet (3 kilometers), the altitude where the air would have enough oxygen to breathe safely.

'We need to turn back to Portland," the pilot told controllers in a calm voice that she maintained throughout the landing.

Videos posted by passengers online showed a gaping hole where the paneled-over exit had been and passengers wearing masks. They applauded when the plane landed safely about 13 minutes after the blowout. Firefighters then came down the aisle, asking passengers to remain in their seats as they treated the injured.

Alaska Airlines N704AL, a 737 Max 9 which made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport after a part of the fuselage broke off mid-flight on Friday, is parked at a maintenance hanger in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer

The aircraft involved rolled off the assembly line and received its certification two months ago, according to online FAA records. It had been on 145 flights since entering commercial service Nov. 11, said FlightRadar24, another tracking service. The flight from Portland was the aircraft's third of the day.

Aviation experts were stunned that a piece would fly off a new aircraft. Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said he has seen panels of fuselage come off planes before, but couldn't recall one where passengers "are looking at the lights of the city."

He said the incident is a reminder for passengers to stay buckled in.

"If there had been a passenger in that window seat who just happened to have their seat belt off, we'd be looking at a totally different news story."

The Max is the newest version of Boeing's venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane frequently used on U.S. domestic flights. The plane went into service in May 2017.

The president of the union representing flight attendants at 19 airlines, including Alaska Airlines, commended the crew for keeping passengers safe.

"Flight Attendants are trained for emergencies and we work every flight for aviation safety first and foremost," Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said in a statement Saturday.

Two Max 8 jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people and leading to a near two-year worldwide grounding of all Max 8 and Max 9 planes. They returned to service only after Boeing made changes to an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.

Last year the FAA told pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system on the Max in dry conditions because of concern that inlets around the engines could overheat and break away, possibly striking the plane.

Max deliveries have been interrupted at times to fix manufacturing flaws. The company told airlines in December to inspect the planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder-control system.

___

Correction note: This story has been updated to clarify that some and not all Max 9 jetliners are subject to inspection and to correct the number of passengers to 171.

 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Civil liberties advocates are mounting a new challenge to the use by police of Google search data for help solving criminal cases, as the practice draws greater scrutiny nationwide.

After a Pennsylvania woman was raped in 2016, police submitted a search warrant to Alphabet's Google for information about users who had typed the victim's name or address into the search engine in the week leading up to the attack, according to court papers. Google responded with the IP address of a user who had searched for the victim's address twice shortly before the incident, court papers show. That breakthrough prompted police to begin monitoring a corrections officer, who was ultimately arrested and convicted.

On Friday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and its Pennsylvania chapter argued in a court filing that the investigative technique used in the case, known as a keyword search warrant, is dangerously broad and threatens to infringe on the privacy rights of innocent people.

"Keyword search warrants are digital dragnets giving the government permission to rummage through our most private information, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court should find them unconstitutional," NACDL Fourth Amendment Center Litigation Director Michael Price said in a statement.

A lawyer for the defendant and a representative for Google didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

There are few known examples of keyword search warrants, but the practice has come under scrutiny in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn the right to abortion. Privacy advocates have warned that keyword search warrants and geofence warrants, in which police ask Google to produce data about users whose devices were present near the scene of a crime, could be used to prosecute women who obtain abortions in states where it's illegal.

In October, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that evidence gleaned from a keyword search warrant could be used in a murder case, sparking concerns the decision may encourage more police to embrace the controversial technique.

But the court stressed that its findings were specific to the facts of the case, and it refrained from weighing in about the use of Google's search data more broadly. That leaves advocates hopeful for a different outcome in Pennsylvania, said EFF Surveillance Litigation Director Andrew Crocker.

In December, Google ended its practice of responding to geofence warrants. The move came three months after a Bloomberg investigation that found police across the U.S. were increasingly using warrants to obtain location and search data from Google, even for nonviolent cases, and even for people who had nothing to do with the crime.

Google's move on geofence warrants makes it even more important for courts to consider the constitutionality of keyword search warrants, which may grow more popular as police search for new investigative tools, Crocker said.

"Google's policy change on geofence warrants raises the stakes for keyword warrants," he said.

2024 Bloomberg L.P. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Mobile ALOHA. We introduce a low-cost mobile manipulation system that is bimanual and supports whole-body teleoperation. The system costs $32k including onboard power and compute. Left: A user teleoperates to obtain food from the fridge. Right: Mobile ALOHA can perform complex long-horizon tasks with imitation learning. Credit: arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2401.02117

A trio of robotics engineers at Stanford University, working with colleagues from Google's Deep Mind, has built on Google's ALOHA system to create a mobile robot capable of carrying out a wide variety of household choresthey have named it Mobile ALOHA.

Zipeng Fu, Tony Zhao and Chelsea Finn have published a paper describing the robot's features on the arXiv preprint server, along with several videos of the robot in action on YouTube.

The researchers note that the robot is trained using both a database and supervised demonstration. Demonstrations are conducted using a device that connects to the back of the robot that allows it to mimic actions needed to perform a given task, such as hanging a shirt on a hanger. Training sessions involve driving the robot around and showing it how to do things, sort of like a puppet.

The robot, as its name suggests, is mobile. It is also untethered, with a large battery in its base that allows for long work periods and stability. It rolls itself around a work area conducting routine household tasks. Videos of the robot in action show that it can be taught a large number of tasks, ranging from cooking a three-course meal to loading a dishwasheror carrying out all the tasks involved in doing the laundry.

Mobile ALOHA can also open and close the refrigerator, kitchen cabinets and doors. It also dusts, mops and puts things away. In short, the robot can be taught to do almost any household taskincluding making coffee, feeding pets, putting the lid back on the toothpaste tube and dispensing vitamins.

The research team points out that their system is also very low cost (approximately $32,000) compared to other robots being created to assist with household chores. Many of these, they note, are tabletop assistants, not mobile robots. Mobile ALOHA also exhibits a high degree of freedom along with extreme dexterity and finesse, as demonstrated by its ability to crack eggs and open soda bottles.

The researchers acknowledge that they need to continue working with their robot design to improve both its accuracy in carrying out tasks and to help it get around a house more easily.

More information: Zipeng Fu et al, Mobile ALOHA: Learning Bimanual Mobile Manipulation with Low-Cost Whole-Body Teleoperation, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2401.02117 Project website: mobile-aloha.github.io/ Journal information: arXiv

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Rolls delivered 6,032 cars around the world in 2023 -- the largest amount in its 119-year history.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars delivered a record number of luxury vehicles last year when clients also began taking possession of its first all-electric Spectre model, the German-owned brand said Monday.

Rolls delivered 6,032 cars around the worldthe largest amount in its 119-year history"despite continuing economic uncertainties and market volatility", the company said in a statement.

Deliveries, also described as sales by the group, were largely flat over the year, with 11 more vehicles handed over to clients compared with 2022, it added.

The United States was the group's biggest market in 2023, followed by China.

Last year "was another extraordinary year for Rolls-Royce, with strong sales performances in all regions and across the full product portfolio", said new chief executive Chris Brownridge.

"I'm in the extremely fortunate position of taking over responsibility for a business in robust good health, with strong foundations and a clear strategy for growth and development, formidable technical capabilities and a focused, dedicated team," he added in the statement.

Predecessor Torsten Muller-Otvos departed the group in November, having led the group since 2010 and overseen record-breaking performances.

Founded at the beginning of the 20th century, the emblematic British car brand became part of German auto giant BMW in 1998.

Rolls-Royce cars are produced in Goodwood, southern England.

 2024 AFP
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa paid a surprise visit to Kyiv Sunday where she said Tokyo was "determined" to keep supporting Ukraine, as econd anniversary of Moscow's invasion nears.

Kamikawa, the first high-level foreign official to visit Kyiv this year, announced new deliveries of defense equipment and discussed Tokyo's plans to host a February conference to promote Ukraine's economic reconstruction.

"Japan is determined to support Ukraine so that peace can return to Ukraine," Kamikawa told a press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba held in a bomb shelter as an air raid siren rang out.

"I can feel how tense the situation in Ukraine is now." Her visit came during escalating attacks by both sides in the conflict.

"I once again strongly condemn Russia's missile and drone attacks, particularly on New Year's Day," said Kamikawa.

She said Tokyo would "allocate" $37 million to provide Ukraine with a drone detection system. It will also supply five generators to help Ukraine "survive" another winter.

Kamikawa visited the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where Russian forces are blamed for a 2022 massacre of civilians, saying she was "shocked" by what she saw. She also went to Irpin, a past scene of heavy fighting.

'Comprehensive support'

Her unannounced visit is part of a two-week tour starting Friday that was planned to take in Poland, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Germany and Turkey.

Kuleba said Kyiv was thankful for Japan's decision last year to provide Ukraine with F-16s jets, but said the country also needed air defense systems.

"Every day, Ukrainian cities are destroyed by Russian missiles and drones.

They cannot capture us, so they are trying to destroy us," he said.

Kuleba said the two also discussed "threats from North Korea," and he expressed "solidarity" after the recent earthquake in Japan.

Kamikawa later met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who thanked Tokyo for its security, economic and humanitarian "assistance" to Kyiv.

"Japan is our very important and strong partner," Zelenskyy said on social media.

Ukraine's prime minister Denys Shmygal also hailed a "meaningful meeting" with Kamikawa, thanking Japan for its "comprehensive support," including humanitarian and financial assistance.

In a Telegram message, he applauded Japan for its "decision to allocate $1 billion for humanitarian projects and reconstruction, with a readiness to increase this amount to $4.5 billion through the mechanisms of international institutions."

He said the meeting also covered the Ukrainian president's conditions for peace, the implementation of reforms, and joint cooperation on infrastructure projects.

Shmygal said Kyiv and Tokyo are also strengthening trade relations.

"We have already held meetings with two business delegations from Japan and are interested in locating production facilities of leading Japanese companies in Ukraine," he added. (AFP)
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The solar-powered GDH desalination and extraction platform. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adj1677

Minerals as well as freshwater can be obtained by desalinating seawater with solar power facilities for the sustainable development of human civilization. For instance, hydrogels have shown great power for solar-powered water evaporation potential, although the highly efficient and specific target extraction method remains to be expanded.

In a recent report published in Science Advances, Hanxue Liang and a team of researchers at the college of chemistry, and materials science in China, describe the process of highly efficient seawater desalination and the specific extraction of uranium with smart DNA hydrogels.

The DNA hydrogels promoted the evaporation of water, and the uranyl-specific DNA hydrogel exhibited a high capture capacity of 5.7 mg per gram for uranium from natural seawater due to rapid ion transport driven by solar-powered interfacial evaporation and high selectivity. These developments could enable easy-to-use devices suited for future seawater treatment.

Seawater desalination

Human society can be developed sustainably through access to sufficient freshwater and energy. The past few decades have witnessed the growing scarcity of freshwater as a threat to developing society, where rapid population and economic growth too have posed challenges to sustainable development.

To facilitate access to freshwater, life scientists have used ocean resources such as seawater desalination to account for up to 97% of the total water content on Earth.

Preparation and characterizations of the GDH. (A) Schematic illustration of the GDH preparation. APS, Ammonium persulfate; BIS, N,N-methylenebisacrylamide; TEMED, N,N,N,N-tetramethylethylenediamine. (B) Confocal image of a GDH hydrogel incorporated with acryloxyethyl thiocarbamoyl rhodamine B and labeled with GelGreen, respectively; (i) green channel, (ii) red channel, and (iii) merged channel. (C) SEM image of GDH. Inset: Photo of a piece of GDH. (D) Fourier transform infrared spectra of DNA hydrogel, GO, and GDH. (E) Dynamic mechanical analysis of DNA hydrogel and GDH. (F) Absorbance spectra of GDH in the wavelength range of 250 to 2500 nm. a.u., arbitrary units. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adj1677

Researchers have developed solar-powered seawater desalination as a promising method to produce seawater without additional energy consumption. Alongside desalination of seawater, a variety of valuable minerals and resources rich in the ocean can be extracted simultaneously, including uranium and lithium.

Hydrogels are soft materials made of hydrophobic 3D crosslinked polymer networks with high quantities of water, with a soft unique nature, versatility, and excellent biocompatibility.

Water evaporation

Hydrogel-based biomaterials have an ultrahigh water evaporation rate. In this work, Liang and team created a DNA hydrogel-based, solar-powered evaporation system to produce freshwater and target metal ion extraction from natural seawater. The scientists synthesized DNA hydrogels made of functional DNA-tethered polyacrylamide networks through a one-step copolymerization process.

The researchers introduced graphene oxide (GO) into the hydrogel to create GO-loaded DNA hydrogels that were easily recycled by a simple, thermally-driven elution method to test the feasibility of producing freshwater, and to extract valuable metal ions from natural seawater.

GDH for efficient water activation and evaporation. (A) Schematic illustration of different types of water molecules in GDH network. (B and C) Raman spectra showing the fitting peaks representing IW and FW in water and GDH, respectively. (D) Differential scanning calorimetric curves of phase change energy changes of water in pure water, PAM, and GDHs. (E) Calculated enthalpy of evaporation of pure water and water in GDHs. (F) Mass loss of water with GDHs under one sun. (G) The solar evaporation rate and energy efficiency of GDHs under one sun. (H) Comparison of the water evaporation performance of GDH with previously reported hydrogels under one solar irradiation. PVA, polyvinyl alcohol. PILs, poly(ionic liquid)s. (I) Temperature changes of different GDHs under one solar irradiation. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adj1677

Characterizing the graphene-oxide-loaded DNA hydrogels (GDH)

Liang and colleagues prepared the graphene-oxide loaded DNA hydrogels in a one-step copolymerization reaction by using acrylamide, N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide, acrydite-modified DNA, with graphene-oxide added before polymerization.

The researchers applied confocal microscopy to investigate the microstructures of the as-prepared materials. The team noted the improved mechanical properties of the DNA hydrogel upon introducing graphene oxide. The addition of the compound into the DNA hydrogel enabled highly efficient solar light-absorbing properties. The materials showed broadband and a highly efficient absorption wavelength range.

The experiments

The research team explored the competence of the biomaterials for highly efficient solar-powered water evaporation. Where the materials formed hydrogen bonds with hydrophilic polymer chains to confine water molecules within a hydrophilic hydrogel construct.

The process led to the formation of three types of water molecules, including free water, intermediate water, and bound water, where the process required less energy for intermediate water to escape the hydrogel than for free water to transit from the bulk liquid phase.

Hydrophilic groups in the material facilitated the activation of water molecules and reduced the evaporation energy of water by regulating the hydrogen bonding structures of encapsulated water molecules. The researchers used Raman spectroscopy to differentiate varieties of water structures in pure water and within the hydrogel material.

UO 2 2+ adsorption capacity of GDH in spiked simulated seawater. (A) Effect of pH on the equilibrium adsorption capacity of UO 2 2+ in aqueous solution under simulated sunlight or in the darkness. (B) UO 2 2+ adsorption isotherms by GDH. (C) Kinetics of UO 2 2+ adsorption by GDH in UO 2 2+ spiked simulated seawater at different concentrations. (D) XPS analysis of GDH before and after UO 2 2+ binding. (E) Adsorption capacity of GDH for coexisting interfering ions with concentration 100 times higher than that in natural seawater. (F) Equilibrium adsorption capacity of UO 2 2+ for six consecutive adsorption-desorption cycles under simulated light or in the darkness. (G) Numerical simulation of ion migration driven by a purely diffusive flow and in the presence of a temperature gradient, respectively. (H) Schematic illumination of the formation of an ion migration equilibrium of the GDH system upon solar evaporation. (I) Performance of GDH for uranium extraction in the presence of heating or the solar powered interfacial evaporation process. (J) Uranium extraction from a mine water mimic sample by the GDH in the dark or under illumination. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adj1677

Graphene-oxide loaded DNA hydrogels to extract uranium

Uranium is distributed in oceans as a key element in nuclear fuels with magnitudes of abundance when compared to land. The main form of uranium in seawater is uranyl ions, with a low concentration, where the elements coexist with many interfering ions including vanadium.

DNAzymes or catalytic DNA that contains short DNA oligonucleotides can extract rare metal ions such as uranyl ions, due to their high affinity and specific metal ion binding properties.

To facilitate the process, the team encoded the DNA units that were incorporated into the graphene-oxide hydrogel with the sequence of uranyl-selective DNAzyme to extract the uranyl ions. The control experiments showed how the hydrogel without DNA had a much lower uranium adsorption capacity.

The biomaterial was also capable of selectivity for uranium in the presence of vanadium ions, and the incorporation of DNA provided a key for selectivity with uranium adsorption. The outcomes outlined the wide range of anti-biofouling activity of the biomaterial for long-term applications in seawater desalination and during uranium extraction.

Further experiments and extracting uranium from natural seawater

Liang and team performed numerical simulations to compare the migration of ions through diffusion, and noted the presence of a temperature gradient upon illumination. The temperature gradient increased the transport of ions to promote the process in the entire hydrogel construct.

The DNA units in the biomaterial selectively extracted diverse targets to establish a lithium ion-dependent DNAzyme, as well as sodium, potassium, and magnesium metal ion extraction with smart DNA hydrogels.

Extraction of uranium from seawater while obtaining freshwater. (A) Testing the water evaporation rate and energy efficiency in seawater for 10 days proved the long-term stability and durability of the evaporator. (B) Extraction of uranium from natural seawater. (C) Change of UO 2 2+ concentration in natural seawater. (D) Photograph of the solar desalination system in operation at the test location Bohai Sea, Tianjin, China. (E) Solar radiation and water evaporation rate recorded over time on a sunny day from 10:00 to 15:00. (F) The concentrations of the four primary ions measured in samples before and after actual seawater desalination showed effective removal of salt ions. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adj1677

While the graphene-oxide loaded DNA hydrogel biomaterial showed excellent capacity for uranyl extraction from natural seawater, the extraction capacity increased under solar illumination in an endothermic process. The uranium extraction performance with the biomaterial was as competent as that obtained with advanced extraction materials.

Liang and team tested the performance of the biomaterial with natural seawater via inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy in the Bohai sea. The outcomes showed the capacity to simultaneously evaporate water ultrafast and highly selectively from natural seawater with the solar-powered biomaterial-integrated device.

Outlook

In this way, Hanxue Liang and team invented a DNA hydrogel-based, solar-powered evaporation system to simultaneously facilitate high-speed seawater desalination and highly specific extraction of minerals including uranium and lithium. The highly hydrophilic network structures facilitated water evaporation enthalpy in the hydrogel to effectively promote solar-powered seawater evaporation.

The team introduced DNA structures to improve the evaporation efficiency of the platform and facilitated the hydrogel with specific metal ion extraction properties for metal ion extraction under illumination. The smart DNA hydrogels are promising for freshwater harvesting and uranyl extraction from seawater, and for uranyl-enriched nuclear wastewater treatment.

More information: Hanxue Liang et al, Solar-powered simultaneous highly efficient seawater desalination and highly specific target extraction with smart DNA hydrogels, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj1677 Journal information: Science Advances

 2024 Science X Network
Hong Kong: Algernon Yau to visit Beijing

Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Algernon Yau will depart for a visit to Beijing tomorrow evening.

During his stay in Beijing, Mr Yau will call on the State Councils Hong Kong & Macao Affairs Office, the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, the China National Intellectual Property Administration and the National Radio & Television Administration.

Mr Yau will return to Hong Kong on Friday evening. During his absence, Under Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Bernard Chan will be Acting Secretary.

This story has been published on: 2024-01-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Mama panda shows her cub the fastest way back down

(People's Daily App) 16:35, January 08, 2024

Watch mother panda Mangzai's funny response to her son's request for help down from a wooden platform at Chongqing Zoo. "If you don't want to keep this cute baby panda, I'm always willing to do it for you," a netizen commented.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
The Pentagon released new details Sunday about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's continued hospitalization, saying he had a medical procedure Dec. 22, 2023 went home a day later and was admitted to intensive care Jan. 1 when he began experiencing severe pain.

The latest information came as members of both parties in Congress expressed sharp concerns about the secrecy of Austin's hospital stay and the fact that the president and other senior leaders were kept in the dark about it for days.

The statement, released by Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, did not, however, provide any details about the medical procedure or what actually happened on Monday to require Austin to be in intensive care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Ryan said Austin was placed in the hospitals intensive care unit "due to his medical needs, but then remained in that location in part due to hospital space considerations and privacy."

The Pentagons failure to disclose Austins hospitalization, including to President Joe Biden, the National Security Council and top Pentagon leaders, for days reflects a stunning lack of transparency about his illness, how serious it was and when he may be released. Such secrecy, when the United States is juggling myriad national security crises, runs counter to normal practice with the president and other senior U.S. officials and Cabinet members.

Ryder said the National Security Council and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks were not notified until Thursday, Jan. 4, that Austin had been hospitalized since Jan. 1. Ryder said Austin's chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, was ill and "unable to make notifications before then." He said she informed Hicks and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on Thursday.

Once notified, Hicks began preparing statements to send to Congress and made plans to return to Washington. Hicks was in Puerto Rico on leave but had communications equipment with her to remain in contact and had already been tasked with some secretary-level duties on Tuesday.

The Pentagon did not say if Hicks was given an explanation on Tuesday for why she was assuming some of Austins duties, but temporary transfers of authority are not unusual and are often done without detailed explanations. Hicks decided not to return after she was informed that Austin would resume full control on Friday.

Biden was told of Austin's medical stay on Thursday by Sullivan, according to three people with knowledge of the hospitalization who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

In a statement issued Saturday evening, Austin took responsibility for the delays in notification.

"I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better," he said, acknowledging the concerns about transparency. "But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure."

Austin, 70, remains hospitalized and officials have been unable to say how long he will be at Walter Reed. In his statement, Austin said he is on the mend and is looking forward to returning to the Pentagon soon, but he provided no other details about his ailment.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the episode erodes trust in the Biden administration and called on the department to provide lawmakers with a "full accounting of the facts immediately."

"I am glad to hear Secretary Austin is in improved condition and I wish him a speedy recovery," Wicker said in a statement. "However, the fact remains that the Department of Defense deliberately withheld the Secretary of Defenses medical condition for days. That is unacceptable."

It's not just Republicans expressing alarm. In a joint statement, Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., said they were "concerned with how the disclosure of the Secretary's condition was handled."

Among the questions they had were what the medical procedure was and what the resulting complications were, how and when the delegation of his responsibilities was made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the president and lawmakers. Rogers is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Smith is the panel's top Democrat.

"Transparency is vitally important," said the two lawmakers. "Austin must provide these additional details on his health and the decision-making process that occurred in the past week as soon as possible."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced support for Austin at a news conference in Qatar on Sunday.

"He is an extraordinary leader in this country, in uniform and now out of uniform," Blinken said. "And its been a highlight of my service to be able to serve alongside him." He added: "Im very much looking forward to see him fully recovered and working side by side in the year ahead."

Ryder said Austin is able to do his full duties, has secure communications at Walter Reed, and is in contact with his senior team, getting updates and providing guidance. He said he doesn't know if Austin will do in-person briefings this coming week.

The Pentagon Press Association, which represents journalists who cover the Defense Department, sent a letter of protest on Friday evening, calling the delay in alerting the public "an outrage."

"At a time when there are growing threats to U.S. military service members in the Middle East and the U.S. is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defense leader," the group said in its letter.

Other senior U.S. leaders have been much more transparent about hospital stays. When Attorney General Merrick Garland went in for a routine medical procedure in 2022, his office informed the public a week in advance and outlined how long he was expected to be out and when he would return to work. (AP)
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The Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service named Zach Dantzler as the new agronomics row crops agent for Calhoun and Richland counties.

Dantzler fills the role left vacant by the retirement of longtime county row crop agent Charles Davis.

Dantzler will initially serve in an interim role with plans to become the permanent row crop agent for the counties.

My goal is to make this transition as smooth as possible for the farmers in these counties and become a trusted resource for their everyday production practices, Dantzler said. I have been blessed to spend time with Charles Davis over the past several months visiting farmers, training in the field, and learning the ins and outs of this position.

His mentorship, training and guidance, along with my agronomy background and experience is what has prepared me to step into this role and begin working to fill the very big shoes and reputation that Mr. Charles has left in the farming community," Dantzler said. "I am looking forward to continuing to gain more personal relationships with the farmers of Calhoun and Richland County."

Dantzler expressed his excitement about his new role.

Starting this position in January has been a dream of mine and is the entire reason I pursued agriculture as a career, Dantzler said.

Davis said, Zach is well qualified to fill my position here. He cited Dantzlers hands-on experience over the past half a year.

Dantzler, 32, is a native of Eutawville. He moved to Orangeburg in 1996.

He grew up on a family-owned farm where his family raised beef cattle as steers and grew a variety of forage crops for feed.

He lives on the family farm with his wife and children.

Dantzler graduated from Edisto High School in 2009.

He graduated from Clemson University in December 2016 with a bachelors degree in soils and sustainable crop systems.

During his undergrad experience, Dantzler was a student worker at the South Carolina Crop Improvement Association and the Official Variety Test for the State of South Carolina.

Not only did I gain a lot of knowledge working there with many different row crops grown in research plots, but I also had to complete my practicum of growing and increasing 17 different heirloom vegetable varieties, Dantzler said.

After graduating from Clemson, Dantzler was hired at the Agricultural Service laboratory to handle and analyze soil, plant, and manure samples.

After a six-month period, Dantzler was hired as a full-time employee at South Carolina Crop Improvement Association and the OVT of South Carolina.

He worked there for a total of nine years counting his time as a student.

While working full-time at Clemson, Dantzler decided to pursue his master's degree at Clemson.

He graduated with a masters degree in plant and environmental science in August 2022.

During his time as a student and employee at Clemson, Dantzler was able to focus on research.

Research has been a large part of my Clemson career, so I have vast knowledge working with computerized data to share with farmers and commercial seed companies, Dantzler said.

During his time at South Carolina Crop Improvement Association, Dantzler was involved in all aspects of the official variety trial processes and certified seed production systems

He also worked with research scientists and growers to plant, maintain and harvest test plots, as well as gather data.

I have much experience working in the fields, working with different varieties of row crops, soils, livestock, wildlife and operating agricultural equipment, Dantzler said. I also have experience maintaining many different land settings for plant growth, which include farm fields, residential landscape beds, wildlife food plots, wetlands and animal pastures.

In recent years, Dantzler worked on identifying pest diseases and soil impurities that hinder plant growth, along with working with different pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers.

Dantzler also worked as the main operator of precision agricultural equipment at Clemson, where he worked with GPS/auto steer tractors, GPS Almaco planters running seed pro software and Almaco plot combines that collect harvest data using computerized technology.

In March 2023, Dantzler left Crop Improvement and OVT and began a new role as the peanut extension agent for Clemson University working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities project as part of the peanut systems program.

My role has been to help farmers implement cover crops and residue and tillage management into their current peanut rotations, Dantzler said. He has led in formal trainings and engaged with farmers in recommending science-based research to increase conservation agricultural practices.

The USDA announced in October 2022 that it was investing $70 million into a Clemson/South Carolina State University partnership that will provide incentives to South Carolina farmers, enabling them to implement selected climate-smart production practices.

These experiences will not only help me as I work with farmers to help diagnose plant problems, but it will help me provide recommendations that benefit their everyday farming operations, Dantzler said. I will use my experience to provide training and technical support for farmers, while at the same time I will share my passion for agronomy.
COLUMBIA  Rapid population growth is driving the South Carolina governor to suggest more funding for infrastructure projects as the Southern coastal state seeks to keep pace with an influx of newcomers.

South Carolina Budget South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, along with Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, unveils his executive budget proposal in Columbia, Friday, J

Equipped with a state-record $1.6 billion surplus, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster unveiled his budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year on Friday. State lawmakers have a stronger relationship with the seven-year incumbent than his predecessors, giving some extra weight to McMasters recommendations when budget writers begin drafting their spending plan.

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South Carolina experienced the highest population growth rate of any state last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The governors office said the boom underscores the need to shore up aging bridges and build on job growth.

With more road travelers expected, McMaster wants to use $500 million in surplus funds to fix around 150 to 200 bridges throughout the state.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation reports that over 1,500 bridges are between 60-70 years old, with more than 470 bridges surpassing 90 years. The governors office hopes to prevent scenes like the recent two-day closure of a major interstate highways westbound span across the Wateree River.

Gov. Henry McMaster announces FY 2024-2025 Executive Budget Governor Henry McMaster today announced his Executive Budget for fiscal year 2024-2025. The governor's fiscally responsible budget sets the stage for South Carolina to continue its record-breaking economic success by providing tax relief and making bold, targeted investments in education, economic development, and public safety.

The governor also proposed putting $50 million toward expanding commercial airports.

The Associated Press left a phone message seeking comment from Republican state Rep. Bruce Bannister, who chairs the powerful Ways and Means Committee that leads the budget process in the South Carolina House.

McMasters budget reaffirms his embrace of the electric vehicle industry. State leaders have courted four major manufacturers, highlighted by last years announcement that Volkswagen-backed Scout Motors Inc. would build its new $2 billion plant near the state capital of Columbia.

But the governor said the demand for these jobs is outpacing the number of qualified applicants. To ensure that South Carolina workers have the skills to hold those positions, the governor wants $50 million for electric vehicle training in technical colleges.

Columbia reports a growing population of chronically homeless people, and the governors office said city officials have asked the state to help fund a compassionate and realistic pilot program. McMaster suggests allocating $10 million for a one-stop wraparound facility where people could obtain services to combat addictions, receive emergency care and get drivers licenses.

Like the second-term governors previous requests, the budget is heavy on education spending. McMaster suggested using $250 million to boost starting teacher salaries to a minimum of $45,000. Over $13 million would fund 175 new school resource officers. For the fifth straight year, nearly $50 million would freeze in-state public college tuition.

However, negative enrollment headwinds have triggered a call for a study committee that could overhaul higher education in the state. Citing drops in both the birth rate and the percentage of students pursuing higher education, the governors office said its worth looking into consolidating the states public institutions. McMaster proposed $3 million for national and state experts to examine possibilities such as merging the University of South Carolina Sumter with Central Carolina Technical College, or absorbing Winthrop University into the USC system.

Recent national trends in state tax cuts are expected to slow this year as pandemic-era revenue surges recede. The governor proposed $99 million to slash the income tax rate from 6.4% to 6.3%, as required by a 2022 state law.

New tools and personnel could also be coming for law enforcement officials.

More than half-a-million dollars would add three state agents dedicated to combating animal fighting. The crime is a priority for law enforcement authorities. More than 20 people were arrested and more than 300 dogs were rescued in September 2022 raids on South Carolina dogfighting kennels.

The South Carolina Department of Corrections has recently sought to jam cellphones in state detention centers, seeking $34 million to help end their illegal usage behind bars. The governors budget includes $23 million to begin establishing technology at major facilities that would allow providers to disable cellphones detected in state prisons and jails.

In a first, McMaster has proposed direct funding for the Anne Frank Center on the University of South Carolina campus. One of four in the world and the only one in North America, the museum aims to fight antisemitism by highlighting the story of Anne Frank, whose world-famous diary details the more than two years that her family spent hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam.

The governors staff said McMaster visited with Jewish faculty and students at the Anne Frank Center after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel. He is now suggesting that lawmakers dedicate $1 million to improve operations and bolster security.
COLUMBIA  Central Carolina Community Foundation President and CEO JoAnn Turnquist will retire this April.

February 2024 marks Turnquists 15th anniversary at the Community Foundation.

I am thankful to our grantee partners, community organizations and leaders, philanthropy colleagues, public officials, and private business partners for supporting our work. They have been inspirational allies in upholding the Foundations mission and core values, Turnquist said.

JoAnn Turnquist.jpg Central Carolina Community Foundation (CCCF) President and CEO JoAnn Turnquist will retire this April.

Today, the foundations assets total nearly $220 million, and the foundation has awarded over $270 million in grants and scholarships. Under Turnquists leadership, CCCF has:

Awarded grants and scholarships totaling more than $220 million.

Established the One SC Fund, the states disaster recovery fund, and formed partnerships and collaborations with other foundations and nonprofit organizations to respond to natural disasters -- $8.8 million in grants have been deployed through this fund since 2015.

Opened the Collaboration Zone, a gathering place for the regions nonprofits.

Established the foundations African American Philanthropy Committee.

Introduced Talk About Giving, a tool to teach children to give.

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Launched Midlands Gives, a region-wide initiative that democratizes philanthropy and demonstrates the power of collective giving. It has raised over $24 million for Midlands nonprofit organizations since its inception in 2014

When Turnquist came to the foundation in 2009, it had a staff of seven, approximately $67 million in assets and had awarded over $50 million in grants and scholarships.

I have been fortunate to work with superb staff who have a passion for the mission of the foundation and a commitment to excellence in their work. Together, we have transformed our organization, Turnquist said.

Seven current and past CCCF Board of Trustees members have been chosen to serve on a committee to select Turnquists successor. The search committee has engaged an outside consultant to conduct the search.

Current board Chair Cory Manning, who also serves as the chair of the search committee, noted, Having worked near and with JoAnn at Central Carolina for over a decade, I have had the privilege of watching her practice her craft in a nearly flawless manner, including doubling and (more importantly) developing the foundations staff, flattening its management structure, and driving its tremendous growth. She will surely be missed and hard to replace, but she has put the Foundation in an excellent position to continue its tremendous success. That is a legacy great leaders leave.

The foundations president and CEO is confident that the committee will make the best choice for CCCF and the Midlands community.

Our trustees have worked closely with me and our talented staff to ensure that our mission and strategic plan has always guided the foundations philanthropy, programming and leadership in the community, Turnquist said.

Turnquist is grateful for the opportunity to serve the Midlands of South Carolina. It has been a tremendous honor to lead the foundation, Turnquist said.

Central Carolina Community Foundation, the Midlands' leader in collaborative philanthropy, is a nonprofit organization serving 11 counties in the Midlands of South Carolina  including Orangeburg and Calhoun -- by distributing grants and scholarships and linking the resources of donors, nonprofits and area leaders to communities in need.

Major initiatives include the online giving challenge Midlands Gives, Connected Communities grants, the One SC Fund and annual scholarships.

For more information about the foundation, visit www.yourfoundation.org or call 803-254-5601.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has won an overwhelming majority in Bangladesh's parliamentary election after a campaign fraught with violence and a boycott from the main opposition party, giving her and her Awami League a fourth consecutive term.

While the Election Commission has been slow to announce the results of Sunday's election, TV stations with journalists across the country reported the Awami League won 224 seats out of 299. Independent candidates took 62, while the Jatiya Party, the third largest in the country, took 11 seats and Kallyan Party got one. The results for the rest of the constituencies were still coming in.

The election was held in 299 out of 300 parliamentary seats. In one seat, the election was postponed as required by law after an independent candidate died.

A final official declaration from the Election Commission is expected on Monday.

At least 18 arson attacks preceded the vote but the election day passed in relative calm. Turnout was around 40 percent, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said after the polls closed.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former premier Khaleda Zia refused to accept the election outcome, saying Bangladeshi voters have rejected the government's one-sided election.

Security incidents, including four deaths in an arson attack on a passenger train on Friday, intensified tensions ahead of the election that was shunned by Zia's party and its allied groups. They accuse Hasina of turning Bangladesh into a one-party state and muzzling dissent and civil society.

Authorities blamed much of the violence on the BNP, accusing it of seeking to sabotage the election. On Saturday, detectives arrested seven men belonging to the BNP and its youth wing for their alleged involvement in the train attack. The party denied any role in the incident.

On Sunday, a supporter of an Awami League candidate was stabbed to death in Munshiganj district near the capital, Dhaka, officials said. Police did not comment immediately.

A victory for the 76-year-old Hasina, the countrys longest-serving leader and one of its most consequential, would come with a deeply contentious political landscape.

The vote, like previous elections, has been defined by the bitter rivalry between Hasinas Awami League and the BNP, led by Zia, who is ailing and under house arrest on corruption charges, which her supporters claim are politically motivated.

The two women ran the country alternately for many years, cementing a feud that has since polarized Bangladesh's politics and fueled violence around elections. This years vote raised questions over its credibility when there are no major challengers to take on the incumbent.

Badshah Mia, a rickshaw puller in Dhaka, said he wouldn't vote given the limited choices, adding that the atmosphere didnt exude that of "a fair election."

Sakibul Hasan Chowdhury, a businessman, felt the same. "There is no opposition and no candidate of my choice. So how would I benefit from voting?"

A small business owner, Habibur Rahman, said he was voting for the ruling party candidate in his constituency but added that there didn't seem to be much of a turnout.

Critics and rights groups say the vote follows a troubling pattern, where the past two elections held under Hasina were sullied by allegations of vote-rigging  which authorities have denied  and another boycott by opposition parties.

The government has rejected a monthslong demand by the BNP to have a neutral caretaker government administer Sunday's vote.

The government has defended the election, saying 27 parties and 404 independent candidates are participating. But with scores of candidates from the Awami League running as independents and mostly smaller opposition parties in the race, analysts say Hasina's win is near inevitable.

Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, said none of those contesting would be able to mount much of a challenge to Hasinas party. "The outcome is all but guaranteed, and that is that the Awami League will return (to power) again," he said, noting that "Bangladeshs democracy will be in an extremely precarious state once the election is done."

The vote has also been called into question by accusations of a sweeping crackdown against the BNP. The party says about 20,000 of its members were jailed ahead of the vote on trumped-up charges. The government disputed the figures and denied that arrests were made due to political leanings, saying the numbers of those arrested were between 2,000-3,000. The countrys law minister in an interview with BBC said 10,000 were likely arrested.

Abdul Moyeen Khan, a former minister and BNP leader, said the spate of arrests forced him and scores of other party members to go into hiding for weeks until candidacy nominations were halted. "It was the only way we could ensure our safety and carry on raising our voice (against the government)" he said.

"We are not boycotting an election  what we are boycotting is a fake and one-sided election that this government is carrying out," Khan added.

Hasina is credited with transforming the economy of a young nation born out of war and making its garment sector one of the worlds most competitive. Her supporters say she has staved off military coups and neutralized the threat of Islamic militancy. And internationally, shes helped raise Bangladeshs profile as a nation capable of doing business and maintaining diplomatic ties with countries often at odds with each other, like India and China.

Yet her critics say her rise has risked turning Bangladesh into becoming a one-party state where democracy is under threat, as emboldened government agencies increasingly use oppressive tools to mute critics, shrink press freedoms and restrict civil society.

The global economic slowdown is also being felt in Bangladesh, exposing cracks in its economy that have triggered labor unrest and dissatisfaction with the government.

After casting her ballot, Hasina dismissed concerns over the legitimacy of the vote, telling reporters she was accountable to the people and whether they accepted the election or not was what mattered to her.

"Im trying my best to ensure that democracy should continue in this country," she added. "Without democracy, you cannot make any development." (AP)
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ENERGY Minister Stuart Young has taken umbrage at comments made by Ronald Harford, former chairman of Republic Financial Holdings Ltd, as he boasted about the success of the energy sector.

Young said whenever somebody becomes a former, their mouth gets big, as he quoted from an article in Fridays Express report where Harford made critical comments.
A new camera system is being installed along this countrys roadways with the aim of tackling traffic congestion and reducing the countrys crime.

This was said yesterday by Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan, who spoke with the media at the intersection of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway and Golden Grove Road in Piarco.
Pope Francis called Monday for a global ban on surrogacy, saying the practice of a woman carrying another person's child was "deplorable".

In his New Year's address to diplomats at the Vatican, the 87-year-old pontiff said it was a "grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child".

In a speech dominated by calls for an end to conflicts around the world, the head of the worldwide Catholic Church said: "The path to peace calls for respect for life."

This began "with the life of the unborn child in the mother's womb, which cannot be suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking", he said.

"In this regard, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother's material needs.

"A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.

Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally."

In June 2022, the pope condemned surrogacy as an "inhuman" practice.

"Altruistic" surrogacy, whereby a woman gives birth to a baby on behalf of another woman or couple but no money changes hands, excluding for expenses, is legal in countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, the U.K., Canada, Brazil and Colombia.

Commercial surrogacy is permitted in some U.S. states. (AFP)
With ten people murdered between Thursday and Saturday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley took to Facebook yesterday to assure citizens that State agencies will not give up the fight to rid our streets and other places of the evil that is now widespread as a gun culture in Trinidad and Tobago.

And in a voice note to the media, Commissioner of Police Erla Christopher said, We are determined to dismantle criminal gangs and make a difference in transforming impacted communities.
Pierce Brosnan, the Irish actor who starred in four James Bond films, has been cited for allegedly skirting travel regulations in Yellowstone National Park.

The 70-year-old Brosnan was charged on Dec. 26 in U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming with traveling off a trail in one of the parks thermal areas and not adhering to the parks closure and limited use notices.

The more than 2 million-acre park contains thousands of hydrothermal features, including geysers, hot springs and fumaroles. Park officials constantly warn visitors to keep to the boardwalks that snake around these areas, as some of the hot springs can reach temperatures of nearly 200 degrees while steam vents can be as a hot as 245 degrees. More than 20 people have died by falling into Yellowstone National Parks hydrothermal features. The organic soil around thermal features can also be fragile and take decades to be restored.

The federal government is tasked with law enforcement in Yellowstone National Park, specifically through U.S. District Court and National Park Service Law Enforcement Rangers.

Brosnan, who lives in Beverly Hills, California, was in Montana earlier this year to star in a Western being filmed at the Yellowstone Film Ranch in Paradise Valley, the Livingston Enterprise reported. He is scheduled to make his initial appearance in court Jan. 23.
A 56-year-old woman who was struck by a pickup truck while crossing the street Wednesday night has died, Tucson police say.

The driver, who investigators say was impaired and fled after the crash, faces multiple charges, a news release from the Tucson Police Department says.

The crash happened about 10 p.m. Jan. 3, when the 56-year-old woman was crossing North Stone Avenue in an unmarked crosswalk at East Jacinto Street, the release said.

The woman was struck by a 2006 Ford F-150 that was northbound on Stone, the release said. The truck's lights were not turned on at the time of the crash, witnesses told police.

The driver fled after the crash.

Police later stopped the driver of a truck near North Oracle Road and West Prince Road.

Juan Eduardo Basurto-Gaspar, 39, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated DUI, aggravated assault and leaving the scene of a serious accident, the release said. He was booked into jail but has been released on bond, police said.

Police say they found drugs and paraphernalia on the woman who was was struck. She died Saturday. Her name has not been released by police.

The case remains under investigation.

Tucson police have already investigated three fatal pedestrian crashes this years, the department said.
A hard freeze will cover most of southeastern Arizona late Monday through Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service in Arizona says.

Areas affected include metro Tucson and portions of Cochise, Santa Cruz, Cochise, Pinal, Graham and Greenlee counties, the weather service said Monday.

Low temperatures in some parts of the region could drop to the teens. Both Douglas and Willcox could get as cold a 14 degrees overnight and Benson could be at about 16 degrees, the weather service said.

The Tucson area was expected to drop to the mid 20s overnight.

The area's hard freeze warning is in effect from midnight to 10 a.m. Tuesday.

The next cold winter system will move through the area Thursday. It will bring Tucson another round of rain, gusty winds and the potential for snow in areas mostly south and east of the city.

Mount Lemmon on Tuesday is expected to get between 4 and 6 inches of snow.

Monday's high temperature stayed in the mid 40s.
PHOENIX  Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs says she is optimistic about working with the Republican-controlled Legislature as she gives her second State of the State speech on Monday, Jan. 8.

Hobbs acknowledged what she called the divisiveness and the vitriol of the 2023 legislative session. That included her record-shattering 143 vetoes  she nixed more than 40% of the bills sent to her desk.

But she added, I think weve proven that we can work together on important things.

In an interview with Capitol Media Services, however, Hobbs already is sending messages to GOP lawmakers they would be sadly mistaken if they think her willingness to cooperate and all that optimism means shes willing to give her blessing to many of their programs in the name of cooperation.

Im going to continue to keep my promise of vetoing legislation that doesnt protect fundamental freedoms or solve tough problems, Hobbs said. So if thats what they want to send me, thats what Ill keep on doing.

Lines drawn

She already has a list of what will end up meeting her well-used veto stamp, saying shes prepared to break her own record if it becomes necessary.

Election law changes?

Hobbs said she wants to solve a problem created by a change in federal election laws that ultimately could result in the state not meeting the deadline for submitting the results of the 2024 presidential race, which would mean Arizonas 11 electoral votes would not be counted.

But the governor made it clear she will not accept any fix it if it is tied to various other changes that some are pushing under the banner of election integrity, ranging from hand counting of ballots, to who gets an automatic early ballot, to new signature verification requirements.

Im not going to sign something thats bogged down with a bunch of other stuff that the Republicans want on this, she said.

Hobbs also said she is ready to use her veto stamp  again  to deal with culture wars measures advanced by some GOP lawmakers, ranging from banning the teaching of so-called critical race theory, to barring the use of public funds for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

She also said she has no interest in signing legislation being pushed by some GOP lawmakers to block the citizens and corporations of certain foreign countries from leasing or owning farmland in Arizona.

She called it unnecessary, noting the state is already terminating its leases with Fondomonte, a Saudi company growing alfalfa in La Paz County for dairy farms in the kingdom. She said such decisions can be made based on deciding what is the highest and best use of state land  and without regard to the nationality of the tenant.

Whether the governor gets a chance to break her veto record this year will largely depend on the actions of the Republican legislative majority and, more to the point, whether they are just voting to send measures to her knowing she will reject them.

Theres a lot less interest this time around in just sending a bill out just to get a veto, said House Speaker Ben Toma, a Peoria Republican.

I think its pretty clear at this point where everybody is politically on some hot-button issues, Toma said. So theres really no reason to continue that.

Senate President Warren Petersen said theres been no formal decision made by his caucus. But it has been discussed.

We have talked about the obvious, which is: same product, same people, same outcome, said the Gilbert Republican.

I dont know what members are going to do, he continued. But I feel like you wont see as many of the same bills introduced.

Still, Petersen said that doesnt mean he will use his powers to sideline legislation by other GOP lawmakers just because it might be a sure-fire veto.

If theres a reason or a benefit for them where they feel like they want to continue to push their bills, if their constituents have asked them to run a bill or push a bill, thats a member decision, he said.

Vouchers dispute

But Hobbs, even before the session begins Monday, is already picking a fight with the GOP majority.

She announced last week a list of changes she wants in the system of universal vouchers that allows any student to get taxpayer funds  the typical grant is $7,300  to attend private or parochial schools or have home-schooled children use the money for other educational expenses. She was unapologetic.

I dont think this is a new fight, she said, noting she was a first-term lawmaker when the whole concept of vouchers became Arizona law in 2011. At that time, it was limited to students with special needs. Since then, eligibility was steadily broadened to youths in foster care, reservation residents, students attending schools rated D or F. In 2022, the Legislature removed all restrictions.

And one of the things we said is, this is the camels nose under the tent, its going to keep expanding every year until we get to this point, Hobbs said. And heres where we are.

She is not the only one spoiling for a fight.

Hobbs is being sued by the state Senate over her maneuver to convert all of her agency directors  the ones the Senate has failed to confirm  to deputy executive directors, a move she said allowed them to continue to serve despite legislative inaction.

Petersen claims that violates state law, but Hobbs said she is ready to do battle.

We will be filing a motion to dismiss their very flimsy lawsuit against us, she said.

Arizonans want sanity, not chaos, Hobbs said. We need state government to run well and state agencies are a key part of that.

Water legislation

Still, she does have some things in her own basket of ideas she hopes will get legislative approval.

One of the biggest issues is water.

The most visible part of the problem has been in rural areas. They are exempt from the provisions of the states 1980 Groundwater Management Act designed to achieve safe yield to the point where the amount of water being pumped is no greater than the rate of recharge. The lack of regulation is causing particular problems in Mohave County, where Kingman officials are questioning whether the pumping by agriculture in the basin will leave the city without the water it needs.

Current law allows residents to vote to form their own active management area to control pumping. Residents of the Douglas area did just that in 2022.

But a similar plan for Willcox failed. So Hobbs is weighing a proposal advanced by her Water Policy Council that would authorize setting up state-designated but locally run rural groundwater management areas.

I dont think were trying to dilute the process, Hobbs said.

She also is looking for a workaround to the decision last year of the Arizona Department of Water Resources to deny new housing permits to developers in areas of Buckeye and Queen Creek, lands within the Phoenix Active Management Area that could not show the legally required 100-year assured water supply. That resulted in national headlines about whether Arizona was running out of water.

The governor defended the department. The national sensationalism aside, ADWR was following the law, she said.

But Hobbs acknowledged that the status quo is unacceptable. She is throwing her support behind another Water Policy Council recommendation for an interim solution: To allow developers to continue their work based on the use of alternative water supplies, but without the state gutting the 1980 Groundwater Act.

One key benefit of that idea is it doesnt require legislative approval.

Affordable housing

The issue of the building moratorium in Queen Creek and Buckeye is closely tied to the issue of affordable housing.

We are in a housing crisis, Hobbs said. One part of the solution is to build more housing. So were trying to find a short-term way for that to continue.

Still, that deals with just one issue  and in just one area of the state.

Hobbs managed last session to get lawmakers to put $150 million into the state Housing Trust Fund. Those dollars can be used to leverage federal cash to construct affordable housing.

More changes are needed, she said.

Youll hear a proposal in our State of the State around mortgage assistance which obviously is not going to assist in building new houses but (is for) first-time homebuyers and middle-class families that are being priced out of purchasing homes right now, she said.

Even leveraging the Housing Trust Fund, Hobbs acknowledged, might not provide a lot of relief in a market where median home prices exceed $500,000 and mortgage rates are hovering close to 7%.

It buys some (relief), she said. Its clear that Arizona needs relief right now and theres more that can be done. Were utilizing the tools we have at our disposal right now.

Hobbs also said she is a fan of the actions of some cities, including Phoenix and Tucson, that have authorized the construction of small accessory dwelling units  also called casitas  adjacent to existing homes that can be rented out, regardless of zoning.

Still, she said she might warm up that veto stamp if lawmakers seek to impose similar requirements on all cities and counties statewide.

Ive never been a fan of usurping local control, Hobbs said.

She also has been cool to some other efforts to override local regulations such as zoning by right, which would have allowed some landowners to convert the use of their property from how it was zoned to something else without having to first get city approval.

Raises for teachers

Hobbs also has her own plan to raise educators salaries.

It is similar to what Republican lawmakers proposed last year, extending the life of Proposition 123, which allows the state to tap the proceeds of the state land trust. The GOP legislative leaders promise $4,000 pay hikes for teachers.

Hobbs said that doesnt go far enough.

We have a proposal that addresses not just teacher pay but more broadly educational support professionals as well, she said, people like librarians, aides and counselors left out of the Republican plan. Theyre part of the equation.
The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

Americans routinely plugged into the news cycle are aware of the fact that much ado was made about something (yes something) when Nikki Haley responded to a question from an audience member at a New Hampshire town about the cause of the Civil War.

The Republican presidential candidate awkwardly (arguably intentionally) sidestepped the real issue that resulted in one of our nations most pivotal events  slavery!

Rather than confront the truth head on and provide an honest response to the questioner, Haley attempted to dance around with the skill of a fish riding on a bicycle and fell flat on her butt. The intense commentary and backlash that followed her intellectually dishonest remarks had the former governor and United Nations ambassador feverishly backtracking, and the story is still percolating in the political arena.

Not surprisingly, Haley went on defense and offense, initially conceding that of course, the Civil war was about slavery! while simultaneously accusing the questioner of being a Democratic plant.

Haleys horrendous response gave her political rivals the opportunity to seize on her foolish behavior. The ever acerbic Chris Christie wasted no time chastising Haley, making it clear that slavery was the major factor that resulted in the Civil War. Period. Even Ron slavery was really not all that bad for Black people DeSantis had the unmitigated gall to weigh in, levying criticism of Haley.

How could a person who was once the governor of South Carolina, the state that led the initiative to begin the war at Fort Sumner in 1861, be so unaware of such a pivotal, indisputable reality? Taking such a shameful position is classic political double speak. It is a prime example of cowardice. Most people know that slavery was one of the most pernicious vices known to mankind. It is a retrograde factor that has been deeply embedded in the fabric of our nation.

Although she is a Republican, Nikki Haley is still a person of color. She is the child of Indian immigrants. Her birth name is Nimrata Randhawa. Thus, it is perplexing (at least to me) that as a non-white person and woman would fiercely embrace a political party that often denounces, demonizes, and disrespects nearly everything she represents.

Besides a burning desire to be president, what would prompt her to engage in such demeaning antics? Self-hatred? Political expediency? Some other motive? What gives? Inquiring, socially-conscious minds want to know.

To be sure, no group of people  that includes non-white people  are monolithic. In fact, there are indeed people of color who are conservative in their political affiliation. That being said, even those individuals of racial minority groups (at least a notable percentage of them) are likely to be very apprehensive in supporting a party that at this current state is largely sponsored and represents far-right wing white nationalism.

Deep down, something tells me Nikki Haley and many other of her right-wing cohorts know the real truth. Such twisted and dishonest mental gymnastics are a sad reality.
Revenge and retribution

Revenge and retribution never permanently resolve any issue, just serve to increase hate and misunderstanding. Evidently lessons not learned by adversaries in the Middle East for millennia nor on the political scene in the USA for decades. Where are the peacemakers/moderates who possess the courage to promote and insist on respect and empathy and compassion and the golden rule while following the guidelines demanded by honor and integrity? Still missing in action!

Phil Bulldog Bentley

Foothills

Pumped hydropower

Re: the Dec. 27 article Pumped hydropower plans grow in Arizona

The story says there was a lot of confusion about pumped hydro. Unfortunately, this story contains several incorrect or confusing statements adding to the confusion.

Pumped hydro doesnt generate electricity as stated in the story, its a method for storing electricity, its like a battery. Water is pumped up the hill when there is surplus power during the day and goes back down in the evening when power is needed. As stated, the process is a closed loop, water is needed once and then reused, over and over, so the net water requirement is minimal.

In the paragraph about the process, the author says that the generating phase of the process generates more than the pumping side uses, leading one to believe that there is a net gain of power, which is, of course, physically impossible. In fact, pumped hydro is 75 to 80% efficient, 20 to 25% of the energy is lost in the process.

Loring Green

Foothills

Cherry-pick the constitution at will?

We may not freely cherry-pick the constitution that constitutes us.

If we could revisit any amendment that irritates us, we could revisit the second amendment, the right to bear arms. The founders of our nation used muskets, not AR15s and Glocks. Based on originalism we could legally ban all weapons invented since the founders wrote the constitution, originally.

If we could freely cherry-pick amendments, we could look freedom of speech, written well before the influences of the internet, social media, Russia, AI and ChatGPT.

Our constitution stands as written until amended as designed.

Following our constitution, the former president is disqualified.

Paul Zohav

East side

Just a question

Amid all the talk of defending/destroying our Democracy, I have found myself wondering something honestly. (If anyone knows, please advise.)

Is all the hype about Trump just a distraction so that Article V  to re-write the Constitution  wont be noticed?

Im not a Trump supporter, but re-writing the Constitution would be a disaster.

Thanks in advance for a reliable answer.

Claudette Haney

Green Valley

Matthew Salinas shooting

On October 26th, Matthew Salinas was killed by TPD for firing his weapon in the air. This is a sad tragedy but everyone should know what goes up must come down. Salinas was shooting his weapon in the air in his neighborhood. Think about it: what would have happened if one of those bullets come down and killed a neighbor  this would have been accidental but Salinas should still be held responsible. Thankfully there were no accidents as the bullets come down from the sky. (speaking from experience)

Diane Dailey

Southeast side

Nothing better

Theres nothing better, than a letter

Written to the editor.

We write of jail, about no bail,

Partisans together.

Unjust wars, and wild boars

Climate change and weather.

Yes, nothing better, than a letter

Written to our Editor.

We often write, of Russias might,

Of Chinese neutrality.

Of murder rates, and Jewish hates

And local police brutality.

But nothing better, than a letter

Written to our Editor.

We write of peace, that wars might cease,

And all about creation.

Economic woes, political foes,

How great this is our nation.

Yes nothing better, than a letter

Written to our Editor.

Of civil rights, and congress fights

Of a crisis at our border

Of dying well, why prices swell,

The cry for law and order.

Tis nothing better, than a letter

Written to the Stars Editor.

Tom McGorray

Northwest side

Election audit

Re: the Jan. 2 article Truth about election audit emerged through records fight

This remarkable article shows the critical importance of two things to the survival of democracy: 1. a free and courageous press (plaudits to the Arizona Republic for doing their superb investigation, and the Star for reprinting it); and 2. people of integrity and courage willing to stand up to defend our precious heritage of democracy and freedom. This would certainly include Clint Hickman, Stephen Richer, Rusty Bowers, Cochise County Attorney McIntyre and others. Their opponents appear willing to sacrifice any principles they ever had for transient political gain. They unfortunately exemplify the warning of Samuel Adams (1779): A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued but when once they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.

Abraham R. Byrd III

North side

Jealousy and resentment

Re: the Jan. 2 letter The denouement of Jewish supremacy

Some letters demand a response and this is one of those. Growing up as an advantaged, upper middle-class Anglo in the 1960s what I observed amongst my Jewish friends were hardworking families who generally were successful as small business entrepreneurs. It appeared to me that Jews were the chosen people not by their creator any more than any other religious group but chosen as the Other for discrimination. They had to create their own economic opportunities. Significant success in becoming the elite of their own corporations was testament to their drive and intelligence and benefited the nation. To claim that Jewish young people, rather than succeeding on their own abilities have instead relied on family connections and wealth is to choose them as different than other families who provide benefits to their young. What I read in this letter is jealousy, resentment, and the feeling of being disadvantaged, thereby needing The Other in their life to avoid personal responsibility for their circumstances.

Eric Gormally

Oro Valley

Dont publish antisemitic rants

Re: the Jan. 2 letter The denouement of Jewish supremacy

I condemn the Arizona Daily Stars Jan. 2 publication of two virulently antisemitic letters to the editor from Mr. Jake Pickering. Airing differing opinions is important to a functioning democracy. Publishing opinions that reinforce long-debunked antisemitic tropes concerning Jews is not. Among the tropes Mr. Pickering mentions is that corporate news sources are under the control of Jewish or Israeli-Americans with dual loyalties. If that were true (its not), how does one account for the volume of news stories that criticize Israels policies in Gaza? The Arizona Daily Star has both a journalistic and civic responsibility to exercise discretion that draws the line at publishing opinions that cross into antisemitic territory. Criticizing Israels wartime policies is fair game. Publishing antisemitic rants that echo The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is not. The Arizona Daily Star has failed its readers and community. Do better.

Mitch Tobin

Foothills

Civil discord

What is it now, 12 states that are trying to ban Trump from the ballot box? Theres a left wing and theres a right wing. One side seems to want a democracy. The other side seems to want a dictatorship. How many of us remain somewhere in the middle?

What will happen if or when the right wing wanna-be authoritarians dont get their way? Will there be a civil war this time? It sure wont be fought over slavery!

When and how will we all wake up? And while were on the subject, is it really SO important that Trump gets to saturate the news 24-7? I think we are all being brainwashed in a very negative way! Its pathetic.

God help us all and may God please save this democracy!

Janice Campos
Ginnie Graham Tulsa World Editorials Editor Follow Ginnie Graham Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Editor's note: This story originally published in November 2023.

Overnight, sales doubled at Burning Wagon Designs after actor Lily Gladstone wore one of its outfits to the Time100 Next event held earlier this month in New York.

The locally owned company was created about a year ago by Osage Nation citizen Libbi Gray, a leading advocate in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement, with two of her four daughters. They never expected movie stars to be wearing their clothing in international publications.

I always told my kids that if you do the right thing and respect people, it will come back to you. So, were over here, doing good for our tribe, family and community, and good things are happening now, Gray said.

Gladstone, an Academy Award favorite for her portrayal of Mollie Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon, is using her influence to promote Indigenous designers. She crossed paths with Grays family during the films production.

Gray was part of the Osage Nation effort with filmmakers to ensure authenticity of the tribal culture and history. The great-grandfather of her husband, former Osage Nation Chief Jim Gray, was among the Reign of Terror victims featured in the film.

During an Osage dance at Grayhorse, one of Grays daughters gave a scarf to Gladstone as a gift. The print is of yonkapin, a wild lotus root considered a food delicacy among Osage people. That ended up as a pocket square worn by actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the October issue of British Vogue.

During the photo shoot, the photographer wanted a better visual link between the actors. In a spur-of-the-moment suggestion, Gladstone pulled the Burning Wagon Designs scarf from her purse and fit it into DiCaprios lapel. The company is credited in the magazine.

Even though its a small little peek of the scarf, its very exciting to see, Gray said.

Then, Gladstone wore a two-piece, scarlet-colored mazeska print created by Burning Wagon Designs to the Time100 celebration. Mazeska are Buffalo nickels that look like polka dots in the design.

The photo was published internationally, including the U.S. edition of Vogue.

The outfit came into Gladstones possession by chance. She participated in a local fashion show of Indigenous designers in September that included Burning Wagon Designs. During the event, Gladstone had a clothing mishap requiring a last-minute replacement.

When Gladstone offered to have it cleaned and returned, Gray refused and told her to keep it.

I didnt do anything anyone else wouldnt have done, she said. The priority was her and make sure she had what she needed. Thats just what we do.

Burning Wagon Designs is a family affair from start to finish on every product. One daughter handles manufacturing the print material, and others have a hand in the pattern design, sewing, marketing and distribution.

Were all from different age groups and of different heights, weights and aesthetic preferences, she said. We come together with our ideas and work out together how to do it.

At each stage of the production, Indigenous people are involved, including models of the clothes and photography for the advertising and social media.

All hands who touch our clothing before the customer are Indigenous, Gray said.

The first products were simple hair scrunchies, but it quickly ballooned into other items, from edgy sweatshirts to elegant dresses. The most popular is the mid-calf, high-waist pencil skirts.

The family is able to keep up with the orders and its social justice efforts. Like Gray, the daughters are involved with issues around domestic violence and missing and murdered indigenous people.

Were a small company, so everything we make goes right back into the business, she said. The company allows us to be flexible with our other work. For me, if I am working on a bad case, I can come back to sewing something pretty. Or, I can sew for a while and take a break to go on a search.

Design inspiration often comes from their shared history, like 1960s ribbon work made by Grays grandmother or century-old broad cloth in a shell dress.

Everything we do has meaning to it, Gray said. It goes back to our Native roots.

Burning Wagon Designs products can be found at burningwagondesigns.com.

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Jimmie Tramel Tulsa World Scene Writer Follow Jimmie Tramel Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Indigenous actress Lily Gladstone was presented Sunday night with the award for best female actor in a motion picture drama for her work in the shot-in-Oklahoma film Killers of the Flower Moon.

Gladstone (Blackfoot, Nez Perce) is the first Indigenous winner of the award. She called it a historic win and thanked the Osage people, Osage Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, Martin Scorsese and her fellow Killers of the Flower Moon cast members during the acceptance speech.

This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told by ourselves, in our own words, with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from each other, Gladstone said during her acceptance speech. Thank you all so much.

Killers of the Flower Moon is based on David Granns bestselling book of the same name and brought to movie screens the story of the reign of terror that struck the oil-wealthy Osage Nation in the early days of Oklahoma.

Gladstone played Mollie Burkhart, who suffered the loss of family members due to serial murders that were part of the reign of terror. Leonardo DiCaprio, who played her husband in the film, and Robert De Niro, who played the manipulative uncle of DiCaprios character, were nominated for best male actor and best male supporting actor at the Golden Globes, but Gladstone was the only one of the three to take home a trophy. DiCaprio wore an Osage pin at the ceremony in support of the Osage.

Scorsese was nominated for best director, and Killers of the Flower Moon was nominated as best drama. Oppenheimer was victorious as the best drama, and the films director, Christopher Nolan, won best director.

Gladstone began her acceptance speech with a few words in the Blackfeet language. She called the Blackfeet a beautiful community and the nation that raised me, that encouraged me to keep going and keep doing this. She gave a shout-out to her mother, who even though she is not Blackfeet, worked tirelessly to get our language into our classroom so I had a Blackfeet language teacher growing up.

Gladstone said she is grateful to speak even a little bit of her language because, in this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English and the sound mixers would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera.

Gladstone said the award doesnt just belong to me and began her many thank-yous.

Gladstone was the second Indigenous actress to receive a Golden Globes nomination. Irene Bedard was nominated for the 1995 television movie Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee.

Academy Award nominations have not been announced. On the subject of a possible Oscar win, Gladstone told The Associated Press: It would be an incredible moment in my life, but it would mean so much more than just me.

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Michael Dekker Tulsa World Business Writer Follow Michael Dekker Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

A Tulsa tech enterprise started by two cousins and aimed at significantly reducing health insurance costs is one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S.

Medefy, a mobile platform designed to help both employers and employees, was listed 288th in Inc.s 5000 fastest-growing companies of 2023, its second year in a row to be in the top 300.

Founded by cousins Matt Scovil (the CEO) and Nathan Gilchrist (the chief operating officer) in 2018, Medefy now has 1,500 employer groups signed up on its platform.

It grew by 1,964% in the last three years, Inc. Magazine said, and continues to see exponential growth, Scovil said.

Heres how Medefy works:

Its very difficult for the average person to navigate their health insurance. Its a very complex topic. People have a difficult time understanding whats covered, whats not covered, where they can go, how much money things cost, Scovil said. Can my kid get a vaccination at this Walgreens? Is my MRI covered under this plan? Etcetera.

Its a very complex world for the average person to navigate,  and we see a bunch of really bad behaviors kind of result from that. Up to half of Americans delay getting care because of cost, which spirals into big, secondary problems.

He said people will use the emergency room for primary care to be seen faster. Theyve seen people using really expensive hospital services for everything.

And this is resulting in poorer health outcomes, and, No. 2, it is the fastest reason for bankruptcy in the United States. The No. 1 cause of bankruptcy is medical bills for insured people, Scovil said.

People are not navigating their plans correctly. They dont understand them, and they are spending way too much money, which is causing them financial hardship.

Employer groups are the leading providers of health insurance, and they have seen a record high health-care cost for their employee base every year since 1999,Scovil said.

And every year beats the record that was set before, he said. They have all these employees that theyve insured; they talk to them about health insurance about once a year; then they send them out into the night with largely a blank check, and those employees are running up massive bills for the company.

So you have this big, fat problem, where employees dont know how to navigate the plan and the employer has no idea of how to help them navigate the plan, and thats what Medefy was founded to do.

The cost of Medefy for employer groups is $6 to $12 per month per employee, Scovil said.

Medefy recently received $10 million from Mercury Fund and Advantage Capital.

The company has 55 employees and is looking to hire at least 35 more yesterday, Scovil said.

When youre starting a tech company, landing on the Inc. 5000 list is a huge honor. I used to read that list, and I was like. If I could just be 5,000th on this list,  I will be very happy, he said.

We were way up on the high echelon for fast-growing companies, which is a huge honor, and just a testament to not only our great product platform but our awesome team that we have here at Medefy, and Im incredibly proud of that.

Tulsa-area Inc. 5000 companies In addition to Medefy, here are other Tulsa-area companies that made this year's Inc. 5000 list, their rankings and percentage growth over the past three years. Rivas & Associates (legal), No. 599; 977% Thompson Construction (construction), No. 1,964; 286% NextGen Tax Services (financial services), No. 2,367; 233% PPT Solutions (business products and services), No. 2,901; 182% Lumio Dental (health services), No. 2,988; 174% Metal Building Industries (manufacturing), No. 3,274; 155% MowTown Outdoors (Broken Arrow  consumer products), No. 3,484; 143% TokenEx (software), No. 3,657; 133% Certified Source (human resources), No. 4,045; 113% A total of 23 Oklahoma-based companies made the list, including 10 in Oklahoma City.

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Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton Tulsa World Staff Writer Follow Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Back in the saddle again: Classes resume Monday for Bixby, Epic, Keystone and Tulsa Legacy.

Classes resume Tuesday for Claremore, KIPP Tulsa and Verdigris.

Stay home day: Classes are not in session Friday for Prue Public Schools or Tulsa Honor Academy.

After hours help: Tulsa Public Schools enrollment center, 2819 S. New Haven Ave., will stay open late on Thursdays through Feb. 1 to provide additional support for families completing a 2024-25 enrollment application. The building will remain open to the public until 7 p.m. on those nights.

See something, say something: Sapulpa Public Schools announced Friday that it will be using a new platform to handle tips of potential threats and on-campus safety issues.

The platform, Vector Alert, is available online at 2180.alert1.us and as an app through Google Play. Anonymous tips may also be submitted via email to 2180@alert1.us and via phone or text to 918-347-4179.

The service will be monitored during school hours.

Financial aid session: The Osage Nation Education Department will host a FAFSA workshop at 5 p.m. Wednesday for Indigenous high school seniors who attend one of the tribes Johnson-OMalley partner districts. Those school districts include Barnsdall, Hominy, Pawhuska, Prue, Shidler, Skiatook, Woodland and Wynona.

Eligible students may register for the event by calling 918-287-5300.

Essay contest: The Jewish Federation of Tulsas Council for Holocaust Education is accepting entries for its annual White Rose Memorial Essay Contest through March 29. The contest is open to any Oklahoma middle or high school student.

Additional information, including the essay prompt, requirements and judging criteria, is available online at tinyurl.com/WhiteRose24.

School board calendar: The boards of education for Allen-Bowden, Berryhill, Broken Arrow, Catoosa, Collinsville, Coweta, Jenks, Kiefer, Liberty, Mannford, Mounds, Owasso, Prue, Sand Springs, Skiatook, Sperry and Tulsa have meetings scheduled for Monday. The State Virtual Charter School Board is scheduled to meet Monday in Oklahoma City.

The boards of education for Anderson and Lone Star and the Board of Trustees for Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences have meetings scheduled for Tuesday.

Verdigris Board of Education is scheduled to meet Wednesday.

The boards for Bixby and Pretty Water are scheduled to meet Thursday.

Inolas board is scheduled to meet Friday.
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After receiving just one response to its request for proposals to operate a low-barrier shelter for homeless people, the city issued a modified version of the RFP late last year in the hope of attracting more interest in the project.

This time around, two organizations responded: City Lights Foundation of Oklahoma and MedCross.org.

Travis Hulse, Tulsas housing policy director, said the city is in the early stages of reviewing the responses but hopes to select an operator by the end of February and have the shelter up and running later this year.

Once weve evaluated the proposals, well make a recommendation to city leadership for who we feel is best qualified to receive the contract, Hulse said.

The citys latest RFP sought an organization to establish and operate a 24/7 noncongregate shelter for 50 to 75 households. A household could include a single person, a married couple or a family.

Low-barrier shelters are designed for those individuals who otherwise would not be able to access a traditional shelter due to substance abuse, mental health problems or other factors.

The program, which will include case management services, is intended to resolve the root causes of each persons homelessness and to help locate and prepare that person for permanent housing within 120 days, according to the RFP.

The citys initial RFP received a lukewarm response from social service providers who were concerned about the citys willingness to provide long-term financial assistance.

Issued in September, it proposed that the city would provide federal funds to cover all of the low-barrier shelters expenses, including facility leasing, during the first year of operation. But it would be the shelter operators responsibility to secure funding thereafter, with the city committed to supporting fundraising efforts where it could.

The latest RFP states that the city has identified federal funding to support the first three years of all program expenses, including facility acquisition and any building renovations or site preparation that might be needed.

Based on similar programs, the operational expenses are estimated to be between $1,500,000 to $2,000,000 per year, according to the RFP.

The city is not obligated to provide funding for the program after year three but is committed to helping the operator secure funding through government grants and private donations.

After we released the first RFP, we received feedback and questions from potential respondents that really, I think, gave us some good insight into where we needed to kind of rethink the way the RFP itself had been written and the citys expectations as a partner with the potential operator, Hulse said.

So some of the changes that we made include extending the citys commitment from a one-year commitment to a three-year commitment.  The other major change was the city committing to acquiring a property.

Mayor G.T. Bynum said the citys asset management team is just evaluating what facilities might work best as a shelter.

They have been holding off because that is a decision ultimately we want to make in partnership with whomever is selected to operate it, Bynum said.

In 2022, Bynum pledged to have a low-barrier shelter in place in 2023 but acknowledged late last year that the process of creating the RFP took longer than expected.

Its much more complex than I think I probably initially gave it credit for, and it is something that we as a city government have never done before, he said at the time.

The city has made progress on other fronts as it works to address Tulsas homelessness problem. The Housing, Homelessness & Mental Health Task Force established by the mayor issued nine short-term recommendations in October, seven of which have been either approved or funded by the City Council and mayor.

They include allocating more than $3 million for temporary emergency and long-term housing programs for the chronically homeless; funding more animal accommodations and a wash station at the Tulsa Day Center; and strengthening the city ordinance regarding trespassing on private property while providing easier access to diversion or specialty court services.

City councilors are working to finalize two other task force recommendations: that the city clarify its ordinance pertaining to individuals obstructing public rights of way, such as sidewalks, and that it enforce its prohibitions against camping, littering and sleeping on private rights of way such as property owned by railroads.

Opening a low-barrier shelter was among the task forces recommendations.

Bynum has directed the Police Department to enforce all city laws equally regardless of a persons perceived housing status, another recommendation of the task force.

Bynum said it was important to remember that each of the countrys 50 largest cities, Tulsa included, is evaluating what approaches to addressing homelessness are most effective.

These are things that when fully implemented will have a significant impact on the homeless challenges that we face in Tulsa, he said of the citys ongoing efforts.

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The Osage people werent looking for wealth when they bought 1.47 million acres from the Cherokee Nation in 1872. Mostly they just wanted to be left alone.

But wealth, however fleeting, is what the People of the Middle Waters found, first in the tall grass growing on the rocky hills of present Osage County, and then from the oil and natural gas below the surface.

The rapid rise of petroleum-fueled industrialization in the early 20th century, the quantity and quality of oil in the Osage fields, and the singular method by which the Osage people retained their mineral rights created an astonishing bounty. From 1901 to 1950, the tribe received nearly $300 million  worth about $4 billion today  with two-thirds of that paid from 1919 to 1928.

And all of it concentrated in the hands of a few thousand people.

In 1906, when the Osages agreed to accept allotment of their reservation to facilitate formation of the state of Oklahoma, one of their conditions was that the mineral estate continue to be held collectively by the tribe, with the proceeds to go into trust.

The Osages were in a better bargaining position than most tribes because they owned their reservation in fee simple, meaning complete ownership allowed under law, instead of by treaty. Their leaders negotiated this arrangement after witnessing allotments disastrous effects on other Indians. In a large majority of cases, allotments  and the accompanying mineral rights  had quickly passed from allottees, leaving them destitute.

The Osages also insisted their entire reservation be allotted, leaving no surplus for non-Osage settlement.

A roll of 2,229 names was drawn up and approved. Each enrollee received three parcels of land as allotments, and one share, or headright, of the the mineral trust.

Headright owners received quarterly payments from the trust.

At the time, the amounts involved were rather modest  probably about $100 a year, based on the total payout to the tribe. Within a short time, however, headright value increased manyfold.

The Osages had already been through one boom of sorts before the oil began flowing in the early 1900s. Texas cattlemen had paid well to graze their herds on the Osage prairie before driving them across the line to southern Kansas railheads, and ranching had caught on with the Osages themselves.

That boom was nothing like the one that followed it, however.

Oil seeps had been detected in and around the Osage country for decades, but commercial development began in 1896, when Rhode Island bankers Henry and Edwin Foster secured a 10-year lease on the entire reservation. The Fosters then subleased to other investors and in 1901 combined their holdings into the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co., which in 1912 became Cities Service, or CITGO.

The first successful well in the Osage country was completed in October 1897 on Butler Creek, two miles west of Bartlesville, six months after and not far from the Nellie Johnstone No. 1, the first commercial well in what is now Oklahoma.

In 1903, Congress approved pipeline construction in Indian Territory. This greatly facilitated transportation of crude and refined products. By 1905, when the Foster lease was renewed in a modified form, more than 300 wells were producing in the Osage. Frank Phillips, founder of Phillips Petroleum, completed his first successful well  just outside the Osage Reservation at Dewey  and 12-year-old J. Paul Getty was on his way to his first million as an investor in his fathers lease southwest of Bartlesville.

With the lapse of the second Foster lease in 1916, Osage oil and gas leases began to be sold individually, first by sealed bid and then at live auction, often under the famous Million Dollar Elm in Pawhuska.

This proved very profitable for the Osages. Bonus payments went from virtually nothing in 1915 to $15.3 million eight years later. Total oil and gas revenue rose from $561,810 to $30.5 million.

While the headright system did protect the tribes mineral estate to a large extent, it did have some quirks.

Early on, courts ruled that individual headrights were covered by state inheritance and probate laws. Within a very short time, some people held multiple headrights and others held fractional ones.

This set up the scenario portrayed in the upcoming movie based on the best-selling book Killers of the Flower Moon, by which multiple headrights could be directed toward one person. In Killers of the Flower Moon, that one person is ultimately Mollie Burkhart, but hers was far from an isolated case.

Mary Elkins, a fullblood Osage who held between 7 and 8 headrights, was essentially kidnapped by a local thug named Wilbur Corbet. Under the influence of alcohol and drugs, Elkins married Corbet and was then kept locked in a Colorado Springs apartment until her guardian could find and extricate her from the situation. Several people were said to be involved in the scheme but no one was ever charged or, except for Corbet, exposed.

Congress barred the inheritance of headright interests by non-Osages in 1978. That same year Congress also extended the mineral estate in perpetuity. Previously, the estate had to be renewed periodically by Congress.

Today, Osages control about 75% of their original mineral rights, compared to about 10% of their original land allotments, officials say. The tribe would like to reacquire the roughly 560 headrights that have left the tribe through inheritance, gift or sale, but there is no legal means of doing so.

Today, the oil and gas production in Osage County is limited mostly to marginally producing stripper wells. Because the mineral rights are owned by an Indian tribe, oil and gas activity in the county is regulated by the federal government instead of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which oversees the rest of the state.

Minerals Council Chairman Everett Waller says the stricter federal regulations makes new production in the Osage too expensive.

Im non-competitive, he said.

Tribal officials say about 5,000 Osages, or only about 20% of tribal members, have headright interests. Understandably, that is a point of some contention within the nation, even if a headright is considerably less valuable than during the time the movie depicts.

According to the Osage Nation website, September quarterly payments for each full headright were $4,655  a fraction of their value on the night in 1923 when a nitroglycerin explosion ripping through a house in Fairfax brought to national attention to the Osage Reign of Terror.

Coming Wednesday: Although many Osages had multiple friends and relatives killed in the early 20th century over oil revenue, one survivor in particular has drawn additional attention due to Killers of the Flower Moon.

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Four major state-run Vietnamese banks  Vietcombank, VietinBank, Agribank, and BIDV  have released their business results for 2023, which indicated huge profits despite the global economic slowdown.

The four are the biggest in Vietnam.

In particular, BIDV reported that it fulfilled all business targets set for last year.

The bank recorded a new record consolidated pre-tax profit of over VND27.4 trillion (US$1.1 billion) last year, a 19-percent increase versus 2022.

Its assets were valued at VND2,260 trillion ($93 billion), maintaining its position as the biggest joint stock bank in Vietnam by asset size.

The lender mobilized VND1,890 trillion ($77.8 billion) in 2023, up 16.5 percent year on year.

Its outstanding loans reached VND1,750 trillion ($72 billion), rising 16.66 percent, and its bad debt ratio was at 1.1 percent.

Vietcombank has also stated that it achieved all targets for 2023, including the pre-tax profit goal. However, it did not reveal the specific figure.

Earlier, the bank set a target that its pre-tax profit in 2023 would increase by at least 15 percent over the previous year.

In 2022, Vietcombank earned a consolidated pre-tax profit of nearly VND37.4 trillion ($1.5 billion).

Thus, the banks consolidated pre-tax profit might have been around VND43 trillion ($1.8 billion) last year.

Earlier, the lender reported its January-September pre-tax profit at VND29.55 trillion ($1.2 billion).

Its mobilized capital hit VND1,410 trillion ($58.1 billion) last year, picking up 12.1 percent over 2022. Its outstanding credit stood at VND1,270 trillion ($52.3 billion), up 10.6 percent.

At a recent meeting, Agribank also disclosed that it completed business objectives.

Agribank had earlier looked to generate VND26.2 trillion ($1.1 billion) in pre-tax profits last year.

In the first half of 2023, the bank surpassed half of the target, specifically yielding a pre-tax profit of nearly VND13.5 trillion ($556.4 million).

Its asset value exceeded VND2,000 trillion ($82.5 billion) and its outstanding loans were over VND1,550 trillion ($63.9 billion). The lender met banking safety criteria as well.

The government and lawmaking National Assembly have recently approved an additional VND17.1 trillion ($705 million) to increase Agribanks charter capital to over VND51 trillion ($2.1 billion).

Vietinbank also met its pre-tax profit target for 2023, at VND22.5 trillion ($927.5 million), according to documents at a conference to review the banks performance last year and discuss plans for this year.

By the end of the third quarter of last year, Vietinbank recorded a separate and consolidated pre-tax profit of some VND16.9 trillion ($696.7 million) and VND17.4 trillion ($717.8 million), respectively, all up over 10 percent compared with 2022.

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State utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) entered into 19 power purchase agreements for the acquisition of 2,689MW of electricity from 26 hydropower plants in Laos during the 46th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee for Bilateral Cooperation in Hanoi on Sunday.

The meeting was co-chaired by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Lao counterpart Sonexay Siphandone.

The signing of the agreements demonstrated deeper cooperation in electricity between Vietnam and Laos.

Besides, the two nations have completed their negotiations on electricity purchase prices at the Xekaman 3 hydropower plant in Laos.

Speaking at the event, the Lao leader underlined that Laos will adjust some regulations on the duration of hydropower investments to facilitate Vietnams electricity purchase.

An overview of the 46th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee for Bilateral Cooperation in Hanoi on January 7, 2024. Photo: Vietnam Government Portal

The meeting centered on addressing unsolved issues, discussing cooperation plans for 2024, and boosting bilateral partnership.

Vietnam has got involved in 245 operational projects in Laos with a total pledged capital of some US$5.5 billion.

In 2023, Vietnam channeled $116.6 million into Laos, up 65.3 percent year on year, while Vietnamese enterprises have contributed nearly $1.7 billion in taxes to the Lao budget since 2015.

Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone (L, 2nd) speaks at the 46th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee for Bilateral Cooperation in Hanoi on January 7, 2024. Photo: Vietnam Government Portal

Meanwhile, Laos has been executing 18 projects in Vietnam, with a total registered capital of over $110 million.

Two-way trade between the two nations in 2023 reached some $1.6 billion, inching down 2.1 percent year on year. Vietnams imports from Laos last year increased 4.2 percent in value against 2022.

Vietnam and Laos inaugurated Nong Khang Airport in the latter in May last year, which was one of the two nations key cooperative projects.

The two sides reached a consensus on effectively implementing cooperative deals in 2024, while fostering partnership in the diplomatic, political, defense, security, and traffic fields.

They will focus on sharing experience and information about macroeconomic management and the founding of an independent and self-reliant economy.

Moreover, a link between Vietnamese enterprises and Lao authorities will be strengthened to help remove obstacles facing Vietnamese investors.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (C) addresses the 46th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee for Bilateral Cooperation in Hanoi on January 7, 2024. Photo: Vietnam Government Portal

The two nations look to hike their bilateral trade in 2024 by 10-15 percent against 2023, seeing agriculture and rural development as one of the key pillars of their cooperation.

With regard to educational cooperation, the Vietnamese government will continue to award 1,120 scholarships to Laotian students and public officials, allowing them to study in Vietnam, while sending Vietnamese teachers to Laos to teach the Vietnamese language in 2024.

In addition, the two countries will boost tourism connectivity between Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Lao counterpart Sonexay Siphandone witness the handover of cooperative deals in Hanoi on January 7, 2024. Photo: Vietnam Government Portal

Vietnam and Laos set up diplomatic ties in 1962 and their relationship has fruitfully developed in all spheres ever since.

Lao Prime Minister Siphandone and his spouse and entourage left Hanoi to return to his country on Sunday afternoon, ending his successful two-day visit to Vietnam.

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The Peoples Committee of Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam on Monday issued investment registration certificates to four foreign-invested projects with a total pledged capital of US$156.4 million.

This is the first certificate issuance to new foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the province this year.

Among them is the SLP Park Loc An Binh Son project, situated at the Loc An - Binh Son Industrial Park in Long Thanh District.

The project is set to carry a price tag of over $121 million, and specialize in supplying warehouse and storage services.

Scheduled to operate at the same industrial park, the Freudenberg & Vilene International Vietnam - Long Thanh project, run by Hong Kongs Freudenberg & Vilene International Vietnam Company, will be implemented at a cost of $10 million to produce kapok.

Another new FDI project getting the nod from the provincial administration is K-Upa, which is executed by South Koreas KCTC Vina Company.

The project will specialize in goods storage services at the Nhon Trach 1 Industrial Park, with a total investment of $10 million.

Hong Kongs Ryder Industries Limited registered to pour $15 million into an electronic production factory operated by Ryder Industries Vietnam Company. The plant will lie at the Long Thanh industrial park upon completion.

Nguyen Tri Phuong, head of the provincial industrial zone authority, said that apart from green-lighting the four new FDI projects, the province gave permission to four foreign-invested firms to revise up their capital at some operational projects worth more than $217 million.

Representatives of new FDI projects receive certificates to invest in Dong Nai Province, a neighbor of Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: H.M. / Tuoi Tre

Speaking at the certificate handover ceremony, Nguyen Thi Hoang, vice-chairwoman of the provincial administration, said that Dong Nai Province was eager to welcome investors at the start of the year.

The province is giving priority to investments in the hi-tech, logistics, supporting technology, and infrastructure fields.

She also asked investors to pay attention to environmental protection and build a healthy working environment for employees during their operation and production period in the province.

Dong Nai attracted over $1.1 billion in foreign investment in 2023, a slight increase against 2022, according to the provincial statistics office.

The combined capital injection from 72 newly registered FDI projects amounted to over $416 million.

Capital adjustments for 88 existing foreign-invested projects resulted in an increase of more than $743 million.

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My Thuy International Port Joint Venture Company (MTIP) has been told to recommence work on the My Thuy deep water seaport project in Hai Lang District, Quang Tri Province, north-central Vietnam on February 26 this year after four years of suspension.

Vo Van Hung, chairman of Quang Tri, asked the project developer MTIP and relevant agencies to urgently complete site clearance and other procedures to restart the project, the provincial administrations office said on Sunday.

Regarding the site clearance, Duong Viet Hai, vice-chairman of the administration of Hai Lang District, said the district had paid local households affected by the project development VND93 billion (US$3.8 million) as compensation for 125.32 out of 133.67 hectares of cleared land needed for it.

The district is ramping up efforts to get back the remaining amount of land.

As the project is related to 161 hectares of sea surface, the developer is processing procedures to be able to receive the said sea surface, as required by the Vietnam Agency of Sea and Islands.

As thorough dredging is required to build this manmade deep water port, the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment is searching for locations to dispose of 17 million cubic meters of dredged sediment.

Three spots covering 58.4 hectares were suggested but had yet to meet the demand, according to the Quang Tri Economic Zone Management Authority.

On December 30 last year, the central government approved the conversion of land use purposes of 23.63 hectares of a protected forest to execute the project.

The Quang Tri administration is seeking approval from the provincial Peoples Council, a local law-making body, to convert the land use purpose of 18.51 hectares of a production forest.

The My Thuy deep water seaport project, approved by the prime minister in January 2019, would include 10 ports and be developed in three phases during the 2018-26 period, with a total investment of VND14.234 trillion ($588.5 million).

The MTIP held a groundbreaking ceremony for the project on February 27, 2020 but difficulties linked to investment procedures then halted the construction.

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A host of expats recently shared their thoughts about their own experiences of living in Vietnam, with many of them recommending that people seek ways to adapt to a new environment and appreciate good things in life.

These expats were leaving comments on Tuoi Tre News recent story Eight things I hate about Vietnam, written by Ray Kuschert, an Australian who has been living in Ho Chi Minh City for over a decade.

In the story, Kuschert listed the top eight things he hates about Vietnam in terms of visa policy, traffic, food, weather, and more.

Louis Barber Corallo, coming from the UK, agreed that there are some things in need of changes in Vietnam, but instead of moaning all the time, he suggested foreigners should learn and adapt to a new culture as much as they can.

He recommended that foreigners here learn some Vietnamese, go to their expat bubble for a break but also gain independence from the expat bubble by having many local friends, and be friendly with their neighbors.

Echoing Louis views on the issue, Anh Bon Andrew thinks that expats should learn how to speak Vietnamese, make more Vietnamese friends, and fit into their community, believing that by that way all problems facing them could be solved.

Ruth Maloney, a native of Australia, who shared her same opinions as the writer, commented, After many years living in Vietnam, you learn to make do with whatever is thrown at you, and appreciate the good stuff.

Vietnam is and is not for everyone, according to Sivaraj Pragasm, currently living in Ho Chi Minh City.

You can actually find almost everything you need, even size 47 shoes if you know where to look, plus a basic understanding of the language and some local friends should be more than enough to get you started," Pragasm said.

Pragasm, coming from Singapore, did not agree that foreigners were singled out for extra rates by default, sharing his experience living in Vietnam: Just by greeting the lady selling coffee downstairs every morning, she's somehow given me, a dark skinned foreigner, a permanent discount on coffee even though I never asked for it.

There is always still some kind of silver lining and reward somewhere and somehow that always ends up working out and that alone makes it all worth it," he added.

According to Paul Jones, he got annoyed by several things in Vietnam, but after "weighing out the good and bad and it's better here."

Meanwhile, several foreign readers recounted their bad experience of being overcharged in Vietnam.

Based on my experience, they double the price when they see that you are a foreigner, said Mark Walker, of Philippine nationality.

Kristoffer Svendsen believed that foreigners would only be fleeced if they did not know better nor speak Vietnamese.

Alessandro Ferin, however, disagreed with that, saying, Some places have higher prices for foreigners no matter the language you speak [such as museums] but it is not a big deal.

Commenting on this issue, Rob Lock said it was fair to charge tourists more, as most museums are government-funded and Vietnamese pay taxes while tourists do not.

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For the past eight years, Dr. Nguyen Thi Bich Yen, a Vietnamese-Austrian journalist, along with a team of like-minded friends, has dedicated her time to a project aimed at inspiring overseas Vietnamese to remember their homeland.

'Vietnam Ancestral Global Day' (VAGD), was founded in 2015 by Nguyen Thi Bich Yen and a team of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals as a means of preserving and honoring Vietnamese values.

The VAGD was also intended to foster a sense of pride in Vietnam among the Vietnamese community around the world.

An ambitious undertaking

"When I first proposed the idea of [VAGD], some people expressed doubt about its feasibility," Yen said.

"Despite their concerns, I passionately believed that I would be supported and protected by our ancestors if my intentions were genuine and aimed at benefiting the community."

So far, the group has seen success in inspiring overseas Vietnamese to remember their homeland.

In early 2019, for example, the project management team visited four countries in Asia and Europe to prepare for the unveilings of statues of the Hung Kings.

Another poignant moment occurred in 2019 when Yen visited Dong Xuan Market in Berlin, Germany.

During the visit, she found a shop with an old, worn-out collection of Vietnamese poems.

After speaking with the shop owner, she discovered that the poems were the work of the owners late father.

Touched by the story, Yen invited the shop owner and her mother to a commemoration ceremony for the Hung Kings in Berlin scheduled for later that year.

At the event, the shop owners mother, dressed in an elegant traditional Vietnamese ao dai, recited her late husbands poems to a captivated audience.

According to the shop owners mother, the poems were authored with the hope of leaving behind a legacy for their children and grandchildren and a literary snapshot of the familys hometown in Vietnam.

Being able to share her husbands words with her fellow countrymen in a foreign country, she said, was nothing short of unbelievable.

After the event, the wife of an official from the Vietnamese Embassy in Germany, visibly moved, approached Yen with tears in her eyes, thanking her for hosting such a heartfelt event.

Nguyen Thi Bich Yen, a Vietnamese-Austrian woman whose idea is making the Hung Kings Commemoration Day a global event. Photo: Supplied

Cherished achievements and ongoing concerns

The VAGD has continued to grow in the eight years since its inception.

In 2023, ceremonies associated with the VAGD took place in Laos, Germany, and Russia. These events provided online streams accessible to audiences in nearly 40 countries.

Despite its success, concerns over the VAGD still linger, particularly in relation to its lack of formal personnel, insufficient resources, and leadership void.

Currently, the iniative only has one employee who heads the project, but works part-time only.

Given a dearth of resources, Yen is not shy about highlighting what the VAGD does have: deep gratitude to Vietnamese ancestors, a mission to promote Vietnamese culture globally, and a strong national identity that fosters nostalgia for the homeland.

The groups primary focus is on hosting meaningful activities for the Vietnamese diaspora, including the installation of statues of the Hung Kings and the organization of commemoration ceremonies in several countries.

The VAGD events also honor Vietnamese individuals physically and virtually in nearly 50 countries and territories.

The project has successfully hosted 70 panel discussions on Hung Kings' Day, featuring nearly 700 guests, including intellectuals, scientists, diplomats, and experts.

Participant perspectives

* Pham Thi Minh Huong, project manager for Vietnam Ancestral Global Day in Laos (2023)

"I find this project to be meaningful and humanitarian because it fosters national solidarity and inspires Vietnamese worldwide to embrace their nation. In 2023, as the project manager of the Vietnam Ancestral Global Day in Laos, where Vietnamese-Laotian people and those from 11 other countries gathered, watching my countrymen be moved to tears made me realize the need for greater efforts to contribute to the community and connect Vietnamese across all continents."

* Prof. Dr. Bui Minh Phong, a resident of Hungary and VAGD founding member

During the project's implementation, we observed an elevation in the role of Vietnamese communities in many countries, inspiring a deeper connection to their homeland. This has facilitated a greater understanding among our foreign friends about the activities we have undertaken to express our love for the motherland. The installation of statues of the Hung Kings and bronze drums in some countries has highlighted the sacred and distinctive features of Vietnamese communities.

Prof. Dr. Bui Minh Phong was honored with the Knight's Cross medal by the Hungarian president in August 2023.

This prestigious accolade came after his 37 years of dedication to teaching and conducting research (1986-2023) at Eotvos Lorand University.

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The death toll from Japan's New Year's Day earthquake has jumped to 161 from 128 overnight, authorities said Monday as snow complicated rescue efforts.

The number of people unaccounted for fell to 103 from 195, according to authorities in the central Ishikawa region hit by the 7.5-magnitude quake.

The shock waves toppled buildings, sparked a major fire and triggered tsunami waves over a metre high.

Thousands of rescuers have been drafted in from all over Japan, their work complicated by roads being cut off by the quake and an estimated 1,000 landslides.

In the last two days, the region has been blanketed in snow, making the operation harder still.

Against the odds, a woman in her 90s survived five days under the wreckage of a collapsed house in the city of Suzu on the hard-hit Noto Peninsula before being saved on Saturday.

"Hang in there!" rescuers were heard calling to the woman, in police footage from the rainy scene published by local media.

"You're gonna be OK!" they shouted. "Stay positive!"

Not all were so lucky. In the town of Anamizu, a 52-year-old man who lost his 21-year-old son and his parents-in-law waited to hear news of his wife, his other three children and more family members.

"I want them to be alive. It's unthinkable that I could be left alone," he told NHK.

The colder weather is also likely to worsen conditions for more than 28,800 people in 404 government shelters.

That means relief materials have been slow to reach areas suffering water and power outages.

Around 20,700 households in the wider Ishikawa region remained without electricity on Sunday. More than 66,100 households were without water.

"The first priority has been to rescue people under the rubble, and to reach isolated communities," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in an interview with NHK on Sunday.

The military has sent small groups of troops to each of the isolated communities on foot, he said.

The government has also "deployed various police and fire department helicopters" to reach them, Kishida added.

Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year, though most cause no damage because of strict building codes in place for more than four decades.

But many structures are older, especially in rapidly ageing communities in rural areas like Noto.

The country is haunted by the monster quake of 2011 that triggered a tsunami, left around 18,500 people dead or missing and caused a nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima plant.
ROME -- Mountain rescue teams found the bodies of two Italian hikers after an avalanche on Sunday in the Alps close to the border between Italy and Switzerland.

One body was found buried in snow while the other was recovered from a lake after the avalanche at a height of around 2,200 metres (7,200 feet) in the Val Formazza area in Italy's Piedmont region, Alpine rescue group CNSAS said in a statement.

A specialist rescue team was sent to the scene by helicopter despite strong winds in the area after the alarm was raised around midday (1100 GMT). A dog trained in rescue operations also helped to find the bodies.

The victims, who had been wearing snowshoes to help navigate the mountain, were a 30-year-old woman and a man aged 53, Italian media reported. They were from the region of Lombardy in northern Italy.
Read what is in the news in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his spouse guided visiting Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone and his spouse on their tour of Ngoc Son Temple and Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi on Sunday.

Society

-- During the 46th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee for Bilateral Cooperation in Hanoi on Sunday, it was revealed that state utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) entered into 19 power purchase agreements with producers for the acquisition of 2,689MW of electricity from 26 hydropower projects in Laos.

-- The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam stated that it has not received an order from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration regarding the temporary suspension of Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft operations for inspection, following a cabin panel blowout that compelled a new Alaska Airlines jet carrying passengers to make an emergency landing.

-- The construction of the My Thuy deep sea port in Quang Tri Province, north-central Vietnam, at a cost of over VND14.2 trillion (US$583.8 million), is anticipated to resume on February 26 after a four-year hiatus caused by financial constraints and procedural complexities, the provincial Peoples Committee said on Sunday.

-- Police in Lac Duong District of the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong on Sunday said that they apprehended an individual who had employed a gun to hunt and fatally injure several endangered wild animals.

-- Cruise ship Celebrity Solstice docked at Chan May port in Thua Thien-Hue Province on Sunday, bringing approximately 2,700 foreign visitors to central Vietnam.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport reports that Tan Son Nhat International Airport is projected to receive 130,000-140,000 passengers daily during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, reflecting an eight-percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Business

-- Vietnam spent over $2.8 billion on importing close to 117,800 completely built-up cars in 2023, a significant decrease of 27 percent in value and 32 percent in volume compared to the previous year, according to the General Statistics Office.

Sports

-- Yokohama FC, playing in Japans second-tier J2 League, have officially announced the contract extension with Vietnamese forward Nguyen Cong Phuong until the end of 2024, despite his limited playtime last season.

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Police in Lam Dong Province, located in Vietnams Central Highlands region, have detained a man who shot dead endangered wild animals of various species, used their meat for food, and soaked their genitals with alcohol in jars.

The provincial police department on Sunday said they had arrested a local man, 34-year-old Ha Van Suoi, for investigation on charges of violating regulations on protection of endangered, precious, and rare animals.

The arrest was made after a police team of the provinces Lac Duong District received a tip-off from the public about Suoi having hunted and killed wild animals using an airgun for months.

Searching his residence, the team seized the gun, lead bullets, and wild animal carcasses of many species included in the list of endangered, precious, and rare species prioritized for protection under a government decree.

Police officers also confiscated from the man a total of 43 parts of wild animals, including two feet of white pheasants, one foot and one sex organ of the civet, two feet of black-shanked douc langurs, 10 feet of red giant flying squirrels, 21 feet of spotted giant flying squirrels, and six feet of small sloth-monkeys.

Some of the 43 parts of the endangered wild animals killed by Ha Van Suoi in forests in Lam Dong Province, located in Vietnams Central Highlands region. Photo: Pham Ngan / Tuoi Tre

Suoi, who has been put in four-month temporary detention, confessed to investigators that he bought the gun for VND6 million (US$248) from a stranger through social media in February 2023.

He said he left his house at about 5:00 pm every day from April to late November 2023, and went along a trail leading to the forests in Lac Duongs Dung KNo Commune for hunting.

At the end of each hunting day, Suoi carried the killed wild animals home, where he processed their meat and bones into food, while immersing their legs and genitals in jars filled with alcohol.

Endangered wild animals are strictly protected in Vietnam under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which the country has been party since 1994.

Pursuant to Vietnams Penal Code, transporting, trading, capturing or killing wild animals or parts thereof is a criminal offense punishable by six months to 12 years in prison.

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Prof. Dr. Nguyen Vu Quoc Huy, rector of the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy under Hue University in Thua Thien-Hue Province, central Vietnam, has been awarded the title of the Knight of the National Order of Merit of France for his contributions to the Francophone medicine community in the province as well as the France-Vietnam relations.

Huy told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that he was touched and proud to receive the valuable order of merit.

"I am proud, not just because I received the order of merit, but because France has acknowledged the contributions of the Francophone community at large and, specifically, the Francophone medicine community in Hue over the past 30 years," Huy said.

Over three decades ago, when Huy was a student of the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, he joined a translation club which translated hundreds of French medical books, documents, and magazines to serve local students.

At the time, there was no Internet while medical books and newspapers were scarce.

Therefore, the translation of such French medical books and magazines was the unique way to get updates.

After graduation, Huy worked at the university and continued the translation job.

Even though he received a scholarship to participate in a refresher course in Germany, his enthusiasm for French medicine remained unwavering.

After returning to Vietnam, he supported the organization of short-term training courses held by French professors and then became an international honorary member of the French Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Through the association, French professors have annually come to Vietnam to provide new knowledge about obstetrics and gynecology for Vietnamese doctors for the last 13 years.

Huy emphasized that the order of merit was for the Francophone medicine community in Thua Thien-Hue.

This is the recognition of the entire community, not only an individual. I am just a representative [of the community] to receive the order of merit, Huy humbly said.

Regarding his upcoming plans, Huy said that he would continue external relations activities so that other countries, especially France, could have a deeper understanding of Hue, the capital of Thua Thien-Hue, and Vietnam and seek win-win cooperation opportunities.

The Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy is striving to expand its cooperation to provide its officials and students with more opportunities to attend refresher courses abroad, especially in France. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

He will also boost the exchange of students and officials.

Last year, the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy inked bilateral cooperation agreements with three large universities in France, including the prestigious Paris-Sorbonne University.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Anh Phuong, director of Hue University, said he was happy when Huy was awarded Frances National Order of Merit for his contributions to medicine and the Vietnam-France friendship.

Phuong added that Huy is a friendly, exemplary, and excellent teacher and scientist who is always devoted to colleagues, students, and patients.

Huy has made significant contributions to the development of the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy and Hue University as a whole.

Prof. Dr. Huy graduated with a doctorate degree from Germanys University of Dusseldorf and was promoted to professor in 2019.

Besides working as the rector of the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Huy is now chairman of the Vietnam-Germany Friendship Association in Thua Thien-Hue as well as an honorary member of the Vietnam-France Friendship Association in the province and the French Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

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Vietnam has not suspended Boeing 737 MAX 9 jetliners from flying over its airspace as it has yet to receive a notice from the U.S. of ceasing the use of such aircraft following a cabin panel blowout last week, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV).

The CAAV has so far received no announcement from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after the incident in which an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet had to land urgently due to a safety incident last Friday, CAAV director Dinh Viet Thang told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday.

The plane in question, with 171 passengers and six crew members aboard, was climbing following take-off from Portland, Oregon en route to Ontario, California when a piece of fuselage tore off the left side of the jet, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely, according to Reuters.

In principle, once the FAA, as the aviation authority of the manufacturing country of Boeing 737 MAX 9, has announced suspending the operation of this type of aircraft for investigation, all airlines using it will strictly comply with the suspension, Thang stated.

The CAAV has therefore yet to temporarily bar such aircraft from flying through Vietnamese airspace, the aviation chief said.

To date, no Vietnamese airline has operated Boeing 737 MAX 9 jetliners, Thang affirmed.

Vietnams budget carrier Vietjet has recently signed a contract to buy such planes but has yet to take delivery, while national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines has only signed a memorandum of understanding on the purchase of 50 aircraft of this type, he added.

After the mentioned incident, the FAA temporarily grounded 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 jetliners on Saturday for safety checks, whereas the agency did not specify the precise inspection requirements or provide detailed information on inspection intervals.

Mandatory inspections will take approximately four to eight hours per aircraft, the FAA stated.

Boeing has issued a statement agreeing with the FAAs decision and saying its technical team is supporting the U.S. National Transportation Safety Boards investigation into the incident that happened to the Alaska Airlines.

Vietnam once closed its airspace to Boeings aircraft four years ago after an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8, bound for Kenyas capital city of Nairobi, crashed on March 10, 2019, killing 149 passengers and eight crew members.

Another Boeing plane crash occurred on October 19, 2018, when Indonesias Lion Air jet of the same type fell down offshore the country, taking the lives of all 189 people on board.

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Cruise ship Celebrity Solstice docked at Chan May Port in Thua Thien-Hue Province on Sunday morning, bringing over 2,700 foreign visitors to central Vietnam.

These passengers come from Britain, the United States, and France.

On the same day, the provincial Department of Tourism announced that the ship marked the inaugural luxury port call at the port in Phu Loc District for the year.

After its arrival, over 1,000 passengers disembarked from the cruise ship to start their trip to explore heritage sites and enjoy cuisine in Hue, Da Nang City, and famed Hoi An City in Quang Nam Province.

At the welcome ceremony, Nguyen Thanh Binh, vice-chairman of the provincial administration, and other officials gave flowers and gifts to the first cruise passengers.

The ship left the Thua Thien-Hue-based port on Sunday evening.

The first cruise passengers visit Thua Thien-Hue Province in central Vietnam in 2024. Photo: Hoang Hai / Tuoi Tre

According to the provincial department, the port received 25 cruise ships that brought some 50,000 international passengers and sailors to the province and the central region in 2023.

The port is expected to welcome 32 cruise ships with a total of some 60,000 passengers on board in 2024.

Nguyen Van Phuc, director of the provincial department, said that Thua Thien-Hue Province looks to attract up to four million visitors this year, with domestic travelers expected to account for 60-70 percent of the total.

Tourism revenue is targeted at VND7,000-8,000 billion (US$288.7-330.4 million) in 2024 .

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The 81st Golden Globe Awards were held at the Beverly Hilton.

Succession won three awards including Best Television Series, Drama and a win for Aussie Sarah Snook.

Beef won also three awards including Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture as did The Bear which won Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy.

Aussie Elizabeth Debicki also won for The Crown.

These marked the first awards since Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge Industries took full control of the Globes from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

First time host, comedian Jo Koy worked hard to liven the room with jokes about Film & TV but not all of them landed.

I got the gig 10 days ago, are you kidding me.  he added, I wrote some of these and theyre the ones youre laughing at.

TV winners in bold:

Best Performance by an Actress, Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television

Riley Keough  Daisy Jones & the Six

Brie Larson  Lessons in Chemistry

Elizabeth Olsen  Love and Death

Juno Temple  Fargo

Rachel Weisz  Dead Ringers

Ali Wong  Beef

I really need to thank the father of my children and my best friend, Justin for all of your love and support, she said. Its because of you that Im able to be a working mother.

Best Performance by an Actor, Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Matt Bomer  Fellow Travelers

Sam Claflin  Daisy Jones & the Six

Jon Hamm  Fargo

Woody Harrelson  White House Plumbers

David Oyelowo  Lawmen: Bass Reeves

Steven Yeun  Beef

The story I usually tell myself is one of isolation and separatenessand then you come up here and you have this moment, and you can only think about everyone else, he said.

Best Supporting Actress, Television

Elizabeth Debicki  The Crown

Abby Elliott  The Bear

Christina Ricci  Yellowjackets

J. Smith-Cameron  Succession

Meryl Streep  Only Murders in the Building

Hannah Waddingham  Ted Lasso

This is just astonishing to me, she says. Thank you to the creatives of this show for trusting me with this part, to our cast and crew, to my beautiful pretend children, to my mom and my dad and Kush and Tommy who are in Australia, hoping that theyre in their pajamas watching this.

Best Supporting Actor, Television

Billy Crudup  The Morning Show

Matthew Macfadyen  Succession

James Marsden  Jury Duty

Ebon Moss-Bachrach  The Bear

Alan Ruck  Succession

Alexander Skarsgard  Succession

Thank you so much. I just adored every second playing the weird and wonderful human grease stain that is Tom Wambsgans  Tom Wambsgans CEO  God help us, he joked.

Best Actor in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy

Bill Hader  Barry

Steve Martin  Only Murders in the Building

Martin Short  Only Murders in the Building

Jason Segel  Shrinking

Jason Sudeikis  Ted Lasso

Jeremy Allen White  The Bear

I love you guys so much, he said of his production colleagues. I must have done something right in this life to be in your company. Thank you guys. Thank you so much!

Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy or Television

Ricky Gervais  Ricky Gervais: Armageddon

Trevor Noah  Trevor Noah: Where Was I

Chris Rock  Chris Rock: Selective Outrage

Amy Schumer  Amy Schumer: Emergency Contact

Sarah Silverman  Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love

Wanda Sykes  Wanda Sykes: Im an Entertainer

Gervais was not in attendance.

Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy

Ayo Edebiri  The Bear

Natasha Lyonne  Poker Face

Quinta Brunson  Abbott Elementary

Rachel Brosnahan  The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Selena Gomez  Only Murders in the Building

Elle Fanning  The Great

An excited Edebiri gave credit to her assistants, calling those who answer her crazy emails the real ones. She then apologised to those she forgot to thank unless you were mean or something.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Drama

Pedro Pascal  The Last of Us

Kieran Culkin  Succession

Jeremy Strong  Succession

Brian Cox  Succession

Gary Oldman  Slow Horses

Dominic West  The Crown

Suck it, Pedro he joked. Really quickly, Id just like to thank everybody in Succession. Jesse, our writers, the amazing cast. Everybody that showed up and believed in this thing and that it was very cool, he continued. This isnt mine, this is one for the team.

Best Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television

Beef

Lessons in Chemistry

Daisy Jones & the Six

All the Light We Cannot See

Fellow Travelers

Fargo

Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy

The Bear

Ted Lasso

Abbott Elementary

Jury Duty

Only Murders in the Building

Barry

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama

Helen Mirren  1923

Bella Ramsey  The Last of Us

Keri Russell  The Diplomat

Sarah Snook  Succession

Imelda Staunton  The Crown

Emma Stone  The Curse

Thank you Jesse for casting me in this and Francine for putting me in front of Jesse, she said. This show, its changed my life. And everybody in it was amazing. The cast, the crew are fantastic. This was a team effort. It was always a team and that was what made the show amazing, I think, to be a part of.

Best Television Series, Drama

1923

The Crown

The Diplomat

The Last of Us

The Morning Show

Succession

Lily Gladstone also won Best Actress in a Motion Picture for her role in Apple TVs Killers of the Flower Moon.

This post updates.
Season 2 of FBI: International will premiere on 10 later this month, screening on a new night: Wednesdays.

It lands with a double episode.

These screened in the US in September 2022 and in Australia previously on Paramount+.

Ep 1:

The Fly Team investigate when an American police detective is murdered in Paris, while looking into a U.S. company suspected of selling illegal weapons in France.

Ep 2:

When a local predator begins extorting underage American girls online, the Fly Team attempts to bring the offender to justice with on-site help from one of the victims who has flown to Budapest.

8:55pm Wednesday January 17 on 10.
The Canadian section of the IMT has announced the relaunch of its newspaper under the banner: Communist Revolution. This bold new publication comes off the back of the explosive growth of the IMT in Canada over the recent period, and lays the foundation for the launch of a new Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) at this years Montreal Marxist Winter School in February. We publish below the comrades announcement and explanation of the need for a revolutionary communist newspaper in Canada today.

[Originally published at marxist.ca]

We are happy to announce the launch of a new newspaper: Communist Revolution. To many, this may appear startling. Communist revolution, here in Canada!? YES! Believe it or not, Communism is increasingly popular in Canada. It is precisely with the aim of organizing Communists in this country that we launch this new revolutionary communist paper.

Communism in Canada

Most people have a completely mistaken understanding of communism. It is not hard to understand why. From its very beginning, the communist movement has been viciously attacked by the ruling classes of all nations. This was famously mentioned in the preamble to the Communist Manifesto in 1848, in which Marx wrote: A spectre is haunting Europethe spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre.

In Canada, one of the worlds main imperialist nations, generations have been subjected to McCarthyite anti-communist hysteria, which is alive and well. Ontario education minister Stephen Lecce recently launched a new initiative to make sure Ontario students are taught about the perils of communism and to embrace democratic values. Coming from someone who violated constitutionally protected trade union rights in the fall of 2022, Lecces credentials to lecture anyone about democratic values are dubious at best.

Due to the ruling class onslaught, people often think communism means the exact opposite of what it actually means. Instead of a society free from oppression and exploitation, many have understood communism to mean a society where there is no freedom of expression or individuality, and the entire population is under the thumb of a totalitarian regime.

At best, the common refrain we hear is that communism sounds nice but wont work in practice. Along with this is an entire industry devoted to publishing books slandering Lenin, the Bolsheviks, the Russian Revolution and any attempt by the working class to transform society. The purpose of this is clear: to convince workers to accept capitalism.

This capitalist ideological wall is now beginning to crack. All over the Western world, from the U.S. to the U.K. to Canada, the number of people who consider communism to be the ideal system has shown a marked increase. This is particularly the case among young people, of which there are over 1,000,000 who consider themselves communists in Canada.

What is going on? What is causing young people to be infected with the communist bug? The explanation lies in the crisis of the capitalist system itself.

The decline of Canadian capitalism

If there were any country that could be held up as a bastion of stability and capitalist success, it would be Canada. However, the glory days of Canadian capitalism are in the distant past. In its place we are experiencing a steady, senile decline.

In the past decade, Canadas average GDP growth slowed to a near halt at an average of 0.8 per centthe lowest since the 1930s. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently predicted that Canada will fare the worst among its 29 members over the next 40 years.

In the past decade, Canadas average GDP growth slowed to a near halt / Image: Towfiqu Barbhuiya, Unsplash

In the past, high growth rates formed the basis for the creation of the welfare state, and a significant portion of the population was able to attain semi-civilized living conditions. Now, this is all rolling in reverse. Nearly half of all Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque. Households are drowning in debt, owing on average 180 per cent of household income. This is set to get much, much worse, as 3,400,000 mortgages are up for renewal in the next 18 months. On average, this will mean mortgage payments increasing by 30-40 per cent. In cities like Toronto and Vancouver, this will mean over $1,000 extra per month.

Whether consciously or not, everybody knows capitalism has failed. In 2012, 37 per cent of people polled believed that their children would have a lower standard of living than them. Now, that number has risen to 75 per cent. The fact that capitalism is unable to bring society forward is no longer an abstract argument, but something that is tangible to millions of people in their daily lives. Resulting from this untenable situation, there is a record amount of anger in society, primarily aimed at the economy, housing, and the federal government.

This is eroding the entire basis of the political stability that the bourgeoisie managed to establish in the past. In the place of peace, order, and good government, we will increasingly find wars, disorder, and bad government. We are already seeing the early signs of this. A recent poll expressed a collapse in support for the main institutions of capitalist society, showing that only 40 per cent of Canadians trust the media, 37 per cent trust the Senate, 36 per cent trust the Prime Ministers Office, and only 28 per cent trust large corporations.

Warning of this situation, the right-wing think tank Fraser Institute explains, Slow growth since 2008 has spawned populist movements in several countries, leading to Britains vote to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump as president in the United States. They go on to warn ominously: History shows that previous periods of economic stagnation or decline have unleashed social and political forces far worse than protectionism. Increasingly, the far-sighted representatives of the ruling class are worried. As they should be! Revolution is coming and there is nothing they can do about it.

Reformist ineptitude

One of the reasons for the stability of the capitalist system in Canada has been the strength of reformism. Instead of revolutionary moods, the dominant idea in the movement has been that the system can be reformed, and the sharp edges of capitalism can be sanded down. This belief came to dominate the labour movement and the left due to the fact that reforms like universal healthcare and good union jobs were won in the past.

Now, the entire material basis for reformism has been destroyed. Increasingly, the various reformist solutions resemble moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic. This is because capitalism, far from being in a healthy state, is in its deepest crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Reformist sentiment is therefore like a man driving a car around on fumes. As capitalism continues to decline, it not only makes lasting, meaningful reform impossible, but it drags us backwards in every field.

This is why, as communists, we are absolutely confident in our belief that the system cannot be reformed. We instead fight for a revolution of the working class in order to carry out the socialist reconstruction of society. Unlike in the past, the reformists have no leg to stand on. The ideas that come to dominate will increasingly be revolutionary ideas which seek a clean break with the capitalist system.

Our main criticism of the reformists in Canada is precisely that they do not fight for any meaningful reforms / Image: OFL Communications Department, Wikimedia Commons

Communists are not reformists, but this should not be taken to mean that we are opposed to reforms that benefit the working classprecisely the opposite! In fact, our main criticism of the reformists in Canada is precisely that they do not fight for any meaningful reforms. This has become increasingly obvious to millions of people, and explains why parties like the NDP and Quebec solidaire fail to inspire in spite of the general favourable situation for the growth of a left wing.

In Canada, this could not be clearer than with the NDP. While nominally a socialist party with ties to the labour movement, the party leadership has proven to be completely sterile and subservient to the government and the capitalist system. In fact, the Liberal government exists by the grace of Jagmeet Singh who supports them while getting next to nothing in return.

This is not due to any personal failings of Jagmeet Singh, but because of his reformist outlook which cannot see beyond the capitalist system. We have seen this play out within provincial NDP governments from British Columbia, to Alberta, to Ontario, to Nova Scotia. The tendency to abandon any meaningful reforms and capitulate to the capitalists is far stronger today than it has ever been. Indeed, after nearly 15 years of crisis at all levels, even the bolder socialist reformists such as Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn all capitulated to the liberals at the end of the day and failed to lead the struggle forward. This is why we say that betrayal is inherent in reformism.

In Canada, the immense anger in society is being capitalized upon by the right. With a lack of any real, left-wing, revolutionary channel for the extreme amount of anger welling up in society, the main benefactors are Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada. The latest polls all put the Conservatives around 20 points ahead. While the Liberals are giving signs that they are pivoting towards austerity(they are calling it fiscal restraint)the election of a Poilievre conservative government would undoubtedly be a violent shift in that direction.

Revolution vs. doom and gloom

The depth and breadth of the crisis of society is clear to anyone with a functioning brain. Even the top strategists of capital at the World Economic Forum published a report which detailed what they call a polycrisis. Whether it is the cost of living crisis, the environmental crisis, the war in Ukraine, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the refugee crisis, or the social polarization and political instability which touches every single country, capitalist society is tearing itself apart at the seams.

Things are only getting worse. Even the respondents of the WEF survey recognize this, with only nine per cent of respondents stating that they thought the world will return to a state of renewed stability with a revival of global resilience in the next ten years.

In response to the crisis, the working class is fighting back and rediscovering its revolutionary traditions / Image: PSAC, Facebook

Faced with this situation, many on the left are depressed, but we believe that this prevalent, depressed mood is only due to the fact that reformism has failed and people do not see a way out. Revolutionaries have no reason to be depressed. If we look below the surface, while we are witnessing the bankruptcy of reformism and the mainstream left, this is not because workers are turning to the right, but because they are losing faith in capitalism and its institutions.

Already, in response to the crisis, the working class is fighting back and rediscovering its revolutionary traditions. 2023 saw a resurgence of the class struggle with the most strike days lost since 2005.

What we are witnessing is a sea change in consciousness which is overwhelmingly progressive, and even revolutionary. For the first time in decades, there is a large constituency of people who consider themselves Communists. It is therefore not an exaggeration to state that we are faced with the most favourable situation for building a real revolutionary left since at least the 1970s. But no one is going to do this for us. We must confront this unprecedented crisis with an optimistic revolutionary communist alternative.

Opposed to the reformist vision which places more faith in the capitalist system than the capitalists do themselves, we believe only revolution can offer us a way out of this dead end. And good news! The decline of capitalism is creating revolutions by the minute. Millions have risen up in revolt around the world in the past few years, from Egypt, to Sri Lanka, to Chile. While advanced capitalist countries like Canada were able to avoid revolution, there is little reason to believe it will be able to avoid this storm forever. Already, many advanced capitalist countries have been shaken by mass movements and revolutionary crises. Britain, France and even our southern neighbours in the U.S. have been rocked with mass movements lately. Make no mistake, revolution is coming to Canada.

Why communism?

Its not enough to simply declare oneself a revolutionary. Its not enough to simply denounce the oppressive institutions that dominate our lives. In other words, its not enough to be against something; we must be for something. This is why we need communism.

Being a communist means believing that another form of society is possible. It means believing that we dont have to base ourselves on private profit and private ownership by a small minority. It means believing that if all of the immense wealth that we collectively produce were controlled by the working class instead of the bourgeoisie, the possibilities would be almost endless.

These ideas are the only way to give people hope and organize the oppressed against this system. We are not simply fighting to replace one set of reactionary leaders with another as happened in Egypt, Sudan, Sri Lanka, etc. We are fighting for the working class to become the master of society. This is what communism means.

We are fighting for the working class to become the master of society / Image: Noah Zinck

Communism is not a magical utopia that Marx simply dreamed up. As Marx and Engels explained, the possibility for communism comes from capitalism itself, both economically and politically.

Economically, capitalism has developed the productive forces to unheard-of heights, creating the material basis for the liberation of the toiling masses from drudgery. In the place of the so-called free market, we have giant monopolies and cartels who own, control and plan the main sectors of the economy. Communists argue that these monopolies should be brought under democratic workers control.

Politically, capitalism has created the proletariat, which is the only class which engages in social production. The modern proletariat, when it moves into action, moves collectively. This is why Marx famously said in the Communist Manifesto that The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers.

A tool to build the party

Capitalism will not go down of its own accord. The hundreds of thousands of communists in Canada must get organized. Already, we have tapped into this sentiment in the latter half of 2023 with the Are You A Communist campaign. Thousands of communists contacted us to get involved, the result of which is that we are now close to 700 organized communists!

Building off of this, in addition to publishing Communist Revolution, we are happy to announce the launching of a new Revolutionary Communist Party! This will be officially launched at the Montreal Marxist Winter School on the weekend of February 17-18. We invite everyone to register today to be a part of what will be a truly historic meeting.

Communist Revolution is not to be a simple left-wing opinion piece, but a tool to build this party. It will contain an unapologetic, revolutionary, communist message that comrades will use from coast to coast, in every school, neighbourhood, or workplace to rally the forces of communism. Communist Revolution will be a banner to hold high. We will carry out a campaign for this new revolutionary communist party and use Communist Revolution to do so.

In addition to high-level theoretical material and articles about revolutionary history, Communist Revolution aims to reflect the growing rage at the heart of society. This is why our paper, unlike other publications, will not simply be a paper for workers, but by workers. Whether its the latest horrible thing that your boss did, or the dastardly university administration, Communist Revolution will want to hear from you and publish your story. We also want this paper to carry frontline reports from picket lines and demonstrations to give a voice to the workers faced with hostile bourgeois media, and to contain anecdotes from communists organizing all over the country. Being in a party means being able to share lessons from each others successes. We therefore encourage all of our members, readers, and supporters to send any and all reports and submissions, in written, audio, or video format, to reports@marxist.ca.

Communist Revolution will simultaneously be a tool to provide analysis, advice, and inspiration to carry out the struggle, and a tool to help you find fellow communists in your area and build the party!

That is why we need Communist Revolution!
FILE PHOTO: A bottle of Remy Martin XO cognac is displayed at the Remy Cointreau SA headquarters in Paris, France

PARIS (Reuters) - French cognac makers have hit back at claims by China that they are dumping brandy in the Chinese market, saying the price discounts alleged are unusually small for such a formal investigation.

That "raises the question of the real purpose of the process", the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC), which represents French cognac makers, said in a statement to Reuters.

Last week China opened an anti-dumping investigation on brandy imported from the European Union, a step that appears to be mainly targeted at France and adds to ongoing trade disputes between Beijing and Brussels.

BNIC said in its statement that Chinas commerce ministry launched the investigation of alleged dumping of European brandy based on price reductions of 15.88%.

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"This level appears singularly low compared to what is generally accepted as justification for an anti-dumping investigation," it said.

News of China's investigation knocked shares in French spirits companies Remy Cointreau and Pernod Ricard lower on Jan. 5.

Trade disputes between China and Europe have been mounting over the past year, with both sides exchanging accusations of unfair competition and protectionism.

BNIC said the unusually small discount alleged to launch the Chinese probe "reinforces our conviction that our future exchanges with the Chinese authorities will demonstrate that our commercial practices are fully compliant with Chinese and international regulations."

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Susan Fenton)
The 'Bachelor' alum's 5-year-old boy dressed himself, and the result was hilarious

Getty/Sean Lowe/Instagram Sean Lowe posted a funny video about his son Isaiah's outfit choice.

Sean Lowe is sharing a funny parenting moment!

On Saturday, the Bachelor alum, 40, posted a video of his son Isaiah Hendrix, 5, taken as Lowe's family was enjoying a meal out at a restaurant.

"Isaiah dressed himself today," the former reality star explained in the clip, as the camera showed Isaiah sitting in a booth, wearing a winter coat with the hood covering his head.

"What shirt did you wear?" Lowe asked his son, prompting Isaiah to zip open his coat to reveal his bare chest.

Lowe broke out laughing and Isaiah quickly re-zipped the coat, looking a bit sheepish.

"Crazy man," his dad joked.

Lowe  who also shares son Samuel Thomas, 7, and daughter Mia Mejia, 4, with wife Catherine Guidici Lowe  captioned the lighthearted video, "Middle Child Vibes," and further elaborated on the situation in the comment section.

"For more context, this was at a restaurant today. Didnt realize he was shirtless until I told him to take his coat off," he wrote.

Sean's followers got a kick out of the relatable moment. "Practicing to be The Bachelor one day!" one person quipped.

Related: Sean Lowe Celebrates His Sons' First Day of School in Adorable Photos: 'Handsome and Smart'

Some followers shared similar stories about their own kids. "My kid did this and I didnt realize until we were walking into his preschool ," a fellow parent commented.

Last month, Sean experienced another notable dad experience  that feeling of being bowled over by your child's adorableness. Alongside a picture of Mia wearing a ruffly dress, he wrote, "We got Mias school photos back and its a good reminder to avoid having daughters if you can help it. They will wreck you."

While Sean clearly loves the dad life, he and Catherine  whom he met and fell in love with during season 17 of The Bachelor in 2013  enjoyed a kid-free, pre-Christmas getaway in France to celebrate his 40th birthday.

Story continues

"Celebrated 40 with my final rose recipient and it could not have been a better trip," he wrote, alongside a photo of the pair posing together. "We have fun together everywhere, but having fun in Europe sans kids is tough to beat. Now were back in Dallas and it can only be downhill from here."



Related: Catherine Giudici Says She and Sean Lowe Originally Wanted 5 Kids, But Are Set at 3: 'It's a Lot'

Catherine Giudici/Instagram Sean and Catherine Lowe with their three kids

Catherine shared her own photo from the romantic vacation, a shot of the couple cuddled up as the posed in front of a towering Christmas tree.

"I know I said he wanted to go to the Lakehouse with his parents for his 40th (scute, I know!) but he also wanted to go with me to the Christmas markets in France (swoon )," she captioned the post.

Last year, Catherine revealed that Sean was once set on having five kids  until the realities of parenting their current brood caught up with him.

"Then we had three, and we're like, 'Okay, that was a lot.' Five would be a lot. We could handle five, but we like our little group," she jokingly explained on an April 2023 episode of The Most Dramatic Podcast Ever with Chris Harrison.

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A Fraud Act: SC cancels Gujarat govt decision to release Bilkis Bano rape convicts

Cancelling the order by the BJP-led government in Gujarat to release 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case, the SC held that it "was not competent" to make such a decision and termed the move a "fraud act". Read More

Monday January 8, 2024 3:05 PM , ummid.com with inputs from Agencies

[Upon their release from the jail, the convicts were garlanded and hailed as heroes.]

New Delhi: In a major setback for Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Supreme Court of India Monday January 08, 2024 cancelled the Gujarat governments decision to release Bilkis Bano rape convicts.

Cancelling the order by the BJP-led government in Gujarat to release 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case, the SC held that it "was not competent" to make such a decision and termed the move a "fraud act".

'Usurpation of power'

The Supreme Court bench of Justices BV Nagarthana and Ujjal Bhuyan in its order said the Gujarat government ordered the release of the 2002 Gujarat riot gang-rape convicts "without application of mind".

"Criminals can be released only by the state where they are tried, which is Maharashtra in this case", the apex court said. "The exercise of power by the state of Gujarat is an instance of usurpation and abuse of power," said the court.

In a highly anticipated order, the apex court also said that the Gujarat government was "complicit and acted in tandem with one of the convicts" who had approached the top court with his plea for premature release in the Bilkis Bano case.



The 11 men convicted in the case were released on August 15 last year, after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. The convicts had completed 15 years in jail.

A batch of the petitions, including the one filed by Bano, were filed against their release. The other petitions were filed by CPI-M leader Subhashini Ali, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, National Federation of Indian Women, Meeran Chadha Borwankar and others, Asma Shafique Shaikh and others.

The Gujarat government in 1992 had announced a fresh remission policy under which pleas of those convicts who were sentenced to life imprisonment and had served a minimum of 14 years of sentence could be considered after a favourable opinion from the Jail Advisory Board.

During a hearing on the petitions in April 2023 , the Supreme Court , while stressing on the gravity of the offence in the Bilkis Bano case and on the remission granted to 11 convicts, had said, "unequals cannot be treated equally".

During the same hearing the SC noted that a pregnant woman was gang-raped and several people were killed and the case cannot be compared with a standard Section 302 (murder) case.



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Allegation of sexual assault rocks Haryanas Chaudhary Devi Lal University

Some 500 girl students of Chaudhary Devi Lal University in Haryanas Sirsa in a letter sent to PM Modi and State Chief Minister ML Khattar have accused a preofessor of sexual assault. Read More

Monday January 8, 2024 11:19 PM , ummid.com with inputs from Agencies

[Image for representation]

Sirsa (Haryana): Some 500 girl students of Chaudhary Devi Lal University in Haryanas Sirsa in a letter sent to PM Modi and State Chief Minister ML Khattar have accused a preofessor of sexual assault.

In the letter, the female students accused the professor of using "filthy and obscene acts". The students alleged that the professor "calls girls to his office, takes them to a bathroom, and "touches private parts, and (does) obscene things with us", according to NDTV.

The copies of the letter have also been sent to Vice Chancellor Dr Ajmer Singh Malik, Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij, and National Commission for Women Chairperson Rekha Sharma, along with senior state government officials and some media organisations.

The female students have not disclosed their identities.

"We can't write out names and contact numbers as it will malign our own image if no action is taken by the professor. The dignity of our family will be at stake. He has political influence and has threatened to get us expelled if we speak against him," the letter said.



The students alleged that the Vice Chancellor, instead of taking any action, threatened to expel them because the professor is a person of immense political influence, as reported by The Times of India.

The students alleged that the matter is going on since months, and the Vice Chancellor - instead of taking action against the professor, is promising the girls better marks in examinations if they ignore his staffs misconduct.

The students also alleged that the professor has destroyed the available evidences against him, including CCTV recordings.

As per the reports, the accused professor has faced similar allegations at least two times in the past. The matter went to the universitys internal complaints committee which "cleared" him both the times.

The university Registrar, Dr Rajesh Kumar Bansal, confirmed receipt of the anonymous letter. He also promised "action against the guilty" but said, "if someone is innocent then their character should not be assassinated."

The accused professor, meanwhile, rejected the students' allegations, terming them politically motivated.

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Thank You South Africa for filing case against Israeli Genocide at ICJ

The peace loving people of the world thank South Africa for its courage! They hope that this significant step is a good initiative to hold Israel accountable for its action and to achieve an immediate ceasefire against the civilians of Palestine. Read More

Monday January 8, 2024 10:27 AM , Khursheed Alam Dawood Qasmi

[Journalist Maha Hussaini says that she has documented cases of Israeli soldiers kidnapping blonde children from Gaza claiming they might be abductee Israelis. (File Image)]

The whole world is aware of the war crimes and genocide which are committed by the IDF of Israel by carrying out airstrikes, throwing missiles and dropping bombs on the innocent people of the Gaza Strip in Palestine since the 7th of October 2023. Then it launched a ground operation inside Gaza on 27th October 2023. Since the outbreak of this offensive, the Israeli Occupation Forces are meting out collective punishment on the Palestinian civilians. More than 75 journalists, 136 staff members of the UN and 22,835 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza started and a big number of people are still trapped under rubble who could not be rescued.

Unfortunately, no country of this civilized and modern world has yet taken any action to stop the Benjamin Netanyahu government from such heinous crimes and genocide apart from few countries which have only condemned it clearly.

In the 21st Century, if a crime takes place in a corner of a country, the people of the far and remote place come to know exactly as it happens thanks to the power of the social media.

In the same way, what is being carried out currently in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is not hidden from the world. The humanity requires at this pointing time that the Palestine issue should be raised at each and every world platform and the Israeli government must be held responsible for the murder of the thousands of the civilians and destruction of the buildings and properties of the billions dollars by the IDF bombardment.

A Bold Step

Anyway, better late than never, South Africa has taken a gutsy and bold step and come out to drag the Zionist and Apartheid State of Israel in the International Court of Justice on Friday, 29th December 2023, filing a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging it of committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, after nearly three months of ruthless bombardment, which has caused the murder of thousands of people and the widespread destruction in the besieged enclave.

Before going into the details of the points made in the 84 pages submission of South Africa in the ICJ, let us know the efforts of the ruling African National Congress of South Africa which has a history of supporting the Palestinian cause, while the nation's first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) being on the top. South Africas stand is clear to support Palestine until it gets its freedom as Mr Mandela said: We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians. It is also important to note here that South Africa believes that the treatment of Palestinians since 75 years bears strong resemblance to its own racially motivated apartheid regime, which ended in 1994 and it got independence with electing Mr Mandela as the first President. Just last month, the South Africas lawmakers voted in the favour of closing down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations until a ceasefire was agreed.

In the 84 pages submission , South Africa has described Israels actions in Gaza offensive as genocidal in character, because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.

The submission in the court also highlights "to place the acts of genocide in the broader context of Israel's conduct towards Palestinians during its 75-year-long apartheid, its 56-year-long belligerent occupation of Palestinian territory and its 16-year-long blockade of Gaza, including the serious and ongoing violations of international law associated therewith, including grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and other war crimes and crimes against humanity." The application also requests the court to indicate provisional measures to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Convention.

Is It Genocide?

Now, South Africa will have to support its charge in the ICJ that the actions which Israel occupation Forces are committing against the innocent people of Palestine in the Gaza Strip are genocide. In accordance with the article 2 of the Genocide Convention:

The genocide involves acts committed with the intent to destroy, either in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

It is on record that in the last three months, the Israeli forces have demolished the civilians homes, mosques, churches, schools, universities, hospitals, shopping centres etc. in the Gaza Strip. They have murdered thousands of civilians including the children, women and elderly people. Almost 85% of the Gaza civilians have been made homeless. They face scarcity of food. Water and electricity supplies have been stopped in Gaza by the Israeli Government.

Anyone with open eyes can see the destruction on the ground. But it is not enough to prove genocide in the ICJ. The main point is that the plaintiff, in this case South Africa, will have to prove that the destructive actions of the Israeli Forces are with the intent.

To prove its charge in the court, the plaintiff has decided to give evidences from the statements of the Israeli officials whose intention seems quite apparent in their statements in the context of this war, for example, the Israeli President Isaac Herzog said:

There are no innocents in Gaza.

Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu likened Israels fight against Hamas to the one waged against the Biblical Amalek in which it was forbidden to spare the lives of any civilians. Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said:

Israel will impose collective punishment on the people of Gaza; because they are human animals.

Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu suggested that Israel could drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. There are also several statements from Foreign Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, other politicians, military officials, public figures etc.

To know the factual and a legal basis of South Africas charge and to analyse the strength of the evidences, we can just have a look at the report of The Wall Street Journal, an America famous daily newspaper based in New York, about the Israeli Forces crimes committed in the Gaza Strip which was published on 30th December 2023. A part of the report is mentioned below:

It reports that the majority of Gazas 36 hospitals are now non-operational, with only eight healthcare facilities available to serve the population. Gaza's historical landmarks, including churches from the Byzantine era, mosques, factories, buildings, schools, hotels, shopping centers, as well as crucial utilities like electricity and water sources, have sustained irreversible damage. It emphasized that nearly 85% of Gaza's population (2.3 million people) has been displaced from their homes, and over 21,000 individuals in the region have lost their lives as a result of the Israeli offensive. Quoting a political science professor, Robert Pape, at the University of Chicago and an expert on the history of aerial bombing, the Journal reports:

Gaza will enter history alongside cities like Dresden (Germany) and others that were bombed during World War II.

The report referenced a World Bank publication from December 12, revealing that 77% of healthcare facilities, 72% of public buildings, including parks, courts, and libraries, 68% of communication infrastructure, and almost the entire industrial zone in Gaza were destroyed due to the Israeli aggression. The Journal also drew attention to the fact that while the United States dropped 3,678 bombs on Iraq between 2004 and 2010, Israel released approximately 29,000 bombs on Gaza since October 7.

After reading the report of The Wall Street Journal, any sensible person can understand that such actions can only be taken with intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza. Anyway, South Africa had asked the ICJ for an urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its crackdown against Hamas.

So, the court announced on 3rd January 2024 that it would hold public hearings in proceedings launched by South Africa against Israel over the Gaza war on 11th and 12th January 2024 .

About International Court of Justice

The ICJ or the International Court of Justice is a United Nations civil court which is based in The Hague, the third largest city in the Netherlands. It adjudicates disputes between countries. It is also called the World Court. As members of the UN, both South Africa and Israel are bound by the court. Following the hearing, this court usually takes one or two weeks to issue a decision on emergency measures.

Although the rulings of this court are final; but it can't enforce its verdicts. But it is a fact that this case will go in the interest of Palestine; because the world's governments, which are members of the United Nations can accept its findings and that impacts the types of policies that are put out by the UN. It may play a role in getting cease-fire. It is the best way to legally document the crimes that are being committed by Israel.

It will also go in the interest of South Africa as it will be an example of South Africa nation's decision to "flex its diplomatic muscle in defense of humanity," as South Africa's Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Clayson Monyela said on the social media platform X. It should be noted here that the ICJ is different from the ICC (International Criminal Court) seated in The Hague, which prosecutes individuals for international crimes of genocide, war crimes etc.

Israels Reaction on South Africas Move

Following this South Africas move, some people were of the opinion that Israel government would not pay much attention to this case and may avoid appearing before the ICJ. But fact is that this sudden initiative has come as a real blow and the Israel government is shocked. It is ready to appear before the court to defend the charge against the country. In its official statement, rejecting the charge, Israel has called it baseless and blood libel.

In this regard, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel, Lior Haiats statement has been posted on X:

South Africas claim lacks both a factual and a legal basis, and constitutes despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court.

Furthermore, now Israel has also remembered the humanity and so it said in a statement that the residents of Gaza Strip are not the enemy and is making every effort to limit harm to the non-involved and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip; while it is false statement to deceive the world. The ICJ should call the Israeli officials and use a lie detector to know the truth of the case. But alas, they are entitled to immunity from jurisdiction!

USAs Double Standard

Following the positive response from the ICJ, the USAs Biden Administration is completely defenseless and finds no way to protect Zionist State as its Veto Power will not work in the ICJ. Now, it has issued a statement on 4th January 2023 saying that the submission of South Africa is meritless.

The Biden administration is judging Hamas action as murderous onslaught; but it finds South Africas charge of genocide against Israel as meritless. It is clear double standard. The US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called South Africas submission meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.

He further said:

Israel is not trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map. Israel is not trying to wipe Gaza off the map. Israel is trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So if we are going to start using that word, Fine. Lets use it appropriately.

Any wise person will find bias as usual in the statement of John Kirby as he is calling the Hamas Attack on Israel as a genocidal terrorist threat and he is failing to see the offensives of Israeli forces in Gaza as genocide; while the statements of the Israeli officials, President, PM, Ministers, politicians and public figures are enough to prove their intent to destroy the civilians of the Gaza Strip.

Reaction of International Organisations, Human Rights Organisations and Experts to Israel Invasion in Gaza

The US National Security Council spokesman regarded South Africas submission as meritless. Now, here is a question, is it only South Africa which has accused Israel of genocide? No, it is not only South Africa; but there are also many international organisations, Human rights organisations and experts who have declared the offensive actions of Israel in Gaza as war crimes, apartheid, genocide and calling for independent investigation. Yes, it is a fact that it is only South Africa which has shown courage to file case at the ICJ.

Now, let us see the reaction of the human rights organisations and the experts on the Israel offensive in the Gaza Strip. The human rights organisations have said that Israeli policies towards Palestinians amount to apartheid. International organizations, including United Nations agencies, have raised alarms over possible war crimes, with the UN's human rights agency calling in November for "prompt, transparent and independent investigations into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, perpetrated in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on 7 October 2023 and thereafter."

Also Read

90K and counting, massive support for SA ICJ petition against Israeli Genocide

On 16th November, a group of 36 UN experts called on the international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people, calling Israels actions since October 7 a genocide in the making. They further said in a statement:

We are deeply disturbed by the failure of governments to heed our call and to achieve an immediate ceasefire. We are also profoundly concerned about the support of certain governments for Israels strategy of warfare against the besieged population of Gaza, and the failure of the international system to mobilise to prevent genocide.

Conclusion

Many Zionist people remember the Hamas Attack on Israel on 7th October 2023. They try to prove that what is happening today, it is because of Hamas attack on Israel. But they must know that Palestine Issue has not started on 7th October, 2023. Palestine is occupied by the Zionist State since long and its citizens are suffering from the attack of the Zionist State forces since 75 years.

Hamas attack was against Israels blockade of Gaza, expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, torturing the innocent Palestinian people etc. Settlement expansions pose the biggest hurdle in the realisation of a future Palestinian state comprising Gaza, occupied West Banka and East Jerusalem.

The peace loving people of the world thank South Africa for its courage! They hope that this significant step is a good initiative to hold Israel accountable for its action and to achieve an immediate ceasefire against the civilians of Palestine.

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World that does not know: Palestinian Journalist calls it a day with telling message

Palestinian Journalist Anas Al-Najar Sunday January 07, 2024 announced he was quitting his profession with a telling message for the world which he described does not know the meaning of empathy or humanity. Read More

Monday January 8, 2024 4:50 PM , ummid.com with inputs from Agencies

Gaza Strip: Palestinian Journalist Anas Al-Najar Sunday January 07, 2024 announced he was quitting his profession with a telling message for the world which he described does not know the meaning of empathy or humanity.

My journalistic coverage ends here, as the search for safety with my family is a thousand times better that searching for news to convey to a world that does not known the meaning of empathy or humanity, Anas wrote in a message posted on social media site Facebook. May God protect my fellow journalists, he added, declaring, I announce the suspension of my journalistic work in this brutal war.

Palestinian journalist Anas decided to quit his profession as the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continue relentless bombing of the residential areas in Gaza killing civilians and also targeting journalists and media persons.

Three Journalists killed in past 24 hours

According to Al Jazeera, the Israeli targeted killing of journalists in Gaza, Sunday January 07, 2024 took the lives of two more media persons including Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya.

Hamza Dahdouh is the eldest son of Al Jazeeras Gaza Bureau Chief, Wael Dahdouh whereas Mustafa Thuraya was a video stringer for AFP who was also working for the Qatar-based TV outlet.

Both have been killed by an Israeli missile strike in the western part of Khan Younis, Gaza. According to reports from Al Jazeera correspondents, Hamza and Mustafas vehicle was targeted as they were trying to interview civilians displaced by previous bombings.

In another incident of targeted killing of media persons by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza, Ali Salem Abu Ajwa, a photojournalist associated with the 'Fourth Authority Agency,' was killed on Sunday January 07, 2024.

In a related development, journalist Raffaele Oriani Sunday ended his 12-year collaboration with Repubblica, voicing his opposition to the way the newspaper reports on the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Death toll of Journalists

According to the Government Media Office in Palestine, the death toll of journalists has increased to 109 since the beginning of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza.

On Sunday, Israeli airstrikes targeted a residence belonging to the Abu Elba family in the Faluja area, north of Gaza, resulting in the deaths of 20 civilians and causing multiple injuries. Simultaneously, intense shelling hit the homes of residents in the nearby Jabalia refugee camp, according to local media.

Also Read

Deadliest since 1992, CPJ on Journalist deaths in Israeli shelling

Also late last night Monday, Israeli warplanes targeted a UNRWA-run shelter center in the al-Maghazi refugee camp, resulting in the deaths of four individuals, including women.

Israeli occupation forces also aimed at ambulance vehicles, firing live ammunition directly at them.

More than 22,800 Palestinians have been killed as on Sunday January 07, 2024 in the Israeli military offensive that started on Oct 7, 2023. Majority of those killed in Gaza are women and children. More than 7,000 are missing or under the rubble.



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The University of North Georgia's (UNG) Phi Kappa Phi chapter has earned the distinction of a Circle of Excellence Gold Chapter. The award originally introduced in 2018 is given to chapters that exceed expectations in their operations and demonstrate the organization's motto: "Let the love of learning rule humanity."

The UNG chapter, established in 1974, applied for the $200 award in August 2023. Housed on all five UNG campuses, the organization is made up of juniors in the top 7% of their class, seniors and graduate students in the top 10%, as well as, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members.

"The Circle of Excellence Award Program recognizes chapters for their work in promoting excellence at their institutions and engaging the community of scholars each year," Jill Holman, UNG chapter president and director of internal audit, said. "We plan to provide children with books to build their home libraries and foster enthusiasm for literacy with the award money."

As part of the chapter's efforts to improve childhood literacy in the UNG community, the chapter partners with the Woody Gap School in Union County. The effort provides every child at the school with a book of their choice and is part of the national organization's decision to make UNG a Gold Chapter.

"We strive to show excellent leadership through participation in our organization's induction ceremonies and our projects giving back to our communities," Holman said.

Phi Kappa Phi recently inducted 11 new members on Nov. 30, bringing the total number of members in the UNG chapter to 2,296. The fall induction ceremony had a keynote address from Mike Cottrell College of Business Dean Dr. Mary Gowan.

Phi Kappa Phi Week at UNG is Feb. 5-9, and the organization will have several events for the community to participate in, all leading up to the spring induction ceremony on March 28.
HA NOI  Viet Nam has more opportunities to boost fruit and vegetable exports to China this year due to signing more protocols to permit official exports of fruits and vegetables to this neighbouring market.

At the end of 2023, Viet Nam and China signed a protocol on plant quarantine requirements for fresh watermelons exported from Viet Nam to China.

ang Phuc Nguyen, general secretary of the Viet Nam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said this protocol would be an important step to open up more opportunities for businesses and farmers growing watermelon in Viet Nam.

This protocol is expected to help Viet Nam's watermelon exports double next year. Accordingly, inspection of this fruit at the border gates will be much faster. China customs will reduce the frequency of inspection to only 2-3 per cent of the export batches, so there will no longer be watermelon congestion during the peak season like during the Tet holiday. Besides that, the export price of this fruit will also be more stable.

In the first 10 months of 2023, Viet Nam's watermelon export turnover to China reached US$44 million, an increase of 162 per cent over the same period last year. It is forecast that watermelon exports to this market could reach more than $50 million in 2024, said Nguyen.

One year ago, Viet Nam and China also signed a protocol on the export of fresh bananas from Viet Nam to China. According to the Import-Export Department, that protocol has created significant increase in Vietnamese bananas exported to China.

In the first 10 months of 2023, Viet Nam was the second largest supplier of bananas to China. China Customs Authority's statistics showed that during the first 10 months, Vietnamese bananas imported into China reached 412,000 tonnes, an increase of 2.3 per cent over the same period in 2022.

Meanwhile, according to Viet Nam's General Department of Customs, in the first 11 months of 2023, Viet Nam's total fruit and vegetable exports reached $5.19 billion, up 70.3 per cent over the same period last year.

China was still the largest market for Viet Nam's fruit and vegetable exports in the first 11 months of 2023 with a value of $3.4 billion, an increase of 149 per cent over the same period last year.

In terms of products, in 2023, durian surpassed dragon fruit to become the product with the highest export value of $2.2 billion, five times higher than that of 2022.

Among the top durian exporters, Chanh Thu Fruit Import-Export Ltd, Co also had a successful year with the Chinese market.

Ngo Tuong Vy, general director of Chanh Thu, said durian was the company's main export product in 2023, contributing to doubling revenue from 2022.

Meanwhile, Nguyen inh Tung, the general director of Vina T&T Group Import-Export Company, said that in 2023, Chinese partners ordered 1,500 containers of durian, but the company could only meet 30 per cent of the order due to lack of supply.

In the first 10 months of 2023, Vina T&T's fruit exports to China increased by 70 per cent over the same period, accounting for 35 per cent of revenue and far surpassing fruit exports to the US and Japanese markets, Tung said.

Now, Vina T&T has a plan to expand its market share in China, according to Tung. With huge demand from the market of 1.4 billion people, Viet Nam's durian industry is believed to still have a lot of potential in exporting this fruit. The market share of Vietnamese durian in China could be at 40 per cent in the next five years.

Viet Nam has 14 agricultural products with permission to export to China, including bird's nests and products from bird's nests, sweet potatoes, dragon fruit, longan, rambutan, mango, jackfruit, watermelon, banana, mangosteen, black jelly, lychee, passion fruit and durian.

Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is coordinating with the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) to complete documents for six kinds of citrus fruit, coconut, frozen durian, chilli, medicinal herbs and wild-caught seafood.

However, the challenge for domestic businesses and farmers is to comply with growing areas, packaging facilities, food hygiene and safety, plant quarantine, and all technical requirements.

Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of the Viet Nam Sanitary and Phytosanitary Notification Authority and Enquiry Point (Viet Nam SPS), said that only organisations with systematic production models could export to many countries, not only to China.

To maintain export markets for Vietnamese fruits, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has promoted monitoring coded growing areas and packaging facilities to meet plant quarantine and food safety requirements specified in the protocols.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam's supporting industry needs to advance self-reliance and reduce dependence on imports to improve the value and competitiveness of products in the global value chain.

Experts say that Viet Nam's industrialisation and modernisation strategy for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2045, needs to adapt to rapidly changing domestic and international contexts.

A report by the Industry Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade says that the underdeveloped supporting industry left Viet Nam unable to be self-sufficient in production inputs, leading to a significant dependence on imported spare parts and raw materials.

The trade deficit of inputs for production has been an issue for many years, reducing the added value of domestic industries.

The Industry Department report points out that in recent years, manufacturing and processing industries accounted for a high proportion of nearly 40 per cent of the total net production and business revenue of the economy, but only contributed about 14 per cent of the total GDP, a very low value added compared to other industries.

This weakness not only affects production development and economic growth in the short term, but will continue to affect industry and Viet Nam's economy overall in the long term in the context of deepening international integration.

"Therefore, developing supporting industries and gradually becoming self-reliant on domestic sources of raw materials and components is one of the core issues for sustainable development of Viet Nam's industry in the long term," said a representative of the Industry Department to Cong Thuong (Industry and Trade) online newspaper.

Highlighting the solution, the Industry Department said that first of all, it was necessary to improve the capacity of supporting industry enterprises; opening up market opportunities for supporting industry enterprises to become suppliers and participate in the supply chain of enterprises manufacturing and assembling final products.

The State also needed to actively expand foreign markets for supporting industry enterprises, along with receiving technical processes and production skills from abroad to improve production capacity, said the department.

In addition, it was necessary to speed up the construction of concentrated supporting industrial parks to create industry clusters; and develop material industries to enhance autonomy in input materials for production and reduce dependence on imported sources.

This would also raise the added value and competitiveness of Vietnamese products and businesses in the global value chain.

Truong Thi Chi Binh, general secretary of the Viet Nam Association for Supporting Industries (VASI), proposed that in the long term, the Government promulgate the Law on Supporting Industries and the Law on Key Industrial Development to affirm the importance of this type of industry, developing specialised policies to promote industrial development, welcome investment flows and shift production from other countries. VNS
HA NOI  The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) has issued a new regulation on management of gold bar production to stabilise the gold market.

Under Decision 02/Q-NHNN, which has taken effect since January 2, 2024, the SBVs Governor Nguyen Thi Hong authorised head of the SBVs Internal Audit Department to establish a SBV supervision team to supervise the processing of SJC gold bars from raw gold.

The department must perform tasks according to the current legal regulations on supervising the processing of SJC gold bars from raw gold.

It is also responsible for developing and submitting to the Governor a regulation on supervising the processing of SJC gold bars from raw gold for approval.

After many days under strong fluctuation, domestic gold price has become more stable after the issuance of the SBVs Decision 02/Q-NHNN.

At the Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC)s shops, the price of gold bars was listed at VN72-75 million per tael for buying and selling on Friday, remaining the same compared to the previous session. However, the gap between buying and selling prices is still kept at a high level of VN3 million per tael.

The gap between domestic and world gold prices is currently narrowed to more than VN13 million per tael.

Meanwhile, the price of 9999 gold rings on Friday increased by VN50,000 per tael to VN61.85 million per tael for buying and VN63 million for selling.

At the end of last year, domestic gold prices saw strong adjustment with large amplitudes in a day by gold trading companies. The gap between each adjustment was from VN1-2 million per tael.

According to SBVs deputy governor ao Minh Tu, the State does not accept too large differences between domestic and global gold prices, and between SJC and other types of gold bars. All of the issues will be considered in the upcoming amendments to Decree 24/2012/N-CP issued in 2012 on the management of gold business activities that the SBV will seek public comments in the coming time.

Regarding a proposal to abolish the monopoly on SJC gold bars according to the provisions of Decree 24, Tu said whether the SJC or many other gold brands exist, the ultimate goal would be to stabilise the gold bar market, and ensure the interests of the country's 100 million people.  VNS
HA NOI  The Vietnamese stock market increased on Monday in line with the short-term uptrend, while foreign investors continued the net selling.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange closed higher at 1,160.19 points, up 5.51 points, or 0.48 per cent. This marked the seventh straight session of gains.

The breadth of the market was positive as the number of gainers surpassed that of decliners by 171 by 148. Liquidity gained from the previous session to reach nearly VN20 trillion. In particular, the trading value rose by 17.8 per cent to VN19.2 trillion (US$788.7 million).

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, also increased 2.38 per cent, or 0.2 per cent, to 1,163.52 points. In the VN30 basket, 16 stocks advanced while 13 ended lower and one stayed flat.

Extending the recovery momentum from the last two weeks of 2023, the index closed higher on the first trading day of the New Year, thereby opening a series of gaining sessions throughout the week.

MBS Research said that the market can continue to maintain the momentum this week, but the two important thresholds that investors should pay attention to are the level of 1,165 points and the short-term target area of 1,188 points.

Banking stocks continued to lead the market's trend, of which, BIDV (BID) was the biggest gainer. Shares of the lender soared 4.27 per cent.

It was followed by Vietcombank (VCB), Techcombank (TCB) and Vietibank (CTG), up in a range of 0.7 - 2.71 per cent.

Real estate stocks also contributed to today's gains, such as DIC Group (DIG) surged 2.21 per cent, Novaland (NVL) climbed 2.67 per cent, at Xanh Group (DGX) was up 1.8 per cent and Vincom Retail (VRE) rose 1.5 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index extended rallies to four consecutive sessions. It rose 0.57 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 233.33 points.

During the session, investors poured over VN1.7 trillion into the northern bourse, equal to a trading volume of 85.48 million shares.

However, foreign investors continued to net sell on both main exchanges with a total value of VN251.74 billion. Specifically, they net sold VN248.42 billion on HoSE and VN3.32 billion on HNX.  VNS
Dr Mattias Larsson

Ngoc is an energetic 13-year-old girl who likes to be outdoors and play with friends, as she lives in the countryside in a province near Ha Noi and she has nice woods and mountain areas she can venture in. Her parents are academics working in education but also have a small-scale farm for house needs with vegetables, fruits and some pigs and chickens. She likes to help with the farm work when not busy studying or out with friends.

One day after being out camping with some friends she developed a high fever and headache, she also felt nausea with stomach pain and vomited a few times. The parents first gave her some paracetamol and hoped the symptoms would improve. However, the fever continued, and she also developed shortness of breath and rash.

As the parents grew more anxious, they took her to the local clinic where they examined her, said it was a bacterial infection and prescribed an antibiotic, Augmentin, and steroids. After some days of treatment, she had not improved, but the symptoms became even more pronounced. She developed a generalised swelling. The appetite was gone, she did not want to eat. The parents then took her to the provincial pediatric hospital where they could do some diagnostics, they took tests for dengue, influenza A, COVID all negative, the CRP was high and CBC indicated a severe infection. She was admitted and given IV antibiotics and other medication. After some days she felt better and could eat and drink. But when she was discharged the condition rapidly deteriorated, and the symptoms returned.

The parents then took her to Ha Noi, first to one of the big national hospitals, but as they had no referral letter, they could not use the health insurance, also there were a lot of patients and long waiting times of several hours. The parents had heard that Family Medical Practice has good competence and diagnostic capacity. When they arrived, they registered quickly and could just after a few minutes see the pediatrician who asked about the symptoms and earlier diagnostics. They said she had now been sick with fever, headache, nausea, stomach pain, vomiting, rash and increased swelling, they told her about earlier healthcare contact and showed the tests and medical reports including the treatments. As no one else in the surroundings had similar symptoms it was not an obvious person-to-person transmission.

The doctor examined her and in addition to the mentioned symptoms also found enlarged liver and lymph nodes. When asked if she except for the rash had any other marks or lesions on the skin she said she had one that had developed as she got the symptoms in the groin, she had been reluctant to show that as it was in a private area. When examined the pediatrician found a black circular mark, an eschar (a lesion after a mite bite). In addition to conventional infection tests as CBC and CRP he also ordered a Rickettsia PCR test, the tests showed severe infection and the PCR confirmed the diagnosis Rickettsia.

The pediatrician explained that rickettsial infections are often underdiagnosed because of similar symptoms to many other infections, that Scrub typhus is the most common rickettsial disease, and that they are mostly transmitted in the countryside. Rickettsial diseases are caused by infection with intracellular bacteria transmitted to humans by mites, ticks, fleas and lice. The clinical symptoms vary widely, ranging from mild to life-threatening illness depending upon the rickettsial species or strain, underlying diseases, and delay in time to appropriate medical care. As it is an intracellular bacterium it does not respond to the most common antibiotics as Augmentin but more targeted antibacterial treatment is needed.

The right antibiotic treatment to treat rickettsial infections was prescribed as well. After some days the fever symptoms subsided, Ngoc was well again.

Rickettsial diseases are widely distributed in all regions of Viet Nam. The symptoms are often nonspecific and easy to be misdiagnosed with other febrile infections such as dengue fever and influenza A. If you or your child has symptoms with high fever, headache, rash or abdominal pain its important to go to a health facility with competence for differential diagnosis to get the right diagnosis and treatment. Family Medical Practice

*Dr Mattias Larsson is a paediatric doctor at Family Medical Practice and associate professor at Karolinska Institutet and has a long experience in research on infectious diseases, especially antibiotic resistance and hospital-acquired infections as well as HIV, with many articles in peer-reviewed publications and mainstream media appearances.

He has worked with the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, USAID, the Clinton Foundation, and the Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. He is fluent in English, Swedish, Vietnamese, German and some Spanish.

Visit Family Medical Practice Hanoi 24/7 at 298 I Kim Ma St, Kim Ma Ward, Ba inh Dist.

To book an appointment, please call us at (024).3843.0784 or via Whatsapp, Viber or Zalo on +84.944.43.1919 or email hanoi@vietnammedicalpractice.com.

FMPs downtown Ho Chi Minh City location is in Diamond Plaza, 34 Le Duan St, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, and 95 Thao ien St, District 2. Tel. (028) 3822 7848 or email ~hcmc@vietnammedicalpractice.com.
HA NOI  The worlds largest travel site TripAdvisor has revealed that its Travelers Choice Best of the Best 2023 honours Hoi An ancient city and HCM City in its Trending Destinations category.

Accordingly, the UNESCO heritage site of Hoi An ancient city is ranked 2nd and HCM City 11th in the list of 25 trending destinations in the world.

In its description of Hoi An, the site wrote: This city on the central Vietnamese coast is a well-preserved example of the important Southeast Asian trading port it was from the 15th-19th centuries. Already a common stop for backpackers, it is becoming better known to tourists. On the 14th day of each lunar month, the town trades its electric lights for traditional coloured lanterns. Sights include the Japanese Covered Bridge and the Quan Cong Temple.

As for HCM City, TripAdvisor assessed Viet Nam's bustling largest city sets the cultural and economic pace for the country. The former Saigon boasts charming French colonial architecture and wide boulevards, usually thronged and choked with traffic.

It advised tourists to use taxi to tour the sprawling city, and visit the War Remnants Museum, the Jade Emperor Pagoda, and the Ben Thanh Market, and take a tour through the Mekong Delta.

Travelers Choice Best of the Best is the annual award by Tripadvisor. The award is meant to be given to destinations whose hotels, restaurants and things-to-do received a high volume of above-and-beyond reviews and opinions from the community over a 12-month period.

Fewer than 1 per cent of Tripadvisors 8 million listings are awarded Best of the Best, signifying the highest level of excellence in travel.  VNS
HA NOI  National Assembly Chairman (NA) Vuong inh Hue hoped that Bulgaria will encourage other EU parliaments to soon ratify the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) during his talks with Speaker of Bulgarian NA Rosen Dimitrov Jeliazkov on Monday.

The talks were followed by an official welcome ceremony in Ha Noi.

Expressing his joy to lead the high-ranking Bulgarian NA delegation on an official visit to Viet Nam on the first days of the New Year, Speaker Jeliazkov emphasised that the visit continues to affirm Bulgaria's desire to strengthen the traditional friendship with Viet Nam, which is Bulgaria's most important partner in Asia.

Promoting cooperation between the two countries holds an important meaning, he said, hoping that the bilateral relations will further develop in the spirit of the Viet Nam - Bulgaria Joint Declaration signed in 2013.

Despite global challenges, the two countries achieved a trade turnover of more than US$200 million in 2023, they said, adding that in 2024, the two sides are expected to hold the meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on Economic, Trade and Scientific Cooperation to open up new areas of cooperation and creating favourable markets for each other's goods, following the Viet Nam - EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

Chairman Hue told the Bulgarian guest that Viet Nam has made efforts to implement the recommendations of the European Commission (EC) on sustainable fish development, asking Bulgaria to call on the EU to consider removing the IUU "yellow card" for Vietnamese fishery products.

Hue spoke highly of the Bulgarian NA for ratifying the EVIPA in September 2023, saying that the agreement will help Bulgarian businesses access the Vietnamese market of more than 100 million people and reach out to the ASEAN market - a region with more than 650 million people.

He thanked Bulgaria for helping train tens of thousands of Vietnamese officials, students, and graduate students, including many senior Vietnamese leaders.

The two sides need to research a new educational cooperation program to attract students from the two countries to study at each country's schools and training facilities, he said.

He hoped that the two countries would soon hold a meeting of the science and technology cooperation committee to promote partnership in fields where Bulgaria has strengths such as information technology, artificial intelligence (AI), high technology, digital transformation and green transformation.

The Vietnamese leader also proposed the two countries intensify cooperation in culture, sports, tourism and people-to-people exchange.

Speaker of Bulgarian NA Rosen Dimitrov Jeliazkov agreed with Hues proposal that the two countries soon sign a Government-level agreement to create favourable conditions for businesses to carry out labour cooperation projects in Bulgaria in medicine, construction, garments and agriculture in the context that Bulgaria is now experiencing a labour shortage.

The two sides will continue to effectively implement the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding on defence cooperation, including sharing experience on UN peacekeeping operations and supporting Viet Nam in overcoming the consequences of mines and bombs.

Hue highly appreciated the newly-established Bulgarian Parliamentary Friendship Group with the Vietnamese NA which acts as a bridge to promote cooperation between the two NAs.

Both leaders agreed that NA cooperation is key to the two countries partnership. The NA friendship associations will create conditions for the NAs to monitor the implementation of bilateral plans and agreements.

The leaders vowed to maintain exchanges of NA high-level delegations, step up coordination and share experience in building and perfecting the legal system.

The Chairman of the Bulgarian NA believed that his visit would create a good premise for the coming years so that both sides can be proud of what has been achieved on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of establishing relations in 2025.

He said the political consultation between the two foreign ministers scheduled to be held in Ha Noi and the 24th session of the Intergovernmental Committee meeting to be held in the capital Sofia are events that contribute to strengthening bilateral relations, especially the trade exchange of value-added products and potential areas of cooperation such as high-tech agriculture, pharmaceuticals, information technology, innovation, tourism.

He said the strategic agreements signed between Viet Nam and the EU, of which Bulgaria is a member, including EVIPA and EVFTA, will contribute to further expanding the Viet Nam-Bulgaria cooperation. Bulgaria wants to strengthen cooperation to improve the quality of education, culture and gender equality. The two sides can exchange lecturers to teach at the universities.

At the talks, the two leaders discussed regional and international situations.

Hue said Viet Nam highly appreciates the EU's common stance on the East Sea (internationally known as South China Sea).

He requested Bulgaria support the stance of ASEAN and Viet Nam on the East Sea in accordance with international laws and UNCLOS 1982; ensuring security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation, maintaining peace, stability and development cooperation in the region and the world.

The leaders welcomed the two countries' mutual support for each other at the Human Rights Council, the UN Economic and Social Council and the UN Security Council.

The two sides pledged to promote cooperation at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) for peace, stability and sustainable development. As the ASEAN Group Coordinator in ASEM (2023 - 2024), Viet Nam will coordinate with Bulgaria and its members to resume ASEM activities in the near future.

After the talks, the two NA leaders witnessed the signing of cooperation agreements between leaders of Viet Nams Lai Chau City and Bulgarias Kazanlak City.  VNS
HA NOI  Prosecutors in the Viet A COVID-19 test kit case have recommended a 19-20 year prison sentence for former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long on charges of receiving bribes.

In the prosecutor's recommended indictment for the 38 defendants in the case, former Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh and former Deputy Minister Pham Cong Tac were suggested to receive three to four years of imprisonment for violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing loss and waste.

Former Hai Duong Provincial Party Committee Secretary Pham Xuan Thang was recommended to serve five to six years in prison for abusing his position and power while performing official duties.

The most severe sentence recommendation was 30 years for the former General Director of the Viet A Company, Phan Quoc Viet, on charges of giving bribes and violating bidding regulations, resulting in serious consequences.

Among the six defendants prosecuted for receiving bribes, former Minister Long received the most money from the Viet A Company, totaling US$2.25 million.

The Supreme Procuracy accused Long of unlawfully aiding the Viet A Company in obtaining the Ministry of Healths approval to register the test kits for circulation at a price 3.5 times higher than their actual value.

Subordinates repeatedly reported to Long that the Viet A Company did not qualify for a license, the price was unreasonable, and the raw materials for producing test kits exhibited signs of violations. They suggested that the registration be withdrawn.

However, Long did not fulfill his responsibility and instead continued to create favourable conditions for the Viet A Company.

Former Minister Anh and former Deputy Minister Tac were responsible for monitoring, managing, and organising the test kit research project.

The two were fully aware that the ownership of the research results belonged to the State, yet they engaged in illegal acts to assist the Viet A Company in appropriating the research results as its private property.

They were accused of being aware that, after obtaining the license, the company would engage in commercial production in violation of the law, yet they failed to take any action or measures to prevent or address it.

Tac even chaired a press conference about the Viet A test kit, and Anh signed a decision to reward the company.

The Supreme Procuracy accused both men of causing a loss of VN18.98 billion ($783,200), which was funds allocated by the State for the research project.

Both individuals received money from Viet A, with Anh receiving $200,000.

Impeachment

In the impeachment, the Procuracy asserted that amid the nation's battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, certain high-ranking officials collaborated with businesses to secure personal gains.

The defendants unlawfully converted the test kit from the State's property into Viet A's possession, reaping notably substantial illicit profits and eroding public confidence.

Throughout the case resolution process, Long was evaluated to have sincerely confessed and expressed remorse.

Due to his notable achievements in his professional capacity, the Ministry of Health recommended a reduction in his penalty.

Furthermore, he voluntarily returned the entire bribe amount of $2.25 million.

Former Minister Anh also contributed VN4 billion ($164,900) to address the consequences.

This case marks the first instance where three former members of the Party Central Committee, including Long, Anh, and Thang, have been brought to trial.

Earlier, during the interrogation, Long consistently asserted that he did not request, propose, or insist on Viet providing him with money.

However, Longs former secretary, Nguyen Huynh, testified that Long recommended he reach out to Viet with a message indicating "preparing money for work."

Huynh received $2 million from Viet, as suggested by Long, and promptly transferred it to him.

Concerning the Viet A Company, Viet corroborated Huynhs statement.

Each time Huynh proposed providing money, he indicated that "Long needs to take care of work."

When Viet had to offer bribes, he converted the Vietnamese currency into dollars.  VNS
HA NOI  Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has expressed his belief that that the ongoing visit to Viet Nam by Speaker of the Bulgarian National Assembly Rosen Dimitrov Jeliazkov will be a success, opening up a new chapter in the long-standing relations between the two countries.

Meeting with the Speaker in Ha Noi on Monday, PM Chinh said Viet Nam always treasures its fine, loyal, enduring friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Bulgaria and remembers the European country's valuable support during its struggle for national independence and reunification, as well as in the current process of national construction and development. Viet Nam considers Bulgaria one of its key partners in Central and Eastern Europe, he said.

Jeliazkov, for his part, asserted that Bulgaria considers Viet Nam one of its important partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Bulgaria wants to enhance multifaceted cooperation with Viet Nam to fully optimise their vast potential, he said.

Speaking highly of the positive development in bilateral cooperation across all fields, the host and guest concurred on the need to continue facilitating visits and meetings at all levels and via all channels, and effectively carrying out bilateral cooperation mechanisms and agreements.

Despite global economic downturn last year, two-way trade still surpassed US$200 million this has not yet matched the potential. Therefore, they shared a commitment to boost coordination, with the hope of attracting more Vietnamese and Bulgarian firms and investors to invest in each other's country.

Recognising complementary factors in the two economies, PM Chinh proposed making economic cooperation a pillar of the bilateral ties with the goal of achieving $500 million in annual two-way trade soon.

Jeliazkov expressed his desire to strengthen ties in trade and investment, focusing on areas of the two nations' strengths such as high-tech agriculture, pharmaceuticals, information technology, tourism, culture, high-tech industries, and aviation.

On this occasion, the PM proposed Bulgaria push forward the European Commission (EC)s removal of yellow card warning against Vietnamese seafood products. He thanked the Bulgarian NA for its ratification of the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and suggested Bulgaria encourage other EU member states to approve so that it could be enforced soon.

He thanked Bulgaria for its assistance in training tens of thousands of Vietnamese officials, students and graduates, including many high-ranking Vietnamese leaders. He proposed both sides explore new potential for educational cooperation to attract their students and graduates to each other's educational establishments, particularly in the fields of their strengths.

Considering labour cooperation a traditional and highly promising area, the PM suggested the two governments promptly sign an agreement to make it easier for enterprises to carry out labour cooperation projects in Bulgaria, particularly in health care, construction, apparel and agriculture.

The guest said Bulgarian enterprises welcome skilled Vietnamese workers coming to work in the European country.

The PM thanked and suggested the Bulgarian Government and NA continue creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese citizens to live, work and study in the host country, thereby helping to uphold their role as a bridge between the two nations.

On global and regional issues of shared concern, he proposed Bulgaria support ASEAN and Viet Nams stances on the East Sea (South China Sea) issue, which includes ensuring safety and freedom of navigation and overflight, and peacefully settling disputes in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Viet Nam is ready to work as a gateway and a bridge for Bulgaria to deepen its cooperation with ASEAN, he affirmed.  VNS
HA NOI  President Vo Van Thuong has extended a warm welcome to Speaker of the Bulgarian National Assembly Rosen Dimitrov Jeliazkov on his official visit to Viet Nam at the outset of the new year, saying that the trip showcased the high level of political trust in the cooperative relationship between the two nations.

At a reception for the Speaker in Ha Noi on Monday, President Thuong believed that the visit will generate an impetus to bolster the Viet Nam-Bulgaria traditional ties and mark a significant milestone for the beginning of celebrations for the 75th founding anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties in 2025, thus elevating the bilateral relations to a new height.

Jeliazkov, for his part, informed the host about his successful talks with Chairman of the Vietnamese NA Vuong inh Hue. He wished that both sides would actively carry out existing cooperation mechanisms, including meetings of the Vietnam-Bulgaria Inter-Governmental Committee.

Expressing a desire for collaboration with Viet Nam in trade, investment, national defence and security, he noted that the Bulgarian delegation had paid working trips to several Vietnamese localities and found out that there remains untapped potential of cooperation between the two countries localities, especially in economy and people-to-people exchanges.

He also welcomed Viet Nam's initiative to send Vietnamese language teachers to Bulgaria.

The Speaker wished that Viet Nam would serve as a bridge to facilitate cooperation between Bulgaria and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as between ASEAN and the European Union (EU).

In reply, President Thuong affirmed that Viet Na always values its relationship with Bulgaria. He took this occasion to thank the European country for training thousands of Vietnamese students, experts and skilled workers in various fields; supporting Viet Nam in the ratification of agreements with the EU, including the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement just before NA Chairman Hue's visit to Bulgaria in September 2023; in multilateral and bilateral mechanisms; and in Viet Nam's bid for a seat at the UN Human Rights Council for the 2023-25 tenure.

He wished that both sides would further step up foreign political relations, including holding more regular exchanges of parliamentarians to share professional experience as well as locality-to-locality exchange activities.

The Vietnamese leader proposed Jeliazkov and the Bulgarian NA continue creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese nationals living and working in the country. Additionally, he urged Bulgaria to back and push forward the European Commission (EC)s removal of yellow card warning against Viet Nam's seafood products.

He also suggested continued collaboration and sharing of visions on global and regional issues, and urged the Bulgarian NA to support Viet Nam and ASEAN's stance on settling disputes through peaceful means in line with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); ensuring security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight; raising voices and calling on parties concerned to fully and seriously implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (South China Sea) (DOC), negotiate and build a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) that is practical, effective and in accordance with international law.

The host and guest agreed to direct agencies of both countries to actively step up bilateral cooperation activities, leading up to the 75th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2025.  VNS
HCM CITY  An additional 46 Vietnamese students have graduated from the Vietnam-Belgium master's programme at the HCM City Open University.

On January 7, a graduation ceremony was held to present masters degrees to the students, including 19 executive masters of business administration, 11 advanced masters of marketing and communication management, and six masters of business quality and performance management.

Speaking at the ceremony, the HCM City Open University rector Nguyen Minh Ha said the Vietnam-Belgium Programme has been run by the HCM City Open University and Universite Libre de Bruxelless Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management since 1995.

The programme offers masters programmes in several business-related streams, helping train human resources to meet Viet Nams needs.

So far, nearly 4,000 students across the country have graduated from this programme.

He highly appreciated the efforts and contributions of the coordinators, specialists and collaborators of the program in coordinating teaching and learning activities, and supporting activities in the past years.

We hope to continue to receive the valuable and effective cooperation of the lecturers and colleagues so that together we can provide higher quality human resources for society, he said.

Currently, the universitys postgraduate training has five doctoral programmes and 12 masters programmes and many joint programmes with foreign educational institutions from Belgium, Australia, Germany and France at both master's and doctoral levels.

Most of the universitys domestic postgraduate training programmes are accredited according to FIBAA standards (Europe) and domestic standards of the Ministry of Education and Training.  VNS
While this uptick signals gradual stabilisation, its vital to highlight that the BCI has remained below the midpoint since Q4 2022. Notably, over one-third of businesses anticipate underperformance, underlining a cautious outlook amid persistent market weaknesses.

EuroCham Chairman Gabor Fluit commented on this development saying, "Theres definitely a positive trend underway. While we still have a long way to go for a full recovery, businesses are feeling more hopeful.

"The European business community is increasingly optimistic that the most challenging economic period is now behind us.'

The quarterly BCI offers a snapshot of European investor sentiment in Vietnam. Conducted since 2011, it surveys a pool of over 1,400 EuroCham members across various sectors, delivering real-time observations into the ever-evolving dynamics of this vibrant Southeast Asian market.

As Vietnams business landscape transitioned from Q3 to Q4 2023, subtle yet telling shifts in sentiment emerged. While there was a slight 2 percentage point dip in overall optimism for economic stability and growth, this was more than offset by a decline of 14 percentage points in expectations of an economic downturn.

The last quarter of 2023 saw a marked increase in satisfaction among businesses: firms confident in their current situation rose from 24 per cent in Q3 to 32 per cent in Q4. The outlook for Q1 2024 is also positive, with 29 per cent of businesses viewing their prospects as excellent or good  a sign of diminishing concerns, as extreme worries fell from 9 per cent to 5 per cent.

Looking ahead, Vietnams business sector is poised for growth. 31 per cent of companies plan to expand their workforce in Q1 2024, and 34 per cent intend to increase their investments, a clear uptick from 2023.

In Q4 2023, Vietnams investment hotspot status increased significantly. 62 per cent of those surveyed ranked Vietnam among their top 10 global investment destinations, with 17 per cent placing it at the very top. This endorsement is matched by 53 per cent of respondents anticipating increased foreign direct investment in Vietnam by the end of Q4.

The survey also highlights Vietnams strategic position in the ASEAN region. While only a small fraction (2 per cent) consider it an industry leader, 29 per cent rank it among the top competitive countries in ASEAN. The total of 45 per cent view Vietnam as a competitor, albeit acknowledging certain challenges. This perspective emphasizes Vietnams growing influence and potential for advancement within ASEAN.

The survey sheds light on the European business communitys assessment of Vietnams workforce. The statistics reveal a complex picture: while 32 per cent of respondents recognise good proficiency in the workforce, this number indicates that a majority perceive room for improvement in skills and expertise. Similarly, the 24 per cent satisfaction rate regarding workforce availability suggests that while there is a pool of talent, it might not fully align with the specific requirements or scale desired by international businesses.

The findings also show that 40 per cent of respondents view Vietnams workforce as moderately proficient, indicating a blend of basic and intermediate skills. In addition, half rate the workforces availability as moderate, reflecting some challenges in finding qualified candidates. These results suggest that further development and training could enhance workforce proficiency and availability to better meet the demands of the global market.

Through the survey, valuable insights emerge on regulatory challenges perceived by the business community in Vietnam. Topping the list, a significant 52 per cent of respondents identify administrative burdens and bureaucratic inefficiencies as one of the top three hurdles. Following this, 34 per cent of businesses highlight unclear and variably interpreted rules and regulations as major challenges.

Securing necessary licences, permits, and approvals is a concern for 22 per cent of respondents. Moreover, 20 per cent cite the lack of qualified local expertise in specialised fields. Furthermore, 19 per cent of companies find visa regulations, work permits, and labour rules for foreign employees challenging, reflecting the complexities of managing an international workforce under the current legal system.

On the solutions front, the survey highlights key areas for improvement to boost Vietnams attractiveness for FDI. A notable 54 per cent of respondents call for administrative and bureaucratic streamlining, indicating that easing bureaucratic processes could significantly enhance the business environment. Additionally, 45 per cent stress the importance of strengthening the legal system and regulatory environment, while 30 per cent see infrastructure development, including roads, ports, and bridges, as essential for FDI attraction.

In 2023, the potential of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) was increasingly realised by businesses. By Q4, a significant 27 per cent of companies reported experiencing moderate to significant benefits from the agreement, a marked increase from just 18 per cent in Q2. The foremost advantages of EVFTA were tariff reductions or eliminations (42 per cent), increased market access to Vietnam (27 per cent), and improved competitiveness in Vietnam (25 per cent).

However, the survey also reveals challenges in fully leveraging the EVFTAs potential. About 13 per cent of respondents cited Uncertainty or lack of understanding of the agreement as a primary obstacle, suggesting a need for more clarity. Moreover, 9 per cent pointed to Opaque and lengthy customs clearance procedures.

Confidence among the foreign business community in Vietnam is clearly on the rise. New data for 2023 support this. Last year, foreign direct investment reached $36.61 billion, jumping 32.1 per cent from 2022. This is a clear illustration of growing faith in Vietnams economy," Fluit said.

While these figures are indeed promising, its crucial to maintain a cautious outlook. Its noteworthy that the BCI still remains below the midpoint, and more than one-third of businesses still expect to underperform. Given the intense economic competition in the region, Vietnam should stay vigilant. Its crucial for the country to keep refining its policies and strategies to draw and maintain European foreign direct investment."

Vietnam remains attractive to European investors Vietnam remains appealing to European investors amidst the tough global situation, according to the latest report by The the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam.

Euro groups keen on smooth policy Businesses from the European Union are pinning high hopes on regulatory advances, such as with visa exemptions, so that they can unlock wide-ranging benefits through investment in Vietnam.
An MDF factory of KES Group

KES Group Corporation (KES) is the largest Vietnamese producer of engineered wood panels, focusing on Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) products and the leading provider of innovative solutions for the construction and interior industry.

The company currently has an annual MDF production capacity of 500,000 cubic metres, an annual flooring production capacity of 6.5 million sq.m and an annual melamine paper printing and dipping production capacity of 40 million sq.m.

According to IFC's disclosure on January 5, the proposed IFC financing will support the companys vertical integration strategy, provide funding for a new warehouse and maintenance capex and working capital for MDF production. The project is expected to cost $92 million, of which will be funded by $60 million IFC loan; and $32 million from the companys internal cash generation.

In addition, IFC is exploring an advisory opportunity to support the company on obtaining green building certification for its new warehouse and distribution showrooms.

This financing will help KES realise its vision to become one of the top five Southeast Asian companies in the field of industrial wood by 2026. At the heart of this vision is sustainability. Accordingly, KES constantly seeks and pushes the envelope on its journey to create a solution that balances the finitude of resources and the infinity of human needs sustainably.

The company has chosen the more difficult path of choosing 100 per cent natural wood fibre materials to help improve the quality of life without harming the environment.

As of present, KES owns five wood factories with an area of nearly 1,200,000 square metre and modern machinery systems. In addition, the company also boasts a closed wood production chain from input materials to finished products, ensuring good control of product quality as well as environmental and health protection.

IFC launches greenhouse gas emissions inventory and reporting manual Companies in Vietnam will find it easier to log and report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions thanks to the manual published by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

IFC helped SMEs, farmers, and women in business in FY2023 Despite the recent economic challenges, climate projects, smaller businesses, women, and farmers in the Asia-Pacific region have benefited from record amounts of funding from International Finance Corporation (IFC), with Vietnam among the top five countries for long-term investment in the region.
Investigators find blown out door plug from Alaska Airlines plane,

Photo: STEPHEN BRASHEAR / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chief said a teacher, named only as "Bob," found the panel in his backyard in the city of Portland, in the US state of Oregon.

"I am excited to announce we have found the door plug," NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said at a press briefing.

"We are really pleased that Bob found this," she added.

"He took a picture. I can just see the outside of the door plug from the pictures, the white portions. We can't see anything else but we're going to go pick that up and make sure that we begin analyzing it."

Airlines and safety bodies around the world grounded some versions of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets pending inspections, with dozens of flights canceled after the incident.

The Federal Aviation Administration "is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight," the agency said on X.

It added that around 171 aircraft worldwide would be affected, with each inspection taking four to eight hours.

US-based Alaska and United Airlines fly the largest number of MAX 9 planes of any carrier and said on Sunday they had grounded their aircraft for inspection.

Other airlines with smaller MAX 9 fleets, including Turkish Airlines, said they did the same.

Boeing has so far delivered about 218 of the 737 MAX planes worldwide, the company told AFP.

Alaska Flight 1282 had departed from Portland International Airport and was still gaining altitude when the cabin crew reported a "pressurization issue," according to the FAA.

The plane quickly returned to Portland and there were no major injuries.

Images posted on social media showed a gaping hole where the side panel had blown out, with emergency oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.

The plane manufacturer late Sunday said its chief executive Dave Calhoun has set an all-employee safety meeting for Tuesday at the company's factory in Washington state, and canceled an overlapping leadership summit.

"In light of the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in-flight event, we are canceling the Summit to focus on our support to Alaska Airlines and the ongoing...(NTSB)investigation, and any of our airline customers experiencing impact to their fleets," Calhoun said in a Boeing statement.

- 'Very, very fortunate' -

Passenger Kyle Rinker told CNN the problem occurred soon after takeoff.

"It was really abrupt. Just got to altitude, and the window/wall just popped off," he told the broadcaster.

The NTSB said no one occupied the two seats nearest the panel, but the Oregonian newspaper quoted passengers as saying a young boy seated in the row had his shirt ripped off by the sudden decompression, injuring him slightly.

According to Aviation Week magazine, airlines that choose MAX models with smaller seating configurations can have the door sealed up, making it look like a typical window from the inside.

The NTSB dispatched a team to Portland to examine the Alaska Airlines craft.

The board's chair, Jennifer Homendy, said it was "very, very fortunate" that the incident had not ended in tragedy.

"We have the safest aviation system in the world. It is incredibly safe," she said. "But we have to maintain that standard."

Homendy revealed that the panel had fallen off over the Portland suburb of Cedar Hills, and urged residents to come forward if they found it.

The plane, which had been heading to Ontario, California, was certified airworthy in October and was newly delivered to Alaska Airlines, according to the FAA registry website.

"Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers," Boeing said in a statement.

- MAX struggles -

United said 33 of its 46 grounded MAX 9 planes had now been inspected. There were an estimated 60 flight cancellations on Saturday.

Aeromexico said it was grounding all of its 737 MAX 9 planes while inspections were carried out, while Panamanian carrier Copa Airlines said it was grounding 21 of its MAX 9s.

Icelandair said none of its MAX 9's featured the plane configuration specified in the FAA grounding order.

The European Union's Aviation Safety Agency said on Sunday it would follow the FAA's directive, but that it does not believe any EU airlines currently operate the 737 MAX 9.

Boeing has struggled in recent years with technical and quality control issues related to its 737 MAX models.

In December, the US aviation giant told airlines that MAX aircraft should be inspected to check for loose hardware on plane rudder control systems after an international operator discovered a bolt with a missing nut while performing routine maintenance.

Boeing's 737 MAX planes were grounded worldwide following two MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people in total.

The FAA approved the planes' return to service only after the company made changes to its flight control system.
Waco police say violent crime, as well as crime in general, decreased in 2023 as part of an overall downturn in crime throughout Texas and the nation.

Violent crime continued its post-pandemic decrease in several major Texas cities in 2023, while violent crime and property crime numbers are down in general across the country, criminologists say.

Crime rates spiked nationwide from 2020 to late 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but have declined since then. Some experts attribute improvement to more officers on the street engaging with communities and citizens.

Waco Police Department records show that 15 people were killed in homicides in 2023, the same number as 2022. However, only 12 of the deaths this year were determined to be murders, as two shootings were later determined to be cases of self-defense and another incident saw the person of interest no-billed by a grand jury due to mental competency issues.

Waco's homicide numbers peaked in 1993 with 29 killings but declined in the 21st century, averaging seven per year between 2010 and 2019. But killings jumped in the pandemic year of 2020 to 17, the highest since 2004. An equal number of homicides were reported in 2021.

Those trends seemed to continue into mid-2022, with 14 homicides reported, but then the killings stopped. No homicides were reported between May 17 and Dec. 23, 2022, when Stanley Wilcox is believed to have died. His body would not be found until Jan. 6, 2023.

Waco Police Chief Sheryl Victorian, who started in March 2021, attributes a drop in homicides and violent crime to better relations between the community and police.

In mid-2022, the city manager's office asked the police department to create a strategic response to combat violent crime. Victorian said community outreach and engagement were at the heart of the plan.

The department has formed several community engagement teams to build trust within communities with high crime rates and teach them ways to protect themselves from becoming victims.

While building that trust, we see increased cooperation from our community members in addressing crime and being able to identify individuals, whereas people did not want to participate in problem solving crimes and identifying individuals before, Victorian said. Weve seen an increase in people participating in providing information. When we engage, they trust us with the information they are providing.

Some of these community events include Trunk or Treat on Halloween, back to school events and Faith and Blue. Victorian said increased patrols and more vigilant policing also helped.

While the December 2023 crime numbers have not yet been released, violent crime statistics for January through November 2023 show a 13% decrease over the comparable 2022 period.

That includes a 12% decrease in sexual assault cases, a 17% decrease in robberies and a 13% decrease in assaults. Nonviolent crime was also down 16%, though narcotics offenses were up 23%.

Twelve of the 15 homicides were classed as murders, amounting to a 20% decrease of the 15 murders last year.

Of the 12 homicide cases that are still being investigated as murders, six were street crimes involving a firearm.

Three were domestic violence incidents representing four deaths: A double homicide involving a knife, plus deaths by strangling and shooting.

Two involved the death of infants by neglect.

In seven of the cases, suspects have arrested and charged, while four remain active investigations.

That brings the arrest rate to 64%, compared with 77% for 2022 homicides. Nevertheless, Victorian said the clearance rate for homicide cases has increased since before her tenure, which she attributed to the higher level of community engagement.

Professor Eric Connolly, a Sam Houston State University criminologist, said community engagement has been a big part of the overall decrease in violent crime throughout the U.S. The nation saw a 30% increase in violent crime during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Connolly said there were several reasons for the spike, including the difficulty of police getting into communities during lockdowns and the release of serious offenders from jail to clear space.

Another factor was the civil unrest after a Minneapolis police officer murdered a Black man, George Floyd, in May 2020, Connolly said.

Violent crime began to decline in early 2022, Connolly said. He said factors could include the easing of lockdowns and the passage of gun violence laws.

That's the million-dollar question," he said. "Everyone wants to know what are some of the causes for why we're seeing these fluctuations. I think now, as police officers are willing and able to get back into their communities with walking patrols, bike patrols and engage with them, that's helping reduce the opportunity to engage in this crime.

"There's also been a lot of support from the federal government's specifically targeting gun violence in major cities where they're able to track guns that are used and casings that are sent into a forensics lab to see exactly who used that gun. And that's been helping solve a lot of cases.

Connolly also said an increase in police hiring since the pandemic has left departments better equipped to handle crime. Since 2020, the number of sworn officers authorized at Waco Police Department has increased from 260 to 292. Currently the department has 273 officers but is seeking to hire more.

Connolly said violent crime is down in San Antonio, Fort Worth and Houston, while numbers in Austin have remained the same as last year. Meanwhile, Dallas and El Paso have seen increases in violent crime, especially gun violence, he said.

Crime decreased in most major cities nationwide in 2023, Connolly said, with Washington D.C. and Memphis being the only outliers.

Despite social media buzz about retail theft and car burglaries in big cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, Connolly said the number of property crimes has actually decreased, apart from an uptick in auto thefts.
Sean McCarthaigh

A verdict of misadventure has been recorded into the death of a Dublin woman who drowned while swimming alone in rough sea conditions in Killiney last year.

Nuala Smyth (66) from Terenure was reported missing to gardai by her family on January 3rd, 2023.

Her body was found on rocks close to the Vico Baths in Killiney two days later by an RNLI lifeboat on a training exercise.

The deceaseds brother, Ciaran Smyth, told a sitting of Dublin District Coroners Court on Monday that his late sister had been a year-round swimmer.

Mr Smyth said she would go swimming almost on a daily basis regardless of weather or conditions.

He told coroner Clare Keane that she would go swimming in a number of different locations including Killiney Beach and Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow.

Asked how good a swimmer she was, Mr Smyth replied that she was competent.

Other relatives of Ms Smyth told the hearing that she had been in very good form over the Christmas when there had been a large family gathering.

They said she would only occasionally go swimming on her own as she usually went swimming with her brother-in-law.

The inquest heard that she had told relatives on January 3rd, 2023 that she planned to go for a run or a walk but that it transpired she had instead gone for a swim.

The family said waves at Killiney Beach on the day were over a metre high.

Asked why she might have taken the unusual step of going swimming on her own, her relatives speculated that she might have tried to see as a once-off how she could swim in such conditions.

Her brother, Colm Smyth, said his sister has previously spoken of how swimming provided her with relief from anxiety.

She would be feeling better after a swim, he added.

In a statement, Damien Payne of the RNLI station in Dun Laoghaire, said the body of a female in a black swimsuit was found by the lifeboat crew on rocks near the Vico Baths at around 11am on January 5th 2023.

Mr Payne said sea conditions made it too hazardous to attempt to recover the body with the lifeboat.

An advanced paramedic who attended the scene, Jim Leonard, said no attempts were made to resuscitate the victim and she was pronounced dead at 11.45am.

Garda Lee ODonoghue told the hearing that the deceased matched the description of a woman who had been reported missing two days earlier and her family confirmed her identity to gardai at the mortuary at St Colmcilles Hospital in Loughlinstown.

Garda ODonoghue also confirmed that weather conditions over a few days at the time had been very windy and wet.

The wave conditions were as bad as it gets, he added.

The inquest heard that CCTV had shown Ms Smyth had travelled to Killiney via the DART, while her backpack containing her clothes and phone were recovered from the nearby beach.

Garda ODonoghue confirmed there appeared to have been no eyewitnesses to what might have happened to the victim, but gardai were satisfied there was no foul play in relation to her death.

Dr Keane said postmortem results showed Ms Smyth had died as a result of drowning.

The coroner said tests showed traces of prescription medicines in her body, but they had played no role in causing her death.

Dr Keane said she had heard no evidence to suggest there was any intention by Ms Smyth to harm herself.

She noted that the deceased has also gone to a location that she was in the habit of visiting when going for a swim.

Returning a verdict of death by misadventure, Dr Keane remarked: The standout is the weather conditions. If the waves were high, it is a risk factor.
The "Toyama Prefecture Hotel and Ryokan Sanitary Association" surveyed about 100 accommodations within the prefecture regarding the impact of the earthquake. As of January 8th, responses from 41 facilities have been received. Among them, 37 have reported damage such as broken roofs, walls, and plumbing, with some having to suspend operations.

The cancellations have been significant, with accommodation bookings for 7,000 guests and banquet or day-trip plans for 1,300 guests being canceled. The association estimates that the total financial impact of these cancellations is around 130 million yen, dealing a severe blow to the tourism industry.

Meanwhile, there are efforts to provide shelter in these facilities for those affected by the earthquake, with preparations being made to accommodate them. Hideki Matsushima, the secretary-general of the association, stated, "The situation is tough with consecutive cancellations due to the earthquake and the year-end and new year tourism season, but we want to help the disaster victims by accepting them."

The ryokan "Umiakari" in Himi City, Toyama Prefecture, which observed a strong 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, was fully booked on the day of the earthquake with 140 guests. Employees went room to room urging guests to evacuate to higher ground. The earthquake caused parts of the ceiling to fall and cracks in the floors, and urgent repair work is underway. However, the establishment has been closed since January 3rd due to ongoing water outages. Water stored in tanks is nearly depleted, and the kitchen is piled high with unwashed dishes. Takuya Nagata, the general manager of "Umiakari," said, "The inability to use water is our biggest issue. It's difficult to operate when the staff's homes are also without water, and life hasn't returned to normal."

Similarly, the guesthouse "Aomasa" in Himi City resumed operations on January 7th but reported that 80% of its bookings for accommodations and banquets had been canceled. According to the guesthouse, many cancellations are from tourists outside the prefecture who are afraid of earthquakes, while locals cancel saying it's difficult to hold banquets amid such a severe disaster. The timing is particularly damaging as it coincides with the peak season for winter delicacies like "Himi Kanburi" (Himi cold yellowtail), which is a local specialty and usually attracts many locals and tourists for New Year's parties. Emiko Aoki, the proprietress of "Aomasa," expressed concern, "We had just recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, and now we're worried about being forced out of business." However, Aoki is also providing meals and baths to local people who have evacuated. She is determined to continue operations while cherishing the connection with the local community. Aoki said, "We need to be energetic to help others. I want to find a way for the entire industry to stay positive."
A 27-year-old Hartford man died in a crash Sunday after leading law enforcement on a high-speed chase on highways and roads in Dodge County.

A Dodge County sheriffs Deputy attempted to stop the vehicle at about 5:55 p.m., Sheriff Dale Schmidt said in a press release. The Sheriffs Office had received a report from a concerned citizen that the driver might be impaired based on how the person was driving. It had also received a report that the vehicle failed to stop for Washing County deputies earlier that evening.

The Dodge County deputy attempted to stop the vehicle on Highway 33 near Highway 67. Schmidt said the driver fled from the stop and traveled south on Highway 67 at speeds in excess of 100 mph. The vehicle then traveled west on Highway S. The vehicle continued north on Horseshoe Road at a high rate of speed and failed to negotiate a curve. The vehicle left the roadway, went into a ditch and struck a tree.

Deputies immediately rendered aid and attempted life saving measures on the driver, who was the sole occupant of the vehicle, Schmidt said. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

The State Patrol is assisting with the crash investigation. The Dane County Sheriffs Office responded to the scene to assist with the safe removal of an older military style grenade, or facsimile, found in the vehicle. MedFlight, the Horicon Fire Department and EMS, and the Dodge County Emergency Response Team also assisted with the incident.
Sunday was a big day for the Nevada Air Guard as the top airmen were recognized for their exemplary service and dedication with an awards ceremony.
Bill Goodbread volunteered for the Marines at the height of the Vietnam War, shipping out in 1967 as a combat engineer attached to the infantry. In country, he joined teams dropped into remote areas to clear jungle to establish helicopter landing zones and fire bases.



Now, at 80 years old, he has a different mission: driving children to school safely each day, maintaining discipline on his bus but also taking care of his young passengers, learning about them and keeping a kindly eye out for their welfare.

Known as Mr. Bill, hes been a school bus driver in St. Louis for 15 years, while also acting as principal caregiver for his wife, who has a chronic illness.

A challenge I treasure

When you pull out of the parking lot you are the captain of that yellow ship with wheels on it, Goodread told AARP. Some people find that a challenge, but I enjoyed it because I had experience leading older men, not school children, and as a result of my Marine Corps training and my discipline, I run a pretty tight ship on the bus.

You can subscribe here to AARP Experience Counts, a free e-newsletter published twice a month. If you have feedback or a story idea then please contact us here.

Instilling a sense of order is part of the joy of his job. He believes in creating a structured, positive environment for students who might be having some struggles. I need to carefully drive the bus through traffic but also monitor the behavior of the 45 or 50 kids who are behind me, he explained.

I view that as a good challenge, one that I gladly accept. Some of the kids I haul on the bus, I know a single parent or grandma is bringing them up. Its a challenge that I treasure to set a good example, to lead from the front.

After getting to know who the children are, Goodbread makes sure he finds out who their parents are and which is their bus stop. He notices if theres something concerning or out of the ordinary and will then check in with teachers or the principal.

Something for the good guys

After college, Goodbread decided to serve his country because he wanted to fight communism overseas rather than risking it reaching American shores. He chose the Marines because he thought they were the best and was commissioned as a second lieutenant after completing officer training at Quantico.

He served on active duty for three years, including 13 months in Vietnam, and another nine years in the reserves as a civil affairs officer. Later in his time in Vietnam, where he was at Khe Sanh, just south of the demilitarized zone, he went into villages with medics to administer vaccines and other treatment.

It was rewarding, he recalled. It was nice to do something for the good guys.
CNN, December 17, 2023

Hilary Whiteman, Anna Coren and Abdul Basir Bina

Arzo is so weak she spends most of her day lying on a thin mattress in a dimly lit room under a ceiling fan that steadily circulates the polluted air of Pakistans largest city.

To pass the time, she watches makeup videos on her cellphone, the glow of the screen illuminating the faded freckles of a teenager whose skin now rarely sees the sun.

Arzo is a long way from her home in Afghanistan, where she lived with her parents before being smuggled across the border for medical treatment.

Her older brother and sister, Ahamad and Mahsa, now care for her in a rented room in Karachi, their temporary refuge from life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

Dont worry, whispers Ahamad, as he kisses Arzos hand. You will be fine. Dont worry, we are with you always. Im hoping you will be fine soon.

CNN is not using Arzos or her siblings real names because they fear reprisals from the Taliban, and being discovered by Pakistani officials, who have deported more than 26,000 Afghans since announcing a crackdown on undocumented migrants in October.

Being forcibly returned to Afghanistan would mean certain death for the 15-year-old, her siblings say, because she needs medical care they say isnt available in their home country.

The siblings dont normally talk about why their little sister is so unwell  they dont want to upset her. As they told CNN their story, Arzo silently wept.

A girl with ambition

Arzo dances barefoot in jeans to pop music with her sisters inside a home in Afghanistan. She smiles as she twists her hands in time with the beat.

Ahamad said the video was filmed six months after the Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021. Schools were closed but his sisters were confident they would reopen.

They didnt. Instead, the Taliban gradually reimposed the repressive policies that shrank the role of women in society during their previous rule from 1996 to 2001, despite assurances they wouldnt.

Women are banned from most workplaces, universities, national parks, gyms and going anywhere in public without a male chaperone.

And girls are no longer educated beyond sixth grade.

Mahsa had already graduated high school, but Arzo still had three years ahead of her.

When their village school closed, their worried father sent his daughters to study English at an education center in Kabul, but that soon shut, too.

Back at home, Mahsa took up tailoring to pass the time. But Arzo drifted deeper into depression.

Most of the time she said, I hope we should move from this place, I dont want to be here, there is no education and I want to become a doctor, Mahsa recalled Arzo saying.

One day in July, Mahsa walked downstairs to find her sister staring at her with bulging eyes.

I asked her, What happened to you? She said that she drank acid. I didnt believe it, so I put my fingers in her mouth and she vomited up blood, Mahsa said.

Doctors see rise in suicides

Experts say reliable statistics on suicide and suicide attempts arent compiled in Afghanistan, but rights groups and doctors say theyve seen an increase under Taliban rule.

Dr. Shikib Ahmadi has been working six days a week and longer hours than ever, seeing patients at a mental health clinic in Afghanistans western Herat province. Hes using a pseudonym because he fears the Taliban will punish him for speaking to foreign media.

Ahmadi said the number of female patients at his clinic has surged 40% to 50% since the Talibans takeover two years ago. Around 10% of those patients kill themselves, he said.

Their lives restricted by the Taliban, girls and women are turning to cheap household items to attempt suicide, he said. Rat poison, liquid chemicals, cleaning fluids, and farming fertilizer  anything they think will ease their grief.

I dont see any good future for anyone in this country.Dr. Shikib Ahmadi

Ahmadi says he tries to tell them things will get better, that schools will reopen, that they can work at home while they wait, tailoring or doing something that gives them purpose.

But the truth is he doesnt know if classes will ever resume, and his own hope is fading.

I dont see any good future for anyone in this country, he said.

Another group of girls has just graduated from sixth grade  the end of their education under Taliban rules.

Ahmadi fears that will mean another wave of self-harm and suicide.

Last year, everyone had a hope that next year the schools will be open. The government promised that they will open the schools, he said.

But since this year, the schools are not open, so people lost their hopes. I feel like the number of suicides will increase.

CNN has contacted the Taliban for comment about the reported rise in suicide among women.

In a statement provided by the Talibans Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in January, the group claimed that female suicide rates had fallen since they came to power.

In the last 20 years, there were many case (sic) of women committing suicide, but by the grace of Allah, we do not have such cases now, the statement said.

The claim is contradicted by multiple reports, including from UN experts, who said in July that reports of depression and suicide are widespread, especially among adolescent girls prevented from pursuing education.

Arzo is fed fluids through a feeding tube while she waits for an operation to repair her wounds. Javed Iqbal/CNN

The Talibans return

Arzo was born in 2008, seven years after the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan and removed the Taliban leaders the US accused of harboring al Qaeda terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks.

Under the Western-backed Afghan government, a devastating civil war raged for years, but life had nonetheless improved for Afghan women. Many started school, earned degrees and became role models for girls like Arzo and Mahsa.

But everything changed in 2021 when the US and its allies started pulling out of Afghanistan, creating space for the resurgence of Taliban fighters, whod retreated to rural areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Back in power in the cities, the Taliban reimposed their radical Islamist ideology, carrying out extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, and unlawfully detaining anyone considered a threat to their leadership, according to rights groups.

In the chaotic aftermath of the takeover, women were initially told to stay at home because the fighters were not trained to respect them. Restrictions were gradually tightened, and now millions of girls and women are largely confined to their own homes with the threat of punishment if they dont comply.

Ayesha Ahmad, an associate professor in global health humanities at St. Georges University of London, was conducting in-depth interviews with women in Afghanistan who had fled domestic violence when the Taliban moved in.

I will never forget the day of the takeover, the frantic calls and communications and the absolute terror that they were feeling because they knew what the reality would be, and they were right, she said.

Now many more women are vulnerable to violence, she said, and some see suicide as the only escape, despite the cultural stigma and shame it would bring on their families.

Suicide is a sin in Islam, and in this context of religious extremism, women are not going to be seen as a victim, she said.

With little sympathy from the Taliban leaders who created this situation, Afghanistans women are looking outside their country for support.

Heather Barr, associate director of the womens rights division at Human Rights Watch, said Afghan women worry the world is beginning to accept that whats happening to them is normal.

Everyones kind of shrugging and saying, Well, its Afghanistan. It should be intolerable to all of us. Because what happens in Afghanistan, and how the international community does or doesnt respond, has huge implications for womens rights globally, she said.

We have to be saying to our governments that this cant be seen as normal. This cant be treated as just one more country with a domestic issue.

I cry for her future

Ahamad wasnt in Afghanistan in July when his sister drank the acid.

He had already fled to Pakistan, fearing retribution from the Taliban for his work as a journalist before they took power. He told CNN his father and uncle took Arzo to a local doctor, who gave her some medicine and told them to go to Kabul if her condition worsened. It did.

In Kabul, a doctor said the acid had damaged her esophagus and stomach and she was unlikely to survive surgery. So, they decided to take her to Pakistan, where Ahamad was waiting with a doctor. Ahamad then took Arzo to Karachi, where another doctor inserted a feeding tube into her stomach.

That was three months ago. Since then, Ahamad says Arzo has steadily lost weight and now weighs about 25 kilograms or 55 pounds.

Her situation is not good at all. The doctors installed the pipe to her stomach for feeding so she can gain weight and be ready for the real operation, in January, Ahamad said.

Maybe she wont gain weight, he said. And maybe they wont do the operation.

Mahsa sits on the bed, her needle piercing fabric with enough precision to keep her mind focused on the task. She would like to return to study, but right now caring for her sister is all that matters.

I cant sleep at night because she is in pain, Mahsa said.

The siblings know theyre taking a huge risk by speaking out  they fear the Talibans reach in Pakistan and for their parents, who are still living in Afghanistan.

But theyre desperate.

Neither can work, the siblings say, and they dont have the $5,000 needed for Arzos surgery, as well as money for the room, food for themselves and the cans of powdered milk and juice they need to keep her weight from dropping.

They dont want to think about what happens if the last of their money runs out, or if the Pakistani police come knocking on the door.

I dont cry in front of her, but I kiss her and cry while she sleeps at night.

Ahamad, Arzo's brother

Since October, when Pakistans government announced it was no longer tolerating the presence of undocumented Afghans, nearly 400,000 have returned to Afghanistan, according to the UNs High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Most left voluntarily, driven away by the fear of arrest, according to a joint statement from UN agencies.

In October, the UNs OCHR urged Pakistan to halt the removals, warning that those who returned were at grave risk of human rights violations.

The most vulnerable included civil society activists, journalists, human rights defenders, former government officials and security force members, and of course women and girls as a whole, spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told journalists in Geneva.

Pakistan has defended its Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan (IFRP), saying in a statement that its compliant with applicable international norms and principles.

Ahamad wants a safe place to go with his sisters, where they can rebuild their lives, resume their studies, and start to work as theyd always planned to do.

He knows that returning to Afghanistan is not an option for his sisters, especially Arzo, who cries with despair at the suggestion.

If she returns to Afghanistan, she will face the same fate. It would be better to live in a peaceful country and continue her education and proper treatment, Ahamad said.

For now, they live within the four walls of a room heavy with grief for the girl who used to dance barefoot but now struggles to find the strength to lift her head.

I dont cry in front of her, but I kiss her and cry while she sleeps at night, for her future, for her treatment, so she can survive this sickness, said Ahamad.
In recent years, Dubai has positioned itself as a global business and cultural hub, attracting attention not only for its iconic skyline and luxurious lifestyle but also for its rapidly growing public relations (PR) industry. Factors like the city's strategic location, economic diversification, and commitment to innovation have contributed to its emergence as a key player in the field of public relations in the Middle East. Recently, we have seen nationals of many countries of the Middle East prefer to open their PR companies in Dubai.

Dubai, strategically located at the crossroads of the East and West, has become the focal point for PR companies aiming to navigate the varied and dynamic landscape of the Middle East.

Dubai's strategic location

Dubai's strategic geographical location between Europe, Asia, and Africa has made it a natural meeting point for businesses and cultures. This positioning has enabled PR companies in Dubai to serve a diverse range of clients from various industries, facilitating cross-cultural communication and understanding.

The city's accessibility has also attracted multinational corporations seeking a base for their regional PR operations. The Emirate has ranked 12th globally and secured the top position in the Arab world on the list of the 100 best startup environments for companies in 2023, as per the Global Startup Environment Report. It solidifies Dubai's status as an increasingly attractive destination for businesses to thrive, which attracts businesses and consequently PR agencies to the region.

What PR pros have to say about Dubai as a hub?

Dubai's rapid economic growth and diversification have attracted businesses from various sectors, contributing to a demand for specialized PR services. The city's visionary leadership has transformed it into a global business hub, hosting numerous multinational corporations and emerging startups. As businesses thrive and expand, the need for effective communication strategies becomes increasingly evident, driving the growth of the PR industry in Dubai.

There has been a noticeable increase in the number of PR companies in the Middle East, with professionals from various nationalities (Indians, Arabs, Egyptians, etc.) establishing offices in Dubai.

Lets hear from PR leaders:

Founder and Managing Director of Catch Communications: I think Dubai has functioned as a central hub for media agencies across various sectors for several years. This is due to its strategic geographical location, diverse population, and cosmopolitan nature. Public relations professionals find themselves well-placed to execute communications from the UAE. The Middle East, especially the UAE, boasts a highly multicultural population. Since the introduction of free zone ownership, professionals worldwide have favoured the UAE for establishing and operating businesses, making it a key Middle Eastern hub for their global counterparts.

PR Director at Sherpa Communications: The rise of PR companies in Dubai, with professionals hailing from diverse nationalities, signifies the growing importance of the city as a global business and communications hub. Dubai's strategic location, world-class infrastructure, and business-friendly policies have transformed it into a magnet for talent and businesses. This diversity of backgrounds and perspectives enriches the PR industry by offering clients a broader spectrum of insights, cultural understanding, and access to extensive networks. Moreover, Dubais visionary leadership has consistently prioritized economic diversification and innovation. Government initiatives actively encourage companies to move their offices to this region.

Founder &CEO, TishTash Communications: Success is always dependent on results, reputation, consistency, creativity and tenacity. Dubai will continue to be a central hub, especially with the continuation of the government's efforts to attract companies specialising in digital transformation and up-skilling in this sector.

Read more: Beyond skyscrapers Part -1: Dubai's skyrocketing PR scene takes center stage (Full Article)

(Tomorrow, part two will unravel the top trends and changes in the PR industry in the region.)
LiveMint, the world's fastest-growing news website (Similarweb, Sep 2023), is set to launch reader and advertiser engagement initiatives for the upcoming Union Budget 2024. With a theme centered around Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mint's Union Budget offerings present a distinct platform for brands to align with innovation and India's limitless potential.

As India's leading premium finance and business news publication, Mint has an integrated newsroom covering national, international, and business news with a presence in 65 cities through 9 editions. With an impressive 124 million total views and 30 million total unique visitors (Source: Comscore MMX Multi-platform, Business/Finance News Publishers, November 2023, India), Mint is #2 Business News Platform in India, with a reach that extends across various social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. On mobile, Mint is #1 Visited Business News platform in India (Source: Comscore MoMX, Total Visits, Business/Finance News Publishers, September 2023, India).

Delving into Mint's audience, 33.3 million belong to the BFSI sector, with 25 million avid investors, 15 million stock investors, and a diverse range of finance enthusiasts. (Source: LiveMint Internal Data). This year's Union Budget, the 6th presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, is built on the pillars of inclusive growth, macroeconomic stability, and sustainable development. The focus sectors include manufacturing, IT, renewable energy, infrastructure, real estate, auto, pharma, retail & e-commerce, BFSI/fintech, SMEs/MSMEs.

The key differentiators include the introduction of the AI chatbot #AskMint, deep sectoral focus, bespoke video content, and extensive reader engagement initiatives. Mint users will be able to ask questions or queries to the AI-enabled chatbot which is fed with previous budget data and will be updated with the latest data on Budget Day 2024.

For the first time ever, Mint has introduced a unique reader engagement plan, aimed at fostering daily consumer engagement through daily budget quizzes with rewards for winners, polls, personalised summary of key budget announcements  all of these with a multi-pronged strategy. With in-app push notifications, quarter-page print ads and digital display banners, along with prominent web/app header banners, Mint's innovative approach for Union Budget 2024 ensures a dynamic and interactive experience for the audience.

Three-Phase Approach: Pre-Budget, On-Budget Day, and Post-Budget

Mint's digital platform will provide comprehensive coverage in three phasesPre Budget, On Budget Day, and Post Budgetacross desktop site, mobile app, microsite, and social media. The pre-budget phase includes content addressing personal finance, impact on income tax, and more, fostering user engagement through articles, videos, tools, widgets, and social media posts.

Live Coverage and Streaming on Budget Day

On the budget announcement day, Mint plans to elevate its coverage with live streaming of the Finance Minister's budget speech, ensuring maximum visibility. Key announcements affecting industries and the common man will be highlighted, accompanied by market update widgets and budget ratings, providing real-time data and expert insights.

Post-Budget Analysis

The post-budget phase on LiveMint will feature an in-depth analysis, reactions and takeaways from industrialists, sectoral and market analysis, providing a holistic view of the budget's impact. Mint's three-phase approach opens avenues for high-impact sponsorship opportunities, allowing brands to reach their target audience through digital and print collaborations. Ancillary sponsorship options such as sectoral sponsorship, CXO roundtables, and budget interviews promise high engagement with the discerning Mint audience. Mints Union Budget 2024 coverage based on artificial intelligence is designed for brands to captivate their target audience with a theme that resonates with the pulse of the future. Mint stands out with its highly engaged audience and robust, consistent momentum. As brands look to surge ahead, Mint aims at providing the perfect stage to showcase innovation, align with futuristic themes, and make a lasting impact during this critical juncture in India's economic landscape, Puneet Jain, Chief Executive Officer, HT Digital.
Clean heating drives China's green development

People's Daily Online) 10:20, January 08, 2024

China has made remarkable strides in realizing clean heating, which has driven its green development efforts.

Data released by the National Energy Administration shows that by the end of 2022, access to clean heating in China's northern regions had reached about 16.3 billion square meters, with the rate of clean-energy heating hitting around 76 percent.

The switch from coal to electricity for heating is an important means of clean heating. Many regions across China are actively utilizing green electricity, including wind power and photovoltaic (PV) power, for heating.

In north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, PV power has provided herdsmen with a new way of winter heating.

The World Geothermal Congress 2023, under the theme of "Clean Geothermal, Green Earth," kicks off in Beijing on Sept. 15, 2023.

The heating supply in herdsman Aotegen Bayaer's home in Uxin Banner, Ordos city, Inner Mongolia is now powered by electricity generated from a PV power station. Despite the bitter cold outside, the room temperature of the herdsman's home can exceed 20 degrees Celsius.

In the past, farmers and herdsmen without access to centralized heating relied mainly on burning coal for heating, which not only led to unstable temperatures but also air pollution. In 2022, Inner Mongolia set up a special fund for clean heating, allocating 160 million yuan ($22.6 million) annually to advance clean heating projects. Uxin Banner has actively developed local solar resources, and built a PV power station in Aotegen Bayaer's village, continuously transmitting green electricity to herdsmen's homes to allow them to enjoy clean-energy heating.

"In the past, we needed as much as 5 tonnes of coal each winter, and the room was full of dust and smoke," he said. Now, we are spending less on PV power-enabled heating and my home has become cleaner," Aotegen Bayaer said.

A green geothermal production and operation model is on display at the World Geothermal Congress 2023. (Photo/Hu Qingming)

In Aotegen Bayaer's village alone, with 239 households shifting to electricity for heating and the electricity-enabled heating area exceeding 31,000 square meters, more than 900 tonnes of standard coal and over 2,700 tonnes of pollutants can be reduced in a winter heating season.

PV power-enabled heating also benefits villagers in Xiaosigou township, Pingquan city, north China's Hebei Province, and residents in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.

In Jinan city, east China's Shandong Province, air-source heat pumps are used to replace historically dominant coal-based heating for some citizens.

By the end of 2022, Beijing's new-energy heating area had reached 106 million square meters, replacing about 800 million cubic meters of gas and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.7 million tonnes annually. The city will strive to increase the proportion of the new-energy heating area in its overall heating area to more than 15 percent by 2030.

Beijing is vigorously promoting the use of ground-source heat pumps (GSHP), which extract geothermal resources from the ground, as a way of new-energy heating.

Villager Dong Yonglin shows a coal-to-electricity temperature controller at his home in Minzhu village, Ganzhaomiao town, Bayan Nur city, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Nov. 10, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Yunping)

Since 2019, new-energy heating in Beijing has rapidly developed. A number of demonstration projects have been built, including the GSHP heating (cooling) project at the Beijing Daxing International Airport, the GSHP heating (cooling) project in the administrative office zone of Tongzhou district, sub-center of Beijing, and the GSHP heating (cooling) project for three major buildings in the administrative office zone of the capital's sub-center.

Geothermal heating is also available in some residential areas in Beijing. Once completed, Beijing's mid-depth geothermal heating pilot demonstration project in Tongzhou district will ensure geothermal heating for government-subsidized houses covering more than 350,000 square meters, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 7,650 tonnes, and saving 1.98 million cubic meters of natural gas each year.

With abundant geothermal energy resources, especially shallow geothermal energy, southwest China's Guizhou Province had built over 60 shallow geothermal energy development and utilization projects by December 2023, with a combined heating (cooling) area of about 11 million square meters, according to data from the Guizhou Provincial Energy Administration.

Since November 2023, over 900 heat exchange stations of China's petrochemical giant Sinopec have been put into operation successively to provide geothermal heating. The company is capable of supporting geothermal heating for more than 95 million square meters this heating season, up 15 percent year on year. It can power the heating for 1 million households in 11 provinces and cities, including Beijing, Tianjian, Shaanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong and Shanxi during the same heating season, slashing about 4.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Meanwhile, nuclear heating has developed rapidly in recent years in China.

The third phase of China's first heating project fueled by nuclear energy, covering multiple prefecture-level cities, was put into operation in Haiyang city, Shandong Province in November 2023. In addition to Haiyang, the project launched by the State Power Investment Corporation Limited also provides carbon-free heating for Rushan city in the province.

Photo shows the clean heating project of a school in Xiji county, Guyuan city, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

Statistics show that during this heating season, the total heating area of the project reaches 12.5 million square meters, which keeps about 400,000 people warm, and the project has provided 640,000 gigajoules (GJ) of clean heat, which is equivalent to saving 57,600 tonnes of raw coal, and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 106,000 tonnes.

In Haiyan county, Jiaxing city, east China's Zhejiang Province, the nuclear heating project of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Station of China National Nuclear Corporation has provided centralized nuclear heating for the third heating season.

After the project is fully completed by 2025, it is expected to support nuclear heating for more than 4 million square meters in the county. When it is fully operational, it will provide 704,000 GJ of clean heat annually.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
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Microsoft is shaking up the Windows keyboard for the first time in 30 years, by adding a Copilot key, a dedicated button granting instant access to the company's powerful AI helper. This is a significant step in Microsoft's embrace of AI, with ambitions to turn PCs into AI powerhouses.

These PCs, equipped with advanced chips, will run AI models and apps directly on the device, offering lightning-fast performance without relying on the cloud. Analysts predict this "AI PC" revolution could revive the slumping PC market, with rapid adoption anticipated starting in 2025.

The Copilot key debuts on select Windows 11 PCs at CES (January 4th-7th) and will arrive on more devices including Surface models, starting February 2024.

From summarizing documents to managing your calendar, this versatile AI is ready to be your trusty sidekick through a single keystroke.
Noise, India's leading connected lifestyle brand, has released a new digital film showcasing the capabilities of its first smart ring, Luna Ring. The new film showcases Luna Rings transformative power as an ally that pushes you to augment your daily productivity and cognitive functioning.

As part of an ongoing commitment to advancing human potential through consumer-centric innovation, this film moves beyond the product and celebrates the boundless capabilities of individuals as Luna Ring unlocks personalized insights for a healthier, happier you.

The latest film showcases the lives of everyday heroes  an athlete pushing limits in the gym, an entrepreneur navigating success, and a young woman mastering the daily grind. United by their relentless pursuit of well-being and performance, the film showcases how these individuals are guided by the smart ring's innovation and actionable insights that facilitate a transformative user health span.

The film celebrates small triumphs, the impact of a healthy lifestyle, and a persistent commitment to self-improvement. It serves as a visual representation for a generation aspiring to enhance their lifestyle through empowered choices, guided by self-awareness and technology. The campaign is released across Noise's digital channels, resonating with audiences looking forward to unlocking their full potential, one insightful step at a time.

With 98.2% accuracy [validated by IIIT-Hyderabad and All is Well (AIW)] and a fighter jet grade titanium body, Luna Ring tracks over 70 body metrics, guiding the users towards their full potential with meaningful insights into their activity, readiness, and sleep. Beyond being a smart ring, the new form factor embodies a philosophy of self-discovery, sparking a transformative shift in lifestyle. It encourages users to understand their bodies, recognize their limits, and rise to overcome challenges. The film captures this essence by seamlessly integrating technology into a minimal yet meaningful form factor, transforming data into actionable intelligence for a productive lifestyle.
Key government agencies, homegrown startup heroes, and industry enablers convened to celebrate and accelerate the Filipino startup ecosystem at the Philippine Startup Week 2023.

Held from November 20-24, 2023, the event was organized by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) with the support of QBO Innovation Hub, a public-private sector partnership and startup enabler, and other startup ecosystem stakeholders including Bossjob and Uniquecorn Strategies.

With the theme, Investing in Filipino Homegrown Heroes as Global Game Changers, the week-long event focused on putting a spotlight on 170+ Filipino startup heroes and bolstering Philippine startup investments in the face of global 'funding winter.'

In its fifth year, the event attracted 3,000+ attendees, who engaged in a week-long series of activities to enrich the startup ecosystem and provide opportunities to forge important partnerships among startup founders, investors, corporates, academia, and government agencies.

PHSW23 presented an illustrious lineup of 170+ leaders from the startup community. Esteemed founders leading the charge included Bing Tan of Packworks, Dean Bernales of Uniquecorn Strategies, Dennis Ng of Mober, Kimberly Chen of Bossjob, and Nichel Gaba of PDAX. Notable investors and ecosystem enablers also graced the event, including Franco Varona of Foxmont Capital, Melvin Chan of PLDT Enterprise, Uriah Velunta of Multisys, Puiyan Leung of Vertex Ventures, Dylan Keota of A2D Ventures, Paulo Campos of Kaya Founders, Nina Terol of Imaginable Impact, Tina Nepomuceno-Di Cicco of Manila Angel Investors Network, Jojo Malolos of PayMongo, Rene Cuartero of AHG Lab, Mike Mate of Kickstart Ventures, Natasha Bautista of 917Ventures, and Carlo Delantar of Gobi-Core Philippines.

Throughout the conference, 60+ community events were held in 17+ cities across the Philippines, extending beyond Metro Manila to provinces including Albay, Baguio, Batangas, Bukidnon, Camiguin, Camarines Sur, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Dumaguete, Iligan, Misamis Oriental, and Pampanga. The events served as the mecca for opportunities to learn, interact, network, and collaborate through five tracks: Discover, Develop, Collaborate, Invest, and Showcase, each offering unique experiences for attendees.

PHSW23 partnered with 90+ organizations, including Gobi Partners, Amazon Web Services, 917Ventures, Manila Angel Investors Network, Google Cloud, Maya Philippines, Investree Philippines, FEU Tech Innovation Center, MindanowJuana, Greyhound Innovations, Bukidnon ICT & Innovation Council, Cebu City Cybersecurity Center, FHMoms, The Final Pitch, and Brainsparks.

PHSW23 went bigger than ever with new activities introduced to nurture the ever-growing Filipino startup community further. This year's event featured the first-ever Sinigang Valley Conference organized by QBO, alongside AHG Lab, Foxmont Capital, Kaya Founders, and founding members of the countrys premier private-sector-led startup organization Sinigang Valley Association (SVA), featuring keynotes and panel discussions that imparted insights and expertise on navigating entrepreneurship. One of the highlights was the keynote speech by the Philippine Senator and Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship Chairperson Hon. Mark Villar, signaling the national government's support for the startup community.

In addition to the main conference activities, the most promising Filipino startups of the year were spotlighted during the "Top 100 Startups SHOWQASE by QBO" and the inaugural "KMC Startup Awards," recognizing the awarded startups incredible contributions and impact on the growth of the Philippine startup ecosystem.

PHSW23 also championed female leadership in the startup sector, offering a dedicated platform for women at the forefront of innovation through panel discussions organized by Startup Pinay by QBO. Government-led summits further enriched the conference, including the Slingshot Conference x Venture Pilipinas by DTI in Metro Manila, the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) Summit by the DOST in Iloilo, and Geeks On A Beach by the DICT and Geeks PH in Bohol.

"We are beyond excited about the incredible innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that lit up this year's Philippine Startup Week! In organizing its fifth edition, we didn't just celebrate achievements but, more importantly, we dove headfirst into expanding horizons and carving out new paths for our nation's most promising startups with the mix of events, programs, and collaborative efforts throughout the conference. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all our partners and participants who made PHSW23 not just a successful event but a total game-changer for our local startup scene," said Katrina Chan, Executive Director of QBO Innovation Hub.

After another successful year, PHSW has cemented itself as the biggest startup conference in the country, drawing thousands of registrants from different parts of the world and showcasing hundreds of Filipino startups since its inception in 2019.

"This year's Philippine Startup Week showcased the most promising and high-potential startups in the country and underscored the growing maturity of our ecosystem for global success. Startups are poised to become a key pillar of the Philippine economy," shared Rene "Butch" Meily, President of IdeaSpace Foundation.

PHSW23 was supported by Bossjob, Multisys, PLDT Enterprise, ePLDT, 917Ventures, A2D Ventures, AWS, PwC Philippines, Shell LiveWIRE, Aspire, General Petroleum, and The Final Pitch, along with Uniquecorn Strategies as its official PR partner and BusinessWorld, Rappler, The Business Manual, The Manila Times, and WhenInManila.com, as media partners.
Pramerica Life Insurance, one of the fastest growing life insurers in India, today announced the launch of its inspiring brand campaign, "This is My Climb." This powerful campaign, featuring two short films, aims to celebrate the diverse stories of purpose, aspirations, and resilience that define our individual journeys. The campaign while going beyond the traditional marketing approach, delves into the emotional core of human experience, resonating with individuals at every life stage.

"Just as every climb presents unique challenges and requires unwavering determination, so does the journey of life," said Pankaj Gupta, MD & CEO of Pramerica Life Insurance. "Through 'This is My Climb' campaign, we celebrate the different facets of purpose, commitment, and responsibility that each individual embodies. We want to be a rock-solid partner in our customers lives, the bedrock that they can rely on. Every climb, big or small, deserves a sturdy companion and we are committed to being that for all our stakeholders."

The campaign unfolds through two compelling short films. The first film paints a relatable picture of a fathers journey and aspirations. We see his commitment, how he sets aside his own dreams and desires to nurture his child's ambitions. Every hurdle, big or small, becomes a step towards his childs future, a climb he ascends with determination and silent sacrifice. He embodies the spirit of every parent who chooses their child's dreams over their own, finding joy in their success and strength in their struggles.

The second film takes viewers on a poignant journey through the eyes of a defence personnel's family, showcasing their unwavering support and pride as he scales the heights of commitment and dedication. This film resonates deeply with Pramerica Life Insurance, the market leader in serving the defence community, its flagship business channel. The campaign is more than just messaging; its a heartfelt tribute to the heroes who stand guard and a promise to be with them and their loved ones through various facets of life. The subtle brand integration at the end of each film reinforces Pramerica Life Insurance's commitment to being a partner in every individual's climb.

The campaign has been launched on brands social media handles - Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and will be amplified across various media platforms for a period of 6-8 weeks. The company plans to engage with its key stakeholders  customers, partners, and employees - through interactive initiatives and social media conversations, building a vibrant community around the campaign's message of purpose and resilience.

The beauty of 'This is My Climb' lies in its breadth of perspectives, said Karthik Chakrapani, Chief Business Officer of Pramerica Life Insurance. "From the ethos of a defence personnel and his family for the nations sovereignty to the determination of a father for his childs future, each story resonates in its own unique way. We invite viewers to engage with these inspiring journeys, find common threads in their own climbs, and join us in celebrating the human spirit".

This campaign has been creatively developed by Publicis Worldwide India, under the leadership of Paritosh Srivastava - Chief Executive Officer, Oindrila Roy - Managing Director, Srijan Shukla and Pratheeb Ravi, Heads of Creative known for crafting compelling narratives. Their collective expertise and dedication have been fundamental in capturing the essence of human determination and purpose in these stories.

This is My Climb campaign promises to be a powerful and emotionally charged experience, reminding us that every life is a unique climb and that we all have the strength to reach our own personal summits.
Bollywood and OTT star actor Pankaj Tripathi has revealed how director Ram Gopal Varma once rejected him for a gangster's role after carrying out a test. "It was good otherwise both he and I would have suffered losses", Tripathi said.

Appearing in Rajat Sharma's iconic show 'Aap Ki Adalat', telecasted on Saturday 6th January, Pankaj Tripathi was asked why a noted director like Ram Gopal Varma rejected him for a gangster's role.

Pankaj Tripathi replied: "Yes, I once went to him and found several ferocious looking 'gunday' (gangsters) already waiting there. Some had deep scars on their faces. I asked one of them, are you really an actor? He replied, Ram Gopal Varma casts dangerous looking characters. Those days, aspiring actors used to deliberately cut their faces with blades, so that Ram Gopal Varma may spot and cast them.

Rajat Sharma: Did Ramu call you?

Pankaj Tripathi: Yes, he called me. It was an interesting incident. Ramu asked me to sit on a bench meant for four persons. I sat on the bench in a corner. He told me, 'No No, come more close this side'. On a bench meant for four, I was sitting alone and he stared at me intently for 10 to 15 minutes. I felt very sheepish, when he continued to stare me for long. Then he told me, 'Jao, Go'. He didn't call me later....Of course, he is a good director. He met me once later and praised my acting, and said, "You are doing good, Pankaj".

Rajat Sharma: He must have realized, if he had cast you then it could have been his gain?

Tripathi: It's all a game of time (Samay Ka Khel Hota Hai). If he had cast me then, then it would have been his loss and my loss too. (Tripathi told the audience) So, if nothing big happens in your life, don't be disappointed, it is an omen for something good that is going to happen.

'I NEVER CHECK MONITOR AFTER SHOOT'

Pankaj Tripathi revealed he never watched the camera monitor after completing his shoot. He said, "This is a rare thing which few people in the media know about. You (Rajat Sharma) have good spies in Mumbai. I never check the camera monitor after finishing my shoot. I think the director is the captain and it is his job to check the monitor. If he okays the scene, then it means he got what he wanted."

'FUKREY' AND OTHER SEQUELS

Asked whether he changed his dialogues and sometimes, even the climax in his films, Pankaj Tripathi admitted in the affirmative. He said, at this moment, five of his films have sequels because they were hits.

Rajat Sharma: Where did you get this idea of mixing Hindi with English in your dialogues?

Tripathi: In the first part of the movie Fukrey, it was my idea. I told the director (M S Lamba) I wanted to change my lines. He first refused. While I was rehearsing, lighting work was going on inside the security cabin of Delhi's Miranda College. The director told me don't mix English in your dialogue, I told him I am only rehearsing. The lighting men began to laugh when I mixed English in my dialogues. By that time, the director had seen my rehearsed dialogue, and he agreed. In 'Fukrey Returns', I got the written dialogues. Also in 'Fukrey 3' too.

Rajat Sharma: In Fukrey Part 1 and Part 2, your picture was not there in the posters, but in Part 3, your picture was there in the poster. Pankaj Tripathi has become a saleable star now?

Tripathi: Yahi Toh Jeevan Hai (This is Life)

Rajat Sharma: That's why you are doing several sequels of your films?

Tripathi: Sequels are made when film becomes a hit. Unsuccessful films don't have sequels. At this moment, five of my films have sequels - Stree, Mirzapur, Criminal Justice, Fukrey and also Gangs of Wasseypur.

Rajat Sharma: There was this 'Super 30' movie in which you were doing the role of a neta. You deliberately changed the dialogues?

Tripathi: Vikas Bahl was the director. There was the scene where a students gets admission to Oxford University and asks the neta for money. The neta started blubbering something else. The neta was saying : 'Ja Rahe Ho? Kahan Ja Rahe Ho? Jao, Jao, London Jao, Paris Jao, Japan Jao, Vietnam Jao, China Jao, Beijing Jao, Dubai Jao, Bahrain Jao.' It looked like a poetry. The lines were not written. The dialogue was delivered spontaneously. I was doing the role of a neta in Bihar (minister Shriram Singh in the movie) . I had seen a leader in my village who used to blubber meaninglessly. I told the director Vikas Bahl, I will speak in the same manner. So, the scene developed in that way. It looked different.

Rajat Sharma: Can you repeat the same dialogue here?

Tripathi: It was, "Dubai Jao, Bahrain Jao,..... Kya Baat Hai. The boy said, Sir, you had called me. I replied: Hum har us cheez ko bulate hain, jo desh ke liye baat karega. The boy said, I need money. I replied: Jao Jao Jahan Jaana, par paisa aur prem ke chakkar me mat padna. Humne achche achhe ko barbaad hote dekha hai. Bhagat Singh padhe they? Dekho, nahin pade they. Jao Jao." So you see, the neta starts giving a sermon instead of giving money.
Image: PTI

The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat governments decision to grant remission to 11 convicts involved in the case of the gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The apex court held that the judgement of May 13, 2022 (which directed the Gujarat government to consider remission of convict) was obtained by playing fraud on the court and by suppressing material facts.

The convicts had not approached the court with clean hands, the apex court observed. Noting that the state, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts, the apex court held that Gujarat was not competent to pass the remission orders but the Maharashtra government.

In March 2002, during the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara. The Gujarat government had released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15, 2022. All the 11 life-term convicts in the case were released as per the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008.

Bilkis Bano and others had approached the top court, challenging the premature release of 11 convicts. Some PILs were filed, seeking directions to revoke the remission granted to 11 convicts.The pleas were filed by the National Federation of Indian Women, whose General Secretary is Annie Raja, Member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, social activist and professor Roop Rekha Verma and TMC MP Mahua Moitra.

The Gujarat government, in its affidavit, defended the remission granted to convicts, saying they completed 14 years of sentence in prison and their behaviour was found to be good. The State government had said it has considered the cases of all 11 convicts as per the policy of 1992 and remission was granted on August 10, 2022, and central government also approved the release of convicts.
Last month, on December 13, the Central Governments Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra at Sonyachi Shiroli village in Kolhapur districts Radhanagari tehsil hit the headlines. A young man was seen questioning Maharashtra government employees accompanying a chariot, claiming that it should either be Bharat Sarkar or Government of India but not Modi Sarkar. It is all being done without the banner of a political party and by reiterating that asking a question is a constitutional right of a citizen.

The viral video has turned out to be the motivation for villagers from different parts of the state who were stopping the chariot from entering the village or blasting at government officials with interrogations, compelling them to end the event by violating notes. or Government of India, but not Modi Sarkar. It is all being done without the banner of a political party and by reiterating that asking a question is a constitutional right of a citizen. The viral video has turned out to be the motivation for villagers from different parts of the state who were stopping the chariot from entering the village or blasting at government officials with interrogations, compelling them to end the event by violating notes.

Villagers wanted to know if he campaigned for Modi. Fearing protests, over eight Panchayat Samiti employees of Parbhani district on December 28 wrote to the district collector, stating that they have been getting phone calls from villagers asking them the reason behind writing Modi Sarkar on the chariot and questioning if they are campaigning for Modi. The employees had requested police protection from the collector during the yatra. Poor government staff were forced to be part of the yatra to communicate with people on various issues but they failed to impress people with the banners they were holding. The village youth did not approve of such publicity for Modi and some of them even stopped the rally by creating awkward situations for government officers.

A 30-year-old Ambedkarite activist, Rajvaibhav Shobha Ramchandra, from Sonyachi Shiroli village, works with numerous social organisations to spread constitutional awareness. He educates people about their rights and social justice. He raised his objection in the utmost calm and constitutional manner. He stood alone in front of the Grampanchayat and asked the motive behind the chariot and the yatra, but ironically, no authority could give him a convincing reply; rather, they just wound their show and left the place in haste. This is actually the power of people when governments fail to perform and when authorities take people for granted. This was a perfect example of an alert citizen.

This yatra was meant to spread awareness about the central governments schemes. If the schemes are from the government of India, then why is it that the chariot has Modi governments guarantee written on it? Raj Vaibhav pointed out that the Constitution says, India, that is Bharat. It could either be Bharat Sarkar or Government of India. If a person is replacing a countrys name, then it is a violation of the constitutional principle of sovereignty. As the discussion progressed, he was joined by villagers who, too, stood in his support. He later realised that the person who was debating with him was not a government employee but a functionary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Look at the sorry condition of BJP functionaries; they give big talks on social media and boast about Modi and his way of functioning. When faced by the public, in reality, they had nothing to argue about. They are only the good trolls.

That young guy was not against government schemes, but if a political party like the BJP is going to use the states money by using a chariot coloured like the partys flag ahead of general elections, then they have to oppose it. Hamara Sankalp Viksit Bharat is a nationwide campaign to raise awareness through outreach activities to achieve saturation of schemes of the government of India across the country, covering all Gram Panchayats, Nagar Panchayats, and urban local bodies.

Rajvaibhavs speech and his discussion with officials went viral on social media, triggering strong reactions and soon videos of similar actions started pouring in. In Buldhana districts Palshi Jhashi village of Sangrampur tehsil, former sarpanch Abhaysinh Marode was served a notice under Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by local police, warning him not to interfere at a time when a chariot under the Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is travelling in the tehsil. He was hassled by government authorities and cops just for posing questions. Later on, the route of the chariot was changed after Marode continued with his questioning, joined by villagers and friends.

On December 30, he was slapped with a notice under Section 149. Similar peaceful questioning and protest videos were also seen in Ahmednagar, Nasik, Satara, Jalna, Parbhani, Akola, Hingoli, Nanded, Ratnagiri, and Buldhana districts, where villagers are asking employees accompanying the chariot various questions on the implementation of the schemes as well as the use of the phrase Modi Sarkar. Raj Vaibhav, along with others, are planning to approach the court against the use of the phrase Modi Sarkar, asking the question through that petition as to what the real name of the government is.
A man charged with capital murder six years ago is now free after the Escambia County district attorney dropped the capital murder charge last week, just days before the suspect was finally due to go on trial.

On April 26, 2017, 20-year-old Donta Russell was shot while driving his vehicle along an Atmore street just after 10 p.m. Reports at the time indicated Russell was also shot several times after his vehicle crashed into a tree.

Three months later, Yeldon Devanta Rostchild and Darrell Octavius Brown were indicted on capital murder charges in Russells killing. At the time, prosecutors indicated they were going to seek the death penalty, according to court records.

Rostchild had been incarcerated since then, until Wednesday when he was released after Escambia County District Attorney Stephen Billy dropped the capital murder case against Rostchild, instead charging him with obstruction of justice.

Rostchild entered a guilty plea to the obstruction charge and was sentenced to time served, court documents show.

AL.com contacted Billys office Thursday seeking comment, but the call had not been returned by late Friday afternoon.

Billy told WPMI, however, the age of the case had weakened the evidence.

Anytime a case is this old the evidence tends to weaken and that was the case here, Billy told the outlet.

Both WPMI and Rostchilds attorney said Rostchild had been in prison for the past six years awaiting trial, with the attorney, Christine Hernandez, suggesting Rostchilds rights had been violated.

According to both court records and the Alabama Department of Corrections, however, less than a month after Rostchild was incarcerated in Escambia County Jail on the capital murder charge, he was accused of and pleaded guilty to promoting prison contraband, specifically a cell phone and charger.

He was sentenced to 10 years on the contraband charge -- a sentence from which he was not released until March 19, 2021 -- the same day jail records show he was returned to the custody of Escambia County to await his capital murder trial.

Mobile Metro Jail records also show Rostchild was in custody there in both February and October of 2022, although there doesnt appear to be an explanation as to why Rostchild was being held there.

Darrell Brown is due to go on trial for Donta Russells murder on June 10. Its unknown whether prosecutors intend to call Rostchild as a witness.
A Rainsville man is in jail on two charges of first degree domestic violence after authorities say he stabbed two people this weekend.

The DeKalb County Sheriffs Office and Rainsville police responded to an incident Sunday on Dawson Avenue in the Shiloh community, according to Sheriff Nick Welden.

Welden said in a news release that as the initial deputy neared the residence, he encountered a man on foot, apparently fleeing from the location, and detained him.

Inside, officers found two people, whose names were not released, suffering from life-threatening stabbing injuries. There was no word on their condition Monday.

Ballard B.B. Eugene Pennington, Jr., 52, of Rainsville, was arrested and is being held without bond. Welden said more changes may be forthcoming.

Welden thanked all first responders for quick action with the victims.

We are focused on protecting the citizens of this county, especially the ones who cannot protect themselves, Welden said.
Theres good news and bad news when it comes to tax credits for electric vehicles purchased in 2024.

The good news is instead of having to wait for tax time to take the credit, buyers will get the reduction immediately at the time of purchase of the electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle. The bad news is the number of vehicles that qualify has dropped to 13 due to manufacturing requirements.

Immediate credit

Starting Jan. 1, eligible consumers can transfer the value of the EV tax credit immediately to the dealer, providing a reduction of the price or a down payment at the time of sale. Registered dealers then submit the tax credit information to the Internal Revenue Service. The credit is worth up to $7,500 or $4,000, depending on if the vehicle is new or used.

Eligible cars must have an MSRP below $80,000 for an SUV or $55,000 for a sedan, wagon or hatchback.

According to Consumer Reports, to qualify for the first $3,750 of the credit, a portion of the vehicles battery components must be produced or assembled in North America. To get the second half, a portion of the critical minerals used in the battery must have been extracted or processed in the U.S. or a country that is a free-trade agreement partner or made from materials recycled in North America.

List of eligible vehicles

Fewer vehicles will qualify for the credits, however. Starting in 2024, EV with battery components built or assembled by a foreign entity of concern,  China, Iran ,North Korea or Russian  do not qualify for the tax credit.

Here are the 13 vehicles that qualify and the eligible amounts of the credit, per Business Insider:

Chevrolet Bolt EV - $7,500

Chevrolet Bolt EUV - $7,500

Tesla Model 3 Performance - $7,500

Tesla Model Y - $7,500

Tesla Model X - $7,500

Rivian R1S - $3,750

Rivian R1T - $3,750

Ford F-150 Lightning - $7,500

Ford Escape plug-in hybrid - $3,750

Chrysler Pacifica PHEV - $7,500

Jeep Cherokke PHEV 4xe - $3,750

Jeep Wrangler PHEV 4xe - $3,750

Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring - $3,750

You can check what a vehicle qualifies for by entering its VIN at fueleconomy.gov.

Other qualifications

To qualify for the credits, you must be purchasing the vehicle for your own use and not for resale.

There are income requirements, too. To qualify, Adjusted Gross Income must be under $300,000 for married coupled filing jointly; $225,000 for heads of households; or $150,000 for all other filers.

Qualified vehicles must also have a battery capacity of at least 7 kilowatt hours, have a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 pounds and be made by a qualified manufacturer.

Qualifying vehicles must be made in the U.S. and have a MSRP below $80,000 for an SUV or $55,000 for a sedan, wagon or hatchback.
The Silt, Colorado Police Department is investigating a Saturday night incident at a restaurant involving U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and her ex-husband Jayson Boebert.

Silt police Chief Mike Kite confirmed the investigation to The Denver Post but said he could not provide more details because police were still gathering facts.

Police were called to the Miners Claim restaurant in Silt on Saturday night, but Kite declined to describe the nature of the incident or the accusations. The Silt Police Department will release its report on the incident once the investigation concludes, he said.

We have a lot of facts and stuff to get sorted out, Kite said.

No one was taken into custody at the restaurant, he said.

In a statement to The Denver Post from her campaign manager, Boebert said, This is a sad situation for all that keeps escalating and another reason Im moving. I didnt punch Jayson in the face and no one was arrested.

Boebert said she intends to consult with her lawyer about her ex-husbands claims about her on Saturday night.

Jayson Boebert told The Denver Post in a short phone interview that he called the Silt Police Department on Sunday morning and told police he does not want to press charges.

I dont want nothing to happen, Jayson Boebert said. Her and I were working through a difficult conversation.

Jayson Boebert ended the interview without answering more questions about what happened.

Lauren Boebert, who represents Colorados 3rd Congressional District, filed for divorce from her husband in April, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce became final in October. The couple married in 2005 and they have four sons and one grandchild.

The incident involving the Boeberts was first reported Saturday night by American Muckrakers, a political group working to oust the second-term congresswoman. The group reported on X that Boebert twice punched her husband and then called police.

However, Kite would not confirm that report. He said police were requesting video footage from the restaurant.

Both Boeberts have law enforcement records.

Lauren Boebert was arrested and summonsed at least four times for petty crimes prior to being elected to Congress. One of those cases was dropped.

Jayson Boebert was arrested in 2004 and pleaded guilty to public indecency and lewd exposure after exposing himself to two minors in a bowling alley.

In August 2022, Jayson Boebert was involved in a neighborhood dispute that involved Garfield County sheriffs deputies after neighbors complained about children riding a dune buggy too fast through the neighborhood. Despite reports of threats and property damage, no one was charged in connection with that incident.

Lauren Boebert was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020 to represent the 3rd Congressional District on the Western Slope. She won reelection in 2022. The pro-Trump Republicans tenure has been filled with controversy, including in September when she was escorted out of a production of Beetlejuice at the Denver Performing Arts Center after other patrons complained about her vaping and disruptive behavior.

Last month, Boebert, who faced a tough challenge from Democrat Adam Frisch, announced she is switching districts and would run in the 4th Congressional District to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Ken Buck. In her announcement about the switch, Boebert said she was looking for a fresh start after a particularly difficult year for her and her family.

Drew Sexton, Boeberts campaign manger, said the congresswoman intends to move to the 4th Congressional District but he did not have a specific location or timeline.

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2024 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at denverpost.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Richard Cooley became a politician for the same reason he became an educator.

Ive always liked helping people, he told the Ledger-Enquirer. ... Life happens. I just feel like theres been a higher power moving me in that direction.

That direction has resulted in Cooley, 77, becoming interim mayor of Smiths Station after Mayor Bubba Copelands suicide.

Copeland killed himself in November, two days after a website reported a story exposing his secret online activity. The revelations included Copeland posting provocative photos of himself dressed as a woman, along with erotic fiction he allegedly wrote under a pseudonym as an alter ego.

Smiths Stations next municipal election is in 2025. Normally, a special election would be called to fill the mayors unexpired term. Alabama law, however, allows the council of small cities such as Smiths Station (approximately 5,300 residents) to appoint an interim mayor if the remaining part of the unexpired term is within two years, avoiding the cost of a special election.

As Mayor Pro Tem, Morris Jackson had the right to succeed Copeland, but he declined the position, Cooley said. Two weeks after Copeland died, Jackson and the three other councilors (George Stringer, Steve Lansdon and Victoria Green) unanimously appointed Cooley, a councilor for 20 years.

Then on Dec. 12, the council unanimously appointed, among five applicants, retired U.S. Army veteran Dwayne Peterson to fill Cooleys council seat until the next election.

The following Q&A comprises excerpts from the Ledger-Enquirers interview with Cooley, edited for brevity and clarity:

How were you notified about Mayor Copelands suicide, and what was your reaction?

I was at home and received a phone call. There were several of them that came in back-to-back. I immediately went into shock, so I just dont remember who called first.

How would you describe Mayor Copeland and his impact on Smiths Station?

He was a friend before either one of us got into political office. I was still teaching at the high school when he was a student there. ... He was on the school board for about six years. He had a lot of fire in his belly as far as going out and getting (economic development). We wouldnt have Loves (travel stop) or Jacks if it had not been for him. One of the first things he did as mayor is he wrote all of the Fortune 500 companies a letter and asked them to investigate Smiths Station as a possible place for expansion. The only one that answered was Loves. ... He was very much an on-the-scene presence with most anything we had going on.

How is Smiths Station healing from his suicide?

The community has been in shock  all of us  but everything has been very positive from the community. We may not know each other face-to-face or know the names, but were all the community of Smiths Station, and were pulling together. As the old saying goes, weve circled the wagons. Id say 90%-plus of all the comments that Ive had from local residents have been very supportive: Were behind you, Weve got your back, that sort of thing.

Mayor Copeland helped Smiths Station teens organize an anti-suicide campaign when there was a rash of local teen suicides a few years ago. How did he go from that to this?

I dont understand it. I really dont. ... I still havent come to grips with it myself.

Two days before he killed himself, he preached at his church that this incident wasnt going to change his life. Did you see any warning signs that he was at risk of suicide? Did you have any conversations with him that week?

I did have a conversation with him about it the day that it broke. I felt like he was in a good space at that point in time. I also told him that well weather this. Give it a few days. The news cycle will change, and well move on from this. ... I tried to contact him several times on that Friday (the day he killed himself), but he wasnt taking anybodys calls, and thats when everybody got really concerned.

So what changed between that Wednesday night and Friday?

I have no idea. ... Obviously, he was upset. We all were. But he broke no laws. He had a private life that was drawn out and made a spectacle of. Its just ridiculous.

So what will be Mayor Copelands legacy?

A kind, caring individual. A very dedicated mayor who had a great love for this city. ... I think the positives far outweigh the negatives. His personal life was irrelevant as far as the city goes.

What else should folks understand about this situation and the transition period for Smiths Station?

Were still here. Were going to keep pushing to do the best we can for this community. Just remember our high school motto, Panther Pride, and thats what were going to do: keep our pride.

If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, reach out to the 24hour National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255; contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741; or chat with someone online at suicidepreventionlifeline.org. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours.

___

(c)2024 the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, Ga.)

Visit the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, Ga.) at www.ledger-enquirer.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Read the newsletter below. Sign up to get it in your inbox each day here.

Stephen Perkins update

A former Decatur police officer has been arrested and charged in the killing of Stephen Perkins, reports AL.coms Kayode Crown.

23-year-old Bailey Marquette was fired in early December. He was charged with murder in the shooting, which occurred Sept. 29 in Perkins front yard.

Police have said that Perkins had a gun and threatened a tow-truck driver who was trying to repo Perkins vehicle. They also said the tow-truck driver left and returned with police. Perkins was shot during the confrontation and died.

His death has been followed by months of protest in Morgan County.

Three other officers were fired or suspended and are named in a federal lawsuit, but they were not indicted by the grand jury.

Lifetime achievement A-W-A-R-D

Alabama native Tammy Wynette will posthumously receive a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy during Grammys Week on Feb. 3, reports AL.coms Mary Colurso.

The First Lady of Country Music, as she was known, was born Virginia Wynette Pugh in a Red Bay doctors office in 1942. She grew up across the state line in Mississippi but later worked as a hairdresser in Midfield and appeared on the Country Boy Eddie Show in the early 60s.

During her career, Wynette won two Grammys and three CMA Female Vocalist of the Year awards. Shes in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Alabama Music Hall of Fame, this list could go on and on.

Lloyd Austin hospitalized. Who knew?

It took a little while for word to get out that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (a Mobile native) had been hospitalized several days last week after experiencing complications from a minor medical procedure, reports The Associated Press.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday that Austin was recovering well.

The Pentagon Press Association sent a letter of protest to Ryder and Chris Meagher, the assistant defense secretary for public affairs:

The fact that he has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for four days and the Pentagon is only now alerting the public late on a Friday evening is an outrage. At a time when there are growing threats to U.S. military service members in the Middle East and the U.S. is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defense leader.

More Alabama news

Born on this date

In 1977, actress Amber Benson of Birmingham.

On the calendar

Today is National Clean Off Your Desk Day. Yeah, thats really a thing, and a great excuse to chuck all those Post-it notes from 2023.

The podcast
Authorities are searching for two women who have been missing from Autauga County since the weekend.

Both women, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said, are living with conditions that may impair their judgment. They were last seen about 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the area of Highway 31 Deatsville.

Patricia Gardner Dennis, 78, is 5-feet, 2-inches tall and weighs about 145 pounds. A clothing description was not available, but authorities said she always wears a gold band ring with a pink ice diamond.

Teresa Lynne Fisher(ALEA)

Teresa Lynne Fisher, 59, was wearing a neon green hoodie and black leggings with multi-colored sugar skulls on them. She is 5-feet, 7-inches tall and weights about 150 pounds.

The women could be in a 2014 Toyota Avalon with license plate 4A00BWH.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call the Autauga County Sheriffs Office at 334- 361-2500 or call 911.
The shooting death of a 15-year-old boy in Eufaula appears to be linked to several other shootings that happened in the city in the following hours.

The Barbour County Coroners Office on Monday identified the victim as Zyaire Kayon Hill. Authorities said the teen was fatally shot in the head while he was in a vehicle.

Eufaula Police Chief Danny Christ said in a press release that officers were dispatched to Medical Center Barbour at 3:01 p.m. Sunday on a report of a gunshot wound.

Zyaire was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Christ said two more incidents happened at 9:44 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. In both cases, multiple rounds were fired into two separate homes. No one was injured.

The chief said investigators believe the shootings were linked to Zyaires death.

At 11:27 p.m., Christ said, an officer was involved in shooting that happened near the intersection of Barbour Street and Eufaula Avenue.

ALEA Sgt. Jeremy Burkett said a Eufaula officer and a deputy fire marshal were patrolling near U.S. 431 concerning an ongoing situation.

A man identified as 49-year-old Patrick Patrick Lashone Brooks fired in their direction, causing damage to their vehicles. No one was injured.

Brooks was charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle and attempted murder. He is being held without bond in the Barbour County Jail.

Eufaula City Schools on Sunday night announced school would be closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Due to the tragic events that have occurred in our community this afternoon and after conferring with local law enforcement, we are allowing them to conduct further investigations into the tragic events, the statement read.

We will also remain closed due to the possibility of inclement weather on Tuesday, January 9th.

We apologize for any inconvenience, but the safety of students and staff is our top priority.

On Monday evening, the school system announced schools would also be closed on Wednesday.

We have continued to monitor the events that have tragically affected our community,' a new statement read. After careful consideration and conversations with local law enforcement, we will remain closed on Wednesday, January 10th.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have been affected by these tragic events,' the statement read.

The police chief said there were no threats on city schools, but due to the nature of events and individuals involved, schools were closed today, and closed tomorrow due to weather.

The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting involving police.

The Eufaula Police Departments Criminal Investigations Division is investigating the fatal shooting of Zyaire and the subsequent shootings.

Anyone with information is as asked to call investigators 334-687-1200 or the anonymous tip line at 334-687-7100.
Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Monday morning took to the social platform X to blast the Biden Administration for putting the U.S on the brink of WW3.

The Republican senator from Alabama cited the ongoing controversy over Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins hospitalization and the fact that the Biden Administration and senior lawmakers of both parties were reportedly unaware for days that he required intensive care.

We're on the brink of WW3.



Brought to you by the @JoeBiden Administration that released sanctions on Iran and then sent them $6 billion...while @SecDef is unknowingly in the ICU.



"Though little discussed by the #Biden administration, the Iranian nuclear program has suddenly  Tommy Tuberville (@TTuberville) January 8, 2024

Were on the brink of WW3. Brought to you by the @JoeBiden Administration that released sanctions on Iran and then sent them $6 billion...while @SecDef is unknowingly in the ICU, Tuberville posted.

He went on to refer to reporting from The New York Times that tensions with Iran appear reanimated in light of the conflict between Hamas and Israel. That comes in spite of a deal that released $6 billion in Iranian assets in return for the release of five imprisoned Americans.

Iran has also stepped up its supplying of weapons to Russia during its ongoing war with Ukraine.

The conflicts come as President Joe Bidens secretary of defense, an Alabama native, remains hospitalized for undisclosed reasons. Austin went into the hospital for an elective treatment on Jan. 1 and hasnt been back to the Pentagon this year.

According to the Associated Press, the Pentagon announced Austins hospitalization at Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday, four days after he was admitted and without providing specifics.

Biden was informed Thursday about Austins heath issues, and they talked Saturday evening, according to the sources. Austin is a native of Mobile.

In a joint statement, Reps. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Adam Smith, the panels top Democrat, said they were concerned with how the disclosure of the Secretarys condition was handled.

Among the questions they had were what the medical procedure was and what the resulting complications were, how and when the delegation of his responsibilities was made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the president and lawmakers.

Transparency is vitally important, said the two lawmakers. Austin must provide these additional details on his health and the decision-making process that occurred in the past week as soon as possible.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The U.S. Mint has released three new coins honoring famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

The coins are part of the Harriet Tubman Commemorative Coin Program and include a $5 gold coin, $1 silver coin and half-dollar clad coins.

Every coin produced by the United States Mint helps to tell a story that teaches us about Americas history or connects us to a special memory, Mint director Ventris Gibson said in a statement. We hope this program will honor the life and legacy of Harriet Tubman and inspire others to learn more about this amazing woman.

The $5 gold coin features an image of Tubman in her years after the Civil War with the reverse showing two clasped hands to represent her commitment to others. An image of Tubman on the $1 coin shows her with two war-era boats while the back shows her holding a spyglass, honoring her time as a scout and spy for the Union Army. The half-dollar coin features Tubman as a director of the Underground Railroad to honor her work freeing slaves. The back shows hands forming a bridge with the North Star above guiding escapees to freedom.

The commemorative coins come with a surcharge with prices ranging from $47 to $718, or $836.25 for a set of three.

A portion of the proceeds from the coins will go to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio and the Harriet Tubman Home Inc. in Auburn, NY.

Tubman, born into slavery in Marland sometime between 1820 to 1825, escaped from slavery in 1849 using what was known as the Underground Railroad, a loose network of people and transportation used to help slaves escape bondage. Once she was freed, she turned her attention to helping her family members and others escape slavery.

In time, she led her parents, several siblings and about 60 others to freedom in as many as 15 trips to the South to rescue slaves. She later expanded the Underground Railroad to Canada after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 which required that slaves captured in the north be returned to their owners.

In 2016, federal officials announced Tubmans image would replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Those plans have been put on hold, however, and likely wont occur until at least 2030.
Hundreds gathered Sunday at Railroad Park in Birmingham in support of Palestine, calling for a cease-fire in the war between Hamas and Israel.

Laith Mekdad, a Birmingham resident, said every day he wakes up to messages from his family in Gaza of the next person who died. More than 100 people in his family, on both his mothers and fathers sides, have been killed by the Israeli military since Oct. 7, he said.

Mekdad joined in the call for a ceasefire.

Thirty thousand people brutally murdered in cold blood, Mekdad said at the Sunday afternoon rally. (The death toll had reached more than 20,000 by Dec. 20, according to news reports.) These are not just numbers. These are people. What crimes have the children of Gaza committed?

Three months ago, on Oct. 7, Hamas militants killed about 1,300 people in Israel and captured nearly 200 others, triggering an all-out response by Israels military, including airstrikes and movement of tanks and troops into the Palestinian occupied territory of Gaza.

More than 200 people rallied Sunday, waving Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyeh scarves, and holding signs, including No peace without justice.

Hamza Abu-Hamdeh, who was born and raised in Birmingham, said hes been overwhelmed by the solidarity and support for his community.

We cannot stand by as millions of Palestinians are expelled from their land, he said. We want a ceasefire, but a ceasefire alone is not enough. We want justice.

Danah, who declined to share her last name, talked about her experience as the daughter of Palestinian refugees during the rally.

We have been screaming to the world that Palestinian lives matter, she said. This is not a political conflict or a religious issue. This is about human rights.

Palestinian youth in the Birmingham community, with help from Birmingham chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America and Party for Socialism and Liberation, organized the event, which is the fourth since Oct 7, Abu-Hamdeh told AL.com.

The event lasted two hours.

The demonstration was to coincide with three months since the initial reignition of violence, the organizers said in a press release.

Israeli officials have been internationally criticized for espousing dehumanizing rhetoric directed towards Palestinians, including statements that use genocidal language and display genocidal intent.

Death toll estimates in the Gaza Strip range from 21,000 to 30,000, the organizers said in the press statement.

Over 1.8 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have been displaced and forced to become refugees on their own land, the release said.

In the West Bank, the death toll since October 7th has risen to over 300. Protestors call for a ceasefire, a lifting of the siege on Gaza, the release of all Palestinian prisoners, and a complete end to US aid to Israel.
Marcee Hinds is a history and social studies teacher at Barton Academy for Advanced World Studies, the first public school in Alabama. The school reopened in 2021 and currently serves grades 6-9.

Earlier this month, Hinds was awarded Outstanding Teacher of American History by the Alabama Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Hinds will be honored by the state DAR in March and considered for the national award as well.










English News China continues to improve business environment for stronger economic vitality

Alwihda Info | Par pd - 7 Janvier 2024



Optimizing business environment is an essential component of consolidating and enhancing the positive momentum of economic recovery, and continuously promoting qualitative and quantitative economic growth.

By Zou Xiang, People's Daily U.S. biotechnology company Moderna recently set up a company in Minhang district, Shanghai. Moderna's agent lawyer obtained the business license just an hour after relevant authorities received the final document required for business registration.



"Minhang's efficiency has secured crucial development time for the company," the lawyer said.



From coastal to inland regions, continuously optimizing services and improving efficiency are building powerful momentums for China to further enhance its business environment.



Business environment is an important factor in stabilizing market confidence, stimulating economic development, and promoting high-quality development. Just like sunlight, water, and air are essential for human survival, a good business environment is indispensable for businesses.



Various regions and departments in China have been continuously optimizing the business environment based on the actual needs of enterprises, helping them overcome obstacles and thrive.

In the first three quarters of 2023, the number of newly established private enterprises in China exceeded 7.06 million, a year-on-year increase of 15.3 percent. In the first 11 months of 2023, the number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises in China reached 48,078, growing 36.2 percent from a year ago.



According to a report on China's business environment for foreign investors in the third quarter of 2023, more than 80 percent of surveyed foreign-invested enterprises expressed satisfaction with China's business environment.



The continuously optimized business environment provides strong support for fostering and stimulating the vitality of business entities and promoting high-quality development.



Enterprises are in the best position to judge whether a business environment is good. East China's Anhui province has launched a platform that enables streamlined approvals for companies. As long as they provide accurate information, they can receive funds swiftly.



In Dongying, east China's Shandong province, a 2.5-billion-yuan ($352.39 million) wind power project received personalized and proactive services from relevant departments, from planning to construction. Businesses are expected to experience a greater sense of fulfillment and confidence when they operate in a favorable business environment.



In a sense, the optimization of business environment is also a process of deepening reforms and overcoming entrenched interests. China has been focusing on removing market barriers, transforming government functions, improving service quality and efficiency, and promoting institutional innovation, with an aim to break bottlenecks, establish long-term mechanisms, and strengthen institutional foundations, so as to ensure continuous improvement of business environment and effectively stimulate market vitality and social creativity.



The rule of law is the best business environment. From optimizing legislation to strengthening the removal of unfair provisions in administrative regulations, and to canceling and adjusting 33 penalty items in areas such as industry and informatization, housing and urban-rural development, China has taken solid steps in building a business-friendly environment through the rule of law.



China protects the legitimate rights and interests of various types of ownership enterprises, including state-owned, private, and foreign-funded enterprises, equally under the law. It promotes the improvement of institutional norms in areas such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, and social credit.



China not only creates a stable, transparent, standardized, and predictable legal environment for all types of business entities but also injects strong impetus into building a new highland for opening-up and promoting high-quality economic development.



It was stressed at the recently held Central Economic Work Conference that China will continue its efforts to foster a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized.



Optimizing business environment is an essential component of consolidating and enhancing the positive momentum of economic recovery, and continuously promoting qualitative and quantitative economic growth.



By stimulating vitality through the optimization of business environment and accumulating momentum through institutional innovation, the Chinese economy is steadily moving toward high-quality development.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China's cruise economy embraces rapid development China still considered favorable investment destination by foreign companies China will remain staunch force for peace, stability, progress of world Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)










English News To usher in bright future of peace, security, prosperity, progress for world

Alwihda Info | Par pd - 8 Janvier 2024



Major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics will follow the principles of self-confidence and self-reliance, openness and inclusiveness, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation, and act with a stronger sense of historical responsibility and a more vibrant spirit of innovation, so as to make new Chinese contributions to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

By Guo Jiping, People's Daily The year of 2023 was the first year for fully implementing the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and also marked the 10th anniversary of the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping.



Under the personal guidance of Xi, major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics has made solid steps. Pursuing the noble goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind, major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics has created a proactive and favorable external environment for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and made significant contributions to the cause of world peace and development.



The world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation, with profound changes occurring in the relationships between major countries. In 2023, China always kept its strategic focus, comprehensively planned its relations with relevant parties, and worked to build major-country relations featuring peaceful coexistence, overall stability, and balanced development.



Together, the Chinese and Russian heads of state charted the course for future growth of bilateral relations and cooperation across the board. The meeting between Xi and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden in San Francisco achieved important results, identifying the direction for the sound, steady and sustained development of bilateral ties. Besides, China-EU relations have shown a sound momentum of full recovery and steady progress.



In the past year, China firmly promoted regional peace, stability, and development. The successful China-Central Asia Summit resulted in the signing of seven bilateral and multilateral agreements between China and the five Central Asian countries. Additionally, over 100 cooperation agreements were inked across various fields.



Announcing a new characterization of the relationship for the two parties and two countries, China and Vietnam will work together for a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance on the basis of deepening the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two sides.



As a developing country and a member of the Global South, China breathes the same breath with other developing countries and pursues a shared future with them.



Last August, Xi attended the 15th BRICS Summit, promoting the historic expansion of the BRICS mechanism. He joined the BRICS-Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue, where he worked together with relevant parties to pool strength for building a community of shared development.



During his visit to South Africa, Xi and the South African head of state agreed to build a high-level China-South Africa community with a shared future. He also attended the China-Africa Leaders' Dialogue and raised new proposals on and assisting in Africa's integration and modernization.



In 2023, China established diplomatic relations with Honduras, set up or upgraded partnerships with more than 10 countries, and continuously deepened and expanded a global network of partnerships based on equality, openness, and cooperation.



In October 2023, the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was hosted. China worked with all parties involved to deepen Belt and Road partnerships of cooperation, ushered this cooperation into a new stage of high-quality development, and announced eight major steps China will take to support the joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. At present, all the 458 outcomes delivered at the forum are being implemented.



Taking results-oriented actions in implementing the Global Development Initiative, China promoted the establishment of cooperation platforms and partnerships in key areas including poverty reduction, food security, industrialization and digital-era connectivity, to deepen practical cooperation and strengthen knowledge sharing, which benefited other developing countries.



In 2023, China worked with the international community to actively implement the Global Security Initiative. In March, Saudi Arabia and Iran achieved significant results in their dialogue in Beijing, agreeing to restore diplomatic relations. This highly anticipated diplomatic mediation has inspired a trend of reconciliation in the Middle East and provided an important model for countries to resolve conflicts through dialogue and negotiation.



On the Ukraine crisis, China always stands on the side of peace. What it calls for boils down to supporting talks for peace. After the outbreak of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, China proposed solutions that take into account both the immediate and long-term interests, making arduous efforts to protect civilians, ease the situation, restart negotiations, and achieve peace.

In the face of various non-traditional security threats such as climate change, cybersecurity, and AI security, China has always been committed to promoting international cooperation and strengthening global security governance.



In March 2023, Xi solemnly proposed the Global Civilization Initiative, providing a systematic explanation of China's approach to promoting tolerance, coexistence, exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations. Last year, Xi made personal efforts to promote mutual understanding and friendship between the Chinese people and people in the rest of the world.



The Communist Party of China exchanged with and learned from political parties of other countries, helping all parties understand and comprehend the civilizational foundation and vivid practice of Chinese modernization, and building confidence and consensus in strengthening cooperation and creating a shared future.



Major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics will follow the principles of self-confidence and self-reliance, openness and inclusiveness, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation, and act with a stronger sense of historical responsibility and a more vibrant spirit of innovation, so as to make new Chinese contributions to building a community with a shared future for mankind.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China's cruise economy embraces rapid development China still considered favorable investment destination by foreign companies China will remain staunch force for peace, stability, progress of world Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
Three years ago, several hundred MAGA conservatives followed a man wearing a buffalo skull on his head into the Capitol.

Oh, I know theres more to it  and well get to that  but that will do for shorthand. Jacob Chansley, AKA QAnon Shaman. Yellowstone Wolf, etc., a professional activist of somewhat eclectic convictions and eccentric sartorial tastes, led the MAGA election fraud protestors up the steps and into the Capitol on Jan. 6, and they went straight in, without any hesitation or sign of second thoughts. Yes, there were others, but the Shaman pretty much became the avatar of the whole affair. The majority of those people, who did no harm and committed no felonies, have, in one of the most vindictive actions in recent political history, spent the last few years in prison under rough conditions, some of them in solitary, some denied counsel, most either overcharged or mischarged, and many of them still awaiting trial. That is wrong, and I am not suggesting that it isnt wrong, or that it should not be corrected. But at the same time, its awfully difficult to generate any passion over people who act this stupid.

Conservatives like to accuse others of being sheep. But many of them say it while baaing.

The Jan. 6 insurrection was clearly a setup -- Nancy Pelosi refusing to bring in the National Guard, the doors opened by welcoming Capitol staffers and Capitol Police, unidentified masked figures racing around shouting Lets take the place! This kind of thing doesnt happen by itself. It is made to happen. The D.C. elites were desperate for their own personal Reichstag fire. When none was forthcoming, they lit it themselves.

It's not likely that Chansley was actually in on any of this. But he is part of the problem, along with QAnon, the Oath Keepers, and the attempt by the Wicked Papist Guy Fawkes and company to Seize upon and commit a Mischief upon the Person of the Ladye Governour of the state of Michigan  just in time to pull Whitmers fading poll numbers out of their nosedive.

One of the major failings of conservatism, and populist conservatism in particular, is something that could be termed malignant naivete. Its a tendency toward hero worship, toward faddism, toward leaping onto the next flashy bandwagon without looking first. We see it all the time, with political campaigns, with books, with radio, and particularly with personalities.

What we also see is large-scale disappointment. Ross Perot turns out to be as crazy as a rat in a sack. Ann Coulter the golden girl turns into Ann Coulter the NeverTrumper. The rebel Nikki Haley turns out to be a closet elitist. Ron DeSantis has a staff packed with WEF alumni.

Too many populist conservatives (the old movement conservatives are no more pertinent here than they are regarding anything else) are simply too gullible, too eager for easy solutions, and too content to settle for a handful of magic beans. It is a serious failing, one of several, but as bad as some of the others are, this one could turn out to be fatal.

The Left knows this, and has learned how to take advantage of it. Thats what we saw on January 6. We will see it again this year. Leftists on all levels from your local supervisor of elections to the upper reaches of the WEF have learned how to manipulate the conservative yearning for quick and easy answers and turn to it to their benefit. It has worked superbly. Jan. 6 alone has caused serious problems for Trump and the MAGA movement that continue to this very day. Of course theyll try it again.

Current anti-Trump campaigns are in a state of collapse. The Republican bullpen is irrelevant. Efforts by the media to destroy the Orange Godzilla have generated backlash after backlash. NeverTrumpers dont even create an echo at this point. The lawfare campaign against Trump is circling the drain. The New York fraud trial is deep into mistrial territory, with Judge Arthur Engoron channeling his inner Vyshinsky in his eagerness to muzzle and insult Donald Trump. Jack Manson Lamps Smiths end-run involving the Supreme Court crashed and burned in a classic case of the conniver outconniving himself. Both the Colorado Supreme Court and Maines secretary of State have scuttled back into their holes after a brief turn enacting Macbeths Act 5 soliloquy.

They have once again been exposed to the truth that one does not underestimate Donald Trump. But will the lesson be learned? Theres no reason to believe so, considering the number of Hillarys, Muellers, Cheneys, and Kinzingers littering the landscape like crashed zeppelins. So whats a smart left-wing elitist to do?

There exist a number of alternatives, which we will cover at various dates to come. But for now, we want to concentrate on the Jan. 6 template.

Sometime this year, we will see another insurrection, kidnapping, or conspiracy. Even now, some fine agent of the elites may be sitting across from a few sincere but deluded MAGA hat wearers saying, This is straight from the Big Man, I tell ya It cant fail Dont worry, hell protect ya

Many in our corner dont appear to have learned anything at all from these disasters. So here are the lessons:

If it Sounds too Good, it is too Good. If somebody approaches you with what amounts to wish fulfillment daydreams of overcoming the wokies with one sharp blow, turn around and run. Nothing is ever that simple, however much we might want it to be. Dont be conned.

Learn About False-Flag Operations. There's nothing at all new about any of this. The Soviets pulled off this kind of thing repeatedly, and with great success, going back to the 1920s. The CIA, FBI, MI6, Mossad, and numerous domestic law-enforcement outfits have done the same. Familiarize yourself with this history, to help you recognize the methods and techniques.

They Do Know more than You Do. The left-wing rank and file come across as complete halfwits, dull-witted, uneducated, and badly informed, largely because they are all these things. But the hierarchs are something else altogether: capable, intelligent, experienced, and utterly ruthless. Dont think goofy teen with blue hair and nose ring or college kid convinced hes female. Think Carville, Axelrod, Jarrett, or Rice, and proceed accordingly.

A Crime is a Crime. If someone suggests committing a crime for the good of the cause, its time to leap out that fifth-story window. No legitimate political operative would suggest this. Nothing conceivably useful would be accomplished, and you will get caught. Dinesh DSouza can tell you all about this.

Dont be a Media Puppet. There is nothing that media lefties enjoy more than destroying an unwary grassroots conservative on the air. This can range from trick questions in on-the-spot interviews up to reportage on the exact type of scam event that were discussing here. Ask yourself: has a single legacy media source reported honestly concerning Jan. 6? Dont let them make a fool of you.

Dont Assume that Nothing is Being Done. We constantly hear complaints of this type. We seldom hear people admitting when they were wrong. These are assumptions, and we all know whats wrong with assumptions. Ask yourself, why would Trump, his people, or the MAGA movement itself go out of their way to inform the Left about their countermeasures? There are movements in the deep dark night, and they will be revealed in due time.

The Authorities are Not on Your Side. Dont think for a minute that the cops  whether local, state, or whatever  will be in your corner and will understand your point of view. Nearly half the conspirators who set out to "kidnap" the Witch of Lansing were undercover FBI operatives. In a sane world, that case would have been dismissed immediately on grounds of entrapment, but we dont live in one of those. There will be no cavalry riding to the rescue.

Redirect Your Energies. There are plenty of legit methods of assisting the cause, from demonstrating to rallying to working on elections themselves to keeping a close watch on lefty activities to canvassing. Concentrate on those.

Whatever the temptation, dont get involved in any cant-miss save-the-country schemes. Nothing will be accomplished, and the price will be more than you will ever be willing to pay. If you already are involved, God forbid, put as much distance as you can between yourself and the perps, whoever they may be. It might be worth blowing the whole thing wide open to media, if you can see your way to it, though that can be tricky. I cant advise you on the legal aspects, but you certainly might want to look into representation if you want to protect yourself.

Things are looking very good for Donald Trump and the movement he created. Dont allow yourself to be used by his enemies.

Image: TapTheForwardAssist
Matt Walsh spoke for millions of freedom-loving Americans when he called Biden a rotting bowl of oatmeal following the president's vaccine mandate speech on Sept. 10, 2021.

Walsh told Fox Newss Jesse Watters that Americans cannot be forced to take the COVID-19 vaccine. He also announced his organizations do not comply lawsuit against Biden on his video program at the Daily Wire.

Walshs argument that Biden had no more integrity than a rotting bowl of oatmeal may be used by voters again this year based on his newer pandemic-groundwork preparations.

These include his Housing and Human Services department adding an ominous new virus to the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act on Nov. 23, 2023.

Preceding this action was a potential pandemic alert presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) last October which drew little attention.

The alert was created while Americans were still processing the inexplicable savagery by Hamas on the Israelis.

WHO published a video in several languages announcing how to be Ready to respond to an outbreak of Ebola or Marburg disease. Apparently, there are lethal outbreaks of these viruses in Africa, and the WHO rekindled pandemic hysteria by adding the additional virus to its watchlist: Marburg Haemorrhagic Fever (MHF) remarketed as MARD. Per WHO, this virus has a fatality rate of up to 88% and has no known therapeutics or vaccines.

WHOs October 11 announcement motivated the Democrats to dust off their COVID playbook for the second election-pandemic lockdowns that Biden not-so-oddly predicted on June 22, 2022.

The HHS caught the WHOs fear-mongering ball and ran with it.

According to Breitbart News and the Wellness Company:

American tax dollars were hard at work this holiday season at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act was quietly amended. No vote required. The changes, made unilaterally without requiring any legislature vote, expanded the legal countermeasures that the Department may take to combat Ebola or Marburg virus pandemics. The changes, which are authorized through 2028, have sweeping implications. The new, amended PREP Act now covers federal funding for counteractions against these viruses, including: Devices

Therapeutics

Diagnostics and most importantly

Vaccines Considering there has never been an Ebola or Marburg pandemic in the U.S., these actions appear to be just in time for a pandemic that doesnt yet exist.

Though it sounds noble, the PREP Act is not a kindly, preparatory-concern for citizens but a legal focus on liability immunity. The PREP Act provides liability protections to manufacturers, distributors, states, localities, licensed health care professionals, and others identified by the HHS Secretary (qualified persons) who administer medical tests, (the COVID-19, or a future viruss) drugs, interventions, equipment, vaccines, or other covered countermeasures.

Interestingly, the Marburgvirus and/or Marburg Disease (MARD) was added to the Declaration for Countermeasures, to supersede the old Declaration for Countermeasures Against Ebola Virus Disease Vaccines as of Dec. 9, 2020, which would be effective until Oct. 1, 2024.

What does that mean? Lockdowns, and mass-mail elections, just as was done in 2020 during the extended COVID-19 pandemic that year.

After all, the mass mail-in ballot-counting seen that year was the result of rushed legislation: Freedom to Vote Act which had successfully achieved the number of mailed back ballots to push the bag of oatmeal over the finish line, rotting or otherwise.

In other words, its almost as if the COVID-19 pandemic playbook became a model and by adding the new MARD virus to the PREP list, it could be employed again.

Evidently, the Democrats cannot plan for border invasions or recessions, but when it comes to ensuring enough emergency ballots to be returned in the mail, or a health-rationale for emergency changes to voting regulations  they seem to jump on preparations four years in advance.

With a new and exciting virus to manipulate, it does not seem to matter to the Democrats that mask mandates caused tragic harm to children, nor that lockdown mandates caused severe mental health and learning loss damage for a generation of youth as well as damaged the economy, and that a recent Surgeon Generals warning to revisit mRNA vaccine danger will likely be censored or recklessly debunked.

Instead, another election theft seems to be what the current administration has in mind with the HHS's odd focus on a farfetched and improbable MARD or Ebola pandemic.

In 2021, Dan Bongino had followed up Matt Walshs sentiments about rotten, unconstitutional pandemic gaslighting when he reviewed for the public Bidens televised statement: it is not about freedom, or personal choice, literally right before he announced the government forcing vaccines onto much of the public under the threat of job loss.

Biden had also warned state governors who did not obey him that he would use his powers as a president to get them out of the way and they can have at it with lawsuits.

Immediately after that threat from what Bongino called, a senile, corrupt, loser, 12 governors signed legislation either banning or restricting vaccine mandates in their states, per the National Academy for State Health Policy including: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

Finally, seven states refused to lock down their states per the draconian orders: Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming  did not restrict their residents liberty when other states forced their constituents to stay at home from non-essential activities starting in March and April 2020.

These are the leaders that President Trump trusted to do the right thing when in April 2020, he let the states decide mandates during the COVID pandemic.

From one of these states, perhaps a strong running mate will materialize who will not be fased by absurd scare tactics about Ebola and MARD but will continue to punch back at communist-wannabe Biden, political historys rotten bag of oatmeal (RBOO).

Marie Hembree holds an M.A. in Strategic Communications, and is an Academic Resource Case Manager/Instructor in a Title One California school district while finishing a doctoral dissertation in the Communication discipline.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
Its an article of faith among Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) that minorities, particularly black people, are far more harshly treated by the Criminal Justice System than whites. The evidence usually cited for this, apart from because we say so, or experts say, is disparate impact. If black people are arrested and convicted in greater numbers than their percentage of the population, thats prima facie evidence of racism and disparate impact. Why else could so many black people become justice system-involved individuals?

The invaluable Heather Mac Donald notes in the largest 75 counties, blacks are 15% of the population, but 60% of all murder and robbery defendants. They also commit murder at eight times the rate of Hispanics and whites combined.

But what about the treatment of blacks in the criminal justice system? A new study reveals theyre treated little, or not at all, differently than white criminals:

Image: Office Of Military Government, United States. Wikimedia Commons.org. Public Domain.

An analysis of twenty years of academic literature found that there is little or no evidence that minorities are mistreated by the criminal justice system when it comes to punishment, despite assertions to the contrary by policymakers, media, and academics. In recent years it has become common belief within the scholarly community as well as the general public that the criminal justice system is biased due to race and class issues. We sought to examine this with meta-analysis. Our results suggest that for most crimes, criminal adjudication in the US is not substantially biased on race or class lines, professors Christopher J. Ferguson and Sven Smith of Stetson University found in a study to be published in the criminology journal Aggression and Violent Behavior and obtained by The Daily Wire.

Studies also tend to overlook the criminal records of black defendants, which can, and should, figure heavily in the severity of sentencing.

As a meta-analysis, the study did not create a new dataset on criminal sentencing and race, but rather examined 51 studies conducted by others looking at the question since 2005. The numbers suggesting no or marginal racial bias in punishment were therefore collected by the existing studies, but those authors often claimed to have found racial bias in their writings, even when their numbers did not back it up. We express the concern that evidence for racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system has been consistently weak, and that scholarly narratives have too often ignored this in favor of the systemic racism narrative, Ferguson and Smith wrote.

By scholarly narratives, they mean outright lies, narratives of racism believed before a study begins, and sustained even if the data dont prove it.

Some of the studies found no evidence of racism in criminal sentencing and said so clearly, but their findings were simply ignored by the media, politicians, and other academics, who at times did not acknowledge a single paper dissenting from their hypothesis in their citations. At present, we believe that the evidence on racial bias in criminal justice adjudication has been poorly communicated to the general public and policymakers. In many cases, it appears that data calling into question beliefs in structural racism in the criminal justice system are simply being ignored, both by scholars in the field and by policy makers, the new paper said. When combining the 51 studies, the numbers did not reach evidentiary standards to support the hypothesis that race or class are predictive of criminal adjudication when it comes to all crime types, violent crimes, or juvenile crimes. For drug crimes, small disparities were found suggesting that race/ethnicity is associated with between 1.6 to 1.8% of the variance in criminal adjudication among blacks and Hispanics facing drug charges, versus whitesa percentage so small that policy discussions focused on it are unlikely to solve any problems.

The authors of the meta-study concluded:

Overall, the criminal justice system appears to be remarkably neutral, at least as relates to these issues, either when compared to the historical US criminal justice system, or historical systems throughout history, the authors of the new study found.

Their findings confirm my observations during my police career. I was often concerned about lax sentencing of career criminals, but never detected any real difference between the sentences afforded white and minority criminals. I never saw a harsh sentence given a minority that was not justified by the law, the aggravating factors of the offense and the criminals record. Far too often, they, and whites, got far less than they deserved.

When elections, government policy, academic and media careers depend upon racialist narratives, the oppressor/oppressed narrative will always find a warm welcome. The destructive effects of such lies dont seem to matter to politicians like Joe Biden, who spoke for D/s/cs when he said: we believe in truth over facts.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
We somehow managed to get through Christmas and New Years Eve without terrorist attacks. For what are they waiting?

The FBI has admitted theyre watching at least 300 people on the Terrorist Watch List (TWL). Never mind why people on the TWL were allowed into the country so they could be watched in the first place. Thats need to know and Americans dont have a need to know. Our security apparatus has also admitted thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of military aged males from countries that would like every American dead have crossed the border. These are countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and many others. Theyve also grudgingly admitted it appears plenty of these military aged males, who happen to be Chinese, just might be members of the Chinese military.

Thats the military aged males with whom they briefly chatted before giving them free rides on buses or jets to their preferred destinations. There are loads more gotawayspeople they saw but didnt chat with or give free rides--and even more they never saw.

Mexican cartels have arrangements with hostile states. They spirit, unseen, foreign agents and terrorists across the border. They smuggle their equipment, weapons, documents and other terrorist essentials across the border, equally unseen. They coordinate with them in our cities and towns, providing intelligence, vehicles, and whatever else they need. Terrorists dont need to steal guns or buy them on the black market. Cartels deliver automatic weapons, grenades and more. Theyre sort of a cartel/terrorist UPS.

Image: Fars Media Corporation. Wikimedia Commons.org. CCA 4.0 International.

There is no question well-equipped terrorists, armed with intelligence and gathering more, are present across the country. If theyre smart, and theyre at least that smart, theyre in every state. Theyre planning and waiting.

How can we know this is true? The Mummified Meat Puppet Administration (MMPA) has admitted theyre here and they might, maybe, sort of, kind of, be a terrorist, national security problem. This is the MMPA that tells us the border is totally secure, so dont worry about national security. Its all under control, Bidenomics works, the Afghanistan withdrawal was a stunning success and Joe Biden has accomplishments. This is the MMPA that thinks Donald Trump, Normal Americans and climate change are the greatest threats to our democracy. If theyre willing to admit there might be any risk of terrorist attacks, theyre certain were going to be hit, and not in a small way. Theyre covering their chair-borne posteriors and trying to figure out how to avoid blaming the coming attacks on our enemies, particularly our Islamist enemies. Theyre also trying to figure out how to blame Donald Trump, white supremacists and racism.

The most likely form of attack wont be another 9-11 spectacle. Its possible but not necessary. The best way to strike terror into Americans hearts is many, smaller attacks. Striking many vulnerable targets simultaneously in multipleor allstates would have the greatest impact, and only one or two terrorists would be needed for each. A theater in Minneapolis, a park in Chicago, a grocery store in Fargo, Times Square in NYC, a school in Tulsa, America is full of soft targets.

Ironically, the best targets are blue states that have defunded, demonized, depopulated and demoralized their police forces, the very states whose politicians and populations are most likely to support open borders and the Islamist terrorists of October 7.

More sophisticated actors like Chinese agents and troops will engage in sabotage, taking down electric grids, poisoning water supplies, shutting down the Internet and broadcast lines. Biological warfare cant be ruled out.

So what are they waiting for? Are their plans not yet complete? Are they waiting to coordinate attacks here with attacks on our overseas troops and facilities? Are they waiting to coordinate attacks here with attacks on our allies, like Israel? Are they waiting to coordinate attacks here with attacks on Taiwan, South Korea, or Eastern European nations? Or are they simply waiting for the best opportunity, a time when America will be most distracted, most likely to be caught unaware?

Surely our security apparatus, the DOJ, Homeland Security and the FBI are on the case? Theyre watching those TWL suspects, after all, right? Not so much. Theyre busy running down real terrorists:

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, suggested that law enforcement will soon target those who just stood outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

With the statute of limitations for J6 offense approaching, our national security guardians are desperate to arrest thousands of Americans who were merely present on Capital grounds.

But Im sure theyve assigned at least one agent to try to figure out who the terrorists are, where they are, what theyre planning and why theyre waiting. At least Im pretty sure

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
You are a [expletive] genius Gump!

That famous line, recited by the iconic Army drill instructor in the film Forrest Gump, was funny on many levels; the late Winston Groom, author of the novel behind the production, was himself a Vietnam combat veteran, and Im sure this experience fostered his great gift of writing with whimsical irony about the U.S. Army (and all of America during those war years).

But what would this tough-as-nails military man from yesterday say about (arguably) the worst DEI hire in American history, Lloyd Austin? How would Joe Bidens pick compare to the genius Gump? The man is willfully sabotaging the safety and security of all Americans by placing DEI above military readiness and lethality, which is perhaps the most bone-headed direction ever taken by a general. What kind of ego could pull such a stunt?

Well, when Austin went MIA (before being discovered in the ICU at Walter Reed), and his staff summarily lied to those asking questions, we saw how cynical, callous, idiotic his disregard of his oath to support and defend the Constitution really wasnaturally, he should be immediately relieved of duty. Perhaps he can find gainful employment in the private sector, and be appointed to the Boeing board, as is typical for the many former military brass striving to find sinecures.

I can picture it now, at a future Boeing board meeting discussion: So what about that minor hole in the 737, lets not talk about it. This could easily fit into Austins way of thinking; after all, what are a few passenger casualties compared to being AWOL from the most sacred trust of guaranteeing the nuclear deterrence posture of our national command authority in which his position is the seminal command responsibilityliterally when seconds countor we get wiped out as a nation?

I am sure many articles will deep dive on his dereliction, because even the NYT, AP, and USA Today recognize how truly awful he and his team have been during this week of leadership infamy.

It is not like I didnt see this coming, in an American Thinker blog on January 11, 2021, noting that the Bidenites were set to pass over a more qualified candidate (Michele Flournoy) in favor of the DEI checkboxes:

The beginning of Democrat Weltschmerz Austin indeed had a track record of military service and one incident may capture with many in the military and veteran community another appropriate German word: Fremdschamen. That's a unique German word meaning to be ashamed for someone else. Heres why I think so: General Lloyd Austin, the commander of U.S. Central Command leading the war on ISIS, told Congress today that only four or five of the first 54 U.S.trained moderate Syrian fighters remain in the fight against ISIS.  This is just the beginning of many potential and wonderful-to-behold moments of Democrats and the Biden administration which are bound to be coming ahead.

In one brief shining moment of historic incompetence, the Biden administration reminded us all how profoundly incapable selected candidates can be when chosen via a DEI checklist. Way to go guys.

A true bipartisan weltschmerz moment this time meaning total world pain. And I suspect now three years later from my essay, many, many in the Democrat Party are really suffering true weltschmerz. After all, the Ds in those days controlled both the House and the Senate, and gave Biden a pass in waiving the law, and freezing out previous Four Star Generals.

Finally, come to think of it, I suspect Gumps drill instructor would have less-than-polite things to say about Austin, noting that Secretary of Defense Forrest Gump would have been a much better choice.

Image: YouTube video screen grab.
On the morning of November 27, 1835, two menJames Pratt and John Smithwere publicly hanged in front of Newgate Prison in London. Just three months earlier they had been arrested and convicted for the crime of sodomy, which was considered the most detestable and abominable offense at the time.

Homosexuality, or rather buggery, has been a crime in Great Britain since the Buggery Act of 1533. This legislation aimed to restrict any sexual activity not directly linked to procreation, irrespective of the genders involved. While the intent was to punish those engaged in non-consensual sexual crimes, the lack of a clear definition for "buggery" in the law led courts to interpret it narrowly, focusing solely on anal penetration. Consequently, numerous men, including those of high standing, fell under the purview of the act, facing severe penalties such as death, imprisonment, or public humiliation on the pillory.

Execution outside Newgate Prison, early 19th century.

The case of James Pratt and John Smith was contentious, with many asserting that the evidence was dubious and the punishment excessively severe. Regardless, these two individuals are remembered as the last to be executed for sodomy in England.

On August 29, 30-year-old James Pratt and 40-year-old John Smith met William Bonill, a 68-year-old man, at an ale house near the Blackfriars Road, in Southwark, London. Pratt worked as a groom, living with his wife and children in Deptford, in southeast London, while Smith was an unmarried laborer, although some sources claim he worked as a servant. Bonill invited Pratt and Smith back to his boarding house owned by Jane and George Berkshire.

The Berkshires claimed later that they became suspicious of Bonill because of the numerous male couples who visited his quarters. Their boarder, it seemed, was allowing men to use his room for nefarious, sodomitical purposes. When Pratt and Smith came to visit him that day, his landlords decided to find out for themselves exactly what was going on.

Shortly after the three men arrived, the suspicious George spied into Bonills room through a nearby window and saw Pratt sitting on Bonills knees and then on Smiths. George saw the men laughing together and in conversation. When he relayed this to his wife a little later over tea, Jane slipped upstairs and peeped through Bonhills keyhole. She returned to tell her husband that she had witnessed sexual acts. He became enraged, went upstairs and also looked through the keyhole. George later told in the courthouse that he had seen Pratt laying on his back with his trowsers [sic] below his knees, and with his body curled uphis knees were upSmith was upon himPratts knees were nearly up to Smiths shouldersSmiths clothes were below his knees  and a great deal of fondness and kissing.

Also read: Leendert Hasenbosch: The Gay Soldier Who Was Marooned on a Deserted Island

They immediately burst through the door to confront Pratt and Smith. Caught in a compromising position, Pratt and Smith quickly pulled up their trousers and begged George not to report them to the authorities. But George called the police anyway. Bonill, who was absent at that time, returned a few minutes later with a jug of ale. The cops also arrived and all three men were arrested.

At their trial at the Old Bailey on 21 September 1835, both Jane and George Berkshire testified that they had witnessed Pratt and Smith engaging in sexual acts through the keyhole. They explained how they saw the two men undressing to lay on the floor, and although the act of penetration itself was not visible, they claimed to have seen the tale-tell signs of bodies in motion.

Aside from the sole testimony of the Berkshires there was no other material evidence to support the charge. Yet, an all-male jury found Smith and Pratt guilty of not having the fear of God before [their] eyes, nor regarding the order of nature, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil. Judge Baron Gurney, who presided at their trial, sentenced them to death by hanging. Bonill, convicted of conspiring to allow buggery to be committed, was deported to Australia for 14 years. He died in Tasmania in 1841.

Not everyone agreed with the verdict or the sentence. Hesney Wedgwood, the magistrate who had committed the three men to trial, argued in a private letter to Home Secretary, Lord John Russell, that the two men be granted clemency. For Wedgwood, their guilt or innocence was not the issue because, he believed, they were victims of a greater social issue.

It is the only crime where there is no injury done to any individual and in consequence it requires a very small expense to commit it in so private a manner and to take such precautions as shall render conviction impossible. It is also the only capital crime that is committed by rich men but owing to the circumstances I have mentioned they are never convicted.

While being held in Newgate Prison, Pratt and Smith were visited by Charles Dickens, who wrote an account of his visit in Sketches by Boz:

Dickens described Smith and Pratt as being held in a long, sombre room, with two windows sunk into the stone wall. One sat with his back towards us, and was stooping over the fire, with his right arm on the mantel-piece, and his head sunk upon it. The other had a pale, haggard face, and disordered hair, an appearance which, at that distance, was ghastly. His cheek rested upon his hand; and, with his face a little raised, and his eyes wildly staring before him. They well knew that for them there was no hope in this world, Dickens continued. The gaoler who was escorting Dickens through the corridors, leaned on to him and whispered that they were dead men.'

On November 27, the two prisoners were taken from their cells and brought to the execution platform in front of Newgate Prison. The crowd started hissing, possibly in disagreement with the execution. Pratt was reportedly too weak to stand, and had to be held upright by the executioner's assistants while preparations were made to hang him. After the hangings, the men were buried in a common grave, with others executed at Newgate, in the City Cemetery, Manor Park, London.

Smith and Pratt were the last two men executed in England for buggery. The Buggery Act was repealed by the Offences against the Person Act 1828. However, buggery continue to be a capital offence until the passing of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which replaced the penalty with deportation or a lengthy prison term. Homosexuality was finally decriminalized in Great Britain by the Sexual Offenses Act of 1967.

References:

# Pratt & Smith  Last UK men hanged for sodomy, Peter Tatchell Foundation

# Central Criminal Court Sessions Paper. 21st September 1835

# The Last Men Executed for Sodomy in England, 1835, Rictor Norton
McAfee has announced Project Mockingbird to counteract AI-driven deepfakes at CES 2024. Itll counter especially those employing audio to deceive consumers with fabricated news and fraudulent activities. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is getting smarter; because of this, bad actors are making more convincing fake content, like fake voices and videos. McAfees new tool, Project Mockingbird, uses AI to analyze and understand content, and its really good at spotting fake audio in videos, being right over 90% of the time.

McAfee Project Mockingbird will counteract deepfakes

McAfees Project Mockingbird is designed to differentiate genuine human audio from AI-generated replicas. This innovation is pivotal in addressing the emerging challenge of AI-enabled deepfakes, especially those incorporating deceptive audio elements.

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Deepfakes, which often show celebrities in fake videos, used to be on certain websites mostly. But now, fake audio is becoming a bigger problem. Steve Grobman, McAfees CTO, is worried about these misleading audio clips spreading on social media, especially with the upcoming 2024 U.S. Presidential election. More importantly, it comes at a time when there are over three major elections ahead, in the U.S., India, and South Africa. Quite similar to McAfees approach, Meta had also updated their policy to counter deepfakes.

McAfees Steve Grobman shares concerns about cheapfake scams

McAfees CTO stressed how important this technology is. He compared it to a weather forecast but for the internet. McAfee wants to help people understand and stay safe from fake content made by AI.

Well help consumers avoid cheapfake scams where a cloned celebrity is claiming a new limited-time giveaway, he told Venture. And make sure consumers know instantaneously when watching a video about a presidential candidate, whether real or AI-generated for malicious purposes.

Grobman also mentioned how badly people use real social media accounts to spread fake videos or lies. McAfees tech can spot these fake videos and tell the difference between whats real and whats not.

As CES 2024 kicks off in Las Vegas, anticipation is building for a plethora of groundbreaking tech announcements. The upcoming days promise a thrilling showcase of innovation and advancements!
Samsungs highly-anticipated Galaxy S24 series will go official next week. The company will unveil the new flagship lineup on January 17. Ahead of that, leaks have revealed the phones design, key specs, and pricing structure. A new leak has now given us an idea of how much it will cost to repair a damaged Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, or Galaxy S24 Ultra. We also have visuals of some original replacement parts.

Leak reveals repair costs for the Galaxy S24 screen, battery, and more

Slovenian repair shop Mobistekla has listed the prices of the original replacement parts for various Galaxy S24 components on its website. As expected, replacing a broken front glass and display will be a costly affair. The glass and display combo for the Ultra model will cost a whopping 375. It will cost 255 for the Plus model, while the base model will be in the 259 ballpark.

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If you only need to replace the front glass, the charges will come in at 199, 165, and 155 for the three models respectively. Likewise, a battery replacement will cost 65 for the Galaxy S24 Ultra, 72 for the Plus, and 68 for the base model. Camera repairs are said to cost 150, 105, and 99, respectively. Replacing the camera glass of the thee Galaxy S24 phones will set you back by 48, 45, and 42, respectively.

Mobisteklas website also lists replacement and repair costs for various other components, including the charging port, speaker, microphone, selfie camera, physical buttons, and more. Depending on the device model and component, these repairs will cost between 50 and 100. Repairing the under-display ultrasonic fingerprint scanner will cost 157 for all three modes, at least according to this leak.

Since the Galaxy S24 series isnt official yet, we cant vouch for the accuracy of all these repair costs. However, they may not be too much off the official pricing, which we should get to know shortly after Samsung releases the new flagships. The listing also included pictures of some replacement parts. So, the leaked prices may have come courtesy of some well-reached internal source. Thankfully, it wont be long before the devices go official.

Samsung may release the new flagships at the end of the month

While Samsung has confirmed the Galaxy S24 launch for January 17, it has yet to reveal the release date for the new flagship trio. The company is expected to open pre-orders for the phones immediately after launch in most markets. A global release may come at the end of the month. Rumors suggest the general sales might begin on January 30. We will let you know when we have official confirmation.
Samsung has recently applied to register the trademark Ironflex, prompting speculation about the possibility of more robust foldable screens in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, slated for release next summer. The trademark application for Ironflex was filed by Samsung Display to the Korean Intellectual Property Rights Information Service on January 3, indicating a foldable OLED display panel associated with a foldable smartphone.

Since the launch of the first Galaxy Fold, concerns about the durability of folding screens have lingered, especially after the initial setback with the Folds release. However, the later versions have all performed better than expected when it comes to the reliability of the hinge or the flexible display. Now this new Ironflex trademark hints at another step forward in the resilience of the flexible display.

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The description of goods associated with Samsungs Ironflex trademark includes several product categories. It hints at the potential deployment of Ironflex panels beyond smartphones. Notably, the company has mentioned foldable wearable video display monitor and foldable tablet computer, suggesting a broader application of the Ironflex technology including folding tablets and XR/MR devices.

While the trademark application doesnt provide detailed specifications, it implies a focus on enhancing the durability of the soft OLED display panels, a key consideration for consumers.

Samsungs Ironflex seemingly aims to dissociate fragile from foldable

Although Samsung has not revealed any specific details about the Ironflex technology in the trademark application, it is common for such registrations to align with upcoming product releases. While it remains uncertain whether the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6 will debut with Ironflex screens, the trademark application hints at ongoing developments in Samsungs display technology.

This move aligns with Samsungs ongoing efforts to address concerns surrounding the resilience of folding screens, which have been a subject of skepticism since the early days of foldable smartphones.

As the summer release approaches, more information about Samsungs Ironflex technology and its integration into Samsungs foldable devices may surface. But before that, we are already getting to see some real-life images of the companys next Ultra flagship, the Galaxy S24 Ultra on January 17, which apparently comes with some interesting color options.
Apple made headlines years ago when it was revealed the company was intentionally slowing down older iPhones, which has led to a lawsuit that it will now have to send out payments for. There was more to the story than planned obsolescence. Because Apple said it tried to compensate for aging batteries, which couldnt handle newer software updates at full strength. However, the court of public opinion found Apple in the wrong. It agreed to settle a Batterygate lawsuit in March 2020 for $500 million. But maintained that it did not do anything wrong. Still, it was a rough patch for Apple. Especially since it throttled the performance of iPhones in secret.

Payments have finally started to go out for the settlement, and users will receive their compensation in the method they originally selected. Though the payouts took nearly four years to be sent out, thats not the only thing Apple did to rectify the situation. The company also slashed the price of battery replacements. In addition to adding new battery health transparency features. It also gave users the option to turn off the performance throttling features. On a related note, Apple is working on new battery technology that could prevent this kind of thing in the future.

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How much will you get from the Apple lawsuit payments?

Of the $500 million settlement, there will be $310 million added to a fund that will be divided among the class members. This equates to about $92 per class member  payments are $92.17 to be exact  per eligible iPhone. So, if you had a bunch of iPhones that were affected by the Batterygate issue, you could get upwards of a thousand dollars from Apple. The problem is, that you had to make these claims years ago. If you havent yet, youre out of luck.

The first time Apple debuted performance throttling tools was with iOS 10.2.1, which was seeded in February 2017. The iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, or iPhone SE may have been eligible for compensation per the settlement. But as we mentioned, the claim deadline of October 6, 2020, has long passed.

Why did it take so long for the payments to go out?

Although you cant claim money now, you may have forgotten that you claimed the funds a few years ago. If so, its worth checking your bank account to see if youve got any $92 payments from Apple. The settlement funds going out might explain otherwise strange positive transactions from IN RE APPLE INC CO ENTRY DESCR: Payouts on your statement.

Four years is a long time to wait for payments to go out. But not in the world of class-action suits. These are surrounded by long legal processes and logistical headaches, so getting compensation can take a while. In fact, the payments were actually on time. As it was previously announced they would be sent out in January 2024. If you did receive a payout, its a nice bonus to start the new year off with.
Sir Keir Starmer has been urged not to backtrack on his plans to invest 28 billion in green projects, by Labours Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

He told the Labour leader to stick to your guns after Sir Keir said he may scale down the investment given the financial picture he would inherit if he becomes prime minister.

Mr Burnham said it is not spending, this is investment in the future, as Sir Keir faces pressure over the planned annual green payments.

The Conservatives have been increasing their attacks on Labour over the proposal after the UK entered the election year, but supporters have been concerned about watering down the key pitch.

Mr Burnham told LBCs Tonight With Andrew Marr: I would absolutely say to the party, stick to your guns, youre on the right path.

The mayor said the investment could reindustrialise the North and make the nation a clean energy superpower.

That is about building future prosperity. This is not spending, this is investment in the future, investment in new industry, investment in better homes for our residents, better transport, he said.

Mr Burnham conceded that you dont need to spend that level straightaway, you can build up to it, but warned that the more we delay the more other governments will win the green race.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has been urged not to row back on his environmental pledges (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

But Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said you have to pay debt interest on the 28 billion whether you call it spending or investment.

Money is money and on this scale can only lead to tax rises, the Chancellor said.

Labour promised in 2021 to invest 28 billion a year until 2030 in green projects if it came to power.

But last year shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said it would instead be a target to work towards in the second half of a first parliament, if Labour wins an election.

Sir Keir last week described the policy as a confident ambition rather than a commitment.

He said that Labour sticking to its fiscal rules, which include making sure debt is falling, was more important than hitting the green spending target.

That means that if the money is from borrowing, which it will be, borrowing to invest, that the fiscal rules dont allow it, then we will borrow less, he said.
Nora Mishanec is a San Francisco Chronicle breaking news and enterprise reporter. She joined the paper in 2020 as a Hearst fellow and returned in 2022 after a stint at The Houston Chronicle.

She can be reached at nora.mishanec@sfchronicle.com.
ASAP Rocky has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm in Los Angeles.

The US rapper, real name Rakim Mayers, is alleged to have pointed a semi-automatic handgun at a former friend and collaborator before allegedly firing it in his direction outside a Hollywood hotel in 2021.

Sitting in the courtroom wearing a grey suit with a white pin-striped shirt and navy striped tie, paired with a black coat, dark sunglasses and a gold earring, Mayers corrected Superior Court Judge Karla Kerlin on the pronunciation of his name.

ASAP Rocky and Rihanna attending the Fashion Awards in 2019 (Ian West/PA)

After the musician pleaded not guilty, Judge Kerlin set the next pre-trial date for March 6  and the court heard a trial must take place within 45 days after that date.

Mayers laughed when the judge said she was struggling to find a particular court document because there are so many media requests I cant get to it.

The court also heard Mayers offer authorisation for his lawyers to appear on his behalf without his attendance at future hearings.

At the end of the hearing, Mayers wished the judge a happy new year before walking out of the courtroom.

It comes after Superior Court Judge ML Villar ruled in November that there is sufficient evidence for the rapper to stand trial, after his attorney attempted to cast doubt on the case.

The 35-year-old hip-hop star, fashion mogul and two-time Grammy nominee shares two children with pop star Rihanna.

The couples first child, RZA, was born in May 2022, while their son Riot Rose was born in August.
Christopher Nolan has been named best director at the Golden Globes for the first time after six nominations.

The British filmmaker was recognised for his work on Oppenheimer, about the father of the atomic bomb.

The director collected the award on stage at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, saying: The only time I have only ever been on this stage before was accepting one of these on behalf of our dear friend Heath Ledger (the late actor who starred in his film The Dark Knight) and that was complicated and challenging for me.

A  golden  moment for Christopher Nolan who wins Best Director  Motion Picture for Oppenheimer! #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/UsKeRchPcq  Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 8, 2024

In the middle of speaking, Robert Downey Jr caught my eye and gave me a look of love and support, the same look he is giving me now, the same love and support hes shown so many people in our community over so many years.

I thought it would be simpler accepting for myself, but as a director of course I accept on behalf of (everyone), as directors we bring people together, we try and get them to bring their best.

Succession stars Keiran Culkin and Matthew Macfadyen were among the early winners in the TV categories at the Golden Globes.

And the Golden Globe for Best Television Male Actor  Drama Series goes to Kieran Culkin in Succession!  #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/66NOeE2t9t  Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 8, 2024

Culkin won the best performance by a male actor in a TV series drama for his role as Roman Roy in Succession, defeating co-stars Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong.

I was nominated for a Golden Globe like 20 years ago and when that moment passed, I sort of remember thinking Im never going to be back in this room again, the 41-year-old said.

But thanks to Succession Ive been in here a couple of times, I accepted I would never be on the stage so this is a nice moment. Suck it Pedro (Pascal), sorry, mine.

Macfadyen won the supporting actor Globe for his performance of Tom Wambsgans, saying: I just adored every second playing the weird and wonderful human grease stain that is Tom Wambsgans.

  Matthew Macfadyen accepts the award for Best Supporting Male Actor  Television at the #GoldenGlobes! pic.twitter.com/qPHgQf58Kt  Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 8, 2024

Tom Wambsgans CEO, I should say, God help us.

Elsewhere, Elizabeth Debicki won her first Golden Globe for her role as Diana, Princess of Wales, in The Crown.

The Australian actress, 33, dedicated the award to her godmother who left us too quickly and thanked her pretend children who play Prince William and Prince Harry on the show.

There was also triumph for Beef stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, who were named best actor and best actress in a limited series.

They play a duo who start a life-changing feud after a road rage incident in the Netflix series.

In the early film categories, DaVine Joy Randolph won the first award of the night, taking home the Golden Globe for female supporting actor for her role in The Holdovers.

She said of her character: You have changed my life and made me feel seen and I hope I helped you find your inner Mary, because there is a little Mary in all of us.

Robert Downey Jr was named best supporting actor for his role as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer.

I took a beta blocker so this is going to be a breeze, the 58-year-old joked as he took to the stage to accept the prize.

The US actor thanked the cast and crew which helped them render a God damn masterpiece in Oppenheimer, as he picked up his third Golden Globe gong.
A fatal accident inquiry is due to begin into the deaths of two people who took their own lives in a young offender institution.

Katie Allan, 21, and William Lindsay, 16, were found dead in their cells in separate incidents at Polmont Young Offenders Institution in 2018, and their deaths will be investigated at the inquiry starting at Falkirk Sheriff Court on Monday.

Ms Allans parents Linda and Stuart are expected to give evidence during the early days of the FAI, which is due to last three weeks, while Mr Lindsays brother John Reilly will represent his family.

The inquiry will explore the circumstances of both deaths, with particular focus on the Scottish Prison Services Talk To Me strategy in relation to the prevention of suicide in jails.

It will seek to establish what, if any, precautions could have been taken, or could be implemented to minimise the risk of future deaths in similar circumstances.

Mental health nurses are among those expected to give evidence.

Katie Allans parents Linda and Stuart, pictured with solicitor Aamer Anwar, will give evidence to the FAI (PA)

Mr Lindsay, who had been in care repeatedly, died at Polmont on October 7, 2018  three days after being admitted as there was no space in a childrens secure unit, despite a history of making attempts on his life. He had been sent there on remand.

His mother and two sisters have died during the five-year wait for an inquiry.

Ms Allan, a student at Glasgow University, was found dead on June 4, 2018 while she served a 16-month sentence for drink-driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving, which she had admitted.

The families solicitor Aamer Anwar said: The families hold the Scottish Prison Service and health service directly responsible and will fight to ensure other lives can be saved.

He said both families want Crown immunity  which means organisations such as the prison service cannot be prosecuted  to be lifted in a bid to hold the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to account for failings under the Health and Safety Act, which he said were identified as materially contributing to the deaths.

He urged First Minister Humza Yousaf to address the issue of lifting Crown immunity with the UK Government.

A statement from Mr Anwar said: Both the families believe the passage of time has allowed a Scottish Prison Service to operate behind a veil of secrecy, covering up systemic failures and preventable suicides.

In October 2022, the families were told the Crown Office found a breach of the Health and Safety Act materially contributed to both deaths, but due to Crown immunity no criminal proceedings could be raised.

The lifting of Crown immunity must be a priority for the Scottish Government. To date there has been no response.

Katie Allan died while an inmate at Polmont in 2018 (family handout/PA)

A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: The loss of any person in our care is devastating and we recognise the profound impact it has. Everyone who enters custody is assessed to identify what support is needed.

Given a fatal accident inquiry is to be held imminently into the deaths of Katie Allan and William Lindsay, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.

A spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: We acknowledge that the wait for these proceedings has been too long and has caused distress for Katie and Williams families.

The FAI will allow a public airing of all the evidence at which families and interested parties will be represented.

The families and legal representatives will continue to be kept updated as the inquiry progresses.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: Our thoughts are with every family who has been bereaved by suicide in prisons.

We cannot comment on these cases with the approaching fatal accident inquiry and we will carefully consider the outcome.
UK scientists have uncovered exciting and significant new insights into how German soldiers used a crater  created after a mine explosion by the British  to their advantage during the First World War.

The detonation of the Hawthorn Ridge, near the village of Beaumont Hamel in France, signalled the start of the Battle of the Somme on the morning of July 1 1916  often described as the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army.

The blast took place 10 minutes before the whistles blew for the attack to begin at 7.30am.

The hope was that the bombardment would enable British troops to cross no mans land  the ground between two opposing armies  and occupy German trenches.

But instead, it gave German soldiers time to take up defensive positions in the newly formed crater, leading to more than 57,000 British casualties  including 19,000 killed  on the first day of the battle.

Researchers have now discovered the remains of an unseen section of a German trench with barbed wire  known as a fire bay  in the 107-year-old crater.

Excavations of a fire bay in the north-western rim of the Hawthorn Ridge crater (Staffordshire University/PA)

They have also found evidence of a previously unknown shallow tunnel  believed to have been dug by the Germans towards the British lines  in the first scientific study of the Hawthorn Ridge blast site.

Study author Dr Jamie Pringle, a forensic geoscientist at Keele University, said: The explosion of the mine was the very first action of the Battle of the Somme, intended to give Allied forces the upper hand.

We found physical evidence for the first time of how German soldiers had consolidated part of the crater left behind after the explosion, and actually used it to their advantage as a new defensive position.

Professor Peter Doyle, a military historian at Goldsmiths, University of London, who was part of the team, added: The Germans had quickly mastered the art of capturing craters and used this to their advantage.

An unexploded British shrapnel artillery shell with its time-fuse still intact (Keele University/PA)

Though they lost many men in the initial blast, the crater became a part of the German front line, meaning that the chance to break through the line here was lost.

Our study has provided new evidence of the strongpoint the Germans built from the captured crater in the middle of no mans land that doomed the British attack to failure.

This reinforces the idea that blowing the mine 10 minutes early was a very bad idea.

The research team, which also included experts from Staffordshire University, Atlantic Technological University, London South Bank University, Stoke-on-Trent Archaeology Service, Goldsmiths, University of London and Cotswold Archaeology, were given exclusive access to the site by the Hawthorn Ridge Crater Association, a charitable organisation tasked with protecting the site.

The team also found multiple impact holes from shells fired by the Allies and unearthed an unexploded British shrapnel artillery shell with its time-fuse still intact  thought to be among many that failed to blow up.

British infantrymen during the Battle of the Somme (PA)

The experts discovered an empty ammunition box for a Vickers, a type of heavy machine gun that was widely used during both world wars.

Dr Kris Wisniewski, a lecturer in forensic science at Keele University, said the said the study of the historically important crater was exciting and significant.

He added: Using drones with imaging cameras, we were able to image remotely a probable sap or shallow tunnel to the north west of the crater, showing the German mastery of no mans land after the initial detonation.

The researchers said a second mine was blown by British forces on November 13, forming a new crater.

This blast proved to be more effective, they said, helping them capture the ridge and the nearby Beaumont Hamel village.

The research is published in the Journal of Conflict Archaeology.
Experts warn that an increasing number of young people are getting cosmetic surgery. (Getty Images) (Getty Images/Cavan Images RF)

The cosmetic industry has seen a surge in the number of procedures Britons are getting done in recent years, with the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) describing a boom in cosmetic surgery in 2022.

Last year, more than 30,000 people underwent some kind of cosmetic procedure, with the most popular being breast enhancements or reductions, and liposuction. Tweakments, which are non-surgical and often temporary procedures, have also been growing in popularity around the world.

But the number of young people turning to cosmetic procedures to achieve a certain beauty standard has also been increasing, much to the worry of experts. Former Love Islander and TV presenter Olivia Attwood has recently opened up about getting her first aesthetic surgery at just 20 years old.

In a new interview with The Times, Attwood said she was fixated on getting breast enhancement because she was dissatisfied with her C-cup breast size. But after getting large implants, she said: I was happy for a year, then I realised they didnt look right for my frame.

The weight of the implants started to stretch my skin and they got lower and lower. I started to think, This isnt what I signed up for at all.

Olivia Attwood has spoken out about how she regrets getting breast enhancement surgery at just 20 years old. (Getty Images) (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

The role of social media

Experts say social media is largely to blame for the huge rise in young people clamouring for cosmetic procedures to change the way they look. This has also resulted in mental health problems linked to self-esteem and body confidence.

Dr Omar Tillo, plastic surgeon and senior medical director at Creo Clinic, tells Yahoo UK that social media is linked to an increase in body dysmorphia, depression, other mental health disorders, and cosmetic surgery in younger people.

As technology develops and people spend more time online, viewers are more and more exposed to the harmful effects of these platforms. Not only do they blur the lines of reality, where it seems impossible to live up to the world we see online, but it also promotes unhealthy comparisons.

Not everyone who undergoes a cosmetic procedure at a young age is at risk of developing mental health issues. Dr Tillo points out that often, people who seek surgery to address a concern or problem that has been affecting their life often benefit and report improvement in their body and social confidence.

On the other hand, he says, undergoing cosmetic surgery at a young age for the wrong reasons carries the risk of lower future self-esteem and body confidence.

Peer pressure, societal standards and trends, and unrealistic beauty ideals are the wrong reasons to have cosmetic surgery and will contribute to future dissatisfaction.

This is where a responsible and trained plastic surgeon, who prioritises mental wellbeing, is crucial in ensuring that the decision to undergo cosmetic procedures is based on individual needs and realistic expectations.

Dr Deepa Panch, surgical and aesthetics doctor, adds: Pressure to undergo cosmetic surgery at a young age largely stems from societal beauty standards and social media influence.

Mental health repercussions can include body image issues, anxiety and a negative impact on self-esteem and this is reflected in the rise in cases of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) that we are seeing in society today.

What needs to change in the cosmetic industry?

Experts in the cosmetic industry have called for better regulation. (Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Many cosmetic surgeons and aestheticians believe the industry needs more effective regulation. While the UK government passed a law in October 2021 that has effectively banned cosmetic procedures being carried out on under-18s in England, Dr Panch points out, the law has not been extended elsewhere in the UK.

Last year, top cosmetic surgeon Dr Elizabeth Hawkes warned that teenagers were travelling from England to Wales to get Botox treatments to get around the regulation. She told Yahoo UK that she wants to see Wales introduce the same ban that England has.

Dr Tillo adds: Effective regulation in the cosmetic surgery industry is imperative to safeguard the well-being and satisfaction of patients.

Key examples include establishing age restrictions to prevent inappropriate procedures on younger individuals, ensuring rigorous standards for informed consent to guarantee patients are fully aware of the associated risks, and implementing strict qualification standards for practitioners.

Read more about mental health:
Junior doctors in England said they will not call more strikes unless we have to as health leaders implored ministers and the doctors union to urgently resolve the ongoing dispute over pay.

The NHS said the longest strike in its history, which lasted six full days and will end at 7am on Tuesday, has caused delay and disruption to thousands of patients.

Ministers have said they will not negotiate with doctors while strike action has been called but, with no further industrial action called, it is hoped talks will resume as soon as possible to try and avert further walk outs and end the dispute.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said it is yet to get an offer for talks to resume.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the BMAs junior doctors committee, said: It takes two to tango  the Government also need to involve themselves in that process for it to be successful.

Ultimately, what were looking for is an end to this dispute and the first way to do that is to restore the pay cuts that we have had, which will help restore the value in the profession.

But until the Government is willing to negotiate with us were not able to unilaterally do that.

So we wont be calling for strike action unless and if we need to, but there is a real future where we dont have to call for strike action ever again, if were able to come to an agreement.

Committee co-chairman Dr Robert Laurenson told PA: Our goal is to negotiate a pay deal that gives doctors, Government, taxpayers, the NHS and patients long-term security.

We just hope that the Government comes to their senses and come back to the negotiation room so that we can all work collaboratively together to find a resolution.

He said that so far there has been no invitation for talks to resume, adding: There has been no invitation for a minute past 7am tomorrow  or 7.20 tomorrow.

NHS officials said the impact of the walkout could last for weeks or months as hospitals try to resume normal levels of activity while catching up on lost hours.

The strike coincides with one of the busiest weeks of the year for the health service as it attends to a rising number of people with winter bugs, staff sickness absence and people coming forward who put off seeking help over the Christmas holiday.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, told PA: Thousands more NHS patients will have been hit with delays and disruption due to this strike.

This couldnt have come at a worse time, with mounting seasonal pressures fuelled by a surge in winter viruses and a sharp uptick in Covid-19 cases.

Throughout the last 14 months of NHS strikes, meticulous planning and hard work have allowed trusts to prioritise patient safety and protect emergency and critical care.

But this walkout was the longest in NHS history so the scale of the challenge was that much greater.

It will take time for the NHS to recover, including work on waiting lists and rebuilding staff morale.

We urgently need both sides in this dispute  the Government and the BMA  to refresh negotiations and find a resolution.

This week has once again demonstrated the determination and unity of junior doctors. We continue our strike action until 7am on Tuesday. Together we will win. #PayRestoration #DoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/sWMdojqwe4  Junior Doctors (@BMA_JuniorDocs) January 7, 2024

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, told PA the NHS managed this as well as could be expected but the service has been under strain, with several trusts declaring critical incidents and a number of hospitals calling on junior doctors to return to work to help maintain patient safety.

He encouraged the Government and doctors leaders to find a resolution to the dispute, saying: Given the impact these days have had, and given the impact that further days would have, I think NHS leaders I represent would say, This is not a time for standing on ceremony. This is not a time for worrying about losing face. Actually, the public, patients and NHS staff as a whole would give enormous credit to either the Government or the BMA if they were seem to be the ones who were who were removing obstacles to getting on the negotiation.

Meanwhile, NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard praised staff who have worked throughout the action  including junior doctors who either chose not to take action or returned to work to ensure patient safety was maintained.

In an update sent to NHS leaders, she said patients in need of time-sensitive treatment are left shouldering the greatest personal risk  including those with cancer.

She said more repeated periods of ever-more drastic action is not sustainable.

Junior doctors in England have staged the longest walkout in NHS history (PA)

Ms Pritchard said: Ive heard accounts of colleagues all the way from the frontline to service and board directors working around the clock  and in unfamiliar settings  to keep services running and patients safe.

I include in that the many junior doctors who have chosen not to take action, or who have returned to work to ensure minimum levels of cover, whether or not formal patient safety mitigations were granted.

Ultimately, despite the best efforts of everyone in the NHS, it is inevitably patients  many needing time-sensitive treatment  who are left shouldering the greatest personal risk.

On Friday, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins told PA: Ive said throughout this that, please, to the junior doctors committee, the moment you call off the strikes Ill get back around the table with you within 20 minutes.

Junior doctors in Northern Ireland are being balloted for the first time over potential strike action.

If BMA members vote for strike action, medics will stage a 24-hour full walkout, the BMAs Northern Ireland junior doctors committee said.

Meanwhile, junior doctors in Wales are set to stage a 72-hour walk out from Monday January 15.

Junior doctors in Scotland settled their pay dispute last summer.
A motorway should be used to test higher speed limits, an MP has suggested.

Conservative former minister Sir Bill Wiggin said higher speed limits would help people get to work faster and could boost productivity.

The MP for North Herefordshire said the M50  which runs through parts of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire in England  would be the perfect motorway to test increasing the speed limit.

The national speed limit for cars on motorways is 70 mph.

Speaking during an adjournment debate in the House of Commons on rural transport, Sir Bill also suggested ring-fencing funds raised through vehicle excise duty  more commonly known as road tax  to ensure the money is spent on roads.

George Osborne, when serving as Conservative chancellor in 2015, said he would introduce such a change in England, but the Government suggested in 2022 that it was no longer pursuing the idea.

Sir Bill told the Commons: In order to increase productivity we ought to ensure that people get to work in and around the country faster.

Increasing speed limits on motorways would help to do this.

Citing the lack of evidence of the safety implications, he said: We need to test and trial increased speed limits in line with safer cars and better brakes.

And I suggest that an excellent place to test this would be the M50. This is the perfect motorway to try to increase the speed limit. It is short, safe, and a truly excellent motorway where we could easily monitor the safety of a higher speed limit.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said: As a road taxpayer, I believe that car drivers have every right to expect that their hard-earned money will be used to maintain the infrastructure for which it was levied.

And the mis-spending of this funding means that hypothecation is justified for road tax.

The Treasury takes money from car drivers to fund over-paid train drivers and an inefficient Network Rail which could have been privatised years ago. More money is wasted on bus lanes, cycle paths and not very smart motorways.

Yet the wretched potholes escape unrepaired.

Responding for the Government, transport minister Guy Opperman said: It is a matter for himself and more particularly his local authority and the National Highways, who govern the strategic road network, to sit down and discuss and then set the speed limits on the individual roads.

They have the local knowledge and are best placed to do so, but it is something for the local authority to drive forwards with National Highways at the first instance.
A private Moon mission that blasted into space on Monday morning faces technical issues with a suspected failure within the propulsion system.

The Peregrine Mission One (PM1)  built by US space company Astrobotic, and carrying a piece of technology developed by UK scientists  would be the first private probe to land on the lunar surface.

However, hours after its launch, Astrobotic reported that an anomaly had occurred which prevented the lander from achieving a stable position pointing towards the Sun.

The company said this issue, which is thought to be a propulsion anomaly, could prevent the spacecraft from making a soft landing on the Moon.

In a statement released on X, formerly Twitter, the company said: After successfully separating from United Launch Alliances Vulcan rocket, Astrobotics Peregrine lunar lander began receiving telemetry via the Nasa Deep Space Network.

Astrobotic-built avionics systems, including the primary command and data handling unit, as well as the thermal, propulsion, and power controllers, all powered on and performed as expected.

After successful propulsion systems activation, Peregrine entered a fully operational state.

Unfortunately, an anomaly occurred, which prevented Astrobotic from achieving a stable sun-pointing orientation.

The team is responding in real time as the situation unfolds and will be providing updates as data is obtained and analysed.

(PA Graphics)

In a second update, Astrobotic said that if the issue is a propulsion anomaly, as it is believed, it could threaten the spacecrafts ability to make a soft landing on the Moon.

It added that as the issue was trying to be resolved, the spacecrafts battery levels were dropping.

The company said: The team believes that the likely cause of the unstable sun-pointing is a propulsion anomaly that, if proven true, threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the Moon.

The rocket launching from Cape Canaveral in Florida (ULA)

Shortly after issuing the second update, the company announced that following a short expected communication blackout, it had made contact with Peregrine, and that an improvised manoeuvre was successful in reorienting its solar array towards the Sun.

Astrobotics said on X: We have successfully re-established communications with Peregrine after the known communication blackout.

The teams improvised manoeuvre was successful in reorienting Peregrines solar array towards the Sun.

We are now charging the battery.

The Mission Anomaly Board continues to evaluate the data were receiving and is assessing the status of what we believe to be the root of the anomaly: a failure within the propulsion system.

It added that the team was grateful for the outpouring of support it had received on social media, and through to phone calls and helping hands, and offered a heartfelt thank you from the entire Peregrine Mission One team.

If successful, Peregrine could become the first commercial lander, and first American lander in more than 50 years, to land on the Moon.

The Vulcan rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 7.18am GMT.

Update #2 on Peregrine Mission One: pic.twitter.com/hS5QsAihh4  Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 8, 2024

After separating from the rocket, the spacecraft was flying solo on its way to the Moon, where an attempted landing was scheduled for February 23.

Onboard is an instrument known as the Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS), which was developed in the UK by scientists from The Open University (OU) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) RAL Space  the UKs national space lab  in collaboration with Nasas Goddard Space Flight Centre in Washington DC.

A key component of PITMS, which will explore the Moons atmosphere by measuring water and other molecules, was developed in the UK with 14 million of Government funding through the UKs membership of the European Space Agency.

The data collected will contribute to our understanding of the Moons potential to provide resources such as water, opening new possibilities for future human presence on the lunar surface.

The UK-built component  called the Exospheric Mass Spectrometer  represents the first instrument on the Moon that has been built in the UK and in Europe.

As part of the PITMS, the Exospheric Mass Spectrometer allows researchers to study atoms and molecules in a gas.

The rocket was carrying a piece of technology developed by UK scientists (ULA)

Science and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said: The Exospheric Mass Spectrometer will be the first science component developed in the UK destined for the lunar surface, marking a historic moment for the UK space industry.

This significant achievement also lays the groundwork for understanding how to sustain extended human presence on the Moon in the future  changing the way humankind interacts with the solar system around us forever.

Understanding water on the Moon is an important part of the Artemis programme, to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.

Peregrine is carrying a total of 20 payloads from seven countries and 16 commercial customers.

They include the first lunar surface payloads from the Mexican and German space agencies, and the first lunar payloads from the UK, Hungary and Seychelles.
Personal use of smartphones in the workplace can reduce stress and help employees achieve a better work/life balance, research has suggested.

Those were the findings of a new study conducted by the University of Galway and the University of Melbourne.

The research was carried out at the European branch of an unnamed global pharmaceutical company.

The company had undergone a transformative change in its phone policy, shifting from a restrictive approach to personal phones to allowing open access for non-work purposes.

The research tracked around 40 employees who benefited from a change to a mobile phone policy in work (PA).

The study highlighted the potential benefits of moderate mobile phone usage in a work setting, while finding no discernible impact on employee performance.

The research was led by Professor Eoin Whelan, at University of Galways J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics.

The pharma company had originally banned personal use of phones in the 1990s for health and safety reasons, amid concerns of employees being distracted while working around dangerous chemicals.

Staff had voiced dissatisfaction with the prohibition, claiming it made them feel disconnected.

Senior management also felt the ban was contributing to a perception of the branch being technophobic and that it was hampering competitiveness against other branches of the company.

Prior to the study taking place, only senior management were allowed to bring their personal mobile phones to work.

Over the course of a year, the research tracked around 40 employees who availed of the new relaxed policy and used their personal smartphones when at work.

The study also tracked a similar number of staff who maintained a self-imposed ban by leaving their phones behind them when they stepped inside the work premises.

Insights were gained by way of qualitative interviews.

The study was conducted in a pharmaceutical company (PA).

The experiments main findings include:

 Despite fears of smartphone distraction and loss of focus, work performance did not decline when the smartphone ban was lifted.

 Work-life conflict  the perceived conflict between the demands of work and personal life significantly declined for workers who had access to their phones compared to those who did not.

 Employees with access to phones reported being able to help with family issues during the day, helping to reduce pressure on their partner

 Spreading personal communications throughout the day also meant employees were not overwhelmed when they turned on their phone after work

While a lot of previous research in this area has focused on work-related communications outside the workplace; this study did the reverse, concentrating on personal communications inside the workplace.

The universities involved believe the findings are ground-breaking and will contribute to understanding of the interplay between technology and work-life balance, while also offering practical insights for organisations aiming to foster a healthier and more balanced work environment.

Study lead Prof Whelan said: Rather than enforcing a ban on smartphones in the workplace, our experiences in tracking the introduction of smartphones in this company suggests a more effective strategy would be to establish an organisational climate where the company expectation for smartphone behaviours are known, for example ensuring that they are not used in meetings or in the canteen, with adherence monitored by employees themselves.

Managers must realise the unintended consequences of forcing a smartphone ban.

Preventing phones in the workplace can increase work-life conflict, which in turn has significant implications for work performance, job satisfaction, absenteeism, turnover intentions, as well as general wellbeing.

The study noted other research into personal use of smartphone in the workplace, with some reports suggesting employees spend an average of 56 minutes during a working day using their smartphone for non-work related tasks, check their device an average of 150 times a day.
The Post Office Horizon IT scandal has come under the spotlight following the release of ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

More than 700 Post Office branch managers were given criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software called Horizon made it appear as though money was missing from their shops.

Here is a timeline of key events from the scandal:

 1999

The Horizon IT system starts to be rolled out in Post Office branches across the UK.

 2000

Alan Bates reports issues with the Horizon IT system.

Alan Bates (centre) speaking outside the High Court in London, after the first judgment was handed down in claims against the Post Office over its computer system (Sam Tobin/PA)

 2003

Alan Bates has his contract terminated after refusing to accept liability for the shortfalls in the accounts at his Llandudno branch in North Wales.

 2004

Lee Castleton, from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, was found to have a 25,000 shortfall at his branch. He was made bankrupt after he lost his legal battle with the Post Office.

 2009

Computer Weekly magazine breaks the story of seven subpostmasters beginning their fight for justice.

The Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance is established.

 2010

Pregnant subpostmaster Seema Misra, who ran a post office in West Byfleet, Surrey, is jailed after being accused of stealing 74,000.

 2015

Post Office boss Paula Vennells tells the business select committee that there is no evidence of miscarriages of justice.

Post Office halts prosecutions of subpostmasters.

 2017

Legal action is launched against the Post Office by a group of 555 subpostmasters.

 2019

A High Court judge rules that Horizon contained a number of bugs, errors and defects and there was a material risk that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.

The Post Office agreed to pay out 58 million to the 555 subpostmasters.

Post Office boss Paula Vennells is appointed a CBE.

Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells (Anthony Devlin/PA)

 2020

The Post Office does not oppose 44 appeals against convictions of subpostmasters.

 2021

A statutory inquiry looking into the failings of the Horizon system and the wrongful convictions of subpostmasters begins.

The Court of appeal quashes 39 wrongful crown court convictions.

 2023

The Government announces that every wrongly convicted subpostmaster will be offered 600,000 in compensation.

 2024

ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office airs for the first time.

The Metropolitan Police say they are looking at potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions, for example monies recovered from subpostmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions.
At San Franciscos biggest companies, most CEOs make many times more than the median employee. Sophie DAmato/The Chronicle

Charles Scharf, the CEO of San Franciscos largest publicly traded company Wells Fargo, made $24.6 million in 2022. That was 324 times more than the median employee at the company, who made $76,000.

Those numbers come from the AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch database, which is based on company statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Chronicle used this database to analyze the compensation of the CEOs of San Franciscos 20 largest public companies by revenue, and how they compare with median employee pay. The data often shows huge disparities between CEO compensation and the typical worker, but not in all cases. The numbers also indicate that stock and options awards are often what drive the biggest chasms.

Pinterest CEO Bill Ready, who joined the company in June 2022, was the highest paid chief executive of these companies in 2022, receiving over $122 million in total compensation. Readys chart-topping compensation was almost entirely made up of stock and options awards, that vest over four years. His humble $203,000 salary is less than 1% of his total compensation. The value of the compensation Ready was awarded this year was almost 1,000 times more than the median salary of Pinterest employees and over 400 times more than the least paid CEO  Tony Xu of DoorDash.

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Xu was among three CEOs who led San Franciscos biggest companies and also made less than $1 million last year. Xu received $300,000 in total compensation, Brian Chesky of Airbnb made $311,000 and Todd McKinnon of Okta, maker of two-step verification services, took home $412,000.

Airbnbs Chesky and Hamid Moghadam, CEO of logistics real estate company Prologis, received only a token $1 salary in 2022. The rest of their pay came from bonuses, stocks, options and other non-salary compensation. In fact, only 3% of the total $550 million compensation of these 20 CEOs came from salaries.

CEOs making $1 salaries is a counterintuitive but well-established practice. The reasons some CEOs favor such a low salary include skirting income taxes and courting shareholders (without a large salary, a CEOs wealth is often directly tied to the value of their stock).

Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky speaks at the Masonic theater in San Francisco on Feb. 22, 2018. Chesky is one of the richest people in the world, with a net worth of $10.7 billion. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle 2018

Of course, many CEOs do receive high salaries. Eight of the 20 on the Chronicles list took home over $1 million in income alone. Scharf of Wells Fargo made $2.5 million in just paychecks, the highest salary on our list.

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CEOs generally receive most of their compensation as stock or options awards. Prologis Moghadam received $46 million in stock awards, making him the fifth highest paid CEO on the Chronicles list despite his $1 salary.

Once you add up all forms of compensation, most CEOs make over 100 times more than the median employee at their company. Bob Martin, CEO of the Gap clothing conglomerate, took in over 1,200 times more than half of his employees. His $8.5 million compensation is on the lower end of what San Franciscos biggest companies pay their CEOs, but the Gaps median employee pay is just $7,600 (this figure includes all employees on the corporations payroll, from part-time retail workers to other executives).

The CEO-worker pay ratio has ballooned over the past seven decades. According to a 2022 Economic Policy Institute report, CEOs made 15 times more than the average employee in 1965 and nearly 400 times more than the typical employee in 2021 on average.

The widening gap between CEOs and employees has been a political target in San Francisco. In 2020, voters passed a novel executive pay tax on businesses where the top earners make more than 100 times the median salary of San Francisco-based employees. While the companies who paid the tax arent publicly available, its likely that the businesses whose CEOs top the Chronicles pay list contributed to the $137 million generated by the tax in 2022.

Those who voted for the tax may want more CEOs like Airbnbs Chesky, who made only 1.3 times more than the $236,000 median Airbnb employee salary. Fast Company recently ranked him second on their list of the most fairly paid CEOs.

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A victim of Jeffrey Epstein claimed sex tapes were taken of the Duke of York, former US president Bill Clinton and billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson, court documents have disclosed.

Sarah Ransome, who gave a victim impact statement ahead of the sentencing of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell for sex-trafficking, appeared to write communications claiming the three were filmed by the paedophile financier.

On behalf of Mr Branson, a Virgin Group spokeswoman said: In a New Yorker report published in 2019, Ransome admitted that she had invented the tapes.

We can confirm that Sarah Ransomes claims are baseless and unfounded.

The extracts were flagged by a firm representing Epsteins lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, to demonstrate Ms Ransome manifestly lacks credibility.

Epstein victim Sarah Ransome claimed the paedophile financier had filmed sex tapes of the Duke of York and Richard Branson (Gabriele Holtermann/PA)

Andrew stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with Epstein, and paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre, a woman he claimed never to have met.

He was cast out of the working monarchy and no longer uses his HRH style after Ms Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein, accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

The duke strenuously denies any wrongdoing.

A US judge ordered hundreds of documents to be unsealed as part of Ms Giuffres previously settled civil claim against Maxwell, which was filed in 2015.

Images were also released as part of the latest tranche of documents, including a resurfaced photo of former Labour minister Lord Mandelson with Epstein on his private island, Little St James.

Other pictures, all taken on the island in 2006, included one of Maxwell with disgraced French model scout Jean Luc-Brunel and various girls posing for photos.

Also accused in the email extracts from Ms Ransome was former US president Donald Trump who, according to the Epstein victim, liked flicking and sucking her friends nipples until they were raw.

Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in 2019 before his sex-trafficking trial (US Department of Justice/PA)

Ms Ransome wrote: They looked incredibly painful as they were red and swollen and I remember wincing when I looked at them.

I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jefferys NY mansion on regular occasions.

Addressing the claims about Andrew and Mr Branson in the document released as part of another tranche published on Monday, Ms Ransome wrote: When my friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson, sex tapes were in fact filmed on each separate occasion by Jeffrey.

Thank God she managed to get a hold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes, which clearly identify the faces of Clinton, Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her.

Frustratingly enough Epstein was not seen in any of the footage but he was clever like that!

When my friend eventually had the courage to speak out and went to the police in 2008 to report what had happened, nothing was done and she was utterly humiliated by the police department where she went to report what had happened with Epstein, Clinton, Branson and Prince Andrew.

In the letter from Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP to the court, the firm said allegations against Mr Dershowitz were categorically false.

The firm said: Her (Ms Ransome) testimony was fabricated from whole cloth. Ms Ransomes testimony also contains a slew of other incendiary claims concerning the sexual proclivities of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and other prominent individuals.

The emails are a necessary antidote to Ms Ransomes deposition misstatements because they demonstrate she manifestly lacks credibility.

Former US president Donald Trump also featured in Ms Ransomes communications (Andrew Milligan/PA)

The email extracts from Ms Ransome also saw her take aim at Hilary Clinton, with one saying: I will make sure that neither that evil bitch Hillary or that paedophile Trump gets elected.

I will also make sure that everyone on the God damn planet sees [sic] that footage and photos [sic] and will release them to Wiki leaks by Sunday.

Ms Ransome also appeared to say she had reached out to the Russians for help after claiming her emails had been hacked.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan, New York, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.

Maxwell has been imprisoned since July 2020 despite attempts by her defence counsel to have her released on bail.

She was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal court in the Southern District of New York in June 2022.

The socialite indicated her desire to appeal shortly after her conviction, with her lawyers claiming victims had faded, distorted and motivated memories.

Her appeal is scheduled to be heard in November next year.
A spellbinding image of autumn leaves resting on a snowy landscape has won the annual photographic competition run by the South Downs National Park.

The shot called Snow On Wolstonbury, taken by Matt Goddard, won the contest which had a theme of new perspective for the 2023 event.

The winner, from Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, who won 250, said: My love of exploring the South Downs started during childhood and hasnt stopped since.

Sussex is blessed to have the national parks rich history, varied landscape and stunning views. Capturing and sharing its beauty has played a big part in my career and enjoyment of landscape photography.

I am truly honoured to be awarded for my Wolstonbury Hill woodland photo. A snowy landscape is always magical and the last of autumns golden leaves came as a pleasant surprise. Theres a timeless feel to Wolstonbury, as with all my favourite views of the South Downs.

Carlotta Luke, a photographer and one of the competition judges, said: Its a new perspective having the snow on the autumn leaves and the complete contrast.

The shape of the path is drawing me into the photo and I just want to be there in that snowy South Downs landscape. The orange leaves are just beautiful on the white snow.

James Ratchford, from Lewes, was runner-up for his shot titled Kingston Ridge which shows the criss-crossing hills near Lewes and a flock of gulls flying overhead.

Runner-up place was won by James Ratchford with his image Kingston Ridge (James Ratchford/South Downs National Park Authority/PA)

Photographer and judge Finn Hopson said: The soft light hitting the hills is wonderful. This is such a well-thought-out photograph. Its incredible that this kind of landscape is on the urban fringe and is surrounded by the Brighton conurbation.

Mr Ratchford said: The South Downs bring me joy year round and this image expresses much of what I love about them  the fog that hugs the hills on windless mornings, the criss-crossing gentle slopes, the singing skylarks and views to the sea.

Wiggle Wandering  wild garlic and bluebells at Wildhams Woods near East Marden won third place for Ian Brierley (Ian Brierley/South Downs National Park Authority/PA)

The third place prize was awarded to Wiggle Wandering, by Ian Brierley, from Lindfield, who captured a springtime shot of Wildhams Wood, near Chichester.

Duckling Amongst The Crowsfoot by David Jeffery won the wildlife category (David Jeffery/South Downs National Park Authority/PA)

Winning the competitions wildlife category was Duckling Amongst The Crowsfoot, by David Jeffery, of Portslade, who captured the shot at Steyning Upper Pond, which is currently being restored by the community to encourage wildlife.

Sarah Womersley was runner-up in the wildlife category with her photo of bluebells, an insect and a water droplet (Sarah Womersley/South Downs National Park Authority/PA)

Runner-up in the category was awarded to Bluebells For All, captured at Wyck, near Alton in Hampshire, by Sarah Womersley, from Binsted, with third place going to Richard Murray, of Waterlooville, for his photograph of two badgers at Petworth called Evening Embrace.

Evening Embrace  badgers bonding at Petworth by Richard Murray won third place in the wildlife category (Richard Murray/South Downs National Park Authority/PA)

The public will now be given the chance to vote for the Peoples Choice from all the winning photos.
Britain is lobbying Israel hard and regularly to ensure more humanitarian aid reaches Gaza, amid warnings the risk of famine is stark.

Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said there are numerous constraints that are hindering the efforts of the UK and others to help Gazan civilians.

Labour said the fighting must stop urgently and there is a clear need for a sustained ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Israel and Hamas have been at war for three months following the Palestinian militant groups deadly raids on October 7, which saw 1,200 people killed and more than 240 taken hostage.

Israels retaliation has killed more than 22,800 Palestinians and wounded more than 58,000, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Mr Mitchell said the UK Government believes in Israels right to defend itself against Hamas following the horrifying events of October 7.

Responding to an urgent question from Labour, the Conservative minister said: We are also clear that too many civilians have been killed, Israel needs to ensure its campaign is targeted on Hamas leaders and operatives, fulfils its obligations to protect civilians and is consistent with international humanitarian law.

No-one wants to see this conflict go on for a moment longer than necessary and that is why the United Kingdom played a leading role in securing the passage of Security Council resolution 2720, which made clear the urgent demand for expanded humanitarian access.

The resolution also called for the release of hostages and for steps towards a sustainable ceasefire, something for which the British Government has consistently led calls.

Minister for development in the Foreign Office Andrew Mitchell (James Manning/PA)

Mr Mitchell added: UK ministers are lobbying the government of Israel hard and regularly to allow more aid in and reduce the numerous constraints that are hindering many aspects of our and others efforts to help Gazan civilians.

He highlighted efforts to help aid reach the area, adding: Nevertheless the risk of famine is stark and the Foreign Secretary (Lord Cameron) and other ministers throughout the Government are pushing the need to address this with the Israeli government.

The Government is urging all sides to avoid further escalation. The situation is fragile and an escalation in violence, including on Lebanons southern border with Israel, is not in anyones interests.

For Labour, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said: Israel continues to use devastating tactics that have seen far too many innocent civilians killed, with unacceptable blocks on essential aid, nowhere safe for civilians, a growing humanitarian catastrophe and now warnings of a deadly famine.

Meanwhile, Hamas terrorists continue to hold hostages, hide among civilians and fire rockets into Israel.

This dire situation must not continue. The need for a sustained ceasefire is clear. The fighting must stop urgently.

We need a humanitarian truce now  not a short pause, but as the first step to what will stop the killing of innocents, provide urgent humanitarian relief, ward off famine, free hostages and provide the space for a sustainable ceasefire so fighting does not restart.

Conservative former minister Will Quince said: Overcrowding, inadequate food, water, shelter and sanitation. The World Health Organisation has already warned these are ideal conditions for disease to spread, so what steps is my right honourable friend taking to support partners on the ground in Gaza to help prevent the outbreak and spread of disease?

Mr Mitchell replied: There is a huge danger that as a result of insufficient food and appalling sanitation and inadequate shelter made worse by the winter rain, that these conditions persist and why we are intent on getting the number of trucks that get into Gaza up to 500 a day and why also we have deployed this medical team working with others to see what can be done immediately on the ground.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps (James Manning/PA)

Elsewhere in the Commons, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps earlier told MPs that the Red Sea shipping crisis has not escalated amid plans to send a new warship to the region.

He said HMS Richmond, a type 23 frigate, is being deployed to the Gulf region only to replace British vessels already patrolling the Red Sea.

A US-led coalition, Operation Prosperity Guardian, has been protecting trade ships as they journey through the region and towards the Suez Canal and Europe.
Rishi Sunak would strongly support an honours committee if it chose to look into revoking former Post Office boss Paula Vennells CBE in the wake of the Horizon scandal, Downing Street has said.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman on Monday said he would strongly support the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at stripping the former Post Office chief executive of her honour.

There have long been calls for Ms Vennells, who ran the Post Office while it routinely denied there was a problem with its Horizon IT system, to lose her CBE.

But demands have intensified after an ITV drama returned the widespread miscarriage of justice to the spotlight.

A petition addressed to Sir Chris Wormald, chairman of the Forfeiture Committee, calling for Ms Vennells to lose the honour has already attracted more than one million signatures.

Ms Vennells has previously said she is truly sorry for the suffering caused to subpostmasters wrongly convicted of offences.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hosts a PM Connect event in Accrington, Lancashire (Christopher Furlong/PA)

More than 700 Post Office branch managers were convicted after faulty Fujitsu accounting software Horizon made it look like money was missing from their shops.

Mr Sunaks official spokesman said: The Prime Minister shares the publics feeling of outrage on this issue. He would strongly support the Forfeiture Committee if it chose to review the case.

It is a decision for the committee, rather than the Government.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is meeting Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake on Monday to discuss how to help the convicted branch managers clear their names.

Mr Hollinrake last month said calls to strip Ms Vennells of the honour should be considered.

The Prime Minister, who visited Accrington in Lancashire on Monday, sought to defend the Governments response but said he wanted to speed up the compensation process for victims.

People should know that we are on it and we want to make this right, that money has been set aside, he said.

We will do everything we can to make this right for the people affected. It is simply wrong what happened. They shouldnt have been treated like this.

Sir Keir Starmer has called for prosecution powers to be stripped from the Post Office and previous convictions looked at again.

The Labour leader said: I think that the prosecution should be taken out of the hands of the Post Office and given to the Crown Prosecution Service.

I used to run the Crown Prosecution Service, weve prosecuted for other departments, we can do it here  that should be done straight away.

And these convictions, the remaining convictions, need to be looked at en masse.

He added: The Government could pass legislation, so obviously wed support that if they did.

It might be possible to get these cases back before the Court of Appeal quickly  Ive done that when I was a prosecutor  but whichever way its done, these convictions need to be looked at.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer said that the convictions need to be looked at again (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Downing Street on Monday did not say whether removing prosecution powers would be among the options considered, but Mr Sunaks spokesman said ministers were looking at what went wrong and what lessons can be learned.

On the possibility of quashing convictions, the spokesman said: We are aware of the number of issues that have been raised, Im not going to get into specific points or get ahead of the discussions ministers need to have.

Obviously there are significant legal considerations as well.

The scandal is top of the agenda as politicians return to Westminster after the Christmas break, with Conservative backbencher David Davis and Labour MP Kevan Jones  who has long led calls to remove Ms Vennells CBE  pushing for an emergency debate in the Commons on the issue.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has also faced fresh scrutiny over his role as postal affairs minister during the coalition government. His predecessor Sir Vince Cable, who was business secretary during that period, told BBC Radio 4s World At One programme Sir Ed is being made a scapegoat.

It comes after ITV aired a drama about the scandal last week starring actor Toby Jones.

Reports suggest that since Mr Bates Vs The Post Office was broadcast, 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers.

Change.org said 65 new petitions related to the scandal have launched since the start of the year, with 20 calling for Ms Vennells to lose her CBE.

The Post Office is wholly owned by the Government and a public inquiry into Horizon is ongoing.

Scotland Yard said on Friday that officers are investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions, for example monies recovered from subpostmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions.

The Metropolitan Police had already been looking into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.
Rishi Sunak has vowed to continue to confront the difficult challenges as Parliament returns for the first time this year.

A Downing Street source said the Prime Minister was determined to not take the easy way out in a year that is likely to see a general election.

MPs will return to Westminster following their Christmas break on Monday.

It comes after Mr Sunak said last week that it is his working assumption the UK will have a general election in the second half of this year.

The stance opens the door for the British leader to call a potential autumn general election.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told Sky News on Sunday he suspected the Prime Minister was putting vanity before country by wanting to mark two years in power  an anniversary that falls on October 25  before sending the country to the polls.

Pushing for an election as soon as possible, the Opposition leader said the country was drifting and that it is very hard to see how Mr Sunak remaining in charge improves the lives of anybody in the country.

But Downing Street insisted that Mr Sunaks approach is starting to work.

A No 10 source said: 2023 was not easy.

We were dealing with the legacy of Covid, backlogs in our key public services. The consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine  the dangers of a war in the Middle East.

But this Government has made progress. At the start of this year, we are pointing in the right direction.

The choice is whether we stick with the plan that is starting to deliver the long term change our country needs or go back to square one with the Labour Party, where there is no plan, no progress, where taxes, debt and borrowing are increasing, and the country is going in the wrong direction.

The PM is determined to continue to confront the difficult challenges: to govern in the national interest, not take the easy way out.

Politics is about choices. While Rishi Sunak prioritises his own vanity over whats right for Britain, we need a general election, to fix the country for working people. pic.twitter.com/oe3EeprHzF  Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) January 7, 2024

Because that approach is starting to work and that is the approach that will bring about a brighter future for the country.

The Conservative UK Government will be hoping that 2024 will provide the opportunity for Mr Sunak to deliver on more of the five pledges he made to the electorate 12 months ago.

The Prime Minister managed to meet his target of halving inflation by the end of 2023 but other commitments, including cutting NHS waiting lists and stopping the boats, have yet to be ticked off.

Emergency legislation designed to allow asylum seeker deportation flights to Rwanda to take off  a policy that is seen as key to Mr Sunaks pledge to prevent Channel crossings  is due to the return to the Commons this month.

Mr Sunak hopes the Safety of Rwanda Bill will help overcome legal hurdles to his flagship immigration policy.

Speaking to BBCs Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mr Sunak looked to reassure hardline Tories that the Bill is strong enough to prevent what are known as Rule 39 injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights from scuppering the removal of migrants to east Africa.

Such an injunction effectively grounded a flight sending asylum seekers from the UK to Kigali in 2022.

The House of Commons returns from its Christmas break on Monday (UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor)

The Tory leader said, while there could not be a blanket answer to such interventions, he said the Rwanda draft law makes it crystal clear that it is ministers who will have the power to decide about Rule 39s.

I have been very clear that I wont let a foreign court block our ability to remove people safely to Rwanda once we have got the Bill through Parliament, he added.

But critics on the right of his party have threatened to amend or even vote down the legislation if it is not tightened before it is next put before MPs.

Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, once seen as a close ally of Mr Sunak, told The Sunday Times he is prepared to lay two amendments, one looking to prevent individual appeals against being sent to Rwanda and a second to enforce in law that ministers can ignore injunctions issued by Strasbourg judges.

Danny Kruger, a founder of the right-wing New Conservatives faction, told The Guardian the Tories face obliteration at the next election if they do not address mass migration and economic short-termism.

He said if ousted from Government, the party would have left the country sadder, less united and less conservative than when we found it.

Ahead of Parliaments return on Monday, Mr Sunak is expected to visit businesses and speak with voters in Lancashire as part of his so-called PM Connect series.

Danny Kruger MP warned the Tories face obliteration at the next election (Yui Mok/PA)

The Commons will later debate the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, which has already led to the resignation of one senior Tory.

If passed by Parliament, the legislation will mandate that licences for oil and gas projects in the North Sea are awarded annually.

Chris Skidmore, the Governments former net zero tsar, announced last week he was quitting Parliament over Mr Sunaks environmental stance, saying the legislation would show the UK is rowing ever further back from its climate commitments.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir is scheduled to visit a flood-hit community in the Midlands that has been impacted by Storm Henk.

A Labour Party spokesman said: This time last year the Prime Minister set himself five tests. He has failed four of them. That is not a plan. It is failure.

There is no point in five more months of this Government let alone five more years. They are presiding over the biggest contraction in living standards for decades.

All their claims of progress are confounded by peoples struggle to make ends meet, huge NHS waiting lists and creaking public services.

It is time for a change and the only way for change to happen is if people vote for it. The chance for that to happen cant come soon enough.
The Post Office scandal has dominated the news agenda so far in 2024. (Getty Images) (Dan Kitwood via Getty Images)

The Post Office scandal has played out over 25 years and its victims are still fighting for justice. More than 700 branch managers were convicted of false accounting, theft and fraud based on faulty Horizon software developed and maintained by Fujitsu, but fewer than 100 have had their convictions overturned.

Some were wrongfully sent to prison, while many were financially ruined and some have died, in several cases by taking their own lives.

Yahoo News UK takes a detailed look at the timeline of the Post Office scandal.

11 January 2024

Messages handed in to the Post Office Horizon inquiry show that cash bonuses were handed out to investigators for each postmaster that was convicted. Gary Thomas, a long-term Post Office employee, claimed the incentive scheme was part of the business, and that everyone on the security team was on a bonus, thought to be worth thousands. Thomas says the bonuses influenced his work as an investigator.

Thomas was the lead investigator in the case of Julian Wilson, who was wrongly convicted of stealing 27,000 from his Post Office in Astwood Bank, Worcestershire, in 2008. Wilson died of bowel cancer in 2016 and had his conviction quashed after his death.

In an email exchange during the initial investigation, reported in The Telegraph, Wilson told a colleague that he was pleased to get documents relating to Wilsons case. When asked why, he wrote back: Because I want to prove that there is FFFFiiinnn no Case for the Justice of Thieving Subpostmasters and that we were the best Investigators they ever had and they were all crooks!!

10 January 2024

Rishi Sunak announces that Post Office branch managers who were wrongly convicted could will have their names cleared  possibly by the end of the year. Blanket legislation to exonerate sub-postmasters convicted in England and Wales will be introduced within weeks, the prime minister said. He said they were victims of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nations history.

Rishi Sunak announced announced plans to exonerate all postmasters who were wrongfuly convicted. (Getty) (Dan Kitwood via Getty Images)

9 January 2024

Paula Vennells, CEO of the Post Office between 2012 and 2019, announces that she will hand back her CBE.

She says: I have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence.

I am, however, aware of the calls from sub-postmasters and others to return my CBE.

I have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect."

8 January 2024

A petition calling for Vennells to have her CBE rescinded reaches more than one million signatures. Prime minister Rishi Sunak says he would strongly support the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it chose to look into revoking her honour.

Watch: Sunak would support honours committee investigation into ex-Post Office boss CBE

5 January 2024

The Metropolitan Police says it is investigating potential fraud offences in relation to "monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions".

1 January 2024

The first part of Mr Bates vs the Post Office, a four-part drama depicting the events of the scandal, is broadcast on ITV, with the other three episodes following on consecutive evenings. It is reported that 50 more victims come forward after its broadcast.

The cast of Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which has generated huge public interest in the scandal. (ITV)

21 December 2023

Post Office accounts show it has cut the size of its compensation pot for victims by almost half, down from 487m to 244m in the space of a year.

September 2023

The government announces that sub-postmasters who have had their convictions overturned would be offered 600,000 in full and final settlement.

July 2021

The government announces that wrongly convicted sub-postmasters will receive interim compensation of up to 100,000.

May 2021

After convictions are overturned the previous month, the government announces that the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry will be extended into a statutory inquiry, meaning witnesses can now be compelled to give evidence.

April 2021

Thirty-nine postmasters have their convictions quashed at the Court of Appeal. Judges said the convictions were "an affront to the public conscience".

Post office workers celebrating outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, in April 2021 after their convictions were overturned by the Court of Appeal. (PA) (Yui Mok, PA Images)

January 2021

The Post Office Horizon IT non-statutory inquiry begins, led by Sir Wyn Williams, but the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance (JFSA) calls it a whitewash and refuses to take part.

December 2020

Six sub-postmasters convicted on the basis of Horizon evidence have their convictions quashed at Southwark Crown Court. They are the first to have their convictions overturned.

August 2020

The details of a settlement from December 2019 are made public, and it is revealed that sub-postmasters were awarded 58m by the Post Office. However, 46m went on legal costs, leaving only about 20,000 for each claimant.

July 2020

The body of postmaster Peter Huxham, 63, who worked at a branch in Devon that falsely recorded a 16,000 shortfall, is found at his apartment. It is believed he may have taken his own life. He was found guilty of fraud by misrepresentation in March 2010 and jailed for eight months, the ordeal causing his 22-year marriage to end.

January 2020

The Metropolitan Police launches a criminal investigation into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice during the Post Office prosecutions. Two former Fujitsu witnesses are interviewed.

23 December 2019

Vennells apologises for the first time about the scandal, just two days after saying she would not say sorry to sub-postmasters. She says: "I am truly sorry we were unable to find both a solution and a resolution outside of litigation and for the distress this caused."

11 December 2019

Sub-postmasters announce they have reached an out-of-court settlement with the Post Office, although the company did not accept liability, making it a costs settlement not compensation.

Paula Vennells was in charge of the Post Office during the scandal. (PA Images) (Alamy Stock Photo)

February 2019

It is announced that Vennells will step down from her role as chief executive at the Post Office. She leaves the company with more than 400,000 in pay and bonuses.

December 2018

Vennells is given a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for "services to the Post Office and to charity".

March 2017

A total of 555 claimants, headed by Alan Bates, brings a group litigation against the Post Office at the High Court. It is resolved when the Post Office agrees to pay costs.

April 2015

A confidential report by Second Sight describes the Horizon system as, in some cases, "not fit for purpose". It says there were about 12,000 communications failures each year and software defects at 76 branches. It said the original Post Office investigation had not looked for the cause of errors, instead accusing sub-postmasters of theft.

March 2015

It is reported that the Post Office had ordered Second Sight to cease its investigation one day before its report was due to be published, and to destroy all paperwork it had not handed over.

The Post Office says "there are no wide-scale problems with our computer system".

February 2015

Computerworld UK magazine reports that the Post Office refused to hand over key files to Second Sight for its investigation.

December 2013

Sub-postmaster Martin Griffiths, 59, who ran a branch in Great Sutton, Cheshire, dies by suicide. He was wrongly accused of stealing 61,000 from his post office.

July 2013

An interim report by Second Sight is issued and Post Office Ltd admit software defects with Horizon have occurred but insist the system is effective.

June 2012

Second Sight, an independent investigative firm, is appointed and paid by the Post Office to conduct a separate inquiry, following pressure from MPs.

April 2012

Paula Vennells becomes the chief executive of the Post Office after serving in other senior positions within the company.

October 2010

Pregnant sub-postmistress Seema Misra is sentenced at Guildford Crown Court to 15 months in prison after Horizon falsely recorded a shortfall of 74,000 at her post office in West Byfleet, Surrey. She said later: "It's hard to say but I think that if I had not been pregnant, I would have killed myself." She was cleared in 2021.

Former sub-postmistress Seema Misra was sent to prison when she was pregnant. (PA) (Luciana Guerra, PA Images)

May 2010

Postal affairs minister Sir Ed Davey, now the Liberal Democrats leader, refuses to meet Alan Bates, saying he did not believe it "would serve any purpose". The pair later meet in October that year.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey was postal affairs minister at the time the scandal was unfolding. (PA) (Andrew Matthews, PA Images)

September 2009

Alan Bates and other victims of the scandal set up the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance (JFSA). The group's first meeting takes place in the Warwickshire village of Fenny Compton.

May 2009

An article by Computer Weekly magazine tells the story of seven postmasters, including Bates and Castleton, who have experienced issues with Horizon. The article shows that those affected are not alone.

January 2009

Sub-postmistress Fiona McGowan, 47, dies from an accidental overside of alcohol and antidepressants, after being charged with fraud when Horizon wrongly found that 30,000 was missing from her branch in Edinburgh. The charges against her had already been dropped but she was never informed.

January 2006

Sub-postmaster Lee Castleton fights a civil case against the Post Office after it falsely accused him of stealing 35,000 from his branch in Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

Castleton represents himself as he is unable to afford a lawyer, and loses the case. Ordered to pay 321,000 in legal costs, he is forced to declare bankruptcy.

Lee Castleton was forced into bankruptcy by the Post Office. (PA) (PA)

January 2004

Alan Bates writes a letter to Computer Weekly magazine about the problems with his Horizon system. He writes: "We have lost our investment and livelihood by daring to raise questions over a computer system we had thrust upon us."

2003

The Post Office terminates Alan Bates's contract as sub-postmaster after he refused to accept liability for alleged losses at his branch - he and his wife lost the 65,000 they had invested in the business.

May 2002

Shopkeeper Baljit Sethi contacts the Brentwood Gazette newspaper to raise concerns about Horizon errors at his post office in Brentwood, Essex, which showed a 17,000 shortfall. The Post Office refutes that the system is faulty.

2000-2002

There are more than 100 prosecutions based on faulty Horizon data in three years. Six branch managers are convicted in 2000, while 41 sub-postmasters are prosecuted in 2001 and another 64 in 2002.

2000

Some sub-postmasters report problems with the system within weeks of it being installed, including Alan Bates, who runs a post office in Craig-y-Don, Wales. But the Post Office denies anyone else is having issues and insists postmasters make up any shortfall.

Alan Bates has spearheaded the campaign for justice for victims of the Post Office scandal. (PA Images via Getty Images) (House of Commons - PA Images via Getty Images)

1999

The Post Office begins the rollout of its new computer accounting system, Horizon. The system was developed by British company International Computers Ltd, which was rebranded in 2002 under the name of its Japanese owner, Fujitsu.

For confidential emotional support contact The Samaritans at any time by calling 116 123 or emailing jo@samaritans.org.
Dame Esther Rantzen has paid tribute to an incredibly courageous surgeon who performed the first liver transplant in Europe.

The former BBC journalist said Professor Sir Roy Calne, who died on Saturday aged 93, encouraged the mother of a two-year-old boy who had weeks to live unless he found a donor to get in touch with her to ask for help.

At the time, the numbers of transplant surgeries had fallen following a BBC Panorama programme that raised concerns about the field, she said.

Despite the television industrys concerns about transplants, Sir Roy suggested the mother of Ben Hardwick, who was suffering with biliary atresia, contact her TV show Thats Life!, Dame Esther told the PA news agency.

Dame Esther, 83, said: She rang Thats Life!, we got a crew together that day and (Bens mother) made a speech in which she said that this would be the great gift of life, and it might be the only comfort for a family whose own baby had passed away  we put her on the air, with quotes from Roy Calne, and it absolutely took off.

When (Bens mother) came to him and said how can we change public opinion?, and he said television,  I thought that was incredible, it was forgiving of the medium and it was also right, because at that time we were able to reach so many people and the rest of the media took it up too.

Dame Esther said within a week a donor was found and in 1984 Addenbrookes carried out Britains first liver transplant on a young child although the operation was not a complete success and Ben died a year later.

Dame Esther Rantzen said Professor Sir Roy Calne was also a talented artist and she has some of his beautiful watercolour paintings at her home (PA)

He was not only a brilliantly skilled surgeon but he had immense courage.

I just think he was a wonderful example of a pioneering, brilliant medical practitioner in Britain working in the NHS.

She said a philanthropist offered to take Ben to America to get help after the show aired, but she responded You dont need to, weve got Professor Calne and he will do it under the NHS.

She added: Roy performed the surgery on Ben and other children  as a result of our story people became aware of the desperate need for transplants.

The show started their friendship, she said, adding: I have some beautiful watercolours by (Sir Roy) in pride of place in my home.

The thing about surgeons is theyre very, very gifted, good with their hands  he was also very talented artist.

He was funny, I remember having dinner with him.

I think it was steak and kidney pie and he carefully dissected one of the kidneys, which made it quite difficult to eat.

He was excellent company, but the thing that impressed me so much was the skill he had, the profession he was dedicated to.

Mike More, chair of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), paid tribute to Sir Roy on behalf of Cambridge University Hospitals, which named a transplant unit in the citys Addenbrookes Hospital after the surgeon.

He said: I offer my deepest condolences to the family of Professor Sir Roy Calne.

He was a true pioneer of transplant surgery, not only carrying out many UK, European and world firsts in surgery but also inspiring future generations of clinicians.

Sir Roy leaves behind a truly amazing legacy and many of our staff will remember him with fondness for his vision and genuine kindness. We will all miss him very much.
The UK Government has been accused of fighting others on legacy while facing almost universal opposition to its own new legislation on Northern Irelands troubled past.

Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy criticised the UK after Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris wrote to Irish minister for foreign affairs Micheal Martin questioning the move by Ireland to challenge the UKs contentious legacy laws in the European Court of Human Rights.

Mr Heaton-Harris also challenged Ireland to set out its own record on tackling legacy issues.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson backed the challenge to the Irish government on its record, while maintaining his partys opposition to the Legacy Act.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin (left) and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris (Niall Carson/PA)

He said that while the UK has initiated a public inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bomb, despite a court ruling saying the Irish government should do likewise, it has not.

The British ambassador to Ireland Paul Johnston issued the letter on Sunday evening.

In it, Mr Heaton-Harris again challenges Mr Martin to list the number of prosecutions mounted in the Irish state since 1998 related to Troubles incidents.

Aspects of the recently passed UK laws include a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who co-operate with the new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 will also halt future civil cases and legacy inquests.

The UK Governments laws are opposed by many victims groups in Northern Ireland and all the main Stormont parties.

Announcing the interstate case in December, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said his administration was left with no option but to legally challenge the UK Government over the Legacy Act.

He said the strong legal advice was that the UK Legacy Act breached the UN Convention on Human Rights.

Tanaiste Mr Martin said they were taking the case reluctantly after having spent time trying to change the UK Governments mind.

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) confirmed to the PA news agency that a letter had been issued formally registering profound regret at the interstate case.

The Secretary of State, in his letter, repeats his call for the Irish Government to clarify the number of criminal prosecutions brought in Ireland since 1998 relating to Troubles-related cases, and presses the Irish Government more widely to answer questions regarding its own record on tackling legacy issues in its own jurisdiction, the NIO said in a statement.

The letter criticises the timing of the Irish decision, describing it as a delicate time in Northern Ireland amid the efforts to restore powersharing at Stormont.

The NIO added: The decision also comes before the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, led by Sir Declan Morgan as chief commissioner, is fully established and able to demonstrate its ability to discharge the UKs international obligations.

The UK Government reasserts its particular disappointment that the Irish Government has taken this course of action without, to date, any engagement with the ICRIR to understand better how it intends to implement the legislation and deliver for victims and survivors.

Mr Murphy accused the UK Government of fighting others on legacy while introducing new legislation on Northern Irelands troubled past which is almost universally opposed.

He claimed the UK Governments approach to legacy has been about satisfying its own electoral interests and motivated by its own backbenchers and their desire to protect British Crown forces who were involved in all sorts of activities here over the course of the conflict.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (Liam McBurney/PA)

The idea that they would continue to fight and criticise others when they are in the face of all opposition from all of the parties here, all of the victims organisations and from the Irish government, doesnt surprise me They were never intent on satisfying the needs of victims here, they were intent on satisfying the requirements of their own backbenchers in relation to protection of their own personnel, he told the BBC.

The Irish government is quite right to criticise them and I dont think they were left with any alternative but to take a case.

However Sir Jeffrey said the Irish governments double standards on legacy need to be challenged.

I agree with the Secretary of State that the double standards of the Irish government on this issue need to be challenged, and, whilst we opposed what the UK Government are doing and continue to oppose this amnesty that they brought forward in their legacy proposals, we see the same approach taken by the Irish government, indeed over many years, and, as the Secretary of State has pointed out, there have been no prosecutions by the Irish government, no attempt to prosecute those who were involved in terrorist activity in their jurisdiction, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said Mr Martin was aware of the letter and would respond in due course.

She said: At Stormont House a collective way forward on legacy was agreed, along with most parties in Northern Ireland. This included the two governments signing an international agreement. Regrettably the British government decided on a different approach, unilaterally.

The compliance of the UK legislation with the European Convention on Human Rights, a fundamental requirement of the Good Friday Agreement, will be tested by the appropriate authority, the European Court of Human Rights.

In the meantime, the two governments have much to work on together.
The UK welcomes Germanys decision to lift its opposition to the sale of further Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, Downing Street has said.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock announced the policy shift during a visit to Jerusalem on Sunday, saying the kingdoms fight against the Houthis in Yemen was helping foil attacks on Israel amid the Gaza war.

Berlin previously blocked the supply of additional Eurofighters to Riyadh because of its involvement in the Yemen civil war and its human rights record.

Germany, as a member of the consortium behind the jets alongside the UK, Italy and Spain, could veto their export to other countries.

But it signalled it will no longer stand in the way of the UKs objective to sell 48 new Typhoons to Saudi Arabia, which already owns 72.

The delivery would provide a boost for Britains engineering giant BAE Systems.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks spokesman told reporters on Monday: We welcome the reported decision by Germany to allow exports of Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, should further orders be received.

A Typhoon is one of the most capable and mission-ready aircraft in the world, helping protect our skies at home and abroad.

And the Eurofighter programme supports tens of thousands of jobs across all four nations and strengthens our collective security.

Asked whether the Prime Minister has been pushing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to allow the sale of the warplanes, the official said: I wouldnt get into private discussions between leaders.

The UK has sought to restore relations with Riyadh since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was accused of playing a role in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Yousaf says UK is poor man of north-west Europe in independence speech

Humza Yousaf has said the UK is the poor man of north-west Europe as he set out his views on industrial policy in an independent Scotland.

In a speech at Glasgow University, he also said the views of those who do not support independence should not be dismissed.

He pledged large scale investment in competitive industries after independence, but said any economic transition would not take place overnight and he was not promising rivers of milk and honey.

The First Minister gave his speech a few hours after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar spoke in Rutherglen about the upcoming general election.

Mr Yousaf said his speech was the first in a series he would deliver on the Scottish economy.

He said: The working assumption is that there will be an absence of substantial policy debate at Westminster.

And that may be a reason why the rhetoric in this election year is likely to be particularly fierce as Labour and the Tories throw ever more ugly insults at each other.

Humza Yousaf, right, spoke a few hours after Anas Sarwar (Jane Barlow/PA)

He said he would strive towards a deliberative process in trying to persuade people on the merits of Scottish independence and those who believe otherwise should not be dismissed.

The SNP leader referred to a report from the Resolution Foundation looking at income inequality in the UK compared with other countries.

He said that the average household would be 8,300 better off if the UK had the average income inequality of similar countries.

Keir Starmer will become PM barring a catastrophe, Mr Yousaf believes (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Using the same analysis for Scotland, Mr Yousaf said: The prize for the typical Scottish household would be even greater, they would be 10,200 better off.

That then, is the huge prize of independence.

He pledged that an independent Scotland would see large-scale public investment in key areas of competitive advantage, as well as a Government department focused on industrial policy.

The First Minister said the UKs living standards are abnormally low and the country is the poor man of north-west Europe.

Humza Yousaf during his speech at the University of Glasgow (Andrew Milligan/PA)

He added: Far too many people in Scotland (and) right across the UK are losing hope.

They look at Westminster and they see no-one that is offering them a different choice.

Just more of the same decline, but perhaps managed more competently than the current Tory Government.

Taking questions, he said the economic changes in an independent Scotland would not happen overnight.

He said: Im not selling independence as being an overnight change, that somehow the day after we become independent there will be rivers of milk and honey and the manna will fall from the sky.

There will be challenges, of course, there will be difficulties. It will be a transitional process.

In contrast, he said the UKs economic problems are hardwired, its systemic.

He also said Keir Starmer is going to be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom barring a catastrophe.

The Conservatives described Mr Yousafs speech as delusional.

The partys chairman, Craig Hoy, said: The First Ministers case for ripping Scotland out of the UK rests on myths, fantasy economics and the fanciful hope the public forget that last months disastrous tax-and-axe budget was the product of years of waste and dismal growth under the SNP.

He has the powers to improve the lives of Scottish workers now but instead has chosen to make Scotland the highest taxed part of the UK, damaging our competitiveness.

Humza Yousaf is a weak leader in charge of a feuding, scandal-ridden party, which is why he is banging on about the one issue they agree on  breaking up the UK  and ignoring the country at large.
Traffic volume is approaching 2019 levels on several Bay Area highways, including this stretch of Interstate 580 at the Altamont Pass. Brittany Hosea-Small/Special to the Chronicle 2018

Traffic on the four major highways used to enter San Francisco and the Bay Area has yet to fully return to pre-pandemic levels, though it might already feel like 2019 for North Bay commuters.

Five-year data, provided by Caltrans to the Chronicle, shows ongoing disparities in how traffic has reemerged on the Bay Area highways many drivers use to commute to work, from places such as Sacramento and the Central Valley.

The data captures the annual average daily traffic coming in and out of the Bay Area at specific locations on four major highways: Highway 101 in Novato, between Highway 37 and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge; Interstate 80 in Fairfield, near Suisun Valley Road; Interstate 580 in Livermore, near Greenville Road; and Highway 101 in San Jose, near Bailey Avenue.

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Highway 101 in Marin County saw the steepest drop in traffic at the height of the pandemic, in 2020, when it experienced a drop of more than 25% in average daily traffic volumes. But, the North Bay highway also experienced the quickest recovery, according to Caltrans data.

Traffic in both directions of Highway 101 in Novato essentially returned to 2019 levels  when more than 70,000 cars drove on the highway in each direction  in 2022. Traffic volumes on this corridor saw little change last year and were 1 percentage point less than pre-pandemic figures.

Post-pandemic traffic volumes also appear to have settled in 2022 on Highway 101 entering San Jose. Average daily traffic on this Bay Area entry point remained stagnant in 2023 from the year prior, with 74,600 vehicles (3,500 fewer than in 2019) heading northbound to the Bay Areas largest city. Southbound Highway 101 was the worst freeway bottleneck in the Bay Area before the pandemic, but saw about 4,600 fewer cars traverse it in 2023.

Altamont Pass commuters, these days, are likely to encounter severe congestion during peak morning and afternoon commute hours, though not to the extent of 2019 gridlock. An average of 81,600 cars drove on westbound I-580 entering Livermore each day in 2023, down 3% from 2019s volume of 84,000 vehicles.

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Eastbound I-580 traffic headed to Stockton and the Central Valley has seen the steepest overall post-pandemic drop, of 11%, out of the highways included in Caltrans data. About 10,000 fewer cars, on average, passed through eastbound I-580 last year, compared to 2019 when average daily traffic volumes numbered about 90,000 vehicles.

Traffic on I-80, the regions busiest highway that connects the Bay Area to Sacramento, continued to grow in 2023, at least in the eastbound direction (data for westbound traffic was unavailable).

Last year, an average of about 99,000 vehicles drove on eastbound I-80 in Fairfield each day, down 3% from 2019 volumes but up 7% from 2022.

The Caltrans data doesnt detail average traffic volumes by day of the week, nor does it answer whether there have been any changes in the most congested periods during the day.

Telework and hybrid work are likely factors into these changes in highway traffic, as it has for transit ridership and bridge traffic, though the extent is unclear.
AP

The US's growing pile of debt is a "boiling frog" for the US economy, JPMorgan warned.

Government bills will exceed revenue by the early 2030s, per a Congressional Budget Office estimate.

But the US doesn't look likely to cut back its discretionary spending anytime soon, the bank said.

The US's $34 trillion debt mountain might be a "boiling frog" phenomenon for the economy, as higher deficits and ballooning debt servicing costs could easily become unsustainable, JPMorgan warned.

A boiling frog situation is one in which people fail to act on a potential problem that grows over time, causing it to become more severe until it eventually bubbles over. A frog thrown in boiling water might jump out, but if the water comes to a boil slowly, it's too late by the time it notices it's being cooked.

The age-old metaphor could easily apply to America's debt situation, the bank said in its 2024 outlook. It's an issue that has worried economists for years, and calls for something to change have grown louder as the government continues to borrow at record volumes.

The national debt hit a fresh $34 trillion this month, the result of lawmakers lifting the US debt ceiling last year to avoid a default. The debt picture will only worsen in the coming years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, which estimates that the US's entitlement spending, mandatory spending, and net interest payments on the debt will exceed the government's total revenue by the early 2030s.

"The problem for the US is the starting point; every round of fiscal stimulus brings the US one step closer to debt unsustainability," JPMorgan strategist Michael Cembalest said. "However, we're accustomed to deteriorating US government finances with limited consequences for investors, and one day that may change (the boiling frog analogy)," Cembalest added.

Cembalest predicted that pressure from markets and rating agencies would force the government to make "substantial changes" to its taxing and entitlement programs, such as by issuing new wealth taxes.

But it doesn't appear likely that the US will significantly pull back its discretionary spending. That's an issue lawmakers have been sparring over for months, with Congress having yet to approve a budget for the fiscal year.

"The US has run out of the road on that one," Cembalest said of possible cuts to discretionary spending.

JPMorgan strategists previously predicted a "boiling frog" recession in 2023 and 2024, where aggressive central bank tightening leads to a global synchronized recession. Risks of a recession are still alive this year, Cembalest warned, though he noted that a coming downturn would likely be mild.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Law enforcement officials in Florida have increased the reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspected gunman in the deadly Ocala mall shooting that left one person dead two days before Christmas.

The Ocala Police Department is still actively searching for Albert Shell Jr. and is offering $20,000 for information that can help authorities apprehend him, the department announced Saturday on Facebook.

Shell, 39, is accused of fatally shooting 40-year-old David Nathaniel Barron, who was found dead in a common area inside the Paddock Mall in north-central Florida on one of the years busiest shopping days, according to police.

The incident also left a woman wounded after being shot in the leg, authorities said.

Ocala police are offering $15,000 and the Florida Sheriffs Association put forth an additional $5,000 toward the reward amount.

Law enforcement officials have said they believe the shooting was a targeted act of violence. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Shell Jr. on December 24 for premeditated first-degree murder and attempted premeditated first-degree murder, CNN previously reported.

There were a lot of people inside the mall when the shooting occurred, according to Ocala Police Chief Mike Balken, which means theres a lot of witnesses that could potentially help us bring this case to a successful resolution, he said.

CNNs Dakin Andone and Ashley R. Williams contributed to this report.

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CONCORD, N.H.  New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella issued a cease-and-desist targeting the Democratic National Committee Monday, ordering the organization to stop claiming that the state's upcoming Democratic presidential primary is "meaningless."

Formella responded to a letter the group sent Friday instructing the New Hampshire Democratic Party to educate the public that the state's Jan. 23 primary election is effectively non-consequential. He called the language an attempt to "prevent or deter New Hampshire voters from participating in the January 23, 2024, New Hampshire democratic Presidential Primary Election."

In the Friday letter, national Democrats urged Democratic organizers in the Granite State to inform voters "that January 23rd is a non-binding presidential preference event and is meaningless and the (New Hampshire Democratic Party) and presidential candidates should take all steps possible not to participate."

The legal puzzle at the center of the fight is an ongoing dispute between national Democrats and the state over the date of the New Hampshire primary. The DNC last year tried to push the state's Democratic primary later in 2024, in an effort to move South Carolina to the front of the calendar. However, New Hampshire is required by state law to hold the first primary in the nation, setting up a clash between local officials and the national party.

The DNC has said that it will not award delegates based on the results of the New Hampshire primary, meaning the Democrat who wins the January primary won't move any closer to winning the Democratic presidential nomination.

"Regardless of whether the DNC refuses to award delegates to the partys national convention based on the results of the January 23, 2024, New Hampshire democratic Presidential Primary Election, this New Hampshire election is not meaningless,"' Formella's office said in statement. "(The Rules & Bylaws Committee) statements to the contrary are false, deceptive, and misleading."

Formella's office ordered the DNC to immediately stop any conduct in violation of New Hampshire's election laws. Its review of the groups actions is ongoing.

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley responded to the cease-and-desist with a tongue in cheek statement, saying "it's safe to say in New Hampshire the DNC is less popular than the New York Yankees."

"Nothing has changed, and we look forward to seeing a great Democratic voter turnout on January 23rd," he added.

The DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NH official issues cease-and-desist to DNC over 2024 primary battle
If a steaming bowl of soup strikes you as the ultimate in old-fashioned comfort, youve got plenty of company.

Soup is one of the worlds oldest and most universal foods, said Janet Clarkson, author of the book Soup: A Global History.

Every culture has some kind of soup, she said. Its got very ancient roots. Early people simmered it in everything from turtle shells to lengths of bamboo, she writes in the book, turning out metal soup pots starting in the Bronze Age.

Boiling food made it possible to subsist on stable grains, with herbs and other ingredients added for nourishment or medicinal purposes.

Each time you deliver a pot of hearty soup (with perhaps a side of bread) to a friend with the sniffles, Clarkson said youre in fact carrying on an age-old tradition. Separating food and medicine  thats not how ancient people thought of it, she said. I think in every country in the world, historically, some soups were seen as restorative.

Thats true no matter what you call it. Today, soup leans brothy while stews are more substantial, but the worlds spoonable foods have never fit neatly into the two English-language categories.

While Clarkson dove into centuries of etymology to trace the history of soup, potage and broth, she settled on a generously broad take. Just some stuff cooked in water, she wrote, with the flavored water becoming a crucial part of the dish.

Its a definition that leaves room for the worlds tremendous culinary diversity. These are CNN Travels nominations for 20 of the best soups around the world:

Banga | Nigeria

Banga is so popular in Nigeria that shops sell ready-mixed packets of spice. - Shutterstock

Fruits from the oil palm tree lend both fat and flavor to this soup from the Niger Delta, which also features fresh catfish, beef and dried seafood.

Its so popular that packets of ready-mixed banga spice are sold in shops. Most blends include African nutmeg, castor seed, orima, jansa and beletete leaves.

The spices infuse a rich, red sauce thats the soups main draw: Soak it up with eba or a ball of starch, two Nigerian staples both made from cassava prepared with different methods.

Beef pho (pho bo) | Vietnam

A bowl of beef pho is sure to cure what ails you. - Leisa Tyler/LightRocket/Getty Images

Broth is simmered for hours with cinnamon, star anise and other warm spices to create a wonderfully aromatic base for this rice noodle soup.

Pho is among Vietnams most recognized culinary exports, but the soup is a relatively new food, wrote Andrea Nguyen, author of The Pho Cookbook.

And while todays pho restaurants serve a wide range of flavors, beef is the original. By 1930, Nguyen explained, the soup was served with slices of raw beef cooked gently in the broth.

Today, beef pho remains the most beloved version in Vietnam, with options that include the original raw beef, a mix of raw and cooked beef, brisket and tendon.

Borscht | Ukraine

Tender beets are just the start of borscht's tangy delights. - Shutterstock

Chunks of tender beets swim in brilliant red broth for a soup thats beloved in Ukraine and across Eastern Europe. Often topped with a rich dollop of sour cream, borscht is anything but basic beet soup. It gets a tangy kick from kvass, a lacto-fermented beet juice thats another regional specialty.

And while the soup is sometimes attributed to Russian cuisine, that claim is contested.

In 2022, UNESCO declared that borscht in Ukraine unites people of all ages, genders and backgrounds at the table and placed the soup on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. And individual Ukrainian chefs are doing their part to make the soup a symbol of the nation.

Bouillabaisse | France

Bouillabaisse is synonymous with Marseille, France. - Shutterstock

A fishermans stew turned culinary icon, bouillabaisse distills classic Mediterranean flavors into a dish synonymous with the coastal city of Marseille. Saffron, olive oil, fennel, garlic and tomatoes blend with fish fresh from the sea.

At one time, that fish would reflect each days catch, but things have gotten a bit stricter.

According to signatories of the 1980 Bouillabaisse Charter  a collective attempt by local chefs to ensure the quality of the French soup  the most authentic recipe must include at least four kinds of seafood chosen from a list that includes monkfish and crab.

Caldo verde | Portugal

This hearty soup hails from Portugal's wine country. - Shutterstock

Thinly sliced greens meld with potatoes and onions in this homey soup from Portugals wine-producing Minho region. Now, the soup is a culinary star from upscale cafes to rural kitchens, the definition of down-home comfort food.

In many versions, tender Portuguese chourico sausage adds an undercurrent of smoky, salty flavor that makes the soup even heartier. Enjoy alongside a glass of Minhos famed vinho verde wine.

Chorba frik | Algeria, Libya and Tunisia

Chorba frik is popular in North Africa after the sun sets during Ramadan. - Shutterstock

Durum wheat harvested while green, called freekeh, adds satisfying heft and nourishment to this North African soup, which is especially beloved during the holy time of Ramadan.

The tender grains absorb a tomato broth and aromatic spices, their flavor melding with chickpeas plus stewed chicken, beef, mutton or lamb. Serve with lemon wedges and a hunk of kesra bread.

Chupe de camarones | Peru

Shrimp lovers will want to try the Peruvian soup known as chupe de camarones. - Katherine Frey/The Washington Post/Getty Images

This creamy shrimp chowder is a specialty of Arequipa, a historic city surrounded by towering volcanoes. Cold nights in the mountains are perfect for the hearty dish: Tender shrimp swim alongside chunks of Andean potatoes and corn.

Its got a kick, too. The addition of aji amarillo, a chili pepper with a lilting, fruity flavor, adds satisfying spice to balance out the rich and creamy ingredients. Maybe that explains the soups reputation as a powerful aphrodisiac.

Gazpacho | Spain

Gazpacho is a great way to enjoy a cold treat on a hot day. - Shutterstock

Summer in Andalusia brings searing weather, ideal for cooling down with a bowl of this chilled vegetable soup. Todays most classic version includes tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic and olive oil, with a handful of stale breadcrumbs added for body.

Arabs brought the dish to the Iberian Peninsula centuries before Spaniards tasted tomatoes, a New World ingredient. The original was a blend of bread, garlic and olive oil, pounded in a mortar and seasoned with vinegar.

Groundnut soup | West Africa

Sweet potatoes and okra are stars in this particular version of groundnut soup, popular throughout West Africa. - Shutterstock

As with so many culinary treats, groundnut soup ignores international boundaries: Meat, fish or chicken simmered into a thick peanut soup is pure comfort food in countries across West Africa. Versions range from Gambian domoda  the national dish  to a Nigerian take cooked with bitter, leafy greens.

No matter the country, such soups and stews are creamy, rich and salty, a satisfying combination that often gets a fiery jolt from the addition of Scotch bonnet peppers.

Gumbo | United States

Chicken, sausage and shrimp festoon this gumbo. - Tom McCorkle/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Cultures and flavors meld in a hearty soup thats a star of Louisiana cuisine, influenced by West African, Native Choctaw and French cuisines. Versions made with seafood, chicken and sausage are among the most popular today, but there are myriad ways to make this Southern specialty.

Ground, dried sassafras leaves  called file and long harvested by the Choctaw people  give many gumbo recipes a distinctive spice. Some cooks thicken their soup with a cooked flour paste called roux, while others swear by sauteed slices of okra.

Every possible version is on display each year at the World Champion Gumbo Cookoff in New Iberia, Louisiana, where cooks battle for some serious soup-master bragging rights.

Harira | Morocco

Moroccan harira uses chickpeas in a savory tomato broth to superb effect. - Shutterstock

When the sun sets during the month of Ramadan, many Moroccans break their fasts with a hot bowl of this comforting chickpea stew. Cinnamon, ginger, turmeric and pepper lend warming spice to the savory tomato broth, which soaks into tender chickpeas. Its also widely enjoyed in Algeria.

While vegetarian recipes are popular, the most classic version is simmered with tender chunks of lamb or other meat. Its not just fasting fare for Muslims; some North African Jews also prepare harira to break the annual fast of Yom Kippur.

Kharcho | Georgia

A plum sauce gives kharcho its zesty flavor. - Shutterstock

Tart plum sauce called tkemali adds bright, zesty flavor to this traditional soup, which is one of Georgias most beloved dishes.

Its made with unripe plums, whose sour note balances the richness of fatty beef and ground walnuts cooked into the soup. The aromatic kick, though, comes from the spice mix khmeli suneli, a blend of coriander, savory, fenugreek, black pepper, marigold and more.

Lanzhou beef noodle soup | China

Of course a Chinese soup makes the best 20 list -- one taste of lanzhou beef noodle soup will tell you whyl - Shutterstock

Shaping  or pulling  la mian noodles by hand for this traditional soup is an art in itself. Artisans use a finely milled, high-gluten flour and alkaline powder to mix a stretchy dough, then pull and fold a single piece of dough to make enough noodles for a bowl of soup.

Slip them into a bowl of beef broth for a world-class soup that includes tender beef, pale slices of radish, chili oil and fresh herbs. (At some shops, diners may even ask for noodles of a preferred thickness and shape.)

Mohinga | Myanmar

This version of mohinga features catfish, rice noodles, chicken eggs and lime. - Shutterstock

Soup is whats for breakfast in much of Myanmar, where sidewalk vendors and tea shops hawk steaming bowls of mohinga out of enormous vats. The soul of this noodle soup is the aromatic broth, which is simmered with herbs and thickened with toasted rice powder.

Fish lends added richness, while the thin rice noodles are perfect for slurping. Mohinga is so beloved that its gone from breakfast dish to anytime snack, and each region has its own twist on the classic soup.

Menudo | Mexico

Menudo is a traditional Mexican soup made with tripe and hominy. It's touted for its curative effects for hangovers. - Shutterstock

Tripe simmered for hours in a piquant, garlicky broth is the ultimate Mexican hangover cure, but menudo goes far beyond morning-after remedies. Its a favorite at weddings and big occasions, too, when an enormous pot of the traditional soup can feed dozens of guests.

Its sheer comfort food, with kernels of hominy that get fresh bite from a garnish of raw onions, chiles and cilantro. Choose from one of two main varieties: Menudo rojo turns a deep red from chiles in the broth, while Sonoran-style Menudo blanco is a milder alternative.

Moqueca de camarao | Brazil

Shrimp floating in a coconut broth? Count us in for moqueca de camarao. - Shutterstock

Palm oil and tomatoes tint coconut broth a warm, orangey red in this specialty from the Bahia region of Brazil, where locals eat steaming bowls on even the hottest days.

This soups real draw is sweet, tender shrimp floating in the broth, however. Traditionally, moqueca de camarao is cooked in a handmade pot made from black clay and the sap of mangrove trees, then brought to the table in the same authentic vessel.

Soto ayam | Indonesia

This is chicken noodle soup with an indulgent Indonesian twist. - Shutterstock

Chicken noodle soup may reach its culinary pinnacle in this piquant Indonesian dish. Spices such as fresh turmeric, star anise, cinnamon, lemongrass and lime leaves combine for deeply layered aroma and flavor, with the jammy yolks of soft-boiled eggs to add extra richness.

Every part of Indonesia has a local twist, and the soup is also beloved in Singapore, Malaysia and in faraway Suriname in South America, where the recipe arrived with Javanese immigrants.

Eat topped with fried shallots, fresh limes and a fiery scattering of sliced red chiles.

Tom yum goong | Thailand

Shiitake mushrooms and prawns are the stars of this version of tom yum soup. - Natasha Breen/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Sweet, sour, spicy and salty, this soups magnificent broth is the ideal foil for sweet, tender shrimp. Aromatic ingredients include galangal, lemongrass and lime leaves, while slivers of bright red birds eye chilis add additional heat.

Tom yum goong is just one of many varieties of tom yum soup in Thailand  this version comes enriched with fat prawns, and is a favorite with many diners.

Tonkotsu ramen | Japan

This classic ramen soup is flavored with pork bones. - Shutterstock

Long-simmered pork bones impart intense flavor to this classic ramen, whose broth is cloudy with marrow and fat. Its a signature of Fukuoka Prefecture on the southerly island of Kyushu, but the rich soup is now served in ramen shops across the country (and world).

While the indulgent broth is the star of tonkotsu ramen, a bowl isnt complete without slices of pork belly and a tangle of noodles that are hard in the center. Eat with a pair of chopsticks and a flat-bottomed spoon, and dont forget to slurp  its believed to enhance the flavor.

Yayla corbasi | Turkey

Yayla corbasi speaks to a time when soup and medicine weren't considered such separate things. - Shutterstock

Boiled rice or barley adds grainy sweetness to this creamy yogurt soup. Its believed to ward off colds during winter; some Turkish hospitals even serve yogurt soup to recovering patients.

A crumble of dried mint helps balance the yogurts slight tang. Serve with a pillowy round of fresh pita bread.

Jen Rose Smith is a writer based in Vermont. Find her work at jenrosesmith.com, or follow her on Twitter @jenrosesmithvt.

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An Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, made a dramatic emergency landing late Friday night after a piece of the fuselage burst off at 16,000 feet.

All the passengers and crew onboard deplaned safely in Portland  surely shaken up  but the flight, which was operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet, represents just the latest high-profile issue for that troubled narrowbody program.

Heres where things stand as we head into the week.

What happened to Alaska Airlines flight 1282?

Shortly after taking off from Portland, a mid-cabin door plug separated from the fuselage.

The plug was in place because some manufacturers configure their planes in a way that requires more emergency exits onboard. Alaskas seating configuration did not require that extra exit, so the door frame was blocked instead.

According to the airline, some passengers had injuries that required medical attention after landing, but they have all since been cleared.

This is a very serious event, Anthony Brickhouse, director of the Forensic Crash Lab at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told USA TODAY. Were very lucky this happened at 16,000 feet instead of 35,000 feet. The results could have been catastrophic.

Had the incident happened at a higher altitude, Brickhouse said the decompression likely would have been more violent and could have led to more significant structural damage to the aircraft.

We could easily be talking about a fatal accident if this had happened at 35, 36,000 feet, he said.

This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, in Portland, Ore.

Are Boeing 737 MAX planes still flying?

Some are, but not all. There are two variations of Boeing 737 MAX jets in operation right now: the MAX 8 and MAX 9. A smaller MAX 7 and larger MAX 10 are also expected to enter service this year, pending final regulatory approvals. The plane involved in Friday nights incident was a MAX 9, and the Federal Aviation Administration has since ordered the grounding of some aircraft of that variant pending inspections of the affected area of the fuselage.

The order affects about 171 planes worldwide. Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are the main operators of the MAX 9 in the U.S. and expect the grounding to significantly impact their operations in the coming days.

The 737-9 MAX grounding has significantly impacted our operation. We have canceled 170 Sunday flights and 60 cancellations for Monday, with more expected, Alaska Airlines said in a statement Sunday night. Cancellations will continue through the first half of the week, and we encourage guests with travel plans to continue to check their email and alaskaair.com for updates.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement on social media that the Department of Transportation prioritizes safety and he supports the FAAs grounding decision.

Safety will always be the top priority for our Department and for FAA. Administrator Whitaker has acted to order these aircraft grounded pending the inspections necessary to ensure that they are safe to operate. https://t.co/Uojdu6gg36  Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) January 6, 2024

United Airlines confirmed in a statement to USA TODAY on Monday that it has discovered issues with some of its MAX 9s already.

"Since we began preliminary inspections on Saturday, we have found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug  for example, bolts that needed additional tightening. These findings will be remedied by our Tech Ops team to safely return the aircraft to service," the statement said.

What problems have Boeing 737 MAX planes previously had?

Boeings 737 MAX jets have had a series of issues since entering into service. Two MAX 8 planes, one operated by Lion Air in Indonesia and one by Ethiopian Airlines in Ethiopia, crashed within about six months of each other, killing 346 people between them. Both crashes were attributed to an automated flight control software known by its acronym MCAS, which Boeing developed to compensate for the new generation 737s changed aerodynamics compared to previous versions of the jet.

The crashes resulted in the worldwide fleet of 737 MAX being grounded for more than a year and a half, from March 2019 to November 2020.

Cruising Altitude: Learn more about airplane layouts and seating configurations

What can you do if your flight is affected?

Both Alaska and United are offering flexible rebooking policies if your flight is affected by the current grounding order.

Check with your airline and keep an eye out for notifications if you think your travel could be impacted.

How can you find out what kind of plane is scheduled to operate your flight?

Airlines typically show what kind of planes are scheduled under flight details when you go to book, and in your reservation once your ticket is confirmed. MAX jets sometimes show up as 737-8 and 737-9 (not to be confused with 738 and 739, which typically represent an older, less troubled generation of the narrowbody).

Trip search engine Kayak also allows users to search for flights by aircraft model, including differentiating between MAX 8 and MAX 9 jets.

Story continues below.

Whats happening with the Alaska Airlines flight investigation?

The National Transportation Safety Board has taken over investigating the incident, but it will take a while before an official report and accounting of the incident is published.

In the meantime, officials said the door plug that separated from the aircraft was found in the backyard of a teacher in Oregon.

Theyre gathering facts and information so that they can do analysis. Theyre looking at the aircraft itself. Theyre going to be looking at that piece that was found in the backyard, Brickhouse said. The investigation is well underway.

Brickhouse said one of the key questions investigators will seek to answer is whether the issue that occurred on Friday was caused by a problem with the specific aircraft involved in the incident, or if its a broader problem affecting Alaskas entire fleet of MAX 9s or all MAX 9s regardless of operator.

The NTSB is investigating and normally it can take over 12 months to complete an investigation, but if they find something in the next few days that is critical to the safety of flight, theyll make an immediate emergency recommendation, Brickhouse said. The planes will remain grounded until they can be inspected and once they are inspected and can pass certain criteria, I would expect them to be back in the air, though he added its unclear how long that might take.

In a statement, the FAA said it has approved a procedure for the inspections.

"The FAAs priority is always keeping Americans safe. In that spirit, Boeing 737-9 aircraft will remain grounded until operators complete enhanced inspections which include both left and right cabin door exit plugs, door components, and fasteners," the statement said. "Operators must also complete corrective action requirements based on findings from the inspections prior to bringing any aircraft back into service."

What are some of the limitations to aircraft incident investigations?

Every aircraft accident and incident investigation is different. Still, investigators typically rely on physical evidence, like the door plug in this Alaska Airlines case, as well as some onboard machinery known as the black boxes  or cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders.

One of the limitations of cockpit voice recorders is they typically only record about two hours worth of audio, which can lead to unanswered questions if the incident occurred after a longer flight.

Brickhouse said that even though this incident took place just minutes after takeoff, the cockpit voice recorder continued recording after the plane landed, and by the time investigators retrieved it, all of the audio from the incident had been overwritten.

He added that the NTSB has been pushing the FAA for years to require longer-duration recorders on commercial aircraft, and said that this incident clearly demonstrates the value of that suggestion.

Is flying still safe?

Yes.

Despite two high-profile incidents this year  the Alaska Airlines decompression over the weekend and Japan Airlines fiery crash earlier last week  flying is still seen as a very safe way to travel. Five members of the Japanese Coast Guard were killed when the Japan Airlines jet struck their plane on the runway at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, but there have been no fatalities on commercial jets so far this year, despite the shocking images that have come out of the incidents.

But Brickhouse said passengers also have a role to play in their safety.

From a passenger safety point of view, this event clearly illustrates, along with the Japan Airlines accident last week, its really important to listen to the safety briefing, he said, adding that its a good idea to stay buckled up as much as possible while flying. Regardless of what that light is telling you, always keep your seatbelt buckled.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What to know about Boeing 737 MAX jets after Alaska Airlines incident
CHARLESTON, S.C.  Amid declining support from Black voters, President Joe Biden headed Monday to Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the site of a horrific hate crime in which a white supremacist massacred nine worshippers in 2015  what his campaign sees as a high-stakes address as he kicks off the election year.

The address at the historic church, known as Mother Emanuel, comes just days after Biden kicked off the campaign year near Valley Forge, Pa., criticizing Trump for his actions during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Biden reiterated these themes and spent time highlighting the experiences of Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, two Georgia election workers who were the subject of various right-wing attacks and conspiracy theories, calling them "two brave black women".

He also pushed back on Republican attempts to sanitize the events of Jan. 6, saying, "They tried to steal an election and now they're trying to steal history."

I think its important for him to come, said state Rep. JA Moore, whose sister was among those killed at the church. Were at a very critical moment after what Donald Trump has stoked.

Poll numbers show Bidens support among Black voters  especially Black men  is slipping dramatically. Biden carried 92% of Black voters in 2020, but recent polling found as many as 20% open to voting for Trump.

Biden took a dig at another Republican candidate, Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, saying "For those who don't seem to know, slavery was the cause of the Civil War" referencing her widely criticized comments on the matter.

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., whose endorsement helped catapult Biden to a crucial win in South Carolinas primary in 2020, said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union that he was very concerned about Bidens standing with Black voters.

I have no problem with the Biden administration and what it has done, Clyburn said. My problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done.

The frustration among some Black voters started early in the Biden presidency, when Democrats failed to pass voting rights legislation. But the ire has become more pronounced and now threatens to drag down Bidens re-election bid in 2024.

Nashonda Hunter, 41, said that while she still supports Biden over the alternative, she was disappointed in his administration so far.

I just feel like its been a lot of broken promises, she said.

She and other Black voters who spoke with NBC News listed student loan debt relief as a top priority. The Supreme Court ruled last summer along ideological lines that the Biden administration overstepped by trying to forgive $400 billion in federal student loans lingering from the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the White House says it has used other methods to cancel student debt for 3.6 million people. But that message hasnt reached many voters.

Biden highlighted what he saw as major wins for the black community during his presidency including reducing the cost of prescription drugs, lowering the income gap between white and black Americans, and celebrating black history through the designation of Juneteenth as a national holiday.

He also spoke about his commitment to reducing gun violence through his support for an assault weapons ban and universal background checks.

A source familiar with the plans said that Biden will also meet today with family members and survivors of the 2015 shooting.

Former state Rep. Fletcher Smith, a surrogate for Biden in the 2008 election and again in 2020, stressed that he was frustrated not with the president himself  but with his staff.

I think part of the problem with that is that the messaging from the White House is not actually resonating in the Black community, he said. That administration looks like they dont want the Black vote.

Other voters questioned why the Biden administration was so intent on spending billions of dollars overseas in Israel and Ukraine while putting less emphasis on what they see as more pressing domestic priorities. Others said they wanted to see more action on police reform. And some suggested that Biden may have borrowed Black support from Barack Obama during his 2020 election win.

Because he was Barack Obamas vice president, I think he got a lot of benefit from it, Smith said. There are some Barack Obama holdovers in his administration running the Barack Obama playbook. And thats whats hurting Biden. Biden needs to get his own playbook.

There are also questions about whether Bidens central campaign message about fighting threats to democracy will resonate with voters.

Maurice Washington, a conservative former Charleston County GOP chair, said it was a message of division.

It has nothing to do with bringing the country together, he said.

Biden's campaign has downplayed any waning of support among Black voters and insists Mondays trip to South Carolina and Vice President Kamala Harris visit to Myrtle Beach on Saturday are not only about courting that key constituency.

The trips arent from a place of worry, deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said in a call with reporters. Theyre from a place of practicing what we preach.

Campaign officials stress that Biden prioritized putting South Carolinas Democratic primary  scheduled for Feb. 3  first in the nation to involve more people of color in the nominating process. They also point to a large investment in Black and Hispanic media, as well as early organizing efforts meant to communicate to voters of color that theyre the ones that have the most at stake in this election.

That sends a clear signal that were not going to wait and parachute into these communities at the last minute and ask them for their vote, Fulks said. Were going to earn their vote.

The speech was briefly interrupted by protestors calling for a "ceasefire now" in Gaza. Biden's support of Israel has been a major factor in his falling approval rating among young voters.
BANGKOK (AP)  A top executive of China Evergrande's electric vehicle company has been detained by police in the latest sign of trouble for the world's most heavily indebted property developer.

China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle announced the detention of Liu Yongzhuo, its vice chairman and an executive director, in a notice Monday to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Its shares sank 6% after they resumed trading later in the day.

That followed news over the weekend that Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, a major shadow bank in China that has lent billions in yuan (dollars) to property developers including Evergrande, filed for bankruptcy liquidation after it was unable to pay its debts.

A crackdown on excessive borrowing that began several years ago has left dozens of Chinese developers out of business or struggling for survival. The industry-wide meltdown has snagged a vital cog in Chinas economic engine, reverberating through financial markets.

Share prices sank Monday in Hong Kong and Shanghai, with the benchmark Hang Seng index down 1.9%. Evergrande Groups shares lost 1.8%.

Evergrande has been in crisis since it defaulted on its debt obligations two years ago. It is in the midst of a restructuring that includes selling off assets to avoid defaulting on $340 billion in debt, and the company has said its chairman Hui Ka Yan is facing mandatory measures in accordance with the law." His status is unclear.

Evergrande New Energy Vehicle saw its shares tumble nearly 20% last week after it said a deal to sell shares to Dubai-based NWTN Motors had lapsed. The brief announcement of Liu's detention on suspicion of illegal crimes made no mention of that or other details.

The company has delayed its plans for beginning manufacturing after running into difficulties in attracting enough funding.

Troubles at the EV unit could complicate Evergrande's restructuring efforts since some plans have involved swapping of assets within the group. A Hong Kong court is due to hold a hearing on its debt restructuring plans on Jan. 29. The developer faces possible liquidation if creditors reject its restructuring scheme.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court said late Friday that it had approved Zhongzhi Enterprise Group's application for bankruptcy liquidation as the company was facing a severe shortage of working capital and is unable to recover most of its accounts receivable.

Zhongzhi, one of China's largest private asset management companies, said in November that its debts of up to 460 billion yuan ($64 billion) were more than twice its assets of 200 billion yuan ($28 billion). Soon afterward, Beijing police said they were investigating suspected crimes of a Chinese wealth company owned by Zhongzhi.

According to the Chinese financial magazine Caixin, it manages nearly 1 trillion yuan ($130 billion) in assets, but the company's finances have suffered as the once thriving property market has languished.

Shadow banks play an important role in Chinese finance, operating outside the realm of traditional banking regulations. Zhongzhi expanded rapidly after it was founded by the late tycoon Xie Zhikun in 1995, and operates in insurance, leasing, trust, and other financial industries.
The planned demolition of a Paris laboratory used by pioneering scientist Marie Curie has been suspended after an intervention from Frances minister of culture.

The Pavillon des Sources, in central Paris, was set to be bulldozed as part of a development project by the Institut Curie, which is responsible for managing the site. However, culture minister Rima Abdul Malak said in a post on X on Friday that the demolition had been put on hold following discussions with the institutes president, Thierry Philip.

The Pavillon des Sources in central Paris - Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The laboratory, at 26 rue dUlm, was one of three buildings constructed when the Radium Institute, now known as the Institut Curie, was established in 1909.

It was set to be demolished to make way for a large new building, but campaigners protested the decision because of the role the Pavillon des Sources played in Curies groundbreaking scientific career.

It was here that the Polish-born French physicist, who lived from 1867 to 1934, carried out some of the work that led to her discovery of polonium and radium.

Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman ever to win the award in two categories: Physics and Chemistry.

Born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland, she moved to Paris in 1891 to study at the Sorbonne University, where she met Pierre Curie in 1894.

The pair married the following year and carried out some early research together before Pierres death in 1906.

Polands ambassador to the UK, Piotr Wilczek, hailed the decision to pause the demolition in a post on X.

A triumph for heritage preservation! Marie Curies Paris lab, where the Polish-born Nobel laureate pioneered groundbreaking research, gets a reprieve from demolition. Lets keep the legacy of this extraordinary scientist alive! he wrote.

However, activist Baptiste Gianeselli, a key figure in the campaign to save the laboratory and have it listed as a historic monument, said the fight is not over.

We need to stay mobilized until the Radium Institute is listed in its entirety! he wrote on X.

For its part, the Curie Institute insists that the construction project should go ahead.

In a statement published on Friday, it said the Pavillon des Sources is simply a storage area for radioactive waste.

In a separate statement published the same day, however, the institute confirmed that work on the project would be suspended for a time of reflection, during which alternative solutions would be considered.

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Frank Dean, president and CEO of the Yosemite Conservancy, speaks at the organizations centennial celebration in June 2023. Yosemite Conservancy/Studio MSV Frank Dean, pictured in a white shirt, is retiring from the Yosemite Conservancy. Here he is seen at a Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias restoration project dedication ceremony in 2018. Yosemite Conservancy/Al Golub

One of the biggest advocates for Yosemite National Park will retire from his post as president and CEO of the Yosemite Conservancy this year.

Frank Dean, 70, who spent most of his career with the National Park Service, including eight years working in Yosemite, told the Chronicle that hes stepping down as leader of the influential nonprofit because hes done what he set out to do, which includes expanding the conservancys stewardship, research and visitor programs at the park.

I just felt like its time, said the Petaluma resident. Its been a pretty good run. I think its healthy for any organization to have fresh eyes on things.

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The donor-funded Yosemite Conservancy is among the countrys many groups at national parks that help with financing and operations when the federal government falls short. The Yosemite organization, with its vast support base, has consistently been one of the most effective of the groups, a boon for the park given its size and immense popularity.

Under Deans leadership, the conservancy is preparing to dole out $10 million in park grants just this year, for such efforts as habitat restoration, trail work and education programs. The conservancy also directly runs tours, classes and bookstores in the park.

Dean, who served as the superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation area before taking the job with the conservancy in 2015, said that the most pressing challenge that Yosemite hasnt met during his tenure is the crowds.

Its pretty clear something has to be done there, he said. It just kind of overshadows everything if you have to wait for hours and hours to get in there and then have to wait to park.

Deans work for the National Park Service at Yosemite included his career-changing shift into management, when he was promoted to an assistant in the superintendents office. Prior to that, he had worked as a field ranger at the park.

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This is like being in Yankee Stadium for rangers, he said. We had all been rangers someplace else, and thats how it felt.

Dean plans to officially retire this summer. The conservancys Board of Trustees is planning a national search to hire the organizations next top executive.
The Iowa gunman who opened fire on Perry High School last week appeared to have an active account on the internet chat platform Discord where he previously discussed school shootings and described gearing up moments before Thursdays attack, NBC News has learned.

Dylan Butler, 17, killed sixth grader Ahmir Jolliff, 11, and injured four other students and three staff members, including principal Dan Marburger, before he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police said they also found an improvised explosive device at the scene.

Law enforcement is reviewing Butlers use of social media and tech platforms, including Discord, according to a person close to the investigation.

In the minutes leading up to the shooting, Butler posted a video to TikTok from an account with the username tooktoomuch in what appeared to be a school bathroom. The Discord account that appeared to be posting about the shooting used the name took2much.

A Discord spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that the company believes the took2much screen name belonged to Butler.

NBC News viewed screenshots of a series of messages from the account to a group of online friends on Discord saying the user was at the school and ready for whats to come.

Ten minutes later, the user wrote, Im f------ nervous, Im the bathroom gearing up.

The account also used a racial slur, writing two minutes later: Theres a n----- in the bathroom, I need him to leave so I can assemble my guns.

A sign along Highway 141 in Granger, Iowa, shows support for the neighboring community of Perry on Friday after a shooting at the Perry Middle School and High School building Thursday. (Bryon Houlgrave / AP)

The Discord spokesperson did not respond when asked about those messages. The spokesperson said Discord had taken action against accounts and content believed to have belonged to the suspect.

Our deepest sympathies are with the victims, their families, and the community in Perry, Iowa following yesterdays horrific shooting. Discord has a zero-tolerance policy against content that glorifies violence and violent extremism, which is reflected in our Community Guidelines. We took immediate action against the suspect and his content, and are currently cooperating with law enforcement to assist them in their continuing investigation, the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The user took2much was also part of a chatroom dedicated to discussing school shootings called School Massacres Discussion, according to a Discord user who saw the user in the chat. The person said they did not know Butler personally, and NBC News is not revealing their identity because they are a minor.

Community members gather Thursday at a candlelight vigil at Wiese Park to reflect on and mourn the shooting at the Perry Middle School and High School complex in Perry, Iowa. (Jamie Kelter Davis for NBC News / Jamie Kelter Davis)

The Discord user said they had flagged the chatroom to the FBI in November, after which an FBI agent reached out over email and asked for more information. The user emailed the FBI agent screenshots of the server but did not hear back. The user said their report to the FBI did not include mention of the user took2much. The chatroom was closed before the shooting.

The FBI declined to comment.

Discord has previously been used by a mass shooter. In 2022, the convicted shooter in the Buffalo, New York, Tops market attack used Discord before the shooting to discuss combat gear and make what appeared to be a to-do list for the shooting. In December, Discord and police said a 13-year-old was stopped from committing an attack on a synagogue after Discord reported his online activities to authorities.
Passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight that was forced to make an emergency landing when part of the fuselage fell off midair said the ordeal was loud and terrifying.

Evan Granger, a passenger seated in exit row seat 16F, said he heard a loud boom followed by a gust of wind coming in at about 20 minutes into the flight on Friday. He said both of his ears became plugged.

airline mishap (Courtesy Kyle Rinker)

I didnt want to look back to see what was happening, Granger told NBC News. My focus in that moment was just breathe into the oxygen mask and trust that the flight crew will do everything they can to keep us safe.

Granger acknowledged there are so many things that had to go right in order for all of us to have survived, adding that he is very grateful that they were able to land safely.

Elizabeth Le of Portland, Oregon, said the flight was about 20 minutes into its route from Portland to Ontario, California, on Friday when she heard a loud noise.

All of a sudden I heard like a big bang and I didnt know exactly what was going on, but I look up and the oxygen masks were hanging from the ceiling, Le told Southern California news outlet OC Hawk. And then I look to my left and theres this huge chunk, part of the airplane is like missing.

Le said extremely loud wind rushed into the plane, but passengers stayed in their seats and kept their seatbelts on.

I couldnt really think straight because of how loud the wind was, she said.

She added: I just couldnt believe my eyes. Theres a gaping hole. You could see the city and the stars and everything just outside of the window. It was crazy.

Le said no one was sitting in the window seat of the row directly next to where the part of the plane fell off, but a mom and son were in the middle and aisle seats of that row.

Le said she heard afterward that the mom had to hold her teenage son tightly to keep him from being sucked out of the plane, adding that his shirt had flown off and he looked very red, likely from the intense wind.

Another passenger, Jessica Montoya, told OC Hawk the plane had just reached 10,000 feet when part of the wall seemingly detached.

We flew for another three or four minutes, and then we heard this pop and all the oxygen masks came down, she said. I wasnt afraid. I dont know why. No one really screamed or anything.

Montoya said she spoke to someone after the incident who told her that his shirt and phone were sucked out of the aircraft.

It was a trip from hell, Montoya said.

A photo from a passenger showed an entire panel missing from a side of the aircraft next to a row of seats. The panel, known as a door plug, detached from the plane at about 16,000 feet in the air, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said during a news conference Saturday night.

Passenger Stan Sigstad also described hearing a pop noise followed by strong wind that came forward and then it came back, it hit me in the face, he said.

Sigstad also said he wasnt afraid.

I was a little bit nervous, he said to OC Hawk. But I told God, I trust you.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew had reported a pressurization issue when the plane part disengaged, leaving a gaping hole.

Le, Montoya and Sigstad all noted how surprisingly calm the passengers and crew were during the flight.

Montoya praised the flight attendants for staying calm and Sigstad added the calmness of the pilots voice is what kept everyone calm.

Flight 1282, which was carrying 174 passengers and six crew members, landed safely back at Portland International Airport.

The FAA ordered some Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft temporarily grounded for inspections, affecting about 171 planes worldwide.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) on Sunday stopped short of saying she will certify the 2024 election results, saying she will see if this years election is legal and valid.

Pressed on NBC Newss Meet the Press over whether she will vote to certify the 2024 election results no matter what the result is, Stefanik said, We will see if this is a legal and valid election.

The question was sparked after Stefaniks comments earlier in the interview when she discussed why she objected to certifying Pennsylvanias 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021.

I stood up for election integrity, and I challenged and objected to the certification of the state of Pennsylvania because of the unconstitutional overreach, Stefanik said. I absolutely stand by my floor speech. I am proud to support President Trump.

In Stefaniks House floor speech on Jan. 6, she argued Pennsylvanias State Supreme Court and secretary of state unilaterally and unconstitutionally rewrote election law by eliminating signature-matching requirements.

She repeated those claims Sunday, telling NBC News moderator Kristen Welker, Well, I voted not to certify the state of Pennsylvania because, as we saw in Pennsylvania and other states across the country, that there was unconstitutional acts circumventing the state Legislature and unilaterally changing election law.

Stefanik was among 147 Republicans in Congress who voted to sustain objections to either one or both of Pennsylvania and Arizona election results.

Welker said she didnt hear Stefanik commit to certifying the election results and asked her, Will you only commit to certifying the results if former President Trump wins? Does that mean if former President Trump wins?

No, it means if theyre constitutional, Stefanik said. What we saw in 2020 was unconstitutional circumventing of the Constitution, not going through state legislators when it comes to changing election law.

We are seeing Democrats try to steal the election and illegally gerrymander congressional districts that we fairly won and are fair lines. So, I see this at a very local level as well as the unconstitutional overreach we saw at the national level in 2020, she added.

Stefanik, a steadfast supporter of Trump, also referenced the two rulings from Colorado and Maine that aim to boot the former president from each states primary ballot.

What were seeing so far is that Democrats are so desperate, theyre trying to remove President Trump from the ballot. That is a suppression of the American people. And the Supreme Court is taking that case up in February. That should be a 9-0 to allow President Trump to appear on the ballot, because thats the American peoples decision to make this November, Stefanik said.

Decisions in Colorado and Maine would remove Trump from their 2024 state primary ballots, ruling he is not eligible for the presidency under the 14th Amendments insurrection clause. Trump appealed the Colorado Supreme Court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear his case next month.

Maines decision, from state Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D), was appealed in state court, though that case could also reach the nations highest court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority.

Several lawmakers on the right have argued the ballot decisions are an attempt by Democrats to prevent Trump from taking back the White House in 2024.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Many Americans are making promises to do better in 2024 with New Years resolutions to save money and spend it wisely.

Some, buoyed by the lingering holiday spirit, may vow to give some of that money to charity in the upcoming year  like those who helped a high school teacher in Las Vegas fulfill 600 Christmas wishes for her students by Venmoing money or dropping off gifts.

Those heart-breaking wishes included a bag of Taki chips "so I wont feel hungry" or slippers "to protect me from the cold," according to a TikTok the teacher posted that went viral. Americans responded by gifting those items.

But those individual actions  as well meaning as they are  gloss over the reality that to help financially vulnerable Americans requires systemic change that often meets more resistance.

"We're not going to GoFundMe our way to a just economy," Bob Farrace, the national director of public affairs at the Childrens Defense Fund, told Yahoo Finance, referring to the crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money.

Organizers rally outside of the US Chamber of Commerce for the child tax credit in 2022. (Eric Kayne/AP Images for Community Change) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

One policy change that could do just as much good as any of these New Year's resolutions is for Congress to restore the enhanced child tax credit, a pandemic measure that temporarily raised the credit to a maximum of $3,600 per child from $2,000.

Additionally, the credit in 2021 was fully refundable, meaning if the credit exceeded the tax a family owed, they were entitled to the full amount anyway.

That allowed the very poorest families who have no income to receive the full credit. And half of the credit was distributed in advance in monthly installments, providing families with a reliable source of income throughout the last half of 2021.

The result? The credit helped to cut child poverty in half, with only 5.2% of US children in poverty in 2021 from 9.7% in 2020 and 12.6% in 2019. That goes much further than a one-time donation.

"If you're donating to a holiday wish list that will help a parent afford toys and clothes for their kids through the holiday season, those costs don't magically disappear," Ashley Burnside, senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, told Yahoo Finance.

"Once the holidays end, that family may very well still struggle to meet their bills each month," she added. "But when you implement a policy solution like expanding the child tax credit, that policy can support that same family throughout the year."

Since the credits expiration at the end of 2021, the child poverty rate has soared, hitting 12.4% in 2022. Food insecurity has also risen. But its been difficult to get lawmakers to reinstate the credit since then, though negotiations for a pared-down version are ongoing now.

The resistance is rooted in what Farrace calls the self-made narrative that still dominates American culture.

"We maintain this bizarre notion that poverty is a personal choice and that if we get poor people to work harder or acquire better money habits, they will stop being poor. And in the meantime, we will support them with food banks and other charity," he said.

"I certainly don't want to diminish that in any way, but we have to see charity as a supplement and not a solution," he added. "The fact is poverty is a choice, but it's not the choice that poor people make. It's a policy choice that the rest of us make."

A child is lifted by her parents at a street corner in downtown Seattle, in 2015. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Folks may also gravitate toward charity rather than supporting policy changes because it feels good to make a donation, and theres an immediate impact that people dont see with their tax dollars or their vote.

"That's gratifying for us," Farrace said.

And online donation campaigns are more personal. Theres an explanation of why someone needs money. Often the posting comes with a picture of whom youre helping. And you can see in real time other people responding, making it feel like a community effort.

"I think it's harder for people to see how a policy would impact somebody day to day or how it would change their lives," Burnside said. "It's not as black and white as the description on a fundraiser."

But you can have both. Donating to those fundraising campaigns fulfills a familys short-term need right now and thats needed, Burnside said.

Policy action that you can support through voting will also provide that same family with more security down the line, so they wont need to turn to strangers for help. Thats good, too.

"All those things need to happen at the same time," Burnside said, "but one can't come in place of the other."

Janna Herron is a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @JannaHerron.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Israel's military chief said on Sunday that the conflict in Gaza would likely last throughout 2024 and spill over to other fronts, Xinhua reports.

Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), made the remarks during a visit to the West Bank.

Halevi said 2024 would be "challenging" and that Israel would "certainly be involved in fighting in Gaza throughout the year," implying that the current full-scale conflict with Hamas, the Palestinian faction that rules Gaza, could ease but not end.

He also warned of a possible flare-up in violence "on other fronts, especially the West Bank," where tensions have risen since the start of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which started on Oct. 7, 2023, following a surprise attack from Hamas.

Halevi also said the IDF would increase "the pressure it exerts" on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where it has traded fire with Hezbollah in recent months.

"Hezbollah has decided to join this war. We are increasingly exacting a toll on them," he said, adding that the army had "a responsibility, a duty, to securely return northern residents to their homes."
Berkeley police arrested a man in a shooting on Harrison Street early Sunday, police said. Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle 2020

A man was wounded and a second man was arrested in a shooting in Berkeley on Sunday morning, police said.

The shooting occurred about 6 a.m. near a homeless shelter on the 700 block of Harrison Street. Police were told there were possibly several victims, prompting officers from multiple agencies to respond to the possibility of a situation involving an active shooter or several victims.

Police ultimately determined there was one victim: a man suffering from at least one gunshot wound, Lt. Robert Rittenhouse said. Paramedics took the man to a hospital for treatment.

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As the investigation unfolded, officers arrested a man on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Rittenhouse said.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia signed a decree appointing Nairi Petrosyan as the permanent representative of Armenia in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC), residing in Istanbul, the Presidential Office stated.
Accusing the Gujarat government of abusing its power, the Supreme Court said that the remission order was without application of mind

New Delhi: Delivering a massive blow to the Gujarat government, the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission order granted by the state government to 11 men convicted of the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murdering seven of her family members during the 2002 riots, and ordered that they be sent back to jail within two weeks.

The Gujarat government was complicit and acted in tandem with one of the convicts who had approached the Supreme Court with his plea for premature release in the Bilkis Bano case, the apex court said while setting aside the remission order. The Opposition parties, on their part, hailed the apex court decision.

Accusing the Gujarat government of abusing its power, the Supreme Court said that the remission order was without application of mind.

A bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan asked whether heinous crimes against women permit remission whatever faith she may follow or creed she may belong to.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that took place after the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002. Ms Bano's three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members lynched.

After the remission of the sentence of all the 11 convicts by the Gujarat government, they were released on August 15, 2022.

We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by the Gujarat government, the bench said.

In its 251-page judgment, the apex court noted the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to pass the remission order. It clarified that the state in which an offender is tried and sentenced is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts. The convicts were tried in Maharashtra.

We need not have gone into the other issues. But for sake of completion, we have. The rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed, the bench said.

The top court also nullified its May 13, 2022 order of another bench asking the Gujarat government to consider a remission plea of one of the convicts as the order was obtained by playing a fraud on the court, and by the suppressing of material facts.

The bench further said that this was a classic case where the order of this court was used to violate the rule of law by granting remission.

Attacking the Gujarat government for not filing a review plea against the May 2022 judgment, the Supreme Court said that only the State of Maharashtra could have passed the remission orders.

Taking advantage of May 13, 2022 order of this court, other convicts also filed remission applications Gujarat was complicit and acted in tandem with respondent No. 3 (one of the convicts) in this case. This court was misled by suppressing facts, the bench said.

The top court also held that the PIL contesting the remission filed by Bilkis Bano under Article 32 of the Constitution was maintainable. According to Article 32: It is a fundamental right, which states that individuals have the right to approach the Supreme Court seeking enforcement of other fundamental rights recognised by the Constitution.

Quoting Greek philosopher Plato extensively, Justice Nagarathna said: Punishment is to be inflicted not for the sake of vengeance for what is done cannot be undone but for the sake of prevention and reformation.

In his treatise, Plato reasons that the lawgiver, as far as he can, ought to imitate the doctor who does not apply his drug with a view to pain only, but to do the patient good. This curative theory of punishment likens the penalty to medicine administered for the sake of the good of one being chastised, Justice Nagarathna said, quoting Plato.

Thus, if a criminal is curable, he ought to be improved by education and other suitable arts, and then set free as a better citizen and less of a burden to the state, she said. This postulate lies at the heart of the policy of remission.

In addition, there are also competing interests involved -- the rights of the victim and the victims family to justice vis-a-vis a convicts claim to a second chance by way of remission or reduction of his sentence for reformation, she said.

Observing that the victims rights are also important, Justice Nagarathna said a woman deserves respect, howsoever high or low she may be considered in society or to whatever faith she may follow or any creed she may belong to. Can heinous crimes, inter alia, against women permit remission of the convicts by a reduction in their sentence and by granting them liberty? These are issues which arise in these petitions, Justice Nagarathna said.

Can heinous crimes against women permit remission? These are the issues which arise, she said.

On October 12 last year, the apex court reserved its verdict after an 11-day hearing on the petitions, including the one filed by Bilkis Bano.

While reserving judgment, the apex court had directed the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit by October 16 the original records related to the remission of sentence of the 11 convicts.

Besides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano, several other PILs, including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma and another by Trinamul Congress leader Mahua Moitra, challenged the remission of the convicts and their premature release from jail.

Reacting to the apex court order, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the BJP, saying the verdict has shown once again who the protector of criminals is.

In a post in Hindi on X, Mr Gandhi said: The tendency to murder justice for electoral gains is dangerous for a democratic system. Today, the Supreme Court's decision once again showed the country who gives patronage to criminals.

Bilkis Bano's tireless struggle symbolises the victory of justice against the arrogant BJP government, the former Congress chief added.

The CPI(M) welcomed the Supreme Court judgment, dubbing it a hard slap on the face of the state government. The politburo of the Left party welcomed the court verdict nailing down the Gujarat government's illegal action of granting remission to the 11 convicts who were sentenced to life for raping pregnant Bilkis Bano and killing seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat communal carnage.

The court has categorically asked the convicts to surrender back to prison within two weeks, it pointed out.

In a post on X, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said: It appears that justice is being delivered to Bilkis Bano finally after two long decades. The brutality of gangrapes and mass murders cannot be brushed aside and the perpetrators remain unpunished.

The Congress on Monday hailed the Supreme Court order quashing the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, saying it has removed the veil over the BJPs anti-women policies. With this order, the veil over the anti-women policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been removed. After this, public confidence in the justice system will be further strengthened. Congratulations to Bilkis Bano for continuing her fight bravely, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said in a post in Hindi on X.
Clearly all is not well between India and its tiny south-western maritime neighbour

New Delhi: As Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, widely seen as an anti-India and pro-China leader, left for Beijing on an official visit, the diplomatic row between his country and India escalated on Monday, with India summoning Maldivian high commissioner Ibrahim Shaheeb in New Delhi and conveying its serious concern over the developments that was followed, according to Maldives media reports, by Male summoning Indian high commissioner Munu Mahawar in an alleged tit-for-tat response.

However, the Indian high commission in Male issued a statement that Mr Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with the Maldivian foreign ministrys ambassador at large Ali Naseer Mohamed to discuss bilateral issues.

But clearly all is not well between India and its tiny south-western maritime neighbour, which had earlier on Sunday suspended three deputy ministers for making derogatory and slanderous remarks targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he visited the Lakshadweep islands situated not far from the Maldives. But the damage was already done by the deputy ministerial trio -- Ms Mariyam Shiuna, Ms Malsha Shareef and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid -- who all worked for the ministry of youth empowerment, information and arts, with Ms Shiuna allegedly using words like clown and Israeli puppet in a shrill rant after another Maldivian MP, Zahid Rameez, had made racist and xenophobic comments targeting Indians.

The row also continues to take the social media by storm, with one travel portal also reportedly refusing bookings for the Maldives and vowing to promote Lakshadweep as a better alternative instead.

Another travel portal reportedly claimed there had been a huge 3,400 per cent increase in online searches that reflect growing interest among Indian tourists for the Lakshadweep islands following Mr Modis visit there and the scandalous remarks made by the Maldivian politicians.

The highest number of foreign tourists visiting the Maldives are from India, and judging by a reported spate of cancellations by Indian tourists to the archipelago nation after the controversy, it remains to be seen how much the tourism-dependent Maldivian economy is affected. It may be recalled India had financially bailed out the Maldivian economy during the Covid-19 pandemic when the global tourism industry had virtually ground to a halt. In another development, the Israeli embassy in New Delhi also put out a post praising the majestic underwater beauty and enchanting allure of Indias Lakshadweep islands and declared that it is ready to commence work on a desalination project there at New Delhis earlier request.

Mr Muizzu -- who won the presidential polls in his country last year by defeating his pro-India predecessor Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in a keenly-fought election -- had pledged to evict a reportedly small number of Indian troops operating two helicopters and a Dornier aircraft for medical evacuations and contingency operations in the tiny nation. He had also visited Turkey first after taking over as President instead of India, which was seen earlier as a convention for new Maldivian Presidents. This was seen by some observers as a stern message to New Delhi. But the ongoing visit to China of President Muizzu is the strongest message to New Delhi that the Maldives under him no longer follows an India First policy. Clearly, Beijing now has the upper hand in the archipelago nation.

Nevertheless, even the new Maldivian government is under enormous pressure and clearly in damage control mode. It put out a statement earlier Sunday, saying: The Maldives government is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the Government of the Maldives. The government believes that the freedom of expression should be exercised in a democratic and responsible manner, and in ways that do not spread hatred, negativity, and hinder close relationships between the Maldives and its international partners The relevant authorities of the government will not hesitate to take action against those who make such derogatory remarks.

In fact, President Muizzu also met Mr Modi on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai last month, after which the Maldivian President had claimed India has agreed to remove its soldiers from the tiny archipelago nation. Following that, Indian government sources had said discussions are on on how to keep Indian humanitarian assistance and disaster relief assistance to the Maldives operational using Indian platforms, an obvious reference to the two helicopters and a Dornier aircraft reportedly operated by Indian armed forces personnel there till now. Sources had acknowledged that the issue had been briefly discussed at the meeting between the two leaders, but had added that the core group that both sides have agreed to set up will look at details of how to take this forward.
This was the first time in India that a particular religious group had been mentioned in the list of visa guidelines.

Its sometimes necessary to remind ourselves of the past in order to understand the present. Four years ago, in 2020, evangelical Muslim organisation Tablighi Jamaat held a meeting in Delhi from March 10 to 13. This was scheduled long before the onset of Covid-19 and at a time when the Narendra Modi government was itself dismissive of the threat of a pandemic. A March 13, 2020 PTI report had claimed: Covid-19 is not health emergency, no need to panic.

The Tablighi meeting was held before India issued guidelines on public gatherings. But as cases in India began to rise towards the end of March, the government determined it would scapegoat Muslims and enlisted the media to do this.

The Centre made much of evacuating the area where the congregation was being held (The PM sent NSA Ajit Doval to reason with the organisers, who had been asking for safe evacuation for days). The virus novelty and the first deaths coincided with the Tablighi Jamaat gathering and open season was declared on it.

The main reason for increased number of cases is that members of the Tablighi Jamaat have travelled across the country, said Lav Agarwal, health ministry joint secretary. On April 1, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted that the Tablighi gathering was like an Islamic insurrection. On April 4, MNS chief Raj Thackeray suggested the groups members be shot. In Uttar Pradesh, the groups members were jailed and booked under the anti-terror National Security Act.

On April 5, Lav Agarwal said: The doubling rate in India is 4.1 days, had the congregation at Nizamuddin not happened and additional cases not come, this would have been about 7.14 days. As later events proved, this was nonsense, but it was par for the course for this government.

On April 18, Mr Agarwal made another claim, that the group was the dominant single cause of the pandemic. Thus, the poisonous lie was spread and its effect began to take place in the citizenry as fast as the Covid-19 itself. A Hindi daily reported that Tablighi Jamaat members quarantined in a facility in western Uttar Pradeshs Saharanpur had demanded non-vegetarian food and were defecating in the open inside the hospital. The Saharanpur police tweeted no such thing had happened and the story was taken down.

During the months of active persecution, the groups members, including foreigners, were jailed, charged with attempted murder and provisions of Section 269 (whoever wilfully or negligently does any act which is likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) were invoked.

The theories being promoted were that they were deliberately spreading the virus around India by getting themselves infected, spitting on fruit, refusing to wear masks, running around naked in their wards, harassing nurses, and so on. None of this was true.

The world noticed Indias malice against Muslims and it was reported: It was already dangerous to be Muslim in India. Then came the coronavirus (Time); Coronavirus: Islamophobia concerns after India mosque outbreak (BBC); In India, coronavirus fans religious hatred (New York Times). Without being convicted and even without any evidence, Jamaat members were blacklisted from receiving visas in the future. In June, the Modi government amended the policy for visa applications to India to introduce a Tabligh-specific clause: Restriction on engaging in Tabligh activities  Foreign nationals granted any type of visa and OCI cardholders shall not be permitted to engage themselves in Tabligh work. There will be no restriction in visiting religious places and attending normal religious activities like attending religious discourses. However, preaching religious ideologies, making speeches in religious places, distribution of audio or visual display/pamphlets pertaining to religious ideologies, spreading conversion, etc will not be allowed.

This was the first time in India that a particular religious group had been mentioned in the list of visa guidelines. This was purely to fuel the fire that was already raging in the media, blaming the group for the deliberate spread of Covid-19 in India and absolving the government from its responsibility, especially for the fallout of the disastrous and unplanned 2020 lockdown.

It was only after it became generally accepted that the virus was an unstoppable global phenomenon which had spread through multiple ways that the Tablighi conspiracy story faded. On May 19, the foreign members of the Jamaat moved court to be released from institutional quarantine, where they had been held for over a month and a half, despite repeatedly testing negative for Covid-19. The government told the court that none of the visitors had been detained, they were merely asked to join the investigation. But the passports of over 700 Jamaat members had been seized, and they were not in fact free.

On July 6, before the chief metropolitan magistrate at Delhis Saket court, 44 Tablighi Jamaat members refused to pay fines of between Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 in exchange for closing of cases and bravely chose to face trial. By December, eight months after 11 states had filed 20 FIRs against more than 2,500 Tablighi Jamaat members, nobody was convicted. And the courts fiercely criticised the governments actions.

Judges called the cases malicious, a virtual persecution, abuse of process, abuse of power, and said the Tablighi Jamaat members were scapegoats of a political government who had acted against the group though having not an iota of evidence.

That such a vicious falsehood was allowed to be spread deliberately should tell us much of what we need to understand about where we are today.
by Nirmala Carvalho

The chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, Priyank Kanoongo, reported the disappearance of 26 girls from a Carmelite-run hostel, but a police enquiry found that they were at home with their families for the Christmas holidays.

Bhopal (AsiaNews)  Once again, the chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Priyank Kanoongo, has lashed out at a Catholic institution in Madhya Pradesh, saying that 26 girls at a Carmelite hostel had gone missing. They were actually safe and sound at home, with their families, for the Christmas holidays.

Last Thursday, Kanoongo made a surprise visit to the Aanchal Girls' Hostel, a hostel for girls run by the Congregation of the Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate in Taraisewaniya, a village that falls under the jurisdiction of the Parwaliya Police Station, Bhopal District.

This type of action is something that Kanoongo has done in the past, always following the same pattern.

Checking the shelters registry, the NCPCR chairperson noticed that 26 girls out of 68 were missing that day and so accused a missionary on social media of running the institution without a licence and forcibly converting minors.

Most of the girls aged between 6 and 18 are Hindus. After much difficulty, the police have registered an FIR[*], Kanoongo wrote, referring to the complaint filed with the police that led to the arrest of one of the priests, Father Anil Mathew, who is now in judicial custody.

Unfortunately, the officials of the Women and Child Development Department of Madhya Pradesh want to run the child helpline on contract from such NGOs," added Kanoongo, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Prime Minister Narendra Modis own Hindu ultranationalist party.

In fact, police later reported that the 26 girls were at home with their families, to whom they had returned of their free will during the Christmas holidays.

On Saturday, Fr Johnshibu Pallipatt issued a statement clarifying that Aanchal is not a childrens home, as reported by some media, but a hostel for girls, duly registered with local authorities as indicated on the government portal.

The 26 girls absent last week had of their own free will and without any force or compulsion discontinued their stay in the hostel and went back to their homes with their parents, reads the press release signed by Fr Pallipatt.

The statement added that police made spot verifications confirming that they were at home.

Since 2020, the hostel has hosted 68 underage girls, including some from other Indian states, like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, and Rajasthan.

The police ended their enquiry, finding that no offence of child abuse or forced conversion was committed.

In the meantime, two project officers, responsible for managing the women and child programme, have been suspended.

Such incidents result in a constant disruption in the education of children. Any flaw, any intricate government legality is cited as a reason to remove minors, Archbishop Emeritus Leo Cornelio of Bhopal told AsiaNews.

This is harassment, and it is being done only because it (the facility) is run by a Christian institution. NCPCR chairman Kanoongo routinely targets Christian institutions, the prelate lamented.

This is not the first time that the NCPCR has investigated Christian educational facilities. Phoney complaints have been filed in the past to implicate men and women religious. Many have been arrested several times because of frequent accusations, which turn out to be unfounded when they reach the court.

[*] First Information Report.
by Santosh Digal

He led the Church in Davao from 1996 until 2012. Archbishop Paul Cuison remembers him as "our man of peace, instrumental in organizing the Bishops-Ulama Conference for Interreligious Dialogue in the Philippines, around which he was able to gather several leaders."

Manila (AsiaNews) - The Church in the Philippines mourns the death of the former archbishop of Davao in the Mindanao region of the southern Philippines, Fernando Robles Capalla, who died on 6 January. He was 89 years old. He was one of the main "peace builders" in the most war-torn region of the country.

Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Caloocan, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, said: What you (Capalla) saw from afar before, you now see in your face. May the Lord make his face shine upon you. May he look with kindness on you who have taken up his Cross on your shoulders with all your sweetness and humility and give you rest."

Monsignor David also praised the service rendered by Capalla to the promotion of interreligious dialogue in Mindanao, where there are numerous conflicts between the various religious communities, fueled by the socio-political tensions of the area.

Monsignor Paul Cuison added: "Fernando Robles Capalla was our Man of Peace, instrumental in the organization of the Bishops-Ulama Conference [of which he was co-founder editor's note], he managed to bring together various leaders to start a true interreligious dialogue For his defense of peace and his being a true champion of interreligious dialogue in the Philippines, Archbishop Capalla received the San Lorenzo Ruiz Award for Peace and Unity.

Founded in 1996 by the former archbishop of Davao, the Bishops-Ulama Conference has been promoting peace and interreligious dialogue aimed at improving understanding between Muslims and Christians for almost 30 years. Capalla was instrumental in establishing this body and bringing together many religious leaders of different faiths to jointly promote development, human rights, dignity, social justice, peace and interreligious understanding.

The Conference still receives support from the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace of the Office of the Presidential Counselor on the Peace Process, as well as Catholic Relief Services and the US Catholic Bishops' Social Development Agency.

According to Antonio J. Montalvan II, a local journalist and columnist, Capalla was "a friend of many in Mindanao and a fellow traveler in the fight against extrajudicial killings."

Capalla was born on November 1, 1934 in Leon, studied at St. John's University, the University of San Agustin and the Saint Vincent Ferrer Seminary. Ordained a priest on March 18, 1961 in the diocese of Jaro, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Davao on April 2, 1975; on 25 April 1977 he was made prelate of Iligan; on June 28, 1994 he was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Davao until he became its archbishop on November 6, 1996, until his retirement in 2012. On February 11, 2012 Romulo Valles succeeded him.

Capalla will be remembered for his contribution to peace and interreligious dialogue, as well as for his episcopal ministry.
by Fady Noun

For Card Beshara al-Rahi, the Lebanese do not want an escalation on the southern border, in the wake of the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Meanwhile, the United States and Europe are intensifying diplomatic efforts to prevent further violence. Blinken and Borrell warn about worse to come. Hackers attack Beirut airport with messages about Hezbollah and Iran.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  The United States and Europe, as well as some of their Arab partners, like Qatar and Jordan, are currently involved in intense diplomatic efforts to prevent Lebanon from being dragged into the Gaza war. In Lebanon, some are speaking out more loudly after Hezbollah opens a southern front to support Gaza.

The war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, now in its fourth month, could blow up in the region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Sunday during a tour of Arab countries and Israel.

On a visit to Lebanon, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said: I think that the war can be prevented, has to be avoided and diplomacy can prevail, he explained.

Arriving in Lebanon the day after Israel's assassination of Hamass number two, Saleh el-Arouri, in a Hezbollah's stronghold, he was briefed "on the current risks of escalation along the Blue Line" in southern Lebanon, during a meeting with the Commander-in-Chief of UNIFIL, General Arnoldo Lazaro.

Capital of sympathy

Yet, despite the amount of sympathy for the Palestinian cause (due in part to the Israeli army's relentlessness against the civilian population of Gaza), a large majority of Lebanese, particularly in the border region, remain adamantly opposed to Hezbollah's support, as well as any Palestinian armed action from Lebanon.

"The Gaza war has spread to southern Lebanon against the will of the Lebanese and friendly countries," Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi said on Sunday on World Day of Peace.

The head of the Maronite Church once again called for the resolution of this conflict through negotiation and diplomacy, stressing that "Lebanon is protected from a conflict with Israel by Security Council Resolution 1701," which forced Hezbollah to retreat north of the Litani River.

"Our community, too, has a say in the future of Lebanon," the Sunni Mufti of the Republic insisted during a social event in which he defended the state against Hezbollah's "mini-state."

During his flagship programme, one of Lebanon's most followed TV commentators, Marcel Ghanem, expressed his sadness at seeing so many men sacrifice their lives in southern Lebanon (including some 140 fighters and cadres of the pro-Iranian party), with their deaths having no apparent impact on the fighting in Gaza.

Rafik Hariri Airport hacked

The conflict took on an eye-catching form on Sunday, when information display screens at Beiruts international airport were hacked by domestic anti-Hezbollah groups.

Instead of flight schedules, there was a text hostile to Hezbollah that read, addressed to Hezbollahs leader: Hassan Nasrallah, you will no longer have supporters if you curse Lebanon with a war for which you will bear responsibility and consequences.

The message went on to say that airfield was not the airport of Hezbollah and Iran.

Accompanied by the logo of Jounoud el-Rab (the Soldiers of the Lord) and that of the online account "Saheb el Kalima" ("The word is mine"), the text was displayed on Sunday at around 5 pm on the airport's information screens.

But in a video shared on social media, the Jounoud el-Rab group, which has made a name for itself in Achrafieh, the Christian neighbourhood of Beirut, for its fight against the LGBTQ+ movement, denied any responsibility for the hacking and saw in the exploitation of its logo "a malicious act aimed to sow dissension".

"Israel will not be saved by war," said a former minister, speaking on condition of anonymity. Only by giving the Palestinians a future will it be able to live in peace.

What I am saying here is not angelism, but realism. Love, in international relations, is giving others as many opportunities to build themselves in the long term as we give to ourselves."

But where can we find the leaders on both sides who will rise to the occasion of this historic challenge?" he wonders.
Today's news: in Bangladesh unsurprising victory for PM Hasina; Japan earthquake death toll rises to 161; Maldives government suspends three officials who insulted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media; Supreme Court in India intervenes on convictions of Gujarat riots in 2002; Citizenship process simplified in Russia.

MYANMAR

At least 15 people, including several children, were killed in a bombing by the Burmese coup junta that hit two churches in Khampat municipality, Tamu district, while a second attack occurred as people fled the buildings. Another bomb fell near the community school, added local sources who asked to remain anonymous.

BANGLADESH

As expected, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League won between 223 and 227 seats in Parliament out of 300, but the turnout was one of the lowest ever, the Bangladesh Election Commission revealed. Yesterday, on voting day, at least a dozen locations that were supposed to host voting booths were set on fire, after the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, announced a general strike and a boycott of the elections.

MALDIVES

The Maldives government has suspended three deputy ministers who made offensive comments against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid, who all worked for the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Information and the Arts, had described Modi on social media as a "clown", a "terrorist" and a "puppet of Israel  in response to a video promoting tourism in Lakshadweep, an Indian Union Territory in the Arabian Sea.

INDIA

India's Supreme Court has annulled the pardons of 11 Hindu men sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of a pregnant Muslim woman and the killing of the woman's relatives during riots in the state of Gujarat in 2002. The men, sentenced to early 2008, they were released in August 2022 on the orders of the Gujarat government which had cited their good behavior.

JAPAN

The death toll from the New Year earthquake in Japan has risen to 161, local authorities have announced, while around a hundred people remain missing. The bad weather of the last week has hindered relief efforts: heavy rain and snow have caused further collapses and landslides, while yesterday the Minister of Defense announced the dispatch of another 6 thousand soldiers.

GAZA  ISRAEL

At a conference in Doha, Qatar, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is traveling to the Middle East to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, said Palestinian civilians must be able to return home and rejected officials' statements Israelis that Gaza residents should be displaced from the Strip. The diplomat then condemned the killing of journalist Hamzah Dahdouh but in recent weeks the United States has approved the sending of further weapons to Israel.

RUSSIA

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to grant Russian citizenship on a simplified basis to people from Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen, as well as stateless victims of deportations or other injustices and to all foreigners willing to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, without requiring knowledge of the Russian language, history and legislation, and without the five-year period of residence in Russia.

TAJIKISTAN - GERMANY

Some Tajik terrorists linked to ISIS traveled to Germany, presenting themselves as Ukrainian citizens from war zones and asking for asylum as refugees, as reported by Bild, according to which they were preparing an attack on the Cologne Cathedral, together with a Turkmen and a a Kyrgyz, who also entered under a false identity.
The all-new V8-powered BMW 7 Series looks weird from the outside. There's no beating around the bush about that. The humongous hot-water radiator-like grille and the somewhat slim taillights that do nothing to make the busy rear end look harmonious are design misses. Or are they? Weren't people outraged about the G80 M3 and G82 M4 front ends when they debuted? But no matter your stance, here's how you can make the 760i xDrive look better without overspending.

SUV

Photo: RoCars on YouTube

New grille housing.

A front bumper lip.

Side skirts.

Mirror covers.

A tiny roof and trunk spoiler.

A redesigned rear bumper diffuser.

The all-new BMW 7 Series, with a 4.4-liter eight-cylinder under its hood and all-wheel drive, has a starting cost of $121,300. If you don't want to see people looking at your posh sedan's enlarged kidney frame like it's a dude wearing grey sweatpants on a sunny summer day, you must spend an additional $950 for the M Sport Professional Package to get the blacked-out grille. The aesthetics change dramatically, though! The upgrade is worth it, especially when you go for a subtler body color.The 760i xDrive is a mild hybrid. It gives the driver access to 536 hp. What it doesn't have is a V12 under the hood. BMW aficionados know that the previous generation 7 Series with the "60i" denomination had a mighty twelve-cylinder powerplant, known as the M760i or M760Li . The latter added a bit more room for those lucky enough to sit in the second row. That's gone now, including the long-base version.If you still want the V12, you'll have to come up with some more cash and check out the epitome of automotive luxury  the Rolls-Royce Phantom. Also, don't confuse it with the i7 M70 because that's the Bavarian's battery-electric crown jewel.However, a BMW 7 Series with a V8 might do the job. The latest generation is a gem. It may look a tad bit controversial when allowed to show its lines, curves, and angles, but it is a great option for those looking to escape thelifestyle and travel like diplomats. I would even dare to say that even families should consider it. BMW poured everything it had into it. You know it'll protect those you love and your stuff.If you end up choosing the G70 760i xDrive, a company called Renegade Design prepared a few exterior upgrades that don't steal any of the exterior's elegance but add more style and dynamism. As you can see in the photo gallery or in the video below, this particular 7 Series looks like it was cut out of a block of marble by an extremely skilled team of humans and robots. It almost seems like it shouldn't be able to move as easily as it does.The upgrade will set you back around $10,000, but you get a lot of stuff. The pack includes:Depending on your preference, these add-ons can be made of carbon fiber or basalt (gloss black). The company also offers an interesting selection of wheels measuring anywhere from 20 to 24 inches in diameter.The all-new 7 Series isn't Renegade's first rodeo. It has created various upgrades for other BMW models. This one doesn't feel too in-depth, but it provides this German luxobarge with a few enhancements that improve its exterior look.It definitely looks like Rolls-Royce Phantom's long-lost sibling who has refused the aristocratic way and went for a more independent, tech-filled lifestyle.
I've developed a tactic for buying Hot Wheels cars to avoid overspending. If I walk into a store with dozens or hundreds of items for sale, I will only buy something if I must add it to the collection. But of course, anything rotary-powered or Porsche 911 goes without saying.

'68 Mazda Cosmo Sport

Photo: WS Mart Diecast

Nissan Skyline HT 2000GT-X

Photo: WS Mart Diecast

'81 Toyota Starlet KP61

Photo: WS Mart Diecast

1985 Honda CR-X

Photo: WS Mart Diecast

Acura NSX

Photo: WS Mart Diecast

I put this theory to practice again earlier today and walked out of a store that piled up quite a few 2023 models. And now I've come home to see another new set for 2024. It just never ends. Mattel is well aware of how much the new generation loves Japanese cars. So, the J-Imports series is bound to register strong sales.Sure, it's not a premium set , so there are no Real Riders wheels here. But with a lower price, it will have higher volumes and potentially more profit for the company. But that's not the point I'm trying to make here. As with most new sets, the community has mixed opinions. Some are mad about it and don't want to see recolors upon recolors.Others will buy these regardless, and I've even heard people who want them for the card art. As for me, I've spotted one or two models inside that I'd like to have on display. But scalpers will probably buy all the sets before I think about it. That's what usually happens with these themed assortments.Mark Jones designed the '68 Mazda Cosmo Sport casting for its 2020 Car Culture debut. Until 2023, this was a Premium-exclusive model with two iterations on the market. We saw two variations last year: the basic Orange model and the Spectraflame Orange Super Treasure Hunt.The latter looks great and can cost anywhere between $30 to $100. By comparison, the new J-Imports variation does not look very appealing. The new Cast 5-Spoke rims are arguably better than the Retro Slow Wheels. But Mattel gave up on the two-tone paint job in favor of an all-orange body and a white stripe running down the middle. We can always wait for the next model.I'm sure Skyline fans will be all over this one. The Jun Imai-designed casting debuted in 2011, so you're looking at the 21st iteration of the Hakosuka. Even though I'm a rotary enthusiast, I'd choose this item over the Cosmo. Some might look at it and say: "But Dragos, this is very similar to the 2015 HW Road Trippin' iteration!"And I agree, it has a similar red finish and livery. But the decals are different, and the new item has detailed taillights. Are the Star 5-spoke rims better than the old Manson Cheung 5-spoke ones? I'll leave that decision up to you. One thing's certain: anyone who started collecting Hot Wheels in the past two or three years and loves Skylines will likely consider buying this car.And the best car of the new set award goes to the '81 Toyota Starlet KP61. This Mark Jones-designed casting has only been around since 2021 and has been a Premium-exclusive model up until now. I regret not buying either of the first iterations, but all is not lost. Even without the Real Riders wheels, picking this new variation up is a no-brainer.Mattel's choice of going with a seafoam finish is attractive and suits the classic look of this '80 legend. When I see this car, I always think about Steve "Stiggy" Evans and Teruyoshi Iwai; they are two of the most well-known drifters to have ever used the chassis. With any luck, we'll see an extra Mainline iteration of the Starlet by the end of 2024.Ryu Asada designed both the 1985 CR-X and the '88 CRX castings, and I prefer the latter. The '85 model appeared in the 2012 The Hot One series and featured an attractive red and chrome finish. The new variation draws inspiration from the 2013 Boulevard CR-X, minus the Real Riders wheels.I'm not into the new Plus 4-spoke rim design, and I'd vote for the CR-X as the worst item in the upcoming J-Series mix. The car looked infinitely better with the Aerodisc wheels, as proven by the past two iterations. But other collectors might disagree.Kevin Cao designed this version of the Hot Wheels Acura NSX , a replica of the famous GT500 machine. Since 2008, we've only had three epic iterations of this machine. The first two were part of the 2010 Speed Machines series and had Co-Molded 6-spoke wheels. The latest one appeared in the 2016 Car Culture: Race Day, sporting a Yokohama Advan livery.I still regret selling this one, but I can always get another if I conclude it's necessary. We have been in the dark for three years about this race-ready NSX. Mattel didn't develop any new variation, so it's an unexpected appearance for most. The livery is excellent; there is nothing to complain about here. But the P4 wheels remind me of the dreaded TRAP5 model, which I hated passionately.I wish Mattel would use this casting for the 2024 Super Treasure Hunt line-up and treat it to some Real Riders wheels. If not, I might have to buy it and learn how to perform custom wheel swaps. Which one of the five new collectibles is your favorite? And please let me know if you're as appalled about the P4 wheels as I am or if I'm overreacting here.
Golas, clay cooking vessels from Tunisia, sit beside a drink at San Francisco restaurant Gola. Felix Uribe/Special to the Chronicle Gola owner Rafik Bouzidi stands outside his restaurant. Even though I cannot go back to Tunisia as often as I want to, I want to have these flavors with me, he said. Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle

For chef Rafik Bouzidi, opening San Franciscos only Tunisian restaurant and highlighting traditional Tunisian cooking vessels were points of pride. He even named the restaurant Gola after the clay pots, which nomads used to carry water and meals through the desert for thousands of years. Bouzidi planned to use them to roast entrees like halal lamb with vegetables, or tomato stew with seafood, then place the filled vessels on customers tables for serving, as is customary.

Its all a part of me, Bouzidi said. Even though I cannot go back to Tunisia as often as I want to, I want to have these flavors with me.

But nine months after opening, Bouzidi has still not been allowed to use the 180 golas he imported at significant expense from Tunisia because they havent been approved by San Franciscos Department of Public Health.

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Bouzidi, who previously ran a Tunisian restaurant called La Marsa in Union Square, said the golas he originally imported cleared a test for lead when examined by Department of Public Health inspectors. However, inspectors did not ultimately approve the golas for use due to their ridged interior, which would make cleaning them difficult.

So Bouzidi found a potter to smooth out their interiors, which left the pots in need of a new glaze. In a June email the Chronicle obtained through a public records request, a health inspector asked Bouzidi to provide a lab test or study to prove the safety of the pots. The inspector later asked to take a gola to inspect with department equipment.

Bouzidi responded weeks later that he hadnt yet found someone to smooth out and reglaze his golas.

Its exhausting, its time-consuming and it has put my plans on the shelf, Bouzidi said of the monthslong process of finding a way to serve with his golas.

Gola owner Rafik Bouzidi inside his restaurant on Valencia Street. He has tried to use his signature cooking vessels since opening, but has not yet been permitted to do so. Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle

In late July, Bouzidi informed inspectors he had found a ceramicist at nearby Red Brick Ceramic Studio willing to work on his golas. They made three pots coated with a zinc-free clear glaze from the brand Amaco. An inspector took a gola the following day, telling Bouzidi it would take some time to evaluate.

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Bouzidi said he has produced 20 reworked golas so far. The process has cost him around $1,000; he estimates redoing the rest of his stock will cost him another $8,000. Each 20-count batch of reworked golas takes around a week and a half to produce, when his ceramicist has oven space, and involves triple glazing the golas at temperatures over 1,100 degrees.

While Amacos website has a food safe marker on the zinc-free glaze used on Bouzidis reworked golas, inspectors had lingering questions about the glaze, including its levels of cadmium (which is linked to cancer in recurring levels of exposure above acceptable thresholds) and its food safety after firing in a pottery oven. So the health inspector contacted the manufacturer about the safety of the product directly. (Bouzidi told an inspector he found a document from the manufacturer saying the glaze in question had no hazardous substances.)

In an October exchange, a company representative told a health inspector the companys food-safe and dinnerware-safe glazes are not tested for cooking. Ultimately the Amaco representative did not recommend anyone cook in them.

UC Davis food science and technology Professor Erin DiCaprio explained that any chemical that could be added to food and isnt in the FDAs group of safe ingredients would need to be reviewed for food and safety concerns. Most of the chemicals on the approved food additive list have thresholds of use, meaning an upper level of dose that cannot be exceeded or there may be health concerns, DiCaprio wrote in an email.

When asked if improper glazing poses any risks to restaurant customers, a California Department of Public Health spokesperson said it did not have that information, and recommended consumers check manufacturer information about respective product risks and uses. California requires a Proposition 65 warning on products with chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive harm through regular exposure. The warning can appear on products like furniture treated with flame retardants, metal jewelry made with cadmium and even home dinnerware.

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Bouzidi recognizes city staff members are doing their due diligence. Part of the difficulty with the golas is that inspectors have never seen such a vessel. I understand this is new to them, he said.

Tunisian dishes at Gola on Valencia Street. Despite his inability to use golas, chef-owner Rafik Bouzidi says he is proud of his accomplishments and cuisine. Felix Uribe/Special to the Chronicle

In a statement, a San Francisco Department of Public Health spokesperson told the Chronicle that the department follows the California Retail Food Code, which has requirements for the design and construction of all food equipment and utensils. SFDPH advises restaurants to go to an accredited certification program, such as the American National Standards Institute, to ensure that new food equipment or utensils are safe.

Long before opening, working with golas was a challenge for the restaurant. Bouzidi previously told the Chronicle the already monthslong process of importing his golas from Tunisia faced delays. Once his shipment landed at a Southern California port, Bouzidi drove through a winter storm to bring them into his Mission District restaurant.

People were asking me what the name of the restaurant was going to be, but I couldnt tell them when I didnt even know if the golas were going to be here, he said in April, just days before opening.

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Bouzidi originally planned on baking food in his golas at a low temperature, and continues to look for a way to safely serve in golas as he originally intended. Not being able to use golas has forced him to offer alternatives like lamb braised with turmeric peppers and a vegetable mosli, which is similar to a Moroccan tagine.

While the restaurant and the health department continue seeking a solution, Bouzidi said hes proud of the work hes already done at Gola. Fellow Tunisians and several diners have provided him with lots of positive feedback. OpenTable recently added Tunisian cuisine in its filters after Bouzidi tried to break away from the very general Mediterranean label.

Naturally, he still gets questions about the golas. In the past four months, almost every diner has asked about it, Bouzidi said, still hoping for a resolution. In the end, if Im not able to use the golas, at least I tried.

This story has been updated to include that Bouzidi told a health inspector he found a document from the glaze manufacturer saying the glaze in question had no hazardous substances. It has also been corrected to reflect the fact that Bouzidi still hopes to cook with and serve food in his golas.
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One of them, and for good measure, was for the best performance across the mid-size pickup truck segment  where the outgoing Tacoma dominated with almost 235k sales. While it didn't get to over 237k like in 2022, the performance is impressive nonetheless when everyone knew  at least during the second part of the year  that an all-new N400 Tacoma was coming to market in December.The Tacoma king was followed from a long distance by Chevrolet's all-new Colorado, and together with the ritzier GMC Canyon, they registered 93,539 mid-size pickup trucks in the home market last year. Interestingly, the third mid-size pickup truck on the list got the bronze medal with another dramatic decrease in sales  a little over 58k versus over 76k units were delivered from Nissan to Frontier clients.The big drops can be attributed to the existence of the best-selling Ford Maverick compact pickup truck, which probably chipped away some sales from the mid-size establishment . So, what could the Japanese automaker Nissan do to claim the second place from Chevy's Colorado? Well, the V6-exclusive Frontier could ditch the legacy powertrain in favor of something more sustainable  such as an inline-four turbo mill with electrification and combat the Tacoma i-Force Max with a Frontier Hybrid, for example.That's not Nissan talking, though  but the imaginative realm of digital car content creators instead. In fact, the good folks over at the AutomagzPro and Q Cars channels on YouTube have thought about making Nissan cooler and more sustainable - at least in CGI form  not only with a Frontier Hybrid but also with the next-generation (Y63) Armada Hybrid three-row bigFirst, the resident pixel master from AutomagzPro has dreamed of the 2025 Frontier getting dressed for the new model year with a subtle redesign that aims to keep it fresh  though most changes are relegated to the rear, which is kind of quirky for a mid-cycle facelift. On the other hand, the host wants it to unofficially come out with a hybrid powertrain  clearly a direct jab at the upcoming 326-hp Toyota Tacoma i-Force Max.Secondly, the CGI expert from Q Cars has spent some time envisioning the next Nissan Patrol oh, sorry, I meant Armada. Well, they're now one and the same, so excuse my (intended) confusion. Anyway, to help it prevail in the landscape of full-size three-row SUVs, the host also imagines the next generation will arrive with a hybrid powertrain instead of today's 5.6-liter VK56VD V8. So, what do you think  and which one is your favorite?
This was a land speed record-breaker. It was the pride and joy of Sunbeam. It had aircraft engines, it had the streamliner silhouette, and it was painted in red. It came with all the credentials that would throw it straight into the spotlight and into history. Now, almost 80 years since those engines last started, the car is being restored with the help of a fundraising campaign.

Photo: National Motor Museum

Photo: National Motor Museum

Photo: National Motor Museum

HP

Land Speed Sunbeam 1000 hp was The Slug. It was actually the ironic and affectionate tag for the car that was specifically designed to break the land record. The model saw the light of day in the Sunbeam factory in Wolverhampton. It was powered by two aircraft engines that were set to make it travel at over 200 mph (322 kph). It may not sound like much by today's standards. But back then, it was a massive innovation.Those engines are a pair of Sunbeam Matabele aircraft units, which had previously been used in a powerboat. They had a capacity of 22.4 liters and generated 435 horsepower each, which was below 900 horsepower. But the name of the vehicle was always accompanied by the more spectacular '1000 hp' line.One of the power plants was installed in front of the driver, and another one found room behind him. The rear one started first by compressed air. The one at the front roared to life through a mechanical friction clutch. Once they would synchronize, they would be locked together with a dog clutch.The last time the wheels of the Land Speed Sunbeam span was during a demonstration at Brooklands. The model only ran on a single engine at a very low speed. That was all it could do. Today, it resides at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, a village in England. But it is far from what it used to be nine decades ago.British automobile engineer John Samuel Irving designed the car. His team and soon everyone else called him Captain Jack Irving upon his request. He came up with the all-enveloping bodywork that gave a helping hand to aerodynamics.The model was fitted with specially made tires that were capable of withstanding that huge speed of 200 mph. But there is always a 'but.' Those tires could only resist for three and a half minutes at such a high speed.Even though it could flash over land, the model was not entirely innovations. Captain Jack Irving also brought in somewhat of a primitive mechanism. A pair of chains connected the final drive to the rear axle.The development of the vehicle was overshadowed by controversy. In preparation for the record attempt, it was speculated that racing driver J.G. Parry-Thomas had been decapitated when such a chain that his car, Babs, was fitted with, broke at speed on March 3, 1927. But the investigation of the recovered wreckage showed that the rear right-hand wheel had failed and caused Babs to overturn.Furthermore, during the process of restoration, it was found that the first scenario based on speculation could have simply been impossible. The chains were enclosed under an armored steel case. Most likely, Parry-Thomas was killed as a result of the injuries he sustained during the rollover at more than 100 mph (160 kph).The driver was buried in St. Mary's Churchyard in Byfleet, Surrey, not far from the Brooklands Circuit. Babs was buried in the dunes at Pendine Sands, where the accident had taken place, and everyone thought that the story would end right then and there.But the car was controversially excavated out of its sand tomb 42 years later, in 1969, and ended up in the hands of Welsh automobile restorer and mechanic Owen Wyn Owen, then a member of the Bangor University. He ignored all the criticism and worked on what was to become his most famous and ambitious project ever.Meanwhile, the car was on display at the Pendine Museum of Speed until the demolition of the venue in 2020. After a new restoration process, it returned to the spotlight at the new Sand of Speed Museum. But the mechanicals still needed thorough work.Meanwhile, the Land Speed Sunbeam was going through its own process of restoration. The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu managed to reach the 50,000-pound ($63,781 at the current exchange rates) mark with its campaign. A special fundraising event will take place on January 27, and all proceeds will go into making this record-breaker run once again.The museum is seeking further financial support to get to the next stage of the restoration. It is the stage where the team will finally fire up the engines that last ran before World War II. Attacked by corrosion over these past eight decades, they are going to need a lot of work to spin back to life.The team's target is to take this car to Daytona, in the United States, for the centenary of its record from 2027. They also want to take it on a tour across Europe and America, display it in museums, schools, colleges, and universities, and everywhere it might make a crowd buzz around it. Because this car has quite a story to tell.The Sunbeam 1000was the first non-American car to compete on Daytona Beach for Aland speed record attempt. It broke the record on March 29, 1927, with Henry Segrave at the helm. It hit 203.79 mph (327.97 kph) and became the first car to go over the 200 mph (320 kph) barrier.
The second recall concerning the Grenadier Station Wagon in less than a month is probably going to put a few prospective customers off. But on the other hand, bear in mind that INEOS Automotive is a relatively new automaker funded by London-based multinational corporation INEOS Group Limited.

Photo: INEOS

NHTSA

Previously recalled for a relay control wire that may short circuit, the sport utility vehicle is also prone to steering rod ball joint disconnection. 61 vehicles are recalled in total, namely 2023 to 2024 models produced at smart's former plant in France between May 17, 2023 and December 4, 2023. As it happens, the steering rod ball joint may disconnect from the steering knuckle due to plant workers installing non-locking nuts instead of the correct oval lock nuts.Back in December 2023, the British automaker became aware of reports involving two Grenadier vehicles with loose steering rods. Prior to said reports, the company received a report alleging a lost drag link during off-road driving. These incidents prompted INEOS to investigate vehicles still under the manufacturer's control, identifying a single vehicle in which a non-locking nut was installed at the steering rod ball joint instead of a locking nut.INEOS determined that the non-locking nut had been torqued to the appropriate value, but nevertheless, the design of a non-locking nut makes it possible for said nut to loosen over time. This, in turn, could result in excessive vibration, noise, and steering free play. Given these circumstances, the automaker determined that a safety-related issue does exist in a grand total of 61 vehicles imported to the US of A 5 of them had been delivered to customers, with said customers to be informed via first-class mail on January 26 about this honest mistake. Changes were made to the assembly process on December 7 to ensure the problem would not resurface ever again.Dealers were instructed on December 29 to inspect and  if necessary  replace the steering rod ball joint nuts. According to documents filed with the federal watchdog, the affected VIN range begins with SC6GM1CA0RF010858 and ends with vehicle identification number SC6GN3CAXPFP10148. It should be highlighted that potentially affected vehicles were not produced in sequential order.This, in turn, means that you're better off running the 17-character VIN on the's website to determine whether your Grenadier is recalled or not. The service is completely free. Alternatively, owners can contact their preferred dealers or get in touch with INEOS Automotive Americas at 1-919-296-3626.A body-on-frame 4x4 as opposed to the Defender, which is a unibody since 2019, the Grenadier is closer to Land Rover's lineup than some people might think. For starters, the ZF-supplied 8HP torque-converter automatic is also used by the L663-gen Defender. The Grenadier uses inline-six engines from BMW, whereas the Defender comes with either a JLR-designed I6 or a soon-to-be-discontinued V8. The Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, on the other hand, use BMW's 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8.In due course, it's likely that the Defender's 5.0-liter supercharged V8 will be replaced by the BMW plant. INEOS isn't expected to elevate the Grenadier to V8 muscle, partly due to emission regulations and partly due to the automaker's intention to launch an electric 4x4 in 2026. To be produced by contract manufacturer Magna Steyr in Austria, the yet-unnamed model is smaller than the Grenadier.
EV

ICE

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That and its ability to conquer the automotive world with its view that an-exclusive lineup can survive in this-centric realm. Now, as we look back to 2023, we see that Tesla actually delivered on its promises in many ways  the completely overhauled Model 3 Highland got launched in Asia and Europe, with America to follow soon; the first Cybertrucks have reached their intended customers; the S3XY plus Cybertruck may just be the most American-made automobiles; new software came through; and after significantly stepping up its manufacturing game, the five millionth Tesla was produced.Interestingly, there's also one last thing to consider  and it's perhaps the most important thing of all time for the automotive industry: last year, the Tesla Model Y outsold Toyota's Corolla (1.06 million to 1.01 million units), according to Focus2Move's 2023 Bestselling Car Ranking to become the world's best-selling car. That's not just America or Europe; that's virtually everywhere! Keeping that in mind, 2024 could be another landmark year for the American company headquartered in Texas.This is because everyone and their mother expects more Cybertrucks to come out of the factories to fulfill the pent-up demand, for the Model 3 Highland to reach US shores  possibly with its own Plaid version, and for Tesla to introduce the redesign of the Model Y, labeled Project Juniper! Well, if we are to believe the rumor mill, there's already confirmation that Model Y will receive a facelift, as a facelifted crossoverwas captured somewhere in China.As always, do take all this with a grain of salt because nothing is official just yet, and also because there are people who question the legitimacy of this leak from CocheSpias and blogger Road Car. While the black Tesla Model Y looks exactly like anyone would expect it with Model 3 Highland changes like the slimmer LED taillights and the reworked headlights (plus a few other details like the lack of fog lights), some people think the warping present in the alleged leaked images is not due to the camera's limited capabilities but rather because it's AI-generated.So, what do you think? Is this the real deal, and a Tesla Model Y Juniper is coming out this year with subtle yet easy-to-recognize updates to the exterior and interior? Or is this coming from the imagination of someone who knows how to use AI software and just wants their five minutes of Tesla fame? Anyway, that also means that the Tesla Model Y update is one of the most anticipated new vehicles expected to come out later this year alongside ICE-powered stuff like the Corvette ZR1 or EV-morphed nameplates like the Dodge Charger.
With 2024 starting, global transport-related industries are one step closer to the 2040 net-zero target. One of the most impressive achievements in the new year is The Port of Virginia officially becoming the first one on the US East Coast to be powered exclusively by clean energy.

Both shipping and leisure cruising are betting on new-generation, green ships in order to meet the requirements for sustainable maritime transportation in the coming decades, but it takes more than that to lower emission levels significantly. Infrastructure plays a key role, and in 2023, we'll see more and more ports around the world adding green features in support of cleaner maritime operations.At the beginning of 2024, the Port of Virginia is writing history as the first major port on the East Coast to use only clean energy to power all of its operations. The most remarkable part is that it's eight years earlier than the targeted deadline for this achievement, which had been originally planned for 2032. This could also speed up the journey to full carbon neutrality way before the global 2040 deadline.The 100% clean energy will be used to power the Port of Virginia's fleet of electric equipment , which includes 116 stacking cranes, four rail cranes, and 27 ship-to-shore cranes. And this is just the beginning, as this innovative fleet will continue to grow. In the future, the Port plans to operate 152 stacking cranes, 31 ship-to-shore cranes, and seven rail cranes, all of them electric.Port authorities have stated that the switch to clean energy will result in 45% fewer emissions per container. The areas that were mainly targeted for cutting emissions are the equipment exhaust and the electricity that's supplied to all the port buildings  these are known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, respectively.In addition to harnessing clean energy, the Port of Virginia is also promoting sustainability by supporting an offshore wind farming project. It's pumping more than $200 million into a new hub at Portsmouth Marine Terminal (PMT), which aims to become the first offshore wind logistics hub on the US East Coast, another industry first.This is part of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project by Dominion Energy, which is claiming to be the largest of its kind in the US (a wind farm with 176 units).The Port of Virginia's milestone and its ambitious wind farm-related projects are moving the US closer to clean energy pioneers such as the Nordic countries. The Port of Gothenburg , the largest Scandinavian port, has already implemented several innovative measures for sustainability and plans to become the premiere methanol hub in the region.Norway is also closer to banning cruise ships running on conventional fuel from entering its fjords. Not even LNG, currently being used to power the newest cruise ships from the largest global operators, will be accepted in Norway's fjords starting in 2026. American ports are far from being that drastic , but seem to be moving in the same direction.
Although many consider the Cybertruck to be Tesla's most significant achievement in 2023, there's another model that has garnered even more interest. The refreshed Model 3 was launched in Europe and Asia in September and is now eagerly awaited in the US. If rumors prove true, the American Highland will start sales soon, with an official announcement in the coming weeks.

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Believe it or not, the revamped Model 3 arriving in Europe and Asia has kept more people attached to their devices' screens than the Cybertruck . This has been somehow unexpected, considering that Tesla's electric sedan has been less popular in the past years. People all over the world are now bigfans, and this explains why the Model Y is now the bestseller, far outnumbering the Model 3.However, last year's refresh has hit a chord with customers and fans. From the first Model 3 Highland leaks, it was clear that the revamped model is set to regain some of its former fame. With the updated Model 3 launched in Europe and Asia, the interest in Tesla's electric sedan is higher than ever. The fact that new owners mainly reported good things about the new Model 3 buoyed its popularity.This is also true in the US, where Tesla still sells the old Model 3. The original model looks dated compared to the one sold in Europe, and this is why everyone is eagerly awaiting the American Highland. Judging by the increased number of prototypes spotted in the US, the moment is near. Fresh rumors indicate that Tesla might make the official announcement in the coming weeks. According to a Redditor who claims to work at Tesla, this is planned to happen before Sunday, although we should take this with a grain of salt.Tesla is preparing to hold its quarterly earnings call on January 24, this being a good moment to let anyone know that the refreshed Model 3 has arrived in the US. If it decides to make the announcement earlier, or even make it a silent event, as it happened in China and Europe, it remains to be seen. What we know is that Tesla is already building the Model 3 Highland at its factory in Fremont. The VIN on a previously spotted prototype revealed as much.There's further proof that production at Fremont is well underway, although we don't know how advanced this is. Unlike the blue prototype in the previous report, where everything looked very well put together, this white prototype has visibly misaligned body panels. The pictures and a video shared on Reddit claim to be from a white Model 3 produced at Fremont, with the VIN decoder showing it's a Model 3 RWD. Based on the VIN, it's a 2024 build, as opposed to the Blue one, which had a 2023 VIN.In this case , the tailgate doesn't have the Chinese lettering that was present on the other Fremont-made prototype. One thing to note is that the amber reflectors in the headlights seem to be smaller than on previously spotted prototypes. This has been a major talking point in the US since the European version doesn't have them, but US regulations require them.
Getting stuck while off-roading is never a pleasant experience, particularly if you're soloing off the beaten path. There are a number of tips and tricks to get one's vehicle unstuck from such predicaments, with said T&Ts kicking off with the most essential of things like proper tires and proper tire pressures.

Portable Tow Truck Portable Traction Mats

Photo: Portable Tow Truck

BUNKER INDUST Foldable Traction Mats

Photo: BUNKER INDUST

Reliancer Roll-Up Tracks

Photo: Reliancer

STEGODON Traction Boards

Photo: STEGODON

OULEME Traction Boards with Jack Base

Photo: OULEME

ALL-TOP Mini Traction Boards

BUNKER INDUST Traction Boards

Photo: BUNKER INDUST

ORCISH Traction Boards with Jack Base

Photo: ORCISH

BUNKER INDUST Traction Boards with Jack Base

Photo: BUNKER INDUST

Rough Country Traction Boards

Photo: Rough Country

X-BULL Gen 3 Traction Boards

Fieryred Traction Boards

Photo: Fieryred

DV8 Offroad Traction Boards

Photo: DV8 Offroad

Pinto GoTreads Folding Traction Mats

Photo: Pinto

Rhino USA Traction Boards with Jack Base

Photo: Rhino USA

Smittybilt Element Ramps

Photo: Smittybilt

Maxsa 20322 Escaper Buddy Metal Gripped Traction Boards

Photo: Maxsa

BUNKER INDUST Traction Boards with Steel Plates

Photo: BUNKER INDUST

MAXTRAX MKII Traction Boards

Photo: MAXTRAX

4WD

ARB TRED Pro Traction Boards

Photo: ARB

Reseating a tire bead with a flammable substance (think starter fluid) also needs to be mentioned, along with an off-road bumper outfitted with a winch. The question is, what if you don't own a true 4x4 such as the Jeep Wrangler, Toyota Land Cruiser , and so forth? In this case, you'll need the right kind of tires and  at the very least  a pair of traction boards.Compatible with both regular cars and body-on-frame overlanders, traction boards come in either rigid or flexible guises. Easy to transport due to their compact dimensions, traction boards facilitate your vehicle's recovery in many scenarios. Be it sand, rocks, wet grass, mud, snow, and pretty much anything in between, these devices provide additional traction. Rigid boards can also be used as impromptu shovels to dig sand away from the driven tires.When it comes to snow, also consider creating two snow tracks in front of the traction boards, with said tracks acting as a runway once you regain traction. Airing down the tires also helps because this increases the tire's footprint, which  in turn  spreads the vehicle's weight over a larger surface area. That said, let's go over the best traction boards for off-road recovery and emergency use available in 2024, beginning with an affordable set of traction mats.Not intended for serious off-road scenarios, the portable traction mats from Portable Tow Truck are roll-up traction devices that cost much less than a towing service. Especially useful if you live in the Northeast, these mats are foolproof as well.Engage the parking brake, wedge the traction mats under the vehicle's drive wheels, apply throttle, get to safer ground, and that would be that. Do make sure that the small, angled cleats face the vehicle's tires. Also important is making sure the "This Side Up" markings face the direction in which you need to move.Hailing from Spokane in Washington State, the peeps at BUNKER INDUST offer a variety of recovery devices, including foldable traction mats. Each mat is 10.23 inches (26 centimeters) long folded. Not recommended for mud, these mats are made of low temperature- and UV-resistant polypropylene.36.3 inches (92.3 centimeters) long unfolded, the BUNKER INDUST foldable traction mats feature wear-resistant teeth. Not as sturdy as traction boards due to their design, these extremely compact mats should be more than adequate for emergency use. At the moment of writing, the mats cost $49.99 on Amazon. You can knock $10 off the aforementioned price upon approval for the Amazon Store Card.Boasting 0.15-inch galvanized steel connecting cables, the Reliancer roll-up tracks are constructed of thermoplastic rubber. Incorrectly described as being indestructible, said tracks can support up to 7 tons, which is 15,432 pounds in the imperial system. The anti-skid textured surface offers a firm base against slippery, unstable ground. Suitable for any kind of passenger vehicle, Reliancer's devices measure 31.5 inches (80 centimeters) by 8.6 inches (21.8 cm).Rolled up, they measure 9 inches (22.8 centimeters) in length, 6.6 (16.7) in width, and 5.6 (14.2) in height. Reliancer sweetens the deal with two carrying bags for easy storage in your vehicle's trunk or bed. Especially good for snowy and icy conditions, these roll-up tracks aren't adequate for boggy mud.Available in red, orange, and black, STEGODON traction boards can accommodate vehicles no heavier than 10 tons or 22,046 pounds. Designed to bend at up to 130 degrees, the boards are made of reinforced nylon and weigh 10.36 pounds (4.7 kilograms). Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars, these boards double as digging shovels. The thinner ends, however, may put some customers off due to durability concerns.According to an Amazon customer who bought a set in 2020 and didn't use the boards until 2022 to free their Toyota 4Runner from sand on two separate occasions, "the tip of one of the boards developed two very minor cracks after the second use." However, at $59.99 with free delivery, it's hard to beat the STEGODONs in terms of value for money.OULEME tractions boards may cost a bit more, but as you can tell from their design, these boards are more versatile than the STEGODONs due to their jack base function. The board center accommodates both round and square jacks, providing a stable base for said jacks on soft or uneven terrain.Made of high-density polyethylene in China, the boards can withstand temperatures as low as -30 degrees Fahrenheit (-22 degrees Celsius). Although the manufacturer didn't offer any weight rating, an Amazon customer did use OULEME traction boards to get their articulating loader out of soft soil without any cracking on the spade-shaped ends.In case of limited trunk space, ALL-TOP is much obliged to sell you a set of mini traction boards. How mini is mini, though? As opposed to 41.7 inches (105.9 centimeters) for the OULEME, these babies measure 22.6 inches (57.4 centimeters) in length.Listed with a rather impressive load capacity of 22,000 pounds (9,979 kilograms), the boards can be had with mounting screws and nuts. ALL-TOP mini traction boards are available in black, gray, and orange. They're currently priced at $69.99 on Amazon, including the mounting kit. If you don't need the mounting kit, that would be $49.99 for the pair.Contoured for both on- and off-road tires, BUNKER INDUST traction boards feature strengthened teeth, a double ramp design, and four mounting holes. Each board measures 38.38 by 12.9 inches, meaning 97.48 and 32.76 centimeters. The manufacturer promises 120-degree bending without fracture thanks to "engineering-grade reinforced nylon," although there are customers who experienced cracks or worse.There's no denying that better traction boards do exist, but even the most expensive traction boards will crack or break due to repeated usage. Speaking of which, would you spend $69.99 on these or pony up four to five times more for a more premium set of boards from a well-known brand such as ARB?Made of automotive-grade polypropylene, ORCISH traction boards can be had for as little as $83.99 at the moment of reporting. Out of 1,192 reviews on Amazon, the average rating is 4.6 out of 5 stars because they're super versatile and super tough.Amazon user Rebecca B. owns a GMC Sierra 3500 pop-up camper truck, which she recovered by herself multiple times using ORCISH traction boards. She also built a bridge using two sets, leveled her rig while camped, used them as a walkway in the mud, and recovered other trucks. Despite this abuse, "they have not broken, and the nubs are still on them."The latest generation of BUNKER INDUST traction boards flaunt an interlocked diamond array that allows the boards to be bent to 120 degrees without giving up the ghost. Weighing in at 14.7 pounds (6.7 kilograms) per pair, they can withstand up to 10 tons on level ground. Emphasis on level ground.The bottom adopts the same interlocked diamond array as the top, and  unless you're into hardcore overlanding  these $87,99 boards certainly fit the bill. One customer used them twice in the winter of 2022  2023 with no cracking whatsoever, whereas a different customer got his Ford F-250 Super Duty with 35-inch tires unstuck from wet mud.Backed up by a lifetime replacement warranty, Rough Country 's traction boards are made from a high-density material and feature prominent studs for increased traction. Gifted with a ramped end for easy entry and exit, the Rough Country traction boards are advertised as "a great first line of defense in any recovery scenario," including snow and ice.Each set includes an RC-branded carrying case. Similar to the BUNKER INDUST traction boards from earlier, these pricier boards are rated at 10 tons on flat ground. 45 inches (114.3 centimeters) long, the RCs weigh 12.8 pounds (5.8 kilograms).Slightly more expensive than the Rough Country boards, X-BULL Gen 3 traction boards will set you back $107.90 for the pair. But as opposed to the RCs, these boards come with a 12-month warranty. Available in a choice of nine finishes, the boards are advertised with a bending angle of 90 degrees and operating temperatures of -4 F (-20 C) to 140 F (60 C)."This is the second snow season for me with the tracks," one customer wrote on Amazon back in January 2023. "I have rescued at least three cars and one 2WD truck that was stuck in snow with them." A different customer used X-BULL traction boards to get a school bus unstuck from a shallow ditch, which is a testament to how durable these boards are.Yet another brand you probably haven't heard of, Fieryred appears to have taken inspiration from ARB for this set of reasonably-priced traction boards. As opposed to the $328 ARB TRED Pro, the Fieryred traction boards cost three times less. Exclusively black with orange teeth made of high-strength nylon, the traction boards can bend up to 140 degrees.44.69 inches (113.5 centimeters) long, each board can be securely mounted to your vehicle thanks to 18 keyholes. Only 2 percent of 198 ratings are 1 star, whereas 71 percent came from customers who rated these boards 5 stars. The most relevant of the bunch is from a customer who got his Class A two-wheel-drive motorhome out of soft sand. "Later that weekend, we actually helped a Ford F-250 that was stuck in some dunes. They also worked for him."Arizona-based DV8 Offroad is one of the most respected off-road equipment manufacturers out there. It should come as no surprise that DV8 Offroad traction boards are relatively expensive at $139.99 for the pair, but then again, these well-designed boards won't disappoint you in off-road scenarios.Available in black, red, green, and olive, said traction boards feature a built-in jack base. Stackable to save cargo space, DV8 Offroad traction boards can withstand the industry-standard 10 tons of compression. Mounting holes enable mounting on an off-road rack. DV8 Offroad currently offers bed racks for the Jeep Gladiator and 2005 to 2023 model year Toyota Tacoma at $699.99 or a two-piece universal bed rack for full-size trucks at 1,099.99 bucks.Manufacturer in Kansas by a family-operated company, the Pinto GoTreads rolled out in 1991. Advertised as the original folding traction tool, the Pinto GoTreads can be used as traction mats or leveling blocks. Made of polypropylene copolymer, which is more durable than homopolymer polypropylene, these mats are rated 4.4 out of 5.Be it a snowy parking lot, a muddy road, a sandy beach, or an unpaved campsite, you can't go wrong with these folding mats. Better still, the folding design also means that GoTreads fit behind the rear seats of a two-door Wrangler. However, bear in mind this traction tool isn't meant to bridge gaps.Rhino USA traction boards also come from an American-owned, family-operated company. 90 cents pricier than the GoTreads, the Rhinos are compatible with tires as large as 44 by 12.50 by 15 inches (as found on custom-built overlanders). For reference, the most you can go with the F-150 Raptor from the factory is 37 by 12.50 by 17 inches.Made in China rather than the United States of America, the Rhino USA traction boards can be stacked to cross washouts and creek beds. Each set includes two retrieval leashes, yet mounting hardware needs to be purchased separately.Smittybilt Element Ramps are held in high regard by off-road enthusiasts. The high-traction surface can get your vehicle out of any type of loose terrain, with each ramp supporting up to 7,700 pounds (3,493 kilograms). Made of heavy-duty nylon reinforced plastic, the Element Ramps retail at $156.24.Beefy and flexible, Smittybilt Element Ramps were used by Class 11 racer Dennis Hollenbeck in the San Felipe 250, Baja 500, and the far more prestigious Baja 1000. "We used these countless times when we got stuck in the sand or silt," said Hollenbeck.The Maxsa Escaper Buddy is also rated highly, regardless of model. 20322 stands for metal grips that provide additional grip to get your vehicle out of any tough spot. Made in Taiwan, the 20322 model is more compact than the Escaper Buddy Heavy Duty, XL, and Connectable siblings. The XL is listed with 59 inches (149.8 centimeters) to its name, whereas the 20322 measures 34 inches (86 centimeters).The 20322 is tapered at both ends to shovel away sand from the stuck tires, and the heavy-duty construction ensures high-impact strength. Other highlights include treads on both sides and raised tracks that prevent the tires from spinning out.These traction boards were clearly inspired by the 20322, yet level up on the 20322 with steel plates for both ends. They're also much longer at 47.24 inches (120 centimeters), and BUNKER INDUST further waxes lyrical about replaceable teeth. Compatible with a wide range of jacks, the steel-plated traction boards are wide (14 inches or 35.5 centimeters), which prevents sinking in soft ground or fine sand.They're not exactly cheap, though. At $199.99 on Amazon, you could get four sets of BUNKER INDUST foldable traction mats for the same money. Be that as it may, the mats in question play second fiddle to the boards in extreme off-road scenarios.The Aussies know a thing or two about driving through inhospitable terrain. Despite being equipped with traditional recovery equipment, MAXTRAX founder Bary McCarthy almost lost his vehicle to the incoming tide on a fateful day in 2001. The Australian company's original traction boards rolled out in 2005, winning24/7 magazine's award for best new product under 500 bucks. Australian, that is, meaning 335 freedom eagles.The MKI traction boards have been superseded by MAXTRAX MKII traction boards, which are rated at 4.9 stars out of 5 on Amazon. Offered with a lifetime warranty and large cleats that sink their teeth into the tire tread and terrain under the boards, the MKIIs measure 46 inches (116.8 centimeters) and tip the scales at 17 pounds (7.7 kilograms). The MKII won Best New Product at the 2010 SEMA Show.Similarly priced to the MKIIs, the TRED Pro traction boards from Aussie brand ARB are manufactured in Australia as well. These boards feature EXOTRED construction, which refers to flexible yet tough nylon for the board and glass-filled resin for the teeth.Coming with a lifetime guarantee, TRED Pro traction boards are rated at up to 9,900 pounds (4,491 kilograms). Weighing in at 18.08 pounds (8.2 kilograms), the ARBs are said to outperform any other traction aid in the market. Truth be told, it's really a toss-up between these and the MKIIs.
The supreme head of the church also urged Armenians to close the ranks to counter Azerbaijan's expansionist ambitions and encroachments as he celebrated a Christmas mass at the Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan.

Let us eliminate artificially created gaps between us, let us live with love for each other so that the vineyards of our nation and homeland will be brightened with heavenly blessing, he declared in his Christmas message read out during the liturgy boycotted by Armenias leadership.

Garegin said that those divisions, coupled with complicated geopolitical events, contributed to Azerbaijans September 2023 recapture of Karabakh that forced the regions practically entire population to flee to Armenia.

In such manner, Artsakh remained alone during the days of disasters. Armenians from Artsakh were forcibly displaced from their homeland and became homeless, he said.

Garegin went on to praise the more than 120,000 Karabakh Armenian refugees for coping with their ordeal with heroic and unbeatable spirit and dignity.

Artsakh will never become a past for us, he said. We will continue to cherish it in our hearts and souls, making every effort to protect the rights of Artsakh Armenians. Stay full of hope, God will provide you and give blessings for the hardships you have endured. You are not alone in your difficulties.

The Catholicos similarly spoke of a relentless pain of immense losses in our hearts resulting from the occupation and depopulation of Artsakh in his New Years Eve speech which was controversially not aired by Armenian state television run by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians loyalists. By contrast, Pashinian made no direct mention of the loss of Karabakh in his address to the nation.

Pashinian as well as members of his government and political team were again conspicuously absent from the Christmas mass, underscoring their discord with the Armenian Apostolic Church. The tensions rose further in October when Garegin blamed Pashinian for Azerbaijans September 19-20 military offensive in Karabakh.

The church earlier repeatedly condemned Pashinian for recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh. The premier accused the church of meddling in politics in May 2023, prompting a scathing response from Garegins office.
8 January 2024 10:36 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Ganjiyeva

The Azerbaijani MP, born in once-occupied Garabagh, says that the four-century-old Shah Abbas mosque in his native village has been destroyed by Armenian invaders. In a post on his X page, MP Vugar Bayramov notes that, despite this gruesome fact, the USCIRF remains indifferent to this atrocity.

The post reads:

As a child, I used to visit the Shah Abbas Mosque near our village. This four-century-old mosque was destroyed and used by Armenians as a pigsty during the Armenian occupation. Why was USCRF never worried about the fate of 403-year-old historical and religious monuments destroyed during the occupation?

As a child, I used to visit the Shah Abbas #Mosque near our village. This 4-century-old mosque was destroyed & used by Armenians as a pigsty during the #Armenian occupation. Why @USCIRF never worried about the fate of 403 #Azerbaijani historical & religious monuments destroyed pic.twitter.com/3KLv69lpxD  Vugar Bayramov (@BayramovMP) January 7, 2024

Recall that on January 4, 2024, the United States Department of State issued a statement adding Azerbaijan to its Special Watchlist of countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom and require close monitoring, a classification that potentially opens the countries to sanctions from the U.S. government.

Releasing his annual index of designations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kept all 12 countries that had been on the previous year's blacklist: Burma, China, Cuba, the DPRK, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
China trains high-quality farmers for rural revitalization

People's Daily Online) 13:37, January 08, 2024

High-quality farmers play a crucial role in driving comprehensive rural revitalization. In 2022, China trained 753,900 high-quality farmers, according to a report.

New farmers possess cultural knowledge, technical expertise and management skills, making them a dynamic force in driving rural development.

Statistics indicate that the Chinese government has invested 18.29 billion yuan (about $2.56 billion) in recent years to support training programs for nearly 8 million people.

In 2022, the proportion of high-quality farmers who obtained agricultural technical titles and national vocational qualifications increased by 6.64 and 3.46 percentage points respectively, compared to 2021.

A technician operates an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for plant protection during an activity organized by the local government to demonstrate agricultural machines in Caigongzhuang Township of Jinghai District, north China's Tianjin, June 11, 2023. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

The workforce was strengthened with the inclusion of college and vocational school graduates, as well as returning migrant workers.

Meanwhile, new digital-powered agricultural tools continue to emerge.

Bi Lixia is a renowned grain grower, as well as the head of a professional cooperative specializing in high-yield rice cultivation in Jianli city, a county-level city in central China's Hubei Province. Her cooperative has built a smart farm.

Bi stated that the utilization of advanced equipment, including a digital agricultural machinery management center, ground Internet of Things (IoT), visualized cloud platform, Beidou automatic navigation, and unmanned driving systems have facilitated the shift towards digital agriculture.

In order to accelerate the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas through digital empowerment, upgrading rural infrastructure and enhancing the digital literacy of farmers are essential," explained Hu Yongwan, executive vice president of the Central Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School.

Hu emphasized that training content, including the use of mobile applications, agricultural e-commerce, and smart agriculture, has been integrated into the curriculum to cultivate high-quality farmers.

Over 220 million farmers nationwide have received training on mobile application skills, with 18,900 of them trained as livestreaming hosts. The "Smart Agriculture on the Cloud" app, a national agricultural science and education cloud platform, has brought access to over 8,400 online training courses that cover a wide range of agricultural industries.

Liu Guizhong, director of the Agriculture and Rural Committee of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, said that Chongqing has partnered with Tencent to launch an agricultural tool project that focuses on training talents in practical skills. The city plans to conduct 200 training sessions for rural digital talents over the next five years, with the goal of cultivating over 20,000 new digital farmers.

"The lack of development leaders, industry pioneers, and policy experts has been identified as the key reason for the sluggish development in certain rural areas. Highly skilled farmers play a vital role in integrating individual farmers into modern agriculture," said Hu.

In 2022, 71.76 percent of highly skilled farmers actively assisted neighboring farmers by providing agricultural technical guidance and participating in agricultural product sales. This marked a significant increase of 6.72 percentage points compared to the previous year.

In 2022, the Department of Science, Technology, and Education of China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs introduced a funding project for agricultural vocational colleges. The primary objective of this project is to provide support for rural revitalization efforts.

As part of this project, 100 renowned courses taught by distinguished teachers have been made available to these colleges.

Nationwide, agricultural broadcasting and television schools enrolled 41,000 students in agricultural vocational education in 2022, with a total enrolment of 65,000 students.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Kylie-Ayn Kennedy uses WineDirect to ring up orders at Bay Grape in Oakland on Dec. 29. The wine bars owner has reported issues with the point-of-sale system. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Stevie Stacionis calls Nov. 2, 2023, the day of the dead. That was the day the point-of-sale systems at her Oakland and Napa wine bars, Bay Grape, stopped working. Employees couldnt log in to the system, called WineDirect, to take customers payments. It threw their operations into chaos.

It was, however, not the first time Bay Grape had issues with WineDirect. For months, Stacionis had been complaining to the Napa Valley-based company about system errors that resulted in unprocessed and duplicate transactions, lost employee tips and thousands of dollars in misreported sales.

Its a living nightmare, Stacionis said. I feel like Im in an abusive relationship and I cant get out.

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There is perhaps no technology that Bay Area restaurants and bars are more reliant on than point-of-sale systems, provided by companies like Square, Toast and Clover. A major, nationwide Square outage in September, which forced businesses to turn away customers or in some cases shut down for the day, laid bare long-simmering frustrations. Restaurateurs pay these companies for their most essential operations, from credit card transactions and online ordering to payroll. Many say they are satisfied with the overall quality of the services, and theres a huge appeal for small businesses to a streamlined technology that makes it easy for customers to order, pay and tip for food in person or online. But when the technology fails, restaurant operators are at its mercy.

WineDirect Chief Marketing Officer Andrea Smalling said an issue with the companys system last fall caused temporary problems for some customers, including Bay Grape, but that they have since been resolved. Square referred to its public statement on the September outage and said the company is taking steps to protect against these sorts of issues in the future.

The owner of Bay Grape in Oakland and Napa says frequent glitches in its point-of-sale system cause significant disruptions for the business. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Stacionis switched Bay Grape to WineDirect last year after feeling unsatisfied with other POS companies. WineDirect, which works with wineries, was more expensive (it takes 1% of Bay Grapes gross sales and $200 a month per location). But she was willing to pay more for what was billed as an integrated system that manages sales, wine clubs and inventory in one place.

But within a few months, things started going wrong, Stacionis said. Payments were declined for no apparent reason. The subtotal would go through but not the tip, resulting in unpaid gratuities for employees. The shops tap-to-pay technology (which allows people to pay with the tap of a phone or credit card) and its card chip reader frequently malfunction, Stacionis said. Frustrated customers often leave, or staff have to type in credit card numbers manually, she said.

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In October, Stacionis realized thousands of orders from previous weeks had been listed by WineDirect as pending, causing confusion over whether the sales had been processed and her business had received the money. (She ultimately confirmed they had after manually going through each order dating to mid-September.)

Bay Grape reported these issues to WineDirect, according to emails provided to the Chronicle. Customer service representatives regularly responded and often said they were rolling out upgrades or would investigate further. Posts on WineDirects website have acknowledged and apologized for issues, including pending and failed transactions. WineDirect is also rolling out a new platform with a significantly improved POS, Smalling wrote in an email to the Chronicle.

Kylie-Ayn Kennedy serves customers at Bay Grape in Oakland on Dec. 29. The business has struggled with its point-of-sale system. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

When Square went down for about 15 hours starting on Sept. 7, restaurants across the Bay Area were thrown into disarray. At Fava in Berkeley, co-owner Sylvie Calierno started writing down orders by hand and taking cash. There and at many restaurants, customers without cash left. Fava couldnt receive any online orders, resulting in more lost sales.

Calierno and other restaurateurs received most of their information about the outage from texting each other or checking social media rather than from direct communication from Square, whose customer support they said is generally lacking.

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The dip in revenue that day at Fava was noticeable. Its the difference between that week being profitable and not, Calierno said.

A spicy chicken flatbread sandwich is shown at Fava in Berkeley, which was impacted during a major Square outage in September 2023. Cesar Hernandez/Cesar Hernandez/The Chronicle

Square later said the outage was caused by a software update that prevented our systems from properly communicating with each other, and also left its troubleshooting and support services temporarily unavailable.

We apologize for letting you down and for the length of time it took for us to get our systems back up and running, Square wrote in a Sept. 11, 2023, statement.

Many restaurateurs called on Square to reimburse them for sales lost during the outage. Square did not answer a question from the Chronicle about whether it considered doing so in this case or any previous outage. Toast, for its part, has previously issued credits to businesses that lost revenue during outages, including in December 2020 and twice in 2022.

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POS companies typically charge restaurants for their hardware, monthly subscription fees for software and take a cut of their sales. Boichik Bagels, which has five Bay Area locations, for example, pays Toast $2,000 a month in software fees plus 2.49% in processing fees for standard transactions and 3.5% for online orders.

Assistant kitchen manager Victor Calzada Sanchez slices bagels at Schloks in San Francisco in 2022. Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle

Zack Schwab uses Toast at the three San Francisco businesses he co-owns: cocktail bar the Snug, bagel shop Schloks and restaurant Little Shucker. While he said hes pretty pro-Toast, there have been enough issues over the years that theyve installed backup technology in case the point-of-sale system fails. Schloks, which relies heavily on online ordering, for example, keeps handheld mobile devices for cashiers and pays for a backup internet source. POS companies offer an offline mode to allow businesses to take payments during an outage, but owners said it doesnt always work. A Square spokesperson said its expanding its offline payment capabilities. (Toast declined to comment for this story.)

When youre going to accept the benefits of this complex technology, I just think you have to be realistic that there are downsides and there are outages. I think its on both parties to anticipate things are going to malfunction, Schwab said.

Schloks relies on Toast not only for transactions, but also payroll; takeout and delivery; catering; and menu, invoice and inventory management. Theyre not alone, as companies like Toast and Square have expanded beyond point-of-sale technology into services like marketing and banking. (Toast and Square now offer as much as $300,000 loans to restaurants.) This makes it even harder to switch to a competitor, owners said  and doing so is a major project that requires time and resources strapped restaurateurs dont have.

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Theyve convinced us to go more and more in bed with them, Schwab said.

Staff work to fill online and walk-up orders during the morning rush at Boichik Bagels in Berkeley in 2021. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

To Boichik Bagels owner Emily Winston, Toast offers the best hardware and functionality. She now has a dedicated customer support representative, which she attributes to some complaining and Boichiks growth from one to five busy stores. But she cant help but feel unsettled by what seems like a power imbalance with the company.

This came to the fore last summer, when Toast rolled out a 99-cent order processing fee for customers, sparking widespread backlash. Toast quickly axed the fee, and then-CEO Chris Comparato resigned two months later.

What concerns me the most is how Im effectively stuck with them for the indefinite future. They can just decide to raise their fees at any time, or impose new ones, Winston said. Im very much at their mercy.

Last falls Square outage made the owners of Ediths Pie in Oakland think seriously about moving to another POS company. But ultimately, they stayed.
8 January 2024 20:44 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

The new year began with a note of protest and an announcement from Washington that Azerbaijan is on a special list of countries and under special surveillance, fearing religion. Having failed to justify their actions, the US authorities, apparently under pressure from the Armenian lobby, decided to resume their anti-Azerbaijani rhetoric. Azerbaijan is known worldwide for its commitment to tolerance. The culture of its Turkic ancestors, as well as its faith, was founded with deep love and spiritual equality with other religions.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, by adding Azerbaijan to the "black list" of countries in the freedom of religion, added gravity and problems on the way to signing a peace treaty with Armenia. This action by Blinken is a gesture of lies and propaganda to reduce the pressure of the Armenian lobby on him, as well as on most of the congress and candidates for the US presidency. Having gradually lost the support of the American people in the presidential race, the administration of President Joe Biden is trying to gain the support of the Armenian lobby in 6 states. In turn, the Armenian lobby is not satisfied with the fact that the Biden administration has not given "due" support to Armenians on the issue of the return of "Artsakh" and its residents.

One of the authors of the report presented by the head of the US Department of State is Daniela Ashbakhyan, a representative of the very nation whose "religious values" and "feelings" are allegedly "belittled" and "insulted" by Azerbaijan.

Every year on November 16 Azerbaijan celebrates the International Day of Tolerance, established in 1995 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of UNESCO.

Today, not only churches and synagogues but also numerous Christian and Jewish religious educational institutions operate freely in Azerbaijan without any obstacles. The Azerbaijani State provides them with the necessary support within the framework of the law. Azerbaijani people have always, not only in the East but all over the world, been and still are characterised by a specific tolerant attitude towards different religions and religious-philosophical trends.

Armenian lobby receives support from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a consequence of the unjustified inclusion of Azerbaijan in the "black list" of countries in the freedom of religion. Earlier, such cases, based on Azerbaijan's experience, were handled by Armenian lobbies around the world, in condemning and accusing Azerbaijan, of encroaching on other people's property and appropriating it for themselves. Publishing the annual list, the Secretary of State retained all 12 countries blacklisted last year, including China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Aware of the kinship of the "Hai's" with India, Blinken declined to include India on the blacklist.

The only change, Azerbaijan was added, and the reaction of the Armenian nationalists who want to take "revenge" is not surprising, they demand to lead the "sanctions".

As a "Christian" country, America defends separatists who destroyed churches, mosques, and synagogues during the First Garabagh War and the following decade. State Secretary Blinken turns a blind eye to the desecration of Synagogues in Yerevan as well as other weighty and provable cases.

It is also worth recalling that the Armenian Church and Armenians continue to exist in Azerbaijan.

Certain separatist groups use religious elements of faith to justify their activities, often terrorists.

In that context, it is very important to establish a dialogue between cultures and religions to preserve the cultural diversity of human civilization, and the experience of countries and regions with strong traditions of tolerance and religious tolerance is instructive in that regard. In this respect, Azerbaijan is a unique example of the peaceful coexistence of many ethnic groups and religious beliefs.

The roots of this tradition go deep into history: the land of Azerbaijan was inhabited by Jewish settlers who fled the plundered kingdom of Judah after the capture of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (586 B.C.). According to historical sources, there were up to 40000 captives in Babylon at that time.

In the middle of the first century AD, the first followers of Christianity fled to Azerbaijan, laying the foundation for the subsequent establishment of the independent Albanian Church. The emergence of Islam further strengthened the tradition of religious tolerance in the ancient lands of Azerbaijan. Islamic tolerance was based on the Holy Quran's verses that "there is no compulsion in religion / la-ikraha fid-din -Holy Quran: 2/256".

According to numerous testimonies of historians, in the seventh and eighth centuries, Muslims treated followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism with respect and tolerance. The West's double standards towards Azerbaijan are not new, and such actions have always come from personal gains in achieving world order.

Surprisingly, Secretary of State Blicken did not pay attention to the recent Nazi procession in Yerevan, as well as the cold-blooded attitude to the mass burning of the Holy Quran in the countries of the "crusaders". We know that the minions of "order out of chaos" wanted to lead the world to religious war and a new crusade, provoking the Islamic world by burning the holy book of Muslims. The US authorities are well aware of the state of religion in Azerbaijan, and of its relations with Armenia, and despite this continue to act on the weight of a bag of gold.

"Jew-hatred has no bounds: the few Jews left in the Armenian capital continue to be persecuted, culminating, after several deliberate arson attacks on the country's only synagogue, in a neo-Nazi march in the city center, unimpeded by authorities or police," writes The Jerusalem Post journalist Mark Fish.

On the first of January, a serious incident took place in the Armenian capital, which has a small Jewish population, where a group of neo-Nazis paraded through the streets of Yerevan carrying flags with stylised swastikas and chanting derogatory slogans against "enemies".

The movement in question is the Husnak movement, a nationalist movement whose website praises Hitler and contains anti-Semitic cartoons, as well as articles calling for the deportation of Jews and for "exposing their activities towards children." More than a month has passed since news spread around the world of the second arson attack on Armenia's only synagogue in a matter of weeks by local anti-Semitic organisations

According to reports published on social media, the same young neo-Nazis organised a march to the memorial of Garegin Nzhdeh, who was a Nazi collaborator (and whose birthday falls on January 1). A bouquet of flowers was laid at the memorial.

The Jewish community is outraged that the Armenian authorities have not taken any action against the "shameful acts and against the extremist group that has raised its head." Furthermore, the Jewish community representatives added that the police did not stop the march or summon any of the participants for questioning, and in all likelihood, given what has been happening in the country recently, they should be quite satisfied with these actions.

Moreover, no one has been arrested for attempting to set fire to the only synagogue in the country. According to media reports, a group calling itself the "Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia" has threatened attacks against rabbis and Israelis around the world and praised Hamas and Hezbollah since the 7 October massacre.

Let's fix the Secretary of State's two-facedness, duplicity, and disguise by the fact that despite these aggressive actions against Jews and other nations, the Secretary of State still added Azerbaijan to the "watch list" and not Armenia.

Let us also remind about Vladimir Poghosyan, a former advisor to the Armenian Armed Forces, who made anti-Semitic statements and said that he helped Hamas and Hezbollah to kill Jews.

"I will shout to the whole world about the just killing of Jews." In addition, he claimed that Jews have no right to exist because, in his words, "you are jackals who should be completely exterminated." He also made some serious statements, including that Israel was lucky not to be helping Hamas and Hezbollah: "I would have killed 100,000 Jews."

There are streets named after Garegin Nzhdeh, a Hitlerite general sentenced to execution by the Soviet court, in Agarak, Aparan, Artik, Ashtarak, Burastan, Byuravan, Dvin, Goris, Mrgavan, Mrgavet, Nshavan, Sisian, Stepanavan, Vanadzor, Verin, Artashat and Yeghvard. In Armenia, an entire village is named in Nzhdeh's honor.

The state has done nothing to stop it.

The new year may go down the path of war, and it is also possible to prevent all this and achieve peace, but as long as there are double standards and corrupts bending the law, the road to achieving peace in the South Caucasus and the world at large will not be easy.

---

Abbas Ganbay is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @Noend33

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8 January 2024 17:16 (UTC+04:00)

Nigar Hasanova Read more

Although there is great potential for the export of processed hazelnuts in Azerbaijan, the country mainly exports shelled hazelnuts to the countries of the European Union and Russia. 60-70 percent of hazelnut production in Azerbaijan is organised by small farmers, and hazelnut orchards are a secondary source of income for them.

According to Azernews, this is stated in the report titled Green Energy Opportunities in the Hazelnut Value Chain in Azerbaijan of the Partnership and Coordination Office of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Azerbaijan.

The report says that 95 percent of the production mainly falls in the Sheki-Zagatala region. This region has fertile land for the production of hazelnuts, and activities in these two regions strongly influence and shape the country's hazelnut market. Besides, the hazelnut market in the country was less developed until 2015. Small entrepreneurs employed outdated methods in hazelnut cultivation, leading to subpar productivity.

In addition, the organisation of hazelnut processing in the country was lacking. State programs have been implemented to boost production and exports in this field. Hazelnut farming is considered a lucrative industry that can contribute to the country's economy.

The document also mentions that not all hazelnuts produced in Azerbaijan go through every stage of the value chain.

"In 2021, 67,630 tons of hazelnuts were produced in the country, 56% of which were sold by farmers directly to processors, 22% were directed to the local market, and 12% used them themselves," the report says.

It should be recalled that in the 11th month of 2023, Azerbaijan exported 21 thousand 382 tons of hazelnuts, the value of this amount of hazelnuts was 111 million 528 thousand US dollars. Compared to the same period in 2022, these are 2 thousand 391 tons ( 12.5% ) more in terms of volume and 14 million 43 thousand US dollars ( 14.4% ) more in terms of value. The total area of hazelnut orchards in 2021 was around 73.3 thousand hectares, of which 94 % is owned by farmers, and the remaining 6 %, i.e. 4.25 thousand hectares, belongs to commercial organizations.

---

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8 January 2024 16:51 (UTC+04:00)

Nigar Hasanova Read more

The full restoration of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and the country's sovereignty within international legal boundaries creates the first real chance for it to sign a peace agreement with Armenia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which Ukraine can only dream of.

According to Azernews, German journalist Thomas Fassbender mentioned it in his article "Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict: peace and two wars after 30 years?" published in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.

"After decades of tension, including two wars since the collapse of the USSR, Azerbaijan-Armenia relations have a chance to establish real, sustainable peace. It was a long and bloody road," he stressed.

The German journalist added that hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their homes as a result of the conflict.

T. Fassbender noted that there are new opportunities in the South Caucasus region:

"The initial situation is not so bad. "Azerbaijan, which is very superior militarily, carried out anti-terrorist measures in September of last year."

According to him, it is an undeniable fact that there is no basis for the rumours that Armenians were subjected to ethnic cleansing, because the representatives of the UN and Western countries, including the EU, stated that during these measures, the civilian population and infrastructure in the Garabagh region were not harmed. and Armenian residents of the region did not complain about it:

"The main motive of Armenian residents leaving Garabagh was probably concerns about the future. During the first Garabagh war, Azerbaijan was occupied by Armenia, that is, until 1994, at least 600,000 Azerbaijanis were forcibly displaced, and cities and villages were destroyed. "Azerbaijan returned these territories to its control only in 2020."

"The reason for the current cautious optimism is, first of all, the restoration of Azerbaijan's national sovereignty within the framework of international legal boundaries. By the way, Ukraine can only dream of this at the moment. But there are obstacles to this," he said.

The journalist emphasised that the Zangazur Corridor, which is one of these obstacles, should not be ignored.

"In 2020, after the Second Garabagh War, in the three-way cease-fire declaration, Armenia undertook to ensure unhindered transport links between the rest of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Given the current lack of mutual trust between the two countries, the implementation of such a corridor is likely to be difficult. At least this is what it looks like from the outside."

He believes that the corridor is not the only obstacle in this matter.

"Azerbaijan would like that nearly 200,000 Azerbaijanis who were forced to flee from Armenia to Azerbaijan after 1988 could return to their homeland. In turn, Baku points to the possibility of returning Garabagh Armenians to Azerbaijan."

---

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8 January 2024 10:19 (UTC+04:00)

According to the training plan for 2024 approved by the Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, a session of the command staff of the Azerbaijan Army is being held, Azernews reports.

In theoretical and practical classes, the knowledge, skills, and drill training of the servicemen involved in the session will be checked on the organisation and conduct of modern combined arms.

Participants knowledge of military regulations, guidance, and other normative legal documents will be inspected, and they will conduct shootings from small arms.

The session is focused on increasing the theoretical knowledge and professional level of the officers on unit management, improving their decision-making skills, and studying the capabilities of newly adopted weapons, equipment, and devices.

---

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8 January 2024 16:04 (UTC+04:00)

Nigar Hasanova Read more

The Azerbaijani delegation will participate in a winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to be held in Strasbourg on January 22-26, Azernews reports.

At the opening of the session, the Assembly will elect its president and vice president. The agenda of the session will include recent developments in the Middle East, the situation of children in Ukraine, and allegations of systemic torture in Europe.

Debates on recent developments in the Middle East, including Hamas attack on Israel and Israels response, allegations of systemic torture in places of detention in Europe, and countering SLAPPs as an imperative for a democratic society will be among the highlights of the 2024 PACE Winter Session. A request has also been made for a debate under urgent procedure on the situation of children in Ukraine.

The Presidents of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, and Montenegro, Jakov Milatovic, as well as the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein, Daniel Risch, will address the parliamentarians. Liechtensteins Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education, and Sport, Dominique Hasler, Chair of the Committee of Ministers, and Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric will present their communications to the Assembly and will take questions from members.

Also on the agenda are debates on globalisation in times of crises and war and the role of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) after the Russian  Ukrainian war, with the participation of OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, the theme of migration and asylum in the election campaign, and the prevention of child abuse in institutions in Europe.

The Assembly will adopt its final agenda at the opening of the Winter Session.

---

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8 January 2024 17:37 (UTC+04:00)

Nigar Hasanova Read more

Polling stations have already been launched in the liberated territories. These stations serve as exemplars for others, given the intensive construction activities underway in these regions, Azerbaijan's CEC Chairman Mazahir Panahov said.

According to Azernews, Mazahir Panahov highlighted the ongoing efforts of the Central Election Commission in outfitting these polling stations.

"The process will be concluded today, ensuring these stations are fully prepared for the voting," the CEC chairman added.

It should be mentioned that earlier, Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Mazahir Panahov informed journalists about the efforts are currently being made to clarify the voter lists in the liberated territories. In previous interviews, he noted that more than 23,000 constituents are set to exercise their voting rights at 26 polling stations in the liberated territories. Each polling station is expected to accommodate around 800-900 voters.

Azerbaijani citizens who were not included in the lists of their designated polling stations can seek resolution by approaching the CEC, according to Mazahir Panahov.

---

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8 January 2024 09:00 (UTC+04:00)

The US Department of Defense kept information about the hospitalization of Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin from the White House for three days, Azernews reports, citing the Politico newspaper, citing officials.

According to the information, representatives of the White House learned about the hospitalization of the head of the Pentagon, which happened on January 1, only on Thursday, January 4, which "came as a shock to senior management, including Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Jake Sullivan."

"It shouldn't have happened like this," one official said. "A large, very large part of the leadership did not know about this," another source added.

Pentagon officials told the newspaper that even senior officials of the US military department did not know about Austin's condition until the official statement of the press service on Friday. According to one of the ministry's representatives, they were informed that the Pentagon chief would work from home for a week.

Later, department spokesman Patrick Ryder explained that the delay in Austin's hospitalization application occurred for several reasons.

"The situation was developing, and we had to take into account several factors, including medical and confidential issues," Politico quoted him as saying.

Austin was hospitalized on January 1 due to complications from a recent medical procedure. He has now returned to his duties.

---

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8 January 2024 12:55 (UTC+04:00)

Elnur Enveroglu Read more

Do you know Macron? Hes a very nice guy, said the Republican before describing a conversation he had with the French head of state.

The French daily publication Le Figaro has published footage in which former US President Donald Trump imitated French President Emmanuel Macron during a rally on January 5 in Mason City, Iowa.

Donald Trump imite Emmanuel Macron lors d'un meeting dans l'Iowa

https://t.co/dlF3WpLnUG pic.twitter.com/7gEcMwZe2u  Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) January 7, 2024

According to the publication, the American billionaire seemed to allude to trade tensions between France and the United States in 2019 over the French tax imposing 3% of the turnover generated in France on digital giants, including GAFA such as Google, Amazon, or Facebook.

It should be noted that the Trump-Macron friendship was once at such a level that even all the headlines in the media praised them with envy. After the incident in 2019, a sudden rift began to appear between the couple. For some reason, Macron, who was always supported by his American counterpart Donald Trump, criticised him at the side event held within the framework of the 70th anniversary of NATO. Macron discredited Trump's management ability in NATO and expressed the facts that will cast a shadow on his leadership.

Although Trump has always been prone to arguments and even squabbles with his colleagues, and Macron is one of the several heads of state to break up with him, the relationship between them caused an uproar in the media for a while.

The warm relationship that developed in 2017 cemented the Macron-Trump friendship even more with a kiss on the cheek at a White House meeting in 2018. These relationships had such an effect that it would be hard to imagine that such deep rifts would ever develop between them.

---

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8 January 2024 19:55 (UTC+04:00)

Official representative of the committee, Lee Song Jung, during a briefing stated that the provision of buffer zones in which artillery exercises are prohibited, prescribed in the inter-Korean agreement on reducing tension, is no longer being observed, Azernews reports.

"North Korea has violated the military agreement of September 19, 2018, approximately 3,000 times. In addition, she has been shooting on the west coast for three days. Because of this, the zone where hostile actions have been suspended no longer exists," Lee Song Joon said.

"Instead of reacting to enemy actions every day, our armed forces will conduct firing drills on the northwestern islands by their plans," he added.

In October 2023, the Minister of National Defense of the Republic of Korea, Shin Won Sik, reported that the DPRK had violated the inter-Korean agreement on reducing tension about 3,600 times. The agreement provides for the definition of areas where artillery shelling, naval exercises and aviation flights are prohibited. According to the Minister of Defense, since the signing of the treaty, the DPRK has demonstrated about 3,400 times the preparation of barrel artillery and embrasures for use.

Last November, the DPRK Defense Ministry announced that it would cease to comply with the agreement in full, as Seoul announced a decision to cease to comply with part of its provisions. The Republic of Korea refused to implement the agreements on no-fly zones in response to the launch of a reconnaissance satellite.

According to the ROK, since January 5, the DPRK military has conducted artillery practice firing at conventional naval targets for three consecutive days, shells exploded in the buffer zone, which is prohibited by the agreement. The South Korean side, commenting on the shooting, recalled that "hostile actions" are prohibited in buffer zones. On January 5, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Korea responded by conducting artillery training on naval targets in the buffer zone.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Janelle Bitker spearheads The San Francisco Chronicle's Food & Wine department. She joined the newspaper in 2019 as a food enterprise reporter, covering restaurants as well as Bay Area culture through a food lens. Previously, she served as a reporter for Eater SF, managing editor at the East Bay Express, and arts & culture editor at the Sacramento News & Review. Her writing has been recognized by the California Newspaper Publishers Association and Association of Alternative Newsmedia.

She can be reached at janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com.
8 January 2024 22:46 (UTC+04:00)

The Chairman of the National Council of the Supreme Assembly of Tajikistan, Rustam Emomali, who is on an official visit to Tehran, met with the head of the Islamic Council of Iran, Muhammad Bakir Ghalibaf, Azernews reports, citing press service of the Parliament of Tajikistan.

The sides noted the importance of increasing trade turnover between the two countries to $ 500 mln.

A wide range of priority areas for the development of cooperation between Tajikistan and Iran, in particular in the fields of industry, energy, transport, and tourism, were discussed at the meeting.

---

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Deeper Into Cannon Beach: History and Science Surprises of Oregon Coast Hotspot, Part I

Published 1/07/24 at 6:25 p.m.

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Cannon Beach, Oregon)  Everyone knows Cannon Beach as a cajoling and charming little hamlet on the north Oregon coast that is one of the region's biggest attractions. Any time of year finds the place packed on most weekends and even weekdays, and it hosts one of the state's most photographed rocky features. Among coastal burghs, it's kind of a rock star (and yes that's meant as a pun as well).

Its natural pleasures are copious and well known, and even Cannon Beach's hotels, other lodgings and eateries are part of the draw. (Above: the myserious lighthouse offshore / Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

Yet there's more beneath the surface here  quite literally.

This is part one of a deeper dive into the Cannon Beach area, checking out the curiosities of science and history that shape what you do and see. Beneath Famed Oregon Coast Town: Surprising History and Science of Cannon Beach Part II

Silver Point Above and Below. One of the most famed of viewpoints on the Oregon coast lies immediately south of town, called Silver Point. It's one of the more photographed spots in the state as well, framing iconic Haystack Rock in a unique composition of trees and a different angle.





Yet few know you can wander beneath this turnout, but you have to walk a ways from the southernmost beach access. This is where some of the town's coolest treasures lie.

There's a trippy sea cave inside the mini-stack of dark rock, which is never actually accessible. However, if tides get low enough and sand levels rise just right, you can get near it  as Tiffany Boothe of Seaside Aquarium did here. She snagged the sweet money shot of wild tidepool action.





Geologically, this spot is a bit mind-blowing. Look at those huge grooves carved in the cliff face and you may think Ice Age movement. No, say local geologists. This area was once at the bottom of the sea, and those grooves come from currents ripping down it, like an underwater waterfall. See the full geologic story of Silver Point



Photo Jesse Jones / CoastWatch

Every once in awhile, sand levels get low enough in winter to show off the bedrock, which is itself some 18 million years old or so. This is what is actually beneath Cannon Beach the whole time you're walking on the sands. See ful story of Cannon Beach Bedrock / Oregon Coast Storms Reveal What's Beneath Cannon Beach at Silver Point

Haystack Rock's Fiery Origin Story. The massive, looming legend and icon of town actually has a bit of a scary tale behind it.





Some 14 million years ago or so, there was a massive hole in the Earth's crust in what is now Idaho, which in turn created lava flows so enormous they sizzled their way across 300 miles to the ocean and beyond, sometimes tens of feet high. The coastline was then several miles inland, but these lava flows were so powerful they plunged into sediment far offshore and then literally re-erupted at another location.

Called invasives, Haystack Rock was once part of a larger structure that came from this action. The rest of it eroded away, leaving the rock and its Needles.

A creepy factoid: that same hole in the crust is where Yellowstone National Park is now, and it will likely one day erupt again as a super volcano. Eerie Doomsday Connection Between Oregon Coast and Yellowstone

In case you didn't know: there are indeed three Haystack Rocks on Oregon's coast. The other biggie is in Pacific City and there's yet another in Bandon.



Tillamook Head by air

Lewis and Clark and Cannon Beach's First Review. It's fairly well known Clark and a few of the Corps of Discovery  including Sacegawea - journeyed from their ruddy temporary home of Fort Clatsop down to Ecola Creek in January of 1806, in search of blubber that local tribes were harvesting from a beached whale. There's a statue dedicated to this downtown at Whale Park.

What isn't so talked about is their leg cramp-inducing hike across Tillamook Head to its top, and what is now Bald Mountain. There was no trail then, and Clark had to pause for a moment to take in the scope of this march, feeling quite overwhelmed. But once he made it to the top, he was the first to document the soaring beauty of this spot that hikers for the last 100 years have relished so.

Clark raved about it, noting in those uniquely-stylized mispellings of the time that he could see the headland of Cape Disappointment (which the Corps named), and saying he "looked down with estonishment" at waves that crashed with ferocity. It was the Cannon Beach / Seaside area's first tourist review.

BONUS FACTOIDS: Just where did they film Goonies here in Cannon Beach? Filming The Goonies on N. Oregon Coast: at Astoria, Cannon Beach Yes, California backlots  and even a bit of Bodega Bay  were used in two-thirds of the movie. Yet The Goonies is regarded as an Oregon thing, a serious point of pride for residents.

Part two of this series looks into bunnies, puffins and some weird winter finds. Beneath Famed Oregon Coast Town: Surprising History and Science of Cannon Beach Part II

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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Golden Retriever Traumatized by Fall Off Oregon Coast Cliff, Rescued by Coast Guard Helicopter - Updated

Published 1/04/24 at 6:25 p.m. - Updated 1/04/24 at 7:55 p.m.

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Cannon Beach, Oregon)  [UPDATED WITH SECOND INCIDENT] ---- The U.S. Coast Guard came to the rescue of a bloodied and clearly traumatized golden retriever on New Year's Day after it fell some 300 feet off a hiking trail on the north Oregon coast. (Photo USCG)

There was also another golden retriever rescue incident documented by Oregon Coast Beach Connection several years ago.

The helicopter and its crew were sent out of the Astoria USCG station, responding to an area just beneath a steep cliff of Ecola State Park, next to Cannon Beach. The doggo, named Leo, needed retrieving himself and was visibly injured. Upon landing the aircraft, personnel gave Leo back to his owners, and the dog had to spend time at the vet getting treated.

The dog belongs to a couple from Forest Grove, who told the USCG: Leo stayed overnight at an emergency vet. He has a few cuts and bruises. All things considered, he is doing good. We are so thankful he is alive and expected to recover."

The USCG said it was an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew that conducted the mission.

Owners said Leo was last seen rushing past other family members on the trail and then disappeared. They soon spotted him below at this extremely dangerous spot. The tide was coming in, which also worried Leo's owners.

This section of the north Oregon coast is notorious for hikers slipping off the cliffs. It's also prone to landslides, and just months after a particularly massive landslide in the '60s, a young girl went missing for a few days in the debris. See Intense History at Oregon Coast's Ecola State Park: Murder, Landslide, Explorers



Photo USCG

Oregon Coast Beach Connection encountered another golden retriever rescue in Depoe Bay a decade ago. Photos below show the wet and traumatized doggo, which according to owners had chased a bouncing ball over the sea wall and wound up in the rough surf.

Bystanders nearby managed to rescue the goldie, although there were some tense moments as the owner sobbed on the bridge, watching a few attempts before they finally succeeded.

According to editor Andre' Hagestedt, who photographed the near-tragedy:

"Some stranger informs me that the woman's dog went bounding after its ball, and when the ball flew over the seawall  not far from the spouting horn  he went sailing over the wall, crashing into the rocks below and sliding into the ocean. This, as is typical of Depoe Bay, was no calm surf. It was broiling and somewhat angry, and all I could see were big waves slamming onto jagged rocks."

No dog was visible at that moment.

Within a minute or less, there were four people on the pathway below, one holding a big, soaking wet golden retriever. They're an adorable breed, full of crazed energy and plenty of impulse, and it's not hard to understand how the dog would hop over an obstacle chasing its ball. The problem was a gnarly ocean was waiting for him.



Oregon Coast Beach Connection

Somehow, somebody fished him out, and this is the aftermath. The poor litlle guy was a wreck. What you can't see here is he was shaking uncontrollably.

Also in Oregon Coast Rescue News:

Pacific City: N. Oregon Coast Rescuers Use Drone to Assist Surfer at Cape Kiwanda - Both surfers ended up safe on land. Various rescue agencies responded to Cape Kiwanda Beach at Pacific City on Tuesday at around 10:23 a.m., according to the Tillamook County Sheriff's office (TCSO). 911 operators had received a call that two surfers were getting pushed northward by swells and wind, bringing them too close to the rocks of Cape Kiwanda.

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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Pacific City: N. Oregon Coast Rescuers Use Drone to Assist Surfer at Cape Kiwanda

Published 1/03/24 at 4:05 p.m.

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Pacific City, Oregon)  [UPDATED] --- It's not every day that a beach rescue goes better than you thought it might.

Tuesday morning, rescue personnel on the north Oregon coast came to the aid of two stranded surfers around Cape Kiwanda, and ended up not having to endanger themselves to any large degree. The incident concluded with both surfers safe on land. (Photos courtesy TCSO)

Various rescue agencies responded to Cape Kiwanda Beach at Pacific City on Tuesday at around 10:23 a.m., according to the Tillamook County Sheriff's office (TCSO). 911 operators had received a call that two surfers were getting pushed northward by swells and wind, bringing them too close to the rocks of Cape Kiwanda.

Deputies arrived along with Tillamook Ambulance, Netarts-Oceanside Fire-Rescue, Nestucca Rescue and soon the U.S. Coast Guard. They found the two surfers out a little ways into the surf, and slowly edging to the more dangerous sections of the cape.

One of the surfers was able to ride a wave in safely to the beach, while the other was pushed further out, TCSO said on social.

The second surfer was still stuck out there, unable to make it in because of the elements. However, he was able to use hand signals to let responders on the scene know that he was not injured. He was also able to stay with his board, which helped his survival.

Crumbling Cape: Fencing Moved Atop Oregon Coast Landmark as Cape Kiwanda Sinkhole Dangers Grow - Geologists' report indicates it needed further safety measures.

The surfers were experienced and were wearing appropriate wetsuits for conditions, TCSO said.

Members of Nestucca Fire-Rescue launched a drone, which carried a personal flotation device that was ready to drop to the man if needed.

It was a long way around, but the man made it to the other side of Cape Kiwanda to the beach known as McPhillips Beach.

Responders lost sight of the surfer for a short period of the time, TCSO said. During the time, the surfer was able to paddle around the Cape and work his way toward Mcphillips Beach.

Nestucca Fire Chief Jim Oeder said the Coast Guard was activated but luckily not needed.

UPDATED: The surfer was tired but otherwise in good shape with no injuries. Little to no medical attention was needed and no trip to the hospital.

More on McPhillips Beach, and how this area around Cape Kiwanda was once studied for the placement of a nuclear plant. Cape Kiwanda Almost Had Nuclear Power Plant: Bizarre Oregon Coast State Park History

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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Ariella Morrow, a Los Angeles-area internist, fell into a deep depression and started drinking heavily after a succession of family traumas and a major professional setback. She finally sought help for alcohol dependence and depression at a clinic in Texas. Bernard J. Wolfson/KFF Health News

BEVERLY HILLS  Ariella Morrow, an internal medicine doctor, gradually slid from healthy self-esteem and professional success into the depths of depression.

Beginning in 2015, she suffered a string of personal troubles, including a shattering family trauma, marital strife and a major professional setback. At first, grit and determination kept her going, but eventually she was unable to keep her troubles at bay and took refuge in heavy drinking. By late 2020, Morrow could barely get out of bed and didnt shower or brush her teeth for weeks. She was up to two bottles of wine a day, alternating with Scotch whisky.

Sitting in her well-appointed home on a recent autumn afternoon, adorned in a bright lavender dress, matching lipstick, and a large pearl necklace, Morrow traced the arc of her surrender to alcohol: Im not going to drink before 5 p.m. Im not going to drink before 2. Im not going to drink while the kids are home. And then, it was 10 oclock, 9 oclock, wake up and drink.

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As addiction and overdose deaths command headlines across the nation, the Medical Board of California, which licenses physicians, is developing a program to treat and monitor doctors with alcohol and drug problems. But a fault line has appeared over whether those who join the new program without being ordered to by the board should be subject to public disclosure.

Patient advocates note that the medical boards primary mission is to protect healthcare consumers and prevent harm, which they say trumps physician privacy.

The names of those required by the board to undergo treatment and monitoring under a disciplinary order are made public. But addiction medicine professionals say that if the state wants troubled doctors to come forward without a board order, confidentiality is crucial.

Public disclosure would be a powerful disincentive for anybody to get help and would impede early intervention, which is key to avoiding impairment on the job that could harm patients, said Scott Hambleton, president of the Federation of State Physician Health Programs, whose core members help arrange care and monitoring of doctors for substance use disorders and mental health conditions as an alternative to discipline.

But consumer advocates argue that patients have a right to know whether their doctor has an addiction. Doctors are supposed to talk to their patients about all the risks and benefits of any treatment or procedure, yet the risk of an addicted doctor is expected to remain a secret? Marian Hollingsworth, a volunteer advocate with the Patient Safety Action Network, told the medical board at a Nov. 14 hearing on the new program.

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Doctors are as vulnerable to addiction as anyone else. People who work to help rehabilitate physicians say the rate of substance use disorders among them is at least as high as the rate for the general public, which the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration put at 17.3% in a Nov. 13 report.

Alcohol is a very common drug of choice among doctors, but their ready access to pain meds is also a particular risk.

If you have an opioid use disorder and are working in an operating room with medications like fentanyl staring you down, its a challenge and can be a trigger, said Chwen-Yuen Angie Chen, an addiction medicine doctor who chairs the Well-Being of Physicians and Physicians-in-Training Committee at Stanford Health Care. Its like someone with an alcohol use disorder working at a bar.

From pioneer to lagger

California was once at the forefront of physician treatment and monitoring. In 1981, the medical board began a program for the evaluation, treatment and monitoring of physicians with mental illness or substance use problems. Participants were often required to take random drug tests, attend multiple group meetings a week, submit to work-site surveillance by colleagues, and stay in the program for at least five years. Doctors who voluntarily entered the program generally enjoyed confidentiality, but those ordered into it by the board as part of a disciplinary action were on the public record.

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The program was terminated in 2008 after several audits found serious flaws. One such audit, conducted by Julianne DAngelo Fellmeth, a consumer interest lawyer who was chosen as an outside monitor for the board, found that doctors in the program were often able to evade the random drug tests, attendance at mandatory group therapy sessions was not accurately tracked, and participants were not properly monitored at work sites.

Today, doctors who want help with addiction can seek private treatment on their own or in many cases are referred by hospitals and other health care employers to third parties that organize treatment and surveillance. The medical board can order a doctor on probation to get treatment.

In contrast, the California licensing boards of eight other health-related professions, including osteopathic physicians, registered nurses, dentists and pharmacists, have treatment and monitoring programs administered under one master contract by a publicly traded company called Maximus Inc. California paid Maximus about $1.6 million last fiscal year to administer those programs.

When and whether the final medical board regulations are adopted, the next step would be for the board to open bidding to find a program administrator.

Fall from grace

Morrows troubles started long after the original California program had been shut down.

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The daughter of a prominent cosmetic surgeon, Morrow grew up in Palm Springs in circumstances she describes as beyond privileged. Her father, David Morrow, later became her most trusted mentor.

But her charmed life began to fall apart in 2015, when her father and mother, Linda Morrow, were indicted on federal insurance fraud charges in a well-publicized case. In 2017, the couple fled to Israel in an attempt to escape criminal prosecution, but later both were arrested and returned to the United States to face prison sentences.

The legal woes of Morrows parents, later compounded by marital problems related to the failure of her husbands business, took a heavy toll on Morrow. She was in her early 30s when the trouble with her parents started, and she was working 16-hour days to build a private medical practice, with two small children at home. By the end of 2019 she was severely depressed and turning increasingly to alcohol. Then the loss of her admitting privileges at a large Los Angeles hospital due to inadequate medical record-keeping shattered what remained of her self-confidence.

Morrow, reflecting on her experience, said the very strengths that propel doctors through medical school and keep them going in their careers can foster a sense of denial. We are so strong that our strength is our greatest threat. Our power is our powerlessness, she said. Morrow ignored all the flashing yellow lights and even the red light beyond which serious trouble lay: I blew through all of it, and I fell off the cliff.

By late 2020, no longer working, bedridden by depression, and drinking to excess, she realized she could no longer will her way through: I finally said to my husband, I need help. He said, I know you do. 

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Ultimately, she packed herself off to a private residential treatment center in Texas. Now sober for 21 months, Morrow said the privacy of the addiction treatment she chose was invaluable because it shielded her from professional scrutiny.

I didnt have to feel naked and judged, she said.

Morrow said her privacy concerns would make her reluctant to join a state program like the one being considered by the medical board.

Physician privacy vs. patient protection

The proposed regulations would spare doctors in the program who were not under board discipline from public disclosure as long as they stayed sober and complied with the requirements, generally including random drug tests, attendance at group sessions and work-site monitoring. If the program put a restriction on a doctors medical license, it would be posted on the medical boards website, but without mentioning the doctors participation in the program.

Yet even that might compromise a doctors career since having a restricted license for unspecified reasons could have many enduring personal and professional implications, none positive, said Tracy Zemansky, a clinical psychologist and president of the Southern California division of Pacific Assistance Group, which provides support and monitoring for physicians.

Zemansky and others say doctors, just like anyone else, are entitled to medical privacy under federal law, as long as they havent caused harm.

Many who work in addiction medicine also criticized the proposed program for not including mental health problems, which often go hand in hand with addiction and are covered by physician health programs in other states.

To forgo mental health treatment, I think, is a grave mistake, Morrow said. For her, depression and alcoholism were inseparable, and the residential program she attended treated her for both.

Another point of contention is money. Under the current proposal, doctors would bear all the costs of the program.

The initial clinical evaluation, plus the regular random drug tests, group sessions, and monitoring at their work sites could cost participants over $27,000 a year on average, according to estimates posted by the medical board. And if they were required to go for 30-day inpatient treatment, that would add an additional $40,000  plus nearly $36,000 in lost wages.

People who work in the field of addiction medicine believe that is an unfair burden. They note that most programs for physicians in other states have outside funding to reduce the cost to participants.

The cost should not be fully borne by the doctors, because there are many other people that are benefiting from this, including the board, malpractice insurers, hospitals, the medical association, said Greg Skipper, a semi-retired addiction medicine doctor who ran Alabamas state physician health program for 12 years. In Alabama, he said, those institutions contribute to the program, significantly cutting the amount doctors have to pay.

The treatment program that Morrow attended in spring 2021, at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, cost $80,000 for a six-week stay, which was covered by a concerned family member. It saved my life, she said.

Though Morrow had difficulty maintaining her sobriety in the first year after treatment, she has been sober since April 2, 2022. These days, Morrow regularly attends therapy and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and has pivoted to become an addiction medicine doctor.
Lots of (Delightful) Lighthouse Lies: Oregon Coast Lighthouse with the Tallest Tales

Published 1/03/24 at 2:25 p.m.

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Newport, Oregon)  It's partially age, it's partially just easy prey: lighthouses are ripe for a good ghost story. This is very true on the Oregon coast, especially at Newport's larger sentinel, the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Ghost tales swirl about it like, well, ghosts in an iconic, '80s comedy flick about spooks. It's the tallest in the state (93 feet), beating Port Orford's Blanco Light by a bit, and it has the tallest tales. (All photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

Speaking of which: they've all been ghost-busted. First, you have to believe in ghosts  and secondly then you have to buy into pre-internet viral misinformation (back then that was word-of-mouth). In fact, Oregon Coast Beach Connection was there when one biggie was debunked. Yet there's other tall tales about the place as well that history has seen fit to correct.

In the end, it's a quaint to quirky little journey through lighthouse history.

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse got its start in 1873, and the keeper's quarters was built just later that year. Immediately, one rumor comes creeping in about its beginning: it was not built in the wrong spot by accident. Rumor has it the light was intended to be built on Cape Foulweather, and that Foulweather had been misnamed Yaquina Head on the building plans. However, historians like James Gibbs and local filmmaker Scott Gibson have busted that one open for decades. See Yaquina Bay Lighthouse history

The most prominent spook story involves a lighthouse keeper named Higgins who supposedly got drunk, then fell and broke his neck on the spiral staircase. Another version has the man becoming deathly ill. Yet he was forced to work on the lens until he passed out and died, all due to the negligence of a co-worker who didnt attend to his duties. In any case, Higgins purportedly haunted the place thereafter, and his old coworker refused to go near the staircase at night for fear of running into the ectoplasmic Higgins.

Another story claims a construction worker fell to his death in between the layers of a wall while the building was being built. His corpse could not be retrieved, so the building was supposedly finished with his body still inside.

Those stories were eventually all shot down. The Bureau of Land Management, which now runs the lighthouse, spilled the beans about 2000 or so. One future Oregon Coast Beach Connection editor was working for another paper, and he called the BLM office, telling him they had recently received a letter from a descendant of Mr. Higgins who said he did not die in the lighthouse. He moved to Portland, became a dockworker, and eventually died of natural causes there in the '30s.

There is also a tale of a head lighthouse keeper who died in a storm while trying to cross a creek close to the ocean, getting washed in by a large wave. The story has his daughter so bereaved she shot herself. Its said sometimes you see her spirit wandering the beaches between Agate Beach and Nye Beach, looking for dear old Dad.

Also see Newport's other light: Oregon Coast History: Newport's Yaquina Bay Lighthouse and Trying Times

Even Hollywood has seeped its way into these old bones. 'Story has it the Hardy Boys filmed an episode here in the '70s. It was a Halloween episode, apparently, so the lighthouse interior had been strung with fake cobwebs and such. When crews left they did not clean up, and those in charge of the lighthouse then had to sue the production company.

That sweet bit 'o Hollywood gossip circulated for awhile on the central Oregon coast, but efforts to go digging for the real story have dredged up nada. It's possible there's still something to it, however.

The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse did assist in one rather historic, dramatic incident: the fiery wreck of the Marhoffer in the 1910s, which gave Boiler Bay near Depoe Bay its name. Part of the crew that was stranded made it down to this lighthouse on foot, alerting authorities to their situation and eventual rescure. See J. Marhoffer wrecked near Depoe Bay

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola

https://www.bitchute.com/video/6X9oCqUrcUgR/

In this interview, Dr. Miriam Grossman, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and board-certified medical doctor, discusses the dangers of transgender ideology, which is her specialty, and, more importantly, how to protect your children from it.

She's the author of two books, "You're Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child," and "Lost in Trans Nation, A Child Psychiatrist's Guide Out of the Madness."

Grossman is also a senior fellow at the Do No Harm Medicine, which fights "against identity politics" and "for individual patients." "First, do no harm" is part of the Hippocratic Oath that doctors through the ages have sworn to abide by. Unfortunately, the Hippocratic Oath has been massively perverted and "do no harm" has basically fallen by the wayside.

"Do No Harm is a pretty recently formed organization of medical professionals who feel that our profession has lost its way," Grossman explains.

"It has become politicized  by identity politics and other issues  to such a degree that our patients are suffering and our profession is suffering. DoNoHarmMedicine.org was founded by Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a retired nephrologist from the University of Pennsylvania.

I believe he had the responsibility of organizing the curricula for medical students at the University of Pennsylvania, and he recognized the degree to which politics had entered into the curricula and was very alarmed. So, he retired and formed this amazing organization, which I would encourage every medical professional to check out and join."

The Rise of Transgender Ideology



While Grossman has only recently become known as a leading voice opposing the mainstream transgender narrative, her involvement and concern about this unscientific belief system goes back about 15 years. For the casual observer, it may seem that transgender ideology sprang up from nowhere, overnight, but that's not the case.

"The explosion in cases did actually happen quite rapidly, but the teachings, the ideology that says our identities can be separate from our biology  which is not based in science  and the belief that we can be someone different than what our body says we are, that's been taught to kids in sex education for a long time," Grossman says.

"I became aware of it in the mid 2000s when I was writing my book, 'You're Teaching My Child What?' I was a psychiatrist for students at UCLA, and a lot of the kids coming to see me with anxiety and depression, especially the young women, were there as a result of unhealthy sexual behaviors.

A lot of them, an alarming number, had a sexual transmitted disease, an STD. They had herpes or genital warts, and these diseases are caused by viruses that are incurable essentially. Once you have a diagnosis of genital warts, the human papillomavirus or the herpes virus, you've got that for life.

It can be controlled, but not eliminated. So these are serious diseases ... These were smart kids, and these were kids who were ambitious, yet they had made these foolish sexual decisions of hooking up with random strangers ...

So I started looking into what kids are being taught in sex education, and I discovered that sex education ... is not about health. It's not about staying healthy. It's about ... promoting sexual freedom  all sorts of risky behaviors  and it's about changing society.

My book, 'You're Teaching My Child What?' ... delves into the origins of sex education in this country. It is about sexual freedom. It's about rejecting Judeo-Christian values. It is most certainly not about fighting bacteria and viruses. And sex education is introduced at a very young age, in kindergarten."

Gender ideology is introduced even earlier, in preschool. Books read to preschool children will say things like, "Adults make mistakes when babies are born and only you know if you're a girl or a boy," and "Adults may have made a mistake when they decided that you were a girl or a boy," or "Some people are born with a boy's brain and a girl's body."

"These outrageously false ideas are introduced to children at a very, very young age," Grossman says, "and that's the danger. These ideas are going to reach your kids before you do."



Transgenderism Is a Social Contagion

Grossman's most recent book, "Lost in Trans Nation," which came out in July 2023, provides parents with the practical information and tools needed to protect their families against the "transgender contagion."

"It is a social contagion," she says. "If your child ends up in a friend group, either in school or in the neighborhood or online, in which there is one or more kids who are identifying as transgender, nonbinary, or one of these other made-up words, there's a much greater chance that your child ... will also end up identifying.

So, no family is immune. I've talked to hundreds and hundreds of parents, and I've seen many, many kids in my office who get drawn into this belief system. And trust me, it's a very difficult thing."

The transgender contagion is so widespread at this point, Grossman suspects most of the college, high school and elementary school students believe that sex and gender are two separate things, and that you can choose your gender at will, because that's what they've been indoctrinated to believe.

"When I use the word indoctrinated, I mean that this has been relentlessly pushed at them over and over again. They're bombarded with this idea, presented as if it is a fact. It's not a fact, it's a belief. And it's an outrageous belief. It's an irrational belief that you can be something other than what your body says you are.

But this belief is pushed at them 24/7 from every direction, and it's presented as fact. And, it's presented in such a way that questions are not permitted. If you doubt, if you hesitate, if you ask questions, well then you are a hater and you are transphobic.

Kids want to belong. Kids want to be accepted in their social group. They don't want to be seen as an outsider and certainly not as transphobic. That's the equivalent of being racist, sexist and all those other awful things.

So, that's why I use the word indoctrinated, and that's why a majority of them are going to believe it. It's being presented to them by authorities, educational authorities, medical authorities, government authorities, and they don't hear the argument on the other side of it."

Gender Dysphoria Then and Now

When Grossman was a medical student, rapid onset gender dysphoria (when a young child suddenly insists he or she is the opposite gender) was exceedingly rare. That all changed around 2015, when the number of cases suddenly exploded.

However, contrary to classical gender dysphoria, these more recent cases typically involve teens and young adults, which had never been the case before. What's more, in the past, gender dysphoria predominantly affected boys, at a ratio of about 6-to-1. Today, girls identifying as boys make up about 60% of cases.

I, like many others, suspect synthetic chemicals, many of which have estrogenic activity, may be playing a role, especially in boys identifying as girls. Grossman doesn't dismiss that possibility, but based on her work, she suspects social media and peer pressure are still the primary contributors.

"The kids say as much," she says. "They develop symptoms of being unhappy with their bodies after binging on these YouTube videos of kids who are chronicling their own dysphoria and their own path. So there's definitely a social contagion element."

Transgenderism Is a False Cure for What Ails Them

Not surprisingly, children with a history of psychiatric issues, such as being on the autistic spectrum or struggling with anxiety, depression or emotional trauma, are more prone to falling victim to gender ideology.

"They learn about gender ideology, and they're told that this could be the reason for your distress  'You're feeling that you don't fit in ... because you are in the wrong body.'

And they come to believe that all their problems are going to be solved by this one solution, that identifying as the opposite sex, change their name, their pronouns and their appearance ... that will be the solution.

We hear this over and over again from detransitioners, the people who went through the 'affirmation' and when they got more mature, they realized, 'Oh my god, what have I done to myself?' and regret what they've done.

I don't like using this language because it's Orwellian language, but let's just call it what the mainstream medicine is calling it, which is 'gender affirmation,' which of course means you deny biology.

One of the main things that detransitioners talk about is how they were convinced that this would be the solution to all their mental health problems. Instead, they go through the process, their bodies are sometimes permanently disfigured from hormones and surgery, and their mental health problems have not been addressed."

Kids and Parents Are Being Lied To

Making matters worse, children and teens are being lied to about the ramifications of hormone therapy and surgery. These are permanent changes being applied for what is likely a temporary emotional problem. You cannot undo the damage inflicted once you change your mind.

Remarkably, many in the affirmative care field insist that you can block puberty without negative effects and that hormone therapy effects are reversible, neither of which is true.

Proponents of transgender ideology also claim that unless trans kids are affirmed in their new identities and provided medical and surgical treatment to transition, they're at high risk of suicide, and that's not true either.

In fact, it's the exact opposite. Detransitioners are at high risk of suicide because not only is it a struggle to get back to their real identity, but many now have severe medical problems brought on by hormones and surgery.

Those who have undergone sexual reassignment surgery, in particular, face the very real possibility of lifelong medical troubles and associated depression. Many have urological problems, recurrent infections, chronic pain and sexual dysfunction. They're also sterile and will never be able to have children.

"In my congressional testimony that I gave a few months ago, I pointed out that in countries such as Sweden, Norway, Finland, the United Kingdom, where they have made these medical treatments essentially unavailable to kids for the past few years, there has been no increase in suicides or decreased mental health.

So that is simply not true. It's terrible misinformation and emotional blackmail [to say] 'The only chance your child has of living a happy and fulfilling life is if you go along with their new identity and give them whatever it is they say they want, even if your child is 10 or 12 years old.' And this is what's going on in the gender clinics.

It's very, very important that people read my book, not only families in which they are in the midst of this difficulty, but families who in the future may face it, so that they are prepared and can understand what it's about, so they know how to respond and how to protect their child before they're indoctrinated."

A Generation of Damaged Youth

Even if they don't go through with surgery on the sex organs, boys are given massive doses of estrogen, a known human carcinogen that has a plethora of ill health effects. Girls taking high-dose testosterone also face serious adverse health effects, including irreversible voice changes and blood clotting disorders.

An ever-growing number of teenage girls are also getting double mastectomies. There are no hard numbers on how many top surgeries are being done, because no one is tracking transgender treatments and gender reassignment surgeries, but it's definitely not a rarity anymore. Grossman comments:

"When I was writing my book and working on the chapter on double mastectomies, there were 47,000 young girls raising money on GoFundMe to have breast surgery  47,000 ... You have a whole population of young women who were led to believe that their breasts are simply disposable sex objects that don't serve any other purpose.

Young women are never taught about the magnificent biology of nursing and of the nutrition, which is the gold standard nutrition, for newborns. There is nothing better for a newborn than mother's milk."

The Madness Is Coming From the Top

Children's lives are being ruined by lies, and we need to be just as aggressive in sticking to biological facts as the indoctrinators are being aggressive in pushing vulnerable kids to make destructive health choices.

A major part of the problem is the educational system, as most schools are teaching transgender ideology. The solution, then, would be to get your children out of those schools. Grossman agrees, saying:

"Because gender issues have been framed as a civil right, every teacher can introduce it in their class  into English literature, social studies, civics, history.

Parents also have to be aware that ... there are activist teachers, activist social workers and guidance counselors, who are out there to influence your child, and they will go as far as to keep it a secret from the family if the child requests to make some sort of identity change at school.

The school will keep it a secret from the parents, which is another outrageous element in all of this because it's a parent's right to know such a thing. So yes, you can remove your child from not only public school, but there are also private schools that push this ideology ...

Their professional organizations  the National Educational Association, the professional organizations of social workers, school counselors, guidance counselors and principals  they have all bought into the narrative. So they are obligated to follow those policies, and the policies call for keeping the parents in the dark if the child says that's what they want.

I tell a story in my book of teachers who have felt that it is wrong to keep the parents in the dark about their child's gender identity at school and shared the information with the parents. They've been fired.

There are teachers, especially the younger ones, who have been indoctrinated. But I have people writing to me who are school psychologists and teachers, and they say things like, 'I can't do this anymore. I'm leaving this field. I'm retiring, I simply can't do this anymore, it's wrong.'

So parents need to be aware of that. And I provide in the book an appendix written by attorneys who are specialists in child and parental rights, and they explain exactly how to be proactive.

Even if your child is entering kindergarten, you can go into the school and you can, with a form that I provide on my website, miriamgrossmanmd.com, that puts the school on notice that they have no constitutionally based rights to direct the education of your child, that you don't want your child being taught gender ideology and that you do not permit your child to be a part of any program or club in which this ideology is being taught.

And you certainly are not giving permission for your child to be called by a different name, or for your kid to use the opposite sex bathrooms. You have to [do that]."

Inoculate Your Children Through Biological Affirmation

Another important strategy that parents need to adopt is to affirm the biology of their children from the start. By teaching them the value and permanence of their biological sex, you can effectively "inoculate" them against deranged ideas being brought in later. Grossman explains:

"You can say to a 2-year-old or a 3-year-old, 'You know you're a boy, and you're always going to be a boy. From the very first moment of your creation, you were a boy.'

This phrase, 'sex assigned at birth,' drives me crazy because it is so, so false. It is so outrageously untrue. Sex is not assigned at birth. Sex is established at conception and it is permanent.

Kids are being led to believe that sex  being male or female  is randomly assigned. Some doctor or nurse in the delivery room takes a look at you and makes this random decision that really isn't based on anything real. No, you want to inoculate your child against that idea.

You want to tell your child that 'You always were a boy or a girl, and you always will be. And that's a great thing.' Also, [teach them that] there are many different ways of being a girl or a boy. There isn't one way.

There are some girls who love makeup and do all those stereotypically feminine things, and there are other girls who never want to put on a dress and they're into building things and sports. And that's great. That's one kind of way of being a girl.

So from a very young age, we can tell kids that there isn't just one way of being a girl or a boy, because what the ideology is telling them is that if you don't fit into these ridiculous stereotypes, you may not actually be a girl (or a boy). So, you want your child to recognize that as not making sense."

Another thing that children need to be taught from a young age is that being male or female has an impact on every system of the body. It's not just a few skin-deep anatomical differences.

Your biological gender  immutable due to the presence of XX or XY chromosomes in every cell of your body  impacts how your brain works, your cardiovascular system, GI system and the immune system, and no amount of sex hormones and surgery will change that.

By taking hormones to feminize or masculinize the body, you're wreaking total havoc on the entire system, because it wasn't designed for those hormones. The only predictable outcome of transgender hormone therapy is health problems.

More Information

The transgender ideology is a pervasive threat to our children, and parents need to educate themselves on how to battle it most effectively. Grossman's book, "Lost in Trans Nation" is the only book out there right now that gives parents the necessary tools. So, if you have young children, pick up a copy. Also gift the book to new parents. It could be the most valuable baby gift they can get. In closing, Grossman says:

"Parents, it's really essential for you to know as much as you can. I've put my heart and soul into writing this book ['Lost in Trans Nation'] because I have seen too much. I have seen people, marriages and families destroyed from this ideology.

That is why I wrote this book. It was not an easy book to write. It's not an easy book to read. But we have to live in reality and know what's going on. Parents that contact me all tell me the same thing. They say, 'We were blindsided. We never imagined that this could happen. We weren't prepared for it.' And so I want parents to be prepared ...

I have tons of information that families can use to protect themselves. Once your child is involved, it can be really tough to get them out because they are essentially brainwashed.

In addition to believing that they may be born in the wrong body, they have been brainwashed to believe that anyone who challenges them, anyone who won't use their new name and pronouns, is a bad person. [They've been told] their home might be unsafe if their parents won't use their new name and that they may need to live somewhere else ...

This is a push to change our culture, change our society  to place a wedge between kids and their parents and for the state to say that we know what's best for your child, not you. It's a very dangerous situation.

And I think it's important just to mention that other countries, very progressive countries such as Sweden, have all done a 180. Those other countries are saying what the kids need is psychotherapy. This is an emotional disorder."

In addition to her book, you can also find more information on her website, miriamgrossmanmd.com, including the "Parent's Notice to Schools." If you want to follow her on Twitter/X, her handle is @Miriam_Grossman. Also consider becoming a member of the Do No Harm Medicine.
My friend Rem sent me a thought that I would like to share with you.

Today, after sixteen thousand hours of K-12 indoctrination, our kids come out of government schools hating America. They roll their eyes at religion and disdain our history. We spend more money on education than ever, but many kids can barely read or write - let alone reason with discernment. Western culture is on the ropes. Kids are bored and aimless, flailing for purpose in a system that says racial and gender identity are everything.

Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin summed up our predicament:

Battle for the American Mind is the untold story of the progressive plan to neutralize the basis for our Republic - by removing the one core ingredient that had sustained Western civilization for thousands of years. Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin explain why, no matter what political skirmishes Conservatives win, Progressives are winning the war - and controlling the "supply lines" of future citizens. Reversing this reality will require parents to radically reorient their children's education; even most homeschooling and Christian schooling are infused with progressive assumptions. We need to recover a lost philosophy of education - grounded in virtue and excellence - that can arm future generations to fight for freedom. It's called classical Christian education. Never heard of it? You're not alone (Battle for the American MindBroadside Books)

In 1955 my family sacrificed to send me to UNC at Chapel Hill. I was the first male from our family to go to college. My Dad was a self-made man who taught himself how to read but had a natural knack for numbers. He was always active in local politics.

On my first visit home at the end of my first semester, I was ready to straighten him out and tell him how things really are. He listened and then looked me straight in the eye and said, Son, you are full of S..t.

It set me back at first but when I went back to school I listened more intently and thought about the application and determined that he was right. Many of my professors were full of St. I spent the rest of my time there fighting with those professors, which did not improve my grades.

My point is that now when children come home with all of this BS from College, the parent has already bought these same failed philosophies and say, Yea, Yea, son, thats right. They reinforce the S..t my Dad was able to recognize.

If he/she is attending public school, they are getting the daily dose from teachers that were indoctrinated with a lot of the same S. Fortunately some local teachers were the exception, some teachers that took my position were not blown off track but most of them are now retired. True, some of the younger teachers know the Truth but I fear they are in the minority.

America became a great nation in large measure because of our education system. But that has changed, and we are now reaping the whirlwind. To save this nation we must return to the Truths taught in our schools before the Progressives took over.

I am not naive enough to believe that saving this nation will be an easy task and I can even understand why some much smarter than I doubt that it can be saved. But we must try.

We The People own the public-school systems, including the University system which trains many of our teachers. We have an inalienable right to insist on the education system teaching what should be taught. It is incumbent on each of us to get involved and standup to the System and demand that it return to teaching traditional American values. Before it is too late.
Debbie Fontaine holds a heat and humidity index device that some workers wear when working at the Rite Aid warehouse in Lancaster (Los Angeles County) in July 2021. Workers have to take a break if the device reaches 90 degrees. Genaro Molina/Getty Images 2021

The stifling heat inside some warehouses where workers might spend 10-hour days isnt just a summer problem. In Southern California, it can feel like summer all year.

Its easy to break into a sweat and grow tired, workers say. The ventilation feels inconsistent, they say, and workers have testified in a public hearing about nosebleeds, nausea and dizziness. In some warehouses, the walk to find a place to cool down is at least half a mile.

We are in constant motion. Throughout the day, my shirt is soaked in sweat three to four times, said Sara Fee, a former worker at an Amazon warehouse in San Bernardino, who testified before a state workplace safety board in May. I have been nauseous, dizzy.

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As the climate warms and the threat of extreme heat spreads, California is poised to protect people who work in poorly ventilated warehouses, steamy restaurant kitchens and other indoor job sites where temperatures can soar to potentially dangerous levels. The state has had heat standards on the books for outdoor workers since 2005, and indoor workplaces are next.

Only two other states, Minnesota and Oregon, have adopted heat rules for indoor workers, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nationally, legislation has stalled in Congress, and even though the Biden administration has started the long process of establishing national heat standards for outdoor and indoor work, the rules are likely to take years to finalize.

If California adopts its proposal in the spring, businesses would be required to cool worksites below 87 degrees Fahrenheit when employees are present and below 82 degrees in places where workers wear protective clothing or are exposed to radiant heat, such as furnaces. If businesses are unable to lower the temperatures, they must provide workers with water, breaks, areas where they can cool down, cooling vests, or other means to keep employees from overheating.

It is only getting hotter every year, said Alice Berliner, director of the Worker Health & Safety Program at UC Merced. Having protections for both indoor and outdoor workers, it empowers someone to feel like they can ask for access to drinking water, and access to a break when they feel like theyre hot.

Neither workers nor businesses are satisfied with the plan. Some businesses fear they wont be able to meet the requirements, even with the flexibility the regulation offers. Workers argue buildings should be kept even cooler.

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Heat stress can lead to heat exhaustion, heatstroke, cardiac arrest and kidney failure. In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,600 heat-related deaths, which is likely an undercount because health care providers are not required to report them. Its not clear how many of these deaths are related to work, either indoors or outdoors.

In California, 20 workers died from heat between 2010 and 2017, seven of them because of indoor heat, according to the Rand Corp., which analyzed the states proposed indoor heat rules.

After a record-breaking heat wave in the Pacific Northwest in 2021, Oregon in 2022 adopted protections for indoor workers that trigger when temperatures hit 80 degrees. Minnesotas threshold temperatures range from 77 degrees to 86 degrees, depending on the type of work. The sheer size of Californias workforce, estimated at about 18 million, could usher in changes for the rest of country, said Juanita Constible, senior climate and health advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

As California goes, so goes the nation on so many things, she said.

California regulators have crafted the indoor rules to complement the states protections for outdoor workers. Those say that when temperatures exceed 80 degrees, employers must provide shade and observe workers for signs of heat illness. At or above 95 degrees, they must come up with ways to prevent heat illness, such as reducing work hours or providing additional breaks. Colorado, Oregon and Washington also have rules for outdoor workers.

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The California Occupational Safety and Standards Board, which is charged with setting worker protections, is weighing the regulation that would require employers to cool their buildings with air conditioning, fans, misters and other methods when the temperature or the heat index hits 82 or 87. Some employees would be exempt from the rule, including employees who work remotely and those involved in emergency operations.

The board is expected to vote on the rules in March, and they would take effect by this summer, board Chief Counsel Autumn Gonzalez said.

Workers say buildings should be cooler than the proposed temperatures, especially in warehouses, food-processing plants and other places where employees routinely move and lift.

These temperature thresholds are too high, said Robert Moreno, a UPS driver in San Diego who told the board in May that he has spent most of his life working in warehouses. At the proposed temperatures, its too hot to sit outside and eat lunch, let alone work inside a building that has been baking in the sun all day, he said.

Most of these warehouses are sheet metal, zero to no airflow, Moreno said.

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At the Amazon facility in San Bernardino where Fee worked, company spokesperson Steve Kelly said the building is air-conditioned and outfitted with ceiling fans, and workers are encouraged to take cooldown breaks anytime they need to.

Weve seen the positive impacts of an effective heat-mitigation program and believe all employers should be held to the same standard, said Kelly, who declined to say whether the company supports the California proposal.

The temperature inside the 658,000-square-foot building hasnt risen above 78 degrees, Kelly said.

Regulators have acknowledged that some businesses wont be able to cool their workplaces, such as laundries or restaurant kitchens, where commercial boilers, ovens and fryers operate, and have offered them the option of giving workers cooldown areas and other relief.

But those solutions arent always feasible, Katie Davey, former legislative director of the California Restaurant Association, told the board in May. For instance, there isnt room for a cooldown area in many small restaurants, she said. And lowering temperatures in a kitchen could put restaurants in violation of food safety laws that require food to be heated to specific temperatures, she added.

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We are concerned that the proposed indoor-heat illness regulations may conflict with regulations which affect our ability to heat and hold food to the necessary temperatures to protect the public health from foodborne illness, Davey said.

California regulators have spent years drafting their proposal, and it appears unlikely they will lower the threshold temperatures of 82 degrees and 87 degrees. Doing so would increase the number of businesses that have to comply and the cost, triggering a new review that would delay the regulations release, said Eric Berg, deputy chief of health and research and standards at Californias Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which would enforce the regulation.

I think that the threshold should be lowered, in general, board member Laura Stock said at the May meeting. But equally, if not, more importantly, is that we dont hold the process up so that we can get a standard in place as quickly as possible.

The urgency comes, in part, because of federal inaction. Legislation has stalled in Congress to require OSHA to publish an emergency rule to enact temporary standards for all workers while the agency pursues a permanent standard. The bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled House, which hasnt favored regulations on business.

Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, a co-sponsor of that bill, said the situation has become dire in his state. In June, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law eliminating existing local ordinances in Austin, Dallas and other cities that required employers to give outdoor construction workers water breaks.
Here are four endoscopy updates Becker's has reported on since Dec. 21:

1. Alaska is the most expensive state to get a GI upper endoscopy in a hospital outpatient department, while Iowa is the most affordable.

2. Gastrointestinal visualization technology company AnX Robotica has announced FDA clearance of its NaviCam ProScan, an artificial intelligence-assisted capsule endoscopy tool.

3. Medtronic entered a definitive agreement to expand its partnership with Cosmo Intelligent Medical Devices to further capitalize on the achievements of Medtronic's GI Genius intelligent endoscopy module.

4. The American Gastroenterological Association issued a statement Dec. 20 objecting to UnitedHealthcare's advance notification program for gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures and its proposed gold card prior authorization program planned for 2024.
In November, Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts announced that beginning Jan. 1, it would no longer cover the use of monitored anesthesia for certain gastrointestinal patients undergoing endoscopic, bronchoscopic or interventional pain procedures.

Now that the policy has officially gone into effect, monitored anesthesia is no longer considered "medically necessary" for these procedures by the insurer, unless a patient receives documentation by the operating physician or anesthesiologist/certified registered nurse anesthetist that specific risk factors or significant medical conditions are present.

Patients with few or no comorbidities will no longer receive coverage. BCBS cited a study from the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy published 10 years ago as the basis for the change, according to a gastroenterologist who spoke with Becker's.

While the policy has only been in effect for a little over a week, some physicians are wary of its impact on patient care.

"This will obviously have a substantial ripple effect on access, efficiency and acceptance of colonoscopy as the preferred screening tool as anesthesia provided care is used in the majority of outpatient endoscopy centers here," Max Tilson, MD, a physician with Chelmsford, Mass.-based Integrated GI Consultants, told Becker's.

"We're concerned about this implementation because it will probably reduce access to screening procedures. One, with the ongoing nursing shortage and this not being the standard of care currently, we'll have to find staff to implement what they're looking for and two, more importantly, patient comfort and concerns may prevent patients from coming in for their procedures whereas they weren't as reluctant in the past," Lauren Bleich, MD, a gastroenterologist at Gastro Health in Acton, Mass., told Becker's.

"Our intention with all our medical policies is that our members have access to high quality, safe, effective and affordable care. This long standing policy has always been grounded in GI specialty society recommendations and clinical guidelines. Moderate sedation is an established, safe, effective alternative to propofol that is always covered when deep sedation is not required," Sandhya Rao, MD, chief medical officer at BCBSMA, told Becker's. "Propofol remains available for qualifying patients and is one of many sedation options that doctors select to perform these procedures safely and effectively. Over the past year, we've met with providers and representatives from professional societies to hear their concerns. We used their feedback to expand the list of conditions for which deep sedation will be deemed clinically necessary. Any Blue Cross member who clinically needs this form of deep sedation will get it. Examples include (but are not limited to) patients with conditions that warrant a more regular cadence for colonoscopies (annually), patients who have a failed procedure, patients who have a fear of medical procedures and patients who have a chronic condition (e.g., diabetes, high blood pressure, Crohn's) that warrants the use of deep sedation."
Michelle Fortune, BSN, RN, has been named the leader of surgery and GI services for St. Louis-based Mercy, which includes over 900 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

Ms. Fortune joins Mercy from St. Luke's Hospital in Columbus, N.C., where she served as chief executive officer, according to a Jan. 8 news release. She has previous experience leading outpatient surgery centers at Atrium Health in Charlotte, N.C., and National Surgical Hospitals in Chicago.

Mercy also named two other service line presidents: Brian Connor for neurosciences and Dawn Martin for women and children services.
A healthcare coalition comprising two hospitals and an orthopedic group filed a lawsuit against unidentified individuals associated with the ransomware group LockBit, BankInfoSecurity reported Jan. 4.

Carthage (N.Y.) Area Hospital, Ogdensburg, N.Y.-based Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center and Watertown, N.Y.-based North Country Orthopaedic Group filed a lawsuit Nov. 29 alleging that the unknown individuals "conspired to carry out the complex cybercrime and movement of stolen assets."

According to the publication, the lawsuit against the LockBit members was initiated to empower the hospital group, known as North Star Health Alliance, to issue a subpoena compelling Boston-based cloud storage firm Wasabi Technologies to surrender data that LockBit stole from the hospital group in a data breach that took place on Aug. 31.

According to the lawsuit, during the breach, the hackers associated with LockBit infiltrated the IT infrastructure of the hospital group, extracted data and then moved the information to a cloud server owned and operated by Wasabi.

The hospitals and orthopedic group are seeking injunction relief to prohibit the access, transfer or duplication of the exfiltrated data. Additionally, they request a mandate that, upon the return of the stolen data to the hospital group, all remaining copies of the stolen data must be eradicated.

The hospitals say they need the data returned in order to notify the patients impacted by the breach.

Wasabi told the publication it "is committed to complying with all relevant regulatory requests," and that it could not comment on ongoing legal matters.
Becker's has reported on four health systems that have opted to outsource finance jobs or other revenue cycle functions since Oct. 4:

1. Arlington, Va.-based VHC Health struck a 15-year, end-to-end revenue cycle partnership with Med-Metrix on Jan. 3. As part of the partnership, about 200 VHC Health revenue cycle employees are now employed by Med-Metrix.

2. R1 RCM said Dec. 6 it is acquiring revenue cycle management company Acclara from Renton, Wash.-based Providence. At the closing of the deal  expected in early 2024  Acclara and Providence will enter into a 10-year agreement for the company to provide comprehensive RCM services for the health system.

3. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health and Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare on Nov. 17 signed a definitive agreement for Novant to acquire three Tenet hospitals and affiliated operations in South Carolina. The agreement specifies that Tenet's Conifer Health Solutions subsidiary will enter into a new and expanded 15-year contract to provide revenue cycle management services for the three South Carolina hospitals and related operations. The transaction is expected to be completed in early 2024.

4. Optum said Oct. 4 it is hiring more than 800 employees from Waukesha, Wis.-based ProHealth Care and will begin managing the health system's revenue cycle management, information technology, informatics, analytics and inpatient care management.
The American Hospital Association requested a Texas federal judge issue an expedited judgment in support of their legal opposition to a rule by the HHS that limits the utilization of third-party web technologies on sections of hospitals' webpages.

On Jan. 5, the AHA submitted its initial argument in a legal case contesting a December 2022 regulation from HHS' Office for Civil Rights. This rule imposes limitations on the application of common third-party web technologies responsible for capturing IP addresses on sections of publicly accessible web pages for hospitals.

The AHA argues that the rule surpasses the government's authority under HIPAA, breaches the Administrative Procedure Act and causes harm to the individuals it aims to safeguard.

"A gross overreach by the federal bureaucracy, imposed without any input from healthcare providers or the general public, this new rule is being actively enforced by HHS against hospitals and health systems across the country, even while the federal government's own healthcare providers continue to use these purportedly prohibited technologies on their own webpages," the AHA brief states. "This court should declare the rule unlawful and enjoin its enforcement against Plaintiffs Texas Health Resources and United Regional Health Care System and the other members of the American Hospital Association and the Texas Hospital Association (the Associations)."

In November, the American Hospital Association, the Texas Hospital Association, Arlington-based Texas Health Resources and Wichita Falls, Texas-based United Regional Health Care System filed a lawsuit against the HHS, opposing the agency's position that online data gathered for advertising and backend operations might breach federal health privacy laws.

The HHS rule comes at a time when many hospitals and health systems in the U.S. are facing lawsuits that allege third-party tracking tools on their websites and patient portals have been sending patient information to tech giants like Meta and Google.

In July, HHS' Office for Civil Rights and the Federal Trade Commission released letters that were sent to 66 hospitals and health systems warning them that their websites may be using these tracking tools.
Tim Bensley, CFO of Austin, Texas-based Agilon Health, is retiring sometime in 2024.

Mr. Bensley has agreed to remain CFO while Agilon, a company dedicated to helping physicians improve healthcare for older adults, actively recruits for a new CFO, according to a Jan. 5 Agilon press release.

Mr. Bensley served as Agilon's CFO for just over three years. Prior to joining Agilon, Mr. Bensley was CFO of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Acosta Sales and Marketing, according to his LinkedIn page.

Agilon expects Mr. Bensley's transition to happen over the next nine months.
Gunnison (Colo.) Valley Health is in talks with Vail-Summit Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery to acquire ownership of several of its locations, a spokesperson for the physician group told Becker's.

The Vail, Colo.-based orthopedic and neurosurgery group could transfer ownership of its practices in Gunnison and San Miguel counties, which include its ASC in Gunnison and clinic locations in Gunnison, Crested Butte and Telluride, Colo., to Gunnison Valley Health  the only community-owned system in Gunnison County, according to its website.

The health system hopes to complete the proposed deal by March to bring together economies of scale in orthopedics, according to The Gunnison Country Times.

If the deal closes, Vail-Summit Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery will retain ownership of its clinic locations in Eagle, Summit and Grand counties, a spokesperson for the group told Becker's.

The proposed acquisition would include a 70% stake in Vail-Summit Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery ASC, and the remaining 30% would remain with orthopedic surgeon Gloria Beim, MD, according to The Times. The deal will bring another ASC under the Gunnison Valley Health umbrella, and the first that is not located in the central hospital.

Financial terms of the proposed transaction were not disclosed.

The ASC, VSON Alpine  formerly Alpine Orthopaedics  was founded by Gloria Beim, MD in 1999. Dr. Beim and her team would work with Gunnison Valley Health to ensure patients receive the highest possible care.

"The decision to sell VSON Alpine in Gunnison, Crested Butte, and Telluride was not made lightly," CEO Chris Greenman said in a statement provided to Becker's. "However, at the end of the day, we believe that practicing under the GVH umbrella will allow Dr. Beim more opportunities to partner with local providers and provide a continuum of care for her patients. VSON has eight orthopedic surgeons, two physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors, and one neurosurgeon operating out of Eagle, Summit and Grand Counties, all of whom understand the importance of providing large-scale services in a small-town environment. We are all united in supporting Dr. Beim, GVH and the Gunnison community are dedicated to ensuring a sale that first and foremost benefits patient care."
Do No Harm, a medical watchdog group based in Richmond, Va., has sued Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, challenging racial criteria for appointments to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court Jan. 4 by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of Do No Harm, alleges a mandate requiring the governor to exclude non-minority candidates for some positions of the medical board is unconstitutional. It also alleges that the requirement violates the 14th Amendment.

"Do No Harm has members who are Louisiana physicians as well as members who would qualify for appointment to the consumer slot but for their race," the group wrote in its lawsuit, which was accessed by Becker's.

"It brings this lawsuit on behalf of itself and its members to ensure that every doctor and qualifying public consumer in Louisiana has the equal right to serve on the board, and to ensure that the people of Louisiana are regulated by a board that is not selected on the basis of race."

Becker's has reached out to the governor's office and will update this story if a comment is received. Mr. Edwards leaves office Jan. 8, giving way to recently elected Gov. Jeff Landry.

At issue in the lawsuit is a 2018 state law that requires the governor to make at least every other newly appointed board member for three of the physician seats as well as the public consumer seat minority appointees.

The board, which licenses and regulates physicians, has 10 members total. Nine are physician seats chosen from lists submitted by the Louisiana State Medical Society, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at New Orleans, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Tulane Medical School in New Orleans, Louisiana Medical Association, Louisiana Academy of Family Practice Physicians and Louisiana Hospital Association. One seat is filled by a member of the public.

In its lawsuit, Do No Harm, a nonprofit group, says the racial mandate prevents qualified potential board appointees from equal consideration for appointment, which violates their 14th Amendment protections. The group seeks a permanent prohibitory injunction preventing the governor from enforcing or attempting to enforce the racial mandate.










Ozempic is facing increased competition from compounded versions and rival drugmakers, while potential side effects, including suicidal thoughts and hair loss, have spurred investigations into it and similar drugs.

Four recent updates on the Type 2 diabetes drug:

1. Compounded solutions

As the FDA investigates compounded versions of Ozempic, its maker Novo Nordisk filed more lawsuits against spas, clinics and compounding pharmacies for allegedly selling unapproved copycats. The FDA warned clinicians Dec. 21 about possible infection risks tied with these solutions, reasoning the agency can't confirm the drugs' sterility.

The FDA said it has received five reports of adverse events from the counterfeit products, which were not severe and similar to Ozempic's side effects.

Between 2021 and 2023, calls to U.S. poison control centers about overdoses on Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo Nordisk's drug for chronic weight management, nearly quadrupled. Fifty-five poison centers saw about 3,000 calls for Ozempic and Wegovy in 2023; two years prior, that number was 607.

Compounded versions might be behind the surge in calls, national officials said, because these solutions require patients to draw their own doses instead of receiving name-brand pre-filled pens.

2. Side effects

The FDA launched an inquiry into whether hair loss, aspiration and suicidal thoughts may be side effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists. Popular GLP-1s include Ozempic, Mounjaro, Saxenda, Trulicity and Wegovy.

The FDA said Jan. 2 it is "evaluating the need for regulatory action" after receiving reports of alopecia, aspiration and suicidal thoughts in people using these drugs for diabetes and weight loss. The agency said the news "means that the FDA has identified a potential safety issue, but it does not mean that the FDA has identified a causal relationship between the drug and the listed risk."

Other potential side effects, which have gained international attention, are suicidal thoughts and self-harm. In July, the European Medicines Agency began reviewing GLP-1s after Icelandic patients reported thoughts of suicide and self-harm. Recently, a National Institutes of Health study did not find a link between the drugs and suicidal thoughts.

3. Potential indications

In a recent study of about a dozen GLP-1s, researchers found the medications suppressed heart inflammation in mice. The results hint at possible treatment avenues for the popular drug class, including heart disease, kidney disease, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

"The anti-inflammatory actions of GLP-1 are likely in part organized through a subset of brain neurons," said Daniel Drucker, MD, the study's lead author, who works at Mount Sinai Hospital-Toronto.

4. Competitors

Ozempic and Wegovy's top competitors are Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound, and the drugmaker is nipping at Novo Nordisk's heels.

In early January, Eli Lilly launched a direct-to-consumer site to sell prescription drugs, including its weight loss medications. The service includes disease management resources and free deliveries. Other pharmaceutical companies are likely to follow Eli Lilly's lead, experts told CNBC.

Older weight loss drugs are also rising in popularity as patients seeking new GLP-1s face insurance and cost barriers. For example, prescriptions for bupropion  an antidepressant with a side effect of weight loss  increased 29% between 2017 and 2023. Also, prescriptions for phentermine  a weight loss drug the FDA approved in 1959  rose 34% in the last six years.
Some workers still prefer to commute to the office in San Francisco, even if they arent required to show up regularly. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle 2022

As many Bay Area residents head for the Sacramento region in search of more plentiful and affordable housing and to take advantage of remote-work policies, Im going in the opposite direction: Next month, Ill be moving from Sacramento to San Francisco  primarily to be closer to my job.

Yet I actually crave less flexibility  enough to literally pay for it by moving to a smaller apartment in a more expensive region.

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This may sound masochistic, but what Im actually after is something warm and fuzzy: human connection.

Put another way: After more than four years of working from home, Ive had enough.

Perhaps the acuity of my longing for working with other people  a feeling particularly pronounced among millennial and Gen Z workers, according to a recent international survey  can be explained by the fact that I havent done much of it.

When I moved to Sacramento in March 2020 for my first full-time journalism job at the nonprofit newsroom CalMatters, I had heady visions of myself waking up each morning and getting ready for work, putting together a sharp outfit and carrying my coffee cup and lunch box into the office, stopping by my coworkers desks to chat, exploring the honeycombed hallways of the Capitol.

Id spent the previous nine months working remotely as a part-time copy editor and trying to break out of the relentless cycle of short-term underpaid journalism internships, so working 9-5 in an office seemed like a dream.

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Alas, that dream turned out to be incredibly short-lived. Less than three weeks after I started my new job, the state shut down due to COVID.

Once more, I returned to working from home. Once more, my world shrank to the size of my computer screen. And once more, the majority of my human interactions were mediated through technology.

In hindsight, its fascinating  and a little disturbing  to realize how quickly the anomalous rhythms ushered in by COVID became my norm. Working from home, I initially tried to maintain some of the habits associated with going into the office, including wearing a decent outfit or at least a pair of jeans  for which I was trolled in the Wall Street Journal after tweeting about it. Why wear jeans when you could wear comfy pants? Before long, I came to accept this logic as infallible.

That line of reasoning persisted even after the world began to reopen. Yes, I could attend a legislative hearing in-person at the Capitol. Or I could watch it on a livestream while simultaneously answering emails, working on drafts and crossing other items off my to-do list  and wearing comfy pants.

And so, even as I applauded myself for being more efficient, I resented myself for taking the path of least resistance.

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I dont want to take the path of least resistance anymore. I could conceivably work from home for the foreseeable future, but I dont see myself getting anything out of it. I dont see myself growing.

I need something to propel me out of my a-little-too-comfortable routine and back out into the world  and I think moving to San Francisco, where Ill be enmeshed in a bustling, busy, brand-new environment and required to go into the office, will provide the requisite shock to the system.

In other words: Its time to get rid of the comfy pants and put on the jeans.

This doesnt mean eschewing balance. The Chronicle requires employees living in San Francisco and surrounding counties to come into the office three days a week, but we still have the flexibility to work remotely the other two days, reducing time spent commuting and getting ready and giving us more time with our families and for ourselves.

But, perhaps selfishly, as a single person early on in my career, Im grateful for the in-office requirement. I want to spend time with my coworkers. I want to learn from talented journalists who have spent decades in the field. I want to discover all the great lunch spots around the Chronicle office and try as many coffee shops as humanly possible. I want to make new friends and meet new people and explore new places.

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And I want to feel connected to the city Im living in.

Thats what makes leaving Sacramento so bittersweet. Ive lived here for four years, and yet in some ways I feel like I havent lived here at all. I moved here with no built-in community, expecting my job to anchor me. But without the stability of going into the office, I felt unmoored, like there was no real reason for me to be where I was.

Thats the challenge facing many American cities, including San Francisco, post-pandemic: When many people can work anywhere, what reason do they have for living in one place in particular?

Ive come to the conclusion that I want to live in the city where I work. Even if I dont have to go into the office, I want to. I need to.

Now its time to see whether San Francisco lives up to the idea of it that I have in my head.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and three other legislators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee launched an investigation into inhalers, calling the prices "outrageous."

The senators sent letters to the nation's four largest manufacturers of inhalers: AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK and Teva Pharmaceuticals. In the U.S., inhalers cost between $200 and $600 from these companies, but in France, Germany and the U.K., the same products are sold for as low as $7.

More than 25 million Americans have asthma and about 16 million have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the letters. Every year, 3,500 die from asthma  deaths that could be prevented by lower costs, the senators said.

"Access to inhalers can mean the difference between life and a suffocating death," Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., said in a news release. "It's wrong that so many Americans suffering from asthma and COPD cannot afford their inhalers."

The letters ask the four companies to explain manufacturing costs, budgets for asthma and COPD research, and internal decisions on creating new features and their clinical benefits.
Florida has become the first state authorized by the FDA to import prescription drugs from Canada after the agency issued an approval of the Sunshine State's drug importation program Jan. 5.

The FDA made the decision under section 804 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which allows states and Indian tribes to import certain prescription drugs from Canada if the submitted program proposal to do so demonstrates significant cost savings for U.S. consumers while maintaining patient safety.

The decision comes after the state also filed a lawsuit against the FDA for alleging it was "recklessly" delaying the decision. Which is not the first time the state has been at odds with the agency.

"Florida has demonstrated that it meets the statutory obligation to ensure that importation under section 804 will significantly reduce the cost of covered products to the American consumer without posing additional risk to the publics health and safety," a Jan. 5 letter from the FDA to Jason Weida, the secretary for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, reads.

Florida's importation proposal will be authorized for two full years on the date it notifies the FDA of the first shipment to be imported, according to the news release. However, before it begins importing the cheaper medicines, the state must submit additional information about the drugs it wants to import, re-label drugs to be consistent with U.S. and FDA standards, test the drugs for authenticity and compliance, and submit reports quarterly to the FDA on the cost savings and safety.

The state previously estimated in the first year of the program alone that its savings would total $150 million. It is planning to import drugs for HIV, AIDS, psychiatric medications, hepatitis C and more, The New York Times reported.

Other states including Colorado, Texas, North Dakota, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Maine, Wisconsin and Vermont are also pursuing similar approvals from the FDA.
Hospital pharmacies are criticizing Florida's plan to import drugs from Canada, arguing the idea undermines the pharmacist-patient relationship and fails to be a "real solution."

On Jan. 5, the FDA authorized Florida's proposal to import prescription drugs from Canada with the goal of introducing cheaper medicines into the U.S. supply chain. It's the first state to gain this power, and about eight other states have submitted similar importation plans to the FDA.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists said it had long objected to states importing medications because "it has the potential to disrupt the pharmacist-patient relationship, particularly for patients with complex medication regimens, and because it is not a meaningful response to drug pricing."

It's unlikely Florida will be importing drugs anytime soon, the ASHP said, because it needs to first comply with HHS' Safe Importation Action Plan, manufacturers are likely to sue and Canada might not participate to protect its own supply.

"The Canadian market cannot supply anywhere close to the amount of medication needed to bring down U.S. drug prices," Tom Kraus, ASHP vice president of government relations, said in a news release. "We need politicians to focus on real solutions like ending pharmacy benefit manager rebates that undermine competition and discourage use of lower-cost medications, and allowing pharmacists to substitute clinically equivalent biologic medications, like they do for generic small molecule drugs."

Florida's importation plan is authorized for two years starting on the date of its first shipment. Before that happens, though, the state has to submit information about the drugs it plans to import, re-label drugs to meet FDA standards, test the drugs for authenticity and compliance, and submit reports quarterly to the FDA on the cost savings and safety.

The American Pharmacists Association also criticized the plan, saying it jeopardizes patient safety because of the risk of introducing counterfeit drugs to the U.S. market.
A Missouri jury has sided with St. Louis-based Orthopedic Specialists and orthopedic surgeon Kevin Rutz, MD, in a malpractice lawsuit brought by a former patient, according to a Jan. 5 report from Missouri Lawyers Media.

Former patient William O'Connell alleged that Dr. Rutz failed to accurately diagnose and treat his condition, leading to a spinal cord injury that put him in a wheelchair.

The 2017 lawsuit was brought after Mr. O'Connell underwent four surgical procedures over six months to address lower back, neck and shoulder pain, leg weakness when standing, and decreased balance.

The jury returned its verdict in just 20 minutes following the five-day trial.

"Even though the plaintiff had general symptoms that might be myelopathy  or numerous other things instead  he lacked any of the findings that point specifically to the diagnosis," Halle Dimar, a defense attorney on the case, told Lawyers Media. "The plaintiff also had an uphill battle on causation, as Mr. OConnells condition waxed and waned for some time after his care with our client and he didnt dramatically deteriorate until many years later."
Queens University spin-out has bought a nearby premises in west Belfast

Scientific equipment manufacturer Andor Technology in west Belfast has announced a 15m expansion as it revealed rising profits and turnover.

Andor, which is part of Oxford Instruments plc, said its turnover for the year ending 31 March 2023 increased by 24% from 62.3m to 76.9m, while its pre-tax profit increased by 11% from 17.8m to 19.8m.

The business, which started out as a spin-out from Queens University and specialises in scientific cameras, said its healthy performance was driven by strong growth in healthcare and life science applications, together with significant growth in Asia and the Americas.

China now makes up one-fifth of total revenue, the company added. It said that it had adapted to market conditions by strategically shifting its focus towards markets within China less impacted by ongoing UK export licence restrictions. That move, coupled with the end of the Covid-related lockdowns in China, had contributed to the strong results.

Andor said increased profitability also came despite significant investment in people, primarily to enhance operational capacity, as the company scales up to meet growing demand for its innovative solutions.

To sustain a robust product pipeline and preserve its prominent position in key markets, Andor has invested 5.2m (2022: 4.5m) in research and development, representing 7% of revenue, as it continues to prioritise innovation.

It announced that its also investing 15m in the procurement and refurbishment of a neighbouring premises at Springvale Business Park in west Belfast.

The investment aims to enhance the companys overall capabilities by expanding its footprint and improving operational efficiencies. By doing so, Andor intends to better cater to its growing customer base. The new building at 5 Millennium Way, which has a footprint of 23,000 sq ft, is expected to be up and running in autumn 2025.

Managing director Kristian Laskey said Andors financial success was underpinned by its strategy and people.

Our headline strategy, which is focused on customer intimacy, innovation, operational excellence, and customer support, is driving sustainable growth and margin enhancement, while offering increased value for our customers.

Kristian Laskey, managing director of Andor Technology

Delivery against our strategy is underpinned by our values and culture. We have achieved these results, despite some significant headwinds, due to the ingenuity and dedication of our people, and we will continue to invest in our employees by prioritising training, development, and by promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion.

The acquisition of new premises in Springvale Business Park is another key milestone for the business.

He added: We are incredibly excited about exploring new ways of working, and taking advantage of the many opportunities that this investment will deliver for us and the local community. Our focus now is on working collaboratively with Belfast City Council and other stakeholders to progress this project within the desired timeframe.

Staff numbers grew over the year from 288 to 318, with the pay bill rising from 14.9m to 18.8m.
Jamie Dornan is back for season 2 of The Tourist with Danielle Macdonald

Jamie Dornan in the new series of The Tourist

Jamie Dornan has opened up about a horrific near death experience in Jamaica and some of the scary experiences he had with photographers at the beginning of his career.

The Co Down actor told the Sunday Times that he was violently mugged while in Jamaica.

It was absolutely horrific, he said.

Dornan visited Jamaica in 2006, when he was in his early 20s but the trip wasnt quite what he expected.

I was a wee bit stoned because thats what you do in Jamaica. It was late at night, it was very bad, he said.

Dornan was reluctant to share the full story of the night but said his assailants held a gun against him through a jacket (he didnt see it but said it felt like a real gun) and they had a machete in full view.

He said it was a genuinely terrifying experience. I thought I was going to die, he said.

The Holywood actor is best known for starring in the Fifty Shades franchise, Sir Kenneth Branaghs Oscar-nominated Belfast and more recently, BBC Ones The Tourist.

In his younger years, Dornan was a model and he opened up about some of the creepy interactions he had during his modelling career.

Once, when he was around 20, he was being shot by an older photographer who was adamant that they should have lunch together afterwards.

I said no and got dressed, came out and he was naked in the kitchen making spaghetti bolognese.

Appalling! Unless thats just how he cooks? I ran out.

He also detailed another incident where a photographer purposefully walked into his changing room while he was undressing, acting like it was a mistake but then only half-closed the door.

Its just weird s***, now that I look back at it. Voyeuristic, strange, very uncomfortable stuff.

Jamie Dornan is back for season 2 of The Tourist with Danielle Macdonald

Dornan became a huge success after appearing on the Channel 4 reality show Model Behaviour in 2001.

He appeared in advertising campaigns with the likes of Kate Moss, Gisele Bundchen and Eva Mendes.

Dornan said he was often camera shy and a career in acting was much more appealing than one in modelling.

I look back at it with more pride now. I probably had more embarrassment about it, especially when acting was kicking off in a bigger way and I was like, No, f*** that, I am an actor now. 

Dornan is currently booked and busy, saying he attributes a lot of his ambitions to the way he was raised.

I am now just in a place  and this might change by next week  that I accept that things are obviously good. I work all the time.

Ive always felt like Im someone who has a point to prove or something.

I think a lot of that comes from being quite small when I was a kid and always thinking I had to work harder to stand out on a rugby pitch. Im very fuelled by a F*** you, watch this sort of energy.
Irish actor Cillian Murphy, who has won acclaim for his dark, brooding roles and his piercing blue eyes, has been named best actor in a drama at the Golden Globes for his role in Oppenheimer.

Born in Cork in 1976, his breakthrough role came in 2002 with the Danny Boyle film 28 Days Later, playing a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to discover the accidental release of a highly contagious, aggression-inducing virus has caused the breakdown of society.

He showed his darker side as a domestic terrorist in the 2005 thriller Red Eye, and also had turns in Breakfast On Pluto, the Irish war drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley and science fiction thriller Sunshine, which reunited him with Boyle.

Cillian Murphy at the Irish premiere of Breakfast on Pluto in 2006 (Julien Behal/PA)

He first collaborated with director Christopher Nolan in 2005, as Scarecrow in Batman Begins, a role he reprised in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. He also appeared in Nolans films Inception and Dunkirk but it is his work with Nolan on Oppenheimer, playing father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer, that has brought him the most critical acclaim.

The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer, written by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin.

The film chronicles his studies, his career, his direction of the Manhattan Project during World War II, and his eventual fall from grace after his 1954 security hearing.

Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer (Universal Pictures)

Murphy was immediately touted as a potential Oscar winner for his performance as the conflicted theoretical physicist and he has said of the man he played: Were all living in Oppenheimers world now. Were all living in the nuclear age that he created.

Collecting his gong at the Golden Globes ceremony, he said: I knew the first time I walked on a Chris Nolan set it was different.

I could tell by the level of vigour, focus, the level of dedication and the complete lack of seating options for actors.

He paid tribute to their collaboration of 20 years and six fecking pictures, before thanking his co-stars for carrying me and holding me through this movie.

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He also paid tribute to his fellow nominees, which included Saltburns Barry Keoghan and All Of Us Strangers Andrew Scott, saying: If youre Irish or not, youre all legends and I salute you.

On the small screen Murphy won legions of fans for his performance as gangster Tommy Shelby in the BBC drama Peaky Blinders, which debuted in 2013.

He plays the leader of a Birmingham crime family in the aftermath of World War I.

Murphy is married to the artist Yvonne McGuinness and the couple share two children.
The former cop is also accused of illegally sharing police information on Sinn Fein MLA Gerry KellyA second defendant was also granted an interim court order preventing her name being reported

Two PSNI officers charged with misconduct in public office  one currently suspended on full pay and the other no longer with the force  have been granted an interim court order preventing them being named, claiming they are under threat.

One defendant, a male former officer, is facing 22 charges including illegally sharing police information on suicide victims, a vulnerable woman and two minors.

The pair, whose addresses were given as care of Woodbourne PSNI Station in Belfast, attended the citys Magistrates Court today for the first stage of the criminal proceedings.

The male defendant is accused of 16 counts of misconduct in public office, two counts of aiding and abetting misconduct in public office, two counts of aiding and abetting theft by an employee, supplying cannabis and attempting to supply the opioid Tramadol.

His alleged victims include Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly  a member of the Policing Board  and the late UTV reporter and presenter Aideen Kennedy, who died in June 2022. The former officer is accused of obtaining an image of a PSNI record relating to Mr Kelly and sharing sensitive police information about Ms Kennedy on October 15, 2015.

Other charges the ex-PSNI officer faces include working with a second former officer to steal cannabis seized during a 2014 raid at Newry Street in Rathfriland, Co Down. He is further accused of unlawfully supplying the drug.

The second defendant, a female officer, who is suspended pending the outcome of the case, is charged with three counts of misconduct in public office, two counts of theft, one of supplying cannabis and one of possessing Ethylone, a synthetic drug.

Her charges include the alleged theft of the drug from a deceased man, who is named in the charges.

The case against the pair came about following an investigation into Twitter (now called X) accounts, purporting to be controlled by serving officers, which published details of police operations online.

In 2017, former Chief Constable George Hamilton asked the Police Ombudsman to investigate a number of then-Twitter accounts claiming to be members of the PSNI.

During a short hearing at Belfast Magistrates Court today, the details of the charges were not read out.

However, the court was told that there would be an application made to prevent the names and home addresses of the two defendants being made public.

The court was told that the anonymity application was an early stage, incomplete application but that there had been a development on Sunday that was relevant and pertinent to the application.

A defence lawyer for the male defendant said that his client had received four threats, two verbal and two written.

A lawyer for the Belfast Telegraph said the male defendants application was incomplete and that the Belfast Telegraph was only informed that the female defendant intended to apply for a reporting restriction on Friday evening.

This is a very particular type of case, with particular types of defendants The press will require time to consider the fully formed application and then will make submissions.

Mark Farrell, representing the female defendant, said she was issued with a TM1 (threat warning) over the weekend claiming her life was in danger.

Our position has significantly changed following the receipt of this TM1 threat message and, [on] the legal basis, we would ask for an interim order of anonymity for a short period of time as to allow us to properly evidence an application, he said.

The court was told that there are 2,500 pages of case evidence which had been served on the defence in late December.

Presiding District Judge Steven Keown was told that more time was needed to examine the prosecution evidence.

It seems to me that there is enough information and concerns, from my point of view, to impose an interim order pending a full ventilation of the issues in due course.

I impose an interim restriction in relation to both defendants under Article 2, until further order of the court.

The case was adjourned until February 2 for a committal hearing and with the interim anonymity order to be further considered at that time.

Legal aid was granted in both cases, with the court told the male defendant is in receipt of benefits and the female defendant is currently suspended on full pay.
As Hasina contends for a fifth term in Sundays elections in Bangladesh, she is poised to potentially become the world's longest-serving female ruler in modern history.





by Nilantha Ilangamuwa





In the youngest nation in South Asia, the bitter political schism persists with indelible marks left by triumphant victors and desperate struggles of the defeated. The once united front against a common foe, embodied by the camaraderie between Sheikh Hasina Wazed and Khaleda Zia, has transformed into bitter enmity, highlighting the ephemeral nature of political alliances. Hasinas call for youth leadership, following her proclaimed victory last time, paradoxically reveals the enduring appetite for power inherent in seasoned politicians. The offspring of these political figures seem destined to perpetuate a cycle of rivalry, sustaining the nations relentless struggle for supremacy amidst the underlying pathology of democracy.





Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (2nd, L) holds a media briefing at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (PID/Handout via Xinhua)





Adding complexity to this narrative, akin to fractured democracies globally, is the erosion of the term democratically elected into a mere facade in Bangladesh. Free and fair elections, vital for democracys health, become cynically manipulated tools for leaders to enhance their public image while embracing autocratic tendencies once in power. Behind this charade, personal indulgences such as nepotism and opulent lifestyles flourish, stifling dissent and fostering a culture of sycophancy.





As Hasina manoeuvres for a fifth term, her earlier avowals of eschewing prolonged power crumble in the face of her persistent tenure. The troubling undercurrent of absolute power corrupting absolutely resonates with her wielded authority, casting shadows on Bangladeshs democratic fabric. Caught between the orchestrated drama of elections and the disconcerting realities of unchecked power, the nation stands at a precarious juncture.





The lack of confidence by the main opposition, Bangladesh National Party (BNP), in Hasinas ability to oversee a free and fair election has led to a demand for her resignation, aiming to pave the way for a caretaker government. However, this call has been met with a harsh government crackdown, resulting in the arrest of tens of thousands of BNP members and leading to several fatalities. The ensuing turmoil raises doubts about the legitimacy of elections in the global garments hub. In response to the oppositions boycott, Hasinas party scrambles to field independent or dummy candidates, a move dubbed as competitive make-up by analysts. While appearing fair on the surface, it ensures that the election holds no surprises for the Awami League.





However, Hasinas leadership is a nuanced portrayal. In contrast to the domestic turmoil within the country, Bangladesh has attracted positive attention geopolitically. Strategic partnerships with India and China, recognition in the Indo-Pacific region, and acknowledgments from global leaders underscore its significance. Notable achievements include economic growth, social development, and transformative infrastructure projects. Initiatives such as Digital Bangladesh, advancements in womens empowerment, and skilful diplomatic manoeuvring demonstrate a multifaceted approach.





Yet, these accomplishments exist against the backdrop of political polarisation and unrest, prompting a critical examination of Bangladeshs democratic trajectory. The enduring neglect of Bengali political aspirations since the pre-1947 era compounds historical injustices, leading to post-independence disillusionment. Despite attempts at course correction, under Hasinas leadership, Bangladeshs democracy has veered away from its hopeful origins, raising questions about its future path.





Forged in the crucible of a heroic struggle for liberation in 1971, Bangladesh initially embraced the tenets of linguistic nationalism and democracy. However, the trajectory since Hasinas rise to power has thrown shadows on this once-promising journey towards democratic ideals. In the face of historical struggles, Bangladesh grapples with the fervent demand for democracy colliding with the disconcerting realities of geopolitical power dynamics, giving rise to a precarious political landscape.





The 1972 Constitution of Bangladesh birthed a Parliament with an unusual status  a dominant executive and dormant legislature. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman known as Bangabandhu, buoyed by unprecedented popularity, wielded absolute powers as the head of the party, parliament, and government. The absence of a formidable opposition accentuated this dominance, leaving only two opposition leaders in the parliament.





In an unexpected twist in 1974, Mujibur relinquished the party chief position to AHM Qamaruzzaman. The parliament, under the overwhelming majority of the Awami League, endorsed one-party rule through the 4th Amendment in January 1975. This constitutional shift granted the president supremacy over the executive, judiciary, and legislature, consolidating an all-powerful presidency. Tragically, Mujibur was assassinated in August 1975, ushering in a prolonged period of military rule.





The 1991 national elections marked a turning point, bringing the BNP to power and resurrecting the parliamentary form of government through the Twelfth Amendment. This restored executive powers to the prime minister, relegating the president to a constitutional head. However, concerns surfaced regarding the unchecked powers of the prime minister, often criticized as an autocrat and presidential prime minister.





Critics argue that the PMs powers obstruct democratization, citing a lack of accountability and oversight. The PMs office remains impervious to parliamentary committees, shielded from scrutiny. Article 70 further dissuades MPs from holding the PM accountable, creating a constraint on freedom of expression. This distortion of democratic principles has resulted in the accumulation of unchecked power, diverging sharply from the envisioned purpose of a great Bangladesh articulated by Mujibur Rahman. The ironic reality now portrays a ruler wielding unbridled power, a departure from the democratic ideals that were once fervently aspired.





As Bangladesh teeters on the brink of another electoral juncture, the potential repercussions of a fifth term under Hasinas administration, one of only two surviving daughters of Bangabandu, who was murdered in August 1975 along with other family members, cast a foreboding shadow. Once a beacon of hope for democratic principles, the nation now confronts the daunting prospect of perpetuating a political landscape dominated by unchecked power in the face of a daughter of the nations founding father. The outcome of todays election holds the pivotal potential to solidify a legacy marked by an unsettling concentration of authority, jeopardizing the democratic ideals for which Bangladesh ardently fought during its tumultuous journey to independence. The challenge ahead extends beyond mere electoral triumph; it hinges on the responsible wielding of power, infused with accountability and reverence for the democratic institutions anchoring the nations foundation.





The road ahead for Bangladesh extends beyond the confines of the ballot box, presenting a landscape fraught with challenges. The erosion of checks and balances, witnessed in preceding terms, poses a significant threat to the core principles of democracy. The stifling of dissent, suppression of opposition voices, and a lack of institutional oversight have sown seeds of discontent among the populace. To reclaim its democratic aspirations, Bangladesh must embark on a collective effort to restore equilibrium, fostering an environment where diverse voices not only find a platform but actively contribute to the nations progress. As the prospect of a fifth term looms, the nation stands at a crucial juncture, faced with the choice of transformative change or the continuation of a trajectory that risks compromising the very essence of democratic governance.





In a Daily Star piece, Prof. Ali Riaz envisions a sombre post-election scenario. He anticipates that the economic crisis, having deep roots, wont vanish overnight, and the new government may not adopt policies to prevent further financial plundering. Riaz raises concerns about policies in the banking sector, suggesting that individuals who have benefited from past looting may influence decision-making. The burden of repaying loans incurred over the years for mega-projects and development symbols looms large, and the depreciation of the taka is expected to persist. Balancing economic partnerships and preserving national sovereignty is crucial for the nations stature. The profound impact of Hasinas diplomatic decisions on the global stage could play a decisive role in shaping Bangladeshs trajectory post-election.





Courtesy: Sunday Island  7 January 2024





Nilantha Ilangamuwa is a founding editor of the Sri Lanka Guardian and has been the editor until 2018.
A former independent republican councillor on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council is facing charges of fraud and false accounting, along with her husband and another woman.

Bernice Swift (54), who held the Erne West seat on the council for 18 years, and her husband, Kevin Gabriel Martin (46), from Glenlevan Road, Derrygonnelly, are each charged with 14 counts of fraud by abuse of position and six counts of false accounting.

Roisin Conlon (46), from Landbrock Road, Newtownbutler, is also facing the same charges.

All three are accused of abusing their positions by acting against the financial interests of the Victims and Survivors Service by claiming cheques were paid out to persons for travel expenses, goods and services, including a residential stay in Armagh City Hotel.

It is further alleged the defendants furnished information or made use of a certain record or document required for accounting purposes knowing it was or might be misleading, false or deceptive  namely receipts for a stay at the Armagh City Hotel and three stays at the Westport Hotel.

There are also two counts for the same charges involving quotations that were allegedly produced, as opposed to receipts, for stays at Hodson Bay Hotel and the Four Seasons Hotel.

The offences are alleged to have occurred on various dates between November 27, 2018, and September 5, 2019.

All three accused appeared before Dungannon Magistrates Court today. However, a defence solicitor advised the case is not yet ready to proceed.

He referred to the large amount of case papers which have only recently been received and are still being worked through.

District Judge Michael Ranaghan said it was entirely sensible to adjourn the proceedings to allow the defence time to study the details.

The case will be mentioned again on February 12.

Applications for legal aid were submitted in respect of all three accused, which Judge Ranaghan advised he will consider and alert the defence if this will be granted.

Last year, Ms Swift shocked fellow councillors when she announced she would not be seeking re-election and was leaving the political scene to take on a new role.

In a departing speech to fellow councillors before the 2023 election, Ms Swift said: My day has come. I have decided, after 18 years of steadfast public service, where I have represented to the very best of my ability above and beyond, it is now time for me to do something new.

To that end, I leave local government and politics and will not seek re-election.

I am going to embrace a new phase of life and its going to be a working life, nine-to-five, with the gratitude of being healthy, fit and well to do so, and I thank God for all my blessings into my lifes next chapter.

She set out how she was first elected in 2005 for Sinn Fein, but I resigned from the party over their policy position in providing political support and endorsing British policing in Ireland, which I was, and remain, opposed to.

Thereafter I stood, liberated and shackle-free, as an independent republican, successfully proven by being elected on three different occasions by the very good people of Erne West, she said.
A 30-year-old woman who assaulted her friend in the presence of the injured partys two-year-old child has had her sentence deferred for six months.

Aimee Louise Hay, from Maymount Street in Belfast, appeared today at Belfast Crown Court on a charge of wounding her friend a year ago.

On Saturday, January 28, 2023, Hay and the injured party, who had been friends since primary school, were in Hays home.

At around 12.30am on Sunday, January 29, an argument broke out between the two women which prompted the injured party to call a taxi.

At this point, Hay lost her temper and lashed out. She grabbed her friend by the hair and banged her head off a wall whilst shouting: Im going to kill you.

The assault occurred in the presence of the injured partys two-year old son.

Whilst she was taken to hospital where she received five stitches and six stables for a head wound, Hay was arrested.

During a police interview, Hay said she was acting in self-defence and claimed her friend was injured accidentally during an argument.

She subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding.

Crown barrister David McNeill said Hay was under the influence of drugs at the time and revealed she has previous convictions for assault.

Defence barrister Richard McConkey told Judge Mark Reel his client was a lady who had turned her life around in the year since the incident.

This, he said, included a complete abstinence from drug misuse.

Mr McConkey also referred to several medical reports which concluded Hay suffers from a personality disorder and said she was now being supported by a community psychiatric nurse.

Judge Reel said he accepted Hay has been drug-free since last June  as was evident by several negative drug tests  and that her personality disorder may have played a role in the offence.

Also considered by the judge was a statement made by the injured woman, who spoke of the permanent and visible scar to her head as well as the incident being witnessed by her young child.

Addressing Hay as she stood in the dock, Judge Reel said that whilst the offence was serious, he was prepared to defer passing sentence for six months.

This, he said, was to allow Hay to continue on her path to rehabilitation.

Judge Reel told Hay that if she remains drug-free and continues to work with the community psychiatric nurse then you will receive a non-custodial outcome.

If you dont maintain that progress, the court will look at the sentence again.

Sentence was then deferred until June 25, 2024.
An Enniskillen man has been remanded in custody after attacking his parents on New Years Eve, during which he choked his mother at knifepoint and threatened to kill her.

Blaine Jamie Duffy (30), from Drumbawn Close, is charged with intentionally applying pressure to his mothers throat, affecting her ability to breathe or the flow of blood to her brain, threatening to kill her and possessing a knife, as well as assaulting his father and a police officer.

A detective constable told Dungannon Magistrates Court all charges could be connected.

She explained police attended Duffys parents address at around 10.30am on December 31, 2023, following a report from the NI Ambulance Service.

Duffys mother claimed he arrived at the house apparently intoxicated and smashed a carton of milk on the kitchen floor.

When she warned she was contacting police, Duffy grabbed her by the face and shouted: Youre nothing but a tout, a scumbag and a useless mother.

He took a knife and held it to her cheek, causing it to bleed, while squeezing her throat, saying: Im going to kill you.

Hearing the commotion, Duffys father entered and said: Look at your mas face.

Duffy replied, Do you want to see blood? before grabbing his mother again by the face and biting her chin.

The father pulled Duffy away. However, he fought back, attempting to bite his fathers face, who began experiencing chest pains.

Duffys mother made attempts to phone an ambulance, but Duffy repeatedly terminated these calls, thinking she was ringing police.

He left the property but returned and again threatened to kill his mother.

Duffy was arrested, but while in custody he refused to take his diabetic medication and was transported to hospital where he was uncooperative and refused treatment. He became increasingly aggressive towards police and verbally abusive to medical staff.

While handcuffed, Duffy lunged toward an officer and attempted to headbutt him.

He was assessed by a mental health team and admitted for a time, before being returned to police custody where he provided no comment replies to all questions.

Objecting to bail, the detective pointed to a risk of reoffending and witness interference.

She said: The defendant has 63 criminal convictions, showing a propensity for violence. He continues to offend even though he is on bail for other matters and has a blatant disregard for conditions.

His parents offered their home as a bail address following a previous incident when he allegedly attacked another person with a knife. Bail conditions have not been effective in managing the risks he poses. He received a suspended sentence for previous offences against his parents and there is a significant domestic history, so there are major concerns following this incident.

The detective advised that, while Duffy is diabetic, he repeatedly blames this for his offending after taking alcohol and drugs. Whilst these may have a negative effect, he does nothing to help himself and continuously takes drink and drugs then fails to medicate his diabetes.

A defence barrister accepted Duffy could not be released back to his parents home but suggested bail could be granted to reside at an address suitable to police.

He said: His parents have been very supportive of him and the massive problems he endures with diabetes. Its a very serious illness. He has no recollection of what happened and is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

However, Deputy District Judge Sean OHare refused bail, stating: Im not satisfied there are conditions which could address the risks.

Duffy will appear again by video-link at Enniskillen Magistrates Court on January 22.
A sophisticated and well-practised fraudster who conned three accommodation owners out of a combined total of 11,600 was handed an 18-month sentence today.

Matthew Luke Attenborough, who has been committing acts of fraud and dishonesty for two decades, was informed his sentence will be divided between nine months in prison followed by nine months on licence.

Belfast Crown Court heard the 43-year-old, who has an address at Broadchurch Street in Stockport, is due to be sentenced for further fraud offences in England tomorrow.

Attenborough targeted one hotel and two accommodation owners in Northern Ireland with his offending which spanned a six-month period.

Crown prosecutor Garth Purvis said he employed an identical modus operandi on all three occasions by posing as a representative of a major corporate body when securing accommodation.

This, Mr Purvis said, was aimed at creating a false assurance to the accommodation owners and bypassed the usual payment of a deposit.

In December 2022, the owner of an Airbnb on Mount Street in Belfast was contacted by a male claiming to be from Universal Studios.

The caller stated he required accommodation for a month in January 2023 and the owner sent him an invoice for 2,942.07, which covered the cost of renting the property for that period.

Mr Purvis said the owner then received a notification of the payment, which turned out to be fake, and when Attenborough arrived at the property, he presented a false driving licence.

Attenborough stayed in the Airbnb property until January 18, 2023, and told the owner a cheque would be forwarded to her for the full amount; however, she never received any payment.

On January 15, 2023, the owner of an apartment on Monaghan Street in Newry was contacted by a male caller who said he wanted to rent the flat from February 19, 2023, for a 40-day period.

The caller claimed he was Joel from Universal Studios and he stayed in the apartment for a period without making any payment.

Mr Purvis said: Repeated assurances and promises were made to the owner that the payment was forthcoming, and then excuses were offered for the delay and the failure to do so.

The owner later told police she lost a total of 5,135.05 for unpaid rent over the 40-day period booked.

The third and final offence was committed in the summer of 2023, with the prosecutor revealing that on June 5 the Regency Hotel in Belfast received an email requesting accommodation.

The enquiry was made by a male claiming he worked for Network Rail in Wales and a booking was made for a period from June 6 to 13, 2023.

An invoice for 3,600 was sent and when he arrived at the hotel, Attenborough provided identification which matched that on the booking, but which turned out to be false.

Following concerns raised by the hotel on June 7 that payment for the room had not yet been received, staff contacted Network Rail and were informed that no person with the name given for the booking worked for them.

Police were contacted, officers attended the hotel and Attenborough was arrested.

Mr Purvis said Attenborough was a sophisticated and well-practised fraudster who has been committing offences of dishonesty throughout his entire adult life.

This previous offending, which includes 56 fraud and similar offences, has resulted in jail terms imposed and served in England.

Defence barrister Barry Gibson pointed out that when questioned by police last June, his client admitted his guilt to three charges of fraud by false representation immediately and has spent seven months in custody.

Judge Patricia Smyth spoke of the loss of income incurred by the hotel and two accommodation owners, which amounted to a combined total of 11,677.12.

As she sentenced Attenborough, Judge Smyth addressed him and said: You used the same modus operandi to carry out all three offences, dishonestly holding yourself as a representative of a major corporate organisation in order to induce proprietors to provide accommodation to you without payment.

You have been committing offences of dishonesty for over a period of 20 years. Nothing appears to have deterred you, nor is there any plausible reason for your offending mindset.

Citing Attenboroughs highly relevant criminal record as a significant aggravating factor, the Belfast Recorder imposed the 18-month sentence.
Teaching unions have notified employers of their intention to take part in strike action on January 18, leaving parents and pupils facing a day of disruption.

The teaching workforce will be taking part in a day of mass action involving nurses, transport workers and civil servants which will bring Northern Ireland to a standstill next Thursday as part of the ongoing dispute over pay and conditions.

Jacquie White, General Secretary of the Ulster Teachers Union (UTU), said it was unfortunate there had been no moves to seek a resolution over the Christmas and New Year break.

UTU, alongside the four other main teaching unions in Northern Ireland, has therefore been left with no option but to formally inform our employers of our decision, she said.

It is with the heaviest of hearts that each and every member feels cornered into this action, given that our long-running pay claim began in 2020.

Alternative, lesser actions have unfortunately made no difference in securing NI teachers parity with their counterparts elsewhere in GB.

With newly qualified teachers salaries here an astonishing 8k below those just a few miles away in, for instance, Scotland, we can no longer allow our profession to be treated so contemptibly.

Despite the fact that funding for the public sector pay claim has been identified within the offer made by the Secretary of State, there appears to be no political will, or plan, to deliver.

Meanwhile, teachers continue to hold together a system which is crumbling beneath the weight of long-term under-investment, a system which is short-changing our children and risking our future socio-economic success as a country.

She said the authorities must listen to the cries from within the profession that it is haemorrhaging its best people and failing to attract new teachers.

For too long now, we, as teachers, have been papering over the cracks and doing our very best to make a broken system work, she added.

The savage nature of cuts in recent times is having an undeniable ripple effect that goes a long way beyond the classroom.

Our industrial action is about advocating for a better future for our children, who are being denied essential services.

We do not want to be in this position but we intend to fulfil the commitment we made before Christmas and engage in further action until this issue is resolved.

We call on the Department of Education, local politicians and the Secretary of State to deliver a mechanism for resolution.

The NASUWT said it had hoped NI politicians and the Government would have reached agreement by now, which would have freed up enough money to resolve all outstanding pay claims.

The pay situation for teachers and lecturers in NI is now desperate, said General Secretary Dr Patrick Roach.

Our members shouldnt be in the position where they must take industrial action to get the same basic rates of pay as colleagues elsewhere in the UK.

Given that the Secretary of State has identified 584m to address public sector pay issues as part of a package for the return of the NI Executive, it is scandalous that we have been left with no other option than to take strike action.

Jacquie White, General Secretary of the Ulster Teachers' Union.

Justin McCamphill, NASUWT National Official Northern Ireland, added: Public Sector workers are fed up with being used as pawns in a political game by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and are demanding that they are paid the same as any other teacher in the UK. A Northern Ireland teacher is not worth less than an English or Scottish teacher.

Those in Northern Ireland who are blocking the restoration of the Executive need to wake up to the calls of public sector workers who are struggling to make ends meet. Issues affecting Northern Ireland from the outworking of the protocol must be dealt with within the agreed structures of government.

Over the weekend, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Northern Ireland announced its members are to join the strike on January 18, in what is being described as a generalised day of action.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions Assistant General Secretary Gerry Murphy said: Workers in Northern Ireland cannot be held hostage by this process any longer.

The money exists to settle pay claims in the public sector, as evidenced in recent negotiations between the Secretary of State and political parties.

This money must be made available to settle this dispute now. We want to see the restoration of the NI Executive so that we can begin to bring some stability to public services.
A Belfast charity that had its project funding cut is a vital service for children with special educational needs, councillors were told.

Parents highlighted the importance of special needs charity Solas at a Belfast City Council meeting where the funding amount was discussed.

Belfast City Council management had proposed providing Solas with 800,000 for a new building, but this amount was reduced to 24,744 in what People Before Profit councillor Michael Collins condemned as a carve-up between Sinn Fein and the DUP.

Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast Aine Groogan said it was an insulting decision which needed to be overturned.

After parents told councillors of the importance of the charity, a decision was made during a private session of the meeting to give Solas 308,238 in funding.

Around 500,000 each was given to the Greater Village Regeneration Trust and the Market Development Association.

No funding was allocated to the Hearth Historic Buildings Trust for the redevelopment of Riddels Warehouse, despite council plans for it to receive 224,949 as of mid-December.

Councillor Micky Murray said he was incredibly disappointed by the outcome.

The funding is part of the 10 million allocation of the Neighbourhood Regeneration Fund.

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At a council meeting, two parents explained to councillors the difference Solas had made to their sons at a time when other services and supports were difficult to come by.

Disability crosses colour, creed, political persuasion, gender and postcode, Jean, no surname given, said on Monday.

She said her son, who was diagnosed with autism, was ignored at playgroups and other parents kept their kids away from us.

She added: After diagnosis, youre kind of handed that report and sent away with no idea how to navigate the system. The education system, and the healthcare system: two totally different things. Nobody tells you that or prepares you for that.

She said that when his teacher told her about Solas, it was a major turning point for us, where he had access to services provided by staff who knew how to help him thrive.

She added: Its a vital service provider for young people Theyre providing mental health support also to parents. At our low points, theyre helping us see that theres pathways available for our kids once they reach adulthood.

Solas doesnt have everything at the minute, hopefully it will, but it bloody does great with what it has.

Currently Solas provides many of their services in old mobiles and substandard facilities  this isnt sustainable. Its just not proper for our kids, for any kids.

She asked councillors: How much longer do our young people have to make do?

Emily Gallagher said that her 15-year-old son Oisin has been using Solas services since he was four years old.

She said that he was diagnosed with autism and needed one-to-one care.

She said they felt socially isolated and faced difficulties in accessing services to address his needs; they were left waiting four years for professional help.

Its very isolating being a parent of a child with a disability, she said.

Im not sure what we would have done without Solas during this time.

They took Oisin twice a week for three-hour sessions, which let us parents sleep and spend time with our other son.

She said that the charity needs a permanent building in order to provide services to people with additional needs and their families.

I know here in the city hall, you have changing places facilities available. Its got height-adjustable adult-sized changing benches. So I know that you all know this is essential in all settings where people with disabilities attend.

And yet its not available for Solas. We need a permanent building to provide this for the kids.

Solas is essential in south Belfast. There is nowhere else to go. No other after-school club, no social setting, nowhere to meet parents, nowhere to get help, nowhere to ask questions.
The "double standards" of the Irish government on issues of legacy must be challenged, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has said.

It's after Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris wrote to Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs questioning the move by Dublin

to take action over new Troubles legislation by the UK government.

The British Ambassador to Ireland Paul Johnston issued the letter on Sunday evening.

In It, Mr Heaton Harris challenged the Irish government to set out its own record on tackling legacy issues, as it formally registered its regret at Dublin's decision to take legal action against its Troubles legislation, bringing the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd said there isn't "any way" the Irish government could have avoided taking legal action.

And he insisted the Irish government had been robust in addressing Troubles-era crime.

"The Irish government was rigorous in putting people behind bars," he said. "A crime north or south, the same human rights must apply."

He said the move by Ireland's Government to challenge the UK's contentious legacy laws in the European Court of Human Rights was unavoidable.

"There isn't any way the Irish government could avoid taking this case," he said

"All of the political parties, including the DUP, are opposed to this legislation. And the most important thing of all, all of the people who have suffered most are opposed to this legislation. So the Irish government had no choice and it was with reluctance, after going through the political process, taking this case and the British government know that," he said.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson later said: "The double standards of the Irish government on this issue need to be challenged and whilst we opposed what the UK government are doing and continue to oppose this amnesty they've brought forward in their legacy proposals, we see the same approach taken by the Irish government, indeed over many years," he said.

But Conor Murphy of Sinn Fein said the Irish government is right to criticise the UK government.

"They [the UK government] were never intent on satisfying the needs of victims, they were intent on satisfying the needs of their own backbenchers and their needs for their own personnel" he said.

"I don't think we should be distracted [over] records, about who prosecuted who. This is really about shutting down the needs of victims," he said.

In the letter, Mr Heaton-Harris again challenges Mr Martin to list the number of prosecutions mounted in the Irish state since 1998 related to Troubles incidents.

Aspects of the recently passed laws include a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who co-operate with the new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 will also halt future civil cases and legacy inquests.

Announcing the interstate case in December, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the "strong" legal advice was that the UK Legacy Act breached the UN Convention on Human Rights.

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) confirmed to the PA news agency that a letter had been issued formally registering "profound regret" at the interstate case.

"The Secretary of State, in his letter, repeats his call for the Irish Government to clarify the number of criminal prosecutions brought in Ireland since 1998 relating to Troubles-related cases, and presses the Irish Government more widely to answer questions regarding its own record on tackling legacy issues in its own jurisdiction," the NIO said in a statement.

The letter criticises the timing of the Irish decision, describing it as a "delicate time" in Northern Ireland amid the efforts to restore powersharing at Stormont.

The NIO added: "The decision also comes before the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, led by Sir Declan Morgan as chief commissioner, is fully established and able to demonstrate its ability to discharge the UK's international obligations.

"The UK Government reasserts its particular disappointment that the Irish Government has taken this course of action without, to date, any engagement with the ICRIR to understand better how it intends to implement the legislation and deliver for victims and survivors."
Two men who were convicted and sentenced last summer for painting a paramilitary mural depicting a snowman pressing a detonator with a command wire attached to it have been jailed following their respective appeals against sentences at the County Court in Londonderry.

Jordan Devine (23), from Bishop Street, had his sentence reduced from three months to two months.

His co-appellant, William McDonnell (37), from Balbane Pass, had his sentence reduced from four months to three months.

Judge Neil Rafferty KC was told that McDonnell had already served the equivalent of three months in custody following his conviction, meaning he will be released within a few days.

William McDonnell

Both men were sentenced in the Bishop Street Magistrates Court by District Judge Barney McElholm last summer. They were convicted of a single charge of displaying an article, namely a painting on the window of Junior McDaid House in Chamberlain Street, in such a way as to arouse a suspicion they were members of a proscribed organisation.

The image on the mural also contained the words They Havent Gone Away Ye Know.

The pair were convicted of committing the offence between November 23 and December 21, 2022.

In November of last year, barristers for Devine and McDonnell announced both men had withdrawn their respective appeal against conviction. Todays appeal was against the sentences only.

Jordan Devine

Jailing the two appellants, Judge Rafferty told them: The reality in this particular jurisdiction of Northern Ireland, or of the north of Ireland, whichever you choose to call it, is we live with a shared history where murals on walls signify to people whether or not they are welcome in a particular area.

It is part of the urban geography we all navigate, and those who put up such offensive murals must expect to be sentenced upon conviction.
Former Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt has called on paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland to disband in 2024.

The Strangford MLA and member of the Policing Board also said the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC)  an umbrella organisation representing the main loyalist paramilitary groups  turned down a request he made last year for a meeting to discuss how they were moving towards disbandment.

The LCC, however, said it has requested a meeting with UUP leader Doug Beattie on several occasions, but it has not happened.

Mr Nesbitt noted that October will be the 30th anniversary of the 1994 ceasefires declared by the Combined Loyalist Military Command on behalf of the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando.

These groups declared ceasefires from midnight on October 13, 1994, he said.

That means they have been on ceasefire longer than they were active, given the modern UVF dates back to 1965/66 and the UDA was formed in 1971.

The question arises: why are they still around? And for whose benefit? I urge all with influence to set this 30th anniversary to be the hard deadline for these groups to fully disarm, demobilise and reintegrate.

I understand there are individuals and sub-groups who wish to take no further part in these organisations. Their fear is that if they leave the stage, they create a vacuum others will fill to the detriment of their local community.

There are others who are inextricably wedded to criminality and lining their own pockets, practising drug dealing, racketeering and coercive control of individuals, families and communities. This must stop.

Mr Nesbitt said there is a need to identify if there is a common understanding of the term transition when it comes to paramilitaries leaving violence behind.

Members of the criminal justice system encouraged me last year to engage in loyalism to try to get their definition of the term, he said.

It is a matter of regret and annoyance that the Loyalist Communities Council turned down my request to meet to discuss that definition when I made an approach last June.

David Campbell, chair of the LCC, responded: The LCC exists to assist the process of transition and to turn round the cycle of deprivation that has pervaded loyalist unionist communities for decades.

The groups that signed up to the LCC have been fully engaged with the statutory and other initiatives designed to assist transition.

The LCC has asked Mike Nesbitts party leader for a meeting to discuss the needs of loyalist communities on several occasions and, regrettably, he has been unable or unwilling to find time for such an engagement.
In withering judgment, High Court judge rules that a reasonable person would feel that Gerry Kelly had a bad reputation and that, despite his political service, his reputation was still bad

A senior judge has thrown out a scandalous attempt by Sinn Feins Gerry Kelly to claim he should be compensated by a Belfast Telegraph columnist who said that the Sinn Fein MLA shot a prison warder in the head.

In the latest blow to Sinn Feins flurry of libel actions against the media, Master Bell delivered a withering rejection of the North Belfast MLAs claim, throwing it out before trial and awarding substantial legal costs against the top republican.

The judge found that Mr Kelly was someone who a right-thinking person would view as having lost his moral compass because he had exploded car bombs in the centre of London, something he defends to this day.

The untenable case has hung over Malachi ODoherty, the award-winning journalist and author, for three years after Mr Kelly chose to sue him personally, something the judge found was a deliberate attempt to intimidate a vocal critic of Sinn Fein.

Following the decision by the judge, Mr ODoherty told this newspaper he always felt that this was personal and ill judged.

Mr Kelly meanwhile told the Belfast Telegraph in a statement: Its a substantive judgement and I will take time to study it with my legal advisor.

On August 21, 2019, Mr ODoherty had said on Frank Mitchells U105 radio programme: Gerry Kelly MLA has spoken very frankly about shooting a prison warder in the head, right? He did that. He shot a prison warder in the head.

That same morning, he was on the Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster. During their discussion, presenter Stephen Nolan asked him: Do you let people connected with paramilitaries on air so that they could be challenged? Or do you keep them off air and they dont get a voice? Whats the answer to that, Malachi?

In the course of his response, Mr ODoherty said: and we were discussing this in the Good Morning Ulster office and saying, well, how could we even function in Northern Ireland if every time we were going to interview Gerry Kelly we had to notify the family of the prison officer he shot?

One day short of a full year later, Mr Kelly issued a writ which alleged that Mr ODoherty had defamed him.

The politician claimed that Mr ODohertys words meant that he killed a prison officer by shooting him in the head, that he assaulted a prison officer intending to kill or cause grievous bodily injury or other personal injury to him, that he deliberately discharged a firearm at a prison officers head or at his person thereby assaulting him, that he unlawfully discharged a firearm, that he was in unlawful possession of a firearm and/or ammunition with the intent to endanger life, and that he was in unlawful possession of a firearm and /or ammunition.

In a detailed 55-page written judgment handed down in court this morning, the judge said: As a result of these words, Mr Kelly claims that he has been gravely damaged in his character and reputation. Further, his standing as a respected public representative of all those in the constituency of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly in which he was elected has been called into disrepute.

Journalist Malachi O'Doherty at the launch of his book about Gerry Adams

In a criminal trial in 1988, Mr Kelly had been acquitted of shooting prison officer John Henry Adams in the head during the Maze Prison escape. Master Bell noted that the trial judge, Lord Lowry, had said: There is clearly a prima facie case on counts 21 and 22 [the attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm of the prison officer] against Kelly. But there are a great many awkward questions about inconsistencies and discrepancies I cannot conscientiously be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Kelly is the right man. He may well be, but that is not enough.

Master Bell said: The fact that a person is acquitted in criminal proceedings regarding a shooting of a victim does not, nevertheless, bring to an end all determinations as to his legal liability for the shootingOne of the most significant differences between criminal and civil proceedings is the standard of proof.

Mr Kelly had also begun defamation proceedings against Ruth Dudley Edwards, another journalist and author known for her criticism of Sinn Fein. She is also applying to have that claim struck out.

Mr Kelly had pressed ahead with the case despite the fact Mr ODohertys solicitor had set out a robust defence. Mr ODohertys lawyer had told Mr Kelly that he would rely on the fact that the prison officer had identified Mr Kelly as the person who shot him in the head, that the official government documentation held at the Public Record Office identifies Mr Kelly as the person who shot him in the head, and that he would rely on his right to freedom of expression enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights.

Mr ODoherty also made clear to the MLA that he did not accept that he had suffered any damage to his reputation given that Mr Kelly had admitted membership of a terrorist organisation, the IRA. He also highlighted how at no time had Kelly sought to distance himself from IRA murders, that he had a general reputation as someone who supported IRA violence, and that he had been convicted for bombing the Old Bailey in London in an attack which killed one person and injured about 200 people.

In a book, Mr Kelly had boasted of his role in the prison breakout and said openly that hed threatened a prison guard while looking down a gun sight.

The judge noted that Mr Kelly does not disassociate himself from the use of force for the purpose of escaping. Indeed, quite the opposite.

Gerry Kelly pictured in 1983

The judge concluded that there was a common design between Mr Kelly and fellow IRA leader Bobby Storey to use violence against prison officers and therefore, for the purposes of defamation, it didnt matter which one of them had actually fired the shots.

The judge went on: Thus, these facts lead to a complete defence for Dr ODoherty in respect of the defamation action Mr Kelly has broughtthese defamation proceedings against Dr ODoherty are completely untenable. For that reason, the court strikes them out on the basis that they are scandalous, frivolous and vexatious.

The judge then went further, saying that Mr Kellys decision to sue Mr ODoherty was without doubt an abuse of process.

Mr ODohertys barrister, Bobbie-Leigh Herdman, highlighted that Mr Kelly had chosen to sue Mr ODoherty and Ms Dudley Edwards personally rather than the BBC and the Belfast Telegraph  the media organisations which had carried their respective comments.

That decision, she said, was taken to frighten Mr Kellys critics and stifle the expression of their opinions of him by the threat of legal costs.

She said that the case was a cynical attempt to target Mr ODoherty as he is an outspoken critic of Mr Kellys political party and that amounted to a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP).

The judge agreed with that, saying: The field of political speech  and I use this term in the widest possible sense so as to include not only what politicians say, but also what others say about politicians, their policies and their actions  is a field which must be carefully handled lest the fabric of democracy be damaged. Defamation actions in this field need to be carefully considered in case they are being used to attack legitimate free speech Of course every individual has the right to defend their good name but, as elected representatives, politicians have a duty to display a greater degree of restraint when it comes to taking to legal action against journalists.

The judge went on to say that the facts suggest that rather than being a genuine attempt to defend a reputation which has been damaged by an untruth, the proceedings are what has been referred to as a SLAPP, namely an attempt to silence two bothersome journalists with the threat of legal costs. The proceedings appear to be a strategic effort to intimidate them, to deprive them of time and resources, and ultimately to silence them The abuse of process in this case is so blatant that it would be utterly unjust if the court were to allow the proceedings to continue.

The judge rejected arguments that Mr Kellys bad reputation as an IRA man had been legally rehabilitated because he was now a prominent elected politician.

He said: I consider that a right-thinking person would take the view that anyone who is guilty to the criminal standard of proof of exploding car bombs in a capital city, putting the lives of dozens or hundreds of people at risk, has lost his moral compass, as he places little value on human life because he is prepared to take risk with their lives as collateral damage.

He said that, on the evidence before him, a right-thinking person would therefore have to conclude that Mr Kellys convictions for these offences resulted in him having a bad reputation and that, despite his political service, his reputation was still bad.

The judge also said that if Mr Kelly hadnt published books in which hed boasted about his terrorism, he might have won the case, saying: Without the publication of Mr Kellys books, Dr ODohertys interviews would likely have been found to have been defamatory.

Ruling on costs, he said: In my view, where a court is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that a defamation action amounts to a SLAPP, then an award of costs to the defendant on an indemnity basis is an inevitable consequence as a demonstration of the courts repudiation of the way in which a plaintiff has abused the processes of the court. I therefore award Dr ODoherty both the costs of this application and the costs of the action on an indemnity basis.

Two months ago, Master Bell rejected an attempt by Sinn Feins Michelle ONeill to secure compensation from former DUP councillor John Carson over a crude Facebook message. The judge said then: When the courts time is taken up with cases involving disputes between politicians involving insults which one imagines are sometimes heard in school playgrounds or outside pubs on Saturday nights, then serious cases inevitably suffer delay. This is undesirable and not in the public interest.

Six weeks ago, the High Court in Dublin dismissed a defamation action against the Sunday Life which had been taken by schoolteacher and Sinn Fein constituency organiser Liam Lappin.

Mr Lappin claimed that a photograph of him and 13 others at a Sinn Fein Christmas party  which the newspaper highlighted contained Frank McCabe, an IRA commander whose gang was implicated in the notorious murder of Paul Quinn  had defamed him, even though McCabe was circled in the photo to identify him.

The judge said the claim stretches credulity.

Last year, the Council of Europe accused Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald of intimidation of journalists over a defamation action against RTE. The Taoiseach and Tanaiste criticised the partys legal threats for having a chilling effect on democracy. Sinn Fein dismissed this, saying those involved had no option but to vindicate their good name in the face of false accusations made by others.

In his full statement following the decision by Master Bell, Mr ODoherty said: If Gerry Kelly had wanted a retraction or clarification the only people who could have provided that were the broadcasters who carried my comments. If he felt that he required financial compensation for his damaged reputation, then the broadcasters were the ones with the financial clout to provide that. Coming directly after me suggested clearly that he was simply out to damage me and silence my criticism of Sinn Fein.

Unfortunately for him now Master Bell's ruling is a thorough drubbing that he will have to live with. He has brought this on himself.
Yao Wen, the Ambassador of China to Bangladesh, paid a courtesy visit to Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, at Gonobhaban, Dhaka, on January 8th, 2024. The purpose of the visit was to congratulate Sheikh Hasina on the successful organization of the 12th National Parliamentary Election and the victory of the Awami League.





During the meeting, Ambassador Yao conveyed warm congratulations and best wishes from the Chinese leadership to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He reiterated China's commitment to strengthening the longstanding friendship, building mutual trust, and deepening practical cooperation between the two nations. The Ambassador expressed the Chinese leaders' dedication to elevating the China-Bangladesh Strategic Partnership of Cooperation to new heights.





Ambassador Yao congratulated Sheikh Hasina for the successful holding of the 12th National Parliamentary Election and the winning of the Awami League [ Photo: Chinese Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh]

Ambassador Yao emphasized the critical developmental stage both China and Bangladesh are undergoing and assured that China would continue to be the most trustworthy partner and the most reliable friend of Bangladesh in its journey toward modernization. He acknowledged the exemplary model of mutual respect and win-win cooperation set by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.





China pledged unwavering support for Bangladesh's efforts to safeguard national sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity, and to resist external interference. Additionally, Ambassador Yao expressed China's commitment to supporting Bangladesh in maintaining unity and stability while playing a more active role in international and regional affairs.





Highlighting China's dedication to assisting Bangladesh in achieving its development goals, Ambassador Yao mentioned support for the "Vision 2041" and the dream of "Sonar Bangla" at an early date. He further announced China's readiness to enhance all-round cooperation, facilitate and expand trade and investment, and promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with Bangladesh. China aims to contribute to the realization of a "Smart Bangladesh."





The meeting concluded with both sides expressing optimism about the future of the bilateral relationship and their joint efforts towards shared prosperity and development.
Irish tech millionaire whose company owns NI solar farms donates to SDLP

The party has said all donations received are fully and transparently reported

Elgin Energy have two solar farms in Northern Ireland, with a further five in various stages of development

Liam Tunney Mon 8 Jan 2024 at 07:00

An Irish entrepreneur whose company owns a number of solar farms in Northern Ireland has made a series of donations to the SDLP.
Only the Defence Forces will be permitted to use the term 'Oglaigh na hEireann'. Stock image

A new law in the Republic will mean anyone using the name Oglaigh na hEireann without the permission of the Irish Defence Minister faces a fine of up to 1,000 (861).

This means it will be illegal to use the term in the Republic by anybody except the Defence Forces.

The law change, which was proposed by Fianna Fail senator Malcolm Byrne, will mean Sinn Fein will no longer be able to use the term in reference to Provisional IRA members.

For example, every year the party commemorates Bellaghy hunger striker Thomas McElwee, who died in 1981. McElwee was jailed for the firebombing of a shop in Ballymena, in which a young mother, Yvonne Dunlop, was killed.

In online tribute videos, McElwee is referred to as a member of Oglaigh na hEireann, or an Oglach, by Sinn Fein.

The party also sells a Oglaigh na hEireann 3D badge  The Fight For Freedom pin in its online shop.

Dissident republican groups have also used the name.

Bernie Maguire, assistant secretary general at the Department of Defence, told Mr Byrne: It shall be an offence for a person without the authority of the Minister for Defence to use the term Oglaigh na hEireann, or any words closely resembling this term, as the name, title or description, or styling of any organisation, group, association or body.

A person who commits an offence under this new provision shall be liable on summary conviction to a class D fine.

A maximum class D fine is 1,000 and the proposals will only apply to contemporaneous use of the term and not historical uses  for example, those during the War of Independence.

The changes will be brought in as part of the General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023, which will be published in the Dail shortly.

Fine Gael has also previously taken issue with the term being used by Sinn Fein, with junior minister Martin Heydon saying it is a disgrace and an affront to men and women serving Ireland here and abroad.

Mr Byrne welcomed the government taking on board his new law.

Senator Byrne said: I think we should always be proud of the role of those who donned the uniform of the Irish State and their work should always be recognised.

This legislation does not apply in a historical context, so for example those who were involved in the War of Independence, we will still have recognition of the title Oglaigh na hEireann.

Its very much in a contemporary context, to recognise there is only one Oglaigh na hEireann and that is the Defence Forces of the Irish State.

He said he expects the new laws to be passed in the first half of this year.

A spokesperson for Sinn Fein said: Sinn Fein accept the term Oglaigh na hEireann applies to the Defence Forces. The term Oglaigh na hEireann is spelt out as the name of the Defence Forces in the Constitution and it would seem that that affords legal protection.

The spokesperson said this isnt the most pressing issue for the Defence Forces, and added: It would be better to focus on the failures of successive governments to deal with the real issues facing the Defence Forces around pay and conditions and the lack of supports for veterans and their families.

As well as protecting the term Oglaigh na hEireann, the new laws will put in place recommendations made by an expert review group into allegations made by the Women of Honour over allegations of bullying and sexual harassment, as well as address membership of ICTU for military trade unions.

This will mean the Defence Forces may be involved in public sector pay talks in some way.
The Duke of York with Virginia Giuffre, centre, and Ghislaine Maxwell (US Department of Justice/PA)

The bath in which the Duke of York was accused of sexually attacking a 17-year-old was too small for a man of Prince Andrews size to enjoy a bath in let alone sex, newly unsealed legal documents claim.

Andrew, 63, settled a civil sexual assault case out of court by paying millions to his accuser Virginia Giuffre in 2022, despite saying he had never met her.

Ms Giuffre, who was sex trafficked by paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, previously said Andrew sexually assaulted her in British socialite Ghislaine Maxwells London home, telling BBC Panorama in 2019: There was a bath and it started there and then led into the bedroom.

The Duke of York with Virginia Giuffre, centre, and Ghislaine Maxwell (US Department of Justice/PA)

She added: It didnt last very long, the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting. He wasnt mean or anything but he got up and he said, Thanks, and walked out.

The duke has strenuously denied the allegations, which have continued to hit the headlines over the past week because of the release of batches of court papers relating to a 2015 defamation case.

Maxwells solicitor Philip Barden said in his 2017 deposition, unsealed on Monday: She (Ms Giuffre) claimed she did have sex with Prince Andrew and that the sex occurred in what can only be described as a very small bathtub, too small for a man of Prince Andrews size to enjoy a bath in let alone sex.

The Duke of York denies the allegations (PA)

He said Ms Giuffres story alleging Andrew had sex with her caused a feeding frenzy for the press, and called on the media to cease and desist from continuing to publish, saying they faced higher damages for ignoring my clear warning if they continued.

Maxwell, who has since been jailed for sex trafficking young girls for Epstein, is also previously said to have argued the tub  reported to be a standard size 5ft 6in by 2ft 4in bath and boxed in on three sides by walls  was too small for sex.

Ms Giuffre told Panorama she went to Tramp nightclub in London with Andrew and he was the most hideous dancer Ive ever seen in my life and his sweat was  raining basically everywhere.

Andrew claimed in his disastrous Newsnight interview that he had a medical condition in 2001, after suffering an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when he was shot at, that meant he did not sweat.

He said the alleged encounter with Ms Giuffre in 2001 did not happen and he spent the day with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party.
Floral tributes were left outside the pub in Edinburgh where Marc Webley was shot (Jane Barlow/PA)

Two people have appeared in court accused of murdering a man who was shot outside a pub in Edinburgh on Hogmanay.

Marc Webley, 38, was shot just before midnight outside the Anchor Inn in West Granton Road, before dying in hospital.

Police Scotland said another man, aged 39, was taken to hospital with serious injuries but his condition remains unknown.

On Monday, Grant Hunter, 32, and Emma McVie, 25, appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court accused of murder.

They were also accused of attempted murder and assault to severe injury and danger of life.

The pair, from Edinburgh, made no plea and were remanded in custody ahead of a further court date.
The SNP and the Tories will resort to dirty tricks to cling to power at Holyrood and Westminster, Anas Sarwar warned, as he urged independence supporters north of the border to back his party in the upcoming general election and help with booting out the Tories from Downing Street.

Mr Sarwar, however, insisted that that was just the first step for his party as he set his sights on recapturing power at Holyrood in the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections.

But he warned Labour supporters that both Humza Yousafs SNP and Rishi Sunaks Conservative party wont hesitate to get nasty in order to try and keep hold of power.

Making his first major speech on 2024, Mr Sarwar said: We have to expect a lot of dirty tricks and attacks from our opponents.

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His comments came at the start of what he said could be a momentous year in the history of British and Scottish politics.

Mr Sarwar hailed 2024 as the year of change with the general election, which is almost certain to take place before 2025, providing Labour with the chance to change our country for the better.

His comments came as he made a direct pitch to independence supporters to back his party in 2024.

While Mr Sarwar was insistent that there is no majority for a referendum right now, he added that every corner of the United Kingdom wants to get rid of the morally bankrupt Tory Government.

He called on people to vote Labour to show you that we can make the UK work for every corner of our country, including here in Scotland  insisting Scots would benefit from Labours green energy policies and reforms to employment laws.

Speaking directly to independence supporters, the Scottish Labour leader said: We may ultimately disagree on the final destination for Scotland.

But on this part of the journey, let us unite to change our country and get rid of this Tory Government.

Anas Sarwar returned to Rutherglen for his first major speech of 2024  after celebrating a by-election victory with Michael Shanks there in October (Jane Barlow/PA)

He insisted that the voters north of the border could lead the way in booting out the Tories, and helping elect a UK Labour government.

However, Scottish Labour currently has just two MPs at Westminster  with Mr Sarwar speaking on Monday in Rutherglen, where a dramatic by-election victory in October 2023 saw his party win the seat from the SNP.

And, while he refused to set a target for how many seats his party could win in the general election, he said the vote would have an impact closer to home  in Holyrood and on the Scottish Government.

Mr Sarwar promised a Labour government would reset devolution and take it back to its founding principles, telling supporters that the endless, childish squabbles between both two bad governments must come to an end.

He also stressed the upcoming general election was just the first step, saying that there was also a chance for change in 2026 with a Scottish Parliament election.

This, he said, gave Labour the chance to form a competent government at Holyrood, as he insisted: Devolution was never meant to be about two governments fighting with each other and ultimately failing Scots.

Devolution was always meant to be about Scottish solutions to Scottish problems and two governments working together in the national interest to actually deliver for Scotland.

This year will see Scottish Labour ramp up its work to set out policies it could bring in if elected into power at Holyrood, with Mr Sarwar announcing he will recommence weekly shadow cabinet meetings.

This will see his front bench team increase its efforts towards setting out a bold vision to reform and renew our country, he said.

Here he said the first priority would be boosting the economy, with Mr Sarwar claiming: If Scotlands economy had grown at the same rate as the North West of England, it would be 11.5 billion bigger.

That is more money to invest in schools, on keeping our streets safe and in our hospitals.

He said Labour in Scotland would look to reduce taxes for people, but also said action was needed to improve the broken NHS.
Sex tapes are alleged to have been made of the Duke of York, Sir Richard Branson and Bill Clinton (PA)

A victim of Jeffrey Epstein claimed sex tapes were taken of the Duke of York, former US president Bill Clinton and billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson, court documents have disclosed.

Sarah Ransome, who gave a victim impact statement ahead of the sentencing of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell for sex-trafficking, appeared to write communications claiming the three were filmed by the paedophile financier.

On behalf of Mr Branson, a Virgin Group spokeswoman said: In a New Yorker report published in 2019, Ransome admitted that she had invented the tapes.

Epstein victim Sarah Ransome gave a victim impact statement ahead of the sentencing of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell for sex-trafficking (PA)

We can confirm that Sarah Ransomes claims are baseless and unfounded.

The extracts were flagged by a firm representing Epsteins lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, to demonstrate Ms Ransome manifestly lacks credibility.

Andrew stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with Epstein, and paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre, a woman he claimed never to have met.

He was cast out of the working monarchy and no longer uses his HRH style after Ms Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein, accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

The duke strenuously denies any wrongdoing.

A US judge ordered hundreds of documents to be unsealed as part of Ms Giuffres previously settled civil claim against Maxwell, which was filed in 2015.

Images were also released as part of the latest tranche of documents, including a resurfaced photo of former Labour minister Lord Mandelson with Epstein on his private island, Little St James.

Other pictures, all taken on the island in 2006, included one of Maxwell with disgraced French model scout Jean Luc-Brunel and various girls posing for photos.

Also accused in the email extracts from Ms Ransome was former US president Donald Trump who, according to the Epstein victim, liked flicking and sucking her friends nipples until they were raw.

Ms Ransome wrote: They looked incredibly painful as they were red and swollen and I remember wincing when I looked at them.

I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jefferys NY mansion on regular occasions.

Former US president Donald Trump also featured in Ms Ransomes communications (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Addressing the claims about Andrew and Mr Branson in the document released as part of another tranche published on Monday, Ms Ransome wrote: When my friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson, sex tapes were in fact filmed on each separate occasion by Jeffrey.

Thank God she managed to get a hold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes, which clearly identify the faces of Clinton, Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her.

Frustratingly enough Epstein was not seen in any of the footage but he was clever like that!

When my friend eventually had the courage to speak out and went to the police in 2008 to report what had happened, nothing was done and she was utterly humiliated by the police department where she went to report what had happened with Epstein, Clinton, Branson and Prince Andrew.

In the letter from Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP to the court, the firm said allegations against Mr Dershowitz were categorically false.

The firm said: Her (Ms Ransome) testimony was fabricated from whole cloth. Ms Ransomes testimony also contains a slew of other incendiary claims concerning the sexual proclivities of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and other prominent individuals.

The emails are a necessary antidote to Ms Ransomes deposition misstatements because they demonstrate she manifestly lacks credibility.

The email extracts from Ms Ransome also saw her take aim at Hilary Clinton, with one saying: I will make sure that neither that evil bitch Hillary or that paedophile Trump gets elected.

I will also make sure that everyone on the God damn planet sees [sic] that footage and photos [sic] and will release them to Wiki leaks by Sunday.

Ms Ransome also appeared to say she had reached out to the Russians for help after claiming her emails had been hacked.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan, New York, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.

Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in 2019 before his sex-trafficking trial (US Department of Justice/PA)

Maxwell has been imprisoned since July 2020 despite attempts by her defence counsel to have her released on bail.

She was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal court in the Southern District of New York in June 2022.

The socialite indicated her desire to appeal shortly after her conviction, with her lawyers claiming victims had faded, distorted and motivated memories.

Her appeal is scheduled to be heard in November next year.
The first US moon landing in more than 50 years was in jeopardy on Monday after a private companys newly launched spacecraft developed engine trouble.

Astrobotic Technology, based in Pittsburgh in the US, was racing to turn the lander towards the sun so its solar panel could collect sunlight, as its battery power dwindled.

The problem arose about seven hours after Mondays pre-dawn lift-off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

United Launch Alliances Vulcan rocket provided the lift for Astrobotics lander, named Peregrine, putting it on a long, roundabout path to the moon.

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If the propulsion system is at fault it threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the moon on February 23, the company said in a statement.

We continue to gather data and report our best assessment of what we see, the company added.

Astrobotic was aiming to be the first private business to successfully land on the moon, something only four countries have accomplished.

A second lander from a company in Houston, Texas, is due to launch next month.

Nasa gave the two companies millions to build and fly their own lunar landers.

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The space agency wants the privately owned landers to scope out the moon before astronauts arrive while delivering tech and science experiments for Nasa, other countries and universities as well as odds and ends for other customers.

The last time the US launched a moon-landing mission was in December 1972. Apollo 17s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt became the 11th and 12th men to walk on the moon, ending an era that has remained Nasas pinnacle.

The space agencys new Artemis programme, named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, looks to return astronauts to the moons surface within the next few years.

First will be a lunar fly-around with four astronauts, possibly before the end of the year.
For more than 12 years, the McAreavey and Harte families have fought a dignified campaign as they seek justice for murdered Michaela.

The only daughter of legendary GAA manager Mickey Harte, Michaela was found strangled to death in the bath of a hotel room in Mauritius on January 10, 2011.

The 27-year-old was on her honeymoon with husband John McAreavey.

Ever since, John has headed a campaign aimed at bringing those responsible for Michaelas death to book.

News that a police review of the investigation into the murder has failed to identify any new leads is yet another setback, but its by no means the end. Indeed, long and arduous fights for justice are nothing new in Northern Ireland.

Michaela and John McAreavey, Credit: McAreavey Family handout/PA Wire

In the aftermath of the murder, two employees of the hotel at the time  Avinash Treebhoowoon and Sandip Moneea  were arrested and brought to trial charged with the killing. Another, Raj Theekoy, was charged with conspiracy to murder. Theekoy later turned state witness and was granted immunity.

The Mauritius Police Force faced severe criticism for its handling of the case, including claims that they beat a confession out of Treebhoowoon.

There were also accusations that authorities were more concerned about preserving Mauritius image as a tourism destination rather than solving the murder.

These accusations even led the judge in the trial to specifically warn jurors not to take into account the potential effect of any verdict on the countrys reputation.

Treebhoowoon and Moneea were subsequently acquitted, and in the years since rewards for information regarding the murder have been offered, and documentaries and podcasts about the case made.

On several occasions, John McAreavey accused the Mauritian authorities of inaction, fearing that they hoped to forget what was  and still is  a stain on the tropical island nation.

In 2020, the Mauritius Police Force officially closed its investigations into the murder. At the time, John McAreavey defiantly vowed to continue the fight.

Following engagement with then First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill in 2021, the government of Mauritius agreed to re-examine the case and it has emerged that the review has resulted in no new leads being generated.

Despite this, rest assured that the fight for justice for Michaela will continue.

Her loved ones deserve answers.
Late European Commission president delivered greatly for the province, writes Robert Ramsay

With Jane Morrice, former head of the European Commission Office in NI in 1992

Jacques Delors served as the eighth president of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995

The news of the death of Jacques Delors just after Christmas sparked my memories of that outstanding European.

I first met Delors in 1988 in the aftermath of the passing of the historic Single European Act, which brought about the current single market and an advanced legislative role for the European Parliament.

He had regular meetings with Lord Plumb, president of the Parliament, to co-ordinate action between the two institutions. He was accompanied by his chief of staff and I was the counterpart for Plumb.

In the margins of one such meeting, Delors mentioned to me that a member of his personal staff, a young Ulsterman called David White, had challenged his superficial opinion that the problem of Northern Ireland was a religious one.

In support of my fellow Instonian, I pointed out the parallels with the problems of Corsica, where there was no religious element, but where deep-seated historical clashes of national identity, culture and territory  Italian versus French  were exacerbated by geographical isolation, as well as economic and social deprivation.

I gave him a copy of my book, The Corsican Time Bomb (1982), in which I foresaw a drift from street protests towards the terrorism of later years  bombings, assassinations of government officials, and protection rackets. It was little-known in France that the extreme nationalists in Corsica , the FLNC (National Liberation Front of Corsica), modelled themselves on the IRA. One of their rebel songs was A nostra surella Irlanda (Our Sister Ireland). Birds of a feather

I have the vanity to believe that I helped open his eyes.

With Jane Morrice, former head of the European Commission Office in NI in 1992

For representatives of such a small region as Northern Ireland, our three MEPs had a remarkably high profile in the Parliament in the 1980s and 1990s.

This was partly due, of course, to the fact that Northern Ireland was constantly in the international news.

Ian Paisley was infamous as the Pasteur fou (crazy cleric), who had heckled the Pope during the latters address to Parliament in 1988. John Hume was admired for his moderate contributions to debate and for his privileged entree to the Kennedy-Clinton circles in the United States. Jim Nicholson was appreciated for his sound judgment and clear exposition of his unionist point of view.

A mark of the esteem in which he was held was that he was elected to the College of Quaestors, the small group of senior members who manage the practical day-to-day workings of Parliament.

The ceasefires of 1994 provided an opportunity for an EU special initiative in Northern Ireland. Hume and Nicholson were enthusiastic about such involvement, Paisley less so because of his doctrinal opposition to things European (shades of the Holy Roman Empire in his world view), an aversion which has been embedded in the DNA of the DUP.

The three presented a united front, in itself an event of note, and found in Delors a willing and powerful ally. I would like to think that his previous education about Northern Ireland helped to encourage his positive response. He gave them a challenge on the lines of, Give me a detailed proposal for a special packet of programmes involving cross-community co-operation, grassroots social, cultural, sporting activities and the promotion of a transition from confrontation to peace, and I will see what I can do.

They rose immediately to that challenge and appointed a trio of officials to do the preliminary work at technical level.

These were Hugh Logue, ex MP (SDLP), close collaborator of Hume and a senior European Commission official; Howard McNally, prominent Alliance member and also a senior official of the Commission; and myself (no party label, but presumed to be, from my background, a unionist with a small u).

We embarked on a concentrated round of study visits to a wide and extremely diverse list of interests: government departments, trade unions, churches, sporting associations, community groups, voluntary organisations, ex-prisoners associations, in short, Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

We were greatly helped on the ground by suggestions from various sources. One of the best was Nigel Dodds, Paisleys right-hand man, who took a very pragmatic view of the opportunity. I have always regarded him, on account of his obvious intelligence, superlative education and cerebral energy, as being somewhat atypical of a DUP politician.

Few people outside the Brussels bubble will appreciate the speed and determination which Delors applied when he received the three MEPs draft set of proposals.

Normally such a new initiative, involving technical appraisal, financial provision, legislative follow-up, and administrative organisation would require several years of hard grind; Delors pushed it through in months.

The mark of its overall success is that the Peace Programme was rolled over time and time again, indeed not finally ending until just recently, years after the fateful deadline of Brexit.

I remember Delors for that massive contribution to Northern Ireland, and for his vision of Europes future ( to which the EU is now returning to review).

But I also recall the human aspects of the man, who would interrupt a deep financial discussion to watch the Tour de France highlights on television, or who would lighten a lunchtime talk about politics with a debate on the respective merits of the clarinet playing of Benny Goodman and Sidney Bechet.

We shall not see his like again any time soon.

Robert Ramsay was private secretary to Brian Faulkner, the last Prime Minister of NI, and went on to serve as chief of staff to the president of the European Parliament and director general of the parliaments library and research department
Sam McBride interview Stephen Walker, author of The Persuader, a biography of the man who more than any other shaped the Northern Ireland of today.

The ideas of the SDLP leader John Hume, who resolutely stood against violence, would infuse the Good Friday Agreement of 1998

John Hume was not just one of the most influential men in Northern Ireland politics, but in Irish history, as the leader of nationalism throughout most of the Troubles.

Before getting involved in politics, he had trained to become a priest and then decided to become a teacher.

The ideas of the SDLP leader, who resolutely stood against violence, would infuse the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Hume, who won the Nobel Peace Prize alongside David Trimble in 1998, was targeted by loyalist and republican paramilitaries over the course of his long political career.

Despite this, his position as a pacifist meant he refused to carry a personal protection weapon.

Sam McBride is joined by former BBC NI political correspondent Stephen Walker, author of a new biography of Hume, The Persuader, to discuss the former SDLP leaders life, his ideas and his legacy.
SoftwareOne Holding AG / Key word(s): Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous

SoftwareOne response to media reports and update on strategic review



08-Jan-2024 / 07:00 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Media Release  ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

SoftwareOne response to media reports and update on strategic review

Stans, Switzerland I 8 January 2024  In response to media reports, the Board of Directors of SoftwareOne Holding AG, a leading global software and cloud solutions provider, confirms that, as part of its ongoing strategic review, it continues to be in discussions with Bain Capital following an extensive due diligence process, discussions which may or may not lead to an offer.

The Board remains focused on driving shareholder value and acting in the best interest of the company and all stakeholders.

The Board expects to conclude discussions and provide an update on the outcome of the strategic review to shareholders by the end of the month.

CONTACT

Anna Engvall, Investor Relations

Tel. +41 44 832 41 37, anna.engvall@softwareone.com

FGS Global, Media Relations

Tel. +41 44 562 14 99, press.softwareone@fgsglobal.com

ABOUT SOFTWAREONE

SoftwareOne is a leading global software and cloud solutions provider that is redefining how organizations build, buy and manage everything in the cloud. By helping clients to migrate and modernize their workloads and applications  and in parallel, to navigate and optimize the resulting software and cloud changes  SoftwareOne unlocks the value of technology. The companys 9,250 employees are driven to deliver a portfolio of 7,500 software brands with sales and delivery capabilities in 90 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland, SoftwareOne is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker symbol SWON. Visit us at www.softwareone.com

SoftwareOne Holding AG, Riedenmatt 4, CH-6370 Stans

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This media release may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to the groups future business, development and economic performance. Such statements may be subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other important factors, such as but not limited to force majeure, competitive pressures, legislative and regulatory developments, global, macroeconomic and political trends, the groups ability to attract and retain the employees that are necessary to generate revenues and to manage its businesses, fluctuations in currency exchange rates and general financial market conditions, changes in accounting standards or policies, delay or inability in obtaining approvals from authorities, technical developments, litigation or adverse publicity and news coverage, each of which could cause actual development and results to differ materially from the statements made in this media release. SoftwareOne assumes no obligation to update or alter forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Violent pervert branded unmanageable after latest sex attack just weeks after his release

Joe Mexico McCabe will be sentenced later this month for the attack which occurred just weeks after he was freed from prison.
Former Indonesia tax official Rafael Alun Trisambodo prepares to leave the anti-corruption courtroom in Jakarta after being sentenced to 14 years following his conviction on corruption charges, Jan. 8, 2024.

An Indonesian court convicted and sentenced a former tax official on Monday to 14 years in prison for corruption in a case that angered the public last year and set in motion a scrutiny of other taxmen with suspiciously large assets.

The Jakarta anti-corruption court ruled that Rafael Alun Trisambodo could face three additional years in prison if he does not pay 10.7 billion rupiah (U.S. $690,000) in damages following his conviction on graft and money laundering charges. The figure is about that same amount the judges said he accepted in kickbacks from taxpayers between 2002 and 2013.

The defendant has been found guilty of corruption, Chief Judge Suparman Nyompa said in announcing the panels verdict.

The court determined Rafael had transferred money to bank accounts and properties under his and his relatives names to conceal the funds origin.

The scandal erupted in February 2023 after a video of Rafaels son, Mario Dandy Satriyo, and his friends assaulting a 17-year-old boy in a Jakarta alley went viral on social media, triggering public outrage. The boy suffered severe head injuries and was in a coma for weeks.

In September 2023, Mario was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the attack.

The incident exposed the lavish lifestyle of Rafael and his family, raising suspicions about the source of wealth. Internet users dug up photos and videos of Mario flaunting luxury cars and motorcycles on his Instagram account, which contrasted with his fathers modest salary as a civil servant.

In Indonesia, high-ranking civil servants receive a monthly salary of about $2,500 including benefits.

The anti-graft commission launched an investigation and found that Rafael had accumulated more than 56 billion rupiah ($3.6 million) in assets, including properties, vehicles and bank accounts. He was suspended and later fired from his job before being arrested in May 2023.

Rafael has denied any wrongdoing and said he was considering an appeal. He claimed that his wealth came from legitimate sources such as inheritance, business and investments.

He also apologized for his sons actions and asked for public forgiveness.

Last year, Mohammad Mahfud MD, Indonesias security minister, revealed discovering U.S. $23.3 billion (361 trillion rupiah) in allegedly suspicious transactions over the last 14 years within the finance ministry.

The suspicious transactions allegedly involved tax evasion, money laundering and smuggling, including $13 billion (201.5 trillion rupiah) linked to the alleged smuggling of gold, according to Mahfud.

Also last year, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the ministrys staff members were not involved in money laundering or corruption schemes linked to the suspicious transactions.

She said the transactions flagged by the anti-graft agency were valued at 3.3 trillion rupiah ($212.9 million).

Corruption perception

Amid public angst about these scandals, President Joko Jokowi Widodo urged parliament to deliberate a bill to allow the government to seize assets linked to crimes such as corruption and money laundering.

The bill was submitted by the executive branch to the House of Representatives in 2020 but has not been debated by lawmakers.

Indonesia ranked 110th of 180 countries in Transparency Internationals 2022 Corruption Perception Index. The country has struggled with longstanding corruption as government officials often allegedly ask for bribes to speed up projects and approve permits, the most recent report found.

Jokowi, who will leave office later this year following next months general election for his successor, had pledged to fight corruption and improve governance as part of his agenda to attract foreign investment and boost economic growth.

However, critics have said that corruption remains endemic and systemic in Indonesia, and pointed to the weakening of the Corruption Eradication Commission under a controversial law passed in 2019.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Overcast. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Temps nearly steady in the mid to upper 30s. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Variable clouds with snow showers. Low 28F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
SoftwareOne Holding AG / Key word(s): Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous

SoftwareOne welcomes Rohit Nagarajan as Chief Revenue Officer



08-Jan-2024 / 07:00 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Media Release  ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

SoftwareOne welcomes Rohit Nagarajan as Chief Revenue Officer

Stans, Switzerland I 8 January 2024  SoftwareOne Holding AG, a leading global software and cloud solutions provider, today welcomed Rohit Nagarajan as President and Chief Revenue Officer, and a member of the Executive Board with immediate effect. Reporting to CEO Brian Duffy, Rohit will be responsible for leading SoftwareOnes global revenue operations, with a focus on driving sales and marketing excellence, ensuring a seamless customer experience and identifying strategic growth initiatives.

I am thrilled to welcome Rohit as our new Chief Revenue Officer and member of the Executive Board, said Brian Duffy, CEO of SoftwareOne. With a proven track record of achieving exceptional results and building sustainable, profitable businesses, Rohit is the right visionary leader to join us in driving our next phase of strategic growth at SoftwareOne. His passion for customer success will be invaluable as we continue to help clients around the world maximise the benefits of cloud, data and AI.

SoftwareOne is uniquely positioned to capitalise on strong secular trends and I am excited to be joining the company at this important stage of its transformation journey. I look forward to collaboRating with the entire SoftwareOne team to help our clients succeed, while accelerating growth momentum and capturing new business opportunities across the regions, said Rohit Nagarajan, President and Chief Revenue Officer at SoftwareOne.

Rohit brings over 20 years of global leadership experience in the technology industry across Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. Most recently, he served as Regional President at SAP, responsible for the end to end operations of the business across Northern Europe. Prior to this, he held multiple leadership roles at SAP in Europe and Asia-Pacific, including having served as Chief Operating Officer for the region, and leading the SAP Platform business in Asia Pacific and Japan.

CONTACT

Anna Engvall, Investor Relations

Tel. +41 44 832 41 37, anna.engvall@softwareone.com

Stuart Marks, Content & External Communications

Tel. +44 7879 114427, stuart.marks@softwareone.com

FGS Global, Media Relations

Tel. +41 44 562 14 99, press.softwareone@fgsglobal.com

ABOUT SOFTWAREONE

SoftwareOne is a leading global software and cloud solutions provider that is redefining how organizations build, buy and manage everything in the cloud. By helping clients to migrate and modernize their workloads and applications  and in parallel, to navigate and optimize the resulting software and cloud changes  SoftwareOne unlocks the value of technology. The companys 9,250 employees are driven to deliver a portfolio of 7,500 software brands with sales and delivery capabilities in 90 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland, SoftwareOne is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker symbol SWON. Visit us at www.softwareone.com

SoftwareOne Holding AG, Riedenmatt 4, CH-6370 Stans

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This media release may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to the groups future business, development and economic performance. Such statements may be subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other important factors, such as but not limited to force majeure, competitive pressures, legislative and regulatory developments, global, macroeconomic and political trends, the groups ability to attract and retain the employees that are necessary to generate revenues and to manage its businesses, fluctuations in currency exchange rates and general financial market conditions, changes in accounting standards or policies, delay or inability in obtaining approvals from authorities, technical developments, litigation or adverse publicity and news coverage, each of which could cause actual development and results to differ materially from the statements made in this media release. SoftwareOne assumes no obligation to update or alter forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
GREAT BARRINGTON  The lawyer for a teacher questioned about a controversial book in her classroom is asking school and town officials to immediately conduct an independent investigation to find out how police got involved in what is typically a school matter.

They also want to know the identity of who initiated a criminal complaint against the teacher, said attorney Howard M. Cooper, of the Boston firm of Todd & Weld LLP, in a Jan. 5 letter to Select Board Chair Stephen Bannon and Berkshire Hills Regional School District Superintendent Peter Dillon.

Quote Among other things, these actions raise numerous and serious legal issues with regard to the lack of any reasonable suspicion, let alone probable cause, to interrogate our client." Howard M. Cooper, attorney for the teacher whose classroom was searched by police for a book

Cooper wrote that his firm  which specializes in employment law  is investigating how events unfolded after the complaint was filed.

The complaint was clear discrimination against the teacher based upon her sexual orientation," Cooper said.

Cooper also told Bannon and Dillon that such an investigation is urgent for the teachers safety and the need to put in place best practices so that nothing like what occurred here happens again.

The district has already set this in motion.

When asked about the letter, Bannon, who is also chair of the School Committee, said the panel has scheduled a closed-door session for Thursday night with their attorney to discuss "possible litigation" by the teacher as well as the hiring of an independent investigator.

How the town will proceed, Bannon added, is still under discussion. Parents are expected to attend Monday night's Select Board meeting to demand answers about how police were allowed to enter the school on such grounds and assurances that it won't happen again. Thursday night's School Committee meeting is entirely devoted to a discussion about the incident.

Dillon said revealing who the complainant is seems fair given the impact of the Dec. 8 complaint on the school community. He said he finds the complainant's continued anonymity "dangerous or problematic" especially given the teacher's name was entered into the police incident report that was released to the press.

Dillon thinks there's a "very strong possibility" that the teacher was targeted for her sexual orientation. Last week, he told parents at a meeting about the incident that it was a "racist and homophobic attack." Dillon said he didn't know that at the outset.

"My understanding of this has evolved dramatically over time," he said. "On Dec. 8th at 2 o'clock, I don't think I knew that."

While the Berkshire District Attorney and police have dropped the case, the events of that day have prompted outrage and soul-searching within district schools and beyond.

Police decided to investigate the English teacher at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School because of some allegedly sexually explicit images in the illustrated coming-of-age novel, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe  the "most banned" book in the U.S.

There were also other allegations in the police incident report that included the person overhearing the teacher "telling students 'not to tell their parents' and that they observed a student sitting on the lap of the same teacher."

The complainant had requested their identity remain confidential for fear of retaliation. The teacher  now on a paid leave of absence from work  has asked that, for safety reasons, The Eagle not publish her name.

When asked Monday if the department's policies will allow police to keep the complainant's identity private, Storti said he had to decline comment.

Serious legal issues

The classroom encounter with police, Cooper wrote in his letter, was unwarranted and deeply concerning  and worse.

Among other things, these actions raise numerous and serious legal issues with regard to the lack of any reasonable suspicion, let alone probable cause, to interrogate our client, Cooper wrote.

Also problematic, he said, is the shrouding of the identity of the complainant upon whose word a criminal investigation was opened."

And so is the fact, Cooper added, that police did not send that person back to the schools to follow existing book challenge procedures.

Cooper, who is also a member of the Board of Directors for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts included a Dec. 29 letter to Shugrue and Storti from the ACLUM and GLBTQ Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD, in which they criticized them for appearing to defend the search as an obligatory response to the complaint.

The letter says that the book clearly does not meet the legal definition of pornography, and that the search for it was unwarranted and unauthorized by law.

In a statement on Friday the Massachusetts Teachers Association also slammed school administrators and police for what they called "frightening overreach."
One of the few promises about life in this world is made in the New Testament. It is the assurance that until Jesus returns, people will suffer. Some people have been blessed to live in countries where their struggles are unrelated to their faith. For many through the centuries and even today, identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ can lead to political oppression, social persecution, and martyrdom.

As a unified body, Christians from all over the world empathize with their brothers and sisters who are experiencing persecution and pain for their walk with the Lord. They want to help, but arent sure what they can do for people who live on the other side of the world or who are inaccessible behind political ideologies and borders.

While ultimately all Christians must rely on God, Paul called on believers to respond this way:

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us (1 John 4:10-12). From prayer to outreach, there are things Christians can do for their persecuted brethren.

Persecution began soon after the Ascension of Jesus Christ. The first martyr was Stephen, who gave a sermon in the streets. The Jews around him stoned him for blasphemy.

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep (Acts 7:54-60).

Sometimes we can feel hopeless, like there is nothing to be done to support brothers and sisters who are suffering. God assures His people that He loves them and sees them, but He also encourages Christians to love and support one another. Even at a distance, there are ways to support persecuted believers through prayer and practical action.

Prayers for Persecuted Believers

Here are four things Christians in safe countries can pray to support persecuted believers.

1. Pray for Political Change in Their Location

The prophet Daniel said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings (Daniel 2:20b-21a). We can pray for Christians in a country where the political leadership is against the free practice of Christianity. We can pray for a change in leadership to alleviate their suffering, and that God would bring about this regime change.

2. Pray for the Comfort of the Holy Spirit

Sometimes people will be born into persecution and spend their whole lives in it. One of the names given to the Holy Spirit is the Comforter. This person of the Trinity is the one whose presence indwells each Christian and can provide them with assurance that they are not alone. God hears the prayers of those who love Him, and He can help make people more sensitive to the moving of the Spirit. Praying that persecuted Christians are more sensitive to the comfort of the Holy Spirit is an important thing to lift up to Him.

3. Pray for Evangelism Opportunities for Persecuted Christians

One of the great mysteries of our world, particularly in the 20th century, is that persecution can actually lead to non-believers getting saved and coming to Christ. In the Soviet Union, the underground church was strong, and experienced growth. Pray that God will use this momentary suffering to save souls from hell and for His glory.

4. Pray for the Salvation of the Persecutors

While the flesh instinctively wants to hurt people, get revenge, and not forgive, the Bible shows time and time again that Gods will is to forgive, to see everyone repent and turn to Him. One of the greatest missionaries in the early church was Paul, who had been called Saul. He had been full of anger, persecuting Christians. But he repented and grew to love God and fellow believers, and it is believed that ultimately, he was martyred himself. To be like Christ is to desire to see the persecutors turn away from their sin and wickedness and become Christians too.

3 Practical Ways to Support Persecuted Christians

Here are three things Christians in safe countries can do to practically support persecuted believers.

1. Support Missionaries

There are many ways to support missionaries working to impact persecuted Christians. Whether that is you supporting a missionary you know personally, supporting their businesses, giving through your church, giving through a private missions organization, or through a denominational cooperative program, giving back to missions can provide missionaries with resources to continue their work in supporting persecuted Christians.

2. Purchase Items to Donate to Nonprofits That Work with Persecuted Believers

While Christians should not focus on worldly possessions, sometimes providing relief in material needs can be a real blessing. Whether it is clothing, food, digging wells, or other items, providing that relief can make a difference in their lives, and let them know they are loved by brothers and sisters far away.

3. Look for Ways to Promote Meaningful Change from Your Country

Sometimes it is possible to engage in a political movement or with an issue to try and make a difference in a country or region where Christians experience persecution. A petition can make a difference, and so can voting for a politician whose platform aligns with changes in a geopolitical approach. We can advocate for change, and ask God to show us how we can work to implement meaningful change. However, we must also have the understanding that true persecution will not stop until Jesus returns for the Millennial Reign.

Bible Verses about Persecution

There are many Bible verses about persecution, including but not limited to:

Matthew 5:10 - Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Luke 6:22 - Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!

John 15:18 - If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

2 Timothy 3:12-13 - Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

1 Peter 4:12-14 - Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Revelation 6:9-11 - When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

While all believers are called to endure, and some will have to experience greater hardship than others, Christians are united as the body of Christ. Keeping brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering in our prayers, and finding opportunities to change or alleviate their circumstances are ways we can provide support. One day we shall all rejoice in Heaven together, free from persecution forever.

Photo credit: Getty Images/franckreporter

Bethany Verrett is a freelance writer who uses her passion for God, reading, and writing to glorify God. She and her husband have lived all over the country serving their Lord and Savior in ministry. She has a blog on graceandgrowing.com.
Just like my keys, I always misplace the book of Ezra. In our English Bibles its right after Chronicles and before Esther and Job. This causes me to think that the book is set during the time of David. But it isnt. Its after the exile. Ezra and Nehemiah are some of the last books, chronologically, in the Old Testament. With this knowledge in hand, Ill occasionally find myself trying to find Ezra somewhere around the Minor Prophets.

Once Ive answered the question where is Ezra, Im confronted with an even more important question; namely, how do we find the gospel in Ezra? It is to this question we now turn.

How Do You Find the Gospel in the Old Testament?

I suppose before understanding how to find the gospel in the OT, itd be helpful for us to define the gospel. The simplest definition is one given by JI Packer: God saves sinners. If youd like to put a bit more meat on your gospel presentation, I use two different frameworks with four points each. The first is GodManChristResponse. The second is more of a story: CreationFallRedemptionGlory.

The first presentation centers upon Gods character and how humanity fails to meet Gods holy standard, as such the judgment of God is upon us. But the good news is that Jesus Christ fixes this by fulfilling what is required through his life, death and resurrection. Our only fitting response, then, is to respond to Him in repentance and faith. When this happens, we are united to Christ and his record becomes our record.

The second presentation centers upon the overarching story of the Bible. God lovingly created us to love Him and enjoy Him forever. We were made for rest, rule, and relationship. But we made shipwreck of this, and so rather than having the blessings of obedience we are under the curse of disobedience. Rather than having peace (rest), purpose (ruling), and healthy relationship we often experience the opposite. Ultimately, we are alienated from God. But thankfully God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear our curse and to fulfill what God intended for humanity. As such we now experience the blessings of Jesus obedience in our place. He restores the rest, rule, and relationship we were created to enjoy. Someday everything will be ultimately restored and we will live in a new heaven and a new earth.

We could write entire books focusing on these various themes of the gospel. But every gospel story follows this basic skeleton. No matter where you find yourself in the Old Testament (or the New Testament) you can find one of these various threads. Every place in Scripture is either telling you something about God, something about our rebellion, something about His rescue, or something about our future restoration. If you can spot this, then you can fill out the rest of the story.

How Do You Find the Gospel in Ezra?

Originally Ezra and Nehemiah were together as one book. It tells of the return of the Israelites to Jerusalem. Ezra begins by focusing  not on Ezra  but upon Zerubbabel. He is the one who leads many of the Israelites back to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the temple. It isnt until Ezra chapter 7, about 60 years after Zerubbabel, that Ezra comes onto the scene. His focus isnt upon rebuilding the temple but on restoring their dedication to Torah and rebuilding the fractured community.

The story of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah follows a pattern. They begin with the call to rebuild, then opposition, then a fulfillment  or maybe better a thud of a fulfillment. Ezra begins with Cyrus allowing people to return and Ezra connects it to Jeremiah 25, thus giving hope that the restoration and the promised blessings are beginning to take place.

As they have the temple rebuilt in chapters 3-6, we would expect to see it inhabited by the fiery cloud of Gods presence, just as happened in the Old Testament. But this doesnt happen. Does this mean that they have a temple but not Gods presence?

The elders  who knew the earlier temple  cry out in grief. Some of those who had not been taken into exile want to rebuild, but Zerubbabel doesnt allow them to. Its an odd ending to his story, but leaves open the possibility for some gospel fulfillment.

Then Ezra enters the picture. He is a teacher and leader among the Jews. Ezra is under the rule of king Artaxerxes. He tasks Ezra with sending even more of the people back to the land. But when he arrives, he sees that many of those who had come back had married those who werent part of the exiles. He, somewhat strangely, calls upon them to divorce the foreign wives they had taken. They obey, but only partially.

The book of Ezra ends with a list of people guilty of intermarrying. (As a side notenone of this should be used as an argument for denying interracial marriage.) The story of Zerubbabel ends in disappointment. The same is true for Nehemiah. To really round out the story of Ezra, we need the final chapters of Nehemiah. Here we see that all of the reforms have basically come to naught. It ends with Nehemiah angry and praying that God would look upon him with favor  even if it seems that his work had ultimately failed.

If you are tracking with Proverbs 13:12 that hope deferred makes the heart sick, youll have your fair share of sickness within your heart as this story comes to a close. But thats really the point of this. They are back in the land, but ultimately they arent reformed. Their hearts have not been transformed. You can change the outward circumstances but unless the new covenant comes and changes from the inside out, well never experience the rest, rule, and relationship we were created for.

It will take One who is greater than Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah to bring about the restoration and heart change that is truly needed. The land promise isnt fulfilled by residing on a little stretch of dirt. It is fulfilled when our hearts truly find rest in Christ. The disappointing end to Ezra points to Jesus.

Where Is the Gospel in the Tears of the Elders?

Ezra 3 feels a bit like a punch to the gut. Those who had never seen the previous temple are floating on cloud nine. Its a glorious day. All of their goals have been accomplished. The temple is rebuilt. They are back in the land.

But suddenly they hear weeping. Its the old codgers in the room. They are weeping because they saw the previous temple, and this temple doesnt match up. There isnt a dynamic display of the presence of God as there was formerly. They are dissatisfied.

Yes, I believe there is some joy mixed in with these tears perhaps. The birth of this new temple likely led to some of the sadness as they remembered the destruction of the old one. Trauma can work that way. But its also a testimony of grace, and so perhaps they experienced a bit of this as well. There might have been some measure of healing in this new temple.

But the key point of this isnt that all is well. Their tears are accurate. This story is ending with a thud. And its doing this because their desire for place, their desire for the presence of God, will not come by stacking bricks and mortar. Once again, it will only come through the New Covenant.

The tears of the elders on this day were appropriate. But we have received what they were longing for. It hasnt come through a glorious temple. It comes through a baby born in a manger, slain for our sins, and resurrected as a foreshadowing of our own resurrection.

The new covenant comes through Christ. And that is what ultimately heals the tears of these elders.

Related articles

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Yes, We Can Still See the Gospel in Lamentations

How Do We Find the Gospel in 2 Kings?



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The BBC has reported that Hamza al-Dahdouh, a journalist and cameraman forand the eldest son of the network's Gaza bureau chief, Wael al-Dahdouh has died in an Israeli drone strike.

Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh and his son Hamza. Source: X.

The incident occurred on Sunday on a road between Khan Younis and Rafah, where Hamza was with other journalists.

The BBC adds that freelance journalist Mustafa Thuraya also lost his life in the strike.

The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said the strike attacked an alleged terrorist, who was operating an aircraft that put the IDF in danger, and that they are aware of the claims that two other suspects were hit.

In October, the al-Dahdouh family lost their mother, a son, a daughter and an infant grandson in an Israeli airstrike.

The Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the deaths must be investigated by impartial investigators.

The killings of journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya must be independently investigated, and those behind their deaths must be held accountable. The continuous killings of journalists and their family members by Israeli army fire must end: journalists are civilians, not targets, said CPJs Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator Sherif Mansour.

President of CPJ, Jodie Ginsberg told the BBC that more needs to be done to protect journalists in Gaza.

"This has been the deadliest conflict for journalists that the CPJ has ever documented and we have been doing this for more than three decades. More than 75 journalists have been killed since 7 October, its extremely difficult to manage the risks. We need journalists and its really only Gaza journalists who can document this war because international journalists have had very little access."
Pick n Pay is easing the financial burden on many families by contributing R1.1m towards school fees and back to school stationery items.

The retailer is stepping forward to support families, recognising many parents' financial strains, particularly after a tough year and the traditionally challenging month of 'JanuWorry.'

We are committed to making a meaningful positive impact on the lives of our customers in 2024, acknowledging the many challenges that the past year has presented to individuals and families. Through this latest initiative, we are providing customers with relief on the obligatory back to school costs many are faced with this month, says Andrew Mills, chief marketing officer at Pick n Pay.

Through its Smart Shopper programme, the retailer will refund up to R600,000 worth of stationery purchased at QualiSave stores onto customers' loyalty cards and reward up to 10 Pick n Pay customers with R50,000 each towards school fees.

Pick n Pay School Club will also ensure around two million learners are given access to additional physical education materials through its annual delivery of CAPS-aligned, grade-specific educational content to over 2,600 schools. This content is also made available online (https://schoolclub.co.za/resources/) for free download. The Club will also donate 34,000 pencil bags to Grade 4 learners and do stationery giveaways with partners.

As we start a new year, we are even more committed to supporting our community in real, meaningful ways, and we believe that by investing in education, Pick n Pay is investing in the future of the beautiful people of South Africa," concludes Mills.

To qualify to win, Pick n Pay QualiSave customers must buy five or more advertised back to school stationery items and Pick n Pay customers must spend over R250 on back to school items advertised in the respective leaflets before 28 January 2024. Pick n Pay customers will also be rewarded with spot prizes, including Ster-Kinekor tickets, Spur vouchers and Lego sets, during January. In addition, orders placed on Mr D and Pick n Pay asap! with a linked Smart Shopper card will qualify for the Pick n Pay school fee competition.
January 4, 2024: Russia believed 2023 would be the year they expanded their armed forces. Heavy losses in Ukraine and the impact of that information on the Russian people, especially military-age men, derailed the expansion plans. Early in 2023 Russia increased the legal maximum number of its active-duty military personnel from 1,013,628 to 1,150,628. It was believed unlikely that this number would ever be reached. At the end of 2021, months before the invasion of Ukraine, Russian ground forces had about 400,000 men while the navy and air force each had about 150,000. About a third of air force personnel were paratroopers or air-mobile infantry. The navy had about 12,000 marines, who guarded naval bases in peacetime. That means the heavy Russian losses since the invasion began, and failure to mobilize many replacements, reduced the Russian army to about 250,000 personnel (less than a third of the Ukrainian Army). The airborne forces and marines also suffered heavy losses but more of them are still in service.

Heavy combat losses reduced the personnel strength so sharply because the Russian army has major recruiting and training problems, plus far fewer soldiers providing logistic and transportation services. The latter are provided by government or private contractors to assemble and move supplies close to the combat zone, where military trucks and drivers move the supplies to army maintained collection points or the combat units. This works inside Russia where the state-controlled railroads are equipped for operation by civilians who are trained to provide such support to the military. For a major war against Russia, civilian trucks and drivers are mobilized to serve military needs. Such a mobilization disrupts the economy but that is seen as necessary t0 defend Russia.

This is why the Ukrainian invasion was not called a war but an internal operation in what Russia declared was Russian territory controlled by rebels. Russia did not expect the Ukrainians massive resistance or their destruction of so many Russian trucks and supply collection points. This dramatically weakened Russian supply capabilities inside Ukraine, especially after Ukraine received American guided GMLRS rockets that hit Russian supply depots because of information supplied by Ukrainians on the ground or NATO supplied aerial and satellite surveillance. Russian forces inside Ukraine are chronically short of ammunition, food, fuel and much else because of these Ukrainian attacks. Resort to looting civilian supplies in occupied areas only partially replaces the supplies destroyed in transit or stored inside Ukraine.

Russian armed forces were supposed to have over a million men, but that goal has never been met and at the end of 2021 the total was about 750,000. By the end of 2022 it was about 400,000, including the air force and navy. Mobilizations of new conscripts and men who had served as conscripts for one year failed to replace all the losses, in part because the mobilized men knew that the war in Ukraine was not going well, and most men sent there had little training, equipment or leadership. Most of the junior officers were killed or disabled during the first months of the war and replacements take months to train adequately, so new recruits get only a few weeks of training at best. Peacetime officer training takes years and now there is a shortage of trainers for troops and officers because most of the existing ones were sent to Ukraine as replacements for the catastrophic losses the Ukrainians were inflicting.

Ukraine had 250,000 active-duty troops in early 2022 and within months had half a million more in the form of volunteers and conscripts. Normally Ukrainian troops receive a lot more training than their Russian counterparts but in the first months of the war plenty of untrained Ukrainians were used to halt the invasion. Since then, Ukrainian troops received more training and are now led by effective officers and NCOs in combat. Ukrainian troops dont suffer from supply shortages and suffer absolutely and relatively fewer casualties than the Russians. Russian dead, missing and wounded too severely for further service are at least six times those of Ukraines, while the Russian population only outnumbers Ukraines by 3.5 to one. If this is a war of demographic attrition, Russia is losing.

Since the invasion began in February 2022 Russia has suffered enormous losses in terms of combat personnel, military equipment and the reputation for quality, reliability and effectiveness of Russian weapons and military personnel.

Even the Ukrainians were surprised at how unprepared the invaders were for combat and dealing with Ukrainian superiority in weapons, which were often Western and superior in performance to Russian models. Ukrainian troops were commanded by Ukrainian officers and NCOs using tactics that emphasized minimizing Ukrainian losses and maximizing Russian casualties.

Russias leadership, especially supreme leader Vladimir Putin, was delusional about the continuing lack of military progress in Ukraine. Even Russians who thought restoring independent, since 1991, Ukraine to Russian control was a good thing and worth fighting for, began losing confidence in Putins ability to make that happen. Each time failure in Ukraine became obvious, Putin would come up with a new reason why Russia was winning, and each of these was soon shown to be false.

Putin now believes he can eventually prevail because of disagreements among NATO members about whether or how Ukraine can win against the Russian invaders. NATO members agree about Russias inability to win in Ukraine but many politicians in some of the larger, and more distant from the fighting NATO nations like the United States, Germany, France, and Italy, openly doubt Ukraines ability to regain control of lost territory. Putin supports this attitude by continuing to threaten use of nuclear weapons if Russia is faced with losing all its seized territory in Ukraine. Such a move is also unpopular in Russia and one of the growing number of reasons Russians are losing faith in Putin's promises that Russia will win in Ukraine.

Many Russians now openly oppose the war even though Putin quickly created laws to make such public dissent illegal. The failure of such laws soon became obvious in many ways. First, there are a growing number of anti-war demonstrations and physical attacks on military facilities, especially recruiting stations. Refusing to report when conscripted became more common. Another form of defiance is veterans of the Ukraine fighting providing details, based on personal experience, of why Russian forces are failing.

Many of these veterans are no longer in the military because they refused to renew their contracts. Many more soldiers remained in the army but refused to return to Ukraine and got away with it. Putin ordered that these soldiers be officially described, in their military records and military ID, as unreliable and unwilling to fight. In any other country a soldier who refuses to fight during wartime is subject to severe punishment, often execution. That still happens to reluctant Russian soldiers inside Ukraine where officers have the authority to shoot reluctant troops. Initially, as Russian casualties grew and progress was nonexistent, some officers did shoot troops refusing to fight. That soon changed as the troops threatened to and sometimes did shoot back or, in at least one known case, ran over an officer with a tank. Not to mention them sometimes shooting undesirable officers first. Ukrainian forces have provided additional confirmation of this violence and collapsing morale within Russian units. Many Russian troops will surrender to the Ukrainians at the first opportunity and admit it to Ukrainian, Russian, and foreign journalists. This prompted Ukraine to equip some of its quadcopters to notify and lead surrendering Russian troops safely to Ukrainian front-line forces.

The number of Russian military personnel is declining because of combat losses and veterans refusing to stay in, even though being a contract (volunteer) soldier is one of the few jobs Russians can get because of high unemployment rates caused by Western economic sanctions. Russian ground forces have been taking more casualties than could be replaced for the entire duration of the war and are now far outnumbered by Ukrainian ground forces, plus Ukrainian recruits now get adequate training by World War Two American and British standards (2-4 months), while Russian recruits get only 1-3 weeks.

Russia responded by lowering recruiting standards and accepting recruits or conscripts with physical, mental, legal, or psychological problems that would normally make them ineligible for military service. Russia has also dropped age limits for volunteers and is willing to accept non-Russians as long as they can speak some Russian and are willing to fight. These efforts are not producing enough new troops to be immediately useful because most of them have no military training and at least two months are required to produce useful troops for combat. Conscripts require less training and are generally used only for support operations outside Ukraine during their one year in uniform because of well-justified official fear that the newly conscripted will refuse to show up for duty at all if they are forced to fight and die in Ukraine like the contract soldiers. Attempts to involuntarily extend the period of service of contract soldiers resulted in them deserting in such large numbers that the government ceased trying. This is because the post-communist Russian government does not have the coercive enforcement power over the population of the old Soviet Union.

After a year of fighting, Ukrainians ran short of artillery ammunition, so they used their mobile artillery only for counterbattery, which is firing on Russian artillery. The Russians initially used artillery ammo at an unsustainable level and, as the Ukrainians receive more artillery ammo from NATO, Russias artillery superiority faded. Vladimir Putin knew his artillery munition reserves could not sustain a long war and now it is the Ukrainians who have more munitions because of massive shipments from NATO nations.

Russian plans include increasing the number of volunteer contract troops who are paid more than conscripts and serve longer. The government claimed it would have 521,000 contracti by the end of 2023 and 695,000 a year or two after that. That was optimistic considering the number of existing contract troops who are not renewing their contracts. There is no information from Russia about how so many new conscripts or contract troops will be obtained to increase the size of the armed forces to 1.15 million. Russia may extend conscription service from one to two years and keep existing troops in uniform longer because of the war. That is not popular with most Russians, which is how that attitude forced the government to reduce conscript service to one year in the first place.

By late 2023, Russian offensive operations in Ukraine were feeble and ineffective. Low morale, little training and poor leadership were the reasons for this, so the Russian government is allegedly seeking to build up a well-trained force of infantry back in Russia to resume the offensive in 2024. This quite sensible idea by Russian military leaders was defeated in 2023 by Putins insistence on politically motivated suicidal attacks so it is unlikely to happen. Russia needs some effective troops inside Ukraine if Putin really wants to prolong the fighting for as long as it takes the West to lose interest in supporting Ukraine.
It is important to note that quantity surveying has played a critical role in the construction sector for centuries. However, the increasing use of digital tools and technologies will probably shape the future of quantity surveying. This will bring about new opportunities and altered role requirements from the clients. Modern technology allows quantity surveyors to automate more and be able to provide better insights and analysis, which will ultimately reduce project costs and improve project outcomes.

Examples of modern technology include the adoption of cloud technology, Building Information Modeling (BIM) software, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and drones, which will assist quantity surveyors in storing and analysing large volumes of project data. The benefit is that quantity surveyors will be able to identify trends and patterns that will assist them in predicting project outcomes.

Another trend that will most likely impact quantity surveying is the growing call for sustainability and the concerns around climate change, which will result in more clients being more keen on finding ways of reducing their carbon footprint and also investing more in sustainable buildings. This move will provide new opportunities for quantity surveyors, as they will be expected to advise on the adoption of green practices to benefit both the environment and project costs. On the other hand, quantity surveyors will have to upskill themselves with the latest sustainability advancements to be of good value to their clients.

The impact this will have on the construction sector

Digital technology is a global phenomenon that has changed business processes within the construction industry. But the South African construction industry has been very slow to adopt modern technology compared to other industries. With the growing demand for climate change coupled with the use of new technologies, sustainable construction is becoming more attractive. It is important to realise the possible impact of the adoption of modern technology, which is improved productivity both on-site and off-site.

However, role players within the sector need to play a crucial role in promoting modern technology and green initiatives to reduce project costs and maintain project timelines.

Key lessons from 2023

The construction industry is one of the major sectors in our economy and will contribute nearly 3% of the overall gross domestic product in 2023, despite the challenges that it continues to experience. One of the major challenges of the industry is the countrys inability to generate sufficient electricity with rolling out blackouts known as load shedding.

Persistent load-shedding has threatened the growth of the construction industry.

The industry relies heavily on electricity to generate power for machinery during construction and to produce materials. In the past few years, load shedding has disrupted work schedules, caused delays, increased costs, and forced contractors to reschedule their projects. It has also triggered instability and unreliability of power, which has resulted in decreased investor confidence and hindered businesses throughout value chains.

In 2023 we saw a prevalent impact of construction mafias on construction projects, which is a threat to the industry. These are criminal syndicates that pretend to be local business forums that are making it difficult for many construction companies to operate. This is a sad reality where they even claim to represent the interests of the unemployed and marginalised.

These construction mafias infiltrate and demand a share of construction projects, often leading to intimidation, vandalism, arson, theft, and violence. This has also led to delays and risks to the safety and quality of construction projects.

In recent years, the construction industry has also experienced a shortage of skilled workers. This affected the success and growth of the construction industry. That is, the demand for skilled labour continues to outstrip the supply due to the growth in infrastructure investment.

This skills gap has also contributed to project delays and longer completion times, reduced quality of work, higher labour costs, and lowered client satisfaction within the construction sector. This calls for the industry at large, both private and public, to be intentional about skills transfer through structured training programmes for the advancement of the sector.

Sector improvements in 2024

Experts have predicted significant growth for the construction industry, despite some of the challenges the sector will continue to experience. Growth in the sector will rest on robust plans and strategies to overcome these challenges:

Resolving loadshedding at a national level is critical for the sectors future.

Since material costs and shortages have a direct impact on the construction industry's ability to complete projects on time, businesses will have to diversify their supplier base to spread the risk. Where possible, companies should also invest in local production to mitigate the impact of global supply disruptions.

The construction industry is also impacted by a mismatch between available construction workers and required skills. Therefore, closing the skills gap is crucial for achieving growth targets.

The construction sector can no longer afford to delay its adoption, which has the potential to grow the industry.
The global mining industry has been grappling with a range of operating challenges in the past few years, which are expected to persist. These include resource nationalism; cost inflation; an imperative to curb environmental effects and carbon emissions; labour safety and skills shortages; and community protests.

However, there are fundamental changes under way. Over the next decades, demand for a new category of resources  critical minerals  will alter not only the focus of exploration and mining but also the way that mining companies fund their operations.

Critical minerals include battery minerals such as lithium-ion, cobalt, nickel, manganese and rare earths, which are essential not only to make the global transition to green energy but for a range of essential modern tools such as smartphones, computers and aeroplanes.

Supply chains of critical minerals are still being developed, which can make prices extremely volatile. China was one of the first countries to realise the importance of these minerals. It moved rapidly to secure access to them and invest in processing infrastructure.

This presents a strategic risk, particularly to the US. For example, China, which refines 90% of the worlds graphite, in October flexed its muscles by imposing export restrictions on graphite, an essential item in almost all EV battery anodes.

50 critical minerals

Over the last few years, the US government has identified 50 critical minerals. It has set out a strategy to identify new sources of these minerals and stimulate investment in developing them to avoid disruptions. Other major economies in the West are similarly playing catch-up to secure supply.

Tycho Moncks is managing director at BCG.

Several African countries possess significant deposits of these minerals, including Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, parts of West Africa, and South Africa. However, these deposits are still largely undefined, and require more investment in exploration and development.

Traditionally, funding exploration required equity raises while funding for new mines was sourced from a combination of debt, equity and project finance. For critical minerals, different funding models are being developed by offtakers  both private and governmental agencies - eager to secure supply.

One of those models is streaming, where a loan is repaid not in cash but in delivery of a specified annual volume of the minerals produced at a predetermined price. The lender may use those minerals or sell them. Another financial arrangement is one where a financier will extend a loan based on the security of cash flows from an offtake agreement, or where an offtaker will extend finance in return for preferential offtake.

Offtakers may also be willing to take the risk of a direct equity injection.

Creative financing

Mining companies should aim to fully leverage these financing options, which allow them to access previously unavailable sources of finance. However, they should not rely on a single funding arrangement and should carefully evaluate how to balance country interests with the ease and proximity of cashflows.

These new funding arrangements offer the potential for mutually beneficial partnerships, but this is not always the case. The terms and conditions being offered by any nation or private offtaker should be evaluated holistically and carefully.

Data-driven decision-making will ensure Africa gets its fair share of value. Both countries and mining companies looking to develop their critical minerals deposits should be clear about their goals and consider all the implications of the funding being offered.
The wheels of the insurance industry turn slowly  but turn they do. And while it may take another few years to see how finely they grind the issue of climate change, South African life insurers are starting to engage with this new(ish) risk on the block.

Source: Supplied. Pamela Hellig, the consulting actuary at Insight Life Solutions.

The progress in climate risk management we have seen to date, which is likely to accelerate in 2024, is driven by several forces, not least of which is impending regulation.

Climate change has been described as a wicked problem because it avoids straightforward articulation and is impossible to solve in a way that is simple or final. What makes it especially wicked for life (as opposed to short-term) insurers, is that it compounds the risk already inherent in their uncertain, long-term and complex businesses.

It affects everything from the assets in which they invest policyholder funds to the valuation of liabilities in a rapidly changing environment. And thats just one half of the double materiality whammy  insurers will need to report both on how their business is affected by sustainability issues (outside in) and how their activities impact society and the environment (inside out).

Hurdles and delays

The decision-makers at life insurers are also not immune to the biases, cognitive dissonance and mental blocks that affect all of us when thinking about climate change: its unknown, overwhelming, and difficult to know where to start.

To date, South African life insurers have lagged their counterparts in more developed markets on the climate-reporting front. There are many reasons for this, including their capacity being absorbed by other industry phenomena like Covid and IFRS 17, a lack of local guidance and, perhaps, the analysis paralysis caused by the tornado-sized funnel of doubt created by climate-related risks.

Where there has been discussion, it has been focused on short-term insurance, where the impacts of acute extreme weather events are more obviously seen and felt  think of the property damage caused by recent floods, wildfires, and spring tides.

For life insurers, the risk has been perceived as less immediate, less obvious and less urgent. It has been argued that any impacts on mortality or health will be immaterial and will only crystallise decades in the future; a problem for the next generation of actuaries to worry about.

Regulatory push for change

The proverbial tide is starting to turn and it is being driven by local legislative and regulatory developments. The Climate Change Bill, the first piece of legislation in South Africa specifically aimed at mitigating and addressing the effects of climate change, was passed by the National Assembly in October 2023.

Since the second half of 2022, the South African Reserve Banks Prudential Authority (PA), the regulator for insurers in South Africa, has been sending consistent signals that it takes this risk very seriously by publishing the following communications:

Prudential Communication 10 of 2022: Climate-related risks, which provided initial views of the PA on climate-related risks and their potential impact on financial institutions.

Climate-related risks, which provided initial views of the PA on climate-related risks and their potential impact on financial institutions. Prudential Communication 1 of 2023: Flavour-of-the-year topic communication to insurers, which conveyed the message that climate-related risks are of such significance that additional focus from a supervisory perspective is required.

Flavour-of-the-year topic communication to insurers, which conveyed the message that climate-related risks are of such significance that additional focus from a supervisory perspective is required. Proposed Guidance Notices: Proposed guidance on climate-related disclosures for insurers and proposed guidance on climate-related risk practices for insurers. The proposed guidance will likely evolve into final guidance and then a best-practice report in 2024.

In 2023, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), which is the market conduct regulator of financial institutions in South Africa, published its Statement on Sustainable Finance and Programme of Work, which sets out how its aims to build a sustainable finance sector supported by five pillars (taxonomy; disclosure, reporting and assurance; market development; active ownership and consumer education).

Given the increasing urgency and myriad emerging developments related to climate change, the FSCA has stated that work may initially emphasise climate matters.

The three certainties in the world of a life insurer are death, taxes, and regulation. Given the growing regulatory momentum, insurers, whether they believe that climate change will have a material impact on their business, that climate change is caused by human activity, or even that climate change is real, will need to start thinking about how they measure and disclose climate-related risk over the next year.

Starting the climate-risk management journey

Despite the lack of formal regulation at this stage, there is plenty of guidance on where to start. As far as disclosure requirements go, the PA has said that looking at the recommendations of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is a good place to start. There are many publicly available examples of insurers abroad already having implemented these recommendations that can serve as a guide.

In terms of risk management, insurers can apply the same frameworks and controls to climate-related risks that they would apply to any other risk: identify, assess, manage, monitor, and report.

For some insurers, the expected impacts may, indeed, turn out to be immaterial, but they will only know that after systematic analysis. The initial scenarios and models may be simplistic to start with, but there will be ample opportunity to refine strategies over time.

The urgency to act

The keyword is start. The PA has advised that the management and reporting of climate risk is a journey and each insurers response will be unique and reflective of its nature, scale, and complexity.

2024 will be a year in which insurers can no longer put off their climate-risk management; not only because of regulatory developments, but also because the risks of ignoring it are just too big to ignore.

Fortunately, this wicked problem is one that can be solved one bite at a time. And while insurers may be intimidated by the size of the beast, they should be advised that they can start small, start simple, as long as they just start somewhere.
The world of work is in a complex state as we enter 2024. The lockdown-driven work-from-home requirement has shifted to hybrid or a full-time return to the office  but that was just the start of an avalanche of change.

Lyndy van den Barselaar, managing director at ManpowerGroup South Africa

Over the last year or so, the emergence of AI and a more focused transition to a green energy future have driven a greater demand for specialist skills amongst workers, along with the ability to pivot and adapt rapidly. The key here is that even as the focus has shifted towards how technology can play a role in day-to-day operations, its the human element that remains essential and central to success.

The onus is not only on employees to adapt - more than ever, unlocking potential while meeting employee expectations for flexibility, autonomy and skills development is critical in helping companies grow and drive productivity. As change accelerates, people will continue to power the future.

Talent at a premium

The accelerating pace of change is set to ramp up the persistent talent scarcity which many businesses already experience  and thats good news for workers.

This imbalance between the shortage of talent and the surplus of demand is illustrated by our research, which demonstrates that more than two-thirds (77%) of employers globally say they are struggling to find the skilled talent they need. Despite a slowing global economy, this is the highest percentage in 17 years.

More prominence for soft skills

Finding talent with the right technical training remains a challenge, but soft skills are also in demand. Across all industries, employers cite communications, collaboration and teamwork (39%), accountability and reliability (33%), and reasoning and problem-solving (29%) as the most important attributes to consider during the hiring process.

This points to a shift towards being more accepting of older workers who have learned these skills over time, as soft skills are hard to teach - and acquire - as part of formal education for younger workers.

However, these skills are being developed in younger workers through e-sports and gaming. More than half of employers globally would now consider gaming experience when hiring, and 65% of employers say they will in the future.

Valuing experience

The global talent scarcity is creating opportunities for non-traditional candidates. In the past year, employers have become more willing to consider seniors (34%), candidates with employment gaps due to caretaking responsibilities (27%), and the long-term unemployed (26%).

Placing emphasis on experience and being more open to candidates who are teachable, rather than seeking the finished product, creates more opportunities for more experienced  and possibly even already-retired  employees who have invaluable work and life experience.

New productivity drivers

Clarity, careers, and culture will become the keys to productivity. Despite the tension created by return-to-office mandates, only 19% of employers believe in-person collaboration is a top productivity driver  likely because lockdowns illustrated that well-managed teams can succeed, remotely.

Instead, professional development (40%), clear goals and objectives (37%) and positive work culture (36%) are considered most important  pointing to a shift towards understanding the needs of employees rather than forcing culture on them.

Sustainability focus

The mounting global urgency to fight climate change, growing demand for sustainable products and government incentives are combining to accelerate the green transition  and organisations need to get on board because a companys green credentials are becoming increasingly important to existing employees  and prospective ones.

Recognising this, 70% of employers are actively planning to recruit for green jobs and skills  and it means theyll need to continue to apply the same sustainability mindset to their human resources.

Tech wont replace human power

While AI and VR tech continue to evolve rapidly, theres an understanding amongst both employers and employees that it wont replace the human element. 58% of employers worldwide are optimistic that new technology wont eliminate jobs  but rather create them - and have a positive impact on hiring.

The fact that the future of work will be shaped by the accelerating pace of change and persistent talent scarcity is good news for the talent pool. With employers increasingly open to non-traditional candidates who may exhibit valuable skills outside those in the job description, there are more opportunities for more experienced workers with invaluable work and life experience, and individuals with skills learned outside the workplace.

The evolution of work is thrilling, and the pace is searing  but its heartening to see that the human element is only growing in import.
Africa's role in global trade is trending. According to a recent report by Standard Chartered - Future of Trade: Africa, Africa's total exports will reach almost $1tn by 2035.

Virusha Subban, partner and head of Tax in Baker McKenzie's Tax Practice Group in Johannesburg

The World Bank recently reported that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is predicted to increase intra-African trade volumes by 81%, boosting the continent's income by $450bn by 2035. In addition to AfCFTA's notable role in boosting trade, the continent's stance as a key trade region is being bolstered by major global players looking to diversify their supply chains due to geopolitical challenges.

Important recent developments regarding AfCFTA's protocols, rules and procedures on trade, simplified customs procedures as well as dispute resolution mechanisms, have all been aimed at creating a single legal framework for the continent, making it easier to trade and invest across borders. The ultimate aim is to eliminate tariffs on intra-African trade, reduce unemployment, increase infrastructure development and create a more competitive yet sustainable environment for cross-border trade.

Financing trade

Banks such as Afreximbank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have sought to stay on top of market developments and provide sustainable solutions to boost intra-African trade. These institutions have been bridging Africa's trade finance gap through increased lending and alternative products to support market participants.

For example, it was recently announced that Afreximbank would increase intra-African trade funding to $40bn by 2026, up from $20bn in 2021. This will be in the form of an AfCFTA Adjustment Fund to facilitate and provide support through financing, technical assistance, grants and compensation to state parties and private enterprises to effectively participate in the AfCFTA.

Since the establishment of AfCFTA, there have been other significant developments for intra-African trade, including the launch of the Transaction Guarantee Instrument, the Pan African Payment and Settlement System and the Base Fund of the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund.

The US

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the United States market for over 1,800 products, is expected to either evolve or be replaced soon. This will likely cause some shifts in trade dynamics, especially regarding the preferential treatment of small and medium enterprises, and women- and youth-owned businesses in Africa. Further, smaller African countries that have so far not benefited from AGOA might soon also be able to capitalise on the trade preference programmes benefits.

The US and Africa have a strong trade relationship. The US recently announced its intention to invest $55bn in Africa over the next three years and that $15bn would be deployed in "two-way trade and investment commitments, deals, and partnerships that advance key priorities, including sustainable energy, health systems, agribusiness, digital connectivity, infrastructure, and finance."

China

Africa's trade relationship with China, its largest trading partner, continues to grow. Increased commodity prices and Chinas intention to promote African imports increased trade substantially to $282bn in 2022, according to Chinese customs authorities.

A recent Economist Corporate Network report, supported by Baker McKenzie and Silk Road Associates (BRI Beyond 2020), showed that 97% of the exports of 33 of Africa's poorest jurisdictions into China qualified for tariff- and duty-free trade.

The report further outlined how bilateral trade between the regions was still mainly focused on Chinas import of Africas natural resources, but to counter this, China has, in recent years, increased the import of manufactured goods from more diversified African economies.

Critical minerals

The rising demand for critical minerals, driven by the energy transition, has positioned Africa as a pivotal player due to its vast mineral base. Countries including South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, and Zimbabwe are assessing how they can sustainably process critical minerals locally to maximise returns.

Africa's mineral resources are currently mostly exported as offtakes, which limits profits. Major players, including the European Union and the US, have highlighted the importance of mitigating commodity supply chain risks and developing strategic agreements with countries possessing responsibly sourced critical minerals.

The forecast for African trade is exciting, but addressing infrastructural gaps, ensuring sustainable practices and navigating evolving trade relationships will be essential to realising the continent's immense trade potential. If challenges can be resolved, Africa's pivotal role in global trade dynamics is almost certain.
South Africa's consumer brands and retail sector, which is shaped by a tapestry of diverse cultural influences and discerning consumer tastes, is gearing up for an exciting journey in 2024.

Suraya Hamdulay, Mars multisales director: Corporate Affairs Southern Africa. Image supplied

Here are some of the trends that will feature in the sector this year.

1. AI's reign: shaping tailored experiences

The ascent of artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to redefine how retailers and consumer brands engage in business. By some estimates, AI could add a staggering $15.7tn to the global economy by 2030.

In the coming year, anticipate a surge in AI-driven innovations, refining the art of curating products and services to align seamlessly with consumers' unique preferences. This will usher in a wave of highly personalised and immersive shopping experiences, ushering in a new era of customer-centricity.

2. Digital velocity and convenience: the online retail surge

The "Online Retail in South Africa 2022" study, conducted by World Wide Worx and Mastercard, spotlights the spectacular rise of the online retail sector, reaching an estimated value of R55bn.

This surge underscores the growing affinity among South Africans for the convenience of online shopping. Notably, Checkers Sixty60, a leading grocery delivery app that collaborates with Mars, has become a pivotal channel, outpacing traditional physical retail stores for sales of products like Whiskas cat food.

The imminent arrival of e-commerce titan Amazon in 2024 promises to amplify the momentum in South Africa's burgeoning e-commerce space.

3. Pets take centre stage: a pet-forward outlook

Bloomberg's recent forecasts hint at the pet industry's trajectory approaching $500bn by 2030.

The evolving perception of pets as integral members of our lives has fueled a surge in pet-centric products and services.

Expect an increase in pet-friendly offerings, harmonising the joy of a delectable meal with positive community and environmental impacts.

At Mars, as the global leader in pet food production, our commitment extends beyond nourishment to creating a 'Better World for Pets'.

4. Sustainable growth imperative: mobilising for change

The global call for sustainable development resonates strongly, prompting consumer brands to intensify efforts to address social and environmental concerns.

This shift signals a transformative era where brands transcend conventional boundaries to embrace the triple bottom line. Brace for a rise in initiatives addressing energy efficiency, water conservation, poverty alleviation, and climate change mitigation.

At Mars, our Sustainable in a Generation Plan will unfold more local initiatives, contributing to community well-being, environmental conservation, and supporting companion animals in need.

In navigating South Africa's dynamic consumer brands and retail landscape, the journey into 2024 promises not just trends but transformative shifts, cementing the region's status as a hotbed of innovation and conscious commerce.
We are on the cusp of an enormous transition with new possibilities for business, as society faces the realities of climate change and a world where sustainability isnt just a choice but the compass that will guide us towards our tomorrow.

Catherine Wijnberg, founder and group CEO of Fetola | image supplied

Climate change is upon us. There is lots of evidence of the need for solutions and evidence of innovation elsewhere in the world. What is lacking in the research is a view on the market demand for such solutions and in South Africa we lag behind these global trends as we lack the policies to support and drive meaningful change in consumer and corporate behaviour.

Despite this, what we are seeing is that small businesses can turn to circularity as a viable, people- and planet-friendly opportunity.

Sustainable growth

Africa is on target to take centre stage as the most populous continent by 2050. The result of this growth in population is its collateral demand for more jobs, more food and more manufacturing. Without significant change to the ways of doing business, this will place even greater pressure on existing resources and have a negative impact on the environment.

More than this, as Europe seeks to penalise dirty production through carbon taxes, South Africas highly fossil-fuel-driven economy will mean that exporters of everything from gold and platinum to wine and fruit will find themselves excluded or heavily taxed in these markets.

However, there is an alternative way: the circular economy way, a resource-efficient production and consumption mindset where profit reaps the benefits.

As only 7.2% of the global economy is currently circular there are potentially 92.8% other waste inefficiencies that could be designed out by incorporating circularity into the business model.

Innovators globally are onto this trend and big data and artificial intelligence-powered Startus Insights Discovery Platform, has tracked 3,790,000+ startups and scaleups globally to uncover top innovation trends in order of magnitude in waste as a resource, reuse, the internet of waste, artificial intelligence, bio-based materials, re-manufacture, blockchain and repair.

Innovations such as these have the added benefit of contributing towards positive tipping points in the fight against climate change with long-lasting benefit to communities.

Locally, small pockets of businesses are embracing circularity as a new way of doing business, with success rates far exceeding their traditional business peers. In Fetolas Circular Economy Accelerator for example, the average annual growth rate of the 126 circular SMEs is 112%, along with rapid job creation.

Circular economy: A goldmine for entrepreneurs

Nearly everything you see around you will become waste, sooner or later. There are huge dumps of anything you can imagine, from landscapes of discarded tyres and fast fashion, to e-waste, aeroplanes and bicycles. In South Africa, entrepreneurs have found opportunity in this end-of-life" stage creating viable enterprises out of waste.

Jami Nash, founder of Electronic Cemetery is taking an active role in Durbans e-waste sector, navigating compliance in order to build a profitable, people-centric business that recovers essential elements in an environmentally positive way.

Globally, industries with the greatest potential for change are reported to be energy, agriculture and food, the built environment, transport and manufacturing. Envisaging a new paradigm by refining business models, processes and mechanisms could reduce virgin material extraction by 34%.

Opportunities for 2024

Other great examples of businesses that have switched from linear to circular practice include Ambesha Africa which has cut their waste by 80% by reusing the cane off-cuts in the manufacture of new products, introducing a repair service and providing a unique trade-in service that enables products to be remanufactured into new designs.

In the agribusiness sector, exciting South African climate-smart tech business Agrilogiq is providing innovative greenhouse automation using cloud-based IP-intensive software energy, water and fertiliser waste resulting in improved profitability and reduced climate impact. These are just two of a growing ecosystem of circular entrepreneurs making strides in the sector.

The trajectory of 2024 is towards circularity, innovation, and a shared responsibility for a thriving future.

In South Africa, the good news is that the Department of Science, Technology & Innovation is actively researching ways to encourage circular business, in support of policies and practices that create an enabling environment for business. More work is needed on simple tools for measurement of impact like Circular-IQ  an area crying out for innovation. By adopting circular practices, businesses can become contributors to the economy and stewards of a healthier, people-centric and sustainable world.
Digitalization boosts rural tourism in China

People's Daily Online) 14:26, January 08, 2024

Many ancient villages across China in recent years have leveraged digital communication methods, including short videos and livestreams, to present tourists with once little-known rural scenery and local cultures, exploring a new development path that integrates rural tourism and the digital economy.

According to reliable data, users of Chinese popular short-video platform Douyin visited over 150,000 tourist attractions in rural areas across the country, and created more than 60 million related short videos last year, contributing to making more villages popular tourist destinations.

Tourists take photos of crops being sun-dried in flat bamboo baskets in Huangling village, Wuyuan county, Shangrao city of east China's Jiangxi Province. (People's Daily Online/Zhu Haipeng)

With a history of nearly 600 years, Huangling village is an ancient village "hanging" on the cliffs in Wuyuan county, east China's Jiangxi Province. The village is known for its unique tradition of "shaiqiu," or "drying colorful crops in autumn sunshine" on the rooftops of residential buildings.

However, the village once declined as only 68 of more than 180 households remained there, said Cao Jinzhong, president of Wuyuan Huangling Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd.

To protect and showcase the village's farming culture, the company restored the layout of the village, turned over 120 residential buildings into boutique homestays and hotels, and introduced tourism services like folk tradition experiencing activities and cultural performances, transforming the village into a scenic spot.

Huangling scenic spot has created relevant hashtags on Douyin and organizes "competitions" to attract travel bloggers, shutterbugs and tourists, effectively enhancing its popularity.

In 2022, Huangling village launched an online group-buying business, including livestreams and videos.

"In the first quarter of 2023, over 50 percent of tourists in Huangling scenic spot came after watching short videos about it," said Cao.

Cao added that the per capita annual income of villagers in Huangling village has increased from 3,500 yuan ($492) before the development of tourism to 56,000 yuan.

Relying on short videos, livestreams and other digital technologies, more and more beautiful rural sceneries and quality local products are becoming known to people, and rural culture and tourism are embracing new vitality, said Yang Hutao, a professor at the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

A tour guide surnamed Zhuang has garnered over 5 million followers on a short video platform.

"It took me 13 years to provide tour guide services for over 100,000 tourists, but I achieved the goal of offering services to more than 200,000 tourists in just three years thanks to the short video platform," Zhuang said.

Jin Wencheng, director of the Research Center for Rural Economy at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said in the digital era, digital communication methods have upgraded business forms like rural tourism and the selling of agricultural products, injecting new momentum into rural revitalization.

Since 2018, Douyin Group has launched projects to help rural culture, tourism operators, and creators master short video operation skills. Data shows that over 1 billion new videos relevant to rural areas were added on Douyin in 2023, attracting 2.4 trillion views, and one of its projects has resulted in cumulative transactions worth over 4 billion yuan in rural cultural and tourism products.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
January 7, 2024: Over a decade ago the U.S. Navy developed a new Unmanned Surface Vessel or USV, called the Blackfish. It was designed from scratch as a USV, not just the usual practice of taking existing small boats and adapting them for remote and autonomous control. The Blackfish was 3.2 meters long, looked like a large, unmanned jet ski, and was equipped with video cameras, sonar, and some other sensors. Using GPS, it can automatically patrol a predefined route, or be controlled remotely. What the navy wanted was an inexpensive USV for patrolling port areas where American ships are tied up, and so had to be able to detect divers, as well as small boats. That sort of work was eventually replaced by oceanographic research, and environmental monitoring.

The U.S. Navy earlier developed the AMN 1, which is a flat-bottomed USV for operating in shallow coastal waters and up rivers. For riverine operations, the navy has had to develop navigation software for tricky situations, like having the radar (in this case, laser-based lidar) be able to detect a bridge as something it can go under, and not an obstacle to further movement. AMN 1 is equipped with most of the equipment that current USVs have been successful with.

Some USVs, like the Israeli Protector and the American Spartan Scout, are already being used to patrol coastal and port areas like the Gaza coast, and the waters around the Lebanese border. These USVs are basically 4-8 ton, 11 meter speed boats equipped with radar, GPS and vidcams, and armed with a remote control 12.7mm machine-gun using night vision and a laser rangefinder. There is also a public address system, to give orders to boats that should not be there. These USVs have been used for two decades. They can be controlled from an operator ashore, or in a nearby ship, usually out to the horizon or at least 10-20 kilometers distant. They can stay out 8-48 hours at a time, depending on how much high speed movement is used. The one big shortcoming is that most USVs are built for speed, not rough seas. When the weather turns bad, and the waves get higher, they have to be brought in.

Spartan Scout was particularly useful when it got its first tryout in the Persian Gulf during late 2003. There are lots of small boats moving about, some of them up to no good. An Arab linguist on the mother ship was able to interrogate suspicious boats the Spartan Scout ran down. The civilian sailors were somewhat taken aback when they were interrogated by this Arab speaking boat that had no one aboard. While Spartan Scout was developed primarily to work with the now retired Littoral Combat Ship, most similar ships, like frigates and destroyers would like to have one just for port security.

The U.S. Navy has also developed a new anti-submarine USV (unmanned surface vessel) to operate from its LCS (Littoral Combat Ships). Officially called the 11-meter Fleet class Anti-Submarine Warfare Unmanned Surface Vehicle (ASWUSV), the 12.6 meter long boats weigh 8.5 tons and can carry 2.5 tons of sensors and other equipment. This USV can move up to 63 kilometers an hour and stay at sea for up to 24 hours. Most of the time, it would be moving slowly, using its sonar to search for subs. The ASWUSV is equipped with GPS and a computerized navigation system that allows it to automatically run search patterns. Thus, the sailors controlling the boat remotely can move it to an area where helicopter or aircraft dropped sonobuoys have picked up a contact and pursue it more intensively with the more powerful sensors it has on board. Such pattern searching, worked out with algorithms derived from experience with what subs can do, has been a successful tactic since World War II.

While ASWUSVs can be used by frigates and destroyers, they can also be used from shore stations. Some were apparently tested in the Persian Gulf, to help keep the Straits of Hormuz free of Iranian submarines. The ASWUSV also carries video cameras and radar, to assist in avoiding collisions with other ships, and to keep Iranian gunboats from capturing or damaging one. The ASWUSV was developed based on experience with the Spartan Scout, while the AMN 1 is building on that experience and developing new design features for the next generation of USVs. South Korea is the latest nation to develop and user an ASWUSV.
January 4, 2024: North Korea continues to pass and enforce laws against those who adopt South Korean fashions, clothing, and mannerisms. North Koreans defy their government with this behavior. To make matters worse, fewer North Koreans are getting married and having children. There is a different problem in affluent South Korea. Over the last few years, the number of missing conscripts has become obvious, and the solution was not to send a lot of officers in charge of conscription to labor camps, but to try and pressure recent high school graduates and those who had recently completed their ten years of active and reserve service to voluntarily enlist or reenlist. Birth rates have been declining for years and so has the population of military-age men. Those already in the military are bribing their way out or simply deserting. The calls for voluntary enlistments have largely been ignored.

The North Korean armed forces have lots of other, and older, problems. While nearly every adult male serves at least six years in the military, the big problem is that years of economic problems and failed harvests have left the troops poorly equipped, often hungry, and increasingly insubordinate. With most of the best educated troops bribing their way into any job but one in a combat unit, it is increasingly doubtful if the North Korean combat forces could get very far during an invasion of South Korea, or retreat fast enough if the South invades the North. North Korea also has problems with the birth rate, which is currently 1.8 and below the population replacement rate of 2.1. South Korea has a similar problem because prosperous populations tend to have fewer children because there are so many other activities the women can engage in. Raising children is a lot of work and given a choice, a lot of couples choose not to have kids.

This is a 21st Century problem for Korea. After the Korean War ended in 1953, both Koreas experienced population booms. That eventually ended in South Korea because of growing affluence while in the north it was privation and despair that did the job. That privation gets worse in North Korea during the winter because many rural areas have destroyed their forests to obtain firewood. In the south, fuel for heating is not a problem and there have been decades of reforestation efforts to restore the forests in rural areas. In the north the shortage of firewood or the growing number of people who cannot afford to purchase it, means a lot of unheated or under-heated dwellings. This has led to more illnesses among children and

North Korea may have fewer and fewer soldiers but there are still lots of weapons and munitions. Both are being sold to Russia for use in the Ukraine War. Russia apparently pays for much of this via barter. North Korea is sent food in the form of grain or packaged goods. In addition, Russia sends needed petroleum products and natural gas. This form of trade has been going on for over a year. This has led to North Korean arms factories increasing production to sell more to Russia and replace the munitions reserves originally sent to Russia. North Korea has also exported more workers to Russia, to replace Russian men taken from their jobs by army recruiters.

Details on this trade with Russia are officially classified as top secret. Few North Koreans try to conceal all this activity, in part because it is so extensive and visible to locals as well as foreigners with surveillance satellites. Despite this, North Korean security forces have orders to pursue and arrest those suspected of discussing this trade activity with unauthorized personnel. This is a problem because few North Koreans are authorized to know about this very public trade activity. The government soon discovered that it had a problem with the large number of North Koreans that are, technically, guilty of witnessing this very public and visible activity. To an outsider this must appear bizarre, and it is. Most North Koreans agree but it is typical government behavior. North Koreans adapt as best they can. State Security officials believe this overemphasis on security makes it difficult, if not impossible, to guard important secrets. This includes details on where leader Kim Jong Un is and the location of his many residences. Any details about the North Korean military are also secret, mainly because they reveal how demoralized, disorganized, and poorly equipped the military is. This force would have a difficult time protecting North Korea from attack, much less trying to invade South Korea.

The North Korean government continues to make noise about impending war with South Korea and the United States. These threats have been heard in the north for so long that the government has to find ways to enhance these threats, so they rise above the level of background noise. Thats hard to do after so many decades of this threat-mongering. Currently South Korea and the United States are cooperating by openly discussing plans for eliminating North Korean leaders and revealing military plans to carry out decapitation missions inside North Korea that would kill Kim Jong Un and other senior North Korean officials. South Korea and the U.S. are concerned about the growing threats from North Korea about attacking South Korea. The North Korean preparations are more detailed and visible than ever before. In the past the north used these threats as a form of propaganda, not as part of serious preparations for war.

Over the last few decades, the South Korea military has become stronger in terms of weapons, most of them produced in South Korea, as well as capabilities. The South Korean military is more capable than ever before of quickly and effectively attacking North Korea or retaliating against a North Korea attack.

North Korea is aware of this and feels better able to deal with South Korea, the Americans or China because of their closer economic and military relationships with Russia. This attitude is somewhat delusional because Russia is not very powerful economically or militarily compared to the United States or China, the two largest economies on the planet. China and the United States have their differences but are willing and able to cooperate if they have to. Between them they comprise about half the planetary economy and what these two nations agree to do economically defines what the rest of the world can do.




NEW DELHI (PTI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will embark on a two-day visit to the UK on Monday to rejuvenate strategic and security ties between the two countries, including possible collaboration to jointly develop fighter jets and other military platforms.



The Defence Ministry, announcing the visit, said Singh and his British counterpart Grant Shapps are expected to discuss a wide range of issues in the spheres of defence, security and industrial cooperation.



It said on Sunday that Singh is also expected to call on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Minister David Cameron.



The Defence Minister will be accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising senior officials from the three Services, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Department of Defence Production.



"He will also interact with the CEOs and industry leaders of UK Defence Industry and meet with the Indian community there," the Ministry said in a statement.



Singh's talks with Defence Secretary Shapps would largely focus on sharing of critical technology and expanding bilateral industrial defence cooperation, people familiar with the matter said.



The two sides are expected to discuss collaboration in joint development of fighter aircraft and other military platforms, they said.



Singh and Shapps are also expected to delve into the situation in the Indo-Pacific, West Asia and Ukraine, the people said.



In April 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his then British counterpart Boris Johnson had agreed on a new and expanded India-UK defence partnership.



During his visit to India, Johnson had announced that the UK is creating an Open General Export Licence (OGEL) for India to "reduce bureaucracy and slashing delivery times for defence procurement.



The former British Prime Minister also said that the UK would help India in the co-development of military hardware, including indigenous production of fighter jets.



A statement issued after the talks between PM Modi and PM Johnson had said the two leaders reiterated their commitment to "transform" defence and security cooperation as a key pillar of the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.



The India-UK relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the India-UK virtual summit held between Modi and Johnson in May 2021.



At the summit, the two sides adopted a 10-year roadmap to expand ties in key areas of trade and economy, defence and security, climate change and people-to-people connections among others.



Both sides are also keen to expand cooperation in the maritime sphere.



In June, 2021, the UK posted a liaison officer at the Indian Navy's Information Fusion Centre (IFC) that has emerged as a key hub in tracking movements of ships and other developments in the Indian Ocean region.



The UK joined a select group of countries such as the US, Australia, Japan and France to depute officials at the Gurgaon-based facility.



The Indian Navy established the IFC-IOR in 2018 to effectively keep track of the shipping traffic as well as other critical developments in the region under a collaborative framework with like-minded countries.




In this file photo of Sept. 2, 2023, ISRO's PSLV-C57 carrying Aditya-L1 -- India's maiden solar mission spacecraft, lifts off from the launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota. ISRO on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024, performed the final manoeuver to inject Aditya-L1 spacecraft into its destination orbit -- Lagrange Point-1. (Photo: PTI)

NEW DELHI (PTI): India's first solar observatory Aditya-L1 has reached its destination, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Saturday, asserting that it is a testament to the relentless dedication of scientists in realising one of the most complex and intricate space missions.



PM Modi said he joins the nation in applauding this extraordinary feat.



"India creates yet another landmark. India's first solar observatory Aditya-L1 reaches it destination. It is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists in realising among the most complex and intricate space missions," the Prime Minister said on X.



"I join the nation in applauding this extraordinary feat. We will continue to pursue new frontiers of science for the benefit of humanity," he said.


January 2, 2024: At the end of 2023 there was another unexpected uprising against the Myanmar (Burma) military government. This began in the north, where tribal militias have been fighting the army for decades. That wore down the resolve and morale of the army. Many of the army generals were surprised at how suddenly and quickly the troops in the north lost their will to fight and either deserted or joined the rebels. These attitudes spread quickly. In the capital, Naypyidaw, radio, and telephone calls from army units grew increasingly desperate. Many of the calls were for air support, by armed helicopters or fixed wing aircraft. The Myanmar Air Force had few attack aircraft, and most were Chinese or Russian jet fighters, many with pilots who were now unwilling to carry out attacks on civilians, even if they were armed rebels. There was much anger over the many airstrikes the government had ordered against armed rebels and unarmed civilians. The military government was weakened by sanctions and was unable to pay the troops on time or at all. This was one reason over 15,000 soldiers deserted, many of them joining the rebels.

This mess was the aftereffect of yet another military coup in early 2021, a decade after the military government, which had been in power since 1962 finally gave in to demands for freedom and democracy. This happened because by 2010 the army was desperate because the generals had failed at running the economy or dealing with the rebellious northern tribes. The military negotiated a deal with the democrats that left the military with some of their political power as well as immunity from prosecution or retribution for a long list of past crimes. Once elections were held, the generals realized they had underestimated the degree of popular anger at the decades of military misrule. After 2011, with Burma governed by a government answerable to the people, not a military caste, there were calls for canceling the political privileges the military had retained as part of their agreement to allow peaceful transfer of power. The late 2020 nationwide elections put into power a government that finally had the votes, and determination, to cut the military down to size and make them much less capable of another coup. The generals moved faster than the new government and once more took control of the country in early 2021.

The generals found that it was not as easy as the early 1960s. This time there was much less compliance and a lot more defiance. In fact, most Burmese acted the way they voted, despite the greater firepower and, so far, resolve of the generals. The army has trashed the economy and put more and more Burmese out of work and without access to food, the Internet, or the banking system. The resistance not only continued, but it also kept increasing in numbers of armed rebels and the unwillingness of soldiers to make war once more on their own people.

The generals had another potential problem; they had become more dependent on their Chinese business partners. The Chinese were not only partners-in-crime with the generals, but they were also the source of cash for the generals and more weapons for the army. The generals considered the Chinese connection the vital key to victory, or fatal flaw in the coup plan. It all depended on how much Burmese are willing to resist China. This is important in many ways and the result of regional changes that have taken place over the last few centuries.

In mid-2021 the military declared themselves the provisional government. There were vague assurances of new elections, but few voters believed the voting would be free and fair. China promptly recognized the provisional government and just called it the government. Meanwhile the supporters of the ousted government organized themselves as the NUG, or National Unity Government and sought to gain foreign support, while also avoiding capture or death by the military. Many Burmese diplomats outside the country at the time of the coup continued to support the elected government. Some Western countries reported that the Burmese military was seeking to kidnap or kill these rogue diplomats. Not to be outdone, in the north one of the tribal militias offered $3,000 to any Burmese soldiers who defected with his weapon, and safe passage out of the country. The military has refused to negotiate and refused UN offers to mediate negotiations.

Unlike 2010, this time the military sees their situation as do or die. Too many Burmese now want the military leaders dead or in prison. The Burmese avoided civil war for decades after the 1962 coup and everyone seems to believe this was not the correct way to go about it. Now the Burmese have to see what, if any, military assistance they can obtain from foreign supporters. The rebels up north obtained weapons from the army. Thousands of soldiers deserted with their weapons and some of these men knew where the army had stockpiled weapons and ammunition. Army officers usually remained loyal to the generals, but they were outnumbered and often killed by the rebels or their own men. Within a few weeks, most military units in the north had disappeared because of desertions rather than attacks by the rebels.

Burma was until 1948 part of the British colonial holdings in South Asia and one of the last additions. In 1885 Britain took control of what is now Burma after nearly a century of commercial and territorial conflicts between the expanding Burmese monarchy and the British East India Company, the economic engine that powered the effort to form what would, for about a century, become the largest component of the British colonial empire. Burma was a unique addition to the empire as it was the first large possession whose population was East Asian (Han) while the rest of India was Indo-European. The majority of Burmese were descendants of Han tribes that had migrated, at least three thousand years ago, from what is now southern China. About the same time the Central Asian nomads who became dominant in western Eurasia, poured into India, and kept going for centuries until they dominated their less aggressive but culturally and economically advanced predecessors. Same thing happened in south-east Asia but for several reasons the expansions halted in Burma, northeast India, Tibet and into Central Asia.

The Indo-European Indians were far more culturally and technologically advanced than their European cousins. Indians were very active traders, mainly by sea across the Indian Ocean. When the Europeans began their Age of Exploration in the 1400s, once they reached East Africa and the Persian Gulf, they encountered Indian traders who had already been there for over a thousand years. The British did not come to South Asia to build an empire but to trade. Empire-building was a side effect of trade disputes. The South Asian British colonial rule only lasted for about two centuries and it ended when the British realized they were losing a lot of money maintaining it.

Burma, like India, had been a collection of feuding kingdoms when the British arrived. Modern Burma long consisted of southern Burma, where the ethnic Burmese (Burans) dominated. In the north, as in northeast India, there was an even larger and more diverse collection of tribes that had long maintained their independence. The British persuaded the tribes to become part of the new democratic Burma. A similar collection of tribes in northeast India made a similar deal. Many of the tribal peoples were not happy with the new central government and that produced over seventy years of rebellion and unrest.

Democratic India eventually negotiated new peace deals with the separatists among the tribes. The 1948 democratic Burma tried to do the same but continued resistance of the tribes contributed to the longest-lasting military government in South Asia. There was another element to this. Most Burmese noted that India never had a coup and Moslem Pakistan, at least West Pakistan, suffered a lot of coups and had their first one before Burma did. Also noted was that the coups in Pakistan led to Pakistan falling apart. In 1970 an uprising in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, demanded a separate state and West Pakistan, which became just Pakistan, was unable to prevent it. Since then, Bangladesh, emulating India, adopted a coup resistant government that worked. Pakistan continues to be threatened by its own military, which now exercises its political power without taking over the government. The generals in Pakistan and Burma have one thing in common, they established government and personal economic ties with China. It is these business relationships with China that give the generals independent of their own government economic power and the ability to coerce an elected government into obeying the military, and not the other way around.

Applying this in Burma is proving more difficult than in Pakistan, where the Chinese investments came after the Pakistan military had already carried out several successful coups but were always forced to eventually back off and allow elections to return. But now, thanks in part to Chinese assistance, the Pakistani military can control the government without being the government.

The success of the Chinese economic conquest approach is not assured in Pakistan and is even less of a sure thing in Burma. As long as the generals can find enough money to pay most of their troops, they can maintain their power. But, as the Pakistani generals have discovered, there are limitations to this approach. You must be able to intimidate your population, not go to war with them because that would risk escalation or foreign intervention. Thats what happened in Pakistan during the 1971 civil war. When troops from West Pakistan started killing rebellious civilians in a big way, neighboring India was outraged and soon intervened. This forced the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan to surrender and allowed the formation of Bangladesh.

The Burmese Army tried to keep the death toll down. Six months after the 2021 coup only about a thousand civilians had died and very few soldiers were killed. The generals are under pressure to pay close attention to troop morale and realized that another boost in soldier pay would not be enough to maintain loyalty in a force where most troops belong to extended families with many members who are not in the military and more of them are being shot at by the military.

The Chinese realize that if the Burmese can avoid open warfare with an increasingly angry population, the generals could prevail. More Burmese are obtaining weapons and using them, and the generals have a hard time portraying dead or wounded soldiers as Myanmar Martyrs. None of Burmas neighbors are eager and ready to invade, as India did in 1971 Bangladesh. Bangladesh consists of a Moslem Bengali population. Most Bengalese were Moslem, which is why you had East Pakistan from 1948 to 1970. But a third of Bengalis were Hindu, including a few Christians. In 1970, not all Moslem Bengalis lived in East, or West Pakistan. The massacre of Bengalis in East Pakistan generated a lot of Indian support for intervention. There are often times when ethnicity trumps religions.

Such is not the case in Burma, where the Buran group, while possessing ancient ethnic connections with the Han in China, now consider themselves, like the Han-related majorities in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam as very distinct and want as little to do with China as possible. This is a common pattern on all the current borders of China, where Han who wanted no part of a Chinese empire are still struggling to escape Han domination.

In Burma the 2021 coup was another expression of Han hostility. The continued resistance developed an armed component within 90 days. The CDM or Civil Disobedience Movement was mainly about organizing peaceful protests but as more civilians were shot, some CDM factions began shooting back. Worse, there were organized attacks as well. This began in April when someone fired five rockets at the Shante Air Force base outside the city of Mandalay. The rockets caused no damage or injuries and were believed aimed at the Chinese CH-3A UAVs that were delivered in 2015 and used mainly to keep an eye on tribal rebels in the north. After the coup the army asked China for assistance in using all the manned and unmanned aircraft and helicopters China and Russia has sold to Burma in the last decade. The military had imported $2.5 billion worth of military gear since 2010. China provided 58 percent of it and Russia 33 percent. Now these weapons were being used against the nationwide uprising. China is something of an expert on this as it is installing a Big Brother level surveillance in China and is willing to export that tech. An elected Burmese government would never divert the huge sums required to purchase and install Chinese Big Brother levels of surveillance. The Burmese military is another matter, especially when it has taken over the government again. At the moment the military is in charge and China sees another major export sale looming. Better surveillance capabilities will provide immediate help to suppress the rebels.

China faces huge economic losses if the current miitary government loses. China is a major foreign investor in Burma and those projects often displace Burmese illegally and without compensation. Most of this misbehavior occurred in the northern border areas where hostile tribes live. These tribes tend to have armed militias that have been fighting the military for over sixty years. Chinese investments gave the tribal rebels more targets for unarmed protests and armed attacks. China will do whatever it can to protect those investments, which include oil and natural gas pipelines from southern China to the northeast Burma coast. The pipelines have come under increasing attacks.

The first thing the new military government did after the 2021 coup was assure China that Chinese assets would be protected. China promptly used their veto powers in the UN to block UN actions against the new military rulers of Burma. Soon Russia also proclaimed support for the military government. The response of the military was not unexpected, because the civilian government knew that the Burmese generals maintained their connections in China.

The Burmese Army has long been at the center of most illegal economic activity. Some estimates indicate that at least $20 billion has been illegally moved out of Burma during the fifty years of military rule. Almost all of that involved military personnel or their gangster and commercial allies. Military families still control a lot of the economy and most of the wealthy families in Burma have a military connection. The illegal cash leaving amounted on average to about six percent of GDP. The military may have surrendered much of their political power in 2010, but they held on to their considerable personal wealth.

The Burmese military is comfortable with a cozy relationship with China and Russia, but most Burmese are not. This has led to Chinese businesses being attacked since the coup and a few have been set on fire. The military was forced to assign more troops and hire some armed guards to protect the Chinese businesses.

The alliance of separatist northern tribes, which reached a peace agreement with the elected government in 2016, refused to recognize or cooperate with the military government. Burmese military leaders were surprised at the extent and duration of mass protests during the last six months. Despite most of the economy being crippled, the military still has income because during their decades of rule they came to control many businesses and some of those were joint ventures with China. A lot of Chinese firms pay the Burmese military directly for joint ventures. This provides the military with over a billion dollars a year, assuming the Chinese operations can keep functioning. Burmese army officers made a lot of money allowing China to do business in the tribal north, often at the expense of local civilians, most of them tribal people. After the return of democracy in 2011, China no longer had as much freedom in the north. Russia is of little help economically but is one of the few nations supporting the military government.

China is in uncharted territory here but is mainly risking money, not a lot of Chinese lives. The Chinese see this as an opportunity to see how far this new version of conquest by aggression can go. This is an important experiment because it is a new version of the tactics the Europeans, especially the British, used centuries ago to replace Chinese dominance of East Asia.

One thing the current Burmese conflict is unlikely to change is the dominance of the government by ethnic Burmese (Burman) people at the expense of the third of the population consisting of minorities. The army always played on this during the decades after the 1962 coup. Even after elections were resumed the army still had allies in the form of militant Buddhist nationalists. Another thing that unites and divides the country is religion. Some 80 percent of Burmese are Buddhists, including many of the rebellious tribes in the north. A third of the non-Buddhists are Christians, mainly in the tribal north and about 30 percent are Hindu. The ethnic Burmese are most hostile towards Moslems, who make up only about four percent of the population and less than ten percent of the minorities. Until 2012 about half the Moslems were ethnic Bengalis (Rohingya) who until the 1980s were considered Burmese citizens. That changed after an elected government took power in 2011 and since 2012 nearly a quarter of the million Rohingya are believed to have fled Burma to escape the growing violence of radical Buddhist Burmese nationalists. China assures the Burmese generals that they have proven solutions for all these problems.
Awards season 2024 has kicked off in style with the star-studded Golden Globes taking place in Los Angeles.

On the fashion front it was a game of two halves, with many celebrities choosing gowns or suits in brilliantly bright colours, while others opted for muted monochrome ensembles.

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Here we take a look at the most stunning outfits from the Golden Globes red carpet

Gillian Anderson (Jordan Strauss/AP)

British actor Gillian Anderson wore a strapless ivory Gabriela Hearst gown embroidered with vagina motifs, the Sex Education star telling Deadline the subversive dress was brand appropriate.

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Margot Robbie (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Nominated in the best female actor in a musical or comedy category, Margot Robbie (who lost to Emma Stone) wore a hot pink sequinned gown with a matching stole.

The custom Armani Prive creation, accessorised with diamond earrings, was inspired by Superstar Barbie from 1977.

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Florence Pugh (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Part of the cast of the nights big winner Oppenheimer, which took home five gongs, Florence Pugh chose a sheer scarlet gown with a voluminous skirt and floral embellishments.

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Jennifer Lawrence (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Former Golden Globe winner Jennifer Lawrence went for the understated glamour look in a black velvet gown teamed with statement diamond jewellery and a silver clutch bag.

Emma Stone (Jordan Strauss/AP)

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Winner of the best female actor in a musical or comedy award for Poor Things, Emma Stone donned a low-cut Louis Vuitton gown crafted from diaphanous material with intricate rose embroidery.

Timothee Chalamet (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Making headlines when he appeared on the red carpet for the first time with reality TV star and beauty mogul Kylie Jenner, Timothee Chalamet chose an all-black ensemble with a trademark twist.

The Wonka star was dressed by Celine in a sequinned jacket and statement necklace with plain black shirt and trousers.

Taylor Swift (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Music megastar Taylor Swift walked the red carpet in a figure-hugging lime green sequinned Gucci gown, accessorised with delicate drop earrings.

Natalie Portman (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Actor and Dior ambassador Natalie Portman was dressed by the French fashion house in a strappy, full-skirted gown embellished with colourful ombre sequins.

Billie Eilish (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Winner of best original song for What Was I Made For? from the Barbie soundtrack, Billie Eilish chose a typically kooky ensemble by Willy Chavarria, wearing an oversized suit and skirt with Mary Jane shoes and pink socks.

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Dua Lipa (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Pop star Dua Lipa, who was nominated for best original song, wore a custom Schiaparelli gown, the black strapless design featuring golden embroidery on the bodice and a voluminous hem.

Rosamund Pike (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Saltburn star and best supporting actress nominee Rosamund Pike went for the gothic glamour look in a Dior haute couture black lace midi dress, topped with a dramatic matching headpiece.

Barry Keoghan (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Also nominated for Saltburn, best actor nominee Barry Keoghan stood out from the crowd in his burgundy suit by Louis Vuitton.

Jennifer Aniston (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Former Golden Globe recipient Jennifer Aniston kept it classic in a black strapless Dolce & Gabbana gown with scalloped bead detailing.

Elizabeth Debicki (Chris Pizzello/AP)

Picking up the best supporting actress award for TV, The Crowns Elizabeth Debicki matched her statuette in a shimmering champagne-coloured Dior haute couture gown.

Jennifer Lopez (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Music and movie star Jennifer Lopez was pretty in pink, donning a showstopping Nicole + Felicia gown with huge 3D rosette sleeves and a long train.

Helen Mirren (Jordan Strauss/AP)

British acting icon Helen Mirren wore a two-toned ensemble, her rouche lavender Dolce & Gabbana gown topped with a pink-lined cape with fluted sleeves.

Julianne Moore (Jordan Strauss/AP)

Nominated in the best supporting actress category, Julianne Moore wore a ravishing red strapless gown by Bottega Veneta.
Willem Dafoe has said biopics that try to do an imitation and actors that are too needy repel him.

The 68-year-old US actor, who has starred in films including Spider-Man (2002) and The Lighthouse (2019), discussed what it was like to play a character part-inspired by US journalist Hunter S Thompson in 2023 film Gonzo Girl.

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Speaking to The Guardian, he said: Of course, we borrow a lot from the real-life character, but I never wanted to do an imitation.

Mark Ruffalo, Emma Stone, and Willem Dafoe, attend the UK gala screening of Poor Things (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Thats why biopics that try to do an imitation always drive me crazy, because it ultimately becomes a show of the actor.

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Somewhere that embarrasses me and repels me.

Really. And the actors that repel me are ones that are too needy.

In the film, which sees American actress Patricia Arquette make her directorial debut, Dafoe portrays Walker Reade, a novelist who has a reputation for drugs and partying.

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The film is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Cheryl Della Pietra, loosely inspired by her time spent working as an assistant for Thompson.

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Dafoe, who has been acting for more than four decades, said it is tragic that people now tend to watch movies at home rather than in the cinema.

He said: The kind of attention that people give at home isnt the same.

More difficult movies, more challenging movies can not do as well, when you dont have an audience thats really paying attention.

Thats a big thing. I miss the social thing of where movies fit in the world.

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Willem Dafoe appears as Walker Reade in the 2023 film Gonzo Girl (Ian West/PA)

You go see a movie, you go out to dinner, you talk about it later, and that spreads out.

People now go home, they say, Hey, honey, lets watch something stupid tonight, and they flip through and they watch five minutes of 10 movies, and they say, forget it, lets go to bed. Wheres that discourse found?

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Speaking further on the film industry, he said: There arent ballsy producers like there used to be.

There are some savvy ones, but you dont have the same kind of characters that you used to have, that would sell their house to make a movie, and do crazy things to get it done.

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Theyre a little harder to find.

In his career Dafoe has received a number of accolades including the Honorary Golden Bear at Berlin International Film Festival in 2018.

On Saturday he received the excellence in artistry award at the 2024 Astra Film Awards and for Yorgos Lanthimos directed film Poor Things, Dafoe is nominated for best performance by a male actor in a supporting role at the Golden Globes taking place on Sunday evening in the US.
Six hundred and twenty-six patients are waiting for a bed in Irish hospitals today, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

The union has called for senior decision-makers within hospital groups and the HSE to remove "all barriers" to providing safe care.

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INMO General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: The worrying but predictable rise in the number of patients who have been admitted to hospital without a bed needs immediate de-escalation action. We are seeing high numbers of patients on trolleys in some of our smaller hospitals which is very high risk for patients in these areas.

As we reach the peak of RSV, Covid and influenza infections this week and next, senior decision-makers within the HSE and individual hospital groups must introduce immediate de-escalation measures in some of the worst affected areas.

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Oppressive overcrowding is not just confined to one or two hospitals, we are seeing overcrowding challenges in each part of the country, with this predicted to get worse as the week goes on."

Ms Ni Sheaghdha added: Our members want to be able to provide safe care to patients but also be assured that their own health and wellbeing is being protected - neither are guaranteed when they are working in overcrowded conditions where respiratory infections are rife.

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The HSE and other public sector healthcare employers must assure nurses, midwives and other healthcare workers and indeed the public at large that they are taking extraordinary action to ensure that all barriers to providing safe care at this time are removed.
No one has the right to veto who lives in their community, the Taoiseach has warned.

Leo Varadkars comments came in response to a series of recent protests at buildings in various parts of the country earmarked to house asylum seekers.

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There have also been arson attacks on several building proposed as accommodation locations for international protection applicants.

On Friday, a protest was held outside a hotel in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo over plans to use the premises to house 50 adult male asylum seekers.

A former pub on Thorncastle Street in the Ringsend area of Dublin, which was set on fire on New Years Eve (Brian Lawless/PA)

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Asked about the scenes in Ballinrobe, Mr Varadkar told RTE: I totally acknowledge that people living there have concerns and have fears.

Its important that we have information and communication, that peoples fears are allayed, that any information they need is given.

But I also need to be very clear  nobody in a free society, nobody in a democracy has the right to veto, a right to exercise a veto on who moves into their area or their community.

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And that doesnt just apply to international protection. It applies to Traveller accommodation, that applies to womens refuges, which people used to object to before, it applies to social housing and to student accommodation.

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One of Mr Varadkar's party colleagues, Fine Gael Councillor Michael Burke, has criticised the proposal to use the hotel for international protection applicants.

The Taoiseach said Cllr Burke's stance was not in line with Government policy.

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Asked if he faced party discipline, Mr Varadkar said Fine Gael gave its councillors a lot of leeway in how they deal with local issues, as long as they do not engage in misinformation or racist language  and he said he did not believe that had been the case in Ballinrobe.

On the recent arson attacks, Mr Varadkar expressed fears that someone might lose their life if the fires continued.

Arson is a very serious crime, whatever political beliefs people may have, and people are entitled to their political beliefs, nobody has the right to damage or burn down somebody elses property and nobody has the right to physically harm another person, he said.

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So this is a serious crime and I do expect that there will be arrests and prosecutions. And I want to express a concern  people vandalising buildings, setting them alight, they cant know for sure that there isnt somebody in that building.

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He added: And I have a real concern that not only will we face a situation whereby were investigating arson, that we may yet be investigating manslaughter or murder.

On the general debate around immigration and asylum seekers in the State, Mr Varadkar said the Government faced a challenge in the year ahead to take charge of the conversation.

There are a lot of myths that are being spread, initially by the far right, but now unfortunately have become quite mainstream, and are repeated now even by mainstream politicians and mainstream journalists, he said.

And we have a big job of work to do this year as a government in being in charge of this debate and making sure that people get the right information.

Because one thing that I think is really important to say is that, in the round, immigration and migration for Ireland has been a good thing.
A libel case brought by Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly against a journalist has been thrown out after a judge ruled it was scandalous, frivolous and vexatious.

Mr Kelly was also ordered to pay costs in the case he had brought against Malachi ODoherty.

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The case related to two radio interviews in which the journalist had stated Mr Kelly had shot a prison officer during an escape from the Maze prison in 1983.

The north Belfast Sinn Fein MLA was one of 38 IRA prisoners who escaped from the prison near Lisburn, during which prison officer John Adams was shot in the head.

Mr Kelly has never admitted shooting him and was found not guilty at a trial in 1987.

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The judgment was delivered at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA)

He claimed the broadcast comments from Mr ODoherty had damaged his reputation.

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However, Mr ODohertys legal team had argued that there was no damage to the MLAs reputation, as he had served prison sentences for the 1973 Old Bailey bombings and he is someone publicly identified as a former IRA member.

They made an application for the libel action to be struck out, pointing out that Mr Kelly had written books about the escape without naming who fired the shot.

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In a judgment published on Monday, the Master of Belfast High Court Evan Bell stated: What Mr Kelly has written in his books is, in my view, a clear statement of common design in respect of the battery of Mr Adams.

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Even if one accepts the submission that Mr Kelly has not explicitly admitted pulling the trigger, the content of his books appears to make Mr Kelly civilly liable, on the balance of probabilities, for the shooting of Mr Adams.

In the light of that, these defamation proceedings against Dr ODoherty are completely untenable.

For that reason the court strikes them out on the basis that they are scandalous, frivolous and vexatious.

In the judgment, Master Bell added: Since the amendment of the law on double jeopardy, where an author has been tried and acquitted of criminal offences, and his criminal memoir contains material which amounts to new and compelling evidence against him, he may expose himself to re-prosecution for that offence under Part 10 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 if his book contains new evidence.

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The judge said that the libel proceedings, which were brought personally against Mr ODoherty, bore the hallmarks of a Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) case.

He said: On the balance of probabilities therefore the proceedings do bear the hallmarks of a SLAPP and have been initiated not for the genuine purposes of vindicating a reputation injured by defamatory statements, but rather for the purpose of stifling the voices of his troublesome critics.

He added: The abuse of process in this case is so blatant that it would be utterly unjust if the court were to allow the proceedings to continue.

The court therefore has no hesitation in striking them out.

Seamus Dooley, NUJ assistant general secretary, said the determination was extremely significant in the context of ongoing concern at the use of strategic lawsuits knows as SLAPPs against journalists in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
The family of an Irish soldier killed by the IRA has welcomed proposed law changes that would impose fines for the unauthorised use of the Irish title of the Defence Forces, Oglaigh na hEireann.

Several paramilitary groups, including the Provisional IRA, have also referred to themselves as Oglaigh na hEireann.

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Additionally, Sinn Fein has used the term Oglach to describe individual members of the Provisional IRA.

Under the General Scheme of the Defence Amendment Bill 2023, which has been approved by the Government, it will become an offence for a person to use the term Oglaigh na hEireann for any group unless they have the authority of the Minister for Defence.

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A person who commits an offence under this new provision could be fined a maximum of 1,000.

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The phrase, or any words closely resembling the term, will not be allowed for use as the name, title, description or styling of any group, organisation or body without ministerial approval.

The proposal follows a Bill brought forward by Senator Malcolm Byrne in 2021, which would have protected the contemporary usage of the title Oglaigh na hEireann for the Defence Forces.

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Mr Byrne said the Bill would have protected where the term is used in a historical context but would not permit paramilitary organisations to misuse the name.

David Kelly, whose father was one of two members of the Irish security forces killed by the Provisional IRA during a rescue mission 40 years ago, said its use by the IRA and Sinn Fein is insulting to those killed during the Troubles.

On December 16th, 1983, Private Patrick Kelly and Garda recruit Gary Sheehan were killed in Derrada Wood, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, during an operation to rescue Quinnsworth supermarket executive Don Tidey, who had been kidnapped for 23 days in Dublin.

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Patrick Kelly was killed by the IRA during a rescue operation 40 years ago

Mr Tidey exited the ordeal physically unharmed.

Speaking to the PA news agency on Monday, Mr Kelly said his family is re-traumatised by the use of the phrase by unofficial groups.

It is re-traumatising to hear people being recognised as Oglaigh na hEireann and Oglach because my fathers murderers are still walking free, they have been getting away with murder for 40 years.

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And at the same time, weve been sitting here with an empty chair at the table for 40 years.

He added: Ive always felt its an insult. Not only to my father who, in brutal reality, was gunned down in a vicious manner alongside a garda.

But its also an insult to the Defence Forces who served with him that day, some of them were taken hostage and used as human shields. Its an insult to the entire Defence Forces who have been loyal to the State since independence.

Also, I would say, ultimately, it is an insult to the Irish people. The Defence Forces are protecting our democratic institutions of the Republic of Ireland.

At the time, the provisional movement didnt recognise our Government, parliament, court system and our security forces.

Mr Kelly said his family really welcomes the move.

Senator Malcolm Byrne (Brian Lawless/PA)

He was a member of the legal, legitimate Oglaigh na hEireann and it was a unique case because he was the only member of the Irish Army murdered during the Troubles.

But he was actually murdered by an organisation who claimed that they were the true Oglaigh na hEireann.

At the time, they would have seen my father as a pretender and would have disparagingly referred to the Irish Defence Forces as the '26-County Forces'.

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He added: Not only were they claiming to be Oglaigh na hEireann, they killed a member of the true Oglaigh na hEireann in Derrada Woods. Our lives have been blighted by it, courtesy of this group.

The South East Fermanagh Foundation victims group said it was encouraged that the Irish Government was moving towards deterring wanton misuse of the term.

Kenny Donaldson said the penalty would be a step in the right direction (Brian Lawless/PA)

SEFF director Kenny Donaldson said: There is one Oglaigh na hEireann and that is the official Irish Army of Ireland, the name has been misused over many years by The Provisional IRA, in both Ireland and Northern Ireland.

He added: This reclaiming of language must act as the launch pad for me to be done around the wilful glorification and glamorisation of terrorism and political violence connected with The Troubles period on both sides of our border and indeed throughout the United Kingdom and further afield.

The Defence Amendment Bill 2023, which is due before the Oireachtas this year, is intended to give effect to a key recommendation of the Independent Review Group on Dignity and Equality issues in the Defence Forces in relation to the establishment of an External Oversight Body.

It will also look at the issue of associate membership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for Defence Forces representative associations, which Mr Byrne has previously raised.
The Tanaiste has commenced a five-day visit to Mexico and Colombia focused on strengthening relations between the countries and Ireland.

Micheal Martin has already said he will also raise the issue of the global drugs trade during the trip.

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He will begin his visit in Mexico where he will meet Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena as well as other political figures.

He will also deliver an address on foreign policy to senior members of the Mexican diplomatic corps.

The Tanaiste will also meet with Irish companies that have invested in Mexico.

He will join members of the Irish community in Mexico City to honour the memory of the Saint Patricks Battalion (Batallon de San Patricio), a group of mostly Irish soldiers who fought as part of the Mexican army in the 1840s.

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The Tanaiste will formally open the new premises of the Embassy of Ireland in Mexico City and inaugurate Irelands new Office for Central America, which is housed in the Embassy.

He will travel to Colombia on Wednesday where he will carry out a number of high-level political meetings, including with Minister of Defence Ivan Velasquez and Deputy Foreign Minister Francisco Coy.

The discussions will focus on major themes in the bilateral relationship, including Irelands longstanding support to the Colombian peace process.

Commenting on the Mexican leg on the visit, Mr Martin said: Next year marks 50 years since the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Mexico, although our connections go much further back.

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These links include Irishmen who fought alongside the Mexican Army in the 1840s, and I will attend, along with members of the Irish community, a ceremony to honour their memory.

I look forward to returning to Mexico, which I last visited as Foreign Minister in 2009, and discussing with Minister Barcena what we can do together to build on the already very strong links between our two countries. Minister Barcena has invited me to address Mexican Ambassadors on foreign policy issues.

To underline Irelands commitment to our relationship with Mexico, I will formally open the new Embassy of Ireland premises in Mexico City and inaugurate our Office for Central America, situated in the Embassy.

I will hear from successful Irish investors in Mexico and other business people. Mexico is also Irelands largest trading partner in Latin America  with two-way trade in goods and services approaching 5 billion. One of the messages I expect to hear is that there is huge potential to build on this success.

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I will also meet members of the resident Irish community and commemorate the actions of the Saint Patricks Battalion.

On the visit to Colombia, the Tanaiste added: Ireland has longstanding links with Colombia, including the contribution of Cork-born General Daniel Florence OLeary to the achievement of Colombian independence.

Today, and particularly since the opening of Irelands Embassy in Bogota in 2019, there is an increasingly strong bilateral relationship including considerable Irish investment.

While in Bogota, I will meet with senior members of the Colombian Government, including for discussions on Irelands continued support to Colombian efforts to consolidate its peace process.

This has taken on a new emphasis in recent months since Ireland accepted an invitation from the Colombian Government to become one of the guarantors in its ongoing peace dialogues.
The UK government has been accused of fighting others on legacy while facing almost universal opposition to its own new legislation on Northern Irelands troubled past.

Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy criticised the UK after Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris wrote to Minister for foreign affairs Micheal Martin questioning the move by Ireland to challenge the UKs contentious legacy laws in the European Court of Human Rights.

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Mr Heaton-Harris also challenged Ireland to set out its own record on tackling legacy issues.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson backed the challenge to the Irish Government on its record, while maintaining his partys opposition to the Legacy Act.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin (left) and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris. Photo: Niall Carson/PA.

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He said that while the UK has initiated a public inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bomb, despite a court ruling saying the Irish Government should do likewise, it has not.

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The British ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston issued the letter on Sunday evening.

In it, Mr Heaton-Harris again challenges Mr Martin to list the number of prosecutions mounted in the Irish state since 1998 related to Troubles incidents.

Aspects of the recently passed UK laws include a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who co-operate with the new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

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The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 will also halt future civil cases and legacy inquests.

The UK governments laws are opposed by many victims groups in Northern Ireland and all the main Stormont parties.

Announcing the interstate case in December, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said his administration was left with no option but to legally challenge the UK Government over the Legacy Act.

He said the strong legal advice was that the UK Legacy Act breached the UN Convention on Human Rights.

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Tanaiste Mr Martin said they were taking the case reluctantly after having spent time trying to change the UK governments mind.

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The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) confirmed to the PA news agency that a letter had been issued formally registering profound regret at the interstate case.

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The Secretary of State, in his letter, repeats his call for the Irish Government to clarify the number of criminal prosecutions brought in Ireland since 1998 relating to Troubles-related cases, and presses the Irish Government more widely to answer questions regarding its own record on tackling legacy issues in its own jurisdiction, the NIO said in a statement.

The letter criticises the timing of the Irish decision, describing it as a delicate time in Northern Ireland amid the efforts to restore powersharing at Stormont.

The NIO added: The decision also comes before the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, led by Sir Declan Morgan as chief commissioner, is fully established and able to demonstrate its ability to discharge the UKs international obligations.

The UK government reasserts its particular disappointment that the Irish Government has taken this course of action without, to date, any engagement with the ICRIR to understand better how it intends to implement the legislation and deliver for victims and survivors.

Mr Murphy accused the UK government of fighting others on legacy while introducing new legislation on Northern Irelands troubled past which is almost universally opposed.

He claimed the UK governments approach to legacy has been about satisfying its own electoral interests and motivated by its own backbenchers and their desire to protect British Crown forces who were involved in all sorts of activities here over the course of the conflict.

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DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA

The idea that they would continue to fight and criticise others when they are in the face of all opposition from all of the parties here, all of the victims organisations and from the Irish government, doesnt surprise me They were never intent on satisfying the needs of victims here, they were intent on satisfying the requirements of their own backbenchers in relation to protection of their own personnel, he told the BBC.

The Irish government is quite right to criticise them and I dont think they were left with any alternative but to take a case.

However, Sir Jeffrey said the Government's double standards on legacy need to be challenged.

I agree with the Secretary of State that the double standards of the Irish government on this issue need to be challenged, and, whilst we opposed what the UK government are doing and continue to oppose this amnesty that they brought forward in their legacy proposals, we see the same approach taken by the Irish Government, indeed over many years, and, as the Secretary of State has pointed out, there have been no prosecutions by the Irish Government, no attempt to prosecute those who were involved in terrorist activity in their jurisdiction, he said.
US president Joe Biden takes his pitch for re-election to South Carolina, where Black voters helped propel him to the presidency, on Monday in a visit aimed at shoring up a critical constituency whose support has waned since he took office.

Mr Biden's trip, to the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where an avowed white supremacist gunned down nine Black parishioners in 2015, comes as his campaign sharpens its attacks on Donald Trump, the former president who is the frontrunner for the Republican Party's 2024 nomination.

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On Friday, Mr Biden portrayed Mr Trump as a threat to democracy in a speech marking the third anniversary of the deadly attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters hoping to overturn the Republican's 2020 election loss.

Recent polling has shown Mr Trump beating Mr Biden in swing states that will determine who wins the White House this year, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll in December showed a rematch would be close.

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Mr Biden's trip comes as some Democrats have raised questions about his re-election strategy in recent months. Some donors have been eager to hear Mr Biden be more candid, or more aggressively target Mr Trump rather than focus on the economy.

My problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done. Advertisement

Representative James Clyburn, a Democrat whose endorsement of Mr Biden helped him win South Carolina in the 2020 primary, said on Sunday he was concerned about Mr Biden's standing with Black voters and frustrated that Mr Biden's record had not resonated.

"I have told him what my concerns are," Mr Clyburn told CNN, referring to a meeting with the president. "I have no problem with the Biden administration and what it has done. My problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done."

MAGA refers to Mr Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan. Polls show support for Mr Biden by Black voters has softened.

Former president Barack Obama, who is concerned about Mr Trump's potential to win in 2024, discussed the campaign over lunch with Mr Biden before the Christmas holiday, comparing his 2012 re-election apparatus with Mr Biden's, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

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Mr Biden has kept his long-serving senior advisers at the White House, while Mr Obama dispatched two to his Chicago-based campaign headquarters. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Mr Obama has told allies that Mr Biden's campaign needs to have the power to make decisions without White House clearance.

Mr Obama won re-election in 2012 with 332 electoral votes compared to Republican Mitt Romney, who captured 206 electoral votes.

Each state has an allotted number of electoral votes; a candidate must win 270 to prevail.

South Carolina first

Mr Biden's trip comes as Democrats have shifted their primary calendar to put South Carolina first, leap-frogging Iowa's caucus and New Hampshire's traditional first-in-the-country primary vote.

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South Carolina has not backed a Democrat for president since 1976, but Democrats believe the state's diverse population better reflects the party's voters.

The campaign is investing earlier than ever to reach voters of colour, rather than parachuting in closer to Election Day simply to drive turnout, one campaign adviser told Reuters.

Mr Biden's visit to South Carolina follows a stop there on Saturday by vice president Kamala Harris, who urged an audience of mostly Black women church leaders, to "roll up" sleeves ahead of the election. Ms Harris is the first Black Asian woman to serve as US vice president.
January 8, 2024: After receiving some Caesar artillery systems as aid from NATO, Ukraine found that this novel truck mounted 155mm howitzer was more effective than towed or conventional self-propelled artillery systems that ran on tracks, like a tank. That led Ukraine to purchase more Caesar systems from the French manufacturer. The French had already increased production of Caesar systems to six a month and were preparing to increase that to eight a month. The manufacturer has also made several improvements and upgrades. These are often based on feedback from Ukrainian users. The changes include adapting Caesar for use on different types of trucks and upgrades to the fire control system that allow the use of different types of 155mm shells, including some that can hit targets fifty kilometers away accurately. This required upgrades to the fire control system to increase effectiveness of regular missions and as well as the accuracy of long-range missions. A semi-automatic loading system increases the rate of fire and requires less physical effort from the crew.

Ukraine found that their first Caesar systems were the key to developing a more effective counterbattery, aka destroying enemy artillery. NATO was able to help with that because NATO also supplied very effective counterbattery radars that are used to calculate where enemy shells and rockets were coming from. This enabled the Ukrainians to fire back quickly, often while the Russian artillery was being moved to avoid counterbattery fire. Ukraine did this by developing a better fire control system that was much quicker to react using multiple well-dispersed individual guns and artillery rocket launchers, as well as their own UAVs that specialized in detecting targets, especially enemy artillery systems that were not firing. The Russians have nothing as effective as this and neither does NATO.

Ukraine has some of the best software engineers in the world and they mobilized after 2014 to improve Ukrainian military capabilities. An additional advantage was the many Ukrainian civilians in Russian-occupied areas kept their Ukraine cellphones and, once the invasion began, joined local clandestine networks to provide GPS locations for Russian troops, headquarters, and supply stockpiles. The corrupt and poorly led Russian forces were unable to deal with the Ukrainian target location and artillery advantage. This is a major reason why, by late 2022 the Russians were not just retreating but often running away from the advancing Ukrainian troops and their numerous artillery attacks on targets behind the front line.

These Ukrainian successes with artillery also revealed which artillery weapons were the most effective. The big winners were not armored self-propelled guns firing new, longer-range shells. The Ukrainians found that towed 155mm guns, like the M777 or truck mounted 155mm guns like Caesar were the best for supporting front line troops and counterbattery fire against enemy artillery near the front line. For more distant targets the best solution was systems like the American High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS. This was a truck-mounted system that carried either six guided 227mm diameter rockets with a range of 80 kilometers, or one or two larger guided rockets with ranges of up to 500 kilometers.

Western nations, especially the United States, have spent a lot of time and money trying to develop longer range shells and came up with larger armored self-propelled guns firing very expensive GPS-guided shells that could hit targets up to 70 kilometers away. The shorter barrel on the M777 and Caesar fired unguided shells out to 40 kilometers. This approach was a lot cheaper because M777 and Caesar were cheaper and more effective because both could set up quickly, fire several shells and then be gone in about a minute or two. That was quick enough to avoid counterbattery fire and the truck-based artillery systems were easier to keep operational. Tracked armored vehicles require a lot more maintenance by the crew and need replacement parts, like new tracks to replace worn ones, more frequently as well as a lot more fuel. The armor was sometimes useful but the truck mounted HIMARS system got a lot of battlefield experience in Afghanistan and elsewhere and found that some lightweight armor on the crew cabin was sufficient for protection from bullets and shell fragments. Truck mounted systems like Caesar often use this protected crew compartment feature as well.
Actor and musician Idris Elba has launched a campaign calling for the immediate banning of machetes and so-called zombie knives.

The Luther star is also lobbying for more funding in youth services and releasing a song in an effort to tackle serious youth violence across the UK.

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Elba will launch the campaign called Dont Stop Your Future with an installation in Parliament Square, London, on Monday.

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In August 2023, the UK Home Office announced tougher measures on machetes and zombie-style knives would be introduced.

Machetes and knives designed to look intimidating and threatening would be made illegal, while the maximum penalty for the importation, manufacturing, possession and sale of these weapons would be increased to two years.

But progress on passing the new legislation through Parliament has been slow and several high-profile incidents have occurred since, including the killing of schoolgirl Elianne Andam.

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The 15-year-old was stabbed to death on her way to school in Croydon, south London, in September with what was believed to be a large zombie knife. A 17-year-old boy has been charged with her murder.

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Elianne Andam was killed on her way to school in Croydon in September (Met Police/PA)

Speaking about the campaign, Elba said: I cant stay silent as more young lives are lost to these brutal and heartless crimes.

As school returns, too many young people will not be joining their classmates and too many grieving families have lost a young person they love in recent years.

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Young people are our future, their potential deserves to be met, not taken away by violence.

Parliament has repeatedly not given this issue the focus it deserves, and our political leaders need to prioritise it now. As well as an immediate ban on zombie knives and machetes, we need to give young people more of a reason not to carry a weapon in the first place. That means investing in the services that address the root causes of violent crime.

The campaign will fill Parliament Square with neatly folded outfits, with each bundle representing someone who has died through knife crime on UK streets.

The display intends to be a respectful tribute to the lives lost, while also shining a spotlight on the scale of the issue.

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A police officer holds two examples of zombie knives (PA)

Elba is also releasing a song called Knives Down, which aims to give a voice to those most impacted by knife crime and to use the power of music to raise awareness.

Dont Stop Your Future has produced a series of billboards highlighting the risk across the country, including in London, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield.

Alongside the immediate ban and focus on youth services, Elba is calling for the Government to convene a coalition to end knife crime: a cross-party, cross-governmental working group that brings together stakeholders who have a role to play in tackling knife crime.

Patrick Green, chief executive of anti-knife crime charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, said: Idriss Dont Stop Your Future campaign is a vital and much needed intervention to shine a spotlight on serious youth violence, which has been neglected for too long.

Its horrifying that hardly a day goes by without the tragic news of someone being hurt, maimed, or even killed with a machete or zombie knife.
An Israeli air strike has killed an elite Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, the latest in an escalating exchange along the border that has raised fears over another Middle East war even as the fighting in Gaza exacts a mounting toll on civilians.

The strike on an SUV killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border, according to a Lebanese security official.

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Hezbollah identified the fighter who was killed as Wissam al-Tawil.

Shocked by the scale of health needs and devastation in Northern Gaza.



Urgent, safe and unhindered access to the region is needed to deliver humanitarian aid.



Further delays will lead to more death and suffering for far too many people.#CeasefireNow. https://t.co/9uYTWZLxEc  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 7, 2024 Advertisement

He is the most senior militant in the armed group to have been killed since Hamas October 7 attack into southern Israel triggered all-out war in Gaza and lower-intensity fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has escalated since an Israeli strike killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut last week.

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US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who is back in the region this week, appears to be trying to head off a wider conflict in the region.

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Israel says it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis.

Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip (AP)

Israeli officials have said the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken during the militant groups October 7 attack that triggered the war.

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The offensive has already killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swathes of the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly 85% of its population of 2.3 million and left a quarter of its residents facing starvation.

Medics, patients and displaced people fled from the main Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza as the fighting drew closer, witnesses said on Monday. Losing the facility would be another major blow to a health system shattered by three months of war.

Palestinians inspect the damage of a destroyed house following Israeli air strikes on Khan Younis (AP)

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Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups withdrew from the hospital in Deir al-Balah in recent days, saying it was too dangerous. That spread panic among people sheltering there, causing many to join the hundreds of thousands who have fled to the south of the besieged territory.

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Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gazas hospitals, which are also struggling to treat dozens of people wounded each day in Israeli strikes. Only 13 of Gazas 36 hospitals are even partially functioning, according to the UN humanitarian office.

Omar al-Darawi, an employee at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said the facility has been struck multiple times in recent days. He said thousands of people left after the aid groups pulled out, and that patients have been concentrated on one floor so the remaining doctors can tend to them more easily.

220 incidents impacting @UNRWA premises & displaced people sheltering have been reported since war began, including 63 direct hits on UNRWA installations.



Only 5 (out of 22) @UNRWA health centres are still operational in middle & southern areas#Gazahttps://t.co/PZAncWsAcI pic.twitter.com/auPvIqCf6u  UNRWA (@UNRWA) January 8, 2024

We have large numbers of wounded who cant move, he said. They need special care, which is unavailable.

More dead and wounded arrive each day as Israeli forces advance in central Gaza following heavy air strikes. Gazas health ministry said 249 Palestinians have been killed and 510 others were wounded across the territory in the last 24 hours.

World Health Organisation staff who visited on Sunday saw sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the UN agency, said in a statement.

He added: The bloodbath in Gaza must end.
Six police officers have died and 10 other people were hurt after a roadside bomb exploded near a van carrying police assigned to protect workers in a polio immunisation campaign in north-western Pakistan.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

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The bombing happened in the former Pakistani Taliban stronghold of Mamund in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police official Kashif Zulfiquar said.

He said some of the wounded officers were in a critical condition in hospital.

Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence.



A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child in Karachi (AP)

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Islamic militants often target polio teams and police assigned to protect them, claiming falsely that the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilise children.

In a statement, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Mondays attack, which came hours after authorities launched the first anti-polio campaign of the new year.

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The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and Nato troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

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Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also emboldened the TTP to carry out more attacks on security forces.

It has strained Pakistans ties with the Taliban government, which insists it does not allow TTP to use its soil to launch attacks in Pakistan.



The campaign aims to eradicate polio (AP)

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Mr Zulfiquar said the campaign has been halted in the area where the attack occurred and all the polio workers are safe. Authorities said it will continue in other parts of the country.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic. Last year, at least six new polio cases were detected in Pakistan, almost all in the north-west where parents often refuse to inoculate children.

The outbreak has been a blow to the nations efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children.

In 2021, Pakistan reported only one case, raising hopes it was close to eradicating polio. Other cases then began being detected despite anti-polio efforts.
Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right fanatic who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in Norway in 2011, appeared in a court set up in his prison on Monday to launch a legal bid to end his years in isolation.

Wearing a black suit, white shirt and brown tie, Breivik said nothing and made no gesture as he entered the hearing, set up in the gym of the high-security jail 70km northwest of Oslo.

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The 44-year-old sat impassively while his lawyer laid out his argument that the conditions of his detention violated his human rights.

"He has been isolated for about 12 years ... He lives in a completely locked world," lawyer Oeystein Storrvik, told the hearing, adding Breivik is in contact only with professionals whose duty is to maintain their distance.

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"He is in a deep depression. He does not wish to be alive anymore," said Storrvik.

At the end of the first break in the proceedings, Breivik turned to a guard, facing the media, and said he had been told by the head of the prison not to talk to reporters.

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"It is not because I don't want to, it is because I can't," he said.

Breivik, who emailed out copies of a manifesto before his attacks setting out his theories, is suing the state and also asking the court to lift restrictions on his correspondence with the outside world.

He killed eight people with a car bomb in Oslo then gunned down 69 others, most of them teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp in Norway's worst peacetime atrocity.

His case has been a grim test for a country that is still shaken to its core by the horror of his acts but has also long taken pride in the rehabilitation efforts of its justice system.

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Breivik spends his time in a dedicated section of Ringerike prison, the third prison where he has been held. His separated section includes a training room, a kitchen, a TV room and a bathroom, pictures from a visit last month by news agency NTB showed.

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He is allowed to keep three budgerigars as pets who fly freely in the area, NTB reported.

Security threats

Lawyers representing the justice ministry say Breivik must be kept apart the rest of the prison population because of the continuing security threat he poses.

They said in their court filing his isolation was "relative" given he has contacts with guards, a priest, health professionals and, until recently, an outside volunteer whom Breivik no longer wishes to see.

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He also sees two inmates for an hour every other week, the lawyers said.

Control over Breivik's contacts with the outside world is justified by the risk that he will inspire others to commit violent acts, the lawyers argue.

"Specifically, this applies to contacts with far-right circles, including people who wish to establish contact with Breivik as a result of the terrorist acts on 22 July 2011," they said in the filing.

Breivik was cited as an inspiration by Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019.

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Breivik is serving a 21-year sentence - the longest a Norwegian court can impose - which can be extended for as long as he is deemed a threat to society.

His prison is on the shore of the Tyrifjorden lake, where the island of Utoeya, the site of Breivik's shooting spree, lies.

Breivik also sued the state in 2016, arguing it was breaching the European Convention on Human Rights, including sections saying no one should be subject to "torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

He initially won the case but that was overturned on appeal a year later before any restrictions were lifted.

In the new case, the judge's verdict  there is no jury  will be issued in coming weeks.
US president Joe Biden does not plan to fire defence secretary Lloyd Austin over his failure to disclose a hospitalisation for days, the White House said on Monday, as prominent Republicans called for the Pentagon chief to be removed.

Mr Austin, who sits just below Mr Biden at the top of the chain of command of the US military, withheld his multi-day hospitalisation from the president and the public for several days. He remains in the hospital, which he entered on New Year's Day.

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"There is no plan for anything other than for Secretary Austin to stay in the job," John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, told reporters on Air Force One Monday.

Former president Donald Trump, who is Biden's likely Republican challenger in the 2024 election, said on Sunday night that Mr Austin should be fired for his "improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty".

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"He has been missing for one week, and nobody, including his boss, Crooked Joe Biden, had a clue as to where he was, or might be," Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Another prominent Republican in Congress also called for Mr Austin's resignation.

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"There must be full accountability beginning with the immediate resignation of Secretary Austin and those that lied for him and a Congressional investigation into this dangerous dereliction of duty," Elise Stefanik, a New York representative and member of the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Pentagon, said in a statement.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Mr Biden had "complete confidence" in Austin.

"I think our main focus right now is on Secretary Austin's health and making sure that he gets all the care and support that he needs to fully recover," Mr Kirby said, when asked about Mr Austin's condition.

"He has already resumed all his authorities. He's already doing all of the functions he would normally do. He's just doing it right now from the hospital."

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Officials disclosed on Sunday that Mr Austin's hospitalisation was kept far more secret than previously known, adding his deputy to a long list of people right up to Mr Biden who were kept in the dark for days.

Mr Kirby said "there was no notification or knowledge at the White House or the National Security Council until Thursday afternoon."

Mr Austin's duties require him to be available at a moment's notice to respond to any national security crisis. He said on Saturday that he took "full responsibility" for the secrecy over his hospitalisation.

What health issue spurred Mr Austin's hospitalisation is unknown. Mr Kirby said he did not have that information, but that Mr Biden and Mr Austin had talked in recent days.

It is not something that we can speak to, Ms Jean-Pierre said when asked about Austins illness, adding that the president had spoken to him on Saturday.
Petrol costs have surged in the past few years, hitting the hip pockets of families cruising around in the booming cohort of sport utility vehicles. But theres no hitting the brakes when it comes to their uptake.

Once the hallmark of soccer mums carting kids around to weekend games, more than 55 per cent of new car sales in the past year were SUVs. Up from roughly a quarter in 2018, the proportion has steadily climbed every year, according to data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

Australias 10 top-selling cars in 2023 were utes and SUVs. Credit: Joe Armao

Unshackled from the constraints of supply chain issues, which slowed the delivery of cars during the pandemic, Australians hit top gear last year. More than 1.2 million vehicles were delivered, beating the previous record of 1.18 million in 2017.

And were picking up bigger cars. Nearly four out of five car sales were SUVs or light commercial vehicles, while passenger vehicles, including sedans and hatchbacks, accounted for roughly 17 per cent of cars sold. The trusty Toyota Corolla and Hyundai i30, which made the list of top 10 cars sold in 2022, have been driven off the list. In 2023, the top three were utes, and the rest were SUVs.
As we all return to work for a new year, theres a change in the air when it comes to the gender pay gap and wage transparency.

Thats because from February 2024, Australian companies with 100 or more employees will be required to publish their median gender pay gap between male and female employees. The change comes on the back of salary secrecy clauses in employment contracts being abolished (meaning employees can discuss their earnings openly without the threat of being reprimanded or fired).

From next month, Australian companies with more than 100 workers will have to disclose their gender pay gap. Credit: Matt Davidson

Though these changes seem small or perhaps insignificant in the grand scheme of things to care about in the year ahead, theyre likely to usher in real and meaningful change.

In Australia, the gender pay gap currently sits at 13 per cent. Over the past five years, according to data from Workplace Gender Equality Agency, the gap has closed by just 1.1 percentage points compared with the January 2019 figure of 14.1 per cent. When you think about how much debate and awareness has been brought to this issue over the same period, its hard not to feel disheartened by such little progress. But this is where legislation comes into play.
ART

Vincent Namatjira

Vincent Namatjira et al

Thames & Hudson, $90

The artist sits behind the wheel of his ute, with VINCENT NAMATJIRA ARTIST painted on the drivers door. This photo, the first image in the artists monograph, is a nod to Namatjiras great-grandfather, Albert, another renowned artist, who drove a Dodge ute with ALBERT NAMATJIRA ARTIST ALICE SPRINGS emblazoned on it.

Like his ancestor, Namatjira has forged a unique artistic path, in his case painting portraits interrogating power and influence. P.P.F. (Past-Present-Future), Namatjiras 2021 site-specific work for the Museum of Contemporary Arts Circular Quay Foyer Wall, which features seven significant people in the artists life, appears later in the book.

Vincent Namatjiras portraits interrogate power and influence. Credit: Dion Georgoploulos

Albert is depicted sitting in the Dodge while Namatjira stands on its roof, holding an Aboriginal flag and pointing towards the future. Characteristically for Namatjiras works, chronology is collapsed, and the painting becomes a window through which different points in time and space can be viewed as an intertwined proposition. Welcome to the Past, Present and Future, proclaims Namatjira in the books introduction.
January 8, 2024: The morale and willingness to fight among Russian troops continues to plummet. One reason for this is the heavy losses, about 350,000 dead, Russia has suffered in Ukraine so far. Since late 2023 Ukrainian troops have increasingly encountered Russian troops who would surrender at the first opportunity and often do it in a dramatic fashion. This included dropping their weapons during their first encounter with Ukrainian soldiers. In other cases, Russian troops were encountered who had already dropped their weapons and were looking for someone to surrender to. While troops can be motivated or compelled to fight, they are often ineffective. That means they suffer a lot of casualties while still unable to gain much ground.

Russian commanders are aware of this and had orders to do something to prevent these surrenders and efforts to avoid combat. That proved to be an impossible order to comply with. Physical punishments did not improve morale and willingness to fight. The main problem was that troops had no confidence in their commanders (assuming they had any at all). These officers were often just as dismayed at the situations they faced on the battlefield. The government was often not supplying food, ammunition, and medical care for the troops. It is now winter in Ukraine and once more the government has not supplied enough cold weather clothing and equipment for the troops. Worse, the clothes and equipment were often almost useless cheap imitations instead of purported standard issue. This lack of support is the only thing the troops can depend on. Much of that is caused by government corruption. The government may have appropriated the funds to purchase essential items for the troops, but corrupt officials who steal the money or divert the supplies to black market dealers who will resell the goods and share the profits with their corrupt partners. This process often involves Russian criminal organizations, which do not hesitate to kill anyone who tries to disrupt their bad behavior.

Russias leadership, especially supreme leader Vladimir Putin, was delusional about the continuing lack of progress in Ukraine or the reasons for that. Even Russians who thought restoring independent, since 1991, Ukraine to Russian control was a good thing and worth fighting for, many began losing confidence in Putins ability to make that happen. Each time failure in Ukraine became obvious, Putin would come up with a new reason why Russia was winning, and each of these was soon shown to be false.

Putin now believes he can eventually prevail because of disagreements among NATO members about whether or how Ukraine can win against the Russian invaders. NATO members agree about Russias inability to win in Ukraine but many politicians in some of the larger, and more distant from the fighting nations like the United States, Germany, France, and Italy, openly doubt Ukraines ability to regain control of lost territory. Putin supports this attitude by continuing to threaten use of nuclear weapons if Russia is faced with losing all its seized territory in Ukraine. Such a move is also unpopular in Russia and one of the growing number of reasons Russians are losing faith in Putin's promises that Russia will win in Ukraine.

A increasing number of Russians now openly oppose the war even though Putin quickly created laws to make such public dissent illegal. The failure of such laws soon became obvious in many ways. Anti-war demonstrations and physical attacks on military facilities, especially recruiting stations, are more frequent. Refusing to report when conscripted became more common. Another form of defiance is veterans of the Ukraine fighting providing details, based on personal experience, of why Russian forces are failing.

Numerous veterans are no longer in the military because they refused to renew their contracts. Many more soldiers remained in the army but refused to return to Ukraine and got away with it. Putin ordered that these soldiers be officially described, in their military records and military ID, as unreliable and unwilling to fight. In any other country a soldier who refuses to fight during wartime is subject to severe punishment, often execution. That still happens to reluctant Russian soldiers inside Ukraine where officers have the authority to shoot reluctant troops. Initially, as Russian casualties grew and progress was nonexistent, some officers did shoot troops refusing to fight. That soon changed as the troops threatened to and sometimes did shoot back or, in at least one known case, ran over an insistent officer with a tank. Not to mention troops sometimes shooting undesirable officers first. Ukrainian forces have provided additional confirmation of this violence and collapsing morale within Russian units. Many Russian troops will surrender to the Ukrainians at the first opportunity and admit it to Ukrainian, Russian, and foreign journalists. This prompted Ukraine to equip some of its quadcopters to notify and lead surrendering Russian troops safely to Ukrainian front-line forces.

The number of Russian military personnel is declining because of combat losses and veterans refusing to stay in, even though being a contract, or volunteer soldier is one of the few jobs Russians can get because of high unemployment rates caused by Western economic sanctions.

Russia responded by lowering recruiting standards and accepting recruits or conscripts with physical, mental, legal, or psychological problems that would normally make them ineligible for military service. Russia has also dropped age limits for volunteers and is willing to accept non-Russians as long as they can speak some Russian and are willing to fight. These efforts are not producing enough new troops to be immediately useful because most of them have no military training and at least two months are required to produce useful troops for combat, so new recruits get only one to three weeks. Conscripts require less training and are often used for support operations outside Ukraine during their one year in uniform.
A distinctly Australian coming-of-age story set in a 1980s suburbia rarely depicted on screen, Boy Swallows Universe is the tale of 12-year-old Eli Bell (an amazing performance from Felix Cameron; in later episodes Zac Burgess plays the older Eli), a scrawny kid from Brisbanes outer suburbs, with a more complicated home life than most.

This much-anticipated adaptation comes, then, with an in-built audience  and big expectations. Fans of the novel should not be disappointed; Dalton was heavily involved in the seven-part series as an executive producer and his compelling working-class fairytale has been lovingly recreated, with an incredible ensemble cast, period-perfect production design and a cracking soundtrack.

Journalist Trent Daltons 2018 semi-autobiographical novel is a literary phenomenon; the fastest-selling debut novel in Australian history, it has since sold more than a million copies worldwide. A 2021 stage production of the book became the best-selling show in Queensland Theatres history.

Elis alcoholic dad (an unrecognisable, brilliant Simon Baker) has left, his loveable rogue stepfather Lyle (Travis Fimmel) is a heroin dealer, his mum, (Phoebe Tonkin), a former junkie, ends up in prison and his brother Gus (Lee Tiger Halley), refuses to speak  and might also have some kind of clairvoyance; he can seemingly see snippets of future events.

Then theres Eli and Gus occasional babysitter, Slim Halliday (Bryan Brown playing the most Bryan Brown role imaginable), a convicted murderer who swears he didnt do it. Slim, based on a real person, is as famous for escaping Boggo Road prison twice in the 1950s as he is for his alleged crime  and was a real friend of Daltons family.

Lee Tiger Halley (Gus), Bryan Brown (Slim Halliday) and Felix Cameron (Eli).

Eli also has a prison pen pal  Alex, a former bikie gang sergeant-at-arms (rapper Adam Briggs)  whose letters provide a useful and entertaining narrative device. Alex counsels Eli about everything from dealing with bullies to encouraging his aspiration of being a journalist. But before Eli can realise any dreams  including buying a house for his mum and keeping his family together  he must make it through adolescence.

After helping Lyle with his heroin business, Eli ends up losing a finger, trying to avenge a murder, breaking in to a prison to see his mum, and uncovering a bizarre crime racket in severed limbs. Granted, the latter adventure (featuring Anthony LaPaglia as a white-suited crime lord) is utterly silly, but by that point in the story, you will be so invested, youll forgive the more fanciful aspects.
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Exclusive Eating outRestaurant news Chef Karen Martini returns to her roots to help revive a St Kilda favourite The celebrity chef will take over the Saint Hotel dining room, bringing Italian grills and bright snacks, plus a new name that honours a hospitality pioneer. Ardyn Bernoth and Emma Breheny January 8, 2024 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Chef Karen Martini has taken over the dining room at the Saint Hotel in St Kilda, marking a homecoming for her to a suburb struggling to find its culinary feet again. Martini has strong ties to St Kilda, having spent 16 years at the Melbourne Wine Room at the George Hotel in Fitzroy Street, which pioneered the idea of serving upmarket food in a wine bar setting, then later opening much-loved pizzeria Mr Wolf in Inkerman Street, which she sold in 2021. Karen Martini will take over the Saint Hotel dining room in St Kilda, which will become Saint George. Supplied From late January, Martini and her partner, Michael Sapountsis, will team up with Public Hospitality, a Sydney group making inroads in Melbourne, to run the Fitzroy Street hotel. The hospitality group owns more than 20 venues, including Kews Clifton Hotel, where Guy Grossi runs Puttanesca restaurant. Martini and Sapountsis will change the venues name to Saint George, honouring both the current building and The George Hotel, also in Fitzroy Street, where the pair were part of the groundbreaking Melbourne Wine Room team in the 1990s.

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Saint Hotel was relaunched last March as a plush pub-meets-steakhouse. The stylish revamp, the pubs third major overhaul since opening in 1915, had the potential to be St Kildas saving grace, with five venues opening over two soaring levels punctuated by an atrium, but has failed to deliver on its promise. The revamped Saint Hotel in St Kilda, which reopened in March this year. Joe Armao At Saint George, Martini will offer two menus of light, fun, Italian-inspired food: one will be called the Tavern menu and the other the Grill. A Josper wood grill will touch main courses such as bistecca di Fiorentina and whole flounder, which join pasta dishes such as spaghettini with spanner crab in brodetto sauce (a type of Italian fish stew). The Tavern menu includes dishes geared to casual visits, such as fritto misto (fried seafood), fish burgers and pasta with bolognese sauce. The venue will reopen in late January, having had a quick makeover to add colour to the dark and moody space. In its last refurbishment, $4 million was spent on leather banquettes, dark-stained timbers and touches of marble and bronze.

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The Age Good Food critic Larissa Dubecki reviewed the opening last May and found the relaunch appealing, though questioned the expense of some menu items, including the $95 crayfish pasta. Martini aims to make her menu pricing more accessible. Karen Martini (centre) is also involved with the reboot of Johnnys Green Room bar above King and Godfree in Carlton. Supplied In October, Martini exited her hatted restaurant Hero in Federation Square following a breakdown in contract negotiations with the state government-run leadership of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Last month, she helped relaunch Johnnys Green Room, the rooftop bar above King and Godfree in Carlton that originally opened in 2018. The bar closed in July for a refurb that includes a retractable rooftop for year-round visits, plus new furniture and a greater seating capacity.

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In her role as culinary director at the freshly relaunched bar, Martini has written a menu that includes tuna crudo with pickled fennel, calamari fritti on skewers with Italian-style tartare sauce, and stracciatella with green melon and cucumber. Is St Kilda about to have a restaurant and bar renaissance?
This article is part of our Summer in Sydney series, where Herald staff reveal the best  and worst  of our city in the hotter months. See all 37 stories .

Dearest Croydon, The suburb where my then-newly-married parents purchased their first home at the same age I am now. From birth, youve been my constant, tied in with milestones and mundane moments throughout life. The tree-lined, colourful streetscapes and parks have provided the backdrop and solace during my youth  from my first steps and schooling, university, and my first full-time job at the Herald, to forging friendships and falling in love. Summer locally means heading to The Strand village for gelato. Credit: Steven Woodburn To outsiders, it would likely seem that not much has changed to the neighbourhoods facade over the decades. In one of the earliest recognised conservation areas in NSW, the streets remain like a leafy painting, the federation homes of Malvern Hill still stand proudly strong, as do the historic sites, each with a fascinating and often secret history. But its the beating heart, the locals, that have changed Croydon over time, each adding their own diversely unique brushstroke. Nine kilometres or a 20-minute train ride from Sydneys CBD, the area could also seem overshadowed by neighbouring commercial and residential centres Burwood and Ashfield, each boasting soaring apartments, shopping centres and main strips, bustling with both locals and visitors enjoying a melting pot of intertwining cultures. But, as part of the Inner West and Burwood Council local government areas, diversity and bygone charm make the quaint and peaceful neighbourhood unique in its own ways.
Road congestion in Sydneys inner west caused by a new motorway junction at Rozelle has triggered pleas for the Labor government to keep an election promise to boost ferry services and give locals an alternative to driving.

Residents in Balmain, Rozelle and other inner west suburbs have been temporarily spared during the summer holidays from traffic jams on arterial routes and local roads caused by the $3.9 billion Rozelle interchange.

Balmain residents Sue Andrews, left, and Keryn Curtis hope the Elliott Street wharf will be reopened to ferries. Credit: Oscar Colman

However, traffic congestion on Victoria Road and other inner west thoroughfares is set to return over the coming weeks as people get back from holidays.

Shortly before the state election last March, Labor vowed to reopen the Elliott Street wharf in west Balmain, create two new ferry stops at Rozelle Bay in Annandale and at Pirrama Park wharf in Pyrmont, and review the frequency of services to Drummoyne.
If a person is carrying drugs, odour will permeate into their clothing and remain after the drugs have been removed leaving a residual odour, resulting in a positive illicit drug indication by the dog, a police spokesman said. Sniffer dogs are mostly used at music festivals, as well as transport hubs, and generally result in a pat-down search if they detect the presence of illicit drugs on someone. A police sniffer dog at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in 2019. Credit: Luis Ascui The overwhelming majority of [passive alert detection] dog-initiated searches at music festivals do not result in strip searches, with this outcome extremely rare, a police spokesman said. Dr Peta Malins, a senior lecturer in criminology and justice studies at RMIT University, said a search was not justified by someone having residue on their clothes.

She said the overwhelming finding of her research into sniffer dogs was that they did not deter drug-taking, but did increase the likelihood of someone using drugs unsafely by preloading, hiding them in cavities, or taking all their drugs at once when they saw police. Loading Theyre not effective, they dont deter people, and they actually increase harm, Malins said. A 2018 parliamentary inquiry into drug law reform found the lack of information meant the effectiveness of sniffer dogs was unclear, and recommended Victoria Police commission an independent evaluation. The Age asked if this was undertaken but did not receive a response. The newly released figures, following questions from Greens MP Ellen Sandell, provides the closest Victoria has come to gleaning a statewide picture of drug searches as the Greens, Libertarian Party and Legalise Cannabis Party push for greater transparency on the policing tactic.

Victoria Police does not reveal the figures in its annual reports. The forces term for drug dogs  passive alert drug detection dogs, or PADD  was not mentioned once in the most recent annual report despite it going into great detail about weapons and graffiti-related searches. Loading Five slingshots, two laser pointers, three knuckle knives and one cattle prod were among those found in weapons searches without a warrant in 2022-23. Police seized 337 aerosol paint cans and 167 felt pen markers in searches under the Graffiti Prevention Act. After a six-month wait, Victoria Police last year refused a freedom of information (FOI) request from The Age that asked how many times in 2022 a person was searched because of a dogs indication where no drugs were found. The request was refused because the data was not centrally recorded. There is no centralised holding of information matching the parameters of your request and therefore, no documents meeting the scope of request were able to be located, the FOI officer said.

NSW deploys sniffer dogs more widely than Victoria, and records more fulsome data that is frequently released in full through the states parliament. Of the 6529 searches conducted by NSW Police in 2022, no drugs were found 75 per cent of the time. Libertarian Party MP David Limbrick has sought comparable data in Victoria for years and in June asked Police Minister Anthony Carbines to ensure searches were clearly reported each year. Libertarian Party MP David Limbrick has long pushed for transparency on figures on drug searches by police. Credit: AAP Answering Limbricks question on notice, Carbines simply said: Victoria Police does not publicly report on searches conducted under the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981. Limbrick said on Monday that most of the people he saw endure humiliating searches at the 420 rally last April were not carrying anything. The rally was held to support cannabis legalisation. I am not the slightest bit surprised by figures about failed searches, Limbrick said.

I have been calling for a review of sniffer dogs at festivals and music events since 2019, and noted at the time the lack of transparency. Last year I again requested that annual search data be published. Its starting to look like police are deliberately avoiding scrutiny. Aiv Puglielli, the Greens drug harm reduction spokesman, said Victorians deserved to know whether sniffer dogs actually worked or whether searches caused more harm. Greens MP Aiv Puglielli and Legalise Cannabis MP Rachel Payne. Credit: Justin McManus Given that Victorian taxpayer dollars are being spent on this controversial drug detection scheme, it is important that we have up-to-date information to prove that this use of funds is effective and will actually keep Victorians safe from drug overdose. If this isnt the case, then the scheme should be scrapped, Puglielli said. Specifically, how many searches are initiated following a sniffer dog indication, and how many of those searches resulted in the discovery of the possession of drugs?

If the state government refuses to release this information, well be seeking to use the powers of the parliament to compel the production of these documents. Loading Legalise Cannabis MP Rachel Payne said the just say no approach to drugs wasnt working, and that police dogs often unnecessarily put people through traumatic searches while encouraging risky behaviour. I think transparency here is key, Payne said. Police ministers have released scraps of data in the past through parliament at the request of MPs. Three people were strip searched at the 2020 By the Bay festival, and five people were found to be in the possession of drugs after a dogs indication.

Nobody was strip searched at the 2019 Listen Out festival. One person at the 2019 Rainbow Serpent Festival was taken to a police station to be strip searched in private. A state government spokeswoman said these were operational decisions and a matter for Victoria Police. Nine of the attendees of Hardmission Festival over the weekend were hospitalised. Credit: Wayne Taylor The mass-overdose over the weekend renewed calls for pill testing from the Victorian Ambulance Union, minor political parties and the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association after four coroners in six years recommended trialling the harm reduction initiative. Some patients had been released by Monday afternoon, but three remained in a critical condition, two were in a serious condition and one was stable in hospital. The specifics of what happened were yet to be established.

Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos said the news was distressing and thanked paramedics. He said the government was open to innovative approaches but had no plans to introduce pill testing. Any overdose or adverse health outcome as the result of illegal drugs is tragic, and we send our thoughts to the families and loved ones affected this weekend, a government spokeswoman said. Shadow cabinet member David Davis said the opposition did not support pill testing. The National Alcohol and Other Drugs Hotline: 1800 250 015.
Three cabins at the Big Four Caravan Park, and seven businesses in Seymour township were flooded, he said. There were also four other homes that had flood damage in and around the stumps. The threat for the town had also reduced, with the emergency warning to evacuate for low-lying areas lifted at 2.38pm on Tuesday. Three cabins at the Goulburn River caravan park in Seymour were flooded. Credit: Darrian Traynor It is now safe to return the evacuated area to assess impacts as the threat is reduced, the warning reads. Six properties were flooded downstream in Yea.

And in Rochester, which was devastated by floods in 2022, there was some good news for residents. The Campaspe River peaked at 114.62 metres above sea level, which was below the forecast of 114.8 metres, he said. We are now undertaking impact assessments in that community and an emergency warning still remains in place, being too late to leave, he said. He warned as the water went down the Campaspe River towards Echuca, that community could experience moderate flooding on the river.

This will see some roads being cut and also some rural inundation occurring in that area. The emergency warning was also downgraded to a watch and act. Authorities were also expecting high and moderate flooding to hit Shepparton and Mooroopna in the coming days, where a watch and act warning was in place. We are expecting to see high and moderate flooding [in those areas] occurring overnight Wednesday, into Thursday.

Loading A Watch and Act warning was in place for the Goulburn River, from Seymour through to those towns, Wiebusch said. We are asking communities in those areas to be alert for the potential for road closures and the potential for overland flooding in some of those areas. He said around the Kialla and Shepparton areas there could be up to 20 properties inundated with above-floor flooding. An additional 150 properties could potentially see flooding in their streets, or onto their properties, the SES chief warned.

He urged people in those areas that now was the time to prepare, and to ensure they had up to three days of supplies. The SES has received 1750 calls for help since 7pm on Sunday, and of those 52 were water rescues. A search has been launched for a missing kayaker on the Mitchell River near Dargo after their vessel was found floating empty down the river. It may be that the person has safely exited the river on their own. But we are undertaking a search with emergency services at this time to confirm whether we can find anybody, Wiebusch said.

A woman in her 70s was rescued from surging floodwaters after the vehicle she was travelling in was swept off the road in the states north on Monday night. Loading The 74-year-old woman from Eaglehawk was travelling in a convoy with a friend in Elmore when their vehicles were swept off Elmore-Raywood Road. The woman travelled about 100 metres as her vehicle was swept down Bendigo Creek at Naughtons Bridge before clambering onto the branch of a tree. Rochester resident Brad McEwan said it would likely be a nervous wait for residents still recovering from floods less than two years ago. When youve been through it before, everyones anxious because you just cant do it again, he said.

McEwan said, unlike in 2022 when Lake Eppalock flooded, it appeared all the water was making its way down from the Bendigo region and was not looking as threatening on Tuesday morning. Things can change, I mean, none of us expected the rain that weve had this summer, he said. The people of Rochester  not just Rochester; Seymour, Yea  theyre really anxious because theyve done the hard yards over the last 18 months, and its been really difficult. There are dozens and dozens of families in Rochester still in their caravan. There are dozens and dozens of families who dont know what the future holds.

An emergency warning issued for people living in low-lying parts of Yea was downgraded to watch and act on Tuesday at about mid-morning. Residents were advised it was not safe to return to low-lying parts of the town. Loading The Bureau of Meteorology was forecasting mild and partly cloudy conditions across Victoria on Tuesday, which were expected to become clearer in central districts and the north-west in the evening. The forecast was for an ease in conditions in the west of the state, with scattered showers in the east and north-east in the evening. The bureau has warned of a chance of thunderstorms around the north-eastern ranges. Up to 10 millimetres of rain was forecast for parts of Gippsland, which was hit by flash flooding during the Boxing Day downpours.

Christie Johnston, bureau meteorologist, said most of the system that caused all the severe weather over the past few days had now moved offshore. There is still the risk of a couple of showers or thunderstorms this afternoon about the Eastern Ranges. In the very far north and north-east theres a chance of some heavy rainfall, but its probably mostly up over the High Country, she said. Johnston said most of the severe weather was moving towards NSW, which meant towns who received record rainfall on Monday were unlikely to receive further downpours. She said the concern now was for floodwaters inundating regional areas after rivers peaked during the evening.
London: French President Emmanuel Macron has sacked his prime minister after less than two years in the job in an attempt to give his troubled government a much-needed reset ahead of European elections due later this year.

Resigned: French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. Credit: AP

Elisabeth Borne, only the second woman to hold the prime ministerial office in France, offered her resignation on Tuesday (AEDT) after she was reportedly told by Macron that he needed a new figure at the head of his government.

The French president and his government have struggled to strike deals in parliament since losing their absolute majority after Macron was re-elected for a second term in April 2022.

In her resignation letter, cited by French newspaper Le Monde, Borne hinted that she would have preferred to stay.
Current lenders in the market at that time there was really no open-mindedness, and really thinking outside the box look into SME lending, he said. So, in saying that, we decided to look at styling Bizcap, as the lender that could really think outside the box and look for reasons to find deals when other vendors would not.
The agency is reportedly planning further examinations of its operations  which include the production of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft. (Photo: Reuters / Lindsey Wasson)

In a harrowing incident that left the world aghast, a Boeing aircraft found itself at the center of a fresh controversy when, flying at 5,000 meters, a loud bang was heard, and a massive hole appeared in the plane's side after an emergency door was blown away. This incident involved a Boeing 737MAX9 plane operated by Alaska Airlines, which had to make an emergency return shortly after takeoff. Thankfully, the 180 passengers and crew landed safely. Notably, the aircraft had only been certified just over two months ago, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The U.S. regulators responded promptly by issuing a grounding order, affecting 171 Boeing 737MAX9 planes worldwide, with airlines from the U.S., Panama, to Turkey halting operations for this model.

Following the incident, Boeing's share prices nosedived, experiencing a 7.5% drop in the German market and over an 8% fall pre-market in the U.S. Spirit AeroSystems, a major supplier for Boeing, also saw its shares fall by more than 16% pre-market.

The Alaska Airlines flight, numbered 1282, was en route from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California when the incident occurred. Passengers recounted a loud bang around 20 minutes after takeoff, followed by visible damage to the cabin side. The plane was around 4,876 meters in the air when it had to make an emergency descent.

The Boeing 737Max 9 is Boeing's longest single-aisle model, featuring a modular body design that allows for additional emergency exits to be installed flexibly based on the number of seats. On the Max 9, Boeing installed an extra cabin exit door behind the wing and in front of the rear exit door. This door is activated when the seating is dense to meet evacuation requirements. However, on Alaska Airlines' planes, this door was not activated and permanently sealed.

The grounding order issued by the FAA, which covers about 171 planes, mandates operators to inspect these aircraft before resuming flights as per the directive. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board have announced an investigation into the incident. Boeing stated it was aware of the incident and is gathering more information to assist in the investigation.

The incident has once again cast a shadow over Boeing, already struggling with trust issues after two fatal crashes involving its 737MAX8 planes in 2018 and 2019, which led to a global grounding of the model for nearly two years. As Boeing prepares to increase production of its "cash cow" model and rectify past quality defects, this recent incident has refocused attention on Boeing's manufacturing flaws.

This incident adds to Boeing's challenges, already facing production pauses and FAA directives for different models due to quality issues. For CEO Dave Calhoun, who recently declared the year crucial for Boeing's turnaround, this incident is another setback in his efforts to stabilize the company after five turbulent years.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambanis conglomerate uses the type of Boeing Co. jet that is facing global scrutiny after a fuselage section on one such aircraft blew out mid-flight on Friday.

Reliance Industries Ltd., controlled by Asias richest man, is the only one with a corporate jet thats a Boeing 737-9 Max variant and has a plugged mid-cabin exit door, data from flight data provider Cirium show.





Reliance Industries added the Boeing 737-9 Max to its corporate fleet last year, according to media reports at the time. The plane has the registration T7-LOTUS and is decked out in Reliance livery. While there were no fatalities on the Alaska Airlines flight, the incident has raised serious questions over the safety of the particular model and Boeings record in general as several carriers grounded their entire fleets. The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered certain Max 9 aircraft to be halted from flying temporarily while theyre inspected.

A spokesperson for Reliance didnt immediately respond for a request for comment. Indias Directorate General of Civil Aviation asked carriers to inspect Boeings 737-8 Max jets  another type of plane  and finish their one-time inspection by Sunday.

Corporate Fleet



Reliance has several other jets in its corporate fleet, including two Embraer SA ERJ 145 aircraft and one Airbus SE A319. It also has two helicopters, a Dauphin and a Sikorsky, in its company hangar, according to media reports.

Ambani is worth $97.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Outside of Alaska Air, United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Panamas Copa Airlines SA, a handful of other carriers have the jet with the mid-cabin door plugged up, including flydubai, Aeromexico and Air Tanzania. Alaska Air, United Airlines and Copa have already grounded dozens of such jets in their fleet.

The 737-9 Max is Boeings longest single-aisle variant. It has modular fuselage layouts that allow for emergency doors to be installed more variably depending on the number of seats. That gives customers greater flexibility with the cabin configuration.

On the Max 9, Boeing includes a cabin exit door behind the wings, but before the rear exit door. Its activated in dense seating configurations to meet evacuation requirements. The doors were not activated on Alaska Air aircraft and instead were permanently plugged.
Vistara operates one flight each daily from Mumbai and Delhi to Male

Amid the India-Maldives row, full service carrier Vistara on Monday said it will monitor the demand for flights between the two countries as the "situation is evolving right now".

Vistara operates one flight each daily from Mumbai and Delhi to Male.

Airline's Chief Commercial Officer Deepak Rajawat said it has not cancelled anything as of now and will monitor the demand for flights.

"The situation is very evolving right now... we will have to monitor in a week or so," he said at a briefing in response to queries about the Maldives situation.

Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet also operate flights to the Maldives. There were no comments from the three airlines on the current situation.

India has conveyed its strong concerns to Maldives over remarks posted on social media against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a number of ministers of that country.

The disparaging remarks by the ministers have drawn flak in India, with many celebrities urging people on X to explore domestic tourist destinations instead of going to the Maldives.

There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives in view of the row.

On Sunday, the government of the Maldives suspended three deputy ministers for derogatory social media posts against Modi.

The three deputy ministers criticised Modi for his post on 'X' following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday directed the Centre and Goods and Services Tax (GST) department to file their response within two weeks to the pleas by online gaming companies challenging the 28 per cent GST on all forms of online real-money gaming.

The bench, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, issued notice in pleas by online gaming companies such as Head Digital Works, Games 24/7, and Dream 11 challenging the government's decision to retrospectively impose the tax on the full value of the online bets placed, not on the gross gaming revenue.

The case is likely to be heard in a couple of months.

The GST department has also sought to transfer all cases on the same issue from other high courts to the Supreme Court. Senior advocate Harish Salve appeared for the online gaming companies while Additional Solicitor General Venkatraman appeared for the GST department and Union of India.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council last year decided to impose a flat 28 per cent tax on the face value for online gaming, casinos, and horse racing and accordingly brought amendments in GST laws (CGST Act and IGST Act) in the monsoon session. The new rule was effective from October 1, 2023. The amendments provide that GST will be levied on entry-level bets on online gaming platforms and not on what players pay in each game from the winning amount.

The apex court on December 15 had refused to grant interim relief against the GST demand notices to online gaming companies.

The court had said it will consider the case on the government's decision to impose 28 per cent GST on online gaming companies retrospectively on the full value of the bets placed, and not on the gross gaming revenue.

Online gaming companies had argued that 28 per cent tax is applicable only from October 1. Meanwhile, the government said the October 1 revision was only to give clarity to a law that was already in force. The government said the demand for tax dues is not backdated.

The Supreme Court (SC) in September last year stayed the Karnataka High Court's ruling quashing the GST authoritys tax demand order of Rs 21,000 crore on Bengaluru-based gaming firm Gameskraft.

The Karnataka High Court on May 11 quashed the Rs 20,989 crore show cause notice against Gameskraft for alleged GST evasion. This was the biggest such claim in the history of indirect taxation.

The GST notice alleged that Gameskraft allowed its clients to place money bets on games played online, saying the company was promoting online betting through card, casual, and fantasy games like Rummyculture, Gamezy, and Rummytime.

Authorities had, therefore, slapped a 28 per cent tax  which is applicable on games of chance/betting and gambling  on the firm on a betting amount of about Rs 77,000 crore.
Workers set the stage prior to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, May 22, 2022. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP)

A set of business actions aimed at reducing the intensity of energy demand can unlock annual savings of at least USD 2 trillion a year for the global economy if measures are taken by the end of this decade, a new WEF study showed on Monday.

These targeted practical actions can also boost growth and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Releasing the report ahead of its Annual Meeting in Davos from January 15-19, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said the right policy frameworks would unlock growth and productivity, save companies cash, deliver competitive advantage and reduce emissions.

The report was launched in collaboration with PwC and is supported by over 120 global CEOs who are members of the WEF's International Business Council (IBC), a group representing 3 per cent of global energy use.

In one of the most widely supported initiatives at United Nations climate change conference COP28, governments pledged to triple the world's renewable energy capacity by 2030 and double the rate of energy efficiency improvement over the same period.

Countries need to cut their energy intensity at least twice as fast between 2023 and 2030 as they did in previous years, which calls for substantial changes from the private sector.

Underlining the practical actions that businesses can take to act on energy demand, the WEF said these would be driven by energy-intensity reductions in buildings, industry and transport.

Examples include energy-saving measures such as using artificial intelligence to optimize factory line design, energy efficiency, value chain collaboration, industrial clustering to share clean energy initiatives, retrofitting buildings and electrification of transport.
China says it has detained an individual accused of collecting state secrets on behalf of Britain's foreign intelligence agency MI6.

The Ministry of State Security posted on social media on Monday that Britain had been cooperating since 2015 with the person, who it said was a citizen of a third nation and had the surname Huang.

The ministry said Huang had received training in intelligence gathering, provided with equipment and had collected numerous state secrets on repeated visits to China. No further information on the intelligence gathered was given, nor did the ministry say when he or she had been detained or where they were being held.

The definition of state secrets is not clearly defined under China's opaque political and legal system, and many consulting and advisory firms have been investigated for obtaining data that would ordinarily be in the public record, particularly if they were shared with foreign entities.

The British government has yet to comment on the allegations, but they follow a deterioration of relations between the sides sparked in part by British opposition to Chinese investments in the country, especially in the power and communications industries where the ruling Communist Party exercises strong influence.

London has also been highly critical of China's curtailment of political rights in Hong Kong, a former British colony where violent anti-government protests in 2019 were met with Beijing's imposition of a sweeping national security law and electoral changes. Those have largely eliminated any political opposition to Beijing's decrees and silenced freedom of speech in what had been one of Asia's most dynamic societies and a major financial centre.
The campaign of US President Joe Biden has raised more than USD 1 million through online fundraising in 24 hours after his speech on the January 6 Capitol riots anniversary, The Hill reported on Monday.

This comes after Biden on Friday launched a "full-throated" attack against former President and likely GOP opponent Donald Trump, warning Americans that Trump's re-election would pose a "threat to American democracy."

The president zeroed in on January 6 to mark the third anniversary of the US Capitol riots and argued in his remarks that democracy is on the ballot in 2024.

In response to the 24-hour fundraising haul, the Biden campaign noted that they see preserving democracy as a political winner for the president in 2024.

"In election after election, democracy and freedom are mobilising issues for the American people. In 2024, that will be no different, and we are encouraged by the strong grassroots enthusiasm we are seeing around the President's core campaign message," Rob Flaherty, Biden's deputy campaign manager, told The Hill.

Notably, the speech was Biden's first major general election speech and was delivered near Valley Forge, Pa., a significant symbol of the American Revolution.

He focused on Trump -- calling him a "loser" at one point -- and underscored what he sees as the stakes in a rematch against Trump in November.

"A former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election," Biden said.

"He's done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country's interest and America's interest and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution," he added.

Trump, in response to the speech, accused Biden of "fearmongering" and suggested the president was only attacking him on the issue of democracy because he could not run on other issues, The Hill reported.

"Biden cannot talk about a single issue that matters to hardworking Americans because he has failed you and betrayed you," Trump said.

"Joe Biden's record is an unbroken streak of weakness, incompetence, corruption and failure. Other than that he's doing quite well," he added.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is leading incumbent President Joe Biden in key swing states that will decide the fate of the 2024 presidential race, The Hill reported.

Trump leads Biden in hypothetical match-ups both with and without third-party options on the ballot in states including Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, according to fresh polling.

A CNN poll also showed Trump leading Biden by 5 percentage points in Georgia, a state Biden carried in 2020 by roughly 12,000 votes. The poll also found Trump leading Biden by 10 points in Michigan, where Biden won by about 1,55,000 votes in 2020.
A cabin panel flew off in midair during an Alaska Airlines flight, leaving a gaping hole in the plane's fuselage and forcing an emergency landing. The incident took place on Saturday. Social media images showed emergency oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling as terrified passengers crouched in their seats.



#Oregon

A Forced emergency landing was made of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 at Portland International Airport on Friday night. The flight, traveling ???? #BREAKING : Alaska Airlines Forced to Make an Emergency Landing After Large Aircraft Window Blows Out Mid-Air ???? #Portland A Forced emergency landing was made of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 at Portland International Airport on Friday night. The flight, traveling pic.twitter.com/nt0FwmPALE January 6, 2024

Heres all you need to know about the incident and the Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner:

What happened to the Alaska Air Flight 1282?

Alaska Air Flight 1282 suffered a blowout that left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage. En route to Ontario, California, the jet made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon.

Flight data showed the plane climbed to 16,000 feet (4,876 metres) before the incident took place, with the hole causing the cabin to depressurise.

What happened to the blown-off piece of Alaska Airlines plane?

The missing piece of the Alaska Airlines plane that blew off mid-flight has been found in a backyard in Portland, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

A Portland school teacher named Bob contacted the agency after finding the missing Boeing 737 Max 9 fuselage door plug in his yard, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said.

Federal investigators had been searching for the door plug since it blew off an Alaska Airlines aircraft shortly after taking off from Portland on Friday night, leading to the nationwide grounding of certain Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft and a slew of flight cancellations.

The agency had called for the public's assistance in locating the part and had planned to resume the search on Sunday, potentially using a helicopter or drones.

Were passengers on Alaska Airlines injured in the blowout?

The plane safely landed with all 174 passengers and six crew members on board.

No passengers were sitting adjacent to the cabin panel. However, according to The Oregonian newspaper, a young boy seated in the row had his shirt ripped off by the sudden decompression, injuring him slightly. Several other passengers also suffered injuries.

"Those individuals received medical attention and have now been medically cleared," according to the airline.

What was the cause of the midair incident?

Alaska Airlines has not offered any details on the likely cause. However, the NTSB and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have stated that they will investigate the incident.



How old was the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane?

According to FAA records, the new Boeing 737 Max 9 involved in the incident was delivered to Alaska Airlines in late October and certified in early November. It had only been in operation for eight weeks.

The Max is Boeing's newest version of the 737, and went into service in May 2017.

Boeing 737 Max 9: How many planes have been grounded?

Federal officials in the United States have ordered that all Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners operated by US airlines or flown in the US by foreign carriers be temporarily grounded until they are thoroughly inspected.

The directive affects 171 planes globally, with inspections expected to take about four to eight hours per aircraft. In the US, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are the only carriers using the Max 9.

Alaska Airlines cancelled 160 flights on Saturday, 20 per cent of scheduled trips, while United cancelled 104 flights, 4 per cent of departures.

Alaska Airlines stated that the disruptions were likely to last through at least midweek.

Past safety concerns about Boeing 737 Max jets

Boeing 737 Max jets were grounded worldwide for almost two years after a crash in Indonesia in October 2018, which killed 189 people, and another in Ethiopia five months later, which killed 157 people.

The aircraft was permitted to fly again after Boeing revamped its automated flight-control system that had activated erroneously in both crashes.

Which airlines in India are flying the Boeing 737 Max 9?

Aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday directed Akasa Air, Air India Express, and SpiceJet to conduct a one-time inspection of emergency exits on all Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft in their fleet by Sunday noon.

At present, over 40 Boeing 737 Max-8 planes are in operation across these three carriers in India, while there are no 737 Max-9 aircraft in the fleet of any Indian airline, reported the Indian Express.

What has the Indian regulator done after Boeing's mid-flight blowout incident?

While the question of plugged door does not arise for any flights in India, the Indian regulator asked all operators to conduct a check on its aircraft by Sunday noon, a deadline which has passed and planes are in the air. This inspection was directed toward the other emergency exits, which do not have a mechanism to hold it in place and make it inoperative since they are to be used in case of emergency.

Beyond this, the regulator, as well as the operators, are glued to the directives from the FAA, which is actively investigating the Alaska Air incident.
signed a Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with The Government of Gujarat to set up a Medicated Confectionery manufacturing project at Sanand-GIDC, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The proposed Plant is WHO, GMP GLP & US FDA compliance standards.

Dr. Agr

which i

place from January 11, 2024, to January 13, 2024.

The Medicated Confectionery plant by Dr. Agravat Healthcare Ltd has been reported to cost about

Rs.

45 crore. It is also reported that the company will be creating more than 100 jobs for starters in the investment-heavy state and give Oral Cancer Prevention, Personal Care, and Overall Wellness a much-needed boost in the country. The project to be set up will produce all of Dr. Agravat's proprietary innovative products, including oral care, personal care, and wellness products, such as medicated chewing gums, herbal candies, toothpastes, throat lozenges, OSMF Kit, Nutrition Gummies, etc. The products will constitute Nutraceutical, Ayurvedic and other herbal ingredients, and will have curative properties producing long-lasting effects of a healthier body.

lthcare Ltd, incorporated in 2008 and founded by Dr Bharat Agravat, is a pioneer in the field of Painless Oral Care Patented treatment like Same Day Dental Implant Surgery performed without incision & Suture- Dentoimpladeck, Single visit root canal treatment - Endodeck, OSMF Mouth Opening DIY Kit, Quit Smoking & Gutkha Kit also Wellness in India, having helped prevent thousands from the clutches of Smoker & Gutkha chewer, Oral Submucous Fibrosis, Oral Cancer, and other oral afflictions. The company envisages itself as being the chief provider of not just top quality but also affordable healthcare products to the populace. The company, through its subsidiaries, already exports multiple products to various countries, Various E-commerce marketplaces like Tata 1

The Dr Agravat Healthcare Ltd has recentlyWork in Progress Video Project Sit atavat Healthcare Ltd Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Unit Sanand GIDC Gujarat:Youtube: https://youtube.com/shorts/K4_QK2_1DSk? Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reel/284124974170771 The company is one of the top-rated pharmaceutical companies in India led by India's first Dentopreneur - Dr. Bharat Agravat and CEO - Dr Kartavya Agravat. The MoUs by both parties were signed online through the Investor Portal- IFP as an integral part of the upcoming 10th Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit (VGGS-2024),s scheduled to takeDr Agravat HeaMg, Netmeds, Amazon, Flipkart, Reliance Jio store and company Brand Store https://www.agravat.com Dr Agravat Healthcare Ltd also puts forth a humble invitation to the public and esteemed guests to visit its Agravats Experience Stall at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade Show 2024, where they can experience a plethora of products never seen before at the same stall. They can sample the products, 'First use then trust and provide their feedback, and even subscribe to any immediate offers on the table. Lucky visitors are also poised to receive a surprise gift from the company.The details of the stall at the trade show are as follows:Exhibition Venue Address: VIBRANT GUJARAT GLOBAL TRADE SHOW 2024Gate No. 03, Hall No. 5, Helipad Exhibition Centre, Sector 17, Gandhinagar, Gujarat - 382016Dates: 9th to 13th January, 2024Exhibition Timings: For Delegates & Visitors: 10:00 a.m. to 06:00 p.m.Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bTDmmTWGtwW3yjGg8
Sunday, January 7, 2024 at 10:38PM

Photo: Xgimi

The Aladdin is a ceiling light projector from Xgimi that combines the technology of Popin, a Japanese company that Xgimi acquired. The Aladdin has the same specifications as the Popin Aladdin 2 Plus, which sells for about US$897 (around CA$1,199).

The Aladdin can be installed on any standard light socket and project a 1080p image of up to 100 inches. The projector also has a built-in lamp that can be controlled by the remote or the Xgimi app. However, Aladdin does not work with Matter or other smart home platforms.

The Xgimi Aladdin also features Harman Kardon speakers that deliver 360-degree sound and can be used independently of the projector. It runs on Google TV, which supports Netflix out of the box.

Xgimi has not revealed the exact price, release date, or full specifications of the Aladdin yet.

Source
You could say that a lot is riding on the Lexus LBX. Not only is it Lexus first three-letter named model after the LFA supercar, but becaus...
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Bangladesh outstrips the cement export target in 6MFY23-24

08 January 2024

Bangladesh has recorded 91 per cent YoY growth in cement export revenue to US$8.96m in the first six months (July-December 2023) of FY23-24 from US$4.69m in the same six months of the previous year, according to the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau (EPB). This figure includes minor amounts of salt, stone and related products. The 22.1 per cent YoY rise in cement exports also surpassed the target of US$7.29m for 6MFY23-24.

Bangladesh had set a higher target export revenue of US$15m for FY23-24 against US$13.66m earned in FY22-23. Generally, most cement exports from Bangladesh are shipped to India, particularly from the northeastern states of Bangladesh. Other popular destinations include Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

In the 6MFY23-24, Bangladesh brought in total export revenue of all merchandise of US$27.54bn, up 0.8 per cent YoY. The full-year target stands at US$62bn.

Published under
MBABANE  Will Eswatini be affected should South Africas (SA) ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) lose the upcoming national elections?

As SA citizens are expecting to cast votes in various polling stations in mid-2024, Eswatini is uncertain about how the final decision might impact the kingdom, both economically and politically. Eswatini imports a bulk of its commodities such as electricity, fuel and maize, among others, from SA. Also, locally produced products are exported via SA to foreign markets.

Estimates show that Eswatini spends about E33 billion annually on importation of goods from South Africa. Some African countries such as SA, Mozambique, Namibia, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Algeria, Ghana, South Sudan and Senegal, among others, will have national elections. As SAs national elections draw closer, political parties are expecting to deal with load shedding, which is the topical issue at the moment.

Eswatini and SA have agreements allowing these two States to trade freely. Eswatini exports over 80 per cent of its electricity from SA, 12 per cent from Mozambique and only eight per cent is generated locally. Sanele Sibiya, an Economist and University of Eswatini (UNESWA) Lecturer suspects Eswatini might find itself in the dark, should it happen that SAs government decides not to renew the contract allowing purchasing of electricity by 2025.

Problem

Zooming in on the SA national elections, Sibiya said load-shedding was one factor that would determine whether or not the ANC retains office. Former ANC President Jacob Zuma and other politicians are coming forth, claiming to have sorted out load-shedding during their time. In 2024, the winner could be determined by the amount of effort made to sort out the current major problem affecting SA, said Sibiya. Sibiya said it was on record that over 70 per cent of the electricity used locally came from Eskom. He said 2025 was the year when the contract between the two States ends, it was therefore, unclear what would happen thereafter. SAs upcoming national elections make it uncertain whether the existing contract between the two States (Eswatini and SA) will be renewed or not. We do not know which party will ascend office this time and the plans it has in taking the country forward. This is the main issue we have as a country regarding the upcoming SA national elections. The elections will determine whether SA continues to sell electricity to countries like Eswatini or save it for their personal use, he explained.

According to the economist, come 2025, SA might decide not to sell its electricity to countries like Eswatini. He said the electricity contract had been all along binding the two countries despite load-shedding, which has affected SA for some time now. The SA Government might decide not to renew the contract going forward in 2025. If that happens, that would mean lelive litawuba mnyama since we get a high amount of electricity from them (SA). This will be a painful moment for the country to face, he said.
MBABANE  His Majestys Correctional Services has imposed a six-month visitation and communication ban on convicted former Member of Parliament (MP) Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza.

The curtailing of these rights comes after the former legislator was found guilty of having repeatedly flouted the Correctional Services Regulations, which prohibit the possession of articles such as cellphones and unlawful communication. According to the facility, at least on four different occasions, Mabuza has faced internal disciplinary hearings, which compelled it to curtail not only physical visitation, but also his telephonic communication.

Rights

The suspension of these rights was disclosed by the authorities of the institution, in its papers where it is robustly opposing the application filed by Mabuzas children and his wives.

In their application, the wives and children of the former MP want the court to direct the commissioner general of His Majestys Correctional Services (HMCS) to allow them access and communication to Mabuza. They claimed that they had been denied access to him without any lawful cause or justification, hence the need for the court to intervene. According to Mabuzas children and wives, while their access to the former had always been unreasonably restricted, they were at the very least, been receiving calls from him whenever that was permitted by the institution, but they had not received same for a long period.

In his answering affidavit, Officer in-Charge of Matsapha Correctional facility, Jabulani Kunene, said he had been in charge of Mabuza since he was incarcerated thereat. He informed the court that on September 12, 2023, the applicants father (Mabuza) was found in possession of contraband in the form of a cellphone, which was a prohibited article for offenders within the Correctional facility. He averred that Section 87 of the Act provided that it is an offence to convey or supply a prohibited article. Kunene further highlighted that Regulation 59 makes it an offence to use or be in possession of a prohibited article Possession of contraband is not permitted within the facility and as such, the applicants father was subjected to a disciplinary hearing, found guilty of contravention of this trite rule and subsequently subjected to a suspension of privileges, including visitation for a period of six months, submitted Kunene.

Rationale

He pointed out that the rationale for taking such a drastic step was that Mabuza had, up to that point, been a repeat offender, with two prior disciplinary hearings. Kunene submitted that the six-month period covered the date of October 6, 2023. It was further his submission that Regulation 59 classified communicating with a person in contravention of the law as a minor disciplinary offence. He went on to state that the aforementioned regulation categorised disobeying a lawful order of a Correctional officer also as a minor offence. Regulation 60, however, classifies repeating a minor Correctional centre offence after having been punished twice for it as a major offence, contended Kunene.

He informed the court that Mabuza found himself in this final category and the institution could not be expected not to maintain a good order and discipline within the Correctional centre. It was his contention that Mabuzas visitation rights were restricted and/or suspended in accordance with the law. He further denied the assertion by his (Mabuza) children that the limitation of the incarcerated persons rights to visitation had been done unreasonably. The restrictions imposed on the applicants father have been due to his repeated failure and/or refusal to adhere to good order and discipline required by the legal framework regulating the running of the Correctional facility, he argued. He acknowledged that there were rights held by families of persons kept in custody to gain reasonable access and communication with their relatives held in custody.

Duty

Kunene, however, pointed out that it was equally recognised that there was a corresponding duty placed upon the person held in custody to conduct himself in accordance with the law, so as to ensure that his family members were not precluded from enjoying this right. Kunene mentioned that the reciprocal nature of the relationship between the Correctional facility and the person held in custody was such that if the rules and regulations on conduct were adhered to, neither the person held in custody, nor his family went through a limitation on visitation and communication rights. The former legislator is currently detained at the Matsapha Maximum Prison with his co-accused, former Ngwempisi MP Mthandeni Dube. Mabuza was recently found guilty of terrorism and murder, among other charges, together with his co-accused, and they are still to make their submissions on why they feel the court should not impose a stiff sentence. They are expected to make submissions on sentence in March this year. The matter, where Mabuzas children want to be granted access to him, is still pending in court. Appearing for the applicants is senior lawyer Ben J Simelane, while for the Correctional facility are lawyers from the chamber of the attorney general (AG).
Point Park, a unit of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, located atop Lookout Mountain, is waiving the entrance fee on Monday to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. All national parks will waive entrance fees on this day as the first fee free day of 2024.It is also a day of service, when thousands of volunteers participate in service projects across the country, including national parks. Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is also seeking volunteers for the annual Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service.Sign up will begin at 9 a.m. on Monday at the intersection of Woodland View Circle and Hooker Road in Chattanooga. The service project should end around 1 p.m. This year, the service project isnt on park property, but rather in the city of Chattanooga. However, it does have a park connection."We will be working with the city to clear vegetation and debris from one of the original park bridges associated with an approach road that was built around the time of the parks establishment," officials said. "The service project area is the route taken by Union General Joseph Hookers forces as they marched from Lookout Mountain, into Chattanooga Valley and toward Missionary Ridge, where Confederates were positioned. Today, the location is off Hooker Road."The enabling legislation, creating the park in 1890, states: For the purpose of preserving and suitably marking for historical and professional military study, the fields of some of the most remarkable maneuvers and most brilliant fighting in the War of the Rebellion, those portions of highways in the States of Georgia and Tennessee in the vicinity of the battlefields of Chickamauga and Chattanooga  shall be approaches to and parts of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, and each and all of such roads shall remain open as free and public highwaysTaking place each year on the third Monday in January, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service (MLK Day) is the only federal holiday that is also designated by Congress as a National Day of Service  a day on, not a day off. Participation in service activities has grown each year as more Americans are encouraged to provide meaningful change in their communities, officials said.Volunteers are asked to wear clothing appropriate for the weather and that they dont mind getting a little dirty. All tools, including gloves, will be provided, but volunteers are welcome to bring their own gloves, if desired. Questions about MLK Day of Service can be directed to the parks Volunteer Coordinator Will Wilson at will_wilson@nps.gov or 706-866-9241 ext. 137.For more information about programs at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, contact the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at 706-866-9241, the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center at 423-821-7786, or visit the park website at www.nps.gov/chch.
Recognized as one of the Souths premier Antiques Shows, the Houston Museum Antiques Show and Sale is celebrating its 50th Anniversary and will run from Feb. 16-18 at the historic Read House Hotel.



The Preview Party will be held Feb. 15 at 7 p.m., the night before the show opens to the public, and will include an evening of private viewing of the vast array of dealers from around the country. The Preview Party theme this year is All That Glitters is Gold so guests are invited to dress in sparkling cocktail attire, grab a glass of bubbly from the champagne tower, and shop the show before the crowds arrive on Friday. Tickets are $125 per person which includes show admission all weekend. Registration is required.

The three day sale will be Friday and Saturday, Feb. 16-17, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 18, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Recognized as one of the Souths premier antiques shows, the 50th Annual Antiques Show & Sale benefits the Houston Museum of Decorative Arts. This intimate museum in the Bluff View Art District houses the world-class decorative art collection amassed by Anna Safley Houston. The show will be held at the historic Read House and will feature over 20 dealers from around the country showcasing a diverse selection of merchandise from paintings to furniture to jewelry to glassware and beyond.

Tickets are available here.



An appraisal fair with Reid Dunavant from PBS' Antiques Roadshow will be Feb. 16. from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Read House. A native of Tennessee, Mr. Dunavant has a 25-year career in the auction industry and was featured on PBS' Antiques Roadshow as a decorative arts appraiser for over a decade. The appraisal fair will include both decorative arts and jewelry appraisals. Cost is $25 for one item which includes one ticket to the Antiques Show and Sale (good for three days). Price is $10 for each additional item. Tickets and reservations required. Once you get your ticket for your item(s) through Eventbrite, please email Hilary Pitts to reserve a time slot. Hilary.Pitts@doyle.com

A champagne brunch is scheduled for Feb. 17 at 9:30 a.m. in the Green Room at the historic Read House with Mr. Dunavant, who will talk about his fascinating career in the auction and appraisal industry as well as his extensive travels throughout the U.S. lecturing on the Decorative Arts. It is titled 'In Search of Treasure - An Appraiser's Journey: From Rural Tennessee to Places Far & Wide'. Tickets are limited and available here for $65 per person which includes show admission all weekend. Registration is required.
A five-year-old child died in a fire near Crossville on Sunday.

Cumberland County Sheriffs Office deputies and investigators, as well as the Cumberland County Fire Department, Cumberland County EMS, and agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, responded to an incident on Fall Creek Road in the Westel Community.





At approximately 5:22 pm (CST), emergency responders were alerted to a fully involved structure fire at 2074 Fall Creek Road, where it was reported that Willow Carpenter was inside the residence.Upon arrival at the scene, it was discovered that the young child was unable to escape the fire and unfortunately perished.

The child's mother, Andrea Cox, 38, was present at the scene and was airlifted to Skyline Medical Center Burn Unit in Nashville for treatment.





Officials said, "Sheriff Casey Cox and the entire Cumberland County Sheriff's Office extend their deepest condolences to the family and loved ones affected by this devastating event. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time. The loss of a young life is a tragedy that impacts our entire community.





"The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fire is ongoing, and the Cumberland County Sheriffs Office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are working diligently to determine the cause of this tragic incident."




Attorney Ben Crump, founder of Ben Crump Law, is known for his work on high profile civil rights cases, including the Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd cases, now has a connection to Chattanooga though a documentary he produced entitled, How to Sue the Klan.

About the film:

The film features the heroic efforts of five African American women who were brutally attacked by the Ku Klux Klan members while waiting on a cab in downtown Chattanooga in 1980. Despite two Klans men being acquitted by an all-white jury in criminal court and the third only serving six months, the women were determined to get justice. Led by Randolph McLaughlin, attorney at New Yorks Center for Constitutional Rights, the women took the case to federal civil court utilizing the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Act, a Reconstruction era law designed to curb racial violence. This case set a nationwide legal precedent, allowing more cases to be tried in civil courts seeking damages, weakening the Klans power and influence over time.

Attorneys Ben Crump and Randolph McLaughlin, along with the one remaining survivor of The Chattanooga Five, are planning to attend the premiere screening of How to Sue the Klan on Friday, Feb. 9. The event will begin at 6 p.m. and it will be held at the Walker Theatre, 339 McCallie Ave. Following the screening, a panel discussion will be hosted.

While the program is free and open to the public, tickets are required. For more information about How to Sue the Klan" and to access complimentary tickets, visit www.thecivilcase.com




The International Brotherhood of Police Officers, Local #673, has endorsed General Sessions Court Judge Alex McVeagh in his campaign for Division III of Hamilton County Circuit Court.

His campaign said, "Judge McVeagh is proud of the continued support of law enforcement and members of the judiciary. This endorsement follows the recent endorsements of retired Sheriff Jim Hammond, retired Mayor Jim Coppinger, retired Circuit Court Judge Neil Thomas, Circuit Court Judge Justin Angel, and 11 other local judges."

The International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 673 proudly endorses Judge Alex McVeagh for Hamilton County Circuit Court Judge, said Joseph Ogg, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 673 and law enforcement officer with the Chattanooga Police Department. Judge McVeagh has had an excellent relationship with the Law Enforcement of Hamilton County and the City of Chattanooga over his last six years as a General Sessions judge. He is held in high regard by law enforcement as fair and just with a reputation for coming in early and staying late, while sacrificing his personal time outside of court hours to meet with law enforcement for search warrants and other time-sensitive documents needed to ensure justice for our citizens.

Judge McVeagh established the misdemeanor drug court within Hamilton County, which has provided the court system with additional methods to reform our citizens who struggle with drug addiction. This program has lowered the recidivism rate of the individuals assigned to it through intensive supervision, treatment, and education. It has also directly contributed to saving the citizens of Hamilton County thousands in court costs and helped relieve the backlog to the court system to deal with violent offenders. We look forward to seeing Judge McVeagh continue to improve our judicial system as the next Circuit Court Judge in Hamilton County.



Hamilton Countys brave men and women in blue know my record as a judge, stated Judge McVeagh. I am so grateful and honored to receive the support of these officers who know the importance of this race for Circuit Court, and thank them for placing their trust in me to serve Hamilton County in this important state court.

The IBPO Local #673 represents nearly 500 law enforcement professionals, serving multiple agencies within Hamilton County and the surrounding areas. Judge McVeagh has served Hamilton County as a civil and criminal General Sessions judge for nearly seven years and continues to work closely with law enforcement as he has presided over an estimated 80,000+ criminal and civil cases since being appointed by Governor Bill Haslam in 2017 and elected by the voters of Hamilton County in 2022, it was stated.

The election for Division III of Hamilton Countys Circuit Court will be held on March 5. Early voting begins on Feb. 14, and ends on Feb. 27.
GDI Services, a facilities maintenance and cleaning service company, has filed an official WARN Notice with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, notifying the agency of a permanent closure on March 5.The total number of affected workers is 60. This company is located at 7200 Discovery Dr. in Chattanooga. The company notified the TDLWD Unit this past Friday.Officials at the department said, "The employees at the facility are not represented by a collective bargaining agreement.The Southeast Local Workforce Development Area rapid response team, employed by the Southeast Tennessee Development District, has been notified to coordinate services with the employer and affected employees. The Southeast Local Workforce Development Board will be responsible for the oversight of the continued follow-up of Rapid Response and Dislocated Worker services associated with this event."
The 33rd Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival is set for Saturday-Sunday at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, Cherokee Removal Memorial Park, and Birchwood Community Center.

The festival celebrates the thousands of sandhill cranes that stopover or spend the winter on or near the Hiwassee Refuge. It is also an opportunity to focus attention on the rich heritage of the state and the Native American history of the area.

This free event runs 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (ET) each day and includes shuttle transportation from the Birchwood Community Center to the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park and the Hiwassee Refuge. Volunteers will be on-hand with spotting scopes that allow for an up close view of wildlife including sandhill cranes ,bald eagles, and possibly a glimpse of the endangered whooping cranes which also migrate through the area.

The nearby Cherokee Removal Memorial will feature Native American folklore specialists. They will present artifacts and objects used in everyday life by Native American inhabitants in the Hiwassee River area. Visitors can also view cranes and other birds from the shelter house where the Hiwassee and Tennessee rivers meet.

Popular shows from the American Eagle Foundation will also return for another year at the Birchwood Community Center. Special programs, a childrens craft room, and quilt-raffle tickets will also be available. Nashville recording artists, Second Nature and The Mount LeConte Jug Band will perform. Vendors and educators will also be available at all locations. The cafeteria, which opens at 7 a.m., will be in operation throughout the day with food items for purchase.

In addition to the American Eagle Foundations live raptor performance and other returning guests, nationally acclaimed author and speaker, Brian Fox Ellis will be presenting during both days. He will also present at an exclusive dinner and appearance on Friday from 6-9 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Decatur being sponsored by Meigs County, Decatur Chamber of Commerce. More information on the festival and tickets for the special appearance is available on the TWRA website TNWildlife.org.

The Birchwood Community Center is only three miles from the wildlife-viewing site at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge. The Cherokee Removal Memorial is adjacent to the refuge near the Tennessee River. The Hiwassee Refuge and Cherokee Removal Memorial are open to the public year-round, and visitors are welcome during normal operating hours.

Beginning in the early 1990s, the recovering population of eastern sandhill cranes began stopping at the Hiwassee Refuge on their way to and from their wintering grounds in Georgia and Florida. TWRA has been managing the 6,000-acre refuge for more than 60 years for wildlife and waterfowl. It provides sandhill cranes a combination of feeding and shallow water roosting habitat, and thousands of birds now spend the entire winter in the area.
In 2023, the Chattanooga Music Club awarded $11,000 to competition winners in its annual scholarship audition process.

This year, the CMC will again hold competitive scholarship auditions on Sunday, March 17, at 2 p.m. at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

The scholarships are open to high school seniors living within a 40 mile radius of downtown Chattanooga. The student may either be planning to major in the study of Classical music in college or to major in another subject but continue Classical music study for two years at a nationally accredited school of music.

Details about the 2024 CMC Scholarship Audition process can be found on the CMC website: https://www.chattanoogamusicclub.org/scholarships
The construction of a lunar base as a starting point for further space exploration and future Mars missions is one of the core elements of current international space strategies. Key to this is providing a power supply that is as self-sufficient as possible. The German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is now funding the joint project SoMo  An innovative manufacturing process for solar cells made of lunar regolith between the Chair of Space Technology at TU Berlin and JPM silicon GmbH as part of the Research and Exploration program with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

Glass sample from the lunar regolith simulant TUBS-T TU Berlin

Dr Thomas Driebe of the German Space Agency spoke on the decision to fund the project: Today, Germany is making an important contribution to space research and exploration through its involvement in European lunar missions and NASAs Artemis program. This means we are now close to a manned lunar base and the question of how we can supply it with raw materials and energy. Photovoltaics plays a decisive role here. We see this as an outstanding project that brings together space research and the further expansion of terrestrial photovoltaics, and we anticipate promising results that will enable us to take a step into space itself.

On-site production to replace expensive rocket transportation The development of ISRU technologies is particularly important for future lunar exploration, both to increase the sustainability of lunar missions and reduce their costs. ISRU stands for "in-situ resource utilization." This involves producing products and resources such as water, oxygen, construction products, and electricity from locally available materials and resources such as lunar dust (regolith) and sunlight. The technologies involved can help provide missions with the materials and consumables they need and that would otherwise have to be supplied from Earth at great expense. According to Professor Dr. Enrico Stoll, head of the Chair of Space Technology at TU Berlin, the current cost of transporting just one kilogram of material from the Earth to the Moon is approximately one million euros. Supplying energy to a future lunar base using the resources available on the Moon is a key area of our space research, says Professor Stoll.

Fully functional solar cells The SoMo project contributes to this research by using the widely available lunar dust as a raw material for the production of solar panels on the Moon. The projects manufacturing technique enables the production of silicon cells using two widely available resources on the Moon: lunar regolith for the production of glass substrates and UV light. The end product is a silicon cell on a buffer layer of aluminum oxide. This represents the first step towards the sustainable production of fully functional solar cells on the Moon.

Simulants for moondust The glass substrate required for the process is produced by the Chair of Space Technology at TU Berlin. Enrico Stoll's research group has developed various simulants for lunar regolith. These are powders that mimic the properties of various soil samples brought to Earth during the Apollo program. The glass is produced by melting the simulants at very high temperatures (over 1,500C). The resulting glass is then molded and further processed by Stolls team. Project partner JPM Silicon GmbH then produces a silicon layer from the glass substrate, which is finally converted into a solar cell.
EKUTSIMULENI  A five-year-old girl tragically died after being accidentally shot by her eight-year-old cousin at their home at Lukhitsi, Ekutsimuleni.

It is said young Amahle Nkambule was shot by her cousin with their grandfathers shotgun at close range. They all lived within the same family compound, where the incident occurred on Saturday evening. The family is distraught as they are still grappling with the thought of their devastating loss. During a visit to the Nkambule homestead, the family was short for words, as they revealed that the parents of the deceased girl were both unemployed and were struggling to make ends meet. They are seeking help from the public in arranging for the burial of their loved one.

Condolences

Members of a local church in the area were seen arriving at the homestead to offer their condolences to the family on their loss. Former Mkhiweni Member of Parliament (MP) Michael Ndlelayekuphila Masuku, was also present to pass condolences to the bereaved family. Narrating how the incident happened, Bhutana Nkambule, the shotgun owner, described the ordeal as outrageous. Bhutana relayed that he and his 18-year-old son had gone out to collect firewood in the bushes, after having left the gun in his house. He said after they were done, he instructed his son to return home and fix himself a meal, before he (Bhutana) quickly rushed to a nearby homestead to assist with tending to cattle, as requested by the family. According to Bhutana, he supposed that the gun was taken by the 18-year-old, who then left it lying idle outside one of the family houses. He mentioned that on his way back home, he came across a black mamba snake attacking goats in the kraal.

I rushed to get the gun but found that it was not there, but I assumed I would ask the boy about the whereabouts of the gun. At around 5pm, when I was tending to the fields with my wife, we heard loud screams coming from one of the houses and a child crying hysterically, he retold. Bhutana said one family member approached him and his wife, where they told them that a child had been injured after being shot with a shotgun at close range. He said the children were playing. It even boggles our minds how the child was even able to pick the shotgun as it is heavy. We could show you, but, unfortunately, it has been taken by the police for further investigations, Bhutana said. He further stated that the incident happened at a time when both parents of the girl were unemployed and were faced with financial challenges. He requested anyone who was willing to assist with any kind of help to contact him on his mobile number, 7641 1637.

Meanwhile, the deceased girls mother, Phetsile Dlamini (25), who was found sitting on a mat, reiterated their cry for help. She said she did not have a picture to share of her young girl as she had never taken a picture. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Senior Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the death of the minor girl, who was shot with a shotgun in her chest at Ekutsimuleni on Saturday.
Diana Spencer, the former Princess of Wales, was a cultural icon and is still remembered fondly today for her warm, generous spirit and fabulous fashion.

After marrying Prince Charles in 1981, she was catapulted to international fame. Diana did not let the immense status affect her character, though. Instead, she capitalized on the unique opportunity to raise awareness about countless causes.

First and foremost, Diana was known for her dedication to fundraising. At one point in time, she was even affiliated with over one hundred charities that focused on a range of issues from leprosy to mental health to domestic violence.

She did cut ties with a majority of these charities following her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996 in order to lead a more private life. However, Diana still supported six charities up until her death.

And even after her passing, when the charities initially suffered a funding crisis, the shortfall was not long-lived.

Instead, Dianas philanthropic legacy lived on since the charities received various grants from the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund amounting to over one million dollars post-mortem.

Diana was also very well known for her gorgeous fashion and the statement dresses and ensembles she wore, especially the ones following her divorce from Prince Charles.

However, throughout her time with the royal family, Diana knew how to dress to impress, wearing stunning pieces while still maintaining her class and elegance.

Many people try to recreate Dianas fashion and outfits today, and people are willing to spend lots of money to get their hands on or collect any pieces she once wore.

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Before you dive in with your paintbrush, you need to pick out the perfect paint color for your front door. It will require a lot of thought since its something everyone will be able to see and the first thing people notice when they approach your house.

The color of your front door stands for more than just creating curb appeal. It speaks to your personality and provides a glimpse into how you might have designed the rest of your home.

If youre trying to decide what color to decorate your front door with, here are some common front door color options and what they say about you.

Deep Blue

If you have a deep blue door, you have a calming personality and strong relationships centered around loyalty and trust. You are down-to-earth, you stay grounded, and you like to keep the peace. You are also dedicated to your principles and stand up for your beliefs.

You probably like to adorn your rooms with antique pieces youve collected. Anyone who crosses the threshold of your home will be greeted with a warm welcome and treated with kindness.

Bright Red

Red is a color thats bold and inviting, and it always draws the attention of passersby. In Feng Shui, red symbolizes good luck, power, prosperity, and harmony. Selecting such a bright, vibrant hue suggests youre an amazing host who thrives off entertaining guests.

Red also represents passion and creativity, so theres no doubt you have a fiery spirit. Youre a real classic, just like your color choice for your front door, which means youre most likely a history buff, and your bookshelves are lined with old treasures and non-fiction reads.

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Recently, TikToker Dia Morgan (@warningitsdia) went on a date with a guy she met on a dating app, unaware that he had a serious criminal record until afterward.

His name was James, and his dating profile read, Dont hate me if Im a crazy rich Asian, in reference to the film directed by Jon M. Chu.

After the date, I have learned he meant crazy, rich, Asian, [with] emphasis on the crazy, said Dia. According to a comment, James was born in China and raised in Singapore.

Their date got off to a bad start. When they arrived at the restaurant, he refused to sit at the spot the hostess had led them to.

He also demanded that Dia sit next to him instead of across from him, but she shrugged it off because he explained that sitting across from someone was associated with business practices in Asian culture, and they were on a date.

While they were talking and perusing the menu, everything seemed normal. But then, she mentioned something about how she was Jewish. For some odd reason, this made him reach over to pet her nose. He also declared that she didnt look Jewish.

Then, he asked why she didnt save him as a contact in her phone. She laughed a little and decided to do it right then and there. When she tried to ask what his last name was, he refused to tell her.

She looked him in the eye and stated that she would look him up if he didnt give her the information himself. However, he still wouldnt spill his last name.

At the end of the date, he did not walk her to her car. Instead, he made sure they headed toward his own so she could see it, and he could brag about how he drove a high-end, luxury vehicle.

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When evangelicals speak of the unborn, theyre often thinking of babies growing inside pregnant moms. Even the pro-life mantra of from womb to tomb presupposes a womb to carry them.

So as record numbers of Americans grow their families through in vitro fertilization (IVF), Christians who believe that life begins at conceptioneven if thats in a petri dishface new questions and challenges. In response to expanding reproductive technology, pro-life evangelicals are reexamining the theological and ethical concerns around creating and caring for life at its earliest stages.

I wish I had thought more deeply about this in 2015, when I began IVF in a desperate move to become a mother after several years of infertility. But even as a pro-life Christian, I thought primarily of the lives I would carry, not the ethical ramifications of potential leftover embryos. In fact, I wasnt even aware one could make so many embryos at once, and the doctors at my IVF clinic didnt inform me of it.

Other Christians whose beliefs about life did come to bear on their journeys through fertility assistance have experienced the tension firsthand. I talked with Jamie Skipper, who began to consider treatments to help get pregnant around 15 years ago. Her staunch pro-life convictions immediately made things harder.

The Skippers were committed to limiting the number of embryos. If each one created was a new life, they didnt want any extras to sit in a freezer or get destroyed in the process. But IVF is a physically demanding and expensive process, so doctors often recommend fertilizing multiple eggs for a higher chance that one will develop into a healthy baby.

Jamie Skipper said finding a pro-life fertility doctor willing to go with their convictions was like the underground railroad, a very hush-hush network. They searched and continued to pray.

The Bible doesnt say, Dont do IVF or Do IVF, Skipper told CT. What the Bible does say is Pray without ceasing. If you dont go into this journey with prayer, you wont know what God wants for you individually.

After finally meeting a doctor they trusted, the Skippers moved forward, using their first embryo to become pregnant with their daughter and freezing two more to use later.

They became one of millions of US families who have used IVF to conceive. Earlier this year, Pew Research Center found that 42 percent of Americans have used fertility treatments such as IVF or know someone who has, up from 33 percent in 2018.

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In survey breakouts provided to CT, white evangelicals were as likely as Americans overall to say they or someone they know had used fertility treatments. Well over 40 percent of white evangelicals, white mainline Christians, and Catholics agreed, compared to just 26 percent of Black Protestants.

Though evangelicals use fertility assistance, they often approach it differently. Things like fertility medications to stimulate ovulation and intrauterine insemination (IUI)both of which help conceive a baby inside the motherare less controversial than IVF, which creates embryos in a lab before implanting them.

When it comes to IVF, one survey found that Protestant Christians were largely in favor of embryo creation for a married couple but against sperm and egg donation in IVF. They also opposed preimplantation genetic testing, which screens which embryos to implant.

The evangelical cautions and ethical arguments around IVF draw from beliefs that life begins at conception, all are created in the image of God, and we have a responsibility to protect and sustain life from its earliest stagesthe very same foundation as the evangelical movement against abortion. And yet, IVF has historically been left out of the abortion conversation.

Evangelicals and other Protestants have achieved moral clarity about the evil of abortion. But we remain confused about the ethics of in vitro fertilization, a technology that removes a womans egg and fertilizes it with a mans sperm in a laboratory environment, then reintroduces the now-living embryo into the womans uterus for gestation, noted theologian and ethicist Matthew Lee Anderson in a post for First Things in 2021.

Perhaps pro-life advocates wanted to focus more on those who intended to end life than those who sought to create it. Perhaps they hesitated to speak out against it knowing the painful struggle of Christians in their midst who had turned to fertility assistance. Either way, evangelicals havent been as vocal about the ethical ramifications of IVF as they have about abortion procedures, medication abortion, or even Plan B.

But the conversation has expanded, especially in the wake of Roe v. Wades overruling in 2022.

Im very connected with a lot of pro-lifers who have had their eyes opened to how IVF violates the rights of children, their right to life, said Katy Faust, the evangelical founder of childrens rights organization Them Before Us. I think a lot of it is they just didnt know before, but once you know, you dont unsee it.

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Faust speaks against the practice of unrestrained embryo creation in IVF, which inevitably results in frozen embryos being destroyed or left on ice indefinitely. Each embryo is, scientifically speaking, a unique person comprised with a distinct DNA code, including things like eye color and gender, just like one conceived in the womb in its early days.

Faust noted how the landmark 2022 Supreme Court ruling revealed an undeniable connection between IVF and abortion. Why is it that all of the fertility doctors in red states were freaking out after Dobbs? she asked. Its because they [may not be able] to do business there if they cant destroy human life.

Right now, abortion laws do not affect frozen embryos, but there have been a couple of state bills that aim to make it so. In Kansas, for example, a bill that criminalized the unlawful destruction of a fertilized embryo advanced to the Senate, but the bill has not passed.

And yet, while most Americans see abortion as a moral issue, most do not view IVF in such terms. Few resources exist to help guide Christians who may be considering IVF. One online guide offers this piece of advice: For the Christian, the decision to conceive is always the decision to implant.

Toward a Protestant Theology of the Bodya recent conference named for the papal catechesis on human sexuality, marriage, conception, and personhoodtackled this rising theme. The Institute on Religion and Democracy event showcased an increased aptitude for questions regarding reproduction and the body.

If I go and speak on this somewhere, a lot of people just assume that Im Catholic because, for the last couple decades, its really only been Catholics that have been talking about this, said Faust.

Emma Waters, a research associate for The Heritage Foundations Center for Life, Religion and Family, said shes observed a shift in Protestant Christians, theologians, and pastors beginning to reexamine the moral and theological concerns related to IVF.

Many Southern Baptist churches, the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod, the Anglican Church of North America, and some within the Presbyterian Church of America are working to educate their congregants about the purpose of a child, and where Christians should draw firm lines in their use of technology, Waters told Christianity Today.

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In the last couple years, Ive become more educated about the ethics of reproductive technology and the realities of created and commodified lives. Its caused me to see my own experience with IVF differently and to wish I had been better informed. While the treatment was successful for me, helping me become pregnant with two healthy babies, the remaining embryos I have stored on ice have caused great heartache.

The biggest evangelical concerns around IVF tend to center around the loss of embryos in the process, so families like the Skippers commit to carrying and caring for any embryos they create.

As Jamie Skipper moved forward with IVF, she worried about what would happen to her two frozen embryos if she got hit by a bus and died or was unable to implant them for any reason. She ended up drafting a legal will granting custody to close friends in case of her demise. After the will was in place, the Skippers felt peace that they had done everything they could to protect their children.

Two years after the first successful implant, Skipper implanted the last two embryos, which resulted in the birth of her second daughter.

Today Skipper, like some prominent evangelical groups like Focus on the Family and The Gospel Coalition, supports ethical IVF, in which the embryos created are made from the biological material of the parents and implanted into the biological mother, and no embryos are frozen or discarded.

The truth about more than a million frozen embryos on ice has become more common knowledge as of late. Prior to that, many Christians unacquainted with IVF didnt realize this numeric reality. As the conversation has progressed, pro-life advocates have grown bolder in their advocacy against IVF procedures that create extra embryos.

Several years ago, Live Action founder Lila Rose, who is Catholic, came out against this kind of IVF, and many Christian commentors criticized her stance because of their personal experiences. Because so many Christians have participated in IVF to grow their families, it can be difficult to speak out against it in pro-life contexts.

Remaining true to biblical conviction, however, is more important than avoiding hurt feelings. I want to offer women the kind of resource I wish I had when I began IVF; Skipper and I both see a lack of Christian resources around IVF and plan to write a guide for couples considering potential IVF treatment.

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But some evangelicals have moral reservations that extend beyond the potential loss of embryos and dont support any form of IVF. Anderson, writing for First Things, argues that the doctrine of the imago Dei illuminates the problem of wrongful creation, not only of wrongful killing.

In her book Conceived by Science, Stephanie Gray Connors writes of how the process commodifies children through the freezing and grading of embryos deemed best to implant in the womb.

With this motivation, no longer is the human person valued for his or her uniqueness and nature of being an image bearer, she wrote. Instead, the person is valued, wanted and selected for the usefulness they provide to others.

She notes that the freezing process itself poses a risk to the embryos life, so it cant be ethical to endanger the lives of some children in an effort to create other children.

Christians heading up the nations leading pro-life organizations are beginning to vocalize their concerns about IVF more broadly as well.

Steve Aden, chief legal officer at Americans United for Life, told The Guardian that once people fully understand the implications of traditional IVF, they will turn away from this creation and freezing of hundreds of thousands of distinct individual human beings who remain in limbo forever or are ultimately cast off as if trash.

Since her experience with IVF, Skipper has become passionate about educating others about the realities of IVF and excessive embryo creation. As a national health care policy expert, Skipper feels privileged to understand the business of health care. Most people, she said, arent aware of the details or monetary motivations behind them.

High success rates are important to clinics, as this often results in more funding and patients.

When mothers choose alternative IVF routes, like refusing to create as many embryos, pregnancy success is less likely, reflecting on clinic rates as a whole. Thus, evangelical pro-lifers are bad for business.

You should be able to ask specific questions to your specialist to make sure its done in a way that 100 percent respects your pro-life stance, said Skipper. And if they try to explain to you that science doesnt work that way or whateverrun for the door, because thats the first sign that theyre not going to support you.
For the first time, the United States has recognized Azerbaijan as a violator of religious freedom.

Inclusion on the State Departments second-tier Special Watch List (SWL) subjects the oil-rich Shiite Muslimmajority nation to the possibility of economic sanctions.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called for the Caucasus nations censure each year since 2013. Created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), USCIRFs bipartisan yearly report evaluates systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations independent of US foreign policy concerns and tracks government implementation of its recommendations.

Complicating any consequences, Azerbaijan aligns with US foreign policy in certain areas: It cooperates closely with Israel, is aligned against Iran, and agreed to increase oil exports to Europe in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

In a brief statement, US secretary of state Antony Blinken kept unchanged all other 2022 designations mandated by the IRFA. Azerbaijan joins Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros, and Vietnam on the SWL, cited for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.

Twelve nationsChina, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistanagain received designations as first-tier Countries of Particular Concern (CPC).

USCIRF welcomed the designation of Azerbaijan. But it stated there was no justification for failing to follow its advice to also label India and Nigeria as CPCs.

India was first recommended from 20022004 as a CPC, from 20102019 for the SWL, and then again from 2020 onward as a CPC. Nigeria was recommended for the SWL from 20032008, and as a CPC since 2009.

While the State Department has never included India, former president Donald Trump listed Nigeria on the SWL in 2019 and as a CPC in 2020. President Joe Biden removed it entirely the following year.

USCIRF called for a congressional hearing over these omissions and further criticized the State Department for issuing sanction waivers for CPC violators Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

In a statement to CT, Lilieth Whyte, public outreach chief of the State Departments Office of International Religious Freedom, cited three main factors.

Azerbaijans laws place onerous registration requirements on religious groups to register nationally, restricting them further in their right to worship freely and select their own clergy. The government physically abuses, arrests, and imprisons religious activists, she added, while conscientious objectors are not permitted to serve their country in accordance with their beliefs.

Not mentioned was Azerbaijans months-long blockade of its Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakhwhich Armenians call Artsakhwhich culminated in an invasion last September that displaced more than 100,000 people.

At the time, Blinken urged Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev to immediately cease military actions. In November, assistant secretary of state James OBrien told a congressional committee that there cannot be business as usual in US relations.

But last December, the State Department press service clarified that cessation of interaction with Azerbaijan would be contrary to our interests. Instead, US policy would continue to press the country to greater respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as a lasting peace agreement with Armenia.

Shortly thereafter, the two nations swapped prisoners of war, announced as tangible steps towards building confidence in pursuit of a peace deal. Azerbaijan has stated that an agreement is close.

Zaven Khanjian, executive director of the Armenian Missionary Association of America, welcomed the State Department designation. Calling the displacement from Nagorno-Karabakh an example of ethnic cleansing, he also cited the erasure of Armenian heritage from areas under Azerbaijani control.

And he wants US pressure to move beyond a simple designation.

Armenians cannot wait until the oil fields in Baku dry up, Khanjian said, referring to the Azerbaijani capital city, for Washington to pursue punitive measures.

Many Armenians, however, are suspicious of the peace negotiations. Khanjian is in favor, but skeptical. His hesitation is rooted in distrust of autocratic Azerbaijan, and he believes Russian and American interests will also have to align. Still, he is praying.

One issue at stake is the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh. But Azerbaijan counters that ethnic Azeris displaced from Armenia in earlier conflicts should have their rights recognized as well. In letters sent to the United Nations, this includes the right of return westward to Armenia.

Blinkens designation was met with a harsh responsenot by the Aliyev administration, but by an association representing the displaced, formerly called the Azerbaijan Refugee Society. But one month prior to the invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh, the group changed its name to the Western Azerbaijan Community (WAC), whose website displays a map that includes the territory of Armenia.

The US list on religious freedom has no force, no weight, and we categorically reject it, stated the WAC, viewing it as an arrogant example of American hostility.

Aliyev has previously stated that Azerbaijan would return to these historical lands, but in vague terms amid official clarification that this does not include territorial claims.

As long as these veiled threats exist, said Craig Simonian, the Caucasus region coordinator for the World Evangelical Alliances Peace and Reconciliation Network, there is doubt that peace negotiations can be meaningful. Azerbaijan also continues to hold Artsakh Armenian political leaders and prisoners of war, while its troops are marshaled on the still-demarcated border.

And the language of Western Azerbaijan is hugely aggressive, he said, dismissed by mainstream scholars. But even so, and despite all that has happened, at least the two nations are talking.

Reconciliation can happen, Simonian said. Perhaps not between governmentsat least not quicklybut between those who choose to follow Christ.

Following his nations placement on the SWL, Aliyev spoke to some of these directly.

Christmas is a symbol of kindness, he told Azerbaijans Orthodox citizens, offering holiday greetings to the mostly ethnic Russian community who follow the Eastern calendar.

It is commendable that our Christian compatriots, taking advantage of the broad opportunities created by the exemplary relations between the state and religion, are keeping their unique traditions, language, and culture alive, Aliyev stated. Ethnic-religious diversity  is one of the predominant qualities of our society.

Christians comprise roughly 3 percent of Azerbaijans population. USCIRF has chided it along with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as authoritarian nations who are major investors in a promotion of religious tolerance that obscures the states responsibility and failure to protect and promote freedom of religion or belief for everyone.

And USCIRFs most recent country update stated that while Azerbaijan has stopped certain problematic practices, Protestants continue to face obstacles in registration. Not one non-Muslim community has been approved in the last three years.

It is not that bad, one Azerbaijani Christian leader told CT.

As part of the small circle of evangelicals, I dont see any major changes toward the churches, he said, requesting anonymity. We still have freedom, and I see this designation as a change in US politics.

Azerbaijans Protestants primarily come from a Muslim background.

But there is legitimacy, he added, in policies regulating the Islamic religion. Official religious authorities maintain control over Shiite mosques, with hundreds of mullahs arrested for their support of Iran. Wary of extremism, the secular government keeps a tight watch on foreign preachers of any religion and requires approval of any distributed spiritual literature.

The Azerbaijani Christian then provided a few anecdotes that reveal an uneven attitude toward Christianity.

One church regularly receives approval for visiting American pastors after informing security, he said. But two foreign Christians were denied residency visas under suspicion of unregistered evangelism.

One congregation of primarily Muslim converts wished to mark its ten-year anniversary in a large public hall. The government denied the permit, telling them to celebrate privately in the church. The pastor insisted, telling them to take away his registrationthreatening they would then lose contact with his house church network. With this the authorities relented, and the celebration ensued.

One former thug became a Christian and began evangelizing in a Muslim ethnic minority region. When residents complained, he was called into the police, and during interrogation he related his full spiritual testimony. Afterward, the captain told him he was free to continue and to let them know if anyone gave him trouble.

And in a humorous episode, a preacher of short stature planted a church in a border territory far from Baku. Local authorities arrested him but, without a law that forbade his evangelism, charged him instead with assault against the hulking officers. The judge asked how this was possible.

He answered: It was easy, sir. My wife held them down.

Laughing, the judge dismissed all charges.

Why then does the Christian leader remain anonymous?

Anything political, unless 100 percent in support of the government, might be used against me, he said. As long as Christians have peace with the authorities, I dont want to break the balance.

Freedom House calls Azerbaijan not free, ranking the nation No. 13 from the bottom in its annual Freedom in the World report. But the nation is not currently ranked in the Open Doors World Watch List of the top 50 countries where it is hardest to follow Jesus, though in 2016 it rose as high as No. 34.

Yet for the first time, the US has grouped Azerbaijan with 4 other offending nations, following 12 countries in the first tier of violations. Will designation result in improvement for any?

The challenges to religious freedom across the globe are structural, systemic, and deeply entrenched, stated Blinken. But with thoughtful, sustained commitment from those who are unwilling to accept hatred, intolerance, and persecution as the status quo, we will one day see a world where all people live with dignity and equality.

[ This article is also available in Francais, , and . ]
Home News Christian group launches first-ever religious violence database tracking global persecution

A database tracking incidents of violent religious persecution worldwide has been launched by Global Christian Relief, a U.S.-based group monitoring Christian persecution. The Violent Incidents Database stands as the first and only events-based global religious freedom dataset of its kind.

The VID, accessible to the public, catalogs over a dozen types of violence, including killings, arrests, abductions, sexual harassment, pressure and forced marriages. It allows searches by country, religion and perpetrator, offering an unprecedented level of verification, the group says.

The perpetrators responsible for persecution include ethnic group leaders, extended family, government officials, ideological pressure groups, multilateral organizations, civilians, organized crime, political parties, religious leaders, revolutionaries or paramilitary groups, and violent religious groups.

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The database, which began recording global reports of violent attacks in 2022, is currently tracking more than 6,000 incidents, according to GCR.

This database helps give a voice to the voiceless by recording and sharing details of specific attacks suffered by Christians and other people of faith globally, says GCRs CEO David Curry. Our hope is that this remarkable resource will be utilized by anyone advocating and reporting on behalf of the persecuted church.

The Violent Incidents Databases research is funded by GCR and conducted by the International Institute for Religious Freedom, a leading think tank in religious freedom.

We live in a world where the violent persecution of Christians and other religious groups is rampant and increasing, says Ronald Boyd-MacMillan, GCRs Chief of Global Strategy and Research. This database not only helps us track the violence but helps us better understand what persecuted Christians really need from their brothers and sisters around the world.

The database will be featured at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30-31.

It will also contribute to the upcoming GCR Global Religious Freedom Index, a comprehensive tool launching this spring, the group says.

According to Aid to the Church in Need, over 4.9 billion people reside in countries with severe violations of religious freedom.

These 4.9 billion people live in 61 countries, where the state of religious freedom, as secured in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, looks grim, said an ACN report titled "Religious Freedom in the World Report 2023" that covered the period from January 2021 to December 2022.

It means that 62% of humanity lives in countries where people are not free to practice, express or change their religion, ACN said. Culprits of religious freedom violations range from armed terror groups to authoritarian governments, but the rule continues to be one of impunity for attackers who are rarely, if ever, brought to justice or criticized by the international community.

Of the 61 countries, 28 were marked in red, denoting hot countries where persecution is rampant, while an additional 33 were marked in orange, indicating high levels of discrimination.

The GCRs VID aims to record violations of religious freedom, with an emphasis on tracking violence on five continents, but doesnt claim exhaustive coverage, according to IIRF, which notes that the data is based on reports published in digital media available on the internet. Many incidents are never made public or do not receive sufficient attention from authorities or media, it acknowledges.
Home News ISIS claims responsibility for twin bombings in Iran after president blames Israel

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the devastating twin blasts near the burial site of Gen. Qasem Soleimani in southern Iran, marking the deadliest attack in the country since its 1979 revolution.

The Wednesday incident resulted in at least 84 fatalities and 284 injuries, as reported by Irans state-run news agency IRNA.

According to IS's media wing Al-Furqan, the attack was executed by two suicide bombers, identified as brothers, during the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Soleimani, CNN reported.

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A significant figure in Iran known for his role as the head of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, Soleimani was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2020 ordered by then-President Donald Trump.

The statement, titled And Kill Them Wherever You Find Them, indicated that the bombers targeted a gathering of Shiites near Soleimanis grave in Kerman, his hometown. IS views the Shia branch of Islam as heretical and has a history of targeting shrines and religious sites in Iran.

The groups narrative of the event, including a higher death toll, contrasts with Iranian media reports. Both IRNA and the English-language state media outlet Press TV acknowledged the terror groups claim.

Press TV reports, citing IS' affiliate Telegram channels, that the attackers used explosive belts. Irans interior minister described the blasts as occurring in quick succession, with the second, more lethal explosion happening as people rushed to aid the wounded. State media outlet IRINN suggested that a remotely detonated bomb caused the first explosion in a car rather than by a suicide bomber.

The aftermath of the explosions was chaotic, with videos showing large crowds, injured individuals, and ambulances navigating through the masses. Iran declared a day of mourning following the attack. President Ebhrahim Raisi canceled a scheduled trip to Turkey.

In the immediate aftermath, President Raisi accused Israel of orchestrating the blasts, warning of a heavy price. However, the Israeli military did not comment on these allegations. Before IS claim, analysts and a U.S. official indicated that the nature of the attack bore the hallmarks of a terrorist act, with IS being a likely perpetrator, according to CNN.

France 24s Wassim Nasr highlighted the deep-seated animosity between the Sunni IS group and Soleimani, a leader in the Shiite states Revolutionary Guards Corps, as a driving force behind the bombings. Nasr said while the bombings were linked to the war in Gaza, Israel didnt have a role in it.

U.S. intelligence, through communications intercepts, confirmed the groups Afghanistan-based branch, ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), as the perpetrator, Reuters reports. The intelligence was described as clear-cut and indisputable.

ISIS-K, known for its intense hatred for Shiites, has been responsible for several attacks in Iran, including a 2022 attack on a Shiite shrine and the 2017 bombings at the parliament and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinis tomb.

In response to the bombings, Iranian security forces have arrested 11 suspects and seized explosive devices and vests. Despite Taliban crackdowns in Afghanistan, which have weakened ISIS-K, the group continues to focus on foreign operations, as noted by U.S. officials, the newswire said.
Home News 5 Supreme Court cases to watch in 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court will take on several significant cases in 2024, with decisions expected within the next several months that could significantly impact the direction of the country.

Nearly two years after overturning the infamous 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision, the highest court in the land will again tackle the issue of abortion and questions regarding its access to the general public.

The high court will also determine the future of firearms regulations and efforts to curb social media censorship. It could also play a role in the 2024 presidential election.

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The following pages highlight five critical cases the Supreme Court is expected to release decisions on in its current term. They include legal challenges to the abortion pill, a ban on bump stocks for firearms, laws that try to quell social media censorship and an obstruction case related to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
Home News Americans' right to protest on US Capitol grounds expanded 3 years after Jan. 6 riot

The right of American citizens to hold peaceful protests on the United States Capitol grounds has been restored nearly three years after the Jan. 6 riot that led to increased security at the complex.

In a video shared on the Center for American Libertys X account, the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition announced that the Peoples House has been returned to the people. Mahoney spoke in front of the U.S. Capitol, recalling, Tragically, after Jan. 6, the Capitol grounds were surrounded by 10-foot fences with barbed wire and for 18 months, all peaceful First Amendment activity and free speech activities were prohibited.

Through the heroic efforts of the Center for American Liberty and after three federal lawsuits, the grounds of the United States Capitol are back open to free speech, he added. We are excited to announce after a recent settlement with the United States government, even more free speech rights are afforded to us here at the Capitol.

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In a statement shared with The Christian Post, the Center for American Liberty elaborated on the additional free speech rights granted to those seeking to hold protests on Capitol grounds. The maximum number of people who can participate in protests without a permit has increased from 19 to 30, and the permit application time has been reduced from 10 to five business days.

Mahoneys legal efforts date back to August 2021, when he filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after his request to hold a prayer vigil on U.S. Capitol grounds in recognition of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. The complaint maintained that the U.S. government violated his First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act by denying his request to hold the vigil while allowing other secular protests to take place.

In his first lawsuit, Mahoney asked for a declaration that the failure to grant his request to hold a vigil on Capitol grounds ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution and federal law, an injunction requiring the government to approve his request and nominal, compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorneys fees.

Harmeet Dhillon, CEO and founder of the Center for American Liberty, reacted to the latest developments in the case by stating, Reverend Mahoneys settlement is a triumph for the First Amendment and equal protection, assuring that citizens enjoying their First Amendment rights will be treated no differently than members of Congress on the Capitol steps.

As the Center for American Liberty noted, the settlement also includes a provision stating that members of Congress and the organizations they support can only circumvent the permitting requirements to hold protests on Capitol grounds if they either personally organize or sponsor and attend the event. The law firm explained that although the settlement addressed most of Mahoneys concerns, his case against the buffer zone implemented around the eastern steps of the U.S. Capitol remains ongoing.

The increased security measures imposed at the U.S. Capitol followed the Jan. 6, 2021, riot where supporters of former President Donald Trump entered the complex as members of the U.S. Congress were starting to debate the electoral votes of the 2020 presidential election. The riot stemmed from concerns about voter fraud in the election, given unprecedented voting changes various states allowed in that election. The settlement came just days before the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot.

Last weeks settlement is not the first legal victory Mahoney has enjoyed as he has sought to hold demonstrations on Capitol grounds. Last year, Mahoney was able to hold a Good Friday service on the complex for the first time in two years after a federal judge ruled in favor of the Christian Defense Coalition. As was the case with his effort to hold a prayer vigil on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Mahoney had his requests to hold Good Friday services on Capitol grounds denied in the previous two years.
MANZINI  There is a cash flow crisis in the country, which has led to government failing to pay arrears reportedly in excess of E700 million.

A cash flow shortage, according to Growthforce, happens when more money is flowing out of a business and or an establishment than it is coming in. As such, the website, which offers expert information on financial management, states that this means that during a cash flow shortage, an entity might not have enough money to cover payroll or other operating expenses.

According to impeccable sources, government has in recent weeks been stretched in meeting its financial obligations, which include settling arrears for local private hospitals and doctors of over E220 million for services rendered under Phalala Fund.

Arrears

The sources claimed that there were arrears of over E480 million, which were owed to suppliers and service providers as well. They supposed that the debts had accrued in the third quarter of this financial year as most of the resources needed in the country had been poured towards resuscitating the collapsed health sector. This is because in recent months, government has been settling arrears of the Ministry of Health to ensure that suppliers were catered for while also ensuring that there was activity in the economy. The sources proximated the arrears to be in the region of E700 million and claimed that the delay in their payment could lead to long-term challenges.

Budgets

Inasmuch as government budgets for each financial year, the revenue inflow is not consistent with the demands, the source said. The source explained that when government set its budget for the year, it projected on revenue collections, which included the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) receipts, which were received quarterly, tax collection and other streams of income, like fines. The source explained that currently, the demands by the various sectors of government were beyond what was available. He said the demands were in all the sectors government rendered services in and included the payments of grants (elderly, disability, free primary education (FPE) and the orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs). The source said there was also the issue of scholarships and ensuring the smooth flow of government operations, which needed to be catered for at all instances.

The source said all these services needed government to regularly disburse money towards ensuring that they were flowing without hindrance and when a cash flow crisis ensued, it destabilised these services. If the cash flow challenge persists for a longer period, it leads to issues like schools complaining that they have not been paid their grants and or other sectors voicing out their challenges in terms of financing, the source explained.

Acknowledged

The Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, acknowledged that there was a cash flow crisis, but said it would be sorted out this week. The minister was sought for comment to establish if the country was facing a cash flow challenge, what could be the solution to this predicament and when was it anticipated to be sorted out. Rijkenberg acknowledged that there was a cash flow challenge and said governments obligations had been stretched in recent weeks, while other ministries had required more resources to deal with their challenges. However, he said this would be a thing of the past, as the country would be getting its quarterly share of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) receipts. Rijkenberg said: We shall be receiving SACU and we shall be paying suppliers if all goes well from next week.

He acknowledged that the amount owed to suppliers was estimated to be about E700 million. The minister acknowledged that another challenge that the ministry faced was that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) investment was yet to yield positive results. It has been brought to my attention that we may see returns from it in the upcoming weeks as well. That will bring huge relief to the cash flow of government, the minister said. It is worth noting that in the 2022 national budget, the ministry planned to raise money through the JSE; however, the legislation to facilitate this took a while through Parliament as there were time delays in getting the listing done. On the other hand, Rijkenberg explained that the first and last quarter in the budget cycle in most instances had heavier payments to be made, because the budget opened which put pressure on spending and it was the same case when it closed.

Receipts

In July last year, government paid its suppliers and service providers arrears of about E2.8 billion after it had received provisional tax payments, which came through and contributed to about E800 million. Rijkenberg, at the time, said there was also the SACU receipts which came through, which was around E3 billion. On the other hand, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) states that Eswatinis economic prospects for 2023 and 2024 are favourable, partly because of higher SACU revenues. It was highlighted that the government budget proposed an expenditure increase, as SACU revenues doubled in 2023. This projected increase in government expenditure, it was said, supported economic activity and external funding of major capital projects, such as the Mkhondvo-Ngwavuma project had a boost to both demand and supply. The wholesale and retail, construction and public administration sectors were all expected to benefit from higher public spending, while the tourism sector was expected to continue its recovery and remittances were said to be picking up.

However, the IMF stated that difficulties in the external and domestic environments constrained the countrys growth potential. It was said although real gross domestic product (GDP) growth was expected to reach three per cent in 2023 and 2.9 per cent in 2024; global turmoil was likely to dampen economic activity. With Ukraine and Russia accounting for over 30 per cent of the global supply of food and commodities (grains, oils, fertilisers, and energy), the ongoing war in Ukraine will continue to affect global output, disrupt supply chains and raise commodity prices, read part of the IMFs outlook.

It was said that Eswatini was faced with multiple development challenges to ensure inclusive, sustainable, and resilient economic growth. Central among these, according to the IMF, was Eswatinis unsustainable public sector-driven growth model, which had trapped the country in a low growth and high poverty and inequality equilibrium and crowded out investments in productive sectors and private sector development. The IMF further said fluctuations in SACU revenues and weak domestic revenue mobilisation, with the domestic tax-to-GDP ratio ranging from 12 per cent to 15 per cent; attributable to a narrow tax base, high informality, and Value-Added Tax (VAT) exemptions had contributed to fiscal deficits, complicated fiscal management, and reduced resources for service delivery and investments in job creation.

Credit

Access to credit for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is constrained by limited digitisation of enterprise cash flows, weak secured transaction and insolvency regimes, high collateral requirements and limited quality of credit information. Women SMEs are particularly impacted by lack of access to credit. A 2016-17 survey found that only 10 per cent of all micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) owners in Eswatini accessed formal credit to start their businesses, while 90 per cent reported starting their businesses using their savings, borrowing from friends and family, informal credit and grants. Many women struggle to find access to credit to launch or grow their businesses. In 2020, only 13 per cent of women-owned businesses accessed formal credit versus 19 per cent of male-owned enterprises, reads the outlook in part.

Challenge

It is worth noting that the country experienced a cash flow challenge at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in government seeking financial assistance of about E2.06 billion when converted into yesterdays rate, which stood at US$1 being equivalent to E18.76. When the assistance was sought, it was equated by IMF to being equivalent to about US$110.4 million (SDR78.5 million). It was sought from the IMFs Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) to meet the urgent balance of payment needs, stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Home News Biden campaign ad calls MAGA 'dangerous,' 'extremist movement'

The first ad for President Joe Biden's 2024 reelection campaign describes millions of Donald Trump supporters as "extremists" leading up to the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

The video, which was released Thursday and titled "Cause," highlights what Biden calls the "preservation of American democracy" as the "central issue" of the 81-year-old's reelection campaign.

"There's something dangerous happening in America," the Democrat says in the ad's voiceover. "There's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy. All of us are being asked right now, what will we do to maintain our democracy?

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"History's watching. The world is watching."

The ad features still images from the U.S. Capitol riot showing masked and hooded protesters holding up Trump signs and banners, as well as abbreviated video clips showing torch-carrying and Confederate-flag-waving protesters in white nationalist rallies.

Biden adds, "The vice president and I have supported voting rights since day one of this administration, and I ask every American to join me in this cause. America's still a place of possibilities, where the power presides with 'we the people.'"

While Biden has avoided directly mentioning Trump's name in previous speeches touching on Jan. 6, the campaign plans on "being more aggressive towards Trump," leading up to a speech commemorating the riot, Axios reported.

It's not the first time Biden has linked political support for Trump with "extremism." In a Sept. 2022 speech, Biden said, "Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic. ... There is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country."

Some Christian leaders and conservative commentators slammed the new Biden ad, including author and podcaster Eric Metaxas, who equated the president to a former British king.

Metaxas tweeted, "Joe Biden is King George III. Those who love liberty are his enemies  so he calls us 'extremists.' Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin were 'extremists.' God bless America! This is our second Revolution to win liberty for all."

Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk wrote on social media that the Democratic strategy unfolding in several states to have Trump's name removed from the ballot runs counter to Biden's comments on his "voting rights."

"Joe Biden's first 2024 campaign ad calls millions of Americans' extremists' and touts his voting rights record ... as they are actively kicking Trump off the ballot," wrote Kirk. "George Orwell is rolling over in his grave."

Last month, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump cannot be placed on the ballot for the 2024 election, citing his connection to the U.S. Capitol riot.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the Colorado court decision, attended a private White House campaign event for Biden on Nov. 28.

Also in December, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced her intention to remove Trump from the 2024 ballot pending a court challenge.

Cases have been filed in more than a dozen states to have Trump thrown off the 2024 ballot under a disputed legal theory involving the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone from holding office who previously has taken an oath to defend the Constitution and then later "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the country or given "aid or comfort" to its enemies, The Associated Press reports.

To date, Trump has not been charged with or convicted of insurrection or rebellion.

Last August, a federal grand jury indicted Trump on four counts related to efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election on Tuesday.

The grand jury charged the 77-year-old former president with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
Home News Identity theft charges against Tennessee pastor dropped

Criminal charges leveled against a Tennessee pastor who once competed on American Idol and The Voice have been dropped, though he still faces similar charges in Georgia.

Late last month, charges of identity theft and theft of merchandise made against Pastor Steven Flockhart of 901 Church of Millington were dropped, according to the Memphis-based Fox 13.

According to court records, the charges were dropped because "the prosecutor or plaintiff has decided to abandon the prosecution or lawsuit," reported Fox 13.

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Although the charges in Tennessee have been dropped, Flockhart still reportedly faces similar charges in Cherokee County, Georgia, according to the church watchdog group MinistryWatch.

Last year, Flockhart was accused of opening a credit card account with a fellow church member that was meant only for ministry expenses but then used it for private expenses.

In September of last year, the church member reportedly found that his credit score had dropped and that he had a balance of about $6,400 on the credit card. The victim alleged that Flockhart had confessed.

Flockhart was arrested last November.

Scott Hibbard, a former member of 901 Church, told Fox 13 last November that he was really disappointed in Flockhart and that his alleged crime crosses so many lines.

We really liked the church and thought it was a great place to fit in, said Hibbard. I was very disappointed. Im frustrated with it because we're Christ followers, and to see this happen to someone else. Its like, What? Why?

901 Church leadership posted a statement on Facebook last year, saying they were aware of the recent allegations against Pastor Stevie Flockhart made by Dana Mark McCall.

While we do not find the allegations factual, we believe that vindication is from God and stand firm in His sovereignty and truth, stated the church. Please pray for our pastor and his family, for the hearts of those who seek to attack him and the church, and the community.

The statement went on to quote the words of Jewish leader Gamaliel, as found in Acts 5:38-39, which reads: Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.
Home News Indian priest removed from church posts week after joining Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party

An Orthodox priest in Kerala, a southern state of India, was relieved of his official duties in the church after he chose to join the Bharatiya Janata Party months before the national election. This party is known for its Hindu nationalist ideology, which has been linked to a surge in violence against the Christian minority in India.

The Malankara Orthodox Church has removed Fr. Shaiju Kurian, who became a member of the BJP on Dec. 30 during a Christmas celebration organized by the party, Indian Express reported, saying his association with the BJP had sparked controversy within the community and the church is investigating complaints against him.

His decision to join the BJP, along with 47 other church members, led to protests by some churchgoers. The churchs official release stated that Kurian, who served as the secretary of the Nilackal diocese, was removed from all posts during the probe period. The diocesan council has set a two-month timeline for the commission to investigate the complaints.

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The church clarified, however, that it has no policy against priests joining political parties.

Meanwhile, another priest, Fr. Mathews Vazhakunnam, told the Kerala State Womens Commission about alleged verbal sexual harassment by Kurian against a female church member. Vazhakunnam reportedly suggested that Kurian joined the BJP after learning that the woman planned to report the incident to church authorities.

Kurian has denied all allegations, including the charge of verbal sexual harassment, and claimed that he had requested a few months leave from the church.

This incident follows a similar case where the Syro-Malabar church in the state relieved a priest of his pastoral duties after he joined the BJP, according to The South First, which said the Bishop of Idukki, Mar John Nellikunnel, removed Fr. Kuriakose Mattam from his position, citing a lack of necessary permissions for political involvement.

In anticipation of Indias general election scheduled around May, the BJP is actively engaging with the Christian community in Kerala and other regions. The party is seeking its third consecutive five-year term in this upcoming election.

On Christmas Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from the BJP, hosted Christian leaders for a Christmas lunch in his residence in New Delhi. Days later, more than 3,000 Christians from across the country signed a statement dissociating from the Christian leaders who attended the Christmas lunch.

While it is certainly within his right as Prime Minister to host a reception for whomsoever he wishes, one naturally would question the intention of this reception when he has not condemned a single attack on the Christians under his prime ministership. Interestingly, while he praised Jesus Christ and waxed eloquent about the services of the Christian community, he did not share remorse or empathy for the situation of the Christians in the country today, the protesting Christians said in a press release, The Wire reported.

Those invited to the Christmas reception were a select group of Christians. While the invitation was from the Prime Minister, here was an opportunity for them to courteously decline the invite in the light of what has been happening to the Christians in Manipur and elsewhere, it continued. When these Christian representatives spoke at the reception, they were giving a tacit approval to the omission and commission of this government. Hence, their acceptance of this invite was not in our name!

The first half of 2023 saw a surge in violence against Christians across 23 states in India, according to a New Delhi-based human rights group, United Christian Forum, which identified 400 incidents, up from 274 reported over the same period the previous year.

According to UCFs findings, the number of violent incidents against Christians has been rising steadily in India since 2014, when the BJP came to power in the country, with a significant spike observed in 2021 and 2022.
Home News Christian ministry collecting 5,000 pairs of shoes to give to the needy

A Pennsylvania-based Christian radio ministry has set the goal of collecting 5,000 pairs of new or slightly used shoes to send to the needy abroad and to help support their outreach in India.

The Tide Ministry officially launched its third annual Your Soles, Their Souls shoe donation drive last Tuesday, with donations accepted through March 6.

According to the ministry, the donations will aid micro-businesses in assorted developing countries, while any funds raised will help Gospel outreach via literacy classes in India.

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Tide Director Don Shenk told The Christian Post that the shoe collection charity effort has multiple positive aspects, including helping to raise awareness for their ministry work abroad.

Those who donate their shoes experience the joy of engaging with The Tide ministry to meaningfully impact the lives of people living in less fortunate circumstances by simply decluttering their closets, said Shenk.

Their donated shoes provide inventory for entrepreneurial vendors in disadvantaged economies to earn a living, and the funds provided by the partner organization that collects and distributes the shoes make it possible for illiterate villagers in remote locations to learn how to read and write.

Tides inaugural shoe drive in 2022 resulted in 4,032 pairs of new or gently used shoes being donated, while last years drive saw 4,175 pairs donated.

Shenk told CP his ministry is hoping to reach 5,000 pairs, noting that they have recruited more individuals, congregations, and businesses to help collect shoes, and are working hard to get the word out to as many people as we can.

Through increased promotion and additional collection sites we believe we will meet, and potentially exceed, our goal, he added.

The Tide has provided a list of places in Pennsylvania where people can drop off pairs of shoes, as well as a list of churches in the Commonwealth that are participating in the charity drive.

Shenk added that he hopes those who receive the donated shoes will realize that the Christian faith is more than just an internal belief system.

[Christianity] includes a global community of believers physically helping to care for one another and reach out to the lost in the same way that Jesus demonstrated love and compassion, he said.

There are several examples in Scripture where Jesus took someone by the hand to lift them up or lead them to a place of healing. Following Christ includes striving to imitate Him in extending a hand up to others who are in need.
Home News What is Epiphany? 5 things every believer should know

It might not be the biggest holiday on the Christian calendar, but Epiphany, otherwise known as Feast of the Epiphany or Three Kings Day, is, along with Christmas and Easter, one of the three principal and oldest festival days in the Church.

Traditionally marked on Jan. 6, Epiphany  which comes from epiphaneia, Greek for manifestation"  is typically celebrated by Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans and some Eastern Orthodox churches.

While some traditions link Epiphany with the wise men from the East who sojourned to Bethlehem for Jesus birth, some Orthodox traditions say its more aligned with the baptism of Christ.

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Here are five things to know about Epiphany, whether you celebrate it or not.
Home Opinion The myth of Genesis

While compiling material for a class I was teaching on creation many years ago, I listened through a series of podcasts from William Lane Craigs Defenders series on the subject while working out at the gym. In his typical style, Craig methodically worked through the various young and old earth theories, chronicling both the pros and cons of each one.

At the end of the last episode, Craig said: Now Im sure all of you want to know which theory I believe is correct. He was spot on where I was concerned so I sat down on a weight bench, eagerly waiting for the answer. Craig paused and then said: I have no idea.

WHAT?!

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The guy who possessed two Ph.D.s, was a former seminary professor and acknowledged to be one of the worlds top Christian apologists and thinkers hadnt reached a conclusion on Genesis? To be fair, Craig went on to explain which combination of theories he found credible and in union with Scripture but maintained he still wasnt 100% certain how God created everything.

Completely sure that God created everything? Yes. But knowing exactly how it all happened? No.

Admitting such a thing doesnt go over well with some Christians who assert that the first chapter of Genesis is as clear as the nose on your face. For example, I had a guy who had been attending a bible class I taught each week bail when I acknowledged I couldnt say with confidence that the Genesis account equaled a young earth.

Now, on a high level, I appreciate the importance he put on the subject. After all, its one of the four major questions of life: 1. Where did I come from? 2. How should I live? 3. Why am I here? 4. Where am I going?

But is an answer to the THAT component (or efficient cause) of the where-did-I-come-from question sufficient or do you need to know all the details of the HOW part too to sleep well at night?

The candidates

You have two core, opposing options for the efficient cause of everything that exists. Theres Naturalistic Evolution, which involves an eternal universe, no God engaged in creation, and things emerging by pure, natural processes. Then you have Theistic Creation, with God directly creating the universe and living things, but with an ongoing debate concerning how many things were originally created and how much time it took.

It's no shocker that Christians affirm option two with Scripture declaring: You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before You (Neh. 9:6).

So far so good.

But next comes the how part of creation, which divides up initially into the young and old earth camps. After that the waters get a tad muddy because there are quite a few candidates for both the young and old earth positions, all of which I chronicle in this presentation that you can freely view.

All views actually agree on more things than they disagree. They all acknowledge the direct supernatural creation of all forms of life, oppose pure Naturalism, and insist on the historicity of the Genesis account among other things. What they disagree on is the age of the earth and whether the days in Genesis are literal or allegorical.

Many Christians bristle at the allegorical/symbolic stance and idea that God may have used the same natural processes we see at work today in the beginnings of creation. They fear that such a position turns Genesis into a myth.

Maybe it does. But its definitely not the kind of myth that we routinely think of when we hear the word.

Historian and Old Testament expert Dr. John Oswalt trounces the idea that the Bible and the Genesis account are typical myth, as in pure fiction vs. history. In his book, The Bible Among the Myths: Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature, Oswalt builds a case for the Bible not being myth by carefully identifying and comparing the characteristics of mythology and Scripture and concludes, Whatever the Bible is, it is not myth. That is to say, I have concluded that the similarities between the Bible and the rest of the literatures of the ancient Near East are superficial, while the differences are essential.

By contrast, the type of myth some Christian thinkers postulate for Genesis is the one put forward by C. S. Lewis who was a literary scholar at both Oxford and Cambridge, and thus more than above average when it came to evaluating literature. Of the creation account, Lewis wrote the following in his essay Dogma and the Universe: The first chapters of Genesis, no doubt, give the story of creation in the form of a folk-tale.

Lewis briefly mentioned the symbolic possibility of a creation account in his book Miracles where he defined myth as at its best, a real though unfocused gleam of divine truth falling on human imagination. He expounded on the idea much more in his essay Myth Became Fact where he clearly stated that myth in this case is not fiction or falsity, saying: Even assuming (which I most constantly deny) that the doctrines of historic Christianity are merely mythical, it is the myth which is the vital and nourishing element.

Lewis asserted that the type of myth literature found in the creation account was a human way of attempting to explain various realities that could not be adequately described in ordinary language: What flows into you from the myth is not truth but reality (truth is always about something, but reality is that about which truth is), and, therefore, every myth becomes the father of innumerable truths on the abstract level.

Lewis sums up his position by stating: To be truly Christian we must both assent to the historical fact and also receive the myth (fact though it has become) with the same imaginative embrace which we accord to all myths  In the enjoyment of a great myth we come nearest to experiencing as a concrete what can otherwise be understood only as an abstraction.

Now, could Lewis and others holding to an allegorical framework of creation be wrong? Of course. Could a literal six-day creation be correct or one involving a progressive process much like what we experience today? Sure.

Dr. Gerald Schroeder, in his book, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, says those and more are possible with God: Why not an instant universe? At the Israelite Exodus from Egypt, the Bible tells that God used a wind that blew all night to split the Sea of Reeds (Ex. 14:21). Why an all-night wind rather than perhaps a hand from Heaven? That would have been much more impressive.

Whatever the favored interpretation, the account of Genesis 1-3 is one that is history behind the literature, and needs to be because as Francis Schaeffer writes in his book The God Who is There: Take away the first three chapters of Genesis, and you cannot maintain a true Christian position nor give Christianitys answers.

All of this leads me to the same situation I was in on that weight bench at the gym years ago, angry because William Lane Craig didnt lay down a militant declaration on creation. I get his position now, and although I can discuss with you my leanings on the subject (Im in the old earth camp) and their biblical rationale, in the end, if you press me hard, Im going to tell you the same thing Craig did on the subject of how creation happened:

I have no idea.
Iranian woman faces imprisonment for converting to Christianity

In a disconcerting turn of events, a sixty year old Iranian Christian convert, Mina Khajavi, finds herself on the brink of a six year prison sentence, accused of "acting against national security by promoting 'Zionist' Christianity".

Khajavi's ordeal commenced in 2020 when she was apprehended, and her sentencing process then unfolded in 2022. These legal proceedings also involved two other individuals: Malihe Nazari, a fellow Christian convert who received a parallel six year sentence, and Iranian-Armenian pastor Joseph Shahbazian, handed a more severe ten year sentence.

While Shahbazian and Nazari commenced serving their sentences a few months later, Khajavi faced a temporary reprieve. A car accident had left her with a severely broken ankle, necessitating the insertion of metal plates. Despite enduring persistent physical challenges, including walking with a limp and developing arthritis, Khajavi's respite came to an abrupt end on January 3 when she was instructed to report to Evin Prison within five days.

In a somewhat contrasting turn of events, Shahbazian and Nazari, both convicted on similar charges, managed to secure early release.

Shahbazian's initial two year sentence was further diminished by an appeal-court judge citing insufficient evidence under Article 498 of the Islamic Penal Code, related to organising groups perceived as threats to national security.

By September 2023, Shahbazian had received a full pardon and was released. Nazari, granted freedom earlier in 2023, reportedly obtained her release due to her son's declining health as he battled leukemia.

Amid this legal saga, activists are keenly advocating for the immediate and unconditional exoneration of Khajavi. They highlight the injustice of her imprisonment solely based on her Christian faith and passionately implore Iran to cease its harassment of the Christian community.

The activists have drawn attention to a previous legal benchmark - the November 2021 Supreme Court ruling explicitly stating that "the promotion of Christianity and the formation of a house-church is not criminalised in law" and should not be considered a threat to national security.

As this troubling narrative unfolds, Mina Khajavi's plight serves as a stark reminder of the challenges encountered by certain religious minorities in specific regions, prompting global concerns about religious freedom and human rights.
Religious freedom groups criticise Biden administration for leaving Nigeria off violators list

(CP) Religious freedom advocacy groups are criticizing the Biden administration for leaving Nigeria off the U.S. State Department list of the world's worst violators of religious freedom despite constant attacks and violence impacting Christian communities.

The U.S. State Department released its annual list of Countries of Particular Concern Thursday, a label assigned to nations that have "engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom."

Nigeria was absent from the list for the third year in a row, although the Nigerian Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram was listed under the category of "Entities of Particular Concern." In 2020, Nigeria was added to the CPC list by the Trump administration but was removed during the first year of the Biden administration.

ADF International's Global Counsel for Religious Freedom Sean Nelson denounced the omission of Nigeria from the CPC list, saying in a statement Friday that "More Christians are being killed in Nigeria for their faith than in all other countries combined."

"We are disappointed and deeply concerned that the Biden administration again has failed to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for its egregious violations of religious freedom," said Nelson. "The United States should increase pressure on Nigeria for the blatant violations of religious freedom occurring in the country."

"Since it is clear that the State Department will not take significant action over the terrible religious freedom conditions in Nigeria, it is vital that Congress makes its voice heard."

ADF International was one of several advocacy groups to sign on to a letter last month urging members of Congress to back a measure calling on the State Department to designate Nigeria a CPC and seeking the appointment of a special envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad region.

The letter elaborated on the violations of religious freedom engulfing the African nation, explicitly highlighting how "90 percent of all the Christians killed for their faith worldwide last year were killed in Nigeria."

The letter cited statistics documenting how 100 Catholic priests had been kidnapped since the start of 2022, and 20 of them were murdered. Additional data included in the letter noted the torching of 17,000 Christian churches in Nigeria since 2009, many of which were burned with congregants inside.

In addition to highlighting the crimes committed against Christians in Nigeria, the letter condemned the government's response to those crimes as indicative of "a problematic level of apathy" as it "routinely failed to investigate these attacks and prosecute those responsible."

The advocacy organizations cited the frequent enforcement of blasphemy laws against Christians as an example of government-sanctioned persecution.

"These laws have been accompanied by a routine grant of impunity for extrajudicial attacks against their perceived violators," the letter stated. "Last year, there was the unprosecuted mob killing of student Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu after she was accused of blasphemy and the unprosecuted serious death threats against the Sultan of Sokoto, Sokoto's Catholic bishop, and Rhoda Jatau, a Christian woman, all three of whom were targeted for expressing disapproval of Yakubu's murder."

Two weeks after the letter was entered into the Congressional Record and a week before the State Department released its list of CPCs, more than160 Christians were massacred in coordinated attacks that began on the Saturday before Christmas and lasted through the holiday. Hundreds of homes in predominantly Christian areas of Nigeria were burned as well.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also expressed outrage about Nigeria's absence from the CPC list despite the organization's 2023 Annual Report including Nigeria on its list of recommended CPCs.

In a statement published Thursday, USCIRF Chair Abraham Cooper and USCIRF Vice Chair Frederick Davie called for a congressional hearing on "the failure of the State Department to follow our recommendations" concerning Nigeria.

The USCIRF leaders maintained that "there is no justification as to why the State Department did not designate Nigeria ... as a Country of Particular Concern, despite its own reporting and statements."

The USCIRF leaders cited the Christmas massacre as "the latest example of deadly violence against religious communities in Nigeria that even the State Department has condemned," adding that "the majority of Commissioners have travelled to Nigeria and noted the threats to freedom of religion or belief and the deadly implications to religious communities."

While the State Department took USCIRF's recommendation to place Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan on the CPC list, it did not include the other five countries USCIRF recommended the designation for: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Syria and Vietnam.

The department acknowledged that "significant violations of religious freedom also occur in countries that are not designated."

Regarding Afghanistan, the State Department listed the ruling Islamic terrorist group, the Taliban, as an Entity of Particular Concern.

 The Christian Post
Global real estate advisor CBRE has been exclusively appointed by Bahrains Future Generation Reserve Fund (FGF) as property manager and leasing consultant for its 38-floor mixed-use development, Future Generation Reserve Tower.

Strategically located on the waterfront, overlooking Bahrain Financial Harbour and Bahrain Bay, the Tower is a 38-floor mixed-use high specification development with a gross built area of approximately 63,000 sq m on a plot area of 12,000 sq m.

The under-construction property will provide office space, F&B outlets, dedicated car parking and other modern facilities.

The tower is set to become a new financial icon for Bahrain as the headquarters of the Future Generation Reserve Fund and will lead the way in sustainability as a registered project for LEED certification. As well as accommodating key government entities, the remainder of the prime office space will be available to private entities for lease.

The property and facilities management agreement was signed by Yusuf Abdulla Alhumood, FGF Board Deputy Chairman & Financial Affairs Undersecretary at Bahrains Ministry of Finance and National Economy and Richard Botham, Senior Director & General Manager of CBRE Bahrain.

The signing ceremony was also attended by Shaikh Ali Salman Alkhalifa, CEO of Future Generation Reserve, Ahmed Abdulaziz Alhamar, Director of Future Generation Reserve, Ciaran Lynch, Director of CBRE Bahrain and Heather Longden, Director of CBRE Bahrain.

On the contract win, Botham said: "CBRE is honoured to be working with the Future Generation Reserve Fund and Bahrains Ministry of Finance and National Economy on the new Future Generation Reserve Tower."

"The property will become a new landmark in Bahrain Bay and will open up significant prospects for the Kingdoms real estate sector. The office space and experience offered to prospective occupiers is set to raise the bar in terms of quality and service levels," he stated.

"It is particularly exciting that the project is registered to be LEED-certified, as ESG has become an essential consideration for corporates when selecting their office accommodation. We look forward to managing the property in accordance with international standards and best practice that will reflect the aspirations for this market-leading project in Bahrain," he added.
Bahrain Steel, a leading producer and global supplier of high grade iron ore pellets, announced on Monday (January 8) the successful syndication of a $450 million sustainability-linked loan (SLL).

This milestone transaction, spanning seven years, underscores the company's dedication to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles. It also highlights the collective commitment of the lending consortium toward fostering tangible environmental impacts in tandem with their clients, the company said.

The proceeds from this loan will be directed towards Capex for constructing the worlds largest stockyard shed with rooftop solar panels, in addition to fulfilling working capital requirements. This strategic financing initiative illustrates Bahrain Steel's drive to incorporate sustainability within its operations.

The SLL's framework incentivises Bahrain Steel to exceed mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, facilitating the company's transition toward lower carbon operations. Moreover, the SLL is incentivising the company to roll out an adoption program focused on climate change and environmental risks, bolstering internal capacity building for a more informed and responsible corporate culture.

Mashreq acted as the sole Facility & Sustainability Coordinator, Bank ABC will be serving as the Facility Agent, Security Agent, and Account bank, while Ahli United Bank was appointed as the Murabaha Investment Agent. Bank ABC, ENBD, and Mashreq jointly acted as Mandated Lead Arrangers. Arab Bank, Ahli United Bank, Gulf Bank, Kuwait Finance House, and Khaleeji Bank joined as Joint Lead Arrangers.

Meshary Al-Judaimi, Chairman of Bahrain Steel, said: "Sustainability and social responsibility are core values of Bahrain Steel. Our partnership with the banks signifies a major advancement in our ESG ambitions. This strategic financing enables us to accelerate our efforts toward significant carbon footprint reduction and reinforces our commitment to sustainable practices in the steel industry. Mr Al-Judaimi added: By adopting stringent KPIs, we are not only setting new standards for environmental stewardship in the industry but also accelerating the Government of Bahrains endeavours towards a more sustainable future. The focus on workforce training in climate change and environmental risks underscores our dedication to creating a more informed and responsible corporate culture."

Group Chief Executive Officer of Mashreq Ahmed Abdelaal said: At Mashreq, we are dedicated to assisting our clients on their sustainability journeys by offering them suitable sustainable financing solutions. Our sustainable financing solutions promote the integration of sustainable practices, objectives and strategies within all operational needs.

"This SLL incorporates relevant KPIs and improvement targets, SPTs, in the facility structure. This approach ensures that Bahrain Steel meets the expectation of its key stakeholders, especially in the current age of conscious consumers and investors who are mindful about environmental, social, and governance practices." - TradeArabia News Service
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Kiev, Jan 8 (UNI) At least four people were killed and dozens injured in a new round of Russian attacks on Monday, the Ukrainian authorities said.



Two people were killed in the western Khmelnytsky region, where missiles struck industrial facilities, the regional administration said.



A 62-year-old woman was killed and 31 others were wounded in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where an attack damaged a shopping centre, an apartment building, two petrol stations, and more than 20 private houses, regional governor Sergii Lysak said on Telegram.



One person was killed and three others were wounded in the eastern Kharkiv region, the regional administration said.



Four men and a woman were injured in five missile strikes at the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported, citing regional governor Yurii Malashko.



Earlier in the day, local authorities and media outlets said that explosions were heard in several cities across Ukraine.



Explosions shook the central Ukrainian cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih, as well as the eastern city of Kharkiv and the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency said in an earlier report.



The air defence in the western Khmelnytsky region was also activated, the regional administration said on Telegram.



According to preliminary reports, Russia attacked Ukraine with 11 Tu-95 bombers and four MiG-31 fighters.



Air raid alerts were issued for the entire country of Ukraine, starting at approximately 6 a.m. local time (0400 GMT), media outlets reported, citing Ukraine's military officials.

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Refugee support charity Migrant Help has reported a 37% increase in its annual income, as it continues to service a 235m government contract.

In 2019, the Home Office awarded the 60-year-old charity a tender to serve its Advice Issue Reporting and Eligibility (AIRE) contract, worth 235m over 10 years.

Since the contract award, the charity has seen its income more than quadruple from 11.0m to 45.7m in the year to March 2023, the accounts for which were filed recently .

Some 30.0m of the Kent-based charitys income came from the Home Office in 2022-23, up from 24.0m the year before, amid an increase in overall migration to the UK and a backlog of asylum applications being processed.

This contract commenced in September 2019 at volumes vastly more than even the highest levels of Home Office estimates. Those volumes continued to grow month-on-month throughout 2022-23, the accounts read.

The report adds that the Home Office contract growth has also impacted directly on the turnover of our trading subsidiary, Migrant Help Trading Limited, which provide interpretations and translation services for service users and external clients.

Migrant Help Trading Limited generated a profit of 2.29m, up from 1.85m the year before.

We have also seen growth in the coverage of our contract with the Salvation Army to provide support to victims of modern slavery in the south of England, the accounts read.

Meanwhile, the charitys expenditure increased by 49% from 28.1m to 41.7m, with 22.6m spent on staff costs compared to 16.8m the year before.

Migrant Help employed 350 full-time equivalent staff during 2022-23, compared to 273 the year before.

The charitys total unrestricted funds increased from 10.9m to 15.1m, with its free reserves rising from 8.78m to 11.0m.

In the accounts, the charity says it plans to widen the scope of future opportunities it can provide its current and prospective service users.

It plans to diversify its income, with ambitious plans to forge new partnerships and relationships with companies and individuals who share our vision.

In 2022, Migrant Help responded to a report by the Conservative Way Forward pressure group , which condemned the governments funding of charities that campaign on issues such as refugee rights.

We have a duty to make our views clear on proposed government policy, before it is implemented, the charity said at the time.

Our experience makes us well placed to advise policy-makers  and expressing our opinion on proposals (before they are implemented as policy/law) is not in breach of the conditions of our Home Office contract.

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On Day One, Texas enacted a law banning diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at publicly funded colleges.

On Day Two, the president of Harvard resigned, and federal prosecutors charged a Democratic senator with acting on behalf of a(nother) foreign government.

On Day Three, a court began unsealing documents from a lawsuit involving a deceased sex trafficker amid rampant speculation as to which other famous people might be named in them; a federal official resigned in protest of the presidents handling of a war in the Middle East; and a hoax bomb threat was emailed to twenty-plus state capitol buildings.

On Day Four, more bomb threats were emailed to state officials; a congressional report outlined significant spending by foreign governments at properties belonging to the former president while he was still in office; an ally turned rival of the former president said he regretted his prior support; and a gunman killed a student and wounded seven other people at a school in Iowa.

On Day Five, the head of the National Rifle Association resigned ahead of a corruption trial; the defense secretary disclosed that hed been hospitalized since Day One, without anyone knowing about it; the fuselage of a passenger plane blew out in midair (somehow, no one was hurt); the current president gave a speech calling the former president a threat to democracy; and the Supreme Court said it would decide whether the state of Colorado could stop the former president from running again on the grounds that he incited an insurrection the last time around.

On Day Six, the anniversary of the insurrection fell, and the former president said in a speech that those charged with participating in it were hostages, that they had acted peacefully and patriotically when they stormed the United States Capitol, that the real insurrection was happening right now at the Mexican border, that the Civil War could have been avoided through negotiation, and that the last election was stolen from him.

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On Day Seven, a close ally of the former presidentwho was also instrumental in the events that led to the Harvard presidents resignationsaid on a major Sunday show that charged insurrectionists were hostages; that Democrats were the real threat to democracy; that the current president, who she said sat atop a crime family, was the most corrupt in American history; that the federal government was being weaponized against conservatives; that the federal government was being weaponized against Catholics; and that she would only vote to certify the results of the next election if they were constitutional, unlike the last one.

Ive long been a fan of sweeping works of American history that paint by dots, assembling a jumble of stories from different spheresthe political, the social, the culturalthat collectively indicate the national mood at a given moment. Future historians of our time will have an avalanche of dots to work with. But as the first week of 2024 unfolded, it struck me as particularly ripe for such treatment. It was a week of big news: some of it shocking, some of it much less so, almost all of it emphatically within the zeitgeist. It was a week sold as a pivot pointthe start of a pivotal year. It was a week, too, of continuity; of deeper themes crystallizing.

Contemporary news reports are typically an important source for this sort of history. Looking back on the first week of 2024, a future historian might be struck by the manner in which we reported some of its stories, and how this was received. They might come across a newspaper front page that paired the Iowa school shooting with a story about a proposal to lower the age at which people can buy a rifle in Florida. (An editor at the paper called the juxtaposition the first rough draft of history, indeed.) Our historian might find it curious that the shooting did not make the front page of the next days New York Times and only barely made that of the Washington Post. (Though they might find the notion of caring about newspaper front pages bizarre.) They might reference the online conspiracy theory that the shooting was a false flag to distract the media from the unsealed Jeffrey Epstein documentsor any number of fresh online conspiracy theories around Epstein. They might pause at the conspiracy theories of Elise Stefanik on Meet the Press, how blithely she spewed them, and how several of them went unchallenged by the moderator (not that challenging them all was even possible). They might be puzzled by an Associated Press headline appearing to equivocate between Joe Bidens and Donald Trumps accounts of the insurrection: One attack, two interpretations. They might laugh at critics parodies of the headline on X (assuming its archives survived the Reign of Musk).

One particularly useful artifact for our historianat least when it comes to the medias role in this momentmight be a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Christopher Rufo, a right-wing activist (also mentioned, perhaps, in a previous chapter on the conservative crusade against critical race theory) who, like Stefanik, contributed to the downfall of the Harvard president, Claudine Gay. (A congressional hearing during which Stefanik grilled Gay and other university presidents on campus anti-Semitism amid the war between Israel and Hamas put Gay under pressure; a series of plagiarism allegations that Rufo wrote about, followed by outlets from across the media landscape, pushed her over the edge.) Our historian might find many of the particulars of the Gay story to be murky, but they will find Rufos account of his role crystal-clear: he narrated a real-time strategy to squeeze Gay by smuggling the plagiarism allegations into mainstream media, thus legitimizing them beyond right-wing circles. Our historian might understand that this tactic was far from new but still be struck by its shameless elucidation, and by Rufo explicitly claiming the dual mantle of activist and journalist.

Indeed, our future historian might view the media system exploited by Rufoa mainstream press clinging to its strenuously unbiased self-conception, amid ever more forceful gusts from nakedly partisan right-wing mediaas an anachronism. If a turn-of-the-year prediction by Anthony Nadler for Nieman Lab bears out, our historian may see this as the moment at which traditional media elites stopped seeing partisan media as a fringe force, and at which it gathered strength not only on the right but on the left. They may even observe that the sky did not fall as a result.

Then again, the perceived value of journalistic objectivityor fairness, or balance, or whatever you want to call ithas persisted through many moments of American social and political tumult. Our historian may see this one as just another turn of the cycle. They may see in the stories of January 2024and the months before and afterthe output of a debate forever unresolved. They may see the coverage of Trumpwho will, surely, be a central character, the master key to the zeitgeistas a gallant yet ultimately failed attempt to bend old journalistic codes to a man and a movement determined to exploit them, but also to exploit any perceived departure from them. They may see it as a trivial and complacent prelude to the return of a demagogue. They may see it as hot airexcessive blather en route to a Biden landslide.

How they see the coverage will depend, of course, on who they are, which coverage they look back on, and what happens next, among other factors. In the present, all of this is unknowable, and (largely) out of our control. History and the news serve different functions. The former can cool the heat of the latter by bringing the depth of perspective, and interrogate our blind spots. It can also forget, misremember, editorialize, and mistake hinge moments for inevitabilitiesagain, it depends on whos writing it. At the top of this column, I painted a history of the first week of 2024 to tell a certain story about this moment; someone else may have chosen totally different dots. If the news is the first draft of history, its because our judgment is rough. Its also because we deal in things that might not make the later drafts, but which do absolutely matter in the present.

Still, as this pivotal year unfolds, I think its worth sparing an occasional thought for how historyor, given the magnitude of that concept, at least the future historians in ourselvesmight one day judge how we covered it. Will we look back on stories that we played up because they were important in their own right, or because we were force-fed them? Where importance and force-feeding collide, will we have made the force-feeding part of the story? Will we have allowed fatigue to blind us to atrocities and lies whose ubiquity makes them no less atrocious or mendacious? Will we have told the truth as we judged it, or the truth that we perceived transient political elites wanted to hear? Will we have recognizedas Rufo made clear for us, if it wasnt alreadythat we are the first painters of the dots of history and as such important actors, not just passive chroniclers watching the torrent of the river from the serenity of the banks?

Among my favorite writers of this type of history is Rick Perlstein, a prolific chronicler of twentieth-century American conservatism. Ive interviewed him twice for CJR; on the first occasion, ahead of the momentous 2020 election, he had recently reached what he described as an unusual conclusion for a historian: that it was time to stop talking about history, because it was only taking us further from understanding the present. Indeed, Perlstein has written insightfully about the present, too, and its journalistic codes. Last week (on Day Three) he published an essay in the American Prospect in which he indicted agenda-setting elite political journalists for selling the fantasy that Americaat any given momentwould be a happy and united polity but for manufactured political discord that both major parties are responsible for contriving. Generations of this incumbent, consensus-besotted journalism have produced the very conceptual tools, metaphors, habits, and technologies that we understand as political journalism, Perlstein wrote. But these tools are thoroughly inadequate to understanding what politics now is. This historic year will require a different brush.



Other notable stories:

ICYMI: How Gaza Changed the Rules for Newsrooms

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
Insured losses from the devastating earthquake in Japan could reach $6.4 billion, according to an estimate from U.S.-based catastrophe modeling firm Karen Clark & Co (KCC).

Losses from residential properties account for more than two thirds of the total, according to KCC, as most commercial and industrial buildings in the affected cities are more seismic-resistant because of their predominantly steel construction.

The quake struck western Japans Noto peninsula on the afternoon of New Years Day, flattening homes, triggering a tsunami and cutting off remote communities.

The death toll from the disaster is nearing 100, and the United States said on Friday it is preparing military logistical support and aid.

CoreLogic reported on Friday that insured losses from damage caused by the earthquake and fires that followed, in addition to tsunamis and liquefaction were estimated to range from $1 billion to $5 billion.

The loss estimate includes damage to buildings and their contents, as well as business interruption and costs associated with additional living expenses, the company said in a report by Jon Schneyer, director of catastrophe response. The estimate does not include damage to government property, infrastructure such as road and rail networks, water and electric power systems or oil and gas pipelines.

CoreLogic said initial reports from Japan indicate there was material damage in the smaller towns and cities near the Noto Peninsula, such as Wajima and Suzu. The Mayor of Suzu said that over 90% of the 5,000 homes in the city may have been damaged or destroyed, the report says. However, the earthquake spared major economic centers like Tokyo, reducing the loss potential from this event.

The US Geological Survey reported violent ground shaking with intensity of IX on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale in cities closest to the epicenter, CoreLogic said. Shaking at that intensity is capable of heavy damage. Shaking intensity as high as VI was reported in Kanazawa, the largest city nearest to the epicenter.

As of Jan. 2, the USGS recorded more than 40 strong aftershocks, with intensities ranging from Mw 6.2 to Mw 4.1.

Top photo: Snow falls as rescuers conduct a search operation around a burnt market in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. A major earthquake slammed western Japan on Jan. 1, killing scores of people, toppling buildings and setting off landslides. (Kyodo News via AP)
A team of transport safety officials searched for a voice recorder from the severely burned fuselage of a Japan Airlines plane Friday, seeking crucial information on what caused a collision with a small coast guard plane on the runway at Tokyo`s Haneda airport.

Meanwhile, JAL also started using heavy machinery to remove some of the debris for storage in a hangar to allow the runway to reopen.

Six experts from the Japan Transport Safety Board, walked through the mangled debris of the Airbus A350-900 that was lying on the runway searching for the voice data recorder.

JTSB experts have so far secured both the flight and voice data recorders from the coast guards Bombardier Dash-8 and a flight data recorder from the JAL plane to find out what happened in the last few minutes before Tuesday`s fatal collision.

All 379 occupants of JAL Flight 516 safely evacuated within 18 minutes of landing as the aircraft was engulfed in flames. The pilot of the coast guard plane also escaped, but its five other crewmembers were killed.

New details have also emerged from media footage at Haneda airport. NHK television reported footage from its monitoring camera set up at the Haneda airport showed that the coast guard plane moved on to the runway and stopped there for about 40 seconds before the collision.

In the footage, the coast guard aircraft is seen entering the runway from the C5 taxiway, then shortly after the passenger plane touches down right behind and rams into it, creating an orange fireball. The JAL airliner, covered with flames and spewing gray smoke, continues down the runway before coming to a stop.

Transcript of the recorded communication at the traffic control, released by the transport ministry Wednesday, showed that the air traffic controller told the coast guard plane to taxi to a holding position just before the runway, noting its No. 1 departure priority. The coast guard pilot repeats the instruction, then offers thanks for the No. 1 slot. There was no further instruction from the control allowing the coast guard to enter the runway.

The pilot told police investigators that his aircraft was struck just as he powered up the engines after obtaining clearance to take off.

The small lights on the coast guard aircraft and its 40-second stop might have made it less visible to the JAL pilots and air traffic control. NHK also said that air traffic control officials may have missed an alert system for unauthorized runway entry while engaging in other operations.

The JTSB investigators on Friday planned to interview seven JAL cabin attendants to get their accounts, after their similar interviews with the three pilots and two other attendants the day before.

As aircraft manufacturer, Airbus officials are also joining the investigation, a requirement under international aviation safety rules, according to the board.

Top photo: This shows the debris of the burned Japan Airlines passenger flight for storage in a hangar at Haneda airport in Tokyo Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. The JAL plane collided with a much smaller coast guard plane on Jan. 2. (Kyodo News via AP)

Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
BEIJING (AP) __ Tesla is recalling more than 1.6 million Model S, X, 3 and Y electric vehicles exported to China for problems with their automatic assisted steering and door latch controls.

Chinas State Administration for Market Regulation announced the recall on Friday. It said Tesla Motors in Beijing and Shanghai would use remote upgrades to fix the problems, so in most cases car owners would not need to visit Tesla service centers.

The recall due to problems with the automatic steering assist function applies to 1.6 million imported Tesla Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Ys.

When the automatic steering function is engaged, drivers might misuse the combined driving function, increasing a risk of accidents, the notice said.

The recall to fix the door unlock logic control for imported Model S and Model X EVs affects 7,538 vehicles made between Oct. 26, 2022 and Nov. 16, 2023. It is needed to prevent door latches from coming open during a collision.

The recalls follow a recall in the U.S. last month of more than 2 million of Tesla EVs to improve its system for monitoring drivers.

The recall followed a two-year investigation by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that found the system was defective. into a series of crashes that happened while the Autopilot partially automated driving system was in use. Some were deadly.

The upgrades are intended to get drivers who use Tesla`s Autopilot system to pay closer attention to the road. Documents filed by Tesla to the U.S. government said the online software change will increase warnings and alerts to drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel.

However, research conducted by NHTSA, the National Transportation Safety Board and other investigators show that merely measuring torque on the steering wheel doesnt ensure that drivers are paying sufficient attention.

China is a major market and manufacturing center for Tesla, and the companys CEO, Elon Musk, has built close ties with Chinese officials even as U.S.-China relations soured. The company built an electric vehicle plant in Shanghai in 2019 that assembles cars for China, Europe and other overseas markets.

Tesla is the No. 2 seller in the booming Chinese market for electric vehicles. The market leader is Chinese auto company BYD.

Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday reinstated a deputy workers compensation commissioners decision to bar reports that were submitted too late by experts who werent certified, reversing decisions by the district court and Court of Appeals.

The high court said in a unanimous decision that the deputy commissioner had correctly acted within his discretion to exclude the untimely report because its late entry into evidence would have been unfairly prejudicial to the defense. The justices rejected findings by the district and appellate courts that found the deputy abused his discretion because he could have left the record open for enough time to allow the defense to file responses.

The opinion noted that we have previously held that the prejudice resulting from the untimely designation of an expert need not be great to justify the commissioners exclusion of that experts testimony.

Lorri Hagen was injured while working for Serta/National Bedding Co. in February 2017. A car weighing upwards of 350 pounds rolled over her right foot.

An independent medical examiner opined that Hagen reached maximum medical improvement on July 22, 2019. Hagen filed a petition seeking continuing workers compensation benefits from Serta and its insurer, Safety National Casualty Co. She also asked for another independent medical examination.

The workers compensation commissioner scheduled an arbitration hearing for Sept. 25, 2020. Under Iowas Administrative code, Hagen was required to certify  meaning give notice to the other parties  any experts at least 120 days before the hearing. She was also required to submit any expert reports at least 30 days before the hearing.

On Sept. 10, 2019  15 days before the scheduled hearing  Hagen sought to introduce a report by Dr. John Kuhnlein that stated she was permanently and totally disabled. She submitted a report by vocational expert Tom Karrow on Sept. 11. Hagen had not certified either one of her experts.

A deputy workers compensation commissioner refused to allow Hagen to introduce the expert reports. He ruled that Hagen suffered a 60% permanent disability as a result of the workplace accident, rejecting Hagens claim that she was permanently totally disabled.

Hagen filed an administrative appeal, but a workers compensation commissioner affirmed the deputys decision. The commissioner found that Hagens late submission of the reporters was an unfair surprise that prejudiced the employer. The commissioner said that Kuhnlein was the only medical expert to opine that Hagen was totally disabled.

Hagen appealed to the Worth County District Court. Judge Christopher Foy reversed the commissioners decision, finding that the refusal to enter the reports into evidence was an abuse of discretion because the deputy commissioner could have eliminated any prejudice by giving the defense some time to review the late reports. A panel of the Court of Appeals agreed and affirmed the ruling, with one judge dissenting.

Safety National and Serta took the case to the state Supreme Court.

The high courts opinion said there was no abuse of discretion by the deputy commissioner.

The commissioners decision to exclude untimely evidence is entitled to deference because Iowa law tasks the commissioner with adopting and enforcing the rules and procedures necessary to implement Iowas workers compensation laws, the opinion says.

The court said while late reports arent necessarily prejudicial and have been allowed in the past, there was ample reason to accept the deputy commissioner and commissioners decisions.

Hagens failure to timely certify Dr. Kuhnlein and Karrow as experts or submit their reports left Serta in the dark about the experts they were supposed to be preparing for and little time to evaluate and respond to these experts reports, the opinion says.

The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and remanded the case to the district court with instructions to affirm the commissioners decision.
New Delhi, Jan 8 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Bombay High Courts recent directions to the Election Commission of India to immediately hold the by-poll for the Pune Lok Sabha Constituency as the seat has been vacant since the death of MP Girish Bapat in March last year.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra passed the interim order while issuing notice on the Special Leave Petition filed by the ECI assailing the High Court directive. The Supreme Court said, "We will look into the matter and lay down a law regarding the issue of whether ECI need not hold bye-election to fill up a vacant seat if the remainder of the term about the vacancy is less than one year.

The bench said it would post the matter to March or April and lay down the law whether Section 151A of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951 would come into play in the instant case. According to this provision, the ECI need not hold a bye-election to fill up a vacant seat if the remainder of the term about the vacancy is less than one year.

A division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice Gautam Patel and Justice Kamal Khata had asked the ECI to immediately conduct the by-election stating that the Election Commission's stand on not to hold elections, citing their busy schedule in preparatory activities for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, was "bizarre and wholly unreasonable.

The high court said the Lok Sabha Secretary's notification had confirmed the vacancy has been there since March 29, 2023, while the current Lok Sabha Term will end on June 16, 2024. The court said that the constituencies cannot remain unrepresented beyond a defined period, stating that in a parliamentary democracy, governance relies on elected representatives who are the voice of the people.

The Bombay High Court had passed the directions to the EC on a petition filed by a Pune resident who sought directions to hold immediate by-polls for the seat as six months had already lapsed to fill the vacancy.

UNI SNG AKS SSP
Mayor's Awards 2024 - Call for Nominations

Her Worship the Mayor, Ms Carmen Gomez GMD invites nominations from members of the public for the next conferral of Mayors Awards to be held during the month of March.

The Mayors Awards have become a permanent fixture in Gibraltars annual civic calendar and serve to highlight the extraordinary achievements of members of our community.

Having started as a lifesaving award for members of the essential services displaying a high degree of valour, the scope of the awards was later widened to include persons who have served Gibraltar in a distinguished manner, over a prolonged period and/or for a specific event or achievement. Nominees will have made a difference to our society.

The Nomination Form can be downloaded from the website of the Mayor of Gibraltar at www.mayor.gi or collected from the Reception at City Hall.

The completed Form must be returned to the Mayors Office or sent via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Friday 2nd February 2024.

The Awards Committee will then convene to select the Award recipients, after which the date of the Ceremony will be announced.
Three King's Cavalcade

The Minister for Culture thanks all associations, groups, bands and companies who took part in the Three Kings Cavalcade, on 5th January 2024.

He would also like to thank the Cavalcade committee, for all their hard work in making the 65th annual Three Kings Cavalcade, a huge success.

Minister for Culture, the Hon Christian Santos GMD MP said: The Three Kings Cavalcade is the first event on the social calendar, after the New Years festivities. After its resounding success , turnout of participants and attendance by the public, I am looking forward to the vibrant cultural events that are planned for the year ahead .

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Nvidia jumped to a fresh all-time high Monday as the AI chipmaker presented at CES and investors digested new reports about its business with China. Shares of Nvidia surged more than 4%, to over $514 apiece, which puts the stock on pace for a record close. Nvidia's current all-time high came on Nov. 20, when it hit $504.09 per share. Including Monday's intraday gains, the stock has advanced more than 27% since its recent low on Oct. 26. The S & P 500 is up about 14% during the same timeframe. "I think the company still is very undervalued," Jim Cramer said Monday, alluding to the fact Nvidia was cheaper at the end of 2023 than it was 12 months prior despite the stock more than tripling last year on AI optimism. Nvidia is trading at roughly 24 times forward earnings Monday, compared with its five-year average of 39, according to FactSet data. The Club last week did trim Nvidia and a handful of other 2023 standouts to lock in some profits. But we maintain our long-term belief in the leading AI chipmaker, which rose 239% in 2023. Information technology was the best-performing sector in the S & P 500 on Monday, up 1.8%, helping the overall equity index gain 0.65%. The strength in tech came as the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury fell below 4%, a closely watched psychological level. Nvidia is set to begin mass production of AI chips for Chinese customers that comply with the U.S. government's revised export rules on AI technology, Reuters reported Monday , citing sources. The tougher restrictions, which took effect in October, temporarily curtailed Nvidia's ability to sell its coveted AI chips into the important market for the second time in as many years. After the U.S. government implemented exports controls on AI technology in October 2022, Nvidia redesigned its data center chips to meet performance thresholds, allowing the company to resume fulfilling orders for China-based customers. However, some Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba are less enthusiastic about Nvidia's second attempt to make less-powerful AI chips that comply with U.S. rules, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday , citing people familiar with the matter. Alibaba, known for its e-commerce and cloud-computing platforms, and WeChat owner Tencent have told Nvidia they intended to order fewer of the throttled-back AI chips in 2024 compared with previous plans for the now-illegal processors, The Journal reported. The tech companies are redirecting some of their orders to Chinese firms, such as Huawei, as well as their own custom processors, the newspaper reported Jim downplayed the impact of The Journal report, suggesting Nvidia's less powerful data center chips remain superior to the alternatives. "Give me a break. They'll take anything from Nvidia," he said, adding: "I think the Chinese companies are just going to have to understand this is as good as it's going to get" for them. Sales to Chinese customers have historically represented between 20% and 25% of Nvidia's data center revenue. In the near term, Nvidia has said strong demand for its chips elsewhere in the world will offset the loss of Chinese sales. An inability to access the Chinese market over the long term would hurt the U.S. technology market, the company has said. While we've been encouraged by Nvidia's apparently solid relationship with the U.S. government , we've expressed caution about assuming the company's revenue in China will quickly return to historic levels. Meanwhile, Nvidia's keynote presentation at the CES conference commenced at 11 a.m. ET Monday  a potential source of excitement for investors. The company announced new graphics processing units, or GPUs, for personal computers and professional workstations. The GPUs are designed to "unlock the full potential of generative AI on PCs," Nvidia said in a press release . And major laptop makers including Dell and HP, will be releasing devices that contain the new GPUs, Nvidia said. Nvidia's finance chief Colette Kress also is scheduled to attend a chat hosted by JPMorgan at 11 a.m. ET Tuesday. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long NVDA. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Visitors visit the NVIDIA booth at the 2023 Hangzhou Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, October 31, 2023. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:

1. A bumpy beginning

2. Boeing woes continue

Boeing shares dropped in premarket trading Monday, after the FAA grounded about 171 of the company's 737 Max 9 planes. The agency grounded the aircraft for inspections after a panel blew out of a plane operated by Alaska Airlines during a flight Friday. No serious injuries were reported. The near-catastrophe adds to the scrutiny facing Boeing, which had tried to turn around the 737 Max program after a string of problems including two fatal crashes. In a statement Sunday, the FAA said the planes "will remain grounded until the FAA is satisfied that they are safe." United Airlines and Alaska are the two largest operators of the affected planes.

3. Staving off a shutdown?

Congress has moved one step closer to avoiding a partial government shutdown. House and Senate leaders on Sunday announced they reached a deal on federal funding for fiscal 2024. Lawmakers are scrambling to write and pass spending legislation by Jan. 19, when funding for some government agencies will expire. Other parts of the government will not be able to keep running after a Feb. 2 deadline. The $1.59 trillion deal includes $886 billion for military spending and $704 billion in non-defense spending. The GOP-controlled House and Democratic-held Senate, which have clashed over spending priorities in recent months, will still have to hash out where exactly the money goes.

4. Audio adversity

Audacy, the largest U.S. radio company, said it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, which said it has suffered as radio ad spending drops, expects the move will allow it to reduce its debt load by about 80%. The move comes even as the radio business shows a surprising resilience.

5. 2023 in charts
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE

Stock markets have entered a new phase that will involve a broadening of last year's bull market as big U.S. tech stocks come under pressure, according to the CIO of a Swiss private bank. Charles-Henry Monchau, chief investment officer at Bank Syz, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Monday that last week marked the start of what will become a "healthy" rotation. The so-called "magnificent seven" stocks  Apple , Amazon , Alphabet , Meta , Microsoft , Nvidia and Tesla  now represent around 30% of the entire market cap of the S&P 500 index , having enjoyed a remarkable rally in 2023. But markets had a tough start to 2024, with the U.S. benchmark index snapping a nine-week winning streak as mega-cap tech stocks, particularly Apple, underperformed.

watch now

Bank Syz's Monchau said he expects the U.S. to experience a "technical recession without going through a hard landing" in the first half of this year, before then beginning a recovery. "What we saw last week was very interesting in the sense that we can indeed have some of the winners of last year being under pressure, whereas the market still looks like a bull market because you have other parts of the market which are coming back  and here I'm talking about the laggards of 2023 like financials, for instance, energy or even healthcare," he said. Monchau suggested that some of last week's weakness might also be down to a moderation of the excessive "euphoria" that drove the surge in stock markets during the final two months of last year. "Now remember, we had a tremendous end of the year in 2023, the market maybe went a bit ahead of itself, now it's pulling back, and because of the large weights of these big stocks  obviously they are under pressure now that we are seeing some, let's say, profit taking on these long positions," he said. "But again, what I think is very healthy is to see some other parts of the market taking part in the bull market. This is what we want to see  a broadening of the upside participation. This was lacking clearly last year, and now it's starting to look like something which is indeed working."

watch now
An Alaska Airlines plane takes off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on December 4, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.

Alaska Airlines said it had canceled 170 flights on Sunday and a further 60 on Monday, after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the grounding of 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplanes to run inspections.

The airline said cancellations would continue through the first half of the week. The Sunday cancellations affected nearly 25,000 guests, added the Seattle-based carrier, which has 65 737 MAX 9 aircraft in its fleet.

The FAA on Saturday ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing jets installed with the same panel after an eight-week-old Alaska Airlines jet was forced to make an emergency landing with a gap in the fuselage.

The door plug tore off the left side of the jet following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board.

"They will remain grounded until the FAA is satisfied that they are safe," the agency said of the affected 737 MAX 9 jets in a statement on Sunday.
Apple's Vision Pro will launch in the U.S. on Feb. 2, the company said in a press release Monday, with preorders beginning Jan. 19.

Preorders will open at 5 a.m. Pacific Time on Jan. 19, according to the Vision Pro's product page.

The company also said that prescription lens inserts for the Vision Pro would cost $149, and that the headset would have 256 GB of storage.

Apple shares rose three-quarters of a percent during premarket trading Monday.

The $3,500 headset is Apple's answer to Meta's Quest headsets and has reportedly been in development for years. Apple announced the product at its Worldwide Developers Conference in 2023.

"The era of spatial computing has arrived," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in Monday's release. The headset is powered by Apple's M2 chip, the same one used in its computers.

The Vision Pro is Apple's first new product category since the Apple Watch launched in 2015. Analysts and experts do not expect the headset to drive significant revenue initially. UBS, for example, anticipates Vision Pro revenue could be around $1.4 billion, a "relatively immaterial" amount.

Many companies have made a virtual reality push in the past, but so far, those efforts haven't led to widespread adoption for consumers or enterprise customers.

The Vision Pro boasts a new operating system, dubbed VisionOS, alongside an input system that allows customers to use their eyes, hands and voice to control the headset. Apple says that several productivity and creativity apps will work with Vision Pro, including Microsoft's Office suite and Salesforce's Slack.

With the new headset, Apple aims to change how consumers experience gaming and video content. Users will be able to watch video from Apple TV+ and numerous other platforms on a virtual reality screen "that feels 100 feet wide," the company wrote in the release.
Auctioneer Victoire Gineste gestures as she adjudicates for 20 million euros ($21.9 million) a recently rediscovered drawing by Michelangelo, the artist's first known nude, at the Christie's auction house in Paris on May 18, 2022.

Wealthy, young collectors in Asia have been fueling demand for art  particularly via online channels  and have emerged as a key clientele for international auction houses.

Despite being relatively new to the market, Gen Zers, those aged between 12 and 27, and millennials  28 to 43 years old  have sharply increased their spending on art purchases.

The median expenditure on art and antiques by high-net-worth millennials in Asia was $59,785, while for Gen Zers it was $56,000 during the first half of 2023, compared with $61,820 and $65,000, respectively, for the entire 2022, according to the Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2023.

"Asia is a key driver of millennial buying at Christie's globally," Christie's said.

Mainland China was the top contributing region by value for millennials, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore at Christie's Hong Kong 2023 Autumn Auctions, a spokesperson told CNBC.

In Asia, collectors from China had the highest median expenditure of $241,000 in the first half of 2023, followed by Singapore at $38,000 and Taiwan at $31,000  with Chinese patrons also being the largest spenders globally, the report showed.

Top-tier international auction houses Sotheby's and Phillips have also reported a surge in purchases by young Asian collectors in recent years.

In the first half of 2023, millennials made up almost 40% of Christie's buyers in Asia Pacific, and 20% in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, according to the spokesperson. A report from the auction house showed a 65% increase in new Gen Z buyers in 2023.

Millennials accounted for nearly a third of the global buyers and 40% of Asian buyers at Phillips in 2022, its latest annual report showed.

Sotheby's 2023 report stated that bidding activity of younger collectors grew to 30% in the first half of 2023 from 6% in 2018. Millennials and Gen X  aged 44 to 59  are classified as "younger collectors" by the auction house.

While there was "significant activity from millennials across Asia," "flourishing contributions" from Taiwan and South Korea stood out in 2023, the Christie's representative highlighted.
Israel pounded Gaza on Sunday as its war with Hamas raged into a fourth month, while top US diplomat Antony Blinken decried the "tragedy" of civilian deaths and warned the conflict threatened the wider region.

US Secretary of State Blinken, speaking in Qatar on the latest leg of his fourth Middle East tour since the start of the war, also said Palestinians displaced by the fighting must be allowed to "return home".

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera network said two journalists working for it were killed when their car was struck in Rafah, in southern Gaza.

They were named as Mustafa Thuria, a video stringer who also worked for AFP and other media organisations, and Hamza Wael Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief who had earlier lost his wife and two other children in an Israeli strike.

Al Jazeera said it condemned the killings and the "targeting" of journalists, while Blinken called the deaths an "unimaginable tragedy".

"And that's also been the case for... far too many innocent Palestinian men, women and children," Blinken said.

AFP correspondents reported air strikes in Khan Yunis, the territory's main southern city, and Rafah near the Egyptian border, where many displaced people have sought refuge.

The war, triggered by deadly Hamas attacks on Israel in early October, has displaced at least 85 percent of Gaza's 2.4 million people, according to UN figures.

"Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow," Blinken said. "They cannot, they must not be pressed to leave Gaza."

Some Israeli ministers have recently spoken in favour of "encouraging" Gazans to leave and re-establishing Jewish settlements in the territory, although this is not official Israeli policy.

The Israeli army -- which claims to have "dismantled" Hamas's military leadership in northern Gaza -- reported killing more "terrorists" in central Gaza, including in a drone strike in the Bureij refugee camp.

A military statement said troops had discovered an underground "weapons production site" in the besieged Gaza Strip's north operated by Hamas.

- 'Not a nightmare, reality' -

The war started with Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in about 1,140 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The militants, considered a "terrorist" group by the United States and European Union, also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel. At least 24 of them are believed to have been killed.

Israel has responded with relentless bombardment and ground invasion that have killed at least 22,835 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

"These three months have been like a quarter of a century," said one Gaza resident, Nabil Fathi, 51. "I wake up thinking this is a passing nightmare, but it is a reality.

"Our home and my son's home have been destroyed and we have 20 people martyred in our family. I don't know where we will go even if I survive."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, speaking in Jerusalem after meetings with Israeli officials, said it was "increasingly clear that the Israeli army must do more to protect civilians in Gaza".

"The suffering of many innocent people cannot go on like this," she said, urging "less intensive" combat.

As war rages in Gaza, violence has also flared in the occupied West Bank and on Israel's northern border, which has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

Hezbollah on Saturday said it had fired 62 rockets at an Israeli military base, days after it blamed Israel for a strike in Beirut that killed Hamas's deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri.

The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah "military sites" in response.

Army chief Herzi Halevi said in a statement on Sunday that "Hezbollah decided to enter into this war... and we are increasing the price that they are paying".

At Lebanon's main airport in Beirut, hackers used the departure and arrivals screens to display an anti-Hezbollah message, according to media reports.

"Hassan Nasrallah, no one will support you if you drag the country into war," said the message, addressing Hezbollah's leader. A hardline Christian group whose emblem appeared onscreen has denied involvement.

- Mediator Qatar 'attentive' to hostage families -

Blinken, on a whirlwind tour of the Middle East, warned of a "moment of profound tension in the region".

"This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering," he said.

Qatar, which helped mediate a one-week truce that saw dozens of hostages released, hosted over the weekend relatives of captives still held in Gaza, said Ruby Chen, the father of 19-year-old captive Itay Chen.

Qatari officials the families had met with "were attentive... and showed empathy to us", the father told a news conference in Tel Aviv.

The release of more hostages "serves the bigger objective, as they see it, which is creating regional stability", said Chen.

Blinken, who late Sunday arrived in the United Arab Emirates, earlier held talks in Jordan with King Abdullah II.

According to a royal statement, Abdullah warned of the Israel-Hamas war's "catastrophic repercussions" and of the need to end "the tragic humanitarian crisis" in Gaza.

In the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, deadly violence has surged in recent months to levels unseen in nearly two decades.

An Israeli strike on Sunday killed seven Palestinians in the northern city of Jenin, the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said, also reporting an eighth fatality by Israeli fire in a separate incident.

An Israeli border police officer was killed when a roadside bomb hit her vehicle during a raid on Jenin, and an Israeli civilian was killed in a separate shooting near Ramallah, Israeli officials said.

Later, Israeli police said that officers responding to a car-ramming attack at a West Bank checkpoint shot a Palestinian girl, with medics confirming the three-year-old child's death.

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Shares of Boeing tumbled 8% on Monday as investors digested the news that the Federal Aviation Administration had ordered airlines to ground dozens of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for urgent inspections. The FAA issued the order on Saturday after a door plug blew out in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday when the nearly brand-new aircraft was flying at around 16,000 feet. Boeing stock recovered some of its losses midmorning after the aircraft manufacturer issued 737 Max 9 inspection instructions to airlines, a key step toward resuming flights. Shares were last down around 6%. Shares of Alaska Air closed flat. Spirit AeroSystems , which makes fuselages for the 737 Max, fell 11%. The incident again thrusts Boeing into the spotlight. CEO Dave Calhoun has been trying to assure investors that Boeing is getting back on better footing after a string of problems, including two crashes that killed 346 people, pandemic supply chain havoc and a series of quality defects.

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max-9 aircraft grounded at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) in Seattle, Washington, US, on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty Images
16 September 2023, USA, New York: The Barclays Bank logo, taken in Manhattan.

Barclays slashed its workforce by around 5,000 jobs in 2023 as part of a major cost-cutting drive announced last year, the bank said on Monday.

The majority of the cuts fell in Barclays Execution Services (BX), the bank's support unit, the lender said, confirming for the first time Reuters.

"Barclays removed approximately 5,000 headcount globally through 2023 as part of its ongoing efficiency programme designed to simplify and reshape the business, improve service, and deliver higher returns," a spokesperson for the bank said on Monday.

The cuts form part of a plan of "material structural cost actions" announced by Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan last year in a bid to boost profitability ahead of a presentation to investors in February alongside the bank's annual results.

While the overall cost-cutting drive had already been announced by the bank and the cuts to BX had been previously reported by Reuters, the bank's statement on Monday in response to a Sky News story clarifies the scale of its efforts so far.

Barclays has also trimmed its UK chief operating officer function, the bank said.
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The fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX, which was forced to make an emergency landing with a gap in the fuselage, is seen during its investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board in Portland, Oregon, on Jan. 7, 2024. Ntsb | Via Reuters

Airlines have canceled hundreds of flights since the Federal Aviation Administration ordered carriers to take Boeing 737 Max 9 planes out of service for urgent inspections. Here's what travelers should know:

Why did the FAA ground the planes?

The FAA grounded more than 170 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes so they can be inspected after a door plug panel blew out on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Friday. No one was seriously injured on the Ontario, California-bound flight, which returned to Portland, Oregon, when the incident occurred minutes into the flight at about 16,000 feet.

Which airlines are affected?

United Airlines and Alaska Airlines are the biggest operators of the Boeing 737 Max 9, with 79 and 65 of the planes in their fleets, respectively. United canceled 229 mainline flights on Monday, representing about 8% of its schedule, according to FlightAware. The carrier has been using other types of aircraft, where possible, to avoid cancellations. Alaska Airlines, which has fewer types of planes in its fleet compared to United, canceled 143 flights, about one-fifth of the day's schedule. United scrubbed 385 flights over the weekend, while Alaska canceled 328 flights. Other carriers including Panama's Copa and Aeromexico are affected by the inspection order. Copa has canceled more than 150 flights since Saturday, and Aeromexico has canceled 100 during that time, FlightAware shows. The more common Boeing 737 Max 8 plane is not affected.

Can I get a refund if my flight was canceled?

United and Alaska have put travel waivers in place that allow customers to rebook their flights without paying change fees, or to cancel their flights altogether.

How long will the planes be grounded?

The FAA approved Boeing's inspection instructions for airlines on Monday, a key step in getting the planes flying again. Still, it's not immediately clear how long the inspections will take. United said on Monday its inspections had turned up loose bolts on several Max 9 aircraft. The airline said that the inspections require "a team of five United technicians working for several hours on each aircraft." Carriers will likely be able to return the planes to service once they comply with the inspections if they meet the standards.

Which piece of the plane failed and why?
The fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX, which was forced to make an emergency landing with a gap in the fuselage, is seen during its investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Portland, Oregon, U.S. January 7, 2024.

Boeing has given airlines instructions on how to inspect their 737 Max 9 jetliners, a step toward ending the grounding of the planes, according to an internal message from company executives.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to stop flying dozens of the jets over the weekend, less than a day after a door plug blew open during an Alaska Airlines flight as it was at 16,000 feet.

No one was seriously injured in the accident during Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which was bound for Ontario, California, when the door plug blew, forcing it to return to Portland, Oregon, minutes into the flight.

It wasn't immediately clear how long the inspections would take.

"Our teams have been working diligently  with thorough FAA review  to provide comprehensive, technical instructions to operators for the required inspections. This morning, our team issued the instructions via a multi-operator message," said Boeing's commercial airplanes president and CEO, Stan Deal, and its chief aerospace safety officer and senior vice president of global aerospace safety, Mike Delaney, in the internal message.

There are more than 200 737 Max 9 aircraft in fleets worldwide. United Airlines has a fleet of 79 737 Max 9s and Alaska Airlines has 65. The remainder are spread across other airlines.

"The FAA's priority is always keeping Americans safe," the agency said in a statement Monday. "In that spirit, Boeing 737-9 aircraft will remain grounded until operators complete enhanced inspections which include both left and right cabin door exit plugs, door components, and fasteners. Operators must also complete corrective action requirements based on findings from the inspections prior to bringing any aircraft back into service."

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 This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on January 04, 2024.

In recent years, the rising cost of living in Europe and America has led to an increase in crime, with shoplifting becoming a major concern for many retailers. In Europe, a Dutch supermarket chain called Jumbo reported a loss of approximately 100 million euros on Wednesday, equivalent to 777 million yuan, in 2023 due to theft.

Jumbo owns 692 stores in the Netherlands and 33 stores in Belgium. Its total turnover last year reached 11 billion euros, a year-on-year growth of 7.3%, which is lower than the overall industry level of 7.6% in the Dutch supermarket sector. The losses due to theft last year accounted for about 1% of the turnover, meaning that for every 100 euros spent by customers, 1 euro was stolen.

The profit margins are what Jumbo is more concerned about. The company stated that it expects an after-tax profit of approximately 80 million euros for last year, which is less than the losses of 100 million euros due to shoplifting.

Similarly, in Spain, the supermarket chain Tu Super previously reported a significant increase in the theft of olive oil. Due to the impact of severe drought, Spain, the world's largest producer and exporter of olive oil, is facing a shortage of olives in recent years. According to Reuters, olive oil prices in Spain have risen by more than 150% in the past two years. To prevent theft, businesses have come up with various measures. Tu Super has opted to lock up olive oil, and some retailers have installed anti-theft devices on olive oil, which can only be removed at the checkout.

Jumbo attributes the increase in theft to the growing number of self-checkout machines in supermarkets, leading to a reduction in cashiers. About one-third of thefts occur at self-checkout machines. But Jumbo stated that it will not abandon self-checkout, instead it will increase surveillance cameras and security personnel to reduce losses. Jumbo also calls on the government to intervene in addressing the increasingly serious theft problem.

Analysts pointed out that the retail industry needs new technological tools to prevent theft, such as tracking technology for stolen goods, but implementing these measures may pose challenges for retailers in terms of higher costs.

Jan Kniffen

CEO of J Rogers Kniffen Worldwide Enterprises

"We can track it back to where it was stolen, and you're going to have to authenticate it. But boy, that would be a complicated system to get in place. And it would be an expensive system. And it would also be hard to do."

Not only the two supermarkets mentioned above, but also several retail chains, including Irish clothing retailer Primark, British retailer John Lewis, and Target, have complained about the increasing incidents of theft. Whether this issue plaguing retailers for over two years will be resolved in 2024 remains to be seen, and we will keep an eye on it.
 This is the weekly script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on January 05, 2024.

Donald Trump

Let's start this week's People of the Week with the former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Donald Trump appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to overturn a previous ruling by a Colorado court that found him ineligible to participate in presidential primaries in that state. Last month, the Colorado court, citing the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, determined that Trump's actions during the Capitol riot in 2021 constituted "engaging in insurrection," thus ruling that he is not eligible to run for president again. While the direct impact is that Trump cannot participate in elections in Colorado, it could affect his supporters' sentiment nationwide and set a precedent for similar lawsuits in other states, potentially influencing the overall situation in the 2024 election. The current focus is on whether the Supreme Court will accept the case and what decision it will make.

Legal experts state that the U.S. Supreme Court, consisting of nine justices, only reviews about 100 to 150 cases annually out of over 7,000 appeals, making its acceptance rate low. Whether they will hear Trump's appeal remains uncertain and depends on the Supreme Court's decision. Given the upcoming primaries, many election officials urge the Supreme Court to intervene and make a timely judgment so that states can follow suit in their primaries. The expert also noted that based on the partisan composition of the 9 justices, Republicans currently hold the majority, suggesting a possibility of the court intervening and making a decision favoring Trump.

Elon Musk

Next, let's turn our attention to Elon Musk, the boss of several companies.

According to Fortune magazine's data as of January 2nd, Musk reclaimed the title of the World's richest person, with a net worth of $229 billion. Over the past year, his wealth has seen the highest growth among billionaires, increasing by $92 billion.

At the beginning of the new year, his Space Exploration Technologies company "SpaceX" made a new move. The company announced that it would launch six Starlink satellites with direct-to-phone capabilities for the first time. This mission aims to further facilitate global connectivity and help eliminate communication dead zones. Musk also shared the post, stating that it would allow mobile phones to connect to anywhere on Earth.

SpaceX's official website indicates that the direct-to-cell service can be used in conjunction with normal phones, meaning users do not need to purchase new phones specifically supporting satellite communication. The service is expected to gradually enable functions such as texting, voice calls, and web browsing in the coming two years. However, SpaceX became embroiled in a controversial incident this week, with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board accusing SpaceX of illegally firing 8 employees. These former employees, along with other SpaceX staff, had circulated a letter criticizing Musk and accusing the company of selectively tolerating harassment. The NLRB's Los Angeles office is facilitating a settlement between SpaceX and these employees, and if unsuccessful, a hearing will be scheduled for March this year.

Srettha Thavisin

Finally, let's focus on Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.

Over the past decade, Thailand's average economic growth rate has been 1.87%. Since taking office, Thavisin has consistently emphasized that the most urgent task of his government is to get the Thai economy back on the right track. His approach involves acting as the country's chief promoter in diplomacy, hoping to attract more investors and tourists. Thailand, the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia, heavily relies on the tourism industry. Since September last year, Thailand has implemented a temporary visa waiver for Chinese citizens, lasting several months until the end of February this year. This week, Thavisin announced that Thailand and China will permanently waive visa requirements for each other's citizens from this March, meaning that tourists from both sides can travel to each other's countries without visas.

During the recent New Year holiday, popular tourist attractions in Thailand, such as the Grand Palace and Wat Arun, saw the presence of numerous Chinese tourists. Analysts believe that there might be another wave of tourism enthusiasm from China during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday. According to the Thai government, Thailand welcomed 28 million foreign tourists last year, generating 1.2 trillion Thai baht in revenue, approximately 248 billion yuan, with 3.5 million coming from China. This year, Thailand aims to attract around 35 million foreign tourists, expecting to generate 148 billion Thai baht in revenue. Thavisin estimates that Thailand's GDP growth rate for this year will be around 2.7% to 3.7%.
China said its security agencies found another incident of spying in which the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, used a foreigner in China to collect secrets and information.

The case by China highlights the ongoing heated exchanges the countries have traded over accusations of perceived spying that threatens their respective national securities.

China's Ministry of State Security revealed on its WeChat social media account on Monday that a foreigner, only identified by surname Huang, was in charge of an overseas consulting agency, and in 2015, MI6 established an "intelligence cooperative relationship" with the person.

After that, M16 instructed Huang to enter China several times, and instructed him to use his public identity as a cover to collect China-related intelligence for British spying, the statement said.

MI6 also conducted professional intelligence training for Huang in Britain and other places, and provided special espionage equipment for intelligence cross-linking, China's government said.

"After careful investigation, the state security organs promptly discovered evidence of Huang's involvement in espionage activities, and took criminal coercive measures against him," the government said.

The consulting agency was not disclosed by the Chinese government.
Citi predicts there's strong growth ahead for memory chipmakers, driven by rising demand for artificial intelligence applications. The Wall Street bank estimates that specialized memory and storage products meant for AI chips will claim a greater share of the total market, reducing volatility in the sector. Inventory levels for memory chips, such as generic DRAMs, reached multi-year highs in the first quarter of 2023. Such high stock levels typically push down manufacturers' pricing power. Citi estimates inventories have finally bottomed out after falling by a third since the start of last year. The investment bank now expects earnings at chipmakers to rise as the market recovers and diversifies to produce more higher-end and complex chips for AI applications. "We expect memory products to become semi-customized as AI memory products lead to increased product diversification and complexity going forward," said Citi analysts led by Peter Lee in a note to clients on Jan. 1. "As such, the memory market will likely develop in the direction of higher product optimization in order to meet customer needs, similar to the foundry market." Citi told investors that the stocks listed below would benefit from the trend. Two specialized memory chips, high bandwidth memory (HBM) and multi-ranked buffered DIMMs (MRDIMM), will be widely adopted thanks to their suitability in AI applications, according to Citi. HBM provides more bandwidth to accelerate parallel computing, while MRDIMM supports expanded memory capacity. Citi expects these chips to grow from 3.8% of total DRAM shipments in 2024 to 8.8% in 2027. SK Hynix and Micron are both likely to benefit from growth in these "semi-customized" memory chips, according to Citi. The investment bank expects SK Hynix and Micron Technology shares to rise by 63% and 11%, respectively, over the next 12 months. AI processing is also moving beyond centralized server farms into consumer devices like PCs and mobile phones. Citi predicts new memory chips will emerge to enable on-device AI, offering low power draw and high bandwidth. Dell is also one of the most "active" companies developing next-generation memory chips for thin laptops called "Compression Attached Memory Module." Citi expects shares of the PC maker to rise by 9.8% to $84 over the next 12 months, aided by this trend.
Farmers demonstrate with their tractors in front of the state parliament and have attached a placard with the words "No Farmer, No Food, No Future" to a tractor.

Farmers across Germany on Monday began protests against the government's economic and agricultural policies, blocking roads and highways with tractors and marching through major cities.

Some signs carried by protesters and attached to tractors had messages such as "no farmer, no food, no future" and "when farmers are ruined, food has to be imported" written on them. Others called for new elections and called the coalition government "senseless" and "incompetent".

A spokesperson for the German government was not immediately available when contacted by CNBC.

Local media quoted police authorities as saying some farmers had dumped hay, animal feed and manure on roads in an effort to block them.

Farmers are protesting the government's plans to reduce or withdraw tax breaks for the agriculture sector, which were announced in late December as part of the 2024 budget.

The plans included subsidy cuts for fuel usage by farmers and tax breaks for farming vehicles which sparked anger among farmers who say this would endanger their livelihood.
A few months ago, I went into a medical procedure worried. Thankfully, I wasn't concerned about my health. I wasn't stoked to be getting a colonoscopy at age 32, but it's about as routine as it gets, and my symptoms were hardly life threatening. Rather, I was worried about what it might cost. How did I step foot into a surgical center not knowing what the bill would be? It wasn't for lack of trying. I asked the doctor if the procedure was covered, and he said yes. But my insurance company said I'd be on the hook for a percentage of the cost since I was under 45. I called the clinic to ask what the full price was, and they told me to call my insurance company. My insurer told me to get in touch with the clinic's billing department. Billing said they'd call me back. They didn't. By the time the day of my colonoscopy arrived, I threw my hands up. The doctor had told me I absolutely needed it. I would just have to eat the cost, whatever it was. It's not an uncommon situation, says Carolyn McClanahan, a physician and certified financial planner with Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida. "Our health-care system is so broken," she says. "And the billing system is so opaque." When the bill came in the mail, I breathed a sigh of relief: $50. But it could have been much worse. The internet is full of horror stories of seemingly routine procedures running patients thousands of dollars and crippling their financial plans. If you're concerned that medical care you need could do the same to you, McClanahan recommends taking the following three steps.

Step 1: Get to know your insurance

My first instinct when it came to my procedure  checking the details of my insurance plan  was the correct one, says McClanahan. "The first step is, you need to understand your insurance coverage, which is so convoluted. Most people have no idea what's covered under their insurance." Start by determining what kind of plan you have. Many standard employer-sponsored plans are co-pay plans, which come with some level of coverage from the first dollar. "For example, you may pay $40 for your visit  that goes toward your deductible  and the insurance picks up the rest," says McClanahan. If you're in a high deductible plan, though, you have to hit a certain monetary threshold out-of-pocket before coverage kicks in. You should also be familiar with which doctors are in your network, what kinds of procedures are fully and partially covered, your annual out-of-pocket maximums and whether your copay varies depending on whether you're visiting a primary care physician or a specialist.

Step 2: Shop around for the best price

Even if you have an understanding of what you owe under your insurance plan, it still may be difficult to figure out exactly how a prospective treatment is priced, says McClanahan. I knew I had to pay a certain percentage of the total cost of my procedure, but no one could tell me what that total cost actually was. "The issue is, especially for people with high deductibles, that the insurance company has already negotiated a rate with the provider," says McClanahan. "If you don't have a copay plan, it's good for you to call up and say, 'I have a high deductible plan, and I want to know how much you charge my insurer to do this procedure.'" Who exactly you direct that question to can get murky, since some medical providers have their own billing department while others may outsource it to an outside firm. You may have to be more diligent than I was and start earlier in your inquiries if you want to get to the bottom of things. While working to get hold of someone who can give you a concrete answer can be a pain, it can also come with a big financial payoff. If you're going in for something relatively straightforward, like an MRI, you can call around to different providers within your network to see who offers the best rate, says McClanahan. You may also be able to save if you offer to pay in cash rather than filing a claim through your insurance. That will mean the money you put down won't count against your deductible, but it could also trim your bill significantly. McClanahan recalls a recent doctor visit to receive some diagnostic work that would have cost her $3,200 through her insurance. "They said, 'If you pay in cash, we'll do it for $1,500.'"

Step 3: Negotiate your bill
by Thomas R. Wells

Americans dominate global (social) media and one result of this is that the rest of the world is overexposed to Americans ideas, and also to their ideas about themselves. One such idea that is more or less endlessly repeated is that even middle-class Americans are actually poor these days.

I accept that many Americans are perfectly sincere in this belief but that doesnt make it true, whether one defines poverty in terms of meeting basic needs, or as a relative decline between generations or between America and other nations. Yes  some Americans are poor, really poor by any reasonable standard. But not most Americans, or the average (median) American, which is the claim I see constantly.

The evidence shows that most Americans are richer than ever, and richer than most people in the rich world  that they consume more, live in larger homes, and so on. They are objectively some of the luckiest people in world history. On the one hand all this narcissistic whining about imaginary poverty is mildly annoying for the rest of the world to have to listen to. On the other hand, it reflects shared delusions about individual entitlements and Americas economic decline that are driving a toxic doom politics of cynicism and resentment, while also neglecting the needs of actually poor Americans.

Two misunderstandings in particular seem to drive the mistake: that everything is more expensive these days, and that the rich took all the money.

1. Americans are poor because everything is more expensive these days

It is true that prices for many things have increased in recent decades, and this reduces the amount of those things that people can buy. However, this does not necessarily mean that Americans are objectively poor, or poorer than they used to be.

Price changes are a normal part of economic development. In particular, as an economy gets richer, food and manufactured goods get cheaper in terms of the hours of work you have to put in to get them, while labour-intensive services like education and healthcare automatically get more expensive. Most of the price increases that Americans complain about are actually an inevitable consequence of their increased prosperity. (Although some, like the extreme cost of health-care compared to other rich countries are attributable to America specific causes, such as peculiarly dysfunctional institutional arrangements.)

When prices for certain things increase, people have to make trade-offs they didnt have to before, and this may feel unpleasant because they cant have everything they thought they could have (or exactly the same set of things that their parents had). But they can still buy plenty of nice things, including functional substitutes as good or better than what their parents had. Altogether the bundle of valuable goods and services they can afford is much better than that available to previous generations.

And this seems to be the case. Americans live in smaller households in larger homes and drive bigger better cars than they used to. It may be that many Americans cant afford the lifestyle which they feel they deserve (and maybe they do deserve more!), but the lifestyle they can afford is nevertheless much better than that of previous generations.

2. Inequality: America is rich, but the top 1% took it all

Inequality in America is quite high compared to other rich countries. Indeed, it seems that a disproportionate share of the economic gains of the last 40 years have accrued to the already rich, while social mobility has declined.

One can certainly complain that this is unfair, and that the average American would be even richer if economic policies had been different. But that imaginary counterfactual doesnt mean that most Americans are actually poor against any reasonable benchmark (whether that be meeting their basic needs; the rest of the world; or Americans from previous generations).

A bigger problem is the division between the majority who enjoy housing wealth and the minority without it (especially younger people). Like every other rich country bar Singapore, America screwed up its housing market by making it too expensive to build housing where people wanted to live, and too easy for those who already lived there to block construction. It definitely needs to fix this!

However, even this very real problem does not affect most Americans. (The OECD ranks the US no 1 for housing based on criteria like space, quality, and cost.) This is because most Americans are in the lucky position of having already bought their house (or living in rent-controlled places) and so their housing costs are a quite affordable share of their income.

Why is Economic Pessimism so Entrenched Among Americans?

It may be that the mistaken perception of mass middle-class poverty in America is a problem with the mirror in which societies these days try to observe ourselves. Young Americans are disproportionately affected by the high cost of new housing, and they are also disproportionately represented in the social media space. Hence we hear a lot about their complaints and mistakenly assume that they must represent the majority experience.

Another way that social media is implicated lies in its characteristic tendency to amplify false but exciting claims, such as those ridiculous statistics claiming that [Terrifyingly high] percent of Americans are [shocking few] months from utter destitution.

Similar versions of these statistics appear every few months and spread quickly through old and new media. They are put out by personal finance companies who seem to have found a reliable way of generating large amounts of free media attention for very little effort. There is no transparency or rigour in their methodology, and their highly memeable findings are obvious nonsense. (Real research institutions that care about getting their methodology and facts right, like the Fed, come to very different numbers.) Nevertheless, even obvious nonsense will be believed if it is endlessly repeated and left unchallenged.

However it happened, economic pessimism now dominates America (see e.g. this recent YouGov poll, in which pessimists outnumbered optimists by 2:1). And it will likely have major consequences for the 2024 election: for which politicians win office and what their policy priorities and ideas will be. And so this mistake will have real world consequences, in America and beyond.

***

Thomas Wells teaches philosophy in The Netherlands. He blogs on philosophy, politics, and economics at The Philosophers Beard.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves as he boards an aircraft during his departure from Washington to travel to the Middle East, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., January 4, 2024.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to meet with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in their respective countries on Monday, ahead of travel to Israel as Washington seeks to contain regional spillover from the Israel-Hamas war.

"This is a moment of profound tension for the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and suffering," Blinken told reporters in Doha after meeting with Qatar's leadership on Sunday.

The Middle East trip follows the assassination by drone of deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, which Hamas has blamed on Israel. Israel has not publicly taken responsibility for the killing, which is one of the latest flashpoints in its war with the Palestinian militant group which has been raging for three months and shows no sign of subsiding.

Israeli soldiers have also exchanged fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants across Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

Many U.S. officials now fear that the fighting will draw Hezbollah and Lebanon into the war, a shift that could see Iran up its involvement as well. Hezbollah, the most powerful militant and political organization in Lebanon, has been described by analysts as having 10 times the power and military capabilities as Hamas.
Robin Hayes, CEO of JetBlue Airways, speaks to guests following the airline's inaugural flight from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to London Heathrow Airport in London on Aug. 12, 2021.

JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes will step down next month, the company said Monday. The airline's chief operating officer, Joanna Geraghty, will take the helm.

The departure comes as JetBlue tries to acquire budget carrier Spirit Airlines , a nearly $4 billion combination that the New York-based carrier argues will help it grow and better compete against larger rivals such as Delta and United .

The U.S. Department of Justice sued to block the merger last year. A decision by a federal judge in Boston is expected in the coming weeks after a trial that wrapped up late last year.

Hayes, a more than three-decade airline industry veteran, cited the high-pressure nature of the job in announcing his resignation via a company statement.

"It's bittersweet to retire from this airline I love, but I will always feel a part of the JetBlue team and be rooting for its continued success," Hayes said. "However, the extraordinary challenges and pressure of this job have taken their toll, and on the advice of my doctor and after talking to my wife, it's time I put more focus on my health and well-being."

Hayes will remain on the board of directors until he leaves his post on Feb. 12, at which point he will stay on as a strategic advisor and Geraghty will join the board.
On Monday, OpenAI, the artificial intelligence startup behind viral chatbot ChatGPT, clapped back at The New York Times in a statement over the news outlet's recently filed lawsuit over copyright infringement.

In December, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging intellectual property violations related to its journalistic content appearing in ChatGPT training data. According to a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Times seeks to hold Microsoft and OpenAI accountable for "billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages" related to the "unlawful copying and use of The Times's uniquely valuable works."

OpenAI wrote in a statement Monday that the startup disagreed with the Times' lawsuit, writing, "We collaborate with news organizations and are creating new opportunities. Training is fair use, but we provide an opt-out because it's the right thing to do." The company added that "regurgitation," or spitting out entire "memorized" parts of specific pieces of content or articles, "is a rare bug that we are working to drive to zero."

In a blog post, OpenAI wrote that the startup's discussions with the Times "had appeared to be progressing constructively through our last communication on December 19," with negotiations focusing on displaying Times content with attribution in ChatGPT  seemingly similar to the deal Axel Springer recently struck with OpenAI.

"Their lawsuit on December 27which we learned about by reading The New York Timescame as a surprise and disappointment to us," OpenAI wrote in the blog post.

The Times' lawsuit is one of a handful of recent legal actions against companies behind popular generative AI tools, including chatbots such as ChatGPT. In September, a group of prominent U.S. authors, including Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and Jodi Picoult, sued OpenAI over alleged copyright infringement in using their work to train ChatGPT. In July, two authors filed a similar lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that their books were used to train the company's chatbot without their consent.

On the image generation side of things, Getty Images sued Stability AI in February, alleging that the company behind the viral text-to-image generator copied 12 million of Getty's images for training data. In January, Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt were hit with a class action lawsuit over copyright claims in their AI image generators.

Finally, when it comes to AI-generated code, Microsoft, GitHub and OpenAI are involved in a proposed class action lawsuit, filed in 2022, which alleges that the companies scraped licensed code to train their code generators. There are several other generative AI-related lawsuits currently out there.



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A sign on the exterior of the China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd. research headquarters in Shanghai, China, on Friday, Sept. 24, 2021.

Shares of the electric vehicle manufacturing arm of property developer China Evergrande plunged 23% on Monday after the unit revealed its vice chairman had been detained.

In a filing to the Hong Kong exchange, Evergrande NEV announced that "the company has learned that its executive director Mr. Liu Yongzhuo has been detained in accordance with the law on suspicion of illegal crimes."

The filing did not elaborate on the nature of the crimes, nor when he was detained.
The United States Capitol building is seen in Washington D.C., United States on October 4 , 2023. Yasin Ozturk | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

What may happen with Social Security in a shutdown

If the worst-case scenario happens, and lawmakers fail to finalize a deal before both of those dates, it may take some time for Americans to notice, according to Andrew Lautz, senior policy analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center. "Americans don't start to really feel the day-to-day effects until a shutdown has lasted for a week or two and agencies have to start shutting down more and more programs and services," Lautz said. Those effects may be felt on a "rolling basis," he said, as Americans find the programs and services they rely on become unavailable, such as a phone line that becomes inactive because government employees have been furloughed or a department that stops giving out loans or grants during the shutdown period.

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The disruptions may be most acutely felt by tens of thousands of federal employees who find themselves either furloughed or working without pay. In reaction to the threat of a partial government shutdown last year, the Social Security Office of Budget, Finance and Management outlined its plans for agency operations during a lapse. Certain activities  such as applications for benefits or issuance of Social Security cards  would continue. Other services  such as benefit verifications or replacement Medicare cards  would be put on hold. That framework for Social Security may still apply if the lawmakers fail to finalize an agreement before the Feb. 2 deadline, according to Richtman.

Advocates are watching Social Security funding

This weekend's activity has prompted optimism that Washington leaders may be able to get an agreement done before those dates. However, Social Security advocates including the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare are closely watching how much funding the agency receives through the negotiations. President Joe Biden last year requested $1.4 billion more for Social Security in 2024, while House Republicans advocated for cuts to the agency's operations budget.
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris on June 16, 2023.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal by the social media giant X challenging a ban on the company disclosing the number of times federal authorities sought surveillance of Americans and foreign nationals using the service.

X, formerly known as Twitter, had argued that the federal government's prohibition on the company disclosing the exact number of receipts of national security-related requests for surveillance of users was unconstitutional, and should be granted only in exceptional cases.

X is owned by billionaire Elon Musk, who also heads Tesla and SpaceX.

The Supreme Court did not explain why it declined to take X's appeal in the decade-old case, nor did it reveal which and how many justices might have wanted to take the case.

The decision leaves in place a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that restrictions on free speech related to receiving requests for surveillance related to national security concerns is not subject to certain procedural requirements that mandate judicial review.

X's lawsuit had sought the right to publicly reveal the exact number of times in a six-month period it received a national security order requesting information about users.

In August, a federal appeals court decision in Washington, D.C., revealed that Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith had obtained a search warrant for the Twitter account of former President Donald Trump at the beginning of 2023 as part of Smith's criminal investigation of Trump.
Russia unleashes a further wave of missile and drone strikes across a number of regions in Ukraine Monday with at least four civilians killed in the latest attacks.

In other news, Russian President Vladimir Putin courted the families of dead Russian servicemen over the weekend as he continued attempts to burnish his leadership credentials ahead of the March presidential election.

Putin met family members of Russian service personnel who died fighting in Ukraine at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo on Saturday, ahead of Orthodox Christmas celebrations. Praising the service personnel's heroism, Putin said they had defended Russia's interests and that the government would support their families.

"Many of our men, our courageous, heroic men, the soldiers of Russia are defending right now the interests of our country with weapons in their hands, on this holiday," Putin said at the meeting.
Remote jobs might be becoming rarer to find and increasingly competitive to land, but it's still possible to find a gig that allows you to work from home  you just need to know where to look.

To help people find the best remote opportunities, FlexJobs, a membership service for jobseekers, identified the top 100 companies hiring remote jobs in 2024, taking into account some 60,000 companies who listed their openings on the site between Jan. and Dec. 2023.

FlexJobs saw a moderate 11% increase in the number of remote job listings in 2023 over 2022  compared to a 20% increase between 2021 and 2022  yet continued growth in sales, tech, and health care as well as accounting and finance roles. About 64% of listings are for jobs at an intermediate or experienced level.

"The biggest change we've seen in the remote job market this past year is that the number of openings fluctuated less and also weren't concentrated in one field," says Toni Frana, FlexJobs's lead career expert. "Many fields, but especially sales and tech, provided a consistent, steady flow of remote opportunities throughout 2023, and I expect that to continue in 2024."

Here are the top 20 companies hiring for the most remote jobs in 2024, according to FlexJobs (and see the full list here):

Working Solutions LiveOps CVS Health Robert Half International Williams-Sonoma Thermo Fisher Scientific ModSquad BELAY Cactus Transcom Sutherland BCD Travel Kelly UnitedHealth Group Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH) Randstad Creative Financial Staffing Kforce Aston Carter Aquent

Six companies  CVS Health, Elevance Health, Kelly, Stride, SAP and UnitedHealth Group  have consistently made the top 100 since FlexJobs first published their ranking in 2014.

New to the list this year are Peloton, Zillow and Hopper, as well as 31 other companies that have ditched plans for a full return to the office and announced permanent remote options for employees.

Some of the most in-demand roles these employers are hiring for come with a six-figure paycheck, FlexJobs reports. Two of the most popular remote jobs companies hired for in 2023 were product manager and software engineer, which both have average salaries well above $100,000 in the U.S., according to data from ZipRecruiter.

If you're hoping to land a remote job in 2024, consider brushing up on your non-technical skills.

While the demand for hard skills such as coding and web design are still valuable in our increasingly digital world, soft skills, such as communication and problem-solving, can also be deal-breakers for remote hiring managers.

Frana has noticed more and more that companies are listing soft skills as requirements in their job listings. Highlighting these skills at the top of your resume and in conversations with hiring managers can help you stand out from other remote job candidates.

"Building some career resilience can help you be more successful in your remote job search, too," Frana adds. "Given the market's increased competitiveness, being proactive about learning new skills and showing that you're invested in your career growth shows potential employers that you're willing to take initiative and could be considered for several opportunities."

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4 years later, this global tech company says there are still big challenges to remote work
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks to the media after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, April 21, 2023.

White House officials on Monday reiterated the president's support for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who said he did not intend to resign in the face of sharp bipartisan criticism for failing to disclose his emergency hospitalization to administration officials or Congress for several days.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said there are no plans other "than for Secretary Austin to stay in the job."

On Jan. 1, Austin was admitted to the intensive care unit at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after complications from a Dec. 22 elective surgery. Austin did not communicate his medical status to White House officials for three days, though some staff members said they learned of his condition on Jan. 2.

Congressional leaders, including the top Democrat and Republican on both the House and Senate armed services committees have questioned Austin's lack of transparency. Some Republicans have gone even further. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has called on Austin to step down and for Congress to launch a formal investigation into the incident.

Pentagon Press Secretary Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement Monday that Austin "has no plans to resign. He remains focused on conducting his duties as Secretary of Defense in defense of our nation."

The White House continued to downplay the situation, framing it as a protocol error, and not as a more serious failure in the chain of command.

"If there's some changes that need to be made in terms of process and procedure, we'll do that," said Kirby.

The Pentagon said Austin's Chief of Staff Kelly Magsamen was informed of Austin's hospitalization on Jan. 2, but she had the flu and did not pass along the message to the National Security Council.

On the afternoon of Jan. 4, Austin informed his deputy secretary and the NSC of the ICU admission.

Pentagon officials said Monday that Austin had been moved out of the ICU and he was in good condition, though he was still experiencing discomfort. He remained in the hospital in a more private area, they said, and did not yet have a release date.

They did not offer any additional information about why he was admitted in the first place.

On Monday, the spokesperson said Austin took several phone calls, including with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

The Pentagon also announced Monday that it would conduct a review of its notification practices, though a spokesperson did not commit to publicizing the findings of that review. The Pentagon's lawyers were examining whether any laws were broken when Austin failed to report his medical condition.

U.S. Code 3349 requires leaders of executive agencies to report any vacancies among their senior officials as soon as they happen, and report who is acting in the position during the absence.

Pentagon officials said that "at all times" Austin was ready to exercise the power of his post, though they also reported that he transferred some operational responsibilities to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks on Jan. 2, as his condition worsened.

Austin has not revealed what his initial elective surgery was for, nor why he delayed telling the White House about his ICU admission, although he took responsibility for the highly unusual secrecy.

"I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better," Austin said in a statement Saturday. Kirby said that President Joe Biden respects Austin's ownership of his mistake.

But for the secretary of defense, keeping his medical status hidden is not just a simple communication blunder  it has major national security implications.

Austin's secret hospitalization came during a week when the U.S. was weighing several notable national security matters, including military action in the Middle East.

On Jan. 4, the Pentagon launched a drone strike in Baghdad that killed an Iran-backed militia leader as part of the U.S. effort to weaken Iranian military arms. The Biden administration also reportedly held meetings to discuss options for a strike against the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group in response to its Red Sea attacks against commercial ships, which have disrupted major shipping routes.

The marked lack of transparency from Austin, who is sixth in the line of succession for the presidency, has alarmed members of Congress.

The top Democrat and Republican on the House Armed Services Committee issued a joint statement on Sunday demanding more clarity on the undisclosed hospital stay.

"While we wish Sec. Austin a speedy recovery, we are concerned with how the disclosure of the Secretary's condition was handled," Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., wrote in the statement.

On Monday, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. Jack Reed said "this was a serious incident and there needs to be transparency and accountability from the Department.

"This lack of disclosure must never happen again," said Reed. "I am tracking the situation closely and the Department of Defense is well aware of my interest in any and all relevant information."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that Biden maintains "complete confidence" in Austin. A senior administration official said Biden and Austin spoke by phone Saturday evening in what the official called a "warm conversation."
Drug major Cipla Ltd on Monday (January 8) said its wholly-owned subsidiary Cipla (EU) Ltd entered into a strategic collaboration with Kemwell Biopharma Private Ltd (via its subsidiary Kemwell Biopharma UK Ltd) and Manipal Education & Medical Group (via its subsidiary MNI Ventures, Mauritius).

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The collaboration aims to establish a joint venture in the United States dedicated to advancing and commercialising novel cell therapy products targeting critical unmet medical needs in the United States, Japan, and EU regions.

Under this strategic alliance, Cipla (EU) is set to secure a 35.2% stake in the joint venture company. The collaboration draws upon the collective strengths of each partner, combining Cipla's prowess in product development and commercialisation, Kemwell's expertise in biologics, and Manipal's extensive experience in healthcare delivery.

The primary focus of the joint venture is to accelerate the development, manufacturing, licensing, import, and export of innovative cell therapy products that address major medical gaps, with a global reach to cater to patients across borders.

The collaboration is expected to leverage Cipla's leadership in product development and commercialisation, Kemwell's specialised knowledge in biologics, and Manipal's established healthcare delivery expertise to create a synergistic approach to advancing cutting-edge cell therapy solutions.

Umang Vohra, Managing Director and Global Chief Executive Officer of Cipla, said, "This joint venture reinforces our concerted efforts to move up the innovation curve and pioneer transformative treatments in the areas of stem cell and CAR T-cell therapies, enabled by advances in biotech, mRNA and cell-engineering research, that can make a difference to patient lives globally."

Anurag Bagaria, Chairman and CEO, Kemwell, said the company believes that cell therapies will become a major branch of medical treatment and will become a standard of care for challenging diseases. Kemwell has built a world-class cGMP facility in Bengaluru and made India an emerging hub for cell therapy development and manufacturing.

Dr Ranjan Pai, Chairman of Manipal Education & Medical Group, said, "We are very happy to partner with Cipla and Kemwell in bringing the next generation of biological therapies to address unmet medical needs globally. Physicians will have accessible, safe, and clinically effective cell therapies in their hands to fight against many serious indications."

Shares of Cipla Ltd ended at 1,271.05, down by 15.45, or 1.20%, on the BSE.
by Barry Goldman

When I was a little boy my parents had a book that convulsed me with giggles. It was a collection of cartoons by Abner Dean called What Am I Doing Here ? I couldnt read, and I didnt understand what was happening in the pictures, but the people in the cartoons were naked! You could see their tushies! It just cracked me up.

One day the book disappeared. I think my friend Neal from down the street boosted it, but in any case I forgot about it for many years. Then one afternoon when I was about 20 I came across it again in a used book store. I remember the feeling distinctly. The drawings were strangely familiar, and they were deep. Some of them made me shiver with the shiver of cosmic deepness. Readers who were once 20-year-old pot smokers will know what I mean. But the man wanted $12 or some such impossible sum, and I had to leave it in the store.

I was in another used book store 25 years later, and I came across it again. I recognized the cover and eagerly paged through the cartoons. This time they struck me as silly. Sophomoric was the word that came to mind. I didnt see any reason to buy it.

Another 25 years has gone by, and there was an ad for a re-issue of What Am I Doing Here? in the New York Review of Books. It said:

With an inimitable mixture of wit, earnestness, and enigmatic surrealism, Dean uses this most ephemeral of forms to explore the deepest mysteries of human existence.

I ordered a copy. (Drumroll, please.) Nothing. Not funny, not deep, not clever. Nothing. An entirely forgettable book of entirely forgettable cartoons.

So which is true? Is it wet-your-pants funny, chillingly deep, or just silly? The question, as the Buddha used to say, is not rightly put. I experienced the book in all of those ways, and all of my experiences were perfectly valid. But what is it really? is not a proper question. I wasnt wrong when I thought it was hysterically funny, and Im not wrong now that I think its silly. The category of correctness or incorrectness doesnt apply.

Thats not to say there is no such thing as aesthetic judgment. There are reasons to think a work of art is good or bad, and there are experts who can explain those reasons. Lawrence Weschler is a personal favorite. He knows how to look at paintings and talk about them in a way that adds layers of previously unimagined depth. Weschler brings a huge amount of background knowledge to the experience of a work of art. Reading him is an intellectual joy. He is informed, hes trained, hes exquisitely sensitive. But it would be a mistake to say that Weschlers judgments are correct. Facts are correct or incorrect. Judgments cannot be either. They can be more or less informed, more or less intellectually provocative, but they cannot be correct or incorrect.

All of which brings me, at last, to the subject of this essay. I want to talk about legal judgment. And I want to say the same thing about it that I just said about aesthetic judgment: the category of correct and incorrect does not apply.

The textualist, originalist justices on the Supreme Court do not agree. They believe the meaning of the Constitution was fixed at the time of its adoption, and that deviations from that original meaning are egregiously wrong. The late Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the leading lights of originalism, put it this way in an interview with Nina Totenberg on NPR:

If you somehow adopt a philosophy that the Constitution itself is not static, but rather, it morphs from age to age to say whatever it ought to say  which is probably whatever the people would want it to say  youve eliminated the whole purpose of a constitution. And thats essentially what the living constitution leaves you with.

Supporters of originalism believe it restrains the court from imposing whatever reading the majority of justices happens to prefer. There is something appealing about this notion. The idea is the Law is above the sordid to-ing and fro-ing of politics. The law is the law. No one is above the law. We are a government of laws, not of men. Part of the appeal comes from the fact that the Warren Court of living constitutionalists felt free to rule upon not just the rights enumerated in the Constitution but also found that:

the specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance.

Once the Court began to find penumbras formed by emanations, it was off to the races. First the right to contraception, then the right to abortion, then gay sex and same sex marriage. One shudders to think what could come next.

Originalism was supposed to be the antidote to this. Originalist judges, the story goes, do not make law, they merely apply it. They simply read the text. No emanations. No penumbras. No political agendas. Text.

Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. His 2022 book Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism defends the opposite view:

Constitutional law is now, always has been, and always will be largely a product of the views of the justices. The conservative quest for value-neutral judging is a futile one; their claim that they have achieved it through originalism is nonsense.

I agree with Chemerinsky that originalism is incoherent, that it is a fig leaf for the personal policy preferences of conservative justices, and that it is cynically invoked or disregarded as required to advance those preferences. I enthusiastically recommend his book, and I hope the reviewer is right who declared it to be the definitive obituary of originalism. But I would go further. It is not the case that the originalists are wrong and the living constitutionalists are right. Both sides act as though The Law is written in some Great Book in the Sky, and a judges job is to look it up and apply it. They just disagree about what the Great Book says. Thats not how it works. The late legal scholar Anthony DAmato understood this. He wrote:

Any judicial opinion is a carefully constructed exercise in legal rhetoric designed to convince the reader that the judge had no choice, that the law determined everything.

Law reviews around the country are filled with the modern equivalent of medieval scholasticism designed to accomplish just that. Actually, the matter is far simpler than either side makes it appear.

Lets take a case described by Robert Reich from back in his early days as Bill Clintons Secretary of Labor. Reich described the incident in his Substack about two years ago.

Child labor laws bar fourteen-year-olds from working past 7 pm on school nights. Weeks before I became secretary of labor, a vigilant Labor Department investigator discovered that the Savannah Cardinals, a Class A farm team of the Atlanta Braves, had hired 14-year-old Tommy McCoy to be their batboy. On balmy evenings extending beyond sunset, Tommy selected each players favorite bat and proudly delivered it to him in the batters box. Next morning, Tommy went to school.

The investigator threatened the team with a stiff fine. The team did what it had to do: It fired little Tommy.

Tommy liked being a batboy. His parents were proud of him. The team was fond of him. The fans loved him. As long as anyone could remember, every kid in Savannah had coveted the job. Tommy did well in school.

But now little Tommy was out of the best kids job in town.

Reich told his staff to drop the case. They said the law is the law. They said dropping it would look like caving to public pressure or selective prosecution. They said it would undermine staff morale.

Reich directed them to drop it anyway on the grounds that it was stupid. Im with him.

There is merit in consistency, and there is merit in the idea that the public is entitled to advance notice of what is permitted and what is not under the law. There is merit in the idea that judges should not be making it up as they go along. But there is greater merit in what has come to be known as the Obama Doctrine: Dont do stupid shit.

I understand that reasonable minds can differ on the question of what is stupid. I accept the risk. In my view, the cost of a doctrinaire adherence to a set of rules  any set of rules  is worse. Even Scalia recognized this. In that same interview with Totenberg he said, I am an originalist. I am a textualist. I am not a nut.

The law is a fact as Professor DAmato said. The written law, precedent, and case law is a fact to be considered along with the other facts in the case. That the law should be followed is, perhaps, a rebuttable presumption. But it is not dispositive. If the law calls for something stupid, then it should not be followed. Here is more from DAmato:

Justice, I argue, is what law is for; justice is what lawyers should do; justice is what judges should render. Law is nothing but a set of tools  admittedly complex and intellectually engaging. But we should not get so caught up in the intellectual interest of law that we forget that law in itself cannot solve human problems.

Justice justice shalt thou pursue it says in Deuteronomy 16:20. It doesnt say Consistent enforcement of the written rules shalt thou pursue. That would be stupid.
US congressional leaders announced a deal on a top-line spending level for the current fiscal year, lessening the chances of a partial government shutdown on January 20.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, negotiated the deal, clearing the way for the appropriations committees in both chambers to negotiate detailed spending bills now that they have an overall limit for the amount those bills can spend.

The deal sets the cap for the 12 annual spending bills at $1.59 trillion and Republicans have agreed a set of budget moves that Democrats demanded to spare immediate cuts to domestic agency budgets. These moves, which conservatives have decried as gimmicks, could lead some Republicans to refuse support.

Yet the deal lacks an agreement to block all conservative policy riders, so the chance of a fight over demands such as defunding investigations into former President Donald Trump could still cause an impasse later.

Johnson presented the deal to his colleagues in a letter on Sunday.

After many weeks of dialogue and debate, we have secured hard-fought concessions to unlock the FY24 topline numbers and allow the Appropriations Committee to finally begin negotiating and completing the twelve annual appropriations bills, the letter says.

The US is facing two government shutdown deadlines after January 19 and February 2. Without fresh appropriations, the departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Housing and Urban development, Energy and Veterans Affairs would shut down on January 20. Republicans and Democrats have been at odds over the spending level, stalling all of the 12 appropriations bills.

President Joe Biden welcomed the agreement and called on Republicans to fulfill their basic responsibility to fund critical domestic and national security priorities.

The bipartisan funding framework congressional leaders have reached moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities, Biden said in a White House statement.

A June law lifting the US debt ceiling set a spending cap of $1.59 trillion for discretionary spending. A so-called side deal between President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would have allowed $70 billion in accounting moves to be used to achieve the cuts required by the cap.

Representative Chip Roy, a conservative Republican from Texas, said on social media platform X that Sundays accord was terrible and gives away the leverage accomplished in the (already not great) caps deal.

Democrats said they secured the same amount of domestic funding allowed by the debt-ceiling side deal.

By securing the $772.7 billion for non-defense discretionary funding, we can protect key domestic priorities like veterans benefits, health care and nutrition assistance from the draconian cuts sought by right-wing extremists, Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement.

By allowing the $70 billion in side-deal moves, the effective cap is $1.66 trillion.

The deal presented Sunday includes $16 billion in offsetting spending cuts above the debt-ceiling agreement to take effect in 2024. That includes speeding up $10 billion in cuts to the Internal Revenue Service and canceling an additional $6 billion in unspent Covid-19 pandemic funds.

A Senate Democratic aide said the Covid cuts should have no significant impact on efforts to fight the virus and dont apply to developing future vaccines.

Not allowed under the deal is an effort by Senate appropriators to spend $14 billion above the cap by designating that regular spending as an emergency, the letter says.

The deal would also prevent other types of budget moves that count phantom cuts to entitlement spending to meet the cap.

A shutdown could still happen if lawmakers fail to agree on spending levels for those federal agencies that shut down after January 19, or on whether some conservative policy demands will be added.

Some conservatives are pushing Johnson to use the shutdown deadline to force Biden to accept changes in border policy. But until now, Republican leaders have called for dealing with the border issue as part of a separate request by Biden for some $61 billion in aid to Ukraine.
by Barbara Fischkin

At dawn on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation, in Ukrainea euphemism for war, if ever there was one. Since that morning, the fortitude of the Ukrainian people has resounded, even as the Middle East vies for our attention. For me, evidence of this gritas fertile as Ukraines soilarrives weekly, if not daily, in messages from a young woman in a western city. She writes from Ternopil, a relatively safe place. But from her I have heard that no place in Ukraine is truly safe.

I have also heard that its people are determined to stay, survive and rebuild.

My contact is not a war correspondent. She is an English language instructor, a teacher, a college administrator and the mother of two small children. In other words: A regular citizen. Her name is Oksana Fuk and we have been corresponding since hours after that terrifying dawn, almost two years ago, when Russia invaded her country.

We may have met in person years ago, when she was an internationally-recruited counselor at a camp for developmentally disabled children and adults in the upstate New York Catskill Mountains. What we are sure about is that she knows our elder son, Daniel Mulvaney, who has non-speaking autism and attended this camp for many summers.

On February 24, 2022, as I was searching for more news about the invasionmy mother was born in UkraineOksanas name popped up on my Facebook feed. I saw that she had worked at Dans camp.

When we first connected it was 4 p.m. on Long Island where I live. By then the invasion that morning had been front page news worldwide. It was 11 p.m. in Ternopil.

These are the initial emails that went back and forth that afternoon and evening:

Me: Oksana, dear, sending safety and strength to you and yours. My impression is that you are far from the Russian troops. I hope so. Did you know my son Dan Mulvaney from Camp Loyaltown? Is this why we are friends, or perhaps through one of the counselors? Many Loyaltown counselors are dear to me. Ternopil, by the way, is featured in some scenes in the historical novel I am writing. Much more of it takes place in Hvardiiske, past and present. My mother was born in 1913 in Hvardiiske when it was a Jewish shtetl named Felshtin. Long complicated manuscript. Autism is in it as well. And New York. All this aside, please let me know how you are

Oksana: Hello Barbara! Yes, I know Dan from camp, as I was a camp counselor in 2008-2011. Thank you for your kind words and support. Yes, I am from Ternopil and right now we seem to be safe. But the whole Ukraine is being attacked, so we are really worried. But our army is incredible, we are hoping and praying for the best.

Now, thanks to private messages and email, Oksana and I know each other well. I also know that she still feels the war every day. Russian planes fly overhead, sirens go off, bomb shelters fill up. Power outages have been prolonged, the fear of a nuclear accident due to Russian interference in a plant that is farbut still too closeis ever-present.

And yet I am confident that Oksana will also be part of the cohort of young Ukrainians who will rebuild their country after the war. She has already taught internal refugees, an effort funded by a United States Embassy grant.

Still, I worry about her and her family.

Most recently I worry with Oksana that her husband, Rostyk, will be conscripted as a replacement for worn out soldiers at the front. Or for those, including friends, who have died there. Like most men in Ukraine, Rostyk has not been permitted to leave the country since the invasion. Not that he would. A musician and a local journalist, he has volunteered in the past to go, as a videographer. Now, like many others, he waits to be called up. About this, Oksana writes: I really dont know what to say. For now Rostyk hasnt gotten a notice from the military office, so he keeps working, donating, and spending time with the kids. But mobilization is still going on, so we never know when he will receive an official notice. Thats how it isno clarity about the future and no possibility to make plans.

This is from Oksanas latest email to me: Fri, Jan 5, 6:15 p.m.

Thank you for not giving up on me. Anyway, nothing new from over here. Same old story: Sirens every day, but nothing more in Ternopil. Thank God for that. Kids had three weeks of school holidays, but on Monday they are back. Yay! 

In that email she wrote more about her son Adrian, a first grader and his little sister, Yarynka, who is two. In normal times Oksana would by now be sending Yarynka to a daycare center. But with the war on she will not do this. Too often, as often as once a day, toddlers even in the best of centers are rushed into bomb shelters as Russian planes fly overhead. Of Yarynka, Oksana writes: She is a happy child. But we are not sending her to the childrens center. We are keeping her at home. I am aware of how hard it is for teachers to get such small kids into bomb shelters. They have to help them to get ready fastand so Yarynka is still at home with me and with Rostyk and with the grandmas, when I am at work. I am so glad we all live in the same city.

Late last year I had asked Oksana about Christmas. Would her family continue to celebrate on January 7, as the Russian Orthodoxy does, instead of December 25? The Russian Orthodox church, which still tries to exert some control over its Ukrainian counterpart, celebrates the holiday according to the Julian calendaras in Julius Caesarinstead of the Gregorian calendar. This year, for the first time, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church sanctioned the celebration of Christmas on December 25.

To this Oksana replied: My parents are very happy about the historical change and ability to finally celebrate with the whole world and separately from you-know-which-disgusting-country. On the 24th we all will get together for holy supper: my aunt is coming from a different city. My parents will cook twelve dishes (usually we split the chores, so that means I cook one or two dishes. I know its not fair but they insist on cooking the rest. lol). We will pray before the supper, pray for those who are not with us anymore. We even prepare a plate and put some meals in it for all the late souls. Then we will sing carols. And on the next day we will go to the holy mass and visit Rostyks parents. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, as I have very sweet memories from my childhood. We used to go to Buchach, a town where my grandparents used to live, and it was always magicalBut to be honest, everyone is very depressed these days. Honestly, if it wasnt for the kids, I would probably not even decorate the Christmas tree. The latest news is very desperate. A few days ago my colleague died in the war. And every day we receive more and more news like this.

In January Oksana added that her family celebrated Christmas the traditional Orthodox way, as well. In wartime, the more celebrations the better. She wrote: Oh, by the way, today, in Ukraine, we had the second holy supper and it is called Generous Evening, as we cook not only lean meals. Thats when it is appropriate to sing our famous Carol of the Bells. So you know: That was composed by Mykola Leontovych, the Ukrainian composer.

To recount recent history, when Putin invaded Ukraine in early 2022 the conventional wisdom was that this would be a David versus Goliath battle. Much of the world cheered for David. The truth, as it turns out, is not so simple. Putin was waging a war against a centuries-old culture and language and the land-rich, resilient country its people inhabit. Such is Putins hubris. His war has now raged for two years. Ukraine is about the size of Texas. Its people are even tougher. The oligarch of oligarchs rants and raves but has not figured out how to make Ukraine bow to his wishes.

Early in the war, Oksana took her two children to safety in Polandwhere they stayed with another former Camp Loyaltown counselor. It was safe, but not home. Oksana needed to feel Ukrainian soil under my feet again. So she took her children back to Ukraine for a while, expecting she would likely neeed to flee again. Instead she stayed.

Back home, at first, she wrote to me: Actually we came back home for a little while, because my grandma is dying and I had to see her. But Im planning to go back. The lines on the border are not long now, so that is not a problem. But we are fine, thank you! I dont know what their (The Russian) plan is, but what they keep doing to our people is horrible, just horrible. Women being raped in front of children. Volunteers being shot because they brought some food. Soulless soldiers steal from our houses everything from clothes, jewelry, perfumes to laptops, cellphones, and then send them home to their wives in Russia! They are non-humans. And when they talk on the phone, their wives tell them to keep killing us, because that is what they deserve. The soulless behavior of ordinary Russians. Ternopil, though, is very lively now! We have lots of people from Kyiv here, who start participating in the life of the city. Which is great! Lots of people who went abroad came back. But I want to go again for a little while in order to keep the kids safe.

And then: Ive never left again, but my suitcase is ready in case of any scenario. But it is so good to be home. I cant explain it, but when I am on my ground, it is easy to keep living in these horrible times. It is like a connection with your motherland, family, roots. I hear it from a lot of people who decided to come back home after being abroad for a while. I hope we are safe here. The war keeps going but people keep living, helping, praying, doing possible and impossible things. Our volunteers are the best. They are restless. So I decided to teach a few more classes in order to be able to at least donate to the army some part of the income, as there are so many requests: equipment, cars, medical stuff. And as long as the war is not over, those requests wont stop for sure. Thank you for thinking about us and my family in particularit is really powerful! Cannot even express how it helps to be in someones prayers and thoughts. Well, kids love toys and Adrian loves books! That is a very nice proposal of yours to send us a package. But are you sure it wont be very expensive for you to send a package overseas? We dont lack anything here, for now that is for sure!

Soon, as I was putting that package together, Oksana and I discovered another coincidence beyond Camp Loyaltown. Adrian loved Spider-Manand a friend and former journalism student of mine, Mark Ginocchio, is a Spider-Man author and podcaster. I got together a package of toys for Adrian and Yarynka, which thanks to Mark included a Spider-Man book and Spider-Man posters.

And then another coincidence: The shtetl where my mother was born is close to Ternopil so that Oksana knows it and has traveled very close to it. In the fields outside this shtetl a Christian Ukrainian farmer hid my mother and saved her life, risking his own. Oksana has since read portions of my novel, which I sent to her for fact checkingand for her opinion in regard to the story. In short, we are friends and despite distance it is a wartime friendship, the type of friendship that lasts.

For the past two Thanksgivings at a friends and family event at the Bungalow Bar in Rockaway, I have gathered a group of children around a camera to send hope to Adrian and Yarynka. One year we sent it in very basic Ukrainian.

Adrian asked his mother: How do they know my name in America?

Next year we hope to send a message to Adrian Fuk, who lives in peace.
In response to gathering legal efforts to rein in its data collection, OpenAI is arguing that the creation of advanced generative AI (genAI) tools is unfeasible without the use of copyrighted content to train them.

In a report to the UKs House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee, OpenAI said that training extensive large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4, the underlying technology of ChatGPT, would be impossible without the use of copyrighted materials.

Because copyright today covers virtually every sort of human expression  including blog posts, photographs, forum posts, scraps of software code, and government documents  it would be impossible to train todays leading AI models without using copyrighted materials, OpenAI said in its submission.

GenAI applications such as ChatGPT or the image-generation tool Stable Diffusion are built using vast amounts of data  much of it protected by copyright laws  collected from the internet. That's led to increasing pushback from publishers and authors who say their work is being used without credit or compensation.

Concerns about copyrighted code

Developers have been using resources such as Google and StackOverflow for decades, said Daniel Li, CEO of Plus Docs, a company whose software uses genAI to design, create, and edit presentations. ChatGPT, he said, simply allows even more ease of use when coding.

The important thing to realize, however, is that developers still need to understand their code. ChatGPT doesnt change that requirement, he said.

Li agreed that companies need to be very careful they are not using code or other copyrighted text. This is already a major topic in software acquisitions for big tech companies, and it will only become more important."

The statement by OpenAI comes as the company faces a raft of legal actions. Just last week, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against it and Microsoft, a significant investor in the company and a user of its tools in various Microsoft products; the suit alleges illegal use of New York Times content in the creation of OpenAI tools. OpenAI argued in return that copyright law does not prohibit the training of genAI models.

OpenAI last year faced a federal class action lawsuit in California accusing it of unlawfully using personal data for training purposes. That lawsuit, lodged in the Northern District of California, cited 15 violations, including breaches of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and various consumer rights statutes at the state level.

The central allegation of the California suit is that OpenAI unlawfully acquired the plaintiffs' private data and used it without providing compensation.

According to the complaint, OpenAI employed this misappropriated data to refine and advance [ChatGPT] through extensive language models and advanced language algorithms, enabling it to produce and understand language akin to a human, applicable across a multitude of uses.

Lawsuits are proliferating

The California case is part of a growing legal fight over efforts to rein in rampant data collection by genAI tools. A group of nonfiction authors has initiated a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the companies infringed on the authors' copyrights by using their writings and academic papers to train ChatGPT without authorization.

The primary plaintiff is Julian Sancton, the author of "Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgicas Journey Into the Dark Antarctic." That suit charges OpenAI and Microsoft with flagrantly disregarding copyright laws to create a multi-billion-dollar business by using humanity's collective works without permission. Instead of compensating for intellectual property, they act as though copyright laws are non-existent.

John Licato, an assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Florida, said OpenAIs stance could result in copyright issues.

The line separating adapting existing ideas and genuinely creating something new is already muddy, and AI is forcing us to see how poorly defined that distinction actually is, Licato said.
Listening is an important part of communication as it serves as the gateway to understanding others. Beyond merely hearing what others say, listening involves grasping emotions, intentions, and unspoken messages.

In personal settings, effective listening strengthens relationships by fostering understanding, empathy, and trust. It creates an environment where individuals feel heard and valued, leading to deeper connections and healthier interactions. In a professional setting, effective listening fuels collaboration, problem-solving, and continuous learning. It enables individuals to respond thoughtfully, minimizing misunderstanding and conflict.

In a paper, listening educator and consultant Graham D. Bodie emphasizes the significance of listening beyond just information processing. According to Bodie, listening is not only a cognitive task but an active and meaningful engagement with others. Here's how a person can become a better listener, according to Bodie.

Be attentive

Good listening begins with attentiveness. Engaging cues such as eye contact and paraphrasing display active engagement, steering conversations away from distraction. Bodie's insights stress the essence of paying attention not just to words but also to their intended relational context. Mindfulness, devoid of personal emotional clutter, forms the cornerstone of this facet of listening, allowing individuals to remain present and focused.

Communicate with competence

Beyond attentiveness lies communication competence. This encompasses a suite of behaviors that elevate listening to enhance relationships further. Expressiveness, persuasiveness, and an assertive yet open approach are key attributes. Being organized, unbiased, and exhibiting intelligence contribute significantly to effective communication. These traits empower individuals to articulate thoughts and ideas while fostering an atmosphere conducive to meaningful dialogue.

Practice your social skills

The elusive quality of social skillfulness comprises eight attributes that complement listening prowess. Being friendly, other-oriented, and helpful, among others, contributes to the holistic aspect of effective communication. These qualities often align with certain personality traits, highlighting the importance of developing these attributes for better communication outcomes.
Ken Jennings  yep, host of Jeopardy! Ken Jennings  is baffled by a bizarre comedy phenomenon. It took place during a very particular time in American business history, an era when people were paid good money to work as corporate humor consultants. During the 1980s, according to Jennings in his book Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture, these clowns covered the plains like the buffalo. Where did they come from, Jennings wants to know  and where the heck did these comedy buffalos roam off to?

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The 1980s were the perfect storm for the corporate humor industry, writes Jennings. Behind its rise was a new generation of goofball executives (think Ben and Jerry and their ice cream empire). As younger bosses rejected the rigidity of older managerial models, they embraced, at least for a while, training methods that encouraged creativity, stress reduction and teamwork. You know, like improv!

For better or worse, improv veterans and less-qualified opportunists descended on corporate retreats, teaching sales teams how to Yes and their way to success. Second City introduced its improv training boot camp for business teams. Full disclosure: I have been on the teaching end of corporate improv training, generally a half-day affair thats an unmitigated delight for extroverts temporarily freed from their desk shackles and a nightmare for the poor introvert who really would rather not act out a wacky sales call in front of their peers.

Comedian-comedians were part of the fad. Monty Pythons John Cleese saw dollar signs and started Video Arts, a company that tried to punch up boring training films with Python-esque humor. Funny and corporate training dont often go hand-in-hand  at least not intentionally.

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I have to admit Cleese did it better (in fact, much better) than most.

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But not all corporate humor experts were professional funny guys. Jennings tells the story of Joel Goodman, a writer who specialized in business presentations. In 1977, he had the good fortune of riding in a Houston hospital shuttle driven by an especially quippy driver. The drivers jokes eased family tension around Goodmans fathers heart surgery, inspiring him to start the Humor Project to teach people and organizations how to make sense of humor. At its peak, Goodman received 20 requests a day from corporations who wanted to learn the relationship between the funny line and bottom line.

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During this era, explains Jennings, working at the right company meant comedy was built into your day. Eastman-Kodak had a funny room stocked with Erma Bombeck books, Candid Camera videos and those annoying chattering teeth that someone last century decided were hilarious. I already mentioned Ben and Jerrys  its employees had to watch out for the Joy Gang, springing fun on corporate drones when they least expected it. Apple handed out kazoos, so whimsical, I guess? When I say comedy was built in, maybe weirdness was a better descriptor.

Aaaaaand you can probably guess why corporate humor consultants and Silly Squads mostly went the way of roaming buffalo herds. Turns out that comedy forced upon employees was rarely hilarious or even appreciated. There are a number of people who do this (humor) business consulting who have no how can I put it kindly? They dont have academic credentials, and they dont have any special insights, John Morreall, a humor studies academic, told Jennings. Morreall also acknowledged something even more important: The comedy itself was pretty lame. I dont know how to describe it. Its Readers Digest funny. Its funny maybe for my parents generation. I dont know what to say about the people who like that stuff, but it isnt my stuff.

And in the long run, it wasnt Corporate Americas stuff either.
Jo Koy continues to get pummeled on social media after his disastrous hosting debacle at last nights Golden Globes. Its the show business equivalent of having this kind of day at work.

But Koy isnt alone. He joins an illustrious list of stars who biffed it big time while hosting a major awards show. Here are four more celebrities who blew their chance on some of the worlds biggest stages.

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1 Jerry Lewis These days, awards shows are notorious for lasting twenty minutes longer than theyre supposed to. (Thats why the orchestra is always trying to play off the long-winded winners.) But somehow in 1959, the show ran short  leaving Jerry Lewis with 20 minutes to fill. Never one to be at a loss for words, the obnoxious Lewis vamped shamelessly. He encouraged the orchestra to play repeated verses of Theres No Business Like Show Business, even grabbing a baton to conduct himself for a while. He grabbed a trumpet and gave a few toots. NBC panicked and pulled the plug, switching to a short film before Lewis could do any more damage. Play Advertisement

2 David Letterman The acerbic late-night host must have believed he had a signature bit at the 1995 Oscars when he recognized the strangeness and similarities between the names Uma and Oprah. Advertisement Things probably would have been fine if Dave acknowledged that the gag wasnt working, but instead he doubled down, going back to the joke another half-dozen times throughout his monologue. The more he seesawed between Oprah and Uma (eventually introducing them to Keanu), the more he lost the audience. I was trying to save myself, he told The Hollywood Reporter. If you have an extra life raft, throw one to me! Thats what I was trying for. It must have been pure survival instinct. Advertisement

3 Chelsea Handler Handler made Time Magazines list of the 10 worst hosts ever for her stint at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards. (Shes also Jo Koys ex so maybe she gave him some pointers?) What went wrong? According to the Washington Posts live blog of the show, things went south during the presentation of the MTV Generation Award to Reese Witherspoon. Heres critic Jen Chaney with her version of what went wrong: MTV/TMZ Advertisement 10:08 p.m.: Patrick Dempsey, Robert Pattinson and Chelsea Handler are botching the presentation of the MTV Generation Award. Oh, snap. Pattinson just dropped an f-bomb.

10:10 p.m.: What is Pattinson saying ? Even Chelsea Handler looks uncomfortable and she's probably had at least one shot of vodka.

10:14 p.m.: I can't even fit the number of ways that was awful into a single paragraph. Was there or was there not a rehearsal for the presentation of the MTV Generation Award?

10:15 p.m.: Witherspoon just cursed too. Yet somehow, it seems classy when she does it.
Theres no shortage of bizarre aspects to the cult of Mother God, the central group in HBOs disturbing docuseries Love Has Won. The cult had its share of oddities, from five-dimensional ascended states to leader Amy Carlsons claims that she previously lived on Earth as Cleopatra, Joan of Arc and Marilyn Monroe. (Some energy beings get all the cool identities.) But little about the cult is more depressing than its co-opting of beloved comedian Robin Williams as one of its messengers.

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Cult members communed with Williams spirit on the regular, or so they claimed, as the comics  ghost? Energy? Essence?  was one of Mother Gods main ambassadors. In fact, Williams was the primary Galactic on her etheric team, a group of helpful souls that supposedly included an all-star line-up of comedy voices like Carrie Fisher, Rodney Dangerfield, Gene Wilder, and Chris Farley. Carol Burnett was also on the squad, even though shes still alive. So was Home Alone 2 star Donald Trump. These things are hard to explain.

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But Robin Williams was the Big Kahuna. Hes a very, very big part of this, says one of the groups main oracles, Archeia Hope, as reported by Salon. And humanity is going to see that. In simple terms? Robin Williams was in charge, delivering divine messages about how Carlson and her charges should be spending their time on this earthly plane. For example, Willams would tell Carlson (were guessing in his Genie voice from Aladdin) how many pounds she needed to lose to reach her ideal weight. His voice was especially loud when Carlson was drunk or stoned, the inebriation setting her vibrations to just the right frequency to hear his improvised comic shenanigans from beyond.

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The question is: Why Williams? Why not Richard Pryor or Joan Rivers or John Candy? Director Hannah Olson took a stab at a theory during an interview with The Los Angeles Times. I think for latchkey kids of the 80s and 90s, celebrities filled in for the family members we wish we had, she said. Who wouldnt want an uncle or a father like Robin Williams?

Carlson passed away in 2021. According to cult lore, Robin Williams and the etheric team were scheduled to pick up her body in a spaceship. Not surprisingly, the dead celebrities never showed. Apparently, comics in the afterlife have more productive ways of spending their time. Before the cult imploded, bad or undesirable behavior was discouraged by communicating that Robin Williams is disgusted. If the comic is still floating around out there, Im betting thats what hed think about the whole shebang.
WTI, Brent Crude Oil Analysis

Saudis signal challenges to the oil market during seasonally lower demand

Brent crude oil prices drop at the start of the week  retest of the low in sight

WTI tests $70 with $67 on the horizon. Geopolitical developments may limit downside

The analysis in this article makes use of chart patterns and key support and resistance levels. For more information visit our comprehensive education library

Saudis Send Signal of Oil Market Challenges During Seasonally Lower Demand

At the start of this week oil prices appear to be eating into last weeks gains despite continued geopolitical tensions and rerouting of cargoes typically travelling through the Red Sea amid attacks from Houthi rebels.

The recent Houthi attacks theoretically have a bullish effect on oil prices as cargoes have been rerouted to avoid potential hotspots, which can cause delays and hence supply shortages. Nevertheless, at the start of this week oil prices have declined around 4% on both the Brent and WTI benchmarks.

A number of fundamental factors have aligned to see oil prices approach a new low. Saudi Arabia lowered its official selling price for February shipments destined for Asia, suggesting a deteriorating appetite from China  a major player in the oil market. From a seasonality standpoint, Q1 represents the weakest demand period, adding to the possibility that the oil market may be oversupplied.

Recommended by Richard Snow Understanding the Core Fundamentals of Oil Trading Get My Guide

In addition, dropping prices to a 27-month low also confirms the effect of competition from non-OPEC producers which have gained market share at a time when OPEC has been cutting supply into the market.

Brent Crude Oil Prices Drop at the Start of the Week  Retest of the Low in sight

Oil prices failed to breach the 50 simple moving average (blue line) last week and have been sent sharply lower on Monday. The longer-term downtrend bears testament to global growth concerns and a challenging economic outlook in China.

Therefore, the rejection of the 50 SMA provides another indication of a bearish continuation that now highlights $71.50 as a major level of support. The level prevented further selling throughout May and June in 2023. The RSI has just turned south of the midway mark meaning there is still further potential for extended selling pressure. The main challenge to the current direction of travel is of course the developing situation in the Middle East which could prevent prices from plummeting.

Brent Crude Oil Daily Chart

Source: TradingView, prepared by Richard Snow

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WTI tests $70 with $67 on the horizon. Geopolitical developments may limit downside

The WTI chart provides a similar picture to that witnessed on the Brent chart and as of 17:00 GMT reveals a drop of as much as 4.8% on the day thus far. The $70 mark provides immediate support with the $67 marker not too far off.

$67 was a pseudo level of support before the Biden administration walked back on its prior statement that it would look to refill the Special Petroleum Reserve (SPR) when oil prices stabilized between $67 and $72 for a reasonable amount of time. More recent communication form the Department of Energy suggests this process will take a lot longer to play out meaning the market is unlikely to expect a mass amount of buying taking place at the prior mentioned levels. Nevertheless, $67 is still an area of interest from a technical perspective

WTI Oil Daily Chart

Source: TradingView, prepared by Richard Snow

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--- Written by Richard Snow for DailyFX.com

Contact and follow Richard on Twitter: @RichardSnowFX
BALLSTON SPA  Inside Nourish Designs on Milton Avenue in Ballston Spa, mandalas are on just about everything from T-shirts to cards.

Each item in the store not only offers an original doodle by owner Betsy Seplowitz, but also an opportunity to help fight food insecurity.

Seplowitz began doodling around four years ago as a stay-at-home mom as a way to relieve stress. During that time, she was also volunteering as part of the Ballston Spa School Districts backpack program through the elementary school, which provides a backpack of food to students on the weekend who are facing food insecurity.

As her designs got more complex, her friends encouraged her to do more with them.

So, she started putting them on items.

I started with a towel, a tote bag, a T-shirt and some note cards, she said.

Her first pop-up did so well, she kept doing them while also growing an online presence and eventually decided it was time to open a brick-and-mortar store.

She said she opened her location in the heart of the village in November 2021.

As part of the foundation of her business, proceeds from every item sold in the store goes to pay for meals for children through the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York.

When I started volunteering, I had no concept that one in six kids in this area are food insecure and I just couldnt imagine trying to be a kid and be hungry, she said. I really felt that in order for kids to launch and be successful, they need to have their basic needs met, and thats why I allocated specifically just for kids with the hope that if they have a stronger foundation in elementary school, they can keep progressing at a more successful rate.

Since opening, she has been able to provide more than 200,000 meals. The number is displayed in her store and kept updated.

Over the last couple of years, Seplowitz said the business has grown a lot, much of it by word of mouth.

As part of that growth, she now does custom pieces for organization and businesses. She also carries other artists work, with a portion of the sales going to the food bank. When she works with schools, a portion of the proceeds from the item go back to the school for their pantry or food program.

Its a neat way for a company to give something back to their employees, but also be making an impact within the community as well, she said.

She has also expanded to teach classes about mindful pattern drawing, and the benefit of it, at events or birthday parties and at her store.

Its called Nourish Designs because the drawing really nourishes me; its like my form of meditation. And, obviously the funding for meals hopefully nourishes some kids out there, she said.

She said one of her biggest challenges is not getting overwhelmed with all the different ideas she has.

I see so many different opportunities, but you can only go so fast, she said.

With many of her designs, she said she doesnt have a plan when she starts. She just begins in the middle and works her way around.

It just kind of happens, she said. The process is not trying to plan too much, and trying to be in the moment and letting the design kind of emerge on its own.
T-shirts and other pullovers were displayed for sale on a rack late last month inside EmpowHERing Designs in Gloversville. Some of the apparel has been finished with designs applied by sublimation, while others are devoid of graphics but can be purchased by customers so the stores owners can add customized words and pictures. The store at 45 S. Main St. opened on Dec. 1.
In the early months of 1979, militant trade unions dragged Britain to the brink of the dark days of the 1970s. As industrial action escalated across the country, public services were paralysed, uncollected rubbish piled high in the streets and bodies went unburied at cemeteries. There is madness in the air, the senior Downing Street aide Bernard Donoughue wrote in his diary at the peak of the turmoil.

It took the fierce resolution of Margaret Thatcher to tame the trade unions and bring an end to the chaos. Yet more than 40 years after she embarked on her brave crusade against the red barons, the days of organised bullying and blackmail could be on the way back  with a vengeance.

As the prospect of a Labour Government under Sir Keir Starmer moves closer, there is now a real threat that the Iron Ladys heroic achievement in curtailing the destructive, self-serving power of the unions could be undone.

That grim danger was highlighted this week by the settlement of the latest pay dispute on the London Underground, where the RMT  notorious for their addiction to strikes under the intransigent leadership of Mick Lynch  were threatening a week-long stoppage in support of their demand for an improved offer. Prolonged misery for commuters and businesses looked inevitable. But then at the eleventh hour, there was a dramatic breakthrough. In a feat of remarkable alchemy, the Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan suddenly found that he could conjure up some extra funds to satisfy the ravenous appetite of the RMT. A significantly improved offer was made and the walkout was abandoned.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union halted its walkout on the Underground after Mr Khan made more funds available

If Starmer reaches No 10, a culture of appeasement towards the trade unions will become embedded within the government

Presenting himself as the wise architect of industrial peace, the Mayor declared that this shows what can be achieved by engaging and working with transport staff and trade unions. But his spin could not be more deceitful. Sadiq Khan has no cause for boasting or celebration. His engagement is really abject surrender. All he has done is to use public money to buy off Labours allies in the trade union movement.

Mr Khan habitually wails that he never has enough cash to run effective services because of Tory cuts. So where has this pot of gold appeared from? Although he has not spelt out the source, the suspicion is that the money comes from the highly controversial charge he has imposed on older cars travelling through Londons Ultra Low Emissions Zone, which amounts to 12.50 a day for each vehicle and is estimated to bring in around 24million a month.

The idea that this deal will bring about any sort of lasting harmony in industrial relations is absurd. On the contrary, having seen the craven weakness of the Mayor, the RMT will now be emboldened to demand more. In effect, Khan has robbed the management of any leverage in future talks, while the RMT, which cares nothing for financial restraint or public service, will be keen to exploit its dominance.

This weeks pay agreement on the underground could be a worrying portent of things to come under Labour. If Starmer reaches No 10, a culture of appeasement towards the trade unions will become embedded within the government, though it will be dressed up as a new form of partnership or co-operation. Labours reluctance to stand up to the unions has already been on full display in the rash of irresponsible strikes in the public sector. Teachers, train drivers, nurses, lecturers, ambulance crews have all walked out, resulting in 3.9million working days lost to strikes in the year to October 2023, easily the highest total for more than a decade. But Labour politicians have not uttered so much as a batsqueak of criticism against the unions, not even the grossly irresponsible British Medical Association, with their outrageous demand for a 35 per cent increase in junior doctors pay.

Instead, Labour greets every dispute with a parrot cry for the government to get round the table, no matter how unjustfied the claim.

This month, it is exactly a century since the establishment of the first Labour government under Ramsay MacDonald. Since then, the partys close bonds with the unions has always been a major problem, undermining objectivity, restricting Labour Ministers scope for action and promoting narrow vested interests above the nations real needs. After all, Labour was created in 1900 as the political wing of the trade union movement, and a proprietorial spirit still remains strong. As Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite has spelt out: The Labour Party was founded by the trade unions and we expect Labour MPs to defend workers by word and action.

A key element of this connection is trade union funding, which remains vital for Labours capacity to campaign. In the first half of 2022, no less than 58 per cent of Labours donations came from the unions. The cash kept flowing the following year. In the middle of 2023, for instance, the party received 290,000 from the mighty GMB, 215,000 from the shopworkers union Usdaw and 176,000 from the Unison, which represents public employees.

The relationship is tight among the partys top brass. During his leadership campaign in early 2020, Sir Keir Starmer boasted that he is a proud trade unionist who had worked with the trade unions all his life, including a stint as a legal observer at the Wapping newspaper plant, scene of the bitter clash between Rupert Murdoch and the print unions.

Rubbish piled up on streets of London due to industrial action by refuse collectors in 1979

His Deputy Angela Rayner has even deeper ties. Before she entered Parliament, she was employed for several years as a care worker at Stockport Council. In that post, she was elected a Unison representative, eventually becoming the unions most senior official in the whole North-West region. Her devotion even extended, at one stage, into her personal life. Rayners ex-partner is the Corbynite MP Sam Tarry, who had previously worked for the TSSA transport union.

If I get to be Deputy Prime Minister of this country, I will not let you down, she told the annual gathering of the TUC last autumn.

She went on: I make no apologies that we will work hand-in-hand with the trade unions to deliver a real partnership based on mutual respect, co-operation and negotiation. In her self-appointed role as the guardian of the union movement, she has promised that in the first 100 days of a Labour government, she will introduce an employment rights bill. Among its provisions will be new rules to make it easier for unions to organize in the workplace, a simplified process for union recognition, and the introduction of electronic balloting and more collective bargaining. Even more importantly, she has also pledge to repeal the Conservatives anti-strike legislation, including the recent requirement that public sector employees still provide a minimum level of service even when they are in dispute. In the warped mindset of Labour, this layer of protection is an affront to democratic rights and therefore has to go.

The entire agenda is a recipe for more grievance and more industrial action. Once more, the militants will be able to hold the country to ransom. Badly needed public-sector reforms, including the removal of outdated working practices and bureaucratic structures, will be blocked as the unions defend a failing status quo that suits their members. Pay demands and days lost to walkouts will soar. Productivity will plummet.

Unions fancy themselves as progressive, but in truth they are deeply reactionary, hostile to change and innovation. The lesson of the 1970s is that greater engagement  then dubbed beer and sandwiches in Number 10  ends up handing them far too much control. The country will pay a heavy price if they are once again able to exercise power without responsibility.
She broke her suggestions down into different categories based on strength

The TikTok star explained that these products will keep lips 'super moisturized'

Content creator AbbyGrayce, from Tennessee, revealed the picks on her TikTok

If you're sick of balms not being able to keep your pout hydrated through the cold winter months, a beauty guru has revealed a list of products that she claims will actually heal your lips.

The recommendations were shared by Tennessee-based content creator AbbyGrayce Fraley on TikTok, where she often posts makeup product reviews along with other beauty content.

In the clip, which was posted to the video-sharing platform this week, Fraley revealed which balms will keep your lips 'super moisturized' and cure any cracks.

'Out of any of these products, if I could recommend one product to you, it's gonna be the Fenty Skin lip mask,' she began.

Tennesee-based TikTok star AbbyGrayce recently took to the platform to reveal her top lip products that will actually heal a chapped pout

Fraley often posts makeup product reviews to her TikTok account, where she boasts over 184,000 followers

The product comes in two flavors - vanilla and Kalahari Melon - and retails for just $22.

Fraley has the mask in vanilla, which she calls 'magic.'

'I will put this on at night and wake up and it is still on my lips, my lips are completely healed and so, so moisturized,' she said in the video.

'I really don't know what Rihanna put in this, but it honestly feels like it's medicated. Like, it actually heals and bonds your lips to make them so much more moisturized and just healthy again.'

She also added that the mask worked well on some chapped skin that she had along her nose as a result of blowing it so much during a sinus infection.

'I'm not telling you to do that, but I do that and it works,' she said.

Next up on Fraley's list of approved lip products was one from the drugstore, the EOS Hero Lip Repair Treatment, which retails for just $3.97.

'This is such a good everyday lip treatment,' Fraley said. 'I just like to keep this in my car and put this on as needed.'

The first product that Fraley recommended was the Plush Puddin' Intensive Recovery Lip Mask from Rihanna's brand, Fenty Skin

For a more affordable option, Fraley also fawned over the EOS Hero Lip Repair treatment, which is under $4

Fraley explained that she keeps many of these lip products on hand in places like her car

'It just really moisturizes your lips and I also used this last night because it's the only thing I could find, I didn't have the [Fenty lip mask] with me, and I woke up with this still on my lips this morning,' the beauty guru continued.

'Basically a lip mask in a tube. It is super, super hydrating,' Fraley said about the Ole Henriksen Pout Preserve Peptide Lip Treatment

'So, I know for a fact it hydrates your lips.'

Another lip mask that Fraley is a fan of is the Ole Henriksen Pout Preserve Hydrating Peptide Lip Treatment for $22.

'Basically a lip mask in a tube. It is super, super hydrating.

'I just don't use this one a ton because I don't love the flavor,' she said.

Fraley explained that the product smelled like 'Creamsicles,' which different to her usual preference for something that's vanilla scented.

'The scent is kind of what deters me from using it, but the actually properties of the lip balm is so good,' Fraley maintained.

The TikTok star even offered some recommendations for products that will still keep your lips moisturized once they've healed from the cracks, but are a little less intense.

The first one was the Forget The Filler Overnight Plumping Mask from Lawless Beauty  however, Fraley warned viewers that it might not be for everyone due to its plumping effects.

If you're just looking to maintain the health of your lips this winter, Fraley also suggested the Forget The Filler Overnight Plumping Mask from Lawless Beauty

'It does have a tingling sensation, so if you do not like that, you will hate this,' Fraley admitted about the $22 product.

Fraley's faves! Top products for chapped lips this winter Fenty Skin Plush Puddin' Intensive Recovery Lip Mask, $22

EOS Hero Lip Repair Treatment, $3.97

Ole Henriksen Pout Preserve Hydrating Peptide Lip Treatment, $22

Lawless Beauty Forget The Filler Overnight Plumping Mask, $22

Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm, $24

e.l.f. Cosmetics Lip Oils, $8 Advertisement

'But it gives the prettiest pink tint on your lips while also moisturizing it,' she said.

'This has never dried my lips out once, and I also have used this overnight because it it is an overnight mask.'

Like the other products she mentioned in the video, Fraley said that she could still feel the Lawless mask on her lips the next morning after using it overnight.

'The reason I say it's not healing is because it has that plumping, tingling feeling and I don't know, to me that doesn't feel like my lips are being healed, and if your lips are super cracked, it can burn them a little bit, like I said because it's plumping.

'But when your lips are fine, this is a really, really good product to keep them hydrated,' Fraley offered.

And, when it comes to a cult-favorite product, Fraley revealed that she's a fan of the Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balms, which have gone viral on TikTok over the past few months.

Fraley has hers in the color Pink Sugar, which sells for $24.

'I literally want to eat this, number one, but it's also just a really good lip balm and great to just keep in your car,' she explained.

'I wouldn't say that this heals your lips, and I feel like this does kind of wear pretty quickly, so it's not the most long lasting and moisturizing, hydrating lip product, but it is good for everyday just to continuously reapply.'

Fraley also praised the viral Lip Butter Balms by Summer Fridays, which have gone viral on TikTok over the past few months

Fraley said that she likes to layer her lip oils and lip masks together, giving some praise to the lip oils by E.l.f. Cosmetics

In the comments section of her post, many users offered their own product suggestions and tips

Last but not least, the makeup fanatic recommended 'keeping a lip oil on deck.'

She uses one from e.l.f. Cosmetics, which is just $8.

'They're so hydrating and moisturizing, and they don't have a tingle,' she raved. 'They feel good, they smell good, they taste good, everything about them is so good.'

'I like to stack lip masks and lip oils just to make sure that I can try to avoid the cracked lip condition as much as possible,' Fraley concluded.

In the comments section of her video, many users chimed in with their own product recommendations for these harsh winter months.

'Try the Farmacy lip smoothie masks!!' one person wrote. 'They're just as good at the Fenty one, (I have both) and love both, they my all time fav!!!'

Another agreed, 'No one talks about the Farmacy lip mask it's sooooo good.'

'BAG BALM. Coming from an Accutane girly who had 6 months of bleeding lips. Nothing is better than bag balm,' someone else suggested.

Others agreed with Fraley's takes as one TikTok user typed: 'I love the Fenty lip mask!!! Thank you for the other suggestions, my lips are always in need of healing in the Canadian winter!'

One person offered, 'NOTHING helped my chapped lips (even Aquaphor) besides the summer Friday's balm. Does wonders for me.'
Lynsey Bleakly had been trying to conceive for two years when, aged 39 and aware she was running out of time, she visited an acupuncturist who specialised in treating fertility problems.

The longer it didnt happen, the more anxious I became, says Lynsey, now 47, who tearfully told the 90-an-hour therapist her story. But the acupuncturist seemed unperturbed by Lynseys history. She said shed got lots of women pregnant, and it would be me next.

It was a bold claim. Research shows that the benefits of acupuncture on fertility are unclear  as Lynsey, who went on to have four miscarriages, and, seven years on, has finally given up on the baby she longed for, is painfully aware.

I was given false platitudes. In the cold light of day, someone telling you theyll pop needles in your skin and youll get pregnant is ridiculous, but when youre desperate, you get sucked in, she says.

It is unspeakably cruel to take advantage of someone as vulnerable as I was and promise them something so fundamental as a baby.

Amanda Duddridge, 38, from Ponty Pridd, South Wales, saw seven fertility psychics in a bid to find out the gender of her baby. Because several male members of her family have autism, she was worried about the prospect of having a boy

The fertility industry is booming  its predicted to be worth 33 billion globally by 2026, an increase of 13 billion from 2019  but despite advances in science, many couples trying to conceive will spend thousands in vain.

A 40-year-old woman  and the average age of women undergoing treatment is increasing  typically has just a 13 per cent chance of becoming pregnant after one cycle of IVF.

And fertility experts working in alternative medicine are cashing in, offering therapies such as acupuncture, which proponents claim can boost blood flow to the uterus and improve ovarian function, increasing chances of conception.

But the evidence is conflicting and non-conclusive and, according to the UKs regulator HFEA (the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority), the benefits are unclear.

There is a place for complementary therapies to support fertility treatment. Anything that can help to reduce stress is beneficial. There is some evidence to support the use of acupuncture in IVF, says Kate Davies, an independent fertility nurse consultant and director of advisory clinic Your Fertility Journey.

But as a standalone treatment, its not going to be responsible for an individual achieving pregnancy.

However, Lynsey, then a health visitor, who met her husband James at 35 and started trying for a baby two years later after they married, was advised by a midwife colleague to see a fertility acupuncturist after two years of failing to get pregnant.

Lynsey, who has a daughter, 23, from a previous relationship, had enjoyed acupuncture for relaxation before, so hoped it might help. But as soon as she walked into the clinic near her Belfast home, she felt the acupuncturist had an agenda.

Not only did she make what seemed to be baseless assertions that she would help Lynsey conceive, but she also urged her to make repeat bookings and suggested she try home vaginal steaming  a practice sold ostensibly to rebalance hormones, but that could be dangerous to a foetus in pregnancy.

It felt like a moneymaking exercise, that she was preying on my vulnerability. Over the next two years, Lynsey had four miscarriages, which she describes, in tears, as shattering: I didnt just lose my pregnancies  I lost my future.

Sunita Thind, 41, from Derby, had both her ovaries taken out and was put into early menopause after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. But a psychic told Sunita she saw a child in her future, giving her hope she would one day have a baby

In 2018, she and James, 45, who channelled their grief into launching cake-making business Bumble & Goose Bespoke Bakehouse, investigated IVF for their infertility, to be told they stood just a 15 per cent chance of success. In other words, there was an 85 per cent chance it wouldnt work, says Lynsey.

Doctors are factual. They dont promise you anything, and that is the way it needs to be.

But for every doctor laying out the bare facts based on evidence, theres an unqualified person willing to promise the Earth, and their voices are amplified by social media.

As any woman who has ever looked at an Instagram post about trying to conceive and then been served hundreds of adverts for fertility solutions will know, for unscrupulous individuals wanting to target women when theyre at their most susceptible, the algorithms are a dream.

But, as Kate Davies points out, anyone can set themselves up as an authority. There are unregulated individuals with little or no experience, selling themselves as so-called fertility experts.

'I fail to understand how anyone apart from a fertility clinic can state their intervention has helped someone get pregnant. Ive had women coming to me with health anxiety as a result of seeing an unqualified practitioner. It is so damaging.

While the efficacy of acupuncture might be debated, few could defend the claims of spiritual practitioners such as fertility psychics, who say they are able to tell women whether they will get pregnant, and even what gender their baby will be.

They include Gemma Martin, a mother of one from Dundee who, in 2022, claimed to be making 10,000 a month from tarot card readings, with an 85 per cent accuracy rate.

I predict when people will have a baby and most of the time its spot on, she said.

But when a psychics predictions arent spot on, the impact can be devastating, as Amanda Duddridge, 38, a teaching assistant from Pontypridd, South Wales, discovered.

The fertility industry is booming  its predicted to be worth 33 billion globally by 2026, an increase of 13 billion from 2019  but despite advances in science, many couples trying to conceive will spend thousands in vain

When Amanda fell pregnant for a second time in 2017, she was anxious at the prospect of having a son, because several male members of her family have autism. Already a mother to Esmee, now ten, she visited three psychics to find out the sex of her unborn baby.

I became obsessed, says Amanda, who contacted a British psychic via her Facebook page when she was just five weeks pregnant.

The psychic said that, for 20, she could predict the gender, using only Amandas date of birth and the date of her last period  a claim that will sound fantastical to most.

But to a woman whose body was awash with hormones and who was desperately concerned for the health of her unborn child, it seemed a lifeline.

Two or three days later she emailed me that I was having a girl. I was so happy.

Emboldened, Amanda emailed a second psychic, an American woman praised on an internet forum for having a 90 per cent accuracy rate, for further reassurance. Two days after making a 20 payment and supplying the same information as before, she received an email to say she was having a boy.

I was so upset, says Amanda, whose partner of 12 years, a customer service adviser, 39, thought the psychic readings were nonsense and that Amanda was causing herself unnecessary upset.

She didnt tell him about her third psychic appointment, this time in person, with someone recommended on a local Facebook group, whom she desperately hoped would tell her she was having a girl.

The psychic was in her 50s, with black wavy hair, and was burning incense as she ushered Amanda into her home and took her 25 payment in cash. Using tarot cards, the psychic told Amanda, three times, that she was having a boy: I was so disappointed.

At 11 weeks pregnant, she started bleeding as she picked Esmee up from school and miscarried. This not only left her heartbroken, but wracked with guilt: I thought Id miscarried because I was having a baby boy and he didnt feel I wanted him.

In 2022, Gemma Martin, a mother of one from Dundee who, claimed to be making 10,000 a month from tarot card readings, with an 85 per cent accuracy rate

Amanda became pregnant the following year and gave birth to her younger daughter, Elvie, in February 2019. She is now pregnant with her third child.

With hindsight, she regrets using psychics. They caused a lot of stress. You hear what you want to hear and so many desperate women use them. Its easy money.

Desperate is a word that comes up a lot when talking to women about their challenges with fertility, and this desperation turns even the most logical woman into someone ripe for exploitation, as Catriona Lee, a lawyer based in London, explains.

When youre vulnerable, you latch on to any scrap of promise, however illogical. That was how, in her mid-40s and after years of unsuccessful IVF treatment, Catriona found herself agreeing when a friend recommended a session with an astrologist.

I thought it would be a bit of fun, she says. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I suppose I hoped they would tell me they could see motherhood in my stars, or something similar. When youre struggling with infertility, youre desperate for any hope.

The reading started promisingly enough when the astrologer talked about some emotional pain that Catriona had experienced.

I told her about a miscarriage Id had a couple of years before, but what happened next floored me. She told me I had to apologise to the baby Id lost, tell them I was sorry I hadnt been ready to welcome them into the world, and to let them know I was now ready.

'I was so shocked I just stumbled through the rest of the session before rushing off and crying in the loo, devastated at the thought that the miscarriage had been my fault. Much as I tried to dismiss it from my mind, in my emotional state I couldnt and her words haunted me.

Several years later, Catriona says she is trying to come to terms with my childlessness. I still cant believe someone could be so cruel to a grieving woman. These things stay with you  and I know Im not the only one.

A friend of a friend went to see an acupuncturist when she was struggling to have children. He told her it was no wonder she kept having miscarriages as her body was so toxic. She subsequently went on to have two children, but those words preyed on her mind for a really long time.

A 40-year-old woman  and the average age of women undergoing treatment is increasing  typically has just a 13 per cent chance of becoming pregnant after one cycle of IVF

Its perhaps unsurprising that women grappling with their fertility prove to be such a rich seam for psychics and the like to mine.

Frustrated by the lack of concrete answers, the baffling statistics that have relevance only when youre on the right side of them, and the huge amount of uncertainty surrounding the process, its little wonder that so many look for something, anything, to hang their hopes on.

After being diagnosed with ovarian cancer aged 33 and having her ovaries removed aged 35, Sunita Thind was plunged into surgical menopause.

Before she lost her ovaries, shed had eight eggs harvested and frozen, and doctors told her there was a chance those eggs could be fertilised and implanted, if Sunita took hormones to thicken the lining of her womb.

Losing my fertility broke me, says Sunita, 41, from Derby, married to Paul, 47, an engineer. But I still felt a flicker of hope and I was desperate for answers.

She came across an advert online for a psychic phone line last autumn. The woman who answered the premium rate, 45p-a-minute number, sounded in her 50s, Sunita estimates.

I told her Id lost both my ovaries after cancer and wanted to know if I could still have a baby. She asked my date of birth, my star sign and where I lived. She said she read auras and that I had to have an open mind in order for her reading to work, especially over the telephone.

For every doctor laying out the bare facts based on evidence, theres an unqualified person willing to promise the Earth, and their voices are amplified by social media

She told Sunita she saw the number eight  the number of eggs Sunita had frozen  in her future, which gave her hope she was telling the truth when she also said she saw her having a child. She said the journey was going to be hard. I pressed her for more but she couldnt elaborate.

Nonetheless, Sunita was filled with a lovely feeling of hope. Id been too scared to fantasise about having a child before.

Still too traumatised from cancer therapy to have the hormone treatment shed need to thicken her womb lining, or to go through the process of having her eggs fertilised, Sunita is no closer to becoming a mother.

Only time will tell whether the hope borne of a 15 conversation with a stranger is justified or whether, like countless other women, seeking solace in unproven fertility experts will exacerbate, rather than alleviate, her sadness.
Jared Leto is being roasted online after he showed up to the Golden Globes wearing black leather gloves - with social media users comparing him to a hitman or cult leader.

The annual awards show kicked off on Sunday evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California - and many people on the web were left feeling uneasy by the 52-year-old actor's ensemble.

Jared opted for a black blazer with white trousers - and he paired the look with some leather gloves.

Amid the bizarre accessory, X, formerly known as Twitter, was flooded with messages from people who branded his fashion choice as 'creepy.'

Jared Leto is being roasted online after he showed up to the Golden Globes wearing black leather gloves - with social media users comparing him to a hitman or cult leader

The awards show kicked off on Sunday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California - and many people on the web were left feeling uneasy by the 52-year-old actor's ensemble

Jared opted for a black blazer with white trousers - and he paired the look with some leather gloves

Amid the bizarre accessory, X was flooded with messages from people who branded his fashion choice as 'creepy' and said it made him look like he was about to commit a crime

And some even joked that the gloves made him look like he was about to commit a crime.

'It looks like Jared Leto is on his way to commit a murder in those leather gloves,' one user posted.

'Jared Leto is really leaning into the whole predator vibe with those leather gloves,' said someone else.

Another person agreed, 'These gloves make Jared Leto look like a hitman.'

'Jared Leto's "murder gloves" are cult leader coded,' wrote a different user.

Others admitted that the Morbius alum's gloves reminded them of OJ Simpson, who was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson.

During OJ's 1995 trial, he infamously tried on black gloves that were found at the crime scene.

The gloves ultimately helped lead to his not guilty verdict after he claimed they didn't fit and his lawyer told the jury, 'If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.'

Others admitted that the Morbius alum's gloves reminded them of OJ Simpson, who was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson

During OJ's 1995 trial, he infamously tried on black gloves that were found at the crime scene - and they helped lead to his not guilty verdict after he claimed they didn't fit

Jared was also seen wearing gloves when he attended Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve late last month (seen)

The movie star has actually had coverings over his hands numerous times in the past, but they normally have designs on them

He wore red, diamond-encrusted gloves at a Morbius screening in Berlin in March 2022 (seen)

Jared was also seen wearing gloves when he attended Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve late last month.

That time, he opted for blue ones that resembled something a doctor might wear.

The movie star has actually had coverings over his hands numerous times in the past, but they normally have designs on them.

At the premiere of WeCrashed in early 2022, he rocked some sheer black gloves that featured rhinestone embellishments to match his sparkling suit.

And when he walked the red carpet at the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards a month before that, Jared sported some pink ruffled gloves.

He also wore red, diamond-encrusted gloves at a Morbius screening in Berlin in March 2022.
Sarah Ferguson's loyal assistant has shared photos from her holiday with staunch Prince Andrew supporter Lady Victoria Hervey - as the socialite continues to claim Virgina Giuffre's notorious photo with the royal was 'faked'.

Antonia Marshall - who has worked for the Duchess of York for the past 13 years - travelled to Barbados with the socialite to celebrate the New Year, and although there's no suggestion Fergie has joined the trip, it raises and intriguing link between the royal and one of her ex-husband's most vocal allies.

During the trip, Lady Victoria, 47, jumped to Prince Andrew's defence again following the release of documents detailing sexual assault allegations made against the royal.

On Sunday, the Duchess' long-term employee posted a series of images from the trip with her close friend - including one of the two women enjoying a boat trip.

In the image, a bikini-clad Lady Victoria - who briefly dated Prince Andrew in 1999 - is seen sitting at the front of the boat while Antonia perches on the side.

Pictured: Lady Victoria Hervey poses with Sarah Ferguson's assistant Antonia Marshall during their Barbados getaway

The pair posed for a smiley black-and-white selfie during their getaway and were also pictured posing on a balcony as they enjoyed a view of the island.

Alongside some images of the Caribbean sea, sky and sunsets, Antonia simply captioned the post: 'Island Life.'

Although Antonia has never publicly commented on the sexual assault allegations made against Prince Andrew, her close friend has publicly defended the royal on numerous occasions.

Lady Victoria posed in a T-shirt featuring the notorious photograph of the disgraced royal standing with his arm around Virginia Giuffre, with the word 'faked' emblazoned across it.

The socialite repeated claims made by her ex-boyfriend Prince Andrew in his 2019 Newsnight interview that the image of him and Virginia with Ghislaine Maxwell in the background had been doctored.

Virginia claims she was trafficked by the late Jeffrey Epstein and the now-jailed Ghislaine, and forced to have sex with the royal on three occasions when she was 17, claims Prince Andrew strenuously denies.

Papers released by a New York court last week thrust the Duke of York's relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein back into the spotlight with claims that the prince committed 'acts of sexual abuse' and took part in an 'underage orgy'. Andrew has vehemently and repeatedly denied all allegations against him.

Explosive court documents revealed how, following an order from a US court, Maxwell's lawyers were instructed to scour all her electronic devices for any mention of the Prince, other acquaintances of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and a string of sordid words.

A bikini-clad Lady Victoria - who briefly dated Prince Andrew in 1999 - is seen sitting at the front of the boat while Antonia perches on the side

Sarah Ferguson's assistant Antonia Marshall (left) pictured with the Duchess of York and TV producer David Ellender during an event in Beverly Hills

The pair were also pictured posing on a balcony as they enjoyed a view of the island during their getaway

These included 'Prince', 'Andrew', 'Duke', York', 'Royal', 'underage', 'massage', 'slave', 'sex', 'nipple' and 'dildo', according to the devastating legal papers.

As Antonia and Victoria's getaway drew to a close, the socialite shared a post gushing about the 'restful and peaceful holiday' and telling her 548,000 Instagram followers that it was 'time to get back to reality'.

Victoria captioned her Instagram post: 'Current news updates on the absurd will be on my story. Time for the accusers' backgrounds to be revealed and exposed.

'We must not continue one side of the story.'

In February 2023, Lady Victoria appeared on Good Morning Britain to debate whether charity work would rehabilitate Andrew's image.

During the debate, the socialite sensationally labelled Virgina Giuffre a 'con artist' and tried to 'make a bet' on air that she 'was right' about the allegations - which prompted host Susanna Reid to put a stop to the interview.

Lady Victoria Hervey, 47, has posed in a T-shirt featuring the notorious photograph of Prince Andrew standing with his arm around Virginia Giuffre, with the word 'faked' across it

Virginia (centre) claims she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and the jailed Ghislaine (right), and forced to have sex with the royal (left) on three occasions when she was 17, claims Prince Andrew strenuously denies

Lady Victoria Hervey (looking towards the camera) stands near Prince Andrew (left) at a party in London in January 2002

She was joined by barrister and equality campaigner Dr Charlotte Proudman on the segment, who argued it 'is not the role of charities to rehabilitate princes'.

But the debate became heated when Lady Victoria kept interrupting to defend the Duke of York, saying: 'He's never met her, by the way.'

In one particularly terse exchange, Dr Proudman pointed out that Mrs Giuffre was 'a victim of sex trafficking' however Lady Victoria butted in: 'She's not, she's a liar.'

She continued: 'I think they are [charities] going to work with him because there's a lot of stuff coming out about her that she is a complete con artist.'

She then added: 'Can we do a bet right now? Can we do a bet live on air that I'm right?'

GMB host swiftly ended the interview, saying: 'I'm going to bring this interview to an end because you cannot smear victims of sex-trafficking who have already been through hell.'

Prince Andrew told BBC Newsnight in 2019: 'You can't prove whether or not that photograph is faked because it's a photograph of a photograph of a photograph.

'It's very difficult to be able to prove it but I don't remember that photograph being taken That's me but whether that's my hand I have simply no recollection of the photograph ever being taken.'

The royal also said he thought he had never been upstairs in his friend Ghislaine Maxwell's house, where the photo appears to have been taken.

But Virginia told BBC Panorama in 2019 that the photo is genuine and she gave the original to the FBI in 2011.
Data shows that more than one-in-five children in England continue to regularly miss school, showing that attendance levels are similar to those pre-pandemic.

Among the reasons, according to the children's commissioner, are pupils playing truant, as well as being too anxious to attend school, or having different educational needs that are easier to meet at home.

Over the last academic year, 22.3 per cent of pupils in England were persistently absent, according to the Department for Education (DfE). Persistence absence is defined as pupils missing 10 per cent of more of their annual school days (around a day every two weeks).

Now GMB today has debated whether or not parents should force their children to go to school daily, with a debate between parenting bloggers Danielle Facey and Lucy Baker with different opinions on the topic.

Danielle, a former teacher says it is crucial to note that not all learning environments are suitable for all pupils. Meanwhile, Lucy says 'getting kids into lessons has to be the parents top priority'.

Writer and speaker Danielle Facey (pictured, left) appeared on GMB this morning to talk about the number of children missing school with blogger Lucy Baker (pictured, right)

The Government is ramping up a campaign to cut down the number of pupils regularly missing school.

According to presenter Richard Madeley: 'Surely, if your kid is regularly missing school, then they're going to be falling behind the curriculum when they go back into the classroom. Those classmates who were at the previous few lessons will be ahead of them and they had no way of catching up..

Danielle replied: 'Yes, that's true, but I think it's really ignorant to suggests that the traditional classroom environment being one of 30 plus in many cases, is best for every child.

'As a former teacher, I know there are many of the children that I've taught, who did not thrive in a traditional classroom environment.'

She continued: 'I would argue that not every child who's in school should be learning French grammar. I've taught children who could barely stringing together a grammatical sentence.

'And I've been teaching them the plot twists of 12 Night when actually my energies and efforts would have been much better directed in other ways.

'But it was constrained by the curriculum. I think we need to make education more personalised.

But as Lucy pointed out: 'I think the conversation here is about the fact that kids aren't going to school.

Presenter Susanna Reid (pictured, left) wanted to know the two women's opinions on the situation

'And I think that's the problem. You know, it's all very well when they're in school, and the curriculum is one thing, but it's these kids aren't going to school.

'It's a huge problem.

'And I think, from my perspective, I would I've worked with my daughter's school, she she had a few problems going in school sort of last year, and I don't think it was fully my responsibility to get her back.

'I had to really work with the school for that to happen.'

Former teacher Danielle reminded viewers that not all children learn in the same way and school is not the best way o learning for everyone

'And it's about working with school and getting kids back into school because the figures are high yet.'

They added that the fallout from the Covid Pandemic, where children were homeschool had likely played a major role in many children not wanting to go back to school.

But should the responsibility to getting pupils back into school lie entirely with parents.

Blogger Lucy (pictured) admitted she has had difficulties getting her daughter to attend school, and help is essential for parents

Lucy felt not, admitting her daughter 'had a few problems going into school last year, and I don't think it was fully my responsibility to get her back and I had to really work with the school for that to happen.

'And it's about working with school and getting kids back in because the figures are high yet.'

Speaking about 'attendance hubs' being launched across the country to try and get more children into school, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan previously said: 'The benefits of our success in raising education standards can only be when all children are in school.

'Tackling attendance is my number one priority. We want all our children to have the best start in life because we know that attending school is vital to a childs wellbeing, development, and attainment as well as impact future career success.

'I am hugely grateful to all our brilliant teachers, heads, and everyone whose worked with us to make the progress weve already made with 380,000 fewer children persistently absent.'
Victoria Beckham has left fans baffled by sharing a snap of herself wearing a large LED face mask as she laid on her bed.

The former Spice Girl, 49, donned the medical-grade machine, which retails for almost 2,000, the device, which appears to be the Dermalux Flex MD LED Light, covered her entire face and uses both red and blue light to help keep skin glowing and youthful.

However some of her followers couldn't help but poke fun at the strange sight with some saying it looked like she had a 'bucket on her head.'

Victoria isnt the only celeb who has opted for the treatment, with LED Light Therapy Masks favoured by A-listers like Kaley Cuoco, Carey Mulligan, Kristen Davis and Suki Waterhouse.

Using a combination of red and infrared light, the at-home beauty device claims to boosts circulation, smooths skin texture, and stimulates collagen production, leaving skin looking plumper and younger.

Victoria Beckham left fans baffled as she shared a snap of herself wearing a large LED face mask, which appears to be the Dermalux Flex MD LED Light, as she laid on her bed

Here FEMAIL takes a look at the other LED masks loved by celebrities...

CurrentBody LED Light Therapy Mask

Spotted on scores of celebrities all over Instagram, the CurrentBody LED Light Therapy Mask has become the A-list self care gadget of choice, but it's more than just a fad.

Prepping for the Oscars last year, Kourtney Kardashian and Olivia Colman both turned to the device to get them glowing pre red carpet.

Clinically studied and proven, using the mask - which is made from flexible silicone that allows the light to penetrate deep into the face - five times a week for ten minutes has been clinically proven to reduce the appearance of fine lines by 35 per cent in just one month.

So what's the science behind the tech? The non-invasive treatment combines red and near infra-red light, the two wavelengths working below the skin's surface to stimulate the natural rejuvenation process.

The A-list-approved CurrentBody Skin LED Neck and Dec Perfector to help smooth lines and wrinkles on the neck and chest

Makeup Artist Sarah Uslan prompted the device, which boosts collagen on her Instagram page

Boosting collagen and blood circulation, the skin is left visibly glowing and noticeably healthier looking.

The results are so noticeable after using the LED mask that 95 per cent of users said their skin tone, texture, firmness and tightness was improved.

As well as the obvious long-term anti-ageing benefits of collagen production, the LED mask also has impressive anti-inflammatory properties, which are brilliant for soothing inflamed skin. Users have found that hormonal acne is left looking less angry while tone and texture is also improved.

Designed to be used after cleansing and applying your normal skincare products, the flexible silicone mask wraps perfectly around the face, sitting comfortably so you can switch off and relax.

Priced at 279, the CurrentBody LED Light Therapy Mask 'delivers the same clinically-proven wavelengths as professional salon machines' but for a fraction of the cost.

Deesse PRO LED Phototherapy Mask

A-lister January Jones (pictured) have praised Deesse PRO LED Phototherapy Mask which is capable of plumping your skin, banishing acne and fading fine lines in as little as a month

Gentle and painless with zero downtime, the LED mask is a favourite Nina Dobrev (pictured) looking for plump, glowing, clear skin

A-listers like Kim Kardashian and January Jones have praised a specialist LED Phototherapy Mask capable of plumping your skin, banishing acne and fading fine lines in as little as a month.

A cult favourite for skincare enthusiasts, the is Deesse PRO LED Phototherapy Mask said to be the secret to firm, vibrant and clear skin promising clinical-standard results.

How does LED light therapy work? LED (light-emitting diode) light therapy is a non-invasive treatment that penetrates the skin's layers to improve its texture and colour. Improvements could include a reduction in pigmentation and inflammation, as well as smoother fine lines. Other skin conditions like eczema, hair loss, acne and psoriasis may also improve via LED light therapy. LED light therapy is the only aesthetic device that has no contra-indications of any kind. LED lights are eco-friendly and clean light sources that virtually do not lead to any UVA or UVB radiations and is not a laser. It is suitable for all skin type, colours and conditions. Advertisement

One of the strongest masks available for home use, the non-invasive mask uses four wavelengths and six facial treatment modes to help a wide range of skin conditions, including hyperpigmentation and acne.

Approved by the likes of Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, January Jones and Kate Hudson, the LED phototherapy mask from Deesse gives you salon-standard results at home, but it may come with a price at 1,440.

results at home, but it may come with a price at 1,440.

With regular use, the Deesse PRO LED Phototherapy Mask helps to tackle fine lines and wrinkles, whilst improving uneven skin tone and texture. All with zero downtime.

Featuring scientific light principles utilised by NASA, the mask uses low-level light therapy in four variations to expose the skin to four wavelengths of light (red, green, blue and near-infrared light for healing).

The mask also offers six treatment settings, so you can choose anti-ageing, purifying, brightening and calming, depending on your needs.

SwearBy Skin LED Face Mask

The red light setting on the SwearBy Skin LED Face Mask is designed to wake up your collagen and elastin, plumping, firming and smoothing skin

There are some cheaper options also on the market which offers similar results such as SwearBy Skin LED Face Mask which retails at 80.

Designed to reduce oil and bacteria on your skin, calm pigmentation and blemishes and smooth and firm the skin, the speedy skincare saviour makes arduous treatments a thing of the past.

The mask features three colour modes to help target your skincare qualms- blue, yellow and red, each with varying wavelengths to penetrate different depths of the skin and stimulate a different response.

The red light setting is designed to wake up your collagen and elastin, plumping, firming and smoothing skin.

The blue light setting is great for those suffering from spots and breakouts, helping to clear blemishes and scars while reducing oil and bacteria.

The yellow setting is for the glow-getters, reducing redness and pigmentation while boosting lymphatic flow and kickstarting new cell production.

Using the SwearBy Skin LED Face Mask for just ten minutes, three to five times a week, is proven to treat some of the most popular skincare problems.

OPERA LED Face Mask

Victoria Beckham is also known to use the OPERA LED Face Mask which she first shared on Instagram in 2019

Victoria gave helpful tips to her fans about the mask during the at home try on session which she shared on social media and said it can be used daily, weekly or monthly

Victoria Beckham is also known to use the OPERA LED Face Mask which she first shared on Instagram in 2019.

Victoria wore grey leggings, a grey hooded jumper and luminous yellow trainers as she tried it on in the kitchen.

Alongside the pictures she wrote: Sunday testing face masks...

In her Instagram story Victoria told how she had been sent the face mask from Australian celebrity facialist Melanie Grant after she had been asking which is the best on the market.

The mother-of-four answered questions about how to use it and the benefits of using it from her followers.

She explained that the benefits of LED is that: Red light is for collagen and blood flow.

'White light is anti-inflammatory, healing and firming. Blue is antibacterial and so good for blemish prone skin.

Victoria also explained how to use the equipment, which retails at 250.

She wrote: Plug it in and use for 20-30 minutes. You can use it daily, weekly, monthly or every other day. But you cant overuse light therapy, once or twice a week is the sweet spot!
READ MORE: People shocked to learn what goes into Cadbury Creme Eggs

To mark their 200-year anniversary Cadbury will bring back seven designs

Cadbury is making a big change to chocolate bars which will leave the sweet treats looking very different.

In celebration of its 200-year anniversary, the chocolate company is set to bring back seven of their most quintessential Dairy Milk designs of the last century.

Sweet-toothed customers will be able to bag confectionery encased in designs hailing all the way back to 1915.

All major supermarkets will carry the 180g chocolate bar, selling it for 2 - but prices may vary depending on the store.

In celebration of its 200-year anniversary, Cadbury will be bringing back seven iconic packaging designs

The celebratory bars are only available for a limited time, and once they are sold out they will not be restocked.

So, if you are keen to get your hands on one of the seven memorable designs, you will have to be quick.

Cadbury's was bought by Mondelez International, formerly known as Kraft, in 2010.

Brand manager, Bryony Tate said: 'We're really looking forward to celebrating 200 years of Cadbury belonging to our nation this year.

'We hope that the launch of our limited edition Cadbury Dairy Milk Bar packaging will bring a smile to people's faces, with the seven retro designs offering something for everyone.'

She continued: 'From the thrill of a little treat shared with a loved one, to special occasions and even getting the entire nation excited for milestone cultural events, like Royal Coronations and the London Olympics, Cadbury has belonged to our nation for 200 years.

'But really, its thanks to the whole British public that Cadbury is still here today. Were planning for an exciting year ahead and lots more announcements to come so stay tuned!'

The iconic designs won't just be on the outside either, eagle-eyed customers will be able to spot artwork commemorating memorable events in Cadbury's history.

The seven designs will be range back all the way to 1915 and will be available for a limited time only ((pictured: A Cadbury's design from 2003)

The sweet treat will be available in supermarkets for 2, however prices may differ (pictured: A Cadbury's design from 1915)

The confectionery company is also set to partner up with Alzheimer's Research UK in honour of their 200-year anniversary (pictured: A Cadbury's design from 1993)

The chocolatier will also be teaming up with Alzheimer's Research UK in honour of their 200 year anniversary.

The chocolate company is also set to handover 200,000 to the charity, according to The Sun.

It comes after chocolate fans that had bought a box of Cadbury's Heroes complained that the Creme Egg Twisted bites had a strawberry taste.

One person directly contacted the confectioner alleging the usually sweet minature creme egg treat was 'all strawberry flavoured'.

They queried the chocolate company as to how this had happened, quipping that it was 'disappointing'.

Another X user penned: 'Why's it not Twisted and strawberry flavoured instead. They're vile, help they're my faves, you've ruined Christmas!'

A frustrated customer continued: 'Why the f*** has Cadbury's changed the Twisted Creme Egg in the box of heroes? It is not the same I'm raging.'

MailOnline has contacted Cadbury for comment.

These X users were NOT happy to discover the odd strawberry creme filling encased in the twisted creme egg

The Heroes selection was first introduced by the company back in September 1999, solidifying itself as a confectionary UK staple ever since.

The tin is filled with miniature versions of classic Cadbury treats, including the Creme Egg Twisted chocolate.

Similar to the original Creme Egg, the tiny treat is filled with a gooey fondant and is only available in the Heroes selection.

Twisted bars were once sold as individual chocolate bars, but were discontinued by Cadbury.
A 13-year-old aspiring designer has become Louis Vuitton's youngest ever intern after his mother proudly shared his work on social media and joked he was 'just a little passionate' about their brand.

In November, Louise Odessa, from Paris, posted pictures of her son Milan's sketches on X, formerly known as Twitter, in the hopes of securing him some work experience.

In her posts, the mother explained how desperately she wanted to nurture Milan's creative talents and knew that he wouldn't want to intern at 'just any [fashion] house'.

Milan - who struggles with attention disorders - drew some designs for trainers, luggage and loungewear in the style of Louis Vuitton, his favourite fashion house.

La Libre reports Milan's sketches were then picked up by a local French publication, which then caught the attention of Louis Vuitton.

Milan (pictured), 13, from Paris, became the youngest intern at Louis Vuitton after his mother, Louise Odessa, shared images of his sketches (pictured) on X, formerly called Twitter

The prestigious fashion house were so impressed with Milan's designs that they offered him an internship, which he completed last week.

During an interview with BFMTV about the experience, Milan said: 'I felt more at ease there than at school, after two days.

'I really felt in my community. It is magic. For me, it's the beginning of life.'

During the internship, Milan continued his sketches and created a briefcase design in line with the brand's creative vision.

Louise wrote in her original post: 'HELP I absolutely have to find a internship for my 13-year-old son Milan...and not just any house...

'My son is just a little bit, a lot, passionate about your brand and leather.

'He is also very good at Photoshop on a graphics tablet for his creations and plans to do a professional baccalaureate and BTS in fashion professions.

'I have never seen him as amazed as the day he introduced me to your exhibition in front of the Samaritaine, he knew a lot about the partnerships and the history of Louis Vuitton.

The 13-year-old sketched a number of designs in line with Louis Vuitton's creative vision, including a high-top trainer

Milan said the experience marked the 'beginning of life'. He created the above sketch during the internship

The 13-year-old who has attention difficulties also designed a Louis Vuitton tracksuit complete with their statement monogram print

'Could you allow him a short one-week observation course or tell me how to proceed please? It's his birthday on December 14th. Please please please.'

Alongside this, Louise added four sketches of Milan's designs, which have been seen by over 200,000 X users.

In one drawing, the 13-year-old had imagined a Louis Vuitton high-top trainer, complete with the brand's famous monogram logo.

The sketches also included a tracksuit, high heeled shoe, and an innovative womens dress design.

Louise also shared an image of Milan's dress designs for Louis Vuitton before asking for her son's recognition on X

Paris-based Louise took to X to call for Louis Vuitton to review her sons creative sketches and an observation internship

Louise took to X to share her positive sentiments following the whirlwind experience, and encouraged others to believe in themselves

After sharing the post, Milan's sketches were picked up by a French journalist, who shone further light on the drawings.

Milan was later contacted by representatives at Louis Vuitton and gained a one-week long observation internship at the fashion house.

After the whirlwind experience, Louise took to X, and said: 'Thank you so much for my son. I'm so proud of him.

'Please if you read me here... BELIEVE IN YOU! BELIEVE TO YOUR DREAMS! ALL IS POSSIBLE!'
A professional baker has blasted influencers for requesting a free cake that she had designed to raise money for children caught up in the conflict in Gaza.

Reshmi Bennett, 40, is a children's author and baker from Surrey who runs the luxury cake business Anges de Sucre.

Last month, the former investment banker began selling watermelon-inspired cakes  with prices starting from 140  to raise money for charity.

The mother pledged to donate 11 from each sale to Save the Children's Gaza Emergency Appeal, which supplies families caught up in the conflict with bottled water.

Earlier this week Reshmi received an email from an influencer  who she chose to keep anonymous  asking for a free cake for her birthday party in March.

Reshmi Bennett (pictured), 40, is a children's author and baker from London who runs the luxury cake business Anges de Sucre

The email read: 'I just came across your Instagram profile and the trending watermelon cake. I love it, really cool!

'Then I saw your website and I'm so impressed. I'm after a trendy cake for my birthday in March (we will confirm the date soon).

'There will be 80-100 guests. Me and my best friend are planning it together (girl power lol) and we have 68,600 followers combined on Instagram and have just started our joint TikTok account, which is getting a lot of views and followers already.'

Elsewhere in the email, the social media star described how her birthday party will have an 'exotic, sexy and glam' vibe.

She then asked if Reshmi could make the watermelon seeds gold to match the dress she will be wearing  but felt the need to point out that they didn't need to be made of real gold.

The anonymous influencer reassured the small business owner that they would tag her in photos of the cake and put her business cards in party bags to 'guarantee lots of business'.

The star  who didn't make any mention of paying for the cake  then signed off the email by telling Reshmi that her bakery was her 'first choice'.

Sharing screenshots of the email with her 57,000 Instagram followers, Reshmi referenced a similar incident where influencers asked her for another free cake in January 2023.

Last month, the former investment baker began selling watermelon-inspired cakes (pictured)  with prices starting from 140  to raise money for charity

Earlier this week, Reshmi received an email from an influencer  who she chose to keep anonymous  asking for a free cake for her birthday party in March

She captioned the post: 'Is it something about this time of year?! This is literally Cooler Cakebut even better. Id love a cool 2k order but Im not holding my breath'

In her response, Reshmi informed the influencer that she had created the cake to raise money for charity.

She explained: 'So pleased to hear I'm your first choice. The watermelon cake is cool indeed, if I may say so myself.

'I'm not sure if you're aware that that A, I created the watermelon cake as a fundraiser for Gaza (there's a bit of a humanitarian crisis going on there... not very sexy or glam) and B, I don't care to work for tags and party bags.'

The business owner then went on to inform the influencer that a cake large enough to feed her guests would cost upwards of 1,250.

What's more, handpainting gold seeds would add 650 onto the final sum as it is a 'tedious task'  and joked that real gold seeds would be a 'choke hazard'.

Reshmi then signed off with: 'If you'd like to place the order, I will be donating to Save the Children Gaza Emergency Appeal from the proceeds.

'But somehow I doubt you will. In which case, I wish your second choice the very best.'

In the caption of the post, Reshmi joked: 'If anyone wants to volunteer painting a thousand little seeds gold, holllllaaaaaa.'

In her response, Reshmi informed the influencer that she had created the cake to raise money for charity and pointed out that the details she wanted would cost an extra 650

The post has amassed over 3,100 'likes' and sparked outrage from Reshmi's followers.

One replied: 'Love the irony that you have more followers than each of them but they think theyre more influential than you and that you need the free publicity.

'Lets not even get started on the tone-deafness of wanting to change the black seeds to gold.'

Another added: 'That whole email was like watching an accident in slow motion. Do people still really do this?'

Meanwhile, a third raged: 'SO effing cheeky and entitled!! Who gives a s**t about your 68k followers to be quite frank? Why dont people think they should pay for services anymore! Makes my blood boil!'

A fourth wrote: 'On this cake for this cause they want it free?! They clearly dont even know you.'

In December 2022, Reshmi received an email from London-based influencer Anna Kurtoglyan - who boasted 243,000 Instagram followers  asking if she could make her a cake for her friend's birthday in exchange for social media coverage. Anna responded to Reshmi's post by telling her that they had made a 'cooler cake' for Alina (pictured)

Lefft: Alina  whose birthday it was  detailed her perspective on her Instagram Stories. Right: Anna asked her followers to weigh in on a poll, with 78 per cent taking Reshmi's side

In December 2022, Reshmi received an email from London-based influencer Anna Kurtoglyan  who boasted 243,000 Instagram followers  asking if she could make her a cake for her friend's birthday in exchange for social media coverage.

In response, Reshmi told her 'Just buy a cake from somewhere and don't be so cringe', but had her post taken down from Instagram for violating community guidelines on being 'respectful' to other users.

A screenshot of Anna's email  which Reshi posted on her Instagram  read: 'I've been a huge fan of your brand for quite a while. I adore your product's quality and amazing designs, and I am always happy to support you guys on my social channels xx

'I wanted to reach out and see if you like to collaborate? It's my best friend's birthday soon and it would be amazing to order a cake from Anges de Sucre as my friend is also a big fan and this would be a perfect surprise!'

She then ends the email by offering to 'create some content in exchange for the cake'.

Later that day, Reshmi responded to Anna and declined her offer before accusing the influencer of 'begging for a freebie'.
Denmark's Crown Princess has been labelled the real 'power behind the throne', with people in the country already calling her 'King Mary', according to a royal author.

Trine Villemann also told Hello! that the Australian mother-of-four, 51, is a 'much better communicator and public speaker' than her husband, Crown Prince Frederik.

The Prince, 55, will become King Frederik X on 14 January, following the abdication of his mother Queen Margrethe.

Europe's longest reigning monarch, 83, announced her plans to step down in a dramatic New Year's Eve speech.

Ahead of Margrethe's daughter-in-law becoming Queen, Danish royal author Trine said: 'Mary truly is the power behind the throne and will be for decades to come - there's no doubt about that.

Denmark's Crown Princess (pictured on January 1) has been labelled the real 'power behind the throne', with people in the country already calling her 'King Mary', according to a royal author

'Frederik is a lovely guy and he's very popular, but Mary is a much better communicator and public speaker. She has great skill and enormous talent, and people in Demark are calling her 'King Mary'.

'Her approval ratings are higher than those of the rest of the royals, too... As we say in Denmark: Long live King Mary!'

The new King and Queen of Denmark, who are set to step into their roles this weekend, enjoy the support of more than 80 per cent of Danish people, a poll recently revealed.

A survey carried out for Ritzau revealed that Princess Mary enjoyed a little more popularity among the Danes than Crown Prince Frederik as the royal prepares to ascend the throne on 14 January.

The poll asked how well suited Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik are to become Queen Mary I and King Frederik X, ahead of the abdication of Queen Margrethe.

While 82 per cent of people believed Frederik is suited for the role of king, 86 per cent believe Mary will make a good queen.

Danish royal commentator Kim Bach believes that, although Frederik is popular, Mary's slight lead over her husband is likely down to rumours of an affair that circulated after the soon-to-be king was spotted on a night out with a Mexican socialite in Madrid.

Genoveva Casanova was forced to deny what she labelled 'malicious' rumours after photos surfaced of herself with the Crown Prince in the Spanish capital, where Spanish magazine Lecturas reported they had dined together and watched Flamenco dancing until 1am.

Trine Villemann also told Hello! that the Australian mother-of-four, 51, is a 'much better communicator and public speaker' than her husband, Crown Prince Frederik (pictured together in November)

Mary has remained tight-lipped about her husband's dinner with the socialite, and the royal couple have put on a united display in a number of public appearances.

However, speculation is mounting that Queen Margrethe's decision to abdicate may have been a bid to keep Frederik's wife of 19 years on side.

Princess Mary, who is set to become the first Australian-born queen in a number of days, has won over the Danish public with her dedication to royal duty and her fluency in the language.

She and Frederik have four children together, and their oldest son Christian will take over his father's role of Crown Prince on January 14 when Margrethe abdicates.

Mary and Frederik's relationship has often been dubbed a 'real-life fairytale'.

Then Mary Donaldson, the Crown Princess was 28 when she met her husband-to-be in the Slip Inn in Sydney 23 years ago.

After the pub encounter, then 32-year-old Frederik - who was in Australia to support Denmark's sailing team at the 2000 Olympics - asked Mary for her phone number and a romance blossomed.

'The first time we met we shook hands. I didn't know he was the prince of Denmark. Half an hour later someone came up to me and said, 'Do you know who these people are'?' Mary revealed in an interview about meeting the heir to the Danish throne.

They maintained a long-distance relationship for a year, with Frederik making secret trips Down Under before Mary moved to Denmark to study Danish language at Copenhagen's Studieskolen in 2001.

In early 2003, Frederik's mother Queen Margrethe publicly acknowledged the relationship and the couple announced their engagement at Amalienborg Castle later that year on October 8.

Queen Margrethe announced she will abdicate the throne on January 14, passing it to her son Crown Prince Frederik. Pictured: Her Majesty during her New Year's speech, in which she announced her abdication

The decision means that from January 14 Crown Prince Frederik will become King, while his wife Princess Mary will become Queen. Pictured: Frederik and Mary at the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen in November

Between raising her children and appearing at diplomatic events, Mary has worked tirelessly to prove her commitment to charity, becoming a patron of more than 25 international organisations since her marriage to Frederik in 2004.

Patronages include the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe and the United Nations Population Fund, where she supports their work to promote maternal health in more than 150 developing nations.

In 2007, the Princess launched The Mary Foundation, a charity focused on stamping out domestic violence, bullying and loneliness.

In a few days time, Crown Princess Mary will become the Queen of Denmark, as Queen Margrethe formally abdicates and leaves the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik.

Margrethe confirmed the news in a shock announcement on New Year's Eve after 52 years on the Danish throne.

She said: 'I have decided that now is the right time. 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father  I will step down as queen of Denmark. I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik.'
The Danish royal family have shared a sweet picture of twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine as they turn 13.

The two youngest children of Prince Frederik and Princess Mary have marked the milestone just a week before their father ascends the throne.

Frederik, 55, is set to become king on January 14 after his mother Queen Margrethe abdicates.

Taking to Instagram today, the Danish royal family wrote: 'Their Royal Highnesses Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine have a birthday and are 13 years old today.'.

The twins, will be third and fourth in line to the throne after their father becomes king.

The two youngest children of Prince Frederik and Princess Mary have marked the milestone just a week before their father ascends the throne

Their older brother Christian, 18, dubbed the most eligible bachelor in Europe, will become Crown Prince and first in line to the throne, while sister Isabella, 16, will be second in line.

Australian-born Mary has been labelled the real 'power behind the throne', with people in the country already calling her 'King Mary', according to a royal author.

Trine Villemann also told Hello! that the mother-of-four, 51, is a 'much better communicator and public speaker' than her husband.

Europe's longest reigning monarch, 83, announced her plans to step down in a dramatic New Year's Eve speech.

Ahead of Margrethe's daughter-in-law becoming Queen, Danish royal author Trine said: 'Mary truly is the power behind the throne and will be for decades to come - there's no doubt about that.

'Frederik is a lovely guy and he's very popular, but Mary is a much better communicator and public speaker. She has great skill and enormous talent, and people in Demark are calling her 'King Mary'.

'Her approval ratings are higher than those of the rest of the royals, too... As we say in Denmark: Long live King Mary!'

The new King and Queen of Denmark, who are set to step into their roles this weekend, enjoy the support of more than 80 per cent of Danish people, a poll recently revealed.

The twins are pictured with their parents on Christmas Eve going to church in Aarhus

Mary and Frederik asre seen on New Year's Eve after Queen Margrethe announced her abdication

Frederik and Crown Princess Mary show off their six-day-old twins, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine in 2011

A survey carried out for Ritzau revealed that Princess Mary enjoyed a little more popularity among the Danes than Crown Prince Frederik as the royal prepares to ascend the throne on 14 January.

The poll asked how well suited Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik are to become Queen Mary I and King Frederik X, ahead of the abdication of Queen Margrethe.

While 82 per cent of people believed Frederik is suited for the role of king, 86 per cent believe Mary will make a good queen.

Danish royal commentator Kim Bach believes that, although Frederik is popular, Mary's slight lead over her husband is likely down to rumours of an affair that circulated after the soon-to-be king was spotted on a night out with a Mexican socialite in Madrid.

Genoveva Casanova was forced to deny what she labelled 'malicious' rumours after photos surfaced of herself with the Crown Prince in the Spanish capital, where Spanish magazine Lecturas reported they had dined together and watched Flamenco dancing until 1am.

Trine Villemann also told Hello! that the Australian mother-of-four, 51, is a 'much better communicator and public speaker' than her husband, Crown Prince Frederik (pictured together in November)

Mary has remained tight-lipped about her husband's dinner with the socialite, and the royal couple have put on a united display in a number of public appearances.

However, speculation is mounting that Queen Margrethe's decision to abdicate may have been a bid to keep Frederik's wife of 19 years on side.

Princess Mary, who is set to become the first Australian-born queen in a number of days, has won over the Danish public with her dedication to royal duty and her fluency in the language.

She and Frederik have four children together, and their oldest son Christian will take over his father's role of Crown Prince on January 14 when Margrethe abdicates.

Mary and Frederik's relationship has often been dubbed a 'real-life fairytale'.

Then Mary Donaldson, the Crown Princess was 28 when she met her husband-to-be in the Slip Inn in Sydney 23 years ago.

After the pub encounter, then 32-year-old Frederik - who was in Australia to support Denmark's sailing team at the 2000 Olympics - asked Mary for her phone number and a romance blossomed.

'The first time we met we shook hands. I didn't know he was the prince of Denmark. Half an hour later someone came up to me and said, 'Do you know who these people are'?' Mary revealed in an interview about meeting the heir to the Danish throne.

They maintained a long-distance relationship for a year, with Frederik making secret trips Down Under before Mary moved to Denmark to study Danish language at Copenhagen's Studieskolen in 2001.

In early 2003, Frederik's mother Queen Margrethe publicly acknowledged the relationship and the couple announced their engagement at Amalienborg Castle later that year on October 8.

Queen Margrethe announced she will abdicate the throne on January 14, passing it to her son Crown Prince Frederik. Pictured: Her Majesty during her New Year's speech, in which she announced her abdication

The decision means that from January 14 Crown Prince Frederik will become King, while his wife Princess Mary will become Queen. Pictured: Frederik and Mary at the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen in November

Between raising her children and appearing at diplomatic events, Mary has worked tirelessly to prove her commitment to charity, becoming a patron of more than 25 international organisations since her marriage to Frederik in 2004.

Patronages include the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe and the United Nations Population Fund, where she supports their work to promote maternal health in more than 150 developing nations.

In 2007, the Princess launched The Mary Foundation, a charity focused on stamping out domestic violence, bullying and loneliness.

In a few days time, Crown Princess Mary will become the Queen of Denmark, as Queen Margrethe formally abdicates and leaves the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik.

Margrethe confirmed the news in a shock announcement on New Year's Eve after 52 years on the Danish throne.

She said: 'I have decided that now is the right time. 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father  I will step down as queen of Denmark. I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik.'

However, it hasn't all been plain sailing for the couple. It's been a tumultuous few years for the Danish royal family. Margarethe stepping down comes two months after photographs emerged of Crown Prince Frederik enjoying a night out with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova in Madrid in October.

Ms Casanova has denied allegations of any relationship with Frederik.

Royal commentator Phil Dampier told The Telegraph: 'It's possible that the Queen took this action because she would have been terrified of the marriage breaking up and the royal family losing Mary. It would have caused major problems.

'The Queen has always seen Mary as a tremendous asset.'

The Prince and his Australian Princess have been rocked by rumours of infidelity since November - placing their 'fairytale romance' under the microscope.

In 2022 Margrethe sparked a public rift with Joachim after stripping his four children of their royal titles. She subsequently apologised about the timing of the announcement but stood by the edict.

Joachim had spoken out against his mother's decision in the days that followed - claiming that his children born from Joachim's first marriage to Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg - and Henrik and Athena had been 'harmed' in the process.

Months later, the sixth-in-line to the throne admitted that 'communication was missing' within the Royal Family in the lead-up to the shock announcement.

Joachim told local news outlet B.T.: 'There is a lot to work on. Communication was what was missing. Now we have met and we are on the right track.'

Shortly after his children were stripped of his titles, Joachim claimed that he had only been given five days' notice before the news was made public.

Following the Queen's announcement, Joachim spoke to Danish publication Ekstra Bladet outside the Danish Embassy in Paris, where he lives with his French-born wife Princess Marie and his two youngest children, and said his four children had been 'hurt' by their grandmother's decision.

'I was given five days' notice to tell them. In May, I was presented with a plan which, by and large, was that when the children each turned 25, it would happen. Now I had only five days to tell them. Athena turns 11 in January,' he clarified at the time.

Meanwhile, his ex-wife Alexandra said that her sons, Nikolai and Felix, had been left feeling 'ostracised' from the institution and the decision had come like a 'bolt out of the blue'.

The Royal Household released a further statement, saying: 'As the Queen stated yesterday, the decision has been a long time coming.

'We understand that there are many emotions at stake at the moment, but we hope that the Queen's wish to future-proof the Royal Household will be respected.'
The show centers around a Taiwanese organized crime family now based in LA

For those looking for a series to binge, Netflix viewers have declared a new action drama as a 'must watch.'

The Brothers Sun, starring Michelle Yeoh, is an eight-part series which centers around a Taiwanese-born mother and son, now based in Los Angeles, whose lives are thrown into chaos when a family secret comes to light.

After marrying into a Taiwanese crime family, Eileen 'Mama' Sun (played by Yeoh), along with youngest son Bruce (played Sam Song Li) leave to live in LA due to the ongoing violence against their family.

Years later, Eileen's estranged first-born Charles (Justin Chien) flees Taiwan to join his mother and younger brother in a bid to keep them safe from rival gangs, after an attempted assassination on his father.

For those looking for a series to binge, Netflix viewers have declared a new action drama as a 'must watch'

Michelle Yeoh, Sam Song Li and Justin Chien star as the Sun family in Netflix's The Brothers Sun

Produced by Brad Falchuk, known for his work on Glee and Pose, Yeoh said she was thrilled to be involved in a series starring Asian actors, something she has battled for throughout her entire career.

'For the last few years, I have been fighting for different roles and hoping to find the entry point into where we all deserve to have a seat at the table,' Yeoh told Variety.

'It's only in the last couple of years that you see more and more of the Asian stories being told.'

The Oscar-winning actress commented that although Brad Falchuk is not Asian, 'he championed our story.'

'I think the most important thing is how we embrace each other and help each other tell the narrative and the best stories so that we keep pushing these boundaries,' she shared.

'Brothers Sun on Netflix is so good! More of you should be talking about it!' a fan posted to X, previously known as Twitter.

The eight-part series premiered on January 4 on Netflix, with delighted fans urging everyone to watch the action drama.

'The Brothers Sun is so good. What a 10/10 show,' agreed another.

Michelle Yeoh as Mama Sun, Sam Song Li as Bruce Sun in The Brothers Sun, which is streaming on Netflix

The eight-part series premiered on January 4 on Netflix, with delighted fans urging everyone to watch the action drama

'Has anyone watched "The Brother's Sun" on Netflix? It's soooo good, I'm having a blast watching it lol. It's like "Beef" vibes but Taiwanese,' another fan gushed. '10/10 and I'm barely halfway.'

'Binge watching The Brothers Sun on Netflix, I'm supposed to be sleeping but stuff is getting good,' chimed in another.

They added: 'Such a good show [and] definitely a great watch. I'm almost done!'

'I desperately need to talk to someone about The Brothers Sun on Netflix because the storytelling choices and the cast and the action sequences and the cinematography and the dialogue I just - it's very good please someone talk to me about it,' pleaded another.

Yeoh made history at last year after becoming the first woman who identifies as Asian to land an Oscar for her performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

The now 61-year-old took home the Best Actress trophy due to her game-changing role in the sci-fi adventure as Evelyn Quan Wang - a dissatisfied laundromat owner who crosses paths with other versions of herself in alternate universes.

The actress first learned ballet before turning to acting. Her first major Hollywood role was playing a Chinese spy in the Bond film 'Tomorrow Never Dies' in 1997 alongside Pierce Brosnan.

She gained renown for her role in the 2000 martial arts masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a best-picture nominee that won the Oscar for best foreign language film.

Yeoh had more recent success in the 2018 movie Crazy Rich Asians and Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in 2021.
Princess Diana's brother will open up about the 'trauma' of being sent to boarding school aged eight in his highly anticipated memoir - which multiple outlets have dubbed as one to watch in 2024.

Charles Spencer, 59, will recount the 'culture of cruelty' he experienced at Maidwell Hall, a preparatory school in Northampton, and provide 'important insights into an antiquated boarding system' in A Very Private School, set for release in March.

The Guardian has flagged it on a list of 'nonfiction to look out for' this year - alongside titles including Salman Rushdie's Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder - to add to the 'the now many literary denunciations of boarding school'.

It is also listed as one of the 'best' picks for this year by The Independent, and suggested as an anticipated memoir by the BBC.

The Financial Times have recommended it in their article on what to read in 2024.

Princess Diana's brother will open up about the 'trauma' of being sent to boarding school aged eight in his highly anticipated memoir, which multiple outlets have dubbed as one to watch in 2024

According to Gallery Books - an imprint of publishing company Simon & Schuster - Charles will 'presents a candid reckoning with his past and a reclamation of his childhood'.

A post on their Instagram in October added: 'A Very Private School offers a clear-eyed, first-hand account of a culture of cruelty at the school Charles Spencer attended in his youth and provides important insights into an antiquated boarding system.'

Leaving for boarding school aged eight, Charles had six months of sleepless nights before heading to Maidwell Hall, where pupils judged to be stupid or lazy were 'really unpleasantly' beaten with a cane on their bare buttocks.

'I said I wanted to go to a state school because it must be preferable to 13-week blocks away in a rather cold and unpleasant place,' he told TES magazine.

'To be totally candid, I think, coming from my background, teachers had absolutely no expectations of me,' he said.

'They just thought I'd be fine in life anyway. I was lucky enough to drift through.'

But the school's former headmaster John Paul has previously suggested that Earl Spencer may have exaggerated how bad his time there was.

'He's been in constant touch with the school ever since, so I don't think he could have been that unhappy,' Mr Paul said in 1992.

Charles Spencer (pictured last year) will recount the 'culture of cruelty' he experienced at Maidwell Hall, a preparatory school in Northampton, and provide 'important insights into an antiquated boarding system' in A Very Private School, set for release in March

And it would seem that Charles's experiences at Maidwell Hall would stick with him decades later.

'Fifty years ago tonight, I spent my first ever night away from my family,' he wrote in a post on X in 2022.

'I was 8, & I'd been sent away to boarding school. It was part of a family tradition. 12 September 1972 has been with me ever since.

'I have 7 children. None of them have been forced to go to boarding school.'

Rather than going to state school, Charles headed to Eton College, during which time his sister Diana married Prince Charles when she was 20 years old.

He then gained a place at Magdalen College, Oxford to study modern history but admitted he committed very little time to his degree.

'I actually feel quite a lot of guilt about Oxford,' he told The Times. 'I really was the conventional Old Etonian: quite efficient at exams, got in, and then did very little work at all. And then right at the end I had to do a lot to make sure I did OK.'

Rather than going to state school, Charles headed to Eton College, during which time his sister Diana married Prince Charles when she was 20 years old. Pictured at Eton

According to Gallery Books - an imprint of publishing company Simon & Schuster - Charles will 'presents a candid reckoning with his past and a reclamation of his childhood'. Pictured as a child, with Diana, in 1968

Commenting on news of the memoir's release, Charles said: 'I spent five years of my childhood in this school, trying to crack the code by which it lived.

'Now, forty-five years on, I think I'm finally there. I'm writing this book before my memories of half a century ago tip over into that chasm of forgetfulness that shadows old age.

'Beyond my own experiences, I wanted to look at what, really, was going on in this strangely secretive place.

'This book is a blend of chronicle and memoir that's intended to stand as a piece of modern history  a record of a time, not so far back, when things were quite different for children in these most privileged of English institutions.'
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Three lucky Golden Globe winning A-listers will be gifted an exclusive stay at an ultra-luxurious resort in New Zealand.

Inside some of the prestigious awards' winners' $800,000 goodie bags each is an all-inclusive three-night stay at the jaw-dropping Flockhill Lodge.

The lavish $15,000-a-night stay is near the small township of Arthur's Pass by the breath-taking Lake Pearson on New Zealand's South Island, 100km west of Christchurch.

Each extravagant gift bag varies in its contents with only three of them including an offer to stay at one of Flockhill Lodge's newly renovated villas set to be finished by December 2024.

They will also be invited to dine at the five-star farmstay's highly-anticipated new restaurant Sugarloaf opening with the new villas.

Three mystery A-list celebrities will be gifted a lavish stay at an ultra-luxurious lodge in New Zealand as part of their Golden Globe goodie bags

Inside some of the prestigious awards' winners' $800,000 goodie bags each is an all-inclusive three-night stay at the jaw-dropping Flockhill Lodge

The $15,000-a-night stay is near the small township of Arthur's Pass by the breath-taking Lake Pearson on New Zealand's South Island, 100km west of Christchurch

Each extravagant gift bag varies in its contents with only three of them including an offer to stay at one of Flockhill Lodge's newly renovated villas set to be finished by December 2024

Flockhill, nestled among a jaw-dropping snow-capped mountain range, is a resort and working sheep station spread across 14,500 hectares of land with a series of opulent cabins scattered throughout.

A villa costs anywhere between $9,200 and $22,425 a night and each has a cosy barn-style design and spectacular views of the surrounding landscape.

The $14.6million Flockhill is no stranger to celebrities having hosted many A-lister guests since it opened in 2022.

Flockhill Lodge manager Andrew Cullen described the stay as 'refined wilderness'.

'As you're heading up here, you're heading into the Canterbury high country. It's majestic in its setting and its views, but (the weather) can smack you,' he told Broadsheet.

'We've had times when we've gone out in December, and it's summer and it's 20 degrees, and all of a sudden the weather changes and the wind changes. It definitely gives you the perspective of high-country farming.'

Flockhill, nestled among a jaw-dropping snow-capped mountain range, is a working sheep station spread across 14,500 hectares of land with a series of opulent cabins scattered throughout

A villa costs anywhere between $9,200 and $22,425 a night and each has a cosy barn-style design and spectacular views of the surrounding landscape

Inside, the homesteads ooze sophisticated luxury with soaring vaulted ceilings, palatial king bedrooms, a home cinema, high-end furnishings, bathtubs and a warming wood fire

Currently there are two stunning homesteads that can offer respite from the unpredictable weather where guests will have access to a range to lavish facilities including a wine cellar, farmhouse kitchen and a pool and spa.

There are also services such as private chefs, and activities ranging from bouldering to heli-tours.

Chefs are at guests' service to whip up gourmet breakfasts, four-course dinners or snacks and canapes throughout the day.

Inside, the homesteads ooze sophisticated luxury with soaring vaulted ceilings, palatial king bedrooms, a home cinema, high-end furnishings, bathtubs and a warming wood fire.

Outside, guests can enjoy the private sunken firepit as well as the pool and spa all with uninterrupted views of the valley.
Junior doctor strikes are piling extra pressure on struggling GP surgeries, doctors have warned.

Practices juggling their own crises have had to lay on more appointments to cope with the surge in demand, it was claimed today.

Thousands of junior doctors last week embarked on a six-day strike  the biggest ever in the NHS's 75-year history.

The walk-out, designed to bring hospitals to a standstill during the busiest time of year, ends at 7am tomorrow.

Officials fear the impact of the action will be felt for 'weeks and months', with up to 200,000 operations and appointments estimated to have been cancelled.

Thousands of junior doctors last week embarked on a six-day strike  the biggest ever in the NHS's 75-year history. The walk-out, designed to bring hospitals to a standstill during the busiest time of year, ends at 7am tomorrow. Officials fear the impact of the action will be felt for 'weeks and months' , with up to 200,000 operations and appointments estimated to have been cancelled. Pictured, junior doctors on the picket line outside Cheltenham General Hospital today

In a bid to get the NHS up to speed again and tackle the ever-growing backlog, ministers have pleaded with the British Medical Association (BMA) bosses to 'come back to the table' . Health chiefs have urged Brits to continue to seek care if they need it and approach GP surgeries for appointments and 'health advice'

The graph shows the ratio of GP patients to practices since 2015, with an average of 9,755 patients per surgery in May 2023

In a bid to get the NHS up to speed again and tackle the ever-growing backlog, ministers have pleaded with the British Medical Association (BMA) bosses to 'come back to the table'.

Health chiefs have urged Brits to continue to seek care if they need it and approach GP surgeries for appointments and 'health advice'.

London-based NHS GP Dr Hana Patel told MailOnline: 'I have felt there is an increase in pressure on GP services since Wednesday and a busier start to the new year.

'There are also a lot of viral illnesses going around, mostly prolonged chest infections and temperature symptoms.'

She added: 'We will see the workload later due to patients having operations, investigations and outpatient appointments cancelled, as the GP is the first port of call for patients, with requests to follow up to ask for appointments and operations to be expedited.'

What does the latest GP appointment data show? Appointments: 31.4million Attended: 89.8 per cent Seen by GP: 40.4 per cent Seen by nurse: 19.2 per cent Face-to-face appointment: 67.9 per cent Phone call appointment: 25.5 per cent Same day: 42.6 per cent Up to one week wait: 26.7 per cent One to two week wait: 13.4 per cent Two to four weeks wait: 12.4 per cent NHS England data for November Advertisement

Meanwhile, Azeem Majeed, a GP in south London and head of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, told MailOnline: 'Whenever there is a doctors strike, general practices do see an increase in demand for appointments from patients.

'NHS social media encourages patients to seek advice from general practices and pharmacies during strike action, so this is expected.

'Many local practices have laid on extra appointments during strike periods to try to cope with this demand. This is in addition to the longer term impact of strike action on areas such on waiting lists and delaying routine care for patients.'

It comes as the BMA last week rejected more than 20 requests from hospitals across England to allow medics to return to work, claiming staff shortages were compromising patient safety.

In response, NHS chiefs told the union it would 'evidence harm and near misses which might have been avoided' in all hospitals where these requests were rejected.

On the first day of walkout action on Wednesday, critical incidents were declared at both Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board.

More than a dozen other hospitals also said their emergency services were busy, with some reporting 'extreme heightened pressure'.

The days after the New Year, however, are when the NHS usually hits peak winter pressures because of seasonal illnesses. NHS England modelling is forecasting this to hit around the middle of the month.

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins, who has already sketched out deals with consultant and specialist doctors, last week argued that the NHS 'doesn't just belong' to the BMA.

She said: 'I've said throughout this that, please, to the junior doctors' committee, the moment you call off the strikes I'll get back around the table with you within 20 minutes.

'It's just we have to have the strikes called off, because the NHS belongs to us all.

GP workforce data for May 2023 shows there are 27,200 fully-qualified GPs in England. This is down from 27,627 one year earlier. GP numbers peaked at 29,537 in March 2016

Junior doctors in their first year now have a basic pay of 32,300, while those with three years' experience make 43,900. The most senior earn 63,100

On the first day of walkout action on Wednesday, critical incidents were declared at both Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board. Pictured, junior doctors on the picket line outside Cheltenham General Hospital today

'It doesn't just belong to the junior doctors' committee, and for the 1.3million people who work in the NHS, as well of course for the tens of millions of people it looks after, the NHS cannot be switched on and off on whim.'

But union leaders argued the Government has made a 'political choice' not to negotiate during strike action.

Professor Philip Banfield, BMA council chairman, said: 'It is a political choice for this Government to stick rigidly to its dogma of not negotiating while strikes are planned.

'In the past, the Government waived this principle for the barrister strikes, so there is no reason for them to waste time and money by refusing to talk now.

'We are clear: we are ready to talk 24/7. Get back around the table, give us a credible offer and we can end these strikes right now.'

READ MORE: NHS to start logging harm caused by junior doctor strikes as medics REFUSE pleas from hospitals in crisis to return to work Advertisement

As strike action began last Wednesday, patients were reminded to only use 999 and A&E in life-threatening emergencies, and to use NHS 111 online and other services for non-urgent health needs.

NHS England national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis added: Pharmacies and GPs are largely unaffected by the strikes so patients can still get appointments and health advice.'

NHS data, however, has long shown GPs are under huge pressure and treating a record number of people.

Family doctors have reported cramming in up to 90 appointments per day in some areas, warning that rushing patients through in conveyor belt-like scenes risks missing serious illnesses.

The BMA recommends GPs should not deliver more than 25 appointments a day to ensure safe care.

The crisis is fuelled by soaring demand coupled with dwindling numbers of GPs, as many choose to retire early, go private or even move abroad.

Dr Grant Ingrams, chairman of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Medical Committee, told MailOnline: 'There will be, in theory, an increase [in pressure] over the long term.

'But as the patient demand for general practice continues to run up to 20 per cent higher than before Covid it is unlikely that this will be noticeable.'

He added: 'Although the ongoing increase in demand has been put down to many factors, including the long waiting times in secondary care, and other backlogs from Covid pandemic, local data suggests that the increase is actually due to an increase in patient need  more patients being recorded to have one or more diagnoses.

'Our problems are much more related to underinvestment, leaving fewer GPs trying to cope with increased workload.

'This means GPs providing an unsafe service, and still not meeting the wishes of patients.'

Latest NHS data shows there were 31.4million GP appointments in November.

Almost half were on the same day (42.6 per cent) and a quarter (25.8 per cent) had to wait more than a week.

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The data for England also found more than two thirds (67.9 per cent) of GP consultations were face-to-face.

In the wake of the pandemic, GP patient satisfaction has plunged to its lowest level on record.

Patients have continually expressed their frustration over access, particularly with regards to in person face-to-face appointments.

GPs say they overwhelmed due to the pressures of the rising and ageing population, a lack of government funding and a shortage of doctors.

Ministers have also silently binned a promise to hire 6,000 more GPs, which was a major part of Boris Johnson's election-winning manifesto. Just 2,000 more family doctors have been recruited since 2019.

Worsening the staffing crisis is the fact that many current GPs are retiring in their 50s, moving abroad or leaving to work in the private sector because of soaring demand, NHS paperwork, and aggressive media coverage.

GP surgeries have also faced rising levels of harassment, assaults and verbal abuse targeted at staff in recent months.
Nurses and midwives could face being struck off for intentionally mis-gendering patients.

Guidelines from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) regulator tells medics how they can 'express their beliefs appropriately' and when they run the risk of a sanction.

Under its latest update, it includes one example where a midwife who believes the Government is destroying the health service shares their opinion at a dinner.

Regulators would only take action if said midwife vowed to treat patients differently based on their political views.

The NMC guidance was recently highlighted in a video posted by midwife and NMC panellist Dr Sally Pezaro whos aid the nurse in question was 'fundamentally incorrect because it has been proven that you can change your sex and your gender'

But another example shared in the latest update has sparked concerns that sanctions could be dished out to nurses and midwives who address trans patients with the wrong pronouns.

In the hypothetical scenario, one nurse is described as deliberately misgendering a trans patient attending a diabetes clinic.

Despite the patient repeatedly asking the nurse to address them by their 'correct' gender, the medic refuses to do so, resulting in a formal complaint.

When the employer then confronts the nurse about her behaviour, she states that she was 'acting in accordance with her belief that human beings cannot change their sex or gender'.

The NMC concludes it would likely take action against the nurse for this act, though does not specify the exact penalty.

'Persistently and deliberately misgendering a trans person is contrary to the requirements of the code to treat people with kindness and respect,' the guidance reads.

'Although gender-critical beliefs are protected under the Equality Act, this does not mean that those with gender-critical beliefs can "misgender" trans persons with impunity.'

Nurses and midwives could be sanctioned for mis-gendering patients as part of believing people can't change their biological sex, according to new UK guidance (stock image)

The NMC has the power to strike nurses and midwives off its register, barring them from working in the UK.

However, this is typically only dished out for severe breaches, such as a registrant having been found guilty of heinous crimes, or severely lacking the necessary skills to look after patients safely.

In other cases, the NMC can temporarily suspend nurses and midwives from working or require them to be directly supervised by another professional at work.

Organisations critical of the creep of gender-neutral language in the health sector have taken issue with the NMC's example, as well as framing the observation of the reality of a patient's biological sex as a 'belief'.

Stella O'Malley, psychotherapist and director of medical campaign group Genspect, said it was 'extremely concerning' language that could leave the NMC open to legal challenges.

She told MailOnline: 'Professionals, especially those working in healthcare where mis-sexing a person could have catastrophic implications, need to have the right to clarify and even highlight a persons sex.

READ MORE: Children will only be referred to trans clinics if their parents agree under planned overhaul of NHS rules Teachers, social workers and GPs have been able to send kids to the Tavistock gender identity service (pictured) without having to gain parental consent. But new plans outlined in a public consultation document say children will only be referred if they, their parents and a specialist agree that it is in the best interests of the child, in two separate reviews Advertisement

'For example, if a transman presents with stomach aches, the nurse might need to ascertain whether the transman, who is biologically female, could be pregnant.'

She added that the regulator needed to 'protect' the freedom to clarify important medical facts to keep patients safe.

'While a persons gender identity might be important for some peoples sense of self, their biological sex can be a matter of life and death within a hospital setting,' she said.

Ms O'Malley also slammed the NMC for framing biological sex as a 'belief'.

She said: 'The NMC are incorrect to state that it is a "belief" that humans are incapable of changing sex.'

'This is akin to saying it is a "belief" that water is wet.

'This is a fact, no person in the history of the world has changed sex  many have changed their gender identity but no one has changed sex.'

Shelley Charlesworth, spokesperson for Transgender Trend, a campaign group concerned about the sharp rise in young people changing gender, also told this website she was worried by the NMC's language.

She said: 'Nurses and midwives need to understand how male and female bodies differ and what that means for their patients' treatment.

'They should never be penalised for that knowledge or for speaking and acting on it.'

The NMC guidance was recently highlighted in a video posted by midwife and NMC panellist Dr Sally Pezaro, a professional who rules on cases where nurses and midwives are sent to the regulator for a possible sanction.

The midwife, who has previously stated that 'it's not only women who give birth', discussed the NMC example of the nurse mis-gendering a patient on TikTok.

She said: 'They're fundamentally incorrect because it has been proven that you can change your sex and your gender.'

Responding to Dr Pezaro's video Ms Charlesworth said: 'It is very worrying that a panellist who sits on the board judging nurses and midwives' fitness to practice makes statements which are not based on scientific fact.'

Professor Jenny Gamble, a midwifery expert from Coventry University, told MailOnline the NMC guidance itself wasn't the problem and nurses who 'deliberately and repeatedly' upset patients should naturally face investigation from the regulator.

However, she added there was an issue with the regulator's framing of the 'belief' in sex.

Critics have taken issue with the Nursing and Midwifery Council published new guidelines framing the observation of biological sex as a 'belief' and say the regulator should issue a clarification (stock image)

She said: 'It would be clearer and more useful if the example of the registered nurse deliberately and repeatedly misgendering a person did not introduce the "belief" about sex in addition to the comment about gender.

'Confusion abounds about the difference between sex, a reproductive category, gender, a societal role, and gender identity, an inner sense of self. They are not synonymous.'

Professor Gamble added the NMC may need to issue a clarification on what this means, as recording the sex of the patient was a critical safety issue.

'Accurately recording sex is a safety and quality care issue and not a matter of freedom of expression,' she said.

'NMC may need a position statement on the requirement to accurately record sex in all health care settings.

'Respectful communication is essential in health care and referring to individuals according to their preferences is part of respectful care, however this should not extend to inaccurately documenting a person's sex. It is too risky to do so.'

Responding to concerns, Matthew McClelland, the NMC's executive director of strategy and insight, said: 'From time to time, people raise concerns with us about protected beliefs and freedom of expression.

'When we review these, its very important we take a consistent approach that reflects the law.

'The updated guidance is rooted in the law, and helps our colleagues to reach swift and fair decisions in fitness to practise cases.

'It makes it clear that people have a right to freedom of expression and to protected beliefs but that there may be some circumstances when what a nurse, midwife, or nursing associate says, and importantly how they say it, could impact their fitness to practise.'

It is impossible for people to change their sex, which is determined at conception.

In extremely rare cases, people can be born intersex  which might mean they have a combination of male female traits.

People can change their gender identity over the course of their life, but this doesn't change their sex.

Even surgery to make parts of a person's reproductive anatomy match the opposite sex does not overwrite biological sex.
A map showing respiratory infection rates across the US reveals a 'sea of red' - as the US is hit by a tripledemic of viruses again this winter.

Thirty-eight states are now reporting 'high' or 'very high' levels of flu-like illnesses, official data shows, while Covid hospital admissions are up nearly 30 percent in a week.

Cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)  a cold-like illness that kills thousands of babies and seniors annually  are still unseasonably high.

And the surge in cases has prompted hospitals in at least 14 states to bring back face mask mandates for patients, visitors and staff.

Your browser does not support iframes.

The above map shows levels of flu-like illness by state in the week to December 30, the latest available

The above map shows flu-like illnesses by state in the week to December 23, just before the latest one available

And the above shows flu-like illnesses by state in the week to December 16, two weeks before the latest week available

Based on the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, which collects information from 3,400 hospitals across the country, in the week ending December 30, there were 38 states where levels had reached 'high' or 'very high' levels.

Rates of flu activity are high or very high in regions all over the country, with only some areas in the Plains and Midwest having lower levels.

Only one state  Minnesota  still has flu levels at minimal levels.

Respiratory disease levels are normally high around this time of year, before infections peak in January and February.

But the earlier season coupled with children's underdeveloped immune systems from successive lockdowns has raised fears the US could be in for a larger surge.

The CDC reports visits to a healthcare provider for a respiratory illness increased seven percent in the week ending December 30, with 20,000 new hospitalizations.

Data showed 10million people have been infected with flu so far this season while 110,000 have been hospitalized.

For comparison, at this time in 2019  before the pandemic  there had been 7million illnesses and 55,000 hospitalizations recorded.

Estimates show a total of 6,500 deaths from flu are also thought to have occurred, compared to 2,900 at the same time in 2019.

During the 2023-2024 winter cold season, there have been 27 pediatric deaths.

Overall, there were about 20,000 new admissions of people suffering from flu reported in the week to December 30 data showed.

This was up 36 percent from 14,700 reported over the previous seven-day period.

Covid hospitalizations are also rising, up 20 percent in a week to 34,800 over the latest seven-day spell.

And there are also signs RSV is causing more illnesses, with an estimated 125,000 cases were detected in the latest week  compared to 119,000 in the week beforehand.

Dr Jacob Glanville, a virologist based in San Francisco who is working on a universal flu vaccine, told DailyMail.com this was turning into a 'tough winter' for viruses.

'Typically, after the holidays we see an increase in respiratory viruses,' he said.

The above shows the proportion of people being hospitalized with flu-like illness by age group. It reveals that children are the largest group

Flu hospitalizations are continuing to climb, with data suggesting they are already double the levels at the same time in the 2019 to 2020 season before the Covid pandemic

RSV infections are also starting to climb again, after the new CDC director Dr Mandy Cohen suggested they had peaked

The above shows Covid infections according to wastewater. They are continuing to rise

'So far, the CDC data is showing Covid-led hospitalizations aren't at the same levels as the previous three winters. But there remains a lot of uncertainty about just how elevated the current surge can peak.

'Everyone should make sure to wash hands, cover up coughs, and stay updated on their vaccines.'

Amid the rising infection levels hospitals across the US are now starting to reinstate mask mandates to help stop infections spreading.

Last week hospitals in four states  New York, California, Illinois and Massachusetts  became the latest to bring back the mandates for staff, patients and visitors.

There is limited evidence that masks help to prevent the spread of infections, but hospitals are using them because staff are likely to turn up to work sick  raising the risk of viruses spreading.

On Friday evening, the city of St Louis became the first this season to bring back a mask mandate for non-healthcare workers  saying its 3,000 employees would now need to wear the coverings while indoors.

'With activity of winter viruses rising at such a rapid pace, we must take action to slow transmission and prevent strain on our hospital system,' the city's department of health said.

However, later that day they reversed course  switching to saying they now 'strongly recommend' face masks.

Republican lawmakers in the state said the U-turn was achieved after Governor Mike Parson stepped in .

A spokesman for the Governor said: 'Governor Parson kept his word. A conversation was had with the St Louis Mayor's Office, and a new policy has been issued reversing the earlier mask mandate as a result.'
Destiny Pharma is playing its part in the race to diffuse a deadly $1trillion healthcare timebomb with two phase III-ready preventative medicines.

But, as we will see later, its efforts have gone largely unrewarded by the stock market.

This seems crazy, given the scale of the problem, and by extension the immense opportunity for companies such as Destiny that are creating solutions.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) presents a formidable challenge to global health, characterised by microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi mutating to develop an armour against medications that were previously effective.

This phenomenon renders standard treatments ineffective, leading to prolonged illnesses and increased death rates.

Destiny Pharma is playing its part in the race to diffuse a deadly $1 trillion healthcare timebomb with two phase III-ready preventative medicines

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), AMR was directly responsible for 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019 and is thought to have contributed to a further 4.9 million fatalities. Alarmingly, the death toll is projected to soar to 10 million a year by 2050 if current trends continue. Beyond its health implications, AMR exerts a substantial economic burden.

Figures produced by the World Bank suggest the cost associated with AMR is expected to escalate dramatically too, potentially reaching $1 trillion annually by 2050. Thats the direct cost of the crisis.

The wider impact on global productivity is put at $1-$3.4 trillion. To put that into context, the latter figure is a smidge over the entire GDP of the UK.

This escalating threat underscores the urgent need for coordinated global action to mitigate its spread and develop effective countermeasures. Or, to flip that problem on its head (and to repeat whats already been said), it offers a significant opportunity to research and development companies active in this arena  and where the timeline to market is relatively short.

In this context, Destiny Pharma is developing two innovative treatments: NTCD-M3 for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and XF-73 for post-surgical staphylococcal infections.

Crucially, each is on the final few yards of the clinical trial sack race  so the risk of failure is smaller (but in no way fully mitigated).

By extension, the drugs are within touching distance of a go/no-go regulatory decision (in the success case, thats jackpot time).

NTCD-M3 is a promising therapy for CDI, with efficacy, safety, and unique characteristics such as low production costs and room temperature stability. Its potential in preventing recurrent CDI is significant, given the annual cost of CDI in the US is estimated at $6 billion.

Given the potential addressable market, analysts calculate peak sales of M3 could be in the order of $500 million.

Destinys partnership with Sebela Pharmaceuticals for the US market further enhances its commercial prospects.

XF-73 is Destiny's innovative treatment for post-surgical staphylococcal infections and has shown promising results in phase II trials, demonstrating a favourable resistance profile and compatibility with existing clinical practices.

The unmet need for effective infection prevention in surgical settings is significant, and XF-73 has the potential to reinvigorate nasal decolonisation as a key component in reducing post-surgical infection risks.

If it successfully negotiates the pivotal clinical trial, analysts estimate the product could go on to generate peak sales of $1 billion, putting it in blockbuster territory.

The data generated so far suggests that XF-73 could potentially open up the broader universal decolonisation opportunity.

Management is actively pursuing discussions with multiple interested parties to ensure that the asset achieves its full commercial potential. Its focus on developing these treatments positions Destiny as a key player in addressing the dual challenges of AMR and healthcare costs. But has the wider market recognised this? At first blush, youd suggest it has.

The stock has advanced 40% in the past year, significantly outperforming the wider small-cap market with the AIM All-Share off around 11% in that time.

However, even with this forward momentum, Destiny is still only valued at a comparatively modest 63 million. To put that into context, if the business was listed in the US, its stock would likely trade at a significant premium to the current UK share price.

Objectively, the maths looks wrong. At this stage in its development, with two assets so far through the clinical trial process, it is a fairly simple spreadsheet exercise to come up with a more holistic valuation.

We do this using a method called discounted cash flow analysis. Analysts at Cavendish, Equity Development and Intron Health have crunched the numbers, weighing the economic potential of assets against the chances of success.

In doing the sums, our abacus rattlers have come up with a per share valuation range of 120p-285p a share, or a market cap of 113 million to almost 270 million.

Remember, the market currently values the business at 63 million. So, whats the issue? Sometimes, opportunities such as Destiny suffer a funding overhang, by which I mean the company will require additional cash to get it to its next value inflexion point.

In this case, funding doesnt seem to be the issue as the group has a cash runway out to the first quarter of next year.

Sclerotic and dysfunctional equity markets such as AIM can be slow to recognise the potential of frontier companies such as Destiny.

Certainly, the LSEs junior bourse has been a poor promoter and funder of innovative growth stocks  palpably when compared with the US, where the pools of capital are much deeper, and understanding of healthcare investment more pervasive.

A more charitable way to look at the conundrum is that for the past 18 months, going on two years even (since the start of the Ukraine War), appetite for riskier stocks at the lower end of the market has disappeared.

This has left companies stranded for funding (which we know isnt an issue for Destiny) but also led to blanket (and punitive) discounting, irrespective of the prospects and true potential of the business.

As an investor, you have to weigh the intrinsic value argument (which based on the facts laid out above looks persuasive), and then decide whether the market for small-cap stocks will turn this year. The latter point is the big imponderable.

To read more small-cap news click here www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk
The New Year mortgage price war has stepped up a gear as more lenders slash rates to attract borrowers.

Mortgage rates continue to hurtle downwards in early 2024, with Co-operative Bank the latest lender to announce cuts, taking the best fixed deals further below 4 per cent.

A total of 22 lenders have announced rate cuts since the beginning of the year, according to data compiler Moneyfacts, including NatWest, First Direct, TSB and HSBC.

The Co-operative Bank is slashing rates across its two, three and five-year fixed-rate products by up to 1.07 percentage points.

Heading down: A raft of lenders have announced rate cuts over the past week, including NatWest, First Direct, TSB, HSBC and now Co-op Bank

Co-op Bank's cuts include a number of new best buys and will benefit both new and existing customers buying or remortgaging.

From tomorrow, Co-op Bank's existing customers will be able to secure two-year fixed rates starting from 3.84 per cent and five-year fixed rates from 3.74 per cent.

New customers will be able to secure a five-year fix, with rates starting from 3.84 per cent and two-year fixed deals starting from 4.22 per cent.

The catch is that Co-op's best rates are reserved for those buying or remortgaging with at least a 750,000 mortgage, but its next best deals aimed at those with more typical borrowing circumstances are only marginally higher.

Its two-year fix for mortgages under 750,000 is 4.34 per cent and its five-year fix is 3.89 per cent - both come with a 999 product fee.

Nicholas Mendes of mortgage broker, John Charcol, says: 'Co-op has made a statement of intent to kick off the year with some impressive rate pricing.

'A five-year purchase or remortgage at 3.84 per cent makes it the new market leader.

'It's also great to see a lender offer the same deals for all clients and not reserved for just purchases as we have seen in recent weeks from other lenders.

'Also, their product transfer rates (for existing customers) are equally impressive for existing clients.

'What a way to start the week, and who knows what we could see happen over the next few days. I was expecting repricing downwards but not this quickly.

However, Chris Sykes, technical manager at mortgage broker Private Finance warns that people will likely need to act fast to secure a deal with the Co-op.

'I doubt these will be available for long as the Co-op often takes a bit of a tap-on, tap-off approach to their rates.

'I have heard this is for a specific tranche of funds that they have secured, so the message will be to get them while you can.'

He added: 'But it's really good to see the continued reduction of rates and also the first sub-4 per cent two-year fix.

'This was a very unexpected move to go under what many lenders are benchmarked against as cost of funds. Understandably just for existing customers.'

Why are mortgage rates falling?

The mortgage price battle stepped up a gear before Christmas and this has followed through into the New Year.

But it hasn't just been in recent weeks that mortgage rates have fallen.

Average rates across two-year and five-year fixed mortgages fell for a fifth consecutive month, according to Moneyfacts data and they're now at the lowest levels in over six months.

Since August, average two-year fixes have fallen from 6.86 per cent to 5.81 per cent while the average five-year fixed rate has dropped from 6.37 per cent to 5.42 per cent.

Mortgage lenders have been slashing rates in the expectation of the Bank of England cutting base rate.

In recent months, forecasts for where the base rate would eventually peak have fallen from a high of 6.5 per cent to 5.25 per cent.

While the Bank of England has held the base rate at 5.25 per cent on three consecutive occasions since September, markets are increasingly confident it will be cut this year.

Financial market expectations see the Bank of England cutting rates six times in 2024, taking them from a 15-year high of 5.25 per cent today to 3.75 per cent by Christmas. Some analysts are urging caution on these forecasts, however, suggesting market expectations have run ahead of themselves.

Average rates across two-year and five-year fixed mortgages fell for a fifth consecutive month

Best fixed-rate mortgage deals

The lowest rates on offer are typically aimed at homebuyers with the biggest deposits and homeowners remortgaging with the largest amounts of equity.

Those with at least a 40 per cent deposit or equity will potentially be eligible for the cheapest rates on offer.

However, this isn't necessarily the case with Co-op Bank. For example, its market leading cheapest two-year fixed rates are aimed at buyers and remortgagers with at least 20 per cent deposits or equity.

We have taken a look at the best deals on the market based on a 25-year mortgage for a 290,000 property - the current UK average house price according to the ONS.

To check up-to-the minute rates based on your own circumstances, use This is Money's mortgage finder and best buy tables.

Bear in mind that the mortgage deals below are best in terms of having the lowest rate. They may not be the cheapest deal overall when arrangement fees are also factored in.

The deals below are aimed at new customers. Existing customers may be able to secure a cheaper rate by switching internally to a deal with their current lender.

Buying with bigger deposit mortgages

Two-year fixed rate mortgages

First Direct has a two-year fixed mortgage at 4.54 per cent with a 490 fee at 60 per cent loan to value.

The Co-operative Bank has a two-year fixed rate at 4.34 per cent with a 999 fee at 80 per cent loan to value. (Available from January 9)

Five-year fixed rate mortgages

The Co-operative Bank has a five-year fixed rate mortgage at 3.89 per cent with an 999 fee at 60 per cent loan to value. (Available from January 9)

First Direct has a five-year fixed rate at 3.99 per cent with a 490 fee at 60 per cent loan to value.

10-year fixed rate mortgages

First Direct has a 10-year fixed rate at 3.99 per cent with a 490 fee at 60 per cent loan to value.

Remortgaging with higher equity

Two-year fixed rate mortgages

The Co-operative Bank has a two-year fixed rate at 4.34 per cent with a 999 fee at 80 per cent loan to value. (Available from 9 January.)

TSB has a two-year fixed product at 4.44 per cent with a 994 fee at 60 per cent loan to value.

Five-year fixed rate mortgages

The Co-operative Bank has a five-year fixed rate at 3.89 per cent with an 999 fee at 60 per cent loan to value. (Available from January 9)

HSBC has a five-year fixed-rate at 3.94 per cent with a 998 fee at 60 per cent loan to value.

10-year fixed rate mortgages

HSBC has a 10-year fixed rate at 3.99 per cent with a 999 fee at 60 per cent loan-to-value.
The Bank of Mum and Dad has long provided young buyers with a helping hand to get on the property ladder.

But now it seems the 'bank' is branching out into business loans, as entrepreneurs increasingly turn to their parents for help.

New research by wealth manager Charles Stanley reveals a fifth of UK start-ups are initially funded by an inheritance, and a further 19 per cent by cash from parents.

Keep it in the family: More entrepreneurs are turning to the bank of mum and dad for funding

And it's not just mum and dad bearing the brunt, as 14 per cent draw on a family trust to kick start their business. One in 10 asked other family members for cash, with another 10 per cent using the Bank of Grandma and Grandad.

Relying on family cash can come with risks, however.

Most start-ups fail within the first three years, so if the business goes sour there could be serious consequences for all parties.

While traditional routes of funding tend to have contingency plans for these scenarios, loose familial arrangements might prove more testy.

Access to cheap finance dries up

It comes as access to cheap liquidity options dries up. Caution in the sector means just 8 per cent of businesses receive initial funding from venture capital firms, while 10 per cent comes from private equity.

The most popular option continues to be personal savings, with 44 per cent using their own cash, followed by 21 per cent taking out bank loans.

However, access to bank loans can be difficult for small businesses.

Recent research shows nearly half of small business owners have to use a personal credit card to keep afloat.

For those who don't have access to venture capital funding, squirrelling money away and relying on personal loans can often be their only option.

Rich Wagner, CEO of SME bank Cashplus said: 'Part of the issue is that new companies understandably have no credit history.

'If you're a new business and you're looking to borrow 500 for a new laptop or tools, for many high street banks, then quite often the bank won't lend to you because you have no credit file...

'What inevitably happens is that the business operates through a personal current account. It may be easier, but the products aren't tailored for businesses and it makes it difficult to reconcile taxes.

'Alternatively, people then rely on personal savings or the Bank of Mum and Dad.'

Some entrepreneurs are pushed to other options such as selling personal assets (10 per cent) while 7 per cent have remortgaged their home.

Elsewhere, crowdfunding has become a popular way for high-profile businesses to fund growth.

Monzo, Revolut and Freetrade are among the leading companies that have used it to raise cash and give investors a slice of equity.

However, just 4 per cent of entrepreneurs use this route for initial funding, the same proportion of those who used lottery winnings.

Andrew Meigh, managing director of financial planning at Charles Stanley, said: 'UK business is, at least in part, a family institution.

'For many entrepreneurs starting a new venture it is their own savings or inheritance on the line, so it is important that there are conversations about their personal and family wealth alongside a drive to build their business in the most tax efficient way.

'Careful planning is essential so that entrepreneurs and business owners, who have multiple considerations to manage, end up with the best possible outcomes.

'This assertion is especially supported by the finding that almost half of business owners are first-time entrepreneurs, and 20 per cent are accidental entrepreneurs.'

> Wealth planning for entrepreneurs: Is it worth enlisting a financial planner?

Business remains a family affair for those looking to fund growth once established, too.

The research reveals 15 per cent said they used an inheritance to help further grow their business, while 13 per cent relied on their parents.

The number of entrepreneurs using their own savings dips to 33 per cent for subsequent funding, while the proportion using bank funding increases marginally from 21 to 23 per cent.
Rae was 12 when she realised she was gay. But growing up in a traditional church family in a small village in the 1990s, she refused to accept it.

'I just knew I couldn't be gay,' she told MailOnline. 'These two things don't go together. I can't have God and be gay'.

Several years later she was among a group of young people who were shown videos by a visiting preacher of African 'pastor' TB Joshua.

The VCRs appeared to show Joshua performing miracles at his church in Lagos, Nigeria. Rae, now 43, immediately knew she had to see him for herself, hoping he might be able to 'cure' her of her sexuality.

In 2001, aged 20, Rae left her university course in Brighton and travelled to Lagos for a week with a friend. Days later, she had been recruited into his cult which would see dozens of young women travel to Nigeria. She wouldn't return home for 12 years.

Rae, now 43, was drawn into SCOAN after struggling with her sexuality as a teenager

Temitope Balogun Joshua, known as TB Joshua, founded an evangelical Christian church called the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in 1987

'No-one just joins a cult,' Rae said. 'But I was easy pickings. I'd already been indoctrinated with the idea of needing to be set free from my sexuality. I thought [TB Joshua] was the answer to all my problems.'

READ MORE British women who were brainwashed by Christian cult in Nigeria reveal how they were tortured and sexually abused by pastor who made them call him 'Daddy' Advertisement

Temitope Balogun Joshua, known as TB Joshua, founded an evangelical Christian church called the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in 1987, and soon began recruiting followers across Africa, Europe and around the world.

The church appeared to perform miracles - healing cancer, ridding people of AIDs, exorcising 'demons' - while recruiting thousands of young people, including many who were British, to travel to its headquarters and become Joshua's 'disciples'.

But behind closed doors Joshua used his international fame to abuse, sexually assault and rape young women whom he indoctrinated into his 'cult', survivors say.

After arriving in Nigeria in 2001, Rae 'confessed' her sexuality during a live church service.

As she prepared to return to the UK a few days later, one of TB Joshua's advisors approached her.

'She said, 'I've got a question for you from the Prophet and the question is, do you want to study education, or do you want to study Jesus Christ?'

'I just said, 'Well, I want to study Jesus,' and she's like 'Great. So you're staying then.'

'And that was it. My stuff got pulled out of the back of the van. I never really went home after that. I thought this was my destiny.'

Rae, who came from a religious family, realised she was gay at around 12, but hid it from everyone around her

Rae (left) now lives with her partner Liz in Devon after returning to the UK in 2013

Rae was one of TB Joshua's first international 'disciples' - hundreds of young people who were persuaded to join the Synagogue, Church Of All Nations and move into the Lagos compound in order to train under the preacher and study Christianity.

Unbeknownst to Rae, and the dozens of other British women who are believed to have been recruited into the church, TB Joshua was actually the head of a cult, and has since been accused of systematically abusing its followers.

The 20-year-old was immediately moved into a dormitory with around 35 other female 'disciples', complete with bunk beds, piles of luggage and a row of open showers.

'It was just completely disorientating,' Rae said. 'Your whole head was mixed up, I didn't understand the culture, and therefore I didn't know what was culture and what was cult.'

To begin with all the women were encouraged to be entirely naked while inside the dormitory, where the lights were kept on 24 hours a day.

Rae said: 'All the women were naked, and I was like f***. How am I going to do this? It was just completely alien to me.'

She is one of 14 survivors of the church who participated in the BBC Africa Eye documentary 'Disciples: The Cult of TB Joshua', which has painted a picture of physical, psychological and sexual abuse faced by those recruited into the fold.

The 'prophet' TB Joshua is accused of sexually abusing hundreds of women in a BBC documentary

TB Joshua's compound was usually guarded by gunmen and access was strictly controlled (pictured surrounded by mourners after his death in 2021)

Just like the other survivors, Rae described how, as a vulnerable young woman, she was gradually brainwashed by TB Joshua into seeing the abuse as acceptable.

She says the 'disciples' were made to work for the church almost 24 hours a day without ever being paid.

TB Joshua is accused of not allowing the young women to sleep for more than two to three hours a day, restricting the amount of food they could eat and depriving them of any access to the outside world.

Other British survivors have told how they would have to request 'sleep passes' from Joshua in order to go to bed, and anyone falling asleep without permission would face punishment.

While inside the Lagos compound, none of them had access to a calendar or even a watch, meaning they never knew what day or time it was.

The site was guarded by armed men carrying guns, with disciples not allowed to leave without Joshua's express permission. The windows were covered in blackout paint and barbed wire surrounded the buildings.

The 'disciples' were forced to call Joshua 'Daddy' and were not allowed to sit down when he entered a room.

Rae said Joshua would beat his followers, who were expected to understand it was 'an honour' to be beaten by the preacher as he was 'blessed by God'.

She was one of multiple women who told the BBC she was sexually abused by the prophet.

They said the pastor would invite a young woman up to his private quarters almost every evening.

Rae described her own experience after she was summoned up to his room under the guise of praying together, saying he locked the doors behind her and turned down the lights.

She told the documentary: 'He said: 'Can you take your pyjama bottoms off'.

Rae was first introduced to Joshua via video tapes as a teenager after joining an evangelical church

Rae travelled to Nigeria for a week when she was 20, and then stayed for 12 years

'You were so knackered all the time. I was just like a robot, like a parrot. [I said] 'Yes sir, yes sir', like a fr***ing robot.'

Rae said Joshua then lay down on top of her: 'He stuck his tongue in my ear. I totally froze, I went into complete panic.

'He was grinding and sticking his tongue in my ear and within five minutes he's masturbated on me basically. Then he gets up and says: 'Ok you can go'.'

Rae originally travelled to Nigeria in order to try and 'become straight' - but ten years later, she knew that nothing had changed.

Joshua eventually put her into 'isolation', a form of punishment in which no-one was allowed to speak or participate in activities with her.

She estimates she spent two years without any communication from others, despite still living in the same dormitory with dozens of other women. It was during this time that she began to realise SCOAN could not offer her what she needed.

'No one was allowed to speak to me,' Rae told MailOnline. 'There were buildings under construction and I used to go there and smash my head against the wall.

'I had a complete mental breakdown and I tried to commit suicide. I was very on my own.

'So all day, every day no work, nothing to do, just hanging around in this compound. I would only eat once a day and it was actually quite dangerous.

'But that whole experience made me begin to realize that he didn't really know me. He couldn't help me in this area.'

Aged 33, Rae said she finally realised she needed to accept that she was gay.

'It's quite cliche, but I had this full-on mirror moment,' she said. 'I looked in the mirror and said to myself, 'you're gay, accept it'.'

But it was several years before she plucked up the courage to leave Nigeria for good.

After being sent on missions to the UK and then Mexico, Rae finally returned to Britain for good in 2013.

Joshua has also been accused of faking 'miracles' by falsely claiming people had cancer

Joshua died in June 2021, months after the BBC began investigating his church

It wasn't for another two years, when she reconnected with another British woman who had also left Lagos, that she realised she had been living in a cult.

'I'd never talked about my own sexual assault at that stage,' Rae said. 'But we had this weird conversation and she told me, 'TB Joshua's been sexually assaulting me for ten years.'

'I remember going green and pretty much running straight to the toilet and throwing up. I had no idea he was a serial predator. And that's what set me off investigating him.'

More than ten years later, Rae finally feels she has 'unravelled' the hold SCOAN held over her. She said one of the reasons it took her so long to leave Nigeria for good was the disciples were convinced they would 'go to hell' if they abandoned Joshua.

Now Rae, 43, lives in Devon with her partner Liz, and is doing well: 'I'm doing ok. I feel very lucky and privileged to be in that situation. I've had a lot of support, and I think that's made a difference. My family has stuck by me and tried to understand.

'It's not perfect, but they have really tried, and I think I think one of the key things for me was openness.'

Rae is now advocating for more support for those affected by cults in the UK: 'There needs to be more conversation about it. This is not rare, it's just rare that people talk about it.

'It seems really far off for everyone. But it could be your child, it could be your mum.

'Cults don't care about your age or your your gender, or your ethnicity. If they can manipulate you, if they can recruit you, they will have you.'

TB Joshua died in June 2021, months after the BBC began investigating SCOAN. The church continues to operate and is now run by his widow.

SCOAN has been contacted for comment.

BBC Africa Eye investigation 'Disciples: The Cult of TB Joshua' is a three-part documentary now on BBC iPlayer. It is also available on BBC Sounds as the new season of the podcast 'World of Secrets'.

For confidential help and support, call the Samaritans for free from a UK phone on 116 123, or go to samaritans.org.
Temitope Balogun Joshua was worshipped by millions as a Christian preacher who claimed to perform countless miraculous healings and speaking with the word of God.

Upon his death on June 5, 2021 the church he founded in 1987, the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), had hundreds of millions of followers and had made him possibly the most recognisable Christian leader in Africa.

Joshua found international fame and recruited thousands of people from across the world, including the UK and other European countries.

But he has now been accused of running a 'cult' and perpetrating physical and sexual abuse against 'hundreds' of his followers in a new BBC Africa Eye documentary 'Disciples: The Cult of TB Joshua'.

From claims he spent 15 months in his mother's womb to being warmly welcomed by international leaders, MailOnline reveals the preacher's rise to revered religious leader.

Temitope Balogun Joshua, known as TB Joshua, founded an evangelical Christian church called the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in 1987

The 'prophet' TB Joshua is accused of sexually abusing hundreds of women in a BBC documentary

TB Joshua was born into poverty on June 12, 1963 in the village of Arigidi in Ondo State, south-west Nigeria.

READ MORE British women who were brainwashed by Christian cult in Nigeria reveal how they were tortured and sexually abused by pastor who made them call him 'Daddy' Advertisement

He received little formal education, failing to finish secondary school, and moved to Lagos as a young man, initially finding work on a farm.

He is believed to have worked until founding SCOAN in his mid-20s, with early videos showing him and a couple of dozen followers gathered under a bamboo marquee in the late 1980s.

Precious little is known about his early life that can be verified - but Joshua has repeatedly made wild claims about his origins which are still repeated as facts by his church today.

SCOAN claims Joshua spent 15 months in his mother's womb before his birth, and that he became a Christian as an unborn baby during this time.

There are no records to substantiate any claim that Joshua had anything but a normal development period and birth.

He attended St. Stephen Anglican Primary School between 1971 and 1977, before dropping out during the first year of secondary school to earn a living.

His teachers are said to have called him a 'little pastor' because of his religious upbringing and great love of the Bible.

Joshua died in June 2021, months after the BBC began investigating his church

TB Joshua's compound was usually guarded by gunmen and access was strictly controlled (pictured surrounded by mourners after his death in 2021)

He married his wife Evelyn in 1990, and the couple had three children. Joshua also had a fourth child, who he has previously been accused of mistreating due to her not being born of his marriage.

By the 1990s, TB Joshua was building SCOAN into an international movement. He first began recruiting western 'disciples' in the early 2000s.

At its peak, tens of thousands of people would travel to Lagos to attend each of TB Joshua's services.

He enjoyed the patronage and visits of the Nigerian President, as well as former Presidents of Ghana and Malawi, John Atta Mills and Joyce Banda.

Joshua was thought to be worth millions of pounds by the time of his death, with donations to the church pouring in from all over the world.

But his organisation has been plagued in scandal for years, including just months before his demise when his popular streaming service, Emmanuel TV, was suspended from YouTube over alleged homophobia by Joshua.

The pastor had posted videos in which he claimed to 'cure' people of their homosexuality - including by beatings.

TB Joshua had previously been criticised for claiming to be able to cure fatal diseases such as cancer, HIV and AIDs. Insiders say such miraculous healings are actually the result of minor health conditions being exaggerated and labelled as far more serious issues.

During the Ebola outbreak, he made headlines again after sending 4,000 bottles of 'blessed' water to people with the disease, claiming it could cure them.

Joshua has also been accused of faking 'miracles' by falsely claiming people had cancer

It came less than a year after four people died in a stampede in Ghana as people rushed to get their hands on his alleged 'healing water', which was being handed out at an event.

But perhaps the most controversial incident occurred in September 2014, when a guesthouse within the compound collapsed into rubble, killing at least 116 people.

The building housed around 300 foreign tourists, many of whom were from South Africa, who had paid large sums of money to visit the church.

Two days later, TB Joshua went ahead with his Sunday service almost as if nothing had happened. It is likely some of the victims were still alive, trapped under the rubble at the time.

Incredibly, he claimed that a hostile party had used an 'infrasonic' weapon against the guesthouse, launched from a low-flying plane. In the weeks that followed he said the 'attack' was an assassination attempt against him.

A thorough investigation concluded in 2015 that the building actually collapsed after being overbuilt - extra floors had been added without reinforcements being made to its foundations.

There was no attack, and SCOAN were found to be criminally negligent. No-one has ever been prosecuted over the tragedy.

Joshua died on June 5, 2021, of unconfirmed causes - although it was previously reported that he had suffered a stroke shortly before his death. He was 57.

Some of his followers later claimed he had foreseen his own death. HIs wife, Evelyn Joshua, now runs SCOAN.

BBC Africa Eye investigation 'Disciples: The Cult of TB Joshua' is a three-part documentary now on BBC iPlayer. It is also available on BBC Sounds as the new season of the podcast 'World of Secrets'.
Oxford Professor says Covid-19 is likely to remain for the foreseeable future

There is likely to be a rise in Covid-19 cases driven by a highly infectious strain of the virus and the return of children to classrooms, an expert on infectious diseases has warned.

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, a Professor of Infection and Immunity at the University of Oxford, said that he was expecting 'a rise in infections in the population over the course of the next week'.

Despite newly released data from the UK Health Agency showing a decline in positive tests for Covid-19 before the New Year, Professor Pollard cautioned that it was common to see 'a drop in cases over holiday periods'.

'It's actually what's going to happen next as children go back to school,' he explained. 'Most people have taken time off over New Year and are starting to go back to work,' he told the Mirror.

The week to December 27 had seen 7,862 positive Covid-19 cases being reported in England, according to the UK Health Security Agency. There were 179 deaths reported with Covid-19 on the death certificate in the seven days to December 22.

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, a Professor at the University of Oxford, said he was expecting a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the coming week

 Slide me  Data from the UK Health Security Agency from early December showed that numbers had been creeping up. After a brief drop, this trend is now expected to resume

Professor Andrew Pollard said that it was unlikely that there would be a return to any form of Covid-19 prevention measures, similar to what was implemented at the height of the pandemic

There is currently a highly infectious variant of Covid-19 circulating, JN.1, which makes up the majority of all confirmed UK cases. It is three times as common as the next most common strain, data shows.

'It's the one that is currently better at spreading and that's why it's become dominant,' Professor Pollard explained. 'It's just better than the other variants out there at the moment.'

He said that the cycle of newer variants monopolising their share of Covid-19 cases has been recurrent since the pandemic broke in 2020.

'They just happen to be fitter and knock all the other ones out. They also do that because they are better at evading the immune responses we have in our nose and throats that would prevent older variants from causing infections,' he said.

Professor Pollard added that despite JN.1 being highly infectious, there was no firm evidence to suggest that it was more lethal than previous strains. Rising cases would nevertheless likely add to existing 'pressures on the NHS'.

He said that he thought it was unlikely that measures, similar to those that were adopted at the height of the pandemic, would need to be reintroduced in the UK.

It is likely that Covid-19 will continue to circulate for the foreseeable future. 'There's no reason why it should completely fizzle out,' Professor Pollard said.

He explained that the virus had shown itself to be adaptable to immunity and generating new variants 'which can still spread even though we've got an immune population.'

'My prediction is that rather like flu, it will be with us for the rest of our lives. The uncertainty is whether it will become a winter peak without anything the rest of the year, or whether it will continue this slightly unpredictable behaviour with waves at different times.'

Professor Pollard said that there was significant focus on Covid-19 due to the pandemic, he believed that 'flu remains the bigger threat to those frailer individuals in society.'

Most new Covid-19 variants are likely to only cause an 'unpleasant cold' or a 'respiratory tract infection' for most, even though these could precipitate vulnerable people to need hospital treatment.

'It is important to say that in the last two years flu is much more likely to do that.'
A 'wrongly convicted' victim of the Post Office scandal has made the shocking claim that the Post Office urged him to sign a confession to stealing money or he would face losing his children.

Former sub-postmaster Senapathy Narenthiran, 68, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008 after the Horizon IT system showed that the accounts of the Walthamstow branch, in East London, had plunged into a 275,000 hole.

Mr Narenthiran, who did not feature in TV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, first noticed shortfalls in his accounts in the autumn of 2005.

By the following year, he was suspended by the Post Office during an investigation which ended with him being jailed in 2008.

Shockingly, the father-of-two has claimed Post Office auditors were 'dictating exactly' what to write in a damning confession to theft, after being told he 'would not get a chance to see [his children]' if he refused to sign it.

Mr Narenthiran said he has been unsuccessful in getting his conviction quashed after being told by several law firms that his signed confession to stealing money, which he denies, had sealed his fate.

Former sub-postmaster Senapathy Narenthiran, 68, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008 after the Horizon system showed there was a shortfall of 275,000

The former sub-postmaster said that he desperately attempted to plug the gargantuan shortfall with funds from credit cards after being advised by the Post Office's helpline to make the accounts 'look good', assuring him that the issue would be resolved the next day.

However, the gaps in the accounts began to spiral and Mr Narenthiran said that he was soon finding that shortfalls of 5000 were surging to 50,000.

Mr Narenthiran told MailOnline: 'I haven't got a clue how it was happening. I never even told my wife because I didn't want to put on pressure.

'But gradually, I was working like a zombie and I didn't have any sort of way out'.

Devastatingly, Mr Narenthiran's marriage came to an end in May last year, and he moved out of the family home in Wood Green, north London, losing contact with his daughter, 26, and son, 30.

Mr Narenthiran met his wife, who was also the sub-postmistress at the same branch, but did not handle day-to-day business, in 1989.

The couple married the following year and were together for over 30 years - 'a hell of a long time,' Mr Narenthiran reflected.

He now lives above a restaurant, in a flat in Ramsgate, Kent, where he hopes to rebuild his life.

The former sub-postmaster said that he desperately attempted to plug the shortfall with funds from credit cards after being advised by the Post Office to make the accounts 'look good'

The father-of-two now lives above a restaurant, in a flat in Ramsgate, Kent, where he hopes to rebuild his life

When Mr Narenthiran attempted to explain that there was an issue with the Horizon IT system to the auditors, he was told that the IT software was '100 per cent okay,' before accusing the former sub-postmaster of stealing money.

A public inquiry into the scandal is due to resume evidence hearings this week, with witnesses for Fujitsu  the company behind the software  expected to appear later this month.

Mr Narenthiran urged the auditors to look at the call he'd made to the helpline, but his explanation was swatted away and he was instructed to write the confession.

Mr Narenthiran told MailOnline: 'I gave up. I said, 'What do you want me to write? Whatever you want, you tell me, I will write it.'''

ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has reignited national interest in the scandal after viewers were left outraged by events portrayed in the series based on the real-life story of postmaster Alan Bates, played by actor Toby Jones, who led the campaign to expose what is considered the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history.

The series showed Fujitsu staff changing figures in what was claimed to have been a 'secure' 1billion IT system - without the knowledge of sub-postmasters who used the software.

Mr Bates was among hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters working in the UK who were accused and later charged of theft, fraud and false accounting due to the faulty Horizon system.

Mr Narenthiran, who is originally from Sri Lanka, came to the UK in the 1980s and said investigators even checked for any assets he may own in the South Asian country.

He added: 'I'd never been to a police station, even for a traffic offence. And when they took me to the police station, and the police was waiting outside for nearly three and a half hours, I was thinking, 'What's going on?'

'And they locked me up, and I stayed overnight. My wife and sister came and bailed me out.'

During his trial at Kingston Crown Court, Mr Narenthiran found himself isolated in proving his innocence, saying: 'Out of my jury, only one did not support the [guilty] verdict.

'But the rest of them went along with it because the Post Office is like a shrine - even I used to believe in the Post Office as a shrine.

'My own lawyer didn't believe me. I told him if I took 275,000, I would be sitting in the Bahamas and sipping champagne. I wouldn't be sitting here and working.'

After serving approximately a year-and-a-half of his sentence in jail, Mr Narenthiran was released early from custody, placed on a curfew and ankle-tagged.

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Rishi Sunak revealed the option of exonerating all postmasters was being 'looked at'

Sue Knight, a postmistress who lost everything after she was wrongly accused of theft, made an appearance on the BBC's Sunday politics show

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is said to be looking at how to remove the Post Office from the process whereby any wrongful convictions are quashed

Mr Bates (pictured) was among hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters working in the UK who were accused and later charged with theft, fraud and false accounting

Before his life was wrecked by the scandal, Mr Narenthiran said that he worked hard from the day he moved to the UK, working 12 to 15 hours a day.

Eventually, he built himself a small but prosperous empire with two other retail businesses and a second home that he rented out.

He said: 'Everyday, I would get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, go to the shops and the post office. That was my life'.

Shortly after being released from prison, Mr Narenthiran suffered a heart attack despite never having had any previous heart conditions, and said that his health had deteriorated as a result of the scandal.

What is the Post Office scandal? Dubbed the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history, the Post Office scandal resulted in the prosecution of more than 700 sub post-masters after an accounting software erroneously reported missing money from Post Office branches. Between 1999 and 2015, Post Office branch managers were falsely accused of theft and fraud after the flawed Horizon IT system showed that there were huge shortfalls in their accounts. The Japanese software, developed by Fujitsu, was used for transactions, accounting and stocktaking and introduced in 1999. Some victims were imprisoned, ostracized from their community and forced to pay back thousands of pounds in debt they did not owe, often by remortgaging their own homes subjecting many to bankruptcy and repossession. In December 2019, the Post Office agreed to settle with over 500 victims, receiving a share of a 12 million payout. A High Court judgement determined that the IT software had 'bugs, errors and defects'. More claimants came forward after the ruling, and the amount of payments for full and final compensation paid out to victims now stands at 17.3m. Rishi Sunak has confirmed that Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk, will look into stripping the Post office's powers to prosecute under the Prosecution of Offences Act (POA) 1985. Advertisement

Only 93 of an estimated total of more than 700 convicted postmasters have had their convictions quashed, while 54 cases brought by former postmasters have failed to have convictions overturned. There are only five further cases currently before the Court of Appeal.

Under current rules, the CPS can take over the handling of a private prosecution appeal if there is 'clearly no case to answer' or if the prosecution is 'clearly likely to damage the interests of justice.'

More than 700 Post Office branch managers were handed criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software, known as Horizon, made it appear as though money was missing from their outlets.

It has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history and a public inquiry into it is ongoing.

Last night it was revealed there may be dozens more victims of the Horizon scheme due to an earlier rollout in 1995.

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Rishi Sunak revealed the option of exonerating all postmasters was being 'looked at' by the Justice Secretary Alex Chalk.

Mr Chalk is said to be looking at how to remove the Post Office from the process whereby any wrongful convictions are quashed, with powers potentially being handed to the Crown Prosecution Service instead.

Sue Knight, a postmistress who lost everything after she was wrongly accused of theft, made an appearance on the BBC's Sunday politics show.

She asked him: 'What are you going to do to ensure we get fair and final compensation, not in dribs and drabs and not at a snail's pace? Please stop making us still feel like victims.'

Mr Sunak replied: 'Of course we want to get the money to people as quickly as possible.'

Another victim, Lee Castleton, told the programme that the 138million paid out by the Government so far paled in comparison to the 150million spent on legal fees by the wrongly accused postmasters.

He said victims were 'traumatised' and it had felt like 'a war' trying to get payouts. He blamed creaking Whitehall bureaucracy for the delays, saying: 'It's the Government that has got to move the claims through quicker at their end and they're just not doing it.'

Former Cabinet minister Sir David Davis, who has long campaigned to get justice for the postmasters, last night called for the issue to be resolved urgently. He said: 'I don't care if this bankrupts the Post Office. If the Post Office is bankrupt, you won't shut it down, it's just that the State will refinance it.

'The Post Office is behaving like a private company protecting its shareholders, which is bonkers because the shareholder is the taxpayer. What do you think the taxpayer wants to happen now? Millions of them at the moment are probably furious.'

A Post Office spokesperson said: 'We are acutely aware of the human cost of the scandal and are doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past, as far as that is possible.

'Both Post Office and Government are committed to providing full, fair and final compensation for the people affected.'
There are many qualities Humza Yousaf lacks but audacity is not one of them.

The SNP leader will deliver his first speech of 2024 at Glasgow University today and his chosen topic is economics.

Given this is a First Minister whose government is presiding over a 1.5billion black hole in public finances, you might think the only statement he should be making on economics is a resignation statement.

But Yousafs lecture is not economic analysis, its political cynicism.

He will play on the publics financial insecurity during a cost of living crisis to sell independence as a prudent move.

It's time Humza Yousaf started listening to the Scottish electorate

He is even putting a figure on it: 10,200. Thats how much he claims every Scot would stand to gain by ditching the Union in favour of a separate Scotland.

Yousaf bases this assertion on an extrapolation from a report by the Resolution Foundation, which suggested that the average Briton could be 8,300 better off if the UK matched the median income and the inequality levels of similarly situated nations.

Upheaval

Trying to graft the think tanks analysis onto Scotland is methodologically dubious in its own right, but it also overlooks one glaring detail.

The report in question is about the economic wellbeing of the UK and so it doesnt factor in the upheaval of Scottish independence and the impact it would have on trade, currency, financial stability and much more.

Yousafs calculation cannot allow for this because doing so would require some honesty about the economic consequences of seceding from our number one trading partner and seeing a hard border erected along the Tweed.

In truth, how the First Minister arrived at the sum isnt important. It is merely the latest claim  another one will be along soon enough. The latest promise  it will be broken, too.

Today, its 10,200; before, it was oil at $113 a barrel, the UK paying Scottish pensions after independence, and a separate Scotland keeping the pound within a currency union.

We have been here so many times before. When any political party makes an assertion, you should take it with a pinch of salt.

When the SNP makes an assertion, there isnt enough salt in the North Sea to cover it.

It used to be said that the SNP was full of tattie-peelings nationalists, ideologues who so loathed the Union they would happily live on tattie peelings as long as Scotland was independent.

Understand the fanatical commitment these characters harbour to separation and you will understand that they will say anything to get it.

Yousaf has no way of knowing what the future might hold for a separate Scotland. None of us does. But we can assess the evidence before our eyes.

While the First Minister promises jam tomorrow, the Chancellor has served up jam today. Over the weekend, Jeremy Hunts changes to National Insurance went into effect.

As a result, 27million Britons will pay less tax, with a household of two average earners keeping almost 1,000 of their own money that would otherwise have gone to the taxman.

The contrast could not be clearer. Humza talks, Hunt acts.

The SNP also acts sometimes. We can see evidence of that all around us.

After 16 years in charge of Scotland, the Nationalists have managed public finances so abysmally that their Finance Secretary now proposes both eye-watering tax increases and savage spending cuts.

Shona Robisons Budget is an ideological Frankensteins monster, combining the fiscal policies of Jeremy Corbyn with the state-slashing fervour of Margaret Thatcher.

The Nationalists have used Holyroods tax powers to turn Scotland into the highest-taxed part of the UK, a country where hard work and ambition are punished rather than encouraged.

They have alienated the small business owners who generate so much of our national prosperity.

They have gone to war with motorists, the fishing industry, the oil and gas sector, and they evince contempt for nuclear power, the hospitality industry and rural Scotland.

Scotlands economic prospects rest in the hands of a coterie of arts and social science graduates who have never held down a job outside of politics and who neither understand enterprise nor particularly like those involved in it.

Creating jobs is not high-status in the minds of these metropolitan snobs, who work and socialise in circles where everyone went to the same university, applied for the same special adviser jobs, and think the same way about almost everything.

It is hardly surprising that a governing class that regards wealth creation as problematic  which is just the new way of saying non-U  has presided over such a sluggish economy and brought public finances into disarray.

When that governing class is also dedicated to bringing about independence no matter the consequences, the dismal outcomes we see are even less surprising.

Step back for a moment and think once more about the topic Yousaf chose for his first major speech of 2024.

Not education and addressing the woeful Pisa findings.

Not health and tackling chronic waiting lists. Not infrastructure and the still-not-delivered ferries. But yet another retread of his partys pet project.

Independence. That fixation of the fundamentalist, that panacea of the parochialist. Independence: as though Scotland is currently experiencing dependence on the UK, rather than being part of a historic union that has outlasted great nations and empires.

Independence, whose most ardent partisans do not respect it enough to speak honestly of its costs and benefits and peddle it instead as a magic talisman that brings endless fortune and wards off all ills.

Independence. What Id give never to hear the damn word ever again. This year marks a decade since we voted No in that divisive referendum, but you wouldnt guess it. For the past ten years, the SNP has kept the wound open, prodding it whenever political expediency requires.

Independence might signify hope to those who believe in it but to the rest of us it is an ugly word that has only ever driven people apart when we think we should be drawing closer together.

The SNPs unswerving attachment to this campaign has not only wasted government time and public resources, it has effectively interdicted the result of the referendum. Scotland voted No but in refusing to let the matter rest, the Nationalists have seen to it that independence still looms over our national life.

We have not moved on and cannot until the SNP accepts our decision and turns its energies to governing the country.

This constitutional limbo is in no ones interests. Not only does it disrespect the will of the majority, it gives false hope to supporters of independence.

Interest

Yousaf sincerely believes in breaking up Britain but he has no means of achieving it.

He can follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and roll out one wheeze after another that looks like a path to victory, but it will always be a dead end.

Whether or not Scotland becomes independent, you can rest reassured it wont happen while Yousaf is in Bute House.

So his thoughts on economics are not terribly relevant when he is a First Minister who has hitherto shown little interest in the economy.

His talk of generating prosperity is hard to take seriously when he is in league with the anti-capitalist Greens.

His dedication to making every issue a hostage to the constitution is not welcome after more than a decade of tiresome nationalist games.

Rather than lecture the rest of us, it would be better if the First Minister did some listening.

Listen to struggling businesses, overtaxed families, islanders still waiting for their ferries and motorists and haulage drivers who travel the dangerous A9 every day.

Hear what they have to say about your governments ill-conceived policies and out-of-touch priorities.

A lesson in economics is sorely needed, First Minister, but you would be the student, not the teacher.
One of the SNPs green electric ferries has been forced to run on diesel for months  and wont be fixed until at least next year.

The MV Hallaig was hailed by Nicola Sturgeon as a symbol of Scottish Government ambition when she launched it in 2012.

But the hybrid vessel  which runs between Sconser on Skye and the isle of Raasay  broke down in the autumn, with passengers having to be rescued.

She is now relying solely on fossil fuel because it will take 18 months to find and fit a 1.5million replacement for a faulty battery.

Experts had warned that MV Hallaig and her two sister ships risked becoming expensive white elephants.

The MV Hallaig is a 'green' ferry but has been forced to run on diesel for months

It is the latest fiasco in the SNPs mismanagement of the ferry fleet, with two other dual-fuel vessels  MV Glen Sannox and MV Glen Rosa  now six years late and 260million over budget.

The CalMac network has also come under fire in recent years as the ageing fleet suffers continual breakdowns, with services often cancelled at short notice.

Last month it emerged ferry chiefs paid out more than 450,000 in compensation claims in 2022-23.

Dan Corrigall, of Portree, who runs tourist boat trips around Skye, told the Sunday Mail: The Government was warned about these hybrid ferries but they went ahead with them anyway.

Now we have the MV Hallaig, which cost 10million, and had nothing but issues.

The 150ft MV Hallaig can carry 150 passengers and up to 25 vehicles.

Nicola Sturgeon hailed the ferry as a symbol of her government's ambition

She is powered by a hybrid diesel/electric engine but ministers were warned the design needed to accommodate the battery was too heavy and expensive, and they should wait for new technology.

Government adviser Alfred Baird, a former professor of maritime business at Edinburgh Napier University, told the Sunday Mail: The strategy was flawed. The officials not only ignored my advice, they complained to my university hierarchy about my research and sought to prevent publication.

It is likely to take until April next year for MV Hallaig to get a new battery.

Scottish Labour transport spokesman Alex Rowley said: The growing list of technical failures in Scotlands ferry fleet is a direct result of SNP incompetence.

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson called the revelation embarrassing.

However, CalMac chief executive Robbie Drummond said: MV Hallaigs technical performance up to the incident in 2023 has been exceptional.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: We are absolutely committed to improving the lifeline ferry fleet as well as reducing emissions.
The debate on independence will end if the SNP fails to win the most Scottish seats at the upcoming General Election, a leading party figure has admitted.

With the SNP and Labour neck-and-neck in the polls, MP Tommy Sheppard says the separatist movement would be derailed if the Nationalists finish second.

And in a frank assessment of his partys prospects at the ballot box, he added: We must win. It will not be easy.

His words were intended to rally SNP supporters ahead of the election, which is likely to fall in the second half of 2024.

But critics, while welcoming the prospect of an end to a decade of constitutional turmoil, said his comments only serve to highlight the SNPs obsession with independence.

Tommy Sheppard says the SNP must win for the independence debate to continue

Pamela Nash, chief executive of campaign group Scotland in Union, said: Tommy Sheppard is right, the SNP should listen when it is rejected at the ballot box.

But we all know that it will never end its divisive and negative attempts to separate us.

Trying to make the forthcoming election campaign all about the constitution shows the SNP has nothing else to offer the people of Scotland.

Some pollsters claim Labour is on course to win more Scottish general election seats than the SNP for the first time since 2010.

In the last three UK polls in 2015, 2017 and 2019, Labour won one, seven and one respectively  while the SNP won 56, 35 and 48.

But Mr Sheppard  the partys constitutional spokesman at Westminster  yesterday acknowledged that a second-place finish would deal a huge blow to separatism.

He said: If the SNP lose the election in Scotland, the debate on independence stops.

That is why we must put aside our differences and unite. If we win, we will use every means to press that mandate against a British state under new management.

It could be all over for Humza Yousafs independence dream

We will demand that this decision must be made in Scotland and that the UK constitution is changed to respect that principle.

However, Labours shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray insisted independence was the wrong focus.

He said: Attempts to make the contest about separation have already failed; this is about rebuilding our economy and bringing back hope for working families. Scots are hungry for positive change, not more of the same under the SNP and Tories.

Former comedy club owner Mr Sheppard, 64, is MP for Edinburgh East and was defeated in the 2016 SNP leadership battle.

Scottish Tory constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said the independence debate should have stopped after the 2014 referendum.

He said: Tommy Sheppard is trying desperately to find some excuse for people to back the SNP, a party which has been a disaster in government and, as usual, is focusing on separatism, rather than peoples real priorities.

The Scottish Conservatives have provided the only robust opposition to the SNPs divisive agenda and, in many seats, are the only way to get them out of office.
Anthony Albanese has come under fire after it was revealed he could embark on up to ten overseas trips in the second half of this year.

From June, Mr Albanese could set off on an average of one trip a month until the end of the year for various leaders' summits around the globe.

The Prime Minister was given the nickname 'Airbus Albo' for notching up 31 overseas trips since stepping into the top job in May, 2022.

His trips have drawn outrage from Aussies in the past who have accused the prime minister of neglecting issues close to home.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce continued the pile-on on Monday lashing out at one of Mr Albanese's possible trips to Azerbaijan in November.

Anthony Albanese could potentially embark on up to ten overseas trips in the second half of this year, after being criticised for not focusing on issues within Australia

'We've got an environment summit in Azerbaijan,' he told Sunrise.

'I think the people struggling with their interest payments, grocery payments and can't afford their fuel, they're going to be wondering is Azerbaijan the big issue of the day.

'How they get through the check-out without humiliation, that's probably the big issue, whether that card says declined.'

Mr Joyce questioned why Mr Albanese could not send representatives in his place instead.

Where Anthony Albanese may travel to in 2024 June: G7, Italy July: NATO, Washington DC, US August: Pacific Islands Forum, Nuku'alofa, Tonga September: UN leaders week, New York, US October: CHOGM, Apia, Samoa November: APEC, Lima, Peru UN COP climate talks, Baku, Azerbaijan G20, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Late 2024: East Asia Summit, Laos TBA: Quad, India Source: Australian Financial Review Advertisement

'Conferences in Azerbaijan?' he said.

'That's what you send your deputy and minister for.

'Some things of course are crucial but the trouble for Mr Albanese is the place is falling down around his ears back home.'

News Corp columnist Susie O'Brien said she believed 'Airbus Albo' has had his 'wings clipped', with his office confirming he will be staying in Australia for the first half of 2024.

'He can't just call in from Kirribilli, he can't just send his deputy. I think he has to be at some of those major global summits,' she said.

'But at the same time there was some very valid criticism of him last year that he was spending too much time overseas and people are coming back from holidays with mounting credit cards bills wondering how they are going to pay their gas bill.'

Ms O'Brien said Mr Albanese didn't just have to do the right thing, but he needed to be seen by the Australian people doing the right thing.

'So I think that just means stay home, keep your eye on the ball, help us all out. That is what we want him to do over the next few months,' she said.

Mr Albanese's trips also come at a crucial time with an election likely to be held early next year.

He is likely to attend this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa in October.

It is the first time the meeting will be hosted by a developing nation in the Pacific with King Charles III to also attend.

Mr Albanese is seen at the White House with his partner Jodie Haydon and US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill

Mr Albanese will also likely attend the G7 in Italy in June.

He and former PM Scott Morrison have been present at three of the last four G7 summits.

A spokesperson for the prime minister said it was 'in Australia's interests to engage with the world because global challenges require global solutions.

'The Prime Minister looks forward to welcoming ASEAN leaders to Melbourne in March for the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit.

'Announcements about other international engagements will be made in the usual way at the appropriate time.'

Sky News commentator James Bolt said Mr Albanese needed to make it his New Year's resolution to travel less in 2024.

'Obviously, for so many people, their New Year's resolution is to travel more, but his [Anthony Albanese] has got to travel less,' he said.

Former Studio 10 host Joe Hildebrand said the Prime Minister should reflect on his failures to avoid making 'big mistakes' in the next 12 months.

'John Howard made every single mistake you can make as prime minister, but he only ever made them once,' the commentator told Sky News on Tuesday.

'My hope and prayer would be that Anthony Albanese looks back at the big mistakes that have happened this year under his watch, be that his or others.

'And thinks right, I'm going to make sure that I do not let something like that happen again. If he does that, could be one of the best governments in Australia.'
The Government has admitted it has kept medical results of military veterans who survived British nuclear tests a state secret, prompting a furious outrage.

Blood and urine samples from servicemen, civilians and indigenous people during the Cold War are among the thousands of personal records being held in a move that Tory grandee Sir John Hayes slammed as 'beggars belief'.

The confidential documents could reveal whether those made to witness the atomic bomb tests had radiation enter their body, which could lead to a huge payout for veterans if they can prove the health consequences.

Veterans who survived the experiment are suing the government for the missing records after claiming they have endured 70 years of high rates of cancer, miscarriages and birth defects.

The soldiers only realised the effects of the nuclear blasts later in life when their children were born with severe medical issues such as spinal deformities, heart defects and sterility.

The Government has admitted it has kept medical results of military veterans who survived British nuclear tests a state secret. Pictured: Nuclear test veterans on Christmas Island

Pictured: The crew of the HMS Narvik watch the smoke rise after a British atomic test in 1956

Blood and urine samples from servicemen, civilians and indigenous people during the Cold War are among the thousands of personal records being held in a move that Tory grandee Sir John Hayes slammed as 'beggars belief'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is now facing calls for the files to be made public. Previously the Ministry of Defence denied it held the records, until the Mirror revealed a cache of 150 documents discussing blood tests last year.

Reacting to the revelation MP Sir Hayes said: 'It beggars belief that a diagnostic medical test confirming whether or not radiation entered a person's body, with possible long-term health consequences, is in any way a state secret.

'Veterans and survivors of this weapons testing have a legal and moral right to know what if anything happened to their bodies as a result, and I am sure they can be disclosed to individuals without any impact on national security.'

The Mirror reported that in 2018 the Ministry of Defence denied that the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) holds any evidence that blood samples were taken at nuclear tests until it rowed back on the claim in 2023.

Freedom of Information requests by the paper revealed how both blood and urine samples were taken at test sites under a Lord Chancellor's instruction, which is why the documents could be held from the National Achieves

Culture minister John Whittindale admitted to Parliament the withholding of such documents is down to various factors including national security, security against possible terrorist activity and international relations.

He also said 'the risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons or to allow a more detailed review' are also reasons to retain the files.

The files are said to relate to three nuclear tests in Australia that took place in 1957 dubbed Operation Antler.

Pictured: Britain's first nuclear test on Christmas Island in May 1957

A crowdfunder was set up on behalf of the veterans by award-winning freelance journalist Susie Boniface, who has covered the campaign since 2002

One of the files, seen by the Mirror, is said to have been entitled 'nuclear test veterans' and were said to have first been hidden when Tony Blair came to power in 1997.

The AWE has been asked to confirm how many other records were also hidden in similar fashion, with Labour leader Keir Starmer pledging to give veterans and their families affected their records and compensation if they take office.

Those affected by the testing were previously asked to come forward by law firm McCue Jury & Partners, with managing partner Jason McCue stating that nuclear veterans had been 'gaslighted by the British state'.

John Morris, from Rochdale, was working in a laundry at Christmas Island in 1957 where he witnessed three atom bombs and an H-bomb.

The 86-year-old developed pernicious anemia at just 26, while his son died at just four months. But he was denied a war pension because of a lack of evidence, despite being blood tested throughout his time on the Australian island.

Mr Morris added: 'Ive lost a child, Ive had cancer, and Ive had a blood disorder since I was 26 years old. All the MoD has given us in return for securing the nuclear deterrent is a bunch of lies. We just want the bloody truth and we will fight for that to the bitter end.'

Nearly 21,000 has now been raised to help nuclear veterans sue the Government for 'the toxic legacy of trauma and illness they have been left to endure'.

Servicemen were ordered to sail or crawl through the radioactive fallout to test the effects of radiation, as well as fly through mushroom clouds on sampling missions.

Many lived on testing sites for a year or more and when they returned began developing rare blood disorders and cancers, often proving fatal.

Their wives had three times the normal rate of miscarriages and their children suffered 10 times the normal rate of birth defects.

The British government carried out hundreds of explosions of atom bombs, fissile material, trigger devices and thermonuclear weapons in the US, Australia and South Pacific following the Second World War.

The biggest of which was Operation Grapple Y in 1958 which was 112 times more powerful than those that levelled Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan.

A crowdfunder was set up last year on behalf of the veterans by award-winning freelance journalist Susie Boniface, who has covered the campaign since 2002.

Describing the battle on CrowdJustice, she said: 'That living nightmare is the daily reality for thousands of nuclear testing veterans and their families - 70 years.

'Now, they have one last chance to sue the Government for the toxic legacy of trauma and illness they have been left to endure.'

She continues: 'More than a decade ago, the Ministry of Defence defeated the last legal attempt to prove radiation caused these men's injuries, by arguing they had brought the action too late.

'Now we know that the Government concealed evidence, we can compel them to produce it.

'With this comes a new chance for justice, and a final opportunity to tell these men they can stand at ease, and in honour.

'Please dig as deep as you can to help these families in their last and biggest battle for the truth. Thank you for hearing them.'

MailOnline has contacted the Military of Defence.
Anthony Albanese's minister supervising the push for Australia to become a republic has admitted it's 'not a priority' - prompting him to be confronted by an ABC anchor asking why he even has the job in the first place.

Assistant Minister for a Republic Matt Thistlethwaite told The Australian on the weekend that it is 'a lot harder' for the government to push for a national vote on ditching the monarchy in a second term, after the failure of the Voice referendum.

'It's not a priority at the moment,' Mr Thislethwaite was quoted saying. 'The priority for the government at the moment is obviously dealing with cost-of-living pressure.'

Mr Thistlethwaite's role came under intense scrutiny during the acting defence minister's appearance on ABC News Breakfast on Monday.

Host Michael Rowland questioned whether it was necessary to have a minister when becoming a republic was not at the top of the agenda for the country.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's (pictured with partner Jodie Hayden) plan for an Australian republic has been delayed indefinitely after Labor minister said it 'is not a priority'

Assistant Minister for a Republic, Matt Thislethwaite (left) had his role brought into question by the ABC's Michael Rowland (right) for saying the referendum had become a 'longer-term' goal

'You don't really need to be Assistant Minister for the Republic if it's being booted down the road here,' he said.

Mr Thislethwaite admitted there were more pressing issues that needed to be dealt with first.

'Our priority is cost-of-living pressures for Australians, all of our policies have been directed at assisting Australians through that period,' he said.

'Our cheaper childcare, energy rebates, cheaper medicines, fee-free TAFE - it's all about assisting communities and households with cost-of-living.'

'Having said that, longer-term, it's part of the Labor platform that we believe that we should have an Australian as our head of state.'

While refusing to provide a timeframe for when a republic referendum would be put forward to Australians, Mr Thislethwaite said he wasn't 'giving up' on the cause.

'I'm certainly committed to and still passionate about Australia hopefully having one day one of our own as our head of state,' he said.

'The current method of selecting our head of state is undemocratic, it doesn't represent modern Australian values.'

'That's something that we want to begin a discussion with Australians on in the longer-term.'

The minister also admitted the Voice referendum's humiliating defeat on October 14 had hampered progress in putting forward another referendum to the people.

'We know that, unfortunately, the Voice referendum wasn't successful, but we're not giving up,' Mr Thislethwaite said.

Mr Thistlethwaite was accused of showing disrespect to Queens Elizabeth after meeting senior bureaucrats to discuss a referendum six days after the monarch died on September 8.

He argued the meeting had been planned before the death of the Queen and said the group had concluded it was not the right time for a referendum.

'This was a longstanding meeting that had been organised, prior to the queen's passing, with departmental representatives,' he told The Australian.

While admitting the issue wasn't on the cards in the near future, Mr Thiselthwaite signalled the government's intentions to eventually cut ties with King Charles and Queen Camilla (pictured)

'It was the first meeting I'd organised with the secretary of the department and other representatives, and it was mainly to discuss resources (and the role) I would play in the voice referendum.

'In terms of the republic, given that the queen had just passed, we agreed that it wasn't the appropriate time to discuss the republic and that the priority for the government was the voice referendum.'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has long been a stalwart for an Australian republic and severing ties with King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Shortly after his 2022 election win, Mr Albanese created the role of Assistant Minister for the Republic for Mr Thislethwaite to assist the Governor-General in hopes of gaining the support of the public for a future referendum.

Supporters of a republic welcomed Mr Albanese's win and the introduction of the role but were apprehensive about what it achieved.

'I'm not quite sure what Matt Thistlethwaite would do in the job, but presumably he'll go to a number of dinners,' academic and republican Dennis Altman told the ABC in 2022.

Mr Thislethwaite said the role was about 'explaining to people that we do have a foreign monarch as our head of state, we have a proxy representative in the Governor-General, but that we can have an Australian as our head of state'.

'An Australian republic is about celebrating our independence and our unique culture and identity,' he said shortly after being appointed.

While some thought the death of the wildly-popular Queen Elizabeth would spark a push for Australia to become a republic, the government had its sights on the Voice referendum.

Those hopes were allayed after the Voice was struck down in every jurisdiction bar the Australian Capital Territory.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard has set her sights on a Disney-style wedding to 're-do' her nuptials after she was released from prison for assisting in her mother's murder with her ex-boyfriend.

Gypsy, 32, met her husband Ryan Anderson, 37, while she was in Chillicothe Correctional Centre in Missouri.

The happy couple got engaged while Gypsy served time for second-degree murder as Anderson snuck a ring into the facility and asked her to marry him during their third conjugal visit.

The couple then had a private ceremony on July 22, 2022, inside the prison, the Mirror reported.

Now, the convicted killer and Disney fanatic says she wants another wedding, this time in fairytale style.

'A re-do wedding with all our family there would be amazing. I want the classy, fairy tale wedding that I always dreamed of as a child. I think that Ryan and I deserve that for each other. I want a white dress that's a bit form-fitting, that flares at the bottom and has capped sleeves,' Gypsy told the Mirror.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard said she is planning a wedding ceremony with her husband Ryan Anderson in Disney

Gypsy and her late mother Dee Dee often visited Disney as they were awarded free trips there

The couple revealed Anderson decided to sneak an engagement ring into Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri to ask Gypsy to marry him during their third conjugal visit

In July 2015, Gypsy's ex-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee 14 times in her bedroom in the family home in Springfield, Missouri. Gypsy faced years of abuse from her mother, who falsely claimed she suffered from an array of illnesses including leukemia and muscular dystrophy.

Dee Dee shaved Gypsy's head, forced her into a wheelchair, had some of her teeth removed and paraded her at charitable events as a sickly child, including fully paid trips to Disney World.

Godejohn and Gypsy were promptly arrested and both were sentenced to prison terms.

He was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole while Gypsy was set to face ten years, but only served eight-and-a-half years and was released on parole on December 28.

Gypsy has since revealed that at the time of her mother's murder she was high on prescription painkillers that she became addicted to while she lived with Dee Dee.

In a recent ABC interview, Gypsy said murdering her abusive mother was the 'only way' out from years of Munchausen by proxy abuse.

'I don't believe my mother was a monster. She had a lot of demons herself that she was struggling with,' Gypsy said in the interview.

'I didn't want her dead, I just wanted out of my situation and I thought that was the only way out.'

Dee Dee (right) told the world that Gypsy was disabled, suffering from leukemia, muscular dystrophy and other illnesses

Gypsy was often dressed up in princess costumes and wigs as her mother continued to lie about her age to her and the world

Gypsy endured 30 procedures, was told she couldn't walk and forced into a wheelchair, and was fed from a feeding tube attached to her stomach.

She spent most of her life with her mother after he father Rod Blanchard re-married and had another child. Dee Dee often kept Gypsy from having a relationship with her father and moved her and her daughter around.

The two ended up in Springfield, Missouri after their home in Louisiana was wrecked during Hurricane Katrina.

With help from Habitat for Humanity, Dee Dee and Gypsy were gifted a brand new home that came with an accessible wheelchair ramp.

Dee Dee then went on to enter her 'disabled' daughter into trips through the Make-A-Wish Foundation where they were awarded vacations to Disney World.

Gypsy was often dressed up in princess costumes and wigs as her mother continued to lie about her age to her and the world.

In July 2015, Gypsy's ex-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee 14 times in her bedroom in the family home in Springfield, Missouri

Doctors and social workers surrounded the mother-daughter duo as some became suspicious of all of Gypsy ailments, but Dee Dee never showed proof of medical records and claimed to have lost them in 2005 from the hurricane.

When asked in an interview if she thought it was fair that her ex-boyfriend should remain behind bars while she walks free, Gypsy said: 'I am sure we both have a lot of regrets.

'All I can say is I did my time, he is doing his time for his part and I wish him well on his journey.'

She is not allowed to contact Godejohn - whose attorneys continue to fight for an appeal - while he remains behind bars.

His attorneys filed their latest appeal this week following Gypsy's release.

Since her release, her husband and her have showcased their romance on social media, attracting praise from fans but harsh criticism from others.

She has defended him against critics, and says they are now happy 'enjoying' their life.

'Of course I feel conflicted. Fame is not what I'm looking for. I always said I think I'm infamous and then I came out famous.

'I'm a very shy person, I'm not doing anything that anyone else wouldn't do,' she said today in response to questions about their newfound social media fame.

Dee Dee, who suffered from Munchausen by proxy syndrome, had led everyone to believe that her daughter was a terminally ill teenager with the mind of a seven-year-old

Gypsy pictured in a selfie with her husband Ryan Anderson who she met while behind bars for her mothers murder

Anderson and Gypsy have since started to settle into their new life together in Louisiana while also traveling and crossing long-awaited experiences off of her bucket list.

On Friday, the couple strolled around in New York's Central Park as Anderson was seen twirling Gypsy around.

The 32-year-old has been on a whirlwind trip in the Big Apple as she and her husband attended media and posh events.

'I'm starting to get acclimatised to married life and all it entails. We created our emotional bond while I was in prison. Now we have hit the next level of our relationship,' Gypsy said.
But Miami police have now made clear that the footage was simply a person walking casting a shadow on a neighboring building - and not an alien

Miami police have spoken out once and for all to declare there was officially no extraterrestrial activity during an incident on New Year's Day that appeared to show an alien-type creature floating around.

Video widely shared by conspiracy theorists on social media claimed a 10-foot-tall silhouette walking near cop cars was from another planet, with one user claiming a 'glowing figure' was walking through smoke during the chaotic scene.

It came after roughly 50 teenagers started a riot outside Bayside Marketplace and caused a panic by setting off loud fireworks.

Every available patrol car in the city was summoned to the scene - but over the weekend Miami police officer Rafael Horta put to rest any conspiracy theories with a partly factual and partly tongue-in-cheek message.

Miami police have spoken out once and for all to declare there was no extraterrestrial activity during an incident on New Year's Day that appeared to show an alien creature floating around

Miami police have now made clear that the footage was simply a person walking casting a shadow on a neighboring building - and not an alien... or was it?

Eerie footage captured of Miami police's response to an incident on New Year's Day appeared to show an alien-type creature floating around

Every single available patrol car in the city was summoned to Bayside Marketplace last Monday

The police response came after roughly 50 teenagers started a riot outside Bayside Marketplace and caused a panic by setting off loud fireworks

'There is now video going viral of 8 to 10 foot aliens working around. Its actually just a person walking with a shadow,' Horta said in a posting to Instagram.

'I can confirm to you that there are no aliens in Bayside Marketplace - at the moment.'

Just as the office finished speaking, a cartoon alien appeared over his right shoulder, gently mocking the conspiracy theorists.

The footage shows multiple police cars lined up outside a mall with their emergency lights on Monday night.

In one clip, what appears to be a large gray figure is seen walking close to an entrance that sent rumors flying among conspiracy theorists.

It was widely shared by conspiracy theorists on social media who claimed a 10-foot-tall silhouette walking near cop cars was from another planet

The summoning of every available police car only served to drive the conspiracy theories

'Miami's Bayside Marketplace video shows something weird: a glowing figure walking through smoke during a wild scene,' one user wrote.

Even last week, Miami police were quick to dispel the rumors and explain how it was simply a shadow, but the idea of aliens was simply too good a story to dismiss outright.

'What is seen on this clip is the shadow of someone walking. If you look at the bottom of the shadow, you can see the person. No creature,' a spokesman said.

The police response at the mall was sparked by a large group of unruly teenagers who were causing trouble about five miles from South Beach.

But the Miami Police Department has revealed the strange figure in the video was actually just a shadow of someone walking

Social media erupted with thousands of comments about what they described as 'Miami Mall Aliens'

They were setting off fireworks, and it led to a public panic as some thought there was a shooting going on at the time. Four teenagers were later arrested over the incident.

Social media erupted with thousands of comments about what they described as 'Miami Mall Aliens.'

Some even claimed the police were responding to reports about aliens and not the teenagers.

'[Ten-foot] Aliens/Creatures (caught on camera?) fired at inside and outside Miami Mall, media silent, cops are covering it up saying kids were fighting with fireworks, yet all these cop cars, & air traffic stopped that night except for black military choppersand no media coverage,' a user wrote.

Miami Police Department's Public Information Officer Michael Vega insisted it had nothing to do with extra-terrestrial creatures.

'There were no aliens,' he said. 'No airports were closed. Nothing is being withheld from the public. LOL.'
The Biden administration's National Park Service is starting a 'rehabilitation' process for a Pennsylvania park that incudes the removal of a statue of founder William Penn and inclusion of representation of Native American tribes.

The Deb Haaland-led parks service sent out the request for input on the changes to Welcome Park Friday on their website and in a post on X.

Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania in 1681, was notorious for his amicable relations with the Native tribes of the region. The park was established 300 years later.

The park itself is named after the ship Penn sailed to America and includes a museum dedicated to celebrating the life and contributions of William Penn.

However, the parks service says it wants to 'provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.'

The National Park Service is starting a 'rehabilitation' process for a Pennsylvania park that incudes the removal of a statue of William Penn and inclusion of representation of Native American tribes

That means, according to the request for ideas, an 'expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia.'

Officials said the proposal was put together working with members of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, the Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.

Public feedback has been asked to be submitted to the NPS website starting Monday and running until January 21.

However, many on social media have already given more than their two cents about the decision.

One asked: 'How about no more of our tax money for the US Park Service?'

'I say a bigger William Penn statue. You people are unreal,' wrote another.

The proposal also includes a planted buffer on three sides of the park, a gathering space and new circular benches.

It comes amid a recent push to reconsider statues erected to heroes of various eras of American history.

The Biden administration's parks service sent out the request for input on the changes to Welcome Park Friday on their website and in a post on X

Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania in 1681, was notorious for his amicable relations with the Native tribes of the region. The park was established 300 years later

Many on social media have already given more than their negative two cents about the decision

A Confederate reconciliation memorial was removed from Arlington National Cemetery, ignoring a recent demand from over 40 Republican congressmen to stop the Pentagon from following through.

Safety fencing was installed around the memorial and a judge initially stopped the removal, before allowing it to continue. On December 20, the statue was removed.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin disagreed with the decision proposed moving the monument to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley, spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said.

In 2022, an independent commission recommended that the memorial be taken down, as part of its final report to Congress on the renaming of military bases and assets that commemorate the Confederacy.

In 2020, Congress mandated the Defense Department had to remove all 'names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America' by 2024.

A Confederate reconciliation memorial was removed from Arlington National Cemetery, ignoring a recent demand from over 40 Republican congressmen to stop the Pentagon from following through

In New York, bureaucrats have said cash should be found to remove statues of Americas founding fathers despite a $12billion migrant crisis that will destroy New York City, its mayor has been told.

The citys Cultural Affairs Committee has demanded the eviction of George Washington and Christopher Columbus and others from public spaces because of links to slavery, along with the establishment of a reparations task force.

The plans before the city council come after Mayor Eric Adams warned that New Yorkers face a financial tsunami from the cost of providing for more than 10,000 new migrants a month.

But they have prompted fury as the city scratches around for resources with libraries, meals for senior citizens and childcare all now at risk.
Locals fuming about the illegal spearfishing of a beloved local groper have proposed the area where it lived be made a marine park named after the fish, affectionately known as 'Gus'.

The move to have Oak Park Beach and surrounds at Cronulla in southern Sydney named 'Gus Reserve' is gathering momentum on a Facebook page dedicated to Gus.

The page was started up after the fisherman - who is still yet to be publicly named - was fined just $500 for spearing the protected species in the no spearfishing zone on December 30.

The act ended the life of the fish regarded as a 'dive buddy' in the area for decades and the tiny penalty imposed on the unidentified man has continued to enrage locals and marine life lovers.

Posters mourning the fish's demise have demanded further penalties for the fisherman who speared Gus, tagging in politicians including the NSW Opposition Leader and Cronulla MP Mark Speakman.

The 26-year-old unnamed spearfisherman with Gus, the beloved blue groper, which had lived around Cronulla for about 40 years before he was killed on December 30

The fisherman, said to be from New Zealand, strode into the water and speared Gus, which was so friendly it ate out of the hands of local who swam with it for decades

Gus was speared at Oak Park on December 30 by a 26-year-old man who was interviewed and fined $500 by officers from the NSW Police Marine Area Command.

It has since been suggested that the unidentified man is from New Zealand, prompting angry suggestions to have him deported.

Mark Prentice, who saw the man carrying the fish's body from the water after spearing Gus told Channel Seven claimed the fisherman 'was hurling abuse at locals' as he walked up the beach.

The area where Gus lived for the last 30 to 40 years is a popular swimming and snorkeling spot signposted with warnings that spearfishing is illegal under NSW Department of Primary Industries rules, and penalties apply.

Campaigners said the area should become a marine reserve to protect other gropers.

'Every reef on the South Coast has a friendly Gus,' one person wrote.

'Each dive company could adopt a groper and educate the non-divers and those buying a spear ... with no Idea about protecting these guys.

'The Gus Reserve tells a story that will live on forever. Signs don't always work, people will always be ignorant.

'Rather then looking at the problem lets look at the solution. Go the Gus Reserve and let this legend's legacy become an Aussie marine icon to teach others.'

Tenille Piek and Gus the beloved groper who swam with locals for 30 years until a spear fisherman illegally caught the marine giant and cope fines totalling just $800

Astonished local watched on as the man slung Gus across his shoulder and carried the fish up the beach, reportedly 'hurling abuse' at the onlookers

Another person decried the 'senseless killing of Gus', saying 'I would like to know what the guy was thinking as Gus swam towards him looking for a "treat". Only to be greeted by an act of treachery and death.

'Gus was more than a fish, he touched so many people locally and internationally as they learn to dive and get to know the beautiful creatures that lay beneath the waves.'

Despite spear fishing of blue groper fishes being prohibited and the maximum penalty being $22,000 and/or six months in prison, most people caught doing it are fined just $500.

A further penalty of $300 has been since imposed on the fisherman who speared Gus, who appears to have told police that the fish was released back into the ocean.

However photographs taken by the Piek family, who have been diving almost daily with Gus for decades, appear to show that Gus is dead.

After witnessing the distressing moment, Tenille Piek described the moment, saying 'the man pulled the groper out of the water triumphantly.

'My mother was the first person to approach the man requesting to take his photo.

Danny Greig posted this photo of himself diving with Gus the groper off Oak Park, saying the fish 'loved the company of the hundreds of divers' who frequented the waters

'He smiled and showed off his killing without realising it was a protected species and could be fined.'

Ms Piek's father Bob, who described Gus 'eating out of your hand' said 'there's no skill in a spear fisherman taking Gus'.

Carolyn Piek's first photo of the fisherman shows him posing at the water's edge in his bloodied wetsuit holding up Gus's inert body.

He slung Gus across his shoulder and marched up the beach with astonished observers watching on, then walked across the grass away from the ocean.

NSW Police said officers had been unable to locate the body and said they believed it had 'been returned to the water'.

Divers from the area, however, were sure Gus is dead and posted tributes to 'the amiable blue groper' which is estimated to have been at least 40 years old.

After police spoke with the spear fisherman, and failed to locate the fish, they issued him with the penalty notice.

And because the penalty does not require the fisherman to appear in court, his name has not been publicly released.

The Department of Primary Industries told news.com.au on Monday that the man showed 'significant remorse' when confronted by fisheries officers and was a first-time offender.

'Fisheries Officers also took the time to provide the person of interest with education and awareness material to ensure that they know and understand the rules of spearfishing,' a DPI spokesperson said.

The spear fisherman slung Gus across his shoulder as he marched up the beach, then headed away from the shore with Gus in his arms, but told police the fish was 'returned to the water'

Tenille Piek, above swimming with Gus at Oak Park where the beloved marine giant let people hand feed him, said the spearfisherman had pulled the fish from the water 'triumphantly'

Abyss Scuba Diving also posted a blog post dedicated as a 'heartfelt tribute to Gus'.

'You were a true companion, joining me on countless dives,' the tribute read.

'Your untimely demise on December 30, 2023, at the hands of a spear fisherman has left us devastated.

'Let's honour Gus's memory by celebrating the beauty of the underwater world he was a part of.'

In March last year, Tenille Piek told the Sutherland Leader that the 'gorgeous bright blue fish' was well-known to other divers and swimmers including the 'Jellybeans' - a local swimming group.

Ms Piek had been distraught when she saw that a large blue groper had been speared at Hungry Point, south-east of Oak Park, and feared it might have been Gus.

Ms Piek said she had then been 'thrilled' to see Gus when diving a few days later and he was 'as friendly as ever'.

'Blue Gropers are the "Labradors of the Sea",' she said. 'They are tame and fearless, which makes them very vulnerable.

'Gus lets you hand feed him sea urchins, and it is a privilege to experience these encounters.'

Ms Piek said she feared for future generations.

'We genuinely fear our children will not get to experience these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat at the shores of Cronulla,' she said.
A man has drowned while diving with friends after his summer holiday trip went horribly wrong off the coast of Tasmania's King Island.

The 43-year-old man, believed to be in a free diving session got into difficulty shortly before 11.30am on Sunday.

Police and emergency services were called to Johnson Rock at Currie on the west coast of the island.

The man was visiting the area from interstate and was taken from the water and administered CPR by his friends.

He was unable to be revived and died at the scene.

The 43-year-old man, believed to be in a free diving session got into difficulty shortly before 11.30am with police and emergency services being called to Johnson Rock at Currie on the west coast of the island

Popular with divers, King Island has several dive sites and wrecks. It sits in the Bass Strait on the northwest tip of Tasmania.

The diver is the latest Australian to drown in what has been a horrific summer with 43 people losing their lives.

On Saturday, father-of-six Michael Sneddon was with his 10-year-old son Kody at Ettalong Beach, on NSW's Central Coast about 50metres offshore.

They reportedly got stuck in a rip at about 2.30pm with family members saying Mr Sneddon attempted to keep his son above water before beachgoers got to the pair.

Passers-by on jet skis helped pull him onto a nearby Maritime Rescue boat but he was unable to be revived.

On Thursday, emergency services were called to the Yowaka River near Eden on NSW's far south coast about 3pm.

A 53-year-old man had reportedly been struggling in rough water and could not be revived.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer faced renewed pressure to bar an Abu Dhabi-backed takeover of The Telegraph yesterday.

Some 73 MPs  including a Cabinet minister and prominent frontbenchers from both main parties  voiced opposition to the bid over the threat to Press freedom.

The Culture Secretary ordered an Ofcom review last month following concerns over editorial independence at the Telegraph titles and The Spectator magazine, and a potential threat to national security.

MPs expressed concern over the takeover by RedBird IMI, a private equity joint venture three-quarters funded by International Media Investments (IMI), an Abu Dhabi firm backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vice-president of the United Arab Emirates.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer is under renewed pressure to bar an Abu Dhabi-backed takeover of The Telegraph

The proposed takeover of the Telegraph is by RedBird IMI, a joint venture funded by International Media Investments, a firm backed by the UAE's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed

One Cabinet minister told The Telegraph: 'I do not support the sale and I hope it won't go ahead.' Four other Tory ministers are also understood to have concerns about editorial independence. At least five shadow ministers were also said to be against the takeover.

One member of Sir Keir Starmer's frontbench team told The Telegraph that the wider implications meant the proposed deal should be scrutinised by the National Security Council.

The Telegraph contacted all 650 MPs to ask if they supported the sale and said only three  Tory MPs Sir Gavin Williamson, Sir Brandon Lewis and Daniel Kawczynski  were in favour.

The proposed takeover by RedBird IMI halted an auction for the title. Bidders had included the publisher of the Daily Mail and Sir Paul Marshall, co-owner of GB News.

Ofcom's recommendations are expected in weeks, but Ms Frazer has the power to block or approve the takeover.
A man who died after waiting more than 10 hours for an ambulance has been remembered as a 'gentle giant' - as the tragedy sparks renewed calls for the state to address ramping at hospitals.

Eddie, a 54-year-old disabled man, called paramedics to his assisted living facility in Hectorville, in Adelaide's northeast, on December 27 as he suffered from abdominal pain and vomiting.

His symptoms should have resulted in an ambulance picking him up in no more than 60 minutes, but after a 10-hour wait, with ambulances backed up at hospitals across the city, he died an agonising death at his home with no help in sight.

Kym Hoskins, Eddie's former carer of eight years, said he was a 'gentle giant' and 'beautiful man'.

'All frontline workers, in disability and age care, constantly live with the fear that we will be in this situation and, due to the lack of resources and support, our most vulnerable members of the community will pay the ultimate price. RIP Eddie,' they told 9News.

Eddie, 54, (pictured) died after waiting more than 10 hours for an ambulance

In a statement, Lighthouse Disability said it was 'deeply saddened by the passing of one of our clients'.

On the night of his death, Eddie made three calls to dispatchers - the first of which was listed as the lowest priority, category five, which should have resulted in a pick-up within an hour.

As his condition deteriorated over the 10-hour wait, his last call bumped him up to a top priority category one. An ambulance arrived four minutes later, but it was already too late.

That night, a Code White was declared for emergency departments across Adelaide, meaning all treatment rooms were being used.

Unable to unload their passengers, ambulances were stuck 'ramped' outside hospitals instead of being available for the community, leading to long delays in ambulance responses.

Eddie has been remembered as a 'gentle giant' and 'beautiful man'

A video posted by the Ambulance Employees Association to X, formerly Twitter, shows at least 10 vehicles waiting outside the Royal Adelaide Hospital on the night.

'This tragic death is a stark reminder that when ambulances are ramped at hospitals, patients waiting for help in the community are left without care for unacceptably and dangerously long periods of time,' AEA industrial officer Josh Karpowicz said.

'Ramping takes ambulances off-road and puts patients at risk of deterioration in an environment where there is no one available to help them.'

SA Ambulance Service chief executive Rob Elliott said very high triple zero demand and significant ramping on the night of Eddie's death meant ambulances had to prioritise more urgent calls.

Performance on the night against procedures for calling back patients experiencing ambulance delays will be assessed as part of a review into the incident.

Ambulance ramping was a key issue that helped propel Labor to power at the 2022 state election.

The Malinauskas government has ploughed millions of dollars into expanding hospital capacity in a bid to fix the crisis, yet ramping has increased by almost a third under its stewardship.

In December, 3,595 hours of ambulance availability were lost to ramping across Adelaide.

An ambulance was unable to pickup Eddie due to a backlog of patients (pictured, 'ramped' ambulances waiting outside Royal Adelaide Hospital on December 27)

Claims ambulance patients were being fast-tracked into emergency rooms over waiting room patients to reduce ramping statistics prompted the government to launch a clinical review in December.

But the union says high ramping levels and the man's tragic death demonstrate that this is not the case and patients in the community are being put at risk because of delayed transfers of care.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said despite Premier Peter Malinauskas' promises to fix ramping, the issue was worse under his watch.
A light aircraft carrying nine adult passengers and a 14-year-old girl has crashed off an island in the Great Barrier Reef.

The plane is believed to have overshot the only runway at Lizard Island, about 240km North of Cairns, while taking off before colliding with trees and flipping at about 7.20am on Monday.

Only two of the nine passengers received minor injuries during the crash, all of which were miraculously able to walk away from the wreck.

One adult sustained a minor head injury while another adult received a minor arm injury.

Two rescue helicopters and the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS) rushed to the secluded island to assess the situation and provide aid for those involved.

A light aircraft (pictured) carrying nine adult passengers and a 14-year-old girl has overshot a runway before colliding with trees and flipping on Lizard Island, in the Great Barrier Reef

Emergency services rushed to the secluded island (pictured) to find only two of the adult passengers had received minor injuries while the others walked away unharmed

Acting Assistant Commissioner for the QAS, Brina Keating, said the lack of serious injuries was astounding.

'All were walking, they were able to get out of the aircraft,' according to the ABC.

'To walk away from something like that is incredible.'

An investigation into how the crash occurred has been launched but already hampered because of the island's inaccessibility.

Lizard Island is a luxury holiday destination for the rich and famous as it's home to an exclusive and secluded resort and numerous holiday-homes.

Those getting to the island, about 27km off the coast of the mainland, can take an hour-long 'scenic' flight from Cairns.

The resort's website reveals flight off the island take-off daily at 12:25pm and 3:25pm, however 'private charters can also be arranged'.
An east London borough whose mayor was once barred from public office for corruption has been accused of 'criminal offences' because of its failure to take down Palestinian flags.

Pro-Israel legal campaign group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) says displays of Palestine flags and pro-Gazan posters and stickers in Tower Hamlets will 'intimidate Jewish people and may encourage violence against them'.

It has called on the borough, whose elected mayor is Lutfur Rahman, to remove the displays of Palestinian support in case their 'inflammatory content' constitutes a criminal offence, for which it says the council would ultimately be responsible.

Tower Hamlets, which has the largest Muslim population of any local authority area in the UK at 39.9 per cent as of the 2021 census, says it is not aware of any criminal offences being committed through the displaying of Palestinian flags.

Its mayor, Mr Rahman, was re-elected in 2022, seven years after he was forced to stand down following a civil case that found him personally guilty of corrupt and illegal practices in the lead up to the election.

Palestinian flag painted on a wall in Mile End, London with a rudimentary Star of David sprayed over the top on December 5, 2023

Video filmed last month shows a man pulling down a Palestinian flag in Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman, who was re-elected in 2022 after serving a five-year ban on running for office after he was found guilty of corruption

Pro-Palestine protesters stage a rally outside the Labour Party office in Tower Hamlets last November

He was banned from holding office for five years, a measure that has now lapsed.

UKLFI said it has reported the council to the Metropolitan Police over its failure to act on what it claimed were incendiary materials throughout its borough.

Some of the signs included accusations that Israel was committing 'genocide' in Gaza and calls for 'victory to the intifada', the Arabic word for an uprising.

The Metropolitan Police has made arrests during pro-Palestine protests in Central London over a number of alleged declarations of support for Hamas, which is a proscribed terror group and therefore illegal to support.

Jonathan Turner, chief executive, said in a letter to the authority that under the Town and Country Planning Act, it would be held liable for any criminal offences committed through the displaying of the materials.

He did not state which offences, if any, were being committed through the displaying of the signs and flags.

'Our attention has been drawn to serious concerns on the part of Jewish residents of Tower Hamlets regarding the proliferation of large Palestine flags on lamp-posts in public streets as well as posters and stickers with inflammatory content,' Mr Turner wrote.

'These displays intimidate Jewish people and may encourage violence against them. We believe that many of the flags, posters and stickers are displayed on land owned or occupied by Tower Hamlets Council.

'The Council has not taken all reasonable steps to secure the removal of flags, posters and stickers on its land and therefore has committed and is committing criminal offences.'

Mr Turner, himself a practicing intellectual property lawyer, added that responsible council officers could also be construed as being guilty of an offence under the same law  including the mayor, Mr Rahman.

The letter concluded: 'It appears that the Mayor of Tower Hamlets has neglected to ensure the removal of the flags, posters and stickers.

'Accordingly, both the Mayor of Tower Hamlets and the Council appear to be guilty of multiple criminal offences in this matter.'

Yesterday, UKLFI also reported what it said was another criminal offence to the police, of a man putting up a guerilla campaign poster in a bus stop in Tower Hamlets that bore the slogan: 'Palestine has the right to resist'.

Pro-Palestinian protests throughout London have attracted thousands since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas (pictured: a December 9 rally)

UK Lawyers for Israel claims that posters being displayed in Tower Hamlets could 'stir up racial hatred' (pictured: a protester wears a mask of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu during a protest on Saturday)

Police have made a number of arrests during protests in connection with alleged support for Hamas, which is a proscribed terror group (pictured: scuffles with protesters in November)

Police at the latest pro-Palestine rally in London, which took place on Saturday around Westminster

Caroline Turner, director of the group, said in her letter to the police: 'In my view all these slogans are likely to stir up racial hatred of Israelis and Jews, and to encourage violence against Israelis and Jews contrary to the Public Order Act 1986.'

Mr Rahman was re-elected as mayor of Tower Hamlets in 2022 after being kicked out for electoral fraud. He and his supporters were found to have used intimidation, vote-rigging and false claims about his Labour rival to secure his victory in 2014.

He founded a new party, Aspire, in order to stand on the ballot two years ago, and said after being re-elected: 'A large number of people came and trusted me and Aspire and our activists to deliver for them going forward.'

EXCLUSIVE READ MORE: The faces of the girls STILL being held by Hamas as their families make a desperate plea for their release three months after they were captured Advertisement

A spokesman for Tower Hamlets council told the Telegraph: 'As one of the most diverse areas in the country, we are monitoring any community tensions closely with our Tension Monitoring Group, which includes the police and representatives from a broad range of community organisations.

'A number of Palestinian flags have been put up by the public in recent months. While we appreciate people want to express their support for Palestine, we have a routine responsibility to monitor and maintain council infrastructure. The situation is under regular review.

'Separately to Palestinian flags, the council will remove at the earliest opportunity any graffiti, posters or flags which are racist or generally offensive.

'We are not aware of any criminal offences related to Palestinian flags not being removed, and we will continue to work closely with police partners to manage the situation.'

UKLFI has been advocating for Israel for several years with sometimes controversial tactics. In a written submission to the Foreign Affairs Committee in 2017, it claimed that bodies such as the UN spent 'vast sums of money seeking to find fault with Israel at every turn'.

In 2020, it settled out of court with the charity Defense for Children International Palestine after describing the non-profit as being 'terror linked' and as having 'close links to a terrorist organisation'.

In recent days, the organisation has been vocal in its opposition to a motion lodged with the International Court of Justice by South Africa accusing Israel of perpetuating genocide in the Gaza strip.

Natasha Hausdorff, chair and legal director of UKLFI, repeated a claim from the IDF on Michael Portillo's GB News programme earlier today that the number of civilians being killed compared to Hamas militants 'two-to-one'.

Quoting a UN estimate that the normal civilian-to-combatant ratio of casualties is nine-to-one, she said: 'That puts the lie to any suggestion that international law is being violated in terms of the broader humanitarian law.'

Flames rise from the sites of Israeli shelling in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on January 7

Palestinians attempt to lift rubble in their search for survivors of Israeli shelling in Morag, south of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip on January 7

The remnants of a car in which journalists Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria were travelling when they were killed by Israeli shells

Wael Al-Dahdouh (left), who lost his wife, grandchild and two of his children to Israeli bombs in October, mourns his son Hamza after the strike at the weekend killed son Hamza

An IDF soldier guards the entrance to a tunnel that the military claims was used by Hamas to access Israel on October 7, when it killed an estimated 1,200 Israelis

More than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed in the months of counter-shelling by Israel

Police made a number of arrests on Saturday after hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters rallied in Central London and marched from St James's Park to Westminster Bridge, where they staged a sit-in.

More than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed in the three months since Israel began its counter-offensive in Gaza, following the October 7 attacks that saw Hamas terrorists kill an estimated 1,200 Israelis.

International observers have made repeated calls for Israel to show restraint in its bombardment of the occupied Palestinian territory amid mass civilian casualties. The UN says up to 85 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced.

Israel insists that it is bombing Hamas targets, accusing the terror group of inserting itself into civilian populations and infrastructure in order to use innocent Gazans as human shields.

There are fears that the months-long conflict could spark a wider Middle Eastern war amid flaring tensions with neighbouring Lebanon.

Two more journalists working for Qatar-based network Al Jazeera were killed in what it said was a 'targeted killing' by Israeli troops.

Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria were killed while on their way to carry out reporting in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army told AFP that it had 'struck a terrorist' as it carried out the strike.

Hamza was the son of Wael Al-Dahdouh, the Al Jazeera bureau chief who lost his wife, grandchild and two of his children to Israeli bombs in October. The journalist staunchly returned to work to continue reporting on the conflict a day later.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 79 journalists and media professionals, the vast majority Palestinian, have been killed since October 7.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken is set to arrive in Israel shortly for talks, in which he will urge Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties and to ensure that Palestinians can return home once the conflict ends.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has vowed to continue fighting.

'The war must not be stopped until we achieve all the goals: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,' he said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney appeared on the red carpet at the 81st Golden Globes in Los Angeles Sunday night.

Mulvaney posed for the cameras as she walked into the ceremony almost one year after her controversial Bud Light promotion.

Mulvaney was already phenomenally popular on TikTok for documenting her transition, but is now known for the controversy surrounding her failed promotion of what was America's most popular beer for 22 years.

The brewing giant created a limited run of Bud Light cans with her face to celebrate 365 days of 'being a girl,' the phrase she uses to describe her transition

Mulvaney partnered with the brand last April for its March Madness NCAA campaign and posted a video on April 1 while holding the can.

Dylan Mulvaney at the 81st Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Sunday

The 81st Golden Globe Awards honors the best in film and American television of 2023 - with the glittering ceremony held at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California

Mulvaney posed for the cameras as she walked into the ceremony almost one year on since her controversial Bud Light promotion

Mulvaney smiled as she posed for the cameras as she walked into the ceremony almost one year after her controversial Bud Light promotion

Despite the cans being an extremely limited run and only featuring in one video, conservative figures were outraged and called for a boycott.

The doomed deal was an attempt by since-departed marketing VP Alissa Heinerscheid to 'attract young drinkers' and abandon the beer's 'fratty and out-of-touch humor'.

The backlash caused Bud Light's parent company, Anheuser-Busch, to lose $400 million in sales as US revenue dropped 10.5 percent compared with the year before.

As the conservative backlash grew into a widespread boycott, Anheuser-Busch stock plunged 20 percent, Bud Light sales fell 26 percent and Modelo Especial became the new best-selling beer in the country.

The brewer's hangover continues. Heads continued to roll at Anheuser-Busch with the resignation of its US marketing chief in November. Sales of Bud Light have never fully recovered.

Mulvaney became phenomenally popular on TikTok for documenting her transition, but is now best known for her controversial Bud Light promotion

The backlash caused Bud Light's parent company, Anheuser-Busch, to lose $400 million in sales as US revenue dropped

Mulvaney condemned Bud Light, which she did not name in any response to the backlash, for not backing her up

Mulvaney condemned Bud Light, which she did not name in any response to the backlash, for not backing her up.

'For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all,' she previously told The Cut.

She described herself as a 'sacrificial lamb in the election landscape', adding that the entire fiasco was a 'wake-up call' and she became 'a more realistic person'.

Mulvaney later posted a TikTok video where she said she felt 'scared to leave the house' at the height of the backlash.

Bud Light workers accused their company's leadership of 'cowardice' over the ad fiasco, arguing they should have better supported Mulvaney.

Mulvaney, 27, showed her 10 million TikTok followers her passport photo when she still had masculine facial features and short brown hair (left) compared to her new one (right)

Last month, Mulvaney revealed how she had finally changed the gender on her passport from male to female.

Despite coming out as transgender in March 2022 and becoming famous for documenting her transition, Mulvaney had still been using a years-old passport.

She even showed her 10 million TikTok followers her passport photo when she still had masculine facial features and short brown hair.

She explained she stayed with a male passport for so long because it had to be sent away for 'weeks or months' to change it and she travels so much for work.

The transgender influencer finally changed the gender on her passport from male to female

However, it became increasingly difficult to use as the radical difference between her appurtenance and passport photo confused immigration officials.

'They don't always think I'm the same person that's in my passport... they're like who are you and what did you do with the old Dylan,' she said.

This got worse after she had facial feminization surgery earlier this year that changed the shape of her face even further from the male passport photo.

Mulvaney filmed herself having a new passport photo taken and marveled how it turned out well - in contrast to most official pictures.

She then compared it to her old passport, believed to be the first time she revealed the years-old photo on social media.

Mulvaney later documented a roadtrip with friends to a woodland retreat where she posed naked in an outdoor bath wearing only a red beanie

Other photos showed her in a fluffy pink dress and other ostentatious winter-themed outfits alongside her friends

'I would like to thank the US Government for allowing me to do this,' she said as she pointed out the F next to gender on the new passport.

'And for all those people [who] called me a man, well, you can take that up with the Department of Social Security because my passport says otherwise.'

Mulvaney later documented a roadtrip with friends to a woodland retreat where she posed naked in an outdoor bath wearing only a red beanie.

Other photos showed her in a fluffy pink dress and other ostentatious winter-themed outfits alongside her friends.
The cockpit voice recording from Flight 1282 was not retrievable after it was overwritten by the time investigators reached it

The plane was also banned from flying after its cabin pressure warning lights signaled on three previous flights

The missing plug door from Boeing 737 MAX 9 was discovered on Sunday night in Cedar Hills, Oregon

The Alaska Airlines jet that lost a door mid-flight forcing an emergency landing had been banned from long-distance flights over water after a cabin pressure warning light illuminated on three prior flights.

According to reports, pilots had noted that warning lights had flashed to indicate some loss of cabin pressure, but Alaska Airlines said they were written up and resolved 'per approved maintenance procedures,' according to the Seattle Times.

Those write-ups led to the plane being restricted from long flights over water, but it was still allowed to fly. That was the case Friday night when the Boeing 737 Max 9 took off from Portland, Oregon, bound for California.

Shortly after takeoff, part of the Flight 1282's door 'plug' blew out at 16,000 feet and fell to the earth. The plane was forced to make a harrowing emergency landing as passengers believed they were saying their final goodbyes to loved ones.

Federal officials spent days looking for the lost parts of the plane to help in their investigation. Authorities also ordered similar planes be grounded while they investigated.

The missing door plug was found by a Portland school teacher on Sunday in his backyard, days after the incident. It was found around the same time Alaska Airlines announced it canceled 170 flights on Sunday and another 60 on Monday so investigators can inspect the aircraft.

Alaska flight 1282 left Portland just after 5pm Friday when a window blew out at 16,000 feet and federal investigators are now trying to hunt down the missing piece

The flight that was set out to arrive at Ontario International in California turned back around after the plug door came off on Friday night

Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board said that the plug door is located around Barnes Road near I-217 in the Cedar Hills, Oregon

Federal investigators also said the in-flight voice recorder data has been lost as it was not reset within a two-hour window after the emergency landing.

Cockpit voice recorder's can be found on all aircrafts and is there to capture the flight crew's voices and all sounds in the cockpit.

According to the NTSB website, the device is capable of recording up to 25 hours and is re-set every two hours. Because the it was not re-set in time, it is unknown what was said at the time of the emergency.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators have hailed the miracle that allowed the 171 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 737-9 Max survived.

Investigators had asked for help finding the door plug after the incident, and said they believed it was in Cedar Hills - the location it was eventually found. Cedar Hills is located in Washington County, Oregon, which is about seven miles west of Portland.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office posted to X on Sunday afternoon and said: 'Deputies are aware of the information shared by the @NTSB and the possibility that the @AlaskaAir Flight 1282 door may have fallen in our area. At this time, we have not been asked to coordinate any specific search and have not gotten any calls from the public regarding possible found debris.'

'We will be looking at the entire chain of the events, from production to putting this plug in service to what happened to the history of this particular aircraft in flight and in service from the start to where we are today,' Homendy told NBC News.

A photo shows the blown out area. It is offered as a door on the aircraft. Alaska chose not to take this option - although the frame of the prospective door was entirely ripped out by the fuselage failure

One passenger, Emma Vu took to TikTok after she made it out alive through the horror flight that was only in the air for 20 minutes

Sunday was the first day that investigators fully examined the bizarre event that left one person with non-life-threatening injuries and forced Alaskan Airlines to ground dozens of its Boeing 737-9 MAX jets for urgent safety checks.

Several other airlines have also made the decision to ground aircrafts of that model as critics have pointed to other deadly crashes and system failures involving the type of jet in recent years.

Its catastrophic failure depressurized the cabin, with the force of the air ripping the shirt off a young boy, whose mom was seen holding onto him. Passengers also watched as their phones were sucked out into the night sky.

Toys, phones and clothes were also sucked into the atmosphere through the gaping hole and fortunately nobody was sitting in the two seats right next to the now missing door.

Terrifying footage showed fliers looking out through the giant hole left from the missing piece of the plane onto the twinkling lights of Portland below in the eerily quiet cabin.

Passengers reported hearing a 'really loud boom' before a 'deathly' silence fell over the cabin as the plane made its emergency landing back in Portland around 40 minutes later.

One passenger, Emma Vu took to TikTok after she made it out alive through the horror flight that was only in the air for 20 minutes.

Vu sent a text to her family that read 'I don't want to die' and revealed how scared she was in the moment.

She revealed her panic-stricken texts to her family that said: 'The masks r down; I am so scared right now; Please pray for me; Please I don't want to die.'

Vu said she was asleep when the devastating safety failure erupted out of the blue, when she 'felt the entire plane drop.'

'The masks dropped, and people are screaming,' she continued, next to a tearful selfie she took in the moment that she feared could be her last.

'I am so grateful for the ladies sat next to me... they were so sweet at calming me down, and the flight attendants were giving oxygen tanks to those who needed it more,' she said.

In audio from inside the cockpit, the pilot could be heard radioing for emergency help, saying: 'Portland approach, Alaska 1282 emergency! Aircraft is now leveling 12,000 in a left turn heading three four zero.

Oxygen masks are seen dangling from the ceiling of the aircraft as the dark night is seen from the plane from the giant gaping hole left behind

In audio from inside the cockpit, the pilot could be heard radioing for emergency help, saying: 'Portland approach, Alaska 1282 emergency! Aircraft is now leveling 12,000 in a left turn heading three four zero.

'We need a divert. We've declared an emergency. We are depressurized. We have 177 passengers on board and a seal is...18,900' the pilot can be heard explaining.

The back of the seat on 26A that sat directly next to the door has been ripped off completely.

The headrests on seats 25A and 26A were also torn off as pieces of clothes were scattered in the area, Homendy said.

The video looks very calm, but Im sure it was completely chaotic and very loud, she said.

She went on to say that if the door had detached from the aircraft before it reached cruising altitude, when passengers are allowed to take off their seatbelts, the outcome would've been much worse.

Passenger Nick Hoch, 33, told CNN that he was sitting on the left side, just a few rows from where the piece came off as 'mist or cloud whooshed' past him and hit his face.

There were people much closer who I spoke with who lost AirPods out of their ears, Hoch said.

A passenger with an oxygen masks is seen looking back in distress as 171 passengers were left terrified after a piece of the plane flew off mid-air

Alaskan Airlines decided to ground dozens of its Boeing 737-9 MAX jets for urgent safety checks after the matter

The plug door is used as an emergency exit when the plane is configured to take more passengers but is sealed up and invisible from inside in the configuration used by Alaska.

Oxygen is needed in emergencies occurring above 12,000ft to prevent hypoxia  oxygen starvation  which can cause dizziness, loss of consciousness, and permanent brain damage.

FlightAware and Federal Aviation Administration records revealed that the plane involved in the incident has been in service for approximately three months and had flown around 150 times since October 2023.

Alaska Airlines said that 18 of the Boeing 737-9 Max planes were inspected on Saturday and returned, but were soon brought back and will be removed 'until details about possible additional maintained work are confirmed with the FAA.'
Police found her remains in a vehicle cargo box buried in a spot that Glynn had previously had dug out by contractors

Glynn told his wife's children she had left him because she was terminally ill

A Nashville man is charged with criminal homicide after beating his wife to death with a hammer before burying her body in their yard, authorities said.

Joseph Glynn, 70, admitted to attacking his wife, Jackie, inside their home in the Green Hills neighborhood on New Years Day, hitting her on the head with a hammer intending to kill her.

The next day, he drove her body to the couple's property in DeKalb County, Tennessee, where her placed her remains in a vehicle cargo box and buried her in a spot that had been previously dug out by contractors.

Glynn told his wife's children that she had decided to leave because she was 'terminally ill,' the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office stated.

Jackie's children contacted her medical provider who confirmed that she was not terminally ill, police said.

Jackie Glynn, 74, was murdered by her husband who hit her over the head with a hammer, police said

Jackie Glynn owned and ran the historic wedding venue the Riverwood Mansion in east Nashville

Jackie's body was discovered in a vehicle cargo box and buried her in a spot that had been previously dug out by contractors

The children then contacted the police and worked with them to locate their mother.

A silver alert was issued on Wednesday and investigations led towards Glynn.

The 76-year-old's body was discovered at the seven-acre property on Friday, investigators said. The cargo box had been covered in new roofing shingles and dirt and buried six feet into the ground.

The hole, about six feet wide, ten feet long and six feet deep, had been dug by contractors on December 16 after Glynn requested a burn pit, WSBTV reported.

Police also found Jackie's car in DeKalb County, which police say Glynn also towed and hid.

He also allegedly sold property belonging to Jackie and contacted a realtor to look into selling the DeKalb property in the days after her murder.

Glynn threw the murder weapon, a hammer, in the Keltonburg Community Center trash compactor, he said during his confession to police.

Her body was found in a shallow grave at the couple's property on Allen Bend Road in Smithville, DeKalb County

Joseph Glynn, 70, told his wife's children that she had decided to leave because she was 'terminally ill,' authorities said

The 76-year-olds body was discovered at the seven acre property on Friday, investigators said

Glynn' children contacted her medical provider and worked with the police to help locate their mother

Glynn admitted to attacking his wife Jackie inside their home in Green Hills on New Years Day, hitting her on the head with a hammer intending to kill her

Joseph was arrested Saturday and charged with with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering.

He is being held in the Davidson County Jail on a bond of $1,030,000.

Jackie Glynn owned and ran the historic wedding venue the Riverwood Mansion in east Nashville.

Lesli Emmetts, a colleague and friend of more than 25 years, wrote on Facebook:

'Such a sad day with the tragic news of a friend of over 25 years who's life was horrifically taken.

'Jackie was a tiny woman with Big dreams and Bill and I were honored to watch her live, create, build and curate her dream of having the most amazing wedding venue where Nashville Couples could say I Do.'

'[Jackie] brought so many people, business owners and couples together in her life's dream and is still bringing us together in her passing.'
Parents who take their children out of school to go on holiday are damaging their life chances, the shadow education secretary warned yesterday.

Bridget Phillipson urged parents to 'reflect seriously' on the impact of unnecessary absences on their youngsters and the wider school community.

In an interview yesterday, she said that while it can be 'tough', it is 'really important that children are in school' as 'every day matters'.

'I think those parents that choose to take their children out of school for holidays or for trips or where it's not necessary should reflect seriously,' she told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

'Because that damages children's life chances, they only get one chance at school, they only get one childhood.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that while it can be 'tough', it is 'really important that children are in school' as 'every day matters' (File Photo)

'For those parents who are facing additional challenges, and for children that are facing additional challenges, an incoming Labour government will make sure that we put in place the support that's needed to tackle that.'

Labour analysis, published today found that in the 2021/2022 school year, 27.7per cent of secondary school pupils - around 1.6 million - missed out on at least 10 per cent of school sessions.

Ms Phillipson's comments came as a new poll found almost one in three parents believe the coronavirus pandemic has shown it is not essential for children to attend school every day.

The survey, conducted by YouGov for the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) think tank into the relationship between parents and schools, found 28 per cent felt that way.

Only 70 per cent of parents are confident their child's needs are being met - a figure which drops to 61 per cent at secondary school.

CSJ chief executive Andy Cook said there is 'fundamental work to be done in rebuilding the contract between families and schools'.

He said the polling, which questioned 1,206 parents during December 2023, showed there remains a 'significant minority for whom the bonds of trust between families and schools were broken'.

Ms Phillipson said: 'For those parents who are facing additional challenges, and for children that are facing additional challenges, an incoming Labour government will make sure that we put in place the support that's needed to tackle that'

'This is not a one-way street,' he said. 'Parents have legitimate expectations of schools which government must help them to deliver, but as parents, we need to take responsibility for getting our kids ready for school, at school, and for keeping them engaged in school.

'Restoring the bond between parents and schools - supported by small charities and community organisations - will help us to do this.

'Failure to address this will be catastrophic for the future of our people, communities and state.'

In its report on the finding, entitled The Missing Link: Restoring the bond between schools and families, the CSJ sets out a seven-point plan which Mr Cook said puts a 'focus on parental engagement and whole family support'.

The plan calls for at least five hours of extracurricular activities each week via a 'right to sport', plus investment in youth clubs and services, mental health support and the roll-out of attendance mentors.

It also recommends a review into the effectiveness of finds and prosecutions for absences, as well as creating a National Parental Participation Strategy.
The controversial default 20mph speed limit in built-up areas in Wales will be enforced from today.

The Welsh government has confirmed motorists will face sanctions following an 'initial bedding in period'.

But ministers said not all drivers breaking the 20mph limit will initially be prosecuted, just the most dangerous offenders.

Roadside teams will use speed monitoring equipment to catch offending motorists.

They will be stopped and given a choice between a fine and points, or roadside engagement.

The Welsh government has confirmed motorists will face sanctions following an 'initial bedding in period' (File image)

Roadside teams will use speed monitoring equipment to catch offending motorists (File image)

The Welsh scheme to reduce the default speed limit for 'restricted roads' from 30mph came into force in September, affecting 7,700 miles of road. It aims to cut deaths, noise and pollution and encourage people to walk or cycle.

There was confusion around when the new national speed limit would be enforced. It was said that enforcement would begin three months after the new speed limit was introduced, which would have been December 17 before the Welsh government confirmed the enforcement for the speed limit would begin in January.

The speed limit reduction to 20mph affects 'restricted roads' - those with 'street lights spaced no more than 200 yards apart, usually located in residential and built-up areas'.

Transport is a devolved matter so the Welsh government has made the change unilaterally.

According to its own impact assessment, the 'main economic dis-benefit' of the new regime 'relates to increased journey times from lower average vehicle speeds'.

It states that this could result in an economic hit of up to 9 billion over 30 years; the cost of implementing the scheme will be 33 million.

But Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford said the 20mph speed limit would save lives and the cost was 'outweighed' by reduced impact on the NHS and emergency services.

Mr Drakeford has said 'the evidence is incontrovertible' that 'driving more slowly in built-up urban areas saves people's lives' and that it will save the Health Service 90million as a result.

He cited a similar scheme in Spain, saying it had cut urban deaths by 20 percent.

Critics say penalty fines will hit drivers who already face larger petrol bills for running their engines at lower - and less efficient - speeds.
Broadcasting giant Audacy filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, just six months after cutting executives $3.2million in bonuses despite knowing finances were in bad shape.

The broadcaster, which operates 227 radio stations and produces podcasts from the likes of Stephen A. Smith, Dana Carvey and David Spade, fell into trouble after radio advertising went into decline.

The Philadelphia-based company filed a pre-packaged Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas as part of a deal with its creditors, who are taking over the business.

The company announced the filing after giving out millions in bonuses in late June to 'ensure we keep the right team in place and stay focused on continuing to position the company for long-term growth,' according to Philadelphia Business Journal.

The bonuses included Chairman/President/CEO David Field getting $1million, EVP/Strategic Initiatives and CFO Richard Schmaeling getting $850,000 and EVP/General Counsel and Secretary Andrew Sutor IV receiving $600,000.

Broadcasting giant Audacy filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, just six months after cutting executives $3.2million in bonuses despite knowing finances were in bad shape, including CEO David Field

A report in November said Audacy's debt was around $1.92billion due to the ad sales fallout.

The bankruptcy deal will reduce that debt load by about $1.6billion and will see a group of lenders give about $57million in further financing.

In a memo to employees, Field said business should carry on as usual and there should be no interruption to anyone getting paid.

'The current leadership team will continue to lead the Company and day-to-day roles and responsibilities will not change,' he wrote.

Audacy has gotten a grace period so that it can finish restructuring debt, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Advertising hasn't been the only problem, as podcasts - which the company itself produces - have taken revenue out of the radio industry.

Field cited a 'perfect storm' of problems in his memo.

The Philadelphia-based company filed chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas as part of a deal with its creditors, who are taking over the business

The broadcaster, which operates 227 radio stations and produces podcasts from the likes of Stephen A. Smith (pictured), Dana Carvey and David Spade, fell into trouble after radio advertising went into decline

Dana Carvey and David Spade both host an Audacy-backed podcast

'From the global pandemic and the series of subsequent macroeconomic challenges that have caused sustained headwinds in traditional advertising and materially impacted our business.'

Its competitors, iHeartMedia, filed for bankruptcy in 2019.

The company was founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications before merging with CBS Radio in 2017.

Audacy was the company's big 2021 rebrand after years of going by the name Radio.com.

The company operates stations in massive markets, including New York's WFAN and WINS, KROQ and KCBS in Los Angeles, and WBBM and WSCR in Chicago.

Podcasts included hits like Gangster Capitalism and Unsolved Mysteries, as well as projects hosted by Stephen A. Smith, Dana Carvey and David Spade.
Moves to have a Western Australian river's Indigenous name added to its official title have been blocked by a council after opposition from the local community.

The proposal for dual naming of the Blackwood River in the state's south-west cannot go ahead after it was rejected by the Shire of Boyup Brook.

Proponents for change had wanted the Blackwood to also be known by its Indigenous name Goorbilyup but the suggestion needed five councils' support.

As well as Boyup Brook, the river passes through the shires of Augusta Margaret River, Nannup, Bridgetown-Greenbushes and West Arthur.

The refusal to use the Blackwood's Aboriginal name has angered Noongar elder Sandra Hill who felt like she had been 'kicked in the guts' after pushing for the recognition for more than a year.

Moves to have a Western Australian river's Indigenous name added to its official title have been blocked by a council after opposition from the local community. The refusal to recognise the Blackwood River as Goorbilyup has angered Noongar elder Sandra Hill (above)

Boyup Brook's council announced its decision in a November 6 Facebook post which drew mostly negative responses.

'Can anyone take a moment to explain why the 'inclusion' of the original name was not supported?' one person wrote. 'Cultural wisdom is an asset in any place right?'

Another wrote: 'How would it hurt anyone? Tell me? Why would they not want dual naming?'

A third person replied: 'Shame on this shire for neglecting Noongar culture... Sadly, this lack of spirit will give the Shire of Boyup Brook a bad name.'

But one person was particularly happy with the result. 'Hip hip hooray,' they wrote.

The Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes had requested Boyup Brook's support for dual naming of the Blackwood in December 2022.

Bridgetown-Greenbushes, which formed a cultural inclusion advisory committee, had identified the dual naming as a 'priority project'.

The Blackwood (above) runs for about 300km from the junction of the Arthur and Balgarup Rivers near Quelarup on a south-westerly course through Bridgetown and Nannup, emptying into the Southern Ocean near Augusta

Boyup Brook council minutes from October 23 show a proposal to decline the request to support dual naming of the Blackwood River was carried six votes to two.

The request had been put out for public consultation 'to gauge the community's thoughts' and 10 of 16 submissions received by council were against the dual naming.

The Western Australian Land Information Authority, known as Landgate, does not approve the dual naming of parts of geographical features which cross shire boundaries.

'It is up to each local government to individually support and request Landgate to approve the dual naming of the section of the Blackwood River traversing through their local government boundary,' the council minutes state.

The Blackwood runs for about 300km from the junction of the Arthur and Balgarup Rivers near Quelarup on a south-westerly course through Bridgetown and Nannup, emptying into the Southern Ocean near Augusta.

Almost 80 per cent of its 28,100 sq km catchment area is used for agriculture, including grazing and cereal production.

The town of Boyup Brook lies 269km south east of Perth and the area has been occupied by the Noongar people for 65,000 years. The shire covers 2,829 sq km and had a population of 1,834 at the last Census

The town of Boyup Brook lies 269km south east of Perth and the area has been occupied by the Noongar people for 65,000 years. The shire covers 2,829 sq km and had a population of 1,834 at the last Census.

The first European explorer reached the area in 1845 and it the first colonial settler arrived in 1854.

Boyup Brook president Richard Walker did not wish to discuss council's decision

According to the shire's website, Boyup Brook was originally inhabited by the Bibbulmun people and its name was derived the Aboriginal word Booyup, meaning 'place of big stones' or 'place of big smoke'.

'The large stones are referring to the large granite rocks surrounding the Upper Blackwood area and the big smoke refers to the smoke from the burning of grasstrees once referred to as blackboys,' it states.

Ms Hill, an acclaimed artist from Balingup, said in a social media she was 'completely shattered' by council's decision not to add Goorbilyup to Blackwood.

'There is a limit to how many times a person can be kicked in the guts over a single lifetime and I'm feeling that I've reached mine,' she wrote.

Ms Hill noted goorbal meant 'intestine or gut', bilya was 'river or waterway', and 'place of' was represented by 'up' in the river's Indigenous name.

Augusta Margaret River shire president Julia Meldrum and Nannup shire president Tony Dean told Daily Mail Australia their councils supported dual naming of the Blackwood (above)

'The Goorbilyup is the intestine that runs through the entire land mass of the south west,' she wrote.

'It is fed be creeks, brooks and streams throughout all of its length which starts at Lake Dumbleyung and ends at Taalinup (Augusta).

READ MORE: Jacinta Price calls for Australia to ditch 'divisive' Welcome to Country acknowledgements before sporting events and public gatherings Advertisement

'It is the most precious, most significant and most cultural land asset that the Bibbulmun people know, through its waters it provides ongoing nourishment for all of the forests, flora and fauna throughout the south west of WA.'

Augusta Margaret River shire president Julia Meldrum and Nannup shire president Tony Dean told Daily Mail Australia their councils supported dual naming of the Blackwood.

West Arthur's shire president Neil Morrell was contacted for comment.

Boyup Brook shire president Richard Walker said despite claims it was only his council blocking dual naming other councils along the river's course had not voted on the proposed move.

'I think there has been some really destructive and divisive reporting of this,' Councillor Walker said.

'I've spoken directly to people in the community and I think it's best done that way. It's not something that I would engage in conversation in the media.'

Ms Hill thanked the shires that wanted dual naming of the river in her social media post.

'Historically, the dual naming would have been one of the most important and respectful gestures which would have given incredibly positive recognition to each of these shire councils who have actively supported the dual naming signage,' Ms Hill wrote.

'Shame on you Boyup Brook you have just missed the perfect opportunity to shine the light on your somewhat insignificant little town and to show the nation how generous you are for recognising and implementing this very small change.'
For teenagers, there really are few things worse than being asked to tidy their room.

A study has identified the main problems in life which are guaranteed to irritate teenagers and send them into a sulk.

These include the wifi disconnecting when they are trying to do something online, and being expected to have an answer to the question of what they want to do with their life.

But the top five irritations named by teenagers include being told to sort their room out - when they claim they were 'just about to'.

Being asked to tidy their room by a parent when they already planned to is even more annoying than doing badly in a school test because of stress, according to young people aged 16 to 18.

Unstable wifi connections were found to be among some of the most annoying problems that teenagers face, according to the University of Edinburgh

Being asked to clean up their rooms was also found to be annoying, even more so than failing a test at school

What really winds teenagers up was established by researchers consulting almost 150 young people.

First, 25 teenagers came up with a list of 51 annoying scenarios, which were grouped into topics and rated for irritation level by 122 further teenagers.

The 18 biggest irritations produced at the end of this process also included a parent asking a teenager to do the washing up 'for a third time', even though they had already promised to do it.

The list of irritations was used to provoke annoyance in 29 people aged 16 to 18 being scanned in an MRI machine.

This was done to better understand the brain activity of teenagers facing irritation, as those most affected may be at greater risk of depression (SUBS - pls keep high).

Dr Niamh MacSweeney, who led the study from the University of Edinburgh, said (SUBS - pls keep this quote): 'This study provides an interesting insight into major irritations for teenagers.

'We saw classic themes like teenagers being asked to tidy their room when they said they had just been about to do it, and the dislike teenagers had for feeling disrespected, patronised and talked over by adults.'

Senior author Dr Liana Romaniuk, also from the University of Edinburgh, added: 'Previous studies suggest teenagers are more prone to being irritable, and it takes a while to learn to manage their emotions when they feel irritated, and our brain scans highlight how they might process irritation differently to older people.

'So parents might want to try to be patient and see things from their teenagers' perspective.'

The study, published in Wellcome Open Research, identified the biggest irritation for teens as having a conversation where they were trying to offer helpful advice, but the other person did not listen and talked over them.

They also disliked not being taken seriously by their parents.

In a warning for older relatives who often ask young people what they want to be when they grow up, the list of top 18 irritations also includes: 'Everyone expects you to know what you want to do in life, even though you are still a teenager.'

The irritations, in text form, flashed up on a screen while 29 young people aged 16 to 18 were in an MRI machine (SUBS - pls keep, as this was the main point of the study).

Researchers wanted to understand how teenagers brains respond to irritation, and thought real-life grievances would work better than the difficult maths problems sometimes given to provoke annoyance in similar studies.

The study found irritation had a particular effect in teens on the cingulate cortex.

This part of the front of the brain, in the prefrontal cortex, is important for emotional regulation.

Teenagers who were especially prone to feeling irritable did not see much signalling between the cingulate cortex and neighbouring brain areas, which may help to cope with irritation.

That could mean they get more wound up by everyday irritants, making them less able to keep their cool, although more research is needed to determine if that is the case.

The teenagers recruited for the study all reported having anxiety or struggling with a low mood - which can make irritation worse.

Although some irritability is normal during adolescence, the researchers stress that regular and strong irritation in teenagers may also be a red flag that they are at risk of suffering depression (SUBS - pls keep).

The study authors are appealing for more teenagers to get involved in similar research, through projects like Generation Scotland, which is partnered with the University of Edinburgh in studying young people's mental health (SUBS - must keep this sentence).
An Aussie tourist has been left outraged after she was charged a staggering amount for a bottle of water in the traditionally cheap tourist hotspot of Bali.

The shocked woman posted a photo of her receipt to Facebook showing she paid nearly $12 for the bottle, which totalled a massive $14 after a service fee was added.

Two bottles of 380ml water cost the tourist 24,0000 rupiah - roughly a whopping AUD$23.

Believing other tourists to the holiday island weren't aware of such high prices, she wanted to warn them with a 'heads up'.

The tourist told people they needed 'deep pockets' when dining across the region revealing she had bought the water at Ayana Resort.

The shocked woman posted her receipt to Facebook showing she paid nearly $12 for the bottle, which totalled a massive $14 after a service fee was added

People were divided if Bali was no longer a cheap holiday or if there were still bargains (stock image pictured)

Many Aussies argued the receipt was proof the holiday island was not as cheap as tourists believed it to be.

'Everyone knows its a very expensive place to visit,' one person wrote.

'Bali is nowhere near a cheap holiday as it used to be,' another said.

Others firmly believed Bali was still budget-friendly, as long as tourists avoid 'tourist traps' and restaurants notorious for their steep prices.

'People saying its not as cheap as it used to be obviously you dont know what you're talking about,' one wrote.

'Literally going there in March for two weeks with my family of three, we picked up return flights for $346 and two weeks accommodation for $1,000 in a private villa!'

In 2023, Bali was knocked off it's number one spot for Aussie's favourite international destination after an eight year reign, according to Expedia.

Japan's Tokyo is now Australia's most visited overseas spot.

The country had one of the longest border closures during Covid, only reopening to inbound tourists after two years in 2022.

Foreign visitors wanting to attend the delayed Tokyo Olympics were also banned from entering the country.

Instagram staple, the glamorous Rock Bar in Anya Resort and Spa is where the woman dined in Bali

Bali has been getting more expensive but a travel expert believes food is still cheap

There may be perceptions Japan is now more cost effective and Australian Travel Industry Association CEO Dean Long said the yen dropping made Japan more affordable.

He also noted that Bali had recently axed it's $50 entry fee, so the destination is still considered affordable.

Finder travel expert Angus Kidman told Yahoo Bali has become more expensive but believes Aussies can still find a cheap holiday.

'Air fares to get there are not as cheap as they were five years ago. Bali isn't immune from rising fuel costs and a more limited range of services,' he said.

'You can still pick up a return flight with a low-cost carrier for around $600 return, but super-cheap fares are somewhat rarer.'

He says although food is still inexpensive, tourists should be prepared that flights and accommodation will be the main cost.

He advises Aussies to book their activities ahead of time so they can save money and to also plan a trip with a budget in mind.

Beachside Sanur and Sidemen Valley in the popular island are being promoted as cheaper alternatives.

Daily Mail Australia reached out to Ayana Estate for comment.
A five-year-old girl who was stabbed outside her school in Dublin will need to 'relearn everything' due to the severity of her injuries, the child's family have said.

The youngster was attacked along with two other children, a little boy and girl, as well as a woman who worked a creche worker in Parnell Square, Dublin on November 23.

French-Algerian Riad Bouchaker, 50, appeared in court last month charged with the attempted murder of three children and assault of a care worker which sparked riots across the Irish capital.

The little girl has spent several weeks in paediatric intensive care, with her family yesterday explaining she had now entered the third phase of her recovery.

Through a message on a GoFundMe page, which has raised 55,000, her loved ones said she left the children's ward in December.

Emergency services attending the scene on November 23 in Dublin after three children and a creche worker were stabbed

Garda officers at the scene of the stabbing on November 23 after the young child and two others were harmed

The attack sparked riots throughout Dublin 500 thugs fought running battles with riot cops, looted shops and torched a double-decker bus in anger over the attack (pictured)

They wrote: 'Hi everyone, our darling girl has now entered the 3rd phase of her recovery.

'This will be the longest as she will relearn everything as a result of her injury.

'She has done really well thus far and the medical team is very happy with her improvement.

'Once again, she is so strong and we are proud to be by her side supporting her, guiding her, and, above all, loving her every step of the way.'

The catastrophic stabbing triggered Riots in Dublin city centre with authorities saying it had been led by far-right individuals with strong anti-immigration views, who believed the attacker was a migrant.

Around 500 thugs fought running battles with riot cops, looted shops and torched a double-decker bus in anger over the attack.

Pictures from the Irish capital at the time showed council workers removing the wrecks of burned-out buses and cars in a major clean up operation which was condemned by the Irish government.

The incident put pressure on the government and Garda Commissioner about safety and policing in Ireland.

Bouchaker of no fixed address, is further charged with three counts of assault causing harm and the possession and production of a 36cm kitchen knife.
The FBI has been urged to release CCTV footage by a lawyer representing victims of Jeffrey Epstein that he claims could show Prince Andrew at the billionaire US paedophile's mansion.

Spencer Kuvin, an attorney who has represented nine of Epstein's victims, is calling on police in the US to release video from home surveillance cameras following the release of records detailing Andrew's links to the convicted sex offender, The Telegraph reports.

In the files, Johanna Sjoberg, who was a massage therapist for Epstein, claimed that the Duke of York groped her breast on a couch inside Epstein's Manhattan apartment in 2001, an allegation which Andrew denies.

A former housekeeper for Epstein, Juan Alessi, also alleged Andrew had daily massages when he spent 'weeks' at Epstein's Florida property, according to court papers released this week.

Mr Alessi said he believes the Duchess of York came to the Florida estate 'only once and for a short time', but identified Andrew as a person he said 'spent weeks with us'.

Prince Andrew leaves after attending for the Royal Family's traditional Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk, on December 25, 2023

A former housekeeper for Epstein, Juan Alessi, said he believes the Duchess of York came to the Florida estate 'only once and for a short time', but identified Andrew as a person he said 'spent weeks with us'

When asked if he would 'frequently have massages', Mr Alessi responded: 'I would say, daily massages.'

Kuvin, the chief legal officer of Goldlaw in Palm Beach, along with other former employees and victims of Epstein, have all said that every room in all of his mansions had 24-hour security cameras in use.

Kuvin claimed that senior FBI officers took the hard disks and stored videos and now wants the bureau to let the public view the material on those videos.

'I can tell you one thing,' the Florida-based attorney told TMZ Live. 'I personally walked through Jeffrey Epstein's home after the search warrant was executed and I identified numerous cameras and computer hard drives that were missing and a lot of that information was seized by the FBI not only in Palm Beach but also in Virgin Islands and Manhattan.

'Where are the videos? That is what the population needs to see.'

Discussing the newly released US court papers detailing the connections of Epstein, Kuvin said they gave 'context' as to why prominent figures had been linked to the billionaire.

He said: 'The biggest names like Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew are individuals that everybody already knew about or heard about in the past.

'These documents just validate what everybody had been discussing. What is important to understand is now the context in which they have been identified.

'For example this deposition of Johanna Sjoberg, which had previously been sealed, now gives some context to exactly what Jeffrey Epstein was doing with Prince Andrew and some young girls that were there at the time.

'I think the public does [have] a right to get some answers from those individuals.'

Spencer Kuvin, an attorney who has represented nine of Epstein's victims, (pictured) is calling on police in the US to release video from home surveillance cameras following the release of records detailing Andrew's links to the convicted sex offender, according to a report

He continued: 'The biggest problem with most of the individuals that socialised with Jeffrey Epstein is that they were a part of tacitly normalising his behaviour.

'I don't care if you just socialised with the man or if your bank provided him a loan or if you just happened to fly on his plane and be friendly with him. Whatever you were doing with Epstein normalised a sexual predator so that he could gain access to more money and more victims.'

There is no suggestion that Mr Clinton took part in illegal activity, and a spokesman for him has stated that he was not aware of Mr Epstein's crimes.

Andrew has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and being aware of Epstein's behaviour.
East Lothian to play host to the first new charger in the coming weeks

BT is to retrofit up to 60,000 cable boxes into charging points to meet demand

Thousands of green street cabinets are set to be turned into electric car charging points to tackle the chronic shortage, BT has announced.

Despite nearly a million electric cars now on UK roads, there are still only 55,000 on-street charging points available.

To create more, BT said it planned to retrofit up to 60,000 street boxes that currently contain broadband and phone cables for nearby homes.

Despite nearly a million electric cars now on UK roads, there are still only 55,000 on-street charging points available

With most set to be retired due to the roll-out of full-fibre internet, the telecoms giant said they could instead fit it with two charging points.

The first charger is set to be installed in East Lothian, Scotland, in the coming weeks, with further pilots set to roll out across the UK in the months to come.

Britons are increasingly switching to a more environmentally friendly mode of transport, with 975,000 fully electric cars and 590,000 plug-in hybrids on UK roads.

But finding somewhere to charge them is still proving a major barrier to many, with some 55,000 public points are currently in operation across the country.

One in three motorists say they would have bought switched to electric by now if charging was less of an issue, research by BT found.

Ministers have set a target of 300,000 charging points by 2030 and have invested 2bn to rapidly expand the existing infrastructure.

Ministers have set a target of 300,000 charging points by 2030 and have invested 2bn to expand existing infrastructure

The government is aiming to ensure everyone in the UK has access to superfast full fibre internet by 2030.

It means the existing green cabinets, which house the traditional copper cables for broadband, are gradually being decommissioned.

READ MORE: Government falls 'well short' of electric car charger target A Government target for electric car chargers near motorways has been missed, new analysis has revealed. The Department for Transport had set an ambition for there to be at least six rapid or ultra-rapid chargers offering speeds over 50kWh at every motorway service area in England by the end of 2023. However, service stations have fallen 'well short' of these numbers, with just 46 out of 119 (39%) of the sites meeting the target, according to RAC analysis of data from charger locator service, Zapmap. > Find out which motorway services have no chargers at all

BT said they had found a way to retrofit them while still in use so the existing power connection can also be shared with a vehicle charging point. There is then space for another charging point once it is fully retired.

Rishi Sunak recently delayed the ban on new petrol cars by five years to 2035 over concerns the UK wasn't ready for the switch.

In December, the Government said the charging infrastructure had grown 42 per cent on the previous year - and was 'well on the way' to reaching its target.

A BT survey however found 60 per cent of respondents said Britain's EV infrastructure was 'inadequate'.

A further 78 per cent of petrol and diesel drivers said not being able to conveniently charge an EV is a barrier to getting one.

With a third of UK homes not having access to off-street parking, often in cities and town centres, on-street charging is seen as crucial for the roll out of electric cars.

The initiative by BT Group's start-up and digital incubator Etc. has been recognised globally. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has awarded it an 'Innovation Honoree' for outstanding design and engineering at this year's event, taking place this week.

Tom Guy, chief executive of Etc., said: 'Our new charging solution is a huge step in bringing EV charging kerbside and exploring how we can address key barriers customers are currently facing.

'Working closely with local councils in Scotland and more widely across the UK, we are at a critical stage of our journey in tackling a very real customer problem that sits at the heart of our wider purpose to connect for good.'
A budding teenage mechanic has been identified as the man found dead on an unpaved road under suspicious circumstances.

The body of Yoal Gatluak, 19, was found on Undoolya Road, about 10km east of Alice Springs, at about 12:30pm on New Year's Day.

A woman from the nearby Undoolya cattle station had been driving past when she noticed the corpse and raised the alarm.

African Association of Central Australia chair Chuol Yat revealed Mr Gatluak had only recently finished high school in Melbourne before moving to Alice Springs.

The body of a 19-year-old found on a remote and unpaved road east of Alice Springs on New Year's Day has been identified as Yoal Gatluak (pictured)

'It has been really heartbreaking for the family,' Mr Yat told the ABC.

'They are trying to cope with this the fact that the young man has gone, but it is not an easy thing to swallow.'

Northern Territory Police have launched a homicide investigation and seized a Black 2017 Ford Ranger believed to be related to Nr Gatlauk's death.

Investigators are waiting on the release of a report from the coroner following a forensic pathologist's autopsy for more information.

Mr Gatulak, of African descent, was described by his friends and family as a hard-working and 'beloved son'.

Those close to the 19-year-old have been left perplexed by his death, saying he was 'at work constantly' and held in high regard by the local community.

The teenager was one of eight children and had dreams of becoming financially independent and proudly call himself 'one of (Australia's) taxpayers'.

Mr Yat said he believed that attack to be random and hoped for police investigations to find more information as to why the beloved teenager was killed.

Northern Territory Police have ruled Mr Gatulak's death as suspicious after he had been left in the sun on Undoolya Road (pictured) for a short time before he was discovered

Speaking to the media shortly after the teen's body was found, NT Police assistant commissioner Travis Wurst described the death as a 'tragedy'.

'This will be very upsetting for the family given it has occurred on New Year's Day and for a new year,' he said.

'His family will no longer have him for this year and for every year going forward.'

He assured investigators would leave no stone unturned while keeping the African community in Alice Springs in mind.

Police have most recently requested for information regarding the movements of a Black 2017 Ford Ranger between 3am and 1pm on January 1.

The owner of the car is not believed to have been in possession of the vehicle at the time.

Anyone with CCTV or dashcam footage of the vehicle, or any other information related to the incident, has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
The boyfriend of a German backpacker who was crushed by a ride-on mower may have committed a crime at the time of her death, a coroner has found.

Jennifer Kohl, 27, arrived in Australia in February 2017 on a working holiday with her 27-year-old partner Paul Tunik. They had started work on an avocado farm at Tamborine Mountain, about 20km north-west of the Gold Coast, when she died in a freak accident.

A coronial inquest last month found that Ms Kohl had sex with Mr Tunik in remote bush on the farm that day. She then hopped onto a ride-on mower with her partner when the vehicle overturned on a slope, killing her.

Coroner Carol Lee found she had a 'reasonable suspicion that an indictable offence had been committed by Mr Tunik' when Ms Kohl died.

Ms Kohl's mother Cornelia had flown from Europe to attend the inquest and delivered a blistering message to her daughter's boyfriend when the findings were released.

Jennifer Kohl, 27, was killed in a lawn mowing accident on a rural property in Queensland in December, 2017

In her findings, the coroner ruled that Ms Kohl and Mr Tunik had finished their work for the day when they went to an unused and out-of-sight area of the property to have sex.

Mr Tunik then coaxed Ms Kohl to ride back with him on the four-by-four ride-on mower that had a trailer attached to it as part of a 'romantic gesture'.

Mr Tunik was driving the mower with Ms Kohl on the wheel arch when they went down a steep slope and rolled.

Ms Kohl was trapped under the mower and despite Mr Tunik's efforts to remove the heavy piece of industrial equipment and call for help, she was unable to be saved.

A two-day inquest into Ms Kohl's death was held in May last year, with Coroner Lee handing down her findings in December.

'I have formed a reasonable suspicion that an indictable offence has been committed by Mr Tunik,' she said.

'Not having received a submission from Mr Tunik after affording him an opportunity to make a submission, I make a referral to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.'

Mr Tunik did not provide evidence at the inquest.

'Consequently, I find that Mr Tunik and Ms Kohl had completed the work that had been assigned to them on the day of the accident and had engaged in sexual intercourse in a disused and out of sight part of the property, on a joyride pretending the property was theirs,' Coroner Lee said.

'Such activity on the mower was unauthorised and in departure from the instructions given to them.'

At the time of the incident, there was a delay in emergency services arriving at the scene in part due to Mr Tunik's limited English when he rang Triple Zero.

Mr Tunik flagged down passing cars but even with the help of three bystanders Ms Kohl could not be freed.

Ms Kohl's mother Cornelia is seen arriving for the inquest into her daughter's death in Queensland in May last year

A coronial inquest last month found that Ms Kohl had sex with Mr Tunik in remote bush on the farm that day. She then hopped onto a ride-on mower with her partner when the vehicle overturned on a slope, killing her (stock image of the mower)

Paramedics arrived and extracted Ms Kohl but she could not be revived. An autopsy later showed Ms Kohl died from traumatic asphyxia.

Coroner Lee found the farm's co-owners, Kathryn Singleton and Kenneth Jacobi, had provided sufficient instruction and supervision to the two adults for using the mower and trailer in designated areas.

The farm owners had said that Mr Tunik had told them he 'coaxed' his girlfriend into sitting on the mower with him, despite her telling him she did not want to.

Ms Kohl's mother Cornelia travelled from Germany to Queensland for the inquest.

She shared a stern message at the time the findings were delivered to her daughter's boyfriend, which has previously been unreported.

'Should YOU (Paul Tunik) ever travel to Australia again, dress warmly!!! The police are waiting and will be happy to receive you!' she wrote on Facebook on December 1.

In her findings, Ms Lee recommended the Department of Home Affairs set up a 'one stop shop' website for holiday workers to advise them of workplace health and safety as well as their statutory rights in Australia.

The coroner expressed her sincere condolences to Ms Kohl's family over the tragic accident.

'Her death has had an impact on many people, in particular her mother who travelled from Germany for the inquest,' she said.
The Post Office is continuing to hand multi-million-pound contracts to the company behind the faulty Horizon computer software, it has emerged.

MPs have warned that the Post Office could be tied to Fujitsu for years while it tries to find the money to upgrade its IT system.

Former postal affairs minister Paul Scully said last night: 'You are not going to build a new system in a year, so the Post Office will undoubtedly be locked into Fujitsu for a while now.'

The Horizon scandal saw more than 700 subpostmasters prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft, fraud and false accounting after the faulty software made it appear that money had gone missing from their branches.

Yet the Post Office continues to rely on Horizon. It recently awarded a contract worth more than 36million to extend use of it until spring 2025.

The Post Office is continuing to hand multi-million-pound contracts to the company behind the faulty Horizon computer software, it has emerged

The Post Office said its use of Horizon was meant to have ended in 2023, with it hoping to find a new provider.

But it had to 'pivot back' because the change 'created fundamental technical challenges that Post Office Ltd could not economically and technically overcome'.

The Government last month announced a 103million package to support the Post Office's new IT system, but concerns remain over whether this will be enough to break ties with Fujitsu.

Tory MP Mr Scully, who had ministerial responsibility for postal affairs from 2020 to 2022, said: 'The Post Office wants to replace Horizon but they need an awful lot of money to do it, which they haven't got.

'Until then, they effectively have to use Fujitsu.'

He added: 'I totally understand the concerns and everybody wanting to wash their hands of Fujitsu. But until the Post Office can find the money, they're locked in.'

Former postal affairs minister Paul Scully said the Post Office will 'undoubtedly be locked into Fujitsu for a while now'

The Horizon scandal saw more than 700 subpostmasters prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft, fraud and false accounting

Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot, who led calls for a judge-led inquiry into Horizon, said: 'It seems Horizon is now better than it was. It could hardly be worse. And while the Post Office continues to use it  for as short a time as possible, I hope  I suppose Fujitsu has got to maintain it.

'But Fujitsu's reputation has been severely damaged by this saga, and people will not forget it.'

The Post Office said the 36million deal 'was a modification to our overall agreement with the company and not a new contract'.

A spokesman added: 'It has been our long-stated intent to replace Horizon with a new cloud-based system for a number of years. We've been testing basic mails transactions live on this new system in two pilot branches.

'Next, we are adding and testing more mails and back-office functionality. After evaluation, this will be the version that we plan to install in pilot branches later in 2024.

'Around 300 serving postmasters are helping make sure the system is fit for the future with an effective and efficient roll-out across the network.'

Fujitsu last night declined to comment.

The public inquiry into the Post Office scandal will continue this week.
The stunning landscape that inspired Wuthering Heights is the battleground in a showdown between literature lovers and a shopping tycoon.

Businessman Richard Bannister  a Lancastrian  is in partnership with a Saudi Arabia-backed company to transform the moors between West Yorkshire's Haworth and Hebden Bridge into England's largest onshore windfarm.

The project would see 65 towering turbines  each taller than Blackpool Tower  erected on the heath said to have inspired Emily Bronte to write her 1847 classic.

The ruined farmhouse of Top Withens, on the heath near Haworth, is said to be the origin of Cathy's home Wuthering Heights in the novel.

The windfarm aims to generate substantial renewable energy, which, according to supporters, is sufficient to power 286,491 homes annually, while saving 426,246 tons of carbon emissions.

Developers submitted a 'scoping' document for the windfarm in September, but a comprehensive environmental impact assessment must be made before they can apply for planning.

The ruined farmhouse of Top Withens, on the heath near Haworth, is said to be the origin of Cathy's home Wuthering Heights in the novel

But fervent opposition within the local community is gaining momentum. Critics say the plans could damage the moorland's carbon-trapping peat bogs, threatening the flood-prone valleys below.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has voiced concerns over the impact on nesting curlews, lapwings and golden plovers.

The Bronte Society has also raised objections, arguing the development would have 'a significant and detrimental impact on an iconic local viewpoint and world-renowned landscape' that inspired Bronte's literary masterpiece.

Lydia Macpherson and Nick MacKinnon, poets living on the Haworth side of the moor, told the Guardian they feared the alleged insensitivity of the developers toward the wildlife and cultural significance of the area.

'People come from all over the world to see where Cathy and Heathcliff lived,' said Mr MacKinnon. The developers are Saudis, so what do they know of curlews and Heathcliff, and why should they care?'

The stunning landscape that inspired Wuthering Heights is the battleground in a showdown between literature lovers and a shopping tycoon

The project would see 65 towering turbines  each taller than Blackpool Tower (Pictured: Stock image of windfarm)

Mr MacKinnon said Mr Bannister  who owns a chain of discount shopping centres in the area  should 'know better'.

He added: 'At best, this application is criminally negligent about wildlife, flooding and heritage. At worst, it shows contempt for the people in the Worth and Calder valleys, and the imaginations of millions elsewhere, by entitled and selfish owners.'

A spokesman for Saudi-owned Calderdale Windfarm Ltd said: 'We are committed to responsible development that respects the landscape, minimises disruption to wildlife habitats and mitigates potential impacts on the local environment.

'We recognise that concerns have been raised about heritage preservation and have appointed experts in cultural heritage, such as Wessex Archaeology, to guide us in preserving local heritage sites, including the Bronte heritage, and are committed to considering these concerns as part of our ongoing design process.'

The spokesman added that although funding for the planning phase had come from Saudi investment, if given planning permission, most shares would be sold to UK-based investment funds.
Australians have been warned they face even higher energy prices after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek vetoed a critical hub for the nation's first offshore wind farm off the coast of Victoria.

'The project was deemed clearly unacceptable under national environment law and cannot proceed,' a spokesperson for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said on Monday.

The Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal Proposal project would have had 'unacceptable impacts' on the internationally protected Western Port Ramsar Wetland, the spokesperson said.

Four months ago then premier Daniel Andrews said the deep-water port of Hastings would be Australia's first port for the huge towers, blades and turbines needed for the nation's first offshore wind farm.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek vetoed the current plan for the Victorian wind farm site

The terminal was essential for cheaper, cleaner energy and thousands of jobs, according to the state government, now headed by Jacinta Allan.

The central hub was to have supported state targets of at least two gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2032 - enough to power 1.5 million homes - as coal-fired electricity generation is phased out.

It was also close to the Star of the South development - Australia's most advanced offshore wind project proposed for off the coast of Gippsland.

The first power from offshore wind was expected as soon as 2028 and targets of 4GW have been set for 2035 and 9GW for 2040 using winds off Victoria's coastline that are among the best in the world.

Studies show the state has the potential to support 13GW of capacity from coastal regions by 2050 - five times the state's existing renewable energy generation - but lacks necessary port infrastructure.

Stock image of an offshore wind farm off the coast of Copenhagen, Denmark

State opposition energy spokesman David Davis warned Victorians are facing even higher energy prices after the veto of the wind turbine facility.

He said the decision comes as 11 separate Victorian renewable energy projects face approval delays of more than six months, and households and businesses continue to struggle with ever increasing energy bills.

'This is a debacle and Victoria's offshore wind policy is now in tatters  meaning higher energy prices for Victorians at a time they can least afford it,' he said.

The state government will 'assess the Commonwealth's feedback to determine the next steps' for the terminal, a spokeswoman said.
Far-left MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan announced he was leaving the network Sunday, just over a month after the liberal network canceled his weekly talk show as part of a wider shake-up of its weekend lineup.

Hasan, who caused controversy criticizing Israel's war on Hamas, was initially set to remain with the network as an on-camera analyst and fill-in host but announced he was quitting on the final episode of his show.

He briefly referenced the war and the current state of the world and America as he confirmed the decision.

'As we begin 2024, with an election coming, a war still ongoing, and too many Trump trials honestly to even keep track of, and with this show going away, I've decided that it's time for me to look for a new challenge,' he said.

'Tonight is not just my final episode of the Mehdi Hasan Show, it's my last day with MSNBC. Yes, I've decided to leave.'

Far-left MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan announced he was leaving the network Sunday, just over a month after the liberal network canceled his weekly talk show as part of a wider shake-up of its weekend lineup

Some personal news: I've decided to leave MSBNC.



New year, new plans, new challenges:pic.twitter.com/A4ArRYk9d2  Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 8, 2024

Hasan said he was choosing to go in a new direction rather than remain with the left-wing cable news station.

'To be clear: I'm so, so proud of what we've achieved on this show, on this network, and I can't thank you all enough for tuning in and for your support and feedback. But as I say, new year, new plans.'

MSNBC weeknight host Chris Hayes saluted Hasan on X, writing: 'A huge loss for us. An exceptional host and colleague.'

The Sunday night slot will be replaced with a second hour of a show hosted by Ayman Mohyeldin. Hasan has also lost his show on the Peacock streaming service.

Hasan was hired by the network to host the Sunday night show in 2021 and become one of the network's most outspoken liberal critics.

The cancellation comes after Hasan's strong on air criticism of Israel provoked backlash online.

Earlier in November, Hasan clashed with Mark Regev, Senior Adviser to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him 'your government kills children.'

The presenter was also facing pressure after homophobic and offensive comments, including likening gay people to 'pedophiles' and non-Muslims to 'animals,' circulated online, Fox News reported.

MSNBC cancelled Hasan's show as part of a wider shake-up of its weekend lineup.

In 2019 Hasan addressed previous controversial comments he had made

'We know that keeping the moral high ground is key. Once we lose the moral high ground, we are no different from the rest of the non-Muslims, from the rest of those human beings who live their lives as animals, bending any rule to fulfill any desire,' Hasan said in an unearthed clip from 2009.

Hasan previously addressed the controversy when it resurfaced in 2019.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, the journalist said 'Like a lot of journos (humans?) I've said things years ago that I now deeply regret.

'Chief among them for me is, more than a decade ago, in my 20s, when I wasn't a public figure, I gave a bunch of speeches to students on Islam/extremism. And I said dumb offensive ranty stuff.

'Speaking without notes, & trying to be bombastic, I made stupid sweeping remarks about non-Muslims, especially atheists.

'I cringe now when I rehear/reread those remarks. I made stupid offensive analogies to animals. Argh. I'm embarrassed to have to write about all this again.'

Hasan, who caused controversy criticizing Israel's war on Hamas, was initially set to remain with the network as an on-camera analyst and fill-in host but announced he was quitting on the final episode of his show

Hasan was hired by the network to host the Sunday night show in 2021 and become one of the network's most outspoken liberal critics

He added: 'Growing up in a conservative faith community, where you didn't interact with *actual* gay people, I ended up making insensitive remarks, that I've apologized for before.'

In a note to staff in late November, MSNBC President Rashida Jones said the changes were made 'to better position ourselves as we head into the presidential election.'

MSNBC lost 33 percent of its primetime viewers during its coverage of the Israel Hamas war.

The outlet's viewer figures were down 24 percent overall for the four days between October 7 and 10 which saw the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas terrorists.

By comparison the shocking events saw a leap in Fox News's audience, up 42 percent, and at CNN, which saw a 17 percent rise in viewers.
A man killed in a horror single vehicle crash has been identified as a 'cowboy' who was the 'life of the party'.

Kai Malseed, 21, was driving when his Mazda ute left the road and crashed into a tree on Peweena Road, in Mingbool, South Australia at 9.45pm on Saturday.

Emergency services were called to the scene the 21-year-old, who was from Mount Gambier, being the only occupant in the vehicle.

Geordan Thomas paid tribute to his cousin on Facebook saying he had a 'gorgeous smile'.

Kai Malseed's Mazda ute left the road and crashed into a tree on Peweena Rd, Mingbool, North of Mount Gambier in South Australia on Saturday

Affectionally known as 'Cowboy', the 21-year-old was described by family and friends as being 'the life of the party' and having a 'gorgeous smile'

'21 years of you beautiful boy, 21 years of being the life of the party, 21 years of mischief, 21 years of your gorgeous smile, 21 years of laughter,' she wrote.

'Heaven doesnt know whats hit them. Give Nan Kay so much love from us. We are so proud of everything you achieved and we love you so much cowboy.

'This world is never going to be the same without you Kai Malseed. You are loved by so many people mate.'

Many friends also took to Facebook to express their grief and to honour Mr Malseed.

'I never thought Id see the day where one of my best mates would be gone,' one wrote.

'I love and miss you so so much Kai you were always one of the first people to check up and thats what I love about you.

'Im gonna miss all the little adventures we would randomly have Im gonna miss you driving past my house and honking the truck horn at me while you were at work.

'You deserved the world and I hope that one day Ill be able to see you again, fly high you gorgeous soul you were gone too soon.

'Ill always be looking up at the skies to let you know Im still here missing you and forever will be.'

Emergency services were called around 9.45pm Saturday with the 21-year-old being the only occupant in the vehicle

Peweeena Road, Mingbool, South Australia where the single vehicle accident occurred

A South Australian Police spokesman said they were notified about the crash by a neighbour who lived near the scene and also through an Apple alert.

Some iphones and Apple watches have an inbuilt 'Crash Detection' feature that helps users to reach emergency services through an automated 'Emergency call', according to Apple.

The feature helps to detect severe crashes for vehicles such as 'sedans, mini-vans, SUV's, utes and other passenger cars'.

When a user's device has detected an impact such as 'front, side, rear-end collisions, rollovers,' an alarm with sound will be triggered along with an alert displayed by the device.
The FBI arrested three Florida residents Saturday, the third anniversary of their alleged attack on Capitol police officers during the January 6 insurrection.

Jonathan D. Pollock, 24; his sister, Olivia M. Pollock, 33; and Joseph D. Hutchinson, 27, were arrested at a ranch in Groveland, Florida, and are set to be arraigned on Monday, the FBI said. They were indicted in April 2021.

Jonathan Pollock had gone into hiding shortly after the attack. The agency had offered a reward of up to $30,000 for information leading to Pollock's arrest and conviction.

His sister and Hutchinson had been arrested in June 2021 and released on bond, but fled after all removed their ankle monitors in March 2023, shortly before they were set to go on trial in Washington, D.C.

According to a 53-page indictment, Jonathan Pollock and Hutchinson are on video recordings repeatedly punching officers during the riots.

This image from police body-worn camera video, and contained in the criminal complaint, shows Jonathan D. Pollock holding a police riot shield at the U.S. Capitol

An FBI bulletin from 2022 accused Jonathan Pollock of 'assaulting multiple police officers with a deadly weapon'

The FBI first issued a 'wanted' poster for Jonathan Pollock, 24, in 2021, advising that he should be considered armed and dangerous

The agency offered a reward of up to $30,000 for information leading to Pollock's arrest and conviction

Hutchinson, in grey, and Pollock, in green, can be seen using the police's own riot shields against them

Pollock can be seen in green, allegedly using a flagpole to attack officers standing guard. Hutchinson can be seen close by circled in grey

Pollock, a welder and ironworker from Lakeland, Florida, is also alleged to have grabbed riot shields from officers, as he and Hutchinson are accused of using the edge of one to strike an officer in the neck or face.

Pollock allegedly attacked officers by punching and kneeing them. He was also accused using an officer's riot shield to charge into a police line.

'Jonathan Pollock grappled with another officer and swung his arm to strike the officer while another rioter simultaneously swung at the officer with a flagpole,' the release stated.

'Hutchinson kicked the line of police officers, and Jonathan Pollock seized a riot shield, which he thrust into an officer's throat and face before thrusting the shield towards another officer.'

Pollock could be seen in photographs dressed head-to-toe in military-style tactical gear, and is accused of leading a charge against law enforcement with a flagpole.

Court documents say he screamed while trying to force his way up Capitol stairs: 'Let's go!'

Olivia Pollock was also dressed in military-style gear and is accused of attempting to steal an officer's baton. She is charged with punching and elbowing an officer - and try to grab their baton.

In video footage of the incident, one could allegedly be heard yelling, 'We didn't come all this way just to stand here!'

Prior to their arrests, the FBI wrote all three 'should be considered armed and dangerous.'

All are charged with assaulting officers, violent entry into the Capitol and other felonies. Court records do not list any attorneys for the three.

The FBI did not provide any information on how the three were arrested, or what led them to look at the ranch in Florida's Lake County.

All three are scheduled to appear in federal court in Ocala, Florida on Monday, the FBI said.

Olivia Pollock, 33, was also wanted after she disappeared in March, days before her trial in D.C.

Joseph Daniel Hutchinson III, 27, was taken into custody on Saturday

Hutchinson kicked the line of police officers. He was arrested in 2021 after being charged with assaulting law enforcement and other crimes

Hutchinson and an associate, along with other rioters, can be seen grabbing the fence that Jonathan Pollock pushed forward and pulling it away, providing rioters with unobstructed access to the line of police officers

Jonathan Pollock is notated in green, Hutchinson is noted in grey, Associate-2 is notated in orange

'We've been trying to locate Mr. Pollock since last summer,' FBI Tampa Acting Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani said in a 2022 news release.

'The allegations against him aren't going away and must be dealt with. The FBI is patient but determined to bring to justice those responsible for the violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.'

No one returned a phone message left over the weekend at Rapture Guns & Knives, the Lakeland store owned by the Pollock family and where Hutchinson once worked.

In June 2021, the Pollocks' brother, Gabriel, defended his siblings and Hutchinson in an interview with The Ledger, Lakeland's newspaper.

'I do feel like it is a political move that's being perpetrated, which - it's sad,' Gabriel Pollock told the paper.

'It's not how the country should be run ... with everything going on in the country, I think people are pretty fed up with the way the country's being taken away from the people.'

Supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Capitol, on January 6 in Washington, D.C.

Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6

Since Jan. 6 more than 1,200 defendants have been charged with crimes stemming from the attack.

More than 700 of those defendants have pled guilty to charges, and more than 100 have been convicted at trial.

Federal investigators are still working to track down more than 80 violent offenders who as yet still remain unidentified.

One of the most notable as yet unidentified individuals the person who planted pipe bombs outside both the Democratic and Republican national party headquarters on January 5, 2021.

The bombs did not go off, but the FBI said they were 'viable' and posed a danger to the public.

The FBI is offering a $500,000 reward for information that could lead to the arrest of that individual.
Squatters broke into the home and forced him to pay them $1,200 to leave when they'd found somewhere else to live

A Philadelphia homeowner was forced to pay $1,200 to get a squatter to vacate his property, as he says the Democrat-run city and even its police force is 'rewarding criminals.'

The idea of 'squatters' rights' has become a hot-button issue for investors, with states like Florida looking to pass laws to close loopholes that enable them to take over properties.

Chris Harte bought a home in northwest Philadelphia, renovated it and attempted to sell it late in 2023.

That is when a squatter moved in and city officials told him there was little they could do to remove the unwanted tenant.

'It's just unbelievable,' Harte told Fox News Digital. 'The city is rewarding criminals, basically.'

On December 8, Harte's real estate agent got a tip from a neighbor who said they'd hear noises coming from there the night before. The neighbor ended up taking a look, only to see people moving into the house and taking down a 'for sale' sign.

Harte, then caught in a bind of having to pick up his children from school and get his wife from the airport, contacted local police.

When he heard back from the cops, they said people were on the premises trying to change the locks.

In addition, because the squatters claimed they were renting out the property, they said they couldn't do anything about it.

'I had all my paperwork, purchase and sale agreement, homeowner's insurance, the deed to the home, everything on me. They said it didn't matter,' Harte said of a meeting he had with the police, his realtor and his locksmith the next day.

Police said the squatters' did indeed have rights and Harte would have to file a landlord-tenant complaint, costing him over $300 and potentially taking up to a year.

Philadelphia police would only confirm Harte had been informed of the issued and confirmed they made no arrests.

'Squatters' rightsit's like an oxymoron,' Harte scoffed in an interview with Fox News.

'If I walk into a store and steal a bottle of water, they have me on camera, they're going to take me to jail. But somebody can break into my house, change the locks and now they have rights.'

On December 8, his real estate agent got a tip from a neighbor who said they'd hear noises coming from there the night before. The neighbor ended up taking a look, only to see people moving into the house and taking down a 'for sale' sign

That is when a squatter moved in and city officials told him there was little they could do to remove the unwanted tenant. 'It's just unbelievable,' Harte added. 'The city is rewarding criminals, basically'

Bob Cervone, a local realtor representing Harte, says these situations are remarkably common in Philadelphia.

'The police told us that they get three to four calls a day similar to this. I certainly had heard of this happening from other agents, from landlords. But it was my first experience with it.'

The squatters allegedly contacted Cervone and asked for a meeting a few days after Harte confronted police.

They told Harte they had found another place to go but they would only vacate if Harte gave them $2,000.

Harte said he couldn't give them $2,000 but succumbed to a compromise of $1,200.

Not only had they squatted but the people living there trashed the place.

'The house was super dirty, trash everywhere,' he said. 'Luckily, there was no damage.'

Bob Cervone, a local realtor representing Harte, says these situations are remarkably common in Philadelphia

Police said the squatters' did indeed have rights and Harte would have to file a landlord-tenant complaint, costing him over $300 and potentially taking up to a year

After hiring a cleaner and changing the locks, he sold the home last week.

'I had no peace of mind after that,' he said. 'I had to keep driving there like every other day just to make sure that nobody's breaking in.'

He was heavily critical of politicians who run major cities enabling squatters, including Democrat Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.

'It's absolutely preposterous,' Harte said of the political climate in Philadelphia. 'They're not helping investors like myself who want to improve the city, want to buy these homes and fix them up and, you know, make the city a safer, better looking area.'

David Oh, the Republican candidate for mayor against Parker in 2023, accused her of 'gutting' protections for landlords when she was on the city council with him, Fox reported.

'We need different politicians,' Harte said. 'I think their policies are terrible, and they're ruining many cities all throughout America. And Philadelphia is one of them.'

He said that there was a 'correlation' between Democrat policies and situations like his, even when Parker ran as a centrist on a law and order ticket.

Parker, 51, who became the city's first black and female mayor, signed an executive order last week declaring a public safety emergency.

Cherelle Parker, the newly sworn-in 100th mayor of Philadelphia, delivers her inauguration address during the ceremony on Tuesday

Parker is seen swearing in the new police commissioner for Philadelphia, Kevin Bethel

'I want the world to know that I am fully committed to ending this sense of lawlessness and bringing order back to our city and a sense of lawfulness,' she said in a speech.

She promised on the campaign trail to hire 300 more police officers, including community officers, and restore 'constitutional' stop-and-frisk. She also put forth the idea of making school year-round, to reduce juvenile delinquency.

Her plans will include increasing the number of police officers on the streets with a focus on community policing - a policy she championed when on the city council.

Philadelphia has seen rampant crime in recent years, with violent offenses like robberies and aggravated assaults with guns rising above pre-pandemic levels.

Parker takes over a city where violent crime is declining - homicides are down by more than 20 percent year on year, and non-fatal shootings are down 28 percent.

But Philadelphia in 2020 and 2021 had the grim reputation as one of America's most dangerous cities, with more than 500 murders each year - significantly more than New York, which is five times as large.

And theft on Philadelphia is rocketing, with reported vehicle theft up 72 percent. Retail theft is also soaring, and has risen 28 percent in the last year.
An accused serial stabber who randomly attacked five people over the weekend has refused to face court or speak to anyone since being thrown behind bars.

Christopher Raftopoulos, 31, is accused of carrying a bag of knives and going on an unprovoked stabbing spree over three hours in Melbourne's inner suburbs between Saturday and Sunday.

He has been charged with 14 counts of assault causing injury and one of possessing a controlled weapon.

Police allege he may have used multiple different knives to stab five people in four separate attacks across the CBD and St Kilda.

Christopher Raftopoulos, 31, is accused of carrying a bag of knives and going on an unprovoked stabbing spree over three hours in Melbourne 's inner suburbs between Saturday and Sunday

Raftopoulos was due to face Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, but he refused to leave his jail cell.

He presented with catatonic schizophrenia when he was taken into custody on Sunday, the court was told.

His lawyer Michael Amad said he had been unable to take any instructions from Raftopoulos, as he was refusing to speak to him.

'I attempted to speak to him about an hour ago and his position is he does not wish to speak to anyone,' he told the court.

'Perhaps if the matter could be adjourned for a few days, he may be in a better place in respect to giving instructions.'

Police arrested Raftopoulos in South Yarra. He presented with catatonic schizophrenia when he was taken into custody on Sunday, the court heard

Mr Amad submitted a mental health report on Raftopoulos to the court, and said his client was not engaged with any mental health services but was previously ordered to undergo community treatment.

He was assessed by a psychiatric nurse through his cell's trapdoor, but refused to speak to them, the court was told.

Magistrate Rose Falla said he seemed to be 'very unwell' and agreed to adjourn the hearing to later in the week, in the hopes his psychiatric condition improves and to give him time to decide whether he will instruct his lawyer.

The court needed to be confident he understood what was happening in his proceedings for it to continue in his absence, Ms Falla said.

'He's refusing to engage in the court process as of today,' she said.

Raftopoulos will be taken to a prison psychiatric hospital until he is due to face court via video link on Friday.

A woman is fighting for life after she and the man she was with were stabbed while walking along Dandenong Rd in St Kilda East. A police officer searching for evidence is pictured

The three-hour stabbing spree started outside Yankees Burger Bar on King St when a 24-year-old man was stabbed at about 10pm on Saturday (pictured)

Detectives are investigating whether the spree began with the stabbing of a 28-year-old Mount Waverley man on City Road in Southbank at 9.20pm on Saturday.

Forty minutes later, a 24-year-old man was stabbed outside a King Street burger store and taken to hospital with a leg injury, police said.

A couple, both aged 31, were stabbed about 11pm, while walking along Dandenong Road in St Kilda East.

The woman is in a serious but stable condition and her partner, a Glen Waverley man, had a serious laceration to his arm.

A 31-year-old English man was attacked on Acland Street in St Kilda at about 12.30am on Sunday, and taken to hospital with leg injuries.

Police said none of the victims knew the alleged attacker.

More to follow.
Former President Donald Trump has demanded Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin be 'fired immediately' after going 'missing for a week' when he was secretly in the ICU as the White House was kept in the dark about his condition.

In a scathing post to Truth Social on Sunday night, Trump did not hide his anger as what he claimed was a 'dereliction of duty' having occurred after Austin failed to inform his superiors as to his whereabouts - with even his deputy seemingly kept in the dark.

'Failed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin should be fired immediately for improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty. He has been missing for one week, and nobody, including his boss, Crooked Joe Biden, had a clue as to where he was, or might be,' Trump began.

'He has performed poorly, and should have been dismissed long ago, along with 'General' Mark Milley, for many reasons, but in particular the catastrophic surrender in Afghanistan, perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our Country!' Trump went on.

Trump has joined the growing calls for Biden to fire Austin, who was admitted to intensive care at Walter Reed Medical Center on January 1. But it wasn't until days later that many in the Pentagon and the White House learned of his condition.

Former President Donald Trump has called for the removal of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, accusing him of a 'dereliction of duty' for being 'missing for a week'

Trump expressed his anger on Truth Social, claiming Austin's failure to disclose his whereabouts in hospital was grounds for immediate dismissal

Austin, 70, was hospitalized on January 1, but the Pentagon waited three days to reveal the information. He is pictured December 20 in this most recent pic

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III is seen onboard USS Gerald R. Ford in the Eastern Mediterranean on December 20

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, pictured, was in vacation in Puerto Rico while Lloyd Austin was sick in hospital

Politico reported that Austin's job is not in jeopardy as the longtime Biden ally looks to stay in the top military post.

Biden got to know Austin when he served as vice president and led Iraq policy for the Obama administration. Austin was a commander in the Middle East at the time.

Additionally, Austin was also close to Beau Biden when Beau served on Austins staff in Iraq in 2008 and 2009.

The two men, both devout Catholics, attended Mass together, sitting side-by-side almost every Sunday, and they kept in touch after Beau returned from his deployment.

Joe Biden even mentioned his late son's special relationship upon his nomination to the post in 2020

'Its why he has inspired so many young people who work for him to give their very best, and to live up to his example of leadership  including, for a time, a lawyer serving a year in Iraq with his Delaware Army National Guard unit. My son, Beau Biden.

'I know how proud Beau was to serve on your staff, General Austin. And I know that, under your leadership, the Department of Defense will advance the security of the American people in ways that always honor our highest values and ideals,' he said.

Austin was also close to the late Beau Biden when Beau served on Austins staff in Iraq in 2008 and 2009. Beau and Joe are pictured in 2009 at Camp Victory near Baghdad

Austin, 70, ranks just below President Joe Biden at the top of the chain of command of the US military and his duties require him being available at a moment's notice to respond to any manner of national security crisis. Pictured in September 2023

On Sunday, the Pentagon released new details about defense secretary Lloyd Austin's secretive stay in hospital.

It explained how Austin - who ranks just behind the Commander-in-Chief in military command - underwent a medical procedure on December 22 and went home a day later. He was admitted to intensive care on January 1 when he began experiencing severe pain.

The latest information came as members of both parties in Congress expressed concerns about the secrecy of Austin's hospital stay and the fact that the president and other senior leaders were kept in the dark about it for days.

Austin was last seen in public on December 20th as he visited the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to thanks crew members personally for their service

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been in intensive care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, pictured

Austin's hospitalization comes as the US is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine

The statement, released by Air Force Major General Pat Ryder, did not, however, provide any details about the medical procedure or what actually happened on Monday to require Mr. Austin to be in intensive care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington D.C.

Ryan said Austin was placed in the hospital's intensive care unit 'due to his medical needs, but then remained in that location in part due to hospital space considerations and privacy'.

The Pentagon's failure to disclose Austin being taken to hospital, including to President Joe Biden, the National Security Council and top Pentagon leaders, for days reflects a lack of transparency about his illness, how serious it was and when he may be released.

Such secrecy, when the United States is juggling myriad national security crises, runs counter to normal practice with the president and other senior US officials and Cabinet members.

Ryder said the National Security Council and deputy secretary of defense Kathleen Hicks were not notified until Thursday, January 4, that Austin had been in hospital since January 1.

Ex-DOD officials have said someone is likely to be fired over the miscommunication- though Austin might be saved thanks to his personal connection with Joe Biden. (Pictured: Biden speaking during a White House meeting in January 2023, flanked by Austin and Antony Blinken)

Ryder said Austin's chief of staff Kelly Magsamen was ill and 'unable to make notifications before then'.

He said she informed Hicks and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on Thursday.

Once notified, Hicks began preparing statements to send to Congress and made plans to return to Washington.

Hicks was also out of town and in Puerto Rico on leave but had communications equipment with her to remain in contact and had already been tasked with some secretary-level duties on Tuesday.

The Pentagon did not say if Hicks was given an explanation on Tuesday for why she was assuming some of Austin's duties, but temporary transfers of authority are not unusual and are often done without detailed explanations.

Hicks decided not to return after she was informed that Austin would resume full control on Friday.

Biden personally vouched for his nominee to lead the Pentagon and asked Congress to approve the waiver so Austin Lloyd could be confirmed back in December 2020

Biden was then told of Austin's medical stay on Thursday by Sullivan, according to three people with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In a statement issued on Saturday evening said Austin took responsibility for the delays in notification.

He said: 'I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better.

'But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.'

Austin, 70, remains in hospital, and officials have been unable to say how long he will be at Walter Reed.

In his statement, Austin said he is on the mend and is looking forward to returning to the Pentagon soon, but he provided no other details about his ailment.
Snow fell across Britain today as temperatures plunged to -7C (19F) with more ice warnings issued and an amber cold health alert imposed for the rest of this week.

Flood misery also continued with 300 Environment Agency alerts or warnings in place after more than 1,800 properties were deluged by prolonged, intense rainfall.

The mercury plunged this morning to -7C at Altnaharra in Scotland, -5C (23F) at Castlederg in Northern Ireland, -2C (28F) in Yeovilton, Somerset, and -1C (30F) at Keswick in the Lake District - while London and Birmingham both fell to 0C (32F).

And the Met Office issued a new 12-hour ice warning for southern England and South Wales from 3pm today until 3am tomorrow - with up to 0.8in (2cm) of snow set to fall this afternoon and evening in some areas, mostly over higher ground.

Also today, trains were still disrupted by flooding, including Great Western Railway between Reading and Westbury and CrossCountry between Gloucester and Lydney.

Meanwhile an amber cold health alert for the North West of England, West Midlands, East Midlands and South West of England was in place from now until noon Friday.

The alert from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) means 'cold weather impacts are likely to be felt across the whole health service for an extended period of time'.

Snow arrives at Killhope in County Durham this morning as motorists are warned of icy roads

Vehicles drive through a snow shower on the M20 motorway near Maidstone in Kent today

A light dusting of snow has fallen on football pitches in Hove, East Sussex, this morning

A woman is caught in a snow flurry on street in Orpington, South East London, this morning

The Met Office ice warning which runs from 3pm today until 3am tomorrow

There was also a yellow cold health alert in place for the North East of England, Yorkshire and The Humber, East of England, South East of England and London.

Cold Health Alerts issued by UK Health Security Agency Cold Health Alerts (CHA) are running from now until 12pm this Friday. Amber CHA North West England

West Midlands

East Midlands

South West England Yellow CHA North East England

Yorkshire and The Humber

East England

South East England

London Advertisement

This morning, the Met Office issued a new ice warning from 3pm today, saying: 'Parts of southern Britain are likely to see some snow showers during Monday afternoon and the first part of the night.

'Most places will see little or no lying snow, but 1 to 2cm may settle in one or two places, mostly over high ground.

'In addition, some icy surfaces are possible for a time. However, the chance is this reduces by dawn on Tuesday as snow showers clear to the west and surfaces dry out.'

It comes after similar ice warnings across parts of South East England and Northern Ireland expired at 10am this morning.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland roads account tweeted today: 'Motorists should exercise caution this morning, particularly on untreated roads, as freezing temperatures have caused widespread ice throughout the road network.

'Stick to main, gritted roads when possible. Slow down, and increase your braking distance from the vehicle in front.'

And Greater Anglia told rail passengers today: 'We are expecting icy conditions this morning. Please take care when travelling.'

Also today, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Government's response to the flooding was not 'good enough' and vowed he would take pre-emptive action as he toured streets being cleared up after last week's deluge.

Sir Keir was speaking after Ian Clements, 68, showed him around his drenched semi-detached house in Loughborough, Leicestershire, this morning.

Mr Clements described how water from the nearby canal surged down Bottleacre Lane last Wednesday, reaching more than a foot deep in his lounge.

The Labour leader explained how he would set up a flood resilience task force to make sure preventative measures were in place before the winter flooding season.

Snow falls at Killhope Mining Museum in County Durham this morning

A dusting of snow on fields in Hove, East Sussex, is pictured this morning

A pedestrian passes vehicles on a motorway bridge in snow near Maidstone in Kent today

Footprints through the snow in the village of Detling in Kent this morning

Snow falls near Maidstone in Kent today as some regions continue to grapple with flooding

He said: 'The response wasn't quick enough. So I just don't think it's good enough for the Government to come after the event again and express empathy.

'Get ahead of this with a task force. That's what I would do.'

Asked if Labour would provide more money for flood prevention, Sir Keir said: 'Of course it does need money but the task force is not just about money.

'It's about getting the basics done. Getting those drains cleared. Getting the local authorities together. Having a plan.'

Yesterday, Rishi Sunak visited flood-hit residents in Oxford as Environment Agency (EA) workers continue trying to mop up from the heavy rainfall and high winds during Storm Henk last week.

South London and parts of the South East, covered by the ice warning, will endure 'a mix of sleet and snow showers' that will move in from the east and 'temperatures near zero', according to the Met Office.

The forecaster added: 'Given these wintry showers, and also wet surfaces after recent wet weather, some icy patches are likely on untreated surfaces.

'Additionally a few of the snow showers could turn quite heavy; these probably only affecting a narrow zone but a few places could see 1 to 3cm, mainly over the north Downs and on grassy surfaces.'

St Ives in Cambridgeshire surrounded by flooding today after the Great Ouse burst its banks

Cleveland Pools in Somerset, which is the UK's oldest lido and recently underwent a 9.3million restoration, has been engulfed by floodwater in recent days

The town of St Ives in Cambridgeshire is still surrounded by flood water this morning

A cyclist travels through floodwater at Orton Mere in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, today

A cyclist travels through floodwater at Orton Mere in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, today

The EA has warned that more than 1,800 properties have already flooded, and more could be affected over the next week as river levels rise - with the impact of high water levels likely to continue particularly around the Trent, Severn and Thames.

The agency said buildings 'will flood and there will be travel disruption' during that time period, and local groundwater flooding is also possible in the South of England, Yorkshire and the Humber.

There were 169 flood warnings in place where flooding is expected and 159 flood alerts this morning in the southern parts of England, up through the Midlands and into Yorkshire.

Mr Sunak had sought to defend the Government's record on flood protection as he spoke to the media in front of the fast-moving River Thames.

He said: 'We have over 1,000 Environment Agency personnel on the ground in local communities helping, over 200 pumps have been deployed.

There are 169 flood warnings (in red) in place where flooding is expected and 159 flood alerts (in amber) today in the southern parts of England, up through the Midlands and into Yorkshire

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak talks to members of the Environment Agency as he looks at flood defences during a visit to Oxford yesterday

'We've invested 5.2billion in flood defences over the period in question, that's a record sum, far more than we've done (previously), in the future that's contributed to protecting over 300,000 homes.

'And, of course, there have been many people affected by what's happened over the past week, but also over 49,000 have been protected from flooding.'

Labour had accused the Government of being 'asleep at the wheel' over flood warnings, with leader Sir Keir Starmer vowing to make flood defences 'fit for purpose', writing on social media that 'people's lives shouldn't be upended by extreme rain'.

Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at the UKHSA, said: 'With the Met Office forecasting drops in temperature across the United Kingdom into next week, it is important to check in on the wellbeing of those most vulnerable to the cold.'

The cold weather can increase the risks of heart attacks, strokes and chest infections and can have a serious health impact for older people and those with pre-existing health conditions.
Gina Rinehart has wined and dined with members of One Nation at a lavish fundraising event where she brought an entire wagyu sirloin.

The billionaire mining magnate was the guest of honour at the December 28 dinner at Vue Wine Bar & Restaurant in Yeppoon, central Queensland, with diners forking out $2,500 for a ticket to attend.

It was a major fundraising event for Pauline Hanson's chief of staff, James Ashby, who is now running as the party's candidate for the Queensland seat of Keppel.

'The business people of our region are heavy lifters who despite the pressures of government interference and red tape achieve great outcomes for our local economy,' Mr Ashby posted alongside an image of guests at the event.

Since announcing his candidacy at the next Queensland State election at the start of December, Mr Ashby has received more than $22,700 from fundraising efforts - a large part attributed to the Rinehart event.

The billionaire mining magnate was the guest of honour at the December 28 dinner (pictured) at Vue Wine Bar & Restaurant in Yeppoon, central Queensland, with diners forking out $2,500 for a ticket to attend

He has already topped amount raised by the party in the 12 months before the 2020 state election.

Electoral funding disclosures reveal the Queensland branch of One Nation has only received one donation  for less than $1,000  in more than two years.

Some of Ashbys other donors include a handful of Liberal National Party figures and Sky News commentator and former chief of staff to Tony Abbott, Peta Credlin.

Mr Ashby said last month that Queensland faces the prospect of a Labor government 'held to ransom by inner-city Greens', or a change of government supported by One Nation MPs dedicated to representing the interests of regional communities.

'The Nationals are dead in Queensland's parliament while the Liberals are lurching further left in their attempts to secure inner-Brisbane seats,' he said.

'With the support of Keppel voters, I'll work to deliver the policies needed to reduce cost-of-living pressures, improve housing availability and affordability, arrest youth crime and restore a long-term vision for Queensland.'

Ms Rinehart, last year, also launched an extraordinary attack on the Federal Labor Government in a scathing speech - slamming welfare policies and its forecast that 1.5million migrants will come to Australia in the next five years.

The dinner was a major fundraising event for Pauline Hanson 's chief of staff, James Ashby (pictured together), who is now running as the party's candidate for the Queensland seat of Keppel

Gina Rinehart even brought an entire wagyu sirloin to the fundraising event

The country's richest woman spoke at an event hosted by the Queensland Resources Council in May, where she claimed Treasurer Jim Chalmers' Federal budget surplus was built on the back of the mining industry.

The resources magnate, who is the executive chairwoman of Hancock Prospecting, said that state and federal governments would not 'have their massive tax revenues to waste without our industries', amid booming commodities prices.

In a ten-page speech, Mrs Rinehart also insisted governments needed to stop using pejorative two-word descriptions of mining such as 'dirty mining' and 'evil mining'.

She also expressed fear that Australia would not be able to afford to ramp up its defence forces because of 'grossly insufficient taxpayer funds ... after increased welfare payments and net zero schemes'.

Mrs Rinehart nodded to the worker shortage which is affecting several key industries across the country - with unemployment at 3.5 per cent.

Australia's richest woman (pictured) launched an extraordinary attack on the Federal Labor Government last year in a scathing speech - slamming welfare policies and its forecast that 1.5million migrants will come to Australia in the next five years

She argued that veterans and pensioners face 'onerous paperwork' which deters them from seeking out jobs.

'Morally this is so wrong, how can a government, knowing of the worker shortage crisis and businesses' needs and the cost of living crisis, restrict pensioners to dreadful poverty, effectively preventing our Australian pensioners from being able to work if they wish.'

Mrs Rinehart, a top political donor to the conservative side of politics, instead proposed a retirement model similar to that used in New Zealand.

Kiwi pensioners are permitted to 'work as much as they like and simply pay income tax like the rest of us on their work earnings', she said.

'Doesn't your blood boil, when you know that our veterans, who were sent to terrible conditions overseas, many risking their lives, too many live in poverty, some even homeless on our streets, (are) not able to work more than a few hours per week in the country they served.'
Parents are being told to send their children to school with coughs and colds after a poll found one in four adults think it is okay for youngsters to skip school.

The Government has launched a national campaign to tackle high levels of absenteeism and ensure all children are in class, using the strapline 'moments matter, attendance counts'.

This rise in absences is believed to be down to the covid-era practice of keeping children away from their education if they showed any symptoms of a respiratory illness.

The number of secondary school children persistently absent in England has doubled in the last decade, from 567,000 in 2010 to 894,444 in 2021.

A YouGov poll, commissioned by the Centre for Social Justice, also found that 28 per cent of parents agreed the pandemic had shown it was not essential for children to be in school every day.

The number of secondary school children persistently absent in England has doubled in the last decade, from 567,000 in 2010 to 894,444 in 2021

A YouGov poll, commissioned by the Centre for Social Justice, also found that 28 per cent of parents agreed the pandemic had shown it was not essential for children to be in school every day

This rise in absences is believed to be down to the covid-era practice of keeping children away from their education if they showed any symptoms of a respiratory illness

Last year, a record 399,000 parents were given a penalty notice by local authorities for their children's unauthorised school absence. The number of fines issued in 2022-2023 were 20 per cent higher than in 2018-2019.

Both the Tory Government and the Labour Party are this week outlining their differing approaches to how to bring down truancy at school.

Bridget Phillipson, Labour's shadow education secretary, urged parents not to take children out of school for holiday trips and will give a speech on Tuesday outlining her plans.

She told the BBC: 'I think those parents that choose to take their children out of school for holidays or for trips or where it's not necessary should reflect seriously. Because that damages children's life chances, they only get one chance at school, they only get one childhood.

'For those parents who are facing additional challenges, and for children that are facing additional challenges, an incoming Labour government will make sure that we put in place the support that's needed to tackle that.'

The Government wants people to follow advice issued by Prof Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, and other leading health experts, which encourages parents to send their children to school with mild respiratory illnesses.

The advice reads: 'We are aware that the Covid-19 pandemic may have caused some parents to feel less confident with assessing whether their child is well enough to be in school so we have laid out some information which we hope you will find helpful.

'There is wide agreement among health professionals and educational professionals that school attendance is vital to the life chances of children and young people. Being in school improves health, wellbeing and socialisation throughout the life course. The greatest benefits come from children and young people attending school regularly.

'It is usually appropriate for parents and carers to send their children to school with mild respiratory illnesses. This would include general cold symptoms: a minor cough, runny nose or sore throat. However, children should not be sent to school if they have a temperature of 38C or above.'

The Government is also expanding a mentor scheme championed by the charity Barnardos as part of its 15million programme to tackle the attendance crises.

The issue is one of a number of behavioural changes seen during the pandemic, such as employees working from home, that appear to have become longer-term trends.

Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, wants to remind parents they have a 'legal duty' to send their children to school with minor mental or physical illnesses to school

Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, said: 'The benefits of our success in raising education standards can only be when all children are in school.

'Tackling attendance is my number-one priority. We want all our children to have the best start in life because we know that attending school is vital to a child's wellbeing, development, and attainment, as well as impact future career success.'

Some 28 per cent of secondary school pupils in England were classed as 'persistently absent', meaning they missed at least a tenth of school sessions, according to Labour analysis of Department of Education data.

Ms Phillipson said a Labour government would open mental health clubs in every area and universal free breakfast clubs in primary schools.

Both the Conservatives and Labour's policies act to remind parents they have a 'legal duty' to send their children to school with minor mental or physical illnesses to school, as failing to do so would damage their chances of good exam results.
More than a million people have signed a petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE amid growing anger at the Horizon scandal.

Demands for the Honours Forfeiture Committee to remove Ms Vennells' gong have emerged again after ITV aired a new drama into the scandal: Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

The Horizon scandal has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history. Ms Vennells oversaw the organisation while it routinely denied there were problems with its Horizon IT system.

The petition, which is addressed to Sir Chris Wormald, the chair of the Forfeiture Committee, says: 'Evidence has been produced that the Post Office engaged in a mass cover up which led to the wrongful prosecution of 550 Post Office Staff many of whom were subsequently jailed, bankrupted and in some cases, sadly took their own lives.

'Having been handed a CBE for services to the Post Office, and moved out into other senior positions in government and healthcare, it is only right that this award is now withdrawn through the process of forfeiture.'

Pressure is also mounting on Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey over his role in the scandal, having been postal affairs minister during the coalition government between 2010 and 2012.

More than one million people have signed a petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to lose her CBE amid growing anger over the Horizon scandal

The Horizon scandal has been been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history

Sir Ed Davey, now the Lib Dem leader (left), was post office minister in the Coalition government between 2010 and 2012 (right

The Sunday Times published a cache of correspondence between Alan Bates, a former sub-postmaster, and ex-ministers from the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government - including Sir Ed.

Tory Treasury minister Bim Afolami said Government is working 'incredibly hard' to make sure that justice is done 'as quickly as possible' for postmasters wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal.

He said Sir Ed should 'be honest with people' and explain why as a minister 'he didn't ask the right questions'.

It was revealed in The Guardian yesterday that The Post Office is suspected of dozens more wrongful prosecutions of operators who took part in a 'pilot scheme' of the faulty system.

Sources from Whitehall confirmed that a precursor scheme took place between 1995 and 1996 to hundreds of branches in north-east England.

It comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed a report that Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is considering ways of helping to clear the names of convicted subpostmasters caught up in the scandal.

More than 700 Post Office branch managers were given criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software called Horizon made it appear as though money was missing from their shops.

Reports say Mr Chalk is set to meet with the Minister for the Post Office Kevin Hollinrake on Monday to discuss how to help the convicted branch managers.

There has been fresh public backlash to the scandal after ITV aired a drama starring actor Toby Jones last week about the scandal.

Reports suggest since Mr Bates Vs The Post Office was broadcast, 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers.

The Post Office is wholly owned by the Government and a public inquiry into Horizon is ongoing.

Speaking during a visit to Oxford on Sunday, the Prime Minister said the UK Government was 'keen to do everything we can because this was absolutely appalling' and should 'never have happened'.

Ms Vennells oversaw the organisation while it routinely denied there were problems with its Horizon IT system

He said: 'It has been an appalling miscarriage of justice and appalling treatment of all the people affected and it is right that they get the redress that they deserve.

'That is why the Government has put in place three different compensation schemes that have already paid out almost 150 million to thousands of people who are affected, and are keen to go as quickly as possible.

'More broadly, the Justice Secretary is also looking at other options for how we can provide support for people.'

On Thursday, Mr Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer resisted to back calls for Ms Vennells to lose her CBE.

Ms Vennells said she was 'truly sorry' for the 'suffering' caused to subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted of offences.

Scotland Yard said on Friday that officers are 'investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions', for example 'monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions'.

The Metropolitan Police had already been looking into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.

Mr Bates's fight for justice has been portrayed by Toby Jones in the acclaimed new ITV drama, 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office', which has raised new public awareness of the scandal

The petition, named 'Post Office Scandal: Strip Paula Vennells of her CBE' reached one million signatures just after midnight on Monday.

Alan Bates, a former subpostmaster who is referenced in the title of the series, has called for more to be done to help recompense those wrongly given criminal convictions and who had their lives turned upside down.

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Rishi Sunak revealed the option of exonerating all postmasters was being 'looked at' by the Justice Secretary.

Asked if the Government would remove the Post Office's ability to investigate and prosecute, he said: 'The Justice Secretary is looking at the things that you've described, it wouldn't be right to pre-empt that process, obviously there's legal complexity in all of those things but he is looking at exactly those areas.'

Rishi Sunak revealed that the Government is looking at exonerating all subpostmasters caught up in the Horizon scandal

Earlier in the programme, Mr Sunak said: 'Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond and it is an appalling miscarriage of justice.'

On the same programme former subpostmaster Lee Castleton, who was ordered to repay money and legal costs to the tune of 321,000 despite doing nothing wrong, said it had been 'like a war' trying to get compensation from the Post Office.

He said: 'The victims are traumatised. It has been a long time of 25 years and 135 million has been paid to some of the victims, but we have had 150 million-plus paid to lawyers.

'These lawyers are putting lots of pressure and it is difficult. The schemes are difficult.

'We are just normal run-of-the-mill people. We have legal people with us but it is so difficult and it is like a war.

'Why would anybody put the Post Office and DBT (the Department for Business and Trade) in charge of recompensing the victims?'

He added that he felt the compensation scheme for victims should be taken away from the organisations currently running it.
Why this cause?

I am a member of this society, I am a member of our country and I am a parent and I really think that our country is at a boiling point.

We are sensitive to this topic, we all feel the pain when we see it on the news but there is very little done that reverberates into action.

So for me there needs to be a consistent voice or a fixed point where we can point the finger and say hey let's do something together. From my perspective it really is as a parent.

Now I got the chance to sit down with some of the parents of the victims, some of the high profile victims that we have seen, on Friday and I sat in a room in a boxing club with a lot of the families and it was really, really clear that while the rest of the country can mourn very quickly what we see, like poor Harry on New Year's Eve, his family will live with this forever and go on and on and on.

Specific asks of the campaign?

There's three categories, three groups of thinking here. Number one is let's really, really look at the supply chain, really look at what can we do to get rid of and take these knives off the streets.

For one, it shows a massive symbol to our society that we are not going to tolerate it by putting an absolute ban on it.

I know it's been proven that machetes and zombie knives are going to be banned. It has been put into legislation but it's a slow process and it needs to but upscaled. It needs to be put into priority.

When there was a ban on a dog, it happened very, very quickly. It was very specific. We need to apply the same measure to zombie knives and machetes and swords and what not and that is literally examining the whole chain from those who are profiting to the tech companies that are advertising it to the way it's getting into the zeitgeist for kids. We need to figure out a way to irradicate them.

One thing I got from Friday sitting with those families is that they are applying critical thinking all the time and the one that kept coming back up is the youth services being cut, which is a massive contribution to the rise of certain violence in certain areas.

There's a study that the national youth agency put out a year ago, two years, and there's some real hard facts that where the cuts that we've seen to the youth services there is a rise in crime. So I think the Government would be good to look at this really carefully.

Not to mention crime prevention is expensive, we spend a lot of money on dealing with all the things that happened after some one has had a crime. Let's put that money elsewhere.

Cuts need to be made and some youth services might be affected, so where is the money going to come from?

Yeah and that's a harsh reality and I understand that. The campaign is called don't stop the future, so in that word let's future proof this, let's figure out 'can we afford to lose our youth?'.

So the question is that as we distribute budgets, should we be focusing on prevention rather than the insurmountable tax payer cost that comes when we have to deal with the services when someone dies?

London accounts for quarter of knife crime in the country. Are you concerned if the news of knife crime is covered in London it is cast as a black problem, when it is a poverty problem?

The evidence suggests it is a nationwide problem and we need to address it as a nation and not literally get bamboozled by the numbers that come from London. Even correspondents mention London numbers, we're talking about 18 deaths.

I think it is important to look at this as a nationwide issue and it is not just a black issue, it's a UK issue. Knife crime affects everyone and I think it is a concern.

You know knife crime is knife crime. Zombie knives, machetes need to be banned, there is no ethnicity attached to those. There is some hard critical thinking that we can do as a collective.

One of the asks is to get the Government to literally listen to not only the youth who are being affected by this the most - you've got someone that is carrying a knife because they are scared of someone else carrying a knife - but listen to the families who have to listen and think about what happened to their child before they passed and find themselves examining that journey.

How did the perpetrator get the knife in the first place? I was speaking to a mother and she broke it down she said it was the post office that delivered the knife to the person that killed her son. The post office.

We can put some critical thinking here. The ban on zombie knives and machetes will not solve the problems but symbolically it would really show our society that we are fed up of it, we need to stop it.

Did you see any violence of this kind?

In the neighbourhoods that I grew up, I grew up in Hackney and then Canning Town. When you are an exploding teen, your emotions are going and yes I saw violence, I avoided violence. But I saw the type of violence that is associated to going to a boys' school and having beefs with another boys' school or another school.

It's different tenure to what we are seeing now. Carrying a pocket knife back then is very different to carrying a zombie knife and machete [Interviewer: and then posting it all over social media] Exactly. Tech companies that have this incredible tool in front of them which is called a phone which all of our kids are obsessed by are feeding the imagery are feeding the accessibility to these knives. I think there is some critical thinking about how apply pressure on the tech companies to not demonstrate knives in the eyes of young people.

What do you say to people who say you are an actor, why are you getting involved?

It is not about being an actor or a politician, we are all human beings and we live in a society. If I don't feel safe just because I am an actor should I not say that. I think we should all speak up when we should and this is a moment where should speak up. parliament today we have laid out symbolic clothes of some of the actual victims.

At the top of this year usually everyone has got a News year resolution, let's take that new vigour and lets apply it to eradicating knife crime. We can do it as a society. I am just a parent. I am a parent that cares for my children like I'd care for yours Amol. But I do think that having a soapbox as an actor allows me to speak a little higher than some people.

I am also a target as well to get criticised, but I don't care about that as much as I care we've got to do as a society look after our youth. When I was 15 the national youth theatre the princes trust really steered my path. I was part of a YTS scheme a government scheme that partnered with businesses to get youths a training programme, where are those now, here are they. We should really think about our future.

There is a kid somewhere who is 15 going to school that is probably going to end up being leader of our country. What are we saying to that generation right now in the way we handle this and that's where we are coming from.
Iranian authorities have whipped a woman 74 times for 'violating public morals' and fined her for refusing to wear a hijab while walking through the streets of Tehran.

Roya Heshmati, 33, was lashed with a leather whip and also forced to pay a fine equivalent to 255 after she 'encouraged permissiveness' by walking around in public without covering her head.

Writing on her now-locked social media page, Heshmati explained how she was beaten mercilessly across her back, legs and buttocks in a dank room she likened to a medieval torture chamber - but still refused to wear a hijab in the courtroom even after the ordeal.

'[The lashing] was over. We left the room. I didn't let them think I had experienced pain We went up to the judge in charge of execution of the sentence. The female agent walked behind me and was careful not to let my headscarf drop from my head.

'I threw off my scarf at the courtroom entrance. The woman asked me to wear the headscarf. I didn't stop and she pulled it over my head again,' she wrote.

The brutal punishment triggered widespread outcry on social media, with Abbas Abdi, one of Iran's leading journalists and social activists writing: 'These lashes did not just come down on the body of one woman, they hit all those who dream of a life with normal freedoms alongside each other.

'Enough is enough. Don't disgust the society any more than this.'

Roya Heshmati, a vocal critic of the compulsory hijab, was lashed 74 times

A grainy image of Heshmati's injuries following the lashing was shared on social media. The brutal punishment triggered widespread outcry among social and political commentators

Roya Heshmati, 33, is seen in a headscarf

'The convicted, Roya Heshmati, encouraged permissiveness (by appearing) disgracefully in busy public places in Tehran,' the judiciary's Mizan Online website said late on Saturday.

'Her penalty of 74 strokes of the lash was carried out in accordance with the law and with sharia,' and 'for violating public morals,' Mizan said.

The judiciary also claimed Heshmati had connections to 'an organised group outside Iran', though didn't specify details.

Even after suffering the savage beating, Heshmati refused to wear a headscarf provided for her by officials, Iran International reported.

All women in Iran have been required by law to cover their neck and head since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Whippings for breaching the dress code are uncommon in Iran, although officials have increasingly cracked down on those defying the rules after the practice surged during anti-government protests that began in late 2022.

Those protests were triggered by the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd arrested for an alleged breach of the Islamic Republic's strict dress code for women.

During the protests, female demonstrators cast off their headscarves or even burned them.

Other women also began to flout the dress code, leading to a crackdown.

Heshmati was also ordered to pay a fine of 12 million rials (225)

Heshmati is seen walking in Tehran in a red top without a headscarf

Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw identified Heshmati as 33-year-old woman of Kurdish origins.

She was arrested in April 'for publishing a photo on social media without wearing a headscarf,' her lawyer Maziar Tatai told the reformist Shargh daily.

Heshmati was also ordered to pay a fine of 12 million rials (around 225) for 'not wearing the Muslim veil in public', Tatai said.

A prison sentence was initially put forward, but was later dropped.

As part of their enforcement of the dress code, officials have installed surveillance cameras in public places to monitor violations and have shut businesses that breached the rules.

Iran's parliament has also discussed a bill that would toughen penalties for those breaching the dress code.

Heshmati's ordeal came just months after Iran sent a popular rapper back to jail - less that two weeks after his release from prison on bail - for rapping about the hijab protests that followed Mahsa Amini's death in custody in 2022.

The Mizan judiciary website in November said authorities arrested Toomaj Salehi on a new charge of 'spreading lies and violation of public opinion.'

Salehi was released from prison in mid-November after spending more than a year in custody on charges that his supporters said were based on the hip-hop artist's music and participation in the 2022 protests.

Salehi previously alleged he was tortured after his arrest in October 2022, when state media released a video showing him blindfolded and apologising for his words, a statement likely made under duress.
The missing door plug as well as two cell phones that belonged to passengers from the Alaska Airlines flight that experienced an inflight door blowout at 16,000 feet over Oregon on Friday have been located.

One of the cellphones, an iPhone, was found by video game designer Sean Bates who said that he picked it up while out for a walk. In a series of posts on X, Bates said that the intact phone was still in airplane mode and had half of its battery life left.

Bates added that when he contacted the National Transportation and Safety Bureau, he was told that it was the second such phone to have been found. In a subsequent post, Bates showed that the charger plug was still in the phone, indicating that it was yanked out.

The door plug was later found having been recovered from the backyard of a suburban home in Portland. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said, saying she was 'very relieved' it had been found.

The plug door tore off the left side of the Alaska Airlines jet on Friday following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, depressurizing the plane and forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board.

Alaska flight 1282 left Portland just after 5pm local time on Friday when a window blew out at 16,000 feet, ripping a child's shirt off

Video game designer Sean Bates assumed the phone had been dropped by a jogger when he found by the side of a road in rural Washington State because it didn't have a scratch on it

Sean Bates, shown here with NTSB investigators, said that he was told that his finding was the second cell phone from the flight found by a member of the public

A photo shows the blown out window. It is offered as a door on the aircraft. Alaska chose not to take this option - although the frame of the prospective door was entirely ripped out by the fuselage failure

In a TikTok video, Bates said that he had seen a notification from the NTSB asking residents in the area to keep an eye out for anything that may have fallen from the Alaska Airlines flight.

He said that while walking he noticed the phone but first assumed that a jogger had dropped it.

'It was still pretty clean, no scratches on it, sitting under a bush.'

Bates added that the screen was unlocked and that a baggage confirmation email was visible when he picked up showing it had come from the flight.

Homedy had earlier told reporters the aircraft part was a 'key missing component' to determine why the accident occurred.

'Our structures team will want to look at everything on the door - all of the components on the door to see to look at witness marks, to look at any paint transfer, what shape the door was in when found. That can tell them a lot about what occurred,' she said.

The force from the loss of the plug door was strong enough to blow open the cockpit door during flight, said Homendy, who said it must have been a 'terrifying event' to experience.

'They heard a bang,' Homendy said of the pilots, who were interviewed by investigators.

A quick reference laminated checklist flew out the door, while the first officer lost her headset, she said. 'Communication was a serious issue... It was described as chaos.'

Homendy said the cockpit voice recorder did not capture any data because it had been overwritten and again called on regulators to mandate retrofitting existing planes with recorders that capture 25 hours of data, up from the two hours required at present.

Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board said the blow-out at 16,000ft was an 'accident, not an incident'

One passenger who filmed the drama said she woke up from a nap believing the plane had hit turbulence - only to discover a large hole in its fuselage

Homendy said the auto pressurization fail light illuminated on the same Alaska Airlines aircraft on Dec. 7, Jan. 3 and Jan. 4, but it was unclear if there was any connection between those incidents and the accident.

Alaska Airlines made a decision after the warnings to restrict the aircraft from making long flights over water to Hawaii so that it could return quickly to an airport if needed, Homendy said.

Homendy said the auto pressurization fail light illuminated on the same Alaska Airlines aircraft on Dec. 7, Jan. 3 and Jan. 4, but it was unclear if there was any connection between those incidents and the accident.

The airline said 'in every case, the write up was fully evaluated and resolved per approved maintenance procedures and in full compliance with all applicable FAA regulations.'

Alaska Airlines added it has an internal policy to restrict aircraft with multiple maintenance write-ups on some systems from long flights over water that was not required by the FAA.

The FAA said on Sunday the affected fleet of Boeing MAX 9 planes, including those operated by other carriers such as United Airlines (UAL.O), would remain grounded until the regulator was satisfied they were safe.

The FAA initially said on Saturday the required inspections would take four to eight hours, leading many in the industry to assume the planes could very quickly return to service.

But criteria for the checks have yet to be agreed between the FAA and Boeing, meaning airlines have yet to receive detailed instructions, people familiar with the matter said.

The FAA must approve Boeing's inspection criteria before the checks can be completed and planes can resume flights. Alaska Airlines said late on Sunday it had still not received instructions from Boeing.

Alaska Airlines canceled 170 flights on Sunday and a further 60 on Monday and said travel disruptions from the grounding were expected to last through at least midweek. United, which has grounded its 79 MAX 9s, canceled 230 flights on Sunday, or 8% of scheduled departures.

The accident has put Boeing back under scrutiny as it awaits certification of its smaller MAX 7 as well as the larger MAX 10, which is needed to compete with a key Airbus (AIR.PA) model.

In 2019, global authorities subjected all MAX planes to a wider grounding that lasted 20 months after crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia linked to poorly designed cockpit software killed a total of 346 people.
An Israeli strike on south Lebanon today killed a senior commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, escalating fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could spiral into a wider Middle East war.

Wissam Hassan Tawil, the deputy head of a unit within the Radwan force, died alongside another Hezbollah fighter when their car, a Honda SUV, was targeted in a strike on the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm.

He was the highest-ranking Hezbollah member to be killed since Israel and the Lebanese group began exchanging cross-border fire following Hamas' October 7 attacks.

Hezbollah confirmed the killing this afternoon, saying he died 'on the road to Jerusalem' - the phrase used for fighters killed by Israel, with Lebanese security sources describing the attack as 'a very painful strike' that will cause a 'flare-up'.

It comes as Israel warned 'another war' may break out in the embattled Middle East after Hezbollah struck an Israeli air traffic control base this weekend.

The attack on the base on Mount Meron on Saturday was one of several rocket barrages of northern Israel by the Iran-backed Hezbollah, forcing tens of thousands of Israelis to evacuate communities along the border.

This latest eruption of more intense hostilities follows another IDF strike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut last week which killed Hamas' deputy political leader, Saleh al-Arouri.

In the wake of that attack, Hezbollah's secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel in two televised addresses not to launch a full-scale war on Lebanon. 'Whoever thinks of war with us - in one word, he will regret it,' Nasrallah said.

This picture released by Hezbollah Military Media shows senior Hezbollah commander Wissam Tawil who was killed in, South Lebanon, on Monday, Jan 8, 2024

Smoke billows from Israeli bombardment in the Khiyam plains near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon on January 8, 2024

Wounded people, including children, are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following Israeli attacks in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on January 8, 2024

This photograph taken on January 8, 2024 shows a banner depicting Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah hanging on the building, which was hit by a drone attack, killing Hamas number two in a southern Beirut stronghold of Hamas ally Hezbollah on January 2, 2024

The latest eruption of more intense hostilities follows another IDF strike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut last week which killed Hamas' deputy political leader, Saleh al-Arouri

Wounded people, including children, are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following Israeli attacks in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on January 8, 2024

A smoke plume erupts over Khan Yunis from Rafah in the southern Gaza strip during Israeli bombardment on January 8, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, tasked with leading diplomatic efforts to help scale back the conflict, said of the escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah: 'This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering.'

And on Saturday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met Mohammed Raad, head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, in Beirut as part of a push to avoid Lebanon being dragged into the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In November, Raad's son was killed in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon along with five other fighters, the group had said.

More than 130 Hezbollah fighters have reportedly been killed since October 7 in Israeli shelling or exchanges of fire across the border.

In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

Hezbollah and the IDF have been fighting along the border since Israel's military campaign in Gaza began, but so far the Lebanese group has appeared reluctant to dramatically escalate the fighting.

A significant response now could send the conflict spiralling into all-out war on Israel's northern border amid Tel-Aviv's targeting of Hezbollah and Hamas commanders in Lebanon.

Speaking after the killing of Hamas deputy Arouri last week, Nasser Kanaani, spokesperson for the foreign ministry of Iran - the chief backer of Hamas and Hezbollah - said the attack would 'undoubtedly ignite another surge in the veins of resistance and the motivation to fight against the Zionist occupiers - not only in Palestine but also in the region and among all freedom-seekers worldwide.'

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati also declared that Israel 'aims to draw Lebanon' further into the war.

Hamas leader Haniyeh said his movement was 'more powerful and determined' following the attack.

'They left behind them strong men who will carry the banner after them,' he said of those killed.

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Ramallah and other towns in the West Bank in the hours after Arouri's killing, chanting: 'Revenge, revenge!'

And Iranian-backed Houthis rebels in Yemen have vowed to continue their attacks on shipping in the Rea Sea until Israel halts the conflict in Gaza, and warned that it would attack U.S. warships if the militia group itself was targeted.

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip

Palestinians work to free trapped people from rubble amid a strike on Jabalia

A view of damaged building as the historical buildings such as mosques, churches, baths and bazaars are damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza on January 06, 2024

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in the east of Al Maghazi, Al Bureije and Al Nusairat refugee camps, southern Gaza Strip, 07 January 2024

The IDF has struck several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in recent days amid an increase in cross-border conflicts

A view of damaged building as the historical buildings such as mosques, churches, baths and bazaars are damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza on January 06, 2024

Israeli tanks stand by the Erez border crossing on January 07, 2024 in Northern Gaza

Hezbollah described its rocket barrage as an 'initial response' to the targeted killing of top Hamas leader Arouri last week.

READ MORE: Hezbollah - the Iranian terror proxy that could now ignite chaos in the Middle East Advertisement

The Israeli air base suffered damage but no one was reported killed.

Hezbollah's military capabilities are far superior to those of Hamas, but Israeli leaders have said their patience is wearing thin over constant cross-border clashes and that if the tensions cannot be resolved through diplomacy, they are prepared to use force.

The Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi, said military pressure on Hezbollah was rising and it would either be effective 'or we will get to another war'.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: 'I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months: No terrorist is immune.

'We are determined to defend our citizens and to return the residents of the north safely to their homes,' he told his Cabinet in remarks this weekend.

Lower-intensity fighting along Israel's northern border broke out when Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah has said its attacks aim to ease pressure on Gaza and its ally Hamas, but fighting in Israel's north has done little to stem the IDF's bombardments of the Palestinian enclave to the south.

In Gaza, IDF strikes reportedly killed some 70 people in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis were also targeted in weekend bombing campaigns.

In response to reports of the mass civilian casualties in Jabalia, an IDF told the BBC that it 'acted against a military target in the strike' and that it was 'not aware of the number of casualties mentioned'.

With much of Gaza already reduced to rubble as the conflict rolled into its fourth month on Sunday, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said last week that the Palestinian enclave 'has simply become uninhabitable'.

The Israeli military has said it has largely wrapped up major combat in northern Gaza, saying it has completed dismantling Hamas' military infrastructure there.

But it is pressing its offensive in the south, where most of Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians are squeezed into smaller areas in a humanitarian disaster while being pounded by airstrikes.

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip

A man stands amidst the rubble of destroyed buildings following strikes on the the town of Naqura in southern Lebanon close to the border with northern Israel on January 4, 2024

People walk among damaged buildings as the historical buildings such as mosques, churches, baths and bazaars are damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza on January 06, 2024

Netanyahu insists the war will not end until the objectives of eliminating Hamas, getting Israel's hostages returned and ensuring that Gaza won't host a threat to Israel are met.

But the White House - Tel-Aviv's staunchest ally - has in recent weeks urged the IDF to wind down its blistering air and ground offensive and shift to more targeted attacks against Hamas leaders.

An airstrike near the southern city of Rafah killed two journalists on Sunday, including Hamza Dahdouh, the oldest son of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera's chief correspondent in Gaza, according to the Qatari-owned Arabic-language channel and local medical officials.

Al Jazeera broadcast footage of Dahdouh weeping and holding his son's hand, and strongly condemned the killings and other 'brutal attacks against journalists and their families' by Israeli forces.

Dahdouh also lost his wife, two children and a grandchild in an October 26 airstrike, and was wounded in an Israeli strike last month that killed a co-worker.

'The world is blind to what's happening in the Gaza Strip,' he said, blinking back tears.

Israel's military had no immediate comment.

Families, loved ones and colleagues of two journalists who were killed, including Hamza Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh, attend the funeral ceremony in Rafah, Gaza on January 07, 2024

A fireball from an explosion erupts during Israeli bombardment on Khan Yunis from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip early on January 3, 2024

Palestinian Hamas supporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah protest on January 2, 2024, against an Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed Hamas' deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri

Meanwhile, another airstrike hit a house between Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, killing at least seven people whose bodies were taken to the nearby European Gaza Hospital, according to an Associated Press journalist at the facility.

One man hurried in carrying a baby, and later walked the blanket-wrapped child to the morgue.

'Everything happening here is outside the realms of law, outside the realms of reason. Our brains can't fully comprehend all this that is happening to us,' a grieving relative, Inas Abu al-Najja, told reporters.

On Sunday, officials at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis received the bodies of 18 people, including 12 children, killed in an Israeli strike late Saturday on a home in the Khan Younis camp set up decades ago to house refugees from the 1948 war over Israel's creation.

More than 22,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 58,000 wounded since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Health officials say about two-thirds of those killed have been women and minors, but Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas.

Meanwhile in the West Bank, ten people were killed on Sunday, including a Palestinian man killed by attackers while driving a car with Israeli plates, and a young girl shot as Israeli police fired at a car that rammed a checkpoint.
Vladimir Putin unleashed hypersonic missiles in Russia's latest deadly wave of airstrikes across Ukraine, regional officials said Monday.

At least four civilians were reported killed and at least 30 injured in the strikes that hit near the front lines of fighting in the east as well as in central and western parts of the country, which has been under invasion by Russia since February 2022.

Ukraine said it had destroyed 18 out of the 51 missiles of different types launched.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces used precision sea-launched and air-launched long-range missiles, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, to strike what it called 'facilities of Ukraine's military-industrial complex.'

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence reported that Russia is on course to have lost a total of 500,000 soldiers by the end of this year.

It said the average daily number of Russian casualties in Ukraine rose by almost 300 over the course of 2023, citing data from Ukraine's defence ministry.

It put the mounting toll down to Russia's attacks on Avdiivka, a small eastern town that sits on the edge of the currently-occupied Donetsk region.

Vladimir Putin unleashed hypersonic missiles in Russia's latest deadly wave of airstrikes across Ukraine, regional officials said Monday. Pictured: Flames are seen in a destroyed building

Volunteers talk next to a damaged apartment building at a site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine January 8

People take shelter inside a metro station during an air raid alert in Kyiv, January 8

The MoD said the increased casualty rate reflects how the quality of the Russian president's army has deteriorated following the partial mobilisation in September 2022, which saw Moscow call up 300,000 more troops.

The mobilisations turned Russia's arm into a 'a low quality, high quantity mass army, the Ministry of Defence said in its report.

It also reflects reports of Moscow deploying 'human wave' tactics, which involves sending thousands of poorly-trained soldiers to their deaths to wear down Ukraine's defences and to seek out weak points that can be exploited.

While the UK's MoD said it could not independently verify the methodology used by its Ukrainian counterpart, it has previously said the figures are 'plausible'.

John Kirby, the spokesperson for the US National Security Council demonstrates that Russia 'continues to show no regard for the lives of its own soldiers, willingly sacrificing them in pursuit of Putin's goals.'

In its report, the UK's MoD said it will likely take Russia between five and ten years to rebuild a 'highly trained, experienced readiness force.'

Neither side made major advances in 2023, with Ukraine's much-vaunted counteroffensive failing to make the gains Kyiv had hoped for.

This was largely down to Russia fortifying its defences, laying vast minefields across the hundreds of miles of Ukraine that make up the war's frontline.

Russia, meanwhile, appears to have adopted a tactic of attrition, looking to wear Ukraine's forces down with overwhelming numbers - while deploying withering air strikes on critical infrastructure in the cold months of winter.

This was again seen on Monday with the strikes across the country.

Western officials and analysts had previously warned that Russia was stockpiling its cruise missiles in preparation for a strategy of winter bombardment, as bad weather keeps the 930-mile front line largely static after 22 months of war.

Unlike last winter, when the Kremlin's forces targeted Ukraine's power grid, Russia is now aiming at Kyiv's defense industry, they say. But the almost daily barrages have repeatedly hit civilian areas. Monday's attacks struck a string of urban areas, including housing and a shopping mall, across Ukraine.

The UK's MoD put Russia's mounting toll down to its attacks on Avdiivka, a small eastern town that sits on the edge of the currently-occupied Donetsk region (pictured)

The average daily number of Russian casualties in Ukraine has risen by almost 300 during the course of 2023.



If the numbers continue at the current rate over the next year, Russia will have lost over half a million personnel in Ukraine.



 #StandWithUkraine  pic.twitter.com/m4SV6XMRMS  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) January 6, 2024

Monday's attacks struck a string of urban areas, including housing and a shopping mall, across Ukraine, and a nationwide air raid alert was in force for the latest attacks by Putin 's forces.

Russia fired 51 missiles of various types, as well as eight Shahed drones, at Ukraine, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.

The Ukrainian Air Force intercepted 18 of the cruise missiles and all the drones, he said.

The strikes come less than a week after Kyiv warned it only had enough ammunition to withstand a few more powerful attacks, amid intense Russian bombardment.

'The enemy launched dozens of missiles at peaceful cities and villages of Ukraine,' Ukraine's deputy head of the presidency Oleksiy Kuleba said.

He added that at least 33 were injured.

In the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, a woman died in a missile attack outside the city of Kryvyi Rih and 24 people were injured in a strike on the town of Novomoskovsk.

A building was seen engulfed in flames in the Dnipropetrovsk region town.

Three administrative buildings, two filling stations, a five-story building, and cars were also damaged, and a minibus was overturned by a shockwave.

The wounded in the city from the latest savage Putin attack included five children - boys aged four and eight, and girls aged 11, 16 and 17.

In Kryvyi Rih itself, which is Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's home town, more than 20 houses and a shopping mall were damaged in the attack, said regional governor Serhii Lysak.

At least four missiles hit Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, injuring one person, said mayor Ihor Terekhov. A woman rescued from the rubble of a building later died, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. More people may be trapped, he said.

Authorities in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine said two people died as at least six explosions were heard during the morning missile attack.

In Zaporizhzhia, a major southern city along the Dnipro River, two people were injured in a missile strike on a residential district, said regional governor Yurii Malashko.

Two people injured in a January 2 attack died on Monday, officials said.

Investigators stand next to a car destroyed by a Russian missile in Zaporizhzhia, January 8

A local woman stands next to a damaged apartment building at a site of a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine January 8

Police officers work at a site of a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, January 8

Ukrainian Emergency Service workers help a wounded man after a residential houses were badly damaged in a Russian missile attack, near Kryvyi Rih, January 8

A destroyed house is seen near Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, January 8

Meanwhile, Russian troops conducted 131 artillery attacks on the Kherson region, killing two people and injuring five, according to governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Kherson and the surrounding region have been consistently targeted since Russian forces withdrew from the city to the eastern side of the Dnipro in the autumn of 2022.

Separately, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces have made unsuccessful efforts to advance during the past day in several areas along the front line, including around Lyman in the Kharkiv region and in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

In the Russia-occupied Luhansk region in Ukraine's east, a Russian warplane accidentally released a bomb on the town of Rubizhne, said Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the region's Moscow-appointed government.

The bomb, an FAB-250 that carries a high-explosive warhead, did not cause injuries, Pasechnik said.

The incident comes six days after Russia accidentally dropped munitions over the village of Petropavlovka in the Belgorod region, which has come under repeated Ukrainian attack.

Last April, another bomb accidentally dropped by one of Russia's warplanes caused a powerful blast in the city of Belgorod, injuring two and scaring local residents.

Ukraine reported that Monday's attacks included Kh-101/555 cruise missiles launched at least ten times by Tu-95 strategic bombers overflying the Caspian Sea.

Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were unleashed from MiG-31K warplanes.

S-300/S400 ballistic missiles were fired from occupied Crimea and the Russian region of Belgorod.

Kh-22/32 supersonic missiles were deployed from Tu-22M3 bombers overflying the Russians regions of Kursk and Voronezh.

Meanwhile in Russia, the authorities are evacuating children from the border city Belgorod which has faced intense attacks from Ukraine.

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said posted a video to reveal the move to other Russian regions.

Oleh, a serviceman of infantry battalion of the 61st mechanised brigade plays with dogs in a trench at a position near the frontline in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, January 6

'Over the past 24 hours, we have received 1,300 applications to send children from Belgorod to remote school camps in other regions [away from the war zone],' he said. 'I called my fellow governors from the Voronezh, Kaluga, Tambov, and Yaroslavl regions. They are all ready to help us.

'Now we have already sent our specialists to look at the location where the children are being placed.'

Adults too are demanding to bail out of a city just 25 miles from the border with Ukraine.

'Some 300 residents of Belgorod, who decided to temporarily evacuate, are at the moment being housed in temporary shelter centres in Stary Oskol, Gubkin and the Korochansky district,' said Gladkov.
A heartless carer stole a wedding ring off a dementia-stricken widower's hand as he slept just days after his wife died.

Emma Skinner, 42, stole the wedding ring and a gold signet ring from Arthur Hughes, 86, in the Beeches care home in Maghull, Liverpool on February 26 last year.

Arthur Hughes had only been living in the care home where Emma Skinner worked as agency staff for just over a week when she callously pinched the jewellry from him.

The retired lorry driver had inherited the gold signet ring from his late father.

The theft came only days after his wife of 60 years had died, with the mother-of-four 'wickedly' slipping the rings from his finger as he slept.

Liverpool Crown Court heard last Friday that the pensioner, who passed away in Autumn last year, had been admitted to the Beeches in Maghull on February 18, 2022, following a spell in hospital.

Emma Skinner, 42, stole the wedding ring and a gold signet ring from Arthur Hughes, 86, in The Beeches care home in Maghull, Liverpool

Liverpool Crown Court (pictured) heard last Friday that the pensioner had been admitted to the Beeches in Maghull on February 18, 2022 following a spell in hospital

His wife then died only five days later on February 23.

Cecilia Pritchard, prosecuting, described how Skinner, of Thackray Road in St Helens, had been employed at the home as an agency carer when, at around 11am on February 26, Mr Hughes returned to his bedroom for a rest.

A few minutes later, Skinner entered and removed two gold rings from the fingers of his left hand as he lay sleeping in bed.

This jewellery consisted of his wedding ring and the signet ring, an item which was more than 70 years old.

Her victim's 'light sleep' was said to have been disturbed by the theft, but he reported that he felt 'too scared' to open his eyes.

Mr Hughes alerted staff and family members to the incident, and a check of CCTV footage revealed that Skinner had been the 'only person who entered his room'.

But the mother-of-four, who has no previous convictions, continued to deny responsibility and claimed he had previously been known to 'flush items down the toilet'.

Following her shift, she visited Gibneys Jewellers in St Helens town centre and sold the rings for 165 - claiming that she had 'found them down the back of a sofa'.

They were subsequently 'melted down', and therefore never recovered.

Mr Hughes, a retired lorry driver, told police officers in a statement that the rings 'meant more than the world to him'.

He sadly died nine months later in the autumn of 2022.

Mr Hughes' son Steven read a statement to the court, in which he said of his dad's move into the residential home: 'My father was always an independent and active man. This decision was heartbreaking.'

He described how he had visited his father shortly after the theft and found him in 'great distress' and saying 'some b*****d has stolen my rings'.

Mr Hughes added: 'I've never seen my father without his rings. I remember seeing my father sitting in his chair looking at his hands, and he went quiet.

Emma Skinner visited Gibneys Jewellers in St Helens town centre and sold the rings for 165 - claiming that she had 'found them down the back of a sofa'

'I felt so helpless. I didn't know what to say to him. I couldn't really voice my anger. Looking back at how she helped with the search made me feel angry and incensed.

'The thing that hurt me the most was seeing how my hero, who I'd looked up to all my life, was a shattered and broken man.

'This incident had such a devastated effect on his life. I was in total shock that this could happen.

'I felt I had let him down putting him in this position. He went to his grave without this most precious item he had had for 60 years of his marriage - his rings meant so much to him.

'This incident has left our family totally devastated. I can't get out of my mind my father being so scared.'

Mr Hughes was said to have barricaded the door to his room with furniture in order to prevent any further thefts in the aftermath of the incident, with his son's statement adding: 'The history you have stolen cannot be replaced.

'I had to watch a distraught man worry about the loss of his ring instead of grieving for his wife.'

Kate Morley, defending, told the court: 'Ms Skinner has insisted that the very first thing I say is directed to the family.

'She is desperately sorry. Her actions can never be condoned. This is obviously the biggest and most serious mistake of her life.

'She would give anything to be able to turn back the clock. She will never forgive herself, and she doesn't expect anyone to forgive her.

'Ms Skinner is genuinely ashamed with herself. Ms Skinner has found what she has done difficult to comprehend and accept.

'The looming question is why would a 42-year-old lady of hitherto impeccable character, a mother to four children who has worked all her adult life, do such a despicable act?

'Why did her sense of morality evaporate?

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'While there can never be an excuse or justification, it is important that the court is aware of the prevailing circumstances at the time.

'Ms Skinner had been a victim of domestic violence. Her now former partner had, unbeknown to her, run up debts of thousands and thousands of pounds in her name.

'She was at her lowest, fragile. In desperate financial circumstances, she stooped so low.

'It is frankly baffling that Ms Skinner would do something like this for a couple of hundred pounds, but it perhaps puts into context her desperation.

'In 42 years, she has never put a foot wrong. She recognises the extreme distress she has caused a whole family.

'While a prison sentence would be difficult for Ms Skinner, it is the impact on her children that is going to be traumatic.

'Ms Skinner is in employment. Her employers are fully aware of the circumstances of this case, but are still willing to employ her.

'She is in a responsible job assisting people, and has been nothing but professional and dedicated.

'This offence was nearly two years ago, and there has not been any repeated offending.'

Skinner admitted theft on the day she had been due to stand trial. She was jailed for 18 months.

At sentencing, Recorder David Knifton KC (pictured) said: 'Whatever may have been their financial value, the rings were of considerable sentimental value to Arthur

Sentencing, Recorder David Knifton KC said: 'Whatever may have been their financial value, the rings were of considerable sentimental value to Arthur. He was clearly inconsolable.

'It is difficult to overstate the devastating effect of your actions on his family. His children were coming to terms with having to make the difficult decision to place their father in a care home and the unexpected death of their mother just days beforehand.

'They have understandably struggled to come to terms with the callous theft of such items from a vulnerable victim in what should have been a safe environment.

'No sentence which this court could pass would ever provide them with recompense for your callous actions.

'You rightly recognise that your actions are entirely inexcusable. It will come as little comfort that you were motivated by financial pressures arising from the actions of your abusive ex-husband.

'I nevertheless accept that you are disgusted and ashamed at your behaviour. You have expressed genuine remorse and recognise that you need to be punished.

'You were in breach of a high degree of trust and responsibility placed upon you as a carer in a home for dementia patients. You deliberately targeted a vulnerable victim.

'I would be failing in my public duty if I were to do anything other than impose an immediate custodial sentence for this wicked offence.'

Skinner was also told to pay 165 in compensation, which Mr Hughes' family say they will donate to a dementia charity.

Recorder Knifton added: 'It is to the enormous credit of Arthur's family that they have indicated that they will donate that sum to a dementia charity - I express my sincere condolences to them.'

Detective Inspector Jay Halpin said: 'Targeting vulnerable people and stealing from them while in a trusted position is the lowest of the low.

'We are dedicated to protecting those in our communities who are the most vulnerable and taking action against those who seek to exploit them.

'Skinner was supposed to be a carer looking after people but instead used it as an opportunity to steal and sell this man's treasured possessions. It is right she is now behind bars.'
Rishi Sunak insisted the Rwanda deportations plan is the 'long-term solution' to the Channel boats crisis today - despite claims he mulled axing the policy during the Tory leadership campaign.

The PM underlined the importance of the 'deterrent' to stop illicit crossings as he held a town hall style campaign event in Accrington.

'People need to know that if they come to our country illegally, they won't get to stay and they will be removed. That's why Rwanda is so important,' he said.

However, the comments came after it emerged Mr Sunak considered dropping the flagship policy as he clashed with Liz Truss in 2022.

Mr Sunak stopped short of denying the discussions with aides took place this morning, merely making clear he ended up supporting the scheme. 'I did not say I was going to scrap it,' he said.

Mr Sunak again played down reports that he doubted the migrant scheme when it was first announced.

Ahead of Rwanda legislation returning to the Commons this month, Downing Street papers have surfaced from March 2022 suggesting Mr Sunak thought the 'deterrent won't work' in stopping Channel crossings.

The documents, seen by the BBC, indicated Mr Sunak was also concerned about the cost of sending asylum seekers to Africa and wanted to limit the numbers.

But he said today: 'We funded the scheme because I believed in the scheme.'

Rishi Sunak insisted the Rwanda deportations plan is the 'long-term solution' to the Channel boats crisis today

A file photo of a small boat crossing the Channel last summer

Grilled on the claims yesterday, the PM admitted he had questioned the 'value for money for taxpayers' of the scheme prior to it being unveiled by Boris Johnson in April 2022.

But he insisted he asked 'probing questions of every proposal that crossed my desk as Chancellor' and said it was 'wrong' to claim this meant he didn't 'believe in the scheme or the principle of deterrence'.

One campaign insider told The Sun that Mr Sunak wobbled over the policy during the Tory leadership contest. 'He was told very clearly it would go down badly with the MPs who loved it and he changed his mind,' they said.

A well-placed source told MailOnline that dropping the Rwanda plan had been mooted but it was a 'straightforward decision' to stick with it.

The Safety of Rwanda Bill has been drafted by Mr Sunak in a bid to get around the UK Supreme Court's ruling last year that the scheme is unlawful.

But some Tory MPs are concerned the legislation is not tough enough to avoid future legal challenges to migrant deportations.

Mr Sunak risked sparking further alarm this morning when he failed to say whether he'd ignore a fresh block from European judges.

Rishi Sunak (pictured at Dover last summer) discussed with aides whether to commit to dropping the flagship policy as he clashed with Liz Truss in 2022

Mr Sunak lost the Tory leadership contest to Ms Truss in summer 2022, although he took over months later when her premiership imploded

The PM declined to explicitly commit to disregarding a so-called Rule 39 order by the European Court of Human Rights, should Strasbourg-based judges issue a new emergency ruling against the scheme.

Labour are demanding Mr Sunak be 'honest with the public' by releasing Downing Street papers that reportedly indicate he was unsure about the Rwanda plan in 2022.

They are calling on the PM to 'come clean about his reservations about the Rwanda scheme as Chancellor' and demanded the documents be published.
Welsh motorists living under the country's new blanket 20mph zones will actually be able to drive at 25mph before falling foul of new laws.

The default 20mph speed limit in built-up areas in Wales will be enforced from today and the Welsh government has confirmed motorists will face sanctions if they exceed the limit.

However GoSafe Wales, which connects the Welsh police and local authorities together in a road safety network has said that the enforcement of fines will only begin at 10 percent of the speed limit plus 4mph.

This means in practice that drivers in Wales will only be prosecuted if they are caught driving above 25mph in a 20mph zone.

This is more leeway than is given to other drivers in Britain where motorists are subject to an enforcement threshold of 10 per cent plus 2mph, making the limit for a 20mph zone 23mph.

In Wales, the enforcement of fines will only begin at 10 percent of the speed limit plus 4mph

After a 'bedding in period', the default 20mph speed limit in built-up areas in Wales will be enforced from today

The Welsh government has confirmed motorists will face sanctions if they exceed the limit

It comes as pro-motorist groups label the new 20mph limit 'unenforceable', and question why the policy was introduced in the first place if drivers will still be allowed to reach speeds of 25mph before being slapped with a fine or points.

But ministers said not all drivers breaking the 20mph limit will initially be prosecuted, just the most dangerous offenders.

Roadside teams will use speed monitoring equipment to catch offending motorists.

They will be stopped and given a choice between a fine and points, or roadside engagement.

Go Safe Wales has also said magistrates will only deal with excessive speeding of 40mph or more under the rollout. Ian Taylor, a director at the Alliance of british Drivers told MailOnline the policy could well be unenforceable due to costs.

He said: 'The lower you make the limit, the more difficult it is for people to actually keep to it and probably means they'll want to do it less anyway.

'This means there's always the potential there for prosecutions. As regards to them saying over 26mph for prosecutions, it's ironic as that is sort of the limit.

'They think that imposing 20 mile an hour limits brings the average speed down to but if it's 26mph regardless you wonder why they bothered!

'The whole policy could end up being unenforceable it depends how much it's liable to cost them to enforce it properly.

'Having said that if they enforce it enough, they might make the money they need to pay for it from the fines.'

Speaking to the Telegraph, Peter Fox, the Welsh Conservatives' minister for finance warned that the confusion was likely to result in more fines.

He said 'It's confusing out there especially if you are visiting Wales.

'With 20mph being the default limit, together with unclear and inconsistent signage, it would be easy to lose a licence in a day.'

MailOnline has approached GoSafe Wales for more information.

The Welsh scheme to reduce the default speed limit for 'restricted roads' from 30mph came into force in September, affecting 7,700 miles of road. It aims to cut deaths, noise and pollution and encourage people to walk or cycle.

There was confusion around when the new national speed limit would be enforced. It was said that enforcement would begin three months after the new speed limit was introduced, which would have been December 17 before the Welsh government confirmed the enforcement for the speed limit would begin in January.

The Welsh government has confirmed motorists will face sanctions following an 'initial bedding in period' (File image)

Roadside teams will use speed monitoring equipment to catch offending motorists (File image)

The speed limit reduction to 20mph affects 'restricted roads' - those with 'street lights spaced no more than 200 yards apart, usually located in residential and built-up areas'.

Transport is a devolved matter so the Welsh government has made the change unilaterally.

According to its own impact assessment, the 'main economic dis-benefit' of the new regime 'relates to increased journey times from lower average vehicle speeds'.

It states that this could result in an economic hit of up to 9 billion over 30 years; the cost of implementing the scheme will be 33 million.

But Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford said the 20mph speed limit would save lives and the cost was 'outweighed' by reduced impact on the NHS and emergency services.

Mr Drakeford has said 'the evidence is incontrovertible' that 'driving more slowly in built-up urban areas saves people's lives' and that it will save the Health Service 90million as a result.

He cited a similar scheme in Spain, saying it had cut urban deaths by 20 percent.

Critics say penalty fines will hit drivers who already face larger petrol bills for running their engines at lower - and less efficient - speeds.
Ju Ae is often referred to by North Korean media as despot's 'most beloved' child

Tour of Kwangchon Farm came before what is thought to be Kim's 40th birthday

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un marked what is thought to be his 40th birthday by taking his daughter to a giant new chicken farm, following reports the youngster has been chosen as his successor.

Kim Ju Ae, who is thought to be around 10 years old and the middle of Kim's three children, accompanied her father and senior regime officials to tour the newly opened 'model' chicken farm in the DPRK.

The despot's landmark birthday is thought to be on January 8  though his secretive regime has never confirmed the date and state media has made no mention of it.

Suggestions that he has chosen his heir apparent in Ju Ae may point to Kim accepting his mortality in the wake of a slew of health troubles, with experts suggesting that his ballooning weight means he could 'collapse' at any time.

He is now thought to be training up Ju Ae to take the reins of the hermit kingdom, with the little girl regularly referred to by state media as Kim's 'most beloved' child and becoming a feature of North Korean propaganda since she first appeared a year ago.

The father and daughter duo were pictured kissing one another on the cheek as they celebrated New Year's Eve at a packed stadium in Pyongyang, before touring a missile launcher factory in matching jackets last week.

Kim Jong Un beamed as he toured the Kwangchon Chicken Farm alongside his daughter Ju Ae

Kim and his daughter review the produce at the chicken farm in pictures released on what is said to be his 40th birthday

The father and daughter watched workers handling chicken carcasses as they visited the farm

The dictator and his child were shown around Kwangchon Chicken Farm just south of the capital on Sunday.

Pictures released today show them donning white coats as they inspected rows of caged hens, before putting their trademark black jackets back on as they reviewed the produce outside.

Kim was said to be pleased with the 'modern' production lines at the facility, with the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reporting that he described it as 'incomparable' to older farms he previously described as 'backward'.

Reporting on the visit, KCNA said that Kim was 'accompanied by his respected daughter', marking the second time state media has used a separate line to describe her presence and attached the honorific, according to NK News.

State media used the same formulation for Kim Jong Un in reports of him joining his father Kim Jong Il on official business in 2010 and 2011, after he was officially selected as the former premier's successor.

Speculation is now mounting that Ju Ae is being prepared to inherit the leadership from her father, with South Korea's spy agency the National Intelligence Service (NIS) saying on Friday that it views her as his probable successor.

Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea, said that Kim likely believes his daughter has the capacity and resolve to succeed him as leader.

He said Kim Jong Un's obesity appears so serious that 'it won't be surprising even if he collapses tomorrow'.

'By accompanying her father on major events, it's like she's learning kingship and building a human network at a tender age,' Cheong said.

The young girl was surrounded by officials as she accompanied her father during their latest public engagement together

The Kwangchon Chicken Farm is seen near Pyongyang, North Korea. The facility was reportedly described by Kim Jong Un as a 'model' farm

Kim Jong Un was said to be pleased with the 'modern' production lines at the factory, which is south of Pyongyang

Ju Ae was first unveiled to the world in November 2022 when she attended a ballistic missile launch alongside her dad.

The young girl was seen arm-in-arm with Kim as he inspected the weapons at a military base, as well as watching the launch from afar with her both father and mother, Ri Sol-ju.

Ju Ae went on to make a series of appearances at official meetings alongside her father throughout 2023, and has also appeared at military bases and factories.

In a particularly unusual family outing in December, the pair were pictured watching what North Korea said was an intercontinental ballistic missile launch.

Pictures released this week show the young girl inspecting an important military vehicle production plant, wearing a black leather jacket with a fur trim like those worn by her father and senior regime officials.

Kim Jong Un inspecting an important military vehicle production plant with his daughter Ju Ae last week

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his daughter and an official watch what it says is an intercontinental ballistic missile launching from an undisclosed location in North Korea in a picture released in December

She was then front and centre as Kim celebrated New Year's Eve by watching an art troupe perform at Pyongyang's colossal May 1 Stadium, according to state media reports.

The venue is Pyongyang is believed to be the largest in the world, with a capacity of as many as 150,000.

READ MORE: Concerns as North Korea carries out live-fire drills for the third day of military exercises in a row as families living on border island of Yeonpyeong are told not to leave their homes Advertisement

Footage from the state broadcaster KCTV shows crowds cheering as they greeted Kim and his family, with Ju Ae holding her father's arm as she walked to her seat and her mother clapping and smiling beside her.

Kim responded to the roaring crowd with waves, and was seen kissing Ju Ae on the cheek at one point and her returning the show of affection.

The performance marked the beginning of the new year, state-run KCNA reported, with bells 'tolling solemnly... at 00:00 on January 1 along with the ignition of the torch of celebration and the display of fireworks' in the sky over the capital city.

'At the end of the performance, loud cheers of 'Hurrah!' for Kim Jong Un rocked the venue again and fireworks were let off,' a female narrator says over footage showing performers waving North Korean flags in celebration.

Since its foundation in 1948, North Korea has been ruled by male members of the Kim family, meaning Ju Ae would be the first female leader.

South Korean spies have previously said that Kim's eldest child, now thought to be aged around 12, is a boy  though nothing else is known about him and he has never been seen in public.

The youngest child is believed to be a daughter, born around March 2017. North Korea has not confirmed whether Ju Ae has any siblings.

Kim Ju-ae, daughter of Kim Jong-un (pictured together in November 2022), is likely being lined up as the heir to North Korea's dictatorship, experts have said

Kim Ju Ae has been pictured alongside her father and North Korea's weapons arsenal on several occasions since she first appeared in November 2022

Cheong said that it is not unusual for North Korean leaders to choose their heirs at a young age, based upon which they think shows the greatest leadership qualities.

However questions still remain over Ju Ae's standing within the line of succession, known in North Korea as the Mount Paektu Bloodline.

She could have some competition from her aunt, Kim Yo Jong, seen as an emotionless and shrewd analyst and spokesperson for North Korea's leader and referred to as the 'Red Princess'.

Kim Jong-il did not reveal the existence of his own successor  Kim Jong-un  until very late in his reign when his health was clearly ailing.

Kim Jong-un has experienced health scares in recent years, including rumours that he had died back in 2020, but those have largely fizzled out in recent months as he returned to making regular state media appearances.

Kim Yo Jong is seen as an emotionless and shrewd analyst and spokesperson for North Korea's leader and referred to as the 'Red Princess'

The NIS and South Korean officials have previously warned it is too early to view Ju Ae as her father's heir, given Kim's relatively young age.

The US government lists Kim's birth year as 1984, making him 40 years old this year.

The birth dates of Kim's father and grandfather, who preceded him as rulers, are national holidays in the authoritarian state.

Kim Jong-un's presumed birth date, meanwhile, has always passed quietly without mention in media or on the country's calendars.

The only time Mr Kim has been honoured in public on his birthday was in 2014, when former NBA star Dennis Rodman - who struck up an unlikely friendship with the dictator - sang happy birthday before an exhibition basketball game in Pyongyang.

The closest North Korea has come to confirming the date came in January 2020 after authorities acknowledged Kim had received birthday greetings from then-US president Donald Trump, though they did not mention the exact date.

Despite no known public birthday events, experts believe Kim faces little political challenge and is expected to intensify his run of weapons tests ahead of the US presidential election in November.

In a key ruling party meeting in late December, Kim vowed to enlarge his nuclear arsenal and launch additional spy satellites to cope with what he called unprecedented confrontation led by the US.

In the past few days, he had his troops fire artillery shells near the disputed sea boundary with South Korea, raising tensions with his rival.
The Conservatives have been accused of 'caving' to the demands of disgraced ex-MP Peter Bone after they selected his partner to stand in his former seat.

Helen Harrison, a local councillor who is in a relationship with Mr Bone, has been picked as the Tory candidate for the Wellingborough by-election.

The contest was triggered after Mr Bone was kicked out of the House of Commons by a recall petition following his suspension over bullying and sexual misconduct.

It had previously been claimed the 71-year-old was threatening to stand himself in the by-election, as an independent candidate, if Ms Harrison was not chosen by the Tories.

This would have potentially split the Conservative vote and handed a huge boost to Labour's chances of seizing the Northamptonshire constituency off the Tories.

The Conservatives have been accused of 'caving' to the demands of disgraced MP Peter Bone after they selected his partner to stand in his former seat.

Local councillor Helen Harrison, pictured with Conservative Party chair Richard Holden, has been picked as the Tory candidate for the Wellingborough by-election

As recently as October, Ms Harrison was posting pictures of herself out campaigning with Mr Bone on social media

Labour's Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, said: 'Rishi Sunak caving to Peter Bone's demand to select his partner so he doesn't run as an independent shows just how weak the Prime Minister is.

'Rishi Sunak is too weak to lead his own party, let alone the country.

'The people of Wellingborough deserve the best possible candidate to represent them, not the product of a quick political fix.

'Only Labour can deliver the change the voters want to see and give Britain its future back.'

A report in The Sunday Times in November revealed allegations that Mr Bone was trying to ensure Ms Harrison would replace him as the Wellingborough MP.

Mr Bone denied the claims but added it would be 'entirely unsurprising' if his partner were shortlisted by the Tories as a possible by-election candidate.

He pointed out how she had previously made it onto five seat selections - including being the unsuccessful Conservative candidate for the Bolsover constituency during the 2017 general election.

The recall petition that led to Mr Bone's ousting from the Commons was prompted by his six-week suspension from Parliament.

It followed a panel's finding that he subjected a staff member to bullying and sexual misconduct.

The Tory backbencher was said to have indecently exposed himself to the complainant in the bathroom of a hotel room during a work trip to Madrid.

Mr Bone was kicked out of the Conservative parliamentary party a day after a damning report was published on 16 October.

The Wellingborough vote is set to be another tricky contest for Rishi Sunak, who has already lost a slew of by-elections since becoming Prime Minister in October 2022.

Mr Bone announced in 2018 he had left his wife Jennie and entered a relationship with Ms Harrison, a married physiotherapist 20 years his junior

Mr Holden posted on Twitter: 'Congratulations to Cllr @helenharrisonuk on being selected for #Wellingborough at a packed meeting of @Conservatives members this afternoon.'

Ms Harrison was revealed to have been chosen as the Tory by-election candidate yesterday afternoon by Conservative Party chair Richard Holden.

He posted on Twitter: 'Congratulations to Cllr @helenharrisonuk on being selected for #Wellingborough at a packed meeting of @Conservatives members this afternoon.'

Ms Harrison is currently local councillor for the Oundle ward on North Northamptonshire Council.

As recently as October she was posting pictures of herself out campaigning with Mr Bone on social media.

It was revealed in 2018 how Mr Bone had left his wife Jennie for Ms Harrison, a physiotherapist 20 years his junior who at the time was married with two children.

She was was a director of Grassroots Out, a campaign to leave the European Union backed by Nigel Farage. Mr Bone was also a director.

In a statement in 2018, Mr Bone said: 'My wife and I have been living apart for more than two years, during which time I have formed a relationship with Helen Harrison.'

Wellingborough has been held by the Conservatives since 2005 after Mr Bone took it from Labour during Sir Tony Blair's final election as prime minister.

During Boris Johnson's landslide general election victory in 2019, the Tories held it with a strong 18,540 majority, with Labour coming a distant second.

But that lead could be under threat in the current political climate, with it being smaller than the Tory majorities overturned by Sir Keir Starmer's party in by-elections held in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire in October.

North Northamptonshire Council last month anounced that 10,505 people had backed the petition to oust Mr Bone from the Commons during a recall process lasting six weeks.

This passed the 10 per cent threshold required to trigger a by-election.

Labour has picked Gen Kitchen as their candidate in Wellingborough.

It will be one of at least two Westminster by-elections due this year, with Tory MP Chris Skidmore triggering a contest in his Kingswood constituency in South Gloucestershire.

The former Government Net Zero tsar announced last week that he was leaving Parliament in protest at Mr Sunaks decision to grant more North Sea oil and gas drilling licences.
It is the Netflix show starring Michelle Keegan as grieving mother Maya Stern that has delighted and frustrated viewers in equal measures over its explosive eight-episode run.

Fool Me Once has gripped fans of the streaming channel with its labyrinthine plot, stand-out acting as well as its numerous twists and turns.

But as many reach the end of the final dramatic episode, questions have been raised about some elements of the series.

Chief among those are a series of apparent plot holes and unexplained storylines leaving some as confused as Maya's beleagured brother-in-law Eddie.

Here MailOnline identifies seven of the more baffling sections and a former Military Police officer and ex-Scotland Yard detective picks apart the worst offenders. Warning, spoilers are ahead so do not read on if you have not yet finished the show.

Suspicious Shane's track attack and stalking

On top of a number of secret lingering looks at Maya, that hint at unrequited love or even obsession, Shane carries out a number of bizarre activities

Shane at one point places a tracker on her car underneath a wheel arch, although never appears to use it

In the series Shane Tessier - played by Emmett J. Scanlan - is at the centre of viewers' suspicions for most of the show.

The character is a Military Police officer and is a key part of how Maya figures out the truth about her sister and dead husband Joe.

But he is seen behaving extremely strangely for much of the programme, for reasons never completely explained.

On top of a number of secret lingering looks at Maya, that hint at unrequited love or even obsession, he carries out a number of bizarre activities.

During one part of the series he appears to have broken into her house, a fact only revealed when she rings him to lie she is at home herself.

Elsewhere at least two scenes show him skulking around outside the property spying on her.

And perhaps most ludicrously he at one point places a tracker on her car underneath a wheel arch, although never appears to use it.

Former Military Police officer Mike Neville told MailOnline: 'The copious use of the trackers would just not happen.

'Equipment like that has to be organised and authorised properly for investigations.

'You cant just get them out of stores and used if and when. You cant use them for things like they are on the show.'

Why was DS Kierce taking the pills anyway?

Detective Sergeant Sami Kierce is shown throughout the show necking prescription pills

At one point his troubled mental state takes him to a bridge where he considers suicide

Actor Adeel Akhtar gives an accomplished performance as Detective Sergeant Sami Kierce, giving an emotional turn as a cop on the edge.

Central to the series' whole plot is the discovery that the villainous Burkett family has been covering up side effects of drugs its pharmaceutical company produces.

This in turn leads to a dramatic reveal about DS Kierce, who has been suffering seizures, passing out and hallucinating his dead fiancee.

He is shown throughout the show necking prescription pills from a bottle and has a brain scan revealing a mystery illness is causing major damage.

At one point he considers taking his own life on a bridge as he fears he will no longer be able to function properly.

But viewers and he discover towards the end of the show the Burkett brand name on the label, which leads to the realisation that it is the drugs making him more sick.

In the memorable scene he looks at the bright white sticker on the bottle and sees it in block letters jumping out.

But it is never properly explained why DS Kierce had started taking the pills and what they were supposed to be treating.

It is also something of a stretch to imagine a detective - whose job is investigation and attention to detail - would miss the name on the label.

The brand is, after all, the same as the surname of the murder victim whose case he is looking into.

The interested helicopter pupil left in a field

The helicopter pupil was sat in the cockpit in the air with Maya and seemed to be listening in and hugely interested

The character is literally abandoned - by Maya - after she lands the aircraft in a field after chase

During episode three of the series Maya is in hot pursuit of a mysterious red car that has been trailing her.

In keeping with the apparent abundance of these types of gadgets, she had placed - you guessed it - a tracker on the vehicle.

But she loses the car in traffic on a dual carriageway and goes to work, where she instructs people on how to fly helicopters.

It is at this point Shane gives her a call to tell her the vehicle is on the move and she realises that it is near her location.

The viewer's gaze is drawn to her pupil who is sat in the cockpit in the air with her and who seems to be listening in and hugely interested.

His expressions during the helicopter pursuit suggest he is someone involved in the case, but this is never developed.

In fact he is literally abandoned - by Maya - as the character lands the aircraft in a field.

As she leaps out to begin her pursuit on foot he is heard bemoaning the fact he has a dentist appointment to go to.

She promises to return to him but is not seen going back, the next time she appears he is nowhere to be seen.

Presumably he is still in the helicopter he is not qualified to fly sat in a random field.

Does Lily have sixth sense and see the dead?

As Maya tries to get her into the car, Lily can be heard saying 'Dadda' next to a large bush

At another point in the drama it is said that Lily has been drawing pictures of angels herself

Much is made of whether Maya's husband Joe, who is played by Richard Armitage, is really dead.

From the questions over the nannycam footage, to the fact his official death paperwork is missing, the viewer is constantly kept guessing.

One of the main reasons for this is the behaviour of Maya and Joe's little daughter Lily.

Early in the series she is said to have been drawing angels and seems to barely notice her father is no longer around.

But the strangest moment comes towards the end of the set of episodes as the plot begins to be tied up properly.

After scenes suggesting Joe could be alive and outside watching the property she is taken to the car later with Maya.

But the little girl insists on waiting next to a large bush next to the house.

As Maya tries to get her into the car, Lily can be heard saying 'Dadda'.

It is heavily hinted Joe could be hiding in the bush but this is never explored again or even explained. Perhaps the bush is called Dadda.

Maya's secret gun is missed by the police

Maya's secret gun is missed by the police in a baffling oversight that does not ring true to form

The fact Maya's husband has been shot dead does not lead to the secret gun being found

Despite the strict laws on firearms and how they are kept, Maya has a veritable arsenal in her home.

The rifles and a decommissioned handgun on display are explained away by her and officially registered, as she tells DS Kierce early on.

But a key plot twist centres on a secret compartment in her gun cabinet, which contains a working handgun.

In one of the most baffling oversights, DS Kierce only misses it because a bag is placed over the top of it.

This is despite him taking a great interest in the other guns and the other decommissioned firearm.

Given the fact her husband had been shot to death, it is inconceivable more attention would not be given to searching the cabinet.

On top of this, in real life the structure would have been carefully checked by police checking how they were stored.

Mr Neville, who is also a former Scotland Yard detective, told MailOnline it would be impossible to be missed.

He added: 'This is more nonsense. Police check gun cabinets incredibly thoroughly to the point of sometimes being quite awkward and inconvenient.'

Theo Mora's murder would have been found

Theo Mora is tied to a chair before a funnel is put down his throat to force him to down vodka

The fact there were rope marks on his arms would have triggered a police investigation in real life and the murder most likely uncovered

The disturbing murder of schoolboy Theo Mora is another key plot point in the series.

As a child Joe, his brother Andrew, and their friends took him to abandoned ruins in a sick prank.

Wearing masks, they tie him to a chair before putting a funnel down his throat and forcing him to down vodka, killing him.

His body is abandoned elsewhere and is found in the grounds of the school after the other boys swear to secrecy.

Joe later murders Andrew as the latter says he will go to the police to confess.

In reality there is little doubt the murder would have been discovered anyway.

The combination of circumstances would mean an inquest and police probe would have been launched.

Mr Neville adds: 'The boy who died, there would have been an autopsy and a toxicology report that would have led to an investigation.

'Of course any suggestion of rope marks on him would also lead to this. It would have been investigated properly.'

The magically appearing Burkett nannycam

The Burketts' encounter was livestreamed on a nannycam pictureframe, but when was it placed in the room?

Surely Maya - who carefully plotted murder cover up - could have avoided dying herself?

The climax of the series features Maya taking a final revenge on the Burkett family.

She tricks them into confessing they knew about the drugs they make being dangerous and covering up the results.

Then she effectively goads Joe's brother Neil into shooting her dead.

The Burketts have no idea but the whole encounter has been livestreamed on a nannycam pictureframe placed in the room.

But exactly how it was put into the precise location there is never explained.

And given the rings she has run round everyone covering up Joe's death, Maya's last act appears unconvincing.

For someone who has set up exposing the family to the world, it appears unlikely the only solution she arrived at meant she had to die.

There is also her sudden lack of regard for her daughter Lily, now an orphan.

In the final scene of the series - set years later - Lily seems unbothered by her family history as she gives birth to a daughter.

She is so forgiving to her mother, she even names the child after her.
Humza Yousaf today claimed Scottish households would be more than 10,000 better off if the country gained its independence from the UK, as he said his drive to rejoin the EU was more 'urgent' than ever.

In his first speech of a year that will include what is expected to be a tough general election for the SNP the First Minister said there was a 'huge prize' awaiting families if Scotland left Britain.

He used the address at the University of Glasgow to brand the UK the 'poor man of north-west Europe' with 'abnormally low' living standards.

But his comments come just weeks after his government announced plans to increase income tax rates to the highest in Britain.

In a triple whammy, a new 45p income tax band will hit earnings above 75,000, the top rate on earnings above 125,140 will rise by 1p to 48p, and the higher rate threshold will be frozen at 43,663.

This will see everyone earning above 28,850 in Scotland paying more tax than those living in other parts of the UK, raising fears of a brain drain from Scotland.

Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: 'This delusional speech reaffirmed how out of touch Humza Yousaf is with the Scottish people, who are sick and tired of him obsessing over independence.

Humza Yousaf will use a speech this afternoon to argue that only by quitting the UK can the country improve itself.

In a triple whammy, a new 45p income tax band will hit earnings above 75,000, the top rate on earnings above 125,140 will rise by 1p to 48p, and the higher rate threshold will be frozen at 43,663.

His speech will take place just hours after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar made an overt pitch to SNP voters to lend his party their support to beat the Tories.

'The First Minister's case for ripping Scotland out of the UK rests on myths, fantasy economics and the fanciful hope the public forget that last month's disastrous tax-and-axe budget was the product of years of waste and dismal growth under the SNP.

'He has the powers to improve the lives of Scottish workers now but instead has chosen to make Scotland the highest taxed part of the UK, damaging our competitiveness.

'Humza Yousaf is a weak leader in charge of a feuding, scandal-ridden party, which is why he is banging on about the one issue they agree on  breaking up the UK  and ignoring the country at large.

'Voters know that in swathes of seats only the Scottish Conservatives can beat the discredited SNP and move the focus away from separation and on to people's real priorities  like the cost of living, boosting the economy and improving Scotland's ailing public services.'

In his speech the First Minister referred to a report from the Resolution Foundation looking at income inequality in the UK compared with other countries.

He said that the average household would be 8,300 better off if the UK had the average income inequality of similar countries.

Using the same analysis for Scotland, Mr Yousaf said: 'The prize for the typical Scottish household would be even greater, they would be 10,200 better off.

'That then, is the huge prize of independence. Not to match the performance of those independence countries overnight - no one's suggesting that is going to happen - but to start catching so that Scotland becomes more normal.'

The appearance at Glasgow University is the first of a series which will centre on the economy as he sets out his party's case ahead of the next general election.

But it comes after the SNP endured a turbulent 2023, which saw Mr Yousaf's predecessor Nicola Sturgeon arrested by detectives investigating hundreds of thousands of pounds of missing donations.

The party also suffered a setback in the courts when judges threw out its Gender Recognition Reform Act, and attracted controversy after a transitioning male rapist was sent to a female prison.

In his speech Mr Yousaf warned independence supporters not to 'dismiss' their opponents.

And he added: 'There will be others who are sympathetic to independence but who are not yet persuaded or who don't think this is the right time.

'It is my argument that independence is urgent. It is urgent precisely because the cost of living is top of people's concerns.

'Because it is through independence, and in particular the powerful combination of independence and EU membership, that we can raise living standards.'

However, Mr Yousaf warned pro-independence supporters not to just simply shout 'independence ever louder', instead the Scottish Government must set out an 'alternative path: one that leads to a renewed sense of possibility'.

'It should then be for the people of Scotland to decide between those two futures,' he said.

'And this is where the case for optimism comes in.

'Scotland has extraordinary resources such as renewable energy and key economic strengths such as our great universities.'

His speech took place just hours after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar made an overt pitch to SNP voters to lend his party their support to beat the Tories.

With a general election less than a year away, Mr Sarwar pitched to secure support for his party north of the border and pave the way for Sir Keir Starmer to take over in Downing Street.

Speaking in Rutherglen, the scene of the party's momentous by-election win last year, Mr Sarwar said a vote for Labour in Scotland would 'lead the way in booting out these Tories, and electing a UK Labour government.'

At the outset of 2024, Mr Sarwar and the Labour Party have been riding high in the polls for months, with the Tories struggling and the SNP coming off a year that included a change in leader and high-profile arrests relating to an investigation into the party's finances.

The Scottish Labour leader will described 2024 as a 'momentous year', adding: 'It can be the year of change, our opportunity for change after 13 years of failure under the Tories.

'But after 16 years of decline and incompetence, it is a chance to turn the page on the SNP too.

'I know people across our country are hungry for change.'

Speaking ahead of the speech, Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy said: 'Anas Sarwar has come alarmingly late to the obvious truth that the SNP's time in government has been incredibly damaging.

'That is because, on policies ranging from gender recognition reform to their disastrous financial policies, Labour has slavishly voted with Humza Yousaf's government.

'Mr Sarwar predictably ignores the fact that in a host of seats across Scotland, the only way to get rid of the toxic SNP is to vote for the Scottish Conservative Party, which remains the only party committed to providing robust opposition in Holyrood while remaining focused on people's real priorities.'
A pensioner has died after plunging down a 130-ft hole he dug under his kitchen floor after dreaming he had gold buried under it.

Joao Pimenta da Silva, 71, plunged down the shaft he had excavated after losing his balance from a swing seat at his home in Brazil.

Neighbours said the pensioner had become obsessed with the idea there was gold buried in the area under the property in the municipality of Ipatinga in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais he was trying to reach.

Arnaldo da Silva told local media: 'Joao had spent more than a year digging the hole and hired many people to do the excavating work.

'He began by paying 70 Brazilian Reais (11.30) a day when the hole was still shallow but the deeper he went the more the costs went up.

A pensioner has died after plunging down a 130-ft hole he dug under his kitchen floor after dreaming he had gold buried under it (pictured)

Joao Pimenta da Silva, 71, plunged down the shaft he had excavated after losing his balance from a swing seat at his home in Brazil

'He ended up paying around (80) to anyone who entered the hole and helped to remove earth. He had hit a large stone that appeared which was difficult to remove and there were rumours he had been talking about trying to get hold of dynamite.'

The neighbour said Joao claimed to have been told by a 'spirit' in a dream there was gold under the rock below his kitchen floor and he tried to warn him of the dangers of his mission but was ignored.

The tragedy that led to the gold-digger's death occurred on January 5.

Firefighters confirmed they received a call around 1.30pm that day to a house in a neighbourhood called Betania after the owner suffered a fall of approximately 130ft but were unable to do anything to save his life.

Extraordinary photos of the hole, which was around 35 inches in diameter and went down the equivalent of around 12 floors, have been published in the Brazilian press.

Local reports said the victim is believed to have slipped and plunged to his death from a wooden platform near the top of the hole as he tried to exit it following work to remove water and mud.

Other reports said the platform was an access seat from a child's swing which he used to enter the hole. At the time, he was working to remove water and earth.

A friend  Antonio Wilson Costa  he was working with was unable to save him. He was the one to witness the fall, and said that da Silva's seat came loose.

His body was removed by the emergency services. He was found to have suffered head injuries and broken legs as well as other fractures.

'After (the) dream, the elderly man started digging a hole about 90 centimeters in diameter and at least 40 meters deep,' the Fire Department said in a statement.

'There was no information on how long the whole process took or how the complex excavation was organised,' they noted.

The 2nd sergeant of the Minas Gerais Fire Brigade, Luis Filipe de Miranda, told the Estado newspaper that Silva probably had experience with excavations and would have had professional help.

He said that although the equipment used was 'archaic' and 'homemade', the vertical tunnel cut was 'perfect'.

'This tunnel looks like something alien, with the perfection with which he dug it: very small diameter, very perfect cylinder, 40m deep,' Miranda said.

'We found compressors, specific jackhammers' used for tunnel digging.

The neighbour said Joao (pictured) claimed to have been told by a 'spirit' in a dream there was gold under the rock below his kitchen floor and he tried to warn him of the dangers of his mission but was ignored.

He also pointed out that the hole he found was completely shored up.

'It's a science to get down. Very complicated, but he had experience. We don't know what he did in this regard,' he said.

On the other hand, Miranda highlighted serious safety problems.

'In the images you can see that it's all very archaic, homemade, contrived. There's no fixed support structure. His struts for climbing up don't have screws in the ground. He was descending on a kind of child's seesaw, without a belt, without safety.'
A hairdresser who ran a cocaine and heroin trafficking racket with her drug-dealing boyfriend has been jailed for four years and eight months.

Mother-of-one Jade Hughes, 33, took over the running of a narcotics hotline with her lover Jonathan Hughes, 32, and bragged that her stash of drugs would leave users 'active as f***'.

But police soon caught on to her drug trafficking operation after launching an investigation in September into to the dealing of crack cocaine and heroin in Ellesmere Port, where the couple lived.

Officers raided Miss Hughes' home last month and discovered a hoard of drugs paraphernalia including two digital weighing scales, disposable plastic glove fingers used to bag up heroin and crack cocaine and a One Touch mobile phone.

The couple, who are not married despite sharing the same surname, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of class A drugs, including crack cocaine and heroin and were sentenced to prison at Chester Crown Court.

Hairdresser Jade Hughes, 33, ran a cocaine and heroin trafficking racket with her drug-dealing boyfriend

Mother-of-one Jade took over the running of a narcotics hotline with her lover Jonathan Hughes, 32

Miss Hughes (left) and Mr Hughes (right) pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of class A drugs, including crack cocaine and heroin and were sentenced to prison

Police also uncovered a torrent of drugs lingo-laden 'flare' messages sent by Miss Hughes on a number of so-called graft phones. Other texts read: 'New Whiskey, Bobs is power' and 'Mix an match On all night', plus: 'Rapid drops, Power man down sh*t.'

Inquiries revealed she was in a breach of suspended prison sentence for possession of cannabis and drug driving. She was saved as 'The Only One' with a heart emoji on her boyfriend's phone. It is not known how much she has from the racket.

Miss Hughes who has a 12 year old son from a previous relationship wept as she was jailed for four years and eight months.

Her boyfriend was jailed for 32 months after he admitted similar offences. Both were said to be dealing drugs to fund their own habits.

The investigation began in November 2022 when police seized two phones used by Miss Hughes during a search of another house during an unrelated probe.

Prosecutor Mr Will Griffin said: 'Intelligence on police systems indicated that Jade Hughes was involved in the supply of controlled drugs and her DNA was present on both devices.

'Both phones contained messages indicative of drug supply. An example being a message was received saying "Are you on drops or" to which the defendant replied, "Yes what you want mate?"

Miss Hughes who has a 12 year old son from a previous relationship wept in court as she was jailed for four years and eight months

Her boyfriend was jailed for 32 months after he admitted similar offences. Both were said to be dealing drugs to fund their own habits

'Various mobile numbers were identified as sending out flare messages, and further investigation showed that the numbers are attributed to both Jade Hughes and Jonathan Hughes.

'There were messages such as "Active with both, straight tens, fast drops all day and nite, early riser, rapid drops, Power man down sh*t!!!"

'Jonathan and Jade are in a relationship and both play a significant role. There is operational or management function within a chain and there was also expectation of substantial financial advantage.'

Police also searched Mr Hughes' home in Ellesmere Port and found digital scales, torn plastic bags and knots, a snap bag with remnants of white powder, and an EE SIM Card Package relating to a Samsung mobile phone.

Both he and Miss Hughes answered no comment in police interview.

Defence counsel Maria Masselis who represented Miss Hughes said her client was 'full of regret'.

She added: 'She was operating a graft phone on behalf of those who can only be higher up the chain of drug supply than she was.

'She clearly was a user. She built up a debt and was pressured to operate the graft phone to work some of that debt off.

Police caught on to Miss Hughes' drug trafficking operation after launching an investigation in September

Officers raided Miss Hughes' home last month and discovered a hoard of drugs paraphernalia including two digital weighing scales and disposable plastic glove fingers used to bag up heroin and crack cocaine

Police also searched Mr Hughes' (pictured) home in Ellesmere Port and found digital scales, torn plastic bags and knots, a snap bag with remnants of white powder, and an EE SIM Card Package relating to a Samsung mobile phone

'She had a relatively good start to life. She was raised by both parents and grandparents. She went to a local school and then to local college where she studied for a level 3 qualification in hairdressing. That is a career she commenced in.

'Sadly when about 20 years of age she came across the father of her now 12-year-old child. She entered a relationship which became abusive and he nearly killed her on more than one occasion and introduced her to illegal drugs.

'She eventually broke away from that relationship and got some way to clean up her life but then sadly her life took another turn when a very close friend was killed five years ago and that set her off on a completely different trajectory.

'She just wants to be in her son's life. She can be and has been in the past clean of illicit substances.'

For Jonathan Hughes, John Wyn Williams said: 'He became involved in a relationship with Jade Hughes and as a result of that relationship fell back into drugs. There is no evidence of an extravagant lifestyle. This is a sad case of two addicts having to supply others to supply their own addiction.

Sentencing Judge Simon Berkson told them: 'You were both involved in supplying drugs and addicted to drugs. You know better than most people how drugs ruin people's lives.'
Pope Francis today called for a universal ban on the 'despicable' practice of surrogate motherhood, as he included the 'commercialisation' of pregnancy in an annual speech listing threats to global peace and human dignity.

In his 'state of the world' address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, Francis lamented that 2024 had dawned at a time in history in which peace is 'increasingly threatened, weakened and in some part lost'.

Francis, 87, said the life of the unborn child must be protected and not 'suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking', and called for the international community 'to prohibit this practice (of surrogacy) universally'.

'I consider despicable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother's material needs,' he said.

Yet the Vatican's doctrine office has also made clear that homosexual parents who resort to surrogacy can have their children baptised.

And Francis' tirade over surrogacy comes less than a month after he formally approved a radical change in Vatican policy, allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, insisting worshippers seeking God's love and mercy should not be subject to 'an exhaustive moral analysis' to receive it.

Francis, 87, said the life of the unborn child must be protected and not 'suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking', and called for the international community 'to prohibit this practice (of surrogacy) universally'

Pope Francis delivers his Sunday Angelus blessing from his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square on January 07, 2024

This handout photo taken and released on January 7, 2024, by the Vatican Media, shows Pope Francis baptising infants during celebrations for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican

The Pope's resolute stance against surrogacy is well documented.

In June 2022, Francis condemned surrogacy as an 'inhuman' practice, and has routinely voiced the Catholic Church's opposition to what he has called 'uterus for rent'.

Some European countries prohibit the practice, including Spain and Italy.

But 'altruistic' surrogacy, whereby a woman gives birth to a baby on behalf of another woman or couple but no money changes hands, excluding for expenses, is legal in countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Canada, Brazil and Colombia.

Commercial surrogacy is however permitted in some US states.

Francis' denouncement of surrogacy came as part of a wider speech that lamented major crises facing humanity.

Citing Russia's war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, migration and climate crises and the 'immoral' production of nuclear and conventional weapons, Francis delivered a lengthy laundry list of the ills afflicting humanity and the increasing violation of international humanitarian law that allows them.

In his geopolitical roundup, Francis singled out Russia by name in noting that 'large-scale war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine' had ground on.

It marked an unusual break with Francis' usual tendency to spare Moscow direct, public blame for the invasion when expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

The Pope was more balanced in his lament of Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, condemning Hamas' October 7 assault on southern Israel 'and every instance of terrorism and extremism.'

At the same time, he said the attack provoked a 'strong Israeli military response' that had left thousands dead and created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Faithful attend the Angelus prayer led by Pope Francis at the Vatican, January 7, 2024

Citing Russia 's war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, migration and climate crises and the 'immoral' production of nuclear and conventional weapons, Francis delivered a lengthy laundry list of the ills afflicting humanity (pictured: Aftermath of Russian missile attack in Ukraine)

People walk among damaged buildings as the historical buildings such as mosques, churches, baths and bazaars are damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza on January 06, 2024

Expressing concern that the war between Israel and Hamas could spread in the wider Middle East, Francis called for a 'ceasefire on every front, including Lebanon', and renewed a call for the immediate liberation of those still being held by militants in Gaza.

He also warned that modern warfare often does not distinguish between military and civilian objectives.

There is no conflict that does not end up in some way 'indiscriminately striking' the civilian population, he said.

'The events in Ukraine and Gaza are clear proof of this. We must not forget that grave violations of international humanitarian law are war crimes, and that it is not sufficient to point them out, but also necessary to prevent them.

'There is a need for greater effort on the part of the international community to defend and implement humanitarian law, which seems to be the only way to ensure the defence of human dignity in situations of warfare,' he concluded.
She previously rounded on the NRA, trying to claim it's a 'terrorist organization'

The NRA claims the case is politically motivated by New York AG Letitia James

It comes three days after the days after LaPierre, 74, stepped down from the NRA

Wayne LaPierre enters court as the NRA battles under corruption probe in NYC

The former CEO of the NRA has arrived for his corruption case in New York - just three days after resigning from the organization he led for 32 years.

Wayne LaPierre stepped into Manhattan Supreme Court to fight claims he oversaw the diversion of millions of dollars to fund luxury lifestyles and trips for top officials.

The 74-year-old said he was stepping down for 'health reasons' as he announced his resignation on January 5.

But he will face a jury alongside general counsel John Frazer, former finance chief Wilson Phillips and the organization itself in a civil case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

'LaPierre's resignation validates our claims against him, but it will not insulate him from accountability,' she tweeted.

Wayne LaPierre arriving at Manhattan Supreme Court for his corruption trial today

New York Attorney General Letitia James has branded the NRA a 'terrorist organization'

The veteran lobbyist built the NRA into a political powerhouse during his 32 years in charge

'We look forward to presenting our case in court.'

Prior to her election, James vowed to take on the NRA, which she branded a 'terrorist organization.

James, said that no plea deal with LaPierre had been reached, and the corruption trial will proceed as planned.

She brought a lawsuit in 2020 accusing NRA chiefs of violating state and federal law and lining their pockets with millions of dollars.

LaPierre was reelected to his position in 2021 despite the ongoing civil case which claims he diverted millions to pay for trips and other lavish items.

James also accused NRA officials of failing to obtain board approval for conflicts of interest and insider transactions, obtaining no-show contracts for associates, and retaliating against whistleblowers who suspected financial wrongdoing.

In May 2021, the group made a failed bid to file for bankruptcy to move its organization from New York to Texas, which LaPierre admitted was to avoid the litigation.

But it was denied by federal judge Harlin Hale who argued that it had been filed in bad faith, and slammed LaPierre's conduct as 'nothing less than shocking'.

LaPierre, pictured at an NRA rally in 2022 with Donald Trump, is accused of diverting millions of dollars to pay for his lavish lifestyle

LaPierre, pictured with his wife and the late Shawn and Larry King, was reelected as NRA chief in 2021 despite the controversies

NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre (left) announced his resignation on January 5 - just days before his New York corruption trial was due to begin. Andrew Arulanandam (right), his former spokesman, will take over as interim CEO

The gun rights group unsuccessfully attempted to stop the corruption probe from proceeding by arguing Democrat James is politically motivated and has violated First Amendment for trying to silence its speech because she disliked what it stood for.

But the appeal was unanimously rejected.

The NRA said it was 'well-known' that James had pledged to pursue the organization.

In March 2022, the group scored a major legal victory, when a New York court dismissed James' claims to dissolve the organization.

'With respect to the NYAG's allegations, the NRA Board of Directors reports it has undertaken significant efforts to perform a self-evaluation, recommended termination of disgraced 'insiders' and vendors who allegedly abused the Association, and accepted reimbursement, with interest, for alleged excess benefit transactions from LaPierre, as reported in public tax filing,' an NRA statement said.

LaPierre added: 'I am proud of the NRA's advocacy in New York and, through it all, determination to defend the Second Amendment. I can assure you the NRA's mission, programming, and fight for freedom have never been more secure.'

His resignation will take effect on January 31 and Andrew Arulanandam, the NRA's executive and head of general operations, will serve as interim CEO and executive vice president.

Since taking over in 1991, LaPierre built the NRA into a political powerhouse that pressed Washington and statehouses to expand gun rights, even as mass shootings mounted nationwide.

Its efforts have been bolstered since 2008 by three major US Supreme Court decisions that expanded gun rights.

But the trial comes at a difficult time for the NRA, which has seen revenue slide 44 percent since 2016, and membership drop by nearly one-third since 2018.

A fourth, former NRA second-in-command Joshua Powell, settled late on Friday, agreeing to reimburse $100,000 and admitting he improperly used NRA assets to benefit himself and his family.

Powell was fired by the NRA in 2020. He later accused the group of corruption and greed, and expressed support for some gun control measures.

Former NRA President Oliver North, who left the group in a 2019 leadership dispute, is also due to testify.

LaPierre, pictured with wife Susan, claims the lawsuit from James is politically motivated after she vowed to go after the NRA prior to her appointment as Attorney General

Jury selection began on January 2 and may conclude on Monday, with opening statements also possible later today.

Jurors will assess whether the individual defendants engaged in financial misconduct, and how much they should repay the NRA.

Payments could be reduced if jurors were to blame the NRA for allowing any misconduct.

The trial before Justice Joel Cohen of the state supreme court is expected to last six weeks.
A female police officer has died at Port Adelaide Police Station, sending shockwaves through the law enforcement community.

South Australia Police said the tragedy on Monday afternoon is not being treated as suspicious, however her cause of death was not revealed.

Counselling support is now being provided to her colleagues.

A female officer has died at Port Adelaide Police Station (pictured), sending shockwaves through the law enforcement community

EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: Cop's heartbreaking final words before she was found dead Advertisement

The death will be investigated by the coroner, with a commissioner's inquiry set to be undertaken.

'The tragedy at Port Adelaide is something that will impact so many people  family and friends, but also the entire police family and indeed the wider community,' South Australia Police Association president Mark Carroll said.

'Our colleague's death will be investigated so that we can understand the cause of this devastating incident.

The state's Police Minister Joe Szakacs also shared his grief in a statement.

'My heartfelt condolences go to the family, friends and colleagues of the police officer,' Mr Szakacs said.

'Her tragic passing will be felt deeply, and grieved widely. I ask everyone to keep the police family in their thoughts.'

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A bluefin tuna weighing almost 525 pounds has been sold at Tokyo's largest fish market for almost $800,000.

The most expensive piece of seafood at the fish market in the Japanese capital was purchased by wholesaler Yamayuki and sushi chain Onodera for nearly $800,000.

This means they have now purchased the market's priciest fish for four years in succession.

'If we were going to do it, we wanted to win,' Yamayuki president Yukitaka Yamaguchi told reporters following the end of the prestigious auction.

According to The Japan Times, the tuna will be used by the exclusive Michelin-starred restaurant Onodera, which is located in Tokyo's glamorous Ginza district.

This bluefin tuna - which weighs over 500 pounds - was auctioned with the price of 114.24 million Japanese yen (approximately $857,731). It is seen here after the first tuna auction of the New Year at Toyosu Wholesale Fish Market on January 5, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan

The mammoth catch is checked and watered down by staff after being unloaded outside the Sushi Ginza Onodera main store in Omotesando in Tokyo on January 5, 2024

The most expensive piece of seafood at the fish market in the Japanese capital was purchased by wholesaler Yamayuki and sushi chain Onodera for nearly $800,000. This means they have now purchased the market's priciest fish for four years in succession.

A worker cleans around frozen tuna on display as wholesale sellers and buyers attend the first tuna auction of 2024 in Tokyo

The near-million-dollar sale of the bluefin tuna provides hope of a resurgence in Japanese fish prices, which had fallen in the wake of the pandemic. Pictured: Tuna Tuna sit on display as wholesale sellers and buyers attend the auction

Fishery traders check out bluefin tuna during the first auction day of the New Year at Toyosu Market in Tokyo, Japan on January 5, 2024

The whopping price for the enormous fish is the fourth-highest sale since recordkeeping at the Toyosu Fish Market began in 1999.

The record was set in 2019 when Kiyoshi 'Tuna King' Kimura, a Japanese sushi restaurant chain owner, paid 333.6 million yen ($3.1 million) for a 613-pound bluefin tuna at that year's auction.

However, Kimura, who runs the Sushi Zanmai chain, Kimura would go on to concede that he had paid five times more than he expected.

'The tuna looks so tasty and very fresh, but I think I did too much,' Kimura remarked after the 2019 auction.

'The quality of the tuna I bought is the best,' he added at the time.

The near-million-dollar sale of the bluefin tuna provides hope of a resurgence in Japanese fish prices, which had fallen in the wake of the pandemic and its effect on Japanese tourism and the food and hospitality sector.

The number of foreign visitors to Japan has returned to pre-pandemic levels, which has seen tourist numbers exceed 2million for six consecutive months, according to the country's National Tourism Organisation.

Although the price paid for the tuna is the highest since the record set by Kimura four years ago, Japan had its deepest contraction in gross domestic product since the pandemic in the third quarter of 2023.
A woman who was left permanently disabled after an operation from a disgraced NHS surgeon has said her mobility issues are so bad she can no longer have sex with her husband and has problems using the toilet.

Rogue surgeon Professor Sam Eljamel is currently believed to be operating in Libya after he was suspended from NHS Tayside in 2013.

Described as a 'poor doctor' by his peers, Eljamel's reign of incompetence at the hospital trust has been the subject of huge media interest with calls growing for him to be extradited back to Scotland to face a public enquiry.

Campaigners, many of whom suffered life-changing injuries, believe more than 200 patients may have been harmed by Prof Eljamel, who worked for the Tayside health board between 1995 and 2013, when he was suspended following three months of 'indirect supervision'.

The latest of Eljamel's victims to go public is mother Mo Bell, 57, who says her life was changed after he performed a discectomy on her lower back in 2008.

Mo Bell, 57, says she has been left disabled after the rogue surgeon performed a discectomy on her lower back in 2008

Rogue surgeon Professor Sam Eljamel is currently believed to be operating in Libya after he was suspended from NHS Tayside in 2013

She is now calling for the full enquiry into Eljamel's practices to begin this year.

She told the Daily Record: 'I had been having a little niggle in my back for a while.

'At the start of January 2008, I woke up and had a pain in my legs. As the day went on, I wasn't able to go to the toilet.'

After being diagnosed, Mo was brought in for an operation and that's where her problems with Eljamel allegedly began.

She claimed: 'I came round, he got me out of bed straight away, which I thought was a bit funny.

'He then had me up getting physio and the next day he sent me home. I went in on January 2 and was out by January 4.

'But when I went home, I still wasn't able to go to the toilet either way. He also declined to tell me what he had done had caused cauda equina syndrome.'

Mo says she was unaware she had this condition until three or four years later when she went in for an unrelated minor operation.

Mrs Bell said her mobility issues are so bad she can no longer have sex with her husband (pictured together)

Protesters outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh calling for a public inquiry into the care given to patients by disgraced surgeon

She said: 'The nurses told me I had it, it was on my medical records. After the operation, there was a lot of toing and froing back to the hospital because I was still not able to go to the toilet.

'Eljamel wouldn't have me back in neurology, so I had to go to a general ward and they didn't know what was going on because they didn't have the notes. I was on that ward for about a week and they didn't know what was happening either.

'It took years to get it all sorted out. But now I know he damaged the nerves when he was removing the disc. I am now numb down my right hand side. I struggle to walk.

'What he did to me left me disabled but I only recently realised, after reading about other cases in the papers and getting my notes, that it was down to his negligence. He never told me. He never told anyone.

'I think it is absolutely terrible he was allowed to operate for so long. It was as if he was God up there. Everybody thought he was great. My operation was in 2008 but how many people came after me?

'I am really, really, really angry. It is not just my mobility, my inability to go to the toilet and ending my career, there are personal things too  I can't have sex with my husband, it is too sore.

'Even though I am numb, I get pain in some situations, like a shooting pain. I never went on holiday for years because of the pain and it is all because of him.

'It is really, really important this inquiry gets started.'

Jules Ross, from Kinross, Perthshire, who campaigned for a public inquiry into disgraced NHS Tayside surgeon Sam Eljamel

In August 2013 the rogue surgeon wrongly removed her tear duct instead of a brain tumour

Last year, Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf confirmed the decision to hold a public inquiry into Eljamel's time at the trust

Last year, Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf confirmed the decision to hold a public inquiry into Eljamel's time at the trust.

It follows a long-running campaign, with almost 150 former patients of the surgeon and many MSPs demanding one.

The 66-year-old botched operations leaving patients with lifelong complications. Up to 200 people may be affected.

Prior to his suspension he was placed under 'indirect supervision' amid complaints and concerns about his competency. But he was not supervised during his surgeries, putting even more patients at risk of harm.

Speaking at First Minister's Questions, Mr Yousaf said: 'This is a deeply important issue and I can inform the chamber today that Health Secretary Michael Matheson will use his statement to the chamber this afternoon to confirm that the government has decided to commission a full independent public inquiry.

'This comes after very careful consideration of the recent Due Diligence review which says concerns about Professor Eljamel were not acted on with the urgency they deserved.

'In commissioning an inquiry it remains important that those people directly affected are still supported to find the answers they need and both staff and patients across Scotland know lessons are being learned.

The move was welcomed by patients.

Jules Rose a 55-year-old mother-of-two from Kinross who has helped lead the campaign said: 'I am absolutely thrilled and delighted. I have been campaigning for a public inquiry for ten years and it should never have taken this long.'

In August 2013 the rogue surgeon wrongly removed her tear duct instead of a brain tumour.

She added: 'The inquiry must get to the root cause of the management failures at NHS Tayside that allowed this to happen and make the NHS safer.'
A hyena who mistook a sleeping hippo for a carcass had the last laugh when it managed to dodge the enraged beast's jaws, a dramatic video shows.

The carnivore made a narrow escape after it initially mistook the sleeping giant for a dead animal it could feast on.

Tense footage shows the hyena creeping up towards the behind of a seemingly immobile hippopotamus, which is half submerged under algae.

As the opportunistic scavenger cautiously approached the hippo, stalking towards it through shallow waters, the semiaquatic animal rears its head and looks around.

The hyena turns tail just in time, as the hippo swings its huge body around and chases it from the water before lunging towards it  coming within inches of catching it in its powerful jaws.

The incredible footage was captured by safari guide Carlos Ismail, who was leading a tour in the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, when he spotted the animal come close to death.

Carlos said: 'This hyena was very lucky. It was on its own and I think it thought that the hippo was dead and would be an easy meal.

'It just managed to escape in time before it was caught in the hippo's huge jaws. It barely managed to make it to dry land.

'I have been a guide now for nine years and have never seen anything like this before. Although I have seen the same hippo chase after a lioness.

'They are not scared of anything!'

As the opportunistic scavenger cautiously approached the hippo, stalking towards it through shallow waters, the semiaquatic animal rears its head and looks around

The hippo jumps up and storms towards the hyena, chasing it out of the water and coming within inches of catching it

Hippos are extremely aggressive and are considered the deadliest mammals on the planet.

Estimates suggest some 500 people are killed by hippos in Africa every year, both in direct attacks and instances of the animals capsizing boats.

They have very sharp teeth and are also known to be fast runners, meaning the solitary hyena, and potentially any onlookers, had a lucky escape in this instance.
The Government is facing calls to halt Fujitsu - the IT company at the centre of the Post Office scandal - from winning any new Whitehall contracts.

Amid growing public fury at the wrongful prosecution of subpostmasters for alleged fraud, MPs and peers are demanding the Japanese-based firm be suspended from getting fresh deals.

Fujitsu created the faulty accounting software called Horizon that made it appear as though money was missing from Post Office branches.

More than 700 branch managers were handed criminal convictions in what has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history.

A public inquiry into the scandal is ongoing and anger at the treatment of subpostmasters has grown after an ITV drama returned the issue to the spotlight.

This has also seen a fresh focus on how Fujitsu, despite their role in the scandal, has won nearly 200 public contracts with a value of about 6.7billion over the past decade.

According to data compiled by Tussell, the Government procurement analysts, Fujitsu's deals include providing IT services to schools in Northern Ireland (worth 485million) and infrastructure used by HM Revenue & Customs.

The Government is facing calls to halt Fujitsu - the IT company at the centre of the Post Office scandal - from winning any new Whitehall contracts

Sub-postmasters took their fight for justice to the High Court after falling victim to faulty accounting software called Horizon

Fujitsu created the Horizon software that made it appear as though money was missing from Post Office branches

In October 2022, Fujitsu was awarded a contract worth up to 5million to work on the UK's new emergency alert system

Senior Conservative MP David Davis suggested Fujitsu should be frozen out of future Government contracts in the wake of the Post Office scandal

In October 2022, Fujitsu was awarded a contract worth up to 5million to work on the UK's new emergency alert system.

The system, which is designed to warn the public of life-threatening situations such as extreme weather, was tested in April last year.

But users of the Three mobile phone network said they did not receive the test alert due to what was suspected to be a technical glitch.

The list of 197 deals won by Fujitsu since June 2012, as compiled by Tussell, includes a nearly 2.4billion contract for the Horizon system itself, with a 36million extension to keep the system running until 2025.

Senior Conservative MP David Davis suggested Fujitsu should be frozen out of future Government contracts in the wake of the Post Office scandal.

'I think it slightly depends on how they respond to the question I've just given  how many of these people did you actually meddle in their computers?,' the ex-Cabinet minister told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Pressed on whether contracts should be put on hold, he added: 'I would certainly suspend any possibility of new contracts until that is over.

'What I do not want to see is one injustice followed by another. So we have got to stick with some process in this and make sure we are actually checking the facts and doing what we should do.'

Lord Arbuthnot, the former Tory MP who previously led a fight in the House of Commons on behalf of subpostmasters, said he was perplexed why Whitehall continued to favour the company.

'I can't understand why a company that behaves in such a devious way is still winning contracts,' he told the Sunday Times.

Former subpostmaster Lee Castleton, one of the victims of the scandal, also expressed incredulity at how Fujitsu continues to earn millions from public contracts.

'It's crazy, isn't it? I don't think Fujitsu will ever be held accountable,' he told the newspaper.

Asked today if the Government would reconsider working with Fujitsu in the future, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said: 'The cupability or otherwise of Fujitsu is something that is being examined as part of the independent inquiry process. So I'm unable to fully opine at this point.'

Pressed on whether the Government would consider freezing out Fujitsu from the awarding of new public contracts while the inquiry continues, the PM's spokesman replied: 'We wouldn't look to act before we have established the full facts regarding Fujitsu's cuplability or otherwise.

'That work is being led by [inquiry chair] Sir Wyn Williams and we will act once he provides further information.'

Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minister, last week told Times Radio that the Government 'definitely should look at' recouping money from Fujitsu to fund compensation payments to subpostmasters.

A Fujitsu spokesman told MailOnline: 'The current Post Office Horizon IT statutory inquiry is examining complex events stretching back over 20 years to understand who knew what, when, and what they did with that knowledge.

'The inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters' lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering.

'Fujitsu is fully committed to supporting the inquiry in order to understand what happened and to learn from it.

'Out of respect for the inquiry process, it would be inappropriate for Fujitsu to comment further at this time.'
For more than two decades, he has been one of the world's most celebrated crime writers.

American Harlan Coben, who published his first novel in 1990 at the age of 26, has sold more than 80million books and is now a phenomenon on screen thanks to his mega-money deal with Netflix.

The latest iteration of that partnership has been Fool Me Once, which debuted at the start of the year and has left viewers hooked.

It follows on from UK-based adaptations of his novels Safe, The Stranger and Stay Close, as well as ones made for Polish (The Woods) and Spanish (The Innocent) viewers.

Before turning to writing novels, the 62-year-old 'master of the suburban thriller' - as he is dubbed by publishers - ran a travel firm that was started by his mother and grandfather.

He previously told how he 'didn't enjoy' duties that included having to 'wake up every morning and go to the office' and being responsible for 'grumpy vacationers'.

The writer said he soon learned that 'I wasn't meant to hold down a real job'.

Thriller writer Harlan Coben has four children with his wife Anne Armstrong. Above: The couple in 2011 with two of their children

For more than two decades, he has been one of the world's most celebrated crime writers. American Harlan Coben (pictured above with fellow publishing sensation Stephen King), who published his first novel in 1990 at the age of 26, has sold more than 80million books and is now a phenomenon on screen thanks to his mega-money deal with Netflix

His first novel, suspense thriller play dead, was released in 1990. It was followed by Miracle Cure in 1991.

Throughout the rest of the 1990s he published several of his Myron Bolitar novels, which kicked off with Deal Breaker in 1995.

But it was in 2001, with the publication of Tell No One, that saw him become an international sensation.

With his wife Anne Armstrong, whom he lives with in New Jersey, he has four children.

Daughter Charlotte has followed in her father's footsteps and is one of the writers of the adaptation of Fool Me Once.

He told the Daily Mail's Weekend magazine earlier this year: 'She's written one of the episodes of Fool Me Once but she's become so in demand that she's gone off to write her own series.

'As a father I'm pleased, but I'm also kind of sad to be losing her.'

He added to Good Morning America that Charlotte is 'a lot funnier than I am, and gets younger people better'.

Coben also counts fellow publishing sensation Stephen King - who is 15 years his senior - as a his 'idol'.

This was the term he chose when he wished the author of The Shining and dozens of other novels happy birthday in September last year, in a post that revealed a picture of them together.

Fool Me Once is just the latest in a total of 14 of Coben's books that have been or are set to be adapted for screen audiences in countries including Britain, Spain and Poland.

The American revealed in a previous interview that he sells 'more internationally than I do in the US' - a possible reason for the fact that European audiences are the main focus of the Netflix adaptations.

Coben and his wife Anne are seen at the unveiling of a new bar at the Algonquin Hotel in New York in 2022

Coben with his father. He wrote on Instagram: 'I am now two years older than my father ever got to be'

Coben's mother. He called her 'wonderfully eccentric' in a post on Instagram

For fans of Harlan Coben who are looking for more, Netflix has long been the place to go for adaptations of his novels. The most recent production, Fool Me Once, was released at the start of this month and has left viewers hooked

He told Deadline in 2021: 'They want to do a lot of international stuff and my books sell well overseas.

'I sell more internationally than I do in the USA.

'I thought it would be a cool opportunity, to do a Netflix Spain show, Netflix France show, Netflix UK show, Netflix U.S. show. It was appealing to me.'

Coben was first convinced that his stories could be adapted for foreign audiences by producer Nicola Shindler, who made hit drama It's A Sin.

The pair's first project, The Five, was released in 2016 and was set in Britain's north-west.

In 2018, Coben signed a five-year mega-deal with Netflix. The project allowed the streaming giant to adapt 14 of his novels into English and foreign-language series.

Fool Me Once is the fourth English production, coming after Safe (2018), The Stranger (2020) and Stay Close, which was released in 2022.

Polish shows The Woods and Hold Tight premiered on Netflix in 2020 and 2022 respectively, whilst Spanish production The Innocent arrived in 2021.

The 62-year-old author, who published his first novel in 1990, has sold more than 80million books

French show Gone for Good, again based on Coben's novel of the same name, was also released in 2021.

All are based on Coben's novels but have had characters and locations changed to set them in the countries where they aired.

The Netflix version of Fool Me Once is, like the three previous English-speaking adaptations, are set in the north-west of England, rather than in New York as in the original novels.

Critics have been divided over the series, whilst some viewers have branded it 'far fetched'.

The production is currently sitting top of the viewing charts after being released on New Year's Day.

Spanish production The Innocent arrived in 2021. It is one of many of Coben's novels that have been adapted for European audiences on screen

Britain's Richard Armitage - who previously starred in The Stranger and Stay Close - portrays murdered husband Joe Burkett.

The series also stars Michelle Keegan and Joanna Lumley.

As well as his Netflix deal, Coben has partnerships with Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video.

The latter led to the production of the drama Shelter, which was released last year.

Netflix are also set to adapt Coben's 11-book Myron Bolitar series.

This time, the novels' US setting will be kept and the show will be the first American-produced adaptation of any of Coben's works.

Polish shows The Woods (above) and Hold Tight premiered on Netflix in 2020 and 2022 respectively

The author told Deadline last year that he would also like to make Netflix shows for audiences in Germany, Italy, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

Asked how he stays in the loop when shows are made in languages that he cannot speak, he said: 'I will talk to actors, I will talk to people who speak the language. For the most part, I have to trust my team.

'There are local things that I dont quite get, which makes it more interesting for me in some ways.'
This is the shocking moment two thieves brazenly smash their way into a London cafe and empty the tills.

Footage was captured by cameras on the premises of Singh's Corner in Southall Green in the early hours of yesterday morning as the duo broke into the restaurant undisturbed.

The pair crawled into the establishment and emptied the tills of 100 before escaping, leaving the owners of the vegan eatery devastated.

The overnight raid left severe damage to the front of the shop, which was found by the owners when they arrived at the shop yesterday to discover smashed glass everywhere.

Singh's Corner's owner shared clips of the chaos caused by the two thieves as the camera shows the extent of the damage to both shutters and glass window panes.

Footage was captured by cameras on the premises of Singh's Corner in Southall Green, in the early hours of yesterday morning as the duo broke into the restaurant undisturbed

The overnight raid left severe damage to the front of the shop, which was found by the owners when they arrived at the shop yesterday to discover smashed glass everywhere

They wrote on Instagram : 'Unfortunately, Singh's Corner experienced a break-in last night.

'The bastards went to great lengths, bending the shop shutter and breaking the front glass door to steal the cash register. It's puzzling why someone would go through such efforts for a food business.'

READ MORE: Moment brazen thieves take several bottles of wine from a Tesco store and walk out without paying as crime continues to plague Lawless London Advertisement

The disturbing clip begins as one of the burglars, dressed in a mask and dark clothes, smashes a heavy object against the bottom of the glass before retrieving it and launching it for a second time.

He then begins to punch the bottom of the glass and crawls into the small space before appearing on the internal camera of the cafe.

Whilst his accomplice waits outside, the man hurries behind the counter searching for the till and wanders past before spotting the till tray and grabbing it.

He rushes back to the exit and slides the tray to his partner in crime before crawling carefully through the glass and exiting the eatery.

The pair then quickly turn down the side street just a few feet from the entrance to the cafe and disappear out of sight.

Social media users were left shocked at the brazen crime with the post gaining dozens of likes and comments from stunned users.

One user said: 'All that for about a 100 float in the tills.'

Another added: 'Who leaves cash in the register overnight?'

A third commented: 'A small family business attacked, but is it for a small amount of money or a family, customer or competitor dispute gone sour

'Either way, I have a feeling that the local community will find out who did this and meet out their own justice.'
Marvel star Jonathan Majors expressed disbelief that he has been convicted of assaulting ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari in what many have dubbed a 'crocodile tears' interview with ABC, the news network owned by his former bosses, Disney.

Majors was convicted of misdemeanor assault on December 18 after a New York City jury heard how he hit Jabbari and injured her finger during an altercation in the back of an SUV in March.

Her team of lawyers presented photos of her injuries that showed a slice behind her ear and a swollen finger.

Majors has always denied hitting her. He was caught on surveillance cameras picking her up and shoving her into the vehicle after trying to run away from her in the street, but there is no footage of the incident over which he was found guilty.

Majors was convicted of misdemeanor assault on December 18 after a New York City jury heard how he hit Jabbari and injured her finger during an altercation in the back of an SUV in March

Majors was found guilty of assaulting his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari (pictured together in September 2022) last month, leaving his promising Hollywood career in doubt

A cut behind Jabbari's ear was also shown to jurors at the blockbuster trial

In her testimony, Jabbari said that she felt 'excruciating' pain as Majors twisted her fingers to grab his phone back after she took it from him

He was dropped by Marvel following the conviction, but was sat down with ABC News last night for his first interview. Critics say it was a chess move by Disney to pave the way for him to be brought back into the fold of its highly lucrative film franchise.

'I have never hit a woman. I have never struck a woman,' he said, adding he was 'shocked' by the guilty verdict.

He and his attorneys say it's unjust that he was prosecuted 'as a black man' while Jabbari, who is white, was never charged despite being arrested and chasing him down the street.

'I was absolutely shocked and afraid. I am standing there... I say "how is that possible? Based off the evidence, based off the prosecution's evidence, how is that possible?'"

He insists he does not know how Jabbari sustained the injuries that were presented to the jury.

'I wish to God I knew. That would give me some clarity, some type of peace about it,' he said, maintaining there is 'no question' that he did not inflict them.

Video, shown to court in December, shows Jabbari and Majors scuffling on the street

Majors had been set to spearhead the next chapter of the Marvel universe as 'Kang the Conqueror', however he was dropped by Marvel following his arrest

'Do you think you'll ever work in Hollywood again?' ABC News anchor Linsey Davis asks him

He gushed over his current girlfriend, Meagan Good, who was present for the interview. Good stood by him throughout the trial

He complained about not being able to see his daughter throughout the trial, and bemoaned the fact that no one questioned why Jabbari - a white woman - was chasing him down the street in the moments before the car altercation.

'If you watch those videos and you reverse that, and you saw a Black man chasing a young white girl down the street, screaming and crying, that man is gonna be shot and killed in the streets of New York City.

'That Black man will feel that.'

Despite his conviction, he said he is confident he will work in Hollywood again, saying he deserves a second chance.

The jury was also presented with audio recordings of Majors berating Jabbari, telling her she did not live up to the likes of Michelle Obama and Coretta Scott King, the wife of Martin Luther King.

Disney CEO Bob Iger has invested billions of dollars in the Marvel franchise

Defending his comments, he told ABC's Linsey Davis: 'It was me trying to give an analogy of what it is I'm aspiring to me, and trying to give a reference point to that.

'I need her to make the same sacrifices I am making.'

They also heard about other past relationships in which he was accused of being abusive.

He says he was not always 'the best boyfriend', but blamed it on a history of 'depression and childhood trauma'.

He gushed over his current girlfriend, Meagan Good, who was present for the interview.

Good stood by him throughout the trial.

'She is an angel...she has held my down like... I am so blessed to have her. The relationship is still fresh... but I think I found her,' he said.
London and New York regularly compete for the title of best city in the world, but in recent years the focus has often been on their problems.

Today the Mail's US correspondent revealed the shocking stories of Tube workers battling to contain the rise in shameless law-breaking on the network, describing them as a grisly reminder of the New York Subway's descent into anarchy in the 1970s and 80s.

Over the past few weeks, there have been reports of a man apparently smoking crack cocaine in a Tube carriage, a member of staff suffering a fractured skull after being punched in the face by a fare dodger and a passenger stabbed in the neck.

The comparison with New York's notorious metro system will disturb any Londoner concerned about public safety in Britain's capital.

But how do both cities compare when it comes to broader rates of crime and other serious social issues like homelessness? Below, MailOnline examines the evidence.

Murders, shootings and stabbings

Commentators have frequently drawn comparisons between the murder rate in London and New York.

In February 2018, 15 people were killed in London compared to 14 in the Big Apple - leading to a wave of headlines. But generally the murder rate in the UK capital is far lower than in New York.

READ MORE - More teenage homicides were recorded in London last year than in 2022 Advertisement

London saw 104 homicides last year, equivalent to 12 per million people.

This compared to 386 in New York, equivalent to 45.4 per million.

Looser gun laws in the USA are one of the reasons for shootings being far more common than in the UK.

Overall, 1,150 people were shot in New York over the course of last year.

While matching figures are not yet available for London, Met statistics reveal that between January and November there were 175 recorded incidents of guns being fired.

London is notorious for its knife crime problem.

Last year saw another wave of senseless killings including the murder of 16-year-old Harry Pitman, who was stabbed to death on Primrose Hill while waiting to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks.

In September, 15-year-old Elianne Andam was stabbed while she made her way to school in Croydon.

Harry Pitman, 16, became London's last homicide victim of 2023 when he was stabbed and killed on New Year's Eve on Primrose Hill

New York is notorious for gun crime. In February, a 22-year-old man was shot dead in Times Square

Once again, different reporting methods made it difficult to precisely compare the scale of knife crime in London and New York across the whole year.

However, NYPD statistics show that from January 1 to August 13, 53 died by knife in New York.

This compares to 41 in London over the same time period, according to the London Murder Map.

Rough sleeping

Homeless people are a common sight in both cities, with the numbers of people sleeping rough rising since the pandemic.

Local leaders in London have described the capital as the 'epicentre' of Britain's homelessness crisis - with high rents driving people onto the streets.

Councillor Darren Rodwell, the Leader of Barking and Dagenham borough, said: 'The situation is increasingly unmanageable and requires urgent government action. We cannot continue in this disastrous direction.'

CHAIN provides a snapshot of rough sleeping in London. These statistics cover the first quarter of the 2023-4 financial year

Rough sleepers lay in their makeshift beds outside shops on Oxford Street at daybreak in August

The issue rose to public prominence in December when a man sleeping outside a McDonald's was soaked in dirty water by a security guard trying to move him on.

Shocking video uploaded to social media shows the guard - who was later sacked - splashing water over the ground with a mop next to where 25-year-old Aaron McCarthy was sitting.

Similarly, homelessness in New York has been described as a 'massive humanitarian crisis'.

Despite New York Mayor Eric Adams' efforts to address homelessness the number of individuals living on the streets has increased by nearly 18 percent in a year

The problem of homelessness in NYC has been exacerbated by the arrival of 100,000 migrants over the past year, loading pressure onto the city's shelter system

This was despite Mayor Eric Adams administration's pursuing aggressive measures to tackle the problem including enforcement, sweeps, and outreach initiatives.

The problem in NYC has been exacerbated by the arrival of 100,000 migrants over the past year, loading pressure onto the city's shelter system.

Crime on public transport

Crime on the London Underground has skyrocketed by 56 per cent in a year fuelled by a shocking rise in theft and robberies, worrying figures have revealed.

The number of crimes between April and September this year on the underground was 10,836, compared with 6,924 in the same period in 2022.

This included a rise in the number of thefts recorded from 2,935 in 2022 to 5,378 this year.

According to the latest data from Transport for London (TfL), reported offences are up 30 per cent overall across all services this year

This graph uses the latest figures released by TFL and shows the rise in offences on TFL services

This chart shows a combination of the crimes committed on TfL services against the same categories within England and Wales

These charts depict how closely crime trends (sexual offences, violence against the person and theft) on TfL services are against national (England & Wales) police forces

Ricky Morgan, 35, slashed and stabbed passenger James Porritt during an unprovoked attack on the Tube in July 2021. He was jailed for a minimum of 16 years

Meanwhile the number of robberies soared from 164 to 340. Offensive weapon offences recorded went from 24 to 62, hate crime increased from 422 offences to 553, and violence from 1,203 to 1578.

READ MORE - London's Lawless Underground: Tube crime soars by shocking 56 PER CENT in a year Advertisement

According to the latest data from Transport for London (TfL), reported offences are up 30 per cent overall across all services this year.

Sarah Olney, the Lib-Dem MP for Richmond Park, told the Standard: 'Londoners should be able to feel safe on their public transport, yet these shocking figures tell a different story.

The New York Subway has a poor reputation among passengers for safety, with New Yorkers complaining of feeling threatened by homeless and mentally ill people in the transit system.

That population surged during the pandemic as New Yorkers with homes avoided the subway, and those with no place to live sought refuge outside the confines of shelters.

The overall subway crime rate spiked in April 2020, as COVID-19 gripped New York, but city statistics show the daily rate fell back to pre-pandemic levels by mid-2021.

A New York City police officer standing guard on the subway, with has a poor reputation among passengers for safety

Dark days: A man sleeping in a heavily vandalised subway carriage in New York City in 1980

Police arrest a suspect at Times Square station in October 1992

A uniformed officer rides the subway with his German shepherd in this archive photo from NYC

The death of 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator Jordan Neely in May 1 renewed the debate around subway crime.

Mr Neely was in the midst of a breakdown when he crossed paths with Daniel Penny, 25.

Video showed Penny grabbing him from behind, wrestling him to the ground and holding him for six minutes until he passed out.

He was later charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, but has amassed significant support by some Republican campaigners who believe he is a 'hero' for intervening to 'protect' other passengers.

The death of 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator Jordan Neely in May 1 renewed the debate around subway crime
New subvariant JN.1 on the rise in Victoria

Victoria is in the midst of yet another Covid-19 wave, as increases in community transmission are leading to a swift rise in hospitalisations.

A new subvariant of the virus, JN.1, has taken over as the most prevalent strain of Covid in the state, mirroring the same trend that's being felt internationally.

The seven-day average for hospitalisations as a result of the infectious virus has climbed to 377 over the past couple of weeks.

Victoria is in the midst of yet another Covid-19 wave, as increases in community transmission are leading to a swift rise in hospitalisations (pictured, shoppers in Melbourne in 2021)

Symptoms may appear in 2-14 days following exposure to the virus, with a runny nose, sore throat, coughing, shortness of breath and fever all common symptoms (Royal Melbourne Hospital, 2021)

This follows a high number of cases detected in November, though the figures are not quite as high as the peak levels seen during the wave in May and June of last year, which brought a seven-day average of 488 hospitalisations.

The housing and care sectors have been urged to activate policies aimed at protecting people at severe risk from Covid, including senior Victorians, those who are suffering from medical ailments, and patients in the aged care and disability care sectors.

People in those groups are urged to use masks, and surveillance testing is recommended.

Victorians have been reminded that symptoms may appear in 2-14 days following exposure to the virus, with a runny nose, sore throat, coughing, shortness of breath and fever all common symptoms.

While mandatory mask regulations ended in early 2022, at-risk Victorians are urged to wear them in high-risk settings or if they feel like they have any symptoms.

The Department of Health is set to keep tracking and monitoring surveillance indicators, such as hospitalisation rates and wastewater testing, until transmission trends downwards.

While mandatory mask regulations ended in early 2022, at-risk Victorians are urged to wear them in high-risk settings or if they feel like they have any symptoms

Earlier on Monday, Victoria's chief health officer warned the rise of JN.1 had created a 'wave on wave' pattern, with the variant taking hold just as the state was emerging from a previous wave of the disease.

'Part of the concern with this new variant has just really been the speed with which it's taken off,' Dr Clare Looker told Nine Newspapers.

'So over a few weeks, we've really seen it very quickly be the dominant variant in the community.'
Police are now investigating claims Republican firebrand Lauren Boebert punched her ex-husband twice in the face after he made 'lewd' advances at her in a Colorado restaurant.

The 37-year-old congresswoman has denied claims she hit Jayson Boebert, the father of four of her sons, while dining at Miner's Claim in Silt.

She did admit putting her hands on him to 'keep him back' before he called 911, but local cops are now looking into the incident.

Silt police Chief Mike Kite confirmed an 'active investigation' but provided no other details because the probe is ongoing.

Lauren and Jayson Boebert married in 2005 but split in 2023. But the couple have still made the headlines during what appears to be a rocky separation.

The GOP Rep. was at the restaurant on Saturday night when Jayson showed up to apologize about an earlier argument from when she had gone to pick up their children from his house.

Lauren and Jayson wed in 2005. They met while she was working at McDonald's at the age of 16. He was 22 at the time

She was dining at Miner's Claim when Jayson - father to her four kids - showed up to apologize about an earlier altercation that had occurred when she went to pick up her son from his house

He allegedly started 'being disrespectful,' and becoming 'lewd' - at which point he 'made a motion' towards his ex-wife 'to grab her,' according to her aide speaking to the Daily Beast.

The aide claimed the move was 'aggressive, not romantic.' Lauren then tried to keep him back and 'put her hand in his face, put her hand on his nose.'

Lauren Boebert said in a statement: 'This is a sad situation for all that keeps escalating and another reason I'm moving.

'I didn't punch Jayson in the face and no one was arrested. I will be consulting with my lawyer about the false claims he made against me and evaluate all of my legal options.'

Jayson then called the police and told them he was a 'victim of domestic violence,' according to Boebert's aide. Lauren called a police non-emergency number and said she'd happily speak to an officer about what happened.

Lauren's aide told the Beast that she had picked the restaurant purposely to meet him for the apology, because she didn't want a 'he said/ she said' situation.

Cops did arrive at the Silt restaurant - and a friend ended up driving Boebert home.

The Silt Police Department confirmed that an active investigation is underway. No one was arrested. When asked by the Beast for comment, Jayson told them: 'I don't know what to say.'

Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, left, stands for a photograph with her then-husband Jayson Boebert at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in January 2021

Lauren Boebert 's ex-husband called the police on her on Saturday night after the pair allegedly got into a physical altercation at a restaurant in her district

Miner's Claim did not respond to calls made by DailyMail.com.

Lauren and Jayson wed in 2005. They met while she was working at McDonald's at the age of 16. He was 22 at the time.

But in May 2023, after nearly two decades of marriage, Rep. Lauren Boebert announced she had filed for divorce, citing 'irreconcilable differences.'

She said at the time: 'It is with a heavy weight on my heart that I have filed for divorce from my husband.

'I am grateful for our years of marriage together and for our beautiful children, all of whom deserve privacy and love as we work through this process.

'I've always been faithful in my marriage, and I believe strongly in marriage, which makes this announcement that much more difficult.'

Lauren and Jayson married in 2005 and share four sons together (pictured). They filed for divorce in May 2023

The Conservative firebrand made headlines last week when she announced she will switch congressional districts for the 2024 election, after scraping to re-election in 2022 by only 546 votes.

Boebert, a 37-year-old grandmother and mother of four sons, said that she had made the decision to continue her fight against 'the socialists and communists taking over our country.'

She said there was 'dark money' directed at her personally 'to steal this seat'. And she said it was a fresh start after her divorce and 'personal mistakes'.

Last summer, she faced scrutiny after she was caught on camera groping a date, vaping and taking selfies at a performance of the musical Beetlejuice in Denver, and then giving ushers the finger when she was asked to leave and declaring: 'Do you know who I am?'

She also sparked controversy by heckling Joe Biden in his 2022 State of the Union address, and caused anger by making an Islamophobic joke about Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

Security camera footage showed Quinn Gallagher fondling Boebert's breasts while she rubbed his crotch

Jayson spoke out at the end of a tumultuous two weeks for Lauren who says she has 'peacefully parted' from bartender boyfriend Quinn Gallagher, 46

Quinn Gallagher is co-owner of Hooch Craft Cocktail Bar in Aspen, Colorado, and a divorced father of a 16-year-old son

Boebert announced her switch of districts in a Facebook video published last Wednesday, saying: 'I did not arrive at this decision easily.

'A lot of prayer, a lot of tough conversations and a lot of perspective convinced me that this is the best way I can continue to fight for Colorado, for the conservative movement and for my children's future.'

She said the Hollywood elites, Aspen money men and George Soros who tried to stop her can 'go and pound sand'.

The decision makes her re-election chances significantly stronger.
A New York City migrant who was stabbed to death in the line for food during a fight over a woman has been pictured.

Cops were called to Randalls Island in the city's East River just before 7.30pm after the deadly fight broke out in the cafeteria tent.

Witnesses told police Dafren Cabello, 24, was attacked by four men after reportedly chatting to a Peruvian man's girlfriend.

'The fight was next to the dining room but they fought over a woman,' said Jose David.

'The Venezuelan took the woman from the Peruvian, and the Peruvian stabbed the boy with Venezuelan nationality twice.'

Young father Dafren Cabello, 24, had been in the US for just a month when he was stabbed to death on Randalls Island after leaving his home in Venezuela

Conditions are grim in the 3,000 capacity tent city, New York's largest migrant shelter, as winter sets in on Randalls Island in New York's East River

NYPD officers found Canizalez with a stab wound to his chest. The 24-year-old was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased

Asylum seekers at the 3,000-capacity tented city have warned that the center is splitting on ethnic lines into armed 'camps' with Hispanics, Africans and Haitians pitted against each other.

And the center's one cafeteria has become a particular flashpoint where the groups rub up against each other while queueing for food.

'There are definitely camps,' Moroccan migrant Nabil Jajhlaq told the New York Post.

'There is a lot of stealing, if you put your phone down or your charger for a moment, they take it immediately.

'Any of your stuff that you don't have they will take.'

'Everyone has a knife,' migrant Mauricio Pinto added.

The center opened in August amid a report from city officials that more than 100,000 migrants had passed through the five boroughs since 2022.

As of December 2023, more than 140,000 migrants had flooded into the city over an 18-month period, stretching the city to its financial limits.

The shelter opened its doors in August 2023, replacing a smaller center (pictured) that opened a year prior

The city authorities have spent about $3.5 billion on the thousands of migrants and nearly 70,000 remain in city shelters as winter takes hold.

More than 33,000 have been bussed to New York City by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and New York Mayor Eric Adams sued 17 bus companies involved for $700million last week.

Texas migrants buses Over 12,500 migrants to Washington, D.C. since April 2022

Over 33,600 migrants to New York City since August 2022

Over 28,000 migrants to Chicago since August 2022

Over 3,400 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022

Over 13,800 migrants to Denver since May 18

Over 1,300 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14 Source: Office of Gov. Greg Abbott Advertisement

He has also issued an executive order demanding they give him 32 hours notice of new arrivals, prompting some to drop their passengers off in neighboring New Jersey and pointing them to trains heading to New York.

Despite the bill, 'not one bus from Texas' had complied, Adams' chief counsel Lisa Zornberg said.

Adams promised to 'double efforts' to keep migrants safe in the wake of the latest attack but new arrivals said they felt in fear for their lives.

'There is not much security, and they are far away,' Roger Castillo said.

'It happens so fast.'

Castillo spoke to Cabello just 20 minutes before he died and described him as a 'good person, a good friend'.

'I was speaking with him yesterday and it was normal,' he added.

Cabello was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead from stab wounds to the neck and chest.

His brother Eduin Daniel Nobrega said the pair had crossed the southern border in Texas last month.

'I feel very bad knowing that my brother is dead,' he told the NY Daily News from his home in Denver.

'My brother was a good, responsible father, a good son and a good brother.

'One day we decided to leave our country of Venezuela for a better future, help our children and family. He was not a man of trouble. He really liked to work to earn an honest living.

'Our mother, family, is very upset knowing that she cannot do anything since we are a low-income family,' he added.

'I am Dafren's only relative here in the United States.' Police arrested Moises Coronado, 27, and charged him with second degree murder.

He is currently being held at the Eric M Taylor Centre ahead of a court appearance at Manhattan Criminal Court on January 12.

'The incident that happened at our Randalls Island humanitarian relief center is a tragedy and currently under investigation,' said City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak.

'At least one alleged person responsible is currently in custody and our security - who acted admirably and professionally in this incredibly difficult situation - is redoubling their efforts to ensure that everyone on site continues to be and feels safe,' she told Gothamist in an email on Sunday.

'The overwhelming majority of migrants in our care came to our city in search of a better life and the American Dream.

'The small number of those disrupting that journey for the rest of the migrants in our care by acting violently will face enforcement to the fullest extent of the law.'
Rishi Sunak today threw his weight behind efforts to strip the former Post Office boss of her CBE as fury mounted over the Horizon IT scandal.

No10 said the PM would 'strongly support' any decision made by the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at revoking Paula Vennells' gong amid a growing backlash at the miscarriage of justice.

Reverend Vennells was handed the CBE in 2019 'for services to the Post Office and to charity'. But since then the PO has had to pay out tens of millions of pounds in compensation to sub-postmasters wrongly accused of fraud due to an IT failure.

More than a million people have signed a petition calling for her to lose the CBE since ITV aired a new drama into the scandal: Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

The Prime Minister, speaking in Accrington, Lancashire, on Monday defended the Government's response but said he wanted to speed up the compensation process for victims.

'People should know that we are on it and we want to make this right, that money has been set aside,' he said. 'We will do everything we can to make this right for the people affected. It is simply wrong what happened. They shouldn't have been treated like this.'

No10 said the PM would 'strongly support' any decision made by the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at revoking Paula Vennells' gong amid a growing backlash at the miscarriage of justice.

More than one million people have signed a petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to lose her CBE amid growing anger over the Horizon scandal

The Horizon scandal has been been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history

The Horizon scandal has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history. Ms Vennells oversaw the organisation while it routinely denied there were problems with its Horizon IT system.

The petition, which is addressed to Sir Chris Wormald, the chair of the Forfeiture Committee, says: 'Evidence has been produced that the Post Office engaged in a mass cover up which led to the wrongful prosecution of 550 Post Office Staff many of whom were subsequently jailed, bankrupted and in some cases, sadly took their own lives.

'Having been handed a CBE for services to the Post Office, and moved out into other senior positions in government and healthcare, it is only right that this award is now withdrawn through the process of forfeiture.'

Pressure is also mounting on Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey over his role in the scandal, having been postal affairs minister during the coalition government between 2010 and 2012.

The Sunday Times published a cache of correspondence between Alan Bates, a former sub-postmaster, and ex-ministers from the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government - including Sir Ed.

Sir Ed Davey, now the Lib Dem leader (left), was post office minister in the Coalition government between 2010 and 2012 (right

Tory Treasury minister Bim Afolami said Government is working 'incredibly hard' to make sure that justice is done 'as quickly as possible' for postmasters wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal.

He said Sir Ed should 'be honest with people' and explain why as a minister 'he didn't ask the right questions'.

It was revealed in The Guardian yesterday that The Post Office is suspected of dozens more wrongful prosecutions of operators who took part in a 'pilot scheme' of the faulty system.

Sources from Whitehall confirmed that a precursor scheme took place between 1995 and 1996 to hundreds of branches in north-east England.

It comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed a report that Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is considering ways of helping to clear the names of convicted subpostmasters caught up in the scandal.

More than 700 Post Office branch managers were given criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software called Horizon made it appear as though money was missing from their shops.

Reports say Mr Chalk is set to meet with the Minister for the Post Office Kevin Hollinrake on Monday to discuss how to help the convicted branch managers.

There has been fresh public backlash to the scandal after ITV aired a drama starring actor Toby Jones last week about the scandal.

Reports suggest since Mr Bates Vs The Post Office was broadcast, 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers.

The Post Office is wholly owned by the Government and a public inquiry into Horizon is ongoing.

Speaking during a visit to Oxford on Sunday, the Prime Minister said the UK Government was 'keen to do everything we can because this was absolutely appalling' and should 'never have happened'.

Ms Vennells oversaw the organisation while it routinely denied there were problems with its Horizon IT system

He said: 'It has been an appalling miscarriage of justice and appalling treatment of all the people affected and it is right that they get the redress that they deserve.

'That is why the Government has put in place three different compensation schemes that have already paid out almost 150 million to thousands of people who are affected, and are keen to go as quickly as possible.

'More broadly, the Justice Secretary is also looking at other options for how we can provide support for people.'

On Thursday, Mr Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer resisted to back calls for Ms Vennells to lose her CBE.

Ms Vennells said she was 'truly sorry' for the 'suffering' caused to subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted of offences.

Scotland Yard said on Friday that officers are 'investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions', for example 'monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions'.

The Metropolitan Police had already been looking into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.

Mr Bates's fight for justice has been portrayed by Toby Jones in the acclaimed new ITV drama, 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office', which has raised new public awareness of the scandal

The petition, named 'Post Office Scandal: Strip Paula Vennells of her CBE' reached one million signatures just after midnight on Monday.

Alan Bates, a former subpostmaster who is referenced in the title of the series, has called for more to be done to help recompense those wrongly given criminal convictions and who had their lives turned upside down.

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Rishi Sunak revealed the option of exonerating all postmasters was being 'looked at' by the Justice Secretary.

Asked if the Government would remove the Post Office's ability to investigate and prosecute, he said: 'The Justice Secretary is looking at the things that you've described, it wouldn't be right to pre-empt that process, obviously there's legal complexity in all of those things but he is looking at exactly those areas.'

Rishi Sunak revealed that the Government is looking at exonerating all subpostmasters caught up in the Horizon scandal

Earlier in the programme, Mr Sunak said: 'Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond and it is an appalling miscarriage of justice.'

On the same programme former subpostmaster Lee Castleton, who was ordered to repay money and legal costs to the tune of 321,000 despite doing nothing wrong, said it had been 'like a war' trying to get compensation from the Post Office.

He said: 'The victims are traumatised. It has been a long time of 25 years and 135 million has been paid to some of the victims, but we have had 150 million-plus paid to lawyers.

'These lawyers are putting lots of pressure and it is difficult. The schemes are difficult.

'We are just normal run-of-the-mill people. We have legal people with us but it is so difficult and it is like a war.

'Why would anybody put the Post Office and DBT (the Department for Business and Trade) in charge of recompensing the victims?'

He added that he felt the compensation scheme for victims should be taken away from the organisations currently running it.
America's 'murder capital' which was plagued by 42 killings per 2.5 miles in 1992 has experienced a huge transformation - with zero homicides recorded last year.

Police in California's East Palo Alto have radically revamped their approach to tackling poverty and crime over the past 30 years, with jaw-dropping results.

East Palo Alto became notorious for spiraling gang violence in the 1980s and 1990s - thanks to a crack epidemic and a police force riddled with corruption.

The Bay Area city reached a bleak record in 1992, when it was convulsed by 42 murders among a population of just 24,000 - the highest rate per capita in the US that year.

But on New Year's Day this year, the city's Chief of Police announced the 'momentous milestone' of not a single murder recorded among its now 29,000-strong population in 2023.

East Palo Alto has seen a nosedive in homicide figures - from its peak as the 'murder capital' in 1993 to zero killings in 2023

East Palo Alto became notorious for spiraling violent crime in the 1980s and 1990s - thanks to a crack epidemic and a police force riddled with corruption. (Pictured: the city in 1992)

The city is now home to several mansions, with a median house price of almost $1 million by the end of 2023, according to Redfin data

'The East Palo Alto community, once marked by adversity, has triumphed with zero murders this past year,' said Police Chief Jimmy Liu.

'Your collective commitment to safety and unity has transformed our city, evolving from the challenges of 1992 when we faced 42 murders, to now, a community that stands resilient and stronger than ever.

'I extend my deepest gratitude to each and every one of you for your invaluable partnership in fostering a safer and thriving East Palo Alto.

'This achievement is a testament to the power of community, and I am proud to share in this success with all of you.'

Liu, who took the reigns in early 2023, credits a mix of increasing local initiatives in churches and educational institutions along with a community-based policing approach for the city's transformation.

An explosion of development in the early 2000's both within the city and in surrounding Silicon Valley also fueled its flourishing.

East Palo Alto's crime problem began with the growth of gang culture in the early 1980s, thanks to a combination of under-funding and a crack epidemic particularly among the predominantly African American population, according to San Mateo County.

The area experienced 'erratic growth and frequent conflict, particularly between different ethnicities', the county's website says. Coupled with a corrupt police force, this created a breakdown between residents and law enforcement.

But things began to change at the turn of the millennium, when East Palo Alto Police Department was revamped with a community-based approach.

A succession of mayors and police chiefs fostered better relations with locals, while federal agencies cracked down on gangs, and violent crime was gradually driven down.

The once crime-ridden Bay Area city (pictured from above) is now an oasis of green calm

East Palo Alto has undergone aggressive gentrification over the past 30 years

The city's popular Four Seasons Hotel and corporate office buildings gradually replaced old run-down liquor stores.

By 2017, violent crime had dropped more than 60 percent from 1990 levels and murders had fallen from 42 in 1992 to just one  a decrease of more than 97 percent.

But its not all sunshine and rainbows in the west coast city wedged between San Francisco and Palo Alto, as gentrification brought new problems.

The median house price has rocketed to almost $1 million by the end of 2023 according to Redfin data - an increase of 26.8 percent over just one year - which has driven some residents out.

But Police Chief Liu said even despite this dizzying transformation, the city's reputation is still marred by its violent history.

Speaking about its title as 'murder capital' of decades past, he told CBS: 'Even when I'm in different areas of the state, you know you say, 'I work in East Palo Alto.' And people say 'Oh!' Because they think it's dangerous.

'After so many years of carrying that label around, to reach zero murders for the 2023 year, that's just the hugest community accomplishment possible.'

'Everyone's been working through this or working towards this for so many years,' he added. 'That's why I say it's a community celebration right now.'
Video footage shows the moment pro-Palestine activists targeted a town hall where Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was giving a speech, as they protest against Keir Starmer's stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

Around 20 protesters attempted to gain entry to Rutherglen Town Hall on Monday morning, but were blocked by police.

They could be heard chanting 'ceasefire now', while holding Palestinian flags and placards.

It is the latest protest to be held in response to Keir Starmer's stance on the conflict, after the Labour leader defied growing calls in his party to call for an immediate ceasefire.

In December, Pro-Palestine protesters chanted 'Labour Party, Zionist Party' and 'Labour Party, Racist Party' at a rally near Westminster Bridge in central London.

Video footage shows the moment pro-Palestine activists targeted a town hall where Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was giving a speech

A man barricaded the door to prevent pro-Palestine activists gaining entry to the hall

Pro-Palestine activists could be heard chanting 'ceasefire now', while holding Palestinian flags and placards

Pro-Palestine activists holding placards outside Rutherglen Town Hall this morning

A woman asked police officers why she was being denied entry to the hall

The mob had reportedly followed Labour Party officials to the area and continued their protest while they were in a meeting.

At Rutherglen town hall this morning, one man stood barricading the door as protesters attempted to beak through, while a woman asked police why she was being denied entry to the hall.

For the few that did gain entry to the hall, police were later seen escorting them out of the building.

Video footage also shows a young boy calling someone a 'genocide supporter'.

Labour has been severely split over the crisis, which has seen more than 22,000 Palestinians killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Several Labour MPs have responded by calling for a ceasefire - contrary to the party line.

A woman being escorted out of the town hall where Anas Sarwar, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, was giving a speech

Pro-Palestine activists attempt to gain entry to the town hall

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who voted against a ceasefire, received backlash from many online after he told the House of Commons 'a widening in this conflict is in no-ones interests, and all parties must show restraint.'

He said that the damage done over the past two months in Gaza was 'intolerable' and attacked two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers for 'totally unacceptable' support of illegal settlements in the West Bank. But he stopped short of supporting a permanent ceasefire.

The Labour leader suffered a huge revolt in the House of Commons as 56 of his MPs defied him and backed calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Sir Keir saw vast swathes of his parliamentary party ignore his orders and vote in favour of an SNP-led demand for an 'immediate ceasefire' in the Middle East.
President Joe Biden is standing by Lloyd Austin despite the growing calls to fire the defense secretary after he kept his hospitalization a secret from the White House and senior Pentagon officials.

'There are no plans for anything other than for Secretary Austin to stay in the job and continue in the leadership that he's been demonstrating,' White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday.

'Our main focus right now is on Secretary Austin's health and making sure that he gets all the care and the support that he needs to fully recovered,' he said.

The White House stood by Austin, 70, despite lawmakers from both parties expressing concern about the Pentagon's failure to disclose the defense secretary was in the hospital. Donald Trump and some Republicans have called on Austin to resign or be fired.

Austin remains in the hospital. The Pentagon has not said what the original medical procedure was for or what actually happened to require Austin to be in intensive care. Senior Defense Department and White House officials still don't know the details of the procedure, Politico reported.

President Joe Biden is standing by his embattled Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin - above the two men in Wilmington, Del., in December 2020

Neither Kirby nor White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would say if Biden knows what medical condition his defense secretary is suffering from. Biden and Austin spoke on Saturday.

'I don't know the level of the president's personal knowledge of his (Austin's) medical situation. That would really be between the two men,' Kirby said.

'That it is not something that we can speak to right. This is his own medical - it is it is a private thing  this is something that the Secretary and the Department of Defense would speak to,' Jean-Pierre said.

Kirby pledged the White House would investigate the matter, looking at the 'process and procedure' regarding the location and health of senior officials after Biden was not told for four days that his defense secretary was in the hospital.

The Situation Room keeps tabs on where top officials are located but that check-in just involves a general location - like what city they are in - as opposed to a more detailed location.

'As you might expect, we'll take a look at process and procedure here. And try to learn from this experience and if there's some changes that need to be made, in terms of process and procedure, we'll do that,' Kirby said.

Kirby said Biden appreciates the fact Austin apologized for keeping his condition a secret.

'The president respects the fact that Secretary Austin took ownership for the lack of transparency. He also respects the amazing job he's done as Defense Secretary, and how he's handled multiple crisis over the last almost three years now,' he said.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon on Sunday night released new details about Austin, 70, saying he had a medical procedure Dec. 22, went home a day later and was admitted to intensive care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Jan. 1 when he began experiencing severe pain.

President Joe Biden is facing growing calls to fire Pentagon Secretary Lloyd Austin

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks also was not informed for several days

The National Security Council and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks were not notified until Thursday, Jan. 4, that Austin was in the hospital. The Pentagon said Austin's chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, was ill and 'unable to make notifications before then.'

Biden was told of Austin's medical stay on Thursday by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. The White House has said the president still has confidence in his defense secretary.

The secrecy around Austin's hospitalization - and the fact the White House didn't appear to notice he wasn't at his post - has resulted in outrage from members of both political parties.

'I'm surprised no one is using the word 'cover-up' yet,' a Pentagon official told CNN.

In a joint statement, Reps. Mike Rogers, Republican of Alabama, and Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington, expressed concern about the secrecy.

'While we wish Sec. Austin a speedy recovery, we are concerned with how the disclosure of the Secretary's condition was handled,' said the two lawmakers, who are the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Timeline on Austin Dec. 22: Austin has procedure at Walter Reed Dec. 27: Biden leaves for St. Croix Jan. 1: Austin participates in national security phone call Jan. 1: Austin admitted to ICU Jan. 2: Biden returns to White House Jan. 2: Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks takes some of Austin's duties Jan. 4: Biden and Hicks told Austin is in hospital Jan. 6: Biden and Austin speak via phone Advertisement

'Several questions remain unanswered including what the medical procedure and resulting complications were, what the Secretary's current health status is, how and when the delegation of the Secretary's responsibilities were made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the President and Congress.'

'Transparency is vitally important. Sec. Austin must provide these additional details on his health and the decision-making process that occurred in the past week as soon as possible.'

Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it was 'unacceptable' that Austin's condition was kept a secret.

'I am glad to hear Secretary Austin is in improved condition and I wish him a speedy recovery,' Wicker said in a statement. 'However, the fact remains that the Department of Defense deliberately withheld the Secretary of Defense's medical condition for days. That is unacceptable.'

Wicker has demanded a hearing into the matter. A top Pentagon official told Politico that could turn into a bruising hearing for Austin 'if he doesn't resign first.'

And, in a scathing post to Truth Social on Sunday night, Trump did not hide his anger as what he claimed was a 'dereliction of duty' having occurred after Austin failed to inform his superiors as to his whereabouts - with even his deputy seemingly kept in the dark.

'Failed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin should be fired immediately for improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty. He has been missing for one week, and nobody, including his boss, Crooked Joe Biden, had a clue as to where he was, or might be,' Trump wrote.

Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York joined Trump in calling for Austin to resign.

'It is shocking and absolutely unacceptable that the Department of Defense waited multiple days to notify the President, the National Security Council, and the American people that Defense Secretary Austin was hospitalized and unable to perform his duties,' she said in her statement.

'This concerning lack of transparency exemplifies a shocking lack of judgment and a significant national security threat. There must be full accountability beginning with the immediate resignation of Secretary Austin and those that lied for him and a Congressional investigation into this dangerous dereliction of duty,' she said in a statement on Monday morning.

Former President Donald Trump has called for the removal of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, accusing him of a 'dereliction of duty' for being 'missing for a week'

Trump expressed his anger on Truth Social, claiming Austin's failure to disclose his whereabouts in hospital was grounds for immediate dismissal

Austin, 70, was hospitalized on January 1, but the Pentagon waited three days to reveal the information. He is pictured December 20 in this most recent pic

Biden got to know Austin when he served as vice president and led Iraq policy for the Obama administration. Austin was a commander in the Middle East at the time.

Additionally, Austin was also close to Beau Biden when Beau served on Austin's staff in Iraq in 2008 and 2009.

The two men, both devout Catholics, attended Mass together, sitting side-by-side almost every Sunday, and they kept in touch after Beau returned from his deployment.

Joe Biden even mentioned his late son's special relationship upon his nomination to the post in 2020.

'It's why he has inspired so many young people who work for him to give their very best, and to live up to his example of leadership  including, for a time, a lawyer serving a year in Iraq with his Delaware Army National Guard unit. My son, Beau Biden.

'I know how proud Beau was to serve on your staff, General Austin. And I know that, under your leadership, the Department of Defense will advance the security of the American people in ways that always honor our highest values and ideals,' he said.

Austin was also close to the late Beau Biden when Beau served on Austin's staff in Iraq in 2008 and 2009. Beau and Joe are pictured in 2009 at Camp Victory near Baghdad

Austin, 70, ranks just below President Joe Biden at the top of the chain of command of the US military and his duties require him being available at a moment's notice to respond to any manner of national security crisis. Pictured in September 2023

Austin was last seen in public on December 20th as he visited the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to thanks crew members personally for their service

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been in intensive care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, pictured

In a statement from the Pentagon on Sunday night, Air Force Major General Pat Ryder did not provide any details about the medical procedure.

Ryan said Austin was placed in the hospital's intensive care unit 'due to his medical needs, but then remained in that location in part due to hospital space considerations and privacy'.

The Pentagon's failure to disclose Austin being taken to hospital, including to Biden, the National Security Council and top Pentagon leaders, for days reflects a lack of transparency about his illness, how serious it was and when he may be released.

Such secrecy, when the United States is juggling myriad national security crises, runs counter to normal practice with the president and other senior US officials and Cabinet members.

Austin sits just below Biden at the top of the chain of command of the U.S. military, and his duties require him being available at a moment's notice to respond to any national security crisis.

His hospitalization comes at a time of increasing attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East and while the situation in Ukraine remains unstable.

Ex-DOD officials have said someone is likely to be fired over the miscommunication- though Austin might be saved thanks to his personal connection with Joe Biden. (Pictured: Biden speaking during a White House meeting in January 2023, flanked by Austin and Antony Blinken)

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's mystery hospitalization was a secret kept even from his deputy Kathleen Hicks, it has emerged. (Pictured: Austin and Hicks at a Pentagon briefing)

Meanwhile, Hicks was on vacation in Puerto Rico when Austin went in for surgery, but she was not informed about it until days later, after she had been asked to work while on holiday.

Ryder told CNN it was 'not uncommon' for the secretary to transfer some responsibilities - but added that she wasn't aware of the reason she was stepping in on this occasion.

Hicks decided not to return after she was informed that Austin would resume full control on Friday.

In a statement issued on Saturday evening said Austin took responsibility for the delays in notification.

He said: 'I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better.

'But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.'

In his statement, Austin said he is on the mend and is looking forward to returning to the Pentagon soon, but he provided no other details about his ailment.
A man diving for scallops was killed by a 13-foot shark off Mexicos Pacific coast, according to the Sonora state government.

The victim, identified Victor Soto, was bitten by a great white shark at Tojahui beach in the port city of Huatabampo on December 29.

The 22-year-old fishermans body was recovered by other divers and taken to a dock in Yavaros.

Soto, at the time of the attack, was not wearing an anti-shark repellent bracelet, that use magnets or electrical pulses to drive sharks away from areas where they could kill human beings.

Huatabampo Mayor Juan Flores (right) talks to a family member of Alejandro Soto, a 22-year-old fisherman who was killed by a shark while diving for scallops off Mexico's Pacific coast on December 29

Authorities said fisherman Victor Soto was not wearing a shark repellent bracelet when he was attacked and killed at a beach in the Mexican Pacific coast state of Sonora

At least 43 people have been killed by sharks in Mexico since 1907. Four deaths were reported in the Pacific coast waters of the state of Sonora since 2022

The Sonora Civil Protection said in a statement that it was working with local authorities to urge fishermen to register themselves with the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry.

The agency called on fishermen to make sure that they are using preventive measures to carry out their jobs.

Shark attacks in Mexico, however, are rare  the first incident was reported in 1907 and there have been at least 43 since then.

At least five people have been killed by sharks while diving for scallops near the Yavaros and Puerto Penasco ports and the Tobari Bay in the city of Benito Juarez since 2022, according to Sonora state government data.

Mexican marine biologist Maria Martinez was killed by a shark at Quite Beach on December 2

A Belgium national was killed December 14 when she was bitten by a shark at Quite Beach in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, Guerrero.

Maria Martinez, a Mexican national and marine biologist, died December 2 after she was attacked by a shark at in Melaque, Jalisco.

She was attempting to hand over her five-year-old son to staff to place him on a floating device when the shark bit her on the leg and took her underwater.

State authorities have reported five deadly shark attacks in 2022
Police said in the last year they have received eight calls for service to the house

A Texas rapper who allegedly held a woman captive in his garage for five years has posted bail - as it is revealed cops had visited the house eight times.

Lee Carter, 52, has been charged with aggravated kidnapping after police found the victim locked in a garage attached to his Houston home.

He was arrested on Thursday at a motel after police were called to his house in Houston to do a wellness and check and broke into the home.

Video from Fox 26 shows officers breaking the window of the garage where they found a dog and a mattress inside in the area police believe the victim was held.

'We found a dog inside, feces on the floor, and an empty room with the TV on,' Houston Police Department Commander Michael Collins said to KTRK.

The victim said Lee Carter kept her locked in his garage and repeatedly forced her to have sex with him and take drugs

Lee Carter, 52, has been charged with aggravated kidnapping after police discovered a woman locked in his garage

The victim said Carter kidnapped her from the street about five years ago when she was pregnant and panhandling

Police said over the past year they had received eight calls for service to the house.

'It makes me sick as a human being. And I can tell you as a police department, we are here for the citizens of Houston, we are here for the community, and we are here to make sure that this individual and her family gets justice,' said Collins.

At an initial court hearing, a judge cleared out the room before reading aloud court documents due to the nature of the accusations.

Carter was ordered to be held on $100,000 bond in the Harris County Jail before posting it on Tuesday.

Court documents revealed on April 7, 2023 officers from the Houston Police Department were dispatched to house Houston in reference to a kidnapping in progress when they heard a voice coming from the garage.

The Houston Fire Department said when they opened the garage door in April, they found a plastic door lock on the inside that would prevent someone from leaving, a makeshift toilet that did not flush, a mattress covered in vomit, a television, food, clothes and diapers.

Authorities said when they found the approximately 30-year-old victim in April she was malnourished and weighed just over 70 pounds

According to court documents, when police found the approximately 30-year-old victim in April she was malnourished and weighed just over 70 pounds and she stated she had not showered in two months.

The victim said she met Carter - a rapper with the stage name Viper - four or five years ago when she was pregnant and panhandling off Almeda Geona.

Carter pulled over to give her a dollar, then returned shortly after and told her if she got in his car he would give her help.

Then for the next four to five years, the victim said Carter kept her locked in his garage and repeatedly forced her to have sex with him and take drugs.

'Defendant [Carter] would force her to take pills along with crack cocaine and other illegal narcotics, causing her to become physically unable to leave the location,' said court documents.

The victim said Carter would provide her with chips and snacks but rarely a full meal and would occasionally be taken into the main building to bathe.

She was able to use Carter's laptop and contacted the police via the Text Now application.

Carter was finally arrested in April when police responded to a welfare check at his house and rescued a dog

She said she had previously tried to escape by breaking one of the windows and crawling out. She was taken to the hospital, but Carter picked her up from there and took her back to the garage where he boarded up the windows.

It is unknown what happened with the victim's pregnancy while she was held captive.

Neighbor Jedediah Beights said, 'At one point, maybe a year ago now, the cops come banging on my door claiming somebody had called from inside the house and was kidnapped or not able to leave on her own.'

'Right then, as the cops are standing at my door, a gal comes crawling out that window just there, just clawing her way out, pregnant, eight months.'

Beights said, 'He would back his car up to the shop, load her up, back up to the door at the front of the house so she could bathe.'
The results follow an 'exceptionally' challenging year for the industry with high demand and extreme weather events

The same airline has claimed the top spot for three years in a row and even made the global top five this year.

New data has revealed North America's most reliable airlines when it comes to arriving on time

Constant delays can make scheduled flight arrival times feel like random guesses rather than accurate predictions.

But new data has revealed that some airlines are consistently better than others when it comes to getting you to your destination on time.

The most punctual airline in North America is Delta, according to research by flight analytics company Cirium.

Of more than 1.6 million flights last year, the airline landed 84.72 percent on time.

Mike Malik, Ciriums chief marketing officer, said it was an 'outstanding' effort from the airline which had faced 'vast operational diversity and the challenges of minimizing flight disruptions' last year.

Data from Cirium shows the most on-time airlines last year

Cirium - and the Department of Transportation - count a flight as being 'on-time' if it lands within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival.

Close behind Delta in second place in North America was Alaska Airlines, with 82.3 percent on-time flights.

Delta's score comes days after terrified passengers said they were left fearing for their lives after an emergency exit used as a cabin window blew out of the Alaskan Airlines flight from Portland to California at 16,000 feet.

American and United Airlines came in third and fourth with rates of 80.6 percent and 80 percent. Southwest Airlines ranked fifth with 76.3 percent of its flights on time.

The remainder of the top ten included Spirit Airlines with an on-time score of 71.16 percent, WestJet at 69.29 percent, Frontier Airlines with 68.68 percent, JetBlue with 68.33 percent, and Air Canada with 63.17 percent.

The results come despite 2023 being one of the worst years ever for flight delays across the US.

Airlines racked up a million delayed departures in record time in 2023 and as of November, nearly a quarter of flights had taken off late.

From January to August last year, 22.33 percent of flights were delayed. The total number of delayed departures was 1,015,057.

Delta topped the North America rankings for the most on-time flights in 2023

The airline managed to land over 84 percent of its flights within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time

James Hetzel, from Cirium, said the North American industry has managed to 'excel' despite facing several challenges this year and had maintained an average on-time arrival performance rate of 74.45 percent.

He said: 'This has been a significant year for the airline industry, particularly for North American carriers, which is the home to four of the five largest passenger airlines worldwide in terms of flight operations.

'The industry has experienced a whirlwind of developments, including a continuous increase in travel demand after the pandemic, strain on airport infrastructure, labor shortages, and rising fuel costs.

'Additionally, the diverse routes and varying weather conditions in North America present additional complexities for airline operations.'

As well as leaving customers unhappy, delays are costly.

For every minute a flight is behind, Cirium estimates an airline loses around $100. If this is added up across the sector, the bill comes to over $1 billion a year.

22.33 percent of departures were delayed between January and August. More than one million flight departures were delayed across the period, the fastest that the milestone has been hit

Mass delays and cancelations this summer contributed to the dismal figures. Pictured: Travelers wait on the floor of a departure area in LaGuardia Airport on June 27, 2023

Despite their high performance, Delta was the only North American airline to make the top five globally, according to the Cirium data.

Two South American airlines led the global ranking, Avianca, with an 85.9 percent on-time performance, followed by Brazil's Azul with 85.5 percent.

Qatar Airways claimed the third spot with an on-time performance of 85.1 percent.

The sector is set for more chaos this year with a series of disasters already rocking the aviation industry.

Last week, the FAA temporarily grounded a fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets in response to the near-catastrophic failure on the Alaskan Airlines flight.

Earlier this month, a Japan Airlines jet was engulfed in flames as it sat on the runway at Haneda Airport, in Ota City, Tokyo, after it crashed into a coastguard plane as it came into land.
Sir Ed Davey is facing intense questions over his role as postal affairs minister during the Post Office Horizon scandal.

He is resisting calls to resign as Liberal Democrat leader after it emerged he turned down the request of a meeting with sub postmaster Alan Bates in 2010, claiming: I dont believe a meeting would serve any useful purpose.

But despite his refusal to stand down now, the politician has form in calling for others to tender their resignation in the past.

Since 2019, he has called for various public figures to go  whether they be ministers, MPs, BBC executives or the entire Thames Water Board  a total of 34 times.

Sir Ed Davey, who has faced angry questions about his role in the Post Office scandal, has a history of calling on others to resign

This includes targeting Boris Johnson on 18 occasions  first as an MP, and then as Prime Minister.

He has also taken aim at former Cabinet Ministers Priti Patel, Robert Jenrick, Chris Grayling and Kwasi Kwarteng.

Notably, Sir Ed has only called on the current Prime Minister to resign twice  with both occasions coming when he was serving as Chancellor.

As he comes under increasing pressure to go himself, the Mail has found all the times Sir Ed has used social media to tell others to resign.

Sir Ed repeatedly called on Boris Johnson (pictured in a Covid briefing during the pandemic) to quit as Prime Minister

Boris Johnson

April 2019

Sir Ed called on Mr Johnson to resign as an MP after a newspaper corrected a claim made about Brexit in one of his columns. He said: So @BorisJohnson, you: lied in speeches, lied in columns, lied about VoteLeave org, paid 275k by Telegraph for lying. Youre everything wrong with politics; personified. #Resign.

September 2019

After the Supreme Court declared Mr Johnsons move to suspend Parliament unlawful, Sir Ed, who was deputy leader of the Lib Dems at the time, said: The rule of law is a core British value, and no one is above the law. Now #LiarJohnson has been found to have broken the law, and lied to the Queen: hes #UnfitForOffice, will he resign? #StopTheCoup.

September 2019

In a similar vein, he said: Time to end it. Get back here, so we can kick you out! This wretched farce has to stop: Lied on a bus, Lied to Parliament, Lied to the People, Lied to the Queen #LiarJohnson discredits our whole country & must resign.

October 2019

Criticising Mr Johnsons Brexit deal, he said: Has @BorisJohnson resigned yet? Didnt he say: I would rather die in a ditch than not leave on 31st October & Well leave on 31st October, do or die Or was he lying? Or waiting till Halloween?!

April 2021

Sir Ed also took issue with alleged comments Mr Johnson made during the early stages of the pandemic. After giving an interview to the BBC, he said: These allegations that the Prime Minister made such callous comments about being prepared to see bodies pile up will have hurt the bereaved families across the UK. He needs to come clean, and if he did say that, he should resign.

January 2022

In January 2022, Sir Ed demanded Mr Johnson resign over Partygate. Posting a video on X showing his question to the former Prime Minister during a PMQs session, he said: Time to resign Boris Johnson. Now.

January 2022

Highlighting a newspaper report about alleged wine-time Fridays in Downing Street during lockdown, Sir Ed commented: Boris Johnsons position is untenable. If he wont resign, Conservative MPs must sack him.

When a victim of the scandal sub postmaster Alan Bates (pictured) asked Sir Ed for a meeting in his role as postal affairs minister, the politician wrote back: I dont believe a meeting would serve any useful purpose.

January 2022

After No 10 apologised to Buckingham Palace for two staff parties in No 10 on the night before Prince Philips funeral, he said: Downing Street apologises to the Queen, not Boris Johnson. Yet again he fails to take responsibility. Johnson must resign.

January 2022

Boris Johnson lied to Parliament and the country, he has become a threat to the health of the nation and its time for him to resign, he wrote on X.

January 2022

After Dominic Cummings accused Mr Johnson of lying over Partygate, Sir Ed said: Cummings proves what we have always known - Boris Johnson is fundamentally a dishonest man, he has lied to Parliament, he has lied to the country - he must resign.

January 2022

Commenting on an ITV report that Mr Johnson held a birthday celebration during lockdown, Sir Ed simply said: Resign.

Alan Bates is played by Toby Jones in the new ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office

January 2022

After it emerged that Mr Johnson gave his personal backing for Pen Farthing and his animals to be evacuated from Kabul, he said: Another day, another lie. If Boris Johnson wont resign, Tory MPs must sack him.

January 2022

Accusing the Prime Minister of desperate tactics, Sir Ed said: James Baldwin wrote the most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. Boris Johnson: stop your desperate, destructive attempts to appease your backbenches. Take responsibility for your law-breaking and lying. Resign now.

February 2022

As the Partygate investigation got underway, Sir Ed said: Boris Johnson is not fit to be Prime Minister. If he wont resign, Conservative MPs should do the right thing and sack him.

March 2022

He said: Are you being interviewed by the police @borisjohnson, and will you resign if found to have broken the law? No more fluff, just the facts for all those who suffered during lockdown while you partied.

March 2022

He said: If Boris Johnson thinks he can get away with partygate by paying expensive lawyers and throwing junior staff to the wolves, he is wrong. We all know who is responsible. The Prime Minister must resign, or Conservative MPs must sack him.

May 2022

Commenting on report from Sue Gray - now Sir Keir Starmers chief of staff - into Partygate, he said: The Sue Gray report lays bare the shocking failures of leadership by Boris Johnson and shows why hes not fit to lead our country. Any other PM would be forced to resign by a report as damaging as this, yet still Conservative MPs defend Johnson and allow him to cling on.

June 2022

Amid rising pressure  including a vote of no confidence  on Mr Johnson, Sir Ed demanded: Every Conservative MP who cares about integrity and decency must do the right thing, resign the whip and sit as an independent. For the sake of our country, this failing Prime Minister cannot be propped up any longer.

Among other high-profile figures Sir Ed asked to resign was then-No10 aide Dominic Cummings

Dominic Cummings

May 2020

After reports emerged about the former advisers trip to Barnard Castle, Sir Ed said: If Dominic Cummings has broken the lockdown guidelines he will have to resign. Its as simple as that.

Rishi Sunak

January 2022

After Lord Agnew resigned over the Governments handling of Covid fraud, Sir Ed demanded then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak go as well. The buck stops with Sunak, he wrote on X. He should explain how hes going to get back these billions he allowed to be stolen from our schools, hospitals and police, and if he cant, he should resign for someone who will.

April 2022

Sir Ed said: When struggling families need support, Rishi Sunak has hit them with a massive tax rise. Now, instead of tackling this cost-of-living crisis, hes busy trying to explain his secret tax arrangements. The Ministerial Code requires openness for a reason. Sunak must resign.

Sir Ed even called for the current PM Rishi Sunak to resign twice while he was serving as Chancellor

Kwasi Kwarteng

October 2022

Shortly after the then-Chancellors mini-budget, he said on X: The only way to restore credibility is for Kwasi Kwarteng to resign or be sacked. He has done enough damage and needs to go. The Conservatives wont be easily forgiven for this disastrous experiment, playing fairytale economics with peoples lives.

October 2022

He said: They didnt listen when peoples mortgages soared, the pound crashed and our economy tanked. Kwasi Kwarteng must resign now and this rotten budget needs to be scrapped.

Robert Jenrick

June 2020

Sir Ed called for then-Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick to resign, accusing him of breaking the ministerial code. He said: Robert Jenrick has serious questions to answer about his decision on the Westferry Development. Ive written to the Cabinet Secretary calling for an investigation into whether the Ministerial Code was broken. If it was, Robert Jenrick must resign.

June 2020

Issuing a second call for Mr Johnson to sack his Cabinet colleague, he said: Any Minister with a conscience would have resigned by now. Any Prime Minister showing a modicum of leadership would have sacked him. But sadly, we are governed by people who appear to lack both.

Priti Patel

November 2020

After an inquiry found evidence Ms Patel breached the ministerial code, Sir Ed said: Priti Patel has broken the Ministerial Code, the PM should have sacked her.

Its the PMs job to set an example, but once again Johnson has failed. He seems to believe there is one rule for him and his friends and another rule for everyone else. Totally unacceptable.

April 2022

After Ms Patel apologised for visa delays for Ukrainian refugees, Sir Ed said: Priti Patels failure to help refugees fleeing from Putins bombs is squandering the compassion & generosity of the British people. We want to offer Ukrainians a home, but Priti Patel has slammed the door in their face. An apology isnt enough. She must resign.

Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock was another Tory the Liberal Democrat leader called to quit during the pandemic

Matt Hancock

June 2021

After a video of then-Health Secretary Matt Hancocks affair with his aide emerged, Sir Ed said: The reason Matt Hancock should resign is that he is a terrible Health Secretary, not because of his private life. From the PPE scandal, the crisis in our care service and the unbelievably poor test and trace system, he has utterly failed.

Richard Sharp

March 2023

Amid a row over impartiality at the BBC, Sir Ed called for then-chairman Richard Sharp to go. The MOTD [Match of the Day] saga has shown failure at the top of the BBC and the need to urgently protect its independence. We need leadership that can uphold British values and withstand Conservative attacks. Under Richard Sharps leadership this hasnt been the case. He must resign.

Chris Grayling

May 2019

Sir Ed called for the former Transport Secretary to resign over the bungling of No Deal Brexit ferry contracts. He said: Retweet if you think #FailingGrayling should resign (or should have resigned before!).

Alok Sharma

March 2021

Sir Ed called on Mr Sharma to resign as COP26 President unless the government scrapped plans to build a Cumbria coal mine. He said: The Tories talk a good game on climate action, but hope no one will notice they are allowing a new coal mine. Irresponsible and hypocritical. [I] call on the COP26 President to resign if the mine goes ahead.

Mark Field

June 2019

Sir Ed called for Mr Field, a Foreign Office minister, to go after a video emerged of him shoving a protester at a dinner. Mark Field needs to resign from govt. No ifs, no buts about this. The sight of some penguin suited Tory minister behaving in a violent way towards a female Greenpeace activist absolutely stinks. Shame on you.

Cressida Dick

March 2021

Following the Met Polices handling of a vigil in memory of Sarah Everard, Sir Ed said: Cressida Dick has lost the confidence of the millions of women in London and should resign. The scenes this evening of the policing of the Clapham Common vigil in memory of Sarah Everard are utterly disgraceful and shame the Metropolitan Police.

Thames Water Board

December 2023

He said: Enough is enough. Thames Water has become a slow moving car crash. The board must resign with immediate effect and must be held accountable for financial and regulatory cover-ups as well as the destruction of local environments.
Police arrested 22-year-old Stiven Matos at the scene and slapped him with several charges including robbery and resisting arrest

When security attempted to stop them, a scuffle ensued

Over a dozen shoplifters attempted to steal designer specs from the flagship Bloomingdale's in Midtown Manhattan

A mob of over a dozen migrants stormed Bloomingdale's over the weekend and tried to steal around $5,000 worth of designer sunglasses - before all but one escaped.

The shoplifters swarmed the flagship store at 1000 Third Avenue in Manhattan Saturday evening, a New York Police Department spokesperson told Dailymail.com.

The robbers were attempting to conceal the items by hiding them on their person as they tried to leave, the spokesman added.

Security attempted to stop the culprits to recover the items and a scuffle broke out.

One of the suspects allegedly shoved a security guard and someone was struck in the head with a closed fist.

A mob of over a dozen migrants flooded into the flagship Bloomingdale's location in Midtown Manhattan on Saturday, stealing around $5,000 worth of designer sunglasses

When security attempted to stop the robbers, a scuffle broke out, leading to one guard being shoved and someone else being punched in the head

Stiven Matos, 22, was arrested at the scene. While the NYPD declined to comment on the burglars' immigration status, Matos did not provide an address at the time of his arrest (pictured: migrants wait outside a re-intake center in Manhattan)

Police arrested 22-year-old Stiven Matos at the scene following a struggle. At least 14 other people remain at large.

Matos was charged with robbery, criminal possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration.

A 27-year-old male was also involved in the brawl, but it is unclear from the report if he was one of the suspects or an employee, the spokesman said.

The New York Post characterized the shoplifters as 'migrants,' but NYPD declined to comment on their immigration status.

The spokesman shared that Matos did not provide an address at the time of his arrest.

The amount of merchandise stolen amounted to around $5,000, police say.

Authorities recovered 10 pairs of Versace sunglasses, two pairs of Prada glasses and one pair of Christian Dior specs, the New York Post reported.

A spokesperson for Bloomingdale's said the store is unable to comment on ongoing investigations and crime scenes.

As of December 2023, more than 140,000 migrants had flooded into New York City over an 18-month period

Also on Saturday, a fight broke out among a crowd of 300 undocumented people who were waiting outside a re-intake shelter in the East Village (pictured)

Mayor Eric Adams has called on the White House to deliver federal support to manage the national asylum seeker crisis

The city filed a lawsuit against 17 charter bus companies for not complying with a new bill (pictured: dozens of migrants are seen arriving from Texas at the Port Authority Bus Terminal)

Grand larceny reports in Manhattan's 19th precinct, where the store is located, fell 0.6 percent in 2023, according to the NYP.

The department received 1,727 complaints over the past year, compared to 1,737 reports in 2022.

As of December 2023, more than 140,000 migrants had flooded into New York City over an 18-month period.

Also on Saturday, a fight broke out among a crowd of 300 undocumented people who were waiting outside a re-intake shelter in the East Village.

A man tried to cut in front of the line and spilled coffee on others before he was confronted by another man and an argument turned physical.

Two police officers were injured amid the scuffle and two men were arrested.

Mayor Eric Adams has called on the White House to deliver federal support to manage the national asylum seeker crisis.

Last month, Adams issued Executive Order 538, requiring improved coordination from charter bus companies transporting migrants arrivals into the city.

The measure was designed to ensure 'the safety and well-being of both migrants and city staff receiving them,' according to a press release.

On Wednesday, the city filed a lawsuit against 17 charter bus companies from Texas, Louisiana, Ohio and Indiana, seeking $708 million in damages.

The lawsuit demands funds to cover the care for more than 30,000 asylum seekers who have arrived since 2022.

'Not one bus from Texas' has complied with the bill, Adams' chief counsel Lisa Zornberg said.
Top GOP lawmakers are urging their colleagues to vote in support of holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress this week.

DailyMail.com first obtained the contempt resolution and report from the powerful House Oversight and Judiciary Committees - which will be voted on later this week.

The resolution recommends that Hunter be held in contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena last month requiring him to sit for a closed-door deposition as part of their impeachment investigation into whether President Joe Biden was connected to or profited from his son's shady business deals.

Instead of showing up for his required testimony, Hunter appeared outside of the Capitol to deliver a dramatic tirade slamming 'shameless' Republicans, and maintaining his own innocence. He said he would only testify in a public forum - not behind closed doors first as the GOP requested.

The Republicans write in the resolution released Monday that Hunter's testimony is a 'critical component' of their impeachment inquiry into whether then-Vice President Joe 'abused his office' by engaging in 'schemes' with foreigners to enrich himself or his family.

Hunter's 'flagrant defiance' of the subpoenas is 'contemptuous' and he must be 'held accountable for his unlawful actions,' the resolution continues - calling his actions a 'criminal act.'

Biden was pictured visiting Morris at his home on December 27

Hunter Biden shockingly showed up Capitol Hill on the morning of his mandatory deposition to acknowledge 'mistakes' he made due to his crack cocaine addiction while blasting Republicans investigating him for 'turning his 'dad's love into darkness'

If Hunter is held in contempt of Congress by the committees and then by a full Hose vote on the floor, his case would be referred to the Biden-led Department of Justice.

Jordan, who leads the House Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that if Attorney General Merrick Garland decides to press charges against Hunter, he could face a year of jail time.

But that would require Biden's DOJ to agree to prosecute the case, which is unlikely. In addition to 12 months jail time, Hunter could be ordered to pay a fine of up to $100,000 if convicted.

Jordan told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures that he thinks that the contempt charges will pass on a full House vote - meaning essentially every Republican will have to vote in support of the resolution because Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose a handful of votes due to the small GOP majority.

The top Republican also predicted that James Biden and other key witnesses central to their investigation will testify by the end of this month.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., suggested that Republicans must bring Hunter in to testify 'whether it's in chains, or handcuffs, or what have you.'

'Send the Sergeant at Arms out to bring him in because he is flaunting the law,' he said on Fox News over the weekend.

Top Democrat on the Oversight Committee Jamie Raskin said Monday that there is 'no precedent' for the House to hold 'a private citizen in contempt of Congress who has offered to testify in public, under oath, and on a day of the Committees choosing.'

He went on to accuse Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., of wanting to 'keep up the carefully curated distortions, blatant lies, and laughable conspiracy theories that have marked this investigation.'

'However, the facts and the evidence all show no wrongdoing and no impeachable offense by President Biden,' the Democrat continued.

Two former Donald Trump aides Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon were held in contempt and ultimately prosecuted by Biden's DOJ for defying January 6 Committee subpoenas.

Bannon is currently appealing his four-month prison sentence and Navarro is expected to be sentenced later this week, and could face up to one year behind bars.

They both said that executive privilege protected them from having to comply with the congressional committee's demands.

Republicans had announced they would begin moving forward with contempt last week.

'Hunter Biden blatantly defied two lawful subpoenas when he did not appear for his December deposition,' House Oversight Committee Republicans wrote on X Friday.

'Next week, we will consider a resolution and accompanying report to hold him in contempt of Congress for violating federal law,' the lawmakers said on Friday.

The Oversight Committee hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, January 10 at 10 a.m. ET and the House Judiciary Committee will also hold a markup at the same time.

Republicans said that his 'obstruction' of their investigation has forced them to take the president's son to court to compel his cooperation - or he will face jail time.

GOP leadership held a vote to formalize their ongoing impeachment inquiry into Joe on December 13.

The 221-212 party-line vote opened the door for the GOP to get more evidence about schemes that have seen the Biden family get millions from countries including China, Ukraine and Romania.

And the Bidens will now have more of their bank records, mortgage details, emails, text messages and mobile phones subpoenaed, along with anything else Congress wants to see.

Hunter was subpoenaed by Republicans last month along with James Biden, the president's brother, and Biden family associate Rob Walker. Attorneys for James have been in touch with the committee and they are working on scheduling a time for his closed-door testimony.

Hunter Biden made a shock appearance on Capitol Hill where he defiantly declared that his father is innocent of corruption allegations and accused Republicans of being 'shameless' for trying to impeach him.

Hunter delivered an emotional public statement in which he tore into the 'unrelenting Trump attack machine' and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for showing naked photos of him in Congress.

Hunter admitted making 'mistakes' in his life due to his crack cocaine addiction but went on to blast Republicans investigating him and accused them of 'turning my dad's love into darkness.'

The first son also said his father was 'not financially involved' in his controversial business dealings and that there was no evidence because it 'did not happen.'

Comer and Jordan questioned what Hunter meant when that his father was not 'financially' involved in his dealings.

'Exactly how was Joe Biden involved?' they questioned in the statement. 'Evidence shows Joe Biden met with Hunter's business associates and his name was at the center of the family business strategy.'

Republicans have threatened to begin the process of holding Hunter Biden in Contempt of Congress if he doesn't show up for his impeachment probe deposition at 9.30am on Wednesday

Speculation is swirling around Washington D.C. over whether the first son will show up for his closed-door interview in the GOP investigation into his father's involvement in foreign business deals

Hunter said on December 13: 'I am here today to acknowledge I have made mistakes in my life. Im also here today to correct how the MAGA right has portrayed me for political purposes.
An Emmy award-winning film writer's carer has admitted stealing more than 75,000 from him shortly before his death to fuel his gambling addiction.

Allan Beacham admitted plundering the finances of celebrated Thunderbirds writer Alan Pattillo after being 'entrusted' to care for him.

Whilst living in a house bought for him by Mr Pattillo, Beacham stole thousands of pounds from the blind and immobile pensioner to 'dig himself out of the hole' which he had created through gambling.

It was previously heard Beacham, 66, had spent 25,000 on lottery tickets and would regularly steal cash from the 'vulnerable pensioner' to fuel this addiction.

After some 75,000 had gone missing out of Mr Pattillo's finances, 'dishonest' Beacham was unable to offer any 'real explanation for the unaccounted funds', prosecutors said.

Now, the carer has pleaded guilty to stealing cash from the celebrated pensioner.

Left-right: Carer Allan Beacham who has today pleaded guilty with writer Alan Pattillo

Mr Pattillo, who died aged 90 in January 2020 having had Parkinson's, was a Scottish director and writer, and directed the first ever episode of Thunderbirds in 1965.

After he retired he moved to Aberdeenshire in Scotland and Beacham, who was then employed by care firm Miracle Workers, would visit his home to care for him.

A trial into Beacham's theft commenced at Salisbury Crown Court, Wiltshire, in June last year - but was halted after a series of lengthy delays.

In the court opening held last year, jurors heard how in 2017 Mr Pattillo moved 550 miles away to Salisbury to be closer to his family and brought Beacham with him as his personal full-time carer.

Beacham earned a 40,000 annual salary and agreed to move to Salisbury with the pensioner 'on the condition' that he bought him a house to reside in.

The carer, in control of Mr Pattillo's finances as his health declined, allegedly abused his power by requesting money from his lawyers Batt Broadbent to pay for Mr Pattillo's expenses.

Allan Beacham admitted plundering the finances of celebrated Thunderbirds writer Alan Pattillo unknowingly after being 'entrusted his care' for him

The court heard Mr Pattillo was hard of hearing, registered blind and struggled to communicate.

Thomas Evans, prosecuting, previously told jurors that when Mr Pattillo moved from Scotland to Salisbury his average monthly cash expenditure jumped from 258.33 to 4607.

Mr Evans said that Beacham's bank statements showed that had spent more than 25,000 on lottery tickets in a 19-month window.

Mr Evans said: '[Beacham] developed an addiction to gambling and that he continually sought to dig himself out of the hole he had made for himself by stealing from a vulnerable pensioner who had entrusted his care to him.'

The 'most egregious example' of expenditure was Beacham's requests for money to cover private dental treatment, Mr Evans said.

Between April 2017 and June 2019 a total of 30,408 was requested from Batt Broadbent to cover dental work but Mr Evans said the true cost paid to The Private Treatment Centre was just 4,298.99.

In an interview, Beacham said he would spend 15 twice per week to take Mr Pattillo's 2018 Nissan Qashqai to a car cleaner but claims he never received a receipt.

Other alleged offences include 750 being withdrawn for a wedding gift for niece Constance Pattillo-Heigh when in reality a 30 gift voucher was given to her and her husband.

Alan Pattillo who died in January 2020. He was 90 and had been living with Parkinson's disease

Beacham also allegedly requested 500 to pay for a birthday party deposit at a hotel for Mr Pattillo's 90th birthday which never ended up happening and the money was not returned to Batt Broadbent.

Once this money had been requested and deposited into Mr Pattillo's current account, hundreds of pounds were withdrawn from ATMs multiple times per week.

Between January 1 in 2017 and June 1 in 2019, 75,000 was unaccounted for, the court heard.

In the opening, the prosecutor said: 'It is the Crown's case that [Beacham] took the property dishonestly and with the intention of permanently depriving him.

'The extent of the unaccounted funds, highlights [Beacham's] intentional and dishonest abuse of his position of trust within [Mr Pattillo's] life.

'[Beacham's] account in interview is inconsistent, incoherent and, in a number of instances, demonstrably untrue: he offers no real explanation for the unaccounted funds.'

Paralegal Alison Bamber worked at Batt Broadbent during the time the alleged offences took place and was responsible for approving the requests for money, most of which were never accompanied by receipts.

An Emmy award-winning film writer's carer has admitted stealing more than 75,000 from him shortly before his death to fuel his gambling addiction

Solicitor Rachel Catherine Wilson took over from Ms Bamber and became involved in Mr Pattillo's file in April 2019.

Speaking in court last year, she said: 'I was dumbstruck at the number of cash withdrawals. I estimated 75k was withdrawn over the time Mr Pattillo had been with Batt Broadbent.'

Ms Wilson informed Mr Pattillo's attorney who telephoned his bank to put a stop to his cards. She added: 'My concerns were sufficiently grave enough to inform the police straight away.'

In May 2019 Beacham's employment contract was terminated.

Nephew Alistair Pattillo told the court about the state of Mr Pattillo's flat during the time Mr Beacham had been looking after him.

He said: 'The condition of the flat was extremely dirty and untidy. Carpets had been eaten by bugs and every surface was dirty.'

A new trial into the case had been due to start today. However, Beacham, now living in Wootton, Kent, instead pleaded guilty to one charge of theft.

He will be sentenced at Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire, in March.
Former President Donald Trump's Super PAC revived his explosive 2015 line that migrant 'rapists' were pouring into the country, this time in a new attack ad going after Republican primary rival Nikki Haley.

The attack ad shows migrants massing at the border, then calls out the Repiufor refusing to call people who jump across the border 'criminals.'

'Drug traffickers. Rapists. Poisoning our country. But Nikki Haley refused to call illegals "criminals,"' says the female announcer.

The ad by the pro-Trump Make America Great Again, Inc. super PAC then plays a short clip of Haley saying, 'We dont need to talk about them as criminals. Theyre not.'

'Illegals are criminals, Nikki  thats what illegal means,' fires back the announcer.

A new pro-Trump PAC's attack ad blasts Nikki Haley for past immigration comments, where she said 'We dont need to talk about them as criminals'

The snip comes from Haley's 2015 remarks to the Aspen Institute, where she called for being a 'country of laws' and building a wall, but then said 'we don't need to be disrespectful' in describing people who 'have a heart, too.'

The ad continues: 'Haley even opposed Trumps wall. And Haley repeatedly pushed amnesty for illegals ... Nikki Haley. Too weak  too liberal  to fix the border.'

The attack comes just a week before the Iowa Caucuses, where Trump holds a substantial lead over all of his GOP rivals, including Haley. But she has crept up on him in New Hampshire, which holds the nation's first primary election later this month.

Haley trailed Trump by more than 30 points in a Fox Business Iowa poll released last week.

It comes in a race where illegal immigration features to be a top issue in the general election, with 300,000 migrants processed across the border in December.

Trump has for years campaigned on get-tough talk on immigration, including 2015 comments where he said Mexico was sending 'rapists' across the border

Haley trails Trump by 30-points in Iowa according to recent polling, but has been pulling up on him in New Hampshire

The ads 'rapist' comments echo Trump's incendiary line at the 2015 launch of his successful 2016 campaign while blasting Mexico.

'Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,' Trump said.

Haley's 2015 remarks, highlighted by the MAGA War Room, were as follows: 'I think that what we have to remember, and I have always believed, is that we are a country of laws, that's what makes us strong. We have to always be a country of laws. So it's incredibly frustrating for a lot of people when they see the illegal immigrants being able to come across. It really is astonishing that after all of these years, D.C. hasn't figured out how to build a wall. It really is, after all of what they spend.'

'Having said that, we are a country of immigrants. I am a proud daughter of Indian parents that reminded us every day how blessed we are to live in this country. They resent when people come here illegally. But let's keep in mind, these people that are wanting to come here, they want to come here for a better life, too,' she said.

'They have kids, too. They have a heart, too. So, we don't need to be disrespectful. We don't need to talk about them as criminals  they're not. They're families that want a better life, and they're desperate to get here. What we need to do is make sure that we have a set of laws that we follow, and that we go through with that.
This is the moment Post Office hero Alan Bates and his wife fought back tears after learning they've been gifted a free holiday by Richard Branson.

Mr Bates today appeared on ITV's This Morning with his partner Suzanne Sercombe to discuss how he led a campaign to expose the Horizon scandal, in which hundreds of Post Office staff were wrongfully accused of theft and fraud.

At the end of the interview, hosts Craig Doyle and Josie Gibson told the 68-year-old that the Virgin Group founder has gifted him and Suzanne a free trip to Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands.

The former subpostmaster began tearing up as he was then told he had also been gifted a seven night Mediterrenean cruise from Barcelona, leaving the couple speechless.

It comes as ITV's new drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has drawn a renewed interest in the scandal after airing last week, prompting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to reconsider ways to finally compensate all wrongly accused postmasters.

This is the moment Post Office hero Alan Bates and his wife fought back tears after learning they've been gifted a free holiday by Richard Branson

At the end of the interview, hosts Craig Doyle and Josie Gibson told the 68-year-old that the Virgin Group founder has gifted him and Susanna a free trip to Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands

It comes as ITV's new drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has drawn a renewed interest in the scandal after airing last week, with Mr Bates Mr Bates being played by Toby Jones (pictured in the role)

Mr Bates said in an interview with the Sunday Times after the show aired and jokingly asked Mr Branson for a holiday. He said: 'If Richard Branson is reading this, Id love a holiday.'

Well, his wish has now come true as the billionaire told him that he had gifted him a 'well-earned holiday'.

Branson wrote to Mr Bates saying: Dear Alan, I did get a chance to read your moving interview in The Times and we'd love to offer you and Suzanne a well earned holiday on Necker Island.

'I can't think of anyone who deserves a break more. Hopefully see you there. Best, Richard.'

Necker Island is Sir Richard Branson's private island in the British Virgin Islands, which he brought in 1978.

Alan and Suzanne could be seen close to tears as they were also told they been gifted a seven night Mediterrenean cruise from Barcelona from Virgin Voyages.

Reacting to the wonderful news Mr Bates said: 'Thank you very much Richard. Much appreciated. Much needed but much appreciated.'

Mr Bates said in an interview with the Sunday Times after the show aired and jokingly asked Mr Branson (pictured) for a holiday

Necker Island is Sir Richard Branson's private island in the British Virgin Islands, which he brought in 1978. Pictured is his luxury home on the island

Mr Bates appeared on ITV 's This Morning with his partner Suzanne Sercombe to discuss how he led a campaign to expose the Horizon scandal

Alan Bates and his partner Suzanne Sercombe appearing outside the High Court. In 2019 a judge ruled that the Horizon IT system had 'bug, errors and defects' and the Post Office agreed to settle with all 55 claimants who joined in the legal action

More than 700 Post Office staff were falsely prosecuted based on erroneous data from the firm's Horizon computer system, which was developed by Fujitsu.

Some of these people were sent to prison after being convicted of false accounting and theft, some had their finances left in tatters and some will never see justice as they have since died.

It is considered to be the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history.

Victims of the scandal have been sharing their heartbreaking stories of being wrongly branded as thieves.

One of the victims, Jess Kaur, was brought to tears as she told Good Morning Britain viewers she was driven to committing suicide after being accused of 'stealing money' from the branch. She is yet to receive any financial compensation.

Another two of the victims, Tracy Felstead and Janet Skinner, told BBC Breakfast that is Ms Vennells had any decency she hand back the award.

Speaking to Susanna Reid, Jess said: 'It drove me so mad that I tried to commit suicide.

'While I was in hospital. The post office didn't believe that I was there. They sent their own doctors and they examined me as well. Not only was i getting electric shock treatment, i was also getting grief of them.'

Jess Kaur was brought to tears as she told Good Morning Britain viewers she was driven to committing suicide after being accused of 'stealing money' from the branch she worked in

The ITV drama of the scandal has also led to more than 1 million signing a petition calling for the former Post Office chief executive officer Paula Vennells to hand back her CBE.

Rishi Sunak yesterday raised hopes of a significant breakthrough in removing Ms Vennells' gong as he hinted that all sub-postmasters convicted in the fiasco could soon be exonerated. So far, only a fraction have been formally cleared.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said last night: 'This was an appalling miscarriage of justice. I am concerned that many sub-postmasters remain convicted, and I am exploring what lawful options are available to speed up and secure justice.'

A public inquiry into the scandal is due to resume evidence hearings this week, with witnesses for Fujitsu  the company behind the Horizon IT system  expected to appear later this month.

Most postmasters have only received interim payments from the Government rather than full financial settlements, much of which have been swallowed up by legal costs.

Only 11 out of 475 of the full and final compensation deals are believed to have been completed.

Mr Bates helped to lead the campaign which revealed the Horizon IT scandal and brought the legal action against the Post Office in his name.

He and his partner Suzanne Sercombe used their life savings to buy the branch in 1998.

Mr Bates, who was a meticulous record keeper, started seeing unexplained losses in the accounts by the end of 2000, when a shortage of 6,000 appeared, WalesOnline reports.

Victims of the Post Office scandal have been sharing their heartbreaking stories of being wrongly branded thieves amid mounting calls for Paula Vennells to hand back her CBE

More than one million people have signed a petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to lose her CBE amid growing anger over the Horizon scandal

Mr Bates had his contract as a subpostmaster terminated by the Post Office in 2003 after he refused to accept liability for 1,200 of losses in his branch in Llandudno, Wales. But he contended the money never existed and was due to a software glitch.

He and his partner kept the shop, but the termination of the Post Office contract meant they lost an investment of around 60,000.

Mr Bates initially thought he was the only subpostmaster or postmistress falsely accused of by the Post Office, who pursued them through the courts resulting in 736 being prosecuted over the non-existent missing money - with 86 being overturned last September.

And in 2009, he set up the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance (JSFA).

Mr Bates, along with a group of wronged subpostmasters hired solicitors to take on their case and in 2018, he as one of the six lead claimants, took the Post Office to the High Court in a Group Litigation Order (GLO).

In 2019 a judge ruled that the Horizon IT system had 'bug, errors and defects' and the Post Office agreed to settle with all 55 claimants who joined in the legal action.

After his relentless campaigning, he was offered an OBE in January last year for services to justice, but he declined it as the job was not done yet.

He told the Honours Committee: 'I do appreciate that there may well be people who believe that after the many years of my unpaid campaigning, which I led in order to expose the truth, I deserve some recognition for my work.

'But I hope you can understand why it would be so inappropriate for me to accept any award at present, while so many of the victims continue to suffer so badly and [Paula] Vennells still retains an honour and remains a 'role model' to the Honours Committee.'

Mr Bates won a special recognition award at the 2023 Pride of Britain Awards.
A woman whose headless body was found in one of the creepiest crime scenes police had ever seen has been identified a decade later.

The naked body was drained of blood and posed like a mannequin in a 'sexually degrading position' in a vineyard near Arvin, California, on March 29, 2011.

Beyond the macabre positioning of the body, flat on her back lying on a dirt road surrounded by grapevines, the killer was also meticulous about concealing her identity - cutting off not just her head, but both thumbs.

The case baffled detectives and quickly went cold as without identifying the body they had no clues to go on.

But 13 years later, the woman has finally been identified as Ada Beth Kaplan, 64, from Canyon Country, California, near Santa Clara. Her killer has never been caught.

Ada Beth Kaplan, 64, (pictured in a much older photo) was identified as the woman whose headless body was found in a vineyard on March 29, 2011

The naked body was drained of blood and posed like a mannequin in a 'sexually degrading position' in a vineyard on March 29, 2011

All there was to go on at the time was a C-section scar, indicating the victim had at least one child, and a scar on her left breast from a mastectomy.

So for almost a decade the files sat in storage, until the Kern County Medical Examiner's Office asked the DNA Doe Project to take another look at the case.

After two-and-a-half years of painstaking research, the body was identified as Kaplan.

'Our team worked long and hard for this identification... but they never gave up and their perseverance paid off in the end,' team leader Missy Koski said.

DNA established Kaplan was Ashkenazi Jewish, making the process of identification even more difficult.

'Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry is often complicated to unravel. When we brought in an expert in Jewish records and genealogy, that made a huge difference, Koski said.

The researchers initially only found distant cousins with common surnames, and had to work through a web of ancestors from eight generations.

'Three of her four grandparents were immigrants, so they researchers had to search Eastern European records to connect her matches to each other.

Finally last July they found two potential relatives living on the east coast, including in Forest Hills in Queens, New York, who provided DNA samples.

Interviews with Kaplan's family discovered another reason she was difficult to identify - no one ever filed a missing person report.

Kaplan's body was found in Arvin, California, near Bakersfield and only identified now

Police at the scene in March 2011, looking for clues - but without an ID the case quickly went cold

Kaplan was buried at Union Cemetery in Bakersfield after she couldn't be identified. Whether her remains will now be moved is unknown.

Detectives who worked the cases at the time said the gruesome scene stayed with them, and they even had nightmares after seeing it.

'I've never seen anything like that in my life. I've seen some pretty gruesome crime scenes and this was just it was creepy,' retired detective Ray Pruitt told KGET in 2018.

'Why did they take the time to drain the blood from the body? The crime scene itself was very clean. Honestly it looked like somebody had taken a mannequin, removed the head of the mannequin and posed it on the dirt road.

'This person took their time to pull into this dirt access road, remove the body, place it on the ground, and pose it in what I would consider a sexual manner and wanted the body found like that.'

Homicide Sergeant David Hubbard said in 2018 that without an identification, detectives had no chance to solve the case, and were unnerved the killer was still out there after such a horrific crime.

'Short of someone coming in here and telling us why they did it, I don't know if we'll really ever have an answer to it,' he said.

Now they have somewhere to start.
Americans by a slim margin say Donald Trump should not be barred from running for office over his role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, which his critics say amounted to an 'insurrection,' our poll shows.

A DailyMail.com/TIPP Poll has revealed that 49 percent of respondents said the events of J6 should not prevent Trump from standing, while 46 percent said they were grounds for removing his name from ballots.

Our nationwide survey of more than 1,200 voters comes after Colorado and Maine last month disqualified Trump from their primary ballots over his role in J6  controversial bombshell decisions that are set to be weighed by the Supreme Court.

Trump's candidacy has been challenged in dozens of states over a section of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which says nobody should hold office if they 'engaged in insurrection' or gave 'aid or comfort' to insurrectionists.

Americans say Trump should not be barred from running in the 2024 race  but it's close

Critics say Trump led the deadly attempt to derail the certification of his electoral defeat to Joe Biden in 2020. His defenders say he hasn't been convicted of anything and that voters should decide who gets the keys to the White House in 2024.

The Philadelphia Inquirer's columnist Kyle Sammin on Monday argued that the Republican should not be barred from standing, saying 'efforts to keep Trump off primary ballots defy every principle of democracy.'

Barring Trump from standing 'defies every principle of democracy,' says the Philadelphia Inquirer's columnist Kyle Sammin

'When it comes to former President Donald Trump, democracy as a concept no longer seems so appealing to his opponents,' Sammin wrote.

'In neither [Colorado nor Maine] did anyone bother to actually try Trump for this crime, let alone convict him. Trials? Due process? Who needs 'em?'

Our survey shows that Americans are closely divided on the issue, but slightly favor Trump being allowed to stand in the primary contests that begin this month in Iowa, so voters can decide whether he's fit for office.

The difference is wafer thin  and within the margin of error for the poll.

Men were significantly more likely than women to support Trump's inclusion in ballots. But there was little difference between the opinions of white voters and those who identified as either black or Latino.

Unsurprisingly, there was a massive difference between Democrat-leaning voters and Republicans.

Donald Trump is challenging a Colorado Supreme Court ruling to remove the ex-president from the state's 2024 ballot. A separate challenge put a pause on the ruling and will keep Trump on the ballot unless the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the lower court's ruling

The Colorado Supreme Court claims Trump engaged in an insurrection and therefore under clause 3 of the 14th Amendment is disqualified from running for office  but Republicans argue the ex-president has never been charged with insurrection. Pictured: Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 to block Congress certifying Joe Biden's 2020 election win

The decision puts the nine justices in the center of the 2024 primary election cycle as oral arguments are set for February 8

Nearly two thirds of Democrats said Trump should not appear on ballots over his role on J6. Fully three quarters of Republicans however said the favorite to win their party's nomination should be allowed to run.

Aside from Maine and Colorado, 19 states are in the process of resolving challenges to Trump's 2024 candidacy over allegations of mounting an insurrection, according to an analysis by Axios.

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether Trump should remain on Colorado's 2024 ballot after he was booted by the state  putting its nine justices in the center of the primary election cycle. Oral arguments are set for February 8.

Trump had asked the top court to keep him on the ballot in Colorado, officially challenging the ruling by Democrat-appointed justices that disqualifies him from appearing on the presidential ballot in the state.

It was the first time in history that the 14th Amendment provision was used to block a presidential contender's campaign.

Trump himself nominated three of the justices currently on the bench  Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (pictured on July 8, 2022) announced that Trump will remain on the ballot, but voiced her backing of her state's Supreme Court ruling, saying: 'The Colorado Supreme Court got it right... I urge the U.S. Supreme Court to act quickly given the upcoming presidential primary election'

Trump Spokesperson Steven Cheung said Friday they 'welcome a fair hearing' at the Supreme Court to 'argue against the bad-faith, election-interfering, voter-suppressing, Democrat-backed and Biden-led, 14th Amendment abusing decision to remove President Trump's name from the 2024 ballot in the state of Colorado.'

He said the 'ballot-challenge cases' are all part of a 'well-funded effort by left-wing, political activists hell-bent on stopping the lawful reelection of President Trump this November, even if it means disenfranchising voters.'

Cheung noted that Trump is 'dominating' the polls, and says the campaign is 'confident' that the 'fair-minded' Supreme Court will keep the former president on the ballot.

The Supreme Court has never ruled on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was added after the Civil War to prevent former Confederates from returning to government.

The clause states that anyone who swore an oath to 'support' the constitution and then 'engaged in insurrection' against it cannot hold government office  but the section specifically mentions several offices without directly naming the presidency.
Americans are increasingly alarmed by people flows across the US-Mexico border, with record numbers now saying the influx of asylum seekers is a 'crisis' or a major problem, a new poll shows.

A CBS News survey found that a staggering 93 percent of respondents said the frontier was in a 'crisis' or that border guards faced a 'very serious' or 'somewhat serious' issue of undocumented arrivals.

Only 7 percent of the 2,157 people surveyed said it was 'not much of a problem.'

The share of Americans who call it a crisis has shot up from 38 percent last May to 45 percent currently.

Fully 93 percent of Americans say the southern border is either in a 'crisis' or some type of serious problem

Scenes of asylum seekers like this on the Texas-Mexico border dominate headlines at the start of the 2024 presidential race

Chaos at the southern frontier has become a headache for President Joe Biden, a Democrat, who is repeatedly bashed by Donald Trump and other Republicans over an 'open border' in an election year.

Only 32 percent of voters approve of Biden's handling of immigration, while 68 percent disapprove.

In September, 55 percent of respondents said the Biden administration needs to get tougher on migrants.

That's risen to 63 percent in just four months.

The southern border has seen ever greater numbers of migrants cross the frontier and ask for asylum since Biden took office in January 2021.

US border agents have since made more than 5 million arrests of migrants making irregular crossings  that is, not through a controlled border station  over the US-Mexico border.

The trend is fueled by ever more people fleeing political chaos in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Voters increasingly say the Biden administration needs to get tougher on people flows across the southern border

President Joe Biden trails in polls against his most likely 2024 challenger, former president Donald Trump

There were more than 10,000 arrests for illegal crossing per day over several days in December alone.

In cities including Chicago, New York and Denver, migrants who have no access to work permits sleep in police station foyers and in airports.

These scenes dominate the early phase of the 2024 presidential campaign, with Republicans excoriating Biden and weighing whether to impeach his Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Republicans want Biden to back more restrictive policies that would dramatically reduce asylum protections, among other things, and they believe they have leverage if the president wants them to authorize tens of billions in aid to Ukraine.

They also say migrants are straining budgets, and even such Democrats as New York Mayor Eric Adams say social services are being overwhelmed by newcomers.

Taxpayers have to front nearly half a trillion dollars each year because the Biden administration is not stopping migrants at the southern border, Republicans said in a report last month.

The cost of providing education, healthcare, law enforcement and other expenditure resulting from millions of extra migrants adds up to as much as $451 billion a year, says the House study.

Growing numbers of voters say scenes at the US-Mexico border amount to a 'crisis'

Migrants seeking asylum in the US gather near the border wall after crossing a razor wire fence deployed to block their entry

'Every day, millions of American taxpayer dollars are spent on costs directly associated with illegal immigration and the unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border sparked by  Mayorkas' policies,' says the report.

DailyMail.com this month met with migrants who had travelled from as far as Africa in search of a better life in the US.

Hundreds of homeless expats, mostly young and middle-aged African men, were waiting in line outside a church New York City's East Village last week, hoping to find a place to sleep.

They said they are 'the victims of the lies in the movies' after life the Big Apple was not what they expected.

Among them was Landry, 40, from Congo, who told DailyMail.com he spent his life savings of $9,000 traveling to the US, taking the difficult decision to leave his wife and 14-year-old son behind four months ago.

Landry, 40, from Congo, told DailyMail.com he spent his life savings of $9,000 traveling to the United States, taking the difficult decision to leave his wife and 14-year-old son behind four months ago

The huge line outside St. Brigid School in the East Village where migrants wait for shelter and food

The military veteran had been hoping to land a job in construction but he's been unable to find work in the city and ended up sleeping on the streets in sub-zero temperatures after shelters ran out of space.

Conditions in Congo were 'terrible' according to Landry, with frequent fights between ethnic groups and oppressive laws - but he said life in the Big Apple has been 'even worse.'

'It's like prison here,' he said, speaking in French. 'It's negligence. We have no access to food, toilets, or anything. Animals live better here - pets in the street are treated better than us.

'The UN building is right there to talk about the problems around the world but look at all this on the doorstep... desperation and lack of services.'

'We were sold a dream in Hollywood films and TV, but the reality of life in New York City is not like the movies,' he said, adding that he had been bussed over from California.

When asked how he felt thinking of his family back in Congo, Landry said: 'I cry and think, why did I do this? But it's too late. I spent my life savings coming here and now I can't get a job. What can I do?'
However motorists will only be fined if they breach 26mph

Welsh drivers who break the 20mph speed limit will not be punished if they are 'genuinely confused' by the new policy, Mark Drakeford said today.

The outgoing First Minister said police will not jump straight to enforcement if people have simply 'misunderstood' - and they will only be targeting those who 'deliberately' break the law.

The statement from Drakeford has sparked fresh confusion for drivers after it emerged that only motorists caught doing 26mph and above will be prosecuted, due to a relaxation in the threshold for enforcement.



GoSafe Wales, which connects the Welsh police and local authorities together in a road safety network has said that the enforcement of fines will only begin at 10 percent of the speed limit plus 4mph.

This is more leeway than is given to other drivers in Britain where motorists are subject to an enforcement threshold of 10 per cent plus 2mph, making the limit for a 20mph zone 23mph.

In Wales, the enforcement of fines will only begin at 10 percent of the speed limit plus 4mph

After a 'bedding in period', the default 20mph speed limit in built-up areas in Wales will be enforced from today

The Welsh government has confirmed motorists will face sanctions if they exceed the limit

Asked during a press conference in Cardiff about the possibility of people being fined because the messaging over the law has not been clear enough, Mr Drakeford said: 'I don't think they will be fined in those circumstances.

'I think if the police find somebody driving above 20 miles an hour and the reason is because they are genuinely confused about that, then that's why the police will always start with education and conversation.

'I don't think in those circumstances of genuine confusion, the police will move to enforcement.'

The First Minister conceded that the policy should be 'fine-tuned' and kept 'under review' to ensure consistency across different local authorities throughout Wales.

There have been 'anomalies' in its introduction, he said, including with road signage which some drivers have complained is unclear.

Mr Drakeford said that in cases where motorists drive 'well above' the limit the law would have to be enforced.

Asked to specify what speed would be considered 'well above' 20mph, he said previous cases relating to pre-existing 20mph zones had involved people driving 'closer to 30 than 20'.

'Not a couple of miles over, but well in excess of what people were obliged to do, so if that's a sort of rule of thumb I think that's how the police have interpreted that so far,' he said.

Mark Drakeford suggested drivers will not be fined if they were 'genuinely confused'

The policy was the most controversial and un-popular decision Mark Drakeford's government made

It comes as pro-motorist groups label the new 20mph limit 'unenforceable', and question why the policy was introduced in the first place if drivers will still be allowed to reach speeds of 25mph before being slapped with a fine or points.

But ministers said not all drivers breaking the 20mph limit will initially be prosecuted, just the most dangerous offenders.

Roadside teams will use speed monitoring equipment to catch offending motorists.

They will be stopped and given a choice between a fine and points, or roadside engagement.

Go Safe Wales has also said magistrates will only deal with excessive speeding of 40mph or more under the rollout. Ian Taylor, a director at the Alliance of british Drivers told MailOnline the policy could well be unenforceable due to costs.

He said: 'The lower you make the limit, the more difficult it is for people to actually keep to it and probably means they'll want to do it less anyway.

'This means there's always the potential there for prosecutions. As regards to them saying over 26mph for prosecutions, it's ironic as that is sort of the limit.

'They think that imposing 20 mile an hour limits brings the average speed down to but if it's 26mph regardless you wonder why they bothered!

'The whole policy could end up being unenforceable it depends how much it's liable to cost them to enforce it properly.

'Having said that if they enforce it enough, they might make the money they need to pay for it from the fines.'

Speaking to the Telegraph, Peter Fox, the Welsh Conservatives' minister for finance warned that the confusion was likely to result in more fines.

He said 'It's confusing out there especially if you are visiting Wales.

'With 20mph being the default limit, together with unclear and inconsistent signage, it would be easy to lose a licence in a day.'

A spokesman for GoSafeWales said: 'Enforcement can only be conducted at the discretion of the Chief Constable of each force. GoSafe, in conjunction with the four police forces in Wales, will issue a statement ahead of wider enforcement taking place.

'This should be the first point of call for accurate information, along with our website.'

The Welsh government has confirmed motorists will face sanctions following an 'initial bedding in period' (File image)

Roadside teams will use speed monitoring equipment to catch offending motorists (File image)

The Welsh scheme to reduce the default speed limit for 'restricted roads' from 30mph came into force in September, affecting 7,700 miles of road. It aims to cut deaths, noise and pollution and encourage people to walk or cycle.

There was confusion around when the new national speed limit would be enforced. It was said that enforcement would begin three months after the new speed limit was introduced, which would have been December 17 before the Welsh government confirmed the enforcement for the speed limit would begin in January.

The speed limit reduction to 20mph affects 'restricted roads' - those with 'street lights spaced no more than 200 yards apart, usually located in residential and built-up areas'.

Transport is a devolved matter so the Welsh government has made the change unilaterally.

According to its own impact assessment, the 'main economic dis-benefit' of the new regime 'relates to increased journey times from lower average vehicle speeds'.

It states that this could result in an economic hit of up to 9 billion over 30 years; the cost of implementing the scheme will be 33 million.

But Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford said the 20mph speed limit would save lives and the cost was 'outweighed' by reduced impact on the NHS and emergency services.

Mr Drakeford has said 'the evidence is incontrovertible' that 'driving more slowly in built-up urban areas saves people's lives' and that it will save the Health Service 90million as a result.

He cited a similar scheme in Spain, saying it had cut urban deaths by 20 percent.

Critics say penalty fines will hit drivers who already face larger petrol bills for running their engines at lower - and less efficient - speeds.
Tesla founder Elon Musk hit back at claims made in a shocking Wall Street Journal report over the weekend that alleged board members at his companies were alarmed by his drug use.

Early Monday, Musk responded to the report in a post on his social media platform, X.

'TMZ has vastly higher standards than the WSJ (actually),' Musk wrote, an apparent jab at the broadsheet Wall Street Journal by comparing it to TMZ, a website that specializes in salacious gossip.

Speaking to the Journal, Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, said that the South African was 'regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test.'

The article alleges that Musk's drug of choice is ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic that can produce hallucinogenic effects.

In 2018, Musk is believed to have caused shares in Tesla to crash when he openly smoked marijuana with controversial podcaster Joe Rogan during an appearance on his show. The show was recorded in California, where cannabis is legal.

Musk has form on making controversial statements on social media

During a more recent appearance on Rogan's show, the two alt-right icons smoked cigars

However, witnesses told the Journal that the X owner has also used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private exclusive parties around the world where guests have to sign NDAs and hand in their phones to avoid photos being taken.

In 2018, for example, he took multiple tabs of acid at a party he hosted in Los Angeles, the Journal reported.

The next year he allegedly consumed magic mushrooms at an event in Mexico and in 2021 took ketamine recreationally with his brother at a house party in Miami.

The billionaire has even taken drugs with current SpaceX and former Tesla board member Steve Jurvetson, according to the Journal.

Those close to the 52-year-old are now reportedly concerned that the extent of his drug taking could cause of health crisis or a crisis for his businesses.

SpaceX is the only U.S. company now approved to transport NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

However, illegal drug use would likely be a violation of federal policies that could jeopardize SpaceX's billions of dollars in government contracts.

Musk's drug use and the volatile behavior it can exacerbate has already led to resignations at the top of Musk's businesses, the Journal reports.

Linda Johnson Rice, a former Tesla director, allegedly became increasingly concerned with Musk's drug taking and so frustrated with his behavior that she didn't stand for re-election to the company's board in 2019, people familiar with the matter told the publication.

Musk, pictured performing his monologue during his infamous Saturday Night Live hosting gig in 2022, during the speech, he revealed that he has Asperger's

Serious concerns over Musk's drug taking were raised in 2017 when at a SpaceX meeting about the Big Falcon Rocket prototype Musk was slurring his words and rambled somewhat incomprehensibly for fifteen minutes, according the the Journal's sources.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell reportedly stepped in and took over the meeting.

After the meeting SpaceX executives reportedly talked privately about their concerns that Musk was on drugs.

One described told the Journal the event was 'nonsensical,' 'unhinged' and 'cringeworthy.'

Just last week a US labor agency accused SpaceX of unlawfully firing employees who penned an open letter critical of CEO Elon Musk and creating an impression that worker activities were under surveillance by the rocket ship company.

A Los Angeles-based regional director for the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday filed a complaint that consolidates eight unfair labor practice charges against SpaceX.

The cases stem from the company's alleged actions following the circulation of the employees' letter back in June 2022.

The letter, among other workplace concerns, called on executives to condemn Musk's public behavior on X  the platform then-known as Twitter  and hold everyone accountable for unacceptable conduct.

Musk's actions included making light of sexual harassment allegations against him, which the billionaire denied.

'As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX  every tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company,' the open letter said at the time.

The letter also referred to Musk's actions as a 'frequent source of distraction and embarrassment.'

A total of nine employees were soon terminated for their involvement in the letter, according to a November 2022 filing made on behalf of one of the employees to the NLRB, although only eight are included in Wednesdays complaint.
Brianna Ghey's mother has revealed she sat in court every day and listened to the horrific last moments of her daughter's life to know what she had been through.

Esther Ghey says that although she 'doesn't carry any hate' for Brianna's killers, the only way for her to get justice is to 'turn back time and have her back home.'

Brianna was 16 years old when she was stabbed to death 28 times in broad daylight in Warrington, Cheshire, on February 11 last year.

A boy from Leigh and a girl from Warrington, who were both 15 at the time of the murder, were unanimously found guilty of Brianna's murder after an 18-day trial.

Although she found listening to the trial 'difficult', Ms Ghey says she wanted to be there because she wanted to know 'exactly what' her daughter went through.

Brianna (pictured with her mother) was 16 years old when she was stabbed to death 28 times in broad daylight in Warrington, Cheshire, on February 11 last year

A boy from Leigh and a girl from Warrington, who were both 15 at the time of the murder, were unanimously found guilty of Brianna's murder after an 18-day trial

Esther Ghey says that although she 'doesn't carry any hate' for Brianna's killers, the only way for her to get justice is to 'turn back time and have her back home'

Although she found listening to the trial 'difficult', Ms Ghey says she wanted to be there because she wanted to know 'exactly what' her daughter went through

She said: 'Sitting and listening to the trial was difficult, and for some of it I sat out. It was quite surreal, and I felt quite detached.

'For me, I wanted to be there every day, but I didn't go to the pathologist days because Brianna was spoken about in an inhumane way.

'I felt like I needed to be there because I needed to know exactly what happened to her.

'I wanted to know exactly what she went through, and I wanted to go through it with her.'

Ms Ghey has now spoken for the first time since the guilty verdict but says Brianna will never be served justice because 'she will never come home.'

She said: 'It was a relief. When that came through it was a relief.

'I don't like it when people say that justice has been done for Brianna. Brianna will never come home.

'The only way there could be justice for her is to turn back time and have her back home.

'It has been overwhelmingly sad, as well. It's a situation that nobody who was involved in that court case wanted to be a part of.'

Ms Ghey says she had concerns whether one of the defendants would be found not guilty before the trial took place

Ms Ghey has now spoken for the first time since the guilty verdict but says Brianna will never be served justice because 'she will never come home'

Peter Spooner, father of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, reads a statement outside of Manchester Crown Court December, 20, 2023

Follow every detail of the case on The Mail's acclaimed podcast The Trial The Trial... takes listeners behind the headlines and into the courtrooms of some of the biggest trials in the world. The first series 'The Trial of Lucy Letby' was a global hit, with more than 13million downloads, while season two focused on the murder of Ashling Murphy, a 23-year-old teacher from Ireland. Its third season follows the tragic case of Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old transgender girl killed in Warrington, England. Follow the evidence as the jury hears it, in twice-weekly reports from The Daily Mail's Northern Correspondent Liz Hull and broadcast journalist Caroline Cheetham. Advertisement

Ms Ghey says she had concerns whether one of the defendants would be found not guilty before the trial took place.

She added she still questions about 'how a teenager can be able to access the dark web.'

Ms Ghey said: 'Before the trial started I had a very low point and had such a feeling of dread for the trial and the verdict was a feeling of relief.

'I had questions of 'What if they are found not guilty?' and 'What if we have them back on the streets again and are able to commit a similar crime?'

'How premeditated it was and all of the planning that went into it, as well as having other children on a 'kill list' shows that there's a problem with society.

'It doesn't take the blame away from the two that have been convicted, though.

'I still have questions about how a teenager can be able to access the dark web.'

She says she has a 'lot of sympathy' for the killers' parents because nobody deserves to 'sit there and listen to what their children have done.'

She added she doesn't 'carry any hate' for the killers either and is 'glad' they will be named publicly at their sentencing on February 2.

Ms Ghey said: 'I have a lot of sympathy for their parents because they've had to sit there and listen to what their children have done.

'I don't think anyone can imagine that their kid can be capable of that.

'I don't carry any hate for [Brianna's killers] though, because that will only hurt me.

'I am concerned that both of them will be out [of prison] at some point, and I don't think there's a chance of rehabilitation for them from that.

'I'm glad that they're being named now because they would have been named when they turned 18 anyway.

'The public has a right to know who they are.'

Officers found a note written by girl X of an alleged 'murder plan'

Police forensic officers at the scene in Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington, Cheshire

A police forensic officer at the scene, pictured December 20, 2023

The mother revealed she wanted Brianna's case to go to trial so that people would understand more about what happened.

She said: 'I wanted it to go to trial; I was glad because I wanted the story to fully come out and I wanted the severity to come out.

'Prior to the trial, the focus was on Brianna being trans, but after the trial the focus has been on the fact that she was a child who was brutally murdered.

'People are contacting me now with a deeper understanding and deeper empathy.'

The mother-of-two has just celebrated her first Christmas without Brianna and said she spent the festive period 'coming to terms with everything.'

She said: 'Christmas was quiet. We didn't put up a Christmas tree this year, because we were at the trial from November.

READ MORE - Brianna Ghey's killers WILL be named next year as judge decides to lift anonymity of two teenagers who stabbed schoolgirl to death Advertisement

'So the Christmas period has been a time to absorb everything and come to terms with it, and to heal, really.

'We've only got a small family, and we went round to my mum's and had a quiet day.'

Ms Ghey has also described her daughter as 'outgoing and fearless' and says she was 'absolutely one of a kind' and needs to be remembered by that.

She said: 'She would like to be remembered as she was - as the outgoing, fearless, funny, and beautiful girl that she was.

'She was absolutely one of a kind. That's how she would want to be remembered.'

Ms Ghey has now created a campaign called 'Peace in Mind' and she hopes to send teachers on Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP) training courses.

She says creating the campaign has helped her 'focus on something positive' and has meant 'something good has come out of the tragic situation.'

She said: 'At the very beginning, that was the worst time of my life, and to be honest I can barely remember it.

'That must be my mind's way of coping, to sort of block that out.

'Getting started with the Peace in Mind campaign helped to focus on something that was positive, and the fact that we've started this means that her death wasn't for nothing.

'Her death cannot be for nothing and something good has to come out of a tragic situation.'
Republican presidential candidates know it's crunch time in Iowa, but former President Donald Trump is taking a break from campaigning to attend his hearing in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley are getting increasingly dirty with their attacks as the two fight for a second place finish in the first primary contest state.

A top Super PAC backing Haley's candidacy, Stand For America INC (SFA), spent $1.2 million to air a TV advertisement calling DeSantis a 'dumpster fire.' It aired more than 1,000 times in Iowa since mid-December.

Trump isn't the only one that is stepping back from the trail in the countdown. DeSantis is in Florida on Tuesday to deliver his State of the State address in Tallahassee. His wife Casey and top campaign surrogate Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) are remaining on the trail to campaign for the governor.

Iowans will determine the first results of the 2024 race with the caucuses on January 15.

Donald Trump said he will be attending the presidential immunity case in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday  instead of campaigning in Iowa with just seven days until the caucuses

Ron DeSantis will also miss campaigning on-the-ground in Iowa this week as he delivers Florida State of the State address in Tallahassee Tuesday. A Super PAC backing Nikki Haley (right) spent $1.2 million to air a TV ad calling DeSantis a 'dumpster fire'

But candidates are seeing their final-day plans already defunct in Iowa with inclement weather leading to canceled events with just one week until the caucuses commence.

Haley had to ditch her event in Sioux City, Iowa Monday morning due to snow preventing her from getting there, while Arkansas Gov. Sarah Hukcabee Sanders and her father Mike Huckabee won't be able to campaign for Trump in Iowa Monday evening.

Trump was banking on his surrogates rallying for him in the week ahead of the caucuses before a two-day swing with four rallies next weekend.

Meanwhile, the ex-president posted to Truth Social on Monday that he will be showing up in-person for the presidential immunity case in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. The case insists that Trump was immune from prosecution over his actions on January 6, 2021 because he was acting as Commander-in-Chief  not as a presidential candidate.

The appeal seeks to overturn a federal grand jury indictment from August that charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the U.S.; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction; and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted.

Presiding Washington-based U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is looking at March for the trial to begin, but Trump's appeal threatens the timeline for getting it wrapped-up before the 2024 election in November.

'I will be attending the the Federal Appeals Court Arguments on Presidential Immunity in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday,' Trump wrote on his social media site on Monday. 'Of course I was entitled, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief, to Immunity.'

He insisted: 'I wasn't campaigning, the Election was long over. I was looking for voter fraud, and finding it, which is my obligation to do, and otherwise running running our Country.'

'The least I am entitled to is Presidential Immunity on Fake Biden Indictments!' Trump wrote in the second part of his post.

The Haley-backed ad was aired more than 1,000 times in Iowa and just includes an image of a dumpster on fire with quotes about DeSantis' campaign

Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday that he will attend in-person the D.C. hearing on presidential immunity Tuesday while surrogates campaign for the ex-president in Iowa

The former president said that the case would set a precedent for presidential immunity that could also impact President Joe Biden regarding his handling of the southern border crisis, Afghanistan troop withdrawal and aid packages for Ukraine.

'Joe would be ripe for Indictment,' Trump wrote, adding: 'By weaponizing the DOJ against his Political Opponent, ME, Joe has opened a giant Pandora's Box.'

Trump is still the far frontrunner in all national polling and is ahead of the rest of the candidates in state-wide polling, as well  though by decreasing margins.

One December poll showed Haley only 4 points behind Trump in New Hampshire as she skyrocketed to second place.

According to AdImpact, spending on advertisements is at the highest of the campaign so far in New Hampshire, which holds the second primary contest with its elections on January 23.

In the first week of January, Haley and Trump's campaigns and the PACs supporting them spent more than $2 million on ads targeting New Hampshire.

With just seven days before Iowa caucuses next Monday, Haley, DeSantis and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are barnstorming the state  trying to hit as many counties with as many events as possible.
Wael Al-Dahdouh, Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Gaza, had already lost his wife, two of his children and his one-year-old grandson to Israel's onslaught in the embattled enclave.

The father-of-eight was live on air when he discovered they had been killed in an airstrike on the house, and rushed to hospital to hold his seven-year-old daughter in his arms one last time.

Now, the veteran journalist is mourning the loss of another child - his eldest son, Hamza. The 27-year-old was a journalist like his father, and had been on assignment with colleagues when their car was hit by an Israeli drone, Al-Jazeera said.

His funeral was held on Sunday, with heartbreaking video showing Mr Al-Dahdouh breaking down as he stood over the body of his son, tightly gripping his hand.

Other footage shows one of his surviving daughters desperately clinging onto her father as she pleas with him not to leave her side, reportedly saying 'there is no one left for me except you'.

But just hours after he stood with scores of mourners to say goodbye to Hamza, Mr Al-Dahdouh returned to work. 'All the world needs to see what is happening here,' he said.

Mourners gather around Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh, as he mourns his son Hamza Wael Al-Dahdouh

Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh hugs his daughter as they attend the funeral of his son, Palestinian journalist Hamza Al-Dahdouh

Hamza (right) with his father Wael Al-Dahdouh. Both men were journalists for Al-Jazeera

A view of the wrecked car after Hamza Al-Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuraya, were killed in an Israeli bombing

Wael Al-Dahdouh mourns over the body of one of his children who was killed along with his wife and son in an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp

Speaking at Hamza's funeral on Sunday, Mr Al-Dahdouh paid tribute to his beloved son. 'Hamza was everything to me, the eldest boy, he was the soul of my soul these are the tears of parting and loss, the tears of humanity.'

Hamza's devastated friends and family members rushed to the cemetery to see his body before he was laid to rest.

His surviving siblings each took turns to bid farewell, while his wife of one year flung herself on his body as it was taken to be buried.

It comes after the tragedy endured by Wael Al-Dahdouh in October made headlines around the world.

While broadcasting, he was informed that his wife Amna, their 15-year-old son Mahmoud, seven-year-old daughter Sham and 18 month-old grandson Adam had all been killed in an Israeli air strike.

Eight members of his extended family were also killed, it was reported.

The family had already fled their home in the north of the Gaza Strip, and had been taking refuge in Nuseirat refugee camp, which they thought would be safer as it was within the zone Israel had told Palestinians to evacuate to.

Mr Al-Dahdouh told Al-Jazeera that it was 'clear' what had happened. 'This is a series of targeted attacks on children, women and civilians,' he said at the time.

The journalist arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir al-Balah to say goodbye to his loved ones, cradling Sham's tiny body in his arms as he spoke to his daughter one final time.

Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh hugs his daughter and son as they attend the funeral of his eldest son

Family and friends bid farewell to the bodies of journalists Hamza Al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya on January 7, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza

A crowd gathered around the burial place of the two journalists, with Mr Dahdouh saying some words as his son was laid to rest

Wael Dahdouh puts his arm around one of his sons as they attended the funeral of another of his children

A blue press vest lays on the body of of Palestinian journalist Hamza Al-Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh

The widow (R) of Hamza Wael Dahdouh, a journalist with the Al Jazeera television network, and his father Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh (L) mourn over his body

'It's a difficult moment in the life of a Palestinian journalist, when they go to cover an incident for the news and find out that the news is their own family,' he said.

Now, Mr Al-Dahdouh has lost a fifth member of his immediate family.

'Nothing is harder than the pain of loss,' Mr Al-Dahdouh said last night.

'And when you experience this pain time after time, it becomes harder and more severe.'

According to Al Jazeera, Hamza had been travelling with two other journalists to the Moraj area of Rafah - designated as a 'humanitarian zone' by the Israeli army.

The broadcaster said he had been heading to report on bombings in the area when his vehicle was struck by a drone.

The car was left mangled, killing Hamza and Mustafa Thuria, who was also in his 20s. Thuria was a video stringer who worked for AFP and other media organisations.

A third passenger, Hazem Rajab, is reported to have been seriously injured.

'I wish that the blood of my son Hamza is the last of journalists and the last of people here in Gaza and for this massacre to stop,' he told Al Jazeera.

A blue press helmet is placed near the burial place of journalist Hamza Dahdouh, who was reportedly killed while on assignment

The widow (R) of Hamza Wael Dahdouh, a journalist with the Al Jazeera television network

Family and friends bid farewell to the bodies of journalists Hamza Al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya

People check the car in which two journalists, Mustafa Thuria and Hamza Wael Dahdouh, were killed in a reported Israeli strike in Rafah in the Gaza Strip

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 79 journalists and media professionals, the vast majority Palestinian, have been killed since the war began.

The Al-Jazeera Media Network shared a statement condemning the attack. 'The assassination of Mustafa and Hamza whilst they were on their way to carry out their duty in the Gaza Strip, reaffirms the need to take immediate necessary legal measures against the occupation forces to ensure that there is no impunity.'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday during a visit to Qatar that the killing of the two journalists was an 'unimaginable tragedy'.

'This is an unimaginable tragedy. And that's also been the case for... far too many innocent Palestinian men, women and children,' Blinken said.

Al-Dahdouh mourns over the body of one of his children who was killed along with his wife and daughter in an Israeli strike

Washington, Israel's main ally that provides it with billions of dollars in military aid, has grown increasingly concerned over the war's civilian death toll.

The number of people killed in Gaza since the war erupted almost 100 days ago currently stands at more than 23,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza's population has been displaced, according to the United Nations, leaving them in overcrowded shelters or tents in the winter chill.

The World Health Organization has warned of the risk of famine and disease, with only minimal aid entering as people struggle to find water and other necessities.

Washington has said Blinken will press Israel on its compliance with international humanitarian law and ask for 'immediate measures' to boost aid to Gaza.
A total of 325 anti-Israel protesters were arrested after cutting off traffic in and out of Manhattan by barricading Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge and Holland Tunnel.

Cops at Brooklyn Bridge started unlinking the pro-Palestine demonstrators, who strapped their arms together with metal tubes, concrete and tires in their latest attempt to demand a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Officers rounded up the cuffed protesters and lined them up in single file before hoisting them onto a MTA bus to be processed.

NYPD confirmed that 325 people were arrested on Monday. NYPD Chief John Chell said: 'Today protesters blocked three bridges and the Holland Tunnel at 9:40 AM. By 11:15 AM we are able to clear the locations with 325 arrests.

'In lieu of summons, many protestors will face misdemeanor charges with a desk appearance ticket.'

NOW: Arrested protesters from Brooklyn Bridge chant out of Syria, out of Iraq, out of Palestine, dont come back as they wait to be transferred. pic.twitter.com/y74AQ4Y29G  BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 8, 2024

Officers rounded up the cuffed protesters and lined them up in single file before hoisting them onto a MTA bus to be processed

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: Protesters have blocked Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan this morning - as they called to 'lift the siege on Gaza'

Brooklyn Bridge, which connects downtown Manhattan to Dumbo in Brooklyn, is swarmed by police arresting the protesters on Monday

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: A woman shouts as she is handcuffed by three NYPD officers

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: Three demonstrators, wearing face coverings, are led off the bridge on Monday afternoon

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: NYPD officers at Brooklyn Bridge started attempting to unlink the disruptive pro-Palestine protesters, who seemed to have trapped their arms together, forming a human barricade, using metal tubes, concrete, and duct tape

A sign at New Jersey-bound Holland Tunnel - where traffic was brought to a halt around 10am - read: 'Lift the siege on Gaza. Ceasefire now.'

Groups of around 85 protesters sat at the entrance to the tunnel with Palestinian flags, chanting and cheering as one person screamed through a megaphone.

They shouted in unison: 'Free, free Palestine. Stop the Zionist occupation.'

Port Authority police stood idle as they watched protesters at Holland Tunnel - many of whom wore face coverings, scarves, and hoods - swell to numbers topping 100.

At Manhattan Bridge, swathes of beeping vehicles could be heard as the protesters got in position and formed a human chain across the entry path into the city.

Once they were locked in a line, another gang of protesters formed a row behind them, holding large signs and screaming: 'Shut it down!'

At Brooklyn Bridge, around 40 protesters sat crossed-legged in the middle of the road as raging traffic was blocked from entering, just after the peak of rush hour.

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: One protester refuses to get up, even when being handcuffed

HOLLAND TUNNEL: Groups of around 85 protesters sat at the entrance to the tunnel with Palestinian flags, chanting and cheering as one person screamed through a megaphone

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: A wall of protesters chain chairs and cones together

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: Demonstrators, all wearing face coverings and scarves, are handcuffed

As well as the demonstrators on the concrete, dozens more pro-Palestine supporters lined the walkway of the bridge - which is usually filled with tourists crossing from Dumbo to the Financial District.

Videos showed that as the police presence escalated, some of the disruptive protesters were carted away in handcuffs.

At Williamsburg Bridge, protesters used similar tactics to cause traffic chaos by sprawling themselves in a linked line across the entry.

The four main thoroughfares in New York City's Manhattan are still blocked as of 11am - causing a backlog of traffic downtown, to the dismay of irate commuters.

WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE: Protesters used similar tactics to cause traffic chaos by sprawling themselves in a linked line across the entry

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators close down the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the main bridges connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn

Members of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit attempt with power saws to separate pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocking a Brooklyn Bridge roadway during a 'Shut it Down for Palestine' rally

The group, which is demanding a cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Gaza, joined with other protesters in briefly stopping traffic at numerous New York City bridges

MANHATTAN BRIDGE: At Manhattan Bridge, swathes of beeping vehicles could be heard as the protesters got in position and formed a human chain across the entry path

HOLLAND TUNNEL: Port Authority police stood idle as they watched protesters at Holland Tunnel - many of whom wore face coverings, scarves, and hoods - swell to numbers topping 100

MANHATTAN BRIDGE: On Manhattan Bridge, the pro-Palestine protesters blocked traffic with their bodies

WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE: The four main thoroughfares in New York City's Manhattan are still blocked as of 11am - causing a backlog of traffic downtown, to the dismay of irate commuters

MANHATTAN BRIDGE: Drivers were forced to a standstill and got out of their cars in anger as they were stopped by the protests in front of them

Canal Street, in downtown Manhattan, was left gridlocked by the overflowing traffic caused by the protesters' disruption.

An MTA bus full of arrested demonstrators was halted in the road jam.

Last month, pro-Palestine protestors clashed with NYPD officers in ugly scenes in New York City as Christmas Day was marred by demonstrations against Israel in several US cities.

The NYPD confirmed to DailyMail.com it has moved to 'Level Three' police mobilization to combat the protests. A number of arrests are believed to have been made, however the number could not be confirmed as the situation is 'ongoing.'

Level three mobilization is the second highest alert level in the NYPD, meaning all special units are called into action and squad cars are sent out from every command center in the city.

Pro-Palestine protestors clashed with NYPD officers in ugly scenes in New York City as Christmas Day was marred by demonstrations against Israel in several US cities.

The NYPD confirmed to DailyMail.com it has moved to 'Level Three' police mobilization to combat the protests. A number of arrests are believed to have been made, however the number could not be confirmed as the situation is 'ongoing.'

Level three mobilization is the second highest alert level in the NYPD, meaning all special units are called into action and squad cars are sent out from every command center in the city.
An East Yorkshire restaurant owner has proven that he is one of Britain's most generous bosses, after organising a free holiday to Spain for his employees.

Gary Chin, who previously triumphed on BBC Two's Britain's Top Takeaways in 2022, owns Sumo Pan Asian, which has restaurants in Beverley and Hessle, Yorkshire, along with Soju by Sumo in Beverley town centre.

As a gesture of thanks to his full-time staff for their tireless work throughout the year, Gary has organised a trip to Barcelona for all 42 of them.

The group set off earlier today at 6am and will return to the UK on Thursday, with the restaurants set to reopen on Friday after being closed to give staff their well-earned break.

The staff trip is part of an annual tradition for Gary and his employees - over the last decade, the restaurant boss has booked trips to Tenerife, costing him 600 per guest.

Restaurant owner Gary Chin, from East Yorkshire, has proven that he is one of Britain's most generous bosses, after organising a free holiday to Spain for his employees

As a gesture of thanks to his full-time staff for their tireless work throughout the year, Gary has organised a trip to Barcelona for all 42 of them

'Its been a steady year for us,' Gary told Hull Live, 'However, there is a still a cost of living crisis and the cost of energy is high.'

'No matter the situation, I try to treat my staff because they need to know that they're appreciated. I like to do this every year and everyone gets really excited for it.'

Last year, Gary took members of staff on a trip to Tenerife, and has since used the team's feedback to improve this year's holiday to Barcelona.

On this year's trip to one of Spain's most iconic cities, Gary has decided to ditch staying in a hotel because his employees wanted to be closer together.

Instead, the restauranteur has rented out five enormous apartments in Barcelona city centre, so that his guests can cook, relax and spent more time with one another.

Speaking on the difficulties he experiences while booking for dozens of people at once, Gary said: 'Of course, it takes a lot of time and money to organise.

'I had to think about accommodation, transport and activities. We have got a big bus to go to the airport in and we have planned to go to a dance together and have looked at restaurants.'

He added: 'This time, we have made a big banner for the trip so we can take a group photo.'

The staff trip is part of an annual tradition for Gary and his employees - over the last 10 years, the restaurant boss has booked trips to Tenerife, costing him 600 per guest

In 2022, Gary (L) and his colleague Scott (R) triumphed in BBC Two's Britain's Top Takeaways, serving up Thai red tofu curry and Singapore chow mein with prawns to hungry families

Last year, Gary revealed that he paid around 600 per guest for the Tenerife holiday, having made the annual trip a tradition for the last 10 years, and is hoping to make it even better this year.

Starting out in a small Newland Avenue takeaway several years ago, Gary Chins business is now thriving.

In 2022, Gary and his colleague Scott triumphed in BBC Two's Britain's Top Takeaways, serving up Thai red tofu curry and Singapore chow mein with prawns to hungry families.

Meanwhile, in 2019, a U.S. cosmetic company went above and beyond to reward its staff who hit their sales target.

Jeunesse Global, a Florida-based firm, took its 12,000 employees in China on a dream holiday to Switzerland as a 'thank you' to their hard work.
Police are unlikely to press assault charges against the biker gang that attacked Ian Ziering because new video of the fight shows the actor hit them first.

The 90210 star demanded police crack down on 'hooliganism' after his run-in with the 605 mini-bike gang as he drove down Hollywood Boulevard with his daughter Penna, 10, on New Year's Eve.

Dashcam footage from the vehicle behind shows Ziering, 59, jumping out of car and violently shoving a biker out of the way after around eight gang members surrounded his $100,000 Mercedes.

Separate footage then shows the gang rounding on the Sharknado actor with at least four pummeling him and one riding into him from behind before he staggered to safety across the street.

But LAPD are only considering a felony vandalism charge against one of the bikers filmed smashing the Mercedes windscreen with his helmet as Penna sat inside, TMZ reported.

The Beverly Hills, 90210 actor, 59, squared up against a member of the 605 mini-bike gang that had surrounded his car on Hollywood Boulevard on New Year's Eve

But the actor soon found himself surrounded by the gang and pushed up against his car

'I am relieved to report that my daughter and I are both completely unscathed, but the incident has left me deeply concerned about the growing boldness of such groups who disrupt public safety and peace,' Ziering wrote on Instagram after the confrontation.

Sources told the outlet that Ziering's 'vehicle may have been hit' immediately before the filming started, and the actor himself said that he had got out of the Mercedes GLE SUV to 'assess any damage'.

'While stuck in traffic, my car was approached aggressively by one of these riders leading to an unsettling confrontation,' he said in his social media post.

'In an attempt to assess any damage I exited my car. This action, unfortunately, escalated into a physical altercation, which I navigated to protect myself.'

While dozens of onlookers were gathered at the spot at the corner of Hollywood and Highland, no one appeared to intervene on Ziering's behalf.

Ziering, who played the role of Steve Sanders on the Fox series from 1990 to 2000, later shared photos of his car which was left shattered and slightly dented on the drivers' side windshield.

The side-view mirror was also badly cracked.

'This situation highlights a larger issue of hooliganism on our streets and the need for effective law enforcement responses to such behavior,' he wrote.

Ziering got out of his car, slamming the door behind him as he prepared to confront the group

As he grappled with one rider he was swarmed by others who attacked him

But he was grabbed by one rider and kicked by another as he tried to escape across the street

He turned round to kick one assailant as reached the other side of the street

Ziering and his daughters Penna Mae Ziering (left) and Mia Loren Ziering (right) are pictured at Jingle Ball in LA in December

Ziering shares equal custody of Penna, as well as 12-year-old daughter Mia, with ex-wife Erin Ludwig, who took to Instagram the following day to break her silence on the altercation

'As a citizen and a parent, I find it unacceptable that groups can freely engage in this kind of behavior, causing fear and chaos, while the response from authorities seems insufficient,' he continued in his post, before urging law enforcement to 'take decisive action.'

'I have always been an advocate for standing up against intimidation and misconduct, and this incident reinforces my belief in the importance of personal and community safety.'

He concluded: 'I am thankful for the support of my family, friends, and fans during this time.

'It's in challenging moments like these that the strength and unity of our community are most vital. Happy new year.'

Ziering shares equal custody of Penna, as well as 12-year-old daughter Mia, with ex-wife Erin Ludwig. The former couple wed in 2010, separated in 2019, with their divorce finalized in 2022.

The day after the clash, Erin, a registered nurse who still uses the last name Ziering on social media, took to Instagram to break her silence on the altercation.

'I have over 150 messages about this incident in 24hrs and I am not responding due to [Ian and Penna's] privacy,' Erin said in response to her ex's post.

'As I appreciate the need for info by everyone, please understand respectfully and if needing information please reach out to the direct people involved.'

One video of the aftermath shows Ziering dashing back across the road once to comfort his sobbing daughter.

As the bikers begin to move away from the scene, a woman in a pink top is seen sprinting across the road towards Ziering's damaged vehicle.

She helps Penna out of the car and into the arms of her father who is seen hugging her and rubbing her back.

She buries her face into her dad who plants a kiss on her head as onlookers ask if she is okay.

Ziering pulls her out of the embrace to talk to her, revealing her tear stained and panic stricken face.

The youngster looks around wildly at the crowd that has formed before looking to her dad again for reassurance as the clip ends.

The 605 gang is notorious for terrorizing the streets of Hollywood with high-speed, booze-fueled rides in front of twerking groupies.

It claims to operate from the San Gabriel Valley to South East LA on its Instagram page with home-made bikes, basic metal frames fitted with overpowered engines, that top out at 100mph.

Cops say the machines are not street legal and their riders pull dangerous maneuvers including wheelies and donuts - some of them under the influence.

Members have been reposting videos of the incident suggesting Ziering was to blame on their social media page, which is filled with numerous examples of their dangerous stunts.

One video shows a gang member swigging from a bottle of Hennessey cognac while sitting astride a tiny bike.

The background is filled with the fumes from other bikes performing high speed donut rings around him.

Another clip shows a scantily clad groupie twerking in the street while bikers zoom around her.

One video features hoards of bikers speeding along the road, with one sporting a terrifying clown mask.

The account frequently features groups of mini bike riders in packs taking over highways across Los Angeles.

The group was established in March 2022 and has been embarking on regular ride-outs.

Its website features a logo resembling the sign for Interstate 605 along with an image appearing to show one of its members getting arrested.

A slogan underneath reads: 'They hate us cos they ain't us'. The website also offers $3 windshield stickers for sale.

The group's Instagram page has more than 60,000 followers, while their YouTube channel has just over 2,300 subscribers.

One video on the channel shows a rider balancing on one leg performing a wheelie outside of a police station.

The front drivers side windshield was left shattered and slightly dented

One of his side-view mirrors on the car was also left shattered following the violent incident

Penna was in the back of Ziering's Mercedes GLE SUV when the biker gang began to vandalize the vehicle by slamming a helmet into its windshield

(L-R) Gabrielle Carteris, Tori Spelling, Brian Austin Green, Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth and Ziering were seen in 2019 on the reboot BH90210

However, this holiday season the group also arranged for a toy drive ride-out, where tickets were provided in exchange for toys to be donated.

On their Instagram the gang reposted stories which state that 'Ziering started it'

Police said the area has been plagued by mini bike gangs in recent months, telling TMZ that Ziering's skirmish was 'not an isolated incident,' and urging motorists to avoid engaging, 'because mob mentality can escalate very quickly in these situations.'

Dailmail.com has reached out to LAPD for comment.
Confronting bodycam footage shows the moment a black 11-year-old boy was shot in the chest by police despite holding his hands up.

Aderrien Murry was awoken about 4am on May 20 to the sound of his mother's ex-boyfriend behaving threateningly, so she asked him to call the police.

When officers arrived moments later, Aderrien said he was asked to step out of his room and when he did he was shot.

He was hospitalized for five days with a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and fractured ribs from the gunshot wound in his chest.

Footage, made public after the city spent months trying to block its release, shows police officer Greg Capers arrive at the door of the house in Indianola, Mississippi.

Aderrien Murry, 11, was shot in the chest by police inside his house in Indianola, Mississippi, last May despite having his arms raised

Mississippi police officer Greg Capers was suspended without pay after the shooting but reinstated when a grand jury declined to charge him

With his gun drawn, he banged on the door several times and demanded everyone inside come out.

Aderrien's mother, Nakala Murry, was the first to come out the door and stepped outside with her hands raised.

Capers asked her where her ex-boyfriend was and she claims to have told him the man as gone and there were three children inside the home.

However, this was not captured on the video and her response to the policeman's question was unintelligible in the footage.

Capers called out 'come out, sir, don't make us come in', appearing to believe the suspect was still inside, and soon walked through the door.

Seconds later, Aderrien emerged from a hallway with his hands up and was instantly shot by Capers as he came into view.

Capers yelled 'oh my god' and called for medical assistance while pleading with Aderrien to stop moving after he got up and ran out the door past him.

Aderrien survived but suffered extensive injuries and had to undergo costly medical treatment.

He said being shot felt like he was hit by a Taser or punched hard in the chest.

Aderrien's mother, Nakala Murry, was the first to come out the door and stepped outside with her hands raised

Capers walked inside the house with his gun drawn and seconds later shot Aderrien as he appeared from the hallway with his hands up

Aderrien's lawyer Carlos Moore said the release of the bodycam footage was important for transparency around the case.

'The City of Indianola fought hard to prevent the release of the body camera footage of Officer Greg Capers shooting my unarmed client,' he said.

'I guess they forgot that the MBI investigation was over and that the media outlets could get it.'

A Sunflower County grand jury last month declined to press charges against Capers, finding he had no criminal intent and had no case to answer.

The Mississippi Attorney General's Office said no further criminal action at the state level would be taken against Capers.

The Murrys filed a civil lawsuit in May against Capers, the city of Indianola, and its police chief, seeking $5 million in damages for Capers' alleged 'reckless disregard' for the family's rights and safety.

'While the grand jury has spoken, we firmly believe that there are unanswered questions and that the shooting of Aderrien Murry was not justified,' Moore said at the time.

'We are committed to seeking justice for Aderrien and his family.'

Aderrien said the bullet 'felt like a Taser, like a big punch to the chest' and believed he was going to die

Aderrien was hospitalized for five days with a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and fractured ribs from the gunshot wound in his chest

Capers' lawyer said the release of the video was unexpected, and they would not comment due to the pending litigation.

The policeman, who was named the best officer in Indianola in 2021, was put on unpaid administrative leave in June and only reinstated after the grand jury decision.

Aderrien last year described how he though he was going to die after he was shot and kept himself alive by praying and singing.

'I came out doing this,' he said, with his arms raised, during an interview with ABC News. 'It felt like a taser, like a big punch to the chest.'

'I was bleeding, bleeding from my mouth. Then I would just remember singing a song.'

Nakala Murry recounted giving her son the phone and asking him to call his grandmother after she said they woke up, heard a knock on the window, and saw her ex-boyfriend standing outside.

'I noticed he was kind of irate. And from dealing with him in the past, I know the irate version of him, what it could lead to,' she told Good Morning America.

Aderrien called 911 and his grandmother, who in turn also called 911.

Aderrien Murry was awoken at around 4am on May 20 to the sound of his mother's ex-boyfriend behaving threateningly outside the house (pictured) so he was asked to call the police

Aderrien's lawyer Carlos Moore (right) said the release of the bodycam footage was important for transparency around the case

Nakala claimed that when Capers arrived he 'had his gun drawn at the front door and asked those inside the home to come outside'.

'Once he was like come out with your hands up, at that moment is when my son came out,' she said.

She said she put her hand over her son's wound to apply pressure while he 'sang gospel songs and prayed while bleeding out'.

'He was like, "I don't want to die," that's what he was saying,' his mother recounted. 'I said, "You're not going to die, baby, you're not going to die, just keep talking".'

Nakala said Capers also tried to help by putting his hand over hers to try to stop Aderrien's bleeding.
Public support for strikes by medical professionals, train drivers and TFL workers has fallen as the new year begins, a poll has revealed.

On day six of the junior doctors' strike, the new YouGov poll found that public backing for the medics has seen a nine point decline since August last year, with the latest survey conducted between January 3 and 4.

Train drivers still disputing with Network Rail have also seen diminishing support in the second half of 2023, falling five points to just 37 per cent. The majority of Brits - 54 per cent - are opposed to strikes by train drivers.

Walkouts by Transport for London (TfL) are also lacking public support, with the poll showing that only 34 per cent of Brits support the strikes by this group, while 44 per cent are opposed.

However, unlike the other striking groups, TfL's support figures do not represent any notable change since the previous survey.

Public support for strikes by medical professionals, train drivers and TFL workers has fallen since last summer, a poll has revealed

Train drivers still disputing with Network Rail have also seen diminishing support in the second half of 2023

The findings have been drawn from a larger list of professions who have taken or threatened strike action at some point during disputes going back to 2022.

While some of these professions have stopped taking industrial action, the results show similar drops in support for prospective strikes by ambulance staff, with a nine point decline, senior doctors with an eight-point decline, and nurses with a seven-point decline.

Postal workers have also faced a seven-point decline while teachers are seeing a six-point decline.

It comes as junior doctor strikes are piling extra pressure on struggling GP surgeries, doctors warned earlier.

Practices juggling their own crises have had to lay on more appointments to cope with the surge in demand, it was claimed today.

Thousands of junior doctors last week embarked on a six-day strike - the biggest ever in the NHS's 75-year history.

The walk-out, designed to bring hospitals to a standstill during the busiest time of year, ends at 7am tomorrow.

Officials fear the impact of the action will be felt for 'weeks and months', with up to 200,000 operations and appointments estimated to have been cancelled.

The new YouGov poll found that public backing for junior doctors has seen a nine point decline since August last year

In a bid to get the NHS up to speed again and tackle the ever-growing backlog, ministers have pleaded with the British Medical Association (BMA) bosses to 'come back to the table'.

Health chiefs have urged Brits to continue to seek care if they need it and approach GP surgeries for appointments and 'health advice'.

London-based NHS GP Dr Hana Patel told MailOnline: 'I have felt there is an increase in pressure on GP services since Wednesday and a busier start to the new year.

'There are also a lot of viral illnesses going around, mostly prolonged chest infections and temperature symptoms.'

She added: 'We will see the workload later due to patients having operations, investigations and outpatient appointments cancelled, as the GP is the first port of call for patients, with requests to follow up to ask for appointments and operations to be expedited.'

Meanwhile, Azeem Majeed, a GP in south London and head of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, told MailOnline: 'Whenever there is a doctor's strike, general practices do see an increase in demand for appointments from patients.

'NHS social media encourages patients to seek advice from general practices and pharmacies during strike action, so this is expected.

'Many local practices have laid on extra appointments during strike periods to try to cope with this demand. This is in addition to the longer term impact of strike action on areas such on waiting lists and delaying routine care for patients.'
London Underground drivers today demanded a 12 per cent pay rise just hours after Sadiq Khan used 30million of taxpayers' money to avoid a week-long Tube strike.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) were due to have walked out from yesterday evening until this Friday in protest at a 5 per cent pay offer.

But the union halted the action with just minutes to go after progress in talks with Transport for London (TfL) when the Mayor made more cash available - despite TfL commissioner Andy Lord having insisted that 5 per cent was its 'full and final offer'.

Another union, Aslef - which represents most Tube drivers - has now said Mr Khan 'had found the magic money tree and our members expect to share the fruit'.

The TSSA union, which is the biggest union across TfL, was also due to ballot its workers but has now called for urgent talks so 'industrial action can be avoided'.

Tube drivers currently earn 63,901 - about double the salary of some station staff.

This poster was issued by TfL ahead of the planned Tube strike - which is now not happening

These are the dates when the RMT was due to strike on the Tube - action that is now cancelled

After the RMT claimed victory in its dispute, Aslef's London organiser Finn Brennan told the Evening Standard today that its 'negotiations start afresh'.

How would the Tube strikes have affected journeys this week? Here was the official guidance for passengers on next week's Tube strike from Transport for London - which has now been cancelled: Sunday, January 7 : 'Tube services will close earlier than normal. Customers are advised to complete Tube journeys by 5.30pm'

: 'Tube services will close earlier than normal. Customers are advised to complete Tube journeys by 5.30pm' Monday, January 8 to Thursday, January 11 : 'Severe disruption is expected, with little to no service expected to run'

: 'Severe disruption is expected, with little to no service expected to run' Friday January, 12 : 'Tube services will start later than normal, with a good service expected by midday' Advertisement

The union now wants its 'original claim for an RPI+ pay rise of around 12 per cent - based on last February's RPI rate - and a cut in working hours to be met in full'.

Mr Khan is said to have made a late intervention in the dispute amid fears over the financial damage the strike would cause the London economy as people returned to work after Christmas.

Industry body UKHospitality had told MailOnline that the action could cost the industry 50million and pointed out that strike days on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are 'the key weekdays that commuters now come into the city'.

But City Hall Conservatives transport spokesman Keith Prince said on X: 'Aslef had accepted a 5 per cent rise. Instead of standing firm against the RMT's unreasonable demands, Sadiq Khan has chosen to splurge 30million.

'To no one's surprise, in so doing he has ensured that Aslef has now decided to reopen negotiations and seek a 12 per cent rise.'

Neil Garratt, the Tory group leader, added: 'Within hours of the Mayor buying off one rail union by magically finding a load of spare money, others are already lining up for their share.

'Sadiq's short termism has instantly backfired on Londoners, who will now face even more threat of strikes.'

And Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall said in a statement: 'All Sadiq Khan has done is spend one month's worth of ULEZ money to get his union mates to postpone their strikes until after the election.

Mayor Sadiq Khan travels on the London Underground's Jubilee line on August 29 last year

Closed gates at Harrow-on-the-Hill Underground station during the Tube strike in March 2023

'We need a Mayor who can stand up to the unions, not one who capitulates because he's terrified of losing the election.'

The RMT now wants the lowest-paid Tube staff to receive a pay rise of up to 5,000 and for pay bands to be unfrozen, reported the Standard.

And TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said today: 'We are still ready to ballot for industrial action - our members are ballot ready and prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure they get a fair deal.

'With reports this week that additional funding has been found, we are calling on London Underground to get back round the table.

'Only urgent talks  and a seriously improved offer which takes into account the cost-of-living crisis  will mean industrial action can be avoided.

'It is now up to London Underground, together we can strike a deal, or we will be forced to move to sustained industrial action'.

It comes after the RMT announced last night that it was suspending the planned strikes following talks held yesterday.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: 'Following further positive discussions, the negotiations on a pay deal for our London Underground members can now take place on an improved basis and mandate with significant further funding for a settlement being made available.

'This significantly improved funding position means the scheduled strike action will be suspended with immediate effect and we look forward to getting into urgent negotiations with TfL in order to develop a suitable agreement and resolution to the dispute.'

Queues for buses outside London Liverpool Street station in August 2022 during a Tube strike

Rail, Maritime and Transport union boss Mick Lynch with supporters at Euston in May 2022

A TfL spokesperson said: 'Last week, we discussed our pay offer extensively with the three trade unions that had rejected it, making clear that TfL cannot afford any more. This remains the case.

'Today, we were made aware that the mayor was able to provide additional funds to enable discussions with the unions to continue. We have all consistently made clear that strike action is bad for everyone and would have a negative impact on the city as it recovers from the pandemic.

'This intervention from the mayor has been discussed with the unions, and the RMT union has now suspended the planned strike action.

'However, as the action has been suspended at this late stage, Londoners will still face disruption tomorrow and we advise all customers to check the TfL website or the TfL Go app for the latest travel information.

'We will now meet with representatives of all the unions to agree on the best way for this funding to be used to resolve the current dispute. We will also seek to meet as soon as possible with the unions representing TfL staff. We always strive to work constructively with the unions and avoid disruption to London.'

And Mr Khan said: 'I'm delighted that this week's Tube strikes have now been suspended. They would have caused huge disruption for Londoners and would have been a major blow to the capital's businesses at the worst possible time.

'The week of action would have cost our hospitality industry 50million alone. This shows what can be achieved by engaging and working with trade unions and transport staff, rather than working against them.

'In contrast, the adversarial approach taken by ministers has led to years of strikes across the country, whether on national rail, or in our health and education services - all exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis. The suspension of strikes is really good news as commuters return after the new year.'
The mother of a teenage boy who drowned in a river while playing with friends has detailed the racial abuse her family allegedly suffered before his death, an inquest has heard.

Christopher Kapessa, 13, died after allegedly being pushed into the River Cynon near Fernhill in Rhondda Cynon Taff on July 1, 2019.

Another boy, then aged 14, was seen to push Christopher from a ledge into the water, South Wales Central Coroner's Court in Pontypridd heard.

Christopher immediately got into difficulty and boys, including the one who pushed him, jumped in to help but the non-swimmer could not be saved.

Christopher's mother, Alina Joseph, told the hearing of the abuse her family suffered while living in the village of Hirwaun between 2012 and 2018, which they left following a house fire.

Christopher Kapessa, 13, died after allegedly being pushed into the River Cynon near Fernhill in Rhondda Cynon Taff on July 1, 2019

Christopher's mother, Alina Joseph (pictured), told the hearing of the abuse her family suffered while living in the village of Hirwaun between 2012 and 2018

Tributes were paid to Christopher Kapessa near the scene where he dies back in 2019

She and her seven children had moved to South Wales from London in 2011, first living in Pontypridd before settling in Hirwaun.

'While living in Hirwaun the children especially experienced so much negative and horrific treatment from other members of the community and at times we all felt very isolated because of such treatments,' she said in a written statement read to the court.

'Nevertheless, it was very difficult because the children wanted to play outside of the house and most of the time it ended up bad for my children.'

She recalled one occasion where she alleged Christopher's older brother, Glody, had been assaulted.

'At the same time we were receiving racial hate letters through the post, and stuff written on the outside walls which was racist,' she said.

'We contacted the police and a couple of them turned up and made Glody go through being interviewed on camera. In the end we were told there was not enough evidence to charge the boy who beat him.

'When all the above was taking place, the boy started damaging the property. The police turned up and again said there is nothing they can do.'

Ms Joseph said another of her sons, Daniel, was also involved in an incident in which he was allegedly driven at by a motorist.

'A mother who had on a few occasions knocked the house door to tell me that Daniel needs to stop talking to her daughter took it upon herself to get into her car and run Daniel over,' she said.

'The police said there was not much they could do for me.'

Christopher immediately got into difficulty and boys, including the one who pushed him, jumped in to help but the non-swimmer could not be saved

Christopher, who could not swim, was found in the River Cynon (above), near Fernhill in the Rhondda Cynon Taff, South Wales, on July 1, 2019

The inquest heard that in another alleged incident a boy urinated on Christopher and his younger sister.

Ms Joseph said: 'Another incident reported to the police was whereby a mother physically dragged Christopher by the neck from one part of the road to our house to tell me that Christopher and her son were playing a game that involved throwing stones at each other and her boys sustained a bump.

'People in the street saw what she was also doing and no-one said anything. We started arguing and she turned around and started threatening me and then my house would soon be on the ground.'

She also told the court that Christopher had allegedly been assaulted in the local Co-op store and required hospital treatment.

'Obviously by this time, and due to previous encounters with the police, I did not bother calling them or reporting the incident to the police because I had given up on calling them,' she said.

'The family ceased to make complaints to the police regarding their experience with racist abuse because they were dissatisfied with their response on every prior occasion.'

Ms Joseph alleged that, on the day of the house fire in May 2018, police officers spoke with the children without the presence of her or a guardian.

'The police attended and immediately took my older boys to one side and started saying to them 'Who started the fire? Tell us the truth',' she said.

The inquest heard that in another alleged incident a boy urinated on Christopher and his younger sister

'I was told by someone to attend the house of a lady that I did not know and then I found a lady police officer talking to Christopher without a guardian or parent present.

'The police officer turned around and told me that it was Christopher that started the fire. The family were dissatisfied with how the police treated Christopher on this occasion.'

Ms Joseph also claimed Christopher was racially abused at secondary school by another child who was excluded for a day.

She added: 'I brought my kids up not to allow things like this to get to them. They didn't really communicate how they felt about their experience in Hirwaun.

'But as they got older, I started noticing them defending themselves as the attacks continued.

'We had all sorts going on while living in Hirwaun. Nothing within the family as such but just problems in the community.'

One teenager told the inquest he saw another boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, push Christopher into the water with his hands.

'I had a clear view of what happened,' the 17-year-old said.

'Everybody for a few seconds didn't know if he could swim or not and there wasn't a panic, and when people realised he couldn't swim people jumped in to try and help him.

'I think he was flailing and trying to keep himself above of the water.'

The hearing continues.
The Canary Islands, visited by hundreds of thousands of British tourists every year, have become the latest Spanish holiday destination to enforce new mask rules.

Health officials are following the lead of other autonomous communities across Spain, including Valencia and Benidorm, as Covid and flu cases soar.

From tomorrow (January 9th), it will be obligatory to use masks in health centres, chemists and hospitals throughout the Canaries which include Tenerife, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.

The Canary government says the rule will remain in force while the epidemic peak lasts.

The decision coincides with an official announcement made by Spain's Interterritorial Council of the National Health System today which agreed to extend to Wednesday the making of a general decision in all the regions.

But the Balearic Islands, which include Mallorca and Ibiza, are currently refusing to introduce the new rule, saying infection numbers are the same as last year and it is 'totally unnecessary' to impose the wearing of masks.

FILE PHOTO: A woman wearing a face mask watches people sunbathing on the Las Canteras beach in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the island of Gran Canaria, Spain May 31, 2020.

Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain

The Canary government said today: 'With this measure, the Canary Islands add to other autonomous communities in which the mandatory mask in the health centres has already been decreed.

'Until now the use of a mask was a recommendation for use in all centres of the Canarian health service since mid-December and now becomes mandatory.'

'The rule, which is transitory while the epidemic peak of flu and coronavirus infections lasts, will affect peripheral offices, health centres and public and private hospitals throughout the Canary Islands.'

'This measure is given the growth of acute respiratory infections throughout Spain and to try to stop the infection chain, in addition to protecting health professionals and people who go to hospitals and the health centres of the archipelago to avoid them contracting some respiratory infection.

'In addition, during this morning's telematic meeting, the Canary Islands advocated to agree on a strategy for prevention of respiratory infections to avoid health tension situations in the next flu seasons.'

Health chiefs say anyone showing symptoms such as cough, fever, general discomfort, throat pain, congestion and nasal secretion, among others, should use a mask when space with other people is going to be shared.

They said people should use disposable scarves, discarding them after each use, and don't share glasses, cutlery, towels and other objects that may have been in contact with saliva or secretions.

The announcement from authorities on the Canary Islands comes just days after other regions of Spain began reintroducing mask mandates.

The Spanish government hasn't made any announcement about the return of obligatory mask wearing but regions such as Valencia - where tourist hotspots Benidorm and Alicante are located - are already imposing their own rules.

Valencia's health department on Friday implemented the mandatory use of masks in health centres due to the rise in respiratory infections.

This preventive measure is considered relevant given the incidence in the Valencian community, with a rate of 1,501 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The terror on board the Alaska Airlines flight during which the door hub blew out at 16,000ft has been revealed.

The Boeing jetliner suffered an inflight blowout over Oregon last Friday and the resulting rush of air sucked open the cockpit door and ripped off the captain's headset.

One of the passengers, Emma Vu, was asleep when the Boeing 737 Max 9 suddenly dropped after a plug covering an unused exit door blew off.

She wrote several panicked messages to her parents, in which she said: 'The masks are down. I am so scared right now. Please pray for me. I don't want to die.'

Ms Vu later shared footage of the ordeal on TikTok, which showed her wearing an oxygen mask while panic is taking hold of her and other passengers nearby.

Alaska flight 1282 left Portland just after 5pm local time on Friday when a window blew out at 16,000 feet

A photo shows the blown out window. It is offered as a door on the aircraft. Alaska chose not to take this option - although the frame of the prospective door was entirely ripped out by the fuselage failure

'You just think it's never going to happen to you - and then it literally did happen to me,' she told CNN, adding that it was 'very scary' and 'very surreal'.

Another passenger, Sreysoar Un, who travelled with her 12-year-old son, said she was afraid the plane was going to crash.

'We literally thought we were going to die,' she told the Wall Street Journal as the hole in the aircraft was just one row ahead of theirs. Her son Josiah saw his phone and a teddy bear fly out of the hole.

Several passengers described a loud noise before freezing wind swept through the cabin and oxygen masks dropped down.

Alaska Airlines decided to restrict the aircraft from long flights over water so the plane 'could return very quickly to an airport' if the warning light that could have indicated a pressurization problem lit up on three different flights reappeared, said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Homendy cautioned that the pressurization light might be unrelated to Friday's incident. It came came on during three previous flights: on December 7, January 3 and January 4 - the day before the door plug broke off.

Homendy said she didn't have all the details regarding the December 7 incident but specified the light came on during a flight on January 3 and on January 4 after the plane had landed.

The NTSB said the lost door plug was found Sunday near Portland, Oregon, by a school teacher - for now, known only as Bob - who discovered it in his backyard and sent two photos to the safety board. Investigators will examine the plug, which is 26 by 48 inches and weighs 63 pounds, for signs of how it broke free.

Investigators will not have the benefit of hearing what was going on in the cockpit during the flight. The cockpit voice recorder - one of two so-called black boxes - recorded over the flight's sounds after two hours, Homendy said.

At a news conference Sunday night, Homendy provided new details about the chaotic scene that unfolded on the plane.

One of the passengers, Emma Vu, was asleep when the Boeing 737 Max 9 suddenly dropped after a plug covering an unused exit door blew off. She wrote several panicked messages to her parents, in which she said: 'The masks are down. I am so scared right now. Please pray for me. I don't want to die'

One passenger who filmed the drama said she woke up from a nap believing the plane had hit turbulence - only to discover a large hole in its fuselage

One passenger, Emma Vu took to TikTok after she made it out alive through the horror flight that was only in the air for 20 minutes

The explosive rush of air damaged several rows of seats and pulled insulation from the walls. The cockpit door flew open and banged into a lavatory door.

The force ripped the headset off the co-pilot and the captain lost part of her headset. A quick reference checklist kept within easy reach of the pilots flew out of the open cockpit, Homendy said.

The plane made it back to Portland, however, and none of the 171 passengers and six crew members was seriously injured.

Hours after the incident, the FAA ordered the grounding of 171 of the 218 Max 9s in operation, including all those used by Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, until they can be inspected. The airlines were still waiting Sunday for details about how to do the inspections.

Alaska Airlines, which has 65 Max 9s, and United, with 79, are the only U.S. airlines to fly that particular model of Boeing's workhorse 737. United said it was waiting for Boeing to issue a 'multi-operator message,' which is a service bulletin used when multiple airlines need to perform similar work on a particular type of plane.

Boeing was working on the bulletin but had not yet submitted it to the FAA for review and approval, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Producing a detailed, technical bulletin frequently takes a couple days, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a matter that the company and regulators have not publicly discussed.

Boeing declined to comment.

Without some of their planes, cancellations began to mount at the two carriers. Alaska Airlines said it canceled 170 flights - more than one-fifth of its schedule - by mid-afternoon on the West Coast because of the groundings, while United had scrapped about 180 flights while salvaging others by finding different planes.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, chair of the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said she agreed with the decision to ground the Max 9s.

Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board said the blow-out at 16,000ft was an 'accident, not an incident'

'Aviation production has to meet a gold standard, including quality control inspections and strong FAA oversight,' she said in a statement.

Before the discovery of the missing plug, the NTSB had pleaded with residents in an area west of Portland called Cedar Hills to be on the lookout for the object.

On Sunday, people scoured dense thickets wedged between busy roads and a light rail train station. Adam Pirkle said he rode 14 miles through the overgrowth on his bicycle.

READ MORE: Boeing shares tumble nearly TEN PERCENT in early trading after FAA grounds 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft in wake of mid-air Alaska Airlines blowout that almost ended in catastrophe Advertisement

'I've been looking at the flight track, I was looking at the winds,' he said. 'I've been trying to focus on wooded areas.'

Before the school teacher named Bob found the missing door plug, searchers located two cell phones that appeared to have belonged to passengers on Friday's terrifying flight.

One was discovered in a yard, the other on the side of a road. Both were turned over to the NTSB, which vowed to return them to their owners.

Alaska Airlines flight 1282 took off from Portland at 5:07 pm Friday for a two-hour trip to Ontario, California. About six minutes later, the chunk of fuselage blew out as the plane was climbing at about 16,000 feet.

One of the pilots declared an emergency and asked for clearance to descend to 10,000 feet, where the air would be rich enough for passengers to breathe without oxygen masks.

Videos posted online by passengers showed a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been. They applauded when the plane landed safely about 13 minutes after the blowout.

Firefighters came down the aisle, asking passengers to remain in their seats as they treated the injured.

It was extremely lucky that the airplane had not yet reached cruising altitude, when passengers and flight attendants might be walking around the cabin, Homendy said.

A passenger with an oxygen masks is seen looking back in distress as 171 passengers were left terrified after a piece of the plane flew off mid-air

The flight that was set out to arrive at Ontario International in California turned back around after the plug door came off on Friday night

Alaskan Airlines decided to ground dozens of its Boeing 737-9 MAX jets for urgent safety checks after the matter

The aircraft involved rolled off the assembly line and received its certification two months ago, according to online FAA records.

It had been on 145 flights since entering commercial service November 11, said FlightRadar24, another tracking service. The flight from Portland was the aircraft's third of the day.

The Max is the newest version of Boeing's venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane frequently used on U.S. domestic flights. The plane went into service in May 2017.

Two Max 8 jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. All Max 8 and Max 9 planes were grounded worldwide for nearly two years until Boeing made changes to an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.

The Max has been plagued by other issues, including manufacturing flaws, concern about overheating that led FAA to tell pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system, and a possible loose bolt in the rudder system.
Ecuador's 'most-wanted prisoner', the leader of the feared Los Choneros criminal group, has disappeared from his prison cell, sparking a countrywide manhunt.

Jose Adolfo Macias, known as 'Fito', is believed to have escaped his cell in the maximum-security wing of a jail in Guayaquil, a port city known for its involvement in the South American drug trade, some time on Sunday.

General Cesar Zapata, the national commander of police, this morning told a press conference the country's armed forces had determined that one of the inmates in the Guayaquil prison was missing.

Zapata did not mention the inmate by name, but the prosecutor's office later said it would investigate 'the alleged escape' of Macias.

'Fito' was sentenced in 2011 to 34 years in prison for various crimes including drug trafficking and murder.

Los Choneros is a huge criminal organisation that authorities have linked to extortion, murder and drug trafficking, among other crimes.

Their network of members is massive and pervades many of the country's prisons, with the group standing accused of controlling many penitentiaries from the inside.

A slew of images showed heavily armed military police and army units assembling in Guayaquil in preparation for the manhunt, while other units today conducted security operations to quell unrest in other jails populated by Los Choneros members.

Handout picture released by the Ecuadorean Armed Forces showing Adolfo Macias, aka Fito, leader of the Los Choneros criminal gang, while being transferred to The Rock maximum-security complex inside the Zonal Penitentiary No 8 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, during a joint operation by the Police and the Military at the facility, Ecuador, on August 12, 2023

Police forces, backed by the Army, get ready to carry out a security operation following incidents at the El Inca prison in Quito on January 8, 2024

Police and military officers enter the Litoral Penitentiary on January 7, 2024 in Guayaquil, Ecuador

Soldiers backing police forces stand guard outside El Inca prison

Police forces, backed by the Army, get ready to carry out a security operation following incidents at the El Inca prison in Quito on January 8, 2024

Armed forces transfer the criminal leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as "Fito" after he was secured during a raid at the Zonal prison number 8, in Guayaquil, Ecuador in this screen grab from a handout video released on August 12, 2023

La Regional jail, the maximum security lockup that housed Fito, is located in a large prison compound that hosts more than 12,000 inmates.

For the last 12 years, Fito has resided within the prison walls there.

Police said they initially noticed his absence on Sunday morning and later raised the alarm when they could not locate him anywhere inside the penitentiary.

It is unclear whether Fito has escaped the compound or is hiding within it, but it is assumed he has been broken out and is now on the run.

Rival criminal organisations frequently clash in Ecuador's overcrowded prisons and official numbers show more than 400 inmates have died since 2021.

Los Choneros is responsible for much of this violence, according to authorities.

Members carry out contract killings, run extortion operations, move and sell drugs, and are the law inside a number of prisons.

Los Choneros and other similar groups, primarily Los Lobos and Los Tiguerones, have been fighting over territory and control.

The gangs have links to cartels from Colombia and Mexico, including the infamous Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation groups.

'Since the year 2000, we had already seen the Mexican cartels here,' said Rob Peralta, a former member of a National Police intelligence unit in Ecuador.

'But definitely, in recent years, these criminal groups have garnered more influence here through local gangs, which they empowered, and today they have more weapons than the police themselves.'

Los Choneros is based in the town of Chone in the Manabi Province.

The gang has been accused of several types of criminal activities, including extortions, murders, contract killings and drug trafficking.

It was formed in 2005 in the city of Manta, when it had just eight members aged between 18 and 30 years old.

Following the escape of the head of the Los Choneros drug gang, incidents were reported in several of the country's prisons

Military stand guard at Litoral Penitentiary after the disappearance of 'Fito' on January 7, 2024

Ecuadorian authorities have launched a major manhunt to track down Fito, who is presumed to have escaped his cell

FILE: Relatives of inmates speak to the police asking for information during a riot at the Guayaquil Regional prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador on September 28, 2021

Its founder and first leader was a man named Jorge Bismark Veliz Espana, known as Chonero or Teniente Espana, said to have started out as a drug dealer.

Bismark first worked for another gang - Los Queseros - headed up by Carlos Jesus Cedeno Vera, known alternatively as El Rojo or El Quesero.

However, the two became enemies, with El Rojo ordering Bismark's murder.

While he failed to kill Bismark himself, the hit attempt did injure both the gangster and his daughter, and also killed his wife.

In retaliation, Bismark gathered members of his family, friends and criminal associates - collectively known as Los Choneros - and killed Vera's brother and son.

The attack and the retaliation resulted in a war breaking out between the two sides and led to the eventual destruction of Los Queseros - with Los Choneros still standing to this day.

However, while his gang survived, Bismark did not.

In 2007, he was gunned down near Quito by assassins, and he was replaced by Jorge Luis Zambrano - one of the hitmen in the group's early iteration.

In the years that followed, Los Choneros rose to the top of organised crime in Ecuador, helped by the gang's alliance with Ecuador's biggest drug trafficker, Washington Prado Alava, alias 'Gerald,' who was based in Manabi.

Los Choneros became an armed group working with Gerald, and began to play a significant role in the trafficking of cocaine through Manabi, sending the drug to the United States, Mexico and Europe.

The successful partnership was also facilitated by a money laundering expert - 'Fito' - who rose to the top of Los Choneros and managed its criminal activities from prison after Zambrano was killed in December 2020.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Day tonight accused civil servants and the Post Office of lying to him about the Horizon scandal when he was a minister, as the furore over the miscarriage of justice grew.

Sir Ed is facing renewed focus on his role as Post Office minister in the Coalition between 2010 and 2012. At the time hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly accused and convicted of fraud because of a botched IT system.

More than a million people have now signed a petition calling for the former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE since ITV aired a new drama into the scandal: Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

And today Rishi Sunak today threw his weight behind the campaign, with No10 saying the PM would 'strongly support' any decision made by the Honours Forfeiture Committee.

In a TV interview today Sir Ed insisted he had been misled by those around him when he backed the prosecutions.

'I wish I'd known then what we all know now - the Post Office was lying on an industrial scale to me and other ministers,' he told Sky News.

'When I met Alan Bates and listened to his concerns, I put those concerns to officials in my department, to the Post Office, to the National Federation of Postmasters. And it's clear they all were lying to me.

No10 said the PM would 'strongly support' any decision made by the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at revoking Paula Vennells' gong amid a growing backlash at the miscarriage of justice.

More than one million people have signed a petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to lose her CBE amid growing anger over the Horizon scandal

The Horizon scandal has been been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history

'My heart goes out to all those people, we need to make sure their convictions are overturned and we need to make sure they are fairly compensated and quickly.'

Reverend Vennells was handed the CBE in 2019 'for services to the Post Office and to charity'. But since then the PO has had to pay out tens of millions of pounds in compensation to sub-postmasters wrongly accused of fraud due to an IT failure.

The Prime Minister, speaking in Accrington, Lancashire, on Monday defended the Government's response but said he wanted to speed up the compensation process for victims.

'People should know that we are on it and we want to make this right, that money has been set aside,' he said. 'We will do everything we can to make this right for the people affected. It is simply wrong what happened. They shouldn't have been treated like this.'

The Horizon scandal has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history. Ms Vennells oversaw the organisation while it routinely denied there were problems with its Horizon IT system.

The petition, which is addressed to Sir Chris Wormald, the chair of the Forfeiture Committee, says: 'Evidence has been produced that the Post Office engaged in a mass cover up which led to the wrongful prosecution of 550 Post Office Staff many of whom were subsequently jailed, bankrupted and in some cases, sadly took their own lives.

'Having been handed a CBE for services to the Post Office, and moved out into other senior positions in government and healthcare, it is only right that this award is now withdrawn through the process of forfeiture.'

Pressure is also mounting on Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey over his role in the scandal, having been postal affairs minister during the coalition government between 2010 and 2012.

The Sunday Times published a cache of correspondence between Alan Bates, a former sub-postmaster, and ex-ministers from the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government - including Sir Ed.

Sir Ed Davey, now the Lib Dem leader (left), was post office minister in the Coalition government between 2010 and 2012 (right

Tory Treasury minister Bim Afolami said Government is working 'incredibly hard' to make sure that justice is done 'as quickly as possible' for postmasters wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal.

He said Sir Ed should 'be honest with people' and explain why as a minister 'he didn't ask the right questions'.

It was revealed in The Guardian yesterday that The Post Office is suspected of dozens more wrongful prosecutions of operators who took part in a 'pilot scheme' of the faulty system.

Sources from Whitehall confirmed that a precursor scheme took place between 1995 and 1996 to hundreds of branches in north-east England.

It comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed a report that Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is considering ways of helping to clear the names of convicted subpostmasters caught up in the scandal.

More than 700 Post Office branch managers were given criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software called Horizon made it appear as though money was missing from their shops.

Reports say Mr Chalk is set to meet with the Minister for the Post Office Kevin Hollinrake on Monday to discuss how to help the convicted branch managers.

Mr Hollinrake told MPs in the Commons today that they had 'devised some options' for resolving outstanding criminal convictions with 'much more pace', and said these will be announced 'very shortly'.

There has been fresh public backlash to the scandal after ITV aired a drama starring actor Toby Jones last week about the scandal.

Reports suggest since Mr Bates Vs The Post Office was broadcast, 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers.

The Post Office is wholly owned by the Government and a public inquiry into Horizon is ongoing.

Speaking during a visit to Oxford on Sunday, the Prime Minister said the UK Government was 'keen to do everything we can because this was absolutely appalling' and should 'never have happened'.

Ms Vennells oversaw the organisation while it routinely denied there were problems with its Horizon IT system

He said: 'It has been an appalling miscarriage of justice and appalling treatment of all the people affected and it is right that they get the redress that they deserve.

'That is why the Government has put in place three different compensation schemes that have already paid out almost 150 million to thousands of people who are affected, and are keen to go as quickly as possible.

'More broadly, the Justice Secretary is also looking at other options for how we can provide support for people.'

On Thursday, Mr Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer resisted to back calls for Ms Vennells to lose her CBE.

Ms Vennells said she was 'truly sorry' for the 'suffering' caused to subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted of offences.

Scotland Yard said on Friday that officers are 'investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions', for example 'monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions'.

The Metropolitan Police had already been looking into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.

Mr Bates's fight for justice has been portrayed by Toby Jones in the acclaimed new ITV drama, 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office', which has raised new public awareness of the scandal

The petition, named 'Post Office Scandal: Strip Paula Vennells of her CBE' reached one million signatures just after midnight on Monday.

Alan Bates, a former subpostmaster who is referenced in the title of the series, has called for more to be done to help recompense those wrongly given criminal convictions and who had their lives turned upside down.

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Rishi Sunak revealed the option of exonerating all postmasters was being 'looked at' by the Justice Secretary.

Asked if the Government would remove the Post Office's ability to investigate and prosecute, he said: 'The Justice Secretary is looking at the things that you've described, it wouldn't be right to pre-empt that process, obviously there's legal complexity in all of those things but he is looking at exactly those areas.'

Rishi Sunak revealed that the Government is looking at exonerating all subpostmasters caught up in the Horizon scandal

Earlier in the programme, Mr Sunak said: 'Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond and it is an appalling miscarriage of justice.'

On the same programme former subpostmaster Lee Castleton, who was ordered to repay money and legal costs to the tune of 321,000 despite doing nothing wrong, said it had been 'like a war' trying to get compensation from the Post Office.

He said: 'The victims are traumatised. It has been a long time of 25 years and 135 million has been paid to some of the victims, but we have had 150 million-plus paid to lawyers.

'These lawyers are putting lots of pressure and it is difficult. The schemes are difficult.

'We are just normal run-of-the-mill people. We have legal people with us but it is so difficult and it is like a war.

'Why would anybody put the Post Office and DBT (the Department for Business and Trade) in charge of recompensing the victims?'

He added that he felt the compensation scheme for victims should be taken away from the organisations currently running it.
President Joe Biden was interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza during his pilgrimage to a church in Charleston, S.C., to appeal to black voters as part of his campaign against Donald Trump.

Calling 'ceasefire now,' the group interrupted the president as he was speaking on Monday about his ties to the Mother Emanuel AME Church, the historically Black church in Charleston where nine people were killed after a gunman opened fire on a Bible study group in 2015.

'If you really care about the lives lost here you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine,' one protester yelled, setting off a repeated chant of 'ceasefire now.'

The crowd in the church yelled back 'four more years' in an attempt to overshadow the protest, which lasted about 45 seconds. The protest came as fears grow about a wider war in the Middle East that could engulf U.S. troops. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in region to try and bring down the tone.

President Joe Biden was interrupted by protesters during his speech at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston

'Ceasefire now,' the protesters yelled during Biden's speech

Biden addressed the matter after the crowd calmed down, offering reassurances he was working to get hostages out of Gaza.

'Look folks I undertsand their passion. I've been quietly working...I've been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza. I'm using all that I can to do that. But I understand the passion,' he said.

The president was in South Carolina for a campaign speech where he attacked Trump's role on January 6th, the day a mob took over the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of Biden's 2020 presidential victory.

He also blasted his GOP rival for refusing to concede the last presidential election.

'Losers are taught to concede when they lose and he's a loser,' Biden said of the former president.

He also bashed Trump and his supporters for attempting to rewrite the facts of January 6 and the Civil War.

'They tried to steal an election, now they're trying to steal history by telling us that violent mob was and I quote, a peaceful protest,' Biden said.

Trump's 'actions were among the worst dereliction of duty by any president in American history,' Biden charged.

He also attacked Nikki Haley for not listing slavery when she was asked about the causes of the Civil War and mocked Trump for suggesting the conflict could have been avoided by negotiations.

'Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. There's no negotiation about that,' he said to applause.

Trump leads the polls for the Republican presidential nomination. GOP voters will begin their nominating contest later this month with the Iowa caucuses taking place next Monday.

His speech also contained personal touches. Biden recalled his family's own pain from loss, choking up as he spoke about the loss of his son Beau.

'We were in more pain than we knew,' he said.

Biden lost his oldest son to brain cancer about a month before the shootings at the church in 2015. He talked about how the family found comfort in the church after their loss.

'We came here to offer comfort. We receive comfort from you,' he said.

During Biden's remarks, the pews were filled by survivors and the families of the victims of the 2015 shooting, as well as clergy and interfaith leaders.

The crowd shouted 'four more years' repeatedly when the president got up to speak.

'It's going to go to my head,' Biden joked in response.

The president met with survivors and the families of those killed in the shooting after his remarks.

Biden is the first sitting president to speak at the historic church. His visit comes at a time when polls indicate he is losing support among black voters.

'I've done my best to honor your trust. That means rejecting the small, narrow, cramped view of America, as well as lifting up a bigger and broader view of America,' Biden told the crowd.

He also listed off his accomplishments including his work to heal the economy, making Juneteenth a federal holiday, and naming a black woman to the Supreme Court.

'We've come to far from where we started. Nobody told me the road would be easy,' he said. 'I don't think the good Lord brought us this far to leave us behind.'

Protesters in the church interrupted President Biden for about 45 seconds

South Carolina Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn introduced Biden at the church

South Carolina, where African Americans make up about 60 percent of the Democratic electorate, hosts the party's first-in-the-nation primary on Feb. 3.

In the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden's victory in South Carolina, won largely thanks to black voters, set him on the path to the Democratic nomination.

Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, an early Biden supporter who propelled him to victory in South Carolina, said he is 'very concerned' with the president's standing with the black community.

'I'm not worried  I'm very concerned,' he told CNN ahead of Biden's visit.

'My problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done,' Clyburn said.

Biden spoke in the church where white supremacist Dylan Roof shot and killed nine black members of the congregation in 2015. The Neo-Nazi is on death row in South Carolina

Clyburn introduced Biden at the church on Monday. In his remarks, Clyburn emphasized what Biden has done for the black community including student loan forgiveness and appointing a black woman as a justice on the Supreme Court.

Biden has gone after Trump heavily behind closed doors in fundraising, slamming him for his invoking of Nazi-type speech and charging him with being the reason Roe vs. Wade was overturned, rolling back abortion rights in many states.

But with the start of the new year, he's been taking his criticism public.

Trump leads Biden in the polls. The margin is close but Trump's lead has been steady. In the RealClearPolitics polling average on the general election, Trump has a 2 point lead.

The victims in the shooting at the Emanuel AME church in Charleston by Dylan Roof were (top row, left - right) DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Myrah Thompson, (center row) Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, (bottom row) Daniel Simmons, Clementa Pinckney and Cynthia Hurd.

More worryingly, Trump was beating Biden in two key voter groups, giving him an overall lead in the presidential race, the first new poll of 2024 found.

Trump leads Biden among Hispanic voters by five points, 39%-34% and among younger voters by three points, 37%-34%, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll.

Biden won both those voting groups in the 2020 presidential contest, where he defeated Trump to win the White House.

The poll also shows Biden is losing support among black voters, another key voting bloc.

He now has the support of just 63% of black voters, a group he carried by a whooping 87% in 2020.

The president's trip to South Carolina on Monday will be his fourth as president as he looks to court the highly-important voting bloc.

His last trip to Mother Emanuel was almost nine years ago, in the spring of 2015.

About a month days before the shootings, his oldest son Beau died of brain cancer. He and Jill Biden were vacation on Kiawah Island, just outside of Charleston, when the shootings occurred.

The Bidens - he was then vice president - attended the memorial service for the victims where President Barack Obama spoke.

The then-vice president also addressed the congregation.

'No words can mend a broken heart, no music can fill a gaping void,' he said then. 'Sometimes even faith leaves you, just for a second, sometimes you doubt.'
Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer claimed Prince Andrew could not have had sex with Virginia Giuffre in a bathtub because it was too small, according to newly-released documents in the Jeffrey Epstein saga.

Documents released on Monday include claims by Maxwell's lawyer Philip Barden that Epstein accuser Giuffre was lying about having sex with Prince Andrew because the tub in Maxwell's London apartment was too small for a man of Prince Andrew's size.

Giuffre, who was sex trafficked by the disgraced financier and Maxwell, previously claimed in 2001 that Prince Andrew licked her toes in the bath before they had sex in the bedroom, when she was 17.

In his 2017 deposition, Barden said Giuffre 'claimed she did have sex with Prince Andrew and that the sex occurred in what can only be described as a very small bathtub. Too small for a man of Prince Andrew's size to enjoy a bath in let alone sex.'

The new documents were previously sealed as part of a 2015 lawsuit between Maxwell and her most prominent accuser Giuffre.

Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer claimed Prince Andrew could not have had sex with Virginia Giuffre in a bathtub because of his size

Last year the Daily Telegraph reported the same claim about the bathtub being too small for 'frolicking'

The new documents were previously sealed as part of a 2015 lawsuit between Maxwell and her most prominent accuser Giuffre. Epstein is seen on his island estate

Barden also said Giuffre's claims against Prince Andrew 'caused a feeding frenzy for the press.'

Last year the Daily Telegraph reported the same claim about the bathtub being too small for 'frolicking'.

The UK paper published a cover story with an image of a tub that the paper claimed 'cleared' Prince Andrew of Giuffre's claim.

Ghislaines brother Ian told the newspaper that the image, posed for by two of his sisters acquaintances, show[s] conclusively that the bath is too small for any sort of sex frolicking.'

Giuffre said in 2019 that the sexual assault started in the bath in Maxwell's London apartment and moved into the bedroom.

In 2022, Prince Andrew settled a suit out of court with Giuffre. However, he has always denied having even met her.

Today's 17 unsealed court exhibits are the latest in a stream of papers made public over the last week.

The documents also include claims that former president Donald Trump had sex with multiple Epstein victims.

In the latest dump of papers are emails sent by Epstein victim Sarah Ransome to DailyMail.com columnist Maureen Callahan in 2016. At the time, Callahan worked for The New York Post and was reporting on Epstein.

Ransome claimed in those emails that Trump had sex with 'many girls', including a friend of hers who is not named, who she says also slept with Bill Clinton and Virgin billionaire Richard Branson.

It is claimed that Epstein filmed each of these sexual encounters - and that the woman involved also obtained copies of the tapes.

No such footage has ever been publicly uncovered. The FBI is now under pressure to release hundreds of items of evidence that was photographed during a raid on Epstein's mansion in 2019 but that was never seized.

A spokesman for Virgin told DailyMail.com today: 'In a New Yorker report published in 2019, Ransome admitted that she had invented the tapes.

'We can confirm that Sarah Ransomes claims are baseless and unfounded.'

The latest dump of papers include harrowing testimony by Epstein victim Sarah Ransome

The never-before-seen images, which have been unsealed and made public as part of the latest document dump surrounding Epstein, appeared to show girls or young women on his private US Virgin Island home in 2006

Ghislaine Maxwell is seen in two photos on Epstein's island in 2006

Ransome told the court that she once tried to swim off Little St James Island, where Epstein brought his victims, because of his and Maxwell's demands that she weigh under 56kg (about 123lbs).

'I tried to swim off the island. I tried to escape from an island during the evening to try and escape from her because if I didnt lose weight, they would cut me out of their -- financially off,' Ransome told the court.

'I would lose the place that I was staying at. I would lose my education. You name it. They bullied me with everything, just like they did with the other girls.'

Ransome described the scene at Epstein's island estate as brothel-like, with girls being sent to the financier's room on rotation for 'massages' - the code word for sex.

She claimed: 'When I was finished, another girl was called by Ghislaine. And when they had finished, another girl was called.

'We were called on, like, a rotation visit for Jeffrey throughout the day and evening

'We tried to hide on different -- like, so we wouldnt have to get called. Wed generally have to sit in the main area. There was like a big pool, the main seating area. There was a big table. Wed sit there and do kind of art on the table, and we always had to be around.'

Ransome also said Epstein provided all of the women's outfits at the island, with the clothes coming from Victoria's Secret.

Giuffre sued Maxwell for publicly labeling her a liar. The case was settled in 2017 - two years before Epstein was charged and later died by suicide - and before Maxwell's arrest.

The documents have now become public after repeated requests from the media and some of those caught up in the scandal, who pleaded for transparency from the court.

What was expected was a list that unmasked the 187 Jane and John Does whose names were previously protected.

The court has not fulfilled that request, and instead published hundreds upon hundreds of pages where the names were previously redacted.
In June, Soros announced that his 38-year-old son, Alex, would take the helm of the family's fortune

He was seen being helped into the water and led back to his lounge chair by a group of younger men

The hedge fund manager was spotted on vacation in Barbados

Philanthropist George Soros was spotted relaxing in Barbados just months after he ceded control of his $25 billion empire to his son Alex.

Soros, 93, waded into the crystalline waters with the help of several younger men at a beach in Bridgetown, the island's capital city.

The men then helped him back onto the beach after his swim, where he lounged on a shaded chair out of reach of the glaring sun.

In June, Soros handed over his empire to 38-year-old Alex, who vowed to use the family's fortune to advocate for causes including voter rights and gender equality.

The Hungarian-born billionaire had a net worth of approximately $6.7 billion as of October 2023, having built his impressive wealth managing hedge funds.

His nonprofit network, the Open Society Foundations, direct about $1.5 billion each year to groups that back human rights around the globe. Alex was elected chairman in December 2023, replacing his father.

Over the years Soros has thrown millions behind liberal district attorneys through outright donations or political action committees, which right-wing critics attribute to a breakdown of law and order across the United States.

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros, 93, was spotted on vacation in Bridgeport, Barbados

The prolific donor was seen being helped into the water by a group of younger men

The 93-year-old was led down the beach into the calm water

In June, Soros ceded control of his $25 billion empire to his son Alex, 38

The 93-year-old's son has vowed to use the fortune to advocate for causes including abortion rights and gender equality

Alex has described himself as 'more political' than his father and says he will broaden his father's liberal aims

Soros was seen wading in the crystal-clear waters with members of his entourage

The Hungarian-American financier had a net worth of approximately $6.7 billion as of October 2023

Soros built his awe-inspiring wealth as a hedge fund manager and has donated more than $32 billion to his grantmaking network, the Open Society Foundations

The billionaire was helped back to his lounge chair after wading in the Caribbean Sea

The billionaire's nonprofit, Open Society Foundation, directs about $1.5 billion each year to groups that back human rights worldwide

He was ousted from the chairman position in December 2023 after Alex was elected to take his place
An inquest into two siblings who tragically died in a house fire was dramatically halted today after their mother criticised the speed of the emergency response.

Louis Busuioc, five, and his three-year-old sister Desire died in hospital four days after the blaze at their home in Preston, Lancashire, on April 8, 2022.

A hearing today was told that Louis is believed to have accidentally started the fire using a kitchen lighter which set a sofa alight.

Brave neighbours tried desperately to rescue the youngsters but were driven back by heat and smoke.

The children's mother, Lorena Feraru, who had to jump to safety from an upstairs window, told today's hearing firefighters hadn't entered the property immediately.

However while Preston Coroner's Court was told that fire crews bravely extracted both children from the flames within eight minutes, North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) initially categorised it as a grade 2 emergency.

It was then upgraded and the first paramedic arrived at the scene 22 minutes after the initial 999 call, the hearing was told, with the first ambulance arriving a further six minutes later.

Louis Busuioc, five, and his three-year-old sister Desire (pictured with mother Lorena and father Lucian) died in hospital four days after the blaze at their home in Preston, Lancashire, on April 8, 2022

After a lengthy delay, area coroner Chris Long adjourned the hearing to a later date, saying he had made NWAS an 'interested party'.

He directed the trust to provide statements about the ambulance response.

Mr Long said he would ask for a statement from a doctor on whether the prognosis for each child would have been different if it had been quicker.

Earlier, the inquest heard how Ms Feraru had been sleeping with her two children when she was woken by a smoke alarm going off inside the property.

The children's father, Lucian Busuioc, was away at work at the time.

After spotting 'thick, black smoke rising from below', she screamed out of the window for neighbours to help.

But in a statement to the hearing she struggled to coax the terrified pair through the window.

Onlookers told her to 'jump now' and she dropped on to a wooden board that been placed on a wheelie bin.

She had then made attempts to get back inside but was stopped by neighbours, the inquest heard.

One kicked down the front door while another ladders in a bid to save them, but the heat and smoke were too intense.

A hearing today was told that Louis is believed to have accidentally started the fire using a kitchen lighter which set a sofa alight

Among the floral tributes left in 2022 was a school polo shirt with the message: 'To Louis, I will miss you'

Pictured: Police officers on scene in April 2022 after the house fire in Preston

Ms Feraru later told police the emergency response had been inadequate, saying: 'I don't think whoever was supposed to save them was competent.'

In a statement she today she told the inquest: 'I think more than ten minutes passed before the fire service arrived.'

She said that she had told firefighters her children were still inside, but they had not entered the property immediately.

Det Chief Inspector Rachael Hickson, of Lancashire Police, investigated after it was concluded there had been no third party involvement.

She told the inquest that the likely cause was one of the children using a kitchen stove lighter.

Their parents had previously admitted that the siblings had been caught playing with lighters inside the property, she said, once burning bedding, but had been told not to do it again.

It is believed that Louis used a coat-hanger to remove a chain on the bedroom door before going downstairs and starting the fire.

Video played a the inquest showed flames and thick smoke billowing out of the front of the property.

A neighbour called 999 at 7.52pm with NWAS alerted at 7.56pm.

Firefighters arrived at the scene shortly before 8pm and 'very, very quickly' entered the house, taking 7 minutes and 52 seconds extract the two children, the hearing was told.

One firefighter said he had 'never had a job like it' in 25 years with the service and he and a colleague had only been able to use touch to locate the casualties, due the poor visibility caused by the thick, black smoke.

Meanwhile NWAS upgraded the call to a Grade 1 emergency after a further call from police at 8.08pm.

Both police and firefighters provided first aid before the first paramedic arrived at 8.14pm.

The siblings were both taken to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital but died on April 11.

DCI Hickson told the inquest that 'everyone was trying to do their best or the children', adding: 'I don't believe anything more could have been done.'

Following the children's death, family friend Alina-Paulina Vicol launched a fundraising appeal to repatriate their bodies to their parents' native Romania.

Paying tribute to the siblings, she said they had 'touched the lives of those around them'.

'Desire was looking forward to start nursery this September,' she said.

'Desire always wanted to be told that she is beautiful.

'Louis couldn't wait for school to finish to come home and play with his sister.'

A North West Ambulance Service spokesperson said, 'We offer our sincere condolences to Louis and Desire's family. This is an absolutely tragic incident, and thoughts go out to them in what must be an incredibly difficult time.

'We only learned about the coroner's direction to make us an 'Interested Party' today and will fully comply with his instructions so he fully can understand the details of the incident.'

The inquest is set to resume at a date to be fixed.
Jeffrey Epstein secretly recorded sex tapes of Prince Andrew, Richard Branson and Bill Clinton, the latest unsealed documents have claimed.

Sarah Ransome, who gave a victim impact statement ahead of the sentencing of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell for sex-trafficking, appeared to write communications claiming the three were filmed by the paedophile financier.

The extracts were flagged by a firm representing Epstein's lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, to demonstrate Ms Ransome 'manifestly lacks credibility'.

Andrew stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with Epstein, and paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre, a woman he claimed never to have met, it has been reported.

He was cast out of the working monarchy and no longer uses his HRH status after Ms Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein, accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. The duke strenuously denies any wrongdoing.

Jeffrey Epstein (right) pictured with British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell (left)

Prince Andrew stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with Epstein, and paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre

Victim Sarah Ransome is pictured on Little St James Island in 2006

Ghislaine Maxwell is pictured on Little St James Island in 2006

Ms Ransome wrote: 'When my friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson (pictured), sex tapes were in fact filmed on each separate occasion by Jeffrey'

Ms Ransome wrote: 'Frustratingly enough Epstein (pictured) was not seen in any of the footage but he was clever like that!'

READ MORE: Richard Branson had breakfast with Jeffrey Epstein three years after the paedophile was jailed for child prostitution, court document says Advertisement

A US judge ordered hundreds of documents to be unsealed as part of Ms Giuffre's previously settled civil claim against Maxwell, which was filed in 2015.

In the document released as part of another tranche published on Monday, Ms Ransome wrote: 'When my friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson, sex tapes were in fact filmed on each separate occasion by Jeffrey.

'Thank God she managed to get a hold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes, which clearly identify the faces of Clinton, Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her.

'Frustratingly enough Epstein was not seen in any of the footage but he was clever like that!

'When my friend eventually had the courage to speak out and went to the police in 2008 to report what had happened, nothing was done and she was utterly humiliated by the police department where she went to report what had happened with Epstein, Clinton, Branson and Prince Andrew.'

It was added: 'A couple months later, she was then approached, by Special Agents Forces Men sent directly by Hilary Clinton herself, in order to protect her presidential campaign in 2008. They heavily intimidated her, ruffled her up (luckily she took photos as evidence) and was then forced to sign a confidentiality agreement which ensures that she can never come forward publicly implicating her husband.

'She was then given a substantial payout, directly from the Clinton Foundation to keep her quiet. She is 1000% certain that the FBI did a cover up and she has the individual names of Hilary's Special Agent Officers involved in intimidating her. She was then forced against her will to sign a legally binding confidentially agreement on Hilary's behalf for her eternal silence. If she breaks this agreement, she is dead.'

New revelations about the Epstein scandal include:

Sarah Ransome (pictured) appeared to write communications claiming Prince Andrew, Richard Branson and Bill Clinton were filmed by Epstein

Ms Ransome wrote: 'Thank God she managed to get a hold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes, which clearly identify the faces of Clinton (pictured), Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her'

Epstein is pictured in 2006 on Little St. James Island

The interior of paedophile Epstein's house is pictured

Haunting images show scantily-clad girls and women on Epstein's 'pedo island'

In the letter from Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP to the court, the firm said allegations against Mr Dershowitz were categorically false.

The firm said: 'Her (Ms Ransome) testimony was fabricated from whole cloth. Ms Ransome's testimony also contains a slew of other incendiary claims concerning the sexual proclivities of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and other prominent individuals.

'The emails are a necessary antidote to Ms Ransome's deposition misstatements because they demonstrate she manifestly lacks credibility.'

On behalf of Mr Branson, a Virgin Group spokeswoman said: 'In a New Yorker report published in 2019, Ransome admitted that she had 'invented' the tapes.

'We can confirm that Sarah Ransome's claims are baseless and unfounded.'

Clinton, Branson and Trump deny any knowledge of Epstein's criminality.
A Christian Wetherspoons barman who sued the pub chain for discrimination after he was sacked for replying 'God will forgive you' to a lesbian colleague has had his case thrown out.

On the weekend of Gay Pride, Thomas Richardson, a former barman at The Queen of Iceni pub in Norwich, also said he didn't want 'the gay thing shoved down my throat' at the pub where he worked, an employment tribunal heard.

When colleagues reported his comments to bosses, his 'anti-woke' Facebook posts in which he compared the Black Lives Matter movement to a Marxist terrorist organisation and called for Islam to be banned, were discovered.

Mr Richardson, who is autistic and was 21 at the time, was dismissed for gross misconduct.

He took the popular pub chain to court claiming that he had been discriminated against because 'we should live in a democratic society where people can speak and make choices freely'.

On the weekend of Gay Pride, Thomas Richardson, a former barman at The Queen of Iceni pub in Norwich (pictured), said he didn't want 'the gay thing shoved down my throat' at the pub where he worked, an employment tribunal heard

Mr Richardson was a 'good worker' and until the events in question, he 'got on well' with everybody, the hearing was told

However, he withdrew his claim of religious discrimination half way through the case and his claim of disability discrimination was dismissed by a judge who said homophobic insults cannot be ignored because the person saying them is autistic.

The tribunal in Norwich heard he started working at The Queen of Iceni pub in the city in May 2021 in what was his first proper job.

Mr Richardson was a 'good worker' and until the events in question, he 'got on well' with everybody, the hearing was told.

However, on July 30 last year, there was the annual Gay Pride parade in Norwich and the tribunal heard the pub was busy as a result.

When a colleague asked what he thought of gay people, Mr Richardson said: 'I am fine with them, I just don't want the gay thing shoved down my throat.'

In August, Mr Richardson said 'God will not forgive gay people', to which a female colleague said 'I'm not going to apologise for liking boobies'.

He then replied saying 'God has forgiveness for everyone'.

When he was asked why she had to apologise for being gay, he said 'maybe God will forgive you'.

In the following investigation, Mr Richardson described himself as a 'born again Christian' and after being questioned about his gay comments, compared his circumstances to 'totalitarianism during the 1930s in Eastern and Western Europe'.

In an interview with bosses, Mr Richardson described his Facebook posts, including calling Black Lives Matter movement as a Marxist terrorist organisation as 'anti-woke stuff'.

After a disciplinary hearing, he was sacked.

Mr Richardson took Wetherspoons to the tribunal claiming he had been discriminated against for his beliefs.

The hearing was told these included: 'a) man should take a woman; b) that all men and women are equal; c) that we should live in a democratic society where people can speak and make choices freely; and d) all people, [of any] race and/or nationality should be equal.'

However, after giving evidence he withdrew this claim, leaving only the disability claim to be ruled upon.

Rejecting this, Employment Judge Martin Warren said: 'Telling somebody that God will forgive them, (or not) for being gay is harassment on the grounds of sexual orientation.

'It is unwanted conduct that can reasonably be perceived as creating the proscribed environment.

'The same may be said of the comment to the effect that one does not want Gay Pride rammed down one's throat.'

He continued: 'One cannot simply ask employees to ignore homophobic insults because the person saying them is autistic.'

Dismissing his claims of disability claim, he said Mr Richardson had been guilty of gross misconduct and pub's decision to sack him was reasonable.
The leader of one of Ecuador's most powerful gangs reportedly slipped past his prison guards while out on a visit to a doctor's office, a former high-ranking official has revealed.

Jose 'Fito' Macias was reported missing during an inspection of his jail cell inside the maximum-security wing of the Zonal Penitentiary No. 8 in Guayaquil on Sunday.

Macias had a scheduled appointment on Christmas Day, but never made it back to the port city prison.

In an interview that aired on Radio Pichincha on Monday, the official, former Minister of the Interior Jose Serrano, said that another person returned in place of the leader of the feared Los Choneros criminal organization.

'He went out for a medical consultation and the moment of entering, a person covering their face,' he said.

'So, what we are talking about? A person entered with their face covered and they pretend that this person who entered the Regional Rehabilitation No. 8 was Fito, but in reality it was not Fito.'

Handout picture released by the Ecuador's Armed Forces showing Jose 'Fito' Macias, leader of the Los Choneros criminal gang, while being transferred to The Rock maximum-security complex inside the Zonal Penitentiary No 8 in Guayaquil, Ecuador on August 12, 2023. Macias is said to have fled from prison guards who escorted him to a doctor's visit on December 25

A painting of Ecuadorian fugitive gang leader Jose 'Fito' Macias was found hanging in his prison cell Sunday moments after officials noticed that he was was missing from the Guayaquil detention center

Serrano, who served as Minister of the Interior from 2011 to 2016 under the administration of former President Rafael Correa, said Macias' escape established 'a greater gravity' because of officials did not notice until Sunday that he was missing.

Unlike Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, who escaped famously escaped from a Mexican prison via an underground tunnel, he said that it's inconceivable that Macias fled the same way.

'To make a tunnel it is practically impossible because the water level, will not allow you to build a tunnel on the ground the regional No. 8,' Serrano said.

'So where did you escape Fito? This is a serious issue. Fito left through the penitentiary's big door.'

Macias was sentenced in 2011 to 34 years in prison for various crimes including drug trafficking and murder.

Aerial view of the Zonal Penitentiary No. 8 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, that Los Choneros leader Jose 'Fito' Macias

Police forces, backed by the Army, get ready to carry out a security operation following incidents at the El Inca prison in Quito on January 8

Los Choneros is a huge criminal organization that authorities have linked to extortion, murder and drug trafficking, among other crimes.

Their network of members is massive and pervades many of the country's prisons, with the group standing accused of controlling many penitentiaries from the inside.

A slew of images showed heavily armed military police and army units assembling in Guayaquil in preparation for the manhunt, while other units today conducted security operations to quell unrest in other jails populated by Los Choneros members.

La Regional jail, the maximum-security lockup that housed Macias, is located in a large prison compound that hosts more than 12,000 inmates.

For the last 12 years, Macias has resided within the prison walls there.

Jose 'Fito' Macias is the leader of Los Choneros, an Ecuadorian gang with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel

Police and military officers enter the Litoral Penitentiary on January 7, 2024 in Guayaquil, Ecuador

Police said they initially noticed his absence on Sunday morning and later raised the alarm when they could not locate him anywhere inside the penitentiary.

Rival criminal organizations frequently clash in Ecuador's overcrowded prisons and official numbers show more than 400 inmates have died since 2021.

Macias' network is responsible for much of this violence, according to authorities.

Members carry out contract killings, run extortion operations, move and sell drugs, and are the law inside a number of prisons.

Los Choneros and other similar groups, primarily 'Los Lobos' and 'Los Tiguerones,' have been fighting over territory and control.

The gangs have links to cartels from Colombia and Mexico, including the infamous Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has spelled out a series of demands from the U.S. ranging from visas to a multi-billion infusion of funds  even as the Biden administration seeks to pressure Mexico to do more on its part to address the migrant crisis.

He wants the U.S. to deploy $20 billion plan to help Mexico and Central American countries dealing with the root causes of migration  while also calling for wholesale changes in U.S.-Cuba policy.

'We are going to help, as we always do,' Lopez Obrador said in a Friday speech 'Mexico is helping reach agreements with other countries, in this case Venezuela,' he said, before pivoting to his wish list.

'We also want something done about the (U.S.) differences with Cuba,' Lopez Obrador said. 'We have already proposed to President Biden that a U.S.-Cuba bilateral dialogue be opened,' he said in remarks at a Friday press conference.

Lopez Obrador also said he wants the U.S. to provide visas to at least 10 million Hispanic migrants who have been living in the U.S. for 10 years or longer.

Migrants walk in a caravan as an attempt to reach the U.S. border, in Arriaga, Chiapas state, Mexico January 8, 2024. Mexico's president wants the U.S. to spend $20 billion to address causes of migration

His long list of demands come even as the Biden administration is asking Mexico to do more, as a surge of migrants continue to flow across the border. It also comes at a time when the Biden administration needs to show progress on the issue while getting hammered by Republican rivals and even some prominent Democratic mayors on the costs and social impacts of the surge.

Border encounters hit another stunning milestone in December with 300,000 apprehensions.

The U.S. is leaning on Mexico to do more to reduce those numbers. Late last month Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Mexico to meet with Lopez Obrador.

In one sign that Mexico has the capacity to have an impact, arrests at the southern border fell to about 2,500 Monday, according to the Associated Press, a drop from 10,000 during a December peak.

Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has spelled out demands for $20 billion in investments to address migration, as well as changes to Cuba policy and 10 million visas for people from Hispanic counties living in the U.S.

President Biden faces political pressure to deal with the migration crisis

Mexican immigration officials have resumed removing would-be border crossers from trains, and flying and busing them to southern Mexico, while flying some Venezuelan nationals back to their home country.

The White House has signaled in negotiations with congressional Republicans that it is willing to spend more to deal with border issues  which are threatening to become an election problem for Biden and Democrats in 2024.

Changing U.S. policy toward Cuba and Venezuela could be a taller order.

But Lopez Obrador is embracing some of the administration's own rhetoric, including Vice President Kamala Harris' push to address the 'root causes' of immigration.

'We have always talked about addressing the causes,' Lopez Obrador said. 'The ideal thing is to help poor countries.'

Underlining the issue is yet another 'caravan' of migrants who began a march in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas. The group disbanded days after Christmas but then reformed after claims of deception by authorities over the status of some of the estimated 6,000 participants.
Sir Richard Branson has hit back at 'baseless and unfounded' claims that he was secretly recorded having sex by Jeffrey Epstein.

The billionaire Virgin founder, along with Prince Andrew and ex-President Bill Clinton, were allegedly among wealthy friends who the financier secretly filmed having sex with young women, according to Sarah Ransome, one of his 'sex slaves'.

A letter from Ms Ransome states: 'When my friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson, sex tapes were in fact filmed on each separate occasion by Jeffrey.

'I personally can confirm that I have, with my own two eyes, seen the evidence of these sexual acts, which clearly identifies [them] having sexual intercourse with my friend. I will be more than willing to swear under oath and testify in court.'

Her letter  in which she also tells of the 'many girls' Donald Trump had sex with  is part of the latest batch of court documents to be made public in New York.

The sex tapes claim was described as 'baseless and unfounded' by the Virgin tycoon's spokesman.

Sir Richard Branson (pictured) has hit back at 'baseless and unfounded' claims that he was secretly recorded having sex by paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein

Sarah Ransome (pictured) appeared to write communications claiming Branson was filmed by Epstein

An image of Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein, which was shown to the court during the sex trafficking trial of Maxwell in the Southern District of New York

Epstein (right) pictured with British socialite Maxwell (left)

Virgin pointed to a 2019 article in the New Yorker magazine which said Miss Ransome had 'invented the tapes to draw attention to Epstein's behaviour and make him believe she had 'evidence that would come out if he harmed me'.'

The sex tapes claim was made in a letter she sent a journalist in 2016 talking about her experiences. The same letter was later used by Epstein's lawyer Alan Dershowitz to demonstrate that Miss Ransome 'manifestly lacks credibility'.

Miss Ransome, 38, whose father is Lord Macpherson, the second baron of Drumochter, has previously told how she was raped up to three times a day by Epstein, having been tricked by Ghislane Maxwell into his sordid web of abuse when she was a 22-year-old wannabe model.

Miss Ransome was one of 11 women allowed to give statements to Miss Maxwell's New York sentencing hearing in 2022 about how the British socialite had wrecked their lives.

But this is the first time her claims about Epstein sex taping Andrew, Sir Richard and former US President Clinton have been spelt out in court documents.

A US judge ordered hundreds of documents to be unsealed as part of Virginia Giuffre's previously settled civil claim against Maxwell, which was filed in 2015.

In the document released as part of another tranche published on Monday, Ms Ransome wrote: 'When my friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson, sex tapes were in fact filmed on each separate occasion by Jeffrey.

'Thank God she managed to get a hold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes, which clearly identify the faces of Clinton, Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her.

'Frustratingly enough Epstein was not seen in any of the footage but he was clever like that!

'When my friend eventually had the courage to speak out and went to the police in 2008 to report what had happened, nothing was done and she was utterly humiliated by the police department where she went to report what had happened with Epstein, Clinton, Branson and Prince Andrew.'

On behalf of Branson, a Virgin Group spokeswoman said: 'We can confirm that Sarah Ransome's claims are baseless and unfounded'

Prince Andrew leaves sex offender Epstein's home and they go for a stroll together through New York's Central Park in 2011

Jeffrey Epstein and associate Ghislaine Maxwell at the Clinton White House, one day after Maxwell pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking charges

Ms Ransome pictured in 2006 on Little St James island

Haunting images show scantily-clad girls and women on Epstein's 'pedo island'

She claimed: 'I have backed up the footage on several USB sticks and have securely sent them to various different locations throughout Europe.'

The theory about sex tapes has long swirled around the Epstein case. Two of his victims, Maria Farmer and Virginia Roberts Giuffre, claim that they saw a room full of CCTV monitors at Epstein's $65million mansion in New York, including some showing cameras in the toilets.

When police raided the mansion in 2019, they found dozens of tapes of girls in a twisted library the disgraced financier kept.

And Maxwell herself appeared to have admitted the tapes existed after being tricked by a journalist for the TV show 60 Minutes, telling him: 'I don't know where they are'.

But if the FBI does have any sex tapes of famous people, they have never emerged publicly.

No such tapes were even referred to in Miss Maxwell's trial, let alone produced in evidence. Maxwell, 60, was jailed for 20 years for running a sex trafficking ring and molesting schoolgirls with Epstein.

Trump has also slammed the 'baseless' accusations that he had sex with 'many girls' after he was named in latest batch of documents.

'These baseless accusations have been fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit,' said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung Monday, amid the latest document release related to the Epstein case.

The statement blasting the unsubstantiated accusations came after the release of emails containing the accusations from Epstein victim Sarah Ransome back in 2016.

Meanwhile, an image of Labour peer Lord Peter Mandelson on Jeffrey Epstein's private island has resurfaced as part of the latest release of US court documents.

A photo of the politician and the paedophile financier from 2006 is included in the latest tranche of unsealed papers.

It shows the Labour grandee sporting a 21,000 Patek Philippe watch and trying on a white leather belt at a fashion boutique in the US Virgin Islands.

It was previously reported that Branson had breakfast with Epstein just three years after the paedophile was jailed for child prostitution, according to court documents.

In 2019 a spokeswoman for the billionaire Virgin founder said that the two men had 'no personal or business relationship'.

But a bombshell legal document revealed that in 2011 Epstein emailed his private banker Jes Staley and the former Labour Cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson to tell them of his alleged meeting with Branson.

The document states: 'On January 7, 2011 Epstein writes to Peter Mandelson (copying Staley) 'had breakfast with Richard Branson, he is also a big fan of Africa'.

Epstein was a convicted sex offender at the time of the alleged meeting. In June 2008 he pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Epstein had a 'little black book' containing the names of 301 of Britain's richest and most powerful people including Branson and Prince Andrew, it was claimed in 2019.

The paedophile cultivated an extraordinary cache of more than 1,000 phone numbers and email addresses for hundreds of famous names across the Atlantic.

Paedophile Epstein is pictured on Little St James island in 2006

The interior of paedophile Epstein's house is pictured

Ghislaine Maxwell is pictured on Little St James Island in 2006

Prince Andrew stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with Epstein, and paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre

Epstein (pictured) secretly recorded sex tapes of Prince Andrew, Richard Branson and Bill Clinton the latest unsealed documents have claimed

A spokesman for Branson said previously: 'Jeffrey Epstein has the island next door to Necker but Richard has literally only met him once for about five minutes. That's the extent of it.'

A friend of Epstein claimed that Branson and Bill Gates would appear alongside the pedophile on a 2014 panel about the origins of money, it was reported in 2019.

Lawrence Krauss revealed this news in a 2013 email to Jim Simons, asking the famed mathematician if he might be interested in a spot on the same panel.

Krauss wrote to Simmons that Epstein was coordinating the panel on the Origins of Money, and said 'right now he has Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Larry Summers on board.'

READ MORE: Richard Branson had breakfast with Jeffrey Epstein three years after the paedophile was jailed for child prostitution, court document says Advertisement

He closed out by stating 'Jeffrey ... would very much like to meet with you to discuss his ideas for the workshop.'

Simons ultimately declined the invite and the panel was ultimately cancelled, as was reported earlier by Buzzfeed News.

A spokesperson for Branson said previously: 'Richard Branson was not invited to attend this event; he never agreed to appear on a panel and any suggestion of an association with Jeffrey Epstein is misleading and inaccurate.'

In 2017, Miss Ransome's bombshell letter was given to a court by Mr Dershowitz's own lawyer who used it to quote other passages which 'fatally undermine Miss Ransome's credibility'.

He said these included her claiming the CIA had hacked her and 'I have reached out to the Russians for help', adding 'Thank goodness for Anonymous!' in a reference to the hacking group.

She wrote how her friend had been approached 'by Special Agents Forces Men sent directly by Hilary' Clinton.

President Clinton's office has previously said he knew 'nothing about the terrible crimes' of Epstein, while Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied all the claims about him.

The accusations against Branson are the first time that anyone has claimed he had sex with one of Epstein's victims, and last night a Virgin Group spokesman said: 'In a New Yorker report published in 2019, Ransome admitted that she had 'invented' the tapes. We can confirm that Sarah Ransome's claims are baseless and unfounded.'

Clinton, Trump and Branson deny any knowledge of Epstein's criminality.
An XL Bully owner has posted a bizarre rap video criticising the new laws banning the controversial breed, singing 'No Rishi can't put me down'.

The video shows a woman dancing behind her XL Bully, who is rolling around on its bed in her living room.

Dressed in grey tracksuit bottoms and a white hoodie, she dances and points to her dog while singing the rap.

Lyrics include 'I don't want no restrictions' and 'I'm a Bully baby, I might lick you to death'.

The owner sings 'don't you put no muzzle on me, stop putting the blame on me' - referencing the rule that the dogs must be muzzled in public which came into force on December 31.

An XL Bully owner has posted a bizarre rap video criticising the new laws banning the controversial breed, singing 'No Rishi can't put me down'

The video posted on TikTok features a remixed version of Jack Harlow's Lovin on Me with the new lyrics: 'I don't want no restrictions, no Rishi can't put me down.

'Why you putting a ban on me, stop putting the blame on me.

'I'm a Bully baby, I might lick you to death. I'm no 'kill a baby'.

'Press spreading hate, saying XL Bullies crazy. I got love on the street like Cilla, baby.

'Bad owners maybe. I don't want no restrictions, no Rishi won't keep me down.

'Don't you put no muzzle on me, stop putting the blame on me.'

The video racked up 28,000 likes and 2550 saves within a day of being posted.

But the song divided opinions, with one TikTok user commenting 'that was painful' but another saying 'I love this!'

But the song divided opinions, with one TikTok user commenting 'that was painful'

One person said 'this needs to stop' but another posted 'this needs to go viral'.

Another user commented: 'This is such a powerful message'.

It comes after XL Bully owners shared videos of themselves wearing muzzles in solidarity with their dogs over the new rules.

One video shows Aidan taking dog Rolo out in Coventry on New Year's Eve with the pair wearing matching black muzzles in protest against the new law.

While walking along the pavement Aidan repeatedly practises training techniques with the well-behaved Rolo, including commands such as 'sit' and 'wait'.

Posting to TikTok, his partner Danielle said: 'Our first walk with Rolo with the new restrictions and laws against XL bullies.

'Aidan supporting Rolo today wearing a muzzle and making conversations with passers by, to show our animals should not be demonised by a muzzle or the law.

'It is a sad, sad day across the dog communities [sic] today.'

One XL Bully owner started barking at a woman he was walking the dog with, joking: 'Look, who's more vicious?'

It comes after XL Bully owners shared videos of themselves wearing muzzles in solidarity with their dogs over the new rules

Owners have been sharing images of their XL Bully type dogs in muzzles on social media

XL Bully owners have protested a Government crackdown on the killer breed by muzzling themselves 'in solidarity' with their dogs

Another XL Bully owner shared a similar video, as he took his dog 'Donkey' out for a walk while wearing matching pink muzzles. He had also dressed his dog up in a colourful coat.

He then started barking at a woman he was walking the dog with, joking: 'Look, who's more vicious?'

From January 31, it will be an offence to own an XL Bully unless it is registered on the Index of Exempted dogs and is compliant with the requirements.

Dogs that are more than one year old after this date must be neutered by June 30 while younger dogs must receive the same treatment by December 31.
Hundreds of flights across the US have been cancelled after 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes were grounded for safety tests.

Airlines are scrambling to check the troubled planes after an emergency exit door fell off mid-flight in what could have been a major air disaster.

The Federal Aviation Authority on Saturday grounded the planes until they could all be checked for the same faulty door plug that caused the near-accident.

Alaska Airlines flight 1282 made an emergency landing 10 minutes after takeoff from Portland to Ontario, California, on Friday with 171 passengers and six crew.

The airline was the hardest hit by the grounding as it has 65 of the aircraft in its fleet and cancelled 138 flights on Monday - 20 per cent of its schedule.

Airlines are scrambling to check the troubled planes after an emergency exit door fell off mid-flight in what could have been a major air disaster

An emergency exit used as a cabin window blew out of the Alaskan Airlines flight from Portland to California at 16,000 feet

Another 170 flights were cancelled on Sunday, and expected the chaos to continued well into this week.

United cancelled 204 flights, about seven pre cent of its schedule, and Monday and 60 on Sunday as it has 79 of the planes in its fleet.

Alaska initially hoped to inspect all the affected planes within a couple of days, but on Monday said it was waiting for instructions from the FAA.

'While we await the airworthiness directive inspection criteria from the FAA and Boeing, our maintenance teams are prepared and ready to perform the required inspections,' it said.

The airline said cancellations would continue through the first half of the week, and passengers should check their email and the company's website for updates.

All 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft in the US are grounded until the safety inspections are carried out.

Alaska Airlines 737-900 at Portland International Airport on Saturday

Some passengers vented their frustrations at their flights being cancelled, claiming they were stranded or had to pay huge sums to make their trips

Some passengers vented their frustrations at their flights being cancelled, claiming they were stranded or had to pay huge sums to make their trips.

'I chose and paid for a flight and seats based on my schedule. You decided to cancel my return flight,' one wrote.

'I have spent an absurd amount of time on-line trying to correct, two phone calls and a conversation with an agent in person, all who were ensuring me a 'good seat'.'

'United... thinking it's okay to try to cancel my flight and charge me $1200+ to get on the next available flight,' another raged.

'I'm going to be stuck here for 2 days with no compensation??? I need help.'

An Alaska passenger was also stuck: 'Thanks for leaving my family of 5 stranded in Costa Rica with no options to get home!!

'If you cancel a flight you should at least rebook us!! Fly with Alaska and you are on your own! Terrible support!'

Boeing shares plummet 8.6 per cent - from $248 to $228 - between Friday evening and Monday morning.

The stock continued to plunge after the market opened, reaching $226 - and analysts warned it was expected to continue falling until the planes were back in service.

Alaska Air's shares fell 4.3 per cent in early Monday trading before bouncing back, while United Airlines shares dropped 2.4 per cent then made a strong recovery.

There were no serious injuries from Friday's terrifying air failure, but passengers' belongings including phones flew out the aircraft.

One of the cellphones, an iPhone, was found by video game designer Sean Bates who said that he picked it up while out for a walk.

The sudden loss of pressure was enough to pull the headphones off the pilot's head and, according to a passenger, rip the shirt off a boy sitting near the failed door and blow it out of the aircraft.

The explosive rush of air damaged several rows of seats and pulled insulation from the walls. The cockpit door flew open and banged into a toilet door.

Alaska Airlines flight 1282 took off from Portland at 5.07 pm on Friday for a two-hour trip, but about six minutes later, the chunk of fuselage blew out as the plane was climbing at about 16,000 feet.

Several passengers described a loud noise before freezing wind swept through the cabin and oxygen masks dropped down.

One of the pilots declared an emergency and asked for clearance to descend to 10,000 feet, where the air would be rich enough for passengers to breathe without oxygen masks.

One passenger who filmed the drama said she woke up from a nap believing the plane had hit turbulence - only to discover a large hole in its fuselage

Videos posted online by passengers showed a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been. They applauded when the plane landed safely about 13 minutes after the blowout.

Firefighters came down the aisle, asking passengers to remain in their seats as they treated the injured.

One of the passengers, Emma Vu, was asleep when the Boeing 737 Max 9 suddenly dropped after a plug covering an unused exit door blew off.

She wrote several panicked messages to her parents, in which she said: 'The masks are down. I am so scared right now. Please pray for me. I don't want to die.'

Ms Vu later shared footage of the ordeal on TikTok, which showed her wearing an oxygen mask while panic is taking hold of her and other passengers nearby.

The NTSB said the lost door plug was found Sunday near Portland, Oregon, by a school teacher - for now, known only as Bob - who discovered it in his backyard and sent two photos to the safety board.

Investigators will examine the plug, which is 26 by 48 inches and weighs 63 pounds, for signs of how it broke free.

The flight that was set out to arrive at Ontario International in California turned back around after the plug door came off on Friday night

The aircraft involved rolled off the assembly line and received its certification two months ago, according to online FAA records.

It had been on 145 flights since entering commercial service November 11, said FlightRadar24, another tracking service. The flight from Portland was the aircraft's third of the day.

The Max is the newest version of Boeing's venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane frequently used on U.S. domestic flights. The plane went into service in May 2017.

Two Max 8 jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. All Max 8 and Max 9 planes were grounded worldwide for nearly two years until Boeing made changes to an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.

The Max has been plagued by other issues, including manufacturing flaws, concern about overheating that led FAA to tell pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system, and a possible loose bolt in the rudder system.
An image of Labour peer Lord Peter Mandelson on Jeffrey Epstein's private island has resurfaced as part of the latest release of US court documents.

A photo of the politician and the paedophile financier from 2006 is included in the latest tranche of unsealed papers.

It shows the Labour grandee sporting a 21,000 Patek Philippe watch and trying on a white leather belt at a fashion boutique in the US Virgin Islands.

Lord Mandelson is referred to as a 'male friend' of Epstein as they are pictured on his Little St James island.

Other photos included in the documents, all taken on the island in 2006, show convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell with disgraced French model scout Jean Luc-Brunel.

There are also images of 'various females'.

At the time of the photo, in 2006, Lord Mandelson was Britain's European Commissioner for Trade.

An image of Labour peer Lord Peter Mandelson on Jeffrey Epstein's private island has resurfaced as part of the latest release of US court documents

The ongoing release of the court papers has thrown fresh scrutiny on Lord Mandelson's past links to Epstein

Epstein, pictured in 2017, was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide

A US judge has ordered hundreds of documents to be unsealed as part of Virginia Giuffre's previously settled civil claim against Maxwell, which was filed in 2015.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.

Little St James is a small private island in the US Virgin Islands that was owned by Epstein up until his death.

It has been dubbed 'Epstein Island', 'Island of Sin', and 'Paedophile Island'.

The ongoing release of the court documents has thrown fresh scrutiny on Lord Mandelson's past links to Epstein.

Previously-published images have shown Lord Mandelson with Epstein in Paris on the late businessman's 54th birthday in January 2007.

It has also been reported how Epstein knew Lord Mandelson as 'Petie'.

Lord Mandelson has returned to influence within Labour since Sir Keir Starmer succeeded Jeremy Corbyn as party leader in 2020.

It was widely noted at Labour's conference in Liverpool last October how omnipresent the former Cabinet minister appeared to be.

Little St James is a small private island in the US Virgin Islands that was owned by Epstein up until his death

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was last week quizzed about Lord Mandelson's past links to Epstein

The 70-year-old placed himself on the front row of the conference audience, among senior shadow ministers, for shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves' keynote speech.

He also hosted a lavish cocktail party at a Liverpool restaurant during the conference, put on by his Global Counsel firm, which was reportedly attended by a slew of senior Labour figures including advisers to Sir Keir.

Sir Keir was last week quizzed about Lord Mandelson's links to Epstein, including reports Lord Mandelson had stayed at the New York townhouse of Epstein in 2009, when he was business secretary and Epstein was in prison for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

During a press conference in Bristol, Sir Keir said: 'On Peter Mandelson look - and I do try to give pretty full answers in these sessions - I don't know any more than you do and, therefore, there's not really much I can add to what you already know, I'm afraid. That's simply the state of the affairs.'

Both Lord Mandelson and Prince Andrew were in Epstein's now-notorious 'little black book' of contacts. Long since in the possession of the FBI, it contains ten numbers for Lord Mandelson, including ones marked 'home', 'country' and 'Peter's direct line'.

MailOnline has contacted Global Counsel for comment on behalf of Lord Mandelson.
The Republican Party of Florida has voted to boot out its chairman over claims he raped a woman who he and his wife had threesomes with.

Christian Ziegler, 40, is facing accusations raped the woman after she canceled plans to have sex with him and his wife Bridget.

Sarasota police have launched an investigation over the alleged October 2 attack.

Ziegler has denied the accusation - and previously said he and his wife are being targeted because they are 'such loud political voices.

He said he would not resign from his GOP position over the allegations. But the organization, who met in Tallahassee, finally ousted him on Monday.

Bridget also works for the Leadership Institute, a conservative group that runs workshops and develops curriculums to train the next generation of conservative leaders

Florida Republican Party chairman Christian Ziegler has said he is innocent following a woman's claims that he raped her after she canceled plans to have sex with him and his wife

Florida's GOP suspended Ziegler on December 17, removing his salary. But Monday's executive meeting removed him from the role completely.

The alleged victim, who claims she was in a 'consensual three-way sexual relationship' with the couple, told investigators she had made plans to have sex with Ziegler and his wife.

However, when Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler backed out the woman texted Christian 'Sorry I was mostly in for her,' according to the affidavit.

Later that evening the woman claims that as she went to leave her apartment she discovered Ziegler outside in the hallway - and alleges he then entered her property and raped her.

Weeks later, detectives began to monitor calls and messages sent by Christian Ziegler to the accuser, according to the affidavit.

'Where r u? Wanna meet and chat? Worried about you. You are my friend,' Ziegler allegedly wrote in one message via Instagram.

'Hell no not after what you did to me,' the woman responded. 'Do you not understand I am terrified of you?'

A 911 call, obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, made by a friend of the alleged victim's reveals she confided in the friend about being raped.

'She told me she was raped,' the friend informed the dispatcher on October 4.

'She's saying she's scared, that the person who raped her came to her house, so she's scared to leave... I'm worried about her right now,' the friend explained.

Sources cited by the Florida Trident said a search warrant had been executed on Christian's cell phone and that authorities are in the process of conducting a forensic examination of the device.

The GOP heavyweight is also alleged to have secretly videotaped the sexual encounters between the couple and the woman.

Christian Ziegler was elected chairman of the Sunshine State's GOP in February. He formerly served as vice chairman of the state party. Before that he was a Sarasota County Commissioner.

Governor Ron DeSantis called on Mr Ziegler to step down from the party.

Speaking at a press conference the governor said: 'I don't see how he can continue, given the gravity of those situations and so I think that he should step aside. '

The alleged incident, now under investigation by Sarasota police, say happened when Christian and the unnamed accuser were alone in her home on October 2. Pictured: Christian and Bridget Ziegler with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (middle)

Bridget is the co-founder of Mom for Liberty, a group founded in the wake of COVID-19 school policies that parents across the nation felt were unnecessarily impeding their children's development

Chairman of the Florida Republican Party Christian Ziegler (left) is accused of rape by a woman who says she was in a three-way relationship with Ziegler and his wife Bridget Ziegler (right)

Together, the couple holds powerful influence in Florida GOP politics

'He's innocent till proven guilty, but we just can't have a party chair that is under that type of scrutiny.'

Bridget Ziegler is considered a rising star in the conservative movement. She previously received the personal endorsement of DeSantis for her school board seat.

She has become well known in her own state and across the country as the co-founder of Mom for Liberty, a group founded in the wake of COVID-19 school policies that parents across the nation felt were unnecessarily impeding their children's development.

She helped establish the framework for what would become DeSantis' Parental Rights in Education Bill, which became known in the media as the 'Don't Say Gay' law.

No criminal charges have been filed in the case and Christian Ziegler's lawyer denied the allegations saying the chairman would be 'completely exonerated'.

Derek Byrd, said he is confident his client 'will be completely exonerated,' adding that he has been 'fully cooperative with every request made by the Sarasota Police Department.'

'Unfortunately, public figures are often accused of acts that they did not commit whether it be for political purposes or financial gain,' he said.

'I would caution anyone to rush to judgment until the investigation is concluded. Out of respect for the investigation, this is all Mr. Ziegler or myself can say at this time.'
Following Betty's death after a four-day hospital stay, friends described Bowman as 'happy or at least indifferent' as he went out for drinks

The medical student is accused of poisoning his wife following disagreements over their open relationship

Connor Bowman, 30, has been charged with first and second degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Betty Bowman

The former Mayo Clinic doctor accused of poisoning his wife with gout medicine after their 'open relationship' failed has been indicted for first degree murder.

Connor Bowman, 30, was arrested in Rochester, Minnesota and initially charged with second degree murder in the death of Betty Bowman, 32 - but was handed a second charge for murder in the first degree last week.

A grand jury in Olmsted County, Minnesota, issued the indictment on January 5, County Attorney Mark Ostrem said in a press release.

Betty Bowman, herself an operating room pharmacist at Mayo Clinic, died on August 20 following a four-day hospital stay for suspected food poisoning.

Her husband is accused of fatally poisoning her using colchicine, a drug used to treat gout.

Connor Bowman, 30, has been indicted for first degree murder in connection to the death of his wife, 32-year-old Betty Bowman

The former Mayo Clinic resident was originally handed a second degree murder charge, but an Olmsted County grand jury issued the indictment for the first degree charge on January 5

Betty was admitted to the hospital in August and began to suffer from cardiac issues and organ failure. Her husband asserted that she had a rare condition where white blood cells build up and damage organs

When Betty began to suffer from cardiac issues and organ failure during her hospital stay, Bowman suggested she suffered from hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, a rare illness where white blood cells build up and damage organs.

However, investigators said she was considered a healthy person before her passing and experienced no previous symptoms of the disease.

One day after her death, the Southeast Minnesota Medical Examiners Office told the Rochester Police Department about a suspicious death and prevented a cremation from taking place.

Authorities said Bowman had asked the medical examiners office for his wife to be 'cremated immediately' because her death was natural.

The 30-year-old also emailed death investigators asking if toxicology reports were more 'thorough' than what would typically be done at a hospital.

Bowman had recently finished Mayo Clinic's pharmacist residency and also worked as a poison control specialist.

A probable cause affidavit uncovered a relationship fraught with jealousy and turmoil.

One woman close to the couple said they had been 'talking about a divorce following infidelity and a deteriorating relationship.'

Bowman, who had recently finished Mayo Clinic's pharmacist residency program, asked the medical examiner's office to cremate his wife's body 'immediately' following her death

Betty, herself an operating room pharmacist at Mayo Clinic, was dismayed when her husband became infatuated with his girlfriend amid an open relationship and suggested they divorce

Bowman also told a friend that he was due to receive a $500,000 life insurance payout following Betty's death

Days before her death, a friend tasted a smoothie that Bowman prepared for his wife and joked that he 'must be trying to poison her'

Despite the couple agreeing to be in an 'open relationship' with no strings attached, Bowman allegedly became infatuated with his new girlfriend, prompting Betty to confront him and suggest they start divorce proceedings.

Bowman, who was in debt, also told a friend he was due for a $500,000 life insurance policy following her death.

Upon searching Bowman's home, investigators recovered a receipt for a $450,000 bank deposit.

Friends, many of whom were medical professionals themselves, are said to have suspected the 30-year-old may have had a role in his wife's death.

Ten days before Betty's death, a friend reportedly tried a smoothie Bowman had made for his wife. It 'tasted very bad,' and the friend even joked that 'Connor must be trying to poison her.'

Betty quipped that she 'had considered it at the time and said she didnt think that would happen.' However, she chose not to drink the smoothie anyway and threw it out, the affidavit said.

One of Betty's boyfriends told detectives she was so sick she 'could not sleep at all' after a night of drinking with her husband, four days before her death.

She said the culprit may have been alcohol that was mixed into a large smoothie, according to the affidavit.

Betty told one of her boyfriends that she was so sick she could not sleep following a night of drinking with her husband and suspected the culprit may have been alcohol mixed into a 'large smoothie'

The 32-year-old's death was ruled suspicious and the medical examiner's office prevented a cremation from taking place

Bowman allegedly used his Mayo Clinic email address to buy colchicine and used an online tool to calculate the lethal dosage for his wife's weight

Friends described the 30-year-old as 'stoic and calm' and even 'happy or at least indifferent' in the days following his wife's death

Investigators assert Bowman used his Mayo Clinic email address to buy colchicine and that he used an online tool to calculate the lethal dosage for his wife's weight.

After seizing Bowman's University of Kansas-issued laptop, cops found he had also purchased sodium nitrate, a chemical compound that lowers blood pressure.

Bowman ultimately tried to blame Betty for 'fraudulently' buying the colchicine under his name.

The 30-year-old's conduct attracted suspicion in the days following his wife's death.

Friends described his demeanor as 'stoic and calm' as he went out for drinks, appearing to be 'happy or at least indifferent' about his wife's passing.

If convicted on the first degree murder charge, Bowman will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

His next court date is scheduled for January 16.
More House Republicans are getting behind the idea of impeaching DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas for his handling of the 'crisis' at the southern border.

The support from both hardline conservatives and moderate Republicans comes ahead of the GOP's first hearing on potentially ousting the Homeland Security secretary this week.

It's a good sign for Speaker Mike Johnson who is leading the chamber on a slim three-seat majority, so Republicans will need nearly everyone in their conference to successfully impeach Mayorkas.

On Monday, days before Republicans plan to scrutinize his leadership and 'inaction' at the border during their hearing, Mayorkas headed to Eagle Pass, Texas - which has become the epicenter of the migration crisis in recent days.

He heard from border agents on the ground, after weeks of back and forth between him and Senate negotiators on a potential border security deal.

But top Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., slammed his visit to Texas - which comes just days after 60+ Republicans made the same trip - as a 'desperate photo-op' as the 'crisis' rages on.

As Congress returns from holiday recess, the Mayorkas impeachment push is picking up steam, along with spending battles, a major immigration and foreign aid deal that is still in the works and the Joe Biden impeachment inquiry.

More House Republicans are getting on board with the idea of impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas ahead of their first hearing on potentially ousting the Homeland Security secretary

State attorney generals from Montana, Oklahoma and Missouri are expected to testify at the House Homeland Security Committee's impeachment hearing Wednesday entitled: 'Havoc in the Heartland: How Secretary Mayorkas' Failed Leadership Has Impacted the States.'

It's the first impeachment hearing after nearly a year of investigations and reports by the House Homeland Security Committee.

If successful, Mayorkas would be the first Cabinet secretary impeached in 150 years.

Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, a Republican from a New York district President Biden won in 2020, told CNN that 'we all have been a part' of the border crisis.

'From the far right and the Freedom Caucus to those more moderate, we have all been a part of this,' he said.

Moderate Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa, first predicted to DailyMail.com last week that some Democrats would support impeaching the secretary.

Meanwhile Rep. Kat Cammack R-Fla., claimed on Fox News that Mayorkas had warned Republicans trying to impeach him: 'you're not gonna like who comes next.'

Speaker Johnson's slim majority comes after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy resigned from Congress at the end of 2023 and embattled Rep. George Santos was kicked out.

House GOP Whip Steve Scalise is battling cancer and will be out of D.C. until next month, so if a vote is held in January he may not be present.

And the expected resignation of Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohio on January 21 will knock down the GOP majority even further - 219 Republicans (including Scalise) to 213 Democrats.

Last month, more than 300,000 migrants attempted to cross into the U.S. at the southern border - the largest number in a single month on record.

The 28,000 person town of Eagle Pass saw days where some 5,000 migrants tried to pass through its border with Mexico in December,

Speaker Mike Johnson and a group of 60 House Republicans visited Eagle Pass where they railed against the Homeland Security secretary and urged President Joe Biden to take unilateral action to close the border.

'Secretary Mayorkas is not a good faith negotiating partner,' Johnson said on CBS after the trip when asked about removing the secretary in a time of 'crisis' numbers at the border.

Immigrants from Venezuela walk past a pile of discarded migrant clothing after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States on January 08, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas

Migrants walk along razor wire that President Biden and Gov. Greg Abbott are in a fight over after crossing the Rio Grande

Migrants pass Texas National Guard soldiers guarding the U.S. border

In November, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., forced a vote to impeach the secretary but the House voted to refer her articles back to the committee.

Rather than Judiciary, the Homeland Security Committee is currently taking the lead on the effort.

'My job is to get rid of this guy,' Homeland Security Chair Mark Green told DailyMail.com. 'That's what I'm gonna do.'

Green called Mayorkas the 'greatest national security threat' to the U.S.

The trips to Eagle Pass come as the battle between the Biden administration and the state of Texas heats up, with the White House asking the Supreme Court to step in and allow it to tear down the razor wire Gov. Greg Abbott has installed along the southern border.

Abbott also installed floating barriers in the Rio Grande, which later failed a legal battle and were removed, and recently signed a new law allowing state law enforcement to arrest and immediately deport migrants.
Connecticut socialite Michelle Troconis burst into tears before being branded 'the most hated woman in America' by a cop in newly-surfaced interview footage.

The Venezuelan national was arrested over the 2019 disappearance of her late boyfriend's ex Jennifer Farber Dulos, and her trial is set to start in Connecticut Superior Court on Thursday.

Jennifer, 50, a writer from New Canaan, close to Stamford, vanished after dropping her five beloved children off at school on May 24, 2019.

She had been grappling with a messy, acrimonious child custody battle amid divorce proceedings with her real estate developer husband, Fotis Dulos, who was accused of brutally beating her to death and disposing of her body.

Troconis, 49, was in a long-term relationship with Fotis at the time, and prosecutors believe she helped him with the slaying. But Fotis killed himself in his mansion aged 52 while awaiting trial in January 2020, leaving Troconis to face the music alone.

Connecticut socialite Michelle Troconis burst into tears before being branded 'the most hated woman in America' by a cop in newly-surfaced interrogation videos

The Venezuelan national (pictured) was arrested over the 2019 disappearance of her boyfriend's ex Jennifer Farber Dulos, and her trial is set to start in Connecticut Superior Court on Thursday

Jennifer, a 50-year-old writer and mother-of-five from New Canaan, close to Stamford, vanished after dropping her five beloved children off at school on May 24, 2019

A former TV host in South America and a mother herself, Troconis has denied several offenses including conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with physical evidence and hindering prosecution.

During hours of police interrogation over several days in June 2019, she was grilled about her then-boyfriend's whereabouts at the time of Jennifer's disappearance.

When she couldn't disclose whether he was at their Farmington home, one detective tried to encourage her to spill anything she knew about his movements by touting it as a 'golden ticket' to save her reputation.

'Have you looked at the news at all? Have you seen your face plastered (everywhere)?' he asked Troconis as she sat beside her attorney Andrew Bowman on June 6.

'I'll be honest with you. You're probably one of the most hated woman in America right now. And I'm not being mean. So this is like the golden ticket.

'If you know where he could have done something it could have where he frequented if you could tip us off, or if he said something in jest.'

Troconis wore a pained expression and placed her fingers on her temples while muttering something inaudible as he made the comment.

During another interrogation four days prior, Troconis appeared to break down in tears while slumped over a table.

Footage of her in that position resting her head on her arms has been released by prosecutors ahead of her trial.

Troconis, 49, was in a long-term relationship with Fotis Dulos (pictured), and prosecutors allege that she helped him with the slaying. But Fotis killed himself in his mansion aged 52 while awaiting trial in January 2020, leaving Troconis to face the music alone.

Fotis (pictured) killed himself in his mansion aged 52 while awaiting trial in January 2020, leaving Troconis to face the music alone

Jennifer Dulos is pictured in a photo released by police when she went missing

Troconis has always denied having any role in the killing and said she does not know what happened to Jennifer.

Footage from previously-released police interviews show her crying while insisting to detectives that she wasn't covering for Fotis.

'I'm not protecting him. I'm not protecting him...I really don't want to see him ever again in my life,' she said in the video.

Jennifer's body has never been found, but detectives believe Fotis attacked her in the garage of her rented home in New Canaan before allegedly discarding her body with Troconis.

While police have yet to find Jennifer's remains, they did discover pools of blood in her garage which someone had attempted to mop up and clean. They also found traces of her blood in her car - which was later found abandoned in a parking lot.

Investigators found bags of items which included Jennifer's blood and DNA disposed in Hartford, but some evidence was never found.

In divorce documents before her death, Jennifer said she knew the filing would enrage her husband - and in a blog post uncovered by DailyMail.com she even said she worried she would end up 'in a body bag'.

A former South American TV host and a mother herself, Troconis has denied several offenses including conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with physical evidence and hindering prosecution

Jennifer Dulos vanished in May 2019. Her remains have never been found, but police believe she was murdered by her husband Fotis, with the help of Troconis

She claimed that he would 'retaliate by trying to harm her in some way' and claimed that he exhibited 'irrational, unsafe, bullying, threatening and controlling behavior.'

According to court documents she said: 'I am afraid for my safety and the physical safety and emotional well-being of our minor children.'

Troconis asked for the case to be moved from Stamford to Hartford, but was turned down.

Fotis also denied having any role in his estranged wife's disappearance. He was pronounced dead in the hospital in February 2020, days after gassing himself in his car while on bail.

The five Dulos children now live with their grandmother in New York.
White House made clear Austin has Biden's backing as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle question when the defense secretary kept his condition a secret

The White House was not even informed Austin would have surgery Dec. 22

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was taken in an ambulance from his home to Walter Reed Army Medical Center after experiencing severe pain on Jan. 1, the Pentagon revealed on Monday.

Officials also revealed they did not inform the White House that Austin, 70, would be going to the hospital to undergo an elective medical procedure on Dec 22. Austin transferred his authority to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, but she was not told why she was given them.

The latest details come as the White House said President Joe Biden would stand by Austin as more questions arise about the defense secretary's health, why he kept his hospitalization a secret, and whether he should resign.

Meanwhile, lawmakers from both parties expressing concern about the Pentagon's failure to disclose the defense secretary was in the hospital and that the president was unaware the nation's most senior defense official was unable to execute his official duties for days. Donald Trump and some Republicans have called on Austin to resign or be fired.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was last seen in public on December 20th when he toured the flight deck of USS Gerald R. Ford with Ford Commanding Officer, Capt. Rick Burgess

Hicks was not made aware of Austin's hospitalization until three days after he was admitted. Biden was told four days after the defense secretary was admitted.

Additionally Austin's top staffers knew about his hospitalization on Jan. 2, the day after it occurred, yet held off notifying senior Defense Department leaders, the White House, and Congress, Pentagon press Secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said.

He also noted he did not know what procedure Austin was undergoing on December 22.

The White House hasn't said whether or not Biden knows but made it clear Austin has the president's backing.

'There are no plans for anything other than for Secretary Austin to stay in the job and continue in the leadership that he's been demonstrating,' White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday.

'Our main focus right now is on Secretary Austin's health and making sure that he gets all the care and the support that he needs to fully recovered,' he said.

Austin remains in the hospital but is out of intensive care and has taken back his authorities, the Pentagon said.

Neither Kirby nor White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would say if Biden knows what medical condition his defense secretary is suffering from. Biden and Austin spoke on Saturday.

'I don't know the level of the president's personal knowledge of his (Austin's) medical situation. That would really be between the two men,' Kirby said.

'That it is not something that we can speak to right. This is his own medical - it is it is a private thing  this is something that the Secretary and the Department of Defense would speak to,' Jean-Pierre said.

President Joe Biden is standing by his embattled Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin - above the two men in Wilmington, Del., in December 2020

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin together in May - Austin is the nation's top military official

Timeline on Austin Dec. 22: Austin has procedure at Walter Reed Dec. 27: Biden leaves for St. Croix Jan. 1: Austin participates in national security phone call Jan. 1: Austin admitted to ICU Jan. 2: Biden returns to White House Jan. 2: Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks takes some of Austin's duties Jan. 4: Biden and Hicks told Austin is in hospital Jan. 6: Biden and Austin speak via phone Advertisement

Kirby pledged the White House would investigate the matter, looking at the 'process and procedure' regarding the location and health of senior officials after Biden was not told for four days that his defense secretary was in the hospital.

He said the administration would perform a 'hot wash,' which is a military term to describe an intense, quick review.

'As you might expect, we'll take a look at process and procedure here. And try to learn from this experience and if there's some changes that need to be made, in terms of process and procedure, we'll do that,' Kirby said.

The Situation Room keeps tabs on where top officials are located but that check-in just involves a general location - like what city they are in - as opposed to a more detailed location.

'There's a process for the Situation Room, the ops center, to check in every morning to get the general location of all the non-White House principals, Cabinet officers,' Kirby said. 'There is a process of connection to the agencies to do that. But it's generic. It's for what town they're in, DC or overseas, where they are. That's the process. The issue of when a Cabinet official gets hospitalized, that's really on the agency to inform that that has happened.'

Kirby said Biden appreciates the fact Austin apologized for keeping his condition a secret.

'The president respects the fact that Secretary Austin took ownership for the lack of transparency. He also respects the amazing job he's done as Defense Secretary, and how he's handled multiple crisis over the last almost three years now,' he said.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon on Sunday night released new details about Austin, 70, saying he had a medical procedure Dec. 22, went home a day later and was admitted to intensive care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Jan. 1 when he began experiencing severe pain.

The National Security Council and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks were not notified until Thursday, Jan. 4, that Austin was in the hospital.

The Pentagon said Austin's chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, was sick with the flu and unable to make notifications before then.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks also was not informed for several days

Biden was told of Austin's medical stay on Thursday by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. The White House has said the president still has confidence in his defense secretary.

The secrecy around Austin's hospitalization - and the fact the White House didn't appear to notice he wasn't at his post - has resulted in outrage from members of both political parties.

'I'm surprised no one is using the word 'cover-up' yet,' a Pentagon official told CNN.

In a joint statement, Reps. Mike Rogers, Republican of Alabama, and Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington, expressed concern about the secrecy.

'While we wish Sec. Austin a speedy recovery, we are concerned with how the disclosure of the Secretary's condition was handled,' said the two lawmakers, who are the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee.

'Several questions remain unanswered including what the medical procedure and resulting complications were, what the Secretary's current health status is, how and when the delegation of the Secretary's responsibilities were made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the President and Congress.'

'Transparency is vitally important. Sec. Austin must provide these additional details on his health and the decision-making process that occurred in the past week as soon as possible.'

Conservative Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida called on Rogers to hold a public hearing with Austin and Hicks.

'The White House has already signaled that Secretary Austin will face no consequences as a result of this scandal,' Gaetz said in a statement. 'Therefore, Chairman Mike Rogers and the House Armed Services Committee should immediately hold a hearing and receive testimony from Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks regarding Austin's absence and Hicks' failure to return from vacation to perform her duties.'

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been in intensive care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, pictured,

Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it was 'unacceptable' that Austin's condition was kept a secret.

'I am glad to hear Secretary Austin is in improved condition and I wish him a speedy recovery,' Wicker said in a statement. 'However, the fact remains that the Department of Defense deliberately withheld the Secretary of Defense's medical condition for days. That is unacceptable.'

Wicker has demanded a hearing into the matter. A top Pentagon official told Politico that could turn into a bruising hearing for Austin 'if he doesn't resign first.'

And, in a scathing post to Truth Social on Sunday night, Trump did not hide his anger as what he claimed was a 'dereliction of duty' having occurred after Austin failed to inform his superiors as to his whereabouts - with even his deputy seemingly kept in the dark.

'Failed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin should be fired immediately for improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty. He has been missing for one week, and nobody, including his boss, Crooked Joe Biden, had a clue as to where he was, or might be,' Trump wrote.

Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York joined Trump in calling for Austin to resign.

'It is shocking and absolutely unacceptable that the Department of Defense waited multiple days to notify the President, the National Security Council, and the American people that Defense Secretary Austin was hospitalized and unable to perform his duties,' she said in her statement.

'This concerning lack of transparency exemplifies a shocking lack of judgment and a significant national security threat. There must be full accountability beginning with the immediate resignation of Secretary Austin and those that lied for him and a Congressional investigation into this dangerous dereliction of duty,' she said in a statement on Monday morning.

Former President Donald Trump has called for the removal of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, accusing him of a 'dereliction of duty' for being 'missing for a week'

Trump expressed his anger on Truth Social, claiming Austin's failure to disclose his whereabouts in hospital was grounds for immediate dismissal

Biden got to know Austin when he served as vice president and led Iraq policy for the Obama administration. Austin was a commander in the Middle East at the time.

Additionally, Austin was also close to Beau Biden when Beau served on Austin's staff in Iraq in 2008 and 2009.

The two men, both devout Catholics, attended Mass together, sitting side-by-side almost every Sunday, and they kept in touch after Beau returned from his deployment.

Joe Biden even mentioned his late son's special relationship upon his nomination to the post in 2020.

'It's why he has inspired so many young people who work for him to give their very best, and to live up to his example of leadership  including, for a time, a lawyer serving a year in Iraq with his Delaware Army National Guard unit. My son, Beau Biden.

'I know how proud Beau was to serve on your staff, General Austin. And I know that, under your leadership, the Department of Defense will advance the security of the American people in ways that always honor our highest values and ideals,' he said.

In a statement from the Pentagon on Sunday night, Air Force Major General Pat Ryder did not provide any details about the medical procedure.

Ryan said Austin was placed in the hospital's intensive care unit 'due to his medical needs, but then remained in that location in part due to hospital space considerations and privacy'.

The Pentagon's failure to disclose Austin being taken to hospital, including to Biden, the National Security Council and top Pentagon leaders, for days reflects a lack of transparency about his illness, how serious it was and when he may be released.

Such secrecy, when the United States is juggling myriad national security crises, runs counter to normal practice with the president and other senior US officials and Cabinet members.

Austin sits just below Biden at the top of the chain of command of the U.S. military, and his duties require him being available at a moment's notice to respond to any national security crisis.

His hospitalization comes at a time of increasing attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East and while the situation in Ukraine remains unstable.

Biden speaking during a White House meeting in January 2023, flanked by Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's mystery hospitalization was a secret kept even from his deputy Kathleen Hicks, it has emerged. (Pictured: Austin and Hicks at a Pentagon briefing)

Austin was also close to the late Beau Biden when Beau served on Austin's staff in Iraq in 2008 and 2009. Beau and Joe are pictured in 2009 at Camp Victory near Baghdad

Meanwhile, Hicks was on vacation in Puerto Rico when Austin went in for surgery, but she was not informed about it until days later, after she had been asked to work while on holiday.

Ryder told CNN it was 'not uncommon' for the secretary to transfer some responsibilities - but added that she wasn't aware of the reason she was stepping in on this occasion.

Hicks decided not to return after she was informed that Austin would resume full control on Friday.

In a statement issued on Saturday evening said Austin took responsibility for the delays in notification.

He said: 'I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better.

'But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.'

In his statement, Austin said he is on the mend and is looking forward to returning to the Pentagon soon, but he provided no other details about his ailment.
He also clarified that he had never met or spoken with Epstein himself

He addressed claims that she had met with Epstein, had a relationship with Brad Pitt and had plagiarized past work

Ackman took to X to respond to allegations made about his wife Neri Oxman

Billionaire Bill Ackman said he never had 'anything to do with' Jeffrey Epstein and his wife turned down 'multiple dinners' with the pedophile after his MIT donation.

Taking to X on Sunday, Ackman responded to allegations made against his wife, academic Neri Oxman, relating to Epstein, Brad Pitt and plagiarism.

Today News Africa correspondent Simon Ateba, had Tweeted that Oxman is 'accused of multiple instances of plagiarism, receiving Jeffrey Epstein's gifts, and questionable relationships with other people, including an actor.'

Ackman replied that Ateba had got it 'way wrong' and said that although Oxman's lab had received a $150,000 donation from Epstein, she had only met him once in 2015 and had then turned down invitations by Epstein to 'multiple dinners'.

He added that she 'never had a romantic relationship' with Brad Pitt and asked people to 'give [her] a chance' to respond to the plagiarism accusations.'

Neri Oxman is an acclaimed designer and academic famous but came under fire in 2019 after it emerged she had presented her work to the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Epstein donated $150,000 to MIT for Oxman's lab along with many other donations to the university

Reports of Oxman's meeting with Epstein surfaced in 2019 when a scandal surrounding MIT accepting donations from the pedophile emerged.

At the time she apologized for meeting with him, telling the Boston Globe: 'I regret having received funds from Epstein, and deeply apologize to my students for their inadvertent involvement in this mess.'

Now, in the latest Tweet, Ackman clarified that he himself 'had never met, spoke to, corresponded with or had any kind of interaction with Jeffrey Epstein ever.'

Further explaining Oxman's interaction with Epstein, Ackman said: 'Neris lab received $150k from Epstein. She met him once at MIT (and never again) at the request of the head of the MediaLab.

'He was presented to her as a donor no different from the hundreds of other donors over the years she was asked to present her work to at the request of the administration.

'Neri was often asked to present her spectacular work to potential and current donors. The meeting with Epstein included Joey Ito, head of the MediaLab and her boss, and another one of the most respected members of the MIT senior faculty.'

Ito resigned from his post at MIT after the donations scandal emerged.

Ackman added: 'She presented for 45 minutes. Epstein asked questions which she answered, and then she went back to work. Later she found out he committed $150k.

'Neri was one of a number of MITs best and brightest faculty who presented to Epstein. I dont know whether any of them got funding from him.

Oxman was linked to Brad Pitt after his split from Angelina Jolie in 2018, but has denied there was ever anything romantic between the pair

Neri Oxman (left) with her husband Bill Ackman last year

'She never did due diligence on her donors as that was the job of MIT and the development office, not that of a busy researcher working toward tenure.

'She was invited by Epstein to multiple dinners and she never accepted an invitation or saw or spoke to him again.

'At some point, she was asked to give him one of the orbs, small resin sculptures that her group made, which MIT used as gifts for donors to the university. Neris group made many of the gifts for MIT MediaLab donors as her work is unique and beautiful.

'She dutifully did what she was told.'

He also clarified that 'the actor' Ateba alluded to was Brad Pitt. In 2018, Oxman was linked to Pitt after his split from Angelina Jolie with reports claiming the pair had been 'spending more time' together.

But Ackman said there was never anything romantic between them, saying: '[Pitt] called and expressed interest in her work.

'He came to visit Neris lab once or twice, and she met him once in San Francisco in connection with a cultural architecture project idea he was working on that did not go forward.

'There was nothing questionable about her relationship with the actor. It was totally professional. They never had a romantic relationship.'

Ackman took to X, formerly Twitter, to refute the allegations made about his wife

Ackman also responded to claims of plagiarism in Oxman's dissertation and other work made by Business Insider last week.

Business Insider accused Oxman of plagiarism in sections of her 330-page MIT doctoral dissertation. Oxman subsequently apologized for omitting quotation marks despite including proper citations.

Ackman has linked the allegations against his wife to his ongoing criticism of MIT over the university's handling of antisemitism on campus.

He previously responded to the claims on X saying: 'We have new information that strongly suggests that the Business Insider source(s) is at MIT'.

He later clarified: 'We do not yet know whether this initiative against my wife @NeriOxman and family is led by the @MIT board, its Chairman Mark Gorenberg and/or the administration or certain member(s) of the faculty.'

A spokesperson for MIT said: 'Our leaders remain focused on ensuring the vital work of the people of MIT continues, work that is essential to the nations security, prosperity and quality of life.'

DailyMail.com contacted Ackman and Oxman for comment.
This is the hilarious moment a man celebrating New Year's Eve got stuck inside a ceremonial urn - as his pals frantically tried to get him loose.

Connor Padgett from Birmingham, Alabama, somehow ended up with half of his body inside the large brown vase at a party in Mountain Brook.

Clips showing Connor attempting to free himself from the urn have amassed millions of views online - as his friends erupted in laughter as the architect became more and more frantic.

Revelers standing around him tried to help - but continued to hold on to their drinks as Connor, wearing a cream sweater over a white shirt, squirmed inside.

Video of Connor trying to free himself from the urn has amassed millions of views online - as people watched him hilariously get more and more worried

The architect tries to desperately wriggle out of the pot - but fails

Revelers standing around him seem to try to help - but continue to hold on to their drinks as Connor, wearing a cream sweater over a white shirt, squirms inside

Connor, who works as an architect, apparently got stuck after he wiggled his body into the vessel as a type of party trick on December 31.

One New Year's Eve partygoer, who is trying to help him out, shouts: 'You're not going to be able to get out.'

As a crowd of people try and give him advice on how to get out of the vase, Connor screams: 'I'm doing everything I f**king can! God dammit!'

People surrounding him then start theorizing what is going wrong - with one woman saying he should take his shoes off, and another saying his knees are getting stuck.

In a second clip, now standing upright in the vase, Connor says: 'I'm stuck. Y'all will have to find a f**king hammer.'

One of his friends jokes: 'You're going to sleep in the pot.'

Another eyewitness on X, who said they were at the party, wrote: 'He was laughing at first but now he's starting to get upset. The women are trying to comfort him. There is talk of attempting to break the urn.'

Soon enough, someone at the party arrived with a hammer as the only solution to get Connor out of his sticky predicament.

Defeated: Connor posed with the broken urn after his friends had to eventually hammer him out of it at the New Year's Eve party

In a second clip, now standing upright in the vase, Connor says: 'I'm stuck. Ya'll will have to find a f**king hammer.' One of his friends jokes: 'You're going to sleep in the pot'

Connor Padgett from Birmingham , Alabama , somehow ended up with half of his body inside the large brown vase at a party in Mountain Brook

Soon enough, someone at the party arrived with a hammer as the only solution to get Connor out of his sticky predicament

Clips from the night show him slowly being freed as multiple pals start chiseling the porcelain with a hammer - cracking the vase in two.

Later in the night, Connor posted an image smiling and cheering with a glass of alcohol in one hand and a vape in the other after the ordeal.

Connor, who works as an architect, apparently got stuck after he wriggled his body into the vessel as a type of party trick on December 31

He crouched down next to the broken vase with no shoes on.

When someone asked if the urn survived, the Mississippi State University graduate responded: 'It did not.'

The comments underneath the video, posted on X, were nearly as funny as the situation itself.

One person wrote: 'Everybody sort of cares but not enough to put down their drink.'

Another said: 'He looks exactly like the kind of guy who would find himself in that predicament.'

And a third said: 'Did anyone try to rub the urn to release him.'

A fourth added: 'He urned this shame.'
The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to California's menthol cigarette ban as a similar Biden-proposed national ban on flavored tobacco hangs in limbo.

On Monday, the high court declined to hear a case brought by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company challenging the Democrat-run state's ban on flavored cigarettes.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the ban into law in 2020 in an attempt to stem the use of e-cigarettes and flavored tobacco by teens and younger Americans. California is the second state in the nation behind Massachusetts to implement such a prohibition.

Last month, the Biden administration punted on enacting a similar nationwide ban on menthol cigarettes, amid political pushback and warnings the move could anger black voters who have been drifting away from the president in polling.

A string of recent polls reveal that President Biden's proposed ban on menthol cigarettes may have 'unintended consequences' for him at the ballot box in 2024.

On Monday, the high court declined to hear a case brought by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company challenging the state's ban on flavored cigarettes

A string of recent polls reveal that President Biden's proposed ban on menthol cigarettes may have 'unintended consequences' for him at the ballot box in 2024

Recent survey results obtained by DailyMail.com that show over six in 10 voters nationwide agree that the banning of menthol cigarettes will disproportionately harm minority communities - and that includes 63 percent of Democrats.

The administration is now expected to announce the rule will be finalized in March. That would be another delay, after an expected August rollout got put off until January.

The FDA announced new standards in 2022 for a menthol cigarette ban, in a move intended to crack down on disease and death from a product originally marketed toward African American smokers.

Among black smokers, 81 percent opt for menthol cigarettes, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures cited by the Washington Post.

The move comes amid polls that show that while Biden's support among black voters remains high compared to other groups, it is slipping, amid overall low approval ratings that put him in a tough race against former President Donald Trump, who has assembled edge over his rival even while refusing to rule out being a dictator.

The regulatory move has prompted a debate between sides focusing on potential health benefits and the ACLU and other groups who say it goes after a certain group of smokers and would lead to black market sales.

Potential unintended consequences could include shifting manufacturing to China and risky sales out of vehicle trunks.

House Republicans announced last month they are probing the regulatory push.

The CDC has issued warnings based on scientific research that 'menthol in cigarettes makes it more likely that youth and young adults will try smoking and that those who start smoking will continue to smoke on a regular basis.'

'Menthol makes cigarettes more appealing and easier to smoke,' according to the CDC. 'In addition, menthol enhances the addictive effects of nicotine in the brain. The amount of nicotine, the addictive drug in tobacco products, in menthol cigarettes has increased in recent years.'

It cited data that 10.1 million people started smoking because of menthol cigarettes from 1980 to 2018, resulting in an estimated 378,000 premature. The agency added up the totals, 3 million years of 'potential life lost' during the period.

The Biden Administration is expected to again delay final rule-making on a proposed menthol cigarette ban

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told DailyMail.com in statement: 'Joe Bidens decision to pursue a ban on menthol cigarettes is a disgusting overreach of power and a slap in the face to millions of Americans.'

In addition, law enforcement officials previously told DailyMail.com that the ban would lead to an increase in black market trafficking, cartel and gang violence and unregulated cigarettes - which could be laced with dangerous drugs, including fentanyl.

And it will impact minority communities the most, because menthols are smoked predominantly by black and Latino communities - at over 80 percent - said retired New York State Police officer Elliot Boyce.

The Biden administration is also catching heat for pushing for the menthol ban while moving to decriminalize marijuana.

However, top Biden officials have maintained that the criminalization of menthols would help Americans become less addicted over time.

'The proposed rules would help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers quit,' HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra previously said.

'Additionally, the proposed rules represent an important step to advance health equity by significantly reducing tobacco-related health disparities,' he continued.
Former President Donald Trump is firing back at 'baseless' accusations leveled by an alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim who claims he had sex with a friend of hers at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse.

'These baseless accusations have been fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit,' said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung Monday, amid the latest document release related to the Epstein case.

The statement blasting the unsubstantiated accusations came after the release of emails containing the accusations from Epstein victim Sarah Ransome back in 2016.

She made similar claims about former President Bill Clinton and billionaire Richard Branson, but later retracted them and claims she 'invented' the claim she had tapes to back up her claims.

Trump's name resurfaced days after his campaign said that an earlier release of documents from a suit related to Epstein had 'thoroughly debunked' claims he had an inappropriate relationship with the pedophile financier.

A spokesman for former President Donald Trump blasted 'baseless accusations' by an alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim that resurfaced after a document release Monday

Ronsome claimed in 2016 that Trump had sexual relations with 'many girls,' according to the documents. She described an unidentified friend, who she said was 'one of the many girls that had sexual relations with Donald Trump.'

Trump and Epstein were friends in the 1990s. He flew on Epstein's plane, dubbed the 'Lolita Express' at least four times and called him a 'terrific guy' in a media interview.

Trump has not been accused of crimes or wrongdoing. The documents stem from former alleged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre's lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been convicted of trafficking underage girls on behalf of Epstein.

In another document release from the suit, former Epstein butler Juan Alessi told lawyers that he had dinner with Trump at Epstein's mansion in Palm Beach, which is located close to Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. But he also responded 'no' when asked if Trump ever got massages while he was there.

Epstein kept blackmail videos that showed Clinton, Trump, and Branson having sex with women he supplied them with, according to the latest bombshell claims in newly-unsealed court documents.

In the latest dump of papers - made public on Monday - are emails sent by Ransome to DailyMail.com columnist Maureen Callahan in 2016. At the time, Callahan worked for The New York Post and was reporting on Epstein.

She retracted all her claims, telling Callahan she wanted to 'walk away from this', citing fears for her family.

In 2019, The New Yorker said Ransome admitted to 'inventing' the tapes.

It is claimed that Epstein filmed each of these sexual encounters - and that the woman involved also obtained copies of the tapes.

No such footage has ever been publicly uncovered. The FBI is now under pressure to release hundreds of items of evidence that was photographed during a raid on Epstein's mansion in 2019 but that was never seized.

Donald and Melania Trump with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in February 2000. Trump has repeatedly denied having any involvement with Epstein's seedy lifestyle. Allegations that he had sex with a woman at Epstein's mansion are 'simply false and have no merit,' according to a Trump spokesman, who pointed out the alleged Epstein victim who made the claim later retracted it

In a 2016 email, Epstein victim Sarah Ransome told Maureen Callahan that her friend had sex with Trump, Clinton and Richard Branson. She claimed Epstein took videos of the encounters that she had seen the footage

Ransome claimed to have a friend who had slept with Donald Trump. Her description of their encounters is above

There are also claims of Sergey Brin visiting Epstein's island with his fiancee Anne Wojcicki

Ransome said she wanted to ensure neither Hillary Clinton nor Trump won the 2016 election. 'I will take down Epstein and his bunch of cronies myself!' she said, adding that she had also contacted a Russian newspaper

In her October 23, 2016 email, Ransome told journalist Maureen Callahan that she did not wish to go public. She cited her fears over what would happen to her family

'She confided in me about her casual 'friendship' with Donald,' Ransome said of the unnamed friend, whose age is not revealed.

Ransome claimed to have been sent footage by her friend that showed her having sex with Clinton, Trump and Branson, but said she could not share the videos without her friend's consent.

Trump denied the allegations through his spokesman.

'These baseless accusations have been fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit,' Steven Cheung, Trump spokesperson, said today.

A spokesman for Branson's company Virgin also denied the allegations.

'In a New Yorker report published in 2019, Ransome admitted that she had 'invented' the tapes.

'We can confirm that Sarah Ransome's claims are baseless and unfounded.'

Clinton, who was named in other papers last week, has not responded to the fresh claims. His representatives continue to refer to his 2019 denial of any association with Epstein's victims.

In her email to Callahan retracting the claims, Ransome said: 'I want to walk away from this...I shouldn't have contacted you and I'm sorry I wasted your time. It's not worth coming forward and I will never be heard anyhow and only bad things will happen as a consequence of me going public.

'This will just create pain for my family and I and they have already helped me pick up the pieces once before. I can't ask them to do that again.'

Bill Clinton with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in 1993

Ransome claimed in an email that Jeffrey Epstein had blackmail tapes of Richard Branson (left) and Prince Andrew (right) having sex with women who supplied to them

The FBI is now under pressure to release hundreds of items of evidence that was photographed during a raid on Epstein's mansion in 2019 but that was never seized. Pictured, a drawer in Epstein's home that contained dozens of discs

In one email, Ransome claims to have photos of Sergey Brin on Epstein's island. She said he was there with his then fiancee, Anne Wojcicki

They were included in a filing that was unsealed today in which Alan Dershowitz, Trump's former lawyer, argued why his name and the names of other prominent figures needed to remain anonymous.

Other files contain previously unseen photos of scantily-clad women on the island.

Virginia Giuffre, who sued Ghislaine Maxwell for defamation and claims she had sex with Prince Andrew, said the names should be made public.

'Mr. Trump definitely seemed to have a thing for her and she told me how he kept going on about how he liked her 'pert nipples'. Donald Trump liked flicking and sucking her nipples until they were raw.

'One evening when we were showering together she showed me her nipples. They looked incredibly painful as they were red and swollen and I remember wincing when I looked at them.

'I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jeffery's NY mansion on regular occasions as I once met Jen for coffee, just before she was going to meet Trump and Epstein together at his mansion,' the emails claimed.

None of the women are named and Trump has repeatedly denied having any involvement in Epstein's seedy lifestyle.

Another batch of documents from the infamous Jeffrey Epstein files have been released.

The court unsealed 17 exhibits on Monday - the latest in the stream of papers to have been made public over the last week.

The first exhibit, filed by Virginia Giuffre's lawyers against Ghislaine Maxwell, claims Maxwell and everyone who worked for Epstein used a secret server to communicate.

Sarah Ransome (right) is pictured at Manhattan Federal Court after Ghislaine Maxwell's sentencing

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

The server - called MindSpring - was used by household staff to communicate about daily tasks and events.

One employee complained about how 'ridiculous' it became, explaining that Epstein would demand a 'coffee' or 'orange juice' through the server and multiple employees when they were all in the same house.

Giuffre's lawyers contended that Maxwell only provided discovery materials from some of her email accounts. They claimed she had another that would include incriminating information. Maxwell denied it.

One newly-uploaded exhibit is a previously sealed transcript from a hearing regarding whether Epstein should be forced to give testimony.

Both Maxwell and Giuffre wanted him to - but he declined, repeatedly saying that he would not answer questions for fear of criminal prosecution.

All of the filings come from a 2015 defamation lawsuit that Giuffre filed against Maxwell.

At the time, Giuffre had gone public with her claims against Prince Andrew, Maxwell and Epstein. She said she'd been sexually trafficked to the royal by Maxwell and Epstein, who she claimed abused countless other girls in similar ways.

Maxwell, Epstein and Prince Andrew denied her allegations.

Giuffre sued Maxwell for publicly labeling her a liar. The case was settled in 2017 - two years before Epstein was charged and later died by suicide - and before Maxwell's arrest.

They have become public now after repeated requests from the media and some of those caught up in the scandal, who pleaded for transparency from the court.

What was expected was a list that unmasked the 187 Jane and John Does whose names were previously protected.

The court has not fulfilled that request, and instead has published hundreds upon hundreds of pages where the names were previously redacted.
Scientists have estimated the number of mountain lions, also known as cougars in California, which may be lower than they had hoped.

Officials concluded that there are 3,200-4,500 total mountain lions, thousands fewer than expected.

State and university scientists calculated the total number using GPS collar data and genetic information from shoreline samples.

The scientists used this data to match the populations across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Mojave Desert, and the fire-stripped wilderness in Southern California.

Experts will view the final project report before publication in a scientific journal later this year.

Officials concluded that there are 3,200-4,500 total mountain lions, thousands fewer than expected

The scientists used this data to match the populations across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Mojave Desert, and the fire-stripped wilderness in Southern California

The coastal forests of Humboldt and Mendocino counties of Northwest California and the highest population density and the high desert east of the Sierra Nevada range has the lowest

Winston Vickers, a veterinarian at the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, was one of the officials who conducted the study.

'There's never been a study of this scale and over such a large and diverse geographical area with such a variety of habitats,' said Vickers.

Large-carnivore biologist and leader of the California Mountain Lion Project effort Justin Dellinger told the LA Times that the most significant population density is in 'the coastal forests of Humboldt and Mendocino counties of Northwest California.'

The lowest is in the high desert east of the Sierra Nevada Range in Inyo County, California.

'The Central Valley and portions of the Mojave Desert have no mountain lions,' said Dellinger.

The predicted number of the California mountain lion population was around 6,000 according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

Justin Dellinger told the LA Times that the most significant population density is in 'the coastal forests of Humboldt and Mendocino counties of Northwest California'

The predicted number of the California mountain lion population was around 6,000 according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)

Dellinger, officials at CDFW, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, the nonprofit Institute for Wildlife Studies and the nonprofit Audubon Canyon Ranch first looked for mountain lion tracks in forests, canyons, and desert badlands.

They also put in trail cameras and traps, and tranquilized lions to take biological and samples and fit the mountain lions with tracking collars.

According to Dellinger, officials spent around $2.45 million in state funds for more than seven years.

The money went into coming up with three population estimates: One being 4,511 and two being 3,200 cougars living in California.

Officials first looked for mountain lion tracks in forests, canyons, and desert badlands before putting in trail cameras and traps

The professionals conducting the study have agreed that 'humans are the greatest threat to mountain lions.'

California mountain lions are not listed as an endangered species, but things like vehicles, rat poison, inbreeding, wildfires, poaching, urban encroachment and freeway systems can affect the population.

In fact, there's almost a one in four chance that California mountain lions can be extinct in the Santa Monica and Santa Ana Mountains within 50 years.

The state Fish and Game Commission has recently granted extra protection for cougars in six California regions and a vote will take place on April 15 to see if the mountain lion populations will be included under the Endangered Species Act.

'We look forward to getting mountain lions the protection that is clearly warranted and desperately needed,' said Brendan Cummings, the Center for Biological Diversity's conservation director.
United Airlines has discovered loose bolts during inspections of its 737 Max 9 aircrafts following the shocking mid-air Alaska Airlines door blowout on Friday, according to reports.

The alarming findings came as the National Transportation Safety Board released new photos of the damaged Alaska Airlines door plug after it was found in the backyard of a suburban home in Portland.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced on Monday airlines could begin safety inspections of 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 grounded planes.

United has already reportedly found loose bolts and other parts on plug doors on at least five of its planes, according to The Air Current. Chicago-based United has 79 of the grounded 737 Max 9 planes.

The airline told DailyMail.com on Monday: 'Since we began preliminary inspections on Saturday, we have found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug  for example, bolts that needed additional tightening. These findings will be remedied by our Tech Ops team to safely return the aircraft to service.' DailyMail.com has contacted Boeing for comment.

An emergency exit used as a cabin window (pictured) fell off the flight from Portland to California at 16,000 feet on Friday

The National Transportation Safety Board recovered the door plug that blew out in mid-air on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282

The agency's investigators are examining the door plug and will send it to the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, DC for further examination

Terrified passengers were left fearing for their lives on Friday after an emergency exit used as a cabin window fell off an Alaskan Airlines flight from Portland to California at 16,000 feet. Federal regulators swiftly grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes on Saturday.

After recovering the damaged Alaska Airlines door, NTSB said on X: 'NTSB investigators are currently examining the door plug and will send it to the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, DC for further examination.'

The images come after Boeing shares had the biggest plunge in over a year on Monday, losing a whopping $13.5billion off its value in the first day of trading after the mid-air Alaska Airlines blowout.

The near disaster saw Boeing Corp shares plummet 8.6 percent - from 248 to 228 - between Friday evening and Monday morning. The stock continued to plunge after the market opened, reaching 226 - and analysts warned it is expected to continue falling until the aircrafts are back in service.

Meanwhile Alaska Air's shares fell 4.3 percent, while United Airlines shares, the other U.S. carrier that operates the jet, dropped 2.4 percent.

Spirit AeroSystems, which manufactured and initially installed the fuselage part on the brand new MAX 9 jet in question, was down 20.8 percent, deepening the gloom around the supplier recently recovering from a string of quality problems.

Wall Street analysts viewed the accident as a temporary setback to Boeing, but some took a dim view of a series of quality problems related to the 737 MAX family of aircraft.

Alaskan Airlines quickly made the move to ground planes after the near-disaster in Portland on Friday, and CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement the aircraft will only go back into its fleet after clearing precautionary maintenance procedures, which he expected to be 'in the next few days.'

Alaskan Airlines decided to ground dozens of its Boeing 737-9 MAX jets for urgent safety checks after the matter

There were no serious injuries from Friday's terrifying air failure, but passenger's belongings including phones flew out the aircraft

A photo shows the blown out area. It is offered as a door on the aircraft. Alaska chose not to take this option - although the frame of the prospective door was entirely ripped out by the fuselage failure

In a statement shared to X on Saturday, the regulator said it is requiring immediate inspections of certain jets before they can return to the skies

In a statement shared to X on Saturday, the regulator said it is requiring immediate inspections of certain jets before they can return to the skies.

The FAA's decision to ground the fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 9's comes as several airlines and regulators have taken similar steps.

Boeing competes with Airbus, which has expanded its market share since two Boeing MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed nearly 350 people and led to the MAX's worldwide grounding for 20 months.

Airbus shares were up more than 1 percent early on Monday. The company this week will announce that it delivered 735 planes last year, beating Boeing to remain the world's largest plane maker for the fifth year in a row, according to industry sources.

There were no serious injuries from Friday's terrifying air failure, but passengers' belongings including phones flew out the aircraft.

One of the cellphones, an iPhone, was found by video game designer Sean Bates who said that he picked it up while out for a walk. In a series of posts on X, Bates said that the intact phone was still in airplane mode and had half of its battery life left.

Bates added that when he contacted the National Transportation and Safety Bureau, he was told that it was the second such phone to have been found. In a subsequent post, Bates showed that the charger plug was still in the phone, indicating that it was yanked out.

Video game designer Sean Bates assumed the phone had been dropped by a jogger when he found by the side of a road in rural Washington State because it didn't have a scratch on it

Sean Bates, shown here with NTSB investigators, said that he was told that his finding was the second cell phone from the flight found by a member of the public

The flight that was set out to arrive at Ontario International in California turned back around after the plug door came off on Friday night

The plug door tore off the left side of the Alaska Airlines jet on Friday following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, depressurizing the plane and forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board.

According to aviation outlet The Air Current, the aircraft involved in the incident had come under scrutiny by officials just a day before the window blew out.

The outlet claimed that on January 4, an intermittent warning light appeared as it taxied to a terminal from a previous flight, which led the airline to remove it from extended range operations (ETOPS). Later that same day in a separate flight, the warning came back on.

The Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet involved in the incident had reportedly only gone into service in November 2023, and was practically new by aviation standards after reportedly undergoing less than 200 flights before the incident.

The NTSB began an investigation that is likely to last months and focus on the paneled-over exit door that blew off. The so-called door plug is installed on some jets that have fewer seats instead of an emergency exit panel. The jets ordered grounded by the FAA all have those panels installed.
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A frustrated tradie embroiled in a bitter dispute with a homeowner has smashed her concrete driveway into pieces after claiming she 'refused' to pay his team for their work.

The action was taken by concreter Jesse Crowe, who runs a small business in Logan, Queensland, just days after he and his team worked to lay the new driveway.

A video of Crowe and his team destroying the driveway was shared on social media days ago, despite the incident happening late last year.

Crowe had spoken with the homeowner, Viola, and claims he negotiated the price of $6,000 for the job, which involved creating a new surface for the large driveway on the side of the home.

However, he claims Viola only paid $2,500 and refused to pay the remaining amount after the pair argued about the quality of the job and the price of rubbish removal.

Queensland concreter Jesse Crowe and his team destroyed a driveway they had just laid after he claimed the homeowner 'refused' to pay the full amount they were owed for the job

The video shows Crowe and a co-worker lifting a pick-axe above his head and swinging it into the concrete, causing a large hole in the freshly laid drive.

The two workers then repeated the move up the driveway, leaving it patchy, uneven and full of large holes.

'This is what happens when you don't want to pay for works carried out at your house,' Crowe says before smashing the driveway.

Crowe's colleague, who filmed the destruction, says: 'You should have paid. And it's going to cost more to get it all dug up, taken away and poured again.'

'Didn't want to pay? This is what happens.'

The frustrated tradie said he took pride in his work and was upset to destroy something he had just built.

'It comes to a point where youre in the trade for a long time and youre doing the right thing by people, and they dont want to pay at the end of the day, so what are you gonna do?', Crowe told 7News.

'I don't like to destroy something that I've just built. I take pride in my work. I love concreting and I love doing it. I just wanted to get paid.'

He added Viola should have paid him the full amount claimed for their work as it is going to cost her even more to repair the damaged driveway.

Jesse Crowe (pictured), claimed he negotiated with the homeowner that the job would cost $6,000. However, he was only paid $2,500

However, Viola fired back at the tradie claiming she was not happy with the work and accused Crowe of threatening her when she complained about the quality.

'[They said] 'you pay now, now or we will smash the concrete',' Viola said.

When asked if she would have paid Crowe and the team she replied: 'of course', but added the tradies did 'what they wanted' and not what she had asked for.

Viola claims the incident caused her so much stress she was taken to hospital when she collapsed at a shopping centre two days after the driveway was destroyed.

She added Crowe and his team treated her as a 'thief' and a 'crook' for complaining about the work.

Viola and her family have lived with the damaged driveway since it was destroyed and plan to fix the concrete themselves.

Homeowner Viola (pictured) said she was treated like a 'thief and criminal' and was 'threatened' by Crowe for complaining about the quality of work and price of rubbish removal

Social media users were divided, with many claiming there were noticeable faults with the job.

'The lady did the right thing,' one person wrote, while another added: 'I wouldn't pay either.'

A third said: 'There wasn't one control joint in there.'

Others claimed Crowe and his team demanded payment too soon for the job as the concrete was 'still fresh'.

'I'm not paying until the cement sets and has no cracks,' one person commented.

'How soon do you expect to be paid? Seven days, 14 days after completion?,' another wrote.

'Gotta see the concrete go off before you know if it's worth paying for,' a third added.
A man has risked his own life to help rescue a 74-year-old woman from floodwaters in central Victoria and been praised by police as a good Samaritan.

It was one of more than two dozen rescues in a 24-hour period as the state's flood emergency intensified, with thousands of people currently under evacuation orders.

Mitch Smith spotted the woman in Bendigo Creek at Elmore and swam out to help after her car was swept off a road and washed about 100 metres downstream in raging waters on Monday night.

He used a ratchet strap to secure her to a tree and the pair waited for about an hour before emergency crews arrived and deployed a boat to rescue them. Neither was injured.

'The water was probably nine foot, 10 foot deep,' Mr Smith told ABC TV.

'She was pretty exhausted, she said her arms were getting super tired and they wouldn't be able to hang on for much longer.'

A 74-year-old woman was rescued by a good Samaritan (pictured in the tree together) after her car was washed away by floodwaters

Major flood warnings are current for the Campaspe and Goulburn rivers (pictured, Seymour on Monday)

Residents left in Seymour, Yea and Rochester have been told it's now too late to leave following evacuation warnings (pictured, a farm flooded near Bendigo)

Despite his efforts and praise from police that he was a good Samaritan who risked his life, Mr Smith insists he's not a hero.

'If it was my grandmother in the water I hope someone else would have done the same thing, yeah it was a very lucky situation,' he said.

Major flood warnings are current for the Campaspe and Goulburn rivers, with any residents left in Seymour, Yea and Rochester told it's now too late to leave following evacuation warnings.

The flood at Seymour peaked late on Monday with early estimates suggesting about ten homes were flooded, with up to 35 expected to be impacted at Rochester on Tuesday.

More than a dozen flood warnings have been issued across the state and the wild weather has also impacted Melbourne's east, with Mount Dandenong Tourist Road at Ferny Creek closed after a landslide about 40 metres wide and 70 metres long.

Victoria Police are warning motorists to avoid travelling on flood-affected roads and never attempt to drive through flood waters.

'All emergency services are working hard to respond to this latest weather event, but we don't want to be diverting resources to rescue people that have ignored the warnings,' road policing assistant commissioner Glenn Weir said.

An emergency warning issued early on Tuesday urged Rochester residents to 'shelter in the highest location possible' and ensure they had enough food, drinking water and medications.

Victoria State Emergency Service chief Tim Wiebusch warned flooding could last for another five days (pictured, Seymour)

More than a dozen flood warnings have been issued across Victoria (pictured, locals sandbagging a business in Seymour)

At Seymour (above) about 50 homes could be inundated and another 200 homes there cut off

They were warned they may lose power, water, sewerage and telephone services due to flooding and that snakes, spiders and rats may try to find shelter in their homes.

At Rochester, 35 homes were expected to be inundated on Tuesday as floodwaters were predicted to continue rising overnight.

Another 200 properties in the town could be surrounded by water, while at Seymour about 50 homes could be inundated and another 200 homes there cut off, Victoria State Emergency Service chief Tim Wiebusch warned.

'They're the areas most at risk now,' Mr Wiebusch told Nine on Monday night.

'We're still going to see the severe weather with us for at least another 12 to 18 hours, particularly in the northeast of the state and then the weather clears out.

'But we will see this riverine flooding for at least another four to five days at high-risk levels in some communities.'

Flood warnings were in place on Monday evening for the King River and Fifteen Mile Creek, south of Wangaratta, along with Sunday Creek at Tallarook in central Victoria and in other parts of the state.

Mount Dandenong Tourist Road at Ferny Creek in Melbourne's southeast was among hundreds of Victorian roads closed on Monday night after a landslide, which was about 40 metres wide and 70 metres long.

Several evacuation centres were set up in Victoria on Monday, including at Seymour, Yea, Bendigo, Echuca and Rochester.

Two dozen people were rescued from floodwaters in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning (pictured, Seymour)

Flooding at Seymour was expected to reach higher levels than in 1993 (pictured, Forest Management Victoria crew preparing sandbags in Seymour)

A severe weather warning for heavy and locally intense rainfall was in place for people in East Gippsland, parts of West and South Gippsland and the north east forecast districts.

Flooding at Seymour was expected to be higher than in 1993.

Rochester was among the Victorian communities devastated by floods in October 2022.
A furious father was caught on camera confronting pro-Palestinian protesters blocking Williamsburg Bridge as he desperately tried to get home to his daughter.

New York was besieged by hundreds of demonstrators who blocked all major vehicle routes in and out of the city for more than an hour on Monday - leading to 325 arrests across the Big Apple.

The coordinated action hit the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, and Holland Tunnel, stopping traffic out of Manhattan.

One man trapped on the Williamsburg Bridge lost his patience when masked protesters stood in front of his Honda SUV and refused to let him pass.

An angry dad managed to push his way through pro-Palestinian protesters to reach his daughter across the Williamsburg Bridge

WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE: The four main thoroughfares in New York City's Manhattan are still blocked as of 11am - causing a backlog of traffic downtown, to the dismay of irate commuters

WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE: Protesters used similar tactics across the city to cause traffic chaos by sprawling themselves in a linked line across the entry

The man shoved three male protesters standing directly in front of his car, then got back in his car and slowly drove towards them until they let him escape

He first yelled at a woman in a hi-vis vest who appeared to be organizing the obstruction, as she appeared to be trying to calm him down.

'You're disrupting traffic, idiots. You can't do that, that's against the law,' he shouted, then gave up and got out of the car to confront them directly.

'I'm gonna have to start throwing fists at y'all, I'm not gonna run you over... get away from my car.'

The man shoved three male protesters standing directly in front of his car, pushing one of them a second time when he moved back in place.

The hi-vis woman tried to defuse the situation as the man stopped pushing and screamed: 'Get away from my car, I have a daughter in Brooklyn.'

Officers rounded up the cuffed protesters and lined them up in single file before hoisting them onto a MTA bus to be processed

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: Protesters have blocked Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan this morning - as they called to 'lift the siege on Gaza'

Brooklyn Bridge, which connects downtown Manhattan to Dumbo in Brooklyn, is swarmed by police arresting the protesters on Monday

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: Three demonstrators, wearing face coverings, are led off the bridge on Monday afternoon

Perhaps egged on by bystanders calling for him to run the protesters over, he got back behind the wheel and started inching forward.

'Get out of the way, I have to get home,' he yelled out the window as he edged forward towards the masked group.

The demonstrators held their ground until it was clear he wasn't going to stop, and he was able to move past them and continue on his way.

Cops eventually started unlinking the pro-Palestine demonstrators at the Brooklyn Bridge, who strapped their arms together with metal tubes, concrete and tires in their latest attempt to demand a ceasefire in Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Officers rounded up the cuffed protesters and lined them up in single file before hoisting them onto a MTA bus to be processed.

NYPD Chief John Chell said 325 people were arrested on Monday after blocking the bridges about 9.40am, until they were cleared out by 11.15am.

'In lieu of summons, many protestors will face misdemeanor charges with a desk appearance ticket,' he said.

NOW: Arrested protesters from Brooklyn Bridge chant out of Syria, out of Iraq, out of Palestine, dont come back as they wait to be transferred. pic.twitter.com/y74AQ4Y29G  BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 8, 2024

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: A woman shouts as she is handcuffed by three NYPD officers

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: NYPD officers at Brooklyn Bridge started attempting to unlink the disruptive pro-Palestine protesters, who seemed to have trapped their arms together, forming a human barricade, using metal tubes, concrete, and duct tape

A sign at New Jersey-bound Holland Tunnel - where traffic was brought to a halt around 10am - read: 'Lift the siege on Gaza. Ceasefire now.'

Groups of around 85 protesters sat at the entrance to the tunnel with Palestinian flags, chanting and cheering as one person screamed through a megaphone.

They shouted in unison: 'Free, free Palestine. Stop the Zionist occupation.'

Port Authority police stood idle as they watched protesters at Holland Tunnel - many of whom wore face coverings, scarves, and hoods - swell to numbers topping 100.

At Manhattan Bridge, swathes of beeping vehicles could be heard as the protesters got in position and formed a human chain across the entry path into the city.

Once they were locked in a line, another gang of protesters formed a row behind them, holding large signs and screaming: 'Shut it down!'

At Brooklyn Bridge, around 40 protesters sat crossed-legged in the middle of the road as raging traffic was blocked from entering, just after the peak of rush hour.

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: One protester refuses to get up, even when being handcuffed

HOLLAND TUNNEL: Groups of around 85 protesters sat at the entrance to the tunnel with Palestinian flags, chanting and cheering as one person screamed through a megaphone

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: A wall of protesters chain chairs and cones together

BROOKLYN BRIDGE: Demonstrators, all wearing face coverings and scarves, are handcuffed

As well as the demonstrators on the concrete, dozens more pro-Palestine supporters lined the walkway of the bridge - which is usually filled with tourists crossing from Dumbo to the Financial District.

Videos showed that as the police presence escalated, some of the disruptive protesters were carted away in handcuffs.

At Williamsburg Bridge, protesters used similar tactics to cause traffic chaos by sprawling themselves in a linked line across the entry.

The four main thoroughfares in New York City's Manhattan are still blocked as of 11am - causing a backlog of traffic downtown, to the dismay of irate commuters.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators close down the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the main bridges connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn

Members of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit attempt with power saws to separate pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocking a Brooklyn Bridge roadway during a 'Shut it Down for Palestine' rally

The group, which is demanding a cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Gaza, joined with other protesters in briefly stopping traffic at numerous New York City bridges

MANHATTAN BRIDGE: At Manhattan Bridge, swathes of beeping vehicles could be heard as the protesters got in position and formed a human chain across the entry path

HOLLAND TUNNEL: Port Authority police stood idle as they watched protesters at Holland Tunnel - many of whom wore face coverings, scarves, and hoods - swell to numbers topping 100

MANHATTAN BRIDGE: On Manhattan Bridge, the pro-Palestine protesters blocked traffic with their bodies

MANHATTAN BRIDGE: Drivers were forced to a standstill and got out of their cars in anger as they were stopped by the protests in front of them

Canal Street, in downtown Manhattan, was gridlocked by the overflowing traffic caused by the protesters' disruption.

An MTA bus full of arrested demonstrators was halted in the road jam.

The NYPD confirmed to DailyMail.com it moved to 'Level Three' police mobilization to combat the protests.

Level three mobilization is the second highest alert level in the NYPD, meaning all special units are called into action and squad cars are sent out from every command center in the city.

Last month, pro-Palestine protestors clashed with NYPD officers in ugly scenes in New York City as Christmas Day was marred by demonstrations against Israel in several US cities.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his ex-wife Anne Wojcicki visited Jeffrey Epstein's 'pedophile island', according to new court documents made public today.

Brin was previously tied to Epstein in lawsuits which described how the late pedophile lured Brin to do business with JPMorgan Chase. According to Epstein victim Sarah Ransolme, he also visited Little St. James, Epstein's island in the Caribbean.

Ransolme told DailyMail.com columnist Maureen Callahan in 2016 that she had a photograph of herself with Brin on the island.

At the time, she said he and Wojcicki were engaged. The pair wed in 2007 and divorced in 2015.

In a 2016 email to journalist Maureen Callahan, Epstein victim Sarah Ransolme claimed Sergey Brin visited Little St. James with his ex-wife Anne Wojcicki while they were engaged

In one email, Ransome claims to have photos of Sergey Brin on Epstein's island. She said he was there with his then fiancee, Anne Wojcicki

In her email to Callahan, who was working for The New York Post at the time, Ransolme said: 'I also have other photos of the Epstein girls and I, whilst on the island, including a couple of pictures of me with Sergey Brin and his then finance (sic) Anne Wojcicki.

'I met the pair when they visited the island for the day as Sergey wanted to try out his new kite surfing equipment as he had only just started kite surfing and was very eager to try out his new kite surfing equipment with us girls.'

Ransolme also claimed that Epstein filmed former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump having sex with women - claims she later retracted.

Both Clinton and Trump denied her allegations, as did Virgin billionaire Richard Branson, who was also included in the filings.

A spokesman for Virgin told DailyMail.com: 'We categorically reject all allegations made by Sarah Ransome. In 2016, Ms Ransome retracted her claims and then in 2019 after settling her claims with Epstein and Maxwell, she also admitted to The New Yorker that the tapes had been invented.

'The allegations are baseless and unfounded.

'The actions of Jeffrey Epstein were abhorrent and we support the right to justice for the many victims impacted by his abuse.'

It was previously claimed that Epstein convinced Brin, worth an estimated $109billion, to do business with JPMorgan Chase, the bank that continued to manage Epstein's own money even after he had been convicted of soliciting child prostitution in Florida.

Court filings detailed how Brin's business with the bank totaled more than $4billion.

Never-before-seen images appear to show young women on his private island home in 2006

The new documents, released Monday, were previously sealed as part of a 2015 lawsuit between Maxwell and her most prominent accuser, Virginia Giuffre

The new documents were previously sealed as part of a 2015 lawsuit between Maxwell and her most prominent accuser Giuffre. Epstein is seen on his island estate

He was one of their star clients, according to a memo that was filed as part of that lawsuit.

Brin was subpoenaed along with Hyatt hotels heir Thomas Pritzker in March last year as part of the lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase.

The bank settled with multiple Epstein victims and the US Virgin Islands in separate cases.

Brin was slated to be deposed as part of the Virgin Islands case before the $75million settlement in September.

In each lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed banks enabled Epstein to operate a sex trafficking ring in which they say they were abused.

Epstein killed himself in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
President Joe Biden used one phrase Monday to hit both former President Donald Trump and his rival Nikki Haley for comments they recently made about the Civil War.

Biden traveled to Charleston where he appeared at the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church, as he tries to shore up his 2024 support with black voters.

While at one point, he was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters shouting 'ceasefire now,' he was also awarded with cheers when he called Trump a 'loser' and chants of 'four more years.'

'So let me be clear for those who don't seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War,' Biden said, earning applause. 'There was no negotiation about that.'

Last month, Haley - the former governor of South Carolina - stepped in it when she didn't mention slavery when a New Hamsphire town hall attendee asked her what caused the Civil War.

President Joe Biden hit both former President Donald Trump and former U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley for their recent comments about the Civil War on the campaign trail

Last month, 2024 hopeful Haley didn't mention slavery when a New Hampshire town hall attendee asked her about the cause of the Civil War

'Well don't come with an easy question or anything,' Haley told the town hall attendee.

'I mean I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms and what people could and couldn't do,' Haley then answered.

Haley asked the man for his opinion on what started the Civil War and he then commented that he found it 'astonishing' in 2023 that she wouldn't mention the word 'slavery.'

'What do you want me to say about slavery?' Haley then said.

On Saturday, Trump waded in, telling supporters at a campaign stop in Newton, Iowa that he believed the Civil War was 'something that could've been negotiated.'

'The Civil War was so fascinating, so horrible,' Trump said. 'I'm so attracted to seeing it. So many mistakes were made. See there was something that could've been negotiated, to be honest with you, I think you could have negotiated that.'

He added that President Abraham Lincoln 'if he negotiated it, you probably wouldn't even know who Abraham Lincoln was.'

On Saturday, former President Donald Trump told supporters in Newton, Iowa that the Civil War could have been 'negotiated'

'He would have been president ... but he wouldn't be "the" Abraham Lincoln, but that would've been OK,' Trump added.

Trump spent several moments remarking about the terrible death toll - estimated to be 620,000.

'So many people died. That was the disaster. If you got hit by a bullet in the leg, you were essentially going to die or lose the leg, that's why you had so many people - no legs, no arms ... because the infection, gangrene - it was just such, sort of a horrible time.'

He added that it was a 'vicious, vicious war' and a 'tough one for our country.'

So far, of the three top Republican candidates, only Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has remained unscathed in the Civil War controversy.

'I don't even know how to judge - I don't even know what he's talking about,' DeSantis told ABC News Sunday, responding to Trump's comments at an Iowa campaign stop. 'Lincoln did what he had to do, he ended up ushering the abolition of slavery and he saved the union.'
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been accused of hiring a private lawyer she was in a 'romantic' relationship with to prosecute Donald Trump, according to a stunning filing by one of the former president's co-defendants.

The bombshell allegations are included in a filing by Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official who is accused of taking part in the 'fake electors' scheme as one of 18 people charged in the state along with Trump.

The public court filing, which seeks the dismissal of charges against him, alleges that Willis was in a personal relationship with private lawyer Nathan Wade, who was paid more than $600,000 as a special prosecutor assisting her office's sprawling probe of Trump's election overturn effort.

The filing doesn't provide documentary proof of the allegations. It states that 'sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney have confirmed they had an ongoing, personal relationship.'

A Donald Trump co-defendant accuses Fulton County DA Fani Willis of engaging in a 'personal relationship' with an outside prosecutor who was hired with county funds

The motion states the gravity of the allegations. 'The instant Motion is not filed lightly. Nor is it being filed without considerable forethought, research or investigation,' according to the filing.

'Nonetheless, this Motion must be heard, as the issues raised herein strike at the heart of fairness in our justice system and, if left unaddressed and unchecked, threaten to taint the entire prosecution, invite error, and completely undermine public confidence in the eventual outcome of this proceeding.'

It states that the pair engaged in 'a personal, romantic relationship that has ultimately yielded substantial income to the special prosecutor.'

Special prosecutor Nathan Wade leaves the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis at the Fulton County Government building on August 23, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. He is accused by a Trump co-defendant of having a personal relationship with Willis

Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) confers with lead prosecutors, Donald Wakeford (left) and Nathan Wade, during a hearing at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on Friday, July 1, 2022

A lawyer representing Michael Roman made the bombshell allegations in a filing and asked that charges be dismissed

The filing makes reference to a sealed divorce filing for the married special prosecutor, but then goes on to make the claim based on other information.

It states that 'information obtained outside of court filings indicates that the district attorney and special prosecutor have traveled personally together to such places as Napa Valley, Florida and the Caribbean and the special prosecutor has purchased tickets for both of them to travel on both the Norwegian and Royal Carbibean cruise lines. Traveling together to such places as Washington, D.C. or New York City might make sense for work purposes in light of other pending litigation, but what work purpose could only be served by travel to this traditional vacation destinations?'

DailyMail.com has reached out to Willis' office and Wade for comment.

A Willis spokesman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the DAs office would respond 'through appropriate court filings.'

'The district attorney chose to appoint her romantic partner, who at all times relevant to this prosecution has been a married man,' according to the filing.

It says the DA and Wade 'have been seen in private together in and about the Atlanta area' and are 'believed to have co-habitated in some form or fashion.'

It further states that there is 'no evidence' Willis was 'authorized' by the county to use funds to retain Wade for the case.

Roman was charged this summer with alleged crimes including taking part in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit forgery, and conspiracy to file false documents, all in connection with a scheme to submit fake Republican electors who would cast votes for Trump in place of electors to reflect Joe Biden's certified victory in the state.
Antony Blinken said there was "clear interest" in pursuing relations with Israel after talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

He was speaking after meeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler, in a lavish tent outside Al Ula, a historic oasis town.

It was the latest stop in a tour by America's top diplomat aimed at calming a region inflamed by the Israel-Hamas war.

Blinken's tour took him to six countries and said all the leaders he met had agreed to work with the US to help Gaza's recovery and long-term stability.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his week-long trip aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East, in Al Ula, Saudi Arabia

nited States Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) in Al-'Ula, Saudi Arabia

The motorcade of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken drives to the royal camp

"We talked about (Israeli normalisation) actually on every stop, including of course here in Saudi Arabia. And I can tell you this, there's a clear interest here in pursuing that."

Blinken is heading on from Saudi Arabia to Israel.

Tentative efforts towards potential ties between Saudi Arabia, home of Islam's two holiest sites, and Israel were halted after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7 which resulted in well over 1,000 deaths, most of them civilians.

Israel has responded with a bombardment and a ground invasion.

Over the last three days Blinken has also visited Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar and the UAE.

It is his fourth regional tour since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is greeted by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepares to speak to the media at al-Ula airport

He said there was "broad agreement" on security for Israel, united Palestinian leadership for the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and an eventual independent Palestinian state.

"Now no one I talked to thinks any of this will be easy,' he said. 'But we agreed to work together and coordinate our efforts to help Gaza stabilize and recover, to chart a political path forward for Palestinians and to work toward long-term peace and security and stability.

"I also found across the board that leaders are prepared to make the necessary commitments to make the hard decisions to advance all of these objectives."

Meanwhile, King Abdullah II of Jordan warned Blinken there will be 'catastrophic ramifications' if the war in Gaza continues.

During a meeting in Amman on Sunday, the Jordanian leader told him there needed to be an end to 'the tragic humanitarian crisis.'id during a press conference he gave alongside the Prime Minister of Qatar, the US rejects the plan espoused by a handful of Israeli ministers to resettle Palestinian civilians elsewhere after the war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken greets Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani

King Abdullah II of Jordan and the rest of the royal family have been extremely vocal in their criticism of Israel since the beginning of the war - on Sunday Abdullah warned of the 'catastrophic ramiifications' that will surely unfold if the war does not end

Blinken walks with Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani

Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani (R) receiving Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Doha

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamas al-Thani shakes hands with Blinken during a round of strategic talks on the subject of the Israeli-Gaza war

Blinken and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrrahman al-Thani arrive to brief the press in Doha on Sunday, January 7

Ongoing airstrikes in Israel continue to collapse Gazan living structures. Regional leaders are stressing the importance of drastically increasing the amount of aid making its way to Gaza

Blinken said he has discussed with each Arab nation what they can do once this round of the conflict ends to 'provide the assurances and the incentives required to build a more secure and more stable, more peaceful future for the region.'

'We share a commitment to ensure that the conflict does not expand,' he said of the leaders he's met with in recent days.

'And my takeaway from the discussion so far is that our partners are willing to have these difficult conversations and to make hard decisions. All of us feel a stake in forging the way forward.'

Israel has not agreed to a ceasefire, and the US has largely not pushed Benjamin Netanyahu's government on the point, rather, advocating for temporary humanitarian pauses in the fighting to allow aid to be delivered.
A man has been stabbed in the neck in a ritzy Queensland suburb and rushed to hospital.

Queensland Police were called to a Heal Street address in New Farm, Brisbane about 7.30pm with reports a man, 44, had sustained stab wounds to his neck.

The man was taken to Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital in a serious but stable condition.

A crime scene was declared at the property and investigations into the circumstances of the incident are ongoing.

Investigators are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed anything suspicious, or may have CCTV or dashcam, to come forward.

Queensland Police were called to a Heal Street address in New Farm, Brisbane about 7.30pm with reports a man, 44, had sustained stab wounds to his neck

New Farm is an exclusive suburb in Brisbane, with an average median house price of $2.675m

New Farm is an exclusive suburb in Brisbane, with an average median house price of $2.675m.

More to come.
One of the former postmasters driven out of business by the Post Office Horizon scandal has told how their campaign has received an extraordinary wave of public support following the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

Christopher Head  formerly the UK's youngest postmaster  watched an online petition he set up calling for justice 'explode' from around 15,000 signatures before the show aired to almost 300,000 less than a week later.

'It's been unbelievable,' Mr Head, 36, from West Boldon, Tyneside, told MailOnline.

'Now it looks as though the postmasters is going to be become an election issue.

'It's very gratifying that we've enjoyed this explosion of support, but at the same time, it makes you wonder what all the politicians were thinking back in 2019 when we first won our landmark judgement against the Post Office.'

Christopher Head watched an online petition he set up calling for justice 'explode' from around 15,000 signatures before the show aired to almost 300,000 less than a week later

Mr Head was just 18 in 2006 when he took over the newsagents and sub-post office at West Boldon, helped by a loan from his father. He worked hard over years building up business and opening long hours to cater for locals who ran their own online businesses and relied on the Post Office

In 2019, Mr Head and more than 550 other postmasters, led by unassuming Alan Bates, memorably played by Toby Jones in the four-part ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, won their historic legal action in the High Court

Mr Head's petition states: 'We are now calling on this government to provide ALL victims of this scandal with the FULL and FAIR compensation they are entitled to.

'This involves ensuring that all those affected are returned to the position they would have been in had they not encountered the Horizon scandal and compensated for the pain, trauma and suffering they have gone through including their families.'

Mr Head was just 18 in 2006 when he took over the newsagents and sub-post office at West Boldon, helped by a loan from his father.

He worked hard over years building up business and opening long hours to cater for locals who ran their own online businesses and relied on the Post Office.

Although like many postmasters, he found frequent unexplained shortfalls occurring under the flawed Horizon computer system which the Post Office bought from IT giant Fujitsu, at first the amounts were small enough for him to cover from his own pocket.

But in 2014 the system developed serious problems, needing to be constantly rebooted, sometimes up to 12 times a day, and he was told it needed to be replaced because it had 'corrupt data'.

When the new computer system was installed, Mr Head was stunned to discover that Horizon was now showing a 40,000 shortfall, which quickly doubled to 80,000.

'Whatever I said to the Post Office, the stock reply was that I was responsible, so I had to pay back the money  even when I pointed out that we never had anywhere near that amount of cash available in the system.'

He was suspended in 2015 and a criminal investigation launched, which was later dropped. Then the Post Office launched a High Court action to recover the money, which he said 'hung over my head for more than four years until they dropped it in 2019.'

Mr Head was formerly the UK's youngest postmaster. He has claimed a 'seven-figure sum' for the decade of lost business and the harm to his reputation, but was recently offered only 12 per cent of the amount, which he has rejected

Mr Head wearing a shirt to raise awareness of the scandal. He said he would like to see not only former Post Office officials such as Paula Vennells held accountable for their action, but also a proper investigation into, among others, figures such as Michael Keegan, former chief executive officer of Fujitsu from 2015 to 2018

Mr Head's trip to Downing Street with MP Kate Osborne in 2020. Mr Head said: 'I don't know whether Michael Keegan or other Fujitsu former executives will be called to give evidence at the public inquiry, but there are so many questions to answer'

A scene from Mr Bates vs the Post Office. The series follows the true story of hundreds of subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted for theft by the Post Office due to a faulty IT system

During those years, Mr Head said his reputation in the local community was trashed as people would talk behind his back and he found it difficult to get jobs as there was a question mark over his honesty, so he had to settle for low-paid or temporary work.

In 2019, Mr Head and more than 550 other postmasters, led by unassuming Alan Bates, memorably played by Toby Jones in the four-part ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, won their historic legal action in the High Court.

But since then the compensation process has been slow and so has the criminal justice system in clearing those postmasters who were convicted of fraud and theft.

In Mr Head's case, he has claimed a 'seven-figure sum' for the decade of lost business and the harm to his reputation, but was recently offered only 12 per cent of the amount, which he has rejected.

Mr Head said he would like to see not only former Post Office officials such as Paula Vennells held accountable for their action, but also a proper investigation into, among others, figures such as Michael Keegan, former chief executive officer of Fujitsu from 2015 to 2018.

He is now a Crown representative at the Cabinet Office dealing with defence suppliers on behalf of taxpayers. He is also married to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, MP.

Mr Keegan maintains that during his time as CEO he only made one decision on Horizon, which was to cancel a tender to provide a new version of it to the Post Office.

Mr Head said: 'I don't know whether Michael Keegan or other Fujitsu former executives will be called to give evidence at the public inquiry, but there are so many questions to answer.'
Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the moon in Greek mythology.

NASA has chosen her to personify its path back to the moon, which will see astronauts return to the lunar surface by 2026 - including the first woman and the next man.

Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, was the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the moon and Mars.

The uncrewed flight, which successfully launched in November last year, travelled more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the moon and back to Earth. It splashed down in the Pacific Ocean in December 2022, 25-and-a-half days after launch.

Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, was the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the moon and Mars. This graphic explains the various stages of the mission

Orion stayed in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station, while it also returned home faster and hotter than ever before.

It will now be followed by Artemis II, a manned mission which is scheduled for launch next year.

The crew will fly around the moon and back to prepare for Artemis III, which NASA is targeting as the mission to return humans to the lunar surface.

Eventually NASA seeks to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon by 2028 as a result of the Artemis programme.

The space agency hopes this colony will uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advancements and lay the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy.

Who is Victor Glover? The man set to become NASA's first black astronaut to orbit the moon

Victor Glover (pictured) was selected as an astronaut in 2013 and became the first African American ISS expedition crewmember to live on the ISS seven years later

NASA is set to send the first-ever black astronaut to the moon.

Victor Glover, 46, was selected to take part in the space agency's Artemis II mission  the US' first lunar mission in a half-century.

The Pomona, California, native will be the first person of color to travel into deep space, hundreds of thousands of miles beyond the low-Earth orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

NASA officials say the diverse crew assignments signify the cultural shifts that have taken place since the original Apollo missions, which ended in 1972, at a time when white men dominated space exploration.

Glover was also the first black man to ever live on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020 and is among 15 African Americans to be selected as an astronaut.

In his esteemed career since being selected as an astronaut in 2013, Mr Glover has logged over 3,000 flight hours in 40 different aircraft.

Artemis II - which will launch in November 2024 - will see the four-man crew orbit the moon in the Orion spacecraft but not land.

Their goal is to test new technology, including heat shields that protects Orion as it travels 24,500 mph in 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its way back.

If successful, NASA plans to launch an expedition to land on the moon titled Artemis III. Another success would spell out a trip to Mars for NASA.

I wanna thank God for this Amazing opportunity, Mr Glover said during a new conference Monday.

This is a big day. We have a lot to celebrate. Its so much more than the four names that have been announced. We need to celebrate this moment in human history.

'Artermis II is more than a mission to the Moon and back. Its more than a mission that has to happen before we send people to the surface of the moon. It is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars.

This crew will never forget that.

Mr Glover was born in 1976 in Pomona, around 30 miles east of Los Angeles.

The city is far from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, known for its high poverty rate and relatively high crime.

Mr Glover grew up in Ponoma, CA, 30 miles east of Los Angeles

He said his parents and teachers served as mentors as him growing up.

'Early on in life it had to be my parents; they encouraged me and challenged me and held me to high standards. Outside of home, I had teachers that did the same,' he told USA Today in 2017.

'They all challenged me, and they encouraged me.'

Mr Glover continued that his teachers and parents urged him to go the engineering school and eventually become a test pilot  leading to him becoming an astronaut.

He graduated from Southern California's Ontario High School in 1994, and went on to attend California Polytechnic State University, before completing his graduate education at Air University and the US Naval Academy.

'Im the first person in my family to graduate from college, and being at graduation with my mom and my dad and my stepdad and my little brothers and my grandparents,' he said to USA Today.

'That was unreal, that was cool and it was special for me.'

In 1999 he was commissioned as part of the US Navy. After completing flight training in Corpus Christy, Texas, he was 'given his wings' and awarded the title of pilot in 2001.

He then moved to San Diego to learn to fly the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, known as one of the Navy's more versatile aircraft.

After spending the next two years training in Florida and Virginia, he was deployed to Iraq in 2004 for six months.

Mr Glover was working in the office of the late Sen John McCain as a legislative fellow when he was selected by NASA to become an astronaut in 2013.

NASA only selects a handful of the thousands of people that apply to be a member of the nation's astronaut corps each year. Only 15 black astronauts have ever been selected out of 348.

A vast majority of the 41 current astronauts have a military background, like Mr Glover.

He completed his astronaut training in 2015. Three years later, he was selected to be a part of the first ever operational flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon, a reusable aircraft designed by the firm Elon Musk found in 2002.

As part of that mission, he would live on the ISS from November 17, 2020 to May 2, 2021.

The nearly six-month-long stay on the station makes him the first black astronaut to inhabit it.

Jeanette Epps, 52, who was selected to be an astronaut in 2009 is set to become the second African American, and first black woman, to live on the ISS after the launch of Boeing Starliner-1 in 2024 or later.

In 2020, Mr Glover said it was an honor to be the first black person selected to the ISS.

'It is something to be celebrated once we accomplish it, and I am honored to be in this position and to be a part of this great and experienced crew,' he said during a news conference.

'I look forward to getting up there and doing my best to make sure, you know, we are worthy of all the work that's been put into setting us up for this mission.'

In an interview with The Christian Chronicle later that year, he said there were qualified black astronauts that should have earned the honor before him.

'I've had some amazing colleagues before me that really could have done it, and there are some amazing folks that will go behind me,' he said.

'I wish it would have already been done, but I try not to draw too much attention to it.'

Who is Christina Koch? The first female NASA astronaut set to orbit the moon

Christina Koch is set to become the first woman to go around the moon when NASA's Artemis II mission takes off next year.

Christina Koch, 44, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, is set to become the first woman to go around the moon

The Grand Rapids, Michigan native, 44, is already the record-holder for the longest amount of time a woman has spent in space, 328 days, and for taking part in the first all-female spacewalk in 2019.

Selected to become an astronaut in 2013, Ms Koch said she has not followed a 'checklist' in order to become an astronaut  but instead chased her passions whether this be rock climbing, sailing or even learning to surf in her 40s.

She said in 2020: 'I really don't remember a time when I didn't want to be an astronaut.

'For me, I learned that if I was going to be an astronaut, it was because my passions had turned me into someone that could contribute the most as someone contributing to human space flight.'

While she's exploring space, her husband Robert will be left taking care of housework and the couple's puppy, LBD. It is not believed that they have children.

'Am I excited? Absolutely!' she said at a news conference at the crew's announcement Monday.

The one thing I'm most excited about is that we will carry your excitement,your aspirations, your dreams, on this mission.

She also said: We are going to launch from Kennedy space center, we are going to here the words go for launch on top of the most powerful rocket NASAs ever made.

NASA has sent a total of 355 people to space so far, of which some 55 have been women  or 15 percent. It has also sent 24 people to orbit the moon and 12 to walk on the lunar surface who were all men.

Russian Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to ever leave the earth's atmosphere  setting off in 1937. American women did not get sent to space until 1983.

Ms Koch, however, will make history on the Artemis II mission when she completes her long-awaited trip around the moon.

She revealed her love of space in a video when she was announced as a member of the Artemis I team in 2020.

The astronaut said: 'I am someone who has loved exploration on the frontier since I was little.

'I used to be inspired by the night sky and throughout my career, it's been this balance between engineering for space science missions and doing science in really remote places all over the world.

'I loved things that made me feel small, things that made me ponder the size of the universe, my place in it and everything that was out there to explore.'

She added: 'I didn't necessarily live my life following check boxes of how you could become an astronaut.

'But I followed those passions and one day I looked at what I had become and the skills I had gathered and I asked "could I sit across from a table and present myself as someone who could do this well?". And I thought, I'm going to give this a shot.'

She went to North Carolina State University in Raleigh to get a bachelor's and a master's in Electrical Engineering.

She then became an Electrical Engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, before becoming a research associate for the United States Antarctic Program  living an entire year in the Arctic.

Ms Koch was one of eight selected as part of NASA's 21st class of astronauts in 2013. After two years of training, she became a full-fledged astronaut.

Her first space flight came in 2019 when she was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) to work as a flight engineer.

She stayed up there for 328 days, taking the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman. The previous record holder, Peggy Whitson, was in space for 288 days.

While in space she also took the record for the first all-women space walk  when an astronaut gets out of a vehicle while in space  with Jessica Meir.

The pair spent seven hours and 17 minutes on the side of the ISS as they worked to replace a power controller. The walk also included a brief call with President Trump.

Upon her return to Earth in 2020, Ms Koch said she felt 'like a baby' who was two weeks old and working hard to hold up its head.

Back on Earth, she lives in Galveston, Texas, just outside of the Houston area.

Among her interests are backpacking, running, yoga, photography and travel.

Now she will be a part of a groundbreaking mission in NASA's goal towards putting a man on Mars.

The Artemis II mission marks NASA's first trip to the moon in half a century. It says it will be performed to help test kit in preparation for getting humans onto Mars.

The agency sent an empty Orion capsule around the moon last year before it returned to Earth in a long-awaited dress rehearsal.

If this latest mission goes well, then another flight to land people on the moon will be sent in 2025  as part of tests ahead of getting people onto Mars.
If you work in an office, you might feel uneasy about using your smartphone while on the clock.

But a new study will have you happily reaching for your device.

Research has found that letting employees use their personal smartphones at work does not impact their performance.

In fact, it actually helps to reduce stress, according to researchers from the University of Galway and the University of Melbourne.

'Preventing phones in the workplace can increase work-life conflict, which in turn has significant implications for work performance, job satisfaction, absenteeism, turnover intentions, as well as general wellbeing,' said Professor Eoin Whelan, who led the study.

If you work in an office, you might feel uneasy about using your smartphone while on the clock. But a new study will have you happily reaching for your device (stock image)

EXCLUSIVE READ MORE: My husband and I refuse to let our toddler use screens Advertisement

The research was carried out at the European branch of an unnamed global pharmaceutical company.

The company had originally banned personal use of phones in the 1990s for health and safety reasons, amid concerns of employees being distracted while working around dangerous chemicals.

Staff had voiced dissatisfaction with the prohibition, claiming it made them feel disconnected.

Senior management also felt the ban was contributing to a perception of the branch being technophobic and that it was hampering competitiveness against other branches of the company.

Prior to the study taking place, only senior management were allowed to bring their personal mobile phones to work.

Despite fears of smartphone distraction and loss of focus, work performance did not decline when the smartphone ban was lifted (stock image)

READ MORE: Experts predict what smartphones will look like in the future - from self-repairing screens to solar-powered charging Experts have teamed up with AI imaging tools to predict how your phone may look in the future Advertisement

Over the course of a year, the research tracked around 40 employees who availed of the new relaxed policy and used their personal smartphones when at work.

The study also tracked a similar number of staff who maintained a self-imposed ban by leaving their phones behind them when they stepped inside the work premises.

Insights were gained by way of qualitative interviews.

Despite fears of smartphone distraction and loss of focus, work performance did not decline when the smartphone ban was lifted.

Work-life conflict  the perceived conflict between the demands of work and personal life significantly declined for workers who had access to their phones compared to those who did not.

Employees with access to phones also reported being able to help with family issues during the day, helping to reduce pressure on their partner.

Spreading personal communications throughout the day also meant employees were not overwhelmed when they turned on their phone after work

While a lot of previous research in this area has focused on work-related communications outside the workplace; this study did the reverse, concentrating on personal communications inside the workplace.

The universities involved believe the findings are ground-breaking and will contribute to understanding of the interplay between technology and work-life balance, while also offering practical insights for organisations aiming to foster a healthier and more balanced work environment.

'Rather than enforcing a ban on smartphones in the workplace, our experiences in tracking the introduction of smartphones in this company suggests a more effective strategy would be to establish an organisational climate where the company expectation for smartphone behaviours are known, for example ensuring that they are not used in meetings or in the canteen, with adherence monitored by employees themselves,' Professor Whelan said.

'Managers must realise the unintended consequences of forcing a smartphone ban.'
A 500-mile journey from Toronto to Montreal may soon be an easy commute as a startup unveils plans for an ultra-fast flying train.

TransPod, a startup based in Toronto, says its hyperloop-style vacuum train will be able to shuttle passengers at 621mph (1000km/h).

The 'FluxJet' trains will levitate through vacuum tubes and be powered by plasma to move as fast as a commercial plane at cruising speed.

And the company says that it has the technology to make this a reality before 2035.

The company is already developing an $18 billion, 186-mile (300 km) line to run between the major Canadian cities of Edmonton and Calgary.

TransPod, a Canadian startup, has announced plans to build a vacuum hyperloop train that can go between Toronto and Montreal in an hour

Ryan Janzen, inventor of the TransPod system, says that the vehicle is 'built like a plane, but operates like a train.'

Designed like a plane without wings, the FluxJet vehicle is designed to 'fly' at high speeds.

Each vehicle is much smaller than a conventional train, closer in size to a single train carriage, and can transport 54 passengers or 10 tonnes of cargo.

Although the capacity is low, TransPod claims it will address this by launching multiple vehicles at the same time.

The company says that using the hyperloop will be 44 per cent cheaper than flying by plane and reduce CO2 emissions by about 636,000 tonnes per year.

The system sends magnetically levitating trains through vacuum tubes to reduce friction as shown in this artist's rendering

The company plans to build a vacuum hyperloop track from Edmonton to Calgary with a stop in Red Deer, they estimate that this will cost nearly 18bn

What is the fastest train in the world? The fastest train in the world is the high-speed Maglev between Shanghai and Beijing, China. It reaches speeds of 370 miles per hour (600km/h). For comparison most UK trains reach top speeds of 140 miles per hour (225km/h) The train can complete the 745-mile journey between the cities in just two and a half hours. Advertisement

To reduce friction as much as possible, the vehicle floats above rails inside a vacuum tube.

A series of strong magnets along the top of the vehicle pull up towards the steel tube while magnets along the bottom push upwards.

FluxJet then uses electromagnets to push the train along to accelerate or decelerate.

This means that there is very little friction or air resistance affecting the train, allowing it to move at very high speeds.

'You don't want to touch  anything. Because everything wears out at high speed,' Mr Janzen says in an interview with CBC.

TransPod joins a number of other companies that have invested in the development of vacuum hyperloop systems.

The first hyperloop model was proposed by Elon Musk in 2013 with a suggestion that it could transport passengers between Los Angeles and San Fransisco.

However, Hyperloop One, which aimed to commercialise Musk's system, collapsed at the end of last year.

Despite initially receiving backing from Sir Richard Branson, the company announced it would lay off all its workers and sell its assets.

Richard Branson and Virgin removed their brand from the Hyperloop project after the company shifted to focus on cargo rather than passengers.

The company says its trains will be able to hit speeds of 621mph (1000km/h), as fast as a commercial aeroplane

TransPod is currently developing a 186-mile (300km) track to connect the major Canadian cities of Edmonton and Calgary as shown in this rendering

Magnetic levitation trains, or Maglev trains, are already operational in South Korea, China, and Japan.

These trains are among the fastest in the world, with the fastest running between Shanghai and Beijing at 370 miles per hour (600km/h).

Howver, if successful, the FluxJet hyperloop system will be able to reach speeds nearly twice as high.

TransPod says that it is its contactless power system that allows it to move so fast.

The vehicle uses a plasma arc to transfer power from the rails to the vehicle without any contact between the two.

Mr Janzen describes these as 'virtual wires' which allow the wireless transfer of power.

An array of sensors and motors within the train itself make constant adjustments to keep the power system in range for charging.

Mr Janzen says that this uses 'some very fancy control systems and physics' to keep friction at an absolute minimum.

The technology is currently in the testing phase but TransPod say that it will be operational sometime before 2035

READ MORE: Scientists are developing the world's first INFINITY TRAIN with an electric battery that recharges using the force of gravity Advertisement

The technology is still in the testing stage, but Mr Janzen says that it could be enabling high-speed commutes between major Canadian cities by 2035.

In 2022, TransPod successfully demonstrated a one-third scale prototype that levitated and moved a nearly one-tonne vehicle.

The company has also begun building a half-scale test track in Droux, France which will be capable of reading 370 miles per hour (600km/h).

Once testing is complete, the next step will be to begin work on a full-scale operational line in Edmonton, Canada.

TransPod has already received $550m (432m) in investment to build an airport rail link but the final 300km track is expected to cost 17.7 billion.

The company is not receiving any funding from the Canadian Government for this project and intends to fund it privately.

The ultimate goal is to connect the transportation corridor between Quebec City and Chicago, with stops in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Detroit.
The NASA-backed mission to the moon may be doomed after the team found the spacecraft suffered a 'critical loss' in propellant.

The issue stemmed from an anomaly that hit the propulsion system seven hours after Peregrine One took off from Florida in the early morning hours on Monday.

The 1.2-ton lander is carrying $108 million worth of NASA instruments, a hair sample from US President John F Kennedy, and the ashes of hundreds of other people.

A craft without fuel will likely be unable to stop or modify its course, which means the remains onboard could be lost forever in space.

Pittsburg-based Astrobotic, which designed the lander, shared it is working to stabilize the loss.

The lunar lander launched on top of a brand-new Vulcan rocket constructed by United Launch Alliance on Monday at 2:18am ET from Cape Canaveral.

The NASA-backed mission to the moon has been plagued with issues since launching from Florida in the early morning hours on Monday. A glimmer of hope was offered when the company shared the first image of Peregrine in space

The craft is housing the remains of people whose families paid up to $13,000 to have them scattered on the moon.

A hair sample from John F Kennedy is onboard, along with samples of Dwight D Eisenhower and George Washington.

The mission was organized by Celestis, a company that specializes in cremated remains and DNA samples to outer space and offers packages for moon burials that start at $2,500.

Each sample was placed inside a silver-colored cylinder before being loaded into the craft, which will then litter the lunar surface.

Astrobotic has been sharing updates about the lunar lander's journey, with the first revealing the craft could not position itself toward the sun due to an issue with the propulsion system.

The lunar lander is inside a craft from Astrobotic Technology, which launched on top of a brand-new Vulcan rocket constructed by United Launch Alliance

That meant the lander's solar arrays could not power up. However, that issue was fixed but led to another failure that released fuel into space.

'Unfortunately, it appears the failure within the propulsion system is causing a critical loss of propellant,' the company posted on its website.

'The team is working to try and stabilize this loss, but given the situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture.'

However, a glimmer of hope was offered when the company shared the first image of Peregrine in space, which was snapped by cameras mounted on the payload deck.

Peregrine One launched atop a brand-new Vulcan rocket constructed by United Launch Alliance.

Astrobotic noted that the lunar lander and the Vulcan rocket successfully separated, with the lander receiving telemetry via the NASA Deep Space Network.

The 1.2-ton lander is carrying $108 million worth of NASA instruments, a hair sample from US President John F Kennedy, and the ashes (pictured) of hundreds of other people

A hair sample from John F Kennedy is onboard, along with Dwight D Eisenhower and George Washington, for a mission organized by Celestis

The Peregrine One Mission is carrying the DNA and ashes of around 60 people, including three Star Trek actors and US President John F Kennedy

The Vulcan Centaur rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Florida at 2:18am EST and is part of the first in a series of missions for 2024 under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

At launch, the rocket used two methane-fuelled engines and two boosters to produce one million pounds of thrust.

Within minutes of ignition, the rocket burned through 701,000 pounds (318,000kg) of fuel and reached half its original weight.

The 'payload fairing,' used to protect the rocket from the extreme forces of the launch, was then jettisoned.

This left the rocket at less than 10 percent of its original weight.

After adjusting its trajectory in Earth's orbit, the Peregrine lander will begin its long journey to the Moon for its lunar orbit phase before attempting a landing in February

The Vulcan rocket then entered an orbit around Earth, spending 28 minutes coasting.

Then, 51 minutes and six seconds after launch, the lander detached from the rocket, leaving it ready for its long journey to the moon.

However, that is when the unexpected issue hit.

The lander needs to position its solar panels toward the sun in order to charge up its batteries for the rest of the haul to the lunar surface.

If the team is able to adjust the craft, the lander is expected to touch down on the moon in February.
It is bad news for employers, but the best way to get British people to try harder at work may be to pay them more money.

Unlike in some other cultures, British people will put in twice as much effort when extra cash is on offer, a study suggests.

Showing them the money appears to works better than more subtle attempts to suggest they should work hard because other people do.

Researchers led by the University of Chicago recruited 1,067 people in the UK and 1,086 in China for a social experiment.

The volunteers were asked to look through a series of images and identify each one with showed a building.

British people will double their work efforts if they think a financial reward is on the table, study finds (stock image)

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They got either a flat fee to do this, or an added incentive.

The added incentive was the psychological 'nudge' of being told other people doing the task had tried hard and completed 160 images, or a simple cash payment for every 10 images they managed to get through.

For people in China, the cash reward encouraged almost 20 per cent more effort than was seen in people give the psychological nudge or a flat fee.

But British people were so motivated by cold, hard cash that they put in more than twice the effort - completing more than double the number of images compared to people given a flat fee or psychological nudge.

The study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, also compared the US, India, Mexico, and South Africa in various experiments.

When also asked to identify buildings within pictures, more than half of people from the US quit the task as soon as they could when no extra money was available to continue, while more than 90 per cent of people in Mexico were conscientious enough to keep going.

The findings suggest people in western, rich countries like the UK and US feel less obligation to try hard when there is nothing in it for them.

The findings suggest people in western, rich countries like the UK and US feel less obligation to try hard when there is nothing in it for them (stock image)

People in China, India, Mexico and South Africa may have been poorer in some cases, but were less motivated by money in comparison to psychological nudges.

Danila Medvedev, who led the study from the University of Chicago, said: 'People in western cultures like the UK have learned to think that time is money.

'So they believe extra work should be further compensated with money, and duty and responsibility become more important to them when money is involved too.'

Researchers also analysed the results of a previous study where people in the US and India were asked to press two keys on a keyboard as many times as possible.

People in India were more willing to do the task when the money went to charity than people in the US.
LG and Samsung have announced plans to launch fully transparent televisions in what could be the next jump in TV tech.

South Korean electronics manufacturer LG announced its wireless see-through device on Monday at CES 2024 in Las Vegas.

Before the conference halls were open to the public, the company wheeled the 77-inch wireless screen onstage at a Monday morning press conference.

Billed as 'the world's first 4k, wireless, transparent OLED TV,' the LG Signature OLED-T is built to stand in the middle of a room and look like a clear pane of glass when it isn't in use.

LG and Samsung have announced plans to launch fully transparent televisions in what could be the next jump in TV tech (pictured, LGs new TV being presented at CES in Las Vegas)

LG wheeled the 77-inch wireless screen onstage at a Monday morning press conference

LG's Zero Connect Box frees the TV from the wall, the company said. This is mostly true, as the TV still needs a power cord. But there's no messy HDMI cords between the box and the screen

When it's turned on, viewers can either keep it see-through, like a window that's playing a movie on it, or turn it opaque, so the wall behind it is no longer visible.

'OLED T creates a sense of openness,' said LG's Frank Lee. The TV no longer has to dominate the room. This heightens the relationship between the TV and the space it inhabits.'

This transparent block is meant to be more than just a screen, he said.

'OLED T also becomes an object of design,' Lee said.

'You can place it in locations unimaginable until now - a modular solution that provides you with a variety of ways to install it seamlessly.'

The TV has no cables to fuss with, he said.

LG's wireless transmission box remains near the wall, beaming visuals and sound to the screen, so it can be moved freely or placed in the middle of the room.

Samsung's TV has no cables to fuss with. But, its unit is not available to the public, and the company's display is essentially a concept model

The transmission box (bottom right) remains plugged into the wall, while the OLED T can be placed nearby. The box beams audio and visual to the screen via a 60 GHz wireless antenna

These two components need to be placed within about 30 feet of one another

Samsung's transparent display at CES used microLED picture technology, which the company claims produces a superior picture to other transparent screens on the market

The company claims that its new Alpha 11 chip, installed in the OLED T, uses AI to deliver 70 percent improvement in graphic performance and 30 percent faster processing speed compared to the previous generation chip.

Competitor Samsung also unveiled a transparent screen at the consumer electronics convention, but it was a floor display and not an actual product that consumers will be able to buy.

LG has not yet announced a price yet, but if the $87,000 price tag on its 65-inch wireless 8K OLED TV is anything to go by, it could easily be over $100,000.

LG's Zero Connect Box frees the TV from the wall, the company said.

This is mostly true, as the TV still needs a power cord. But there's no messy HDMI cords between the box and the screen.

The transmission box remains plugged into the wall, while the OLED T can be placed nearby. The box beams audio and visual to the screen via a 60 GHz wireless antenna.

These two components need to be placed within about 30 feet of one another.

Samsung's transparent display at CES used microLED picture technology, which the company claims produces a superior picture to other transparent screens on the market.

But, its unit is not available to the public, and the company's display is essentially a concept model.
Apple has begun paying the $500 million settlement to iPhone users in the US who accused the tech giant of purposely slowing down devices.

The so-called 'batterygate' scandal in 2017 was labeled 'one of the largest consumer frauds in history,' forcing users to invest in new iPhone models.

Now, three million owners of certain iPhone models who filed the complaint are set to receive around $92 for each affected model.

Apple agreed in 2020 to settle a class action lawsuit filed in 2017 that accused the company of purposely slowing phones over time - but Apple has not admitted wrongdoing.

The so-called 'batterygate' scandal in 2017 was labeled 'one of the largest consumer frauds in history,' forcing users to invest in new iPhone models

The payouts apply to owners of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus and SE if they ran iOS 10.2.1 or later before December 21, 2017, along with iPhone 7 or 7 Plus on iOS 11.2.

Those eligible are set to receive their payout this month, with some already reporting they have received payback.

People hoping to get the payout would have had to file a complaint by October 6, 2020.

The class-action lawsuit in 2018 in California said that reports of unexplained iPhone shutdowns first surfaced in 2015 before spiking in the following year's fall.

Users' concerns centered around the fact their phones shut off even though their batteries had a charge of more than 30 percent.

At the time, Apple said in a statement: 'We have never - and would never - do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.'

Apple blamed the issue on the batteries, claiming the units' performance decreases as they age.

While Apple's statements may be factual, the company failed to declare the remarks before users experienced slower performance.

Many iPhone users are seeing the funds flow into their bank accounts. Michael Burkhardt shared an image on X showing he received six payments of $92.17

Many iPhone users are seeing the funds flow into their bank accounts.

Michael Burkhardt shared an image on X showing he received six payments of $92.17.

Apple admitted in 2017 that it intentionally 'smooths out' the performance of its smartphones when a battery gets too old.

A consumer watchdog that evaluates electronic gadgets' performance sparked an outcry after it found that the processing power of older models is limited once battery life begins to suffer.

Many claimed it was an attempt to force users to upgrade to the latest model.

Apple's 'batterygate' was not just in the US - the company has agreed to pay settlements in Canada and the UK for the same claims.
Advertisement

Time to put your best hiking-boot-adorned foot forward.

Author and experienced mountaineer Alex Roddie has penned a book that's guaranteed to spark your lust for wandering, with the tome documenting epic hiking trails in Ireland and Great Britain and stunning photographs showcasing landscapes that can be viewed along the way.

Wanderlust British & Irish Isles: Hiking the Trails of Great Britain and Ireland (gestalten.com) is filled with incredible pictures of dramatic peaks, craggy cliffs and breathtaking beaches - plus expert guidance on tackling the best hiking routes that meander in their midst.

Within the compendium's spellbinding pages, readers will find maps for each trail and advice on when is best to tackle each route on foot.

Broken down by region, the tome showcases the 'breathtaking nature' and 'timeless culture' that is there to be discovered on hiking routes in England, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland , Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Scroll down to see a selection of 10 images from the tome, from the world-famous mountains of the Lake District to the 'most famous long distance trail in Scotland'.

CUCKMERE HAVEN, EAST SUSSEX, SOUTH DOWNS WAY: 'A multiday hike in England with a high chance of sunshine and dry weather: this may sound like a myth, but the South Downs Way offers exactly that,' writes Roddie in his opening remarks on this walking trail. The above image shows part of Cuckmere Haven - an area of flood plains that marks the start of the 'excellent Seven Sisters section', the author writes. He advises five to eight days to complete the route, which covers 100 miles (161km) from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne, East Sussex

KINDER PLATEAU, WHITE PEAK AND DARK PEAK CIRCUIT, DERBYSHIRE: Behold the view north across the Edale Basin from the Kinder Plateau, which can be seen when hiking this circular trail around the Peak District. The path covers 64.6 miles (104km) and takes four to five days, according to the tome, which grades it as 'moderate' difficulty. Other highlights include Lathkill Dale, summiting Mam Tor hill and crossing 'the ancient woodlands of Chatsworth Park', it adds

HEBRIDEAN WAY, OUTER HEBRIDES, SCOTLAND: 'With two interisland ferry crossings, six causeways and ten islands, this is an unusual trail,' says Roddie of this 175-mile (281km) hiking route in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. He continues: 'Of all the trails in this book, this one gives you the most islands. Look at the Outer Hebrides on the map and you will notice that the islands form a north-south arc. The Hebridean Way traverses this island chain from its southern tip to Stornoway, the capital of Lewis, in the north.' This image shows the turquoise waters of Seilebost Beach on the Isle of Harris, which can be seen on part of the trail. Roddie recommends 11 to 15 days to complete the hike, which he says is moderate to challenging

GLYNDWR'S WAY, POWYS, WALES: 'The Glyndwr Way wanders through the rolling hills of the Welsh countryside', writes Roddie, as this picture shows. The author recommends eight to 10 days to complete the 135.5-mile (218km) trek, which starts in Knighton, Welshpool, and finishes in Powys. 'The trail passes through rugged and often sparsely populated countryside, making this a fantastic walk for the lover of solitude,' he notes

OGWEN VALLEY, THE WELSH 3,000ERS, SNOWDONIA: A hiker looks out across a 'sea of clouds in the Ogwen Valley' in this image, which shows part of the Welsh 3,000ers trail in North Wales. The three-day route, explains Roddie, covers 30 miles (50km) from Bwlch y Ddeufaen to Pen-y-Pass or Llanberis and is described by the author as 'challenging'. Hikers can expect scrambling, rock climbing and steep sections, he tells readers

CRUMMOCK WATER AND BUTTERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT, WAINWRIGHT'S COAST TO COAST WALK: 'This is a classic walk, and some would consider it the classic - the English long-distance route against which all others are compared,' writes Roddie of this walk. The above picture shows the amazing views that hikers can enjoy along the way, looking down at the lakes of Crummock Water and Buttermere, with Haystacks hill to the left. The book recommends nine to 14 days to complete the 180-mile (290km) trail on foot, which crosses the North of England from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire

MEALL MEADHONACH, SUILVEN CIRCUIT, SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS: This spellbinding image shows Mount Suilven's eastern summit - Meall Meadhonach - which hikers can gaze upon during this circular trail in the Scottish Highlands. In his book, Roddie says the 2,389ft (731m) mountain has 'more character, perhaps, than any other peak of such modest height'. The author recommends one to two days to complete the trail, which covers 17.7-miles (28.4km) and is described as challenging. Hikers can set off from Inverkirkaig in Sutherland or from Lochinver, if hiking clockwise, the book suggests

PORTH DINLLAEN, NORTH WALES PILGRIM'S WAY: Hikers tackling the North Wales Pilgrim's Way can stop to enjoy this picturesque view of Porth Dinllaen village during the 135.8-mile (218.5km) journey from Holywell in Flintshire to Aberdaron, Gwynedd. Known as the 'Welsh Camino', the route was 'established in 2015 to link ancient churches dedicated to the saints of the 6th and 7th centuries', writes Roddie. The author recommends seven to 11 days to complete the 'easy to moderate' trail

THE CAMBRIAN WAY, NORTH WALES: This epic 297-mile (478km) walking trail runs the length of Wales, from Cardiff on the south coast to Conwy in the north. Part of the trail passes through the Brecon Beacons National Park, which the book describes as 'a long, tough stage of more than 20.5 miles (33km) over the principal summits of the range, including the highest, Pen y Fan (2,907ft / 886m)', which is pictured above. 'The sharp, sculpted peaks and ridges of the Beacons have the feeling of a prehistoric landscape,' it adds

FAIRFIELD TO HELVELLYN TRAVERSE, CUMBRIA: 'Experienced and well-equipped mountaineers can tackle this route at any time of year, but most should avoid winter and wait until the snow has melted,' writes Roddie. The Fairfield to Helvellyn Traverse is a 'challenging route' with '13 peaks along the way', writes Roddie. Above is a photograph taken from one of those peaks - Helvellyn - described in the book as 'the highest point in a great north-south ridge'. The trail follows 'well-established trails over fells that have been enjoyed for generations' the author says, adding: 'Still, only the fittest walkers will be capable of completing this in a day, so making a wild camp somewhere along the ridge is a necessity.' He recommends two days to complete the 20.3-mile (32.6km) trek, which runs from Rydal to Keswick and is described in the book as challenging
A Queensland couple were forced to shell out thousands of extra dollars on their European holiday after they made a simple mistake on their plane tickets.

Phil and Kate were excited to visit family in the UK and spend a month travelling through Europe but hit their first roadblock before they'd boarded their flight.

Phil had booked their flights for what he thought was a good price through a third-party travel website called Student Universe in July last year.

However, when filling out the details for their tickets, he accidentally used his wife's nickname, Kate, rather than her birth name, Katherine.

The couple were flying from Brisbane to Melbourne with Virgin, then Melbourne to London via Doha on Qatar Airways for the cost of $2,400 each, return.

Virgin spotted the name on Kate's plane ticket didn't match the one on her passport, and informed her she wouldn't be able to board without fixing the discrepancy.

The information needed to be the same so it matched the rest of the couple's documents, including their visas.

While most airlines offer detail changes for a small or administrative fee, third-party websites often charge exuberant rates for the service.

The couple claimed Student Universe told them to cancel Kate's original ticket, from which they received a small refund, and buy a new one with the correct information.

'They didn't have time, that was their reasoning, to issue a name change on the ticket - but they had time to sell us a new ticket,' Phil told A Current Affair.

Queensland couple Phil and Kate (above) were forced to spend thousands of extra dollars on their European holiday after using Kate's nickname on her plane ticket instead of her birth name, Katherine

However, because they were now buying a last-minute flight, Kate's new ticket cost $4,700.

'I begged them on the phone: 'Please, you can't do that - that's all our holiday money gone in a flash',' Kate recalled.

While Phil has taken responsibility for the mistake, the pair feel they'd been unfairly undone by Student Universe.

'They've just taken advantage of the entire situation, particularly peak travel season and time was of the essence,' he said.

When approached by Daily Mail Australia for comment, a Student Universe spokesperson said it is 'obligated to adhere to the change and cancellation policies as set by the airlines'.

The couple (above) booked the ticket through Student Universe and were told to cancel it and buy a new airfare

'In this instance name changes were not permitted, meaning the only option was to cancel and rebook the ticket,' they said.

'As we were only made aware by the customer of their error within three hours of the flight departure, this led to further airline imposed charges which could have been avoided by the acting earlier.

'We advise all customers that they should carefully review and advise us immediately of any errors in names.

'In most cases where an error is flagged on the same day as the booking is made, the customer would incur no penalties to cancel and rebook inline with standard airline policy.'
Waddling around the perimeter of a prison in Brazil's southern state of Santa Catarina, geese have edged out their canine predecessors on patrols to make sure inmates do not escape.

Between breaks in their on-site pond at Sao Pedro de Alcantara prison, the honking birds, dubbed 'geese agents', police a green space between the inside fence and main outer wall.

Staff say the vigilance of the geese makes them excellent guard animals, even more so than dogs.

'We have electronic surveillance, in-person surveillance... and finally the surveillance of the geese, which replaced the dogs,' said prison director Marcos Roberto de Souza.

Piu-Piu heads the small flock, leading fellow geese in their oversight of the premises. When officers call his name, he emits a distinctive honk.

A gaggle of guards: Sao Pedro de Alcantara prison in Brazil's southern state of Santa Catarina uses geese (above) to patrol the perimeter. They are naturally territorial, meaning they will automatically kick up a fuss if someone unknown enters their space. And, crucially, they're extremely loud

Call the po-geese: Piu-Piu, a male goose, is the proud leader of the flock and known for his distinctive honk

Souza said tending the flock of geese is also more affordable than raising dogs and that the quiet location of the prison makes it a viable option for his facility.

'Night time is very quiet. Even during the day as you can see it is a very silent place and at night even more so... The space favours this type of security in the case of the geese,' he said.

Several factors make geese surprisingly effective guard animals, noted nationalgeographic.com. Their eyesight is excellent - sharper and more accurate than humans - as is their hearing. And they are naturally territorial, meaning they will automatically kick-up a fuss if someone unknown enters their space.

And, crucially, they're extremely loud.

Prison beak: Between breaks in their on-site pond, the honking birds patrol a green space between the prison's inside fence and main outer wall

Feathered force: The geese are less expensive to maintain than guard dogs, and less likely to raise a false alarm due to boredom than their canine compatriots

Prison director Marcos Roberto de Souza noted that the quiet prison makes it ideal for a poultry patrol: 'Night time is very quiet... The space favors this type of security in the case of the geese'

Geese on guard through the ages

While the idea of a honking horde of feathered guards may seem unusual, geese have actually been deployed by humans strategically throughout history.

In 390 BC, Roman historian Livy recorded an incident of geese honking an alert and saving Rome from a stealth Gaul invasion at the Battle of Allia. A Gaul garrison was attempting to seize the Capitoline Hill, taking entrance via the Temple of Juno under cover of night. Their approach was thwarted when honking geese roused the sleeping Romans to ward off the invaders.

Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote: 'The goose is carefully watchful. Witness the defense of the capitol when the silence of the dogs would have betrayed nothing.'

Following the Battle of Allia geese were assigned divine status by the Ancient Romans.

Doubt this tale's authenticity? More contemporary examples abound.

From 1959 to 2012, a gaggle of guard geese known as the 'Scotch Watch' patrolled 14 acres of warehouses housing Scottish whisky in Dumbuck, Scotland, under the rule of a head goose named 'Mr Ballantine', reported scotchwhisky.com.

At the peak of its power, this security battalion numbered 100 geese.

The birds successfully safe-kept 300million pounds worth of Scotch for over six decades.

And in October 2021, reported globaltimes.cn, the Chinese government deployed some 500 geese to the Chinese-Vietnam border, ready to bite or honk at anyone attempting to break Covid quarantine rules and enter China illegally.

The birds required no training and stood guard across 300 miles of the Chongzuo Prefecture.
Emmerdale is set to focus on an emotional breast cancer storyline.

In upcoming scenes, Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) will discover some devastating news after doctor Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson) finds a lump in her breast.

Following her own mother Faith's (Sally Dexter) own tragic cancer story, Chas appears frightened for the times ahead.

While Chas and Liam are enjoying an evening together alone, Liam unveils the news that he felt a lump in her breast.

But after pointing out the worrying discovery, Chas appears visibly full of fear, almost knowing what the outcome could be.

In upcoming scenes, Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) will discover some devastating news after doctor Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson) finds a lump in her breast

While Chas and Liam (pictured) are enjoying an evening together alone, Liam unveils the news that he felt a lump in her breast

Although Dr Liam attempts to reassure her as best as he can, admitting that the lump could just be a cyst or something benign and not cancer, Chas was taking none of it.

Chas will take a long-awaited trip to see a GP and a visit to the breast clinic for diagnostic tests - where the results come back that she has triple negative breast cancer.

In a state of shock, Chas initially keeps the news a secret.

The soap's production team are working closely alongside the charity Breast Cancer Now for this long running storyline.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK with one woman diagnosed every ten minutes.

Speaking about the upcoming storyline, Kate Brooks producer of Emmerdale explained: 'When this story was first pitched, we were acutely aware how important it was to explore this.

'With Chass family history of breast cancer and Chas being such a strong character, and in many ways the bedrock of the Dingles, we wanted to show the impact on not just her, but her immediate family.

'With Lucy Pargeters innate ability to showcase Chass vulnerabilities beneath her hardened exterior, we knew she was absolutely the right character to play this with.

Following her own mother Faith's (Sally Dexter), pictured, own tragic cancer story , Chas appears frightened for the times ahead

But after pointing out the worrying discovery, Chas appears visibly full of fear, almost knowing what the outcome could be

Although Dr Liam attempts to reassure her as best as he can, admitting that the lump could just be a cyst or something benign and not cancer, Chas was taking none of it

Chas will take a long-awaited trip to see a GP and a visit to the breast clinic for diagnostic tests - where the results come back that she has triple negative breast cancer. In a state of shock, Chas initially keeps the news a secret (pictured in September)

'We approached Breast Cancer Now as we wanted to depict this story in the most authentic way possible.

'Any light we can shed on this disease and encourage and remind people to routinely check their breasts can hopefully help lead to more positive outcomes.'

Emmerdale have been working with Breast Cancer Nows clinical nurse specialists for this long running story.
Married At First Sight groom Michael Brunelli has unveiled a shock new look, which fans say make him look ten years younger.

The former reality star, 33, shared before and after photos of himself shaving off his facial hair.

The 'Before' photos showed a scruffy Michael with a thick goatee and looking his age - a man in his early 30s.

However, in the 'After' photos Michael sported a fresh, baby-faced look as he revealed his new hair-free visage to the camera.

He also shared a photo of him holding his eleven-month-old son Lucius, who looked confused by his father's squeaky clean new face.

Married At First Sight groom Michael Brunelli has unveiled a shock new look, which fans say make him look ten years younger

Michael captioned the pictures with some hilarious words: 'Just swipe I'm already done with myself in 2024.'

In February, Michael and his fiancee Martha Kalifatidis welcomed their first child, announcing the birth of son Lucius on social media.

The baby's name was a surprise as many believed Martha had leaked the name of her son as Giuseppe.

The 'Before' photos showed a scruffy Michael with a thick goatee and looking his age - a man in his early 30s

However, in the 'After' photos Michael sported a fresh, baby-faced look as he revealed his new hair-free visage to the camera

She posted to Instagram Stories to reveal the baby will have a classic Italian name, as well as sharing a page from a photo album that was made at her baby shower which appeared to name the child.

Martha and Michael's relationship has gone from strength to strength after they found love on season six of Married At First Sight in 2019.

In an interview with Stellar, they admitted they weren't each other's type when they first met at the altar, but that certainly changed over time.

'She's the person I go to whenever there's a problem. I can trust her opinion with every decision I make...' Michael told the publication.

They are now influencers and film, edit and produce each other's content.

He also shared a photo of him holding his eleven-month-old son Lucius, who looked confused by his father's squeaky clean new face
The BBC reportedly won't launch an investigation into Strictly's Giovanni Pernice - as it is claimed his last partner Amanda Abbington has 'demanded footage of their rehearsals'.

The Sun claims that the channel bosses secretly had a meeting with professional dancer Giovanni, 33, about his conduct last year but no action was taken.

Amanda, 51, has reportedly demanded bosses hand over footage of her rehearsals with Giovanni after they clashed while working together as she apparently hopes it will 'back up' her claims against the star.

Amanda is said to want to review the recordings of their time together as she seeks legal advice over his alleged behaviour towards her.

She left the show suddenly for 'personal reasons' and caused a stir when she kept the dancer out of her exit statement.

The BBC reportedly won't launch an investigation into Strictly's Giovanni Pernice - as it is claimed his last partner Amanda Abbington has 'demanded footage of their rehearsals'

The Sun claims that the channel bosses secretly had a meeting with professional dancer Giovanni, 33, about his conduct last year but no action was taken

Sources close to the star have also claimed Amanda has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the wake of her departure from the series.

A source has now told the publication: 'Some of the professionals and crew feel it needs to be dealt with and Giovanni shouldn't come back this year.

'The BBC are standing behind Giovanni and won't be pursuing an investigation. It's a shock to some on the show who think something needs to be done about his behaviour.

'Amanda had a really tough time with him and she isn't the only one. Four more of his partners have either talked openly about how hard it was working with him or have made it clear in the industry.'

They also claim that his previous partner Ranvir Singh 'flagged an issue during training with Giovanni and said she was unhappy'.

MailOnline has contacted the BBC for comment.

Actress Amanda was paired with professional dancer Giovanni for last year's series but made a sudden departure from the show in October, citing 'personal reasons'.

On Saturday it was claimed that she wants to review rehearsal recordings as she seeks legal advice over his alleged behaviour towards her as she believes the footage could back up her claims.

Amanda, 51, has reportedly demanded bosses hand over footage of her rehearsals with Giovanni after they clashed while working together as she apparently hopes it will 'back up' her claims against the star

Amanda is said to want to review the recordings of their time together as she seeks legal advice over his alleged behaviour towards her

Giovanni's former celebrity partners have complained they felt 'uncomfortable' with him and even feuded with the dancer (pictured with Laura Whitmore)

Ranvir Singh admitted that she had a 'total meltdown' during rehearsals with professional partner Giovanni (pictured together in 2020)

After her departure, it was claimed Amanda struggled with Giovanni's 'militant approach to training', with her time on the show said to have been 'plagued by difficulties'.

A source has now revealed Amanda has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

A pal also said Amanda found the negative response she got on social media for not mentioning Giovanni in her exit statement difficult.

But they insisted her family and friends had been there to support her.

The BBC and a representative for Amanda declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline at the time.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Giovanni for comment.

Amanda was praised by the judges for her performances on the show but it was claimed she was struggling behind the scenes.

An inside source told The Telegraph: 'It could be that she didn't know what she let herself in for.

'He [Giovanni] was quite tough and she found that difficult. If she wasn't very well, that wouldn't have helped.

'She was with a partner that had a certain training style that she couldn't cope with. Whether that came to a head or whether there's something else going on I don't know.'

Giovanni's parents said the dancer 'was just doing his job' following Amanda's shock departure from Strictly.

Addressing the news at the time, Giovanni's father Piero and mother Rosalda admitted that their son 'trained for long hours but was just doing his job'.

Speaking to The Sun, from his home in Italy, Piero said: 'We are surprised by the fact she left the show, because everything was going ok - we thought they could have won.'

He added: 'My son is a really nice, polite and respectful boy. He always had good results with different partners and he has never had problems with them.'

Giovanni's mother Rosalda explained: 'They have to train tough hours to get some results. Giovanni has just done what he had to do. He was just doing his job.'

Twinkle-toed star Giovanni was reportedly only given the news of Amanda's exit a few hours before the official statement was released.

A source told the Daily Star: 'Amanda didn't tell Giovanni she had decided to quit the show. The first he heard was a call from a producer.

'This has really annoyed him. He's barely heard from her for 10 days. She hasn't been replying to messages or telling him what's happening.

'He's been complaining about it to friends. He's frustrated. He is worried the drama will be damaging for his career and make him look bad.'

Giovanni has reportedly fallen out with a number of his former partners on the show.

In 2016, former Love Island host Laura Whitmore said she 'cried every day' and felt 'uncomfortable' while training with him.

She later wrote for HuffPost UK in 2018: 'Im still not ready to talk in depth about my experience on the show.

'I was placed with a dance partner I was extremely uncomfortable with and in the end I felt broken, I cried every day. And I really was broken, both mentally and physically, by the end.'

Giovanni was also said to have fallen out with Good Morning Britain star Ranvir Singh in 2020 and 'feuded' with Richie Anderson in 2022.

Amanda was reportedly not invited to perform during the Strictly Come Dancing final by show bosses.

While all the 2023 contestants who were eliminated from the show returned for one final performance together during the last episode last month, Amanda was notably absent.

A show source told The Sun: 'There was a lot of talk on set about Amandas notable absence from the finale.

'It seemed unfair that Nigel [Harman] was invited back and she wasnt.

'I imagine she was upset by the snub as it would have been nice to have seen her return for one last dance, especially as she was so popular on the show and well-liked by viewers.'

It comes after Amanda revealed she was 'truly distraught' by her sudden Strictly exit.

The star quit the show back in October, citing 'personal issues' as a catalyst for her early exit.

Taking to Instagram, Amanda opened up about her premature departure, just weeks after failing to return for the group dance in the final.

Amanda reposted a fan's comment on her Instagram Stories. The Strictly viewer wrote: 'I was truly distraught with her sudden departure from the show.'

The Sherlock star added her own caption: 'Thank you angel. So was I.'

Amanda did not return for the final which sees the past contestants of the series gather together for one last number.

But she did send a message of support to the three finalists on Instagram. Amanda shared a snap of the three couples standing with the glitterball trophy and wrote: 'Good luck tonight to these six beautiful humans.'

BBC bosses were said to be keen for Amanda to reunite with Giovanni to show there was 'no bad blood'.

However a source told The Mirror that: 'They [the BBC] wanted to position her as still very much part of the Strictly family, but Amanda's response to the invitation was she'd not be back.

'It's a shame, because her exit has been a sour note to the series this year.'

BBC declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.

The publication added it has been 'difficult' and upsetting for Giovanni as he doesn't want people to see it 'as a reflection on him.'

While the pair sometimes 'clashed' Giovanni wishes her all the best.

The Sherlock star left the show in week five, initially citing medical reasons before later revealing personal issues on Instagram.

Amanda withdrew from her performance, before it was revealed she would not be returning.

On an episode of It Takes Two, the show confirmed Amanda's exit and released a statement that read: 'Amanda Abbington is unable to continue in Strictly Come Dancing and has decided to withdraw from the competition.

'The show wishes her all the best for the future.'

A montage of Amanda's best moments on the series was shown, before host Fleur East added: 'Amanda we are sending you all of our love'.

A Strictly insider told MailOnline at the time: 'This has been something that Amanda has been unfortunately having to consider making since late last week.

'It has been a devastating time for Amanda. Her Strictly journey has been plagued by difficulties but she just didn't think there was any other option.

'As hard as it has been, there was a chance they could have won.'

Giovanni and Amanda were said to have been at loggerheads for weeks, with screen star Amanda 'left shaken' by the pro's 'militant and aggressive' training style.

The actress noticeably snubbed the pro dancer from her exit statement which she posted on Instagram.

Ranvir admitted that she had a 'total meltdown' during rehearsals with professional partner Giovanni (pictured together on It Takes Two in 2020)

It was also reported as recently as last year that he 'feuded' with Richie Anderson in 2022 , who was his celeb partner the year before Amanda (pictured together)

In 2016, former Love Island host Laura Whitmore said she 'cried every day' and felt 'uncomfortable' while training with him (pictured together)

Amanda noticeably snubbed the pro dancer from her exit statement which she posted on Instagram

She wrote: 'It is with deepest regret that I had to leave Strictly. I did not come to this decision easily or lightly but for personal reasons I am unable to continue'

She wrote: 'It is with deepest regret that I had to leave Strictly. I did not come to this decision easily or lightly but for personal reasons I am unable to continue.

'It was an absolute joy working with my fellow contestants, they are a beautiful, hardworking and talented group of people who I love and who I will miss seeing every Friday and Saturday and competing alongside.

'I want to thank the incredible Production team and everyone on Strictly who looked after me and who are so kind and caring. It's a wonderful bunch of people and I'll miss all of them.

'I'm so sad that I am unable to go any further. Thank you to everyone who voted and who sent wonderful messages and inspiring support. You are all amazing. Truly. Thank you. xxx'.
Kelsey Parker has revealed she has decided to take off her wedding rings nearly two years after her husband Tom Parker's death.

The widow of The Wanted star, 33, said the 'painful' decision came after months of 'torturing herself' over when would be the right time to take them off.

Tom died aged 33 in March 2022 following an 18-month battle with stage four glioblastoma brain cancer.

Kelsey has since found happiness with former convict Sean Boggans, who was jailed in 2013 for four years after he killed a man with one punch.

Kelsey took to Instagram on Sunday to say she wants to do something special with her engagement and wedding ring so as 'to honour my marriage with Tom, while not living in the past'.

Kelsey Parker has revealed she has decided to take off her wedding rings nearly two years after her husband Tom Parker's death

Tom died aged 33 in March 2022 following an 18-month battle with stage four glioblastoma brain cancer. They have two children daughter Aurelia, four, and son Bodhi, three

Kelsey took to Instagram on Sunday to say she wants to do something special with her engagement and wedding ring so as 'to honour my marriage with Tom, while not living in the past'

Kelsey has a stunning diamond ring and silver band from her marriage to Tom

Alongside a photo montage of their 13-year relationship, Kelsey wrote: 'Hi everyone, hope you have had a lovely Sunday.

'I wanted to share something with you all this evening. Its something Ive been thinking long and hard about for a while now, and as we end the first week of a new year, I have decided to take off my rings.

'It felt really painful every time I looked at them and I have been torturing myself over when will be the right time. I know now there will never be a right or wrong time, but there does have to come a point in my life when I remove them.

'Of course Ill always be Toms, hell always be in my heart and I know I will forever be in his, but right now, in this world Im not married anymore as much as that breaks my heart to admit.'

Kelsey asked fans for their creative ideas about how she could do something 'special' with the rings until she bestows them to their children Aurelia, four, and son Bodhi, three.

She continued: 'Sometimes I wonder if Ive left them on too long and other times I think I just expected to wear them forever.

'How do I protect and honour my marriage to Tom while not living in the past?!

'Anyway, Im going on here, but it is something I wanted to share with you all as you give me so much love and support. Please do send me any ideas you have of what I could do with my rings, and no hate please! I want 2024 to be a positive year and I have no space for negative energy or comments. Love and light xxx'.

Kelsey has since found happiness with former convict Sean Boggans , who was jailed in 2013 for four years after he killed a man with one punch

Kelsey asked fans for their creative ideas about how she could do something 'special' with the rings until she bestows them to their children Aurelia, four, and son Bodhi, three

Kelsey was inundated with supportive messages from her followers and her celebrity pals

Kelsey was inundated with supportive messages from her followers and her celebrity pals.

Michelle Keegan and Jessica Wright posted love heart emojis while Vicky Pattison said: 'Sending you love babe'.

The poignant moment comes after Kelsey spoke about finding happiness again with boyfriend Sean.

Kelsey, who has received vitriolic abuse for moving onto a new romance following the tragic loss of her late husband, says Sean is 'full of remorse' over the attack.

However, while Kelsey admitted it has been tough to receive the criticism, her relationship has been accepted by Tom's mum and his family.

The star said she was initially nervous to tell Tom's parents about Sean as she was scared of hurting them.

However, she revealed they have been incredibly accepting of her new relationship.

Talking in an interview with Closer magazine, the mother-of-two admitted: 'Tom's mum was brilliant and gave me her blessing. She just wants me and the kids to be happy.'

She continued: 'I spent months feeling not much at all after Tom died, and felt I had lost who I was as a person. I was suddenly "Kelsey the widow," but Sean doesn't treat me with pity.'

Kelsey's new man, electrician Sean was jailed for four years in 2013 after he killed Shaun McDermott with a single punch while waiting for a taxi outside an east London boozer.

Sean was waiting for his then-girlfriend to collect him when an argument broke out with the 44-year-old, who was knocked to the ground during the skirmish. CCTV footage later captured the electrician walking away from the scene.

Shaun was discovered by police laying on the pavement at about 1am with a brain haemorrhage. A postmortem found that he died as a result of head injuries, with Boggans handed a four-year sentence by a judge at the Old Bailey.

Discussing Sean's past, Kelsey said: 'Everyone has a past and Sean has a lot of remorse for what happened.'

The star also revealed she thinks she has been judged more for moving on as a woman, than she would have been if she was a man.
The Nanny star Nicholle Tom shocked viewers on Monday after she unveiled her stunning new appearance on Seven's The Morning Show.

The American actress, 45, was speaking to hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies about her time on the show and shocked them with her far more mature look.

Viewers of The Nanny would remember Nicholle playing awkward teenage heiress Maggie Sheffield, known for her blonde bob cut and conservative upmarket attire.

Nicholle has since traded in the hairstyle for fiery red shoulder length tresses which frame her face.

She completed the look with a light layer of makeup which accentuated her striking facial features.

She also traded traded in the modest outfits worn by Maggie for a slick unbuttoned leather jacket which she paired with a plunging blouse.

Nicholle revealed she was just a teenager when she was first cast on The Nanny and said she grew up with the character.

'I was 15 at that time and it was such a growing experience, being that young,' she began.

The Nanny star Nicholle Tom shocked viewers on Monday after she unveiled her stunning new appearance on Seven's The Morning Show. Pictured: Nicholle on The Nanny in 1993

The American actress, 45, was speaking to hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies about her time on the show and shocked them with her all grown up look. Viewers of The Nanny would remember Nicholle playing awkward teenage heiress Maggie Sheffield

Nicholle has since traded in the bob haircut for fiery red stylishly coiffed shoulder length hair which framed her face

'I started working on the movie Beethoven when I was 13 and got The Nanny from that. It was an interesting childhood.'

Tom starred on The Nanny alongside Fran Drescher for the entirety of its run, from 1993 - 1999.

The hosts then asked her if there was any truth to the rumours of the entire cast of The Nanny reuniting for a reunion movie.

'That would be amazing and wonderful. I think it should happen, it would make a fabulous movie,' she said.

Nicholle began her Hollywood career in 1992 after she was cast in the family movie Beethoven and she went on to appear in several high profile productions including The Princess Diaries, Gotham and Beverly Hills, 90210.
Elizabeth Debicki has won a Golden Globe for her incredible portrayal of Princess Diana in The Crown.

The Australian actress, 33, snared the statuette from Abby Elliott (The Bear), Christina Ricci (Yellowjackets), J. Smith-Cameron (Succession), Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) and even Hollywood veteran Meryl Streep (Only Murders in the Building).

The talented women were nominated in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television category.

During her acceptance speech, Elizabeth broke down as she dedicated her win to her godmother who passed away.

'I just wanna say thank you to my beloved and dear godmother who left us too quickly, too soon. This one's for you, baby,' she said through tears.

Elizabeth Debicki, 33, has won a Golden Globe for her incredible portrayal of Princess Diana in The Crown

The Melbourne native also thanked her 'children' in the Netflix series - Ed McVey, Rufus Kampa, Luther Ford and Flyn Edward, who play younger and older versions of Diana's sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

'Thank you to the creatives of this show for trusting me with this part, to our cast and crew, to my beautiful pretend children who I just adore,' she said.

She also joked that her partner Christian begged her not to thank him during her acceptance speech so he didn't have to be on television.

During her acceptance speech, Elizabeth broke down as she dedicated her award to her godmother who passed away

'Thank you to my mum and my dad and Cash and Tommy who are in Australia, hopefully in their pajamas watching this. To my partner Christian who said "don't thank me so that I'm not on television", but I'm gonna thank you anyway,' she said.

The blonde beauty fittingly wore a gold chainmail dress for the exciting evening.

The frock complimented her beautiful porcelain complexion, as well as the two diamond necklaces that sat across her decolletage.

Elizabeth joked that her partner Christian begged her not to thank him during her acceptance speech so he didn't have to be on television

The Australian beauty posed with her award following her big win

The blonde beauty fittingly wore a gold chainmail dress for the exciting evening

The frock complimented her beautiful porcelain complexion, as well as the two diamond necklaces that sat across her decolletage

While many are used to seeing Elizabeth with Diana's signature hairstyle in The Crown, the blonde beauty wore her long platinum tresses out in poker straight style.

Viewers recently praised Elizabeth's 'award-worthy' performance as Diana and also called for Dominic West to be nominated for awards for his portrayal of King Charles.

The Crown fans admitted they were reduced to tears watching the sixth and final series of the Netflix royal drama.

The third episode recreated the car crash that killed Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed in Paris in 1997, showing the moments until the car entered the Pont de l'Alma tunnel.

Viewers said they cried watching the harrowing episodes, which follow the eight weeks leading up to Princess Diana's tragic death.

While many are used to seeing Elizabeth with Diana's signature hairstyle in The Crown, the blonde beauty wore her long platinum tresses out in poker straight style

After her awards success, Elizabeth celebrated her win at the Netflix after party with co-star Khalid Abdallah

The beaming star posed for snaps with fellow Hollywood heavyweight Julianne Moore

With her gong in hand, Elizabeth beamed as she made her way to the glitzy after party

They took to X - formerly known as Twitter - to share their emotional reactions to the scenes as they were left devastated at the hard-hitting recreation.

One wrote: 'Just finished the first part of the final season of #TheCrown and I am in tears. Give Elizabeth Debiki all the awards.'

Another gushed: 'I'm actually crying. Elizabeth Debicki's portrayal of Princess Diana is haunting. I'm moved. Well done to every single person that put this production together.'

A third said: 'Episode 4 of the new season of #TheCrown is absolutely heartbreaking. Yes, it is THAT episode and omg, I was crying the entire time. If Dominic West wins an Emmy for his role of the now King Charles, it will be for this episode.'

A fourth tweeted: 'The way u can feel the pain in this,' and another said: 'Just finished watching #TheCrown and my face is swollen after crying.'

Viewers have praised Elizabeth's 'award-worthy' performance as Diana in the Netflix mini series

READ MORE: This has been the year of Di-mania - and no wonder. Princess Diana was the ORIGINAL media-savvy influencer and now Gen-Z is under her spell... Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana Advertisement

The opening moments of the series show the moments leading up to the car crash that killed Diana and Dodi (Khalid Abdalla), before flashing back to eight weeks earlier.

The third episode then arrives back at the tragic moment and sees Diana and Dodi get into a car outside the Ritz Hotel in Paris to return to the Egyptian film producer's apartment.

The car then accelerates through the streets of the French capital before entering the tunnel at high speed, and viewers sobbed watching the harrowing scenes.

Netflix stressed throughout production of series six that viewers will not see the very moment of the crash which killed Diana and Dodi Fayed. But the episode does play an audio of the fatal incident.
Sarah Snook has won a Golden Globe for her critically acclaimed role in the HBO drama Succession.

The Australian actress, 36, who hails from Adelaide, took home the Best Actress in TV series, Drama statuette for her portrayal of political strategist and media heir Siobhan 'Shiv' Roy.

She beat the likes of Emma Stone (The Curse), Imelda Staunton (The Crown), Helen Mirren (1923), Kerri Russell (The Diplomat) and Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us) in her category.

'This show, it's changed my life,' Snook said in her acceptance speech, before thanking her fellow cast and crew.

'This was a team effort, it was always that was what made the show amazing.'

Australian actress Sarah Snook has won a Golden Globe for her critically acclaimed role in HBO drama Succession

The Australian actress, 36, who hails from Adelaide , took home the Best Actress in TV series, Drama statuette for her portrayal of political strategist and media heir Siobhan 'Shiv' Roy

She finished her speech laughing 'this room is so intimidating!' before running off stage.

Her victory was announced at a star-studded ceremony held at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The Golden Globes is generally regarded as a good indicator of who will take home gold at the Academy Awards later in the year.

'This show, it's changed my life,' Snook said in her acceptance speech, before thanking her fellow cast and crew

Sarah started out on the stage, appearing in King Lear with the State Theatre Company of South Australia in 2009, shortly after graduating from Australia's most prestigious theatre school, NIDA.

Interestingly, Succession has often been likened to a modern day Shakespeare play, specifically King Lear.

That same year, Sarah starred along Winslet once again, this time in the Steve Jobs biopic.

Her victory was announced at a star-studded ceremony on Los Angeles on Sunday

Following a notable appearance on Black Mirror in 2016, Sarah scored her career-defining role two years later as Roy in HBO's Succession.

In a 2018 interview about how she landed the part, she revealed she had auditioned alongside Jeremy Strong, who plays her on-screen brother Kendall Roy in the drama.

'I actually auditioned with Jeremy, who is playing my older brother now. I had put something down on tape, and then got called in for the screen test,' she told Collider.

'They flew me from Australia to LA, and between the audition and the screen test, I started to understand what this thing was more,' she continued.

'In the final audition, and doing it with Jeremy, I was finally like, 'Oh, I get it! This is a drama. It's got a comedy edge, but it's really sharp.''

Although Succession started off as a slow burn, the series has now become one of the most popular and critically-acclaimed programs on television today.

In 2020, Sarah was nominated for an Emmy and a Critics' Choice Television Award for her role in the series.

Her star status Down Under was confirmed when she graced the cover of Vogue Australia just months later.

Sarah is now enjoying the spoils of her success, buying a country home not far from Melbourne for close to $2million.

Sarah married her husband Dave, 43, in 2021, and in an interview with Harper's Bazaar, revealed they'd only recently moved into the home.

In an interview with Vogue Australia, Sarah revealed she'd fallen 'in love' with Dave at the start of the pandemic.

Following a notable appearance on Black Mirror in 2016, Sarah scored her career-defining role two years later as Roy in HBO's Succession

'At the beginning of the pandemic last year, I got locked down in Melbourne with one of my best mates and we fell in love,' she said.

'We've been friends since 2014, lived together, travelled together, always excited to see each other, but totally platonic.

'We've just never been single at the same time. I proposed and we got married in February in my backyard.'

She added: 'It's been a ride. There's so much heartache and sadness in the world, but on a micro personal level, I've been very fortunate.'
Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig brought the house down with a hilarious bit while presenting.

The 56-year-old Ferrell and 50-year-old Wiig - who star in the upcoming series Palm Royale - presented the Best Actor award, won by Paul Giamatti from The Holdovers.

Ferrell - who whipped the LA Kings crowd into a frenzy last week - took to the stage to present, though they were interrupted by a bizarre tune.

'Everyone looks beautiful tonight. And what a special night it is,' Wiig began in her speech.

'We are honored to be here and recognize the fearless and inspired performances by a male actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy,' Ferrell said.

Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig brought the house down with a hilarious bit while presenting

Ferrell - who whipped the LA Kings crowd into a frenzy last week - took to the stage to present, though they were interrupted by a bizarre tune

'It's truly amazing how much a laugh,' Wiig said, when she was interrupted by some bizarre music playing.

Ferrell and Wiig smiled at each oher and Ferrell said, 'Not sure what that was, Sorry about that.'

Ferrell continued, 'Tonight we applaud the outstanding nominees. Legends like Nicolas cage, Matt Damon...' as he music started up again.

Ferrell told Wiig, 'Just keep going. Keep going,' as she continuUh, Jeffrey Wright, Paul Giamatti, Timothee Chalamet, and, of course, Joaquin,' as the music played again.

As the music continued, both Ferrell and Wiig started breaking into a dance, but when the music stopped, a confused Ferrell screamed, ' What is going on?!'

Wiig said, 'Okay, will, let's just be honest with everyone. Go ahead,' as Ferrell admitted, 'All right. Guys, this song does something to us. As you can see. And it always has. For decades. And whoever is putting on this show tonight knows it!'

Wiig said, 'They wanted us to come out here, make a bunch of jokes, and we said no,' as Ferrell added, 'We said no! We wanna be serious tonight. Why? Because it's a serious night.'

Wiig added, 'And they knew just what to do to get what they wanted -- play our favorite song. We look ridiculous,' as Ferrell said, 'Like a couple of j-holes.'

'It's truly amazing how much a laugh,' Wiig said, when she was interrupted by some bizarre music playing

As the music continued, both Ferrell and Wiig started breaking into a dance, but when the music stopped, a confused Ferrell screamed, ' What is going on?!'

Wiig said, 'Okay, will, let's just be honest with everyone. Go ahead,' as Ferrell admitted, 'All right. Guys, this song does something to us. As you can see. And it always has. For decades. And whoever is putting on this show tonight knows it!'

Wiig added, 'And they knew just what to do to get what they wanted -- play our favorite song. We look ridiculous,' as Ferrell said, 'Like a couple of j-holes'

Wiig added, 'I'm embarrassed,' while Ferrell added, 'The golden globes have not changed!' referring to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's various scandals.

After they finally announced the nominees, Ferrell said, 'Smells like hot sushi in here. Am I the only one? Right?'

Wiig admitted, ' It does. It's like hot sushi,' befor eannouncing Paul Giamatti from The Holdovers as the winner.

Ferreell and Wiig's new series Palm Royale will premiere on March 20.
Nacho Figueras is making the most of the summer weather during his trip to Australia.

Prince Harry's right-hand man, 46, and his stunning wife Delfina Blaquier, 43, caught some rays on a Gold Coast, Queensland, beach on Saturday.

While Nacho stayed put on a towel, Delfina stripped off and waded into the water for a swim.

The Argentine socialite showed off her sensational figure in a soft orange toned bikini with a strap detail across the tummy.

She looked refreshed after her swim, wringing out her long, blonde locks as she returned to the shore.

Nacho Figueras is making the most of the summer weather during his trip to Australia. Pictured with his wife Delfina Blaquier

Delfina had earlier arrived at the beach in a loose cream cover up shirt and black and white sun visor.

Nacho kept things comfortable, wearing a grey T-shirt and black board shorts, as well as a cap.

The couple sat side by side on the sand and enjoyed a relaxed chat before Delfina ventured into the water, her husband opting to stay dry.

Nacho - real name Ignacio Figueras Bermejo - touched down in Australia for the Magic Millions show on Thursday with his wife and their daughter Alba.

Prince Harry's right-hand man, 46, and his stunning wife Delfina, 43, (pictured) caught some rays on a Gold Coast, Queensland beach on Saturday

Delfina stripped off and waded into the water for a swim

The Argentine socialite showed off her sensational figure in a soft orange toned bikini with a strap detail across the tummy

She looked refreshed after her swim, wringing out her long, blonde locks before she returned to the shore

Nacho kept things comfortable, wearing a grey T-shirt and black board shorts, as well as a cap

He has been making headlines over the past few years for his close friendship with Prince Harry.

It's thought their friendship dates back to 2007 - so perhaps it's no surprise he has become a supportive figure in Harry's new life away from the Royal Family.

They have played polo alongside one another in various matches over the years, and Nacho has become one of Harry and Meghan Markle's most vocal supporters, praising them in interviews.

The father-of-four - dubbed the 'David Beckham of Polo' - was also among a handful of the Duke and Duchess's closest confidantes who appeared in the couple's Netflix documentary.

Delfina had earlier arrived at the beach in a loose cream cover up shirt and black and white sun visor

The couple sat side by side on the sand and enjoyed a relaxed chat

While Delfina ventured into the water, her husband opting to stay dry

His closeness to the couple is despite his public openness about his friendship with Harry and Meghan, who has previously insisted her family has a 'basic right to privacy', as well as the launch of a royal-inspired scent.

In September 2019, Nacho - who witnessed the early days of the couple's romance and was later a guest at their wedding - appeared on Ellen DeGeneres' show to announce that he would 'defend his friends' with his life.

The millionaire appears totally at ease with mentioning his friendship with the royal in interviews, for in that same year.

He told Town and Country magazine: 'What I like the most about Harry is how real he is and how serious he is about improving life for kids that have not had the blessings that we've had.'
Carl Woods took another swipe at his ex fiance Katie Price as he posed while embracing a mystery woman's legs, adorned with a tattoo reading 'Game Over'.

The car dealer, 34, has been hit with rumours that he has split from the former glamour model, 45, who stunned fans by recently professing she is single.

Carl has been enjoying a Thailand getaway with his friends, during which he crouched down to the ground holding the woman's legs as she stood from behind.

He showed off the bold tattoos on his companion's legs, displaying the words 'Game Over' on the back of her thighs as she wore mini denim shorts.

Smouldering into the lens, Carl repeated the words in his caption, in an apparent nod to his relationship status with the star.

Carl Woods took another swipe at his ex fiance Katie Price as he posed while embracing a mystery woman's legs, adorned with a tattoo reading 'Game Over'

The car dealer, 34, has been hit with rumours that he has split from the former glamour model, 45, who stunned fans by recently professing she is single (pictured together in November 2023)

And on New Year's Eve, Katie surprised her 2.6million followers by announcing that she was single.

And now, the former I'm A Celebrity star has revealed why she's reluctant to get married again, and claims the men she has dated just 'want to be famous'.

On The Katie Price Show, Katie's sister Sophie asked: 'Would you get married again?' Katie replied: 'The trouble is, it costs ME money to get married and it costs ME money to get divorced.

'So I haven't really been in a good situation, so for me to get married again, they have to tick the right boxes, or they have to have more to lose than me because I'm just sick of these cling-ons that turn into Mr Price's and then want to be famous and all of this. I'm just sick of it, I just want to meet someone who wants me for me...

'But yeah I would get married, shall we organise it, of course I would bloody get married again, I want a fairytale. Yes, I would get married again and I want the full shebang.

'I just want it to be right, I never wanted to get divorced and marry again and again.

'To have that one person, no drama, there's nothing worse than when your family don't get on with them. I like to be settled, when I'm settled then everything else goes good.'

Smouldering into the lens, Carl repeated the words in his caption, in an apparent nod to his relationship status with the star

And on New Year's Eve, Katie surprised her 2.6million followers by announcing that she was single

The former glamour model surprised her 2.6million followers by announcing that she was single on New Year's Eve

She told how she was single on New Year's Eve as she spent time with pal Kerry Katona and documented the night on Instagram

It's unclear exactly when Katie broke up with Carl - but the on again off again couple have called off their engagement multiple times over recent months.

She told how she was single on New Year's Eve as she spent time with pal Kerry Katona and documented the night on Instagram. Katie declared: 'We want to wish you a happy new year!'

She later shouted at the camera that she was 'single' before she and Kerry directed kisses towards the lens.

Katie was last spotted with Carl on December 21 2023 as they stepped out arm in arm together after her pantomime performance of Sleeping Beauty in Liverpool.

Katie and Carl previously split towards the end of November 2023 and unfollowed each other on Instagram but appeared to confirm they were back on on the Liverpool outing.

At the time of the split in November 2023 she was also said to be avoiding mentioning the businessman, 34, during a chat with fans on TikTok - despite the pair putting on a cosy display on a red carpet the week before.

A source told The Sun: 'When Katie was asked if she was single on TikTok, she paused for ages then refused to answer the question'.

The couple rekindled their romance last July and were said to be planning a secret wedding with Katie s napped trying on a gorgeous white gown.

The couple rekindled their romance last July and were said to be planning a secret wedding with Katie s napped trying on a gorgeous white gown (pictured in May 2021)

MailOnline contacted Katie's representatives for comment at the time.

The pair have been in a turbulent relationship since July 2020, getting engaged the following April.

But things were previously said to be going full steam ahead with wedding plans, with Katie said to be keen to run off and 'elope' with Carl as a source remarked she 'loves the thrill of getting married'.

However, the TV personality's wedding plans didn't include her mother Amy, with it said that she wouldn't tell her when she got married due to her disapproval of Carl.

A source told OK! magazine last July: 'Katie is planning on having a secret wedding with Carl, then a big party afterwards. It will be soon. She loves the thrill of getting married and wants to do it again.'

Sharing further details on their plans, they went on: 'Katie's keen to run off and wed Carl at a registry office. The kids will be there, but she won't tell her mum until it's done.

'Katie knows Amy would be fuming and tell her not to do it. She keeps suggesting to Carl they elope to Gretna Green.'

Katie has been married three times. She was married to Peter Andre for four years, and then tied the knot with Alex Reid in 2010.

They split after 11 months of marriage and Katie went on to marry Kieran Hayler in 2013, but they broke up in 2018.

Katie and Carl called off their engagement in March last year, before sparking rumours of a reunion following being spotted together on a string of occasions
Michelle Keegan has admitted that 'she feels like she is in a dream' following the success of Netflix's hit drama Fool Me Once.

The former Coronation Street actress, 36, has reflected on the over night triumph of Harlan Coben's thriller show since it released on January 1.

And completely starstruck after the series hit number one worldwide, Michelle, who plays the main character Maya Burkett, shared a sweet message to her Instagram fans on Sunday.

Sharing a slew of snaps of what her camera roll has been looking like recently, Michelle thanked fans in disbelief of the popularity it has gained.

Captioning her post, she penned: 'Number 1 in the world & in more than 60 countries. I feel like I'm in a dream right now.

Michelle Keegan, 36, has admitted that 'she feels like she is in a dream' following the success of Netflix 's hit drama Fool Me Once

The former Coronation Street actress, 36, who plays main character Maya Stern in the hit series, has reflected on the over night triumph of Harlan Coben's thriller since it released on January 1

'Thank you to every single person who has reached out or messaged me re Fool Me Once i promise you I read them all. Over the moon that youve enjoyed the show as much as we enjoyed making it. Its been a very very special week .'

Fool Me Once has had viewers hooked with its gripping episodes and plot twists since its New Year's Day release.

The series sees Michelle's character Maya deal with the murder of her husband Joe, months after the killing of her sister Claire.

The eight-part drama series, which also stars Adeel Akhtar and Joanna Lumley, is the latest of Netflix's successful string of adaptations of works by American mystery-thriller writer Harlan.

Not long after Joe's murder, Maya sees her dead husband on a secret nanny cam which she has installed to keep an eye on their daughter Lily.

Maya's discovery soon leads to a web of lies and conspiracy as she tries to uncover what has happened to Joe and his family's potential involvement.

However the amount of twists and turns proved too much for some, as viewers who spent the first week of the year binging the series took to social media to complain about the new release.

Sharing their thoughts on X - formerly known as Twitter - fans said: 'Watching Fool Me Once. This is utterly ridiculous bats**** nonsense with Michelle Keegan and Joanna Lumley chewing scenery for their lives. Naturally I'm obsessed about about to start episode 4.'

And completely starstruck after the series hit number one worldwide, Michelle shared a sweet message to her Instagram fans on Sunday.

The eight-part drama series, which also stars Adeel Akhtar and Joanna Lumley, is the latest of Netflix's successful string of adaptations of works by American mystery-thriller writer Harlan Coben (pictured)

Sharing a slew of snaps of what her camera roll has been looking like recently, Michelle thanked fans in disbelief of the popularity it has gained

Michelle shared a screenshot, showing fans that Fool Me Once reached No.1 in the United States

As well as the UK and America, Fool Me Once skyrocketed to number one in Australia

It went to number one in the Netherlands also

In her slew of snaps, Michelle shared a behind-the-scenes snap of her on The Graham Norton Show last week

'Fool me once is okay. Too Americanised. Questioning why her gun wasn't picked up by police when her husband was murdered but after funeral? Ridiculous. Lots of silly crap going on. Entertaining though.'

'Is it me or is Fool Me Once far too convoluted? Michelle Keegan is brilliant in it but all the red herrings are ridiculous #skiptotheend.'

'Just got more ridiculous as it went on. A bit of lighthearted fun rather than a serious whodoneit. Fooled me once but never again - obviously.'

Many were still gripped an enjoyed the series, but were left with questions at the end, with one writing: 'Fool Me Once was good but I'd worked out the narrative by ep 6 and can't make my mind up about the ending! Was it good or a bit ridiculous?'

'Fool Me Once is absolutely ridiculous. I've been sucked in by people saying it's the best show on TV and it's made me realise how many imbeciles I surrounded myself with.'

'Am I the only one that doesn't like Fool Me Once it's so far fetched and ridiculous?'

'I was left puzzled by Fool Me Once is so popular. The plot twists were too ridiculous to retain credibility, not helped by huge gaps in the story.'

'As an aficionado of Harlan Coben Netflix shows, I must say Fool Me Once is amazing. They are all basically the same, which is to say, ridiculous, wildly improbable, and extremely entertaining.'

Fool Me Once has had viewers hooked with its gripping episodes and plot twists since its New Year's Day release (Adeel Akhtar pictured left)

The series sees Michelle's character Maya deal with the murder of her husband Joe, months after the killing of her sister Claire

However the amount of twists and turns proved too much for some, as viewers who spent the first week of the year binging the series took to social media to complain about the release

'Fool Me Once is definitely worth watching but the 18 years later scene at the end is ridiculous [laughing face].'

Fool Me Once was released as a novel in 2016, and follows the likes of The Stranger and Stay Close to become the eighth member of Netflix's Harlan Coben Collection.

It comes Michelle's husband Mark Wright took to his Instagram Story to praise her new series.

Mark - who tied the knot with Michelle, also 36, in 2015 - was a proud husband as he wrote, alongside a teaser clip: 'Unbelievable show, unbelievably proud. @michkeegan you're a superstar.

'Fool Me Once all eps on Netflix worldwide now!! You want a binge!! Get this on now!!'

Many enamoured fans felt the same as they rushed to X to gush over how 'stunning' the ex Corrie star, who portrays former army captain Maya, is in the new thriller.

But it wasn't just Michelle's beauty that was noticed as many praised her 'amazing' acting in the eight-part drama which is an adaptation of American mystery-thriller writer Harlan Coben.

One wrote: '#FoolMeOnce on @NetflixUK is a must watch @michkeegan is amazing in it and not to mention the woman doesn't seem to age at all she's stunning #Netflix #newseries'.

It comes Michelle's husband Mark Wright took to his Instagram Story to praise her new series (pictured together in September)

He shared a slew of snaps of Michelle in the show and in the caption he penned: 'I cant tell you how happy and proud I am for this incredible woman I call my wife'

Many enamoured fans felt the same as they rushed to X to gush over how 'stunning' the ex Corrie star, who portrays former army captain Maya, is in the new thriller

Another fan gushed: 'Just binge watched FOOL ME ONCE brilliant! Michelle Keegan stunning!'

'Only just started watching #FoolMeOnce and already hooked! If you're stuck on a series to watch get watching it! @michkeegan what an actress!' a third added.

While a fourth penned: '@michkeegan take a bow, brilliant, stunning and thrilling - give this lady an Oscar #FoolMeOnce!'

Another said: 'Over halfway through #foolmeonce and I'm SO obsessed with Michelle Keegan's outfits'.

Another added: 'Michelle Keegan is not just beautiful, she's a proper top tier actor. Fool me once is really quite good. #FoolMeOnce'

Fool Me Once is based off of a book by acclaimed author Harlan Coben, and also stars the likes of British heavyweight Dame Joanna Lumley, The Hobbit star Richard Armitage and Irish actor Emmett J. Scanlan.
Katie Price's ex Alex Reid has revealed he's been rushed to hospital.

The reality TV star, 48, took to Instagram to share the worrying update after doctors discovered he had an abscess in his throat.

Sharing a snap while connected to a hospital drip, Alex explained that he was told to go to hospital after 'feeling rough' for a few days.

He added that he was now waiting to be told whether the abscess will by syringed, or if he needs to be operated on.

Alex captioned his post: 'Not having such a great weekend. Felt rough went to out of hours gp to be told to go straight to hospital.

Katie Price's ex Alex Reid has revealed he's been rushed to hospital and may require surgery after doctors found an abscess in his throat

'Looks like I have an abscess in my throat that may need to be syringed. Didn't realise how dangerous it was to be left with out treated!!

'Was literally just going to take pain relief and sleep it off! Thank god I saw someone as was told it could have burst which is deadly!

'Thanking the NHS as always for your amazing services @nhsengland. Waiting to see a doc now to let me know if I will be operated on...'

In June, Alex and his fiancee Nikki Manashe welcomed twin boys after a traumatic pregnancy and a gruelling seven-year IVF battle.

The couple welcomed their first child Anastasia in 2021 after six miscarriages, while Alex is also father to Dolly, eight, from his past relationship with Chantelle Houghton.

After the twins' birth, Nikki spoke exclusively to MailOnline about the moment she held her sons for the first time.

She said it was 'magic' after 'a decade of crying and sadness, heartache and pain' from their struggle to conceive.

'To just have them in my arms. I am complete now. I have my family and I never need to revisit that dark place again,' Nikki said.

Sharing a snap while connected to a hospital drip, Alex explained that he was told to go to hospital after 'feeling rough' for a few days

In June, Alex and his fiancee Nikki Manashe welcomed twin boys after a traumatic pregnancy and a gruelling seven-year IVF battle

'All those different surgeries from miscarrying and injecting myself. All those hospital appointments. It was worth it.'

The moment was all the more incredible after the couple who were told by doctors their boys had just a 1% chance of survival when Nikki's waters broke unexpectedly 18 weeks into the pregnancy.

Last year, Nikki, who was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition and put on the right medication to help her become a mum, fell pregnant with twins after she was implanted with two embryos.

One was seven-years-old while the other embroyo was one remaining from her IVF cycle from when she fell pregnant with her daughter.

The pregnancy was going well until 18 weeks in, Nikki suffered a Premature Rupture Of Membranes (PROM), leading to a high risk of sepsis and going into labour early.

The couple were advised to terminate because of the risk to Nikki's life, but, desperate to be a mother-of-three, she determinably carried on with her twins who defied all odds.

At 36 weeks, Nikki had a C-section after water levels dropped in Phoenix's amniotic sac.

The influencer admitted she was terrified to have the operation and the sheer relief of having Phoenix and Hunter delivered safely after such a traumatic pregnancy is overwhelming.

She said: 'I thought if I die here and have brought them into this world, I've done my job.

'It's ok done what I've wanted to do which is bring them here safely. I'm so proud of myself. It is such a relief for me.

'I never have to go through pregnancy again. I can close a dark chapter of my life.'

Nikki said Alex was equally as worried when she was wheeled to the operating theatre, but could hear his cries of joy when he saw his boys for the first time.

She said: 'He was really nervous, really scared for them. All I could hear was "my boys". He was very overwhelmed.'

Explaining the reason behind the name Phoenix Bobby, who was born weighing 4lbs 8oz, Nikki said: 'The name is perfect for him. He continued to grow against all odds, his waters broke.

'His name represents strength, resilience, determination. He rose from the ashes and came out stronger than ever.'

Phoenix's middle name, Bobby, is a moving tribute to Alex's father Bob who passed away from a brain tumour some years ago.

Nikki said it was 'magic' to hold her newborn sons after 'a decade of crying and sadness, heartache and pain' from their struggle to conceive

Hunter George, meanwhile, was born weighing 5lbs 8oz and is named after Nikki's grandfather and great uncle.

The influencer, who is still in hospital, revealed both boys are doing well but are on antibiotics as a precaution and are undergoing blood tests.

She said: 'The boys are ok, they are so tiny. The premature baby grows are a tiny bit too big.

'They both have cannulas in their hands and they're all wrapped up in bandages and bruised because they are so little.

'They have a little bit of jaundice, just because they were a bit premature. They're feeding ok.'
Giovanni Pernice has been snubbed by another of his Strictly dance partners.

The professional dancer's most recent partner, Amanda Abbington has 'demanded footage of their rehearsals' after withdrawing from the competition last year.

Now, it's been revealed that Richie Anderson, who Giovanni, 33, was partnered with for the 2022 series has unfollowed the dancer on Instagram.

The Sun report that BBC Radio 2 star Richie unfollowed Giovanni on Sunday night, a year after the pair were plagued by feud rumours.

It was said during their stint on Strictly that the pair 'hadn't clicked' and tensions were rising off camera.

Giovanni Pernice has been snubbed by another of his Strictly partners. Richie Anderson, who Giovanni was parterned with for the 2022 series has unfollowed the dancer on Instagram

The professional dancer's most recent dance partner, Amanda Abbington has 'demanded footage of their rehearsals' after withdrawing from the competition last year

Sources told The Sun during the time of filming that Giovanni was becoming frustrated with Richie not listening to him in rehearsals.

However, Richie later hit back at the reports and insisted there was 'no problem' between them during a joint appearance on spin-off show It Takes Two.

It was reported on Sunday that the BBC won't launch an investigation into Giovanni.

The Sun claims that the channel bosses secretly had a meeting with Giovanni about his conduct last year but no action was taken.

Amanda, 51, has reportedly demanded bosses hand over footage of her rehearsals with Giovanni after they clashed while working together as she apparently hopes it will 'back up' her claims against the star.

Amanda is said to want to review the recordings of their time together as she seeks legal advice over his alleged behaviour towards her.

She left the show suddenly for 'personal reasons' and caused a stir when she kept the dancer out of her exit statement.

Sources close to the star have also claimed Amanda has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the wake of her departure from the series.

The Sun report that BBC Radio 2 star Richie unfollowed Giovanni on Sunday night but Giovanni still follows Richie

The Sun claims that the channel bosses secretly had a meeting with professional dancer Giovanni, 33, about his conduct last year but no action was taken

A source has now told the publication: 'Some of the professionals and crew feel it needs to be dealt with and Giovanni shouldn't come back this year.

'The BBC are standing behind Giovanni and won't be pursuing an investigation. It's a shock to some on the show who think something needs to be done about his behaviour.

'Amanda had a really tough time with him and she isn't the only one. Four more of his partners have either talked openly about how hard it was working with him or have made it clear in the industry.'

They also claim that his previous partner Ranvir Singh 'flagged an issue during training with Giovanni and said she was unhappy'.

MailOnline has contacted the BBC for comment.

Actress Amanda was paired with professional dancer Giovanni for last year's series but made a sudden departure from the show in October, citing 'personal reasons'.

On Saturday it was claimed that she wants to review rehearsal recordings as she seeks legal advice over his alleged behaviour towards her as she believes the footage could back up her claims.

Amanda is said to want to review the recordings of their time together as she seeks legal advice over his alleged behaviour towards her

After her departure, it was claimed Amanda struggled with Giovanni's 'militant approach to training', with her time on the show said to have been 'plagued by difficulties'.

A source has now revealed Amanda has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

A pal also said Amanda found the negative response she got on social media for not mentioning Giovanni in her exit statement difficult.

But they insisted her family and friends had been there to support her.

The BBC and a representative for Amanda declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline at the time.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Giovanni for comment.

Amanda was praised by the judges for her performances on the show but it was claimed she was struggling behind the scenes.

An inside source told The Telegraph: 'It could be that she didn't know what she let herself in for.

'He [Giovanni] was quite tough and she found that difficult. If she wasn't very well, that wouldn't have helped.

Giovanni's former celebrity partners have complained they felt 'uncomfortable' with him and even feuded with the dancer (pictured with Laura Whitmore)

'She was with a partner that had a certain training style that she couldn't cope with. Whether that came to a head or whether there's something else going on I don't know.'

Giovanni's parents said the dancer 'was just doing his job' following Amanda's shock departure from Strictly.

Addressing the news at the time, Giovanni's father Piero and mother Rosalda admitted that their son 'trained for long hours but was just doing his job'.

Speaking to The Sun, from his home in Italy, Piero said: 'We are surprised by the fact she left the show, because everything was going ok - we thought they could have won.'

He added: 'My son is a really nice, polite and respectful boy. He always had good results with different partners and he has never had problems with them.'

Giovanni's mother Rosalda explained: 'They have to train tough hours to get some results. Giovanni has just done what he had to do. He was just doing his job.'

Twinkle-toed star Giovanni was reportedly only given the news of Amanda's exit a few hours before the official statement was released.

A source told the Daily Star: 'Amanda didn't tell Giovanni she had decided to quit the show. The first he heard was a call from a producer.

'This has really annoyed him. He's barely heard from her for 10 days. She hasn't been replying to messages or telling him what's happening.

'He's been complaining about it to friends. He's frustrated. He is worried the drama will be damaging for his career and make him look bad.'

Ranvir Singh admitted that she had a 'total meltdown' during rehearsals with professional partner Giovanni (pictured together in 2020)

Giovanni has reportedly fallen out with a number of his former partners on the show.

In 2016, former Love Island host Laura Whitmore said she 'cried every day' and felt 'uncomfortable' while training with him.

She later wrote for HuffPost UK in 2018: 'Im still not ready to talk in depth about my experience on the show.

'I was placed with a dance partner I was extremely uncomfortable with and in the end I felt broken, I cried every day. And I really was broken, both mentally and physically, by the end.'

Giovanni was also said to have fallen out with Good Morning Britain star Ranvir Singh in 2020.
Molly-Mae Hague looked as glamorous as ever as she shared snaps from her luxury getaway with her fiance Tommy Fury and their daughter Bambi.

The former Love Island star, 24, took to Instagram on Monday to share her highlights from her Dubai stay, where they stopped off on their way back from the Maldives.

Molly-Mae was seen looking incredible in a white patterned two-piece as she sweetly laughed with Bambi, who wore a matching costume, in the pool.

The reality TV star also sported an array of other stylish swimwear as she cuddled up to her beloved daughter during the lavish trip.

Molly-Mae also shared an array of sweet family snaps with boxer Tommy, 24, as they spent some quality time together.

Molly-Mae Hague looked as glamorous as ever as she shared snaps from her luxury getaway with her fiance Tommy Fury and their daughter Bambi

The former Love Island star, 24, took to Instagram on Monday to share her highlights from her Dubai stay, where they stopped off on their way back from the Maldives

The reality TV star stunned in a two-piece as she sat by the pool and cuddled up to Bambi

In one shot, the family looked overjoyed as they smiled for the camera in the swimming pool, with Bambi flashing a cheeky grin as she sat in her floating device.

Tommy was also seen throwing Bambi into the air in the swimming pool while it rained as they sweetly played together.

In another snap, Molly-Mae cut an elegant figure in a red and white patterned strapped dress, which she styled with an array of glitzy gold jewellery.

She toted a stunning nude quilted Chanel handbag to complete her look as she smiled for the camera during her evening out.

Molly-Mae also shared a picture of herself cuddling up to Tommy as they posed on the beach in the Maldives, with fireworks behind them as they rang in the New Year.

Alongside the gallery of snaps, Molly-Mae reflected on their trip to the Maldives and Dubai as she gushed: 'We had a ball.'

Molly-Mae and Tommy stopped off in the UAE on their way back from spending the New Year in the Maldives.

The family jetted to the 4,300 a night Ritz-Carlton resort in the Maldives - something she confessed she was 'proud' of due to the long-haul nature of the journey.

And in Dubai, the couple then stayed at luxury beach hotel Jumeirah Al Naseem, which boasts four swimming pools, a spa and a private beach area.

In one shot, the family looked overjoyed as they smiled for the camera in the swimming pool, with Bambi flashing a cheeky grin as she sat in her floating device

In another snap, Molly-Mae cut an elegant figure in a red and white patterned strapped dress, which she styled with an array of glitzy gold jewellery

She also appeared to be in jovial spirits as she flashed a huge grin while posing alongside boxer Tommy, 24, and Bambi

Tommy was also seen throwing Bambi into the air in the swimming pool while it rained as they sweetly played together

For two adults, a stay usually costs 4,000 a night, depending on the room selected. For the more expensive resort suites, prices rise to up to 11k.

She revealed that the holiday was originally just supposed to be a romantic getaway for her and Tommy as the pair struggle to find time to spend together one-on-one.

Molly-Mae confessed that since Bambi was born in January 2023, the couple haven't had any 'adult intimate nice quality time together'.

The pair sparked worry among fans late last year following Tommy's wild nights out in Dubai.

Following claims she was 'mortified' by his partying behaviour, Molly-Mae was spotted with and without her 600,000 engagement ring on multiple occasions.
Myleene Klass gave a glimpse into her idyllic trip to the Maldives, having enjoyed a festive break with her family.

The radio presenter, 45, took to Instagram on Monday to share a montage of clips from her holiday with fiance Simon Motson, their four-year-old son Apollo and her daughters Ava, 16, and Hero, 12, who she shares with ex Graham Quinn.

Alongside her showcase of their stunning trip, complete with boat rides, kids' activities and a wealth of delicious food, Myleene also shared her latest slew of sexy swimsuit snaps to plug her swimwear collection with Next.

The family looked to have the time of their lives, as they embarked on a boat trip before zipping around their island on bikes.

She also shared a look at their arrival at the resort, as they took a sea plane to their dwelling and later went diving with sharks.

Myleene Klass gave a glimpse into her idyllic trip to the Maldives, having enjoyed a festive break with her family

The radio presenter, 45, took to Instagram on Monday to share a montage of clips from her holiday with fiance Simon Motson, their four-year-old son Apollo and her daughters Ava, 16, and Hero, 12, who she shares with ex Graham Quinn

Alongside her showcase of their stunning trip, complete with boat rides, kids' activities and a wealth of delicious food, Myleene also shared her latest slew of sexy swimsuit snaps to plug her swimwear collection with Next

She spoke fans through how she had styled her swimsuit from Next

She shared a sweet snap showing her playing a board game with Hero

She enjoyed a dip in the ocean during the trip

Myleene added a touching caption on her snap reading: 'My family, my everything. I am so lucky to have you all. Thank you for the memories.'

During her boat trip, she posed in a sexy zebra print one-piece with stacks of jewellery adding further glam to the racy look.

Simon then lavished his stunning bride-to-be with kisses, as she flaunted her glowing make-up free complexion during the jaunt.

Prior to her latest posts, Myleene again proved she was the best advertisement for her Next range as she modelled a cheetah print swimsuit and different bandeau bikinis in a video posted to Instagram on Friday.

For one look, Myleene showed off her favourite swimsuit - a yellow animal print one-piece with ruching at the sides and spaghetti straps.

The I'm A Celebrity star, who is known for her iconic white bikini when she starred on the show, also showed off her toned stomach in a bandeau two-piece.

Myleene also modelled a zebra print swimsuit where she tied the matching sarong around her head as a hair piece and pink patterned swimwear.

The couple frequently put on steamy displays of affection on social media

Prior to her latest posts, Myleene again proved she was the best advertisement for her Next range as she modelled a cheetah print swimsuit and different bandeau bikinis in a video posted to Instagram on Friday

She proved she was the best advertisement for her range as she modelled a cheetah print swimsuit and different bandeau bikinis

Myleene captioned the fun video where she showed off her different swimwear looks while holding a coconut: 'I carried a coconut. My new swimwear range at @nextofficial #MyleeneKlassXNext Ad. One sold every 35 seconds!'

The TV personality has been making the most of her holiday to show off her swimwear range.

On Thursday, the former Hear'Say star slipped into a zebra print one-piece and matching shirt for a fun video of her bike ride.

Myleene flashed the camera a smile as she rode along on her bike, wearing her brunette tresses loose and covering her eyes with a pair of sunglasses.

Joking about her 'quick change on a bike' in the caption, the video was then edited to show Myleene wearing a brightly coloured floral swimsuit and kimono cover up.

Myleene has been sharing multiple snaps of herself enjoying her vacation recently, including a clip showing her flaunting her jaw-dropping figure in a red bikini on Christmas Day.

The TV personality teamed the skimpy scarlet two-piece with a Santa hat while frolicking on the sand

For one look, Myleene showed off her favourite swimsuit, a yellow animal print one-piece with ruching at the sides and spaghetti straps

The I'm A Celebrity star, who is known for her iconic white bikini when she starred on the show, also showed off her toned stomach in a pink patterned bikini

The TV personality has been making the most of her holiday to show off her swimwear range in a picture perfect beach setting

Myleene also modelled a zebra print swimsuit where she tied the matching sarong around her head as a hair piece and pink patterned swimwear

Myleene captioned the fun video where she showed off her different swimwear looks while holding a coconut: 'I carried a coconut. My new swimwear range'

Myleene posed with a snorkeling mask at one point in front of a stunning swimming pool

Myleene became an instant fashion icon when she wore a white bikini during her I'm A Celebrity stint

On Thursday, Myleene looked phenomenal in a black and white zebra print swimsuit as she went for a bike ride on her lavish getaway

When Myleene appeared on I'm A Celebrity All Stars last year, she spoke about how she was cruelly fat-shamed during her days in the band Hear'Say.

She said: 'I had managers coming up, other band managers going "you're the fattest band in pop"... rather than the fact we had talent.

'I could play any piano sonata, read any music, play most of the instruments you'd put in front of me [but] it came back down to that simple fact of "fattest band in pop".

'We even got sent flowers from Elton John who said we were the ugliest band in pop. He sent sorry flowers to us at which point I was like "you're a god to me... oh". It was a different time in history.'

Myleene went on she say she first experienced fat-shaming when she was cast in the West End production of Miss Saigon and told to lose weight in front of 24 male cast members.

'I wasn't pulled aside and I just stood there and it swallowed me up,' she said.

But when Myleene starred on I'm A Celebrity she sent viewers wild when she showcased her figure in a white bikini.

Talking about her famous white bikini from the 2006 series she said: 'I find it hilarious the photos of me are out there forever. It was so innocent back then.

'But after doing the programme I saw the photo and I was like "my goodness, it does look glamorous", but it certainly didn't feel like it - far from it!'.
MARCH 2020

Kate revealed she and Prince Charles had got 'relatively close' at the Prince's Trust Awards on March 11 - Charles was diagnosed with coronavirus in mid-March.

She said: 'Around the 29/30 March, I came home came in and said [to Derek] 'god you look ill.'

'He said he had a headache, numbness in his right hand, and was struggling to breathe,

'I rang Dr Hilary (Jones) and tried to get through, he talked to Derek. He said put me back on, I think you need to call an ambulance'

Derek, 52, was taken into hospital on March 30 and remained in an unresponsive condition.

APRIL

Kate and her children isolated at home after she displayed 'mild symptoms'.

Kate said: 'Derek remains in intensive care and is still very ill. I'm afraid it remains an excruciatingly worrying time.

'I'm afraid he is still in a deeply critical condition, but he is still here, which means there is hope.'

MAY

Kate said: 'The journey for me and my family seems to be far from over as every day my heart sinks as I learn new and devastating ways this virus has more battles for Derek to fight.

'But he is still HERE & so there is still hope.'

That month, Kate and her family took part in the final clap for carers

She said: 'I'll never give up on that because Derek's the love of my life but at the same time I have absolute uncertainty'

JUNE

On June 5, Kate revealed Derek is now free from coronavirus but continues to fight against the damage inflicted on his body

JULY

On July 5, Kate revealed Derek has woken from his coma but he remains in a serious yet critical condition.

On July 8, she announced she would be returning to GMB, after being urged by doctors to 'get on with life' during Derek's recovery.

She added that Derek had 'opened his eyes' after waking from his coma, but has been told his recovery could take years.

On July 13, Kate returned to GMB for the first time since Derek was hospitalised.

On July 28, Kate revealed she'd paid an 'extra emotional' first visit to Derek, and admitted she's 'frustrated' by his slow progress.

AUGUST

On August 14, Kate reassured GMB viewers that Derek was 'still with us,' but it was 'a waiting game.'

On August 19, Kate revealed she celebrated Derek's birthday with their two children, and described the day as 'challenging' for her family.

SEPTEMBER

At the end of September, Derek reportedly becomes the longest surviving patient with coronavirus after spending 184 days in and out of intensive care.

Kate reveals Derek has lost eight stone during his battle.

The presenter announces she is returning to her Smooth Radio show so Derek can hear her voice.

OCTOBER

On October 30 Kate reveals that Derek has spoken for the first time in seven months, saying the word 'pain' to his wife, who watched on 'in tears' over FaceTime.

Kate says a day later that her husband no longer needs a ventilator to breathe.

NOVEMBER

Kate reveals her family car has been stolen in latest 'body blow' to her family life, as kind-hearted fans offer their cars to help.

She says she feels 'physically sick' at the prospect of facing her first Christmas without Derek.

DECEMBER

The GMB star tells viewers it is her dream to visit Derek on Christmas Day.

She also reveals she missed two weeks on GMB after her children were exposed to the virus, but thankfully she and the kids tested negative.

On December 17, Kate has an emotional conversation live on GMB with two nurses who treated Derek when he was first admitted to Whittington Hospital in North London.

On New Year's Eve she reflects on a 'calamitous' Christmas without Derek, as her house was flooded and she struggled to get a food delivery slot until her pal Emma Willis stepped in to help.

JANUARY 2021

Kate reveals she and her children got to visit Derek in hospital over the Christmas period, and it was the first time her family had seen him since he was hospitalised.

She also says she's banned from seeing him due to new restrictions introduced during the government's third lockdown.

FEBRUARY

Kate reveals she is unsure how much Derek will 'ever be able to recover' following warning from doctors that he may never wake from his coma

MARCH

Kate revealed that was in the process of adapting her home to suit Derek's needs when he is finally released from hospital, in the ITV documentary Finding Derek.

The programmed was praised by viewers for offering a heartbreaking look at the long-term effects of coronavirus.

Kate also revealed that Derek has 'no muscle left' since battling Covid

APRIL

Kate revealed that Derek was finally allowed to leave hospital, but would require round-the-clock care once he was returned home.

MAY

Kate revealed that despite now being home with his family, his communication abilities were 'minimal' and he 'couldn't really move'

DECEMBER

During an appearance on Piers Morgan's Life Stories, Kate revealed that Derek had said 'I love you' for the first time.

After celebrating Christmas, Derek was also pictured in a wheelchair during a trip to the pantomime with his family

JANUARY 2022

Kate revealed that Derek was 'very fatigued' and 'very weak' following the family outing, adding: 'I don't know what this year is going to bring.'

FEBRUARY

Kate offered a glimpse into the daily struggles of looking after her husband amid his battle with long Covid in the documentary Caring For Derek

She also revealed that Derek would die within three days if he was left alone to care for himself.

JULY

On July 6, Kate revealed that Derek had been re-admitted to hospital after suffering a 'downturn,' and in a later interview said she takes things 'day by day.'

On July 20, it was reported that Kate had pulled out of hosting Good Morning Britain to be at Derek's bedside after he took a 'very serious' turn for the worse.

Recalling the day, the presenter told The Sun: 'At one point Derek said to me, "This is it, this time. I am gone." It was just terrifying.

'His sepsis was gut-wrenching for all of us because it had gone undiagnosed until the point where it was about to take his life away again.'

JANUARY 2023

Kate became overwhelmed as she confronted former health secretary Matt Hancock over his handling of the pandemic and his decision to go on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here.

She then became tearful and looked up as she spoke about Derek, who has been unwell for approaching three years.

Describing public anger towards him, Kate added of his decision: 'This gives the impression you still don't get why they are cross. You still don't get why people are upset. They want to hold you to more account.'

APRIL

Kate revealed that Derek was once again receiving care in hospital, as she shared the emotional moment Sir Elton John dedicated a song to the 'inspiring' couple.

She shared the emotional moment Sir Elton John dedicated a song to the 'inspiring' couple, writing on Instagram: 'Yes Derek has been back in hospital this week & yes there's such a long road ahead but #eltonjohn & @davidfurnish you gave the kids & Derek a moment that we will never forget and has lifted their spirits again to feel anything is possible.'

It was also reported that Kate was planning a trip across the world for pioneering treatment in a 'final hope' to help her husband.

MAY

Kate reportedly faced a huge 716,000 tax bill after she was forced to close her husband's business two years after he became stricken with Covid-19.

The final total will be settled within the coming weeks, with friends insisting she will pay whatever is owed.

A friend told The Sun: 'The figures are terrifying and Kate is of course worried about all the financial pressures, but she has to trust the process.

'When it comes to an end, she is determined to pay back anything that's owed.

'It's no secret that Kate has been battling to keep her husband alive and working through some heartbreaking situations in her personal life in recent years.

'Sadly as well as the emotional stress of Derek's terrible illnesses the financial burden has also been crippling.'

DECEMBER

Derek was left fighting for his life after suffering a heart attack.

Kate held a 24/7 vigil by his bedside and cancelled all work commitments while the family 'prayed for a miracle'.

A source said: 'It was sudden and a shock as he had been doing so well and was in great spirits, looking forward to Christmas at home with the family.

'This setback has been a huge blow for his family and all the people caring for him. Kate is by his side 24 hours a day and is willing him on to win this latest battle for his life.

'Derek has fought so many times, and always, against all odds, come out the other side.'

JANUARY 2024

Kate announced on January 5 that Derek had passed away.

She said: 'Derek was surrounded by his family in his final days and I was by his side holding his hand throughout the last long hours and when he passed.

'I have so much more to say, and of course I will do so in due course, but for now I just want to thank all the medical teams who fought so hard to save him and to make his final moments as comfortable and dignified as possible'.

MailOnline understands he passed away on January 3 in a North London hospital.

He is survived by wife Kate and their children Darcey, 17, and son William, 14.
Gail Porter has described the moment her daughter Honey first saw her without hair.

The TV star, 52, was diagnosed with alopecia at the height of her TV presenting career in 2005.

In a new interview she has described how 'half my hair' fell out while she was filming in America, and she realised she would have to fly back home and see her young daughter looking completely different.

Speaking to Ellie McKay for the On a Mission podcast, Gail broke down as she described how her ex husband, Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave and daughter Honey, now 20, put her at ease.

'I had to come home. My daughter who was two, I'd left her with loads of hair and she was with my ex husband,' Gail explained.

Gail Porter has described the moment her daughter Honey first saw her without hair. The TV star, 52, was diagnosed with alopecia at the height of her TV presenting career in 2005

In a new interview she has described how 'half my hair' fell out while she was filming in America, and she realised she would have to fly back home and see her young daughter looking completely different (pictured with daughter Honey in 2009)

'And I had to phone him and I said "you've got to tell her, Honey mummy's coming home with no hair".

Getting emotion, Gail continued: 'Sorry, I still get upset by this. Because I was so worried about her, I was thinking, what if she gets bullied at school because she's got a bald mummy?'

'What if she doesn't like me because she can't recognise me and I look different. And so I cried the entire way home on the plane. And then when I got home, I actually pressed the buzzer, even though I had keys, because I just thought I needed an extra bit of time.'

Gail explained her relief at her toddler's sweet reaction: 'I pressed the buzzer, and my ex husband opened and he was like, "Oh, wow, you're actually bald" and I was like "yeah".

'And then my daughter, Honey, she just came to the door, and she looked at me and she went "Rock and roll". I was like, Okay, we're fine. I don't care what anybody thinks about me.'

Gail was married to Toploader guitarist Dan for four years before their separation in 2005 and their divorce in 2006.

It was a year after the breakup that Gail lost her hair to alopecia and because she would not wear a wig for television appearances, work dried up.

Last year Gail also revealed how she has struggled with debilitating insomnia since she was a young child.

Speaking on the On a Mission podcast, Gail broke down as she described how her ex husband Dan Hipgrave and daughter Honey, now 20, put her at ease (pictured together in 2004)

Revealing her day in the life routine to The Sunday Times Magazine, the star, 52, spoke candidly about her mental health, admitting her insomnia has seen her lose whole days to sleep.

Gail, who was diagnosed as bipolar in 2011, explained she has suffered with insomnia since she was a small child: 'I have terrible insomnia  I'm up at 1am, 3am, 5am. I'm a worrier. Will I get work after Edinburgh? Have I messaged my friends enough? Is Ziggy going to like the cat-sitter?'

'It has been going on since I was three or four  nothing works, ' she added. 'Sometimes I'm so tired I sleep for 48 hours. I wake up when it's dark and realise I've lost a day.'

Gail was also candid about how she copes on a daily basis with anxiety, explaining how she can 'embrace my past now because I've had great fun. But I was quite anxious long before I worked in TV and I'd always had eating problems.'

Gail became a household name thanks to regular appearances on The Big Breakfast, The Movie Chart Show, VH1 and iconic BBC music show Top Of The Pops (pictured in 1999)

Gail credits her daughter for her support, while she is also enjoying her new career path in stand-up comedy

She detailed her history with anorexia, saying: 'I flew from job to job 'forgetting to eat' and it spiralled quickly. Even if someone had tried to intervene, I wouldn't have listened. Or I'd have agreed, then ignored their advice.'

Gail credits her daughter for her support, while she is also enjoying her new career path in stand-up comedy.

Gail became a household name thanks to regular appearances on The Big Breakfast, The Movie Chart Show, VH1 and iconic BBC

music show Top Of The Pops.





In 1999, her popularity - boosted by modelling jobs with the likes of cult lads mags FHM and Loaded - led to a nude photograph of Porter being projected on the Houses of Parliament without her consent as part of a guerilla marketing campaign.
Giovanni Pernice was spotted for the first time since his Strictly dance partner Amanda Abbington claimed the show left her with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The professional dancer was seen smoking as he talked with friends during an outing in west London on Monday.

Giovanni looked tense, two days after a report claimed Amanda has 'demanded footage of their rehearsals' after withdrawing from the competition last year.

Amanda, 51, has reportedly demanded bosses hand over footage of her rehearsals with Giovanni after they clashed while working together as she apparently hopes it will 'back up' her claims against the star.

Amanda is said to want to review the recordings of their time together as she seeks legal advice over his alleged behaviour towards her.

Giovanni Pernice was spotted for the first time since his Strictly dance partner Amanda Abbington claimed the show left her with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Amanda, 51, has reportedly demanded bosses hand over footage of her rehearsals with Giovanni after they clashed while working together

She left the show suddenly for 'personal reasons' and caused a stir when she kept the dancer out of her exit statement.

Sources close to the star have also claimed Amanda has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the wake of her departure from the series.

It was reported on Sunday that the BBC won't launch an investigation into Giovanni.

The Sun claims that the channel bosses secretly had a meeting with Giovanni about his conduct last year but no action was taken.

A source has now told the publication: 'Some of the professionals and crew feel it needs to be dealt with and Giovanni shouldn't come back this year.

'The BBC are standing behind Giovanni and won't be pursuing an investigation. It's a shock to some on the show who think something needs to be done about his behaviour.

'Amanda had a really tough time with him and she isn't the only one. Four more of his partners have either talked openly about how hard it was working with him or have made it clear in the industry.'

They also claim that his previous partner Ranvir Singh 'flagged an issue during training with Giovanni and said she was unhappy'.

The professional dancer was seen smoking as he talked with friends during an outing in west London on Monday

Giovanni looked tense, two days after a report claimed Amanda has 'demanded footage of their rehearsals' after withdrawing from the competition last year

Actress Amanda was paired with professional dancer Giovanni for last year's series but made a sudden departure from the show in October, citing 'personal reasons'.

After her departure, it was claimed Amanda struggled with Giovanni's 'militant approach to training', with her time on the show said to have been 'plagued by difficulties'.

Amanda was praised by the judges for her performances on the show but it was claimed she was struggling behind the scenes.

An inside source told The Telegraph: 'It could be that she didn't know what she let herself in for.

'He [Giovanni] was quite tough and she found that difficult. If she wasn't very well, that wouldn't have helped.

'She was with a partner that had a certain training style that she couldn't cope with. Whether that came to a head or whether there's something else going on I don't know.'

Giovanni's parents said the dancer 'was just doing his job' following Amanda's shock departure from Strictly.

Amanda is said to want to review the recordings of their time together as she seeks legal advice over his alleged behaviour towards her

Addressing the news at the time, Giovanni's father Piero and mother Rosalda admitted that their son 'trained for long hours but was just doing his job'.

Speaking to The Sun, from his home in Italy, Piero said: 'We are surprised by the fact she left the show, because everything was going ok - we thought they could have won.'

He added: 'My son is a really nice, polite and respectful boy. He always had good results with different partners and he has never had problems with them.'

Giovanni's mother Rosalda explained: 'They have to train tough hours to get some results. Giovanni has just done what he had to do. He was just doing his job.'

The Sun claims that the channel bosses secretly had a meeting with professional dancer Giovanni, 33, about his conduct last year but no action was taken

Twinkle-toed star Giovanni was reportedly only given the news of Amanda's exit a few hours before the official statement was released.

A source told the Daily Star: 'Amanda didn't tell Giovanni she had decided to quit the show. The first he heard was a call from a producer.

'This has really annoyed him. He's barely heard from her for 10 days. She hasn't been replying to messages or telling him what's happening.

'He's been complaining about it to friends. He's frustrated. He is worried the drama will be damaging for his career and make him look bad.'

The BBC and a representative for Amanda declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline at the time.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Giovanni for comment.

Giovanni has reportedly fallen out with a number of his former partners on the show.

Amanda is said to want to review the recordings of their time together as she seeks legal advice over his alleged behaviour towards her

Giovanni broke his social media silence on Sunday evening for the first time since the reports surfaced. The dancer reshared a photo of himself teaching 250 students how to dance

In 2016, former Love Island host Laura Whitmore said she 'cried every day' and felt 'uncomfortable' while training with him.

She later wrote for HuffPost UK in 2018: 'Im still not ready to talk in depth about my experience on the show.

'I was placed with a dance partner I was extremely uncomfortable with and in the end I felt broken, I cried every day. And I really was broken, both mentally and physically, by the end.'

Giovanni was also said to have fallen out with Good Morning Britain star Ranvir Singh in 2020.
Maya Jama turned up the heat in her raciest outfit yet as she posed in a plunging red gown for a promotional shoot for Love Island All Stars.

The TV presenter, 29, who is preparing to host the brand new series in a weeks time, looked incredible in the busty thigh-high split dress and opted for a sexy pink lip.

The full line-up for the new series was revealed on Monday, with a multitude of exciting former celebrities expected to bring the drama again.

The complete cast features from Georgia Harrison to Chris Taylor and Georgia Steel.

Exes Liberty Poole and Jake Cornish are also set to come face-to-face for an on-screen reunion on the show, as are former flames Toby Aromolaran and Kaz Kamwi.

Maya Jama, 29, turned up the heat in her raciest outfit yet as she posed in a plunging red gown for a promotional shoot for Love Island All Stars

The TV presenter, who is preparing to host the brand new series in a weeks time, looked incredible in the busty thigh-high split dress

Completing the line-up are Mitchel Taylor, Demi Jones, Hannah Elizabeth, Luis Morrison and Anton Danyluk as they all get their second chance at finding love.

Ahead of the upcoming show, Maya stunned in a sizzling promo shoot to get fans excited for the release date.

Maya, who recently admitted that she was 'feeling the pressure' to level up her sexy outfits, has already upped up the ante before the show has even started.

She appeared on This Morning last week where she told hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary all about hosting the ITV2 dating show and what is in store.

The television presenter, who has made waves with her sexy and eye-catching wardrobe since she took over as host from Laura Whitmore in 2022, admitted there is pressure for her to wear more show-stopping looks.

Alison, 48, told Maya: 'We have a What's App group and all we ever talk about is your outfits. They have become an event. Do you get a bit nervous about the next series, you have to top each one don't you?'

Maya replied: 'It's a bit of pressure, for my stylist mainly. We did a fitting yesterday and it went well. Everyone has their own tastes. But I need to dress to make myself feel good.'

In another outfit during the shoot, Maya slipped on an elegant feathered-sleeve sheer dressing gown.

Ahead of the upcoming show, Maya stunned in a sizzling promo shoot to get fans excited for the release date

The beauty got dulled-up behind-the-scenes by her hair stylist and make-up artist for the shoot

In another outfit during the shoot, Maya slipped on an elegant feathered-sleeve sheer dressing gown

She was pictured topping up her gorgeous deep-red lipstick at her light-up dressing table

Maya looked nothing short of sensational as she showcased her flawless beauty while sitting in her chair getting glammed-up

The beauty is preparing to host the brand new exciting show on January 15

Maya teased fans with a promo shoot ahead of the exciting new series

Maya received help from her glam squad to tie up her red glitzy gown. It detailed a long lace corset bustier to cinch in her figure

Maya was filmed and photographed from every possible angle

She later flaunted her ample cleavage in a busty, plunging corset dress with thin-straps

She recently enjoyed a relaxing first class flight to travel to South Africa last week ahead of presenting Love Island All Stars

Maya shared a sweet selfie on Instagram tucked up in her bed as she woke up from her nap in the sky

The beauty got dulled-up behind-the-scenes by her hair stylist and make-up artist for the shoot.

She was pictured topping up her gorgeous deep-red lipstick at her light-up dressing table.

Maya looked nothing short of sensational as she showcased her flawless beauty while sitting in her chair getting glammed-up.

She recently enjoyed a relaxing first class flight to travel to South Africa last week ahead of presenting Love Island All Stars.

The host cherished all the downtime she can get ahead of her next few busy weeks ahead.

She relished the free cocktails in Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class Lounge while waiting to board her long-haul flight.

Maya shared a sweet selfie on Instagram tucked up in her bed as she woke up from her nap in the sky.

Love Island All Stars begins on Monday January 15 at 9pm on ITV1, ITV2 and ITVX.
Sophie Habboo showcased her slender figure in a slew of snaps from her romantic getaway with her husband Jaime Laing on Instagram on Monday.

The Made In Chelsea star, 30, gave her 835K followers an insight into her luxurious holiday sharing a carousel of stunning shots.

She displayed her jaw-dropping figure in a white bikini teamed with a crochet matching sarong, as she posed sipping a drink on during a trip to the beach.

The socialite rocked black squared shades and sported a slew of beaded bracelets and an array of necklaces, as well as hoop earrings.

The beauty set pulses racing as she posed on her bed for a mirror selfie, ditching the sarong and boosting her curves.

Sophie Habboo showcased her slender figure in a white bikini and crochet sarong in a slew of snaps from her romantic getaway with her husband Jaime Laing on Instagram on Monday

The beauty set pulses racing as she posed up in the same two-piece on her bed for a mirror selfie, ditching the sarong and boosting her curves

Another sizzling snap captured her as she laid down the beach in the gorgeous two-piece, showing off her long toned legs.

She shared another stunning beach look which included a black semi-sheer cover-up, flashing a matching bikini underneath.

Sophie posed for a mirror selfie beaming, as she added black shades and accessorised with gold hoop earrings and a matching ring.

Another gorgeous snap captured her looking carefree as she enjoyed a tasty ice cream cup.

The stunner had the spoon in her mouth while looking to the camera and hid behind the black shades.

She added a straw visor while her blonde locks were tied up, as she captioned the post: 'Toasted marshmallow froyo.'

Sophie also shared another few shots in the same beach ensemble, two of them from behind display her pert bottom.

Another sizzling snap captured her as she laid down the beach in the gorgeous two-piece, showing off her long toned legs

She shared another stunning beach look which included a black semi-sheer cover-up, flashing a matching bikini underneath

Another gorgeous snap captured her looking carefree as she enjoyed a tasty ice cream cup

Sophie also shared another few shots in the same beach ensemble, two of them from behind display her pert bottom

The actress added black chunky sandals to her look, appearing relaxed during her sun-soaked getaway

She also added a sunset shot as well as a picture of Jamie, 35, inside their hotel residency, with a breathtaking view

Earlier in the day, the Made In Chelsea sensation also shared a trip update with fans in her Instagram stories

The actress added black chunky sandals to her look, appearing relaxed during her sun-soaked getaway.

She also added a sunset shot as well as a picture of Jamie inside their hotel residency, with a breathtaking view.

Earlier in the day, the Made In Chelsea sensation also shared a trip update with fans in her Instagram stories.

Sharing a pic of Jaime from behind with their landscape view, she penned: 'We flew to Miami to watch the Dolfins play. Came to Turks and Caicos for a couple days in between. Jamie got the dates wrong, turns out the match was last night. We don't fly back to Miami until today. But he watched it on the tv whilst dressed like this. Wasn't quite the same.'

On Friday, the star slipped into a tiny black thong bikini as she topped up her tan, showcasing her toned abs and peachy posterior in a slew of Instagram snaps.

Sophie enjoyed a stroll on the golden sand before laying back on her sun lounger with her pricey Chanel bag at her side.

She also shared a clip of a joyous Jamie, who she wed in 2023, dancing as he devoured a packed of pretzels.

Captioning the post: 'Jamie meets pretzel snack'.

It comes after Jamie used MailOnline to play a hilarious prank on his wife last month.

Titling it the 'final prank of 2023' the jokester shared a video of the moment his wife almost cried over the prank on the way back from their ski trip to Geneva.

Posting on Instagram, ex Made In Chelsea star Jamie explained how he wanted revenge on his wife after 'she left me for dead in the airport queue'.

He showed a clip of the long queue he had to deal with before explaining how he was 'going to fake a Daily Mail article saying she jumped the queue.'

Jamie photoshopped a real MailOnline article from earlier this month about the couple at the Wonka premiere, changing the headline to read: 'Sophie Habboo is caught skipping the queue at Geneva airport whilst others wait patiently.'

Sophie is then seen being shown the fake article as the couple and their friends drive home.

As her friend tells her 'I've forwarded something onto you,' Sophie says 'you're freaking me out,' before going silent as she reads the headline.

'That's not good,' exclaims Jamie playing along, before a tearful Sophie covers her face with her hands.

As she clocks on, Sophie screams at her husband 'that's not funny' as he laughs.

'Probably my best and last prank of 2023 on @sophiehabboo. Happy New Year' Jamie captioned the Insta video.

Jamie, who married Sophie in May 2023, recently admitted that despite his numerous relationships on Made In Chelsea, he had never been in love until he fell in love with Sophie.

He told The Sunday Times: 'Before Sophie I dated a lot of people in the show but I dont think I was ever really in love.

'The first time we met was at a dinner party and I found her hilarious and very normal, which was a breath of fresh air. We became such close buddies.

On Friday, the star slipped into a tiny black thong bikini as she topped up her tan, showcasing her toned abs and peachy posterior in a slew of Instagram snaps

Sophie enjoyed a stroll on the golden sand before laying back on her sun lounger with her pricey Chanel bag at her side

The couple shared a glimpse of their swanky hotel with views of the sea

She also shared a clip of a joyous Jamie, who she wed in 2023, dancing as he devoured a packed of pretzels

Captioning the post: 'Jamie meets pretzel snack'

Then, the first time I tried stand-up comedy, she texted me beforehand to wish me luck. No one else did, and something pinged.'

Sophie and Jamie began dating in 2019 after years of friendship and Jamie popped the question in 2021.

Together they host The NewlyWeds Podcast which they actually began when they were still only engaged.
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Alessandra Ambrosio showed off her figure in a tiny black bikini with gold straps while enjoying a day at the beach.

The supermodel, 42  who recently stole the spotlight at Art Basel  looked incredible in the strappy suit as she added large gold earrings and black sunglasses with her wet hair down.

The swimsuit was from her very own company, GAL Floripa.

She was on the beach in her native Brazil where she spent the holidays with family and friends.

And she also named the exact city: Praia Brava, Norte Da Ilha, Floripa. That is how she got the name for her swim line.

'Ocean girl,' she wrote in her Instagram caption.

Alessandra Ambrosio showed off her figure in a tiny black bikini with gold straps while enjoying a day at the beach. The supermodel, 42  who recently stole the spotlight at Art Basel  looked incredible in the strappy suit as she added large gold earrings and black sunglasses with her wet hair down

The beach getaway comes after Alessandra opened up about her art collection ahead of her appearance at the annual art fair Art Basel.

'My collection mainly consists of black-and-white photos. Some are by photographers such as Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, Patrick Demarchelier and Ellen von Unwerth,' she explained to Ocean Drive magazine.

'I also treasure my guitar, which was painted by the Gemeos brothers. They are the most amazing Brazilian street artists that I genuinely adore. Each piece holds a special place in my heart!'

Alessandra went on to say she also appreciates artists Damien Hirst, Mr. Brainwash and Andy Warhol, 'and I have pieces from them that are remarkable.

'Their ability to perfectly capture a moment or emotion is just so special,' she added.

The model spent 13 years as a Victoria's Secret Angel and earned recognition as one of the highest-paid models globally.

'Over the years, the industry has seen evolution, but theres more work ahead,' she said of the fashion world. 'I feel it needs to be more inclusive and representative of the amazing, diverse beauty we see in real life.'

She also revealed what is most important to her in life these days. 'Three things I cant live without are love, family and my friends.'

. The swimsuit was from her very own company, GAL Floripa

She was on the beach in her native Brazil where she spent the holidays with family and friends

And she also named the exact city: Praia Brava, Norte Da Ilha, Floripa. That is how she got the name for her swim line. 'Ocean girl,' she wrote in her Instagram caption

As for her style icons, Alessandra previously told Harper's Bazaar: 'Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, because they carried themselves with confidence and a sense of fun. They also embraced a timeless look.'

The beauty also divulged how her relationship with her appearance has changed over the years. 'I think Ive developed an inner confidence. I didnt expect modelling to last, but here I am still doing it and loving it.

'So, that has made me feel that I can embrace my look at every stage of my life.'

Alessandra shares Noah and daughter Anja, 15, with her ex-partner Jamie Mazur. In August, the model shared a sweet birthday tribute to her mini-me daughter.

'Happy 15th birthday my forever baby girl @anjaambrosiom,' the Brazilian beauty began in the caption, before adding a line in Portuguese '!!! Mamae teama infinitame!!!' which translates in English to 'Mommy loves you endlessly.'
Trinny Woodall displayed her unique sense of fashion during a daily outing with her daughter Lyla.

The British businesswoman, 59, was every inch of the fashionista as she wrapped up in a Prada black faux fur coat teamed with black thick-soled boots.

The makeover expert toted her stylish ensemble with a black Chanel bag, which featured a green detail on the front.

Trinny bundled up against the cold as she added a grey beanie hat, while locking arms with her beloved daughter.

The pair seemed to have enjoyed the day out with some friends, and strutted the streets of central London throughout the afternoon despite the light snow that covered the city.

Trinny Woodall, 59, displayed her unique sense of fashion during a daily outing with her daughter Lyla, 20

The British businesswoman was every inch of the fashionista as she wrapped up in a Prada faux fur coat which she teamed with black thick-soled boots and a Chanel bag

Meanwhile Lyla opted for a more casual look but still kept it effortlessly stylish in a pocketed black coat teamed and faded wide-leg denim

Giving a further stylish touch, the TV presenter caught the eye as she wore a pair of extravagant diamond beaded sunglasses.

Meanwhile Lyla opted for a more casual look but still kept it effortlessly stylish in a pocketed black coat teamed.

She added faded wide-leg denim and black boots, and kept warm in a purple print scarf.

Trinny - who will be celebrating her milestone 60th birthday in exactly one month - appeared relaxed yet tired as she was seen yawning a few times after the daily outing.

Earlier in October, the star has revealed she decided to have Botox for the first time at the age of 35 because she was so insecure about her forehead, which she claimed looked 'like a second mouth'.

The fashion expert is refreshingly open when it comes to discussing procedures or 'tweakments', and confirmed she has Botox 'twice a year'.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Trinny recalled how she thought the cosmetic injection was 'really f**king clever' when she was first introduced to it more than 20 years ago, right before her TV career kicked off.

'I didn't do Botox until I was 35 and at the time it was really young because it was hardly there,' she explained. 'Nobody knew what Botox was, and I was told it would stop my forehead from moving when I did television.'

Earlier in October, the star has revealed she decided to have Botox for the first time at the age of 35 because she was so insecure about her forehead , which she claimed looked 'like a second mouth'

The beauty expert confirmed she has Botox injections twice a year

Trinny said her daughter Lyla isn't 'anywhere close to thinking' about having Botox (pictured in June 2023)

The TV star said she is 'in awe' of her 19-year-old daughter because she has an 'amazing sense of self'

Trinny burst on to television screens in 2001 hosting What Not To Wear alongside Susannah Constantine

Trinny burst onto screens in 2001 alongside Susannah Constantine, with the pair teaming up to help the fashion-challenged on the UK version of What Not To Wear.

'My forehead was literally like a second mouth and it embarrassed me,' Trinny admitted, before adding: 'And this person said, "[Botox] will just freeze your forehead", and I was like, "How f**king clever"... and it did!

'So, as a result I didn't progress with so many lines on my forehead because I didn't give them a chance to start!'

But despite her own penchant for Botox, Trinny is confident that her daughter Lyla - who turns 20 next week - is not planning on picking up her mother's bi-annual habit.

'I mean whenever I would have my appointment for Botox, she'd say, "Are you going to see that funny man whose going to put something in your face?" That's how she looks at it so I don't think she's anywhere close to thinking [about it],' she said.

The mother-of-one continued: 'She is so fundamentally different from me at her age, that I look upon her in awe. She has a different sense of self than I had... she has an amazing sense of self.'

Trinny also admitted that she 'hated' being the age that her daughter is now and was 'so relieved' when she entered her thirties.

'I hated my twenties so much! I was so relieved when my twenties were over,' she explained. 'It's that thing when you don't yet know who you are to such an extent that you wake up worrying.'

In 2017, the fashion expert launched her very own beauty and skincare brand, Trinny London, for women over the age of 35 who she claims were not being 'catered for in the market'.

Trinny said: 'I want to accelerate you getting to a stage where you know who you are and love yourself. If I had to think, "what's my mission?" it's to bring that to you sooner.

'It is a rite of passage but sometimes you can find women at 60 and you think, "you're not there yet", so it's also a generational thing of feeling you don't have the right to show that you want to care about yourself, or worry about yourself. And it's more of a privilege now to be able to do that.'
Jacob Elordi seems to have sewn up his next job.

The 26-year-old actor, who has inspired a bath water scented candle due to his film Saltburn, has reportedly signed on to play the monster in a new Frankenstein film for Netflix.

According to Showbiz411, the Aussie actor will replace Andrew Garfield, 40, who was forced to bow out due to scheduling conflicts that resulted from the actors strike.

Guillermo del Toro will write, direct and produce the movie based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel.

The Pan's Labyrinth director winner has been working on the story for some time.

Jacob Elordi, 26, has reportedly sewn up his next job. The 26-year-old actor has signed on to play the monster in a new Frankenstein film on Netflix, according to Showbiz411 (pictured in Los Angeles in November 2023)

It's unclear if the Oscar winner is setting the film in the 19th century or a more modern era.

Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz are all set to star in the sci-fi thriller about a scientist who brings a human like creature to life.

At Collider's 10th anniversary IMAX 3D screening of Pacific Rim, the Pinocchio writer and director revealed the project is part of a lifelong dream.

'Im doing Frankenstein. Were working on it,' he told the audience.

'We start shooting in February, and its a movie I have been wanting to do for 50 years since I saw the first Frankenstein.'

'And I had an epiphany, and its basically a movie that required a lot of growth and a lot of tools that I couldnt have done 10 years ago.'

'Now Im brave, or crazy enough, or something, and were gonna tackle it.'

According to What's On Netflix, the new film will follow 'the story of Dr. Pretorious, who needs to track down Frankensteins monster- who is believed to have died in a fire forty years beforein order to continue the experiments of Dr. Frankenstein.'

The Aussie actor will replace Andrew Garfield in the film inspired by Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein The Aussie actor will replace Andrew Garfield in the film inspired by Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro wrote the script and will produce and direct the project, which should begin shooting in February (Pictured in Beverly Hills in February 2023)

For Jacob, acting seems to have been a way for him to handle his own demons. 'I feel the most free in my career that I ever have,' he told Variety.

'When I was 15, I was at an all-boys Catholic school. I was deeply unsettled and didnt know why. In theatre class, I read Waiting for Godot. I didnt understand it, but something changed. Everything that I believed in just went out the window.'

'I became an observer,' he explained. 'Acting and performance and story became my church. I worked 24 hours a day, devouring everything that I could. My personality changed.'

'My whole thing was about losing myself in the performance,' he explained, 'But now Im bringing Jacob Elordi to a performance, which is such a heady, trippy thing.'
Alessandra Ambrosio showcased her jaw-dropping figure in a tiny patterned bikini as she enjoyed a beach day in Brazil on Monday.

The model, 42, looked incredible in the colourful two-piece which boasted a triangle top and matching tie side bottoms.

She displayed her toned abs in the swimwear which donned a wrap tie detailing around her waist.

The Victoria Secret Angel accessorised with a stylish shell necklace and a pair of small hoop earrings.

Pushing her long wet dark tresses out of her face, Alessandra shielded from the sun behind a pair of sunglasses.

Alessandra Ambrosio showcased her jaw-dropping figure in a tiny patterned bikini as she enjoyed a beach day in Brazil on Monday

The model, 42, looked incredible in the colourful two-piece which boasted a triangle top and matching tie side bottoms

The runway star seemed in high spirits as she soaked up the sun on the beach wearing a black and yellow wrap miniskirt.

She was joined by her children Anja, 15, and Noah, 11, and was spotted playing with them on the beach with a bucket and spade.

Cooling off from the hot weather, Alessandra looked sensational as she went for a swim in the ocean.

Alessandra has been keeping her Instagram followers up-to-date during her holiday with family and friends in her native Brazil.

And she also named the exact city: Praia Brava, Norte Da Ilha, Floripa. That is how she got the name for her swim line.

The beach getaway comes after Alessandra opened up about her art collection ahead of her appearance at the annual art fair Art Basel.

'My collection mainly consists of black-and-white photos. Some are by photographers such as Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, Patrick Demarchelier and Ellen von Unwerth,' she explained to Ocean Drive magazine.

'I also treasure my guitar, which was painted by the Gemeos brothers. They are the most amazing Brazilian street artists that I genuinely adore. Each piece holds a special place in my heart!'

She displayed her toned abs in the swimwear which donned a wrap tie detailing around her waist

The Victoria Secret Angel accessorised with a stylish shell necklace and a pair of small hoop earrings

Pushing her long wet dark tresses out of her face, Alessandra shielded from the sun behind a pair of sunglasses

Alessandra was spotted fixing her tie side bikini bottoms while in the sea

The supermodel looked incredible as she walked along the beach

Alessandra enjoyed a lavish holiday in Brazil

The model proved to be the ultimate beach babe as she went for a dip in the sea

She flashed her gorgeous smile while soaking up the sun

Alessandra went on to say she also appreciates artists Damien Hirst, Mr. Brainwash and Andy Warhol, 'and I have pieces from them that are remarkable.

'Their ability to perfectly capture a moment or emotion is just so special,' she added.

The model spent 13 years as a Victoria's Secret Angel and earned recognition as one of the highest-paid models globally.

She said of the fashion world: 'Over the years, the industry has seen evolution, but theres more work ahead.

'I feel it needs to be more inclusive and representative of the amazing, diverse beauty we see in real life.'

She also revealed what is most important to her in life these days. 'Three things I cant live without are love, family and my friends.'

As for her style icons, Alessandra previously told Harper's Bazaar: 'Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, because they carried themselves with confidence and a sense of fun. They also embraced a timeless look.'

The beauty also divulged how her relationship with her appearance has changed over the years. 'I think Ive developed an inner confidence. I didnt expect modelling to last, but here I am still doing it and loving it.

Cooling off from the hot weather, Alessandra looked sensational as she went for a swim in the ocean

The runway star seemed in high spirits as she soaked up the sun on the beach wearing a black and yellow wrap miniskirt

She was joined by her children Anja, 15, and Noah, 11, and was spotted playing with them with a bucket and spade

Alessandra shares her children with her ex-partner Jamie Mazur

Alessandra has been keeping her Instagram followers up-to-date during her holiday with family and friends in her native Brazil

She also named the exact city: Praia Brava, Norte Da Ilha, Floripa. That is how she got the name for her swim line

Alessandra let her long brunette blow in the sea breeze

The model spent 13 years as a Victoria's Secret Angel and earned recognition as one of the highest-paid models globally

'So, that has made me feel that I can embrace my look at every stage of my life.'

Alessandra shares Noah and daughter Anja, 15, with her ex-partner Jamie Mazur. In August, the model shared a sweet birthday tribute to her mini-me daughter.

'Happy 15th birthday my forever baby girl @anjaambrosiom,' the Brazilian beauty began in the caption, before adding a line in Portuguese '!!! Mamae teama infinitame!!!' which translates in English to 'Mommy loves you endlessly.'
Bella Thorne was seen on the red carpet of the Young Hollywood and the Breakout Stars of 2023 event on Sunday night.

The 26-year-old entertainer  who is engaged to Mark Emms  looked stunning in a black figure-hugging dress that had gold accents over the chest.

The former Shake It Up star accessorized with diamond jewelry and black strappy heels.

Her nails were long and beige as she flashed her diamond engagement ring.

Also at the event was entertainer Keke Palmer.

Bella Thorne was seen on the red carpet of the Young Hollywood & the Breakout Stars of 2023 event on Sunday night

The 26-year-old entertainer  who is engaged to Mark Emms  looked stunning in a black figure-hugging dress that had gold accents over the chest. The former Shake It Up star accessorized with diamond jewelry and black platform heels

Last week she went out in a netted gold dress that showed off her chest and undies at The Art Of Elysium's 2024 HEAVEN Gala at The Wiltern in Los Angeles.

Bella charmed her 25 million Instagram followers on Monday as she shared a selfie from her night out.

It comes after earlier this month, Bella revealed she chose her 10-plus carat emerald cut diamond engagement ring from a batch of five.

Thorne, who got engaged last May, said her husband-to-be 'saw her face' after he popped the question and new it wasn't 'the one.'

Last month Thorne said she is constantly wearing items from her own jewelry line.

The actress launched her jewelry brand, THORNE, in 2022, and Bella has revealed that she's a huge fan of the designs.

Speaking to PEOPLE, Belle shared: 'My jewelry is just an additive of who I am. So I work out in it, I sleep in it and I shower in it. I just never take it off.'

Bella's makeup had plum tones as she wore her red hair up in a fun do with curtain bangs

With Jason Park (L)

Seen with Danielle Druz

Bella also revealed that Mark Emms, her fiance, has played an influential role with her brand.

The actress explained that she's created a range of rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces that are snuggle-safe, meaning they don't scratch or dig into the skin.

Bella remains best-known for her acting work, and the 'Shake It Up' star previously claimed that Hollywood is 'one of the more out-of-the box places'.

The actress believes that, contrary to popular opinion, Hollywood actually welcomes different kinds of people.

Bella told The Hollywood Reporter: 'The world puts us in a box.

'I think that Hollywood's probably actually one of the more out-of-the b-ox places where people can be applauded for being different, for being scarred or traumatised, all these things. You're able to share your story. We give people the room to do that honestly and brutally raw and there are people who are able to take those chances.

'I actually think Hollywood's pretty cool for letting people be different, especially in the music industry. That's where you really see it, too. But everything is also about money at the end of the day. If they can sell it, they will like it.'

Last week she went out in a netted gold dress that showed off her chest and undies at The Art Of Elysium's 2024 HEAVEN Gala at The Wiltern in Los Angeles
Hannah Elizabeth will be allowed to keep her raunchy OnlyFans account while she appears on Love Island All Stars later this month.

It was widely known that previous contestants who had accounts on the subscription site, such as Megan Barton-Hanson and Jessie Wynter, had to quit in order to star on the hit ITV2 show.

However, Hannah, 33, who appeared on season one of the dating show will not have to close her OnlyFans page.

While in the villa she will not be able to share content personally so subscribers will have to wait and see if a pal shares posts on her behalf or Hannah deactivates her account until she returns.

As a star of Love Island's first ever series, Hannah endured a turbulent romance with boyfriend Jon Clark.

Hannah Elizabeth will be allowed to keep her raunchy OnlyFans account while she appears on Love Island All Stars later this month

The reality star, 33, will not have to close her OnlyFans page despite it being widely known that previous contestants who had accounts on the subscription site had to quit in order to star on the hit ITV2 show

The couple became engaged on the show, but within three months of leaving the villa, their relationship fell apart.

Hannah insisted that wedding bells won't be on the cards this time around as she insisted she won't be getting engaged in the villa again.

She said: 'Absolutely not, not in the Villa no. Maybe when I get out, but I'd need to give it a bit of time. It was almost ten years ago and I was in that proper whirlwind kind of love, now that I'm that bit older I try to take things a little slower.'

Of her hopes for the show, she added: 'I'm returning to the Love Island Villa because I did it eight years ago and what an opportunity I never thought I'd get again.

'I'm not very good at finding love but I had a ball the first time, so I'm going to have a ball again.'

Hannah previously got engaged to her longtime friend George Andreetti in 2018, but they split while she was heavily pregnant with their first child.

Hannah welcomed her son Reggie, now four, in November 2019 following a planned cesarean, and keeps her family life relatively private.

In October, Hannah shut down trolls after undergoing another facial surgery as she insisted it was not for cosmetic purposes.

While in the villa she will not be able to share content personally so subscribers will have to wait and see if a pal shares posts on her behalf or Hannah deactivates her account until she returns

Hannah found fame on the first series of Love Island and endured a turbulent romance with boyfriend Jon Clark. She is now hoping to find love during the All Stars series which kick starts on January 15

She took to Instagram at the time to quickly shut down trolls before they had a chance to 'pipe up' after noticing her latest surgery.

The model, who has undergone multiple procedures to alter her appearance, revealed that her most recent operation was to fix her 'twisted septum'.

She penned: 'Before anyone pipes up on my post I had to have a small procedure done to correct my septum and a cast placed on to help it keep in place.

'Not changing anything, something I needed to fix as it was twisted.'

It comes as Love Island fans have been left 'disappointed' by the line-up for the brand new All Stars show.

The full cast for the first ever All Stars series was finally confirmed on Friday, featuring names from Georgia Harrison to Chris Taylor and Georgia Steel.

Exes Liberty Poole and Jake Cornish are also set to come face-to-face for an on-screen reunion on the show, as are former flames Toby Aromolaran and Kaz Kamwi.

Completing the line-up are Mitchel Taylor, Demi Jones, Hannah, Luis Morrison and Anton Danyluk as they all get their second chance at finding love.

Love Island starts at 9pm Monday 15th January on ITV1, ITV2, ITVX & STV.
An Australian influencer has been blasted for fabricating her trendy lifestyle by breaking into a luxury apartment block.

The social media personality is said to be posting photos on Instagram that imply she lives in the swanky building, while her actual living situation is more humble.

According to a blind item published by Influencer Updates AU on Tuesday, the woman visits the block so regularly her presence has ruffled feathers among residents.

'Every week she comes to my apartment building... and waits for someone to exit the door,' an anonymous tipster wrote.

'She then sneaks in so she can pretend to be "walking out" for photos. Last month she even brought a change of clothes to the lobby'.

An Australian influencer has been blasted for fabricating her trendy lifestyle by breaking into a luxury apartment block. Stock image

The tipster said the woman's cringeworthy antics are now starting 'to get on everyone's nerves'.

'I think it will be tabled at the next strata meeting,' they concluded, adding a laughing/crying emoji.

It's not uncommon for influencers to tell little white lies on social media, as being seen to lead a lavish lifestyle often brings more followers, sponsorships and money.

According to a blind item published by Influencer Updates AU on Tuesday, the woman visits the block so regularly that her presence has ruffled feathers among residents

Influencer Updates AU encourages its followers to dob in influencers who misbehave, but the admin often posts the gossip without naming individuals.

Last year, the account published another blind item claiming that a well-known influencer was pretending to live in a mansion when she in fact resides in a standard three-bedder in Sydney's west.

According to the post, the woman had shared images of a stunning mansion with a grand entrance, lift and swimming pool - even though she didn't live there.

The blind item, which was submitted by the follower but blanked out the name of the influencer in question, read: '[Redacted] influencer from Sydney who takes photos like she lives in a mansion with a lift and pool when really it's a tiny three-bedroom house in the west up the road from me.'
WIllem Dafoe passionately kissed his wife of 18 years as they made a rare public appearance together at his Hollywood Walk Of Fame ceremony.

The 68-year-old actor - who attended last night's Golden Globes Awards in support of film Poor Things - graciously accepted his newly-minted place on the famous sidewalk in Hollywood, California on Monday morning.

He was joined at the event by his wife Giada Colagrande, 48, as they proudly shared a sweet smooch over his new star.

Willem looked dapper for his big day as he sported a navy suit over a crisp white dress shirt with no tie and black dress shoes.

His ladylove sported a black sleeveless mini dress along with a matching long sleeveless cardigan and strappy brown heels.

WIllem Dafoe passionately kissed his wife of 18 years as they made a rare public appearance together at his Hollywood Walk Of Fame ceremony

The 68-year-old actor graciously accepted his newly-minted place on the famous sidewalk in Hollywood, California on Monday morning

He was joined at the event by his wife Giada Colagrande, 48, as they proudly posed over his new star

Her raven-colored tresses were worn down in a middle-part as she accentuated her porcelain skin with complementary make-up topped off with shiny lip.

Giada accessorized with a necklace featuring a large pendant and a silver wraparound statement armband.

Although they keep their relationship relatively low-key, Willem - who married Giada just one year after they met - previously shared details of his romance with the Italian beauty in an article written for The Guardian.

The lovestruck actor explained: 'I met my wife on the street in Rome in 2004. I knew of her because I'd seen her films and we had some mutual friends.

'Getting married was very impulsive and romantic. We were having lunch and I said: "Do you want to get married tomorrow?" I called up City Hall and they said: "If you get here in the next couple of hours, you can register and then you can get married tomorrow." So we ran down there.

'We married the next day with just two witnesses, our best friends: my manager and her editor.'

Meanwhile one of Dafoe's inductees was Poor Things castmate Pedro Pascal who heaped massive praise for the veteran actor.

Pascal, 48, said: 'I saw Platoon in the movie theatre with my father and he made me cry so hard my dad sent me to the bathroom, this was 1986 I was 10 years old and I still wanted to be an actor.

His ladylove sported a black sleeveless mini dress along with a matching long sleeveless cardigan and strappy brown heels

Dafoe looked excited as his star was unveiled

He proudly posed next to it

He was joined by Pedro Pascal and Patricia Arquette who both spoke at the ceremony

The trio happily posed for snaps

Dafoe and Arquette were joined by Camila Morrone as they starred in Gonzo Girl together

Dafoe and Poor Things castmate Mark Ruffalo humorously kissed the star

'He redefines the concept of rebel and originality by making it about generosity, integrity, kindness and fun. Willem is a good time and an amazing friend.'

The Last Of Us star said that he met Dafoe in China as they filmed 2017's The Great Wall together and the Boondock Saints star took him out for his birthday.

Pascal gushed: 'He has been my greatest teacher. Ill go as far to say he is the greatest American actor in our lifetime. You cannot compare his career to anyones, truthfully.

'So it is our fortune to have him and I personally am very grateful.'

He ended his speech by saying 'I love you' before they shared a kiss on the stage.

The event was star-studded as the guest list also included their Poor Things castmate Mark Ruffalo in addition to Patricia Arquette and Guillermo Del Toro.

Willem made his film debut in a supporting role for Michael Cimino's epic Western film Heaven's Gate in 1980 at the age of 25.

He found is breakout role starring in Oliver Stone's Vietnam film Platoon as he portrayed compassionate Sergeant Elias Grodin.

Pascal, 48, said: 'I saw Platoon in the movie theatre with my father and he made me cry so hard my dad sent me to the bathroom, this was 1986 I was 10 years old and I still wanted to be an actor'

Dafoe had a laugh while his pal was at the podium

He ended his speech by saying 'I love you' before they shared a kiss on the stage

Patricia also shared sweet words about her friend and former co-star

Willem ended the ceremony by hitting the podium himself

Dafoe earned his first ever Oscar nomination in the Best Actor in a Supporting Role category but ultimately lost out to Michael Caine who won for the film Hannah And Her Sisters.

Throughout the 1990s he became an established actor with roles in Body Of Evidence (1993), Clear And Present Danger (1994), The English Patient (1996), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), and The Boondock Saints (1999).

In 2001, he was nominated for another Oscar in the Best Actor in a Supporting Role category once again for Shadow Of A Vampire but was beat out by Benicio Del Toro in Traffic.

Earlier in the ceremony Willem shared a laugh with his wife and Arquette

Pedro donned a black double-breasted blazer over colorful striped pants

Patricia looked stunning in all-white

Mark looked handsome as always

Pedro and Mark hugged as they posed for a cute snap

The two actors shared a laugh

Perhaps his biggest blockbuster role came in 2002 as he starred as supervillain the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man alongside Tobey Maguire.

More recently he earned two more Academy Award nominations in back-to-back years - 2018 and 2019 - for The Florida Project and At Eternity's Gate.

Dafoe is showing no signs of slowing down as he has seven upcoming projects including Beetlejuice 2 which is currently in post-production.
A wealthy Sydney influencer is continuing to shock fans with her bizarre social media posts.

Sarah Stevenson, known as Sarah's Day online, took to Instagram on Monday to share a video of herself eating an entire three-course dinner from a local Italian restaurant in the confinements of her Range Rover Sport, which ranges from $143,600 to $197,700.

In the video, Sarah chowed down on a garlic sourdough pizza, lamb meatballs were with cheese and a rocket salad.

'My unpopular opinion... I don't really like pizza. I'm more of a burger girl,' she said in the clip.

The odd video raised eyebrows among fans, who shared their opinions in the comments of her post.

Sarah Stevenson, known as Sarah's Day online, shared a video of herself eating an entire three-course dinner from a local Italian restaurant in the confinements of her $150,000 Range Rover

'Everything about this gives me anxiety. eating in the caresp tomato sauce!? Yikes!' one follower wrote.

'Brave of you to eat that in your car,' added another.

'Has an entire dinner in the car? LOVE. This is so relatable!' someone else commented.

It comes after Sarah unleashed on her own fans for correcting the way she pronounces a well known designer brand.

In the video, Sarah chowed down on a garlic sourdough pizza, lamb meatballs that were stuffed with cheese, and a rocket salad

Taking to Instagram Stories on Sunday to show off her outfit before heading out for dinner with a friend, the mother-of-three posed holding two handbags by Spanish luxury fashion house Loewe, pronouncing the brand 'Low-ee'.

Fashion-savvy fans immediately flooded Sarah's inbox with messages informing her that the correct pronunciation is actually 'Lo-weh-vay'.

This clearly struck a nerve for Sarah, who returned to Instagram Stories with a bizarre rant hitting back at her critics.

It comes after Sarah unleashed on her own fans for correcting the way she pronounces a well known designer brand

'Literally shut up, shut up! Ok?' the blonde raged.

She went on to condemn her followers for correcting her in an 'unkind' way.

'First of all, yes, I did. I said Low-ee. Second of all, I don't appreciate the sass, OK?' she ranted.

'There is a loving and kind way to correct somebody. You will learn that when you're a mother and you try raising children.'

Sarah insisted it wasn't her fault she pronounce Loewe incorrectly as no one had corrected her in the past, while claiming that she still doesn't know how to pronounce brands like Moet, Louis Vuitton and Jacquemus.

Fashion-savvy fans immediately flooded Sarah's inbox with messages informing her that the correct pronunciation is actually 'Lo-weh-vay'. This clearly struck a nerve for Sarah, who returned to Instagram Stories with a bizarre rant hitting back at her critics

Sarah insisted it wasn't her fault she pronounce Loewe incorrectly as no one had corrected her in the past, while claiming that she still doesn't know how to pronounce brands like Moet, Louis Vuitton and Jacquemus

She also noted that she 'isn't the kind of person who is going to Google' how to pronounce a name.

'Like that's just not in my DNA. I just would never do that. Like, I just read something and I just, like, call it what it is... I'm not an over thinker. I'm like an under thinker in that way,' she explained.

In an attempt to prove her point, Sarah then posted a questionnaires for her followers, asking how they pronounce the name of certain brands.

Among them was the Champagne brand Moet, which is pronounced with a hard t.

'For years I said 'Mo-ay',' Sarah admitted.

Sarah was also surprised to learn that the fashion brand Decjuba is pronounced 'De-cuba' and not, as she previously thought, 'Dec-joo-bah'.

In an attempt to prove her point, Sarah then posted a questionnaires for her followers, asking how they pronounce the name of certain brands. Among them was the Champagne brand Moet, which is pronounced with a hard t
Star Wars icon Mark Hamill delighted fans as he posed with his onscreen mother Natalie Portman at the Golden Globes on Sunday.

The actor, 72, who played Jedi Luke Skywalker in six Star War films, quipped he had 'finally met his "mother"' as he met Portman, 42, backstage - who played Luke and Princess Leia's mother Queen Padme Amidala in the three Star Wars prequels.

Hamill looked dapper in a black velvet blazer, shirt and tie, while Portman - who was nominated in the Best Actress  Motion Picture Comedy or Musical category for May December - wowed in a glittering sequin dress.

Mark first burst on to screens as Luke Skywalker in the 1977 original film, before reprising his roles in five further films; 1980's The Empire Strikes Back, 1883's Return of the Jedi, 2015's The Force Awakens, 2017's The Last Jedi, last starring as the character in 2019's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Portman was just a teen when the first of the trilogy, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace hit cinemas in 1999, with sequels Attack of the Clones and The Revenge of the Sith later released.

Star Wars icon Mark Hamill delighted fans as he posed with his onscreen mother Natalie Portman at the Golden Globes on Sunday

Mark first burst on to screens as Luke Skywalker in the 1977 original film A New Hope, before reprising his roles in five further films (pictured with Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia and Harrison Ford as Han Solo)

Portman was just a teen when the first of the trilogy, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace hit cinemas in 1999, with sequels Attack of the Clones and The Revenge of the Sith later released

She starred alongside Hayden Christensen who played her doomed love, Anakin Skywalker, who would fall to the Dark Side and become Darth Vader.

Unlike their legendary predecessors, the prequel films were panned by critics and fans alike, after it failed to live up to expectations.

It was also slated for poor use of CGI and for the unlikable comedic alien, Jar Jar Binks.

Despite the films being panned, the backlash didn't affect Natalie's career, with the Hollywood star going on to appear in a number of hit films including Black Swan, Thor, Jackie and Vox Lux.

Last year Hamill revealed that he sees no 'reason' to portray Luke Skywalker again, but remains open to returning to the role during an interview with CBS Sunday Morning.

The star spoke with CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent Tracy Smith, saying: 'I had my time, and that's good,' Hamill said of playing the Force-enabled hero. 'But that's enough.'

'So, even though you say you won't go back, there's always a chance that you could go back?,' Smith asked.

'Well, you never say never. I just don't see any reason to. Let me put it that way: I mean, they have so many stories to tell, they don't need Luke anymore,' Hamill answered.

She starred alongside Hayden Christensen who played her doomed love, Anakin Skywalker, who would fall to the Dark Side and become Darth Vader

Last year Hamill revealed that he sees no 'reason' to portray Luke Skywalker again, but remains open to returning to the role (pictured 1977)

'You know that a lot of people out there would argue, ''They always need Luke'',' Smith said, prompting Hamill to laugh.

Smith also asked if he had accepted being forever associated as Luke Skywalker.

'Yeah. Well, I don't care,' Hamill said. 'I mean, the truth of the matter is, I never really expected to be remembered for anything. I just wanted to make a living doing what I liked. And I thought, ''Well, it could be worse. I could be, like, known as being the best actor who ever played Adolf Hitler, you know?'' At least Luke is an admirable fellow!'
Cameron Diaz seemed to be in a great mood on Monday afternoon, as if she did not have a care in the world.

The 51-year-old Annie actress was seen hitting the slopes with her rock star husband, Benji Madden of Good Charlotte, for a snowboarding session.

Together they share daughter Raddix, four, but the child was not seen.

This comes days after her rep denied she ever met Jeffrey Epstein. Diaz was reportedly named in unsealed court documents about the financier.

The Southern California native was among dozens of well-known figures named in the documents as being associated with late pedophile Epstein with other famous faces following suit.

Cameron Diaz seemed to be in a great mood on Monday afternoon, as if she did not have a care in the world after she denied she ever met Jeffrey Epstein

The 51-year-old Annie actress was seen hitting the slopes with her rock star husband, Benji Madden of Good Charlotte, for a snowboarding session. Together they share daughter Raddix, four, but the child was not seen

The blonde beauty wore a puffy black Burton jacket with matching slacks.

The cover girl added brown lace-up boots with black toes, and a white helmet with the Line Miner M Snow Goggles from Oakley.

There was also a scarf underneath.

Her spouse had on a long black jacket with camouflage slacks in green and beige and black slippers with white overstitch.

He wore a black knit cap stamped Burton as he pursed his lips, which is a signature rapper move.

The brother to Joel Madden carried his boots and helmet.

The day before The Mask actress stepped out in Aspen with her husband and close friends Zoe Saldana, 45, and her husband Marco Perego at the celebrity hotspot Matsuhisa Aspen.

The Charlie's Angels star wore a pair of jeans with a black top and a brown furry jacket.

Zoe, meanwhile, wore a pair of bright pink pants with pink snow boots and a black puffy jacket.

The blonde beauty wore a puffy black Burton jacket with matching slacks. The cover girl added brown lace-up boots with black toes, and a white helmet with the Line Miner M Snow Goggles from Oakley

The double date comes after Diaz denied 'any association whatsoever' with Epstein.

'Cameron never met Jeffrey Epstein, nor was she ever in the same place as him or had any association with him whatsoever,' the actress' rep said in a statement.

They added: 'Regardless of the fact he may or may not have mentioned her name or implied that he knew her.'

The files are part of a defamation case brought against Epstein's madam Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in jail for sex trafficking underage girls to him.

She was sued by Virginia Roberts, now known as Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was forced to have sex with the Duke of York three times in 2001 when she was 17 - claims the duke vehemently denies.

This comes days after her rep denied she ever met Jeffrey Epstein . Diaz was reportedly named in unsealed court documents about the financier. The siren was among dozens of well-known figures named in the documents as being associated with late pedophile Epstein with other famous faces following suit. Seen in 2014

High-profile people such as Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton , Donald Trump , Al Gore, and Kevin Spacey were all included in evidence filings.

Diaz was named in the document alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Bruce Willis, Naomi Campbell, David Copperfield and the late Stephen Hawking.

None of them have been accused of any involvement in Epstein's crimes, but Epstein was a name-dropper, according to his former associates.

Some of the people named overnight were associates, friends or victims of Epstein.

But the vast majority were named in evidence by witnesses who said they had no links to the pedophile at all  or had not seen them at his many homes.

One of Epstein's alleged victims, Joanna Sjoberg, denied ever meeting Leo, Cate, or Bruce Willis during her testimony.

Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, aged 17, now known as Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London. The Duke of York denies ever meeting Ms Giuffre

Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach. Trump and Epstein spoke regularly, documents claimed

She said Epstein 'would be on the phone a lot at that time, and one time he said, "Oh, that was Leonardo [DiCaprio], or, that was Cate Blanchett, or Bruce Willis." That kind of thing.'

She was later asked: 'Did you meet Cameron Diaz?' to which she replied: 'No.'

The identities of more than 170 people are now set to be made public following a US judge's order last month, with the first tranche of documents released last week.
21 Savage released the official trailer for his upcoming biopic, American Dream: The 21 Savage Story, on Monday.

The 31-year-old rapper has enlisted Donald Glover and Stranger Things' Caleb McLaughlin to portray him in his memoir, which documents his incarceration in 2019.

Since he was raised in Atlanta but born in London, the story follows his arrest, being held for several weeks and threats of deportation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

21 Savage  whose full name is Sheyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph  was ultimately released with the help of the Free 21 Savage campaign and was have been able to remain in the states.

The preview also showcases new music, a highly anticipated release as he had not dropped a solo album since 2018.

21 Savage released the official trailer for his upcoming biopic, American Dream: The 21 Savage Story, on Monday

The 31-year-old rapper has enlisted Donald Glover and Stranger Things' Caleb McLaughlin to portray him in his memoir, which documents his incarceration in 2019

He has, however, released two collaborative albums  Savage Mode II with Metro Boomin in 2020 and Her Loss with Drake in 2022  and has continued touring and performing.

After the four-year immigration saga, he performed for the first time outside of America as the opening act of Drake's It's All A Blur concert in Toronto.

The trailer begins with McLaughlin portraying a young 21 Savage facing discrimination as he moves to America at the age of seven with his mother.

'These people, they think we're savages,' a woman's voice is heard saying over a clip of police officers separating her from him.

The scene fades into a shot of the silhouette of Glover portraying him and walking into a dark room and then the image of car on fire sitting in an empty parking lot.

'Remember your wishing star,' she says. 'Whenever you feel lost, just remember I'm looking up at that same star. That star is your dream. And they can never take it.'

Music then starts playing as a scene of 21 Savage in an interrogation room begins.

He paces across the dimly lit room before sitting down across from McLaughlin, portraying a younger version of him, and wearing a ski mask.

The trailer begins with McLaughlin portraying a young 21 Savage facing discrimination as he moves to America at the age of seven with his mother. He portrays 21 Savage as he gets his passport stamped and journeys across the Atlantic aboard a boat while wearing a tag that just reads '21'

He goes to high school, gets bullied by his classmates and later approaches the same bullies while sporting a black eye

He faces his bullies while brandishing a gun in one scene

He seemingly goes down a path of violence as he commits a robbery with his friends but a later scene shows him watching local rappers perform in his hometown

Watching them perform inspires him to ultimately pursue a music career

The trailer also shows him getting his very first face tattoo

A young 21 Savage is seen with his trademark dagger placed right between his eyes

He portrays 21 Savage as he gets his passport stamped and journeys across the Atlantic aboard a boat while wearing a tag that just reads '21'.

He goes to high school, gets bullied by his classmates and later approaches the same bullies while sporting a black eye but this time brandishing a gun.

He seemingly goes down a path of violence as he commits a robbery with his friends but a later scene shows him watching local rappers perform in his hometown and inspiring him to pursue a music career.

The trailer also shows him getting his very first face tattoo  his trademark dagger placed right between his eyes.

Previously, he revealed to The Fader in 2016 that it was an ode to his late little brother Tayman and was inspired by Tony Montana's blade tattoo in Scarface.

Then, Glover takes over the role as an older 21 Savage and appears in the interrogation room.

A scene plays of him walking into a club and seeing record producer Metro Boomin  played by Jabari Banks  as he DJs in a club full of scantily clad dancers.

After meeting, they start writing music and making hits together in the studio.

Then, Glover takes over the role as an older 21 Savage and appears in the interrogation room

21 Savage raps as he faces his younger self in the interrogation room

A scene plays of him walking into a club and seeing record producer Metro Boomin  played by Jabari Banks  as he DJs in a club full of scantily clad dancers

After meeting, they start writing music and making hits together in the studio

Glover also recreates the viral and vastly memeified snapshot of 21 Savage on ESPN's Highly Questionable  during which, fans likened him to a supervillain as he posed with a sinister expression on his face

A scene shows his rap career taking off as he continues to create songs

He also films music videos depicting the hard life he grew up in

But then he is seen sitting in a car that explodes, foreshadowing things are about to take a dramatic turn

He is seen getting arrested by a team of ICE officers

Then, he sits in court with Haunting of Hill House's Victoria Pedretti and Beef's Young Mazino portraying his lawyers  who help him get back his freedom

Poker Face star Natasha Lyonne portraying a regal monarch knighting him with a sword

The fictional scene depicts his redemption and overcoming adversities

Glover also recreates the viral and vastly memeified snapshot of 21 Savage on ESPN's Highly Questionable  during which, fans likened him to a supervillain as he posed with a sinister expression on his face.

A scene shows his rap career taking off as he creates songs and music videos but then he is seen sitting in a car that explodes, foreshadowing things are about to take a dramatic turn.

He is seen getting arrested by a team of ICE officers and then sitting in court with Haunting of Hill House's Victoria Pedretti and Beef's Young Mazino portraying his lawyers  who help him get back his freedom.

Poker Face star Natasha Lyonne portraying a regal monarch knighting him with a sword.

The trailer ends with Savage with his arms wrapped around Glover and McLaughlin, who are both dressed as him.

After the title appears, there is also a clip of him standing with his mother, Heather Carmillia Joseph, and his two sons, Kamari and Ashaad. (He is also a father to daughter Rhian, who does not appear in the trailer.)

He also holds up his Grammy from the 62nd award ceremony in 2020 during which he won Best Rap Song for A Lot.

For the upcoming 66th annual Grammys on February 4, Savage has been nominated for a total of five awards.

The trailer ends with Savage with his arms wrapped around Glover and McLaughlin, who are both dressed as him

After the title appears, there is also a clip of him standing with his mother, Heather Carmillia Joseph, and his two sons, Kamari and Ashaad; he is also a father to daughter Rhian, who does not appear in the trailer

The end of the trailer also featured a clip of 21 Savage in the studio with Metro Boomin as he recalls how he earned his stage moniker

American Dream: The 21 Savage Story will be released on Independence Day 2024. Also according to the trailer, 'music inspired by the film' is set to drop on January 12

He is up for Best Rap Album for Her Loss; Best Rap Song as well as Best Rap Performance for Rich Flex; Best Melodic Rap Performance for both Sittin' On Top Of The World as well as Spin Bout U.

The end of the trailer also featured a clip of 21 Savage in the studio with Metro Boomin recalling how he earned his stage moniker.

American Dream: The 21 Savage Story will be released on Independence Day 2024.

Also according to the trailer, 'music inspired by the film' is set to drop on January 12.
Rochelle Humes shared the latest stunning update from her idyllic trip to the Maldives with her 2.3million Instagram followers on Monday.

The former pop star and This Morning post, 34, has been living it up in the incredible location, after jetting away with husband Marvin Humes, 38, and their children Alaia-Mai, 10, Valentina, six, and Blake, three.

The family headed off on a boat trip during the trip, as Rochelle posted a selfie while posing in a chic white bikini with her two daughters on the deck.

Marvin and Rochelle began the trip after his I'm A Celebrity stint and they were later joined by their kids for the fun-filled getaway.

The brunette beauty went on to share a stunning shot seemingly taken ahead of a dinner, as she posed in a cross-over top which flashed her envy-inducing abs.

Rochelle Humes shared the latest stunning update from her idyllic trip to the Maldives with her 2.3million Instagram followers on Monday

The brunette beauty went on to share a stunning shot seemingly taken ahead of a dinner, as she posed in a cross-over top which flashed her envy-inducing abs

The former pop star and This Morning post, 34, has been living it up in the incredible location, after jetting away with husband Marvin Humes , 38, and their children Alaia-Mai, 10, Valentina, six, and Blake, three

Both her daughters proved to have inherited their mum's trendy sense of style, as illustrated in the sweet pictures taken on the deck of the boat

Blake meanwhile was getting snap happy on the shore, as he posed happily on the white sand with a palm tree and the crystalline water in the background

Alaia beamed at the camera in her own shot shared on her mum's Instagram

In an accompanying caption, Rochelle penned: 'Heart full. The Maldives holds a special place in my heart for so many reasons, and this trip has added even more unforgettable memories to hold on to. Grateful beyond words'.

Marvin beamed at the camera in another shot as he sat on the boat with his wife and their youngest and only son Blake, who beamed in the shot.

Giving a glimpse of their New Year celebrations, Rochelle posted an image of a burning emblem on the beach reading: 'Goodbye 2023'.

Far from only keeping the camera on herself, she peppered the carousel of pictures with sweet snaps of the kids posing individually.

Both her daughters proved to have inherited their mum's trendy sense of style, as illustrated in the sweet pictures taken on the deck of the boat.

Blake meanwhile was getting snap happy on the shore, as he posed happily on the white sand with a palm tree and the crystalline water in the background.

Rochelle then tried her hand at paddleboarding, as she posed on the board and held her paddle aloft with the stunning sunset in the background.

In an accompanying caption, Rochelle penned: 'Heart full. The Maldives holds a special place in my heart for so many reasons, and this trip has added even more unforgettable memories to hold on to. Grateful beyond words'

Rochelle then tried her hand at paddleboarding, as she posed on the board and held her paddle aloft with the stunning sunset in the background

Rochelle has kept her stream of pictures during the holiday constant, with the stunner posting a slew of shots of her kids last week

Rochelle has kept her stream of pictures during the holiday constant, with the stunner posting a slew of shots of her kids last week.

Rochelle captioned a photo of her family 'Mine' and added a heart-eye emoji. In another, without Marvin she wrote 'Ours'.

The presenter shared a photo of Marvin and the children in a swimming pool. Alaia-Mai wrapped her arm around Marvin and threw up a peace sign.

In a final photo, Valentina can be seen enjoying a red drink with ice and garnish, and the caption is 'Sundowners'.

The holiday is welcome family time after Marvin finished I'm A Celebrity ... in fifth place, spending weeks away from Rochelle and the children.

Rochelle shared a video of Blake larking around in the sand as the sunset slowly went down

Blake looked adorable in a multi-coloured pinstriped co-ord and was seen giggling with his doting mother

Rochelle later shared a picture of her evening outfit looking incredible, donning a glamorous white satin dress

Blake and Marvin went matching in a stylish navy blue co-ord as they posed holding hands for a photo

She also shared a snap of Blake and Marvin sleeping in bed, sharing a sweet cuddle together

Rochelle wowed in a black bikini top showcasing her ample cleavage, while advertising her new Cloudcha brand

Marvin, Alaia-Mai, Valentina, and Blake took centre stage in these photos, with Rochelle not featuring at all

She shared some more beautiful snaps of her family on her Instagram Story on Wednesday

Though the JLS star did not win, Marvin renewed the public's love for him with his friendly nature and constant sweet words about his wife.

Rochelle made a surprise visit to camp and Marvin later said that seeing her evoked so many different emotions that he was reminded of his wedding day.

In the Coming Out Show, Marvin also took part in a hilarious Facetime with his JLS bandmates.

Asking what they make of 'the new fifth member' Sam Thompson, Aston replied: 'If it doesn't happen, you're going to let the whole of the UK down!'

Back at the hotel, Marvin arrived to cheers and hugs from all his fellow campmates including Frankie, Danielle and Nella among others.

He said to Sam's friend Pete Wicks: 'Thanks for looking after Rochelle' and made sure to tell Josie's son Reggie: 'Your mummy loves you so much, okay. She can't wait to see you!'

The presenter shared a black and white photo of Marvin and the children in a swimming pool. Alaia-Mai wrapped her arm around Marvin and threw up a peace sign.
A popular TikTok influencer has revealed that she's been diagnosed with the deadly fungal infection Valley Fever, after visiting her parents in Arizona in September.

Speaking in a clip posted in December, which has attracted more than 500,000 views, Susi Vidal explains how the disease gave her a full body rash, disabling fatigue, a tight chest and a 'stabbing sharp pain that would randomly come into my side'.

The condition, which is increasingly prevalent in the US, is caused by the inhalation of spores from the fungus Coccidioides.

The spores are released into the atmosphere when the soil is disturbed - which is why the infection surge has been linked to rising temperatures across the globe.

While the fungus was previously only found in dry, western patches of the country, it is spreading fast.

Experts fear that the infection - which can lead to meningitis - could be endemic in 17 states by 2100.

@susi.vidal Dont even get me started on the headaches and brain fog i cant focus longer than 1 minute HAHA Valley Fever is no joke im so drained  original sound - Susi

TikTok influencer Susi Vidal has revealed the collection of worrying symptoms that arose from her Valley Fever infection - including nasty rashes and chest pain

Susi Vidal, who has 3.6 million followers on TikTok - where she posts examples of healthy recipes - told followers that she originally mistook the condition for worsening depression.

'I think I got it in September. I've been living in Michigan, and I'm from Arizona,' she said. 'I visited my family in September.

'My symptoms started off as just severe fatigue, and I just thought it was my depression because I literally could not get out of bed.

'I upped my therapy...and therapy was basically the only thing I could do. I had zero explanation for any of my symptoms.'

Susi goes on to explain that her doctor in Michigan could not figure out what was wrong.

Valley Fever is thought to affect at least 20,000 Americans every year and, in worse case scenarios, can cause deadly meningitis

'Then I broke out in this rash all over...I broke out in this rash all over my stomach all over... it looks like ringworm.'

The rash began with a little patch before spreading all over the content creator's body.

Other symptoms she suffered include a dry cough, a tight throat which 'felt like I was wearing a turtle neck 24/7', and a stabbing pain in her side a couple of times a day.

'And then when we went to Florida I went to urgent care in Florida. I literally couldn't do anything there. I literally slept the entire time,' she says.

'They thought my rash was hives so they gave me a steroid shot in my butt.'

When this didn't work, Susi returned to doctors in Arizona who conducted a series of blood tests, as well as scans of her chest - before eventually diagnosing Valley Fever.

'It's basically a fungal infection in my lungs that I inhaled from dirt in Arizona. It's found in the dirt and soil there.'

The infection was dubbed Valley Fever because 97 percent of cases are found in Arizona and California

The prescribed treatment is anti-fungal medication, which Susi says she believes is helping to reduce the severity of her rash.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), roughly 20,000 cases of Valley Fever were reported in 2019.

When humans or animals breathe in the spores, they travel through the respiratory tract and into the lungs, where they reproduce, causing further disease.

Most infections are mild and clear up on their own within a few days or weeks, and the infection cannot be passed between people or animals.

Symptoms  fatigue, cough, fever, aching muscles and breathlessness  mimic those of a respiratory virus infection, so they are easy to mistake for something else.

Other symptoms include night sweats, joint aches and a red rash, usually on the legs but occasionally on the chest, arms and back.

But up to ten percent of cases become severe and take months to recover from.

In these cases, known as disseminated coccidioidomycosis, the disease can spread through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, including the brain, skin and liver.

If it infects the membranes and fluid around the brain, it can cause meningitis.

In 2019, a study published in the journal GeoHealth predicted that, due to climate change, the endemic region of the fungus will spread north to include dry western states such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
As India enters this transformative phase in hiring practices, both employers and job seekers need to embrace the opportunities presented by skills-based hiring

The job market in India is constantly changing, and we are now witnessing a significant shift towards skills-based hiring. The old-fashioned approach to hiring, which relied on academic qualifications and work experience, is giving way to a more dynamic method that prioritizes specific skills. The new skills-first approach enables professionals to explore unconventional career pathways and places greater emphasis on their abilities rather than their educational background. This shift reflects a wider recognition that skills, rather than just degrees, are the key to success in today's highly competitive job market.

A skills-first hiring approach gives priority to a candidate's practical abilities over traditional qualifications. This trend is growing rapidly in India as employers realize the value of diverse skill sets. It is relevant today because it provides equal opportunities for all, allowing talent to shine beyond academic labels. The advantages of this approach include a more inclusive job market and the ability to tap into hidden talent.

This approach values merit over formalities, enabling professionals from diverse backgrounds to contribute on a global scale. Every foreign job market has a specific skill shortage that they are looking to fill, and this approach helps to fill that gap. According to a report titled 'The State of Skills-Based Hiring 2023', 86 per cent of employees believe that they are more likely to secure their dream job when the hiring process includes skills-based hiring.

The latest data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) is alarming: a whopping 86% of individuals aged between 15 and 59 years have not received any form of vocational training. This is unacceptable! It is high time that we focus our efforts on converting this pool of individuals into skilled human capital.

The current trend in hiring prioritizes skills. Therefore, high schools and post-secondary education institutions must design their curriculum to focus on these skills. The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 rightly emphasizes the need for standardized vocational training courses in high schools, with a range of experiences aimed at developing a bundle of skill competencies.

To achieve the goal set by the NEP of increasing the gross enrolment ratio in higher education, including vocational education, to 50% by 2035, further action is needed. This requires the addition of 3.5 crore new seats to higher education institutions (HEIs) and focusing on a flexible curriculum with creative combinations of subjects. We must integrate vocational education with mainstream education and allow for multiple entries and exits with appropriate certification. To provide our students with the best possible skills, it is imperative to establish Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERUs) at par with the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

However, accurately assessing these skills may pose challenges. Nevertheless, the future outlook suggests continued growth, fostering innovation and adaptability in a workforce where skills, not just degrees, define success. This reflects a dynamic shift towards meritocracy in the evolving employment landscape. The growing integration of advanced technologies like generative AI, machine learning, cloud computing, and data science across these sectors drives the trend. As these technologies continue to propel business and alter business operations, the demand for upskilling in technology remains robust. Companies are increasingly seeking professionals with specific skills to fill key roles in areas such as valuation analysis, financial research, investor relations management, and risk analysis within this domain.

Skills-first hiring is a new approach that is dismantling traditional barriers to offer global work opportunities irrespective of educational background or regional certifications. For instance, a cyber security expert equipped with practical knowledge and certifications can now find doors opening abroad, as security needs transcend geographical confines.

IBM India has adopted a 'skill-first' approach where college degrees do not matter. In 2012, IBM implemented this approach in the US by removing the four-year college degree requirement from about 50% of its jobs. Ten years later, 29% of the present IBM US workforce in hardware, software, and consulting does not have a college degree. However, companies like Oracle had 100%, followed by Intel (94%), HP (92%), and Apple (90%).

A study conducted between 2017 and 2022 showed that US employers reduced degree requirements for 46% of middle-skill positions and 31% of high-skill positions. Various studies highlight that for the job of software quality-assurance engineer, only 26% of Accenture's postings for the position contained a degree requirement.

The rise of skills-based hiring can be attributed to several factors, each contributing to a more comprehensive and efficient employment ecosystem. One of the key drivers is the fast-paced evolution of technology, which has made some skill sets obsolete while creating an insatiable demand for new ones. As industries digitize and automate, employers are looking for candidates who have the technical expertise required to navigate this new world.

Skills-based hiring is not only about technical prowess but also about fostering inclusivity in the workplace. By focusing on skills, employers can tap into a broader talent pool, breaking down barriers related to age, gender, or educational background. This approach enables individuals with non-traditional career trajectories to showcase their abilities, ultimately leading to a more diverse and innovative workforce.

In a country as diverse as India, this inclusive hiring model is crucial for unlocking the full potential of the population. It allows for the recognition and utilisation of a rich tapestry of skills that may be overlooked in a more rigid, qualification-centric system.

When individuals are hired based on their skills instead of solely on academic qualifications, there is a higher likelihood of job satisfaction and engagement. Employees who feel that their skills are valued are more likely to invest in their professional development, leading to a continuous improvement loop.

This paradigm shift challenges the traditional notion that a candidate's potential is solely based on their educational background. It acknowledges that skills are dynamic, and the ability to learn and adapt is highly valued in today's fast-paced work environment.

As India transitions to this transformative phase in hiring practices, both employers and job seekers need to embrace the opportunities presented by skills-based hiring. Job seekers should focus on acquiring and showcasing relevant skills, whether through formal education, online courses, or on-the-job experience. Employers, on the other hand, should refine their recruitment processes to ensure that they identify and nurture the diverse talents that the Indian workforce has to offer.

In conclusion, skills-based hiring in India marks a pivotal moment in the country's employment landscape. It is a departure from traditional norms, a response to technological evolution, and a step toward a more inclusive and dynamic professional future. As India continues to embrace this shift, the workforce will be characterised not just by degrees but by a mosaic of skills that power innovation and drive success in an ever-changing global economy.

(The writer is a Co-Founder and MD of Orane International, a Training Partner with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), and a Network Member of India International Skill Centres, Views expressed are personal)
Can the enormous popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi help the Bharatiya Janata Party achieve electoral success in the southern states?

The Party is seeking to gain more voters in the challenging southern region. Its presence is limited in states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. Since it has already peaked in the northern states, the BJP needs to secure more seats in the South. Last week, Modi began his election campaign for the 2024 elections in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Lakshadweep. He also inaugurated several multi-crore projects.

The BJP has access to unlimited funds and has well-organised party workers on the ground. To achieve the Party's objective, 40 central ministers had been fielded in the South. In Telangana, the Bharatiya Rashtriya Samithi (BRS) has been present since its establishment in 2014 but recently lost the State to Congress. Kerala is ruled by Congress or Left-led fronts, while Tamil Nadu alternates between Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) In Karnataka, Janata Dal (Secular), Congress, and BJP have all had a turn in power.

Several factors influence voters in the region. They include caste, money, power, ideology, cinema, and liquor. In Tamil Nadu, political figures such as CN Annadurai, M Karunanidhi, MGR, and Jayalalithaa have significantly influenced voters. In the past, N.T. Rama Rao played a crucial role in united Andhra Pradesh. However, the B.J.P. currently lacks prominent leaders in the southern states. With the passing of influential leaders like M Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, the BJP is trying to fill the political void.

The BJP won 29 of the 130 regional seats in the 2019 elections, including 25 in Karnataka and four in Telangana. However, the Party lost the state to the Congress in last year's assembly polls.

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) was a significant ally of the BJP. However, they ended their alliance three months ago, and neither Party has attempted to reconcile since then.

The southern states of India are known for their unique cultures. One noticeable difference is the language divide between the North and South. While Hindi is the preferred language in the North, the South predominantly uses English and local languages. Dravidian Parties in Tamil Nadu oppose the use of Hindi and follow an atheistic ideology. On the other hand, Kerala has a robust communist presence and alternates between Left Front and Congress-led coalitions.

The method of using population as a measure for constituency delimitation has led to the South feeling mistreated. This is because the population control measures implemented by Southern states have resulted in a decline in population compared to the North, leading to a sense of unfairness. As a result, the North, which has yet to enforce any population control measures, will be allocated more parliamentary constituencies than the South.

A possible solution to address the delimitation issue is to consider changing the composition of the Rajya Sabha. This can be inspired by the US Senate's approach of guaranteeing equal representation of all states. However, this proposal could face resistance from bigger states in the US

Prime Minister Modi is attempting to change the perception that the BJP is not aligned with the culture of South India. The BJP must still reach a mutual understanding with Southern states. The opposition coalition, INDIA, controls most of the Southern States. They are determined to unseat Modi in 2024

The BJP has a strong focus on Hindutva, the construction of the Ayodhya Ram temple, and an anti-Muslim stance. However, these views may be less popular among voters in southern regions of India. The Opposition parties like DMK, AIADMK, TDP, and BRS hold dominant positions in their respective states. Specific communities such as Vanniyars, Thevars, and Gounders have influential roles in Tamil Nadu. In Karnataka, Vokkaligas and Lingayats have influence, while Reddys and Kammas are rivals in Andhra Pradesh. However, Brahmins have lost power. In Kerala, Communists opposed the rival Congress in the state, which is also a member of the INDIA coalition. In Telangana, K. Chandra Shekhar Rao, a Velama leader, held sway, but in 2023, Congress snatched the state.

Religion is not a major political issue in South India. The BJP's views on Christian conversions or hostility towards Islam have yet to gain any traction in the region. The southern states have not experienced any religious conflicts. This is because the minorities have assimilated themselves with the local population.

For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to gain success in South India, they need to adapt to the local cultural norms and political strategies. They must form alliances and regain the support of former partners. To achieve this, the BJP should revise its election strategy and develop a new narrative. Failing to do so will result in the opposition coalition INDIA becoming stronger and posing a significant threat to the BJP.
The corruption probe into Singapore's Indian-origin Transport Minister S. Iswaran is a very worrying development and has had a big impact on the constituency he was elected from, a senior minister said.

Members of Parliament (MPs) in the group representation constituency (GRC) of West Coast, which was led by Iswaran, are working to engage residents and tackle pressing issues such as cost of living and inequality, National Development Minister Desmond Lee said.

Since (the news broke of Iswaran corruption case) July, we have been able to hold the team together, energise them to continue serving the ground with passion and dedication, said Lee, who oversees is part of the West Coast GRC.

Iswaran was arrested by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) on July 11, 2023, and is out on bail.

The probe stems from an earlier unrelated investigation on a separate matter. However, further details about what Iswaran is being investigated for have not been released.

He has been placed on leave of absence and had his monthly pay reduced to SGD 8,500 until further notice, though he continues to draw his MP allowance.

Asked if the incident is still casting a shadow on his GRC, Lee said in an interview with The Straits Times and Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao that the incident has had an impact, is a big impact but did not elaborate further.

But that has not distracted us from the important mission of continuing to serve our residents and ensuring that there is no disruptive trend to the continuity of services, and that there are people that residents will continue to look for assistance, he said.
Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), the major stakeholder of the INDIA bloc, threw a spanner into the ongoing process of talks over seat sharing between the Congress and other constituents of the coalition on Monday.

The allocation of seats has become pivotal for the Congress after the recent setback in the Assembly polls when the party had planned to flex its muscles but had to settle with only one spectacular win in Telangana. Major stakeholders like TMC, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, and now the JD(U-RJD combine have asserted their intention to contest on more seats.

Simultaneously, JD(U) has also questioned why the Congress is organising a Yatra of its own instead of turning it into a show of strength by the entire Opposition. The remark refers to Congress leader Rahul Gandhis Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra scheduled to be undertaken from January 14 to March 20.

Senior JD(U) leader and party spokesman KC Tyagi said that the Congress should focus where it is strong and should not press for States like Bihar where JD(U) and RJD are strong. Congress is part of an alliance with JD(U), RJD, and left parties in the Nitish Kumar-led Government in Bihar.

It is allright for Congress to desire to contest on more seats where they are strong, but it is completely impractical if they demand more seats in States where they are not in a powerful position, Tyagi said.

He mentioned that both the ruling alliance partners  JD(U and RJD  are strong and in a position to counter the BJP in Bihar, hence there will be no compromise on this.

Nitish, who has been aiming to be the convener of the bloc, axed his trusted man Lalan Singh from the post of the partys presidentship last week. The former is believed to be annoyed with the latters growing proximity to RJD and Congress. Nitish was also displeased when, in the last INDIA bloc meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge became a talking point for the Prime Ministerial candidate.

In fact, Nitish had walked out from the NDA and was instrumental in forming the Opposition coalition with high ambitions to be the PM candidate against the BJP led by PM Narendra Modi.

JD(U) also expressed displeasure at the delay by Congress in appointing a convener for the INDIA bloc.

Tyagi said that Kharges announcement that the INDIA alliance would meet in 10 to 15 days to decide appointments to key posts has not been well-received by the party. He noted that the INDIA bloc is running out of time and ideas to counter the BJP.

Tyagi emphasised that while the BJP has gained an advantage over the Opposition with a significant build-up for the Ram Temple inauguration, the Opposition also needs to present a compelling counter-narrative, especially regarding the demand for a caste census and other issues.

In preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Congress has initiated seat-sharing talks in some States with like-minded parties within the INDIA bloc. Sources indicate that senior leaders of the party have been instructed to engage with leaders from other alliance parties, and talks with some parties have already commenced

The Congress National Alliance Committee discussed the seat-sharing formula for Bihar with RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha on Sunday. The meeting took place at the residence of Congress leader and convener of the Congress National Alliance Committee, Mukul Wasnik, in the national capital. NAC members Ashok Gehlot and Salman Khurshid were also present.

Additionally, Congress leaders held a meeting with functionaries of the JMMs Odisha unit to discuss the sharing of seats for the Lok Sabha elections and Assembly polls, which are being held simultaneously in the state.

Sources indicate that this was the preliminary round of meetings, involving an exchange of views on the strengths and weaknesses of both parties, as well as major stakeholders like JD(U and other INDIA bloc partners in the State. It was a meeting between the Congress and RJD, and similar separate meetings will be held between the Congress and JD(U and Left partners. Reaching a consensus on such aspects takes time as it is a tedious process considering the minutest of electoral factors, explained a Congress office bearer.
In the midst of an escalating dispute between India and the Maldives, the hashtag #BoycottMaldives gained traction on social media as Indian tourists began canceling their scheduled vacations to the island nation. The travel agency firm EaseMyTrip has suspended all flight bookings to the Maldives on its website, while the Confederation of All India Traders has urged traders and exporters to refrain from conducting business dealings with the Maldives.

The Indian Association of Tour Operators predicts that the repercussions of recent events and the call for a boycott will become apparent within the next 20-25 days. Meanwhile, MakeMyTrip announced on Monday that it has observed a 3,400 per cent increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the islands.

In a series of posts on the social media platform X, EaseMyTrip CEO Nishant Pitti said, The water and beaches of Lakshadweep are as good as those in Maldives/Seychelles. We, at @EaseMyTrip, will come up with crasy special offers to promote this pristine destination that our PM @narendramodi has recently visited!

The EaseMyTrip CEO also urged travellers to discover the enchanting beauty of Ayodhya and the pristine allure of Lakshadweep and encouraged them to say no to Maldives bookings and explore the wonders of Ayodhya and Lakshadweep.

Indian tourists constituted the highest number of visitors to the Maldives until December 2023, according to data from the countrys tourism ministry. Out of the total 17.57 lakh tourists who travelled to the island nation, India had the highest share in terms of the number of visitors at 2,09,198 lakh, followed by Russia (2,09,146) and China (1,87,118). The number was more than 2.4 lakh in 2022, while over 2.11 lakh Indians flew to the Maldives in 2021. The Maldives was also one of the few countries open for international tourists during the pandemic, and nearly 63,000 Indians visited the country in that period.

In 2018, India was the fifth-largest source of tourist arrivals in the Maldives, with 90,474 visitors. In 2019, India reached the second spot with nearly double the number (1,66,030).

The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has urged all tour and flight operators to boycott the Maldives and redirect their focus to the Lakshadweep and Andaman Islands. Additionally, the ICC has called upon the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India and the Hotel Association of India to explore investment opportunities in the Lakshadweep Islands, promising better returns compared to the Maldives.

In another post on platform X, Pitti wrote: Embark on a journey with @EaseMyTrip to discover the enchanting beauty of Ayodhya and the pristine allure of Lakshadweep! Immerse yourself in rich culture and breathtaking landscapes. Say no to Maldives bookings and explore the wonders of Ayodhya and Lakshadweep. Watch our video on the new website to ignite your wanderlust! #ExploreWithEase #Ayodhya #Lakshadweep. In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings.

The move comes close on the heels of the Maldives government suspending three of its ministers following a row over derogatory social media posts against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his visit to Lakshadweep.

Pitti said that every year 3 lakh people visit Maldives from India. Many Indians who already had made bookings to Maldives took to social media to announce cancellation of their travel plans to Maldives and posted pictures of cancelled flights and hotel reservations. Some unverified reports on Indian social media claimed that more than 8000-10,000 hotel bookings and 2,500-3000 flight tickets to the Maldives were cancelled. Tour operators in India are gearing up for an impact of calls for a cancellation of holidays in the Maldives as they said that there are no new inquiries by people for visits to the island nation. The Indian Association of Tour Operators predicts that the repercussions of recent events and the call for a boycott will become apparent within the next 20-25 days.

An Indian traveller who had made bookings to Maldives for travel between March 31 to April 2 posted a screenshot on X, showing that he has cancelled the trip. Singh also said that he is atmanirbhar with domestic destinations like Lakshwadeep.

Meanwhile Vistara has said it will monitor the demand for flights between the two countries as the situation is evolving right now. Vistara operates one flight each daily from Mumbai and Delhi to Male. Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Deepak Rajawat said it has not cancelled anything as of now and will monitor the demand for flights. Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet also operate flights to the Maldives. There were no comments from the three airlines on the current situation.

Meanwhile, MakeMyTrip on Monday said it has observed a 3,400 per cent increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the islands.

We have observed a 3400 per cent increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since the Honorable PMs visit. This interest in Indian beaches has inspired us to launch a Beaches of India campaign on the platform with offers and discounts to encourage Indian travellers to explore the countrys stunning beaches. Keep watching this space!, MakeMyTrip said in a post on social media platform X.

A row erupted on social media last week when a minister and some other leaders in the Maldives used derogatory remarks against PM Modi after he posted a video of him on a beach in Lakshadweep.

The post by Mariyam Shiuna  which has now been deleted  featured the pictures of PM Modi from his recent visit to Lakshadweep. The Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts, referred to the Indian Prime Minister as a clown and a puppet of Israel.
In a massive setback to the Gujarat Government, the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission it had granted to 11 convicts in the high-profile gang-rape case of Bilkis Bano and the killing of her seven family members, while slamming the state for being complicit with an accused and abusing its discretion. It ordered all the convicts, who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, to be sent back to jail within two weeks.

Excoriating the Gujarat Government, the apex court said it usurped the power of the Maharashtra Government to grant remission to the convicts.

It held as nullity the May 13, 2022 judgment of another bench of the apex court, which had directed the Gujarat Government to consider the remission applications of the 11 convicts in the case, saying it was obtained by playing fraud on court.

This is a classic case where the order of this court dated May 13, 2022, has been used for violating the rule of law while passing orders of remission in favour of respondent nos 3 to 13 (convicts) in the absence of any jurisdiction by the State of Gujarat. Therefore, without going into the manner in which the power of remission has been exercised, we strike down the orders of remission on the ground of usurpation of powers by the State of Gujarat not vested in it. The orders of remission are hence quashed, a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said.

It asked whether heinous crimes against women permit remission irrespective of the faith she may follow or creed she may belong to.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.

In its 251-page judgment, the Supreme Court said the Gujarat Government had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission of sentences and only the government of the State where the offenders were sentenced was competent to consider an application for remission and pass an order.

Government of State of Gujarat (respondent No. 1 herein) had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission or pass the orders of remission on August 10, 2022 in favour of respondent No. 3 to 13 (convicts) herein as it was not the appropriate government within the meaning of sub-section (7) of Section 432 of the CrPC, the bench said.

The Supreme Court said just as an order passed by a court without jurisdiction is a nullity, in the same vein, an order passed or action taken by an authority lacking in jurisdiction is a nullity and is non est (does not exist) in the eye of law.

On that short ground alone the orders of remission have to be quashed. This aspect of competency of the Government of State of Gujarat to pass the impugned orders of remission goes to the root of the matter and the impugned orders of remission are lacking in competency and hence a nullity. The writ petition filed by the victim would have to succeed on this reasoning, the bench said.

The top court said if the Gujarat Government really had in mind the provisions of law and had adhered to the rule of law, it would have filed a review petition against the May 13, 2022 judgment of another bench of the apex court by contending that it was not the appropriate government.

While holding as nullity the May 13, 2022 judgment of the apex court, which had directed the Gujarat Government to consider the remission applications of the 11 convicts, the Supreme Court said on Monday it was obtained by playing fraud on court.

In its previous verdict, a bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi (now retired) and Vikram Nath had asked the Gujarat Government to consider the plea of convict Radheshyam Shah for premature release in terms of its remission policy of July 9, 1992, holding that the Government of the State where the offence had taken place has the jurisdiction to decide the application.

On Monday, the top court noted that Shah had initially approached the Gujarat High Court in 2019 for a direction to consider his application for remission.

By order dated July 17, 2019 the High Court disposed of Criminal Application by observing that he should approach the appropriate Government being the State of Maharashtra. His second such application before the Gujarat High Court was also dismissed in 2020, it said.

The Supreme Court said Shah later moved the SC but did not disclose that he had, within 14 days of the order dated July 17, 2019, approached the Maharashtra government with his application for remission, and that the CBI and the Special Judge (CBI), Mumbai had given a negative recommendation in his case.

The apex court said when the opinions were found to be negative, Shah filed a petition before the SC in 2022 seeking a direction to the state of Gujarat to consider his remission application suppressing the above material facts.

This he could not have done, thereby misrepresenting and suppressing relevant facts, thus playing fraud on this court, the bench said.

Taking advantage of May 13, 2022 order of this court, other convicts also filed remission applications... Gujarat was complicit and acted in tandem with respondent no. 3 (one of the convicts) in this case. This Court was misled by suppressing facts, the bench said.

Reacting to the verdict, senior advocate Vrinda Grover, who appeared for retired IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre Meeran Chadha Borwankar and others, termed it a very good judgment.

... (it) has upheld the rule of law and the faith of the people of this country, particularly women, in the legal system, the courts, and that there is an assurance for justice, Grover told reporters.

Celebrations erupted in Devgadh Baria town in Gujarats Dahod district, with relatives of Bilkis Bano bursting firecrackers.

I am happy the Supreme Court has quashed the Gujarat governments decision and asked the convicts to surrender. I feel we have received justice today, a witness in the case and Bilkis Banos uncle Abdul Rasaq Mansuri told reporters in Devgadh Baria.

The SC refused to accept the plea of protection of the liberty of the convicts.

One cannot lose sight of the fact that the said respondents were all in prison for a little over fourteen years (with liberal paroles and furloughs granted to them from time to time). They had lost their right to liberty once they were convicted and were imprisoned.

But, they were released pursuant to the impugned remission orders which have been quashed by us. Consequently, the status quo ante must be restored. We say so for another reason in the event convicts are inclined to seek remission in accordance with law, they have to be in prison as they cannot seek remission when on bail or outside the jail, the bench said.

Besides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano contesting the remission, several other PILs, including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, had challenged the relief to the convicts. TMC leader Mahua Moitra had also filed a PIL against the remission and premature release of the convicts.
A massive fraud is underway through social media, aiming to deceive gullible Indians of their hard-earned savings. The modus operandi of these fly-by-night operators is to exploit the words of industrialist Ratan Tata and corporate wizards NR Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani, who are allegedly endorsing a business proposal by a company called BTC Ai Evex. This company claims to be an automated trading platform aimed at improving the lives of regular Indians.

Vijay Mohan Valiathan, a leading chartered accountant in Kerala, told The Pioneer that the entire operation reeks of a major financial scam and deceit.

The company, BTC Ai Evex, in advertisements disguised as news reports, quotes Narayana Murthy addressing an investors meeting (with the date and place of the meeting remaining a mystery) and attributes to him the statement: BTC Ai Evex is our brainchild, offering substantial earning potential for countless Indians.

The advertisement, presenting itself as a news report, claims that the publication featuring the news decided to revisit a few details related to investing on Narayana Murthys platform and contacted the entrepreneur on the same day. The dubious report posted on the portal of a leading newspaper based in New Delhi states, Before doing so, we agreed that we were entitled to publish an interview for our publication. So now readers can listen to our call with exclusive information.

We began creating an account on the official BTC Ai Evex website. The process, taking a mere 90 seconds, revealed a reduced minimum deposit, confirming Murthys claims. With `21,000 deposited, our video operator Rahul Kumar was promptly assigned a personal manager who provided insights, even during the late evening hours.

The following day witnessed a surge in our balance to `32,385, a revelation that left our team astounded. Engaging our personal manager, we delved into understanding BTC Ai Evex operations. Bolstered by this confidence, we tested the platforms withdrawal process, successfully transferring funds to our video operator Rahul Kumars bank account within minutes. The statement of accounts issued by the public sector Bank of India has been posted to substantiate their claim.

Our internal investigation unequivocally affirms BTC Ai Evex authenticity. Without any prior trading experience, our team effortlessly accrued `23,886 in three days, claims the so-called news report.

Key advantages include accessibility, simplicity, responsive client support, minimal risk, and unwavering trustworthiness, claims the so-called news report.

Two questions remain unanswered. If individuals of the calibre of Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy, and Nandan Nilekani were to make claims like this, it would make national headlines, but no mainstream media has carried the claims by these celebrities. Similarly, any system developed by Infosys that could make people rich overnight would have made national headlines.

The audio recording posted on the portal has many inherent flaws.

While attempting to register with BTC Ai Evex, this writer was redirected to X Pro Market, a completely unfamiliar company. Although the effort to register with the company did not succeed, the prospective investor received at least two dosen phone calls from numbers registered in the United Kingdom, urging to expedite the registration process and invest the first installment of Rs 24,000 at the earliest.

The numbers from where the calls were made include +447906606964, +447985645229, +447983292634, etc. Interestingly, their supposed support center is in Turkey, from where a person (probably a Keralite, as per his accent) called, urging to speed up the payment. All these international calls aimed to persuade the investor to part with Rs 24,000, revealing their ulterior motive.

This is the first time in the history of India that names of top industrialists and corporate barons are being used to convince investors about the seriousness behind a companys investment potential.
Around 12,000 migratory birds are estimated to have arrived at the Sultanpur National Park (Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary), located at Sultanpur village on Gurugram-Jhajjar highway, Gurugram, this winter season, Forest (Wildlife) Department officials said on Sunday.



While talking to The Pioneer, Sultanpur National Park (wildlife) Inspector Rajesh Chahal said that the arrival of avian guests was late this season because of the delay in onset of the winter season. Migratory birds of around 250 species from different countries, including Siberia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Russia and other parts of the world arrive at Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary every year after water bodies get frozen at their native places in winter. Winged birds which arrive here stay till March and April, he said, adding that the teams have been deputed for undertaking round-the-clock patrolling at Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary to check poaching of migratory birds. Some habitat management works like removal of unwanted weeds from water bodies, release of fish fingerlings to provide feed to birds among others are carried out at Sultanpur National Park.



Chahal further said that Sultanpur National Park has reported around 12,000 migratory birds, a decrease of 20-30 per cent birds this season. The exact number of the arrival of migratory birds will be known after the census exercise of water birds is conducted this month. The wetlands at Chandu, Basai and Najafgarh have also seen a drop in the number of birds by 40 per cent, he added.



Another wildlife officer said that the number of migratory birds had come down in many other areas including Bharatpur and Okhla. One of the reasons for this could be the change in temperature levels. These birds come from cold regions like Siberia, Central Asia and Europe and the decreased migration could be attributable to the fact that the winter is not cold enough here to force them out of the region. If the birds still find food there, they wont migrate. However, the temperature here has not come down to suit their pattern. We thought the temperature would go down the last two days, but it has remained intact, he added.



Chahal further said that the Sultanpur Park had earlier recorded around 250 bird species. The park with an area of 1.42 sq km, is not only a national park and wildlife sanctuary but also a Ramsar site since 2021. It serves as a habitat to rare species of migratory water birds during the winter season. Migratory birds of around 90 species from different countries include Grey leg geese, Bar headed geese, Northern Pintail, Northern shoveler, Gadwal, Eurasian wigeon, Gargeney , Mallard, Common pochard, Tufted pochard, White eye pochard, Eurasian coot, Spoonbill, Glossy ibis, Black headed ibis, Black neck stork, Sarus crane, Painted stork, Large Egret, Intermediate Egret, Small Egret, Darter, Cormorant, Hornbill, Booted Eagle, Brown Hawk owl and others have sported this season.



Sultanpur Park is protected while Basai, Chandu and Najafgarh are not. There is a disturbance in these smaller wetlands due to increased human activities and interference, and the number of migratory birds here has come down drastically, Chahal added.



Migratory birds start coming in by the first week of October and around 22,000 birds visit Sultanpur Park every year by the end of January. However, this year, it could be much lower. We are waiting for an increase in the birds at the lake in the coming days, he added.



When contacted, Haryana Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF), Wildlife, ML Rajvanshi said that India is one of the most favourable landscapes for varied bird species to breed and nurture in particular seasons. The temperatures in Haryana make it a suitable landscape for migratory birds coming from harsh climates of Siberia and other parts of the world, he added.
Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij on Monday said that the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) has achieved a significant milestone in Haryana, with over 1 crore ABHA accounts already created, showcasing the state's commitment to embracing digital healthcare. The Health Minister, during the release of the NHM Haryana calendar, highlighted ABDM's potential to bridge gaps among patients, doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies, ensuring widespread access to efficient, affordable, and quality healthcare.



Vij said that ABDM's primary objective is to establish a national digital health ecosystem that supports universal health coverage. This mission involves implementing state-of-the-art digital health systems, creating centralized registries for comprehensive healthcare data management, promoting open standards for seamless data exchange, and empowering individuals with secure personal health records through ABHA. The Health Minister said that ABDM stands out for its focus on national portability, enabling patients to access medical records and receive healthcare services across India, regardless of their location. Additionally, the mission leverages health data analytics to enhance healthcare management, supporting informed decision-making and resource allocation. The launch of ABDM signifies a monumental turning point for healthcare in Haryana. This forward-thinking initiative promises to bring greater efficiency, accessibility, and transparency to the city's healthcare system, ultimately benefiting all residents, he added.
Janata Dal United, which is leading the government in Bihar, is now looking for political ground in Jharkhand also. The party is eyeing the Kurmi-Koeri voters in Jharkhand. JDU is considered to have a hold on this vote bank in Bihar. His effort is to focus on those areas in Jharkhand where there is a significant population of these two castes. With the intention of expanding political ground, party supremo Nitish Kumar will hold a big rally in Ramgarh on January 21.

Regarding its preparations, JDU's Jharkhand state in-charge and Bihar's building construction minister Ashok Chaudhary reached Ranchi on Saturday.

His visit is aimed at strengthening the organisational strength of the Janata Dal (United) in Jharkhand.

Kumar will address Nitish Johar rally in Ramgarh district, where party leaders and workers from across the state will gather, Bihar minister and the partys Jharkhand in-charge Ashok Choudhary told reporters here.

His (Nitish Kumar) programme will start from Ramgarh. We will make efforts to organise more such events in every division of the state. From the first week of January, senior leaders of the party would camp here to make the programme a success, he said.

The party will strongly participate in the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls in Jharkhand, he said.

After Nitish Kumars programme in Ramgarh, we will be working on strengthening the partys base across the state, he added.

Ashok Chaudhary held a meeting with the party's state president and Rajya Sabha MP Khiru Mahato and other officials in Ranchi and discussed the preparations for the public meeting.

Later in a press conference in Ranchi on Saturday, Chaudhary said that there is every possibility of growth of the party in Jharkhand. The party has made some mistakes in the last years, which have caused losses. Trying to increase the strength of the party. We still have time. Chaudhary said that this is our own rally, it is the party's rally. If any other political party wants to come, it can come. This is not the program of the alliance but of our party. We always feel that our position in Jharkhand has been good and we can get it back again.

Even in the distribution of seats under the India alliance, JDU is in a mood to stake claim on one to two Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand. The number of Kurmi-Koeri voters in Jharkhand is about 23 percent.

The party believes that if they are mobilized, an effective angle of politics can be created in Jharkhand. With this intention, two years ago, Nitish Kumar had sent Jharkhand's prominent Kurmi leader Khiru Mahato to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar and after that he made him the state president and entrusted him with the responsibility of expanding the organization in the state.
All govt and pvt schools in Punjab up to Class 10 to be closed till Jan 14



Chandigarh: Due to inclement weather conditions in the region, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday ordered that all the government, government-aided and private schools in the state up to 10th class will remain closed from January 8-14. In a statement issued here, the Chief Minister, while expressing concern over rough weather conditions, said that this can cause huge damage to the health of the children. He said that in the larger interests of school-going students, this order was necessitated and the schools will remain closed till January 14.



Hry Dy CM unveils statue of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar in Baroli



Chandigarh: Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Sunday paid homage to Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, by unveiling his statue in Baroli village, Sonipat. He also announced the construction of a digital library on the vacant land beside the statue, urging the panchayat to submit a proposal soon. Addressing the gathering, Chautala said despite facing hardships in his struggle for education, Dr. Ambedkar earned degrees even abroad and then penned the Constitution that binds India together. Today, because of that Constitution, our nation stands united and progresses on the world stage," said the Deputy Chief Minister. Chautala acknowledged Dr. Ambedkar's contribution in uniting the nation and emphasised the need for unity for the country's progress and all-around development.



Hry Minister lays foundation stone for new multi-storey building of Govt Girls Senior Secondary School



Chandigarh: Haryana Transport and Higher Education Minister Mool Chand Sharma on Sunday laid the foundation stone for the new multi-story building of Martyr Lieutenant Rajesh Thapa Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Sector-22 today in Ballabgarh constituency. The construction work of the new building commenced with the groundbreaking ceremony. Speaking on the occasion, the Higher Education Minister said that the construction of this building, with an estimated cost of around Rs. 5.50 crore and featuring three floors with approximately 36 rooms, will be equipped with the latest technical facilities. The construction of this building will be undertaken by the Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad, said Sharma. The Minister directed education department officers to ensure completion of this building within the stipulated time frame.



Grievance Redressal Camp for serving soldiers, ex-servicemen in Chandigarh on Jan 15



Chandigarh: The Chandigarh Administration will organize a Grievance Redressal Camp for the redressal of grievances of serving soldiers, ex-servicemen and their dependents at Zila Sainik Welfare Office, Sector-21-D, Chandigarh on January 15 from 10 am to 2 pm. They can approach the Zila Sainik Welfare Office along with the application and documents. Zila Sainik Welfare Office, Sector-21-D, Chandigarh will forward their application to the concerned depot to resolve the problem and will follow its progress, a statement said.
Punjab Cong in-charge Devendra Yadav pays tributes in Amritsar



Amritsar: Devendra Yadav, the recently appointed in-charge of Punjab Congress, paid a tribute at Sri Harimandir Sahib Gurudwara, Durgiana Mandir, and Bhagwan Valmiki Teerath in Amritsar on Monday.

Accompanied by Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), and other senior party leaders, the delegation sought blessings from the Guru and becoming a part of the Sangat. "This visit is a testament to Punjab Congress deep reverence for the sacred shrines and reflects the party's commitment to the spiritual and cultural heritage of Punjab," a statement issued by the party said.





Punjab and Haryana continue to reel under cold conditions



Chandigarh: Cold weather conditions on Monday continued to persist in Punjab and Haryana, with the morning fog reducing visibility levels at many places. Gurdaspur in Punjab reeled under biting chill, recording a minimum temperature of 4.8 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) weather bulletin. Chandigarh recorded a low of 7.4 degrees Celsius. In Punjab, Bathinda, Patiala, Ludhiana, Pathankot, also experienced a cold night, recording respective minimums of 5.6 degrees Celsius, 6.1 degrees Celsius, 6 degrees Celsius and 6.7 degrees Celsius. In Haryana, piercing cold swept Rohtak, which recorded a low of 6.7 degrees Celsius, the bulletin said. Ambala, Narnaul, Karnal and Hisar recorded respective minimums of 6 degrees Celsius, 7 degrees Celsius, 7.7 degrees Celsius and 8.4 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, fog this morning reduced visibility levels at many places in the two states. During the past several days, a blanket of fog was seen enveloping many places in both states during morning hours.



UT Adviser inspects Night Shelters, Raen Baseras



Chandigarh: To evaluate the conditions of homeless people, Nitin Yadav, Adviser to the Administrator, inspected Night Shelters/Raen Baseras at GMSH 32 and ISBT 43 in Chandigarh. During his visit, the Adviser engaged with the persons staying at these night shelters and inspected the facilities and general upkeep of the shelters. Recognizing the drop in temperature in Chandigarh, he instructed officials to augment the number of heaters at these locations. The Adviser emphasized the importance of ensuring adequate bedding, water, first aid kits, and the deployment of security guards. In response to the increased demand at GMSH 16 and PGIMER, the Adviser appealed to the public to seek shelter in other available night shelters, which are equally equipped with all essential amenities.



Haryana allocates Rs 3.96 crore to 496 beneficiaries for house repairs



Chandigarh: Haryana Government has allocated over Rs 3.96 crore to 496 beneficiaries under the Dr BR Ambedkar Awas Navinikarn Yojna, spanning from April 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023. This initiative is designed to offer financial aid to underprivileged families in the state for house repairs. A spokesperson said that citizens interested in availing the government's financial assistance for house repairs can check their eligibility criteria and apply online. Applicants can also submit their applications online through the Saral Haryana portal. The SEWA department provides Rs 80,000 financial assistance for house repairs to BPL families under Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Awas Navinikarn Yojna. This amount is given as a lump sum and is transferred directly to the beneficiary's registered and Aadhaar-linked bank account. All BPL families are eligible for this scheme.



Mobile phones costing about Rs. 28 crores being distributed to Anganwadi workers, supervisors in Hry



Chandigarh: Haryana Minister of Women and Child Development Kamlesh Dhanda, said that the mobile phones are being distributed to Anganwadi workers, supervisors, and CDPOs (Child Development Project Officers) at an estimated cost of around Rs. 28 crore. In a program held at grain market in Kaithal, the state minister distributed mobile phones to Anganwadi workers. The Minister of State said that mobile phones have been provided to 1270 Anganwadi workers, 49 supervisors and 7 Women and Child Development Project Officers in Kaithal district. Minister further stated that approximately 25,962 Anganwadi workers, 1016 supervisors, and 148 CDPOs across the 22 districts of the state will be provided with mobile phones, totalling a cost of Rs. 28 crore. In Kaithal district, 1326 mobile phones were distributed.



Air services to commence from Hisar Airport by April this year



Chandigarh: Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Monday said that air services will commence from Hisar Airport to various important cities in the country by April of this year. An MoU with the company is set to be signed soon. After meeting with the officials, the Deputy Chief Minister, who is also holding the portfolio of Civil Aviation Department said that the air connectivity in the state will operate on the concept of "State VGF (Viable Gap Funding)," ensuring that passengers do not incur extra fares. Initially, air travel will commence, with plans to deploy a 70-seater aircraft from Hisar Airport to connect routes like Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Kullu. The routes will undergo a review after the first 90 days, and based on passenger demand, flights will be expanded to include destinations such as Lucknow, Varanasi, and Ambala.



Water Supply Minister Jimpa visits Talwara Surface Water Project



Chandigarh: Punjab Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Bram Shanker Jimpa visited Talwara Surface Water Project. This project will provide clean and drinkable water to 197 villages of Talwara, Hajipur, Bhunga and Dasuya blocks and is scheduled to be completed by next year. Through this project, a pipeline of about 231 km long is to be laid from Shah Canal Barrage. Jimpa said that the total cost of this project is Rs. 258.73 crore. After the completion of this project, the drinking water problem of the people of Kandi area will be solved. Jimpa also issued directions for timely completion of the project and instructed that the work should be of high standard.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav directed the officials of Ujjain and Indore to develop a strategy preventing sewerage and drain water mixing in Shipra river. The Chief Minister said that it is a matter of concern that dirty water is getting into Shipra. He said to take opinion of an expert for conservation and rejuvenation of the river.

The Chief Minister said that to stop the water from drain and sewerage, stop-dams should be built in Sanwer, Ramwasa, Panthapipalai, Raghopipalya and install water treatment plant there. Farmers should also be advised to use the clean water from the water treatment plant for irrigation. The Chief Minister said that under no circumstances dirty water should enter into Shipra. He said to make adequate arrangements for drain and sewerage water for the new colonies as well. That water should not be found in the Shipra river under any circumstances. The Chief Minister said that the work of maintenance, repair work of stop-dam and raising its height if required should be done on priority. These instructions were given by Chief Minister at a meeting on Shipra River Conservation. It was informed that there is a proposal to build a pucca stopdam on Kanh river. The Chief Minister said that there is a pumping station in Sadawal. Water should be diverted to the stopdam. The Chief Minister said that if the dirty water is controlled by constructing a water treatment plant and stopdam on Sanwer itself, then Shipra will remain pure.

The Chief Minister said that the Tata Project is lagging behind to complete its project in the city. Their work should be reviewed again. He said to stop dirt to pile-up in Narsingh Ghat, and Ramghat with utmost priority. Regarding the Gondia trenching ground, the Chief Minister said that due to the garbage dump at one place, drinking water in five nearby villages is not potable. There is a need for waste management through new technology.

The Chief Minister said that at present, a plan should be prepared to stop the waste material of the municipal corporation and the dirty water of the industry. He instructed Indore Divisional Commissioner Mal Singh to prepare an action plan.

MP Anil Firozia gave necessary information regarding the drains joining Rudra Sagar and the drainage system in new colonies. MLA Anil Jain Kaluhera said that there is a need to construct small stopdams to prevent the water of drains. The Chief Minister also inquired about the Namami Gange project.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is going to take out Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from January 14. This yatra of Rahul Gandhi will also pass through Jharkhand in February. CM Hemant Soren will also participate in the Nyaya Yatra along with Rahul Gandhi. In this regard, Congress State President Rajesh Thakur has said that Chief Minister Hemant Soren has also been invited to participate in Rahul Gandhi's Nyaya Yatra. The Chief Minister has also given consent for this.

Rahul Gandhi will stay in Jharkhand for 8 days during his visit. Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will be held in 13 districts of five divisions of Jharkhand. In the beginning of February, the caravan of Nyaya Yatra will reach Santalpargana in Jharkhand. A distance of 804 kilometers will be covered in the journey of eight days. Congress Committee has released its schedule. The journey will start from Imphal, Manipur from January 14. It will conclude in Mumbai on March 20. This yatra will take place in two phases in Jharkhand. In the first phase, the Yatra will be taken out in 11 districts, while in the second phase, the Yatra will reach Palamu-Garhwa and then leave for Bihar. The caravan of Nyaya Yatra will go to Dumka, Jamtara, Giridih, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Ramgarh, Ranchi, Khunti, Seraikela, Jamshedpur, Chaibasa, Palamu and Garhwa in Jharkhand. For this, leaders of India Alliance have also been invited for the yatra.

Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will begin from Manipur capital Imphal on January 14 and will cover a journey of 6,713 km. During this period, she will visit more than 100 Lok Sabha and 337 assembly seats. Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will pass through 110 districts during this period. The Yatra will conclude in Mumbai on 20-21 March.

Meanwhile, Senior leaders of Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee, Alok Kumar Dubey, Lal Kishore Nath Shahdev and Dr. Rajesh Gupta Chhotu have said that Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will have a historic, grand and memorable welcome in Jharkhand which will be watched by the entire country.

Congress leader Alok Kumar Dubey said that Jharkhand has its own unique identity for hospitality all over the world. Rahul Gandhi's two visits to Jharkhand and entry into 13 districts is a matter of pride for Jharkhand. We thank AICC for giving importance to Jharkhand in the entire country and express our gratitude. The enthusiasm of every Congress worker, youth, women students and elderly civil society people of Jharkhand is at its peak. The workers are swinging with joy, eager to make their leader sit on their eyelids. There is no other hard-working leader like Rahul Gandhi in the whole world who has first undertaken a 5000 kilometer walk and then now a 6500 kilometer Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra. Is going. The people of Jharkhand will welcome their leader with open hearts. We will all tour the entire Jharkhand, meet Congress workers, general public, young women students, social religious organizations and civil society. Alok Dubey said that elected representatives of Panchayati Raj system, defeated representatives, public representatives, MLAs of alliance parties, MPs, former MLAs, former MPs will meet people from every section of the society. Congress workers who worked with Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, currently working with Sonia Gandhi and the new generation who are working with Rahul ji will meet everyone and request them to join Rahul ji's journey. . We will not only ensure our participation under the direction of our in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir, but our presence will be seen by the entire Jharkhand. After today, our focus will be only on making the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra a success.

Senior leader of State Congress Committee, Lal Kishore Nath Shahdev said that after the immense success of Bharat Jodo Yatra, Nyay Yatra will also succeed in its objective. The country is watching how more than 150 opposition MPs were suspended without any reason. The central government is misusing the independent units ED and CBI to intimidate the opposition parties. Our leader Rahul Gandhi says that when we cannot raise the voice of the public in Parliament, Assembly or through the press, then the only option left is to directly contact the public and Bharat Jodo is a powerful medium for this. It is a matter of pride for Jharkhand that Rahul Gandhi is going to give his precious 13 days here, it will be our endeavor that his thoughts and the ideology of Congress reach the people. For this, we will not only spread the publicity of the Yatra on the fixed route but will also ensure the participation of the people by visiting. The journey will also connect social organizations and save democracy in the country.

Senior leader of State Congress Committee, Dr. Rajesh Gupta Chhotu said that the 6500 km Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will work to unite the country. Bharat Jodo Yatra is a penance, a commitment to strengthen the unity and integrity of the country. Jharkhand has always been the focal point of Congress. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi talked about the separate state of Jharkhand in the meetings of Gumla, Simdega, Khunti, Lohardaga. During her tenure as Prime Minister, which was materialized by Sonia Gandhi by creating a separate state, today the people of Jharkhand are very happy that Rahul Gandhi will meet everyone on a long journey and establish dialogue. Dr. Rajesh Gupta said that Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will be unexpectedly successful in Jharkhand.
In the backdrop of INDIA leaders cementing electoral ties in several states, Congress Punjab affairs in-charge Devender Yadav on Monday said any decision on an alliance with the AAP in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will be taken as per the sentiments of the state unit.



Yadav reached Amritsar on Monday on a three-day visit to the state and he will be meeting Punjab Congress senior leaders, party MLAs, and block presidents, among others, over the next three days. It is his first visit to Punjab after being appointed as state in-charge by the Congress last month.



After reaching Amritsar, Yadav offered prayers at the Golden Temple, Durgiana temple and Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath. During Yadavs visit to Amritsar, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and former state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu accompanied him.



Later, Yadav spoke to reporters in Amritsar.



Replying to a question on alliance with the AAP, Yadav said, We will be holding a meeting with the office bearers, including senior leaders and block presidents in Chandigarh. I want to know the sentiments of people. Party leadership made it clear a few days back that whatever will be the feelings of our leaders here and people, a decision will be taken accordingly. Several leaders of the Punjab Congress are against any alliance with the ruling AAP in the state for the Lok Sabha polls.



Replying to another question, Yadav said the Congress was, is, and will remain strong. Our organisation strongly raises various social and political issues from streets to Vidhan Sabha, he said.



Asked about rallies being held by party leader Sidhu, Yadav said, I have just come (to Punjab). I will comment only after talking to party leaders about it. Sidhus December 17 rally at Mehraj village in Bathinda had evoked a sharp reaction from several Congress leaders including Bajwa who had asked Sidhu to join the partys programmes instead of setting up his own stage.



Later, some party leaders had also demanded an action against Sidhu. On Sunday, Sidhu held another rally at Kotshamir village in Bathinda.



Meanwhile, Punjab Congress president Warring said he has no objection if anyone holds a rally at any place. I have no objection if any Congressman holds a rally at any place. But every person, be it block president, Punjab Congress president or ex-president, everybody will have to maintain discipline. If anybody does not remain disciplined, then he will have to face the music, said Warring. Replying to another question, Warring said there is no groupism in the Punjab Congress. There can be differences of opinions in a family, he said.



Talking to reporters separately in Amritsar, Sidhu said he never stopped anyone from going anywhere. Whosoever has any objection, but I do not have any. I never stopped anyone from going anywhere. I have said if 100 people gather at any place, visit that place also, said Sidhu while replying to a question on objection raised by some Congress leaders over his rallies. He said he will completely support partys Punjab in-charge Yadav.



Sidhu said he has no group. I do not have any group. I have only one group which is three crore Punjabis living here and two crore abroadI will fight for them. Punjab Congress chief Warring also slammed the AAP government for booking party MLA Sukhpal Khaira in another case. It is a mockery of democracy. After bail from the high court, another case was slapped against Khaira, said Warring.



Khaira was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana high court in connection with a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act a few days ago, but was arrested by Kapurthala police in another case.
Former Chief Minister and BJP State president Babulal Marandi has expressed apprehension of attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers in Jharkhand like West Bengal. Sharing his fear on social media, Marandi said that on the lines of Bengal, the possibility of anti social element attacking ED officials in Jharkhand in future cannot be ruled out. According to sources, on January 5, some hired goons were prepared for this work and kept in the area behind the airport.

According to Babulal, it is known to everyone that earlier a conspiracy was being hatched from the jail itself to implicate ED officers in false cases, to give threats from anti-social elements and to groom some women. That plan failed because it was exposed. He also requested the Union Home Ministry to keep a close watch on such conspirators.

A team of ED officers was attacked by a mob in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Friday when they arrived to search the house of a local Trinamool leader. The attackers were allegedly the supporters of the Trinamool leader. Terming the incident alarming, Governor C V Ananda Bose warned of constitutional options if the state government failed to take action.

The ED teams had arrived at the residence of Sheikh Sajahan in connection with the alleged scam in ration distribution. At Sheikhs residence, they found the door locked from inside. The leader, ED claimed, refused to open the door. While the ED the ED sleuths, along with CRPF personnel, were trying to have the door opened, they faced a surprise attack. A mob of over 800 locals arrived with various objects like lathis, stones and bricks, and assaulted the officials.



The BJP leader observation gains importance as like Bengal, several politicians, IAS officials and power brokers are under the ED radar.

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Media Advisor to Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Abhishek Prasad Pintu, Sahibganj Deputy Commissioner Ramniwas Yadav, Vinod Singh and former Katoria (Bihar) MLA Pappu Yadav for questioning in the illegal mining case. ED has summoned Abhishek Prasad Pintu to appear before the agency on January 16, DC Ramniwas Yadav on January 11 and Vinod Singh on January 15. They have been called for questioning at the zonal office in Ranchi.

Notably, the agency had conducted search operations at 12 locations in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Rajasthan in the early hours of January 3. The raids were conducted in connection with the illegal mining case worth more than Rs 1,000 crore. ED has said that during the searches, incriminating digital devices, documents/records and cash were recovered from various locations. ED issued a press release saying that a total of Rs 36.99 lakh, including Rs 7.55 lakh in cash, was recovered from the camp office of Sahibganj DC Ramniwas Yadav.

The agency has revealed that 19 cartridges of 9 mm bore, 2 cartridges of .380 mm and an empty shell of .45 pistol were recovered from the residential premises of DC. ED said that during the search, 30 benami bank accounts were also detected. They have been frozen. After the action, it was told by ED that illegal mining worth Rs 1,250 crore was actually done in Jharkhand.

Apart from these, Chief Minister Hemant Soren too is on ED radar though the CM has skipped seven summons issued to him.
In a major security lapse at the Jagannath Temple ahead of the Governments much-hyped heritage corridor project inauguration in Puri, a foreign national woman entered the Shreemandir defying the temple rules on Sunday.

The identity of the devotee was yet to be ascertained. However, no complaint in this regard has been registered with police.

According to reports, the foreign woman entered the temple in appropriate attire through the Singhadwar in the presence of heavy security and returned with Prasad after having darshan of the deities.

Blaming the security personnel for the dereliction of their duty, senior servitor Binayak Das Mohapatra said, There was a huge crowd at the temple in the morning. Amid tight security around and inside the temple, the foreign national managed to get into the temple, had darshan and returned with Prasad. Surprisingly, the security personnel in front of the Singhadwar did not restrict her. Our servitors identified her as a foreign national.

As per the norms, non-Hindus and foreigners are not allowed inside the Jagannath Temple in Puri. Only Hindus can enter the shrine to offer prayers to the deities. This has been the practice for centuries.

Puri is gearing up for inauguration of the much-awaited Shree Jagannath Heritage Corridor Project scheduled on January 17. The negligence by the police was reported ahead of the event.
The Freethought Party of India (FPI) has donated Rs 1,38,000 to the Congress and joined the INDIA Block on with a pledge to defeat the BJP, which, it said, has no respect for the secular credentials of India.

The donation money was handed over to the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Sarat Patnaik by FPI president Dr Bijayananda Kar and general secretary B Ramchandra CST Voltaire on Saturday.

Secularism is the cornerstone of Indias Democracy. But this is being systematically and unabashedly trampled upon by PM Modi whether it is the programme of inauguration the New Ram Mandir or the inauguration of the new Parliament building, said the FPI.

France has emerged as an ideal democracy because it has kept religion much away from education, law and politics since 1905. It is a matter of deep shock that Prime Minister Modi has invited Emmanul Macron, the French President, to be the chief guest on the occasion of our Republic Day function of January 26, without bothering to look at their secular, democratic values, observed FPI general secretary Voltaire, adding that Modi will come to his senses if his party is defeated in the coming Lok Sabha poll.
To empower the Girl Child and Self Help Groups, Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit on Monday launched an innovative joint initiative of Municipal Corporation Chandigarh & Bharat Vikas Parishad namely Bitiya Card here.

Addressing the gathering, the Governor appreciated the effort of Municipal Corporation Chandigarh and BVP for this joint initiative to launch Bitiya Card under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM). He said that both organizations have mutually planned to work extensively at the grass-root level so that identified beneficiaries under DAY NULM can get benefit in terms of their health, well-being, and socio-cultural upliftment aspects through holistic development by providing financial support towards continuing their education in case of dropouts, organizing mass marriages among poor and marginalized community and other aspects evolved concerning community need assessment.



Anup Gupta, city Mayor said that to be specific, both organizations have come forward under the campaign Beti Bachao Bet Padhao to extend support to the members of SHGs and their girl child including Free Education and support to girl child till 10+2; Free Blood and Urine Check-up, X-ray, Ultra Sound and consultation with super-specialist medical practitioners and organizing Twice Mass Marriages function for the eligible girl child of the SHG members.



He said that the joint initiative between Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh and Bharat Vikas Parishad will go a long way in evolving an effective community-based and intervention-based partnership model towards socio-economic empowerment and a healthy community.



Earlier Anindita Mitra, Commissioner Municipal Corporation, shared information about the scheme elaborating that Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs being implemented by Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh. Social Mobilization and institutional Development (SM&ID) is one of the components of DAY-NULM, the objective of which shall rest on the foundation that the mobilization of urban poor households to form their institutions is an important investment for an effective and sustainable poverty reduction program.



She said that under the Social Mobilization & Institutional Development (SM&ID) component, Municipal Corporation Chandigarh has mobilized more than 5000 urban poor women including marginalized section of community to date into 530 plus Self Help Groups under the network of 19 Area Level Federations in the city.
Upping the ante, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday alleged that corruption, crime and caste-based politics flourished under the previous government led by the Congress.



After the BJP government assumed office in 2014, development-oriented politics took centre stage and the state witnessed all-round progress with a focus on 'shiksha' (education), 'swasth' (health), 'suraksha' (security), 'swambhiman' (self-respect), and 'swavlamban' (self-reliance), he said.



Addressing a gathering of government scheme beneficiaries virtually as part of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, he said, "Three Cs -- corruption, crime and caste-based politics -- flourished during the tenure of the previous government." He added, "When we came to power in 2014, we strongly advocated for 'Haryana Ek-Haryanvi Ek'. Keeping in mind social harmony, we have ensured that all schemes benefit the citizens in line with the vision of antyodaya."



Khattar said that during the previous government, people faced difficulties in availing benefits of various schemes. They would get tired of making numerous rounds in government offices and still, they wouldn't receive any benefit. Not only that, they had to endure the curse of corruption, the chief minister said. He, however, said that gone are the days when the actual beneficiaries had to run from pillar to post to get benefit of welfare schemes.



"With the radical system changes brought by both the Centre and the state governments today, eligible beneficiaries in the country and the state are benefiting from government schemes and facilities at their doorstep. Unlike under previous governments, now people do not have to make rounds of government offices," he said. Khattar said the government's mega outreach programme Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is erving as a significant medium to reach those who, for some reason, have not yet been connected with government schemes.



"It plays a crucial role in fulfilling the commitment of the prime minister to make India a developed nation, and we all must work together to fulfil this dream," he said. Khattar urged citizens to ensure maximum participation in the yatra and take advantage of both central and state government schemes.



The prime minister envisions that by the time the country completes 100 years of independence in 2047, India will be in the category of developed nations, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has personally experienced the difficulties of the common people and formulated welfare schemes for every section of society, Khattar said.



Khattar reiterated that in Haryana, the government has devised a plan to establish micro-industries in every block. Additionally, around 65 lakh women are associated with self-help groups in the state, producing small goods and selling them through fairs and markets.



He also talked about the growth of the food processing industry in Haryana, with around 28,000 such units being established in the past eight years. Since the launch of the yatra in Haryana on November 30, he said, 5,099 programmes have been conducted with more than 37 lakh people actively participating in them. The remaining 3,300 programs will be completed by January 25. The chief minister said that during the yatra, people are being made aware of various central government schemes such as Ujjwala Yojana, Awas Yojana and Mudra Yojana.



The Chief Minister emphasized that during the Yatra, citizens' complaints without on-the-spot resolution are reported to the headquarters, and they are recorded on the Jan Samvad portal. Each application is sent to the relevant department for a prompt resolution. So far, 59,000 applications have been filed on the Jan Samvad portal, with around 12,000 cases resolved and some are not feasible. Every citizen receives information about the actions taken on their complaints through SMS, he shared.



Director General, Information, Public Relations, Language and Culture Department Mandip Singh Brar and Joint Director (Admn.), IPR Gaurav Gupta and other officers were present on this occasion.
The Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Monday flagged off 40 firefighting bikes from seven districts at the Public Works Department Rest House in Panchkula. The remaining 60 bikes will be handed over to the remaining districts soon, a contribution from Hero Motor Corporation under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).



During the event, Chautala was briefed by the Director General of Fire and Emergency Services Dr Yashpal Singh, who provided detailed information about the department's operations and challenges. He also engaged in discussions with fire officials from Karnal, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Jind, and the Headquarters to address firefighting and emergencies. He emphasized the need to enhance the system and provided valuable suggestions. The Deputy CM assured a prompt response to the demands presented by the fire officials.



He directed inspections of educational institutions, universities, colleges, petrol stations, industries, marriage banquet halls, and the fire systems in the districts and also instructed a thorough check of fire systems in large and small industrial units across all districts. For faulty fire systems in industrial units, he directed the fire officers to conduct inspections and ensure repairs. He emphasized that if any institution fails to rectify its fire system, even after a 30-day notice from the fire department, appropriate action should be taken against it.



Chautala also urged the Director General of Fire and Emergency Services to prepare an estimate for the repair of dilapidated buildings within the department. Additionally, he directed the purchase of 25 red Boleros for all districts to ensure timely response and prevention of untoward incidents by fire brigade personnel.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Chhattisgarh on Sunday asked party workers to increase the partys lead in the coming Lok Sabha elections in those assembly segments where it lost seats in Assembly polls.

They were addressing the Lok Sabha Election Action Plan Meeting at the state BJP office here.

Chhattisgarh BJP chief Kiran Singh Deo urged the party workers to connect themselves with Namo App as much as possible and connect other people as well.

He asked the BJP leaders to become brand ambassador of the Namo App.

The BJP chief asked the party workers to celebrate the consecration ceremony of Lord Ram Lalla on January 22 as the festival lights.

Deo reiterated the target of winning all the 11 Lok Sabha seats of Chhattisgarh.
The State Guest House attack again seems to have come to haunt Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati, who, on Monday, urged the Yogi Adityanath government to allot an alternative office for her party as she apprehended an untoward incident taking place in the present Mall Avenue office of the party in the state capital.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Mayawati claimed that she felt unsafe in the present office which had a flyover running almost parallel to it.

Policemen are deployed whenever there is an event at the party office. As such I am forced to conduct the majority of the meetings at my residence, she tweeted.

Without naming the Samajwadi Party, Mayawati accused the conspirators of making the bridge higher than the BSP office and termed such forces as anti-Dalit.

Mayawati said that she had already shifted the statues of Dalit icons to her residence so that they could not be vandalised by such forces.

The flyover adjacent to the BSP office was built during the regime of Akhilesh Yadav.

Mayawati also recalled that the same forces (read SP) were responsible for the infamous June 2 State Guest House incident of 1995 in which she and her supporters were attacked by Samajwadi Party men.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Rakesh Tripathi said that there was no threat to the security of Mayawati since the Yogi Adityanath government had ensured the safety of all.

As far as shifting of the office is concerned, she can apply to the government and action will be taken according to rules, he said.

It may be mentioned that both SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati have already locked horns over move of major parties of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) to include the BSP in the opposition alliance to take on the BJP in the coming parliamentary elections scheduled sometime around April this year.

Interestingly, Akhilesh on Sunday warned that his party would prefer to go it alone if the BSP joined the INDIA bloc while Mayawati advised the SP chief to first see his own past when his party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav had congratulated BJP for winning the parliamentary elections in 2019.

Mayawati had earlier announced that her party would go it alone in the Lok Sabha polls and would not join any major political party.

Some Congress leaders in UP, however, are advocating to include the BSP in the INDIA bloc instead of SP, which created a rift between the two major non-BJP parties that ruled UP.
The Congress and the AAP on Monday held a meeting to discuss seat sharing in Punjab and Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls and decided to meet again to give a final shape to the arrangement between the two parties of the INDIA bloc.

Insiders said the discussions mainly revolved around cooperation in seven Parliamentary seats and how they could together to defeat the BJP. The issue of the seat-sharing is expected to be discussed in the presence of AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal in the next meeting, insiders said. Another insider said AAP is demanding Loksabha seats not just in Delhi and Punjab, but also in Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana.

After the talks, Congress MP Mukul Wasnik said scores of issues for the elections were discussed. The leaders of the two parties discussed possibilities of seat sharing but did not divulge any details. "We had a very good meeting. Senior AAP leaders were sent to today's meeting for holding discussions with us on behalf of Arvind Kejriwal. The National Alliance Committee (NAC) formed by the Congress president held discussions with AAP leaders, Wasnik said after the meeting.

"In this meeting, we have had in-depth discussions with senior leaders regarding seat sharing and various topics. After a few days, we will meet again and the final discussion on seat sharing will take place. We will give a final shape to the seat-sharing plans later. Together we will contest the elections with vigorous preparation and defeat the BJP," Wasnik, who is the convener of Congress' NAC, said.

"It is not proper to reveal what transpired during the discussions. One has to wait for sometime. We have already decided to contest elections together. Congress and AAP are an important part of the INDIA alliance," the Congress leader said.

Top Congress leaders and members of the seat-sharing committee of the party Mukul Wasnik and Ashok Gehlot were present at the meeting here while those from the AAP included Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak and Delhi cabinet ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj. Apart from Wasnik and Gehlot, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, and senior party leaders Salman Khurshid and Mohan Prakash were also present at the meeting.

Sources said the AAP had sought to make a strong case to stake a claim to Northeast Delhi and were in favour of contesting four to five of the seven Parliamentary seats in the capital and leaving the rest to the Congress.

The national capital sends seven members to the Lok Sabha and the AAP, which is in power in Delhi, is willing to offer only two seats to the Congress. At present, all the seven seats are with the BJP. The AAP is in power in Delhi and Punjab.

Goa, Punjab and Gujarat was not on the agenda as AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann campaigning in Gujarat, and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha not in the country. The Congress state units in both the states are opposed to any truck with the AAP. The Congress has already initiated talks with other parties of the INDIA bloc in different states and is in the process of finalising the seat-sharing arrangement with them.
We do ablution with the water of Ganga all the five times a day, not only you Shri Ram, we are also Ram's people as we are in the morning of Banaras, we are the evening of Awadh, we are the people of Sujalam, we are the people of Sufalam, if you become Ram then you have to follow Ram who left the palace and sleep in the forest, 44-year-old Akbar Taj, who recited many such poems has been invited to perform in a special event to be held in Ayodhya by Jagadguru Sant Rambhadracharya on January 14.

People of Muslim community are also influenced by Maryada Purushottam Lord Shri Ram. Akbar Taj, a visually handicapped poet from village Hapla-Deepla, situated 15 kilometers away from Khandwa district headquarters of Madhya Pradesh, is also one of the poets praising Lord Ram.

Akbar has been invited to perform in a special event to be held in Ayodhya. Akbar Taj is praising the character of Shri Ram across the country through his creations. They say that Lord Shri Ram belongs to everyone. His incarnation took place for the welfare of mankind. Akbar has recited on Hindi stages across the country including Delhi, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Surat. His works based on Ramlala brought him a lot of respect. He is happy about the consecration of the idol of Ramlala in Ayodhya on January 22.

He said that the life character of Lord Shri Ram teaches us to live within dignity. Following his father's orders, he happily accepted 14 years of exile. Where can such a personality be seen today?
The Commissionerate police which are yet to identify the accused involved in a series of burglaries in Bhubaneswar, have put up posters with images of suspected looters at different locations in the city.

The images of the looters have been taken from CCTV footage of the looted places. These posters have been put up in the bus-stand, railway station, airport and other crowded areas.

In the posters, it is stated, These looters (with images) burgle apartments, flats, valuable and gold ornaments in Bhubaneswar. People are requested to inform police about these criminals by dialing 7077798111 or 067-3510199. The names and addresses of the informers would be kept confidential. The informers would be given a cash prize of Rs 10,000.

As per reports, several cases of apartment loot had taken place in various parts of the capital city recently. In most cases, police have failed to identify the masked burglars. Both police and residents are worried about the increasing incidents of such loot cases.

Sources said that the modus operandi of the burglars in the apartments is almost similar.
The Punjab Police on Monday said it has arrested three more people and seized 3.5 kg of heroin during an investigation connected to a cross-border drug and arms smuggling racket busted on December 31.



Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said they were identified as Balraj Singh alias Kaka of Lahorimal village in Amritsar, and Anmol Singh alias Laalu and Sarabjit Singh of the city's Ranjhe di Haveli area.



With this, the total number of arrests now stands at 10 and the quantity of heroin seized is 22.5 kilograms. Yadav said police have also seized 10 live cartridges of .30 bore and nine live cartridges of 9 MM, along with a car from their possession.



The development came more than a week after the police commissionerate of Amritsar busted the racket that was being operated by US-based smuggler Mannu Mahawa.



Commissioner of Police (CP), Amritsar, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said Anmol Singh and his accomplices were nabbed after being spotted in the Sultanwind area. As per preliminary investigations, the accused were in touch with a Pakistan-based smuggler and Mahawa, and were supplying drugs, arms, and ammunition across the state after smuggling them via drones, he added.





OVER 600 POLICE TEAMS CONDUCT CASO AT 268 IDENTIFIED DRUG HOTSPOTS IN PUNJAB



Punjab Police on Monday conducted a state-level Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) at identified drug hotspots and vulnerable areas in all the 28 Police districts of the state.



The operation was conducted from 8 am to 2 pm simultaneously across the state and Spl DGP/ADGP/IGP/DIG rank officers from Punjab Police Headquarters were deputed in each Police district to personally supervise the operation.



The CPs/SSPs were told to plan this operation meticulously by identifying drug Hotspots the points of sale of drugs and psychotropic substances in their respective districts or certain areas that have become shelter/haven for drug peddlers, to carry out this operation amid massive deployment of the police force.



Special DGP Law and Order Arpit Shukla, who joined Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ravjot Kaur Grewal in Fatehgarh Sahib, said that the state government has enforced a three-pronged strategy Enforcement, Prevention and Rehabilitation to eradicate drugs from the state. He said that the Punjab Police has not been leaving any stone unturned to make Punjab free from drugs. These kinds of CASOs at a mass-scale level not only help in infusing fear among anti-social elements but also boost public confidence and increase the presence of the cops in the field, he said.



The Special DGP said that over 600 Police teams, comprising over 9000 police personnel, have cordoned off as many as 268 drug hotspots and as many as 5505 suspicious persons were frisked. During the operation, the Police registered 202 first information reports (FIRs) after arresting 48 persons, besides, apprehending 21 Proclaimed Offenders (POs), he said.



Shukla said that Police teams have recovered 1.9-Kg Heroin, 6.80 lakh drug money, 1.1-kg opium, 87.5kg poppy husk, 10125 intoxicant tablets, 18 injections, 885 litres of illicit liquor and 12350 litres lahan, besides, impounding 16 motorcycles and one car.
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai slammed Delhi Pollution Control Committees (DPCC) Chairman Ashwani Kumar on closure of smog tower, calling it contempt of the Supreme Court. The Environment Minister directed the Principal Secretary (Environment & Forest & Wildlife) to release the salaries of workers within 24 hours, making Smog Towers at Connaught Place operational. Issues pertaining to non-payment of salaries of workers stationed at Smong towers, Rai expressed his displeasure, in a written communication addressed to the Principal Secretary (E&F).

Taking a dig at the Arvind Kejriwal government, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri demanded that the amount should be recovered from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues. Bidhuri said that Delhi could not get clean air even for a single day in the last two and a half months.

Rai issued directions to ensure that all payments are made on time in the near future, causing no interruptions. He directed the DPCC Chairman to submit a detailed report within 48 hours (i.e. latest by 10.01.2024) addressing important aspects related to this shocking dereliction of duties by the DPCC.

Issuing directions to the Principal Secretary (E&F), the minister stated, This is a very serious matter and immediate steps will be taken to release the pending payment and other related issues, if any, as per the MOU, within 24 hours so that to make Smog Tower operational without any further delay. Further, it must also be ensured in future that all payments be made in a timely manner strictly as per the MOU, to keep the Smog Tower running without any interruption.

The minister directed that the DPCC Chairman submit a detailed report to the within 48 hours (i.e. latest by 10.01.2024) addressing the following important aspects related to this shocking dereliction of duties by DPCC like Details of payments released by DPCC to project partners i.e. (NBCC and TATA projects) subsequent to directions of the Supreme Court in November 2023, details of payments that are due to project partners as of 31.12.2023 and payments that have been released by the DPCC against the same, details of the first instance that the DPCC Chairman first became aware of the issue of non-payment of salaries to workers at CP Smog Tower and what the actions taken by the DPCC Chairman since then, the DPCC Chairman to further investigate to identify the officers responsible for causing a delay in the release of payment for the project as per MOU terms and recommend disciplinary action to be initiated against them.

Given the gravity and urgency of the matter, a detailed report addressing the points raised above be submitted to the undersigned within 48 hours i.e. latest by 10th January, he added.

Rai mentioned, It has come to my notice through various newspapers that work on Smog Tower has again been stopped by the workers due to non-payment of salaries for the last two months. This is a shocking dereliction of duties by DPCC that was directed by the Supreme Court as recently as November 2023 to ensure the continued operation of the Smog Tower.

Kejriwal inaugurated this smog tower with much fanfare in 2021 and crores of rupees were also spent on the advertisement of this smog tower built at the cost of Rs 23 crores.

Now the situation is such that its employees themselves have locked this tower. The Delhi government makes such aerial plans only for publicity and without following the rules and regulations. This tower was also commissioned without permission or recommendation.

Even the Delhi Government's Pollution Committee never recommended it but expressed doubts over its success. The result of the report of IIT Mumbai in this regard is that it is not effective in an area of more than 20 meters, Bidhuri said in a press statement.
Acharya Satyendra Das, the chief priest of Ram Janmabhoomi, has expressed his displeasure, saying that individuals not acknowledging Lord Ram and harbouring anti-Hindu sentiments should not receive invitations for the Pran Pratishtha ceremony.

This reaction was prompted by the invitations extended to Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Sonia Gandhi for the ceremony.

Acharya Satyendra Das voiced his disapproval, highlighting that these individuals had previously denied the existence of Lord Ram.

In a statement in Ayodhya, the Ram Janmabhoomi chief priest asserted, There is no need to invite such critics and anti-Hindu elements to the sacred event.

The Pran Pratishtha ceremony, scheduled at Ram Janmabhoomi, holds immense significance for the Hindu community. Excluding those who express skepticism about the existence of Lord Ram aligns with the goal of maintaining the sanctity of the event and ensuring that only those who genuinely revere Lord Ram participate in it, he emphasised.

Acharya Das stressed that the presence of individuals contradicting the essence of Lord Rams existence goes against the spiritual significance of the ceremony.

Earlier, Congress president Kharge and former president Sonia Gandhi received invitations from the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust for the consecration function in Ayodhya on January 22. While these leaders are yet to confirm their participation, over 100 Congress leaders from Uttar Pradesh are expected to pay their obeisance to Ram Lalla in Ayodhya on January 14 and 15.

RJB chief priest

against inviting

disbelievers to

consecration

PNS | Lucknow

Acharya Satyendra Das, the chief priest of Ram Janmabhoomi, has expressed his displeasure, saying that individuals not acknowledging Lord Ram and harbouring anti-Hindu sentiments should not receive invitations for the Pran Pratishtha ceremony.

This reaction was prompted by the invitations extended to Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Sonia Gandhi for the ceremony.

Acharya Satyendra Das voiced his disapproval, highlighting that these individuals had previously denied the existence of Lord Ram.

In a statement in Ayodhya, the Ram Janmabhoomi chief priest asserted, There is no need to invite such critics and anti-Hindu elements to the sacred event.

The Pran Pratishtha ceremony, scheduled at Ram Janmabhoomi, holds immense significance for the Hindu community. Excluding those who express skepticism about the existence of Lord Ram aligns with the goal of maintaining the sanctity of the event and ensuring that only those who genuinely revere Lord Ram participate in it, he emphasised.

Acharya Das stressed that the presence of individuals contradicting the essence of Lord Rams existence goes against the spiritual significance of the ceremony.

Earlier, Congress president Kharge and former president Sonia Gandhi received invitations from the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust for the consecration function in Ayodhya on January 22. While these leaders are yet to confirm their participation, over 100 Congress leaders from Uttar Pradesh are expected to pay their obeisance to Ram Lalla in Ayodhya on January 14 and 15.
Severe cold continued in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday also. There was dense fog in many districts and rain in some districts. continued to drizzle in Bhopal and Narmadapuram. Several places failed to witness sunlight including Bhopal, Guna and Sagar.

Sagar was the coldest city of the state. The minimum temperature of the day was recorded here on Sunday at 17.4 degrees. Bhopal was the second coldest city. The temperature here was 17.5 degrees. Apart from this, a temperature of 17.8 degrees was recorded in Raisen and 18.8 degrees in Guna.

The weather remained very cold in Gwalior, Ujjain, Indore, Jabalpur, Guna, Tikamgarh, Ratlam, Rewa and Damoh districts. Similar weather is expected on Monday also.

Meteorological Department, Bhopal told that similar weather will prevail in the state for the next few days. Despite the passing of the rain system, there will be severe cold.

There was dense fog in the hill station Pachmarhi of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday night. Tourists were seen enjoying the cold by lighting bonfires.

Meteorologist said, 'The cyclonic circulation system is over Uttar Pradesh. The second Indo Cyclonic Circulation is over Rajasthan. At the same time, the trough line is passing from Gujarat to Uttar Pradesh. Due to this, the weather of Madhya Pradesh has also changed. A Western Disturbance is becoming active again on January 8, which will last till January 12. There is also a possibility of fog and light rain.

Met told that the clouds will disperse after the system. Due to this, northern winds will start coming into the state. Due to this the night temperature will also drop.

The fog is showing no sign of clearing in the state. On Saturday, 39 districts remained under the grip of fog. People shivered due to the icy cold conditions in Bhopal on Saturday. Visibility was reduced to 50 meters in the morning amidst dense fog. Here, the day temperature dropped by 1.1 degrees and was recorded at 18.8 degrees. The night temperature was 14.2 degrees. That means there was a difference of only 4.6 degrees between day and night temperatures.
BJP state spokesperson Pratul Shahdev retaliated at Rajesh Thakur's statement in which he said that ED is responsible for poor development of Jharkhand and the pathetic condition of law and order. Pratul said that corruption has emerged as the biggest curse for Jharkhand in the last four years. In the four years, the corruption in the Hemant government has taken the form of a demon and has digested all the money for the development of the common tribal, indigenous. If there was a need for orgy to destroy such corruption, then it will also happen in the state interest.

Pratul said that the state president of the Congress should tell that during the 10 -year UPA tenure, only 8586 cases were filed by the ED and seized illegal assets and cash worth  5346 crore, in the nine and a half years of the NDA reign The number of records recorded reached 30,000 and by until the illegal assets and cash seized have exceeded  1,25,000 crore. It is clear from the data that the government has zero tolerance towards corruption under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Whereas during the Congress rule, agencies used to work at the behest of the party office. That is why the Supreme Court had described the CBI as a parrot imprisoned in the cage.

Pratul said that today the Congress is standing with Chief Minister Hemant Soren because the two have a relationship between the cousins. We are all naked in us. They know that with the departure of Hemant Sarkar, their loot game will also stop, so it is standing with the government by sidelining all moral values.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai said on Sunday that his government will provide all necessary support for the development of the Satnami Community.

Our motto is 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'. By implementing Modis guarantees, we will bring prosperity into everyones lives."

He was addressing a Satnami Youth Introduction Conference in Raipur.

Religious leader Guru Baldas Saheb was present.

The Satnami Utthan and Jagruti Samiti has been organizing such introductory conferences and ideal mass marriages for 23 years.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Monday, said the intentions of the state government were clear, the goals were well defined, and with the right policy and precise implementation, the government would achieve the $1-trillion target.

The chief minister said the state index of education, health, economic condition of families and industry would be prepared. He said it was necessary to collect data with accuracy for expected results.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday reviewed the ongoing efforts, current outcomes and future policies aimed at achieving the ambitious goal of establishing Uttar Pradesh as a one-trillion-dollar economy.

The chief minister said that a proposal be invited for the establishment of a pharmaceutical research and innovation institute near Lucknow. He said UP had the potential and favourable opportunities and must take full advantage of this.

Several ministers attended the meeting, organised by the Planning department. In the meeting, the principal secretary (Planning) and representatives from financial consulting company Deloitte presented detailed information about the current economic environment of the state. They elaborated on the present situation and potential future outcomes, industry expectations and other relevant details sector-wise.

The chief minister issued major guidelines in the special meeting.

Due to the planned efforts of the last six and a half years, the economy of Uttar Pradesh is in its best condition today. The states total GDP (gross domestic product), which stood at Rs 16.45 lakh crore in 2021-22, has now surged to over Rs 22.58 lakh crore in 2022-23. With a 9.2 per cent contribution to the national income, Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the second-largest economy in the country, playing a pivotal role as the growth engine of the country.

An assessment of the states growth rate compared to the national standards has also revealed positive results. Uttar Pradeshs growth rate at current prices and constant prices in 2021-22 was 20.1 per cent and 9.8 per cent against the countrys growth rate of 18.4 per cent and 9.1 per cent respectively.

Similarly, in 2022-23, the national growth rate at constant prices was recorded at 7.2 per cent against the states growth rate of 9.8 per cent while the states growth rate of current prices was recorded at 14.3 per cent during the period.

In the present scenario, the GDP of the state is estimated to be more than Rs 25.55 lakh crore in 2023-24. To reach the one-trillion-dollar target by 2027, it is imperative that all departments escalate their efforts. Enhanced planning and coordination are essential. The states intentions are clear, and the goal is well-defined, and everyone will have to work together with the right policy and planned implementation.

For the planning to be in line with the target, it is crucial to gather accurate data, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath pointed out. Organise workshops/training for statistical officers at each department level to ensure proper assessment of the situation in various sectors, he said.

The chief minister said, We possess significant potential, and the current landscape offers favorable opportunities. We will have to take full advantage of this. The progress of all departments should be reviewed every month by the Planning department against the targets set for economic betterment.

The chief minister pointed out that digital technology has been incorporated to improve the primary segment of the economy, with initiatives such as digital crop surveys being successfully implemented. This has to be implemented effectively in all 75 districts, said.

Notably, the area of cultivation and production of sugarcane increased by 26.8 per cent in 2021-22 while horticultural crop production saw a substantial rise of 31.9 per cent. State-sponsored schemes aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in pulses and oilseeds in Uttar Pradesh are yielding favorable results. However, there is a need to further enhance crop diversification and improve supply chain management.

Once again, the state has secured the top position in milk production. Additionally, it ranks third in terms of progress in egg production, achieving an annual growth rate of 12.80 per cent. This progress was satisfactory, the chief minister said.

Industrial power consumption in the secondary segment has increased by 17.0 per cent. Survey of units established in the industrial authority area, identification of unused plots, and establishment of a new industrial corridor are underway. Pledge Parks are being established at 10 places.

The state is experiencing rapid growth in the tertiary sector, encompassing hotels/restaurants, transport, communication, real estate, professional services, public services, defence, and other services. There has been unprecedented development in services related to the tourism sector. According to the Ministry of Tourism, Government of Indias report in 2023, Uttar Pradesh has got the distinction of having the highest number of tourist arrivals in 2022.

In the financial year 2022-23, the state welcomed over 31.8 crore tourists, with Varanasi, Mathura and Ayodhya emerging as major centres. This positive trend is expected to continue in the coming days.

The chief minister pointed out that in addition to catering to domestic tourists, it is imperative to develop a comprehensive action plan to attract foreign tourists. This involves identifying potential countries and formulating a tailored policy for branding the state in alignment with the preferences and interests of these countries.
The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in the state, saying the orders were "stereotyped" and passed without application of mind.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan directed the convicts to surrender before jail authorities within two weeks.

Holding the PIL challenging the remission as maintainable, the bench said the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to pass the remission order.

The apex court clarified that the State, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts. The convicts were tried by Maharashtra.

"We need not have gone into the other issues. But for sake of completion, we have. Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed," the bench said while pronouncing the judgement which spanned over 100 pages.

The top court also held as 'nullity' its May 13, 2022 order of another bench asking the Gujarat government to consider remission plea of convicts as it was obtained by "playing fraud on the court" and by suppressing material facts.

It said this is a classic case where the order of this court was used to violate the rule of law by granting remission.

The top court said Rule of law has been breached by usurpation of power and May 13, 2022 order has been used to usurp the powers and abuse the process of law.

"We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by Gujarat government," the bench said.

The apex court had on October 12 last year reserved its verdict after an 11-day hearing on the petitions, including the one filed by Bano.

While reserving the judgement, the apex court had directed the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit by October 16 the original records related to the remission of sentence of the 11 convicts.

While hearing the matter in September last year, the top court had asked whether convicts have a fundamental right to seek remission.

During the earlier arguments, the apex court had observed that state governments should not be selective in granting remission to convicts and the opportunity to reform and reintegrate with society should extend to every prisoner.

Besides the petition filed by Bano contesting the remission granted to them by the Gujarat government, several other PILs, including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, have challenged the relief.

TMC leader Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against the remission and their premature release.

Bilkis Bano was 21-years-old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train-burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.

All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022.
Schools were closed in some districts and crops ready for harvest were damaged in Tamil Nadu, including the Cauvery delta and northern coastal regions, due to overnight rains in certain parts of the state.

AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami demanded that the state government provide relief to farmers for the crop loss they suffered. Chennai and neighbouring Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram, besides Villupuram and Kallakurichi received good spells of rain while the Cauvery delta regions including Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur received moderate to heavy rain.

A Regional Meteorological Centre bulletin said a trough in the easterlies runs from south Sri Lanka to north coastal Tamil Nadu in the lower tropospheric levels, under the influence of which in light to moderate rainfall occurred at many places in the state, heavy to very heavy rain at a few places in northern coastal areas and extremely heavy rain at a few areas in Mayiladuthurai, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts. Palaniswami said that in Nagapattinam district, paddy crop ready for harvest in an expanse of about 30,000 acres was damaged following rains during the past couple of days.

Similarly, there was crop loss in Chidambaram of Cuddalore district and in the districts of Mayiladuthurai and Tiruvarur, he said in a statement. The leader of the opposition and former chief minister said the government should declare a minimum relief of Rs 25,000 per acre and also ensure appropriate compensation for farmers under crop insurance.

The Meteorological Centre said that till Jan 9 morning, a few spells of light-moderate rain are likely in Chennai and the neighbourhood and heavy rainfall in some areas.

Monday was declared a holiday for schools in some districts including Chengalpattu, Ranipet, Vellore and Kallakurichi. Schools and colleges in Nagapattinam and Keelvelur areas were also closed on January 8.

Schools closed, crops damaged due to overnight rains in Tamil Nadu

Chennai, Jan 8 (PTI) Schools were closed in some districts and crops ready for harvest were damaged in Tamil Nadu, including the Cauvery delta and northern coastal regions, due to overnight rains in certain parts of the state.

AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami demanded that the state government provide relief to farmers for the crop loss they suffered. Chennai and neighbouring Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram, besides Villupuram and Kallakurichi received good spells of rain while the Cauvery delta regions including Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur received moderate to heavy rain.

A Regional Meteorological Centre bulletin said a trough in the easterlies runs from south Sri Lanka to north coastal Tamil Nadu in the lower tropospheric levels, under the influence of which in light to moderate rainfall occurred at many places in the state, heavy to very heavy rain at a few places in northern coastal areas and extremely heavy rain at a few areas in Mayiladuthurai, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts. Palaniswami said that in Nagapattinam district, paddy crop ready for harvest in an expanse of about 30,000 acres was damaged following rains during the past couple of days.

Similarly, there was crop loss in Chidambaram of Cuddalore district and in the districts of Mayiladuthurai and Tiruvarur, he said in a statement. The leader of the opposition and former chief minister said the government should declare a minimum relief of Rs 25,000 per acre and also ensure appropriate compensation for farmers under crop insurance.

The Meteorological Centre said that till Jan 9 morning, a few spells of light-moderate rain are likely in Chennai and the neighbourhood and heavy rainfall in some areas.

Monday was declared a holiday for schools in some districts including Chengalpattu, Ranipet, Vellore and Kallakurichi. Schools and colleges in Nagapattinam and Keelvelur areas were also closed on January 8.
Four people with strong connections to Dalhousie were among the 78 new appointments to the Order of Canada, announced in late December 2023.

Josef (Jim) Spatz (MD74, LLD22), Elder Albert Marshall (Architecture and Planning) and Professor Richard Kroeker (faculty member of Architecture and Planning) were made Members of the Order of Canada, for distinguished service in or to a community, group, or field of activity. Dr. Ronald Stewart (MD70, LLD17), who was first made a Member in 1993, was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada, an honour that recognizes outstanding achievement and merit of the highest degree, especially in service to Canada or to humanity at large.

Josef (Jim) Spatz

(MD74, LLD22)

Honoured for his business and community leadership as well as his philanthropic support of diverse causes and initiatives, Halifax-based property developer and CEO of Southwest Properties Jim Spatz described his appointment to the Order of Canada as one of the biggest thrills of his life.

Among his many charitable contributions to his community, Spatz has been steadfast in his devotion to Dalhousie. Appointed to the universitys Board of Governors in 2001, he became its chair in 2008 and served in that role through until 2014. During that time, Dal completed the largest fundraising campaign in its history, expanded its global profile significantly and constructed several new buildings (the latter being an area in which Spatz says he was always eager to provide advice and guidance).

Spatz was also instrumental in establishing the Simon and Riva Spatz Chair in Jewish Studies, named for his parents, who were Holocaust survivors. The appointed Spatz Chair was announced and their inaugural public lecture was delivered at Dalhousie last January. Spatz was presented with an honourary doctorate degree in 2022, acknowledging his inspirational leadership and outstanding contributions to the Dalhousie community.

Elder Albert Marshall

(School of Architecture & Planning)

Elder Albert Marshall of Eskasoni First Nation was made an Officer for his contributions to the understanding of Two-Eyed Seeing or Etuaptmumk and for promoting Mi'kmaw culture, language and sustainability. (Etuaptmumk, or Two-Eyed Seeing, is a Mikmaw guiding principle that refers to learning from both Indigenous and Western knowledge to gain a greater understanding of the world for the benefit of all.)

Elder Marshall is known for his application of Etuaptmumk to the built environment, and he has inspired generations of Dalhousie Architecture faculty and students to consider the concept in design and build projects that he led from his Eskasoni home. Marshall and his late wife, Murdena, spent decades welcoming architecture students into their home to teach them about Indigenous ways of building and the notion of Etuaptmumk. Marshall has also encouraged students and alumni to consider the collective environment in their designs.

Marshall says he was humbled and honoured to accept this acknowledgement on behalf of all the Elders and knowledge holders who have shared their knowledge with him.

The Marshall Bursary, which was established in 2021 with the help of Professor Emeritus Richard Kroeker, provides financial support to an Indigenous student pursuing a degree in architecture, planning or engineering. These design professions play a major role in defining our communities and give Indigenous students the opportunity to shape the world in which they live.

Richard Kroeker

(Faculty, School of Architecture & Planning)

Richard Kroeker, Professor Emeritus in Dalhousies School of Architecture & Planning, was inducted for his innovative leadership as one of Canadas leading architects who uses multiple perspectives of Indigenous and Western artistic and environmental models in his work.

Kroekers research and practice focus on design in the context of communities and cultures at risk. Richards work was strongly influenced by the teachings of Elder Albert Marshall and Murdena Marshall. His work has explored how ideas and knowledge systems embedded in Indigenous ways of thinking and building are expressed through architecture, as well as how they can support cultural continuity and inform the surrounding cultural context.

At Dalhousie, Richard co-designed with community and Elders through a Two-Eyed Seeing approach, which ultimately led to such influential designs as the West Wing project in Eskasoni and the Pictou Landing Health Centre. His current research includes building energy modeling methods, shell construction techniques, and innovations in structural wood use.

Dr. Ronald Stewart

(MD70, LLD17)

Dr. Ronald Stewart has worked in emergency medicine for over 50 years and was originally made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1993 for his commitment to the field, including the creation of Nova Scotias current Emergency Health Service (EHS), which encompasses ground ambulance and LifeFlight service. His promotion to Companion of the Order of Canada recognizes his continued groundbreaking contributions, as well as his sustained leadership in the public health sector.

Dr. Stewart has long been a champion of Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia medical community. In 2017 he received an honourary doctorate degree from Dal, and he is the namesake of the Dr. Ronald Stewart Student Award for student leadership in global health. Dr. Stewart also generously pledged $1.3 million to Dalhousie to create the Ronald Stewart Fund in Emergency Medical Services Research, which funded the Ronald Stewart Symposium in Emergency Medical Services Research in 2017 and will continue to fund research around emergency medicine for years to come.

Dr. Stewart said when he learned of his initial appointment as Member of the Order of Canada in 1993, and of his latest promotion within the Order to Companion (reserved for those who demonstrate outstanding level of talent and service), it made him happy because it showed an acceptance and appreciation of his area of interest and expertise.

The Order of Canada







The Order of Canada was created in 1967 and is one of the country's highest civilian honours. Appointments are made for sustained achievement at three levels: Companion, Officer and Member. Officers and Members may be elevated within the Order in recognition of further achievement, based on continued exceptional or extraordinary service to Canada.

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada announced the newest inductees on December 28, 2023, in Ottawa, saying, As governor general, I have seen first-hand that our communities are rich in both excellence and diversity, which we need to do our utmost to recognize.

Congratulations to all appointees!
HYDERABAD: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy  deciding to revive the Kamalapuram unit of Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT) in Mulugu, which was shut down in 2014  on Monday held a meeting with Hardik Patel, MD of Finquest Financial Solutions Pvt Ltd, which secured BILT assets following the order from NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal) and is in the process of disposing it to potential investors.

He expressed the state governments strong desire to facilitate the revival of the factory and requested the Finquest team to expedite the process.

The Chief Minister discussed with senior officials the status of the revival of the Kamalapurum pulp mill, saying the new government has prioritised the revival of sick industrial units, like the BILT mill in Mulugu district, to boost economic activity and provide local employment.

In this context, the Chief Minister also held discussions with Vadiraj Kulkarni, the CEO of ITC, PSPD (Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division), on their ongoing projects in Telangana and future expansion plans.

ITC is in negotiations with Finquest to acquire BILT assets, and Revanth Reddy assured to extend all possible support to ITC for the successful revival of the BILT factory in Kamalapurum.

Ministers Danasari Anasuya (Seethakka) and Konda Surekha, Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari, industries secretary Jayesh Ranjan and CMO officials took part in the meeting.

The Kamalapuram unit in Mulugu district is a dedicated pulp mill manufacturing rayon-grade pulp for the viscose staple fibre (VSF) industry. The unit started commercial production in September 1981. Run by Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), the unit became sick and was closed in 2014. The closure of the unit affected the livelihoods of 750 workers families and 100s of indirect families dependent on the factory.
VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy as president of the ruling YSRC continued the scrutiny and analysis process on Monday to finalise the third list of party coordinators.

Several legislators came to the camp office and met the CM and other top brass of the party regarding change of coordinators for the Assembly and Parliament constituencies.

There were expectations of the third lists release by Monday night, but in vain.

According to reliable sources, the CM did not have any official programme or review meeting on Monday and spent his full time in finalising the third list, in consultation with other senior leaders.

Jagan Mohan Reddy is trying to finalise 20-25 names for the Assembly constituencies and five Parliament constituencies, in the third list, party sources said.

YSRCs Narasaraopet MLA Gopireddy Srinivas, facing opposition in the constituency, was called to the CMs camp office for talks along with leaders opposing his candidature. A YSRC Rajya Sabha member discussed and settled the issues and misconceptions between him and Srinivas and both sides agreed to work together in the 2024 elections.

Srinivas Reddy admitted that he might have committed some mistakes but he never harassed YSRC leaders through false cases. Neither did he cooperate with Telugu Desam nor was he in touch with TD leaders, he asserted.

He said, All things were explained, we agreed to work in coordination by shunning differences. I will be the YSRC candidate for Narasaraopeta.

Concentrating on Nandikotkur Assembly constituency, the Chief Minister conducted talks with YSRC Nandikotkur incharge Byreddy Siddharth Reddy. Siddharth Reddy reportedly opposed the candidature of present MLA Thoguru Arthur.

Interestingly, the YSRC high command did not consider the name of industries minister Gudivada Amarnath in the first two lists. This led to speculation he might be denied the party ticket. But, in fresh developments, the YSRC high command considered Amarnath for Yalamanchili, Chodavaram and Pendurthi. He is likely to get Pendurthi due the large presence of Kapu and Velama votes. Amarnaths grandfather and father had been MLAs from Pendurthi.

Speculations were rife about YSRC Penamaluru MLA, K. Parthasarathy, joining the TD. The high command contacted him. YSRC regional coordinators Rajya Sabha member Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy and MLA Marri Rajasekhar along with MLA Kyle Anil Kumar held talks with Parthasarathy. Later, they all met the CM.

Former ministers and MLAs, Perni Venkataramaiah alias Nani and Kodali Venkateswara Rao alias Nani, joined the meeting and they put their heads together to resolve the Penamalur conflict. A positive result is expected by tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also concentrated on the Vizianagaram LS constituency and called Vizianagaram MP Bellana Chadrasekhar for talks. Jagan Mohan Reddy held talks with the MP in the presence of YSRC north Andhra coordinator Y.V. Subba Reddy. A proposal is to field Botsa Jhansi, wife of minister Botsa Satyanarayana, from Vizianagaram.

MLAs V.R. Eliza and A. Srinivasulu also met the CM. They talked about the reshuffle of seats.
Hyderabad: The Congress government is set to take over Rs 32,000 crore of existing crop loans of about 30 lakh farmers, to fulfil its pre-poll promise of waiving off crop loans of up to Rs 2 lakh per farmer.

Sources said that a special corporation will be set up for the purpose and that the finance department has initiated talks with bankers on Monday.

Official sources said that the bankers agreed to transfer Rs 32,000 crop loan dues to the crop loan waiver corporation, provided it had an income and repayment capacity. The state government has proposed to divert a portion of revenue earned through stamps and registrations, excise and commercial tax departments to the corporation and repay loans to banks through EMIs in the next five years, in monthly tranches of Rs 500 crore to Rs 600 crore.

The commercial taxes department rakes in about Rs 2,500 crore per month, stamps and registration department about Rs 2,000 crore per month and the excise department Rs 1,200 crore per month. Of this, the government planBRs gs to contribute up to 10 per cent to the crop loan waiver corporation.

The previous BRS government promised crop loan waivers of up to Rs 1 lakh during the 2014 and 2018 Assembly polls. However, it released funds to banks in phases due to which farmers incurred a huge interest burden. Subsequently, the loan waiver scheme did not serve the intended purpose as farmers lost the waiver amount, with banks adjusting the amount towards interest arrears.

In 2014, the BRS government waived Rs 17,000 crore of loans taken by 36 lakh farmers. But it released Rs 4,000 crore to banks per year, due to which it took five years to clear the arrears. Banks collected the interest over the five years from farmers.

Over the promise made in 2018, the BRS government failed to implement a crop loan waiver scheme until August 2023. Just before the Assembly polls notification, the state government announced to release Rs 19,000 crore to banks, but it could not be implemented as the model code of conduct for polls came into effect in the second week of October. It waived loans up to Rs 35,000 in 2019 and 2020.

Banks have declared about 20 lakh farmers as defaulters and froze their accounts due to a delay in the release of funds.

Taking these factors into account, the newly formed Congress government has decided to waive loans of farmers up to Rs 2 lakh each in one swoop, by taking over their loans and ensuring farmers are benefitted.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Monday constituted a Cabinet subcommittee headed by his deputy, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, to speed up the implementation of Six Guarantees promised by Congress in the run-up to the recent Assembly polls.

Revanth Reddy reiterated that the Congress government was committed to implementing all the Six Guarantees within 100 days, as promised.

He chaired a review meeting at the Secretariat on the Praja Palana programme, held by the state government from December 28 to January 6 to seek offline applications from people across the state to avail of benefits under five of the Six Guarantees.

Over 1.25 crore applications were received and the Chief Minister directed officials to make online entries of all the applications by January 25 by linking them with ID cards, such as Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards, to ensure that only those Telangana state residents could avail of these benefits.

Officials informed the Chief Minister that a large number of applications were received for the Rs.2,500 monthly aid for women under the Maha Lakshmi scheme, Indiramma houses and ration cards. The Chief Minister wanted the implementation of two more schemes, of providing gas cylinders for Rs.500 and the Gruha Jyothi scheme to extend free power up to 200 units to each household.

The Cabinet subcommittee led by Bhatti Vikramarka has been asked to draft the guidelines for the selection of beneficiaries, with ministers D. Sridhar Babu and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy appointed as members of the committee, alongside senior officials.

Briefing the media about the details of the review meeting, ministers Srinivas Reddy and Ponnam Prabhakar said that the Chief Minister issued strict instructions to officials to upload the details of all the 1.25 crore applications online by January 25.

Srinivas Reddy said that 30,000 data entry operators were deployed for the purpose and they expect to complete them on time. Of the 1.25 crore applications, about 1.05 crore pertain to benefits under five guarantees, while the remaining 20 lakh pertain to other schemes, mostly ration cards.

Ponnam Prabhakar said that the government will decide on issuing new ration cards after the data entry process concludes.

Both ministers lashed out at BRS leaders for accusing the Congress government of not fulfilling the poll promises, ignoring the fact that the Congress government just completed one month in office and started implementing two guarantees, of free bus travel for women and Rs.10 lakh Aarogyasri cover for poor.

They asked BRS leaders to retrospect how they had performed in the past nine years and how they failed to fulfil their poll promises even after remaining in power for nearly 10 years.
Members of Congress are demanding answers to why it took the Pentagon days to notify Congress and the White House about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins hospitalization. The lack of transparency has prompted some lawmakers to urge for resignations over the incident.

Get alerts:

Calls for accountability mount

Calls for accountability mounted as Austin remained at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., for an undisclosed medical condition. Lawmakers questioned the lack of transparency about his surgery and hospitalization.

We are concerned with how the disclosure of the secretarys condition was handled, said Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Republican and Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Several questions remain unanswered, including what the medical procedure and resulting complications were, what the secretarys current health status is, how and when the delegation of the secretarys responsibilities was made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the president and Congress.

Timeline of events

Austin was hospitalized Jan. 1 due to complications from an elective surgical procedure, according to the Pentagon. However, the White House was not notified until Jan. 4, and Congress did not learn of Austins hospitalization until Jan. 5. This delay has infuriated some Republicans in particular.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, accused the Defense Department of deliberately withholding information and said the incident further eroded trust in President Joe Bidens administration.

When one of the countrys two national command authorities is unable to perform their duties, military families, members of Congress and the American public deserve to know the full extent of the circumstances, he said. Members [of Congress] must be briefed on a full accounting of the facts immediately.

Republican criticism

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., another Armed Services committee member, also said Austin must come to the panel with an explanation. Other Republicans are pushing for Austins resignation. Republican Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas, an Army veteran, wrote on Twitter that Austins failure to alert the president of his hospitalization was a dereliction of duty that deserves removal from his job as Secretary of Defense.

On Monday, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., issued a statement calling on Austin and those that lied for him to step down. She said Austin breached the trust of Congress and left a dangerous leadership vacuum at a time when U.S. troops are under attack in Iraq and Syria. This concerning lack of transparency exemplifies a shocking lack of judgment and a significant national security threat, she said.

White House stands by Austin

The White House continued to stand by Austin on Monday and said there were no plans to fire him. The presidents number one focus is on the secretarys recovery, and he looks forward to having him back at the Pentagon as soon as possible, John Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, told reporters. The president respects the fact that Secretary Austin took ownership for the lack of transparency. He also respects the amazing job hes done as defense secretary.

Possible investigation

Kirby acknowledged there is an expectation that the hospitalization of a Cabinet member is to be communicated up the chain of command. Air Force Gen. Charles CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, found out about Austins hospitalization on Jan. 2, and Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who took over some of Austins duties last week, learned about Austins hospitalization on Jan. 4.

Well take a look at the process and procedure here and try to learn from this experience and [see] if there are changes that need to be made, Kirby said. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., a member of the Armed Services Committee, said Congress needs to launch an investigation into whether the incident violated any law. The American people deserve a full explanation for this serious lapse of communication, she said.
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the 5th largest bank in the world and the largest in the U.S. The current company is the result of a series of mergers that began in the earliest days of American banking history and include more than 1,200 original banks. The oldest predecessor is The Bank Of The Manhattan Company which was founded in 1799 by Aaron Burr. At the time, The Bank Of The Manhattan Company was the 3rd oldest bank in the U.S. and the 31st oldest in the world. The Chase Manhattan Bank, a precursor to JPMorgan Chase, was later formed when The Bank Of Manhattan Company purchased Chase Bank which was established in 1877.

JPMorgan & Co came to life in 1895 in order to finance the United States Steel Corporation. Itself a result of merger, the company also financed other early American businesses as well as aided the federal government by backing a bond offering. It wasnt until the year 2000 and after several more mergers that JPMorgan Chase & Co was born. It will be four more years before the merger with Bank One which is notable because it brings CEO Jamie Dimon into the picture.

JPMorgan Chase & Co was instrumental in aiding the US government during the 2008 financial crisis. It backed the accounts of several major banks including Bear Stearns and eventually took over their operations. Today, JPMorgan Chase & Co operates as a financial services company worldwide with operations on every continent and in more than 60 countries.

JPMorgan Chase & Co operates through four segments that are Consumer & Community Banking (CCB), Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB), Commercial Banking (CB), and Asset & Wealth Management (AWM). Services are available in branches in 48 of the 50 US states and around the world. Services are available via ATM, online, mobile, and telephone.

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Derry's Bloody Sunday Trust has welcomed the decision by South Africa to initiate proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the UNs tribunal for settling legal disputes submitted by states.

South Africa has invoked the Genocide Convention, to which South Africa and Israel are parties.

The Trust has also urged the Irish government to formally join South Africa as a party to the proceedings in this action to halt the Genocide in Gaza.

In an 84-page submission to the tribunal South Africa has requested provisional measures to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention and to ensure Israels compliance with its obligations as a signatory to that Convention.

Tony Doherty, Chair of the Bloody Sunday Trust said: This principled stance is in keeping with South Africas unyielding commitment to human rights, justice and accountability.

"Although South Africa is the first to act in response to the Gaza genocide, it is open to any state that has ratified the treaty to invoke the Genocide Convention against a member state suspected of genocide."

Whilst acknowledging that Israel has never adhered to UN Resolutions, humanitarian conventions or to international law, Tony Doherty pointed out that neither did the apartheid regime of South Africa until the international community intervened in a meaningful way and imposed sanctions against it, divested from it and boycotted it."

He added: "Apartheid South Africa was in its day the only democracy in Southern Africa. It too was defending 'civilisation' against an existential enemy.

"It too relied on its massive military capability, its nuclear weapons capacity and the support of its allies in the United States, Britain and Europe.

"Yet none of this could crush the resistance to an immoral political and economic system built on apartheid," said Tony Doherty.

Noting that the Irish government had in 2004 referred Israels construction of a separation wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the ICJ for a ruling, Mr Doherty said there is therefore both a precedent and a compelling contemporary argument for a referral to the ICJ in the case of Israels ongoing assault on Gaza.

He said: "Israel is not, as is routinely claimed, engaged in self defence but is escalating the settler colonial violence it has directed for decades against the Palestinians. Prior to October 7 Israeli policy makers were actively advocating a second Nakba.

"Expelling Palestinians from their homes and preventing their return is Israels foundational military and political strategy and its leaders are putting it into action once again.

"Israels military strategy on the ground is a deliberate effort to eject Gazas population south to Egypt, while rendering Gaza unlivable and return impossible.

"There is no other state in which ethnic cleansing is accepted as a mainstream government policy.

"In the face of the clearly stated genocidal intent and actions of Israeli political and military leaders an Irish government referral to the ICJ is both a moral imperative and an effective template that must now be applied to establish peace, dignity, equality and security for both Palestinians and Israelis.
A woman, described as having 'serious mental health issues', has appeared at Derry Magistrates Court charged with breaching bail and assaulting police officers.

Katie Bowers (35) of Herron Way in Derry was charged with, on January 6, multiple counts of assaulting police officers causing actual bodily harm.

Police were initially called to a woman standing on the wrong side of the railings by the River Foyle with her one year old child in her arms.

When police approached, Bowers was said to have became volatile, holding her son in a headlock as police tried to remove him from her arms.

Police then tried to restrain her and she proceeded to punch an officer in the jaw before repeatedly attacking them, injuring her own hand in the process.

Bowers then attempted to bite an officer but didn't manage to break skin.

Upon being put into the police Landrover, Bowers proceeded to headbutt the floor of the van, scratching an officer and leaving an abrasion as they attempted to stop her injuring herself further.

When asked to give a breath sample, Bowers refused.

She was described as having clear issues with alcohol and her mental health and police say she is a danger to herself, her child and police officers, objecting to bail as they believe she is at risk of reoffending.

Appearing via SightLink Bowers claimed that she was simply walking with her son in John Street when police attempt to grab the child out of her arms.

She also admitted to punching the officer in the jaw but claimed she couldn't have carried out the other attacks as she was in handcuffs and leg restraints and telling court that, while she had refused a breath test, she did give blood and urine samples.

District Judge Barney McElhom called this claim 'somewhat bizarre', as the breath test is the least invasive of the three, adding that he was 'beginning to wonder' about her grasp on reality.

He asked why she would give blood but not breath, saying that 'most people would run a mile from a needle'.

Defence Barrister Stephen Chapman said that Bowers didn't have an 'extensive record' but that she did have a history of mental health issues.

Judge McElhom granted bail but said that there was 'something seriously wrong in this woman's life that needs sorting out'.

She will appear again on February 1.
The UK Government has challenged Ireland to set out its own record on tackling legacy issues, as it formally registered its regret at Dublins decision to take legal action against its Troubles legislation.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has written to Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin, questioning the move by Irelands Government to challenge the UKs contentious legacy laws in the European Court of Human Rights.

The British Ambassador to Ireland Paul Johnston issued the letter on Sunday evening.

In it, Mr Heaton Harris again challenges Mr Martin to list the number of prosecutions mounted in the Irish state since 1998 related to Troubles incidents.

Aspects of the recently passed UK laws include a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who co-operate with the new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 will also halt future civil cases and legacy inquests.

The UK Governments laws are opposed by many victims groups in Northern Ireland and all the main Stormont parties.

Announcing the interstate case in December, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said his administration was left with no option but to legally challenge the UK Government over the Legacy Act.

He said the strong legal advice was that the UK Legacy Act breached the UN Convention on Human Rights.

Tanaiste Mr Martin said they were taking the case reluctantly after having spent time trying to change the UK Governments mind.

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) confirmed to the PA news agency that a letter had been issued formally registering profound regret at the interstate case.

The Secretary of State, in his letter, repeats his call for the Irish Government to clarify the number of criminal prosecutions brought in Ireland since 1998 relating to Troubles-related cases, and presses the Irish Government more widely to answer questions regarding its own record on tackling legacy issues in its own jurisdiction, the NIO said in a statement.

The letter criticises the timing of the Irish decision, describing it as a delicate time in Northern Ireland amid the efforts to restore powersharing at Stormont.

The NIO added: The decision also comes before the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, led by Sir Declan Morgan as chief commissioner, is fully established and able to demonstrate its ability to discharge the UKs international obligations.

The UK Government reasserts its particular disappointment that the Irish Government has taken this course of action without, to date, any engagement with the ICRIR to understand better how it intends to implement the legislation and deliver for victims and survivors.
A Belfast charity that had its project funding cut is a vital service for children with special educational needs, councillors were told.

Parents highlighted the importance of special needs charity Solas at a Belfast City Council meeting where the funding amount was discussed.

Belfast City Council management had proposed providing Solas with 800,000 for a new building, but this amount was reduced to 24,744 in what People Before Profit councillor Michael Collins condemned as a carve-up between Sinn Fein and the DUP.

Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast Aine Groogan said it was an insulting decision which needed to be overturned.

After parents told councillors of the importance of the charity, a decision was made during a private session of the meeting to give Solas 308,238 in funding.

Around 500,000 each was given to the Greater Village Regeneration Trust and the Market Development Association.

No funding was allocated to the Hearth Historic Buildings Trust for the redevelopment of Riddels Warehouse, despite council plans for it to receive 224,949 as of mid-December.

Councillor Micky Murray said he was incredibly disappointed by the outcome.

The funding is part of the 10 million allocation of the Neighbourhood Regeneration Fund.

Very powerful deputations from Solas parents Jean and Emily about the dire need for support for SEN children in Belfast. The SDLP support them 100% and will be back a restoration of the 800k proposed funding. The DUP/SF should not carry through this 97% cut. pic.twitter.com/4eJIDY1an3  Cllr. Seamas de Faoite (@SeamasBelfast) January 8, 2024

At a council meeting, two parents explained to councillors the difference Solas had made to their sons at a time when other services and supports were difficult to come by.

Disability crosses colour, creed, political persuasion, gender and postcode, Jean, no surname given, said on Monday.

She said her son, who was diagnosed with autism, was ignored at playgroups and other parents kept their kids away from us.

She added: After diagnosis, youre kind of handed that report and sent away with no idea how to navigate the system. The education system, and the healthcare system: two totally different things. Nobody tells you that or prepares you for that.

She said that when his teacher told her about Solas, it was a major turning point for us, where he had access to services provided by staff who knew how to help him thrive.

She added: Its a vital service provider for young people Theyre providing mental health support also to parents. At our low points, theyre helping us see that theres pathways available for our kids once they reach adulthood.

Solas doesnt have everything at the minute, hopefully it will, but it bloody does great with what it has.

Currently Solas provides many of their services in old mobiles and substandard facilities  this isnt sustainable. Its just not proper for our kids, for any kids.

She asked councillors: How much longer do our young people have to make do?

Emily Gallagher said that her 15-year-old son Oisin has been using Solas services since he was four years old.

She said that he was diagnosed with autism and needed one-to-one care.

She said they felt socially isolated and faced difficulties in accessing services to address his needs; they were left waiting four years for professional help.

Its very isolating being a parent of a child with a disability, she said.

Im not sure what we would have done without Solas during this time.

They took Oisin twice a week for three-hour sessions, which let us parents sleep and spend time with our other son.

She said that the charity needs a permanent building in order to provide services to people with additional needs and their families.

I know here in the city hall, you have changing places facilities available. Its got height-adjustable adult-sized changing benches. So I know that you all know this is essential in all settings where people with disabilities attend.

And yet its not available for Solas. We need a permanent building to provide this for the kids.

Solas is essential in south Belfast. There is nowhere else to go. No other after-school club, no social setting, nowhere to meet parents, nowhere to get help, nowhere to ask questions.
The MSI Raider GE78 HX is a beast of a gaming laptop with top-of-the-line specs across the board. Its a straight-up improvement over its predecessor and our best-performing gaming laptop of 2023. It features a retro aesthetic which might not be for everyone, but its subtle enough in our opinion other than the 8-bit pixel RGB lighting on the base. While it features good built quality and overall design, we were a bit disappointed when compared with other laptops in this price segment, especially the keyboard which feels very cramped. However, if its pure performance youre chasing, this is the best weve tested to date.

The MSI Raider GE78 HX is the best-performing gaming laptop we tested in 2023, managing to outperform even the earlier iteration of the 2023 MSI GT77 Titan. The latest iteration of the GT77 Titan will most likely outperform the Raider, but not by much considering MSI ships the Raider out with top-of-the-line components as well. We received the top-end model of the MSI Raider GE78 HX, featuring a 13th gen Intel Core i9-13980HX and the NVIDIA RTX 4090 Laptop GPU with a TGP of 175W, the highest allowed configuration from NVIDIA. That is paired with 2 TB of NVMe SSD storage, 64GB of DDR5-5600 RAM, and a 240 Hz, 17-inch QHD IPS display, among other things. The laptop is stacked in the specs department, and we can confidently say that this translates to the performance as well. Lets dive into the review!

MSI Raider GE78 HX Build and Design

Lets start things off with the design. The MSI Raider GE78 HX features a fairly retro aesthetic. The usual sharp edges and accents that were used to seeing in modern gaming laptops have been replaced with curves and the lightbar at the base of the laptop features pixel RGB LEDs. The rear of the laptop features an intricate design for the grill and theres also a red and gold trim running along the back. The overall look is certainly unique enough that the Raider GE78 HX stands out amongst its peers in the market right now. Whether you like the look or not is ultimately up to you.

Costing close to INR 6 lakhs, MSI certainly hasnt skimped out on build quality either. Theyve improved on the hinges from previous iterations, with the lid now feeling a lot more secure and stable with minimal bounce or flex. Theres quite a bit of space between the laptops lid and base; you can comfortably see through the gap to the other side while the laptop is open. Considering the specs on board, this is a hefty laptop, weighing in at a little over 3 Kg. The laptop uses lightweight metal alloy for the outer lid and the base, while the bottom panel uses plastic.

The keyboard on the MSI Raider GE78 HX was overall disappointing. Weve seen smaller laptops feature keyboards with plenty of space but the keys on the Raider GE78 HX, especially the arrow keys and numpad, feel especially cramped. The RGB lighting on the keyboard and the pixel RGB lighting on the laptop base can be controlled via the SteelSeries GG software. The touchpad is pretty large so theres plenty of room, but the feedback is weak and overall feels unsatisfying; we tend to use a mouse anyway.

I/O Ports

Coming to the ports, the MSI Raider GE78 HX comes with three USB-C ports, of which one is a Thunderbolt 4 port. The remaining two come with DP and one of them also has PD charging. Then you have two USB-A ports, an SD card reader, an HDMI 2.1 port, and an RJ45 ethernet port.

Display

Our variant of the MSI Raider GE78 HX came with a 17-inch QHD IPS display with a refresh rate of 240Hz. During our display testing, we saw an average peak brightness of 406 nits. While not the brightest display weve seen at this price range, its still plenty bright. Other than that, we tested sRGB coverage of 99.6 percent and a DCI-P3 coverage of 97.5 percent. So the display is colour-accurate as well, and we found the contrast was good too.

Thermals and Noise

Anything with this kind of hardware is going to be loud. When the fans are cranked to their max RPM the Raider can get very loud to the point of drowning out other ambient sounds. Were talking close to 60 dB which is definitely among the loudest weve ever seen in a gaming laptop.

During long gaming sessions, surface temps can get pretty toasty. The centre of the laptop especially where we recorded temps of around 46 degrees. Thats uncomfortably hot. The WASD cluster also goes north of 40 degrees so you can certainly feel the heat while gaming. The rest of the laptop remains consistent at around the 31-degree mark. The heat affects performance as well, we did notice throttling during our benchmarks but nothing out of the ordinary. With such laptops, it would be silly not to expect heat.

MSI Raider GE78 HX Gaming Performance

With that, we come to gaming performance. The MSI Raider GE78 HX had the best benchmark and gaming scores weve seen in a gaming laptop to date. It doesnt come as a surprise considering the 13th gen Intel Core i9-13980HX and the RTX 4090 are the most powerful configuration available on a gaming laptop. Thats the best available processor from Intel paired with the best available GPU from NVIDIA. The RTX 4090 comes with a TGP of 175W, which is the highest allowed TGP by NVIDIA. Add to that the 64GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and you can see why this laptop is currently our best-performing gaming laptop.

We got the highest real-world gaming benchmark numbers weve seen yet in a gaming laptop on the MSI Raider GE78 HX. After running our laptop through our usual suite of games, we found most titles got north of 200 FPS at high settings in FHD resolutions. You could easily see 60+ FPS on modern AAA titles at QHD resolutions and Ultra settings with the specs on this laptop. The 16GB of VRAM on the RTX 4090 also really helps with high-resolution gaming, and you get the benefits of Frame Generation and DLSS if a game supports it to significantly boost FPS numbers even more. The FPS numbers speak for themselves.

The same applied to our synthetic gaming benchmarks as well, with the Raider scoring the highest scores weve seen across the board, even surpassing the GT77 TItan we tested earlier in 2023. We will point out that while both laptops featured RTX 4090s, the Titan we tested came with a slightly weaker Intel Core i9-13950HX, which is why the Raider 78HX was able to inch ahead.

MSI Raider GE78 HX  Verdict

The MSI Raider GE78 HX is a beast of a gaming laptop with top-of-the-line specs across the board. Its a straight-up improvement over its predecessor and our best-performing gaming laptop of 2023. It features a retro aesthetic which might not be for everyone, but its subtle enough in our opinion other than the 8-bit pixel RGB lighting on the base. While it features good built quality and overall design, we were a bit disappointed when compared with other laptops in this price segment, especially the keyboard which feels very cramped. However, if its pure performance youre chasing, this is the best weve tested to date.
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Taiwan's semiconductor success explained in Sun Tzu's concepts

It has been half a century since the semiconductor industry began in the 1970s. At first, semiconductors were just a supporting component developed by large corporations to enhance the functionality of their system products. However, the formation of the industry began with Intel in Silicon Valley.

Later, Intel and Microsoft jointly created a platform for the personal computer (PC) industry, which gave the semiconductor industry a big stage. Intel's microprocessors and the successive development of memory in the US, Japan, and Korea have all contributed to the gradual evolution of the industry.

After the launch of the iPhone in 2007, the two-way data transfer smartphone was another turning point. China's utilization of the domestic market allowed various smart applications to be deepened and optimized in the Chinese market, allowing eight Chinese cell phone brands to enter the global Top 10.

Along with the growth of the mobile phone industry, the red supply chain has been in the spotlight, and Taiwan manufacturers are on the edge of their seats. Semiconductors have become the last line of defense for Taiwan's technology industry. In the eyes of Western powers, Taiwan is a line of defense and could also be the caveat for China to break through the blockade.

I wrote my new book not to record heroic stories of industry leaders or make factual accounts of the industry, but to explore the inflection points of the industry.

How do we understand the concepts of the technology industry as it slowly evolves from a technology-led era to an application-driven era?

Evolution of the industry from PCs and cell phones to the Internet of Things

In the era of PCs and cell phones, brands determined the technical specifications, and the top-down decision-making process was technology-driven. In the Internet of Everything era, in addition to chips for high-performance computing (HPC) in data centers and memory for mass data storage, application-driven edge computing will lead to a trend of multi-track production and regional division of labor. Many enterprises would vie for local partners with the same core values for long-term cooperation when they migrate their supply chains.

We agree that the key trigger for the shift from globalization to de-globalization was the US-China trade war, and the change in the industrial ecosystem is also an important factor.

Wisdom from an ancient horse race - use the best talent to compete

Taiwan used to be a lonely and humble player in the semiconductor industry but started to attract global attention due to the chip crunch during the pandemic. Its rise to fame can be illustrated by Sun Tzu's "The Art of War," which states that "facing the rivals with a formal army and win the battle with surprise attacks" and that "when facing dire situations, stay alert like a crossbow that is ready to fire and stay agile like the swiftness of a crossbow bolt," which is the key to Taiwan's success over the past half-century of its development. We were fortunate, but we worked hard as well. I always say, "Don't rely on a sudden flash of good ideas." Only through long-term accumulation of knowledge and efforts will there be a chance to achieve surprising results.

Secondly, Taiwan is a small island with limited natural resources surrounded by powerful enemies. Taiwan's situation in geopolitics in the 1970s and 1980s was even worse than today, thus allowing Taiwan to turn the disadvantages of a dense population and scarce land resources into advantages for Taiwan's industrial development.

Leverage external forces and wait to act at the right moment

As we all know, the development of a country, society, enterprise, and even an individual depends on favorable conditions. The "form" that Sun Tzu talked about is the essence of the subject, and "the situation" is the external conditions that can both be substance and virtual. When a rock is floated by the torrent, it is the work of the external situation.

It means that even if one's essence is good enough, one still has to make good use of the external situation, grasp the right opportunity, and take action at the right moment, then one can naturally achieve something. The key to leveraging the ability of the water to float a rock is that there is a difference in speed, and the acceleration of force occurs because of the difference in speed.

The key to Taiwan's success in developing the semiconductor industry over the past half-century lies in the fact that it possessed certain conditions and developed its high-tech industries at the right time and in the right way. International developments were also favorable to Taiwan.

When Taiwan was building science parks, investing in research consortiums such as ITRI, and developing semiconductor clusters led by TSMC, China was only waking up from the Cultural Revolution. Taiwan's success is attributed to its efforts and the luck that many other countries did not have.
Honda plans to set up EV factory in Canada to boost capacity in North America

Honda plans to construct an electric vehicle (EV) factory in Canada and is considering producing EV batteries to strengthen its EV production business in North America. The total investment scale could reach JPY2 trillion (approximately US$13.8 billion), making it Honda's largest investment project to date upon realization.

According to reports from Yomiuri and Nikkei, Honda originally stated in 2022 that it would produce EVs based on its "e:architecture" platform at its Ohio factory in the United States by 2026, aiming to enter the North American market in the same year. If a factory is also established in Canada, it would be Honda's second EV factory in North America, and the annual production capacity for EVs in North America is expected to exceed one million units.

Honda already has a complete vehicle factory in Ontario, Canada, and is considering building a new EV factory adjacent to the existing one. The investment project is expected to be decided by 2024, and the new EV factory in Canada could start production as early as 2028.

Honda aims to transition 100% of its new vehicle sales to pure electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) by 2040. By 2030, the goal is to achieve a 40% proportion in the North American market.

Honda is also attempting to produce EV batteries in-house, and the plan involves collaborating with South Korean company LG Energy Solution (LGES) to co-produce EV batteries in the United States.

In line with Canadian government policies prohibiting the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles starting from 2035 onwards and taking advantage of US policies that offer up to US$7,500 in subsidies for EVs and batteries produced in North America, Honda's efforts to enhance EV and battery production capacity in Canada are aimed at boosting EV sales in North America.

North America currently represents approximately 40% of Honda's global new vehicle sales. For the fiscal year 2023 (April 2023 to March 2024), it is estimated that Honda's annual sales in North America will be around 1.6 million units, but most of these are gasoline vehicles. Honda must accelerate EV production in North America to comply with the environmental policies and subsidy standards of the US and Canada.

Although Honda had initially agreed with General Motors (GM) to jointly develop and sell mass-market EVs, even planning to launch them by 2027, the project was terminated by Honda in 2023. However, Honda will still sell EVs produced in GM's factories in 2024. In the long term, Honda has decided to increase its in-house production of electric vehicles.
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By HALLIE GOLDEN

Associated Press

OLYMPIA  Lawmakers in Washington state return to Olympia today to address housing, climate change and the fentanyl crisis in an abbreviated legislative session that marks Jay Inslee's final one as governor.

During a session preview this week, the Democratic governor described climate as the biggest long-term issue he wants to address this session. He referenced his six grandchildren and his fear about what the environment will look like when they're his age.





. . .
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WASHINGTON (AP)  Federal officials have cleared the way for Florida to begin importing cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.

It's the first time any U.S. state has used the approach and follows years of frustration with U.S. drug prices.





. . .
The Tanaiste has commenced a five-day visit to Mexico and Colombia focused on strengthening relations between the countries and Ireland.

Micheal Martin has already said he will also raise the issue of the global drugs trade during the trip.

He will begin his visit in Mexico where he will meet Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena as well as other political figures.

He will also deliver an address on foreign policy to senior members of the Mexican diplomatic corps.

The Tanaiste will also meet with Irish companies that have invested in Mexico.

He will join members of the Irish community in Mexico City to honour the memory of the Saint Patricks Battalion (Batallon de San Patricio), a group of mostly Irish soldiers who fought as part of the Mexican army in the 1840s.

The Tanaiste will formally open the new premises of the Embassy of Ireland in Mexico City and inaugurate Irelands new Office for Central America, which is housed in the Embassy.

He will travel to Colombia on Wednesday where he will carry out a number of high-level political meetings, including with Minister of Defence Ivan Velasquez and Deputy Foreign Minister Francisco Coy.

The discussions will focus on major themes in the bilateral relationship, including Irelands longstanding support to the Colombian peace process.

Commenting on the Mexican leg on the visit, Mr Martin said: Next year marks 50 years since the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Mexico, although our connections go much further back. These links include Irishmen who fought alongside the Mexican Army in the 1840s, and I will attend, along with members of the Irish community, a ceremony to honour their memory.

I look forward to returning to Mexico, which I last visited as Foreign Minister in 2009, and discussing with Minister Barcena what we can do together to build on the already very strong links between our two countries. Minister Barcena has invited me to address Mexican Ambassadors on foreign policy issues.

To underline Irelands commitment to our relationship with Mexico, I will formally open the new Embassy of Ireland premises in Mexico City and inaugurate our Office for Central America, situated in the Embassy.

I will hear from successful Irish investors in Mexico and other business people. Mexico is also Irelands largest trading partner in Latin America  with two-way trade in goods and services approaching five billion euro. One of the messages I expect to hear is that there is huge potential to build on this success.

I will also meet members of the resident Irish community and commemorate the actions of the Saint Patricks Battalion.

On the visit to Colombia, the Tanaiste added: Ireland has longstanding links with Colombia, including the contribution of Cork-born General Daniel Florence OLeary to the achievement of Colombian independence.

Today, and particularly since the opening of Irelands Embassy in Bogota in 2019, there is an increasingly strong bilateral relationship including considerable Irish investment.

While in Bogota, I will meet with senior members of the Colombian Government, including for discussions on Irelands continued support to Colombian efforts to consolidate its peace process.

This has taken on a new emphasis in recent months since Ireland accepted an invitation from the Colombian Government to become one of the guarantors in its ongoing peace dialogues.
A protest outside a hotel in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo has been stood down after it was confirmed that the JJ Gannons Hotel will accommodate families seeking international protection instead of 50 males.

Michelle Smith, a local businesswoman who organised protests against the original proposal on Friday evening, announced outside the hotel that families would be accommodated at the property.

Ms Smith, who is originally from Armagh but who has lived in Mayo for many years, told protesters that Ballinrobe welcomes families with open arms and told those gathered to go home.

Its been a successful protest. I can safely say that everybody here can go home because Ballinrobe welcomes that families that need help. I can safely say that the families that are here, they wont be sleeping in tents. They will be here and they will be welcome with open arms.

Frank Keane, the chairman of Ballinrobe Community Development Council, confirmed the council had been informed that families would now be accommodated.

The Department of Children, Disabilities, Equality, Integration and Youth has issued a statement on the matter.

While initially ear-marked for adult males, there is now an acute shortage of accommodation for families and children and it is now intended to place families into this property over the coming days, it said in a statement to RTE.

Mr Keane criticised the timing of the original announcement said that there had been lack of transparency regarding the original proposal.

Local people maintained a constant presence since Friday evening at the front of the hotel, which closed in 2012 and underwent renovations in the summer of 2023.

Formerly owned by the Gannon family and now owned by Kilkenny-based Ballinrobe native Tom OConnor, local representatives learned on Thursday that the building as due to accommodate 50 male international protection applicants.

A gathering took place on Friday evening after local councillor Michael Burke announced the news on his social media.

Cllr Burke subsequently announced on Saturday that the lease between Mr OConnor and the department had been withdrawn.

Protesters were supplied with food, fuel and other goods as a constant presence was maintained outside the building.

Several people who spoke to The Mayo News outlined various concerns regarding safety of women and children and the extra demand on local facilities. The hotel is situated two doors away from a local playschool, Nead na nOg.

When asked about the matter by RTE, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that no community had a veto over who can live in their area.

Mayo TDs Alan Dillon, Michael Ring, and Dara Calleary all issued statements on the matter this afternoon when it was thought that the arrangement to house male refugees was going ahead.
A major garda investigation is underway after a man died in hospital hours after he was assaulted over the weekend.

Gardai are appealing for witnesses following the fatal assault that occurred sometime between Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday morning.

"At approximately 3am on Sunday, gardai were alerted by National Ambulance Service personnel to reports of a male (aged in his 30s) with serious injuries at an apartment in Lucan, County Dublin. The man was taken to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown for treatment of his injuries. He passed away yesterday evening, Sunday, January 7 at approximately 6.30pm," said a garda spokesperson.

The services of the Office of the State Pathologist have been requested by investigating gardai and a post-mortem is expected to take place today this Monday evening.

An incident room has been established at Lucan garda station in Dublin and this investigation is being led by a Senior Investigating Officer.

Gardai are appealing to the public for information in relation to this incident.

They have also confirmed that the injured male travelled via taxi from the Allenton area in Tallaght, Dublin 24 to an address in the Shackleton residential area of Lucan, County Dublin in the early hours of Sunday.

Any road users who were travelling in the vicinity of either location and who may have camera footage (including dash cam) are asked to make this available.

Anyone with information in relation to this incident is asked to contact Lucan garda station on 01 666 7300, the garda confidential line on 1800, 666 111 or any garda station.
A woman has died in a two-car crash in Co Sligo.

The collision took place after 7.30pm on Monday evening on the R290 at Dunamurry in Ballygawley.

The woman aged in her 50s, a driver of one of the cars, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the second car was taken by ambulance to Sligo University Hospital, where their injuries are not described as life threatening.

The local coroner has been notified and a post-mortem examination is to be arranged.

The scene was preserved pending a forensic examination and diversions are in place on the R290 between Ballygawley and Ballintogher.

Gardai are appealing for witnesses to come forward and for road users with camera footage to make it available to them.

People can contact Sligo Garda Station at 071 9157000, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.
A German writer who has cerebral palsy is so determined to study creative writing at University College Cork (UCC) that she will commute between the two countries.

Evelyne Cynk, from Bochum in Germany, was offered the place on the masters at the college two years ago, but bureaucracy got in the way.

In 2021, a homecare provider in Germany had agreed to redirect to Ireland the funds for Ms Cynks 24-hour personal-assistance services, but then the state-funded Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) did a u-turn.

Such is Ms Cynks determination, however, that she will begin commuting to Ireland fortnightly, and today will be her first day in UCC.

She will be paying rent in both countries, but will put her place in Germany on Airbnb to help cover the expenses.

I dont know what kind of rhythm (I will have), but I plan to commute every two weeks, if thats possible, with flights, Ms Cynk commented.

It will be physically exhausting, but if thats the only possibility for me to do it for now, until I get some sort of funding from Ireland or from Germany, or some sponsor, I am willing to do that.

For her first few weeks in Ireland, Ms Cynk will have to rent a hoist and shower chair, because her own equipment cannot be brought from Germany in time.

She has launched an appeal on X/Twitter to find out who could rent her the equipment, but, so far, hasnt found anyone.

Ms Cynks first published book, Entwined, is a historical romance set in Canovee, not far from Cork city, and is based on Celtic mythology and draws on the spirituality of Ireland.

She says that Entwined, which is available on Amazon, is not her best work, but she has written other books that are close to her heart, including a trilogy of novels called Kaleidiscope  Shifting Perspectives, as well as a novella and a short story, which highlight aspects of disability.

The masters in creative writing at UCC has had several notable graduates who have subsequently been published, including Catherine Kirwan, who set her latest crime novel at the Cork college, and Tadhg Coakley, who recently published a crime thriller.
Garda investigations are ongoing following an assault in Glanmire yesterday evening.

Three teenagers were taken to hospital following the incident for treatment of what were described as non-life threatening injuries.

The incident occurred in the Brooklodge Square area of the town.

A Garda spokesperson said:

Gardai are investigating an incident of assault which occurred in the Brooklodge Square area of Glanmire, Co. Cork, yesterday evening, Sunday 7th January 2024.

A male and two females, all aged in their teens, were taken to Cork University Hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Investigations are ongoing.
A West Cork island artist is to tell her version of the story of the MV Altas last voyage in a series of artworks which is to form the basis of the first exhibition of 2024 in the Uillinn Arts Centre in Skibbereen.

The exhibition by Majella ONeill Collins, who lives and works on Sherkin Island, opens on Saturday, January 13, and the artist, who uses her work to try to make sense of life on a remote island, will give a talk about the exhibition on February 17.

The MV Alta, a merchant vessel, was abandoned at sea 1,400 miles south-east of Bermuda in October, 2018, after suffering main engine failure, and washed ashore at Ballycotton during Storm Dennis in February, 2020, where her wreckage remains.

The vessel is a modern-day ghost ship, having been abandoned by its 10 person crew while en route from Greece to Haiti.

The MV Alta drifted for 496 days over a distance of 2,300 nautical miles before running aground in Ballyandreen Bay.

The vessels exact position and distance travelled during this time is unknown and unrecorded and can only be estimated.
FORMER Cork colleagues of movie star Cillian Murphy have come out to praise the actor following his Golden Globes victory.

The Presentation Brothers College past pupil, who hails from Ballintemple, scooped a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture for his performance in Christopher Nolans Oppenheimer.

The movie beat off stiff competition to win Best Motion Picture  Drama, Best Director for Nolan, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr and Best Original Score  Motion Picture for Ludwig Goransson.

It comes almost 20 years after Cillian Murphys performance as Damien ODonovan in The Wind that Shakes the Barley, which was filmed in Cork.

The film and centered around two fictional brothers and their fight for independence.

Down-to-earth

Actor and magician Gerard Kearney from Montenotte, who played the supporting role of Donnacha in the production, said he was delighted to hear of Cillians victory.

He was the exact same back then as what you see in interviews today, he told The Echo.

Cillian was always very professional and dedicated on set. Normally, we would drive to the set each day but there was the odd overnight stay if we were filming in a location like Ballyvourney. In these situations, everyone would go for a drink or have dinner together. However, Cillian was such a dedicated professional he would disappear after filming wrapped up to focus on the next days work.

He recalled the actors down-to-earth nature.

On occasion I would bring him home from Bandon and he was always so down to earth and easy to talk to. We would have regular conversations about what was happening in Cork and there was never any sense of self-importance. He was the same on set. He never came across like a diva or even a movie star. There was never any fuss of any kind. He was never the loudest guy in the room even though he had every right to be. He was there to work and kept his head down.

Rooting for Cillian

The former child star, who made a name for himself in the 1994 flick The War of the Buttons, said he will be rooting for Cillian Murphy to scoop an Oscar.

I know Barry Keoghan was in the running for a Golden Globe too. I was following both and would have been happy for either of them. However, being a Cork man, I was rooting for Cillian. Fingers crossed he will win the Oscar next. That would be amazing.

Mr Kearney spoke about how the star passed on his regards during an audition he attended for Small Things Like These in Wexford which stars the actor.

I auditioned with my 12-year-old son Cian last year. They offered the two of us minor roles but unfortunately, we were in Lanzarote when the call came through. While Cillian wasnt at the audition he passed on his regards which was really nice.

The Young Offenders, Shane Casey as Billy Murphy. Picture: Miki Barlok

Meanwhile, Shane Casey, who plays Billy Murphy in the BBC comedy series The Young Offenders and also featured in The Wind that Shakes the Barley, had similarly fond memories of working with the star.

Working in West Cork on The Wind that Shakes the Barley, was one of the best experiences Ive ever had. I was very lucky to work with some fantastic people and Cillian is certainly one of them. Im sure Im not the only one who worked with him on that film who was delighted for his recent success. Long may it continue. Ive no doubt all the Wind That Shakes The Barley boys are very happy for Cillian today.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin took to X to congratulate Cillian Murphy.

"Richly deserved award for a supremely talented actor. A superb performance by Cillian in a year of some incredible Irish screen performances."

Lord Mayor of Cork City, Kieran McCarthy posted: "Major congratulations..such a talented actor but also such a hard grafter across your career from community theatre to Hollywood movies."

Cillian Murphy, his artist wife Yvonne McGuinness, and their two children live in Dublin having previously been based in London. The family moved back to Ireland in 2015.

The Cork man had early-stage success with the independent theatre company Corcadorca.

His first significant film role was in 2002 in 28 Days Later which was directed by Danny Boyle.

He showed his darker side as a domestic terrorist in the 2005 thriller Red Eye, and also appeared in Breakfast On Pluto and science fiction thriller Sunshine, which reunited him with Boyle.

He has starred in six films directed by Christopher Nolan including Oppenheimer, Batman Begins, The Dark Night and I nception.

On the small screen Murphy won legions of fans for his performance as gangster Tommy Shelby in the BBC drama Peaky Blinders, which debuted in 2013.
A TENANT at a property in Ballinhassig threw stones at the driver of a digger doing works for the owner and then waved a machete in a threatening manner and now he has been convicted and fined for his behaviour.

Judge Philip OLeary said to 48-year-old Kenneth Garnes who had been living at Sunvilla, Halfway, Ballinhassig: I wont impose a custodial sentence on this occasion.

Judge OLeary said at Cork District Court: I am going to take into consideration his plea of guilty, that his previous convictions are mostly unrelated and that the injured party suffered only minor injuries.

Garda John Stack said the injury to the excavator driver consisted of a laceration to the arm from a stone being thrown and was not caused by the machete.

The 48-year-old was initially accused of assault causing harm to the driver of the digger and to production of a machete contrary to the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act.

However, Inspector Ray Dunne said the state was willing to reduce the assault charge to the lesser count of simple assault.

There was a plea of guilty to that charge and the count of producing the machete.

Incident

The incident occurred at lunchtime on April 13, 2023, and gardai were quickly alerted.

Garda Stack said the injured party had been driving a digger, doing works on the property owned by a woman who was present, and that the tenant in the property, Garnes, emerged and shouted at him over a log being moved. Garnes then began throwing stones at the driver in the cab of the machine.

He then went back to the house and re-emerged in possession of a machete which he produced in a threatening manner, said Garda Stack.

Michael Quinlan, defending, said the background was that there had been an effort by the landlord to evict the tenant but that the Residential Tenancies Board found in favour of the tenant remaining. He said the log had been placed across the drive by the tenant when an unidentified person stole home-heating oil from his tank.

Garda Stack said the landscaping work was being done some distance from the front of the property and had nothing to do with the tenant. However, Mr Quinlan submitted that the defendant was in fear.

Mr Garnes did have the machete in his hand but it was in an effort to let this man using the digger know that he (Garnes) was entitled to be there.

Judge OLeary asked: What was the purpose of the digger being there?

Garda Stack said that it was to remove rocks from the driveway.

Mr Quinlan said that was disputed by the defendant. The solicitor said that by reacting in the way that he did to the presence of the digger and the work being done, Mr Garnes fell into the trap and that his reaction to a feeling of being intimidated ended up with the RTB later finding against him remaining as a tenant. He is now living in supported accommodation.

Penalty

As Mr Quinlan was addressing the court, Garnes spoke up from the body of the court. At one stage Judge OLeary remarked that he was trying to be as fair as possible to the accused but he had to be warned twice about interrupting the court.

Concluding the imposition of penalty, the judge fined Garnes 200 for assault and 100 for production of the weapon.

Using or threatening to use a machete is a serious matter, Judge OLeary said.
AS we enter the new year, many of us will resolve to improve ourselves through changing habits, beginning new routines, or learning new skills.

However, for many young people the reality of the challenging few months ahead will begin to sink in as they prepare for their Leaving Cert exams.

The stress relating to these exams can often become overwhelming for young people: the thoughts of the amount of schoolwork, revision and exams that are coming up can take a mental and physical toll, and for some students, can create a sense that they are not in control.

When we feel stressed and overwhelmed, it can be very difficult to learn and retain information, further increasing the feelings of overwhelm for Leaving Cert students.

Its important that students learn to feel in control of their workload, this creates a sense of self-belief and an ability to persevere when things become challenging. One of the best ways to feel in control is to become as organised as possible. Having a clear plan and developing systems to stay on top of schoolwork and revision will allow students to feel like they are making progress.

Organisation as a platform for success

Taking a few minutes each day to organise what needs to be done will give students a sense of control over their day and create a sense of control and safety in times of stress. Creating basic organisational systems such as, a revision timetable and a revision plan, will help students reach their goals.

The Author, James Clear (Atomic Habits) states that You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.

Without a strong foundation of organisation, revision can quickly become frustrating and counterproductive as students quickly feel like they arent making progress.

Learning organisation skills and taking the time to put these into practice will help students use their time as productively as possible.

Alan White is a second level teacher at Bishopstown Community School and Wellbeing author.

Getting the balance right

Over the coming months Leaving Cert students will be, obviously, focusing on the exams in June. It can be easy to become consumed by this and spend all of their time revising, doing schoolwork, and thinking about the exams.

If the only focus is on the Leaving Cert, students can lose motivation, find it difficult to focus and in extreme cases, burn out.

Planning for free time is as important as planning and organising revision. Many students give up sport and other hobbies especially during the final few months before the exams, at a time when they need the time to focus on something different and get physical exercise and take a mental break from the stresses they are experiencing every day. So, when planning its important to include time to do things that they enjoy, meet up with friends and get plenty of exercise.

How to plan for revision

When revising for exams, many students make the mistake of thinking that spending as much time as possible reading textbooks and notes will help them prepare for exams. However, we only remember ten percent of what we read. That is why active learning helps us remember far more of what we are trying to learn. Active learning is putting what we have revised into practice.

When it comes to revising for the Leaving Cert, this means taking the time to revise a specific topic and then using what you have just learned to answer a question on that topic. This not only helps to retain information but will give students a sense that they have achieved something from the effort they have put in.

Its also interesting to note that we remember ninety five percent of what we teach to others. This is why helping others or discussing topics with classmates can help students not only understand material better, but also remember it over the long term.

Focusing on one task at a time

As the stress and pressure of the exams grows over the coming months it is understandable that some students will become overwhelmed. When this happens, we tend to try to do too many things at the same time in the hope of cramming as much work into a small amount of time as possible.

This is not only counterproductive but will also increase frustration and stress as it is impossible to retain information in this way. That is why its important to consciously focus on one task at a time.

How to approach revision

 Have a quiet space that is clean, neat and tidy.

 Avoid distractions such as social media, games, and devices.

 When revising start with a subject you enjoy, then a subject you find difficult and then a subject you often overlook.

 Use active learning methodologies such as, revising the material first, then applying this by practicing exam questions.

 Planning for regular breaks, where you get up and move around.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan White is a second level teacher, 6th Year Head, and wellbeing author at Bishop stown Community School. He also facilitates wellbeing workshops for companies and or ganisations. For more information, visit www.changeswellbeing.ie linkedin Alan White or Changes Wellbeing on Facebook.
By Rebecca Black and David Young, PA

The UK government has been accused of fighting others on legacy while facing almost universal opposition to its own new legislation on Northern Irelands troubled past.

Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy criticised the UK after Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris wrote to Minister for foreign affairs Micheal Martin questioning the move by Ireland to challenge the UKs contentious legacy laws in the European Court of Human Rights.

Mr Heaton-Harris also challenged Ireland to set out its own record on tackling legacy issues.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson backed the challenge to the Irish Government on its record, while maintaining his partys opposition to the Legacy Act.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin (left) and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris. Photo: Niall Carson/PA.

He said that while the UK has initiated a public inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bomb, despite a court ruling saying the Irish Government should do likewise, it has not.

The British ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston issued the letter on Sunday evening.

In it, Mr Heaton-Harris again challenges Mr Martin to list the number of prosecutions mounted in the Irish state since 1998 related to Troubles incidents.

Aspects of the recently passed UK laws include a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who co-operate with the new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 will also halt future civil cases and legacy inquests.

The UK governments laws are opposed by many victims groups in Northern Ireland and all the main Stormont parties.

Announcing the interstate case in December, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said his administration was left with no option but to legally challenge the UK Government over the Legacy Act.

He said the strong legal advice was that the UK Legacy Act breached the UN Convention on Human Rights.

Tanaiste Mr Martin said they were taking the case reluctantly after having spent time trying to change the UK governments mind.

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) confirmed to the PA news agency that a letter had been issued formally registering profound regret at the interstate case.

The Secretary of State, in his letter, repeats his call for the Irish Government to clarify the number of criminal prosecutions brought in Ireland since 1998 relating to Troubles-related cases, and presses the Irish Government more widely to answer questions regarding its own record on tackling legacy issues in its own jurisdiction, the NIO said in a statement.

The letter criticises the timing of the Irish decision, describing it as a delicate time in Northern Ireland amid the efforts to restore powersharing at Stormont.

The NIO added: The decision also comes before the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, led by Sir Declan Morgan as chief commissioner, is fully established and able to demonstrate its ability to discharge the UKs international obligations.

The UK government reasserts its particular disappointment that the Irish Government has taken this course of action without, to date, any engagement with the ICRIR to understand better how it intends to implement the legislation and deliver for victims and survivors.

Mr Murphy accused the UK government of fighting others on legacy while introducing new legislation on Northern Irelands troubled past which is almost universally opposed.

He claimed the UK governments approach to legacy has been about satisfying its own electoral interests and motivated by its own backbenchers and their desire to protect British Crown forces who were involved in all sorts of activities here over the course of the conflict.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA

The idea that they would continue to fight and criticise others when they are in the face of all opposition from all of the parties here, all of the victims organisations and from the Irish government, doesnt surprise me They were never intent on satisfying the needs of victims here, they were intent on satisfying the requirements of their own backbenchers in relation to protection of their own personnel, he told the BBC.

The Irish government is quite right to criticise them and I dont think they were left with any alternative but to take a case.

However, Sir Jeffrey said the Government's double standards on legacy need to be challenged.

I agree with the Secretary of State that the double standards of the Irish government on this issue need to be challenged, and, whilst we opposed what the UK government are doing and continue to oppose this amnesty that they brought forward in their legacy proposals, we see the same approach taken by the Irish Government, indeed over many years, and, as the Secretary of State has pointed out, there have been no prosecutions by the Irish Government, no attempt to prosecute those who were involved in terrorist activity in their jurisdiction, he said.
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

Plastic pellets found washed up on a beach in Galicia, Spain on Dec. 26, 2023. noialimpa / Instagram

The sandy beaches of Spains northwestern Galicia region have been inundated with millions of plastic pellets, sometimes referred to as nurdles or mermaid tears, reported Reuters.

The pellets ended up in the sea when a container fell off the Liberia-registered ship Toconao, BNN Breaking reported, and are the remnants of common plastic items like plastic bags and water bottles.

The environmental incident elicited a local response.

People started sending us photos on Instagram of the bags on Espineirido beach, said Madison Hourihan, founder of environmental group Noia Limpa, reported Euro Weekly News.

The group noticed an increase in the sightings around Christmas that indicated the spill happened on December 6.

The representative of Madrid in Galicia said regional coast guards were first informed of the incident by the maritime rescue service on December 20, Reuters reported.

Alfonso Rueda, regional leader of Galicia, said the central government was aware of the pellets for more than two weeks before informing his administration on January 4.

The inaction two weeks after detecting the spill was criticized by Ecologistas en Accion, a Spanish grassroots league of ecological groups. Ecologistas en Accion said it would file a complaint against the ships Dutch owner Toucan Maritime.

Noia Limpa found about 70 bags along the coastline, weighing approximately 55 pounds each, reported Euro Weekly News. The bags came from Polish company Bedeko Europe  the manufacturer of the pellets  but had broken, scattering the tiny plastic pieces on the beach. The pellets have a diameter of less than five millimeters and are lightweight, making them hard to remove from the fine sand.

On Monday, hundreds of volunteers used shovels and colanders to sift through the sand, Reuters reported.

Eighty percent of all debris found in marine environments  from deep-sea sediments to surface waters  is made up of plastic, which gets ingested by marine species who also frequently become entangled in the plastic waste, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Maria Jesus Montero told Television Espanola  Spains state-owned public broadcasting company  that the government was concerned about the potential for serious repercussions, but wasnt yet sure of the incidents impact or if fishing would be affected, reported Reuters.

The beach cleanup was a reminder of the oil spill that brought a halt to fishing in Galicia in 2002.

Unfortunately, we are all reminded of images from the past that we would like to erase, Montero said, as Reuters reported.
(Handout Photo/FBI)A screenshot from surveillance footage provided by the FBI shows Casey Cusick (red hat) inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6. along with his father Pastor Jim Cusick (white hat). (Handout Photo/FBI)

What happened on Jan 6. 2021 in Washington DC when the Capitol was stormed by supporters of Donald trump continues to worry some politicians and faith leaders because one of the planks of many of those attackers was Christian nationalism.

"How we can confront the myths of January 6 and intensifying Christian nationalism," ran a headline in Time, on Jan. 7 2024.

"Indeed, the influence of Christian nationalism among the Jan. 6 rioters was clearly evident in the flags and banners they waved," The Washington Post had written back on Dec. 22, 2022.

Asked by lawmakers to describe those who attacked the U.S. Capitol in 2021, Officer Daniel Hodges of the D.C. police told the U.S. House of Representatives select committee investigating the insurrection that "it was clear the terrorists perceived themselves to be Christians."

Two members of the committee, Democrat, Jamie B. Raskin, and Republican Adam Kinzinger, also independently noted in conversations with the news media the incidence of Christian nationalism.

"Had there not been some of these errant prophecies, this idea that God has ordained it to be Trump, I'm not sure January 6 would have happened like it did," Kinzinger, an evangelical Christian, said on a Christianity Today podcast episode in March, according to The Post.

"In the days before the assault, 'Jericho Marchers,' inspired by the Bible's Book of Joshua, circled Capitol Hill praying for the election results to be overturned. When rioters stormed into the Senate chamber Jan. 6, they huddled in prayer."

Police told the US. House of Representatives select committee tasked with investigating the insurrection that "it was clear the terrorists perceived themselves to be Christians," the Post wrote.

The Jan. 6 attack resulted from a brew of political polarization and economic dislocation fueled by conspiracy theories and nationalist rhetoric, wrote the Pulitzer Center in September 2021.

"But the events of that day also marked a high tide of white Christian nationalism, a longstanding phenomenon in American religious and political history," said the Center.

Molly Olmstead wrote in Slate on Jan. 6, 2024: "It can be hard to keep track of all these movements and groupsNeo-Charismatic Pentecostalism, the NAR, Christian nationalism, and so onand tempting to write it all off as a matter of right-wing Christians getting worked up for Donald Trump.

"But a new book, focused on the political strategies of Neo-Charismatic Pentecostals, makes the case that to really understand the anti-democratic impulse of some of the Christian right, it's worth examining the segment that believes in a literal battle for the country between the supernatural forces of good and evilthe segment [Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike] Johnson already has ties to.

The book is American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times, penned by Andre Gagne, professor and chair of the theological studies department at Montreal's Concordia University.

It was first published for a French audience in 2020, and Gagne has recently released an updated version for an English-speaking audience.

Slate spoke to Gagne to better understand how these Neo-Charismatic Pentecostals rallied their religious influence to push an anti-democratic agenda before Jan. 6, and why it matters that politically motivated leaders in this movement still have strong ties to the Republican Party, or GOP.

Asked by lawmakers this year to describe those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Officer Daniel Hodges of the D.C. police told the House select committee tasked with investigating the insurrection that "it was clear the terrorists perceived themselves to be Christians."

Gagne said in the interview: "The New Apostolic Reformation is essentially a new mode of church governance. It's a movement that has, as its core idea, apostolic governance. [That is: churches led by "apostles," people granted leadership authority by God.] It's about dismantling the way churches function democratically, with elders and the congregation voting for their pastor. This nondemocratic impetus at the church level exhibits itself as the idea of 'dominionism' at the social level," he said.

"'Dominionism' is the idea that Christians should exercise authority, that the kingdom of God is to be established here on earth now, and it's the responsibility of Christians to bring that about.

"This is rooted in a particular reading of the book of Genesis chapter one, where God calls humankind to exercise dominion over the universe. And to do that, Christians need to be able to ascend to the top of 'mountains' of culturereligion, politics, education, family, media, and so on," said Gagne.

There is no single definition of Christian nationalism which was touted by apartheid proponents when that racist ideoology was in force in South Africa in the 20th Century,

But Encyclopaedia Brittanica says; "Christian nationalism, ideology that seeks to create or maintain a legal fusion of Christian religion with a nation's character. Advocates of Christian nationalism consider their view of Christianity to be an integral part of their country's identity and want the government to promoteor even enforcethe religion's position within it."
(Screenshot from TV footage of Trump using the Bible as a prop.)

Violence mounted in Washington, DC on the day many Orthodox Christians were celebrating Christmas.

The U.S. capital erupted into violence over its November presidential election after a speech by President Donald Trump that said his election defeat was a fraud and he encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol.

Church leaders worldwide denounced the rioters actions on Jan. 6 at the meeting place of the U.S. Congress.

Officers from Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department said that 4 people had died in connection with the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol, Newsweek reported.

World Council of Churches interim general secretary Rev. Ioan Sauca expressed "grave and mounting concern" at the latest developments as protestors calling themselves patriots invaded the US. Capitol building in Washington DC.

"The divisive populist politics of recent years have unleashed forces that threaten the foundations of democracy in the United States andto the extent that it represents an example to other countriesin the wider world," said Sauca.

The World Evangelical Alliance joinsed the National Association of Evangelicals its U.S. national member body in denouncing the insurrection on Capitol Hill .

In a Jan. 7 statement the NAE said "the insurrection epitomizes the rancor and polarization present in our country" and that the NAE "denounces the violence at the U.S. Capitol as well as the nation's longstanding vices that led to this chaos."

"Followers of Jesus are peacemakers. Some images from the protests demonstrate a disturbing conflation of Christianity and a nationalist ideology that is far from the way of Jesus. Christians are commanded to seek the peace of the cities where they live, to love their enemies, to seek unity and to proclaim a message of peace (Jeremiah 29:511; Romans 12:918)," the NAE noted.

U.S. mega-church paster Rick Warren tweeted @RickWarren, "Armed breaching of capitol security behind a confederate flag is anarchy, unAmerican, criminal treason and domestic terrorism. President Trump must clearly tell his supporters 'We lost. Go home now.'"

Warren noted, "Here's what God says: 'When the leader is concerned with justice, the nation will be strong, but when he is only concerned with money, he will ruin his country.' Proverbs 29:4 (TEV)"

Jim Winkler, president and general secretary of the National Council of Churches (USA), released a statement on the "Mob Attack of the US Capitol" that condemned and repudiated the actions of pro-Trump protesters.

'DEMOCRACY UNDER SIEGE'

"Chaos reigns, guns have been drawn, and our democracy is under siege. This is outrageous, unacceptable, shameful and a disgrace," Winkler said. "Every effort must be made by law enforcement to restore order immediately."

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler, who backed Trump in 2020 but has refuted claims of election fraud, put the responsibility directly on the president. "President Trump is responsible now for unleashing mayhem," he wrote, Christianity Today reported Jan 6.

"What we are seeing in Washington now is the refutation of our American commitment, a form of unleashed anarchy which is the enemy of ordered liberty, and President Trump is responsible now for unleashing mayhem. Pray that God will rescue is from this," he tweeted.

A chaotic and violent scene unfolded at the Capitol in Washington DC as supporters of President Donald Trump swarmed the building to protest the U.S. Electoral College vote, forcing a lockdown and many confrontations with police,

The police did not have the numbers to hold back the protestors as a mob stormed the U.S. Congress some of whom were dressed in U.S. military uniforms, USA Today reported in zn incident described by a CNN broadaster as "domestic terrorism.".

The House and Senate were less than an hour into debating the first Republican Party a contested state election when they were forced to abruptly recess following a rally by Trump.

Mostly maskless rioters crowded into the hallways around each chamber and rioters boke into the U.S. Congress as members of both the Democratic Party and the Republicans codemned the storrming of the institution reprseneting U.S. democracy.

"Within minutes of the mob breaching the Capitol complex, rioters were pounding on the doors of the House gallery, where a group of lawmakers were trapped," the New York Times reported,

The chaos erupted in Washington as Trump supporters swarmed the Capitol building, prompting Vice President Mike Pence to be swept to a secure location and the Senate chamber to be evacuated.

The WCC urged those responsible for the Jan. 6 violence to desist and to return to civil discourse and established democratic processes, calling on all parties to resist short-term political interests and to act in a manner responsible to others and accountable to the wider society.

"We pray that the churches of America be empowered with wisdom and strength to provide leadership through this crisis, and on the path of peace, reconciliation, and justice," said Sauca.

Police found a cooler full of Molotov cocktails and two pipe bombs at the nearby headquarters of the Republican and Democratic Paries national committees.




Vietnam lowers this year's target for seafood export value to US$ 9.5 billion

Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has lowered its target for seafood export value for 2024 to US$9.5 billion from its previous expectation of US$10 billion due to multiple challenges.

The fisheries sector is expected to produce an output of 9.22 million tonnes of seafood from an aquaculture area of 1.3 million hectares this year.

According to the Department of Fisheries, the seafood export value last year was estimated to reach US$9.2 billion, or 92% of the plan, down 8% compared to 2022.

Of this year's export value, about US$3.45 billion was from shrimp, US$1.9 billion from pangasius, US$900 million from tuna and US$800 million from mollusk.

Total seafood export output in 2023 was estimated at 9.05 million tonnes, an increase of 2% compared to 2022. Exploited seafood output reached 3.68 million tonnes, equal to 2022, while aquaculture output was more than 5.4 million tonnes, an increase of 3.5% compared to 2022.

The fishery sector's current challenges include the traceability of seafood to combat illegal exploitation and ensure food safety on fishing vessels and fishing ports.

In addition, seafood exports also face many other barriers such as animal welfare and carbon certificates to ensure environmental safety during the production process of products exported to Europe and the United States.

From 2024, the Department of Fisheries will continue to develop marine and lake-bed aquaculture and carry out scientific and technological solutions to increase the value of processed seafood products.

Meanwhile, the European Commission continues to maintain a yellow card warning for Vietnam's seafood.

Tran inh Luan, director of the Department of Fisheries, said seafood export revenue decreased last year as the fisheries industry was hit by poor production standards and regulations for environmental monitoring as well as inadequate infrastructure in farming areas. The efficiency of catching activities remains low.

Consumption demand had also decreased in most markets, causing a drop in export turnover.

For 2024, Vietnam aims to produce 1.7 million tonnes of commercial tra fish and earn $2 billion from exporting the products in 2024, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung uc Tien.

Despite challenges, many positive developments in the tra fish sector are expected this year.

Le Hang, communications director of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said that, despite a decrease in market share in certain markets, Vietnam's export of tra fish is showing more positive signs in certain markets like China, Mexico, Canada, Brazil and the United Kingdom.

Vietnam's tra fish export value reached an estimated US$1.8 billion last year, down 27% compared to 2022, according to the General Department of Customs.

However, there remains significant demand for Vietnamese tra fish in many markets, especially for deeply-processed products, Hang said.

The US has been among the top markets consuming the most Vietnamese tra fish products.

Demand for tra fish products has also seen a resurgence in the European Union.

As one of the traditional import markets for Vietnamese tra fish, China is expected to see a high growth in tra fish imports this year. In recent years, the country has consistently ranked among the top three biggest importers of tra fish products, following the US and Japan.



 VNS
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If you're a Google Pixel fan, this week is starting off well for you. A range of Google Pixel phones are currently on sale. For starters, the Google Pixel 8 is back down to its Black Friday price of $549, dropping from $699. The 21 percent discount is the lowest price we've seen the phone at since it launched.

The Google Pixel 8 is a great, cheaper alternative to the Google Pixel 8 Pro. We gave it a 90 in our review due to features like a Tensor G3 chip, faster Face Unlock and 20 hours and 16 minutes of battery life. The Google Pixel 8 also has a 50MP main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide camera. Plus, there's the Magic Editor, which combines the capabilities of content-aware fill and lasso. Then there's the new Actua display and an overall more compact design than its predecessor.

The Google Pixel 7a is also available at a solid discount, with a 20 percent off sale dropping its price to $399 from $499. This is only $25 more than its all-time low price, so it's a good option. The Google Pixel 7a also earned a 90 in our review thanks to its ability to deliver a quality phone for much less money than the flagship option. It offers a 90Hz display, Tensor G2 chip and wireless charging. The phone also has a high-res 64MP main camera in the back and a 13MP selfie camera with 4K video recording. In our video running test, the battery lasted 17 hours and 41 minutes. Some of our quips were that the speakers sounded a bit shallow and it didn't have a dedicated zoom lens.

You can pick up a new smartwatch while you're at it, with the Google Pixel Watch 2 with Wi-Fi on sale alongside the phones. It's down to an Amazon all-time low of $300, dropping from $350  a 14 percent discount. The Google Pixel Watch 2 has sensors for stress management, heart rate and skin temperature. It also has an always-on display and a 24-hour battery that fully charges in an hour and 15 minutes. The screen is 41mm and features all the Google apps like Calendar and Maps.

Google Pixel Watch 2 $300 $350 Save $50 See at Amazon

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Lenovo just announced a handful of new gaming laptops at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. Each of these computers features the companys proprietary Legion Coldfront: Hyper cooling technology that keeps temperatures low while making sure the fans dont get too loud. They're also packed with AI chips for improved speed and performance. These laptops ship with Windows 11 and come with three free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

The Lenovo Legion 9i is the flagship model with the most features and the highest asking price. This is a refresh of the similarly named laptop that was released back in September, but this one packs a 14th-gen Intel CoreTM Gen i9-14900HX CPU and up to the NVIDIA GeForce RTXTM 4090 GPU. It also features the companys upgraded LA3-P AI chip, which automatically adjusts power to the CPU and GPU based on what youre doing with the computer.

Additionally, the AI chip enables Lighting Audio Sync, which matches up the laptops RGB lights with sound to increase immersion. You get a 16-inch Mini-LED display panel with 3.2K resolution, a 16:10 aspect ratio and a snappy 165Hz refresh rate. You can choose up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM and up to 2TB of Gen4 PCIe internal storage. It also features a nifty-looking forged carbon top cover, which sets the aesthetics apart from similar gaming laptops. The Lenovo Legion 9i releases later this month, with a starting price of $4,400.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i boasts the all-new Intel Core 14th Gen i9-14900HX CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU in top-end models, up to 32GB of RAM and up to 2TB of internal SSD storage. Theres a 16-inch IPS display that supports refresh rates up to 240Hz and 500 nits of brightness. This upgraded PureSight panel features 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage. In short, this thing is a beast. The Legion Pro 7i will be available this March with a starting price of $2,700. Theres also the lower-powered Legion Pro 5i, which is available this month for $1,500.

Lenovo

In addition, the company announced standard Lenovo Legion 7i and 5i models. They dont boast the Pro moniker, but should still be sufficient for modern gamers. These laptops are available in a variety of colorways, which is neat, and can be outfitted with up to the latest Intel Core i9 14900HX chips and up to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. Both models include 16-inch displays, up to 32GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage. The Legion 7i releases in March with a starting price of $2,100, while the 5i launches in April with a starting price of $1,400. Theres also a smaller and lighter version of the 5i coming in April that starts at $1,500.

Lenovo didnt just announce gaming laptops. This is CES, after all. The company also unveiled a fair amount of gaming peripherals and accessories. The coolest of the bunch is the Lenovo Legion K510 Pro Mini Keyboard. This compact gaming keyboard is packed with mechanical key switches and 16.8 million color per-key RGB support. Its expected this June for $70.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.
There was a time when smartphone makers rushed to quad-camera claims, most of which did so by throwing in a mediocre fourth camera  usually for macro shots, if not a monochrome filter or just a depth sensor. Nowadays, though, we are blessed with legit quad "main" cameras on some flagship phones, so brands need to be more creative to further differentiate themselves. In Oppo's case, it decided to feature not just one, but two periscope telephoto cameras on its new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered Find X7 Ultra, as a leap from the triple camera system on the previous model.

The Find X7 Ultra's "HyperTone Camera System" features the same 50-megapixel resolution across all four rear Hasselblad cameras, thanks to their relatively large sensors compared to the competition, according to Oppo. The main imager packs Sony's second-gen 1-inch sensor, the LYT-900, which is more efficient in terms of power consumption and thermal performance. This is complemented by an f/1.8 aperture, OIS (optical image stabilization), a 23mm focal length and a 50-percent reduction in lens reflection. The ultra-wide camera features a 1/1.95-inch Sony LYT-600 sensor with an f/2.0 aperture, making this one of the fastest shooters in its class. This comes with a 14mm equivalent focal length and a focus distance down to 4cm.

Then we're left with the two periscope telephoto cameras. The first one, a 3x optical zoom, has a 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX980 sensor  "roughly three times larger than" the competition, apparently. You also get an f/2.6 aperture, along with "Prism OIS," a 65mm focal length and a 25cm focus distance  handy for portraits and product shots. Then we have a 6x optical zoom periscope, which is powered by a 1/2.51-inch Sony IMX858 sensor and has an f/4.3 aperture, 135mm focal length, a 35cm focus distance plus Prism OIS. With AI-enhanced zoom at 12x, Oppo says its Find X7 Ultra handles a versatile equivalent focal length range of 14mm to 270mm."

Oppo

Oppo also claims to have made some major breakthroughs in mobile photography here. Most notably, it's finally rolling out its "HyperTone Image Engine," which supposedly improves computational photography results for HDR, as well as avoiding over-exposure and over-sharpening. This was apparently in development for two years, with input from professional photographers and color experts. It's all about "merging objective quality together with subjective emotional," as a spokesperson stated. Better yet, HyperTone Image Engine will eventually be rolled out to some existing Oppo devices, namely the Find N and Reno series, depending on compatibility.

Other areas of improvement include the quality consistency across the zoom range (especially in low-light environment), as well as more realistic portrait shots thanks to the new "Hasselblad Portrait Mode." For the latter, rather than getting fake-looking bokeh and poor edge detection, Oppo boldly promises to deliver "cinematic bokeh with foreground and background depth," with a stunning accuracy down to a single strand of hair, plus minimal shutter lag as a bonus.

Oppo is also offering a new "Hasselblad Master Mode" which is based on the characteristics of the Hasselblad X2D 100C medium format mirrorless camera. You get to fiddle with saturation, contrast, sharpness and vignette control to create your preferred style, as well as other shooting features like manual ISO, shutter speed, EV, focus, and white balance. This Master Mode also offers "RAW MAX" capture  pending an OTA update  which supports 13 stops of dynamic range, along with 16-bit color depth in BT2020 color space for each 50-megapixel still.

Oppo

The Find X7 Ultra comes in three color options: "Ocean Blue," "Sepia Brown" and "Tailored Black", all of which feature a vegan leather cover (and the black version comes with decorative stitches). Despite the extra periscope camera, generous 5,000mah battery and wireless charging support (within 60 minutes using 50W; double that for 100W SuperVOOC wired charging), this device actually shares a similar weight and thickness as the Find X6 Pro. This is thanks to a slimmer wireless charging coil, thinner vegan leather and an improved logic board stack design. Oppo was also able to keep the entire rear camera module tightly packed by using "single-sided magnets," in order to avoid interference between the three OIS parts.

This new phone also features Oppo's brightest-ever QHD (3,168 x 1,440) panel, with outdoor brightness maxing out at 1,600 nits, and local peak brightness at 4,500 nits for HDR purposes. This 6.82-inch AMOLED panel supports the usual 120Hz refresh rate and ultra-low touch latency, along with "rain water touch" support for wet hands (it has IP68 dust- and water-resistance rating). While the three-stage slider is here to stay, it's been repurposed to a "VIP slider" for quickly changing notification mode, or cutting off camera, location, and microphone access for an extreme privacy mode.

To our surprise, Oppo doesn't currently have plans to launch the Find X7 Ultra outside of China, so you'll have to source one from an importer. For your reference, this model ranges from 5,999 yuan (about $845) with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, to 6,999 yuan (about $990) with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. These three options are available for pre-order now, ahead of their January 12th retail launch. There will also be a special edition with satellite call support arriving in late March, but no price was mentioned.

Oppo

For those on a budget but still want the same fancy look, there's the Find X7 base model powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 9300 processor. It only packs triple cameras on the back: a 50-megapixel main shooter (likely with Sony's 1/1.4-inch LYT-T808 sensor; f/2.0; OIS), a 64-megapixel 3x periscope zoom camera (f/2.6; Prism OIS; 1/2-inch sensor), and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera (f/2.0; 119 degrees). It also has a slightly smaller 6.78-inch OLED screen with a lower 2,780 x 1,264 resolution. Unsurprisingly, there's no VIP slider feature on this model.

The Find X7 starts from 3,999 yuan (about $560) and offers 12GB RAM with 256GB storage, and maxes out at 4,999 yuan (about $700) for its 16GB RAM plus 1TB storage offering. In addition to the "Ocean Blue" and "Sepia Brown" designs, you may also consider the purple and black options, both of which come in a glass back.

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Jo Koy is hosting the 2024 Golden Globes this Sunday. But will he get paid for the gig?

Based on revelations by past hosts and previous reports, the 52-year-old comedian will likely be compensated for hosting this year's Golden Globes. The exact amount, however, is unknown as hosting fees can vary.

Last year, comedian Jerrod Carmichael revealed during his 2023 Golden Globes monologue that he was paid $500,000 to host the event -- a figure higher than typical compensation for such roles.

In 2013, Vanity Fair cited unnamed industry sources as saying that pay for awards shows "generally tops out in the low six figures."

However, Jimmy Kimmel claimed he received just $15,000 for hosting the Oscars in 2017 and 2018.

"It sounds like a lot for one night, but it's months of work leading up to it," the late-night host said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in 2022.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, $15,000 is the minimum pay negotiated by the actors' union SAG-AFTRA for hosts of the prestigious awards ceremony.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who hosted three consecutive Golden Globes from 2013 to 2015, previously denied rumors that they were paid $4 million each for the 2013 show, calling the figure "grossly exaggerated," according to Vanity Fair.

The 2024 Golden Globe Awards marks Koy's first appearance as a host for a major awards show.

Koy recently expressed his excitement for the hosting role, stating on "CBS Mornings" that he has been preparing non-stop since his gig was announced late last year.

"I've been binge-watching the whole time, just non-stop watching everything, every category, just watching everything," he shared.

The comedian is also the first to host the Golden Globes since Dick Clark Productions and holding company Eldridge took over the awards show's rights in June, separating it from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).

The HFPA faced controversies related to diversity, prompting changes in the show's management.

Koy has four specials with Netflix and two more set to be released later this year, Variety reported.

He continues to tour, with upcoming dates across the United States and international stops in Europe and the United Arab Emirates.
US President Joe Biden reached out to Black voters Monday in an emotional campaign speech at the site of a racist massacre in 2015, but hecklers calling for a Gaza ceasefire highlighted another problem area for the Democrat.

Biden said the "poison" of white supremacy had "no place in America" in his address at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine Black parishioners were murdered by a racially-motivated killer.

The 81-year-old then linked efforts by Republican former president Donald Trump to overturn the last election in 2020 to the wider US history of racism, calling it the "old ghost in new garments."

"They're trying to erase history and your future, banning books, denying your right to vote and have it counted," Biden told the congregation from the pulpit of the historic church.

Biden later met with survivors of the shooting, the White House said, continuing a long connection with the church which started when he visited as vice president under Barack Obama after the killings.

Self-proclaimed white supremacist Dylann Roof, who was 21 at the time, said he carried out the shooting to start a race war. He was sentenced to death in 2017.

The speech was the second of two events kicking off Biden's 2024 campaign in which he has targeted Trump, whom he is expected to face in a closely-contested rematch in November.

- Poll worries -

However minutes into Biden's speech he was interrupted by a demonstrator, saying that if the president cared about lives lost then, he should call for an end to the war between Israel and Hamas.

A small group of protestors then began shouting "ceasefire now," before they were drowned out by churchgoers chanting "four more years" in support of Biden's bid for a second term.

Biden said of the protesters that he could "understand their passion," before adding: "I've been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza."

Both the speech and the interruption reflected the diverse electoral groups that Biden must reach out to in what promises to be a difficult battle for reelection.

Polls show Biden's support slipping among Black and ethnic minority voters, who helped drive his 2020 election win against Trump.

Biden also faces opposition from some Democrats over his staunch support of Israel's offensive against Hamas following the October 7 attacks by the Palestinian militant group.

And Biden will need support from both constituencies as he is either trailing or neck-and-neck with Trump in a series of recent polls, while his approval ratings are the lowest for any modern president at this stage in their term.

- 'Enormous stakes' -

Biden's fired-up speech Monday touched on emotional ground as he sought to connect to voters, ranging from his support to civil rights, to his Catholic faith, and the church's support after his eldest son Beau died of brain cancer at age 46 in the month before the massacre.

The choice of South Carolina was also symbolic because it was his victory there in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary that helped revive his flagging candidacy.

Biden's campaign said his remarks in Charleston underscored the "enormous stakes of this election."

"We're all proud to welcome president Biden to the church to remind the nation of what happened and that it is on all of us to fight back against this extremism," Biden campaign co-chair and congressman Jim Clyburn said.

He said the church had "witnessed the horrors of hate-fueled political violence" and "shown us the path forward after moments of division and despair."

Biden has set his sights squarely on Trump as the election year begins, portraying himself as a unifier and defender of democracy, and his opponent as a threat to American institutions.

He has also changed his focus from talking about the economy, with many US voters apparently unconvinced by favorable jobs and growth numbers while prices for food and housing remain eye-wateringly high.

But signs of further Democrat concerns emerged at the weekend with US media reports that ex-president Barack Obama had raised questions with Biden about the structure of the campaign.

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A British-Palestinian doctor who worked in Gazan hospitals during the Israel-Hamas conflict hopes that testimony he has given to UK police will lead to prosecutions for war crimes.

Ghassan Abu Sitta, a plastic surgeon specialising in conflict injuries, spent 43 days volunteering in the besieged Palestinian territory, mostly at the al-Ahli and Shifa hospitals in the north.

The 54-year-old has already testified to the Met, the UK's biggest police force, about the injuries he saw and the kinds of weapons used, as part of evidence being gathered for an International Criminal Court probe into alleged war crimes committed by both sides.

He is due to travel to The Hague this week to meet ICC investigators.

Abu Sitta said the intensity of the war was the greatest of the numerous conflicts he has worked in, including others in Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and south Lebanon.

"It's the difference between a flood and a tsunami -- the whole scale is completely different," he told AFP during an interview in London on Sunday.

"Just the sheer number of the wounded, the size of the calamity, the number of children killed, the intensity of the bombing, the fact that within days of the war starting Gaza's health system was completely overwhelmed."

The war in Gaza was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In response, Israel is carrying out a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that have killed at least 22,835 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

Abu Sitta -- born in Kuwait and who has lived in Britain since the late 1980s -- arrived in Gaza from Egypt on October 9 as part of a Doctors Without Borders medical team.

"From the very beginning our capacity was less than the number of wounded we were having to treat. Increasingly we were having to make very difficult decisions about who to treat," he recalled.

Abu Sitta remembers one 40-year-old man coming into hospital with shrapnel in his head. He needed a CT scan, and to see a neurosurgeon, but they did not have one.

"We told his children and they stayed around his trolley that night until he passed away in the morning," he said.

The hospitals also quickly ran out of anaesthetic and analgesic drugs, meaning the surgeon had to perform "really painful cleaning procedures of wounds" without relief.

"It was a choice between doing that or watching them succumb to the wound infections and dying from sepsis," he added.

- 'Voice on the outside' -

Abu Sitta is adamant that he treated burn wounds caused by white phosphorus. Its use as a chemical weapon is prohibited under international law, but it is allowed for illuminating battlefields and as a smokescreen.

"It has a very distinctive injury," he said.

"The phosphorus continues to burn until the very deepest part of the body, until you reach bone."

Abu Sitta said he left Gaza after becoming "redundant" because a lack of medical supplies meant he could no longer perform surgery.

He has spent much of his time back in Britain briefing politicians and humanitarian organisations on the urgent need for aid.

"I've been trying to help my patients who I left behind as much as I can by almost being their voice on the outside."

The Met says it is obliged to gather evidence for an ICC probe into alleged war crimes committed by both sides.

Abu Sitta says he told officers about what he witnessed, including the use of white phosphorus and attacks on civilians.

He also described surviving the October 17 attack on the al-Ahli hospital, which Hamas blames on Israel, but Western countries say was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.

"Eventually justice will catch up with these individuals, if not in five years, 10 years, when they're 80 years old, whenever the balance of power in the world allows for justice for Palestinians," Abu Sitta said.

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A major 1m marketing campaign to showcase the benefits of British-produced eggs will launch as the safety of imported eggs is under the microscope.

The programme, launched by the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC), will deliver messages on the safety of eating British Lion eggs.

Approved by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), British Lion eggs are safe to eat runny for all ages, as well as pregnant women.

It comes as the public are being told to take care when handling and cooking poultry following a rise in salmonella cases linked to imports from Poland.

The number of low-welfare eggs entering the UK from Poland rose by more than 2,000% between 2021 to August 2023, figures show.

BEIC's campaign aims to drive people away from imports towards 'trusted' British Lion eggs via content delivered by a range of popular social influencers.

Gary Ford, chief executive of the body, said consumers can 'wholeheartedly trust' eggs carrying the British Lion on the shell and pack.

"With the safety of imported eggs under the FSA microscope, it is vital that retailers and foodservice businesses look to the British Lion to ensure they are offering the highest quality eggs to their customers," he said.

Eggs are not just the most sustainable animal protein, they are one of the most nutritionally dense, natural foods and their versatility helps provide families with the perfect ingredient for quick, healthy, affordable and easy meal solutions.

"Our 2024 campaign will be communicating these important messages to increase awareness and consumption of British Lion eggs.

Social influencers, with a collective following of more than 2m, will be sharing content throughout the year to drive awareness of the benefits of British eggs.

The campaign will see the launch of an @egg_recipes TikTok channel, which will be complemented by the @egg_recipes Instagram account.

It comes as a Food Standards Agency (FSA) investigation is ongoing into multiple strains of salmonella linked to poultry products imported to the UK from Poland.

There were over 200 human cases of salmonellosis linked to such products, including meat and eggs, in 2023.

The FSA said it was in discussion with Polish and EU officials to "ensure all steps are taken to improve the safety of poultry and eggs imported from Poland".
Dozens of farms have now confirmed an outbreak of bluetongue, bringing the total number of individual cases to 44.

The UKs chief veterinary officer has urged farmers to remain vigilant for the disease after new cases were recorded over the festive period.

There is currently a temporary control zone (TCZ) in Kent and Norfolk following the initial outbreak of the virus in November 2023, the UK's first case since 2007.

Since then, 24 farms and holdings have been impacted by bluetongue virus, but Defra says there is still no evidence that it is circulating in midges.

It said in an update: "Following active surveillance in the Norfolk TCZ, 4 further cases of bluetongue in cattle have been identified on 2 new premises in the existing TCZ.

"All 4 animals will be humanely culled to minimise the risk of onward transmission. The TCZ is not being extended and movement restrictions continue to apply to cattle, sheep, camelids and other ruminants in the zone.

"This brings the total number of cases in England to 44 infected animals on 24 premises."

The bluetongue virus is usually transmitted by midge bites and affects cows, goats, sheep and other camelids such as llamas.

Midges are most active between April and November and not all susceptible animals show immediate, or any, signs of contracting the virus.

Impacts on susceptible animals can vary greatly  some show no symptoms or effects at all while for others it can cause productivity issues such as reduced milk yield, while in the most severe cases can be fatal for infected animals.

Christine Middlemiss, the UKs chief veterinary officer, has urged farmers to remain vigilant for bluetongue virus.

Bluetongue does not pose a threat to human health or food safety, but the disease can impact livestock farms, and cause productivity issues," she said.

This detection is an example of our robust disease surveillance procedures in action and it is also a clear reminder for farmers that the disease remains a threat, despite coming towards the end of the midge activity season.

Farmers must remain vigilant and report any suspicions to APHA.

BTV is a notifiable disease. Suspicion of BTV in animals in England must be reported to the Animal and Plant Health Agency on 03000 200 301.

Farmers in and around the TCZ can also call Ruminant Health & Welfare's (RH&W) bluetongue hotline on 024 7771 0386 for advice.

Bluetongue does not affect people or food safety.
Farmers impacted by the recent flooding can now apply for up to 25,000 in financial support as part of a new fund unveiled by the government.

Farmers who have suffered uninsurable damage to their land following the recent winter storms will be able to apply for the grants.

It has been made possible through the Farming Recovery Fund, which works to repair and reinstate costs for those affected by exceptional flooding.

The UK's most recent storm, Storm Henk, caused torrential rain and substantial flooding in regions across southern England and Wales.

The Environment Agency estimates that more than 1,800 properties have been flooded.

The NFU recently called for a new water management strategy to set out how farmers could collaborate better with government to tackle flooding.

It said farming was on the front line of climate change, with the sector experiencing volatility and severe weather events more often.

Announcing the new fund, Defra Secretary Steve Barclay said: "We will do all we can do support households, farmers and other businesses as they repair and rebuild.

"Our Farming Recovery Fund will support farmers who have suffered damage as they work to put food on our tables."

Flooded households in eligible affected areas can also apply for up to 500 cash to help with immediate costs.

And households and businesses significantly affected will be eligible for 100% council tax and business rates relief for at least 3 months.

Communities Secretary Michael Gove urged those affected by the recent flooding to apply to the measures.

"You do not have to deal with it alone - we are providing financial help so you can recover as quickly as possible," he said.

"We are doing all we can with our partners across central and local government to ensure communities are supported."

Flood-hit property owners can also apply for up to 5,000 to help make their homes and businesses more resilient to future flooding, via the Property Flood Resilience Repair Grant Scheme.
A Lincolnshire farmer who recently hit the headlines for cultivating the first British baked beans is now facing a harsh reality as flooding inundates his land.

Baked beans grown using innovative methods were hailed by researchers as a step towards sustainable, UK-sourced food options.

Grown by Lincolnshire farmer Andy Ward with the help of Warwick University, they are the first UK bean that can be used as baked beans.

But rain has now devastated Mr Ward's farmland following recent winter storms, with the farmer stressing urgency for new collaborative solutions to flooding.

"There's nothing we can do when the fields are underwater," he said, underscoring the lasting impact flooding has on soil quality and livelihoods.

"We'll rebuild and innovate. But we must have support and solutions in place to tackle these issues collectively."

Baked beans are usually imported from as far as South America, but the specially-bred haricot bean is now grown on a commercial scale at Mr Ward's farm following 12 years of research.

Warwick University scientists said they hoped that the breakthrough would reduce the UK's reliance on imports and also contribute to achieving climate goals.

However, Professor Eric Holub, professor of plant genetics at the university, said it was 'a nightmare' for British farmers when floods hit.

"We are working to diversify UK-grown crops  like beans  but farmers must be supported through flooding and other weather-related factors to be able to fortify our agricultural landscape against these unpredictable challenges.

"Farmers are at risk of losing their cereal crops drilled in the autumn. Spring sown crops will be essential for recovering some of their losses.

Dr Jonathan Clarke, from the university's Institute for Global Sustainable Development, said the UK had seen a Christmas quite like no other in terms of weather.

"This winter has been particularly difficult for farmers, with many farms underwater or suffering crop damage, including the farm responsible for producing British baked beans in Lincolnshire," he noted.

"While extreme weather is often quickly forgotten by many, there is an urgent need to consider how our society can become more resilient to the worst effects of a changing climate."
Allowing employees to use their smartphones at work does not have an impact on productivity.

Employees should be allowed to use smartphones in the office

Researchers have found that bosses can reduce stress amongst their workforce if they allow them to use their devices in the office.

Teams from the University of Galway and the University of Melbourne carried out research at the European branch of a global pharmaceutical company - which had banned phones back in the 1990s amid fears that workers could be distracted around dangerous chemicals.

40 employees followed the new relaxed policy on phones and their output did not decline when the restrictions were eased.

Study leader Professor Eoin Whelan said: "Preventing phones in the workplace can increase work-life conflict, which in turn has significant implications for work performance, job satisfaction, absenteeism, turnover intentions, as well as general wellbeing."
Idris Elba is urging the UK government to do more to end knife crime in the country.

Idris Elba is calling for more to be done to tackle knife crime in the UK

The 51-year-old Hollywood actor has launched the Don't Stop Your Future campaign - which is calling for a ban on machetes and 'zombie' blades in a bid to end a spate of brutal stabbings and youth violence - and Idris wants politicians to take action as a priority in a bid to save lives.

Speaking about the campaign, the 'Luther' star explained: "I can't stay silent as more young lives are lost to these brutal and heartless crimes. As school returns, too many young people will not be joining their classmates and too many grieving families have lost a young person they love in recent years.

"Young people are our future, their potential deserves to be met, not taken away by violence.

"Parliament has repeatedly not given this issue the focus it deserves, and our political leaders need to prioritise it now. As well as an immediate ban on zombie knives and machetes, we need to give young people more of a reason not to carry a weapon in the first place.

"That means investing in the services that address the root causes of violent crime."

The actor launched the campaign by unveiling an installation in London's Parliament Square on Monday (08.01.23) which featured neatly placed piles of clothes each representing someone who has been killed in a knife attack.

Idris is also going to be releasing a single titled 'Knives Down' to raise awareness of the issues.

Patrick Green, head of anti-knife crime charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, praised the actor for his efforts in trying to tackle you violence. He said: 'Idris's Don't Stop Your Future campaign is a vital and much needed intervention to shine a spotlight on serious youth violence, which has been neglected for too long.

"It's horrifying that hardly a day goes by without the tragic news of someone being hurt, maimed, or even killed with a machete or zombie knife."
Leonardo DiCaprio is warning everything disastrous is hitting the Earth that was predicted years ago by climate change scientists.

Leonardo DiCaprio is warning everything disastrous is hitting the Earth that was predicted years ago by climate change scientists

The actor and eco activist, 49, was left terrified by experts who talked to him for the 2016 documentary Before the Flood, produced by Martin Scorsese, and said he has now seen all their warnings come true almost to a T.

He told The Observer newspaper: I remember doing a film called Before the Flood, and I was with one of the Nasa scientists who, for the first time, gave me a map of planet Earth and literally said: Look, you see everything along the equatorial line here?

Im like: Yeah, thats close to where I live in Los Angeles, because this was seven years ago. So youre going to start to see fires pop up as the Earth starts to warm, things are going to start to incinerate, theres going to be too much drought, the trees will not have enough resistance.

And literally, a few years later, youre starting to hear about massive forest fires. And now this is a regular thing.

So were seeing everything else start to happen, almost to a T, that scientists have predicted.

Leonardo also hit out at the Republican party for doing nothing about the looming climate emergency.

He said: We have one party that has systematically denied the scientific community and has not been a proponent of protecting our climate.

Leonardo, who starred in climate change disaster drama Dont Look Up in 2021, was named as the public figure or celebrity most trusted on sustainability by 18- to 64-year-olds after they were polled by the Hollywood consultancy the National Research Group  ahead of Greta Thunberg, Al Gore and US President Joe Biden.

He added about his work highlighting the climate crisis: Many people have said: Oh, the Earth will still be around. But what kind of Earth will it be like to live in? For its inhabitants?

So my focus right now is to ask: How do we protect the natural world? You protect the stewards of the land, you protect the people on the ground, the local communities, the Indigenous people that have been doing this for thousands and thousands of years.
Ronnie Wood has earned 500,000 from his art in the last year.

Ronnie Wood has earned 500,000 from his art in the last year

The Rolling Stones guitarist, 76, has spent years drawing, painting and sculpting and has won critical acclaim for his exhibitions, and his latest accounts show his passion is earning him bumper profits.

Papers lodged with Companies House, obtained by the Sunday Mirror, show he raked in 1,953,778 last year  compared to 1,437,277 in 2022.

The amount of cash the guitarist has in the bank has also soared to more than 2.5 million.

Before being recruited into the Stones in 1975, after stints in the bands Faces and the Jeff Beck Group, Ronnie had gone to Ealing Art College.

His portraits of the Stones have been displayed in galleries across the globe and he has also painted artists including Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Elvis and John Lennon.

In 2022, he asked Prince William to present the late Queen Elizabeth with a painting he did of the Duke of Edinburgh from a photograph, with other highlights of his art career including donating 23,000 from a 2020 exhibition to the NHS.

Ronnie will also have had a top earning year with the Stones as the group last year made 94 million from their Sixty anniversary tour, with the band selling a reported 712,000 tickets in 14 cities.

The Stones latest album Hackney Diamonds shifted 72,200 copies in its first week on sale in the UK alone, making it the third fastest-selling release of the year behind records from Lewis Capaldi and Ed Sheeran.

It was the bands first LP release since the death of Stones drummer Charlie Watts aged 80 on 24 August, 2021, but it still featured recordings of his work completed before his passing.

The group are also set to kick of a US tour this year.
Yoga is practised around the world by countless people. And for good reason too, for this holistic science is nothing short of food for the body, mind, and soul! It comes as little surprise then that there is yoga for depression that can prove to be of help. Read on to know more.

There are quite a few beginner poses for those looking for yoga for depression anxiety and stress. You can try these simple poses at home or take up a class with a trained guru. If youre ready to push your limits, you can try taking up special types of yoga too.

Symptoms

You may be undergoing depression if you exhibit the below symptoms:

Persistent low mood

Loss of interest in activities or things you once enjoyed

Feelings of worthlessness

Poor concentration

Thoughts of inflicting harm on yourself

Tip: Get in touch with a doctor or therapist right away if you feel your mental health is deteriorating.

Benefits

Yoga offers immense benefits for both mind and body. The above infographic explains how yoga can help deal with depression.





If youre looking to get started, there are a number of easy yoga poses for beginners you can try. You can try taking a class with any trainer in your locality. You can also practise yoga at home with the help of free online classes and videos through channels like Yoga with Adriene.





Tip: Be careful when practising yoga on your own, especially if youre a beginner. You dont want to overexert or hurt yourself!

1. Childs Pose Aka Balasana

This beginners yoga pose is designed to relax the body and mind.

Start in the kneeling position, resting your buttocks on your heels. Place both palms on your thighs and keep your feet together.

Breathe slowly, relaxing your shoulders.

Bow forward, lowering your upper body onto your thighs while exhaling. Extend arms out in front with palms facing down .

. Keep big toes touching as you spread your knees wide and lower your torso between your thighs.

Rest your forehead on the floor and relax the neck and jaw.

Close your eyes, focus on your body and be mindful of physical sensations. Continue breathing slowly for a couple of minutes before returning to the starting position.

Tip: For added comfort, place a blanket or pillow beneath your forehead.

2. Plow Pose Aka Halasana

This yoga pose prepares the body and mind for deep rejuvenation.

Lie down on your back; keep arms beside you with palms facing downwards.

Inhale, and using abdominal muscles, lift your feet off the floor.

Raise your legs to a 90-degree angle as you continue breathing normally.

Support the hips and back using your hands, lifting them off the ground.

Sweep your legs over your head 180 degrees till your toes touch the floor. Ensure your back is perpendicular to the floor .

. Hold this pose and breathe steadily as you let your body relax.

Gently return to the starting position after a few seconds or about a minute.

Tip: Refrain from jerking your body or making sudden movements when bringing your legs back to the starting position.

3. Bridge Pose Aka Setu Bandhasana

This yoga asana calms the brain and reduces anxiety, stress, and depression.

Lie down on your back.

Bend your knees, keeping your feet on the floor, hip-distance apart.

Keep knees and ankles in a straight line, placing arms beside your body with palms facing downwards.

Inhale and lift your back off the floor slowly .

. Roll in the shoulders and push your chest to your chin, supporting your weight with your feet, arms, and shoulders.

Keep thighs parallel to each other and to the floor.

Continue breathing slowly; hold the posture for 30-60 seconds, and exhale as you release the pose.

Tip: Support your back with your palms if needed.

4. Downward-Facing Dog Aka Adho Mukha Svanasana

This yogasana is the poster pose for yoga, acting both as a transitional pose and a resting pose.

Lie face down on the floor; get up on your knees with your hands still on the floor.

Lift your hips up by pushing back through your hands and straightening your legs.

Engage your quadriceps to take your body weight off your arms .

. Exhale slowly and bend your knees to release the position, coming back to your hands and knees.

Tip: Avoid this pose if you have carpal tunnel syndrome, any other wrist injury, heart disease, high blood pressure, slipped disc, vertigo, or are in the last trimester of pregnancy.

5. Corpse Pose Aka Savasana

Savasana is all about relaxing your body and mind one part at a time. With regular practice, this yoga depression pose conditions your body to release stress, improving your physical and emotional wellbeing.

Rest your entire body on the floor, lying on your back with knees bent or extended flat.

Keep head-centered, and arms extended to the sides.

Relax all muscles and continue breathing normally.

Hold the position for 5-15 minutes.

Tip: While practising savasana, your body might feel itchy, cold, or unsettled, which can cause distractions. Avoid moving your body and practise in a cool, quiet, relaxing space.

6. Hatha

Hatha yoga comprises three practices  body postures, breathing techniques, and meditation. This type of yoga emphasises holding poses for long periods of time.





Hatha yoga acts on the neurotransmitters in the brain in a way similar to that of antidepressants, which is why experts believe it can improve depression symptoms. Hatha yoga asanas for depression can also help you manage stress by positively impacting the nervous and endocrine systems.



Tip: Hatha yoga also offers physical health benefits like stronger core muscles.

7. Bikram

The Bikram yoga system is a type of hot yoga, consisting of a set of 26 postures to be practised in a room heated to 105 F (41 C) with a humidity of 40%. This yoga style was devised by Bikram Choudhury, based on the teachings of B. C. Ghosh.





Bikram yoga offers a number of mental health benefits such as reduced cortisol and stress, increased mental endurance, and better sleep. It also increases your ability to focus.



Tip: Bikram yoga can cause dehydration, heat exhaustion, or heat stroke. Remember to stay hydrated, take it easy, and take a break if it gets too hot.

8. Kundalini

Kundalini yoga is also called Yoga of Awareness; it involves chanting and singing, breathing exercises, and repetitive yoga poses. The purpose of this yoga style is to activate Kundalini energy, which is the spiritual energy residing at the base of the spine.





Anxiety, depression, or trauma affect every cell of our being. As such, Kundalini yoga can prove to be a great solution as yoga for insomnia and depression since it has a multi-faceted approach involving not just physical postures, breathing exercises, and deep relaxation techniques, but also meditation and mindfulness components.





Tip: Start practice 3-4 times a week and build up to a few minutes daily.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. Is yoga effective for treating depression?

Q. Which yoga is best for mental health?

Q. Can yoga cure mental health?

Q. Can pranayam cute depression?

There are certain yoga poses that are specially meant to benefit mental well-being. So yes, practisingregularly benefits the mind and body.Child's pose or balasana, Plow pose or halasana, Bridge pose or setu bandhasana, Downward-facing dog or adho mukha svanasana, and corpse pose or savasana are the best yoga poses for mental health. Yoga combines physical exercise with breathing exercises that can help reduce stress and anxiety and calm the mind. As such, practisingis a good way to boost mental health.Regular pranayama for depression can have a positive effect. Shitali pranayama is one such exercise that can help calm the mind and body, thus resulting in relaxed nerves and lower hypertension.
In November 2023, Germany's exports rose by 3.7 per cent and imports by 1.9 per cent compared to October 2023, according to the latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). However, when compared with November 2022, there was a noticeable decrease, with exports down by 5 per cent and imports falling by 12.2 per cent.

The total value of exports reached 131.2 billion, while imports stood at 110.8 billion in November 2023, after adjusting for calendar and seasonal variations. This resulted in a foreign trade surplus of 20.4 billion for the month, an increase from the 17.7 billion in October 2023 and significantly higher than the 11.9 billion recorded in November 2022.

In November 2023, Germany saw a 3.7 per cent rise in exports and a 1.9 per cent increase in imports from October. However, compared to November 2022, exports fell by 5 per cent and imports by 12.2 per cent. The trade surplus reached 20.4 billion. Exports to the EU rose by 5.4 per cent to 71.5 billion, while imports grew by 2.8 per cent.

Germany's trade with European Union (EU) member states also saw a positive trend. Exports to EU countries rose by 5.4 per cent to 71.5 billion, and imports increased by 2.8 per cent to 58.9 billion in November 2023 compared to the previous month. Specifically, exports to euro area countries totalled 50.3 billion, a 5.3 per cent increase, while imports from these countries were up 2.4 per cent to 39.2 billion. Trade with EU countries outside the euro area also grew, with exports at 21.2 billion and imports at 19.7 billion, as per Destatis.

Regarding trade with non-EU countries, exports amounted to 59.7 billion, and imports totalled 51.9 billion in November 2023. Compared to October 2023, exports to these countries grew by 1.8 per cent and imports by 0.8 per cent.

The US remained the top destination for German exports, despite a 1.4 per cent decline from October 2023, totalling 13.4 billion. Exports to China and the UK showed increases of 3.1 per cent and 15.2 per cent, respectively.

China was also the largest source of imports to Germany, with a value of 13 billion in November 2023, marking a 3.1 per cent increase from the previous month. Imports from the US and the UK also rose, recording increases of 3 per cent and 6.3 per cent, respectively.

Trade with Russia showed a significant calendar and seasonally adjusted increase of 12.8 per cent to 0.7 billion in exports in November 2023 compared to October. However, compared with November 2022, exports to Russia decreased by 38.3 per cent. Imports from Russia decreased by 14 per cent to 0.2 billion in November 2023 from October and were down by 88.4 per cent compared with November 2022.

On a nominal basis, Germany exported goods worth 139.2 billion and imported goods totalling 117.2 billion in November 2023. This represents a 4.9 per cent decrease in exports and a 12.1 per cent decline in imports compared with November 2022. The unadjusted foreign trade surplus stood at 22 billion in November 2023, up from 13 billion in the same month of the previous year.

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Fighter is one of the most anticipated releases of the month. Directed by Siddharth Anand, the film starring Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor and others is an aerial action entertainer. Now, the third song, Heer Aasmani is out.The makers of Fighter dropped the full song and music video of Heer Aasmani. The video opens with a close-up of Hrithiks toned abs as he steps in for a shower. We then see his character Shamsher Pathania join Deepikas Minal Rathore, Karan Singh Grovers Sartaj Gill, Akshay Oberois Basheer Khan and more.Check out the video here:The clip offers a glimpse of the bond between fighter pilots from the Indian Air Force. We see them training, camping and dancing together. We also see glimpses of romance brewing.Earlier, the makers unveiled the music videos for Sher Khul Gaye and Ishq Jaisa Kuch. The songs offered a closer look at the film and its plot.Fighter is set to release in theatres on January 25, 2024.
Hollywood's most glamorous night just got a dose of high-profile romance as Kylie Jenner and Timothee Chalamet made their red carpet debut as a couple at the Golden Globes. The pair, who have been the talk of the town since they started dating early last year, turned heads with their coordinated fashion choices and undeniable chemistry at the prestigious event held at L.A.'s Beverly Hilton hotel.

A Fashionable Pair: All-Black Ensembles and Dazzling Accessories

The cosmetics mogul, known for her fashion influence, looked nothing short of stunning in a sheer, lace bodycon dress, while her sweetheart, Chalamet, donned a sequin-embellished black suit by Celine Homme. Jenner's dress, adorned with shiny black beads, was complemented by a delicate silver-and-diamond ear cuff, adding a touch of sparkle to her elegant look. Chalamet, ever the fashion-forward actor, accessorized with a tasteful blend of black-and-silver jewelry. Their coordinated all-black attire was a statement of understated luxury, perfect for the opulence of the Golden Globes.

Not Just Fashion Icons, But Inseparable Lovers

Though they chose not to walk the red carpet side by side, Jenner and Chalamet were seen entering the ceremony hand in hand, and their affectionate display continued throughout the night. The couple's relationship has been blossoming in the public eye, marked by memorable moments such as their attendance at Beyonce's birthday concert and their cozy moments at the U.S. Open men's finals. Their Golden Globes appearance solidifies their stance not just as fashion icons, but as inseparable lovers in the Hollywood spotlight.

Do Kylie and Timothee know that the ad breaks on the Golden Globe website is just a fan cam of them pic.twitter.com/QIbs42Ofhi  yasmine |  (@filmwithyas) January 8, 2024

Kylie Jenner and Timothee Chalamet kissing at the #GoldenGlobes . pic.twitter.com/5zDXNLHWgn  Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 8, 2024

Timothee Chalamet's Nominated Performance in 'Wonka'

Beyond their red carpet moment, the night was especially eventful for Chalamet, who was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Film for his lead role in the film 'Wonka'. The actor's portrayal of the young chocolatier Willy Wonka has been met with critical acclaim, showcasing his versatility as he sings, dances, and charms his way through the character's quest to establish the finest chocolate store in Paris. Competing against a roster of talented actors, Chalamet's nomination is a testament to his growing prowess in the film industry.

TIMOTHEE CHALAMET AND KYLIE JENNER OMG pic.twitter.com/0vwFRHb56h  line (@liIyvogue) January 8, 2024

As Kylie Jenner and Timothee Chalamet continue to captivate the world with their romance and style, their Golden Globes appearance will undoubtedly be remembered as a significant milestone in their relationship. With the night filled with the glitz and glamour typical of such a prestigious event, the power couple's presence only heightened the excitement. As we look forward to their future endeavors, both on the red carpet and in their respective industries, one thing is certain  Jenner and Chalamet are a Hollywood duo to watch.
Tina Datta On India-Maldives Row: Actress Tina Datta is one such actor who has never shown hesitation on speaking out her heart and has kept her opinions fearlessly.

In between tensions on the ongoing hot topic between India and the Maldives following a controversial tweet by a Maldives minister regarding the Lakshadweep Islands, Hum Rahe Na Rahe Hum actress Tina Datta took to social media to express stand and encourage fellow citizens to explore the beauty of the Indian islands.

A proud Indian & Im so glad that our PM is promoting our country on the tourism front.Loved Maldives twice when I visited bt didnt like the comments coming towards our country. As a global economy lets help each to grow & not demean any1. #Lakshadweep #exploringindianislands  Tina Datta (@iamTinaDatta) January 8, 2024

Actor Tina Datta took to X (formerly Twitter) to express her views on the comments from some Maldives ministers. " A proud Indian, & I'm so glad that our PM is promoting our country on the tourism front. Loved Maldives twice when I visited, but I didn't like the comments coming towards our country. As a global economy let's help each to grow & not demean any1. #Lakshadweep #exploringindianislands

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent trip to Lakshadweep, a post from a Maldivian minister triggered a social media backlash, resulting in a diplomatic dispute. The Maldivian minister asserted that India was undermining their nation and insinuated that India struggled to rival Maldives in beach tourism. In response, Indian celebrities, including Tina Datta, have voiced their support for Lakshadweep, highlighting the captivating and diverse natural beauty of the islands.
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - January 8, 2024) - In a momentous stride forward, KH Marque Pte Ltd, a trailblazer in the Used Cooking Oil Business, has been honored with the prestigious 2023 Global Recognition Award. This esteemed accolade underscores the company's innovative contributions and unwavering commitment to excellence in the business sphere.







Distinguished for its dynamic performance and groundbreaking initiatives within the used cooking oil sector, KH Marque Pte Ltd now stands among an exclusive cohort of global organizations acknowledged for their exemplary standards. This accolade serves as a manifestation of the company's persistent pursuit of excellence and its consistent ability to outshine in a dynamically evolving and competitive business landscape.

KH Marque Pte Ltd CEO Zeng Shu Fei

Trailblazing Strategies and Milestones of KH Marque

The year 2023 has proven to be transformative for KH Marque Pte Ltd, marked by substantial growth and strategic triumphs. Industry metrics prominently highlight the company's robust performance, surpassing its competitors significantly. CEO Zeng Shu Fei attributes these achievements to the company's unswerving focus on customer-driven innovation and agile business methodologies.

"In our unwavering commitment to delivering unparalleled value, we have continually innovated and adapted. This prestigious award underscores our team's dedication and the ground breaking strategies we have deployed," remarked Zeng Shu Fei.

Industry Influence and Prospective Endeavors

The recognition bestowed upon KH Marque Pte Ltd by the Global Recognition Awards not only signifies a pivotal chapter for the company but also sets a new standard in its field. The strategic integration of advanced technology with profound market insight has been instrumental in its success.

Looking ahead, KH Marque Pte Ltd is poised to sustain its trajectory of innovation and expansion. Supported by the 2023 Global Recognition Award, the company is well-positioned to explore new territories and fortify its standing as a vanguard in the industry.

Final Words

Reflecting on this remarkable achievement, Alex Sterling, representative of the Global Recognition Awards, remarked, "KH Marque Pte Ltd embodies the essence of progress and distinction that our awards recognize. Their accomplishments resonate as a beacon of leadership and motivation within the industry."

About KH Marque Pte Ltd

As a frontrunner in its field, KH Marque Pte Ltd consistently leads with innovation and excellence. Its dedication to superior quality and client satisfaction has established it as a pivotal force in the industry.

About Global Recognition Awards

Global Recognition Awards is a prestigious program that honors businesses and individuals for their significant achievements in the business world. The awards recognize excellence and innovation across various sectors, providing a platform for global recognition.

Contact Details:

Alexander Sterling

Global Recognition Awards

Email: contact@globalrecognitionawards.org

Website: https://globalrecognitionawards.org/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/193054

SOURCE: Baden Bower
LONDON, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- ReadyWise, a trusted and authorized supplier of emergency food to the United Nations, is delighted to announce a strategic collaboration with the The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) This underscores ReadyWise's commitment to supporting humanitarian efforts and providing essential sustenance in challenging environments.

As part of this collaboration, ReadyWise has supplied 5,000 emergency meals, a combination of nutritious Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner options, for FAO's operations in South Sudan, to support the urgent need for reliable food provisions for the dedicated staff working in the region.

The key benefits of the provided meals are the following:

Shelf-Life: Products can last up to 25 years. Easy to prepare. Just add water.

Small Portions: Individually packed in 4 serving pouches. This eliminates waste, consolidates storage space, and ensures variety and easy distribution.

Bucket System: Comes in stackable buckets that are easy to store and lightweight, so they can easily be transported to an emergency venue.

"We are grateful to have incorporated ReadyWise freeze-dried emergency meals into our operation, because of their superior shelf-life without refrigeration in harsh conditions, which is a key requirement for us. In humanitarian operations, having reliable and nutritious food is essential for maintaining the health and resilience of our staff, especially in emergencies", stated Mr Fabio Asso, UN FAO Security Specialist.

ReadyWise takes pride in providing high-quality, long-lasting emergency food solutions, and working with UN exemplifies the company's dedication to positively impacting global humanitarian efforts. The full range of ReadyWise products can be found on the following website: www.readywise.co.uk.

"We are thrilled to be working with FAO and to expand our presence in Africa, South Sudan", said Mr Kim Berknov, Vice President of EMEA. "We believe that our emergency food supplies can help people prepare for any situation, and we are committed to providing our customers with high-quality, nutritious food that can be stored for an extended period."

About ReadyWise:

ReadyWise is a leading manufacturer of freeze-dried foods specializing in providing high-quality, long-lasting freeze-dried emergency meals. With a global focus on preparedness and resilience, ReadyWise is dedicated to providing households with preparedness solutions with headquarters in Europe and the United States. Learn more at www.readywise.co.uk.

About FAO:

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. FAO works to achieve food security for all and ensure people have regular access to enough high-quality food for active, healthy lives. Learn more at https://www.fao.org/about/about-fao/en/.

Contact: Kim Berknov, +44-7771 544 905, info@readywise.co.uk

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KAISERAUGST, Switzerland and HEERLEN, Netherlands, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- DSM-Firmenich AG (the Company or dsm-firmenich) and DSM B.V. (DSM) today announce that the remaining holders of DSM ordinary shares will have the opportunity to sell their DSM ordinary shares to dsm-firmenich through the voluntary tender offer launched by dsm-firmenich today. The details of the tender offer are set out in this press release.

Statutory Buy-Out

dsm-firmenich started a statutory buy-out procedure (the Buy-Out) on July 17, 2023 to acquire the remaining ordinary shares, about 3.9%, in DSM, previously Koninklijke DSM N.V. (the Shares). On such date, dsm-firmenich already held 96.1% of the Shares.

For this Buy-Out, the Company has requested the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal (Ondernemingskamer) to set - in line with past practice - the fair price of the Shares at the closing share price of a dsm-firmenich ordinary share on Euronext Amsterdam on May 3, 2023. This price amounts to 116, minus the dividend paid on the Shares of 22.58 on July 3, 2023, and with any further dividends or other distributions yet to be paid on the Shares also to be deducted. This Buy-Out may extend well into 2024.

Additional information on the Buy-Out can be found on the Company's website (https://www.dsm-firmenich.com).

Voluntary Tender Offer

As a faster alternative, remaining holders of the Shares who do not want to wait until the Buy-Out is finalized, can temporarily benefit from the voluntary cash offer launched by the Company today (the Voluntary Tender Offer).

The Company offers the remaining holders of the Shares the opportunity to sell their Shares at an offer price of 96.00 (the Offer Price). The Offer Price is based on the proposed fair price of 116 minus the paid dividend of 22.58 and transaction costs for the Company and increased by statutory interest. This Offer Price will be paid by the Company free from withholding or dividend tax.

The period during which the remaining holder of the Shares can sell their Shares will start on January 8, 2024 at 9:00 CET and will end on February 9, 2024 at 17:40 CET.

Remaining holders of the Shares who would like to make use of the opportunity offered by the Voluntary Tender Offer are requested to submit their acceptance via their financial intermediary, custodian, bank or stockbroker to ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (ABN AMRO). In some cases, a financial intermediary, custodian, bank or stockbroker can set an earlier time for their clients in order to assure on-time registration with ABN AMRO.

Remaining holders of the Shares who have sold and transferred their Shares for acceptance in the Voluntary Tender Offer will receive the Offer Price for their sold Shares on February 13, 2024.

Remaining holders of the Shares who do not wish to make use of the opportunity offered by the Voluntary Tender Offer do not have to take any action and will consequently remain subject to the Buy-Out.

Announcements in relation to the Voluntary Tender Offer are issued by means of a press release and made available on the website of the Company (https://www.dsm-firmenich.com).

For more information, please contact:

dsm-firmenich investor relations enquiries:

Email: investors@dsm-firmenich.com

dsm-firmenich media enquiries:

Email: media@dsm-firmenich.com

Settlement, Listing and Paying Agent:

ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

Corporate Broking Issuer Services

Email: contact.dsm-firmenich@nl.abnamro.com

Telephone: +31 20 628 6070

About dsm-firmenich

As innovators in nutrition, health, and beauty, dsm-firmenich reinvents, manufactures, and combines vital nutrients, flavors, and fragrances for the world's growing population to thrive. With our comprehensive range of solutions, with natural and renewable ingredients and renowned science and technology capabilities, we work to create what is essential for life, desirable for consumers, and more sustainable for the planet. dsm-firmenich is a Swiss-Dutch company, listed on the Euronext Amsterdam, with operations in almost 60 countries and revenues of more than 12 billion. With a diverse, worldwide team of nearly 30,000 employees, we bring progress to life every day, everywhere, for billions of people. www.dsm-firmenich.com

General restrictions

The Voluntary Tender Offer in jurisdictions other than the Netherlands and Switzerland may be restricted and/or prohibited by law. The Voluntary Tender Offer is not being made, and the Shares will not be accepted for purchase from or on behalf of any holder of the Shares, in any jurisdiction in which the making of the Voluntary Tender Offer or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities or other laws or regulations of such jurisdiction or would require any registration, approval or filing with any regulatory authority. Outside of the Netherlands and Switzerland, no actions have been taken (nor will actions be taken) to make the Voluntary Tender Offer possible in any jurisdiction where such actions would be required. Neither dsm-firmenich, nor DSM, nor ABN AMRO accepts any liability for any violation by any person of any such restriction. Any failure to comply with any such restrictions may constitute a violation of the law of any such jurisdiction.

Notice to US investors

The Voluntary Tender Offer is being made for securities of a Dutch company and holders of the Shares that are resident in the United States should be aware that this announcement and any other documents relating to the Voluntary Tender Offer have been or will be prepared in accordance with the European Union disclosure requirements, format and style, all of which differ from those in the United States. All financial information that is included in this announcement or that may be included in any documents relating to the Voluntary Tender Offer have been or will be prepared in accordance with the European Union's generally accepted accounting principles and International Financial Reporting Standards and may not be comparable to financial statements of US companies.

It may be difficult for holders of the Shares to enforce certain rights and claims arising in connection with the Voluntary Tender Offer under US federal securities laws since dsm-firmenich and DSM are located outside the United States, and their officers and most of their directors reside outside the United States. Therefore, investors may have difficulty effecting service of process within the United States upon those persons or recovering against dsm-firmenich, DSM or their respective officers or directors on judgments of US courts, including judgments based upon the civil liability provisions of the US federal securities laws. It may not be possible to sue a non-US company or its officers or directors in a non-US court for violations of US securities laws. It also may not be possible to compel a non-US company or its affiliates to subject themselves to a US court's judgment.

The Voluntary Tender Offer will be made in the United States pursuant to applicable US tender offer rules and securities laws, or pursuant to exemptive relief therefrom granted by the United States Securities and Exchange. Accordingly, the Voluntary Tender Offer will be subject to disclosure and other procedural requirements, including with respect to terms, conditions and procedures that are different from those applicable under US domestic tender offer procedures and law.

Holders of the Shares that are resident in the United States also should be aware that the Voluntary Tender Offer may be a taxable transaction for US federal income tax purposes and under applicable US state and local, as well as foreign and other, tax laws and, that such consequences, if any, are not described herein. Holders of the Shares that are resident in the United States are urged to consult with legal, tax and financial advisers in connection with making a decision regarding the Voluntary Tender Offer.

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Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. to Host Investor Meetings in January 2024





Halle (Saale) / Munich, Germany, January 8, 2024 - Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: VVY; NL00150002Q7) (Vivoryon), a clinical stage company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule medicines to modulate the activity and stability of pathologically altered proteins, today announced that members of its management team including CEO Frank Weber, MD, CBO Michael Schaeffer, PhD, and CS & IRO Anne Doering, CFA, will host investor meetings, January 8 - 10, 2024, in San Francisco, CA.





Vivoryon's management team will discuss its lead program varoglutamstat, a differentiated investigational small-molecule medicine in development to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD). The Company remains on track to share VIVIAD Phase 2b final topline data, comprising primary and comprehensive secondary endpoints data as well as safety data, during the end of the first quarter of 2024 and the full dataset at a subsequent medical meeting.





The Company's corporate presentation can be found on the Company's website here.





###





About Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V.

Vivoryon is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative small molecule-based medicines. Driven by our passion for ground-breaking science and innovation, we strive to change the lives of patients in need suffering from severe diseases. We leverage our in-depth expertise in understanding post-translational modifications to develop medicines that modulate the activity and stability of proteins which are altered in disease settings. Beyond our lead program, varoglutamstat, which is in Phase 2 clinical development to treat Alzheimer's disease, we have established a solid pipeline of orally available small molecule inhibitors for various indications including cancer, inflammatory diseases and fibrosis. www.vivoryon.com





Vivoryon Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding the business strategy, management plans and objectives for future operations of the Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (the "Company"), estimates and projections with respect to the market for the Company's products and forecasts and statements as to when the Company's products may be available. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance; rather they are based on the Management's current expectations and assumptions about future events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. The forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties and other factors could materially adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements and from expectations. As a result, no undue reliance should be placed on such forward-looking statements. This press release does not contain risk factors. Certain risk factors that may affect the Company's future financial results are discussed in the published annual financial statements of the Company. This press release, including any forward-looking statements, speaks only as of the date of this press release. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any information or forward-looking statements contained herein, save for any information required to be disclosed by law.





For more information, please contact:

Investor Contact

Stern IR

Janhavi Mohite

Tel: +1 212-362-1200

Email: janhavi.mohite@sternir.com



Media Contact

Trophic Communications

Valeria Fisher

Tel: +49 175 8041816

Email: vivoryon@trophic.eu


OSLO, Norway (8 January 2024) - TGS, the leading global provider of energy data and intelligence, in cooperation with JV consortium partners PGS and SLB, has announced that prefunding has been secured to expand multi-client seismic data coverage in the Sabah Basin offshore Malaysia.

The seventh phase of this multi-year project off the coast of Sabah encompasses over 5,000 kilometers of new 2D seismic data acquisition, over 2,600 kilometers of legacy seismic data processing, and 2,800 square kilometers of 2D-cubed processing as part of a multi-year contract originally awarded by PETRONAS in 2016.

Kristian Johansen, CEO at TGS, commented: "High-quality 2D seismic data across Sabah will be instrumental in promoting future bid rounds. It also allows E&P companies to further assess exploration opportunities in an under-explored proven petroleum system surrounded by prolific hydrocarbon provinces."

"The 2D Multi-Client project will provide high-quality seismic data across Sabah. I am very pleased that we have secured pre-funding and we mobilized for the project in November 2023," says Rune Olav Pedersen, President & CEO of PGS.

The Eagle Explorer vessel mobilized in November 2023, with acquisition completion anticipated in February 2024. Fast-track results are anticipated to be available for evaluation during the 2024 Malaysia Bid Round.

This project is supported by industry funding.

About TGS

TGS provides scientific data and intelligence to companies active in the energy sector. In addition to a global, extensive and diverse energy data library, TGS offers specialized services such as advanced processing and analytics alongside cloud-based data applications and solutions.

Forward Looking Statement

All statements in this press release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict and are based upon assumptions as to future events that may not prove accurate. These factors include volatile market conditions, investment opportunities in new and existing markets, demand for licensing of data within the energy industry, operational challenges, and reliance on a cyclical industry and principal customers. Actual results may differ materially from those expected or projected in the forward-looking statements. TGS undertakes no responsibility or obligation to update or alter forward-looking statements for any reason.

For more information, visit TGS.com or contact:
January 8, 2023, Oslo, Norway: PGS together with JV consortium partners TGS and SLB, have secured pre-funding to expand MultiClient 2D seismic data coverage in the Sabah Basin offshore Malaysia.



The seventh phase of this multi-year project off the coast of Sabah encompasses over 5,000 kilometers of new 2D seismic data acquisition, over 2,600 kilometers of legacy seismic data processing and 2,800 square kilometers of 2D-cubed processing as part of a multi-year contract originally awarded by PETRONAS in 2016.

"The 2D MultiClient project will provide high-quality seismic data across Sabah. I am very pleased that we have secured pre-funding and we mobilized for the project in November 2023," says Rune Olav Pedersen, President & CEO of PGS.

"High-quality 2D seismic data across Sabah will be instrumental in promoting the underlying open acreage in future bid rounds. It also allows E&P companies to further assess exploration opportunities in an under-explored proven petroleum system surrounded by prolific hydrocarbon provinces," says Kristian Johansen, CEO of TGS.

The Eagle Explorer vessel mobilized in November 2023, with acquisition completion anticipated in February 2024. Fast-track results are anticipated to be available for evaluation during the 2024 Malaysia Bid Round.



FOR DETAILS, CONTACT: Bard Stenberg, VP IR & Corporate Communication

Mobile: +47 99 24 52 35



***

PGS ASA and its subsidiaries ("PGS" or "the Company") is a fully integrated marine geophysical company that provides a broad range of seismic and reservoir services, including data acquisition, imaging, interpretation, and field evaluation. Our services are provided to the oil and gas industry, as well as to the broader and emerging new energy industries, including carbon storage and offshore wind. The Company operates on a worldwide basis with headquarters in Oslo, Norway and the PGS share is listed on the Oslo stock exchange (OSE: PGS). For more information on PGS visit www.pgs.com.

***

The information included herein contains certain forward-looking statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, projects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future. These statements are based on various assumptions made by the Company, which are beyond its control and are subject to certain additional risks and uncertainties. The Company is subject to a large number of risk factors including but not limited to the demand for seismic services, the demand for data from our multi-client data library, the attractiveness of our technology, unpredictable changes in governmental regulations affecting our markets and extreme weather conditions. For a further description of other relevant risk factors we refer to our Annual Report for 2022. As a result of these and other risk factors, actual events and our actual results may differ materially from those indicated in or implied by such forward-looking statements. The reservation is also made that inaccuracies or mistakes may occur in the information given above about current status of the Company or its business. Any reliance on the information above is at the risk of the reader, and PGS disclaims any and all liability in this respect.

--END--




LONDON, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Debevoise & Plimpton LLP announces that Drew Dutton and Clare Swirski have been named co-heads of the firm's market-leading UK/European insurance transactional and regulatory practice. Situated within the firm's Global Insurance Group, chaired by partners Nick Potter and Marilyn Lion, the UK/European practice works with prominent public and privately held insurance companies and private equity sponsors on a full range of M&A, reinsurance and regulatory matters, including cross-border transactions.

Mr. Dutton, who is relocating to London from the firm's New York office, joined Debevoise in New York in 1999 and became a partner in the firm's Paris office in 2007. During his career, Mr. Dutton has worked on a wide range of high-profile insurance transactions in North America, Asia and Europe. From 2008 to 2016, he was resident in the firm's Hong Kong office where he led the Asia Pacific insurance practice during and after the 2008 financial crisis. Mr. Dutton is qualified to practice as an attorney in New York, a solicitor in England and Hong Kong and an avocat a la cour in France and speaks English, French and German.

Dr. Swirski is a London-based insurance regulatory and transactional lawyer who has been with the firm's London office since 2017. She was previously a partner at a Magic Circle firm and has more than 25 years of experience in advising insurers and other financial institutions on a full range of corporate matters. Dr. Swirski also advises multi-national insurers on key regulatory developments impacting the insurance and financial services sectors, including Solvency II and Brexit, and has played an active role in the development of the regulatory environment for insurers in the UK.

Presiding Partner Peter Furci said: "The UK/European insurance M&A and reinsurance markets and regulatory environment have become increasingly important to the firm's U.S. and European insurance clients. We continue to invest in building and growing our London team responsible for serving these clients, and we look forward to Drew and Clare leading that effort."

Corporate Department Chair Matt Kaplan noted: "Our global insurance practice has been one of the firm's crown jewels for more than 60 years, driven by collaborative working relationships among our teams in New York, London and Hong Kong. Drew and Clare are best positioned to continue the Debevoise tradition of working seamlessly with their colleagues in New York and Hong Kong on the most complex deals in the market."

Global Insurance Group Co-Chair Marilyn Lion added: "Drew and Clare are outstanding team members and exceptional lawyers who bring strong leadership to our London team, and we look forward to continued collaboration on behalf of our clients."

With an integrated team of lawyers serving our clients in the insurance sector in all major markets, Debevoise brings decades of experience and a multidisciplinary approach to the most complex insurance industry transactions, the highest-stakes disputes and the most challenging regulatory engagements.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/debevoise-appoints-drew-dutton-and-clare-swirski-to-lead-ukeuropean-insurance-practice-302027708.html
Edison Investment Research Limited

Edison issues initiation on NioCorp Developments (NB): Niobium husking



08-Jan-2024 / 10:06 GMT/BST

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



London, UK, 8 January 2024 Edison issues initiation on NioCorp Developments (NB): Niobium husking NioCorp is developing the Elk Creek mine in Nebraska, which currently hosts the second largest 'indicated' or better rare earth resource in the US and, once in production (potentially in FY27), will be North America's only mine producing niobium, scandium, titanium and rare earths (all of which the US define as 'critical'). A definitive feasibility study (DFS) on the project in June 2022 calculated a pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 29.2% and a post-tax net present value (NPV8) of US$2,350m, or US$70.51 per existing share in issue, to which NioCorp's shares are currently trading at a 95.6% discount. However, the project now appears poised for a material change in product mix to improve its economics and reduce its previous, heavy reliance on scandium revenue. NioCorp's DFS in June 2022 calculated a pre-tax IRR on the Elk Creek project of 29.2% (in US dollar terms) and a post-tax NPV of US$2,350m at an 8% discount rate. This equates to US$70.51 per share in issue, to which NioCorp's shares are currently trading at a 95.6% discount. Adjusted for Nebraska risk as well as stage of development (ie DFS), we calculate that this should reduce to US$23.48/share. Adjusted for the overall risk of commerciality, we calculate that it should reduce to US$15.79/share - still 5.1x the current share price. Alternatively, adopting a decidedly conservative ferro-niobium price and valuing the company based on an assumed US$425.5m equity raising in the near future in order to keep maximum leverage (net debt/[net debt+equity]) at no more than 2:1 debt:equity, we calculate a fully diluted valuation for NioCorp of US$7.16/share, rising to a peak of US$16.87/share on the cusp of the company's first significant dividend in FY33.

Click here to view the full report. All reports published by Edison are available to download free of charge from its website www.edisongroup.com About Edison: Edison is a leading research and investor relations consultancy, connecting listed companies to the widest pool of global investors. By focusing on the volume and quality of investors reached - across institutions, family offices, wealth managers and retail investors - Edison can create and gauge intent to purchase, even in the darkest pools of capital, and then make introductions via non-deal roadshows, events or virtual meetings. Having been the first company in-market 17 years ago, Edison has more than 100 employees and covers every economic sector. Headquartered in London, Edison also has offices in New York, Sydney and Wellington. Edison is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority . Edison is not an adviser or broker-dealer and does not provide investment advice. Edison's reports are not solicitations to buy or sell any securities. For more information, please contact Edison: Lord Ashbourne +44 (0)20 3077 5700 mining@edisongroup.com Andrew Keen +44 (0)20 3077 5700 mining@edisongroup.com Learn more at www.edisongroup.com and connect with Edison on: LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/edison-group-/ Twitter www.twitter.com/Edison_Inv_Res YouTube www.youtube.com/edisonitv



Dissemination of a CORPORATE NEWS, transmitted by EQS Group.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.




The growth of the global airport kiosk is driven by factors such as increase in air passenger traffic globally, improvement in airport infrastructure in developing nations, and increased adoption of touchscreen, multimedia, and biometric kiosks to enhance passenger experience.

WILMINGTON, Del., Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Airport Kiosk Market by Component (Hardware, Software, and Services), Airport Size (Small, Medium, and Large), and Application (Check-In Kiosk, Automated Passport Control, Common-Use Self-Service (CUSS) Kiosks, Information, Baggage Check, Ticketing Kiosk, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2023-2032".

According to the report, the global airport kiosk industry size generated $2.15 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to generate $5.11 billion by 2032, witnessing a CAGR of 9.4% from 2023 to 2032.

(We are providing airport kiosk industry report as per your research requirement, including the Latest Industry Insight's Evolution, Potential and Russia-Ukraine War Impact Analysis)

133 - Tables

73 - Charts

245 - Pages

Download Sample Pages - https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/11019

Prime determinants of growth

The growth of the global airport kiosk market is driven by factors such as increase in air passenger traffic globally, improvement in airport infrastructure in developing nations, and increased adoption of touchscreen, multimedia, and biometric kiosks to enhance passenger experience. However, high development and maintenance costs involved in airport kiosk hardware/software and security and privacy concerns related to data breaches hamper the growth of the market. On the contrary, the rise in utilization of artificial intelligence and data analytics tools and development of smart airport concepts globally provide an avenue for better kiosk adoption which are expected to offer remunerative opportunities for the expansion of the airport kiosk market during the forecast period.

Report Coverage and Details:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023-2032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $2.15 billion Market Size in 2032 $5.11 billion CAGR 9.4 % No. of Pages in Report 245 Segments Covered Component, Application, Airport Size, and Region. Drivers Increase in air passenger traffic globally Improvement in airport infrastructure in developing nations Increased adoption of touchscreen, multimedia, and biometric kiosks to enhance passenger experience Opportunities The rise in utilization of artificial intelligence and data analytics tools Development of smart airport concepts globally provides an avenue for better kiosk adoption Restraints High development and maintenance costs involved in airport kiosk hardware/software Security and privacy concerns related to data breaches

Impact of Russia-Ukraine War Scenario

On February 24, 2022, Russia initiated an invasion of Ukraine, marking a significant escalation in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War that commenced in 2014. Geopolitical tensions have the potential to disrupt economies globally, affecting investor confidence and financial markets. The resulting economic uncertainties may create challenges in securing funding for infrastructure projects, including modernization initiatives at airports.

Therefore, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the airport kiosk market is multifaceted, encompassing supply chain disruptions, financial considerations, changes in passenger behavior, and an intensified focus on cybersecurity. Navigating these challenges requires a strategic and adaptive approach from industry stakeholders, coupled with an eye for emerging opportunities in a rapidly evolving landscape.

The hardware segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period.

Based on component, the hardware segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for nearly three-fifths of the global airport kiosk market revenue and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period, owing to the replacement of outdated kiosk systems with more ergonomic models by airports globally. Moreover, the services segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 11.2% from 2023 to 2032, owing to the growing recognition of airport kiosks among airports.

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The common-use self-service (CUSS) kiosk segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period.

Based on the application, the common-use self-service (CUSS) kiosk segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than one fourth of the global airport kiosk market revenue and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period owing to the need for cost-effective solutions that enhance flexibility and operational efficiency for both airports and airlines. Moreover, the automated passport control segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 11.4% from 2023 to 2032, owing to the need to expedite passenger clearance and the global trend toward increased border security.

The large segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period

Based on airport size, the large segment accounted for the largest share in 2022, accounting for nearly two thirds of the global airport kiosk market revenue and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period as large kiosks cater to major airports with advanced functionalities such as automated passport control, common-use self-service (CUSS), retail services, and extensive information provision. These scalable solutions contribute to a seamless passenger experience in major airport terminals. However, the medium segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 10.8% from 2023 to 2032, owing to many medium airports experiencing economic growth, which spurs investment in airport infrastructure and kiosk systems.

North America to maintain its dominance by 2032

Based on region, North America held the highest market share in terms of revenue in 2022, accounting nearly two-fifths of the airport kiosk market revenue and is likely to dominate the market during the forecast period, as U.S. and Canada are major early adopters of integrating advanced technologies in airports to handle increasing air passenger traffic efficiently. However, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 11.1% from 2023 to 2032, as the Asia-Pacific region is rapidly advancing in airport kiosks systems, with countries like China, India, and Japan leading the way through significant investments in systems such as facial recognition, biometrics, and self-service check-in to improve operational efficiency and the passenger experience.

Recent Advances in Airport Kiosk Industry:

In January 2023, NCR VOYIX Corporation partnered with Position Imaging Inc. to offer multilingual support for its iPickup Point platform globally. Amadeus IT Group SA collaborated with Noida International Airport (NIA) in May 2023 to enhance passenger experiences with smart and modern capabilities, including biometric-based Digi Yatra integration. Olea Kiosks Inc. introduced Hypermodular kiosk technology in July 2023, enabling faster pilot testing and implementation of complex kiosk configurations. Materna IPS GmbH secured a contract from Dusseldorf Airport (DUS) in March 2023 to implement self-service check-in and bag drop systems, facilitating on-site check-in and tag printing for passengers. Embross signed contracts with multiple Greenland Airports in May 2023, providing biometric and airport management solutions, including the installation of its cloud-based CUPPS platform. IER, a Bollore Group subsidiary, received a contract in April 2023 from Groupe ADP to supply self-service check-in kiosks and biometric solutions, contributing to increased demand for air transportation. Collins Aerospace entered into a contract with NEOM Bay Airport, Saudi Arabia, in November 2023, providing a suite of connected airport system products.

Key Highlights of the Report:

The study covers over 15 countries, offering segment analysis for each country in terms of value ($ million) for the projected period 2022-2032.

The research incorporates high-quality data, professional opinions, and critical independent perspectives to provide a balanced view of global markets.

An extensive review of over 3,700 product literature, annual reports, industry statements, and comparable materials from major industry participants enhances the understanding of the market."

Procure Complete Research Report (PDF with Qualitative and Quotative Data, Insights, Statistics, Tables, Charts, Figures) - https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/airport-kiosk-market/purchase-options

Leading Market Players: -

Amadeus IT Group SA

Collins Aerospace

Embross

Thales Group

IER

KIOSK Information Systems, Inc.

Materna IPS GmbH

NCR VOYIX Corporation

Olea Kiosks Inc.

SITA

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players of the global airport kiosk market. These players have adopted various strategies such as contract, collaboration, agreements, and others to increase their market penetration and strengthen their position in the industry. The report is helpful in determining the business performance, operating segments, developments, and product portfolios of every market player.

Similar Reports We Have on Aviation Industry:

Smart Airport 4.0 Market Research Report 2023-2032

Smart Airport Market Research Report 2023-2032

Airport Operations Market Research Report 2023-2032

Airport Passenger Security Market Research Report 2023-2032

Advanced Airport Technologies Market Research Report 2023-2032

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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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/airport-kiosk-market-to-reach-5-11-billion-globally-by-2032-at-9-4-cagr-allied-market-research-302028361.html
HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers has announced they recently obtained a $102 million judgment for their client. The firm's client was shot in the chest by a man who had been stalking her and her friends. After following the group for more than a quarter of a mile, threatening them, the 18-year-old gunman shot the client, screamed an obscenity at her, and ran. The client was left injured as her friends tried to support her and the EMTs waited for the scene to be declared safe.

Thankfully, the client not only survived, but recovered and went on to become an EMT herself. She now helps victims of attacks like the one that almost took her life.

Attorney Brian White heard the story and knew he had to help this client get justice. He offered to represent her for free and took her case to court. Although the firm knew the chances of her actually getting money from a settlement were low, they were determined to get her a fair verdict anyway.

At trial, the client was awarded a settlement of $102.7 million, half of which was in punitive damages - damages designed to punish a defendant for particularly heinous behavior. Punitive damages are exceptionally rare to recover in personal injury cases.

Although this client may never see most of that money, this win is important, nonetheless. Her attacker will forever have a $100+ million judgment on his record, and that settlement will also impact his credit. Brian and his team are proud to have achieved such a result for a deserving client.

If you've been injured, contact our law firm to schedule a free consultation with us to discuss your case today.

Contact Information

Brian White

Founder

whitepersonalinjury@gmail.com

(713) 500-5000

SOURCE: Attorney Brian White Personal Injury Lawyers

View the original press release on newswire.com.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 8, 2024) - Mistango River Resources Inc. (CSE: MIS) ("Mistango" or the "Company") announces the commencement of its Phase II drill program at its 89 square kilometre Goldie Project in the Shebandowan Greenstone Belt, 50 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Highlights:

Three holes, totaling 1,430 meters, will test extensions of the adjacent Delta 1 Project mineralization and new target areas.

Hole GLD-23-001 is a vertical hole designed to test the north dipping mineralization from the adjacent Delta 1 property.

Hole GLD-23-002 will test a geophysical target at the south end of the Goldie property.

Hole GLD-23-003 will test an area of previous drilling and high-grade sampling that correlates with interpreted structures and geophysics anomalies.

Jamie Spratt, CEO commented: "We are pleased to commence drilling again on our prospective 89 square kilometre Goldie property in the emerging Shebandowan Greenstone Belt. Our exploration team has carefully designed the program to test extensions of interpreted mineralized structures and new target areas. We look forward to advancing our understanding of the district's geology and favourable structural trend. The program is fully funded, and Mistango remains well positioned with a strong balance sheet that allows us to advance our projects in a disciplined fashion."

Phase II Drill Program Details

The Phase II program consists of three holes for a total of 1,430m. The program has been designed through a comprehensive compilation of detailed sampling, geophysical studies and previous drill results in the district. Geophysical targeting is based in part on the 420 lines kilometre high-resolution airborne magnetic survey that Mistango completed in 2023.

The program aims to confirm and better define the presence of known mineralized structures and test new target areas on the Goldie property.

Hole GLD-23-001 is a vertical hole designed to test the north dipping mineralization from the adjacent Delta 1 property. Hole GLD-23-003 will target an area of previous drilling and high-grade sampling that correlates with interpreted structures from the previously completed magnetic survey. The targeted hole will also be drilled underneath an IP anomaly.

Hole GLD-23-002 will test interpreted structures from previous geophysical studies at the south end of the Goldie property and on trend from known mineralization.

About the Goldie Gold Project

Goldie is within the Shebandowan Greenstone Belt, which also hosts Goldshore Resources Inc.'s (TSXV: GSHR) low-grade, high-tonnage Moss Lake gold deposit, 50 km to the west. Goldie is also adjacent to Delta Resources Limited (TSXV: DLTA) Delta 1 Gold Property.

QP Statement

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Antoine Schwartzmann, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined in "National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Mistango River Resources Inc.

Mistango is a Canadian-based exploration company focused on its Goldie project, 50km west of Thunder Bay, within the Shebandowan Greenstone Belt. Mistango has partnered with Agnico Eagle Mines Limited to develop its Kirkland West and Omega projects under a $60M option agreement, whereby Agnico can earn up to 75% of the Projects. Mistango has a strong balance sheet and key strategic investors, including Agnico.

For further information, please contact us:

Mistango River Resources

Jamie Spratt, CEO

416.435.5199

jspratt@oregroup.ca

Forward-Looking Statements

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain information in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. This information is based on current expectations that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. Mistango assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward looking-statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to Mistango. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in filings by Mistango with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available under Mistango profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/193308

SOURCE: Mistango River Resources Inc.
Highlights include:

Mineral Resource in Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of 2.09 billion lbs of copper equivalent contained in 97.5 million tonnes or 1.75 billion lbs of copper, 845 thousand ounces of gold, 5.5 million ounces of silver

in Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of 2.09 billion lbs of copper equivalent contained in 97.5 million tonnes or

Additionally, Inferred Mineral Resources of 157 million lbs of copper equivalent contained in 11.0 million tonnes, 127 million lbs of copper, 70 thousand ounces of gold 907 thousand ounces of silver



Grade and Mineral Resource Increase: Achieved a remarkable 26% increase in the Copper total grade, an 11% increase in CuEq total grade, and a 16% rise in CuEq pounds compared to the 2021 Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource Estimate.

Significant Starter Pit: A sizable starter pit comprises 19.1 million tonnes at 1.1% CuEq, all in the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources categories.

Favorable Metallurgy: Preliminary test work has confirmed very favorable metallurgical characteristics.

Expansion Potential: Confirmed potential for Opemiska's expansion within the pit, at depth with an out-of-pit (underground) mining scenario, and growth of the satellite pits to the east, as well as in proximity to the Cooke and Robitaille Mines.

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 8, 2024) - QC Copper and Gold Inc. (TSXV: QCCU) ("QC Copper" or the "Company") is pleased to announce upgraded Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) results for the Opemiska Project in Quebec's Chapais-Chibougamau District. This enhanced MRE reflects a significant increase in grade and contained metal, attributed to extensive drilling and our technical team's two-year recompilation and reinterpretation of geological data. The Company also underscores that the qualitative improvements in the database enhance our confidence in the project's geological model and, by extension, the Mineral Resource estimate.

Aside from the increased grade and metal content, these database enhancements hold substantial value, crucial for forthcoming economic and engineering assessments. This meticulously engineered MRE aims to reinforce Opemiska's impressive size, grade, existing infrastructure, and community support as the Company seeks to inform stakeholders and attract investors and strategic interest.

"We are proud to deliver to shareholders an MRE that defines Canada's highest grade copper open pit deposit. This MRE details the immense value of owning such a sizable, high-grade asset with excellent accessibility and infrastructure. Furthermore, QC Copper and Gold's Opemiska is in the heart of NW Quebec, a stable mining jurisdiction, where we see Opemiska as the anchor to revitalizing the storied Chapais-Chibougamau copper-gold district in Eastern Canada. We look forward to Opemiska's continued expansion, development, and significant economic impact for stakeholders in the years ahead," said Stephen Stewart, CEO and Chairman of QC Copper.

Table 1: Opemiska Deposit Summary of Pit Constrained Mineral Resources, 0.15% CuEq cut-off and Out-of-Pit Mineral Resources, 0.8% CuEq cut-off (see footnotes 1-10)

Pit Constrained Tonnes Cu Cu Ag Ag Au Au CuEq CuEq 0.15% CuEq Cut-Off (k) (%) (M lbs) (g/t) (koz) (g/t) (koz) (%) (M lbs) Measured 52,704 0.77 892 1.65 2,800 0.30 500 0.94 1,091 Indicated 34,629 0.77 586 1.31 1,458 0.24 261 0.90 690 M+I 87,333 0.77 1,478 1.52 4,258 0.27 762 0.93 1,780 Inferred 9,791 0.48 104 2.19 689 0.18 55 0.59 128 Out of Pit Tonnes Cu Cu Ag Ag Au Au CuEq CuEq 0.8% CuEq Cut-Off (k) (%) (M lbs) (g/t) (koz) (g/t) (koz) (%) (M lbs) Measured 4,064 1.24 111 3.81 498 0.32 42 1.44 129 Indicated 6,067 1.18 157 3.92 764 0.22 42 1.32 176 M+I 10,130 1.20 268 3.87 1,261 0.26 83 1.37 305 Inferred 1,162 0.89 23 5.84 218 0.40 15 1.15 29 Total Tonnes Cu Cu Ag Ag Au Au CuEq CuEq 0.15% & 0.8% CuEq Cut-Off (k) (%) (M lbs) (g/t) (koz) (g/t) (koz) (%) (M lbs) Measured 56,767 0.80 1,003 1.81 3,297 0.30 542 0.97 1,219 Indicated 40,696 0.83 743 1.70 2,222 0.23 303 0.97 866 M+I 97,463 0.81 1,746 1.76 5,519 0.27 845 0.97 2,085 Inferred 10,953 0.53 127 2.58 907 0.20 70 0.65 157

1. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

2.The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio- political, marketing, or other relevant issues.

3.The Inferred Mineral Resource in this estimate has a lower level of confidence than that applied to an Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be converted to a Mineral Reserve. It is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resource could potentially be upgraded to an Indicated Mineral Resource with continued exploration.

4.The Mineral Resources were estimated in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions (2014) and Best Practices Guidelines (2019) prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by the CIM Council.

5. Metal prices used were US4.00/lb Cu and US$1,875/oz Au, US$24/oz Ag and 0.76 CDN$/US$ FX. Cu, Au and Ag process recovery and smelter payable were 91%, 72% and 72% respectfully. Open pit mining cost was C$2.50/t, processing C$14/t, G&A C$2.25t. Out of pit mining costs were C$68/t.

6. Pit slopes were 50 degrees in rock and 30 degrees in overburden.

7. Historical mined volumes were depleted from the blocks to report the correct tonnages and metal content of the remaining high-grade vein material.

8. CuEq % = Cu % + (Au g/t x 0.54) + (Ag g/t x0.007).

9.Out-of-pit Mineral Resources were selected which exhibit continuity and reasonable potential for extraction by the long hole underground mining method. Narrow strings of grade blocks and orphaned blocks were depleted.

10. Totals may not sum due to rounding.





Figure 1: Graphical Depiction of Opemiska Mineral Resources and Constraining Pit Shell

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9282/193396_7fadddd6742278d9_002full.jpg





Figure 2: Plan View of Constraining Pit Shell and Potential High-Grade Starter Pits

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9282/193396_7fadddd6742278d9_003full.jpg

Starter Pit

A conceptual starter pit has been calculated for the Opemiska Deposit with 19.1 million Measured and Indicated tonnes at 1.1% CuEq. A high-grade starter pit provides more options in development scenarios as it allows for a potential short payback period or a staged development scenario, which potentially improves the project's economics.

Table 2: Opemiska Deposit Summary of Starter Pit Constrained Mineral Resources, 0.15% CuEq cut-off

Pit Constrained Tonnes Cu Cu Ag Ag Au Au CuEq CuEq 0.15% CuEq Cut-Off (k) (%) (M lbs) (g/t) (koz) (g/t) (koz) (%) (M lbs) Measured 11,684 0.81 207 1.96 736 0.38 142 1.02 264 Indicated 7,370 0.94 153 2.40 569 0.43 101 1.19 193 M+I 19,054 0.86 360 2.13 1,306 0.40 243 1.09 456

Out of Pit Resource

A significant out-of-pit Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource has been added to the Opemiska Deposit with 268 million lbs of copper, 83 thousand ounces of gold, and 1.3 million ounces of silver, or 305 million lbs of copper equivalent contained in 10.1 million tonnes. Additionally, there are out-of-pit Inferred Mineral Resources of 23 million lbs of copper, 15 thousand ounces of gold, and 218 thousand ounces of silver, or 29 million lbs of copper equivalent contained in 1.2 million tonnes.

Geological Data and Reinterpretation

The Mineral Resource Estimate on the Opemiska Deposit is based on a drill hole database containing 16,570 surface and underground diamond drill holes totalling 1,042,668 metres of core drilling and 348,492 assays. All mine-era drilling was converted from mine grid to UTM using transformation equations calculated by a land surveyor based on differential GPS measurements of many located drill casings.

All historical mine excavations and stopes were digitized in mine grid from numerous maps, vertical and longitudinal sections, and solid wireframes were built and converted to UTM coordinates. All stopes were digitized down to the bottom of the Perry (820m depth) and Springer (715 metres) mines and formed the basis of the reinterpretation of the geology of the Opemiska Deposit. Completely new mineralized envelopes were defined using a manually adjusted implicit modelling technique for the deposit based on a structural model defined in 2022 in areas of historical mining and areas of known mineralization that could not be mined underground. As a result, the deposit tonnage decreased somewhat. However, some out-of-pit Mineral Resources were defined at a 0.8% CuEq cut-off that identified a significant tonnage beneath the conceptual pit that will be the object of further drilling along with some satellite zones east of the pit and on the adjacent Cook-Robitaille Option Property.

"With a total resource grade of 0.78% Cu, Opemiska is Canada's highest grade open pit copper deposit with resources greater than 1 billion pounds of contained copper. This updated Mineral Resource for Opemiska is a major step towards advancing the project to mine development. The grade and reconciliation of the new Mineral Resource has held up to a much more rigorous interpretation due to our two-year initiative. Our team delivered a very high-quality product that details very high in-pit grades and can carry the project through to a Feasibility Study. Our next step will be to establish the economic parameters for a conceptual mining operation through a Preliminary Economic Assessment and simultaneously, QC Copper will continue drilling at depth on Perry and in satellites zone that can provide additional near-surface Mineral Resources to enhance the development of Opemiska," said Charles Beaudry (M.Sc., P.Geo. geo.), Vice President of Exploration and Director of QC Copper and Qualified Person according to NI 43-101.

Sensitivity to Copper Equivalent Cut-Off Grades

Table 3: Pit Constrained Block Model Sensitivity at Various CuEq Cut-Off Grades

Classification CuEq % Tonnes Cu Cu Ag Ag Au Au CuEq CuEq Cut-Off (k) (%) (M lbs) (g/t) (koz) (g/t) (koz) (%) (M lbs) Measured 1.00 16,797 1.43 529 2.98 1,612 0.58 315 1.76 653 0.90 19,689 1.33 579 2.80 1,772 0.54 340 1.64 714 0.80 23,191 1.24 634 2.61 1,948 0.49 366 1.52 779 0.70 27,156 1.15 689 2.43 2,124 0.45 393 1.41 845 0.60 31,864 1.06 745 2.25 2,306 0.41 420 1.30 912 0.50 36,881 0.98 796 2.09 2,473 0.38 446 1.20 973 0.40 42,039 0.90 838 1.94 2,615 0.35 468 1.11 1,024 0.30 46,932 0.84 869 1.80 2,720 0.32 485 1.03 1,062 0.20 51,067 0.79 887 1.70 2,783 0.30 497 0.96 1,084 0.15 52,704 0.77 892 1.65 2,800 0.30 500 0.94 1,091 0.10 53,872 0.75 895 1.62 2,809 0.29 503 0.92 1,094 Indicated 1.00 10,684 1.48 349 2.22 762 0.50 171 1.77 416 0.90 12,380 1.39 380 2.13 847 0.46 183 1.66 452 0.80 14,450 1.30 413 2.04 946 0.42 196 1.54 491 0.70 16,765 1.21 446 1.94 1,046 0.39 209 1.43 529 0.60 19,376 1.12 479 1.84 1,145 0.36 222 1.33 566 0.50 22,406 1.03 510 1.73 1,242 0.32 233 1.22 603 0.40 25,685 0.95 539 1.61 1,332 0.30 244 1.12 635 0.30 29,306 0.87 563 1.49 1,399 0.27 252 1.03 663 0.20 33,014 0.80 581 1.36 1,445 0.24 259 0.94 683 0.15 34,629 0.77 586 1.31 1,458 0.24 261 0.90 690 0.10 35,961 0.74 589 1.27 1,466 0.23 263 0.88 693 Measured

and

Indicated 1.00 27,482 1.45 878 2.69 2,373 0.55 486 1.77 1,069 0.90 32,069 1.36 959 2.54 2,619 0.51 523 1.65 1,165 0.80 37,640 1.26 1,047 2.39 2,894 0.47 563 1.53 1,270 0.70 43,921 1.17 1,135 2.24 3,169 0.43 602 1.42 1,373 0.60 51,239 1.08 1,224 2.10 3,451 0.39 642 1.31 1,478 0.50 59,286 1.00 1,306 1.95 3,715 0.36 679 1.21 1,575 0.40 67,724 0.92 1,377 1.81 3,947 0.33 711 1.11 1,659 0.30 76,238 0.85 1,432 1.68 4,119 0.30 737 1.03 1,725 0.20 84,081 0.79 1,468 1.56 4,228 0.28 756 0.95 1,768 0.15 87,333 0.77 1,478 1.52 4,258 0.27 762 0.93 1,780 0.10 89,833 0.75 1,484 1.48 4,275 0.27 766 0.90 1,787







Inferred











1.00 1,342 1.40 41 6.68 288 0.55 24 1.74 52 0.90 1,578 1.31 46 6.22 315 0.50 25 1.62 57 0.80 1,901 1.21 51 5.65 346 0.45 27 1.49 63 0.70 2,315 1.11 57 5.11 381 0.40 30 1.36 69 0.60 2,912 0.99 64 4.53 425 0.35 33 1.21 78 0.50 3,763 0.87 72 3.97 481 0.30 37 1.06 88 0.40 5,036 0.74 83 3.37 546 0.26 42 0.91 101 0.30 6,506 0.64 92 2.91 608 0.22 47 0.78 112 0.20 8,531 0.53 100 2.42 664 0.19 53 0.65 123 0.15 9,791 0.48 104 2.19 689 0.18 55 0.59 128 0.10 11,258 0.43 107 1.96 708 0.16 57 0.53 132

Reasonable Prospects for Eventual Economic Extraction

A Mineral Resource is a concentration of solid material of economic interest near the surface of the Earth in such form, grade or quality and quantity that there are reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction (RPEEE). To satisfy the requirement of RPEEE by open pit mining, a reporting pit shell was determined based on conceptual parameters and costs (table 1). Copper and gold recovery will be achieved using conventional crushing, grinding, gravity, and flotation to produce a copper concentrate that could be shipped to a smelter for processing.

Outstanding Risk Factors

The QC Copper technical team has identified a number of outstanding issues that are susceptible of adding to the downside risk of the Opemiska Project including but not limited to the following issues:

The MRE conceptual pit encroaches on the town of Chapais, which raises social acceptance issues, and potential additional development capital costs and trade-off studies will need to be evaluated in future engineering and economic studies.

None of the mine assays (from 1953-1991) can be validated by re-assaying since no drill core remains for the holes drilled during mining operations. Limited twin-hole drilling for the 2021 MRE support the interpretation that mine assays were of acceptable quality. However, assaying methods changed over time and a more detailed verification program will be required as the project moves through its development phases.

The mine copper and gold assays near the pit's lower cut-off grades, particularly those performed prior to 1977, are of lower quality, which can increase the risk of misclassification near the cut-off grade. This problem will be progressively addressed as the number of modern drill holes in the deposit increases so that that the influence of current assays eventually outweigh the old mine assays.

Geotechnical issues, including open stopes within the eastern pit wall, and the western contact of the Venture Sill, which dips at a 60-degree angle to the east, that is close to the slope of the pit wall, may create additional risks. The northeast-trending Gwillim Fault, which has an apron of gravel on its south side due to late vertical movement, may increase the risk of flooding if it contains an aquifer. Otherwise, the host rocks at Opemiska are considered to be very competent and favourable for open pit excavation.

The positions in three dimensions of the historical stopes at the Springer and Perry mines have been digitized from georeferenced plans and cross-sections, however, due to normal and expected imprecision, some of the stopes are neither totally enclosed in the mineralized envelopes or totally enclose the mined-out portions of the copper-gold veins which creates some downside risk on grade compared to reality. Following a review of the issue, the Company decided that the issue is manageable at this stage of the project but that a review and re-digitization of an undetermined proportion of the stopes will be required as the project advances through the development process.

All these issues feature in the recommendations in the upcoming Technical Report and will be included in the going-forward development plan.

About the Opemiska Copper Complex

The Opemiska Copper Complex is adjacent to Chapais, Quebec, within the Chibougamau district. Opemiska is also within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt and within the boundaries of the Province of Quebec's Plan Nord, which promotes and funds infrastructure and development of natural resource projects. The 100%-QC Copper owned Opemiska Property covers 24,544 hectares and includes the past-producing Springer, Perry, Robitaille and Cooke mines, previously-owned and operated by Falconbridge between 1953-1991. The project hosts excellent on-site infrastructure, including a power station and direct access to Highway 113 and the Canadian National Railway. The Cooke and Robitaille Mines are situated on the Cooke-Robitaille option claims and QC Copper is working through its obligations regarding the option and has the financial resources and expects to exercise the option in due course. All the other claims that comprise the Greater Opemiska Project are wholly owned by QC Copper and Gold Inc.

Mineral Resource Classification

Material within the constraining pit shell was classified according to Mineral Resource confidence classifications defined in CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. Data quality and quantity, geological and grade continuity, and confidence in the grade and bulk density estimates were considered when classifying the Mineral Resource. Mineral Resources are classified as either Measured, Indicated or Inferred. Measured, Indicated, and Inferred Mineral Resources were determined from respective search ranges of 30, 40 and 120 metres with a respective minimum of seven, four and one composites.

The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by risks set forth in any QC Copper and Gold's Management Discussion and Analysis Reports and other filings made with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedarplus.ca.

QP Statement

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Charles Beaudry, P.Geo and geo., Director and Vice President Exploration for QC Copper & Gold, and Eugene Puritch, P.Eng., FEC, CET of P&E Mining Consultants Inc., both Qualified Persons, as defined in "National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects." Mr. Puritch is independent of QC Copper & Gold.

QAQC Statement

All drilling performed by QC Copper and Gold was done mainly using NQ sized drill rods and were stabilized to minimize deviations. When old open or backfilled stopes were expected to be intersected in drilling the holes, they were started in NQ and telescoped to BQ after the stope, or started in HQ and reduced to NQ and then BQ, when a second stope was encountered to ensure completion of the drill hole. All drill core is stored in Chapais under constant video surveillance. All pulps and mineralized rejects have been preserved.

For the exploration undertaken by QC Copper & Gold, all assay batches are accompanied by rigorous Quality Assurance procedures, including the insertion of certified reference materials and blanks and duplicate verification assays in a secondary laboratory. Quality Control results, including the laboratory's control samples, are evaluated immediately upon reception of batch results and corrections are implemented immediately if necessary. All drill collars since 2019 were positioned in UTM coordinates and post-drilling surveyed using differential GPS instrumentation. The historical mine drill holes were surveyed on surface and underground at the time of drilling by mine personnel using conventional surveying methods. The drill hole collars for 2019 were oriented by compass but since 2021 accurate non-magnetic orientation of collars was achieved using the gyroscopic Azimuth Aligner by Minnovare. Downhole deviation surveys were done initially with Flex-it instrument by Reflex instrument at 30m intervals and from 2021 with the Champ Gyro instrument manufactured by Axis Mining Technology. All erroneous azimuths caused by excessive magnetism or other causes were purged from the database. A systematic bulk density measurement program using the water displacement method was implemented to measure the bulk density of all rock types. A total of 1,178 bulk density measurements were done since the start of drilling in 2019 drilling program, including 1,028 measurements for the Initial Mineral Resource Estimate ("IMRE") in 2021 and an additional 150 measurements post IMRE. No bulk densities are available for the vendor drill holes or historical mine drill holes. A specific susceptibility measurement protocol was also implemented to estimate the relative abundance of magnetite in the Ventures Sill's variably magnetic rocks. A focused optical and acoustic televiewer surveying program was done at the end of the program to obtain correctly oriented structural measurements.

For the Mineral Resource database, additional QAQC measures included drill core duplicates. For the historical drilling assay verification, measures comprised drill core resampling for the holes drilled by the vendor in 2010, 2015 and 2016 and for the historical Falconbridge mine era drilling where no drill core remains, a number of holes were collared near the location and orientation of mine-era surface drill holes and results compared with the assays from the mine. The results of these measurements confirm that the assays from the vendor period are equivalent to QC Copper assays and that the mine era assays are demonstrably equivalent for the range of values from the lower detection limit up to approximately 2.0% Cu which represents over 90% of the assays in the Mineral Resource database. Above this grade, the number of samples in the twinned data is small, and the variance is high, making it challenging to compare datasets.

It is challenging to obtain good validation of historical assays using the twin-hole drilling method for the mine drill holes that were not sampled extensively and were sampled only where mineralization was visible. Further validation of historical mine assays will require high-density drilling in small zones that have not been mined but were drilled sufficiently by Falconbridge to allow comparison of assay tenor, independent from the mine assays and from QC Copper drilling in the same volume. The evidence from twin-drilling, albeit imperfect, supports the interpretation that the assays for the bulk of the mine drilling are comparable to modern-day QAQC-controlled assays. After reviewing available data, the assays undertaken by QC Copper, the vendor, and the mine are considered acceptable for estimating a Mineral Resource on the Opemiska Project.

For information and updates on QC Copper and Gold, please visit: www.qccopper.com

And please follow us on Twitter @qccoppergold

To speak to the Company directly, please contact:

Stephen Stewart, Chief Executive Officer

Phone: 416.644.1567

Email sstewart@oregroup.ca

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the TSX Venture Exchange policies) accept responsibility for this release's adequacy or accuracy. Certain information in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. This information is based on current expectations subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. QC Copper and Gold Inc. assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward looking-statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to QC Copper and Gold Inc. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in QC Copper and Gold Inc. filings with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available under QC Copper and Gold Inc. profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/193396

SOURCE: QC Copper and Gold Inc
Leading global managed solutions provider starts 2024 with a new powerful positioning to match its expanded global footprint after years of explosive growth

TRG, a leading global managed solutions provider, proudly announces the launch of its invigorated brand and dynamic new website. As a privately owned powerhouse, TRG has been at the forefront of offering bold and innovative endpoint solutions for complex operational challenges for more than two decades.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108116591/en/

"Our refreshed brand now mirrors the evolution of our services and our expansive global footprint," said Sean Kennedy, TRG CEO. "Over the last year we've doubled down on scaling both geographically and in talent that strengthens our position as an industry leader in the endpoint management space, and our new brand and website now reflect that."

TRG's recently acquired companies, Symec in the UK and Europe along with Real World Communications in Canada, will officially be rebranded under the new TRG brand. With these recent acquisitions and expansions, TRG now ensures exceptional device-agnostic support throughout the entire endpoint lifecycle, enhancing operational efficiency for businesses worldwide.

Masters of Enterprise Endpoint Management

Specializing in enterprise mobility, industrial mobility and retail technology solutions, TRG helps enterprise organizations keep their operations running effectively and efficiently. From smartphones, laptops, printers, tablets, rugged handhelds and all the software that runs them TRG helps companies evaluate, procure, deploy, manage and dispose of their endpoints.

With a comprehensive service portfolio, TRG supports an organization's endpoints, which could be any device with an operating system at every stage of the lifecycle.

Forward Logistics: Rolling out new endpoints with ease from purchase to installation.

Rolling out new endpoints with ease from purchase to installation. Reverse Logistics : Repairing or replacing your endpoints without a loss in uptime.

: Repairing or replacing your endpoints without a loss in uptime. Maintenance and Support: Supporting your team so your endpoints are always running at full speed.

Supporting your team so your endpoints are always running at full speed. Unified Endpoint Management: Keeping all your endpoints' software up to date and you informed with the right analytics and data.

Keeping all your endpoints' software up to date and you informed with the right analytics and data. Networking Services: Helping your endpoints stay connected with the right wireless, wired and surveillance solutions.

Helping your endpoints stay connected with the right wireless, wired and surveillance solutions. Media and Consumables: Providing standard and custom labeling solutions so you can track and manage all your endpoints and inventory.

Providing standard and custom labeling solutions so you can track and manage all your endpoints and inventory. ServiceHub: Providing real-time equipment analytics through our online asset management portal.

Providing real-time equipment analytics through our online asset management portal. White Labeling: Serving as a trusted extension of your internal teams to seamlessly expand your existing solutions.

Serving as a trusted extension of your internal teams to seamlessly expand your existing solutions. Cybersecurity: Protecting every endpoint with cybersecurity solutions by Inversion6.

Protecting every endpoint with cybersecurity solutions by Inversion6. Financing Leasing: Maintaining cost-effective solutions with River Capital Finance's in-house financing.

"We are privately owned so we view our customers as our stakeholders, and we want to give them the best, most extensive services available," said Kennedy. "Our customers range from the leading international airline to the largest athleisure brand in the world, and they work with us for one reason: We do whatever it takes to make them successful."

About The Brand Launch

TRG unveiled a new mission statement, logo, tagline and international website this week that levels up its positioning.

The newly coined mission statement To lead the future of enterprise endpoint technology and its new tagline: Endpoint Perfection are both nods to the company's obsession of solving larger scale business challenges for its customers and its unwavering commitment to never settle.

The new logo is modernized and has shifted to a monochromatic color palette that differentiates the brand in the managed services provider space.

The company also rolled out a new website available in five different languages that now highlights its comprehensive services and impressive partnerships with leading OEMs.

"We often get asked who we consider to be our competitors in the industry," Amy Martin, Chief Marketing Officer stated. "Our answer is always the same -- we stand alone. And now we have a brand that represents that mindset and a mission that will drive our innovation roadmap for years to come."

About TRG

TRG is a global, privately owned managed solutions provider that manages the full lifecycle of every enterprise endpoint. Our mission is to lead the future of enterprise technology. To learn more, visit www.trgsolutions.com.

TRG is owned by TruWest Holdings, a private holding company that scales companies focused on managing, selling and supporting enterprise technologies.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108116591/en/

Contacts:

Katelyn Stiver

o: 440.348.9810 c: 330.418.5197

kstiver@truwestco.com
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The automobile sector is experiencing a significant expansion in the integration of electronics due to advancements in electric cars, autonomous driving, and smart networking. ABF is a popular option for semiconductor packaging in the automotive industry, which promotes market growth. This is due to its ability to fulfil the strict criteria of car electronics, such as thermal stability and dependability.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/abf-ajinomoto-build-up-film-market-size-was-valued-at-usd-537-5-million-in-2024-and-is-anticipated-to-grow-usd-845-4-million-by-2030-at-a-cagr-of-7-8--valuates-reports-302028431.html
NOVI, Mich., Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Danlaw, Inc., a renowned pioneer in the field of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology, is thrilled to announce its acquisition of Australia-based Cohda Wireless. This strategic move marks a significant milestone in Danlaw's global expansion initiative, aimed at advancing connected vehicle safety and smart city solutions. Since 2004, Cohda has been widely recognized for its cutting-edge V2X technology solutions that have consistently set industry standards. The acquisition of Cohda by Danlaw reflects a commitment to innovation and a shared vision of creating a more connected and safer future for vehicles, cities, and underground mining operations.

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Key benefits of the Danlaw-Cohda partnership include:

Enhanced Safety Solutions: With a broader range of technologies and expertise, Danlaw and Cohda will continue to provide increasingly robust safety solutions for connected vehicles, reducing accidents and saving lives.

Improved Connectivity & Location Accuracy: The integration of Cohda's V2X-Locate technology along with its ETSI, North American, and China based V2X communication stacks, will offer better positioning accuracy and connectivity solutions for vehicles, enabling real-time communication between vehicles and infrastructure, pedestrians, and other road users.

Smart City Advancements: The partnership will lead to the development of innovative smart city solutions, facilitating more efficient traffic management, reduced congestion, and enhanced urban planning on a global scale.

Accelerated Innovation: Danlaw's commitment to innovation will be further bolstered with access to Cohda's talent pool and industry leading V2X intellectual property, fostering the creation of groundbreaking V2X technology solutions for automotive OEMs, smart city initiatives and underground mining programs.

Global Footprint: Combining Danlaw's strong presence in North America and India with Cohda's well-established reach in Europe and APAC, the acquisition notably reinforces the global footprint of both companies, leading to localized assistance and solutions across all key regions, ensuring a truly global and responsive partnership.

Raju Dandu, Danlaw's Founder-Chairman said, "This is truly exciting for the Danlaw family, as we see the combination of resources of these two great companies, ushering in new levels of transportation safety and efficiency, with the potential to transform mobility across the globe for the betterment of society."

Further to Raju's comment, Danlaw's CEO, Tom Rzeznik stated, "This acquisition is a testament to Danlaw's dedication to creating a safer and smarter future for transportation and urban environments. With Cohda's expertise on board, we are confident that our combined efforts will accelerate advancements in V2X technology."

Dr. Paul Gray, Cohda's CEO added, "We are thrilled to join forces with Danlaw, a company that shares our global commitment and passion for innovation and safety. Together, we are poised to lead the way in V2X technology and make a lasting impact on the industry."

This acquisition affirms Danlaw's commitment to maintaining and enhancing the quality of service and support that Cohda's existing customers have come to expect. The acquisition of Cohda by Danlaw is effective immediately, and both companies are working closely to leverage their combined strengths for the benefit of the automotive industry, smart cities, and mining operations.

ABOUT DANLAW, INC.:

Danlaw is a global leader in connected car technology and automotive electronics. We focus our efforts on research and development to create intelligent solutions for an increasingly connected world. Our team is dedicated to revolutionizing mobility by driving innovation and bringing people together. Danlaw's 500+ engineering professionals have been providing automotive embedded electronics solutions to OEMs, tier-1 suppliers, and Smart City initiatives for 40 years. Danlaw has engineering and manufacturing facilities in the USA, UK, EU, and India.

ABOUT COHDA WIRELESS:

Cohda Wireless is a global leader in the development of Connected Vehicles and Connected Autonomous Vehicle software with proven applications for Smart City, Mining and other environments. Cohda's technology connects vehicles with infrastructure and pedestrians to make our streets, cities and working environments safer, smarter and greener. Cohda is headquartered in Australia and has offices in Europe, China and the USA.

Cohda Wireless's innovative software solutions enable autonomous vehicles to connect with other vehicles and with Smart City infrastructure. These connections span Vehicle-to-Vehicle, Vehicle-to-Infrastructure, and Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (collectively called V2X), and allow CAVs to 'talk' to each other, Smart Cities, and vulnerable road users to avoid accidents, reduce congestion and be more efficient. Cohda partners with Tier 1 Automotive Suppliers, ITS Equipment Vendors, and Mining Equipment Technology and Services (METS) vendors to provide complete hardware/software solutions to Car Makers, Smart Cities, and Mine Operators, respectively. Cohda's products are used widely in locations including the USA, Europe, Australia, Japan, Africa, Middle East, China, Singapore and Korea.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/danlaw-inc-acquires-industry-leading-v2x-technology-provider-cohda-wireless-302027545.html
WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Community Redevelopment Inc. ("CRDV"), A significant player in the DC metro real estate market, is pleased to announce that David M. Nissman has agreed to join our Board of Directors. Mr. Nissman was appointed by President George W. Bush as the 19th U.S. Attorney for the District of the Virgin Islands and following his retirement in 2004, the U.S. Attorney's Office Building on St. Croix was named the David Marshall Nissman Justice Center. He's also enjoyed much success in the private sector, having been a principal member of businesses ranging from finance to clean tech energy.

Our Chairman & CEO, Richard Balles, recently stated "I am excited to welcome David Nissman to the CRDV team. He has an impeccable reputation within the legal/regulatory community which will serve us well in terms of compliance and oversight. In addition to real estate development, our next vertical opportunity is in the finance sector, and I strongly believe David will help us to make this a reality."

David Nissman stated "I look forward to helping CRDV accomplish its objectives. CRDV can become a powerful economic engine as it expands its operations into new markets and new areas of development."

About Community Redevelopment

Community Redevelopment Inc. is a full-service real estate company with a management team that has extensive experience in acquiring, developing, constructing, and managing high-quality multifamily, and retail properties. The Company is focused on all aspects of the urban real estate development cycle including land development, design build, property operations, and site redevelopment. In addition to the ownership of our operating property portfolio, Community Redevelopment plans to develop and build desirable properties for its own account and through joint ventures with affiliated and unaffiliated partners.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include but are not limited to statements identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "targets," "projects" and similar expressions. The statements in this release are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences, including, but not limited to, results of clinical trials and/or other studies, the challenges inherent in new product development initiatives, the effect of any competitive products, our ability to license and protect our intellectual property, our ability to raise additional capital in the future that is necessary to maintain our business, changes in government policy and/or regulation, potential litigation by or against us, any governmental review of our products or practices, as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our latest reports filed with the SEC. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement or any information contained in this press release or in other public disclosures at any time. Finally, the investing public is reminded that the only announcements or information about Community Redevelopment Inc. which are condoned by the Company must emanate from the Company itself and bear our name as its Source.

For more information on Community Redevelopment Inc., please contact us at 866 692-6847 or see our website at www.comredev.com

SOURCE: Community Redevelopment, Inc.

View the original press release on accesswire.com
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Fortitude Gold Corp. (OTCQB:FTCO) (the "Company") declares its monthly dividend of $0.04 per common share payable on January 31, 2024 to shareholders of record as of January 19, 2024. Fortitude Gold is a gold producer, developer, and explorer with operations in Nevada, U.S.A. offering investors exposure to both gold production and dividend yield.

Dividends may vary in amount and consistency or be discontinued at the Board of Directors' discretion depending on variables including but not limited to operational cash flows, Company development requirements and strategies, construction, spot gold and silver prices, taxation, general market conditions and other factors described in the Company's public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

About Fortitude Gold Corp.:

Fortitude Gold is a U.S. based gold producer targeting projects with low operating costs, high margins, and strong returns on capital. The Company's strategy is to grow organically, remain debt-free and distribute substantial dividends. The Company's Nevada Mining Unit consists of five high-grade gold properties located in the Walker Lane Mineral Belt and a sixth high-grade gold property in west central Nevada. The Isabella Pearl gold mine, located on the Isabella Pearl mineralized trend, is currently in production. Nevada, U.S.A. is among the world's premier mining friendly jurisdictions.

Cautionary Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. If you are risk-averse you should NOT buy shares in Fortitude Gold Corp. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. When used in this press release, the words "plan", "target", "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the statements regarding the Company's strategy, future plans for production, future expenses and costs, future liquidity and capital resources, and estimates of mineralized material are forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to the Company on the date of this press release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this press release.

Contact:

Greg Patterson

719-717-9825

greg.patterson@fortitudegold.com

www.Fortitudegold.com

SOURCE: Fortitude Gold Corporation

View the original press release on accesswire.com
Regulatory News:

Forsee Power (FR0014005SB3 FORSE) (Paris;FORSE), the expert in intelligent battery systems for light and heavy electric vehicles, announces the appointment of Franck Meyer to the position of Chief Financial Officer. He also joins the Group's executive committee.

A graduate of Audencia and INSEAD, Franck Meyer has more than 20 years of experience in international finance in the energy and industrial sectors. Before joining Forsee Power, he held the position of Chief Financial Officer for 5 years at Akuo, a company specializing in the development and operation of renewable energy parks.

Franck Meyer's mission will be to optimize Forsee Power's financial management, in a context of rapid growth, with the aim of positioning the company as a world leader in its target markets.

Christophe Gurtner, Founder CEO of Forsee Power, declares: "We are delighted to welcome Franck Meyer to Forsee Power as CFO. His financial expertise in a complex international context and his experience in the field of sustainable energy will be very useful to us in achieving our objectives, in particular accelerating our trajectory towards profitable growth.

"I am extremely enthusiastic about joining such a dynamic industrial group as Forsee Power. My membership in this company dedicated to the decarbonization of transport reflects my deep conviction in the need to catalyze change towards cleaner mobility solutions. concludes Franck Meyer

About Forsee Power

Forsee Power is an industrial group specializing in smart battery systems for sustainable electric transport (light vehicles, off-highway vehicles, buses, trucks, and trains). A major player in Europe, Asia and North America, the Group designs, assembles, and supplies energy management systems based on cells that are among the most robust in the market and provides installation, commissioning, and maintenance on site and remotely. More than 2,500 buses and 130,000 LEV have been equipped with Forsee Power's batteries. The Group also offers financing solutions (battery leasing) and second-life solutions for transport batteries. Forsee Power and its 850 employees are committed to sustainable development and the Group has obtained the Gold medal from leading sustainability rating agency EcoVadis. For more information: www.forseepower.com @ForseePower

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108650798/en/

Contacts:

Forsee Power

Sophie Tricaud

VP Corporate affairs and Sustainability

investors@forseepower.com

NewCap

Thomas Grojean

Quentin Masse

Investor Relations

forseepower@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

NewCap

Nicolas Merigeau

Media Relations

forseepower@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 94 98
Article 223-16 of the General Regulations of the Financial Markets Authority

(AMF Autorite des Marches Financiers)

Regulatory News:

MaaT Pharma (EURONEXT: MAAT the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company and a leader in the development of Microbiome Ecosystem TherapiesTM (MET) dedicated to enhancing survival of patients with cancer, today published the number of shares comprising the share capital and the total number of voting rights (Article L. 233-8 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) and Article 223-16 of the General Regulations of French Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF)) on December 31, 2023.

Listing place: Euronext Paris

ISIN code: FR0012634822

Website: www.maatpharma.com

Date Total number of

shares comprising the

share capital Total number of

theoretical

voting rights (1) Total number

of effective

voting rights (2) 12/31/2023 11 603 418 11 603 418 11 579 182

(1) In accordance with Article 223-11 of the AMF General Regulation, this number is calculated on the basis of all shares to which voting rights are attached, including shares whose voting rights have been suspended. (2) Effective voting rights correspond to the total number of voting rights that may be used at a General Meeting. The total number of effective voting rights is calculated without taking into account the shares with suspended voting rights.

About MaaT Pharma

MaaT Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company, has established a complete approach to restoring patient-microbiome symbiosis in oncology. Committed to treating cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, MaaT Pharma has launched, in March 2022, an open-label, single arm Phase 3 clinical trial in patients with acute GvHD, following the achievement of its proof of concept in a Phase 2 trial. Its powerful discovery and analysis platform, gutPrint, enables the identification of novel disease targets, evaluation of drug candidates, and identification of biomarkers for microbiome-related conditions. The company's Microbiome Ecosystem Therapies are produced through a standardized cGMP manufacturing and quality control process to safely deliver the full diversity of the microbiome, in liquid and oral formulations. MaaT Pharma benefits from the commitment of world-leading scientists and established relationships with regulators to support the integration of the use of microbiome therapies in clinical practice. MaaT Pharma is listed on Euronext Paris (ticker: MAAT).

Forward-looking Statements

All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release about future events are subject to (i) change without notice and (ii) factors beyond the Company's control. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as "target," "believe," "expect," "aim," "intend," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "project," "will," "can have," "likely," "should," "would," "could" and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control that could cause the Company's actual results or performance to be materially different from the expected results or performance expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108706468/en/

Contacts:

MaaT Pharma Investor Relations

Guilhaume Debroas, Ph.D.

Head of Investor Relations

+33 6 16 48 92 50

invest@maat-pharma.com

MaaT Pharma Media Relations

Pauline Richaud

Senior PR Corporate

Communications Manager

+33 6 14 06 45 92

media@maat-pharma.com

Trophic Communications

Corporate Communications

Stephanie MAY or

Priscillia PERRIN

+49 151 7441 6179

maat@trophic.eu
Redde Northgate Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, January 08

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION

08 January 2024

REDDE NORTHGATE PLC

("Redde Northgate" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Transaction in Own Shares

Redde Northgate plc (LSE:REDD) announces that on 08 January 2024 it purchased the following number of its own shares to be held in treasury:

Class of shares : Ordinary shares of 50p ("shares") Number of shares purchased : 50,000 Weighted average purchase price paid : 358.375 pence per share Highest purchase price paid : 360 pence per share Lowest purchase price paid : 356.75 pence per share

Following the above transaction, the Company's issued share capital consists of 246,091,423 ordinary shares of 50p each, of which 17,590,071 ordinary shares are held in treasury, and 1,000,000 preference shares of 50p each which do not carry any rights to vote. Therefore the total number of voting rights in the Company is 228,501,352 which may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation) as incorporated into UK domestic law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by Numis Securities Limited on behalf of the Company as part of the Company's buyback programme.

Schedule of Purchases - Individual Transactions (as at 08 January 2024)

Number of shares

purchased Transaction price

(GB pence per share) Time of transaction Transaction reference number Venue 25,000 25,000 356.75 360.00 09:31:28 16:03:23 00068350423TRLO0 00068365011TRLO0 LSE LSE

Notes

This announcement is made in accordance with the requirements of Listing Rule 12.4.6.

For further information contact:

Buchanan

David Rydell/Jamie Hooper/Hannah Ratcliff +44 (0) 207 466 5000

Notes to Editors:

Redde Northgate is the leading integrated mobility solutions platform providing services across the vehicle lifecycle. The Company offers integrated mobility solutions to businesses, fleet operators, insurers, OEMs and other customers across seven key areas: vehicle rental, vehicle data, accident management, vehicle repairs, fleet management, service and maintenance, vehicle ancillary services and vehicle sales.

The Company's core purpose is to keep its customers mobile, whether through meeting their regular mobility needs or by servicing and supporting them when unforeseen events occur. With its considerable scale and reach, Redde Northgate's mission is to offer a market-leading customer proposition and drive enhanced returns for shareholders by creating value through sustainable compounding growth. The Group aims to achieve this through the delivery of its strategic framework of Focus, Drive and Broaden.

Redde Northgate services its customers through a network and diversified fleet of over 120,000 owned and leased vehicles, supporting over 600,000 managed vehicles, with more than 170 workshop, body shop and rental locations across the UK, Ireland and Spain and a specialist team of over 6,000 automotive services professionals.

Further information please visit the Company's website:
Michel Kisfaludi appointed Deputy Managing Director, Commercial Director for France

Europcar Mobility Group announces today the appointment of Xavier Corouge as Managing Director of Europcar Mobility Group France and Benelux, covering all activities and rental brands of the Group (Europcar, Goldcar, Ubeeqo) in this perimeter.

Having started in this new role on January 2, he is taking over from Isabel Martinez, who has been appointed Deputy Management Director, Commercial Director for Europcar Mobility Group Iberia.

Xavier Corouge joined Europcar Mobility Group in2013, where he started as Group Digital Director. He then joined the Group Executive Committee as Chief Digital and Marketing Officer in 2017, then Managing Director of the Urban Mobility Business Unit, and from September 2020, as Chief Marketing, Digital and Customer Officer.

Xavier Corouge has over 25 years' experience in the mobility and travel sector, with previous experience at SNCF Connect and Tech and Thomas Cook. He has an in-depth knowledge of the car rental industry and in leveraging digital to develop business performance. His experience will be key to supporting business growth objectives in France, the Group's historic birthplace.

In these new developments, he will be supported by Michel Kisfaludi as Deputy Managing Director, Commercial Director France. Until recently, he was Commercial Director for the Iberia perimeter of the Group, acting ad interim as Managing Director.

Michel Kisfaludi joined the Group 8 years ago, as Director of Operations for Spain, then Operations Director of the Low Cost Business Unit. A French national, he has an international career, with a range of experience covering operations, marketing, sales and business development.

The appointment of two leading professionals in the vehicle rental industry, combining commercial and operational expertise, demonstrates the Group's ambitions for its France perimeter.

Commenting on his appointment, Xavier Corouge said:

 I'm thrilled to be taking charge of our Group's activities in France and Benelux, and I'd like to extend my warmest thanks to Isabel Martinez, who has successfully guided the company through the extraordinary years since the Covid 19 pandemic.

France is our historic market and the Group's showcase as a pioneer in new mobility solutions. I look forward to working with Michel Kisfaludi, all the teams at head office and in the network, and our customers to help them develop sustainable, innovative and high-performance mobility solutions.

About Europcar Mobility Group

Europcar Mobility Group is a global mobility services provider with a leading position in Europe. In the coming years, the Group's ambition is to become a leader in sustainable mobility services, driven by data, technology and people. Europcar Mobility Group offers to individuals and businesses a wide range of car and van rental services, be it for a few hours, a few days, a week, a month or more, on-demand or on subscription, relying on a fleet of more than 250.000 vehicles, equipped with the latest engines including more and more electric vehicles. Its brands address differentiated needs, use cases and expectations: Europcar a global leader of car rental and light commercial vehicle rental, Goldcar a frontrunner at providing low-cost car rental services in Europe, Fox-Rent-A-Car, one of the main players in the car rental market in the US, with a "value for money" positioning, Buchbinder, one of the most important players in car and light commercial vehicle rental in Germany, and Ubeeqo one of the European leaders of car-sharing (BtoB, BtoC). Customers' satisfaction is at the heart of the Group's ambition and that of its more than 8,000 employees, everywhere Europcar Mobility Group delivers its mobility solutions, thanks to a strong network in 140 countries (including 16 wholly owned subsidiaries completed by franchisees and alliance partners).

More information: www.europcar-mobility-group.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108371414/en/

Contacts:

Relations presse

Valerie Sauteret valerie.sauteret@europcar.com

Miriam Tejedor miriam.tejedor@europcar.com
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.
CharatcterX, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a decentralized AI social network, raised $2.8M in Seed funding at a $30m valuation.

The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, INCE Capital, and Spark Digital Capital. Investors also included CGV, ZC Capital, GRI, Fermion Capital, 84000LP, Fan Zhang, and others.

The company intends to use the funds to enhance the interest in the Web3 and AIGC space.

A decentralized synthetic social network initiated by a Stanford team, CharacterX combines AGI technology with blockchain, which has over 500,000 users. For augmented social experience, CharacterX is developing advanced multi-modal AI architecture that inputs and outputs multi-sensory data, including 3D and AR experience in combination with next-gen computational platform. The company is also developing proactive AI agents specifically for social scenarios. With employment with ERC6551 for decentralized AI memories and consciousness management, it gives users personalized and authentic social experience while maintaining security and privacy.

They have recently launched CharacterXs mobile applications for both Android and IOS, alongside a developer website, for users to create and build deep emotional attachment with AI beings.

FinSMEs

08/01/2024
DOCUMENTS BLUSHING HOUSE at Shenzhen MIXC WORLD

Documents, a Chinese fragrance brand, received an investment from Ushopal.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The company intends to use the investment to expand its international exposure and dialogue opportunities with global brand leaders.

Founded by Zhaoran Meng, Documents is a high-end fragrance brand in China that pioneers the Bold-Zen style, and cooperates with fragrance companies to launch series of fragrances with perfume ratios ranging from 15% to 40%, as well as several diverse fragrance product series, with the mission of combining traditional Oriental culture with contemporary design aesthetics. The brand has now already opened directly operated stores in prime locations of the top cities nationwide in China.

Commenting on the news, Zhaoran Meng said: DOCUMENTS has always aimed to awaken sensory resonance among urban residents and communicate the contemporary taste of Chinese peoples lifestyles through novel and profound olfactory experiences. Accepting investment from USHOPAL this time, we hope to leverage its professional expertise and leading position to strengthen our brands creative advantages in aesthetics. Additionally, we aim to gain more benefits in global channels, business operations, and supply chain management, working towards enhancing competitiveness and evolving into a more visionary international brand.

FinSMEs

08/01/2024
The video is going viral on social media. At a recent event, when the Refugee actor was spotted sans his wedding ring, a user on Reddit wrote how he has been attending public events and being clicked without his ring for quite some time

In a recent video that is going viral on social media, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan were seen cheering for his Kabaddi team Jaipur Pink Panthers along with Amitabh Bachchan and daughter Aaradhya. This happens when their separation rumours are doing the rounds on social media.

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A report by Times Now said the actress had moved out of the Bachchan home.

A source told the publication, It is for their child that Abhishek and Aishwarya are still together. They have been having problems for years. Now matters have come to a head. The report added a divorce between the couple is unlikely to happen in near future.

Amid this, an interview of the actress has gone viral when she awarded the Padma Shri back in 2009 and while talking about the honour, she spoke about her family and Abhisheks support.

She said, Professionally what was wonderful was being bestowed with the Padma Shri. People from the fraternity said you are the youngest from the industry to have received it thus far. I owe it to my parents and I devote it to them. It was very special when my in-laws said we welcome the fifth Padma Shri into the family.

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When Aishwarya Rai Bachchan cropped Shweta Bachchan

The occasion was Amitabh Bachchans 80th birthday bash. Shweta Bachchan took to her official Instagram handle and posted a photo where Amitabh Bachchan can be seen accompanied by his better half, Jaya Bachchan, and grandchildren, Aaradhya Bachchan, Navya Naveli Nandaand Agastya Nanda.

Abhishek Bachchan sans his wedding ring

At a recent event, when the Refugee actor was spotted sans his wedding ring, a user on Reddit wrote how he has been attending public events and being clicked without his ring for quite some time.

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Big B s cryptic tweet

Sharing a picture of himself, the star wrote- T 4854  everything said everything done .. so do the done and done the do.
In an EXCLUSIVE interview with Firstposts Lachmi Deb Roy, Kareena Kapoor Khan talks about womens roles changing for good, the different methods of storytelling, on OTT changing the way we appreciate films.

The year 2023 has been a fulfilling year for Kareena Kapoor Khan as craftsman with her first digital release in Netflixs Jaane Jaan where she got a chance to explore her acting skills. She was also a part of Marvels Wastelanders: Black Widow, an audio show. She had mentioned that breathing life into a character as iconic as Black Widow has been a surreal experience. Taking listeners on an action-packed journey in Marvels Black Widow on Audible, using only her voice, has been a unique challenge.

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With womens roles changing, Kareena believes every project brings with it a new set of opportunities and challenges for growth. In 2004 she will be seen in Singham Returns 3 and The Crew.

Edited excerpts from the interview

Tell us on the different methods of storytelling that we get to see on the OTT platform series, audio plays and your views on it?

The evolution of storytelling on the OTT platform has been revolutionary. We now have a diverse range of formats like web series and also audio series that offer immersive experiences. Each format caters to varied audience preferences, with more options for content consumption. Audio series, in particular, allows for a more intimate connection with the audience, engaging their imagination in a powerful way.

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Your views on womens roles changing and getting more vulnerable and layered?

Its an exciting time for women in cinema; As an actor, I have been fortunate to be part of projects that contribute to this positive change. Yes, while there has been evolution in womens representation, its not just a cinematic trend but a reflection of the changing society too. Audiences are also now more receptive to such a landscape.

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What do you have to say about this period of your career when you are trying out so many different roles and your craft is getting refined with each passing year?

Every project brings with it a new set of opportunities and challenges for growth. I would say, its like painting on a canvas with an ever-expanding palette. The variety keeps me on my toes, and I believe that experimenting with different genres and characters adds depth to my talent and craft. As an actor, I thrive on pushing boundaries and surprising both myself and the audience. Its a journey of evolution. I am relishing every moment of it.

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On OTT changing the way we appreciate films

OTT has indeed changed the way we appreciate films, offering flexibility in consumption and allowing for more experimental and diverse content that might not have found a place in traditional cinema.

The popularity of audio plays and the idea of seeing through the ears, how challenging is it? Playing with your voice, the modulation and how beautiful was the experience and how did you work on the method?

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Doing an audio series is a unique challenge as it relies solely on the power of the voice alone to convey the story, the action sequences, and the depth of ones character. It requires a different set of skills. The experience was both challenging and rewarding, it needed a focus on vocal expression and modulation to create a vivid mental image for the listeners. Its a fascinating process that adds a new dimension to storytelling.

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What are the other projects that you are working on?

I am currently shooting for Singham Returns 3 and The Crew.
The actress also said, I was so gutted because when you see a brand becoming so big, you wish you were in the movie. But I am glad we are doing this amazing project together now.

Actress Shilpa Shetty is all geared up to set our screens on fire Rohit Shettys Indian Police Force as Tara Shetty. Recently she opened up about the series and revealed how her association with Rohit began.

Talking about the same she shared, My dad was crazy about movies and he assisted Rohits dad in Yaadon Ki Baaraat. Shetty uncle and he were friends, my dad was a part of the action team in Yaadon Ki Baraat and even Raffoochakkar.

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She further added, I keep telling Rohit that we were destined to work. We were supposed to work even 14 years ago, he had approached me for Golmaal. But I had just won Big Brother and was travelling, he was doing his things. I was so gutted because when u see a brand becoming so big, you wish you were in the movie. But I am glad we are doing this amazing project together now.

Shilpa will be seen in an action-packed cop avatar in Rohit Shettys Indian Police Force which releases on Amazon Prime Video on 19th January.

Rohit Shetty on casting Shilpa Shetty for the show

Rohit Shetty , known for his hero-centric cop dramas, made a surprising casting choice by roping in Shilpa Shetty for a role initially designed for a hero. In a candid revelation, he shared, This character was earlier for a hero. But then, last moment, we called her when she was shooting for Sukhee in Chandigarh. Then she was doing Indias Got Talent and she shuttled between all and made it happen. I knew she would be able to do it. She even broke her leg during an action scene.

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The trailer gives a sneak peek into Shilpa Shettys portrayal of a cop, adding a new dimension to Rohit Shettys cop verse. With the revelation of Shilpa as the Shero in Indian Police Force, fans are buzzing with excitement. The anticipation for the series is palpable, and audiences are eager to see how Shilpa adds her unique flair to the cop drama.
Vir had a witty take on Indian celebrities and influencers who have pictures from their vacations in the island nation

The row between India and Maldives continues to spiral after three Maldivian ministers made derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India following his social media post from Lakshadweep. PM Modi, through his social media handle, urged Indians to choose Lakshadweep as an alternative to the Maldives.

Amid the ongoing tensions, while celebrities have been expressing their support for Lakshadweep and urging Indians to explore its hidden beauty, actor-comedian Vir Das has also reacted to the backlash. Vir had a witty take on Indian celebrities and influencers who have pictures from their vacations in the island nation.

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Taking to her X handle, Vir Das on Monday joked about how Indian influencers and celebrities have some of their best vacation pictures and are now terrified to post any of them.

Firstly, happy Lakshadweep is getting some love! Secondly, Somewhere in the Maldives, right now, is an Indian celebrity/influencer, who didnt eat carbs for two weeks, took the best vacation photos ever, and is TERRIFIED to post them, he wrote.

Firstly, happy Lakshadweep is getting some love! Secondly, Somewhere in the Maldives, right now, is an Indian celebrity/influencer, who didnt eat carbs for two weeks, took the best vacation photos ever, and is TERRIFIED to post them :-)  Vir Das (@thevirdas) January 8, 2024

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His tweet caught the attention of many and social media users clearly had a field day as people shared divided reactions to the tweet. While some pointed out about celebrities recently visiting Maldives, a few also mentioned that some have started deleting their past posts.

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A user wrote, They should not be terrified just post it and tag the location as Lakshwadeep. Simple!, while another one wrote, Hahhahahhahahahha. 90% people outraging wont go to lakshwadeep or Maldives.

One (Indian influencer/celeb) already put pics last week and now lecturing others to stay away, another one commented.

This wasnt it. The Emmy winner also shared a few other tweets, sharing hilarious remarks like- Next actor to post a honeymoon photo from Madh Island is getting a National Award. Pakka and Remember thinking Epstein would be the most discussed island this week?

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Indian celebrities promoting Lakshadweep

Following the row over the Maldivian ministers comments, many Indian celebrities, including Ranveer Singh, John Abraham, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan, Janhvi Kapoor, and Urvashi Rautela among others, have joined the bandwagon to promote Indian tourism, urging their fans to visit the beautiful Indian island.

Amitabh Bachchan also reshared former cricketer Virender Sehwags post and praised the islands. I have been to Lakshadweep and Andamans and they are such astonishingly beautiful locations .. stunning waters beaches and the underwater experience is simply unbelievable he wrote.
The idol of Ram Lalla has been carved by Arun Yogiraj  a famed sculptor from Karnataka. The idol, which is 51 inches tall and weighs 1.5 tonnes, will be placed in the sanctum sanctorum on 18 January

The Ram temple consecration in Ayodhya is set for 22 January.

Champat Rai, general secretary of the Ram Temple Trust, is giving out details of the idol that will be installed in the Ram temple.

But what do we know about the idol?

Lets take a closer look:

The idol of Ram Lalla has been carved by Arun Yogiraj  a famed sculptor from Karnataka.

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The idol is 51 inches tall and weighs 1.5 tonnes, as per News18.

Rai said the worship of the idol will begin on 16 January and it will be placed in the sanctum sanctorum on 18 January.

Water, milk and Achaman will have no adverse effect on the idol, Rai said. The length of Lord Shri Rams idol and the height of its installation have been designed in such a way on the advice of eminent space scientists of India that every year on Ram Navami, the ninth date of Shukla Paksha of Chaitra month, Lord Surya himself will anoint Shri Ram as sunrays will directly fall on his forehead at 12 noon making it shine.

The Times of India quoted Rai as saying the idol is dark in complexion and is in standing posture.

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The idol made of Lord Shri Ram Lalla is in the form of a five-year-old child. The statue is 51 inches tall, made of black stone, and is very attractively made, Rai told media as per Hindustan Times.

News18 quoted Rai as saying that the idol has the innocence of a five-year-old child.

Rai added that the idol was chosen considering the softness of the face, look in the eyes, smile and body.

As per India Today, the idol, which will be displayed before the ceremony, will be placed on a lotus-shaped platform.

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However, a formal announcement regarding idol is yet to come.

But Chandresh Pandey, one of the sculptors of the idol in contention, has said his design is out of the race.

This idol has been made in Jaipur. There was a condition that only that design would be selected, which would be made inside Ayodhya. This idol has a fusion of Lord Ram and Lord Vishnu with a touch of childlikeness. I could not prepare it in Ayodhya because my wife had collapsed. So, I prepared the idol in Jaipur, he said.

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Pandey said, This design, however, is out of the race as of now, but Champat Rai, the General Secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, has accepted my idol.

He added that, apart from the abovementioned condition, this statue is not fit to be installed because the trust has already finalised the design.

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Rai said the idols of Sita, Hanuman and Lord Rams brothers would also be placed on the first floor of the grand temple.

However, that would take at least another eight months, as per Hindustan Times.

Inextricable relationship

With Karnataka home to a grand Hanuman temple and believed to be the birthplace of the deity, Joshi termed the selection of the idol shaped by a sculptor from the state for the Ram Temple as an example of Rama-Hanumans inextricable relationship.

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Where Rama is, there is Hanuman, The selection of the idol for the Prana Pratishtapana of Lord Rama in Ayodhya has been finalised. A renowned sculptor of our country, our proud Mr @yogiraj_arun, the idol of Lord Rama carved by him will be installed in Ayodhya, the Union Minister posted from his official handle on X on Monday.

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This is another example of Rama-Hanumans inextricable relationship. There is no mistaking that this is an important service to Ramlallani from Karnataka, the land of Hanuman, Joshi added in his post.

Meanwhile, idols of elephants, lions, Lord Hanuman and Garuda, said to be Vahana of Lord Vishnu in Hindu mythology, have been installed at the entrance gate of the grand Ram Temple.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to attend the consecration ceremony of the temple on 22 January.

With inputs from agencies
The gaping hole in the side of the Alaska Airlines jet opened up where aircraft maker Boeing fits a plug to cover an emergency exit that the airline does not use. The Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily grounded those planes until they undergo inspections of the area around the plug

It was a dangerous weekend for the passengers on board Alaska Airlines-operated Boeing (BA.N) 737 MAX 9. As the flight was in midair, a cabin panel of the aircraft flew off, leaving a gaping hole in the planes fuselage and forcing an emergency landing, on Friday.

Following its takeoff from Portland, Alaska Air (ALK.N) Flight 1282 approached 16,000 feet, and the panel tore away from the side of the jet, leaving a tidy, refrigerator-sized rectangular hole in the aircraft. The pilot instantly indicated that the plane needed to land.

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Images on social media showed emergency oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling as terrified passengers crouched in their seats.

A boy and his mother were seated in the same row, and the boys shirt was ripped off him and sucked out of the plane, according to one Alaska Airlines passenger on the damaged aircraft, as reported by Sky News.

Although minor injuries were reported, the situation could have been very dangerous, according to Flightglobal consulting editor David Learmount. If there were people near it who were not wearing the seatbelts they would have disappeared, he told Sky News.

In response to the incident, Alaska Airlines has grounded all of its Boeing 737-9 MAX flights, which caused the cabin to depressurise and led in the plane making an emergency landing in the US state of Oregon.

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The Federal Aviation Administration later announced that some Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft operated by US airlines or on US territory will be temporarily grounded.

Investigators were searching Sunday for the piece of fuselage that blew off a Boeing airliner over Oregon, hoping to gain physical evidence of what went wrong.

The gaping hole in the side of the Alaska Airlines jet opened up where aircraft maker Boeing fits a plug to cover an emergency exit that the airline does not use. The plugs are on most Boeing 737 Max 9 jets.

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Heres everything you need to know.

Why is there a plug?

Some larger Boeing 737s have emergency exits on fuselages behind the wings to meet a federal requirement that planes be designed so passengers can evacuate within 90 seconds even if half the exits are blocked.

The more passenger seats there are on a plane, the more exits are required.

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Some carriers, including Indonesias Lion Air and Corendon Dutch Airlines, cram more than 200 seats into their Max 9s, so they must have extra emergency exits. However, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines configure their 737 Max 9s to have fewer than 180 seats, so the planes dont need the two mid-cabin exits to comply with US evacuation rules.

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On Alaska and United, the only two US airlines using the Max 9, those side exits near the back of the plane are replaced with a permanent plug the size of an exit door.

Are they only on Max 9s?

No. Boeing also makes bigger versions of its 737-900  a predecessor to the Max  and the Max 8 with space for extra exits in the back. Buyers of those planes also may opt to have either exit doors or plugs installed.

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Who installs the plugs?

A spokesman for Spirit AeroSystems  which is unrelated to Spirit Airlines  confirmed to The New York Times that the company installed door plugs on Max 9s, including the plug on the Alaska Airlines plane involved in Fridays incident. The spokesman told The Associated Press that the plugs are assembled into 737 fuselages at Spirits factory in Wichita, Kansas, but declined further comment.

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Boeing declined to comment on the issue.

How Spirits quality woes raise concerns?

Spirit is Boeings largest supplier for commercial planes and builds fuselages and other parts for Boeing Max jets. The company has been at the centre of several recent problems with manufacturing quality on both the Max and a larger plane, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Last year, Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems discovered improperly drilled fastener holes in a bulkhead that keeps 737 Max jets pressurised at cruising altitude.

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What the investigation found?

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board, led by the boards chair, Jennifer Homendy, arrived in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday to begin an investigation that is likely to last a year or longer. Homendy declined to discuss possible causes when she briefed reporters on Saturday night.

The NTSB team includes a metallurgist, and Homendy said investigators will look at the exit-door plug if they can find it, as well as its hinges and other parts.

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Examining the damage to the door will be crucial to the investigation, according to independent experts.

The good thing about metal is that metal paints a picture, metal tells a story, said Anthony Brickhouse, who teaches accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Im pretty confident they will find the piece that came off, and they will be able to speak to scientifically what happened to cause this failure.

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Brickhouse said the exit doors, whether plugged or not, are not necessarily a weak point in the fuselage. He had never heard of an exit door plug falling off a plane before Alaska Airlines flight 1282.

Were there warnings?

Aerospace analysts for the investment bank Jefferies wrote that the plane involved in Fridays incident experienced pressurisation issues on two earlier flights. The NTSB has not commented on the planes history, but Homendy said investigators would examine maintenance records even on such a new plane.

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Are there other fuselage blowouts?

There have been rare instances of holes opening in the fuselages of airliners. In most cases, they have been the result of metal fatigue in the planes aluminium skin.

In the most horrific case, a flight attendant for Aloha Airlines was blown out of the cabin of a Boeing 737 over the Pacific Ocean in 1988 after an 18-foot-long chunk of the roof peeled away. Her body was never found. The tragedy led to tougher rules for airlines to inspect and repair microscopic fuselage cracks before they tear open in flight.

In 2009, a hole opened in the roof of a Southwest Boeing 737 flying 35,000 feet over West Virginia. And in 2011, a five-foot-long gash unfurled in another Southwest Boeing 737, forcing pilots to make an emergency landing at a military base in Arizona. No one was injured in either of those cases, both of which were blamed on metal fatigue.

With inputs from AP
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin is unwell. But more than wishes for a speedy recovery, he is facing criticism. The leader was admitted to intensive care on 1 January but his stay in the hospital was not disclosed  even Joe Biden was kept in the dark. Heres what happened

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin is facing flak for keeping his hospitalisation under wraps. While historically leaders are known to hide their illnesses, Austin is in trouble because he did not inform his boss, President Joe Biden or his deputy. It wasnt a single day of hospitalisation but a stay over days.

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So whats ailing Austin and why did he not inform the White House? We explain.

Why was Lloyd Austin hospitalised?

Austin was admitted to the hospital after an elective procedure he had on 22 December while on leave, Major General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement on Sunday. He returned home the next day but began experiencing severe pain on the evening of 1 January. He was then transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in an ambulance. There were reportedly complications from the earlier surgery.

He was placed in the hospitals intensive care unit to ensure immediate access due to his medical needs, but then remained in that location in part due to hospital space considerations and privacy, Ryder said.

Austin remains hospitalised at the medical centre but is recovering well and in good spirits, Ryder said on Sunday. But the Pentagon does not yet know when he will be released, Ryder said.

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Whats the controversy over the hospitalisation?

The Pentagon did not tell Biden and other top officials about Austins hospitalisation for three days, three American officials told Politico.

US national security advisor Jake Sullivan and US secretary of state Antony Blinken were among those who did on know that the defence secretary was admitted to the medical centre on New Years Day. Even Austins second in command, the deputy secretary of defence Kathleen Hicks, was left in the dark.

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It was Sullivan who informed Biden about Austin after the defence departments notification on 4 January.

According to a report in Politico, it is unlikely that Austin had a word with Biden privately before Sullivans briefing. If Jake didnt know, no way the president knew, one of them was quoted as saying by the publication. Who would have told him of Austins condition if not Jake? And if someone did tell the president, Jake wouldve been his first call.

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The Pentagon reportedly notified US Congress 15 minutes before releasing a public statement.

The news came as a shock to White House officials and National Security Council staff.

Hicks, who was assuming some of Austins responsibilities on 2 January, didnt know that it was because her boss was hospitalised, according to a report in CNN.

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Blinken said that he wasnt aware of Austins medical issue when asked a question at a news conference in Qatar on Sunday. I talked to Lloyd last weekend before this incident and I know that hes put out a statement addressing it, Blinken said.

This should not have happened this way, one US official told Politico.

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Biden reportedly spoke with Austin on Saturday evening, a senior administration official said, indicating that it was the first phone call between the two leaders since the hospital, reports NBC News.

It was a warm conversation The president wished him the best in his recovery and said he looks forward to seeing the secretary back at the Pentagon soon, the official said.

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Ryder told NBC News that Austin resumed his full duties Friday evening.

Why Llyod Austin matters

An important member of the Biden Cabinet, Austin holds a key role in the countrys national security establishment. His hospitalisation comes amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and as the US military faces increasing challenges in West Asia  the growing attacks by Houthis on US troops and ships in the Red Sea. The US is grappling with how to deal with Iran-backed proxy groups without leading to a wider conflict in the region.

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During the hospitalisation, the US carried out a strike in Baghdad against the commander of a pro-Iran militia. The defence secretary authorised it before he was hospitalised, according to the Pentagon press secretary.

On the day of his hospitalisation, Austin also joined a call with President Biden along with other top national security officials, a source told CNN. It is unclear if the call, which took place in the morning, was before or after he was admitted.

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What criticism has Austin received?

Republicans are hitting out at Austin for keeping the hospitalisation a secret. Former vice president Mike Pence said that the lack of transparency was totally unacceptable. Calling Austins action a dereliction of duty, he told CNN, I believe the American people have the right to know about his medical condition, about the reasons for it.

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We are learning more every hour about the [defence> departments shocking defiance of the law, Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker said in a statement. The Republican argued that the incident further erodes trust in the Biden Administration.

Senator Tom Cotton, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, If this report is true, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown.

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What has Llyod Austin said?

On Saturday, the US defence secretary released a statement taking responsibility for not disclosing his condition earlier.

I am very glad to be on the mend and look forward to returning to the Pentagon soon. I also understand the media concerns about transparency and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better, Austin said.

But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure, he added.

Are leaders secretive about illnesses?

Llyod is not the first leader to hesitate to divulge details about his health. President Bidens health has led to a lot of speculation. Last year, the 81-year-old created a buzz about a mystery line on his face.

It was later disclosed by Andrew Bates, deputy press secretary, that Biden was using a CPAP machine, a medical device to prevent snoring and the potentially damaging interruptions in breathing caused by sleep apnea.

During the pandemic, Trump was also not forthcoming with details of his COVID-19 infection . His physician offered little information stating that he was treated with an antibody cocktail in October 2020 when the pandemic was at its peak and his age (then 74) put him at high risk.

In 2016, when Hilary Clinton was running for president, her rival Trump questioned her physical and mental capabilities. She went on a late-night comedy show to rubbish health rumours and when she caught pneumonia it became a topic of national debate.

American leaders have been known for hiding illnesses  John F Kennedy suffered from various problems controlled by doses of steroids including Addisons disease, Franklin D Roosevelts high blood pressure and congestive heart failure, and Ronald Regan had Alzheimers, among others.

But is not American leaders alone.

When Harold Wilson was British PM he showed symptoms that were later diagnosed as colon cancer and might have suffered from Alzheimers while in office. Winston Churchill suffered from depression and Tony Blairs heart condition was downplayed.

In 2019, then-German chancellor Angela Merkels health was much discussed after severe incidents of shaking incident at official events. The media discussed if she was fit enough to stay in office but she stayed until the end of her term in 2021.

Almost nothing is known about Russian president Vladimir Putins health. There have been several reports about the 71-year-old leader. Some suggest he is battling cancer and Parkisons disease. Others spoke of his blurred vision, the severe headaches he suffered from and a numb tongue.

In some cases, we will never know the truth.

With inputs from agencies
The Supreme Court has quashed the remission of the 11 convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang rape case, ordering them to return to prison within two weeks. The men, who also murdered her seven family members, walked out of a Godhra jail in August 2022 following an order from the Gujarat government

Bilkis Bano must have heaved a sigh of relief today (8 January) as the Supreme Court quashed the Gujarat governments order granting remission to 11 convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang rape and murder case.

A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan in its order said that the Gujarat Government had no jurisdiction to entertain the application for remission of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, adding that the appropriate government to decide on remission is the state within whose territorial limits the accused are sentenced and not where the crime is committed or the accused are imprisoned.

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The apex court further stated that the Gujarat governments remission order was without application of mind, with the justices asked whether heinous crimes against women permit remission whatever faith she may follow or creed she may belong to.

Her family, according to sources speaking to Indian Express, was relieved with the judgment but yet wary. A source close to Bilkis told Indian Express, The SC order has reinstated our faith in the judiciary and it gives us consolation that justice is alive But, we cannot feel victorious yet as the convicts will prepare to apply for remission from the other state There is a doubt in our minds at the moment if the court will consider the plea of the convicts to remain outside prison while applying for remission. It seems like the fight is not over yet, until they are sent back to jail.

The order comes after the Gujarat government had in August 2022 released 11 men convicted of Bilkis gang rape and the killing of her family, causing a furore in society and leaving Bilkis numb and speechless.

We take a closer look at what exactly was the case, how were these men let off and what followed.

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Who is Bilkis Bano?

Gujarat had turned violent after the Sabarmati train was burnt in Godhra on 27 February 2002. Fifty-nine karsevaks were killed in the train.

Fearing the outbreak of violence, a then five-month pregnant Bilkis Bano fled from Randhikpur, her village, with her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter and 15 other family members.

They took refuge in the Chhaparvad district. However, on 3 March, they were attacked by about 20-30 people armed with sickles, swords, and sticks. Among the attackers were the 11 accused men.

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Bilkis, her mother, and three other women were raped and brutally assaulted. Of the 17-member group of Muslims from Radhikpur village, eight were found dead, six were missing. Only Bilkis, a man, and a three-year-old survived the attack. As per multiple reports, Bilkis regained consciousness three hours after the incident and after borrowing clothes from an adivasi woman made her way to the Limkheda police station to register a complaint.

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Bilkis was taken to a public hospital for medical examination only after she reached the Godhra relief camp. Her case was taken up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Supreme Court, which ordered an investigation by the CBI.

What happened in the Bilkis Bano case?

The accused in the case were arrested in 2004 and the trial began in Ahmedabad. However, after Bilkis expressed apprehensions that witnesses could be harmed and the evidence collected by the CBI tampered with, the apex court transferred the case to Mumbai.

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On 21 January 2008, the Special CBI Court sentenced 11 accused to life imprisonment on the charges of conspiring to rape a pregnant woman, murder and unlawful assembly under the Indian Penal Code. The court acquitted seven other accused for lack of evidence. One of the accused had died during the trial.

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The court held that Jaswantbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai, and Naresh Kumar Mordhiya (deceased) had raped Bilkis, while Shailesh Bhatt had killed her daughter, Saleha, by smashing her on the ground.

Others who were convicted are Radheshyam Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Vohania, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Nitesh Bhatt, Ramesh Chandana, and Head Constable Somabhai Gori.

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According to Indian Express, Judge Salvi termed Bilkis courageous deposition as the turning point in the case.

Almost 10 years after this, the Bombay High Court, in May 2017, upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 11 people in the gang rape case.

In 2019, the Supreme Court awarded compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Bilkis  the first such order in a case related to the 2002 riots. It is very apparent that what should not have happened has happened and the state has to give compensation, the apex court bench of the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, had said.

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How did the convicts get early release?

On 15 August 2022, the 11 convicts were released from Godhra sub-jail, with the Gujarat government citing their good behaviour as the reason for their release.

This move came after one of the convicts, Radheshyam Shah, had earlier approached the Gujarat High Court seeking remission of the sentence under sections 432 and 433 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The high court dismissed his plea while observing that the appropriate government to take a decision about his remission is Maharashtra, and not Gujarat.

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Shah then filed a plea in the Supreme Court, pleading that he had been in jail for 15 years and four months without remission as of 1 April 2022.

The apex court directed the Gujarat government to look into the issue of remission of his sentence following which the government formed a committee, said Panchmahal Collector Sujal Mayatra, who headed the committee.

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A committee formed a few months back took a unanimous decision in favour of remission of all the 11 convicts in the case. The recommendation was sent to the state government, and we received the orders for their release, said Mayatra.

When asked about the release, Gujarat Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Raj Kumar, had told news agency PTI that the Supreme Court had asked the government to consider early release of these 11 convicts under the states remission policy which was in effect when they were pronounced guilty in the case by the trial court.

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These 11 persons were convicted by a special court in Mumbai in 2008. At the time of conviction, Gujarat was following a remission policy which came into effect in 1992. When the matter reached the Supreme Court, it directed us to decide about the release under the 1992 policy, because that was prevalent when conviction came in 2008, Kumar told PTI.

What did the SC rule now and what comes next?

The release of the convicts caused a huge hue and cry, with Bilkis approaching the Supreme Court in November 2022 challenging the premature release of them, saying it had shaken the conscience of society.

Besides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano, several other PILs had challenged the rapists early release in the Supreme Court.

And on Monday (8 January), the apex court handed down a 100-page judgment in which it struck down the remission orders to the convicts. The bench said, We need not have gone into the other issues. But for sake of completion, we have. Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed. Furthermore, the top court nullified its 13 May 2022 order of another bench asking the Gujarat government to consider a remission plea of one of the convicts as the order was obtained by playing fraud on the court and by suppressing material facts.

The Supreme Court has now ordered the men to return to jail within two weeks.

With inputs from agencies
On Friday, an emergency door fell off a 737 MAX aircraft with 171 passengers and six crew on board just minutes after take-off. The plane, headed from Portland to California, was left with a gap in the side of the aircraft as wide as a refrigerator and was forced to make an emergency landing

Boeings troubles just keep getting worse.

On Friday, an emergency door blew off a 737 MAX aircraft with 171 passengers and six crew on board just minutes after take-off.

While no one was injured and a catastrophe was averted, authorities have swung into action.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, while the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered airlines to conduct a one-time inspection of emergency exits on all of their MAX 737s.

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The incident comes after two Boeing MAX plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 left around 350 dead and aviation regulators across the world grounding the planes.

Lets take a look at what happened and Boeings many troubles:

What happened?

As per BBC, Alaska Airlines flight 1282 had left Portland for California.

It had taken off and was still on its ascent into the sky when an unused emergency door suddenly blew off.

One passenger said it left a gap in the side of the aircraft as wide as a refrigerator.

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The plane, which had reached 16,000 feet, lost its cabin pressure as the air rushed out.

A mini boom or mini explosion rattled and kind of shook the plane, passenger Nicholas Hoch, a 33-year-old architect, told Bloomberg. The best way I can describe it is as this white vapor or cloud just rushed through the plane and, you know, blew my head back a little bit. My hat flew off and that was jarring to say the least.

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The cabin lights flickered and air masks dropped from the ceiling, Hoch added.

Part of the cabin wall also came off exposing insulation material.

The force of the decompression also led to the cockpit door being blown open.

They heard a bang, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy said of the flight deck crew. A quick reference laminated checklist flew out the door, while the first officer lost her headset.

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Communication was a serious issue It was described as chaos. It must have been a terrifying event to experience, Homendy added.

The aircraft quickly began making an emergency descent.

This could have been a disaster.

Thankfully, the seat next to the door was unoccupied as per New York Times.

The passengers were still also wearing their seatbelts.

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While several passengers were injured when the plane made its emergency landing, none of them were seriously hurt.

A childs shirt was ripped off in the wind, as per BBC.

The sons shirt was completely blown off and his body was completely red, Im assuming due to the irritation of the wind, Elizabeth Le, a passenger, told NBC.

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Hoch, speaking to Bloomberg, said this story would have been a lot different had the seats next to the emergency door been occupied.

As per BBC, Alaska Airlines then announced it would ground its fleet of 737 MAX 9s.

My heart goes out to those who were on this flight - I am so sorry for what you experienced," Alaskas CEO Ben Minicucci said. I am so grateful for the response of our pilots and flight attendants.

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The FAA then soon announced it would ground 171 planes for inspection.

We have grounded the affected airplanes, and they will remain grounded until the FAA is satisfied that they are safe, the FAA said in a statement on Sunday.

We are very fortunate this didnt end up in something more tragic, Homendy was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. Weve now determined based on our definition of substantial damage that this is an accident, not an incident.

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Meanwhile, Boeings CEO Dave Calhoun told staff its response is and must be the companys focus.

The many troubles of Boeing

But this isnt the first time Boeing has faced such trouble with its top-selling 737 MAX aircraft.

In October 2018, a Lion Air MAX plane crash in Indonesia killed all 189 people on board.

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Following the crash, the FAA and Boeing announced that they were evaluating the need for software or design changes to 737 MAX jets.

Then, in 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines MAX crashed leaving all 157 people on board dead.

Chinas aviation regulator quickly moved to ground the MAX  followed by others including the FAA.

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Boeing posted its largest-ever quarterly loss in July 2019.

The company in October 2019 fired Kevin McAllister  the top executive of its commercial airplanes division  and in December 2020 fired then CEO Dennis Muilenburg.

The grounding linked to poorly designed cockpit software lasted 20 months and saw the company suspend its production of 737s  its biggest assembly-line halt in more than 20 years.

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The company in May 2020 resumed the production of MAX at a low rate and ran a series of long-delayed flight tests of its redesigned 737 MAX with regulators at the helm.

Meanwhile, an 18-month investigation by a US House of Representatives panel found the company failed in its design and development of the MAX.

As per NBC, the report claimed Boeing made extensive efforts to cut costs and refused to slow its production of 737 Max aircraft due to financial pressure.

It also found a lack of transparency at the FAA, and that the FAA failed in oversight and certification.

In November 2020, the US FAA lifted the grounding order, allowing the 737 MAX to fly again.

Congress, meanwhile passed legislation to reform how the FAA certifies new airplanes, including requiring manufacturers to disclose certain safety-critical information to the FAA.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency in January 2021 approved the MAXs return to service in Europe.

Chinas aviation regulator in March 2021 said major safety concerns with the MAX needed to be properly addressed before conducting flight tests.

In April that year, Boeing halted 737 MAX deliveries after electrical problems re-ground part of the fleet.

Current and former Boeing company directors in November 2021 reached a $237.5 million settlement with shareholders to settle lawsuits over safety oversight of the 737 MAX.

The FAA in October 2022 told Boeing that some key documents submitted as part of the certification review of the 737 MAX 7 are incomplete and others need a reassessment.

Congress in December 2022 agreed to extend a deadline for new standards for modern cockpit alerts stemming from the 2020 legislation after intense lobbying from Boeing.

Boeing in April 2023 paused deliveries of some 737 MAXs to deal with a new supplier quality problem involving noncompliant fittings.

Boeing in July 2023 announced its first delivery of the 737 MAX 7 would be delayed to 2024.

Boeing in August 2023 identified a new 737 MAX supplier quality problem involving improperly drilled holes on the aft pressure bulkhead.

In September 2023, Boeing 737 MAX deliveries fell to their lowest levels since August 2021

Boeing in December made its first direct delivery of a 787 Dreamliner to China since 2019, seen as a precursor to China potentially unfreezing deliveries of the 737 MAX.

How bad is it for Boeing?

This could be a major problem for Boeing.

As per CBS News, the company currently has two versions of its Boeing 737 in service  the MAX 8 and the MAX 9.

As per Bloomberg, its 737 MAX is its most popular craft and largest source of revenue.

The blowout puts the focus back on Boeings manufacturing controls just as it was gearing up to raise output of its cash-cow model and turn the corner on past defects, the piece noted.

Boeing has so far delivered about 218 of the 737 MAX planes worldwide, the company told AFP.

Two US airlines  United and Alaska  account for 70 per cent of the jets in service, as per The Guardian.

Meanwhile, the outlet reported that Chinas aviation regulator held an emergency meet in which it considered options on how to proceed including possibly grounding all the MAX aircraft in the nation.

The MAX variant isnt in use by Chinse carriers.

Turkeys civil aviation authority has asked its national carrier to survey its small fleet of five 737 MAX 9 planes.

The carrier said the jets are grounded until after the technical review is finished, as per Bloomberg.

But there is some good news.

CBS quoted Homendy as saying that her agency does not think the plane has a design flaw.

Well look at the pressurization system, well look at the door, the hinges, Homendy was quoted as saying by The Guardian. Do we suspect that there is an overall design problem with this plane based on previous accidents involving Boeing Max? At this time, no.

Aviation expert John Strickland told BBC this incident is quite different to those that occurred in 2018 and 2019.

Strickland said the 737 Max that returned to the skies have an enormous safety record.

While we know little evidence of why this section of the fuselage has come out - this has nothing to do with the aircraft being grounded for 18 months, he added.

But, it is natural Alaska Airlines is taking a cautious approach grounding its fleet.

The FAA initially said on Saturday the required inspections would take four to eight hours, leading many in the industry to assume the planes could very quickly return to service.

But criteria for the checks have yet to be agreed between the FAA and Boeing, meaning airlines have yet to receive detailed instructions, people familiar with the matter said.

The FAA must approve Boeings inspection criteria before the checks can be completed and planes can resume flights.

Alaska Airlines canceled 170 flights on Sunday and a further 60 on Monday and said travel disruptions from the grounding were expected to last through at least midweek.

United, which has grounded its 79 MAX 9s, cancelled 230 flights on Sunday, or eight per cent of scheduled departures.

With inputs from agencies
As an election in democratic Taiwan looms, Chinese balloons have appeared around the island at various times of day, raising concerns about electoral interference. It is suspected that the balloons are employed for military coercion and psychological warfare

China is known to play dirty, and as the election in Taiwan nears, Chinese balloons have started appearing around the island at various times of day. The Taiwan military says it is a new form of grey zone harassment.

China has been flexes its military prowess against self-ruled Taiwan daily, sending fighter jets, reconnaissance drones and naval ships around the island. But since December, Taiwans defence ministry has said that mysterious balloons have crossed the narrow Taiwan Strait separating the island from China in a kind of grey zone harassment.

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Taiwans defence ministry said it spotted three more Chinese balloons floating over the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, one of which crossed the island. These balloons were spotted a day after Taiwan accused China of endangering aviation safety and waging psychological warfare on the islands people before of crucial Taiwanese elections.

The possibility of China using balloons for eavesdropping became a global concern in February last year when the US shot down what it claimed was a Chinese surveillance balloon. However, Beijing has since stated that the balloon was a civilian craft that had gone awry.

Taiwan has reported increasing Chinese military presence and activity surrounding the island, and is on high alert ahead of Saturdays (13 January) presidential and parliamentary elections.

Chinas grey zone tactics

Grey zone tactics are aggressive actions deployed by a state that stop short of open warfare. Experts say that is what China has been doing with its show of military force around the island.

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Days before a presidential election, some balloons have flown directly above Taiwan, with at least one detected around a military airbase.

Beijing is signalling that it can violate Taiwanese airspace at will and challenge its sovereignty, said Raymond Kuo, Taiwan Policy Initiative director at RAND Corporation.

Self-ruled Taiwan is claimed by China as part of its territory, with Beijings leadership vowing to bring the island under its control. The 13 January election pits frontrunner Lai Ching-te  whose ruling Democratic Progressive Party says Taiwan is a sovereign nation  against two others who have pledged warmer relationships with Beijing.

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The timing of the balloons appearance is political, said Kuo.

The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is attempting to demoralise the Taiwanese public in the run-up to next weeks presidential and legislative elections, he told AFP.

But its military purpose is in line with broader Chinas grey zone coercion strategy towards Taiwan.

Beijing is adding yet another operational challenge to Taiwans defence forces, which could erode readiness and resilience, he said. After initially saying they were weather balloons, Taipeis defence ministry on Saturday called them an attempt to use cognitive warfare to affect the morale of our people.

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It also said they posed a serious threat to aviation routes. When asked about the balloons, Chinas defence ministry dismissed allegations of interference and accused Taiwan of trying to manipulate the election.

Balloon diplomacy

Balloons from China became a politically fraught topic last February, when the United States shot down what it called a spy balloon. Beijing has said it was a civilian airship blown off-course.

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More than 20 balloons have crossed the sensitive median line separating China from Taiwan since December, with at least seven of them passing directly over the island. Sighted during the daytime and evenings, they move at altitudes ranging from 3.6 to 11 kilometres, according to Taipeis defence ministry.

With commercial flights usually cruising between 7.3 to 12 kilometres, the balloons around Taiwan do pose a threat and potentially cause disruption to air traffic, said independent aviation expert Gerry Soejatman.

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Weather balloons would disintegrate upon impact, but if they carry a different payload such as those seen over the United States, Soejatman said, they pose a severe risk of damage to commercial aircraft it collides with.

Either way, they would be a massive nuisance for pilots, he told AFP.

Calling it irresponsible to send the balloons at such heights, defence analyst Su Tzu-yun said the political goal is far more than the military goal.

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They [China> want to create doubts and nervousness to go with the danger of war sentiments in an attempt to change Taiwanese peoples attitude towards the election, he told AFP.

In 1996, Beijing conducted a series of missile tests in waters surrounding Taiwan. The tests were intended to intimidate voters from casting a ballot for then-president Lee Teng-hui, said James Char, China researcher at Singapores Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.

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They pushed too hard, he said. It actually backfired. That caused the Taiwanese to vote in favour of [a president with> non-pro-China, non-pro-unification policies. Ivy Kwek of the International Crisis Group said the more Beijing employs coercion on Taiwan, the less effective these actions will have on striking fear in the Taiwanese public.

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This is now an everyday scenario that Taiwanese people live with, she said. Supporters of Lai said they were not afraid. China often tries to intimidate Taiwan, but we Taiwanese are not easily frightened, said a woman surnamed Zheng, 62, adding that less clear-headed people might get scared and vote for unprincipled politicians.

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One proposed just shooting them down. I thought it was already too much when their planes came over, and now balloons? They should have been shot down long ago, said Chen, a retired shopowner.

With inputs from AFP
India and the Maldives have traditionally enjoyed close ties. However, tensions have arisen since President Mohamed Muizzu came to power last November. Now, derogatory remarks against PM Narendra Modi by some Maldives politicians have further threatened the relations

The relations between India and the Maldives have dealt a blow. Many Indians are furious after some Maldivian ministers made racist and derogatory remarks against India following Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Lakshadweep, promoting its beautiful islands.

While the Maldives government suspended the three deputy ministers  Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid  on Sunday (7 January) after a massive backlash on social media over their remarks, the damage was done. India summoned the high commissioner of Maldives today (8 January) to raise strong concern over the remarks against PM Modi.

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As Indian social media witnesses call to boycott the Maldives and switch to Indian destinations for holidays amid the diplomatic row, the strain in ties between the two nations has come to the spotlight.

Lets take a closer look.

India-Maldives ties

India has stood with the Maldives through thick and thin. The country, which was the first to recognise the Maldives after its independence in 1965, is seen as a net security provider in the island nation, according to a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) document.

India is one of the largest sources of tourism for the archipelago. Indians were among the largest group of tourists who visited the Maldives last year. But the relationship between the two countries goes much beyond that.

From preventing the 1988 coup attempt in Male to assisting the island nation during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, India has always sprung to the aid of the Maldives in its tough times.

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New Delhi has walked the talk of being the first responder to the archipelago by assisting the island nation to combat measles in 2020 and even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking to India Today last July, the then Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid had said, In 1988, there was a mercenary attack which undermined our sovereignty. India responded. There was a tsunami in 2004 and at that time, President (Maumoon Abdul) Gayoom was in power. India responded then. In 2015, there was a water crisis under President (Abdulla) Yameens tenure. Within six hours, India airlifted water to the residents of Male.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, President (Ibrahim) Solih was in power. Then also, we saw the same high degree of generosity from Delhi. That is why we have this time-tested special relationship with India for the last few decades, he said at the time.

India is a strategic ally of the Maldives, which is located in a key position in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

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The defence and security cooperation between the two nations is also strong, with India offering the largest number of training opportunities for the Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF), according to the MEA document.

New Delhi has never shied away from extending financial assistance to the island nation dotted with luxury resorts. In November 2022, New Delhi provided funds of over USD 100 million to ease the financial challenges faced by the Maldives. As per a report by the World Bank in 2022, the Maldives needs to increase revenues and undertake several expenditure and debt reforms to avert an economic crisis in the future.

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India has also facilitated in the execution of several development projects in the Maldives.

The downturn in India-Maldives ties

The ties between India and the Maldives have taken a downturn since President Mohamed Muizzu came to power last November in the island nation. After his victory in the Maldives presidential elections in September, Muizzus one of the first statements was that they will send back foreign soldiers in the Maldives.

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While he did not name any country, the remark was widely considered to be aimed at India, which reportedly has a small contingent of 75 military personnel in the Maldives. These Indian troops are involved in operating and maintaining a Dornier aircraft and two helicopters gifted by New Delhi to the MNDF for emergency medical evacuations and disaster relief missions. The two Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters (ALF) were only for humanitarian purposes, but backers of the India Out campaign claim that India was trying to establish a military presence in the Maldives.

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Muizzus Peoples National Congress-Progressive Party of Maldives (PNC-PPM) coalition pledged to end the countrys India first policy during the election campaigning. The Maldives presidents alleged leaning towards China is also being discussed in regards to his actions concerning India.

Last December, President Muizzu said that India had agreed to withdraw its soldiers from the Maldives. Sources in New Delhi told Indian Express that the issue came up briefly in Dubai when Muizzu met PM Modi on the sidelines of the COP28 summit.

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As per reports last month, the Maldives has decided to pull out of a hydrography cooperation agreement with India after its expiry on 7 June 2024. The pact was signed on 8 June 2019 when PM Modi visited Male at the invitation of then-President Solih.

Muizzus China visit

President Muizzu is visiting China from 8 to 12 January. The trip is being viewed as a snub to India. Unlike past Maldivian presidents who came to India first after assuming office, Muizzu chose Turkey as his first foreign destination.

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President Muizzu seems disinclined to continue engaging India. His actions seem directed at creating distance between Male and Delhi. He also seems keen on a close friendship with China, which should be concerning to India, Abhijit Singh, head of the Maritime Policy Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation think tank in New Delhi, told Reuters.

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The Presidents trip to Beijing, before a visit to New Delhi, is a signal - as clear as any - that India is low on priority for this regime.

The Maldives is deep in Chinas debt, which is its largest external creditor. As per the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) data, the Maldives owes China about $1.3 billion.

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Muizzus mentor, former president Abdulla Yameen who is currently in jail, had borrowed heavily from China for construction projects. During his rule between 2013-2018, the ties between India and the Maldives plunged to a particular low.

Although New Delhi and Beijing are competing for influence in the Indian Ocean region, the Muizzu government is reportedly tilting towards China.

With the deeply embedded ties between India and the Maldives, it is not just tourism that might see a fall in the island nation if tensions continue. Would Muizzus pro-China stance upend its relations with India? It remains to be seen.

With inputs from agencies
The results are in and Sheikh Hasina has won a record fifth term in Bangladesh. Her victory holds importance for India because of the strong bilateral relationship between the two nations and a shared border in the east

The results were more or less known even before the first ballot was cast, but now its official. Bangladeshs prime minister Sheikh Hasina has won the re-election for a fifth term, after the Opposition boycotted the polls.

Television journalists on Sunday announced that the Hasina-led Awami League won 224 seats of the 299, while Independent candidates won 62. The Jatiya Party, the third largest in the country, took 11 seats and Kallyan Party got one.

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This election  the 12th general poll  in the country was closely watched by neighbours India and China, with both of them having stakes in the results.

But why does Sheikh Hasinas win matter for India? We get you the answers.

Hasina retains power again

An Election Commission spokesman told AFP on Monday morning (8 January) that Hasinas ruling Awami League has won the election , after a vote that initial reports suggested had a meagre turnout of some 40 per cent.

With this win, Hasina will serve as Bangladesh prime minister for another five years, who first became prime minister in 1996 and was re-elected in 2009, remaining in power since.

While her critics and the Opposition have slammed Hasina for cracking down on dissent, her supporters insist she has provided much-needed political stability for Bangladesh. We have continued the democratic process which has given this political stability. I think the world should credit Sheikh Hasina for that, Law Minister Anisul Huq told the BBC.

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Hasinas single biggest achievement in the past 15 years is the confidence that she has ushered in in the minds of the people of Bangladesh. They have come to believe in themselves, he added.

Sheikh Hasinas win significant for India

For India, the polls in Bangladesh held significance as the two countries share a 4,100-km border and deep historical, cultural, and economic ties. Moreover, Hasinas win is particularly beneficial to India in almost all aspects  national security, economically as well as culturally.

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Lets examine each aspect separately. When it comes to Indias national security, Sheikh Hasina has been extremely cooperative. Earlier, Bangladesh was known to house several anti-India elements, and Islamist jihadist groups. However, Hasinas administration has come down heavily on such terrorist and militant groups.

New Delhis security agencies have received a lot of help and cooperation from its Bangladeshi counterparts to curb anti-India activity in the neighbouring country. Moreover, it was under Hasinas tenure that Dhaka signed the historical 1974 Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), which settled the 4,096-kilometre-long border dispute between the two countries.

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For India, a return of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Khaleda Zia, who is under house arrest as a convict of graft charges, would spell trouble. This is because Zia, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, is seen as hostile to New Delhi, with some even going as far as calling her a proxy of Pakistan.

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And in light of the deteriorating situation in Myanmar, Bangladesh plays an even more important role in maintaining peace in the region.

Former Indian Ambassador Ashok Kantha was quoted as telling the Hindustan Times, Dhaka is sensitive to Indias security concerns. It realises that as long as New Delhis security is not compromised, they can go ahead and do business with China. It is important to keep this in mind.

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From an economic standpoint too, Hasinas win is important. Importantly, Bangladesh has risen to be the second-largest economy in the region  the GDP of Bangladesh was $460 billion in 2022, more than Pakistans $375 billion.

India and Bangladesh share close economic ties, which have been fostered in recent times. The two countries bilateral trade has been $14.2 billion in 2022-23 and $8.13 billion in 2021-22. In fact, Bangladesh has been the fifth largest market for Indian goods, as per the Indian Express, only behind the United States, the UAE, the Netherlands, and China.

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Additionally, under Hasina, connectivity is being improved between Indias northeast and Dhaka. India has also offered more than $7 billion in Line of Credit to Bangladesh since 2010 for infrastructure and development projects.

Bangladesh also allows India to use four of its ports to transport goods from one Indian state to another.

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Hasina also maintains a supportive stance towards the Narendra Modi administration.

Hasinas old ties with India

Hasinas ties to India run long and deep, as Times of India said, deeper than the usual neighbourly ones who share a common history.

For Hasina, Delhi is more than just the capital of India. It is the land, which gave her refuge for six years following the 1975 massacre of her family, in which her father was assassinated. For those who dont remember, on 15 August 1975, as many as 18 members of her family, were assassinated. She escaped the assassination as she was in West Germany at the time.

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Following the killings, she realised that there was no question of her returning home and that was how she came to Delhi in late-1975 with her husband and two children. She briefly stayed at 56 Ring Road, Lajpat Nagar-3, and later at Pandara Road near Pandara Market.

It was only in May 1981 that Hasina ended her exile in Delhi and returned to Bangladesh.

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With inputs from agencies
Pregnant women and their family members across Uttar Pradesh have made requests to doctors to align their delivery with 22 January, the day selected for the Ram Mandir launch, considering it an auspicious day

Ram Mandir consecration fever is high, to the extent that the expecting mothers in Ayodhya are requesting doctors to deliver their child on the auspicious date of 22 January. Some are seeking to hold their deliveries, while other want a premature one to align with the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple.

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Not only this, but those who will give birth on the big day intend to name their children after Lord Ram. Not just Ayodhya, the requests to have a C-section on 22 January have reportedly been made in hospitals across districts in UP.

Heres a closer look.

Surgeons brace for 35 C-sections on 22 January

The women are enthusiastic about Pran Pratishtha and eager for Ram Lalla to arrive at their homes.

Seema Dwivedi, acting in charge of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department at Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, said they have received written requests for 12 to 14 caesarean deliveries in one labour room.

The arrangements are being made for 35 caesarean operations on 22 January, Dwivedi told PTI.

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The pregnant women and their family members have made the requests to the doctors even if their delivery dates are a few days before or after 22 January, considering it an auspicious day.

Its a weird request and the count is increasing by the day, a doctor at Ayodhyas district hospital for women told News18.

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The 100-bedded hospital has five surgeons who also examine patients at the out-patient department (OPD). On an average, we get around 150 to 200 patients a day at the OPD. Of these, many are expecting mothers, Dr Alankrita Ayan, medical officer at the hospital told News18.

Every day, an average of six to eight deliveries are made. In such a situation, it is next to impossible to align the deliveries on any one day as it will not only overburden the hospital, but may also pose a threat for the mother and the infant, the doctor stated. Private nursing facilities are also struggling to meet the demand.

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Hope my child will grow with good fortune

Many mothers believe that their child will be blessed with good fortune if they deliver on 22 January.

Dwivedi said expecting mothers often find out an auspicious date and time from priests and request delivery on that day.

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She recounted various experiences where she delivered the babies at a scheduled time and date because the mothers and the family members stressed for the delivery to be done on a muhurta (auspicious time) given by the priests.

It is concerning that sometimes the family members even expect us to overlook complications that may arise for the mother and the child by doing so, Dwivedi told PTI.

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The mothers believe that Lord Ram is the symbol of heroism, integrity and obedience, therefore babies born on the day of the pran pratishtha at the temple will also have the same qualities, she said.

Malti Devi (26), a resident of Kalyanpur, whose delivery due date is on 17 January, is one of the expectant mothers who have made this request to the doctors at the Kanpur hospital.

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Devi told PTI that she wants her child to be born on the day of the consecration ceremony of Ram Lallas idol at the Ram temple.

I hope that my child will grow up to have success and glory, she said.

Psychologist Divya Gupta told PTI that people believe that if a child is born at an auspicious time, it creates a positive impact on the babys personality.

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Sometimes religion and spirituality give a person strength to tackle the stresses of life and have a positive outlook, Gupta added.

The first phase of the Ram temple is nearing completion and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part in the consecration ceremony of Ram Lallas idol on 22 January.

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On the day of pran pratishtha, over a lakh pilgrims are anticipated to arrive on the temple town. The invitee list includes over 7,000 guests from India and abroad, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Though the ceremonies for the consecration ceremony will begin on 16 January, the major events shubh muhurat (auspicious moment) will begin at 12.45 pm on 22 January and end at 1 am on 23 January. The ceremony will be attended by around 4,000 saints and priests from 140 different groups.

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With inputs from PTI
The Supreme Court of India said the Gujarat government had no competence to grant remission to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case

The Supreme Court of India Monday strike down the decision of Gujarat government to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in the state.

The apex court said the Gujarat government had no competence to grant remission and has directed all 11 convicts in the case to surrender before jail authorities within two weeks.

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The exercise of power by the State of Gujarat is an instance of usurpation of power and abuse of power. This is a classic case where the order of this court was used to violate the rule of law by granting remission, Justice BV Nagarathna said.

The court further said, instead, the state of Maharashtra is the court that has the power to pass orders of remission.

The SC held that the state of trial and sentencing is the appropriate government with powers to pass orders of remission. On the apex court order, the trial and sentencing the Bilkis Bano case had been transferred from Gujarat to Maharashtra.

The Gujarat government had released the 11 convicts on the basis of the 1992 remission policy and not the policy adopted in 2014 which is effective today.

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Bilkis Bano was 21-years-old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train-burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.

All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on 15 August, 2022.
Co-founder of EaseMyTrip, Prashant Pitti, has also requested other airlines to make a direct connectivity to Lakshadweep from three cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru

EaseMyTrip, a Delhi-based travel portal, has suspended all Maldives flight booking on its website amid a row over insulting remarks by some now-suspended Maldivian ministers after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Lakshadweep.

Co-founder of EaseMyTrip, Prashant Pitti, also requested other airlines to make a direct connectivity to Lakshadweep from three cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

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Around 3 lakh people annually used to travel to Maldives, they can no longer avail this facility on EaseMyTrip, Prashant Pitti said.

Our company is entirely homegrown and made in India. Amid the row over Maldives ministers post on PM Modis visit to Lakshadweep, we have decided that we will not accept any bookings for MaldivesWe want Ayodhya and Lakshadweep to turn out as international destinations, he added.

#WATCH | Bengaluru: Co-founder of EaseMyTrip, Prashant Pitti says, "...Our company is entirely homegrown and made in India. Amid the row over Maldives MP's post on PM Modi's visit to Lakshadweep, we have decided that we will not accept any bookings for Maldives...We want Ayodhya pic.twitter.com/99EQ0kxGZM  ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2024

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Pitti further said national interest was greater than personal interest and EaseMyTrip would soon offer more holiday packages for Lakshadweep.

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We (EaseMyTrip) have decided not to serve them anymore. Nationalism is greater than any personal interest, Moneycontrol quoted Pitti as saying.

#WATCH | Bengaluru: Co-founder of EaseMyTrip, Prashant Pitti says, "Our company has recently taken the decision to not accept bookings for Maldives. The reason for this is the row over Maldives MP's post on PM Modi's visit to Lakshadweep. We have taken this decision to establish pic.twitter.com/UjCioATqkK  ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2024

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Prime Minister Modi visited Lakshadweep for its promotion. He has never spoken against Maldives and always extended help to the country. As citizens of this country, we stand with our government, he added.

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Nishant Pitti, who is also co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of EaseMyTrip, stood in support of India and said, In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings.

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The online travel solutions provider has also started visit Lakshadweep campaign by #ChaloLakshadweep.

Amid the escalating diplomatic row between India and the Maldives, hashtag #BoycottMaldives started trending on social media, with many Indian tourists reportedly started cancelling their scheduled vacations to the island nation.

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The three deputy ministers, who have now been suspended by the Maldives government, had criticised PM Modi for his post on Lakshadweep visit, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.

With inputs from agencies
Three Maldivian ministers were suspended for derogatory remarks against PM Modi and India

India, on Monday, summoned Maldives envoy Ibrahim Shaheeb after three ministers of the island nation made derogatory, offensive, racist and xenophobic comments against Indians as well as Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the early hours of Monday, the Maldivian envoy was seen at the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhis South Block.

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#WATCH | Ibrahim Shaheeb, Maldives Envoy exits the MEA in Delhi's South Block.



He had reached the Ministry amid row over Maldives MP's post on PM Modi's visit to Lakshadweep. pic.twitter.com/Dxsj3nkNvw  ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2024

Three Maldivian ministers were suspended for derogatory remarks against PM Modi and India, which former Deputy Speaker of the island nation Eva Abdulla labelled as shameful and racist.

Over this weekend, PM Modi shared a series of posts on X from his visit to Lakshadweep islands. Soon after, some ministers of Maldives and social media users responded to it with derogatory comments targeting Indians at large, as well as the Indian prime minister.

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Maldives Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts, was among those who posted remarks against India, saying, What a clown. The puppet of Israel Mr. Narendra diver with life jacket."

Shiuna later deleted her post, but heres a screengrab of what she wrote.

Another deputy ministry, Malsha Sharif, made similar derogatory remark against India and the tourism campaign in the Lakshadweep.

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A member of the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives also shared a photograph, believed to be that of the Bora Bora islands in the French Polynesia, claiming it was an image of an island resort in the Maldives. Sun set in Maldives. You wont see this in Lakshadweep. #Visit Maldives. CC: @narendramodi (sic), wrote Maaiz Mahmood.

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Under immense pressure to set the record straight and assure India, Maldives government, led by pro-China leader Mohamed Muizzu, distanced itself from the derogatory remarks made by Shiuna and other leaders.

Maldives President Muizzu, who is on visit to China, on Sunday suspended three deputy ministers  Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna, and Abdulla Mahzoon Maajid  after derogatory comments posted by them.

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The anti-India comments by some prominent Maldivians on X have prompted several Indian celebrities and social media influencers to call for a boycott of the Maldives as a tourism destination.

With inputs from agencies
On January 02, Japan Airlines Flight 516, an Airbus A350-900 operating from New Chitose Airport to Haneda Airport, collided with an earthquake relief plane, Japan Coast Guard De Havilland Canada DHC-8-315Q, while landing.

The A350 plane burst into flames after the collision as the airliner skidded on the blazing runway. Both aircraft were destroyed. Fire crews spent hours dousing the fire. Yet, all 379 passengers and crew on board were evacuated. This was the first hull loss of an Airbus A350. Five of the six crew on the coastguard plane unfortunately died, and the captain was injured.

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Recent aircraft accidents where passengers survived

On January 05, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 departing out of Portland International Airport, suffered an explosive decompression when a plug covering an unused exit door blew out. The aircraft made a safe return to Portland, all 177 people on-board survived.

On September 12, 2023, Ural Airlines Flight 1383, an Airbus A320 operating from Sochi to Omsk in Russia, made an emergency landing on an open field after reporting hydraulic issues. All 165 on board survive without injuries.

On November 18, 2022, LATAM Peru Flight 2213, an Airbus A320neo took off from Jorge Chavez International Airport, Peru, collided with a fire engine crossing the runway, killing three fire-fighters. All 102 passengers and 6 crew aboard escape unharmed. This was the first hull loss of an A320neo.

On November 06, 2022, Precision Air Flight 494, an ATR 42-500 flying a domestic flight from Dar es Salaam, crashed into Lake Victoria while attempting to land at Bukoba Airport, Tanzania. Of the 43 people on board, 19 were killed.

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We all can recall, The Miracle over Hudson, when on January 15, 2009, an Airbus A320 of US Airways Flight 1549, struck a flock of birds shortly after take-off from LaGuardia, losing all engine power. Pilots Chesley Sully Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles decided to glide the plane to ditching in the Hudson River off Midtown Manhattan. All 155 people on board were rescued by nearby boats, with only a few serious injuries. The time from the bird strike to the ditching was less than four minutes.

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On October 23, 2022, Korean Air Flight 631, an Airbus A330-300 flying from Seoul, overshot the runway at Mactan-Cebu International Airport, Philippines, in poor weather and collided with airport equipment. There are no injuries among the 173 passengers and crew.

Flying in general has been trending safer, and in particular, newer, less flammable materials help keep people alive in the event of a fire. But in all the accidents the airline culture, aircraft crew, passengers, Air Traffic Controllers, ground handling staff, and emergency services staff had a great role.

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Lessons from Japan Airlines Flight 516 accident

If one watches the video of the plane rolling quickly down the runway, with flames shooting out from almost its entire length, it seems inconceivable that no one died. There are many reasons the crash did not result in a much bigger tragedy.

One of the biggest reasons no one died on Flight 516 was the crews swift reaction. They popped out the emergency slides the moment the plane stopped. Then moved passengers to the slides swiftly but in an orderly manner. They insisted that passengers leave everything but their phones behind, since bringing items along could have slowed things down and led to deaths. Most passengers were Japanese. Japanese culture, values, and discipline meant all obeyed instructions and acted like a responsible group. Interestingly, the pilots and flight crew of all airlines are trained to get passengers off planes very quickly.

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The planes collided at 5:47 pm and footage shows all passengers had evacuated by 5:55 pm at the latest. Only the pilots stayed behind with the captain leaving at 6.05 pm after conducting a final check in the cabin. Flight 516 had landed well past sunset time of 4:44 pm, and all emergency procedures were handled when dark.

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Some passenger videos show that they could see sparks outside the window and that the cabin was filled with gas and smoke. Passengers escaped using an evacuation slide and ran across the tarmac to safety, as footage and photos showed. Eventually, the plane burned down to its fuselage. Around 14 passengers and crew suffered minor injuries.

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Lessons from the 1985 JAL crash

In the 1985 Japan Airlines (JAL) Flight 123 crash, with 524 people on board, only four had survived, making it the worst single-plane disaster in aviation history. The airline had learned their lessons and became determined to make sure it would never happen again.

They put in place strict safety procedures, protocols, and training. To keep reminding the new employees, the airline created a display at its headquarters with pieces of the planes wreckage and stories about the people who had died on board.

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All failure must become an opportunity to learn, they believe. JAL for years became among the worlds safest airlines.

Calmness and discipline

The calmness and discipline of the cabin crew and passengers had a huge impact on their survival. Exceptional professionalism of Japan Airlines and their crews on the fast and effective evacuation that saved all of the passengers lives must be commended.

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Remember flight attendants arent just glorified airplane waiters, theyre trained safety professionals who know what to do in case of an emergency. So dont feel grumpy when they dont get you a drink quickly enough, they are multi-tasking all the time for your safety. They were absolute heroes. The Captain was the last person who got out of the plane  great leadership.

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Salute to the passengers for not panicking, remained seated, and prevented a stampede, which could have made things so much worse. It was nice to see passengers not going for their bags and actually doing the thing that mattered, and saving their own precious and irreplaceable lives. They all exited in the most orderly manner, and that made a huge difference.

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Koji Shibata, president of ANA Holdings, also offered his words of praise for these great rivals, saying, It was truly professional work. It is the first major accident involving the A350, one of a new breed of aircraft built largely of advanced materials such as carbon fibre-reinforced plastic. The planes technology also did a great job too.

Culture

Japan is a country with a lot of volcanoes and earthquakes, and has seen the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the deadly Tsunami, among many other disasters. Japanese are repeatedly trained for thorough evacuation drills since they are in elementary school. They respond calmly, judge the situation, cooperate with the surroundings and help each other. It has been deeply penetrated into culture for a long time.

This incident demonstrated the human nobility of not fighting for a better escape chance, but accepting the sequence given by seating order. I recently went to Japan and noticed in the Shinkansen bullet trains and the subway, how packed passengers change trains in an orderly manner.

Discipline is part of the Japanese lifestyle. Japanese people are respectful of others. The culture is that collective good overrides individual opinions or desires. This is a good lesson for air passengers around the world. Remember to follow flight crew instructions.

Exponential increase of aircraft and traffic

As per Airports Council International, global passenger traffic is expected to reach 9.4 billion passengers by 2024. As per DGCA, Indias domestic airlines passenger count was 125.49 million in the period January-October 2023.

Indian daily domestic air passenger count hit a new high of 463,417 people on November 23, 2023. India is already the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world.

As of June 2022, the total worldwide commercial aircraft fleet size was 28,674 aircraft. Airbus has forecast a demand for 40,850 new passenger and freighter aircraft deliveries over the next 20 years.

A Bain and Company report forecasts that by 2030, EuropeNorth America travel could increase about 17 percent from 2019 demand volume, while Asia intra-regional travel could jump 61 percent.

Civil aviation safety statistics improving

The Aircraft Crashes Record Office (ACRO), a non-government organisation based in Geneva, has indicated that in the last 10 years have seen fewer than 150 accidents a year compared to over 200 a year in earlier decades.

As much as 56 percent of all accidents are attributed to Pilot/Human error, 17 percent to Technical flaw, 13 percent to weather and remaining to miscellaneous causes like Air Traffic control error (4 percent), mid-air collisions, sabotage, bird strike, high-jacking, shooting-down etc.

Boeing study over the last 50 years indicates that most on-board fatalities occur in accidents during approach and landing (60 percent), Take-off (12 percent) and rest in other phases or causes. The Odds of at least one fatality on your flight is 1:3.4 million (1:10 million in top 40 airlines). That is a good reason to choose a reputed airline. There is a 25 percent chance of surviving even a fatal crash. 53 percent chances of survival when aircraft ditches in water. The good news is that over 95 percent of people in US plane crashes, between 1983 and 2000, survived.

According to a study by the European Transport Safety Council, plane crashes technically have a 90 percent survivability rate, and this figure is increasing, largely thanks to modern aircraft design, which features enough exits to allow for a full passenger evacuation in around 90 seconds.

Recent proof of plane crash survival came in October 2021 when a Boston-bound private plane taking-off at Houston Executive Airport struck a fence and burst in flames. All 21 people on-board survived. In 2018, all 103 passengers survived a flaming plane crash in Mexico when strong winds brought down Aeromexico flight 2431.

Clearly, in over one hundred years of implementation, aviation safety has improved considerably.

Aircraft being designed for increased safety

The two major manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, still produce heavy passenger aircraft. Both place a huge emphasis on the use of aviation safety equipment, which in itself is now a few billion-dollar industry.

A poor safety record in the aviation industry is a threat to corporate survival. Some major safety devices now required in commercial aircraft are, evacuation slides for rapid passenger exit from an aircraft in an emergency situation; advanced avionics, incorporating computerized auto-recovery and alert systems; turbine engines with improved durability and failure containment mechanisms; and landing gear that can be lowered even after loss of power and hydraulics.

Newer civil aviation safety procedures

In an effort to prevent incidents such as the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a new standard was issued by ICAO in 2016 requiring all commercial aircraft to report their position every 15 minutes to air traffic controllers.

It was part of a long-term plan, called the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS), which will require new aircraft to be equipped with data broadcast systems that are in constant contact with air traffic controllers. The GADSS is similar to the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) used for maritime safety.

The Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) collects voluntarily submitted aviation safety incident/situation reports from pilots, controllers and others. The ASRS uses reports to identify system deficiencies, issue alert messages, and produce two publications, CALLBACK, and ASRS Directline. The collected information is made available to the public, and is used by the FAA, NASA and other organisations working in research and flight safety.

Reduced accidents and fatalities

The Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives (B3A), is a non-government organisation based in Geneva, that compiles statistics on aviation accidents of aircraft capable of carrying more than six passengers, excluding helicopters, balloons, and combat aircraft.

They only consider crashes in which the aircraft had to be removed from service because of extensive damage. Their statistics indicate that recent years have been considerably safer for aviation, with fewer than 170 incidents every year between 2009 and 2022, compared to as many as 225 as recently as 1998.

The annual fatalities figure has been less than 1,000 for 12 of the 16 years between 2007 and 2022, the year 2022 experienced the lowest number of fatalities, at 357, since the end of World War II.

In India, until May 30, 2012, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation investigated incidents involving aircraft. Since then, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has taken over investigation responsibilities.

Air among the safest means of transportation

Measured on a passenger-distance calculation, air travel is the safest form of transportation available. This statistic is used by the insurance industry when calculating insurance rates for air travel. For every billion kilometres travelled, trains have a fatality rate that is 12 times higher than that of air travel, and the fatality rate for automobiles is 62 times greater than for air travel.

By contrast, for every billion journeys taken, buses are the safest form of transportation. Using this measure, air travel is three times more dangerous than car transportation, and almost 30 times more dangerous than travelling by bus.

Is there a safer seat?

Some studies have claimed that passengers sitting at the back of an aeroplane are 40 percent more likely to survive a crash than those sitting at the front. Time magazine analysed airplane accident data between 1980 and 2015 and found that passengers seated in the back of the plane had a 32 percent fatality rate, compared to 38 percent and 39 percent for those seated in the front and middle respectively. But both Boeing and the FAA claim that there is no safest seat. Just because the flight data recorder is usually mounted in the aircrafts empennage (tail section) where it is more likely to survive a severe crash, doesnt make rear seats safer.

Good idea

Irrespective of where you are seated, the speed at which a passenger exits a crashed plane dictates their chance of survival. The closer you are seated to an exit, the better the chance of survival. University of Greenwich professor Ed Galea analysed seating charts from more than 100 plane crashes and found that sitting within five rows of an exit increased passengers survival rates.

Importance of safety briefing

You may have heard a hundred safety briefings before, but its always worth paying attention to every safety briefing. Aircraft and instructions vary. I always double check where the nearest exit is, and remind my co-passenger about it.

Also one must practice the bracing instructions for the time of crash as given in safety guides. Objects flying through the cabin can also cause secondary impact, which is why passengers are asked to put their bags under the seat in front of them. I always keep my seatbelt fastened throughout the flight as this would prevent me from being thrown around the aircraft in the event of turbulence or a crash.

Correct dress for an air passenger

Interestingly another study says that snug-fitting attire is preferable to loose-fitting fabrics that could snag on fixtures and fittings when trying to exit a crashed plane. Full-length clothing could potentially protect the skin from fire, which is typical in a plane crash. Durable jeans or sportswear such as leggings made from less-flammable fabric such as cotton are ideal. Stilettoes are best left in the luggage. As safety cards point out, sharp heels can damage inflatable slides.

Nervous flyers education

Are you still a nervous flyer? If so, theres an educational organisation in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Dynamic Advanced Training specialises in giving people the skills to survive a plane crash. Instead of thinking about all the ways that you can die, learn the ways that you can survive.

Aviation is safe

Advances in technology have made a big difference in safety and passenger comfort. Weather radars, good autopilots, collision avoidance systems, glass cockpits, more reliable engines, greatly support and reduce pilot load and improve safety.

For better safety, it is recommended to fly non-stop flights to reduce exposure; larger aircraft have better survival statistics; attention to pre-flight briefings have saved lives; keep seat-belts fastened all the time; cabin crew are more for safety and less for serving; and keep cool and your wits about. There is one accident per 3 million departures, so cheer-up airliners are very safe.

The writer is Director General, Centre for Air Power Studies. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_s views._

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Analysts fear that soon, Apple may no longer be the most valued company, after stock value of the Cupertino-based giant fell by 0.4 per cent. Apple has been plagued by a number of issues, including some anti-trust cases going against it, and the struggling iPhone 15 line

Technology giant Apple, which has held the title of the worlds most valuable publicly-listed company since July 2022, is at risk of losing its crown this year, as mounting pressures and challenges take a toll on its market value.

Investors are expressing concern over the companys recent performance, marking its worst start to the year by some measures.

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The companys shares experienced a 0.4 per cent decline on Friday, closing at approximately US$181. This downturn follows reports from The New York Times indicating that the US Justice Department is nearing the filing of an antitrust case against Apple.

This development, coupled with existing challenges such as slowing iPhone sales and patent issues related to the Apple Watch, has intensified apprehensions among investors.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anurag Rana commented that the potential antitrust case could target Apples business model, known for tightly integrating its devices and services. The Cupertino-based company has witnessed a continuous decline in its stock for five consecutive days, representing its longest losing streak since October.

While Apple has been the most valuable stock since July 2022, it has already lost approximately US$177 billion in market value in the current year, according to Bloomberg data.

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This decline marks the largest market value destruction at the beginning of any year on record, even surpassing previous percentage declines in the first week of January.

The challenges for Apple began earlier in the week when the company faced two ratings downgrades, citing a weak macro environment in China impacting iPhone demand. This setback has narrowed its lead over Microsoft Corp, another technology giant, to less than US$100 billion.

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According to the South China Morning Post, analysts and experts believe that investors are reacting to the rarity of two downgrades before an earnings report. Gene Munster, managing partner of Deepwater Asset Management, told South China Morning Post, Investors realize how rare it is to have two people go negative.

Additionally, market dynamics at the start of the year, where investors tend to rebalance their portfolios, are contributing to the pressure on Apples stock.

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As a result of these challenges, Apples market value has now fallen to around US$2.8 trillion, approaching Microsofts US$2.7 trillion.

Microsofts more modest decline at the beginning of the year has been attributed to its involvement in the artificial intelligence trade, making it OpenAIs largest shareholder with approximately US$13 billion invested in the ChatGPT parent company.

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(With inputs from agencies)
A team of researchers from the US, the UK, Australia, and Spain have designed the perfect space meal for long-term space travellers, designed to provide both nutrition and flavour. The space meal is largely vegetarian, and can be made from ingredients cultivated in space

As space agencies prepare for extended missions to Mars, researchers from the US, the UK, Australia, and Spain have addressed the culinary challenge faced by astronauts on long space voyages.

Published in the journal ACS Food Science & Technology under the title Modeling of Space Crop-Based Dishes for Optimal Nutrient Delivery to Astronauts and Beyond on Earth, the study presents an optimal space meal designed to provide both nutrition and flavour.

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Considering the recommendations of NASA, which outline up to 36 nutrients and 102 crops, the researchers focused on fresh ingredients tailored to meet the specialized nutritional needs of male astronauts. The result is a tasty vegetarian salad, featuring components that can be cultivated in space.

Astronauts in space expend more calories than their Earthbound counterparts and require additional micronutrients, such as calcium, to maintain health in prolonged microgravity conditions.

With future long-term missions necessitating sustainable food production within spacecraft or colonies, the researchers, led by Dr Volker Hessel from the University of Adelaide and the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick, aimed to optimize a space meal that fulfils nutritional requirements and is palatable.

Employing linear programming, a computational method balancing various variables to achieve a specific goal, the researchers assessed combinations of fresh ingredients.

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Their model determined how well these combinations could meet a male astronauts daily nutritional needs while minimizing water consumption for cultivation.

Sustainability was a key consideration, with an emphasis on ingredients requiring minimal fertilizer, time, and space to grow, and the potential recyclability of inedible portions.

Among the ten scenarios examined, a vegetarian meal comprising soybeans, poppy seeds, barley, kale, peanuts, sweet potato, and/or sunflower seeds emerged as the most efficient balance of maximal nutrients and minimal farming inputs.

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While not providing all necessary micronutrients, the researchers propose supplementing the missing elements separately.

To ensure the identified combination was not only nutritious but also tasty, the team created the ideal space meal as a salad and conducted taste tests on Earth with four participants.

While one tester gave rave reviews, expressing a willingness to eat it throughout the week as an astronaut, others were more reserved in their praise, though they returned for second helpings.

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Looking ahead, the researchers plan to explore options for female astronauts and expand the variety of crops in their database based on computer model outputs.

(With inputs from agencies)
NASA and UAEs Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre are going to work together to create and launch the worlds first lunar space station, named Gateway. One of the most significant aspects of the space station, a futuristic air lock module, will be supplied by MBRSC

NASA and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced a groundbreaking collaboration for the development of the worlds inaugural lunar space station, known as Gateway, as per a report by Bloomberg.

The partnership between NASA and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) was unveiled on Sunday, solidifying their commitment to advancing space exploration. This joint venture is a crucial component of NASAs Artemis program, focused on the long-term exploration of the moon

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Under the terms of the collaboration, the MBRSC will supply an airlock module for Gateway, facilitating the seamless transfer of crews and scientific research, as per the report.

The official statement put out by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre outlines the UAEs expanded role, not only providing the crucial airlock but also offering ongoing engineering support for the lunar space station.

In a show of commitment, the UAE intends to send one of its astronauts on a future Artemis mission.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, who chairs the National Space Council, expressed enthusiasm for the international partnership.

Harris emphasized the synergies between the US and UAE, stating, By combining our resources, scientific capacity, and technical skill, the US and UAE will further our collective vision for space.

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NASA Administrator Bill Nelson highlighted the significance of the UAEs contribution, emphasizing that the airlock provided by MBRSC will enable groundbreaking scientific work in deep space, preparing for future endeavors such as human missions to Mars.

The airlock serves as a crucial connection point, facilitating the transfer of crew and research between Gateways pressurized crew modules and the vacuum of space, supporting various scientific initiatives and maintenance activities.

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Gateways role extends beyond lunar exploration, serving as a hub for sustained exploration and research in deep space. This space station will provide a living and working space for astronauts, act as a staging point for lunar surface missions, and offer opportunities for spacewalks while orbiting the moon.

The collaboration builds upon the history of cooperation between NASA and the UAE in human spaceflight. In 2019, Hazzaa Almansoori became the first Emirati to travel to space on a mission to the International Space Station, collaborating with NASA on experiments and educational outreach. Sultan Al Neyadi, another Emirati astronaut, contributed to scientific research in the floating laboratory during NASA and SpaceX Crew-6 mission in 2023.

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This latest collaboration marks a significant milestone in the ongoing partnership between NASA and the UAE in advancing space exploration and scientific endeavours.

(With inputs from agencies)
An increasing number of EV manufacturers incorporating the capability for their vehicles to serve as power supplies, individuals facing power outages now have the option to power and charge essential devices

In the aftermath of a severe storm and flash flooding that left parts of south-east Queensland, Australia without power, a local woman showcased the invaluable role of electric vehicles (EVs) in times of crisis.

Harnessing the massive battery pack of her electric car, the woman powered her sons life-saving dialysis machine, emphasizing the tangible benefits of having such a resource readily available.

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With an increasing number of EV manufacturers incorporating the capability for their vehicles to serve as power supplies, individuals facing power outages now have the option to charge essential devices.

Notably, some companies, such as Ford, have taken this feature to the next level, enabling their vehicles to contribute energy back to the grid and potentially power entire homes.

Kristy Holmes, residing on Australias Gold Coast, used her Atto 3  an electric car produced by Chinese competitor BYD, not currently available in the US  to sustain her 11-year-old sons dialysis machine during the blackout on Christmas Day.

We ran it off the car, Holmes shared with The Guardian. We only needed to use it for the one night. We could have run it for at least four nights and then have to go charge the car somewhere.

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The situation was reportedly a matter of life and death, as Holmes son was slated to be added to a transplant list and would have required transportation to Brisbane in the absence of the EVs support.

Beyond the critical task of preserving her sons life, Holmess electric vehicle also powered some critical household appliances, including her slow cooker, and assisted in supplying power to neighbours refrigerators during the blackout.

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This innovative use of EVs highlights their potential not just as an efficient means of transportation but also as crucial backup power sources during emergencies.

In a parallel effort, other locals deployed Tesla Powerwalls  rechargeable lithium-ion battery packs capable of powering entire homes  to aid their neighbours during the crisis.

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(With inputs from agencies)
A lobby group that represents major tech companies like TikTok, Snapchat, Meta etc is suing Ohios Republican Attorney General Dave Yost for introducing a bill that mandates children to obtain parental consent before using social media apps

A trade lobby group representing major tech companies including TikTok, Snapchat, and Meta have filed a lawsuit against Ohio over a pending law that mandates children to obtain parental consent before using social media apps.

The law, part of an $86.1 billion state budget bill signed by Republican Governor Mike DeWine in July, is scheduled to take effect on January 15. Ohios administration promoted the measure as a way to safeguard childrens mental health, citing concerns about the intentionally addictive nature of social media.

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The NetChoice trade group lodged the lawsuit against Republican Attorney General Dave Yost in the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, seeking to block the laws implementation.

The legal challenge argues that Ohios law, requiring social media companies to obtain parental permission for users under 16, infringes upon free speech rights and is overly broad and vague.

Additionally, the law mandates that social media companies furnish parents with their privacy guidelines, allowing families to understand the content that will be censored or moderated on their childs profile.

Chris Marchese, director of NetChoices litigation centre, stated, We at NetChoice believe families equipped with educational resources are capable of determining the best approach to online services and privacy protections for themselves. The lawsuit, NetChoice v. Yost, aims to ensure that Ohioans can embrace digital tools without compromising privacy, security, and rights.

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NetChoice has previously succeeded in legal challenges against similar restrictions in California and Arkansas.

Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, a supporter of the law who leads Ohios technology initiatives, referred to Fridays lawsuit as cowardly but not unexpected.

Husted accused the tech companies of attempting to circumvent parents to expose children to harmful content and alleged that their algorithms are causing catastrophic health and mental health outcomes for children.

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(With inputs from agencies)
Vinfast is setting up its first EV factory in India, in the state of Tanil Nadu. For the first phase of setting up a factory and getting started, Vinfast has already allocated $500 million, and is expected to create a factory with a manufacturing capacity of 1,50,000 cars

VinFast, the Vietnamese carmaker, has agreed to invest up to $2 billion in building an electric vehicle (EV) plant in Tamil Nadu, southern India.

The company, founded and led by Vietnams richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong, plans to commit $500 million in the first phase of the project. The plant will be located in Thoothukudi, with construction set to begin in the current year.

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VinFast aims to make the facility a first-class electric vehicle production hub in the region with a capacity to manufacture 150,000 cars, although specific details about its plans are limited.

VinFast, established in 2017, initially produced internal combustion engine cars before transitioning to an all-EV strategy in 2021.

The company was listed on the US market through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company last year and unveiled plans for plants in North Carolina and Indonesia as part of its global expansion strategy.

Recently, Pham Nhat Vuong took over as VinFasts CEO, with plans for further expansion and development in the electric vehicle market.

Despite its global ambitions, VinFast has faced criticism for its early EV models and reported losses exceeding $1.4 billion in the first three quarters of the previous year. The company remains dependent on sales to other businesses owned by its parent company, Vingroup.

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The memorandum of understanding between VinFast and the Tamil Nadu government was signed at an investors conference in Chennai over the weekend. Tamil Nadu is a significant hub for Indias automotive industry and the largest exporter of electronics in the country.

Other companies, including Hyundai, Ola, and Tata Electronics, also announced investments in the state during the Global Investors Meet.

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has set a goal of building a $1 trillion economy in the state by 2030. The Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been working to boost job creation in manufacturing, particularly in the electric vehicle sector.

(With inputs from agencies)
Russias Ambassador to India, Denis Alipov, hopes that like numerous previous missions where Indian and Russian scientists have worked together, the two nations continue to engage on many more missions, as he offered Russias extensive expertise for the launch of Gaganyaan

2024 marks one of the most crucial years for the Indian Space Research Organization or ISRO, and the countrys ambition for aerospace engineering. This years Gaganyaan launch, ISROs first launch of a manned mission to space is, perhaps the one mission that every space enthusiast all over the world, is looking forward to.

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Russias Ambassador to India, Denis Alipov, hopes that like numerous previous missions where Indian and Russian scientists have worked together, the two nations continue to engage on many more missions.

#WATCH | Delhi: On space cooperation, Russian Ambassador Denis Alipov says, "I am very much hopeful that we will continue to engage with each other on major missions that India is undertaking. I am quite positive that Russia would be prepared to offer its extensive expertise to pic.twitter.com/z9y7bIiGUe  ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2024

I am very much hopeful that we will continue to engage with each other on major missions that India is undertaking. I am quite positive that Russia would be prepared to offer its extensive expertise to be utilized in the preparation for the Gaganyaan mission, said the Ambassador, while speaking to the press at an event in Delhi.

Russia, one of Indias oldest and most dependable allies in aerospace and defence ventures, is playing several crucial roles in the Gaganyaan mission.

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Russias role in Gaganyaan Russia is not only responsible for training Indian astronauts but will also be involved in constructing life support systems within the crew capsule and offering support for Indias inaugural human space flight program, valued at $1.4 billion.

India, positioned as the fourth country globally to initiate a human space mission, aspires to dispatch three astronauts aboard the domestically manufactured 3.7-ton crew spacecraft Gaganyaan for a seven-day mission in 2022.

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To solidify their collaboration on the Gaganyaan mission, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was executed between ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and ROSCOSMOS (Russian State Corporation for Space Activities) during the 19th Bilateral Summit in 2018. The MoU outlines joint efforts in developing crucial technologies and advanced systems essential for the human space flight mission, encompassing aspects such as radiation shielding, life-support systems, crew module, rendezvous and docking systems, spacesuits, and astronaut training.

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Since the signing of the MoU, ISRO and ROSCOSMOS have been actively engaged in identifying key areas of cooperation. According to Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of ROSCOSMOS and a Russian launch service provider, a contract has been established with ISRO to provide consultancy support for the selection of Indian astronauts, assist with their medical examinations, and prepare them through spaceflight-related training.

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Furthermore, ISRO has established a Technical Liaison Unit (ITLU) in Moscow, Russia, to facilitate effective technical collaboration and ensure timely interventions with Russian space agencies and industries for the successful implementation of the Gaganyaan project.

Russia and Indias history in space The Soviet Union, later Russia, played a pivotal role by launching Indias inaugural unmanned satellite, Aryabhata, marking the inception of Indias satellite program. Aryabhata, crafted entirely in Bengaluru by ISRO scientists, was sent into space via a Soviet Kosmos-3M rocket from Kapustin Yar, symbolizing a transformative moment for Indias space endeavours.

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In subsequent collaborations, Russia launched Indias first experimental remote sensing satellite, Bhaskara-1, in 1979, facilitating studies in oceanography, forestry, and hydrology. The partnership continued with the successful launch of the indigenously built remote sensing satellite, IRS-1A, in 1988, focusing on agriculture, coastal management, and forests.

The two nations have signed numerous agreements over the years, reinforcing their cooperation for peaceful outer space exploration. Collaborative efforts encompass satellite launches, the GLONASS navigation system, remote sensing, and various societal applications of outer space, as detailed in a brief on India-Russia relations by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

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Indias space journey, which began in 1969, has witnessed substantial growth, marked by significant milestones. Notably, Indias first foray into manned space exploration occurred in 1984 when Rakesh Sharma, an Indian Air Force pilot, travelled aboard the Russian Soyuz T-11 rocket during a joint space mission.

Sharma spent eight days on the Russian Salyut 7 orbital space station, conducting experiments related to science and space travel.

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The collaborative spirit between India and Russia extended to the launch of YouthSat in 2011 from Sriharikota. This satellite, dedicated to university students, aimed to enhance understanding of Earths surface and explore energy in the Earths crust, showcasing the ongoing partnership between the two nations in advancing space exploration.
Between 2023 and 2030, countries must reduce their energy intensity at least twice as quickly as they did in prior years, necessitating significant adjustments from the private sector

A series of corporate initiatives focused at decreasing the intensity of energy consumption may result in yearly savings of at least $2 trillion for the global economy if implemented by the end of this decade, according to a new WEF report released on Monday.

These targeted practical initiatives can enhance growth while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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The World Economic Forum (WEF) claimed in a paper released ahead of its Annual Meeting in Davos from January 15 to January 19 that the appropriate policy frameworks will unlock growth and productivity, save firms money, provide a competitive edge, and cut emissions.

Launched in partnership with PwC, the study has the backing of more than 120 CEOs worldwide who are members of the WEFs International Business Council (IBC), a collective that accounts for 3% of the worlds energy consumption.

Governments promised to double the pace of energy efficiency improvement over the same period and quadruple the worlds renewable energy capacity by 2030 as part of one of the most broadly backed proposals at the United Nations climate change conference, COP28.

Between 2023 and 2030, countries must reduce their energy intensity at least twice as quickly as they did in prior years, necessitating significant adjustments from the private sector.

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Underlining the practical actions that businesses can take to act on energy demand, the WEF said these would be driven by energy-intensity reductions in buildings, industry and transport.

Examples include energy-saving measures such as using artificial intelligence to optimize factory line design, energy efficiency, value chain collaboration, industrial clustering to share clean energy initiatives, retrofitting buildings and electrification of transport.
Eyewitnesses revealed that two rockets hit the journalists car, causing their sudden deaths. The Israeli army stated it targeted a terrorist operating an aircraft posing a threat to IDF troops, acknowledging the additional casualties

In a tragic incident, Al Jazeera reported death of two Palestinian journalists, Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria, in the Gaza Strip, attributing it to an Israeli strike on their car. The network claims this was a targeted killing.

The journalists, also affiliated with AFP and other news organizations, were on their way to cover news in the Gaza Strip when the attack occurred. A third journalist, Hazem Rajab, sustained serious injuries. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza confirmed the deaths and pointed to an Israeli strike.

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Eyewitnesses revealed that two rockets hit the journalists car, causing their sudden deaths. The Israeli army stated it targeted a terrorist operating an aircraft posing a threat to IDF troops, acknowledging the additional casualties.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the deaths an unimaginable tragedy, expressing concern for innocent lives on both sides. Al Jazeera strongly condemned the incident, accusing Israel of violating press freedom principles.

Hamzas father, Wael al-Dahdouh, Gaza bureau chief for Al Jazeera, was recently wounded in a separate strike, having lost his wife and two children earlier in the conflict.

AFPs global news director condemned the attacks on journalists and called for a clear explanation of the incident.

At the funeral, Wael Dahdouh passionately appealed for the world to see the situation from the Palestinian perspective. The journalist Mustafa Thuria, who had worked with AFP since 2019, leaves a void in the media community.

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This tragic event adds to the toll of journalists affected by the Israel-Hamas conflict. Reporters Without Borders Christophe Deloire expressed shock, emphasizing the dire situation and referring to it as a never-ending slaughter.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports at least 79 journalists, mostly Palestinian, have lost their lives since the conflict began. This incident follows a similar case in May 2022 when Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed during an Israeli raid in the West Bank.

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The ongoing conflict, which began with Hamas militants crossing into Israel, has resulted in a significant number of casualties. Israels commitment to eradicating Hamas has led to relentless bombings in Gaza, causing a devastating impact on civilians.

As the international community grapples with the consequences of this conflict, the media faces increasing challenges in reporting the realities on the ground. The tragic loss of journalists highlights the pressing need for a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
According to the latest data by IMF, Maldives owes China about $1.3 billion. China is the Maldives largest external creditor, accounting for about 20 per cent of its total public debt

Amid strained ties and ongoing diplomatic row with India, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu departed for China, marking the beginning of a state visit at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Muizzu, a pro-China leader, with First Lady Sajidha Mohamed departed for Beijing on Sunday night.

Muizzu, who came to power, speaking high about his Out India campaign, suspended three deputy ministers  Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna, and Abdulla Mahzoon Maajid  after derogatory comments posted by them on X (formerly Twitter) in response to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis promotion of Lakshadweep archipelago for tourism.

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Some from Maldives viewed PM Modis visit to Lakshadweep as an effort to draw tourists away from popular beach destination Maldives, whose 1,192 islands in the Indian Ocean are swamped with luxury resorts.

However, responding to the derogatory posts by three of the countrys deputy minister, Maldives Foreign Ministry said: The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives.

Maldives Presidents China visit

Muizzus visit to China also comes amid strained relations with India over the withdrawal of Indian troops from the country.

He took over as President of Maldives in November last year and had issued an election pledge to remove a small contingent of some 75 Indian military personnel in his country and alter the Maldivess India-first policy.

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Muizzu will be on a state visit to China till 12 January. During his stay, the Maldives President is expected to sign several agreements to further strengthen bilateral ties with Beijing.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Muizzu and Xi will hold talks and attend the signing ceremony of cooperation documents. Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress Zhao Leji will meet with the Maldives President respectively.

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China and the Maldives boast time-honoured friendship. In the past 52 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two countries have treated each other with respect and supported each other, setting a fine example of equality and mutual benefits between countries of different sizes, the spokesperson said on Friday.

Wang emphasised that this would be Muizzus first state visit to a foreign country since he took office.

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Maldives dependency on China

Both India and China are competing for influence in Maldives over the past decade, but Muizzus government is considered to be leaning towards, with the island nation joining Chinas Belt and Road initiative.

As per the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) data, the Maldives owes China about $1.3 billion. China is Maldives largest external creditor, accounting for about 20 per cent of its total public debt.

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Meanwhile, India significantly contributes to the Maldivian economy through tourism, with Indians forming the largest group of tourists to the island nation, which is now facing issue with several people cancelling their visit to the Indian Ocean nation following remarks by three of its ministers.
Australia on Monday implemented laws prohibiting the Nazi salute as well as the display or sale of symbols linked to terrorist groups as the government responds to a rise in antisemitic incidents following the Israel-Gaza war

Australia on Monday implemented laws prohibiting the Nazi salute as well as the display or sale of symbols linked to terrorist groups as the government responds to a rise in antisemitic incidents following the Israel-Gaza war.

Under the new law, performing the Nazi salute or showcasing symbols like the Nazi swastika and the double-sig rune associated with the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary group is now a criminal offense and offenders could face a maximum penalty of up to 12 months in prison.

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Furthermore, the sale and trade of these symbols are also explicitly banned.

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said in a statement the legislation sent a clear message there was no place in Australia for those who glorify the Holocaust or terrorist acts.

This is the first legislation of its kind and will ensure no one in Australia will be allowed to glorify or profit from acts and symbols that celebrate the Nazis and their evil ideology, Reuters quoted Dreyfus as saying.

Introduced in June and passed in December, the law has taken on new significance amid a surge in antisemitism and Islamophobia following the 7 October attack by Hamas, where some 1,200 were killed and 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.

Unverified footage showing a small group of men outside the iconic Opera house shouting gas the Jews during a pro-Palestinian protest in October triggered outrage around the world and a police investigation.

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Separately, police arrested three men in October for performing the Nazi salute outside the Jewish Museum of Australia. There were more anti-Jewish incidents in October and November last year than the twelve months prior, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

The new law also bans the public display or trade in symbols associated with prohibited terror organisations, such as Islamic State, Hamas or the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

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With inputs from agencies
The general elections in Bangladesh were marred by sporadic violence and a boycott by the main opposition outfit Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Monday to congratulate her for securing a historic fourth consecutive term with an overwhelming majority in the Parliamentary elections.

Spoke to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and congratulated her on her victory for a historic fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary elections. I also congratulate the people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of elections. We are committed to further strengthen our enduring and people-centric partnership with Bangladesh, PM Modi said in a statement on social media platform X.

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The general elections in Bangladesh were marred by sporadic violence and a boycott by the main opposition outfit Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies.

Sheikh Hasinas party - the Awami League - won 223 seats in the 300-seat Parliament. There were 299 seats up for grabs in the election. According to reports, the death of a candidate has resulted in a postponed election for one seat.

The Jatiya Party, which is the biggest opposition in Parliament, gained 11 seats; the Bangladesh Kallyan party won one seat; and 62 seats went to independent candidates. Each party got one seat: the Workers Party of Bangladesh and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal.

In a landslide victory, Hasina, 76, who is also the president of the Awami League, won the Gopalganj-3 constituency, marking her ninth term in parliament.

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With the second-lowest turnout since democracy was restored in 1991, Hasina, who has ruled the strategically positioned South Asian nation since 2009, won a record-breaking fourth straight term and fifth term overall in the lopsided election.

In the contentious elections held in February 1996, the lowest voter turnout in Bangladeshi history was 26.5%.

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The Election Commission anticipated that the final tally might stand at about 40% when voting closed at 4:00 pm on Sunday. This is a 13% increase in turnout in just one hour. As of 3:00 pm, the turnout in the election was 27.15%.

Hasina will likely become Bangladeshs longest-serving prime leader since the countrys independence with this victory.

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(With agency inputs)
Although Islamist extremists, such as the Pakistan Taliban, have previously killed several polio vaccination workers and their security guards, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident

At least five police officers assigned to guard polio vaccination workers in northwest Pakistan were slain by a roadside bomb on Monday, according to officials.

A police truck transporting around 25 policemen for anti-polio campaign duties was targeted by an IED (improvised explosive device), Anwar ul Haq, a senior government official in Bajaur district, told AFP.

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According to him, at least 20 police officers were hurt and at least five police officers died.

The number of deaths was also verified by top police official in the district, Kashif Zulfiqar.

Approximately 14 kilometres (nine miles) from the Afghan border, in the Mamund area of the Bajaur province, was the site of the attack.

Although Islamist extremists, such as the Pakistan Taliban, have previously killed several polio vaccination workers and their security guards, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident.

The only nations where polio, a crippling virus that may cause permanent disability, is still widespread are Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Opposition to inoculation grew after the US Central Intelligence Agency organised a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al-Qaedas former leader Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad.

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Firebrand clerics in Pakistans restive and mountainous border region with Afghanistan have also spread misinformation that doses of the oral vaccine contain traces of pork and alcohol, which are forbidden by Islam.

Pakistan is due to hold a delayed general election on February 8, as the country grapples with overlapping security, economic and political crises.

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Pakistan witnessed a dramatic spike in militant attacks, mainly in its border regions with Afghanistan, after the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Last year saw casualties from attacks and state counter-terrorism operations hit a six-year high, with more than 1,500 civilians, security forces and militants killed, according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.

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Islamabad alleges hostile groups operate from sanctuaries across the border, a charge the Taliban government has consistently denied.

The biggest threat to Pakistan is its domestic chapter of the Taliban known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which shares a common lineage with the new rulers of Kabul.

The Taliban have harboured and allowed active support of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan who number between 4,000 and 6,000 in Afghanistan, a UN Security Council report said last year.
The depressurized plane, carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, returned to Portland International Airport with no serious injuries

In an effort to prevent another in-flight blowout similar to the one that destroyed an Alaska Airlines aircraft, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines grounded all of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft on Sunday. They did this while they awaited instructions on how to check the aircraft.

Less than twenty-four hours had passed since a portion of the fuselage of another aircraft broke out three miles (4.8 km) over Oregon when Alaska Airlines returned eighteen of its sixty-five 737 Max 9 aircraft to service on Saturday.

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The reprieve did not last long.

The airline reported on Sunday that it was notified by the Federal Aviation Administration that those eighteen aircraft may require further maintenance.

By mid-afternoon on the West Coast, Alaska said that it had cancelled 170 flights, or more than one-fifth of its schedule, due to the groundings.

These aircraft have now also been pulled from service until details about possible additional maintenance work are confirmed with the FAA, the airline said in a statement. We are in touch with the FAA to determine what, if any, further work is required.

United Airlines said it had scrapped about 180 flights Sunday while salvaging others by finding other planes not covered by the grounding.

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Alaska and United are the only US airlines that fly the Max 9.

United said it was waiting for Boeing to issue what is called a multi-operator message, which is a service bulletin used when multiple airlines need to perform similar work on a particular type of plane.

Boeing is working on a bulletin but had not yet submitted it to the FAA, according to a person familiar with the situation. Producing a detailed, technical bulletin frequently takes a couple days, the person said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the company and regulators have not publicly discussed the process.

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Boeing declined to comment.

A panel used to plug an area reserved for an exit door on the Max 9 blew out Friday night shortly after Alaska Airlines flight 1282 took off from Portland, Oregon. The depressurized plane, carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, returned to Portland International Airport with no serious injuries.

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Hours after the incident, the FAA ordered the grounding of 171 Max 9s including all those operated by Alaska and United until they could be inspected. The FAA said inspections will take four to eight hours.

Boeing has delivered 218 Max 9s worldwide, but not all of them are covered by the FAA order. They are among more than 1,300 Max jetliners  mostly the Max 8 variant  sold by the aircraft maker. The Max 8 and other versions of the Boeing 737 are not affected by the grounding.

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US Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Senates Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said she agreed with the decision to ground the Max 9s.

Safety is paramount. Aviation production has to meet a gold standard, including quality control inspections and strong FAA oversight, she said in a statement.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board searched Sunday for the paneled-over exit door that blew out from flight 1282. They have a good idea of where it landed, near Oregon Route 217 and Barnes Road in the Cedar Hills area west of Portland, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference late Saturday.

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If you find that, please, please contact local law enforcement, she said.

Early Sunday afternoon, some local residents were scouring a patch of land with dense thickets, sandwiched between busy roads and a light rail train station. The area is located across from a sprawling hospital complex.

Searcher Adam Pirkle said he had ridden 14 miles (22 kilometers), maneuvering his bicycle through the overgrowth. Ive been looking at the flight track, I was looking at the winds, he said. Ive been trying to focus on wooded areas.

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Daniel Feldt navigated the same thickets on foot, equipped with binoculars after searching the area from the roof of a parking garage. Didnt see any holes in the bushes that looked obvious where something had fallen through, he said.

Lisa Helderop, communications director at Providence St. Vincent, the hospital in the area of southwest Portland where the NTSB said the door might have fallen, said two NTSB agents also looked around the hospital campus Sunday with members of the hospitals security team.

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There has not been a fatal crash involving a US passenger carrier within the country since 2009 when a Colgan Air flight crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines flight arriving from South Korea crashed at San Francisco International Airport, killing three of the 307 people on board.

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Flight 1282 took off from Portland at 5:07 p.m. Friday for a two-hour flight to Ontario, California. About six minutes later, the chunk of the fuselage blew out as the plane was at about 16,000 feet (4.8 kilometers). One of the pilots declared an emergency and asked for clearance to descend to 10,000 feet (3 kilometers), the altitude where the air would have enough oxygen to breathe safely.

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Videos posted by passengers online showed a gaping hole where the paneled-over exit had been and passengers wearing masks. They applauded when the plane landed safely about 13 minutes after the blowout. Firefighters then came down the aisle, asking passengers to remain in their seats as they treated the injured.

It was extremely lucky that the airplane had not yet reached cruising altitude, when passengers and flight attendants might be walking around the cabin, Homendy said.

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No one was seated in 26A and B where that door plug is, the aircraft was around 16,000 feet and only 10 minutes out from the airport when the door blew, she said. The investigation is expected to take months.

The aircraft involved rolled off the assembly line and received its certification two months ago, according to online FAA records. It had been on 145 flights since entering commercial service Nov. 11, said FlightRadar24, another tracking service. The flight from Portland was the aircrafts third of the day.

Aviation experts were stunned a piece would fly off a new aircraft. Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said he has seen panels of fuselage come off planes before, but couldnt recall one where passengers are looking at the lights of the city.

The Max is the newest version of Boeings venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane frequently used on US domestic flights. The plane went into service in May 2017.

Two Max 8 jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. All Max 8 and Max 9 planes were grounded worldwide for nearly two years until Boeing made changes to an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.

The Max has been plagued by other issues, including manufacturing flaws, concern about overheating that led FAA to tell pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system, and a possible loose bolt in the rudder system.
The individual, identified as Huang, allegedly worked for the UKs MI6 and engaged in espionage activities, providing the British government with state secrets and intelligence, according to a report, citing Chinas Ministry of State Security

China has detained the head of an overseas consulting firm, accusing them of spying on behalf of the British government, thereby drawing attention to an industry that has been under scrutiny due to Beijings national security crackdown.

According to a Bloomberg report, citing Chinas Ministry of State Security (MSS), the individual, identified as Huang, allegedly worked for the UKs MI6 intelligence service and engaged in espionage activities, providing the British government with state secrets and intelligence.

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The MSS did not disclose the consulting firms name or Huangs nationality.

The inquiry highlights Beijings ongoing examination of the consulting industry, which, in the past year, has faced increased scrutiny due to an anti-espionage crackdown.

The MSS has frequently accused this sector of leaking classified information. The turbulence within a field utilised by money managers for navigating Chinese markets has raised concerns among certain investors. They worry that President Xi Jinpings emphasis on security may impede his efforts to attract foreign capital and stimulate economic growth.

According to the report, citing MSS, the Chinese agency said MI6 approached Huang in 2015 for intelligence cooperation, directing the consultant to travel to China multiple times, collect intelligence and identify potential assets. The UK spying agency trained and equipped the person to carry out espionage.

Meanwhile, the British government has said Chinese spies are targeting its officials in sensitive positions in politics, defence and business as part of an increasingly sophisticated spying operation to gain access to secrets, according to Reuters.

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Recently, a researcher in Britains parliament denied he was a Chinese spy.

China repeatedly condemned the assertions with a foreign ministry spokesperson saying they were entirely groundless.

We urge the UK to stop spreading disinformation and stop political manipulation and malicious slander against China, said foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning when queried at a press briefing.

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This marks the first instance in which the MSS has accused British espionage on its WeChat account since it began posting in August. The ministry had previously disclosed information about alleged spies cooperating with US authorities.

Security officials conducted a visit and search at the Shanghai office of the expert-research company Capvision in May, asserting that the company was aiding foreign entities in espionage efforts. In August, Chinese authorities imposed a fine on the US due diligence firm Mintz Group for unlawful data collection, following months of office raids in Beijing and the detention of five Chinese employees.

In April, the American consultancy Bain & Co. reported that Chinese authorities had interrogated staff at its Shanghai office.

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Beijing has escalated its efforts to combat spying and implemented a new counter-espionage law that took effect last year. This legislation broadens the scope of activities classified as spying, heightening risks for foreign companies.

While Chinas formidable spy agency typically operates discreetly, it has recently assumed a more public profile, even launching a comic series based on real-life espionage cases last Sunday.

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The MSS has confirmed that consular visits have been arranged following the enforcement of criminal measures against Huang.

With inputs from agencies
Derogatory comments on social media against India and PM Modi by several Maldives ministers has sparked a huge uproar, prompting many Indians to cancel their reservations and airline tickets to the Maldives

In light of the ongoing disputes between India and the Maldives, China asked New Delhi to maintain an open-minded stance on the issue.

New Delhi ought to maintain greater receptivity, since Chinas collaboration with South Asian nations is not a zero-sum endeavor, Global Times, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, said in an editorial on Monday.

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The Global Times editorial coincided with Maldives President Mohamed Muizzus commencement of a five-day trip to China on Monday. Prominently pro-China, Muizzu is escorted by his spouse Sajidha Mohamed and an official delegation. Senior Chinese authorities welcomed the President and the First Lady when they arrived in the nation.

It also respects the friendly and cooperative relationship between the Maldives and India, fully aware of the importance for Male to maintain good relations with New Delhi. Beijing has never asked Male to reject New Delhi because of the conflicts between China and India, nor does it view cooperation between the Maldives and India as unfriendly or a threat, the Global Times article stated.

It (China) is also willing to carry out trilateral cooperation between China, India and the Maldives. New Delhi should stay more open-minded, as Chinas cooperation with South Asian countries is not a zero-sum game, it added.

Earlier on Monday, Ali Naseer Mohamed, the ministrys ambassador at large, called Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives Munu Mahawar to the countrys foreign ministry for a scheduled meeting. This occurred after the Ministry of External Affairs called Ibrahim Shaheeb, the Maldivian envoy, on Monday morning.

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When ministers from the Maldives made derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Modi, a major issue broke out. In an effort to promote daring exploration of Lakshadweep, PM shared pictures of the stunning white beaches, azure skies, and the ocean on the social networking platform X. PM Modi was called a clown and a puppet of Israel by Mariyam Shiuna, the deputy minister of youth empowerment, information, and the arts, in a now-deleted post she made in response to his pictures.

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Derogatory comments on social media against India and PM Modi by several Maldives ministers has sparked a huge uproar, prompting many Indians to cancel their reservations and airline tickets to the Maldives. Prominent figures such as Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham and several others also reacted negatively to the comments made about Prime Minister Modi on social media.

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(With agency inputs)
The revelations led Chinese leader Xi Jinping to remove over a dozen senior commanders in the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), including Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who vanished for two months before being replaced in October

Chinas armed forces faced severe corruption issues, including missiles filled with water instead of fuel and improperly sealed silo lids, according to US intelligence sources cited by Bloomberg.

The revelations led Chinese leader Xi Jinping to remove over a dozen senior commanders in the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), including Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who vanished for two months before being replaced in October.

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The corruption was particularly rampant in the Rocket Force, Chinas primary military branch overseeing nuclear weapons. The purge has raised concerns about the nations ability to undertake major military actions, potentially impacting Xis push to rapidly modernize Beijings forces.

The Rocket Forces significance in Chinas posturing toward Taiwan, highlighted by the deployment of long-range missiles threatening the self-governed island, was underscored.

Despite satellite images revealing the construction of numerous nuclear-capable missile silos in Xinjiang in 2021, US intelligence noted corruption examples, such as poorly sealed silo lids hindering missile launches in Western China.

The specific type of missiles filled with water was not disclosed in the report. The corruption issues are believed to have undermined Xis modernization policies and confidence in the Rocket Forces capabilities.

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While Xis purge had long been linked to his anti-corruption campaign, the exact reasons remained unclear. Among the dismissed commanders, at least three held key positions in the Rocket Force, and four were responsible for equipment, as reported by Reuters. The PLA, in its New Years Day statement, emphasized the importance of vigilance against corruption, acknowledging the ongoing battle against corruption.

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Despite the significant implications of the corruption scandal, the Chinese embassy in Washington did not provide immediate comments when approached by Bloomberg outside regular business hours.

The situation raises questions about the internal stability and operational readiness of Chinas military forces.
The agreement speeds up the roughly $20 billion in cuts already agreed to for the Internal Revenue Service and rescinds about $6 billion in COVID relief money that had been approved but not yet spent

A deal reached by Congressional leaders on the total amount of spending for the current fiscal year may help avert a partial government shutdown later this month.

Congress imposed expenditure restrictions for defence and domestic programmes as part of a package to postpone the debt ceiling until 2025, which are mainly adhered to by the agreement. However, it does provide some compromise to House Republicans who felt that the agreements spending limits were insufficient.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a letter to colleagues on Sunday that the agreement, which is around $30 billion less than what the Senate was considering, will achieve $16 billion in further expenditure cuts from the prior accord mediated by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden.

This represents the most favorable budget agreement Republicans have achieved in over a decade, Johnson writes.

Biden said the agreement moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities.

It reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring, Biden said in a statement. It rejects deep cuts to programs hardworking families count on, and provides a path to passing full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and are free of any extreme policies.

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The agreement speeds up the roughly $20 billion in cuts already agreed to for the Internal Revenue Service and rescinds about $6 billion in COVID relief money that had been approved but not yet spent, according to Johnsons letter.

Its a good deal for Democrats and the country, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told colleagues in a briefing call.

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Essentially, Democrats see the trade-offs they made as mild. In a description provided to reporters, they said the COVID savings would have no significant impact on any current projects or activities in motion. And they said that moving all of the $20.2 billion in IRS cuts to this year instead of over two years would still leave the agency able to maintain critical investments that Congress provided in 2022. At the time, Congress provided the IRS with an additional $80 billion that could be spent over 10 years.

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Overall, the agreement calls for $886 billion in defense funding. It would provide $772 billion in domestic, non-defense spending, when including $69 billion called for in a side deal to the debt ceiling bill that McCarthy had reached with the White House, Democrats said.

The most conservative House Republicans opposed the earlier debt ceiling agreement and even brought House proceedings to a halt for a few days to show their displeasure. Many were surely wanting additional concessions, but Democrats have been insistent on abiding by the debt ceiling agreements spending caps, leaving Johnson in a difficult spot.

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Its even worse than we thought, the House Freedom Caucus said of the agreement in a tweet posted on X. This is total failure.

Lawmakers needed an agreement on overall spending levels so that appropriators could write the bills that set line-by-line funding for agencies. Money is set to lapse Jan. 19 for some agencies and Feb. 2 for others.

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The agreement is separate from the negotiations that are taking place to secure additional funding for Israel and Ukraine while also curbing restrictions on asylum claims at the U.S. border.

In a joint statement, Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries voiced their support for the agreement.

It will also allow us to keep the investments for hardworking American families secured by the legislative achievements of President Biden and Congressional Democrats, Schumer and Jeffries said.

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But they also warned House Republicans about trying to add conservative policy riders to the bills in the coming days, saying Democrats would not support poison pill policy changes in any of the twelve appropriations bills put before the Congress.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, who helped lead the debt ceiling negotiations when McCarthy was speaker, noted that two-thirds of both parties in the House supported that agreement.

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This deal, which adheres to that framework, deserves equally as robust support, McHenry said.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tweeted that he was encouraged that leaders identified a path toward completing the spending bills. It was a cautious recognition that some obstacles could lie ahead.

America faces serious national security challenges, and Congress must act quickly to deliver the full-year resources this moment requires, McConnell said.
As per reports, The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary recently granted judges permission to utilize AI, emphasising its role in opinion writing while cautioning against its application in research or legal analysis due to potential fabrication of information

In a milestone move, Englands ancient legal system, rooted in traditions like wig and robe attire, has cautiously embraced artificial intelligence (AI) for crafting judicial opinions.

As per reports, The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary recently granted judges permission to utilize AI, emphasising its role in opinion writing while cautioning against its application in research or legal analysis due to potential fabrication of information.

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Master of the Rolls Geoffrey Vos, the second-highest-ranking judge in England and Wales, asserted that judges could cautiously employ AI but emphasised the need to safeguard confidence and personally assume responsibility for their outputs.

As debates surrounding the potential replacement of lawyers by AI persist, legal scholars lauded this restrained approach. Acknowledging the rapidly advancing technology, legal experts praised the guidance issued by England and Wales, positioning them at the forefront of global efforts to address AI in the judiciary.

This move follows previous initiatives, including a five-year-old ethical charter by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice, which addressed core principles like accountability and risk mitigation. While the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has discussed AIs pros and cons, the U.S. federal court system lacks comprehensive AI guidance.

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According to a legal professor Cary Coglianese, the guidance for England and Wales represents one of the first published sets of AI-related guidelines in the English language, providing direction to judges and their staff.

Giulia Gentile, a lecturer at Essex Law School, commended the courts for accepting AI while expressing concerns about accountability mechanisms. Despite considering the guidance useful, Gentile questioned its enforceability and the absence of specific details on oversight and sanctions.

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The guidance underscores the courts acceptance of technology but highlights its limitations and potential pitfalls. Notably, it issues warnings about the use of chatbots, referencing a case where New York lawyers faced fines for relying on ChatGPT to draft a legal brief that included fictional cases. Judges were cautioned against sharing private or confidential information with public AI chatbots.

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The guidance recognizes AIs utility for judges with heavy caseloads, suggesting its use for background material, summarization of known information, and quick access to familiar content. However, it advises against relying on AI for unverified information or comprehensive analysis, emphasizing that judges should retain personal responsibility for their decisions.

Despite the cautious stance, Appeals Court Justice Colin Birss praised ChatGPT for aiding him in writing a paragraph for a ruling, highlighting its usefulness within known legal domains. The guidance reflects a pivotal moment in the intersection of traditional legal practices and evolving AI technologies.

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(With inputs from The Associated Press)
Under the French system, the president sets general policies and the prime minister is responsible for day-to-day government management, meaning the latter often pays the price when an administration runs into turbulence

With the prime ministers position in jeopardy, French ministers awaited President Emmanuel Macrons anticipated cabinet reshuffle on Monday.

Reorganizing the cabinet, according to observers, is necessary to keep Macron from turning into a lame duck leader during the last three years of his term and to restore his centrist presidency.

Macron has encountered opposition to unpopular pension reforms, the loss of his overall majority in parliamentary elections, and controversy surrounding immigration legislation since he defeated the far-right to win a second term of office in 2022.

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Though she has persevered through these difficulties, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, the second woman to head the French government, has never allayed concerns about her future.

Under the French system, the president sets general policies and the prime minister is responsible for day-to-day government management, meaning the latter often pays the price when an administration runs into turbulence.

There was speculation the reshuffle would be announced late last week. But no news emerged over the weekend.

Things will move at the start of the week, probably with a new prime minister on Monday, said a Macron advisor.

- Change necessary -

The Le Monde daily quoted a source as saying it was possible Borne could stay but this was not the most probable option.

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Macron met Borne, 62, on Sunday night, his office said, although it was unclear what they discussed beyond flooding in northern France and a looming cold snap across the country.

The two leading candidates to replace her are 37-year-old armed forces minister Sebastien Lecornu and 43-year-old former agriculture minister Julien Denormandie.

Either choice risks exacerbating tensions within Macrons movement.

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Francois Bayrou, leader of the centrist MoDem party, whose early endorsement of Macron was key to his initial 2017 election success, told BFM TV a change in government makeup was necessary.

While Macron cannot run again in 2027, relaunching his government is seen as crucial to help prevent far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen becoming president.

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Other key posts are also subject to uncertainty.

- Options open -

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, 41, a right-winger who spearheaded the immigration reform but burned his fingers when it was initially rejected by parliament, was seen as a candidate for a new job, possibly as foreign minister.

But recent reports indicate he may stay in his post.

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The future of Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna is also unsure.

Macron likes keeping all options open until the last moment, said a source close to the Elysee.

He is also accused by critics of micro-managing and centralising power in the Elysee.

If Borne goes, the new prime minister would be the fourth under Macron since 2017.

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I have a scoop for you. I know the name of the (new) prime minister, left-wing politician Raphael Glucksmann joked on France 2 television.

Its Emmanuel Macron! And the foreign minister will also be Emmanuel Macron, as will the defence minister and the culture minister.

(With inputs from AFP)
Prime Minister Elisabeth Bornes position has been precarious since a Macron-backed immigration plan was defeated in parliament last month. After a great deal of controversy and pressure from the center-right opposition, it was ultimately passed

According to his entourage, French President Emmanuel Macron may select a new prime minister as early as Monday in an effort to give his cabinet, which has drawn harsh criticism, a fresh start.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Bornes position has been precarious since a Macron-backed immigration plan was defeated in parliament last month. After a great deal of controversy and pressure from the center-right opposition, it was ultimately passed.

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Borne and Macron met on Sunday night. Macron is also dealing with an increasing threat from the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen.

According to his office, the conversation focused on the impending nationwide freeze and the flooding in northern France, but analysts speculated that they also probably talked about the much-expected government overhaul.

Francois Bayrou, a centrist leader whose early endorsement of Macron was key to his initial 2017 election success, told BFM television that a change is necessary in the government makeup.

Under the French system, the president sets general policies, but the prime minister is responsible for day-to-day government management, meaning they often pay the price when an administration runs into turbulence.

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Rival claims

In 20 months as prime minister, the 62-year-old Borne  Frances second female head of government  has pushed through key reforms on pensions and immigration in some 30 new laws and has overcome previous doubts about her future.

But Macron has over the past week consulted with key figures including Bayrou, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, and former prime minister Edouard Philippe about reinvigorating the administration.

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No final decisions appeared to have been taken before the meeting with Borne however.

A close Macron adviser said the president was finalising his choices and things will move at the start of the week, probably with a new prime minister Monday.

Macron is in a hurry, added a second advisor.

But another associate of the president commented: Everything is possible, including doing nothing. That would mean Borne could still keep her job.

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If she is replaced, the two leading candidates are Sebastien Lecornu, the 37-year-old armed forces minister, and Julien Denormandie, the 43-year-old former agriculture minister who has been close to Macron for a decade.

Choosing between the two risks exacerbating tensions within Macrons movement. Denormandie has been with Macron from the start of his presidential campaign. Lecornu later jumped ship from the centre-right The Republicans party.

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Macrons political party lacks a majority in parliament and is already riven by disagreements over the immigration law, which was greatly hardened as a condition for receiving necessary support from The Republicans.

Moving too quickly?

Some 200 French intellectuals, actors, and union leaders issued a call Sunday to protest against the law on January 21, saying it represented a dangerous turn for the Republic.

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Denormandie almost founded a start-up with Macron in 2014 before becoming his deputy chief of staff when Macron was Economy Minister under President Francois Hollande. Denormandie has been working in the private sector since 2022.

Lecornu joined Macron in 2017, and would follow in the footsteps of two previous prime ministers  Philippe and Jean Castex  who also defected from The Republicans.

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Lecornu has become a close adviser to Macron, who has used his experience in local and regional government. However, one close adviser warned that we are maybe moving too quick to condemn Borne.
According to Swiss campaign organisation TRIAL International, which filed the case against him, Ousman Sonko, the former interior minister, would become the highest-ranking official to be tried in Europe under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction

Monday will see the first-ever trial of a former Gambian minister under overthrown tyrant Yahya Jammeh for crimes against humanity in Switzerland. The trial will feature the testimony of a victim of serial rape who has waited decades for justice.

According to Swiss campaign organisation TRIAL International, which filed the case against him, Ousman Sonko, the former interior minister, would become the highest-ranking official to be tried in Europe under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, which permits serious crimes to be prosecuted anywhere.

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In a case that rights campaigners believe will ensure international responsibility for the greatest crimes, nine Gambian plaintiffs will travel to Switzerland for the trial at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, which is set to take place from January 830.

In what is the second-ever prosecution for crimes against humanity in Switzerland, Sonko, 54, is accused of murder, many rapes, and torture between 2000 and 2016. He refutes the accusations.

It has been a long period of waiting, waiting with anger, anxiety. But I am very optimistic now and I feel so happy. I am smelling justice, said Madi Ceesay, a 67-year-old plaintiff who says he was detained and tortured under Sonko.

The defendants lawyer Philippe Currat plans to ask the court to abandon the case, citing problems with the investigations and hearings.

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Since the beginning I have been stupefied by the way this file has been handled, he told Reuters, saying some of the evidence in the indictment was based on secret hearings in Gambia and that interviewees had not been informed of their rights.

Struggling for 25 years

One of the plaintiffs is Binta Jamba, who the indictment claims was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Sonko between 2000 and 2002 after he killed her husband as part of a purportedly orchestrated coup attempt.

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According to the accusation, he once held her hostage for five days in 2005 while beating and brutally raped her. He financed her two miscarriages after she became pregnant through him.

Me and my family have been struggling with this for almost 25 years now, she said in a message sent to Reuters. Without justice I will never have peace in my life.

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Currat says he can prove that Sonko was abroad during much of the period of the rape accusations.

He will also argue that many of the alleged crimes against humanity, including the rape charges, happened before a relevant Swiss law took effect in 2011 and are not admissible.

Sonko, 54, was arrested in early 2017 in Switzerland, where he was seeking asylum. Jammehs 22-year repressive rule ended in January 2017 after he lost an election and was forced to flee.

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Sonko could face a life sentence as a maximum possible penalty.

Currat says his treatment in Swiss jails has been cruel and that he was denied food and given inadequate medical care.

Fatoumatta Sandeng, the daughter of Solo Sandeng, a Gambian opposition activist killed in custody in 2016, said she is eager to look into Sonkos eyes in court. If we dont hold people accountable, things like this will keep happening in Gambia, in Africa, all over the world, she said.
Of course, having one of the senior leaders of Hamas being killed is something that can affect such a complicated process We are not giving up; we are moving forward. We are continuing our discussions, said Al-Thani

The recent killing of a high-ranking Hamas leader may have repercussions on the ongoing negotiations aimed at securing the release of hostages held by the militant group in Gaza, according to Qatars Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.

As per a CNN report, Israel conducted the strike last Tuesday in Beirut, resulting in the death of senior Hamas leader Saleh Al-Arouri. Israel, however, did not officially claim responsibility for the operation.

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During a joint press conference in Doha on Sunday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Al-Thani was questioned about the potential impact of Arouris death on talks regarding the release of over 100 hostages believed to be still held in Gaza since the attacks on 7 October .

Of course, having one of the senior leaders of Hamas being killed is something that can affect such a complicated process, said Al-Thani responding to the question.

Al-Thani added that Qatar has played a central role in mediating hostage negotiations and despite the challenges, the negotiation process is continuing,

We are not giving up; we are moving forward. We are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement that can bring assistance for humanitarian relief and the release of the hostages, he added.

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Hamas said last Tuesday that one of its senior leaders has been killed in an attack in the south of the Lebanese capital Beirut, raising fears of a potential escalation in fighting in the region.

Hamas media outlet Al Aqsa TV said Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, was martyred in a treacherous Zionist airstrike in Beirut.

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Arouri was considered one of the founding members of the groups military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and was based in Beirut. Two other leaders from Hamas military wing, Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, were also among those killed in the strike, according to Hamas officials.

At least four people were killed in the attack that targeted an office belonging to Hamas in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, Lebanese news agency NNA reported. The area is also a stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to comment when asked about the announcement and its spokesperson Daniel Hagari skirted a question from a reporter on Tuesday about the matter saying we are focused on fighting against Hamas.

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With inputs from agencies
Hassan Nasrallah, you will no longer have supporters if you curse Lebanon with a war for which you will bear responsibility and consequences, the message read, referring to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

As border clashes between the Israeli military and the Lebanese militant group continue to escalate, domestic anti-Hezbollah groups broke into Beiruts international airports information display screens on Sunday.

A statement accusing Hezbollah of threatening an all-out war with Israel replaced the departure and arrival information at Rafik Hariri International Airport.

The screens showed a message featuring the logos of two obscure groups: The One Who Spoke, a little-known organization, and Soldiers of God, a hardline Christian group that has gained notoriety in the past year for its campaigns against the LGBTQ community in Lebanon.

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In a video statement, the Christian group denied its involvement, while the other group shared photos of the screens on its social media channels.

Hassan Nasrallah, you will no longer have supporters if you curse Lebanon with a war for which you will bear responsibility and consequences, the message read, referring to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The message echoed similar sentiments to critics over the years who have accused Hezbollah of smuggling weapons and munitions through the tiny Mediterranean countrys only civilian airport.

Hezbollah has been striking Israeli military bases and positions near the countrys northern border with Lebanon since October 8, the day after the war in Gaza began. Israel has been striking Hezbollah positions in return. The near-daily clashes have intensified sharply over the past week, after an apparent Israeli strike in a southern Beirut suburb killed top Hamas official and commander Saleh Arouri.

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In a speech on Saturday, Nasrallah vowed the group would retaliate. He dismissed criticisms that the group is looking for a full-scale war with Israel, but said if Israel launches one, Hezbollah is ready for a war without limits.

Hezbollah announced an initial response to Arouris killing on Saturday, launching a volley of 62 rockets toward an Israeli air surveillance base on Mount Meron.

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The Lebanese government and international community have been scrambling to prevent a war in Lebanon, which they fear would spark a regional spillover.

Lebanons state-run National News Agency said the hack briefly disrupted baggage inspection. Passengers gathered around the screens, taking pictures and sharing them on social media.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006 that ended in a draw. In the early stages of the war, Israel bombed Lebanons airport and put it out of commission.

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(With inputs from The Associated Press)
India is a great friend of Bangladesh. They have supported us in 1971 and 1975. We consider India as our next-door neighbour. I really appreciate that we have a wonderful relationship with India, she said

A day after she won an overwhelming majority in the general elections and secured a record fourth straight term, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said India is a great friend of Bangladesh and the two neighbours have resolved many problems bilaterally.

The 76-year-old leader, who has been ruling the strategically located South Asian nation since 2009, secured a fifth overall term in the one-sided election on Sunday, which witnessed a low turnout.

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#WATCH | Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks to ANI, she says "India is a great friend of Bangladesh. They have supported us in 1971 and 1975. We consider India as our next-door neighbour. I really appreciate that we have a wonderful relationship with India. In pic.twitter.com/mfRBbBsb4p  ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2024

India is a great friend of Bangladesh. They have supported us in 1971 and 1975. We consider India as our next-door neighbour. I really appreciate that we have a wonderful relationship with India, she said.

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Referring to her period in exile when she stayed in India for six years after the killing of her family members, she said, They (India) gave shelter to me and my sister and my other family members.

I have a good relationship with every country because that is our motto, she added.

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In August 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, his wife and their three sons were assassinated in their home by military officers. His daughters Hasina and Rehana survived the purge as they were abroad.

Talking about her vision for the next five years, she said, In the next five years, our main focus will be on economic progress and to fulfil all the work that we have started. We have already declared our manifesto and we follow our election manifesto whenever we prepare our budget and try to fulfil our promises. Development of the people and our country is our main aim.

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She said she tries to work for her people.

#WATCH | Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says "I try to work for my people. With motherly affection, I look after my people...Our people gave me this opportunity. Time and again people have voted for me, and that is why I am here...I am just a common person but I pic.twitter.com/tL2JwQQcf1  ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2024

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With motherly affection, I look after my peopleOur people gave me this opportunity. Time and again people have voted for me, and that is why I am hereI am just a common person but I always feel my responsibility for my people. I feel this is the opportunity to serve my people and ensure them a better life, added the Prime Minister.

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She said that her target is to develop the country by 2041, with smart population, smart government, smart economy and smart society being the main aims.

#WATCH | Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says "By nature, our people are very smart and as I mentioned that we want to train our younger generation for the future. It is our target to develop the country by 2041. Smart population, smart government, smart economy pic.twitter.com/FEp2Ym1XNP  ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2024

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By nature, our people are very smart and as I mentioned that we want to train our younger generation for the future. It is our target to develop the country by 2041. Smart population, smart government, smart economy and smart society are our main aims, Hasina added.

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When compared to global leaders like former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and Sri Lankas former prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Hasina said, They are very great ladies. I am not. I am very simple, just a common person.

With inputs from agencies
Hong Kong: CS begins bay area visit in GZ

Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki today arrived in Guangzhou as he began a visit to Mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area.

In the morning, Mr Chan visited the Guangzhou National Laboratory and the Innovation Center of High-performance Medical Devices. He also exchanged views with Chinese Academy of Engineering academician Zhong Nanshan and other local innovation and technology (I&T) personnel about medical I&T co-operation between Hong Kong and the Mainland.

Mr Chan said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government will continue to promote health technology research, develop Hong Kong into a health and medical innovation hub, and foster collaboration in the bay area, including through helping to establish a GBA (Greater Bay Area) International Clinical Trial Institute.

In the afternoon, Mr Chan and Director of the Organization Department, Director of the Talent Work Leading Group Office and Standing Committee member of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee Cheng Fubo, attended the signing ceremony for a framework agreement on promoting Guangdong-Hong Kong co-operation on talent.

Mr Chan and Mr Cheng then co-chaired a meeting in which Guangdong and Hong Kong government officials reported on their respective progress in building a high-calibre talent hub in the bay area, and exchanged views on deepening integration on talent development in the region. Secretary for Labour & Welfare Chris Sun also attended.

Mr Chan stressed that Hong Kong, as the countrys leading international and cutting-edge city, is well positioned to serve as an international talent hub and gateway for the bay area and to attract top-notch talent from around the world to help drive the regions development. He added that the Hong Kong SAR Governments policy initiatives to attract and retain talent have achieved remarkable results.

Mr Chan also highlighted that Hong Kong Talent Engage will organise the Global Talent Summit & GBA High-quality Talent Development Conference in May. He invited government units, manpower-related organisations and enterprises from Guangdong and bay area cities to join the event.

Afterwards, Mr Chan met Guangdong Vice-Governor Zhang Xin, followed by Guangzhou Municipality Acting Mayor Sun Zhiyang, to discuss ways of strengthening exchange and co-operation on various fronts. Also attending the meetings were Mr Sun, Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung and Secretary for Transport & Logistics Lam Sai-hung.

This story has been published on: 2024-01-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
China's Xizang is a sparsely populated plateau region, with an average altitude of over 4,000 meters.

Due to the extremely scattered population, and challenges related to children's commuting, boarding schools have played a crucial role in ensuring equal access to education for school-age children.

The Lhasa-Beijing Experimental High School was established in 1978.

It changed into its current name after undergoing an upgrade in 2014, thanks to a 250 million yuan (about 35 million USD) investment from the Beijing municipal government.

The institution now has 2,664 students, and nearly 98% of them are Tibetans.

In 1985, Xizang began implementing the boarding system for primary and secondary schools in its agricultural and pastoral regions.

In the region, boarding is voluntary, and the option is open to students who live far away from schools. Still, many parents, even if they live nearby, are willing to send their children to board for various reasons.

Since 2012, Xizang has provided 15 years of free education from kindergarten to high school for children of farmers and herders.

The cost of meals, accommodation and study for students in boarding schools is borne by the government.

Tibetan parents, like those in other regions, want the best for their children.

Boarding schools, they said, have helped reduce the risk of transportation to and from school, and increase opportunities for interaction to improve the interpersonal skills of their children.

In old Xizang, the illiteracy rate exceeded 95 percent.

Nowadays, the retention rate of nine-year compulsory education has reached 97.73 percent, higher than the national average.

The boarding schools maximally guarantee that children in remote areas enjoy the right to education.

And because of these schools, both rural and urban students can share high-quality educational resources and receive school education equally, thus narrowing the rural-urban educational gap.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Indias High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma expressed hope that during the new term of the Awami League government, there will be even stronger momentum and growth in the bilateral ties between India and Bangladesh, according to a report, citing sources

Indias High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma on Monday called on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and conveyed the warm greetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India to Sheikh Hasina on her election victory.

According to ANI news agency, Verma is the first envoy to meet Hasina and congratulate her on her victory in the elections.

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Verma expressed hope that during the new term of the Awami League government, there will be even stronger momentum and growth in the bilateral partnership between India and Bangladesh in support of each others national development, added the report, citing sources.

Indian Envoy Verma stressed that India will continue to support the people of Bangladesh in realising their vision of a stable, progressive and prosperous nation, guided by their long-standing friendship and inspired by their shared sacrifices in the Liberation War.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won the Gopalganj-3 constituency in a landslide victory, her eighth term as a Member of Parliament. Hasinas party secured victory in 223 seats to form the government in the elections conducted on Sunday.

She received 249,962 votes, while her nearest rival, Md Atiqur Rahman, got 6,999 votes.

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Meanwhile, another candidate, Mahabur Mollah, received 425 votes. Sheikh Hasina has won the fifth term, which is also her fourth consecutive term.

On Sunday evening, Sheikh Hasina directed her party leaders, workers and supporters not to hold any victory procession after the announcement of the results. She also instructed them not to get involved in conflict with any candidate and his or her supporters after the announcement, Dhaka Tribune reported citing Awami League Deputy Office Secretary Sayeem Khan.

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Meanwhile, Jatiya Party (JaPa-Ershad), received 11 seats, Bangladesh Kallyan party won in one constituency while independent candidates secured victory in 62 seats. Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal and Workers Party of Bangladesh won one seat each, according to the report.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami and like-minded parties observed a strike across the country as they boycotted the elections.

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With inputs from agencies
The row between India and Maldives started from social media after several Maldivian ministers posted insulting remarks against PM Modi, with one calling him a clown and a puppet

Amid an escalating diplomatic row, Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meet with the foreign minister of Maldives on Monday.

High Commissioner Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues.  India in Maldives (@HCIMaldives) January 8, 2024

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Earlier in the day, Indias Ministry of External Affairs summoned Maldivian envoy Ibrahim Shaheeb amid the ongoing controversy over derogatory and offensive comments against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following his visit to Lakshadweep and his push to promote tourism in the archipelago.

The row between India and Maldives started from social media after several Maldivian ministers posted insulting remarks against PM Modi, with one minister calling him a clown and a puppet after promoting tourism in the Union Territory.

Also Read: WATCH: India summons Maldives envoy as diplomatic row escalates after ministers remarks against PM Modi

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What a clown. The puppet of Israel Mr. Narendra diver with life jacket," posted Mariyam Shiuna, Maldives Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts.

A member of the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives also shared a photograph, believed to be that of the Bora Bora islands in the French Polynesia, claiming it was an image of an island resort in the Maldives. Sun set in Maldives. You wont see this in Lakshadweep. #Visit Maldives. CC: @narendramodi (sic), wrote Maaiz Mahmood.

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Maldives government has sacked three of its minister - Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid - and said in a statement that their remarks were their personal views and did not represent the country.

Meanwhile, several Indians started trending Boycott Maldives on social media after the remarks went viral, comparing Lakshadweep with the Maldives and they also slammed Maldives.

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Many of Maldivian politicians, including former Presidents Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Mohamed Nasheed, condemned the ministers remarks, highlighting that such statements should not damage the age-old friendship between the two nations.

With inputs from agencies
Long regarded as the most powerful bloc in Iowas Republican caucuses, white evangelical Christians and social conservatives have been actively courted by Donald Trump and his competitors for the Republican nomination in 2024 for several months

On a chilly Sunday in northeast Des Moines, Pastor Charles Hundley began his worship session with a prayer that made it quite evident that one endorsementabove allwill count in Iowas caucuses, which are in eight days.

We thank you for the upcoming election, Lord  or caucus, as we call it in Iowa, said Hundley, speaking from the sanctuary of his evangelical Christian church in his slight Texas drawl as his parishioners bowed their heads.

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It doesnt matter what our opinion is, he went on. Its really whats your opinion that matters. But youve given us the privilege of being able to exercise a beautiful gift. The gift of vote. We thank you for that.

Although Hundley does not recommend to his parishioners which candidate their heavenly insight leads them to support, the campaign of former President Donald Trump has identified over 300 pastors and other religious leaders as supporters. Some followers of Hundleys First Church of God believe they have acted upon this message, citing their religion as the reason behind their decision to caucus for Trump.

Long regarded as the most powerful bloc in Iowas Republican caucuses, white evangelical Christians and social conservatives have been actively courted by the former president and his competitors for the Republican nomination in 2024 for several months.

Ron Betts, a 72-year-old Republican who said he plans to caucus for Trump all the way, said he felt the former president exemplified what Jesus would do.

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Hundley said he doesnt speak about politics from the pulpit or privately urge members of his congregation to support his favoured candidate, but he encourages them to participate and use their faith to make their choices.

I look at it from a Christian perspective, he said. I expect them to look at it from a Christian perspective. What does God say of us?

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Before weather forced a postponement, the First Church of God on Monday was supposed to host a Trump campaign event featuring Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trumps former press secretary, and her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former presidential candidate, as part of whats billed as a Team Trump Iowa Faith Tour.

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Trump, who has a commanding polling lead in Iowa, has been emphasizing his endorsements from faith leaders and success in seating three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that protected abortion rights nationwide. The former president, however, has faced some pushback from conservatives for failing to endorse national abortion restrictions.

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Trump frequently features a prayer at the start of his campaign events, something his rivals have also included at their stops. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has portrayed himself as more conservative than Trump, features religious rhetoric as he campaigns and has the backing of more than 100 faith leaders, including the influential Iowa evangelical figure Bob Vander Plaats.

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Trump has long seemed like an unlikely fit for the conservative faithful who shape the first contest of the Republican primary. He entered politics as a brash, thrice-married former reality television star who spent decades as a New York City tabloid fixture, boasted of his sexual prowess and once supported abortion rights. His frequent lies and distortions in his campaigns and presidency focused on everything from his political rivals to the pandemic to the 2020 election results. And last year a jury found him liable for sexual abuse.

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In his first race for the White House in 2016, his image seemed to dog him as he struggled in Iowa, losing the state to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. But as the former president again seeks the White House, he is finding strong support among the faithful.

While about one-third of US adults, 37%, have a favorable opinion of Trump, hes seen more favorably among those who identify themselves as evangelicals or born-again Christians. About half of evangelicals in an AP-NORC poll conducted in October said they have a favorable view of Trump. Thats even higher among white born-again Christians, at 56%.

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Trump has focused his third campaign around a message of retribution and harsh justice, a framework that doesnt seem to be hurting him with evangelicals. Some members of Hundleys church pointed to those themes as a reason Trump best aligns with their faith, suggesting his tough stance on the border and calls for harsher punishment for crimes reflect a sense of justice they see as rooted in Christianity.

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The 72-year-old Betts likened Trumps legal troubles  from the 91 criminal charges he currently faces to the effort in some states to keep him off the 2024 presidential ballot because of his push to overturn his 2020 election loss  to a crucifixion.

I think they are doing the same thing they did to Jesus on the cross, Betts said. I can see a lot of correlation there.

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Cliff Carey, a 73-year-old member of Hundleys congregation, said Trump supported things he supports as a Christian and pointed to his actions around abortion in particular, calling him the greatest pro-life president weve ever seen.

I think hes an imperfect individual just like the rest of us, but I think God used that man to govern in godly principles, he said.

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His sister-in-law, Cindy Carey, agreed.

I wouldnt vote for him as my pastor, she said. I want him to lead our nation back to that city on a hill, shining city on a hill.

Carey feels Trumps Make America Great Again slogan is about returning the country to the Christian principles she believes it was founded on.

I definitely take my belief and my understanding of the Bible into the voting booth with me. she said. I believe 100% that thats my responsibility.
As per reports, Heshmati shared her harrowing experience on her now-locked social media page, describing the brutal beating she endured in a dimly lit room reminiscent of a medieval torture chamber

Iranian authorities recently administered 74 lashes and imposed a 255 fine on 33-year-old Roya Heshmati for violating public morals by refusing to wear a hijab in Tehran streets.

As per reports, Heshmati shared her harrowing experience on her now-locked social media page, describing the brutal beating she endured in a dimly lit room reminiscent of a medieval torture chamber.

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Despite the intense physical punishment, Heshmati remained steadfast, even refusing to wear a headscarf provided by officials in the courtroom. The incident has sparked widespread outrage on social media, prompting influential figures like journalist Abbas Abdi to condemn the excessive measures, emphasising the impact on those aspiring to live with normal freedoms.

The judiciarys Mizan Online website justified Heshmatis punishment as in accordance with sharia and the law, attributing her actions to encouraging permissiveness in public spaces. The authorities also alleged her connection to an organised group outside Iran, although specific details were not disclosed.

The dress code violation, resulting in both whipping and a fine, is a relatively uncommon occurrence in Iran. However, officials have intensified efforts to enforce regulations following anti-government protests in late 2022, ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurd, in custody for breaching the dress code.

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The protests saw women defiantly discarding or burning their headscarves, leading to an increased crackdown on those challenging the regulations. The Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw identified Heshmati as a 33-year-old woman of Kurdish origin, arrested in April for sharing a photo on social media without wearing a headscarf.

Though initially facing a potential prison sentence, Heshmatis legal ordeal culminated in the 74 lashes and a fine. The enforcement of the dress code has extended to surveillance cameras in public places to monitor violations and closures of businesses not complying with the regulations. Furthermore, the Iranian parliament is contemplating legislation that would enhance penalties for dress code breaches.
King Abdullah of Jordan stated that one should learn that Gazas security would never be guaranteed by Israels indiscriminate aggression

On Monday, King Abdullah of Jordan declared that Israels brutal attack in Gaza had left over 30,000 peoplemostly women and childrendead or missing. He claimed that the fighting had also resulted in a generation of orphans.

Speaking at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, where the monarch discussed the unspeakable crimes that occurred during that African struggle, Abdullah stated that one should learn that Gazas security would never be guaranteed by Israels indiscriminate aggression. His words were broadcast on official media after the royal palace released a statement.

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More children have died in Gaza than in all other conflicts around the world this past year. Of those who have survived, many have lost one or both parents, an entire generation of orphans, he said.

How can indiscriminate aggression and shelling bring peace? How can they guarantee security, when they are build on hatred?, Abdullah said of Israels war against the terrorist group Hamas.

The monarch was educated on the exhibits that recreated the tragedy of the 1994 killings before touring the Rwandan Genocide Memorial site and leaving remarks on a visitors list. Rwanda teaches us we must fight the dehumanizing rhetoric that fuels conflict, the speaker stated.

Your story can be a beacon for us all  how the people of this country took action after this unspeakable crime of crimes, and worked towards reconciliation, to heal old wounds and prevent genocide from happening again, he said in televised remarks.

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(With agency inputs)
Kim Yo Jong said that North Korea on Saturday only detonated blasting powder simulating the sound of its coastal artillery on the seashore, to test the South Korean militarys detection capabilities

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made fun of the Souths capacity to detect North Koreas weapon launches as the country fired artillery shells close to its tense sea border with that country on Sunday.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea rejected Kim Yo Jongs remarks, calling them a comedy-like, vulgar propaganda intended to incite divisions and erode public confidence in the armed forces.

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According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Sunday afternoon, North Korea fired over ninety rounds close to their disputed western sea boundary. It stated that South Korea has urged North Korea to immediately cease its provocative actions.

North Koreas military later confirmed it used coastal artillery systems to carry out live-firing exercises. It said the drills were part of its military training schedules and the direction of its shells fired didnt expose any threat to South Korea.

On Friday, North Korea launched about 200 shells. South Korea also claimed that the North fired more than 60 rounds on Saturday, but its rival has denied that.

Kim Yo Jong said that North Korea on Saturday only detonated blasting powder simulating the sound of its coastal artillery on the seashore, to test the South Korean militarys detection capabilities.

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The result was clear as we expected. They misjudged the blasting sound as the sound of gunfire and conjectured it as a provocation. And they even made a false and impudent statement that the shells dropped north of the sea boundary, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.

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I cannot but say that (South Korean) people are very pitiful as they entrust security to such blind persons and offer huge taxes to them, she said. It is better 10 times to entrust security to a dog with a developed sense of hearing and smell.

Animosities between the two Koreas are running high because North Korea has conducted a barrage of missile tests since 2022 while South Korea has expanded its military training with the United States in a tit-for-tat cycle.

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North Koreas artillery firings Friday prompted South Korea to have its troops on border islands fire artillery rounds near the sea boundary in response. The shells launched by the two Koreas fell at a maritime buffer zone they had established under a 2018 military agreement on lowering front-line military tensions.

The agreement requires the Koreas to halt live-fire exercises, aerial surveillance and other hostile acts along their border, but the deal is now in danger of collapsing because the two Koreas have taken measures breaching it.

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Experts say North Korea is likely to ramp up weapons tests and escalate its trademark fiery rhetoric against its rivals ahead of South Koreas parliamentary elections in April and the U.S. presidential elections in November. They say Kim Jong Un likely thinks a bolstered weapons arsenal would allow him to wrest greater U.S. concessions if former President Donald Trump returns to the White House.

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In her statement Sunday, Kim Yo Jong called South Koreas military gangsters and clowns in military uniforms. She also suggested South Koreas possible future miscalculation of North Korean moves could cause an accidental clash between the rivals, jeopardizing the safety of Seoul, a city of 10 million people which is only an hours drive from the land border.

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On Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong issued a statement calling South Korean conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol foolishly brave but his liberal predecessor Moon Jae-in very smart." South Korean analysts say she was attempting to help muster those opposing Yoons tougher policy on North Korea ahead of the April elections.

(with inputs from The Associated Press)
The slain Hezbollah commander was recognized by the Israeli security sources as Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy commander of a Radwan force unit. They said that he and another Hezbollah member perished after their car was struck during an attack on Majdal Selm, a village in Lebanon

An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon claimed the life of a senior Hezbollah commander, a Lebanese security official said on Monday. Tensions of a bigger war between Israel and the extremist organization have increased as a result of the most recent strike.

The slain Hezbollah commander was recognized by the Israeli security sources as Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy commander of a Radwan force unit. They said that he and another Hezbollah member perished after their car was struck during an attack on Majdal Selm, a village in Lebanon.

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Witnesses reported on Monday that as the combat between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants intensifies, medical staff, patients, and internally displaced persons are evacuating the main hospital located in central Gaza.

In recent days, Doctors Without Borders and other humanitarian organizations left Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, citing safety concerns. Many of the hundreds of thousands of civilians who had fled to the south of the besieged zone did so as a result of the panic that spread among those seeking safety there.

Israel claims to have completed most of its major operations in the northern part of Gaza and is now concentrating on the central area and the city of Khan Younis in the south. According to Israeli authorities, the Israeli armys goal in dismantling Hamas and freeing numerous captives abducted during the militant groups October 7 raid that started the conflict will likely take several more months.

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Over 22,000 Palestinians have already been murdered in the offensive, which has also destroyed large portions of the Gaza Strip, forced over 85% of its 2.3 million residents to flee, and left a quarter of its citizens in danger of hunger.

In addition to battling to care for the hundreds of patients injured by Israeli strikes every day, tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge in Gazas hospitals. The U.N. humanitarian agency reports that only 13 of Gazas 36 hospitals are even partially operational.

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Every day, as Israeli forces advance in central Gaza after intense airstrikes, more people die and are injured. The Health Ministry announced early on Monday that, in the previous day alone, 99 injured people and 73 bodies had been sent to the hospital.

(With agency inputs)
In Norways deadliest peacetime tragedy, Breivik shot and murdered 69 people, the most of them youths, at a Labour Party youth camp after killing eight people with a vehicle bomb in Oslo

The far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who murdered 77 people in a bombing and shooting spree in Norway in 2011, will request on Monday that his prison isolation be lifted on the grounds that it is against his human rights.

The 44-year-old is suing the state to try and get limits on his communication with the outside world lifted. Prior to his assaults, he sent out copies of a manifesto outlining his views via email.

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In Norways deadliest peacetime tragedy, Breivik shot and murdered 69 people, the most of them youths, at a Labour Party youth camp after killing eight people with a vehicle bomb in Oslo.

His case has been a sobering test for a nation that has long taken pride in the efforts of its legal system to rehabilitate people but is nevertheless deeply troubled by the brutality of his deeds.

Breivik is housed in a portion of the high-security Ringerike prison, which is located 40 miles (70 km) northwest of Oslo. This is Breiviks third jail stay.

Pictures from a visit by news agency NTB last month revealed that his designated section contains a kitchen, TV room, training room and bathroom. According to NTB, he is permitted to own three budgerigars as pets, and they are free to fly around.

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More than a decade in isolation without meaningful interaction has had a devastating impact, Breiviks lawyer wrote in a filing to Oslo district court.

He is now suicidal, Oeystein Storrvik added. He is now dependent on the depression medicine Prozac to get through the days in prison.

Attorneys for the justice ministry assert that due to Breiviks ongoing security danger, he has to be segregated from the other inmates.

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In their court petition, they stated that Breiviks isolation was relative because he still maintains communication with guards, a chaplain, medical professionals, and an outside volunteer that he no longer wants to see.

Every other week, he also spends an hour with two prisoners.

The attorneys contend that controlling Breiviks interactions with the outside world is warranted due to the possibility that he may incite others to carry out violent crimes.

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Specifically, this applies to contacts with far-right circles, including people who wish to establish contact with Breivik as a result of the terrorist acts on 22 July 2011, they said in the filing.

Breivik was cited as an inspiration by Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019.

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Breivik serving a 21-year sentence - the longest a Norwegian court can impose - which can be extended for as long as he is deemed a threat to society.

What is unique is how long he has been in isolation, said Knut Mellingsaeter Soerensen, an associate professor at the Norwegian Police University College and author of a doctorate on Breiviks conditions at his first prison from 2011-2013.

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The challenge, with a person who has shown the intention and the capacity to commit a terrorist attack, and to plan it over a long time, is when do you lighten security measures so you can actually have contacts with other inmates?

Breivik also sued the state in 2016, arguing it was breaching the European Convention on Human Rights, including sections saying no one should be subject to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

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He initially won the case but that was overturned on appeal a year later before any restrictions were lifted.

Mondays hearing will be held in the gymnasium of the prison, set on the shore of the Tyrifjorden lake, where the island of Utoeya, the site of Breiviks shooting spree, lies.

The judges verdict  there is no jury  will be issued in coming weeks.
Waheed Baloch, a former speaker of the Balochistan Assembly and one of the demonstrators, emphasised that the purpose of the demonstrations is to draw attention to the horrors that have occurred in Balochistan over the past 75 years

Protesters against Pakistan and the forced disappearances of Baloch people have been demonstrating outside the White House, organised by members of the diaspora from Balochistan.

Waheed Baloch, a former speaker of the Balochistan Assembly and one of the demonstrators, emphasised that the purpose of the demonstrations is to draw attention to the horrors that have occurred in Balochistan over the past 75 years.

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Were protesting against the atrocities that have been done to Balochistan by Pakistan for the last 75 years. Were protesting here in support of those Baloch families that were abducted and missing. For the last 75 years, Pakistan has forcefully occupied Balochistan, he said.

He stated that there is no hope for elections since there have never been free and fair elections when questioned about their hopes for the upcoming general elections in Pakistan.

There has never been a free and fair election in Pakistan, and there is no hopefor Balochistan, they just reelect their nominees It is unconstitutional and undemocratic, he added.

Furthermore, in response to Pakistans assertion that Balochis are being supported by the Indian government, he disputed the claim, claiming that Pakistan has lied in the past and is lying again.

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They (Pakistan) just say that Balochis are sponsored by the government of India but they never have produced any evidenceit is rubbish. They lied before, and they are lying again. If India had been supporting Balochistan, Balochistan would not have been this weak. These are just distracted tactics, he added.

Sufi Laghari, a Sindhi foundation member, said that one of the biggest failures of Pakistan is that they always blame India.

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One of the biggest failure of Pakistan is that they always blame Indiathousands of people in Balochistan have disappeared; do you think it is sponsored by India? These are useless weapons theyre using. These are just blames, games and fake theoriesthats why we are here in this difficult weather; we came here, and our families and children are hereThis is going to be the end of the story for Pakistan and we are going to get the freedom soon, he added.

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Sammi Baloch, a young Baloch protestor who was also present at the protest outside the White House, said that whatever happened to the Baloch people is atrocious and a violation of human rights violations.

I am here because the Baloch genocide is happening and it has been happening since partition We are here because many Baloch people have been murdered and they have been genocided and kidnapped by the Pakistani army and the military today we are here to stand with them and their families because what happened to them is atrocious and is human rights violation, she said.
The national commander of police, General Cesar Zapata, announced at a press conference that one of the prisoners in the Guayaquil prison was missing, according to the countrys armed forces

The head of the Los Choneros gang in Ecuador, who was listed as the most-wanted prisoner by the authorities, vanished from the jail where he was being held on Sunday, prison authorities said as they launched a manhunt to find him.

The national commander of police, General Cesar Zapata, announced at a press conference that one of the prisoners in the Guayaquil prison was missing, according to the countrys armed forces.

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The prosecutors office said it would look into the alleged escape of Los Choneros leader Jose Adolfo Macias, even though Zapata did not mention the prisoner by name.

2011 saw Macias, also known by the alias Fito, receive a 34-year prison sentence for a number of offenses, including murder and drug trafficking.

Los Choneros is a criminal organization authorities have linked to extortion, murder and drug trafficking, among other crimes, and accused of controlling the countrys main prisons.

Were grateful for the courage and commitment of the law enforcement forces, who, in an operation involving more than 3,000 people, have intervened in the prison in search of the most-wanted prisoner, said presidential spokesman Roberto Izurieta at the press conference.

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Rival criminal organizations frequently clash in Ecuadors overcrowded prisons and official numbers show more than 400 inmates have died since 2021.

(with inputs from Reuters)
Since Aung San Suu Kyis administration was overthrown in 2021, combat between rebel militias and the military has raged throughout Myanmar

According to locals and a human rights organization, as the civil conflict in Myanmar intensifies, airstrikes by the occupying military on a village controlled by pro-democracy resistance in the northwest of the nation have resulted in at least 17 civilian deaths and more than 20 injuries, including nine children.

Just south of the Indian border, in the Khampat town of the Sagaing district, was Kanan village where the airstrikes occurred. The military, however, refuted claims of responsibility for the Sunday aerial attack, saying instead that Khit Thit Mediaan independent online news outlet that supports the anti-military resistancewas spreading fake information.

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Since Aung San Suu Kyis administration was overthrown in 2021, combat between rebel militias and the military has raged throughout Myanmar. The military administration has increased airstrikes against ethnic minority guerrilla groups who have been fighting for more autonomy for decades, as well as the armed pro-democracy Peoples Defense Force, throughout the last two years. Occasionally, the two factions collaborate to conduct operations against the army.

A fighter jet fighter dropped three bombs on the village of Kanan, on the outskirts of Khampat, about 280 kilometers (170 miles) northwest of Mandalay, Myanmars second-biggest city, killing 17 civilians who were in buildings near the village school, according to a local who assisted with rescue efforts and spoke to the Associated Press on Sunday.

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Before a ceremony to commemorate the end of combat training for new resistance force members at another school in the area on Sunday, the resident estimated that about ten houses close to the school were destroyed by explosives during the assault.

However, an unidentified local official was quoted by Myanmars state-run MRTV television in its nightly newscast as stating that there had not been any aviation activity in the region on Sunday morning. The military frequently charges local pro-democracy groups with conducting terrorist operations, although a number of analysts have uncovered proof that the army routinely violates human rights.

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After a coalition of three armed ethnic minority groups, led by the Arakan Army, launched a significant attack on October 27 and took control of towns in the northeast of the nation as well as important border crossings for trade with China, the military increased bombing. Last week, the army was forced to cede the city of Laukkaing, which is located in northern Shan state, close to the Chinese border, by the opposition troops.

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In the midst of the planned offensive, the Arakan Army escalated the fighting by attacking outposts in its native state of Rakhine in the west. After the military coup in February 2021, the Peoples Defence Forces, an armed force advocating democracy, launched a widespread rebellion. This new and formidable front presented a challenge to the already-struggling military.

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In the meantime, the Taang National Liberation Army, members of the Three Brotherhood Alliance that initiated the October offensive, took Namhsan township last month and killed at least five people, including three teachers, in an airstrike on the township on Sunday.

A new conflict broke out on two fronts last year when insurgent groups representing ethnic minorities attacked security stations in Myanmar, forcing thousands of refugees from that country to flee into India. The ongoing fighting was perceived as one further setback for the junta, which is already under pressure from growing armed resistance stoked by resentment over the coup and repression.

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India issued a warning in response to an increase in violence in Myanmar, advising its citizens not to travel there. It also recommended that Indians residing in the conflict area complete a form with their names and other relevant information.

The Myanmar Air Force flew at least 151 soldiers from Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, who had crossed the Indian border and infiltrated the Lawngtlai area on December 29. The soldiers had escaped an assault by fighters connected to the Arakan Army from their camps close to the international border.

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(With agency inputs)
In a statement to the media, the Pakistan Taliban, an umbrella organization of militants also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack

The latest in a string of strikes by Islamist extremists ahead of the national elections on February 8, an explosion in northwest Pakistan, close to the Afghan border, on Monday left six police officers serving as polio vaccination guards dead and more than twenty injured.

In a statement to the media, the Pakistan Taliban, an umbrella organization of militants also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack.

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According to police official Kashif Zulfikar, the explosion struck a truck carrying police officers who were en route to oversee a polio vaccination campaign in the Bajaur tribal district.

Islamist terrorists in Pakistan often target polio vaccination teams as they believe that the immunisation effort is a Western ploy to spy on them and make Muslims infertile - a belief widely held in a significant section of the society in the troubled South Asian country.

For years, the TTP has been fighting the state, aiming to topple the current administration and install a strict form of Islamic law in its stead.

Since they terminated a ceasefire with the government last year, the militants have increased the intensity of their attacks.

Concern has been expressed by political analysts, and some northwest lawmakers have even called for a postponement of the elections.

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At least 23 soldiers were killed last month when a six-man suicide squad crashed an explosives-laden truck into a military barracks in northwest Pakistan, the highest number of casualties from a single attack in years.

(With agency inputs)
Tilak Devasher, an expert on Pakistan, has said that Pakistan, which is struggling to manage internal insurgencies, is attributing the ongoing Baloch atrocities to India as a way to divert attention from its own inability to address the situation

Tilak Devasher, an expert on Pakistan, has said that Pakistan, which is struggling to manage internal insurgencies, is attributing the ongoing Baloch atrocities to India as a way to divert attention from its own inability to address the situation.

He highlighted Pakistans tendency to avoid acknowledging its mistakes and instead externalize them.

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Speaking to ANI news agency, he said, Pakistan is not able to handle its internal insurgency and has been blaming India and Afghanistan for it.

When asked about Pakistan blaming India for the ongoing situation of Baloch people, he said, This is just an excuse, and they are not able to tackle the situation, so they are blaming it (India).

Emphasising that the actual problem is the Pakistan Army, Devasher said that either their army does not have the potential to control the situation or they do not want to do it.

For the last 2.5 years, the Taliban government has been there and they have been harbouring the Taliban for 20 years now; there is no such influence on them. so how can they blame India for it? The basic problem is that the army is not able to control this situation. Either they dont have the potential to do it or they dont want to do it, neither TTP nor the Baloch, he said.

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This Baloch insurgency has been going on since 2003, and they are not able to control it, he highlighted.

Pakistan is known for not accepting its own mistakes and will always externalise them, Devasher said.

Underscoring the deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, he said that as the Taliban is not cooperating with Pakistan, they are pressurizing them.

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They said that the Taliban is not cooperating with us, so to pressure on the Taliban, they have pushed 8.7 million undocumented Afghans out of their country in these harsh winters, he said, reiterating, But the problem is with the Pakistani army.

Moreover, Devasher told ANI that the Pakistan Army wanted to keep this hidden, but it has been exposed now.

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On being asked whether the concerns and protests across the world will put any pressure on Pakistan or not, Devahsree replied, Yes, of course, adding that the Baloch people who are currently settled abroad are protesting and through their protests, people will get to know the atrocities done to them.

Baloch people who are currently settled in London, the US, Germany, and New York, whenever they protest, people will get to know what exactly the issue is and why these people are protesting in this bitter cold, he stressed.

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It will definitely impact Pakistan, but we still have to see how much it will impact the media and the politicians, he added.

Further talking about the upcoming general elections in Pakistan, scheduled for February 8, he said that the Pakistani army is trying to ensure that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan does not contest the elections, raising concerns about the credibility of the electoral process.

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The Pakistani army is trying to ensure that Imran Khan does not contest elections and the PTI does not get enough seats; this is one of their strategies, he said.

Additionally, he said, Nawaz Sharif PML-N comes as the single largest party but not in a majority of its own. If there is a coalition party or it gets support from smaller parties, then it can be controlled.

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Now, the army has two options to keep Imran Khan out of the elections: either to hold elections that are not credible, second, or to postpone elections.

To which he added, Both of these options are not good

Devasher further emphasised that the elections will not be credible at all as they have been harassing PTI.

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Presently, I think the elections will not be credible at all, as they have been harassing PTI they have disqualified candidates, they are not being allowed to visit polling stations, and a lot of people are behind bars. this shows the elections are not credible, he added.

The much-awaited general elections will take place on February 8, 2024, with the national poll organising authority finally issuing the schedule following the Supreme Courts order.

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With inputs from agencies
Medics, patients, and displaced individuals are evacuating the main hospital in central Gaza as the conflict intensifies between Israel and Palestinian militants, Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike claimed Hezbollah commanders life in southern Lebanon, raising concerns about a broader conflict

Medics, patients, and displaced individuals are evacuating the main hospital in central Gaza as the conflict intensifies between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, Associated Press quoted witnesses as saying on Monday.

The potential loss of this facility would further devastate a health system already severely impacted by three months of war.

Simultaneously, an Israeli airstrike claimed the life of an elite Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, according to a Lebanese security official. This incident marks the latest development in a series of escalating strikes between Israel and the militant group, raising concerns about a broader conflict.

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Over the past few days, Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups withdrew from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, citing safety concerns. This caused panic among those seeking refuge there, leading many to join the hundreds of thousands who have fled to the southern part of the besieged territory.

Israel has stated that major operations in northern Gaza are largely concluded, with current focus on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis. Officials anticipate the fighting to persist for several more months as the army aims to dismantle Hamas and secure the release of hostages taken during the militant groups October 7 attack that triggered the conflict.

The ongoing offensive has resulted in the death of over 22,000 Palestinians, widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip, displacement of nearly 85% of its 2.3 million population, and a quarter of residents facing the threat of starvation.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is back in the region this week. While the U.S. has offered crucial military and diplomatic support for the offensive, it has called on Israel to take greater measures to protect civilians. However, the U.S. has also joined Israel in rejecting international calls for a cease-fire.

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Sickening scenes in Gazas overwhelmed hospitals

Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gazas hospitals, which are also struggling to treat dozens of people wounded each day in Israeli strikes. Only 13 of Gazas 36 hospitals are even partially functioning, according to the U.N. humanitarian office.

Omar al-Darawi, an employee at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said the facility has been struck multiple times in recent days. He said thousands of people left after the aid groups pulled out, and that patients have been concentrated on one floor so the remaining doctors can tend to them more easily.

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We have large numbers of wounded who cant move he said. They need special care, which is unavailable.

More dead and wounded arrive each day as Israeli forces advance in central Gaza following heavy airstrikes. The Health Ministry said early Monday that 73 bodies and 99 wounded were brought to the hospital in just the last 24 hours.

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World Health Organization staff who visited Sunday saw sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the U.N. agency, said in a statement. The bloodbath in Gaza must end.

Dire conditions in the isolated North

The situation is even more dire in northern Gaza, which Israeli forces cut off from the rest of the territory in late October.

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Entire neighborhoods have been demolished, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled, while those who remain face severe shortages of food and water. The WHO said late Sunday it has not been able to deliver supplies to northern Gaza in 12 days.

Even there, Israel is still battling what it describes as pockets of militants.

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An airstrike early Sunday flattened a four-story home filled with displaced people in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, killing at least 70, including women and children, according to Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gazas civil defense. There was no immediate confirmation from the Health Ministry, which has struggled to maintain its operations in the north.

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Search efforts were still underway on Monday. The civil defense circulated a graphic video showing the aftermath of attack, with several bodies scattered among the rubble.

Jabaliya, which was built for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israels creation and is now a dense, built-up neighborhood, has seen weeks of heavy fighting.

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More than 22,800 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 58,000 wounded, since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Health officials say about two-thirds of those killed have been women and minors.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes. The military says it has killed some 8,000 militants, without providing evidence, and that 176 of its own soldiers have been killed in the offensive.

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Seeking to head off a wide war

Blinken, who met with the leaders of Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, once again spoke of the need for Israel to adjust its military operations to minimize harm to civilians and allow more aid into the territory. But his main focus appeared to be preventing the war from spreading.

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The killing of a senior Hamas leader in a strike in Beirut last week ratcheted up tensions along the Israeli-Lebanese border, where Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have been regularly trading fire since the start of the war.

A Hezbollah rocket barrage hit a sensitive air traffic base in northern Israel on Saturday in one of the biggest attacks in three months of low-intensity fighting along the border. The militant group said was an initial response to the killing of Hamas deputy political leader Saleh Arouri.

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Mondays strike on a car killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border, according to a Lebanese security official who spoke on condition of anonymity according to regulations. Hezbollah identified the slain fighter as Wissam al-Tawil without providing further details.

Israel has mostly sought to limit the fighting in its north, but its leaders say their patience is wearing thin, and that if the tensions cannot be resolved through diplomacy, they are prepared to go to war.

Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after Hamas Oct. 7 attack ignited the war. Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel that day, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people hostage, over 100 of whom were released during a cease-fire in November.

Hezbollah has said its attacks, which have driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, aim to ease pressure on Gaza. But the group appears wary of risking an all-out war that would bring massive destruction to Lebanon.

With inputs from agencies
Designated Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has issued fresh threats on Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha and has urged Muslims to oppose the grand temple opening ceremony on 22 January

Designated Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has issued fresh threats on Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha and has urged Muslims to oppose the grand temple opening ceremony on 22 January.

According to News 18, citing intel sources, the Sikh for Justice leader has called Ram Mandir unholy, ungodly and unrighteous in a new video that has just been released.

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He also called for shutdown of airports from Amritsar to Ayodhya ahead of Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha ceremony on 22 January, reported Republic.

From Amritsar to Ayodhya, shutdown airports. Now is the time, Muslims, you carve out a country Urduistan from India, Republic quoted Pannun as saying in the video.

He said that the ceremony is going to have a global consequence and called upon Muslims to protest.

Pannun also said that the temple is built on Babri Masjid and called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a global enemy of Muslims, according to Intel sources.

January 22 is Modis Operation Bluestar against Muslims, he added.

Pannun was declared a designated terrorist in 2020 by India under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

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Pannun, an American citizen and a lawyer, had also threatened Indian consulates and missions in Canada, UK and US over Hardeep Singh Nijjars death. Last year, he had circulated photos of Indian High Commissioner to Ottawa Sanjay Kumar Verma and Consul General in Toront Apoorva Srivastava in a poster in which they were accused of playing a role in Nijjars killing.

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In September, his properties in Amritsar and Chandigarh were seized by the NIA and also charged him and his organisation under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the UAPA on 20 November.

With inputs from agencies
The Ukrainian military said Monday that Russian forces have made unsuccessful efforts to advance during the past day in several areas, including around Lyman in the Kharkiv region and in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions

Early on Monday, Russia unleashed its most recent volley of hypersonic and cruise missiles on targets in Ukraine, striking close to the front lines of the conflict in the east as well as in the centre and western regions of the nation, according to authorities. There were reports of at least 30 injuries and at least 4 civilian deaths.

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In the past, Western officials and experts had cautioned that Russia was hoarding cruise missiles in anticipation of a winter bombardment tactic, when inclement weather leaves the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line mostly immobile during 22 months of fighting.

They claim that, in contrast to last winter, when Russian military attacked Ukraines electricity system, Russia is currently focusing on Kyivs defence sector. However, civilian areas have been regularly struck by the barrages.

The strikes on Monday affected several metropolitan sites in Ukraine, including residences and a retail centre.

A woman lost her life in a missile assault near the city of Kryvyi Rih in the southeast Dnipropetrovsk area, while 24 people were hurt in a hit on the town of Novomoskovsk.

According to regional governor Serhii Lysak, the attack caused damage to around 20 residences and a retail mall in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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According to Mayor Ihor Terekhov, at least four missiles struck Kharkiv, the second-largest city in the nation, hurting one person. Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported that a woman who was saved from a buildings wreckage subsequently passed away. He claimed there could be more individuals trapped.

Authorities in the Khmelnytskyi region said two people died as at least six explosions were heard during the morning missile attack.

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Meanwhile, Russian troops conducted 131 artillery attacks on the Kherson region, killing two people and injuring five, according to governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Kherson and the surrounding region have been consistently targeted since Russian forces withdrew from the city to the eastern side of the Dnipro in the autumn of 2022.

In Zaporizhzhia, a major southern city along the Dnipro River, two people were injured in a missile strike on a residential district, said regional governor Yurii Malashko.

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Two people injured in a Jan. 2 attack died on Monday, officials said.

The Ukrainian military said Monday that Russian forces have made unsuccessful efforts to advance during the past day in several areas, including around Lyman in the Kharkiv region and in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

In the Russia-occupied Luhansk region in Ukraines east, a Russian warplane accidentally released a bomb on the town of Rubizhne, said Leonid Pasechnik, head of the regions rebel government.

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The bomb, a FAB-250 that carries a high-explosive warhead, did not cause injuries, Pasechnik said.

The incident comes six days after Russia accidentally dropped munitions over the village of Petropavlovka in the Belgorod region that has come under repeated Ukrainian attack.
The investigation was sparked by an earlier, unconnected examination into a different issue. Iswaran is being looked into for, but more information has not yet been made public

According to a senior politician, the corruption investigation against Singapores Indian-origin Transport Minister S. Iswaran is a very worrying development that has significantly impacted the constituency from which he was elected.

According to National Development Minister Desmond Lee, members of parliament (MPs) in Iswarans group representation constituency (GRC) on the West Coast are attempting to include locals and address urgent problems like inequality and the expense of living.

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Lee, who is in charge of the West Coast GRC, stated, Since (the news of the Iswaran corruption case) broke in July, we have been able to hold the team together, energise them to continue serving the ground with passion and dedication.

On July 11, Iswaran was taken into custody by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).

The investigation was sparked by an earlier, unconnected examination into a different issue. Iswaran is being looked into for, but more information has not yet been made public.

Iswaran is still receiving his MP stipend while being placed on leave of absence and having his monthly salary lowered to SGD 8,500 till further notice.

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(With agency inputs)
Kyaukphyu Port is being constructed very close to Indias eastern coast and is in close proximity to the key under-construction Indian naval base - INS Varsha

As part of Chinas continuous efforts to encircle India, it has expedited the construction of Kyaukphyu Port on the western coast on Myanmar. The maritime hub can likely be repurposed for military matters as and when required.

The port is among several China-controlled points in the region including a naval base in Cambodia, Hambantota in Sri Lanka and Gwadar in Pakistan, apart from a naval station at the port of Djibouti.

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Chinas Kyaukphyu Port poses direct threat to India

Over the last week of December 2023, a deal was reportedly agreed between China and Myanmar to speed up the project. Officials from Myanmars ruling junta and China state-owned CITIC Group (Myanmar) met at the Myanmars capital Naypyitaw to amp up the construction work.

The location of Kyaukphyu Port is causing concerns in India due to its location. It is being constructed very close to Indias eastern coast and is in close proximity to the key under-construction Indian naval base - INS Varsha.

This naval base is crucial for Indias defence as it will be housing nuclear attack (SSNs) and ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).

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If China gets successful in monitoring movement of these boats, it would be better placed to neutralise the sea leg of Indias nuclear triad in the event of war. Also, the proximity could enable China to monitor Indian missile tests.

The upcoming port by China is also close to Abdul Kalam Island, used by the DRDO for testing of missile, including those meant for hitting targets on the Chinese mainland in the event of a nuclear exchange.

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Not just surveillance

Chinas influence could extend beyond surveillance in the region. The proximity of Kyaukphyu to Indias northeastern states raises the scope of China supporting insurgent activities, potentially forcing India to divert resources from other critical areas including the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The concerns are worrisome to India keeping in view Chinas historical support for insurgency, including drug and weapons trafficking in the North East.

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The work on the Kyaukphyu Port and KP SEZ began in 2010, but it got stalled due to the Covid pandemic and takeover of the military or Tatmadaw.

The upcoming port is located in the sea across the restive Rakhine province where the Tatmadaw is battling the Arakan Army. Rakhine is also the homeland of the Rohingyas, a persecuted Muslim community in Myanmar.

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Why China accelerated Kyaukphyu Port construction?

The entire cost of the Kyaukphyu Port construction is said to be $7.3 billion and on completion it will give China access to the Indian Ocean for direct trade links with West Asia, Europe and the Atlantic region by connecting the seaport with Yunnan provinces capital Kunming by a rail and road link.

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What India is doing?

The Government of India is aware of construction work of Kyaukphyu Port picking up pace and is taking measures to nullify these developments.

The steps taken by the Indian government include installing coastal radars to monitor maritime traffic and setting up the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) at Gurugram for collating and tracking all maritime activities in the region.

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Till date, 46 radars have been installed along Indias coastline, with 38 more under construction. Also, 32 radars are operational in various Indian Ocean nations like the Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and Seychelles, with an additional 20 under construction in Bangladesh, fortifying its maritime surveillance capabilities.
Whether they like it or not, a majority of voters, campaign workers, and even some of the candidates present concur that the Republican former president is the overwhelming favourite going into the January 15 caucuses

Donald Trumps trajectory was somewhat mysterious as he began his 2024 presidential campaign, following a dismal Republican midterm election. However, with seven days until Iowas first-ever caucuses, his popularity with the party faithful is almost certain.

Whether they like it or not, a majority of voters, campaign workers, and even some of the candidates present concur that the Republican former president is the overwhelming favourite going into the January 15 caucuses.

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Everybody sees the writing on the wall, said Angela Roemerman, a 56-year-old Republican from Solon, Iowa, as she waited for former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley to arrive for a weekend rally at Field Day Brewing Co. in North Liberty.

Its a little depressing, Roemerman said as her order of tortilla chips arrived, lamenting all the drama surrounding Trump. We dont need another four years. But Trumps going to win.

Beneath the seeming assurance of Trumps triumph, there are significant hazards for the front-runner. Despite doubts about the effectiveness of his voter mobilisation campaign, a concluding statement tainted by falsehoods about the 2020 race, and ominous weather predictions that would discourage supporters from turning out, Trump continues to feed extraordinarily high expectations.

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Though few think such problems will result in a resounding defeat in Iowa next week, a victory is not always a victory in the convoluted world of presidential politics.

Meeting expectations

Should Trump fail to meet expectations with a resounding victory in Iowa, he would enter next-up New Hampshire and South Carolina much more vulnerable. Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continue to pour millions of dollars into Iowa advertising as they cross the state, backed by well-funded allies with robust get-out-the-vote operations, in a relentless effort to narrow Trumps margin of victory.

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At the same time, Trumps team privately acknowledges that it has cut back on its door-knocking, get-out-the-vote operation heading into the final week. They insist they can ensure his loyalists show up on caucus day more effectively by relying on rallies, phone calls and a peer-to-peer text message program. Thats even as allies of DeSantis and Haley push ahead with traditional get-out-the-vote plans at voters doorways.

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New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who has endorsed Haley and spent the weekend campaigning with her across Iowa, conceded that it will be tough to beat Trump here.

Theres obviously a strong implication Trumps gonna likely win the Iowa caucus, Sununu told The Associated Press, even as he insisted momentum was building for Haley that will show up more clearly in New Hampshires Jan. 23 first-in-the-nation primary. In New Hampshire, she clearly has a chance to do something no one thought was possible, which was to beat Trump in an early state.

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Aware of the risks, the former presidents team is scrambling to lower expectations for Iowa.

Trumps advisers in recent days have been quick to remind reporters  at least privately  that no Republican presidential candidate has won a contested Iowa caucus by more than 12 points since Bob Dole in 1988.

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The Trump campaign sees Doles margin as the floor for Trumps victory, a senior adviser told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity to share internal discussions. The adviser described the mood on the campaign as confident but not comfortable, acknowledging questions about the strength of rival organizations and, as always, the weather, which could affect turnout if there is snow or extreme cold.

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Frigid forecast

Heavy snowfall, blowing and drifting snow and dangerous travel conditions are expected Monday and Tuesday of this week to be followed by frigid temperatures that could drift below 0 degrees by caucus day.

The weather has already forced the Trump campaign to cancel multiple appearances by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who had been scheduled to court Iowa voters on Trumps behalf Monday.

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Ever defiant, Trump projected confidence as he raced across the state for a series of commit to caucus rallies over the weekend before returning to his Florida estate. Hes scheduled to return to Iowa on Wednesday for a Fox News town hall.

At every stop over the weekend, he talked about his dominant standing in the polls. Hes also frequently repeated lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him by voter fraud, a claim refuted by the courts and his own administration but one that fuelled a violent attack on the US Capitol.

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Still, weather is the more immediate concern heading into the final full week of campaigning in Iowa.

Trump told an audience of more than 2,000 in Clinton on Saturday night that his aides told him he shouldnt worry about cold weather, although his opponents probably should.

The other side will never vote, because they dont have any enthusiasm, Trump said. Stoking the crowd, he added, We wont lose one vote, because our people, theyre going to walk on glass.

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Thats not to say theres no risk.

The biggest risk is you say, you know, Were winning by so much, darling, lets stay home and watch television, Trump said the night before in Mason City. And if enough people do that, its not going to be pretty.

Trumps risks

Indeed, Trump has a loyal base of support but hes also targeting a significant number of first-time caucus participants who dont necessarily know where to go next Monday or how the complicated caucus process works. The events feature a series of speeches and votes that can span multiple hours, and in many cases, theyre not held at regular polling locations.

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A Des Moines Register poll conducted in December found that 63% of likely first-time Republican caucus participants say Trump is their first choice.

One of the first-time participants may be William Caspers, a 37-year-old farmer from Rockwell, Iowa. He said he had never attended a political event of any kind before Trumps Mason City event on Friday. While hes supporting Trump 100% in 2024, he said he was only pretty sure he would caucus for him.

Where is it going to be? Where do I go? Im kind of confused about that, Caspers said. He noted that he was in the bathroom when a caucus explainer video played at the big screen at the front of the event hall. Several hundred other voters were still in line outline during the video.

So, the caucus is this Monday? Caspers asked an AP reporter, who clarified that it was Monday Jan. 15.

Not far away, Jackie Garlock, of nearby Clear Lake, was wearing a white hat indicating her status as one of Trumps caucus captains. The campaign has promoted its efforts to recruit and train hundreds of such captains, who will represent the campaign within a given precinct on Monday night.

Garlock said she only briefly attended one virtual training on Zoom, which she described as largely a pep rally. She also said that shes not particularly good or experienced at political organizing.

But shes not worried.

I have a lot of confidence, she said of Trumps chances next week as she scanned the crowded North Iowa Events Center. I just look at the number of people who are here and I think, how can they all be wrong?

Haley and DeSantis

Meanwhile, Haley and DeSantis are spending big money to attack each other on Iowa television, although Haley has had a decided spending advantage in the caucus final days.

Overall, Haley and her allies are on pace to spend more than $15 million in Iowa television advertising this month alone; DeSantis team is spending less than $5 million, according to an AP analysis of data from the media tracking firm AdImpact.

Virtually none of the attack ads from Haley or DeSantis is directed at Trump. Thats even as Haleys primary super PAC is running multiple ads describing DeSantis as a dumpster fire, and one of DeSantis evolving group of super PACs recently launched an ad campaign calling Haley Tricky Nikki.

Trump and his allies are spending nearly $10 million this month in Iowa. And hes shifted some of his attacks away from DeSantis and toward Haley. But hes also investing in ads targeting Democratic President Joe Biden, his likely general election opponent.

Of all the candidates on the ground in Iowa this week, only DeSantis is predicting an outright victory over Trump. He moved his entire campaign leadership to the state in recent months and visited each of Iowas 99 counties.

Youre going to see an earthquake on Jan. 15, DeSantis told dozens of supporters at a downtown bar in Dubuque.
It is possible that Hamas believed their strike on October 7 would force its partners to fight Israel on a larger scale. Even as the US seeks to control the crisis, Israelis are speaking more and more about the need to alter the dynamics in Lebanon

A top Hamas fighter was killed by Israel in an airstrike in Beirut this week alone. Hezbollah launched missiles into Israel, the US assassinated a militia commander in Baghdad, and Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen engaged in firefights with the US Navy.

The already devastating conflict in Gaza runs the risk of spreading throughout the region with every hit and counterstrike. Furthermore, amid the protracted stalemate between the US and Israel and Iran and its backed terrorist organisations, either side may decide to go all out rather than risk losing face.

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Another layer of volatility is created by the splits within each camp. It is possible that Hamas believed their strike on October 7 would force its partners to fight Israel on a larger scale. Even as the US seeks to control the crisis, Israelis are speaking more and more about the need to alter the dynamics in Lebanon.

There is a greater chance of error as the entwined chess games get more complex.

Gaza is ground zero

Hamas says the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war in Gaza was an act of purely Palestinian resistance to Israels decades-long domination of the Palestinians. There is no evidence that Iran, Hezbollah or other allied groups played a direct role or even knew about it beforehand.

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But when Israel responded by launching one of the 21st centurys most devastating military campaigns in Gaza, a besieged enclave home to 2.3 million Palestinians, the so-called Axis of Resistance  Iran and the militant groups it supports across the region  could hardly stay on the sidelines.

The Palestinian cause has deep resonance across the region, and leaving Hamas alone to face Israels fury would have risked unraveling a military alliance that Iran has been building up since the 1979 Islamic Revolution put it on a collision course with the West.

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They dont want war, but at the same they dont want to let the Israelis keep striking without retaliation, said Qassim Qassir, a Lebanese expert on Hezbollah.

Something big has to happen, without going to war, so that the Israelis and Americans are convinced that there is no way forward, he said.

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Hezbollah threads the needle

Of all Irans regional proxies, Hezbollah faces the biggest dilemma.

If it tolerates Israeli attacks, like the strike in Beirut that killed Hamas deputy political leader, it risks appearing to be a weak or unreliable ally. But if it triggers an all-out war, Israel has threatened to wreak massive destruction on Lebanon, which is already mired in a severe economic crisis. Even Hezbollahs supporters may see that as too heavy a price to pay for a Palestinian ally.

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Hezbollah has carried out strikes along the border nearly every day since the war in Gaza broke out, with the apparent aim of tying down some Israeli troops. Israel has returned fire, but each side appears to be carefully calibrating its actions to limit the intensity.

A Hezbollah barrage of at least 40 rockets fired at an Israeli military base on Saturday sent a message without starting a war. Would 80 have been a step too far? What if someone had been killed? How many casualties would warrant a full-blown offensive? The grim math provides no clear answers.

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And in the end, it might not be a single strike that does it.

Israel is determined to see tens of thousands of its citizens return to communities near the border with Lebanon that were evacuated under Hezbollah fire nearly three months ago, and after Oct. 7 it may no longer be able to tolerate an armed Hezbollah presence just on the other side of the frontier.

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Israeli leaders have repeatedly threatened to use military force if Hezbollah does not respect a 2006 U.N. cease-fire that ordered the militant group to withdraw from the border.

Neither side wants a war, but the two sides believe it is inevitable, said Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at Israels Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. Everybody in Israel thinks its just a matter of time until we need to change the reality so that people can return to their homes, he said.

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Another American war in the Mideast?

The US positioned two aircraft carrier strike groups in the region in October. One is returning home but being replaced by other warships. The deployments sent an unmistakable warning to Iran and its allies against widening the conflict, but not all of them seem to have gotten the message.

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Iran-backed militant groups in Syria and Iraq have launched dozens of rocket attacks on US bases. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea, with potential consequences for the world economy. Iran says its allies act on their own and not on orders from Tehran.

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The last thing most Americans want after two decades of costly campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan is another war in the Middle East.

But in recent weeks, US forces have killed a senior Iran-backed militia commander in Iraq and 10 Houthi rebels who were trying to board a container ship, spilling blood that could call out for a response.

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Washington has struggled to cobble together a multi-national security force to protect Red Sea shipping. But it appears hesitant to attack the Houthis on land when they appear close to reaching a peace deal with Saudi Arabia after years of war.

Israeli officials have meanwhile said the window for its allies to get both Hezbollah and the Houthis to stand down is closing.

How does this end?

The regional tensions are likely to remain high as long as Israel keeps up its offensive in Gaza, which it says is aimed at crushing Hamas. Many wonder if thats even possible, given the groups deep roots in Palestinian society, and Israels own leaders say it will take many more months.

The US, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support for Israels offensive, is widely seen as the only power capable of ending it. Irans allies seem to believe Washington will step in if its own costs get too high  hence the attacks on US bases and international shipping.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the European Unions top diplomat, Josep Borrell, and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock are all back in the region this week, with the aim of trying to contain the violence through diplomacy.

But the most important messages will still likely be sent by rocket.

The Americans do not want an open war with Iran, and the Iranians do not want an open war with the United States, said Ali Hamadeh, an analyst who writes for Lebanons An-Nahar newspaper. Therefore, there are negotiations by fire.
On Friday, January 5th, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a Boeing 737 Max 9 flying from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California, experienced a mid-air depressurization incident, shortly after takeoff. A plug door, a specific panel of the fuselage near the rear of the aircraft, blew out at around 16,000 feet.

A Portland resident, Seanathan Bates, posted on X that he found an iPhone (15 series likely) when walking in Barnes Road, which is located near the reported area where debris, including fuselage panels and insulation, has been found. The door plug was discovered by a schoolteacher in his backyard in Portland today.

Bates said that the iPhone has survived the 16,000-foot drop from the flight without a scratch. The iPhone had a case and a screen protector. Even though the phone was in Airplane mode, it was unlocked, and had travel confirmation and the baggage claim for Flight 1282 confirming that it belonged to an Alaska Airlines passenger.

Bates contacted the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) who said that it was the second phone to be found that has fallen from the flight.

This is not the first time, an iPhone is surviving a fall from the flight. In 2021, a pilot flying at 11,250 feet reported dropping his iPhone X while taking a picture. He used the Find My iPhone app to locate the phone, which had landed in a cornfield, and found it completely unscathed.
Then the energy turned up a notch as Sub-Focus sent the crowd into a frenzy. He seems to just get better and better and better. 2023 was a massive year of milestones for Sub-Focus - he released his third solo album Evolve, which won D&B album of the year. He headlined Drumsheds - the biggest club in the world, and played the last ever drum & bass set at the iconic venue Printworks.
US-based Alaska and United Airlines fly the largest number of MAX 9 planes of any carrier and said on Sunday they had grounded their aircraft for inspection
Ministry of State Security reveals MI6's use of foreign national for espionage operations targeting China

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Jan 08, 2024 08:40 AM

China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) on Monday disclosed a case in which the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) used foreign personnel from a third country to engage in espionage activities against China.

In 2015, MI6 developed a relationship with the foreign national, recognized as Huang, who was the head of a consulting agency overseas, and then established "intelligence cooperation," according to a statement released by the MSS on its official WeChat account.

Since then, MI6 has instructed Huang to enter China multiple times under the guise of a public identity, to gather intelligence on behalf of the British side and recruit individuals for MI6. MI6 also provided professional intelligence training to Huang in the UK and equipped Huang with specialized spy equipment for intelligence communication.

Through meticulous investigation, the national security agency timely discovered the criminal evidence of Huang's espionage activities and took criminal measures against the person in accordance with the law, the MSS said.

Huang provided MI6 with nine confidential-level national secrets, five secret-level national secrets, and three pieces of intelligence, according to assessments by the confidentiality department.

During the investigation of the case, the national security agency promptly notified and arranged consular visits, ensuring the protection of Huang's legal rights.

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January 7, 2024

Release

Statement From Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder on Secretary Austin's Health Status

Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder provided the following statement:

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III remains hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center but is recovering well and in good spirits.

Since resuming his duties on Friday evening, the Secretary has received operational updates and has provided necessary guidance to his team. He has full access to required secure communications capabilities and continues to monitor DoD's day-to-day operations worldwide.

The Secretary spoke to President Biden yesterday. He has also been in contact with Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. and his senior staff.

While we do not have a specific date for his release at this time, we will continue to provide updates on the Secretary's status as they become available.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3633580/

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Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue: Statement by High Representative Borrell on recognition of vehicle license plates

European External Action Service (EEAS)

07.01.2024

EEAS Press Team

The EU welcomes the decisions of Kosovo and Serbia to formally recognize each other's vehicle license plates and fully abolish the sticker regime.

This decision is a positive step in the implementation of the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation, as well as past Dialogue commitments related to Freedom of Movement.

It demonstrates that making progress in advancing on normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia is possible and underpins the importance of continuing to work within the EU-facilitated Dialogue.

This also constitutes a step in the right direction towards better regional and European integration of the Western Balkans, which ultimately benefits the citizens of the region.



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Spillover effect of Gaza war heightens concerns; US 'hardly' plays a role of peacemaker

Global Times

By GT staff reporters Published: Jan 07, 2024 10:03 PM

The aftermath of conflict in Gaza has seen its effects reverberate throughout the region as Hezbollah, the Lebanese military faction, launched 62 rockets at a significant Israeli military base on Saturday, which was described as a preliminary response to the assassination of the deputy chief of Hamas. Some experts said on Sunday that this act heightened concerns about the intensifying discord between US-backed Israel and what the Western media terms as the Axis of Resistance, an "anti-Israel coalition" informally led by Iran.

In an effort to mitigate these rising tensions, high-ranking Western officials, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the EU's senior diplomat Josep Borrell, embarked on separate missions in the region. Their goal is to avert further escalations, not only in Lebanon but also along the critical Red Sea shipping lanes. However, some experts expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of these interventions as they argued that the inconsistent policies of the US undermine its ability to act as a peacemaker in easing the ongoing tensions.

Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for firing 62 rockets at a crucial Israeli military site, stating this action was an initial reaction to the recent killing of a Hamas leader in Beirut, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday.

Israel has made clear it views as untenable the regular exchange of fire between its forces and Hezbollah along the border, and that it may soon launch a major military operation in Lebanon, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.

The US media outlet also pointed out that US officials are concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may see an expanded fight in Lebanon as key to his political survival amid domestic criticism of his government's failure to prevent the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

"The interests of the US and Israel in the Middle East have significantly diverged now," Sun Degang, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Israel aims to capitalize on its recent victories to address security concerns in the north and potentially extend its military achievements. In this context, the visit of Blinken to the region is an attempt to calm the situation and stabilize the region, as the US does not hope to see an escalation of the conflict as it has to deal with the presidential election this year and does not want the Middle East to consume too much of its energy when its major focus is still on strategic competition with major powers such as Russia and China, Sun said.

Blinken is in Amman, Jordan, for meetings on local time Sunday as part of his visit to the region, The New York Times reported. He met his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday, with whom Blinken discussed the need to keep the Gaza conflict from spreading. He also met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the island of Crete.

This is also Blinken's fourth visit in three months to the region and he will also visit Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Sunday and Monday. Then he will visit Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday and Wednesday before wrapping up the trip in Egypt, the AP reported.

"During Blinken's visit, particularly in engaging with Jordan and Qatar, there was a clear attempt at mediation, as Jordan is closely connected to the Palestinian conflict, especially concerning refugee issues and aid," Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

With the West Bank being a point of spillover, where Israel has intensified its operations recently, Jordan's role becomes even more pivotal. Qatar, previously instrumental in temporary cease-fires and hostage exchanges, also plays a significant role, Liu said.

These diplomatic gestures by the US aim to de-escalate the conflict. However, the US has consistently shown duplicity in its approach. For instance, in the Red Sea region, it has not sought de-escalation with the Houthi rebels but rather intensified attacks by forming a so-called escort alliance, the expert said.

US military forces shot down a drone early Saturday over the Red Sea in international waters near several commercial vessels, the AFP reported, citing the Pentagon. And the incident came just days after a 12-nation group led by the US warned Houthi rebels in Yemen against continuing their attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Attacking Houthi rebels is not a solution, as that lies in achieving a comprehensive cease-fire in the Gaza conflict, some experts said.

"While the US displayed diplomatic efforts on one hand, it has been increasing military actions in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria on the other, highlighting its duplicitous nature. Despite multiple visits by Blinken, these actions have not effectively served as 'firefighting' measures," Liu said.

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Senior Hezbollah official: Meron attack was first response to al-Arouri assassination

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- A senior member of Lebanon's Hezbollah Resistance Movement has said that the latest missile attack on Israel's Meron airbase was the first response to the regime's assassination of top Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri.

Hashem Saffiedine, the chairman of the Hezbollah Executive Council, also said that the Lebanese resistance movement will conduct more attacks in future, Beirut-based Al-Ahed news website reported on Sunday.

He made the comments a day after Hezbollah launched dozens of missiles at Meron airbase in northern Israel in retaliation for the January 2 killing of Saleh al-Arouri, deputy political leader of Palestine's Hamas resistance movement.

The senior Hamas official lost his life in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, a stronghold of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"The yesterday attack on the Zionist Meron base was an initial response, and more attacks are on the way in response to the assassination of Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri and the targeting of Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh. The enemy should await these attacks," Saffiedine said.

He added that the response was necessary to protect "our people and country" and prevent the enemy from intensifying its aggression.

The Hezbollah official explained that targeting Meron airbase sends a message, as it is a military site for directing fighter jets, and receives radar and logistics from Israel's Air Force that bombed Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh.

Therefore, he added, targeting Meron base was actually an act of targeting Israel's Air Force, and "this is an important and direct message to the enemy."

The Israelis should know that we will target any base and site which we consider as a threat to our nation, and this is the beginning of a strong message and we will maintain our power, the Hezbollah official stressed.

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Iraqi Islamic Resistance hits Israel's Haifa Port with missile

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- The Iraqi Islamic Resistance has taken responsibility for a missile attack on Israel's Haifa Port.

The resistance group claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday night hours after the northern Israeli port was hit by a missile attack.

Palestinian and Israeli media had earlier reported the attack off the coast of Haifa, where an explosion was heard and smoke rose above the blast site.

Also on Sunday, Iraqi resistance groups conducted drone strikes on two US bases in the region.

They targeted Ain al-Assad base in Iraq's western province of Anbar, and Qasrak base in Hasakah, northeast Syria.

The groups meantime hit an Israeli "military position" in the occupied Golan Heights, using "appropriate weapons".

The Iraqi groups said in a statement that the attacks were part of their resistance against the US military presence in the region. Also, the attacks were, according to the statement, aimed at supporting the people of Gaza and in response to the massacre of Palestinian civilians there by the Israeli regime.

The resistance groups in Iraq have repeatedly hit US and Israeli positions in the region ever since the Gaza war broke out on October 7. They have promised to continue their attacks until the war comes to an end and crimes against Gazans are halted.

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Iran FM says Israel has reached none of its goals in Gaza war

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has said that the Israeli regime has reached none of its stated goals in the Gaza war, including the annihilation of the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas.

Amirabdollahian was speaking on Sunday as he briefed President Ebrahim Raisi and other cabinet ministers on the latest developments in Gaza where the Israeli regime has been pressing ahead with its brutal attacks for over three months now.

"Over the course of more than 90 days, none of the goals of the Zionist regime has been achieved, including the annihilation of Hamas or even disarming it as well as releasing the captives held by the Palestinians in Gaza," the foreign minister said.

"For that reason, the Zionists have resorted to the environment outside Gaza and attempted to establish a so-called fake victory for themselves by assassinating Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut," Amirabdollahian stated in reference to an Israeli drone strike that killed deputy Hamas political leader al-Arouri in the Lebanese capital on January 2.

The Iranian foreign minister also spoke about rifts within the Israeli cabinet as well as disagreements in the US over its support for the regime in the Gaza war.

Amirabdollahian meanwhile said that Iran emphasizes the importance of lasting security in the region, and believes that tranquility can be restored after war crimes are halted in Gaza, humanitarian aid is sent to the besieged territory, the forced displacement of Gazans is stopped, and they are allowed to decide their future through democratic ways.

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Houthis urge ships sailing through Bab-el-Mandeb to declare non-connection with "Israel"

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- A member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, has said that the ship sailing through Bab-el-Mandeb Strait have to declare that they have no connection with "Israel".

Crew members of the ships have to raise placards reading "we have no connection with Israel", Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi said in a post in X, according to Arab media.

Ali al-Qahoum, a member of the Houthi's Ansarullah political bureau, has also said that the Yemeni military operation in the Red Sea will continue in spite of all the threats by the US, Britain and the Zionist regime.

The Yemeni Army has been targeting Zionist-linked ships in the Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait over the past weeks in an operation in support for the Palestinian people which are under unprecedented Zionist aggressions in Gaza.

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Israel's Iron Dome unable to repel Hezbollah's missiles: Report

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- The Israeli regime's advanced missile systems are incapable of repelling Hezbollah's missile attacks on the occupied territories, according to Israeli media.

The Israeli regime's Channel 12 reported on Sunday that the assessments of the Israeli army indicate that the Lebanese resistance movement has used Kornet EM missiles in its cross-border attacks against Israeli targets.

Kornet EM is a Russian made anti-tank guided missile with a range of eight to 10 kilometers.

Channel 12 said in its report that the Iron Dome systems are unable to intercept and shoot down these missiles due to the direct trajectory that Kornet EM follows.

The Israeli army and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire along the border since the war on Gaza began over three months ago.

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Zionist assassination of resistance commanders aims to compensate defeats: Cmdr.

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- IRGC Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Esmaeil Ghaani has said that the enemy's assassination of the resistance commanders is taking place in an attempt to compensate for earlier defeats in Gaza and the West Bank.

He made the remarks in a Sunday letter to Head of Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh in which he condoled the martyrdom of a senior Hamas official Salah al-Arouri

The world will witness how the brothers of Martyr al-Arouri will become a nightmare for this child-killing regime.

Al-Arouri was martyred in a Zionist attack in southern Beirut last week.

9341**2024

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Israel's admission on Hezbollah's attack on Meron airbase

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- The Zionist regime implicitly admitted to the hard attack by Hezbollah to the strategic and important airbase in Meron in the north of occupied Palestine and causing extensive damage to it.

IRNA quoted SAMANEWS on Sunday that "Asher bin Lulu", the former commander of the "Kafir" brigade of the Zionist regime, announced that the Lebanon's Hezbollah -Resistance Movement- has targeted the very important strategic airbase in Meron in the north of Palestine on Saturday.

Criticizing the approach of the Israeli regime authorities towards this attack, Bbin Lulu has emphasized that the results of the attack on the Meron airbase remain unclear and is not the right way for deterrence.

According to Hezbollah statement, this attack was part of the first response to the crime of martyrdom of the great leader Saleh al-Aruni, Hezbollah attacked the airbase in Meron with 62 rockets of various types.

The Israeli military said about 40 rockets were fired from Lebanese territory on Saturday morning, January 6, and returned shortly after.

Earlier, Secretary General of Lebanon's Hezbollah Resistance Movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah issued a statement on Friday, January 5, warning Israel that Hezbollah would respond "On the battlefield" over the swift killing of Saleh al-Aruri.

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What happened in Dahiyeh could not go unanswered: Hezbollah official

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- A senior Lebanese cleric has announced that what happened in Beirut's southern area Dahiyeh earlier this week that led to the death of a senior leader of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas not go unanswered.

Mohammed Yazbek, the chairman of a religious council of Lebanon's Hezbollah, made the remarks in response to the January 2 assassination of Saleh al-Arouri could, the Lebanese Al Ahed news website said on Sunday.

Hezbollah launched missile attacks on Meron base in the Mount Jarmaq in the northern occupied lands in reaction to the assassination of the Hamas leader and his companions, the cleric said.

The Islamic resistance is in real war with the Zionist enemy, he noted while stressing that "We support the residents in Gaza and the West Bank while we defend our own country."

He also hailed a Friday speech delivered by the Secretary General of Hezbollah Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah through which he hailed the resistance's move to outflank the Israeli regime.

After Nasrallah's speech, Israel's Meron base was bombarded by 62 missiles.

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Zionists' fatalities sink Netanyahu further into Gaza quagmire

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- The Israeli military has confirmed the killing of one more army officer during an encounter with Palestinian resistance fighters on the ground in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night.

Al Jazeera has cited the Zionist army as saying that 31-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Roy Yoshai Youssef Mordechai was killed in northern Gaza.

This brings to 176 the number of soldiers the regime has confirmed dead since launching the ground invasion of Gaza in November. The latest fatality also pushes the overall deaths among the occupation forces to 511 since the Al-Aqsa Flood operation by the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas.

The Zionist army has been announcing the casualties among its soldiers on a daily basis.

However, independent media outlets and Palestinians say the fatalities among the regime's troops are much higher and that Tel Aviv is hiding the real number to avoid internal and external reactions against the far-right ruling coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli media have also disputed the number of wounded the Israeli army declares as it differs from the statistics provided by hospitals. Some media are instructed to cite different reasons, including diseases for the death of wounded soldiers.

Netanyahu's quagmire

Gaza has become a nightmare for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid global denunciation as well as repeated calls for him at home to resign.

Netanyahu, however once again defied the calls of his opponents on Saturday night, reiterating his pledge that the regime will "continue the war until all its goals are achieved"

"The cabinet I am heading has ordered the army to fight to destroy Hamas, free the hostages, and ensure that Gaza is no longer a threat," Netanyahu was quoted by the Zionist regime's "i24" website.

The Israeli premier also said: "We must put everything aside until achieving a complete victory".

A defiant Netanyahu made the remarks as he is facing ire at home and abroad over the bloodshed in Gaza and his inability to free captives held by Hamas.

The regime has kept all the crossings of the Gaza Strip closed and keeps pounding the territory with airstrikes and artillery, leaving trail of death and destruction on an hourly basis.

Palestinian fighters are putting stiff resistance to invading troops. But the United Nations and its agencies have declared Gaza "uninhabitable" due to lack of critical infrastructure as hospitals, schools and refugee camps remain the main targets of Israeli onslaught on the besieged coastal sliver.

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US will pay price for killing Yemeni naval forces: Top official

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- Head of Yemen's Supreme Political Council Mahdi al-Mashat has said that the United States will pay the price for killing the country's armed forces, with "their blood causing a new battle with the American enemy."

"By targeting the Yemeni forces, the US has opened a door which it will never be able to close. America will pay the price for targeting the Yemeni naval forces," al-Mashat said on Saturday, according to a report by Al-Masirah News Network.

He said that if the US does not hand over the "murderers" of the Yemeni forces, it will definitely receive a response to "this crime".

Last week, a US helicopter shot at three Yemeni boats in the Red Sea, killing ten armed forces. US Central Command said that it targeted the boats while responding to a distress call from the Singapore-flagged vessel Maersk Hangzhou.

The Yemeni army confirmed the deaths and said that its forces had attacked the vessel because it was heading for Israeli ports. The attack was part of Yemeni military operations against Israeli-linked ships over the past weeks, which Sana'a says are aimed at supporting the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Al-Mashat reiterated on Saturday that Israeli-linked ships will never pass through the Red Sea, adding that peace will be created only after the Israeli regime stops its crimes in Gaza, and "the American terrorism" ends.

The US last month announced an international coalition to confront the Yemeni operations.

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Sana'a: US to pay the price for attacking Yemeni forces

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sun / 7 January 2024 / 07:45

Yemeni Supreme Political Council President Mahdi al-Mashat says Sanaa will make the United States pay the price for its attacks on the Yemeni Navy in the Red Sea.

Tehran-ISNA- The head of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen, Mahdi Al-Mashat, said Saturday, that the blood of the martyrs of the Yemeni naval forces has inaugurated a new battle with the hostile US forces.

Al-Mashat affirmed that a response to the US aggression was "inevitable" if the US did not rectify the situation "by handing over the killers of our naval forces."

Al-Mashat also added that the Americans will pay the price by targeting the Yemeni naval forces, opening for themselves "a door that they will not be able to close."

"Any ship associated with the Israeli entity will not pass through the Red Sea, no matter the cost," the Yemeni top official said. "This battle opens up broad horizons for us on the national and regional levels."

He stressed that "peace is achieved by stopping the daily crimes in Gaza, and by stopping the Zionist aggression and the American terrorism supporting it."

The United States is actively deploying various measures to address the escalating attacks and challenges posed in the Red Sea and against its troops and bases in Iraq and Syria. Employing a multifaceted approach, the US, fearing further attacks, carried out strikes against fighters and infrastructure in Iraq and Syria, allegedly intercepted missiles and drones launched by Yemeni Armed Forces in Yemen, and delivered stern warnings to Iran and the Resistance movements through diplomatic channels.

The recent lethal action taken by the US, targeting Yemeni Armed Forces attempting to capture a commercial vessel in the Red Sea heading to the Israeli occupation, underscores the US dilemma.

Despite the Pentagon presenting multiple options for potential strikes inside Yemen, US officials revealed, as quoted by CNN, that the Biden administration has been hesitant to escalate beyond "defensive" military actions and diplomatic engagements through backchannel communications, as per the report.

End Item

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Enemy assassinated al-Arouri to mitigate defeat in Gaza: Qaani to Haniyeh

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sun / 7 January 2024 / 07:43

In a letter, Qaani tells Haniyeh that martyr al-Arouri departed from this world reassured and unafraid for the fate and future of the Resistance.

Tehran-ISNA- Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, Commander of the Quds Force in Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), extended on Saturday condolences to the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, on the martyrdom of the Palestinian Resistance movement's deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri in a cowardly Israeli assassination by an airstrike on a residential area in the southern suburb of Beirut.

In a letter, Qaani told Haniyeh that the enemy, in assassinating the leaders of the Resistance, seeks to mitigate its heavy defeat in Gaza and the occupied West Bank,as Al-Mayadeen reported.

General Qaani stressed that the world will witness how the brothers of martyr al-Arouri will turn into a nightmare for this murderous, children-killing entity.

Martyr Al-Arouri departed from this world reassured and unafraid of the fate and future of the Resistance, Qaani indicated.

The commander of the Quds Force said that al-Arouri was martyred, possessing an illustrious profile that includes fingerprints on the first intifada, al-Aqsa intifada, and al-Quds intifada.

Qaani concluded his letter to Haniyeh by saying that martyr al-Arouri left this world but cornered the Israeli enemy in the occupied West Bank.

End Item



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Iraq's Islamic Resistance hits several Israeli, US targets in support of Palestinians in Gaza

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 9:33 PM

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq says its fighters have struck several Israeli and American targets across the Arab country and neighboring Syria as well as in the occupied territories in support of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Issuing a statement on Sunday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group for the country's anti-terror movements, said it had hit a "vital target" in the port city of Haifa in the northwestern part of the occupied Palestinian territories.

The statement noted that the target in Haifa was hit "with a long-range al-Arqab upgraded cruise missile in the past days."

The Iraqi resistance added that the attack on Haifa took place "in support of our people in Gaza and in response to the massacre of Palestinian civilians, including children, women, and elderly people, by the usurping entity."

The new development came as the Israeli regime is going on with its war of genocide against Gaza. The regime's aggression started on October 7, when Gaza's resistance groups conducted a remarkably successful operation against the occupied territories, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm.

Nearly 23,000 people, most of them women and children, have died in the regime's onslaught so far.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq vowed to continue its attacks against "the enemy's strongholds," saying, "We promise you more."

The resistance also said its forces had attacked "a military target" in Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

American targets

Prior to the strike against Golan, the Iraqi resistance reported a drone attack against the US-occupied Qasraq military base in the countryside of the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah.

Resistance fighters also conducted a raft of drone strikes against the Ain al-Assad Airbase in the western Iraqi province of al-Anbar where American military forces are stationed.

The attacks came only a day after the resistance announced targeting three US-occupied military bases throughout Iraq and Syria.

The United States has been providing Israel with unbridled military and political support in its onslaught against Gaza, arming Tel Aviv with more than 10,000 tons of military hardware.

The US has also torpedoed the prospect of cessation of the Israeli aggression by stonewalling ratification of all United Nations Security Council resolutions that called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

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China's shipping firm COSCO halts shipments to Israel

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 5:35 PM

Chinese shipping firm COSCO has reportedly suspended shipping to the Israeli regime through the strategic Red Sea, following the Yemeni army's attacks on ships bound for the occupied territories in support of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli financial news website Globes reported COSCO's decision on Sunday without providing further details, adding that the shipping firm is yet to notify international shippers of its decision.

COSCO offices in Israel declined to comment. Israeli port officials also said they were checking the report.

The latest development comes amid repeated warnings by the Yemeni army that it will prevent the passage of all ships bound for Israeli ports.

Since last month, the Yemeni army has intensified attacks on ships en route to the Israeli-occupied territories after the illegal entity refused to extend a Qatari-brokered ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and pressed ahead with its genocidal war on the besieged Palestinian territory.

Yemen has vowed it will continue with its attacks until Israel stops its onslaught against Gaza, reiterating that it will only target ships heading to Israeli ports, and all the other ships bound for other ports can freely move in waters near the country.

Reports have shown that Israeli shipping companies have already decided to reroute their vessels in fear of attacks by Yemeni forces.

A growing number of international companies have also decided to pause shipments through the Red Sea.

Back in December, Oil giant BP announced that it had temporarily stopped its shipping operations via the Suez Canal after Yemen's growing attacks on commercial vessels.

The Swiss-headquartered Mediterranean Shipping Company (MCS) and France's CMA CGM also announced that they had rerouted their services and suspended passage of their cargoes through the Red Sea, joining Danish giant Maersk and German carrier Hapag-Lloyd in avoiding the strategic waterway.

Hong Kong-based shipping giant Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) also stopped cargo acceptance to and from the Israeli-occupied territories until further notice "due to operational issues."

Evergreen, the Taiwanese container transportation and shipping company, said it had temporarily suspended import and export services in Israel until further notice, citing the security risk, in addition to halting journeys via the Suez Canal.

The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's atrocities against Palestinians.

The relentless military campaign has killed more than 22,800 people, most of them children and women. At least 58,166 Palestinians have also been wounded.

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Israel to have 'difficult' time against Hezbollah if escalation grows: US intel.

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 5:09 PM

A US intelligence assessment says it would be difficult for Israel to succeed against the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah if the situation in the region escalates further.

In a report published by The Washington Post on Sunday, the US daily quoted a new secret assessment from the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) as saying, "It will be difficult for Israel's army to succeed because its military assets and resources would be spread too thin given the conflict in Gaza."

Underlining that Hezbollah has well-trained fighters and tens of thousands of missiles and rockets, the paper referred to a Friday speech by the Lebanese resistance movement's leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, who vowed a response to Israeli attempts aimed at the expansion of war on Lebanon's southern areas.

The American daily also said Biden had dispatched his top aides to West Asia with a "critical objective" to prevent a full-blown war from erupting between Israel and Hezbollah.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in Israel on Monday where he will discuss specific steps to "avoid escalation," his spokesman, Matt Miller, said before boarding a plane to Tel Aviv.

"It is in no one's interest  not Israel's, not the region's, not the world's  for this conflict to spread beyond Gaza," Miller said.

The paper cited American officials as saying that they are concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may see an expanded war in Lebanon as key to his political survival amid domestic criticism of his cabinet's failure to prevent the surprise attack by Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups against the occupied territories in early October.

"In private conversations, the administration has warned Israel against a significant escalation in Lebanon."

The paper argued that American officials fear that a full-scale conflict between Israel and Lebanon would surpass the bloodshed of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war on account of Hezbollah's substantially larger arsenal of long-range and precision weaponry.

"The number of casualties in Lebanon could be anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 and entail a massive evacuation of all of northern Israel," Bilal Saab, a Lebanon expert at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank, was quoted as saying by The Post.

Hezbollah may strike deeper into Israel than before, hitting sensitive targets like petrochemical plants and nuclear reactors, Saab said.

Stressing that Israeli pilots are tired and airplanes have to be maintained and refitted, the expert said they would face more dangerous missions in Lebanon than in Gaza.

Pointing to Netanyahu's precarious political career after the Gaza war and his tendency toward broadening the conflict, Saab said, "The political logic for Netanyahu is to rebound after the historic failure of October 7 and have some kind of success to show to the Israeli public."

"I'm not sure going after Hezbollah is the right way to do it because that campaign will be far more challenging than the one in Gaza."

Since October 8, the day after the Israeli onslaught against Gaza started, the frontier between Lebanon and the occupied territories has seen deadly exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

Reports say Israel has repeatedly used US-supplied internationally-banned white phosphorus munitions in its attacks on Lebanon's territory.

Nearly three months of cross-border fire have killed 175 people in Lebanon, including three journalists.

In northern occupied territories, at least 13 Israelis, including nine soldiers, have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

The assassination of Hamas' Deputy Chief Saleh al-Arouri by the Israeli regime in southern Beirut on January 2 has raised fears of further escalation.

The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's atrocities against Palestinians. The relentless military campaign has killed over 22,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured around 57,910 others.

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One day Palestinians will be equipped with air defense: IRGC general

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 3:46 PM

A senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the Palestinian resistance groups will one day be equipped with air defense systems enabling them to repel Israeli airstrikes.

Iraj Masjedi, who serves as a top advisor to the commander of the IRGC Quds Force, said on Sunday the power of resistance groups in Palestine is increasing by the day.

"The Palestinians are fighting with rockets today but a day will come when they will not allow bombardments by the Zionists and they will obtain air defense weapons," Masjedi said while addressing a conference in Tehran.

The general said the Palestinian resistance groups have dealt heavy blows to the Israeli forces in Gaza.

He said some six Israeli brigades, including the Golani Brigades, which is tasked with carrying out special operations, have had to withdraw due to defeats suffered from resistance groups.

The remarks come amid an escalating military conflict in Gaza where the Israeli regime has killed nearly 23,000 people since early October.

The regime had hoped that a ground invasion would enable its forces to infiltrate into a network of tunnels operated by Hamas. However, the operation has led to scores of deaths within the ranks of the Israeli military while the regime has failed to secure the release of a single captive held by Hamas through military force.

Israel's aggression has also caused resistance groups in the region to mount attacks on Israeli and US targets in several Arab countries to force them to end the military campaign against the Palestinians.

In his Sunday remarks, Masjedi, who once served as Iran's ambassador to Iraq and has close links to resistance groups in the region, said groups that enjoy Iran's support will finally "break the hand of the enemies."

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Jordan's king calls on US to push for immediate ceasefire in Gaza

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 3:00 PM

Jordan's King Abdullah has warned against the "catastrophic repercussions" of Israel's ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, calling on the United States to push for an immediate ceasefire in the besieged territory.

King Abdullah made the remarks during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday while emphasizing the urgent need to address the tragic humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

He also reiterated the important role Washington plays in bringing pressure for an immediate truce in Gaza, protecting civilians, and ensuring the efficient delivery of medical and humanitarian aid.

King Abdullah further denounced as a "clear violation of international law" the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, underscoring the need to enable Palestinians to return to their homes.

He went on to say that the kingdom strongly rejects any attempts to separate Gaza and the West Bank, emphasizing that the region won't witness stability without a just solution to the Palestinian cause and achieving comprehensive peace based on a two-state solution.

King Abdullah also condemned the Israeli settlers' acts of violence against Palestinians and the repeated violations against Islamic and Christian holy sites in the occupied city of al-Quds, calling for addressing these issues to prevent further escalation in the region.

Blinken arrived in Jordan late on Saturday as part of his Middle East tour aimed at preventing a regional escalation of Israel's war on Gaza. The US official will travel to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates later on Sunday.

The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's atrocities against Palestinians.

The relentless military campaign has killed more than 22,800 people, most of them children and women. At least 58,166 Palestinians have also been wounded.

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Jan. 6: 'Axis of Resistance' operations against Israeli occupation

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 11:56 AM

By Press TV Website Staff

Resistance groups in Palestine and across the region continue their operations against Israel and its Western backers amid the regime's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has claimed the lives of more than 22,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women.

The operations carried out by the Palestinian and regional resistance groups on Saturday, January 6, are as follows:

Al-Qassam Brigades' operations on Jan. 6:

Targeted an Israeli infantry force of eight soldiers after ambushing them in a well-prepared trap in the middle of the Bani Suhaila area, east of Khan Yunis city in southern Gaza.

Killed an Israeli soldier as he entered a house to inspect it, which was followed by clashes with the rest of the Israeli contingent using weapons and hand grenades.

Ambushed and engaged an Israeli infantry force of nine soldiers on one of the roads in the Bani Suhaila area, east of Khan Yunis city in southern Gaza.

Detonated an anti-personnel mine against an Israeli force inside a building in the Khazaa area, east of Khan Yunis city, southern Gaza.

Shelled Israeli military concentrations, northwest of Al-Maghazi camp, with heavy-caliber mortars.

Al-Quds Brigades' operations on Jan. 6:

Engaged in fierce armed clashes with Israeli regime soldiers, using machine guns and RPGs in the Maan area, east of Khan Yunis city, southern Gaza.

Engaged in intense clashes with Israeli regime soldiers in central Khan Yunis city, southern Gaza.

Shelled military concentrations in central Khan Yunis city with heavy-caliber mortars.

Mujahideen Brigades' operations on Jan. 6:

Shelled Israeli regime soldiers' gatherings and military vehicles with short-range rockets in central Gaza City.

Targeted an entrenched Zionist force in a building in the Tel Al-Hawa area with an anti-personnel OG-7V grenade, resulting in casualties in the enemy camp.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades' operations on Jan. 6:

Shelled Israeli military gatherings and soldiers near the Al-Mahatta area in central Khan Younis with heavy-caliber mortars.

Clashed with Israeli soldiers in central and east Khan Younis with machine guns and RPGs.

Martyr Omar Al-Qasim Forces' operations on Jan. 6:

Clashed with Israeli regime forces west of Jabalia, inflicting heavy deaths and injuries.

Hezbollah's operations on Jan. 6:

Eastern sector:

At around 9:40 local time, the Metulla site was targeted with appropriate weapons.

At around 9:55 local time, Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of Honen Barracks were targeted with appropriate weapons.

At around 15:40 local time, the Bayad Blida site was targeted with a missile.

At around 17:15 local time, Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Al-Manara site were targeted with appropriate weapons.

Western sector:

At around 7:50 local time, the Meron base serving as a surveillance site for the Israeli military perched on the highest mountain peak in occupied Palestine (Al-Jarmaq) was targeted with a barrage of 62 missiles of various types.

At around 16:40 local time, Israeli soldiers in Avivim were targeted with appropriate weapons.

At around 17:05 local time, Israeli soldiers were targeted in the vicinity of the Jal al-Alam site with appropriate weapons.

Iraqi resistance's operations on Jan. 6:

Attacked two US military bases, namely the Al-Tanf base and the Al-Shaddadi base, deep in Syrian territory, with a barrage of drones.

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'You made a mistake': Jenin Brigades says successfully trapped Israeli vehicles

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 11:00 AM

The resistance fighters in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin say the Israeli regime forces have "made a mistake" by underestimating their combat readiness as they managed to lay a deadly ambush on the occupation in Jenin before a drone strike on the city's refugee camp.

The Jenin Brigades, which is affiliated with the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement, said in a statement on Sunday that its fighters succeeded in trapping the vehicles of the occupation invading Jenin camp in a "fiery ambush" by detonating several successive explosives followed by direct and intense gunfire.

The statement said the operation led to an unspecified number of deaths and injuries among the occupation troopers.

The Jenin Brigades stressed that the Palestinian ambush forced the Israeli soldiers to request additional reinforcements and call for warplanes and reconnaissance aircraft to evacuate their wounded and dead.

"This prompted them, as usual, to pour out the fire of their hatred and madness upon our people and civilians, targeting a great group from the fighting As'ous family, leading to the martyrdom of six on the path to al-Quds liberation," the statement said.

The Brigades underlined that the Israeli regime's acts of bloody aggression would strengthen the resolve of the Palestinian resistance.

"We had warned this defeated occupier that the blood of our martyred leaders will not be in vain and will only increase our determination and insistence on continuing the path," the statement said.

"You have made a mistake in studying the Jenin Brigade. Betting on your stupidity, we managed to lure you after we released the last video of our maneuver. By the grace and favor of Allah, we succeeded in trapping you in a fiery ambush and assure you that what awaits you is worse and more bitter," it added.

The Jenin Brigades also cautioned that they would release the extent of human and material losses the occupying forces had suffered in the ambush unless the regime heeded the call.

"Finally, we challenge this defeated and terrified occupier to come out before 9:00 PM in and announce their real losses before we do, which are documented by us with scenes that will disgrace your faces and weaken your plots and will warm and heal the hearts of our people and the free people of our nation," the statement said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said in a post on Facebook that at least six Palestinians had been killed in an Israeli drone strike on Jenin on Sunday morning, amid an uptick in violence from Israeli forces against the West Bank since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on October 7.

The Israeli army also raided Jenin city and its refugee camp at midnight, with helicopters firing heavy machine gun rounds toward civilian homes in the Jenin refugee camp.

Three months have passed since the October 7 cross-border operation by Hamas fighters. During this period, relentless Israeli strikes and ground attacks have killed at least 22,700 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Since the war erupted in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank has faced growing Israeli aggression. More than 332 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers, at least 5,600 people arrested and more than 3,000 injured.



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At least 16 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 9:57 AM

At least 16 Palestinians were killed overnight as Israeli airstrikes targeted a residence in Khan Yunis and a UN school in the central Gaza Strip.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted local sources as saying that the Israeli military targeted a house in Khan Yunis, where a large number of displaced individuals were seeking refuge, resulting in the deaths of at least 12 civilians and injuries to 50 others.

The Israeli warplanes also struck a school, run by the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in the Mughazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip leading to the death of at least 4 individuals, including a woman, the report said.

Since the war erupted in the besieged territory on October 7, UN schools and buildings continue to be targeted by Israel, while also being used as shelters for thousands of displaced Palestinians.

According to the report the Israeli military also used drones and fired intensively at homes and streets in the Mughazi camp.

At the same time, Israeli warplanes launched a fire attack near Sekka Street west of the camp which was accompanied by heavy artillery fire from the army, it said.

Eyewitnesses, WAFA said, reported a fire breaking out east of the neighboring Nuseirat camp due to the sustained Israeli airstrikes.

Israeli warplanes also carried out fierce airstrikes on the Tel al-Zaatar area and the city of Deir al-Balah, resulting in casualties, the report added.

The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza has killed in at least 22,700 Palestinians, with the majority being women and children. Additionally, 7,000 individuals are missing under the rubble, and are most likely dead.





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Israeli forces kill six Palestinians in West Bank drone strike

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 7:59 AM

At least six Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone strike on Jenin, amid an uptick in violence from Israeli forces against the West Bank since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on October 7.

The strike targeted a gathering of civilians south of Jenin early on Sunday morning, killing at least six Palestinians, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said in a post on Facebook.

The government hospital confirmed the number of casualties.

An Israeli soldier was also killed during the early Sunday raid of Jenin.

The Israeli army also raided Jenin city and its refugee camp at midnight.

Israeli helicopters fired heavy machine gun rounds toward civilian homes in the Jenin refugee camp and large Israeli reinforcements were sent in through the Jenin checkpoint.

Strong resistance from Palestinian fighters residing in the camps was reported.

Several videos showed explosions of IED (improvised explosive device) used by Palestinians against the Israeli forces as fierce clashes erupted.

Four Israeli police officers were injured and an Israeli army vehicle was destroyed by an IED, during the overnight raid in the Jenin refugee camp, a joint Israeli army and police statement said.

Elsewhere in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, armed clashes broke out after Israeli forces attacked the city at dawn on Sunday, according to video footage verified by Al Jazeera.

Israeli forces arrested a young Palestinian after raiding her home in Nablus. They also raided other cities in the West Bank such as Hebron, Qalqilya and Jericho.

Three months have passed since the October 7 cross-border operation by Hamas fighters. During this period, relentless Israeli strikes and ground attacks have killed at least 22,700 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Since the war erupted in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank has faced growing Israeli aggression. More than 332 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers, at least 5,600 people arrested and more than 3,000 injured.

United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, warned in a recent report that the human rights situation in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem is rapidly deteriorating and urged Israel to "end unlawful killings" against the Palestinian population.

In the past few days, Israeli strikes have reportedly killed dozens of people in several refugee camps across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. More than five Palestinians were killed during separate attacks across the occupied West Bank last week.

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Islamic Jihad: US complicit in Israeli atrocities, not fit to mediate in Gaza crisis

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 7:01 AM

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement says the United States is complicit in the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza and is in no position to mediate between Gaza-based resistance groups and the Tel Aviv regime and broker a complete ceasefire.

Anwar Abuta, a senior leader of the movement, on Saturday night underlined the need for the immediate cessation of Israeli aerial and ground strikes against Gaza, describing the withdrawal of Israeli troopers as one of the required provisions for the start of negotiations on exchange of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli captives.

"The United States is not a mediator in the Gaza war, but rather an accomplice in the Zionists' crimes," Abuta emphasized.

He denounced as "unacceptable" any talks about the post-war situation in Gaza and governance issues, stressing that the Israeli assassination of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri and a number of resistance commanders In Lebanon brought mediations about a possible prisoner swap to a standstill.

"We welcome any initiative aimed at stopping the Israeli aggression against our nation. Complete cessation of Israeli attacks and pullout of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip are the prerequisites for any prisoner exchange negotiations to rekindle," Abuta pointed out.

"The policy of assassinating resistance commanders conclusively demonstrates the scale of the crisis that Israel is experiencing. The resistance front, however, will be unfazed by such acts of terror, and targeted killings will not manage to prevent it from fulfilling its duties," the Islamic Jihad leader said.

Al-Arouri was killed in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiyeh on January 2.

Israel waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Strip-based Palestinian resistance groups of Hamas and Islamic Jihad carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm into the occupied territories in response to the occupying regime's intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

According to the Gaza-based health ministry, at least 22,722 Palestinians have been killed in the strikes, including 6,830 women and 9,730 children, and another 58,166 individuals injured.

Tel Aviv has also imposed a "complete siege" on Gaza, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

More than three months into the offensive, the usurping Israeli regime has failed to achieve its objectives of "destroying Hamas" and finding Israeli captives.

The Palestinian operation shook the Israeli security establishment, leaving around 1,200 Israelis dead and some 240 others captive.

It is believed that 136 captives still remain in Gaza  not all of them alive  after 105 were released during a week-long truce in late November.

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No Israeli ships or those heading to its ports will pass through Red Sea: Yemen

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 1:59 AM

Yemen has vowed to continue to prevent the passage through the Red Sea of all ships that are owned by Israel or heading to the regime's ports as long as the ongoing genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip goes on.

"We affirm that no Israeli ships or [ships] linked to it or heading to its ports [in the occupied territories] will pass [through the Red Sea], and we are serious about that," Mahdi al-Mashat, the head of Yemen's Supreme Political Council, said on Saturday.

"Our armed forces are the guardian of the Red Sea and behind them are 40 million fighters from our people ready and present for confrontation," Mashat said, adding, "We will continue to prevent [the passage of] Israeli ships or those heading to the Zionist entity's ports, and we will not stop until the aggression and siege of Gaza stops."

"Preventing the navigation of the Zionist enemy is a Yemeni choice to impose peace and [ensure] a dignified life for [Palestinian] people in Gaza," he added.

The Yemeni official stated, "If the United States is committed to protecting the Israeli enemy, then we affirm that we are committed to protecting and supporting our brothers in Gaza and are ready for all possibilities, and all options are available."

During recent months, Yemen's Armed Forces have been staging missile and drone attacks against vessels heading to Israeli ports in support of the war-hit Palestinians in Gaza.

More than 22,700 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's war of genocide on Gaza, which the regime launched on October 7 following an operation by the territory's resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Mashat said, "America, which claims to be seeking peace, is here today exposed before the world for its defiance of international law, and what is happening in Gaza in terms of [Israeli] aggression, killing, destruction, siege, and prevention of food and medicines [from reaching its people] is a disgrace for America."

The US has announced formation of an American-led naval coalition of Washington's allies aimed at heading off Yemen's attacks.

As Israel's most dedicated and age-old ally, the US has also torpedoed the prospect of cessation of the Israeli onslaught by stonewalling ratification of all United Nations Security Council resolutions that called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Washington has also supplied the regime with more than 10,000 tons of advanced weaponry since the onset of the regime's military aggression.

"We are an Arab [and] Muslim nation that reject injustice. We cannot remain silent in the face of these crimes against our brothers in Palestine. We have defined our position in the face of Zionist and American arrogance," Mashat said.

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EU Has Other Problems to Solve Before Creating 'European Army' - Russian Foreign Ministry

Sputnik News

20240107

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union should solve more important problems before forming its own army, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, commenting on Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani's statement Sunday.

"An EU army? Maybe you should start by developing your own vaccine against COVID-19? Or learn how to humanely -- in accordance with your international obligations -- guard the borders of the EU?" Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.

The spokeswoman added that the EU also has an unresolved refugee problem.

The official stressed that before armed forces are established, it is necessary to determine what fuel they will use. Otherwise, the United States will be able to blackmail the EU by raising fuel prices if Brussels does not send its troops where Washington says, the spokeswoman emphasized.

Zakharova concluded by questioning why each NATO member pays into the "common treasury" -- in fact, the US treasury -- huge sums that should have been spent on ensuring collective security.

Earlier on Sunday Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the European Union should form its own army that could play a role in peacekeeping and conflict prevention.

Last November the head of NATO's Joint Logistics Command, Alexander Zolfrank, announced his desire to create a "military Schengen". The agreement would imply that the armies of member states would be able to move freely within the alliance. The general explained that NATO forces now face obstacles in the form of national regulations in the movement of troops and ammunition. The official said Europe should "prepare in advance the theatre" of potential military action in the event of possible application of the NATO charter's article five on collective defense.

Commenting on these statements, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Europe was unwilling to listen to Moscow's concerns and ignored the principle of indivisibility of security.

 Sputnik

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Italy Calls for 'European Army,' Suggesting Desire for Greater Independence from US

Sputnik News

20240107

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called for the creation of a European Union military force Sunday, reviving an idea that has been occasionally floated by leaders throughout the continent.

"If we want to be peacekeepers in the world, we need a European military," the foreign policy chief stated in an interview with an Italian newspaper. "This is a fundamental precondition to be able to have an effective European foreign policy."

"In a world with powerful players like the United States, China, India, Russia - with crises from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific - Italian, German, French or Slovenian citizens can only be protected by something that already exists, namely the European Union," Tajani emphasized.

The comment represents an expression of independence on the part of Italy's ruling right-wing Brothers of Italy party. Some observers believed populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni might challenge Western military prerogatives after taking office late in 2022. But Meloni has supported US backing of Israel as well as continued lethal aid to Ukraine.

Some European leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron have suggested the idea of an EU army in the past. Macron famously called NATO "brain dead" in 2019 and said Europe should pursue "strategic autonomy" from Washington. However Macron changed his position after the launch of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, now supporting NATO expansion in Europe.

Macron was preceded in his desire for greater French sovereignty by historical leaders like Charles de Gaulle, who refused to place the country's military under NATO control in the 1960s. He also rejected the establishment of NATO bases in France, seeing the alliance as a tool of US domination.

Although NATO is ostensibly an alliance of equals, every supreme allied commander of the bloc has been American. Some throughout Europe have begun to question the continent's subservience to US foreign policy as Western-backed economic sanctions against Russia have backfired, causing a major energy affordability crisis. Europe was rocked by demonstrations protesting the rising cost of living last year and some German industry has been forced to shut down.

But the rearming of Europe also brings to mind some of the greatest historical tragedies of the twentieth century. After decades of disarmament, Germany has begun to expand its military capabilities in recent years. Russia views the expansion of NATO as a threat to its security and has cited the concern in relation to its special military operation in the Donbass region.

In Germany, right-wing political parties have been gaining prominence with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party securing support of more and more voters, according to recent regional elections. Right-wing politicians are also enjoying greater support in Spain, the Netherlands, and in Italy via Meloni's aforementioned Brothers of Italy party.

 Sputnik

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Conflict in Gaza Strip to Continue Until All Hostages Return Home - Israeli Defense Minister

Sputnik News

20240107

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Military operations in the Gaza Strip will continue until all Israeli hostages are returned, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday.

"Military activities in Gaza will not end until the hostages return home," Gallant stated at a meeting with the families of people held hostage by the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

On October 7, Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip, while its fighters breached the border, opening fire on the military and civilians. As a result, over 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and launched a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 22,800 people have been killed so far in Gaza as a result of Israeli strikes, local authorities said.

On November 24, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of some of the prisoners and hostages, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire was extended several times and expired on December 1.

 Sputnik

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Chinese Shipping Giant COSCO Stops Calling at Israeli Ports - Reports

Sputnik News

20240107

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Chinese state-owned company COSCO, one of the world's largest container shipping companies, has decided to stop calling at Israeli ports for reasons yet unknown, Israeli financial newspaper Globes reported on Sunday.

The company made the decision even though the Houthis are unlikely to attack its ships in the Red Sea because of economic and political ties between China and Iran, which supports the Yemeni rebel group, the report read.

Cosco's decision will significantly affect trade between Israel and the Far East, the newspaper reported, adding that the Israeli shipping company ZIM, which works closely with COSCO, may face higher transportation costs as it will have to increase the number of ships operating on the Far East routes.

After the armed conflict between Israel and Palestinian movement Hamas broke out in October last year, the Houthis have intensified their attacks on cargo ships they believe to be linked to Israel in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, vowing to continue the attacks until Israel ends its military actions in the Gaza Strip.

The disruption to maritime trade routes led to the formation of a US-led maritime coalition to provide security for ships navigating through the region.

 Sputnik

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King of Jordan Warns Blinken of Catastrophic Repercussions of Gaza War

Sputnik News

20240107

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Jordanian King Abdullah II warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during their meeting on Sunday of the "catastrophic ramifications" brought about by the continued hostilities in the Gaza Strip and stressed the need to end the humanitarian crisis, the royal office said.

"His Majesty King Abdullah, during a meeting on Sunday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, warned of the catastrophic ramifications of the continued war on Gaza, stressing the need to end the tragic humanitarian crisis in the Strip," the office said in a statement.

The monarch also pointed out Washington's major role "in pushing towards an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the protection of civilians, while guaranteeing the sustainable delivery of sufficient humanitarian and relief aid" to the Palestinian enclave, the statement read.

Blinken embarked on a trip to the Middle East on Thursday to discuss immediate measures to boost humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip and raise the need to take steps to deter the Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, among other things.

On October 7, Palestinian movement Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip, while its fighters breached the border, opening fire on the military and civilians. As a result, over 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and launched a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 22,800 people have been killed so far in Gaza as a result of Israeli strikes, local authorities said.

On November 24, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of some of the prisoners and hostages, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire was extended several times and expired on December 1.

 Sputnik

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Israel Ready to Settle Hezbollah Conflict by Political or 'Other' Means - Netanyahu

Sputnik News

20240107

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - Lebanon's Hezbollah announced on Saturday that it launched over 60 rockets at an Israeli military base as retaliation for the killing of Hamas' political bureau chief in Beirut, Saleh al-Arouri.

Israel is ready to settle the conflict with Lebanon's Hezbollah through political means, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

He went on to clarify, however, that if such means fail, non-specified "other" options will be pursued.

"I suggest that Hezbollah learn the lesson that Hamas has already learned in recent months  no terrorist is immune. We are determined to protect our citizens and return the residents of the north safely to their homes. This is a national goal that everyone shares, and we are acting responsibly to achieve it. If we succeed, we will do it through political means, and if not, we will act in other ways," Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting.

Earlier, Hezbollah said in a statement that "as part of the initial response to the crime of assassinating the great leader Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri... the Islamic resistance (Hezbollah) targeted the Meron air control base with 62 missiles of various types."

Last Tuesday, an Israeli drone attacked the office of Hamas in southern Beirut and killed six people, the chairman of the movement's political bureau Ismail Haniyeh said, adding that those dead included his deputy Saleh al-Arouri. Hezbollah, allied with Hamas, threatened Israel with retaliation and punishment for the murders.

The situation in southern Lebanon worsened after the start of Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army and Hezbollah fighters fire at each other's positions in areas along the border daily.

On October 7, Palestinian movement Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip, while its fighters breached the border, opening fire on the military and civilians. As a result, over 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted.

Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and launched a ground invasion into the strip with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing hostages. Over 22,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in Gaza as a result of Israeli strikes, local authorities said.

On November 24, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of some of the prisoners and hostages, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire was extended several times and expired on December 1.

 Sputnik

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IDF Completes Destruction of Hamas Infrastructure in North of Gaza Strip

Sputnik News

20240107

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - The Israeli military has completed the destruction of Palestinian movement Hamas' infrastructure in the northern Gaza Strip and will now focus on fighting the Palestinian movement in the central and southern parts of the enclave, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday.

"We have completed the dismantling of Hamas structures in the northern Gaza Strip and will continue to deepen achievements, as well as strengthen the barrier and defense along the border. We are now focused on eliminating Hamas in the center and south of the Gaza Strip," Hagari told a briefing.

According to the spokesman, the complete destruction of Hamas will take a long time, so "fighting will continue through 2024".

The Israeli territory remains under a threat of missile attacks from the enclave's north as Hamas operatives who operate without commanders may still be present in these areas, Hagari said. He added that the center of the Gaza Strip is densely populated with Hamas fighters and there is an underground city of tunnels under the city of Khan Yunis in the south.

The IDF also said on Saturday that it had conducted an airstrike as a result of which the commander of Hamas's Nuseirat Battalion and his deputy were killed.

"Ismail Siraj, the Commander of Hamas' Nuseirat Battalion, as well as Ahmed Wehbe, his Deputy Commander, were eliminated during an IAF strike in an operation led by the Southern Command and with the direction of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate and the ISA overnight (Friday)," the IDF said on Telegram.

On October 7, Palestinian movement Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip, while its fighters breached the border, opening fire on the military and civilians. As a result, over 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and launched a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 22,700 people have been killed so far in Gaza as a result of Israeli strikes, local authorities said.

On November 24, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of some of the prisoners and hostages, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire was extended several times and expired on December 1.

 Sputnik

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Secretary Antony J. Blinken and Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at a Joint Press Availability

US Department of State

Remarks

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Diwan Annex

Doha, Qatar

January 7, 2024

PRIME MINISTER AL THANI: (Via interpreter) In the name of Allah, peace and blessings be upon you. I would like to welcome His Excellency Mr. Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State, in Doha. In our meeting today, we have discussed the most significant development in the region - on top of them, the war that continued for three month in Gaza and the Palestinian occupied territory, with all its political, humanitarian, and economic dimension. We confirmed our meeting to pressure to stop the war and lift all the strains on humanitarian assistance, considering this a - in violation to humanitarian law. We have also discussed the more development in the negotiation to release the hostages, and also the pathways to reach a ceasefire that might lift the suffering on the civilians.

We have also - I have discussed also with the Secretary the development in the regional arena, especially the attempt to stop the spread of the conflicts, which are what we are witnessing in Syria and Iraq and the Red Sea, and also the implication of that on the stability and security of the region. Since the first day, the Qatari efforts worked closely with all the partners - international, regional - and the United States on top of them, (inaudible) in order to de-escalate and also take care of the humanitarian issues, and also the - the release of the hostages, and provide the assistance of - now 280 patients were evacuated to Doha, and we have seen 59 airplane carrying 58 ton of humanitarian assistance, including food aid, in order to support our Palestinian brothers.

And we have met several times with my friend Mr. Blinken since the 7th of October, and we have confirmed since the first day of the importance to the immediate ceasefire and the protection of the civilians, and also the - stop the spread of this conflict. But unfortunately, despite all the international efforts and regional one, for the escalation - and after - and the containment after three month of the conflict, the war in Gaza still ongoing with an increasing to (inaudible), and more than 22,000 Palestinian have been killed, and thousands and thousands of injuries, and the numbers are increasing. And not reaching an immediate ceasefire will - the numbers will increase over the days. It is - here we have reduced to the images of the death and catastrophes, and women and children and civilians become numbers that we only read on the news or listen on the news.

This is a big test for our humanities and that force us not to be used to this scene that we see every single day on the news. The hospitals are still being a target, schools also, and people fleeing their homes are still killed, and also the threat of forced displacement, which might lead to another new Palestinian catastrophe, and also this provocative statements of some of the fanatic ministers of Israel, which we condemned.

It is also sad that we see that managing the complaint - and the violence is increasing, and we believe that we need to contain this crisis as soon as possible and to reach a ceasefire in Gaza which will also help on de-escalating the - other region, and despite we look for sustainable solutions for peace in the region. However, the focus is now on the stop of the fighting and confirm that Gaza is part of the Palestinian - occupied Palestinian territory, which need to be under the leadership of the Palestinian, and the Palestinian people are the one who have - who - and there is no peace in the region without a peaceful solution based on the international legitimacy.

Mr. Secretary, we evaluate - highly evaluate our partnership with the United States of America and the continuous consultation. I would like to thank you for your support, ongoing support, for our efforts that focus now on reaching a true (inaudible) ceasefire and the release of the hostages. And we always look for a role for the United States of America to put an end for this conflict, and also to reach a sustainable solution that gives the Palestinian people their right in - their own state. And we also look forward for more consultation on all the different topics that we work together with your friendly country, and also to improve our bilateral relation in all the aspect - political, militarily, and economically. Thank you very much.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, Mr. Prime Minister - Mohammed, my friend - thank you. Thank you. Thank you today and for the very good meetings that we had.

And indeed, thank you for the work that we've been doing from the start, since October 7th and the horrific attacks on Israel. It's now, as you said, been three months since those attacks, and this is a moment of profound tension in the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering.

So from day one, among other priorities, we have been intensely focused on working to prevent the conflict from spreading, and that is indeed a major focus of what is now my fourth visit to the region since October 7. It was at the heart of discussions yesterday with President Erdogan and Prime Minister Mitsotakis, this morning with King Abdullah in Jordan, and in the meetings that I just had with the Amir and with the prime minister.

We share a commitment to ensure that the conflict does not expand, and I think we also share a commitment to use the influence, the relationships, the ties that we have with different parties in the region to try to avoid escalation and to deter new fronts from opening. This is not just a regional issue; it's a matter of global concern.

And that's certainly the case when it comes to the Houthi attacks on freedom of navigation in one of the world's busiest trade corridors: the Red Sea. These attacks have directly affected the citizens, the cargo, the commercial interests of more than 40 countries. They've disrupted or diverted nearly 20 percent of global shipping. More than a dozen shipping companies have had to reroute thousands of vessels around the Cape of Good Hope. And what that means is it takes longer to get goods to where they're supposed to go, it increases the cost and that cost gets passed on to consumers around the world - whether it's food, whether it's fuel, whether it's medicine, humanitarian assistance, you name it.

So these attacks by the Houthis are hurting people around the world - most of all, the poorest and most vulnerable populations, including in Yemen, including in Gaza. That's why the United States launched Operation Prosperity Guardian together with more than 20 countries to defend the safety and security of commercial shipping across the Red Sea. It's also why over a dozen countries have made clear that the Houthis will be held accountable for future attacks. We'll continue to defend maritime security in the region as part of our overall effort to deter and prevent further regional conflict, to ensure the free flow of commerce that's been so vital to people around the world.

In all of my meetings over the last two days. We've discussed ongoing efforts to better protect civilians in Gaza and to get more humanitarian assistance to them, and to get the remaining hostages out and home with their loved ones. Qatar was instrumental in the negotiations that led to the simultaneous release of more than 100 hostages, including American citizens, and a pause in the fighting that, during that time, enabled us to double the flow of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. We're deeply grateful, Prime Minister, to you - to the Amir - for your ongoing leadership in this effort, for the tireless work which you undertook and that continues, to try to free the remaining hostages.

To those still being held hostage, to their loved ones, to their families, I promise you this: The United States will continue to work relentlessly to bring you home, to get you together with your family and loved ones.

Now we've made some measurable progress in increasing the aid getting into Gaza, including through the opening of Kerem Shalom, but it is still insufficient to meet the massive need. And then once in Gaza, the barriers to getting the aid to where it needs to go beyond Rafah remain far too high. Too many Palestinian civilians are suffering from insufficient access to food, to water, to medicine, to other essential supplies - children most of all. We continue to raise with Israel the need to do everything possible to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and I will do so again when I'm there later this week. I will also raise the imperative of doing more to prevent civilian casualties. Far too many Palestinians, innocent Palestinians, have already been killed.

The United Nations is playing an irreplaceable role in delivering and distributing lifesaving assistance to people in Gaza, as the United Nations Security Council affirmed in Resolution 2720. We welcome the appointment of Sigrid Kaag as the UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator. I had the pleasure of working very closely with Sigrid Kaag when she led the UN mission that successfully eliminated the Assad regime's stockpile of chemical weapons. I witnessed firsthand her professionalism, her integrity, her effectiveness. She has the full support of the United States, and we expect that she will have the full cooperation of every country in the region.

This morning I had an opportunity to meet with the UN staff of the World Food Programme at an aid distribution warehouse in Jordan. I thanked them for the genuinely heroic work they're doing, putting their own lives in danger, to try to get assistance to Palestinian men, women, and children. And I can say the same about other extraordinary relief workers, most of them in the United Nations system, who are doing this day in, day out. We're proud to be their supporters as the single largest donor of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.

The experts that I met with this morning spoke to conditions in Gaza where over 90 percent of the population is facing acute food insecurity, going days and nights without anything to eat. That can cause lifelong, irreversible harm for children. An immediate increase in aid is essential, as is improving deconfliction procedures to ensure its safe and secure delivery, including to northern Gaza.

As Israel moves to a lower-intensity phase of its military operation in the north, the United Nations can also play a crucial role in evaluating what needs to be done to allow displaced Palestinians to return home. Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow. They cannot and they must not be pressed to leave Gaza. We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. These statements are irresponsible, they're inflammatory, and they only make it harder to secure a future of a Palestinian-led Gaza with Hamas no longer in control and with terrorist groups no longer able to threaten Israel's security.

Of course, even as we focused on our immediate goals, we also must work toward lasting peace and security. The United States has a vision for how to get there, a regional approach that delivers lasting security for Israel and a state for the Palestinian people. In my meetings on this trip, we also discussed what each country can do to provide the assurances and the incentives required to build a more secure, a more stable, a more peaceful future for the region. And my takeaway from the discussions so far, including here with our friends in Qatar, is that our partners are willing to have these difficult conversations and to make hard decisions.

All of us feel a stake in forging the way forward. All of us recognize that we have to work together. That is the only way forward, and it cannot wait. So I look forward to carrying on these discussions with more partners in the days ahead. Thank you.

MODERATOR: (Off-mike.)

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) My - the first question for the - His Excellency the Prime Minister. We see so many changes in the region, and there are so many targets, all (inaudible) leaders like Saleh al-Aruri in Beirut, and also Hizballah leaders in Syria, and also inside Iran. What is the implication of that on the region, and does had anything to do with the Qatari mediation?

(In English) Second question goes to Secretary Blinken. Actually we can see that 110 journalists been targeted, targeted by the IDF, including our colleague - son of our colleague, Mahmoud Wael al-Dahdouh  Hamza Wael al-Dahdouh. What is the situation as - is the United States condemning targeting journalist, innocent journalist? And what is the situation - what is the position of the United States Government in this case?

PRIME MINISTER AL THANI: (Via interpreter) Concerning the - your question in relation to the escalation that we witnessed in the region, since the beginning - since the beginning we have warned of the expansion of the crisis, and this is a likelihood and it's a threat to everyone in the region that we live in. So the importance of working together, and our joint efforts need to be - to stop this war to spread the - to stop the spread of the conflict, and that was our main focus. And also to have big part of our talks with my friend, Mr. Blinken, the recent events that we have witnessed with our - in Lebanon or in Syria are - unfortunately are a violation to the sovereignty of those countries, and we see also continuous violations.

However, our main target (inaudible) purpose is the stop of this war and to avoid a bigger escalation in the region. And the state of Qatar is always seeking by working with all of the parties in order to diffuse and de-escalate. And we work also closely with our friends the Americans and other countries to reach that result. As we have - I have mentioned before, we believe that the solution is to stop this war in Gaza, and we believe that will have a positive implication on our whole region.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: I am deeply, deeply sorry for the almost unimaginable loss suffered by your colleague Wael al-Dahdouh. I am a parent myself. I can't begin to imagine the horror that he's experienced, not once, but now twice. This is an unimaginable tragedy, and that's also been the case for, as I said, far too many innocent Palestinian men, women, and children - civilians, also journalists, Palestinian and other. The Committee to Protect Journalists has found that now some 70 journalists have been killed in Gaza. One is far too many. And the value that we place upon their work - your work - in bringing information, facts, to the world - has never been more important.

So this is why we are pressing the need, the imperative not only of making sure that humanitarian assistance can get to people who need it, but that people are protected from harm from this conflict in the first place. And ultimately, it's why ending the conflict and finding, as we just discussed, a genuinely durable, lasting peace where Israel does not have to fear the repeat of October 7th, and men, women, and children can live in peace and security in Gaza, in the West Bank, wherever they may be.

MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Second question from the French news agency.

QUESTION: Thank you. Callum Paton from AFP. Prime Minster Thani, I was wondering if you could give us a status report on Qatar's mediation efforts, on a possible hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas, a truce in Gaza, and whether a strike on a Hamas deputy leader in Beirut on Tuesday has - has produced a particular obstacle to these efforts.

And to Secretary Blinken, the same question, really. Is there any pressure on what Washington can bring to bear? You've talked about doing everything you can, but are there any specifics you could mention and - to bring about a hostage exchange of the kind that we saw in November? And do strikes like the kind that we saw on Tuesday in Beirut put that kind of mediation out of reach?

PRIME MINISTER AL THANI: Thank you very much. Actually, regarding the negotiations, has been ongoing. Yes, we go through challenges, ups and down, through all the process. And of course, having one of - the senior leader of Hamas being killed is something that can affect such a complicated process. Yet we are not giving up; we are moving forward. We are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement that can bring assistance for humanitarian relief and the release of the hostages.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: I have little to add, and you'll understand why, among other, the less I say about this, the better, except to say that we are relentlessly focused on bringing everyone home, and this just was the subject of our conversations this evening as well.

MODERATOR: (Inaudible) Andrea Mitchell, NBC.

QUESTION: Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary - thank you. Mr. Secretary, I wanted to ask you about the appropriateness of the Defense Secretary being in the hospital for days, including in intensive care, without telling the President of the United States, the National Security Advisor, or, to our knowledge, anyone else in the national security Cabinet, of his condition, especially at a time when his deputy was on vacation and the number three at the Pentagon has not yet been confirmed, in the middle of two wars. Were you aware of this? When did you learn of it? What is your threshold for transparency for a national security official, a Cabinet member, such as yourself, under those conditions?

And a second question would be whether the suffering that you obviously feel so deeply of the Palestinians, of all sides in this war, has reached a point with, as you point out, 90 percent of the residents having food insecurity, with the potential of permanent damage to them. Does this bring you any closer to believing that perhaps the Arab community is correct in calling for a ceasefire and that is not sustainable if you don't see some measure of response from Israel in your meetings to reducing the level of the targeting and the attacks to a more proportionate level or just a permanent ceasefire?

And if I may, Prime Minister Al Thani, you discussed the Red Sea and the complication there. Do you believe that, at this point, with a very strong warning that was issued by the State Department earlier this week and signed on by a number of other countries, do you believe that it is time for military action by a coalition? Or do you think that that would contribute to what you fear, what everyone fears would be an expansion of hostilities in the region? Thank you, sir.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Andrea, thank you. With regard to Secretary Austin, I wasn't aware of his medical issue. In fact, I talked to Lloyd last weekend before this incident, and I know that he's put out a statement addressing it. What I can say is this. It has been and it remains one of the great privileges of my career, over 30 years now working in in government, to serve alongside Lloyd Austin. He is an extraordinary leader for this country, in uniform and now out of uniform. And it's been a highlight of my service to be able to serve alongside him, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing him fully recovered and working side by side in the year ahead.

QUESTION: But what - what is your policy?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Again, I think he put out a statement addressing this. I'll let that statement speak for itself.

QUESTION: What would your policy be about yourself?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, I'm not going to - I won't get into hypotheticals on that, Andrea.

Let me say this in response to the second part of your question. As I said earlier, it is absolutely imperative that more be done, that Israel do more to protect civilians and, with others, enable more humanitarian assistance to get where it's needed and to whom it's needed, and that will be one focus of my conversations when I get to Israel.

The dilemma that's been posed from day one, since October 7th, the dilemma that any country would face is, having been the victim of one of the most horrible attacks that I've been aware of, that I've ever witnessed in my 30 years - how to make sure it doesn't happen again. And any country faced with what Israel had to face on October 7th would want to do just that: make sure it could not happen again. And that means dealing with the threat that Hamas continues to pose. And as Hamas leaders themselves have made clear, they would, if given the opportunity, do this October 7th again and again and again, and that is not tolerable for any country, Israel or anyone else.

But as we've made clear also from day one, it's imperative that in dealing with this very, very difficult challenge, that it do so in a way that puts a premium on protecting civilians and on making sure that people get the assistance they need. And as operations phase down, that will certainly make it easier to ensure that civilians are not harmed, and it will also make - ensure that more assistance can get to people who need it. But I think it's also very, very important that, to the extent operations continue, they be designed around protecting civilians and around getting humanitarian assistance to people need it, not the other way around. And that will also be part of our conversations this week.

PRIME MINISTER AL THANI: Of course, first of all, Qatar position is very clear on protecting the freedom of navigation, and what's happening in the escalation in the Red Sea is something unacceptable that we don't want to see in our country. And as I have mentioned that, this is - unfortunately is one of the effects of what's happening right now in Gaza, and we believe that it's more important now to focus our efforts to reach an end and reach a resolution to the situation over there.

Military action and your - regarding your question, Andrea, I think it's - from Qatar policy perspective, we never see a military action as a resolution. Of course, we see the events and what's occurring over there in the Red Sea, but our biggest worry is to have a consequences all the time that will keep us in a loop that will never end it and will create a real tension in the entire region. So we hope that we see a stop to what's happening to the civilian ships as soon as possible through our diplomatic means. That would be the best way possible.

MODERATOR: (In Arabic.) John Hudson, Washington Post.

QUESTION: Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, President Biden said proposals to condition aid to Israel were a worthwhile thought in November, when the death toll in Gaza was 12,000. Now the estimated death toll is almost double that, and the administration has rushed weapons to Israel in that time. Is conditioning military support to Israel a worthwhile thought, or is it the antithesis of what the administration would ever consider?

Prime Minister Al Thani, when it comes to planning for post-war Gaza, what are Qatar's conditions for playing a role on reconstruction? The U.S. is deeply involved in post-war planning. Does it have the requisite moral authority in the eyes of the Arab world? Thank you.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: John, any military assistance we provide to any country, including Israel, comes with requirements, including that weapons be used in accordance with international humanitarian law, the laws of war. And that's something that we look at very carefully on an ongoing basis. And we will want to make sure, in this case as in any other case, that any weapons that we provide are used accordingly. That's something that we take very, very seriously, and we'll continue to do so.

PRIME MINISTER AL THANI: Regarding the post-war in Gaza, we've been having these discussions thoroughly with the Secretary in this meeting but also in the previous meetings. We always - sorry - we always see that the priority for us is, first of all, to end this war. That's - that will remain the priority. And after ending this war, to find a resolution for the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, those are - cannot be separated from each other. West Bank and Gaza should be dealt with as one unit.

As of support of the state of Qatar to the Palestinian people, this is a policy for the state of Qatar that will continue and will not be affected by the political situation, of course. And what we really want to see, we want to see a lasting solution for the Palestinian people to provide them with their state at the end of the day. That will be the only sustainable way that will preserve all of our effort and our investments for the long term.

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Secretary Blinken's Meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II

US Department of State

Readout

Office of the Spokesperson

January 7, 2024

The below is attributable to Spokesperson Matthew Miller:

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi in Amman. The Secretary thanked King Abdullah II for Jordan's role and leadership in providing life-saving aid to Palestinians civilians in Gaza. They both agreed to continue close coordination for sustained humanitarian assistance. The Secretary also stressed U.S. opposition to forcible displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza and the critical need to protect Palestinian civilians in the West Bank from extremist settler violence. The Secretary underscored the U.S. commitment to achieving sustained peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians through the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

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Secretary Antony J. Blinken Following Tour of a World Food Program Regional Coordination Warehouse

US Department of State

Remarks

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Amman, Jordan

January 7, 2024

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good afternoon, everyone. We are intensely focused on the very difficult and, indeed, deteriorating food situation for men, women, and children in Gaza, and it's something that we're working on 24/7. I want to commend the extraordinary work of the World Food Program to try to get more food to more people, more effectively. They're doing this also at tremendous risk to their team on the ground in Gaza every single day, along with other parts of the United Nations mission in Gaza.

The efforts right here to collect and distribute food to people in need are absolutely essential, and it's very good to see this operation and the work that's being done. As you can see, much of the food that's being prepared for delivery into Gaza is food that's ready to eat because, under current conditions, it's very difficult if not impossible for most people to actually be able to prepare and cook food, so this is the only way to effectively get what people need right now when they need it.

Jordan has played an instrumental role as well in trying to get assistance to Palestinians in need in Gaza. First, along with the World Food Program, they've established a direct convoy route from Jordan to Gaza; that's creating the ability to move more food to people who need it. Second, of course, the Jordanians have done everything from airdrops in Gaza to setting up field hospitals. I really commend the extraordinary leadership of his majesty, the Jordanian Government, in doing everything they can to help people who are so desperately in need in Gaza.

The United States has worked from day one to open access routes into Gaza to get assistance to people who need it. We continue to work on that every single day, not only to keep the routes open but to multiply them and to maximize them to try to get, as I said, more food, more assistance to more people more effectively.

At the same time, we have been a very proud supporter of the World Food Program. In fact, the United States provides about 50 percent of the World Food Program's budget - about $3 billion over the last year - and we work hand in hand with the WFP not only in Gaza but in many other places around the world. At the same time, we've sent about 500,000 pounds of nutritious food products to Egypt for distribution in Gaza over the last couple of months.

So, through all of these lines of effort, we're determined to do everything we possibly can to ameliorate the situation for men, women, and children in Gaza when it comes to food, when it comes to humanitarian assistance more broadly. This is an effort that's absolutely essential, and it is imperative - imperative - that we maximize assistance to people in need. Not only do we get it to Gaza and into Gaza, but once it's in Gaza, that it can be effectively distributed to people who need it everywhere in Gaza. We'll be working on that in the days ahead as well.

Thanks very much. Thank you.

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UNRWA Situation Report #61 on the situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (all information from 4-6 January 2024, is valid as of 6 January 2024 at 22:30)

UNRWA

7 Jan 2024

Key points

The Gaza Strip

As of 6 January 2024, the total number of UNRWA colleagues killed since the beginning of hostilities is 146.

Since 7 October 2023, up to 1.9 million people (or over 85 per cent of the population) have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, some multiple times. Families are forced to move repeatedly in search of safety. Information on the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Gaza and Gaza City was last updated on 12 October due to access constraints and the security situation.

As of 2 January, nearly 1.4 million IDPs are sheltering in 155 UNRWA facilities across all fve governorates of the Gaza Strip, including 160,000 in the north and Gaza City, and approximately 500,000 are in close vicinity of these installations and receiving assistance from UNRWA. A total of 1.88 million1 IDPs are receiving assistance from UNRWA.

1 This includes nearly 160,000 IDPs in north Gaza and Gaza City governorates as of 12 October. UNRWA's ability to provide humanitarian support and update data in the above areas is severely restricted. The hostilities, Israeli Forces' evacuation orders and the constant search for safer places meant that people are displaced multiple times. UNRWA shelters often provide assistance to registered Palestine Refugees and other members of the community. There are instances where total numbers could be duplicated due to overlapping registrations, this is why we use "estimates" for these fgures.

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UN Decries IS-Claimed Deadly Attack on Afghan Religious Minority

By Ayaz Gul January 07, 2024

The United Nations has urged Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to bring to justice the perpetrators of an overnight deadly minibus bombing in Kabul that targeted members of the minority Hazara-Shiite community.

Saturday's attack in the western Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood of the Afghan capital killed at least five passengers and wounded more than a dozen others, a Taliban police statement said. An earlier statement put the death toll at two.

A regional Islamic State affiliate, known as Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, claimed responsibility, saying it detonated an explosive device on the bus carrying Shiite Muslims, whom the Sunni-based militant outfit condemns as disbelievers.

"At least 25 members of Kabul's Hazara community killed and wounded in last night's explosion in Dasht-e Barchi," the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"UNAMA calls for an end to targeted attacks on civilians, greater protection for # Afghanistan's Hazara community and accountability for perpetrators," the agency wrote.

Dasht-e-Barchi is a predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood and has experienced persistent militant bomb attacks targeting mosques, schools, and hospitals. IS-K has claimed credit for almost all recent attacks against the Hazara community in the city and elsewhere in Afghanistan, killing hundreds of civilians.

The militant group has also targeted prominent Afghan religious personalities linked to the Taliban since they regained control of the country more than two years ago.

Taliban officials claim their counterterrorism operations led to a 90% decrease in nationwide IS-K attacks in the past year, saying the group is not able to threaten Afghanistan or beyond.

However, the United States says IS-K "remains a viable terrorist threat" to the conflict-torn South Asian nation and the region.

"ISIS-K does remain a viable terrorist threat. Certainly, they are largely based out of Afghanistan. That's where they headquarter themselves," John Kirby, the U.S. National Security Council spokesperson, told reporters on Thursday, using a different acronym for the group.

Kirby was responding to questions about IS-K's strength and its ability to threaten global security after the group claimed credit for twin suicide bombings that killed nearly 100 people in predominantly Shi'ite Iran last Wednesday.

Iranian authorities said after the deadly attack in the southeastern city of Kerman that they were shutting "porous stretches" of the country's long borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of a "comprehensive plan" to increase national security.

Iran's media reported that the plan stemmed from concerns that "illegal immigrants" and "terrorists" from the two neighboring countries had slipped into Iranian territory, posing a security threat.

Islamabad and Kabul have both condemned the bomb attack in Iran, but they have not yet responded to Tehran's terror allegations.

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Blinken Meets With Arab Leaders, Aiming to Curb Spread of Israeli-Hamas War

By Nike Ching January 07, 2024

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Jordan and Qatar on Sunday to meet with Arab leaders in a new push to tamp down fears that the Israeli war with Hamas could spiral out of control across the Middle East.

In meetings with Jordan King Abdullah II and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the top U.S. diplomat spoke of the need for Israel to curb civilian casualties during the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza and significantly increase the amount of humanitarian aid reaching famished Palestinians in Gaza.

But the U.S. has continued to support Israel in refusing Arab demands for a cease-fire to halt the fighting in the three-month war. The Jewish state has vowed to continue the war until it believes the threat of future Hamas attacks has been eradicated and the militant group no longer controls Gaza, the narrow territory along the Mediterranean Sea.

Blinken's trip will also take him to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt before he returns to Washington, his fourth to the region since the war began.

The royal court said King Abdullah "warned of the catastrophic repercussions" of Israel's war in Gaza against Hamas while calling on the U.S. to press for an immediate cease-fire. Israel and the U.S. believe that a cease-fire would only serve Hamas to be able to regroup in its fight against Israeli forces.

While in Amman, Blinken also visited a World Food Program warehouse where trucks are loaded with aid for famished Palestinians in Gaza.

"The efforts right here to collect and distribute food to people in need are absolutely essential," Blinken said. "The United States has worked from day one to open access routes into Gaza."

"We continue to work on that every single day, not only to open them but to multiply them, to maximize them and to try to get more assistance, more effectively," he said. "We're determined to do everything we possibly can to ameliorate the situation for the men, women and children in Gaza."

Turkey is prepared to use its influence with critical countries in the Middle East to deescalate and prevent the Gaza conflict from spreading, Blinken told reporters late Saturday, after he held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strong critic of Israel's military actions in Gaza.

Blinken held meetings earlier in the day with Erdogan in Istanbul, and then in Crete with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He embarked on a Middle East diplomacy tour this week seeking to calm the situation in Gaza and soothe regional frictions.

In a separate meeting with Blinken, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called for "an immediate cease-fire" in Gaza and for the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid. Fidan also advocated for the immediate start of negotiations for a two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution, according to Turkish diplomatic sources.

The United States has urged a lasting peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians. This involves achieving Palestinian political rights  notably the establishment of a Palestinian state with security assurances for Israel.

In Crete, Blinken thanked Mitsotakis for the country's continued support for the delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Blinken expressed appreciation for Greece's commitment to the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. This is particularly crucial, as Yemeni Houthis have been attacking vessels in the sea in solidarity with Hamas.

On Saturday, Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah group launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel. Israel responded with airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

"One of the areas of real concern is the border between Israel and Lebanon, and we want to do everything possible to make sure that we don't see escalation there," Blinken said Saturday.

He told reporters that Israel is "clearly not interested" in an escalation and emphasized, "It's not in Lebanon's interest to see any escalation."

Blinken's trip comes at a time when the risk of a broader regional conflict is surging, despite collective efforts of Western and regional powers to confine the Israel-Hamas war to the Gaza Strip.

Israel began its military campaign to wipe out Hamas after Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel on October 7. Israel said about 1,200 people were killed and about 240 captives taken in the terror attack.

Gaza health officials say more than 22,000 Palestinians, a large percentage of them women and children, have been killed in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The United States has stated its opposition to forcibly removing Palestinians from Gaza. The U.S. is also working on a postwar road map for the Palestinian territories.

"Gaza cannot, once again, serve as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against Israel," Miller told VOA last week.

"What we ultimately want to see is Gaza and the West Bank reunited under Palestinian leadership," and "certainly there's no role for Hamas in that."

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant outlined the country's plans for the next stage of its operations in Gaza. The new approach involves a more targeted strategy in northern Gaza and a continued pursuit of Hamas leaders in the south.

Gallant said in a statement that after the war, Gaza would no longer be under Hamas control. While Israel would retain operational freedom, there would not be any Israeli civilians present in the Gaza Strip.

Some material for this report was provided by Reuters and The Associated Press.

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Blinken Visiting UAE, Saudi Arabia Amid Push to Curb Spread of Israeli-Hamas War

By Nike Ching January 08, 2024

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with officials in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia Monday, then heads to Israel, as he pushes for more humanitarian aid to Gaza, the protection of civilians and to ensure the conflict does not spread to other parts of the region.

Blinken's stop in Abu Dhabi includes a meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, while in Saudi Arabia he has talks scheduled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In meetings Sunday with Jordan King Abdullah II and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the top U.S. diplomat spoke of the need for Israel to curb civilian casualties during the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza and significantly increase the amount of humanitarian aid reaching famished Palestinians in Gaza.

But the U.S. has continued to support Israel in refusing Arab demands for a cease-fire to halt the fighting in the three-month war.

Israel has vowed to continue the war until it believes the threat of future Hamas attacks has been eradicated and the militant group no longer controls Gaza, the narrow territory along the Mediterranean Sea.

Jordan's royal court said King Abdullah "warned of the catastrophic repercussions" of Israel's war in Gaza against Hamas while calling on the U.S. to press for an immediate cease-fire.

Israeli and U.S. officials have said they believe that a cease-fire would only allow Hamas to be able to regroup in its fight against Israeli forces.

While in Amman, Blinken also visited a World Food Program warehouse where trucks are loaded with aid for famished Palestinians in Gaza.

"The efforts right here to collect and distribute food to people in need are absolutely essential," Blinken said. "The United States has worked from day one to open access routes into Gaza."

"We continue to work on that every single day, not only to open them but to multiply them, to maximize them and to try to get more assistance, more effectively," he said. "We're determined to do everything we possibly can to ameliorate the situation for the men, women and children in Gaza."

The United States has urged a lasting peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians. This involves achieving Palestinian political rights  notably the establishment of a Palestinian state with security assurances for Israel.

Blinken's trip comes at a time when the risk of a broader regional conflict is surging, despite collective efforts of Western and regional powers to confine the Israel-Hamas war to the Gaza Strip.

Israel began its military campaign to wipe out Hamas after Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel on October 7. Israel said about 1,200 people were killed and about 240 captives taken in the terror attack.

Gaza health officials say more than 22,000 Palestinians, a large percentage of them women and children, have been killed in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The United States has stated its opposition to forcibly removing Palestinians from Gaza. The U.S. is also working on a postwar road map for the Palestinian territories.

"Gaza cannot, once again, serve as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against Israel," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told VOA last week.

"What we ultimately want to see is Gaza and the West Bank reunited under Palestinian leadership," and "certainly there's no role for Hamas in that."

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant outlined the country's plans for the next stage of its operations in Gaza. The new approach involves a more targeted strategy in northern Gaza and a continued pursuit of Hamas leaders in the south.

Gallant said in a statement that after the war, Gaza would no longer be under Hamas control. While Israel would retain operational freedom, there would not be any Israeli civilians present in the Gaza Strip.

Some material for this report was provided by Reuters and The Associated Press.

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Tourism demand surge around longer festival in Feb seen spurring market recovery The Feb 10-17 Spring Festival break in this Year of the Dragon, being longer by a day, will unleash the full potential of China's dynamic travel and consumption markets, given that the Chinese have already indicated their great enthusiasm for holiday journeys in the post-COVID-19 era, experts said. Anticipating the travel rush, the State Council, China's Cabinet, released holiday arrangements in late October. Since then, online searches for train tickets and domestic and international flight tickets have surged, market sources said. A longer Spring Festival is expected to have a huge positive impact on the recovery of the tourism market. The holiday will mark the first winter vacation and the first Spring Festival since China resumed group outbound tourism after the pandemic subsided. Outbound tourism will surpass the levels seen during the summer vacation and the National Day holiday in 2023, industry experts forecast. "A longer holiday provides enough time for consumers for family reunion, visits to relatives and friends, and travel," said Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy. "During the holiday, people's budgets for dining, shopping, buying gifts and other expenses are usually relatively high, and this is foreseen to have a significant impact on tourism growth," he said. In the first three quarters of 2023, Chinese consumers spent 3.69 trillion yuan ($515 billion) on domestic travel, up more than 114 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Some places in China have emerged as popular destinations for the Spring Festival holiday. Sanya and Haikou of the southern island province of Hainan lead the pack, followed by Dali and Xishuang Banna Dai autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province, said Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency. For outbound travel, Chinese travelers have frequently searched for European destinations such as Spain, Switzerland and France, as well as Australia and New Zealand. The number of inquiries about visa applications to those destinations has climbed, Qunar said. "For tailored trips, ideas would vary for different spans. On a seven- or eight-day trip, consumers can visit two or three destinations. If it's more than nine days, we will help plan a longer route for travelers," said Yang Guanghui, director of vacation business at Qunar. Winter in China means demand for ice- and snow-themed trips will be high. At the same time, places where it is summer now, such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, have caught the attention of Chinese travelers. They are the hot spots for so-called counter-season travel. Eyeing demand surge, tourism promotion agencies of different countries have increased efforts to attract Chinese travelers. South African Tourism said South Africa has one of the largest young populations and tailor-made travel packages for young people in China. Chinese tourists tend to spend more days and travel with groups in South Africa, and the agency would like to engage and cooperate with more tour operators in China. After the pandemic, the tourism industry has recovered fast in South Africa. In 2023, the country welcomed more than 16 million visitors, of whom 4.2 million came from Africa, and many others came from Europe and the United States. In late 2022, Air China resumed flights connecting Beijing and Johannesburg. From January to September 2023, about 93,000 Chinese travelers visited South Africa, up 248 percent year-on-year. Besides, Chinese tourists' average per capita expenditure in South Africa reached 18,518 yuan during the period, according to the China Tourism Academy. "We also promote traveling in the continent of Africa. We are now promoting package tours to small towns, villages and townships, not just the Table Mountain. We have also got a beer industry that is growing substantially," Patricia de Lille, South Africa's tourism minister, said at a recent event in Beijing. Meanwhile, the New Zealand Tourism Board has held various activities in China recently to attract more Chinese travelers. New Zealand was among the first group of 20 overseas destinations that China resumed group tours to, and the number of Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand steadily increased in 2023. In the first eight months of 2023, some 76,000 Chinese visited New Zealand, and more than half of them went to New Zealand for vacationing. In August last year, New Zealand welcomed about 16,000 Chinese tourists, or 53 percent of the volume seen in the same period of 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, according to the tourism board. Since December, the direct flights that connect China and New Zealand have fully resumed compared with the pre-COVID-19 period. Six airlines now operate flights connecting key cities in New Zealand and eight cities in China. Since Dec 1, Malaysia started visa-free policy for Chinese travelers for up to 30 days, as this year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia. Online searches for Malaysia-related travel products surged in China after the announcement. In 2019, before the pandemic, more than 3 million Chinese tourists visited Malaysia, accounting for nearly 12 percent of global travelers visiting the country, and contributing nearly 18 percent of total tourism revenues of the country, according to Malaysian government data. "Malaysia has long been a hot overseas destination for Chinese travelers. The visa-free policy is expected to effectively shorten the decision-making period of tourists and the sales cycle of related travel products," said Fan Dongxiao, director of short-haul outbound tours at Tuniu Corp, a Nanjing, Jiangsu province-based online travel agency. "The visa-free policy is foreseen to significantly help promote Malaysia's tourism market. Malaysia boasts good island resources and reasonable prices. Compared with domestic island tours, it is cost-effective, hence an advantage," Fan said. Multiple direct flights connecting Kuala Lumpur and several Chinese cities have either resumed or been launched. Prominent among them are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, Chengdu in Sichuan province, and Xiamen in Fujian province. For the upcoming Spring Festival holiday, Malaysia is expected to be a dark horse among Chinese travelers' outbound tourism destinations. The number of Chinese tourists who visit Malaysia may exceed the level of 2019, as long as there are enough number of flights, said Xu Xiaolei, chief brand officer of CYTS Tours Holding Co in Beijing. zhuwenqian@chinadaily.com.cn
Russo-Ukraine War - 07 January 2024 - Day 682

Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While GlobalSecurity.org takes utmost care to accurately report this news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

On 24 February 2022, Ukraine was suddenly and deliberately attacked by land, naval and air forces of Russia, igniting the largest European war since the Great Patriotic War. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" (SVO - spetsialnaya voennaya operatsiya) in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. The military buildup in preceeding months makes it obvious that the unprovoked and dastardly Russian attack was deliberately planned long in advance. During the intervening time, the Russian government had deliberately sought to deceive the world by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

"To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal]

The UK Ministry of Defence reported that Rosgvardia, the Russian National Guard, is bolstering its resources and personnel as a result of upheavals in Russia's internal security scene from the war in Ukraine.

Elements of private military company Wagner Group came under Rosgvardia from October 2023, followed on 3 January 2024 by the Donetsk People's Republic's (DNR) "Vostok" Battalion. Moscow has also been advancing its efforts to dissolve the DNR's "Kaskad" group, which specialises in drone operations, and subordinate parts of it to Rosgvardia.

In July 2023, the Russian State Duma authorised Rosgvardiya to employ heavier weaponry. New capabilities, along with its augmentation with experienced veterans from other groups, will likely represent a significant increase in combat effectiveness.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that during the day of January 7, there were 29x combat engagements. Russian forces launched a total of 6x missile and 40x air strikes, carried out 21x MLRS attacks at the positions of Ukrainian troops and various settlements. Unfortunately, the Russian attacks have resulted in civilian casualties and injuries. Private residential and apartment buildings, and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed and damaged.

The operational situation in eastern and southern Ukraine remains difficult.

Volyn and Polissya axes: no significant changes. No signs of formation of an offensive group. Certain units of the armed forces of Belarus continue their missions in the areas bordering Ukraine.

Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna axes: Russia maintains its military presence in the areas of russia bordering Ukraine. Russia continues its sabotage and reconnaissance activities, shelling Ukrainian settlements from the territory of Russia and increases the density of minefields along the state border of Ukraine. Around 20x settlements came under Russian artillery and mortar fire, including Klyusy, Buchky, Hrem'yach (Chernihiv oblast), Volfyne, Iskryskivshchyna, Mefodivka (Sumy oblast), Udy, Kozacha Lopan', Vovchans'k, Potykhonove (Kharkiv oblast).

Kup'yans'k axis: the Ukrainian defenders repelled 2x attacks in the vicinities of Syn'kivka, Ivanivka (Kharkiv oblast), where the Russian occupiers made unsuccessful attempts to improve their tactical situation. Russian forces launched an air strike near Berestove (Kharkiv oblast). Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at around 10x settlements, including Syn'kivka, Petropavlivka, Ivanivka, Tabaivka (Kharkiv oblast).

Lyman axis: the Ukrainian defenders repelled 3x assaults east of Terny (Donetsk oblast). Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Bilohorivka (Luhansk oblast), Terny, Yampolivka, Verkhn'okam'yans'ke, Spirne, Rozdolivka (Donetsk oblast).

Bakhmut axis: the Ukrainian Defense Forces repelled 1x attack in the vicinity of Andriivka (Donetsk oblast). Russian forces launched an air strike near Druzhba settlement (Donetsk oblast). More than 10x settlements came under artillery and mortar fire, including Hryhorivka, Bohdanivka, Ivanivske, Klishchiivka, Andriivka (Donetsk oblast).

Avdiivka axis: the Ukrainian defenders repelled 5x Russian attacks near Novobakhmutivka, Avdiivka, and 11x more attacks in the vicinities of Pervomais'ke and Nevel's'ke (Donetsk oblast). In that area, Russian forces, with air support, conducted unsuccessful attempts to improve its tactical situation. Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at around 15x settlements, including Novokalynove, Novobakhmutivka, Berdychi, Avdiivka, Sjeverne, Pervomais'ke (Donetsk oblast).

Mar'inka axis: the Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to hold back Russian forces in the vicinities of Mar'inka and Novomykhailivka (Donetsk oblast). In that area, the Russian adversary, with air support, made 3x failed attempts to breach Ukrainian defense. Russian forces launched air strikes in the vicinities of Krasnohorivka and Heorhiivka (Donetsk oblast). The settlements of Krasnohorivka, Heorhiivka, Novomykhailivka, Kostyantynivka were under Russian artillery and mortar fire.

Shakhtars'ke axis: Russian forces conducted no offensives. The adversary fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Vuhledar, Zolota Nyva, Urozhaine, Staromaiors'ke (Donetsk oblast).

Zaporizhzhia axis: the Ukrainian Defense Forces repelled 1x assault west of Verbove (Zaporizhzhia oblast). More than 15x settlements, including Ol'hivske, Poltavka, Chervone, Bilohir'ya, Robotyne, P'yatykhatky (Zaporizhzhia oblast), came under Russian artillery and mortar fire.

Odesa operational-strategic group, Kherson axis: Russian forces fired artillery at the city of Kherson (Kherson oblast), as well as Dmytrivka, Ochakiv (Mykolaiv oblast). The occupiers launched air strikes near the settlements of Respublikanets, Chervonyi Mayak, Zmiivka, Krynky (Kherson oblast).

Russian forces do not abandon their intention to drive Ukrainian units out of their footholds on the left bank of the Dnipro. Thus, during the day, Russian forces made 2x unsuccessful assaults. The Ukrainian troops are holding the line and keep inflicting significant losses on the Russian enemy.

During the day of January 7, the Ukrainian Air Force launched air strikes on 4x concentrations of Russian troops. Also, Ukrainian air defense forces shot down 1x Kh-59 air-launched guided missile.

The Ukrainian missile troops hit 1x command post, 1x ammunition depot, 1x artillery system of the Russian invaders.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that in Kupyansk direction, as a result of active actions by units of the Zapad Group of Forces, aviation and artillery, four attacks by assault groups of AFU 32nd, 43rd, 115th mechanised and 95th airborne brigades have been repelled close to Sinkovka and Ivanovka (Kharkov region) and Terny (Donetsk People's Republic).

In addition, manpower of 103rd and 105th brigades of the Territorial Defence of Ukraine have been eliminated near Kislovka and Melovoye (Kharkiv region).

The enemy losses were over 50 enemy soldiers, two infantry fighting vehicles, and three motor vehicles.

In Krasny Liman direction, units of the Tsentr Group of Forces, supported by aviation and artillery, have hit manpower and hardware concentration areas of the 100th Territorial Defence of Ukraine and the 5th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard close to Chervonaya Dibrova (Lugansk People's Republic) and Serebryansky forestry.

The enemy losses were up to 55 servicemen, as well as 4 motor vehicles.

In Donetsk direction, units of the Yug Group of Forces, by coordinated actions, in cooperation with artillery, Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, have defeated manpower and hardware of the 3rd Assault Brigade, the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, 22nd, 24th, 28th, 42nd, 67th, and 93rd mechanised brigades of the AFU, and the 112th Territorial Defence Brigade near Bogdanovka, Artyomovskoye, Krasnoye, Kleshcheevka, Andreevka, and Kurdyumovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were more than 300 servicemen killed and wounded, four armoured fighting vehicles, and 20 motor vehicles.

In addition, in the course of counter-battery warfare, one French-manufactured Caezar self-propelled artillery system, one U.S.-manufactured M119 howitzer, and one AFU ammunition depot have been hit.

In South Donetsk direction, as a result of competent actions by units of the Vostok Group of Forces, supported by aviation and artillery, manpower of the 79th Air Assault Brigade, the 72nd Mechanised Brigade of the AFU, and the 128th Territorial Defence Brigade have been eliminated close to Novomikhailovka, Staromayorskoye, Ugledar (Donetsk People's Republic) and Priyutnoye (Zaporozhye region).

The enemy losses were up to 130 troops, one tank, two armoured fighting vehicles, and two motor vehicles.

In the course of counter-battery warfare, three Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled artillery systems, two British-manufactured FH-70 howitzers, two D-30 guns, two Rapira anti-tank guns, and one AFU ammunition depot have been hit.

In Zaporozhye direction, units of the Russian Group of Forces, supported by Operational-Tactical Aviation and artillery, have defeated manpower concentration areas of 3rd and 14th operational brigades of the National Guard of Ukraine, 68th jaeger, 65th, 118th mechanised and 128th mountain assault brigades of the AFU close to Pyatikhatki, Verbovoye, Rabotino, Novopokrovka, and Kamenskoye (Zaporozhye region).

The enemy losses were up to 40 servicemen, one tank, two armoured fighting vehicles, and four motor vehicles.

In Kherson direction, units of the Dnepr Group of Forces have defeated manpower and hardware of 35th and 38th brigades of the AFU Marine Infantry and the 121st Brigade of the Territorial Defence on the right bank of the Dnepr River close to Ilyinka (Dnepropetrovsk region), Lvovo, Zolotaya Balka, Ivanovka, Sablukovka, and Mylovoye (Kherson region).

The enemy losses were more than 35 soldiers, three motor vehicles, and one electronic warfare station.

Missile Troops and Artillery, and unmanned aerial vehicles of the Russian Groups of Forces destroyed ammunition depot near Koblevo (Nikolayev region), 109 artillery units in firing positions, manpower, and military hardware in 117 areas.

Air defence facilities have shot down the Ukrainian Air Force's one Su-25 aircraft near Dnepropetrovsk and one Su-27 aircraft near Krivoy Rog (Dnepropetrovsk region).

14 projectiles of HIMARS, Uragan multiple-launch rocket systems and six Neptun anti-ship missiles have been intercepted.

In addition, 38 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been hit close to Gorobyevka (Kharkov region), Spornoye, Peski, Gorlovka (Donetsk People's Republic), Belogorovka, Lisichansk, Kremennaya, Makeevka (Lugansk People's Republic), Kharkov, Orlyanskoye, and Pologi (Zaporozhye region).

In total, 567 airplanes and 265 helicopters, 10,526 unmanned aerial vehicles, 447 air defence missile systems, 14,506 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 1,201 combat vehicles equipped with MRLS, 7,656 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 17,170 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.





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India's First Solar Observatory Reaches Destination

By Anjana Pasricha January 07, 2024

India has achieved another milestone in space exploration by successfully placing a spacecraft in an orbit from which it will study the sun for five years.

India joined a select group of nations already studying the sun four months after it became the first country to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon's southern polar region, cementing its reputation as a nation that is emerging on the frontlines of space exploration.

The Indian Space Research Organization said that the space observatory, Aditya L-1, reached the position from which it can monitor the sun's outer layer and send data back to Earth on Saturday. The spacecraft, which was launched September 2, took four months to reach its destination.

"The orbit of Aditya-L1 spacecraft is a periodic Halo orbit which is located roughly 1.5 million km [kilometers] from earth," according to an ISRO statement.

Aditya-L1 is named after the Hindu god of the sun, called Aditya in Sanskrit. "L1" refers to Lagrange point 1, the location in space between the sun and Earth, where the satellite has been parked.

"This demonstrates India's capability to travel over a million kilometers away from the Earth's orbit. It is a capability that very few countries have and India is the first in Asia to do so," according to Chaitanya Giri, associate professor of environmental sciences at Flame University in Pune. "The ability to maintain deep space communication with a spacecraft that has traveled so far and sustain a mission for a long period is also significant."

The Indian mission is scheduled to study the sun for five years. The "Lagrange 1" point, where the spacecraft has been positioned provides an uninterrupted view of the sun, even during eclipses.

The major focus of the mission is to gain a better understanding of space weather, variations in the environment in space between the Earth and the sun, which is crucial for protecting satellites and other spacecraft, according to space scientists.

"It is vital to understand space weather at a time when there are thousands of satellites in space," Ajay Lele, space scientist and former senior fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, said.

"Space weather is about disturbances that happen on the sun such as solar winds, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These three components need to be studied," he said.

Aditya-L1 is expected to be able to give warnings about space storms that can have an impact on Earth, occasionally affecting the operation of satellites and radio communications.

The spacecraft is equipped with seven scientific instruments to study solar wind particles and magnetic fields.

Solar observatory missions have been launched so far by the U.S. space agency NASA, the European space agency, Japan and China.

India's space program, which began in the 1960s, has gained prominence under Prime Minister Narendra Modi a it is seen as part of his efforts to promote India's global stature.

"India creates yet another landmark. It is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists in realizing among the most complex and intricate space missions," Modi said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.

Other major missions planned by the Indian space agency include a manned mission to space that is due to be launched this year and an interplanetary mission to Mars.

Besides scientific space explorations such as these, India is also looking to enhance its military capabilities in space, according to experts. The first signal that it is giving a military profile to its space program came in 2019 when it conducted an anti-satellite weapon test to demonstrate that it could shoot down satellites in space a a capability that only the United States, China and Russia have.

India has plans to develop 50 new satellites based on artificial intelligence technology in the next five years to beef up the country's border surveillance and enhance its "geo-intelligence" capabilities, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chairman S. Somanath said last month.

Enhancing surveillance capabilities from space from a military perspective is key for India, according to experts. Its concerns center both on its Himalayan borders with China, where disputed borders between the two have sparked military tensions, and on the Indian Ocean region, where China has been increasing its influence.

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China imposes sanctions on five US companies as countermeasures against arms sales to Taiwan island

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Jan 07, 2024 11:07 AM

As countermeasures on US arms sales to China's Taiwan region and the country's sanctions on Chinese entities, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Sunday that China has decided to impose sanctions on five US defense companies, including freezing movable and immovable assets and other types of property held within China, as well as prohibiting organizations and individuals within China from engaging in transactions, cooperation, and other activities with these companies.

Those companies include BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operation, AeroVironment, ViaSat and Data Link Solutions.

Citing a Pentagon release last month, Reuters reported that the US State Department has approved a $300 million sale of equipment to help maintain the island of Taiwan's tactical information systems.



The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency confirmed that the sale was for follow-on life cycle support to maintain the island of Taiwan's Command, Control, Communications and Computers, or C4, capabilities, while the defense authority on the island claimed that the sale would help maintain the effectiveness of its joint combat command and control systems so that it can improve battlefield awareness, Reuters reported.

The US arms sales to China's Taiwan region is aablatant violation ofathe one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiquAs, particularly the August 17ajoint communiquAaof 1982, said a spokesperson from Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement, noting that theaillegal unilateral sanctionsathe US has imposed onaChinese companies and individualsaunder various false pretextsaseriouslyaharmaChina's sovereignty and security interests,aundermine theapeace and stability across the Taiwan Straits,aand violateathealegitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and individuals.aChinaastronglyadeplores andafirmly opposes this and has made solemn representations to the US.

The spokesperson stressed that the Chinese government remains unwavering in its resolve to safeguard national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and citizens.

"We urge the US to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiquAs, observe international law and the basic norms governing international relations, stop arming Taiwan, and stop targeting China with illegal unilateral sanctions. Otherwise there will be strong and resolute response from China," the spokesperson said the statement.

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PLA Navy's large destroyer honored after fending off foreign military provocation during drills

Global Times

By Liu Xuanzun Published: Jan 07, 2024 06:07 PM

The Party committee of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's first Type 055 large destroyer was honored as a role model on Sunday after the warship completed a series of challenging missions including fending off foreign military provocation in combat drills.

The Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee conferred the title of "role model of the times" to the Party committee of the PLA Navy warship Nanchang, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.

Having entered PLA naval service in January 2020, the Nanchang is China's first domestically developed Type 055 destroyer hull and a typical representative of the PLA Navy's combat force of new quality, Xinhua reported.

Since its commissioning, the Nanchang has completed more than 10 major missions, including sailing to far seas in the Bering Sea, holding combat patrols in the Pacific Ocean, and conducting exercises in the Xisha and Nansha islands in the South China Sea, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Saturday.

The Nanchang is a vital part of the PLA Navy's aircraft carrier combat system. As a member of the Liaoning carrier group in a previous combat deployment and training mission, the Nanchang consecutively maintained more than 20 days of combat status and fended off foreign military provocations head-on, the state broadcaster report said.

"When the foreign military aircraft gradually made approaches, our early warning and detection systems tracked and locked on them through their entire courses. We firmly and strongly fended off foreign military provocations," said Zhou Yinlong, a crew member aboard the large destroyer, CCTV reported.

Accompanying carrier groups, the Nanchang has enhanced systemic combat capabilities in recent years by sailing into deep blue waters like the West Pacific and the South China Sea through the Miyako Strait and Bashi Channel, as the warship has become a window for China to display its confidence and strength as a major power amid the constantly changing international situations, CCTV said.

In a move to further hone operations, the Nanchang recently carried out a three-day combat-oriented exercise at an undisclosed location, completing 40 training objectives including land attack, sea assault, air defense, and anti-submarine defense, CCTV reported.

Shi Hong, executive chief editor of the Chinese magazine Shipborne Weapons, told the Global Times that Type 055 is the world's best large destroyer in terms of comprehensive capabilities.

Type 055 can not only accompany aircraft carriers, but can also serve as the command ship of a flotilla, and provide more flexible tactics for the PLA Navy, Shi said.

As the first hull of the Type 055 large destroyer, the Nanchang also shouldered the responsibility of exploring the combat capabilities, work procedures, and tactics of this ship type, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Sunday.

Thanks to the experience garnered by the Nanchang, following Type 055 hulls were able to achieve operational capability much faster, the expert said.

The PLA Navy had commissioned eight Type 055s as of press time.

With a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, the Type 055 large destroyer is equipped with an integrated mast that gives the warship outstanding situational awareness, plus 112 vertical missile launch cells hosting a combination of land attack, anti-ship, anti-air, and anti-submarine missiles, according to openly available information and analyses.

Faced with a complex geopolitical security situation, the PLA Navy's Type 055 destroyers will serve as an important force in safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development interests, analysts said.

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China's Dec forex reserves return to above $3.2 trillion, to help cope with external uncertainties

Global Times

Reflects vibrant trade, offers buffer against uncertainty

By GT staff reporters Published: Jan 07, 2024 09:52 PM

Data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) on Sunday showed that China's foreign exchange reserves reached $3.238 trillion as of the end of December, up 2.1 percent month-on-month.

Experts said the latest figures reflect the dynamics of China's indigenous growth drivers and the vibrancy of the country's foreign trade. The ample forex reserves will also enable the country to better respond to external uncertainties this year, further consolidating the momentum of recovery, experts said.

It was the second consecutive month that China's forex reserves rose, exceeding the 3.2 trillion mark again after five months.

Last year, China's foreign exchange reserves rose by $110.29 billion.

The SAFE attributed the increase to the comprehensive impact of exchange rate conversions and changes in asset prices. The prices of global financial assets increased versus a decline in the US Dollar Index in December.

In 2023, China's international balance of payments remained basically stable amid complex circumstances. Foreign exchange reserves stayed above $3.1 trillion throughout the year, according to the SAFE. The efficiency of foreign exchange management services for the real economy has continued to improve, and foreign exchange supervision has become more precise and effective, it said.

The SAFE said that China's continued economic recovery and high-quality development will provide solid support for the stability of the country's foreign exchange reserves.

"China's foreign exchange reserves are relatively abundant, which enables the country to better cope with the uncertainty of the external environment," Guan Tao, global chief economist at BOC International under the Bank of China, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The improvement of the domestic economy and an anticipated future reversal of the US Federal Reserve's tightening policy will support the stability of foreign exchange reserves in the future, Guan said.

The upward trend is within normal fluctuations. It indicated a stronger willingness of market participants to convert their currencies into the yuan and a preference to conduct their business transactions using the yuan, Dong Shaopeng, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The export growth momentum of electric vehicles, solar panels and lithium batteries, the continuous advancement of projects along the Belt and Road Initiative partner countries and the balance of international trade are all expected to contribute to the overall stability of China's foreign exchange reserves, Dong said.

China's gold reserves reached 71.87 million ounces by the end of December, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase.

China has been taking proactive moves to optimize and diversify its foreign reserves. Chinese holdings of US Treasury bonds fell further to $769.6 billion in October, the seventh consecutive monthly drop, according to data released by the US Department of the Treasury in December 2023.

Increasing gold holdings is necessary to diversify the structure of the country's foreign assets. China's gold holdings are still lower than the international level, meaning that there is still room for growth, Guan said.

In its 2024 foreign exchange management work conference held in Beijing from Thursday to Friday, the SAFE said that China will deepen reform and opening-up in the foreign exchange field to better serve the high-quality development of the real economy.

Efforts will be made to facilitate cross-border trade and investment, supporting technological innovation and small and medium-sized enterprises. It also pledged to keep the yuan exchange rate at a reasonable and balanced level, and maintain the basic balance of international payments.

The announcement of the foreign exchange data coincided with the release of several positive economic indicators. The China retail prosperity index, a barometer of retailers' expectations for the sector, expanded 0.5 points from the previous month, reaching 50.9 points in January, suggesting a strong recovery in the Chinese economy.

Despite the imbalanced global economic recovery and uncertainties in international financial markets, China's domestic demand potential is still significant, which will further buttress the country's forex reserves, Dong said.

"By stabilizing China's internal economic circulation while actively participating in the international market, China will play a crucial role in stabilizing the world economy in 2024," Dong added.



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China sanctions five US arms manufacturers over Taiwan weapons sales

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 8:47 AM

China has announced sanctions against five US arms manufacturers in reaction to weapons sales to Taiwan and US sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted online on Sunday that the sanctions will freeze any property the companies have in China and prohibit organizations and individuals in China from doing business with them.

"The Chinese government remains unwavering in our resolve to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity and protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and citizens," the statement said.

The statement added that US moves against Beijing harmed China's sovereignty and security interests, undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and violated the rights and interests of Chinese companies and individuals.

The companies are BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operation, AeroVironment, ViaSat, and Data Link Solutions.

China has sovereignty over Chinese Taipei - also known as Taiwan. Virtually all states recognize that sovereignty under the internationally recognized one-China policy. It means states would not establish diplomatic contact with the secessionist government in Taipei.

However, Washington, which also recognizes that sovereignty, has long courted Taipei in an attempt to unnerve Beijing.

Washington, which backs Taipei's secessionist president, also infuriates Beijing by selling weapons to the self-governed island in violation of its official policy.

Beijing has time and again warned against any official exchanges between Washington and Chinese Taipei, including the provision of military assistance to the island.

It has urged the US to abide by the "one-China principle" and stop arming Taiwan and fanning the flames of tensions in the region.

However, last month, the US State Department approved a $300m arms package to strengthen Taipei's joint battle command and control system. It prompted Beijing to say it would take "countermeasures" against the companies involved.

The move came ahead of Taiwan's presidential and parliamentary elections, which will be held On January 13.

Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, comes from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). By tradition, the DPP advocates independence for the island.

Beijing has repeatedly warned it will use force, if necessary, to add Taiwan to China's mainland. President Xi Jinping has been articulate about that matter.

"We will, as always, take all necessary measures to resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said at a monthly news conference in Beijing in late December.

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China Sanctions Five US Defense Companies in Response to New Arms Sales to Taiwan

Sputnik News

20240107

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - China has sanctioned five US defense industry companies in response for new US arms sales to Taiwan by freezing those entities' property in China and barring organizations and individuals in the Asian nation from transactions and cooperation with them, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.

"China has decided to sanction five US defense industry companies, namely BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operation, AeroVironment, ViaSat and Data Link Solutions. The countermeasures consist of freezing the properties of those companies in China, including their movable and immovable property, and prohibiting organizations and individuals in China from transactions and cooperation with them," the spokesperson said in a statement.

The US weapons sales to Taiwan violate the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques, the statement read. Moreover, the "illegal unilateral sanctions" that the US has imposed on Chinese companies and individuals "under various false pretexts," harm China's sovereignty and security interests, "undermine" the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and "violate the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies," the statement said.

"We urge the United States to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, observe international law and the basic norms governing international relations, stop arming Taiwan, and stop targeting China with illegal unilateral sanctions. Otherwise there will be strong and resolute response from China," the statement added.

Taiwan has been governed independently from mainland China since 1949. Beijing regards the island as its province, while Taiwan maintains that it is an autonomous entity but stops short of declaring independence. Beijing opposes any official foreign contacts with Taipei and regards Chinese sovereignty over the island as indisputable.

The latest escalation around Taiwan started in April 2023 after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with then-US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the United States. Beijing responded by launching massive three-day military drills near the island in what it called a warning to Taiwanese separatists and foreign powers. In August and September, the Taiwanese armed forces reported multiple sightings of Chinese naval and air patrols in the island's vicinity. On September 18, the ministry reported a record high of 103 Chinese aircraft seen near the island in one day.

A Sputnik

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Press Statement of Vice Department Director of C.C., WPK Kim Yo Jong

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

Pyongyang, January 7 (KCNA) -- Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, on Sunday issued the following press statement titled "Misjudgment, conjecture, obstinacy and arrogance will invite irretrievable misfortune":

What disgraceful result is engendered, if someone is engrossed in antagonism and confrontation hysteria?

A vivid scene was shown by the military gangsters of the Republic of Korea (ROK) through practical action.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the ROK on Jan. 6 announced that the Korean People's Army (KPA) launched artillery firing in the southwestern waters for two consecutive days of Jan. 5 and 6.

The military gangsters claimed that the north fired more than 60 shells from the northwest of Yonphyong Island from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Jan. 6 and the shells dropped in the sea buffer zone north of the "northern limit line" in the West Sea.

They warned seriously that shelling in a no-hostility zone is an act of threatening peace and escalating tension on the Korean peninsula, and strongly demanded an immediate stop. If the north threatens the people of the ROK through continuous artillery firing in the no-hostility zone, the ROK army will take due military measures and overwhelmingly respond to it on the principle of "promptly, strongly and to the end", they added.

Media of the ROK make a fuss, carrying all at once the military gangsters' announcement in papers and screens.

It is needless to mention how the ROK people are shocked.

It seems now that the KPA must have been branded as a "provoker" and "chief criminal escalating tensions."

However, the KPA did not fire even a single shell into the relevant waters.

The ROK military gangsters quickly took the bait we threw.

We conducted a deceptive operation in order to assess the real detecting ability of the ROK military gangsters engrossed in bravo and blind bravery while crying for "precision tracking and monitoring" and "striking origin" whenever an opportunity presents itself and give a burning shame to them who will certainly make far-fetched assertions.

The KPA watched the reaction of the ROK military gangsters while detonating blasting powder simulating the sound of 130 mm coastal artillery for 60 times.

The result was clear as we expected.

They misjudged the blasting sound as the sound of gunfire and conjectured it as a provocation. And they even made a false and impudent statement that the shells dropped in the sea buffer zone north of the "northern limit line" in the West Sea.

The ridiculous behavior of these puppets in military uniform is nothing new today.

When a bird flock appeared in the sky above the West Sea before, they mistook it for our plane and made a sortie of a fighter. They also insisted that a latrine door on a hill was a "north drone that made a southward invasion". They are none other than the ROK military gangsters.

As they had such records, the group of gangsters had no choice but to swallow the bait we threw this time.

I cannot but say that the ROK people are very pitiful as they entrust "security" to such blind persons and offer huge taxes collected with blood.

It is better ten times to entrust "security" to a dog with a developed sense of hearing and smell.

If an unexpected case occurs due to misjudgment, conjecture, obstinacy and arrogance of such ignorant military gangsters, think twice what danger will be exposed to Seoul where more than 10 millions of people are crowding.

There is a saying that a coward was frightened by his own shadow.

The enemy might behave stupidly for the sake of pride misjudging the thundering roar in the northern sky in the future as artillery fire of the KPA.

I make myself clear once again that the safety catch of trigger of the KPA had already been slipped.

As already declared, the KPA will launch an immediate military strike if the enemy makes even a slight provocation.

The military gangsters should bear in mind that they can "die instantly and forcefully and end" if they continue to resort to the so-called principle of counteraction such as "promptly, strongly and to the end" often touted by them.

Misjudgment, conjecture, obstinacy and arrogance will invite irretrievable misfortune. -0-

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33 Afghan nationals martyred, injured in Kerman terrorist blasts

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- The director general of Public Relations of Iran's National Migration Organization has said that the number of Afghan nationals who have been martyred and wounded in the two terrorist attacks in Kerman, southern Iran, is 33.

Mohammad Jalali Fard said on Sunday that 14 Afghan nationals were martyred and 19 others were wounded in terrorist attacks near General Soleimani's burial site in Kerman.

He added that 6 of the wounded were in hospital and the rest were discharged.

Kerman terrorist attacks left 91 people martyred so far, according to the Emergency Medical Services in Iran.

The terrorist bombings, which were claimed by the US-backed Daesh Takfiri group, were carried out near the burial site of Iran's late anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani during a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of his martyrdom.

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Iranian and French FMs hold telephone conversation

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sun / 7 January 2024 / 07:52

Iran's foreign minister has called for more efforts by the international community to counter terrorism in all its forms.

Tehran-ISNA- Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was speaking in a phone conversation with his French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, on Saturday.

Referring to the recent terrorist attack in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman, which left hundreds of people dead or wounded, Iran's top diplomat highlighted the need for more efforts by the international community to counter all forms of terrorism in a more effective and practical manner.

The terrorist explosions, which were claimed by the US-backed Daesh Takfiri group, were carried out near the burial site of Iran's late anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani during a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of his martyrdom. The blasts left 89 people, including 76 Iranians and 13 Afghans, dead and wounded 286 others, some of them in critical condition.

"Iran is the most honest supporter of security and stability in the region and the world," Amir-Abdollahian added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian foreign minister pointed to measures taken by France concerning the issue of Palestine and cessation of the Israeli regime's genocidal war in Gaza.

Last month, Paris called for an "immediate" ceasefire in the regime's onslaught on Gaza, which was launched on October 7 following Operation al-Aqsa Storm by the territory's resistance groups. The Israeli aggression has so far claimed the lives of more than 22,700 people, most of them women and children.

Amir-Abdollahian said taking practical steps to stop massacre of civilians, facilitate transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza, prevent forced displacement of the people of Gaza, and let Palestinians determine their own fate through democratic means is necessary to end violence in the region.

"The only way to prevent further spread of conflicts in the region and establish lasting peace is paying due attention to root causes of [the existing] challenges and having serious resolve to do away with them," he added.

The Iranian foreign minister said the occupying regime of Israel and the United States are behind the ongoing genocide in Gaza, adding, "You cannot eliminate the root causes of instability in the region and express concern about the security in the Red Sea and the [West Asia] region without taking [the Israeli] occupation into account."

"The security of Gaza, the [occupied] West Bank, and the [entire] region are interconnected," Amir-Abdollahian said, asserting, "War is not the solution."

For her part, the French foreign minister reiterated Paris' condemnation of the terrorist attack in Kerman.

Voicing concern over escalation of tensions across the region, she also urged Iran to play its role in preventing further expansion of the regional conflicts.

End Item



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Entire terrorist team involved in Kerman attack arrested: Prosecutor

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sun / 7 January 2024 / 07:48

All terrorists involved in the recent deadly attack in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman have been arrested, says the city's prosecutor Mehdi Bakhshi.

Tehran-ISNA- Bakhshi revealed the information in a televised interview on Saturday, three days after the terrorist attack.

"Thirty-two people have been arrested in [connection with] Kerman [terrorist] crime case and are going through preliminary interrogations," he said.

In addition, the judicial official added, as many as "16 bombs have been discovered throughout Kerman province" whose explosive power was more than the suicide vests used in the Wednesday attack.

The terrorist bombings, which were claimed by the US-backed Daesh Takfiri group, were carried out near the burial site of Iran's late anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani during a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of his martyrdom. The blasts left 89 people, including 76 Iranians and 13 Afghans, dead and 286 others wounded, some of them in critical condition.

Bakhshi dismissed rumors that the explosives used during the attack were placed in trash cans and were remotely detonated, saying both bomb blasts were conducted by suicide bombers, one of whom was from Tajikistan.

Emphasizing that terrorists were not able to plant any explosives inside the cemetery where martyrs are buried, the prosecutor said, "Over the recent months, as many as 23 Daesh terrorists ready to carry out suicide attacks have been arrested across Kerman province."

The prosecutor noted that the province had to deal with a high number of threats during this year's martyrdom anniversary of General Soleimani, amid reports about potential terror attacks by Daesh and the anti-Iranian Mujahedin-e-Khalq terrorist cult.

"Therefore, the entire province was mobilized" to counter any possible threats, he said.

Bakhshi added that the mobilization included the Intelligence Ministry as well as the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' Intelligence Organization and even the Army, which monitored small air vehicles to a radius of several kilometers and there were also special sniffer dogs to detect any explosives

The prosecutor dismissed allegations that this year's anniversary did not feature as much security precautions as the previous year's.

He asserted that this year's event was marked with more preventive security measures and a higher number of security forces were deployed, while ample use was also made of thermal cameras and surveillance drones.

End item





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'Crushing, decisive' response awaits Israel in case of attacking Iran: Cmdr.

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 5:34 PM

A senior Iranian military commander says Tehran will not hesitate to give a "crushing and decisive" response to Israel if it attacks the country.

Iranian commanders will have a free hand to respond to any possible Israeli attack, Major General Gholam-Ali Rashid, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said in an interview with khamenei.ir published on Sunday.

Elsewhere in the interview, Rashid said former top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani succeeded in making an important achievement in support for the resistance forces in Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Yemen and Syria.

General Soleimani raised hope among the Iraqi and Syrian governments that they were capable of defeating the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group which was a very important step in the fight against terrorism, he added.

General Rashid said former US President Donald Trump accepted responsibility for General Soleimani's assassination to make himself a "national hero."

However, the Iranian commander said, it has been proved that all those who harmed the Islamic Republic have failed to evade punishment and the perpetrators of the crime of General Soleimani's assassination would be punished soon.

General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their companions were assassinated in a US drone strike authorized by then-president Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Both commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

Rashid said it was imperative to counter acts of aggression by the US and Israel against nations given the background of the American army occupying Afghanistan and then Iraq at the beginning of the 80s.

The top Iranian commander said the CIA, Mossad and the British and Saudi spy agencies created Daesh which occupied parts of the Syrian and Iraqi territories by abusing internal chaos and lack of security in the two countries.

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Iranian Economy Buoyed By 'Dark Fleet' Oil Shipments To China

By Michael Scollon January 07, 2024

More than 6,000 kilometers from Tehran, in treacherous waters off the shores of Singapore, a "dark fleet" of oil tankers waits to offload the precious cargo that helps keep Iran's economy afloat -- a dependency that could also sink it.

The fleet has grown steadily over the past five years, delivering Iranian crude to China as the countries work in concert to circumvent international sanctions that target Tehran's lucrative oil exports. But while the clandestine trade has buoyed Iran's budget, it also comes at tremendous cost and risk to Tehran.

Iran gives China a hefty discount to take its banned oil, taking 12 to 15 percent off the price of each barrel to make it worthwhile for Beijing to take on the liability of skirting sanctions, according to research by the data analysis unit of RFE/RL's Radio Farda.

Additional costs add up as well: ship-to-ship operations to offload the oil, middlemen, hidden-money transfers, and rebranding the oil to mask its Iranian origin and make it appear to come from a third country, said Dalga Khatinoglu, an expert on Iranian energy issues.

Altogether, said Khatinoglu, who contributes to Radio Farda's data analysis unit, Iran's budget figures and official statements indicate that 30 percent of the country's potential oil revenue was wasted last year.

And with the draft budget for the next fiscal year currently being debated by the Iranian parliament, there are no guarantees that Tehran's bet on quenching China's thirst for oil will continue to be a panacea.

With Iran almost entirely dependent on Beijing to take its oil and on other entities to facilitate the trade, Tehran has managed to inject desperately needed revenue into its economy. But Iran has also put itself at risk of seeing its main revenue stream dry up.

"There's definitely an extent to which Tehran has become more dependent on the likes of China or those who would be willing to deal with Iran in spite of Western sanctions," said Spencer Vuksic, a director of the consultancy firm Castellum, which closely tracks international sanctions regimes.

Vuksic said Iran is "definitely put in a weak position by having to depend on a single external partner who's willing to deal with and engage with Tehran."

Oily Deficit

Iran has trumpeted its foreign trade, claiming in December that oil revenue had contributed to a positive trade balance for the first eight months of the year.

But the oil and gas sector, by far the largest part of the Iranian economy, will not be enough to save the current budget of around $45 billion that was approved last year.

The Iranian fiscal year, which follows the Persian calendar and will end in March, is expected to result in a major deficit. In presenting the draft budget to parliament in December, President Ebrahim Raisi acknowledged a $10 billion deficit.

But the shortfall could be much higher -- up to $13.5 billion, the largest in Iran's history -- by the end of the fiscal year, according to Radio Farda. This is because data shows that just half of the expected oil revenues were realized, in part due to lower than expected oil prices and additional costs and discounts related to Tehran's oil trade with China.

Whereas the budget expectations were based on oil being sold at $85 per barrel, the price of crude dipped below $75 per barrel in December and has fluctuated wildly recently amid concerns that tensions in the Middle East could disrupt shipping and production.

And while Iran expected to export 1.5 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), it exported only 1.2 million bpd in the first eight months of the year, according to Radio Farda.

Altogether, Radio Farda estimates that Iran lost some $15 million per day in potential revenue through its trade with China, which accounts for more than 40 percent of the Iranian budget.

For the upcoming budget of about $49 billion, expectations for domestic and foreign oil revenue have dipped by 3 percent, according to Khatinoglu, even as the projected budget itself has risen by about 18 percent.

Accounting for the fluctuation of global oil prices, which fell far short of the average estimated for the current year, the peg has been lowered to $71 per barrel. Tehran is also expecting lower oil-export volumes -- which only briefly met forecasts of 1.5 million bpd, the highest levels seen since 2018 -- with only 1.35 million bpd forecast.

Iran is reportedly expected to plug the gap left by the lower oil revenue by increasing taxes on wealthy individuals and businesses, while Khatinoglu says Tehran will try to boost revenue by raising domestic energy prices.

Shipping Competition

Adding to the uncertainty of Iran's finances is the potential for weaker Chinese demand for its oil and competition from Russia which, like Tehran, sends banned oil to Beijing.

And international sanctions are continuously evolving to punish countries and entities that foster Iran's illegal oil trade, threatening to capsize the dark fleet that helps sustain Tehran's so-called resistance economy.

On the other hand, the mercurial nature of oil price fluctuations and demand could work to Iran's advantage. With Venezuelan oil no longer under sanctions, Russia is left as the only competitor for clandestine oil sales to China.

And Iran's capacity to export oil is greater than ever, allowing it to more easily sell its oil to Beijing when demand is high.

This is largely due to the considerable expansion of the global "dark fleet" of oil since crippling U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's oil exports were restored after the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal that has been agreed with six world powers.

The deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), offered sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Tehran's controversial nuclear program. After the deal went into effect in January 2016, Iran more than doubled its legal oil exports in a few months, eventually reaching a high of 1.54 million bpd in 2018.

But with the U.S. withdrawal from the deal and subsequent reintroduction of sanctions that year, Iranian oil exports plummeted. And after the exceptions granted to a handful of countries -- including China -- that were allowed to continue to import Iranian oil expired in 2019, Iranian oil exports slowed to a trickle.

This was partly because Iran was not equipped to export its oil and had no immediate customers willing to defy the sanctions. But that changed with the fine-tuning of Iran's efforts to defy sanctions, the fivefold rise in the number of dark-fleet tankers, and China's willingness to take the risk of doing business with Tehran -- although Beijing has not acknowledged unregistered imports of Iranian oil.

Today the dark fleet of often aging ships -- nearly half of them VLCCs (very large crude carriers) -- has risen to up to 1,000 vessels, according to Vortexa, which tracks international shipping. Many smaller ships are involved in Russian oil exports, which account for about 80 percent of all opaque tanker activity. But Iran had access to nearly 200 tankers, many of them supertankers, as of early 2023, according to Vortexa.

More than 20 ships, 13 of them VLCCs, joined the Iranian fleet in 2023, Vortexa reported in June, contributing to record-high Iranian oil exports under sanctions.

Vortexa attributed the rise to increased Chinese demand, the addition of the new tankers to shuttle Iranian oil after many had switched to shipping Russian oil, and the decline of Iranian inventories drawn down to boost exports amid heightened competition with Russia for the Chinese market.

While Chinese demand for Iranian oil slowed in October, Vortexa noted in a subsequent report, Washington's removal of oil sanctions on Venezuela that month opened the possibility of higher demand for Iranian oil.

Uncertain Waters

In an October report, the global trade intelligence firm Kpler explained that tankers illegally shipping Iranian oil commonly "go dark" upon entering the Persian Gulf by turning off their transponders, technically known as the automatic identification system (AIS). After visiting Iran's main oil terminal on Kharg Island or other ports, they then reemerge after a few days indicating they are carrying a full load.

From there, the ships offload the oil with ship-to-ship transfers that take place in unauthorized zones, mostly in the Singapore Straits. Eventually the oil, rebranded as coming from Malaysia or Middle Eastern countries, enters China, where it is processed by more than 40 independent "teapot" refiners that have little exposure to international sanctions or the global financial system.

Sanctions Revisited

The challenge for those trying to halt the illicit trade in Iranian oil as a way to hold Tehran accountable for its secretive nuclear activities and dire human rights record, is how to make the negatives of dealing with Iran greater than the financial benefits.

That has put the illicit seaborne trade of oil -- both Iranian and Russian, owing to the ongoing war in Ukraine -- under greater scrutiny by the international community.

"There's continuous refining of the sanctions programs to include and expand sanctions against those involved in evasion, and that includes sanctioning so-called dark fleets," said Castellum's Vuksic, noting that the number of targeted sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities rose by more than 1,000 last year.

The big question is enforcement, an issue that is being debated in the United States and other countries and is leading to increased calls for countries like Panama to de-flag illegal tankers and for countries to clamp down on dark-fleet ships anchored off their shores.

"My expectation is that governments, including the United States, will take action against these dark fleets, especially the facilitators and the [ship] owners when they're identified," Vuksic told RFE/RL.

Other factors, including concerns about the impact of a broader Middle East conflict potentially involving Iran, could also hurt or help Iran's financial standing.

As Kpler noted while reporting that Chinese imports of Iranian oil had dropped significantly in October, the changing global landscape can have a big effect on the independent Shandong-base refineries that purchase Iranian oil.

"Middle East tensions/threat of stricter enforcement of U.S. sanctions may have turned Shandong refiners more risk-adverse," the global trade intelligence firm wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

In the past week, supply fears also exposed the volatility of global crude prices, potentially to Iran's benefit.

Oil prices rose sharply on January 2 on news that Iran had sent a frigate to the Red Sea and was rejecting calls to end support for attacks by Tehran-backed Huthi rebels that have disrupted shipping in the important trade route.

Prices surged again following the deadly January 3 bombing attack in Iran, for which the Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility.

But the week ended with questions about the future of Iran's cut-rate deal with the only country willing to help prop up its economy, with Reuters reporting that China's oil trade with Iran had stalled after Tehran withheld supplies and demanded higher prices.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-economy-oil- shipments-dark-fleet-china-sanctions/32764518.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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All options on table to expel US forces from Iraq: Fatah Alliance

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Jan 7, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- Member of Iraq's Fatah Alliance Karim Alivi has said that all options are on the table for the withdrawal of American forces from the Arab country amid anger over the killing of two PMU members in a US drone strike.

"All options are on the table, including peaceful and political measures or using force until the last American troop leaves Iraqi soil," Alivi said in an interview with Al-Maalomah news agency on Sunday, according to an IRNA report.

He said that the Iraqi government has the authority to expel American military personnel, especially that they have taken "criminal" measures inside Baghdad.

Alivi was referring to a US drone strike on January 4 that targeted the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) in the capital Baghdad, which killed several members of the force. A senior PMU commander was among those killed.

"American forces are not allowed to stay in Iraq," the member of the Fatah political coalition said, urging "a united stance" on expelling US troops and preventing their return to Iraq.

The Iraqi government condemned the US drone strike, calling it a "dangerous escalation and aggression".

On Friday (Jan. 5), Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani said that Iraq's decision to end the US military presence on its soil is irreversible, and added that the PMU is an inseparable part of the Iraqi army.

Back in 2020 and following the assassination of Iran's top general Qassem Soleimani and PMU deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi parliament approved a law calling for the withdrawal of American forces from the country amid growing anti-American sentiments in the Arab country.

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Government Approves NIS 12.5 Million to Strengthen the Social Resilience in Time of Emergency of the Druze and Circassian Communities in the Galilee, and on Mt. Carmel and the Golan Heights

Israel - Prime Minister's Office

The 37th Government

07.01.2024

The budgeted communities are Maghar, Daliyat al-Karmel, Yarka, Isfiya, Beit Jann, Abu Sinan, Rameh, Peki'in, Kisra-Samia, Julis, Yanuh-Jat, Hurfeish, Sajur, Kfar Kama, Majdal Shams, Buq'ata, Mas'ade and Ein Qiniyye

Following is a joint announcement by the Prime Minister's Office and the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry.

The Government, at its weekly meeting today, approved a joint Prime Minister's Office (PMO)-Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry decision to allocate NIS 12.5 million to strengthen the social resilience in time of emergency of the Druze and Circassian communities in the Galilee, and on Mt. Carmel and the Golan Heights, in the context of the war and as part of the national plan to strengthen, and advance the socio-economic development of, the Druze and Circassian communities

Pursuant to the foregoing, the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry, led by Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf, will budget the implementation of a range of social, cultural and community plans to strengthen the socio-economic resilience of the Druze and Circassian local councils including activity to encourage voluntarism in the community, workshops on dealing with stressful situations, parenting in difficult times, addressing emotional needs and various recreational events. The plans are designed and adapted for a range of target populations: Children, young people, women and seniors.

The decision was formulated, in part, in the context of the war and in the wake of a joint meeting - between Minister Wasserlauf, the heads of Druze local councils and the PMO Druze and Circassian Socio-Economic Development Authority - to identify the needs.

Also, PMO Director General Yossi Shelley and his team will, together with the PMO Druze and Circassian Socio-Economic Development Authority Director, advance the process of formulating a five-year plan for the Druze and Circassian communities.

It should be noted that the number of residents of the Druze and Circassian communities serving in the various security forces is estimated at approximately 11,000, out of a population of 150,000. The budgetary allocation will be via a public appeal for support among other agencies in order to receive the services themselves from the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry through the contacts of the Ministry.

Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Wasserlauf:

"During the crisis, it is essential to stand together as one strong and united community. The Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry recognizes the significant contribution of our Druze and Circassian brothers and sisters. With the designated allocation of NIS 12.5 million, we will provide a range of workshops, recreational events and other initiatives that have been carefully planned in order to boost the social resilience of these dear communities. The unwavering mutual commitment attests to the deep bond that binds us and makes Israeli society into the impressive mosaic that it is."

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Government Approves PM Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's

Israel - Prime Minister's Office

The 37th Government

07.01.2024

Government Approves PM Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's NIS 9 Billion Plan for Reservists; Among the Steps that will be implemented immediately are NIS 1.5 Billion in Grants, including NIS 200 Million in 'Re

Following is a joint announcement by the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the Defense Minister.

Prime Minister Netanyahu: "The reservists will receive the money without delay. They are true heroes. They left their homes to defend our home."

Finance Minister Smotrich: "As a society and a state, we proudly put as a top priority those who left everything and went to defend home - these are our reservists and their families."

Defense Minister Gallant: "The 'mobilized for reserve duty' plan tells reservists and their families: You are not alone."

The reservists' plan declared by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was approved by the Government today

The NIS 9 billion plan will be enacted in three phases. Under the current phase, NIS 1.5 billion has been allocated for across-the-board grants, and family grants for November-December, which could reach up to NIS 3,900 for combat reservists with families. Also approved were grants to parents of special-needs children, business consulting, increasing compensation for soldiers to a minimum of NIS 300 per day and an additional NIS 200 million in 'red path' compensation for self-employed reservists.

In the coming days, when the Government convenes to approve the 2024 state budget, the two additional phases will be enacted; the second phase will be enacted immediately after the 2024 state budget has been approved by the Government.

Among the items under the second phase are across-the-board and family grants for January, an alternative for unemployment compensation and unpaid leave, and maternity leave for partners, and family and emotional support.

Under the third phase are operational deployment and home front reserves grants, family leave, social indemnification for employers, expanded household economic grants, student tuition, recreational and consumer benefits for discharged soldiers, continued special compensation for those serving over 60 days and housing assistance.

Prime Minister Netanyahu:

"Today, the Government will approve a major NIS 9 billion plan for grants and compensation to our reservists. The plan includes grants, discounts and benefits for reservists and their families - for partners and also for children, and for reservists who are self-employed. I say this because it is important for them to receive this support.

These grants for those serving in the reserves are the anchor of the amended budget that we will submit to the Government in the coming days. I have directed the Finance Minister and the Defense Minister not to wait until the budget is passed but to submit, today, for the Government to decide upon, budgetary resources that will allow the plan to be launched and enacted immediately.

I want the reservists to receive the money without delay. They are true heroes. They left their homes to defend our home. On behalf of all of us, I salute our wonderful soldiers who are safeguarding us all. I would like to thank the Finance Minister and the Defense Minister, who will go into details about the plan."

Finance Minister Smotrich:

"I think that this decision is among the most important that has been made in this room since the start of the war. It is an important security and moral decision. As a society and a state, we proudly put as a top priority those who left everything and went to defend home - these are our reservists and their families.

It must be recalled that a strong home front - this is fighting spirit. Who among us has not - in every conversation with a family - experienced the resilience, determination and strength. There is a saying that goes that the man in the tank wins but in the IDF it is especially prominent. There are weapons of war, planes and tanks, but there are people and they have determination, spirit, faith in the justice of the cause and patience. There has not been reserve duty as long as this in the history of the State of Israel, not even on Yom Kippur and this is the product of a great spirit and huge backing.

The State of Israel has placed its reserve soldiers and their families at the center and this is the anchor of the 2024 budget which we will yet submit this weekend.

We met the soldiers and the reservists, the family members and the children. We listened and we learned; many ideas were raised, from Government ministers as well, and for this I thank you all. A major part of the plan will happen immediately and certain components will happen later

The people of Israel will win together and fully back the soldiers in the field."

Defense Minister Gallant:

"Today, we are submitting a far-reaching plan for those serving in the reserves. We have hundreds of thousands of citizens who, at the start of the war, did not ask questions, went straight to the field, sometimes even before they were called up, and since then they have been in the south, the north, and in Judea and Samaria.

The reservists require three conditions: Clear missions, military resources to carry out the missions and fair compensation. The plan that we in the Government are approving today places reservists in the center and tells them and their families: You are not alone.

The reservists risk their lives and tell me on every visit to the field: We are here and we will continue to be here as long as necessary. The 'mobilized for reserve duty' plan sees to it that they will be able to concentrate on their mission, without needing to worry about their families and their work."

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PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the Start of the Government Meeting

Israel - Prime Minister's Office

The 37th Government

07.01.2024

Following are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks at the start of the Government meeting at the Kirya in Tel Aviv, today

"I have a clear message for our enemies: What happened on October 7 will not happen again. This is the commitment of my government and this is the reason why our soldiers in the field are giving their lives. Our commanders and soldiers, conscripts and reservists, in the north and the south, repeat one thing: 'We are not coming back - until we carry out [the mission]' and I say: 'We are not stopping - until victory.'

The war must not be stopped until we achieve all of its goals: Eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel. I say this to both our enemies and our friends. This is our responsibility and it is the responsibility of all of us.

Every other consideration must be set aside, and we must continue until total victory. This victory will be achieved only when we complete our goals and when we restore security to residents of the north and south alike.

I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months: No terrorist is immune. We are determined to defend our citizens and to return the residents of the north safely to their homes. This is a national goal that we all share and which we are all working to achieve responsibly. If we can, we will do so diplomatically, and if not, we will work in other ways."

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China maintains close contact with parties amid internal conflicts in Myanmar near border

Global Times

By GT staff reporters Published: Jan 07, 2024 09:02 PM Updated: Jan 07, 2024 09:28 PM

China has maintained close communication with Myanmar over bilateral relations as well as the situation in northern Myanmar as conflicts on the Myanmar side of the China-Myanmar border region have caused injuries to several Chinese nationals.

As a close neighbor of Myanmar, China hopes for peace and stability in Myanmar and is willing to mediate among the different parties, Chinese observers said on Sunday, but they acknowledged the length and complexity of Myanmar's internal conflicts could not be settled quickly, and that will have an impact on China-Myanmar cooperation.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong returned from a three-day visit to Myanmar from Thursday to Saturday, during which he met with Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing and held consultations with Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Myanmar U Lwin Oo.

Both sides agreed to deepen the implementation of the common understandings reached between the leaders of the two countries, continue Belt and Road cooperation and the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor with high quality, and accelerate the building of the China-Myanmar community with a shared future.

The two sides will jointly maintain peace and stability across the China-Myanmar border, cooperate in combating cross-border crimes such as telecom fraud, and jointly promote regional peace, tranquility, development and prosperity. China reiterated its commitment to continuing to play a constructive role in supporting the peace process in northern Myanmar.

On Friday, Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong had a video call with Myanmar Union Minister for Home Affairs Lt-Gen Yar Pyae. China has always viewed and developed China-Myanmar relations from a strategic height, and is willing to work with Myanmar to comprehensively deepen cooperation in law enforcement and security, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Wang also expressed China's willingness to collaborate with Myanmar to crack down on telecom and online fraud, cooperate on key cases, maintain security and stability in border areas, and safeguard Chinese personnel and projects.

The recent interactions took place after an artillery shell crossed from Myanmar into a Chinese town in Southwest China's Yunnan Province on Wednesday, causing injuries.

China has lodged serious dAmarches to relevant parties and once again asks all parties to the conflict to reach immediate cease-fire... China will take necessary measures to safeguard the lives and property of Chinese nationals, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.

The ongoing conflicts are Myanmar's internal affairs, but as a close neighbor, stability in Myanmar does facilitate the border security of China. Therefore China always hopes that conflicting parties in Myanmar will act with restraint and return to negotiations rather than armed conflict, analysts said.

A Beijing-based expert on Myanmar studies told the Global Times on condition of anonymity that China-Myanmar border trade, personnel exchanges and cooperation projects in border areas had seen a positive momentum of resumption in 2023, but this was interrupted since the escalation of conflicts on October 27, 2023.

Without a sustainable cease-fire and a stable situation, bilateral cooperation on trade, tourism and education, and the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor would be a "castle in the sky," the expert said.

China adheres to a principle of noninterference and hopes for Myanmar's peace and stability out of China's security concerns and development needs, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Sunday, citing Chinese authorities' repeated calls for restraint of all parties and a cease-fire, and the China-brokered mediation of peace talks in December last year between Myanmar military and armed groups in Kunming, Yunnan Province.

Why would China want a chaotic neighbor fighting an endless civil war? It is ridiculous to doubt China's stance or hype China's role in Myanmar, Song said.

Analysts pointed out that it is the US-led West that has executed diplomacy highlighting so-called democratic value, exacerbating Myanmar's inter-party conflicts and narrowing down the chance of reconciliation, and imposed sanctions on Myanmar, aggravating its economic and social plight.

Zhu Zhenming, a professor at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, stressed that China upholds a noninterference stance on the issue and opposes certain forces in Myanmar which use China as an excuse to justify their agenda against the Myanmar military government.

China's noninterference stance coexists with its firm determination, via cooperation with related parties in Myanmar on law enforcement, to crack down on telecom fraud and any other crimes that threaten the lives and property safety of Chinese people, observers said.

Complicated, uncertain future

The northern Myanmar fighting has come to a pivotal moment on Thursday when the Three Brotherhood Alliance - comprising the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army - reportedly took control of Laukkaing, capital of Kokang self-administered zone in the northern part of Shan state in Myanmar, which borders China, Reuters reported Saturday.

The takeover is seen by some observers as a tipping point of the latest round of fighting since late October, yet it remains uncertain whether it will lead to a standoff or another round of fighting, the Beijing-based anonymous expert said.

The strategic goals of the involved parties remain unclear and their strength comparison keeps changing, the expert said, predicting the situation would more likely develop into a "fight and talk" scenario.

Song said that since independence, Myanmar has been struggling for ethnic reconciliation for decades but seen limited progress, and the issue is too deeply rooted and complicated to be settled in a quick manner.

China will maintain "a constructive role in supporting the peace process in northern Myanmar" and strive to facilitate peace talks. It is hoped that the involved parties in Myanmar can prioritize the major picture and overall interests of the country, realizing reconciliation at an early date, Song said.

It is also important to keep vigilant and take measures when necessary to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals and their properties in the border areas, as well as the security and economic interests of Chinese companies and projects in Myanmar, Song said.

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Leader of Pakistan's outlawed anti-Shia group shot dead

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 07 January 2024 11:15 AM

The leader of Pakistan's outlawed anti-Shia group has been shot dead near Ghauri town, on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad, according to the police.

Masood-ur-Rehman Usmani, who was the leader of Pakistan's outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP) extremist group, was gunned down on Friday.

CCTV footage aired by Pakistani media showed two gunmen on a motorbike who approached his vehicle and shot him. He was taken to a hospital where the doctors pronounced him dead.

Immediately after the incident, a large police deployment cordoned the street and an official investigation into the incident was launched.

No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the incident. Pakistani police said they would track down the perpetrators through the CCTV camera footage.

The SSP was founded in September 1985, a time of rising tensions in the Punjabi city of Jhang.

The outfit, which was backed by the Zia al-Huq regime and received funding from Saudi Arabia, soon turned into an anti-Shia militant group. The group operated all across Pakistan until it was banned and outlawed as a terrorist organization in 2002 by then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Some outlets attempted to link Friday's incident to neighboring Iran.

On Wednesday, deadly bomb attacks hit Iran's southeastern city of Kerman.

However, Iran's Intelligence Ministry blamed the explosions on the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

According to a ministry statement, two terrorists conducted the bomb attacks, one with a Tajik nationality. The identity of the second perpetrator is yet unclear.

The terrorist explosions were carried out near the burial site of Iran's late anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani during a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of his martyrdom.

The blasts left 89 people dead and 286 more wounded some of them in critical condition.

In a statement posted on their affiliate Telegram channels, the Daesh takfiri terrorist outfit claimed responsibility for the cowardly attacks, saying two of its members had detonated their explosive devices during General Soleimani's memorial.

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Meeting with families of service personnel who died in the special military operation

On Christmas Eve, Vladimir Putin met in Novo-Ogaryovo with family members of service personnel who died in the course of the special military operation.

January 7, 2024

00:05

Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region

Participants in the meeting shared, among other things, their impressions of the visit to the stables located on the territory of the Presidential residence near Moscow earlier in the day. A special leisure program was also organised for them in Moscow during the New Year holidays.

After a thorough conversation, Vladimir Putin invited the families of the SMO heroes to a festive dinner. Later, they attended a Christmas service together at the Church of the Icon of Our Saviour Not Made by Hands.

* * *

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good evening!

First of all, greetings to you all. This meeting is taking place on the eve of Christmas. I have already met some of you, and we have agreed that we will see each other again. And as we agreed, we are meeting again.

Christmas is one of the warmest [holidays]. Just as we celebrate the New Year in Russia, Christmas is also celebrated as a family holiday. Maybe it is even more family-oriented than the New Year. Again, it is a warm, cordial, heart-warming holiday, one of Russia's most favourite ones.

On this day people want to say something kind to one another, support each other in some way. Both Orthodox Christians, who represent the majority of Russia's population, and members of our other religions - our traditional, brotherly religious denominations - congratulate Orthodox Christians, just as Christians congratulate their brothers - members of other religions - on their holidays.

Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that this is a holiday marked by a pronounced fraternal unity among the peoples of Russia. I congratulate you all on this warm and heartfelt holiday.

In this regard, I would like to note that, as you know, many of our men, our courageous, heroic men, the soldiers of Russia are defending right now the interests of our country with weapons in their hands, on this holiday. So, first of all, I would like for all of us here to congratulate everyone there on this holiday.

And secondly, I would like our meeting to be a clear and understandable signal to all my colleagues throughout the Russian Federation, and at all levels - a clear signal that my colleagues, I repeat, at every level of government and governance, should always be with you, so that you always feel that there are people around you who can support you, help you, and come to your aid if you need it. And life is complex, diverse - there are always instances, and they happen often, when you need someone's support. I hope that this will be the case with you.

I congratulate you all once again and wish you all the best.

I will not talk now about very sensitive, maybe even difficult things on the eve of this holiday, things that concern your families. But I want to assure you once again that we will always be by your side.

I would ask the Father to say a few words about today's event. Please.

<...>

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Russian Strategic Missile Forces to Launch Seven ICBMs in 2024 - Defense Ministry

Sputnik News

20240107

Ilya Tsukanov

Russia and the United States remain the world's two nuclear superpowers, with their stockpiles accounting for about nine-tenths of all strategic weapons on the planet.

Russia's Strategic Missile Forces plan to conduct seven launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in 2024, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

"This year, the Strategic Missile Forces plan to conduct seven launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Over the past five years, the Strategic Missile Forces have carried out over 20 launches of ICBMs as part of flight tests of advanced missile systems and exercises in managing the Russian armed forces," the Ministry said in a statement.

Amid heightened tensions stemming from the US pullout from numerous treaties meant to safeguard against a strategic escalation and after Ukrainian attempts to attack a Russian nuclear bomber base, Moscow has pledged to inform its counterparts in Washington of all strategic-level tests ahead of time to avoid a nuclear escalation.

In December, Russian Strategic Missile Forces Commander Sergei Karakaev said that Russia and the US had agreed to provide one another with at least 24 hours of advance warning ahead of the test launch of any ICBMs or submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

Russia's nuclear deterrent - consisting of ground-based mobile and silo-based missiles, sub-launched missiles and payloads deliverable by strategic bombers, has undergone a multi-trillion ruble modernization over the past decade. The program has included replacing older legacy missiles with Yars and Sarmat ICBMs, RSM-56 Bulava SLBMs and Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missiles, and ship and air-launched strategic weapons with a complement of nuclear-armable, maneuverable, hypersonic missiles like the Zircon, Kinzhal and Avangard.

Russia's nuclear doctrine forbids Moscow from using nuclear weapons of any sort unless the country comes under attack using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or in the event of an act of conventional aggression so great that it threatens the country's survival. The US - the only nation in the world to have ever used nuclear weapons against an enemy, presently has no such restrictions on its strategic doctrine, with the latest Nuclear Posture Review allowing for preemptive attacks even against non-nuclear armed adversaries.

The US walked out of the Anti-Ballistic Treaty in 2002, scrapped the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, and threatened to allow the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) to expire without renewal in early 2021. Russia suspended its participation in New START last February, citing attacks by NATO-backed Ukrainian forces on an airfield basing Russian nuclear bombers, but has pledged to continue abiding by the agreement's terms so long as the US also does so. New START is expected to expire in 2026, with the US previously indicating that it wants to include China's nuclear arsenal into any future agreement. Beijing has balked at such proposals.

A Sputnik

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DPP's Lai slams KMT for 'aligning with China' on cross-strait issues

ROC Central News Agency

01/07/2024 01:03 PM

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) Vice President Lai Ching-te (), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) 2024 presidential candidate, said Saturday that a major problem with the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) is its consistent alignment with China's views on cross-strait issues.

"Framing the [upcoming presidential] election as a choice between peace and war is China's external propaganda," Lai said in a TV interview, commenting on the KMT's campaign narrative that voting for the DPP might lead to heightened tensions or even war between Taiwan and China.

That line by the KMT apparently references the strained relations between Taiwan and China since 2016, when President Tsai Ing-wen () of the DPP first took office, analysts said. It also mirrors the perspective of China, which has painted the administration of Tsai as separatist and has warned that any pursuit of Taiwan independence could lead to military action, they added.

In Saturday's interview on FTV, Lai said it was regrettable that the KMT had failed to uphold Taiwan's democratic spirit.

"Instead of condemning China's interference in the election, they have aligned with it," he said.

For example, Lai said, the KMT paints Taiwan as the provocateur whenever China deploys aircraft and ships close to the island to intimidate Taiwan.

"When has Taiwan caused any provocation? Lai said. "Over the past seven or eight years, when has Taiwan displayed any provocative actions?"

He said the KMT, however, "has never stood on Taiwan's side" and has long taken the view that Taiwan is the antagonizer. That alignment with China's propaganda is highly inappropriate, Lai said.

True peace hinges on strength, he said, adding that peace in the Taiwan Strait is an important goal.

If elected as president, Lai said, he would continue the efforts to build Taiwan's economy and its national defense in a bid to deter China from taking any "reckless actions."

That commitment is grounded in the current China policy of the Tsai administration, which includes a willingness for Taiwan to engage in communication and cooperation with China, "as long as it's based on reciprocity and dignity," he said.

The goal is to enhance the wellbeing of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and foster peace and stability in the region, Lai said.

As Taiwan's Jan. 13 elections approach, the presidential candidates of the three major parties have stepped up their rhetoric against each other, particularly on issues related to China.

Lai has been targeted by the KMT and Beijing's propaganda machinery for his earlier description of himself as a "pragmatic independence worker," although he has sought to step back from that characterization in recent months.

On Jan. 13, Lai and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim () will face off against Hou Yu-ih () and Jaw Shau-kong () of the KMT, and Ko Wen-je () and Wu Hsin-ying () of Taiwan People's Party in the race for the Presidential Office.

(By Chung Yu-chen)

Enditem/pc

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TPP's Ko calls 2024 election a choice between 'new politics,' 'old forces'

ROC Central News Agency

01/07/2024 10:29 PM

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) Taiwan People's Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je () on Sunday called the 2024 presidential election a showdown between "new politics" and "old forces," while urging voters to elect a president "who can solve problems."

Attending a campaign rally at Kaohsiung's Aozidi Forest Park, Ko urged voters to end the decades of political wrangling and confrontation between the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and embrace "new politics and a new culture."

"How will history remember the 2024 Taiwan presidential election?

"It will be a showdown between new politics and old forces, a battle between ruling by rationality, pragmatism and science and ruling by ideology, as well as a face-off between the power of civic movements versus that of traditional factions," Ko said at the rally, which organizers said attracted over 60,000 supporters.

During his speech, the former Taipei mayor criticized the central government's fiscal distribution, which he said has long been biased toward the north and neglected southern cities and counties such as Kaohsiung.

He also slammed DPP presidential candidate and incumbent Vice President Lai Ching-te () and the government, saying that under DPP rule, Taiwanese businesses continue to face a shortage of labor, land and talent, while the nation has also faced shortages of necessities including vaccines, rapid tests, eggs and even toilet paper.

Ko also mentioned Kaohsiung's air pollution problem, noting that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Taiwan, and touted his own record of tackling air pollution in Taipei.

"Taking things seriously is a kind of culture," Ko said. "Do we need someone to point out problems? We need a president who can solve problems."

Ko said the only thing he asks of the government is that it is not corrupt, does not rule by ideology, takes things seriously, and works hard.

"That's all we need," he said at the rally, held on the last weekend of the election campaign.

Ko's supporters, many of whom held placards that read "Taiwan's choice, Ko Wen-je," began gathering at the location in the afternoon, packing the venue before the event began around 6 p.m.

In addition to Ko, presidential candidates Hou Yu-ih () of the KMT and Lai Ching-te of the DPP also held campaign rallies in Kaohsiung Sunday, less than a week out from Taiwan's Jan. 13 presidential and legislative elections.

A traditional DPP stronghold, in 2020 the ruling DPP took 62.23 percent of the total votes for president cast in the southern port city, followed by the KMT with 34.63 percent and the People's First Party with 3.14 percent.

(By Christie Chen and Matthew Mazzetta)

Enditem/AW

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DPP canvases for support at 'Super Sunday' Pingtung campaign rally

ROC Central News Agency

01/07/2024 09:55 PM

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) Ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative nominees gathered for a "Super Sunday" event in Pingtung County Sunday, with presidential candidate Lai Ching-te () making a push to consolidate support in an area generally considered a DPP stronghold.

Addressing a crowd of about 40,000 supporters brimming with excitement, former Pingtung County Magistrate Pan Men-an (), who served as the head of the southern Taiwan county from 2014 to 2022, delivered an emotional plea.

He acknowledged the ruling party's imperfections, saying "there's ample room for improvement," even as "Taiwan's economic development performance has been nothing short of stunning."

Joined on the stage by DPP legislative nominees for Pingtung, Pan urged supporters "not to let Taiwan go backward," emphasizing that the path to a more democratic and improved Taiwan lies in voting for the DPP ticket.

"Your vote is all that's needed [to reach that goal]," he said.

The crowd erupted in cheers as Vice President Lai stepped onto the stage.

Sporting a green bomber jacket, Lai highlighted the credentials of himself and his running mate, Hsiao Bi-khim (), saying that the DPP ticket stands out as the most capable and well-prepared of the three contenders.

On Jan. 13, the DPP presidential ticket faces off against Hou Yu-ih () and Jaw Shau-kong () of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), and Ko Wen-je () and Wu Hsin-ying () of the Taiwan People's Party in the race for the Presidential Office.

Lai brings almost three decades of domestic political experience to the table. He selected Hsiao, who served as Taiwan's envoy to the United States from July 2020 to November 2023, in an effort to bolster his international credentials.

Hou, the former chief of Taiwan's police force, entered the political scene in 2010 as deputy mayor of New Taipei. His running mate Jaw, meanwhile, is a former senior political figure and media commentator known for being articulate and a good debater.

The TPP's Ko, formerly a surgeon, entered the political arena with victory in the Taipei mayoral race in 2014. He chose Wu, heiress to one of Taiwan's biggest family-run conglomerates, as his running mate after a potential alliance with the KMT collapsed.

During Sunday's event, Lai shifted his focus to the "consequences" if the DPP fails to secure a majority in the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's top legislative body.

"Can President Tsai Ing-wen's () development policies persist if we do not secure a majority [in the Legislative Yuan]?" asked Lai.

He added that in such a scenario, the government would be unable to get anything done, making all past efforts futile.

"If the KMT secures a majority, will it permit young Chinese individuals to work in Taiwan? Yes, [because] this is part of Hou's platform," he said, referencing Hou's proposal which he said allows students from China to work while studying in Taiwan.

Lai went on: "If the KMT wins a majority, are there going to be more people like Ma Wen-chun () in the Legislative Yuan?"

"If that occurs, wouldn't there be a greater risk of leaking Taiwan's military secrets?"

Ma, a KMT legislator and member of the Foreign and National Defense Committee of the Legislative Yuan, has strongly refuted accusations she leaked information related to Taiwan's indigenous submarine program, in a case prosecutors are still investigating.

Around 19.5 million Taiwanese voters are set to cast their votes for the next president and lawmakers in the 113-seat Legislature Yuan, utilizing 17,795 polling stations across the nation.

(By Chung Yu-chen)

Enditem/AW

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Hou calls for end to DPP rule at final weekend rally in Kaohsiung

ROC Central News Agency

01/07/2024 08:03 PM

Kaohsiung, Jan. 7 (CNA) Opposition Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih () held a rally in Kaohsiung Sunday, on the last weekend of the election campaign, at which he called on voters to support the party and end the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) eight years in power.

Joined by party heavyweights in a show of unity, the New Taipei mayor accused the DPP of corruption over the past eight years, as he addressed the rally held in front of a major shopping mall in the southern port city's Cianjhen District.

Hou also slammed the DPP for its control of local media and its "internet army" for repeatedly attacking himself and the KMT for maintaining closer ties with China.

In his speech, Hou said the best interests of the Republic of China are close to his heart and related how as a former police detective for over 30 years, he repeatedly put his life on the line to protect the public and the country.

Hou further accused the DPP of disregarding university autonomy, citing the case of former National Taiwan University (NTU) President Kuan Chung-ming ().

Hou was referring to a year-long controversy concerning Kuan's NTU presidency.

Kuan was originally selected NTU president on Jan. 5 2018 to take over from former NTU President Yang Pan-chyr ().

However, the Ministry of Education under the DPP government refused to confirm Kuan's appointment by the original Feb. 1 deadline, citing an alleged conflict of interest in the selection process and other possible violations of existing regulations.

Critics of the DPP saw the move as politically motivated, arguing that the party opposed Kuan because of his association with the KMT as the economics professor previously served in the position of chief economic planner for the KMT administration from February 2013 to February 2015.

After a year-long deadlock, the DPP government finally approved Kuan's appointment and he served as the official head of the top university in Taiwan from January 2019 to January 2023.

Kuan attended Sunday's rally and took to the stage to say he had decided to speak for Hou in Kaohsiung to support a "courageous candidate with integrity," calling for the DPP to be "voted out of office."

At the two-hour-long rally, which organizers claimed was attended by 120,000 supporters, many KMT heavyweights made an appearance, including former President Ma Ying-jeou (), KMT Chairman Eric Chu (), Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (), former Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu () and former Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (), among others, as the party sought to present a unified image.

On Jan. 13, Hou and his running mate Jaw Shau-kong () face off against DPP candidates, sitting Vice President Lai Ching-te () and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim (), and Taiwan People's Party presidential nominee Ko Wen-je () and his running mate Wu Hsin-ying () in the three-way race for the Presidential Office.

(By Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/AW



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Infrastructure, combat readiness key to Taiwan defense: Think tank

ROC Central News Agency

01/07/2024 03:28 PM

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) Taiwan's military should give priority to protecting the country's crucial infrastructure, maintaining combat readiness, and decentralizing its military command, to build an effective national defense against a possible full-scale invasion by China, a military think tank said in an annual report released recently.

The recommendations were made in the 2023 Report on the Development of the Chinese Communist Party's Politics and Military, which was released online by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR) on Jan. 3.

In a chapter titled "People's Liberation Army's amphibious assault capabilities in a potential Taiwan invasion," the report also gives a projection of the first wave of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is likely to start with an amphibious assault by about 30,000 troops, including a special operations brigade, transport aviation brigade, and combat support brigade, as well as six airborne brigades, the report says.

After that first amphibious wave, however, the PLA would face difficulties with the terrain in Taiwan and with resupply, according to the writer of that chapter, scholar Ou Si-fu (), who heads the INDSR's Division of Chinese Politics, Military and Warfighting Concepts.

"When they land, they will immediately encounter mountains, hills, and towns, which are not conducive to large-scale mechanized troop movements," Ou wrote.

As an alternative, the PLA might switch to airborne assaults in a bid to seize Taiwanese ports, airports and other strategic infrastructure to facilitate rapid deployment of its troops by sea and air, Ou said.

However, attempted landings from the air is an extremely high risk approach, he said, citing the recent example of the ease with which Ukraine has managed to repel Russia's airborne attacks, using a relatively small number of defensive troops.

Taiwan's defense of its seaports and airports, therefore, should be a priority, even if it means sealing them off and destroying runways to prevent landings by the attackers, Ou said.

He also warned that if the PLA decides to launch a full-scale invasion of Taiwan, it will deploy large numbers of missiles in an effort to paralyze Taiwan's command and control systems.

The main defense strategy in that regard should be to decentralize Taiwan's military command, spreading out the decision making among multiple leaders in a complex and rapidly changing system, Ou said.

(By Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/pc





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'We've been in this situation for a long time'

Ahead of Saturday's election, Taiwanese voters say the threat of war isn't the only thing on their minds.

By Hsia Hsiao-hwa, Huang Chun-mei, Dong Zhe and Lee Tsung-han for RFA Mandarin 2024.01.07 -- As Taiwan gears up for presidential and legislative elections next Saturday, voters on the streets of the democratic island's capital Taipei say a Chinese invasion isn't at the top of their list of concerns.

Despite the Chinese Communist Party's ongoing information wars, political infiltration and military incursions in the Taiwan Strait, some of the island's 23 million people say that such worries aren't at the forefront of their minds.

As the country counts down the last days of a presidential race, voters must choose between incumbent ruling Democratic Progressive Party Vice President Lai Ching-te, who has a strong track record of standing up to China, against the more China-friendly opposition candidates - Hou Yu-ih for the Kuomintang and Ko Wen-je for the Taiwan People's Party.

But not all voters are following the threat from China as closely as they were.

"It's pretty pointless as a Taiwanese person to speculate on such matters, as we've been in this situation for a long time," a voter who gave only the surname Lu told RFA Mandarin in a recent round of street interviews.

Much of the early debate on the presidential campaign trail revolved around how candidates will handle the military threat from China.

But Chinese President Xi Jinping's comments to U.S. President Biden at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November, in which he denied there was a timetable for an invasion of Taiwan, appear to have made voters feel more secure.

"We all know deep down that there can be no war," a voter who gave only the surname Weng said.

"I'm not worried," said a voter surnamed Chou. "The Taiwanese people must have confidence in themselves, and make their country strong."

"There is no problem," she said. "I feel confident."

Protecting sovereignty

Xi hasn't relinquished China's territorial claim on the island, which split from the mainland in 1949 amid civil war and has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, reiterating in a New Year address on Dec. 31 that "China will surely be reunified."

But a 31-year-old Taipei office worker who gave only the surname Hsieh said people are used to military threats and ramped-up rhetoric from Beijing at election time.

"All of the parties want to protect Taiwan's sovereignty," Hsieh said, adding that he doesn't see a vote for any of the candidates as a vote for war.

Neither can any of them promise that China would definitely not invade if they won the election, he said, adding that low-level, city-level exchanges are likely to alleviate current tensions with China.

Hsieh said the main advantage for the opposition parties is that China won't talk to the DPP, which has dismissed Beijing's claim on Taiwan and criticized its crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.

But he said the ruling party has a better track record when it comes to diplomacy, national defense and boosting Taiwan's international status, not to mention the all-important relationship with Washington.

'Stop interfering'

A 90-year-old voter who gave only the surname Kao said he is a staunch Kuomintang supporter, who nonetheless doesn't want to see Chinese interference in Taiwan's democracy.

"I wish China would stop interfering in Taiwanese politics," Kao said. "Taiwan is under a democratic system now, which is different from communism."

He said Taiwan has come a long way since the civil war between Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, and has spent the last few decades moving towards democracy, while China has been under Communist Party rule for more than 70 years.

"Taiwan has gotten used to ruling itself democratically," Kao said.

A voter who gave only the surname Li said anti-communism has been deeply ingrained in Taiwanese society since the 1927-1949 civil war between the Kuomintang government of the 1911 Republic of China and communist insurgents.

"They may fear our independence, but they didn't build our country," she said. "It's better if they live their lives, we live ours, and we maintain peaceful cross-straits relations."

Housing, the economy

Some told RFA Mandarin that they are more worried about the high price of housing than the threat of war.

"The economy is still pretty important, and our leaders need to take active steps to deal with it," Lu said.

"The high cost of housing has led a lot of young people to lose confidence in the future," he said, adding that he feels it's time for a change after eight years of DPP rule.

"aaIf you are in power for too long, then issues of corruption are more likely," Lu said. "This is a problem faced by all ruling parties in the world, not just in Taiwan."

Chou disagreed, saying the current leadership has done a good job, and that "Taiwan is very happy now," and that she's counting her blessings.

Others said they were keen on Ko, because he appeared more down-to-earth, and to have concerns that were closer to their daily lives.

"The stuff about China is kind of out of our reach, and I don't pay much attention to it," a voter surnamed Qu told RFA Mandarin.

A Lai supporter surnamed Yang said the issue was much simpler for him.

"We must elect people who are able to protect Taiwan," he said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster

Copyright 1998-2024, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content January not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Ukraine Says Russia Launched Missile, Drone Attack On Dnipro; 2 Killed In Kherson Shelling

By RFE/RL January 07, 2024

Ukrainian officials said Russia launched 28 drones and three cruise missiles overnight, and 12 people were wounded by a drone attack in the central city of Dnipro.

In the southern city of Kherson, meanwhile, Russian shelling from across the Dnieper River left at least two people dead, officials said.

Though smaller in scale than other recent assaults, the January 7 aerial attack was the latest indication that Russia had no intention of stopping its targeting of Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, often far from the front lines.

In a post to Telegram, Ukraine's air force claimed that air defenses destroyed 21 of the 28 drones, which mainly targeted locations in the south and east of Ukraine.

"The enemy is shifting the focus of attack to the frontline territories: the Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions were attacked by drones," air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian TV.

Russia made no immediate comment on the attack.

In the central city of Dnipro, 12 people were injured by the drone attack there, regional authorities said in a post to Telegram, and several buildings including a school dormitory were damaged.

Over the past two weeks, Russia has fired nearly 300 missiles and more than 200 drones at targets in Ukraine, as part of an effort to terrorize the civilian population and undermine morale. On December 29, more than 120 Russian missiles were launched at cities across Ukraine, killing at least 44 people, including 30 in Kyiv alone.

Ukraine's air defenses, meanwhile, have improved markedly since the months following Russia's mass invasion in February 2022. At least five Western-supplied Patriot missile batteries, along with smaller systems like German-made Gepard and the French-manufactured SAMP/T, have also improved Ukraine's ability to repel Russian drones and missiles.

Last week, U.S. officials said that Russia had begun using North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles as part of its aerial attacks on Ukrainian sites.

In the city of Kherson, which was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in late 2022, residents there have struggled with continuing shelling and missile attacks from Russian forces who continue to control the opposite banks of the Dnieper River.

Shelling rly on January 7 killed two and wounded several others, Roman Mrochko, a city administrative head, said.

In the past few months, Ukrainian forces have moved across the Dnieper, setting up a small bridgehead in villages on the river's eastern banks, up river from Kherson. The effort to establish a larger foothold there, however, has faltered, with Russian troops pinning the Ukrainians down, and keeping them from moving heavier equipment over.

Speaking on January 7 to a conference in Sweden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the battlefield was currently stable, but he was confident Russia could be defeated.

"Even Russia can be brought back within the framework of international law. Its aggression can be defeated," he said via video link.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-dnipro-missile- drone-attack/32764421.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Orthodox Christians Celebrate Christmas; Holiday Overshadowed By Ukraine Conflict

By RFE/RL January 07, 2024

Millions of Orthodox Christians attended midnight masses marking the Christmas holiday, a celebration overshadowed for many by the conflict in Ukraine.

In Russia, home to the largest number of Orthodox Christians, believers joined overnight services January 7 at churches in Moscow and across the country.

In Ukraine, where a majority of Christians identify as Orthodox, this was the first Christmas that was officially designated by the government to be observed not on January 7, but on December 25, in line with Roman Catholic and Western Christian traditions.

Despite the official designation, made by President Volodymr Zelenskiy in July, thousands of Ukrainians crowded church sanctuaries across the country, including at the renowned Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery, for midnight services.

Zelenskiy's order was a further sign of Ukraine's effort to push away from Russian-dominated traditions, amid a devastating war whose full-scale invasion is nearing its second anniversary.

Ukraine's Orthodox Church broke away from centuries-old control by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2019, although the rift has not been fully resolved. Another, smaller branch of Ukrainian Orthodoxy remains loyal to Moscow, and the two sides have squabbled over control of the Kyiv monastery.

A sizable minority of Ukrainian Christians, particularly in western Ukraine, are Catholic.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin was joined by relatives of soldiers killed in the Ukraine war for private Christmas services at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence, on Moscow's western suburbs.

In a Kremlin statement congratulating Orthodox Christians, Putin highlighted the "efforts of religious organizations aimed at supporting our heroes -- participants in the special military operation," as the Kremlin refers to the Ukraine invasion.

Unlike last year, Putin made no call for a holiday cease-fire.

Western estimates put the Russian toll -- dead and wounded -- since the launch of the invasion in February 2022 at more than 320,000. Ukrainian figures are believed to be comparable.

In Belarus, where Christmas is officially celebrated with public holidays on both December 25 and on January 7, the country's leader, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, said in a statement that he was "convinced that by preserving the Orthodox traditions of mercy and moral purity, together we will create the best future for our native Belarus."

Lukashenka, who has ruled Belarus for 30 years, calls himself an "Orthodox atheist."

In Montenegro, meanwhile, two rival factions of the national Orthodox Church scuffled and argued during a traditional bonfire ceremony held January 6 in Cetinje, the country's historic royal capital. The tensions stem mainly from a dispute last September where the two factions chose competing clerics to head the Montenegrin church.

In Serbia, Orthodox believers observed the holiday by burning oak branches at services outside churches and temples, including hundreds who gathered at the St. Sava Temple -- the biggest Orthodox church in the Balkans.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Balkan Service and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/orthodox-christmas-celebrations- russia-ukraine-war-balkans/32764389.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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US House Speaker Criticizes White House for Lack of Strategy on Ukraine Conflict

Sputnik News

20240107

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday reproached the White House for the lack of strategy on the Ukrainian conflict, saying that he had repeatedly requested information about it, but never received a response.

Republicans in Congress are trying to negotiate a deal with Democrats and the White House to include stronger border security policies in a supplemental funding bill that would include $60 billion in additional funds for Ukraine. The legislation is currently stalled in the Senate amid ongoing negotiations.

"What is the endgame in Ukraine? What is our strategy? What is the objective," Johnson told CBS.

The speaker added that the issue of sending money to Ukraine is very serious, and in order to assist Kiev in the conflict, Washington has to "borrow it from somewhere else."

"The White House has not been forthcoming with those answers. I have begged them in writing, publicly, privately in every way to give us those answers and they have not done it," Johnson said, noting that it is "very difficult" to get the funding without answers.

Western countries have been providing military and financial aid to Kiev since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin has consistently warned against continued arms deliveries to Kiev, saying it would lead to further escalation of the conflict. The United States ran out of funding for Ukraine on December 30, 2023, and the Biden administration repeatedly urged Congress to approve more funds.

A Sputnik

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Russian Forces Repel Four Counterattacks by Ukrainian Army in Kupyansk Region - MoD

Sputnik News

20240107

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Ukrainian military in the Donetsk direction lost more than 300 servicepeople, four armored vehicles, a CAESAR self-propelled howitzer and a US-made M119 howitzer over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

"Total enemy losses in this direction amounted to more than 300 military personnel killed and wounded, four armored combat vehicles, as well as 20 vehicles," the ministry said.

A Ukrainian army ammunition depot was also hit in counter-battery fire, the ministry added.

In the Kupyansk direction, Russian troops repulsed four counterattacks of the Ukrainian army, destroying over 50 soldiers, two infantry fighting vehicles and three vehicles, the ministry said. In the Liman direction, Kiev lost up to 55 troops and four vehicles, the ministry added.

At the same time, in the Zaporozhye direction, the Russian forces hit six Ukrainian brigades, eliminating up to 40 troops, a tank and two armored combat vehicles, as well as four vehicles, the ministry said. In the Kherson direction, Ukraine lost over 35 soldiers, three vehicles and an electronic warfare station.

In the South Donetsk direction, the Russian forces destroyed up to 130 Ukrainian servicepeople, two armored vehicles, a Polish-made Krab self-propelled howitzer and two FH-70 howitzers, the ministry said.

A Sputnik

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Ukraine's Defense Budget Deficit Reaches $11.3Bln - Reports

Sputnik News

20240107

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The budget deficit of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for 2024 is 36% or 430 billion hryvnias ($11.33 billion), a member of the Ukrainian parliament, Oleksiy Goncharenko, said on Saturday.

"At a meeting of the National Security Committee, information was announced about the budget deficit of the Ministry of Defense for 2024. It amounts to 36% or 430 billion hryvnias only in terms of monetary support expenses," Goncharenko stated on Telegram.

The head of the Ukrainian parliament's tax committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, said in November that Ukraine's state budget was critically dependent on external assistance and that Kiev needed to attract about $9.5 billion in financial support in the form of grants and soft loans by the end of the year. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukraine expected to receive over $30 billion in financial aid from the European Union, the United States, the allied states and the IMF to compensate for the state budget deficit.

On September 15, Shmyhal said that the Ukrainian government adopted a draft budget for 2024 with record military spending of $45.6 billion, which exceeded the spending on the social sphere, medicine and education. The Ukrainian Ministry of Finance said later that the draft budget for 2024 provided for spending on security and defense of more than $48 billion, which is 23% of the country's GDP.

In late November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on Ukraine's 2024 state budget with a deficit of over $43 billion.

A Sputnik

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President met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan

President of Ukraine

7 January 2024 - 19:06

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Yoko Kamikawa, who is on a visit to our country.

The Head of State noted that the Japanese Foreign Minister's first international visit in the new year is to Ukraine, which is a very important signal of support for the Ukrainian people.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy also expressed sincere condolences on his behalf and on behalf of all Ukrainians over the tragic consequences of the recent devastating earthquake in Japan.

"The people of Japan can count on the support of the Ukrainian state and society," he said.

The President thanked Japan and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida personally for the powerful assistance to Ukraine throughout almost two years of full-scale Russian aggression, particularly for political, humanitarian and long-term financial support to the Ukrainian economy.

He also noted Japan's effective presidency of the Group of Seven in 2023 and the special attention to Ukraine at this important international platform.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy informed of the consequences of Russia's recent massive missile strikes on Ukrainian cities.

The Head of State praised the adoption of the G7 Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine in Vilnius during last year's NATO Summit and emphasized the importance of beginning work on the relevant Ukrainian-Japanese agreement on security commitments for Ukraine.

"The launch of negotiations with Japan on a bilateral security agreement is an important step. We are committed to active work to sign this document as soon as feasible," the President of Ukraine noted.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy also thanked Japan for its active support of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and readiness to take part in the next meeting of national security advisers to be held in Davos. For her part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan announced Japan's readiness to co-lead the implementation of the first point of the Formula, "Radiation and Nuclear Safety."

Special attention was paid to the intensification of cooperation with Japan on the recovery and restoration of Ukraine. The Head of State outlined the priority spheres of cooperation and confirmed willingness to actively work with the Japanese side to ensure the successful holding of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in February in Tokyo.

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I held a meeting on our plans for this year in relations with partners in the European Union and NATO; we are clearly formulating our tasks - address by the President of Ukraine

President of Ukraine

7 January 2024 - 18:34

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

A few summaries of the day.

First. Today, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan is paying a visit to Ukraine. Our very important, very strong partner. I am grateful for the level of relations achieved between our countries - a true partnership, a strategic partnership. I am grateful for the support that Japan has provided to our country. This includes security assistance, strong leadership in the Group of Seven and in the international arena in general, economic support - we appreciate it - and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. One of our best international results is our relations with Japan. Now there is a new large package of energy support for Ukraine. I am grateful for the financial support to our country. Today we discussed our further cooperation, in particular the Ukraine Recovery Conference scheduled for February, as well as our further joint security steps, work on the Peace Formula and on strengthening sanctions against Russia. I am confident that this year will also be quite meaningful for our relations.

Second. Sweden. Today I took part in the opening of the security conference organized annually by the Swedish association "People and Defense." It is one of the most important events in Northern Europe and the most influential in Sweden. The conference will continue throughout the week - today is the first day. I outlined our country's vision of the challenges and opportunities for our countries - Ukraine and Sweden - and for Europe as a whole. The key is solidarity and joint action. We have already shown that our consolidation - of everyone in Europe and the free world - can overcome even the most large-scale manifestations of aggression. And this year we must accomplish even more. We must also boost cooperation in defense production - in joint projects, particularly in Ukraine. Swedish CV-90 combat vehicles and Swedish artillery - "Archers" - have already proven themselves in the hands of our warriors at the front. And our entire Europe has sufficient potential to guarantee security under any circumstances and sentiments in global politics.

Third. I held a thorough meeting on our plans for this year in relations with our partners in the European Union and NATO. Our communication, our internal changes, and the steps we expect in our relations. This also includes non-public work with partners. We are clearly formulating our tasks. The meeting was attended by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the Prime Minister and the relevant Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Defense and his first deputy, international relations officials from the Presidential Office, and the Head of the Office. Our priorities are clear: to fully implement the decision on opening negotiations, to prepare our negotiation framework with the European Union, and to develop a system of relations and communication with the Alliance members so that every state and every leader feels one hundred percent that NATO will become much stronger together with Ukraine.

One more thing. Today, emergency rescue operations are still ongoing in Pokrovsk and the surrounding villages. This is Donetsk region. The consequences of the Russian missile strike, which took place yesterday. The search for people under the rubble continues. All the necessary services are working at the scene, including our rescuers from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and police officers. And I am grateful to each and every person involved in this work. I would especially like to mention Sergeant Vitaliy But, Chief Master Sergeant Volodymyr Dolzhenko, Senior Lieutenant Bohdan Machulnyi and Major Serhiy Pyshnohraiev. I am grateful for your dedication. I would also like to commend the police officers in Donetsk region: Police Sergeant Illia Petrenko, Police Lieutenant Yaroslav Yaresko and Police Captain Serhiy Levchenko. Thank you, guys.

I would also like to mention the police officers of Kharkiv region - those involved in dealing with the consequences of Russian terrorists' strikes, those who help people, communicate with the relatives of those who died, establish the truth and record evidence of Russian war crimes. In particular, I would like to praise the police officers who worked at the scene after the Russian strike on the village of Hroza in Kupyansk district: Police Major Yulia Brazho, Major Nataliia Matviienko, and Colonel Oksana Oliynyk. I am grateful to you and all your colleagues who work for the sake of people and Ukraine.

I thank everyone in Ukraine who contributes to the strength of our country, who strengthens our positions, our warriors and the entire Ukrainian people.

Glory to Ukraine!

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Countering Russian propaganda in the world and preventing Russia from circumventing sanctions are key tasks for the near future - Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Swedish conference "Society and Defense"

President of Ukraine

7 January 2024 - 17:37

The most important challenges of today in countering Russian aggression are the fight against Russian disinformation and preventing Russia from circumventing the sanctions imposed against it. This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy during an online conversation with the participants of the annual Swedish national conference "Society and Defense," which is one of the most important events in Northern Europe in the field of security and defense.

Answering a question from the moderator, the President noted that global information policy would be crucial in the near future.

"Today, unfortunately, Russia controls a large percentage of the information space. And I'm not talking about Ukraine here, but about social media everywhere in the civilized world: Europe, the United States, the UK, the African continent and Latin America. Russia invests a lot of money in various media in other countries, as well as in social networks," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

According to the President, the independent media of these countries pick up Russian narratives spread by propagandists and present them not as someone's opinion, but as reality. Therefore, the Head of State is convinced that one of the most difficult challenges today is to combat Russian disinformation in the world.

"It is up to professionals, from intelligence to independent journalists, to monitor it and clean it up," the President said.

The second key challenge of today, as pointed out by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Russia's circumvention of the sanctions imposed against it.

"Russia has learned to circumvent sanctions. In the missiles that were used against us, we saw the details produced in many countries around the world. Unfortunately, manufacturers or intermediary companies in Europe, the US, and elsewhere are helping Russia to circumvent (sanctions - Ed.). And I would pay attention to this, in particular the attention of the authorities dealing with sanctions policy," the Head of State emphasized.

The annual national conference "Society and Defense," which will take place in SAlen on January 7-9, 2024, is considered the most prestigious in Sweden and is one of the most important public events in Northern Europe in the field of security and defense, widely covered by the Swedish and European media.

Keynote speakers at the conference include prime ministers, defense ministers, foreign ministers and other government representatives, supreme commanders, senior officials of civil society organizations, international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as renowned experts and opinion leaders.

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If Russia loses control of the sky, it will lose power on the battlefield - President at the Swedish conference "Society and Defense"

President of Ukraine

7 January 2024 - 17:18

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized that today Ukraine needs to strengthen its air defense both at the front and to enhance the protection of people in rear cities and communities. He said this during an online conversation with participants of the annual Swedish national conference "Society and Defense," which is one of the most important events in Northern Europe in the field of security and defense.

According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the situation at the front today is quite stable, although Russia continues to amass its troops and loses a lot of soldiers in "human wave attacks."

At the same time, the President of Ukraine noted that Ukrainian troops at the front need air defense systems to deprive the enemy of the ability to control the sky and launch air strikes on Ukrainian positions.

"There is a lack of air defense both on the battlefield and for the defense of Ukrainian cities across the country. There were 500 strikes within a few days. Yes, we managed to repel most of them thanks to the help of our partners - more than 70%. But this is not enough. If Russia loses control of the sky, it will lose all its power on the battlefield. They have no other power: we do not see it," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The annual national conference "Society and Defense," which will take place in SAlen on January 7-9, 2024, is considered the most prestigious in Sweden and is one of the most important public events in Northern Europe in the field of security and defense, widely covered by the Swedish and European media.

Keynote speakers at the conference include prime ministers, defense ministers, foreign ministers and other government representatives, supreme commanders, senior officials of civil society organizations, international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as renowned experts and opinion leaders.

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The more we do together, the fewer chances the enemies of freedom have to break us - address by the President of Ukraine to the participants of the annual Swedish conference "Society and Defense"

President of Ukraine

7 January 2024 - 17:09

Mr. Chairman, Madam Secretary General!

Thank you for your very important strong words about us, about Ukrainian people, about Ukraine.

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, ladies and gentlemen, dear Sweden!

I am pleased to participate in this conference and want to thank all participants and the Swedish society for your solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Solidarity is the basis of security in the modern world. This is one of the main conclusions that can be made from our Ukrainian resistance against the ongoing Russian full-scale invasion for almost two years. When a nation relies on solidarity from others, and therefore on the support, it can successfully defend itself even against a much larger enemy. A larger enemy in terms of military strength. We all know that Russia is now using against Ukraine, and in hybrid forms against all of Europe, the potential that has been amassed over the lifetimes of several generations. This includes weapons, industrial and economic capabilities, and Russia's energy potential, which it spends on waging its war. We must admit - this is a significant force. But still I am confident, and our results demonstrate that even Russia can be brought back within the framework of international law. Its aggression can be defeated.

Of course, Ukraine would not have surrendered to the occupier and would not have put up with the occupation under any circumstances, even the worst. Every nation that values freedom has ways to fight even when it is difficult or impossible to hope for someone's help... But to fight successfully, to reclaim what is yours, to restore security to people, to your region, and to teach the aggressor that aggression brings no benefits, is only possible if defense gets strength from solidarity. Because the unity of many is always greater than any enemy's force. And whatever Russia does against Ukraine, we have proven that we can find the necessary counterbalance when we act bravely, when we act together with partners, and when we have an absolutely clear goal - to protect lives.

Now, in the time after Christmas, in the New Year, Russia tried again to bring Ukraine to its knees with air strikes, large-scale attacks... Over five hundred missiles of various types and attack drones - Iranian "Shaheds". Special combined attacks aimed at overloading our air defense and striking critical infrastructure. We are protecting the Ukrainian people from this - thanks to air defense systems and other weapons provided by our partners. Sweden has helped us in this regard. And this is one of the obvious victories of solidarity over terror.

Almost all of last year Russian forces were constantly trying to advance on Ukrainian soil. They spared no human lives or weapons, especially artillery and bombs. But what has Russia achieved? Ukraine has not given up its positions, maintains the necessary bridgeheads, and destroys the logistics, warehouses, and headquarters of the occupiers. We do not allow the Russian occupation to become entrenched. And one of the most significant contributions to this is the manifestation of Swedish solidarity with Ukraine, namely your defensive support. The brilliant CV-90s, mighty "Archers" and other weapons and equipment you provided to help our state and save the lives of our soldiers. And I thank you for your help!

Political solidarity is equally important - it motivates the most, adds emotional strength, and confirms to nations - they are not alone. Every democracy in Europe should see and be confident that politicians will not compromise the concept of European values if someone is tempted by the concept of spheres of influence. Values must dominate. And this is the case now - we see evidence of this in Europe's support for our movement towards the European Union. Ukraine received the decision it deserved - a decision to start membership negotiations, and this is precisely the political solidarity we need. And Sweden made a choice that also required huge solidarity - the choice regarding NATO membership. And I am grateful to everyone who showed their solidarity with you and has already supported your entry into the Alliance, as well as everyone who helps finalize this decision. I hope that the TArkiye parliament will respond positively.

But political solidarity is not only in institutional progress. Not only in who you are and who you are with, but also in what exactly you all can do together. Two years of this war have proven that Europe needs its own sufficient arsenal for the defense of freedom. Its own capabilities to ensure defense. Its own potential that will allow all of Europe, or any part of it, to stand and preserve itself under any global situation. The Alliance is good. But the viability of parts of the Alliance is not just better, it is what will always help keep the Alliance whole, effective, and a global security leader. And to create an arsenal for the defense of freedom, Europe needs joint weapons production - much larger scale production than now. We see that Russian aggressive ambitions can be stopped only where there is sufficient strength to stop them. And we will provide such strength only together, in solidarity, only by working with each other to strengthen each other. Regardless of which political moods will dominate on both sides of the Atlantic, our strength can and should be sufficient to protect our way of life.

Ukraine has already begun joint defense activities with TArkiye, Romania, Poland, Great Britain. We have corresponding agreements with Czechia, the United States, and Germany. And, of course, our proposal for you - to work together, to produce together, to strengthen together. Ukraine is already and will always be one of the most significant European donors of security. We strive for the best weapons and technology in the world, for our own security and the security of our partners. So, joint production with Sweden is a priority for us. And I am confident that the day will come when we will be able to see the opening in Ukraine of the first joint production with you. Our solidarity must go this way for our common interests - joint security. And please, always be active in protecting everything that is and can keep together the free world. The more we do together, the fewer chances the enemies of freedom have to break us.

Thank you for your attention! Thank you, Sweden!

 NNN!

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MEDIA & INVESTOR RELEASE

Novartis Scemblix shows superior major molecular response (MMR) rates vs. standard-of-care TKIs in Phase III trial for newly diagnosed patients with chronic myeloid leukemia

Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53

ASC4FIRST trial met both primary endpoints with clinically meaningful and statistically significant results; Scemblix  (asciminib) shows superior MMR rates at week 48 vs. standard-of-care TKIs (imatinib, nilotinib, dasatinib, and bosutinib) in newly diagnosed Ph+CML-CP patients 1





(asciminib) shows superior MMR rates at week 48 vs. standard-of-care TKIs (imatinib, nilotinib, dasatinib, and bosutinib) in newly diagnosed Ph+CML-CP patients Scemblix demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile with fewer adverse events (AEs) and treatment discontinuations vs. standard-of-care TKIs; no new safety signals were observed 1





With current standard-of-care TKIs, more than 60% of newly diagnosed patients with CML fail to meet molecular response goals at one year; intolerance and AEs remain a primary reason for discontinuing TKI therapy, with discontinuation rates due to AEs of up to 25% by five years 2 - 1 3





Data will be presented at an upcoming medical conference and submitted to regulatory authorities in 2024

Basel, January 08, 2024  Novartis today announced positive results from the primary analysis of ASC4FIRST, a pivotal Phase III trial comparing Scemblix (asciminib) with investigators choice of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment in newly diagnosed patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase (Ph+ CML-CP)1. ASC4FIRST is the first and only randomized head-to-head Phase III trial comparing a CML treatment vs. approved standard-of-care first- and second-generation TKIs1.

The trial met both primary endpoints of major molecular response (MMR) rate for Scemblix compared to investigator-selected TKIs (imatinib, nilotinib, dasatinib, and bosutinib) and compared to imatinib, demonstrating clinically meaningful and statistically significant results for both endpoints1. Scemblix showed a favorable safety and tolerability profile with fewer adverse events (AEs) and treatment discontinuations vs. investigator selected standard-of-care TKIs1. The ASC4FIRST data showed no new safety signals compared to the established safety profile of Scemblix1,14.

We are very encouraged by these results given that a significant proportion of patients with newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML, do not achieve their treatment goals, said Prof. Tim Hughes, MD, South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). There remains a significant need in first-line therapy of CML for tolerable treatment options, allowing people with CML to balance their treatment alongside their quality of life.

Improvements in treatment have transformed CML into a chronic disease, with a life expectancy similar to that of the general population, making tolerability an important treatment goal9. While many patients with CML may benefit from available TKI therapy, intolerance and AEs remain a primary reason for TKI therapy discontinuation, with discontinuation rates due to AEs of up to 25% by five years2-6. Additionally, over 60% of newly diagnosed CML patients fail to meet 12-month molecular response goals 5-13.

We are excited that Scemblix may help people newly diagnosed with CML achieve their treatment goals while continuing to live their lives, said Shreeram Aradhye, M.D., President, Development and Chief Medical Officer, Novartis. Given the chronic nature of their condition, patients often need to be on TKI therapy for many years, so treatment options that are well tolerated and highly efficacious are crucial to support adherence. This study outcome builds on our 20-year legacy in CML innovation as we strive to continue to address the remaining unmet needs for people living with this blood cancer.

The trial remains ongoing, with the next scheduled data readout planned for week 96, which will evaluate the key secondary endpoint (MMR at week 96) as well as additional secondary endpoints.

Details will be presented at an upcoming medical conference and included as part of regulatory submissions in 2024.

About ASC4FIRST Phase III Clinical Trial

ASC4FIRST (NCT04971226) is a Phase III, head-to-head, multi-center, open-label, randomized study of oral Scemblix 80 mg QD versus investigator-selected first- or second-generation TKI (imatinib, nilotinib, dasatinib, or bosutinib) in 405 adult patients with newly diagnosed Ph+ CML-CP1. The two primary endpoints of the study are to compare efficacy of asciminib vs. investigator-selected TKI and to compare efficacy vs that of TKI within the stratum of participants with imatinib as pre-randomization selected TKI, based on proportion of patients that achieve MMR at week 481. The study remains ongoing with a key secondary endpoint of proportion of patients that achieve MMR at week 96 and a safety endpoint of discontinuation of study treatment due to an AE (TTDAE) by week 96. The study also assesses additional secondary safety and efficacy endpoints, including MMR, MR4, MR4.5, complete hematological response (CHR) and BCR::ABL1 1% at and by all scheduled data collection time points; duration of and time to first MMR, MR4 and MR4.5; time to treatment failure; event-free survival, failure-free survival, progression-free survival, and overall survival1.

About Scemblix (asciminib)

Scemblix is the first CML treatment that works by specifically targeting the ABL myristoyl pocket15,16 and was intentionally designed to be highly specific and minimize off-target kinase mediated effects, which translates into an improved safety and tolerability profile compared to current standard of care.

Scemblix is approved in more than 60 countries, including the US and the EU, to treat adults with Ph+ CML-CP who have previously been treated with two or more TKIs14,19. In some countries including the US, Scemblix is also approved in patients with Ph+ CML-CP with the T315I mutation2-14,18,19.

Scemblix represents an important potential treatment option for patients who experience resistance and/or intolerance to currently available TKI therapies, and it is being studied across multiple treatment lines for Ph+ CML-CP, both as monotherapy and in combination15-18,20-33.

About Novartis Commitment to CML

Novartis has a long-standing scientific commitment to patients living with CML. For more than two decades, our bold science has helped transform CML into a chronic, versus a life-limiting, condition for many patients. Despite these advancements, theres still work to be done. We continue to research ways to target the disease more selectively and to address the challenges of not reaching treatment efficacy goals, experiencing treatment resistance and/or intolerance that many patients face. Our legacy inspires our future innovation  we continue to lead the way in developing novel medicines to address serious unmet needs in CML. Our commitment also goes beyond science. Our collaboration with the Max Foundation has provided access to Glivec, Tasigna and now Scemblix, starting over 20 years ago, and delivering tremendous patient impact in low and middle income countries, with 90,000 patients supported to date.

Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as potential, can, will, planned, may, commitment, remain, goals, upcoming, excited, potentially, continuing, continue, strive, ongoing, to address, or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for Scemblix, or regarding potential future revenues from Scemblix. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that Scemblix will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that Scemblix will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding Scemblix could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; general political, economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts to mitigate pandemic diseases; safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AGs current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis

Novartis is an innovative medicines company. Every day, we work to reimagine medicine to improve and extend peoples lives so that patients, healthcare professionals and societies are empowered in the face of serious disease. Our medicines reach more than 250 million people worldwide.

Reimagine medicine with us: Visit us at https://www.novartis.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X/Twitter and Instagram.

References

Novartis Data on File, 2024. Cortes JE, et al. Long-term bosutinib for chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia after failure of imatinib plus dasatinib and/or nilotinib. Am J Hematol. 2016;91(12):1206-1214. Garg RJ, et al. The use of nilotinib or dasatinib after failure to 2 prior tyrosine kinase inhibitors: long-term follow-up. Blood. 2009;114(20):4361-4368. Steegmann JL., et al. European LeukemiaNet recommendations for the management and avoidance of adverse events of treatment in chronic myeloid leukaemia. Leukemia. 2016;30:1648-1671. Hochhaus A, et al. Long-Term Outcomes of Imatinib Treatment for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. N Engl J Med. 2017;376: 917927. Cortes JE., et al. Final 5-Year Study Results of DASISION: The Dasatinib Versus Imatinib Study in Treatment-Naive Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients Trial. J Clin Oncol. 2016;34:2333-2340. Akard LP, et al. The Hit Hard and Hit Early Approach to the Treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Implications of the Updated National Comprehensive Cancer Network Clinical Practice Guidelines for Routine Practice. Clin Adv Hematol Oncol. 2013;11(7):421-432. Cortes JE, et al. Ponatinib efficacy and safety in Philadelphia chromosomepositive leukemia: Final 5-year results of the phase 2 PACE trial. Blood. 2018;132(4):393-404. Hochhaus A, et al. European LeukemiaNet 2020 recommendations for treating chronic myeloid leukemia. Leukemia. 2020;34:966-984. Hochhaus A, et al. Leukemia. Long-term benefits and risks of frontline nilotinib vs imatinib for chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase: 5-year update of the randomized ENESTnd trial. 2016;30:1044-1054. Brummendorf TH, et al. Bosutinib versus imatinib in newly diagnosed chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukaemia: results from the 24-month follow-up of the BELA trial.Br J Haematol. 2015;168:69-81. Cortes JE, et al. Bosutinib Versus Imatinib for Newly Diagnosed Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Results From the Randomized BFORE Trial. J Clin Oncol. 2018;36:231-237. NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines. Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. V2.2021. Scemblix Summary of Product Characteristics, 2022. Rea D, et al. A Phase 3, Open-Label, Randomized Study of Asciminib, a STAMP Inhibitor, vs Bosutinib in CML After 2 Prior TKIs. Blood. 2021. DOI: 10.1182/blood.2020009984. PMID: 34407542. Cortes JE, et al. Asciminib, a First-in-Class STAMP Inhibitor, Provides Durable Molecular Response in Patients (pts) with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) Harboring the T315I Mutation: Primary Efficacy and Safety Results from a Phase 1 Trial. Oral presentation at: ASH Annual Meeting; Dec. 7, 2020. Schoepfer J, et al. Discovery of Asciminib (ABL001), an Allosteric Inhibitor of the Tyrosine Kinase Activity of BCR-ABL1. J Med Chem. 2018;61(18):8120-8135. Novartis Data on File, 2021. Flis S, et al. Chronic myelogenous leukemia, a still unsolved problem: pitfalls and new therapeutic possibilities. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2019;13:825-843. Wylie AA, et al. The allosteric inhibitor ABL001 enables dual targeting of BCRABL1. Nature. 2017;543(7647):733-737. Hughes TP, et al. Asciminib in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia after ABL Kinase Inhibitor Failure. N Engl J Med. 2019; 381(24):2315-2326. Hughes TP, et al. Expanded Phase 1 Study of ABL001, a Potent, Allosteric Inhibitor of BCR-ABL, Reveals Significant and Durable Responses in Patients with CML-Chronic Phase with Failure of Prior TKI Therapy. Poster presented at: ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition; Dec. 5, 2016. Ottmann OG, et al. ABL001, a Potent, Allosteric Inhibitor of BCR-ABL, Exhibits Safety and Promising Single- Agent Activity in a Phase I Study of Patients with CML with Failure of Prior TKI Therapy. Blood. 2015;126(23):138. Mauro MJ, et al. Combination of Asciminib Plus Nilotinib (NIL) or Dasatinib (DAS) in Patients (PTS) with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML): Results from a Phase 1 Study. Poster presented at: EHA Annual Meeting; June 15, 2019. Cortes JE, et al. Combination Therapy Using Asciminib Plus Imatinib (IMA) in Patients (PTS) with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML): Results from a Phase 1 Study. Poster presented at: EHA Annual Meeting; June 15, 2019. Manley P., et al. The specificity of asciminib, a potential treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia, as a myristate-pocket binding ABL inhibitor and analysis of its interactions with mutant forms of BCR-ABL1 kinase. Leukemia Research. 2020;98. ClinicalTrials.gov. 2017. Study of Efficacy of CML-CP Patients Treated with ABL001 Versus Bosutinib, Previously Treated With 2 or More TKIs. [online] Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03106779. ClinicalTrials.gov. 2021. A Study of Oral Asciminib Versus Other TKIs in Adult Patients With Newly Diagnosed Ph+ CML-CP. [online] Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04971226. ClinicalTrials.gov. 2020. Asciminib in Monotherapy for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in Chronic Phase (CML-CP) With and WithoutT315I Mutation (AIM4CML). [online] Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04666259. ClinicalTrials.gov. 2018. Study of Efficacy And Safety Of Asciminib In Combination With Imatinib In Patients With Chronic Myeloid Leukemia In Chronic Phase (CML-CP). [online] Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03578367. ClinicalTrials.gov. 2021. Study of Efficacy and Safety of CML-CP Patients Treated With Asciminib Versus Best Available Therapy, Previously Treated With 2 or More Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors. [online] Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04795427. ClinicalTrials.gov. 2014. A Phase I Study of Oral ABL001 in Patients With CML or Ph+ ALL. [online] Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02081378. ClinicalTrials.gov. 2021 Asciminib Treatment Optimization in  3rd Line CML-CP. [online] Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04948333.

# # #
NEW YORK, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bernstein Liebhard LLP:



Do you, or did you, own shares of Fisker Inc. (NYSE: FSR)?

Did you purchase your shares between August 4, 2023 and November 20, 2023, inclusive?

Did you lose money in your investment in Fisker Inc.?

Do you want to discuss your rights?

Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a nationally acclaimed investor rights law firm, reminds investors of the deadline to file a lead plaintiff motion in a securities class action lawsuit that has been filed on behalf of investors who purchased or acquired the securities of Fisker Inc. (Fisker or the Company) (NYSE: FSR) between August 4, 2023 and November 20, 2023, inclusive (the Class Period). The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California and alleges violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 against the Company and certain of its officers (the Complaint).

If you purchased or acquired Fisker securities, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options please visit Fisker Inc. Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit or contact paralegal Peter Allocco at (212) 951-2030 or pallocco@bernlieb.com.

If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than January 26, 2024 . A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. Your ability to share in any recovery doesnt require that you serve as lead plaintiff. If you choose to take no action, you may remain an absent class member.

According to the Complaint, Fisker is an electric vehicle company based in California. The Company went public in October 2020 through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company called Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp. The Company has one model currently launched, the Fisker Ocean (the Ocean), an electric vehicle released in the United States in June 2023.

Throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Companys business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) Fisker had a material weakness in its internal control over financial reporting; (2) Fisker had incorrectly accounted for certain costs; (3) as a result the Company was likely to delay filing its quarterly report; and (4) Fiskers infrastructure was limiting its ability to deliver its production.

On November 20, 2023, after the market closed, the Company disclosed that its Chief Accounting Officer, who was only hired on November 6, 2023, had provided notice of his intent to resign from the Company on November 14, 2023, effective immediately.

On this news, the Companys share price fell $0.35, or 15%, to close at $2.00 per share on November 21, 2023.

If you purchased or acquired Fisker securities, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options please visit Fisker Inc. Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit or contact paralegal Peter Allocco at (212) 951-2030 or pallocco@bernlieb.com.

Since 1993, Bernstein Liebhard LLP has recovered over $3.5 billion for its clients. In addition to representing individual investors, the Firm has been retained by some of the largest public and private pension funds in the country to monitor their assets and pursue litigation on their behalf. As a result of its success litigating hundreds of lawsuits and class actions, the Firm has been named to The National Law Journals Plaintiffs Hot List thirteen times and listed in The Legal 500 for sixteen consecutive years.

ATTORNEY ADVERTISING.  2024 Bernstein Liebhard LLP. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Bernstein Liebhard LLP, 10 East 40th Street, New York, New York 10016, (212) 779-1414. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

Contact Information:

Peter Allocco

Paralegal

Bernstein Liebhard LLP

https://www.bernlieb.com

(212) 951-2030

pallocco@bernlieb.com
CARGOTEC CORPORATION, PRESS RELEASE, 8 JANUARY 2024 AT 10 AM (EET)



Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has received a large order from leading Norwegian logistics service provider Wallenius Wilhelmsen to supply four heavy electric forklift trucks, two electric reachstackers and three heavy terminal tractors for the companys US logistics network. The order, which also includes the Kalmar Insight fleet performance management tool, was booked in Cargotecs Q4 2023 order intake.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen is a global leader in vehicle transportation and logistics, employing over 9,500 people across 28 countries. The companys land-based network of logistics services comprises eight terminals, 11 inland distribution networks and more than 66 services and processing centres around the world. At sea, the company operates 125 vessels in 15 trade routes across six continents.

One of the companys strategic goals with regards to reducing its onshore logistics emissions is its clean fleet initiative whereby all new equipment, where practicable, is zero emission.

Ove Moring, Head of Supplier & Contract Management, Wallenius Wilhelmsen: Our two companies have benefitted from a partnership that stretches back more than three decades. This new agreement to renew our cargo-handling equipment with fully electric and more eco-efficient machines is an important step supporting our clean fleet initiative in the US. We believe that Kalmars heavy equipment offering is the right choice to help us reach our goals.

Svante Alveronn, Vice President, Global Service Solutions, Kalmar: We are extremely proud that Wallenius Wilhelmsen has chosen Kalmar equipment as part of its fleet renewal programme in the US. This order is another clear demonstration of the rapidly rising demand for robust fully electric equipment that is capable of moving heavy loads, and represents the first sales of our electric reachstacker and heavy electric forklift to a customer in the USA.



Further information for the press:

Svante Alveronn, Vice President, Global Service Solutions, Kalmar, tel. +46 705 925 760, svante.alveronn@kalmarglobal.com

Maija Eklof, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Kalmar, tel. +358 20 777 4096, maija.eklof@kalmarglobal.com



Kalmar is the global leader in sustainable cargo handling for ports, terminals, distribution centres and heavy industry. With our extensive electric portfolio and global service network, we help our customers move towards safer, more eco-efficient and productive operations. Together, we develop innovative solutions that shape the future of our industry, improving our customers every move. www.kalmarglobal.com

Kalmar is part of Cargotec. Cargotec's (Nasdaq Helsinki: CGCBV) sales in 2022 totalled approximately EUR 4.1 billion and it employs around 11,800 people. www.cargotec.com

Attachments
Dublin, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Maritime Patrol Aircraft Market by Type (Armored, Unarmored), Propulsion System (Jet Engine, Electric Propulsion), Mode of Operation, Application, and Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Rest of the World )- Global Forecast to 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The maritime patrol aircraft market is valued at USD 6.7 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 11.9 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 12.1% from 2023 to 2028

This market study covers the maritime patrol aircraft market across various segments and subsegments. It aims to estimate this market's size and growth potential across different parts based on type, propulsion systems, application, mode of operation, and region. This study also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key players in the market, their company profiles, key observations related to their product and business offerings, recent developments, and key market strategies they adopted.

Over the last few decades, the maritime patrol aircraft industry has continued to evolve with expanding use cases, better cost efficiencies, and a more significant impact of new technological developments in the aircraft. The maritime patrol aircraft market is experiencing growth driven by escalating maritime security concerns.

These specialized aircraft are pivotal for monitoring and safeguarding coastal regions and international waters. As global trade via the oceans expands and maritime disputes rise, nations are investing in these aircraft to ensure sea safety and security. Technological advancements further boost their demand by enhancing surveillance and communication capabilities.

Major companies profiled in the report include Boeing (US), Lockheed Martin Corporation (US), Leonardo S.p.A. (Italy), Airbus (Netherlands), and Northrop Grumman Corporation (US), among others.

Based on application, the combat support segment is estimated to have the second-largest market share in 2023

The combat support segment in the maritime patrol aircraft market is being driven by evolving global security dynamics. As nations strive to safeguard their maritime interests and secure vital sea routes, investments in combat support aircraft are increasing. These aircraft not only bolster naval capabilities in conflict scenarios but also serve as essential assets for ensuring maritime stability and protecting national interests. This underscores the growing significance of the combat support segment in the maritime patrol aircraft market.

Based on type, the unarmored segment is estimated to have the second-largest market share in 2023

The unarmored segment within the maritime patrol aircraft market is being driven by cost-efficiency and versatility. These aircraft, without heavy armor, are more economical to operate due to their lighter weight and improved fuel efficiency. They are equipped with essential surveillance and reconnaissance systems, making them suitable for monitoring maritime activities and supporting various missions like search and rescue. As nations seek cost-effective solutions to cover extensive ocean areas and address evolving maritime security challenges, the demand for unarmored maritime patrol aircraft is increasing.

Based on regions, the North American region is estimated to have the second-largest market share in 2023

The North America region's prominence in the maritime patrol aircraft market stems from a range of factors. Firstly, the region faces substantial security challenges in its extensive coastlines and maritime borders, necessitating investments in advanced patrol aircraft to ensure maritime safety and security.

Additionally, North America's strong aerospace industry contributes to the development and innovation of maritime patrol aircraft technologies. Collaborations and partnerships with neighboring nations and international organizations further bolster regional maritime security efforts. North America's commitment to upholding maritime dominance and safeguarding crucial trade routes drives the demand for maritime patrol aircraft, establishing the region as a key player in the global maritime patrol aircraft market.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 202 Forecast Period 2023 - 2028 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $6.7 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2028 $11.9 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 12.1% Regions Covered Global

Company Profiles

Airbus

Avic Harbin Aircraft Industry Group Co. Ltd.

Boeing

Dassault Aviation

Embraer

General Automics Aeronautical Systems

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (Hal)

Israel Aerospace Indsutries (Iai)

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd.

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Leonardo S.P.A.

Northrop Grumman Corporation

Saab Ab

Shinmaywa Industries Ltd.

Textron Inc.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

4.1 Attractive Opportunities Maritime Patrol Aircraft Market

4.2 Maritime Patrol Aircraft Market, by Application

4.3 Maritime Patrol Aircraft Market, by Mode of Operation

4.4 Maritime Patrol Aircraft Market, by Region

5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.4 Challenges

5.3 Roadmap for Maritime Patrol Aircraft

5.4 Value Chain Analysis

5.5 Market Ecosystem

5.6 Trends/Disruption Impacting Customer's Business

5.7 Pricing Analysis

5.7.1 Average Selling Price Trend of Key Players, by Aircraft Type

5.7.2 Average Selling Price Trend, by Region

5.8 Technology Analysis

5.9 Case Study Analysis

5.10 Tariff and Regulatory Landscape

5.10.1 Regulatory Bodies, Government Agencies and Other Organizations

5.11 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.12 Key Stakeholders & Buying Criteria

5.12.1 Key Stakeholders in Buying Process

5.12.2 Buying Criteria

5.13 Trade Analysis

5.14 Volume Data

5.15 Key Conferences & Events in 2023-24

6 Industry Trends

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Supply Chain Analysis

6.3 Emerging Industry Trends

6.4 Innovation & Patent Registration

6.5 Impact of Mega Trend

7 Maritime Patrol Aircraft Market, by Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Armored

7.3 Unarmored

8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft Market, by Propulsion System

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Jet Engine

8.2.1 Turbofan

8.2.2 Turboprop

8.2.3 Turboshaft

8.3 Electric Propulsion

9 Maritime Patrol Aircraft Market, by Mode of Operation

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Manned

9.3 Unmanned

10 Maritime Patrol Aircraft Market, by Application

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Surveillance and Reconnaissance

10.3 Combat Support

10.4 Search and Rescue

10.5 Coastal Patrolling

11 Maritime Patrol Aircraft Market, by Region

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Regional Recession Impact Analysis

12 Competitive Landscape

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Company Overview

12.3 Market Ranking Analysis of Key Players, 2022

12.4 Market Share Analysis, 2022

12.5 Revenue Analysis of Top 5 Market Players, 2022

12.6 Company Footprint

12.7 Company Evaluation Matrix

12.9 Competitive Scenario & Trends

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/naqoqn

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
Dublin, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Off-Highway Vehicle Telematics Market - 5th Edition" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Off-Highway Vehicle Telematics Market is the fifth consecutive report analysing the latest developments on the market for telematics solutions used in the construction, mining, agriculture and forestry sectors.

This report covers the latest trends and developments in the dynamic telematics industry. The report forecasts that the global installed base of active off-highway vehicle telematics systems will grow at a CAGR of 13.1 percent from 7.9 million units at the end of 2022 to 14.6 million units by 2027.

Highlights from the report

Insights from 30 executive interviews with market-leading companies.

Overview of the construction, mining, agriculture and forestry sectors.

Profiles of 42 equipment OEMs and their telematics offerings.

Comprehensive overview of the off-highway vehicle telematics value chain and key applications.

Summary of the latest industry trends and developments.

Market forecasts lasting until 2027

The top-10 equipment manufacturers offering telematics together account for around 70 percent of the total number of off-highway vehicle telematics systems in use across the construction, mining, agriculture and forestry sectors globally. The report ranks Caterpillar as the leading off highway vehicle telematics provider. Caterpillar was the first to surpass the milestone of 1 million connected assets across all segments and the company now has more than 1.4 million units.

The runners-up are SANY and Komatsu. Other major manufacturers with estimated installed bases of more than 100,000 units include Volvo Construction Equipment, Deere & Company, XCMG, Hitachi Construction Machinery, JCB, HD Hyundai and Doosan Bobcat. Additional players having estimated installed bases of off-highway vehicle telematics units in the tens of thousands include CNH Industrial, Liebherr, Terex, JLG Industries, AGCO, CLAAS Group and Tadano.

The aftermarket for off-highway vehicle telematics is expected to shrink as the equipment manufacturers continue to introduce standard fitment on additional machine models and at the same time increase the length of free software subscriptions. Arguments such as the OEMs' weak spot being the inability to adequately serve the needs of mixed multibrand fleets are becoming less valid thanks to initiatives such as the AEMP telematics standard which makes it possible to collect data from different brands and manage it all from a software interface of choice.

There are however promising opportunities for telematics players that partner with the OEMs, either as end-to-end full-service providers or - in many cases maybe more realistically - working alongside OEM personnel to optimise the telematics functionality. In addition to the standard-fitted systems and time-limited subscriptions commonly included for free, the telematics players can also benefit from upselling of more advanced functionality. There are several notable examples of partner-powered and codeveloped offerings in the equipment OEM telematics space. In line with trends in adjacent markets such as fleet management for commercial vehicles, the partner strategy may grow in popularity among the equipment manufacturers at the expense of in-house telematics development efforts. This can especially be the case for equipment manufacturers that do not currently offer OEM telematics to their customers.

The future development path is however far from certain as there are also numerous examples of OEMs moving from partner-powered to in-house developed telematics offerings in recent years. An increasing number of players such as vendors focused on on-road commercial vehicle fleet management are nevertheless expected to diversify into telematics for various off-highway vehicles and stationary objects. This enables fleets to monitor and manage all of their business-critical assets through the same back-office interface, using familiar applications and reporting tools.

Asset tracking, especially for smaller and lower-value items, represents a heavily underpenetrated market with considerable potential for telematics providers that are ready to diversify the product offering. Particularly strong growth is expected for solutions that also enable tracking of ancillary equipment such as attachments, implements, handheld tools and similar items.

The report will answer the following questions

Which are the main telematics systems offered by off-highway vehicle manufacturers?

Which are the key off-highway vehicle telematics applications?

What business models are used by OEMs offering telematics?

Which OEM telematics offerings are powered by telematics partners?

How are aftermarket providers approaching the off-highway vehicle telematics market?

Which equipment manufacturers have developed their telematics offerings in-house?

How does the off-highway telematics market compare with other related markets?

How will the off-highway vehicle telematics market evolve in the future?

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 220 Forecast Period 2022 - 2027 Estimated Market Value in 2022 7.9 Million Units Forecasted Market Value by 2027 14.6 Million Units Compound Annual Growth Rate 13.1% Regions Covered Global

Key Topics Covered:

1 The Global Off-Highway Vehicle Market

1.1 Introduction

1.2 The construction sector

1.3 The mining sector

1.4 The agricultural sector

1.5 The forestry sector

2 Off-Highway Vehicle Telematics Technologies and Solutions

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Off-highway vehicle telematics infrastructure

2.3 Off-highway vehicle management

2.4 Equipment operator management

2.5 Safety management

2.6 Business models

3 Market Forecasts and Trends

4 Construction and Mining Equipment Manufacturers

Caterpillar

CNH Industrial

Deere & Company

Doosan Bobcat

Epiroc

HD Hyundai Construction Equipment

HD Hyundai Infracore

Hitachi Construction Machinery

JCB

Komatsu

Liebherr

Sandvik

Volvo Construction Equipment

Bell Equipment

BOMAG

JLG Industries

Kobelco

Kubota

Link-Belt Cranes and LBX (Sumitomo)

LiuGong

Mahindra & Mahindra

Manitowoc

Mecalac

SANY

Tadano

Takeuchi

Terex

Wacker Neuson

XCMG

5 Agriculture and Forestry Equipment Manufacturers

AGCO

ARGO Tractors

CLAAS Group

CNH Industrial

Deere & Company

Krone

Kubota

Mahindra & Mahindra

Ponsse

Rottne

SDF

Tigercat

Vermeer

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/n8kw6k

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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WALTHAM, MA, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire  Tecogen Inc. (OTCQX: TGEN), a clean energy company providing ultra-efficient and clean on-site power, heating and cooling equipment, is pleased to announce that Tecogen has been developing and testing machine learning based intelligent control for cogeneration and cooling systems. The system self-learns from data on our remote monitoring platform CHPInsight and determines the optimum way to operate a chiller or cogeneration plant based on a buildings seasonal load profile.



Testing on a selection of customer sites has resulted in reduced energy purchased from the utility and an increase in equipment run hours. This is a benefit for the customer and Tecogen as it increases customer savings and Tecogens service revenue. We expect to start implementing this in many of our service sites over the course of this year.

Any cogeneration system connected to our platform can be controlled centrally. This will also allow us to act like a virtual power plant and participate in utility demand response programs. The capacity from multiple cogeneration systems can be aggregated and receive utility payments which can be shared with the customer.

Since the self-learning intelligent control system is built on our remote monitoring platform it can also be integrated with other distributed generation and cooling products.

As the world moves towards electrification, the platform that controls the largest amounts of peak power resources has a strategically important position, said Abinand Rangesh, CEO of Tecogen. In addition, revenue generated by increased run hours and demand response programs has little direct cost and directly benefits the bottom line.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements which may describe strategies, goals, outlooks or other non-historical matters, or projected revenues, income, returns or other financial measures, that may include words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "likely" or "may" and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

In addition to the Risk Factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q under Risk Factors, factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from past and projected future results include the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on demand for our products and services, the availability of incentives, rebates and tax benefits relating to our products, changes in the regulatory environment relating to our products, competing technological developments, and the availability of financing to fund our operations and growth.

About Tecogen

Tecogen Inc. designs, manufactures, sells, installs, and maintains high efficiency, ultra-clean, cogeneration products including combined heat and power, air conditioning systems and high-efficiency water heaters for residential, commercial, recreational and industrial use. The companys cost efficient, reliable, and environmentally friendly products for energy production nearly eliminate criteria pollutants and significantly reduce a customers carbon footprint.

In business for over 35 years, Tecogen has shipped more than 3,200 units, supported by an established network of engineering, sales, and service personnel throughout North America. Aggregate run hours on Tecogens InVerde cogeneration systems exceed 6 million hours. For more information, please visit www.tecogen.com or contact us for a free Site Assessment .

Tecogen, InVerde e+, Ilios, Tecochill, Tecofrost, Tecopack, Tecopower, and Ultera are registered trademarks of Tecogen Inc.

Tecogen Media & Investor Relations Contact Information:

Abinand Rangesh, CEO

P: (781) 466-6487

E: Abinand.Rangesh@Tecogen.com
New York, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market size is set to increase by USD 80.46 billion between 2023 and 2028, and register a CAGR of almost 30.75% according to Technavios latest market research report estimates.

What is the factor that drives the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market growth?

The Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market is driven by government initiatives supporting EV charging station installations. This driver is significant in driving the market growth, encouraging the development of EV charging networks, charging points, and various types of chargers like fast charging, DC fast charging, and AC charging. This impetus also boosts the expansion of charging infrastructure, including charging cables, to accommodate the increasing demand for electric vehicles, marking a significant advancement in sustainable transportation. This report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. Buy the full report

How is the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market segmented?

Charging Fast Charger Slow charger

Type AC DC

Geography APAC Europe North America South America Middle East And Africa



How is the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market segmented by Distribution Channel?

The fast charger segment is expected for substantial market share growth during the forecast period within the electric vehicle charging infrastructure market. Fast chargers, also known as Direct Current (DC) chargers, are larger and quicker, representing a remarkable advancement in EV technology.

Receive our market sample report now to gain access to a detailed analysis of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure market

Who are the key players in the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market?

To help businesses improve their market position, Technavio provides a detailed analysis of around 25 companies operating in the market. Some of these companies include ABB Ltd., Alfen NV, Blink Charging Co., BP Plc, E.ON UK Plc, EV Connect, EV Safe Charge Inc, EVBox BV, EVgo Services LLC, Infineon Technologies AG, PG&E Corp., Phihong USA Corp., Polarium Energy Solutions AB, Schneider Electric SE, Shell plc, Shenzhen Atess Power Technology Co. Ltd., Siemens AG, The Mobility House GmbH, TotalEnergies SE, and Webasto SE.

What else the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market report cover?

Market trends such as powering EV charging stations through renewable energy is likely to emerge as one of the primary drivers of the market. However, factors such as lack of standardization and infrastructure may threaten the growth of the market.

Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Market 2023  2028: Market Dynamics

What are the leading trends influencing the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market?

The prevailing trend in the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market involves powering charging stations using renewable energy sources, steering market growth. This trend influences the location, deployment, and network of charging stationsboth public and privateemphasizing smart, wireless charging solutions. Additionally, it accentuates the integration with grids and focuses on efficient maintenance of charging stations. Embracing renewable energy boosts sustainability, enhancing advancements in the EV charging landscape.

What are the challenges faced by the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market?

A significant challenge faced by the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure Market is the absence of standardized charging networks and ample electricity, impacting market expansion. This hurdle affects EV charging station operators, hindering uniformity in charging piles, connectors, and management systems. The shortfall in standardized installation practices and charging equipment further complicates market growth, emphasizing the need for standardized infrastructure and enhanced electricity provisions to boost the EV charging landscape.

Download the sample report now for information on the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Market challenges.

Download now to uncover successful business strategies deployed by Companies in electric vehicle charging infrastructure market - Download Latest Free Sample Report in Minutes

Related Reports:

Electric Vehicle (EV) Battery Market: Electric Vehicle Battery Market size is estimated to grow by USD 53,626.86 million between 2022 and 2027 accelerating at a CAGR of 19.57% during the forecast period.

Electric Vehicle (EV) Market: Global Electric Vehicle (EV) Market size is estimated to grow by 25,927.15 thousand units between 2022 and 2027 accelerating at a CAGR of 37.45% during the forecast period.

About US



Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavios 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 Technavios 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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WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alliance for Pediatric Device Innovation (APDI), the federally funded consortium led by Childrens National Hospital, announces the finalists of its special MedTech Color edition of Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids! competition. This edition supports pediatric medical device advancements from African American and Hispanic innovators.

The competition aims to advance devices that meet critical patient needs while promoting a more inclusive approach to medical technology innovation. The finalists will compete for a share of up to $50,000 in grants funded by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that will support innovators efforts to bring their devices to the commercial market for the benefit of children everywhere.

The children we serve come from diverse backgrounds, so nurturing diversity among our innovators will help us ensure that their needs are met, said Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., MBA, vice president and chief innovation officer at Childrens National and APDI program director and principal investigator. We are delighted to partner with MedTech Color in this endeavor.

The five pediatric medical device finalists are:

Kofimi Technology Inc.  Danvers, Mass.  This patent-pending pulse oximeter device is designed specifically for pediatric populations to provide superior accuracy for all levels of skin pigmentation. A pulse oximeter measures oxygen levels in the blood.

Rubitection  Pittsburgh, Pa. A low-cost skin assessment management tool for chronic wounds, Rubitection measures the properties of the skin. The system allows the user to monitor incremental changes in skin health to predict risk, monitor progression and customize care.

SealCath LLC  Mount Pleasant, S.C.  An innovative, double balloon catheter, SethCath is designed to treat infants facing bowel disorders. Specifically designed for mucous fistula refeeding, this catheter offers a gentle and precise method to provide essential nutrition and support.

TNC Medical Solutions  Los Angeles, Calif.  TNC Medical Solutions offers an advancement in gastrostomy tube (g-tube) reinsertion designed to improve the quality of life for patients reliant on enteral feeding.

WearableDose Inc.  Bowie, Md.  Harnessing artificial intelligence for real-time, precise dosimetry in cancer treatment, WearableDose aims to transform patient care with innovative wearable technology.

Additionally, two of the finalists, Kofimi Technology and SealCath, were chosen to compete in the broader MedTech Color competition, held the same day and open to adult and pediatric devices. These two finalists will have the opportunity to make their pitch in both competitions.

Pediatric finalists were chosen from a field of 27 pediatric entries by a panel of expert judges that included representation from MedTech Color and ADPI. Finalists will compete on March 15 at the MedTech Color 4th Annual Pitch Competition at the UCLA campus. Event registration and additional details are available here.

"The competition's additional investment in companies developing technologies for the pediatric population is significant, said Kwame Ulmer, MedTech Color founder and board member. This means more patients will get access to medtech ecosystem accelerants. As more pitch finalists from diverse backgrounds finally get access to funding, this will provide more opportunities for children and young adults in overlooked communities."

Founded in 2017, MedTech Color is a nonprofit organization built on the same ideal: diverse leadership in the medical technology ecosystem leads to greater innovation and better outcomes. The organization works to advance the representation of people of color in the medical device industry and to nurture the next generation of founders. MedTech Color aims to build a cohesive community of leaders of color, drive thought leadership and increase the number of underrepresented executives in the industry. For more information on MedTech Color, visit medtechcolor.org.

APDI is one of five nonprofit consortia in the FDAs Pediatric Device Consortia program that receives funding to provide a platform of services, expertise, and grants to support pediatric innovators in bringing medical devices to the market that address the needs of children. Along with Childrens National, APDI members include Johns Hopkins University, CIMIT at Mass General Brigham, Tufts Medical Center, Medstar Health Research Institute, OrthoPediatrics Corp. and MedTech Color.

Advancements in pediatric medical devices continue to lag significantly behind those of adults, which is why APDI is focused on helping more pediatric medical device innovations achieve commercialization. For more information on APDI, visit innovate4kids.org

###

About Childrens National Hospital

Childrens National Hospital, based in Washington, D.C., was established in 1870 to help every child grow up stronger. Today, it is the No. 5 childrens hospital in the nation and ranked in all specialties evaluated by U.S. News & World Report. Childrens National is transforming pediatric medicine for all children. The Childrens National Research & Innovation Campus opened in 2021, a first-of-its-kind pediatric hub dedicated to developing new and better ways to care for kids. Childrens National has been designated three times in a row as a Magnet hospital, demonstrating the highest standards of nursing and patient care delivery. This pediatric academic health system offers expert care through a convenient, community-based primary care network and specialty care locations in the D.C. metropolitan area, including Maryland and Virginia. Childrens National is home to the Childrens National Research Institute and Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. It is recognized for its expertise and innovation in pediatric care and as a strong voice for children through advocacy at the local, regional and national levels. As a nonprofit, Children's National relies on generous donors to help ensure that every child receives the care they need.

Media Contacts: Cherri Carbonara | 713-524-8170 | c. 832- 473-6380 | cherri@carbonaragroup.com

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Las Vegas, Nevada / Watertown, Massachusetts, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Deputy chairman Christian Fischer: The conditions for electrifying homes in America are favorable, as already more than 17.7 million heat pumps are installed across the country.

Growth opportunities: Heat pump market is set to double by 2028.

Bosch survey: 99 percent of homeowners in the U.S. and Canada have heard of heat pumps, they really care about efficiency and cost.

Boschs new inverter heat pump is designed for extreme conditions and fulfills almost all heating and cooling demands.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed that Boschs cold climate heat pump meets the requirements to progress from lab to field testing as part of the Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump Technology Challenge.

Las Vegas, Nevada / Watertown, Massachusetts  From the frigid temperatures in Alaska to the sunny beaches of Florida, you can find almost all climate zones in the United States. This climate diversity challenges HVAC manufacturers when it comes to developing systems that can perform in all weather conditions. The region is aiming to steadily expand its renewable energy sector[1] and accelerate the deployment of cold climate heat pump technology[2]-- an efficient alternative to fuel-fired heating that also provides cooling.

The barriers to using heat pumps for efficient heating and cooling in America have been substantially reduced thanks to advancements in technology. The conditions for electrifying homes in America are favorable, as already more than 17.7 million heat pumps are installed across the country and used for heating and cooling, says Christian Fischer, the deputy chairman of the Bosch board of management who is responsible for the companys Energy and Building Technology and Consumer Goods business sectors. The residential HVAC market is moving into a new era. Although there are still more AC-only units sold in the United States, the financial value of the heat pump market was already larger than for AC-only products in 2022 and is set to double by 2028, according to Boschs own market research. In 2020, almost half (45 percent) of new homes in the U.S. used electricity to heat, an increase of around 67 percent in comparison to 2000 (27 percent)[3]. Today, more than half of energy use in homes goes toward heating and cooling[4]. Home energy is a significant source of emissions in the United States. In an effort to reduce their personal carbon footprints[5], an increasing number of Americans are transitioning to electric energy.

At CES 2024, Bosch is presenting its IDS Ultra cold climate heat pump system, which is designed to operate in colder climate zones, like regions in the Northern U.S. Heat pumps, since they are electric, can help homeowners to reduce their carbon footprint. To decarbonize homes in the U.S. and Canada, it is key to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and conserve finite resources, says Christian Fischer. Our goal is to promote a more environmentally friendly lifestyle and we are proud to present state-of-the-art technology at CES 2024 which can contribute to tackling global warming, he adds. Bosch is making energy-efficient home heating and cooling accessible across almost all climate zones in the U.S., offering a promising step towards a cleaner energy future.

Bosch survey: Homeowners care about cost and efficiency

A Bosch survey[6] conducted in Canada and the U.S. found that awareness of heat pumps is near universal: 99 percent of homeowners have at least heard of heat pumps for heating and cooling. But the challenge in further adoption resides in the cold weather regions. More than a fifth of all respondents even currently own a heat pump, but heat pump ownership is very geographically uneven. The highest percentage of heat pump ownership is concentrated in the Southeast, in a region known for mild winters. In colder places like New England and the Upper Midwest, we see ownership rates 6 to 7 times lower. The few homeowners who do invest in a heat pump usually have to keep a backup system running, often powered by fossil fuels to take over when temperatures drop on cold winter days. In these regions, households tend to refrain from heat pumps due to the associated high energy costs and insufficient heating capacity in low ambient temperatures of traditional heat pumps. Switching to heat pumps comes with energy and cost saving advantages. This is good news for the nearly two-thirds of respondents to Boschs survey who cited cost and efficiency as their main concerns when it comes to heating and cooling their homes.

Boschs new heat pump fulfills almost all heating and cooling demands

Boschs latest heat pump technology now expands the reach of energy-efficient heating even into areas with extremely cold winters. Our new IDS Ultra is the first Bosch air-to-air heat pump designed specifically for high efficiency heating in cold climates. The heat pump provides 100 percent heating capacity down to an outdoor temperature of 5 Fahrenheit (-15 Celsius) and will continue to operate even down to -13 Fahrenheit (-25 Celsius), says Alexander Wuthnow, president and CEO of the Bosch Home Comfort Group in North America. Thanks to advances in cold climate technology, our heat-pump provides heating even in sub-zero temperatures, Wuthnow adds. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed that Boschs cold climate heat pump meets all requirements of the Cold Climate Challenge set to manufacturers. The goal of the challenge was to advance the technology to allow consumers to make the switch to a cleaner energy future with less carbon emissions.

Consumer education is key to adoption of cold climate heat pumps

Heat pump technology has evolved to the point where reliable heating performance is now possible even in low temperatures. The next logical step is to make consumers aware of these advancements in energy-efficient home heating. According to Bosch research, there is significant opportunity to educate consumers on the full potential of heat pump technology as well as existing federal tax credits and state administered rebates available to help them make the transition. Professionals will play a key role when it comes to advising consumers, as over half of the respondents in Boschs survey reported using contractors and technicians as their main source of information.

Press photos: #e7214774, #bb8c8c78, #ab868f35

Bosch at CES 2024:

BOOTH: January 9  12, 2024 , in the Central Hall, booth #17207.

, in the Central Hall, booth #17207. FOLLOW the Bosch CES 2024 highlights on X: #BoschCES.

the Bosch CES 2024 highlights on X: PANELS WITH BOSCH EXPERTS, Thursday, January 11, 2024:

Elevate Your Space: Enhancing your Home with Smart Appliances, 15:00 p.m. (local time), Venetian Hotel, Lando 4302, session with Goncalo Costa, Vice President of Climate and Wellbeing North America.

Our Newest Cyber Threat is AI and AI is Our Biggest Defense,

14:00 p.m. (local time), Las Vegas Convention Center West / N258, session with Dr. Zico Kolter, Chief Scientist of AI at Bosch.

Future of Care: How Other Industries Shape Health, 11:00 a.m.

(local time), Las Vegas Convention Center / North Wing, session with

Dr. Stefan Finkbeiner, General Manager at Bosch Sensortec.

Having established a presence in North America in 1906, today the Bosch Group employs 37,000 associates in more than 100 locations in the region (as of Dec. 31, 2022). Bosch generated consolidated sales of $15.1 billion in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in 2022. For more information visit www.bosch.us, www.bosch.ca and www.bosch.mx.

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 421,000 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2022). The company generated sales of 88.2 billion euros in 2022. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. As a leading IoT provider, Bosch offers innovative solutions for smart homes, Industry 4.0, and connected mobility. Bosch is pursuing a vision of mobility that is sustainable, safe, and exciting. It uses its expertise in sensor technology, software, and services, as well as its own IoT cloud, to offer its customers connected, cross-domain solutions from a single source. The Bosch Groups strategic objective is to facilitate connected living with products and solutions that either contain artificial intelligence (AI) or have been developed or manufactured with its help. Bosch improves quality of life worldwide with products and services that are innovative and spark enthusiasm. In short, Bosch creates technology that is Invented for life. The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 470 subsidiary and regional companies in over 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Boschs global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network covers nearly every country in the world. The basis for the companys future growth is its innovative strength. At 136 locations across the globe, Bosch employs some 85,500 associates in research and development, of which nearly 44,000 are software engineers.

Additional information is available online at www.bosch.com, www.iot.bosch.com, www.bosch-press.com, www.twitter.com/BoschPress

Exchange rate: 1 EUR = 1.0538

[1] https://www.energy.gov/clean-energy

[2] Department of Energy (DOE): https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/articles/residential-cold-climate-heat-pump-technology-challenge-fact-sheet .

[3] U.S. Census Bureau (2020): https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/charted-home-heating-systems-in-the-u-s/

[4] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/homes.php

[5] This presumes that renewable energy is used.

[6] In a geographically stratified survey Bosch has asked 1,526 homeowners across the United States and Canada [Status: November 2023].

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NEW YORK, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greystone, a leading national commercial real estate finance company, announced that banking industry veteran Steven Caligor has joined the firm as a Senior Managing Director of Structured Finance. In this new role, he will focus on managing and expanding client relationships and channels of loan origination for Greystone within the banking sector. Mr. Caligor is based in Greystones New York office.



Prior to joining Greystone, Mr. Caligor was an Executive Vice President at BHI (Bank Hapoalim) USA, where he managed the banks national commercial real estate and healthcare verticals with total loans in excess of $4 billion. With nearly 30 years of industry experience, Mr. Caligor has held a variety of executive positions overseeing sales, credit, and portfolio monitoring at Signature Bank, Monticello Asset Management, and Bank Leumi.

This is an exciting new challenge for me to leverage my commercial banking, real estate, and healthcare experience within Greystones diverse product platform, said Mr. Caligor. The banking sector is invaluable to private lenders like Greystone and there is so much opportunity for new avenues of capital access, client acquisition and financial partnerships. Im thrilled to join the team and help expand the platform.

Steves long tenure in banking, proven history in growing businesses, and his strategic background is going to be invaluable to our team as we continue to invest in ways to best service our existing and new client base and help them grow and succeed, said Ms. Debby Jenkins, Executive Managing Director and to whom Mr. Caligor reports.

About Greystone

Greystone is a private national commercial real estate finance company with an established reputation as a leader in multifamily and healthcare finance, having ranked as a top FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac lender in these sectors. Loans are offered through Greystone Servicing Company LLC, Greystone Funding Company LLC and/or other Greystone affiliates. For more information, visit www.greystone.com.

PRESS CONTACT:

Karen Marotta

Greystone

212-896-9149

Karen.Marotta@greyco.com
Dublin, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO Market: Analysis By Type, Application, Indication, By Region, By Country: Market Insights and Forecast" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO market valued at USD 2.54 billion in 2022 is expected to grow at a CAGR of 30.75% during the forecast period of 2024-2029.



The report provides a complete analysis of the Global Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO Market industry in terms of historical data for 2019-2022, estimates of 2023 and the forecasts for 2024-2029.





The global Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO market has been experiencing robust growth and escalating demand, propelled by continuous advancements in cell and gene therapies. With a broadening scope of therapeutic areas and a favourable regulatory environment, the global Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO market is poised for sustained expansion as it plays a pivotal role in the development and commercialization of ground-breaking therapies for various diseases. Global Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO market is expected to grow at an extraordinary rate driven by significant investments from industry players.



The global pipeline of cell and gene therapies has been expanding, covering a wide range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, rare diseases, and genetic disorders. As more therapies advance through clinical trials and toward commercialization, the demand for CDMO services for manufacturing, process development, and scale-up increases.



Global CDMO organisations for cell and gene therapy are expanding, and this is one of the main factors propelling the global Cell and Gene Therapy's overall expansion. With the increasing global demand for advanced cell and gene therapies, CDMOs are proactively setting up production facilities in various locations to meet the changing demands of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. These days, CDMOs are essential to the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.

Over the past ten years, CDMOs have grown in prominence due to a more dynamic mergers and acquisition landscape. Serving both local and international markets, there are currently over 600 active Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs). CDMOs provide specific expertise that helps both "Big Pharma"and smaller inventors to launch products sooner.

The rise of biologics is seen by the number of CDMOs making significant investments in brand-new biomanufacturing facilities. These companies include Boehringer Ingelheim (USD827M investment), Samsung Biologics (USD1.7B investment), Lonza (USD935M expansion), and Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (USD2B investment).



Additionally, by expanding globally, CDMOs can meet regional regulatory needs, provide customised manufacturing solutions, and improve accessibility for customers that need their services. CDMOs can provide more adaptable and responsive solutions by being present in important worldwide markets. This helps to speed up the development and global commercialization of gene and cell therapies.



One prominent factor restraining the growth of the global Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO market is the high cost for producing viral vectors. As carriers of therapeutic genes into target cells, viral vectors are essential to the development of gene and cell therapies. Viral vector production is a complex procedure that frequently involves specialized techniques, stringent quality control standards, and specialized facilities.



There are now five viral vectors in use for gene therapy. AAV have the biggest market share, followed by lentiviruses, adenoviruses, herpes simplex viruses and retroviruses. The vector manufacturing cost for a single dose might be as high as USD 1-2 million, given the expected price of USD 3-7 million per batch, according to Roland Berger Insights. Therefore, the high cost of producing viral vectors hampers cell and gene therapies from being widely commercialised and made accessible, which limits their uptake and hinders the expansion of the Cell and Gene CDMO market.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 260 Forecast Period 2024 - 2029 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2024 $4.22 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2029 $16.13 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 30.7% Regions Covered Global

Scope of the Report

The report analyses the Global Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO Market by Value (USD Million).

The report presents the analysis of Global Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO Market for the historical period of 2019-2022, the estimated year 2023 and the forecast period of 2024-2029.

The report analyses the Global Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO Market by Type (Cell Therapy, Gene Therapy, Gene-modified Cell Therapies).

The report analyses the Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO Market by Application (Clinical, Pre-clinical).

The report analyses the Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO Market by Indication (Oncology Diseases, Infectious Diseases, Neurological Disorder, Other Indications).

The report analyses the Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO Market by Region (Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa).

The report analyses the Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO Market by Country (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, China, Japan, South Korea, India).

The key insights of the report have been presented through the frameworks of SWOT and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.

Also, the major opportunities, trends, drivers and challenges of the industry has been analyzed in the report.

The report tracks competitive developments, strategies, mergers and acquisitions and new product development.

Competitive Positioning

Companies' Product Positioning

Competitive Positioning of Oxford Biomedica's Viral Vector Offering

Market Position Matrix

Market Share Analysis of Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO Market

Company Profiles

Oxford Biomedica

Lonza Group AG

Catalent, Inc.

Samsung Biologics

WuXi Biologics

Pfizer CentreOne

Danaher Corporation

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.

Novartis AG

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rlsb3z

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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Bosch and Volkswagen subsidiary Cariad are testing driverless parking and charging based on automated valet parking.

Automated parking service now includes automated charging of electric vehicles.

Aim is to create additional benefit for automotive customers by combining automated parking and charging services.

Automated charging will smooth the way to electromobility.

Stuttgart, Germany, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Finding a parking space can be tiresome and time-consuming, especially in labyrinthine parking garages  and finding the vehicle again later is no different. The search for a free charge spot is a similar story. Together with the Volkswagen subsidiary Cariad, Bosch is now testing automated valet charging. This solution, which is based on Boschs automated valet parking system, guides electric vehicles driverlessly to an unoccupied parking space furnished with a charge spot, where a charging robot recharges them automatically. Once recharging is complete, the vehicle maneuvers driverlessly to another parking space. Bosch and Cariad are now testing the necessary technology in two in-house parking garages in Germany: in Cariads staff parking garage in Ingolstadt, the two companies are testing driverless parking with automated valet parking, while driverless charging with automated valet charging is being tested in Boschs development parking garage in Ludwigsburg. And at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Bosch is also currently showcasing the technology needed for automated charging.

Electromobility: automation to allay misgivings about range

Easy, straightforward charging is at the top of the wish list for electric car drivers. But their everyday experience tells a different story: long queues at charge spots, blocking fees for disconnecting the power cable too late, and manhandling the cable. By addressing these challenges, automated valet charging greatly increases customer convenience when charging electric vehicles. Whats more, the technology offers a range of advantages for automakers, charge spot operators, parking garage operators, and energy suppliers. And for the environment, electric vehicles mean a reduction in carbon emissions from road traffic.

Automation plays a key role in the mobility revolution and the transition to electromobility. Our two services  automated valet parking and automated valet charging  make the mobility experience much smoother for users, says Manuel Maier, vice president of the cross-domain Level 4 parking product area at Bosch. Making it straightforward to recharge electric vehicles allays peoples misgivings about range, and is essential if electromobility is to find widespread acceptance. With this in mind, Bosch and Cariad can make parking and charging even more efficient and convenient.

Rolf Dubitzky, head of parking at Cariad, also sees great potential in this collaboration: Were particularly pleased to be shaping the future of automated parking and charging together with Bosch. Our collaboration allows us to test the technologies at an early stage of vehicle development, so that the end product is reliable and offers customers the best possible user experience.

Charging service: the automated route to even more convenience

The infrastructure guides the vehicle to the parking space, where a robot opens the charging flap and automatically inserts the charging cable, removing it again once the vehicle battery is fully charged. The car then drives back to a regular parking space, freeing up the charge spot for the next electric vehicle with a low battery. All this makes it possible for several vehicles to be recharged and parked without human interaction. This increases the efficiency of the charging infrastructure, optimizes the use of charge spots, and saves customers the bother of long waits at the charge spot.

Automated valet parking is the worlds first driverless SAE Level 4 parking service, and has been in operation in the P6 parking garage at Stuttgart airport for about a year now. Bosch has also started to equip other parking garages throughout Germany with the infrastructure technology.

Press photo(s): #93c8c5de, #23556bfc, #8a1b7132, #5931f439, #5d5eed56, #acb09009, #0aba972e

Bosch at CES 2024:

BOOTH: January 9  12, 2024 , in the Central Hall, booth #17207.

, in the Central Hall, booth #17207. FOLLOW the Bosch CES 2024 highlights on X: #BoschCES

the Bosch CES 2024 highlights on X: PANELS WITH BOSCH EXPERTS, Thursday, January 11, 2024:

Elevate Your Space: Enhancing your Home with Smart Appliances, 15:00 p.m. (local time), Venetian Hotel, Lando 4302, session with Goncalo Costa, Vice President of Climate and Wellbeing North America.

Our Newest Cyber Threat is AI and AI is Our Biggest Defense, 14:00 p.m. (local time), Las Vegas Convention Center West / N258, session with Dr. Zico Kolter, Chief Scientist of AI at Bosch.

Future of Care: How Other Industries Shape Health, 11:00 a.m. (local time), Las Vegas Convention Center / North Wing, session with Dr. Stefan Finkbeiner, General Manager at Bosch Sensortec.

Mobility is the largest Bosch Group business sector. In 2022, its sales came to 52.6 billion euros, or just under 60 percent of total group sales. This makes the Bosch Group one of the leading automotive suppliers. The Mobility business sector pursues a vision of mobility that is safe, sustainable, and exciting. For its customers, the outcome is integrated mobility solutions. The business sectors main areas of activity are injection technology and powertrain peripherals for internal-combustion engines, diverse solutions for powertrain electrification, vehicle safety systems, driver-assistance and automated functions, technology for user-friendly infotainment as well as vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, repair-shop concepts, and technology and services for the automotive aftermarket. Bosch is synonymous with important automotive innovations, such as electronic engine management, the ESP anti-skid system, and common-rail diesel technology.

Having established a presence in North America in 1906, today the Bosch Group employs 37,000 associates in more than 100 locations in the region (as of Dec. 31, 2022). Bosch generated consolidated sales of $15.1 billion in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in 2022. For more information visit www.bosch.us, www.bosch.ca and www.bosch.mx.

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 421,000 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2022). The company generated sales of 88.2 billion euros in 2022. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. As a leading IoT provider, Bosch offers innovative solutions for smart homes, Industry 4.0, and connected mobility. Bosch is pursuing a vision of mobility that is sustainable, safe, and exciting. It uses its expertise in sensor technology, software, and services, as well as its own IoT cloud, to offer its customers connected, cross-domain solutions from a single source. The Bosch Groups strategic objective is to facilitate connected living with products and solutions that either contain artificial intelligence (AI) or have been developed or manufactured with its help. Bosch improves quality of life worldwide with products and services that are innovative and spark enthusiasm. In short, Bosch creates technology that is Invented for life. The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 470 subsidiary and regional companies in over 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Boschs global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network covers nearly every country in the world. The basis for the companys future growth is its innovative strength. At 136 locations across the globe, Bosch employs some 85,500 associates in research and development, of which nearly 44,000 are software engineers.

Additional information is available online at www.bosch.com, www.iot.bosch.com, www.bosch-press.com, www.twitter.com/BoschPress

Exchange rate: 1 EUR = 1.0538

Attachments
London, United Kingdom, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TecCrypto , a forward-thinking cloud mining platform, today announces its ambitious plans for 2024, aiming to become the leading provider in the cloud mining industry. This innovative platform is uniquely positioned to offer investors the opportunity to make money through cloud mining, especially in the ever-expanding world of Bitcoin mining.







The TecCrypto Advantage: A New Path to Earning

In todays digital era, TecCrypto offers a novel and accessible way for individuals to generate income. Cloud mining, a process of cryptocurrency mining via remote data centres, is an innovative solution that removes the traditional barriers of expensive hardware and technical expertise. TecCryptos platform is designed to make this process as straightforward and profitable as possible for its users, providing a golden opportunity for both seasoned investors and those new to the cryptocurrency world.





Comprehensive Investment Plans for Every Aspirant





Understanding that investors have diverse needs and goals, TecCrypto offers a wide array of investment plans tailored to various levels of expertise and financial capacity.

Newbie (Bitcoin Miner S21 Hyd.): $10 for 1 day, total profit of $0.25.

Hot (ETC Miner E9 Pro): $100 for 2 days, total profit of $4.00.

Litecoin Miner L7: $300 for 3 days, total profit of $14.85.

Dash Miner D9: $800 for 7 days, total profit of $100.80.

Bitcoin Miner S19 Pro+ Hyd.: $1,600 for 12 days, total profit of $364.80.

Bitcoin Miner S19 Pro+ Hyd. (Higher Tier): $3,500 for 15 days, total profit of $1,023.75

Bitcoin Miner S19 XP Hyd.: $6,500 for 18 days, total profit of $2,398.50.

Bitcoin Miner T21: $8,000 for 20 days, total profit of $3,360.00.

Bitcoin Miner S21: $15,000 for 20 days, total profit of $6,750.00.

Hot (Bitcoin Miner S21 Hyd.): $30,000 for 30 days, total profit of $22,500.00.

MAX: $100 for 2 days, total profit of $4.20 (Currently Sold Out).





Innovative Features and User-Friendly Interface

TecCryptos platform stands out with its cutting-edge cloud mining technology, ensuring efficient and profitable mining operations. The platform is designed with a focus on user experience, making Bitcoin mining accessible and convenient for everyone. TecCrypto also offers comprehensive learning resources, empowering users to make informed decisions and maximize their earnings.





Real-Time Analytics and Global Accessibility

One of TecCryptos standout features is its real-time analytics, allowing users to monitor their mining activities and make timely strategic adjustments. Moreover, TecCryptos cloud-based platform ensures global accessibility, breaking down geographical barriers and enabling a worldwide community of investors to participate in Bitcoin mining.





Sustainable Practices in Mining

In its commitment to being a market leader, TecCrypto not only focuses on profitability but also on sustainable mining practices. By using renewable energy sources, TecCrypto significantly reduces the ecological impact of mining operations, aligning with global sustainability goals and setting a new standard for responsible cryptocurrency mining.





Empowering Investors to Make Money from Home

TecCryptos vision for 2024 goes beyond providing a service; its about creating opportunities for financial growth and independence. The platform offers a unique way for individuals to earn money from home, tapping into the lucrative potential of cryptocurrency without the need for physical infrastructure.





A Future-Forward Approach to Cloud Mining

As TecCrypto moves forward, its goal is clear: to establish itself as the leading cloud mining platform in the industry. With its innovative technology, diverse investment plans, and commitment to user empowerment, TecCrypto is poised to redefine the standards of cloud mining and become the go-to choice for investors looking to profit from Bitcoin mining.





Join the TecCrypto Revolution

TecCrypto warmly invites individuals and businesses to explore its platform and seize the opportunity to make money through cloud mining. With a range of comprehensive plans, advanced technology, and a focus on sustainability and user experience, TecCrypto stands as the future of home-based cryptocurrency mining.





For more details about TecCryptos services and to start your journey in the world of cryptocurrency mining, visit https://teccrypto.com







Media Contact Information:

Name: Pamundeep Bains

Email:pr@teccrypto.com

Company: Crypto Technology Limited

Website: https://teccrypto.com







Disclaimer: The information provided in this press release is not a solicitation for investment, or intended as investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. It is strongly recommended that you practice due diligence (including consultation with a professional financial advisor) before investing in or trading securities and cryptocurrency.




Chicago, IL, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Specialdocs Consultants expanded its footprint considerably in 2023, with a total of 21 new clients nationwide who reflect the changing face of concierge medicine, more diverse than ever before. In the second half of 2023, the company partnered with 11 healthcare providers across the country to launch 9 new concierge medicine practices.

In a year characterized by a full return to normal, healthcare was a notable exception, says Specialdocs CEO Terry Bauer. The frustration with our fragmented, complicated and dysfunctional healthcare environment is palpable, seen in virtually every type of practice setting and region of the country. Dedicated doctors and their patients deserve much more than the current system can possibly accommodate. The increased number of physicians who converted to our concierge medicine model in 2023, and more who will launch this month, serve as a powerful indicator that the status quo is no longer acceptable to doctors or their patients.

Concierge medicine has gradually but unmistakably shifted into the mainstream, according to Bauer, broadening its appeal across all demographics with an emphasis on personalized attention and a vibrant physician-patient connection.

We are gratified to see the traditional profile of a concierge physician evolve from primarily older males to encompass physicians who are female, younger, of color and diverse ethnicities, says Bauer, mirrored by the increasingly heterogenous population of patients who opt for membership medicine practices.

New physician-client Angela Marshall, MD , founder of a prominent Maryland-based primary care practice dedicated to womens health and former chair of the Board of Directors for the Black Women's Health Imperative, made the change to concierge medicine in December 2023, spurred by appointments that continued to shrink in time and quality.

I've seen health care devolve over the past couple of decades that I've practiced, she says. When I started, we would schedule 20 - to 30-minute appointments. I continued to schedule at least 20 minutes but the problem is I often spent more than that with patients, and quickly ran behind. Its stressful to feel this way all day, every day, but Im convinced its impossible to give great quality care in a 10 or 15-minute visit. It takes time to build relationships, talk about the patients challenges and struggles, and practice preventive care.

She now offers patients who choose the concierge medicine option at her practice benefits that include extended, same- or next-day appointments, direct communications after hours for urgent medical issues, personal advocacy for their care when hospitalized, and preventive care and wellness services ranging from individualized health assessments and screenings to ongoing weight management and lifestyle counseling.



For Dr. Shadiar Ohadi , more time with patients was also the impetus for converting her family medicine practice in Sherman Oaks, CA to the concierge model in summer 2023. As a doctor of osteopathic medicine, Im committed to treating the whole patient, which includes uncovering the root cause of illness, fostering physical, mental and emotional well-being, and emphasizing lifestyle modifications rather than pharmaceuticals or other interventions, she explains. This takes time, much more time than is possible in a traditional model of medicine. My concierge medicine practice provides the opportunity to care for my patients in a way thats most meaningful to them, and to me.

Her patients, spanning a wide spectrum of age and health conditions, have expressed a great deal of satisfaction with the new model. For people my age, its so important to have a doctor who listens to you, whether its a small issue or a big one, shares 21-year-old C.O., while 75-years-young patient P.M. says the concierge practice is wonderful and Im truly blessed to have Dr. Ohadi as my doctor.

Since opening his concierge medicine practice in November 2023, Keith Chumley, MD has experienced a remarkable transformation. He says: This model is the only way to take back control of my time and provide care my patients deserve. I now find myself enjoying medicine again. Im able to spend more time with patients and not just superficially address immediate symptoms with medications or a referral, but read about and better understand their disease processes as well as coordinate with a network of specialists who share my vision of personalized care.

Having contemplated making the move to concierge medicine for several years before moving forward with Specialdocs, his advice is succinct: Dont wait! The decision may seem stressful, but it will absolutely be worth it.

Says Bauer: We are inspired daily by the incredible impact this model has on our clients lives and their patients healthcare experience. In 2024, we eagerly anticipate collaborating with a significant number of exceptional physicians to bring the benefits of membership medicine to their communities."

In the second half of 2023, the network of outstanding healthcare providers affiliated with Specialdocs grew to include:

Internal Medicine physician, Silver Spring, MD

Family Medicine physician, Silver Spring, MD

Physician assistant, Silver Spring, MD

Internal Medicine physician, Wellesley, MA

Family Medicine physician, Torrance, CA

Cardiology & Internal Medicine physician, Chicago, IL

Internal Medicine physician, Pittsburgh, PA

Family Medicine physician, Delray Beach, FL

Internal Medicine physician, Fairfax, VA

Family Medicine physician, Sherman Oaks, CA

Internal Medicine physician, Nashville, TN

Joining the Specialdocs network in the first half of 2023 were:

Endocrinologist, South Florida, FL

Family Medicine physician, Naples, FL

Integrative Medicine physician, Boston, MA

Internal Medicine physician, Fairfield County, CT

Internal Medicine physician, Fairfield County, CT

Internal Medicine physician, Westchester County, NY

Internal Medicine physician, Northern VA

Internal Medicine physician, Fairfax County, VA

Internal Medicine physician, San Francisco Bay Area

Internal medicine physician, suburban Chicago

About Specialdocs

Since 2002 Specialdocs has worked to transform physicians professional lives with a change to its industry-leading, sustainable concierge medicine model, empowering them to deliver exceptionally personalized patient care.

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Chicago, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chicago, Illinois -

Lane Brown LLC, a personal injury law firm based in Chicago, IL, has issued a correction to a prior press release pertaining to its success in an accidental injury lawsuit.

The press release in question, which announced that the law firm had secured a $2 million settlement for a jogger who was accidentally hit by a teenage boy driving an SUV in DuPage County, IL, erroneously identified Kellen Bachman as a representative for Lane Brown, LLC. The law firm wishes to correct the mistake by saying that, while the details of the case and its win were accurately represented in the press release, Kellen Bachman is in no way associated with the Chicago personal injury law firm. Furthermore, it is important to emphasize that misquoting a non-attorney as a representative of a law firm in a press release can inadvertently create legal ambiguities and potential compliance issues, as they lack the requisite legal training and licensure to officially represent or articulate the firm's standpoint on legal matters.

Lane Brown LLC represents clients in all stages of their personal injury lawsuits. The firms practice areas include personal injury, car accidents, motorcycle accidents, truck accidents, wrongful death, medical malpractice, sexual abuse, premises liability, and more. The law firm serves clients in Chicago and nearby areas including Aurora, Bolingbrook, Cicero, Des Plaines, Evanston, Joliet, Naperville, Oak Lawn, Schaumburg, Skokie, Waukegan, and others.

With over 130 years of combined experience among the law firms attorneys, Lane Brown LLC has, to date, secured over $22 million in medical malpractice verdicts, over $5 million in workplace injury verdicts, over $3 million in medical malpractice settlements, nearly $3 million in sexual abuse settlements, and over $5.7 million in wrongful death settlements. A huge list of the cases it has won over the years is available to browse through on its website.

The law firms Managing Partner Mark Brown talks about what makes Lane Brown LLC a cut above the rest by saying, Ive been doing this for over 30 years. Me and my team have seen it all and done it all when it comes to the world of litigating personal injury law. We know all the tricks that insurance companies use to deny even the most legitimate claims for innocent victims. We take the fight to them using the right tools, the right resources, and the right defenses to protect your claim. We make sure that you dont settle for less and get everything that you deserve for your pain and suffering.

Lane Brown LLC has received several five-star testimonials from clients over the years thanking them for supporting their cases and getting them favorable verdicts or settlements. The law firm even boasts a stellar overall rating of 4.7 out of 5.0 on its Google Business Profile from over 45 reviews with clients noting the knowledge and legal acumen of its attorneys, their confident and calming demeanor, and the customer service provided throughout.

A recent review says, I cannot speak highly enough about Lane Brown LLC Law firm. In our case, it involved a family member injured in an industrial accident. We were referred to Lane Brown Law Firm. We live in central Illinois, 4 1/2 hrs. from Chicago not having any idea on who to entrust or what direction to turn. Scott Lane made frequent trips, explaining all of the details of the case, and keeping us up on the case as it progressed. Lane Brown LLC won our case, and I cannot thank them enough. I can say with certainty that 5 stars is not a high enough rating.

Another client writes, While visiting Chicago I sustained a serious injury. Fortunately, I contacted Lane Brown Law and was represented by Mark Brown and Kellie Snyder. They both worked tirelessly, even throughout the pandemic, to settle my case. The fact that I lived out of state didn't matter when it came to communicating with me. I was always kept well informed. Mark and Kellie are both compassionate and caring and were always there to listen to my concerns and guide me through the process. Mark Brown and Kellie Snyder are the absolute BEST!

Readers can contact Lane Brown LLC at (312) 697-1143 for more details about its practice areas or to schedule an appointment.

###

For more information about Lane Brown, LLC, contact the company here:



Lane Brown, LLC

Mark Brown

(312) 332-1400

markbrown@lanebrownlaw.com

230 W Monroe St

Suite 1900

Chicago, IL 60606
Kelowna, January 8, 2024 - F3 Uranium Corp. (TSXV: FUU) (OTCQB: FUUFF) ("F3" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that drill mobilization for the winter drilling program is underway, and ground geophysics has already resumed at its 100%-owned Patterson Lake North ("PLN") Project. The 2024 work is fully funded and budgeted at $16M and consists of ground geophysics and drilling of approximately 55 drill holes totaling 24,000m. Exploration efforts will initially focus on the A1 shear hosting the JR Zone and the B1 area 3km south of the JR Zone.

Sam Hartmann, VP of Exploration commented:

"We are excited to set out on this aggressive winter program aimed at JR Zone expansion and discovery of additional mineralized zones along the 5km long A1 and parallel B1 shear zones. Increasingly prospective geology with many of the signatures commonly associated with uranium mineralization was recognized in the fall drilling along the B1 area, 3km south of the JR Zone. This includes intensely brecciated, faulted and clay altered Athabasca Sandstone with evidence of a cross cutting structure with significant vertical displacement, highly anomalous boron up to 10,000 ppm in the lower sandstone as well as strongly graphitic, clay altered and structurally deformed basement rocks (see NR dated December 18, 2024.) The extensive structural complexity associated with large-scale hydrothermal alteration and accompanying anomalous pathfinder element geochemistry including uranium values are all features that highlight the strong potential the B1 Area."

Phase 1 of the Dias Geophysics 3D-DCIP ground resistivity survey, which is nearing completion, was carried out in late fall over the JR Zone and A1 shear, as well as the parallel B1 shear zone; Dias is currently back on site and has resumed current injections. Drilling efforts at the B1 area will focus on targets developed through integration of 3D-DCIP ground resistivity and ground EM data, along with drill core geochemistry.

About Patterson Lake North:

The Company's 4,078-hectare 100% owned Patterson Lake North property (PLN) is located just within the south-western edge of the Athabasca Basin, within 25km of Fission Uranium's Triple R and NexGen Energy's Arrow high-grade world class uranium deposits; an area which is poised to become the next major area of development for new uranium operations in northern Saskatchewan. PLN is accessed by Provincial Highway 955.

Qualified Person:

The technical information in this news release has been prepare in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and approved on behalf of the company by Raymond Ashley, P.Geo., President & COO of F3 Uranium Corp., a Qualified Person. Mr. Ashley has verified the data disclosed.

About F3 Uranium Corp:

F3 Uranium is a uranium project generator and exploration company, focusing on projects in the Athabasca Basin, home to some of the world's largest high grade uranium discovery. F3 Uranium currently has 18 projects in the Athabasca Basin. Several of F3's projects are near large uranium discoveries including Triple R, Arrow and Hurricane.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, including statements regarding the suitability of the Properties for mining exploration, future payments, issuance of shares and work commitment funds, entry into of a definitive option agreement respecting the Properties, are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company based on information currently available to it. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those detailed from time to time in filings made by the Company with securities regulatory authorities, which may cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

The TSX Venture Exchange and the Canadian Securities Exchange have not reviewed, approved or disapproved the contents of this press release, and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

F3 Uranium Corp.

750-1620 Dickson Avenue

Kelowna, BC V1Y9Y2

Contact Information

Investor Relations

Telephone: 778 484 8030

Email: ir@f3uranium.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Dev Randhawa"

Dev Randhawa, CEO

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/193440
Vancouver, January 8, 2024 - Wedgemount Resources Corp. (CSE: WDGY) (OTCQB: WDGRF) ("Wedgemount" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce an update on its well stimulation and facility optimization programs for the Company's central Texas oil and gas assets.

A total of twenty operating wells have been treated to date - thirteen of which have undergone reservoir stimulations, an additional six have had near wellbore chemical treatments and one injection well at the Willowbend asset has undergone multi-phase chemical treatments. The Company has also completed the optimization of sub-surface equipment as needed.

Initial well performance has been in-line with management expectations and the Company anticipates that all treated wells will be back on daily production in early February. Wedgemount will provide updated production numbers in the coming weeks once the wells have flowed back water and chemicals used in the stimulations.

Optimization of surface facilities is virtually complete already resulting in an immediate benefit from the additional oil storage and treatment infrastructure.

About Wedgemount Resources Corp.

Wedgemount Resources is a junior oil & gas company focused on maximizing shareholder value through the acquisition, development and exploitation of natural resource projects in the southern USA.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Wedgemount Resources Corp.

Mark Vanry, President and CEO

For more information, please contact the Company at:

Telephone: (604) 343-4743

info@wedgemountresources.com

www.wedgemountresources.com

Reader Advisory

This news release may contain statements which constitute "forward-looking information", including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities of the Company. The words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future business activities and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Company's future business activities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, availability of funds, personnel and other resources necessary to conduct exploration or development programs, successes of the Company's exploration efforts, availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such information will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking information except as required under the applicable securities laws.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/193483
VANCOUVER, January 8, 2024 - Leocor Gold Inc. (CSE:LECR) (OTC:LECRF) ("Leocor" or the "Company") announces that it has completed its strategic investment (the "Investment") in Intrepid Metals Corp. (TSXV: INTR) (OTCQB: IMTCF) ("Intrepid"). The Company has subscribed for and acquired 6,600,000 units (each, a "Unit") and 2,223,529 pre-funded special warrants (each, a "Special Warrant") of Intrepid at a price of $0.34 per Unit and Special Warrant for an aggregate investment of $3 million.

Each Unit consists of one common share of Intrepid and one common share purchase warrant (each a "Warrant") entitling the Company to acquire one additional common share at a price of $0.40 until January 5, 2026. Each Special Warrant entitles the Company to acquire one Unit, for no additional consideration, but subject to an exercise limitation such that the Company may not exercise if it would result in them having beneficial ownership over common shares in excess of 19.9%, for a period of five years.

Intrepid has agreed that no less than $2,800,000 from the Investment will be utilized for the exploration and development of its mineral properties located in Cochise County, Arizona. In connection with completion of the Investment, the Company has received the right to nominate two members of the board of directors of Intrepid. Initially, the Company has nominated Alex Klenman and Brian Shin, both of which were appointed to the board of directors Intrepid upon completion of the Investment.

Prior to completion of the Investment, the Company did not hold any securities of Intrepid. As a result of the closing of the Investment, Leocor now holds 6,600,000 common shares equal to approximately 19.98% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Intrepid. The Company holds an additional (i) 6,600,000 Warrants that if exercised will result in the issuance of 6,600,000 common shares and (ii) 2,223,529 Special Warrants that if exercised (including the underlying Warrants issued upon exercise of the Special Warrants) will result in the issuance of an additional 4,447,058 common shares of Intrepid.

If all convertible securities held by the Company are exercised it would result in the Company holding 17,647,058 common shares of Intrepid equal to approximately 40.03% of the then issued and outstanding common shares of the Company. However, the convertible securities held by the Company are subject to an exercise limitation such that the Company may not exercise if it would result in them having beneficial ownership over common shares in excess of 19.9%.

The Company has acquired the securities of Intrepid for investment purposes. Depending on market conditions and other factors, the Company may from time to time acquire or dispose of securities of Intrepid or continue to hold its current position.

A copy of the early warning report required to be filed with the applicable securities commission in connection with the Investment will be available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com and can be obtained by contacting the Company.

About Leocor Gold Inc.

Leocor Gold Inc. is a British Columbia-based resource company involved in the acquisition and exploration of precious metal projects, with a current focus in Atlantic Canada. Leocor, through outright ownership and earn-in agreements, currently controls several gold-copper projects in prime exploration ground located within the prolific Baie Verte Mining District. Leocor's Bae Verte portfolio includes the Dorset, Dorset Extension, Copper Creek and Five Mile Brook projects, creating a contiguous nearly 2,000-hectare exploration corridor. The Company also controls three district scale land packages in North Central Newfoundland, known as Robert's Arm, Hodge's Hill, and Leamington, (collectively "Western Exploits") representing over 144,000 hectares (1,440 square kilometers) of prospective exploration.

Contact Information

Leocor Gold Inc.

Alex Klenman, Chief Executive Officer

Email: aklenman@leocorgold.com

Telephone: (604) 970-4330

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.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Such information includes, without limitation, information regarding the expected completion of the Investment and the intended use of the proceeds by Intrepid. Although Leocor believes that such information is reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.

Forward looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "postulate" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. Leocor cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by Leocor is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking information as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: the results of preliminary exploration work; the state of the financial markets for Leocor's securities; the state of the natural resources sector; recent market volatility; circumstances related to COVID-19; Leocor's ability to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies; and other risks and factors that Leocor is unaware of at this time. The reader is referred to Leocor's initial public offering prospectus for a more complete discussion of applicable risk factors and their potential effects, copies of which may be accessed through Leocor's issuer page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Leocor disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Copyright (c) 2024 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
Vancouver, January 8, 2024 - Tincorp Metals Inc. (TSXV: TIN) (OTCQX: TINFF) ("Tincorp" or the "Company") announces that it has entered into an interest-free unsecured credit facility agreement with no conversion features (the "Agreement") with Silvercorp Metals Inc. (the "Lender"), an insider which holds 29.32% of the Company's shares, for a credit facility of US$1,000,000 (the "Facility"). The Facility will provide financial flexibility to fund the Company's operations and provide general working capital.

Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company is entitled to draw down up to US$1,000,000 at any time. The Facility has a maturity date of January 31, 2025, and contains a voluntary prepayment option, allowing the Company to prepay the Facility at any time without penalty. The Company will make an initial drawdown of US$500,000 and, upon receiving final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"), issue 350,000 fully paid and non-assessable shares of the common stock of the Company (the "Bonus Shares") to the Lender in consideration for granting the Facility.

The Bonus Shares will be subject to a four-month hold period from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The issuance of common shares to an insider and the entering into the Agreement each constitute a "related party transaction," as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Securityholders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The transactions will be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value of any shares issued to, or the consideration paid for the Agreement will exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

Further, due to the evolving market conditions, the Company has decided to cancel the private placement previously announced on October 16, 2023.

About Tincorp

Tincorp Metals Inc. is a mineral exploration company focusing on tin projects in Bolivia and a gold project near Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. The Company has signed agreements to acquire a 100% interest in the Porvenir Project and SF Tin Project, which are 70 km southeast of Oruro, Bolivia. The Company's 100% owned Skukum Gold Project is approximately 84 km south of Whitehorse by road. An independent mineral resource estimate update in respect of the Skukum Gold Project was completed in October 2022.

On Behalf of Tincorp Metals Inc.

signed "Gordon Neal"

Gordon Neal, CEO

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations, Tincorp Metals Inc.

Phone: +1 (604)-336-5919

Email: info@tincorp.com

www.tincorp.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collective, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the financial flexibility that the Facility will provide the Company and the expected use of any amounts drawn against the Facility, including to fund operations and provide general working capital, and the approval of the TSXV are forward-looking statements. Estimates of mineral reserves and mineral resources are also forward-looking information because they incorporate estimates of future developments including future mineral prices, costs and expenses and the amount of minerals that will be encountered if a property is developed. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by words or phrases such as "expects", "is expected", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "assumes", "intends", "strategies", "targets", "goals", "forecasts", "objectives", "budgets", "schedules", "potential" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, assumptions, factors and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. The opinions, assumptions, factors and estimates which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to: whether the Company will acquire up to a 100% interest of the Porvenir Project; market fundamentals will result in sustained precious metals demand and prices; that there are no significant disruptions affecting operations, including labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, security disruptions, damage to or loss of equipment, whether due to flooding, political changes, title issues, intervention by local landowners, environmental concerns, pandemics (including COVID-19) or otherwise; that the Company will be able to obtain and maintain governmental approvals, permits and licenses in connection with its current and planned operations, development and exploration activities, including at the Skukum Gold Project, the San Florencio Tin Project and the Porvenir Tin Project; that the Company will be able to meet its current and future obligations; that the Company will be able to comply with environmental, health and safety laws; and the assumptions underlying mineral resource estimates and the realization of such estimates.

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 information. Such risks and other factors include, among others: the risk that the Company will not acquire up to a 100% interest of the Porvenir Project; social and economic impacts of COVID-19; actual exploration results; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; results of future Mineral Resource estimates; future metal prices; availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms; general economic, market or business conditions; uninsured risks; regulatory changes; defects in title; availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis; accidents or equipment breakdowns; delays in receiving government approvals; unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same; and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause such actions, events or results to differ materially from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and accordingly readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

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 in this news release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.

Additional information in relation to the Company, including the Company's most recent annual information form, can be obtained under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and on the Company's website at www.tincorp.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/193535
Samsungs latest flagship tablets are powerful  but pricey. The good news is that the Galaxy Tab S9 series prices are already starting to fall. The FE models are cheaper but less capable too and sometimes you need the extra grunt of that Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.

The smallest tablet of Tab S9 trio has an 11 display (2,560 x 1,600px) and an 8,400mAh battery. Unlike the other two, the base configuration here has 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage.

The mid-sized tablet is the Galaxy Tab S9+ with a 12.4 display (2,800 x 1,752px) and a 10,090mAh battery. All three tablets have 210Hz HDR10+ AMOLED displays, by the way.

The top of the line model is also the largest, the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. It has a 14.6 display (2,960 x 1,848px) and an 11,200mAh battery. All three support DeX, so you can plug in an external display too.

Unlike the S-phones, the Tab S slates have microSD slots, so you dont have to get a larger storage capacity if you dont want to. For 17 you can add 256GB more, 33 is the cost of a 512GB card. These are rated V30 meaning that they can handle video recording, A2 means that you can move some apps to them.

Moving over to phones, the Motorola Edge 40 was one of the best value for money mid-ranges of 2023. It combines a Dimensity 8020 with a 6.55 144Hz OLED display and, unlike many Motorolas, it has a full IP68 dust and water resistance rating.

The camera features a 50MP main (1/1.55, OIS) and a 13MP ultra wide (120), plus a 32MP selfie cam. The Edge 40 has stereo speakers but no microSD slot or 3.5mm jack. The 4,400mAh battery is on the small side, but efficient hardware gets good endurance out of it. And its quick to recharge with 68W wired and 15W wireless charging.

The Sony Xperia 10 V is not small, but it is quite narrow at 68mm. This is due to the 6.1 21:9 OLED display (FHD+, 10-bit, 60Hz). Disappointingly, this phone is powered by the Snapdragon 695  well, its disappointing if you were looking for performance. If battery longevity is the goal instead, the 10 V is one of the longest-lasting phones weve ever tested. Charging is slow and wired only.

The Xperia 10 V has an 8MP 2x camera, which is more optical zoom than the Xperia 5 V has to offer. The 48MP main camera (1/2.0 sensor) has OIS and there is an 8MP ultra wide too (120).

The Samsung Galaxy A54 and A34 were two of the most popular mid-rangers last year, but their replacements will arrive soon. Not at these prices, of course. The A54 combines a 6.4 display with the Exynos 1380, the A34 offers a 6.6 display and a Dimensity 1080. Both displays are FHD+ 120Hz AMOLEDs, by the way.

The A54 has the better camera with a 50MP main (larger 1/1.56 sensor) and a 12MP ultra wide, compared to Galaxy A34s 48MP main (1/2.0) and 8MP ultra wide. The A34 has slightly better battery life even though both phones have the same 5,000mAh battery with 25W wired-only charging.

The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G was already retired by the A15 5G. The new model has a 6.5 90Hz AMOLED instead of a 6.6 LCD (both FHD+ 90Hz) and a Dimensity 6100+ instead of a Dimensity 700. The older A14 5G also lacks an ultra wide camera (not that the 5MP unit on the A15 is stellar) and has slower charging for the 5,000mAh battery (15W vs. 25W).

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The Matao, Guams senior mens national soccer team, goes against Singapore in the second leg of the FIFA World Cup 26 and AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 Joint Preliminary Qualification Round 1.
At 8 a.m. Tuesday, small businesses still reeling from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic can start applying for a $20 million cash aid program.

The program, now on its second round, is commonly known as the Local Employers Assistance Program, or LEAP II.

The Guam Economic Development Authority will continue accepting LEAP II applications through Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024.

Although the program is an offshoot of the initial LEAP, all small businesses, regardless of whether they received an initial LEAP award, may apply, according to a statement from the governors office on Monday.

The program will provide grants to Guam small businesses that meet all eligibility criteria, chief among them a demonstration of at least 35% business interruption experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero established LEAP II through Executive Order 2023-15 to provide a final round of direct financial assistance to local small businesses that experienced significant levels of pandemic-related business interruption in calendar year 2022.

The EO allocates $5 million, in addition to the provisions of Public Law 37-15, which allocates up to $15 million in local funds to LEAP II.

Program information and applicant guidance is available on investguam.com/leap2.

The program application form will be posted at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 9.

Acting Gov. Josh Tenorio said the administration has so far allocated over $90 million in aid to local small businesses.

While signs of economic recovery are positive, we remain committed to providing much-needed assistance to the small business community that serves as the backbone of our economy, he said. LEAP II provides targeted assistance for our tourism-facing and other businesses that have suffered substantial levels of pandemic caused business losses, and we encourage all eligible small businesses to apply for this aid program.

GEDA CEO and Administrator Melanie Mendiola said she would like to extend thanks to the governor, the lieutenant governor and the 37th Guam Legislature for mobilizing funds to help the hardest-hit small businesses through LEAP II.

As with the other assistance programs, we aim to review and award LEAP II grants as swiftly and efficiently as possible, Mendiola said.

For more information, visit GEDAs website, investguam.com/LEAP2, or contact GEDA at (671) 647-4332.
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A typographical error that mistakenly typed 2024 instead of 2025 in the Legislatures Standing Rules has led to employees needing to be rehired because their appointments expired on Jan. 5, 2024.

A Sunday memo from the Legislatures executive director, Joseph San Agustin, asked senators to submit personnel action on appointments expiring Jan. 5, 2024, and subsequently submit an additional personal action to hire employee effective Jan. 8, 2024.

At issue is a typo error in the expiration of legislative employees appointments in the Standing Rules that had 2024 instead of 2025  which means staffers appointments expired before the current legislative term ended.

Last week, several senators wrote a letter to Rules Committee chairman Sen. Chris Barnett, over concerns that the Legislature could close if a resolution isnt passed.

Barnett on Saturday said the Legislature is business as usual.

The staff of the Legislature continues to work hard for the people of Guam, he said.

Vice Speaker Tina Muna Barnes, Sens. Frank Blas, Jr., Dwayne San Nicolas, Roy Quinata and Joe San Agustin signed a letter to Barnett to address concerns.

We write to you today in hopes that the potential failure of Resolution 285-37 will not result in an unnecessary, unwarranted and unjust closure of the islands legislative branch of government, the Friday letter states.

A careful reading of other provisions should allay worries about the branch potentially shutting down, the senators wrote.

The Standing Rules has a section that all appointments to positions in the 37th Guam Legislature will expire on Jan. 5, 2024. The year was a typo error that can be fixed through a resolution, Barnett has said.

Barnett said the resolution is circulating, and on the Committee on Rules meeting agenda.

On Monday, Barnett said he was still moving forward with the resolution and the memo from the executive director was part of the process for paperwork needed to pay staffers.

On Saturday, he said paperwork was prepped for processing and said it would be seamless.

The resolution will help the Legislature not have to do all the paperwork, but Barnett said there was never any threat of a shutdown.

The rule doesnt supersede nor does it terminate the authority given in the Standing Rules to immediately reappoint senatorial and central office staff, the letter to Barnett states.

None of us need to rush to fix an uncorrected mistake made a year ago. We need not act with a proverbial gun to our head, as the threat of a shutdown, while understandable, has no basis in reality, the letter states.

The senators asked that Barnett accept and process all appointments transmitted to him as the Standing Rules prescribes.
Theres so far been no anonymous calls or any arrest in connection with the Thursday night fatal shooting of a Korean tourist, but there has since been private security in the vicinity of where the crime happened.

A makeshift memorial of flowers and fruit baskets greets those who pass through the same route taken by the Korean couple from Gun Beach back to The Tsubaki Tower hotel, before two men in a dark-colored SUV approached them from behind, robbed them and then shot the husband.

The couple was vacationing on Guam to celebrate their retirement. The man died at the hospital Friday morning.

The grieving family is expected to return to Korea Tuesday, and at the familys request, the identity of the victim remains under wraps.

A private business operating nearby detailed a security employee to keep an eye out and help deter crimes in the area.

More police officers have also since been patrolling Tumon, but theres been no arrest.

We have not received any calls from the community. The efforts are continuous. We have dedicated teams and officers within their area of coverage throughout our island seeking the communitys assistance, according to Guam Police Department spokesperson Officer Berlyn Savella on Monday.

The Guam Visitors Bureau has offered a cash reward of $50,000 for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects in the case. GVB President and CEO Carl Gutierrez said visitor safety officers and Guam Police Department officers have a bigger presence in Tumon.

What may seem small, any bit of information, seen or heard may be a pivotal lead, Savella said. We will continue to ask to call our dispatch line at 475-8615 thru 8617.

No information has been provided with regard to an autopsy.

The fatal shooting of the Korean tourist raises concern about Guams overall visitor arrivals. Korean tourists have been leading Guams visitor industry recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and even after Typhoon Mawar hit in May 2023.

From January to November 2023, Guam welcomed 330,940 arrivals from Korea. Thats 49% of total arrivals during the first 11 months of the calendar year.

Authorities are asking anyone with information about the fatal robbery shooting to:
Sen. William Parkinson on Monday introduced a bill seeking to abolish the vice mayor position for Sinajana, a village of 2,611 residents based on the 2020 Census, while other villages with much bigger populations have been without a vice mayor.

Theres no telling how fast Parkinsons bill could pass and become law, considering that a special election to fill the vacancy left by the late Sinajana vice mayor, Rudy Don Iriarte, has been tentatively set for March 9.

All candidate packets for the race also have to be filed with the Guam Election Commission by early February.

GEC Executive Director Maria Pangelinan on Monday said the estimated cost of holding a special election for the Sinajana vice mayor post is $25,000.

Parkinson said his Bill 230-37 is not a reflection on the late Sinajana vice mayors invaluable contributions, but rather an acknowledgment of the villages changing dynamics and needs.

It is with a heavy heart and profound respect that we acknowledge the passing of Vice Mayor Rudy Iriarte, a dedicated servant to the village of Sinajana. His commitment and service to our community have been invaluable, and his absence will be deeply felt. As we mourn his loss, we also reflect on the evolving needs of our villages, Parkinson told the Pacific Daily News.

Iriarte himself advocated for the removal of the position even when he was in hospice care, with Sinajanas declining population and promote government efficiency and prudency.

But he passed on Jan. 3 after a long battle with diabetes, before he could see a bill to eliminate his position.

In alignment with the vision shared by both Mayor (Robert) Hoffman and the late Vice Mayor Iriarte, it is appropriate to consider the proposal to eliminate the position of vice mayor in Sinajana, Parkinson said.

Chalan Pago-Ordot has 7,064 residents and Santa Rita-Sumai has 6,470, both without a vice mayor. Mongmong-Toto-Maite has 6,380, and Yona has 6,298 as of the 2020 Census, and also without a vice mayor.

Sinajana, on the other hand, has a population of less than 3,000.

Hofmann said Sinajanas population has greatly declined from the time the vice mayor post was created when the village had a robust number of residents.

Dededo, which has a 2020 population of 44,908, has a vice mayor, along with Yigo with 19,339 residents and Tamuning with 18,489.

Also with current vice mayors are Hagat with 4,515 residents; Barrigada with 7,956; and Mangilao with 13,476.

This demographic shift calls for reevaluating our governmental structure to ensure it aligns with our current and future needs. The elimination of the vice mayors position is a step toward a more efficient and cost-controlled government, reflecting our commitment to adapt and respond to the evolving needs of our community, Parkinson said.

Regardless of proposals to make GovGuam more efficient including eliminating a vice mayor position for a small village, Guam law requires a special election to be held on a Saturday on or about 60 days after a vacancy occurs in an office of the vice mayor, when vacancy exists 240 days or more prior to the date of the next general election for vice mayors.

Iriarte passed more than 300 days before the Nov. 5 general elections.

GEC has already prepared the special election ballot format for commissioners to review during a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 12.

Parkinson said his bill was introduced in the spirit of prudence and responsibility, ensuring that governance is both effective and reflective of our current reality.

It is a decision made with the utmost respect for the past and a clear eye towards the future, he said.

Parkinson has also introduced several bills this term to eliminate various boards and commissions because our government needs to be streamlined to prevent it from being too top-heavy.

As we honor the legacy of Vice Mayor Rudy Iriarte, we are reminded of his dedication to the efficiency and effectiveness of our local government, Parkinson said. In considering the elimination of this role, we uphold his commitment to serving Sinajana and our whole island with the utmost integrity and foresight.

If his Bill 230-37 becomes law, only six of Guams 19 villages would have a vice mayor.
Cloudy skies and a damaged generator led to an afternoon of load shedding, but Guam Power Authority officials said the situation will get better now that repairs have been made.

At 6:59 a.m. Monday, the Piti 9 baseload generator was taken offline for emergency repairs.

At 3:15 p.m., a partial implementation of the rotating outage schedule was implemented, according to a GPA announcement.

While the unit was down, a significant cloud cover caused solar production to decrease, the announcement stated.

The Dandan and Mangilao solar facilities were both operating at lower than-expected capacity.

Repairs were made to Piti 9, and the unit was returned to service at 4:23 p.m.

Baseload unit Cabras 1 remains offline but is expected to return to service in the next couple of days when repairs are complete, GPA said.

The estimated peak demand for Monday is 225 megawatts and the system capacity with two baseload units offline was 184.2 MW.

As online generation increases and additional units are brought up, we anticipate fewer load shedding throughout the evening, the announcement stated. We have also asked our U.S. Navy partners to assist with additional capacity during peak hours.

The announcement said GPA continues to work on a multipronged approach and future solutions to minimize disruptions, resolve our power system shortfall, and increase generation capacity to meet the power needs of the island.

In the meantime, GPA is asking customers to reduce power demand by turning off water heaters and limiting full use of air conditioning at homes and offices.
Rebuilding Simon Sanchez High School in Yigo takes a step closer with Mondays release of the request for proposals for construction management services.

Department of Public Works Director Vince Arriola made the announcement during a legislative hearing on Monday at the Guam Congress Building.

Because the Yigo campus remains closed, Simon Sanchez High students have been in double session with John F. Kennedy High School in Tamuning.

Many of Simon Sanchez High students live in the northern end of the island. The students are attending classes in the afternoon in Tamuning and not getting off until around 5 p.m. Arriola last week said some students doing double sessions are being dropped off back home at past 7 p.m.

The double session has also seen violence on the JFK campus with Simon Sanchez students involved in riots at the Tamuning school.

Last month, Arriola told lawmakers a construction manager was needed to oversee the construction of Simon Sanchez High. DPW does not have the staff to oversee the various technical pieces of the construction, from structural to mechanical and electrical work.

A cost reduction analysis will also be done by whoever the government hires to handle the campus reconstruction.

Designs are done on a new home for the northern students; however, Arriola last month said it would be irresponsible for a project of this magnitude to move forward without a construction manager.

DPW under Arriola was handed back the mission of building Simon Sanchez High in July 2023, following a change in the law.

The job was previously under the purview of the Guam Department of Education, starting in 2018 under the Calvo administration.

According to the procurement document, the deadline to submit a proposal is 4 p.m. Feb. 5.

DPW is looking for qualified firms to provide construction management services for the construction of Simon Sanchez High. The firm will act as the representative for DPW in administering the construction contract and includes responsibility for managing and coordinating the construction phase of the project, the RFP states.

The term of the contract will be three years and can be extended to an additional two-year period upon DPW providing written notice of its intent to extend at least 60 days prior to the end of the initial term.

GovGuam has been authorized to finance the design and construction of a new Simon Sanchez High campus since 2013.
Joan of Arcs Sweet Sixteen went off in a blaze of monks, maidens and heresy in the French Quarter on Saturday, Jan 6.

The teenage martyr celebrated her birthday (612th, to be exact) with a renaissance-themed parade, kicking off the carnival season with a party fit for a heroine.

An oversized cake celebrates Joan of Arc's 612th birthday, and the "Sweet 16" of the Krewe de Jeanne d'Arc parade.Emily Topping

Some Krewe costumes draw a more literal inspiration from the golden statue Joan.Emily Topping

A surly candled cardinal shakes his fist at the warrior Joan.Emily Topping

Krewes filled with winged angels and chain-mailed drummers took to the streets for a milelong procession that looped past the St. Louis Cathedral and paused at the golden Joan of Arc statue.

Villainous performers handed candles to passersby, chanting: Burn, burn the heretic!

Some participants, like 13-year-old Santangelo Longo, have been preparing almost their entire lives.

Santangelo Longo, 13, performs on stilts alongside other students from the International School of Louisiana.Emily Topping

I think weve had him ready for the circus since he was about 3 months old, said mom Sarah Inman, as her son twirled past on stilts.

Longo is a student at the International School of Louisiana, where the curriculum includes skills like juggling and mastering the unicycle. Students perform at events like Mardi Gras parades and Jazz Fest as part of the Beaucoup Circus Troupe.

Revelers Jason North and S.J. Bealafeld show off their costumes.Emily Topping

A Krewe member marches in costume as St. Michael, who, in Catholicism, assists people at the hour of death.Emily Topping

Parade-watchers perch atop nearby buildings for a better view.Emily Topping

Angels in white gloves and glittery chain mail represent Joan achieving sainthood.Emily Topping

Parts of the parade invoke other aspects of European folklore, like the ceremonial maypole dance.Emily Topping

Vivi and Artemis play with blow-up swords aboard their homemade float.Emily Topping

Sometimes a hand down is needed from the viewing spot.Emily Topping

One teenager in particular guided the procession, as Joan did the French army. Marley Marsalis, a high-school senior, was selected to play the pivotal role of Joan by the Krewe de Jeanne dArc.

In honor of Joan of Arc  I will continue to speak for what I believe is right, and stand against any injustices, Marsalis said in her acceptance speech. On Saturday, she led the army by way of a white-painted wooden horse.

Marley Marsalis, a high-school senior chosen to play the role of Joan, leads the procession.Emily Topping

Krewe members, holding candles and dressed in red flames, chant: "Burn the witch!"Emily Topping

A solemn depiction of Joan, near the end of the parade, seems to accept her martyrdom as she "burns" at the stake.Emily Topping

Krewe members push a wooden horse through the procession. The real horse of parades-past was replaced by an inanimate one this year, after several previous spooking incidents.Emily Topping

While the parade was designed to depict the life and tragic death of the real-life Joan, some creative liberties were taken.

Do you remember what Joan of Arc did? parade-watcher Tim OConnor asked his 5-year-old son Jude.

She defeated the dragons? Jude replied.

Close enough.

Tim O'Connor and son Jude, 5, enjoy the parade from their seat atop a cannon statue.Emily Topping
YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government is carrying out legal procedures and diplomatic work to achieve the release of Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan, Justice Minister Grigor Minasyan has said.

The Foreign Ministry is carrying out the diplomatic work; our ambassadors have briefed international organizations on what has happened, who the prisoners are, their political past and naturally they contact their families through the ICRC. The Armenian governments representative on international legal affairs is also carrying out intensive work in numerous international bodies, especially in courts, where it is trying to protect and restore the rights of the representatives of our nation through motions and lawsuits. I am sure that large-scale work is underway. We will soon be able to present our achievements through decisions confirmed by international bodies, the minister said.

Armenias top law enforcement official earlier said that 55 Armenians are currently held captive in Azerbaijan but Baku has so far acknowledged only 23 of them.
Country fried steak, fried catfish, meatloaf, pot roast and poboys: You name a Southern staple and Ajax Diner in Oxford, Mississippi, has it.

This classic plate-lunch destination has been named as one of Southern Livings Most Legendary Restaurants in the South. The magazine says it searched for delicious food, as well as hometown hospitality, in its final picks  the kind of restaurant where both regulars and out-of-towners feel welcome.

As for Ajax Diner, the staff is warm and welcoming, writes Southern Living, whether theyre serving gaggles of Ole Miss sorority sisters or visitors just passing through.

The diner was opened in Oxford Square in 1997 by Randy Yates, who named the bar and restaurant after his grandfather A.J.

Originally envisioned as a barbecue joint, the business soon shifted gears along with the rise in popularity of the meats-and-three style lunch.

More than 25 years later, the unassuming eatery continues to warm both hearts and stomachs with its classic comfort food.

One writer with onlyinyourstate.com even declared it should be illegal to drive through Oxford without a pit-stop at the diner. Now, were reporters, not lawyers, but when it comes to the Ajax Diners popularity, it seems the jury is unanimous.

Ajax Diner is located at 118 Courthouse Square, Oxford, and is open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and again from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

On Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and is closed on Sundays.
Just steps away from bustling Bourbon Street, the coral-pink building of Brennans Restaurant serves up some of the finest Creole dishes in the city  in a dining room just as pastel, and twice as fun, as the exterior.

Brennans is hardly lacking in accolades: The restaurant recently was listed in the top 25 best by the New York Times, as well as in Eaters guide to the city. Now, it has been named by Southern Living as one of the Souths most legendary restaurants.

The iconic French Quarter eatery is best known for its flambeed banana foster. According to the restaurants lore, in 1951, founder Owen Brennan challenged his chef Paul Blange to create a dessert using the fruit, which had only recently become widely available in North America. The caramelized, rum-soaked result is now the most ordered item on the menu.

Brennans is confident enough that their recipe for banana foster is far from top-secret: Instructions to make the dessert at home can be found on their website. As for the turtle soup, lacquered duck, and lobster risotto, however  youd better make a reservation.

Brennans is located at 417 Royal St. and is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends. The dining room fills up fast, but theres always room for dessert at the bar.
The Republican Party of Florida has officially ousted Christian Ziegler from his position as chairman.

The decision came during a special meeting Monday and follows Zieglers ongoing investigation of sexual assault.

Florida GOP Vice Chair Evan Power will replace Ziegler. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Power said hes ready to move ahead.

I think were ready to move forward and its good to have this chapter behind us, Power said. You know the Republican Party of Florida is bigger than one person.

In a post to X, the Florida GOP offered congratulations to Power.

Congratulations to our new Chairman, @EvanPower. Under his strong leadership, we will Keep Florida RED, deliver Floridas 30 electoral votes to the GOP presidential candidate, and elect Republicans up and down the ballot. Lets get to work!  pic.twitter.com/DqceF2gNxa  Florida GOP (@FloridaGOP) January 8, 2024

On Dec. 16, Republican leaders in Florida voted to formally censure Ziegler and requested his immediate resignation. Board members also supported motions to revoke much of Zieglers authority, rescind his expense account and reduce his salary to $1  however, Ziegler did not tender his resignation at the time.

Ziegler, the husband of Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, has been under criminal investigation since Oct. 4 when a woman filed a complaint with Sarasota police in which she accused the Florida GOP chair of showing up at her apartment two days earlier and raping her  after plans for a threesome with him and his wife fell through.

In the most recent search warrant affidavit submitted Dec. 8 and obtained by The Florida Trident, Sarasota police seek to obtain copies of all files and communications contained within his Instagram account, including instant messages and vanish mode messages  in which content automatically disappears once someone leaves the chat.

The police investigation is still ongoing and no charges have yet been filed against Ziegler.
Amid a flurry of social media posts heralding an alien invasion in Miami, Florida, the Miami Police Department took to Instagram on Friday to clear the air.

TikTok, Instagram and X were abuzz on New Years Day as reports of 10-foot shadow aliens at a Miami mall began to emerge and video of the massive police response flooded the Internet.

A Miami mall was shut down by POLICE & rumors are being spread around about 8-10ft tall shadow aliens



News outlets are reporting it was a teen riot but first hand accounts are saying otherwise. pic.twitter.com/2DOLQWEIVP  Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) January 5, 2024

What actually happened, according to Miami police, involved about 50 or more juveniles at Bayside Marketplace, a two-story open air shopping center in Miami, who were shooting fireworks at people and looting.

Due to some crowd control issues, the responding officers called citywide three  in which every officer in the city responds  explaining the large police presence on scene.

Miami Police Department Public Information Officer, Kiara Delva told GulfLive.com the juveniles were causing chaos.

Units responded to the location in reference to a large fight involving over 50 juveniles possibly armed with sticks. Juveniles were also discharging fireworks leading people to believe it was gunfire, Delva said. Citywide officers were on scene for crowd control due to the juveniles refusing to leave. Some businesses were temporarily closed to allow us to clear the area but were immediately reopened. There were no aliens, UFOs, or ETs.

As for those videos across social media that appear to show a rather large alien taking a stroll, Miami police say, It is actually just a person walking with a shadow.

There is now video going viral of 8-to-10-foot aliens walking around Bayside  it is actually just a person walking with a shadow, Miami police said in a video posted to Instagram. So, I can confirm to you all here today, right now that there are no aliens in Miami in Bayside Marketplace  at the moment.

Of course, not everyone is convinced, including one X poster who wrote, Sounds like something youd say if there were aliens at Bayside Marketplace.
With a decor described as Draculas bordello with a really cool haunted mansion feel,  Berns Steak House in Tampa, Florida is consistently rated as excellent, amazing and incomparable by reviewers. In fact, its TripAdvisor profile boasts three dozen reviews hailing the restaurant as nothing short of legendary.

The editors at Southern Living magazine clearly agree  placing the Tampa establishment on its recent list of The Souths Most Legendary Restaurants.

When curating the list, Southern Living aimed to feature 18 locales that held significant importance and left a lasting mark on their communities. In an era where restaurants frequently emerge and disappear, they say these particular establishments are simply legendary.

Table for two?Bern's Steak House

The story of Berns Steak House begins just after World War II, when Bern and Gert Laxer found themselves settling in Tampa by chance. Starting with a small luncheonette in 1953, they worked tirelessly, expanding their menu and offerings. In 1956, the couple purchased a bar at 1208 South Howard Avenue  eventually transforming it from a modest establishment into Berns Steak House  featuring multiple dining rooms including the iconic Harry Waugh Dessert Room. Within this room, guests indulge in after dinner beverages and a tempting array of handmade, decadent desserts, nestled in private booths crafted from old wine casks. Berns legacy continues through their son David, who now manages the restaurant.

We take desserts seriously at Bern's. In fact, we have an entire dessert room uniquely reserved for sweets and signature... Posted by Bern's Steak House on Thursday, March 16, 2023

But you cant talk about Berns without talking about the steaks, which are cut to order and dry-aged in house for 5-8 weeks. The establishment is also known for its fresh seafood, oysters, escargot, gourmet cheeses and 16 different types of caviar.

All steak entrees include at Bern's include french onion soup, house salad, baked potato, onion rings and the vegetable of the evening.Bern's Steak House

Heres what Southern Living had to say about Berns Steak House:

Eating at the family-owned Berns Steak House is like cracking through the fourth wall of an expertly delivered theatrical production and finding yourself part of the show. Maybe its how the menu invites you to choose your own meaty adventure. Or it might be because the full dining experience includes leaving your table to tour the kitchen and peek into one of the worlds largest wine collections before landing in the Harry Waugh Dessert Room. A night at Berns, which opened in 1956 after founders Gert and Bern Laxer moved to Tampa from New York, is unlike any dinner out youve ever had.

Speaking of the wine collection, Berns won the 2016 James Beard Award for outstanding wine program, and consists of more than half a million bottles with 6,500 labels from all over the world, which are stored in its working cellar and its own temperature controlled warehouse.

Berns wine collection contains over half a million bottles and 6,500 labels from all over the world.Photo courtesy of Bern's Steak House

As many choose to take a post-holiday break from spirits during Dry January, the decision to abstain from libations for a month can still be fabulous with Berns enticing array of alcohol-free delights. Indulge in the well-behaved grape, a fusion of cherry-vanilla syrup and a hint of apricot blended with sparkling soda. Alternatively, savor the no pain, all gain, a mix of pineapple-orange juice, creamy coconut and pomegranate syrup. Or for a tangy twist, try the pick me, featuring zesty lemon juice combined with a pickle cordial.

Berns Steak House offers an array of non-alcoholic cocktails.Bern's Steak House

In addition to its recognition in Southern Living, in December, TAMPA Magazine awarded Berns Steak House with the prize for Best Fine Dining, Best Steakhouse and Best Uniquely Tampa Bay Restaurant.

Berns Steak House is located at 1208 South Howard Ave. in Tampa. For reservations, or more information, call Berns at (813) 251-2421.




Haiti - Insecurity : The International Crisis Group warns Kenya against its intervention in Haiti





On Friday January 5, 2024, a report from the International Crisis Group (ICG), based in Belgium, warned the Government of President William Ruto that Kenyan police officers risk facing significant operational challenges if they were deployed in Haiti such as links between corrupt police officers, politicians and gangs which could make it difficult to maintain operational secrecy; a shifting gang allegiances that create the possibility of a united front against it; he difficulties of protecting civilians in urban warfare..



While Ruto has already committed to the international community that Kenya will bring peace to gang-infested Haiti, ICG is concerned about whether the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMSS) will be sufficiently well equipped to handle such a situation.



The ICG further noted in its report that the gangs, numbering more than 300, had already taken control of 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince Asked by the International Organization an expert asks "Where are the prison facilities to put thousands of gang members ?" While the prison system in Haiti is already extremely overcrowded... "What

structures are in place to reintegrate these young people into society ?" So many questions, today without answers...



Should be noted that Kenya is expected to benefit from the support of troops from other countries who have confirmed their participation in the MMSS. For the moment these are : Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Senegal, Belize, Suriname, Guatemala, Peru, Chad and Burundi. The desired total strength is at least 5,000 men.



Download the full ICG report (PDF in English , 24 pages): https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/b094-haiti-gangs-(1).pdf



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41365-haiti-kenya-news-about-the-multinational-security-support-mission.html



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Attack at sea, deaths and hostage-taking

Saturday January 6, 2024, heavily armed bandits opened fire on canoes near Village Alpha (between Carrefour and Gressier). At least 7 passengers were killed in this attack. The bandits also kidnapped several passengers...



A bus and its passengers hijacked

Sunday January 7, 2024, heavily armed men hijacked a bus with its passengers in the Artibonite department. The number of passengers held hostage and the destination of the bus remain unknown at this time.



A member of the "305" gang fatally injured

Friday January 5, 2024 Djei alias "Makanda", an active member of the "305" gang from Trois-Rivieres, was fatally injured at 2:50 in the afternoon, during exchanges of fire with the Police in the La Coupe area, located a few meters from the Port-de-Paix River.



50 remarkable Haitian women

Friday January 5, 2024, the Network of Model and Inspiring Haitian Women and its partners honored in Petion-ville, 50 remarkable Haitian women in 2023. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41125-haiti-social-50-model-and-inspiring-haitian-women-2023-list.html This initiative aims to promote the positive work accomplished by these women, according to the organizers.



Words by Martine Moise

"Haiti stand up, so that the social injustice done to the people can be repaired. Let's unite as one body, to support this just cause whose outcome consists of freeing the People from this atrocious and unbearable pain imposed by these assassins," Former First Lady of Haiti Martine Moise.



Export of DR to Haiti decreasing

Exports from the Dominican Republic to Haiti fell by 101.22 million US dollars (17.9%), between January and November 2023, from 564.16 million dollars in 2022 to 462.94 million dollars in 2023.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Numerous legal acts must either be adopted or laws must be amended following the ratification of the Rome Statute, Justice Minister Grigor Minasyan has said.

Weve studied the experience of various countries, particularly Georgia has a similar legislation, an entirely separate law. But weve also studied the experience of four-five leading countries. And the first step is the development of new legislation and work with international experts, Minasyan said at a press conference.

Asked on the methods of applying the Rome Statute to hold Azerbaijan accountable for war crimes, the minister said: The process is as follows. There are prosecutorial and investigative instruments and our investigators, by studying the crimes, gathering the information, also have the opportunity to involve international prosecutors and law enforcement officials, who, upon arriving in Armenia and studying the paperwork, become part of those proceedings. In this case, Armenia is not alone in the investigative processes of the war crimes and involves international bodies conducting proceedings.
Needed snow now hitting the state, but more than half of the snow-monitoring sites incorporated in the report last week were posting snowpack totals that are the lowest or second-lowest on record

Amanda Eggert

Montana Free Press

While some snow hit the state and more is in the forecast, More than half of the snowpack monitoring sites used to measure the water supply for Montana watersheds are posting record-low accumulations, according to a report out last week.

Several basins in central Montana have one-third of their normal snow-water equivalent  a measurement of water in the snow. About half of all of the basins in the report, including the Upper Missouri, Flathead, and Upper and Lower Clark Fork basins, are posting record-low totals.

Eric Larson, a water supply specialist...
YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan on January 8 met with United States Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations, the United States Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Louis Bono.

Grigoryan and Bono discussed the normalization process of the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and the latest negotiations, as well as the course of implementation of agreements that were achieved during the talks, Grigoryans office said in a readout.

Grigoryan reiterated Armenias commitment to establish lasting and comprehensive peace in the region.
MONDAY, April 18, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health care workers were most likely to be infected with COVID-19 at work during the pandemic's first year, according to a new study that challenges previous research suggesting their risk was highest off the job.

Researchers said their findings could help guide efforts to better protect health care workers during future infectious disease outbreaks.

"This study provides important insights to guide infection prevention and control practices in health care settings so that we can better protect HCPs [health care professionals] and their patients," said Linda Dickey, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), which published the findings in its journal.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on nearly 84,000 health care workers who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, and whose source of exposure was known.

Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 was more likely in the workplace (52%) than in the home (nearly 31%) or community (about 26%). Workplace-associated exposures peaked in April 2020 at 84%, the researchers found.

About two-thirds of health care workers who reported a specific type of on-the-job exposure said they'd come into contact with patients or other health care workers who had COVID-19.

The largest reductions in workplace exposures occurred in June 2020 after introduction of improved infection prevention and control measures, and in December 2020, after launch of the nationwide COVID-19 health care worker vaccination program.

Increases in community rates of COVID-19 were associated with greater numbers of health care workers reporting workplace exposure and fewer reporting household or community exposure.

The findings were published online April 13 in the American Journal of Infection Control.

"Our findings suggest that, particularly during periods of high community incidence of COVID-19, HCP exposures occur both at the workplace and outside of it, with the workplace being a major driver of infections," said first author Rachael Billock of the CDC's COVID-19 Response Team.

"These results emphasize the continued need for improved infection prevention and control measures in occupational settings, as well as the need for improved surveillance to identify and reduce occupational exposures to SARS-CoV-2," she added.

As of May 2021, at least 500,000 COVID-19 diagnoses and 1,653 deaths among U.S. health care workers were reported to the CDC, and those numbers are known to be lower than the actual levels.

In addition, APIC president Dickey said, the study "reiterates the importance of collecting data on HCP work-related variables, such as industry, occupation, and workplace exposures, in infectious disease surveillance."

More information

The U.S. Department of Labor has guidance for employers and health care workers on preventing COVID in the workplace.

SOURCE: Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, news release, April 14, 2022






We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us here
Jani Parviainen , a meteorologist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), stated to STT on Sunday that although the week will start with the mercury around 25 degrees below zero in southern parts of the country, the temperatures will rise noticeably as the morning dawns.

THE COLD SPELL has begun loosening its grip on Finland, according to STT and YLE.

During the day, all parts of the country will have about -5 to -15 degrees on Monday, he commented to the news agency.

The weather is expected to change more noticeably in the evening with the arrival of a humid front from the west.

Western winds will strengthen with the arrival of the humid front. Warmer air will come in from the west, with the Foehn wind pushing temperatures zero in widespread areas in at least western parts of the country, said Parviainen.

On Tuesday, the mercury will stay below zero only in eastern and northern areas. In most parts of the country, the temperature will be between roughly zero and four degrees [above zero].

YLE on Sunday reported that the temperatures have already risen significantly in many parts of the country. In Enontekio, Lapland, for example, the mercury stayed only narrowly below zero for most of Sunday. In Vaasa, the temperature was around -6C at 2pm after several days near the -30C-mark.

On Monday, temperatures across the country are forecast to hover between -3C and -10C.

The winds will turn, and warm air will come from the north-west in the Atlantic. The Atlantic has such a large mass of warmth that itll supersede the cold air that has prevailed here, said Anne Borgstrom, a meteorologist at YLE.

The change in weather also brings a number of new warnings.

The FMI is urging motorists across the country to brace for difficult road conditions on Monday. Parviainen told STT that motorists in southern and central areas should prepare for icy conditions and those in northern areas for snowfall.

On Tuesday, the road conditions are expected to be treacherous for both motorists and pedestrians in all parts of the country except Lapland and Eastern Finland.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
Woman charged with murder in death of man in Laurel Park

Vanessa Ledbetter

LAUREL PARK  A 38-year-old woman was charged with second-degree murder after law officers responding to "an incomplete 911 call" Sunday morning found a 58-year-old man dead of an "obvious fatal wound," Laurel Park Police Chief Bobbie Trotter said in a news release. Vanessa Ledbetter, who was charged in the man's death, was jailed at the Henderson County Detention Facility.

Laurel Park and Hendersonville police officers dispatched at 10:31 a.m. Sunday to 16 Lake Drive discovered a white male victim lying in the rear patio of the residence. Laurel Park police identified the victim as Robin Bracken. The victim was pronounced dead by Henderson County EMS. The medical examiner's office, which also responded, was expected to conduct an autopsy soon, Laurel Park police said.

The Laurel Park Police Department expressed condolences to the families involved and thanked Hendersonville police, the Henderson County Sheriff's Office animal control unit, Valley Hill Fire & Rescue, Henderson County EMS and the Henderson County Recue Squad for their response. Anyone who has additional information was asked to contact the Laurel Park Police Department at 828-692-9399.
A pub landlord says he will leave after being given the lowest possible rating in a food hygiene inspection.



Ben Sills blamed the workload and his own poor mental health for a string of infringements at the Maltsters Arms in Rotherfield Greys.



An environmental health officer from South Oxfordshire District Council gave the pub a score of zero, meaning urgent improvement required, after inspecting the pub in September under the Scores on the Doors scheme. The inspector found multiple food health and safety violations including:



A live maggot in the fridge.

Mouldy and decomposing food.

Food that was nine months out of date.

Filthy conditions.

Evidence of smoking in the dry goods store.



Mr Sills, 40, took over the Brakspear pub in May 2022 and initially ran it with the help of his 68-year-old father Brian until he left in December that year because he was tired from working long hours. Mr Sills said he had allowed standards to slip due to his own mental health problems and he would leave before his tenancy came to an end in May.



In the meantime, he was dealing with the issues and expected the pub to receive at least four stars when the inspectors revisit before he departs. The Henley Standard obtained a copy of the inspectors report under the Freedom of Information Act. It says that pork pies were out of date and mouldy and some black pudding was nine months out of date. Cooked livers were found to be still pink in the middle. They must be thoroughly cooked to a core temperature of 75C for 30 seconds as offal contains bacteria. Liver was found in the fridge in a pool of grey fluid with a pungent smell, indicating it was decomposing, Mouldy bread and cabbage were in the dry store and a number of food packets were open and at risk of contamination, including gluten-free flour. There was also an ashtray filled with cigarette butts.



Raw food was found in the fridge above ready-to-eat food, such as fresh herbs. There were also raw chicken breasts, beef fillets and pork pies past their sell-by dates. Some foods, including vacuum-packed raw fish, were not dated.



A freezer was not working properly so food had defrosted and there was evidence that some of it was in a state of decomposition.



Ingredient information was not retained for all stored foods. For example, a tray of steak pies stored in a fridge didnt have an ingredients list or date coding and wasnt suitably covered. The delivery of fruit and vegetables took place outside trading hours, exposing foods to risk of contamination by pests.



High-risk foods were being stored at room temperature during service only for any leftovers to be refrigerated and brought out to store at room temperature again the next day. Such food should be stored at room temperature for a maximum of four hours after which it must either be disposed of or refrigerated until sold, served or thrown away.



The pub was also cooling its hot dishes such as gravy over long periods of time, sometimes all day, when it should be done as quickly as possible, ideally within 90 minutes.



The pub did not have an adequate system in place to control the shelf life of its chilled products. Olives were stored at room temperature when the label specified that they had to be refrigerated. The insectocutor in the kitchen contained numerous dead insects and required emptying and cleaning. There was evidence of mouse activity in the dry store area and pest activity in the shed used for storing equipment, paper towels and cloths. A number of ambient products such as tartare sauce were without date labels. A brown chopping board was badly scored. There was only one sink used for food and equipment washing and it was of a poor standard. Both the store areas were not suitably pest-proofed. In particular, there was a hole in the wall under the table storing wine bottles in the dry store and in the corner of the equipment store. Butter was stored out of the fridge, contrary to the manufacturer instructions for use. The inspector said insufficient steps were being taken to ensure adequate stock rotation.



She said: The potential microbial growth is a very real risk. This potentially renders such food unfit. The inspector said suitable steps had to be taken to eradicate the pests and that both store areas had to be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. She also highlighted multiple structural areas as being dirty and said they required thorough cleaning and disinfecting where necessary. Mr Sills was criticised for not having a written food safety management system  food business operators are required to identify food safety hazards and risks relevant to their business and to put in place procedures to prevent problems. He had also not registered as the food business operator.



The inspector made a total of 30 recommendations, almost all of which had to be rectified immediately and on an ongoing basis. Her report concluded: During the inspection, I was disappointed to note the premises had a large amount of mouldy and out of date food present, was dirty and had pest activity in both store areas.



It is an offence under food law to sell or use out-of-date food, not to keep a food area clean and not to take adequate precautions to prevent pests accessing food areas. The lack of stock rotation seen at the premises is completely unacceptable. Having a clean and pest-free food preparation and storage area is a prerequisite to being able to prepare food safely. It is crucial that you put in place procedures to ensure stock rotation, your food preparation and storage areas are kept free from pests and that you keep food preparation and storage areas clean.



Mr Sills was also instructed to provide written evidence of the pubs procedures to show food safety had been thought through carefully and that procedures were being properly applied. Mr Sills, who is originally from Leicestershire, lived in Tenerife for 15 years before returning to work at the Crooked Billet in Wokingham in 2016 and then moved to the Green Man in Hurst. He had wanted to take on the Green Man but when he wasnt chosen he took over the Maltsters Arms instead.



His father came out of retirement to help him. Mr Sills told the Henley Standard: I walked in here thinking, Oh no, its not the Green Man but by the time I had finished looking around, I walked out with a big grin and said: This is the one and were going to go for it. He said he quickly found out how much there was to do. From what Ive heard, the previous tenant caused quite a bit of damage and upset a lot of the locals, so there was a lot to repair, if you like, he said. Our main focus was getting back in touch with the community and the locals and giving them something that they wanted, which was proper British pub grub, nothing too fancy.



It started really well and had been going well but my dads no spring chicken any more. Hes 68 and he was working long days. He went back to Leicestershire in the December for Christmas with his partner and he felt like hed hit a wall and was ill. He realised he couldnt do those hours anymore. The idea was eventually that he could take a step back but there was so much to do.



We got to a point where we were arguing and so we decided our health and our relationship were more important. He had a bit of a health scare, so it was in his best interests that he stayed away. He couldnt do it anymore. So it was just me from December and then I started to notice myself struggling mentally. I ended up going to the doctor and I was having some not very nice thoughts, so Im now on antidepressants and struggling  I get the shakes.



The pub will stay open until Mr Sillss tenancy expires and will be reinspected once he has made all the necessary improvements, which he has been doing with advice from an environmental health officer. He said: Its the right time to give it to the next person otherwise were going to end up in a worse financial situation. Obviously we need to pay the rent and the staff need the jobs. We ve got a lot of locals who come in, so we want to keep it open for them as well. I think I was struggling before my dad went but it became more apparent after hed gone. I had no motivation. I didnt want to get out of bed. On a Monday and Tuesday, the pubs closed but Ive still got stuff to do and I just wasnt doing it. The staff noticed I was struggling but they couldnt put their finger on it. Eventually, I made the phone call and now Im slowly getting my mojo back and Ive got a new winter menu.



Mr Sills said it was when he was feeling demotivated that the inspector visited the pub. He said: I knew Id let stuff slip and I knew there were some things I hadnt done and I admitted to her straight away: Look, this is how I am, this is what Im feeling, this is what Im going through, I havent got everything done. I know Im disorganised. He said there were some safety procedures that the inspector observed which he hadnt realised. Mr Sills said: They said: I see you have liver on special and I said: I normally have it pink because but if the customers want me to cook it more, I will cook it more and they said: Right, you shouldnt serve it pink. I did not know that. Ive been in this industry 24 years and Ive served it pink until now. They also picked up on a staff member. He washed his hands, took some blue roll to dry his hands but then used his hand to turn the tap off. They dont like that. What youre meant to do is use the blue roll as if its a glove to turn the tap off.



Mr Sills said when he moved into the pub there was evidence of mice. He said: We got pest control in and they came and put bait traps down because we actually had them upstairs as well. Then we found in the shed that there was a big hole in the corner and they said: Dont cover it up yet. We need to get on top of this. Pest control came back regularly to check for evidence of mice and didnt find any. Mr Sills said: And then we have the visit and she [the inspector] claimed to have found mouse droppings. I said: If you look at my pest control book, it says theres no activity but it turns out there was. There has been no activity since.



The shed is basically where we keep coffee urns, spare plates and stuff. Theres no food in there. When it was raining, people were smoking there. To be fair, we shouldnt have been doing that. Now that has obviously stopped because its not right. Mr Sills admitted he failed to keep up with food labelling and follow use-by dates. I literally had no motivation, nor did I care, which is wrong, but its honestly how I felt, he said. Its not an excuse. But this visit was the kick up the arse that I needed. He said the inspector was impressed with the work he had put into the pub when she revisited. The officer that Ive been dealing with is lovely, said Mr Sills. She has been very helpful. Theres a couple of things left to do to get us to five stars next time.
An Aussie woman who unleashed over the staggering price she paid for a 380ml bottle of water in Bali has reignited the debate over whether the holiday hotspot is still considered a "cheap" travel destination.

Posting an image of her receipt to social media, the traveller warned fellow Aussies to be cautious of prices at restaurants across the island, after she was charged a whopping near-$12 for a small bottle, which totalled $14 after a service tax was slapped on.

"As a heads up", the woman warned, telling fellow tourists to "make sure they've got deep pockets" when eating out across the province, adding that she didn't think "most would be aware" of the prices.

Woman's Bali bill prompts heated debate

The receipt shows that for two bottles of 380ml water, the woman was charged 240,000 rupiah, which is roughly A$23.

Hundreds of people aired their opinion in response, with the general reaction seemingly split down the middle. "Everyone knows its a very expensive place to visit," argued one person, while another pointed to the fact "Bali is no where near a cheap holiday as it used to be" and that its reputation is simply a myth.

An Aussie traveller has unleashed over the price she was charged for two small bottles of water in Bali. Source: Facebook.

Aussies divided over whether hotspot still 'cheap'

On the other side of the debate, some stated that if travellers simply avoid "tourist traps" and restaurants known for steep prices, the tropical island can still be a budget-friendly option for families not wishing to break the bank on holiday.

"People saying its not as cheap as it used to be obviously you dont know what you're talking about. Literally going there in March for two weeks with my family of three, we picked up return flights for $346 and two weeks accomodation for $1000 in a private villa!" a passionate traveller wrote.

Story continues

Last year Bali was dethroned as Aussies' favourite travel destination in favour of Japan. Source: Getty.

Last year, it emerged that Bali had been toppled from its spot as Australia's number one overseas travel destination, with Japan capital Tokyo newly crowned.

It's the first time in eight years the Indonesian island has been bested by another holiday hotspot as the most researched summer getaway, according to travel site Expedia, and it could come down to perceptions that it is now a cheaper spot to travel.

Australian Travel Industry Association CEO Dean Long said that aside from Australians escaping the heat, the yen being down had made Japan "slightly more affordable", however Bali has also decided to dump it's $50 entry fee so it's still in the affordability race.

Expert weighs in on rising prices

Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, travel expert at Finder Angus Kidman said that while there's no doubt Bali is getting more expensive, Aussies can still find a bargain on a budget.

Bali has long enjoyed a reputation as a cheap holiday destination for Australians," Kidman told Yahoo.

"While that's still the case, air fares to get there are not as cheap as they were five years ago. Bali isn't immune from rising fuel costs and a more limited range of services. You can still pick up a return flight with a low-cost carrier for around $600 return, but super-cheap fares are somewhat rarer.

"Flights and accommodation will be your biggest costs  food is still cheap. Booking your activities in advance can help you save and set a proper budget for your trip."

While Seminyak, Canggu and Ubud have previously been hotspots for Australian travellers, beachside Sanur and Sidemen Valley are being touted as cheaper alternatives.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
Pisces  (19th February to 20th March) Daily Horoscope Prediction says, You are a good team player Pisces Daily Horoscope Today, Jan 9, 2024. Spend more time together and this will help you strengthen the bonding.

You will have a trouble-free love life along with career growth today. Keep track of the wealth and expenses. No major illness will also trouble you.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

Handle relationship issues with care. Professional success is another takeaway of the day. Both health and wealth will be at your side today.

Pisces Love Horoscope Today

Your approach towards the relationship is positive and the lover will appreciate it. Be careful about the word and also take care to pamper the lover. Spend more time together and this will help you strengthen the bonding. The chances are higher that you may revisit the old love affair as the ex-flame will be back in your life. Office romance is good but can be a sensitive topic today.

Pisces Career Horoscope Today

Pisces natives who are not happy with their current job can put down the paper today and apply for a new one. Update the profile on a job portal and interview calls will knock on the door. Handle office politics with a mature attitude. Your willingness to take up new roles will help you find a place in the good book of management. Businessmen will find opportunities to expand the trade to foreign territories.

Pisces Money Horoscope Today

Prosperity will help you invest in smart options including real estate. A previous investment will bring in a good return and you will be tempted to try the fortune in stock, trade, and speculative business. Some females will inherit family property. There can also be financial disputes in life today. You should also have a reserve to contribute to a family celebration. Some male Pisces natives will also provide financial support to a needy sibling in the second half of the day.

Pisces Health Horoscope Today

While health is good today, ensure you maintain a proper balance between both your professional and personal life. Keep stress out of the home and spend more time with the family. You may also start exercising today. Seniors and pregnant females must avoid lifting heavy objects today. Children may fall down to have bruises while playing and throat or chest infections may disturb sleep.

Pisces Sign Attributes

Strength: Conscious, Aesthetic, Kind-hearted

Weakness: Sentimental, Indecisive, Unrealistic

Symbol: Fish

Element: Water

Body Part: Blood Circulation

Sign Ruler: Neptune

Lucky Day: Thursday

Lucky Color: Purple

Lucky Number: 11

Lucky Stone: Yellow Sapphire

Pisces Sign Compatibility Chart

Natural affinity: Taurus, Cancer, Scorpio, Capricorn

Good compatibility: Virgo, Pisces

Fair compatibility: Aries, Leo, Libra, Aquarius

Less compatibility: Gemini, Sagittarius

By: Dr. J. N. Pandey

Vedic Astrology & Vastu Expert

Website: https://www.cyberastro.com

E-mail: caresponse@cyberastro.com

Phone: 9717199568, 9958780857
India, 5th January 2024: Symbiosis Institute of Digital and Telecom Management (SIDTM), under the legacy of Symbiosis International (Deemed University), (SIU), adapts its curriculum to meet industry-wide demands. The institute introduces a forward-thinking curriculum designed to equip students with the necessary skills for contemporary business challenges through its MBA (Digital and Telecom Management) programme. The programme is specifically designed to equip both students and professionals with essential skills for reshaping management education in the Industry 4.0 era.

Reflecting on the new pedagogical approach, Dr. CA. Abhijit Chirputkar, Director, SIDTM, said, "SIDTM's core focus in Industry 4.0 education is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of both technology and business. We envision a classroom where discussions go beyond theory; where systems, marketing, and analytics meet seamlessly - training future leaders who will navigate this era with confidence and expertise."

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Innovation and dual specializations

The institutions MBA programme has a dual specialization approach, integrating finance with core specialisations such as Systems, Marketing, and Analytics. This possesses a deep knowledge of finance. Specializations include:

Systems and Finance: This caters to technology managers responsible for business processes and project management.

Marketing and Finance: Strikes a balance between technology and marketing, preparing students for both B2B and B2C scenarios.

Analytics and Finance: Introduced in 2017, it addresses the rising demand for data science and analytics professionals, with a curriculum focused on industry tools and certifications.

Noteworthy National Rankings

In recognition of its dual specialisation approach, the institute has garnered rankings in various national surveys.

Symbiosis Institute of Digital and Telecom Management ranked 50th among the top B-schools in India. Symbiosis also achieved 32nd among 1300 eligible colleges and 21st among the top private B-schools in India based on placement and entry standards.

GHRDC ranking of B-Schools 2022: SIDTM was awarded 10th rank as the Top Eminent B-School of Super Excellence, among 250 B-schools.

Reinforcing its position among India's premier B-Schools, SIDTM takes an extremely selective approach in accepting its 150 annual admissions, with 60:60:30 divided between Marketing and finance; Systems and finance; and Analytics and finance specializations, respectively. Admission decisions are transparent and merit-based while emphasizing the significance of internal tests such as Business Statistics, Network Concepts and Components, and Essentials of Marketing Management within their first semester.

SIDTM offers a transformative learning experience that extends beyond the classroom, shaping well-rounded professionals for the ICT/Digital industry. With 3200+ alumni contributing to the sector, the institute blends academics, domain expertise, and skill development through seminars, workshops, industry visits, and events. Emphasizing corporate social responsibility, students engage in extension activities. Boasting a remarkable 26-year track record of outstanding placements, SIDTM incorporates industry certifications and workshops into its pedagogy. The recent Batch 2021-23 placements achieved significant success, with the highest package at 2,783,000. Positioned as an industry innovator, SIDTM prepares students for leadership in the digital, telecom, and IT sectors amid Industry 4.0.

For more information, visit SIDTM's official website: https://sidtm.edu.in/

Disclaimer: This article is a paid publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times does not endorse/subscribe to the content(s) of the article/advertisement and/or view(s) expressed herein. Hindustan Times shall not in any manner, be responsible and/or liable in any manner whatsoever for all that is stated in the article and/or also with regard to the view(s), opinion(s), announcement(s), declaration(s), affirmation(s) etc., stated/featured in the same.
A woman has copped backlash for a drastic over-the-fence move after her neighbour's pool turned into a "swamp" while they were away on holiday, sending "millions of mosquitos" her way.

The NSW resident detailed her "gross" pest predicament online, revealing that after initially contemplating jumping over the fence to pull the cover over the pool, she ended up throwing 2kg of chlorine over the fence and into the water in an attempt to clear it up and stop the infestation  a drastic act that not all Aussies agreed with.

Before (left) and after (right) the resident threw chlorine over the fence and into her neighbour's pool to stop the mosquito infestation. Source: TikTok

While some people commented on how foul the pool looked, others were not impressed with the woman taking matters into her own hands. "Is that allowed?" one social media user asked. "Just so we clear it's most definitely illegal to throw chemicals in someone elses pool (sic)," another added.

The woman replied that the brother of the neighbour showed up and was happy she threw the chlorine into the water. "Dunno if it's allowed but we did it anyway (sic). It's pool chlorine so not going to hurt anything. The brother showed up today and was thankful we did it," she explained.

She claimed a scheduled power outage had "tripped" the pool's filter but after noticing someone had entered the yard, the neighbours sent a relative around to find out what happened and turn the filter back on.

Mosquito infested pool a public health risk

Mosquitos need water to complete their life cycles and poorly maintained swimming pools make an ideal environment for mosquitoes to breed. The Townsville City Council say that if a pool's chemical parameters are not maintained at the minimum required levels and/or the filtration system is not functioning correctly, the pool becomes a public health risk.

Story continues

As mosquitoes can transmit serious diseases, each jurisdiction in Australia has a mosquito management plan which includes backyard swimming pools  some states even carry fines for people who do not appropriately take care of their pools for this reason.

Ways to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in your pool include:

Regularly treat the water with chemicals such as chlorine.

Thoroughly clean the pool and surrounds.

Operate the filtration system.

If you do not use your pool you can convert it into a pond by following appropriate guidelines.

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India, 5th January 2024: In an upcoming enlightening PUTalks session, the Faculty of Law at Parul University is set to welcome Dr. R. Venkataramani, the incumbent Attorney-General for India, for a significant legal discourse with the university's law students and stakeholders. With a distinguished career as an Indian constitutional lawyer and senior advocate, Mr. Venkataramani brings a wealth of legal expertise and experience to share with the budding law students at Parul University. The event, scheduled for January 7, 2024, aims to delve into the theme of India's legal system and constitutional values, shedding light on key issues prevalent in the country's legal fabric.

As a prominent figure in the Indian legal community, Shri. Venkataramani has been at the forefront of representing various clients, including central and state governments, universities, and public sector entities. His appearances as counsel for cases concerning the service conditions of court employees underscore his deep involvement in shaping the legal landscape of the country. Beyond his legal practice, he exhibits a profound passion for legal education, demonstrated through interactions with students at Parul University, contributing to the knowledge transfer to the upcoming generations of lawyers.

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Parul University, dedicated to providing an exemplary learning experience for aspiring lawyers, has previously hosted eminent figures from Indias legal community. The session with Shri. Venkataramani aims to offer an invaluable opportunity for law students to gain insights from a stalwart in the Indian legal community. His extensive experience and notable contributions to significant cases make him a recognized voice in legal circles, inspiring generations across the nation in matters of law and justice. The event promises not only to enlighten students about prevailing issues in the Indian legal landscape but also to sensitize them to the complexities and challenges they might encounter in their future careers. By sharing his views and experiences, Mr. R. Venkataramani is poised to nurture the aspirations of young legal minds.

To know more visit Parul University.

Disclaimer: This article is a paid publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times does not endorse/subscribe to the content(s) of the article/advertisement and/or view(s) expressed herein. Hindustan Times shall not in any manner, be responsible and/or liable in any manner whatsoever for all that is stated in the article and/or also with regard to the view(s), opinion(s), announcement(s), declaration(s), affirmation(s) etc., stated/featured in the same.
While the market has remained volatile in the first week of 2024, it is expected that it will gain some stability in this week due to the launch of four new initial public offerings (IPO), including expected mutlibagger Jyoti CNC Automation IPO. Four IPOs, including Jyoti CNC, will hit Dalal Street this week. (PTI)(PTI File Photo)

Four new IPOs will hit the Dalal Street this week, with Jyoti CNC's issue set to steal the spotlight with the biggest IPO of the week. The total amount of funds raised by these companies will be upwards of 1100 crore.

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Four IPOs this week

Jyoti CNC Automation IPO

Jyoti CNC Automation will launch its IPO on the stock market from January 9 to 11, 2024. The company is looking to raise 1000 crore through the issue and the price band is 315-331 per share. The current GMP of the company is 77, and the IPO is entirely of fresh issue.

IBL Finance IPO

IBL Finance will be launching its IPO in the small and medium cap segment (NSE SME) from January 9 to January 11. The issue is aimed at raising 33.4 crore through an entirely fresh issue IPO, with share price fixed at 51. The listing date is likely to be January 16.

New Swan Multitech IPO

New Swan Mutlitech is the third IPO to open this week, set to be launched on January 11 and close on January 15. The issue is planning to raise 33.11 crore, with the price band fixed at 62-66 per share. The IPO is made up entirely of fresh issue, and its current grey market premium is 35.

Australian Premium Solar IPO

Australian Premium Solar will be making its debut on the BSE SME, and the issue dates are January 11 to 15, 2024. The IPO is aimed at raising 28 crore through fresh issue, with the shares priced at 51-54 apiece. The current GMP of the IPO is 10.

Only one listing this week

While four IPOs are being launched this week on Dalal Street, there is one one listing scheduled for this week. The shares of company Kaushalya Logistics will be listed on the NSE Emerge on January 8, Monday.

The shares of the company were priced at 75 during the IPO, and looking at the current GMP, it will be listed at a whopping 60 percent premium, at 120. The Kaushalya Logistics IPO was launched to raise 36.6 crore, and was subscribed 364.18 times.
Online travel company MakeMyTrip on Monday claimed that a massive 3400% surge was recorded in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to the union territory. On January 2, PM Modi visited the union territory of Lakshadweep and shared several pictures(X)

Read here: Country before business: EaseMyTrip co-founder explains decision to suspend bookings for Maldives

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"NewsFlash: We have observed a 3400% increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since Honorable PMs visit," the company said in a post on X.

Recording such a whopping search response and heightened interest in Indian beaches, MakeMyTrip even announced the 'Beaches of India' campaign to offer several offers and discounts, encouraging travellers to explore the beaches across the country.

"This interest in Indian beaches has inspired us to launch a 'Beaches of India' campaign on the platform with offers and discounts to encourage Indian travellers to explore countrys stunning beaches. Keep watching this space!" it added.

Raj Rishi Singh, Chief Marketing and Business Officer of MakeMyTrip said, "Lakshadweep has seen a remarkable 3400% increase in on-platform searches ever since PM's visit. This inspired us to build a 'Beaches of India' campaign. Under this, the customers can get knowledge about the beaches of India. We are also providing remarkable deals and discounts under this..."

Earlier in the day, another online travel company EaseMyTrip announced to suspend all Maldives flight bookings amid the boycott Maldives campaign. Nishant Pitti, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of the travel company said, "In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings"

Explaining the decision, Pitti said that country comes before business and other homegrown tourism companies too must follow its lead.

This comes after a row erupted after some Maldivian leaders made derogatory comments against PM Modi and mocked his recent visit to Lakshadweep. India strongly raised the matter with Male and the island nation's top opposition leaders slammed the ruling establishment over the row.

In a now-deleted post, the Maldivian deputy minister of Youth Empowerment, Mariyam Shiuna, made a mocking and disrespectful reference to PM Modi.

Read here: Maldives suspends 3 deputy ministers over remarks against India and its leadership

The remarks triggered a furious response in India, with the Maldives government rejecting the derogatory remarks, stating that they did not represent the views of Male. On Sunday, the Maldivian government also suspended three deputy ministers for derogatory social media posts against PM Modi.

Some people who had planned trip to the archipelago, even cancelled their bookings.

On January 2, PM Modi visited the union territory and shared several pictures, including an 'exhilarating experience' of him trying his hand at snorkelling. In a series of posts on X, PM Modi shared pictures of the white beaches, the pristine blue skies and the ocean and tagged them with a message that read, For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list.
The hullabaloo of several high-ranking officials and senior ministers of Maldives taking unsavoury potshots at India created an uproar on social media, which consequently triggered holiday cancellations by Indians. At least one Online Travel Agency (OTA), EaseMyTrip, decided to stop bookings to Maldives. Delhi Airport(Vijayanand Gupta/ HT Photo)

India was the largest source of tourists for Maldives in 2023, followed by Russia.

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Even as the Maldivian government tries damage control, the largest source market deciding to snub the country will have a large impact. The alternative for travellers will not be Lakshadweep just yet as the infrastructure at the Indian archipelago is far from the standards of Maldives, but the new breed of Indians brimming with confidence and money are more than willing to make a statement.

India out?

Indians prefer Maldives for its secluded resorts, visa-free travel and a short flight. Maldives has been seemingly trying to attract more Europeans who tend to spend more. While the notion might be true, the volumes which India provides can only be replaced by the Chinese for whom it is a much longer flight, making the travel cost higher than Indians. To compete for Europeans, Maldives has to offer more as it competes with Seychelles as well as Mauritius in relative vicinity. Over two lakh Indian tourists visited Maldives last year, which was 11% of total arrivals in Maldives.

Also read: From defence to infra development, how India has always stood with Maldives

Indian airline presence in Maldives

Data shared by Ciricum, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article shows that Maldives has 325 international departures in the current week. Of these the maximum 35 are by Emirates followed by IndiGo, flydubai and Qatar airways at 28 each. Amongst IndiGo and flydubai, there are 63 weekly departures to Dubai from Male.

Indian carriers have 48 weekly departures and there are 58 flights a week between India and Maldives with 10 departures a week being operated by Maldivian. Indian carriers had a limited presence at Maldives, with flights by Air India and SpiceJet from the Indian side. That changed significantly post 2018 when Go Air launched flights to Male. This wa followed by a barrage of flights by IndiGo, later joined by Vistara

As of today, Air India connects Male to Mumbai and Delhi, while sister concern Vistara flies from Mumbai and Delhi. IndiGo, the countrys largest carrier, operates to Male from Bengaluru (Daily), Mumbai (Daily), Delhi (Daily), Kochi (Daily) Hyderabad (thrice weekly). Maldivian operates to Bengaluru, Trivandrum and Kochi in India from Male.

Also read: Indians dominated Maldives' tourist arrival figures in 2023, data shows

What about Lakshadweep?

Indian carriers have had a very poor presence at Lakshadweep, so much so that there was a time when Alliance Air had wet leased 19 seater B1900 to operate the route from Kochi. Currently it operates daily with the ATR 72-600 with startup fly91 in process of adding flights when it starts operations as it has won routes under RCS-UDAN from and to Lakshadweep.

Hopefully this will help Lakshadweep quickly get the infrastructure needed for luxury tourism and open up the islands for a sustainable premium tourism point in India.

Advantage Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia?

What set Maldives apart in the past for visa free travel. With Thailand and Malaysia announcing a similar concession, there is competition. From a passengers perspective, the total cost is equally important and Maldives has cheaper flights with higher hotel rentals while this tilts towards equality in case of Thailand or Malaysia, both having some wonderful beach destinations and resorts, in addition to being a shoppers paradise - something which Maldives does not offer.

Now that India has direct flights to Bali (and Jakarta), Indonesia ranks high in terms of cost index and also has an advantage, so does Mauritius. World over, the advent of social media has led to an instant uproar with repercussions. In the current case, Maldives seems to have handled the whole scenario wrongly in which the Prime Minister Modi had not mentioned Maldives at all but some stray elements from Maldivian side have ensured there are grave repercussions for the country's economy. Maldives wants to attract more Europeans, it will come at a cost.

The writer is an aviation analyst
The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex tanked by 670 points on Monday, ending the two-day winning streak. The NSE index Nifty declined by 197.80 points.



The 30-share Sensex dropped by a massuve 670.93 points to end the day at 71,355. On the other hand, Nifty closed at 21,153. On Friday, the Sensex had jumped 178.58 points to close at 72,026.15. The Nifty had climbed 52.20 points or 0.24 per cent to 21,710.80 The stock market index on a display screen at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai.(PTI file)

On the Sensex, the top laggards included Nestle, ITC, Tech Mahindra, State Bank of India, Mahindra and Mahindra, TCS and Hindutan Unilever.



HCL Technologies, Power Grid, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Bajaj Finance and Titan were the gainers amid the Sensex crash.

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Here are five main reasons why the Sensex crashed by nearly 700 crashed on Monday:

US rate cut hopes diminishing

The hopes of an early rate cut by the US Federal Reserve are diminishing after the recent data revealed that the labour scars from the Covid-19 pandemic had effectively healed. At least 2.16 lakh jobs were added to the US payrolls last December with a wage growth of 4.1 per cent.

The market witnessed widespread selling as the euphoria over early rate cuts may diminish due to the better-than-expected non-farm payroll data from the US and the consequent rise in the US 10-year yield. In the near term, investors trade positions will be more inclined towards the upcoming result season, Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services, told news agency PTI.

Q3 earnings

The domestic market is cautious ahead of major IT giants revealing their Q3 results. Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys will announce the Q3 report card on January 11.

"In the near term, investors trade positions will be more inclined towards the upcoming result season. While the outset may be tempered by lower expectations in the IT sector, the overall forecast for earnings growth remains optimistic, projecting double-digit figures," Nair added.

Global markets

The 670-point crash at Sensex can be attributed to the performance by Asian markets. In Asian markets, Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled lower. Japan's Nikkei was closed for a holiday. The European markets were trading lower. The US markets ended marginally up on Friday.

Technical factors

Another important factor behind the markets ending in red could be technical factors. Kunal Shah, senior technical and derivative analyst at LKP Securities, told Mint that Nifty ended its day close to its support at 21,500 and the short-term 14-day moving average.

He added that the performance indicated a change in market sentiment. In case 21,500 mark is breached in closing, the NSE index may move towards the next support level at 21,200.



Geopolitical tensions

The geopolitical tensions including the attacks on commercial ships by Houthi rebels in the Red sea and the Israel-Gaza conflict are being keenly watched by the investors. The Red Sea is the entry point for the ships that use Suez Canal and is crucial for the movement of goods between Asia and E

Investors are closely watching geopolitical events. Houthi rebels are targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea amid the escalating Israel-Hamas conflict.

The Red Sea is the entry point for ships using the Suez Canal and is important for the movement of goods between Asia and Europe.
The Bengaluru police issued notices to Kannada actors Darshan, Dolly Dhananjaya, Abhishek Ambareesh and producer Rockline Venkatesh for allegedly partying at a pub in Bengaluru beyond closing hours. An FIR has also been lodged on Jetlag pub at Rajajinagar, where the actors reportedly partied the whole night. Bengaluru police issues notices to three Kannada actors for partying whole night(Twitter/dasadarshan)

Also Read - Strategy is to win all 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka: EX-CM Bommai after key BJP meet

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According to reports, the Kannada film team Kateera celebrated its success party at the pub. The party went on till morning even though the permissible timings are till 1 am for pubs in the city.

Bengaluru police said, On January 3, the pub played music the whole night, and Kannada actors were part of the party. Subramanya Nagara police sent them the notices and asked them to appear for investigation. An FIR has been filed against the pub owner. The police also reportedly asked the pub management to submit the CCTV footage of that night.

Last year, Kannada actor Darshan was in soup for comments on luck goddess during another promotional event of Kranti. The comments of the actor angered many who called out his misogynistic views towards women. Darshan also made headlines when he was arrested over accusations of assaulting his wife about a decade ago.
To speed up the most awaited Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project, the engineering team will use 31-metre-long U-grinder that helps to build tracks immediately. U-grinders are generally used in the construction of metro tracks and for the first time in the country, 31-metre-long U-grinders are being roped in for a public transport project. India's first 31-metre U-grinder roped in for Bengaluru suburban rail project

Also Read - Undeclared emergency prevailing in Karnataka: Former CM Bommai

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Karnataka Industries and Commerce minister MB Patil took to social media and wrote, A 31-meter U-girder, the longest in India, has been prepared for the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project's Corridor-2, surpassing the previous 28-meter record. This girder, among 450 others, will soon be installed between Yeshwantpur and Hebbal, under K-Ride's management.

What is a U-grinder?

U-grinders are U-shaped grinders that are used in the construction of public transport projects across the globe. Due to the length of these U-grinders, the construction time and number of piers used as the foundation gradually come down, which eventually helps the companies meet the deadlines. Each U-shaped grinder weighs more than 170 tons, and high-capacity cranes are used to cast these U-grinders.

Earlier in July, Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya reviewed the Bengaluru suburban rail project and suggested the Karnataka government to extend the project till Tumakuru, Ramanagara and Chikkaballapur. He also requested railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to approve the expansion plan of Bengalurus suburban rail network.

In June, the Karnataka government directed the Rail Infrastructure Development Company of Karnataka (K-RIDE) to submit a revised plan of the project. According to the department, the suburban rail project will be extended to Mysuru, Gauribidanur - Hindupur and Kolar areas. MB Patil then said that the long-awaited suburban rail project will be a game changer in dealing with traffic congestion of Bengaluru. With the extensions, the surrounding districts of Bengaluru are likely to see ease of transport to the capital city.

However, the Karnataka government said that the project will be finished by 2028 and they will meet the deadline. Speaking to reporters earlier, MB Patil said, To my knowledge, the suburban rail works will be completed by 2026. But if there are any delays, it will be finished by 2028. I have directed the officials to meet the deadlines and do not delay any work. Within the next two years, the works at Chikkabanavara and Bennaganahalli lines will be finished.``
The Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has called for a crucial meeting on Monday to discuss the preparedness for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. All key leaders attended the meeting, and former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai said the plan is to win all 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Strategy is to win all LS seats in Karnataka: EX-CM Bommai after key BJP meet

Also Read - Bengaluru West Division Police organise Say No to Drugs walkathon

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Speaking to reporters, Basavaraj Bommai said, The people of Karnataka are in favour of the BJP government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the meeting, we discussed the strategy to win all Lok Sabha seats in the state. The people are already tired of the Congress government and their half-implemented poll promises.

He also slammed the Congress government and said its leaders took a U-turn in the Ayodhya Ram Temple issue. Earlier they were making statements against Ram Temple in Ayodhya. As people are showing their support to the temple in Ayodhya, Congress leaders changed their stance. DK Shivakumar has become a Ram Bhakt and Ramalinga Reddy said that a special pooja will be conducted on January 22, he said.

Along with Basavaraj Bommai, Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh, Union Minister Prahlad Joshi and state chief BY Vijayendra are other senior leaders at the key meeting.

The BJP suffered a major electoral defeat in 2023 in the Karnataka assembly elections, thereby losing the only state the party ruled in south India. The Congress bagged 135 out of 224 seats in the state legislative assembly with a 43.2 percent vote share. The BJP was reduced to 66 seats with a vote share of 36.3 per cent.

The high command of the BJP revamped the state unit and placed new faces in key roles ahead of Lok Sabha polls.
Alleging "power has intoxicated" the Congress government, BJP leader and former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday said that a state of "undeclared emergency" is prevailing in Karnataka. Undeclared emergency prevailing in Karnataka: Former CM Bommai

"The power has intoxicated the government. The present government has become the government of oppression. The language of the Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues is affecting the freedom of speech of the individual. Cases were filed against those who raised their voice against injustice," former Karnataka CM Bommai said.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

Also Read - We did not receive invitation for Ayodhya Ram Temple inauguration: Karnataka DCM

Reacting to the recent arrest of Karsevak Shrikant Pujari, who later was granted bail by Karnataka's Hubbali court, Bommai said that not a single case was pending against Pujari yet he was arrested which shows that an "undeclared emergency" is prevailing in Karnataka.

Bommai further claimed that Congress and INDIA bloc leaders are advising people to not visit Ayodhya for the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

"A 'Chinthan-Manthan' of the party will be held tomorrow where the plan of action will be decided. The Congress Party was against the construction of the Shri Ram Temple in Ayodhya but a magnificent temple was being built. The Congress MLC hinted at the Godhra-like incident to happen during the temple inauguration. Similarly, the INDIA Front leaders have advised people against travelling in trains," Bommai said.

"Since Narendra Modi has been the Prime Minister of Bharath, he would not allow any small untoward incident to happen in the country. The temple would be dedicated to the nation on a grand scale," he added.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra temple has decided to enthrone Ram Lalla at the sanctum-sanctorum of the Ram Temple at noon on January 22.

Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Rama, holds great spiritual, historical, and cultural significance for the people of India.

The trust has also invited 4,000 saints of all sects for the ceremony.

Vedic rituals for the Pran-Pratishtha (consecration ceremony) of Ram Lalla (infant Lord Ram) in Ayodhya will begin on January 16, a week before the main ceremony.
The Haryana anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Monday apprehended two of its own officials while accepting a bribe of 1 lakh in Ambala. The ACB team arrested both the accused red-handed and a case was registered.

A spokesperson said the ACB had received a complaint that a bribe of 1 lakh had been demanded by two employees of the ACB  inspector Somesh and exempted head constable Ashok Kumar  in lieu of filing a complaint.

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On investigation, it was found that a fake complaint was taken by both the cops with the Ambala range of the ACB, which was not authorised, and the bribe was demanded from the complainant instead of filing this complaint.

Following this, the ACB team arrested both the accused red-handed and a case was registered.

This entire proceeding was conducted with complete transparency in front of the witnesses.

With the arrest of two officers, ACB director general Shatrujeet Kapur affirmed the bureaus commitment to complete transparency and impartiality in tackling corruption, assuring it will remain a continuous endeavor.
Ten people are "lucky to be alive" after a light plane crashed and flipped while attempting to land on an exclusive Australian resort island.

Nine passengers  including a teenager  and a pilot were on board the aircraft yesterday when it crashed on Lizard Island, about 400 kilometres north of Port Douglas at the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, just after 7.30am.

The flight is understood to have been headed for Cairns and after departing the holiday island, which is known for its ultra-exclusive resort and "powdery white beaches", a mechanical function forced it back down to land. The plane clipped trees on the way down and crash-landed into the sand and shrubs.

Nine tourists, pilot miraculously avoid serious injury

Ten people are lucky to be alive after a light plane crashed and flipped over on Lizard Island in Queensland's Far North. Source: 9News.

Authorities sent two emergency helicopters to the site, transporting four people to Cairns Hospital. All four are understood to have sustained only minor injures, several of them were even able to walk themselves into the facility.

Pilot hailed for 'incredible' reaction

Royal Flying Doctor Service nurse Stephanie Beatty said the situation could've been a lot worse.

"Minor injuries, minor head injury and a fractured arm, otherwise most shaken but okay. I think the people are very lucky to be alive," she said, 9News reported.

Brina Keating from Queensland Ambulance praised the pilot's efforts in landing the aircraft, when he branded "incredible".

Four people were taken to hospital as a result of the crash, though they only suffered minor injuries. Source: RFDS.

"The pilot's clearly done an incredible job," he said. "To walk away from something like that is just incredible."

Dramatic images show the single propeller plane completely overturned, with parts of its body badly damaged. A forensic crash unit will now investigate how the crash occured.

Flights to Lizard Island  about 10 square kilometres in size  usually take off from Cairns with a flight time of one hour.

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Six people from Rajasthan were killed after their car rammed into a tree near Shergarh village in Sirsas Dabwali on Monday, said the police. Dabwali city SHO Salender Kumar said Banwari Lals father-in-law had died and he along with three others was coming in a car from Ganganagar and two of his relatives  Krishan Lal and his wife Chander Kala joined them from Hanumangarh. The speedy car rammed into a tree near Shergarh village in Dabwali. (HT photo)

The car occupants were coming from Ganganagar in Rajasthan and were going to Hisar to attend the last rites of their kin. The deceased have been identified as Banwari Lal, his wife Darshan Devi, their relatives  Gudda Devi, Krishan Lal and his wife Chander Kala and car driver Subhash, who was a close friend of Banwari Lal.

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Dabwali city SHO Salender Kumar said Banwari Lals father-in-law had died and he along with three others was coming in a car from Ganganagar and two of his relatives  Krishan Lal and his wife Chander Kala joined them from Hanumangarh. The speedy car rammed into a tree near Shergarh village in Dabwali.

Five persons died on the spot and Banwari Lal was rushed to Dabwali civil hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. The victims families were informed about the mishap. Their bodies were sent to Dabwali civil hospital for autopsy, the SHO added.
A station house officer, two other cops and a village sarpanch were booked over alleged custodial death of suspended gram sachiv, who died after falling from the second floor of his brothers house in Hisars Arya Nagar on Friday. Hisar police spokesman Vikas Kumar said the Behal SHO, two other cops and Behal sarpanch were booked on murder charge and section 34 of the IPC.

The Hisar police have booked Bhiwanis Behal police station house officer (SHO) Sumit Sheoran, two other cops posted at Behal police station and Behal sarpanch Sadhu Ram under sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC on a complaint filed by the deceased gram sachiv Ram Prasads brother Shankar Lal.

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During a programme at Behal in Bhiwani on September 3, agriculture minister JP Dalal had issued instructions to book gram sachiv Ram Prasad as he failed to give a record of Behal panchayat land. On December 9, he was suspended without an inquiry and on January 3, a case was registered against him under section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the IPC on minister Dalals instruction at Behal police station.

In his complaint to Azad Nagar police in Hisar, the deceaseds brother said the accused SHO and ASI Ganga Ram allegedly called the gram sachiv several times to ask him about the record he had given to village sarpanch Sadhu Ram.

SHO Sheoran and other cops sought 10 lakh from my brother and threatened to book him if he failed to pay the amount. On January 3, they booked my brother and took him away the next day. On January 5, they brought Ram Prasad to my house in Hisar and pushed him from the second floor, the complainant added.

Hisar police spokesman Vikas Kumar said the Behal SHO, two other cops and Behal sarpanch were booked on murder charge and section 34 of the IPC.
After four days of searches at various locations linked to former INLD MLA Dilbagh Singh, 52, in Yamunanagar, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested him for further questioning. Supporters of former INLD MLA Dilbagh Singh gather outside his house in Yamunanagar as the Enforcement Directorate team prepares to take him for questioning on Monday. (HT Photo)

There was no statement from the ED officials on the arrest yet, but the former MLAs brother Rajinder Singh confirmed the development, levelling allegations against the central agency and the Union government.

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The ED had on Thursday raided premises linked to Dilbagh Singh and his associates in Yamunanagar district besides the house of Congress MLA Surender Panwar and his aides in Sonepat, residences of BJP leader Manoj Wadhwa in Karnal and other locations in Haryana.

Also read: NIA attaches 4 properties of Lawrence Bishnoi aides in Punjab, Haryana

The raids were conducted as part of a money-laundering case linked to illegal mining in Yamunanagar and some other areas of the state.

Former INLD MLA Dilbagh Singh. (HT file photo)

The former MLA was taken by an ED team from Gurugram in a convoy of seven vehicles.

Later, Rajinder told the media: This is political vendetta as elections are approaching. Its alleged that there was embezzlement of funds in a stone-crusher business owned by him (Dilbagh Singh). He is a politician and not into the mining business.

According to news agency ANI, 5 crore in cash, illegal foreign-made rifles with 300 cartridges and bullets, more than 100 liquor bottles, about 5 kg of gold biscuits and jewellery, and documents of assets in India and abroad were recovered from the house of Dilbagh Singh and his associates.

The ED has not mentioned any seizure in the official documents given except for our land documents, electronic devices and a car owned by Dilbagh. If there is recovery of liquor from someone elses premises, what does he have to do with it ? All rifles are licenced with the deputy commissioners office, Rajinder added.
A foreign national died under mysterious circumstances in a rented accommodation in New Sundar Nagar in the wee hours on Sunday. He was rushed to Civil Hospital by his friends, where the doctors declared him dead. A foreign national died under mysterious circumstances in a rented accommodation in New Sundar Nagar in the wee hours on Sunday. He was rushed to Civil Hospital by his friends, where the doctors declared him dead. (Getty Images/iStockphoto/ Representational image)

The deceased has been identified as Morday Mody Yocobo, 24, of South Sudan. He was a second year BSc student in a private college near Baddowal. He was living in a paying guest facility in Sarabha Nagar. On Saturday he went to the rented accommodation of one of his friends in New Sunder Nagar.

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Sub-inspector Amarinder Singh, SHO at Sarabha Nagar police station, said that on Saturday midnight, the friends of Yocobo rushed him to a private hospital after his health deteriorated. The doctors referred him to the civil hospital where the doctors declared him dead.

The SHO added that there are no visible injury marks on the body. The body has been kept in the civil hospital for post-mortem. The police have written to the chief medical officer to form a board of doctors to conduct an autopsy which would be performed on Monday. Meanwhile, the family of Yocobo has been informed about his death. The cause of death would be ascertained after the postmortem.
As cold tightens its grip over Haryana, wheat farmers are cheerful with region wtnessing dense fog and drop in mercury levels continuing for over 10 days now. There is a forecast for rain this week, which will also benefit the crop (File)

Experts at the Karnal-based Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) have termed the prevailing wheat conditions as beneficial for the wheat crop as it is expected to improve the overall yield of the crop and foggy weather is a boon for it.

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However, there are apprehensions among a few farmers over the effect of a warm December and delayed rain on the crops. IIWBR director Gyanendra Singh denied any impact on the overall wheat yield.

Wheat crop is keeping well, and I dont think there was any impact of warmer days last month. There is a forecast for rain this week, which will also benefit the crop, he added.
New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in the state, saying the orders were "stereotyped" and passed without application of mind. HT Image

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan directed the convicts to surrender before jail authorities within two weeks.

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Holding the PIL challenging the remission as maintainable, the bench said the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to pass the remission order.

The apex court clarified that the State, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts. The convicts were tried by Maharashtra.

"We need not have gone into the other issues. But for sake of completion, we have. Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed," the bench said while pronouncing the judgement which spanned over 100 pages.

The top court also held as 'nullity' its May 13, 2022 order of another bench asking the Gujarat government to consider remission plea of convicts as it was obtained by "playing fraud on the court" and by suppressing material facts.

It said this is a classic case where the order of this court was used to violate the rule of law by granting remission.

The top court said Rule of law has been breached by usurpation of power and May 13, 2022 order has been used to usurp the powers and abuse the process of law.

"We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by Gujarat government," the bench said.

The apex court had on October 12 last year reserved its verdict after an 11-day hearing on the petitions, including the one filed by Bano.

While reserving the judgement, the apex court had directed the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit by October 16 the original records related to the remission of sentence of the 11 convicts.

While hearing the matter in September last year, the top court had asked whether convicts have a fundamental right to seek remission.

During the earlier arguments, the apex court had observed that state governments should not be selective in granting remission to convicts and the opportunity to reform and reintegrate with society should extend to every prisoner.

Besides the petition filed by Bano contesting the remission granted to them by the Gujarat government, several other PILs, including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, have challenged the relief.

TMC leader Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against the remission and their premature release.

Bilkis Bano was 21-years-old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train-burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.

All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022.
New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) Accusing the Gujarat government of abusing its power, the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission to 11 men convicted of gangraping Bilkis Bano and murdering seven of her family members during the 2002 riots and ordered that they be sent back to jail within two weeks. HT Image

The Gujarat government's remission order was without application of mind, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said and asked whether "heinous crimes against women permit remission" whatever faith she may follow or creed she may belong to.

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Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.

All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022.

"We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by Gujarat government," the bench said.

In its more than 100-page judgment, the Supreme Court said the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to pass the remission order. It clarified that the state in which an offender is tried and sentenced is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts. The convicts were tried in Maharashtra.

"We need not have gone into the other issues. But for sake of completion, we have. Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed," the bench said.

The top court also nullified its May 13, 2022 order of another bench asking the Gujarat government to consider a remission plea of one of the convicts as the order was obtained by "playing fraud on the court" and by suppressing material facts.

It said this is a classic case where the order of this court was used to violate the rule of law by granting remission.

Reacting to the verdict, senior advocate Vrinda Grover, who appeared for retired IPS officer Meeran Chadha Borwankar and others, termed it a very good judgement.

"... (it) has upheld the rule of law and the faith of the people of this country, particularly women, in the legal system, the courts, and that there is an assurance for justice," Grover told reporters.

Coming down heavily on the Gujarat government for not filing a review plea against the May 2022 judgment, the Supreme Court said only the state of Maharashtra could have passed the remission orders.

"Taking advantage of May 13, 2022 order of this court, other convicts also filed remission applications... Gujarat was complicit and acted in tandem with respondent no. 3 (one of the convicts) in this case. This Court was misled by suppressing facts," the bench said.

The top court also held that the PIL contesting the remission filed by Bilkis Bano under Article 32 of the Constitution was maintainable. The question of the maintainability of the PILs does not call for an answer, being rendered academic and is left open in an appropriate case.

According to Article 32, "It is a fundamental right, which states that individuals have the right to approach the Supreme Court (SC) seeking enforcement of other fundamental rights recognised by the Constitution."

Quoting Greek philosopher Plato extensively, Justice Nagarathna said, "Punishment is to be inflicted not for the sake of vengeance for what is done cannot be undone but for the sake of prevention and reformation."

"In his treatise, Plato reasons that the lawgiver, as far as he can, ought to imitate the doctor who does not apply his drug with a view to pain only, but to do the patient good. This curative theory of punishment likens penalty to medicine administered for the sake of the good of one being chastised.

Thus, she said, if a criminal is curable, he ought to be improved by education and other suitable arts and then set free as a better citizen and less of a burden to the state.

"This postulate lies at the heart of the policy of remission," she said.

Observing that the victim's rights also important, Justice Nagarathna said a "woman deserves respect howsoever high or low she may be considered in society or to whatever faith she may follow or any creed she may belong to".

"Can heinous crimes against women permit remission? These are the issues which arise," she said.

On October 12 last year, the apex court reserved its verdict after an 11-day hearing on the petitions, including the one filed by Bilkis Bano.

While reserving the judgement, the apex court had directed the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit by October 16 the original records related to the remission of sentence of the 11 convicts.

Besides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano, several other PILs, including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma and another by TMC leader Mahua Moitra, challenged the remission of the convicts and their premature release from jail.
A Delhi court has convicted three people for murdering 23-year-old Ankit Saxena in full public view in a hate crime in West Delhi on February 1, 2018. Ankit Saxena (File)

Anki Saxena, a photographer by profession, was brutally murdered by the family members of his girlfriend in full public view in Raghubir Nagar, West Delhi. Saxenas family with the help of other people took him to Guru Gobind Singh Hospital in an e-rickshaw, where he was declared brought dead.

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Additional sessions judge (ASJ) Sunil Kumar Sharma in an order passed on December 23, 2023, concluded that the prosecution had successfully proved that, Mohd. Salim, Akbar Ali and Shahnaz Begum had committed the murder.

All the accused persons viz. accused A-1 Mohd. Salim, accused A-2 Akbar Ali and accused A-3 Shahnaj Begum stand convicted for the charge of the offence punishable under Section 302 (murder)and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) IPC, the court said.

The court additionally convicted Begum under section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of IPC for assaulting Saxenas mother, Kamlesh Saxena, while she was trying to protect her son.

The prosecution relied upon 28 witnesses with key witnesses being Saxenas father, Yashpal Saxena, mother and his friends, Nitin, and Anmol.

These witnesses have consistently elucidated what the accused persons did to the deceased and how they committed the alleged offence... Their testimony before the Court is contemporaneous to the alleged offence and are consistent on all material aspects that constitute the offence, the court said in its 121-page order.

The court also observed that their testimony was consistent with the postmortem report as well as with the testimony of the doctor who conducted the postmortem and with the testimony of the forensic science laboratory (FSL) expert, further lending credence to the case of the prosecution.

It, however, discarded the testimonies of the defence witnesses as motivated, tutored, contradictory and unreliable. The court also found that the statements made by the accused under section 313 of the code of criminal procedure were also contradictory in nature.

The court also rejected the arguments of the defence regarding discrepancies in the statements of the prosecution witnesses stating that the discrepancies do not touch the core of the prosecution case and are required to be ignored being minor discrepancies.

It was also observed by the court that the prosecution had also successfully proved that the motive behind Saxenas murder was his relationship with the girl, due to which the parents of the girl had also changed their residence, but their relationship was not coming to an end.

The court has now listed the matter for hearing the arguments on sentence on January 15.
New Delhi [India], January 8 (ANI): On Monday, AAP Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Singh arrived at the Civil Lines venue in a police van on Monday to file his nomination for the Rajya Sabha. HT Image

Sanjay Singh's father Dinesh Singh, expressed gratitude for the unwavering support of the Aam Admi Party and its workers during his son's arrest.

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"The party and its workers had trust in him, and they are more upset than his own family on his arrest that Sanjay Singh was punished for speaking the truth...I want to thank the party on behalf of other party workers and my family...The party has taken the right decision by not getting stuck in tyrant politics" Dinesh Singh, AAP leader Sanjay Singh father said.

Sanjay Singh's wife, Anita Singh, conveyed her wishes as he filed his nomination.

"First, I would like to extend my warm wishes as he is coming to file his nomination. Our people have gathered here in his support. It will be historic that somebody will come to file a nomination from jail...I also want to extend my warm wishes to CM Arvind Kejriwal who gave such a huge responsibility to him. He will perform his duties well" Anita Singh said.

As per the EC schedule, polling will take place from 9 am- 4 pm in respective state assemblies, and votes will be counted from 5 pm on January 19.

A Delhi court on Thursday, had earlier allowed Singh to sign his renomination documents from jail. Singh, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case related to the Delhi excise policy, is AAP's UP in-charge.

Sanjay Singh, a senior Aam Aadmi Party leader is an accused in a money laundering case related to Excise policy case and was arrested on October 4, 2023 by the Enforcement Directorate.

The AAP has decided to nominate Swati Maliwal, former Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief as its newest Rajya Sabha MP. Senior AAP leader ND Gupta has also been renominated for their second terms.

Maliwal resigned from the post of chief of the DCW on Friday after the Aam Adami Party (AAP) nominated her as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

Swati Maliwal is a women's rights activist and the current Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW). Before joining DCW, Maliwal worked as the advisor to the Chief Minister of Delhi on public grievances. Maliwal was a core member of the Indian Against Corruption movement.

Former DCW chief Swati Maliwal arrived in Civil Lines to file her nomination for Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Delhi Minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai said, "...AAP MP Sanjay Singh had represented (the party) earlier also...Former DCW chief Swati Maliwal has also filed her nomination so that the voice of women reaches the Rajya Sabha. All candidates are coming and they will file their nomination." (ANI)
An automated teller machine (ATM) of the State Bank of India (SBI) at Kagarol town in Uttar Pradeshs Agra district was uprooted and taken away by thieves at about 3am on Monday amid dense fog in the area, police said. The incident happened at about 3am on Monday amid dense fog at Kagarol town in Uttar Pradeshs Agra district.

It was an ATM of State Bank of India having one of its branches at Kagarol town of Agra district. The ATM chamber was adjacent to the bank branch. Between 2.30am to 3am on Monday, there were four to five men who came with a pick up van and got the ATM uprooted before taking it away, said Agra police commissioner Dr Preetinder Singh.

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The commissioner inspected the area and also moved incharge of Kagarol police station, Jasveer Singh Sirohi, to Police Lines for dereliction in duties.

Discussion with the branch managar at Kagarol branch of SBI has revealed that there was cash of about 30 lakh. The Special Operation Group (SOG) of Agra police besides the surveillance team has been activated to trace the accused, the commissioner said. The manager lodged a police complaint on Monday.

Police are now collecting footages from CCTV cameras in the nearby areas. The ATM and the branch of SBI is in a rented premise near the Kargarol town bus stand.
AUBURN  In its first business meeting of 2024, Auburn City Council approved applications for state grants to support several infrastructure projects.

First, council authorized a resolution Thursday allowing the city to apply for $6 million from the New York State Department of Transportation's Bridge NY grant program to replace four culverts. The city seeks $1.5 million each to replace the culverts at Brookside Drive, Burgess Avenue, North Marvine Avenue and North Herman Avenue.

Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason told The Citizen that the city would pay for whatever the state doesn't cover. The background memo for the application includes estimated budgets for each project with 10% contingency: approximately $1.5 million for the Brookside and Burgess culverts, $1.4 million for the North Marvine culvert and $1.6 million for the North Herman culvert. The memo also noted that during Tropical Storm Fred in 2021, there was an increase in tributary and stream flows that caused flooding at the Brookside Drive and Burgess Avenue culverts, making those two the city's priority.

Before council unanimously approved the resolution, new Mayor Jimmy Giannettino thanked city staff for preparing the application, noting the city has had "tremendous success" with Bridge NY funding.

City Council on Thursday also approved applying for $395,257 in funding from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Urban & Community Forestry grant program.

The city adopted a community forest management plan in 2023 to maintain and grow Auburn's tree population. The resolution for the grant application said the Department of Public Works' urban forestry division is need of a new tree-trimming bucket truck and chipper dump truck to continue the city's tree pruning efforts. A local match from the city would not be needed for the project.

Before council voted on the resolution, Giannettino acknowledged city staff's pursuit of the funding.

"It falls in line with our overall tree program and if we can secure this funding, we'll reduce costs to local taxpayers," he said.

After the meeting, Dr. Rhoda Overstreet-Wilson, one of two new city councilors, told The Citizen she appreciates the efforts of city employees to apply for these state grant programs.

"I am just grateful that our city workers are looking at different ways to beautify our infrastructure," she said.

In other news

 Council on Thursday also authorized a resolution to approve an agreement with the Finger Lakes Dog Protection Agency for Auburn's dog protection services and enforcement.

The city issued a request for proposals for dog control and kennel work in late November. The agency was the only entity to send a proposal. The resolution said the agency has provided dog control services in Auburn under a city contract for almost 20 years. The city and the agency's one-year agreement ends Dec. 31, the resolution said, with options to renew for a second and third year.

 Council also approved a resolution declaring that the proposed rehabilitation of the building at 22 E. Genesee St. complies with regulations for the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act. In September 2022, council allowed the city to apply for Empire State Development funding through the Restore NY Communities Initiative to support the renovation of the property, which owner R&M Real Estate Group plans to redevelop into a mixed-use building with lofts on the upper floors and more than 4,400 square feet of retail and commercial space on the first floor.

 A public hearing on the 2024-2025 Community Development Block Grant Annual Action Plan has been scheduled to take place during City Council's meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25.

 Councilors also signed off on several appointments Thursday. One resolution established Clerk Chuck Mason as the city's representative on the board of directors of the Auburn Downtown Business Improvement District. The council also appointed Auburn residents Linda Webster, William Berry and William Tenity to three-year terms on the Auburn Human Rights Commission, along with appointing the Rev. Robert E. Wilson as chair of the commission for the duration of his term, which lasts through March 17, 2025.

Council members also confirmed Gwen Webber-McLeod as chair of the Auburn Industrial Development Authority for the duration of her current term with the group, which lasts through Jan. 31, 2026. Webber-McLeod, president and CEO of Auburn-based business Gwen Inc., spoke at the meeting before council approved her appointment.

"I'm of the opinion that this is an important moment in the history of economic development in our city, county and region," she said. "It's critically important for us to be prepared in every single way to showcase Auburn, New York, as vital to that economic development future."

Webber-McLeod succeeds Dacey as Auburn IDA board chair Gwen Webber-McLeod is taking over as chair of the Auburn Industrial Development Authority's board of directors.
PRAYAGRAJ The Allahabad high court on Monday stayed criminal proceedings initiated by a court in Gautam Buddh Nagar against Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief and Rajya Sabha MP Jayant Chaudhary for alleged violation of model code of conduct and Covid norms during UP Assembly elections in 2022. Hearing an application filed by Jayant Chaudhary under Section 482 (inherent powers of high court), Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh also directed the state governments counsel to file a reply within four weeks and the applicants counsel was given two weeks time to file rejoinder affidavit thereafter. (File Photo)

Hearing an application filed by Jayant Chaudhary under Section 482 (inherent powers of high court), Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh also directed the state governments counsel to file a reply within four weeks and the applicants counsel was given two weeks time to file rejoinder affidavit thereafter. The court directed to list this case for the next hearing after six weeks.

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In the present petition, an FIR was registered against former chief minister of UP and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary and others at Dadri police station in Greater Noida in 2022 under Sections 188 (any deliberate disobedience of an order duly promulgated by a public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection), 270 (act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the IPC and  of Epidemic Diseases Act, alleging that they violated model code of conduct and Covid norms in 2022.

Subsequently, the charge sheet was filed against them on October 12, 2022.

Counsel Imran Ullah contended that the applicant (Jayant) was accompanying Akhilesh Yadav, against whom criminal proceedings had already been stayed by a coordinate bench of this court. Besides, his role was limited, as he was only present in the bus ferrying Akhilesh Yadav.

He further contended that in such type of cases relating to violation of guidelines, the complaint can only be filed by the person whose order has been violated. In this case, it was not done and an FIR was lodged directly.

He said all the witnesses in this case were policemen whose statements were the same, hence could not be relied upon.
Members of the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha, students wing of the Samajwadi Party staged a sit in on Monday to register their protest against the damage done the bust of socialist thinker Dr Ram Manohar Lohia near commerce building of the Lucknow University (LU). The protesters submitted a memorandum to LU officials in which they have demanded that the bust of the socialist leader be repaired quickly. Lohias bust on Lucknow University campus damaged, SP student body stages stir (File)

The LU authorities condemned the act of vandalism.

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They said help of teachers from Arts College sculpture department has been taken for a restoration job, which they said would be completed at the earliest.

Miscreants committed a dastardly act by damaging Lohia jis bust. We have demanded that LU administration should order a probe into the incident and arrest the culprits, said Taukeel Ghazi, a Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha member.

Protesters claimed that the bust was intact till Saturday. The LU was closed on Sunday but when it reopened on Monday, the bust was damaged.

Lohias bust installed during the regime of former LU vice chancellor Mahendra Singh Sodha on April 21, 1994 when Rakesh Singh Rana and Onkar Bharti served as the president and general secretary of LU student union.
Prayagraj and Varanasi will get the prestigious Presidents Award in the Swachh Survekshan 2023  the cleanliness survey awards that would be given in New Delhi on Thursday. Many Uttar Pradesh cities do well in cleanliness survey; award ceremony on January 11 (File photo)

Eight cities, including Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Jhansi, and Firozabad, have earned a 3-star rating while Noida takes the cake with a five-star rating.

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Noida would be awarded at the state level while at the area level Barwar, a town and nagar panchayat in Lakhimpur Kheri, Anupshahr, a city and municipal board in Bulandshahr and Gajraula, a city and municipal board at Amroha would be awarded for their efforts at promoting cleanliness, a press release by urban development department said.

About 648 cities of the state have achieved the Open Defecation Free (ODF) status this year, against last years 588.

Swachh Survekshans 2023 results reveal that 129 cities in Uttar Pradesh have achieved ODF++ status, reflecting adherence to open defecation-free standards and sustainable waste management practices. Apart from this, 435 cities in the state have attained ODF+ status, showcasing the commitment of the Yogi government towards cleanliness in the state, officials said.

Last year, 11 cities secured the Garbage Free City status and this year the number has surged to 65 cities. Noida has achieved a remarkable 5-star rating. Besides this, 56 cities have been awarded a 1-star rating, underscoring the governments dedication to fostering a garbage-free environment. Many cities in Uttar Pradesh are now moving towards a 7-star rating, the press release said. Additionally, continuous efforts are being made by the government to elevate more cities to achieve 5-star and 3-star ratings, the release added.
LUCKNOW Two former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students carrying a reward of 25,000 each were arrested by the UP ATS on Monday for their alleged links with the ISIS. Prior to the duos arrest, seven other accused were arrested and booked under UAPA Act and sections of the Arms Act. (Pic for representation)

The duo was identified as Amas alias Faraz Ahmed, 22, resident of Aligarh and son of Khatib Ahmed and Abdul Samad Malik, 25, resident of Sambhal and son of Mukim, stated a release by the UP ATS, adding that the former was arrested from Aligarh while latter was nabbed in Sambhal earlier and presented before the court in Lucknow on Monday.

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ATS officials said they had received intelligence that some people were carrying out anti-national activities by claiming allegiance to the ISIS. After confirming this information, an FIR under various IPC sections was registered against them on November 3, 2023.

Prior to the duos arrest, seven other accused were arrested and booked under UAPA Act and sections of the Arms Act. According to ATS, the two accused, along with their previously arrested associates, were preparing an ISIS module in Aligarh Muslim University and adding other people to it. They were allegedly planning to execute a major terrorist activity by hatching anti-national plan.

Abdul Samad Malik surrendered before the court. The ATS team activated intelligence system and arrested Faraz in Aligarh, the press note added.

According to police, Faraz had graduated in psychology from AMU in 2022 and took the entrance examination for MBA in 2023 while Abdul Samad Malik was pursuing Masters in social work from AMU.

The arrested accused will be presented before the court and further legal proceedings will be initiated, said police.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will soon get new land for solid waste management at Chande-Nande village as instructed by Pune district guardian minister Ajit Pawar. The land is currently in the possession of Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA), said officials. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

The land is currently in the possession of Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA), said officials.

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Residents were opposing the bio CNG project installed at Sus Road. In this regard, a meeting was held recently at the deputy chief ministers office in which it was decided to shift the project to Chande-Nande village.

Vikas Dhakne, additional municipal commissioner, said, The state government is handing over the land at Mulshi taluka to the PMC. This land is expected to be handed over this month (January), after which the PMC will shift the project to the new place.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Medha Kulkarni is following up on the issue with PMC and the state government.
Police sub-inspector (PSI) deputed at Market Yard police station was booked on January 4 in an alleged rape case. The incident was reported between July 10-December 4, 2023 in the city. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

The incident was reported between July 10-December 4, 2023 in the city.

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As per the complaint filed by a 32-year-old victim, the accused Yuvraj Vaman Shinde promised to marry her and raped her on several occasions.

According to the complainant, the accused and the victim were known to each other. On the pretext of marriage, the accused raped the victim several times at various locations across the city. The accused also forced the victim to gift him costly items.

Police said, The accused who is already married raped her several times and the wife of the accused also abused the victim.

A case has been registered under sections 376, 323, 504, 506 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Market Yard police station.
The Supreme Court (SC) has done well to quash the remission orders of 11 persons convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to life in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case. The convicts, who were released from prison in August 2022, will need to return to jail within two weeks and serve the rest of their sentence in prison. The reprieve enjoyed by these men, who were publicly felicitated in Gujarat on their release, was a blot on the justice system and cast a shadow even on the formidable record of the SC, which had ensured a fair closure for many riot victims  the apex court had monitored the investigation and trial in nine of the 2002 Gujarat riots cases.

At one level, the judgment was on technical grounds. Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan ruled on Monday that the Gujarat government was not the appropriate authority to pass the orders and that remission could be considered only by the government of the state where the trial was held. The trial in Bilkis Bano was held in Maharashtra after it was shifted out of Gujarat on the orders of the SC. A CBI court in 2008 held 13 persons guilty of raping Bano, her mother and three other women, and killing seven of her family members, including her three-year-old daughter; 11 of the guilty were sentenced to life, which was upheld later by the Bombay high court. One of the convicts pleaded early remission before the SC in 2022 on the grounds that he had served 15 years of imprisonment. He hid the fact that the Gujarat high court had asked the petitioner to plead remission in Maharashtra and the court there had given its opinion on it, from the SC, which considered the plea and passed it to the Gujarat government for action. On Independence Day (August 15, 2022), four months ahead of assembly elections in the state, 11 of the convicts were set free by the Gujarat government. In its Monday order, the SC said the remission was obtained through fraud. Clearly, due diligence was compromised by the government and the previous bench of the SC itself. Remissions are not unusual in the case of life convicts, but they are rarely (if ever) extended to people convicted of heinous crimes such as murder and rape. The accused can now approach the Maharashtra government, but at this stage, the state should not further her ordeal. Bano and her family have been brave and relentless in pursuing justice  twice over. That should stay.
Amidst a boycott by the Opposition, Bangladesh voted on Sunday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who heads the Awami League, is expected to retain office. This is good news for Delhi since India-Bangladesh ties have done well under her: Trade has boomed, there is better road and rail connectivity between the two countries, and the two nations agree on the threat terrorism poses to South Asia. A politically stable Bangladesh, with continuity in policies, augurs well for the region, especially since their common neighbour, Myanmar is in ferment with the civil war threatening to trigger a refugee crisis as well as make it easy for militias to access weapons through a porous international border.

All this points to the interconnectedness of polities in the subcontinent, with election outcomes  and multiple national elections are due in the coming months  resonating beyond borders. The Maldives presidential results, which came in late September last year, have muddled waters in the Indian Ocean region: The new president, Mohamed Muizzu, is perceived to be hostile to Delhi and eager to engage Beijing. Pakistan is set to hold polls in early February while presidential elections in Sri Lanka are slated for later this year. India will have a new government in May.

Except in India, democracy has tenuous roots in most of the countries, many of which have a history of military coups and authoritarian regimes. Dhaka, for instance, has faced severe censure from western democracies for its heavy-handed approach to Opposition parties. The electoral democracies in South Asia may be flawed  weak institutions, lack of gender parity, imbalance among different arms of the state  but a key takeaway from them is that they have a relatively better record on delivering economic growth, welfare, security, and even protecting liberal values and human rights. That makes it worthwhile to invest in elected governments.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras is partnering with Deakin University, Australia to launch the IIT Madras Deakin University Research Academy. The announcement was made during the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet in Chennai. Sarah Kirlew, the Australian Consul General, Chennai was also present in the event. Director of IIT Madras, Prof. V. Kamakoti presenting a memento to Prof. Iain Martin, Vice-Chancellor of Deakin University.

Also present at the launch event were a host of guests including Philip Green, Australian High Commissioner to India, Catherine Callagher, Head of Austrade (South Asia), Tamil Nadu State Minister, and dignitaries from academia, industry, and government of both nations.

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Also read: ICAI expected to announce CA Inter, Final November 2023 results tomorrow

According to a press release issued by Deakin University, the academy will host and train several highly talented graduate research scholars from SAARC and ASEAN countries through collaborative global research projects, joint supervision, and meritorious scholarships.

The release further stated that the academy will help research scholars to pioneer solutions through cutting-edge research in areas of strategic importance to Australia and India encompassing clean energy, critical technologies, sustainability, climate change, healthcare technologies, and more, contributing to the socio-economic goals of both nations at a global level.

Highlighting the partnership, Kirlew said that the education and research partnerships are a crucial pillar of the Australia-India relationship. She stated, Deakin and IIT Madras have a longstanding partnership and we congratulate them on this significant next step which will generate further cutting-edge research in topics of crucial global importance, including clean energy solutions.

Also read: NIFT registration 2024: Today is last date to apply with late fee

Director of IIT Madras, Prof. V. Kamakoti informed that the institution will be joining hands with Deakin to build upon its technical and research expertise, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility action plan to emerge as a leader for sustainability teaching and research in the global south.

Prof. Iain Martin, Vice-Chancellor, of Deakin University, also spoke on the launch of the academy and said it would further strengthen the synergy already achieved between both institutions by continuously exceeding excellence through collaborative research in areas of strategic importance.

The academy will help leverage Deakins strengths of working with industry for optimum research and development in critical areas of smart and sustainable technologies, said Prof Martin.

Highlights of the academy:

The research academy will offer a four-year joint Ph.D. program with high-value scholarships, joint supervision by faculty from both institutions and access to world-class research facilities and resources.

Participation of research scholars in an open innovation ecosystem and research network, and collaboration with top industry partners in India and Australia.

The four-year joint Ph.D. program will provide international doctoral training opportunities for early-stage researchers, with the allocation of 30 scholarships in 2024 to scholars from both IIT Madras and Deakin University as part of this dynamic partnership.

The inclusion of provisions for post-doctoral fellows and academics to spend time at each other's institutes promises to further enrich knowledge sharing and collaboration.

(For more information, visit the official website)
Counselling for post graduate medical admissions will be done only in online mode now and colleges will have to declare fees for each course beforehand, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has said underlining that no college will admit candidates on their own. Also read: NEET-PG 2024 likely in June-July, counselling in August if delayed: Sources Postgraduate medical admission counselling to be carried out only in online mode: NMC (HT Photo)

Medical education regulator NMC recently notified the "Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023" according to which all rounds of counselling for all PG seats will be held on online mode by state or central counselling authorities.

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There shall be common counselling for admission to post-graduate courses in medicine for all medical institutions in India solely based on the merit list of respective exams, the new regulations states.

"All rounds of counselling for all seats will be held on online mode by state or central counselling authority and no medical college/institution will admit any candidate themselves," it said.

"While entering details in seat matrix, medical colleges shall mention the amount of fees for each course, failing which seat will not be counted," the regulations stated.

Some changes in the examination system have also been introduced which include formative assessment and option of multiple-choice questions in university examinations, Dr Vijay Oza, president of Post-Graduate Medical Education Board of the NMC said.

"This is to bring objectivity in examination and match international standards," he said.

Another change has been made in the District Residency Programme (DRP) to facilitate its implementation for better training of students.

Previously, a district hospital was defined as a 100-bedded hospital. In the new regulations, the requirement has been reduced to 50 beds, Dr Oza explained.

"Under the DRP, doctors can be trained in a district hospital which shall be a functional public sector/government-funded hospital of not less than 50 beds instead of the previous requirement of 100 beds," the regulations read.

The DRP aims to train post-graduate students in district health systems and hospitals to strengthen healthcare services at the grassroots level.

According to the new regulations, once a medical college is granted permission to start PG courses or seats, the course will be treated as recognised for the purpose of registration of qualification for students.

This will solve many difficulties faced by students to register their degree after passing postgraduate examinations, Dr Oza said.

According to the new regulations, undergraduate medical colleges can start postgraduate courses from the third year now. Previously it was from the fourth year in clinical specialties.

Existing or proposed non-teaching hospitals owned and managed by government can start post graduate courses without having undergraduate colleges. This will facilitate government to start post graduate medical colleges in smaller government hospitals/district hospitals, Dr Oza said.

There will be a minimum standard requirement document which will prescribe requirement of infrastructure and faculty clinical material etc. for postgraduate institute.

All students will have to undergo courses in research methodology, ethics and cardiac life support skills.

"For better implementation of these regulations, there is provision of penalty clause which includes monetary penalty, reduction in number of seats( admission capacity) or complete stoppage of admissions," the regulations stated.
A lawsuit filed by the city of Auburn, town of Owasco and Owasco Watershed Lake Association sets up a confrontation between local municipalities and the state over proposed changes to the watershed rules and regulations.

The legal challenge, which was filed Friday in Cayuga County Court, claims the state Department of Health erred by determining that a provision of New York's agriculture and markets law prevents the agency from regulating nutrient pollution. The decision led the department to deny a request from the city and town for nutrient management regulations, according to the court filing.

The state Department of Health is also accused of not following the Public Health Law procedure for updating watershed rules and regulations and violating the constitutional right to clean water and a healthful environment  an amendment that was approved by New York voters in 2021.

Auburn, Owasco and OWLA opted to sue the state after a years-long effort to revise the watershed rules and regulations  policies that have not been updated in nearly 40 years.

After the harmful algal blooms threatened Owasco Lake's drinking water supply, local stakeholders began the process in 2017. It culminated in the approval of proposed rule changes that were submitted to the state Department of Health in 2020. The agency did not issue a formal response until 2022, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It wasn't until last summer that the department outlined its own revisions to the rules and regulations, which local officials believe actually weaken the existing protections. One of the notable differences between the local and state proposals is the state largely stripped the nutrient management regulations from its plan.

Locals are seeking updated nutrient management rules, particularly for farms, to combat the development of harmful algal blooms. A study, which was funded by the state, found that farmland is the main source of phosphorus that is entering Owasco Lake.

When the state's proposal was released, Auburn Mayor Jimmy Giannettino  then a city councilor  said the department had "failed" those in the Owasco Lake watershed.

Although the state Department of Health committed to a public process for updating the watershed rules and regulations, the lawsuit alleges that the agency is violating the law.

"(The state Department of Health) has decided to publish its revised nutrient management section in the state register without first obtaining agreement from the suppliers of water," the filing states. "DOH has taken further actions, including at least the preparation of necessary documents for the (State Administrative Procedure Act) process, to implement this decision."

While the dispute over the watershed rule and regulation process is not new, the lawsuit takes the conflict a step further. Local leaders, represented by the nonprofit Earthjustice, accuse the state Department of Health of violating the newly established constitutional right to clean water and a healthful environment.

Since the amendment was passed in 2021, there have been other lawsuits filed across New York. In this case, the state is accused of violating the constitutional rights of local residents "because they drink, recreate in and otherwise use Owasco Lake's water and will be harmed by these decisions."

More information about the case, including court appearances, wasn't immediately available.
Bihar School Examination Board will release the dummy admit card for the Bihar State Teacher Eligibility Test (STET) 2024 on January 12. Candidates can download the dummy admit card through the official website of Bihar STET 2024 at www.bsebstet2024.com. Bihar STET 2024: Last Chance to Correct Errors in Application Form and Download Dummy Admit Card

"The portal will be open from 12-01-2024 to 17-01-2024 for correcting the errors committed while filling the application form and downloading the dummy admit card. All the candidates are informed to make appropriate corrections of the errors committed while filling their application forms within the above mentioned time. This will be the last opportunity for amendment, after this no request for amendment will be considered' reads the official website.

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Additionally, candidates who registered before January 7, 2024, can make payments using this portal until January 10, 2024.

Bihar STET 2024: Know how to download admit card

Visit the official website at bsebstet.com.

On the homepage, click on the admit card link

Key in your login details

Download the dummy admit card

Take a printout of the confirmation page.

For more details visit the official website at bsebstet.com.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has issued admit cards for the Joint Admission Test for Masters or JAM 2024 today, January 8. Candidates can download it from the website jam.iitm.ac.in, when it is available. JAM 2024 admit cards releasing today on jam.iitm.ac.in (Representational image)(Unsplash)

The admission test is scheduled for Sunday, February 11, 2024, and results will be announced on March 22.

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JAM is a Computer-Based Test held for seven papers: Biotechnology (BT), Chemistry (CY), Economics (EN), Geology (GG), Mathematics (MA), Mathematical Statistics (MS, and Physics (PH). The result of this exam is used for admission to MSc, MSc (Tech), MSc- MTech Dual Degree, MS (Research), Joint MSc- PhD, and MSc- PhD Dual Degree courses.

Around 3,000 seats at IITs and over 2,000 seats at IISc, NITs, IIEST Shibpur, SLIET, and DIAT will be filled through JAM 2024.

Ahead of the exam, IIT Madras has uploaded mock tests to the website which candidates can use in their preparations.

As per the mock test, there are 60 questions carrying 100 marks. The paper is divided into three sections: A, B and C, carrying compulsory questions.

How to download JAM 2024 admit card
The West Bengal Police Recruitment Board (WBPRB) has released the interview call letter for Constable, Lady Constables Kolkata Police - 2022 on January 8, 2024. Candidates can download the interview call letter from the official website at wbpolice.gov.in. Candidates can download their e-Call Letter by keying their Application Sl. No. and Date of Birth. How to download West Bengal Constable, Lady Constable interview call letter 2022

Shortlisted candidates' interviews will commence on and from January 18, 2024.

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The e-Call Letters for Interview can be downloaded through the link (wbprb.applythrunet.co.in) provided in the websites of West Bengal Police Recruitment Board (https://prb.wb.gov.in); West Bengal Police (www.wbpolice.gov.in) and Kolkata Police (www.kolkatapolice.gov.in) tentatively from 08.01.2024. Candidates are requested to download their e-Call Letter on keying of their Application Sl. No. and Date of Birth. Candidates are advised to carry proof of identity and other documents as mentioned in their e-Call Letters for Interview and visit the above-mentioned websites on a regular basis, reads the official notification.

West Bengal Constable, Lady Constable interview call letter 2022: How to download

Visit the official website at wbpolice.gov.in

On the homepage, click on the

"Recruitment to the post of Constables and Lady Constables in Kolkata Police 2022."

Next, click on the Download e-Call Letter for Interview.

Key in your login details and submit

Check and download the admit card

Keep the hard copy of the same for future reference.
The second edition of the Ministry of Education's flagship event IInvenTiv-2024 will be hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) on 19th and 20th of January 2024. The collaboration by the HEIs will feature the top 120 innovations across these domains from the 53 participating technical institutions nationwide.(Handout)

IInvenTiv-2024 is a platform to highlight the impact of the research and innovation carried out by the top Higher Education Institutes in our country.

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According to a press release by IITH, this mega Research and Development (R&D) fair will be the expanded participation from various institutes. Beyond the 23 IITs, leading HEIs such as NITs, IISERs, IIITs, IISc Bangalore, and the top 50 NIRF-ranked engineering institutions in the country will present their exemplary work to both academic and industry stakeholders.

The second edition of IInvenTiv, hosted by IIT Hyderabad, will once again showcase Indias spirit of innovation and enterprise and bring together industry and academia to build an Atmanirbhar and Viksit Bharat, said Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

According to IITH, the event will focus on five pivotal domains which include:

(i) Affordable Healthcare

(ii) Agriculture & Food Processing

(iii) Sustainable Technologies including Climate change, E-mobility, Clean Energy

(iv) Defence and Space

(v) Industry 4.0

The collaboration by the HEIs will feature the top 120 innovations across these domains from the 53 participating technical institutions nationwide, informed the press release.

The selected projects will be presented before the audience in designated booths during the mega event. Representatives from more than 2000 Industries apart from several key officials from the Government are expected to be present at the inaugural event, said IITH.
Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki and his production house, Studio Ghibli, made history at this year's Golden Globes. Miyazaki's latest film, The Boy and the Heron, became the first anime film ever to win the Best Animated Film award at the prestigious awards show. The film, which is partly based on the 83-year-old filmmaker's childhood, also became the first film in any language other than English to win the same. The category was first introduced to the Golden Globes in 2006. The Boy and the Heron wins Golden Globe for Best Animated Film

Studio Ghibli reacts to their first-ever Golden Globes win

Following Studio Ghibli's historic win at the 81st Golden Globes, producer and co-founder Toshio Suzuki shared a heartfelt message on social media. Suzuki also explained how this win was a beacon of light for him amid all the despair due to recent natural calamities in Japan.

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Since the beginning of this year, Japan has been hit by a series of tragic earthquakes and accidents. When I hear the reports of many people still waiting for rescue in the disaster areas, I am filled with a sense of despair, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Toshio continued, In such a situation, I hope the bright news of winning an award can bring a smile to everyone's face, even if only a little, adding, Together with our U.S. distribution partners, we look forward to further success with The Boy and the Heron. Thank you very much to the Golden Globes for this honor, he concluded.

What is The Boy and the Heron about?

The Boy and the Heron is a fantasy-adventure anime film directed by Miyazaki. It revolves around Mahito, a young 12-year-old boy, who struggles to settle in a new town after his mother's death. However, when a talking heron informs Mahito that his mother is still alive, he enters an abandoned tower in search of her, which takes him to another world.

It was released on 14 July 2023, and its main voice cast includes Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Ko Shibasaki, Aimyon, Takuya Kimura, and Yoshino Kimura.
Actor Deepika Padukone, who recently celebrated her 38th birthday, flew out of Mumbai on Sunday night with her husband-actor Ranveer Singh. Taking to Instagram, a paparazzo account posted a video in which Deepika cut a cake with a photographer. (Also Read | Deepika Padukone shares picture of Happy Birthday Baby written on her cake) Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh at Mumbai airport.

Deepika celebrates her belated birthday with paparazzo

In the clip, Deepika stepped out of her car along with Ranveer Singh as a paparazzo approached them with a small cake. As the person spoke to her, the actor smiled while Ranveer nodded his head. Deepika then cut the cake as Ranveer held the box. Deepika also fed a small piece of the cake to the person and shared a brief conversation.

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Deepika, Ranveer walk holding hands

The actor couple then bid the person then bid the paparazzo goodbye and entered the terminal building hands. For the travel, Deepika wore a long black outfit and matching boots. She also carried a bag and dark sunglasses. Ranveer was seen in a white T-shirt and green pants under a black coat. He also wore a black cap, dark sunglasses and shoes.

Deepika's birthday post

On Sunday, Deepika shared a glimpse of a special birthday cake brought by Ranveer. Deepika took to her Instagram and shared a picture of the cake. The chocolate-flavoured cake had 'Happy Birthday Baby' written on it along with candles with Deepika's initials 'DP'. She also thanked everyone for all the love and wishes that she received on her birthday. Sharing the photo, Deepika wrote, "Thank you all for the birthday love!"

Deepika's films

Deepika is gearing up for the action thriller Fighter, Siddharth Anand. Fighter also stars Hrithik Roshan, Anil Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover and Akshay Oberoi in pivotal roles. On Deepika's birthday, team Fighter treated fans with a cute and exciting behind-the-scenes video from the sets of the film.

The video showcased some shots from the sets of the film's songs Ishq Jaisa Kuch and Sher Khul Gaye. The video also has shots of Deepika shooting in a flying suit. The film is primarily shot at air bases in India with real Sukhoi's, Indian fighter planes. Fighter is all set to hit the theatres on January 25. Apart from this, she will also be seen in the sci-fi action film Kalki 2898 AD opposite Prabhas.

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Amid tensions between India and the Maldives following a tweet by a Maldives minister slamming Lakshadweep Islands, celebs such as Akshay Kumar have expressed their support for the archipelago and encouraged Indians to explore its beauty. Actor, comedian and Emmy Award-winner Vir Das has also reacted to the backlash against Maldives. Also read: Akshay Kumar calls out hateful comments from Maldivians; Salman Khan, Shraddha Kapoor ask fans to explore Indian islands Stand up comic Vir Das has tweeted about the Lakshadweep-Maldives issue.

Vir Das on Indian celebs, influencers' Maldives pics

Vir Das took to X (formerly Twitter) to talk about Indian influencers and celebs, who had worked for weeks on their Maldives vacation pictures, but were now scared to share them on social media.

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He tweeted on Monday, "Firstly, happy Lakshadweep is getting some love! Secondly, somewhere in the Maldives, right now, is an Indian celebrity/ influencer, who didnt eat carbs for two weeks, took the best vacation photos ever, and is TERRIFIED to post them."

Reactions to Vir's tweet

Reacting to Vir's tweet, an X user suggested, "They can just post it saying it's Lakshadweep/ Looks almost the same; will get much more engagement right now." Another said, "Few are deleting the past ones too." One more tweeted, One (Indian influencer/celeb) already put pics last week and now lecturing others to stay away.

In another tweet on Monday, Vir had said, Next actor to post a honeymoon photo from Madh Island is getting a National Award. Pakka (for sure). He also tweeted, Remember thinking Epstein (Jeffrey Epstein) would be the most discussed island this week?

Vir Das continued to tweet about Maldives-India row.

Sara Ali Khan, Janhvi Kapoor, Urvashi Rautela posted Lakshadweep pics amid Maldives boycott calls

Sara, Janhvi, Urvashi on Lakshadweep

After John Abraham, Shraddha Kapoor and many other Bollywood actors, a host of celebs such as Sara Ali Khan, Janhvi Kapoor, Urvashi Rautela posted photos of Lakshadweep amid Maldives boycott calls. The celebs joined the trend of promoting Indian tourism after prominent personalities from the Maldives mocked India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pitch to visit Indian islands. PM Modi had recently shared pictures of his trip to Lakshadweep Islands.

On Sunday, Sara took to Instagram Stories to react to a friend's beach photos from Lakshadweep, writing, "After all the north Indian expeditions I have taken you on  time for you to make me explore the islands and jungles of our country."

Janhvi Kapoor said she was looking forward to visiting Lakshadweep. She wrote on Instagram Stories, "Are these pristine blue waters real? How beautiful is Lakshadweep! So glad to see this treasure in our country is getting the attention it deserves, can't wait to explore Indian Islands".

Urvashi, too, took to Instagram, and along with a picture from the beach destination, wrote in her caption, "Planning to go Lakshadweep. Our country has so many magnificent tourist destinations, with unimaginable potential; yet to be fully explored. Can any of you guess this Indian tourist haven, just from the pictures Ive posted? Explore Indian Islands... @narendramodi."

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California [US], January 8 (ANI): Actor Steven Yuen won his first Golden Globe Award, scoring for Male Actor - Limited Series, Anthology Series, for his co-starring role in Netflix's series 'Beef'. HT Image

He made it a sweep in the top limited series acting categories after his co-star Ali Wong also won a Globe tonight, reported Deadline.

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"The story I usually tell myself is one of isolation and separateness," he said during his acceptance speech. "And then you come up here and you have this moment, and you can only think about everyone else."

He went on to thank his family, Netflix, A24 and 'Beef''s cast and crew. "God bless you all," he said.

Yeun won over a field that included Matt Bomer (for Fellow Travelers), Sam Claflin (Daisy Jones & The Six), Jon Hamm (Fargo), Woody Harrelson (White House Plumbers) and David Oyelowo (Lawmen: Bass Reeves).

Lee Sung Jin wrote and executive produced the television series 'Beef', which revolves around Wong and Yuen's Amy and Danny and their downhill spiral following an altercation involving road rage in Los Angeles.

With 70.38 million hours viewed during its second week, the 10-episode series on Netflix more than doubled its audience from its first week after debuting in April 2023 thanks to positive word-of-mouth. In the end, it appeared in 87 countries' Global Netflix Top 10.

Yeun and Wong aren't done at all this awards season: they are also up in the same categories at next week's Primetime Emmys; the series is up for a total of 13 Emmy nominations, according to Deadline. (ANI)
Fresh off his inaugural Golden Globe win this year for his performance in Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy has captured the global audience with his acting prowess. Securing the Golden Globe win has solidified the actor's position as the leading contender for the upcoming Oscars, scheduled to be held on March 10 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Cillian Murphy at the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards (REUTERS)

Murphy is known for embracing each role with honesty, demonstrating versatility and a comfort in tackling supporting parts. Let's delve into five standout performances from his illustrious career.

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Red Eye

Cillian Murphy steals the spotlight in Wes Craven's 2005 thriller, embodying the fascinating character of Jackson Rippner. His dynamic chemistry with Rachel McAdams and their enthralling cat-and-mouse interactions create a compelling must-watch cinematic experience.

Breakfast on Pluto

Murphy dazzles in Breakfast on Pluto, portraying Patrick 'Kitten' Braden, a transgender Irish foundling navigating identity and love during the tumultuous 1970s. This whimsical and poignant film explores resilience, acceptance, and the quest for belonging.

Cillian Murphy won Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture for Oppenheimer at 2024 Golden Globe Awards(REUTERS)

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

A gripping historical drama directed by Ken Loach, depicting the Irish War of Independence and Civil War. Cillian Murphy's compelling performance adds depth to the film, exploring themes of nationalism, sacrifice, and the complexities of political upheaval.

Disco Pigs

A coming-of-age drama featuring Murphy as Pig, and Elaine Cassidy as Runt, two inseparable friends with a unique bond. The film explores their intense connection and the challenges they face as they navigate the complexities of adolescence in Cork, Ireland.

Cillian Murphy at the 81st Golden Globe Awards 2024(AP)

28 Days Later

A post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Danny Boyle, starring Cillian Murphy. As Jim, he awakens in a deserted London and faces a world overrun by rage-infected humans. Murphy's gripping performance contributes to the film's intense atmosphere and exploration of survival amid societal collapse.
Robert De Niro did not escape the attention of host Jo Koy at the Golden Globes ceremony. The 80 year-old star, who is nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for his work in Killers of the Flower Moon, found himself mentioned in the opening monologue of host Jo Koy. The comedian took note about Robert De Niro welcoming his seventh child with girlfriend Tiffany Chen last year. (Also read: Golden Globe Awards 2024 live updates: Taylor Swift unimpressed by host's joke about her, Elizabeth Debicki wins) Robert de Niro is nominated for a Golden Globe for Killers of the Flower Moon. (Photo by Patricia DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP)(AFP)

Golden Globes joke

In his opening monologue, Jo Koy joked about Robert De Niro's latest performance. He said: "I'm a fan, I'm fanning out, I love you Robert. Decade after decade, he just kills it, every single time, I don't know how you do it. Your last performance is going to be your greatest performance ever. How you'd get her pregnant at 80? CGI? CGI!"

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This is not the first time that the news of Robert De Niro becoming a dad so late in his life has caused a reaction. In June, Actor-comedian Amy Schumer had commented on it on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, and said: "Everyone is like, Congrats! If it was Jane Fonda, people would call the police. It is weird. It doesnt make me comfortable.\

Robert on becoming a dad

Robert De Niro welcomed a daughter with girlfriend Tiffany Chen last year in April. The actor, who started dating Chen, 45, in 2021, reacted to the news of welcoming his seventh child and said, It feels great. I have certain awareness  when youre older you have awareness of certain things in life, dynamics, everything, family dynamics. You cant avoid learning certain things and how you can deal with those and manage them and this and that, the usual.

Robert De Niro has a son Raphael, 46, with ex-wife Diahnne Abbott. He had previously adopted Abbotts daughter Drena, 51, from a previous relationship. In 1995, the Academy Award winner had welcomed twins Julian and Aaron, with Toukie Smith. He also has son Elliot, 25, and daughter Helen, 11, with ex-wife Grace Hightower.

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It was an issue raised during contract negotiations with Cayuga County employee unions, but it was never resolved.

Now, the Cayuga County Legislature's new Democratic majority is initiating the process to make Juneteenth a county holiday.

Legislator Brian Muldrow, the county's first Black lawmaker, has proposed a resolution designating Juneteenth as a county holiday. The resolution will be reviewed at the legislature's Government Operations Committee meeting Wednesday. Muldrow, D-Auburn, is chair of the committee.

"My goal, by this February, is to pass Juneteenth as an official holiday in our county," Muldrow wrote on Facebook over the weekend. "This holiday belongs to county residents of all cultures. We should have representation and enjoy our differences as we celebrate together."

Juneteenth marks the day  June 19, 1865  when the last enslaved people were freed after the end of the Civil War. It has long been celebrated in the U.S. and became a federal holiday in 2021. It is also recognized as a state holiday in New York.

Other municipalities, including the city of Auburn, recognize Juneteenth as a holiday. But not Cayuga County.

Legislator Aileen McNabb-Coleman, who served as chair from 2020 through 2021 and is back in that seat now that Democrats regained the majority, previously told The Citizen that a lack of time to plan is why Juneteenth wasn't made a holiday in 2021.

Former Cayuga County Legislature David Gould told The Citizen in 2022 that while he supported making Juneteenth a county holiday, it would be discussed during contract negotiations with the employee unions.

It was revealed last year that Juneteenth was used as a bargaining chip in those talks. Robert Janas, the local president of the Civil Service Employees Association that represents approximately 300 county workers, said the county wanted employees to give up a floating holiday in exchange for recognizing Juneteenth as a county holiday.

That was a deal-breaker, according to Janas. He explained that employees use the floating holiday for a variety of reasons, from spending time with family to attending medical appointments.

"We felt that it would've been more appropriate for the county to do what the city did and what other municipalities did  just give it to the employees to recognize all the sacrifices that they are already making," Janas said.

The resolution introduced by Muldrow would designate June 19 as "Juneteenth Independence Day" in Cayuga County. If June 19 falls on a Saturday, the holiday will be observed on Friday, June 18. If it's on a Sunday, it will be observed on Monday, June 20.

This year, June 19 is on Wednesday.

According to the measure, the chair would be authorized to "negotiate and sign any agreements or documents required to implement the intent of this resolution."

If the resolution advances through the committee phase, it will be voted on at the Cayuga County Legislature's regular meeting Tuesday, Jan. 23. This would allow the county time to recognize the holiday, for the first time, in June.
California [US], January 8 (ANI): Lily Gladstone won the Best Female Actor- Motion Picture award at the Golden Globes for her performance in Martin Scorsese's 'Killers of The Flower Moon'. HT Image

Gladstone has also become the first Indigenous woman to win the award, as per Variety.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

The 81st edition of the Golden Globes was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Golden Globe shared a post on their official handle and wrote, "And the #GoldenGlobes award for Best Female Actor - Motion Picture - Drama goes to... Lily Gladstone for their role on Killers of the Flower Moon! Congrats!"

https://twitter.com/goldenglobes/status/1744206382470148580

Gladstone opened her victory speech in the Blackfeet language, before thanking her mom, "who, even though she's not Blackfeet, worked tirelessly to get our language into our classroom so I had a Blackfeet language teacher growing up."

She went on and said "I'm so grateful I can speak even a little bit of my language, which I'm not fluent in, up here. Because, in this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English, and the sound mixer would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera," reported Variety.

"This is a historic win. It doesn't belong to just me. I'm holding it right now. I'm holding it with all of my beautiful sisters in the film at the table over here, and my mother, standing on all of your shoulders," she added.

Helmed by Martin Scorsese, the film starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone in the lead roles.

She also thanked Scorsese and DiCaprio during her acceptance speech and said, "You are all changing things. Thank you for being such allies."

Gladstone won for her portrayal of real-life figure Mollie Kyle, the Indigenous wife of World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio), in 'Killers of the Flower Moon.' The Scorsese epic tells the true story of the Reign of Terror in 1920s Oklahoma, during which members of the Osage Nation were murdered by a criminal ring eager to secure their oil and wealth, reported Variety.

Gladstone beat out Carey Mulligan ('Maestro'), Sandra Huller ('Anatomy of a Fall'), Annette Bening ('Nyad'), Greta Lee ('Past Lives') and Cailee Spaeny ("Priscilla"). (ANI)
At 52, Jo Koy wears many hatsstand-up comedian, actor, and the lead in the film Easter Sunday, a tale drawn from his own experiences. Renowned for his comedic prowess, he's showcased in numerous specials on Comedy Central and Netflix. US comedian Jo Koy hosted the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards 2024(AFP)

With over 140 appearances on Chelsea Handler's Chelsea Lately as a roundtable guest, Koy has solidified his place in the comedy scene. In 2018, he was honoured with the title of Stand-Up Comedian of the Year at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival held in Montreal, Canada. Here's a look at five fun facts about this years host at the Golden Globes Awards.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

US comedian Jo Koy at the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards red carpet (AFP)

From Tacoma to 'My Jo'

Joseph Glenn Herbert, known by his stage name Jo Koy, hails from Tacoma, Washington, where he spent his formative years. The moniker Jo Koy was a childhood nickname lovingly given to him by his family. In Tagalog, a Philippine language, Ko translates to my, rendering Jo Ko as My Jo. This personal touch adds a special significance to his chosen stage identity.

Jo Koy's Comedy Odyssey

Blessed with the ability to bring on the laughs, Jo Koy has graced audiences with six comedy specials over his impressive career. The comedic adventure began with the uproarious 2009 Comedy Central stand-up special 'Dont Make Him Angry.' He continued the merriment with five additional specials, culminating in his latest release in 2022.

Host Jo Koy at the Golden Globe Awards 2024(AP)

The Cinematic Journey

In August 2022, the film Easter Sunday hit the screens, starring Jo Koy as the protagonist. He essayed the role of Joe Valencia in the movie. Koy has also demonstrated his acting prowess in films like Haunted Mansion, The Monkey King, and Leo.

Koy's relationship with Chelsea Handler

For about a year, Jo Koy and Chelsea Handler openly shared their romantic connection, making it public in September 2021. Despite a long-standing friendship, they took the plunge into a romantic relationship. Regrettably, the couple confirmed their breakup in July 2022.

Last-Minute Golden Globes Gig

Jo Koy found himself in the Golden Globes spotlight on a short notice, getting the call to host the 2024 awards ceremony just two weeks before showtime. Without hesitation, he jumped on board, fully aware that he had less prep time than the hosts before him would've had. Embracing the spontaneity, Jo Koy geared up for the big night, ready to bring his own flavor to the prestigious event.
Stranger Things Spinoffs: While the Upside Down may be closing its gates after Season 5, the world of Stranger Things is far from ending. The Duffer Brothers have unleashed a thrilling array of new adventures, expanding the Hawkins universe with animated and live-action spinoffs. Fans can look forward to new projects as Stranger Things approaches its final installment with season 5. With Netflix's potential interest in expanding the show's success through spinoffs, the offerings may grow even further. This year, Stranger Things was released in two parts

Stranger Things Spinoffs list

Also read: Stranger Things season 5 goes on floor: Shooting of Netflix hit begins, eyes on release date

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

Stranger Things animated series

The Duffer Brothers, creators of Stranger Things, earlier unveiled that the production company, Upside Down Pictures is considering a few spinoffs of the hit franchise. Additionally, they announced their involvement in an animated Stranger Things, set to be executive-produced by them.

The brothers in a conversation with Tudum, said, We've always dreamed of an animated Stranger Things in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realized has been absolutely thrilling,

Stranger Things live-action series

Stranger Things goes animated! But fear not, live-action diehards. The Duffer Brothers haven't forgotten you. Alongside the cartoon adventures, they've cooked up a brand-new live-action spin-off, ensuring something for everyone in the Upside Down fandom. Soon after the release of Stranger Things Season 4, the creators disclosed their intentions to develop a new live-action spin-off series for Stranger Things.

The Brothers earlier told Variety, We think everyone  including Netflix  will be surprised when they hear the concept because its very, very different. But somehow Finn Wolfhard  who is one crazy smart kid  correctly guessed what it was going to be about. But aside from Finn, no one else knows!

Stranger Things: The First Shadow stage play

Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a play currently running at London's Phoenix Theatre in the West End, is set in Hawkins in 1959, revealing events before the strange occurrences unfolded. The spin-off was released on December 15 and garnered positive reviews from the critics. This play takes place in 1959 when familiar characters like Joyce Byers, Jim Hopper, and even a young Henry Creel were just kids. You'll get to see how their lives started and maybe even discover some secrets that could explain what happens later in the Stranger Things story.

The play was created by the Duffer Brothers, They worked with other writers to come up with a brand new story that's full of suspense and surprises.
Kannada superstar Yash didn't know at the start of his 38th birthday what he would be doing in the evening. After an unfortunate tragedy, the actor is on his way to meet the family of three fans who were electrocuted while putting up his birthday banners. (Also Read: Happy Birthday Yash: 5 Kannada films of his to watch besides KGF) Yash spotted on his way to meet the kin of his fans who got electrocuted

Yash on his way to meet kin of deceased fans

On Monday evening, the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of news agency ANI shared a video of Yash arriving in Hubbali, Karnataka and sitting in a car on his way to meet the kin of the three deceased fans. Papparazzi and fans crowd around his car and try to talk to him as his car struggles to get through. Yash was seen in a simple white shirt with his hair tied behind.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

About the tragedy

Three youths were electrocuted in Karnataka's Gadag district on Sunday night after a huge flex of actor Yash, which they were installing to wish his birthday, came into contact with the electric wire, said Police.

The incident took place at the Surangi village in Lakshmeshwar taluk of the district.

The deceased persons have been identified as Hanamanta Harijan (21), Murali Nadavinamani (20), Naveen Ghazi (19). Three more were seriously injured and the injured have been admitted to Lakshmeshwar Hospital for treatment.

Actor Yash is celebrating his birthday on Monday. Therefore, the fans planned to install the cutout at Ambedkar Nagar of the village in the middle of the night.

While installing the huge cutout, the cutout hit the electric wire and electrocuted the youth who was holding the cutout. As a result, three youths died on the spot. The incident occurred in the jurisdiction of Lakshmeshwar police station.

About Yash

Kannada superstar Yash broke through on a pan-India level with the two chapters of Prashanth Neel's crime saga KGF, where he played Rocky Bhai. Yash is rumoured to play Ravana in Nitesh Tiwari's upcoming adaptation of the epic, also starring Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi as Rama and Sita.

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Get ready to embark on a cinematic journey down memory lane as Hollywood gears up for an epic year of sequels, each promising to be a blockbuster in its own right. From the return of beloved franchises to the revival of iconic characters, 2024 is set to be a year of nostalgia and excitement. Deadpool 3 will release later this year

Deadpool 3

Actor Ryan Reynolds is all set to reprise his titular role in the franchises third part, which will see him unite with Hugh Jackmans X-Men character Wolverine. The film has been voted as the most anticipated film of 2024 in Fandangos annual survey. The production was suspended for a brief while due to strike, but it is back on track with expected release date in July.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

Venom 3

Actor Tom Hardy will be revisiting his role as Eddie Brock/Venom for the third instalment of the Venom franchise. The film was originally slated for a summer release, but is now slated for November. Kelly Marcel is behind the camera this time with directing duties. Marcel has also created the story alongside Hardy.

Joker: Folie a Deux

Actor Joaquin Phoenix will be joined by Lady Gaga for the follow up to Todd Phillips blockbuster project, Joker. The sequel comes as a musical thriller featuring Gaga as Harley Quinn. Phoenix will reprise his titular role as failed comedian-turned-criminal Arthur Fleck. The film also stars Zazie Beetz, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland and Harry Lawtey. It is expected to be out in October.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

The sequel to 2021s Ghostbusters: Afterlife will follow the Spengler family leaving Oklahoma and going to the original New York fire station, which featured in the original Ghostbusters film back in 1984. They will meet with the original Ghostbusters and end up going on a thrilling adventure. The film is expected to release in March.

Kung Fu Panda 4

Expected to release in March, the fourth instalment of the beloved franchise will feature panda Po (voiced by Jack Black) being told by Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) that he will no longer be the Dragon Warrior. He will take on the role of Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace, and how that brings a new adventure into his life.

Inside Out 2

In this anticipated sequel, teenager Riley will be seen grappling with complex feelings. Maya Hawkes Anxiety will be seen joining Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust. The voice cast is led by names such as Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Tony Hale, Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling. It will be released in June.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

In the sequel, Godzilla and King Kong are no longer opponents, but allies. The film is the sequel to 2021s Godzilla vs. Kong and follows the two iconic characters coming together to face off against a new threat. Directed by Adam Wingard, it stars Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Kaylee Hottle. It is slated for April.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

The sequel, scheduled for May, will pick up after the death of Caesar in 2017s War for the Planet of the Apes. The new part will be set several generations later, with apes now the dominant species. It stars Owen Teague, Kevin Durand, Freya Allen, William H. Macy and Peter Macon.

Dune: Part Two

Denis Villeneuves much-anticipated sequel will take forward the journey of Paul Atreides (essayed by Timothee Chalamet) with him embarking on a path of revenge against those who destroyed his family. Chalamet will be joined by Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling and Stephen McKinley Henderson. The film, also starring Austin Butler, Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh, Lea Seydoux and Souheila Yacoub, will be released in March.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Scheduled to release in May, George Millers Mad Max franchise will continue with the sequel. In the film, Anya Taylor-Joy will be seen as young Imperator Furiosa (the younger version of Charlize Therons character. She will be seen going on an arduous path to return home. It also stars Chris Hemsworth.

Bad Boys 4

Actors Will Smith and Martin Lawrence will be back as bad boys! The fourth instalment in the action series serves as a sequel to Bad Boys for Life. The film is directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, with Chris Bremner penning the script. It is expected to be released in June.

Despicable Me 4

While many details around the storyline have not been revealed, actors including Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Miranda Cosgrove and Steve Coogan are expected to return for the franchises latest chapter. Chris Renaud, the director of the first two Despicable Me movies, has directed the project. It is expected to be out in July.

Gladiator 2

Filmmaker Ridley Scott has directed the much-anticipated follow up to his 2000 Gladiator. Paul Mescal will be seen as a grown version of Lucius Verus II, the nephew of the first films antagonist Commodus (essayed by Joaquin Phoenix). It also stars Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Derek Jacobi and Joseph Quinn, among others. The film is scheduled for November.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The next film in the franchise, based on the video game series, will see Ben Schwartz reprise his role as the titular character. The film is expected to expand on aspects of the video game. It is slated for release in December.
After a tense online debate sparked by derogatory remarks from a Maldivian minister about photos of PM Narendra Modis Lakshadweep visit, the travel industry felt an unprecedented impact. Many travel buffs have opted to cancel their upcoming Maldives vacation plans, prompting certain travel agencies to remove the Maldives category from their websites. On Monday, EaseMyTrip became the first major tour operator to exclude the destination from its portal by disabling users from selecting any packages.

According to Riaz Munshi, president of the Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI), We have observed some cancellations for the Maldives alongside a linear increase in interest for Lakshadweep. Some association agents have temporarily paused taking bookings for the destination.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

On Monday, EaseMyTrip became the first major tour operator to exclude the destination from its portal by disabling users from selecting any packages. We will not accept any bookings for the Maldives. We are looking at building our own treasures; Lakshadweep will turn out to be an equivalent international destination, says co-founder of EaseMyTrip, Prashant Pitti. Meanwhile, Raj Rishi Singh, chief marketing and business officer, MakeMyTrip, notes: 3,400% increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since PMs visit. This interest in Indian beaches has inspired us to launch a Beaches of India campaign with offers and discounts.

On the upside, mentioning how this move will be a great boost for Lakshwadeep, Neha Sudan, the digital creator behind Breathtaking Postcards on Instagram, says, The new influx of tourism will not only help the economy and further tourism development, but will also promote more people to explore unknown beach hideaways without jumping straight to Maldives or Mauritius for their honeymoons and getaways. And recently back from her trip to the Andamans, influencer and travel vlogger, Shenaz Treasury adds, Maldives is super expensive and only accessible to the very rich and famous. Instead, we can totally go to Lakshadweep or Andamans. In the Andamans, the locals were complaining to me about how the tourists treat the island. We need to treat our country as we treat foreign nations, that is with respect and love for Nature.
BENGALURU: Three men in their early twenties died of electrocution in Karnatakas Gadag past Sunday midnight when a metal frame of a massive banner of actor Yash that they were trying to erect for his birthday came in contact with a power line, police said. Police said three men died in the incident and two others were injured (File Photo)

Police said the three men, identified as Hanumanth Harijan (24), Murali Naduvinamani (20), and Naveen Gaaji (20), were the actors fans. The accident took place at 1am on Monday.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

Yash, who is known for his role in KGF, was away shooting for his next movie, Toxic, when the incident took place. He arrived at Hubballi airport on Monday evening and drove over 50km to Suranagi village, in Laxmeshwar taluk to meet the families of the three men and condole their death. On January 4, Yash earlier informed his fans that he would not be able to meet them on his birthday this year because he was busy shooting.

Gadag superintendent of police (SP) Babasaheb Nemagouda said the group of locals were putting up the iron frame for the banner when the accident took place. Three of them were electrocuted to death and three were injured while putting up the banner, he said.

The banner had a metal frame that was in contact with a HESCOM (Hubli Electricity Supply Company Limited) cable. A case has been registered, he added.

Shirhatti MLA Chandru Lamani appealed to people to avoid setting up metal-frame banners.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah announced a compensation of 2 lakh for the families of the three men. Saddened to hear the news of the death of three youths due to electrocution while building the birthday flex of actor Yash in Surangi village of Lakshmeshwar taluk of Gadag district, he said.

Leader of the opposition R Ashok said the government should restrict the use of such cut-outs. What happened in Gadak is sad. Film actors should tell their fans not to install such cut-outs that could lead to such tragedies and the government should also prohibit such cut-outs, he said.
Aviation has had a turbulent start in 2024, starting with the write off of A350 in Japan after the collision of Japanese coast guard aircraft while landing to the incident in Portland where the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX9 had its door blown off. Passenger oxygen masks hang from the roof next to a missing window and a portion of a side wall of an Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which had been bound for Ontario, California and suffered depressurization soon after departing, in Portland, Oregon, US, on January 5, (Instagram/@strawberrvy via REUTERS)

The fallout was that Alaska Air immediately grounded its MAX 9 aircraft for checks, which was followed by a grounding order and emergency airworthiness directive from the FAA.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

In India, three airlines - Akasa Air, SpiceJet and Air India Expressoperate the MAX type. None have been affected by the FAA directive because India does not have a MAX 9 operating with all the aircraft being MAX 8, barring a sole MAX 8200 operated by Akasa Air. With the chequered history, anything to the MAX does raise eyebrows. A total of 40 aircraft are currently registered in India.

What is the issue?

The rear mid-cabin plug on the Alaska Airlines MAX 9 separated inflight leading to its emergency diversion. On the 737-9 MAX, Boeing includes a rear cabin exit door aft of the wings, but before the rear exit door. This is activated in dense seating configurations to meet evacuation requirements. The doors are not activated on Alaska Airlines aircraft and are permanently plugged. For passengers seated on these seats, they do not know it is a door, it feels like any other seat.

The FAA grounding impacts only those airlines which have a permanently plugged door and not the entire MAX 9 fleet. These are with airlines who do not have a high density configuration of the MAX 9. A high density configuration requires the door to be active since it is to be used for evacuation in case of emergency. It is too early to point to a cause but early indications are that the plug holding the in activated door in place tore off leading to the door flying off which led to rapid depressurisation of the aircraft and led to an emergency landing.

How many planes are there in India and should you be worried?

Akasa Air has an all MAX fleet comprising 22 aircraft, followed by SpiceJet and Air India Express which have nine each. Entire network of Akasa Air is thus flown by the MAX since they are the only type with the airline. Akasa Air operates to 16 destinations and is slated for a launch to foreign destinations soon.

For Air India Express, the newly launched flights from Bengaluru to Kannur, Trivandrum, Mangalore and Varanasi while those from Hyderabad to Amritsar, Lucknow and Lucknow are amongst those which are flown by the MAX 8. However, with Air India Express having a fleet of B737NG, A320neo and A320ceo in addition to MAX 8, the routes remain subject to change. SpiceJet's nine aircraft are deployed largely on international flights but a look at flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows that its nine aircraft have been deployed on a mix of domestic and international destinations.These include Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Pune, Darbhanga, Patna, Srinagar, Jammu, Kolkata, Port Blair indicating a wide usage by the airline. The airline is also operating international flights with flights to Dubai, Bangkok, Jeddah amongst others.

No regulator, either locally or globally, has raised any concerns on the MAX 8 or MAX 8200 which are in use in India. For the 40 aircraft in India, none have a plugged door.

What has the Indian regulator done?

While the question of plugged door does not arise for any planes in India, the Indian regulator asked all operators to conduct a check on its aircraft by Sunday noon, a deadline which has passed and planes are in the air. This check was towards the other emergency exits - which do not have a mechanism to hold it in place and make it inoperative since they are to be used in case of emergency.

Beyond this, the regulator as well as the operators are glued to the directives from FAA which is actively investigating the Alaska Air case.

What next?

The MAX has had negative publicity following it with regulator intervals. A global grounding after two crashes, rework on the MCAS and the public commitment towards safety has all been negated by repeated and periodical reports which have indicated one problem or the other. In the latest, the company had said that there were some MAX which had fastener holes in aft pressure bulkheads which were improperly drilled. This had led to a slowing down of deliveries in the second half of last year, which was later reversed.

Indias Akasa Air is rumoured to place a triple digit order at Wings India - which starts in Hyderabad ten days from now. How does this impact the order , which is likely to be the first major order of 2024?

(Ameya Joshi is an aviation analyst)
New Delhi: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Supreme Court's Bilkis Bano verdict, saying his promises to bolster women empowerment in India were hollow. Referring to the court's strongly worded rejoinder to the Gujarat government for releasing Bano's rapists prematurely, Owaisi claimed the BJP government helped rapists in the state. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi speaks to the media over various issues, including the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). (ANI)

"I welcome this judgment and I hope it acts as a precedent against all rapists in the future. Just because you affirm a political ideology, you will not be set free. When Narendra Modi talks about nari shakti, it is a hollow claim. They are standing with the rapists of Bilkis Bano. BJP governments in Gujarat and Centre, both helped in releasing these people -- they should speak up and apologise to Bilkis Bano," he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

Asaduddin Owaisi also pointed out that two BJP MLAs had endorsed the release of the convicts in 2022.

From Day 1, I have been saying that the BJP, instead of standing with the victim, has always stood with the perpetrators who committed this heinous crime. It is Bilkis Bano who fought so bravely and also put her life on the line. The same Gujarat government that could not protect her, gave an order to release these convicts who raped her and killed her child, he was quoted by ANI as saying.

Also read: Bilkis Bano case: Supreme Court says Gujarat government usurped power

Bano was 21 years old and five-months pregnant when she was gang-raped during communal violence in 2002. Several members of her family, including her toddler daughter, were killed by a mob.

The Gujarat government last year released the 11 convicts on the grounds that they had completed fourteen years in prison and that their behaviour inside the jail was good.

The Supreme Court today said the Gujarat government wasn't competent to take the decision as the trial took place in Maharashtra. The court also said the Gujarat government had usurped power.

"Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed...We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by the Gujarat government," the bench said, PTI reported.

Reacting to the ruling, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said justice has ultimately prevailed.

Also read: Bilkis Bano case: SC scraps Gujarat govt's remission, convicts sent back to jail

"With this order, the veil over the anti-women policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been removed. After this, public confidence in the justice system will be further strengthened. Congratulations to Bilkis Bano for continuing her fight bravely," she said in a post in Hindi on 'X'.

With inputs from agencies
Generations Bank and Union Springs leaders announced Monday that five of the village area's nonprofits will receive a total of $50,000 in grant funding.

In a news release, Generations Bank Chief Banking Officer A.G. Cutrona said the bank applied for the funding on the nonprofits' behalf from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York last year.

"Generations is committed to giving back to the communities we serve," he said.

Each awardee will receive $10,000:

The Finger Lakes Region Lions Hearing Foundation, to help the organization's efforts to refurbish hearing aids for hearing-impaired individuals.

The Frontenac Historical Society and Museum, to offset the cost of a new boiler.

The Springport Free Library, supporting its young child reading program area with new materials, remodeling and new furniture.

The Union Springs Volunteer Fire Department, to offset the recent purchase of a utility task vehicle for remote area emergency responses.

The Western Cayuga County Food Pantry, to purchase food and paper products for families and seniors experiencing food insecurity.

"These grants will have a lasting impact on the organizations receiving the funding and get them off to a positive start to the New Year," Curtona said, thanking Union Springs Mayor Rob Thurston for support and direction during the grant process.

"The funding that we were able to secure together will provide a huge relief to our community not-for-profits that work so hard every day to take care of our community," Thurston said. "We look forward to working with Generations Bank in the future to help our community grow and prosper.
Jan 8, 2024 5:00 PM IST

On Monday, the Supreme Court set aside the Gujarat governments decision to prematurely release eleven convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case. Opposition leaders, including the Congresss Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor and the AIMIMs Asaduddin Owaisi, praised the judgement and slammed the BJP for allegedly facilitating the release of the convicts and garlanding and welcoming them.

The tendency to 'kill justice' for electoral gains is dangerous for the democratic system. Today the Supreme Court's decision once again told the country who is the 'patron of criminals'. Bilkis Bano's tireless struggle is a symbol of the victory of justice against the arrogant BJP government, said former Congress President Rahul Gandhi. AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra added that the veil over the anti-women policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been removed after the SCs judgement.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen President Asaduddin Owaisi, who has been vocal in his support of Bilkis Bano, said, From Day 1, I have been saying that BJP, instead of standing with the victim, has always stood with the perpetrators who committed this heinous crime. [..] The same Gujarat Govt that could not protect her, gave an order to release these convicts who raped her and killed her child. It is the Union Government and the Home Ministry headed by Shri Amit Shah gave a letter on the basis of which these convicts were prematurely released and remission was given. Owaisi demanded that the BJP government in the centre and in Gujarat apologise to Bilkis Bano.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India has set aside the Gujarat government's decision to prematurely release 11 people convicted for raping Bilkis Bano and murdering her family members during the 2002 communal riots. The convicts, released by the Gujarat government in 2022, have been ordered to surrender within two weeks. The Supreme Court of India. (File)(HT_PRINT)

The court, while delivering verdict on a clutch of petitions challenging the government's 2022 move, said the Gujarat government didn't have the jurisdiction to decide the remission of sentence.

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The Supreme Court said the right to decide the remission plea of the convicts rests with the state where the trial took place -- in this case, Maharashtra.

The Supreme Court held that the judgment in May 2022, directing the Gujarat government to consider remission for a convict, was obtained by "playing fraud" on the court and suppressing material facts. The court also said that the convicts hadn't approached the court with clean hands, reported ANI.

In a strongly worded rejoinder, the court said the Gujarat government had usurped the power of the Maharashtra government by not filing the review petition against the May 2022 judgment.

"We need not have gone into the other issues. But for sake of completion, we have. Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed...We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by the Gujarat government," the bench said, per PTI.

The court also pulled up the Gujarat government for passing the remission order in August 2022 in a cyclostyled manner, with no application of mind.

The Supreme Court said the convicts will have to approach the Maharashtra government with a fresh remission plea.

Meanwhile, Justice BV Nagarathna, announcing the verdict, said the Supreme Court must act as a beacon in upholding the rule of law.

In March 2002, during the Godhra riots, Bilkis Bano was gang raped and left to die. Several members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, were murdered.

On August 15, 2022, the 11 life-term convicts were released as per Gujarat's remission policy that was in place at the time of their conviction in 2008.

In an affidavit, the Gujarat government had defended the remission granted to convicts saying they completed 14 years in prison and their behaviour was good.
The Supreme Court on Monday set aside the Gujarat governments 2022 decision to prematurely release 11 convicts facing life term for the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and various other heinous crimes committed during the 2002 Gujarat riots and directed them to surrender before concerned jail authorities within 2 weeks. Supreme Court of India. (PTI Photo)

A bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan quashed and set aside the orders of remission granted on 10 August 2022, ruling that the Gujarat government did not have the competence to decide the remission of the convicts as the trial in the case had shifted to Maharashtra.

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The competent government to grant remission under Section 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) shall be the state where the trial took place and in this case Maharashtra government, the bench said.

The government of Gujarat had no jurisdiction to pass remission orders as it was not the appropriate government. On this short ground itself, the remission orders are set aside, the bench held.

The Gujarat government had claimed to have jurisdiction by citing a 13 May 2022 judgment of the top court while dealing with a petition filed by one of the 11 convicts  Radheyshyam Bhagwandas Shah  where the top court directed the state to consider his remission within two months under a 1992 policy where gangrape convicts could also seek pre-mature release.

The top court set aside its 13 May 2022 decision as it found that Shah suppressed material facts from the court as he failed to disclose that he approached Gujarat HC which had directed him in July 2019 to seek remission from the Maharashtra government since all the convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Special CBI court in Mumbai in 2008, and that it was the Bombay high court which had in 2017 upheld their conviction and sentence. Shah had since approached the Maharashtra government which refused to grant remission.

The top court faulted Gujarat government for usurping power of the Maharashtra government by failing to file a review petition against the May 2022 judgment by bringing the correct facts on record.

The order of May 13, 2022 is vitiated by fraud and is a nullity and non-est in law. All proceedings initiated as a result of this order are hereby set aside, Justice Nagarathna, who authored the judgment said.

The bench further said, The Gujarat government usurped the power of Maharashtra government (to grant remission) by not filing a review. Taking advantage of the May 2022 order, all convicts applied for remission.

The Gujarat government acted on basis of a judgment which was contrary to law, the judgment said, and the court stated that the May 2022 judgment was per incuriam as it went contrary to previous constitution bench decisions.

The top court said, The Gujarat government was complicit with respondent 3 (Shah). This was what this Court had apprehended by transferring the trial (in Bilkis Bano case) from Gujarat to Maharashtra. This court was misled to issue directions contrary to the law. If Gujarat had adhered to rule of law, it should have filed a review. Had Gujarat filed review or impressed on this Court that it was not the appropriate government, all this litigation would not have resulted.

Finally, with the remission orders being set aside, the Court said that balancing liberty of convicts with enforcement of rule of law is a delicate question.

Compassion and sympathy have no role to play where rule of law is to be enforced. This court must be beacon in preserving rule of law, the bench said as it ordered the 11 convicts to surrender back to the concerned jail authorities in Gujarat within two weeks.

The Court said that even if they seek remission again, it would be meaningless if they remain out of jail.

Bano was 21, and five months pregnant when she was gangraped as she tried to flee with her family to safety during the 2002 riots. The 11 convicts also killed seven members of her family, including her three-year old daughter. The trial of the case was shifted from Gujarat to Mumbai and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigated the case.
New Delhi: The government of Gujarat "usurped and abused power" not vested in it when it ordered the release of 11 people convicted for raping Bilkis Bano, the Supreme Court of India said on Monday. The court today directed the convicts to surrender before the authorities within two weeks. The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members. (PTI)

The Supreme Court, while hearing a clutch of petitions against the Gujarat government's 2022 order, said the state wasn't competent to release the convicts. The court said only the state where the trial had taken place -- in this case, Maharashtra -- has the right to take a call on remission of sentence.

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In strongly worded observations, the Supreme Court blamed the Gujarat government for breaching the rule of law.

"Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed...We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by the Gujarat government," the bench said, PTI reported.

Also read: Bilkis Bano case: SC scraps Gujarat govt's remission, convicts sent back to jail

The court also said that the orders were "stereotyped" and passed without application of mind.

The court said the convicts will have to approach the Maharashtra government for a fresh request seeking remission.

The court ruled that its May 13, 2022, verdict by another bench asking the government to consider remission plea of convicts, was a nullity. The court said the order was secured by fraud.

Setting aside the decision, the bench said: "Compassion and sympathy has no role to play where rule of law is to be enforced. This court must be a beacon in preserving rule of law".

Bilkis Bano was raped during the communal riots in Gujarat. She was 21 and five months pregnant then. Several members of her family were killed, including her three-year-old daughter.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said the verdict is a "tight slap on the face of the BJP government in Gujarat".
The Supreme Court is set to pronounce on Monday its verdict on the petitions challenging the remission granted to 11 convicts in the case of the gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Bilkis Bano challenged the remission granted to 11 convicts.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had on October 12 last year reserved its verdict after an 11-day hearing on the pleas, including the one filed by Bilkis Bano.

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Top points on Bilkis Bano case
The Supreme Court of India on Monday rapped the Gujarat government for granting remission to the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case. The 11 convicts, sentenced to life imprisonment, were released by the Gujarat government in 2022 under its remission policy. Bilkis Bano's rapists were released on remission by the Gujarat government. (File)

The Supreme Court bench said that the Gujarat government did not have the jurisdiction to take a decision onb the remission of sentence for the 11 convicts, who were imprisoned for gang raping Bilkis Bano and murdering members of her family.

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Further, the apex court has ruled that the released convicts in the case have two weeks to surrender before the authorities.

Bilkis Bano case: Timeline of events
Bilkis Bano and her family relocated from their native Randhikpur village in Gujarat due to safety concerns days before the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the early release of 11 men jailed for life for gang-raping her and murdering her seven relatives during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The Gujarat governments order for the release of the convicts in August 2022 drew condemnation. (AFP)

Her uncle, Abdul Razzak Mansuri, a witness in the gang rape case, said that they were happy to learn that justice has been served and that all the convicts are now required to surrender within two weeks. He called the Gujarat governments move to release the convicts erroneous.

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A Randhikpur resident cited safety concerns and said the family left the village ahead of the Supreme Court decision. Mansuri said that he does not know the whereabouts of Bilkis and her husband and that he has not spoken to his niece for the last 10-15 days.

Opposition Congress leader Manish Doshi welcomed the order and said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been exposed. The Supreme Court has aptly addressed the matter, acknowledging concerns and delivering a fitting response. The decision to release the convicts early was made for political advantage ahead of the Gujarat elections in December 2022. The BJP governments attempt to shield those opposed to the law while neglecting those in need of protection and at the receiving end has been highlighted, said Doshi.

Bano was three months pregnant when she was gang-raped. Her three-year-old daughter was among seven of her relatives who were murdered during the riots, which left 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead.

The 11 men were convicted in 2008. The Gujarat government ordered their release in August 2022, drawing condemnation.

The Supreme Court said that Gujarat did not have the authority to reduce the sentence since the trial was moved to Mumbai, which made Maharashtra responsible for the decision. It said a 2022 order of the court directing the Gujarat government to consider remission was obtained fraudulently and by suppressing material facts
After the brutality of the grisly 2002 gang rape and murder, Bilkis Bano first left her home town of Randhikpur in Gujarat, moving from one city to another before settling down in the tribal hamlet of Devgadh Barla, about 30km away. On Monday, as the nations eyes turned towards the 43-year-old again after she succeeded in sending her rapists back to jail, Bano was gone again forced to leave her home in potential fear of the consequences of the fractious verdict. Bilkis Bano recalled how the convicts were released on Independence Day two years ago, and thanked ordinary people for standing in solidarity with her. (PTI)

As evening fell, however, and the Supreme Courts judgment scrapping the controversial remission granted to 11 men convicted of gang rape and murder made national headlines, Bano finally spoke up.

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Today is truly the New Year for me. I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again, the gang rape survivor said in a statement issued by her advocate Shobha Gupta.

This is what justice feels like. I thank the honourable Supreme Court of India for giving me, my children and women everywhere this vindication and hope in the promise of equal justice for all, she said.

Bilkis Bano and her family, including her husband and four children, relocated from Devgadh Baria to an undisclosed location days before the Supreme Court verdict. (HT graphics)

Bano recalled how the convicts were released on Independence Day two years ago, and thanked ordinary people for standing in solidarity with her.

A year-and-a-half ago, on August 15, 2022, when those who had destroyed my family and terrorised my very existence were given an early release, I simply collapsed. I felt I had exhausted my reservoir of courage. Until a million solidarities came my way. Thousands of ordinary people and women of India came forward. They stood with me, spoke for me, and filed PIL (public interest litigation) petitions in the Supreme Court, Bano said in her note.

6,000 people from all over, and 8,500 people from Mumbai wrote appeals; 10,000 people wrote an open letter, as did 40,000 people from 29 districts of Karnataka. To each of these people, my gratitude for your precious solidarity and strength. You gave me the will to struggle, to rescue the idea of justice not just for me, but for every woman in India. I thank you, she added.

Bano and her family, including her husband and four children, relocated from Devgadh Baria to an undisclosed location days before the Supreme Court verdict. Bano never returned to her native Randhikpur where the gruesome violence took place. She stayed for a year in Devgadh Baria and then moved to different parts of the state and country. She again started living in Devgadh Baria when the convicts were released... Now for the last 12-15 days, she left Devgadh Baria and moved elsewhere, said her uncle Abdul Razzak Mansuri, a witness in the gang rape case.

Also Read | Rahul Gandhi's 'patron of criminals' dig at BJP on SC's Bilkis Bano case verdict

He said he was happy to learn that justice was served.

These 11 convicts were handed the punishment by a Maharashtra court. The Gujarat governments decision to release them was wrong. That is why we challenged it in court. I am happy that the top court has quashed the Gujarat governments decision and asked the convicts to surrender. I feel that we have received justice today, he added.

Bano was three months pregnant when she was gang raped. Her three-year-old daughter was among seven of her relatives who were murdered during the riots, which left 1,000 people, many of them Muslims, dead.

The past 16 months, Bano struggled with trauma and mental stress, her relatives said. Bano  who lives with her husband, three daughters and a son  largely lived out of a suitcase, moving from one house to another to avoid any confrontation , they said.

Banos husband has been grappling with the challenges of securing steady employment, resulting in financial strain for the family. The education of their children has also taken a severe hit, forcing them to discontinue their studies. Community members have been giving financial support to the family.

I was barely seven years old. Witnessing the atrocities inflicted upon my cousin sister and other family members left a lasting imprint on my young mind. Even now, those distressing images are vividly etched in my memory, said Saddam Sheikh, Banos 29-year-old cousin and one of the two surviving eyewitnesses in the case. The other is Bano herself.

The news of the convicts being released by the Gujarat government made me shake with fear. I remember shedding tears out of sheer apprehension, he added. The thought of them being incarcerated once more brings me some relief. But I find it very difficult to convince myself that they may not be free again. Bano, in her statement, said: I have said before, and I say again today, a journey like mine can never be made alone. I have had my husband and my children by my side. I have had my friends who have given me so much love at a time of such hate, and held my hand at each difficult turn. I have had an extraordinary lawyer, advocate Shobha Gupta, who has walked with me unwaveringly for over 20 long years, and who never allowed me to lose hope in the idea of justice.

As the news of the Supreme Courts verdict flashed on television screens, some of Banos relatives in Devgadh Baria burst firecrackers.
Supreme Court on Monday nullified the Gujarat government's order of early release of 11 men jailed for life for gang-raping Bilkis Bano and murdering her seven relatives during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Bilkis Bano

She issued the statement through her advocate Shobha Gupta. The statement read as:

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Bilkis Bano issues statement after Supreme Court verdict

"Today is truly the New Year for me. I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again. This is what justice feels like. I thank the honourable Supreme Court of India for giving me, my children and women everywhere, this vindication and hope in the promise of equal justice for all.

I have said before, and I say again today, journeys like mine can never be made alone. I have had my husband and my children by my side. I have had my friends who have given me so much love at a time of such hate, and held my hand at each difficult turn. I have had an extraordinary lawyer, Advocate Shobha Gupta, who has walked with me unwaveringly for over 20 long years, and who never allowed me to lose hope in the idea of justice.

A year and half ago, on August 15, 2022, when those who had destroyed my family and terrorised my very existence, were given an early release, I simply collapsed. I felt I had exhausted my reservoir of courage. Until a million solidarities came my way. Thousands of ordinary people and women of India came forward. They stood with me, spoke for me, and filed PIL petitions in the Supreme Court. 6000 people from all over, and 8500 people from Mumbai wrote appeals; 10,000 people wrote an Open Letter, as did 40,000 people from 29 districts of Karnataka. To each of these people, my gratitude for your precious solidarity and strength. You gave me the will to struggle, to rescue the idea of justice not just for me, but for every woman in India. I thank you.

Even as I absorb the full meaning of this verdict for my own life, and for my children's lives, the dua that emerges from my heart today is simple - the rule of law, above all else and equality before law, for all".

While quashing the pre-mature release of the rape convicts, the top court said that the Gujarat government wasn't competent to take the decision since the trial was moved to Mumbai, which made Maharashtra responsible for the decision. The court also said the Gujarat government had usurped power.

The court further ordered the convicts to surrender back to prison within two weeks.

The Gujarat government last year released 11 convicts after they had completed 14 years of jail term, and their behaviour was good. The 11 convicts released prematurely were Bakabhai Vohania, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Govind Nai, Jaswant Nai, Mitesh Bhatt, Pradeep Mordhiya, Radheshyam Shah, Rajubhai Soni, Ramesh Chandana and Shailesh Bhatt.

Bano was 21 years old and three-months pregnant when she was gang-raped. Her three-year-old daughter was among seven of her relatives who were murdered during the riots.
Noting that his government has made all-round efforts to ease the difficulties of farmers and each beneficiary has received 30,000 crore under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the governments in the past had a "narrow ambit" of the issues linked to farmers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the 'Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra' programme, via video conferencing, in New Delhi.(ANI)

The Prime Minister, who interacted with beneficiaries of 'Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra' via video conferencing on Monday, said that the aim of the yatra is that no eligible beneficiary is left out of the government schemes.

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"Since the launch of the 'Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra', around 12 lakh new beneficiaries have applied for free gas connections under the Ujjwala scheme. Notably, over 2 crore health check-ups have been conducted during this Yatra, and around one crore people have been screened for Tuberculosis during the same period," he said.

"Discussions take place in our country on farmers and farm policy but the ambit of previous governments was very limited. The talk of empowerment of farmers was limited to the production of crops and sale of produce but the farmer faces a lot of issues in his daily life. Hence our government tried to make all-round efforts to ease every difficulty of farmers," the Prime Minister said.

He said that 'Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra' witnessed the participation of 11 crore people within a short span.

"This yatra is not only of the government but also of the country. This is a yatra of dreams, of aspirations, of hopes, of resolutions. The government is trying to reach out to the last person in the society and connecting him with its schemes. It has been a journey of dreams, resolutions and trust. The biggest objective of the Vikas Bharat Sankalp Yatra is that no deserving person should be left out of the benefits of any government scheme. Therefore, we are focusing on the future of the poor, women, farmers and youth," he added.

Emphasizing "Modi's guarantee," the Prime Minister said the initiative is traversing villages to ensure that every deserving person is connected with the advantages of government schemes.

Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra crossed a major milestone on January 5 with the number of participants crossing 10 crore in 50 days.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- On January 7, Dongfeng Motors Nammi brand officially put its inaugural small-sized electric vehicle, the Dongfeng Nammi 01, onto the market, with prices ranging from 74,800 yuan to 104,800 yuan.



Photo credit: Dongfeng Motor

The Dongfeng Nammi 01, crafted on Dongfeng's Quantum Architecture 3 platform, is offered with six trim levels.

Aesthetically, the Dongfeng Nammi 01 boasts a refined and fashionable design. Available in four vibrant colors, it pairs with a contrasting floating cloud-like roof design, creating a nimble and agile stance. The vehicle is adorned with 17-inch pentagonal meteor wheels, offering a striking visual impression.

Photo credit: Dongfeng Motor

In terms of intelligent features, the Dongfeng Nammi 01 integrates a new-generation 540 panoramic monitoring system, offering a comprehensive view of surroundings, eliminating blind spots. Equipped with 8 mainstream intelligent driving assistance functions like ACC adaptive cruise control, it effortlessly navigates congested commutes, narrow roads, and holiday traffic.

With a lengthy 2,660mm wheelbase and a five-seater layout, the Dongfeng Nammi 01 delivers ample and comfortable interior space. Adding to the comfort is the one-touch reclining function for the driver's seat, enabling relaxation at any time. Powering the vehicle is Dongfeng Motors Mach-E integrated electric drive assembly, generating a maximum power of 70kW, a peak torque of 160Nm, and reaching a top speed of 140km/h. It offers options for 330km or 430km of battery-powered range.
The Union government is working on an aquaculture plan worth 576 crore in four northern states to create a hub of farming shrimp for export and domestic consumption by utilizing land unsuitable for crops, two officials with the knowledge of the matter said. India is currently the second-largest aquaculture shrimp producer at 900,000 tonne in 2022, after Ecuador. (Shutterstock)

Over the past year, officials and scientists from the department of fisheries and the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture tested thousands of hectares of saline wasteland unfit for crops in 25 districts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, marking out clusters where shrimp aquaculture could be productive, one of the persons said, seeking anonymity.

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The scientists found that productivity of the farmed crustaceans or output per hectare is roughly the same in Haryana as the world average at about 6-7 tonne, making it potentially a major centre for shrimp farming. Most shrimp is farmed in the countrys coastal states.

In India, shrimp farming has been supported by the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization and Asian Development Bank and the country is one of the biggest exporters of cultured shrimp. Indian seafood sector is gearing up for accelerated growth with both houses of Parliament passing the Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Bill 2023, according to industry reports. The country is currently the second-largest aquaculture shrimp producer at 900000 tonne in 2022, after Ecuador.

Globally, shrimp farming is freshwater guzzling, run by large companies and seen as ecologically damaging. The highly automated shrimp industry often doesnt prioritize local employment and tends relocate in the face of tough regulations. Ecological activists call it the hamburger connection in which central American rainforests are razed to culture shrimps that end up in burgers.

The difference with the shrimp hubs in these states will that they will be eco-friendly, using technologies such as biofloc and will come up only on unproductive wasteland, said Sagar Mehra, joint secretary in the fisheries department.

The shrimp clusters are aimed at generating 50,000 local jobs, from direct employment to those around ancillary warehousing and cold storages. A modern aqua park in Bhiwani built with a funding of 100 crore will serve as a training centre, a second official said, declining to be named.

Each kilogram of shrimp farmed generates about 15,000 litres of effluent, often with toxic residues. This stew is often released untreated into the groundwater, contaminating the drinking water of local communities.

The shrimp hubs in northern India will utilize biofloc developed by the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, which will treat excreta and other wastes on site and convert them into feed for the crustaceans.

The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana  where funding is shared on a 60:40 basis between the Centre and states -- aims to create aquaculture assets enough to generate 5.5 million livelihoods nationally till 2025. Funds will be made available to new shrimp farmers through this micro-credit scheme.

The districts chosen for the project include Rohtak, Fatehabad and Gurugram in Haryana, besides Mathura, Agra and Hathras in Uttar Pradesh. They also include Fazilka, Muktsar and Mansa in Punjab; and Ganganagar and Churu in Rajasthan.

The key to this projects success will be to ensure there is handholding from start to finish and export avenues and remunerative prices are ensured through market linkages, said CV Balakrishna, a former marine consultant with the FAO. For exports, agreements are expected to be signed with Marine Products Export Development Authority, the first official said.
Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday said the government would invest 60,000 crore by 2047 in river cruise tourism and development of green vessels. Of the  45,000 crore investment in cruise tourism, an estimated  35,000 crore has been earmarked for cruise vessels(File)

"We are going to invest 45,000 crore in river cruise, which will take the passenger capacity from 2 lakh to 15 lakh by 2047," he said on the sidelines of the first Inland Waterways Development Council meeting here.

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The ports, shipping and waterways minister also said the government aims at investing another 15,000 crore in green transport over the next 10 years to develop 1,000 vessels and ferries.

"In total, there will be a 60,000-crore investment by 2047, and it will be through the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The projects will help generate thousands of jobs," he said.

Of the 45,000 crore investment in cruise tourism, an estimated 35,000 crore has been earmarked for cruise vessels while 10,000 crore will be used for development of cruise terminal infrastructure.

The council meeting, represented by officials of around 20 states and Union territories, also saw the unveiling of Harit Nauka  guidelines for green transition of inland vessels and the River Cruise Tourism Roadmap 2047.

The day-long meeting, held on a cruise vessel, was conducted by Sonowal to streamline and advance the development of waterways involving 20 states and central government agencies.

The sessions covered topics such as fairway development, private sector engagement and best practices, optimising cargo transport efficiency in Inland Water Transport (IWT), fostering the promotion and development of eco-friendly vessels for passenger transportation, exploring the economic advantages of river cruise tourism, among others.

The union minister shed light on the development works and achievements of the Narendra Modi government in the last nine years, focusing on the port and inland waterways sectors.

He drew particular attention to the remarkable turnaround of Kolkata Port, now known as Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port.

Once a loss-making entity of around 70 crore, it has now posted a net profit of 550 crore in FY2022-23, Sonowal said.

"This exemplifies the government's commitment and the effectiveness of its measures," he said.

Sonowal also emphasised the tremendous boost given to the inland waterways sector, with government investments totalling 5,200 crore since 2014, a 200 per cent increase in nine years.

He highlighted the impressive growth in cargo handling on National Waterways, which surged from 6.83 million tonnes in 2013-14 to a staggering 126.15 million tonnes in 2022-23, marking a 1700 per cent increase.

Sonowal lauded these achievements as evidence of India's dedication to developing and modernising its port infrastructure, enhancing trade and fueling economic growth of the country and West Bengal which is going to be the hub of inland waterways activity.

Meanwhile, IWAI chairman Sanjay Bandopadhyaya said the meeting was attended by the West Bengal transport Secretary and they have sought some assistance for river dredging to improve navigability.

"We will assist in dredging and building approximately 20 community jetties, which will be handed over to the state for use of goods and passenger traffic," the official added.
Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday said checks have been satisfactorily performed on Air India Express (4), Spicejet (8), and Akasa (20) Boeing B737-8 Max aircraft amid safety concerns following the grounding of planes in the US after the door plug of an aircraft blew off post take off on Friday. The door plug of Alaska Airlines flight blew off after it took off from Portland on Friday and triggered concerns globally. (AP/Representative)

The door plug of the Alaska Airlines blew off after the aircraft took off from Portland in the US on Friday and triggered flight cancellations. Alaska Air grounded all its Boeing 737 Max-9 aircraft, triggering concerns globally. The 737 MAX, including its variants Max-8 and Max-9, was grounded for 20 months worldwide after two crashes in 2018 and 2019 linked to poorly designed cockpit software killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

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DGCA on Saturday asked airlines to carry out immediate inspections of emergency exits of Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft in their fleet. It underlined none of the Indian air operators have Boeing 737-9 Max. DGCA cited an abundant precautionary measure while directing operators to carry out a one-time inspection of the emergency exits immediately on all Boeing 737- 8 Max aircraft.

The 737 Max-8 and 737 Max-9 are identical in most aspects. 737 Max-9 is only roughly three metre longer. Boeing last week asked carriers to inspect all B737 Max aircraft after an international operator discovered a bolt with a missing nut while performing routine maintenance.

An Akasa Air spokesperson said the airline completed a thorough inspection of its entire fleet of Boeing 737 Max aircraft following the incident involving Alaska Airlines and the DGCAs subsequent guidelines. ...there are no adverse findings. ...there was no disruption to our operations during this time.

A SpiceJet spokesperson said no adverse findings were identified during their inspection. Our flight operations remained unaffected and continued to operate as usual. ...SpiceJet does not operate the B 737-9 variant of the MAX.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has once again written to the Election Commission (EC), asking for a meeting with INDIA bloc parties to discuss issues related to the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and Voter verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATs). Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. (File)

The letter dated January 7 was sent in response to the poll bodys January 5 public response to his earlier letterin which EC had said that use of EVMs is legal and redirected the opposition parties to an expanded set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the EVMs on the EC website.

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The Election Commissions response, while completely brushing aside our request for an appointment, has yet again failed to provide a substantive response to our queries and genuine concerns over EVMs. Instead, the Commission has been repeatedly directing us to generic ECI FAQs as the answer book for all queries in respect of EVMs and VVPATs. Yet, when we informed your Commission that our concerns remain unaddressed by the FAQs, your Commission, instead of offering clarification, labelled our queries as based on an inadequate or incorrect appreciation of the FAQs and EVM resource material, Ramesh wrote.

In his letter, Ramesh pointed out that the INDIA parties commanded more than 60% of the popular vote in the 2019 general elections. Yet the Commission continues to deny these parties an opportunity to meet with it. This is most unfortunate and to put it very mildly, unprecedented, he wrote.

The 28-party INDIA bloc had submitted a memorandum to the poll panel on August 9, 2023 raising questions over the use of EVMs and VVPATs. The bloc followed it up with four letters in the same month to meet with the EC. On December 30, Ramesh also sent a letter on the issue and sought a meeting.

On December 19, the INDIA bloc had passed a resolution raising concerns around the integrity of EVMs and asked the EC to allow all voters to verify their VVPAT slips. They had suggested, Instead of the VVPAT slip falling in the box, it should be handed over to the voter who shall then place it in a separate ballot box after having verified his or her choice. 100% counting of VVPAT slips should then be done.

Currently, VVPAT slips of five randomly selected polling stations of every assembly constituency or assembly segment are tallied with the electronic count of the corresponding control units.

The poll body subsequently increased the number of its FAQs around EVMs to answer some of the questions about properties of the VVPAT slips, why and when they were included, tracing the origin of the VVPAT slips, and what happens when the VVPAT or the control unit are run out of battery during voting.
Courts cannot disregard consumer interest to protect power generating companies, the Supreme Court emphasised on Monday as it set aside a Rajasthan high court decision directing the state government to purchase 200 MW electricity from a private electricity producer. The bench also took a grim view of the fact that the high court entertained a writ petition by the power company instead of remitting the firm to suitable recourses available under the Electricity Act (ANI)

It was improper for the high court to compel the state government to enter into a contract with MB Power (Madhya Pradesh) Ltd for the supply of electricity at the expense of public interest and at a high rate, which would eventually be passed on to consumers, held a bench headed by justice Bhushan R Gavai.

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It will not be permissible to take a lopsided view only to protect the interest of the power generators ignoring the consumers interest and public interest, said the bench, which also included justice Prashant Kumar Mishra. The high court, by the impugned judgment and order, could not have issued a mandamus (judicial writ) to the instrumentalities of the State to enter into a contract, which was totally harmful to the public interest.

The high court order meant forcing Rajasthan to purchase 200 MW electricity from MB Power at a rate higher than that quoted by another supplier, whose bid was not accepted by the state electricity commission for not being aligned to prevailing market prices, the top court noted.

If the power/electricity is to be procured by the procurers at the rates quoted by MB Power, the State would have been required to bear financial burden in thousands of crore rupees, which would have, in turn, passed on to the consumers, underlined the bench, setting aside the September 2021 judgment of the high court.

Also Read | Regulator proposes green tariff at 1.65/kWh for electricity consumers

We are of the considered view that the mandamus issued by the high court is issued by failing to take into consideration the larger consumers interest and the consequential public interest. We are, therefore, of the view that the impugned judgment and order passed by the high court is not sustainable in law and deserves to be quashed and set aside, stated the top court judgment.

The bench also took a grim view of the fact that the high court entertained a writ petition by the power company instead of remitting the firm to suitable recourses available under the Electricity Act.

As held by the Constitution bench of this court, the state electricity commission and the learned APTEL (Appellate Tribunal for Electricity) have ample powers to adjudicate in the matters with regard to electricity. Not only that, these tribunals are tribunals consisting of experts having vast experience in the field of electricity. As such, we find that the high court erred in directly entertaining the writ petition when MB Power had an adequate alternate remedy of approaching the state electricity commission, it said.

The bench directed MB Power to pay a cost of 5 lakh each in the two appeals that the state government and its departments had to file in the top court.

In its 2021 judgment, the high court cited earlier orders of the Supreme Court asking the state government to purchase a total of 906 MW electricity from successful bidders. The high court also relied upon another order of the appellate tribunal, which held it was not for the bid evaluation committee or the state electricity commission to go into the aspect of whether the prices quoted by a bidder were market aligned or not, and also not to take into consideration the aspect of consumers interest.

MB Power had a right to supply power since there was a gap of 300 MW between the power procured by the procurers and the ceiling of 906 MW determined by the Supreme Court, the high court had held. It issued a judicial writ directing the state government and its power distribution departments to take supply of 200 MW electricity from MB Power at the rates quoted by the company.
Explaining EaseMyTrip's decision to suspend all its flight bookings to Maldives, co-founder Prashant Pitti said on Monday that country comes before business and other homegrown tourism companies too must follow its lead. lakshadweep

Going by the statements we are hearing about India from representatives of the Maldives government, we have decided that going forward, we not accept bookings for Maldives. Every year 3 lakh Indian visit Maldives; now, they will not be able to avail this facility on EaseMy Trip, Pitti said in a video shared by news agency ANI.

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Referring to prime minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Lakshadweep, Pitti further said, As our PM showed, there are far better locations in India, such as Lakshadweep, than Maldives. We have been to Lakshadweep, and will go there again. We also request airlines to establish direct connectivity between major cities and Lakshadweep.

He added that the company has plans for Ayodhya as well  the temple town is seeing increasing tourist footfall ahead of the inauguration of the Ram Temple.

EaseMyTrip's decision to suspend flight bookings to the island nation came in the backdrop of offensive social media posts by three deputy ministers in the Maldives government, who took exception to prime minister Narendra Modi's recent endorsement of Lakshadweep as a tourist destination.

The remarks triggered a furious response in India, ultimately leading to the suspension of the three deputy ministers. Some people who had planned trip to the archipelago, even cancelled their bookings.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) are preparing a model first information report (FIR) and drafting standard operating protocols (SOPs) that will be followed while dealing with drug cases across the country, people aware of the developments said. The need to standardise the process arose due to lack of compliance of basic rules by police while handling drug cases, leading to low rate of conviction. (ANI file)

The need to standardise the process arose due to lack of compliance of basic rules by police while handling such cases, leading to low rate of conviction. Once completed, the model FIR and SOPs will be submitted to the home ministry, which will forward it to chief secretaries across the country for reference, the people cited above said.

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The developments come at a time when the Narendra Modi-led government seeks to build a drug-free country by 2047 and has intensified its crackdown on drug dealers and networks. The Centre has urged all states and probe agencies to continue taking strong action, and has also empowered the NCB by creating more posts, increasing its strength and opening more zonal offices in areas reporting a high number of such cases.

The process to formulate a model FIR and SOPs was undertaken by a committee of five experts from the NCB and BPRD, on the directions of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs last year. The model FIR and SOPs will serve as a guide for probing police officials on what needs to be taken into account while dealing with such cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, one of the persons cited above said.

The meetings of the five-member committee are being held regularly. The experts will submit the format, which will have a list of must-haves (on evidence, mandatory sections to be used, investigation format and time period) in each FIR related to seizure of drugs. The committee has consulted and taken views from all forces that are engaged in anti-narcotics operations. It will be submitted soon, the person said on condition of anonymity.

The task was assigned by department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs last year. It was initiated to ensure that all drug-related cases are probed properly and paperwork is done completely to ensure better conviction rates. Many times, police do not have the bandwidth to probe such cases and the accused take advantage of the loopholes in the registration and probe of the case during trial, the person added.

The expert committee comprises senior officials from NCB, BPRD and Delhi Police.

Senior advocate and retired Delhi Police deputy commissioner LN Rao explained the importance of having such SOPs and following due procedure while dealing with drug cases.

There are many processes that investigating officers have to comply with, else it will affect the case during trial. For example, 90% of drug recoveries are based on secret inputs. The law says that when such an information is received, the person should inform his/her senior officer in writing before proceeding with the probe. Many police officers, who do not know the process, miss this important step and this affects the case, Rao said.

Another important step that police tend to forget is recovering drugs from an accused in the absence of a magistrate or a gazetted officer. These are just the basic things that police do not follow, which results in courts turning down cases for not following the due procedure, he added.
Amid a political tussle over the assault on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) team in West Bengal's Sandeshkhali last week, the probe agency on Monday claimed that the state police lodged an FIR under bailable and non-scheduled offences in the Sandeshkhali assault incident and had not provided a copy of the complaint to the ED, reported news agency PTI. Security personnel stand guard at the site where vehicles of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) team were attacked during a raid in West Bengal's Sandeshkhali. (ANI)

However, the police lodged a suo motu case against the ED officers, who came to raid the TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh in connection with the ration distribution scam, on the charges of molestation, forcible entrance and theft.

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The probe agency also claimed that a similar incident happened on January 5 when the officials arrested the former Bongaon Municipality chairman and TMC leader Shankar Adhya in North 24 Paraganas district despite local police being informed.

The probe agency, in a statement, said that an FIR was filed in this incident, too, but a copy was not provided and is still awaited.

Sheikh's family filed a complaint alleging that the ED raided their residence without prior notice and broke locks to gain entry. Meanwhile, the probe agency issued a lookout notice for Sheikh as there are apprehensions that he might flee the country following the assault incident. It also lodged a complaint against Sheikh and his supporters for assaulting its officers.

Last week, ED officials were attacked by a mob of TMC supporters when they were on their way to raid the homes of TMC leaders in connection with the ration case.

The officials were travelling in a car when the vehicle was pelted with stones, breaking the window panes of the four-wheeler. Three ED officials were injured in the attack.

The probe agency  which already arrested state food minister Jyotipriyo Mullick in October 2023 in connection with the case  said the mob comprising 800-1,000 people attacked ED officials and 27 accompanying paramilitary personnel with sticks, stones and bricks, while shouting slogans against the agency and the central government. ED vehicles were also badly damaged, the statement added.

The ED also claimed that the magnitude of the ration distribution scam was "enormous" and proceeds of crime transferred by a suspect amount to 9,000-10,000 crore, out of which 2,000 crore are "suspected to be transferred to Dubai either directly or through Bangladesh.

(With inputs from PTI)
In 2007, when Mumbai investment banker Percy Mistry submitted his committees report on Making Mumbai an International Financial Centre to the then Union finance minister P Chidambaram, the incumbent chief minister in Gujarat was toying with a similar idea about Gandhinagar. Gujarats GIFT city.

Mistrys committee comprised the high table of Indian finance: KV Kamath, Nimesh Kampani, Aditya Puri, OP Bhatt, CB Bhave, to name but a few. The committees submissions were precise, well-researched and feasible. Mumbai was already the natural fulcrum of the countrys finance, it had the social and cultural infrastructure that could be further developed to create a global investment centre, and the upcoming Bandra-Kurla Complex, like the City of London, would serve as its beating heart.

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17 years later, on January 10, the Gujarat International Finance Tec-city in Gandhinagar, will play host to the 10th edition of Vibrant Gujarat and the buzz fuelled by Gujarat ministers is that Elon Musk will be there to announce the setting up of a regional Tesla hub. Likely next to him will be Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for whom GIFT city was once just a gleam in his eye but who has now seen the project through to fruition.

Already, over 500 companies have set up offices in the soaring glass-facade towers of GIFT City including Google, Oracle, Bank of America, Citibank and Eros Investment. The countrys first international bullion exchange is also located here, and this week, billionaire Azim Premji received an in-principle approval to set up a family-investment fund at GIFT City from where he can invest abroad.

But as all eyes turn to Gandhinagar, in Mumbai, there is disenchantment, and for a city famed for her get up-and-go spirit, a certain bitterness. An eminent corporate citizen and banker recalls meeting Percy Mistry five years after the submission of his committees report and Mistry telling him, Not a jot of the report had been implemented. The government of the day has clearly demonstrated that they are not interested.

From 2002, when it was considered madness to invest in Gujarat, to the creation of Indias first greenfield Smart City, it is a remarkable turnaround, says senior Gujarati journalist Ajay Umath about the Gandhinagar project.

The growth

GIFT has reached an inflection point where the envisioned goals can now be achieved. All we see from here is an upward trajectory with sustained growth, says Tapan Ray, GIFT City managing director. According to the Global Financial Centres Index 2023, GIFT City is now ranked at number 67.

Indias first International Finance Services Centre (IFSC) which hopes to compete with London, Singapore, Dubai or Hong Kong, still lacks the pulsating energy that marks these global financial hubs. Tall buildings, resembling blocks of development, have emerged from the dust of what was once barren land. They now stand mysteriously shrouded in mist when viewed from the air, only the gleam of Sabarmati apparent from the distance. The present workforce at GIFT is 20,000 but the government aims to take this number to one lakh eventually. Multiple developers from Sobha to Hiranandani to Raheja are making a bee-line to create housing stock in and around GIFT City. There are also ambitious plans to grow the hub from the existing 886-acres to 3,400 acres in the future, says a representative of the Gujarat government which holds 100 per cent equity stake.

At present 250 acres at GIFT City have been earmarked for the IFSC as a multi-services special economic zone (SEZ). This has been legally enabled by the provisions of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005.

Starting trouble

But to even get here has been far from smooth for GIFT City Co., which was incorporated as a 50:50 joint venture between IL&FS and the state-owned Gujarat Urban Development Corporation (GUDC) in June 2007. Land for the project was handed over to the GIFT City authorities only in 2010, and in the same year, the services of one of the consultants, Delhi-based architectural firm, Fairwood Consultancy, were terminated. Arbitration proceedings over recovering 178 crore from Fairwood are still underway.

In October 2018, the central government superseded the IL&FS board with a new board after it ran up a debt 91,000 crore and the ministry of corporate affairs sent a damning report to the government in Delhi. In June 2020, IL&FS completed the sale of its 50% equity stake in GIFT City to the Gujarat government for 32 crore.

The creation of the International Financial Services Centres Authority as a unified regulator in 2020 marks a pivotal milestone in this journey, says a Gujarat government official. From October 1, 2020, IFSCA assumed the power of four domestic sector regulators, namely RBI, SEBI, IRDAI & Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDAI) in so far as the development and regulation of IFSCs in India were concerned.

In April 2022, IFSCA introduced the framework to oversee fund management activities, and at present, GIFT IFSC has more than 60 alternative investment funds (AIFs) overseeing funds over $24 billion which otherwise may have landed up at international finance centres in Singapore or Mauritius, says an official close to the development.

The challenges

But despite the government push, some believe that GIFT city needs more to compete with international heavyweights. A truly world class financial centre needs an enabling environment; not just in terms of business infrastructure; but a city that lives and breathes, has opportunities to sustain the social lives of the high rollers that will make it their home; a sense of fun and culture. A banker in Mumbai who speaks to HT on the condition that he not be quoted, points out, A cosmopolitan global city is the fundamental prerequisite for any IFSC to be viable and usable. Is GIFT city any close to becoming that?

Percy Mistry, whose original report on creating the IFSC in Mumbai gathers dust, agrees with his banker friend. If someone thinks that GIFT City will be like Wall Street in 2047, thats not going to happen. It will at best be an outpost of Mumbai. Companies and institutions are being forced to take money and put something there but the real deal-making will continue to be done from Mumbai, he says, speaking to HT over phone.

Mumbais cachet and its power have emanated from money plus her people. The finest corporate lawyers, the media, some of the countrys best accountants are here. Are they going to keep commuting to Gandhinagar? asks the banker. Some of the best schools in the country are in Mumbai, as are restaurants and cultural centres. This is the bulwark that attracts the finest global talent to any international financial hub.

But it is not as if Gujarat is unmindful of these needs. GIFT City has allocated over 22 million square feet for offices, residences, schools, hospitals, hotels, hypermarkets and more. The Sabarmati riverfront project in Ahmedabad will be extended up to GIFT City over the next three years. Metro connectivity from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar too is on track to become operational by mid-2024 and work is afoot to create a crafts hub on the lines of Dilli Haat. Two Australian universities, Wollongong and Deakin have been given permission to set up their international campus here. And last week, the Gujarat government permitted alcohol consumption within GIFT City for owners, employees, and official guests of businesses. Gujarat is otherwise a dry state. The relaxation was done with the aim of providing a global ecosystem, said a state government official. A fool can now be a drunken fool, is Mistrys riposte even as he goes on to lament how Mumbai does not have a powerful leader fighting in its corner and hence the city is losing out.

Jaxay Shah, CMD of Savvy Group, a real estate firm with significant presence in GIFT City, describes the lifting of the prohibition as a bold and historic move. There has been prohibition in place from the time Gujarat separated from Bombay State in 1960. While Maharashtra always allowed for alcohol, justice is finally being done in Gujarat and GIFT City is now ready to compete with Dubai, Singapore and other international hubs.

The relaxation in laws of something as sacrosanct as the liquor ban reflects the governments commitment to go the extra mile for GIFT, says a senior government official. It also sends a clear message to those trying to come in the way of the projects progress.
Bengaluru: Chief minister Siddaramaiah has agreed to increase the honorarium of guest lecturers by 5,000 to 8,000 based on their experience and appealed to them to call off their strike and report to duty. Chief minister Siddaramaiah agreed on implementing health insurance cover of  5 lakh per annum to the guest lecturers. (PTI)

About 12,300 teachers in 430 first-grade colleges have been on strike for over a week, which has affected more than 500,000 students in the state, with several colleges planning to postpone examinations.

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Holding a meeting a meeting with the representatives of the protesting guest lecturers and discussing their demands, the CM said that the government will increase the honorarium by 5,000 for those with less than five years of service, 6,000 for those with 5 to 10 years of service, 7000 for those with 10 to 15 years of service and 8,000 \for those with more than 15 years of service experience, a statement from the chief ministers office said on Sunday.

The chief minister said that even when he was the leader of the opposition, he raised his voice on behalf of the guest lecturers and demanded a salary hike. Our government has humanitarian concerns about guest lecturers. However, it is not possible to provide job security due to legal complications. Our government has again proposed to increase your salary within the span of two years. We have considered the demands of the guest lecturers very sympathetically, the statement said quoting Siddaramaiah.

The chief minister agreed on implementing health insurance cover of 5 lakh per annum to the guest lecturers.  5 lakh will be provided to the serving guest lecturers after 60 years of age. One day of paid leave per month to those with more than 15 hours of workload per week and 3 months of paid maternity leave to guest lecturers will be provided, the statement said.

He also agreed to simplify the counselling process, based on their experience in recruitment, giving weightage, continuing service at the same place where guest lecturers were working, and continuing their service there for the next year as well.
Kevin Burkhardt at Fox. (Fox Sports Press Pass.)

The announcer jinx has long been a subject of discussion. The most typical form of this is for an announcer to talk about a particular streak, only to have that streak suddenly end. And that came in really remarkable fashion during Foxs broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Commanders game Sunday.

There, play-by-play voice Kevin Burkhardt brought up Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubreys perfect season on field goals (35 for 35 at that point) with Aubrey facing a 32-yard attempt in the first quarter. Analyst Greg Olsen tried to stop Burkhardt, but with no success. And Aubrey promptly missed:

Kevin Burkhardt jinx's #DallasCowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey and Greg Olsen was trying to stop him before he did it but it was too late ??? #HTTC #DALvsWAS #NFLSeasonFinale pic.twitter.com/VXZRjGvegf  Sorry Not Sorry #NASCAR #HTTC (@SuperHeroTo5) January 7, 2024

On Monday, both Burkhardt and Olsen addressed this on Twitter/X. Thats notable considering that theyre set to call the Cowboys playoff game against the Green Bay Packers this coming Sunday. And Burkhardt seemingly offered a sarcastic apology to the Cowboys fans hes no doubt been hearing from. He also jokingly took credit for the Cowboys successes:

Dear @dallascowboys fans- Im sorry for ruining Brandon Aubreys perfect season. Also, youre welcome for the NFC East title and yesterdays blowout win. Hopefully @gregolsen88 will be able to talk kickers with me again now ? Sincerely,

KB (and all announcer jinxes all time)  Kevin Burkhardt (@kevinburkhardt) January 8, 2024

Meanwhile, Olsen quote-tweeted that with a Game of Thrones clip showing Jon Snow facing a cavalry charge alone:

And Burkhardt laughed at that:

So many storylines!! ? Can't wait to see you all Sunday. https://t.co/F3iRFuzgAC  Kevin Burkhardt (@kevinburkhardt) January 8, 2024

This is pretty good handling of this by Burkhardt and Olsen. Yes, the announcers dont actually impact on-field outcomes (except perhaps where theyre interviewing players live mid-play, and even that doesnt seem to produce anywhere near the problems you might expect). But announcer jinxes (and their cousin, reverse jinxes) are still fun to note and talk about. But its going too far to yell at announcers when a jinx comes to pass. Or, as Burkhardt notes, if youre going to do that, maybe you should give them credit for favorable outcomes too.

[Kevin Burkhardt on Twitter/X]
Bengaluru Govt orders temples to perform special pooja on January 22

The Karnataka government has instructed temples in the state to conduct a special pooja on January 22 to mark the consecration of Ram temple in Ayodhya.

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Endowment (muzrai) minister Ramalinga Reddy specifically directed all Muzrai temples to perform maha mangalarathi between 12.29 pm and 12.30 pm, the time of installation of Lord Rams idol.

I have instructed to offer special pooja in all muzrai temples of the state on January 22, when the idol of Lord Rama will be installed in Ayodhya Ram Mandir, Reddy said in a statement posted in X, formerly twitter.

Responding to the directive, Bharatiya Janata Party state president BY Vijayendra said, Known for its traditional opposition to the Ram Mandir movement, Karnataka Congress finally acknowledges the unwavering faith and devotion of Kannadigas to Prabhu Shri Ram. They have given directions to temples under the endowment department to organise special poojas on the day of consecration of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya on January 22.

The order comes after the BJP held a statewide protest last week condemning the arrest of Hindutva activist Srikanth Poojari in connection with a rioting case following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992.

The Hubballi police arrested the 50-year-old Poojari, suspecting his involvement in the riots that erupted in the district after the Babri Masjids demolition. Poojari was 20 years old at the time of the alleged incident.

Poojari was given bail by a court in Hubballi on Friday.

Similarly, BJP had demanded the arrest of Congress leader B K Hariprasad for his statement that a Godhra-like incident might be orchestrated in Karnataka ahead of the January 22 Ram temple consecration, even as Home Minister G Parameshwara assured that the Congress government would not allow incidents like the Godhra carnage to happen in the state.

The BJP accused the Congress of orchestrating the Godhra train fire of February 27, 2002, in which 59 kar sevaks and Hindu pilgrims died. Former BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel alleged that Hariprasads statement indicated that the Congress would repeat such a purported act.

Hariprasad had argued that there was a need for adequate arrangements for people travelling to Ayodhya for the Ram temple consecration ceremony on January 22.

The Congress MLC defended his remarks, saying, The fundamental duty of any government is to protect the lives and property of its people. When you go back to the history of the BJP, when there was Godhra and Pulwama, a lot of disturbance (happened) and lives were lost. The BJP is a habitual offender and it can do anything. In Ayodhya, it is not a religious programme but a political program. CMs of MP, Rajasthan are kar sevaks...This is my statement, not the partys.
The Union government has proposed that education records of all school students be integrated into its one nation, one student ID initiative by 2026-27 and all government and government-aided schools switch to an online admission system in the next three years, according to an official government documents seen by HT. Students at a government school in Shimla.(HT File Photo)

The proposals were part of a document titled Schooling: access and quality presented by the Union ministry of education at the third national conference of chief secretaries, which was held in Delhi last month.

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HT had last month reported that the government was likely to extend its one nation, one student ID initiative to schools to ensure seamless integration with higher education, as envisaged in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Under the initiative, students would be provided with an Aadhaar-verified ID  Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR). The Centre has already launched the initiative across higher education institutions, accounting for nearly 22 million students

The document prepared by the Union ministrys department of school education and literacy, which HT has reviewed, gave additional details on the initiative.

The APAAR ID, it said, will not only help monitor the lifelong learning journey of students, it will also help in building a digital repository of education records, making them easier to store and access. Aadhaar linkage will build trust in digital records and empower stakeholders to access diverse educational services, the document stated.

APAAR ID will enable the integration of interstate student records. The interlinking of data through the APAAR ID for smooth movement of students across the States/UTs, it added.

The ID will act as a gateway to students academic bank of credit (ABC)  a digital repository, set up by the government, where students can store information on the credits they have earned throughout their education journey. It can also be used to access Digilocker, a digitization service provided by the government where people can store important documents, including marksheets and certificates. APAAR would eventually become a lifetime ID for students  from pre-primary to PhD.

The students Aadhaar shall be linked to the APAAR ID with parental consent. For students without an Aadhaar, assistance is provided, and once obtained, it will be linked to the APAAR ID. This ID will serve as a universal student identifier throughout the school education system, starting with government and government-aided schools, with a plan for universalisation based on experience, the document said.

It further suggested that the Anganwadi (rural childcare centres) or schools could provide students in the creation of the APAAR IDs at the time of admissions. The ministry, it said, can also play a pivotal role and organise workshops and training sessions for representatives from states and union territories to help them create the APAAR IDs, focusing on integrating admission portals and applications into a unified platform.

These forums facilitate the sharing of practices, feedback, and expertise, creating a seamless, integrated education ecosystem, the document added. The ministry also proposed a deadline of 2026-27 for 100% integration of the education records of all students through the ID.

To be sure, since education is a state subject, it is not mandatory for the states to adopt any initiative under the NEP 2020.

A senior ministry official, requesting anonymity, said, The document was presented before the chief secretaries of the states and UTs during the meeting with an aim to promote good governance and making education easy and accessible.

The document also proposed that all government and government-aided schools admit students through online school admission management systems by 2026-27. A more straightforward admission process reduces barriers, promoting personal growth and minimising dropouts, it said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on her fourth consecutive victory in the parliamentary election.



Spoke to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and congratulated her on her victory for a historic fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary elections. I also congratulate the people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of elections. We are committed to further strengthen our enduring and people-centric partnership with Bangladesh, the prime minister posted on social platform X.



Hasina's Awami League won almost 75% of the seats in Sunday's general election that was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and drew a low turnout.



ALSO READ: Explained: What the Bangladesh elections and PM Sheikh Hasinas victory mean for India



Former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia's BNP had participated in the 2018 general elections, boycotted the polls after Sheikh Hasina refused its demands to resign and allow a neutral observer to oversee the election. A file photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina at the G20 Summit in Delhi.(PTI file)

"Each political party has right to take decision, absence of one party in election does not mean democracy is absent," Hasina told reporters at her official residence in the capital Dhaka.

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The 76-year-old Bangladeshi prime minister is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of the Bangla-speaking nation that was formerly known as East Pakistan until its creation in 1971.



In 1975, Rahman was murdered along with most members of his family in an army coup. Hasina was not in the country on that ill-fated day of August 15 and hence survived.



Hasina first became the prime minister in 1996. This will be her fifth term overall.

In her past 15 years in power she has been credited with turning around the economy and the massive garments industry, while winning international praise for sheltering Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.

The ruling Awami League party won 222 seats out of 298, according to unofficial results released by the Election Commission, Reuters reported. Sheikh Hasina herself won 249,962 votes from her constituency Gopalganj, about 165 km (100 miles) south of Dhaka, while her nearest rival secured just 469 votes.
Lakshadweep administrator Praful Patel on Monday said the derogatory remarks made by the three deputy ministers of Maldives against Prime Minister Narendra Modi had challenged the dignity of India.



In an interview to NDTV, Patel said that India will never tolerate such an insult. He thanked the people of India for standing in solidarity with PM Modi. Lakshadweep administrator Praful Patel.

When asked about the demand of a public apology from the Maldives government, Patel said that the ministers who made the remarks had been disciplined. The administrator said that the ministers had been punished for their actions, that showed India will not tolerate any insult to its prime minister. He said that from film celebrities to ordinary citizens standing in solidarity, India had given a befitting reply to Maldives.

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Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid were suspended by Male following their controversial remarks against the prime minister after he had shared pictures of his visit to the union territory. The remark triggered a massive outrage with boycott Maldives trending on social media. EaseMyTrip decided to cancel all Maldives flight bookings expressing solidarity with the country.



The action by Mohammad Muizzu government had come after New Delhi made it clear that the remarks by the ministers were uncalled for and unacceptable. The Maldives government had issued a statement distancing itself from the remarks made by the ministers, calling them personal opinions.



On Monday, the Maldivian high commissioner Ibrahim Shaheeb was summoned to the ministry of external affairs. He was told that since the island nation had spoilt the bilateral relationship, it was up to the Maldivian president Muizzu to repair it. He was told that the three junior ministers should be dismissed and not just suspended.



ALSO READ: From defence to infra development, how India has always stood with Maldives

'Lakshadweep being discussed across the world'

Patel said that people from all over the world have expressed the desire to visit Lakshadweep, expressing hope that it will give a big boost to the economy here and generate opportunities for the locals.

"The natural beauty of Lakshadweep carries immense possibilities for development of the tourism sector. The administration has launched several initiatives, including adding more rooms. The islands will also get a big airport soon," he told PTI.

Patel, who is also the administrator of the UT of Dadra and Naga Haveli and Daman and Diu, said it was unfortunate Lakshadweep had not been developed properly and works done in the past had failed to meet the expectations of the public.

"After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit, Lakshadweep is being discussed not just in India but all over the world," Patel said.



(With PTI inputs)
The Maldivian high commissioner to India was summoned on Monday to the external affairs ministry and was read the riot act over derogatory remarks posted on social media against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by several ministers in President Mohamed Muizzu's government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Madivian high commissioner, Ibrahim Shaheeb, was told that since the Maldives have spoiled the bilateral relationship, the onus is on President Muizzu to repair it, people aware of the matter said. It was further impressed upon the envoy that the three junior ministers should be dismissed and not just suspended.

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The MEA was curt with the high commissioner who was shown the door in four minutes, according to people cited above.

New Delhi is outraged over President Muizzu's silence over the uncouth behaviour of the three junior ministers, particularly the two lady ministers who are supposed to be the mouthpiece of the President. In fact, MEA is wondering whether the junior ministers were instructed to cause this outrage deliberately on the eve of President Muizzu's visit to China to seek funds from President Xi Jinping.

The three deputy ministers had used objectionable remarks on Modi for his post on 'X' following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.

The Maldivian foreign ministry said the government is aware of "derogatory remarks" on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position.

"The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives," the Maldivian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
India and Russia are focused on diversifying bilateral trade to address huge imbalances even as Moscow works to attract more Indian firms and investments, Russian ambassador Denis Alipov said on Monday. Denis Alipov said the two sides are also creating favourable conditions for mutual financial settlements, payment systems, insurance, logistics and stimulating further business ties (ANI/Videograb)

Two-way trade has exceeded $50 billion, driven largely by Indias purchases of Russian oil since the start of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The trade is skewed towards Russia as there has been negligible growth in Indian exports.

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We are aimed at diversifying bilateral trade and correcting its imbalances, which are huge, Alipov said while speaking at an event on the theme of International Turbulence: Challenges and opportunities for India-Russia relations.

The two sides are also creating favourable conditions for mutual financial settlements, payment systems, insurance, logistics and stimulating further business ties, he said. In this context, Alipov noted that Russia is inviting private Indian entities to explore the capacious Russian market and harness its untapped potential.

In an apparent reference to sanctions imposed by the West on Moscow, Alipov said: Despite challenging circumstances, Russia-India relations remain multi-dimensional and robust. There is no doubt that they will continue to grow based on unequivocal mutual interest and trust, contributing to our shared vision of a more fair and just international order.

Alipov pointed to the potential for cooperation in space exploration, including the training of Indian astronauts for the countrys first manned space mission Gaganyaan and joint work in satellite navigation and cryogenic rocket technology.

He also spoke on the expansion of the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (Brics) grouping, saying this represents the growing aspiration for a multipolar world based on sovereign equality. Russias chairmanship of Brics will pave the way for strengthening its role in the global monetary and financial system, he said.

Russia has been pushing for trade settlement in the national currencies of the Brics member states. It has also worked with China on the expansion of Brics, which has grown with the entry of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January.

We extensively collaborate in the Brics format. The expansion of this grouping, along with more than 30 states [wanting] to join it in various capacities, clearly displays the growing aspirations for a multipolar world based on sovereign equality and mutual respect as stipulated by the UN Charter, Alipov said.

Russia also hopes India and China will be able to overcome their differences on the border issue and play a key role in ensuring security and stability in Eurasia, he said.

We are hopeful that India and China, as major civilisations possessing unique political wisdom, will find ways to achieve progress in the border issue and a normalisation of bilateral ties based on mutual respect of sensitive interests, Alipov said.

The two countries should think about the prospects of a peaceful and secure Eurasia based on the principles of undivided security, inclusive dialogue and mutual accommodation instead of confrontation that the West tends to create, he added.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) too can contribute to strengthening connectivity in Eurasia. The integration processes have accelerated in the Eurasian space, where the SCO occupies a unique place as a platform for an increasing number of countries that consider it vital for countering emerging security challenges and promoting inter-regional economic cooperation, he said.

Following the entry into the SCO of Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024, the increased potential of the organisation will contribute to strengthening connectivity in the region, he said.

Asked by reporters about Pakistans application to join Brics, Alipov replied: We are now focused on accommodating those who were invited last year...But the number of aspirants is much larger.
New Delhi: India on Monday summoned the Maldivian envoy to the external affairs ministry to express its strong concerns over derogatory comments made against the Indian leadership by several leaders of the ruling party in the Indian Ocean archipelago, people familiar with the matter said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi with President of Maldives Mohamed Muizzu during the COP28 in UAE in December 2023. (PTI file photo)

The development came a day after the Maldives government suspended three deputy ministers over derogatory comments posted on social media and distanced itself from the remarks, which it said didnt reflect the views of the administration in Male.

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The people said on condition of anonymity that Maldives high commissioner Ibrahim Shaheeb was summoned to the external affairs ministry on Monday morning and informed about Indias strong concerns at comments made by certain Maldivian ministers regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

These concerns had also been conveyed to the Maldivian foreign ministry by the Indian high commission in Male on Sunday.

Mondays development marked a further downturn in India-Maldives relations following the coming to power of the government led by President Mohamed Muizzu, who is perceived to be pro-China.

Also Read: After anti-India posts, 3 Maldives leaders in dock

Days after assuming office last November, Muizzu called on India to withdraw 77 Indian military personnel posted in the Maldives to operate two helicopters and an aircraft. Muizzu has also cast aside the India First policy followed by his predecessor, Ibrahim Solih, and said that Maldives is opposed to any presence of foreign military personnel.

The latest row erupted over the weekend after several Maldivian leaders, including the deputy ministers, reacted to posts on social media describing Lakshadweep as a tourist destination that rivals the Maldives following Prime Minister Narendra Modis recent visit to the islands.

The Maldives government initially distanced itself from the derogatory remarks of these leaders and subsequently suspended Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid as deputy ministers in the ministry of youth empowerment, information and art.

The three deputy ministers had criticised Modi for his post on X following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project islands as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.

Zahid Rameez, a leader of the Progressive Party of Maldives that is part of the government, responded to social media posts on Lakshadweep by saying on X that the idea of the islands competing with the Maldives is delusional. Shiuna made a derogatory post on X that referred to the Indian premier as a puppet of Israel. She later deleted the post but screen grabs of it were widely shared on social media.

Their remarks were widely criticised in India by ministers and celebrities, who urged people on social media platforms to explore domestic tourist destinations such as the Lakshadweep islands. There were also posts on social media that said some Indians were cancelled trips to the Maldives because of the row.

Revenue from the tourism industry is a major part Maldives GDP, with visitors from India accounting for the largest numbers among the overall figures for 2023. According to the tourism ministry of the Maldives, of the 1.8 million tourists who visited the country last year, Indians were at the top spot with 209,198 arrivals, followed by Russia (209,146) and China (187,118).
The Maldivian envoy to India was on Monday summoned to the external affairs ministry and was conveyed strong concern over remarks posted on social media against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a number of ministers of the Maldives, sources said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi with President of Maldives Mohamed Muizzu during the COP28 in UAE in December 2023. (PTI File Photo)

The government of the Maldives on Sunday suspended three deputy ministers for derogatory social media posts against Modi.

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The three deputy ministers criticised Modi for his post on X following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.

According to Maldivian media reports, deputy ministers in the youth ministry, Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid, have been suspended over their posts.

In New Delhi, official sources said the Indian high commission in Male strongly raised the matter with the Maldivian foreign ministry on Sunday.

The disparaging remarks by the ministers have drawn flak in India, with many celebrities urging people on X to explore domestic tourist destinations instead of going to the Maldives.

There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives in view of the row.

The Maldivian foreign ministry said the government is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position.

The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives, the Maldivian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has granted a three-month amnesty to individuals to surrender artefacts made from the body parts of wild animals. Forest minister Eshwar Khandre said the governments decision to extend the return period aims to encourage compliance and discourage the illegal possession of wildlife trophies. (HT Archives)

The decision was announced after a cabinet meeting on Friday. An official notification is set to be issued shortly

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The prohibited items under the Wildlife Protection Act include tiger claws, skin, elephant tusks, and deer antlers, among others.

Addressing the urgency of wildlife conservation, the cabinet has provided a one-time deadline for individuals to surrender any illegally acquired part or trophy of a wild animal. This move aligns with the states commitment to protect endangered species and preserve biodiversity.

Engaging in activities such as stocking, transporting, keeping, selling, dressing, or consuming any wildlife organ is deemed a punishable offence, as outlined in the Wildlife Protection Act. The governments decision to extend the return period aims to encourage compliance and discourage the illegal possession of wildlife trophies, forest minister Eshwar Khandre said.

I participated in preliminary meetings with state forest minister in this regard. We suggested extending the time to declare wild artefacts to people, chief conservator of forests Brijesh Kumar Deekshit told HT. He said it is a good opportunity for people to declare their artefacts and prove not guilty. Government would announce in a gazette notification soon in this regard.

The government had granted a 30-day period in 1973 and an additional 180 days in 2003, under Rule 34(1) of the Wildlife (Conservation) (Karnataka Rules) 1973, for individuals to obtain certificates of ownership for wildlife organs and trophies. Those who successfully secured such certificates are permitted to retain the items legally. However, due to a lack of awareness about the earlier amnesty periods, many individuals may not know the repercussions associated with illegal possession.

To rectify this, the cabinet has approved a three-month grace period for the voluntary return of illegal wildlife organs. The impending government notification will provide detailed guidelines for the process. Individuals in possession of such items need to take advantage of this amnesty and comply with the regulations to avoid legal consequences, Kandre said
A major controversy erupted on Monday after a sitting legislator belonging to Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) lashed out at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.



Gopal Mandal, the sitting MLA from Bhagalpur's Gopalpur assembly constituency, pitched for Nitish Kumar as the next prime minister. The next Prime Minister should be Nitish Kumar. He travelled across the country and created the INDIA alliance. No one is capable of becoming the PM other than Nitish Kumar.



Kharge?...I don't even know his name. No one knows him, everyone knows who Nitish Kumar is... Even if we give 40 seats to Congress, will they be able to win? Congress will not be able to win a single seat in Bhagalpur...Congress maybe the biggest party in the country but not in Bihar, Mandal was quoted by ANI as saying. JD(U) is an ally of the Congress in the opposition bloc INDIA.



It is not the first time when Mandal has been dismissive of Kharge. Last year, he said no one knows Kharge and said the public will not accept him, referring to the Congress president as Kharge-Farge. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

There have been reports of unease in the JD(U) after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee proposed Kharge as the leader of INDIA bloc. The proposal was backed by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray. However, Kumar underlined he has no objections to Kharge's name doing rounds as opposition bloc's prime ministerial candidate.



Recently, Kharge was asked if the Bihar chief minister was being considered for the post of INDIA convenor. He replied,"That question (who will be INDIA bloc's convenor?) is like Kaun Banega Crorepati? It will be decided in the next 10-15 days when we hold a meeting. Don't worry about it.



Nitish Kumar, who entered politics during the anti-Congress movement led by Jaiprakash Narayan during the 1975-77 Emergency, recently took over as the JD(U) president at the party's national executive in New Delhi.



Senior JD(U) leader KC Tyagi said that Kumar was the ideological convener and ideological prime minister of INDIA, grabbing the attention of allies and adversaries alike.
Belagavi: The Maharashtra government plans to file a revised plea in the Supreme Court soon considering the identified mistakes in its earlier petition regarding the border dispute with Karnataka, Shiva Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) MP Dairyasheel Mane said here on Sunday. Satish Jarkiholi said fresh petition would not impact Karnatakas case, which is being presented promptly with substantial proof. (file)

There are a few mistakes in our petition for which Maharashtra has decided to file a fresh revised petition soon, Mane said during a function organised in Belagavi by pro-Maharashtra organisations.

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Mane, the president of the Maharashtra High-Power Committee on the border dispute, said that the apex court seemed reluctant to accept the case for hearing due to the mistakes. Consequently, Maharashtra intends to file a new petition, providing solid proof supporting its claim to the 865 disputed places in Karnataka.

At a function organised by the pro-Maharashtrian organization Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), MP Mane said the petition was filed hurriedly due to MES pressure.

He said the legal advisory team had pointed out mistakes by after the petition was filed.

Maharashtra remains in regular contact with legal experts, providing them with the necessary proofs and details to strengthen the case, Mane added. He said Maharashtra is committed to supporting Marathis in Karnataka, emphasising chief minister Ekanath Shindes special concern on the matter.

A delegation of MPs from Maharashtra, along with MES leaders in Karnataka, is set to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss alleged injustices from Karnataka government.

MES senior leader Malojirao Ashtekar criticised Maharashtras decision to file a fresh petition, questioning the governments actions over the past 20 years. Ashtekar said, The decision of filing a fresh petition itself shows how serious Maharashtra is about its case and its concern toward us.

Ashtekar expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of support from the Maharashtra government. Supporting him, MES spokesman Vikas Kalaghatagi said, Pro-Maharashtrians in Karnataka are upset with Maharashtras occasional responses and lack of concern.

Maharashtra filed a suit with the Supreme Court in 2004, naming the union government and Karnataka as first and second respondents. Many call dates were adjourned for various reasons, leading Maharashtra to suspect mistakes in the petition.

Starting from June 1, MES led pro-Maharashtrians to oppose making the Kannada language compulsory in primary education, held a 15-day movement in different parts of the district which witnessed riots in which a few participants were killed in police firing, Chandaragi said.

He added that front-line political leaders from Maharashtra like Sharad Pawar, Chaghan Bhujabal, and Ekanath Shinde participated in the movement which drew the attention of the country.

In response to allegations of not enjoying most peoples benefits, Maharashtra introduced health insurance schemes for Marathis in Karnataka, allocating 181 crore in the current years budget. Chief Ministers special officer Mahesh Chivate was also present at the meeting.

Responding to Maharashtras move, Satish Jarkiholi, the in-charge minister of the district, reassured that the fresh petition would not impact Karnatakas case, which is being presented promptly with substantial proof. Jarkiholi said, The places in which Maharashtra is claiming rights are our places earlier, now, and even in the future. He urged Kannadigas not to be concerned about Maharashtras decision

.
New Delhi: Intermittent firing continued between security forces and militants in Manipurs border town Moreh on Monday, officials aware of the matter said. The firing started near the Moreh town at around 9 pm on Sunday and continued until midnight. Clashes between the two dominant communities in Manipur, Meities and Kukis, began on May 3 last year. (PTI/File)

The exchange of gunfire resumed on Monday morning. Kaikholal Haokip, spokesperson of the Kuki Inpi Tengnoupal, an umbrella group for Kukis in the district said, the firing on Monday started around 8.15 am and continued until noon. Security forces retaliated, which has caused a lot of damage to public property. Mortars were fired at civilian population. The security forces are holding peace negotiation with the locals and CSOs.

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A security force officer, aware of the details ,said on Monday evening, There was intermittent firing. No one is injured. The militants had fired at the security forces in the hills near Moreh town to which the forces responded appropriately.

A Moreh resident, Mangminsei, who is also the unit 8 general secretary of Morehs Hill Tribal Council, We heard gunshots until around noon. No one stepped out from their houses when the shots were being fired between forces and gunmen. We do not have any reports of injuries from either side...The situation now is better.

The town in Manipurs Tengnoupal district has been on high alert after a spate of attacks by militants on security forces, especially Manipur police commandos. At least 10 security personnel have been injured in different incidents in Moreh.

Also Read: Fresh gunfight breaks out in Manipurs border town

On January 2, at least seven security personnel  four Manipur police commandos and 3 BSF personnel on their way to conduct a search operation were injured in an attack. On December 30, militants attacked Manipur police commandos inside their barracks, during which rocket propelled grenades (RPG) were fired.

Haokip said that the gunfight is a result of the state government posting Manipur police commandos in the Moreh town, where most residents are Kukis. The village defence volunteers and Kuki CSOs have accused Manipur police commandos of bias and demanded their removal from the town.

Chief minister Biren Singh last week told reporters that the possibility of involvement of mercenaries from Myanmar in the attacks on personnel in Moreh could not be ruled out. We have doubts about involvement of foreign mercenaries from Myanmar side, he said.

Manipur has been in the throes of a deadly ethnic violence since early May as clashes erupted between the Meiteis, the most populous community in the state, and the tribal Kukis, killing nearly 200 people. Widespread ethnic violence has led to the formation of community-based armed village defence volunteers as the fault lines have deepened beyond the Meitei -Kuki divide, pitting different communities and groups against each other in the state.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Monday urged the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government to shift her party's office to a 'safe' place citing safety reasons and to prevent any untoward incident that "can happen there at any time". BSP Supremo Mayawati (HT FILE PHOTO)(HT_PRINT)

She also said that this would help the BJP deal firmly with the anti-Dalit elements.

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"The BSP makes a special request to the UP government to make arrangements at a safe place somewhere else instead of the current party state office otherwise any untoward incident can happen here at any time. Besides, the party also demands that the government should deal strictly with anti-Dalit elements," she said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Mayawati claimed the construction of a "high bridge" near the BSP state office in Lucknow poses a security threat as it would enable "conspiratorial anarchist elements" to potentially harm the party, its employees, and herself.

"The act of building a high bridge near the BSP UP state office is also done from where the conspiratorial anarchist elements can cause harm to the party office, employees and the national chief, due to which the party has to remove the statues of great men from there and place them at the residence of the party chief," she said.

She further stated that most party meetings now take place at her residence while the big meetings which are being held at the office require additional force deployment around the bridge.

Also, given this insecurity, on security suggestions, the party chief is now forced to hold most of the party meetings at his residence, whereas in the big meetings held at the party office, when the party chief reaches there, there are security personnel on the bridge. Additional deployment has to be made, she said.

While launching a scathing attack on the Samajawadi Party (SP), the BSP supremo recalled the guest house incident of 1995, when the agitated SP workers had attacked Mayawati at the guest house in Lucknow after she withdrew support from the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led government.

The party workers had hurled abuses at her and cut off the electricity and water supply of the premises. BJP leader Brahm Dutt Dwivedi had rescued her then.

"And now, whoever the SP chief talks about an alliance with, his first condition is to maintain distance from the BSP, which is also widely publicised by the media. Anyway, given SP's heinous acts, including those of June 2, 1995, and how many anti-Dalit decisions have been taken during their government," she said.

In a series of posts on X, Mayawati accused the Akhilesh Yadav-led party of harbouring a "deep-seated anti-Dalit bias. Citing the BSP-SP past alliance, Mayawati alleged that the SP's true colours as an "anti-Dalit party" resurfaced after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The SP and BSP, allies in 2019 parliamentary election, parted ways soon afterwards, and have continuously targeted each other for going soft on the BJP.

The BSP leader also accused the SP of not only being anti-most backward classes but also an "anti-Dalit party". Mayawati said that she even tried to change SP's anti-Dalit "chal, charita and chehra" after the alliance but Yadav returned to its anti-Dalit and casteist agenda after the 2019 general polls.

"SP is not only a very backward party but also a very anti-Dalit party, although BSP, by forming an alliance with SP in the last Lok Sabha general elections, tried to change their anti-Dalit tactics, character and face. But after the elections were over, SP again came back to its anti-Dalit casteist agenda," she added.

Mayawati further criticised various "anti-Dalit decisions" taken during past SP governments. The SP was in power in Uttar Pradesh from 2012-17 under the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

The BSP supremo Mayawati earlier took a dig at Akhilesh Yadav and asked him to introspect before making any unrestrained jibes at her party. The BSP chiefs statement came after the SP chief took a swipe at the BSP while speaking to reporters during an event in Ballia district. Asked whether the BSP would join the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) alliance, Mr. Yadav asked in return, Who will give an assurance after that?
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on her election victory, saying India is committed to strengthening its people-centric partnership with Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina, the newly elected Prime Minister of Bangladesh and Chairperson of Bangladesh Awami League, gestures during a meeting with foreign observers and journalists at the Prime Minister's residence in Dhaka (REUTERS)

The win in Sundays election, which saw a turnout of only 40%, set up a fifth overall term for the 76-year-old leader who has ruled Bangladesh since 2009. The election was largely seen as one-sided following a boycott by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

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The external affairs ministry said Modi spoke to Hasina and congratulated her on her victory in the parliamentary election for a historic fourth consecutive term.

I also congratulate the people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of elections. We are committed to further strengthen our enduring and people-centric partnership with Bangladesh, Modi said in a post on X.

Earlier, Indian high commissioner Pranay Verma became the first envoy to meet Hasina in Dhaka following her victory. Verma congratulated her and conveyed Modis greetings. People familiar with the matter said Verma expressed the hope that there will be greater momentum in the India-Bangladesh partnership during the new term of the Awami League government.

India will continue to support the Bangladeshi people to realise the vision of a stable, progressive and prosperous nation, Verma said.

In her first news conference following the election victory, Hasina emphasised the strong bond between Bangladesh and India.

India is a great friend of Bangladesh. They supported us in 1971 and 1975. We consider India our next-door neighbour. I really appreciate that we have a wonderful relationship with India, she said, referring to Indias assistance during the liberation war of 1971 and after the assassination of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and most members of his family in 1975.

Hasina also highlighted the enduring friendship between the two sides and reiterated Indias importance as a key ally.

In the next five years, our main focus will be on economic progress and fulfilling all the work that we have started...The development of the people and our country is our main aim, Hasina said.

The Awami League won 222 of the 300 parliamentary seats for which elections were held, while the opposition Jatiya Party won just 11 seats.

Independent candidates, many of them members of the Awami League who were denied tickets, won a total of 63 seats.

India and China were among the few countries that didnt criticise the election process. Several Western countries, including the US, and rights groups had expressed reservations about the election being free and fair.
Bihar education minister Chandra Shekhar has stirred controversy with his latest remarks on Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya. On Sunday, Shekhar defended a recent controversial poster on the Ram Temple, which was put up by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Fateh Bahadur Singh. Bihar education minister Chandra Shekhar(File photo)

In an interaction with the media, Shekhar highlighted the importance of school over a temple and apparently trivialised the Ram Temple as a symbol of pseudo-Hinduvaad and pseudo-nationalism. He emphasised that Lord Ram resides everywhere and there is no need to go look for him in a temple.

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"If you get injured, where will you go? Temple or hospital? If you want education and want to become an officer, MLA, or MP, will you go to a temple or school?," said the Education Minister as quoted by news agency ANI.

ALSO READ| Country before business: EaseMyTrip founder on suspending bookings for Maldives

"Fateh Bahadur Singh (RJD MLA) said the same thing that had been said by Savitribai Phule. What is wrong here? He quoted Savitribai Phule. Isn't education necessary?...We should be cautious of pseudo-Hinduvaad and pseudo-nationalism...When Lord Ram resides in each one of us and everywhere, where will you go to look for him?...The sites that have been allocated have been made into sites of exploitation, used for filling the pockets of a few conspirators in society...," he added.

Reference about the poster put up by the RJD MLA

Recently, RJD MLA Singh had put up the controversial poster saying The meaning of temple is the path to mental slavery, while the meaning of school is the path towards light. The poster had caused a massive controversy and was condemned by BJP, saying it aimed at hurting Hindu sentiments with provocative remarks.

The poster also carried pictures of senior RJD leaders like Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi. It encouraged people to join the birth anniversary celebration of Indias first woman teacher Savitri Bhai Phule and further said: When the bell in the temple tolls, it gives us a message that we are heading towards superstition, hypocrisy, foolishness and ignorance; while the bell in the school points towards logical thinking, scientific approach and march towards light. It is for you to decide which way you want to head.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court's verdict on nullifying the Gujarat government's order to allow the early release of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case, calling it 'a victory of justice. He also took a jibe at Bharatiya Janata Party, saying that the order is against the arrogant BJP being the 'patron of criminals'. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi(AICC)

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"The tendency to 'kill justice' for electoral gains is dangerous for the democratic system. Today the Supreme Court's decision once again told the country who is the 'patron of criminals'. Bilkis Bano's tireless struggle is a symbol of the victory of justice against the arrogant BJP government," the Wayanad MP said in a post on X.

His sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also hailed the top court's verdict, saying that justice has ultimately prevailed.

"With this order, the veil over the anti-women policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been removed. After this, public confidence in the justice system will be further strengthened. Congratulations to Bilkis Bano for continuing her fight bravely," Vadra said in a post on X.

Several opposition parties and leaders including Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi welcomed the top court's order and hailed Bilkis Bano's tireless struggle as a symbol of the victory.

The Supreme Court on Monday nullified the Gujarat government's order of releasing the rape convicts saying that the latter wasn't competent to take the decision as the trial took place in Maharashtra. The court also said the Gujarat government had usurped power.

"Government of State of Gujarat (respondent No.1 herein) had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission. Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed...We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by the Gujarat government," the bench said.

Read here: 'Convicts played fraud on court; sympathy has no role to play': What SC said in Bilkis Bano case

The court further ordered the convicts to surrender back to prison within two weeks.

The Gujarat government last year released 11 convicts after they had completed 14 years of jail term, and their behaviour was good. The 11 convicts released prematurely were Bakabhai Vohania, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Govind Nai, Jaswant Nai, Mitesh Bhatt, Pradeep Mordhiya, Radheshyam Shah, Rajubhai Soni, Ramesh Chandana and Shailesh Bhatt.

Bano was 21 years old and five-months pregnant when she was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat communal riots. Several members of her family, including her toddler daughter, were killed by a mob.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in London on Monday for a three-day visit focusing on all aspects of the India-UK Defence Partnership and to hold high-level discussions covering a wide range of defence, security and industrial cooperation issues. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.(X)

Singh is accompanied by a Ministry of Defence delegation comprised of senior officials from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Service Headquarters, Department of Defence, and Department of Defence Production.

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Besides a bilateral meeting with his UK counterpart, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, he is also expected to meet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

During his visit, the Raksha Mantri will hold a bilateral meeting with his UK counterpart Secretary of State for Defence, Mr Grant Shapps. They are expected to discuss a wide range of defence, security and industrial cooperation issues, the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi said in a pre-visit statement over the weekend.

Shri Rajnath Singh is also expected to call on UK Prime Minister Mr Rishi Sunak and hold a meeting with Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Affairs Mr David Cameron. He will also interact with the CEOs and industry leaders of the UK Defence Industry and meet with the Indian community there, the statement added.

A ceremonial Guard of Honour, visits to Mahatma Gandhi and Dr B.R. Ambedkar memorials, a defence industry roundtable and community interactions with the Indian diaspora at Neasden Temple and India House are on the agenda during what is seen as a significant visit, given that the last Indian defence ministerial-level visit to the UK took place 22 years ago.

In substantive terms, the visit will seek to deepen military cooperation and defence industrial partnerships with the UK by building on the November 2023 Defence Consultative Group (DCG) meeting in Delhi at the level of Secretaries and the inaugural meeting of the 2 2 Foreign and Defence Dialogue at the level of Joint Secretaries in October 2023, says Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, Senior Fellow for South and Central Asian Defence, Strategy and Diplomacy at the London-based think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

The defence analyst believes that through the ministerial-level dialogue, the British government could seek to provide an enabling environment for British companies to pursue these objectives in India.

Also, with Indias and the UKs recent focus on the Indo-Pacific, there is a unique opportunity to bolster naval and maritime security cooperation with third countries in the western Indian Ocean region, including with Oman and Kenya, which host UK military and naval presence amidst a greater role and influence in the area by the Indian Navy, he noted.

The last visit by an Indian defence minister to the UK was by George Fernandes in the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led BJP government back in January 2002. A previously planned visit by Rajnath Singh to the UK in June 2022 was called off by the Indian side for protocol reasons, making this weeks tour a keenly watched one.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), are all set to pitch the Ram temple in Ayodhya that will open to devotees after a grand ceremony on January 22 as not just a site of reverence and religious significance, but as a symbol of cultural nationalism. The seven-day consecration ceremony at the Ram Temple will begin on January 16. (AFP)

The temple will pave the way for a new governance model drawing from soft Hindutva, leaders aware of the development said, seeking anonymity

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While efforts are underway by the party and Sangh offshoots to oversee celebrations across the country to mark the idol consecration and organise tours for devotees, BJP and Sangh functionaries are giving shape to a new narrative about the temple.

The next step is Ram Rajya. Lord Ram was maryada purshottam, a man of impeccable ideals, a ruler who was just and welfarist. The concept of Ram Rajya was supported even by Mahatma Gandhi, who saw it as a model state where everyone was happy and well provided for, a functionary of the RSS said.

The construction sanctioned by the Supreme Court will evolve into a model of governance that the BJP has been promising, Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, said the functionary who has been a part of the temple campaign.

The BJP, which is expected to leverage the construction of the Temple for electoral gains as it prepares to face a combative opposition in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, is keen to embed its electoral narrative with references of the temple being a symbol for cultural nationalism, cultural pride, and political will.

Just as it had done ahead of the Kashi Vishwanath temple redevelopment, the party does not want the construction to be confined to a religious prism, but is keen to sell it as an example of developmental agenda.

The party has been pointing to the infrastructure development, a new airport, augmented train and bus services and hospitality avenues that will contribute to the economy and create jobs.

The Ram temple will dictate its own narrative in Indian polity. While the issue was central to the political discourse from 1989 till 2014, there was a deliberate and conscious effort made to underestimate the impact of Ayodhya (as a movement), said a BJP leader and former union minister.

The movement for the construction of the temple touches the psyche of the country, the leader said. Rajneeti ka swar shaashvat hai (polity is eternal) and any issue to remain relevant needs to gel with that. The Ram temple issue will continue to dominate the polity, this time for establishing a new governance model that is fair, just, all inclusive, he said.

Leaders of several opposition parties have, however, criticised the BJP for politicising the temple inauguration. Last week, Congresss KC Venugopal criticised the BJP and questioned whether it was right to turn such an event into a function of a party or a government. Samajwadi Partys Akhilesh Yadav also took potshots at the BJP government for taking over the ceremony, including sending out invitations.

Responding to the oppositions accusation that the BJP has politicised the issue, the leader said while their opponents tried to disassociate the movement from the common people, designating it as a religious movement mainstreamed politically by the Sangh Parivaar, there were parties that used it to carve their own political space.

Lets not forget how Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav used the Ramjanmabhoomi issue to build their own political edifice in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They encashed on the schisms created by the pseudo secularists around the campaign to make both the Congress and the Left redundant in the states, the leader said.

While the BJP is confident of eliciting the support of people across castes and demographic divides for fulfilling the promise of a temple in Ayodhya, Ajay Gudavarthy, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University said, People do see cultural belonging in an issue like the Ayodhya temple but excessive politicisation gives it a different shape that is more acrimonious than cultural and much less spiritual.

He said the issue might help consolidate the already existing core social base of the BJP, but it may not create the kind of euphoria it did in 1990s. It may not remain an exclusive or sole issue that can determine the voting preferences even in much of north India, he said.

The BJP thinks otherwise.

On the impact that the party expects in the Lok Sabha polls from meeting a long-standing promise of constructing the temple, a second BJP leader said the process of engaging individuals from various castes for the process of temple building mirrors the partys social engineering.

The presence of individuals from castes included in the OBC, SC and ST categories at the momentous event signifies that soft Hindutva is a force to reckon with, especially at a time when parties whose politics was based on caste are scrambling to find a leader against the BJP, said the second leader.

In the past the BJP gained electorally riding on the Ramjanmabhoomi campaign that began as a yatra in 1990 led by party patriarch LK Advani from the Somnath temple in Gujarat and ended in the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.

After the party passed a resolution demanding the construction of the temple in 1989, the partys presence in the Lok Sabha went up from two in 1984 to 85 in 1989 and further to 120 in 1991, the second leader said.

The construction of temple figured in resolutions passed by the RSS and BJP. In 1959, the RSS passed a resolution, making a strong statement about temples turned into mosques with a pointed reference to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi. In 1987, the Sangh in its annual meeting, the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, passed a resolution, demanding that the government allot sufficient open ground and extend all necessary facilities to the Sri Rama Janmabhoomi Trust and desist from giving any encouragement to the tactics of obstructionists and religious fanatics.

Two years later, in 1989, the BJP adopted a resolution on the Ram Janmabhoomi at the meeting of its national executive in Palampur. It demanded the handing over of the Ram Janmabhoomi to Hindus for the construction of a temple and subsequently incorporated into the partys manifesto.
New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday scrapped the remission granted to 11 men convicted in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case and directed them to surrender in two weeks, holding that the Gujarat government was complicit with the prisoners and wrongly exercised its power to order their premature release. Bilkis Bano, the survivor, expressed relief and gratitude for the court's decision.(FILE PHOTO)

The court said Gujarat usurped the power of Maharashtra, where the original trial of the convicts happened, to grant remission, and nullified a 2022 judgment by another bench of the top court, which had directed Gujarat to consider the remission applications of the 11 convicts, saying it was obtained by playing fraud on court.

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This is a classic case where the order of this court dated May 13, 2022, has been used for violating the rule of law while passing orders of remission in favour of respondent 3 to 13 (convicts) in the absence of any jurisdiction by the state of Gujarat. Therefore, without going into the manner in which the power of remission has been exercised, we strike down the orders of remission on the ground of usurpation of powers by the state of Gujarat not vested in it. The orders of remission are hence quashed, a bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said.

Justice is supreme and justice ought to be beneficial for the society. Law courts exist for the society and ought to rise to the occasion to do the needful in the matter.

The judgment draws the curtains on a controversial epilogue of one of the most high-profile incidents in the 2002 Gujarat riots and one that was part of a raft of cases where the apex court shifted the trial out of Gujarat. The release of the men and their public felicitation just months ahead of the Gujarat elections in 2022 sparked widespread condemnation.

In a statement, Bilkis Bano thanked the top court. Today is truly the New Year for meI have smiled for the first time in over a year and half It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again, she said. This is what justice feels like.

Bano had challenged the August 15, 2022 decision of the Gujarat government permitting the premature release of the 11 convicts, who were serving a life term, under a 1992 remission policy. The men were convicted for the rape and murder of 14 people, including seven members of her family, in 2002.

In December 2003, the top court transferred the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the next year, shifted the trial to Mumbai. The convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Mumbai court in 2008 and the Bombay high court upheld their conviction and sentence in 2017.

In 2019, convict Radheshyam Shah approached the Gujarat high court seeking remission. In July 2019, the Gujarat HC directed him to approach the Maharashtra government. In August 2019, he applied to Maharashtra but the plea was dismissed by a trial court in Mumbai and police authorities in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

But Mondays verdict found that these facts were not disclosed to the top court by either the convict or the state. The government of Gujarat had usurped the powers of the state of Maharashtra which only could have considered the applications seeking remission. Consequently, the policy (of remission) dated July 9, 1992 of the state of Gujarat was not applicable to the case of respondents, the judges held.

Advocate Rishi Malhotra who appeared for Shah in the top court doubted the findings of the Court to set aside another decision of the top court that too was decided by a coordinate bench of two judges. It is legally impermissible for a coordinate bench of two judges to overrule another judgment by a two-judge bench. Once the SC in its judgment of May 13, 2022 held that appropriate govt was Gujarat, a subsequent judgment cannot set it aside under writ jurisdiction, Malhotra said. He further added, no fraud was played with the Court as portrayed by the judgment. Even if the 2022 decision was erroneous, the remedy was to refer it to a larger bench. A review petition filed by Bilkis on similar grounds has already been dismissed by the top court.

The order came on a petition filed by Bano in November 2022 along with a clutch of public interest litigations Left leader Subhashini Ali, Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra, and activist Revati Laul, among others.

In a 251-page verdict, the top court came down heavily on Gujarat and the convicts, saying both suppressed crucial facts.

The state of Gujarat has acted in tandem and was complicit with what the petitioner (Shah) had sought before this court. This is exactly what this court had apprehended at the previous stages of this case and had intervened on three earlier occasions in the interest of truth and justice by transferring the investigation of the case to the CBI and the trial to the special court at Mumbai.

The judges also questioned the conduct of the Gujarat government. If really the state of Gujarat had in mind the provisions of law and the judgments of this court, and had adhered to the rule of law, it would have filed a review petition before this court by contending that it was not the appropriate government. By failing to do so, not only are the earlier orders of this court in the matter have been vindicated but more importantly, rule of law has been breached in usurping power not vested in it and thereby aiding respondent Nos.3 to 13 (convicts), the verdict said.

The court noted that rule of law must prevail for which courts must rise to the occasion. The faith of the people is the source to invigorate justice intertwined with the efficacy of law. It is the primary duty and the highest responsibility of this Court to correct arbitrary orders at the earliest and maintain the confidence of the litigant public in the purity of the fountain of justice and thereby respect rule of law, it said.

The court held that Shah misrepresented when he argued an apparent difference of opinion by referring to a 2013 Bombay high court order allowing another convict to approach the Gujarat high court. The judgment found that the 2013 decision dealt with the transfer of prisoners from Maharashtra to Gujarat, and did not deal with remission.

We have held that order of this court dated May 13, 2022 to be a nullity and non est in the eye of law. Consequently, exercise of discretion by the state of Gujarat is nothing but an instance of usurpation of jurisdiction and an instance of abuse of discretion.

The court noted that rule of law must prevail, for which courts must rise to the occasion. The faith of the people is the source to invigorate justice intertwined with the efficacy of law. It is the primary duty and the highest responsibility of this Court to correct arbitrary orders at the earliest and maintain the confidence of the litigant public in the purity of the fountain of justice and thereby respect rule of law.

Various opposition parties welcomed the order and attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Gujarat for facilitating the release of the 11 convicts.

The tendency to kill justice for electoral gains is dangerous for the democratic system. Today the Supreme Courts decision once again told the country who is the patron of criminals, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X, formerly twitter. Bilkis Banos tireless struggle is a symbol of the victory of justice against the arrogant BJP government.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee also hailed the court order. The Supreme Court has passed the right verdict. The rapists were roaming scot-free. It cannot be allowed. I admire them [SC] for taking a strong judgment, she said.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) also welcomed the court verdict nailing down the Gujarat governments illegal action of granting remission to the 11 convicts who were sentenced to life in the case, and praised Bilkis Banos strength and courage. CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat said: We welcome the Supreme Court judgment in the Bilkis Bano case, upholding the arguments made by Bilkis in her petition. Though it has taken one-and-a-half years, it is a very welcome step forward.
New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a challenge by a group of online gaming companies against the imposition of 28% goods and service tax (GST) on full face value for online gaming. The case is likely to be heard after four weeks. (AFP)

A bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, issued notice to the Union government and the director general of the GST Intelligence, observing that the case required a consideration by the top court.

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The bench, which also comprised justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, further noted that an authoritative decision was called for in the matter since different high courts were in cession of the same issue and it was likely that contradictory judgments could be delivered.

We will issue notice and examine it here instead of different high courts adopting different views, the court told senior advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for the petitioner, E-Gaming Federation and Head Digital Works Pvt Ltd, and additional solicitor general (ASG) N Venkataraman, who represented the Centre.

Also Read | State hopes for 700 cr GST from online gaming

While the ASG concurred with the courts views, he pointed out that the July 2023 decision of the GST Council to impose 28% GST on the full value of the bets placed, and not on the gross gaming revenue, was taken on a trial basis.

Salve, on his part, argued that the governments decision tends to include online gaming under actionable claim, which is defined as goods under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. To be sure, an actionable claim is a claim to an unsecured debt or a claim to any beneficial interest in movable property that is not in the possession of the claimant. Earlier, lottery, betting, and gambling were classified as actionable claims, but the GST Councils decision added horse racing and online gaming to the list.

If one assumes there is an actionable claim, who is supplying it to whom? Where is the supply of actionable claims? What they are seeking to tax is 100% of the face value of the bet, said the senior counsel.

Salve added that legislative competence issues and where actionable claims could be regarded as goods would arise as primary questions before the court.

Responding, the ASG said that he would be filing a detailed counter affidavit to the petition to satisfactorily answer all the points of law raised. Venkataraman further complained that some of the online companies were interpolating in the media that different ministries and departments in the Centre were not on the same page regarding the regulation. We had a meeting a few days ago and I can tell you all the ministries and departments are on the same page, he emphasised.

The case is likely to be heard after four weeks.

The GST Council, in August 2023, amended the law to clarify that all online games involving bets, irrespective of skill or chance, will attract a GST rate of 28% on the full value of the bets placed, and not on the gross gaming revenue. Previously, most gaming companies were paying a tax of 18% applicable on the platform fees, distinguishing based on the factor of these activities being games of skill such as fantasy gaming platforms.

Following the councils decision, online gaming companies were served with huge tax demands. Online gaming companies were served show-cause notices for alleged tax evasions to the tune of 1 lakh crore in 2023.

In September 2023, the Supreme Court had stayed a Karnataka high court judgement quashing GamesKrafts 21,000 crore GST notice on the Centres appeal.

After the decision, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who heads the GST Council, said that the intent was not to end any industry but a moral question about taxing both gaming at the same rate as other essential items.

Our agenda is not to end any industry all types of businesses have to function there was discussion on the moral question that on one front, you do not want to end an industry. But that does not mean that you give more incentives to them than essential goods all states participated in this decision which has been pending for the last 2-3 years. We could take the decision because every state clearly participated in it, Sitharaman said in July last year.
Ahmedabad: Today is truly the New Year for me. I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again, Bilkis Bano said in her first reaction after the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the early release of 11 men jailed for life for gang-raping her and murdering her seven relatives during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Bilkis Bano.

Also Read: Rahul Gandhi's 'patron of criminals' dig at BJP on SC's Bilkis Bano case verdict

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In a note issued through her advocate Shobha Gupta, she said: This is what justice feels like. I thank the honourable Supreme Court of India for giving me, my children and women everywhere, this vindication and hope in the promise of equal justice for all.

Bano was three months pregnant when she was gang-raped. Her three-year-old daughter was among seven of her relatives who were murdered during the riots, which left 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead.

The 11 men were convicted in 2008. The Gujarat government ordered their release in August 2022, drawing condemnation.

The Supreme Court on Monday said Gujarat did not have the authority to reduce the sentence since the trial was moved to Mumbai, which made Maharashtra responsible for the decision. It said a 2022 order of the court directing the Gujarat government to consider remission was obtained fraudulently and by suppressing material facts.

A year and half ago, on August 15, 2022, when those who had destroyed my family and terrorised my very existence, were given an early release, I simply collapsed. I felt I had exhausted my reservoir of courage. Until a million solidarities came my way, Bano said in the note.

Thousands of ordinary people and women of India came forward. They stood with me, spoke for me, and filed PIL petitions in the Supreme Court. 6000 people from all over, and 8500 people from Mumbai wrote appeals; 10,000 people wrote an Open Letter, as did 40,000 people from 29 districts of Karnataka. To each of these people, my gratitude for your precious solidarity and strength. You gave me the will to struggle, to rescue the idea of justice not just for me, but for every woman in India. I thank you, said Bilkis .

Bano and her family have relocated from their native Randhikpur village in Gujarat due to safety concerns.

Also Read: Bilkis Bano case: SC quashes Gujarat govts remission order, 11 convicts to return to jail

Bilkis Bano never returned to her native Randhikpur where the gruesome violence took place. She stayed for a year in Devgadh Baria (about 30 kms from Randhikpur) and then moved to different parts of the state and country. She had again started living in Devgadh Baria again when the convicts were released and for the last one year, she has been moving from one house to another, keeping a low profile. Now for the last 12-15 days, she has left Devgadh Baria and moved elsewhere, said her uncle, Abdul Razzak Mansuri, a witness in the gang rape case.

He said that they were happy to learn that justice has been served and that all the convicts are now required to surrender within two weeks. He called the Gujarat governments move to release the convicts erroneous.

A Randhikpur resident cited safety concerns and said the family left the village ahead of the Supreme Court decision.

Opposition Congress leader Manish Doshi welcomed the order and said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been exposed. The Supreme Court has aptly addressed the matter, acknowledging concerns and delivering a fitting response. The decision to release the convicts early was made for political advantage ahead of the Gujarat elections in December 2022. The BJP governments attempt to shield those opposed to the law while neglecting those in need of protection and at the receiving end has been highlighted, said Doshi.

Bano has lived through immense mental stress in the last 16 months since the 11 were released from jail, her relatives said. Bano, who lives with her husband, three daughters and a son have been living life in a suitcase for the past one and half year, moving from one house to another.

The village of Randhikpur, comprising over 350 houses, including 80 homes belonging to the Muslim community, has witnessed a significant exodus. Some Muslim families have relocated up to three or four times since last year. There would be less than a dozen Muslim families left in the village today, said Mansuri.

Banos husband has been grappling with the challenges of securing steady employment, resulting in financial strain for the family. The education of their children has also taken a hit, forcing them to discontinue their studies. The community members have been giving financial support to the family.

Saddam Sheikh, 29-year-old and Banos paternal cousin, is one of the two surviving eyewitnesses in the case. The other surviving witness is Bilkis herself.

Also Read: Bilkis Bano, family left native village days before SC verdict

I was barely seven years old. Witnessing the atrocities inflicted upon my cousin sister and other family members left a lasting imprint on my young mind. Even now, those distressing images are vividly etched in my memory. The news of the convicts being released by the Gujarat government made me shake with fear. I remember shedding tears out of sheer apprehension. The thought of them being incarcerated once more brings me some relief. But I find it very difficult to convince myself that they may not be free again, shared Sheikh, who has been residing in Ahmedabad for the past 21 years and has visited Randhikpur only once, for a marriage function. He currently works in a footwear store.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition by the children of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar who asked the top court to set aside a Bombay high court order that decided to stop monitoring the investigation into their fathers murder. The Supreme Court told the petitioners that they could approach the CBI with any additional material in connection with the case (AFP FILE PHOTO)

High courts are not meant to monitor the investigation. The Bombay high court has monitored enough. It is a fair order refusing further monitoring You cannot have monitoring (of criminal cases) at the pleasure of parties in the matter, a bench of justices Vikram Nath and Satish Chandra Sharma said.

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Prima facie, we are not inclined to interfere with the high court order. The petition is dismissed, the bench said, rejecting the appeal filed by Dabholkars children, Mukta and Hameed, challenging the high courts April 18 order refusing to further monitor the investigation into Dabholkars murder who was shot dead at Pune in 2013.

The bench also declined to issue any further orders on investigating the larger conspiracy behind the Dabholkar murder and that of three other persons - activist Govind Pansare, Kannada poet MM Kalburgi and journalist Gauri Lankesh.

Senior advocate Anand Grover who appeared for the petitioner along with advocate Krishna Kumar told the court that there was clinching evidence to show a common thread behind the conspiracy to eliminate Dabholkar and the other three personalities

Grover reasoned that if CBI doesnt investigate the larger conspiracy, it will result in punishment for those who pulled the trigger and not lead to the mastermind.

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati appearing for CBI said the trial was already at an advanced stage and most witnesses in the case have been examined by the trial court. She also underlined that the CBI was not even the investigating agency in the other three cases though there were common conspirators.

Turning to the petitioner, the bench said: CBI is the best investigation agency we have in the country. How can you continue monitoring and keep pressuring them for the investigation to go on? The trial has commenced and 18 out of 23 witnesses have been examined.

The bench added that the petitioner could provide any material related to the criminal case to the CBI which may proceed in accordance with the law.

In August last year, the Supreme Court told CBI to examine whether there was a larger conspiracy behind the four murders and if there was a common thread following the request from Dabholkars children.

Dabholkar, an anti-superstition activist was shot dead in Pune in 2013. Within two years, activist Govind Pansare was killed in Kolhapur in 2015 and the same year, Kannada scholar MM Kalburgi was murdered in Karnataka. In 2017, Gauri Lankesh was murdered outside her house in Bengaluru.

In its affidavit filed in response to the benchs directions, the CBI said: The murder of Govind Pansare is a connected case because of common conspirators. However, time and facts of the case are different.

CBI underscored that monitoring the investigation into Pansares death will have no impact on the Dabholkar trial and suggested that there is no specific aspect on which any further investigation was required.

In its petition, the Dabholkar family pointed to the presence of a 2018 charge sheet where the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad (ATS) recovered a large haul of ammunition and weapons from Nalasopara in Mumbai and underlined that the accused in the Nalasopara explosive case are the accused in the Dabholkar, Kalburgi and Lankesh case.

In the investigation by SIT, Karnataka, of the murder of Gauri Lankesh, a diary was seized from one accused (Amol Kale) which revealed that 34 persons including the petitioners were on the hit list. Kale and other accused in the four murders belonged to Sanatan Sanstha and the killings were of persons who were opposed to their ideology.

After taking over the case, CBI filed three charge sheets naming one Virendrasinh Tavade as the mastermind behind the killing of Dabholkar. The agency subsequently arrested Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar as the shooters who executed the killing. Subsequently, the CBI named two other persons  advocate Sanjiv Punalekar and his assistant Vikram Vinay Bhave in connection with the conspiracy to murder.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the December 13 order of the Bombay high court directing the Election Commission of India to immediately hold a bypoll to the Pune Lok Sabha seat that has been vacant since March 29 when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament Girish Bapat passed away. The Supreme Court bench said it will hear the case in March or April (Sanchit Khanna/HT FILE PHOTO)

A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, noted that the top court would examine the scope of Section 151 of the Representation of the People Act, which mandates the ECI to fill casual vacancies in the Houses of Parliament and state legislatures. The provision requires a bypoll to be held to fill any vacancy to be held within six months from the date of the occurrence of the vacancy.

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The bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, issued notice to Sughosh Joshi, a Pune resident on whose petition the high court order was issued, adding that the case will be listed next in March or April.

The provisions of Section 151 of the RP Act would fall for consideration before the court...We will list it most probably in March or April and thereafter lay down the law, said the court.

It considered the fact that the Lok Sabha election is expected to take place a few months later and that the RP Act prescribes that a bypoll to fill a vacancy should take place provided the remainder of the members term would be one year or more.

In its December order, the high court rejected the ECIs stand to not hold the election since it was busy with other polls, including preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The high court called it bizarre and wholly unreasonable

In any parliamentary democracy, governance is done by elected representatives who are the voices of people. If the representative is no more, another must be put in place. People cannot go unrepresented. That is wholly unconstitutional and is a fundamental anathema to our constitutional structure, the high court said.

The ECI is not only vested but charged with the duty and obligation to hold elections and see to it that any vacancy is filled, said the high court, adding the ECI cannot let a constituency remain unrepresented. Voters cannot be denied this right.

ECI argued in the high court that it was not inclined to hold the bypoll for two reasons  First, that it was busy with other polls including the preparatory activities for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and second, that even if the Pune bypoll was held, the elected representative would get a very short tenure.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has expressed dissatisfaction over the response from the Election Commission of India (ECI) over concerns related to Electronic Voting Machine(EVMs) used in elections. He accused the ECI of giving "generic" replies to his queries. On December 30 last year, he had written to the poll body seeking appointment for a delegation of INDIA bloc parties, to put forth their views on the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. Jairam Ramesh(File photo)

Ramesh has written a fresh letter to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar over the Election Commission's response to his earlier letter.

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"I had made an express request for an appointment for the INDIA parties' leaders with the Hon'ble Commission. I had even specified the agenda for the appointment discussion and suggestions on the usage of VVPATs for the upcoming elections," Ramesh said in his letter dated January 7 as quoted by news agency PTI.

ALSO READ| Pseudo-Hinduvaad: Bihar education minister on Ram Temple

"The Election Commission's response, while completely brushing aside our request for an appointment, has yet again failed to provide a substantive response to our queries and genuine concerns over EVMs. Instead, the Commission has been repeatedly directing us to generic ECI FAQs as the answer book for all queries in respect of EVMs and VVPATS," he added.

"This illustrates and underscores exactly why we have been asking the Commission for an audience, to discuss these unresolved and legitimate queries. Your point blank refusal to even engage with political participants on EVMs or VVPATs, is a matter of grave concern for all political parties and not just those who belong to the INDIA alliance," he said further.

On the poll body's refusal to meet INDIA parties citing judicial orders, Ramesh highlighted that there is no such order which bars ECI from discussing or hearing the suggestions related to EVMs and VVPATs.

"In fact, there is no judicial order which restrains this Commission from meeting the INDIA Parties' leaders on the issue of EVMs or VVPATS," he said.

The Congress leader went on to label the ECI's stand as "unprecedented" and reiterated his request to allow a small delegation of INDIA parties to meet with the poll body regarding discussion on the issue of VVPATs.

"This request is being made on behalf of the INDIA parties, which have given our country prime ministers, chief ministers and a very large number of distinguished political leaders. INDIA parties commanded over 60% of the popular vote in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Yet the Commission continues to deny these parties an opportunity to meet with it. This is most unfortunate and to put it very mildly, unprecedented," he said.

"Therefore, with the upcoming General Elections scheduled to be held soon, I once again respectfully request the Commission meet with a small delegation of INDIA parties and at least listen to what it has to say on the issue of VVPATs," said Ramesh.
Security forces and militants exchanged fire for a second day in Manipurs border town Moreh, officials aware of the matter said on Monday, triggering panic in villages around the area in the strife-torn state. Gunfight first broke out late on Sunday, before a break overnight, which was followed by a new bout between 8.15am of 1.30pm, locals and people in the security establishment said (PTI)

Moreh, which borders Myanmar, has been on high alert after a spate of attacks by militants on security forces, especially those belonging to Manipur police commandos. Gunfight first broke out late on Sunday, before a break overnight, which was followed by a new bout between 8.15am of 1.30pm, locals and people in the security establishment said, asking not to be named.

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At the heart of the repeated flare-up in violence, which first exploded into ethnic clashes in May and has claimed the lives of over 200 people, is persistent distrust between the Kuki community, which mostly lives in the hills, and the Meitei community that is dominant in the valley area.

The flare-up prompted villagers to flee their homes. Mondays firing happened at three places in New Moreh, Lhangkichoi and Zion Veng. Militants were posing as security forces and fired at the Kuki villages including mine. Around 200 villagers left their homes as soon as the firing started. We are currently staying at a building in another part of the town. We have been told that firing has stopped but do not want to get caught in the crossfire so we are not returning, said K Minlun Touthang, chairman of unit 8(New Moreh), Hill Tribal Council (HTC) of Moreh.

Also Read | PM has time for photo sessions but can't visit Manipur: Kharge's swipe at PM Modi

There are 13 different HTC units in Moreh, each headed by a chairperson.

On Sunday evening, security forces were engaged in a gunfight with militants at two different places near Moreh evening Bazar. At least 10 security personnel were injured but there were no casualties.

Kaikholal Haokip, spokesperson of the Kuki Inpi Tengnoupal, an umbrella group for Kukis in the district said: The village volunteers are targeting the commando posts in Moreh because the Manipur police commandos are biased and are involved in killing of Kuki-Zo tribals. Many Meitei militant groups are also posing as commandos or security forces and attacking the Kuki villages.

Security forces retaliated, which has caused a lot of damage to public property. Mortars were fired at civilian population. The security forces such as Assam Rifles are holding peace talks with the locals and CSOs. We demand that the state police forces be replaced by the Centres paramilitary forces, Haokip added.

A security force officer, aware of the details, confirmed the latest flare-up and said that as of Monday evening, no one was injured.

Also Read | NHRC issues notice to Manipur over killing of 13 people last month

The militants had fired at the security forces in the hills near Moreh town to which the forces responded appropriately, this person said.

Tengnoupals new superintendent of police, Rahul Gupta was not available for a comment despite repeated calls and text messages.

Meanwhile, Kuki women held protests in Moreh and Kangpokpi on Monday demanding that Manipur police commandos be removed from the Kuki areas.

On December 30, a convoy of Manipur commandos came under fire, leaving one commando with a bullet injury. Later that night, militants attacked Manipur police commandos inside their barracks using rocket propelled grenades (RPG). Four Manipur commandos were injured.

On January 2, at least seven security personnel  four Manipur police commandos and 3 BSF personnel on their way for a search operation were injured in an attack.

Last week, the village defence volunteers of Tengnoupal released a statement warning Manipur police to leave Moreh immediately. Other groups such as Kuki Inpi Tengnoupal and HTC supported the demand.

Chief minister Biren Singh last week told reporters that possibility of involvement of mercenaries from Myanmar in the attacks on personnel in Moreh could not be ruled out. We have suspect involvement of foreign mercenaries from Myanmar side, he said.
Vietnamese automaker VinFast Auto committed to invest 16,000 crore, or $2 billion, to build an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing unit in Thoothukudi, part of 60,000 crore worth investments in that companies announced for Tamil Nadu during the third edition of the Global Investors Meet held in Chennai on Sunday. Union minister Piyush Goyal with Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stali during the inauguration of the Global Investors Meet 2024, at Nandambakkam, in Chennai on Sunday (Agencies)

Among the pledges were those made by Apple Inc supplier Pegatron, Tata Electronics, other automakers and energy companies, who were among a dozen to sign memorandum of understanding (MoU) deals with the state.

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The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government led by chief minister MK Stalin launched its first investors meet amid expectations that it will surpass the two previous meets by the previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) regime in 2015 and 2019 under late J Jayalalithaa and Edapaddi K Palaniswami, respectively.

The earlier editions drew investment pledges worth 242,160 crore and 268, 296 crore, respectively, but several firms dropped their plans in the following years. The southern state this time wants to attract investment pledges of 5.5 lakh crore in the two-day summit.

On Sunday, Tata Electronics inked a deal to invest 12,082 crore to expand its enclosure manufacturing unit and mobile assembly plant for various brands in Krishnagiri district. Taiwans Pegatron, which assembles Apples iPhones, will invest 1,000 crore in Chengalpattu district to manufacture computing, communications and consumer electronics devices.

While China has been Apples largest production hub, India has been key to its supply chain with its share in exports in smartphones rising from 1% in 2020 to 7% in 2023 after Apple began assembling iPhones through contract manufacturers last year in the country.

For Tamil Nadu, which emerged as the top electronics export state in 2022-23 at $5.37 billion, the investments by Tata and Pegatron are another boost. The states electronics exports for the initial months of the 2023-24 was $4.8 billion, twice that of Uttar Pradesh, which followed with $2.5 billion.

JSW Energy signed the second-largest MoU at 12,000 crore, followed by Hyundai at 6,180 crore, TVS at 5,000 crore, Godrej Consumer with 515 crore, Mitshubishi with 200 crore and Qualcomm at 177 crore. The deals are expected to generate thousands of jobs in the state, the government said.

After the DMK formed the state government in May 2021, it framed an ambitious plan to become a $1 trillion economy by 2030. What is more important than actually achieving the goal of a $1 trillion economy are the kind of forces that it propels within the state, former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said during a discussion at the event.

CM Stalin also launched the states policy for semiconductors and advanced electronics on the first day of the summit. One of its key objectives is to ensure Tamil Nadu contributes to 40% of Indias electronics exports by 2030.

There are more people working on chip design in India as compared to the rest of the world. Owing to the intense work force, many multinational firms prefer setting up offices in the country. So, it is not a surprise that Qualcomm has chosen to set up a facility in Tamil Nadu, Chris Miller, author of Chip War, said during a chat on semiconductors with Rahul Sharma, managing director of APCO Worldwide, a consultancy.

India has the advantage of having one of the worlds youngest populations, which is prepared to work collectively to build a developed nation by 2047, Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal said.

Tamil Nadu is on the fast track to economic growth and has attracted substantial investments, Stalin said. This Global Investors Meet will pave the way to further accelerate the quantum of investments to the state and consequent industrial growth.
The Supreme Court on Monday set aside the Gujarat governments decision to pre-maturely release the 11 convicts facing life sentences for the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in the state. The court ordered the convicts to go back to jail and surrender before authorities within two weeks. The convicts being welcomed with sweets after their pre-mature relesae in Bilkis Bano case.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said the Gujarat government was not competent to pass the remission order, noting that the government of the state where the offender is sentenced is the appropriate government to grant remission.

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The court held that the May 2022 order, in which it had directed the remission of one of the convicts to be considered according to the 1992 remission policy of the Gujarat government, was an order in nullity.

The writ petition, seeking direction to the government to consider remission, was filed by suppressing the material facts and making misleading statements, the apex court observed.

The men were convicted of gang-raping Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant at the time, and killing seven of her family members during riots in Gujarat in 2002.

Here are some key observations by the Supreme Court in Bilkis Bano case:

Gujarat government usurped the power of the Maharashtra government by not filing the review petition against the May 2022 judgment and impressing on the court that the Maharashtra government was the appropriate government, the court said.

Usurputation of power arises when power vested in one authority is exercised by another. Applying the principle in this case, having regard to our answer of "appropriate power", Gujarat government exercising the power was an instance of usurpation of power.

The court also pulled up the Gujarat government for passing remission orders in August 2022 in a cyclostyled manner, with no application of mind.

We fail to understand why the state of Gujarat did not file a review petition against the judgment dated May 13, 2022. Had the government filed a review and impressed upon this court, the ensuing litigation would not have occurred.

Gujarat government was complicit with the accused and it was the very apprehension with led the court to transfer the Bilkis Bano trial from Gujarat to Maharashtra, the court observed.

If the convicts can circumvent the consequences of their conviction, peace and tranquillity in the society will be reduced to a chimaera.

Compassion and sympathy has no role to play where rule of law is to be enforced. This court must be beacon in preserving rule of law, the bench said as it ordered the 11 convicts to surrender back to the concerned jail authorities in Gujarat within two weeks.

We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by Gujarat government
Shillong: The Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) is a product of a 1992 split in the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council (HALC), the first militant indigenous tribal rebel outfit in Meghalaya. The HALC split due to inter-tribal antagonisms leading to the formation of the HNLC and the Achik Matgrik Liberation Army (AMLA). In the erstwhile HALC, the Hynniewtreps represented the Khasi and Jaintia tribes and the Achiks represented the Garos in the common fight against the Dkhars or non-indigenous people. The HNLC was proscribed on November 16, 2000.

An important objective of the HNLC is to transform Meghalaya as a separate province exclusively for the indigenous Khasi and Jaintia tribes and free it from nonindigenous domination. Another objective is to fight against the growing presence of Dkhars or 'outsiders', as the HNLC feels that Khasi youth are deprived of the fruits of development in the state.

The top leadership of the outfit is believed to be based in the capital of Bangladeshi, Dhaka. Some of HNLC's camps are located in the same country, mostly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region. At present, the Commander-in-chief Boby Marwein is the groups chairman while Sainkupar Nongtraw is its general secretary and spokesperson.

Founding Chairman Julius Dorphang surrendered to government agencies on July 24, 2007. This surrender was reportedly a result of internal differences within the organisation. A group of HNLC cadres was also sent by the outfit's leadership in Bangladesh to eliminate Dorphang. An October 30, 2007, encounter in a locality in Shillong led to the killing of five cadres of the group.

Known to have close links and nexus with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland  Issak Muivah (NSCN-IM), the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), the HNLC primarily operates in the Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya. A number of its activities ranging from extortion, to kidnapping for ransom, to assassinations, and lately the use of improvised explosive devices have been reported from the capital city of Shillong as well as other parts of the Khasi and Jaintia hills region.

According to state government data, the HNLC was suspected to be responsible for at least five of the seven Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts that occurred in Meghalaya between February 2018 and January 2022. The exact cause of the final two IED detonations is yet unknown. No violent incident has been reported in the state since January 2022.

Significantly, on September 6, 2022, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed chargesheets at an NIA special court in Shillong against four HNLC terrorists  Marwein, Nongtraw, Marius Rynjah and Emmanuel Suchen, in connection with a blast that took place behind the staff quarters of Star Cement Factory Colony Lane in Meghalayas East Jaintia Hills on the 12th of December 2020, a little before 9 pm. Two people were injured in the blast.

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), since March 6, 2000, when SATP started compiling data on insurgencies in the northeast, there have been a total of 52 HNLC-related fatalities in Meghalaya, including 30 HNLC cadres, 12 Security Force (SF) personnel and 10 civilians (data till August 10, 2023)  a majority were reported between 2000 and 2009. Chesterfield Thangkhiew, the factions founding general secretary, was killed in an encounter at his residence at Mawlai-Kynton Massar in Shillong on August 13, 2021.

Peace parlays

After receiving the Government of Indias nod, peace talks between the HNLC and the Meghalaya Government were initiated on March 11, 2022, with retired IPS officer AK Mishra, Advisor, North East, Union Ministry of Home Affairs representing the Centre and retired IAS officer Peter S. Dkhar interlocutor on behalf of the State, and Social Activist Sadon Blah acting as interlocutor for the HNLC.

After a series of informal parleys, for the first time in history, senior leaders of the HNLC led by vice chairman Manbhalang Jyrwa and political secretary Aristarwell Thongni, along with their personal security officers (PSOs) Storgy Lyngdoh and Raymond Lapang, on May 23, 2023, sat down for the tripartite talks to discuss on forward towards an amicable settlement.

While the outfit demanded general amnesty for its leaders and cadres, the state government maintained that the matter was under consideration with the Union government. In fact, on August 8, 2023, in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma discussed the ongoing peace talks with the HNLC among a range of other issues. During the meeting, Sangma apprised the PM that a formal dialogue with the outfit was underway, and the state government was optimistic that the peace process would reach a successful conclusion.

The general amnesty demanded includes the withdrawal of all cases against the cadres, including a case against four top HNLC leaders who have been charge-sheeted by the NIA. The general amnesty will pave the way for the peace negotiations to move forward.

However, on December 31, 2023, the HNLC chose to withdraw from the ongoing tri-partite peace parleys between it and the Central and State governments with immediate effect.

In a letter addressed to AK Mishra, Advisor (MHA, Northeast), HNLC expressed the organisations regret over the inability to reach a consensus during the peace negotiations. The letter was signed by Boby Marwein the outfits chairman-cum-C-in-C and Sainkupar Nongtraw the general secretary-cum-spokesperson.

This decision has been made due to the unfortunate circumstance that our general demands have not been met. Furthermore, we have concerns that if these fundamental issues remain unaddressed, our political demands will also be dismissed, the letter shared with the press stated, adding, It is with a heavy heart that we witness the peace process reaching such a critical point. Nevertheless, we feel compelled to persist in our armed struggle.

In a detailed press release, signed by Boby Marwein the chairman-cum-C-in-C and Sainkupar Nongtraw the general secretary-cum-spokesperson, the HNLC outlined five primary demands crucial for the success of the peace process. Regrettably, only two out of these five demands were reportedly granted by the government. The granted demands include the establishment of a safe passage for central leaders and the proposal for authorized representatives to facilitate communication during negotiations.

However, the denial of other critical demands, including the removal of the ban on HNLC, the withdrawal of pending cases against leaders and cadres, and the release of individuals associated with HNLC currently in jail has led to the organizations withdrawal.

Nongtraw emphasised the governments double standards, citing pressure to attend formal talks and summon notices issued at both central and state levels, contrary to assurances given during the peace process.

Expressing deep regret over the failure of peace talks, the HNLC hinted at potential consequences, stating, If the government continues to disregard our voices at the negotiation table, resorting to violence becomes the only option on the battlefield.

The organisation called for a shift from waiting and patience to relentless aggression, asserting that the time for meaningful dialogue is contingent on the government understanding the language of action rather than peace.

The HNLC leader stated, We would like to express our appreciation to the intermediaries representing both sides, as well as the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the people who have supported us in initiating these talks. However, it is regrettable that the government has not given due consideration to our concerns. We deeply lament the failure of the peace talks, adding, While we have demonstrated flexibility by engaging in discussions within the framework of the Indian constitution, it is the government that remains rigid in its stance. Such an attitude and policy will only exacerbate the situation moving forward.

Sounding alarm bells, Nongtraw said, If the government continues to disregard our voices at the negotiation table, resorting to violence becomes the only option on the battlefield. We have to speak the language that the government understands - the government doesn't understand the language of peace, but rather the language of violence. Only then can we hope to engage in a meaningful dialogue, while emphasising, The time of waiting and the era of patience are finally over; now is the moment to kick back and embrace relentless aggression.

This is not the first instance that the outfit has threatened to withdraw from the ongoing tripartite peace talks, as earlier on August 12, 2023, the HNLC had threatened the same if attempts were made to impose terms on it. The outfit had asserted that it operated independently and was not subject to governmental authority. HNLC leaders who were in the state for peace talks had planned to visit and pay homage to their former leader, Thangkhiew, at his house in Mawlai at around 2 pm on August 13 as decided in consultation with his family. However, the state officials asked them to reschedule their visit to 8 am in the morning. The reason given by the state government is not known. Following this, Nongtraw issued a threat on his Facebook post on August 12, The governments decision has angered the HNLC. We are not the Meghalaya Police or State employees that the government can issue orders to. If this is the attitude, we will retract from the peace talks.

People well versed on the subject are wary of the current threat as except for isolated criminal incidents, the HNLC has refrained from major disruptions to law and order in the state. Whispers are being heard that perhaps, this time the outfit means business.

With elections to the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council and the Lok Sabha around the bend, political parties are taking this threat cautiously even as some are urging the outfit to reconsider its decision.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday appealed to the HNLC to reconsider its decision to withdraw from the tripartite peace talks for lasting peace to prevail in the state of Meghalaya.

Addressing the media, BJP national vice president and Meghalaya in-charge Dr Chuba Ao said, We appeal to our militant organization to come forward and join the mainstream and attain peace.

Chief spokesperson and former IPS officer M Kharkrang said the party is surprised at the HNLCs sudden decision to withdraw itself from the peace talks with the government. According to him, it is not possible for the government at one stroke of a pen to drop all cases against the leaders and cadres of the outfit.

If you have seen the statementthe main agenda of the HNLC is to drop all cases against the leaders and cadres of the outfit. I feel they should have waited as it is not easy for the government to just drop these cases especially if cases have been charge sheeted and are being trial in the courts as once cases are charge sheeted, it totally depends on the court. To say that the government at one stroke of a pen to drop all cases is not possible, Kharkrang said, while underscoring, At the same time, we also have to think about those victims of such cases, they may be your families or relatives, now if the government just to appease one side, drops all cases, what justice will you give to the victims of criminal cases.

Calling it a hasty decision, the ex-cop who saw action during the height of militancy in Meghalaya said, We are appealing to the HNLC to continue with the peace process and in a given situation, it is a give and take, you cannot make demands and expect all the demands to be met by the government. You have to look at the larger picture, not that just because one issue has not been settled it doesnt mean you pull yourself out of the peace talks.

Echoing similar sentiment, spokesperson of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) coalition government and cabinet minister Paul Lyngdoh on Friday appealed to the proscribed outfit not to pull out of the ongoing peace talks.

Speaking to reporters, Lyngdoh said the government has only seen the HNLCs statement conveying its decision to withdraw from the tripartite peace talks only in media reports but officially nothing has been communicated to the government as yet.

So first, I would appeal to the HNLC not to pull out of the peace talks because a lot of grounds have been covered initially and we would hope that good sense will prevail and we should be able to return to the negotiating table, he said.

On the HNLCs demand for a general amnesty, Lyngdoh said, Well, it certainly can be considered depending on the gravity of each of the cases registered but certainly yes, it should be and it will be considered.

Referring to the NIA cases against the outfit, the spokesperson said, See those are matters of details but in general the approach should be when you have peace talks it should not be to the detriment of any section and to the interest of only one section so it has to be reciprocal, while asserting, Based on the principle of reciprocity then only we can take a stand on matters of details but the general approach would be that has to be given and take. EOM
BTS, the Korean Pop band Bangtan Boys, commands a massive fan following among the youth. This popularity led to three young girls from Tamil Nadu to contemplate a journey to Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Despite their detailed plans to undertake this trip without passports and with limited funds, they eventually abandoned their journey and were later discovered in Vellore, a city within their home state. BTS, the Korean Pop sensation Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010.

According to PTI, three 13-year-old girls attending a state-run school in Karur district of Tamil Nadu, harboured an unwavering passion for BTS. Driven by their adoration for the band, these eighth grade students made a bold attempt to embark on a journey to Seoul, all in hopes of meeting their favourite stars. However, their determined aspirations came to an end, leading to their discovery in Vellore.

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What happened?

The girls, using their smartphones, researched the best route to reach South Korea within their financial means. They were then able to shortlist the sea seaports of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to take a ship to South Korea and they eventually chose Visakhapatnam, a Child Welfare Committee was quoted as saying by PTI.

On Thursday, January 4, the trio discreetly left their homes and travelled to Chennai from Erode, near Karur, with only Rs. 14,000 at their disposal, holding onto a strong belief in their ability to somehow reach Seoul.

After their departure and failure to return home, their parents lodged a complaint with the Karur police. This prompted a statewide alert and instigated search efforts.

How did the girls end up in Vellore?

Upon reaching Chennai, they managed to secure a hotel room for their stay, but by Friday, their determination waned, and they felt the pull to return home.

Boarding a train from Chennai, their journey hit a snag at Katpadi railway station. As they got down at midnight to purchase food, they had missed their train. Vellore District Child Welfare Committee head, P Vedanayagam, recounted how the police and Child Line authorities were notified after engaging with the distressed children, PTI report said.

Subsequently, the trio were sent for accommodation in a state-run facility within Vellore district. Their parents were summoned, and counselling sessions were arranged for both the children and their guardians. Authorities discovered the girls' profound knowledge of BTS, evident in their attire, even having purchased shoes similar to those worn by the band members.

According to the PTI report, the police indicated that the BTS stars served as their source of inspiration, and unrestricted access to smartphones had fuelled an obsession among the girls. Emphasising the girls' aspirations for a life steeped in dance and music, officials gently conveyed that their decision to go abroad in pursuit of their dreams was a misstep.

Officials stressed the importance of focusing on studies to achieve their dreams while addressing the children. They highlighted the significance of education and urged parents to actively monitor their children's activities. While acknowledging the challenges within the girls' family backgrounds  ranging from single parenthood to parental mental health issues and the mothers' occupations as farm labourers  authorities urged parents to provide necessary care, support, and guidance.

Post-counselling, the children were reunited with their parents and transported back to their home district via a train on Saturday night.
New Delhi: The BJP on Monday reacted to a Bihar minister's jab at the party over January 22's Ram Temple consecration ceremony, saying the Opposition must hang pictures of Babar and Afzal Guru and worship them. Union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai(PTI file photo)

Union minister Nityanand Rai, reacting to Bihar education minister Chandra Shekhar's remark, said the country needs people like Captain Abdul Hamid, not Afzal Guru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

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"This (Ram Temple) is the path of cultural freedom. I don't understand what enmity they have with Lord Ram and the Ram Temple that they are opposing it again and again. The intentions and policy that they are showing, it looks like they will hang pictures of Babar and Afzal Guru and worship them. The country needs Ashfaqulla Khan and Captain Hamid, not Babur, Afzal Guru or Jinnah's 'jinn'. Here, Lord Ram's integrity is needed," he said.

Earlier today, Bihar education minister and RJD leader Chandra Shekhar said more schools are needed in the country than temples. He was referring to the ceremony in Ayodhya later this month.

"If you get injured, where will you go? Temple or hospital? If you want education and want to become an officer, MLA, or MP, will you go to a temple or school? Fateh Bahadur Singh (RJD MLA) said the same thing that had been said by Savitribai Phule. What is wrong here? He quoted Savitribai Phule. Isn't education necessary?...We should be cautious of pseudo-Hinduvaad and pseudo-nationalism," he said.

Also read: Pseudo-Hinduvaad: Bihar education minister on Ram Temple

"When Lord Ram resides in each one of us and everywhere, where will you go to look for him?...The sites that have been allocated have been made into sites of exploitation, used for filling the pockets of a few conspirators in society," he added.

Babar was an emperor who established the Mughal empire in India.

With inputs from ANI
Heavy snow began to fall in Southeast Nebraska early on Monday morning.

Most schools in the area notified parents and students of cancelled classes on Sunday afternoon and evening with heavy snow forecasted.

Gage County Emergency Manager Lisa Wiegand said she had been on conference calls throughout the weekend with other emergency managers.

We were on conference calls throughout the weekend for situational awareness of upcoming weather impacts, she said. The latest was the conference call with National Weather Service in Omaha on Sunday afternoon with detailed estimates of what to expect Monday morning.

On Monday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., Beatrice Airport Manager Dennis Schmitt reported approximately 5.5 inches of snow had fallen at the airport.

Beatrice Public Schools also cancelled classes for Tuesday due to the forecasted conditions.

Wiegand said road crews have been working very hard.

If you must travel, make sure to let others know your destination, route and when you expect to arrive. Always carry a winter storm survival kit in your car, she said.

Some items she suggested to bring include mobile phone, charger, batteries, flashlight, first aid kit, shovel, took kit, battery booster cables, windshield scraper and brush, blankets/sleeping bags, sand or cat litter for generating traction under wheels, high calorie non-perishable food and water for drinking.

Most importantly before you travel, check out the latest road conditions. Listen to your local news or check out Nebraska 511 or 511.nebraska.gov," she added.

City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer said street crews were out early on Monday.

Our crews have been out and will continue to be out during the storm, he said. I encourage anyone that does not need to travel to stay home. If you do need to travel, please be careful and allow yourself extra time.

Tempelmeyer said the city was declaring a snow emergency from noon on Monday through noon on Tuesday.

A snow emergency makes it illegal to park vehicles on snow emergency routes between midnight and 7 a.m.," he said. "We are asking for citizens to assist in our snow clearing efforts by removing their vehicles from all streets, if possible.

Street Superintendent Jason Moore said his crews were working to keep the priority streets open.

My crew at the street department will run all snow priority routes until 4 p.m., he said. They will go home and a second shift consisting of Mars employees will come in. The second shift will work until midnight when the street department comes back in and work until 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. At this time the street department is planning to run residential streets over the midnight hours tonight.

Moore also noted salt and sand will not be placed down until after the storm. Snow in the downtown area will be ridged. Parking lots and alleys will be plowed through the midnight hours.
On January 1, photographers and human rights activists woke up to the news of Peter Magubanes death at 91. Magubane turned his lens on the cruelty of apartheid in South Africa at its peak. His stark images of the racial divide led to him being punished and kept in solitary confinement for 586 days and for five years after, he was not allowed to meet more than one person at a time. In the wake of his death, heres looking at some other photographers who chose to turn the lens on undemocratic regimes across the world.

Corinne Dufka(Wikimedia Commons)

Corrine Dufka

Corrine Dufka first picked up a camera during her stint as a social worker in El Salvador in the mid-eighties. From 1988-1999, she photographed extensively in Central America, Bosnia and Africamost notably the genocide in Rwanda. Her book, This is War: Photographs From A Decade of Conflict, chronicles not just the conflict she covered, but also the toll it took on her. But as the years passed, I became aware that, with each war, what I gained in stature as a photojournalist, I lost in human empathy, Dufka writes in the book.

Hengameh Golestan(Wikimedia Commons)

Hengameh Golestan

Born in Tehran in 1952, Hengameh Golestan began photographing in 1972, at a time when there were just a handful of women photographers in the country. In March 1979, just a day after the hijab law was enforced in Iran, Golestan took to the streets with 20 rolls of film and documented the mass protest against an oppressive regime that had most affected Irans women. One of her iconic images shows impassioned women defiantly braving the snow, protesting  without the hijab.

Al Rockoff(Wikimedia Commons)

Al Rockoff

Al Rockoff, a photojournalist, took the stand at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in 2013 and delivered a stark eyewitness account of the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh in April 1975, shortly after Pol Pot and the ultra-Maoists seized control of Vietnams capital. Rockoff and some other journalists stayed back in Phnom Penh after the city fell to the Communists. Their time there was portrayed on screen in the famous Oscar-nominated film, The Killing Fields. Rockoffs images were criticised for being too macabre and for the way they were splashed all over the American media then. Since then, he has divided his time between Cambodia and America, working on a book of photographs from his time there.

Ernest Cole(Wikimedia Commons)

Ernest Cole

Ernest Cole was born in 1940, in a Black freehold township in Pretoria, South Africa. At 16, he decided to take up photography in the middle of a raging apartheid in the country. While Peter Magubane was shooting protests and on-the-spot violence, Cole was more focused on photographing people living on the margins of a society that was now more divisive than ever. Hes known to have gotten access to prisons by getting arrested himself. Theres an iconic image of his, of a line of black men outside doctors offices undergoing a medical examination in the nude, in South Africa. By 1966, it was getting hard for Cole to work in South Africa, and his seminal book House of Bondage was published in New York in 1967. It was an unapologetic, accusatory look at the atrocities of the apartheid. In 1990, Cole died in New York, after having sadly faded from the scene in the 1970s itself.
The twin blasts near the tomb of Qasem Soleimani in Kirman in southern Iran on January 3 killed 89 and wounded more than 290 persons. The dastardly terror attack came against the background of increasing tensions in West Asia. Israeli strikes killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general Sayyed Razi Mousavi in Syria on December 25 and deputy Hamas leader Saleh-al-Arouri in Lebanon on January 2. A series of attacks by the Houthis have disrupted shipping through the Red Sea. The Houthis claim their attacks are in retaliation against the ongoing Israeli action in Gaza. There has been a drone attack on MV Chem Pluto, an oil tanker headed to New Mangalore Port, 217 nautical miles off Indias western coast. These incidents are spread across a wide region from Lebanon and Syria in the north to the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea in the south. While the hostage release remains an unfinished agenda, the Hamas-Israel war has dragged on for more than three months. This carries the risk of escalating into a bigger conflagration drawing in major powers. The United States (US) secretary of state Antony Blinken is back in West Asia in search of an elusive peace.

The Iranian president promised to retaliate against the perpetrators of the terror attack. Major General Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of IRGC, said: We will find you wherever you are. The terror attack came on the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Soleimani by a US drone strike. The US State Department spokesman said that the US had no role in the attack, and they had no indication that Israel was behind it. Since then, Islamic State has claimed responsibility. This has reduced the immediate threat of confrontation between Iran and the US.

The increasing frequency of Houthi attacks on ships passing through Bab el Mandab near the Yemen coast has brought a US-led multinational naval task force to the region. The attacks have led large shipping companies to divert their ships to the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope. America has warned that any further attacks will lead to US retaliatory action against the Houthis. Will the threat of a US strike deter the Houthis? Yemen is already devastated by war and offers few targets for the formidable firepower the US can bring to bear. The US is unlikely to risk a ground operation with the loss of American lives in an election year.

The fear of a Hamas-like attack by Hezbollah has led to the displacement of a large Israeli population from Israels northern borders with Lebanon. The group has a much more formidable arsenal of missiles than Hamas. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah has threatened retaliation against the killing of the Hamas deputy leader in Lebanon. This was followed by firing a barrage of 62 rockets by Hezbollah at an Israeli observation post along Lebanons border on January 6. How far will it go in supporting Hamas? It is sympathetic to Hamas, but the Lebanese public may not like to get dragged into a war with Israel. Hezbollah has a larger stake in Lebanons polity than fighting for Hamas. Nasrullah has earlier made clear that the war that erupted on October 7 was a Palestinian affair. He also conveyed that his group is prepared to fight, but will not take offensive action.

The US has blocked calls for a ceasefire in the United Nations Security Council. It supports Israels right to wage war against Hamas. President Joe Biden has twice authorised arms deliveries to Israel bypassing the US Congress. At the outset, he called for a two-State solution and advised Israel against going into Gaza. Speaking at a recent fundraiser, President Biden described Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahus coalition as the most conservative government in Israels history(that) does not want a two-State solution. He added, I think he has to change. Which part of the US presidents message is PM Netanyahu listening to?

Israel is bent on pursuing a military solution. While Israel can militarily defeat Hamas, will it prevent the rise of a more extreme variant? The US and Israeli visions of the day after also differ. The US is keen on a role for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in governing Gaza once the fighting stops. The PA has made clear that it does not want to return to Gaza on the back of Israeli tanks. They want a role as part of a political solution. Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant stated that Israel would retain control of security, a multi-national force would do the policing, and the territory run by the Palestinians would have no links to Hamas. Reconstruction will be presumably paid for by Arab and international donors. This essentially means a technocratic dispensation, which falls short of a two-State solution. Nor does it envisage a role for the PA. Are there any takers for such an idea?

So far, the key players have exercised restraint. Oil prices have remained steady because the Iran-Saudi Arabia rapprochement is holding. The attack on shipping in the Red Sea will pale into insignificance if the tension spreads to the Hormuz Strait through which 20% of the worlds crude oil supply passes.

What is the way forward?

The process of hostage release in exchange for Palestinian prisoners should be completed along with a ceasefire. A policy based on military deterrence and expanding Israels frontiers is no answer to asymmetric threats. A permanent peace depends upon reconciling Israels security needs, the Palestinian demand for an independent State, and reintegrating Iran into the international mainstream.

Are these impossible goals?

The international community including the US accepted the nuclear deal with Iran in the past and continues to be wedded to a two-State solution. The alternative is a drift towards a wider war.

DP Srivastava was Indias ambassador to Iran. The views expressed are personal
It is often assumed that Indian voters have poor memory: When elections come, they forget past voting mistakes. But does the same hold true for politicians? The INDIA bloc seems to exemplify this. Only a few weeks are left for the general elections to be announced, and still, they have done little to fix their past mistakes.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) had recommended naming Mallikarjun Kharge as INDIA convenor at the blocs last meeting on December 19. The TMC felt only Kharge was capable of opposing Narendra Modi. Reasons? He is the leader of the countrys largest political party and a Dalit. He has extensive political and administrative experience and is free of any taint. This narrative is also acceptable to the Congress. When Kharge was elected Congress president, there was talk of him also being considered for prime ministership if the party returned to power.

Janata Dal (United) members, though, were outraged that Kharges name was being brought up for prime ministership. They say their leader, Nitish Kumar, had taken the initiative to build INDIA and that the blocs founding meeting was held in Patna. Nitish ji not only can be the convener, but should also be the countrys next prime minister, they believe, considering that he has been chief minister for nearly 19 years, and under his leadership, the backward people and women of Bihar had gained immensely. They also say there is no problem with Kharge, but he has never served as chief minister, and so Nitish has a stronger claim to prime ministership.

Meanwhile, a significant shift has occurred in the internal politics of the JD(U). Nitish Kumar became president of his party, succeeding Lalan Singh. Along with this, many storms have started brewing in the politics of Bihar.

There was talk that Nitish could now switch sides and again join hands with the BJP. Some recalled that before the last general election also, Nitish had met with Sonia Gandhi and asked that he be declared the prime ministerial candidate. But upon receiving no concrete signal, he established a coalition with the BJP. This is why, as soon as Lalan Singh stepped down, there was a stir in the INDIA bloc. Nitish Kumars name was mentioned again for the position of coordinator. It is possible that he may be named coordinator in the following days. There is no doubt that he not only took the initiative but also made sincere efforts to bring the INDIA bloc concept to light. His claim to the position of coordinator is unquestionably strong. Whether they project a Dalit or non-Dalit prime minister, it does not suit the INDIA bloc to work like this. Aside from winning the party election, Kharge has so far disappointed those who supported him.

On the contrary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced a new type of politics to the Indian voter during the last nine-and-a-half years. People feel he is the prime minister capable of moving India ahead. He has total control of both the party and the government. There has been no prime minister since Indira Gandhi who has demonstrated such a grip over both the party and the administration. Not only that, his management machinery periodically forces the opponent to adopt a defensive strategy. The latest example is the ceremony for the pran pratishtha (consecration) of Ram Lallas idol, which will take place in Ayodhya on January 22.

Organisers of the event have invited all Opposition leaders. The Oppositions biggest difficulty is that if they attend this ceremony, they would be seen as toeing the BJP line. If they refuse, political efforts to paint them as anti-Hindu will gain traction. The RSS and the BJP, on the other hand, have chosen to turn this function into a new campaign. Following the pran pratishtha on January 22, special trains would run till March 25 to bring Ram devotees from around the country to Ayodhya. Buses are also being scheduled to cover the 600-km geographical gap. It suggests that efforts are being made to recreate the atmosphere like 1991-1992 throughout the country. There is, nevertheless, a distinction between then and now. Previously, there was a strong sense of struggle among those who made it there; now, there is a sense of accomplishment. Will success be achieved in presenting the mandir as a victory?

The INDIA bloc has recognised this truth; its backers anticipate that they will have to create a counter-narrative. This has not yet occurred. In such a case, the question of whether there is still time left for this is unavoidable.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. The views are personal.
Wildlife is full of wonders that humanity is yet to explore. However, thanks to the passion and dedication of nature enthusiasts, we get to witness several undiscovered marvels of the wild that leave us in awe. Nestled within this trove of natural wonders, we bring you five extremely rare animal discoveries that will leave you stunned. Green Honeycreeper bird found in the wild. (University of Otago)

Check out five rare animal videos here:

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1. Himalayan Lynx from Ladakh

IFS officer Parveen Kaswan took to X to share about this 'beautiful and rare' Himalayan Lynx that is found in Ladakh. Kaswan also mentioned that this animal is among the wild cat species found in India. Others found in this zone are Snow leopards and Pallas cats.

2. Pseudo-melanistic tiger family in Odisha

A video of this rare tiger family was shared on X by IFS official Susanta Nanda. What makes this family special is their pseudo-melanistic characteristics - they have higher levels of pigment known as melanin on their skin or hair.

3. Leopard Toby fish from Australia

When a diver went to explore the depths of the Coral Sea Marine Park, she noticed a small white fish with leopard-like spots. Later, upon consulting experts about the fish, the diver learnt that it was a Leopard Toby fish. It was the first time that this fish was caught on camera.

4. Half female, half male bird

Hamish Spencer, a professor at the University of Otago, spotted this bird in the wild. Professor Spencer informed that this bird is called a wild Green Honeycreeper with distinct half green, or female, and half blue, male, plumage. He also informed that animals with both male and female characteristics in a species usually have separate sexes. This phenomenon is generally seen in insects, spiders, butterflies, and even lizards or rodents.

Green Honeycreeper bird found in the wild. (University of Otago)

5. White alligator from Florida

The rarest genetic variant in American alligators is leucistic alligators. These alligators were discovered in the swamps of Louisiana in 1987. This blue-eyed newborn is the first solid white alligator ever recorded to have descended from those original alligators.

Leucistic alligator in Florida.

What do you think about these extremely rare animals?
Indians have been calling for a ban on Maldives travel on social media after a few ministers of the island nation passed derogatory remarks against PM Modi and India. Amid this, an individual cancelled his planned trip to Maldives, stating I have my own Lakshadweep. The man even shared screenshots of his cancelled stay on social media. Many have reacted to the post, with some saying that they have also dropped Maldives from their travel bucket list. Screenshots shared by X user show a successful booking and cancellation of a stay in the Maldives. (X/@IndianSinghh)

Sorry Maldives, I have my own Lakshadweep. I am Aatmanirbhar, wrote X user Akshit Singh while sharing the screenshots on the microblogging platform. According to the screenshots, Singh booked a stay for two people in Maldives from March 31 to April 2 but cancelled the trip after the Maldives row.

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Take a look at the tweet here:

The post, since being shared on January 6, has gone viral with over one million views. The tweet has also collected numerous comments from people.

Check out a few comments here:

Thank you sir. I have my own Lakshadweep - good point, posted an individual.

Another added, Well done bhai [brother], thanks.

Stay with Lakshadweep, feel proud for India, shared a third.

A fourth commented, Thankfully, I never planned for Maldives for vacation and now I am happy with my decision. See you soon Lakshadweep.

Wow! Great, expressed a fifth.

A sixth joined, Was planning to take a holiday break in Maldives. No plans any more.

What are your thoughts on this?
Private lunar lander- Peregrine Mission-1- which launched from the US suffered an "anomaly" which experts are trying to resolve. The mission which took off earlier today is aimed to become the first US spacecraft due to land on the moon's surface since Apollo 17 in 1972. The brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan Centaur, lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41d at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida.(AFP)

What has the company said on the incident?

It appeared to lift off into space as planned but American company Astrobotic- which is controlling the launch- said an anomaly occurred as after successfully separating from United Launce Alliance's Vulcan rocket, Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander began receiving telemetry via the NASA Deep Space Network. Astrobotic-built avionics systems, including the primary command and data handling unit, as well as the thermal, propulsion, and power controllers, all powered on and performed as expected.

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After successful propulsion systems activation, Peregrine entered a safe operational state. Unfortunately, an anomaly then occurred, which prevented Astrobotic from achieving a stable sun-pointing orientation. The team is responding in real time as the situation unfolds and will be providing updates as more data is obtained and analysed, it said in a statement.

What was the lunar lander carrying?

'The lunar lander was carrying remains of several Star Trek cast members and DNA of former US president John F. Kennedy along with scientific instruments.

What the lunar lander means for US and NASA?

The last time US launched a moon-landing mission was in December 1972 when Apollo 17s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt became the 11th and 12th men to walk on the moon. Although NASA's new Artemis program, which is named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, looks to return astronauts to the moons surface within the next few years, the space agency has said.
Amid low turnout and boycott of the Bangladesh general elections, incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has secured her fifth term in office after her Awami League Party secured absolute majority in the polls. After voting took place on Sunday, the counting of votes saw the Awami League take an early lead, winning 216 seats out of 224 seats on Sunday. The outcome of the rest of the seats is still unannounced, the Election Commission of the country said. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina bagged fifth term in office. (ANI)(ANI)

Being elected for her fifth term as the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina has become the world's longest-serving female head of state. Here are some key takeaways from the Bangladesh elections and its outcome.

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Bangladesh elections 2024: Top points

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina's party Awami League has won the fourth consecutive term in the general elections of the country, while this is Hasina's fifth overall term as the prime minister of the country.

Awami League chief Hasina has instructed her party leaders, workers and supporters not to hold any victory procession following the announcement of the results of the 12th general election, Dhaka Tribune reported.

Opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by former PM Khaleda Zia was flagged for anti-national activities ahead of the poll, and announced a boycott of the vote after Hasina refused to step down from her post to make way for a neutral caretaker government.

The Bangladesh elections of 2024 saw a considerably low voter turnout on Sunday, amid boycotts against the current government. The overall turnout was 40 per cent, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said after the polls closed.

According to TV stations in Bangladesh, Awami League has won 216 out of the total 299 seats in the country, while independent candidates took 52 seats and Jatiya Party won from 11 seats. However, the Election Commission has not announced the final results for all seats yet.

While the election day in Bangladesh was calm with little to no reports of disturbances, the pre-election protests saw at least 18 reports of arson, causing four deaths. The authorities blamed much of the violence on the BNP, accusing it of seeking to sabotage the election.

(With inputs from agencies)
China will conduct live firing drills in some areas in the East China Sea from 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) to 3 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, according to the China maritime safety administration. Chinese naval frigate Binzhou takes part in a joint naval drills.(AP)

No vessels are allowed to enter the designated area, the administration said in a statement on Monday.

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The drills are in the waters off the coast of Ningbo and Zhoushan, port cities that lie just south of the financial hub of Shanghai, said the statement.
Billionaire Elon Musk received backlash after top executives from his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, expressed concern over his drug use, reported The Wall Street Journal. However, Elon Musk has since denied these claims. SpaceX, Tesla founder Elon Musk responds to claims of drug use. (Reuters)(REUTERS)

Elon Musk has now come out to address the claims made by the report and denied all the allegations and concerns posed by the Tesla and SpaceX top management. Musk, who also owned social media platform X, said not even trace quantities of drugs were found in his system in the past.

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The Tesla founder said no drugs were ever detected in his system over three years of random drug testing, responding to a tweet on X. This comes after The Wall Street Journal published a report claiming people have observed the drug usage by Musk.

Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro responded to The Wall Street Journal report, and said that the article was reporting "false facts". Spiro said that Musk had undergone drug testing in the past, when he was seen smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan podcast in 2018.

After the clips of Musk smoking marijuana sparked controversy, the billionaire had downplayed the incident by saying that he had only taken "one puff". He had also told his biographer Walter Isaacson that he "doesn't really like doing illegal stuff."

Spiro said that ever since Rogan's podcast in 2018, not even a single trace of these substances have been found in Musk's drug tests. The SpaceX founder, in the past, had admitted to taking ketamine, a drug used to treat depression.

Elon Musk's alleged drug use at parties

A report by The Wall Street Journal claimed that Elon Musk has indulged in drug usage in the past, taking LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic drugs at parties frequently, where guests had to sign non-disclosure agreements and give up their phones.

The report also said that Musk threw a party in 2018 in Los Angeles where he took multiple acid tablets. The report also claimed that a year later, Musk was at a party in Mexico where he used magic mushrooms.

Some executives of Tesla and SpaceX were concerned with the reported drug usage of Musk, and expressed fear that this type of behaviour could harm his companies, reported WSJ.
Former Maldivian foreign minister Dunya Maumoon on Monday expressed deep concern over the diplomatic row with India after some of the ministers in the Mohamed Muizzu government used derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his recent visit to Lakshadweep. Dunya Maumoon, former foreign minister of the Maldives.

Maumoon reiterated the foreign ministry's statement condemning the incident and said it very clearly stated that though we have freedom of expression the kind of language that has been used was unacceptable.

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Personally, I also believe that the element of racism is something I strongly condemn.

A major controversy erupted after some junior ministers in the Maldivian government used objectionable remarks while responding to Prime Minister Modi's posts on his official X account promoting the pristine beaches of Lakshadweep for Indian travellers.

Lakshadweep is off the southwestern coast of the Indian mainland and is similar to the Maldives.

#BoycottMaldives soon started trending on social media and many Indian celebrities joined the call to explore Indian beaches instead of the archipelago famous for its luxury island resorts and white sandy beaches.

As the controversy escalated, the Maldivian foreign ministry said the government is aware of "derogatory remarks" on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position.

Muizzu later suspended three of his deputy ministers for posting derogatory comments against its closest neighbour and the source of much of the tourism that drives the islands' economy.

However, India, not satisfied with the action, summoned the Maldivian envoy and read the riot act. The Maldivian high commissioner, Ibrahim Shaheeb, was told that since the Maldives have spoiled the bilateral relationship, the onus is on President Muizzu to repair it, people aware of the matter said.

It was further impressed upon the envoy that the ministers in question should be dismissed and not just suspended.

The development comes amid Muizzu's state visit to China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping.

Over the past decade, India and China have been vying for influence in the Maldives, which lies on a main east-west shipping route. The Maldives has became part of China's Belt and Road initiative that envisages building ports, railways and roads to expand trade and Chinas influence across Asia, Africa and Europe.

India is also a strategic ally but relations have deteriorated since Muizzu, who is considered to be pro-Chinese, was elected in November riding on his Out India campaign. He had pledged to remove a handful of Indian military personnel stationed in the islands' nation primarily for relief and rescue operations.

When asked about the significance of India's assistance to the Maldives over the years, Maumoon acknowledged India as one of the closest friends and supporters of the Maldives.

I remember projects such as the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital and many other such landmark projects. In the defence area, there has been close cooperation...This relationship is very special to us and I hope this current crisis will be resolved at the earliest, she said, urging the Indian government and media to help de-escalate the issue.

(With inputs from agencies)
On Sunday, Lily Gladstone became the first Indigenous person to win best actress in a motion picture drama at the Golden Globe Awards for her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon.

This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told by ourselves in our own words with tremendous allies and tremendous trust, she said.

The Blackfeet/Nez Perce (Siksikaitsitapi/NiMiiPuu) actress grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation, and later in Seattle, and studied acting at the University of Montana. She graduated in 2008 and performed with the Montana Repertory Theatre and in independent films like "Winter in the Blood," working her way up to a breakthrough part in "Certain Women."

Martin Scorseses film is based on true events, chronicled in a book of the same name by David Grann. Gladstone plays Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman who became wealthy after oil deposits were discovered on her tribes land in Oklahoma. She marries Ernest Burkhart, a World War I veteran, as members of her family and tribe are targeted and killed for their mineral rights.

After reaching the podium, Gladstone addressed the audience in the Blackfeet language about the historic win.

I dont have words. I just spoke a bit of Blackfeet language  a beautiful community, nation, that raised me, that encouraged me to keep doing this, she said.

She thanked her mother, whos not Blackfeet, for advocating to get the language in schools when she was a child and addressed the history of Indians portrayal in Hollywood. While Scorseses film has many actors speaking in Osage, its an outlier.

In this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English and then the sound mixers would run them backward to accomplish Native languages on camera. This is an historic win, it doesn't belong to just me, she said.

She also thanked Scorsese and the A-list cast, including Tantoo Cardinal, and Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear of the Osage Nation.

Prior Montana winners

Gladstone joins a short list of Montanans (and one UM alumni) whove won major film awards.

JK Simmons, a fellow Griz, won for best actor in a supporting role in 2015 for his part in Whiplash, as a militantly aggressive jazz percussion teacher. Later that award season, Simmons won the Oscar for that film.

Prior to Simmons win, Gary Cooper was the last Montanan to win an Oscar for acting, back in 1953 for High Noon.

In 2012, Michelle Williams, who was born in Kalispell, won a Golden Globe for best actress in a motion picture musical for My Week with Marilyn. In 2020, she won an award for best actress in a miniseries or television film for Fosse/Verdon.

The writer-director Brad Bird was also born in Kalispell. According to a 2004 interview with the Daily Inter Lake, his family moved before he began school. He wrote and directed the 2008 Pixar film Ratatouille, which won the Oscar Best Animated Feature Film. In 2005, his movie, The Incredibles, won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.

The 2024 Oscar nominations wont be announced until Jan. 24. Last month, Variety predicted Gladstone would win best actress in a leading role.
India has read the riot act to the Maldives after three junior ministers of Mohamed Muizzu's government made derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his visit to Lakshadweep islands. This morning, the Maldives envoy to India Ibrahim Shaheeb was summoned to the ministry of external affairs and Male was demarched for the unsavory conduct of now-suspended three junior ministers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While Shaheeb got a dressing down at the MEA, the Indian High Commissioner to Male told the Maldivian foreign minister on Sunday that such remarks on PM Modi were totally uncalled and unacceptable to India. While Mohamed Muizzu, who is currently seeking funds in Beijing, suspended his three junior ministers, India has made it very clear that it would not satisfied with a rap on the knuckles of the errant junior ministers.

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A major controversy erupted on Sunday over the derogatory remarks against PM Modi by Maldivian ministers on social media platform X.

The Maldivian foreign ministry said the government is aware of "derogatory remarks" on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position.

"The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives," the Maldivian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The controversy erupted ahead of Muizzu's five-day state visit to China. Muizzu won the election last year riding on the India Out campaign, pledging to remove Indian troops stationed in the archipelago for rescue and relief operations.
China's state media referred to New Delhi's diplomatic row with the Male in an editorial as Maldives' president Mohamed Muizzu landed in Beijing to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and sign bilateral agreements. As Maldives government distanced itself from the "insulting" comments by the three ministers on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Lakshadweep after which they were suspended, China called for an "open-minded" approach to looking at South Asian issues. Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu with first lady Sajidha Mohamed visits the Xiamen Free Trade Zone, in Fujian province, China.(PTI)

China has always treated Maldives as an equal partner and respected its sovereignty, the editorial by Global Times said, adding, It also respects the friendly and cooperative relationship between the Maldives and India, fully aware of the importance for Male to maintain good relations with New Delhi. Beijing has never asked Male to reject New Delhi because of the conflicts between China and India, nor does it view cooperation between the Maldives and India as unfriendly or a threat.

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"It (China) is also willing to carry out trilateral cooperation between China, India and the Maldives. New Delhi should stay more open-minded, as China's cooperation with South Asian countries is not a zero-sum game," it said.

Relations between India and Maldives have been strained after Mohamed Muizzu- seen as a pro-China leader- came to power.

"Under normal circumstances, when a new leader comes to power, they arrange their visits based on the importance and urgency of the matters to be dealt with. President Muizzu broke tradition by visiting Turkey for his first official overseas visit instead of India," Global Times said in the editorial.

During his visit to China, Mohamed Muizzu and his wife Sajidha Mohamed visited the Xiamen Free Trade Zone in China's Fujian province. The Maldives president is due to hold talks with Xi Jinping.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, The relations between China and the Maldives now stand at a new historical starting point. We believe that through this visit, the two heads of state will provide strategic guidance for the bilateral relations to reach a new height.
Indonesia temporarily grounded three Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes on Jan. 6, operated by Lion Air, despite different configurations from the plane that had to make an emergency landing in the US last week, the transport ministry said on Monday. Three Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes, the only ones Indonesia had, were grounded starting from January 6 until further notice(File)

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing jets installed with the same panel that tore off an eight-week-old Alaska Airlines jet on Friday, forcing an emergency landing with a gap in the fuselage.

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The door plug blew off the left side of the Alaska Airlines jet following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board.

Three Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes, the only ones Indonesia had, were grounded starting from January 6 until further notice, said Adita Irawati, a transport ministry spokesperson.

The Lion Air planes had a "mid cabin emergency exit door type II" whereas the Alaska Airlines plane had a "mid exit door plug," Adita said.

"This means the system in the mid-section of emergency doors were functional and could be used for evacuation," Adita added.

The ministry will coordinate with the FAA, Boeing and Lion Air to monitor the situation, adding that "operational safety will be our priority."

A Lion Air spokesperson said the airline is conducting further inspection of the planes to ensure the emergency door mechanism works normally.
Israel killed a top commander of Hezbollah group Wissam Hassan Tawil in a strike on south Lebanon as fears rise that the war in Gaza could spread in Middle east. The Israeli attack comes amid escalating exchange of strikes along the Lebanon border as the fighting in Gaza exacts a mounting toll on the enclave's civilians. Wissam Hassan Tawil is seen.

Earlier, a Hezbollah rocket barrage hit a sensitive air traffic base in northern Israel marking one of the biggest attacks in three months. The strikes-counterstrikes have escalated since a senior Hamas leader was killed in Beirut last week. Hezbollah called the attack an initial response to the killing of Hamas' deputy political leader Saleh Arouri.

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What we know about the Israeli strike so far?

The strike on an SUV killed Wissam Hassan Tawil who was a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border, Hezbollah said. He was the most senior militant in the armed group who has been killed since Hamas' October 7 attack into southern Israel triggered war in Gaza and fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

What is happening in Gaza?

Israel said that it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza as it focusses on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis. Officials said that the fighting will continue for many more months as Tel Aviv seeks to dismantle Hamas and bring back hostages taken during the group's October 7 attack. Israel's bombardment in Gaza has killed over 23,000 Palestinians, devastating the enclave and displaced nearly 85 per cent of its population of 2.3 million.

US attempting to avoid wider war?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the leaders of Jordan and Qatar who reiterated the need for Israel to adjust its military operations to minimize harm to civilians while top diplomat's focus appeared to be preventing the war from spreading.
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah attacked an air traffic control base in northern Israel, the Israeli military revealed on Sunday, reported news agency AP. The Israeli military warned Hezbollah of "another war". Fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah (Representational picture)(AP)

The Israeli military said that Iran-backed Hezbollah struck the base on Mount Meron on Saturday. Israeli air defenses were not affected as backup systems were in place. No Israeli soldiers were hurt but the base suffered damage. The report described it as "one of the most serious attacks by Hezbollah" amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Notably, Hezbollah is supporting Hamas amid the war in Gaza.

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The Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi, informed that pressure on Hezbollah was rising and it would either be effective or we will get to another war.

ALSO READ| India demarches Maldives over crude Male conduct

Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah to learn from Israel's actions against Hamas. I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months: No terrorist is immune," Netanyahu told his Cabinet.

Notably, tensions between Israel and Hezbollah are high after a senior Hamas leader was killed recently, in a presumed Israeli strike in Beirut. Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire along the Lebanese border with Northern Israel, ever since the Israel-Hamas war started. Hezbollah claims that its attacks on Israel are aimed at easing pressure on Hamas in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the US is concerned that escalations between Israel and Hezbollah along the Lebanese border amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, may trigger a widespread regional conflict. On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Qatari and Jordanian leaders to discuss the situation in Gaza and prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading into a wider conflict. Blinken is also set to visit the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt, with a mission to ease tensions in the Middle East region.

This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering, Blinken told reporters after talks in Qatar.
Jordan's King Abdullah said on Monday that Israel had created a whole generation of orphans by a "brutal" war in Gaza where he said around over 30,000 people, mostly women and children, had been killed or were missing as a result of the conflict. Jordan's King Abdullah II speaks during his visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda.(Reuters)

In remarks at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, where the monarch spoke of "unspeakable crimes" during that African conflict, Abdullah said a lesson to be drawn was that Israel's "indiscriminate aggression" in Gaza would never guarantee its security. His remarks were carried on state media following a statement by the royal palace.
Sex tapes were allegedly taken of Prince Andrew by paedophile US financier Jeffrey Epstein, court documents revealed. Sarah Ransome, who said she was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, said that the Duke of York was filmed having sex by the US financier. But a firm representing Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, highlighted that the claims "manifestly lack credibility". Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York attends the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church.(Reuters)

Sarah Ransome had given a victim impact statement ahead of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell being sentenced for sex-trafficking, it was reported. Although, Prince Andrew has denied any wrongdoing.

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Prince Andrew stepped down from public life and no longer uses his royal title after the controversy over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. It was reported that the Duke of York paid millions of pounds to settle a civil case with Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexually assaulting her. Prince Andrew claimed that he never met Virginia Giuffre.

This comes as a US court ordered hundreds of documents to be unsealed related to Jeffrey Epstein.

What Sarah Ransome said on Prince Andrew?

Sarah Ransome wrote, When my friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson, sex tapes were in fact filmed on each separate occasion by Jeffery. Thank God she managed to get a hold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes, which clearly identify the faces of Clinton, Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her. Frustratingly enough Epstein was not seen in any of the footage but he was clever like that! After two hours of trying to convince my friend to come forward with me, I eventually managed to persuade her to send me some of the video footage which she kept, implicating all three men mentioned above. I personally can confirm that I have, with my own two eyes, seen the evidence of these sexual acts, which clearly identifies Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Richard Branson having sexual intercourse with my friend. When my friend eventually had the courage to speak out and went to the police in 2008 to report what had happened, nothing was done and she was utterly humiliated by the police department where she went to report what had happened with Epstein, Clinton, Branson and Prince Andrew."
Beijing, Jan 8 (PTI) Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu arrived in China on Monday on a five-day state visit during which he is due to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and sign several agreements to bolster the bilateral ties. HT Image

Muizzu, who is regarded as pro-China, is accompanied by his wife Sajidha Mohamed and a high-level delegation.

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The President and the First Lady were greeted by senior Chinese officials upon their arrival in the country.

They visited the Xiamen Free Trade Zone in Chinas Fujian province after their arrival. Representatives from the Xiamen Free Trade Zone presented an introductory video. Following the presentation, the President and the First Lady took a tour and inquired about significant areas in the zone.

Muizzu's maiden visit to China, however, has been marred by a huge diplomatic row triggered by the derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by some Maldivian ministers after he posted a video of him on a pristine beach during his visit to Lakshadweep.

The Maldivian envoy to India was on Monday summoned to the external affairs ministry and conveyed strong concern over remarks.

Muizzu is due to hold talks with Chinese President Xi and sign several agreements to bolster the bilateral ties, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.

"The relations between China and the Maldives now stand at a new historical starting point. We believe that through this visit, the two heads of state will provide strategic guidance for the bilateral relations to reach a new height," Wang told the media on January 5.

During President Muizzu's visit, the Maldives and China will hold official talks and sign key agreements to enhance trade, professional development, and socioeconomic cooperation, the Maldivian President's Office said in a press release.

The visit will also pave the way for collaborations in technology and other areas between the two countries, it said.

Muizzu will also attend the Invest Maldives Forum in the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou, China and meet with senior Chinese business leaders to explore avenues for strengthening socioeconomic relations between the Maldives and China, it said.

Muizzu's predecessors in the recent past visited India first, considering the wide-ranging bilateral ties and the Maldives' proximity to India, followed by China which has expanded its influence in the island nation by investing in major infrastructure projects there.

Surprisingly Muizzu, who was sworn in as President in November, chose Turkiye as his first destination for a foreign visit soon after his election followed by the UAE where he met Prime Minister Modi on the sidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) on December 1 and discussed the progress of the wide-ranging bilateral ties.

During the meeting, both leaders agreed to set up a core group to discuss the multi-dimensional relations and further deepen ties.

The meeting took place after Muizzu requested New Delhi to withdraw 77 Indian military personnel from the Maldives and decided to review more than 100 bilateral agreements between the two countries.

Earlier, Muizzu's government announced its plans to drop a hydrographic survey agreement with India.

In December, the new Maldives Vice President Hussain Mohamed Latheef visited China, his first visit abroad, and took part in the China-sponsored China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation, (CIORF) in Kunming.

Significantly, while praising Chinese infrastructure projects, Latheef made no mention of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) under which most of the Maldives' infrastructure projects were built.

The BRI is an ambitious plan initiated by President Xi in 2013 to develop new trade routes connecting China with the rest of the world via land and maritime networks to improve regional integration, increase trade and stimulate economic growth.

Observers say Muizzu's foreign policy perhaps is still evolving as the Maldives domestic political situation has undergone a major change after his election in November last year.

Soon after his election Muizzu fell out with former pro-China President Yameen, regarded as his mentor, and opted to pursue his own foreign and domestic policy.

Under Yameen's Presidency, China carried out major infra projects amid allegations of debt traps by some influential politicians of the Maldives.

Angry with Muizzu, Yameen, who is currently serving a prison sentence for corruption, quit the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and formed his own political party called People's National Front (PNC) from jail to oppose Muizzu.

Also, the island's Parliament is currently dominated by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) headed by Solih and the island nation is due to go to Parliamentary polls in April.

The Maldives is India's key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and occupies a special place in its initiatives like SAGAR' (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the Neighbourhood First Policy' of the Modi government.

The Maldives' proximity to India, barely 70 nautical miles from the island of Minicoy in Lakshadweep and 300 nautical miles from the mainland's western coast, and its location at the hub of commercial sea lanes running through the Indian Ocean gives it significant strategic importance.
New Delhi [India], January 8 (ANI): Maldives Envoy to India, Ibrahim Shaheeb was on Monday morning seen leaving the Ministry of External Affairs in the national capital's South Block. HT Image

This comes amid a row over derogatory social media remarks by some ministers in Maldives on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Lakshadweep.

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Maldives High Commissioner to India Ibrahim Shaheeb was seen arriving at the MEA office building and leaving a short while later.

A massive row was triggered last week after Maldives deputy minister, along with other cabinet members and government officials, made disparaging and unsavoury references to PM Modi's Lakshadweep visit.

On January 2, PM Modi visited the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and shared several pictures, including an 'exhilarating experience' of him trying his hand at snorkelling.

In a series of posts on X, PM Modi shared pictures of the white beaches, the pristine blue skies and the ocean and tagged them with a message that read, "For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list."

In a post that has now been deleted, the Maldivian Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Shiuna, made a mocking and disrespectful reference to PM Modi.

The Maldives government has distanced itself from the remarks made by its ministers. Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer said that these remarks against foreign leaders are "unacceptable" and do not reflect the official position of the Maldives government.

He stated that the Maldives remains committed to fostering a "positive and constructive dialogue" with all its partners, particularly its neighbours.

In a post shared on X, Moosa Zameer stated, "The recent remarks against foreign leaders and our close neighbours are unacceptable and do not reflect the official position of the Government of #Maldives. We remain committed to fostering a positive and constructive dialogue with all our partners, especially our neighbours, based on mutual respect and understanding."

On Sunday, the former Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih stated that New Delhi has always been a good friend to the island nation. Taking to his official handle on X, Solih posted, "I condemn the use of hateful language against India by Maldivian government officials on social media."

He stressed that "India has always been a good friend to the Maldives and we must not allow such callous remarks to negatively impact the age-old friendship between our two countries."Former Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said the objectionable remarks against the former and fellow Indian natives on social media are 'reprehensible' and 'odious'.

Calling on the Maldivian government to identify the officials responsible and reprimand them, the former Foreign minister on his official X handle posted, "Derogatory remarks made by two Deputy Ministers of the current Maldives Government, and a member of a political party in the ruling coalition, towards Prime Minister @narendramodi and the people of India in social media is reprehensible and odious."

A section of India's film fraternity, too, came out in support of PM Modi and strongly criticised the derogatory remarks by Maldivian leaders against the country and its leader. They also voiced support for PM Modi's call for promoting beach tourism in Lakshadweep. (ANI)
Prince Harry's wife Meghan Markle is set to write her memoir following her husband's Spare. The book will put spotlight on Kate Middleton, Prince William and King Charles, a royal commentator claimed. Prince Harry released his own memoir in January 2023 which talked about his feud with the royal family. Meghan Markle has already published the children's book The Bench. The couple are also reportedly writing their third book which will be a wellness guide. Meghan Markle is seen. (AFP)

Lynn Carratt, from Press Box PR, warned that early 2024 would not be the right time for the publication of Meghan Markle's memoir.

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She said, I am sure that is still the plan and it will form part of their deal with Penguin, but timing is everything and 2024 wouldn't be the right time for its release. There are many things Meghan will want to say and put her side across about.

The expert claimed that Meghan Markle would shine a spotlight on her in-laws if she were to write a tell-all book.

She'll want [to] talk [about] her marriage to Harry, her relationship with King Charles and Camilla, Kate and William. I'm sure fans would like her to talk about her relationship with her father Thomas, but she isn't that forthcoming about that side of her life, she said.

Royal commentator Gareth Russell said, "From a more pragmatic perspective, it's worth noting that there is no one who was attacked more consistently in the memoir Spare than Prince William. There was no member of the Royal Family who had as many private details revealed in that book, as Prince William. Even Queen Camilla was not attacked as consistently as Prince William was."
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Monday announced "millions" for "ground organizing staff" in Sen. Jon Tester's effort to hang onto his seat.

This money is part of an eight-figure investment into two of the most closely watched Senate campaigns in the country: Tester's reelection bid and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown's campaign. Both senators are Democrats in states former Republican President Donald Trump won handily in 2020.

The funding of these efforts has already started and will "continue throughout the year," said DSCC spokesperson Amanda Sherman Baity.

The money will be funneled through the state Democratic Party, not sent directly to the Tester campaign. The funds will be primarily spent on field organizing, increasing volunteer capacity, data and analytics, voter access and "building meaningful outreach to communities of color and specific constituencies," according to a press release.

Sherman Baity and Hannah Rehm, Montana Democratic Party senior communications advisor, declined to provide exact dollar amounts.

The 2024 Montana Senate race is one of the most closely watched in the nation, as Republicans have their sights set on taking back control of the U.S. Senate, and the GOP has deemed Tester's seat as one of the most likely to flip to red. As the Democrats see it, if they can hang onto the Senate seats up for reelection in Montana and Ohio, they're likely to maintain their slim majority.

The DSCCs investments in sustained, effective grassroots organizing will lay the groundwork for our campaigns to win tough races, DSCC Chair Sen. Gary Peters said in a press release. This election will determine the future of our country, and we look forward to joining with voters, volunteers and community leaders to defend Democrats Senate majority that is fighting for the priorities that matter most to hard working Americans.

Tester is currently facing first-time candidate and Gallatin County businessman Tim Sheehy in the general election. Sheehy has garnered support from important figures including Gov. Greg Gianforte, Sen. Steve Daines and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).

There's also a chance that Rep. Matt Rosendale jumps into the GOP primary, a prospect that the Eastern Montana representative has teased multiple times over the last couple months.

We know national Democrats are going to pour millions of dollars into the race this cycle," Montana GOP Chairman Don "K" Kaltschmidt said in a statement. "As Republicans, we are going to do everything we can to highlight how out of step Jon Tester is with Montanans.

That said, there are other seats being hotly contested by Democrats in 2024, including Monica Tranel's second campaign for the western congressional district. She lost to Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke by just over 3 percentage points in 2022.

Montana Democrats are hitting the ground running to send Jon Tester back to the U.S. Senate and elect Democrats up and down the ballot in 2024. With this investment, the Montana Democratic Party will have the resources needed to reach Montanans and win elections everywhere  in rural Montana, Indian Country, and across our cities and towns," Rehm said in response to a question about how other races will break through the Senate race noise.
Pakistan's Supreme Court scrapped lifetime bans from contesting elections for people with past convictions. Pakistan Chief Justice Faez Isa read the order in a live telecast broadcast on the court's website as per news agency Reuters. This paves the way for former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif to run in next month's national election. Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif waves to his supporters.(AP)

Three-time Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif came to the country last year ending four years of self-imposed exile. The former premier had not set foot in Pakistan since he left for London in 2019 to receive medical treatment while serving a 14-year prison sentence for corruption.

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What the ruling means for Nawaz Sharif?

But the ruling means that Nawaz Sharif could become Pakistan's prime minister for a fourth time as his party- Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)- is considered a frontrunner to win the election. Polls in Pakistan are scheduled for February 8, while Nawaz Sharif's main rival former prime minister Imran Khan remains in jail and is barred from contesting the polls for five years.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader and former minister Azam Nazir Tarar welcomed the judgment and said that it was long overdue. "The Supreme Court removed a discrepancy as the life-long ban was against the fundamental rights, he said.

Will Imran Khan also be allowed to run for elections?

Nawaz Sharif was not an applicant in the latest case as it was filed by other banned politicians. Imran Khan, who won the last elections in 2018, will not benefit from the ruling as it abolishes only lifetime bans. This means that the cricketer-turned-politician remains disqualified until 2028.
A convict named Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, has approached court to end his isolation in prison. Breivik has cited violation of human rights in his appeal in the court. In 2011, Breivik first killed eight people with a car bomb in Oslo and then shot dead 69 others at a Labour Party youth camp in the country. It was Norway's worst peacetime atrocity. Anders Behring Breivik (AP)

Breivik's lawyer Oeystein Storrvik argued his case on Monday, highlighting that he had been isolated for nearly 12 years. The lawyer pleaded the court to end Breivik's isolation as he only comes in contact with prison professionals whose duty is to maintain their distance. Storrvik claimed that Breivik was suffering from severe depression due to being lodged in a completely locked world.

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He has been isolated for about 12 years ... He lives in a completely locked world, Storrvik told the hearing as quoted by news agency Reuters.

"He is in a deep depression. He does not wish to be alive anymore," added Storrvik.

ALSO READ| Russia launches large-scale missile attack across Ukraine

Breivik is lodged in Ringerike prison in Norway. He has to spend time in a dedicated section of the jail. The isolated section includes a training room, a kitchen, a TV room and a bathroom. He is allowed to keep three birds as pets who fly freely in the area.

Meanwhile, lawyers representing Norway's justice ministry justify his isolation from the rest of the prison population, due to the continuing security threat he poses. In the court filing, the lawyers argued that his isolation was "relative" and highlighted he has contacts with guards, a priest and health professionals.

"Breivik is Norway's most dangerous prisoner. He is unpredictable and has killed many in serious terrorist acts ... The conditions set around him are a consequence of that," lawyer Andreas Hjetland told reporters on Monday as quoted by news agency Reuters.
The UK royal family is under unprecedented pressure following the latest revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein case, a royal commentator said. King Charles made a mistake in inviting Prince Andrew to Sandringham on Christmas, royal expert Charles Rae said after the Duke of York was named in court documents relating to the financier Jeffrey Epstein. Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York attends the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church.(Reuters)

Prince Andrew has always said that he was innocent while Buckingham Palace said earlier the allegations are categorically untrue.

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What a royal commentator said on Prince Andrew

Were only six days into it and the pressure on Prince Andrew and the Royal Family is now mounting to a level which is almost unprecedented. We have a King who is now under great pressure to do something about Andrew. There is not much he can do. Hes been stripped of his HRH and hes not allowed to use it," royal expert Charles Rae said.

The royal commentator added, He cannot represent any of these charities or his military functions. Hes sitting in his nearly 30 room almost palace. Charles has already told him he can carry on paying for the upkeep of the place. Now were hearing that the King may stop paying for Andrews private security which amounts to 3m a year.

Prince Andrew- Jeffrey Epstein allegations

As documents naming more than 170 people- associates, friends or victims of Jeffrey Epstein were made public- a woman named Johanna Sjoberg claimed Prince Andrew touched her breast while sitting on a couch inside Jeffrey Epsteins Manhattan apartment in 2001. Prince Andrew stepped down from his royal life and the working UK monarchy after row over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein while strenuously denies all allegations.
Pope Francis called Monday for a universal ban on what he called the despicable practice of surrogate motherhood, as he included the commercialization of pregnancy in an annual speech listing threats to global peace and human dignity. Pope Francis delivers his yearly address at the Vatican on January 8.(Reuters)

In a foreign policy address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, Francis lamented that 2024 had dawned at a time in which peace is increasingly threatened, weakened and in some part lost.

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Citing Russias war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, the issue of migration, climate crises and the immoral production of nuclear and conventional weapons, Francis delivered a list of the ills afflicting humanity and the increasing violation of international humanitarian law that allows them.

But Francis also listed smaller-scale issues that he said were threats to peace and human dignity, including surrogacy. He said the life of the unborn child must be protected and not suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking.

I consider despicable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mothers material needs, he said.

Saying a child is a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract, he called for a global ban on surrogacy "to prohibit this practice universally.

Vatican teaching opposes in vitro fertilization, and Francis has previously voiced the Roman Catholic Churchs opposition to surrogacy, or what he has called uterus for rent." At the same time, however, the Vaticans doctrine office has made clear that same-sex parents who resort to surrogacy can have their children baptized.

While commercial surrogacy contracts are common in the United States, including protections for the mothers, guarantees of independent legal representation and medical coverage, they are banned in parts of Europe, including Spain and Italy.

Russias war in Ukraine, and the threat to babies born to surrogate Ukrainian mothers, exposed the countrys thriving industry. Ukraine is one of the few countries that allow surrogacy for foreigners.

Critics say commercial surrogacy targets women who are poor and from vulnerable communities. Supporters say surrogacy gives women a chance to provide children to childless couples, and that commercial contracts protect both the surrogates and the intended parents.

On Monday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops quoted Francis' words in explaining why the Catholic Church teaches that surrogacy is not morally permissible.

"Instead, we should pray for, and work towards, a world that upholds the profound dignity of every person, at every stage and in every circumstance of life, spokesperson Chieko Noguchi said.

In his geopolitical roundup, Francis singled out Russia by name in noting the large-scale war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine." It marked an unusual break with Francis usual tendency to spare Moscow direct and public blame for the invasion when expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

Francis was more balanced in his lament of Israels ongoing war in Gaza, condemning Hamas Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel and every instance of terrorism and extremism. At the same time, he said the attack provoked a strong Israeli military response that had left thousands dead and created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

He called for an immediate cease-fire, including in Lebanon, and the liberation of hostages held in Gaza, and reiterated the Holy Sees position seeking a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians and an internationally guaranteed special status for Jerusalem.

In other comments, Pope Francis:

 Lamented various humanitarian and refugee crises in Africa, and without naming names blasted military coups and elections in several African countries marked by corruption, intimidation and violence.

 Called for a respectful diplomatic dialogue with the Nicaraguan government to resolve what he called a protracted crisis. The governments crackdown on the Catholic Church has resulted in the detention of dozens of priests and bishops. The government has accused the church of aiding popular protests against his administration that he considered an attempted coup.

 Called for the resumption, as early as possible, of Iran nuclear talks to ensure a safer future for all. Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had increased the rate at which it is producing near-weapons-grade uranium, reversing a previous slowdown.

Francis also said that the manufacturing of nuclear weapons was just as immoral as the possession and use of them. Francis has already changed church teaching to include the possession of nuclear weapons as inadmissible, but on Monday he included the production of such weapons as part of his overall criticism of the weapons industry.

Perhaps we need to realize more clearly that civilian victims are not collateral damage (of war) but men and women, with names and surnames, who lost their lives, he said. They are children who are orphaned and deprived of their future.
A new report has claimed that Prince Andrew will reject efforts to get him evicted from his mansion by his brother King Charles III after being named on the Jeffrey Epstein list. Andrew currently shares the 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York leaves after attending for the Royal Family's traditional Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham in eastern England, on December 25, 2023. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)(AFP)

Speaking with The Mirror, a source close to Andrew said he and Ferguson are not going nowhere. The King cant force him out. He has a cast iron lease that he has absolutely every intention of honoring, the source said of the 75-year lease Andrew signed on the property back in 2003.

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After Andrew was named in the recently-unsealed Epstein list, Charles reportedly considered moving him to a smaller home. The King also decided to cut off his funding for security at the estate.

The names revealed were listed in court documents filed as part of accuser Virginia Giuffres lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell. The names, before being unsealed, were listed in court papers as variants of J Doe. Many of the names had been previously revealed as well.

Andrew was reported to have sexually abused Giuffre when she was 17. He also allegedly enjoyed daily massages when he stayed at the paedophiles home in Florida. Epsteins former Butler said Prince Andrew spent weeks with us in the main guest bedroom, referred to as the blue room. Andrew has maintained that he is innocent.

The Metropolitan police recently said that no investigation has been launched. Should new and relevant information be brought to our attention we will assess it.

Epstein allegedly sexually assaulted multiple teenage girls. Some of his victims were as young as 14 years old, prosecutors have said. He committed the crimes at his homes in Manhattan; Palm Beach, Florida; and his private island near St. Thomas.

In 2019, federal prosecutors charged him with one count of sex trafficking conspiracy and one count of sex trafficking with underage females. Epstein died by suicide in his Manhattan jail cell about a month after being arrested, and the charges against him were thus dropped.
The Indian High Commissioner met Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, the Ambassador-at-Large at the Foreign Ministry, according to the Sun Online. HT Image

A top Maldivian government official said that during the meeting, Naseer made it clear that the remarks do not reflect the views of the Maldivian government, and reaffirmed Maldives continued support for its neighbour, the website reported.

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The Maldivian foreign ministry said the government is aware of "derogatory remarks" on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position.

The meeting came after India summoned Maldivian envoy Ibrahim Shaheeb on Monday to the external affairs ministry and conveyed strong concern over remarks posted on social media against the Prime Minister by a number of ministers of the Maldives.

Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid  three deputy ministers at the Youth Ministry  had made derogatory remarks against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media platform X, in response to a video promoting tourism in Lakshadweep.

The three ministers were suspended on Sunday after the remarks sparked an uproar on Indian social media.

In New Delhi, official sources said the Indian high commission in Male strongly raised the matter with the Maldivian foreign ministry on Sunday.

The disparaging remarks by the ministers have drawn flak in India, with many celebrities urging people on X to explore domestic tourist destinations instead of going to the Maldives.

There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives following the diplomatic row.

"The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives," the Maldivian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Former Maldivian president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has also condemned the derogatory remarks of the three officials.

"I condemn the use of hateful language against #India by Maldivian government officials on social media. India has always been a good friend to Maldives and we must not allow such callous remarks to negatively impact the age-old friendship between our two countries," Solih posted on X.
Russia launched a large-scale missile attack across Ukraine on Monday morning, said Ukraine's officials as reported by news agency Reuters. Residential and industrial buildings were hit and several people suffered injuries in the attack. Ukraine's Air Force said the country was under threat of several waves of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. Russia launched a large-scale missile attack across Ukraine on Monday morning, said Ukraine's officials(REUTERS)

"The enemy is viciously attacking peaceful cities," Oleksandr Vilkul, mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, said on the Telegram messaging app.

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It was not immediately clear what the Russians were targetting. Mayor of Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov said that industrial facilities were hit, causing a fire. Regional governor of the city of Zaporizhzhia, Yuriy Malashko revealed that five blasts were heard in his city and at least two people suffered injuries. Other cities which came under the attack were Dnipropetrovsk and Khmelnytskyi, claimed Ukraine's military officials.

ALSO READ| Israel warns Hezbollah of 'another war' after group's strikes on air traffic control base

People in the Dnipropetrovsk region suffered the most number of injuries, reported news agency AP. More than 20 houses and a shopping center were damaged in a missile attack on Kryvyi Rih , said regional governor Serhii Lysak.

On Monday, the Ukrainian military said that the Russian forces made unsuccessful attempts to advance during the past day in several areas, including around Lyman in the Kharkiv region and in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Russia claims strikes by Ukraine in Belgorod

Meanwhile, On Monday, governor of Russia's Belgorod claimed that 300 residents were evacuated after the region came under attack by Ukraine. Notably, Belgorod is a city near the Ukrainian border.

"Some 300 residents of Belgorod, who decided to temporarily evacuate, are at the moment being housed in temporary shelter centres in Stary Oskol, Gubkin and the Korochansky district" Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a video posted on Telegram as quoted by AFP.
Russia launched a large-scale missile attack across Ukraine, injuring several people and hitting residential and industrial buildings, Ukrainian officials said. All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts as Ukraine's Air Force said that the country was under threat from cruise missiles and in some regions ballistic missiles from Russia. Russia-Ukraine War: Rescuers work at the site of a Russian missile strike in an area in the village of Rivne near the Pokrovsk town, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk.(Reuters)

"The enemy is viciously attacking peaceful cities," Oleksandr Vilkul, mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, said, adding that full information about the extent of potential damages will be disclosed after the attack was over.

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Many cities in Ukraine under attack

Secretary of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia city council Anatoliy Kurtiev said that a missile attack on the city resulted in injuries. At least one woman was injured in an attack on Kharkiv, mayor Ihor Terekhov said as industrial facilities were hit which resulted in a fire.

Five blasts were heard in the city of Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Yuriy Malashko said, as at least two people were injured.

"Missiles hit residential areas," he said. Ukraine's military officials in other cities- Dnipro and Khmelnytskyi- also said their cities were under a "massive missile attack" by Russia.

The attack comes nearly two years into the war that Russia started with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Both sides have shifted to air strikes as they struggle to make significant gains along the frontlines.

What Vladimir Putin said on the new strikes

Earlier, Russian president Vladimir Putin vowed to back soldiers who defend Russia's interests as he ordered his government to give greater support to those who fight. The Russian president while meeting families of soldiers killed in Ukraine said, "Many of our men, our courageous, heroic guys, Russian warriors, even now, on this holiday, defend the interests of our country with arms in hand."
A section of railroad near the city of Nizhny Tagil in Russia's Urals region was hit by a "bang", TASS and RBC news agencies reported on Monday, citing the transport prosecutor's office. Russian President Vladimir Putin(AFP)

Russian mainstream media frequently uses the term "bang" as a euphemism for a blast.

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Baza, a Russian media outlet with security sources, said the blast on railway took place near the station of San-Donato, near an oil depot.

Last month, a Ukrainian source told Reuters that Ukraine's domestic spy agency had detonated explosives on a Russian railway line deep in Siberia, the second attack in a week on military supply routes in the area.

The Russian news agencies said on Monday no one was injured and there was no damage from the latest incident.

RBC, citing the Russian Railways, said traffic in the area was "restricted", and some trains might run behind schedule.
Bangladesh's prime minister Sheikh Hasina secured a fifth term in power on Monday as her party took three-quarters of seats in parliament while polls were boycotted by the country's opposition who described the process as "illegitimate". While Sheikh Hasina's government has been accused of human rights abuses and crackdown on dissent, her economic model has been praised. Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina addresses the media.(ANI)

Sheikh Hasina said the economic progress of her country was her main aim in the next five years as "by nature, our people are very smart and as I mentioned that we want to train our younger generation for the future. It is our target to develop the country by 2041. Smart population, smart government, smart economy and smart society are our main aims."

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Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which participated in the 2018 vote but kept away in 2014, boycotted the polls claiming that Sheikh Hasina did not want to resign and allow a neutral authority to run the election.

The Bangladeshi premier said, Those with ties to terrorist organizations or engaged in illegal activities, fearing elections and refraining from contesting, contribute to the victory of the people, not mine.

"Each political party has right to take a decision. The absence of one party in election does not mean democracy is absent," she added.

Talking about Dhaka's relationship with New Delhi, Sheikh Hasina said, India is a great friend of Bangladesh. They have supported us in 1971 and also in 1975. They gave shelter to me and my sister and my other family members. We consider India as our next-door neighbour. We had many problems but we resolved it bilaterally. So, I really appreciate that we have a wonderful relationship with India.

"I have a good relationship with every country because that is our motto," she asserted.
North Dakota Farmers Union is hosting a one-day event at its headquarters in Jamestown next month on carbon reduction in the agriculture industry.

Evolution Ag Summit: The Carbon Conundrum 2.0 will focus on soil carbon management and incentives for farmers and ranchers to implement carbon reduction practices.

Efforts to reduce carbon emissions are impacting food and agricultural markets right now. Its important for farmers and ranchers to understand how those initiatives could create new opportunities for their operations, NDFU President Mark Watne said.

The event is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Feb. 20. There is a $30 cost. Farmers Union will host a free webinar titled Carbon 101 on Feb. 12 at noon. To register for both events, go to ndfu.org/evolutionag.
The UN rights chief on Monday condemned the violence and repression during controversial elections in Bangladesh that were boycotted by the opposition, urging the country to strengthen democracy. Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accepts greetings from the assembled media and election observers during a press conference, a day after she won the 12th parliamentary elections, in Dhaka.(AFP)

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured her fifth term in power following Sunday's vote, after the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called a general strike and, along with dozens of others, refused to participate.

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"I implore the government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the human rights of all Bangladeshis are fully taken into account, and to strengthen the underpinnings of a truly inclusive democracy," Volker Turk said in a statement.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights pointed out that "thousands of opposition supporters have been detained arbitrarily or subjected to intimidation".

"Such tactics are not conducive to a truly genuine process," he warned.

Hasina has presided over breakneck economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty, but her government has been accused of rampant human rights abuses and a ruthless crackdown on dissent.

Turk said that mass arrests, threats, enforced disappearances, blackmailing and surveillance were all methods reportedly used by law enforcement officials in the months leading up to the vote.

He also lamented reported acts of political violence, including arson attacks allegedly committed by opposition groups.

"Around 25,000 opposition supporters have been arrested, including key party leaders, since October 28," the statement said, adding that at least 10 of them had reportedly died or been killed in custody.

This, it cautioned, raises "serious concerns about possible torture or harsh conditions of detention".

Many rights defenders had meanwhile been forced to go into hiding and even flee the country, while dozens of people had reportedly been victims of enforced disappearances.

"These incidents must be independently investigated, and those responsible must be brought to justice in fair and transparent trials," Turk said.

"Violations and irregularities during the campaign and on election day itself should also be thoroughly and effectively investigated."

The UN rights chief highlighted that "democracy was hard won in Bangladesh and must not become cosmetic".

The future of all Bangladeshis is at stake.
The UN on Monday voiced alarm at the number of journalists killed in the war in Gaza, a day after two Al Jazeera reporters died in an alleged Israeli strike on their car. An Israeli soldier operates, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Gaza, January 8, 2024.(Reuters)

Al Jazeera on Sunday said two of its Palestinian journalists were killed in the southern city of Rafah, in what it claimed was an Israeli "targeted killing".

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"Very concerned by high death toll of media workers in Gaza," the UN rights office said on X, formerly Twitter.

"Killings of all journalists, including Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Abu Thuria in reported IDF strike on car must be thoroughly, independently investigated to ensure strict compliance with international law, and violations prosecuted," it said.

Dahdouh and Thuria, who also worked as a freelance video journalist for AFP and other news organisations, were killed while they were "on their way to carry out their duty" for Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip, the network said.

A third freelance journalist, Hazem Rajab, was seriously injured.

Witnesses told AFP that two rockets were fired at the car -- one hit the front of the vehicle and the other hit Dahdouh, who was sitting next to the driver.

Asked about the accusations of a targeted attack on journalists, Florencia Soto Nino, a deputy spokeswoman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York, said: "This is something that at the moment we cannot verify.

But what we know is that many of them (journalists) have died and we have repeatedly called for their profession to be respected so that they are able to do it freely and in safety.

This picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli military on January 8, 2024, shows troops operating in the area of al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip.(AFP)

The Israeli army told AFP that it had "struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF troops", adding that it was "aware of the reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorist were also hit".

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 79 journalists and media professionals, the vast majority Palestinian, have been killed since the war began.

The October 7 Hamas attack which triggered the war resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The militants, considered a "terrorist" group by the United States and European Union, also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain captive, Israel says. At least 24 are believed to have been killed.

Israel has responded with a relentless bombardment and a ground invasion that have killed at least 23,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry's latest toll.
United States' decision to ground Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft has left many air travellers in a chaos. Hundreds of Alaska Airlines and United Airlines flights scheduled over the weekend were cancelled after a a panel blew off the fuselage of a flight from Portland, Oregon. Passenger oxygen masks hang from the roof next to a missing window and a portion of a side wall of an Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which had been bound for Ontario, California and suffered depressurization soon after departing, in Portland, Oregon, US, on January 5, (Instagram/@strawberrvy via REUTERS)

600 Alaska Airlines and United Airlines flights cancelled

Alaska and United are the two main US airlines that operate the Boeing 737 MAX 9. Both the airlines combined were forced to cancel about 600 flights throughout the weekend to allow their MAX 9 aircraft to be inspected. In a statement Alaska Airline confirmed cancelling 170 flights on Sunday and 60 cancellations for Monday, with more expected.

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While we await the airworthiness directive (AD) inspection criteria from the FAA and Boeing, our maintenance teams are prepared and ready to perform the required inspections of the mid exit door plugs on our 737-9 MAX fleet, Alaska Airlines said in a statement.

Confirming that aircraft grounding has significantly impacted operations Alaska Airlines said, We have cancelled 170 Sunday flights and 60 cancellations for Monday, with more expected. Cancellations will continue through the first half of the week, and we encourage guests with travel plans to continue to check their email and alaskaair.com for updates.

As of 9:15 p.m. Saturday, 118 United flights, which is 4% of their daily total, had been canceled. However, the airline was also facing some disruptions due to weather.

Icelandair confirms, its flights not affected

Icelandair has confirmed that it is not affected by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's temporary grounding of some Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes.

"It has been confirmed that the issue is related to equipment that is not a part of Icelandair's Boeing 737 MAX 9 configuration," a spokesperson of the airline, which operates four such aircraft, told Reuters.

170 Boeing 737 Max 9s grounded

Nearly 170 Boeing 737 Max 9s have been grounded at the direction of the Federal Aviation Administration pending investigation, and that impact is already being felt by people across America.

What happened on Alaska flight 1282 to Portland

On Friday, the incident occurred on an Alaska flight 1282, a Boeing 737-9 MAX that had been certified by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in November 2023. Passengers on board the plane heard a loud bang and saw a hole in the wall of the plane, where a window had blown out at an altitude of 16,000 feet. A child sitting near the window was reportedly pulled by the suction, thankfully saved, and his shirt was torn off. Some passengers also lost their phones, which were sucked out of the plane. A seat next to the window was also blown out due to decompression.

No serious injuries were reported in the incident and the aircraft safely returned to Portland after the blow out occurred.

The airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) moved to ground the Boeing 737 MAX 9 airliners that have the plug door to allow for inspections of other aircraft with that configuration. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is also investigating the incident.
Days after former president Barack Obama raised concerns over the structure of Biden's re-election campaign, the Biden team on Sunday defended its approach, stressing that were united in the fact that we have to do everything we can to push back on Donald Trump". President Joe Biden (left) and former US president Barack Obama (right) (AFP)

As per the report published by the Washington Post, Obama shared his worries with Biden over a December lunch at White House. Obama told Biden that he needed to empower individuals who were already at the campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, or that it was crucial to have more senior decision-makers there.

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Reminding Biden of his own campaign strategy, Obama raised apprehension regarding the viability of the former president Trump as a political contender in 2024 and even offered counsel from his former campaign aides.

Also Read: Barack Obama and John Mulaney are among the winners at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards

Will the Biden campaign follow Obama's advice?

When asked specifically whether the campaign intends to make any structural changes on Obama's advice, Quentin Fulks, President Biden's primary deputy campaign manager, remained silent in an interview on NBC Newss Meet the Press. He added that although the campaign has been "awake" since April, Americans have only recently begun to pay attention.

He further stressed that Biden and Obama share the view that Trump must be defeated.

Were going to continue to do what we need to do in order to be competitive and in order to make sure were growing the infrastructure that we need to win. President Obama and President Biden talk frequently, as do the campaign and former operatives from President Bidens administration and his campaign, Fulks said.

But the one thing is that were both aligned on the fact that we have to push back on MAGA extremists and the threat that they pose to freedom and democracy. And so were focused on doing just that," he added.

Fulks further said that Biden has been very clear that the experience he received as vice president under Obama has been critical to the experience that he brings to the job and what hes been able to accomplish.

Also Read: Biden's warning: 'Existential threat' of MAGA extremism looms, urges democracy defence

Biden reportedly got irritated over advice to ramp up his campaign strategy

Last year, Obama's longtime advisor Axelrod said that he also recommended Biden to intensify his campaign tactics. Biden apparently got "irritated", and as a result, Axelrod declared he would live with the fact that the president is unhappy with me, Washington Post reported.

Again, my feeling is: either get out or get going, Axelrod said, implying that the president would be well to think about withdrawing from the race due to his age.
JPMorgan's Michael Cembalest foresees President Biden stepping back from the 2024 race between Super Tuesday and November due to health concerns. The prediction sparks discussions about the president's future plans. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, where nine worshippers were killed in a mass shooting by a white supremacist in 2015. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)(AP)

Super Tuesday significance:

Super Tuesday, set for March 5, marks a crucial point in the presidential primaries. Cembalest suggests that the winner on Super Tuesday becomes a strong contender for the Democratic nomination, making this period significant for Biden's potential decision.

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Bidens approval rating concerns:

Cembalest highlights Biden's low approval rating, emphasising that despite claiming around 10% job creation since inauguration, the president faces challenges. The strategist attributes the job creation figures to the vaccine rollout and the reopening U.S. economy.

Whos next? Uncertain successor:

While predicting Biden's exit, Cembalest doesn't pinpoint who might replace him as the Democratic candidate. This leaves room for speculation on potential contenders for the party's nomination.

Public opinion on Vice President Kamala Harris:

Vice President Kamala Harris faces public disapproval, with over half expressing dissatisfaction with her job performance. This adds another layer of complexity to the Democratic landscape.

Alternative democratic candidates:

Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson are the declared Democratic candidates, engaging in debates. Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans an independent run, showcasing the evolving Democratic field.

How concerns over Biden's age impact his position as Democratic candidate?

Despite concerns about Biden's age and mental acuity, polls indicate he remains the preferred Democratic candidate. Three in four Democrats favour him over other contenders, but questions about his electability persist.

Trump's dominance:

Former President Donald Trump maintains a strong position in hypothetical matchups against GOP hopefuls. Current public opinion surveys suggest that if the election were held today, Biden would lose to Trump, indicating a challenging road ahead.
Boeing shares decline in premarket trading on Monday as investors absorbed the news of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issuing a temporary grounding order for numerous Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft. This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. (National Transportation Safety Board via AP)(AP)

Shares were down 8% in early hours trading at 4:30 a.m. ET. The shares were trading at 228.54 price, down-20.46 (-8.22%)

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Also Read: 600 Alaska and United flights cancelled after Boeing 737 grounding

This directive to ground over 170 aircraft was conveyed through an emergency airworthiness directive on Saturday, impacted approximately 171 planes globally, mandating inspections before resuming flight operations. The measure is applicable to U.S. airlines and carriers within U.S. territory, followed an incident on an Alaska Airlines flight.

Social media disseminated images portraying a breach in the aircraft's structure, depicting passengers utilizing oxygen masks. Following the incident, the flight returned to Portland shortly after taking off for Ontario, California. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) initiated an investigation into the incident, emphasizing the prioritization of safety in decision-making.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker affirmed the commitment to safety, stating, Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSBs investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.

Among the 171 grounded aircraft specified in the directive, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines have 79 and 65 affected planes, respectively, with the remaining 74 distributed across six other airlines. The aircraft involved in the Friday blowout, a 178-seater, had been delivered to Alaska Airlines on November 11th.

While large-scale groundings by aviation authorities are infrequent, the FAA has maintained vigilance over the Boeing 737 Max since two fatal crashes almost five years ago necessitated a worldwide grounding of the jetliner.
The CES logo is displayed in the Las Vegas Convention Center lobby as workers and exhibitors prepare for CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 7, 2024. (REUTERS)

Its that time of the year when the worlds hottest tech companies descend on Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Between January 9 and 12, thousands of tech companies will showcase the very best of their products at Las Vegas in Nevada.

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Like 2023, AI will be expected to be the big talking point as companies add it to their products. Another big highlight is likely to be health/tech devices.

When will the event be held: The event will be held between January 9 and January 12. Two in-person Media Days, exclusively accessible to press members are also slated for January 7 and January 8. Where will the event be held: The event will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada Convention Centre, the Venetian Expo, and the Aria Resort & Casino.

What to expect in 2024

Altman MIA

OpenAI boss Sam Altman will not appear at the CES trade show in Las Vegas next week. But the generative artificial intelligence fever his startup set off last year will be on full display as gadget makers race to find consumer uses for the technology.

In devices for the visually impaired, and safety systems involving guns at schools, to facial-recognition software that can assess vitals, and cabin-monitoring systems inside autonomous cars, dozens of companies have planned announcements for the show about how they are building AI into their gadgets.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S. November 16, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo(REUTERS)

OpenAI's influence at the show despite Altman's physical absence is reminiscent of Apple and its founder Steve Jobs, whose clout was felt despite him avoiding the show, with many firms jockeying to display gadgets compatible with the company's sleek products.

Altman is widely regarded as the poster child for the AI frenzy that has gripped the tech industry for the past year. He made headlines in November when he was briefly ousted by the ChatGPT maker's board, and reinstated days later after more than 700 employees threatened to quit and join OpenAI investor Microsoft in solidarity.

Among other projects, OpenAI is working on a secretive AI hardware project with famed former Apple designer Jony Ive, according to media reports.

The Year of AI

Funding for generative AI projects exploded last year, surging more than fivefold to $23.78 billion through the beginning of December from 2022, according to PitchBook data.

"It's the year of AI in everything," said Maribel Lopez, tech analyst at Lopez Research. "If you don't have AI in your product, don't show up, it's not worth talking about."

Germany's Bosch, which recently won a CES award for a near-invisible gun-detection system that pairs video and audio AI for proactive security involving firearms at schools, is scheduled to speak on AI and cybersecurity at a panel in the show. Japan's NEC will unveil AI software that enables mobile devices to analyze face patterns and pupil conditions to estimate human vitals and mental state.

A slew of companies is expected to show off how using AI in vehicles is making them smoother and safer for drivers through better in-vehicle virtual assistants and cabin monitors.

The new focus area for automakers after years of investment into autonomous technology that used AI is technology that allows a "hyper personalized" experience while buying and driving cars, said Aakash Arora, a managing director at Boston Consulting Group.

"They're trying to figure out 'if I could get to this level of customer experience it can really differentiate me in the market,'" he said of companies in the auto industry.

For instance, Cerence, which makes AI-powered virtual assistants, is set to announce a partnership with Volkswagen, and Israel-based Cipia is expected to unveil a system that monitors signs of distraction and drowsiness in drivers.

Many automakers are also adopting AI in various stages of production to reduce costs, said Wendy Bauer, vice president of automotive and manufacturing at Amazon Web Services, which counts BMW and Toyota as customers. AI can help carmakers save money by speeding up vehicle development and ensuring better quality checks during manufacturing, she said.

AI in PC and smartphones

Representational Image (Source: AFP)(Bloomberg)

PC and smartphone makers are also likely to showcase how their products use AI, which chipmakers including Intel and AMD are betting will offer a new revenue stream. Microsoft said on Thursday that PCs with a new AI button on the Windows keyboard will be on display at the show.

But it is not clear whether consumers will pay extra for AI capabilities on their computers because these developments perform less obvious tasks than OpenAI's ChatGPT bot.

"Consumers love ChatGPT, but the consumer benefit of having it on a device isn't clear," said Jay Goldberg, chief executive of D2D Advisory. "That's why everyone is going to talk about it - because everyone is scrambling for the consumer utility."

With inputs from agencies
CNN commentator Karen Finney expressed sheer disbelief at a jaw-dropping video circulating on Donald Trump's Truth Social platform. The clip suggests Trump is no ordinary leader but an "instrument of God." Anchor Jim Acosta left no room for ambiguity, exclaiming, Karen, your jaw is dropping! Former US President Donald Trump(AP/File)

The video, voiced with conviction, narrates a divine appointment: "On June 14th, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a caretaker. So God gave us Trump." The narrative paints Trump as a divine selection, a figure chosen to rise before dawn, fix the nation, battle Marxists, and steer the country into the night at the Oval Office.

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Evangelicals and Trump: A puzzling connection

Karen Finney delves into Tim Albertas book, The Kingdom, The Power, And The Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, highlighting Evangelical Christians' belief that Trump can restore America, despite acknowledging his non-God-like behaviors.

Trump and Evangelicals: A complicated history

Ana Navarro, another CNN political pundit, chimed in, drawing attention to the paradox of evangelicals supporting Trump despite his questionable past. She reminded viewers of Trump's controversial comments on the "Access Hollywood" tape, where he bragged about sexual assault.

Trump's not-so-pious past in book revelations

Alberta's book unveils Trump's scathing remarks about evangelicals during the 2016 GOP primary. Trump reportedly had colourful words for Ted Cruz supporters, yet evangelicals played a crucial role in securing his victory.

2022 Twist: Evangelicals reconsidering support

In 2022, some key evangelical figures claimed they had distanced themselves from Trump, suggesting they would only back him if he became the Republican nominee. The relationship between Trump and evangelicals seems more complex than ever.

Trumps presidential playbook

Acosta and Navarro pointed out that Trump's methods, as seen in the video, align with his past strategies. Trump's extensive "executive time" during his presidency, spent watching TV and tweeting, is noted as part of his political playbook.
After failing to notify the White House about his hospitalisation amid the wars in Ukraine and Israel, former President Donald Trump called on the Biden administration to immediately sack the US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin. He also accused Austin of improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty. Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump (AP)

"Failed Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin should be fired immediately for improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty," Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner, wrote on TruthSocial on Sunday.

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"He has been missing for one week, and nobody, including his boss, Crooked Joe Biden, had a clue as to where he was, or might be," the former president continued.

"He has performed poorly, and should have been dismissed long ago, along with General Mark Milley, for many reasons, but in particular the catastrophic surrender in Afghanistan, perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our Country!" Trump wrote.

The ex-US president's sharp remarks coincided with the revelation that nobody, not even Austin's deputy Kathleen Hicks, knew that the Defence Secretary was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Walter Reed Army Medical Center on New Year's Day. Additionally, he also neglected to notify President Joe Biden about his hospitalisation for three days.

Also Read: US Defence Secy Austin returns after secret ICU stint; Pentagon remains tight-lipped on discharge

Pentagon responds to Trump's calls for the resignation of Austin

Despite his unexpected and prolonged hospital stay, which was not even primarily disclosed to President Biden, Pentagon asserted that Austin is not resigning.

"Secretary Austin has no plans to resign," Major General Pat Ryder, press secretary for the Department of Defence, told Fox News Digital. "He remains focused on conducting his duties as Secretary of Defence in defence of our nation."

On December 22, 2023, Austin underwent a medical operation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and returned home the next day. He was admitted to the ICU on January 1, 2024, following complications after the surgery, according to the latest information published by the Pentagon on Sunday.

This information came after both Republicans and Democrats at Congress voiced their grave concerns over confidentiality surrounding his hospitalisation.

Meanwhile, Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Pat Ryder said information regarding Austin's hospitalisation was withheld from the media because of medical and personal privacy issues. For now, Austin has resumed his duties from the hospital.

Austin, Pentagon face ire over secret hospitalisation

The leading Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker, accused the Pentagon of not informing Congress as required by law and claimed that the incident only helped to further erode confidence in the Biden administration in Congress.

When one of our countrys two National Command authorities is unable to perform their duties, military families, members of Congress and the American people deserve to know the full extent of the circumstances, he posted on X.

Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told Axios that Austin has been a disaster since Day One and should be replaced by someone who will focus on making the military ready to fight and win wars instead of advancing woke political causes of the Biden [administration.]

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Cotton issued a statement, stressing that if Biden really did not know about Austins hospitalisation, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown.
Iowa school shooter Dylan Butler told his online audience that he was fking nervous and gearing up moments before opening fire inside Perry High School last week. The 17-year-old was possibly active on the online chat platform Discord minutes before the attack. Vehicles are seen in a parking lot outside of Perry High School following a shooting Thursday at the school, Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, in Perry, Iowa (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)(AP)

One student was killed and five others were injured after Butler opened fire on Thursday morning, January 4. The suspect, a student at the high school, then turned the gun on himself. The sixth grader who died was identified as Ahmir Jolliff, 11.

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What did Dylan Butler post on Discord?

Investigators are now reviewing various social media accounts of Butler, including Discord. NBC reported that screenshots it reviewed revealed that he used his account to tell his online friends he was at the school and ready for whats to come.

Ten minutes later, Butler wrote, Im fcking nervous, Im the bathroom gearing up. Shortly after that, he wrote, Theres an n-word in the bathroom, I need him to leave so I can assemble my guns.

According to a Discord spokesperson, the company believes that the account from which these were posted, named took2much, belonged to Butler. Our deepest sympathies are with the victims, their families, and the community in Perry, Iowa following yesterdays horrific shooting, the spokesperson said. Discord has a zero-tolerance policy against content that glorifies violence and violent extremism, which is reflected in our Community Guidelines.

We took immediate action against the suspect and his content, and are currently cooperating with law enforcement to assist them in their continuing investigation, the person added.

A Discord said that the account took2much was also part of a chatroom that discussed school shootings, titled School Massacres Discussion.

Dylan Butlers other cryptic posts

Butler was carrying a pump-action shotgun and a small-calibre handgun. A "rudimentary" explosive device too was found in the school. Butler reportedly had plans to murder many others, but the shooting took place before the school day had started, and therefore there were not many students and staff in the building.

Butler, before the shooting, shared a TikTok of himself in what seemed like the school bathroom stall. now we wait, it was captioned. In the background, the song Stray Bullet by KMFDM played. The song has lyrics like Im your nightmare coming true, I am your worst enemy, and Stray bullet, from the barrel of love. The song was also used on thepersonal website of Eric Harris, one of the shooters involved in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

There were more videos from the account posted to Reddit, one of which showed Butler emulating The Cook from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. He was seen repeating lines and mannerisms from the shows.

Clips also showed Butler pointing a stick at a friend, pretending as though it was a gun. Photos of Butler gathered by investigators also reportedly showed him posing with firearms. It is unclear if the guns Butler used in the shooting belonged to him.
Allegiant Air is expanding its nonstop flights between Bismarck and Phoenix starting in mid-February.

Meanwhile, statistics from the state Aeronautics Commission show that November airline boardings at North Dakotas eight commercial service airports were the second-highest on record for the month.

Allegiant already flies from Bismarck to Phoenix four times a week. The flights will be daily beginning Feb. 18, according to a Monday statement from the Bismarck Airport.

"The addition of daily service on Allegiant into Phoenix-Mesa is a true testament to the community's demand for flights to this region," City Commissioner Greg Zenker said in a statement.

Tickets are available now at Allegiant.com and at the Allegiant ticket counter at the airport during specific hours.

"Allegiant has been a longstanding air service partner to our community, and the Bismarck to Phoenix-Mesa route has really increased in popularity over the years," Bismarck Airport Director Greg Haug said.

Allegiant in November announced a new nonstop flight in the spring from Bismarck to the Tampa Bay area in Florida. The flights to St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport are scheduled to begin May 15.

Boardings report

The number of overall airline passengers in Bismarck, Williston, Dickinson, Minot, Fargo, Grand Forks, Devils Lake and Jamestown in November totaled 96,897 -- a 15.4% increase over November 2022 and above prepandemic levels for the month, according to the Aeronautics Commission. The statewide record for November is 102,517 boardings, in 2014 during an oil boom era.

"A statewide airline passenger growth of 15% from last November is outstanding," commission Executive Director Kyle Wanner said. "Our airports have successfully accommodated the record level of air travel demand that the U.S. experienced throughout the Thanksgiving weekend."

Boardings were up at all eight airports: Williston (31.8%), Devils Lake (23.6%), Minot (21.5%), Bismarck (17.1%), Dickinson (15.5%), Fargo (11.2%), and Grand Forks and Jamestown, both at 8.6%.

The Fargo and Devils Lake airports set passenger records for the month, at 42,271 and 749, respectively. Bismarcks passenger total was 21,413.

The average aircraft load statewide in November was 84%. There were 1,397 flight departures and one cancellation, for a cancellation rate of 0.1%. The Aeronautics Commission credited mild weather during the month.

Year-to-date 2023 boardings as of the end of November statewide totaled slightly more than 1 million, up 10.5% from the same time frame in 2022. Year-to-date boarding increases by airport were: Williston (21.2%), Devils Lake (14.8%), Fargo (14.2%), Dickinson (9.8%), Grand Forks (7.3%), Bismarck (6.5%) and Minot (4.1%). Jamestown was running 8.4% behind its 2022 level.

Delta Air Lines had the largest North Dakota market share in November, of 41%, followed by United with 26% and Allegiant with 18%. American had 12%, Frontier 2% and Sun Country 1%.

The full boardings report is at https://aero.nd.gov/.
The city of St. Louis recently experienced a mask mandate rollercoaster  one that went up and down within a matter of hours. According to reports from the Times, the city's Department of Health initially declared a mandatory indoor mask policy for city workers on Thursday. However, this decision took a swift turn. Citizens wear protective face masks as they travel in a subway, as health authorities in the region made the use of face masks compulsory in health centres due to the high number of patients with respiratory diseases, in Barcelona, Spain January 5, 2024.(REUTERS)

Quick reversal:

Just hours after the mandate was announced, the health department made a U-turn, now only "strongly recommending" that employees wear masks indoors. The sudden change left many puzzled, prompting city spokesman Nick Dunne to clarify, though specifics on the reason remained elusive.

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Governor's influence:

The Times credited Missouri Governor Mike Parson's office for the about-face. A spokesperson for the governor, Johnathan Shiflett, claimed credit, stating, "He kept his promise." Governor Parson, known for opposing mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, seemingly played a role in this rapid policy shift.

Conservative backlash:

Unsurprisingly, the mandate stirred controversy, particularly among conservatives. Senator Eric Schmitt voiced opposition, emphasizing individual decision-making and vowing to fight against what he deemed "COVID tyranny."

Public health concerns:

Despite the reversal, the city's health department emphasized the importance of mask-wearing for both city workers and the public. In a press release, they urged everyone to wear masks indoors due to rising cases of COVID-19, flu, and RSV in the region.

Also Read | CDC map shows COVID-19 hotspots in US states as mask becomes mandatory

Numbers speak:

An update from the health department clarified the severity of the situation. COVID-19 hospitalizations in St. Louis increased by 38%, influenza cases surged by a staggering 455%, and RSV rose by 34% between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Medium risk status:

The St. Louis health department highlighted the city's hospitalization rate, placing it in the CDC's medium-risk category. Although not mandating masks for all residents, the department stressed the importance of following precautions to prevent the healthcare system from strain.

The health department concluded by encouraging residents to take additional steps, including staying up-to-date with vaccines, seeking testing if symptomatic, and being vigilant in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses.
A Texas man was arrested for kidnapping a woman five years ago and holding her hostage. Lee Carter, 52, abducted the woman from the street when she was pregnant. He has been charged with aggravated kidnapping. Lee Carter has been charged with aggravated kidnapping (Harris County)

Police discovered the woman locked in a garage attached to Carters home in Houston. Documents revealed on April 7, 2023, revealed that Houston Police heard a voice coming from a garage when they were dispatched to 5251 Perry Street in Houston in reference to a kidnapping in progress.

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Video shows officers breaking the window of the garage. They found a dog and a mattress inside, where the woman was being held captive. The victim, aged around 30, weighed just over 70 pounds when she was rescued. She was malnourished and said she had not showered in two months.

According to the victim, she met Carter, a rapper who goes by the stage name Viper, four or five years ago. At the time, she was pregnant and panhandling off Almeda Genoa. Carter initially gave her a dollar, and then later returned and asked her to get in his car if she wanted help.

For the next many years, Carter held her captive in his garage, drugged her and forced her to have sex with her. Defendant [Carter] would force her to take pills along with crack cocaine and other illegal narcotics, causing her to become physically unable to leave the location, court documents said, according to the Daily Mail.

The victim somehow managed to get hold of Carters laptop and use the Text Now application to contact police. She recounted how she tried to escape previously by breaking a window. She was taken to a hospital but Carter went on to pick her up from there and bring her back to his house.

It is unclear what happened to the womans pregnancy. Carter was arrested at a motel and is currently being held on $100,000 bond in Harris County Jail.
Donald Trump asked a Georgia judge to toss the states criminal case accusing him of leading a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, arguing hes immune from prosecution because the US Senate acquitted him after he was impeached over the same conduct. Former US President Donald Trump(AP/File)

In a filing Monday in Atlanta, the former president argued he was cleared of wrongdoing stemming from the 2020 election when the US Senate acquitted him at his impeachment trial. Under the US Constitution, a president can only be criminally charged if he is impeached and convicted of the same conduct by the Senate, Trump argues. Parallel state charges are also barred on double jeopardy grounds, he said.

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The indictment must be dismissed because President Trump was impeached, tried by the Senate, and acquitted on articles of impeachment that arise from the same alleged facts and course of conduct as the criminal indictment in this case, his lawyer said in the filing.

Trump will press the same immunity argument at the an appeals court hearing on Tuesday in Washington, where hes seeking dismissal of a criminal case on related election allegations brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Trump appealed after a district judge struck down his immunity defense.

The former president said in a social media post Monday he will attend the appeals court arguments.

Of course I was entitled, as president of the United States and commander in chief, to immunity, Trump wrote. I wasnt campaigning, the Election was long over. He said he was looking for voter fraud, and finding it, although courts across the country rejected his claims.

The election cases are among four criminal prosecutions Trump is facing as he campaigns to return to the White House in November. He denies wrongdoing in all of them, claiming theyre part of Democratic witch hunt to undermine his campaign.

In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and 17 others in August with violating the states racketeering law by participating in a criminal enterprise to stay in office. Several defendants have already pleaded guilty. Willis has requested an Aug. 5 trial date but the court has yet to set a schedule.

When Trumps immunity defense was rejected in federal district court in Washington, the judge overseeing that case said the office of the presidency doesnt come with a lifelong get-out-of-jail-free pass.

Trumps four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said in a Dec. 1 ruling.
The Pentagon has been the target of intense criticism for hiding details about Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin's prolonged hospitalisation, reflecting a startling lack of transparency over his medical condition at a crucial time for the US military amid the wars in Ukraine and Israel. Austin underwent a medical operation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on December 22, 2023.(AFP file)

On December 22, 2023, Austin underwent a medical operation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and returned home the next day. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on January 1, 2024, following complications after the surgery, according to the latest information published by the Pentagon on Sunday.

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This information came after both Republicans and Democrats at Congress voiced their grave concerns over confidentiality surrounding his hospitalisation, and the fact that President Joe Biden and other top officials like Jake Sullivan and his deputy Kathleen Hicks, who assumed some of his duties, were kept in the dark about it for several days.

Also Read: A Pentagon mystery: Why was Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin''s hospital stay kept secret for days?

Pentagon Press Secy declines to provide full details about Austin's conditions

Speaking to Fox News, Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Pat Ryder said information regarding Austin's hospitalisation was withheld from the media because of "medical and personal privacy issues."

He revealed that Austin returned home after the surgery as he was on leave at the time of the treatment.

Ryder said Austin started experiencing "severe pain" after the elective surgery and was admitted to the ICU for prompt access to medical assistance. He refused to share any further details regarding the defence secretary's medical conditions, citing privacy concerns.

Austin returned to work from the hospital on Friday, January 5, the Pentagon official said, adding that the Defence Secretary is doing well and is in good spirits.

"Since resuming his duties on Friday evening, the Secretary has received operational updates and has provided necessary guidance to his team," Ryder stated. "He has full access to required communications capabilities and continues to monitor DoDs day-to-day operations worldwide."

Also Read: US defence secretary Austin says they will 'continue' providing arms to Israel

When will Austin get a discharge from the hospital?

Ryder further informed that Austin spoke with President Biden on Saturday and has been in touch with Kathleen Hicks, the Deputy Secretary of Defence, Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his senior staff.

There is no set timeline for that, Ryder said on being asked about Austin's discharge from the hospital. Additionally, he was unable to comment whether Austin will be doing live press conferences during the upcoming week.
A rocket, delayed by eight months, prepares to release the remains of 330 individuals, including luminaries like George Washington and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, into deep space. In this image made from NASA video, United Launch Alliances Vulcan rocket with Astrobotic Technology's lander onboard is launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, Monday, Jan 8, 2024. The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years rocketed toward the moon Monday, launching private companies on a space race to make deliveries for NASA and other customers.(NASA via AP)(AP)

Launch date and time

Celestis Inc.'s inaugural Enterprise Flight will take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on January 8, 2024, at 2:18 a.m.

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The two-stage Vulcan Centaur rocket will drop 62 titanium capsules, each filled with DNA or cremated remains, onto the moon. This marks the birth of a "permanent memorial" through the 6-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide Peregrine Lunar Lander.

A celestial voyage across space

Beyond the moon, the spaceship will embark on a cosmic journey, carrying the remaining 268 capsules over 185 million miles into deep space. These capsules are destined to "orbit the sun forever," according to Celestis CEO Charles Chafer, a pioneer in commercial deep space missions.

Celestial luminaries onboard

Among the celestial payload are hair samples from former presidents Washington, JFK, and Eisenhower, contributed by an anonymous donor. The mission also honours "Star Trek" legends Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, and DeForest Kelley, along with the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry, and his wife, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. The remains of a "Star Trek" fan from Canada are also among the 330 capsules. The afterlife journey comes at a price, ranging from a few thousand dollars to $13,000.

Chafer reminisces about promises fulfilled, including flying Gene and Majel together on a deep space mission. The mission also fulfils the artistic dreams of sculptor and painter Luise Kaish, whose ashes will join the cosmic voyage, realizing her lifelong fascination with space exploration.

Online Spectacle for Dream Fulfilled

The launch, previously scheduled for May 4, 2023, promises an online video streaming. Celestis Co-founder Charles Chafer, 70, assures that "everything looks good" for this historic launch.

NASA's lunar leap

This monumental launch is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), leveraging American companies to deliver payloads to the moon. Astrobotic's lunar lander Peregrine will carry 20 payloads, contributing to scientific discoveries about the lunar environment.

Concerns and ethical considerations

Space companies like Celestis and Elysium Space are under scrutiny for sending memorials and human remains to space. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren expressed concerns, urging NASA to consult about sending human remains to the moon.

Creating a "Permanent Memorial" on the moon

Scheduled for launch at 2:18 a.m., the rocket, a project by Texas-based Celestis, carries DNA samples and cremations in titanium capsules. Sixty-two capsules will descend on the moon, creating a unique "permanent memorial," while 268 capsules continue their orbit around the sun.
The mystery surrounding Lloyd Austin's hospitalisation and 4-day ICU stay has raised many eyebrows. Although the US defence secretary was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on January 1, his department wasn't notified about his illness until Thursday. Austin's decision to keep his severe illness and hospitalisation a secret from the White House has caused fury among top officials. It has driven many to question whether the Biden administration is actually keeping up with its promise of transparency. FILE PHOTO: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin attends a welcome ceremony before an annual security meeting with South Korean Defence Minister Shin Won-sik at the Defence Ministry in Seoul, South Korea on November 13, 2023. JUNG YEON-JE/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo(via REUTERS)

Biden administration's lack of fulfilling its promise of transparency

Pentagon has remained tight-lipped over Austin's secret hospitalisation, merely describing his ICU visit due to complications following an elective medical procedure. Days after keeping his health scare a secret, Austin acknowledged in a statement released on Saturday that he could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better.

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Experts raise eyebrows over Austin's secret hospitalisation

Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist who worked under President George W. Bush, said, When the command structure of the United States armed forces appears to be broken down and disconnected from the commander in chief, I think people are going to have pretty serious questions about it, according to USA Today. That is, quite frankly, detrimental to our national security system and just plain dangerous.

Former diplomat Brett Bruen said, This is not a minor miscommunication. Its about the confidence that our national security structure has in its leadership and that the leadership is acting in a transparent way, as per the outlet. Bruen also drew instances when the Biden administration fell short of fulfilling its promise of transparency.

Bruen described the State Departments scanty information to the public as a Hallmark card in how meaningless they are. There's a false belief that they can brush this stuff under the rug, they can try to blow past some of the blowback, he said.

Those of us who've raised questions along the way are often tarred and feathered by folks in the administration because we have been pushing for them to live up to their promises. They, I think, do a better job with the speeches and the slogans than they do when it comes to the actions, Bruen told USA Today.

This is a baffling episode, and while there is clearly much we still do not know, it is hard to see how any of the new revelations will make this better than what it looks like now: a case of really bad judgment, Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University said.

The apparent decision to keep the White House in the dark is the most baffling aspect of all since Cabinet officers have a duty to keep their boss informed at all times about their movements, he added.
Nearly two decades after scientists lost track of a 54-million-ton asteroid, NASA has put an end to any possibility of its collision with Earth. A November 2023 report claimed that the 2007 FT3, or the lost asteroid, may hit our planet in 2024. However, the US space agency has refuted such claims. Photo: Shutterstock (For representational purposes only)

Will 2007 FT3 hit the Earth in 2024?

NASA issued a statement in response to GB News' report that claimed 2007 FT3 has a 1 in 11.5 million chance of striking the Earth on October 5, 2024. Scientists first spotted the massive space rock in 2007, thus its name. However, they lost track of it later and declared it a lost asteroid.

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There are no known asteroid impact threats to Earth at any time in the next century. NASA and its partners diligently watch the skies to find, track, and categorise asteroids and near-Earth objects (NEOs), including those who come close to Earth, the space agency said.

ALSO READ: NASA beams high-definition cat video back to Earth from deep space, calls it a giant leap in mission to Mars

An important note here is planetary scientists define asteroid approaches that come within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit as close approaches. The larger an asteroid is, the easier it is for our planetary defence experts to find, meaning that their orbits around the sun are usually very well-known and understood for years or even decades, NASA added.

God of Chaos asteroid

Last year in December, NASA launched a mission to intercept asteroid Apophis, also known as the God of Chaos. The massive asteroid, which is almost three times the size of Mount Everest, will brush past the Earth, merely 20,000 miles away from the orbit in 2019. Due to its close proximity, Apophis is expected to be visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it has cancelled a mission to bring medical supplies to northern Gaza as it failed to receive security guarantees. This marks the fourth time when the world health body called off a planned mission to bring much needed medical supplies to Al-Awda Hospital and the central drug store in northern Gaza. it said. Israel-Hamas War: Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, walk as they seek shelter at the border with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.(Reuters)

"It has now been 12 days since we were last able to reach northern Gaza," the WHO office in the occupied Palestinian territories wrote on the X (formerly Twitter), adding, "Heavy bombardment, movement restrictions, and interrupted communications are making it nearly impossible to deliver medical supplies regularly and safely across Gaza, particularly in the north."

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The delivery had been designed to sustain the operations of five hospitals in the enclave, it informed while WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he was shocked by the scale of health needs and devastation in northern Gaza. Further delays will lead to more death and suffering for far too many people.

This comes as Israel struck Hamas and Hezbollah terror facilities in Khan Yunis and Lebanon in overnight strikes, the Israel Defence Forces said while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with Arab leaders as part of a diplomatic push to stop the war in Gaza from spreading further. Antony met Abu Dhabis Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and was due later to hold talks in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Earlier, he visited Jordan and Qatar to reassure Arab officials that the United States opposes the displacement of Palestinians outside Gaza.

More than 22,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 58,000 wounded since the war began. Officials said that about two-thirds of those killed have been women and minors.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned 40 but no public celebrations were announced in the country as Pyongyang fired artillery barrages into the sea and vowed to expand its nuclear arsenal. Kim Jong Un's birthday has yet to be officially celebrated, unlike his late father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung whose birthdays are two of North Korea's biggest holidays which are sometimes celebrated with military parades. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (AFP)

On Kim Jong Un's birthday, North Koreas state news agency published an article praising the leader's major construction projects in the past decade. It also reported that the North Korean leader visited a chicken farm with his daughter.

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Experts said that Kim Jong Un may think that hes still relatively too young to hold lavish birthday festivities while some speculate that the lack of a public birthday bash may be related to limiting attention to his late Japan-born mother.

Hong Min, an analyst at Seouls Korea Institute for National Unification said, For Kim, it's still probably politically burdensome to idolize himself as hes still young and hasnt accumulated much achievements."

Kim Yeol Soo, an expert at South Koreas Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said that it will take some time for Kim Jong Un's birthday to become an official holiday as elderly members of the country's ruling elite would still think he's too young.

Kim Jong Un may be worried about bringing unwanted attentions to his mother, Ko Yong Hui, a Japan-born dancer, Park Won Gon, a professor at Seouls Ewha Womans University, said.

The fact his mother came from Japan is his biggest weak point that undermines his legitimacy of the Paektu bloodline," he said, adding, When Kim Jong Un's birthday becomes an official holiday, he won't still publicize details about his birth."
For Wael al-Dahdouh, an Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza, the worst nightmare came true on Sunday. Days after losing his wife and two other children in Israeli bombardment in the war against Hamas militants, Wael al-Dahdouh's another son Hamza Wael Dahdouh, also a journalist with Al Jazeera, was killed in an Israeli strike. The Qatar-based media network claimed was a targeted killing. Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh (C) hugs his daughter during the funeral of his son Hamza Wael Dahdouh, a journalist with the Al Jazeera television network, who was killed in a reported Israeli air strike in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on January 7, 2024. (AFP)

Al Jazeera said two of its Palestinian journalists, including Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria, in the Gaza Strip were killed in the Israeli strike on their car. A third freelance journalist travelling with them, Hazem Rajab, was seriously injured.

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Wael al-Dahdouh was himself recently wounded in a strike. Wael Dahdouh was wounded in an Israeli strike in December that also killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa. The Qatar-based channel has lost three journalists since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.

A video posted on an Al Jazeera-linked YouTube channel showed Wael Al-Dahdouh crying next to his son's body and holding his hand. Later, after his son's burial, he said in televised remarks that journalists in Gaza would keep doing their job. "All the world needs to see what is happening here," he said.

Wael Al-Dahdouh is particularly well known to viewers across the Middle East after he learned during a live broadcast last month that his wife, another son, daughter and grandson had been killed in an Israeli air strike.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday's killings were an "unimaginable tragedy" and that he was "deeply deeply sorry" for the Al-Dahdouh family's loss. One (journalist killed) is far too many Blinken said at a press conference in Doha, the Qatari capital.

Another journalist who died covering the conflict was Reuters visuals journalist Issam Abdallah. A Lebanese citizen, he was killed on October 13 by an Israeli tank crew while filming cross-border shelling in Lebanon.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza also confirmed the deaths and blamed an Israeli strike.

Witnesses told news agency AFP that two rockets were fired at the car  one hit the front of the vehicle and the other hit Hamza who was sitting next to the driver.

"We later found the body parts (of those in the car). The ambulance then came and carried those who were in the car," a witness, who declined to give his name for security reasons, told AFP.

The Israeli army told AFP that it had struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF troops, adding that it was aware of the reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorist were also hit.

Al Jazeera said in a statement it "strongly condemns the Israeli occupation forces' targeting of the Palestinian journalists' car", accusing Israel of "targeting" journalists and "violating the principles of freedom of the press".

The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas militants stormed across Gaza's border into Israel in an unprecedented attack which left some 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to eradicate Hamas, denounced as a terrorist group by the US and EU, and has kept up a relentless bombing of Gaza, which the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed 22,835 people, mostly civilians.

(With inputs from AFP, Reuters)
GRAND FORKS  The University of North Dakota expects to begin sending Native American ancestral remains and burial objects in its possession home to their tribal nations starting this year.

The next step in the repatriation process will not be the end of the universitys work to right any wrongs it has committed against those tribal nations, according to UND President Andrew Armacost, but it will represent the culmination of two years of work cataloging the remains, collaborating closely with the affected tribes and navigating federal law.

Its been a very delicate year and a half, thats for sure, Armacost said.

The process of identifying the tribal owners of objects and remains in UND's possession is still a work in progress, according to university spokesman David Dodds. The university has identified and notified 49 tribes that could possibly be culturally or geographically affiliated with the objects or remains, and UND is set to soon begin consultations with those tribal nations.

That number could change as more information becomes available -- for example, Dodds said, during consultations, a tribal representative might recognize an object as belonging to some other tribe.

Documents provided by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act show the 49 tribes UND has reached out to are: all four tribes in North Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux, as well as eight other tribes in South Dakota, all 11 tribes in Minnesota, four tribes in Montana, two in Wyoming, 18 in New Mexico, and one each in Texas and Arizona.

Those artifacts and remains appear to have been obtained by UND over decades through archaeological work and donations to the university, documents show.

Dodds declined to offer specifics about the number of ancestors in UND's possession or to whom the university believes the remains might belong.

"UND does not have a list of tribes or detailed information related to this portion of our repatriation process at this time because it's still very much in progress," he said in an email. "Furthermore, due to the highly sensitive nature of the information involved, specific details are protected under the National Historic Preservation Act, the varying laws related to burial locations/cultural sites of the states involved, as well as tribal sovereignty."

Armacost said that when university staff undertook the repatriation process nearly two years ago, he didnt believe they fully appreciated the task at hand. Now, as the university is offering guidance to other institutions that might find themselves in a similar situation, he is urging them to include the tribal nations in the repatriation process from the beginning, rather than at the tail end of the process, as he believes is more common.

NAGPRA only requires institutions to consult with tribes prior to any decision-making, but does not specify when in the process that consultation must occur, according to National NAGPRA Manager Melanie OBrien. She was unsure when institutions typically consult with tribal nations, since the national NAGPRA office mostly deals with outcomes.

As Armacost discussed UNDs close involvement with the tribal nations throughout the process, he repeatedly emphasized it wasnt because he was looking for commendation.

If I appear to be timid about what Im saying, its by design, because I dont want to unnecessarily take public credit for anything, or make it sound like were somehow better or doing something different than other schools, Armacost said. We are doing something different, but its not to be boastful -- Im trying to be respectful of the people who are really harmed by this, who are the tribal nations.

In compliance with NAGPRA, UND began work in January 2022 to ensure the university was not in possession of artifacts that belong to tribal nations, according to information put out by the universitys Office of the President. That process accelerated in February 2022 when a search began for a sacred missing pipe. Human remains -- which the presidents office described as bone fragments, a single bone or a collection of bones -- were found during that search.

Armacost was informed of the discovery in March 2022, and UND announced the discovery in August 2022. The Herald reported at the time that around 250 boxes of sacred objects and the remains of around 70 ancestors were found. Additional human remains were discovered afterward, including at least one ancestor who was found in a School of Medicine and Health Sciences collection.

Joshua Wynne, dean of the UND School of Medicine, announced on Nov. 2, 2022, that UND will no longer use any human specimens of unknown origin in medical teaching and research.

UNDs NAGPRA Compliance Committee is continuing its work to identify and properly repatriate Indigenous ancestors, but in the two years since the process began, Armacost said UND staff members on the compliance committee have gained useful expertise on NAGPRA and best practices when repatriating ancestral remains.

NAGPRA provides good resources to help institutions undertake the process, Armacost said, but untangling federal law and dealing with decades-old records of archaeological collections creates a puzzle thats better learned in practice than in theory. In a September State Board of Higher Education meeting, he offered assistance to any institution that might find Indigenous remains in its possession.

I dont want to claim full expertise -- let me just say 'knowledgeable,' if I could use that word, Armacost said. We have a team, a committee, on campus, and a liaison, who work with both the federal government and state officials. ... Theres often interplay between federal and state law, and then also tribal sovereignty, as well, and that interplay is complicated. Our team has really worked hard to understand how that process works, and how repatriation should happen.

Discovering ancestral remains wrongfully taken from their tribes happens more often than some might think, Armacost said.

The investigative reporting site ProPublica has tracked repatriation efforts by American universities, museums and government agencies, and earlier this year published an investigation showing that for decades, institutions have failed to fully comply with NAGPRA.

According to its continued reporting, as of Dec. 26, American institutions have repatriated an estimated 18,800 Native American ancestors so far in 2023, more than at any point since NAGPRA was passed in the 1990s. American institutions have also filed 380 repatriation notices this year -- more than the past two years combined -- declaring their intent to make human remains and burial items available to tribes.

In addition to UND, five other North Dakota agencies appear in the NAGPRA database of institutions that have submitted summaries of ancestral remains or items to be returned to their tribal owners: the U.S. Forest Service's Dakota Prairie Grasslands, Bonanzaville, the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the State Historical Society of North Dakota. All five submitted NAGPRA summaries in 1993 or 1994.

Armacost expects work will continue beyond physical repatriation. The repatriation process has catalyzed a broader set of discussions about how the university can support areas of cultural resources management, tribal education programs and Indigenous students, he said. As a result of those discussions, UND has already reinstated the director position at the American Indian Center, a position that had been cut from the budget several years ago.

Our efforts are focused squarely right now on bringing the ancestors home, as well as these other artifacts. But in the aftermath, I foresee a wide swath of activities to support cultural awareness and support the tribal nations, Armacost said. We dont just want to go through repatriation and say, done, but rather, we want to make sure that our enduring commitment to Native American students is there.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024 will feature MSI, Samsung's Bespoke, Robo Vaccum, and other tech that could revolutionize how tech fits into people's lives over the next few years, which will kick off in Las Vegas on Monday, January 8.

From the introduction of new TVs, smart home appliances, and gaming PCs, many AI features will probably be built in this year's huge tech event.

CES 2024: Tech, Devices to Look Forward

MSI posted a teaser video of its very first handheld gaming PC on Instagram. The video claimed a whole new breed of MSI dragon is coming and showed the placement of two joysticks and ventilation, which appears in the MSI logo on the back of the device.

The video also showed that more information regarding the handheld PC will be revealed at CES next week. However, a tweet from Intel gave a hint as to what was inside the device. Though a tweet from Intel hinted at what was inside the device now, they can only speculate how it looks on the outside.

The Asus ROG Ally, which adopts Microsoft's Xbox controllers' offset location, has joysticks positioned similarly. In the video, they are visible in an area of total darkness surrounded by RGB lights.

Although MSI has been producing gaming laptops for many years, handheld gaming PCs will be new for the brand. However, expanding into new markets was typical for MSI, which has recently gotten into high-end SSDs and routers. The company would be on par with several of its competitors, who have already introduced their own handheld PCs.

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Tech Giants' Best Devices in CES 2024

Samsung has announced a new vacuum cleaner lineup with advanced artificial intelligence. The Bespoke Jet Combo is a robot vacuum and mop that promises to simplify user cleaning with enhanced AI features and steam cleaning.

"I am thrilled to introduce our innovative vacuum cleaner lineup for 2024, which leverages our latest AI technology to meaningfully improve its usability. We firmly believe it will make cleaning more enjoyable for our customers." Moohyung Lee, EVP of Samsung Electronics, said.

According to Samsung, the Bespoke Jet Combo uses enhanced AI Object Recognition. The vacuum can recognize more objects because of its 3D sensor, which makes driving more accurate.

However, the most noteworthy development is that AI Object Recognition can now recognize stains and space. The model can also identify and classify mapped spaces, such as a living room and a kitchen. Furthermore, the vacuum automatically creates "no-go zones" that include the entrance, the veranda, and the bathroom.

When a stain is detected, Bespoke Jet Combo heats the mop pads with high-temperature steam and water. Spinning powerfully at 170 RPM (revolutions per minute), the mops can also clean hardened stains.

The machine can sense the floor type with AI Floor Detect for enhanced cleaning. The model also prevents the carpets from getting wet.

Related Article: Microsoft Adds New Keyboard Key After 30 Years-Changing PC Keyboard Layout for the First Time!




A dog swallowed money worth $4,000, leaving owners no choice but to launder money, literally. The pet that ate the cash was a Goldendoodle; a crossbreed between a Golde Retriever and a Poodle.

The American couple in the United States said that the incident happened in December 2023 in Pennsylvania. For fur parents, this scenario is no longer new, especially with dogs.

Unlike cats, dogs are more playful pets; chewing, biting, and even eating anything that attracts their attention. But, remember, this doesn't make your dog a bad one because they are unaware of the consequences.

If you are a dog lover, here's what happened to the cute Goldendoodle named Cecil after eating $4,000.

Bad Dog? Goldendoodle Swallows $4000!

Cecil had never done anything bad in his life, said Carrie Law, the dog's owner. This is why she and her husband, Clayton Law, were surprised when they discovered that Cecil had eaten their money.

"This is Cecil. He has never done anything bad in his life until he ate $4,000," said Carrie via The Straits Times.

The couple said that in December, they withdrew from their savings account. When they got home, they decided to temporarily place the money on their kitchen counter.

But, when they left the kitchen, Cecil decided to eat the cash on the counter. And she did it in less than an hour. Carrie Law said that they almost had a heart attack after knowing that Cecil had eaten their money.

She said that her husband was the first one to panic since he was the first to discover their beloved dog's expensive snack.

"Suddenly Clayton yelled to me, 'Cecil's eating $4,000!' I thought, 'I cannot be hearing that.' I almost had a heart attack," said Mrs. Clayton via The Independent UK.



They immediately took action and contacted their vet. But, the animal doctor said that Cecil no longer needs to be taken to the veterinarian because he can be monitored at their house due to her size.

Read Also: Montana Officials Euthanize Grizzly Bear and Cub After Repeated Encounters with People

Goldendoodle Owners Launder Money, Literally

Since the incident already happened, Clayton and Carrie had no other option by to launder their money, literally. They faced the grim task of piecing and cleaning together the remains of their money, which was digested by Cecil.

Luckily, their bank reassured them that they could bring their damaged bills since they could be replaced. But, it is only possible if the serial numbers are visible.

The bank explained that pets swallowing money are not a rare thing and that they already encountered similar incidents in the past. Cecil's loving owners managed to recover most of their cash.

However, they still lost $450. Despite what happened, Carrie and Clayton have already forgiven their Goldendoodle, saying that he is a very fancy fellow with a very expensive taste.

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South Korean rapper G-Dragon (real name Kwon Ji-yong) was spotted heading to the United States as he is expected to attend the upcoming CES 2024.

The celebrity appeared at the airport after he was cleared of drug allegations. These accusations were stated when an inquiry into the BigBang boy band rapper's alleged use of illegal drugs.

All the charges against him were dropped after he tested negative in all the narcotics tests he went through. Aside from this, there was no strong evidence proving that he was using drugs.

Being cleared from all drug allegations comes at the best time since the G-Dragon is quite busy this year as he is about to attend the CES 2024.

G-Dragon To Attend CES 2024

According to ALLKPOP's latest report, the BigBang rapper was barred from leaving South Korea during the drug investigation against him. Now that he's cleared, he can continue his travels. And this is what the celebrity is doing.

On Friday, Jan. 5, G-Dragon was seen departing for Los Angeles, as local news site Nate reported. People who saw him said the South Korean superstar wore a long beige coat, black sunglasses, a red hat, and a mask.

Those who recognized the K-pop celebrity greeted him with a smile. His appearance at the airport is the first time he went in public after facing drug allegations.

His latest appearance is a strong sign that he will attend the CES 2024 event in Los Angeles. For those unfamiliar with the Consumer Electronics Show, it is the world's largest consumer electronics and IT exhibition.

According to The Verge, the CES 2024 will kick off on Jan. 9 and run until Jan. 12.

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G-Dragon Getting Busy After Drug Allegations

G-Dragon's schedule for 2024 is pretty hectic. On Tuesday, Jan. 2, the South Korean rapper met with other superstars. These include Lee Min-ho, Jung Woo-sung, and Lee Jung-jae.

They joined forces to commemorate G-Dragon for proving that he was innocent and that drug allegations against him were all false. The superstars even dubbed their event as an "Innocent Until Proven Guilty" party.

Aside from attending the CES 2024 and having a victory party, G-Dragon also launched his anti-drug foundation called "JUSEACE." G-Dragon, together with his new agency, Galaxy Corporation, made efforts to establish the new non-profit organization.

The South Korean rapper even donated $231,000 to the JUSEACE foundation. The name of his new anti-drug foundation came from the words "justice" and "love," with the slogan "Guard the Peace & Love of Justice / Justice of Love."

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On Friday Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student, walked into a school class and killed a sixth grader and wounded five others.

The suspect was a student in Perry, Iowa died of what authorities believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger was among the five people wounded in the shooting, which occurred as students returned from spring break.

Mitch Morvedt, the state investigation division's assistant director, said during a news conference that an improvised explosive device was found after the shooting.

Law enforcement officials said federal and state investigators were interviewing the alleged shooter's friends and family, as well as looking through his social media posts, to try and discern and motive.

Before the shooting, according to an article by the Associated Press, Butler posted a photo to TikTok from inside a school bathroom with the caption "now we wait" and the song "Stray Bullet" by the German band KMFDM. Investigators found other photos Butler posted posing with firearms, according to the official, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

Aftermath

Three gunshot victims were treated at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, a spokesperson said. Others were taken to a second hospital, a spokesperson for MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center confirmed.

Citizens attended a candlelight prayer vigil as they heard clergy from different faiths share messages of hope in English and Spanish.

Authorities said Butler had a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun.

A post on the high school's Facebook page said it would be closed Friday and counseling services would be available for students, faculty, and others in the community.

In an initial briefing with reporters following the shooting, Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said that a deputy responded to the scene within minutes of the school's request for assistance.

Two classmates of the alleged shooter told reporters that Butler had been the victim of constant bullying since he was younger and it escalated when his younger sister began being bullied as well.

"He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment," one of them said, as revealed by the AP article. "Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No. God, no."
Israel's bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza have pushed most Palestinian residents toward the southern city of Rafah along the Egyptian border.

One family in particular, the Abu Jarads, was forced to abandon their once comfortable home in northern Gaza when the Israel-Hamas war erupted nearly three months ago, forcing the family members to adhere to a strict survival routine to cope with the devastating conditions. Every family member is designated a daily task, either collecting twigs to build a fire to cook, or scouring the city's markets for vegetables. But even their best efforts can't mask their state of despair.

An older member of the family, Awatif Abu Jarad, told the Associated Press, "We are living like dogs!" Every day has become a struggle to find food, water, medicine, and working bathrooms whilst living in fear of Israeli airstrikes and the growing threat of illnesses. The AP also reported that the southern city of Rafah had a prewar population of around 280,000, a figure that has skyrocketed to over 1 million in recent days, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Rafah's apartment blocks are overloaded with people as extended families have opened their doors to displaced relatives. Thousands of nylon tents are spread to the west of the city. Thousands of Palestinians are sleeping in the open, despite the cold and rainy winter weather.

Northern Gaza is now under the control of the Israeli army after orders demanded that the residents evacuate to the south. Palestinian civilians were forced to crowd into even smaller places, including Rafah and a nearby sliver of land called Muwasi. These alleged safe spaces are still hit by Israeli airstrikes and shelling. The onslaught has killed over 22,400 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, as reported by the AP.

Awatif's brother, Nouman went on to tell AP, that the conflict drove the family the entire length of Gaza. The intensity of Israeli strikes in the border area sent them south to Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City. People were then told to evacuate the hospital pushing the Abu Jarad family to travel the 10-kilometer journey on foot until they reached the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Like many other Palestinian families, they stayed in an overcrowded U.N. school building for over two months, however, left on Dec. 23, as the Israeli army turned its focus toward Hamas targets in central Gaza refugee camps.

What Was Next?

The family was able to escape to Muwasi, assuming it was the safest option. Nouman, once an accountant, sleeps on the nylon-covered floor with his wife, sister, six daughters, and one grandchild. They sleep out in the open and on their sides to conserve space.

Health officials warn of the growing spread of diseases, especially among children. The World Health Organization has reported tens of thousands of cases of upper respiratory infections, diarrhea, lice, scabies, chickenpox, skin rashes, and meningitis in U.N. shelters. The rapid spread of disease is mainly due to overcrowding and poor hygiene caused by a lack of toilets and water for washing.

The Abu Jarad family dug its own makeshift toilet attached to the tent to avoid communal bathrooms. Still, the family is vulnerable to disease.

"My granddaughter is 10 months old, and since the day we came to this place, she has been suffering from weight loss and diarrhea," Majeda, Nouman's wife, told the outlet.

Nouman said he and several of his younger relatives collect jugs of water from one of the public pipes nearby, water that is exclusively used for washing and not suitable for drinking. Next, they head to one of the dozens of drinking water tankers dotted across the city, where they wait in line for hours.

Food prices have shot up as Gazans are facing acute food and medicine shortages and are largely dependent on aid and supplies that trickle in through two crossings, one Egyptian and one Israeli. More than half a million people in Gaza - roughly a quarter of the population - are starving, the United Nations said in late December.
China confirmed that giant pandas will soon return to the United States. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced this during the 45th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the Asian country and the U.S.

In 2023, Beijing pulled out three giant pandas from the Nationa Zoo in Washington, D.C. These are specifically Tian Tian, Mei Xiang, and their cub, Xiao Qi Ji.



Wit that, the National Zoo (aka National Zoological Park) was left with an empty panda exhibit with no certainty that these creatures would return.

Now, the Chinese foreign minister confirmed that China is willing to return its pandas as part of their effort to make peaceful coexistence between it and the U.S.

China Confirms Giant Pandas' Return to US

According to Fox News' latest report, Wang Yi said on Friday, Jan. 5, said that the U.S. and China should have a peaceful coexistence, urging the two nations to transcend their differences.

Wang Yi said that the U.S. and China should do what they did when they were just establishing diplomatic relations 45 years ago.

"China-U.S. cooperation is no longer a dispensable option for the two countries or even for the world, but a must-answer question that must be seriously addressed," said the Chinese foreign minister. via Fortune.

Wang Yi said that the world is undergoing profound changes that were never seen before in the century.

"We must think about how to calibrate the direction of the large ship of China-U.S. relations (and) avoid hidden reefs and dangerous shoals," explained Wang Yi.

To show that China is willing to cooperate with the U.S. once more, Wang Yi also confirmed that giant pandas will soon return to the U.S.

Read Also: 'Bring Ya Ya Home': US Panda's Return to China Ignites Nationalist Sentiment

Pandas Could Return to US

In 2023, a total of 17 giant pandas from across the world returned to China. Among these were the giant pandas in Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tennessee.

When China pulled out its giant panda bears, many people, especially officials, were concerned as they believed Beijing could stop lending these animals to American zoos.

They fear this possibility because the tension between the two superpower nations is intensifying. But, in November 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited San Francisco and told his American audiences that he was considering the return of giant pandas to the United States.

But he was specifically referring to California. This January, Wang Yo backed the recent statement of Xi Jinping, saying that preparations are ready for a giant panda return to California before the year ends.

However, he didn't clarify how many or if they would allow other U.S. states to have these giant bears.

Related Article: UK: Giant Pandas of Edinburgh Zoo Returning Back to China After 12-Year Agreement
Next week the House Judiciary Committee will prepare a resolution to hold Hunter Biden, the embattled son of President Joe Biden, in contempt of Congress after he reportedly defied a subpoena and failed to appear for a deposition.

The younger Biden was due to appear before several committees last month to explain his business dealings. Hunter Biden spoke on the Senate lawn instead, reiterating his willingness to speak with the panels only in a public setting. "We're going to move forward with contempt proceedings. ... There's a process we have to follow, but we plan to do that," House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on Dec. 13.

After the Judiciary Committee votes on the resolution, it must be weighed before the full House.

A Contempt of Congress resolution is largely a recommendation to the Justice Department, which has discretion as to whether or not it will pursue charges. Hunter Biden is currently facing felony tax charges in California, as well as charges in Delaware that stem from him purchasing a firearm without disclosing the use of a controlled substance.

Some Background

Prior to the subpoena, The Hill revealed, the House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R. Kentucky) said that he would "drop everything" if he wanted to testify in public. Biden believes the deal has been reneged upon with the subpoena announcement.

"For six years, I've been the target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine shouting. 'Where's Hunter?'" Biden said in a statement to reporters. "Well, here's my answer. I am here."

"Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business. Not as a practicing lawyer. Not as a board member of Burisma. Not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not my investment at all nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist," he said, examining various crucial facets of the GOP investigations. .

"There's no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because it did not happen," Biden added.In recent years the Justice Department has acted on about half of the contempt of Congress recommendation that it was asked to consider.

The Justice Department levied convictions against both one-time White House strategist Steve Bannon and White House adviser Peter Navarro.

But it declined to bring cases against Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows or communications head Dan Scavino.

"Hunter Biden's willful refusal to comply with our subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney's Office for prosecution. We will not provide him with special treatment because of his last name," Comer and Jordan said in a joint statement.
After years on the run, Scotland-based con man and registered sex offender Nicholas Rossi has been extradited across the pond on Friday (Jan. 5) to face a US court at a future date.

Rossi - a 36-year-old man also known by his real name Nicholas Alahverdian and his alias Arthur Knight - has been suspected of faking his own death in 2020 and hiding out in the UK to avoid sexual abuse charges. He lost his final appeal against being extradited to the US on December 14.

He was previously caught while being treated for COVID-19 at a Glasgow hospital in December 2021.

Scottish Justice Secretary Angela Constance signed an order approving the decision last September.

Officers in Essex have been investigating Rossi in connection with a non-recent rape allegation which was reported to them in April 2022. He is currently on bail in connection with such an investigation.

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Life On the Run

Rossi was first found guilty of sexual imposition and public indecency while he was a student at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio, in 2008. He also allegedly attacked a former girlfriend in Utah, pushing her onto a couch and forcing her to have sexual intercourse while ignoring her pleas to stop.

However, Rossi maintained that he was a victim of mistaken identity, maintaining that he was Knight after officers detained him at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

The Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that his tattoos and fingerprints matched Rossi's, with Sheriff Norman McFadyen ruling that he was indeed the fugitive in November of last year.

However, Rossi claimed that he had been given the tattoos as part of an attempt to frame him while he was lying unconscious in hospital.

Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf told the BBC that he did not want to "prejudice any potential inquiry or court case" in the future but praised the cooperation of Scottish authorities with American colleagues during the trial saga.

Former Utah county attorney David O. Leavitt welcomed the news that the extradition process had been completed, saying that it would have been impossible if not for the cooperation of officials from both sides of the pond.

"This wouldn't have happened without them," he added.

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U.S. Verizon faced a class action lawsuit in a New Jersey courtroom in December.

The plaintiffs alleged that Verizon harmed wireless subscribers with a bogus scheme where extra charges were not properly disclosed. The telecom titan denies any wrongdoing but has agreed to the nine-figure payout. The lawsuit, which originated in New Jersey, where Verizon is headquartered, contends that U.S. Verizon customers with particular wireless service plans were charged higher monthly rates than advertised and promised by adding an "administrative charge" to their monthly bills.

A company spokesperson explained to CNN Business that the charge "helps our company recover certain regulatory compliance and network-related costs." In a statement, Verizon said that it "clearly identifies and describes its wireless consumer admin charge multiple times during the sales transaction, as well as in its marketing, contracts and billing."

Despite the $100 million settlement, Verizon continues to deny any misconduct and according to Forbes, has stated that it will continue to charge administrative fees in the future and that those fees may increase. Nonetheless, as part of the settlement, the company pledges to make fees more transparent to customers.

"Verizon clearly identifies and describes its wireless consumer Admin Charge multiple times during the sales transaction, as well as in its marketing, contracts, and billing," Verizon spokesperson Rich Young said in a statement to USA TODAY. "This charge helps our company recover certain regulatory compliance, and network-related costs."

Last October, after grabbing the attention of the Biden Administration, the Federal Trade Commission unveiled, according to the aforementioned CNN Business article, a proposed rule that would ban businesses from charging hidden or misleading fees and require companies to show full prices upfront.

A "fairness hearing" is scheduled for March.

Who Qualifies for the Verizon Settlement?

Current and former Verizon mobile customers in the United States (based on their last known billing address) who paid any administrative charge and/or "telco recovery charge" between January 1, 2016, and November 8, 2023, are included in the settlement class.

How Much Can You Get?

The Verizon class-action lawsuit payout will vary by customer depending on multiple factors, including how long you were/are a Verizon customer and the number of valid claims submitted.

According to the settlement, eligible parties may receive up to $100. Depending on court costs and the number of eligible claims, the final amount could be lower.

To apply, a special website has been launched to fill out a form with the required information. Customers who don't file a claim "will give up any right you may have to sue Verizon about the issues in this lawsuit," the website said.

The deadline to file electronically is April 15, 2023.
Wadee Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy, was killed when he was stabbed 26 times in his home in Plainfield Township, Illinois on Oct. 14, 2023.

His mother, Hanaan Shahin, 32, suffered critical injuries after being stabbed and strangled. Authorities have called the murder a hate crime motivated by Islamophobia and hostility toward Palestinians, as well as an extremist reaction to the simultaneous Israel-Hamas war that erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.

Joseph Czuba, the landlord of the property where Wadee and his family resided, reportedly knocked on their front door before launching into a verbal tirade. Shahin later told detectives that Czuba was irate over the current situation in Israel, and began making discriminatory threats while strangling her. According to BBC, the mother responded to him with, "Let's pray for peace," and he then attacked her with a knife. Shahin then locked herself in the bathroom but was not quick enough to save her son. When she was able to dial 911, Wadee was enduring a relentless and repeated stabbing by Czuba, until the boy fatally succumbed to his wounds. An autopsy later confirmed he had been stabbed a total of 26 times.

An uncle and family spokesman, Yousef Hannon, said that before the killing "there was no signs of anything wrong" between Joseph Czuba, and the victims. "Czuba was friendly to the whole family, but especially to the kid, who he treated like a grandson," Mr. Hannon told the BBC. "He brought him gifts, he brought him some toys."

Prosecutors assigned to the case revealed Czuba had been listening to conservative talk radio and had become increasingly paranoid about the presence of the Palestinian-American family in his home. According to court documents obtained by BBC, Mr. Czuba's wife told police that her husband feared they would be attacked by people of Middle Eastern descent and, worrying that catastrophe would strike the US power grid, had withdrawn $1,000 from a bank.

Wadee's parents are from a village in the West Bank. His mother had immigrated to the United States 12 years prior as did his father, just 9 years prior. Wadee himself was born in the U.S. In his short life, Wadea "loved everything" - from his parents, to Legos to spending time with friends - said Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Chicago office, during a press conference where CNN was present."He loved everybody," Rehab said. "He loved his parents, he loved his family and his friends, he loved life and he was looking forward to a long, healthy, prosperous life."

Rather than returning to class that Monday, Wadee was buried. Wadee's mother could not attend the funeral service as she was recovering from her injuries at the time.

A Candlelight Vigil Was Held

Odai Al-Fayoume spoke at a vigil outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Illinois, that was organized before a pretrial hearing for Joseph, Czuba. He made an emotional plea for justice and exhorted Americans to reject bigotry and "embraced the diversity that makes our nation so beautiful," reported ABC News.

"I stand before you with a heavy heart, one that's weighted down by immense grief of losing my dear Wadee," Al-Fayoume continued as a crowd behind him held candles on Wednesday.

Speaking through an interpreter, Al-Fayoume said he will not rest until justice is achieved for his son and his son's mother, Hanna Shahin, who survived the attack. "Wadee deserves nothing less than that. We owe it to him to seek justice," Al-Fayoume said. "However, I also want to take a moment to address a larger issue that we cannot ignore: My son was the victim not only of violence but also of prejudice and hatred. He was targeted because of his faith because he was Muslim and that is something we must confront as a society."

US President Joe Biden said in a statement, as reported by ABC News, that in response to the killing, "The child's Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek-- refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace, this horrific act of hate has no place in America."

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called the killing a "shameful reminder of the destructive role Islamophobia plays in our society."

"We grieve alongside his family and the Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian communities in our state as we reckon with this unthinkable loss," Johnson went on to say.

Imam Omar Suleiman, founder and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, and an adjunct professor of Islamic studies in the graduate liberal studies program at Southern Methodist University, said, "Every single Palestinian child is just as beautiful, has just as much of a right to be mourned and when we mourn Wadea, we are mourning all of those children and when we condemn the hate that killed Wadea, we are condemning the hate that has killed all of those children.

"What type of hate has to be manufactured in the head of a man for him to stand over a 6-year-old boy and stab him 26 times?" he added. "I want each and every single one of us to take a step back and to actually assess our own humanity in the moment," he added.

Joseph Czuba pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and two counts of committing a hate crime.
In 2000, Eddie Vedder, the Pearl Jam baritone and outspoken proponent of abortion rights, threatened to move to a different country if George W. Bush were elected president.

With three Supreme Court positions opening in the next administration, Im frightened to think of a Republican in office, he said.

The same year, Alec Baldwin reportedly said hed leave if Bush won. So did the late director Robert Altman.

Bush won. Vedder stayed. Baldwin stayed. Altman stayed. The right-wing joke about huffy posturing by celebrities was born.

Indeed, the threat to leave the United States if X or Y is elected -- or B or T -- is usually both bombastic and empty. The common wisdom is its better not to make the threat at all. Its like divorce. Youre not supposed to mention it unless youre ready to follow through.

But with pollsters telling us that dread tops the list of Americans feelings about the 2024 election, and with former President Donald Trump hoping for an explicitly dictatorial White House comeback, the prospect of decamping for more democratic shores has fresh appeal. Hollow threats are foolish. But its worth remembering a fundamental freedom: to move.

Ive hardly ever thought about leaving the U.S. in political protest. Even after the elections of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, whose politics diverged steeply from my own, expatriating didnt cross my mind. Those two were democratically elected by an American majority.

Yes, being forced to accept presidents who were opposed by the majority of the American electorate -- George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016 -- was demoralizing. Presidents who slide into the Oval Office courtesy of the ever-more-imbalanced Electoral College, with flagrant assists from the Supreme Court (Bush) or the Kremlin (Trump) are terrible for morale in a democracy.

Still, I havent yet fired up listings for rentals in Auckland, New Zealand or Vancouver.

But accepting a leader who installs himself in the White House with a violent insurrection, as Trump tried to do just three years ago? Thats where the expatriation fantasy kicks in in earnest.

In last years sweeping history of human civilization, The Dawn of Everything, authors David Graeber and David Wengrow propose that human society requires three priceless freedoms: to disobey, to reimagine society and to move away.

To remember that we can indeed escape this country if the American experiment is hijacked is to send a signal to the nervous system that were still free -- in all three ways. Until all the borders and harbors and highways close, until every single plane is grounded and martial law instituted, were not stuck here.

Its a deeply worthwhile practice of citizenship to visit the question of whether America has finally failed. After all, the origin story of many American families is escape. Consider it a thought experiment: What would it take for you to leave?

According to Gallup, record numbers of Americans seriously considered leaving the United States during Trumps term. Sixteen percent said they wanted to split for good. This was considerably higher than during the administrations of George W. Bush (11%) and Barack Obama (10%). Most notably, 40% of women under 30 told Gallup in 2019 that theyd like to leave. According to data collected last year by the Washington Post, the desire to get out spiked again after Roe vs. Wade was overturned in June 2022.

When I asked ChatGPT about emigrating to Canada I didnt exactly get the kindly Come on in! message Id hoped for. Instead, it told me to try my luck with the Canadian bureaucracy -- visas and family sponsorship, Express Entry and the Provincial Nominee Program.

If you can find a foothold abroad, its easier than ever to support yourself in foreign lands. Pandemic-era workforces remain far-flung. Last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that around 28% of private-sector establishments had employees teleworking some or all the time. You might be able to leave the U.S. and take your job with you.

And plenty of people do leave. In 2020, a prominent American legal journalist took her family to Canada, where she grew up. Shes content no longer to live in the long shadow of our sold-out, far-right Supreme Court. A 26-year-old gay American, who presciently fled stateside political instability for Norway in 2019, convened a Reddit group called r/AmerExit to help others considering a move. One member, Richard Altfeld, headed to the Netherlands with his wife, Tiana Esperanza. A biracial couple, Altfeld and Esperanza were -- among other things -- fed up with American racism.

The urge to escape, of course, isnt only felt by liberals. Another Gallup poll finds that pride in being American is at near-record lows for Republicans.

If theyre casting around for new homelands, Republicans might look to Trump for inspiration. On the stump hes been lavishing praise on the dictatorships in Hungary, China, Russia and North Korea. His followers have at least four solid options for expatriation if President Joe Biden wins reelection.

But, of course, actually leaving isnt easy. The hitch in moving to Canada may be bureaucracy. But the hitch in moving to the autocracies that are richest in Trumpian values is that they also tend to be hostile to immigrants.
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to take on former President Donald Trump's Colorado ballot disqualification case.

The development comes after the Republican businessman urged the country's high court to review the politically controversial decision of the Colorado Supreme Court. That ruling found that Trump was ineligible for the presidency because he was involved in an insurrection.

Supreme Court Takes Donald Trump Case

The Supreme Court set a swift schedule for filings from the parties involved in the appeal brought by Trump. In a brief order, the justices said that arguments will be held on Feb. 8, and a decision is expected to come quickly after. This is because Super Tuesday, which is when Colorado and more than a dozen other states will hold their primaries or caucuses, is scheduled on Mar. 5.

The dispute is centered around the Constitution's so-called insurrection clause, which is a Civil War-era provision that prohibits an individual who has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution but engages in insurrection from holding public office, as per CBS News.

In a divided 4-3 decision on Dec. 19, the Colorado Supreme Court concluded that Trump is disqualified from serving as president. Those in support of the ruling argued that his conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot amounted to insurrection.

The state's high court then barred the Republican businessman from being listed on its 2024 primary ballot. However, it paused its decision to allow the former president and the Colorado GOP time to appeal the decision.

The controversy regarding Trump's eligibility for the presidency is sending the Supreme Court into new territory. The high court has never, in history, ruled directly on the 155-year-old provision that is at the center of the current case, which is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

On top of the Colorado ruling, the former president is also appealing a decision by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows that also bars him from that state's ballot for the 2024 race. It was also on hold until Trump's appeals played out in courts, according to Yahoo News.

The Supreme Court's decision to intervene in the matter is the most direct involvement in a presidential election since Bush v. Gore in 2000. During that time, a conservative majority effectively decided the election for Republican George W. Bush. Among the justices from that era, only Clarence Thomas remains on the court.

Read Also: Donald Trump Appeals Maine's Decision To Remove His Name From 2024 Ballot Over Alleged Insurrection

Trump's Involvement in Insurrection

While three of the nine justices in the Supreme Court were appointed by Trump, they have repeatedly ruled against him in 2020 election-related lawsuits. This is also true for his efforts to keep documents related to Jan. 6 and his tax returns from being turned to congressional committees.

Among Trump's other legal challenges, the one by New York Attorney General Letitia James could force the former president to pay $370 million. This is in relation to his alleged deceptive schemes, including inaccurately boosting his net worth and avoiding tax payments.

The Republican businessman's initial response to the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling was dismissive. His attorneys wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court that the Colorado decision erred in how it described Trump's role in the Capitol Hill riot.

The former president is set to file his opening brief in the case by Jan. 18 as Colorado voters challenging his eligibility for office will file their opening arguments by Jan. 31. The timeline compresses the usual briefing schedule to only one-third of its common length. This underscores how quickly the justices are choosing to move on the matter, said CNN.



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A well-known model from Kazakhstan and Russia, Ruslana Korshunova, tragically took her own life at the age of 20 in her Wall Street apartment in 2008. Shockingly, it has come to light that two years prior to her death, she had been flown to Jeffrey Epstein's infamous private island, also known as "Pedophile Island."

Court documents, recently unsealed, have revealed a network of people connected to Epstein, including his accusers, staff members, and business associates who gave testimonies about his alleged exploitation of underage girls, as per Daily Mail.

Jeffrey Epstein's Controversial Island Haven

Epstein's private island, called Little St. James, is a 72-acre estate located approximately 2 miles off the coast of St. Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands. The island consisted of several villas and was accessible via a boat labeled LSJ. While Epstein made donations to local officials and schools, he was not respected nor regarded as an upstanding member of the community, given his status as a registered sex offender.

Epstein's activities on the island were carried out discreetly, facilitated by his private jet and two helicopters from Hyperion Air, which transported young women and underage girls between St. Thomas and Little St. James. Some air traffic controllers and airport personnel even reported witnessing Epstein with girls who appeared to be underage. Authorities were often denied entry to the private island, highlighting Epstein's ability to evade scrutiny due to his wealth and power.

Epstein's dealings with the law prior to his 2019 arrest shed light on the lenient treatment he received. In 2008, he struck a deal with prosecutors in Florida, pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor and serving only 13 months in jail. This non-prosecution agreement allowed him to continue his criminal activities relatively unimpeded.

The recent release of court documents has revived public interest in Epstein's associates, as well as his private jet, known as the "Lolita Express." This Boeing 727, which once transported prominent figures like Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, is now scheduled to be dismantled and scrapped. The current owner, upon learning of the plane's dark history, decided to abandon any plans of profiting from it, according to CBS News.

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Settlements Unmask Jeffrey Epstein's Network of Influential Figure

Epstein's victims, such as Virginia Giuffre, have settled cases with individuals like Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz. The ongoing legal proceedings and the release of sealed documents have further exposed the extensive network of influential individuals associated with Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

The revelation of Epstein's island activities has brought unwanted attention to the rich and famous who had brushed shoulders with him. Despite some apologies and claims of ignorance from those involved, the public remains curious about the extent of their knowledge and involvement.

Jeffrey Epstein's death in prison while awaiting trial left many questions unanswered, and his connections to powerful figures continue to fuel conspiracy theories. The recently unsealed court records have once again cast a spotlight on the influential personalities who had socialized with Epstein and Maxwell, raising concerns about their potential complicity in the abuse of underage girls.

As investigations into Epstein's activities continue, the world watches with anticipation to see if justice will be served and if all those involved will be held accountable for their actions. The case serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerability of victims and the importance of uncovering the truth behind such heinous crimes, Finno Expert reported.

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Microsoft's discontinued PC accessories, including a range of popular keyboards, mice, and others are set to be revived by Incase under a unique new partnership.

The tech giant's decision last year to discontinue a range of its products surprised many consumers after they had been in the market for decades. The development followed Microsoft's shift in focus to the Surface brand.

Microsoft's Discontinued PC Accessories

During an interview, Onward Brands CEO Charlie Tebele said that the discontinued products will still be the same but instead of Microsoft, they will say Incase, designed by Microsoft. Onward Brands is the parent company that is responsible for the Incase, Incipio, Griffin, and Survivor brands that make accessories for laptops and mobile devices.

The development is the first time that Incase will be offering PC accessories such as keyboards, mice, and webcams. The company will be using the same manufacturing components and supply chain as Microsoft and will be licensing the designs for a variety of items.

Microsoft-designed mice will also continue to live on and be available to consumers, including the Bluetooth Ergonomic Mouse and the Modern Mobile Mouse. Incase is also planning to offer Microsoft-designed speakers, audio docks, headsets, and the Modern Webcam, as per The Verge.

New products that the tech giant started but never shipped would also be coming out for consumers to purchase. Tebele noted that there is a new item coming out that Microsoft had under development.

He said that it is a new ergonomic keyboard that is very exciting and they will be announcing that it is under design by Microsoft as well. When asked if there are more unannounced Microsoft designs that could come out, Tebele said "there's a potential" for more.

All of the discontinued Microsoft products that will be revived will look and perform exactly the way they did before. Incase is licensing the designs from Microsoft but neither of the two companies is willing to disclose the exact terms of the agreement.

Reports noted that Microsoft will still retain ownership of its designs, so there is a potential to bring back classic mice or keyboards in the future or continue to renew its license to Incase, according to ArsTechnica.

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Reviving the Products Under a New Brand

The general manager of Surface, Nancie Gaskill said that for its part, Microsoft is still convicted of going under one single brand. Microsoft's decision to discontinue a wide array of products meant that it would only focus on more expensive, higher-end designs worthy of Surface branding.

A general manager at Incase's parent company Onward Brands, Marshall Clark said that consumers should expect to see their favorite products back on the market this year under the Incase brand, said PCMag.

Over the years, Microsoft's ergonomic keyboards and mice have proven to be popular among its consumers. This meant that there was an understandable disappointment from the PC community following the announcement of the discontinuation of the products.

Tebele noted that they have seen people not happy with the phase-out, adding that he expects them to be thrilled about the latest development with Incase, which he said is particularly true about the new ergonomic keyboard they plan to release.



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South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) has put forward a revision to the credit finance act, aiming to prohibit the use of credit cards by local citizens for purchasing cryptocurrencies.

The proposed amendment primarily seeks to restrict South Korean crypto traders from buying crypto on foreign exchanges, according to the FSC. The regulator has expressed concerns about illicit outflows of domestic funds, potential money laundering, and the promotion of speculative activities.

South Korea's FSC Targets Cryptocurrency Payments

The highest financial regulatory body in South Korea has introduced these restrictions due to worries surrounding the unlawful movement of domestic funds abroad through card payments on overseas virtual asset exchanges.

The FSC's notice emphasized the need to prohibit virtual assets as a form of payment in order to combat these concerns. The commission hopes that by establishing collaborations with international entities, it can strengthen measures to prevent both foreign currency outflows and money laundering.

Feedback from the public on the proposed amendment is currently being sought, with the consultation period running until February 13th. Following the review and resolution process, the amendment is projected to come into effect in the first half of this year. South Korea is widely regarded as a lucrative market for cryptocurrencies, boasting a high rate of crypto adoption. A survey conducted by KuCoin revealed that 26% of South Korean adults currently hold cryptocurrencies.

In an effort to regulate the industry, the country has already mandated identification verification for all users involved in deposits and withdrawals from local cryptocurrency exchanges. However, these regulatory measures do not extend to overseas crypto exchanges targeting the South Korean population, according to Finance Magnates.

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South Korea Eyes Credit Card Limits

South Korea is not the first to consider imposing restrictions on credit card purchases of cryptocurrencies. Taiwan, for example, has previously prohibited the use of credit cards for crypto transactions and has even advised banks and credit card companies not to engage in partnerships with cryptocurrency service providers.

Various banks have occasionally prevented their customers from using credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies, citing concerns over the asset class's volatility and associated risks. The FSC aims to broaden the scope of prohibited credit card payments to include crypto exchanges in order to effectively combat the outflow of foreign currency and mitigate the risk of money laundering, as stated in a recent announcement. The FSC has invited organizations and individuals to provide their comments on the proposal by February 13th.

In addition to this credit card restriction, the FSC has also proposed new regulations to protect users of cryptocurrency exchanges. These rules would require exchanges to store a minimum of 80% of their customers' deposits in cold wallets, which are offline wallets offering greater security against hacks. Furthermore, exchanges would be obliged to compensate customers for using their deposits by paying them transaction fees.

Overall, the FSC's proposed amendment to the credit finance act in South Korea reflects the growing concerns surrounding the use of credit cards for cryptocurrency purchases. With the aim of curbing illegal financial outflows and strengthening anti-money laundering efforts, the regulator seeks to strike a balance between fostering innovation in the crypto industry and ensuring the protection of investors and the integrity of the financial system, Business Insider reported.

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An Iowa community is in shock after a 17-year-old student opened fire at Perry High School, killing one student and injuring five others. Dylan Butler, a senior at the school, allegedly targeted the victims before turning the gun on himself.

Classmates revealed that Butler had been a long-time victim of bullying, and the situation became even more distressing when his younger sister also experienced it, as per Daily Mail.

Perry High School Shooter Dylan Butler

The tragic incident occurred on Thursday morning when police responded to an active shooter report at the high school in Perry, a city located about 30 miles northwest of Des Moines. Armed with a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun, Butler began shooting, resulting in the death of a sixth grader who attended Perry Middle School.

While the identity of the victim has not been released, officials have stated that the injured individuals are expected to survive.

Governor Kim Reynolds expressed her condolences to the community, calling the shooting a "senseless tragedy" that has shaken Perry and the entire state. The motive for the shooting remains unknown as the investigation is ongoing.

During a news conference, Mitch Mortvedt, the assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, revealed that responding officers found victims who had been shot and the shooter dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Additionally, an "improvised explosive device" was discovered, but it was rendered safe by the state fire marshal and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Evidence suggests that Butler acted alone, and authorities have noted that he made several social media posts before and around the time of the shooting. The attack occurred before the start of the school day, when only a few students and faculty members were present on campus due to a breakfast program.

As details emerge, it has been reported that Butler shared a cryptic video on his now-deleted social media just moments before the shooting. The video, analyzed by the media, depicted Butler in a school bathroom stall with a blue duffle bag at his feet, according to NBC News.

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Iowa School Shooter's Disturbing Social Media Posts

The caption accompanying the video read, "Now we wait." The unsettling footage was set to the song "Stray Bullet" by the rock group KMFDM, featuring lyrics such as "I'm your nightmare coming true, I am your worst enemy" and "Stray bullet, from the barrel of love."

The Perry High School campus, which houses both a middle school and high school, is located in a small town approximately 40 miles northwest of Des Moines. Investigators have also discovered other photos on Butler's social media accounts, which show him posing with firearms.

Classmates and family members have come forward, alleging that Butler had been a victim of persistent bullying since elementary school. The situation worsened when his sister became a target as well. The family had brought the matter to the attention of the school, but it remains unclear if any action was taken in response to their complaints.

"Yesenia Roeder Hall, 17, stated, 'He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment.' Although she acknowledges that retaliating by shooting up the school was not a wise decision, the tragedy provides a grim reminder of the consequences of unchecked bullying.

As the investigation continues, the community mourns the loss of a student's life and grapples with the aftermath of this unfortunate event. The incident serves as a somber reminder of the importance of addressing bullying in schools and ensuring the safety and well-being of students, WION reported.

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A 3-year-old boy named Brayden Smith lost his life after being struck by a stray bullet in his own home in Northeast Memphis, Tennessee. Authorities have attributed this horrific tragedy to the dangerous practice of "celebratory gunfire."

According to police reports from Action News 5, the incident occurred around 6 p.m. when a bullet penetrated the window of the Smith family's apartment, as per New York Post.

Brayden Smith's Tragic Death Spurs GoFundMe Support

Brayden Smith was immediately rushed to a local children's hospital in critical condition. However, despite the efforts of medical professionals, he tragically passed away early Wednesday morning, as confirmed by police spokesperson Christopher Williams.

Assistant Police Chief Don Crowe spoke to a local news station, stating that preliminary information suggests the stray bullet may have originated from a different part of the apartment complex.

Crowe emphasized the illegality of celebratory gunfire and its potential for catastrophic consequences. "We've tried to stress that this month: Celebratory gunfire is illegal and celebratory gunfire leads to tragic events like this, and we just have to stop shooting these guns," Crowe pleaded.

The Memphis Police Department reported receiving records of over 327 gunshots through their gunfire detection software during the New Year's Eve period, while dispatchers received approximately 195 calls reporting shots fired, according to Williams. Despite ongoing investigations, the authorities have yet to identify and apprehend the person responsible for firing the fatal bullet that claimed Brayden's life.

In response to the devastating loss, a close acquaintance of the Smith family created a GoFundMe campaign to provide financial support during this unimaginably difficult time. The organizer, Jaleesha Brown, expressed deep sorrow for the tragedy and urged the community to come together in solidarity.

The campaign aims to alleviate some of the financial burdens associated with funeral expenses and convey love and support to Brayden's grieving loved ones. As of Wednesday, the fundraiser has managed to raise $2,473, according to USA Today.

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Community Supports Brayden's Family, Calls for Justice

Meanwhile, community members are rallying around Brayden's family, offering their support and hoping for the apprehension of the shooter. Larry Hunter, a representative of the Touched by an Angel organization, distributed meals to residents of the apartment complex and voiced his concern over the incident. "You're at home. You're thinking you're in a place of safety, and a bullet comes from nowhere. It really bothered me. It could've been my son, my grandson, your son," Hunter emphasized.

The Memphis Police Department disclosed that between 9 p.m. on New Year's Eve and 3 a.m. on New Year's Day, their gunfire detection software recorded over 327 gunshots. Dispatchers were inundated with 195 calls reporting shots fired.

The police emphasized the need to halt the dangerous practice of celebratory gunfire, reiterating its illegal status and its potential for tragic events, such as the untimely death of young Brayden Smith.

As the investigation continues, the community mourns the loss of an innocent life and hopes for justice. The incident serves as a somber reminder of the dangers associated with celebratory gunfire and the need for collective action to prevent further tragedies, KGNS reported.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his condolences to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi following a "serious terrorist attack" in Iran this week, as reported by state media on Thursday.

During a ceremony honoring the late General Qassem Soleimani, at least 84 people were killed in two explosions that caused chaos and devastation, as per Newsweek.

Xi Jinping Condemns Terror Attacks in Iran

The assassination of Soleimani by a US drone strike in 2020 continues to have significant repercussions in the region. China's official Xinhua News Agency stated that President Xi conveyed his shock at the terror attacks in Kerman, which resulted in heavy casualties. He firmly reiterated China's opposition to all forms of terrorism, strongly condemned such attacks, and expressed China's steadfast support for Iran in maintaining national security and stability.

The southeastern region of Iran where the attack occurred reported numerous injuries. Immediately following the explosions, Iranian officials attributed the act to terrorism, and the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility on Thursday. This attack marks the deadliest incident in Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

In response, Iran's mission to the United Nations vowed to "respond with fire and fury" to the orchestrators, although they have yet to address the ISIS claim. Iran has been a key supporter of the Hamas militant group and supplies arms, in addition to providing weapons to the Houthi rebels in Yemen who are currently disrupting shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

On the other hand, China has maintained a neutral stance in the Middle East and has refrained from condemning the Palestinian fighters in Gaza for their incursion into Israel last October or directly accusing the Houthis of threatening international maritime security.

Beijing's relatively restrained response aligns with its geopolitical agenda in the region, where it seeks to broker ceasefires and leverage its positive image in the global south.

In his message to President Raisi, President Xi Jinping expressed solidarity with Iran, as the two countries have cultivated a comprehensive partnership in recent years encompassing various domains such as economics, military, and technology. China and Iran position themselves as counterweights to US influence in Asia and the Middle East.

In March 2021, the two nations signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement, underscoring their commitment to deepen their ties. The Chinese leadership has not assigned blame for the attack in Iran, but some Chinese experts have directly linked the bombings to the United States and Israel, according to Reuters.

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Fudan Researcher Links Iran Attack to US, Israel

Sun Degang, a researcher at Fudan University in Shanghai, suggested that the Western allies may have instigated local factions to carry out the attack, which occurred on the anniversary of Soleimani's death. Sun claimed that the attack aligns with recent military actions by the United States and Israel targeting Iran and its proxies.

The dual explosions during the ceremony for Qassem Soleimani resulted in the loss of nearly 100 lives and left numerous others injured. Iranian officials initially attributed the incident to unspecified "terrorists." President Xi Jinping expressed his shock at the attack and reaffirmed China's opposition to terrorism, along with its strong condemnation of such acts.

He offered sincere condolences on behalf of the Chinese government and people, extending sympathy to the bereaved families and the injured. The bombings occurred during a commemoration event in Kerman, located approximately 820 kilometers southeast of Tehran. The second explosion occurred as the crowd attempted to flee from the chaos caused by the first blast, causing widespread panic and further casualties.

The international community, including the United Nations, the European Union, and countries such as Russia, Turkey, and Germany, have strongly denounced these bombings as horrific acts of terrorism. While investigations into the attack continue, the global community remains united in its resolve to combat terrorism and uphold peace worldwide.

This tragic incident serves as a stark reminder of the need for collective efforts to prevent, condemn, and eradicate terrorism, ensuring the safety and stability of nations, China Daily reported.

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Social media star Gypsy Rose Blanchard has quickly gained millions of followers after her recent release from a decade-long prison sentence.

Although it is rare for a social media personality to be convicted of second-degree murder, Blanchard, now 32, pleaded guilty to this charge in 2016 for her involvement in plotting the murder of her abusive mother, Claudine "Dee Dee" Blanchard, in their Missouri home in 2015, with assistance from her former boyfriend at the time.

Since her release, Gypsy Rose Blanchard claims to have undergone a complete transformation and has finally become the woman she had always dreamt of being, as per to Fox News.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Personal Struggles Revealed

ABC News' Good Morning America managed to secure the first exclusive TV interview with Blanchard, who expressed gratitude for the life experiences she gained during her seven-year prison stay. In a clip released by TMZ, Blanchard opened up to Deborah Roberts, co-anchor of "20/20" and ABC's senior national affairs correspondent, emphasizing the valuable life lessons she learned in prison. She proudly acknowledges the positive impact that her time behind bars had on shaping her post-prison life.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard believes that, just like anyone else, she matured through trial and error during her time in prison, transcending the confines of the correctional facility.

Blanchard's personal life, which unfolded during her incarceration, is now publicly known, including her romantic involvement with her husband, Ryan, whom she married while in prison. Despite facing criticism, Blanchard steadfastly supported Ryan both inside and outside the bedroom.

Ryan also accompanied Gypsy Rose Blanchard during the Good Morning America interview. The full interview, scheduled to air on Friday, promises to provide further insight into her life and experiences.

Recently, Gypsy Rose Blanchard caused a stir on social media when she revealed to People magazine the state of her mental health while planning her mother's murder. Alongside this shocking revelation, Blanchard disclosed that she had experienced childhood molestation at the hands of her grandfather, Claude Pitre, which will be explored further in an upcoming documentary series, according to TMZ.

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Post-Prison Life and Docuseries Insights

As reported by TMZ, Gypsy Rose Blanchard made her television debut on ABC News' Good Morning America, where she discussed her post-prison life. She spoke about the significant personal growth she underwent during her prison sentence, transforming into the woman she had always aspired to be. In an exclusive clip provided by TMZ, Gypsy Rose Blanchard also shared details about her upcoming docuseries, "The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard."

Fans eagerly expressed their anticipation, calling 2024 Gypsy's year of success and labeling her an iconic figure in her celebrity era. However, not everyone shared the same enthusiasm, with some individuals voicing their indifference towards Blanchard's appearance on Good Morning America. Yet, amidst the varying views, one user made a derogatory comment about Blanchard's appearance.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard's release from prison has undeniably made headlines, capturing the attention of both supporters and skeptics. Her pending interview on Good Morning America is set to shed further light on her unique journey, revealing the woman she has become after her lengthy prison stay, Meaww reported.

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Washington officials renewed their criticism of the Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega earlier this week for "unjustly" putting Matagalpa Bishop Rolando Alvarez in prison for alleged treason, demanding the regime to free the prelate immediately and without conditions.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller called on Ortega and his vice president, Rosario Murillo, to release Alvarez, who has spent over 500 days in La Modelo Tipitapa - one of Latin America's most notorious prisons. He added that the videos and photographs released by Managua only exacerbated concerns about his well-being.

Keeping Alvarez in Jail

The pronouncements came after the Ortega regime sentenced Alvarez to more than 26 years in prison, stripped him of his citizenship, and declared him a traitor last February for allegedly "undermining national integrity" and "propagation of false news."

The conviction came after the bishop refused to be exiled to the United States with four other priests and 222 other political prisoners who were expelled to the US as part of a prisoner exchange with the US State Department.

The regime also claimed late last year that they released an additional 12 priests in a separate deal with the Vatican.

Despite this, Alvarez chose to remain in Nicaragua in protest against the regime's crackdown on the Catholic Church in recent years. Another bishop named Isidoro Mora and several priests also remain in Nicaraguan captivity, according to EWTN.

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Washington Accuses Ortega's Regime of Crimes Against Humanity

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom recently reported that the Nicaraguan government has shut down charities, stripped universities of funding and legal status, eliminated non-governmental organizations, and banned news media.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis - the Vatican's first Latin American pontiff - compared Alvarez's imprisonment to Hitler's Nazi regime and called out Ortega as "unstable."

US officials have long accused Ortega's administration of crimes against humanity for waging war against religious freedom and civil liberties. Both the Trump and Biden administrations and members of Congress passed measures to sanction financial lifelines to the Nicaraguan government.

However, Republican representative Chris Smith (NJ) told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration has not been doing enough to address Nicaragua's erosion of civil society and its diplomatic leanings toward China, Russia, and Iran, suggesting that the US needed to add more "concrete steps to punish the regime."

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A man in Pennsylvania was forced to pay squatters invading his house after the police refused to intervene with the issue. He paid them thousands of dollars so that they would leave his residence, which he was planning to sell.

Although squatting is illegal in the United States, all U.S. states have squatters' rights (aka the adverse possession law). This is why it is important to protect the house you're not currently occupying.

If you own more than one residential place, here's what you need to know about the disappointing experience of a Pennsylvania homeowner.

Pennsylvania Man Pays Squatters to Leave His Home!

According to Fox News' latest report, Chris Harte asked for assistance from law enforcement authorities after he discovered that squatters invaded his house.

His issue with squatters began in December 2023, when he was processing to sell an investment property he renovated in northwest Philadelphia. However, on December 8, 2023, his real estate agent said that someone living near Harte's residence called him.

Real estate agent Bob Cervone said the woman told her that she heard a commotion at night and saw some people moving into the house. The neighbor even claimed that those unknown individuals took down the "for sale" sign.

Because of this, Harte called police officers, who went to the house. But, instead of making the squatters, they called him back and informed him that people had attempted to put new locks on the door.

They said that squatters claimed to be renting the house, leaving them no other option but to leave them alone. After that, Harte, his real estate agent and locksmith, decided to meet the police at his house.

"I had all my paperwork, purchase and sale agreement, homeowner's insurance, the deed to the home, everything on me. They said it didn't matter," said the homeowner.

Harte said that cops told him that people who invaded his house had squatters' rights as soon as they moved in. Because of this, they suggested filing a landlord-tenant complaint.

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Pennsylvania Man Blames Squatters' Rights

Harte said that the court staff told him that he had to pay $300 to file for an eviction against the settlers, which could take almost a year.

This fee is not included in the $1,200 he had to pay a squatter just to leave his house. Because of this, he is now blaming squatters' rights for his negative experience.

"It's just unbelievable. The city is rewarding criminals, basically," he said.

The American Apartment Owners Association (AAOA) said that all 50 U.S. states have squatters' rights, which refer to laws that allow squatters to inhabit another person's property.

They will have these rights if the lawful owner doesn't evict or act against them. Squatters' rights will apply depending on the years required by the state.

For example, in Pennsylvania, squatters will have their squatters' rights if homeowners don't take action against them within 21 years. If you want to learn more about squatters' rights in the U.S., you can click this link.

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The most recent laptop designed by Huawei is powered by a chip manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), as shown by a gadget breakdown, which ended speculation about yet another technological breakthrough in China.



Huawei's new laptop, the Qingyun L450, was released in China not long ago, and it runs on the advanced 5-nm HiSilicon Kirin 9006C. This has sparked speculation that Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), a Chinese chip manufacturing behemoth from whom Huawei sources processors, has finally achieved a 5nm manufacturing breakthrough.

Chip Made by TSMC

Research firm TechInsights discovered, during the disassembly process, that the Qingyun L540 laptop contained a 5-nm semiconductor manufactured by the Taiwanese business in 2020, around when the United States imposed sanctions that severed Huawei's ties to the chip manufacturer. According to Bloomberg, that disproves the rumor that SMIC, a mainland Chinese chipmaker partner of Huawei's, has made a significant technological advancement in fabrication.

When Huawei unveiled a smartphone in August 2023 with a 7-nm processor manufactured by Shanghai-based SMIC, it generated quite a stir in China and the US. A breakdown by TechInsights showed that the Mate 60 Pro's chip was only a few years behind the latest technology. This is exactly what US trade restrictions were meant to stop. The Chinese technology industry celebrated the news while the US debated the efficacy of penalties.

See Also: Huawei Ships Chinese-Made Surveillance Chips in Defiance of US Sanctions

Leading China's Domestic Tech Development

In a report by South China Morning Post, the Mate 60 smartphone's innovations in 2023 solidified Huawei's position as the vanguard of China's drive to develop indigenous technology and distance itself from Western influences. The smartphone was a smashing success in China in the last quarter, helping the business reclaim the very significant $100 billion sales mark and chipping away at Apple's iPhone supremacy in the process.

Entering the 5-nm market would have been a huge step forward for Huawei, putting it in line with the state-of-the-art techniques that are now in use, which are mostly focused on 3-nm nodes. Chips as sophisticated as 5-nm were supplied to Huawei by TSMC before the two companies severed relations.

Over the last several years, Huawei has invested billions into semiconductor research and development (R&D) and inventory while simultaneously establishing a network of local suppliers and manufacturing partners--sometimes with the support of the government.

Huawei, which was formerly dominant in the networking industry, started selling laptops like the L540 in 2016 as part of its efforts to diversify its product portfolio.

Its release is timed with an upsurge in demands for the replacement of foreign equipment in sensitive areas, such as the outright ban on iPhones in the workplace and the replacement of Dell and HP personal computers.

The new laptop, according to some sellers, was made to meet China's strict regulations for the protection of sensitive government data. The security aspects of the gadget are highlighted on Huawei's official site, but no specifics are provided.

See Also: Huawei Unveils New EVs After Aito Rapidly Gains Popularity in China
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won her fifth term in the position with an overwhelming majority as the opposition party boycotted the election.

An Election Commission spokesperson said that Hasina's ruling Awami League "won the election" during the early hours of Monday. The announcement came after a vote that initial reports suggested had a turnout as low as 40%.

Sheikh Hasina Wins Bangladesh Election

Hasina has presided over breakneck economic growth in a nation that had previously been beset by grinding poverty. However, her government has received widespread accusations of rampant human rights abuses and has been the subject of a ruthless opposition crackdown.

The prime minister's party faced almost no effective rivals in the seats it contested but it avoided fielding candidates in a few constituencies. This was part of an apparent effort to avoid the legislature being called a one-party institution.

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called a general strike and refused to participate in what they called a "sham election" along with dozens of others. The party's ranks have been decimated by mass arrests, as per The Guardian.

While the final result and exact numbers of the Bangladesh election will be formally announced later at a ceremony on Monday, election commission officials said that Hasina's party had won roughly three-quarters of the seats. This meant that the Awami League had at least 220 of the total 300 seats.

However, support from other lawmakers, including from allied parties, could push the Awami League's control over parliament even higher. The 76-year-old prime minister had called for citizens to show faith in the democratic process.

In a statement after casting her vote, Hasina said that the BNP is a "terrorist organization," adding that she has been trying her best to ensure that democracy would continue in the country.

Read Also: US Intelligence Believes Russia's Reliance on North Korea, Iran is Apparent

Opposition Party Boycotts Vote

The people of the country had largely turned away from the vote on Sunday as initial signs suggested the low turnout. This came despite widespread efforts of carrot-and-stick inducements that sought to bolster the poll's legitimacy among the citizens, according to Aljazeera.

The secretary of the Election Commission, Jahangir Alam said that voting was canceled at the centers due to irregularities. Badiul Alam Majumder, an independent election observer and civil society activist said that he did not consider the vote a "proper election at all."

Majumder said that the recent election had a seriously low turnout, which is probably the lowest that he had ever seen in his life. He added that his organization did not officially monitor the vote that was held in Bangladesh this year.

Hasina's victory in the election comes as she is considered to be the longest current-serving female leader in the world. She ruled Bangladesh between 1996 and 2001 and returned to office in 2009 and has been the prime minister since.

A columnist and political analyst, Kamal Ahmed said that whoever the people of the nation vote for, it would be in the Awami League's favor. This is the reason that he said that the latest poll was not a "real election." He added that it does not reflect the people's voice or people's mind, said the Financial Times.



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United States Rep. Lauren Boebert denied accusations that she punched her ex-husband Jayson Boebert as she is part of a police investigation after an incident in a Colorado restaurant.

The incident occurred on Saturday night and it is being investigated by the Silt Police Department. Silt Police Chief Mike Kite confirmed that the investigation is ongoing but declined to add further details because they were still gathering facts.

Lauren Boebert Under Investigation

Law enforcement personnel responded to a call to the Miner's Claim restaurant located in SIlt on Saturday night. However, Kite initially did not provide details or describe the nature of the incident or even the accusations. He added that the Silt Police Department will release its report on the incident after the investigation concludes.

The police chief said that they already had a lot of facts and needed to sort out a lot of stuff but noted that no one was taken into custody at the restaurant. Boebert released a statement from her campaign manager, saying that it was a "sad situation" that kept escalating.

She noted that it was just another reason that she was moving and proceeded to deny claims that she punched her ex-husband in the face, as per the Denver Post.

The American representative said that she plans to consult with her lawyer regarding Jayson's claims about her during their Saturday night encounter. The latter said during a short phone interview that he called the Silt Police Department on Sunday morning and explained that he did not want to press charges against her ex-wife.

Jayson said that he did not want anything to happen regarding the situation, adding that he and his ex-wife were working through a difficult conversation. He ended the interview without answering more questions regarding the incident in the restaurant.

The couple's meeting at the restaurant was allegedly to settle a previous argument after Boebert picked up one of her sons at Jayson's home. There, the lawmaker's ex-husband allegedly started being disrespectful and showed aggressive behavior, which prompted her to become defensive, according to the Daily Beast.

Read Also: Hunter Biden Defiant, Contempt of Congress Charge Looms

Punching Her Ex-Husband

The situation comes as Boebert, who represents Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, filed for divorce from her husband in April last year, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce became final in October and came as the couple had been married since 2005 and have four sons and one grandchild.

The incident also comes after Boebert announced last month that she would switch congressional districts ahead of a tough re-election race, leaving the state's 3rd District for the 4th.

While congressional candidates are not required to live in the districts that they represent, Boebert said that she would leave Silt and move to the 4th next year. The lawmaker was first elected to Congress in 2020.

Several other Republican candidates had already said that they would run in the primary for the 4th District seat, which is open following Rep. Ken Buck's retirement announcement. Boebert's decision to change districts gives the Republican Party a stronger foothold in the 3rd District in a fight against Democrat Adam Frisch, said the Washington Post.

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United States President Joe Biden's administration is facing internal pressure as Israel signaled expanding its war against Hamas in Gaza to include fighting the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon.

For the past three months, Jerusalem has been in a conflict with Hamas over the massacre of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire across the border separating the two nations.

Israel Signals Expansion of War Effort to Lebanon

Israel has steadily grown restive as multiple northern communities are targeted by attacks from its opponents. In a statement on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that they prefer the path of an agreed-upon diplomatic settlement. He added that they are now getting close to the point where the hourglass will "turn over."

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Israeli Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz indicated that the Middle Eastern nation will make northern Israel safe for its citizens, one way or another. He added that the reality was that the citizens of Northern Israel are not able to return to their homes, which is something that requires an urgent solution, as per the Western Journal.

Gantz said that the world needs to remember that it was the terrorist group Hezbollah that initiated the escalation with Israel. He noted that his nation is interested in a diplomatic solution but argued that if one cannot be found, then Israel and the IDF will remove the threat.

The Israeli official added that all of the War Cabinet's members share the same view and noted that the only consideration is Israel's security and nothing else. He argued that it is their duty to their nation and to their people.

In response to the development, the Biden administration is hoping that it can help contain the fighting and prevent it from expanding elsewhere. This comes at a time when at least two administration officials have quit in protest of the Democratic president's support for Israel.

American officials have been growing increasingly concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could order the expansion of his war effort to Lebanon soon. They argue that the latter may see it as key to his political survival, according to the Washington Post.

Read Also: Desperate Families in Gaza Cling to Routine for Survival

Ongoing Gaza Conflict

This comes as Netanyahu is facing domestic criticism of his government's failure to prevent the Hamas militant group's attack on Oct. 7, 2023. That particular assault resulted in the death of roughly 1,200 people and had roughly 240 others end up being hostages.

The Biden administration has, in private conversations, warned Israel against a significant escalation in Lebanon. It argued that if such a development were to happen, it would be difficult for the IDF to succeed, citing a new secret assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

The situation comes as on Saturday, air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel as Hezbollah said that it fired rockets at the Middle Eastern nation. In response, Jerusalem said that it struck a "terrorist cell."

In Gaza, fighting raged on, particularly in and near the southern city of Khan Younis. It is an area where the Israeli military said that it successfully killed three members of Hamas, which rules the densely populated coastal strip, said Reuters.

Related Article: Xi Jinping Sends Condolences to Iran After 'Terror Attacks,' Extends 'Firm Support' to Tehran
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vows to crack down on shoplifting crime in the region as businesses plead for assistance as the number of incidents has surged.

Business owners are increasing pressure on the Democratic governor and the state Legislature and are calling for stiffer penalties against serial offenders who are wreaking havoc in their stores. Nelson Eusabio of the National Supermarket Association and part of the coalition Collective Action to Protect Our Stores (CAP) released a statement on the matter.

Shoplifting Surge in New York

He said that they will continue to live in this nightmare if legislators do not do anything to fix the mess. Eusabio noted that lawmakers who represent 213 districts across the Empire State are up for re-election in the fall and they have to do something to curb retail theft.

Eusabio added that they are now planning to be more active in Albany this year and will bring up shopkeepers from legislators' districts to "get in their faces." Last year, lawmakers refused to pass a bill that would have increased the severity of charges for certain repeat shoplifters. This made it possible for them to be ordered to be held on bail, as per the New York Post.

Instead, the Legislature only passed one bill, which created a task force to study the shoplifting issue, which was vetoed by Hochul. On Sunday, however, the governor's office said that the message was heard and said a plan would be unveiled to stem shoplifting during Hochuk's State of the State address on Tuesday.

The Democrat telegraphed her intention to tackle retail theft while speaking to the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police and Sheriffs' Association on Nov. 9, 2023. At the time, she pledged to focus on the rise in retail theft. She added that they had some announcements coming out on the initiative.

On the other hand, Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz said that his measure to charge recidivist shoplifters with fourth-degree grand larceny remains high on his to-do list. He noted that the issue has to be a priority because shopkeepers are suffering.

Read Also: Tennessee Boy, 3, Struck With Stray Bullet on New Year's Eve During 'Celebratory Gunfire'

Addressing the Rise in Theft Cases

In the past few years, the United States is said to have experienced a shoplifting epidemic, with video footage of people brazenly stealing merchandise from retailers. Additionally, many chains closed some of their stores, citing a rise in theft as the primary reason, according to Vox News.

However, there is little data that suggests that there is a nationwide problem that is in need of an immediate response from lawmakers. Instead, the United States seems to be experiencing fewer shoplifting cases in general.

The rise in the specific crime seems to be limited to a few cities, which is particularly true for New York City. Outside of the Big Apple, shoplifting incidents in major cities have fallen 7% since 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

The main reason that shoplifting is being viewed as more frequent is primarily because events in New York tend to receive outsize scrutiny. This is because it is the biggest city in the U.S. and it has a big retail market while also being the headquarters for much of the national media, said the New York Times.



Related Article: Rep. Lauren Boebert Faces Police Investigation After Allegedly Punching Ex-Husband Jayson Boebert
Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve reinforces its commitment to delivering unparalleled service and luxury with the appointment of Marcel Kloet as General Manager. As a seasoned professional in the luxury hospitality industry with a track record of success, Marcel Kloet brings over twenty years of experience holding leadership positions at renowned establishments across Europe, Australia and Asia. He will serve at the helm of the exclusive ultra-luxury property in Puerto Rico, overseeing all operations and the estate's business strategy.

In his early years, Marcel Kloet's passion for service flourished while assisting his mother in the kitchen during the holidays. At 15, he took on a role in a small hotel restaurant, sparking a lifelong journey in the world of hospitality. Later, at 17, as a line chef in a 200-room hotel, he discovered a love for business management, prompting studies across Holland, Cyprus, Australia and Beijing. Beginning his formal studies in Holland, he completed a pre-internship in Cyprus and earned a bachelor's degree in hospitality management from the International Hotel College Management in Adelaide, Australia. His journey with Marriott International began during an internship in Beijing in 2008. Today, Kloet brings a wealth of expertise for the industry, cultivated during his previous roles as General Manager at The St. Regis Macao and Langkawi's, to his first tenure with a Reserve property at Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve.
Nicole Dehler is Stayntouch's VP of Product, and has over 25 years of experience in both the product development and the hospitality industry. Before joining StayNTouch, Ms. Dehler worked as the Regional Director of Operations, Enterprise & Distribution Systems for MICROS Systems, and directly in the field as the Reservations Manager for The Criterion Hotel in Perth Australia.
In the wide-ranging Food and Beverage industry, global trends are increasingly important. As cultures intertwine and borders blur, the industry must cater to a palate that is constantly evolving and universally connected. Here, we delve deep into the international choreography that makes F&B a globally harmonized experience.

The culinary canvas: Food quality

The main focus of this global industry is undoubtedly the food itself. Each culinary creation not only embodies its cultural origins but also conveys a narrative that integrates diverse flavors, textures, and culinary traditions from around the world.

Flavor is the key element that appeals to an international audience. To appeal to a diverse audience, a dish's flavors must strike a chord with every diner, from Tokyo to Paris. This culinary process requires a skillful balance of intense spices, reminiscent of a bustling market in Bangkok, with subtle flavors that may evoke the tranquility of the Mediterranean coast. Herein lies the chef's global challenge: blending authenticity from one region with the beloved tastes of another.

The farm-to-table movement is becoming popular worldwide. It's not just a trend but a global commitment to quality. From the vivid hues of Italian tomatoes ripened under the sun to the robust quality of salmon freshly sourced from Alaskan waters, the focus is on delivering authentic flavors that meet the global diner's desire for fresh, genuine culinary experiences.

The Future of dining: Global food and beverage trends to watch

In the diverse Food & Beverage sector, international influences and global trends have the most significant impact. The rich heritage of culinary traditions is seamlessly integrated with contemporary culinary innovations, creating a narrative that aligns with global cultural trends, technological advancements, and the varied tastes of an international clientele.

The following trends are influencing customer expectations and preferences:

Digital innovations

1. Service trends: The process of ordering is changing. With QR code menus and sleek tablet interfaces, diners are granted autonomy, and the stage is set for an efficient, error-free performance.

2. Convenient transactions: Traditional payment methods are used alongside modern ones. Contactless payments and mobile wallets twirl gracefully, ensuring swift, secure finales.

3. Helpful AI: Nowadays, machines not only compute but also learn and predict. They serenade diners with personalized recommendations, crafting an experience that feels both intimate and grand.

Nourishing body & soul

4. Healthy choices: The global community is shifting towards more healthy and sustainable eating choices. The growing preference for dishes featuring plant-based ingredients like tofu and tempeh highlights this desire for guilt-free dining.

5. Popularizing global ingredients: Ingredients from around the world are becoming more widely used in cooking. More and more recipes and dishes feature global ingredients such as turmeric from the East, chia seeds from the West, and distinctive tastes like kombucha, meeting demand from health enthusiasts across continents.

6. Tales of global nurturing: The odyssey of ingredients, whether they hail from a local farm in Tuscany or a spice market in Marrakech, symbolizes the global commitment to freshness, sustainability, and supporting communities.

Environmental concerns & sustainability

7. Food for tomorrow: Internationally, between sips and bites, there's a growing emphasis on sustainable dining choices and food production methods that contribute to a greener future for the planet and food security for all.

8. Planet-friendly packaging: Beyond sustainable food sourcing and ingredients, the international F&B realm is also moving toward more eco-friendly packaging. Biodegradable choices are not just a trend but a responsibility, mirroring the global consciousness.

9. The ethical narrative: Every ingredient has its origins, and the global F&B sector is embracing stories that champion fair trade, compassion, and sustainable practices.

Navigating this global renaissance in dining, the F&B industry is not just about tantalizing the taste buds but also about shouldering global responsibilities, ushering in innovative practices, and synchronizing with global dynamics.

For those with global aspirations, yearning to navigate this vast landscape and understand it both academically and practically, EHL offers the Master in Global Hospitality Business.

Leading regional food and beverage trends and varieties

In the global culinary landscape, each region is distinguished by its unique characteristics and trends that contribute to the evolution of distinct culinary traditions.

Europe: Europe's culinary scene effectively integrates historical traditions with contemporary innovations, evident from its historic locations to modern dining establishments. Traditional European bistros, rich in history, now incorporate digital solutions to modernize and enhance their operations. The air is thick with aromas of gourmet ready-made meals, each bite a testament to sustainable sourcing and the continent's commitment to the future.

The Americas: Crossing the Atlantic to the Americas reveals a dynamic and diverse culinary scene, characterized by a quest for uniqueness and excellence in dining. Each dish demonstrates a commitment to creativity and quality. The experience is curated, ensuring that every bite, every flavor, and every texture is consistent, echoing tales of grandeur. Yet, amidst this symphony, there's a gentle undertone of personalization, making each diner feel like the guest of honor.

Asia: Further east, Asian cuisine presents a mix of traditional and modern elements. A continent where every meal is a dance of authenticity. In Asia, the culinary environment is vibrant and deeply rooted in tradition, evident in the lively street food culture with enduring culinary practices. Yet, these traditional notes are harmoniously intertwined with contemporary chords, ensuring unparalleled value and a nod to modernity.

Global leaders: Recognizing the international experts of food and beverage.

Internationally acclaimed culinary achievements are the result of meticulous planning and coordination by professionals in the Food and Beverage industry. The invisible yet indispensable maestros of the F&B industry meticulously choreograph this dance.

Customers: In the vast expanse of global gastronomy, feedback from patrons across continents and cultures acts as a guiding constellation. Feedback from customers worldwide is crucial in shaping the international dining experience.

Chefs: At the epicenter of this global culinary arena are its artisans - the chefs. The detailed preparations by chefs create flavors that appeal globally. Complementing them are the servers, these unsung global ambassadors who bridge the gap between cultures, ensuring every dish is presented with the same love and care, irrespective of geographical boundaries.

Suppliers: In the global backdrop, suppliers ensure that ingredients meet international quality standards. Their unwavering commitment ensures that ingredients, regardless of their origin, meet the universal gold standard, deserving of every plate they adorn.

Organizations: Anchoring these international endeavors is the formidable framework of the organizational structure. The organizational structure ensures a balance between regional variations and global standards, fostering expansion, and championing innovations, ensuring the dining experience is universally exceptional.

The food and beverage sector is about more than just satisfying hunger; it increasingly combines traditional methods, innovative techniques, and a focus on global sustainability. On the brink of this culinary renaissance, there's a call to not only relish this global feast but to contribute, shape, and drive it forward. The world's dining stage evolves daily, beckoning us to be more than observers but to actively engage in its captivating global saga.

To explore and engage deeply in this field of global gastronomy and the latest culinary trends, check out these posts.

Additionally, The Master in Global Hospitality Business offers a gateway to this universe, equipping you with the knowledge, skills, and network to be at the forefront of these culinary shifts. Register now and embark on a journey that promises to fulfill your scholarly and gastronomic desires.

About EHL Group

EHL Group is the global reference in education, innovation and consulting for the hospitality and service sector.

With expertise dating back to 1893, EHL Group now offers a wide range of leading educational programs from apprenticeships to master's degrees, as well as professional and executive education, on three campuses in Switzerland and Singapore. EHL Group also offers consulting and certification services to companies and learning centers around the world. True to its values and committed to building a sustainable world, EHL Group's purpose is to provide education, services and working environments that are people-centered and open to the world. www.ehlgroup.com

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Dubai, UAE  Luxury ecolodge management company ENVI Lodges has entered a strategic partnership with Paris-based developer, Blue Ocean Capital France (BOCF), to build four high-end sustainable and experiential lodges in France.

The landmark deal, which leverages a funding strategy that will combine equity, debt, and government support for impact investments, will kick-start ENVIs ambitious European growth plans, with the new ecolodges targeting stunning mountain, beach and farm locations over the next five years.

The four ecolodges will highlight BOCFs expertise in responsible urban development, hospitality and real estate, and capitalise on the regions burgeoning ecotourism sector, which is set to contribute a 38% share of the global value by 2027, with France, Germany and the UK accounting for 50% of that market.*

Ecotourism is one of Frances fastest developing tourism sectors, growing more than twice the rate of GDP in 2022 and projected to be worth 11.6 billion (US$12.71 billion) by the end of 2023.**

This has been fuelled by the French governments robust ecotourism drive, having earmarked the industry as a key development priority and implementing a swathe of policies and initiatives to foster its growth, including financial incentives for eco-friendly tourism infrastructure and the promotion of sustainable tourism practices.

Aligned to this strategy, ENVI Lodges specialises in low-impact alternative accommodation such as lodges, tents, cabins, treehouses, and biophilic pods and follows high standards of sustainability, with every ecolodge built around three key pillars: the protection of wildlife, the mindful use of natural resources and supporting local communities.

Similarly, BOCF adopts a Business with Purpose philosophy, with proven expertise developing upscale hospitality projects across Europe, the Middle East and Latin America that are mindful of the environment and communities they impact.

With its responsible development approach, Blue Ocean Capital is a perfect fit for ENVI Lodges as we map out our European growth plans in line with the global shift towards sustainable and regenerative tourism , starting with key ecotourism hotspots such as France. We envisage that our four lodges will be developed in a circuit, reinforcing our commitment to sustainability by centralising resources and services and offering guests four completely different purpose-driven experiences inspired by their location. Chris Nader, Co-Founder, ENVI Lodges

Our partnership with ENVI Lodges, an ecolodge pioneering operator, aims to showcase a new model for ecotourism success in France, based on a triple bottom line mindset: Measuring & balancing social, environmental & economical results. Walid Maalouf, President at Blue Ocean Capital France

The project will demonstrate how destinations can be developed responsibly while meeting accelerated market demand for mindful and meaningful leisure: Combining the benefits of immersion in nature, cohesion with local communities as well as environmental stewardship.

The four-lodge circuit in France will mark phase one of ENVIs finance and development collaboration with BOCF, with phase two eyeing developments across Europe in markets including Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.

About Blue Ocean Capital - France

Blue Ocean Capital France is a company focused on urban development, hospitality and real estate development, asset management and advisory. Structured around private-equity co-investment type opportunities, the firm works with reputed co-developers around the world, providing stakeholders with development expertise, access to capital and to a global network of valuable relationships with recognised players. Its philosophy, Business with Purpose, acknowledges that business impacts and serves more than just shareholders; it has an equal responsibility to the community and to the planet.

Sources

* Technavio (Sustainable Tourism Market Type, Booking channel, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2023-2027). ** Statista, "Ecotourism market size in France from 2015 to 2019, with a forecast for 2023" (2021), BOCF Analysis.

About ENVI Lodges

ENVI Lodges is a luxury experiential ecolodge brand and management company born in the Middle East. The company operates eco-friendly lodges that are immersed in nature and located in remote destinations. ENVI specialises in tented camps and eco-pods and follows high standards of sustainability, with every lodge designed, developed, and managed on the basis of ENVI's seven sustainability pillars, which include the protection of wildlife, the mindful use of resources, and support for local communities. The company believes the future of tourism relies on the creation of meaningful nature-centric lodges that regenerate the environment and create purpose-driven experiences that are transformational for its guests.
The 66 hotels will be acquired on a freehold and long leasehold basis enabling the Travelodge group to take control of the assets, enhancing value

The assets will be acquired through a newly createdproperty holding group, under a new Travelodge group holding company, benefitting from support to drive further growth from its owner, GoldenTree Asset Management (GTAM)

The hotels cover a wide geography, including London, the Midlands and the North of England across City Centre and roadside locations

The transaction comes after Travelodge reported record-breaking Q3 results in November, with revenue up 16.7% to 782.0 million and underlying earnings (adjusted EBITDA) up 22.4% to 201.2 million

Travelodge looks forward to continuing to work with LXi, with whom it has enjoyed a strong working relationship over many years, and who remain its largest landlord

The Travelodge group plans to explore further freehold opportunities, which would further diversify Travelodges freehold/leasehold asset base

Travelodge, the UKs first budget hotel brand which operates nearly 600 hotels, today announces that it has exchanged contracts to acquire 66 Travelodge-branded hotels on a freehold and long leasehold basis from its largest landlord, LXi REIT plc (LXi), for a combined sum of 210 million.

The acquired portfolio includes hotels in London, regional City Centres (Birmingham, Bath, Leeds, Liverpool), and roadside locations.

Travelodge operates a well-diversified, high-quality network of hotels located in major cities and towns across the UK. The business is well underway with its hotel refit programme  its most significant brand transformation to date  with plans to accelerate this investment and upgrade approximately 50% of the room estate by the end of 2024. The programme includes a new hotel design featuring a new style reception area, next-generation rooms with bedside charging ports and blackout curtains and upgraded bar cafes.

The acquisition of 66 Travelodge hotels from LXi REIT, with support from our owner GoldenTree Asset Management, will mark a positive step for Travelodge as we seek to optimise our hotel portfolio and diversify our freehold/leasehold split to enhance value. The new structure will provide us with a platform to explore further freehold acquisitions. We have nearly four decades of expertise in operating budget hotels and we look forward to continuing to invest in our hotel network to drive growth. We are pleased to announce this transaction with LXi, with whom we have enjoyed a strong working relationship over many years. We look forward to continuing to work with LXi, who remain our largest landlord, with the 69 Travelodge hotels they continue to own. Jo Boydell, Travelodge Chief Executive of Travelodge

We are delighted to be transacting with Travelodge on this landmark sale of 66 hotels for 210 million, which is in line with the latest book value. Most of the sale proceeds will be used to pay down debt, reducing Group LTV to 34%, and Travelodges proportion of Group rent will reduce to 11%. The sale and debt repayment are not expected to have a material impact on the Companys earnings. Travelodge operate a best-in-class hotels business and the firm commitment of its owners to the business is demonstrated by their support to enable the purchase of 66 of its assets. Simon Lee, CEO of LXI REIT Advisors

The transaction comes after Travelodge reported record-breaking Q3 financial results in November 2023, with double digit revenue growth of 16.7% to 782 million and underlying earnings (adjusted EBITDA) up 22.4% to 201.2 million. This strong performance reflects continued demand from Travelodges diverse range of leisure and business customers who seek affordable, quality accommodation.

Travelodge continues to see significant growth opportunities in the UK, with over 300 target locations identified following a comprehensive review of gaps in the market. Additionally, the company will continue to review extension opportunities across its existing estate. The business has also established a profitable market presence in Spain, operating six hotels including its third in Madrid which opened last year, and has identified a further 20 target locations across the country.

The transaction is expected to complete on 28 February 2024. The purchase price for the transaction is expected to be funded through a combination of a further shareholder investment from GTAM, the proceeds of a third party financing facility secured on the assets acquired in the transaction, and approximately 35 million of cash from Travelodge. The newly created property holding group that will acquire the assets will be held by a newly formed parent company of Thame and London Limited and will not guarantee or be subject to the covenants under the existing Travelodge senior secured notes due 2028.

This announcement contains statements reflecting assumptions, expectations, projections, intentions or beliefs about future events that are intended as forward-looking statements. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause our actual results to differ materially from current projections, forecasts, estimates and expectations relating to us. In particular, the property purchase transaction may not be completed on the terms described herein, or at all. Our forward-looking statements can be affected by inaccurate assumptions or by known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. Any or all of these forward-looking statements may turn out to be incorrect.

About Travelodge

In 1985, Travelodge became the UK's first budget hotel brand when it opened its first hotel at Barton-under-Needwood. Today, we operate nearly 600 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain and annually welcome over 21 million guests.

With rooms for 35 or less, Travelodge is the ideal base for all business and leisure trips and we aim to offer customers the location, value and quality to suit all their travel needs.

We are currently looking to expand our UK hotel network and we have identified a further 300 locations where we would like to open a Travelodge hotel.

Travelodge employs over 12,000 employees and is dedicated to creating an environment where everyone can learn more, earn more and belong.

www.travelodge.co.uk
Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), producers of the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC), is pleased to announce the industry experts that global exhibition powerhouse dmg events has put together to serve on the advisory council for HITEC Dubai 2024. Co-located with The Hotel Show Dubai, the event will be held 4-6 June 2024 at the Dubai World Trade Centre in Dubai, UAE. 2024 marks the fourth year that HFTP is co-producing HITEC with dmg. Register to attend.

Members of the HITEC Advisory Council are selected annually for their experience as they set that years education offerings and procure speakers with applicable industry expertise. 2023 keynote speeches and panels offered insight on cutting-edge hospitality developments including contact-free technological integration, corporate sustainability efforts and data management/analytics solutions.

The importance of HITEC transcends borders, said returning HITEC Dubai councilmember and HFTP EMEA COO Carson Booth. The opportunity to host such an influential event in Dubai alongside The Hotel Show is a testament to the citys pivotal role in shaping the future of innovation.

The HITEC Dubai 2024 Advisory Council is as follows:

Carson Booth, CHTP  Chief Operating Officer, EMEA  HFTP

 Chief Operating Officer, EMEA  HFTP Atul Gupta | Senior Director, IT  Hotel Technology Strategy & Services Global Hotel Systems (EMEA, APAC, LATAMC) | Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

| Senior Director, IT  Hotel Technology Strategy & Services Global Hotel Systems (EMEA, APAC, LATAMC) | Wyndham Hotels and Resorts Mahmoud Kamal | Chief Technology Officer | Habtoor Hospitality

| Chief Technology Officer | Habtoor Hospitality Raed Kuhail  Executive Director, Digital and Technology Miral

 Executive Director, Digital and Technology Miral Sanjay Nadkarni, PhD  Head of Innovation and Strategy  Arabian Falcon Holding LLC

 Head of Innovation and Strategy  Arabian Falcon Holding LLC Lijeesh Rajan  Corporate Director of IT Strategy and Services  Rotana Hotel

 Corporate Director of IT Strategy and Services  Rotana Hotel Tariq Valani | Senior Vice President, Global Support Services  Middle East, Africa, India & Turkey | ACCOR (also a member of both the 2023-24 HFTP Global Board of Directors and the 2024 HITEC North America Advisory Council)

| Senior Vice President, Global Support Services  Middle East, Africa, India & Turkey | ACCOR (also a member of both the 2023-24 HFTP Global Board of Directors and the 2024 HITEC North America Advisory Council) Stacy Samuel Vanchippara  Corporate Director of Technology Ishraq Hospitality

Beyond its educational sessions, HITEC Dubai also hosts Entrepreneur 20X, hospitality technologys premier pitch competition and a unique opportunity for startups to gain industry visibility and credibility and network with fellow solution providers and influential hospitality professionals. The application to compete at the E20X competition at HITEC North America in Charlotte, North Carolina is also open. For more information, email [email protected].

About HFTP

Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), established in 1952, is a hospitality nonprofit association headquartered in Austin, Texas USA with offices in the EU and Middle East. HFTP is recognized as the spokes group for the finance and technology segments of the hospitality industry with an international network of members and stakeholders. HFTP uniquely understands the industry's pressing issues, and assists its stakeholders in finding solutions to their challenges more efficiently than any organization. HFTP offers expert networks, educational resources, career development programs, research, leadership opportunities and conferences and events. HFTP produces international events throughout the year, including the world's largest hospitality technology tradeshow and conference brand: HITEC. In addition, it oversees the hospitality-specific Pineapplesearch.com and the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI). For more information about HFTP, visit www.hftp.org. For the latest news, visit the HFTP News page at news.hftp.org and the HFTP Connect blog at blog.hftp.org.

Kaylee Sciacca

Marketing and Communications Coordinator

+1 (737) 400-4418

HFTP
New York, New York  Beyond Green, a global portfolio of planet Earths most sustainable hotels, resorts, and lodges, has joined 1% for the Planet, committing to donate 1% of the brands annual sales to support non-profit organizations focused on environmental issues.

Founded to accelerate smart environmental giving and prevent greenwashing, 1% for the Planets environmental partners are vetted organizations working toward a wide array of solutions, from climate justice and urban infrastructure to gender equality; indigenous land rights to supply chain sustainability; conservation policy to environmental education, and beyond, with more than 6,500 partners in 111 different countries, every member can find and support the causes that matter most to them. These partners are categorized into four impact areas; Rights to Nature; Conservation and Restoration; Resilient Communities; and Just Economies.

Since its official launch in April 2021, Beyond Green has established an esteemed reputation among travelers and the wider travel community for its holistic approach to sustainable tourism. Travelers are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to sustainability, demanding more transparency from the companies they support, thus by partnering with 1% for the Planet, guests can further maximize the positive impact of their Beyond Green bookings.

Following our launch, we have sought to connect Beyond Green with likeminded brands for considered partnerships that align with our overall purpose. By working with 1% for the Planet, we are excited to further fulfil our commitment to supporting environmental causes. Lindsey Ueberroth, CEO of Preferred Travel Group

Currently, only 3% of total philanthropy goes to the environment and only 5% of that comes from businesses. The planet needs bigger support than this, and our growing network of business members are doing vital work to increase giving and support on-the-ground action. We're excited to welcome Beyond Green to our global movement. Kate Williams, CEO of 1% for the Planet

Driven by an unwavering belief that to travel with purpose is to travel well, Beyond Green represents sustainability leadership in action and impact, with a mission and purpose of transforming the global travel and tourism industry, where sustainability is the rule and not the exception. Centered on three core values  Nature, Culture, and Community  Beyond Greens global members go beyond being eco-conscious to also embrace fundamental principles such as fair wages, gender equality, and the safeguarding and celebrating of cultural heritage.

By contributing 1% of their annual sales, thousands of 1% for the Planets members have raised millions in funding to support environmental partners around the globe, with over $530 million having been certified to date.

For more information, visit StayBeyondGreen.com and onepercentfortheplanet.org.

About 1% for the Planet

1% for the Planet is a global organization that exists to ensure our planet and future generations thrive. We act as an accountability partner for businesses supporting environmental partners through annual membership. We make environmental giving easy and effective through partnership advising, impact storytelling, and third-party certification. Started in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, our members have given millions to environmental partners. Today, 1% for the Planets global network consists of thousands of businesses and environmental partners working toward a better future.

Look for our logo to purchase for the planet, learn more, and join at onepercentfortheplanet.org.

About Preferred Travel Group

Owned and operated by the Ueberroth Family, Preferred Travel Group is the parent company of Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Beyond Green, Historic Hotels of America, Historic Hotels Worldwide, PTG Consulting, and Beyond Green Travel, representing more than 1,100 hotels, resorts, and residences across 80 countries, in addition to a global portfolio of destination marketing organizations and tourist boards. With more than 250 seasoned travel professionals situated across 20 countries, the company connects independent hotels, hospitality companies, and destinations to key markets worldwide through strategic branding, sales, integrated marketing, revenue management, distribution services, and other consultancy services. Fueled by its brand promise, Believe in Travel, the company and its hotel and travel brands champion an unwavering belief in the transformative power of travel and its ability to enrich lives, inspire a greater respect for the Earth, and expand hearts and minds to other cultures and ways of living.

For more information visit PreferredTravelGroup.com.
$250M+ Six Senses Residences Grand Bahama Development to Start Sales in Q1 2024

Weller Development Partners, a DC-based full-service development firm, announced today its strategic partnership with leading real estate brokers, HG Christie, and Bespoke Real Estate, to handle the branded residential sales for the $250M+ Six Senses Residences Grand Bahama development. Six Senses Grand Bahama offers a luxury resort village, including 64 resort villas designed by renowned architects, 3XN, and 28 striking branded residences designed by the acclaimed, Olson Kundig, with unfettered views and waterfront access, providing an exclusive home-away-from-home experience for owners. The 50-acre site will feature a wellness center and signature Six Senses Spa, multiple restaurants, event space, beach club, and oceanfront pool.

Sales of the Six Senses Residences Grand Bahama are scheduled to begin in Q1 2024.

We are excited to partner with two incredible brokerage teams who are making waves in the industry, commented Marc Weller, Founder and President of Weller Development Partners. We selected HG Christie and Bespoke because they are at the pinnacle of the industry, and they share our entrepreneurial spirit and passion for going above and beyond to deliver unmatched luxury experiences. With this A-team in place, we are well positioned to do what we are known for  creating incredible experiences for residents, guests, and the community, while ultimately changing the trajectory of Grand Bahama for years to come.

Weller Developments partnership includes the leading global luxury hospitality group, Six Senses, part of IHG Hotels & Resorts, to Grand Bahama Island. The Six Senses brand is internationally acclaimed for its focus on local inspiration, commitment to community, sustainability, wellness, and crafted experiences and aligns with Wellers triple bottom-line approach to deliver financially viable projects while providing benefits to the surrounding communities and the environment. The developments investment team includes the Global Fund for Coral Reefs that will provide capital and technical assistance, leading to increased resilience of reefs and the communities that depend on them. Creating a resort with a hurricane-resilient coastline while minimizing environmental impacts through self-sufficient energy and waste initiatives will also act as an exemplar for future sustainable tourism models on Grand Bahama and across the The Bahamas and the Caribbean.

Weller selected HG Christie for its outstanding reputation and its intimate experience as the exclusive Bahamas Affiliate of Christies International Real Estate. Their reputation as The Trusted Authority for Bahamas Real Estate globally positions them to attract the best buyers for this unique investment and luxury living opportunity.

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We have been fortunate to partner with a number of developers on exciting projects, but this one is really unique, stated John Christie, President and Managing Broker of HG Christie. Weller is a trailblazing developer with a track record of delivering beautiful, transformative places. With Six Senses Residences Grand Bahama, we have a rare opportunity to be part of a transformative project that will play an instrumental role in the rebirth of the island. This project will drive tremendous job creation, tourism, and economic growth on the island, while attracting individuals who appreciate the unique brand experience that Six Senses brings to every property.

Grand Bahama, just 60 miles from Florida's coast, serves as The Bahamas' gateway, offering multiple arrival options by boat or plane. Wellers master plan prioritizes low-density designs to minimize environmental impact, fostering a connection with nature, and amplifying the laid-back luxury ethos of the resort, residences, and the island, all geared towards boosting tourism on Grand Bahama.

Bespoke Real Estate, distinguished as the first and only agent-based and corporate brokerage exclusively focusing on properties and projects valued at $10 million and above, leverages a unique blend of exceptional marketing capabilities, an expansive network, and an unrivaled track record for selling high-valued properties.

Our clients are looking for purchasing opportunities for their second or third homes, and this is the perfect fit, stated Cody Vachinsky, Founding Partner and President of Bespoke Real Estate. Branded residential is the future of real estate and Weller is bringing a lot to the table in Grand Bahama. We are now able to offer something to the market that doesnt currently exist in North America  branded residential associated with the luxury resort brand, Six Senses Grand Bahama, in a tropical location, just 60 miles from Florida, designed by one of the top design teams in the world - Olson Kundig. It is an untapped opportunity to participate in the formation of a new, world-class, eco-conscious community, create a new living experience for you and your family, and be part of the upward trajectory of one of the most beautiful, serene islands in the world. We are excited to offer this level of exclusivity to our clientele.

Six Senses Grand Bahama aims to set a benchmark for sustainable tourism models in the Caribbean, expanding Wellers impressive track record of impactful projects. Wellers most recent projects in Baltimore, MD, spanned several vertical development projects totaling more than 1.5 million square feet and generated thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars directly to the surrounding communities. In 2017, Weller developed, constructed, and opened the Sagamore Pendry Hotel, helping to transform Fells Point in Baltimore.
Barcelo Group acquires Hotel Felipe IV in Valladolid, Spain

A summary of European hotel transactions provided by HVS

Prodea to acquire a further 55% stake in MHV from Cypriot group Yoda

Greek real estate investment company Prodea has entered an agreement to acquire an additional 55% stake in Mediterranean Hospitality Venture PLC (MHV) from Cypriot investment conglomerate Yoda PLC, which will bring Prodeas total stake in MHV to 80%. The remaining 20% is held by Invel Real Estate through its subsidiary Flowpulse Limited. MHV engages in real estate development with a focus on high-end hospitality properties. It presently owns luxury hotel and resort assets in Cyprus, such as the Parklane Resort & Spa in Limassol (Luxury Collection), The Landmark Nicosia (Autograph Collection) and a 50% stake in the Aphrodite Hills Resort, as well as the Nikki Beach Resort & Spa in Porto Heli in Greece. MHV is listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange with real estate assets valued at circa 555 million. Prodea, listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, has total assets exceeding 3 billion, including three mid-market hotels in the Greek cities of Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras.

Eternam and QuinSpark acquire two hotels in Chamonix, France

French portfolio manager Eternam, through a club deal of private investors in its FPCI Chamonix fund, and French owner operator QuinSpark, have acquired two hotels in Chamonix, France, from an undisclosed seller for an undisclosed amount. The two four-star hotels are Hotel Le Morgane, 56 rooms, and Hotel Le Refuge des Aiglons, 107 rooms. The former is expected to undergo an extensive renovation of its rooms, spa and restaurant, whilst the latter will have its food and beverage outlet revamped. Eternam presently oversees some 450 million invested in hotel assets. Quinspark was established in 2023 by ex-Algonquin and Schroders executives Frederic de Brem and Stephane Obadia. This transaction marks its second acquisition, after it took possession earlier this year of the 50-room, four-star Chalet Hotel Kaya in Reberty, a village that is part of Les Trois Vallees ski region in France.

Barcelo Group acquires Hotel Felipe IV in Valladolid, Spain

Spanish tourism firm Barcelo Group has acquired the four-star, 131-room Hotel Felipe IV in Valladolid, Spain, from an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed amount. Valladolid is a city of some 300,000 inhabitants, located around 200 kms north of Madrid. The hotel includes eight meeting rooms, a gym and a restaurant. Barcelo is expected to fully refurbish the property throughout 2024, aiming to reposition the hotel as one of the citys best. Barcelo is currently the second largest hotel chain in Spain, with a presence in 30 countries comprising some 64,000 rooms in 290 properties. Around 100 of these are located in Spain, with its largest domestic footprints being in Andalusia and the Canary Islands.

MarSenses acquires Ferrera Beach Hotel Apartments in Mallorca, Spain

Balearic hotel group MarSenses Hotels and Homes has acquired the four-star, 72-room Ferrera Beach Hotel Apartments aparthotel in Mallorca, Spain, for an undisclosed amount. The property is located on the south-eastern coast of the island in Cala Ferrera, within 70 metres of the beach, and is some 50 minutes by car from the Palma de Mallorca Airport. The aparthotel includes two swimming pools and an 80-seat restaurant. This acquisition represents MarSensess fifth property in the Balearic Islands since the brand's creation in 2020 and is its second in Cala Ferrera after the Ferrera Blanca hotel. The group is looking to expand its footprint on the islands following strong performances in 2022 and 2023.

HVS is the world's leading consulting and valuation services organization focused on the hotel, restaurant, shared ownership, gaming, and leisure industries. Established in 1980, the company performs more than 4,500 assignments per year for virtually every major industry participant. HVS principals are regarded as the leading professionals in their respective regions of the globe. Through a worldwide network of over 50 offices staffed by 300 experienced industry professionals, HVS provides an unparalleled range of complementary services for the hospitality industry. For further information regarding our expertise and specifics about our services, please visit www.hvs.com.
Rendering of the Inn at Bellefield Residence Inn by Marriott International

Shaner Hotel Group has opened the Inn at Bellefield Residence Inn by Marriott International, a 136-room all-suite hotel. It is in the heart of New Yorks Hudson Valley at Bellefield at Historic Hyde Park, a $1 billion hospitality, agritourism and residential attraction being developed.

Reservations are now welcome at the Inn at Bellefield, offering sophisticated amenities and elite lodging. A grand opening celebration is set for Spring 2024. Free tours are now available weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 25 Old Vineyard Place, Hyde Park, N.Y.

The Inn at Bellefield is a signature addition to the Shaner Hotel Groups diverse portfolio, said Lance T. Shaner, Chairman and CEO, Shaner Hotel Group, LP. With a superb location in the center of Dutchess County, the Inn at Bellefield appeals to business and leisure travelers valuing luxury, comfort, sophistication and superb convenience. A special experience awaits.

Located on a natural rise with dynamic views, the Inn at Bellefield is minutes from the Culinary Institute of America, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum, Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, Walkway Over the Hudson and local colleges.

The Inn at Bellefield imparts a unique, memorable lodging experience that will surpass guests top-flight expectations, said General Manager Adam Pregno. For example, the hotel will be curating multiple experiences for our guests, such as mixology classes, cooking classes and partnering with local attractions to provide wine- and sake-tasting tours, among many other experiences.

Pregno also emphasized the Inn at Bellefields reverence of Hyde Parks renowned history. Tributes include sycamore wood in the hotel, repurposed from a 230-year-old sycamore tree on the property, and President Franklin D. Roosevelts fireside-chat recordings playing alongside outdoor fire pits.

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Inn at Bellefield suites offer full kitchens and distinct living and sleeping rooms, complementing ergonomic workstations, an upscale fitness center and state-of-the-art conference spaces. The Grand Ballroom accommodates 150 guests. The Storyteller, a Farm to Table bar/lounge, offers eclectic dining featuring specialty craft beers and spirits. Its menu, a homage to the rich tapestry of storytelling, excites the imagination and tantalizes the senses. Most ingredients are sourced from local farms, including grass-fed Bettinger Farms beef, Bulich Farm produce, Rockland Farms honey and others. In addition, Eleanors Market, honoring First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, offers snacks and sundries.

The Inn at Bellefield is a $55 million project. Bellefield at Historic Hyde Park will feature restaurants, breweries, a performing arts center, a second hotel, an amphitheater and 801 residences. The Inn at Bellefield propels Hyde Parks reputation as a worldwide tourism destination, said Thomas Mulroy, Chairman and CEO, T-Rex Capital Group, LLC, which is orchestrating the Bellefield campus full development. Were proud to partner on this premier hotel.

Michael Oates, President of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp., praised the Inn at Bellefields economic significance. This hotels opening is a landmark moment, he said. Construction created 200 jobs; there are 35 permanent jobs. Lodging and payroll will fuel the economy for generations. This is a magnificent addition.
2023 - A year to take a step back and consolidate

While the tech industry throws out more innovation, and talks up artificial intelligence, automation and machine learning, hotels are simply looking for tools that will help them do their jobs.

2023 - A year to take a step back and consolidate

Hasnt this year felt somewhat normal? Weve managed to sink into a position reminiscent of the period before the big C. The travel industry has thankfully returned to a level of normalcy, and hotel revenue is well up. Cities have reclaimed their tourist crowns, and coastal and rural destinations have contended with a decline in visitor numbers from the lockdown heydays.

Conversations around bookings and revenue have been mostly positive, but its the discussions around technology that have been the most thought provoking. Hoteliers have woken to the essential need to develop their tech stack, not only to compete and provide guest experiences but to alleviate huge staffing challenges.

Yet while the tech industry throws out more innovation, and talks up artificial intelligence, automation and machine learning, hotels are simply looking for tools that will help them do their jobs.

Technology needs focus

Hoteliers are frustrated. The plethora of systems in the market is bamboozling, with product comparisons that rarely add up, causing friction in the buying process and hesitancy in decision making. For buyers who jump straight in, the realities of the systems come all too late.

In conversation with Kurt Macher, General Manager, (Shangri-La The Shard, London) and Innovation & Luxury Customer Experience Lead - Middle East, Europe, India & Americas (Shangri-la Group), he explained his irritation around software that doesnt connect to existing systems; the right interfaces are lacking in the industry, with seemingly no standardisation. As Zennio celebrated 180 PMS interface connections, it merely reinforced Machers point - and just scratched the surface of the hurdles technology companies need to overcome for their applications to work completely within hotel tech stacks.

The hotel sector is not alone in this challenge; its also apparent within the wider travel industry. The travel and hospitality sector as a whole needs to address legacy technology to enable a more comprehensive connectivity between systems, in secure environments.

Hard-truth about adoption levels

The reality is only a handful of hoteliers are innovators and early adopters: the likes of Zetter Hotels, Motel One and Mollies are leading the way in implementing new technology. Fortunately for these brands, their leadership has the technology acumen to understand the opportunities and can piecemeal systems together. For some, such as Mollies, it can be easier to start fresh when you are launching a new brand and property.

On the other side, the 84%, made up of the majority and tech laggards - well, theyre looking at simpler tools which help with the here and now. Its an area I take particular interest in, working closely with the industry and media to look at real-world deployment of technology that solves problems with demonstrable ROI.

In Hoteliers Voice podcast series 3 - and the launch of our new series Hotel Partner - it is incredibly clear tech vendors are racing ahead and leaving hoteliers more puzzled than ever. As hoteliers look for intuitive solutions, they are also seeking applications that work with existing systems. Ive gauged an increasing concern from hoteliers over the number of third party partners they are working with, and the challenge to not only manage a plethora of systems, but to ensure data is protected, and guest and staff information remains secure.

The reality of innovation on hotel teams

This discussion spilled over when speaking with Michael McCarten, VP EMEA (IDeaS), alongside hoteliers Geza Bocsak, Head of Revenue Management and Sales (Harbour Hotels), Inna Nekrassova, Head of Revenue (The Lanesborough), Raimund Notz, Director (Hotel Revenue Optimization - Central & Eastern Europe, Preferred Hotels) and Dario Artiola, Senior Director Revenue Performance (Radisson Hotels Group). All wish to have a more integrated approach between sales, marketing and distribution, allowing the implementation of total revenue strategies.

The IDeaS/Caterer survey further revealed adoption levels of RMS showing a gulf in the use of technology to enable commercial success, with less than half (45.3%) of regional hotels using a revenue management system (RMS) compared to over three quarters (77.2%) of city hotels. Yet, properties using an RMS were reported to have a 14.15% ADR increase in 2022/23, compared to just an 11.69% ADR increase for those without. Training is a big issue, with many professionals having to self-study where official programmes and courses are not offered.

Its a process of reinforcement, exploration and identifying the opportunities that the data offers - and each and every hotel business has different sets of data, as well as a variety of interfaces which consolidate the data. Emer Hallahan, Group Head of Marketing and eCommerce (The iNUA Collection) explained the importance of data, and that using a guest data platform has enabled their marketing to be more targeted and personalised. However, to make these gains shes had to constantly engage staff, highlighting the importance of capturing data.

The echo I heard throughout my conversations is the need for ongoing training and support of frontline staff by tech vendors and internal hotel leaders to help the end users understand the importance of initiatives such as data capture.

This also rings true for Sustainability. Angeliki Kania, Senior Sustainability Manager, (Lamington Group) explained why it is so important to have regular catch up and training programmes to ensure that sustainability is embedded as a core action in the business - particularly as it still takes a lot of learning to get it right. And while there are criteria for enforcing a sustainable supply chain, many local suppliers are yet to have the means to meet this fully, with larger enterprises still in the process of fulfilling all requirements.

Doubling down on existing investment

Particularly poignant is the need to double down on existing investment and make incremental gains from already-installed systems. While infrastructure development allows hoteliers to respond to digitalisation, existing tech can provide many more additional benefits than it is.

Andreas Stockli, General Manager, (Hotel Schweizerhof) has been introducing new technologies from smart TV systems to staff management applications over the past couple of years - and they are now spending the time to expand their use of these technologies.

Tej Walia, Managing Director (The Foxhills Collection) explained how its difficult to be near the cutting edge of technology and innovation, but as a hotel providing service to guests, it's essential to define the immediate needs and plan longer term strategies through senior management across the business, having to carefully balance investment in new amenities and upgrading existing facilities alongside introducing new technologies.

Distinct differences in approach

In conversation with Veryan Palmer, Director (Headland Hotel) at the Independent Hotel Show London, we discussed the deployment of artificial intelligence at the family-owned independent hotel. The implementation of a chatbot was less a need of innovation and much more determined by the need to reduce pressure on staff. Although they are aware of automated technologies, new tech is assessed on the added value it brings to operations and administration without distracting from service.

Monica Coppetta, General Manager (Columbia Beach Resort) hailed the benefits of room monitoring systems to reduce pressure on staff while amplifying the propertys luxury offering. For Coppetta, its essential to monitor new tech on the market to ensure that, digitally, the brand can continually augment the luxury experience. Data is used to provide guest insights so staff can personalise the guest experience, while also providing a more flexible service through the use of tablets across the property.

Quite clearly two distinct approaches to technology - but both reducing pressure on staff and increasing service provision - and the industry must embrace and cater for both.

Challenges are also seen within large global brands. Accor explained at IHTF 2023 that only 5% of properties worldwide had digital room keys - and this is 20 years after the technology was launched. This is the same global brand who, in 2022, announced its PMS strategy to bring a more simple and aligned technology infrastructure to the portfolio. Seeming as hotels dont change their PMS frequently, it will be some time before all properties are on board.

In another blow to innovation is the level of Cloud adoption - one global brand set 2027 as their goal to migrate all hotels to the Cloud - another technology that has been in the market for over 20 years. And while Cloud has been drummed into us over the last few years, businesses are still weighing up the pros and cons of onsite hosted versus Cloud-based systems.

The challenge many hotels have in adopting these technologies is not only having the right level of expertise and skill level internally to support the change, but having the L&D and training programmes to ensure the change is realised and becomes part of the DNA of the hotel.

Evolution of independent hotels to challenge the market status quo

Gone are the days of needing IT developers and coders onsite - or even having to have a full scale IT team. Tech has (thankfully!) evolved with the cloudscape offering on-hand experts to provide account management, support, and security monitoring. Investing in regionalised, human customer support is a hallmark of the stand-out new technology companies.

As tech becomes affordable and more easily customised, independent properties and hotel groups are able to compete on a more level playing field. In fact, the range of products is so vast for hotels that businesses are capable of having more control over their revenue and distribution and therefore become more agile in the market.

Journey Hospitality has grown 65% this year as its single shopping cart booking system enabled hotels to surface more products in the reservation process, and guests to better personalise their stays. Their onejourney retail booking platform has been so successful that Journey won a number of innovation awards this year.

Its not the only company to see success: HotelREZ has seen significant growth of its portfolio as hotels look to reduce the cost of sale and improve market visibility by diversifying channel distribution with the GDS and improving direct booking experiences.

Where the listener lies

The Travel Market Life podcast is in its fourth year, and 2023 has indicated the topics that are really challenging the industry. Our top 5 most listened episodes:

Where security lies embedded in the guest journey How Louvre uses Robotic Process Automation AI and Ethics How independent regional hotels can be revenue smart Why hotel analytics is becoming crucial How to incorporate wellness and spa assets into hotel

A personal favourite conversation was speaking to Jason Doebrich, VP IT at Virgin Hotels, about how Virgin is making thousands in additional revenue each month through smart TVs.

What I particularly enjoy about technology is the ability to augment the guest experience through upgrading existing systems, whether its new software or a retrofit, without having to replace it. Not only does this enable businesses to save money, but it improves sustainability credentials by giving existing hardware a longer shelf life. On the other hand, the developments for improving operations and hotel management are yet to be fully realised, and one Im looking forward to in 2024.

Change is coming

The peculiar thing about life (oh and of course business) is it goes in circles. Where we had a growth in innovation, new products, during the 2010s, this decade will see consolidation of the market. Companies have been on an acquisition blitz: the likes of Cendyn, Lighthouse (formerly OTA Insights), Journey, Oracle, Shiji and SIHOT show that more is to come. For hoteliers, this means more rounded, fully integrated products that will even further simplify their tech stack.

About Ryan Haynes

Director and lead consultant at Haynes MarComs, Ryan has over 15 years experience in PR and Marketing following a successful career working in radio. He has worked both in-house and agency side, so understands the importance of commercial goals as well as achieving good marketing results. Ryan has worked for both international enterprises and with startups. He specialises in B2B marketing strategies specifically for vertical markets and technology businesses.

About Haynes MarComs

Haynes MarComs supports businesses with strategic brand marcomms and digital and PR campaigns by taking an holistic approach to sales, marketing and customer delivery. Our aim is to make your business more efficient and productive in your go-to-market strategy to secure the confidence from the market that drives lead generation to meet your commercial goals.
Travelodge Agrees to Acquire 66 Travelodge-branded Hotels 210 Million

- The 66 hotels will be acquired on a freehold and long leasehold basis enabling the Travelodge group to take control of the assets, enhancing value

- The assets will be acquired through a newly created property holding group, under a new Travelodge group holding company, benefitting from support to drive further growth from its owner, GoldenTree Asset Management (GTAM)

- The hotels cover a wide geography, including London, the Midlands and the North of England across City Centre and roadside locations

- The transaction comes after Travelodge reported record-breaking Q3 results in November, with revenue up 16.7% to 782.0 million and underlying earnings (adjusted EBITDA) up 22.4% to 201.2 million

- Travelodge looks forward to continuing to work with LXi, with whom it has enjoyed a strong working relationship over many years, and who remain its largest landlord

- The Travelodge group plans to explore further freehold opportunities, which would further diversify Travelodges freehold/leasehold asset base

Travelodge, the UK's first budget hotel brand which operates nearly 600 hotels, today announces that it has exchanged contracts to acquire 66 Travelodge-branded hotels on a freehold and long leasehold basis from its largest landlord, LXi REIT plc, for a combined sum of 210 million.

The acquired portfolio includes hotels in London, regional City Centres (Birmingham, Bath, Leeds, Liverpool), and roadside locations.

Travelodge operates a well-diversified, high-quality network of hotels located in major cities and towns across the UK. The business is well underway with its hotel refit programme  its most significant brand transformation to date  with plans to accelerate this investment and upgrade approximately 50% of the room estate by the end of 2024. The programme includes a new hotel design featuring a new style reception area, next-generation rooms with bedside charging ports and blackout curtains and upgraded bar cafes.

Jo Boydell, Travelodge Chief Executive of Travelodge, said: The acquisition of 66 Travelodge hotels from LXi REIT, with support from our owner GoldenTree Asset Management, will mark a positive step for Travelodge as we seek to optimise our hotel portfolio and diversify our freehold/leasehold split to enhance value. The new structure will provide us with a platform to explore further freehold acquisitions. We have nearly four decades of expertise in operating budget hotels and we look forward to continuing to invest in our hotel network to drive growth.

We are pleased to announce this transaction with LXi, with whom we have enjoyed a strong working relationship over many years. We look forward to continuing to work with LXi, who remain our largest landlord, with the 69 Travelodge hotels they continue to own.

Simon Lee, CEO of LXI REIT Advisors, said: We are delighted to be transacting with Travelodge on this landmark sale of 66 hotels for 210 million, which is in line with the latest book value. Most of the sale proceeds will be used to pay down debt, reducing Group LTV to 34%, and Travelodges proportion of Group rent will reduce to 11%. The sale and debt repayment are not expected to have a material impact on the Companys earnings.

Travelodge operate a best-in-class hotels business and the firm commitment of its owners to the business is demonstrated by their support to enable the purchase of 66 of its assets.

The transaction comes after Travelodge reported record-breaking Q3 financial results in November 2023, with double digit revenue growth of 16.7% to 782 million and underlying earnings (adjusted EBITDA) up 22.4% to 201.2 million. This strong performance reflects continued demand from Travelodges diverse range of leisure and business customers who seek affordable, quality accommodation.

Travelodge continues to see significant growth opportunities in the UK, with over 300 target locations identified following a comprehensive review of gaps in the market. Additionally, the company will continue to review extension opportunities across its existing estate. The business has also established a profitable market presence in Spain, operating six hotels including its third in Madrid which opened last year, and has identified a further 20 target locations across the country.

The transaction is expected to complete on 28 February 2024. The purchase price for the transaction is expected to be funded through a combination of a further shareholder investment from GTAM, the proceeds of a third party financing facility secured on the assets acquired in the transaction, and approximately 35 million of cash from Travelodge. The newly created property holding group that will acquire the assets will be held by a newly formed parent company of Thame and London Limited and will not guarantee or be subject to the covenants under the existing Travelodge senior secured notes due 2028.
HITEC Dubai Advisory Council

HITEC Dubai will be held 4-6 June 2024 at the Dubai World Trade Centre

Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), producers of the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC), is pleased to announce the industry experts that global exhibition powerhouse dmg events has put together to serve on the advisory council for HITEC Dubai 2024. Co-located with The Hotel Show Dubai, the event will be held 4-6 June 2024 at the Dubai World Trade Centre in Dubai, UAE. 2024 marks the fourth year that HFTP is co-producing HITEC with dmg. Register to attend.

Members of the HITEC Advisory Council are selected annually for their experience as they set that years education offerings and procure speakers with applicable industry expertise. 2023 keynote speeches and panels offered insight on cutting-edge hospitality developments including contact-free technological integration, corporate sustainability efforts and data management/analytics solutions.

The importance of HITEC transcends borders, said returning HITEC Dubai councilmember and HFTP EMEA COO Carson Booth. The opportunity to host such an influential event in Dubai alongside The Hotel Show is a testament to the citys pivotal role in shaping the future of innovation.

The HITEC Dubai 2024 Advisory Council is as follows:

Carson Booth, CHTP  Chief Operating Officer, EMEA  HFTP

Atul Gupta | Senior Director, IT  Hotel Technology Strategy & Services Global Hotel Systems (EMEA, APAC, LATAMC) | Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

Mahmoud Kamal | Chief Technology Officer | Habtoor Hospitality

Raed Kuhail  Executive Director, Digital and Technology Miral

Sanjay Nadkarni, PhD  Head of Innovation and Strategy  Arabian Falcon Holding LLC

Lijeesh Rajan  Corporate Director of IT Strategy and Services  Rotana Hotel

Tariq Valani | Senior Vice President, Global Support Services  Middle East, Africa, India & Turkey | ACCOR (also a member of both the 2023-24 HFTP Global Board of Directors and the 2024 HITEC North America Advisory Council)

Stacy Samuel Vanchippara  Corporate Director of Technology Ishraq Hospitality

Beyond its educational sessions, HITEC Dubai also hosts Entrepreneur 20X, hospitality technologys premier pitch competition and a unique opportunity for startups to gain industry visibility and credibility and network with fellow solution providers and influential hospitality professionals. The application to compete at the E20X competition at HITEC North America in Charlotte, North Carolina is also open. For more information, email e20x@hftp.org.
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Hudson, NY (12534)

Today

Cloudy. High near 45F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A few flurries are possible. Low 31F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Dalton Green Committee Seeks to Improve Relationship with CBRSD

DALTON, Mass.  The Green Committee is looking to improve its relationship with the Central Berkshire Regional School District.

School Committee member Richard Lacatell agreed at the last committee meeting to be the its point person as it considers green initiatives that have the potential to help the school district, including but not limited to solar array options and electric buses.

Central Berkshire's building and grounds manager Jason Dion and Director of Finance and Operations Gregory Boino also attended the meeting to clarify district funds and green initiatives.

One thing the Green Committee is interested in reviewing is the data that shows the district's energy usage for its buildings in Dalton.

Although the district is not an outlier it is "pretty close" to where it needs to be for its energy usage, Dion said, adding it has a list of initiatives it has tried to accomplish to be more energy efficient.

During the discussion, committee members asked school officials whether they would be interested in exploring the development of a solar array on any of the schools, most notably Wahconah Regional High School.

There are a lot of unknowns surrounding the implementation of a solar array including the cost, benefit, and development route, school officials said.

Depending on the route the district would choose to take there could be a cost that would require the district to go back to the towns for another debt project, Dion said.

The district has a couple roofs that are in need of repair so there is a potential opportunity to partner the two projects together but there are a lot of moving parts with that, he said.

They would have to work with the Massachusetts School Building Authority to get back in the queue for the roofing project at the state level.

Green Committee members noted that there are also grants for green initiatives that the district can apply for.

In addition to that there are other options that would be at no cost to the district, Antonio Pagliarulo said. If the district decides to work with a developer, they would develop the property and own all the costs, similar to the Warren Landfill Project

The downside of this route is that the cost per watt and recovery of any profits is greatly limited, Green Committee member Todd Logan said.

The Warren Landfill is selling its electricity and Warren farm gets its money from the lease agreement it made with Citizens' Energy Corp. If you have a Power Purchase Agreement you may get 10 percent below Eversource, Green Committee member Thomas Irwin said.

"They have a real power advantage. If Dalton were to go ahead and create a municipal light plant for the town, then that would change the dynamics completely," Irwin said.

"And yes, we will for bond issue but the money that we would get would more than cover everything."

During the meeting Boino and Lacatell also clarified that there isnt $2 million of "leftover funds" for the high school project as was listed in the Green Committee's agenda.

The topic was added to the agenda due to a comment made by a community member expressing thoughts on how those "leftover funds" could be used for green initiatives, Green Committee Chair David Wasielewski said.

Boino clarified that the $2 million was how much the district was anticipating being under budget for the project. So, the district will bond only for funds that were actually expended.

The district has started the final audit with MSBA, which can take up to a year to complete, Lacatell said.
WALTHAM, Mass.  National Grid crews worked through the overnight hours, continuing their efforts to fully restore service from a powerful weekend storm that dumped up to 18 inches of snow across parts of Massachusetts.

Since the storm's arrival Saturday night, National Grid has restored service to more than 54,000 customers, working around the clock through conditions that included poor visibility, snow-filled streets and roads, falling temperatures, and downed wires, branches, and trees.

"Our crews are back in the field today, working to restore power to our customers as quickly and safely as possible," said Tim Moore, Vice President for Electric Operations for New England. "We have reallocated crews to Merrimack Valley region areas and expect to have nearly all restoration activities completed this evening. Meanwhile, we're preparing for tomorrow's storm, which is expected to bring strong winds, especially along the coast. We recognize that some customers will feel the impact of multiple storms in a short period of time, but we will strive to restore affected customers as quickly and safely as possible."

The weekend storm, which featured multiple bands of snow and strong winds, swept across Massachusetts Saturday night through Sunday afternoon, dropping significant amounts of heavy, wet snow in the Western, Central and Merrimack Valley regions of the state. As crews restored some locations, the strong weather knocked out power in other places through much of Sunday.

At the peak of the storm at 5 p.m. Sunday, approximately 15,000 customers were without power, primarily in hard-hit regions in Essex and Middlesex counties, including the Merrimack Valley. As of 10 a.m., there remain approximately 4,800 customers without power, mainly in the Merrimack Valley. National Grid expects nearly all customers impacted by this weekend's storm will be restored by this evening.

National Grid will continue updating estimated restoration times throughout the day. Customers may check on the status of their outage by logging into our Report or Check an Outage page.

National Grid's extensive resources will remain in the region until the last outage is repaired.

Even as restoration efforts from the weekend storm progress, National Grid teams are monitoring and preparing for a second weather event tomorrow. Current forecasts indicate a multi-day storm moving into Massachusetts Tuesday evening that features hazardous wind gusts as high as 70 mph in some regions. The storm is predicted to feature snow at the onset but is expected to change to rain as warmer air moves into the region.

The company offers the following tips and reminders:
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Comedian Jo Koy shared an anti-Prince Harry and Meghan Markle joke at the Golden Globes.

The Filipino-American comedy star didnt hold back in his debut as host of the annual awards ceremony  a job he acquired just two weeks ago  whose winners included Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone, Oppenheimer actor Cillian Murphy and Successions Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen.

After enthusiastically arriving on stage, Koy poked fun at subjects ranging from Oppenheimer s running time through to Saltburn actor Barry Keoghans genitalia, before setting his sights on Harry and Meghan.

It turns out Harry and Meghan Markle were still getting paid millions of dollars for doing absolutely nothing  and thats just by Netflix, he told the crowd, who laughed in response. The camera zoomed in on the streaming services CEO, Ted Sarandos, after he cracked the joke. Both Harry and Meghan were not present at the ceremony.

Koy was addressing the Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan, which was released in December 2022 to mixed reviews, and saw the pair discuss their decision to step back as working members of the royal family.

The comedians joke, branded brutal by viewers on social media, arrived after what is considered to have been a tumultuous year for the former royals, who faced several obstacles, both professionally and personally in 2023.

While Harrys memoir Spare became a bestseller, their other ventures did not prove so successful. After signing a lucrative three-year deal with music streaming platform Spotify in 2022, worth a reported 18m, it was announced less than one year later that their podcast, titled Archetypes, had been dropped.

As part of the deal, the duo planned to host and produce numerous podcasts but Archetypes was not renewed for a second series and their deal was ended  with Spotifys head of podcast innovation and monetisation Bill Simmons later calling the couple grifters.

It also emerged in December, the couples charity Archewell  named after their four-year-old son Archie and established in 2020  suffered a donations plunge of nearly 10m in a year.

While the Sussexes released their charitys annual report and a promotional film showing their good works in 2022, it was marred by the dramatic loss.

Oppenheimer was the big movie winner at the Golden Globes, with Succession and The Bear sweeping the TV categories. Koy seemingly left Taylor Swift unimpressed with a joke aimed at the singer, while comedian Jim Gaffigan left the audience wincing with a controversial quip addressing the unsealed Jeffrey Epsetin court records.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were source of brutal joke at Golden Globes (Getty Images for 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Gala)

Find the full list of Golden Globes 2024 winners here.
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Jacob Elordi has been tapped in to take over for Andrew Garfield in Guillermo del Toros forthcoming Frankenstein adaptation for Netflix.

According to initial reports, the Oscar-winning director was interested in casting Garfield in the titular role; however, The Hollywood Reporter has now confirmed that Euphoria breakout Elordi, 26, has landed the role.

He will star alongside Oscar Isaac, Christoph Waltz and All Quiet on the Western Front breakout Felix Kammerer in Del Toros second feature for the streamer. Mia Goth, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley and Christian Convery are also set to star.

Garfields departure from the project apparently came down to scheduling conflicts related to last years Hollywood writers strike, Showbiz411 reported.

The Independent has contacted Netflix for further comment.

The casting announcement comes after a busy 2023 for the Australian actor, who recently starred in Sofia Coppolas Priscilla biopic as the King of Rock n Roll opposite Cailee Spaeny as Elviss ex-wife Priscilla Presley. He also appeared in Emerald Fennells divise comedy thriller, Saltburn.

Last week, The Kissing Booth actor subtly shaded his Saltburn co-star Barry Keoghan who earnt a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of devious Oxford University student Oliver Quick.

Jacob Elordi and Andrew Garfield (Getty Images)

In an interview with Vogue UK, Elordi asked Keoghan what drew him to the film, with the latter replying: When I met Emerald, she told me that she had you kind of down to do it. So, Emerald, yourself and the script... what about you?

Definitely yeah, it was Emerald, Elordi added with laughter: Then she said she wanted Timothee Chalamet for it. And I said have you thought about Barry Keoghan?

Keoghan ended up losing Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama to Oppenheimers Cillian Murphy at Sunday nights (7 January) Golden Globes.

Based on Mary Shelleys classic novel about scientist Victor Frankenstein who brings to life the eponymous monster, Frankenstein will be written, produced and directed by Del Toro.

Frankenstein is currently in the pre-production stages. It follows the Mexican filmmakers 2022 award-winning animated Netflix movie, Pinocchio. He has previously worked with Netflix for his horror anthology Cabinet of Curiosities, as well as animated films Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans and Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia. Del Toro is perhaps best known for his 2017 Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water, starring Sally Hawkins.
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Sheikh Hasina was re-elected as Bangladeshs prime minister for a fifth time on Sunday amid an opposition boycott and abysmal turnout of voters.

Ms Hasinas Awami League party swept the 12th general election held on 7 January, winning an absolute majority of at least 224 seats out of 299 seats.

The election commission is yet to officially declare the winning numbers on Monday.

The 76-year-old daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, first became prime minister in 1996. This will be her fourth consecutive term in office.

Independent candidates took 62, while the Jatiya Party, the third largest in the country, took 11 seats and Kallyan Party got 1.

Critics of the ruling party accused Awami League of planting some of their partymen as dummy independent candidates in a show of false participation and fairness.

Ms Hasinas main rival  the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by jailed former prime minister Khaleda Zia  boycotted the general elections, saying that it would be a futile and unfair exercise under the Hasina administration.

A policeman walks past a portrait of Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka (AFP via Getty Images)

The BNP rejected the result and vowed to continue their fight against the Hasina government. The opposition called a two-day strike nationwide through Sunday, asking people to shun the election, and said the low turnout was a success for their boycott call.

Residents largely stayed away from Sundays election, which was marred by violence. Mosharrof Shah, national daily Prothom Alo journalist, was assaulted for taking pictures of an alleged ballot stuffing for the ruling party, the newspaper said.

Nearly 40 per cent of the 119.6 million eligible voters turned out to cast their ballot on Sunday, said chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal, compared with over 80 per cent in the last election in 2018.

Election officials pour ballot papers from a ballot box for counting at a polling booth (AFP via Getty Images)

At least 18 arson attacks preceded the vote, including four deaths in an arson attack on a passenger train on Friday.

On Sunday, a supporter of an Awami League candidate was stabbed to death in Munshiganj district near the capital, Dhaka, officials said.

Hasina polled 249,962 votes from her constituency Gopalganj, about 165 km south of the capital Dhaka, while her nearest rival secured just 469 votes.

I am trying my best to ensure that democracy should continue in this country, Hasina said on Sunday after casting her vote. Her statement comes at a time when critics and rights activists have raised alarm over the fifth-largest democracys descent into authoritarianism amid a crackdown on the opposition.

Hasina has instructed party leaders and supporters not to bring out any victory processions or indulge in celebrations, said Awami Leagues general secretary Obaidul Quader.

Gono Odhikar Porishod supporters hold a protest against the election boycott call by the main opposition party, and demanded for free and fair elections (AP)

Polls were held for 299 directly elected parliamentary seats with voters eligible to choose from nearly 2,000 contestants.

Election to one seat will be held at a later date after an independent contestant died ahead of the vote due to natural causes.
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The Taliban said they have been arresting women in Afghanistans cities over improperly worn hijab but did not specify how many are behind bars in the latest brutal crackdown by the hardline Islamist regime.

The Taliban started arresting women who, according to them, did not follow their strictly enforced dress code since August 2021, emulating Irans conservative rules of mandatory hijab.

It is not immediately clear how many women have been arrested by the Talibans local officials and how it describes bad hijab. The Talibans Vice and Virtue Ministry, a replacement of the ministry of womens affairs, had first confirmed the arrests on Thursday.

These arrests were to punish some groups who were trying to promote violation of hijab in some cities, and it was for a limited time, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid on Monday, reported Tolo news.

He added that the arrests took place by women police and the arrested women were given advice in the presence of their family members.

Photos and videos of arbitrary arrests since last week showed local Taliban fighters picking up women with covered heads in vehicles. Locals also reported intimidation from the Taliban officials in the event of protesting the arrests.

The Talibans Vice and Virtue Ministry spokesperson Abdul Ghafar Farooq said the arrests were made last Monday, citing complaints about women not wearing hijab properly in the Afghan capital and provinces for two-and-a-half years.

These are the few limited women who spread bad hijab in Islamic society. They violated Islamic values and rituals, and encouraged society and other respected sisters to go for bad hijab, he said. The Taliban interpret the Islamic Sharia laws and enforce them strictly, with women and girls facing the brunt of their hardline policies. With little to no opposition since they came to power, womens rights have taken a severe blow.

The ban on girls attending school beyond sixth grade was the first of what in the second year of Taliban control became a flurry of restrictions that now keep Afghan girls and women from classrooms, most jobs, and much of public life.

The Taliban seized power on 15 August 2021 as US and NATO forces withdrew from the country after two decades of war.

The widespread arrests are the latest blow to Afghan women and girls, who have already been eliminated by the Talibans ultra fundamentalist regime which has banned them from education, employment and access to public spaces.

Despite the Talibans arbitrary arrests of women, the US has backed the UN Security Councils resolution call for a UN Special Envoy for representing Afghanistan, in a step closer to allowing engagement with the Talibans regime.
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Oil from the controversial North Sea projects, including the much-debated Rosebank venture, will contribute to less than one per cent of the UKs fuel needs by 2030, a new analysis has found.

The governments claim of bolstering the UKs energy security through new licenses doesnt stand up to scrutiny, the research released by the non-profit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said on Monday.

The study says only one per cent of the oil generated from the new drilling licences issued for projects like Rosebank  Britains largest untapped oil field  would end up getting used in the UK by 2030.

Hence, it wont make any significant difference to the energy prices in the UK.

The reality is very little of the oil pumped from the North Sea is refined and sold on British soil, and even then the price is largely dictated by international markets, professor Gavin Bridge, fellow of the Durham Energy Institute at Durham University, said.

Most of the oil is extracted by private or foreign state-owned companies over which the Government has little control, he added.

The notion that more drilling on the continental shelf boosts our energy security doesnt stand up to scrutiny.

In response to a written parliamentary question last week, the government admitted that majority of the oil drilled from North Sea  around 80 per cent  will be sold on the international market rather than to UK consumers.

It is not desirable to force private companies to allocate oil and gas produced in the North Sea for domestic use, it said.

ECIU says the new licenses are a distraction from policies that would have a real, lasting impact on the UKs energy independence.

Oil from new fields such as Rosebank will be traded internationally  as the government has admitted, this oil is not earmarked for the UK and it wont make any real difference to UK prices. Dr Simon Cran-McGreehin, Head of Analysis at ECIU

Analysing government data on oil production, projections from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) and oil demand, the ECIU study says oil extraction from UK waters is becoming less and less important for UK energy independence and security.

The analysis comes as the government was set to propose a new law in the Commons on Monday to call for new oil and gas licences on an annual basis instead of every five years.

The continued push from the Rishi Sunak government for extracting oil in the sensitive North Sea region has been under scrutiny for a long time, inviting backlash from climate experts, opposition and even conservative MPs.

Rosebank has faced strong opposition from environmental campaigners (PA Wire)

Climate activists, including Greta Thunberg, demonstrated at several locations in London in October against the Rosebank project, which has the potential to produce 500m barrels of oil in its lifetime which, when burned, would emit as much carbon dioxide as running 56 coal-fired power stations for a year.

Two campaign groups, Greenpeace and Uplift, announced separate legal challenges to the proposal last, which are due to be heard early this year.

However, the government has been pushing through with its plans to grant companies to drill in the North Sea citing energy security concerns.

During an interview with the BBC on Saturday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said even when we reach net zero in 2050 we will still get a significant proportion of our energy from fossil fuels, and domestic oil and gas is four times cleaner than imported oil and gas.

His statement prompted a response from Piers Forster, the interim chair of the CCC tweeting: Our earlier advice is still current. UK oil and gas consumption needs to fall by over 80 per cent to meet UK targets. This and Cop decision makes further licensing inconsistent with climate goals.

In September prime minister Rishi Sunak said Rosebank would help prevent young people from growing up dependent on foreign dictators for energy security.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson told PA news agency: With energy markets becoming more unstable, it makes sense to make the most of our own homegrown advantages in the North Sea.

Thats why were backing the UKs oil and gas industry with annual licences, supporting 200,000 jobs and giving them certainty to invest in jobs here and unlock billions in tax for our own transition to clean energy.

As a net importer of oil and gas, the UK increasingly produces less oil and gas than it uses. These new licences will not make us a net exporter or increase carbon emissions above our legally binding carbon budgets.
 Close TX deploys emergency resources before storm

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As the northeast braces for flooding rain and damaging winds through Wednesday, meteorologists forecast a second storm will blow through the eastern half of the US late this week.

The southeast should brace for a repeat of destructive winds and possible tornadoes, the National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center said Wednesday. Meanwhile, the midwest can expect even more snow over the weekend, while rain will continue to beat down on the northeast, according to the NWS.

As for Wednesday, flooding rain and damaging winds will hit Boston, Massachusetts overnight, while New York City residents should remain braced for potential flooding throughout the day.

Meanwhile, the south is recovering from the destruction of a devastating storm earlier this week.

Four people have died and 890,000 homes were left without power after Storm Finn ripped through the Atlantic Coast, from Florida to New York. The deaths were reported in North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

Fourteen tornadoes were reported across Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina on Tuesday, causing significant damage, blowing roofs off homes and prompting rescues in Floridas panhandle, which was hit with 55 mph winds and hail.
A suburban developer specializing in multibuilding apartment complexes is seeking approval from the Town of West Seneca for a project on Transit Road, if it can overcome concerns from town officials about a lack of sidewalks, traffic and a single-access point from a side street.

Young Development Inc. wants to put up a cluster of five two-story apartment buildings at the southwest corner of Transit and Schultz roads, north of Dyke Road along the border with the Town of Elma. Dubbed the Springs at West Seneca, the 33-foot-tall buildings would each contain 10 units, for a total of 50 apartments, along with 120 parking spaces.

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Thats a reduction from its original proposal last summer for 55 units on the site, after it withdrew plans for a small five-unit building because neighbors objected to the proximity to their house.

Each building would have four units on the first floor and six on the second. The first floor would have two 1,093-square-foot two bedroom units on either end and two 820-square-foot one-bedroom units in the middle. Upstairs would be two 1,095-square-foot two-bedroom units, two 1,268-square-foot three-bedroom apartments, a 1,157-square-foot two-bedroom unit and an 873-square-foot one-bedroom apartment.

Rents will average about $1.80 per square foot, or $1,449 to $2,610 per month  similar to Youngs Town Center Apartments at 4800 Transit and Midtown Apartments at 6386 Transit.

Located at 2852 Transit and 391 Schultz, the project would be located on a 4.1-acre L-shaped site that is mostly wooded or grassy, except for a pair of single-family homes that would be demolished as part of the project. Young already has the site under contract from the Strassburg family. Apartments and homes are located to the west and north, while commercial buildings are just to the south and east.

The project would include an entrance and driveway extending south from Schultz, and then turning slightly toward Transit before ending. Three buildings would be located parallel to Transit at the north end  two between the driveway and Transit and the third on the west side of the driveway  while the other two would be perpendicular to Transit and next to each other on the southern end of the site.

The project includes 70 surface parking spaces and 50 garages. The town rezoned the site for the project in July, and granted a zoning variance for density, allowing 50 units instead of just 34.

However, at the last Planning Board meeting in December, panel chair Margaret Bebak voiced concern about sidewalks and traffic, as well as the single access from Schultz, because the state Department of Transportation did not approval an access from Transit, a state highway. Young and its attorney, Sean Hopkins, said the grading along Schultz could be problematic for sidewalks, but would investigate. The project will be reviewed again this month.
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Amanda Seyfried and Meryl Streep are back together again.

The two actors both attended the 2024 Golden Globes on Sunday (7 January) at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, California. Streep and Seyfriend are known for starring as mother and daughter in the 2008 movie musical, Mamma Mia!, and the 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Seyfried was posing for photos on the red carpet ahead of the awards show, when Streep walked up next to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. The Mean Girls star quickly brushed off her excitement and regained her composure to keep taking photos.

Many people took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share how excited they were to see the sweet reunion. They did this for me personally, one person joked on the platform.

Another person agreed, writing: AAAAAH !!!! Sophie and Donna reunited.

Such a cute moment, a third X user wrote.

Despite the fans fawning all over the reunion, Seyfried has previously admitted that she and the cast of both Mamma Mia movies are open to having another reunion on the big screen with a third film.

Back in 2020, Colin Firth - who played Harry Bright, one of Streeps love interests and Seyfrieds potential father - had discussed the possibility of a third Mamma Mia! film, following the critical and commercial success of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Speaking to Sky News, Firth revealed that he was unable to provide any solid details on whether a third Mamma Mia! film is in the works. However, he admitted at the time that he was keen to return to the franchise, adding the rest of the cast - which includes Pierce Brosnan, Dame Julie Walters, and Dominic Cooper - would also be up for reprising their roles.

We can always dream, he said. Im sure that you wont find anybody that wouldnt be keen to show up for it.

The likelihood of [a third Mamma Mia! film] I cant comment on, you know, he added.

The first Mamma Mia! film was released in 2008, based on the 1998 stage musical set to the music of Swedish pop hitmakers, ABBA. While many of the bands beloved songs have already been featured in the first two Mamma Mia! films, Firth suggested that there was still more mileage to be found in them. I suppose there are more songs, he said. Or why not use them all again?

Mamma Mia! producer Judy Craymer also expressed interest in a third movie, telling Variety in 2020 that it was meant to be a trilogy.

I think one day there will be another film, because theres meant to be a trilogy, you see. I know Universal would like me to do it, she told the outlet.

Most recently, Craymer told Deadline that a third movie is in the earliest stages of development. The producer also expressed an interest in bringing back Streep to reprise her role, despite killing her off in the sequel. There is a story there, and I do think Meryl should come back, and if the script is right, she would, I think, because she really loved playing Donna, she said.

Even Streep herself said shed come back, joking in an interview with Vogue last September: Im up for anything.

I told Judy if she could figure out a way to reincarnate Donna, Im into that. Or it could be like in one of those soap operas where Donna comes back and reveals it was really her twin sister that died, the Oscar winner said, adding: We may have to call it Grand-Mamma Mia! by the time we make it!
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Burns Night brings to mind forkfuls of peppery haggis and wee drams of whisky but the history of the festivities is often taken for granted.

The Burns Supper is a celebration of the life and legacy of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. While it was first organised by his close friends and family as a memorial dinner, the night has since morphed into an event for Scots at home and around the world.

It is celebrated with traditional Scottish fare, folk music and renditions of Burnss poetry.

Who was Robert Burns?

Rabbie Burns penned more than 550 poems and songs before his death in 1796.

A massive source of inspiration to the founders of Liberalism and Socialism, the 18th-century writer is known for his astute social commentary and focus on all things political. Scotlands national poet is considered a revolutionary figure, both in his homeland and beyond.

Dubbed the greatest Scot of all time by STV in 2009, the writer from Ayrshire died of rheumatic fever at the age of just 37.

His funeral was held on the same day his son Maxwell was born. Burnss body was later transferred from a churchyard grave to a mausoleum in Dumfries, where his wife Jean Armour was also laid to rest after her death in 1834.

When is Burns Night?

Burns Night falls on 25 January every year.

The date was chosen to coincide with the poet's birthday, who was born on 25 January 1759.

The first Burns supper hosted by the Burns Club was held on 29 January 1802, on what was thought to be Burns' birthday.

However, the following year the discovery of parish records revealed that the late poet's birthday was actually four days prior.

How is it celebrated?

The main attraction of Burns Night is the Burns Supper. This traditionally involves participants donning tartan, listening to bagpipes, crooning Auld Lang Syne  also sung at New Years Eve  and reciting the great writers songs and poems.

Read more: How to make vegan haggis

The song Auld Lang Syne was derived from a poem penned by Burns in 1788, which he originally sent to the Scots Musical Museum.

Burns Night celebrations commonly incorporate the Saltire, the national flag of Scotland.

While the first Burns Supper was first held way back in 1801 and new rituals have since been appended, the crux of the celebration remains unchanged and revolves around paying tribute to Burns in whatever way feels most fitting.

Whats in the traditional dinner?

The jewel in the crown of any Burns Supper is always haggis, a savoury pudding containing minced sheeps heart, liver and lungs bound with onion, oatmeal, suet, stock and a selection of spices. It is traditionally bound in the animals stomach.

Burns describes haggis as the great chieftain o the puddin-race and a traditional Burns Night kicks off with a host reading his Address to a Haggis.

Read more: How to make classic haggis, neeps and tatties

Haggis is served with the classic side of mashed neeps and tatties (swedes and potatoes). The food is, of course, accompanied by the finest domestic whisky.

Vegetarians and pescatarians  or those who want to try something a little different  can choose haggis made without meat. Also popular is seafood dishes like Cullen Skink soup, made from smoked haddock.
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Jodie Foster has divided opinion with recent comments about the work ethic of Generation Z.

A former child star herself, Foster began working as a child model when she was just three years old, and was nominated for her first Oscar for Taxi Driver aged 14.

In an interview with The Guardian, Foster, 61, explained that shed reached out to connect with younger actors such as non-binary performer Bella Ramsey in recent years because it was hard growing up.

They need to learn how to relax, how to not think about it so much, how to come up with something thats theirs, Foster said. I can help them find that, which is so much more fun than being, with all the pressure behind it, the protagonist of the story.

However, Foster then went on to say that shed found Gen Z  the generation born roughly between 1997 and 2012  to be really annoying, especially in the workplace.

Theyre like, Nah, Im not feeling it today, Im gonna come in at 10.30am. Or in emails, Ill tell them, This is all grammatically incorrect, did you not check your spelling? And theyre like, Why would I do that, isnt that kind of limiting?

The clip was widely circulated on social media, where users shared their opposing thoughts on the latter remark by Foster. Many of the younger users on Twitter/X argued that Gen Zs attitudes towards work, in not allowing it to dominate their lives, were a good thing.

Actors comments proved divisive among fans (AFP via Getty Images)

Isnt it possible that Jodie Fosters frustration with Gen Zs work style is a result of a generation gap, and perhaps theres value in their unconventional approach to work?? one social media user theorised.

Sorry that Gen Z doesnt want to be a victim of toxic work cultures, another wrote, while one Twitter user echoed: Boomers like to be stuck in the past.

Millennials will never understand, one comment read.

One tweet read: We dont dream of labour, Jodie!!!! Weve realised that hard work (dont confuse w/ being a good worker) doesnt mean s*** in the grand scheme of late stage capitalism!!! Take that mental health day!!!

However, some were in agreement with Fosters comments. Her comments on language speak to a recent study by Barclays LifeSkills, which revealed that 71 per cent of UK workers believe the younger generation is changing the formality of language in the workplace.

It all comes down to work ethic and a lot of teenagers (not all) just dont have it, one Twitter/X user wrote. Its a victim mentality, shortcut taking, I need it now, glass half empty, the world will bend to me mindset. The sooner those people stop denying it, the sooner they can make the choice to catch up to the rest of the world, because were not slowing down.

Totally agree with Jodie Foster in this one, another commenter wrote.

Im Gen Z and I have totally met these kinds of co-workers lol some better than others, one tweet read.

One social media user reasoend: She is an icon and she does deserve respect. However, younger generations ways have differed from older ways since forever.

Another agreed: Gen Zs lack of work ethic or grindset is both def annoying but also commendable in many instances.
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A reporter at the Golden Globes recruited help from celebrity attendees after she lost a four-carat diamond on the red carpet.

On Sunday 7 January, Keltie Knight, a correspondent for E! News, was reporting live from the red carpet outside the 81st annual Golden Globes when she noticed that the stone was missing from her ring.

Hi everyone! Golden Globes emergency. If youre a celebrity and you see a four-carat diamond on the red carpet, please return it Keltie Knight at E! because its gone and, um, its real, Knight said in an Instagram video shared to her account shortly after the red carpet kicked off.

In the video, Knight also held up the ring in question, which was clearly missing the large centre stone.

Knight also shared a photo showing her crawling around looking for the diamond on the red carpet to her Instagram Story. According to Knight, she likely lost the ring while she was posing for photos on the red carpet. Clue #1: I had the diamond when I finished makeup because we cleaned it, she wrote. When I did photos it was gone.

In response to her plea, many shared their hopes that she would be successful in her attempts to recover the gemstone.

(Instagram / Keltie Knight)

Oh my god!! Please say its been found. My second-hand anxiety, one person commented, while another said: Omg noooo. I hope someone finds it and returns it.

Oh my heart hurts for you! someone else wrote.

In an update shared to her Instagram Stories, Knight revealed that shed finished her red carpet duties but still hadnt been reunited with her diamond.

Update: finished the red carpet and now in bath with Jersey Mikes and still no diamond, she wrote alongside a photo of her eating a sandwich.

(Instagram / Keltie Knight )

You can find all of the best-dressed stars here. Follow along with The Independents live coverage of the 81st annual Golden Globes here.
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Pope Francis called Monday for a universal ban on the despicable practice of surrogate motherhood, as he included the commercialization of pregnancy in an annual speech listing threats to global peace and human dignity.

In a foreign policy address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, Francis lamented that 2024 had dawned at a time in history in which peace is increasingly threatened, weakened and in some part lost.

Citing Russias war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, migration and climate crises and the immoral production of nuclear and conventional weapons, Francis delivered a lengthy laundry list of the ills afflicting humanity and the increasing violation of international humanitarian law that allows them.

But Francis also listed smaller-scale issues that he said were threats to peace and human dignity, including surrogacy. Francis said the life of the unborn child must be protected and not suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking.

I consider despicable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mothers material needs, he said.

He called for the international community to prohibit this practice universally.

Francis has previously voiced the Catholic Churchs opposition to what he has called uterus for rent, and some European countries prohibit it, including Spain and Italy. At the same time, however, the Vaticans doctrine office has made clear that homosexual parents who resort to surrogacy can have their children baptized.

In his geopolitical roundup, Francis singled out Russia by name in noting that large-scale war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine had ground on. It marked an unusual break with Francis usual tendency to spare Moscow direct, public blame for the invasion when expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

Francis was more balanced in his lament of Israels ongoing war in Gaza, condemning Hamas Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel and every instance of terrorism and extremism. At the same time, he said the attack provoked a strong Israeli military response that had left thousands dead and created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
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Defence minister James Heappey was grilled by MPs on Monday over the plight of the Afghanspecial forces units who served shoulder-to-shoulder with British troops, but who have been abandoned by the UK.

The Independent revealed in a joint investigation that members of two elite units, known as the Triples, had been denied sanctuary in the UK despite being trained and paid by the UK government.

Labours shadow security minister Dan Jarvis, who served in Afghanistan, quizzed Mr Heappey on why the Afghan commandos were being denied help if they had been effectively employed by the British.

He asked Mr Heappey in the Commons: There has been some debate about the extent to which the Triples were paid directly by UK forces. I know that that was the case, does the minister accept that?

Mr Heappey, who has in the past played down the Triples connections to the British forces, said there was a difference in opinion between the advice that I receive from officials and the advice that the honorable gentleman sets out. He invited the Labour shadow minister to meet civil servants to discuss the topic and reach some truth.

Defence minister James Heappey suggested Labours Dan Jarvis speak with officials about pay for Afghan commandos (PA)

In a joint investigation with newsroom Lighthouse Reports and Sky News, The Independent revealed that the two Triples units - officially called Commando Force 333 (CF333) and Afghan Territorial Force 444 (ATF444) - had served in such close partnerhip with the British that they received a salary directly from the UK government, with many of them paid right up until days before the fall of Kabul.

Members of both units initially received a monthly salary from the British government, paid in cash. A few years after they were set up in the early 2000s, the units moved to an Afghan government structure.

Britain owes debt to Afghan special forces, shadow minister says

At this point, soldiers started received an official Afghan government salary that was paid into bank accounts, as well as their British salary. This later changed so that British money was paid as a top-up depending on service. This has been confirmed by Afghan commandos and by their British advisers.

A document that appears to be a payslip signed by a UK Rep was also published as part of the joint investigation.

When grilled on why so many Afghans who served directly alongside British forces have been denied relocation, Mr Heappey said that there has to be limits on the UK schemes.

Chairman of the Intelligence Committee Sir Julian Lewis asked how many soldiers were under threat (PA)

He continued: No country has made an open offer to those who served in the Afghan security forces. All countries are focused on those who worked directly with that country.

Clearly its a matter for debate as to what that direct service looks like.

Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, Sir Julian Lewis MP, pressed the defence minister, saying: Surely special consideration should be given to Afghan members of the special forces, who even if they did not work directly for us, worked extremely closely with us?

He asked how many of these soldiers were under constant threat to their lives and ought to be rescued?

Mr Heappey replied that a number of 4-500 is circulated, but that the government does not know because they dont have the employment records of those units.

Campaigners have separately estimated that there are around 2,000 members of the Triples who have been left behind - but that not all of them would opt for relocation to the UK.
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Parents will be told to send children who have runny noses or sore throats to school as part of a new government drive to try and cut down on absenteeism.

The campaign Moments Matter, Attendance Counts has been launched in a bid to convince parents to send their children to school even if they have minor illnesses.

In 2021/2022, more than a quarter of secondary school pupils (1.6 million) were classed as persistently absent, meaning they missed out on at least 10 per cent of school sessions.

As part of the campaign there will be 18 new attendance hubs across six regions, bringing the total to 32, in an effort to help nearly 2,000 schools tackle persistent absence, the Education Department said.

The hubs are run by schools with excellent attendance that share practical ideas with other primary, secondary, alternative provision and special schools in England that need help to boost their attendance.

These sites can include a range of schemes to back schools, pupils and their families such as breakfast clubs, extracurricular activities, projects aimed at improving their processes and analysis of attendance data.

Tackling persistent absence and getting pupils to return to school has been named as a top priority by education secretary Gillian Keegan and Childrens Commissioner Dame Rachel De Souza, who say school is key to a youngsters start in life.

The government is also going to put up to 15 million over three years towards expanding the attendance mentor pilot programme. This is to provide direct intensive support to more than 10,000 persistent and severely absent pupils and their families.

The programme will see trained attendance mentors working in 10 further areas from September 2024. A pilot programme, with Barnardos, is already running in Middlesbrough, Doncaster, Knowsley, Salford, and Stoke-on-Trent.

Intensive one-to-one support is offered to pupils who are persistently absent, alongside work with their families to find out why the child is skipping school.

Ms Keegan said: Tackling attendance is my number one priority. We want all our children to have the best start in life because we know that attending school is vital to a childs wellbeing, development, and attainment as well as impact future career success.

I am hugely grateful to all our brilliant teachers, heads, and everyone whose worked with us to make the progress weve already made with 380,000 fewer children persistently absent.

Ms De Souza said: Every day counts: when children miss school, its not just about missing lessons, its also about losing valuable moments spent with their friends and teachers.

The Moments Matter, Attendance Counts campaign includes tips on where parents can look for support. There is guidance in a recent letter from health leaders, including Englands chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, about attendance and mild illness.

National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman said it is right to prioritise tackling absence as the data on attendance remains a real concern and too many pupils are still not attending school on a regular or frequent basis.

Stressing that schools need more than advice, he said: Over the last decade we have seen the crucial support services that used to step in and tackle persistent absence eroded and it is immensely frustrating that the Government is only now slowly beginning to realise the impact that has had.

What we need to see is a much stronger commitment to restoring those services so that every family and child that needs support gets it quickly. This cannot be done on the cheap.

Additional reporting by PA
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Depression, prison time, moving country, and attempted suicide. These are just some of the tales told by the victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.

Errors made by the Horizon software, which was made by tech firm Fujitsu and used by the Post Office, led to the wrongful conviction of more than 700 people over false accounting and theft between 1999 and 2015.

Speaking to The Independent, some of these former postmasters shared their horrific stories, including tales of attempted suicide, physical abuse and exile abroad. None of them has received full compensation.

A renewed focus on the scandal comes amid a new ITV drama, Mr Bates vs. The Post Office, which has re-sparked interest in the ongoing scandal.

Scotland Yard said on Friday night that officers were investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions; for example monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions.

Scotland Yard is investigating potential fraud and Rishi Sunak has called for further assistance for victims of the scandal (PA/EPA)

Prime minister Rishi Sunak also told the BBCs Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that ministers were looking every which way we can to help those embroiled in the scandal, including the option of exoneration. A petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to lose her CBE has attracted more than a million signatures.

Several people took their own lives due to the stress and 60 of the victims have died before finding any justice at all, with accusations tearing peoples lives apart, and many losing their jobs and homes.

One of those people was Janet Skinner, who began working for the Post Office in 1994 and soon worked her way up to become a postmistress in Bransholme, Hull. Then Horizon was introduced.

Janet Skinner was put on suicide watch after she was wrongly jailed for false accounting (Supplied)

Having never had previous issues with her work, Ms Skinner soon noticed that her totals never balanced once the software was put in place.

After calling the helpline, she was told any shortfall would be her responsibility to make good as per her contract. But in 2006 her employers came to do an official cash audit and found a shortfall of just under 60,000.

Ms Skinner, who was 35 at the time, was accused of stealing the money, had her keys taken from her, and was suspended.

This sounds naive but when they came I was actually relieved, she said. I thought they were going to figure out what was happening and find what the problem was.

But when she was told she would be tried in Hull Crown Court in 2007, the reality sank in.

She took a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to false accounting in the hopes of avoiding jail, but was sentenced to nine months in prison.

The 53-year-old told The Independent: I remember standing in the dock and the judge saying I was untrustworthy and stealing from pensioners.

I was a complete and utter mess. Standing there having someone say these things about me when I hadnt done anything was the worst thing in the world.

She was then sent to New Hall prison in Wakefield for six weeks, and was put on suicide watch.

Ms Skinner with her friend and fellow former Post Office employee Tracy Felstead, who also wrongly spent time in prison (Supplied)

After leaving prison, Ms Skinner lost her home and was forced to pay the Post Office compensation of 11,000.

It wasnt until almost a decade later that Ms Skinner realised she was not alone and eventually had her conviction overturned in 2021. However, almost three years on, she is still yet to receive her full and final compensation.

Another victim, 57-year-old Sathyan Shiju, attempted suicide when he lost his home and businesses after being accused of stealing over 20,000 from his post office in Tolworth, southwest London.

Mr Shiju was a postmaster when a branch audit in 2006 showed the massive Horizon shortfall. The father, who also had another grocery store nearby, was interviewed under caution by post investigators and says he was immediately suspended and subsequently dismissed by the Post Office.

Sathyan Shiju is still fighting for justice after he was accused of stealing over 20,000 from the Post Office, sending him into a spiral of depression (Supplied)

It didnt sink in until they took away the post office and then my nightmare started, he told The Independent.

No one would speak to me, not even my MP. There were some days I received ten instances of abuse. People threw things on me, spat on me and called me a P***.

My businesses failed and my houses got repossessed. I used to be a really confident guy but this completely ruined me. I didnt have anyone to talk to and get it off my chest so I tried to commit suicide.

Mr Shiju also explained the impact of the accusations on his daughter: I only have one daughter and she was the one who opened the door when I was about to [commit suicide].

My wife and daughter took me back to India to be with my family and my daughter was sitting next to my bed every day and night because she was afraid I was going to do something.

Eventually, Mr Shiju returned to the UK in 2015, but he says his wifes family still refuse to speak to him and did not attend his daughters wedding, as they believe he is a thief.

In 2020 he was accepted into the Horizon Shortfall Scheme but says he has only been offered just over 12,000 in compensation and his case is continuing.

Chris Head was in 2006 celebrated as Britains youngest subpostmaster, at just 18 (Supplied)

When approached by The Independent, the Post Office said it couldnt comment on individual cases.

Across the country in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Christopher Head, a former postmaster, also felt forced to leave the country after he lost his livelihood.

Once crowned the youngest sub-postmaster in Britain, in 2006 at the age of 18, Mr Heads tenure came to an abrupt end when he was accused of theft and fraud by the Post Office in 2015.

After five months his case was dropped, but the organisation insisted he still paid back the 88,098 they claimed he had stolen.

I knew then that it was really serious and it was a lot of money that I couldnt repay, he said. They interviewed me and when they sat me down and read me all my rights it really hit home.

Mr Head was left unable to find work after the accusation and felt his only option was to seek work abroad.

A civil case was opened against Mr Head but was put on hold after Alan Bates brought a case against the Post Office to the High Court. This gave Mr Head hope but was not enough to salvage his livelihood.

Mr Head has since campaigned for justice for himself and hundreds of other sub-postmasters who were wrongly accused of theft (Supplied)

Mr Head, now 36, returned home in 2019 and he was among hundreds of sub-postmasters who finally won a High Court case against the Post Office, in a 58m settlement that year.

Despite still struggling to find employment, Mr Head says he was only offered 13 per cent of his claim and believes the Post Office has no intention of restoring justice.

A petition calling for the former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to lose her CBE has received more than 1.1 million signatures, with the number rising fast (The Independent)

Meanwhile, former counter clerk Tracy Felsted is evidence that even some of the earliest cases are yet to be fully resolved.

Ms Felstead was convicted of stealing more than 11,000 from the Post Office and jailed for six months when she was just 19.

She landed her job at Camberwell Green post office in south London when she left school in 1999. Returning from a family holiday in 2000, she was told there was a shortfall of 11,500 in her till.

After a gruelling trial at Kingston Crown Court in 2001, she was found guilty of theft and false accounting and sentenced to six months in prison.

It was horrendous and Ive never been so scared in my life, the now 41-year-old said. I tried to commit suicide twice during the trial and my family was destroyed. I remember having to leave a family friends wedding because I had to go into a psychiatric unit.

Tracy Felstead was just 19 when she was sent to prison for a crime she did not commit (Supplied)

Ms Felstead finally had her conviction overturned in April 2021, but her three-month stay in prison continues to impact her life and she says she is yet to receive full and final compensation.

She said: The day I got out felt surreal but it was also very isolating. I found it hard to have doors closed and to this day I dont have a door in my kitchen or living room because I panic.

I want to now close that door and live my life with my children and just live a happy life.

In response to these stories, a Post Office spokesperson said: We fully share the aims of the current public inquiry, set up to establish what went wrong in the past and the accountability for it. We are acutely aware of the human cost of the scandal and are doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past, as far as that is possible.

Both Post Office and government are committed to providing full, fair and final compensation for the people affected.

To date, offers of compensation totalling more than 138m have been made to around 2,700 postmasters. Interim payments continue to be made in cases which have not yet been resolved.
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Its been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history - but more than 20 years on, many of its victims, some now dead, are still waiting for justice and compensation.

The Post Office scandal centres on a centralised accounting software called Horizon which was installed to speed up processes in the late 1990s. However, errors in the software made it look like money was missing from sub-postmasters branches.

It led to the conviction of more than 700 operators, while many more were wrongly accused of theft by company bosses.

Yet despite a landmark high court victory in 2019, which found the Horizon IT system was at fault, only 93 convictions for allegations such as theft and false accounting have so far been overturned.

Sub-postmasters celebrate the high court ruling in 2019 which led to 39 having their convictions quashed (PA)

Public outrage over the scandal reemerged this week following the airing of an ITV drama called Mr Bates v the Post Office last week.

Here, we take a look at everything we know about the scandal:

What is the Post Office scandal?

The Horizon IT system is accounting software, designed by Japanese company Fujitsu, which saw accounts automated after subpostmasters entered their sales figures via a touchscreen.

Due to faulty software, subpostmasters started experiencing unexplained shortfalls in their accounts and were liable for losses under their contract with the Post Office, with subpostmasters being ordered to pay back the money that was lost.

But despite concerns being raised, Post Office prosecuted more than 700 operators for offences such as theft and false accounting based on the information from Horizon between 1999 and 2015.

Decades on, the Post Office says on a page dedicated to the scandal on its website: We are sincerely sorry for past events and recognise both the impact on individual lives and the length of time any victims have waited for justice."

The corporate acceptance came after a High Court judge ruled in 2019 that Horizon contained a number of bugs, errors and defects and there was a material risk that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.

What impact did it have on the accused?

Previously dismissive of the glitches in the Horizon technology, Post Office laid the blame of the financial discrepancies at the hands of those people who ran the branches.

Not only did that result in criminal convictions, it also damaged hundreds of lives; not just those of the accused, but also the partners, children and friends.

Tragically, the pain was too much for four sub-postmasters, who were believed to have taken their own lives due to scandal. They are father-of-two Martin Griffiths, who died aged 59 in 2013, mother-of-two Fiona McGowan, who died aged 47 in 2009, wife Louise Mann, who died in 2012, and Peter Huxham who died aged 63 in 2020.

More than a dozen also died of other causes before they were able to get justice.

The stress of the dispute led to marriage breakdowns and victims suffering health conditions and addiction. A loss of income, in some cases because of efforts to balance the branch books, has resulted in bankruptcies.

Victory for campaigners - what happened?

Many of those wrongly accused refused to stand down and after years of civil cases, a group of sub-postmasters led by the Justice for Subpostmaster Alliance won a High Court ruling in 2019.

That ruling, which found the Horizon system at fault for creating shortfalls in branch accounts, was then upheld on appeal in 2021 and resulted in the overturning of convictions for 39 subpostmasters.

The Post Office also agreed to settle a civil claim brought by 555 claimants for 57.75 million, which after legal fees worked out as 12 million shared amongst the group.

In a written judgment, Lord Justice Holroyde said: By representing Horizon as reliable, and refusing to countenance any suggestion to the contrary, POL [Post Office Limited] effectively sought to reverse the burden of proof: it treated what was no more than a shortfall shown by an unreliable accounting system as an incontrovertible loss, and proceeded as if it were for the accused to prove that no such loss had occurred.

Wrongful convictions in numbers

In the wake of the High Court ruling, more cases have come forward and more convictions have been overturned.

A total of 93 convictions have so far been quashed, including the initial 39 subpostmasters.

However, not all appeals have been successful with 54 cases in which convictions were upheld after appeal, people refused permission to appeal or applications withdrawn.

The Post Office said five cases were going through the appeal courts, and it said a total of 25 with convictions had still not been contacted.

What are the compensation payouts?

There are three ways subpostmasters have been claiming compensation from the Post Office following the scandal.

The first is the money paid out by the Post Office to those wrongly convicted. In December, it said 32.4 million had been paid - that includes 30 full and final settlements worth 17.3 million, while a remaining 63 claims are yet to be fully settled.

There is also the Horizon Shortfall Scheme, formerly called the Historical Shortfall Scheme, which was launched in 2020 for postmasters who experienced shortfalls due to the Horizon system given.

A total of 2,645 postmasters have agreed settlements of 117 million through the scheme, according to the Post Office - but have so far received 92 million.

A Stamp Scheme for Postmasters scheme was also run for discrepancies in stamp stock.

The Post Office recently said it had reduced the amount held for compensation payments from 487m to 244m due to a lower number of payments than previously expected.

Meanwhile, the government announced in September that anyone wrongly convicted will receive an up-front compensation sum of 600,000, without the need to bring the claim to the Post Office.

Why are we taking about it again now?

As is often the case, a television drama has brought this scandal back to the forefront of peoples minds with ITVs drama Mr Bates v The Post Office aired last week. The show centred on postmaster Alan Bates fight for justice against his and fellow operators convictions.

The four-part show has led to renewed public outrage with a petition set up to strip former Post Office boss Paula Vennells of her CBE. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, who was postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012, has also been criticised for failing to meet Mr Bates in 2010.

A petition calling for the former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to lose her CBE has received more than 1 million signatures (Teri Pengilley for The Independent)

Since the show was broadcast, 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers.

There is also an independent public inquiry taking place led by Sir Wyn Williams which is looking over the scandal with testimonies and documents from managment and victims.

On the first day of the inquiry in 2022, Jason Beer QC said: Lives were ruined, families were torn apart, families were made homeless and destitute, reputations were destroyed, not least because the crimes of which men and women were convicted  theft, fraud, false accounting  all involve acting dishonestly.

The inquiry is expected to be completed this year.

Who has been held account?

No Post Office or Fujitsu executives have been held accountable for the faulty system - although the publishing of the independent review could change that.

The Metropolitan Police has also said they are looking at potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions; for example, monies recovered from subpostmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions.

A Post Office spokesperson said: Were doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past, as far as that is possible, and to date offers of compensation totalling more than 138million have been made to around 2,700 postmasters, the vast majority of which have been agreed and paid. Interim payments continue to be made in other cases which have not yet been resolved.
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The UK faces a week-long cold snap as days of flooding are followed by plunging temperatures.

Britons can expect an overnight freeze on Sunday, forecasters have said. with temperatures dropping as low as -4C in parts of the country. Sleet and snow showers are due on Monday, with temperatures during the day struggling to get above 4C.

The Met Office has issued a weather warning for ice across southeast England. The alert is in place from 4am until 10am, meaning drivers could face treacherous conditions on the Monday morning commute.

It will be a freezing start to the week on Monday morning, and temperatures could fall even further (Met Office weather)

An amber cold health alert has also been issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) for the northwest of England, West Midlands, East Midlands and southwest of England all week.

In place until noon on Friday, 12 January, the second most serious health warning means the impact of cold weather is likely to be felt across the whole health service. There is also a yellow alert in place for the northeast of England, Yorkshire and The Humber, east of England, southeast of England and London.

Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at UKHSA, said: With the Met Office forecasting drops in temperature across the United Kingdom into next week, it is important to check in on the wellbeing of those most vulnerable to the cold.

The cold weather can increase the risks of heart attacks, strokes and chest infections and can have a serious health impact for older people and those with pre-existing health conditions.

An ice warning is in place for south east England on Monday morning (Met Office)

The Met Office yellow weather warning states: A mix of sleet and snow showers will move in from the east later on Sunday night along with temperatures near zero.

Given these wintry showers, and also wet surfaces after recent wet weather, some icy patches are likely on untreated surfaces.

Additionally a few of the snow showers could turn quite heavy; these probably only affecting a narrow zone but a few places could see 1-3cm, mainly over the north Downs and on grassy surfaces.

Met Office forecaster Marco Petagna said there would be a widespread frost on Monday morning, with temperatures dipping down to -3C or -4C in rural areas, though there will be sunshine despite the cold.

After a foggy, frosty start it will be staying cold with temperatures no better than four or five degrees in the afternoon, he said. Add on the effects of quite a brisk eastern or northeasterly breeze, especially across the south and east of the UK and it will feel more like a -1C or -2C.

The cold snap comes after days of flooding following heavy rain this week. As of Sunday evening, there were 171 flood warnings and 161 flood alerts still in place in the wake of Storm Henk.

Cars stuck in the floods in a parking area near the River Thames in Oxford on Sunday (AP)

The Environment Agency has previously warned that more properties may be flooded in the coming days amid increased river levels and more rain.

More than 1,800 properties have already flooded after prolonged wet weather and intense rainfall, the agency said, with the impact of high water levels likely to continue, particularly around the rivers Trent, Severn and Thames.

The prime minister met residents hit by flooding in Oxford on Sunday. Rishi Sunak spoke to people on their doorsteps before visiting Environment Agency workers at their depot on Osney Island, telling them: Touch wood, were past the worst of it.

Flooding in Marlborough, Wiltshire, as hundreds of flood warnings and alerts remain in place in England on Sunday (PA)

Addressing the media in front of the fast-moving River Thames, Mr Sunak said: Flooding has been having a devastating impact on communities up and down the country.

I was in the East Midlands last week and Im in Oxfordshire here today talking to some of those that have been affected, but also saying thank you to our first responders who were doing a fantastic job over the past week.

We have over 1,000 Environment Agency personnel on the ground in local communities helping, over 200 pumps have been deployed.

Weve invested 5.2bn in flood defences over the period in question, thats a record sum, far more than weve done [previously], in the future thats contributed to protecting over 300,000 homes.

And, of course, there have been many people affected by whats happened over the past week, but also over 49,000 have been protected from flooding.

Labour has accused the government of being asleep at the wheel over flood warnings with leader Sir Keir Starmer vowing to make flood defences fit for purpose, writing on social media that peoples lives shouldnt be upended by extreme rain.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks to members of the Environment Agency as he looks at flood defences during a visit to Osney, Oxford (PA)

MET OFFICE OUTLOOK

Sunday evening:

Some wintry showers near coastal areas and across the southeast but otherwise a dry night with variable amounts of cloud. Fog patches returning, most likely across Northern Ireland, Scotland and northwest England. Widespread frost and icy stretches.

Monday:

Fine for many with sunny spells, best of these in the west after fog clears. Scattered sleet and snow showers across southern areas. Wind chill for England and Wales.

Outlook for Tuesday to Thursday:

High pressure dominating, with overnight frost and fog. Generally dry and bright, though turning cloudier in the north from Wednesday. Remaining cold with a brisk wind in the south.
Buffalo man accused of imprisoning, raping two women before they escaped

Buffalo police have caught a man accused of imprisoning and sexually assaulting two women until they made a risky escape on New Years Day.

A woman told police she was imprisoned for two days, threatened with a knife and raped by a Buffalo man before finally jumping out of a second-story window to save herself on Jan. 1. A second woman also escaped after reporting that she had been held against her will and sexually assaulted.

Police reported that the women, both 33, who were injured and taken to Erie County Medical Center, helped police identify the house where they reported being held. A Buffalo Police SWAT team found the house in the Genesee-Moselle neighborhood.

On Saturday, police arrested Jamar Harris, 36, and charged him with first-degree felony rape, criminal sex act and assault, as well as other felony charges including strangulation and weapons possession.

The first woman said she flagged a passerby who took her to ECMC, where she was treated for injuries on her face, shoulder and back, according to police. Members of the Special Victims Unit and Ferry-Fillmore District detectives immediately investigated and found a second woman who was being helped by a convenience store employee.

The second woman was able to provide more details to help police identify the house where the two women were held. A SWAT team then searched the property in the 200 block of Moselle Street and found additional weapons in the home.

 Sandra Tan

The two women taken to ECMC were both treated and released.
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Nearly 100 asylum seekers, including suspected victims of torture and human trafficking, have been moved out of a controversial RAF base that has been condemned by both Priti Patel and home secretary James Cleverly, The Independent can reveal.

The migrants, who were being housed at RAF Wethersfield, were quietly sent to hotels after the Home Office admitted it was an unsuitable place for them to stay.

The former airbase in Essex has been described as an open prison camp, with desperate migrants attempting suicide, going on hunger strike and trying to set themselves on fire, according to testimony from asylum seekers inside. It is also the subject of a legal challenge launched by refugee charity Care4Calais.

Mr Cleverly said at the end of last year that he would try to close down the site  located in his constituency  as soon as practicable.

Former home secretary Priti Patel has also described the site as not fit for purpose, and as having no infrastructure, no amenities nearby. She also accused the government of being secretive and evasive about how long Wethersfield would be used for.

Former home secretary Priti Patel has previously said the camp is not fit for purpose (PA Wire)

New data, only revealed in response to a freedom of information request, shows that 90 asylum seekers have been moved out since the camp came into use in July 2023. Some 676 asylum seekers have been sent there since it opened, according to figures that cover the period until the end of November last year.

According to the Home Office, those who were moved out were suspected victims of modern slavery, had claims of human trafficking, or had complex health needs that could not be managed on the site. Others had claimed to be victims of torture, or said they were children.

An aerial view of RAF Wethersfield in Essex (PA)

The true number who have left the camp is likely to be higher, as the FOI data only runs to the end of November, and charities say that more have been helped to leave since then.

Senior Tory Sir Edward Leigh  who has been campaigning against the use of an RAF base in his Gainsborough constituency  told The Independent that the latest figures show that it is time for a rethink. Housing illegal migrants at military bases is just not working, said the former minister. There are so many problems with old buildings in need of upgrades, and at vast expense. Its not what our bases are for.

Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said: The home secretary has previously declared this accommodation unsuitable, yet his department still continues to use it for vulnerable people. This hypocrisy and chaos reflects the sorry state of the broken Tory asylum system.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said it is unacceptable for anyone to be held in living conditions that pose a risk to their health. He added: It is especially grotesque that vulnerable victims of modern slavery would be allowed to live there, even after the former foreign secretary himself expressed concerns.

Tory councillor Graham Butland, the leader of Braintree District Council, said Wethersfield is an unsuitable site for large-scale asylum seeker accommodation. He cited the lack of capacity in local services, its isolated location, and the impact it could have on the local community.

Lawyers for refugee charity Care4Calais have launched legal action against the government over its use of the site, which they say is a de facto detention centre and not suitable for long-term accommodation. Asylum seekers are confined to the camp, apart from allotted bus trips, and the base only has one entrance and exit that opens onto a country road.

One of their clients, 19-year-old Yonas, was sent to the airbase despite detailing a history of torture. An asylum seeker from Eritrea, he said he was captured in Libya, held in an overcrowded warehouse with 250 other people, and beaten.

He was then sent to the former RAF base directly after arriving in the UK in early July last year, and was there for three months.

He was able to challenge his move to Wethersfield on the grounds that it was unsuitable. His claim was successful, and he has now been moved to a hotel. He said: I was detained and tortured for seven months in Libya. I came to the UK for a safe future, and when I arrived the government sent me to a prison camp.

Asylum seekers at Wethersfield airbase have described it as being like a prison (PA)

It was so far away from anywhere. We were kept behind fences. We couldnt leave. I dont know why I, someone who has experienced torture, was ever sent there.

A report last month by charity the Helen Bamber Foundation found that children, survivors of torture and trafficking, and people with severe mental illness were being held at the site, despite government guidance making clear that these groups should not be housed there.

Doctors for the organisation whose members interviewed Wethersfield residents found that some were experiencing worsening PTSD symptoms, and all presented with clinical depression.

The human rights organisation, Humans for Rights Network, said that 11 children, who were wrongly being treated as adults, had been placed in the centre.

More than 600 asylum seekers have been housed at the former airbase in Essex since it came into use last July (PA)

As of October last year, the main countries of origin of migrants being held at Wethersfield were Afghanistan (29 per cent), Iran (20 per cent) and Eritrea (16 per cent). One of the men interviewed for the Helen Bamber report said that he had attempted suicide because of the conditions inside the camp, adding that a group of six or seven people had tried to set themselves on fire in protest.

Last year Mr Cleverly said the Wethersfield site wasnt appropriate for asylum accommodation, adding that the remote base had limited access to transport infrastructure. He added: I will continue to really push down the illegal migration so we can close down the asylum centre as soon as practicable.

Plans to use the site were announced by the then immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, in March 2023, with Suella Braverman using a rare emergency declaration to bypass the usual planning permission required for the military base to be used.

Maddie Harris, of the Humans for Rights Network, described a very consistent negative experience had by men who have moved into Wethersfield. She also raised concerns about whether the Home Office knew who was at Wethersfield, as one asylum seeker had recently told her that staff had no record of one of the residents being at the base.

Steve Smith, the CEO of Care4Calais, said that the transfer of some residents out of Wethersfield shows the systemic disregard the Home Office has shown for their own accommodation policy.

The policy is clear  no one who has survived torture, trafficking or modern slavery should be sent to the Wethersfield camp. That people who have experienced such horrors are being routinely sent [there] is shocking.

He said it is clear that the government has no effective screening process in place before sending asylum seekers to Wethersfield.

A Home Office spokesperson said: We continue to meet our legal obligations and provide accommodation for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.

The accommodation provided meets all relevant housing and health and safety standards. If it emerges an asylum seeker is no longer suitable for the site, they will be moved to different accommodation.
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Sir Ed Davey has serious questions to answer over his role in the Horizon IT scandal and should consider quitting, former Post Office branch managers have said.

The Liberal Democrat leader was postal affairs minister from 2010 to 2012 and has been accused of having fobbed off victims of the scandal, which has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history.

More than 700 branch managers were given criminal convictions after faulty Horizon accounting software, developed by Fujitsu, made it appear as though money was missing.

And now ex-postmasters have urged Sir Ed to look in the mirror and consider stepping down.

Jo Hamilton, who led a landmark appeal in the campaign for postmasters, told The Times that Sir Ed should have done his job. The Lib Dem leader was told of concerns about the faulty software before hundreds of postmasters were prosecuted.

Ed Davey has serious questions to answer over the Post Office scandal, victims have said (PA/Getty)

And Ms Hamilton said: Of course Davey should have been asking more questions, hes the minister, what does he get his ministerial salary for if hes not asking questions. What did he think, we were just moaning? I cant believe it.

If youre the minister you deal with stuff  that is the job. You have to earn your money for doing the job like the rest of us. Theyre called public servants but they do anything but serve the public.

He always calls for other peoples resignations, now its time for him to look in the mirror.

Sir Ed has taken to Twitter 31 times to call for public figures to resign their positions since becoming Lib Dem leader in April 2019.

A spokesman for the Lib Dems said Sir Ed completely understands the anger of the victims who suffered from this appalling miscarriage of justice.

In hindsight he wishes he could have done more to help them, they added.

The spokesman said Sir Ed had been lied to on an industrial scale by the Post Office and other ministers.

His focus is now on getting justice and compensation as quickly as possible to all those affected, the spokesman said.

Lib Dem MP and former leader Tim Farron said: Ed has said how much he regrets that the Post Office was lying to him, just like it was to everyone else.

Hes experienced more than his fair share of tragedy in his life, I know he feels the pain of those affected by this scandal very deeply.

Another former postmaster Seema Misra, who was jailed while pregnant in November 2010, while Sir Ed was postal affairs minister, said he should quit.

She told The Times: He was in a position of power, and he could have stepped forward to find out what was going on. He could have turned the whole thing around, but he chose not to. Hes definitely liable.

The renewed focus on the scandal comes amid a new ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office.

Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones, has spent two decades of his life fighting for justice after hundreds of fellow postmasters and postmistresses were accused of theft, fraud, and false accounting due to faulty computers.

In 1999, Horizon, a defective Fujitsu IT system, began incorrectly reporting cash shortfalls at branches across the country. The accusations tore peoples lives apart, with many losing their jobs and homes.

Several people took their own lives due to the stress.

To this day, not a single Post Office or Fujitsu employee has been held to account over the scandal, much less faced criminal investigation. Sixty of the victims have died before finding any justice at all.
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Sir Keir Starmer has said Rishi Sunaks response to flooding is not good enough and vowed Labour would take pre-emptive action earlier in the year to get ahead of the problem.

The Conservatives have been accused of being asleep at the wheel over floods, as more than 1,800 homes have been flooded across the south of England and Midlands.

The response wasnt quick enough, said Sir Keir. So I just dont think its good enough for the government to come after the event again and express empathy.

Speaking to broadcasters on a visit to the flood-hit areas of the East Midlands, the Labour leader said: Get ahead of this with a task force. Thats what I would do.

He added: What that means: earlier in the year in the autumn, having a taskforce that brings together local authorities, emergency response, local people, to ensure that the prevention work is done.

Asked if Labour would provide more money for flood prevention, Sir Keir said: Of course it does need money, but the task force is not just about money.

Its about getting the basics done. Getting those drains cleared. Getting the local authorities together. Having a plan.

Keir Starmer meets Ian Clement whose house in Loughborough, East Midlands flooded (PA)

Mr Sunak defended the governments record on flood prevention on Sunday, as he spoke to residents on their doorsteps in Oxford.

The PM said the Tory government had spent 5.2bn on flood defences, and said 49,000 homes had been made safe.

The Tory leader also told Environment Agency (EA) workers during a visit at their depot on Osney Island that touch wood, were past the worst of it.

Mr Sunak said: Of course its going to be devastating for those who are impacted [this winter], which is why theres financial support in place, but overall investment thats going into flood defences is at a very, very high level.

But the Liberal Democrats said the government had disgracefully slashed the funding for flood prevention schemes.

Earlier this winter, the National Audit Office (NAO) said the government was not adequately prepared for climate disasters.

The NAO report found that the number of homes set to get flood protection support by 2027 had been cut by 40 per cent  while 500 flood defence schemes had been abandoned.

Baroness Brown, chair of the adaptation at the Climate Change Committee, said: Recent events demonstrate why it is vital that the government urgently prioritises and commits to a robust long-term vision for climate-change adaptation.

Rishi Sunak speaks to members of the Environment Agency as he looks at flood defences during a visit to Osney, Oxford (Frank Augstein/PA Wire)

Sir Keir has vowed to make flood defences fit for purpose, writing on social media that peoples lives shouldnt be upended by extreme rain.

More than 1,800 properties have flooded due to saturated ground, the EA said, adding that the impact of high water levels are likely to continue over the next five days, and many rivers will remain elevated.

Flooded households can now apply for up to 500 to help cover the cost of repairs, the Sunak government has said. The Department for Environmental and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the government has released Flood Recovery Framework grants for communities affected by Storm Henk.

Significantly impacted households and businesses could receive 100% off their council tax and business rates for at least three months.

Grants of up to 2,500 are said to be available to eligible small-to-medium sized businesses, 5,000 could be given to property owners making their buildings more resilient to future floods, and farmers who have suffered uninsurable damage to their land are able to apply for 25,000.

More than 150 food warnings are still in place, mostly in the south and central England. There is also warning is near the River Ritec at Tenby in Wales.

Millions more Britons have been advised to brace themselves for a cold snap after forecasters issued fresh ice warnings on Monday. The Met Office issued a yellow warning for ice across southern England and South Wales, which will last from 3pm on Monday to 3am on Tuesday.
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Rishi Sunak would strongly support the body that reviews honours if it decided to look at revoking former Post Office boss Paula Vennells CBE in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal.

There have been growing calls for the former Post Office chief executive to hand back her CBE after an ITV drama returned the miscarriage of justice to the spotlight.

The prime ministers official spokesperson said that Mr Sunak would strongly support the forfeiture committee if they were to choose to investigate.

It came as Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake announced a new, independent panel to review compensation disputes  calling the scandal one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nations history.

However, Tory MPs urged to the government to go further and come up with legislation to overturn convictions on mass. And Labour leader Keir Starmer called on Mr Sunak to strip the Post Office of prosecution powers.

The PM, speaking in Lancashire on Monday, defended the governments response  but said ministers were now on it and wanted to speed up the compensation process for victims.

People should know that we are on it, and we want to make this right, that money has been set aside, Mr Sunak said.

Rishi Sunak during a visit to the Accrington Stanley Community Sports Hub (PA)

The Tory leader added: We will do everything we can to make this right for the people affected. It is simply wrong what happened. They shouldnt have been treated like this.

Ms Vennells  who ran the Post Office while it routinely denied there was a problem with its Horizon IT system  has said she is truly sorry for the suffering caused to those wrongly labelled as guilty.

More than 700 post office branch managers were convicted after faulty Fujitsu accounting software Horizon made it look like money was missing from their shops.

A petition addressed to Sir Chris Wormald, the chair of the committee which re-examines honours, calling for Ms Vennells to lose hers has already attracted more than one million signatures.

Labours shadow environment secretary Steve Reed said on Monday the honour is an insult and should be handed back.

Mr Hollinrake told the Commons that it is perfectly reasonable to ask the former Post Office boss to hand back her CBE after this had gone so badly wrong. But the minister added: But thats a matter for the person concerned.

Calls have grown for ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to lose her CBE (PA)

On Monday, Sir Keir Starmer called for prosecution powers to be stripped from the Post Office and previous convictions looked at again, as well as calling on the Sunak government to get on with compensation.

Mr Hollinrake announced in the Commons that Sir Gary Hickinbottom has agreed to chair an independent panel to look at the financial losses for Horizon scandal victims where disputes arise.

The minister said he and justice secretary had devised some options for overturning convictions much more quickly  but did not reveal whether there would be any legislation, or whether the Post Office would be stripped of its prosecuting role.

Mr Hollinrake said Mr Chalk would need to speak to senior figures in the judiciary about those options before we put them forward  with proposals to come in due course.

Hinting at changes to the Post Offices powers, the senior Tory said need to look at the way private prosecutions like these have been undertaken.

The Post Office minister also told MPs that securing justice for the victims of the scandal and ensuring such a tragedy can never happen again is his highest priority as a minister.

Ahead of his statement in the Commons, Mr Hollinrake said interim payments of up to 168,000 had been made to known victims. The Post Office minister  who said 64 per cent of known victims have accepted full settlement  said he is working day and night to do more.

But senior Tory David Davis urged the government to push for mass exonerations soon, using legislation if necessary. All of the cases depend on one single lie, the former minister told the BBC. I see no real reason why you cant have a mass case on that basis.

Former justice secretary Robert Buckland also called for legislation to deal with all the cases together. I think the government does have space in which it can make some moves here, he said.

Starmer, who met residents hit by flooding in Loughborough, said the government must get on with compensation (PA)

Sir Keir, speaking during a visit in Loughborough, said: I think that the prosecution should be taken out of the hands of the Post Office and given to the Crown Prosecution Service. The government could pass legislation, so obviously wed support that if they did.

The public inquiry into the scandal has uncovered dozens of covert recordings of senior Post Office staff  including Ms Vennells  discussing the scandal, according to The Times.

Around 80 recordings will be sent to participants, including former Post Office postmasters, in the days ahead. Theyre conversations with Post Office top brass including Paula Vennells. Its very damning, an inquiry source said.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has serious questions to answer over his role in the Horizon IT scandal, former Post Office branch managers have said.

Sir Ed, who was leader was postal affairs minister from 2010 to 2012 and has been accused of fobbing off victims. Jo Hamilton, who led a landmark appeal for postmasters, was reported as saying: He always calls for other peoples resignations, now its time for him to look in the mirror.

Davey says he wishes he could have done more as Post Office minister (PA)

The Lib Dem leader has taken to social media 31 times to call for public figures to resign their positions since becoming Lib Dem leader in April 2019.

Responding on Monday, Sir Ed said that he had been lied to during the crucial period. I wish Id known then what we all know now  the Post Office was lying on an industrial scale to me and other ministers, he told broadcasters.

The Lib Dem leader added: We need to make sure their convictions are overturned, and we need to make sure they are fairly compensated.

Tory Treasury minister Bim Afolami told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that the Lib Dem had a duty to explain why he did not ask the right questions. But Sir Vince Cable, former Lib Dem leader, said Sir Ed was being made a scapegoat during an election year.

Reports suggest that, since Mr Bates Vs The Post Office was broadcast, 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers. Scotland Yard said on Friday that officers are investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions.
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Senior Tory Sir Alok Sharma has said he will not support Rishi Sunaks smoke and mirrors oil and gas drilling bill.

The former cabinet member and Cop26 president said the legislation is a total distraction, which frankly changes nothing.

And he accused the PM of chopping and changing climate policies, reinforcing the unfortunate perception about the UK rolling back from climate action.

It comes as senior Tory MP Chris Skidmore formally submitted his resignation in protest over Mr Sunaks oil and gas drilling plans  triggering yet another by-election headache for the PM.

The ex-energy minister said Mr Sunaks climate stance would destroy the reputation of the UK as a climate leader, having announced on Friday that he planned to stand down.

The MP for Kingswood in Gloucestershire formally quit the Tory whip and his seat on Monday, arguing that his constituents deserve the right to elect someone new if he could no longer back the government.

On Monday, Mr Sunaks government will try to pass legislation requiring the North Sea regulator to invite applications for new oil and gas licences on an annual basis instead of the five-year average currently in place.

Sharma said he will not support the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill when MPs vote on it later (PA)

Critics have accused the government of backing new production as a way to create a dividing line with Labour ahead of this years general election.

Just 1 per cent of the oil from new licences granted in the North Sea would be used in the UK in 2030, according to analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

The ECIU said the bill will therefore have little impact on Britains energy security and do nothing to bring down household bills  which have soared since Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Former energy secretary Mr Sharma told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I will not be voting for this bill.

As it is currently drafted, this bill is a total distraction it is a smoke and mirrors bill which, frankly, changes nothing.

The MP said the North Sea Transition Authority can already grant licences when it deems necessary and that will not change.

He added: What this bill does do is reinforce that unfortunate perception about the UK rolling back from climate action. We saw this last autumn with the chopping and changing of some policies and actually not being serious about meeting our international commitments.

Just a few weeks ago at COP 28, the 28th UN climate conference, the UK government signed up to transition away from fossil fuels.

This bill is about doubling down on granting more oil and gas production licences. Its actually the opposite of what we agreed to do so I wont be supporting it.

Mr Skidmores exit sets up a contest in the blue wall seat in February or March. Labour came second in the seat in 2019  so it would seem to provide Sir Keir Starmers party with an ideal opportunity to deliver a fresh blow to Mr Sunak.

In his formal resignation letter to the chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Mr Skidmore said the PM and his ministers should be looking to the long-term  not playing short-term politics with legislation that does so much to destroy the reputation of the UK as a climate leader.

He added: No-one has ever denied that we will not need the oil and gas we are using today, but to seek to open up future new sources of fossil fuels, that will be sold on international markets and owned by foreign companies, will do nothing for our energy security.

Ex-energy minister Chris Skidmore formally quit his seat on Monday in protest (PA)

A group of 30 politicians, including Mr Skidmore and Lord Zac Goldsmith, wrote to energy secretary Claire Coutinho urging the government to drop the bill  saying that it is diametrically opposed to the global drive away from fossil fuels.

Meanwhile former Tory environment secretary Lord Goldsmith, who quit over Mr Sunaks apathy toward climate change, urged Conservative MPs to reject the bill.

Conservatives are facing almost certain defeat at the election and now is not the time for colleagues to be slavishly obedient to a leadership that will not be there in a matter of months, he said on X, formerly Twitter. The peer urged MPs to be on the right side of history.

The Conservative Environment Network, a group representing around 150 Tories, said the benefits of the new bill should not be overstated. Director Sam Hall said oil and gas will still be needed during the transition to net zero, albeit in shrinking amounts.

He said priority for energy security and tackling climate change should be to rapidly reduce our demand for oil and gas by building more renewables, improving energy efficiency and electrifying more of the economy.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the offshore oil and gas bill was a waste of time designed to create a dividing line with his party.

It isnt going to make any difference at all  zero impact  on energy bills, Sir Keir told reporters as he pointed to comments from former ministers.

Sir Keir said: What youve got is a government thats wasting its time trying to pass legislation to create a dividing line with the Labour party rather than to solve the problem.

No 10 declined to say whether the aim of the bill is to increase the number of licences granted.

Challenged over the fact the oil will be sold abroad rather than reserved for the domestic market, the official argued is is preferable to have an international market which has more oil and gas from the UK and other countries which are stable, which are not authoritarian regimes.

An energy department spokesperson said Britain still needed oil and gas for decades to come.

They added: These new licenses will not increase carbon emissions above our legally binding carbon budgets, but will provide certainty for industry, support 200,000 jobs and bring in tens of billions of tax that we can invest in the green transition and support people with cost of living.
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Senior Tory MP Chris Skidmore has submitted his resignation in protest over Rishi Sunaks oil and gas drilling plans  triggering yet another by-election headache for the PM.

The ex-energy minister said Mr Sunaks climate change stance would destroy the reputation of the UK as a climate leader, having announced on Friday that he planned to stand down.

The MP for Kingswood in Gloucestershire formally quit the Tory whip and his seat on Monday, arguing that his constituents deserve the right to elect someone new if he could no longer back the government.

It comes as fellow former Tory cabinet minister Sir Alok Sharma said Mr Sunaks plans to maximise North Sea oil and gas production give the impression he is not being serious about tackling climate change.

The president of the Cop26 climate summit hosted by the UK said he could not support the PMs Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill  which sanctions fresh drilling in the North Sea  when MPs vote on it later on Monday.

Sir Alok said the legislation is a smoke and mirrors exercise which reinforces the perception that the UK is rowing back from climate action.

A group of 30 politicians, including Mr Skidmore and Lord Zac Goldsmith, have also written to energy secretary Claire Coutinho urging the government to drop the bill  saying that it is diametrically opposed to the global drive away from fossil fuels.

Chris Skidmore quit the Tory whip and formally resigned his seat (PA)

Mr Skidmore  who said the PMs move was the wrong decision at the wrong time  said he could not vote for a bill that promotes new oil and gas production or condone a government which pushed it.

In his formal resignation letter to the chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Mr Skidmore said the PM and his ministers should be looking to the long-term  not playing short-term politics with legislation that does so much to destroy the reputation of the UK as a climate leader.

He added: No-one has ever denied that we will not need the oil and gas we are using today, but to seek to open up future new sources of fossil fuels, that will be sold on international markets and owned by foreign companies, will do nothing for our energy security.

His exit sets up a contest in the blue wall seat in February or March. Labour came second in the seat in 2019  so it would seem to provide Sir Keir Starmers party with an ideal opportunity to deliver a fresh blow to Mr Sunak.

The battle for Mr Skidmores seat is one of three by-elections the Tory party could lose in the early months of 2024. Peter Bones Wellingborough seat will soon see a contest after the Tory MP was removed in a recall petition following his suspension for upheld sexual misconduct claims.

And Scott Bentons Blackpool South seat could also be up for grabs after his 35-day suspension over a sting which exposed him offering to lobby for gambling investors.

Senior Tory Sir Alok Sharma has said he cannot back the oil and gas drilling bill (PA Wire)

Mr Sunaks bill will require the industry regulator to run annual rounds for new oil and gas licences. Currently licensing rounds are run when the North Sea Transition Authority (NTSA) decides it is necessary.

The government claims the introduction of regular licensing for exploration will increase certainty, investor confidence and make the UK more energy-independent amid ongoing turmoil from Russias war with Ukraine.

The former climate minister and Cop president spoke out on Monday ahead of the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill having its first Commons test on Monday night.

Its actually the opposite of what we agreed to do internationally, so I wont be supporting it, Sir Alok told BBC Radio 4s Today programme, calling it a total distraction which frankly changes nothing.

And Mr Sharma, standing down at the election, accused the Tory leader of chopping and changing climate policies, reinforcing the unfortunate perception about the UK rolling back from climate action.

Mr Sunak defended his decisions and insisted the UK was still a world leader in its net zero commitments when asked about the criticism ahead of the vote.

Challenged about flip flopping on the issue at a PM Connect event in Lancashire he said: Weve got more ambitious targets than any other advanced economy in the world. Fact.

And we can still meet those targets without having to impose these costs on you prematurely, telling you to switch your car, rip out your boiler, upgrade the efficiency in your home.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the offshore oil and gas Bill was a waste of time designed to create a dividing line.

It isnt going to make any difference at all  zero impact  on energy bills, Sir Keir told reporters as he pointed to comments from former ministers.

Sir Keir said: What youve got is a government thats wasting its time trying to pass legislation to create a dividing line with the Labour party rather than to solve the problem.

No 10 declined to say whether the aim of the bill is to increase the number of licences granted. An energy department spokesperson said Britain still needed oil and gas for decades to come.

They added: These new licenses will not increase carbon emissions above our legally binding carbon budgets, but will provide certainty for industry, support 200,000 jobs and bring in tens of billions of tax that we can invest in the green transition and support people with cost of living.
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US investigators have recovered a part of the fuselage that blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet from the backyard of a school teacher in Portland, Oregon.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the incident, said that the part of the fuselage had been located on Sunday by a school teacher named Bob.

He reportedly sent the agency two photos of the wreckage in his backyard.

The federal agency had requested people to keep an eye out for the door plug in the Cedar Hills region, west of Portland.

Earlier on Sunday, a group of local residents searched through a stretch of land full of dense thickets, situated between bustling roads and a light rail train station.

According to the Associated Press, a searcher identified as Adam Pirkle said he had ridden 22km, manoeuvring his bicycle through the overgrowth.

Ive been looking at the flight track, I was looking at the winds, he said. Ive been trying to focus on wooded areas.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters on Sunday: Im excited to announce that we found the door plug.

She thanked the school teacher, identified by his first name only. Thank you, Bob.

Were going to go pick that up and make sure that we begin analysing it, Ms Homendy said.

Two cell phones have also been found, one in a yard and another on the side of the road, she added.

It was also reported that Alaska Airlines pilots experienced pressurisation warning lights on three prior flights of a two-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet before it made an emergency landing due to a torn door plug.

Ms Homendy mentioned on Sunday night that the auto pressurisation fail light had activated on 7 December, 3 January, and 4 January. However, she stated that it remained unclear whether there was any connection between those incidents and the rapid depressurisation incident.

On Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a directive to temporarily ground 171 Boeing MAX 9 jets equipped with the same panel after the Alaskan Airlines plane had to make an emergency landing due to a gap in the fuselage.

They heard a bang, Ms Homendy told reporters on Sunday, of the flight deck crew.

Communication was a serious issue... It was described as chaos, she added.

It must have been a terrifying event to experience, Ms Homendy said.

After takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, the door plug on the left side of an Alaska Airlines jet tore off. This incident compelled the pilots to turn back and execute a safe landing, ensuring the well-being of all 171 passengers and six crew members on board.

NTSB also said that the cockpit voice recorder from the Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet was overwritten by the time it was recovered.

Ms Homendy said that there was no data available on the cockpit voice recorder after it was sent to NTSB labs because it was not retrieved by the two-hour mark, when recording restarts and previous data is erased.

Its a very chaotic event. The circuit breaker for the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) was not pulled. The maintenance team went out to get it, but it was right at about the two-hour mark, she added.

If that communication is not recorded, that is unfortunately a loss for us and a loss for the FAA and a loss for safety because that information is key not just for our investigation but for improving aviation safety, she said.

Additional reporting with agencies
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A viral video showing heavy police presence around Bayside Marketplace in Miami on New Years Day made many speculate that aliens had visited the mall to ring in 2024 - but what really caused the commotion?

Police confirmed that they were there to dissolve a large fight that broke out between a group of about 50 teenagers, which resulted in multiple arrests.

Yet some people had their own theories and posted on social media days after the incident, suggesting what really was going on to attract all the blue lights.

The most popular conspiracy: aliens had taken a visit to the mall.

Much to the disappointment of UFO spotters and extraterrestrial enthusiasts, the City of Miami Police Department put the theories to bed, telling NBC6 there were No aliens, UFOs, or ETs. No airports were closed. No power outages."

"Nothing is being withheld from the public. LOL, the Miami Police Department public information officer Michael Vega wrote to NBC in an email.

Clips taken from the viral video were reshared on social media, claiming that an eight-to-ten-foot alien could be seen at the mall on New Years Day.

The low-quality clip appears to show a tall glowing figure near police vehicles, although other users on X pointed out it is likely to be, in fact, two to three people walking next to each other.

10ft Aliens/Creatures (caught on camera?) fired at inside and outside Miami Mall, media silent, cops are covering it up saying kids were fighting with fireworks, yet all these cop cars, & air traffic stopped that night except for black military choppers, one user claimed on X, amongst an onslaught of other conspiracy posts and memes poking fun at the Miami Mall alien as the video went viral.

Others, however, were not so convinced, with one user writing, Everybody have cell phones, but nobody have an up close video of the 8-10 foot alien by the Miami mall?

Instead of an alien invasion, a huge group of juveniles were being dealt with by the large police fleet, who allegedly were also setting off fireworks, causing panic across the mall, an arrest report said according to the outlet.

Around 50 teenagers are thought to have been involved in the chaos (NBC6)

The chaos that ensued disrupted and damaged businesses in the area.

While no aliens were taken in for questioning, four teenagers had been arrested.

The huge brawl broke just before 8.30pm on New Years Day; police were called to the mall to quell the situation.

The fireworks being set off were also mistaken as gunshots, which caused a local resident to report an active shooter, the president of Downtown Neighbors Alliance, James Torres, said in a statement about the incident.

"Some officers were heavily armed and approached the crowd displaying high-powered rifles, reflecting the fact that officers were initially erroneously told the situation involved an active shooter," Mr Torres said, according to NBC6.

One nearby resident, Ryan Landy, told CBS News that he witnessed the melee after he heard a lot of successive shots or pops.

"Theres a big crowd of people running outside of Bayside and then we hear a commotion and now theyre just running through the streets, running between cars, almost getting hit by cars, it was absolute chaos," he said.

The Miami Police Department later confirmed on X that the sounds were fireworks and no shots were fired.

The havoc being caused within the mall meant that Biscayne Boulevard was shut down between 2nd and 4th Streets while officers tried to clear the area and escort the teens away from the mall. The boulevard later reopened.

Around 10 to 15 juveniles were also seen by police assaulting a man nearby, the arrest report said, according to the outlet, so they announced through a marked police vehicle to stop the fighting, which led to several teens fleeing the area.

Yet police were able to catch two 15-year-olds, one 14-year-old and one 16-year-old, all male, who were identified by the alleged victim.

The victim claims that one teen in a large group threw a bottle at his car, which made him stop and ask who did it, resulting in the man allegedly getting jumped and his phone stolen, NBC6 reported.

Two of the teenagers arrested are facing charges of burglary of an unoccupied conveyance, grand theft, battery, and resisting an officer without violence, the outlet said.

The two other teens were also arrested for resisting an officer without violence.

The four teenagers are expected to appear in juvenile court on Wednesday. No injuries were reported.
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New batches of unsealed Jeffrey Epstein court documents continue to reveal a number of high-profile individuals whose names appeared multiple times in various materials, including footnotes.

Among them are two former US presidents  Donald Trump and Bill Clinton  and Prince Andrew, all three of whom have been pictured with and known to associate with the disgraced financier in the past.

Other names include lawyer Alan Dershowitz, magician David Copperfield, Michael Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio.

However, being identified through the court documents does not mean that the individual was involved in or aware of any wrongdoing by Epstein.

This undated trial evidence image obtained on 8 December 2021, from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York shows British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and US financier Jeffrey Epstein (US District Court for the Southern District of New York)

Ghislaine Maxwell

Unsurprisingly, Epsteins partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell is one of the names that features the most, appearing over 1000 times in the first five batches of documents.

The British socialites name appears in full hundreds of times, due to the files being part of a 2015 US defamation case by Virginia Giuffre against her, though the name Maxwell appears still more, sometimes in reference to legal matters and footnotes.

References to Maxwell were made throughout the documents, with various other witnesses being asked about her involvement with Epstein in their separate testimonies.

Much of the information in the third and fourth tranches of evidence, released on Friday, was taken from Maxwells own despositions. They included questions over her interactions with Prince Andrew and Ms Giuffre as well as with former president Bill Clinton and others.

She is currently serving 20 years in prison, having been convicted sex-trafficking underage girls in June 2022.

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson

Prince Andrew has been named more than 100 times accross all sets of documents. The Duke of York was named 67 times with his Royal title in the first batch, though he also appears multiple times as simply Andrew in multiple other instances, including Maxwells deposition.

Testimony concerning the dukes alleged conduct is detailed in the documents, much of which he has previously denied.

Evidence from Epstein victim Johanna Sjoberg, claimed the duke touched her breast while sitting on a couch inside the US billionaires Manhattan apartment in 2001.

Andrews name also cropped up in testimony about his now-notorius alleged visit to Tramp nightclub in London, which became a focal point of his 2019 sit-down television interview with journalist Emily Maitlis.

During the interview the duke claimed he has a peculiar medical condition whereby he cannot sweat  in response to Ms Guiffres claims he was perspiring in the club.

Andrew has always strongly denied the allegations against him, while Buckingham Palace previously said all accusations made against the duke are categorically untrue.

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, is also named  having reportedly visited Epsteins New York mansion with her then-husband, Andrew, according to testimony from former Epstein employee Juan Alessi.

Andrew was also mentioned in the latest batches of documents, released on Monday and Tuesday, the latter of which contained deposition from Epstein himself.

The disgraced financier was asked whether he had attempted to blackmail Andrew after his alleged sexual encounter with Ms Giuffre, who claimed she was paid $15,000 to have sex with the duke.

He was asked whether he had told Ms Giuffre that she had to give him a full report on the details of what men like Prince Andrew did to her so that you would have blackmail material you could use. Epstein pleaded the fifth amendement to the majority of the questions.

He was also quizzed on what he knew about Andrews sexual preferences, and on whether Ms Giuffre had recounted specific behaviour that Prince Andrew requested before sexual intercourse.

Former US President Bill Clinton arrives prior to a tribute service for former US First Lady Rosalynn Carter, at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 28, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

Bill Clinton

Clintons name was mentioned 83 times in the first two batches of documents, though the number is now well over 100 also. Both he and Andrew are known to have been associated with Epstein previously.

Part of the testimony from Ms Sjoberg alleges that Epstein once told her that Clinton likes them young  referring to girls.

In the days leading up to the unsealing, it was reported that Clinton would be referred to more than 50 times in the redacted documents, having been given the pseudonym John Doe 36, according to the New York Post.

Many of the references to the former president were reportedly believed to stem from Ms Giuffres early attempts to compel him to testify against Epstein and Maxwell.

The second batch included evidence that claimed the former president had ridden in Epsteins private helicopter with Maxwell and Ms Giuffre and attempted to threaten Vanity Fair into not writing about Epsteins alleged sex trafficking.

Ms Giuffre claimed that Clinton had walked into the magazines office and pressured them not to write about his good friend J.E, the documents stated.

Shortly before the documents were released Clinton was seen visiting Mexico with his wife, Hillary Clinton, whose name now also appears in the documents.

In the latest batch, released on Monday, Epstein victim Sarah Ransome, also detailed the alleged sexual relationship between an unnamed friend and the former president. She testified that her friend had to have sexual intercourse with Clinton in Epsteins New York Mansion just off 5th Avenue on numerous occasions.

Clinton denies this and any wrongdoing and none of the individuals Ms Ransome made the allegations against have been formally accused or charged with any crime in connection to Epstein.

In the deposition, Ms Ransome testified that her friend later came forward to report what happened to the police in 2008 but said that nothing was done and she was made to feel like a dirty whore and a liar.

A couple of months later, her friend was allegedly approached by Special Agents Forces Men sent directly by Hilary (sic) Clinton herself, in order to protect her presidential campaign in 2008, Ms Ransome testified.

They heavily intimidated her, ruffled her up (luckily she took photos as evidence) and was then forced to sign a confidentiality agreement which ensures that she can never come forward publicly implicating her husband, she testified.

Ms Ransome went on to testify that the friend was given a substantial payout directly from the Clinton Foundation to keep her quiet.

Clinton also appeared during questioning of Epstein, who was asked about their relationship and whether they had taken international trips together.

In her testimony, Maxwell said that categorically, definitively, absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, when I was present or any other time that I am aware of, was President Clinton ever on that island, referring to Epsteins private island of St Little James.

I do not believe he went to that island ever ever, that is an absolute fabrication and an absolute flat out lie, she said.

Donald Trump

Clinton is not the only former commander-in-chief to appear in the documents. Donald Trump was named a handful of times in several batches, the latest of which contain allegations from Ms Ransome.

Ms Ransome testified that her unnamed friend was one of the many girls that had sexual relations with Donald Trump  including at Epsteins New York townhouse.

She confided in me about her casual friendship with Donald. Mr Trump definitely seemed to have a thing for her and she told me how he kept going on about how he liked her pert nipples, she testified. She then described in graphic detail how Mr Trump allegedly caused pain to the victims nipples  and claimed she saw the resulting injury firsthand.

I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jefferys NY mansion on regular occasions as I once met Jen for coffee, just before she was going to meet Trump and Epstein together at his mansion.

Jeffrey Epstein (left) and Donald Trump (right) (Getty Images)

A Trump spokeperson told The Independent: These baseless accusations have been fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit.

In part of testimony released in the final batch of documents on Tuesday, Ms Giuffre said in a deposition that she never saw Mr Trump participate in the sexual abuse of minors.

Other mention of Mr Trump, while not accusing him of wrongdoing, appeared to illustrate the good relationship he had with Epstein.

In part of testimony from another victim Johanna Sjoberg, it was claimed Epstein once called up the former president and visited one of his casinos after his private plane was diverted to Atlantic City in New Jersey.

Ms Sjoberg said that while travelling on the plane with the disgraced financier the pilots had said that they were unable to land in New York as planned.

Jeffrey said, Great, well call up Trump and well go to -- I dont recall the name of the casino, but -- well go to the casino, the testimony read. Elsewhere, Ms Sjoberg was asked if she ever gave Mr Trump a massage, to which she replied no.

Several more mentions of Mr Trump were made in the documents released last Friday, when Mr Alessi testified he had driven Maxwell to the former presidents Mar-A-Lago home.

Mr Alessi also said that Mr Trump would sometimes come round for dinner at Epsteins home but ate with Mr Alessi in the kitchen. Mr Trump did not get massages at the Palm Beach house because he had his own spa, Mr Alessi said.

Richard Branson

The UK billionaire had previously appeared in Maxwells notorious little black book, details of which emerged during her trial in 2021. This did not accuse him of any wrongdoing.

Mr Bransons name appeared again in the documents released on Monday, alongside Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton, in Ms Ransomes testimony. She testified that an unnamed friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson on separate occasions.

Ms Ransome testified under oath that these encounters had been filmed by Epstein  and that she herself had later seen the sex tapes. She said that the footage clearly identify the faces of the men.

A spokesperson for Mr Branson responded to email claims by citing a 2019 New Yorker article which stated that Ms Ransome had admitted to fabricating the sex tape claims to draw attention to Epstein.

A Virgin Group spokeswoman said: In a New Yorker report published in 2019, Ransome admitted that she had invented the tapes.We can confirm that Sarah Ransomes claims are baseless and unfounded.

We categorically reject all allegations made by Sarah Ransome. In 2016, Ms Ransome retracted her claims and then in 2019 after settling her claims with Epstein and Maxwell, she also admitted to The New Yorker that the tapes had been invented. The allegations are baseless and unfounded, the statement read.

The actions of Jeffrey Epstein were abhorrent and we support the right to justice for the many victims impacted by his abuse.

Les Wexner

The final batch of documents, unsealed on Tuesday, contained claims from Virginia Giuffre that she was trafficked to former Victoria Secrets CEO Les Wexner.

The allegations emerged in a 2016 deposition by Ms Giuffre and is the first time that Mr Wexner has been accused of having sex with underage girls.

In the documents, Ms Giuffre claimed that she was trafficked to have sex with Mr Wexner between three and ten times during the time that she was recruited by Epstein and Maxwell. Ms Giuffre said that she was instructed by Maxwell to wear lingerie for Mr Wexner - which Maxwell went on to categorically deny in her own deposition.

When asked why she had said in a previous interrogation by police that she didnt believe Mr Wexner would say the truth, Ms Giuffre said that it was because he had done things that were wrong.

He participated in sex with minors, Ms Giuffre elaborated.

A spokesperson told Business Insider: Mr Wexner was unaware of, and was never a participant in, any of the abhorrent behavior engaged in by Epstein against Epsteins victims, that Mr Wexner had never met Ms Guiffre, and that any claims to the contrary were not true.

The Independent has also reached out to L Brands group for comment.

David Copperfield

US magician David Copperfield was named six times in the first set of documents, having also reportedly had dined with Epstein on occasion.

File: Magician David Copperfield attends the 2018 Footwear News Achievement Awards at IAC Headquarters on December 4, 2018 in New York City (Getty Images)

Part of one exhibit read: David Copperfield was at a dinner at Epsteins and there was another girl present who looked young and Johanna [Sjoberg] asked what school she went to and Johanna did not recognize the school name as being a college and she said it was possible it was a high school aged girl.

Johanna said Copperfield questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls.

Copperfields relationship with Epstein has previously been noted, including in a 2019 article from The New York Times, which described Maxwells role in acquiring young girls for the disgraced financier.

Hollywood stars

Other big Hollywood names have also appeared throughout different tranches of the documents, though mostly just once or twice during Ms Sjobergs testimony.

She is asked about meeting guests at Epsteins residence, including Star Wars creator George Lucas  who is mentioned once  and actor Kevin Spacey, who is mentioned twice. Ms Sjoberg says she does not remember meeting either man.

She also does not remember meeting British supermodel Naomi Campbell, who is named once in the documents. Other big indsutry names included Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz.

Diazs representative told The Independent: Cameron never met Jeffrey Epstein, nor was she ever in the same place as him or had any association with him whatsoever, regardless of the fact he may or may not have mentioned her name or implied that he knew her.

Reps for DiCaprio and Blanchett also denied any involvement with the paedophile.

Late King of Pop Michael Jackson is also named twice, after Ms Sjolberg is asked if she met anybody famous while with Epstein. She said she did meet Jackson.

On Friday, Spacey was mentioned again as well as comedian Chris Tucker  both of whom were alleged to have been potential passengers during a ride on Epsteins private jet.

In the final batch of documents other famous names appeared including super-model Heidi Klum and Bianca Jagger, wife of The Rolling Stones frontman, Sir Mick Jagger.

Alleged Epstein victim Sarah Ransome claimed in a 2016 deposition that she had contacted human rights activist Ms Jagger for help.

Alan Dershowitz

Epsteins lawyer Alan Dershowitz is also named hundreds times, though in some places this is simply in footnotes referring to legal matters.

However in other material it is claimed that the former Harvard Law School professor was one of several powerful individuals that Epstein made young women have sexual relations with on numerous occasions.

Ms Sjoberg is also asked about having sexual relations with Mr Dershowitz specifically, in the back of a limousine, during her testimony. She denies this happened.

Mr Dershowitz was previously accused by Ms Guiffre of sexual abuse, claiming that she was trafficked by Epstein to him for sex. Mr Dershowitz has vehemently denied all claims.

Prior to the unsealing of the documents, he said that he wanted every last document and piece of paper relating to Epstein to be publicly released  asserting that it will prove that he did nothing wrong.

Sharon Churcher

British journalist Sharon Churcher made over 300 appearances in the second tranche of documents, released on Thursday  her first appearance in the documents.

Ms Churcher was the sole source of regarding the original Epstein story from Giuffre, according to the response filing. Maxwell also claimed she helped Virginia Giuffre concoct sexual assault allegations against the Duke of York.

In one document from 2016 Maxwells lawyers made submissions that Ms Churcher should be compelled to give evidence as part of the case.

She was actively and personally involved in changing those stories over time and in the creation and addition of new salacious details about public figures, including the fabrication of Alan Dershowitzs alleged sexual relations with Plaintiff, the document said.

References to Ms Churcher were made in later batches, during parts of Ms Guiffres deposition.
Renay Lynch spent almost 24 years in prison for a 1995 murder that she says she did not commit.

Lynchs 1998 conviction in the stabbing death of her landlord, Louise Cicelsky, 82, has been vacated by a judge. The Erie County District Attorneys Office announced last week that it would not seek a new trial.

Those developments came after Lynchs attorneys argued that she, charged as an accomplice in the slaying, was denied a fair trial because Amherst Police failed to turn over important fingerprint evidence.

Cicelsky, who stood 4-foot-7 and lived alone, was beaten and stabbed to death in May 1995 in her second-floor Longmeadow Road apartment in Amherst. Police said they believe a male attacker repeatedly plunged a knife into her neck.

During a news conference at his office Friday, District Attorney John J. Flynn stressed that his decision not to retry the case was not tantamount to an exoneration for Lynch, who was considered an accomplice to the crime.

I want the reports of this to be accurate, Flynn said. I am not exonerating Ms. Lynch, OK? I am not up here saying that she did not do this. That is not what happened here. I am saying that I do not have enough evidence to go forward 30 years later, and I am saying it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars to go forward 30 years later.

Lynchs counsel from the Innocence Project, Susan Friedman, takes another view on the decision of a judge to throw out evidence and Flynns office to more closely re-examine evidence in the case.

I do consider this an exoneration, Friedman told The Buffalo News.

No eyewitnesses or physical evidence ever tied Lynch to the crime, Friedman said, and her client was never accused of physically harming Cicelsky.

Indictment dismissed, conviction vacated in 1995 Eggertsville murder of elderly landlord Renay Lynch, imprisoned almost 24 years in connection with a 1995 Eggertsville slaying, saw the charges dropped this week after her attorneys argued that Amherst police failed to turn over fingerprint evidence, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office.

Eighteen months after the crime, Lynch gave police what she claims was a false confession, saying she helped to set up the crime. She told police that she went to Cicelskys apartment with a Buffalo man she knew, and watched the man hit and fatally stab the elderly victim.

According to her attorney, Lynch made that statement implicating herself and the alleged killer under extreme pressure from Amherst Police, and later denied it.

A jailhouse informant whose testimony helped to convict Lynch later admitted that she was lying to get prosecutors help with some criminal charges she was facing.

And so, when you look at the totality of this evidence, besides her confession that law enforcement obtained after 18 months of looking at other people, theres nothing that points to her guilt, Friedman said. So, for us, this is a wrongful conviction, and we do view this as an exoneration.

Affiliated with the Benjamin Cardozo Law School in New York City, the Innocence Project was founded in 1992. The not-for-profit group works to exonerate people who supply evidence that they were convicted of crimes they did not commit.

Another obvious suspect  a man who lived in the building and had a history of violent crime  was questioned by Amherst Police, but never charged, Friedman told The News.

Lynch was convicted of second-degree murder and robbery in 1998 and sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.

The man whom Lynch identified as the killer was questioned about the Cicelsky case, but never charged with the crime. Authorities said he is serving time in Florida for crimes unrelated to the Amherst slaying.

Another look

In 2018, after the Innocence Project challenged Lynchs conviction, State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller ordered police to re-examine evidence from the crime scene, including fingerprint and DNA evidence.

I was not in office when Renay Lynch was prosecuted, but from all the evidence and information I have seen, she was justly convicted of being an accomplice in this case, Flynn told The News at that time. We would not hesitate in pursuing charges against another individual if that is where the DNA evidence leads us.

In 2020, the Erie County District Attorneys Conviction Integrity Unit and the Innocence Project worked together to re-examine fingerprint and DNA evidence from the crime scene.

Lynch was released from prison on parole in early 2022.

Boller vacated the conviction last month. He dismissed the indictment last Thursday after the DAs Office filed a motion to do so in the interest of justice.

Despite police testimony that there were only two prints suitable for comparison, 13 prints were actually suitable for comparison; second, nine of the 13 prints belonged to the victims downstairs tenant, the Innocence Project said online Friday, including four recovered from probative locations inside the victims home.

There were no prints from Lynch or the man she called her accomplice at the crime scene, the organization said, but plenty of prints from the downstairs tenant, whose name has never been publicly released.

Ms. Cicelskys tenant was an obvious suspect  he had a violent history that included domestic violence, robbery and manslaughter, project officials continued. He also gave numerous, inconsistent statements to law enforcement about the last time he saw the victim and other tenants reported disputes between him and the victim. Police, however, abandoned their inquiry into him after he seemingly passed a polygraph test.

Will authorities ever arrest the person who robbed and killed Cicelsky?

Its a cold case, and it will remain open, Flynn said, acknowledging that the man who stabbed and killed Cicelsky has never been caught.

Flynn said his office would welcome helpful information from any witness who has knowledge of the crime.

Realistically, with the passage of time and lack of eyewitnesses, the district attorney added that an arrest is highly unlikely.

Troubled past

Friedman said she knows that police questioned the tenant and the man Lynch called her accomplice, but decided they did not have sufficient evidence to arrest either of them.

Why would Lynch confess to a crime that she had no part in?

False confessions are not highly unusual, according to Friedman and other Innocence Project officials. They said false confessions have played a role in 27% of the projects exonerations.

Research shows that law enforcements use of intimidation, coercive tactics, isolation during interrogations, deceptive methods that include lying about evidence, and more can contribute to false confessions. It also shows that an innocent person may falsely confess because of increased stress, mental exhaustion, or promises of lenient sentences, the Innocence Project said last week.

In Lynchs case, detectives convinced her they needed her testimony as an accomplice to convict the man who killed Cicelsky, the organization said.

Lynch testified at her trial that the statement she gave police was false. She said she wasnt involved in the crime, with or without an accomplice. She claimed that police questioned and pressured her for 22 hours.

At the time of her arrest in the murder case, she was a prostitute with a long criminal record, according to previous Buffalo News stories. Erie County Judge Sheila A. DiTullio said Lynch  who had been arrested 26 times in the state and used nine aliases  was a flight risk, and refused to set bail.

Her former husband sought monetary bail, pleading with the judge that Lynch was not a violent person.

Lynch was tried, convicted and sentenced as a second felony offender for both murder and robbery.

Her Innocence Project lawyers contended she was severely addicted to drugs when she made her false confession. They also contended she was bullied, pressured and misled by a detective.

A retired Amherst detective who questioned Lynch in the case did not respond to three phone messages left for him by News reporters over the weekend.

In 2018, another retired detective who worked on the case vehemently denied to The News that Lynch was bullied or pressured into making her confession.

Based on his prosecutors research on the case, Flynn said he does not believe Amherst detectives did anything improper.

Lynch, now living in Buffalo, was unavailable for an interview last week, but the Innocence Project released a statement from her.
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A Las Vegas felon who attacked a judge as she was sentencing him this week has blamed his violent outburst on him simply having a bad day, according to reports.

The Clark County district judge Mary Kay Holthus was telling Deobra Delone Redden, 30, his sentence when he leaped over the defence table and the judges bench before landing on her.

Redden had been heard saying, Nah, f*** that b****, before he leaped at the judge.

He then allegedly slammed the judges head against a wall, struck her head once and pulled some of her hair out, according to documents obtained by 8 News Now.

She then hid under her desk, balled up covering her face, while he was wrestled to the floor by court officials, who were seen throwing punches.

Following the attack, Redden allegedly told corrections officers that he was having a bad day and tried to kill her, the documents reveal.

Redden was put in a holding cell near the courtroom and reportedly said to an officer, Judge has it out for me and Judge is evil before saying, Im sorry you guys had to see that, the documents said, according to the outlet.

Redden claimed he was not rebellious before launching himself at the judge (Clark County District Court via AP)

A court marshal, Shane Brandon, was hospitalised for a head injury. He was released, but his injuries are still being treated, Mr Wiese said. A law clerk, Michael Lasso, was also treated for cuts on his hand.

The supermanning felon was arrested after the attack and faces new charges, including battery on a protected person.

The incident occurred on Wednesday when Redden arrived in court for a charge of attempted battery causing substantial bodily harm that he pleaded guilty to in November.

He was not in custody at the time.

He was asking the judge to be lenient with him, describing himself as a person who never stops trying to do the right thing no matter how hard it is.

Im not a rebellious person, he told the judge, later adding that he doesnt think he needs a prison sentence.

But if its appropriate for you, then you have to do what you have to do.

As Judge Holthus made it clear to the defendant that he would be going to prison and a court marshal moved to put handcuffs on him, Redden lunged at the judge.

Redden was jailed on $54,000 bail in connection to the attack and will return to court on Tuesday to face the new charges.

He faces 13 counts, including extortion and coercion with force, among others.

Seven of the new counts are battery on a protected person, which includes the judge and officers who helped her in the attack.

He will face Judge Holthus again on Monday for his rescheduled sentence that was meant to happen on Wednesday, Mr Wiese said.

Mr Redden has previously been sentenced on a domestic battery charge, spending time in prison in Nevada.
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A Tennessee man has been arrested on suspicion of beating his wife to death with a hammer, then telling their children that she had terminal cancer.

Joseph Glynn, 70, allegedly killed his wife, 76-year-old Jackie Glynn, inside their home on New Years Day, then drove to another county to bury her remains on property they owned.

Mr Glynn has been arrested on charges of criminal homicide, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse, police announced.

According to an affidavit obtained by WTVF, after allegedly beating his wife to death, the suspect then told his children that their mother had left home because she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her medical provider later refuted this claim and told the children that their mother had never had a diagnosis of cancer.

Jackie was initially reported as missing and was last seen at her home in Nashville driving a Toyota.

A Silver Alert was issued for the missing woman by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) on Friday, stating that she had a medical condition that may impair her ability to return safely without medical assistance.

However, Jackie was then found deceased in Smithville that same day, the TBI said.

A day after she was found, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department announced her husband had been arrested. The police said that Mr Glynn is believed to have driven her body the day after he killed her to a property in DeKalb County and buried her remains in a pit in a plastic vehicle cargo box, covering it up with brand-new roofing shingles and dirt, according to WTVF.

Jackie Glynns remains were found by police in a plastic vehicle cargo box in a grave at their property (Metro Nashville Police Department)

Jackies Toyota had also been towed and hidden by the suspect, the affidavit said, that was later found by police.

As police were conducting their investigation into Jackies disappearance, they spoke to her husband, who said he had been at the couples property in DeKalb County where he lit a bonfire, the outlet reported.

The police then contacted the DeKalb County Sheriffs Office to request a welfare check on the property.

As the local police arrived, they ran into Jackies son, who was also looking for his mother at the time.

After speaking to a neighbour, the police learned that a large hole had been dug at the Glynns property a few weeks earlier and had recently been filled with dirt.

The hole was dug on 16 December and was 6ft wide, 10ft long, and 6ft deep; Mr Glynn claimed it was to be used as a burn pit, DeKalb County Sheriff Patrick Ray told WTVF.

After the discovery of Jackies remains, she was transported to Nashville for an autopsy.

Mr Glynn confessed to police upon his arrest that he hit his wife with a hammer at their home on the night of New Years Day, then buried her at his other property the following day.

It is unclear what motivated Mr Glynn to allegedly kill his wife.

He added that he threw the murder weapon away into a trash compactor, sold some of her belongings, and tried contacting a local realtor to sell the property.

Jackie has been remembered by her friends and colleagues as an influencer, mentor and a friend.

She owned the Riverwood Mansion, an events space and wedding venue in Nashville, her colleague Tricia Alsup told WTVF.

I started working for her in 1997. I actually got married there [in Riverwood Mansion]. She was part of making my dreams come true, as well as so many brides, workers, and vendors, Ms Alsup said.

Mr Glynn remains in custody in Nashville on a $1,030,000 bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in court on Tuesday.
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The suspect wanted for a fatal shooting at a Florida mall just before Christmas has finally been arrested, almost two weeks since the attack.

The Ocala Police Department announced in a post on X on Monday that Albert J Shell Jr, 39, had been taken into custody in connection to the shooting at Paddock Mall, Ocala.

The Ocala Police Department, in collaboration with the United States Marshals Service (Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force), has apprehended Albert Shell Jr, the murder suspect involved in the deadly shooting at the Paddock Mall that occurred on 23 December, the department said.

Mr Shell was found at a house 20 miles south-west of Ocala in the Florida Highlands area, chief of police Mike Balken said at a press conference on Monday, noting that well over 100 tips regarding the shooting helped police find and arrest him.

Police had the suspects whereabouts pinned down at around 1am on Monday morning and surrounded the property.

It took police two hours to negotiate with Mr Shell until he ultimately surrendered .

Mr Shell had been wanted on charges of premeditated first-degree murder and attempted premeditated first-degree murder for the deadly shooting of 40-year-old David Nathaniel Barron the weekend before Christmas.

The gunman and the victim had a prior relationship with each other; Mr Balken described what went down between them as beef between two individuals.

The police chief did not go into any motives behind the attack at the press conference, yet they said that from the early days of the investigation the shooting was a targeted act  with Mr Barron the intended target.

A woman was also shot in the attack, and was briefly hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries to her leg, but is on her way to full recovery, Mr Balken confirmed.

He added that she did not know the victim or the suspect prior to the attack and was just an innocent bystander.

Several others were injured in the chaos, with one person suffering chest pain while another said they broke an arm, according to CBS News.

Mr Balken said that the arrested suspect is responsible for one of the more heinous acts that weve seen in Ocala in a long time.

His criminal history alone tells me that he should never have been on the street to have been able to commit this crime, and were going to see to it that he serves the rest of his life behind bars, he added.

On 23 December, a gunman opened fire at around 3.40pm at Paddock Mall while locals were doing last-minute Christmas shopping.

By 4.20pm, authorities announced that the shooting was no longer active and that the suspect had fled the scene on foot, leaving a firearm behind.

Law enforcement officials announced they were looking for a suspect dressed in all black, white sneakers, and a red cap and a mask partially covering his face.

The shooting was the worst thing we can imagine this time of the year, police said at a press conference at the time.

Albert J Shell Jr surrendered almost two weeks after the mall killing (Ocala Police)

Earlier in their investigation, police warned the person who took the suspects red cap from the scene of the crime to return it immediately, saying that the hat could contain vital DNA evidence.

We urge you to do the right thing and come forward immediately, police said.

Mr Shell was later identified as the suspect with the public urged to come forward with any information.

A $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest was increased to $20,000 just before the arrest was made. Mr Balken expects the reward to be paid out now he has been captured.
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A Texas rapper was arrested after he allegedly kidnapped a pregnant woman off the street and held her captive in his garage in Houston for several years.

Lee Carter, 52, also known as Viper, was taken into custody at a local motel on Thursday and charged with aggravated kidnapping. He was being held on a $100,000 bond at the Harris County Jail as of Sunday night.

The next day, police conducted a welfare check at Mr Carters Houston home on Perry Street to investigate a tip that the woman might still be there, nine months after an initial incident in April 2023.

Inside the home, police found a dog, an empty mattress and a deadbolt that closed from the outside. But the woman was nowhere to be found and her whereabouts are still unknown, police said.

Nine months earlier, on 7 April 2023, officers first responded to a kidnapping in progress at the same home after a woman contacted them through TextNow, according to the complaint.

They arrived to find the woman who weighed about 70 pounds and who looked extremely malnourished and filthy, according to court documents obtained by KPRC.

Police also found a makeshift toilet that did not work, a mattress covered with fresh vomit, a box of chips, a few Twinkies, and diapers.

Lee Carter (Harris County Sheriff's Office)

The woman told police at the time that Mr Carter had abducted her four or five years ago after he approached her on the street, while she had been pregnant and where she was panhandling, and offered her one dollar.

He then promised to help her before driving her back to his home where he instead locked her up in his garage where she was forced to take drugs, have sex with him and rarely got a proper meal or shower, according to the complaint.

It is not clear what happened with the womans pregnancy or whether she gave birth. There was no mention of a child in the court documents.

After the April incident, police, who confirmed receiving eight calls to the house in the past year, took her to the hospital but Mr Carter picked her up and took her back home.

It makes me sick as a human being, Houston Police Department Commander Michael Collins told KTRK when Mr Carter was arrested.

And I can tell you, as a police department, we are here for the citizens of Houston. We are here for the community, and we are here to make sure that this individual and her family gets justice.

Officials have not given a reason for the nine-month gap between the April incident and the arrest, local station KHOU reported.

Mr Carter has performed as a rapper under the name Viper and his 2008 song Youll Cowards Dont Even Smoke Crack has garnered over 4 million views on YouTube.

He is also a real estate broker, according to corporate records and the Texas Real Estate Commission, who owns and operates a moving company in Houston, which is registered to the address where he allegedly held the woman.

Its just a creepy situation. We have no idea whats really going on, a neighbour told the local news outlets. You cant write this stuff. Its strange to see with your own eyes.
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Graphic details about Donald Trumps alleged sexual proclivities have emerged in the latest round of court documents containing details of late paedophile Jeffrey Epsteins associates.

The new documents contain incendiary claims about the former president, including accusations that he had sexual relations with many girls, made by one of Epsteins alleged victims, Sarah Ransome.

Mr Trumps name has appeared a handful of times previously in the documents and, while not accusing him of wrongdoing, appears to illustrate the good relationship he had with the disgraced financier.

In the newly unsealed documents, Ms Ransome testified that her unnamed friend was one of the many girls that had sexual relations with Donald Trump  including at Epsteins New York townhouse.

She confided in me about her casual friendship with Donald. Mr Trump definitely seemed to have a thing for her and she told me how he kept going on about how he liked her pert nipples, she testified.

She then described in graphic detail how Mr Trump allegedly caused pain to the victims nipples  and claimed she saw the resulting injury firsthand.

I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jefferys NY mansion on regular occasions as I once met Jen for coffee, just before she was going to meet Trump and Epstein together at his mansion, she said.

Other mention of Mr Trump in the documents so far has not accused him of any illegality, but claims he and Epstein were on good terms (Getty Images)

Mondays unsealed extracts were included in a letter sent by attorneys representing Alan Dershowitz, seeking to undermine Ms Ransomes credibility. Ms Ransome said that she had seen sex-tapes involving prominent figures including Prince Andrew and UK billionaire Richard Branson.

Mr Trump was not alleged to have been involved in the sex tapes.

In a New Yorker article released in 2019, Ms Ransome said that she had invented the tapes to draw attention to Epsteins behavior, and to make him believe that she had evidence that would come out if he harmed me.

She did not appear to address the validity of other claims from the emails in her comment to the outlet.

Steven Cheung, spokesperson for Mr Trump, told The Independent: These baseless accusations have been fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit.

Other mention of Mr Trump in the documents so far has not accused him of any illegality, but claims he and Epstein were on good terms.

In part of testimony from another victim Johanna Sjoberg, it was claimed Epstein once called up the former president and visited one of his casinos after his private plane was diverted to Atlantic City in New Jersey.

Ms Sjoberg said that while travelling on the plane with the disgraced financier the pilots had said that they were unable to land in New York as planned.

NBC coverage from 1992 shows Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein discussing women at Mar-a-Lago party

Jeffrey said, Great, well call up Trump and well go to -- I dont recall the name of the casino, but -- well go to the casino, the testimony read. Elsewhere, Ms Sjoberg was asked if she ever gave Mr Trump a massage, to which she replied no.

Several more mentions of Mr Trump were made in the documents released last Friday, when Mr Alessi testified he had driven Maxwell to the former presidents Mar-A-Lago home.

Mr Alessi also said that Mr Trump would sometimes come round for dinner at Epsteins home but ate with Mr Alessi in the kitchen. Mr Trump did not get massages at the Palm Beach house because he had his own spa, Mr Alessi said.

A spokesperson for Mr Bransons Virgin Group said: We categorically reject all allegations made by Sarah Ransome. In 2016, Ms Ransome retracted her claims and then in 2019 after settling her claims with Epstein and Maxwell, she also admitted to The New Yorker that the tapes had been invented. The allegations are baseless and unfounded.

The actions of Jeffrey Epstein were abhorrent and we support the right to justice for the many victims impacted by his abuse.
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Hundreds of filings relating to late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein have been unsealed after a New York ordered the release of a trove of documents in the now-settled litigation between Epsteins fixer Ghislaine Maxwell and his former victim Virginia Giuffre.

The filings include thousands of pages of motions, transcripts of depositions by Maxwell, Ms Giuffre, and victims Johana Sjoberg and Sarah Ransome, as well as detailed phone notes and incident reports from the initial investigation into Epsteins trafficking ring by the Palm Beach Police Department in 2005.

Prominent figures, such as former US presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and several Hollywood A-listers have been mentioned in the tranches released. But even before those names were tied to the disgraced financier, Judge Loretta Preska warned that any mention did not immediately suggest wrongdoing and that victims and absent third parties were also included in the filings.

While some bombshell allegations have resurfaced with the recent unsealing, most of the information contained in the documents was already known to the public through the account of victims or previously released filings.

Heres how some of the high-profile names at the centre of those allegations have responded to being named:

Richard Branson

The British billionaire and Virgin Group magnate was mentioned in filings unsealed on 8 January. In extracts of emails by Epstein victim Sarah Ransome, she claimed that Mr Branson along with Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton had sex with young women trafficked by Epstein.

Ms Ransome, who gave a victim impact statement ahead of Maxwells sex-trafficking sentencing in 2021, appeared to write communications claiming the three were filmed by the paedophile financier having intercourse. The allegations contained in Ms Ransomes emails were flagged by a firm representing Epsteins lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, to demonstrate Ms Ransome manifestly lacks credibility.

Those claims were debunked in a 2019 New Yorker article in which Ms Ransome admitted that she invented the tapes to draw attention to Epsteins behaviour, and to make him believe that she had evidence that would come out if he harmed me.

A spokesperson for Mr Branson told The Independent: We can confirm that Sarah Ransomes claims are baseless and unfounded.

Bill Clinton

In a 2016 deposition, victim Johana Sjoberg was questioned about whether Epstein had ever mentioned former president Bill Clinton. She testified that Epstein had once remarked that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.

Previously, Mr Clintons spokesperson, in 2019, denied claims made about his involvement with Epstein.

Mr Clinton has since issued a fresh denial of any ties to Epstein.

Its been nearly 20 years since President Clinton last had contact with Epstein, his spokesperson, Angel Urena, told PEOPLE.

In the second batch of documents a 2011 email from Ms Giuffre to journalist Sharon Churcher, included an accusation that Bill Clinton had threatened Vanity Fair reporters about writing stories on Epstein.

Graydon Carter, a former longtime editor at the magazine, told The DailyTelegraph that the incident never took place. There are no other reports or evidence to substantiate the claims raised by Ms Giuffre in her email.

This categorically did not happen, Mr Carter said.

Donald Trump

Ms Sjoberg also claimed that she was once on a private plane with Epstein when it made an unexpected stop in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She said that Epstein mentioned: Great, well call Trump. She mentioned that Epstein suggested that they visit Mr Trumps casino.

Elsewhere, Ms Sjoberg was asked if she ever gave Mr Trump a massage, to which she replied no.

In the batch of documents released on 5 January, former Epstein employee Juan Alessi made reference to Mr Trumps visits.

Asked if the former president ever stayed at Epsteins residence in Palm Beach, Mr Alessi replied: No, never He would come, and have dinner. He never sat at the table. He [would] eat with me in the kitchen.

When asked if Mr Trump ever had a massage at the house, Mr Alessi replied: No. Because hes got his own spa.

In 2019, when asked about his relationship with Epstein following the financiers arrest, Mr Trump said he knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him. But the former president added: I had a falling out with him. I havent spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.

Steve Cheung, a spokesperson for Mr Trump, recently told Newsweek that any allegations tying the former president with Epstein have been thoroughly debunked.

Glenn Dubin

Ms Giuffre claimed in a 2016 deposition that she was trafficked to have sex with several men, including American billionaire Tom Pritzker, the chairman of the Hyatt Hotels, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, and investor and Robin Hood Foundation co-founder Glenn Dubin.

The Dubins butler, Renaldo Rizzo, also testified in a deposition that he was at their house when Maxwell brought along a 15-year-old girl with her.

Mr Rizzo claimed the girl told her in tears that Maxwell had taken her passport and forced her to have sex with Epstein on Little St James.

A spokesperson for Mr Dubin also told The Independent in a statement: The Dubins strongly deny these allegations, as we first said in 2019, when these unsubstantiated statements first surfaced as part of this same civil court proceeding.

Tom Pritzker

A spokesperson for Mr Pritzker told The Independent that he first rejected Ms Giuffres allegations in 2019 and continues to vehemently deny them.

Prince Andrew

Ms Sjoberg has previously accused Prince Andrew of groping her breast in Epsteins Manhattan apartment in 2001.

Buckingham Palace has vehemently denied her allegations. In 2022, the royal settled a suit claiming sexual abuse that was filed by another accuser, Ms Giuffre.

In a deposition, Sjoberg claimed that Prince Andrew put his hand on my breast. Ms Sjoberg also claimed that during an encounter with Maxwell, Prince Andrew and Ms Giuffre in 2001, Maxwell gifted the prince a caricature puppet that looked like him. The incident Ms Sjoberg took place at Maxwells Mayfair home, where an infamous picture of Ms Giuffre, Andrew and Maxwell was also taken that night.

Prince Andrew has previously said he has no recollection of that night.

And they decided to take a picture with it, in which Virginia and Andrew sat on a couch, Ms Sjoberg said in the deposition. They put the puppet on Virginias lap, and I 2 sat on Andrews lap, and they put the puppets hand on Virginias breast, and Andrew put his hand on my breast, and they took a photo.

Buckingham Palace, which has not represented Prince Andrew since 2019, has stayed silent following the unsealing of new documents in the Giuffre v Maxwell case. A source close to Andrew told The Mirror that he had been left devastated by the resurfaced allegations.

He doesnt have the emotional bandwidth to deal with this, the source reportedly said. He has locked himself away in a room and has no idea how to respond. Hes devastated.

Les Wexner

The allegations against the former Victorias Secret CEO and founder of L Brands emerged in a 2016 deposition by Ms Giuffre.

Although Ms Giuffre had previously alleged she had been trafficked to other high-profile figures, it is the first time that allegations have emerged that Mr Wexner had sex with underage girls.

Ms Giuffre claimed that she was trafficked to have sex with Mr Wexner between three and ten times during the time that she was recruited by Epstein and Maxwell. Ms Giuffre said that she was instructed by Maxwell to wear lingerie for Mr Wexner  which Maxwell went on to categorically deny in her own deposition.

When asked why she had said in a previous interrogation by police that she didnt believe Mr Wexner would say the truth, Ms Giuffre said that it was because he had done things that were wrong.

He participated in sex with minors, Ms Giuffre elaborated.

Mr Wexner has previously denied any involvement in Epsteins sex trafficking ring. The Independent has reached out to L Brands group for comment.

Mr. Wexner was unaware of, and was never a participant in, any of the abhorrent behavior engaged in by Epstein against Epsteins victims, that Mr. Wexner had never met Ms. Guiffre, and that any claims to the contrary were not true, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

Robert F Kennedy Jr

Mr Kennedy revealed last September during an appearance on Fox News that he had flown on Epsteins plane on two occasions.

Appearing on NewsNations Dan Abrams Live before Mr Alessis deposition was unsealed, Mr Kennedy said he was not concerned that information from the unsealed filings would taint his public image.

I like whats happening today. I like the fact that all these papers are being released. Ive been an advocate for transparency. I think the government keeps too many secrets, Mr Kennedy said. I think its important for the American public to know whether Jeffrey Epstein had some kind of corrupt influence on public officials or any public figure.

Mr Kennedy was also brought up during a deposition by Mr Alessi, who said the presidential hopeful was one of Epsteins guests at his Palm Beach, Florida home. A spokesperson for his campaign told The Independent that Mr Kennedy was never a guest, nor did he stay overnight at Epsteins home.

He flew on his plane twice, both times with his wife and children and both over a decade before any allegations were made against Epstein, the statement read. Those trips took place approximately 30 years ago, long before Mr. Epsteins criminal behavior was public knowledge. Those charges became public for the first time in 2006.

The trips ocurred while Mr Kennedy was married to his then-wife Mary Kennedy, who died by suicide in 2012

The statement continued: Mary knew Epsteins girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell learned that the Kennedys were going to Palm Beach for Easter and offered their family a ride.

Mr Kennedy adds his voice to those demanding clarity about all of Mr Epsteins nefarious activities including the identities of powerful partners or shady entities who may have enabled or participated in his crimes.

Mr Kennedy supports the release of all of Epsteins business and personal records including completely unredacted flight logs, which might contribute to the publics understanding of Mr Epsteins sexual abuse of minors and his suspicious death.

Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz was mentioned in the first two tranches of released documents. A Jane Doe claimed that Epstein instructed her to have sex with Dershowitz, which the former Harvard Law Professor has previously denied.

Epstein required Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations with Dershowitz on numerous occasions while she was a minor, not only in Florida but also on private planes, in New York, New Mexico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, an excerpt of the filings by the plaintiffs attorneys read.

Following accusations by Ms Giuffre that she had been trafficked to have sex with Mr Dershowitz, contentious legal battles between the pair rumbled on for the next three years. In November 2022, Ms Giuffre admitted that she may have made a mistake in identifying Mr Dershowitz as one of her abusers. Lawsuits were then dismissed on both sides.

Mr Dershowitz previously denied allegations in 2015 that he had sex with an underage girl. In a response just hours after the first tranche of filings were unsealed, Mr Dershowitz again denied those allegations.

Of course Im on that list, I was his lawyer. I flew on his plane, Mr Dershowitz said during a YouTube livestream that he titled The Epstein list and guilt by association. I had an innocent relationship with a man who I didnt know, nobody suspected, had done anything wrong.

Mr Dershowitz glossed over his role in helping secure Epsteins 2008 secret sweetheart plea deal on charges of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting prostitution, which landed Epstein in a private wing of the Palm Beach County Stockade for just 13 months. Three months into his sentence, Epstein was allowed to leave the jail through a work-release program.

Cameron Diaz, Cate Blanchett and Leonardo DiCaprio

Blanchett and DiCaprios names were mentioned in a witness statement citing a false press report claiming the witness had met them.

They are not accused of any wrongdoing. When asked during a deposition if she had met them, Ms Sjoberg claimed that Epstein would name-drop but she had never met the Hollywood stars or seen them with Epstein.

Diazs representative told The Independent: Cameron never met Jeffrey Epstein, nor was she ever in the same place as him or had any association with him whatsoever, regardless of the fact he may or may not have mentioned her name or implied that he knew her.

Reps for DiCaprio and Blanchett have also denied any involvement with the paedophile.
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Newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein documents have described bombshell allegations about sex tapes involving Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson.

In emails sent by Epstein victim Sarah Ransome  sections of which were included as exhibits in one of the filings unsealed on Monday  she said that an unnamed friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson and that these encounters had been filmed by Epstein and that she herself had later seen the sex tapes.

The unsealed extracts were included along with a letter sent by attorneys representing Alan Dershowitz in 2017, seeking to undermine Ms Ransomes credibility.

In a New Yorker article released two years later in 2019, Ms Ransome admitted that she had invented the tapes to draw attention to Epsteins behaviour, and to make him believe that she had evidence that would come out if he harmed me.

Ms Ransome, who delivered a victim impact statement at Ghislaine Maxwells sentencing for sex-trafficking charges, said in one of the newly released emails that the friend had sent her the explicit footage.

She said that the footage does clearly identify the faces of the men.

Thank God she managed to get ahold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes, which clearly identify the faces of Clinton, Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her, she said.

Frustratingly enough, Epstein was not seen in any of the footage but he was clever like that!

Ms Ransome also detailed an alleged sexual relationship between the unnamed friend and the former president Mr Clinton.

Jeffrey Epstein and the former US president Bill Clinton (Netflix)

She alleged that her friend had to have sexual intercourse with Clinton in Epsteins New York Mansion just off Fifth Avenue on numerous occasions.

In the messages, Ms Ransome said that her friend later came forward to report what happened with Epstein, Clinton, Branson and Prince Andrew to the police in 2008 but said that nothing was done and she was made to feel like a dirty whore and a liar.

A couple of months later, her friend was allegedly approached by Special Agents Forces Men sent directly by Hilary [sic] Clinton herself, in order to protect her presidential campaign in 2008, Ms Ransome claimed.

They heavily intimidated her, ruffled her up (luckily she took photos as evidence) and was then forced to sign a confidentiality agreement which ensures that she can never come forward publicly implicating her husband, she claimed.

Ms Ransome went on to allege that the friend was given a substantial payout directly from the Clinton Foundation to keep her quiet.

She alleged that if her friend was to break the agreement to stay quiet, she is dead.

The woman also allegedly tried to sue Epstein for damages but was severely bullied and threatened by his attorney, Mr Dershowitz  a man who she claimed she also had sexual relations with and who was also heavily involved in Epsteins paedophile ring.

She alleged it was a complete conspiracy as Mr Dershowitz had also helped fund Ms Clintons 2008 presidential campaign.

Ms Ransome went on to claim that she had backed up the footage and had sent it to various different locations throughout Europe with only one other person close to me, knowing where their locations are, just in case anything happens to me before the footage is released.

The Independent has reached out to representatives for the Clintons, Mr Branson and Prince Andrew for comment.

Epstein victims Elizabeth Stein, left, and Sarah Ransome in 2022 (AP)

On behalf of Mr Branson, a Virgin Group spokesperson pointed to the New Yorker report, saying: In a New Yorker report published in 2019, Ransome admitted that she had invented the tapes. We can confirm that Sarah Ransomes claims are baseless and unfounded.

Prince Andrew has previously denied all wrongdoing related to Epstein.

He stepped down from public life and was cast out as a working royal amid the backlash over his friendship with the convicted sex offender. The duke also paid millions of dollars to settle a civil sexual assault lawsuit brought by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who claimed he sexually assaulted her as a minor.

Mr Clintons spokesperson told CNN on 3 January  after his name surfaced in the earlier batches of documents  that it has now been nearly 20 years since President Clinton last had contact with Epstein and denied that the former president ever had any knowledge of Epsteins crimes.

Elsewhere in the documents released on Monday, Ms Ransome also made accusations against former president and GOP 2024 candidate Donald Trump.

She alleged that another friend was one of the many girls that had sexual relations with Donald Trump  including alleged encounters that took place at Epsteins New York townhouse.

She confided in me about her casual friendship with Donald. Mr Trump definitely seemed to have a thing for her and she told me how he kept going on about how he liked her pert nipples, she claimed.

She then described in graphic detail how Mr Trump allegedly caused pain to the victims nipples  and claimed she saw the resulting injury first hand.

I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jefferys NY mansion on regular occasions as I once met Jen for coffee, just before she was going to meet Trump and Epstein together at his mansion, she claimed.

Mr Trump is yet to respond to The Independents request for comment.

In another email submitted by Mr Dershowitz in the court filing, Ms Ransome wrote that she will make sure that neither that evil b**** Hillary or that Paedophile Trump gets elected.

I will also make sure that everyone on the God damn planet sees [sic] that footage and photos [sic] and will release them to Wiki leaks [sic] by Sunday. I will take down Epstein and his bunch of f*** wit cronies myself!!!!!!!!!! I have also gone to a Russian newspaper, she allegedly wrote.

In another, Ms Ransome wrote: My emails have been hacked. I have reached out to the Russians for help and they are coming to my aid. Thank goodness for Anonymous!!!! I will make sure that they all go behind bars. I have already sent everything I need to so, the CIA, hacking my emails etc were too late. I also have numerous devices, with systems that are unhackable and I have film footage all over Europe itching to be released.

She wrote in another that Clinton and Trump must pay for what they did to us as must the rest of the men that were involved in their seedy inner circle.

In another email, Ms Ransome appears to speak of her fears about coming forward with her allegations against Epstein  for fear that bad things will happen if she does.

I would like to retract everything I have said to you and walk away from this, she writes.

Its not worth coming forward and I will never be heard anyhow and only bad things will happen as a consequence of me going public and I know this to be true.

This will just create pain for my family and I and they have already helped me pick up the pieces once before and I cant ask them to do that again I guess one person cant make a difference.

Mr Dershowitzs lawyers wrote in the letter accompanying the emails that they are a necessary antidote to Ms Ransomes deposition misstatements because they demonstrate she manifestly lacks credibility.

Mr Dershowitz and Ms Ransome have also been reached for comment by The Independent.

Mr Dershowitzs name has cropped up in other court documents unsealed last week in the civil case. He has denied all wrongdoing.

Ms Giuffre previously claimed that she was trafficked by Epstein to Mr Dershowitz for sex. Three years later, in November 2022, Ms Giuffre admitted that she may have made a mistake in identifying Mr Dershowitz as one of her abusers.

None of the individuals Ms Ransome made the allegations against have been charged with any crime in connection to Epstein.

Ms Ransome has spoken out publicly on many occasions about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell.

She claimed that she once tried to flee Epsteins Caribbean island of Little Saint James  known as paedophile island  by swimming off into shark-infested waters after she was raped three times in a single day.

In a deposition  an extract of which was released on Monday  Ms Ransome described Epsteins sex trafficking ring as a constant influx of girls  while Maxwell was his main right-hand woman.

There was a constant influx of girls. There were so many girls. There were girls in Miami, she claimed.

Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein (via Reuters)

There were guests coming. There were  Its like, Im sure if you go into a hookers brothel and see how they run their business, I mean, its just general conversation about whos going to have sex with who and, you know  what do you talk about when all do you is have sex every day on rotation? I mean, what is there to talk about?

The latest dramatic allegations have come to light as documents from a 2017 lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell continue to be unsealed by a New York court.

Ms Giuffre filed the defamation lawsuit against Maxwell in 2015, after she accused her of lying about the years-long abuse she had suffered at the hands of Epstein and some in his inner circle.

The suit was settled in 2017 but was placed under a protective seal  with the identities of those named in the filings kept under lock and key.

The Miami Herald sued for the release of the sealed documents while Maxwells legal team sought to block it.

Around 2,000 pages of documents were first unsealed in 2019, with further documents released over the following years.

But, this current trove of documents remained sealed  and the names of hundreds of people associated with the dead paedophile were kept secret, known only as Jane and John Doe.

Then, in a landmark ruling last month, US District Judge Loretta Preska ruled that the trove of documents could be released and the names unsealed in full after 1 January.

While the federal judge ordered the names of several Epstein victims to remain anonymous, she said that there was no legal justification to keep the names of Epsteins associates redacted as John and Jane Does.

This has now paved the way for several famous figures to find themselves tied to the notorious disgraced financier.

Many have previously been connected to Epstein in media reports, lawsuits and Maxwells trial testimony, and some of the documents have already been released in part or in full as part of other court cases.

Several more court documents  and names  are expected to be released over the coming days.

An individual being named in the documents does not necessarily mean they are accused of any wrongdoing.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.

Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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A bathtub in which it was claimed Prince Andrew had sex with an underage woman was too small for a man of his size to enjoy a bath in, let alone sex, defence lawyers have claimed.

The argument, previously made by representatives of Ghislaine Maxwell and her supporters, resurfaced on Monday, in the latest batch of unsealed documents detailing associates of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Attorney Phillip Barden recalled the claims in his testimony, saying that it was an example of obvious lies told by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epsteins alleged victims.

Ms Giuffre also accused the former Duke of York of sexually assaulting her. Andrew has strenuously denied all wrongdoing.

In extracts made public on Monday, Mr Barden testified: I recall that prior to the December 2014 filing of the joinder motion and the subsequent press reports that Ms Guiffre clearly stated she had not had sex with Prince Andrew.

Yet in her joinder motion she claimed she did have sex with Prince Andrew and that the sex occurred in what can only be described as a very small bathtub, too small for a man of Prince Andrews size to enjoy a bath in, let alone sex.

So as of December 2014 it was clear Ms Guiffre had made polar opposite statements. She was either lying when she said they did not have sex or when she said they did.

Ghislaine Maxwell claimed she never introduced Prince Andrew to Jeffrey Epstein (US Department of Justice) (PA Media)

Associates of Maxwell previously went further to prove that the bathtub allegation was false, releasing a photograph in which two people attempted to demonstrate the dimensions of the tub.

The image showed the bath in which the duke was alleged to have engaged in sexual activity with Ms Giuffre. Two people, believed to be acquaintances of Maxwell, sat in the bath, fully clothed, wearing makeshift masks depicting the duke and Ms Giuffre.

The photograph was released after it emerged that Andrew hoped to overturn the multi-million-pound settlement he struck with Ms Giuffre in February 2022.

In other extracts released on Monday, debunked allegations about sex tapes involving Andrew, former president Bill Clinton and Richard Branson were also brought out.

In emails sent by Epstein victim Sarah Ransome  sections of which were included as exhibits in one of the filings  she said that an unnamed friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson and that these encounters had been filmed by Epstein.

Those claims were debunked in a 2019 New Yorker article in which Ms Ransome admitted that she invented the tapes to draw attention to Epsteins behaviour, and to make him believe that she had evidence that would come out if he harmed me.

A Virgin Group spokesperson said: We categorically reject all allegations made by Sarah Ransome. In 2016, Ms Ransome retracted her claims and then in 2019 after settling her claims with Epstein and Maxwell, she also admitted to The New Yorker that the tapes had been invented. The allegations are baseless and unfounded.

The actions of Jeffrey Epstein were abhorrent and we support the right to justice for the many victims impacted by his abuse.
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President Joe Biden is unlikely to fire the Defence Departments top civilian official over his failure to keep the White House in the loop as he spent last week in hospital despite growing criticism over the matter, according to White House officials.

A White House official said the president is not considering removing Mr Austin, a former four-star US Army general, even though he did not let Mr Biden or his top aides know that he was hospitalised starting on 1 January.

Another senior Biden aide told The Independent that Mr Biden trusts Mr Austin implicitly and values how the Pentagon boss prefers to be a work horse rather than a show horse in his cabinet, but the official predicted there would be some consequences further down the Defence Department chain of command over what appears to be a lapse in communication.

John Kirby, a National Security Council spokesperson, told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday that there is currently no plan for anything other than for Secretary Austin to stay in the job at this time.

The President respects the fact that Secretary Austin took ownership for the lack of transparency, he also respects the amazing job he's done as Defence Secretary and how he's handled multiple crisis over the last almost three years now, and [he] very much values his advice, candour, leadership, and again looks forward to having him back, he said.

In a statement released on Saturday, Mr Austin said he was very glad to be on the mend and looking forward to returning to the Pentagon soon, while admitting that he could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed.

I commit to doing better, he said, adding that he took full responsibility for what he described as [his] decisions about disclosure.

Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder, a US Air Force major general, said on Sunday that Mr Austin remains hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center but is recovering well and in good spirits, and noted that the Defence Department boss spoke with Mr Biden, Deputy Defence Secretary Kathleen Hicks, and Joint Chiefs chair Gen CQ Brown Jr on Sunday.

Since resuming his duties on Friday evening, the Secretary has received operational updates and has provided necessary guidance to his team. He has full access to required secure communications capabilities and continues to monitor DoDs day-to-day operations worldwide, Gen Ryder added.

Though the secretary of defence is one of the key officials responsible for exercising command and control over the US nuclear arsenal, its not known whether top White House or National Security Council officials were aware that Mr Austin was in Walter Reed hospital until late last week.

The White House Situation Room is responsible for keeping track of the location of all Cabinet officials, and the Department of Homeland Security also tracks key officials in the presidential line of succession as part of the Continuity of Government programs that grew out of Cold War-era preparedness measures.

Yet senior official told The Independent that the Situation Room tracking mainly keeps tabs on what city or country a particular Cabinet officer is in, and that tracking is done by having agencies notify the Situation Room of officials movements.

Mr Kirby acknowledged that there is a process for Situation Room personnel to get the general location of all the non-White House principals each morning, calling the tracking generic and putting the onus on agencies to keep the White House abreast of that information.

There was no notification or knowledge at the White House or the National Security Council until Thursday, he added.

Mr Austins absence and apparent failure to inform the White House has incensed Republicans, some of whom have pounced upon the error with calls for the retired general to resign from his civilian leadership post.

New York Representative Elise Stefanik, a top ally of former president Donald Trump, said on Sunday that there needs to be full accountability for the error, starting with the immediate resignation of Secretary Austin and those that lied for him as well as a Congressional investigation into this dangerous dereliction of duty.

Mr Trump, who is currently running for the GOP nomination in this years general election, said in a post on his Truth Social platform that Mr Austin should be sacked for what the disgraced ex-president called improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty.
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Florida Republicans have voted to remove state party chairman Christian Ziegler, who is facing rape and video voyeurism allegations.

Sarasota County Police Department announced last year that it was investigating allegations that Mr Ziegler raped a woman who he and his wife, Bridget, the co-founder of right-wing, anti-LGBTQ+ group Moms for Liberty, were allegedly in a long-term consensual relationship with.

Mr Ziegler has denied any wrongdoing and no charges have yet been brought against him.

He did not attend Mondays meeting in Tallahassee and had already been stripped of his power, censured and had his salary reduced to $1 by the party. No successor has been voted on by the partys board, reported WWSB.

He is accused of entering the womans home on 2 October and raping her when she refused to have sex with him without his wife present, an affidavit shared with The Independent stated.

The first affidavit alleges that Mr Ziegler told detectives the encounter was consensual and that he filmed it but deleted the footage when the allegations arose.

Now, it appears that investigators are looking into the video recording claims further, according to the newly unsealed affidavit filed on 11 December.

Christian Ziegler addresses attendees at the Republican Party of Florida Freedom Summit in November 2023 (AP)

The affidavit describes that Mr Ziegler violated laws prohibiting Video Voyeurism by filming the sexual encounter without the womans consent.

Mr Ziegler allegedly showed investigators a two-and-a-half minute video of the sexual encounter, the affidavit obtained by the outlet said.

The investigators went on to ask the victim and Ms Ziegler about the video, both claiming they did not know about the footage and had not seen it.

Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler listens to public comments in December 2023, after her fellow school board members approved a resolution calling on her to resign (AP)

The victim did not give Ziegler consent to take this video of them having sex, the affidavit reportedly said.

The Independent has reached out to Mr Ziegler for comment.
Students in Williamsville Central Schools will have a few new holidays next year  and some new names for traditional ones.

The one-day fall recess is renamed Yom Kippur/Fall Recess. Columbus Day will be changed to Indigenous Peoples/Italian American Heritage Day. Under New York State law, the Asian Lunar New Year will be added as a holiday to school calendars next school year.

When Diwali, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha fall on school days, Williamsville students will be off of school. They will be designated as superintendent conference days, which are days off for students and professional development days for staff.

The move was praised by several parents.

Holidays are always awesome opportunities to celebrate each others culture, but also to learn from each other, Mustafa Gokcek told board members at the Dec. 12 meeting, where the board approved the changes.

Gokcek said students should be supported socially and emotionally.

Kids want to be seen, heard, recognized, understood by their teachers and friends, he said. If their holidays are not recognized and honored, they feel they are excluded and not included in the school culture.

The districts Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Calendar Subcommittee studied the matter and recommended the changes to the School Board.

Diwali is known as the festival of lights in India.

Eid al-Fitr celebrates breaking the fast at the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha is known as the festival of sacrifice.

Growing up as an American Muslim, born and raised here, I definitely felt being excluded from holidays, said parent Halima Amjad.

She said it will be wonderful for the holidays to be on the calendar so students who in the past have missed school to observe them will not miss instructional time.

Former Board President Toni Vazquez praised the board. When she was on the board in 2016, she proposed changing the Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day.

Williamsville schools soundly reject Indigenous Peoples' Day The second Monday in October will continue to be observed as Columbus Day throughout the district after a proposal to change it failed, 1-7, Tuesday night.

That proposal sparked huge outrage. People were very, very upset, but I stood my ground, she said. I stood my ground because I thought it was very important.

That proposal was defeated, 8-1, after months of community debate. Board members unanimously approved changing the names of holidays on Dec. 12.

If our teachers want to observe those holy days they will still have to take a personal day, Board Member Maureen Poulin said.

Superintendent Darren Brown-Hall said teachers are more apt to take a personal day when students are not in session.

He said the majority of 160 emails the district received commenting on the changes were in favor.

Each year the district builds in four to six snow days in its academic calendar, Brown-Hall said. This years calendar has 182 student days and four superintendents conference days for a total of 186 days.

Anything over 180 we consider snow days, so we have six snow days this year, he said.

The number of snow days may fluctuate going forward between three and five, the superintendent said, depending on whether the cultural holidays fall during the week or weekend.
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Watch as Joe Biden spoke at the historic Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday, 8 January, as part of his efforts to recharge his 2024 campaign for re-election.

The US president made a speech at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the site of a federal hate crime in 2015 in which nine Black church members were killed by a white supremacist.

Mr Biden was expected to highlight the importance of preserving democratic institutions to combat hate and extremism during his visit.

It came after a Democratic lawmaker, who was credited with saving Mr Bidens 2020 campaign, expressed the worry that the president is not breaking through the MAGA wall ahead of the likely 2024 rematch with Donald Trump.

Jim Clyburn revived Mr Bidens 2020 campaign after poor results in the initial contests of Iowa, where he placed fourth, and New Hampshire, where he came in fifth place.

After Mr Clyburns powerful endorsement in his home state, Mr Biden won South Carolina and later the nomination.

I have no problem with the Biden administration and what it has done. My problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done, Mr Clyburn said on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday.
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Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert has denied punching her ex-husband and asserted that he was part of the reason that the family values candidate was forced to move districts.

Jayson Boebert, the congresswoman's ex-husband, filed a complaint on Saturday claiming Ms Boebert punched him in a restaurant in Colorado.

The Silt Police Department confirmed that there was an active investigation, but did not provide further details, according to The Daily Beast.

Mr Boebert reportedly called for police to respond to the Miner's Claim restaurant in Silt after claiming he was a victim of domestic violence, according to an aide who spoke to the Daily Beast. Ms Boebert denied the allegations that she struck her ex-husband in a statement.

A spokesperson for Ms Boebert told The Independent that the reports were bogus and that the drama surrounding her ex-husband is one of the reasons she is planning to move districts.

This is a sad situation for all that keeps escalating and another reason Im moving, Ms Boebert said. I didnt punch Jayson in the face and no one was arrested. I will be consulting with my lawyer about the false claims he made against me and evaluate all of my legal options.

The incident was first reported by an anti-Boebert super PAC called American Muckrakers, which shared rumours of the incident on X/Twitter.

Breaking and sad news out of Silt, CO. @laurenboebert punched her ex-husband Jayson in the nose 2 times and then continued to beat him up, the post said. Then she called the cops on him. As much as I despise her, it's just sad for the boys. Jayson has a witness. More to come.

Ms Boebert recently announced she was planning to move into a more conservative district before she runs for re-election again in 2024. She was nearly defeated in her own district in 2022, winning by only 500 votes.

The incident on Saturday night reportedly kicked off after Ms Boebert drove to her ex-husband's home to pick up one of her sons, according to a source who spoke to the Daily Beast.

Mr Boebert was reportedly home at the time, and tried to hug his ex-wife. She allegedly pushed him away. Mr Boebert then called Ms Boebert later that evening to apologize and asked if they could meet. The congresswoman reportedly agreed to the meeting, so long as it took place in public.

The aide claimed that Mr Boebert began being disrespectful, an a**hole and lewd to Ms Boebert when the pair met later that evening at the Miner's Claim restaurant. Ms Boebert reportedly did not respond well to her ex-husband's alleged actions, which allegedly aggravated Mr Boebert, the aide claims.

Mr Boebert allegedly reached out to grab Ms Boebert, which she reportedly tried to fight off by putting her hand in his face and on his nose.

He called the police after the altercation, claiming he was the victim of domestic violence. Police arrived at the scene and spoke to both Mr and Ms Boebert. No arrests were made.

Mr Boebert offered a comment to the Daily Beast following the incident.

I made a mistake. We both overreacted. I only want whats best for [the] boys and I still love her very much. We both share some hurt deep down inside... It seems we just keep pushing each other further apart, he said. I want the best for her. Its probably just best that I remain silent.

Mr Boebert has been floating at Ms Boebert's periphery since the pair split last year. In September, he blamed himself after Ms Boebert was tossed out of a performance of Beetlejuice The Musical for vaping and engaging in lewd conduct with her date.

Mr Boebert insisted she was just acting out after their devastating divorce, and claimed it was really his fault that his adult wife became rowdy and lewd in public.

He then practically begged her to take him back.

Lauren, if you are reading this, please know that I am dedicated to doing everything in my power to rebuild the trust that has been shattered. I stand behind you, he wrote. You are the hardest working person I know, selfless and overflowing with love.
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Colorado Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert once more finds herself at the centre of a storm after it was revealed that police are investigating an alleged physical altercation between the politician and her ex-husband.

The representative was reportedly involved in an exchange with Jayson Boebert at the Miners Claim restaurant in Silt, Colorado, on Saturday night and police have since confirmed to The Independent that officers are looking into the incident and examining security footage from the venues dining room.

The Daily Beast quoted an aide to the conservative as saying that Mr Boebert had called the police claiming to be a victim of domestic violence  a claim his former wife has refuted.

Ms Boeberts office has since told The Independent: This is a sad situation for all that keeps escalating and another reason Im moving. I didnt punch Jayson in the face and no one was arrested. I will be consulting with my lawyer about the false claims he made against me and evaluate all of my legal options.

The episode is only the latest example of the attention-seeking Maga Republican hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

She recently announced that she would be switching districts for her re-election campaign in 2024, moving from Colorados 3rd congressional district to its 4th and blaming an influx of Hollywood money from high-profile Democratic donors like Barbara Streisand and Ryan Reynolds for driving her away during a recent appearance on Steve Bannons War Room podcast.

The former owner of the Shooters Grill gun-themed restaurant in the inevitably named town of Rifle only entered Congress in January 2021 but was quickly forced to downplay associations with the far-right Proud Boys and distance herself from earlier enthusiastic remarks about the QAnon conspiracy theory and has since established herself as something akin to a Bizarro World answer to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Heres a look at some of her other less-than-flattering brushes with the spotlight.

Tweeting about Pelosis movements during the Capitol riot

Ms Boebert faced calls for her resignation just days into her career as a congresswoman in the aftermath of the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 when it emerged that she had tweeted out sensitive information concerning the whereabouts of House speaker Nancy Pelosi in the midst of the attack.

Speaker has been removed from the chambers, she posted, which, although it did not provide any specific details, led to allegations that she was attempting to guide the rioters who were coming for the Democrat with malicious intent.

Protesters from Rural Colorado United, a state activist group, duly organised demonstrations outside her offices, calling Ms Boebert unfit to serve.

Lauren Boebert has betrayed the American people and is a conspirator in the insurrection that occurred at Capitol Hill on January 6th, the group wrote in a press release.

As the citizens she represents in Congress, we cannot recall her and we cannot impeach her, but we do not accept that she is fit to represent the people of Colorado District 3 in Congress. We can only hope that her colleagues in Congress expel her.

Ms Boebert had made clear her intention to oppose the formal certification of the 2020 election result in Arizona just before the insurrection effort erupted outside.

Islamophobic jokes about fellow representatives

The Republican has a history of making off-colour jokes about her political enemies, notably suggesting that Democratic representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Muslim, is a terrorist, leading to Ms Omar receiving multiple death threats.

Having already accused her rival of being a full-time propagandist for Hamas on social media in May 2021, Ms Boebert was seen on video the following September joking at a Staten Island Conservative Party dinner that she had encountered Ms Omar in a DC elevator and called her a member of the Jihad Squad to her face, embellishing the anecdote for her audience by saying she had told a congressional aide: She doesnt have a backpack, she wasnt dropping it and running, so were good.

At the same event, she was reported as describing Ms Omar and Rashida Tlaib, another Muslim Democrat, as black-hearted evil women.

They declined to accept her reluctant apologies, with Ms Omar calling her a buffoon who thinks bigotry gets her clout.

Heckling Joe Biden at the State of the Union

Ms Boebert also made a spectacle of herself at the presidents State of the Union address in March 2022 when Mr Biden reflected on the recent deaths of American servicemen in Afghanistan, and she shouted out: You put them in there, 13 of them!

She was referring to the killing of US soldiers in a suicide bombing at Kabuls Hamid Karzai International Airport the previous August, the insensitivity of her remark drawing boos from the chamber.

Later, she and Georgia counterpart Marjorie Taylor Greene  who had already pointedly turned their backs on Mr Bidens cabinet  chanted Build the wall! when he discussed the problems of illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border, taking the opportunity to revive the spectre of Donald Trumps famous white elephant infrastructure project, which remains unfinished to this day.

Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene scream Build the Wall as Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address in March 2022 (Getty)

Falling out with MTG

Often thought of as something of a double act, as the above embarrassment illustrated, Ms Boebert and Ms Taylor Greene had a very public confrontation on the floor of the House of Representatives in June 2023, with the former accusing the latter of calling her a little b**** and spitting at her.

The cause of their feud? A dispute over which of them would get to file the latest round of spurious articles of impeachment against President Biden.

Ive donated to you, Ive defended you. But youve been nothing but a little b**** to me, Ms Taylor Greene reportedly said. And you copied my articles of impeachment after I asked you to co-sponsor them.

OK, Marjorie, were through, Ms Boebert allegedly responded, to which her Georgia counterpart is understood to have retorted: We were never together.

Asked about it later, the Colorado representative seethed to CNN: Im not in middle school.

Getting thrown out of a theatre over Beetlejuice-gate

Last September, Ms Boebert was forced to make an undignified exit from a live-action musical stage version of Tim Burtons gothic comedy Beetlejuice in Denver after being asked to leave by the management.

Fellow audience members had complained about her vaping near a pregnant woman, talking too loudly, taking flash photographs, and inappropriately groping her date, Aspen bar owner Quinn Gallagher.

After initially denying having behaved obnoxiously at the show, she was subsequently forced to apologise when video footage emerged revealing her doing precisely as alleged.

On social media, users were quick to contrast Ms Boeberts own public conduct with her homophobic advice to: Take your children to CHURCH, not drag bars.
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Speaker Mike Johnson firmly backed away from the idea that Donald Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election in a new interview that aired on Sunday, a move that is almost certain to draw the former presidents ire.

The House GOP leader, who was elected to his position last year after the downfall of Kevin McCarthy and the failure of any members of GOP leadership to secure enough votes to become speaker, appeared for an interview with CBSs Margaret Brennan, recorded last week during his trip to the US-Mexico border. In the interview, he rejected the label of election denier and argued that not all of the Republicans who signed on to an effort to invalidate the election results in several states fit that bill.

Mr Johnson, at the time, was a relatively new member of the House. In late 2020, more than 100 Republican elected officials in Congress signed on to an amicus brief filed to the Supreme Court arguing that voting results in four key battleground states should be invalidated due to changes those states made to their election laws in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Supreme Court did not take up their cause and rejected the Trump campaigns lawsuit seeking that outcome.

Now, the Speaker of the House says that Joe Biden was certified the victor of the 2020 election  a careful acknowledgement of reality that leaves some small room for supposed concerns about the elections validity.

President Biden was certified as the winner of the election, he took the oath of office, hes been the president for three years, he said.

That statement alone, though merely a representation of fact, itself breaks from the reality that Donald Trump has tried to spin since January 2021. The former president maintained for months that he would be reinstated as president and that his lawyers were active in fighting that battle  two statements that ended up being untrue.

The speaker also addressed his concerns about the 2020 election, stating that the Constitution was violated in the run up to the 2020 election.

[N]ot always in bad faith, but in the aftermath of Covid, many states changed their election laws in ways that violated that plain language. Thats just a fact, he said, stating an opinion that has not been recognised by the conservative-controlled Supreme Court or any other serious legal authority.

That language is far and away from what Donald Trump and his allies have been pushing for years.

Mr Trumps complaints about the 2020 election  made at campaign rallies, during TV interviews, and in other settings  had nothing to do with state election laws. The former president has argued, from the very beginning, that he was the victim of election fraud: His attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was recently found liable for a massive defamation judgment after he falsely smeared two women in Georgia as being involved in such efforts. The argument that state election laws broadening the use of mail-in ballots has long been an afterthought in the former presidents overall campaign to persuade his supporters that the 2020 election was plagued by millions of illegal ballots.

Perhaps the clearest evidence can be found in Mr Trumps 2021 phone call with top Georgia officials including the states elections chief; in that conversation, now a crucial piece of evidence in his two prosecutions over the matter as well as the House of Representatives investigation into January 6, Mr Trump did not raise concerns about Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger expanding access to mail-in ballots during the pandemic. Instead, he asked the official to find more than 10,000 votes to surreptitiously add to his total.

Mr Johnson on Sunday announced to House Republicans that he had reached a deal on government spending for fiscal year 2024 with congressional Democrats led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The topline framework announced by congressional leaders largely avoids some of the more drastic spending cuts that House conservatives had previously sought.
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Utah Senator Mitt Romney warned President Joe Biden against campaigning on Donald Trumps actions relating to the Jan 6 attack on Congress in an interview this week, arguing that voters are weary of conversations about it.

It was a surprising remark to come from Mr Romney, who is retiring this year and has been one of the few GOP electeds in Washington to side against the former president from his own party in the wake of the latters efforts to stop the peaceful transfer of power to the rightful winner of the 2020 election. The senator voted for Mr Trumps conviction in both impeachment trials, and has consistently battled members of his own party who have lied about or otherwise sought to whitewash the tragic and shocking violence of the attack.

Speaking with The New York Times, Mr Romney warned against using January 6 as a campaign theme for Mr Bidens re-election bid, calling it a dead political horse.

"Jan 6 will be four years old by the election. People have processed it, one way or another," he said. "Biden needs fresh material, a new attack, rather than kicking a dead political horse."

His comments put the incumbent president in an awkward spot. Mr Biden is running for re-election despite his own cratering poll numbers, which show him losing support among key parts of his voter coalition including younger voters and people of colour. His likely opponent for the general election is none other than Mr Trump, who remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination heading in to the Iowa caucuses this weekend.

And Mr Trump remains under four separate criminal prosecutions, two of which relate directly to his attempts to change the results of the 2020 election and stop Mr Biden from assuming office. At least one of those trials is likely to take place as the presidential election plays out later this year. The ex-president is accused of violating the law in two jurisdictions  Washington DC and Georgia  in relation to his recorded attempts to persuade Georgia officials to change his vote totals as well as his alleged instigation of the riot that turned into a violent hunt for members of Congress by Trump supporters on January 6.

The president described his likely 2024 opponent as a threat to democracy this past week in a speech marking the three-year anniversary of the attack that left dozens of police officers wounded and one rioter dead from police gunfire.

Donald Trumps campaign is about him, not America. Not you. Donald Trumps campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. Hes willing to sacrifice our democracy [to] put himself in power, said Mr Biden on Friday.

Mr Romney is retiring rather than face his own re-election bid; as a senator from Utah, his main competition would have taken place in the states Republican primary election, where the senator was almost certain to face a Trump-backed opponent. Had he stayed in the race, the senator could very well have faced a challenging path to re-election.

His comments come as the senator recently sat down with The Atlantics McKay Coppins for a definitive biography of the senators life in the Trump-dominant Republican Party. In the book, Mr Romney was quoted as saying his own party has become a threat to US democracy and the Constitution.
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Attorneys for Donald Trump claim that the former president didnt have fair notice that his attempts to reverse his Georgia loss in the 2020 presidential election could result in criminal charges against him.

A flurry of filings in Fulton County Superior Court on Monday argue that the sprawling election interference case against Mr Trump consists entirely of core political speech at the zenith of First Amendment protections.

Attorneys for the former president want the case dismissed on grounds that he has presidential immunity from actions while in office, that he was already acquitted for similar allegations in his second impeachment trial, and that he was never told that what he was doing in the state  where he is charged as part of an alleged racketeering scheme to unlawfully subvert the states election results  could be prosecuted.

Our country has a longstanding tradition of forceful political advocacy regarding widespread allegations of fraud and irregularities in a long list of presidential elections throughout our history, therefore, President Trump lacked fair notice that his advocacy in the instance of the 2020 presidential election could be criminalized, according to his attorneys.

The filings come one day before Mr Trump is expected to appear inside a courtroom in Washington DC, where his attorneys will try to convince a three-judge appeals court panel that he should be immune from prosecution in a parallel federal case charging him with conspiracy and obstruction for his attempts to overturn 2020 results.

In Georgia, Mr Trump is charged alongside more than a dozen co-defendants  including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former attorney Rudy Giuliani  who allegedly made up a criminal enterprise to overturn the states election results, from using a so-called fake elector scheme to falsely assert his victory in the state and pressuring election workers and state officials, to seizing vote information from machines in another county in the state.

Four of his original co-defendants in the Fulton County case  including Trump-allied attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell  reached plea deals with prosecutors.

Mr Trump and his remaining co-defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wants a trial to begin in August 2024.

During a court hearing in Atlanta last month, attorneys for Mr Trump argued that he shouldnt be on trial until he leaves the White House, should the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president be elected to a second term.

Can you imagine the notion of the Republican nominee for president not being able to campaign for the presidency because he is, in some form or fashion, in a courtroom defending himself? Mr Trumps attorney Steve Sadow told Judge Scott McAfee last month.

Asked by the judge whether Mr Trump should then face trial in 2025, if he wins, Mr Sadow suggested that he shouldnt be on trial until at least January 2029, at the end of his term.

The answer to that is, I believe that under the Supremacy Clause and his duties as president of the United States, this trial would not take place at all until after he left his term of office, Mr Sadow said.
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Donald Trump refused to sign a loyalty oath pledging not to call for the US government to be overthrown when he registered to appear on the Illinois 2024 primary ballot, WBEZ/The Chicago Sun-Times have reported.

The declaration is not mandatory but has been signed by presidential candidates for decades as part of the necessary paperwork submitted to the Illinois State Board of Elections in order to secure ballot access.

The agreement dates back to the anti-communist scare of the 1950s and has already been signed, without objection, by President Joe Biden and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

It compels the signatories to promise they will not directly or indirectly teach or advocate the overthrow of the government of the United States or of this state or any unlawful change in the form of the governments thereof by force or any unlawful means.

Mr Trump did sign the same plea when registering to run in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

His campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said of the decision to abstain this time around: President Trump will once again take the oath of office on 20 January 2025 and will swear to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Michael Tyler, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, also responded to Mr Trumps refusal to take the pledge on Saturday  the same day as the third anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot, when Mr Trumps supporters stormed the building in the hopes of blocking the certification of the 2020 election results based on his bogus fraud narrative .

For the entirety of our nations history, presidents have put their hand on the Bible and sworn to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States  and Donald Trump cant bring himself to sign a piece of paper saying he wont attempt a coup to overthrow our government, he said.

We know hes deadly serious, because three years ago today he tried and failed to do exactly that.

This is the same man who thinks American troops who died protecting the ideals outlined in the Constitution are suckers and losers  yet calls the convicted felons who violently assaulted and killed police officers on January 6th hostages.

He cant fathom putting anything  our country, our principles, or the wellbeing and safety of the American people  above his own quest for retribution and power.

Mr Trumps decision to sidestep the pledge comes at a time when he is contesting decisions by the states of Colorado and Maine to cross him off their ballot papers in accordance with Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which rules him ineligible to run for office again on the grounds that he broke his oath as president by engaging in insurrection on 6 January 2021 when he urged his supporters to fight like hell to overturn the vote.

Among those reacting to the candidates abstention from the Illinois pledge was the states former congressman Adam Kinzinger, an avowedly anti-Trump Republican who served on the House select committee that investigated the Capitol riot in 2022  conducting explosive public hearings and producing a damning 814-page report about the former presidents conduct.

Adam Kinzinger (AP)

Why wouldnt he sign it? Mr Kinzinger asked.

Has he been advised maybe not to sign it because maybe theres some legal exposures given that oath, if he signed it, would be a violation of everything he actually did on 6 January 2021 and leading up to it?

He added: What was the world like when he signed it in 2016 and when he signed it in 2020? Well, at that point, there had not been an attempted insurrection on the federal government. The difference between the last two times he did it, and this time when he didnt, is he has a track record of trying to overthrow the government.

Also reacting to the news was Los Angeles Times contributor Kurt Bardella, who told MSNBC host Alex Witt that the development was completely on brand for Mr Trump.

Over the weekend, Mr Biden delivered an excoriating speech in which he called his likely election rival a threat to democracy and denounced his behaviour on January 6 as one of the worst derelictions of duty in American history.

Meanwhile, New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik echoed Mr Trump by referring to imprisoned rioters as hostages on NBCs Meet the Press in an apparent audition to be his running mate.
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Draft dodging Donald Trump has been slammed for mocking late senator John McCain for his war injuries.

At a campaign event in Iowa on Saturday  on the three-year anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riots  Mr Trump mimicked Mr McCains war-inflicted injuries that left him physically disabled and unable to raise his arms over his head.

The moment came as the former president brought up the skinny repeal bill of July 2017, which sought to partially repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

The bill failed 49-51 in the Senate after Mr McCain famously cast his vote with a dramatic thumbs-down motion, collapsing the Republican partys efforts to derail Obamacare.

The former president recounted that day in his campaign speech and blamed McCain for the bills failure.

Obamacare is a catastrophe; nobody talks about it. You know, without John McCain, we would have had it done, Mr Trump said.

But John McCain, for some reason, couldnt get his arm up that day, remember?

Mr Trump then mimicked the late politician by pointing his thumb down.

The late senators daughter, Meghan McCain, took to social media to call out Mr Trump for his comments.

Meghan McCain called Trump an election denying huckster (Getty Images)

My dad was an American hero. An icon. A patriot that will be remembered throughout history, she wrote.

I cannot buy a bagel without someone approaching me about how much they loved and miss him.

Trump is a piece of s***, election denying, huckster whose own wife wont campaign with him, she concluded, referring to his wife, Melania Trump, who has been notably absent from Mr Trumps campaign efforts.

GOP strategist and John McCains former political consultant Mike Murphy also took to X to lay into Mr Trump, calling him a gutless, draft dodging coward.

John McCain famously blocked the efforts to derail Obamacare in 2017 (GETTY IMAGES)

Trump wouldnt understand, but having both arms broken in an ejector seat, then being beaten and bayoneted by a crowd when he landed in Hanoi, and then tortured in prison with iron bars, yes, John McCain had f****** trouble raising his arms, he wrote.

Before his political career, McCain served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War, where he was captured as a prisoner of war and sustained life-long disabilities. He died from a brain tumour in 2018.

This isnt the first time the former president has criticised McCain, both for his blocking of the repealing of Obamacare and his war hero reputation.

During his previous presidential campaign in 2015, he said of McCain: Hes not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who werent captured.

Mr Trump and McCain were often at odds with each other right up to the former senators death, with McCain often criticising the president and vice versa.

Even after McCains death, Mr Trump has continued his attacks of the former senator.

The then-president took two days to lower flags to half-staff at the White House after McCains death, CBS News reported. He also once told Fox News that he was not a fan of McCain.
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Australia has banned the Nazi salute and public display of any symbols associated with terror groups.

In response to increasing incidents of anti-semitism following Israels assault on Gaza, Australia passed the legislation on Monday and it comes into effect immediately.

Engaging in public display of the Nazi salute, showcasing the Nazi swastika, or exhibiting the double-sig rune linked to the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary group is deemed a criminal offence under the law, carrying a potential penalty of up to 12 months in prison , local reports said.

In November, when Australia was planning on implementing the ban, executive council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said: The amended bill has many positive features which will be welcome news to the Australian Jewish community, especially with the extraordinary increases we have seen recently in the level of antisemitism from different quarters.

On Monday, attorney general Mark Dreyfus said in a statement: This is the first legislation of its kind and will ensure no one in Australia will be allowed to glorify or profit from acts and symbols that celebrate the Nazis and their evil ideology.

The newly enacted law also prohibits the public display or trade in symbols associated with banned terrorist organisations such as the Islamic State, Hamas, or the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

However, exceptions are made for academic, educational, or artistic purposes.

Last year in March, a gathering of neo-Nazis made an appearance at a rally in Melbourne organised by Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, a known advocate against transgender rights. They openly performed Nazi salutes on the steps of the Victorian Parliament. Despite Ms Keen-Minshull denying any affiliation with the group, the incident sparked a political outcry, prompting calls for intensified measures to address the public display of Nazi regalia.

Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission told Sydney Morning Herald in November: This bill will deliver a blow to those inflamed with vicious antisemitism who have weaponised this evil gesture as a rallying cry to terrorise the community.
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Australia has abandoned plans to hold a referendum on replacing King Charles as head of state and becoming a republic.

Matt Thistlethwaite, the minister in charge of the pro-republic portfolio, confirmed the move on Monday, as the government admitted it could not afford to lose another vote on constitutional reform.

The decision comes after the Labor prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was dealt a blow when his attempts at reforming the constitution and giving Aboriginal Australians a Voice to Parliament suffered an emphatic defeat. The policy would have established a body to give politicians advice on matters affecting the countrys Indigenous population.

King Charles III receives Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese during an audience at Buckingham Palace in London in May (AP)

After the decisive loss, which coincided with a sharp decline in support for Mr Albaneses government, Mr Thistlethwaite acknowledged that putting the question of the monarchy to the public had become a lot harder.

Mr Thistlethwaite has not suggested a fresh timetable vote, indicating that the government could be retreating from its aim to hold a vote in its second term if re-elected early next year.

Mr Thistlethwaite said: Im not going to put a timeline on it. At the moment, our priority is cost of living, and thats the appropriate thing for the government to be concentrating on.

Government insiders have been privately warning Mr Albanese against the move over fears that it would leave him vulnerable to criticism from the opposition that he was focusing more on constitutional reforms than on the impact on Australians of the high cost of living.

Speaking in a breakfast television interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Mr Thistlethwaite said: The current method of selecting our head of state is undemocratic, it doesnt represent modern Australian values, and thats something we want to begin a discussion with Australians on in the longer term. But at the moment, our priority is cost-of-living relief for Australians.

In a further hint that the government has dropped the vote from its agenda, Mr Albanese, a long-time supporter of an Australian republic, has said very little about it since the Voice referendum defeat.

As is outlined in the countrys constitution, a majority of Australians in a majority of states would need to vote yes in order for Australia to become a republic. The last vote on the issue in 1999 was heavily defeated, with the Conservative prime minister at the time, John Howard, in strong opposition to replacing the late Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

A small majority of Australians (35 per cent) wanted Australia to remain a constitutional monarchy when a YouGov poll was taken around the first anniversary of the accession of King Charles III in September, whereas 32 per cent wished for the country to become a republic as soon as possible.

The King is set to visit Australia for the first time as the nations head of state later this year. The last visit by the reigning monarch was when the late Queen toured the country in 2011.
Earl Skip Gingerich wants to continue serving as Marilla supervisor as long as the voters will have him.

If he is re-elected in 2025, that means he would have to run for re-election again the following year, under a new state law.

The law moves many local elections  including for county executive, county legislators and town board members, clerks and highway superintendents  to even-numbered years.

Most of those races have traditionally been held in odd-numbered years, but will now coincide with presidential and congressional elections going forward.

Gingerich, a Republican, isnt a fan of the new law, which aims to increase voter participation.

Noncompetes, elections, reparations: Hochul faces decisions by year's end Before the clock strikes midnight on 2023, Gov. Kathy Hochul must still decide whether to sign or veto more than 100 bills passed by the Democratic-controlled State Legislature this year.

He doesnt think that will happen.

If they want to improve voter turnout, then theyve got to teach at a younger age in the school system how important it is to participate in government and how important their vote is, he said.

Gingerich said people dont show up at the polls either because theyre comfortable with the way things are going or they dont like the choice of candidates.

The changes affect county and town elections. They do not apply to sheriff, county clerk, district attorney and races for judgeships, which are governed by the state Constitution.

Elections for cities, villages and school boards also are not included in the new law, and remain the same.

Anyone elected last year or earlier will serve a full term. In order to transition to the even years, future terms will be shortened. Elections for offices with two-year terms will take place in 2025, but the term will be one year and another election will take place in 2026.

Those offices with four-year terms elected last year will be up for re-election in 2027, and the term will be three years. By 2030, all the local officials covered under the new law will return to the usual two- or four-year term.

Some like the law

Hamburg Supervisor Randy Hoak, a Democrat, said he is excited by the new law.

Anything that brings increased voter turnout to local elections, I think is just good for everybody, he said.

Its a good thing anytime you can increase turnout for people and get their attention on these races, said Jeremy Zellner, an Erie County elections commissioner and chairman of the Erie County Democratic Committee. When we have off-year races, we just have horrible, horrible turnout.

Turnout for local elections plummets in non-presidential or non-congressional election years, compared to local elections in other years.

In Alden, the turnout in 2020 was 82%, compared to 66% in 2022 and 40% in 2023.

In Clarence, 83% of registered voters participated in the last presidential election, 64% voted in 2022 and 39% voted last November.

About 70% of registered voters in Marilla filled in ballots in 2020 and 49% voted last year.

In 2022, the turnout for a local race in Cheektowaga was 53%, compared to 32% in 2023. There were similar numbers in the Town of Tonawanda, 60% to 34%, and West Seneca 61% to 39%.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, Harvard Election Law Clinic and the Legal Defense Fund maintain that holding local elections in off-cycle years is a racially discriminatory practice that disproportionately disenfranchises young voters.

Many Republicans find fault with the new law, concerned that local contests will get lost in the sweep of regional, state and presidential races.

Forcing local elections into even-numbered years will upend the idea that all politics is local, forcing every campaign  from the White House to the town hall  to be waged on national narratives, Erie County GOP Chairman Michael Kracker said in a statement. Thanks to Gov. Hochul and New York Democrats, thoughtful discussion on critical local issues like property taxes, public safety, and infrastructure will be drowned out by the big-money politics of Washington in Albany.

Will GOP be at a disadvantage?

Some Republicans contend a goal of the law is to consolidate Democratic control at all levels of government, since New York is a blue state, and presidential and congressional elections usually have a large turnout of Democrats.

West Seneca Supervisor Gary Dickson, a Republican who started his second term Jan. 1, said he doesnt think the law will hurt the GOP.

I think we have a good enough message that we can overcome this, or it wont be a significant impact, Dickson said. At the end of the day, more people voting is a good thing. Doing it this way, I think, is bad policy and I dont think its really needed.

Others, including New York Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar, believe delegating local races to the bottom of the ballot will generate less interest and attention.

These races will get almost zero press coverage in the shadow of larger federal and state races, and voters will be more likely to vote the party line in the absence of sufficient information, Kassar said.

Hoak said its possible local elections can get lost, but its the job of the local committees and candidates to get to get their message out.

Savings wont be realized with some elections remaining in odd-numbered years, even though other forces may well be at play.

We could have some elections where the only person on the ballot is the town justice, Dickson said. Talk about low turnout.

Hochul and others support a constitutional amendment to align all election years to save money.

Zellner said the new system will concentrate work at the Board of Elections in even years, with more petitions and paperwork to process. The board will continue conducting elections in odd years, he said, maintaining the voter rolls and other work.

Gingerich, who has been a town councilman for eight years and supervisor for 10 years, said Marilla has an idea that will cut down on the work at the Board of Elections. He said the town is looking into conducting its own local elections by paper ballot.

He envisions elections on the odd years, with no political parties and each persons name listed once.

It will be a much fairer election, he said.
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Police in Australia busted a criminal syndicate planning to illegally export hundreds of lizards worth more than 633,000 to Hong Kong.

Raptor squad detectives in New South Wales were investigating illegal exports of native animals and reptiles when they uncovered nearly 260 native lizards concealed in chip packets, handbags and cereal containers bound from Sydney to Hong Kong.

The squad established Strike Force Whyaratta in September last year to probe the illicit animal export after nine packages containing 59 lizards were intercepted en route to Hong Kong.

The officials seized 257 lizards this week in Sydney, said Detective Superintendent Andrew Koutsoufis. At least four people have been since the operation began on 20 December last year.

The authorities held a 41-year-old woman, charging her with six counts of exporting regulated native specimens without a permit, reported 9 News. The second arrest of a 54-year-old man was made on 28 December, while the next day, another man, 59, was arrested and faces 13 charges including knowingly directing the the activities of a criminal group.

On 5 January, the police held a 31-year-old man, who has been accused of collecting and capturing the reptiles.

Describing the nature of crime as cold-blooded and cruel, Mr Koutsoufis said: Thankfully the trapped reptiles were found alive and have since been sent to various local zoos and local wildlife parks for health examinations before they will be ideally released back into the wild.

"Its a great result for the animals and thankfully most of them have survived their arduous journey."

Explaining the modus operandi, the superintendent said that while the 59-year-old ran the group, the 31-year-old man regularly went into remote areas of the Northern Territory of western Australia to trap the lizards and bring them to Sydney.

The reptiles are high in demand in the international market and are captured for a variety of purposes, including as pets and for medicinal purposes. Said Mr Koutsoufis.
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Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in 2011, will try for the second time Monday to sue the Norwegian state for allegedly breaching his human rights.

Norways worst peacetime killer claims his solitary confinement since being imprisoned in 2012 amounts to inhumane treatment under the European Convention of Human Rights.

Norway favors rehabilitation over retribution, and Breivik is held in a two-story complex with a kitchen, dining room and TV room with an Xbox, several armchairs and black and white pictures of the Eiffel Tower on the wall. He also has a fitness room with weights, treadmill and a rowing machine, while three parakeets fly around the complex.

Even so, his lawyer, ystein Storrvik, says it is impossible for Breivik, who now goes by the name Fjotolf Hansen, to have any meaningful relationships with anyone from the outside world, and says preventing his client from sending letters is another breach of his human rights.

A similar claim during a case in 2016 was accepted, but later overturned in a higher court. It was then rejected in the European Court of Human Rights. Breivik sought parole in 2022, but was judged to have shown no signs of rehabilitation.

On July 22, 2011, Breivik killed eight people in a bomb attack in Oslo before heading to a youth camp for a center-left political group on Utya island, where, dressed as a police officer, he stalked and gunned down 69 people, mostly teenagers. The following year, Breivik was handed the maximum 21-year sentence with a clause  rarely used in the Norwegian justice system  that he can be held indefinitely if he is still considered a danger to society.

He has shown no remorse for his attacks, which he portrayed as a crusade against multiculturalism in Norway.

Many regard Breiviks flirtations with the civil and parole courts as attempts to draw attention to his cause or even bask once again in the international limelight, as he had done at times during his criminal trial.

Lisbeth Kristine Ryneland, who leads a support group for survivors of the attacks and bereaved families, says her group is satisfied with the decision not to allow a livestream of his comments from this court case.

The state rejects Breiviks claims. In a letter to the court, Andreas Hjetland, a government attorney, wrote that Breivik had so far shown himself to be unreceptive to rehabilitative work and it was therefore difficult to imagine which major reliefs in terms of sentencing are possible and justifiable.

The trial will be held Monday in the gymnasium in Ringerike prison, a stones throw from Utya.
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Pope Francis has called for a universal ban on the despicable practice of surrogacy and spoken out against the commercialisation of pregnancy.

Francis said surrogate motherhood represented a grave violation of the mother and child and urged the international community to prohibit the practice.

Surrogacy is when a woman carries a baby for a couple who are unable to conceive or carry a child themselves for medical or physical reasons.

I consider despicable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mothers material needs, he said.

A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.

Francis has previously voiced the Catholic Churchs opposition to what he has called uterus for rent, and some European countries prohibit it, including Spain and Italy. At the same time, however, the Vaticans doctrine office has made clear that homosexual parents who resort to surrogacy can have their children baptised.

Pope Francis said surrogacy, where a woman carries a baby for a couple unable to conceive, was a grave violation of the mother and child (AP)

Francis also warned global peace was increasingly threatened and weakened, citing Israel, Ukraine and climate change during his foreign policy address to ambassadors.

He denounced the large-scale war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine. It marked an unusual break with Francis usual tendency to avoid blaming Moscow directly for the invasion when expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

He also condemned Hamas 7 October assault on Israel. He said the attack provoked a strong Israeli military response that had left thousands dead and created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Last month, Pope Francis approved the blessing of same-sex couples by priests but said the Church still states that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Last month, Pope Francis approved the blessing of same-sex couples by priests (Getty)

The announcement on Vatican News marked a significant change in the position of the Catholic Church as it seeks to welcome more people into its teaching and practice.

However, the document outlining the radical policy change stressed that the ritual should not be confused with the sacrament of marriage, and it included a number of caveats.

The Vatican has long opposed gay marriage, with homosexuality considered intrinsically disordered, but Francis has shown support for same-sex civil unions on several occasions.
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A Ukrainian poet who was serving as a volunteer on the war frontline against Russias invasion has been killed, his mother said in a Facebook post.

The writers association PEN Ukraine also confirmed the death of poet Maksym Kryvtsov.

Poet and soldier Maksym Kryvtsov died in the war. This was reported by his mother, and later by Ukrainian writers on their pages in social networks, it said in a statement on Facebook on Sunday.

His mother Nadiia Krytsova penned an emotional note on her Facebook. My dearest son will sprout violets, she wrote, citing one of his poems.

Maksym Kryvtsov was an extremely bright person. He was a poet. Not a warrior. But he died. Died as a man. Like a warrior. The whole universe died with him. Texts and poems. New meanings. No lines written. Not lived minutes, volunteer Lesia Lytvynova wrote.

The note added: Unexperienced feelings. Are you sleeping well? Are you resting well? Does your morning latte taste good?

Kryvtsov, 33, joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a volunteer in 2014. He is also the author of the book Poems from the Loophole, regarded as one of the best Ukrainian books of 2023, by Ukrainian PEN. It also included the published book in its list of best Ukrainian books.

Kryvtsov published the book when he returned to the frontline in 2022 after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, PEN Ukraine said.

"We express our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the hero," the statement added.

The Ukrainian citizen also worked at the Centre for Rehabilitation and Readaptation of Anti-Terrorist Operation and Joint Forces Operation participants and the Veteran Hub, reported Ukrainian news website Ukrainska Pravda.

Officials in Kyiv and Armed Forces of Ukraine have not issued a formal statement over Kryvtsovs death and the circumstances. His position on the frontline and the region of serving is also not immediately clear.
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A woman in Iran was whipped 74 times by the police for violating public morals by sharing a picture in which her head was not covered.

The incident sparked outrage among many people, including activists and political commentators, who condemned the inhumane punishment.

In a statement on the official news website, Mizan, the judiciary said Roya Heshmati was sentenced and flogged for her alleged links to organise groups outside Iran to defy hijab rules and encourage others.

The convicted, Roya Heshmati, encouraged permissiveness [by appearing] disgracefully in busy public places in Tehran, it said late on Saturday.

Her penalty of 74 strokes of the lash was carried out in accordance with the law and with sharia, and for violating public morals, Mizan said.

Ms Heshmati, 23, a vocal critic of the countrys controversial hijab laws, was arrested in April from her home in Tehran for sharing her picture of her back dressed in a red shirt and a knee-length black skirt while walking in the street without a headcover.

Her punishment was carried out on Wednesday and she was held in custody for 11 days.

She was initially sentenced to 13 years in prison, fined 12m rials ($25) and 74 lashes. But her prison sentence was dropped by an appeals court, according to Iran International news.

Under Iranian law, which is based on Tehrans interpretation of Sharia law, women and girls above puberty age must cover their head with a scarf and bodies with long, loose-fitting clothing.

The rules were made even stricter last year after Irans parliament passed a new hijab and chastity that would increase the prison sentence to 10 years and fine to between 180m and 360m rials ($3,651-$7,302 for dressing "inappropriately" in public places.

The law change came days after the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for violating the countrys dress code. Her death in custody ignited months of protests prompting many to call for the overthrow of Irans theocracy.

A woman holds a placard with a picture of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini during a protest against her death (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The demonstrations sparked by Aminis death on 16 September 2022 died down following a heavy crackdown on dissent in which more than 500 protesters were killed and over 22,000 detained.

In October, Iranian teenager Armita Geravand, 16, died in hospital after she fell into a coma after an alleged altercation with the countrys morality police on a Tehran metro train.

Woman pull 16-year-old Armita Geravand from a train car on the Tehran Metro in Tehran (Iranian state television)

Describing her punishment, she said in an Instagram post, according to Iranian International, that a man hit her on the shoulders, back and legs with a weather whip in what appeared to be a small medieval torture chamber. She said she continued to whisper a song Rise, for Woman, for Life, for Freedom under her breath.

[The lashing] was over. We left the room. I didnt let them think I had experienced painWe went up to the judge in charge of execution of the sentence, she said.

The female agent walked behind me and was careful not to let my headscarf drop from my head. I threw off my scarf at the courtroom entrance. The woman asked me to wear the headscarf. I didnt stop and she pulled it over my head again," she wrote.

Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw called it an inhumane punishment.

Before the flogging, violence was used against Roya Heshmati because she consistently refused to wear a headscarf, it said.

A prominent political commentator Abbas Abidi said enough is enough describing the punishment as disgusting.

These lashes did not just come down on the body of one woman, they hit all those who dream of a life with normal freedoms alongside each other. Enough is enough. Dont disgust the society any more than this, Mr Abidi said.

Azar Mansoori a reformist politician said on X that one could not be a Muslim and stay silent about Ms Heshmatis flogging for hijab.

This insistence on showing the ugliest face of a religion whose main mission is to give dignity to human beings is surprising. Which religion are you Muslim? she said.

Zahra Rahnavard, an author and an activist who has been under house arrest since 2011 with her husband said: You who rule! You whip Roya Heshmatis body but she, the one with an alert and resilient conscience, laughs bitterly at you. I abhor your manner of governance.

Irans authorities have installed cameras in public places to identify women defying the countrys compulsory dress code. Police said cameras were installed in public places to penalise women not wearing veils.
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Jordan's King Abdullah has said that a generation of orphans has been created by the war in Gaza  while warning of the "catastrophic repercussions" if a ceasefire is not agreed.

King Abdullah made the remarks to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on tour of the Middle East, his fourth such trip in the last three months. King Abdullah said that given Americas influence with Israel, it has an important role in bringing pressure for an immediate ceasefire, the protection of civilians and to guarantee greater delivery of humanitarian aid.

Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas in the wake of an attack inside Israel on 7 October that killed 1,200 people and saw another 240 taken hostage. It has bombarding Gaza with airstrikes for the last three months, alongside weeks of ground operations and a blockade that has left supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine running low. Health officials in the Hamas-run strip say more than 23,000 people have been killed, while 85 per cent of Gazas 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes.

The king made clear to Mr Blinken "the catastrophic repercussions of continuation of the aggression against Gaza" by Israel while underlining the "necessity of ending the tragic humanitarian crisis," a statement from the royal place said.

Following the meeting with Mr Blinken on Sunday, King Abdullah called again for an end to Israel's "brutal" war in Gaza during a visit to Rwanda on Monday. In remarks at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, where the monarch spoke of "unspeakable crimes" during that African conflict, King Abdullah said a lesson to be drawn was that Israel's "indiscriminate aggression" in Gaza would never guarantee its security.

"More children have died in Gaza than in all other conflicts around the world this past year. Of those who have survived, many have lost one or both parents, an entire generation of orphans," he said.

Jordans King Abdullah II in Rwanda on Monday (Royal Hashemite Court via Reuters)

"How can indiscriminate aggression and shelling bring peace? How can they guarantee security, when they are build on hatred?," Abdullah said of Israel's war against Hamas.

International pressure has been growing on the US to push Israel into ending its war. Medics, patients and displaced people fled from the main hospital in central Gaza, Al-Aqsa, as the fighting drew close on Monday. Losing the facility would be another major blow to a health system shattered by three months of war. Aid groups have withdrawn from the Hospital in Deir al-Balah in recent days, saying it was too dangerous. That spread panic among people sheltering there, causing many to join the hundreds of thousands who have fled to the south of the besieged territory.

Jordans King Abdullah II, centre, and Crown Prince Hussein, centre right, meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, centre left (Royal Hashemite Court via Reuters)

King Abdullah, whose country signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, has been clear for the the need for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian question and has underlined Jordan's "total rejection" of any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Such a move has been suggested by hardline ministers in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government. Mr Blinken said before talks in the UAE and Saudi Arabia on Monday that "Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow  They cannot, they must not be pressed to leave Gaza."

Other priorities for Mr Blinken's trip include trying to ensure Israel's war with Hamas does not spread into a regional conflict, meeting with the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell in Saudi Arabia to discuss that very issue. "This is a conflict that could easily metastasize," Mr Blinken has said.

Fears have been growing of the war escalating, with an Israeli airstrike having killed an elite Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon on Monday, the latest in an an increasing exchange of strikes along the Lebanon-Israel border. Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, says its campaign aims to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Tensions spiked higher last week when a suspected Israeli strike killed deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut's southern suburbs, an area controlled by Hezbollah.
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A top figure in Hezbollah has been killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon  the latest in an escalating exchange of strikes that has stoked fears of the war in Gaza spreading across the Middle East.

Wissam Tawil was a commander of Hezbollahs elite Radwan forces, and is the most senior Hezbollah officer to have been killed so far in weeks of cross-border strikes since the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October, which killed 1,200 people and saw another 240 taken hostage. Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas and has been bombarding Gaza since the attack, while Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has been hitting the Israeli border almost daily.

Lebanese media reported that Tawil had been killed in an airstrike on his vehicle in the south of the country. Israels military did not comment, but it did say it had hit Hezbollah targets in response to cross-border attacks.

Hezbollah issued a statement announcing Tawils death and describing him as a commander, and also published photos showing him shaking hands with its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and sitting next to top Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, who was assassinated in a US strike in Iraq in 2020. All of the pictures pointed to Tawils influence.

More than 130 Hezbollah militants have been killed since 7 October in what has become the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the group since the month-long war in 2006. A source said that Tawils death was a significant blow given his experience, which included deployments with Hezbollah in Syria and Iraq.

There have been growing fears about a spread of violence across the Middle East in the wake of Israels war on Hamas, with health officials in Hamas-run Gaza putting the death toll in the besieged territory at more than 23,000 and more than 85 per cent of Gazas residents having been forced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes or ground operations.

The assassination on 2 January of Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy political leader of Hamas, in a drone strike in Beirut that is also believed to have been carried out by Israel, heightened tensions, with Hezbollah vowing revenge. The next day, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets against an Israeli observation post. The group does, though, appear to be wary of risking all-out war.

On Sunday, Hezbollahs deputy leader Naim Qassem said the group did not want to initiate total war, but if Israel decides to wage total war on us then we in the field will respond with total war without hesitation and with all we have.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Hezbollah that his country will respond if Hezbollah continues to strike Israel. Speaking to soldiers stationed on the northern Israeli border with Lebanon on Monday, Mr Netanyahu said he was determined to do everything necessary to restore security to the north. He added: Hezbollah made a big mistake with us in 2006 and it is also doing so now.

During a press conference, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said: Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a totally unnecessary war. We are now at a fork in the road. Either Hezbollah backs off, hopefully as part of a diplomatic solution, or we will push it away.

The latest airstrike comes as US secretary of state Antony Blinken is visiting the Middle East for the fourth time in three months, with one of his priorities being to head off a wider regional conflict. One of the real concerns is the border between Israel and Lebanon, and we want to do everything possible to make sure we see no escalation, Mr Blinken has said during his trip.

The secretary of state was holding talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Monday. Mr Blinken is also set to visit Israel, where he is expected to demand that the country reduce the intensity of its fighting in Gaza.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
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An Al Jazeera reporter covering Israels war against Hamas from Gaza was back on air a day after burying his 27-year-old son who was reportedly killed in an Israeli strike on Sunday.

Hamza Al-Dahdouh, a Palestinian journalist, died alongside colleague Mustafa Thuraya following an air strike from the Israeli Defence Forces on a car near Rafah in southern Gaza, according to health officials in Gaza and the journalists union there.

A video posted on an Al Jazeera-linked YouTube channel showed senior reporter Wael Al-Dahdouh crying while sitting next to his sons lifeless body, holding his hand. Later, after his sons burial, he said in televised remarks that journalists in Gaza would keep doing their job.

"All the world needs to see what is happening here," he said. Hamza was everything to me, the eldest boy, he was the soul of my soul these are the tears of parting and loss, the tears of humanity.

This is not the only time Al-Dahdouh suffered personal loss while in the line of duty. A reporter for Al-Jazeera himself, he is particularly well known to viewers across the Middle East after he learned during a live broadcast that his wife, another son, daughter and grandson had been killed in an Israeli air strike in October. They died following an Israeli raid at a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp where the family was sheltering.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said Sundays killings were an "unimaginable tragedy" and that he was "deeply, deeply sorry" for the Al-Dahdouh familys loss.

"One (journalist killed) is far too many" Mr Blinken said at a press conference in Doha, the Qatari capital.

Meanwhile, as Al-Dahdouh returned on air, several journalists took to social media to hail his grit.

His nickname in Arabic: the mountain (Al Jabal). Calm and strong, Wael Dahdouh, live from Gaza, after burying his eldest son, Hamza, killed in an Israeli strike, Dima Khatib, the managing director of AJ+, wrote on X. Wael had lost members of his family, including wife, 2 kids and grandchild earlier. He himself got injured too. Jabal, she added.

Wael Dahdouh back on air. Im out of words to describe this man, wrote Barry Malone, deputy editor-in-chief for Thompson Reuters.

Earlier, Al Jazeera Media Network condemned the killing of Al- Dahdouhs son and Thuraya, calling it a deliberate attack.

"We urge the International Criminal Court, the governments and human rights organisations, and the United Nations to hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes and demand an end to the targeting and killing of journalists," the network said in a statement.

Family and friends including Al Jazeera reporter, Wael Al-Dahdouh bid farewell to the bodies of journalists Hamza Al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya on 7 January 2024 (Getty Images)

A statement from the Israeli military said that "an IDF aircraft identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF troops".

"We are aware of the reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorist were also hit," the statement said.

In a statement on 16 December, in response to the death of another Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza, the Israeli army, said "the IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists".

The Israel-Hamas war that started on 7 October has been deadly for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international watchdog, said that as of Saturday, 77 journalists and media workers had been killed - 70 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.

The Hamas-run Gaza governments media office said the two new deaths raised its own tally of journalists killed by the Israeli offensive to 109.

Another journalist who died covering the conflict was Reuters visuals journalist Issam Abdallah. A Lebanese citizen, he was killed on 13 October by an Israeli tank crew while filming cross-border shelling in Lebanon, a Reuters investigation found.

Additional reporting by agencies
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A US rocket has set off for the Moon, carrying a Nasa lunar lander, for the first time in 50 years.

It is the first time an American spacecraft will have landed on the Moons surface since the Apollo missions, and aims to become the first ever commercial lander to safely arrive on the lunar surface.

It was also the debut launch for the Vulcan rocket, made by the private United Launch Alliance. If the mission is successful, that could become a key technology for the US, and may rival SpaceXs popular rockets.

The United Launch Alliance was formed as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. At the moment it conducts launches with its Atlas V and Delta IV rockets  which are expensive but reliable, and have been used for top-secret launches on behalf of the US government.

It is also carrying a private moon lander, named Peregrine and made by US company Astrobiotic, which was chosen by Nasa. That includes a range of scientific experiments, including small lunar rovers and an array of instruments that will examine the lunar surface.

The spacecraft is also carrying a set of time capsules and some human remains, sent by private companies. That has led to criticism from the Navajo Nation in the US, who described the Moon as deeply embedded in the spirituality and heritage of many Indigenous cultures, including our own and said that placing human remains on it is a profound desecration of this celestial body revered by our people.

The launch comes amid an increased focus on the Moon from both Nasa and other space agencies. In recent years, the Moon has been visited by missions from countries including India, China, Japan and Israel  though not all of them successfully landed, and touching down safely on the lunar surface remains challenging.

Nasas interest in the Moon is in part preparation for its Artemis missions, which it hopes will see humans return to the surface of the Moon next year. Eventually, those missions hope to set up a lunar base that can then be used to send humans to Mars.

Peregrine Mission One, or PM1, set off from Florida at 7.18am UK time. It will aim to arrive on the Moon on 23 February.

Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton said: Today Peregrine Mission One achieved a number of big milestones.

Peregrine powered on, acquired a signal with Earth, and is now moving through space on its way to the Moon.

These successes bring us one step closer to seven nations landing on the Moon, six of which have never been to the Moon before.

Peregrine is carrying a total of 20 payloads from seven countries and 16 commercial customers.

They include the first lunar surface payloads from the Mexican and German space agencies, and the first lunar payloads from the UK, Hungary and Seychelles.

Among these commercial payloads are items which add a touch of human creativity to space exploration, including a time capsule, a bitcoin and even a music album.

A key component of PITMS, which will explore the Moons atmosphere by measuring water and other molecules, was developed in the UK with 14m of Government funding through the UKs membership of the European Space Agency.

The data collected will contribute to our understanding of the Moons potential to provide resources such as water, opening new possibilities for future human presence on the lunar surface.

The UK-built component - called the Exospheric Mass Spectrometer represents the first instrument on the Moon that has been built in the UK and in Europe.

As part of the PITMS, the Exospheric Mass Spectrometer allows researchers to study atoms and molecules in a gas.

Science and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said: The Exospheric Mass Spectrometer will be the first science component developed in the UK destined for the lunar surface, marking a historic moment for the UK space industry.

This significant achievement also lays the groundwork for understanding how to sustain extended human presence on the Moon in the future - changing the way humankind interacts with the solar system around us forever.

Understanding water on the Moon is an important part of the Artemis programme, to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.

Libby Jackson, head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency, said: The Peregrine Lunar Lander will help pave the way for further exploration of our solar system.

Witnessing the first instrument from the UK, and indeed Europe, launch to the Moon is a hugely exciting moment.

We are looking forward to seeing Peregrine safely on the surface and the return of important data from PITMS to help unlock the secrets of water on the moon.

Additional reporting by Press Association
Western New York is about to get a reminder that Chicago is not the only windy city.

The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning for all of the Buffalo region today into Wednesday, with the possibility of winds reaching speeds not seen here since the devastating Blizzard of 2022.

Following weekend snow flurries, a strong storm system passing to the west will bring in southeast winds with gusts ranging from 30 to 40 mph from 7 a.m. today through 4 a.m. Wednesday, the forecast said. Potentially damaging gusts reaching 55 to 70 mph are expected in the area from noon through midnight tonight, according to the weather service.

Strongest winds are expected for areas south of Buffalo and east of Lake Ontario.

Southeast winds have greater potential for tree damage than southwest winds, which are normally seen in the area. This can cause widespread power failures.

Previously, Buffalo has experienced high winds up to 72 mph during the Blizzard of 2022, NWS Buffalo forecaster Dan Kelly said.

The speed is not uncommon, he said. Its the direction.

Meteorologist Don Paul said in his Buffalo News column Monday that it is rare for high winds to come from the southeast toward the northwest.

On the Niagara Frontier, nearly all damaging wind outbreaks occur on southwesterly winds blowing toward the northeast, coming up the length of Lake Erie. Generally, wind damage on southeast winds is confined to the hilly terrain below the Southtowns and along the Lake Erie shoreline below the metro area, he said. This time, model guidance and upwind observations at the surface and aloft show the powerful southeast gusts will reach at least portions of the Niagara Frontier.

Trucks, RVs and other high-profile vehicles may find it difficult to travel through the windy conditions. The weather service has also issued a travel advisory, especially on the I-90 between Ripley and Eden, an area prone to cross winds.

People are advised to stay away from forested areas. They are also asked to remain in the lower level of their homes during the windstorm, if possible, and avoid windows.

Kelly added that the low-pressure event might lead to significant rainfall, followed by scattered snow showers into Thursday. The weekend will see a mix of rain and lake-effect snow.

The big concern is the possibility of downed trees and unsafe driving conditions, Buffalo Department of Public Works Commissioner Nate Marton said in a news conference Monday in the lobby of City Hall that was livestreamed on Mayor Byron W. Browns Facebook page.

Marton, who was joined by Ken Kujawa, regional director for National Grid, also urged residents to be mindful of lawn furniture, Christmas decorations and other items that may need to be removed or tied down to secure them during peak gusts.

Marton said city residents should be extremely careful around downed power lines and call either 311 or 911 to report any power outages.

From the citys perspective, our public works team, parks and forestry are geared up. Theyve got crews on the ready, Marton said.

Kujawa said National Grid has been tracking the wind storm for several days. He said that, in addition to National Grid crews, the utility will deploy contractor crews throughout the Western New York region to respond to outages as quickly and as safely as possible.

Kujawa said wind speeds of up to 50, 60 and 70 mph tend to result in more power outages.
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A private spacecraft attempting to carry out the first US landing on the moon since Apollo has probably failed, its engineers have said.

Peregrine Mission One blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida as planned on Monday morning. But roughly seven hours into its journey, it was hit with a run of technical problems that have left the mission seemingly doomed.

Astrobotic, the company behind the launch, said the spacecraft had failed to point properly towards the sun. That meant that its batteries were not charging and the mission looked likely to be in peril.

Engineers managed to improvise a series of commands that were sent to the spacecraft, and it eventually pointed its solar panels towards the sun as it should. Astrobotic said the batteries were successfully charging.

Peregrine Mission One is carrying a host of science projects and instruments developed by scientists around the world (PA)

However, it later said that a propulsion system failure meant that the spacecraft was undergoing a critical loss of propellant. While its engineers were working to try and stabilise this loss, Astrobotic suggested that the mission had probably failed.

Given the situation, we have prioritised maximising the science and data we can capture, the company said. We are currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.

Peregrine Mission One is carrying a host of science projects and instruments developed by scientists from around the world. They had aimed to better understand the moon, including the availability of resources  information that could be key to a plan to establish a base on its surface as part of Nasas Artemis programme.

Nasa hopes to send humans back to the lunar surface next year. Eventually, it hopes to build a base there, with a view to launching journeys onward to Mars.

The Peregrine mission is also carrying other cargo, including human remains and the DNA of former presidents including John F Kennedy. The plan to drop the remains onto the moons surface prompted some criticism from the Navajo Nation, whose president said that doing so would amount to the desecration of this sacred space.

If it had been successful, Peregrine Mission One would have been the first commercial American spacecraft in history to achieve a soft landing on the moon, and the first US spacecraft to land on the lunar surface since the Apollo missions around 50 years ago. Only four countries have ever accomplished this feat.

Astrobotics Peregrine lander as imagined after its landing on the moon (Astrobotic)

A second lander from a company in Houston, Texas, is due to launch next month.

Nasa gave the two companies millions to build and fly their own lunar landers. The space agency wants the privately owned landers to scope out the moon before astronauts arrive, while delivering tech and science experiments for Nasa as well as for other countries and universities.

The last time the US launched a moon-landing mission was in December 1972. Apollo 17s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt became the 11th and 12th men to walk on the moon, ending an era that has remained Nasas pinnacle.

The space agencys new Artemis programme, named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, looks to return astronauts to the moons surface within the next few years. First will come a lunar fly-around with four astronauts, possibly before the end of the year.

Additional reporting by Associated Press
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A US startup has demonstrated an indoor solar panel that it claims could replace billions of batteries in domestic devices like TV remotes and wireless keyboards.

California-based Ambient Photonics said its new solar cell can provide constant power from just indoor and ambient outdoor light, delivering three times more power than existing technologies.

Solar power has been used for decades in low-power electronics like calculators, though such cells have so far not been suitable for more energy-intensive devices.

The latest solar cell is ready for commercialisation, with early applications expected to be light-powered remote controls, keyboards and computer mice.

Batteries are dead and indoor light is the future power source for billions of connected devices, the company said in a press release.

Ambient photonics cells are built for real-world, low-light applications. They use revolutionary new molecules and manufacturing processes to harness indoor and outdoor ambient light and create an endless power source.

The company unveiled the low-light photovoltaic cell ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, alongside its first bifacial solar panel that can capture the Suns energy from both sides simultaneously.

Our bifacial solar cell technology is a game-changer for all kinds of devices, said Bates Marshall, co-founder and chief executive of Ambient Photonics.

We can imagine a host of connected devices, including electronic shelf labels, building sensors, and more that not only power themselves more effectively in ambient light, but can also be designed and mounted in a variety of flexible ways and perform regardless of shape or orientation.

Early investors of the company include Amazons Climate Pledge Fund, while manufacturers who have already begun integrating Ambient Photonics solar panels into their products include remote control maker Universal Electronics and electronic paper firm E Ink.

Recent solar power advances have led scientists to predict that millions of homes across Europe could go off grid over the coming years.

More than half of the continents 41 million freestanding homes could be self-sufficient using just solar panels and batteries, researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany found last year.

Current costs for manufacturing and installing solar panels mean it is not economically viable for most households to switch to a self-sufficient system, however separate calculations from the Berlin-based Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change show that the price of solar power has dropped significantly in recent year.

Calculations from the institute suggest that costs have fallen by nearly 90 per cent over the last decade, and are anticipated to soon become more cost effective than fossil fuel-powered energy sources.
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New high-end televisions, health-tracking devices and a phone holder that can automatically track a user as they move around when on camera are among the first gadgets to be unveiled from the worlds largest technology trade show.

CES officially opens in Las Vegas on Tuesday, but many tech brands have already begun announcing the gadgets they will be showing off at the convention.

It includes the BeamO from wearables firm Withings, a small gadget which combines a thermometer, ECG heart monitor, digital stethoscope and blood oxygen level scanner to offer what the company claims is the worlds first four-in-one vitals monitor and offers a complete health check-up in just one minute.

The annual technology trade show sees the likes of Samsung, Sony, LG, Panasonic and others unveil their newest products and preview other technologies they are working on.

Samsung has confirmed it will showcase a new range of high-end 8K resolution TVs during CES, alongside a new speaker as part of its Frame range  where the device is designed to look like a modern picture frame when not in use  to go with its existing line of Frame televisions.

In addition, both Samsung and LG are demonstrating transparent TV technology at the Las Vegas show.

Elsewhere, smartphone accessory maker Belkin has unveiled a motorised iPhone stand which, once connected to the phone, can automatically tilt and pan to keep a subject in view when using the camera for social media, content creation or video calling.

Etc, the start-up arm of the BT Group, have also used the show to announce plans to begin a trial to convert old green street cabinets used for broadband and phone cables into electric vehicle charging points.

Industry experts have predicted that artificial intelligence and automotive technology will also be among the biggest trends once the show gets under way.

Before the conventions official opening on Tuesday, a string of big brands will are due to host events later on Monday to announce their latest devices and service, including a number of car companies, with the automotive industry becoming increasingly prominent at CES.

And ahead of the trade show, which is expected to draw around 100,000 attendees, Gary Shapiro, chief executive of CES organiser the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), said: No other event in the world connects the full ecosystem of the tech industry like CES.

This year at CES, we are excited to spotlight the critical role that technology is playing to improve every aspect of the human experience.

CES 2024 will be the hub where business leaders meet, dream and solve.
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Stress levels at Heathrow Terminal 5 are set to reduce... but some British Airways passengers will be waiting significantly longer for connections.

The airline is to increase the minimum connection time (MCT) at Heathrow from an hour to 75 minutes, to reduce the risk  and commercial cost  of missed onward flights.

By lengthening connections, the airline hopes fewer passengers will end up being stranded or rebooked.

However, it will mean longer journey times for passengers connecting at the hub, putting the flag carrier at a commercial disadvantage compared to European rivals. For example, it is now three times longer than the MCT at Vienna airport for passengers connecting between Star Alliance flights.

Passengers from Nice heading for Los Angeles can no longer arrive in California at lunchtime by transiting through London. Up to 8 January, travellers on the first flight from the south of France had 65 minutes to connect with the British Airways departure at 10.10am, giving an arrival time of 1.25pm. While a lunchtime arrival is still feasible on KLM via Amsterdam, Lufthansa via Frankfurt or Air France via Paris, the first legal connection on BA reaches Los Angeles at 4.10pm.

From Berlin, a passenger hoping to connect on the British Airways afternoon flight to Miami will need to leave the German capital 70 minutes earlier than previously.

A spokesperson for British Airways said: Following customer feedback, were increasing the minimum connection time for some of our flights through Heathrow T5.

This will give customers more time to make their next flight and reduce the risk of missing their onward service, which we know is incredibly frustrating.

Connections between Terminals 3 and 5  which require a bus connection taking around 10 minutes  retain the existing 90-minute minimum.

British Airways says passengers who made bookings before the change and have connections shorter than 75 minutes have been contacted and offered alternative connections.

Terminal 5 opened almost 16 years ago as the solution to British Airways big structural problem: most intercontinental flights used Terminal 4, while Terminal 1 served domestic and most European flights. Connections between the two were fraught.

The 2.5bn new structure at the west of the airfield was the solution. After some industrial-scale teething problems, Terminal 5 is now working well for British Airways and its sister airline, Iberia.

The change was first picked up by the frequent-flyer website Head for Points  whose editor, Rob Burgess, said: British Airways has been very public about its desire to reduce aircraft delays at Heathrow, and ensuring transit passengers dont get stuck in Flight Connections is a help.

It would make more sense to tackle the root of the problem at Heathrow, however, rather than simply enforce longer connecting times. When Zurich can guarantee a connection in 40 minutes and Frankfurt in 45 minutes, BA is simply making itself less attractive to transit passengers.

The minimum connecting times for international-to-international flights at European competitors for British Airways  and Heathrow  are now significantly shorter:

Amsterdam: 50 minutes

Frankfurt: 45 minutes

Paris CDG: 60 minutes

Vienna: 25 minutes

Zurich: 40 minutes

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and other carriers with connecting traffic at Heathrow face another threat to their transit business: the UKs Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).

The new permit is currently obligatory for Qatari travellers, with Gulf and Jordanian nationals requuring the permit by next month.

The government says that by the end of the year, an ETA will be required by every non-visa national flying to the UK, even if they merely wish to spend two hours between flights.

At other major aviation hubs outside the US, passengers transferring from one international flight to another need only documentation valid for their final destination.
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An Australian couple were forced to pay more than 2,500 to fly to London after they mistakenly used a nickname on one of their plane tickets.

Phil and Kate, from Brisbane, bought two return tickets to London for 4,800 Australian dollars on a travel website named StudentUniverse.

But as they tried to board the flight they were pulled aside and reprimanded because Phil had booked his wifes ticket under Kate, but the name on her passport reads Katherine, Australias Nine Network reported.

It was an administrative error  I think I married Kate in church and not Katherine, Phil said.

Virgin initially told the aggrieved couple that they could alter the booking for a small administrative fee.

But with just minutes to take off booking agent StudentUniverse told them they would need to cancel Katherines ticket and buy a new one under the correct name at a cost of AU$4,700 (2,468).

They didnt have time  that was their reasoning  to issue a name change on the ticket. But they had time to sell us a new ticket, Phil told the programme adding he felt exploited by the fee being charged.

Katherine added: I begged them on the phone: Please, you cant do that. Thats all our holiday money gone in a flash.

A StudentUniverse spokesperson told Business Insider it could only go along with cancellation policies set by airlines.

In this instance, name changes were not permitted, meaning the only option was to cancel and rebook the ticket. As we were only made aware by the customer of their error within 3 hours of the flight departure, this led to further airline imposed charges which could have been avoided by acting earlier, they said.
Jennifer Lawrence was caught mouthing If I dont win, Im leaving to the camera during the Golden Globes.

The Hollywood star was among the six nominees for best performance by a female actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy - and was seen joking around before the winner was announced.

She was nominated for her role in No Hard Feelings, up against fellow stars Emma Stone, Margot Robbie, Alma Poysti, Fantasia Barrino and Natalie Portman.

Moments after Lawrence jokingly threatened to walk out, Stone was announced as the winner.

Despite her earlier antics, she was seen clapping and cheering after missing out.
Protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza interrupted Joe Biden as he made a speech in South Carolina as part of his efforts to recharge his 2024 campaign for re-election.

The US president was speaking at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the site of a federal hate crime in 2015 in which nine Black church members were killed by a white supremacist.

If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a cease-fire in Palestine, one person was heard shouting.
Dozens more post office workers may have been wrongly prosecuted after taking part in a pilot scheme of the faulty Horizon system, an MP has revealed.

Labour MP Kevan Jones called for a full explanation of the pilot.

In an interview with Good Morning Britain on Monday (8 January), Mr Jones revealed at least two sub-postmasters were prosecuted after taking part in the system trial, despite protesting there was a glitch in the system.

The precursor scheme was rolled out in 1995 and 1996 to hundreds of branches in north-east England.

The full Horizon system was then rolled out across the country in 1999.
Funds from a $187m (171m) deal hailed as transformative last year by the embattled oil and gas firm San Leon, led by Irish businessman Oisin Fanning, have so far failed to materialise, the company told investors on Monday. The firm said its already in talks with a new potential investor.

San Leon signed the $187m agreement last year with Tri Ri Asset Management (TRAM). It is still in dialogue with TRAM to understand the reasons for the delay in releasing the funds. The company said that it is now prudent to seek an alternative solution in case the delays with TRAM persist.

Tri Ri Asset Management, a New York-based investor, agreed last October to provide San Leon with a $125m convertible secured loan note that San Leon said at the time would be fully drawn down immediately.

TRAM agreed to subscribe to almost 45 million shares in San Leon for a $16m outlay. It would also potentially invest an additional $46m from a grant of warrants by San Leon, which would be exercisable at 60p per share.

Shares in San Leon have been suspended since last June on the Alternative Investment Market in London. Its business is primarily focused on assets in Nigeria.

Additionally, TRAM is entitled under the terms of last years agreement to a preferential economic return equal to 50pc of any dividends directly or indirectly received by San Leon from Energy Link Infrastructure (Malta), for a period of 15 years, subject to certain conditions.

San Leon planned to use proceeds from the TRAM financing to boost its stake in Energy Link Infrastructure (ELI) to 55pc, giving it control of a key Nigerian pipeline asset.

Although San Leon considers that its contract with TRAM remains valid and in full force and effect, the board has nevertheless determined that it is prudent to seek an alternative solution should the TRAM investment delays continue, San Leon told investors.

It added: Over the past weeks the company has identified and has been in discussions with a new potential financing partner in relation to a potential funding solution that is similar to the investment from TRAM.

In 2022, San Leon said it had reached a series of complex agreements that would result in one of its major shareholders, Midwestern Oil & Gas, consolidating its holdings in the company and units connected to it into a single stake in San Leon PLC.

As part of that proposed process, San Leon planned shareholder transactions in the ELI business. The unit has recently completed a pipeline and floating storage and offloading vessel dedicated to transporting oil from a producing oil asset in Nigeria in which San Leon has a stake.

Those proposed transactions were terminated last October, but San Leon remains in talks with Midwestern in relation to a revised transaction. San Leons shares remain suspended pending the company publishing its audited accounts for 2022, and unaudited interim results for the six months to the end of June 2023. The company said it intends to pursue those requirements once it concludes its refinancing.

Mr Fanning has blamed the inability of the company to file its required financial reports on its Nigerian partners failing to provide timely records.
Vodafones new TV Play set-top box is a third cheaper than standard pricing from Sky and Virgin

Vodafone has kicked off a price war with Sky and Virgin in the Irish TV market.

The telecoms giant has launched a new, cheaper all-in-one TV set top box with broadband for more than a third less than the standard prices of the main two services.

The move is happening as authorities continue to grapple with people using dodgy boxes, which illegally give access to TV and movie stations for free.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 8th January 2024

Vodafones new TV Play package costs 65 per month for access to more than 100 TV stations and streaming apps, as well as broadband.

That compares to standard pricing of more than 100 from both Sky and Virgin.

The Vodafone deal includes an all-in-one box with built-in speakers that rival a separate soundbar.

Between them, Sky and Virgin control more than three-quarters of the Irish pay-TV market.

TV providers are increasingly pushing bundles with broadband and, in some cases, mobile phone contracts.

The new Vodafone service gives access to the usual TV channels, as well as streaming platforms such as Netflix and Disney Plus and Skys Now TV, although their subscriptions cost extra on top.

It costs from 65 per month as a broadband-and-TV package on a 12-month contract with no after-promotion price hike.

The speaker output from the Sagem-built TV box is on par with a large budget separate soundbar. As well as including Dolby Atmos, the speaker component, Vodafone says, is designed by Bang & Olufsen. It has Bluetooth connectivity as well, meaning you can use it as a room speaker for streaming music from a phone, tablet or laptop.

The 4K box also has Google Assistant and Chromecast capabilities built in.

It will work only on broadband speeds of at least 20Mbs, which is the majority of connections these days. Customers dont need fibre-to-the-home broadband, but Vodafone wont sell it with mobile broadband packages, a signal that that type of broadband may not be consistently reliable enough for uninterrupted streaming.

However, the new box cant record either RTE or BBC programmes. Sky services can record RTE, but Sky Glass can not record some BBC programmes.

While 65 is the basic package price, an additional 5 per month gets access to Sky Atlantic. Access to Sky Sport channels costs 30 extra per month.

By comparison, Virgin Media offers a package for 104 per month for basic TV and broadband, discounted to 50 per month for the first 12 months for new customers. Sky offers a similar package for 101 per month for basic TV and broadband, discounted to 50 for the first 12 months for new customers.

Alternatives to pay TV include Saorview, which shows the Irish television stations, although an old-fashioned aerial is required for it to work.
Pedro Pascal, right, embraces Willem Dafoe at a ceremony honoring Dafoe with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Pedro Pascal has praised Willem Dafoe as my greatest teacher as he was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

US actor Dafoe, known for the diversity of roles he has played during his illustrious career, was awarded a star in the category of motion pictures in a ceremony which also saw Patricia Arquette take to the stand, alongside guests Mark Ruffalo and Guillermo Del Toro.

Dafoe is a four-time Academy Award nominee including for best supporting actor in Oliver Stones Platoon and best actor for his role as Vincent Van Gogh in Julian Schnabels At Eternitys Gate.

I saw Platoon in the movie theatre with my father and he made me cry so hard my dad sent me to the bathroom, this was 1986 I was 10 years old and I still wanted to be an actor, Pascal, who had his arm in a sling, told the audience.

He redefines the concept of rebel and originality by making it about generosity, integrity, kindness and fun. Willem is a good time and an amazing friend.

Pascal said the pair met in China where Dafoe took him out for his birthday, and the pair later appeared in 2017s The Great Wall together.

He has been my greatest teacher, Pascal said.

Willem Dafoe poses with Patricia Arquette, Mark Ruffalo and Pedro Pascal (Chris Pizzello/AP)

Ill go as far to say he is the greatest American actor in our lifetime. You cannot compare his career to anyones, truthfully.

So it is our fortune to have him and I personally am very grateful.

Pascal ended his speech saying I love you before the pair kissed on stage.

Taking to the stage, Dafoe said: I cant stop smiling I feel like a real idiot, this is wonderful.

When I think of the names of the people that Ive watched all my life, some people Ive worked with, some people I dont know and a lot of people that Ive admired, so its really humbling to be here and be part of this.

It is wonderful to be part of this community of artists and entertainers, by sharing their experience, imagining others perspectives, telling stories and musing what is, was and most importantly could be, they make us feel closer to each other and connect us creating an important human dialogue particularly needed in these detached, technology driven and divisive times.

Willem Dafoe holds a plaque at a ceremony honouring him with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Chris Pizzello/AP)

The actor also told the crowds of screaming fans that he is really touched when people show up for me.

Dafoe was snubbed for a Golden Globe award during the Los Angeles ceremony on Sunday, where he was nominated for best male actor in a supporting role for Poor Things  in which he stars as Dr Godwin Baxter opposite Emma Stone and Ruffalo.

The film won best musical or comedy and best female actor in a musical or comedy went to Stone.

Born in Wisconsin, Dafoe has starred in dozens of Hollywood blockbusters including Spider-Man: No Way Home, Finding Nemo and John Wick.

Willem Dafoe, right, kisses his wife, Giada Colagrande (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Most recently he starred in Asteroid City, which marks his fifth collaboration with US filmmaker Wes Anderson, and much-anticipated upcoming film Beetlejuice 2 starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega.

Academy Award winner Arquette, who starred in Gonzo Girl with Dafoe in 2023, said: Willem is one of those people who exceeds your hopes when you work with him To know Willem is to love Willem.

She added: Hes humble and committed and dedicated and generous with his fellow actors, and warm and grateful and loving to his crew.

Dafoe and director Giada Colagrande, who he married in 2005, have worked on four films together including Padre, A Woman and Before It Had A Name.

The actor closed his speech thanking his filmmaker wife who teaches me gratitude and reminds me not to spit on my luck.
Hannah Quinn-Mulligan: Weddings could be a cash cow for farmers  but marriage could cost you a packet

Farms could convert barns into venues to capitalise on the tens of thousands that most couples spend on their big day. But on the other hand, marital breakdown can break up the farm

Could more Irish farmers convert barns into wedding venues and cash in on the wedding industry? Photo: Getty

Hannah Quinn-Mulligan Mon 8 Jan 2024 at 06:00

When did weddings become so expensive? You could put the down payment on a few acres of land with what the average wedding in Ireland seems to cost.
The PSNI said there were two reported sightings of aliens and one reported sighting of 'strange lights' last year. Photo: Niall Carson

Authorities in Northern Ireland have been urged to follow the US and take UFO reports more seriously.

There has been a significant fall in the number of sightings reported to the PSNI in the last year.

Nick Pope, who used to investigate reports of UFO sightings for the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), described the figures as staggeringly low and suggested there may be an under-reporting due to mistrust of the authorities.

The MoD closed its UFO desk in 2009, while in the US there is a government taskforce on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).

Mr Pope said that the US is treating the phenomenon as a potential defence, national security and flight-safety concern, adding its time the UK did the same thing.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) received eight alleged sightings in the region during 2021, an increase from six in 2020 and four in 2019.

This dropped to just one in 2022.

The only sighting reported to police was on October 20, 2022, when a caller in the Stewartstown area of Dungannon, Co Tyrone, reported seeing a UFO flying from the Belfast direction to Dungannon every evening.

A police spokesman said: No further police action was required on this occasion.

Police said there were no reported UFO sightings from January 1 to November 1, 2023.

There were two reported sightings of aliens and one reported sighting of strange lights.

According to information released by the PSNI under the Freedom of Information Act, at 11pm on June 15, a caller in Belfast reported being in a spaceship with aliens.

And on February 1 a caller in Crossgar, Co Down, reported having been abducted by aliens.

On February 21, a caller in Draperstown, Co Derry, reported seeing two strange lights in the sky.

Mr Pope said that he thought the drop was due to mistrust of the authorities.

A more likely scenario is that were seeing chronic under-reporting that reflects witnesses distrust of the authorities, and the associated suspicion that making an official report wont achieve anything, he said.

Many people believe theres a government conspiracy to cover up the truth about UFOs, and probably believe theres little point reporting what theyve seen or experienced to the police, who they may think are complicit in a cover-up.
There were dozens of CCTV cameras, but no clue where she is  disappearance of Jean Tighe four years ago was plagued by confusion from the start
All the excitement of Funderland, without getting sick, Not quite the description Id have gone for, but its nice to see that after all these years, Jennifer Zamparellis joke writers are still trying their best.
Six-week-old puppies Faith and Hope, the two surviving pups from the litter found in a plastic bag in Co Dublin. Photo: Fran Veale/Dogs Trust Ireland

A litter of four-week-old puppies were found in a plastic bag and handed in to Dogs Trust, the charity has said.

Dogs Trust Ireland said the dogs were abandoned in Co Dublin and found by a member of the public.

One of the puppies was found in the middle of the road and when the man got out to help, he discovered its six siblings in a plastic bag nearby.

They were soaking wet and distressingly, two of them were already dead.

Dogs Trusts veterinary team did their best to treat the litter, however given their age and condition, only two survived.

The charity has said there is a worrying increase in the number of dogs in need of their help.

Veterinary and welfare manager at Dogs Trust Ireland Niamh Curran-Kelly said cases like this are upsetting for everyone involved.

"At just four-weeks-old, puppies are still heavily dependent on their mother and wouldnt be fully weaned yet, she said.

They were far too young to be separated from her, let alone to have been left outside in the cold and rain.

"Despite receiving the very best care, we were saddened that only two of the puppies have survived this ordeal. Thankfully, these two little fighters are thriving, and both have recently been adopted.

In November Dogs Trust launched their Save the Next Dog campaign to highlight a crisis in dog abandonment in Ireland.

Almost 4,000 people contacted Dogs Trust in 2023 to give up their dog into the charitys care, the highest figure since 2009. It fears even more dogs will need their help this year.

There are currently 216 dogs in the care of Dogs Trust Ireland.
A protest outside a disused hotel in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, has ended after the Department of Integration confirmed the premises would now house families and not 50 single men, as previously announced last Friday.

The protest had been ongoing outside the former hotel since word reached locals on Friday.

The Department of Integration continues to engage with the provider about the premises and it will now instead house families and single women and children.

The Department of Integration said the contract for accommodation in Ballinrobe is proceeding, however it will now place families into the property, and not males as previously stated.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 8th January 2024

The Departments contract for accommodation in Ballinrobe to provide temporary shelter to International Protection applicants in JJ Gannons Hotel is proceeding," a department spokesperson said this afternoon.

"It is intended that up to fifty people in need of shelter will be accommodated at the premises.

While initially ear-marked for adult males, there is now an acute shortage of accommodation for families and children and it is now intended to place families into this property over the coming days.

A full briefing document with details was issued to local TDs, Cllrs, and Senators on January 4th. This was done by the Department's Community Engagement Team in advance of the accommodation being used.

Emergency centres such as this one in Ballinrobe have been opened in all parts of the country, they said.

The hotel was bought several years ago by a Kilkenny-based accountant Tom O'Connor.

Protesters demanded assurances from the Department of Integration that plans to house 50 adult males there would not proceed.

Justice Helen McEntee did not confirm or deny if the protest resulted in a change in the Department of Integrations plan for the property, but said "Nobody has a right to decide where anybody lives here". Speaking to RTE News she added: "We have a rules-based immigration system and where people have a right to be here, we'll be fair, and where people don't, I think well be firm."

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It is not acceptable that no consultation took place before public reps were told 50 asylum seekers would be moved into a hotel in Ballinrobe, according to Fine Gael TD Michael Ring.

He said Co Mayo has taken more than its fair share of migrants, saying over 5,000 refugees and asylum seekers now live in the county.

The former minister said no consultation took place at all before local politicians were told on January 4 that 50 asylum male seekers would be accommodated at JJs Hotel.

We were just advised that it was taking place, he said.

No consultation whatsoever had taken place prior to this notification. It is not right that no consultation took place with anybody about this proposal. This is simply not acceptable.

There should be extensive engagement and conversations about a proposal of this nature. Also, services should be put in place before international protection applicants are brought in to an area.

County Mayo has taken in more than its fair share of International Protection applicants and refugees. We have taken in more than 5,000 in total.

He said this figure is higher than Dublin when populations of the two counties are compared.

With Mayo taking in over 5,000 refugees  this represents 3.84pc of our population versus a national average of 2.3pc. Dublin, which has all the services is at 1.53pc. Galway and Roscommon have about 50pc less than Mayo when compared to their populations.

I feel that Mayo have done more than their fair share; the figures speak for themselves.

I wish to again strongly reiterate the first point that I have made that there was absolutely no communication with the local community, with public representatives; we are just being told what is happening, at very short notice, and without consultation.

Last week, Cllr Burke wrote in a Facebook post: Ballinrobe has always been willing to help out those less fortunate but this is a step too far.

Fianna Fail Cllr Damien Ryan said earlier on Monday that Mayo and Ballinrobe have huge empathy and sympathy for refugees, and we have accepted quite a number of refugees already, he told RTE Radio Ones Morning Ireland.

What happened here was the lack of communication, lack of consultation and I think the resistance is in relation to the male denomination.

Ballinrobe is multicultural, we have many different communities within the town, and they have been completely embraced and accepted, he said.

When asked about the participants of the Ballinrobe protest, he said there is a strong presence of local community, however, he also said, theres always a far-right element.

Cllr Ryan said theres fear and anxiety among the community in relation to the male denomination being accommodated in Ballinrobe.

That's the mood and the sentiments that Im getting back.

Its the community at large that has concerns, and I think what infuriated them was that it's the male denomination.

The migrants and the refugees that have moved in before, it was across the spectrum, and that was definitely far more embraced, far more accepted, he said earlier.

He said he attended the protest as a public representative.

As part of the European community, we have obligations and requirements that we have to adhere to, and that absolutely has to be upheld.

National strategy needs to be adapted, I think the Cabinet needs to consider that as quickly as possible.

The issue here is the process isn't open and transparent. It's opportunist-driven right around the country, where proposals are sought, but there's no balance, he said.

He said the Department should liaise with the people on the ground and engage with community leaders.

"I'm very much in favour of us playing our part, but we have to be realistic about it, he said.

Cllr Ryan also told the Irish Independent on Saturday: There's a great need for a national strategy.

"If there's an audit of the services done first in the respective areas to see if capacity is there for more, and is it there to sustain the people that are coming in, and to sustain the communities.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar commented yesterday on the protest that unfolded in Ballinrobe.

My understanding from Mr OGorman is that discussions and engagement are still ongoing between the Department and the owner [of the property]," he told RTE Radio One's This Week.

"I acknowledge that people living there have concerns and fears.

It's important that we have information and communication, that people's fears are allayed, that any information they need is given.

"But it also needs to be very clear nobody in a democracy has the right to exercise a veto on who moves into their area or community, and that doesn't just apply to international protection.

It applies to traveller accommodation, social housing, student accommodation.

We already have 400 people at the moment who we are not able to provide any accommodation for, so this isn't an ideal situation.

We're facing a situation where hundreds of millions of people are on the move around the world for lots of different reasons  fleeing war, fighting poverty.

That's several thousands of those who come to Ireland, he added.

The Department of Integration has been contacted for comment.
In withering judgment, High Court judge rules that a reasonable person would feel that Gerry Kelly had a bad reputation and that, despite his political service, his reputation was still bad

A senior judge has thrown out a scandalous attempt by Sinn Feins Gerry Kelly to claim he should be compensated by a Belfast Telegraph columnist who said that the Sinn Fein MLA shot a prison warder in the head.

In the latest blow to Sinn Feins flurry of libel actions against the media, in the High Court in Belfast, Master Bell delivered a withering rejection of the North Belfast MLAs claim, throwing it out before trial and awarding substantial legal costs against the top republican.

The judge found that Mr Kelly was someone who a right-thinking person would view as having lost his moral compass because he had exploded car bombs in the centre of London, something he defends to this day.

The untenable case has hung over Malachi ODoherty, the award-winning journalist and author, for three years after Mr Kelly chose to sue him personally, something the judge found was a deliberate attempt to intimidate a vocal critic of Sinn Fein.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 8th January 2024

On August 21, 2019, Mr ODoherty had said on Frank Mitchells U105 radio programme: Gerry Kelly MLA has spoken very frankly about shooting a prison warder in the head, right? He did that. He shot a prison warder in the head.

That same morning, he was on the Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster. During their discussion, presenter Stephen Nolan asked him: Do you let people connected with paramilitaries on air so that they could be challenged? Or do you keep them off air and they dont get a voice? Whats the answer to that, Malachi?

In the course of his response, Mr ODoherty said: and we were discussing this in the Good Morning Ulster office and saying, well, how could we even function in Northern Ireland if every time we were going to interview Gerry Kelly we had to notify the family of the prison officer he shot?

One day short of a full year later, Mr Kelly issued a writ which alleged that Mr ODoherty had defamed him.

The politician claimed that Mr ODohertys words meant that he killed a prison officer by shooting him in the head, that he assaulted a prison officer intending to kill or cause grievous bodily injury or other personal injury to him, that he deliberately discharged a firearm at a prison officers head or at his person thereby assaulting him, that he unlawfully discharged a firearm, that he was in unlawful possession of a firearm and/or ammunition with the intent to endanger life, and that he was in unlawful possession of a firearm and /or ammunition.

In a detailed 55-page written judgment handed down in court this morning, the judge said: As a result of these words, Mr Kelly claims that he has been gravely damaged in his character and reputation. Further, his standing as a respected public representative of all those in the constituency of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly in which he was elected has been called into disrepute.

Malachi O'Doherty

In a criminal trial in 1988, Mr Kelly had been acquitted of shooting prison officer John Henry Adams in the head during the Maze Prison escape. Master Bell noted that the trial judge, Lord Lowry, had said: There is clearly a prima facie case on counts 21 and 22 [the attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm of the prison officer] against Kelly. But there are a great many awkward questions about inconsistencies and discrepancies I cannot conscientiously be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Kelly is the right man. He may well be, but that is not enough.

Master Bell said: The fact that a person is acquitted in criminal proceedings regarding a shooting of a victim does not, nevertheless, bring to an end all determinations as to his legal liability for the shootingOne of the most significant differences between criminal and civil proceedings is the standard of proof.

Mr Kelly had also begun defamation proceedings against Ruth Dudley Edwards, another journalist and author known for her criticism of Sinn Fein. She is also applying to have that claim struck out.

Mr Kelly had pressed ahead with the case despite the fact Mr ODohertys solicitor had set out a robust defence. Mr ODohertys lawyer had told Mr Kelly that he would rely on the fact that the prison officer had identified Mr Kelly as the person who shot him in the head, that the official government documentation held at the Public Record Office identifies Mr Kelly as the person who shot him in the head, and that he would rely on his right to freedom of expression enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights.

Mr ODoherty also made clear to the MLA that he did not accept that he had suffered any damage to his reputation given that Mr Kelly had admitted membership of a terrorist organisation, the IRA. He also highlighted how at no time had Kelly sought to distance himself from IRA murders, that he had a general reputation as someone who supported IRA violence, and that he had been convicted for bombing the Old Bailey in London in an attack which killed one person and injured about 200 people.

In a book, Mr Kelly had boasted of his role in the prison breakout and said openly that hed threatened a prison guard while looking down a gun sight.

The judge noted that Mr Kelly does not disassociate himself from the use of force for the purpose of escaping. Indeed, quite the opposite.

Gerry Kelly pictured in 1983 (Photo: Pacemaker)

The judge concluded that there was a common design between Mr Kelly and fellow IRA leader Bobby Storey to use violence against prison officers and therefore, for the purposes of defamation, it didnt matter which one of them had actually fired the shots.

The judge went on: Thus, these facts lead to a complete defence for Dr ODoherty in respect of the defamation action Mr Kelly has broughtthese defamation proceedings against Dr ODoherty are completely untenable. For that reason, the court strikes them out on the basis that they are scandalous, frivolous and vexatious.

The judge then went further, saying that Mr Kellys decision to sue Mr ODoherty was without doubt an abuse of process.

Mr ODohertys barrister, Bobbie-Leigh Herdman, highlighted that Mr Kelly had chosen to sue Mr ODoherty and Ms Dudley Edwards personally rather than the BBC and the Belfast Telegraph  the media organisations which had carried their respective comments.

That decision, she said, was taken to frighten Mr Kellys critics and stifle the expression of their opinions of him by the threat of legal costs.

She said that the case was a cynical attempt to target Mr ODoherty as he is an outspoken critic of Mr Kellys political party and that amounted to a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP).

The judge agreed with that, saying: The field of political speech  and I use this term in the widest possible sense so as to include not only what politicians say, but also what others say about politicians, their policies and their actions  is a field which must be carefully handled lest the fabric of democracy be damaged. Defamation actions in this field need to be carefully considered in case they are being used to attack legitimate free speech Of course every individual has the right to defend their good name but, as elected representatives, politicians have a duty to display a greater degree of restraint when it comes to taking to legal action against journalists.

The judge went on to say that the facts suggest that rather than being a genuine attempt to defend a reputation which has been damaged by an untruth, the proceedings are what has been referred to as a SLAPP, namely an attempt to silence two bothersome journalists with the threat of legal costs. The proceedings appear to be a strategic effort to intimidate them, to deprive them of time and resources, and ultimately to silence them The abuse of process in this case is so blatant that it would be utterly unjust if the court were to allow the proceedings to continue.

The judge rejected arguments that Mr Kellys bad reputation as an IRA man had been legally rehabilitated because he was now a prominent elected politician.

He said: I consider that a right-thinking person would take the view that anyone who is guilty to the criminal standard of proof of exploding car bombs in a capital city, putting the lives of dozens or hundreds of people at risk, has lost his moral compass, as he places little value on human life because he is prepared to take risk with their lives as collateral damage.

He said that, on the evidence before him, a right-thinking person would therefore have to conclude that Mr Kellys convictions for these offences resulted in him having a bad reputation and that, despite his political service, his reputation was still bad.

The judge also said that if Mr Kelly hadnt published books in which hed boasted about his terrorism, he might have won the case, saying: Without the publication of Mr Kellys books, Dr ODohertys interviews would likely have been found to have been defamatory.

Ruling on costs, he said: In my view, where a court is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that a defamation action amounts to a SLAPP, then an award of costs to the defendant on an indemnity basis is an inevitable consequence as a demonstration of the courts repudiation of the way in which a plaintiff has abused the processes of the court. I therefore award Dr ODoherty both the costs of this application and the costs of the action on an indemnity basis.

Two months ago, Master Bell rejected an attempt by Sinn Feins Michelle ONeill to secure compensation from former DUP councillor John Carson over a crude Facebook message. The judge said then: When the courts time is taken up with cases involving disputes between politicians involving insults which one imagines are sometimes heard in school playgrounds or outside pubs on Saturday nights, then serious cases inevitably suffer delay. This is undesirable and not in the public interest.

Six weeks ago, the High Court in Dublin dismissed a defamation action against the Sunday Life which had been taken by schoolteacher and Sinn Fein constituency organiser Liam Lappin.

Mr Lappin claimed that a photograph of him and 13 others at a Sinn Fein Christmas party  which the newspaper highlighted contained Frank McCabe, an IRA commander whose gang was implicated in the notorious murder of Paul Quinn  had defamed him, even though McCabe was circled in the photo to identify him.

The judge said the claim stretches credulity.

Last year, the Council of Europe accused Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald of intimidation of journalists over a defamation action against RTE. The Taoiseach and Tanaiste criticised the partys legal threats for having a chilling effect on democracy. Sinn Fein dismissed this, saying those involved had no option but to vindicate their good name in the face of false accusations made by others.

The Belfast Telegraph is part of Mediahuis Ireland, which also publishes the Irish Independent.
People are advised to turn down their radiators if the room is not being used. Photo: Stock image

Consumers have been urged to weatherproof their homes and adopt strategies to conserve heat ahead of the cold snap this week.

Bord Gais said there are simple things people can do to make their homes weatherproof.

For example, its worth the effort to repair dripping taps as even a trickle of water can freeze and block your pipes.

Homeowners are advised to find and seal leaks as cold air can leak into your home through small cracks and gaps in windows and doorways.

Much of the heat loss from a house is through the windows, particularly if they are single-glazed.

When you seal leaks, your home retains more warm air, so you use less energy for heating. That way, you save money and make your home warmer.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) recommends householders close doors between rooms that are heated and unheated to keep the heat in.

A chimney balloon can keep out draughts while the SEAI also advises closing curtains to keep heat in but opening them in the morning to let the heat of the sun in.

Their advice states that householders should set their heating to come on 30 minutes before they wake up, and go off 30 minutes before they leave for work.

In the evening, set it to come on for 30 minutes before you are due home, and off 30 minutes before you go to bed.

Where possible, consumers are advised to lower the thermostat to 20C, which is an ideal temperature for the living areas in a home, although young children and older people may require higher temperatures.

If you lower your thermostat by just 1C, it could knock as much as 10pc off your heating bill.

The SEAI also advises against overheating unused rooms and use the radiator valve to turn the temperature down or off in rooms that you do not use a lot.

If you are leaving the house unoccupied for an extended period, then set the timer and thermostat to allow for a low level of heating each day to help reduce the risk of frost damage and burst pipes.

According to the SEAI most of the energy used by a dishwasher and washing machine is for water heating. Run them on a lower temperature setting and save on your energy costs.

Keep your fridges temperature at between 23C for the best performance. The freezer should be set to -15C.

This article was originally published in December 2022
Gerard OBrien pictured at his home in Thurles last week

A Circuit Court judge who resigned from the bench yesterday two weeks after he was convicted of the sexual abuse of six young men received more than 440,000 in salary payments while awaiting trial.

Thurles native Gerard OBrien had continued to receive a monthly salary of 14,796 despite not having sat on the bench since charges were first filed against him on June 25, 2021.

Throughout this period, however, his 177,554 salary was unaffected, as a judges remuneration and conditions can only be affected by Dail resolution.

This means that since OBrien first appeared in court on the abuse charges, he has received salary payments totalling 443,885.

However, in a statement issued yesterday, the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, confirmed the judge had conveyed his resignation to her, effective from Friday.

In a statement, the Department of Justice said: The resignation has been conveyed to the President in accordance with the requirements of section 6 (2) of the Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Act 1961.

The Minister will be making no further comment on this matter prior to the court finalising the case by sentencing, which is adjourned to March 4.

OBrien was convicted three days before Christmas of the sexual abuse of the six men almost 30 years ago.

Earlier this week, Sinn Feins justice spokesperson, Pa Daly, called for OBriens removal from the bench in a letter sent to the Judicial Council.

He asked the Council, an independent body that oversees judicial standards, if it had taken any decision as to whether it has any role, or will be taking any role, in any disciplinary investigation process concerning Judge OBrien.

Mr Daly added that if the judge did not resign, the relevant machinery to remove him should be commenced.

OBriens conviction and subsequent unmasking as a sexual predator earlier led to Justice Minister Helen McEntee issuing a statement confirming she had contacted the Attorney General on how best to proceed in terms of his removal from the bench.

She confirmed she was considering the options open to the Government and the Oireachtas.

OBrien, who is missing both hands and a foot as a result of the rare health condition phocomelia, pleaded not guilty in the Central Criminal Court to one count of attempted rape and eight counts of sexual assault in relation to six complainants, some of whom were his students.

His four-week trial was told the offences occurred on dates between March 1991 and November 1997 at locations in Dublin.

He was in his 30s while his victims were aged between 17 and 24.

OBrien was teaching in a secondary school at the time of the alleged assaults, and four of the complainants were students.

The other two complainants knew him from his hometown.

When approached by the Sunday World after his conviction, the disgraced judge, now a registered sex offender, said he had avoided much of the reaction and commentary in the wake of his trial.

I havent been reading it, he said.

When asked whether there was any comment he would make in light of the verdicts against him, OBrien said: Im devastated for everybody. Im just devastated for all involved.
VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 8, 2024 /CNW/ - Klimat X Developments Inc. ("Klimat X" or the "Company") (TSXV: KLX) (FSE: Q1C) a leading provider of high-quality carbon credits sourced exclusively from afforestation and reforestation projects developed and owned by the Company and its stakeholders, is pleased to announce the completion of all milestones required for the third disbursement under the pre-purchase agreement announced on the 14th June, 2023.

KLIMAT X Developments Inc. Logo (CNW Group/KLIMAT X Developments Inc.)

Klimat X CEO James Tansey stated 'This third milestone demonstrates the successful progress with our operations in Sierra Leone and our commitment to delivering high quality carbon credits. Our decision to switch to the new restoration protocol, announced by Verra in late 2023, will ensure our projects are aligned with our aspiration for high integrity credits and we do not expect this change will create any significant delays. Our team is very busy managing the 2023 plantings and preparing for an increase in planting activity in 2024.'

The company has completed 1,000 ha in the 2023 planting season and has submitted the Project Design Document (PDD) for final approval with an independent validation company.

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The Company is also developing a new technology platform called Carbon Done Right, which provides unprecedented transparency and traceability for restoration projects connecting smallholder farmers with a system that is designed to ensure the value created from the sales of carbon credits is shared fairly with land owning families.

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The company is developing a large-scale rewilding reforestation project in Sierra Leone, for an initial area of 5,000 ha, which can be extended by a further 20,000 ha. The initial project area of 5,000 ha will produce up to 1.9m tonnes of validated and verified Verra carbon credits over 30 years. The total pre-purchase amount will be repaid through the delivery of validated and verified carbon credits to the pre-purchaser.

The Company has mapped and verified almost 20,000 ha of land for restoration and is working with an NGO, Namati to ensure land owner agreements are concluded under independently observed Free and Prior Informed Consent. There are large areas of degraded land that could be restored under this same model and the Company is pursuing a mangrove restoration and conservation project covering up to 10,000 ha.

About Klimat X

Klimat X is an owner and operator of nature-based carbon assets that serves the growing demand for carbon credits from companies seeking to meet their Net Zero goals. The Company achieves this by investing in the exploration, restoration and management of terrestrial and marine systems that can either be protected to enhance the sequestration of greenhouse gases or restored from a degraded status to fully productive ecosystems. The Company's dedication to environmental stewardship and its robust pipeline of carbon credit projects makes it a trusted partner to the largest buyers of carbon credits in the world, in the fight against climate change. Klimat X deploys capital at risk under various arrangements (including cooperation, assignment, and production sharing agreements) with government engagement in various suitable jurisdictions around the world including Sierra Leone, Yucatan, Guyana and Suriname.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"James Tansey"

James Tansey

Chief Executive Officer

http://www.klimatx.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Any statements that are contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "may", "should", "anticipate", "will", "intends" "expects" and similar expressions which are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. More particularly and without limitation, this press release contains forward looking statements and information concerning the Offering and the ongoing business of the Company. Klimat X cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, assumptions and expectations, many of which are beyond the control of Klimat X including expectations and assumptions concerning the Company and the need for additional capital by the Company through financings, and the risk that such funds may not be raised. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Klimat X. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and Klimat X does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by securities law.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction.

SOURCE KLIMAT X Developments Inc.

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A married couple found dead in their home in Co Longford as a result of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning have been named locally as Paul and Morag Kavanagh.

Their bodies were discovered inside the home they shared in Killasonna, a remote part of north county Longford on the outskirts of Granard at around 8pm on Saturday evening.

Mr Kavanagh was believed to be in his mid 70s and his wife in her late 50s.

It is understood a close family member, with the support of a local neighbour, raised the alarm after being unable to access the property.

Gardai have since confirmed that while an investigation is underway, no foul play is suspected ahead of a file which will be prepared for the local coroners court.

The property itself is situated along a rural road, a short distance from Killasonna National School.

Neighbours and friends of the well-respected couple said locals were still very much coming to terms with news of the tragedy.

Ber Fagan, a family support and community development worker at Granards Lus Na Greine Family resource centre, told of how the couple had been highly regarded among her fellow peers.

I couldnt believe it, she told The Irish Independent, as she also passed on her condolences to the couples eldest son, Shaun.

I think everybody is in shock. I saw a few posts put up on Facebook and our thoughts are with the family, especially Shaun and Jessica.

Its just horrendously sad and I think it will have a ripple effect in the community for sure because they were known and very well liked.

In the past Morag and Jessica would have got involved in different things in the centre. It is just devastating.

Ms Fagan said, while she did not know the late Mr Kavanagh personally, she said his wife was someone who was renowned for her personable, compassionate demeanour.

She was a very kind person and was very involved, she added.

My children would have gone to the same national school as her youngest daughter and she was very involved in the school and parents group and she was just a very kind and giving person.

Jessica went to the school here in Granard and would have a good circle of friends and our thoughts are with her and her brother, Shaun.

Local postmaster Padraig McNamara echoed those sentiments, saying the locality had been left numbed by the events of the past 24 hours.

People are just in total shock as to what has happened, what more can we say? We are just all shocked, he said.

Local Councillor PJ Reilly issued his deepest sympathies to the family of the man and woman, who he said were well regarded within the local community.

There is complete shock in the area as to what happened, said Cllr Reilly.

I just knew them to see, they were a very quiet couple.

They are living in the area about 25 or 30 years and their children would have gone to the local school. They would be well got. The community are in shock over it.

A garda spokesperson confirmed that no criminal investigation was in the offing and that the matter would be referred to the local coroners court.
A major investigation is underway after a convicted killer was found stabbed to death at a west Dublin apartment over the weekend.

The man, aged in his 30s, was discovered seriously injured in the early hours of Sunday morning at the property in the Shackleton estate, Lucan.

He was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on Sunday night.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 8th January 2024

At this stage gardai believe the man suffered fatal stab wounds and a post-mortem examination is expected to take place today.

Detectives are trying to piece together the man's movements and have established that the victim travelled in a taxi from Allenton Drive in Tallaght to Lucan in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The Irish Independent can reveal that the deceased was well-known to gardai and had previously served a jail term for manslaughter.

He was originally from the Tallaght area and has also been prosecuted in the past for other violent crimes and possession of explosives.

Investigators over the weekend were in the process of informing his next of kin and detectives in Lucan are now leading a major investigation into the fatal assault.

A garda spokesperson said: "The man was taken to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown for treatment of his injuries. He passed away yesterday evening, Sunday 7th January 2024 at approximately 6.30pm.

"The services of the Office of the State Pathologist have been requested by investigating Gardai and a post-mortem is expected to take place today, Monday 8th January 2024.

"An incident room has been established at Lucan Garda Station and this investigation is being led by a Senior Investigating Officer.

"Gardai are appealing to the public for information in relation to this incident.

An Garda Siochana can confirm the injured male travelled via taxi from the Allenton area in Tallaght, Dublin 24 to an address in the Shackleton residential area of Lucan, County Dublin in the early hours of Sunday morning, 7th January 2024.

Any road users who were travelling in the vicinity of Allenton, Tallaght, Dublin 24 and Shackleton, Lucan, County Dublin at this time and who may have camera footage (including dash cam) is asked to make this available.

Anyone with information in relation to this incident is asked to contact Lucan Garda Station on 01 666 7300, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800, 666 111 or any Garda Station, gardai said.
Ceasefire now banner has been raised on Liberty Hall.

Bomb threats have been posted on Siptus Twitter account after it displayed a large banner on Liberty Hall calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.

Some people reacted angrily to the unions post to accompany a photo of the big Ceasefire Now sign on the landmark union headquarters, while others suggested it did not go far enough.

In a tweet, Siptu announced that the Ceasefire Now banner had been raised on Liberty Hall. It said it was to reflect the full support of Siptu and the vast majority of the public in Ireland for an immediate halt to the ongoing atrocities in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.

The banner was raised on the countrys largest unions office block in the city centre earlier this week.

The union account retweeted a message by the Mission of the State of Palestine.

It described the banner as a powerful display of solidarity and compassion on the iconic building.

In replies to Siptus initial tweet, a small number of posts suggested that Liberty Hall could be a target for bombers and other groups following the remarks.

Some who said they are Siptu members said they did not support the message.

They asked if there was a member ballot on whether to raise the banner, what it would cost or what good it would do.

Some people called on Hamas to return hostages and stop firing missiles.

Others welcomed the banner and called for a general strike, boycott of Israeli goods, and the union to make its position clear on the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.

Siptu general secretary, Joe Cunningham, said the devastating war on Gaza has claimed the lives of more than 22,000 of people, the majority of them children and women.

He said it has injured almost 60,000 while essential food and medical aid continues to be obstructed.

Our banner seeks to demonstrate the strength of support of the people of Ireland for a ceasefire and highlight the urgent need to tackle what is now a humanitarian catastrophe, he said.

The union passed a motion endorsing a ceasefire at its Biennial Delegate Conference in Galway in November last year.

When asked if the union is concerned about some of the responses to its tweet, a Siptu spokesperson said there is no comment from the union on this matter.
Only the Defence Forces will be permitted to use the term 'Oglaigh na hEireann'. Stock image

Fines of up to 1,000 are to be brought in on any unauthorised use of the words Oglaigh na hEireann that has not been signed off by the Defence Minister.

This means it will be illegal to use the term by anybody except the Defence Forces.

The law change, which was proposed by Fianna Fail senator Malcolm Byrne, will mean Sinn Fein will no longer be able to use the term in reference to Provisional IRA members.

For example, every year the party commemorates hunger striker Thomas McElwee, who died in 1981. McElwee was jailed for the firebombing of a shop, in which a young mother, Yvonne Dunlop, was killed.

In online tribute videos, McElwee is referred to as a member of Oglaigh na hEireann, or an Oglach, by Sinn Fein.

The party also sells an Oglaigh na hEireann 3D badge  The Fight For Freedom pin in its online shop.

Bernie Maguire, assistant secretary general at the Department of Defence, told Mr Byrne: It shall be an offence for a person without the authority of the Minister for Defence to use the term Oglaigh na hEireann, or any words closely resembling this term, as the name, title or description, or styling of any organisation, group, association or body.

A person who commits an offence under this new provision shall be liable on summary conviction to a class D fine.

A maximum class D fine is 1,000 and the proposals will apply only to contemporaneous use of the term and not historical uses  for example, those during the War of Independence.

The changes will be brought in as part of the General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023, which will be published shortly.

As well as protecting the term Oglaigh na hEireann, the new laws will put in place recommendations made by the expert review group into allegations made by the Women of Honour as well as address membership of ICTU for military trade unions. This will mean the Defence Forces may be involved in public sector pay talks in some way.

Fine Gael has also previously taken issue with the term being used by Sinn Fein, with junior minister Martin Heydon saying it is a disgrace and an affront to men and women serving Ireland here and abroad.

Mr Byrne welcomed the Government taking on board his new law. I think we should always be proud of the role of those who donned the uniform of the Irish State and their work should always be recognised, he said.

This legislation does not apply in a historical context, so for example those who were involved in the War of Independence, we will still have recognition of the title Oglaigh na hEireann.

Its very much in a contemporary context, to recognise there is only one Oglaigh na hEireann and that is the Defence Forces of the Irish State.

He said he expected the new laws to be passed in the first half of this year.

A spokesperson for Sinn Fein said: Sinn Fein accept the term Oglaigh na hEireann applies to the Defence Forces. The term Oglaigh na hEireann is spelt out as the name of the Defence Forces in the Constitution and it would seem that that affords legal protection.

The spokesperson said this want the most pressing issue for the Defence Forces, and added: It would be better to focus on the failures of successive governments to deal with the real issues facing the Defence Forces around pay and conditions and the lack of supports for veterans and their families.
There were no seriously littered towns in Ireland last year according to the latest survey by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).

It marks the first time there were no areas in the country deemed seriously littered since the IBAL survey began 20 years ago.

Maynooth, Co Kildare, was named the cleanest town in a ranking of 40 towns and cities, just ahead of Mallow, Co Cork, and Sligo town.

An Taisce, who carry out the IBAL survey, said Maynooth had achieved a level of cleanliness over the course of 2023 which we have not encountered in two decades of surveying.

Maynooth University was described as spotless and Main Street achieved an excellent result for a busy shopping environment.

Waterford was named the cleanest city ahead of Galway, the only other city deemed clean. Cork city centre improved to be named moderately littered while Dublin and Limerick were considered littered.

The north inner city in Dublin is in last place overall but improved from last year to littered status.

IBALs Conor Horgan said the results for Dublin and Limerick are disappointing.

"There are many challenges facing our capital city, but clean streets are an important starting point on the path to recovery, he said.

There is some good news in our cities, however. For years our worst performing areas were deemed either litter blackspots or seriously littered.

This baseline would seem to be changing, with littered becoming the bottom tier. Cleanliness begets cleanliness, and there is reason to hope the improvement will continue in future years.

Mr Horgan said there is concern over the increase in coffee cup litter  coffee cups were seen at more than 30pc of the 500 sites surveyed, a figure close to peak levels seen during the pandemic.

He said a coffee cup levy is needed to tackle the problem.

Irrespective of how recyclable or compostable take-away cups are, these statistics show too many of them are ending up on our streets, he said.

The introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme next month is being hailed by IBAL as a gamechanger. The scheme will charge consumers a 15c deposit on cans and up to 25c on plastic bottles, refundable on their return.

This latest survey shows these items to be present in just under half of the hundreds of sites we surveyed. This scheme will remove a large portion of this litter and bring about a significantly cleaner environment in 2024, Mr Horgan said.

While there may be some inconvenience for consumers, the prize is a very real, and a very immediate one.

There was also a rise in the number of disposable vapes found in the survey  the products were found at more than 10pc of the sites covered.
The Tanaiste has begun a five-day visit to Mexico and Colombia focused on strengthening relations between the two countries and Ireland.

Micheal Martin has said he will also raise the issue of the global drug trade during the trip.

He will begin his visit in Mexico, where he will meet foreign minister Alicia Barcena, as well as other political figures.

Mr Martin will also deliver an address on foreign policy to senior members of the Mexican diplomatic corps.

The Tanaiste will also meet with Irish companies that have invested in Mexico.

He will join members of the Irish community in Mexico City to honour the memory of the Saint Patricks Battalion (Batallon de San Patricio), a group of mostly Irish soldiers who fought as part of the Mexican army in the 1840s.

He will formally open the new premises of the Irish embassy in Mexico City and inaugurate Irelands new Office for Central America, which is housed in the embassy.

On Wednesday, he will travel to Colombia, where he will carry out a number of high-level political meetings, including with defence minister Ivan Velasquez Gomez and deputy foreign minister Francisco Coy.

The discussions will focus on major themes in the bilateral relationship, including Irelands support for the Colombian peace process.

Commenting on the Mexican leg of the visit, Mr Martin said: I look forward to returning to Mexico, which I last visited as foreign minister in 2009, and discussing with Minister Barcena what we can do together to build on the already very strong links between our two countries. Minister Barcena has invited me to address Mexican ambassadors on foreign policy issues.
Irish News

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Severe air pollution has hit parts of the country as the drop in temperatures sees households crank up solid fuel fires and heating systems with no wind to clear the smoke.

A monitoring station at Edenderry, Co Offaly recorded pollution levels 10 times higher than the safe level set by the World Health Organisation, although doctors warn there is no truly safe level of bad air.

Poor or very poor air was also recorded in parts of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Donegal, Longford, Westmeath, Laois, Limerick and Clare over the weekend.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 8th January 2024

Monitoring stations in Cork, Roscommon and Sligo have been recording fair air quality but that is below the lowest good rating.

Its the worst weve seen this winter, said Dr Dean Venables, an expert in atmospheric chemistry at University College Cork.

Its very cold and everybodys lighting fires. Its pollution to go.

Irish Doctors for the Environment described pollution levels in places as terrible and said people should be aware and take precautions if there is a repeat.

That means reducing outdoor exercise for the general public when air quality is rated very poor while older people and anyone with lung or heart problems should avoid any strenuous activity.

It also means anyone with asthma should have their reliever on hand and prepare to use it more often.

Pollution levels are monitored continuously and can be checked on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website, www.airquality.ie.

Dr Venables said, however, it was so bad in places, people would be able to smell the pollution outside their door and see it as a halo around street lights.

Most of the pollution is from particulate matter (PM) which in urban areas is largely made up of tiny bits of soot from burning fossil fuels.

PM2.5, the smallest pieces that travel the furthest in the airways, are the biggest concern, causing or exacerbating respiratory conditions and other chronic illnesses.

Under World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, PM2.5 levels should not exceed 15ug/m3 (microgrammes per cubed metre) in a 24 hour period.

Edenderry recorded 145ug/m3 in the 24 hours to mid-morning Monday  almost 10 times the WHO limit.

At 6pm on Sunday, PM2.5 levels peaked at 438ug/m3.

The Blanchardstown monitor recorded a shocking 532ug/m3 average in the 24 hours to mid-afternoon Monday but the EPA said a malfunction was causing faulty readings so the real level is not yet known.

Its really striking how high the levels have reached in some of our smaller towns, Dr Venables said.

Letterkenny and Roscommon have been very bad. Some parts of Limerick and Dublin are bad but the cities are generally faring better.

It turns out the city isnt the big smoke  our small towns are.

Dr Venables said there were certain characteristics of some smaller towns that could be clues as to why their air quality is so bad.

Peat burning is still very high in the midlands and smoky coal being brought from Northern Ireland to beat the ban in the Republic was also a likely factor.

The dirtiest places have been the towns closest to the border so there could be targeted interventions to reduce that, Dr Venables said.

Around 1,300 premature deaths result from air pollution in Ireland each year.

The Government last spring adopted a new National Clean Air Strategy that aims to improve air quality across the country through legislation and policy initiatives.

Dr Venables said it was crucial that the plans be followed through.

We should have ambitious targets because we know that air quality has a huge effect on public health.

These acutely high levels at the moment remind us of the problem but we also need to be thinking about everyday levels  the continuous lower level pollution that over longer periods causes real harm.

Poor air at this time of year causes extra strain on health services already under pressure with the increase in respiratory infections, flu and Covid-19.

There is an overlap with infectious diseases, Dr Venables warned.

Air pollution should not be treated as something thats separate from other medical conditions because it does impact on transmissibility.

The cold spell is set to continue for the rest of this week so the impact on air quality is likely to continue.

Met Eireann is forecasting only light to moderate breezes, mainly affecting eastern areas, so any smoke from open fires and boilers is likely to linger.

As of late afternoon Monday, Edenderry remained the worst part of the country along with Letterkenny which were both rated very poor with the associated health warnings applying.

Letterkenny at that point had a 24-hour average PM2.5 level six times higher than the WHO recommended limit.

Longford town, Athlone and Naas all had air quality levels rated poor.

Rathmines and Clonskeagh in Dublin; Douglas in Cork and Navan, Roscommon, Portlaoise were all rating fair.
Workers reported being able to help with family issues

Using phones in the workplace was found to have no discernible impact on worker performance. Posed photo: Getty

New research has found looking at your phone at work can lead to reduced stress, as well as lower levels of conflict between work and personal life.

A study, conducted by the University of Galway and the University of Melbourne at an Irish-based global pharmaceutical company, focused on workers who were allowed unrestricted access to their phones.

The company changed its phone policy from a restrictive approach to open access for non-work purposes.

Led by Professor Eoin Whelan, at University of Galways JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics, the research highlights the potential benefits of moderate phone use in work.

The study also found no discernible impact on worker performance.

The company had originally banned personal use of phones in the 1990s for health and safety reasons, amid concerns of employees being distracted while working around dangerous chemicals.

Staff had since voiced dissatisfaction with the ban and reported feeling disconnected, while senior management felt the branch was viewed as technophobic because of the ban and that it was hampering competitiveness against other branches of the company.

Before the study took place, only senior management at the company could bring their personal mobile phone into the workplace.

For a year, the research tracked about 40 employees who began using their smartphones when at work and a similar number who maintained a self-imposed ban by leaving their phones behind them when on the work premises.

The study found that despite fears of smartphone distraction and loss of focus, work performance did not decline when the ban was lifted.

Work-life conflict  the perceived conflict between the demands of work and personal life  significantly declined for workers who had access to their phones compared with those who did not.

Employees with access to phones reported being able to help with family issues during the day, helping to reduce pressure on their partners.

Spreading personal communications throughout the day also meant employees were not overwhelmed when they turned on their phones after work.

Professor Eoin Whelan from University of Galway said: Rather than enforcing a ban on smartphones in the workplace, our experiences in tracking the introduction of smartphones in this company suggest a more effective strategy would be to establish an organisational climate where the company expectation for smartphone behaviours are known  for example, ensuring that they are not used in meetings or in the canteen, with adherence monitored by employees themselves.

Managers must realise the unintended consequences of forcing a smartphone ban. Preventing phones in the workplace can increase work-life conflict, which in turn has significant implications for work performance, job satisfaction, absenteeism, turnover intentions, as well as general wellbeing.

The research noted other studies into personal use of smartphones in the workplace, with some reports suggesting employees spent an average of 56 minutes during a working day on their smartphone for non-work-related tasks, and that they check their phone an average of 150 times a day.
While in Mexico, he will meet the Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena to discuss relations between Ireland and Mexico and a range of global issues.

Mr Martin will also meet other political figures and give an address on foreign policy to senior members of the Mexican diplomatic corps.

New premises for the Embassy of Ireland in Mexico City are set to be formally opened and Mr Martin will inaugurate Irelands Officer for Central America.

The Foreign Affairs Minister said next year will mark 50 years since formal relations between Ireland and Mexico began and the two countries links go back further than that.

"These links include Irishmen who fought alongside the Mexican Army in the 1840s, and I will attend, along with members of the Irish community, a ceremony to honour their memory, Mr Martin said.

I will hear from successful Irish investors in Mexico and other business people. Mexico is also Irelands largest trading partner in Latin America  with two-way trade in goods and services approaching 5bn. One of the messages I expect to hear is that there is huge potential to build on this success.

"I will also meet members of the resident Irish community and commemorate the actions of the Saint Patricks Battalion.

While in Colombia from Wednesday, January 10, Mr Martin will engage in more political meetings, including with Minister of Defence Ivan Velasquez and Deputy Foreign Minister Francisco Coy.

They will discuss Irelands strong support for the peace process in Colombia and global issues.

Ireland has longstanding links with Colombia, including the contribution of Cork-born General Daniel Florence OLeary to the achievement of Colombian independence, he said.

"Today, and particularly since the opening of Irelands Embassy in Bogota in 2019, there is an increasingly strong bilateral relationship including considerable Irish investment.

While in Bogota, I will meet with senior members of the Colombian Government, including for discussions on Irelands continued support to Colombian efforts to consolidate its peace process.

"This has taken on a new emphasis in recent months since Ireland accepted an invitation from the Colombian Government to become one of the guarantors in its ongoing peace dialogues.
Leo Varadkar has insisted there is no row between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail on who is Irelands EU commissioner following this summers European elections.

Prior to Christmas, Tanaiste Micheal Martin said there was a clear understanding and agreement that the nominee would be selected by the Fianna Fail party.

Around the same time, Fine Gael leader Mr Varadkar said there was no written agreement on the matter and declined to be drawn when asked if there was an unwritten agreement that it would be a Fianna Fail choice.

The term of Irelands current EU Commissioner, Mairead McGuinness, comes to an end in the summer.

Ms McGuinness, a Fine Gael member, has previously signalled a willingness to serve a second term.

At his end of year media briefing last month, Mr Martin suggested he would not favour Ms McGuinness retaining the role, insisting theres a clear understanding and agreement between the parties in government that it would be a Fianna Fail nominee.

Asked yesterday whether there was a clear understanding that the commissioner would be selected by Fianna Fail, Mr Varadkar told RTE: That may well be the case, but thats something that were going to discuss when the situation arises.

He declined to be drawn on whether he felt Ms McGuinness should carry on in the role.

I think whats very important is that when youre a small country, and Ireland is a small country, that in order to be confident that you go into a good position  there are 27 commissioners and you want to make sure that for a small country like Ireland that you have a strong position at the table  you want to make sure that whoever your commissioner is, its somebody whos got a really good and really strong CV, he said.

And whoever that is Im confident its going to be somebody who has got a really good CV.

Asked if current Fianna Fail Finance Minister Michael McGrath would make a good pick, the Taoiseach again declined to be drawn.

There would be absolutely nothing more than some people would love to try and create some sort of fake row here between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael or between me and Micheal Martin, there is no row, he said.

Theres been no decision or discussion on this. We will do that, most likely June/July when the situation actually arises.
Tributes have been paid following the death of wind energy pioneer, Eddie OConnor.

Mr OConnor (76), who founded Airtricity and was its chief executive for 20 years, was also a former ESB engineer, chief executive of Bord na Mona and, in later years, founder of Mainstream Renewables and SuperNode.

He was one of Irelands earliest advocates for wind energy after learning about climate change and the harmful emissions caused by burning peat for power at Bord na Mona.

In 1992, he drove that companys involvement in the countrys first wind farm at Bellacorrick, Co Mayo which is still producing electricity today.

He quit Bord na Mona in acrimony in 2006 after controversy over his payments package but the following year he established the Future Wind Partnership and Airtricity.

With that he began laying the groundwork for what would become a very large portfolio of wind energy infrastructure in Ireland, Scotland and North America.

In his 2021 autobiography, he recalled asking the natural resources minister in the 1990s for the rights to Irelands entire Irish Sea territory so that he could build off-shore wind farms.

There was no point in being modest, he wrote of intentions at the time.

In the end, he only got the Arklow Bank Wind Farm up and running but after 20 years it remains to this day the only offshore wind farm in Ireland although four projects are due to submit planning applications this year.

Mr OConnor would be outspoken throughout his career about disinterested ministers, short-sighted government policy and a financial system that paid lip service to renewable energy entrepreneurship.

Despite those obstacles, Airtricity thrived and was bought over in 2008, making him a multi-millionaire overnight.

He went on to found Mainstream Renewable Power which amassed onshore and offshore wind and solar assets in South America, Asia, South Africa and Australia.

He sold the company in 2021, massively increasing his wealth, but he remained as chairman until controversy over a speech at a climate conference just weeks later.

Mr OConnor made remarks questioning the ability of Africans to manage the energy transition.

He stood down from Mainstream, issuing an apology that acknowledged he had made inaccurate and harmful generalisations that do not reflect reality and instead serve only to stereotypes.

He had founded SuperNode in 2018 and this, along with his SuperGrid proposals, became his main preoccupation until he became ill late last year.

SuperNode, based in Dublin, is developing a new generation of superconductors designed to carry large loads of electricity over very long distances.

His vision of a SuperGrid, set out in a second book he co-wrote last year, is of a network of power cables crisscrossing Europe connecting up every wind, solar and other renewable energy generator so that power can always flow from where there is an excess to where there is a deficiency.

The concept has been enthusiastically embraced by many EU member states although it requires ongoing technological development and would need huge finance and infrastructure roll-out.

Speaking to the Irish Independent about it last year, he said his idea could change the world. There was no point in being modest, he added.

Paying tribute, Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan, said he was deeply saddened by the death of Mr OConnor who was always several years ahead of everyone else in his thinking.

He was, without doubt, a true pioneer when it came to the development of wind energy, both in Ireland and across the globe, Mr Ryan said.

He was one of the first, not just to understand Irelands enormous potential for renewable energy, but to act upon it.

SuperNode chief executive, John Fitzgerald, said the team were privileged to have known Mr OConnor and devastated by his death.

Eddie was a rare and amazing person with great intelligence, vision, vitality, courage and resolve, Mr Fitzgerald said.

He was a swashbuckling pioneer and an irrepressible visionary, who inspired others to believe that change could happen and gave them confidence that they could make it happen.

Industry body, Wind Energy Ireland (WEI), also described him as a visionary who never stopped working for a cleaner, more prosperous, energy future.

Eddie OConnor revolutionised how we produce and use energy in this country. Irelands wind energy industry was built on the foundations he and others laid in the 1990s and their vision of a cleaner, more prosperous, energy future for all of us, said WEI chief executive, Noel Cunniffe.

Working together to make this idea a reality, to achieve energy independence and to build a clean energy future, is the best way to honour a man who gave so much to our industry and to this country.

Mr OConnor was born in Elphin, Co Roscommon and lived for many years in Clonskeagh, Dublin.

He is survived by his wife Hildegarde, daughter Lesley and son Robert.
There are currently 626 patients currently waiting for a bed in Irish hospitals, new figures show.

New figures show University Hospital Limerick remains the most overcrowded hospital in the country, as it has 110 admitted patients waiting for a bed today.

It is followed by University Hospital Galway with 74 patients currently on a wait list.

Meanwhile, Cork University Hospital has 58 patients waiting for a bed, Sligo University Hospital has 42, and Letterkenny University Hospital - 39.

There are 8 patients under 16 years old across the country who are waiting for a bed in Irish hospitals.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation called on the HSE and senior decision-makers within hospital groups to ensure safe healthcare.

INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: The worrying but predictable rise in the number of patients who have been admitted to hospital without a bed needs immediate de-escalation action.

We are seeing high numbers of patients on trolleys in some of our smaller hospitals, which is very high risk for patients in these areas.

As we reach the peak of RSV, COVID and influenza infections this week and next, senior decision-makers within the HSE and individual hospital groups must introduce immediate de-escalation measures in some of the worst affected areas.

Oppressive overcrowding is not just confined to one or two hospitals, we are seeing overcrowding challenges in each part of the country, with this predicted to get worse as the week goes on.

Our members want to be able to provide safe care to patients but also be assured that their own health and wellbeing is being protected - neither are guaranteed when they are working in overcrowded conditions where respiratory infections are rife.

The HSE and other public sector healthcare employers must assure nurses, midwives and other healthcare workers and indeed the public at large that they are taking extraordinary action to ensure that all barriers to providing safe care at this time are removed.
Everyone has an obligation to cooperate with garda investigations, says Fianna Fail after councillors criticise raids

The fire after the suspected arson attack on Ross Lake House Hotel in Galway

An internal Fianna Fail rules committee will examine new comments made by councillors in Galway after homes were searched by gardai investigating a fire at accommodation designated for migrants.

Gardai searched the home of Fianna Fail councillor Noel Thomas, as well as the home of somebody known to Fianna Fail councillor Seamus Walsh yesterday morning.

Mr Walsh said he will not cooperate with gardai.

It has been reported he was questioned by them twice and both times gave lengthy statements which he refused to sign.

He said to do so would have been a betrayal of local people.

You wouldnt see it on Love/Hate or Kin, he said, commenting on the search of the home of someone whom he knows.

I will never, while there is breath in me, cooperate with the guards on anything.

Fianna Fail councillor Noel Thomas

Mr Thomas, meanwhile, called the raid of his home a joke.

There was a lad from Dublin leading it and then five or six local guards. Imagine what its like having these lads come in rooting in your house? he said.

Imagine bringing down the serious crime units from Dublin  is there not better use of their time?

In the aftermath of the suspected arson attack on Ross Lake House Hotel in Galway, the two councillors made comments which sparked a backlash.

The property, in a remote area, was due to house 70 asylum-seekers.

After the fire, the two politicians criticised the Governments immigration policies.

In the week leading up to Christmas, Mr Thomas said the inn is full when it comes to housing migrants, while Mr Walsh said it was the Governments own policies which are responsible for the criminal act.

Tanaiste and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin deemed the comments as completely unacceptable and said he would speak to both councillors. I do not agree with what those councillors have said. I take strong issue with the nuance and the implications of what theyve said, he said at the time.

The comments were referred to Fianna Fails internal rules and procedures committee, which decides on sanctions such as losing the whip or, in extreme cases, being removed from the party.

However, these latest comments by the two councillors will now also be considered by the rules committee.

In a statement to the Irish Independent, a spokesperson for Fianna Fail said every citizen has an obligation to cooperate with garda investigations.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin. Photo: Steve Humphreys

Gardai are the people responsible for keeping our communities safe, said the spokesperson.

They should be respected and supported and every citizen has an obligation to cooperate with garda investigations, particularly public representatives, who should be providing leadership.

The partys rules and procedures committee are already considering statements made publicly by elected representatives and will now also consider comments made in the past 24 hours.

We will not comment any further on our internal process or on a matter being investigated by An Garda Siochana.
John couldnt be happier as Kenmare four-star to be run by Aileen and Patrick Hanley of The Strand Cahore

The Lansdowne, a boutique hotel recently bought and refurbished by John and Francis Brennan in Kenmare, Co Kerry, has new owners.

Aileen and Patrick Hanley, who run The Strand Cahore in Co Wexford, have acquired the 28-bed property for an undisclosed sum.

Under the terms of the acquisition, the couple have a three-year period to complete the purchase. They will also continue to run their successful seaside bar and restaurant in Cahore.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 8th January 2024

"Were delighted, said John Brennan, who added that the Hanleys would bring an energy to [the hotel] thats new and fresh.

"When we decided to pull back a little bit from work and give ourselves an easier life, Patrick and Aileen were the people who we really wanted to get it, he said. Its a win-win, and its a really nice story.

The Brennan brothers bought The Lansdowne during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and relaunched their updated take the following year. "It wasnt on the horizon, but was too good an opportunity to say no to, Mr Brennan said at the time.

This May, the brothers announced their intention to sell the four-star and its sister five-star, The Park Hotel Kenmare. The properties guided at 17m for the Park and 3.5m for The Lansdowne, or a combined price of 20.5m.

The Lansdowne, Kenmare

In November, Dublin entrepreneur Bryan Meehan was confirmed as the new owner of the Park.

"I couldnt be happier with the transition in both properties, Mr Brennan said.

The Hanleys will operate The Lansdowne independently, while continuing to run The Strand Cahore  the couple has plans to add accommodation to the Co Wexford bar and restaurant in the near future.

The deal brings Mr Hanley full circle to Kenmare. He grew up in the town and his parents, Breda and Bobby, previously ran the hotel (then known as The Lansdowne Arms) before selling it on in 2000.

I know and love every nook and cranny of the hotel, he said. It is part of my DNA.

"The two of them together are a powerhouse, Mr Brennan said of the Hanleys.

Were just delighted to be able to put a deal together that made sense to everyone, got them in the front door, and back into the place where he should always have been.

One of 28 bedrooms at The Lansdowne, Kenmare

Mr Hanley has also worked as general manager at Sheen Falls Lodge and The Park Hotel Kenmare.

Aileen Hanley, from Co Meath, has worked in senior management at Sheen Falls Lodge, Bellinter House in Co Meath and as general manager of The Eccles Hotel in Glengarriff, Co Cork.

We are taking over The Lansdowne Kenmare at its peak following the recent investment by the Brennans of 1.5m to bring this historic town hotel to the standard of a world-class boutique hotel, she said.

We are perfectly poised to attract both domestic and international visitors who wish to explore this charming heritage town before setting off to explore the Ring of Kerry and the rest of the Kingdom.

The Lansdowne is a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World as well as Irelands Blue Book.

Series 13 of RTEs At Your Service, featuring the Brennan brothers, will air this year. Francis Brennan is continuing with his Collection for Dunnes Stores, as well as other book and media projects, while John Brennan, wife Gwen and son Adam continue to own and run Dromquinna Manor, a popular glamping, self-catering and wedding venue on Kenmare Bay.
It could have been down to the atrocious new year weather, but pondering on my final resting place became an unexpected topic amid the tinsel and pine of the festive season.

Not in a morbid way, mind. More an idle contemplation on finding the ideal place to finally shrug off this mortal coil. In the end, a sacred isle along the Kerry coast won top spot  only to discover it is an exclusive sanctuary where just locals gain admittance.

On a New Years Eve drive around the Ring of Kerry through Daniel OConnells homeland at Derrynane, we stopped for a stroll on the beach and happened upon Abbey Island cemetery  surely one of Irelands most unique graveyards.

Dating back to the 10th century and created at a monastic site by St Finan, the same holy man responsible for the famous Skellig Michael monastery, Abbey Island stands as a proud headland jutting forth against the frequent storms battering this jagged coastline.

Mother Nature dictates burial times as the dead are shouldered like heroic warriors across the beach at low water, trailed by mourners wearing wellies against the lapping waters of an incoming tide. What a territory for the final journey I thought  resting forever beneath the gentle haze of Kerry summers and the ravaging winds of its ferocious winters.

Daniel O'Connell

One of my neighbours in that dark soil would be the Famine poet, Tomas Rua O Suilleabhain, who vividly depicted the desperate suffering of the great hunger, and was said to have inspired the Liberators quest for Catholic emancipation.

Peaceful places, these final resting spots of past generations are somehow immune to the bluster of life outside their gates. Wandering amid ancient headstones, the reality of how slender a thread from which we all dangle looms large as the epitaphs from another era nod mutely to the modern age.

A walk through a graveyards tombstones serves many purposes, not least to underline that universal truth  life is not a rehearsal

Brevity was clearly the soul of description for ancient mourners with inscriptions bearing a simple good wife, dearly missed eloquently encapsulating 60 years of marriage. Modern remorse is no less sorrowful, but a good deal more dazzling in the form of ornamented cherubs surrounding arresting colour photos of those who lie beneath.

For us all, death and its attendant sorrow is a numbers game etched upon rough granite weathered by ceaseless tempests we will no longer feel. Inevitably, thoughts of what epitaph might best sum up my own life when that fateful day finally arrives picked uneasily at my conscience. Have I done anything worthy of mournful tears upon a face? What kind of lasting legacy do I leave behind to be kindly remembered by generous friends when glasses are raised on the day I take residence six feet under?

Perhaps many of us conform to Winston Churchills observation: I am ready to meet my maker, but whether he is ready for me has yet to be decided. A walk through a graveyards tombstones serves many purposes, not least to underline that universal truth  life is not a rehearsal.

As to how best can we live these precious days until that eternal summons arrives is a mission best summed up by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius: It is not death that a man should fear, but rather never beginning to live.
Mark Sofer: Lets find common ground and fix Israeli relations with Ireland

Feelings on both sides are running high, but there is much that can unite the two countries

Irish-Israeli girl Emily Hand, who was abducted by Hamas gunmen, is reunited with her father Thomas Hand.

Mark Sofer Sun 7 Jan 2024 at 03:30

Are Irish-Israeli relations irrevocably doomed? They have never been more than lukewarm at best. Ireland only established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1975 and only in 1996 did it open a resident embassy in Israel. The relations between us in almost every field of human and state endeavour have not substantially deviated from this mindset and Ireland has consistently taken the most critical position towards Israel of any country in the EU.
A Dermot Desmond-backed bank in Latvia is worried about the consequences of its government nationalising a particular building in the capital city of Riga, because of the propertys perceived links to Moscow.

Rietumu Bank, in which Desmond owns a 33.1pc stake, wrote to the Latvian parliament to express concerns about whether the nationalisation of the building would lead to tit-for-tat asset seizures in Russia and its ally Belarus.
There are growing public divisions between president Volodymyr Zelensky and other political leaders. Photo: Reuters

Today Volodymyr Zelensky faces the greatest test of his leadership, greater even than the days almost two years ago when Russian invasion forces rolled across the border.

Back then, when he was offered a ride to safety by the West and asked for ammunition instead, he led a country united in a fight for its life.
Tony OBrien: The brutal truth is that our A&Es dont get enough resources to match demand

The investigation into the tragic death of Aoife Johnston must take account of the multitude of pressures which our hospitals face

Even one patient excessively delayed in A&E is one too many. Photo: Steve Humphreys

Tony O'Brien Sun 7 Jan 2024 at 03:30

The traditional January emergency department trolley crisis season is now an year-round problem with peaks and troughs.
A proposal put forth Friday by an Omaha lawmaker would put Nebraska's Legislature in charge of the state's prison system, which, for now, is under the purview of the executive branch.

If made law, Sen. Justin Wayne's bill (LB994) would put senators in charge of the "general management, control and government" of the Department of Correctional Services, giving the Legislature hiring power over the department's director.

The power to make such a change is already prescribed to lawmakers in Nebraska's Constitution, which grants the Legislature the power to manage "all state charitable, mental, reformatory and penal institutions."

"We actually have control over corrections  it's all vested in us," Wayne said Friday, which marked the third day of the 2024 legislative session. "So maybe we should take it back. Maybe we should create an independent board, like Arkansas.

"We're going to be exploring those options this year and hopefully we can make sure we have the proper oversight that's needed in Corrections."

For Wayne, who chairs the body's Judiciary Committee, the change is overdue.

He pointed to the 2015 revelation that the department, using a flawed formula to calculate sentences, had carved at least 750 years off the collective sentences of more than 200 inmates in state custody.

The bill, too, was spurred in part by the department's decision in August to eliminate prison facility and document access to the Office of the Inspectors General, the Legislature's watchdog responsible for investigating the state's prison and child welfare systems.

That move came after Attorney General Mike Hilgers' office published a nonbinding opinion suggesting the oversight offices are unconstitutional.

"At the end of the day, we've been having problems with Corrections. It's been an ongoing issue since we improperly calculated good time," he said, referring to the 2015 sentencing scandal. "So maybe we should let somebody else run it."

The Omaha senator said he's considering designating the bill as his personal priority this session, which would increase the likelihood it will be debated on the floor, in an effort to see it made law.

Wayne on Friday also put forth a proposal (LB996) that would put the Department of Correctional Services in charge of all of Nebraska's county jails  a move that, coupled with his effort to put the department under the Legislature's control, would give lawmakers oversight of every jail and prison inmate in the state.

And he introduced a bill (LB995) that would give defendants in certain criminal court cases 10 days upon a guilty verdict to request a deferred judgment, which allows defendants to make a case to their judge to impose a sentence of probation prior to the entry of a judgment of conviction.

Photos: Nebraska Legislature gavels in for first day of 2024 session
In this year of elections, allow Wigmore to make his first confident prediction ahead of the return of politics: the next government will not comprise Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein, whatever lesser informed columnists and experts might tell you, or like to believe.

The holiday season is always a time to take stock, and in Fianna Fail thats exactly what TDs have been doing. The upshot? No matter when Leo Varadkar decides to go to the country, the most likely outcome remains more of the same, and here is why

The hardening view in Fianna Fail is that Varadkar has stolen a march on the party by categorically ruling out forming a coalition with Sinn Fein. Micheal Martin has been somewhat more circumspect, leaving open that prospect as he awaits the peoples decision. Which is fair enough, insofar as it goes.

However, experienced backbench TDs, who enjoy nothing more than poring over vote transfer patterns in their downtime, are more confident than ever that there is little to be gained by leaving the door open to a deal with Sinn Fein. Derisory, is how one TD put it last week, when asked about the potential Sinn Fein transfer benefit for Fianna Fail. The view against coalition with Sinn Fein has hardened to an extent that Wigmore hears several Fianna Fail TDs are prepared to take their seat on the independent benches rather than do a deal with Mary Lou McDonald.

And when can we expect public statements to such effect? At the most opportune time, Wigmore was told by one TD, who said he had made up his mind to go that way over Christmas. Made. Up. His. Mind. Not that Micheal Martin is scrambling to do a deal anyway. Wigmore bumped into him at an event late last year and, if anything, his opposition to Sinn Fein rhetoric has actually hardened, notwithstanding his outwardly more malleable public pronouncements.

The bottom line? Nothing has changed. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are bound together for the foreseeable future, whether they like it or not, and you can expect Independents to make up the numbers, with Sinn Feins actual path to power still difficult to see, despite all the talk.

********

As a bellwether constituency in the capital, there are few more worth keeping an eye on than Dublin Bay South, which returned Ivana Bacik as Labour TD and subsequent party leader in a 2021 by-election.

Comprising grittier working-class areas such as Ringsend and Irishtown, alongside staunchly middle-class suburbs like Sandymount, Ranelagh, Rathmines, Terenure and Rathgar, the constituency offers a fairly good cross-section of Dublin society.

There is a radical streak running in the place too, which frequently returned the man who espoused the necessity of being radical or redundant, Michael McDowell, former leader of the Progressive Democrats.

McDowell is remembered as a formidable campaigner. Who will ever forget his successful elevation up the ladder in 2002, warning against one-party government?

Indeed, back in the day, Wigmore once stumbled into a meeting of PD local election candidates in Buswells Hotel, being addressed by the then justice minister.

Naturally, we took a seat down the back, behind a pillar, out of eyeshot. Suffice to say, as it turned out, your humble columnist did not know it all, after all. In any event, word is that McDowell is firmly of the view that there remains strong appetite for a radical TD in Dublin Bay South and is urging former Fine Gael TD Kate OConnell to throw her elegant hat in the ring to contest a seat as such an Independent.

Others believe OConnell will go with the Social Democrats and take on Bacik in what would surely be the most fascinating contest since Labours Orla Guerin, now of BBC fame, unsuccessfully took on the partys sitting MEP Bernie Malone in the 1994 European elections.

But no, Wigmore expects OConnell will ultimately go Independent, which is yet more grim news for Varadkar  but surely it is unlikely we will ever see her up a ladder around leafy Rathgar. Isnt it?

********

The mayor of Limerick election, which will coincide with local elections in June, is already running the risk of being the greatest damp squib ever.

Why? Because nobody of profile seems interested in the position which comes with the considerable salary of a junior minister, other than Brian Ledden, of the Greens, of course, who is being pushed on the partys social media even though there has been no selection convention yet.

Personally, Wigmore believes that the Green TD, Neasa Hourigan, originally from Limerick, and of Fine Gael stock, would make a far more interesting Independent mayor, were she prepared to up sticks and return to the old homestead, which is doubtful.

There is also talk of Limerick hurling manager, John Kiely, who was among the guests at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis in 2022, and who would win the contest at a canter, that is, should JP McManus encourage him to go for it.

But it is hard to see Kiely giving up his wild popularity, and the prospect of, lets face it, 10-in-a-row for the drudgery of having to sort out somebodys medical card application.

And thats the problem, these days. Whatever about the still ill-defined powers of the office, it is a sad reflection of politics today that precious few are actually showing any interest in a position which they fear will come with instant criticism and backlash, from day one.
At a time when extreme views dominate public discourse at home and abroad, the need for a more tolerant, moderate form of politics has never been stronger.

In todays Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion poll, the potential for a new centre-left voice is confirmed in a finding that shows strong support for a new, combined party consisting of Labour and the Social Democrats.

Separately, both have single-digit support, which combined still does not reflect the real level of potential support for a new centre-left party. In todays poll, the Social Democrats (5pc) are unchanged and Labour (3pc) is down a point in a month when some of the most serious issues facing the country are to the fore.

However, the prospect of a new centre-left party consisting of these sister parties commands a strong, potentially doubling level of support for the centre left. Eighteen per cent of those polled said they would give a first-preference vote to such a party. Were this to happen, it would propel centre-left politics into the reckoning at the business end of government formation.

Of the two parties, the Social Democrats have more momentum, with Labour facing another existential crisis at the next general election.

When she was elected leader of the Social Democrats, new-generation politician Holly Cairns firmly ruled out the prospect of a merger with Labour, from which her party had derived. She has said nothing since to indicate a change of mind on this position.

Last week, Labour leader Ivana Bacik put the prospect of a merger back on the agenda, keenly aware, as she is, that both parties share broadly similar views and policies, but are challenging each other for support among a still sizeable cohort of social democratic supporters.

Baciks suggestion should not be discounted by the Social Democrats.

Ireland is facing a series of critical issues, the latest concerning the question of immigration, which is giving rise to a disturbing level of support for extreme far-right elements.

There are also continuing issues over housing and the climate emergency. The parties share a broadly similar ideology and a coherent set of policies on these and other issues, not least in relation to management of the economy.

Around the world, the centre left in recent times has defeated the political right in elections in Australia, Germany, Spain, Portugal and the US, following a dramatic fall in support for social democratic parties after the 2008 financial crisis.

The Labour Party has not recovered from that period of austerity. Indeed, the Social Democrats were formed at that time by two former Labour Party TDs who had become disillusioned with the policy of austerity.

Labour remains in an existential crisis, showing there is nothing inevitable about the return of social democracy to the heart of power when it has a valuable role to play.

Were a merger with the Social Democrats to come about before a general election, it would further dilute what remains of the Labour brand of politics in Ireland, but that is not the most important issue right now.

It is more important that a strong centre-left option be available to voters in an election.
Within the next three years, the country will receive up to one eighth of its electricity from nuclear power.

Dwell on that reality for a moment.

Of course, its not our nuclear power  its imported. It lacks the glamour of the Channel Tunnel but the Celtic Interconnector is a significant piece of infrastructure in its own right. The high-voltage subsea power cable will link the electricity grids of Ireland and France.

The cable will have enough capacity to power up to half a million homes. EirGrid, the state-owned electricity system operator, is working with its French equivalent to deliver the 700-megawatt submarine cable, costing 1.6bn, with connection points between the southern coast of Ireland and the north-west coast of France. Work is under way and the complex project is due to be finished in 2026 with a plug into the grid expected by 2027.

At that point, the country will receive up to one eighth of its electricity supply from nuclear power.

Electricity interconnectors allow the sharing of electricity between countries, which will become even more important as the renewable energy sector becomes a larger proportion of supply in the electricity system. The interconnector coming ashore at Youghal in east Cork, will allow Irish electricity producers to sell into the French market  as well as taking in supply from France.

France is heavily embedded in nuclear energy and will remain so. Ireland is aiming to produce 80pc of our energy from renewables by 2030, of which 90pc will come from wind power. However, these highly ambitious targets are bordering on the aspirational. When we eventually reach such levels, the country will be exporting more energy than we import through the interconnector.

In the meantime, our growing population and booming economy create an increasingly greater demand for electricity. The effective moratorium on the building of new data centres, with electricity grid connection applications being rejected due to a lack of clarity in connection policy, is a manifestation of the lack of capacity and muddled policy. The Government is delighted to be a magnet for the tech sector, drawing bumper corporation tax revenues and jobs into the economy, yet wants to turn a blind eye to the downside of power-guzzling infrastructure that accompanies it.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has propelled the precarious nature of energy security to the top of the agenda in Europe. Ireland is not immune to such considerations and the interconnectivity will allow cooperation with our European allies. The interchange should also reduce shortages and keep prices stable.

Given our antipathy towards atomic energy, the irony of Ireland importing nuclear power should not be lost on anyone. Although the debate on energy security has sparked some talk on nuclear, the prospect of a plant opening here in the foreseeable future is remote. Yet there is no problem taking someone elses nuclear power. A typically Irish solution.
A series of road closures are in place due to numerous collisions across Cork this morning as a result of black ice.

At 8am Gardai closed Blarney Village due to a number of incidents as a result of Black Ice this morning.

Gardai also advised that Blackstone Bridge was closed due to hazardous conditions.

The Kerry Pike to Healy's Bridge road was closed momentarily due to vehicles stuck on the hill, and motorists were advised to avoid the area.

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Three incidents occurred in Blarney with a double decker bus slipping and crashing near Sals takeaway, and two big trucks sliding down the hill by the Woollen Mills, making the area impassible.

A collision was reported in the Lower Killeens/Clogheen area.

There was a collision on Forest Road/Bothar Glas, Carrigaline with the road being described as treacherous due to icy conditions. Gardai advised to avoid the area.

Gardai are also advising to avoid Farranferris Avenue, due to extremely icy conditions.

There was collisions on the Skehard Road, Farranferris Avenue, Carrigeeny and on Rockboro Road.

Tramore Valley Park and the Civic Amenity site are currently closed due to icy conditions.

Gardai also reported a pedestrian was knocked down at West End, Ballincollig, near SuperValu, with emergency services arriving to the scene shortly afterwards.

Please be cautious this morning when traveling across the city as the roads and footpaths may still be slippery due to the drop in temperatures overnight. Our crews have been working across the city gritting roads and footpaths, advised the Cork City Council.

Precautionary gritting started at 6pm on Sunday, January, 7, with a second treatment taking place at 2am as low temperatures were expected overnight.

Met Eireann have issued a status yellow ice and fog warning for Ireland, which is valid until 10am on Monday, January, 8.

Forecasters are warning that this morning, icy patches and dense fog patches will lead to hazardous driving conditions.

More ice is expected overnight as Met Eireann issue another status yellow low temperature / ice warning for Ireland, which is valid from 9pm on Monday until 10am on Tuesday, January, 9.

Further salt gritting will take place across Cork City tonight.
House prices are predicted to rise again in Cork in 2024.

According to a recent survey by the Real Estate Alliance, the price of the average three-bed semi in both Cork City and county is expected to rise by 4pc over the next 12 months.

In Cork city three-bed semi-detached homes now cost an average of 370,000, up 4pc on the December 2022 average of 355,000.

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Prices across the county rose by 2pc in 2023 to 222,500 from the December 2022 average of 217,500.

Agents are reporting that the average time taken to sell in the county in the final quarter of 2023 sat at five weeks.

In terms of first-time buyers, the survey accounted for 15pc of purchases in both city and county, with 20pc of sales being attributed to landlords selling.

There continues to be steady demand from first-time buyers in the new homes market in the latter part of 2023, which is reflected in a general increase in new home sales together with new developments coming on stream, said Michael ODonoghue of REA ODonoghue & Clarke, Cork.

Overall demand continues to be good, with a mixture of both cash purchasers and mortgage approved clients. It should be noted that landlords continue to exit the market with current legislation heavily weighted in favour of tenants, he added.

Three-bed semi prices nationally will rise by 3pc in 2024, according to the predictions of estate agents across Ireland.
BrewDog in Dublin is offering free refills on alcohol-free pints during January

Anyone taking part in Dry January will welcome the latest offer from one Dublin pub.

This month, BrewDog is providing free refills of alcohol-free draft beer  a perfect incentive for those taking a break from the booze.

The Scottish independent brewing company unveiled its expansive bar on Dublins south docks following a 1.6m investment in 2019.

In a survey conducted last November for brewery company Lucky Saint, 47pc of Irish people surveyed said they planned to partake in Dry January this year.

A spokesperson for BrewDog said: Throughout January, we are offering free refills in our bars for pints of our alcohol-free draught beers.

Whether its for Dry January, playing the role of the designated driver, or simply cutting back on alcohol, patrons at our bars can rest assured that being alcohol-free doesnt have to mean taste-free.

We dial down the alcohol, not the beer, they added.

Its important to note that cans are not included in the offer, and the drinks will not be available for delivery or takeaway.
The Mayor of Beit Sahour in the West Bank, Hani Al-Hayek, has written to councillors of Tralee Municipal District in County Kerry thanking them for their support and solidarity in the wake of ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Beit Sahour is a town east of Bethlehem in the Bethlehem Governorate of the State of Palestine, under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority. The historic twinning of Tralee and Beit Sahour took place in 2018 when the then Sinn Fein councillor Pa Daly proposed the merger that was passed unopposed.

Beit Sahour has not escaped the conflict since October 7 with reports of daily clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police being overshadowed by the war in Gaza.

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In November 2023, Sinn Fein tabled a motion of solidarity with Beit Sahour and the Palestinian people at a Tralee MD meeting. The gesture brought an immediate response from Mayor Al-Hayek who wrote to Kerry County Council in late November.

Since the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7 when 1,139 innocent people were killed and hundreds more taken hostage, over 23,000 innocent people in Gaza  including close to 10,000 children  have been killed in Israeli reprisals.

Al-Hayek wrote: Your kindness and solidarity through the resolution adopted by the members of Tralee Municipal District has gone straight into our hearts as your compassion and thoughts are very much appreciated.

He said Tralee MD had the courage and bravery to send solidarity when most of its international partners did not take such action.

Sadly, we are being annihilated in front of the whole world without any country to take ground actions to stop the daily massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. But we pray and keep the hope alive that this war will end soon and the results after it will be to the benefits of the Palestinians, as we have been longing for freedom for the past 75 years, he said.

Hani Al-Hayek concluded: On behalf of Beit Sahour, I once again thank you all sincerely for your brave resolution and for your remarkable stand with us in such dark times. Be sure that Beit Sahour will also and always stand with Tralee in all situations.

The official signing of the twinning ceremony took place at Kerry County Council in March 2019 and was attended by the Ambassador of the State of Palestine in Ireland, Ahmad Abdelrazek.
Josco, Joman, Jisho, Catherine, Jenabeth, Dr. George, Michael Benson and Jerrard at the Indian Community Enniscorthy Fest Christmas & New Year Party in Marshalstown Community Centre.

Geena John and Jude Philip at the Indian Community Enniscorthy Fest Christmas & New Year Party in Marshalstown Community Centre.

Dance group on stage at the Indian Community Enniscorthy Fest Christmas & New Year Party in Marshalstown Community Centre.

Michael Benson (special guest) at the Indian Community Enniscorthy Fest Christmas & New Year Party in Marshalstown Community Centre.

Jewd Maria Jihlin team at the Indian Community Enniscorthy Fest Christmas & New Year Party in Marshalstown Community Centre.

Launch of new Enniscorthy Indian Association logo at the Indian Community Enniscorthy Fest Christmas & New Year Party in Marshalstown Community Centre.

Sunitha, Ushmitha, Biniya, Femy, Laija, Aji, Robia, Shicy, Neethu and Joncy at the Indian Community Enniscorthy Fest Christmas & New Year Party in Marshalstown Community Centre.

Elizebeth, Niamh, Catherine, Dhia, Neya and Emma at the Indian Community Enniscorthy Fest Christmas & New Year Party in Marshalstown Community Centre.

Girls dancing at the Indian Community Enniscorthy Fest Christmas & New Year Party in Marshalstown Community Centre.

The Indian community in Enniscorthy celebrated their annual Enniscorthy Fest Christmas and New Year Party last week in Marshalstown Community Centre.

The evening offered a fantastic time with dancing, music, food and the sharing of Indian Christmas traditions.

Special guest on the night was filmmaker and Wexford native, Michael Benson.

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Mr Benson is a decorated filmmaker, most recently having won over 45 awards at international film festivals including the world-renowned Cannes International Cinema Festival, the New York Cinematography Awards, the Sweden Film Festival, as well as prizes in India, Germany, and beyond for his film Pat Walsh  The Life and Legacy of an Irish Revolutionary.

Michael Benson took to the stage to perform traditional Irish songs and play guitar for the 175 guests on the night.

The event was organised by the Indian Community in Enniscorthy with the help of local GP Dr George Leslie.

Dr Leslie first came to Ireland from India in 1998. After a number of trips and exploring the whole island Dr Leslie chose to settle in Enniscorthy because as he says himself, Enniscorthy and Co Wexford are beautiful places.

"It is a beautiful, quiet and small community, I love them and they love me too, he said.

Dr Leslie is a stand out member of the community in Wexford working as a GP in Slaney Medical Centre and is a proud Peace Commissioner who participated actively in the pandemic and relief operations by helping the elderly and others in need.

As Dr Leslie explains, Christmas celebrations for Indian Catholics and Irish people are very similar and the evening was a celebration for everyone in the community of Enniscorthy.

The Indian community in Enniscorthy has gone from strength to strength and have all become proud valued members of Enniscorthy's community, with the community constantly growing.

I would say in the small beautiful town of Enniscorthy there is probably 200 Indian families now living here, said Dr George Leslie.
THE Irishman jailed for his part in running a massive dark net drugs website is set to walk free this week from the US federal prison where infamous mobster James Whitey Bulger met his grisly end.

Gary Davis (35), from Kilpeddar, Co Wicklow, who had been an administrator on the infamous Silk Road site, has been in custody in the US since 2018.

He is due to be released from federal correction institute Hazelton in West Virginia later this week, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

A deportation order is in place which means Davis will likely be handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be sent back to Ireland when released.

Davis, known online as Libertas, was extradited from Ireland in 2018 after a long legal battle but admitted his role in a plea deal in October that year.

The following July he was given a six-and-a-half year sentence for conspiracy to traffic drugs.

One of its recent most high-profile prisoners, the Boston-Irish mob boss Whitey Bulger, was murdered there just days after being transferred.

Bulger, who had evaded authorities for decades, was long suspected of being an informant by other gangsters and was reported to have had his eyes gouged with an attempt made to cut out his tongue.

Mafia hitman Fotios Freddy Geas is accused of orchestrating the attack and is due to go on trial later this year.

During his legal battle to avoid being extradited to the US, Davis had argued among other points that he would be detained in an inhumane and degrading manner.

After he was indicted, he declined to comment when approached by the Sunday World at his Wicklow home in 2015. He said he couldnt possibly comment until his extradition hearing had been finalised.

Davis ended up spending nine months at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, which has been referred to as the Guantanamo Bay of New York due to its poor conditions.

At his sentence hearing, Daviss defence argued that the prisons unsanitary and overcrowded conditions were cited in other cases for a reduced sentence.

Despite the conditions, including sharing 26-bed dormitories, his prison record showed he had completed 35 classes, had positive work reports and had tutored other inmates.

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of up to 20 years for Davis due to what they saw as his high-ranking role in Silk Road.

Libertas, the Silk Road account that Davis operated, was responsible for dealing with queries from sellers and organising the drugs for sale on the site into categories.

From February 2, 2011 to October 2, 2013 the FBI said transactions worth $213.9 million were carried out on Silk Road.

In addition to his prison term, Davis was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to forfeit $25,000.

He was targeted by the US authorities after a scanned image of Daviss passport was found on the laptop of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.

Investigators also found information which showed Libertas was paid $1,500 in bitcoin every week for dealing with queries from sellers and organising drugs for sale on the site.

Ulbricht, who used the online alias Dread Pirate Roberts, was arrested after an elaborate FBI operation against the website. He was given a life sentence for his part in setting up the website.
Honduras SEZ Recognizes Bitcoin as Unit of Account to Further Financial Freedom

Honduras Roatan Island special economic zone (SEZ)  Prospera ZEDE  has officially recognized Bitcoin (BTC) as a unit of account for various financial transactions.

BREAKING:  Honduras' special economic zone Prospera recognises #Bitcoin as a unit of account! This makes #Bitcoin acceptable for commercial, tax, and financial transactions.  pic.twitter.com/GZMBzoz4o8  Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) January 7, 2024

This makes Bitcoin acceptable for commercial, tax, and financial transactions.

According to Jorge Colindres, technical secretary and tax commissioner of the (SEZ), the decision provides more financial and monetary freedom. People should be free to carry out transactions, do their accounting and report taxes in the currency of their free choice, he added.

Colindres announced the move on January 5, outlining the conditions for legal entities interested in adopting Bitcoin as a unit of account.

Prospera ZEDE recognizes the right of (e)Resident legal entities organized or registered under the authority of the Prospero Entity Registry Statute to use Bitcoin (BTC) as their respective unit of account, in the sense of the monetary unit or measure of value in terms of which their accounts are kept and values stated, the statement read.

This means that interested entities must file a notice with the Tax Commissioner within thirty days of the tax period. The notice should reference an approved major cryptocurrency exchange like Kraken or Coinbase. Further, Colindres reposted a Tweet, reminding entities that the deadline to apply for BTC as a unit of account for 2024 tax year is 30 January.

Temporary Limitations



Colindres noted that technical limitations of the e-government system, added to external regulatory issues, have temporarily limited the Final BTC Tax Payment Procedure.

Entities that chooses Bitcoin will have to determine tax obligations in reference to BTC for internal accounting purposes, until the procedure is implemented. However, they would report them in US dollars or the local currency, Lempira, to Prospera ZEDE.

He added that entities can report their tax obligations in Bitcoin after resolving the issues.

Prospera ZEDE, a special economic zone on a tourist-centric island on Honduras Caribbean coast, adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender in 2022. The SEZ noted at the time it will also let municipalities, local governments and international firms issue Bitcoin bonds from the areas jurisdiction.

However, following the announcement, the Central Bank of Honduras said that it cannot vouch for cryptocurrency transactions.

Honduras followed its neighboring country El Salvador, which adopted BTC in September 2021, becoming the first country to do so.
Id just arrived at the airport in Rome the moment the penny dropped that something was very wrong in my marriage. I scanned the Arrivals hall excitedly for my husband, Marco*. I was expecting a romantic reunion  hes an actor and wed been apart while he shot a movie in Sicily. Instead, I was met with a text: Get a cab to the apartment.

Marco was a romantic, hed met me from every flight since wed been together. And it was our one-year anniversary! In that moment the unsettling feeling that had been lodged ominously in the pit of my stomach for months  ever since Id seen the intimate nature of the script hed be filming  broke loose and flooded me from top to toe.
Hundreds evacuated and dozens rescued as devastating floods rip through Australian holiday spot

38 rescued from rising water as 1,000 calls for help made

Flooding in the Bendigo region of Victoria. Photo: ABC

Jabed Ahmed  UK Independent Mon 8 Jan 2024 at 18:29







Hundreds of people have been ordered to evacuate their homes and dozens have been rescued as severe flooding batters parts of Australia.
Mother of teenager murdered by ex warns: End of a relationship is the most dangerous time in a womans life

Ellie (17) was stabbed to death by her boyfriend after break-up

Schoolgirl Ellie was stabbed after breaking up with her first boyfriend.

Lydia Patrick  UK Independent Mon 8 Jan 2024 at 14:07







A grieving mother whose 17-year-old daughter was killed by an ex-boyfriend has warned that the ending of a relationship is the most dangerous time in a womans life.
Thats going to be the least of it: Donald Trump claims US is facing a bloodbath if he loses November election
Pope Francis reacts during a Mass in the Sistine Chapel, as he marks the Feast of Baptism of the Lord at the Vatican, January 7, 2024. Vatican Media

Pope Francis called on Monday for a global ban on parenting via surrogacy, calling the practice "deplorable" and a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child.

Francis' remarks are likely to antagonise pro-LGBT+ groups, since surrogacy is often used by gay or lesbian partners who want to have children, and follow his landmark decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples.
Mass killer Breivik suffering deep depression after years in prison isolation

Far-right fanatic who slaughtered 77 people in bomb and gun attacks in 2011 no longer wants to be alive, court told

Anders Behring Breivik arrives at the courtroom surrounded by guards at Ringerike prison in Tyristrand, Norway. Photo: Cornelius Poppe

Gwladys Fouche Mon 8 Jan 2024 at 16:48







Lawyers for Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik told a court on Monday he was suffering from "deep depression" and no longer wanted to live as they launched a legal bid to lift his years of isolation in prison.
Al Jazeera reporter killed just weeks after his mother, brother and sister die in Gaza attack

Meanwhile Blinken seeks to avert wider war, Israel says it is not fighting a single enemy

Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh hugs his daughter as they attend the funeral of his son, Hamza. Photo: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

Harriet Barber, Simon Lewis, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose  Telegraph.co.uk Mon 8 Jan 2024 at 03:30







The eldest son of Al Jazeeras Gaza bureau chief has been killed in an Israeli strike in southern Gaza, just weeks after several other members of his immediate family died in a separate bombing.
For Israel's hostage families, despondency sets in as world attention shifts

More than 100 out of 240 people taken, are still thought to be held by Hamas in Gaza

A member of the Israeli military breaks down in tears next to a memorial of her family members who were kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas gunmen. Photo: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

James Mackenzie Mon 8 Jan 2024 at 03:30







As Israels vigil for its hostages in Gaza moves into a fourth month, a sense that time is passing while world attention shifts elsewhere has deepened the anguish felt by their families as hopes have faded for a deal to secure their release.
Hundreds of Boeing jets to stay grounded for safety, says watchdog

Authorities seek help to find panel that blew off endangered flight

Oxygen masks hang from the roof next to a missing side wall of an Alaska Airlines Boeing aircraft in Portland, Oregon. Photo: Reuters

David Shepardson, Valerie Insinna and Tim Hepher Mon 8 Jan 2024 at 03:30







US regulators say more than 170 Boeing-made jets will remain grounded until deemed safe to fly again, as authorities conduct a search near Portland, Oregon for a missing panel that blew off a new 737 Max 9 plane during a flight on Friday.
North Koreas Lazarus Group Moves $1.2M Bitcoin From Coin Mixer to Holding Wallet

North Korea-sponsored hacking syndicate Lazarus Group has transferred $1.2 million worth of cryptocurrency from a mixer, marking their largest transaction in over a month.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on January 8, blockchain analysis firm Arkham reported that the Lazarus Group processed the transaction by moving the assets from a coin mixer to a holding wallet.

gm The Lazarus Group just made its biggest transactions in over a month, withdrawing $1M in BTC from what appears to be a mixing service this morning, then sending $150K of that to an inactive address theyve sent to before. Track Lazarus on Arkham:https://t.co/C4FFFLUkL5 pic.twitter.com/quYYF3h7Dj  Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) January 8, 2024

Additional data revealed that the wallet received 27.371 BTC in two transactions before sending out 3.34 BTC to a previously used wallet. However, the specific coin mixer used in this transaction was not identified.

According to Arkham, the Lazarus Group maintains $79.6 million across various crypto portfolios, including BTC and ETH, worth $45K and $2K, respectively.

A mixing service, also known as a coin mixer or tumbler, is a blockchain-based protocol designed to obscure the ownership of cryptocurrencies. It achieves this by combining the coins with those from other users before redistributing them, making it challenging to trace the origin and recipients of the funds.

Lazarus Group: The North Korea Crypto Theft Syndicate



In a November 2023 data report, Recorded Futures Insikt Group highlighted a substantial increase in North Koreas focus on the cryptocurrency industry, estimating a staggering $3 billion in digital assets theft.

The 15-page report revealed that the hacker groups illicit activities originated in 2017 within the South Korean market and subsequently expanded globally.

In 2022, the North Korean threat actors were accused of stealing $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency  equivalent to 5% of the countrys economy or 45% of its military budget.

The stolen funds, often laundered through methods similar to traditional cybercriminal groups, serve as a crucial revenue source for the Korean government. This has reportedly enabled North Korea to sustain its operations despite facing international sanctions.

Furthermore, a report released by TRM Labs on January 5, 2024, revealed that the Lazarus Group might have absconded with up to $700 million in cryptocurrency in 2023, with $600 million confirmed through their research.

The blockchain firm highlighted that the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) constantly adapts its money laundering methods to evade international law enforcement pressure.

Research findings indicate that the hackers typically compromise users private keys or seed phrases, transferring the funds to wallets controlled by the DPRK. Subsequently, the assets are exchanged for other cryptocurrencies.

Despite advancements in cybersecurity among exchanges and heightened international collaboration in tracking and recovering stolen funds, TRM Labs predicts that 2024 will likely witness further disruptions from one of the worlds most prolific cyber-thieves.
Missing airline part found in suburban back garden

Oxygen masks hang from the roof next to a missing window and part of a side wall of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which was on its way from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California. Photo: Instagram/@strawberrvy

A terrified passenger has described the moment she texted her mother and father goodbye after a planes window blew off mid-air.

Emma Vu sent what she thought could be her final messages to her parents while aboard Alaska Airlines flight 1282 saying: I am so scared right now. Please pray for me. Please I dont want to die. I dont want to die.
The Pope has called for a universal ban on the "despicable" practice of surrogate motherhood, as he included the "commercialisation" of pregnancy in an annual speech listing threats to global peace and human dignity.

In a foreign policy address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, Francis lamented that 2024 had dawned at a time in history in which peace is "increasingly threatened, weakened and in some part lost".
Ukraine is facing Russian missile attacks near the front lines of fighting in the east as well as in central and western parts of the country, with one person killed and at least 30 others injured.
As winter reluctantly unfolds its icy embrace across Northern India, the Harike wetland in Punjab witnesses a delayed but enthusiastic arrival of migratory birds. Approximately 40,000 to 50,000 feathered travelers have descended upon the region, transforming the wetland into a vibrant haven for avian enthusiasts and conservationists alike.

The Harike wetland, sprawling over an impressive 86 square kilometers in the Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, and Kapurthala districts of Punjab, stands as the largest wetland in North India. Nestled at the confluence of the Sutlej and Beas rivers, this ecological gem plays host to a diverse array of migratory water birds during the winter season.

Gitanjali Kanwar, coordinator at World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) India, remarked, Around 40,000 to 50,000 migratory birds are estimated to have arrived at Harike. She highlighted that the delayed onset of winter this season resulted in the tardy arrival of these avian guests, with their usual September appearance pushed back to November.

The census exercise, scheduled for this month, will unveil the exact number of migratory birds gracing the Harike wetland. Anticipation looms as birdwatchers eagerly await the comprehensive data that will shed light on the diverse species that have chosen this haven for their winter sojourn.

These winged visitors, hailing from countries such as Siberia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Russia, and beyond, seek refuge in the Harike wetland after their native water bodies freeze over during the winter months. The birds, including species like greylag geese, coots, gadwall, northern pintail, common teal, common pochard, northern shoveler, godwits, redshank, spoonbills, and painted storks, grace the wetland with their ephemeral presence until March and April.

The coordinator expressed optimism about an increase in the number of migratory birds in the coming days, with expectations of larger flocks, including pochard and ducks.

Lakhwinder Singh, the district forest and wildlife officer (Ferozepur range), affirmed the commitment to conservation efforts. He mentioned that teams have been deployed for round-the-clock patrolling at Harike to deter poaching of these migratory wonders, ensuring a safe environment for their temporary residence.

Reflecting on previous years, more than 65,000 migratory birds visited in 2023, marking a 12% decline from the numbers in 2021. The 2022 census was unfortunately skipped due to the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, in 2021, a total of 74,869 migratory birds from 88 different species made Harike their home, showcasing the wetlands significance in the realm of avian biodiversity.

Beyond Harike, Punjab boasts five more protected wetlands, including Keshopur Miani wetland, Nangal wetland, Ropar wetland, Kanjli wetland, and Beas river wetland. Additionally, the Ranjit Sagar Dam conservation reserve has earned national recognition as a wetland, contributing to the regions rich ecological tapestry.

As the migratory birds continue to grace the Harike wetland with their majestic presence, this annual avian extravaganza serves as a poignant reminder of the delicate balance between nature and human activities, urging us to cherish and preserve these natural wonders for generations to come.

(Image and text courtesy: Khalsavox.com)
Photo Courtesy: Samsung website

Samsung Electronics has expanded its Privileged Health Software Development Kit (SDK) program, with the goal of providing a broader range of tools for preventive health and fostering healthcare innovations through partnerships.

By synthesizing the Galaxy Watchs cutting-edge sensor technology with each platform, Samsung and its partners allow users to check their vital signs in real time and manage their health in an intelligent and preemptive manner.

Under our openness philosophy, Samsung is constructing an integrated and seamless digital healthcare ecosystem along with industry partners, said Hon Pak, Vice President of Digital Health Team, Mobile eXperience (MX) Business. We hope to provide users with a whole new suite of integrated health solutions, giving them the tools to easily manage and understand their health from their home.

Solutions trying to help remote patients feel connected to doctors

With the Galaxy Watch, remote patient monitoring will be swifter and more connected, with data available straight from the users wrists. Partners can check the patients vital signs in real time, alert medical teams of any irregularities and provide up-to-date data to medical staff, allowing for efficient clinical management and timely emergency response decisions.

The Biofourmis remote patient monitoring platform delivers personalized care to thousands of patients each month, deploying its solutions through strategic partnerships with leading medical institutions.

Boosted by the Galaxy Watchs comprehensive biometric data, the service has become better equipped for patient-centered care through its dashboard. Kencor Health combines Galaxy Watch with its platform for personalized remote monitoring and specifically monitors and predicts hyperkalemia in chronic kidney disease patients by using biometric feedback collected from the Galaxy Watch.

For those with heart conditions, Medical AI software provides advanced ECG services that detect arrhythmia in daily life. By combining its own AI algorithms and the Galaxy Watchs ECG technology3, the service provides smarter predictions and prompt alerts for patients.

Oova is an AI-powered womens health and fertility platform that remotely monitors hormone levels, connects to medical providers, and merges the Galaxy Watchs biometric data with hormonal changes. This integration allows for more guidance through unique cycles, including perimenopause, and enables precise prediction of a womans fertile windows.

Extended reality (XR) has expanded to healthcare services, and with Samsungs sensor technology, Galaxy Watch users can enter virtual worlds that provide immersive, therapeutic experiences from home.

Samsung partner XRHealth is a virtual clinic that provides physical and mental health therapy in the comfort of ones home. Upon starting the exercise, the Galaxy Watch monitors the users heart rate and vibrates when the assigned range is reached, serving as a pacer that tracks the users heart rate in real time.

The Healium is a bio-feedback video platform and technology that turns heart rate data from the Galaxy Watch into immersive stories and colorful animations. This visual feedback helps users see their stress levels so they can understand their heart rate more intuitively.

Smart solutions for personalized sleep environment

Recognizing that sleep is the window to holistic health, Samsung has been working on creating the ideal sleep environment with minimized distractions, relying on tech-enabled solutions such as Sleep Mode, invisible LED infrared sensors and SmartThings controls. Now Samsung is expanding its capabilities to include smart mattresses that set the perfect temperature for quality sleep.

Samsung partner 3Boon1 provides smart mattresses equipped with sensors and an AI algorithm that automatically regulates the temperature of the bed.

When the user lies down, the mattress monitors their vital signs to detect what stage of sleep they are in, adjusting the temperature between 20 to 40 degrees Celsius throughout the night to ensure uninterrupted rest. Combining the Galaxy Watchs skin temperature and heart rate measurements, the AI algorithm can further personalize the temperature in real time to fine tune the sleep environment.
Photo Courtesy: ShareAlike 4.0 International/Wikiemdia Commons

The Supreme Court will on Monday deliver the judgment on petitions challenging the Gujarat Governments decision to prematurely release 11 convicts serving life imprisonment sentence for the gang rape of Biklis Bano and various other crimes committed during the 2002 riots.

A Bench comprising Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuvan, after hearing the arguments from both sides had on October 12 reserved its judgment on the plea filed by Bano and others, challenging the remission order of the Gujarat Government which led to an early release of 11 convicts from the jail.

The court had reserved January 8, 2024, to pronounce its judgment.

The Court had directed the Centre and the state governments to submit the original files containing the decision-making process which led to the release of convicts in 2022.

The Apex Court had in March last year issued notice to the Centre and state governments on the plea of Bano challenging the remission of 11 convicts.

A Special Court in Mumbai had found the 11 accused guilty of charges of gang rape, rioting, and others and sentenced them to life imprisonment in 2008.

This decision was upheld by a division bench of the Bombay High Court in 2017.

The allegations against the accused are that during the 2002 Gujarat riots, the 11 convicts gang raped Bano and also killed seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter.

The trial of the case was shifted from Gujarat to Mumbai and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigated the case.

Bano was 21 years old and was five months pregnant when she was gang raped. The 11 convicts allegedly killed seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The state government and the convicts, however. argued that the remission was considered after the May 2022 judgment by the Supreme Court, which directed the Gujarat government to decide the remission of one of the convicts, Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, under the 1992 remission plea within two months.

This triggered action by the state government to consider the release of all convicts under the 1992 policy, the state submitted.

The state took the opinion of the presiding judge of Godhra court on June 3, 2022, and formed a jail advisory committee, which considered the opinion of the local police, jail superintendent, and the trial court judge to recommend the release of the prisoners on August 10, 2022.

A public interest litigation was filed by former Communist Party of India MP Subhashini Ali and others challenging the remission. Later Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also joined in challenging the remission.

Bilkis Bano told the Apex court that she was not informed about the remission and came to know about it from the media. She approached the top court in November 2022 against the remission.

During arguments, advocate Shobha Gupta who appeared for Bano, and senior advocates Indira Jaising, Vrinda Grover, Aparna Bhat, and Nizam Pasha among others for the petitioners urged the court to consider laying down guidelines for consideration of remission.

They argued that remission cannot ignore the constitutional norm of the dignity of women in a case where the accused were driven by communal hatred.

The petitioners further pointed out that the grant of remission was an arbitrary exercise of power. Additional solicitor general SV Raju appearing for the Gujarat government argued that the remission was a routine process.

Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra and advocate Rishi Malhotra appearing for the convicts argued that they do not belong to influential backgrounds and have already been out for a year now.

The criminal justice system is reformative, which seeks to integrate prisoners into society. Luthra contended that the convicts had already undergone 14 years of minimum prescribed imprisonment and their conduct in the jail was good which can be considered for their release.

(With UNI inputs)
Photo courtesy: UNI

New Delhi/IBNS: The Supreme Court on Monday overturned the Gujarat government's decision to release 11 convicts in the case pertaining to rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 communal riot which took place in the state, media reports said.

The top court said the Gujarat government is not competent to grant remission to the convicts.

Bano was 21 years old and was five months pregnant when she was gang raped.

The 11 convicts allegedly killed seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The state government and the convicts, however, argued that the remission was considered after the May 2022 judgment by the Supreme Court, which directed the Gujarat government to decide the remission of one of the convicts, Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, under the 1992 remission plea within two months.

This triggered action by the state government to consider the release of all convicts under the 1992 policy, the state submitted.

The state took the opinion of the presiding judge of Godhra court on June 3, 2022, and formed a jail advisory committee, which considered the opinion of the local police, jail superintendent, and the trial court judge to recommend the release of the prisoners on August 10, 2022.

A public interest litigation was filed by former Communist Party of India MP Subhashini Ali and others challenging the remission. Later, now expelled Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also joined in challenging the remission.

Bilkis Bano told the apex court that she was not informed about the remission and came to know about it from the media.

She approached the top court in November 2022 against the remission.
Photo Courtesy: PIB

New Delhi/IBNS: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina and congratulated her for the "historic" victory in the Parliamentary elections.

In a post on X, PM Modi wrote: "Spoke to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and congratulated her on her victory for a historic fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary elections."

PM Modi also congratulated the people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of the elections.

He said, "We are committed to further strengthen our enduring and people-centric partnership with Bangladesh".

Spoke to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and congratulated her on her victory for a historic fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary elections. I also congratulate the people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of elections. We are committed to further strengthen our  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 8, 2024

On Monday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured a fifth term in power as her party took three-quarters of seats in Parliament.
Sirsa/Haryana: Five hundred female college students from Haryana's Sirsa have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi' s office, and Chief Minister ML Khattar, accusing a professor at the Chaudhary Devi Lal University of sexual harassment and demanded his suspension, as well as an inquiry led by a retired High Court judge.

Copies of the letter have also been sent to Vice Chancellor Ajmer Singh Malik, Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij, and National Commission for Women Chairperson Rekha Sharma, as well as senior state government officials and select media organisations.

The letter accuses the professor of "filthy and obscene acts".

According to the letter, the professor is accused of calling girls to his office, taking them to a bathroom, and then "touching private parts, and (does) obscene things with us".

The girls said that when they protested, they were threatened with "very bad" consequences.

The letter claims this has been going on "for many months" and, "... because he gives a false impression of a person of high character", the professor in question has never been held accountable.

The girls also claimed the Vice Chancellor, rather than come to their aid, "threatened to expel us... because this professor is a person of immense political influence..."

The Vice Chancellor also tried to suppress the allegations by offering the girls better marks in written and practical examinations.

The university's Registrar, Dr Rajesh Kumar Bansal, confirmed receipt of the anonymous letter.

In the letter, the girls, who had chosen not to reveal their identities fearing "dishonour" to their families, said they do not expect action against the professor till the university is "forced" by public opinion.

The letter also calls for a probe by a retired High Court judge.
New Delhi/IBNS: Bilkis Bano, the survivor of one of the most horrific crimes during the 2002 communal riots, Monday said it is "truly the New Year" for her after the Supreme Court overturned the Gujarat government's decision to release 11 convicts who rape of Bilkis Bano and murdered seven of her family the 11 men responsible for killing her family and gangraping her will soon be back behind the bars.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court ruled that convicts, who got released last year for "good behaviour", must return to jail.

The convicts have to surrender within two weeks, the apex court said, declaring that the exercise of power by the Gujarat government was "without application of mind".

The top court said the Gujarat government is not competent to grant remission to the convicts.

"I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again," she said in a statement issued through her lawyer Shobha Gupta.

This is what justice feels like. I thank the honourable Supreme Court of India for giving me, my children and women everywhere, this vindication and hope in the promise of equal justice for all," she said.

"A year and half ago, on August 15, 2022, when those who had destroyed my family and terrorised my very existence, were given an early release, I simply collapsed," she said.

To those who stood with her during that period, "my gratitude for your precious solidarity and strength," she said. "You gave me the will to struggle, to rescue the idea of justice not just for me, but for every woman in India. I thank you," Bilkis Bano said.

"It was as if a decision was made first and process applied later, and if i dare say, unmindfully," remarked Shobha Gupta, who has been Bilkis Bano's legal counsel for decades.

She also questioned the "good behaviour" of the men that was cited for their release. "What was the reflection of the good behaviour? Nothing was reflecting," she said.

Bano was 21 years old and was five months pregnant when she was gang raped.

The 11 convicts allegedly killed seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The state government and the convicts, however, argued that the remission was considered after the May 2022 judgment by the Supreme Court, which directed the Gujarat government to decide the remission of one of the convicts, Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, under the 1992 remission plea within two months.

This triggered action by the state government to consider the release of all convicts under the 1992 policy, the state submitted.

The state took the opinion of the presiding judge of Godhra court on June 3, 2022, and formed a jail advisory committee, which considered the opinion of the local police, jail superintendent, and the trial court judge to recommend the release of the prisoners on August 10, 2022.

A public interest litigation was filed by former Communist Party of India MP Subhashini Ali and others challenging the remission. Later, now expelled Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also joined in challenging the remission.

Bilkis Bano told the apex court that she was not informed about the remission and came to know about it from the media.

She approached the top court in November 2022 against the remission.
South Koreas Tax Authority, DAXA Form Committee to Prevent Illegal Transactions: Report

South Koreas tax Authority, the Korea Customs Service group and five major cryptocurrency exchanges including Bithumb Korea, Coinone, Korbit, and Streami have formed a group to prevent illegal foreign transactions, according to a report by News1.KR.

The Digital Asset Exchange Association (DAXA), is comprised of the five most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax. DAXA plays an advisory role concerning the new committee.

DAXA is the industrys most important self-regulating body in South Korea. The DAXA members are the only exchanges in the country with the operating permits required to offer fiat-won trading.

Korea Customs Service was formed in 1970 and is run under the Ministry of Economy and Finance and is headquartered in Seo District, Daejeon in South Korea.

According to News1.KR, the newly formed committee will respond to any actions initiated around illegal foreign exchange transactions linked to cryptocurrencies. The committee will discuss ways to cooperate with regulators and organizations in South Korea as well as listen to concerns and opinions about illegal foreign transactions.

FSC Clamps Down on Money Laundering

Recently South Koreas Financial Services Commission announced plans to clamp down on the illegal outflow of funds overseas. The commission put forward a ban on using credit cards to purchase cryptocurrency to stop money laundering.

In December, an announcement was made by DAXA that it would team up with financial regulators to search for undeclared crypto operators.

The Asian country continues to dominate the headlines, just hours before New Years Eve, Orbit Bridge, which serves as the main bridge for the Claytont ecosystem, was exploited for nearly $82 million hours. Multiple South Korean agencies are currently investigating the multi-million hack.

Allegations have emerged identifying North Koreas hacking group, Lazarus, as the orchestrator of the exploit, prompting several South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) to intervene for a comprehensive investigation.
EaseMyTrip cancels all Maldives flight bookings. Photo Courtesy: Pixabay

Travel booking website EaseMyTrip on Monday said it cancelled all Maldives flight bookings after a diplomatic row erupted with India over remarks against Indian PM Narendra Modi's recent visit to Lakshadweep.

Supporting India, Nishant Pitti, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Indian online travel company, wrote on X: "In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings #TravelUpdate #SupportingNation #LakshadweepTourism #ExploreIndianlslands #Lakshadweep #ExploreIndianIslands @kishanreddybjp@JM_Scindia@PMOIndia@tourismgoi@narendramodi@incredibleindia."

In a separate post, he urged people to visit Ayodhya or Lakshadweep.

"Embark on a journey with @EaseMyTrip to discover the enchanting beauty of Ayodhya and the pristine allure of Lakshadweep! Immerse yourself in rich culture and breathtaking landscapes. Say no to Maldives bookings and explore the wonders of Ayodhya and Lakshadweep," he said.

Ayodhya and Maharishi Valmiki Airport

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Ayodhya's Maharishi Valmiki Airport and the newly renovated railway station on Dec 30 paving the way for the grand consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in the heart of Uttar Pradesh.

Not limited to this, the city of Ayodhya underwent a significant transformation ahead of the temple's inauguration on Jan 22, with experts predicting a substantial surge in spiritual tourism.

The developments have brought a massive change in tourists as they plan holidays. While the usual rush during this time of the year is either hills or beaches, interestingly, the focus has now shifted to exploring Ayodhya.

The Ayodhya airport, which is called the Maharishi Valmiki International Airport Ayodhya Dham, has been developed at a cost of over  1,450 crore. The airport's terminal has an area of 6,500 sq m and will be equipped to serve about 10 lakh passengers annually.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summoned Maldivian envoy to India Ibrahim Shaheeb on Monday and conveyed strong concern over remarks posted on social media against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Embark on a journey with @EaseMyTrip to discover the enchanting beauty of Ayodhya and the pristine allure of Lakshadweep! Immerse yourself in rich culture and breathtaking landscapes. Say no to Maldives bookings and explore the wonders of Ayodhya and Lakshadweep. Watch our video https://t.co/IQC3kukCtQ  Nishant Pitti (@nishantpitti) January 8, 2024

As per reports, the Maldives High Commissioner was seen arriving at the MEA office building and leaving a short while later.

The Ministry summoned the envoy amid the ongoing row between India and the Maldives over derogatory remarks made by Maldivian leaders against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Lakshadweep.

Earlier, On Monday Indian High Commissioner to Maldives, Munu Mahawar held a pre-arranged meeting with Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at large at the Maldivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Male.

The Indian High Commission in Maldives posted on X, "High Commissioner Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues."

Meanwhile, the Maldives government has distanced itself from the remarks made by its ministers. Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer said that these remarks against foreign leaders are unacceptable and do not reflect the official position of the Maldives government.
A still from PM Narendra Modi's recent visit to Lakshadweep. Photo Courtesy: PIB

Travel company MakeMyTrip (MMT) on Monday said it observed a 3400 per cent spike in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep since Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited it recently.

"We have observed a 3400% increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since Honorable PMs visit," the company posted on X.

"This interest in Indian beaches has inspired us to launch a 'Beaches of India' campaign on the platform with offers and discounts to encourage Indian travellers to explore countrys stunning beaches. Keep watching this space!" the company further said.

Several Indian celebrities have been urging citizens to visit Lakshadweep and joined the #ExploreIndianislands trend on social media platforms.

India-Maldives diplomatic row

Meanwhile, a controversy erupted over some Maldivian politician's remarks against Narendra Modi following his visit to the UT.

MEA summons Maldivian envoy

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summoned the Maldivian envoy to India Ibrahim Shaheeb on Monday and conveyed strong concern over remarks posted on social media against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As per reports, the Maldives High Commissioner was seen arriving at the MEA office building and leaving a short while later.

The Ministry summoned the envoy amid the ongoing row between India and the Maldives over derogatory remarks made by Maldivian leaders against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Lakshadweep.

Earlier, On Monday Indian High Commissioner to Maldives, Munu Mahawar held a pre-arranged meeting with Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at large at the Maldivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Male.

The Indian High Commission in Maldives posted on X, "High Commissioner Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues."

Maldives government distances itself from remarks made by ministers

Meanwhile, the Maldives government has distanced itself from the remarks made by its ministers. Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer said that these remarks against foreign leaders are unacceptable and do not reflect the official position of the Maldives government
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu embarks on China state visit amid ongoing diplomatic row with India. Photo Courtesy: Maldives President website

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, who is perceived as pro-Chinese, and First Lady Sajidha Mohamed departed for China on Sunday for a state visit amid an ongoing diplomatic row with India.

"This visit is being made following an invitation from the President of China, H.E. Xi Jinping," read a statement issued by the Maldives President's website.

"During President Dr Muizzu's State Visit, the Maldives and China will hold official talks and sign key agreements to enhance trade, professional development, and socioeconomic cooperation. This visit will also pave the way for collaborations in technology and other areas between the two countries," the statement said.

Diplomatic row with India

He is visiting China amid a growing diplomatic row with India over the comments made by three Maldivian ministers against Indian PM Narendra Modi.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday summoned Maldivian envoy to India Ibrahim Shaheeb on Monday and conveyed strong concern over remarks posted on social media against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As per reports, the Maldives High Commissioner was seen arriving at the MEA office building and leaving a short while later.

Earlier, On Monday Indian High Commissioner to Maldives, Munu Mahawar held a pre-arranged meeting with Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at large at the Maldivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Male.

High Commissioner Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues.  India in Maldives (@HCIMaldives) January 8, 2024

The Indian High Commission in Maldives posted on X, "High Commissioner Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues."

Ministers suspended

The Maldivian government on Sunday suspended three ministers for their alleged derogatory remarks against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi which triggered a row between the two nations.

The three ministers were identified as Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha Shareef and Mahzoom Majid.

"Those who made such posts on social media while in government positions have now been suspended from their jobs," read a statement issued by the country's government as quoted by NDTV.

This comes in the wake of Maldivian Minister Mariyam Shiunas disparaging comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "clown" and "puppet" in posts on X, which have since been deleted.

These tweets were removed following criticism and backlash on the micro-blogging site.

India-Maldives relationship

The row erupted under the shadow of strained India-Maldives ties after President Mohamed Muizzu, who is seen as a pro-China politician, came to power.

Muizzu assumed the presidency of the Maldives in November 2023. As part of his election promise, he committed to withdrawing a group of approximately 75 Indian military personnel from his country and revising the Maldives' longstanding "India first" policy.

'Boycott Maldives' is trending on social media following a tweet by a Maldives minister days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pictorial visit to the Lakshadweep archipelago.

PM Modi's visit to the country's smallest Union Territory comprising 36 islands with an area of 32 sq km was seen as a move to promote tourism on the island.
Photo Courtesy: Pixabay

The Baloch National Movement Germany Chapter on Saturday demonstrated in solidarity with the long march for the families of Baloch missing persons in Pakistan.

A huge number of members from the Baloch diaspora in Germany participated in the protest. Pamphlets distributed during the protests highlighted the gross human rights violations in Balochistan carried out by Pakistani security forces and the use of force against the peaceful long march against the Baloch genocide, reported ANI.

Member of the Central Committee of Baloch National Movement Hammal Khan while addressing the demonstration, was quoted as saying by ANI: This movement which started in Turbat after the fake encounter of Balach Mola Bakhsh, is not for one individual or some families. Rather, it is for the entire Baloch nation. Because any movement is neither for an individual nor a particular area or belongs to a party; movement. In reality, it belongs to the entire nation. It is national sense of belonging that contacts us, no matter how far away we are from our motherland.

Hammal Khan added: It is also our sense of belonging that today we are here and trying our best to be the voice of our people. He also warned that the day when we distance ourselves from national sense of belonging, it would be a harbinger of our death as a diaspora.

Pakistan's Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, who appeared to be visibly irked, last week said those supporting Baloch protest should join the 'Baloch militants'.

Advocates of terrorists in Balochistan should go and join them if they are convinced on the veracity of their issue and fight the state along with them, so that we know where they stand and how to deal with them, he was quoted as saying by Dawn News during a press conference, alluding to rights activists and journalists standing with the Baloch marchers.

The PM said those protesting in Islamabad are relatives of those fighting against the state in Balochistan.

Pakistan police allegedly used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters in Islamabad last month.

The protesters demonstrated against the alleged enforced disappearances of men in Balochistan province.
Photo Courtesy: Pixabay

Baloch, Sindhis and Pashtuns diaspora members in Canada on Saturday hosted a demonstration to express their solidarity with the thousands of Baloch marchers in Pakistan against atrocities, enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killings, torture by the army and other security agencies, media reports said.

The joint protest in Toronto was called by the Baloch Human Rights Council of Canada, World Sindhi Council and Pashtun Council Canada to condemn Islamabads apartheid policy of violence and repression against the Baloch, Sindhis and Pashtuns in the strongest terms, ANI reported.

Speakers at the Toronto solidarity rally strongly condemned the discriminatory attitude of the Pakistani Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar and the Islamabad police in using excessive force, baton charges, water cannons and mass arrests of students and protesters during a peaceful sit-in outside the National Press Club in Islamabad, the news agency reported.

Addressing the solidarity gathering, speakers highlighted the discriminative and repressive nature of the Pakistani state towards political dissent and exclusively the oppressed nations of Baloch, Sindhis, and Pashtuns.

Pakistan's Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, who appeared to be visibly irked, last week said those supporting Baloch protest should join the 'Baloch militants'.

Advocates of terrorists in Balochistan should go and join them if they are convinced on the veracity of their issue and fight the state along with them, so that we know where they stand and how to deal with them, he was quoted as saying by Dawn News during a press conference, alluding to rights activists and journalists standing with the Baloch marchers.

The PM said those protesting in Islamabad are relatives of those fighting against the state in Balochistan.

Pakistan police allegedly used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters in Islamabad last month.

The protesters demonstrated against the alleged enforced disappearances of men in Balochistan province.
FAA says 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes will remain grounded until it is satisfied with the safety of the flights. Photo Courtesy: Pixabay

The US aviation regulator on Sunday said 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes will remain grounded until it is satisfied with the safety of the flights.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently inspecting the jets after a part of an Alaska Airlines plane's fuselage fell off on Friday (January 5, 2024), triggering panic mid-air.

The FAA said its first priority was "keeping the flying public safe", reported BBC.

"We have grounded the affected airplanes, and they will remain grounded until the FAA is satisfied that they are safe," the FAA said in a statement as quoted by the British media.

Thousands of passengers found their flights were cancelled after major US airlines grounded dozes of jets following the mid-air incident.

Oregon mid-flight blowout

A passenger airline made an emergency landing in the US state of Oregon on Friday (January 5, 2023) after a section of its fuselage blew open mid-air.

The Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 returned to Portland 35 minutes into its flight to California after an outer section, including a window, fell, reported BBC.

The airline major said the aircraft landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 171 guests and 6 crew members.
Photo courtesy: Pixabay

Washington: US intelligence claims that Chinese missiles are filled with water instead of fuel due to corruption in Chinese military circles, Bloomberg reported on Saturday, citing sources.

Corruption has undermined Chinese President Xi Jinping's efforts to modernize the countrys armed forces, so the United States is confident that the Chinese leader is now less likely to intend to launch major military actions in the coming years, the report said.

The intelligence also believes that lids of missile silos in western China do not function in a way that will allow missiles to launch effectively, the report added.

At the same time, the purge carried out in the ranks of the military did not weaken the position of the Chinese leader, the report read.

(With UNI Inputs)
Most of us watch fictional shows to take a break from reality and indulge ourselves in a make-belief world to help us forget our troubles and tribulations.



The beauty of period dramas is that not only are they a fabulous means of escapism but its completely a viewers choice to visit a specific time period. From ancient Rome to sweeping gowns and society balls, theres a period drama for everyone.

We saw the The Crown finale this year and if you are somebody who loved it then take a look at some of the must watch period dramas and where to stream them on OTT:



1. Bridgerton

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Taking place in the early part of the 19th century, the show follows eight siblings in the Bridgerton family, four boys and four girls, as they seek the loves of their lives. Revolving mostly around Daphne, the eldest Bridgerton, she is shown to officially enter the competitive marriage market. This entails balls and galas where young women are introduced to young men. Interested parties later visit the girls home to be interviewed and examined by their families for suitability.



Where to watch: Netflix

2. Queens Gambit

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This seven-part limited series chronicles the story of an orphaned chess prodigy Beth Harmon, who grapples with alcohol and drug addiction and eventually goes on to compete with several elite chess players across the world, tackling the inherent sexism in the sport at the same time. Not only is this ride into the world of Harmon nail-biting but it also gives a detailed insight into the lesser-known world of chess.

Where to watch: Netflix

3. Downton Abbey

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Set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1926, this series revolves around the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and the events of that time that had lasting effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.



The Crawleys are waited on by Downton's servants, most of whom care greatly for the nobility they serve. The show is inspired by the 1970s BBC series Upstairs, Downstairs, which told the story of how upstairs nobles interacted with downstairs servants.



Where to watch: Netflix

4. Reign

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A historical drama series, Reign is set in the late sixteenth century and revolves around the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her rise to power in the French court. From her arrival in France as a 15-year-old to being betrothed to Prince Francis, it chronicles the secret history of survival at French Court amidst fierce foes, dark forces, and a world of sexual intrigue.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video





5. The Marvelous Mrs Maisel

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A period comedy drama, this show is about a housewife Miriam aka Midge who decided to become a stand-up comic. Set in 1950s Manhattan, Midge who had always been a cheerleader wife to a man who dreams of a stand-up comedy career, finds her perfect life upended when her husband suddenly leaves her for another woman. Thats when she decides to make a career for herself in the world dominated by male comedians.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video



6. Vikings

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A historical drama series, Vikings tells the saga of Ragnar's band of Viking brothers and his family as he rises to become King of the Viking tribes. Apart from being a fearless warrior, Ragnar embodies the Norse traditions of devotion to the gods.

Where to watch: Netflix

7. Doctor Thorne



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A three-part television drama adaptation of the 1858 Anthony Trollope novel Doctor Thorne, the plot of the show revolves around Doctor Thomas Thorne and his younger brother Henry who are left to fend for themselves after the demise of their father. While Thomas tries to establish a medical practice, Henry seduces Mary Scatcherd, the sister of stonemason Roger Scatcherd. When Roger finds out that Mary has become pregnant, he kills Henry in a fight.



Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

8. The Tudors

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Taking place in the 16th century, this show revolves around King Henry VIIIs desire to dissolve his marriage with Queen Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn and secure his dynasty. There are many intriguing sub plots like Princess Margaret murdering the King of Portugal and marrying Charles Brandon and Thomas Tallis homosexual affair with Sir William Compton among others



Where to watch: SonyLiv



9. Versailles



mubi

The year is 1667 and King Louis XIV is a 28-year-old monarch on the cusp of greatness. He is a ruthless leader who will stop at nothing to achieve his vision of creating the most beautiful palace in Europe and seizing absolute control of France and his enemies.



Where to watch: Netflix

10. Peaky Blinders



infinite dreams



Set in 1919, Thomas Shelby and his brothers return to Birmingham after serving in the British Army during World War I. Shelby is the leader of a gang called Peaky Blinders that controls the city of Birmingham. However, Shelby's ambitions extend beyond Birmingham as he plans to build on the business empire he's created, and stop anyone who gets in his way.

Where to watch: Netflix

The Crown - Previous Seasons

the crown

The Crown revolves around the life of Queen Elizabeth II from her wedding in 1947 to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, until the early 21st century. As a young newlywed, she is faced with leading the world's most famous monarchy, while parallelly forming a relationship with legendary Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Prepare to experience the coveted world of power and privilege behind the locked doors of Westminster and Buckingham Palace.

Where to watch: Netflix



(To read more such stories related to movies and shows released on OTTs, keep reading Indiatimes BINGE)


When Princess Diana and film mogul Dodi Fayed died in a road accident in Paris on August 31, 1997, their romance was only getting started.

In the sixth and final season of talked about show The Crown, their relationship will hold centre stage.

Before we dive into what is shown in the show, lets take a look at their love story.

Princess Diana And Dodi Fayed - A Love Story That Was Starting To Blossom

As we saw in the previous season of web series The Crown, Dodi produced films such as The Scarlet Letter and Breaking Glass in addition to Chariots of Fire, which was nominated for an Oscar.

His family was made up of billionaires. Dodi (born Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Mena'em Fayed) was the firstborn child of Saudi Arabian writer Samira Khashoggi and Egyptian business mogul Mohamed Al-Fayed, who owned Harrods.

Dodi collaborated with his father on a number of family ventures and was purportedly paid 400,000 per month.

Twitter

In 1986, Dodi wed Suzanne Gregard; however, their marriage lasted less than a year. Subsequently, in 1997, he became engaged to Kelly Fisher, a model; however, their romance came to an abrupt stop when Dodi began dating Princess Diana. Their summer romance began when she was on a vacation with Prince William and Prince Harry. After their trip, Lady Di reportedly wrote a letter to Fayed thanking him for his company and being such a joy during their trip.



When Dodi and Diana were snapped kissing on the Fayed family yacht in August 1997, their romance became widely known (the picture was released on August 10, 1997, as per Sara Bradford's Diana biography).

The Guardian said that Dodi was "linked" to "a lot of women" before he started dating Diana, including Brooke Shields, Julia Roberts, Winona Ryder, and Daryl Hannah.

Dodi Tragically Died in a Car Accident With Diana

Diana and Dodi died in an automobile accident when they were traveling together. After visiting the French and Italian Rivieras, the couple was on holiday in Paris when the tragedy happened on August 31, 1997.

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To know details about the accident, read this article. - The Crown 6: How Did Princess Diana Die? True Story Behind The Tragic Accident

Story Behind the Famous Yacht Photo Recreated in The Crown

The "revenge dress," which Princess Diana donned following Prince Charles's public admission of infidelity, is arguably the most memorable of the many classic visual moments that The Crown has faithfully portrayed in the last two seasons. The show's sixth and last season, which debuted in two parts on Thursday, Nov. 16, tells the story of what happened before Diana unexpectedly passed away on August 31, 1997, as well as the background of one of her most well-known photos ever taken.

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Taken only a week before Diana passed away, it appears to depict the loneliness and sense of being hunted that she experienced in her last days.

Talk Around The Kiss Photo

A series of images of the Princess in France were leaked by the paparazzi and were subsequently published worldwide. 'The Kiss,' as it has come to be known, is arguably the most well-known of these. The picture of Diana and Dodi cuddling is featured in The Crown.

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According to reports, the seemingly carefree lovers-themed photo was sold for 1 million at auction. When the picture went on sale, interest in Princess Diana's personal life was at an all-time high and it brought in a sizable sum of money.

Love Story Depiction In The Crown 6

The Crown on Netflix has incited anger once more by "fabricating" the love tale between Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.

The Royal drama, which portrayed the Egyptian millionaire Al-Fayed pressuring his son to date the late princess in order to obtain British citizenship, sparked the outrage.

In the first episodes of The Crown, Salim Dau's character Al-Fayed introduces Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi (Khalid Abdalla) aboard his Mediterranean-style yacht.

Netflix

The footage then continues to show Al-Fayed asking a maid to check if Dodi and Diana are sleeping in the same bed. After receiving confirmation, he gives the go-ahead for an Italian photographer to capture their personal photos in a quiet clinch on Jonikal.

Al-Fayed's former spokesperson, Michael Cole, denied the claim, telling Deadline that his late boss's involvement in the relationship was "total nonsense."
In spite of the glamour and fame, humble, Pankaj Tripathi remains to be grounded and kind and empathetic. And that's one of the reasons why he is India's favourite actor. He not only adds subtlety to his performances, but he also makes sure he remains close to his roots always.

Twitter

Pankaj Tripathi goes to his village for a vacation

While most Bollywood stars take a vacation abroad, just like Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh did by celebrating his birthday in the US, Pankaj Tripathi on the other hand, went to his village for a vacation. Not Maldives or Paris, when Tripathi got some time off work, he decided to visit his village in Gopalganj district.

Twitter

Not just that, he even cooked Litti Chokha.

In the video doing the rounds on social media, he prepares Bihar's delicacy Litti Chokha. He does it in the traditional style - sitting in a squatting position in a circle beside a coal fire baking the littis.

Twitter

He also bathed in a tubewell.

"Anand le rahe hain Gaon ka... Litti Chokha bann raha hai aaj... Tubewell mein naha rahe hain...", he can be seen saying in the video.



For the unversed, before Pankaj Tripathi tried his hands at acting, he used to work on his farm along with his father.

Tripathi hails from Bihar's Belsand village. He grew up in the village and as a child was a part of some amateur-level plays where he mostly portrayed the role of a girl onscreen. He moved for higher studies to Patna, where his life eventually took a turn for the best.

He struggled for 14 years and even worked at a hotel's kitchen.

"I used to work in a hotel kitchen at night and do theatre in the morning. After finishing my night shift - I did it for two years - I used to come back and sleep for five hours and then do theatre from 2-7 pm and then again hotel work from 11-7 in the morning," he had earlier told PTI.

Web Screen Grab

Last year, Pankaj Tripathi had put forth the interesting suggestion of creating a film-friendly set-up in a village near Patna, which is well-connected to the city, where people from Bollywood can shoot.

"A film-friendly 'mohalla' or colony is possible with a little bit of funding from the government to create a film panchayat at a well-connected village near Patna, at least on a trial basis for now. The area can hence be marked by filmmakers all across the country to shoot any urban setting scenes they need to for their film, with the maximum help in the form of a solid support system provided by the locals there," Tripathi, who was born in Belasand, Gopalganj District, said.

The actor feels villagers can be trained to work as junior artistes in the films shot there, which could be a source of income for them.



(For more news and updates from the world of celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment, and let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments below.)
Usher in a New Year by checking out some of the amazing cultural events that our area has to offer. From classical to rock and folk to blues, there is a lot to do during January!

On Sunday, Jan. 14 at 4 p.m., Market Square Concerts will present the Varshavski-Shapiro Piano Duo, who will perform works by Franz Schubert, Igor Stravinsky, Manuel de Falla, Max Reger and Maurice Ravel. Called a piano duo that can charm even the most versed music lovers, the Varshavski-Shapiro Piano Duo has captured top prizes at numerous competitions and has performed at distinguished venues in Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Rome and throughout the United States. The concert will be held at the Whitaker Centers Sunoco Performance Theater located at 222 Market St., in Harrisburg. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at marketsquareconcerts.org.

A perennial tribute concert in Carlisle, EagleMania returns to the Carlisle Theatre at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, courtesy of Fly on the Wall Concerts. Working under the slogan The Worlds Greatest Eagles Tribute Band, the group has dedicated itself to faithfully reproducing the music of the Eagles in the most authentic way possible. Audiences can expect to hear hits such as Take It Easy, Lying Eyes, Desperado and Already Gone, as well as some of the solo work of Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh. The theater is located at 40 W. High St., in Carlisle. Tickets range between $39.50 and $49.50 and can be purchased at carlisletheatre.org.

On Sunday, Jan. 21 at 2 p.m., the Trindle Spring Lutheran Church of Mechanicsburg will present Duo Entre-Nous as part of the churchs ongoing Music at the Spring series. Considered the worlds leading saxophone and clarinet duo, Duo Entre-Nous features clarinetist Jackie Glazier and saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl, who is from Central Pennsylvania. The group dedicates itself to the evolution and continued progression of new music. The concert will be held at Trindle Spring Lutheran Church located at 14 State Road in Mechanicsburg. The event is free, although a free-will offering will be taken. For information, visit trindlespringlutheran.org.

The Music @ Bosler series will resume at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26 with the folk, bluegrass and Americana sounds of the Pennsylvania Fiddlers. The concert is free to the public and will be held in Meeting Rooms A and B of Bosler Memorial Library located at 158 W. High St., in Carlisle. Other upcoming concerts feature Bluegrass with Stone House Breakdown on Feb. 23 and Delta Blues with Musical Journey with Matthew on March 22. For more information, visit cumberlandcountylibraries.org.

Also in Carlisle, the music department of Dickinson College will present the program Venus Unleashed at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28. The concert will feature the Dickinson Faculty Brass Trio playing brass trio compositions written by female composers. The Dickinson Faculty Brass Trio features Jeffrey Wohlbach on trumpet, Grace Salyards on horn and Greg Strohman on trombone. The concert will be held at Rubendall Recital Hall located on Church Avenue on the Dickinson College campus. It is free of charge. For more information, visit dickinson.edu.

At the end of the month on Sunday, Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m., the Susquehanna Folk Music Society in collaboration with the Blues Society of Central PA will present Piedmont Bluz Acoustic Duo. This husband-and-wife-duo performs country blues music and features Valerie Turner playing Piedmont-style fingerpicking on guitar and Benedict Turner, who is a roots percussionist specializing in lap-style washboard.

Their repertoire is mostly from the 1920s and 1930s, and each piece is introduced with an interesting anecdote about either the composer, the time period or the song itself. The concert will be held at the Fort Hunter Centennial Barn located at 5300 N. Front St., in Harrisburg. Tickets are $26 and can be purchased at susquehannafolk.org.
The co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EaseMyTrip, Nishant Pitti, has announced the suspension of all Maldives flight bookings following the derogatory remarks made by Maldives ministers against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. EaseMyTrip is a online travel solutions provider.

Suspends all flight bookings

Standing in support of India, Nishant Pitti took to social media X, stating, "In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings."

Meanwhile, the service provider has initiated #ChaloLakshadweep campaign. In his post on X, he said, "Water & beaches of Lakshadweep are as good as Maldives/Seychelles We at @EaseMyTrip will come up with crazy special-offers to promote this pristine destination that our PM @narendramodi has recently visited!

#ChaloLakshadweep



Water & beaches of Lakshadweep are as good as Maldives/Seychelles



We at @EaseMyTrip will come up with crazy special-offers to promote this pristine destination that our PM @narendramodi has recently visited! pic.twitter.com/T2ZTd52TOt  Prashant Pitti (@ppitti) January 4, 2024





Call for boycott amid row

Earlier, the Indian Association of Tour Operators predicted that the call for a boycott would become apparent within the next 20-25 days. Many Indians on social media have claimed that they have cancelled their planned holidays to the island nation.

"Suddenly, there has been no inquiry on Maldives. There are sudden drops. Those who have made payments will not cancel them. We are expecting that people will not book trips to the Maldives," Rajiv Mehra, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, said.

Another operator echoed a similar sentiment, stating that such statements by politicians prevent people from choosing a particular nation for a trip.



However, operators deny reports of mass cancellations, stating, "If a person has paid an advance for plane tickets and hotels, they will not cancel it." Many Indians on social media have claimed that they have cancelled their planned holidays to the island nation.

The founder of Make My Trip, Deep Kalra, said that there has been no mass cancellation of planned holidays by Indians to the island nation. "We have not noticed such a pattern as of now. There has been no such mass cancellation," Kalra said.

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Indian summons Maldives envoy

India has summoned the Maldives envoy after three ministers of the island nation made derogatory remarks against India This comes as the Maldives government on Sunday suspended three ministers Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha Shareef, and Mahzoom Majid over their derogatory remarks against India.



Maldives ministers slam remarks against India

Meanwhile, former Deputy Speaker of Maldives and sitting MP Eva Abdulla, apologised for the minister's remark, calling it wrong. Such statements should not be made, she asserted.

Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer said that these remarks against foreign leaders are "unacceptable" and do not reflect the official position of the Maldives government. He stated that the Maldives remains committed to fostering a "positive and constructive dialogue" with all its partners, particularly its neighbours.



Controversy and how it began

Maldivian minister triggered a controversy by making disparaging remarks about India and ridiculing PM Modi's visit to Lakshadweep, portraying it as a tourist destination for Indians.

Zahid Rameez, who is a member of the Progressive Party of Maldives Senate,mocked the beaches of Lakshadweep Island and questioned whether the services provided by the Union Territory of India can match those offered by the Maldives.

The move is great. However, the idea of competing with us is delusional. How can they provide the service we offer? How can they be so clean? The permanent smell in the rooms will be the biggest downfall.  https://t.co/AzWMkcxdcf  Zahid Rameez (@xahidcreator) January 5, 2024

Reflecting his prejudiced mindset toward Indians, he wrote, The move is great. However, the idea of competing with us is delusional. How can they provide the service we offer? How can they be so clean? The permanent smell in the rooms will be the biggest downfall."

For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News.


The resulsts of the elections in Bangladesh came on expected lines as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was able to secure her chair for the fourth time. The polls in India's most friendly neighbour were affected by violence and a boycott from the main opposition party.

The election was held in 299 out of 300 parliamentary seats. In one seat, the election was postponed as required by law after an independent candidate died.



Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina

The ruling Awami League party won 167 seats out of 227 seats with the outcome of the rest of the seats still to be announced, according to unofficial results released by the Election Commission.

Hasina herself bagged 249,962 votes from her constituency Gopalganj, about 165 kilometres (103 miles) south of the capital Dhaka, while her nearest rival secured just 469 votes.

According to reports, at least 18 arson attacks preceded the vote but the election day passed in relative calm. Turnout was around 40%.

Opposition rejects elections results

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former premier Khaleda Zia refused to accept the election outcome, saying Bangladeshi voters have rejected the government's one-sided election.

Security incidents, including four deaths in an arson attack on a passenger train on Friday, intensified tensions ahead of the election that was shunned by Zia's party and its allied groups. They accuse Hasina of turning Bangladesh into a one-party state and muzzling dissent and civil society.

Authorities blamed much of the violence on the BNP, accusing it of seeking to sabotage the election.

AFP

A victory for the 76-year-old Hasina, the countrys longest-serving leader and one of its most consequential, would come with a deeply contentious political landscape.

The government has rejected a monthslong demand by the BNP to have a neutral caretaker government administer Sunday's vote.

The government has defended the election, saying 27 parties and 404 independent candidates are participating. But with scores of candidates from the Awami League running as independents and mostly smaller opposition parties in the race, analysts say Hasina's win is near inevitable.

After casting her ballot, Hasina dismissed concerns over the legitimacy of the vote, telling reporters she was accountable to the people and whether they accepted the election or not was what mattered to her.

Im trying my best to ensure that democracy should continue in this country, she added. Without democracy, you cannot make any development.

With inputs from PTI
Preparations are underway for Ram Lalla's 'pran-pratishtha' ceremony on January 22. Elephant, lion, Lord Hanuman, and Garuda idols, as well as Lord Vishnu's 'vahana', have been placed at the Janmabhoomi Temple's entrance gate.

People are participating in the same countrywide with their own offerings. Here's what students from Varanasi did recently.

Who created the 5-foot-long diya?

PTI

Ahead of the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22, students in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi created a five-foot-long diya from Ganga river dirt to be lit on the big day, according to reports.



How much time did it take to create?

One of the students who constructed the diya told PTI that it took them 10 days to create the lamp, which is 5 feet long, 4 feet broad, and 1.5 feet tall. They even intend to send the gigantic diya to Ayodhya.

PTI

Champat Rai, general secretary of the Ram Temple Trust, has revealed information on the Lord Ram idol that would be erected in the temple. Rai stated that the idol is in the shape of a five-year-old child, fashioned of dark stone, and stands 51 inches tall.



What other preparations are taking place for the big day?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22. He will execute the ceremonies in the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram Temple at about 12.15 p.m. Over 7,000 guests have received invitations to the consecration ceremony, including 3,000 VVIPs such as priests, donors, and politicians.

In addition, many tent towns are being built in the temple town to accommodate the thousands of devotees who are anticipated to gather for Ram Lalla's pran-pratishtha on January 22.

The Ram Temple complex, built in the ancient Nagara architecture, will be 380 feet long (east-west), 250 feet wide, and 161 feet high. PM Modi laid the foundation stone for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on August 5, 2020. The Ram temple will be accessible to pilgrims on January 23.

Check out the video here.

Visuals of a five foot long diya being crafted with the soil of the Ganga river in Varanasi for the upcoming Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22. pic.twitter.com/6dYIOBSZgk  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 6, 2024

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Preparations for the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony in Ayodhya are underway. On January 22, D-day for Ayodhya, a number of people will attend the event in person. Those who won't get to go to Ayodhya can tune into the live broadcast.

On that note, here's a list of all the places where the consecration ceremony will be broadcast live:

1. 14,000 temples across Delhi

Akshardham

The live broadcast of the January 22 consecration ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya would be shown in approximately 14,000 temples across the national capital, according to Karnail Singh, chairman of the Delhi BJP's temple cell.



According to Singh, approximately 200 people will be present at each temple to see the ceremony live. He stated that about 30 lakh people are anticipated to attend the screening throughout the city's temples.



2. Uttar Pradesh Jails

Representative Image

The Ram Temple consecration ceremony on 22 January will be live-streamed in all Uttar Pradesh jails, allowing convicts to see the event in real-time. UP Prison Minister Dharmveer Prajapati made the announcement: "There are more than 1.05 lakh prisoners right now. They too are citizens of this country. To ensure that they do not remain away from this occasion, live streaming will be done at all jails in the state."

3. Times Square, New York

ANI

According to reports, the consecration ceremony of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22 will not only be broadcast live across India but will also be live-streamed at the iconic Times Square in New York City, in the United States.



According to the report, Ram Lalla's much-anticipated 'Pran-Pratishtha' ceremony will be live-streamed at various Indian embassies and consulates throughout the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address devotees in India and around the world.

4. Lok Sabha constituencies

The BJP has planned a live telecast of the Ram idol consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22 at each polling station in all Lok Sabha constituencies.

The party has reportedly activated its district units and over 610 lakh workers to present the live transmission on giant screens installed at each booth across all panchayats.

"We are hiring big screens, and many operators have offered us screens for free," a senior BJP leader stated. "With this support in the service of Ram, the people will have direct access to watch the live telecast of the consecration ceremony," the archbishop added.

More than 50 crore people are expected to watch the live broadcast of Ram Mandir's consecration ceremony.

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A showroom in Mangalore was reduced to flames after a fire mishap. A day after videos of a Tata Nexon EV catching fire in Mumbai surfaced, a fire broke out in an Okinawa showroom.



Several electric scooters were destroyed after a fire accident in Mangalore on Friday. Electric two-wheeler maker Okinawa Auto Tech claims the fire incident at its showroom in Mangalore was due to an electric "short circuit."

In March this year, Okinawa Autotechs EV caught fire in Tamil Nadus Vellore. The accident claimed the lives of two people, including a 13-year-old girl.

After the mishap, Niti Aayog call for a voluntary recall of scooters related to fire incidents. Okinawa Autotech recalled 3,215 units of its Praise Pro Scooters in April to fix battery-related issues.



Agencies

"We are aware of an unfortunate fire incident at one of our showrooms in Mangalore this morning. As stated by the dealer, the fire was caused by an electric short circuit, Okinawa Autotech said in a statement on Friday.



"We are in touch with the dealership and extending all the necessary support," the company said. "Safety is at the core of Okinawa Autotech, and we want to assure you that the highest standards of safety are maintained in our dealerships across the country," it added.

The government subsequently ordered an independent probe into the incident, which the company is also investigating.

Agencies

This is the second such incident occurring at the Gurugram-headquartered EV maker's showroom in the recent past, as earlier this year, one of its outlets in Tamil Nadu was engulfed in flames.



At that time, the company had clarified that the fire was due to a short circuit.

Besides Okinawa and Tata Motors, incidents of fire in the EVs of other manufacturers such as Ola Electric and PureEV have also occurred recently.

Following multiple incidents of electric vehicles (EVs) catching fire and resulting in death and severe injuries to people earlier this year, the government set up an expert panel to investigate these incidents and make recommendations on remedial steps.



The panel is expected to submit its report by this month-end. Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, on April 21, also assured that any company found to be negligent would be penalized.

(With PTI inputs)

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Just a couple of months before the Lok Sabha elections take place this year, Indias Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present the interim Budget 2024 on February 1. And just like every year, taxpayers are bound to have some expectations of relief from the Budget.

Well, it seems that the middle-class income taxpayers are set for a pleasant surprise this time.

Budget 2024: Relief For Middleclass Taxpayers?

businesstoday

The interim budget on 1 February is likely to increase the tax rebate under the new income tax regime. This is as per two people close to the discussions said, giving relief to the middle class ahead of the approaching Lok Sabha elections, Mint reported.



It is expected that the govt may raise the tax rebate, which at present is available for income up to Rs 7 lakh, to about Rs 7.5 lakh under the new tax regime, the people mentioned, on the condition of anonymity. If this expectation comes true, middle-class taxpayers can get some relief. For the unversed, the Section 87A rebate is available under the new tax regime for taxable incomes up to Rs 7 lakh. So, individuals with taxable income of less than Rs 7 lakh do not have to pay any taxes if they had chosen the new tax regime in FY 2023-24. And now, interim Budget 2024 is expected to further expand this tax rebate to Rs 7.5 lakh instead of Rs 7 lakh.

Also Read: Bengaluru Man's Frustration-Filled Tweet On Income Tax Goes Viral

What Are The Current Income Tax Slabs?

New Tax Regime

indiatimes

After the changes announced last year in Budget 2023, the income tax slabs under the new regime have been as follows (effective April 1, 2023).



Up to Rs 3 lakh: NIL

Rs 3 lakh- Rs 6 lakh: 5%

Rs 6 lakh-Rs 9 lakh: 10%

Rs 9 lakh-Rs 12 lakh: 15%

Rs 12 lakh- Rs 15 lakh: 20%

Over Rs 15 lakh: 30%

Old Tax Regime

shutterstock

As far as the old tax regime is concerned, the tax slabs are bifurcated across age groups, i.e., different for those below 60, above 60 (senior citizens), and above 80 (super senior citizens).



Income tax slabs for individuals aged below 60 years & HUF

Income Tax Slab Individuals Below The Age Of 60 Years Up to Rs 2.5 lakh NIL Rs. 2.5 lakh -Rs. 5 lakh 5% Rs 5.00 lakh  Rs 10 lakh 20% > Rs 10.00 lakh 30%

Income tax slab for individuals aged above 60 years to 80 years

Income Tax Slab Senior Citizens (Aged 60 Years But Less Than 80 Years) Rs 0  Rs. 3.00 lakh NIL Rs 3.00 lakh  Rs 5.00 lakh 5% Rs 5.00 lakh  Rs 10 lakh 20% > Rs 10 lakh 30%

Income tax slab for Individuals aged more than 80 years

et

Income Tax Slab Super Senior Citizens (Aged 80 Years And Above) Rs 0.00  Rs 5.00 lakh* No tax Rs 5.00 lakh  Rs 10 lakh 20% > Rs 10 lakh 30%

Also Read: Who Was James Wilson? The Man Who Introduced Income Tax In India

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The prime minister, who earlier met with the European Commissioner, pointed out that a European solution to the migration problem is needed.
The kidnappers of seven family members in Abuja have given condition to release the victims.

Information Nigeria reports that the family members were kidnapped from their home at Zuma 1 in Bwari Central ward of the council on Friday.

One person was killed while two policemen sustained gunshots injuries in an attempt to stop the kidnap of the victims.

However, the kidnappers have reached out to those close to the victims, demanding N30 million ransom before the victims will be set free.

READ ALSO: Couple Arrested For Allegedly Killing 45-Year-Old Man In Ogun

A source close to the victims, who spoke to newsmen on Sunday, disclosed that a contact was established on Saturday, in which the bandits leader called through a phone and demanded the ransom.

He said the negotiator tried to explain the state of the nation and the concomitant cash crush which would make it difficult to meet the demand to the bandits, but their leader was having none of it and he abruptly ended the call.

They are however still waiting to hear from the bandits, as their leader could not be reached on phone again after the conversation.
President Bola Tinubu has ordered a thorough inquiry into the alleged misappropriation of N585m in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, under the leadership of Betta Edu.

Recall that a document that has circulated widely and bears Edus signature, addressed to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, which detailed instructions from the Minister to disburse N585,198,500.00 to an individual named Oniyelu Bridget.

It was gathered that the document also indicated that the disbursement of the N585.198 million grant, designated for vulnerable groups in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ogun, and Lagos states, was deposited into Oniyelus account.

Reacting to the scandal in a statement on Sunday evening, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed that President Tinubu is concerned over the scandal.

The Minister stated that the President has ordered the probe to be conducted to ascertain the accuracy and validity of the reported details.

The statement reads: The Ministry of Information and National Orientation acknowledges the concerns raised by the public regarding the alleged payment of funds into a private account by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.

We are aware of the narratives circulating widely and wish to assure Nigerians that the Government takes these issues most seriously.

READ MORE: Submit Self To EFCC For Probe  HURIWA To Betta Edu

The Federal Government, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is transparent and accountable to the people and committed to ensuring that public funds are allocated and utilized effectively and efficiently to address the needs of Nigerians.

In light of recent events, the President has directed that a thorough and comprehensive investigation be conducted to ascertain the accuracy and validity of the reported details.

The government is determined to unravel the truth as it relates to this matter and assures that appropriate action will be taken to ensure that any breaches and infractions are identified and decisively punished, in line with the Administrations commitment to public accountability and due process.

The public is advised to note, against the backdrop of various unverified narratives circulating on the Internet, that the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, under the leadership of Minister Mohammed Idris, is the primary source for verified information about events and actions of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Only accurate details will be shared with the public. The Ministry is committed to providing timely updates to keep Nigerians informed about the progress of the investigation.

We urge Nigerians to exercise patience as the investigation unfolds. The government is focused on ensuring a fair and unbiased process, and the findings will be communicated duly and transparently to the public.
Bandits in Taraba State have killed the Head of Wuro Musa village, Jauro Kabiru Gambo, in Yorro Local Government Area.

The deceased was abducted alongside 17 people including seven women when bandits stormed the village on Friday.

According to Daily Trust, the corpse of the late village head was recovered in the forest close to a mountain in the area early Sunday morning.

Sani Adamu, a source from the area, said late Jauro Gambo was buried at Jaka Da Fari Graveyard in Jalingo around 3pm Sunday.

The source added that the other victims are still in the den of the bandits who had demanded N1 million ransom for each of the sixteen victims.

This latest incident has brought the number of traditional rulers killed by bandits in the state to four.

Spokesperson for the Taraba Police Command, Usman Abdullahi, however confirmed the killing of the village head.

READ ALSO: Nigeria May Become Another Somalia  Plateau Gov Warns

In a related development, bandits have killed a farmer and abducted 22 other villagers in Dinki and Kidandan villages of Igabi and Giwa Local Government Areas of Kaduna State.

Jafaru Anaba, a community leader near Dinki village, confirmed the incident, stating that other villagers were missing.

He said the area was under siege by bandits, thereby making residents live in fear.

Anaba said, We dont know what is happening because we are under bandits siege as we speak. They attacked our villagers with impunity on Saturday night in Dinki village, killing one person and abducting about 16 others. We are still searching for others to ascertain the exact number of those abducted.

He said despite ongoing military clearance operations in nearby bushes, bandits continue to invade communities, leaving residents unable to sleep peacefully.

Six villagers were abducted in Kidandan village, Giwa Local Government Area on Friday.

Sanusi Kidandan, a community leader, confirmed that five villagers were abducted around 7:00 pm at a dangerous spot called Shalele, while another person was taken from his farm.

He said one person who was shot by the bandits had been rushed to hospital for treatment.
In early 2023, Gearharts Fine Chocolates closed its location on Libbie Avenue in western Richmond after 13 years. The Charlottesville-based chocolatier said at the time it was looking to open a bigger and better shop in the area similar to its hometown operation.

Well, it found it. And just in time for Valentines Day.

Gearharts plans to reopen next month at 11301 W. Broad St. in a 1,400-square-foot space  roughly twice the size of its old Libbie location  in tony Short Pump shopping center in the Henrico County suburbs of the city.

We found a great little spot in Short Pump. Its the right square footage, a good demographic and had a lot of things that our Libbie store didnt have, like parking and easy access, Tim Gearhart, who founded the chocolate shop that bears his name in 2001 with partner Bill Hamilton, told The Daily Progress. The stars are aligned. We really liked it and could really envision the next phase of Gearharts in Richmond.

But the timeline for the move is going to be tight.

While the new Short Pump shop is in a space vacated by Frostings Bake Shop, which catered to a similar clientele, Gearharts wanted to bring the space up to its standards. The Richmond location, with similar design elements as the Charlottesville shop, will also include a cafe with seating for 18. Construction is underway, but Valentines Day is less than six weeks away.

We want to bring something that is not something thats already there, Gearhart said. Were going to want to put our spin on it, no matter what we do. We have a knack of creating things that people may not find in other places.

Most of the production for the chocolates sold in Richmond will continue to take place in Charlottesville, with shipments running out to the capital once or twice a week, as was the practice with the Libbie location, Gearhart said. Gearharts, more than a chocolate shop, also offers pastries, and its owners plan for the Short Pump location to have a full-scale bakery that can produce most of its baked goods, including triple decadent brownies, chocolate chip cookies and flourless chocolate torts. More complicated recipes, such as croissants and pains au chocolat, which require more equipment and temperature monitoring, will still be baked in Charlottesville.

Gearhart and Hamilton said they have no other real estate plans at present. Reopening in Richmond was an easy call, Gearhart said, because he feels theres such natural synergy between Charlottesville and Richmond.

Gearhart said that they would consider another location in another city if it was a similarly good match.

If we can find places like that, then we would consider it, but we spend a lot of time these days working on our internet business, and our corporate sales and gifting continue to grow, said Gearhart.

The chocolatiers are also busy with Gearharts sister brand, James River Chocolate Company, which launched in 2022 with its own line of chocolate bark and potato chip chocolate bars.

Its a very Virginia-centric line of chocolate, Gearhart said of the sister brand. It doesnt quite fit in with Gearharts, but we still think theres an interest and market for these things.

There certainly appears to be an interest and market. Gearharts just wrapped up its best year ever in 2023 after more than two decades of business, according to Gearhart.

The hard part is not to forget what set us apart 20 year ago, but finding ways to continue to stand out and be innovative, he said. Its important to me and Bill to keep having our own spin and not chase trends, but be more of a leader.

Gearharts operates out of the Vinegar Hill Shopping Center in downtown Charlottesville. For those not in Charlottesville or Richmond, the companys chocolates are sold in roughly 75 other locations in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
The embattled Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, has allegedly approved funds for flight tickets and airport taxis for her ministrys staff to Kogi State.

INFORMATION NIGERIA learnt that the Minister reportedly gave the approval in a leaked internal memo dated November 6, 2023, which has now gone viral on social media plartforms.

According to Sahara Reporters, the memo issued by the national programme manager, requesting the total sum of N72,374,500, was titled: The Disbursement Under the 2023 Grant for Vulnerable Groups Programmes in Kogi State, 2023, and was approved by the minister.

READ MORE: Alleged Fraud: Tinubu Orders Probe Of Humanitarian Ministry

In the memo, the sum is appropriated for the ministers advanced team to travel by air for an event in Kogi state, which has no airport.

It was gathered that each of the ministers advanced team members, including aides, received the sum of N200,000 for flight tickets, N20,000 for airport taxi, and local running expenses and DTA depending on grade level totalling N72,374,500.

Also in the memo, the sum of N300,000 was earmarked for the ministers air ticket to the North Central State.

Recall that Edu has been under heavy criticism following a memo leaked where she asked the Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, to transfer the sum of N585 million to a private account.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Sunday, demanded the immediate sack and prosecution of the embattled Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Betta Edu, over alleged diversion of N585.2 million to a private account.

Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary of the Party, who made the Partys position public in Abuja, said the alleged fraud, which had just been exposed in the Ministry, was just a tip of the iceberg of the mismanagement by the present administration which, according to him, has brough the nations economy to its knees.

Is it not tragic and heartbreaking that a minister entrusted with public funds to support millions of poor Nigerians who have been impoverished by the APC, turned around to divert hundreds of millions of naira meant for the wellbeing of the poor?

The continuing stay of Betta Edu as minister is, therefore, provocative and amounts to stealing from a people and daring them to do their worst. It further confirms our partys position that the Tinubu-led APC government is a cesspit of corruption; a haven for thieves and treasury looters.

Nigerians were shocked by reports of how Betta Edu and the suspended National Coordinator of NSIPA, Halima Shehu allegedly engaged in brazen looting of billions of Naira while Nigerians who the funds are meant for are deprived and abandoned to excruciating hardship and misery.

Equally disheartening is the reports of how Betta Edu allegedly directed the transfer of the N585.2 million NSIPA money into the private account of one of her fronts in clear violation of Chapter 7, Section 713 of Nigerias Financial Regulations, 2009 which expressly prohibits the payment of public money into a private account.

READ ALSO: Security Agencies Ignored Intelligence On Plateau Attacks  Retired AIG Makama

For emphasis, Section 713 of Nigerias Financial Regulations, 2009 provides that Personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private bank account.

An officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with a fraudulent intention.

The apparent fraudulent intention by Betta Edu in diverting public funds into a private account; an action which was appropriately declared illegal by the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, is consistent with APCs character and proclivity for plundering of public resources.

The lack of remorse by the minister especially in her lame attempt to justify the illegal diversion of funds meant for poor Nigerians is also consistent with the insensitivity, heartlessness, impunity and criminal audacity inherent in the APC administration, he said.

What Nigerians demand of President Tinubu at the moment is to demonstrate commitment to the fight against corruption by immediately sacking Betta Edu, hand her over for investigation, prosecution, the spokesman added.
Benjamin Kalu, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, on Sunday, advised gunmen terorrising the South East to negotiate for better jobs from the Federal Government.

While addressing newsmen in Bende, Abia State, during an All Progressives Congress stakeholders meeting and empowerment program for his constituents, Kalu said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been fair to the South East in appointments and other developmental programs.

This is as he launched a Food-For-Peace Program, to tackle hunger in the South East.

He lamented that the economy of the South East region was destroyed by the effects of sit-at-home in parts of the zone, which according to him, made many investors of South East origin to flee the area.

Describing the actions of unknown gunmen as an affront to the Federal Government, he added that resorting to violence was at the detriment of the South East economy and general development.

READ ALSO: They Offered Me A Lot To Work Against Tinubu  Wike

Kalu however advised all the agitators in the South East who are still operating from the bush to drop their guns and embrace the Federal Governments calls for peace, using the Peace In South East Project (PISE-P) as a vehicle.

He noted that Tinubu has given key positions to the Igbos including the Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Minister of Works, Chief of Naval Staff and others, he deserves total support of the Igbo nation now and in his future political interests.

According to him, he is interested in the release of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu from detention but said that the process for his release can be hastened if enforcers of the sit-at-home and actors of other violent crimes in the South East embrace peace.

Sit-at-home at-home is the biggest folly. You cant match or outrun the fire power of the Federal Government. The best approach is to reduce the level of violence in the South East.

Tinubu did not contribute to the incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu. Why will we punish him for what he did not do? Calm down, return the guns to the security agencies because PISE-P is designed to create jobs for you, he advised.
The operatives of the Ogun state police command has arrested a couple, identified as Moses Mba and his wife, Florence over the death of a 45-year-old man named Mark Kalu.

It was gathered that the incident occurred on October 8, 2023, at the Osiele market in Abeokuta, located in the Odeda Local Government Area of the state.

INFORMATION NIGERIA learnt that the misunderstanding escalated, resulting in Kalu sustaining serious injuries. However, the 45-year-old Kalu was said to have sustained some injuries during the fight until he succumbed to death on Saturday.
A female, identified as Bilkisu Suleman, 28, has been apprehended by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on the Kano State expressway for supplying ammunition to bandits.

According to the agency, she was found in possession of 249 rounds of 7.62 mm live ammunition concealed in a black bag within her handbag.

Femi Babafemi, Director of Media and Advocacy at NDLEA Headquarters in Abuja, confirmed this arrest in a press statement released on Sunday.

Sulemans arrest was part of a larger operation that led to the apprehension of 12 other suspects across various States including Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun.

Bilkisu was arrested on Wednesday, 3rd January by NDLEA officers on patrol along Zaria  Kano expressway in possession of 249 rounds of 7.62 mm live ammunition concealed in a black nylon bag kept in her ladys handbag.

READ ALSO: Good Wife Who Wakes Up 4:50am To Cook For Husband Offered Multiple Gifts

She was on her way to deliver the ammunition to an identified bandit in Kakumi village, Katsina state when she was nabbed after which she was transferred to the Kaduna state command of the Nigeria Police Force for further investigation.

The military authorities at the Bonny camp cantonment in Lagos on Tuesday, 2nd January transferred a suspect, Francis Suru, 37 and 63 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis, weighing 2,104.2 kilograms and a truck to the Lagos state command of NDLEA.

The suspect and the drug exhibits were earlier intercepted by NDLEA officers on 12th December 2023 close to the gate of the military cantonment in Bonny Camp, Victoria Island. Some armed escorts however resorted to sporadic shooting to obstruct the operation, a development which attracted soldiers from the cantonment, who eventually intervened and took custody of the consignment and suspect before transferring them to the Agency, the statement read.
Minister Nyesom Wike of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has posited that he did not betray his Party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), by backing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during the 2023 presidential election.

Wike stated that he stood firm and told Nigerians his camp wouldnt support the PDP if the presidential ticket was zoned to the North, adding that the issue of betrayal doesnt arise.

Speaking at a New Year luncheon he organised in his country home in Port Harcourt on Sunday, Wike said his concern is to play politics of unity of Rivers State.

The former Rivers Governor said he is all about the unity of the State, hence the reason he went with some PDP leaders to visit the National Vice Chairman (South-South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Victor Giadom.

Today, he (Giadom) is here with all APC leaders. Membership of the party is not on Radio or Television. So, all of us must make Rivers State to move forward.

READ ALSO: I Have No Regrets Making Fubara Rivers Governor  Wike

Lets move forward for the interest of the state. That is important. I took the decision and you listened to me. I want you to also listen to me now. Lets accept what Mr. President has said. It is for the interest of Rivers and for Nigeria in general.

It may not be the best but there is no option. Mr. President took a lot of risk to give me the position of Minister of FCT. People protested but he stood firm. If he could do that, you too should accept his decision.

When we came back from Abuja, within the next 48 hours, the speaker and his people took the decision to obey Mr. President without attaching any condition. I thank Mr. Speaker and other members for respecting Mr. President.

Whether you are APC or PDP or you dont belong to any of the parties, we owe a duty to give Mr. President support to move this country forward. Some people said I betrayed PDP, but I never betrayed PDP. We stood firm and told Nigerians we wouldnt do this if this was not done. So the issue of betrayal doesnt arise, Wike detailed.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has said that he has no regret making Siminalayi Fubara the governor of Rivers State.

The former governor made this known on Sunday while speaking at a New Year luncheon he organised in his residence, Rumueprikom, in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.

Wike noted that he and some other leaders of the state picked and worked for Fubaras emergence as the governor because they believed he was capable of consolidating his legacy.

He said: Felix Obuah was in my team as chairman of the party. My predecessor seized Obuas property, everything he owned, land, schools and hotels. The wife cried to him but he told his wife, Dont worry if it is the will of God, there is nothing you can do. He stood firm. They took everything he had.

READ MORE: They Offered Me A Lot To Work Against Tinubu  Wike

He was one of the frontrunners in the 2023 governorship election. I told him in my house to step down so that he wouldnt run. He looked at me but I said you wont run. He said if that was what I was saying, he wouldnt run. But I say you will be DG, go and campaign for that election.

I say you must be DG, and he said if that is what you want I will go and do it. And he did it. I see all kinds of things going on. They are talking evil about him. But he is here and he will still be here.

Those, who open their mouths to talk dont know anything. I was the one who paid for the forms for anybody who wanted to run for elections as governor, House of Assembly and National Assembly. Let one person raise his hand and say he bought forms.

We say we are all family members with no need for acrimony. Dont spend your money, we will agree on who will run. The day we made the final decision, the Chairman of the elders council nearly collapsed.

Lets allow everybody to be part of it because we belong to one Rivers State. If I had wanted, nobody would have stopped me. Nobody had what it takes to even be near me.

And to God be the glory, I dont regret what I did and I will never regret what I did because I want the unity of this state for us to forge ahead. If I wanted an Ikwerre man, nobody would have stopped me.
Popular comedian ZicSaloma, gave an explanation of why he chose to focus on his comedy sketch rather than continue teaching at Kaduna Polytechnic.

The comedian was recently interviewed by actress Iyabo Ojo on her podcast, during which Aloma said that he changed careers since he was not being paid enough.

He emphasised his drive for success and revealed that he began his masters degree while completing his Youth Service program, eventually being employed by Kadpoly as a lecturer when his assignment was completed.

Aloma spoke fondly about his days as a lecturer, when he also participated in singing competitions and made an appearance on an episode of The Voice Nigeria.

He discussed how he didnt intend to start performing skits and reminisced about his initial three-year struggle before gaining popularity.

READ MORE: Sosoberekon Involved In Horrifying Car Accident

Aloma first shared his craft on Facebook, but his work gained greater traction after he joined Tiktok. His supervisor expressed doubt when he told them he was leaving as a teacher, but he remained firm.

The comedian mentioned that he stopped lecturing before he became particularly good at skit making.

Infact I was more of a singer before, Ive always been in the choir when I was like 10, I served at Kaduna Poly and after I finished serving I was still lecturing, several of my video have trended and I posted it on Facebook but I didnt have a fan base, I only had likes, it was after I joined TikTok in 2020 I became known he said in part

Watch the interview below:
Nadia Buari, a Ghanaian actress, is starting the year on a high note, as she welcomed her fifth child.

The lovely actress, who is married, uploaded a photo of herself and her infant, the gender of which she did not reveal, on her Instagram page.

Nadia wrote in her caption that she has been blessed with another precious blessing.

My beautiful blessing.

READ MORE: Spending Someone Elses Money Is Sweetest Experience Ever  Mary Njoku

Her post has since garnered numerous congratulatory comments,

See comments

Elango Julie wrote, A boy? Im thrilled

Onyi Anthony wrote, Congratulations

Kasey Lupawu wrote, Congratulations

Saviour Kidah wrote, Favorite

I Am Wesley Boy wrote, Congratulations

Balaaraba Toure wrote, Congratulations.

Biggest Sweefly wrote, Youre living the gift of God

Ghana Fuonsem wrote, Waopp congratulations

Its Vibes Angel wrote, Congrats

SEE POST:
Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, has alleged that Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State betrayed all the agreements made with him to pave the way for his second term.

The former Rivers State Governor said this on Sunday while speaking at a New Year luncheon he organised in his country home, Rumueprikom, in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the State.

According to him, he supported Obaseki for his re-election after he fell out with his predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole, and some PDP leaders came to him to back the Governors second term bid.

He stated that the Edo Governor reneged on all the agreements made with him before his re-election and started peddling rumours of blackmail against him.

Wike added that he has learned from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who taught him that betrayal and politics can never be separated.

His words: It is not everything you invest that you will reap. Even established companies crumble. You cannot say I did this but I am not benefitting. God knows why it happens the way it happens.

What is important in life is to give God the glory that you are alive to see what is happening. When a man is dead, he doesnt know what is happening.

READ ALSO: Betta Edu: Weve Fooled Around For Too Long  Segun Showunmi On N585m Scandal

You will be able to advise your children and your friends. When the heat was on in Edo, this young man was a frontrunner in the Edo Governorship election.

PDP leaders came to me in Port Harcourt from 6 pm to 6 am the next day. I told the young man with Dan Orbih to withdraw and not to run for the governorship. He was crying and we agreed on what would be given to their group.

He was to be refunded the money he spent and to get four commissioners but not one was kept. We said okay, you would run for Senate in the next election. But not one was kept.

But the next thing was blackmail that Wike wants to control this. But you didnt know what Wike wanted to control when you came and held a meeting with me from 6 pm to 6 am. It was all about blackmail. That is what you see in politics.

You must have shock absorbers. President Tinubu told me when we were meeting that politics and betrayal are the same mother and father. If you dont want to be betrayed, dont enter politics.

So prepare yourself that it will happen. I am fully prepared because I know it is one of the things President Tinubu taught me. I am laying this foundation so that some of you who are worried should not be. That is life for you. You must prepare yourself to know that these things happen. I have preached and continue to preach for unity and for peace in this state.
An award-winning family drama has been chosen for the Same Page Community Read. Jefferson-Madison Regional Library and Virginia Humanities have announced that Rachel Beanlands Florence Adler Swims Forever is this years selection.

The annual Same Page Community Read gives book lovers throughout the community an opportunity to read the same book by an author who will appear at the Virginia Festival of the Book in March.

Florence Adler Swims Forever is set in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the summer of 1934. Publisher Simon & Schuster calls the book a breathtaking portrait of just how far we will go in order to protect our loved ones and an uplifting portrayal of how the human spirit can endure  and even thrive  after tragedy. The book won the 2020 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction.

Beanland is the 2023-2024 Writer in Residence at the University of Richmond. She has taught creative writing at the College of William and Mary and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Beanland graduated from the University of South Carolina and earned her master of fine arts degree in creative writing from VCU. She lives in Richmond with her husband and three children.

Information about Same Page Community Read discussions, events and programs being scheduled for March will be released soon.

The Virginia Festival of the Book is a program of Virginia Humanities. Same Page Community Read is funded by the Friends of JMRL, supported by the Art and Jane Hess Fund of the Library Endowment and Virginia Festival of the Book. For details, go to www.jmrl.org.
The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority on Sunday, rescued an injured driver and a motor boy from an empty 40ft truck that fell off from the bridge by Ijora Olopa inward Apapa area of the state.

In a statement made public, by the Agencys spokesperson, Adebayo Taofiq, stated that the incident occurred as a result of over speeding while the truck was ascending the bridge.

Adebayo said: A preliminary investigation revealed that the driver of the articulated 40ft empty flatbed truck lost total control due to brake failure while struggling a Right of Way (R.O.W) with another fully loaded truck trying to climb the High Bridge inward Apapa.

READ MORE: Truck Drivers Given 48hrs to Clear off Lagos Bridges

Immediately the unfortunate incident happened other articulated truck drivers around Sifax Company supported LASTMA personnel and rescued both the driver and motor boy who were trapped under the truck.

LASTMA Goriola Jimoh Zebra (Zone 22) Apapa who led the rescue operations confirmed that the rescued injured driver and his motor boy were rushed to the General Hospital at Apapa for immediate medical treatment.

The General Manager of LASTMA Mr. Bakare Oki, however, appealed to owners of articulated trucks to always carry out periodic safety training and enlightenment campaigns for their drivers on the need to obey road signs speed limit while driving on highways within and outside the state.
The immediate past governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has revealed that the G5 group within the Peoples Democratic Party will support President Bola Tinubus re-election in 2027, adding that the group has nowhere to go.

Ortom made this known on Sunday, at a luncheon hosted by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike at his Port Harcourt residence.

Recall that the G5, a group of five ex governors within the PDP, rejected Atiku Abubakar as the partys presidential candidate before the 2023 poll last February. The G5 backed a southern candidate in the person of Tinubu.

The group include Ortom, Wike, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Seyi Makinde (Oyo).

Ortom said: If we work to ensure Bola Ahmed succeeds, there will be tomorrow for anybody to even contest the election at all.

READ MORE: G5 Should Be Appreciated, Wike Must Serve In Tinubus Govt  Fayose

Our leader, Nyesom Wike, has already made a declaration that in 2027, we are supporting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

We have nowhere to go because that is what Nigerians believe. Even the past administration that took Nigeria from top to bottom, we allowed them to work for eight years.

So, why cant a seasoned administrator in the person President Bola Ahmed Tinubu rule us for eight years? he asked, assuring Nigerians that Tinubu will fix security, economy and other critical areas of challenge to the citizens.
An example of Milkmate's lactation suite options for employers. The company provides furniture, refrigerators, and single-use pumping supplies. Read more

Imagine: In order to make a cup of coffee at work you must bring a coffee maker and filters from home, find a private space in the office, disrobe partially, and sit alone until the coffee has finished brewing. If you forget the machine or filters, you have to turn around and go home  borrowing one isnt possible, and if you wait too long, coffee will begin leaking out of your body.

Thats how Patrice Meagher has described pumping breast milk to people who dont understand the planning and preparation it requires. The company she founded in 2020, MilkMate, is looking to alleviate some of that burden for breastfeeding workers by helping their employers create functional, fully equipped lactation spaces.

The most inefficient thing I did at work was pumping, so Im looking to solve that, Meagher said. Were looking to save women 45 minutes to an hour a day.

Meagher, a Philadelphia-area native and mother of four, worked in commercial real estate in New York until she started MilkMate. She brought to the company her own experiences as a working parent, as well as the knowledge of how commercial buildings operate and what their tenants need.

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In the short time since she launched her venture, the COVID-19 pandemic changed how employers think about office space; a formula shortage shed light on the pressures involved in feeding young children; and new federal legislation expanded workplace protections for breastfeeding workers.

Amid all that, Meagher has seen a great deal of interest in her companys advice.

People are yearning for information, she said.

As offices change, lactation needs dont

Workplace pumping rights expanded in April 2023 when the federal PUMP Act went into effect.

Employers were already required to provide pump breaks and a private, non-bathroom lactation space to hourly workers, but that excluded about a quarter of U.S. women of childbearing age. The new law added exempt workers, an estimated 9 million more people, and says employers can be sued for noncompliance.

Still, a pumping space that complies with federal law may not have all the features parents need to conveniently express milk: an electrical outlet, ability to wash and store pump parts, and refrigerator space for milk.

MilkMates offerings take those needs into account. They include a comfortable seat, a table, and a refrigerator. The company also developed a multiuser, closed-system breast pump that operates with single-use, recyclable pump parts and milk collection bags, which the employer can replenish as needed.

This means employees no longer have to tote their own equipment to work and sanitize it during their pump breaks. All they have to bring into the lactation suite are their own bodies, so they can shave minutes off each pump break and reclaim time spent packing, unpacking, and cleaning pump gear at home.

Im obsessed by time. Its all about time, Meagher said.

The MilkMate pump got U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval last spring, Meagher said, and the New York-based company started installations soon after. Its first Philadelphia-area installation was in December  a homecoming for Meagher, who grew up near Villanova  to be followed by more local clients this year.

Meagher has been asked a number of times if the expansion of remote work and downsizing of traditional office space gave her second thoughts about her venture. But she has remained steadfast that workplace lactation suites remain a necessity.

Many employers of breastfeeding workers have little to no remote-work capabilities. She especially sees a need at schools, college campuses, and hospitals. And hybrid workers still have to pump at the office, Meagher noted, even if its not every day.

If youre pumping, even if you go to the office one day a week, you cant stop for that day, Meagher said.
Judith Rodin, former president of the University of Pennsylvania and corporate director, in 2023. She is now an adviser to Bellwether District, a 1,300-acre redevelopment south of Penn's West Philly campus. Read more

Judith Rodin stepped down as University of Pennsylvanias president 20 years ago and onto a national stage: The previous head of Yales psychology department went on to run the Rockefeller Foundation until 2017 and was well-paid to join blue-chip corporate boards  Aetna, BlackRock, Citigroup, and as lead independent director of Comcast.

But the Philadelphia native, a graduate of Philadelphia High School for Girls and Penn, with a doctorate from Columbia University, never quite left town: She hung onto her 34th Street office (as past Penn presidents do), taught a section on leadership at the universitys Wharton School  and has lately taken another post, back in the neighborhood.

Rodin, 79, is an adviser to the Bellwether District, Chicago-based Hilco Redevelopment Partners project to adapt and make profitable the postindustrial moonscape covering two square miles of former oil refineries along the Schuylkill in South and Southwest Philly. Other advisers include Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostwick, ex-commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Ron DeGregorio, a former Exelon Power president; and Michael K. Ohm, a corporate environmental lawyer.

Bellwether plans two main projects: a 10 million-square-foot warehouse district spreading from 26th Street and a 3.5 million-square-foot office district and drug development park south of Grays Ferry Avenue and Pennovation, the former DuPont Co. paint facility that Penn Engineering redeveloped as a center for research, start-ups, and corporate partners on Rodin successor Amy Gutmanns watch.

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Rodin, who served as Penn president from 1994 to 2004, agreed to talk with The Inquirer about Bellwether and the rapid changes in business-academic relations during her career. She declined to speak about the recent ouster of Penn president Elizabeth Magill following complaints and canceled contributions led by billionaire Wharton donors. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

The world has changed so much since my academic career at Yale [1973-92, from junior professor to provost]. Then, when a faculty member had a new discovery, you had to clunkily go to the office that dealt with patents and licenses and let them decide whether to use it.

And you worried about telling your colleagues. Was it too commercial?

Today, faculty members put all their patents right on their resume. Its considered a positive rather than something to be embarrassed about.

I have been a major advocate for the view that there isnt enough money in the [nonprofit] sector  or even the government research sector  to really create the innovations of the future. Unless there is collaboration with the private sector, you will never get these innovations.

Doesnt that make academics subservient to billionaires?

I dont think controlling each other is the issue. They see each other as leverage-able partners, where one plus one equals four, instead of two.

What changed?

It started with big pharma. The companies realized you dont have to do all the research in your labs: You can find university partners with [taxpayer-financed National Institutes of Health] funding.

I think thats great  the government and universities jumping into that [business] interface. That is where all the breakthroughs will happen.

We used to do a lot of research in labs, where often it didnt go anywhere. We didnt know how to sell it, to keep it going.

What are the risks?

Theres no question that theres concern around scientific fraud, which seems to be increasing and motivated by economic outcomes. With the right kind of controls, the research journals can know the sources of [scholarly authors] funding and whether they were influenced by economic collaborations with a company. That goes a long way to relieving concerns.

Do scholars worry about depending so directly on donors goodwill?

Penn had less of that concern than many of its Ivy peers. I think its because our DNA comes before Ben Franklin. He said to do everything theoretical  and everything practical. He was an important investor and polymath. So it is in our DNA to say we arent against the commercial, and we arent against applying [scholarship to commerce].

In the 1960s-80s, as Penn grew to be Philadelphias largest private employer, it was criticized for displacing West Philly residents. How did you defuse that?

When I became president, one of the first people I chatted with was [the late State] Sen. Hardy Williams. We began with a contentious discussion, him asking, What do you really know about Philadelphia? I said, Hardy, you and I went to the same elementary school. That was the beginning of what became [a positive] relationship.

Philly is a city of relationships. I chaired [then-Mayor John] Streets transition team and joined the Chamber of Commerce. Penn isnt isolated. The president has to be part of the city. They have to know the political actors and the corporate sector.

With our partners in West Philadelphia, we reimagined the old Civic Center site [on 33rd Street to expand the Penn and Childrens Hospitals]. We laid the groundwork to develop Penn as a place to come and shop, to work in construction and health-care jobs, to become what it is now. It has exceeded expectations.

John Fry [later president of Drexel] was Penns executive vice president at the time. We collaborated with the city on the West Philadelphia Initiatives [which helped form the University City District to add security and cleaning people]. We started Hire West Philadelphia First and Buy West Philadelphia First. We had Wharton MBAs mentoring West Philadelphia start-ups. We had a sense we could revitalize with the community, its economic and social capacity.

How does your current work at Bellwether connect to the University City Science Center ideal  blocks of labs, offices, retail, and cultural space  for start-ups and employers drawn to scholarly discoveries?

We all worked hard on the Science Center, which added Pennovation [at the other end of the campus]. Now we are working on the next piece: Bellwether, the gateway from the airport, to Penn. It hadnt been the gateway we like to show as we recruit students and employees.

The Hilco site begins where Pennovation ends  on 34th Street, which now dead-ends, and would extend through Bellwether. [Hilco is] working with the city and PennDot to open Bellwether into Southwest and West and South Philadelphia with new transit routes, new pedestrian and bike routes, so it is no longer a closed-off area. It will be a main corridor linking West Philadelphia and Center City projects.

You can imagine a Penn student who generates an amazing new idea. Their incubator space at Pennovation develops into a manufacturer in the Bellwether District with an office in Center City. Like Route 128 in Boston, where [space and financing for computer and biotech development] led to extraordinary cooperation between Harvard, MIT, and other universities, and industry. I can see that happening here. There is room for many more universities and entrepreneurs than the Science Center can hold. Its way bigger than University City.
Adama Jones graduated with a 4.0 at Rowan College of Burlington County. She was photographed at the school, in Mount Laurel, on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. Read more

Heading into her senior year in high school, Adama Jones was an honors student, took AP classes, and ranked among the top in her class. But she never entered 12th grade.

The South Jersey teen dropped out of the Burlington County Institute of Technology in the summer of 2021. She wasnt ready to return to classes after the pandemic disrupted education for students everywhere. She was concerned about COVID-19 restrictions.

I was just out of it, recalled Jones, 19, of Willingboro.

Leaving school was not an easy decision for Jones, who had been a straight-A student since fourth grade. It would mean missing the prom and graduating with her friends. She loved school but believed her mental health would be better served by the isolation of remote instruction, with which she had become accustomed during the pandemic.

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Her mother, a nurse anesthetist, reluctantly agreed to let Jones withdraw from school. She eventually gave her two other choices: enroll in a homeschooling group or get a high school equivalency degree. A month later, Jones passed the GED exam and enrolled at Rowan College at Burlington County in Mount Laurel.

An aspiring fashion designer, Jones excelled in college as a full-time student while working part time. It was a fresh start and a good fit for Jones, who became active in the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and the chess and crochet clubs and has been a model in the colleges fashion shows.

Jones graduated in December with a 4.0 grade-point average, obtaining an associates degree. She and two other graduates  Rahaf Alsharif, who came to America more than a decade ago as a Syrian war refugee, and Pamela Zahn, who turned her life around following addiction and incarceration  received Presidents Awards from Rowan and were selected to speak at the colleges first-ever winter commencement.

With her mother, Hansatu, and her fifth-grade teacher in the audience, Jones congratulated her fellow graduates as high achievers. She said courage, confidence and willpower were among the keys to her success.

Essentially, it means knowing that you already are your biggest dream, just at a certain stage. It means knowing that your success is inevitable because you will plan accordingly, stay focused, and take paced steps every day, she said.

Jones said she hoped her journey would inspire other students to pursue non-traditional paths. She credits her mother, too, because she always wants the best for me. She hopes to obtain a bachelors in business administration by 2025 through Rowans 3+1 program, which allows students to complete their bachelors while attending classes at the community college.

Its OK if you want to go against the grain. I definitely would say go for it! she said.

Rahaf Alsharif: This is where I am supposed to be

As a child growing up in Syria, Rahaf Alsharif wanted to become a nurse to help people. She got a chance to pursue her dreams when she came to the United States a decade ago with her husband and five children as war refugees.

It was not easy leaving behind family and friends, but they believed they had little choice. Violence was rampant and they feared they would be harmed or killed in the chaos. The family arrived in Chicago in 2012 and eventually settled in South Jersey.

It was a dark time, but we escaped the war there, she said. Even after escaping, I would cry and cry.

Alsharif obtained an associates degree in nursing and is completing clinical training at Rowan. In a nod to her heritage, Alsharif recorded her award acceptance in Arabic. She enrolled in the colleges English as a Second Language program before starting her coursework.

I care about people, she said. I get so excited to see patients, and it shows that this is where I am supposed to be.

Pamela Zahn: Resilience is our greatest ally

Having struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, Pamela Zahn spent three years in prison. She enrolled in Rowan a year after her release, ready to pursue her dream of helping others, especially those battling addiction. She was determined to put the past behind her and stay sober.

Everything happens for a reason. Just take things one step at a time, Zahn said.

An honors student and Academic Award recipient, Zahn was graduating with a certificate in addictions counseling. In May, she expects to earn a liberal arts degree in human services.

Zahn has made it her mission to help those less fortunate  both animals and humans. She volunteers at the Burlington County Animal Shelter and collects shoes and clothing for Soles4Souls. She also started a Power to the Period initiative in Burlington County to provide feminine hygiene products to women. She is president of the Human Services Club at Rowan.

In her commencement speech, she spoke openly about her addiction that landed her in prison in 2017, and how every day of those long, horrible, sad years of my life I wanted to die. While behind bars, she vowed to change.

If I had not gone to prison, I truly believe I would not be standing here in front of all of you today, let alone even be alive, she said. That is why I say prison changed my life and I will never regret being in prison or anything about my past, for that matter. In the face of challenges, remember  that resilience is our greatest ally.
Temple Health said Monday it will require anyone entering its facilities, including Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, to wear a mask to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses. Read more

Three of the Philadelphia regions largest health systems are bringing back masking requirements for patients, staff and visitors to their hospitals and clinics to prevent the spread of COVID and other respiratory illnesses as the region sees a surge in seasonal sickness.

Jefferson Health, Penn Medicine, and Temple Health all updated their mask requirements in recent days, joining Main Line Health and Cooper University Health Care, which both announced last week mask mandates in their facilities. The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia is also requiring masks for patients and visitors in certain departments.

Many hospitals in the area relaxed their masking requirements last spring, when the public health emergency for the COVID pandemic expired. But with COVID and flu cases now rising again, epidemiologists at the regions health systems are recommending masking again. Heres the latest on mask requirements in area health care facilities:

Jefferson Health

Starting Saturday, Jefferson Health began requiring staff in patient-care locations to wear masks through at least Jan. 29. Patients are also required to mask in emergency departments, urgent care clinics, and other settings where people congregate, like rehabs and skilled nursing facilities, officials said.

At other Jefferson locations, patients with symptoms of a respiratory virus must wear a mask, and children with flulike symptoms must be immediately masked and evaluated for measles exposure, the health system said. Thats due to a recent measles outbreak involving a patient who visited Jefferson last month, which has also affected other facilities locally.

Penn Medicine

Penn Medicine has expanded its masking requirements for staff, who must now mask whenever caring for patients and in places where they might encounter patients, including hallways and lobbies.

Penn has required since the beginning of the pandemic that patients and visitors above age 2 mask in certain high-risk areas, such as emergency departments, oncology and radiation oncology clinics, transplant clinics, and infusion centers. Now the system will also require masks in urgent care waiting rooms, said Judith ODonnell, the director of the department of infection prevention and control at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.

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Outside of those high-risk areas, patients and visitors are strongly encouraged to mask. And patients who have tested positive for COVID within the past 10 days, or who are exhibiting symptoms like a cough, a fever, congestion, or a sore throat, are required to wear a mask. Visitors with COVID symptoms or who have tested positive in the last 10 days cannot enter any Penn Medicine facilities, the health system said on its website.

The health system tracks the level of positive COVID and flu cases among its employees, patients, and in the region to determine its masking policies, and could expand masking requirements if cases continue to rise.

Were in the thick of it now, ODonnell said. Theres lots of COVID, and even more influenza.

Temple Health

Starting Wednesday, anyone entering a Temple Health building  staff, patients, and visitors  will be required to wear a surgical mask.

We must do everything we can to keep ourselves, our patients, and our colleagues safe and healthy, Temple officials said in an email to staff.

Face masks are required in Temple hospitals, outpatient clinics, and community health offices. Temple will provide masks at its hospital entrances. Officials did not state when the mask requirement might end, saying Temple epidemiologists will continue to monitor data on respiratory viruses in the area.

Is COVID surging again?

Cases of influenza and COVID have been steadily increasing in recent weeks around the Philadelphia region and in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Monitoring individual cases of COVID is more difficult now that the public health emergency has ended. Health departments are no longer required to track cases.

Philadelphia and some of its suburbs have detected increases in COVID virus through wastewater monitoring. Health officials also look to hospitalization data to gauge the severity of the spread in the region.

Pennsylvania saw 1,738 new hospitalizations for COVID in the week of Dec. 30, 2023, about a 40% increase from the week before, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was slightly higher than COVID hospitalizations at the same time last year, but fewer than half of the number of hospitalizations reported in January 2022 when the omicron variant caused a spike in cases.

In New Jersey, 1,318 people were admitted to the hospital in the week of Dec. 30, also about a 40% increase over the previous week.

Flu cases in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have also been increasing for the last several weeks. Pennsylvania reported more than 15,000 cases the week of Dec. 30, 2023. More than 5% of people visiting Southeastern Pennsylvania emergency departments during the last week of 2023 were diagnosed with the flu, compared with about 3% with COVID, according to state data.

New Jersey had reported nearly 8,000 cases during the same week, with state health officials noting that emergency room and outpatient visits for flulike symptoms had also increased.

Additionally, health officials in the Philadelphia area are monitoring six confirmed measles case. An outbreak of the vaccine-preventable condition, once nearly eradicated, began last month at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, which is also requiring masks for all patients and visitors in its emergency departments. Anyone with a fever or respiratory symptoms at all CHOP locations must also wear a mask, the hospital said on its website.
Independence Health Group has named Kelly A. Munson CEO of AmeriHealth Caritas, a subsidiary based in Newtown Square that is among the nations largest Medicaid managed care companies.

Munson, most recently president of Aetnas Medicaid business, starts Feb. 1 and succeeds Paul Tufano, who left in September. Independence Health Group is also the parent company of Independence Blue Cross, the largest health insurer in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Im really excited about this opportunity, not just because of the mission-driven focus of the organization but also because of the focus on community and the focus on all of those things that affect health, Munson said in an interview Monday.

The Medicaid market is in flux now as the federal government is requiring states to reevaluate whether people with the government insurance for low-income individuals and families still qualify for the program. Those regular checks had been suspended during the pandemic.

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In Pennsylvania, the number of people with Medicaid insurance covering physical health has fallen by 11%, to 2.7 million in November from 3 million in March, just before redeterminations started. AmeriHealth Caritas, which has the largest market share in the state, saw the same percentage decline in its enrollment.

Veteran health executive tackles Medicaid challenges

Munson, 52, said her priorities will be helping people who still qualify for Medicaid but were disqualified for a procedural reason, such as not filling out paperwork to regain coverage; increasing access to care through options such as telehealth; and expanding AmeriHealth Caritas to other states.

A veteran Medicaid executive, Munson headed Aetnas Medicaid business from February 2021 to August 2023. Before that, she spent 14 years at WellCare Health Plans, rising through the ranks before her four years as president of the companys Medicaid business. Her tenure there ended after Centene acquired WellCare in 2020.

Munson lives in Florida, but will relocate to the Philadelphia area.

AmeriHealth Caritas, which Independence owns jointly with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, has in recent years accounted for virtually all of Independences revenue growth. It comprised $20.2 billion of Independences $27.4 billion in revenue in 2022. Results for 2023 are not yet available.

AmeriHealth Caritas has 5 million members in 13 states and Washington, D.C., and accounts for 9,500 of Independences 14,000 employees.

Gregory E. Deavens, CEO of Independence and board chair for AmeriHealth Caritas, said he is excited to have an executive of Munsons caliber joining the company.

I am inspired by her passion for the individuals and families we serve along with our state partners; and her sense of urgency for addressing health inequities and access issues for historically underserved communities, he said.
Christopher P. Molineaux, the president and chief executive officer of Life Sciences Pennsylvania, cohosted a reception Sunday for people attending the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. Read more

Christopher P. Molineaux caught an Uber to Philadelphia International Airport just before the icy rain started on Saturday, so naturally the driver asked if he were headed somewhere warm.

The answer  San Francisco  prompted the driver to ask a follow-up question:

You going to JPM?

Molineaux was indeed headed to the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, the buzzy, invitation-only dealfest known to biotech start-ups, venture capitalists, and savvy Uber drivers alike.

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As the president and chief executive officer of the trade group Life Sciences Pennsylvania, Molineaux helped host a reception at a San Francisco hotel Sunday for more than 340 people who were in town for the conference or related events. Among them were close to 90 representatives from Pennsylvania biotech firms, mostly from the Philadelphia area.

Merck, Novartis, and J&J

The last two years have been tough for the biotech industry, marked by lackluster investment and layoffs. But news of three acquisitions of cancer-drug start-ups on Monday morning has contributed to an optimistic vibe, Molineaux said.

Merck & Co. said it was buying Harpoon Therapeutics of South San Francisco for $680 million. Novartis, which has U.S. offices in King of Prussia, announced a $250 million purchase of Amsterdam-based Calypso Biotech BV. And Johnson & Johnson topped them both with news of a $2 billion deal to buy La Jolla, Calif.-based Ambrx Biopharma Inc.

The large companies are still looking to fill their pipelines, and biotech companies are continuing to innovate, Molineaux said.

The meeting on Sunday was at The Marker San Francisco, cohosted by Life Sciences PA along with other trade groups from California, Michigan, Virginia, New York, and Arizona. Attendees were encouraged by a recent surge in the stock prices of biotechs that have gone public, Molineaux said.

It was generally an optimistic vibe, for sure, he said. People have a ton of meetings on their schedules.

Sidewalk encounters

Along with more than 300 company representatives were several officials from the National Institutes of Health, talking about programs to assist biotech entrepreneurs with the earliest stages of drug development, Molineaux said. (His Uber driver knew about JPM because he worked in the information technology industry, he said.)

The main JPM conference got underway at the Westin St. Francis on Monday, limited to just 10,000 invitees. But several times that many people have gone to San Francisco to take advantage of the event, holding meetings on the margins of the conference, Molineaux said.

Most of the activity actually takes place outside of the conference itself, he said. Its really fascinating. You see dozens of people you know just walking down the sidewalk.

The conference lasts until Thursday. Molineaux was able to stay for just two days, and was speaking from the San Francisco airport while waiting on Monday for his flight back to Philadelphia. This time, hell be ready for any smart questions from his Uber driver.
Rebecca Boswell, a supervising psychologist at Penn Medicine's Princeton Center for Eating Disorders, worked on a study that interviewed women with long-term, severe eating disorders. Read more

In a series of candid conversations, women being treated for severe eating disorders offered interviewers from Penn Medicine their perspective on a under-studied condition  especially when it comes to patients experiences in treatment.

One woman spoke of how her severe eating disorder functioned like an armor  a way of coping with a stressful courtroom job that required her to be assertive. Another said she worried about her children seeing her struggling to eat. Nearly all said they felt their treatment was more effective when they worked with their doctors on a plan, instead of having rigid goals imposed on them.

The conversations resulted in a study, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, highlighting interviews with 17 women in inpatient treatment for severe and enduring anorexia.

Anorexia is an eating disorder that typically results in abnormally low weight, a mental illness that can also cause dangerous physical complications, including anemia and heart damage. All of the patients interviewed had a history of anorexia for at least seven continuous years past the age of 18 and had been in at least one treatment program before.

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About 20 to 25% of anorexia patients develop this chronic form of the condition, the study authors wrote, but doctors and scientists disagree about how to define and treat it. Limited research exists to help the medical establishment understand and treat eating disorders, said Rebecca Boswell, a study author and supervising psychologist at Penn Medicines Princeton Center for Eating Disorders. She and other researchers hoped they could glean a better perspective on how to treat severe eating disorders by interviewing patients during their treatment.

Penns study had limitations: Participants were all white, cisgender women actively participating in a treatment program at the time of their interviews. Other populations, like people of color or men, might have different experiences, they wrote, so its difficult to say whether the study participants insights apply to a broad swath of eating disorder patients.

After gathering patients own opinions, researchers said more studies are needed that focus on patients experiences in eating disorder treatment.

We wanted to know more about what those peoples experiences with treatment were, and how they understand their illness, Boswell said.

I was part of the team

Patients interviewed for the study were incredibly insightful about their illness, Boswell said.

One woman spoke of how demoralized she felt when doctors kept reminding her of the negative health consequences of her condition. Her teeth had been damaged by repeated vomiting, and a doctor made a point of bringing it up every time they met, the woman told researchers.

I know what I did to myself. How do you think I feel? she said.

Study participants said they felt they made more progress when they worked with doctors to develop their treatment plan, instead of having one imposed on them.

Some treatment programs for severe anorexia set strict goals for patients on how much they eat, the diversity of the foods they eat, and the number of times a day they eat, Boswell said.

In some programs, the goals are set for you. You dont have a lot of say, said one study participant who spoke with The Inquirer on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy. She recently participated in a treatment program where she worked with doctors to set goals she felt were reasonable.

The woman had dealt with an eating disorder for years, and, when she entered treatment last year, only felt capable of eating two bites of food in her first days at the clinic.

She agreed with physicians that she would use a feeding tube to gain weight, and work up to eating more on her own.

You would never get that kind of a goal in other programs  you would be expected to finish an entire meal, the woman said. Although she expects to need a feeding tube permanently, she was able to increase how much food she ate on her own during her stay at the clinic.

Feeling as if she had a say in her own care made the woman more willing to seek follow-up care months later to develop a better schedule for using her feeding tube.

It felt like a team approach, and I was part of the team. Every step of the way, any changes, anything that they might suggest to move things along  it was all a collaboration, versus me being told what was going to happen next, she said.

Helping patients to set goals

Patients told the Penn researchers that having specific goals during their recovery was helpful. But nearly all preferred setting those goals with doctors, rather than just being told to meet certain benchmarks.

She and the other study authors wrote that additional research on severe eating disorders could focus on whether these collaborative treatment approaches would benefit more people with severe, long-term eating disorders.

The lived experience of our patients is an incredible resource for developing a treatment plan that will suit them best, she said.
A view of the Atlantic City shoreline. The city has lifted its boil-water advisory after testing deemed the water supply to be safe. Read more

Atlantic City residents no longer need to boil water before drinking it, city officials declared in a news conference Sunday afternoon, after state-supervised testing determined that excessive cloudiness in the municipal water supply had dissipated, along with any risk of health problems.

It came back that all is free and clear, Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small said at about 4 p.m., shortly after receiving the results. I would like to thank the residents for being patient and understanding that things do happen.

Early Friday, the Atlantic City Municipal Utility Authoritys routine testing of the water found turbidity levels, or cloudiness caused by particles, 1.5 times greater than the acceptable limit  indicating increased risk of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, or parasites. The most common symptoms of such contamination are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, and headaches.

Residents were told Friday to boil all water used for drinking, making ice, preparing food, washing dishes, or brushing teeth for at least one minute before letting it cool. Boiling kills the bugs.

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Cliff Keen, deputy operations director of the ACMUA, a private utility, said Sunday the turbidity was caused when iron sludge from settling basins was pumped back into the water plant, overwhelming filters.

Water from the incident did not go to any of our customers and our customers were in no real danger, Keen said, characterizing the boil-water advisory as a precaution by state regulators at the Department of Environmental Protection.

The water utility advised people to run their faucets for three to five minutes to flush out discoloration in service lines, and to empty and clean ice makers and water chillers. Hot water heaters should be drained and refilled if they are below 113 degrees Fahrenheit, officials said. Anything with a softener or cartridge filter should be drained and refilled as well, they said.

Five hundred cases of bottled water were being made available to Atlantic City residents.

Small on Saturday instructed people who who live in the citys Uptown area to pick up water bottles at a fire station at Maryland and Atlantic Avenues, and residents of the citys Downtown area to head to a fire station at California and Atlantic Avenues.
When Gov. Glenn Youngkin challenged the General Assembly last month to eliminate the hated car tax, he acknowledged that his proposed two-year state budget does not mention a way to do it.

Instead, Youngkins administration held its first meeting with local government officials two days after the governors budget presentation on Dec. 20 to talk about how to repeal a local tax on personal property that counties and cities depend on to help pay for their share of public education and other services to their residents.

Nor did the administration let local governments know in advance that the governors proposed budget would not include state money to fulfill a promise that he and lawmakers made two years ago. That was a pledge to replace money that localities lost when the state eliminated a portion of the sales tax on groceries and personal hygiene products that helps pay for public education.

We just feel left out, said Dean Lynch, who represents all of Virginias 95 county governments as executive director of the Virginia Association of Counties.

As a newly elected General Assembly prepares to convene on Wednesday with Democratic majorities in both chambers, Youngkin faces skepticism in both parties over tax policy proposals that are central to his proposed $185 billion two-year budget. His proposals to cut income tax rates, expand a nonrefundable low-income tax credit, raise the sales tax and broaden its application to digital services would cost the state a net $1 billion over two years.

Retiring Republican Sen. Emmett Hanger of Augusta County, a longtime champion of local government interests, said he is hesitant to critique the governors proposal, but added that it will (be) difficult to accomplish meaningful and appropriate tax reform without building consensus around a publicly vetted plan that has broad support from the majority of the legislature as well as local government buy-in.

Youngkin spokesman Christian Martinez said, In the weeks leading up to Governor Youngkin challenging the General Assembly to work with him to eliminate the hated car tax, the administration reached out to local government officials to obtain information related to car tax repeal. The administration had sought information about car tax collections from local commissioners of the revenue the week before the speech.

Offsetting lost funds

Youngkins administration has tried to reassure local governments that his proposal to raise the sales and use tax and broaden its application to digital services would raise money to help offset the loss of an estimated $229 million in state funds over two years to localities based on their school-age population. That represents most of what the state teachers association has blasted as a $300 million cut to state funding for K-12 schools.

Thats a big piece of the puzzle at $229 million from reneging on that promise, said Chad Stewart, policy analyst at the Virginia Education Association.

Martinez, in the governors office, strongly challenged assertions that the proposed budget would cut K-12 funding.

There is no reduction in direct aid for public education, he said. In fact, there is a $330 million increase in K-12 aid over the biennium. The pandemic, with various Federal relief funding and the Commonwealths recent response to learning loss in the Chapter 1 budget, introduced several one-time sources of funds. Those one-time funds were treated as that  one-time funds.

Administration officials say the money to replace the lost sales tax revenue was never meant to be a long-term solution, even though it was written into state law as well as the current two-year budget, and that tracking the amount of revenue lost in each locality is difficult because the money is no longer collected.

But legislators in both parties say the state must honor its commitment to replace local money lost in the grocery tax cut that was part of Youngkins $4 billion tax cut package in his first year in office.

Absolutely, said Republican Del. Joe McNamara of Roanoke County. He sponsored the legislation that cut the 1% of the grocery tax returned to localities based on school-age population and 0.5% used to pay for transportation, a hole that the assembly did not attempt to fill.

While Youngkin is counting on adoption of his proposals to raise the sales tax by 0.9% and broaden its application to digital services, that hasnt happened yet, and I dont know if that will happen, said McNamara, a certified public accountant. McNamara intends to propose legislation again this year to repeal the 1% local sales tax on groceries that the assembly left intact.

Cool reception

Del. Vivian Watts, a Fairfax Democrat, the incoming chair of the House Finance Committee and a longtime student of Virginia tax policy, was more blunt.

Here we are, right out the gate, and the governor reneges on the commitment to replace the lost grocery tax money for localities, she said.

Watts flatly opposes the governors proposals to cut income tax rates across the board in all five income brackets and partly offset the cost by raising the sales tax. She said both proposals would make Virginias tax code less fair by putting more of a burden on low- and middle-income Virginians. She said they would not benefit as much from the proposed income tax cuts as high earners, while paying more at the register for the basics of the household.

However, she is keenly interested in Youngkins proposal to broaden the application of the sales tax to some services. Youngkins plan would not go nearly as far as the plan she laid out two years ago and plans to reintroduce this year to begin taxing consumer services instead of just goods, as most states already do.

Tax reform debate

Tax reform is at the center of the table, Watts said.

What thats likely to mean in the upcoming session is a hard look at expanding the sales tax to some services. It will also mean a politically difficult debate over how to restructure Virginias income tax code to apply a higher tax rate to those with greatest ability to pay, as Democrats want, while improving the states competitiveness with states that have lower income taxes  or none at all  as Youngkin wants.

Youngkin says the current sales tax application is not fair because, for example, it applies to the purchase of compact discs or records, but not to downloading songs on phones and computers. That is a good, not a service, he said of music downloading in an interview before his budget presentation.

His proposal would tax digital streaming, data storage and other information age services, just as Virginia did with internet sales after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2018 opened the door for states to tax online sales instead of just those at brick-and-mortar stores.

Youngkin explicitly ruled out taxing other traditional services like barbers, lawn care services, or professional services.

But Watts plans to introduce legislation that would also tax sales of many of those services, as long as they are not considered medically necessary. For example, she would favor taxing a massage by a masseuse, but not by a massage therapist, because one is discretionary and the other a necessity.

Watts agrees with the governor that Virginia needs to reduce its reliance on income taxes, which currently generate about 70% of revenue, by broadening the use of the sales tax.

I want a robust and accurate discussion of tax reform that addresses the ever-growing gap in ability to pay that our tax code is not recognizing, she said.

In that regard, Watts also intends to introduce legislation that would propose a new top tax bracket for the highest income earners, applying a 7% rate to the adjusted gross income of $600,000 a year or more. The idea is one of the ways that the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission suggested two years ago to make the income tax code more progressive, with higher earners paying more.

The idea is not likely to get past Youngkin, even if the assembly approves it, because he wants to take the tax code in the opposite direction by reducing the tax rate in every bracket. Watts argues that Youngkins proposed 12% cut would reduce the tax rate in the highest bracket by three times the reduction in the lowest bracket.

The governors office argues that Youngkin has made the tax system more fair with $5 billion in one-time and permanent cuts over the past two years. Those cuts include increases in the standard deduction that help low- and middle-income filers who cannot itemize deductions to lower their tax liability and making a portion of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit refundable so that eligible families can benefit, even if they do not have a high enough tax liability.

These actions have made Virginias tax code more progressive, said Martinez, noting that the proposed budget would lower tax rates for all income tax levels and expand the nonrefundable portion of the tax credit for low-income working families.

The net effect of all tax actions signed or currently proposed by Governor Youngkin is to make Virginias tax code fairer and more competitive, he said.

Still, Youngkins proposal to raise the sales tax by 0.9% could face opposition in both political parties in that it would increase costs for all consumers, regardless of their ability to pay.

McNamara, when asked whether he would support the proposal, replied, I dont know. I think that it would be problematic.

Four deck chairs

Del. Barry Knight, a Virginia Beach Republican and the outgoing House Appropriations chairman, says he is willing to consider all of the governors tax proposals, including the elimination of the car tax, as long as the net result is not a tax increase.

No one on our side is going for a tax increase in totality, Knight said. Im fine with a no-net-gain.

He compares the coming tax policy debate to four deck chairs: reducing the income tax, raising the sales tax, taxing the sale of services and eliminating the car tax.

I dont care how they shuffle them as long as theres no net loss, no net gain for the locals and the state, Knight said.

Legislators are not sure how seriously to consider the proposal to repeal the car tax, given that the Constitution of Virginia explicitly empowers local governments to levy it and the administration is still collecting information from localities. Theres just not a whole lot of push behind it, said Lynch at the Virginia Association of Counties.

The car tax

The debate has raged for more than 25 years, since Gov. Jim Gilmore won office in 1997 on a no car tax pledge but was able to achieve only a partial repeal of the tax, with the state committed to sending $950 million a year back to localities to compensate them for losing a portion of the revenue.

Its 2.8 billion bucks, McNamara said of full repeal. Thats not inconsequential.

On the other hand, Knight said, People dont like the car tax.

The tax on personal property is the second-largest source of revenue for local governments, which rely primarily on taxing the assessed value of real estate.

It youre going to replace it, youve got to do it with something serious, said Democratic Sen. Creigh Deeds of Charlottesville, a member of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee and one of the Senates budget negotiators last year.

Funding schools

Democrats say the debate over tax policy also has to consider the need for additional state funding of K-12 public education, which a JLARC report estimated last year at up to $4 billion to make up a gap with the other states that it pegged at $1,900 per student compared with the 50-state average.

Youngkins proposed budget still leaves us a billion dollars short of meeting our obligations at a time when weve got to focus on the JLARC report for K-12 education, Deeds said.

Knight says the report did not reflect more than $645 million added to the budget for public education last year, including a pot of $418 million in one-time funding that local school divisions can use to address learning loss and other critical needs after the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor includes that one-time money in his base budget for the next two years.

The Virginia Education Association, representing public school teachers, immediately accused the governor of using smoke and mirrors in the budget by cutting educational funding, primarily the money meant to offset the loss of revenue from the grocery tax, and using an additional $400 million in federal aid to supplant state funding for education. The federal aid deduction is customary in every budget, but its much larger this year because of the pandemic.

School divisions were not thinking about using that money to cover basic instructional costs, said Chad Stewart at the VEA.

Jim Regimbal, a fiscal consultant to local governments in Virginia, said funding for K-12 public education is essentially flat in the proposed budget, compared with the current two-year spending plan that expires June 30.

The budget does not include much new money to help localities build or renovate obsolete school buildings, he said. An expanded Literary Fund is able to make school construction grants, but Youngkin is also relying on it to help pay the states share of teacher pension costs, as the state constitution provides.

Given the headwinds facing the governors tax package, Regimbal said: Dont do it, and then youve got a billion dollars to spend.
The 1,000-pound butter sculpture at the 2024 Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg. The display didn't disappoint Inquirer reporter Kristen Graham, who had longed for years to see the show's butter sculpture in person. Read more

I drove hours through Saturdays snowstorm to realize my long-held dreams of viewing a half-ton of butter sculpted into a work of art.

I regret nothing.

I cant remember when I first fell in love with the Pennsylvania Farm Shows butter sculpture, but for a long time, I was starry-eyed over the idea of it. For more than two decades as an Inquirer reporter, a press release heralding the 1,000-ton wonder in whatever form it took that year would land in my inbox every January, and I would alert friends and family via social media that it was the best press release day of the year.

Im not exactly sure what fascinated me so: the massive scale? The unusual medium? The sheer novelty for a Philadelphian raised far from farms?

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 READ MORE: Conshohocken sculptors find worldwide fame turning 1,000 pounds of butter into art

I cover education, not agriculture, so it wasnt a natural fit for a story. And though I had long wanted to trek to see the thing in my free time, life always intruded, and I never made it.

But the stars aligned, and a butter pilgrimage fit into my schedule. It was a near-miss  a winter storm was approaching Central Pennsylvania, and my 10-year-old wasnt feeling well. My husband insisted he had the sick bay under control, though, and my friend, Inquirer producer and dance critic Ellen Dunkel, was game to go with me, despite the iffy weather.

Ill be honest: I was nervous that after years of hype, the real thing wouldnt live up to my expectations.

On the way in, I explained my excitement to multiple cheerful Farm Show vendors and employees, all of whom reacted with genuine enthusiasm. Ms. Agriculture USA, one of several young women wearing tiaras and sashes announcing their royal titles, gave me excellent directions through the vast Farm Show complex.

And then, there it was, a shining buttery beacon under fluorescent lights: A Table for All: Pennsylvania Dairy Connects Communities. The object of my affection sat enclosed in a climate-controlled glass room and was flanked by American and Pennsylvania flags.

It was majestic. It was massive, with a crowd of dozens gathered around, snapping selfies and marveling at the art carved by Conshohocken sculptors Jim Victor and Marie Pelton, responsible for 22 of the Pennsylvania butter beauties displayed since the mid-1995.

I was so happy. Some of my fellow sculpture viewers looked delighted, others bemused, taking in the details  the smiles on the faces of the buttery family seated around a table, the cabbages gleaming yellow in a crate, the butter pig and butter cow positioned in front of the butter table laden with all kinds of butter food, including a stick of butter. (Very meta.)

I asked the Nuskey family, of Langhorne, what about the sculpture captured their attention. Saturday wasnt their first Farm Show visit, and the butter sculpture is a perpetual highlight.

Its 1,000 pounds of butter, man, said Mike Nuskey, 58.

Who came up with this? wondered Faith Nuskey, 16. Hey, lets make a sculpture. Out of butter. (Actually, they date back to the medieval times, Faith.)

Nate Nuskey, 13, proclaimed the sculpture good. Solid eight out of 10.

Nates a tough grader; Ellen and I agreed it was a 10 out of 10.

Still, the sculpture is apparently not for everyone. Something about the texture of butter creeps my sister out so much its a family joke.

Amy declined to join Ellen and me on our butter pilgrimage, and sent barfing emojis when I texted her a photo.

Nevertheless: the Farm Show was a smashing success, a must-see, and the butter sculpture the unqualified highlight. There was something wholesome and satisfying about a work of art fashioned from 1,000 pounds of butter, a paen to the hard work of the people who power an industry that feeds us.

We also loved seeing horses and alpacas, gaping at huge tractors, and eyeing prizewinning mushrooms, potatoes, apples, and other products of Pennsylvania. And the food!

Farm Show veterans rhapsodized about the milkshakes. Ellen loved her giant baked potato and I had apple cider doughnuts Im still dreaming of. We saw, but did not have large enough stomachs to consume, goat barbecue, pierogies, deep-fried cheese cubes, savory wild portabella mushroom jerky, berry-battered Oreos, and more.

We easily could have spent all day at the Farm Show, but heavy snow in Harrisburg made us cut our trip short after four hours; we wanted to get back before conditions got too treacherous. No doubt, though  well be back in 2025. Im bringing my family, too, and well make a beeline straight for the butter sculpture.

About the butter sculpture

The 1,000-pound 2024 Pennsylvania Farm Show sculpture was created by Conshohocken artists Jim Victor and Marie Pelton from butter donated by Land OLakes in Cumberland County. It will eventually be recycled, sent to Juniata County-based Reinford Farms, where it will be turned into renewable energy in a methane digester.

The 2024 theme, A Table for All: Pennsylvania Dairy Connects Communities, shows urban and rural Pennsylvanians connecting around a meal of delicious local food against a backdrop of a cityscape and farm skyline, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

The 2024 Pennsylvania Farm Show runs through Saturday at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center in Harrisburg. Admission is free; it costs $15 per vehicle to park.
The George W. Hill Correctional in Thornton has seen at least five guards arrested in the last three years for bringing, or attempting to bring, narcotics inside the facilty. Read more

Two guards at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility were arrested late last week, prosecutors said Monday, for smuggling fentanyl into the jail.

Adham Diab, 43, and Lina Tarrab, 35, of Upper Darby, have been charged with possessing contraband, conspiracy, and related offenses. The couple, who are married, remained in custody Monday in the facility they previously patrolled, in lieu of $30,000 bail, court records show.

The couples arrests represent at least the fourth documented case in the last three years of guards at George W. Hill bringing, or attempting to bring, narcotics into the Delaware County facility.

After taking over management of the facility from the private prison firm the GEO Group in April 2022, county officials have acknowledged that contraband remains a pervasive issue. But, in a statement Monday, Chief County Detective Jim Nolan said that the change in management has resulted in 100% improvement in communication and collaboration with security staff at the jail.

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For the first time, we have confidence that incidents of crime that take place in or at the jail are being fully reported and prosecuted, Nolan said. We hope this leads to a safer facility for both the people incarcerated and the people who work at the facility.

Diab and Tarrab were taken into custody Thursday after being questioned at the county jail, after another corrections officer at the jail used a bathroom reserved for staff after Diab, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed for his arrest.

When that other officer went into the bathroom, he saw a blue baggie in the toilet and bloody toilet paper in the trash can, signs of drug use, the affidavit said. Investigators at the jail confronted Diab, who had another, similar blue baggie labeled waverunner in his pants pocket, the affidavit said.

Staff then questioned Tarrab, asking her if she, too, had contraband on her. In response, she pulled another waverunner bag from her boot, the affidavit said.

The baggies tested positive for fentanyl. Tarrab told investigators she had requested a 10-day leave from the jail so she and her husband could enter a drug-rehabilitation program, but administration at the facility said no such request had been made, according to the affidavit.

A spokesperson for the Delaware County Council declined to comment, citing the active investigation.

Frank Kwaning, the president of the Delaware County Prison Employees Independent Union, said Monday that the union is aware of and concerned about the issue of drugs coming into the jail and has tried to raise its concerns to county officials.

We are trying to work with the county to get all of these issues under control, but we have not been successful, Kwaning said.

Most recently, Damon Joyner, 44, allegedly smuggled Suboxone, Xanax, marijuana, and cigarettes into the jail in collaboration with a man incarcerated there. Joyner was charged with drug offenses and possessing contraband in December 2022. His trial is scheduled to begin next week.

Two other guards faced drug charges for similar schemes in 2021, when George W. Hill was under the oversight of the private-prisons firm.

On Christmas Day 2019, five women overdosed on heroin, one fatally, after inmate Kathleen Fisher, 40, had her son smuggle the narcotic to her during a holiday visit. Fisher pleaded guilty to drug delivery resulting in death in 2021 and is serving a 4-to-11-year sentence in state prison.
Mayor Cherelle Parker signs executive orders in her new office in City Hall on Tuesday. She has yet to decorate or add much furniture to the office. Read more

On the second floor of City Hall, a work crew was replacing a lock on the city spokespersons door Friday afternoon, a row of large wooden desks was lined up outside the policy teams room, and a senior staffer in Mayor Cherelle L. Parkers new administration pushed a chair down the hallway.

Inside the mayors office, Parker sat at her new desk in a room with nothing hanging on the wood-paneled walls and no other furniture except a conference table.

From building new cubicles in staff offices to appointing leaders for city agencies, the Parker administration is still very much under construction.

 READ MORE: Inside Philly Mayor Cherelle Parkers first full day in office: Staff meetings, a news conference, and a call with the governor

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Parker finished writing a note in cursive on a legal pad and handed it to an aide. She then leaned back and reflected on her first week on the job, which has already seen the city experience a measles outbreak, a killing of a man during a fight on a SEPTA platform, and a Code Blue  a freezing night for which the city must find additional shelters for people experiencing homelessness.

On the campaign trail, Parker often said she would be calling on business leaders, nonprofits, and state and federal government to help her administration achieve its goals, repeating the line, Im not superwoman. On Friday, Parker said she didnt realize how right she was.

You get here in this office, and I was like, Cherelle, you were spot-on. You cant do this alone, she said in an interview with The Inquirer. It takes a hell of a whole lot of people to do this. I dont care who you are.

Later that day, she held her first official cabinet meeting. When a staffer noted that it was the first in Philadelphias history to be led by a female mayor, the room broke into applause.

Over the next few weeks, Parker will be judged by whom she chooses to lead her administration. Over the next year, the paradigm is likely to shift to whether she delivers on her primary campaign promise: reducing crime.

But in the long run, her success will hinge on her relationship with City Council and its new president, Kenyatta Johnson, and she spent time in her first week trying to cement their bond.

Behind the scenes

Since her inauguration on Tuesday, Parker has had very few public events, a surprisingly light level of visibility for a new mayor who campaigned implicitly on being a more engaged and energetic mayor than her predecessor, Jim Kenney.

Parker said she has instead been focused on working behind the scenes to get her administration up and running  especially on interviews and meetings regarding the many unfilled leadership roles, including the commissioners of the streets, prisons, and licenses and inspections departments.

Shes also had briefings on city agencies, calls with President Joe Biden and Gov. Josh Shapiro, and has been in constant communication with Johnson. She dropped the puck at the Flyers game on Saturday. And she said she is doing her best to minimize the disruption to her routine with her 11-year-old son, Langston.

Mommy does morning drop-off. Thats my time, she said. Langston does not expect his life to be turned upside down by any of it. We wont allow his world to be turned upside down by any of it.

One thing thats no longer on Parkers plate: being a Harrisburg lobbyist.

After resigning from Council in 2022 to run for mayor, Parker registered as a lobbyist with the Rooney Novak Isenhour Group, a firm with close ties to former Gov. Tom Wolfs administration. Parker said that, as a single mom, she needed a job after giving up her Council salary.

 READ MORE: Mayoral candidate Cherelle Parker became a Harrisburg lobbyist days after resigning from City Council

State records show she terminated her lobbyist registration the day before she became mayor, as she had promised to do.

Parker, however, remains the chair of the Delaware River Port Authority, which manages bridges between Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Working with Council President Kenyatta Johnson

On Thursday night, Parker attended a black-tie reception at the Warwick Hotel in Rittenhouse for Johnson, who was elected as Council president Tuesday. As they have been doing for weeks, both new leaders stressed that they were committed to working together and avoiding the intragovernmental animosity that has paralyzed some past mayors.

 READ MORE: Why Cherelle Parkers relationship with Kenyatta Johnson could make or break her agenda

Its incumbent upon us to wrap our arms around this young lady and make sure shes successful because where she goes, there goes the city of Philadelphia, Johnson said.

Parker offered similar sentiments, saying that when the City Council of Philadelphia and the executive branch are not working together  the people suffer.

But she also hinted at a potential bonding opportunity for her and Johnson: Because both have been through high-profile controversies that drew negative press, neither is enamored with media attention, she said.

A quote in the paper for some folks now, its like Vitamin C or B  they get great energy in them, she said. They feel very powerful when their name is in the paper. But you and I  we know what its like when your name is not in the paper, and youre like, OK, I made it through a good day.

Johnson in 2022 was acquitted on federal bribery charges, after two trials in a case that put him under the microscope for years. Parker was arrested for driving under the influence in 2011 while she was a state representative, an experience she said helped her grow as a public servant but also made her see that not all press is good press.

With neither one of them focused on seeking attention, she said, both can be focused on working together.

When youre going through it on the other side, its not attractive to you anymore, Parker said. Its not a stimulant to motivate you. You can be absolutely focused on the work and the outcome.

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.
The William Penn statue in Welcome Park. Plans call for its removal in favor of an expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia. Read more

The National Park Service has withdrawn a proposal to permanently remove a statue of William Penn as part of its rehabilitation of Welcome Park in Old City, saying the plan was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review.

The sudden reversal posted Monday evening came after a barrage of complaints, often spearheaded by Republicans. But high-profile Democrats such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro also voiced concerns. In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Shapiro wrote on Monday evening, My team has been in contact with the Biden Administration throughout the day to correct this decision. Im pleased Welcome Park will remain the rightful home of this William Penn statue.

The National Park Service said Monday evening that no changes to the William Penn statue are now planned, but that plans to rehabilitate the park will continue.

The National Park Service (NPS) remains committed to rehabilitating Welcome Park as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, the statement said. Upon completion of all the necessary internal reviews, the park looks forward to engaging in a robust public process to consider options for refurbishing the park in the coming years.

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Its a sharp change from an announcement by NPS on Friday to remove the centerpiece statue of William Penn permanently and redesign the park to highlight Native American history. That plan marked a major shift, considering that the park was built on the site of Penns home, the Slate Roof House, and is named for the ship, Welcome, that transported him from England. Penn actually landed first in 1682 near the intersection of the Delaware River and Chester Creek in Chester.

 READ MORE: William Penn once wanted Chester to be Philadelphia. Heres what happened.

Welcome Park is part of Independence National Historical Park and was completed in 1982 on designs by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Penns arrival.

The wide-open park across from the former site of City Tavern aims to tell the story of Penns vision for the city. Although a lesser-known area of Independence Park, it provides visitors with an overview of the city layout and history of Penns landing. The Penn statue includes a farewell ode to Philadelphia, imparting what love, what care, what service, what travail have there been to bring thee forth.

The National Park Service wants to rehabilitate the park in time for the 250th birthday celebration of America in 2026. The park on Second Street between Chestnut and Walnut Streets has fallen into disrepair with rows of broken granite floor.

Representatives for the National Park Service could not be reached for comment Monday after they sought public comment on the proposal to remove the statue.

Philadelphia Councilmember Mark Squilla, whose district spans Old City, said his office learned only on Monday of the proposal and had reached out to Independence Historical National Parks Superintendent Steven Sims.

The NPS plans announced Friday called for an expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia in consultation with Indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.

Designs would keep some parts of the current park, including the original Philadelphia street grid, but the Penn statue and Slate Roof House model will be removed and not reinstalled, according to the originalplans.

Republican outcry

The decision by President Biden and his administration to try and cancel William Penn out of whole cloth is another sad example of the left in this country scraping the bottom of the barrel of woke-ism to advance an extreme ideology and a nonsensical view of history, Pennsylvania House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler (R., Lancaster) said in a statement.

Cutler said the treaty signed by Penn with Native Americans was historical and with mutual respect shown between Penn and Native tribes.

This issue is also deeply personal to me, Cutler said. The first Cutlers came to Pennsylvania in 1685 on the ship Rebekah, not long after Penns arrival in 1682. They came to Pennsylvania because they were Quakers who shared Penns view of religious tolerance and peace.

Cutler said removing the statue creates an absurd and revisionist view of our states history. He said he plans to introduce a resolution honoring William Penn and encouraging the National Park Service to halt the plan.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Scott Martin (R., Berks) and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, on social media called the plan absolutely disgraceful.

Native Americans

Welcome Park, though not necessarily the statue of Penn, has also been the site of some resentment among Native Americans. The plot had been given to the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations from the Iroquois Confederacy) in January 1755 by John Penn, William Penns grandson. In the 1700s, Native American groups often visited Philadelphia for diplomatic and trade meetings. They sometimes numbered in the hundreds and visited so frequently that John Penn asked the Provincial Council of Philadelphia to consider setting aside a piece of land for these gatherings. The delegations often refused to negotiate treaties until they could stand on their own ground and build a council fire.

A 2020 Inquirer article chronicled a trip by six women from the Iroquois Confederacy in upstate New York to reconnect with the patch of tribal land on the site of Welcome Park.

 READ MORE: These Native American women came to Philadelphia to see their ancestral land. They found apartments and a parking garage.

I anticipated a park in a natural pristine state. Like any other park, it would have trees, grass, water, said Louise McDonald (Native name Wakerakatste), a Mohawk Bear Clan Mother from Akwesasne, N.Y. I was frozen for a minute because I felt it had been choked and that it wasnt a true representation of the original intentions of the space. It just seemed to be purposely buried with a cover-up narrative. There certainly seems to be a feeling of erasure intended to remove any spirit that would imply that we were once there.

Penn in Philly

Philly is not without other William Penn likenesses. The statue of Penn atop City Hall is a landmark, visible from many parts of the city.

And there is another Penn statue at Penn Treaty Park off North Delaware Avenue at the corner of East Columbia Avenue and Beach Street. Legend says Penn and a local Lenape clan made a peace agreement under an elm tree. The original treaty elm has long been replaced, but the park contains an obelisk and plaque memorializing the agreement, as well as a statue of Penn.

The discussion of the Penn statues removal is not the first time in recent years that Philadelphia has seen a struggle over statues.

The statue of Frank L. Rizzo, the late mayor and police commissioner, was ordered removed from in front of the Municipal Services Building in 2020 by then-Mayor Jim Kenney amid sweeping protests after the murder of George Floyd. Also in recent years, people have petitioned to have the Christopher Columbus statue in Marconi Plaza removed, though it still remains.
Mayor Cherelle Parker signs executive orders in her new office on Inauguration Day at City Hall in Philadelphia, Pa. on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024. Cherelle Parker is the citys 100th mayor and the first woman. Read more

Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

Today we go inside the mayors office where Cherelle Parkers settling into Phillys highest seat.

Our beat writers did predict that it would be close but the Iggles ultimately would win yesterdays game against the Giants at MetLife Stadium. It became pretty clear early on that the competition dwarfed us, ending the weekend on a low note. Perhaps columnist Mike Sielski wrote it best back in late December after chronicling a series of humbling events.

There is a measure of arrogance inherent in each of those anecdotes, a presumption that the Eagles can play recklessly and carry themselves like theyre 10 feet tall and bulletproof and get away with it every time. If they havent figured out by now, after these last three weeks, that they cant, just wait until mid-January. Theyll learn then, and the lesson will be quick and painful.

And after our first snow, todays skies look clear, but another major storm looms soon.

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 Ashley Hoffman (@_AshleyHoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

Cherelle Parker reflects on her first week as Phillys mayor

Im not superwoman, was the line our new mayor used a lot when she talked about her plans to tap business leaders, non-profit leaders and allies to achieve ambitious goals that she cant tackle alone. Just days into 2024 it occurred to her how true it was.

You get here in this office, and I was like, Cherelle, you were spot-on. You cant do this alone, Parker told us. It takes a hell of a whole lot of people to do this. I dont care who you are. Shell be woking behind the scenes to get her administration up and running. Her primary campaign promise is crime reduction. And shes had calls with President Joe Biden and Gov. Josh Shapiro and constant communication with newly minted Council President Kenyatta Johnson, a partnership she hopes will be key.

Its incumbent upon us to wrap our arms around this young lady and make sure shes successful because where she goes, there goes the city of Philadelphia, Johnson said. Keep reading for reporter Sean Collins Walshs interview with Parker on what shes set her sights on.

What you should know today

 Trivia time

The earliest record of any theatrical company in the Western Hemisphere from 1599  which miiiight have been bought legitimately in the 20s, but they were stolen from a book located in the Peruvian archives  has been residing where, right here in town?

A) The Barnes

B) The Rosenbach

C) The Philadelphia Art Museum

D) The Free Library

Think you know? Check your answer.

 Unscramble the anagram

Hint: The venue contains the word. And it was taken over by 1 + + Concerts in 1972.

Where David Bowie performed his sold out show with 3,072-member cast for a whole week.

WROTE EATHERT

Email us if you know the answer. Well select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Maryellen Glackin who correctly guessed Fridayss answer: Wissahickon Valley. Ive been enjoying my team members Paolas picks and counting down the days til spring when her newsletter Outdoorsy returns.

Photo of the day

I had two good reasons to brave the weekends weather. First, I had the pleasure of experiencing Philly Loves Bowie Week, where you might just catch the beloved Patti Brett, one of the original Sigma Kids at plenty of the festivities detailed by our music critic. Trust me, the audience is the real show. And I also saw the entirely religion-free tour de force performance of A Case for the Existence of God at Theater Exile. Have a wonderful week.

By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirers Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
Like a lot of Philadelphians, I listened to Mayor Cherelle Parkers inaugural address last week with a sense of cautious optimism. Im not interested so much in what our elected officials say, but in what they do. Or, as in the case of our last mayor, what he didnt do.

And while I know its still very early, theres a lot to be optimistic about with Parker so far. Her choice of Kevin Bethel as the new police commissioner seems like a sound one. Likewise, her selection of Adam Thiel as the citys managing director. Maybe  hopefully, prayerfully  Parkers administration will finally be the light in the darkness that has engulfed this city.

Another reason for hope: In one of her first official acts, Madam Mayor signed an executive order declaring a citywide public safety emergency  a step that was also taken by former Mayor Michael Nutter in 2008, which preceded a significant decrease in homicides and other crimes.

The executive order directs Bethel, Thiel, and other city department heads to deliver a plan within 100 days detailing how they will hire more police officers, reduce violent crime, quell quality-of-life offenses, and permanently shut down all pervasive open-air drug markets.

The report goes on to say that Parker has directed Bethel to employ any lawful means necessary to abate the public safety emergency. In an open letter to Philadelphians on Thursday, Parker said that we are going to expeditiously get every available resource into neighborhoods struggling from scourges of crime, gun violence, drugs, and addiction.

Sounds great, but heres where my caution comes into play.

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I dont doubt Parkers sincerity or her leadership experience, or Bethels abilities to be the smart, tough police commissioner the city needs  but I also see a major roadblock: the citys chief prosecutor, District Attorney Larry Krasner.

During her victory speech on election night, Parker said: You wont be able to go in the store and steal $499 worth of merchandise and just think that its OK. We have to have a sense of order in our city.

That statement was a not-subtle-at-all jab at Krasner, whose reluctance to prosecute shoplifting cases involving items worth less than $500 has essentially given dishonest Philadelphians a license to steal.

And then theres Krasners approach to illegal gun possession. Last year, there were roughly 410 people murdered in Philadelphia (the final figure is still being tabulated), and at least 372 of them were shot to death.

Getting guns off the street seems like a fairly intuitive way to bring down those awful numbers. But, as Krasner said in a report on gun violence in the city that was released last year, We do not believe that arresting people and convicting them for illegal gun possession is a viable strategy to reduce shootings.

Oh, and lets not forget that in 2021, Krasner  in comments he later walked back  said, We dont have a crisis of lawlessness, we dont have a crisis of crime, we dont have a crisis of violence.

Seriously?

Sounds to me like Parker, Bethel, and Thiel will have trouble getting anything positive done with public safety unless and until theyre somehow able to get Krasner on the same page.

My question is: Does Parker have the courage to aggressively question Krasners policies and strategies? To question the same criminal justice reform approaches used by other progressive district attorneys that have led to the chaos in other cities like Chicago, Baltimore, New York, and Los Angeles? I think  I hope, I pray  that Parker has the courage, wisdom, tenacity, and strength our city needs right now.

Larry Miller is a former police reporter for the Philadelphia Tribune. He is a lifelong resident of Philadelphia.
Former President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Reno, Nev., last month. Efforts to prevent voters from casting primary ballots for Trump in Maine and Colorado are unlawful, writes Kyle Sammin. Read more

In the 2022 midterms, Joe Biden and other Democrats often said that democracy is on the ballot. But in 2024, whose name goes on the ballot is no longer a democratic question, but rather one decided by justices and bureaucrats. No democracy, no ballot, no problem  at least as far as Democrats in Colorado and Maine are concerned.

When it comes to former President Donald Trump, democracy as a concept no longer seems so appealing to his opponents.

In Colorado, a 4-3 majority of the state Supreme Court held that Trump must be excluded from the ballot because, they said, he participated in an insurrection and was therefore ineligible. In Maine, they didnt even bother with the courts: Secretary of State Shenna Bellows just decided unilaterally to not allow anyone to vote for Trump.

In neither case did anyone bother to actually try Trump for this crime, let alone convict him. Trials? Due process? Who needs em?

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The problems with this are obvious immediately. We dont trust elected officials to decide on their own whether someone is guilty of a crime. Even when the accused is obviously guilty in the minds of prosecutors and other officials, we make them go through a trial and convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Only then may a judge impose a sentence, and only then can a person be deprived of his or her rights.

Until recently, one could be forgiven for thinking that this was a widely accepted sentiment in American life.

If Trump were ever convicted of a crime connected with the events of Jan. 6, 2021, there would be a good case to remove him from the ballot, though Congress has never made clear the procedure by which that would happen. The actions that day, while disgraceful and sometimes criminal, were more akin to a riot than an insurrection, in my opinion, and Trump was not even there when those hooligans stormed the U.S. Capitol. But his behavior was, at the very least, unbecoming of the office of the president. He was justly impeached for it.

But he was not convicted. The Senate chose not to impose any penalty on the outgoing president, though it was clearly in its power to do so by the plain language of the Constitutions Article I, Section 3. That was a mistake, as I said at the time and afterward. If enough Senate Republicans had acted in accordance with their professed principles, Trump could have been legally excluded from holding any federal office.

But  and this part is very important  they didnt.

There was a Senate trial. He was found not guilty. Since then, Trump has faced federal and state indictments, and trials will soon commence to decide the merits of the charges against him. But most of what is charged there is not insurrection or anything like it. And, again, he has not been convicted.

The way law and order works in a liberal democracy is that convicting someone of a crime must precede punishing him for a crime. What is going on in Colorado and Maine is not only undemocratic, it is lawless.

Its not surprising, therefore, that other states courts and executives have declined to follow suit. Michigans Supreme Court, which also has a Democratic majority, found that they did not have the power to remove Trump from that states ballot. Courts in Minnesota and New Hampshire have done the same. The inconsistency will now be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But beyond that, even many Democrats are discomfited by the idea that a lone official can decide who Americans may vote for. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, a Democrat who voted to impeach Trump in 2021 and opposes his 2024 candidacy, nonetheless found the process to be lacking legitimacy. We are a nation of laws, and therefore until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed on the ballot, Golden wrote.

When I wrote about the 14th Amendment in September, I said that if this legal sleight of hand were permitted, some voters would challenge Trump in every state  but some other voters would challenge Biden in all 50, too. Every candidate would face a passel of mostly frivolous lawsuits. Even if you think Trump is an insurrectionist, the flaws of this process should be obvious.

Its already happening. More challenges to Trump are wending their way through state courts. In Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that the Lone Star State should remove Biden from the ballot because his continuing failure to enforce immigration laws amounts to insurrection, too. Does that make sense? No! But if the decision is left up to politicians, more ad hoc actions like those of Maine and Colorado are inevitable.

And here in Pennsylvania, a Democratic activist is suing to remove Rep. Scott Perry from the ballot because he challenged the results of the 2020 election. But there is some sanity in Harrisburg: Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt told reporters last week that he does not have the unilateral authority to remove Trump from Pennsylvanias ballot.

This tit-for-tat legal warfare will never end without insisting that some fair process is required before telling the people they may not vote for this person or that. None of these people have been convicted in any court of any insurrectionary offense. Until they are, removing them from the ballot is undemocratic, unlawful, and deeply violative of the liberal norms of this republic.

It begins with Trump, but it will not end with him. Democracy is at stake in 2024, but not in the way Biden and his friends meant it two years ago.
January 8. 2024: Mayor Cherelle L. Parker stands for the presentation of colors and the national anthem with the police and fire color guard, on stage at the Met Philadelphia on North Broad Street at the opening of her inauguration ceremony. Read more

My colleagues and I photographed Cherelle L. Parker as she was sworn in as the 100th mayor of Philadelphia last week, kicking off a year in politics that will culminate with Novembers presidential election.

I covered my first campaign for the White House for The Inquirer in 1984. Since then, covering the men and women who would be president has been one of my favorite assignments every four years.

Walter Mondale eventually won his partys nomination that year, but lost the November election to incumbent Republican President Ronald Reagan, who won 525 of 538 electoral votes -- the most ever by a presidential candidate, and one of the countrys most lopsided defeats (Mondale won only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia).

Surprisingly, I photographed Mondale again, some two decades later, while covering our current presidents second, unsuccessful run for the office.

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In 2008 Joe Biden was making his pitch to a county Democratic Party meeting. I was the only out of town media person there, following our local candidate, the then-senior U.S. Senator from nearby Delaware. He was the only candidate appearing in-person. The other leading party candidates, Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John Edwards sent surrogates. Everyone was surprised when the former vice president walked in. Mondale drove down from Minnesota to speak on behalf of Clinton, the then-junior U.S. senator from New York.

Biden dropped out of the race after receiving less than 5% of the caucus vote, and Obama, the winner in Iowa, eventually selected him as his running mate. It was a historic year.

I posted a single photo on my blog here, on every single one of the 366 days in 2008 (it was a leap year), beginning with photos from Iowa and New Hampshire.

2024 looks to be just as historic.

Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralishs Scene Through the Lens photo column in The Inquirers local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:
A worker assess the flooding damage on Florence Avenue near the Darby Creek in Collingdale in December, an especially rainy month in the region. Read more

The Philadelphia region is about to experience one of its more impressive winter rainstorms in the period of record, forecasters say, and given the behavior of the atmosphere since Dec. 1, the timing couldnt be much worse.

The National Weather Service has posted a flood watch for most of Pennsylvania and all of New Jersey and Delaware for Tuesday into Wednesday.

Were going to be looking for this problem to last several days in the Philadelphia region, said Ray Martin, a lead meteorologist at the weather service office in Mount Holly. Atop everything else, the moon is entering the new phase, which will give an extra kick to the tides.

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For now, the Philly flood watch is in effect Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday afternoon. Minor flooding is expected along the Delaware River at Washington Avenue late Tuesday night, and moderate flooding around noon Wednesday. At least minor flooding is likely all long the Schuylkill, said Martin.

In addition, a high-wind advisory is up for the region from 5 p.m. Tuesday to 3 a.m. Wednesday for sustained winds up to 35 mph and gusts to 55, and a wind warning has been posted for the Shore for winds up to 45 mph and gusts to 65.

With the ground saturated, some trees are likely to come down, and take power lines with them.

Its not going to take much, said Martin. Its going to be a very wet storm, and we already have a lot of water to deal with. Its a bad situation.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced that New Jersey would open its emergency operations center at noon Tuesday, and Peco and Atlantic City Electric officials said they had emergency plans in effect.

Said Peco spokesperson Brian Ahrens, We definitely see the potential. However, both he and Atlantic Electric spokesperson Candace Womer cautioned that outage-causing winds also can impede restorations. They said crews cant use their bucket trucks if winds reach 30 mph.

Storm timing

Rains crept into the region at midmorning and are expected to intensify Tuesday night with powerful southeast and south winds.

Along with downpours, that could result in some tidal flooding along the Delaware in the city, said Martin, as winds push Delaware Bay waters northward.

The rains could set off short-term flash flooding along local streams, he said, but the response along the Schuylkill and the Delaware will be more complicated, with the effects longer-lasting.

Flooding along both rivers could be further juiced by the conditions in the vicinity of their headquarters where they have been mighty wet  and mighty white during the weekend.

The saturated ground

Several inches of snow fell recently in Schuylkill County, Pa., the home of the Schuylkill headwaters, and in Delaware County, N.Y., where the Delaware starts.

The warming winds and moisture from this weeks storm will result in snow melt, adding an additional half inch or so to the runoff up that way, said Bill Gartner, weather service meteorologist in State College, where the agencys Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center is based.

 READ MORE: Philly is one of the more vulnerable locations for extreme rains

Precipitation in Philly, its surrounding counties, and throughout the rivers basins has been well above normal in the last 30 days.

Ominously, the bulls-eye for rainfall, up to 4 inches, perhaps a splash more, could be in the hills of northeastern Pennsylvania near the upper Delaware, said Martin.

It looks like its going to be in some of the worst possible places, said Martin. Its a lot of water thats going to be coming down the river.

Why all the rain?

Since Dec. 1, officially just over 9 inches of rain has been measured at Philadelphia International Airport, roughly the amount of water in eight feet of snow.

The recent storms have at least some relationship with the ongoing El Nino warming over thousands of miles of the tropical Pacific where sea-surface temperatures were about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit above normal as of Monday, meteorologists say. The heating of the overlying air is expected to affect the rest of the U.S. winter as upper-air winds transport weather systems west to east.

 READ MORE: El Nino likely will mean big coastal storms this winter, forecasters say. It might even snow in Philly.

This weeks storm will be mining rich supplies of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. Said Gartner, The Gulf is open for business.

The moisture has been abundant, but the cold air hasnt been. It might turn significantly colder during the holiday weekend, forecasters say  but first yet another rainstorm is due late Friday into Saturday.

 READ MORE: The rains keep coming, and the snows keep staying away
A child passes through a Haddonfield backyard Jan. 29, 2022, after a major noreaster passed through the region late Friday night, leaving snow in South Jersey and blizzard conditions at the Shore. Read more

A certifiable blizzard transformed the Atlantic City Boardwalk to a Jersey version of the Great White Way, and heavy snow accumulated from the beaches on the barrier islands to the Main Line and beyond.

In the city, by the time the flakes shut off before daybreak on Saturday morning, Jan. 29, 2022, 7.5 inches had landed at the official measuring station at Philadelphia International Airport.

 READ MORE: Jan. 29, 2022, was quite the snow day

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Since then, something quite remarkable has happened  or, perhaps more accurately, hasnt happened. The biggest official snowfall since then was the 0.4 inches of March 12, 2022, which was 0.1 more than fell during the entire winter of 2022-23.

As of Monday, it has been 709 days since an inch of snow was recorded in the city, the longest stretch on record, by far.

Will the region be marking the snow droughts second anniversary three weeks from now?

Said Matt Rosencrans, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Climate Prediction Center, Youre likely to get close.

He added that whatever lies on the atmospheric road ahead, Philadelphians wont be needing a snowplow at least for a while.

The short-term outlook

The climate centers outlook posted Friday called for the odds favoring above-normal temperatures for Philadelphia and most of the rest of the East until mid-January.

By contrast, below-normal temperatures are favored for the western two-thirds of the nation.

Said Tom Niziol, Fox Weather winter specialist, a veteran of the National Weather Service and the Weather Channel, I do feel that eventually were going to see colder air work its way eastward.

 READ MORE: In Philly winters, expect anything

That, he said, certainly would boost the chances for a Mid-Atlantic coastal snowstorm, given that storm traffic has been active of late.

That is likely to continue, he said, and that certainly will be evident this week with a major rain event in the forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, with potentially serious flooding.

The climate centers Rosencrans suggested that in terms of storm traffic, its possible we havent seen rush hour yet.

Its cooking out there, with sea-surface temperatures over vast expanses of the tropical Pacific 3.5 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit above long-term normals, according to the climate center. The ocean warming is forecast to continue through the winter.

The persistent heating of the overlying air tends to energize a storms track across the U.S. Gulf Coast and, eventually, help to generate noreasters in the Atlantic.

 READ MORE: The early seasonal outlooks foresaw busy storm traffic with El Nino

I certainly think theres some of the El Nino fingerprinting, or DNA, helping to modulate the weather across the United States, said Niziol.

But El Ninos impact on the U.S. East Coast typically doesnt ripen until February or March, said the Climate Centers Rosencrans.

A sine qua non for snow would be cold air.

It takes two to tango, Niziol said. If we get that second ingredient ... there will be better potential to gin up a good Mid-Atlantic snowstorm.

What NOAA scientist Amy Butler described as a minor disturbance in the upper atmosphere over the Arctic  a so-called sudden stratospheric warming event  was occurring last week. Historically, that warming has allowed Arctic air to break loose and spill southward toward the United States.

The event that could lead to a pattern in the North Atlantic that typically favors cold and snow in the East, she said in a social media post Thursday night.

The anniversary

As for the question of whether the region will be holding a snow-drought anniversary party on the 29th, Niziol demurred.

Im not a proponent of extended forecasting, especially when it comes to snowfall along the Eastern Seaboard, because theres so many factors that come into play, he said.

The limits of predictability dont extend beyond several days, even with all the tremendous computer power, satellites, all the information we have these days at our fingertips, he said.

Plus, he said, forecasters these days are dealing with a wild card.

Climate change

Were looking at winters now that are occurring with the background of a globe that has warmed somewhat, Niziol said.

Snowfall tends to be so erratic that [it] isnt the best barometer of a changing climate, Niziol and Rosencrans agreed. Its what we call a very skewed distribution, said Rosencrans.

For forecasters in a warming world, said Niziol, the playing field has changed just a bit. In my mind the jury is still out on a lot about how this is going to evolve.

Its fascinating to watch and to monitor ... to see how this three-dimensional fluid works, trying to understand it, and predict it.
Robin is the ideal candidate to lead our expansion to the Middle East. He has a successful track-record executing ground-breaking projects, such as the groups venture debt financing transaction with HSBC and partnership with Dubai Insurance, and a deep knowledge of the groups solutions and strategy, said Alvin Kwock, co-founder of OneDegree Group. Many markets in the Middle East are showing incredible dynamism and opportunity, leveraging their favourable demographics and open policies for foreign investment and global talent. Robin will play a pivotal role in driving growth in the Middle East and delivering exceptional value to our clients.
Career lessons

One reason for her open-minded management style, said Yap, is the lessons she learned early in her career. More than 10 years ago, when the AR model in Australia was relatively new, she was starting her insurance career. Her licensee, she suggested, could be controlling and restrictive.
Customer feedback is the ultimate acid test of a broker's performance, he said. A broker's ability to ensure their customers are protected with the right cover at the right price is paramount, as is the service and peace of mind they provide during claim time.
This is a difficult time for many Australians across Far North Queensland who are facing devastation, uncertainty, and heartbreak. The road to recovery for an event such as this will be long, and as people begin to return home and the clean-up commences, it's important to know the first steps to take, he said.
A New York-based apparel company is entitled to its claim for the full $600,000 limit on its marine cargo insurance policy because the policy was ambiguous as to whether a warehouse fire that destroyed its goods was at an approved location.

According to a recent opinion by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, neither the insured, Ezrasons Inc., nor the insurer, Travelers Indemnity, was able to resolve the ambiguity over the location thus the policy must be interpreted in the insureds favor.

The appeals court overruled the U.S. District Court for Southern New York, which had ruled for Travelers that the warehouse in North Carolina was unambiguously not within the policys definition of an approved location.

After the Ezrasons warehouse was consumed by fire in August 2019, Travelers paid $250,000, but declined to pay more. The insurer contended that coverage was limited to $250,000 because the warehouse building where the goods were destroyed was not an approved location under the policy. If the warehouse qualified as an approved location, the coverage limit would have been $600,000.

The fire destroyed more than $600,000 of goods and merchandise in one of three warehouses owned by Chamad Warehouse, Inc. The parties disputed the address of the sole warehouse that was destroyed by the fire. Neither party contended that the fire took place at 371 Branch Street, which was an address for Chamad listed in the policy. Travelers argued that Chamad owns and operates three warehouse buildings located at three different addresses: 56 Branch Street (formerly numbered as 371 Branch Street), 160 Branch Street, and 1386 Virginia Road, and that the fire took place at the 1386 Virginia Road warehouse.

Ezrasons asserted that the address for all three Chamad warehouses is 56 Branch Street (formerly numbered as 371 Branch Street), which represents a single 19.03-acre parcel of land on which all three warehouses sit.

Ezrasons cited public records showing that the three Chamad warehouses sit on a single parcel of land and contended that news agencies and county officials, as well as Chamad itself, refer to all three warehouses as Chamad Warehouse regardless of their street address.

But the lower court said Ezrasons argument failed because such extrinsic evidence is not admissible to create an ambiguity in a written agreement which is complete and clear and unambiguous upon its face.

However, the appeals court said that was in error. In its view, the policy was ambiguous as to whether the warehouse where the fire occurred was an approved location and the district court erroneously excluded admissible evidence from Ezrasons.

It was undisputed that Chamad operates its warehousing business in three buildings on a 19.03-acre parcel of land and that the lot is surrounded by a continuous chain link fence. One side of the irregularly shaped parcel borders Branch Street, where one of its three warehouses is located. A second warehouse on the parcel, the one that burned, fronts on Virginia Road.

As some of its evidence, Ezrasons submitted a deed of trust that gave Chamads address as 56 Branch Street for the 19.03 acres of together with all existing or subsequently erected or affixed buildings.

Travelers cited a fire department report stating that the fire occurred at 1386 Virginia Road in its evidence, along with a county tax department map showing each building had its own address.

The appeals court rejected Travelers argument that the policy unambiguously names only the warehouse physically located at 56 Branch Street as an approved location and not the other two warehouses. The word location, without further explanation, does not communicate that it necessarily means a single building, as opposed to two or more buildings on the same parcel of land, the court stated.

The court cited an affidavit of a managing director of Travelers implicitly acknowledging that it is not unusual that companies in the warehousing business are identified by a single address that includes multiple warehouse buildings.

But the appeals court also found that Ezrasons argument, while reasonable, failed to prove that all three warehouses are covered. When one considers that there is a Chamad warehouse that is publicly identified as bearing the address 56 Branch Street, the designation could also be reasonably read to identify only that warehouse as an approved location,' the court commented.

The court said that while both parties offered admissible extrinsic evidence, neither side submitted evidence that effectively rebutted the other sides evidence.

The court added that when insurance is sought classifying multiple buildings, each building must be separately identified to dispel ambiguity. It would be an easy matter for Travelers to insert such a clarifying limitation into the documentation of a policy. But it did not do so. It drafted an ambiguous policy as to the scope of approved locations, the court added.

When a contract of insurance is ambiguous and the evidence furnishes no basis for resolving the ambiguity, New York law provides that the courts decision must favor the insured over the insurer as long as the insureds interpretation is reasonable.

Because the insureds interpretation of an ambiguity in the policy is reasonable and unrebutted, judgment must be awarded to the insured, the court concluded.

Topics New York Profit Loss Virginia Trucking
There are growing signs that Russias oil flows might be facing disruption in the aftermath of a ramp up in US sanctions targeting traders and shipping companies moving the nations petroleum.

Over the past month or so, a total of 14 tankers hauling the nations barrels to India have either been dithering, u-turned or switched off equipment that informs digital tracking systems of their location and what theyre doing over the past month or so.

The fate of the ships will be closely watched by authorities in Moscow and the west. The US is trying to tread a fine line between on the one hand limiting Russias access to petrodollars while at the same time maintaining supply. Too great a disruption would jeopardize the latter objective.

US Sanctions Maritime Companies, Vessels for Shipping Oil Above Russian Price Cap

The 14 carriers identified by Bloomberg have 11 million barrels of oil on board between them. All were supposed to go to India, where the government said this month that it cut Russian imports because the prices werent cheap enough. New Dehli rebuffed speculation about logistical difficulties in paying Russia for the barrels. The majority are the Sokol grade exported from the east of the country, but some flagship Urals cargoes are held up too.

The signs of possible disruption come just weeks after the US Treasury imposed its most wide-ranging sanctions on Russian oil traders and state shipping company Sovcomflot since the war on Ukraine began.

They did so against signs that Russia was increasingly using mystery traders and a huge fleet of ships with uncertain ownership and insurance to beat a Group of Seven price cap that was meant to hurt the Kremlin.

Some of the 14 ships appear to have gone out of signal, meaning they may simply be delivering cargo in secret. However, it has been relatively unusual to see tankers involved in the Russian oil trade do this since the war in Ukraine began.

Name What happened? Grade Sovcomflot Tanker? Bay Demetra Stopped sending signals in the Indian Ocean around end of December Urals No Jaguar Drifting west of Philippines since Dec. 29 Sokol No Krymsk Previously headed to India; Now showing destination of Qingdao in China Sokol Yes Lefkada Anchored off New Mangalore port for a week before discharging Urals No Liteyney Prospect Previously headed to India, now signaling Singapore Sokol Yes Nanda Devi Stopped sending signals in the Indian Ocean around the end of December Urals No Nellis Previously headed to India, now showing destination of Qingdao in China Sokol No NS Antarctic Last seen on Dec. 28 leaving the waters off South Korea where it had taken on a cargo of Sokol crude Sokol Yes NS Century Remains where it came to a halt, off the coast of Sri Lanka Sokol Yes NS Commander Previously headed to India, now signaling Singapore Sokol Yes NS Lion idling off the South Korean port of Yeosu since Jan. 2 Sokol Yes Sai Baba Idling about 200 kilometers from Indias western coast since Dec. 28 Urals No Sakhalin Island Previously headed to India, now showing destination of Qingdao in China Sokol Yes Vostochny Prospect Drifting near Singapore Sokol Yes

Indias oil ministry spokesman didnt immediately reply to email and text message seeking comments.

Russia has been the biggest supplier of crude to India over the past year, but its imports have plunged since the summer.

The Indian government has denied that the drop is related to payment challenges, blaming instead the high price of Russian barrels relative to other grades. But the latest decline comes after the US signaled it will ramp up enforcement of a price cap and wider sanctions on Russia.

At least one Indian refiner had to buy Abu Dhabis Murban crude to replace disrupted Russian imports.

Many Sovcomflot tankers are still heading to India without interruption, including nine loaded with Urals.

So far there have been no signs of delays to those ships voyages, but any issue may not become apparent until they are closer to their intended destinations.

Photograph: An oil tanker at sunset. Photo credit: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

Related:

Copyright 2024 Bloomberg.

Topics USA Energy Oil Gas Russia
TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd., the Beijing, China-based insurance broker, announced its subsidiary TRX HongKong Investment Ltd., has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to acquire Hong Kong insurance broker Peak Consulting Services Ltd.

Financial terms of the proposed deal were not disclosed.

According to the MoU, the acquisition is conditional on satisfactory findings of a due diligence review conducted by TRX HongKong.

We are excited about the proposed acquisition and the immense potential for the company to expand into the Hong Kong insurance brokerage market, which can offer robust growth opportunities, commented Zhe Wang, chairman and CEO of the company. This proposed acquisition aligns well with our long-term strategic vision of becoming a player in the global insurance brokerage industry.

TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd. is an insurance broker operating in China, which distributes two major groups of insurance products: (1) property/casualty insurance, such as automobile insurance, commercial property insurance, liability insurance; and (2) other insurance, such as life and health insurance.

Source: TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies China
Majesco, a cloud insurance software provider for the insurance business, announced it has acquired the Decision Research Corporation (DRC) business.

DRC, based in Philadelphia-based, is an SaaS-based insurance software company. It offers enterprise rating for large insurers, a reinsurance product, and core platforms for the managing general underwriter/agency (MGA/MGU) market.

Majesco said it will add more than 20 P/C insurance industry customers as a result of the transaction.

The DRC enterprise rating engine externalizes the rates, rules, and logic associated with rating to work with multiple policy systems. Majesco said it will integrate the DRC rating product with Majesco Policy for P/C and will continue to integrate with other policy solutions as needed by customers.

Majesco noted that the P/C segment continues to see rapid growth in the MGA/MGU market, as they select core platforms that meet the hybrid needs of both an insurer and MGA. The DRC core platform is specifically built to address these unique needs including out of the box capabilities and integration for business placement into the Lloyds and London market.

New Jersey-based Majesco serves life and health insurance industry as well as property/casualty. Majesco says 350 insurers, from start-ups to some of the worlds largest insurers, use its SaaS platforms and ecosystem.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions
OpenAI and its financial backer Microsoft were sued on Friday in Manhattan federal court by a pair of nonfiction authors who say the companies misused their work to train the artificial-intelligence models behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT and other AI-based services.

Writers Nicholas Basbanes and Nicholas Gage told the court in a proposed class action that the companies infringed their copyrights by including several of their books as part of the data used to train OpenAIs GPT large language model.

Representatives for Microsoft and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the complaint.

The lawsuit follows several others filed by fiction and nonfiction writers ranging from comedian Sarah Silverman to Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin against tech companies over the alleged use of their work to train AI programs.

The New York Times also sued OpenAI and Microsoft last week over the use of its journalists work to train AI applications.

Basbanes and Gage are both former journalists. Their lawyer, Michael Richter, said it was outrageous that the companies could use their works to power a new billion-dollar-plus industry without any compensation.

Topics Lawsuits Legislation InsurTech Data Driven Artificial Intelligence Training Development
A delay in the inspection of grounded Boeing jets ended on Monday after U.S. officials retrieved a panel that blew off an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 airliner and shares in the planemaker sagged on concerns over the troubled jet program.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the temporary grounding for checks of 171 MAX 9 jets installed with the same kind of panel that fell from the jet on Friday, which weighs about 60 pounds (27 kg) and covers an optional exit door.

But inspections were delayed by a snag over paperwork as the weekend decision to inspect part of the rest of the fleet short-circuited the usual sequence of regulatory approvals, forcing airlines to wait until they had received detailed instructions.

Confirming an earlier Reuters report, Boeing said on Monday it had issued the document to airlines.

The inspections  which the regulator has previously said would take about four-to-eight hours per plane  can go ahead once approved by the FAA. A person familiar with the matter said it had given approval. The FAA declined to comment.

The so-called door plug tore off on Friday following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, depressurizing the plane and forcing pilots to turn back.

The plane, with 171 passengers and six crew on board, landed safely.

The panel was recovered on Sunday by a Portland school teacher identified only as Bob in the Cedar Hills neighborhood who found it in his backyard, U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy said.

She said she was very relieved it had been found having called it a key missing component to determine why the accident occurred.

Our structures team will want to look at everything on the door  all of the components on the door to see, to look at, witness marks, to look at any paint transfer, what shape the door was in when found. That can tell them a lot about what occurred, she said.

The force from the loss of the panel was strong enough to blow open the cockpit door during flight, said Homendy, adding that it must have been a terrifying event to experience.

They heard a bang, Homendy said of the pilots, who were interviewed by investigators.

Homendy said the cockpit voice recorder did not capture any data because it had been overwritten. She again called on regulators to mandate retrofitting existing planes with recorders that capture 25 hours of data, up from the two hours required in the U.S. at present.

SHARES SINK

Boeings shares fell around 8% as investors digested the latest setback for the planemaker.

If the losses hold, the company would lose more than $12.5 billion in value, almost the cost of developing a new plane.

The mishap comes as Boeing and supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which made the panel, grapple with ongoing production setbacks that have hampered recovery from an earlier lengthy 737 MAX safety grounding and wider disruption from the pandemic.

Since the 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019, Boeing shares have fallen by more than 40% while Airbus shares are up 25%.

Spirit Aero shares also fell 8% in late morning trading in New York. Alaska Airlines shares were broadly stable and fell 5% while shares in United Airlines UAL.O, the only other U.S. airline that operates the jets, rose around 2%.

PLANES GROUNDED

The FAA said on Sunday the affected fleet of Boeing MAX 9 planes, including those operated by other carriers such as United, would remain grounded until the regulator was satisfied they were safe.

Of the 171 planes covered by the order, 144 are operating in the United States, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. Turkish Airlines, Panamas Copa Airlines and Aeromexico said they were grounding affected jets.

On Monday, Indonesias transport ministry said it had temporarily grounded three 737 MAX 9 planes, operated by Lion Air, even though they had different configurations from the Alaska Airlines plane.

The FAA initially said on Saturday the required inspections would take four to eight hours, leading many in the industry to assume the planes could very quickly return to service.

But criteria for the checks have yet to be agreed between the FAA and Boeing, meaning airlines have yet to receive detailed instructions, people familiar with the matter said.

The FAA must approve Boeings inspection criteria before the checks can be completed and the planes can resume flying.

Alaska Airlines said late on Sunday it had not received instructions from Boeing.

The airline canceled 170 flights on Sunday and a further 60 on Monday and said travel disruptions were expected to last through at least mid-week. United, which has grounded its 79 MAX 9s, canceled 230 flights on Sunday, or 8% of its scheduled departures.

Topics Aviation Aerospace Alaska
More than six years after Hurricane Harvey flooded thousands of homes and killed more than 80 people on the Texas Coast, the city of Houston has yet to allocate $200 million in federal relief funds to victims, according to the states General Land Office.

In a letter to newly inaugurated Houston Mayor John Whitmire, General Land Office Commissioner Dawn Buckingham offered her offices staff to help Whitmire ensure the remaining hurricane relief dollars are distributed appropriately and quickly. She said her office has historically had a strained relationship with the city of Houston and that the citys housing office has struggled with staffing issues, preventing them from managing the recovery funding.

Buckinghams offer signals an early opportunity for Whitmire to fulfill his campaign promise to improve relations between the states most populous city and the state. Whitmire, a former Democratic state senator, served alongside Buckingham, a Republican, in the state legislature from 2017-2023. Last month, he defeated U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in a landslide victory to gain control of the nations fourth most populous city.

Whitmires predecessor, Sylvester Turner, had been embroiled in a public feud with former Land Commissioner George P. Bush, accusing his agency of hogging federal Harvey relief money and discriminating against people of color when dispersing funds. Whitmire has indicated a willingness to work with the state to move past that feud and ensure Harvey victims receive aid.

I am excited to work with Commissioner Buckingham, and we will create a plan to ensure the $200 million Harvey federal relief fund is distributed as quickly and equitably as possible to those who qualify and need it, Whitmire said in a statement. We will move beyond the historic political fighting with the State during my administration.

General Land Office spokesperson Brittany Eck said the city must draw down the remaining $200 million by February 2025, when the citys contract with the GLO expires.

If that money isnt spent, it literally goes back to the Department of Housing and Development, Eck said. You use it or you lose it.

A public feud over disaster aid

Harvey made landfall as a category 4 hurricane on Aug. 25, 2017, causing an estimated $125 billion in damage to Texas. Disaster aid immediately became a point of contention between Bush and Turner, who disagreed over whether Houston should be included in the states plan for disaster relief aid.

Ultimately, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved a $5 billion block grant plan for disaster relief, with $2.3 billion reserved for Houston and Harris County.

The following year, Congress gave another $4.3 billion in disaster mitigation aid, with $2.6 billion reserved for preparedness projects in Harvey-damaged areas. That allocation would spark a new squabble between the city and the land office, which Gov. Greg Abbott appointed to administer the program.

To divide up $1 billion of the money, the GLO held a scoring competition and asked local governments to submit project proposals. The office failed to award Houston or Harris County any dollars, even though they faced the brunt of the storm damage.

Turner called the move a callous disregard to the people of Houston and Harris County and asked HUD to halt the distribution. It is unfathomable that the State GLO would redirect most of these dollars to areas that did not suffer much from Hurricane Harvey, Turner said in a statement.

After facing significant criticism from bipartisan elected officials, the GLO agreed to award $750 million directly to Harris County, but nothing to Houston.

Following that distribution, HUD issued a letter finding that the land offices criteria for distributing funding discriminated against communities of color and violated the Civil Rights Act by causing less funding to be available for minority residents. The finding was ultimately appealed to the U.S. Department of Justice, which declined to investigate the matter.

The land office gave the second round of funds to regional bodies to distribute locally. Houston ended up receiving only a miniscule portion of those dollars.

Distribution challenges

The city of Houston has struggled to distribute the roughly $665 million in Harvey relief dollars it was initially awarded. In 2022, the GLO took $140 million of unused funds from the city and reallocated it to a state-run Harvey Homeowner Assistance Program because the city repeatedly failed to meet deadlines. The city of Houston had already turned over to GLO a more than $400 million program to repair or replace single family homes damaged by the storm.

Through the GLO program, 1,387 single family homes have been built and an additional 739 homes are approved and under construction, Buckingham wrote.

Other programs that remain under city control are continuing to flounder, Buckingham wrote.

That includes a buyout program through which the city purchased four apartment complexes in flood prone areas. The program requires the city to offer uniform relocation assistance to help the former tenants of those buildings find new homes. The General Land Office took over the $40 million program after the city failed to repay more than 800 displaced tenants and is now trying to identify those former tenants who are owed money.

Eck said that the city simply lacks the capacity to administer the program.

They need to hire more individuals and train them to do this, Eck said. Also turnover is a difficult issue. Wed explain how to do it, and they said theyd have to train new people. At a certain point we said we have to take over.

A spokesperson for the Houston Housing and Community Development Department said she was pleased the GLO is using the funds to help Houstonians in need. But she disputed the amount of relief funding remaining in the citys budget.

While the GLO said the city has $200 million remaining, the Housing office said that figure is just $11.8 million.

We are uncertain how they arrived at $200 million, said Brenda Cabaniss, public information officer for the citys Housing and Community Development Department.

Cabaniss added that the discrepancy could be a matter of semantics. She said the office has submitted a number of reimbursement requests from the GLO that have not yet been granted. However, according to the GLO, those submissions were considered incomplete because they did not comply with federal standards.

The City of Houston has a history of submitting reimbursement requests that do not meet HUD standards, Eck said, adding that the citys success rate for submitting suitable requests has been abysmal, and the worst of all grant recipients.

Houstons Housing and Community Development Department has a history of fuzzy accounting and to HUD, the only numbers that matter are what has been drawn, Eck said. Not what has been expended or planned, but what has been drawn down.

Last March, Harris County leaders held a joint press conference with the GLO to talk about their renewed commitment to deliver disaster recovery funds to Harris County and Houston residents. The event coincided with the first time that both Houston and Harris County met their benchmarks for expending disaster relief funds, which Buckingham credited to improved communication.

Now, as the deadline to spend the remaining funds approaches, theres a new sense of urgency to allocate the funds, and Buckingham said that distributing the remaining dollars is her top priority.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/08/houston-glo-harvey-money/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Photo: High and fast water rising in Bayou River with downtown Houston in background under cloud blue sky. Heavy rains from Harvey Tropical Hurricane storm caused many flooded areas in greater Houston area.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Texas Hurricane
Affinity Advisors, providers of a digital platform for securing specialty insurance, has named a former Aon and Marsh McLennan executive to be chief revenue officer.

Andrew Suesserman, who spent 12 years with Marsh and Aon, will move into his new role this month, Affinity said in a news release. He will oversee growth and client engagement, as well as new innovation at Affinity.

Affinity Advisors, headquarterd in Atlanta, has grown steadily since 2021. The firm said its platform helps brokers, managing general agencies, associations and professional employer organizations to quote faster. Alan Anderson is co-founder and CEO.

In North Carolina, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey named longtime department general counsel, John Hoomani, to be chief operating officer.

Hoomani, who has spent 20 years at the DOI, earned his bachelors degree in political science from North Carolina State University and his law degree from Campbell University. He has been DOI general counsel since 2017.

He succeeds Mark Tyler, who has been with the department since 2014.

Topics Profit Loss North Carolina
Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison said on Saturday that it had managed to restore network services in the Central Java and Yogyakarta Special Region within 24 hours after a fire broke out at one of its transmitter buildings on New Years Day.

According to a statement published by Antara News Agency on January 6, the Indosat Gombel transmitter building in Semarang, Central Java caught fire on the morning of January 1. Separate media reports said that the fire knocked out mobile and internet services in Semarang, Yogyakarta, Kudus, Surakarta, Jakarta, Surabaya, and Malang.

By January 2, Indosat and its service partner Huawei Technologies had restored all services, Antara reported.

Network recovery and restoring service quality are our top priorities post-incident, said Indosat president director and CEO Vikram Sinha in a statement. Indosat, along with its partners, has proactively taken corrective measures to anticipate similar events in the future.

He added that the operator will provide 1 GB of free data to customers affected by the outage.

Indosat has yet to provide information on the cause of the fire. A report from Indonesian website Social Expat quotes Banyumanik police commissioner Ali Santoso as saying the fire may have resulted from batteries overheating, possibly from potential user overload on New Years Eve, although this has not been comfirmed.

Indosat issued a press release on January 2 saying that data traffic increased 8.9% on December 31. Indosat said at the time that it had optimised 434 priority locations and increased capacity at 527 points in anticipation of a traffic surge during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The January 2 release made no mention of the fire at the transmitter building in Semarang or the subsequent service outage.
The North Carolina Rate Bureau, basing its calculations on input from 197 property insurance companies, has asked for a 42% average increase in homeowners insurance rates, to take effect Aug. 1.

The rate bureaus double-digit requests in recent years have usually been greatly reduced after negotiations with the states insurance commissioner. After a 2020 requested increase of 24.5%, for example, the final rate ended up at 7.9%, Commissioner Mike Causeys office said in a statement.

The latest request will be the subject of a public hearing Jan. 22, starting at 10 a.m. at the Jim Long Hearing Room at 325 N. Salisbury St. in Raleigh. Virtual access to the hearing will be available here. Public comments will be accepted at the hearing or may be emailed to NCDOI.2024homeowners@ncdoi.gov by Feb. 2.

The rate bureaus filing shows that rate increases would vary by territory, by type of coverage and by type of structure. Homeowner policy rates would rise by 42.4%; tenants by 34.3%; and conominium units by 44.6%.

The need for the increase is based on insurers loss costs for 2017 through 2021; expense ratio trends, and the cost of reinsurance, the filing indicates.

Topics Pricing Trends North Carolina Property
Floridas wind-mitigation grant program for homeowners has proven to be so popular that the governor has proposed another $107 million for it this year, and some experts have called home fortification the only way to significantly reduce insurance losses from hurricanes.

Comes now another mitigation proposal, this one to elevate homes and make them safer from flooding and storm surge, two growing threats in Florida as climate change escalates and storms intensify.

Senate Bill 1208 and House Bill 1143, filed last week, would expand the My Safe Florida Home mitigation program by more than $200 million and would provide matching grants up to $10,000, similar to the wind-protection grants that result in insurance premium discounts.

Eligible homes would have to have been built before 1982; lie in the 100-year floodplain as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency; carry flood insurance; and have an insured value of less than $700,000. The funds could be used for elevating the structure or providing floodproofing measures, including water barriers, backflow valves and flood vents.

The Senate bill was introduced by Sen. Jonathan Martin, a Republican from Lee County, where thousands of homes where damaged or destroyed by flooding and storm surge from Hurricane Ian in 2022. The House bill is sponsored by Rep. Lindsay Cross, a Democrat and environmental scientist from St. Petersburg.

Both bills would require the Florida Department of Financial Services to contract with trained home inspectors to certify that homes meet eligibility requirements, and to recommend improvements.

The home inspector must be a certified floodplain manager who has completed at least 3 hours of flood mitigation training, HB 1143 reads.

SB 1208, seen here, and HB 1143 have not yet been assigned to committees and have not yet been analyzed by legislative staff. The Legislatures 2024 regular session begins Tuesday in Tallahassee.

Its unclear at this point how much support the bills may receive. But insurance authorities and a former state senator have argued that beefed-up mitigation programs are key to Floridas future and billions more in funding are needed. Although newer homes in Florida built in flood and coastal areas must be elevated to minimize water damage, millions of other homes are older and lie in vulnerable locales.

Flood insurance losses from Hurricane Ian have topped $4 billion, FEMA has reported.

A $10,000 grant may not cover much of the cost raising a home above the expected flood level. Forbes magazine reported last week that the average cost of elevating a home in the United States is about $28,000. Other reports have pegged the cost as high as $100,000.

Top photo: A Fort Myers Beach home in the process of being elevated, a year after Hurricane Ian slammed the area. (Phelan M. Ebenhack via AP)

Topics Florida Flood
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)  A customer has filed a negligence lawsuit against Dunkin`, claiming he was injured by an exploding toilet at one of the coffee chain`s locations in central Florida.

Paul Kerouac is seeking more than $100,000 in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in state court in Orlando, claiming he suffered severe and long term injuries following the explosion of a toilet in the men`s room of a Dunkin` location in Winter Park, Florida, a year ago.

After the explosion left Kerouac covered in human feces, urine and debris, he walked out of the mens room seeking help from workers and the stores manager, according to the lawsuit. An employee told him that they were aware of the problem with the toilet since there had been previous incidents, the lawsuit says, without diving into further details about the explosion.

When contacted by email for more details on Kerouacs injuries, his attorney, Scott Spradley, said he was tied up and couldnt answer the questions until the following day. The Canton, Massachusetts-based company did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The lawsuit says Kerouac suffered bodily injury, and he has required mental health care and counseling since the incident in January 2022. The complaint argues that the restaurant management had a duty to maintain its premises in a safe condition and to warn restroom users of any known hazards.

The restaurant failed to warn or adequately warn Plaintiff of the gander (sic: perhaps danger) of the mens room toilet, when Defendant knew or should have known that the toilet was unreasonably dangerous, leaving Plaintiff unaware of the danger, the complaint reads.

The complaint does not explain how or why the toilet exploded, or if the incident damaged property in the building or resulted in an insurance claim.

Kerouac is represented by attorney Scott Spradley, who was elected to the Flagler Beach City Commission earlier this year. Court records show it is the only legal action filed by Kerouac in Orange County in recent years.

Photo: (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Florida
The board of Mutual Insurance Company of Arizona declared a dividend for its policyholders totaling $15 million.

The funds are to be allocated among current members, with plans for it tol be distributed in February 2024.

The dividend represents roughly 18% of a policyholders 2023 annual premium for members insured by MICA for a full three-year period ending on the Dec. 31, 2023, record date. Members current as of the record date who were consecutively insured less than the full three-year period will receive a pro-rated amount, according to the company.

Following the dividend distribution, MICA reports returning $730 million in dividends to its policyholders since inception, including more than $100 million in the last five years. Since 2005, MICAs board has awarded dividends to our policyholders each year.

Additional information regarding the dividend will be available on the member portal in early February 2024.

MICA is a physician-owned and physician-directed mutual insurance company focused on providing medical professional liability insurance.

Topics Carriers Arizona
Regulators have grounded 171 Boeing Max 9 planes around the world, including all Max 9s in the US, after a panel was ripped from an Alaska Airlines Max 9 flying at 16,000ft after taking off from Portland in Oregon.

Nobody was seriously injured in the incident but the near-tragic event marks just the latest setback for Boeing.

The grounding of the Max 9s may have limited fallout for airlines operating the planes around the world because the checks may take a matter of hours rather than days, but the longer-term effects on Boeing and for airlines such as Ryanair, which has placed massive contracts with the US airline for other planes in the Max series, including the Max 10, are still unknown.

Ryanair has placed one of the world's largest orders for the Max 10 planes, of which the airline hopes to take delivery in the coming years to drive expansion, revenues, and profits. In May, it said it had ordered 300 new Max 10 planes worth over $40bn (36.4bn).

The deal includes a firm commitment for 150 of the planes and an option for 150 more, with the first planes due for delivery from 2027.

The delivery date may appear to be a long time in the future, but Boeing has struggled to recover since a Lion Air Max plane crashed in Indonesia in 2018, killing all 189 people on board. The following year, the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Max killed all 157 people.

The incident involving the Alaska Airlines Max 9 in recent days will raise fresh alarm among regulators about safety processes at Boeing.

Ryanair had not responded by late Sunday to questions from the Irish Examiner over whether it had been in contact with Boeing since the Portland incident over any implications for its Max 10 orders.

Ryanair partnership

Boeing chief executive Dave Calhoun had said in May that its partnership with Ryanair was one of the most productive in commercial aviation history.

Aviation consultancy IBA said on Sunday it did not expect a major crisis for Boeing from the blowout of the panel on the Max 9 plane, but that the reputation of the manufacturer was likely further tarnished nonetheless.

"It is likely that the grounded aircraft will return to service in the coming days and weeks as the affected fleet of Max 9s are examined and cleared for service," IBA said.

However, this event draws further attention and scrutiny on Boeing, as it comes after a series of issues around quality control at the aircraft manufacturer and its suppliers."

The reference to Boeing supplies is significant. In just months, Boeing has suffered a series of quality lapses that threaten to erode trust in the manufacturing prowess of the biggest US exporter. And now Boeings fraught relationship with its biggest supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, stands to face fresh scrutiny following the Alaska Airlines incident.

I would hope that they will quickly get to the bottom of this and see if it was truly a one-off, said Richard Healing, a former National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] member, who now heads consulting firm Air Safety Engineering.

If it was just that airplane, there may have been poor workmanship done when they locked off that door. I would be looking at everything you can imagine.

The NTSB, which arrived on the scene in Portland within hours of the incident, will examine Boeings manufacturing process for the Max 9 as it investigates what may have led to the panels blowout.

Boeings former Wichita, Kansas-based subsidiary builds about 70% of the 737s frameset, according to Spirits website. The green aluminum fuselages are shipped by rail to Boeings Renton, Washington, factory, where wings, tails, and interiors are installed.

Investigators will likely look into how the doors are plugged and even question why they exist if they can come open, Mr Healing said.

The hinged section is secured by four bolts and opens outward from the top, according to Chris Brady, a former head of the UK Flight Safety Committee. Something must have been amiss with at least one of those bolts, he said on a video posted to YouTube.

Spirit has struggled with quality issues, high worker turnover, labour strife, and financial stress since the pandemic and the 2019 Max grounding.
Farmers are urging co-ops to pay 39c/litre for milk supplied in December.

Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association dairy committee chairman Noel Murphy said that co-ops "can and should" be paying this.

While he noted that the volumes produced in December were traditionally low, Mr Murphy said that there was "little doubt that the 2023 production was particularly low as farmers had dried off early in the face of unacceptably slow price rises and stubbornly high inputs".

"There is no doubt that 39c/litre is an absolutely realistic price for co-ops to reach for December payments, and the markets for the last quarter of 2023 prove as much," Mr Murphy said.

"Milk supplies are tight in exporting nations and if farmers are to be encouraged to produce long term, in the volumes that the co-ops already know they will require, then prices that reflect a rising global market and demand have to be paid to the primary producers.

"Our feeling is that if the co-ops try to shortchange the farmers now, then they will come to profoundly regret this later in the year."

Cruel margin-squeeze

Noting the market trends since the summer of 2023 and describing them as "unmistakable", Mr Murphy said that the GDT index is up over 20% since its lowest offering and European quotes for butter are up by almost a quarter in that same time period.

This translates into quotes on the European and Dutch auction returning equivalent farmgate prices of 42c/litre for the different product mixes, according to the ICMSA.

"Its up to the co-ops to recognise those signals and act on them," Mr Murphy added.

"They have to be bold and begin restoring the farmer confidence that has been so badly shaken by 18 months of cruel margin-squeeze."
Just as Irish literature is seen as distinctive, classical music from Ireland can and should be seen in this way too, and Cork has played a major role in developing that Irish classical music voice.

Roisin Ni Dhuill puts forward this argument in a three-part BBC Radio 3 series, in which she plays a selection of recordings and traces their roots in song, folk music, and history.

The Fleischmann family changed the course of music in her home city of Cork, says presenter Ni Dhuill.

The brilliant pianist Tilly Fleischmann and her Bavarian husband Aloys taught generations of Cork musicians and their son Aloys changed the course of music not just in Cork but in Ireland as a whole, says the presenter of the BBC series.

Having both studied music in Munich at the turn of the 20th century, Cork-born Tilly and her husband, who became organist and choirmaster in Corks North Cathedral, brought with them influences from the European classical tradition, says Ni Dhuill.

Their son Aloys studied music at University College Cork in the 1930s and subsequently returned to his alma mater where he became professor of music.

Aloys Fleischmann conducts a Cork Symphony Orchestra rehearsal at Cork School of Music in 1974. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive

He went to the ends of the earth to keep the tradition of classical music going in Cork, says Ni Dhuill. He started the Cork International Choral Festival, he brought amazing conductors and orchestras to Cork. He also brought the RTE String Quartet to Cork, giving the city its own cultural identity. Ni Dhuill, who studied music at UCC and is now a viola player in the BBC Philharmonic, relates a personal story illustrating Fleischmanns dedication to the development of music in her home city.

I remember as a teenage viola player getting a phone call from Professor Fleischmann asking if I might play with the Cork Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted. It felt like a very special moment to get a phone call from such a distinguished figure. It demonstrates the level of commitment he had to musical life in Cork  he even made all the phone calls.

In the series second episode Growing an Irish Tradition, broadcast on Sunday, January 14, Ni Dhuill traces the story of classical music through the lens of Cork as Ireland moved towards independence and a restored cultural identity. Through a selection of recordings, she illustrates that Fleischmann and other leading Cork-based composers and musicians were key to developing a distinctive Irish voice.

Fleischmann was passionate about Ireland developing its own unique not just classical but art music, developing its culture in a broad way, to become a performer on the global stage, which it is now.

He was very interested in getting an Irish voice in classical music that wasnt just about rearranging folk tunes, that it would develop its own voice, like Irish literature.

Up until then, it was more about collection of music and there were some composers who included Irish tunes and Irish melodies in their music but it was not as recognised. In the 19th century, there were perceptions of classical music as being English, even though it was much more European, and of being elitist, says Ni Dhuill. Fleischmann was instrumental in moving that perception forward during the 20th century, she says.

Fleischmanns mission to create a sense of Irish identity in music inspired a new and influential generation of Irish composers, particularly Sean O Riada from Cuil Aodha and later Micheal O Suilleabhain, both of whom lectured in music at UCC.

Sean O Riada did a lot to involve Irish musicians in the classical tradition and give them a sense of pride around their own music and develop it in new directions, with Irish people getting the recognition for their own music through classical music as well and performing it on the global stage  that was really important.

Linda Buckley and Arnold Bax feature in the BBC Radio 3 series.

Micheal O Suilleabhain also evolved music in a new direction, says Ni Dhuill of her lecturer, who went on to establish the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in Limerick.

O Suilleabhain was known for pushing the boundaries of how classical and traditional music could work together but not everybody was composing in this way and plenty were leaning towards European traditions. The difference now is that they could do that now and stay in Ireland.

Another figure involved in the classical music milieu in Cork was Arnold Bax, a well-known English composer who was deeply inspired by Ireland.

Bax loved Ireland, he wrote literature under the pseudonym of Dermot OByrne. He very much identified with the Irish cause. He was friends with Patrick Pearse and he wrote a piece for him after 1916 called In Memorium.

Ni Dhuill tells the story of Baxs involvement with Cork. He was invited to adjudicate at Feis Maitiu by Tilly Fleischmann. They thought hed never accept and he did. Thats where the amazing friendship with the Fleischmanns started. He used to come to Cork every year and go to the North Cathedral to hear Herr Fleischmanns choir. He died in the Fleischmann home and is buried in St Finbarrs Cemetery.

In the series, Ni Dhuill features a number of other Cork musicians and composers, including the work of electronic and acoustic music composer Linda Buckley in the final episodes exploration of Irish music in a world of international film and gaming music.
Coffee cup littering is on the rise in many parts of the country, leading to calls for a new levy to be fast-tracked on disposable cardboard cups.

The annual Irish Business Against Litter (Ibal) results  a nationwide survey of the cleanliness of 40 towns and cities  found that coffee cup littering is widespread.

Discarded coffee cups were found at over 30% of the 500 sites surveyed by Ibal inspectors.

We are concerned at potential delays in introducing a coffee cup levy, said Ibal's Conor Horgan.

We believe this action is needed to stamp out a product which is out of step with the circular economy.

"Irrespective of how recyclable or compostable take-away cups are, these statistics show too many of them are ending up on our streets.

Ibal says Killarney has benefited from having banned single-use cups last year, a move met with little or no resistance from the community.

For the first time since Ibal surveys began 20 years ago, no area has been deemed seriously littered, but problems persist in some places.

Maynooth was top of the rankings of 40 towns and cities while Dublins north inner city was at the foot of the table.

Waterford was again Irelands cleanest city, ahead of Galway, with Cork City centre improving its ranking to moderately littered but Dublin falling to littered, alongside Limerick.

Dublin's north inner city occupied last place in the table but its littered status was an improvement on past years.

This is a disappointing result for Dublin and Limerick city centres, given that they both enjoyed clean status a few years ago, said Mr Horgan.

While litter levels rose slightly overall, over 60% of towns surveyed were deemed clean.

There are many challenges facing our capital city, but clean streets are an important starting point on the path to recovery.

Ibal says the impending deposit return scheme  which will see people charged a refundable deposit on certain drinks containers in shops will improve cleanliness levels.

While litter levels rose slightly overall, over 60% of towns surveyed were deemed clean, with Maynooth in Co Kildare edging out Mallow and Sligo to take the overall title of cleanest town.

An Taisce, who carry out the surveys on behalf of Ibal, commended Maynooth on attaining a level of cleanliness over the course of 2023 which we have not encountered in two decades of surveying.

The university campus was described as "spotless", with the main street achieving an excellent result for a busy shopping environment".

In Limerick, there were monumental levels of dumping on Mallow St, while the vacant site on William St was an eye-sore, right in the heart of the city.

Vast amounts of litter and domestic rubbish were noted along Dublins Sherrard St, while Cathedral St on Corks northside wasnt just casually littered but subject to dumping.

There is some good news in our cities, however, said Mr Horgan.

For years our worst performing areas were deemed either litter blackspots or seriously littered.

"This baseline would seem to be changing, with littered becoming the bottom tier.

"Cleanliness begets cleanliness, and there is reason to hope the improvement will continue in future years.
The Office of the Attorney General has begun assessing a request for new inquests into the deaths of all 50 victims of the Whiddy Island disaster which occurred 45 years ago today.

The office has asked for clarification on documentation, and for further details about new information that emerged since inquests were held in July 1979.

The request for fresh inquests was made by Michael Kingston, whose father, Tim, was among the victims of the 1979 tragedy.

Mr Kingston, a lawyer who specialises in international maritime law, made the request in his capacity as vice president of the French-Irish Association of Relatives and Friends of the Betelgeuse, the group which represents the families of those who died.

The French-owned tanker, Betelgeuse, caught fire and exploded at the Gulf Oil-operated terminal jetty at Whiddy Island in Bantry Bay, Co Cork, on January 8, 1979, killing 50 people, both on the ship and on the jetty.

Seven Irish men died, including Tim Kingston, who was just 31, Charlie Brennan, Denis OLeary, Neilly OShea, Jimmy OSullivan, Liam Shanahan, and David Warner, along with Briton, Mike Harris, and the 42 French crew of the Betelgeuse.

Dutch diver, Jaap Pols, died later during the salvage operation.

Mr Kingston, who turned four the day before his father's death, has spent years campaigning for new inquests into the deaths of those killed in the explosion after he found the July 1979 inquests relied on the statements that were found to have been fabricated.

Mr Kingston, who finally after lengthy attempts was able to inspect the inquest files in December 2022, wrote to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar this time last year pointing out the unreliability of the inquests, how the recorded causes of death make no reference whatsoever to the circumstances surrounding the disaster, including the regulatory failures which led to it, and asking him to direct the attorney generals office to order the hearing of new inquests.

The office contacted Mr Kingston just before Christmas apologising for the delay in responding and requesting supporting documentation.

A government spokesman for the office said the attorney general has a function under the Coroners Act 1962 to direct a coroner to hold an inquest where he considers that the circumstances of a person's death make the holding of an inquest advisable.

But he added: "The office has no comment to make in respect of specific cases."

Mr Kingston said: The delay in reviewing this matter has certainly compounded the grief of the families involved but I welcome the first contact from the AGs office on this matter. It is deeply appreciated.

So many family members, particularly wives of those who died, are passing away, and therefore receipt of the correspondence from the AGs office is timely.

The funeral of unidentified victims on February 5, 1979 .

As families mark the 45th anniversary of the tragedy today, Mr Kingston is preparing for his first face-to-face meeting with a representative of the office within days to discuss the matter.

A tribunal of inquiry into the Whiddy Island disaster found the 11-year-old Betelgeuse was in poor condition, with cracks in its hull and tanks, where evidence of corrosion and leaking was found.

It concluded that an incorrect oil unloading and ballasting sequence unbalanced the vessel, causing it to break its keel, which ruptured empty tanks, allowing vapours to escape, mix and ultimately ignite.

It said the ships owners, Total, had to bear most responsibility for the initiation of the disaster.

The jetty operators, Gulf Oil were also severely criticised for a range of human and procedural failings, which prevented a successful rescue of all victims from the jetty.
RTE Cork is to start the process of finding a new location in the city centre this month, with the current site at Fr Mathew Quay to go up for sale with a price tag of around 2m.

It is understood that RTE has already viewed space in the One Albert Quay building in Cork city centre as a potential option when it moves from its existing site.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, RTE director general Kevin Bakhurst also revealed that an increase in production from Cork is being considered, including extending The Today Show and Nationwide.

He said the overall strategy is dependent on the future funding for RTE  a decision is expected in the coming months from the Government  but he believes the broadcaster will push ahead and begin looking for a new Cork site this month.

Kevin Bakhurst on the set of 'The Today Show' at RTE Cork, where he said there could be job losses, depending on voluntary redundancy applications.Picture: Larry Cummins

"I think we've got to start the plans in earnest early in the new year," he said.

I've already seen one place that was quite good and central. I set myself a high benchmark on what Im expecting us to find but I think the city centre is really good to do live programming and get guests there. Im excited about the plans down there.

We've obviously got to look at selling the building were in at the moment and weve had it valued; these things take time.

The strategy is dependent on funding but I think, come what may, we need to start properly looking in January.

The Irish Examiner understands the studio on Fr Mathew Quay is valued at around 2m.

Mr Bakhurst said there could be job losses at RTE Cork but it will be dependent on how many people apply for the voluntary redundancy scheme.

The one thing that needs to be clear is that if we have to give anyone a paid exit, then we can't replace them.

It's a pretty tight ship in Cork so we'll have to see if anyone applies; well have to consider it, he said.

In December, Mr Bakhurst wrote to staff to say the broadcaster would share details of its initial and limited voluntary exit programme near the end of January.

The organisation is seeking 40 departures under this scheme as part of planned cutbacks totalling 10m in 2024, though it has also flagged that it expects 400 people to leave by 2028.

As part of his restructuring plan, Mr Bakhurst said one option being considered is running The Today Show for a longer period throughout the year.

Currently, the show, presented by Maura Derrane, Daithi O Se, and Sinead Kennedy, runs from September to May but there is speculation it will run for 12 months of the year.

Presenter Maura Derrane on 'The Today Show', which returns today after the Christmas break. Picture: Gerard McCarthy

The show returns today after the Christmas break and is set to see a string of regular faces presenting on Mondays and Tuesdays alongside Daithi O Se, while Ms Kennedy is on maternity leave.

Ms Derrane will continue to present the show for the remainder of the week.

Nationwide currently airs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but is being run on a shoestring, Mr Bakhurst said.

It is anticipated that the show could air on an extra day in the future.

"Both of those programmes, they're doing very well ratings-wise at the moment so we'll look to build on that initially," said Mr Bakhurst.

"We need to look at how we can work further with independents in Cork as well. Weve got some great partnerships, particularly with UCC, so theres a lot that we can do, he said.

Mr Bakhurst said he has spoken with the director general of the Swedish national broadcaster about safeguards in place there as a result of direct exchequer funding, rather than relying on TV licence fees.

He said he understands the concerns around the approach, which Tanaiste Micheal Martin said could prove problematic.

The key thing for me is some predictability of funding, that the funding is at the right level, that we can be ambitious for what we're delivering, and that it safeguards our independence.

Mr Bakhurst also said he had spoken with the new Late Late Show team following reports of tensions, just weeks after the show began with new host Patrick Kielty.

The Irish Examiner first reported that Jane Murphy, the now former executive producer of the Friday night show, left the programme four weeks after it launched with Kielty.

Mr Bakhurst said there was nothing to investigate after Ms Murphys departure but he had spoken with her as she is a valued staff member.

He said there is always a bit of bedding down when a programme is revamped, adding that the team was also frustrated after the show launched due to the strike in Hollywood which made it difficult to get celebrity guests.

Meanwhile, the publication of two delayed reports examining Toy Show the Musical and staff severance deals are due in the coming weeks.

Mr Bakhurst had commissioned solicitors to examine voluntary severance programmes for departing staff in 2017 and 2021, while accountants Grant Thornton were commissioned to examine the failure of Toy Show the Musical.
Orange Group bolstered its position in Romania by signing a deal with the government to form a converged fixed-mobile operator.

In a statement, Orange said the agreement was reached with the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization to merge Orange Romania SA (ORO) and Orange Romania Communications SA (OROC), ORO will absorb ORO into its operations.

The deal follows Oranges acquisition of a 54% stake in OROC, which was formerly Telekom Romania Communications, in September 2021. The new agreement will see Orange hold an 80% stake in the new operator and the government will take 20%.

Orange claimed its Romanian unit is the leading operator in the country and has revenues of 1.2 billion in 2022. ORC was touted as one of the largest fixed players in Romania with reported revenues of 513 million in 2022.

Mari-Noelle Jego-Laveissiere, Executive Vice President, CEO of Orange in Europe, said: "Today is a very important day for Orange Romania and Orange Romania Communications, and the signing of this agreement will strengthen our position on the Romanian market and bring us closer to being a fully converged telecom operator for our residential and business customers.

Julien Ducarroz, CEO, Orange Romania , added:"We are really pleased to announce the conclusion of such a strategic agreement for Orange Romania, which marks a crucial moment in the company's history and confirms the confidence of the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization in our strategic ambitions, in project and in the team. Now, with united forces, we accelerate towards the fulfilment of the common goal: to be the first option for fixed-mobile services in Romania".
The family of an Irish soldier killed by the IRA has welcomed proposed law changes that would impose fines for the unauthorised use of the title of the Defence Forces, Oglaigh na hEireann.

Several paramilitary groups across Ireland, including the Provisional IRA, have also referred to themselves as Oglaigh na hEireann.

Additionally, Sinn Fein has used the term Oglaigh to describe individual members of the Provisional IRA.

Under the General Scheme of the Defence Amendment Bill 2023, which has been approved by the Government, it will become an offence for a person to use the term Oglaigh na hEireann for any group unless they have the authority of the Minister for Defence.

A person who commits an offence under this new provision could be fined a maximum of 1,000.

The phrase, or any words closely resembling the term, will not be allowed for use as the name, title, description or styling of any group, organisation or body without ministerial approval.

The proposal follows a Bill brought forward by Senator Malcolm Byrne in 2021, which would have protected the contemporary usage of the title Oglaigh na hEireann for the Defence Forces.

Mr Byrne said the Bill would have protected where the term is used in a historical context but would not permit paramilitary organisations to misuse the name.

David Kelly, whose father was one of two members of the Irish security forces killed by the Provisional IRA during a rescue mission 40 years ago, said its use by the IRA and Sinn Fein is insulting to those killed during the Troubles.

On December 16 1983, Private Patrick Kelly and garda recruit Gary Sheehan were killed in Derrada Wood, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, during an operation to rescue Quinnsworth supermarket executive Don Tidey, who had been kidnapped for 23 days in Dublin.

Mr Tidey exited the ordeal physically unharmed.

Speaking to the PA news agency on Monday, Mr Kelly said his family is re-traumatised by the use of the phrase by unofficial groups.

It is re-traumatising to hear people being recognised as Oglaigh na hEireann and Oglaigh because my fathers murderers are still walking free, they have been getting away with murder for 40 years.

And at the same time, weve been sitting here with an empty chair at the table for 40 years.

He added: Ive always felt its an insult. Not only to my father who, in brutal reality, was gunned down in a vicious manner alongside a garda.

But its also an insult to the Defence Forces who served with him that day, some of them were taken hostage and used as human shields. Its an insult to the entire Defence Forces who have been loyal to the State since independence.

Also, I would say, ultimately, it is an insult to the Irish people. The Defence Forces are protecting our democratic institutions of the Republic of Ireland.

At the time, the provisional movement didnt recognise our Government, parliament, court system and our security forces.

Mr Kelly said his family really welcomes the move.

He was a member of the legal, legitimate Oglaigh na hEireann and it was a unique case because he was the only member of the Irish Army murdered during the Troubles.

But he was actually murdered by an organisation who claimed that they were the true Oglaigh na hEireann.

At the time, they would have seen my father as a pretender and would have disparagingly referred to the Irish Defence Forces as the 26-County Forces.

He added: Not only were they claiming to be Oglaigh na hEireann, they killed a member of the true Oglaigh na hEireann in Derrada Woods. Our lives have been blighted by it, courtesy of this group.

The South East Fermanagh Foundation victims group said it was encouraged that the Government was moving towards deterring wanton misuse of the term.

SEFF director Kenny Donaldson said: There is one Oglaigh na hEireann and that is the official Irish Army of Ireland, the name has been misused over many years by The Provisional IRA, in both Ireland and Northern Ireland.

He added: This reclaiming of language must act as the launch pad for me to be done around the wilful glorification and glamorisation of terrorism and political violence connected with The Troubles period on both sides of our border and indeed throughout the United Kingdom and further afield.

The Defence Amendment Bill 2023, which is due before the Oireachtas this year, is intended to give effect to a key recommendation of the Independent Review Group on Dignity and Equality issues in the Defence Forces in relation to the establishment of an External Oversight Body.

It will also look at the issue of associate membership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for Defence Forces representative associations, which Mr Byrne has previously raised.
Anti-immigration protestors are planning a demonstration outside a proposed asylum centre on the site of a former nursing home in Dublin, after a similar one in Mayo ended yesterday. It comes after a weekend-long rally at a disused hotel in Ballinrobe was halted.

The building was to be used for 50 men, however on Monday a U-turn by the Government saw new plans for families to be housed there instead.

The Department of Integration said: While initially earmarked for adult males, there is now an acute shortage of accommodation for families and children and it is now intended to place families into this property over the coming days.

It also said centres like the proposed site in Ballinrobe have been opened in all parts of the country.

There have been more than 190 accommodation locations utilised since January 2022 across 26 counties.

A spokesman said: These options must be considered to prevent homelessness for people arriving seeking international protection.

The situation in relation to accommodation for international protection applicants remains extremely challenging, and the Department does not have enough accommodation to offer to many newly arrived IP applicants at present.

Local Fianna Fail Councillor Damian Ryan said: The protest has ended but there are a few outsiders who are not accepting it, regardless.

I think for the single men who were meant to go there, they will be moved elsewhere, most likely to a bigger city. That could be an answer to this, putting the men in the cities instead and families with smaller communities.

Its a lesson learned, the Government has to talk to the communities to prevent incorrect rumours and upset, but this protest was happening all weekend when no one was quick to come back in the department.

Just as one protest ended, another one is being planned by demonstrators in Dublin.

The rally is being planned at a former nursing home in Ballsbridge in south Dublin after it was confirmed a 220-bed emergency accommodation facility for asylum seekers will open in Pembroke Park.

The former St Marys nursing home is situated beside St Conleths College and will house people seeking international protection. It is due to open in the coming weeks.

The property went on the market in September for 7m, with planning permission recently secured for a 64-unit build-to-rent scheme.

The building is now owned by Goldstein Property Irish Collective Asset Management, and leased by Burvea Unlimited Company on a five-year lease.

One protestor told the Irish Examiner: Some people are ok with this, but we are not. We dont know who will be going in there, but we will do the same as what others have done, well sit for as long as we have to.

Meanwhile, other protests are taking place in Kilkenny and Cavan. In the last number of days, up to 20 people have gathered in Urlingford in Kilkenny over the possible use of a site for those seeking refuge here.

The former Josephines Restaurant is a well known landmark on the old Cork - Dublin road which has been vacant for many years..
Gardai are investigating an incident in Cork on Sunday which left three teens in hospital.

The assault occurred on Sunday evening in the Brooklodge Square area of Glanmire.

Three teenagers  a boy and two girls  were taken to Cork University Hospital to be treated for injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening.

It is believed that one of the young people was stabbed during the incident which involved a number of teenagers.

Glanmire-based independent councillor Ger Keohane said he and many other people living in the area were very shocked by what had happened.

Unfortunately, incidents like this are becoming more commonplace in Irish society as a whole and they are becoming more violent by the day," he said.

"I am appealing for anybody who has information about what happened to talk to the gardai."

Investigations are ongoing.
A guilty plea was indicated on Monday, January 8, by a 34-year-old man accused of burgling three apartments in a complex in Cork where he left a note in one womans home with his name and phone number and two unopened condoms.

Szymon Kaczorowski of Farran, Ovens, County Cork, said through Frank Buttimer, solicitor, at Cork District Court: He will be entering a plea whether these charges are being dealt with summarily or by indictment. Mr Buttimer said that such an indication may be of assistance to An Garda Siochana and the Director of Public Prosecutions in terms of advancing the question of directions on whether the case will be dealt with at district or circuit court level.

The accused, who could have been remanded in custody for two weeks without his consent, also consented to a three-week remand in custody. On the application of Sergeant Gearoid Davis, Judge John King then adjourned the case until January 29.

Garda Paraic OConnor objected to bail being granted to the accused man last month, testifying: It is alleged that on December 10, Szymon Kaczorowski gained entry to a gated apartment complex of Mardyke Hall apartments on Mardyke Walk.

It is alleged he entered a bedroom in an apartment where he stole items belonging to (the woman residing there) such as a backpack, mobile phone, bank cards and photographs.

While in the bedroom he left a note with his name and phone number and details of his area of residence on it for the injured party. He left two unused condoms with this note. This apartment was occupied by two other students in their rooms.

It was further alleged that he entered a second apartment where the female resident was at home alone.

While she was in the kitchen she noticed the door opening and closing and she went to the hallway where she was confronted by a man unknown to her who left, but remained in the building. She was visibly shaken when gardai arrived.

It was alleged that he went to a third apartment where male students were sharing accommodation. He tried to enter bedrooms but only succeeded in getting into the living room where he helped himself to some drinks.

Gardai arrested him at the scene and he was carrying a backpack containing most of the property stolen from the first apartment. It was alleged that he made certain admissions and said he had gone into the apartments to get coffee and he accepted that he left his phone number on the note in the first property.
The resources available to the garda district facing a renewed upsurge in gangland violence has reduced significantly in recent years, according to official figures and security sources.

The amount of frontline gardai in the K district in Dublin Metropolitan Region West division  covering Blanchardstown, Finglas, and Cabra  has declined by 11% compared to three years ago.

It comes as gardai in the district draw up policing plans for the funerals of Jason Hennessy, who was fatally shot in a restaurant in Blanchardstown on Christmas Eve, and of Tristan Sherry, the gunman who was overpowered by customers and fatally injured.

The funeral of Mr Hennessy, a 48-year-old man from Corduff in Blanchardstown, may take place as early as this week, with the funeral of Mr Sherry, aged 26 and from Finglas, to follow.

It is understood that the bodies have not yet been released to the families.

A significant garda operation is expected, given fears that the Corduff gang, which Mr Hennessy was associated with, will put on a show of strength on the day.

There are significant concerns that the leaders of the gang, known for their volatility and propensity for violence, will seek revenge for his killing.

Mr Hennessy is believed to leave behind five children  three sons and two daughters  as well as his wife.

The motive for the gun attack is still being investigated. While many reports have linked it with a once-violent feud with a Finglas gang, other reports suggest Sherry may have carried out the shooting in revenge for being attacked by Mr Hennessy.

Official figures show that garda numbers have fallen significantly in the Blanchardstown district in recent years, with an 11% reduction at the frontline rank of garda in the last three years alone  from 302 in 2020 to 270 at the end of November.

Compared to 2010, the fall is more dramatic, from 322 to 270  a drop of 16%.

There is a huge, huge shortage of gardai in Dublin West, its chronic, said one security source.

The riots in town and the political pressure to put resources into the city centre means less patrolling in the west.

At the recent attestation of new gardai from Templemore College last December, 151 were promised for Dublin, some 20 of which are expected for DMR West.

Sources said large numbers of gardai have been transferred away from regular policing to specialist divisional units such as the Protective Services Unit, which has a complement of 40 gardai, and a Regional Crime Task Force.

In addition, a number of gardai from the DMR West division have been sent to boost numbers in Dublin Cty centre in response to concerns for people's safety as a result of the Dublin riots last November.

Garda Mark Ferris, Garda Representative Association delegate for DMR West, said policing was at breaking point because of what he said was a failure to recruit sufficient numbers of new entrants despite successive increases in police budgets.

He said DMR West accounted for 10% of all resignations in the force, and said members were exposed to a high-risk, hostile environment.
Cork County Council is writing to the Government after a popular Cork radio show was cut in half to make way for a new Ryan Tubridy show.

There was outcry over a decision by 96FM to half Derry OCallaghan's Oldies and Irish Sunday slot from four to two hours to make way for Tubridys new weekend programme, which is being recorded in London.

Tubridy, who left RTE in the summer following weeks of controversy related to revelations that the organisation had publicly under-reported payments to him, started a new show on Virgin Radio UK last week. That station is part of the Wireless Group which owns 96FM along with Dublins Q102, Live 95 in Limerick, and LMFM in Louth.

Tubridy broadcasts a weekly mid-morning show in London and is also presenting a dedicated Irish weekend show across the Wireless Ireland station network.

The Government is to be asked if the reduction of Oldies and Irish to facilitate Tubridy's show is allowable under local broadcasting obligations.

Fianna Fail councillor Ann Marie Ahern raised the issue at a council meeting in County Hall, saying that while she has nothing against Turbidy, as hes great, it was, in her opinion, a retrograde step and the OCallaghans programme should be reinstated to its previous four-hour slot.

She said OCallaghans programme has been engrained in Cork households for years and got unanimous backing from colleagues to write to 96FM urging its senior executives to reconsider their decision.

'A disgraceful decision'

The Mayor of County Cork Frank O'Flynn said "quite a lot of people are very upset by this decision.

Independent councillor Ben Dalton-OSullivan said he was quite surprised at the number of his constituents who rung complaining about OCallaghans show being cut in half.

However, he said it was obvious from the complaints that OCallaghan is extremely popular and has played a key role in promoting local Irish musicians, especially traditional musicians.

Labour councillor James Kennedy added: Its an outstanding programme, and its a disgraceful decision. I cant understand it.

To be cut from four hours to two is inexplicable."

Fine Gael councillor John OSullivan maintained the local broadcasting license enshrines the provision for local content.

We should also write to the minister for communications and ask if content being beamed from other locations [such as London] is fulfilling it, he said.

"Its something very serious, and I think we should be looking into it.

If the conditions are being met, then they should be reviewed."

Coimisiun na Mean is the regulator for broadcasting in Ireland, replacing the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland in 2022.

A spokesperson for Coimisiun na Mean told the Irish Examiner that it was "satisfied" that no changes were required to the licences of the regional stations broadcasting Tubridy's new show.

"The Wireless Group informed An Coimisiun of its intention to broadcast a pre-recorded weekend music-driven show for some of its Irish radio services, to air on Dublins Q102, Corks 96FM, LMFM, and Limericks Live 95FM. The Wireless Group confirmed that there will be no impact to any of the programming commitments set out in the contracts for any of the stations involved, including with respect to news information and current affairs. On this basis, An Coimisiun was satisfied no amendments to the relevant contracts were required.

"If it appears that a stations programming is not in line with its contract, An Coimisiun can take action to rectify the situation. Anyone is free to inspect a contract and to make representations to Coimisiun na Mean," they said.
While world superpowers debated detente and the recession bit hungrily at home, a momentous decision was taken among the keepers of the national thirst.

On March 29, 1984, the Dublin based Licenced Vintners Association (LVA) voted to put an end to the holy hour. It was a close run thing, 60% in favour, 40% against pulling the shutter down on a long standing tradition.

Crucially, the LVA stated that they had the backing of their colleagues in Cork, the only other conurbation where the holy hour was observed. Hostelry drinking by the Liffey and the Lee would never be the same again.

The reason we want it abolished is there has been a tremendous increase in the food business, Michael Madigan, chair of the LVA, explained in the aftermath of the momentous vote.

We like to think that during the summer when tourists are here we are in a position to cater for them rather than asking them to leave at 2.30pm, not understanding exactly what our peculiar rules are.

The holy hour struck six days a week between 2.30pm and 3.30pm. Sunday was the exception, when the sabbath was observed nationwide with a 90 minute moratorium on drinking. Visitors to either city during the week often expressed shock at the imposition of this hour that was for some reason associated with religion.

It was as if, within the limits of the respective conurbations, the citizenry collectively gathered to pray for the hour in a manner more familiar to religions from the east. But no, ultimately it had nothing to do with religion.

The only reason it was described as holy was to associate the temporary abstinence with a closeness to the Man Above who would presumably have approved of this 60 minute pause in imbibing the Devils buttermilk.

Its originator was Kevin OHiggins, the first minister for home affairs in the new free State. OHiggins was a man considered, in his legislative habits, to be a touch authoritarian.

By the mid 1920s, the smoke had settled on the Civil War and he and his colleagues were well on their way to fashioning a newly independent state.

Living in Monkstown on the southside of Dublin, it was his want to call in to his local, The Dropping Well, on his way home from a days work in Leinster House. According to an account of the pubs history, the minister couldnt help noticing workers from the local mills around midday on a Saturday, were making the pub their first stop on the journey home.

As the afternoon wore on and conviviality blossomed into bonds of imbibing friendships, the laughter grew louder and thoughts of returning home to their loved ones were conveniently placed on the back burner.

One for the road became four or five and when eventually, on the proprietors firm words of encouragement, they rose to leave it was evident that much of the weeks hard earned labour was resting in the tills of P H Meagher [the proprietor]. OHiggins was appalled at this, particularly as he himself regretted the sacrifices of time which he had to inflict on his young wife and family.

As OHiggins saw it, what was sauce for him, was too much sauce for them, so he decided to do something about it. A liquor licencing bill was going through the Dail at the time. He inserted a clause mandating the closure of pubs for the holy hour in the cities of Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and Limerick.

Confining the measure to cities was in all likelihood a betrayal of the prejudice of the day which dictated that country folk represented the real Ireland, where they danced at crossroads and did their drinking in the fields rather than the pub. It is unrecorded why Galway escaped the fate of the other cities but it may have something to do with a belief that men  and it was all about men in pubs in those days  from the west knew themselves when it was time to go home.

In 1962, Limerick and Waterford opted out, presumably on the basis of having acquired the kind of maturity that the long gone OHiggins had yearned for the nation.

The man himself unfortunately didnt live long enough to see the holy hour in action as he was assassinated in 1927, the year after he hit on the bright idea.

Brendan Behan, when he was in his pomp, noted with a lack of charity that the politician who introduced the holy hour to the Dail was shot dead an hour afterwards.

So it was that time caught up with the holy hour in March 1984. The only constituency which mourned its passing were seasoned drinkers in the two cities who considered it a badge of honour to know a pub that would lock em in for the dry 60 minutes each day.

For these hardy souls, the holy hour was an opportunity to subvert the law. Taking it away left them bereft in the knowledge that anybody who wanted, and not just those in the know, could now drink the heart out of the whole afternoon, right the way through.
On July 21, 1984, Mary Manning crossed a line. She went from that vast constituency who despair of oppression and injustice to become one of those actually doing something about it, and at a personal cost.

Manning was 21, working in Dunnes Stores on Dublins Henry Street, typical of her age and background, interested mainly in hair and holidays.

She was aware of what was going on in apartheid South Africa and had an instinctual sympathy for what was being visited on the oppressed majority there. But like the vast majority in this country, it didnt impact on her life. And then it did.

On the day in question, she and nine other workers in the Henry Street shop refused to handle goods from South Africa. Their union, IDATU (later renamed Mandate) had passed a motion refusing to handle the goods, but it was really observed in spirit only. No other members in retail bothered much about it, but now these workers in Dunnes Stores had put their jobs on the line.

The conditions in South Africa at the time were an abomination to anybody who believed in the concept of human rights. Black people were restricted in how they lived, how they worked, how they were educated, who they married, and what they were subjected to by the criminal code.

In 1984, the population of the country was 32.7m. Of these nearly three quarters were black, 14% white and

the remainder made up of those classified as Asian or coloured.

The whites ruled the country and did so in a way to maximise their wealth and influence. By the 1980s, a programme was underway to further confine black people to specific areas.

On completion, the black population would be entitled to live on 13% of the land. In order to move more than 20 miles (32km), they required a pass from the government. Frequently, they were arrested for being outside their specified zone without a pass. They were not allowed to vote.

Dunnes Stores protesters being arrested during the strike outside Dunnes on Henry Street, in 1985. Picture: RollingNews.ie

Mary Manning was unaware of much of this. Later, she would say that she wasnt sure what exactly was going on but she knew it was wrong.

If industrial relations had been better in their Dunnes Stores branch, things might not have gone as they did. But once they started, she and her co-workers educated themselves on the specifics.

For a long time, though, they ploughed a lonely furrow. While many others shared abhorrence of apartheid, few were willing to make a stand. Manning referenced this in her memoir, Striking Back: The Untold Story of an Anti-Apartheid Striker.

One letter after another arrived from other unions and companies that supplied Dunnes Stores, stating that while our action was a courageous one, it could not be supported for various reasons.

The attitude was mirrored in government where the economic ties with South Africa were prioritised over any stance against a morally corrupt regime.

Support was forthcoming from various quarters, but most of it was qualified. This was even the case with Kadal Asmal, the South African who was the head of the anti-apartheid movement in Ireland at the time.

His initial warm support cooled somewhat as the strike went on. Mary believes he, like others, didnt want to discommode the Irish establishment on which he relied for support for the cause.

The unions and the Catholic Church, including Eamon Casey who was head of Trocaire, trod warily around the strikers.

To some extent, Mary and her colleagues disrupted a comfortable order that made all the right noises from a

safe distance.

Who were we? she wrote in Striking Back. Ten working class shopworkers, nine women and one man, in a recession-hit country, where most felt lucky even to have a job, striking about an issue that affected people in a country thousands of miles away.

For Ben Dunne, then chief of the retail chain, the strike was an affront to his power. (In 2008, he apologised on RTE to the strikers for how he handled the whole affair.) His position certainly received support from all the people who mattered.

Mary Manning recounts how she was visited at home by members of the special branch, a unit which at the time was largely engaged in battling with the IRA.

Why the government of the day would regard a group of innocent shop workers as a threat to the State remains baffling.

The tide did turn after the strikers were invited to London to meet Bishop Desmond Tutu in 1985.

He publicly endorsed the campaign but the strike continued until April 1987. By then apartheid was crumbling under its own weight and everybody was rushing to be on the side of the angels.

In 1990, Nelson Mandela met the former strikers when he visited Dublin, pointing out that ordinary people far away from the crucible of apartheid cared for our freedom and kept him going while he was in prison.

With such a commendation it must all have been worth it for the young woman and her colleagues who made their stand one July day in 1984, for an oppressed people on the other side of the globe.
The son of a victim of the Whiddy Island disaster says he is prepared to go to the well of his being time and time again to get justice for the victims families.

International maritime law expert, Michael Kingston, was speaking ahead of today's 45th anniversary of the devastating maritime tragedy that claimed the lives of 50 people, including his father, Tim, leaving their families shattered, and casting a long shadow of loss and pain over the region for decades.

Mr Kingston was busy at the weekend preparing for his first face-to-face meeting with representatives of the Attorney Generals office, which has begun considering his request for the Attorney General to direct the holding of new inquests into the deaths of all 50 victims.

It may have taken 45 years, but this is an important step in seeking justice, Mr Kingston said.

Read More AG assessing request for new inquests into deaths of Whiddy Island disaster victims

You have to go to the well of your being time and time again but I am prepared to do that, if thats what it takes. Its called getting justice.

The French-owned oil tanker, Betelgeuse, caught fire and exploded at the Gulf Oil-operated terminal jetty at Whiddy Island in Bantry Bay, Co Cork, on January 8, 1979.

The explosion and resulting fireball killed 50 people, both on the ship and on the jetty.

A lot of the recoverable bodies were retrieved within days. But the body of Michaels father, Tim Kingston, 31, and the remains of two other men, Cornelious OShea and Denis OLeary, were lost at sea for months.

Of the 42 French crew who died in the explosion, 23 were never recovered.

The inquests into the deaths of all 50 victims were held within six months of the disaster, on July 12, 1979, before the publication of the States tribunal of inquiry into the disaster, which was not finalised until May 1980.

Mr Kingston says, in the first instance, the inquests should have been adjourned pending the publication of the tribunal report and describes the holding of the inquests so soon after the disaster as nothing more than a rubber-stamping exercise.

There was such a rush to get them over and done with (on one day), that the file, for the lives of 50 people, is no thicker than half a pound of Irish butter.

When the inquests were heard, he said they relied heavily on the statements of two individuals whose evidence to the tribunal was later found by the tribunal itself to have been fabricated.

The tribunal concluded that in one case, an individual suppressed certain facts and fabricated an account of when and how the disaster occurred, and to support this version, incorrect entries were made in certain logs, and that false accounts of the events of the evening were given by certain Gulf employees to their employers, to investigating gardai, and to the tribunal, with an entire chapter dedicated to the Suppression of the Truth by certain Gulf Oil employees, including management.

And to compound the families grief, Mr Kingston said when his fathers body, and the remains of Mr OShea and Mr OLeary were finally recovered from Bantry Bay in August 1979, a second inquest into their deaths was held in February 1980, that again relied on the same statements which were later discredited by the tribunal.

The inquests led to the death certificate for his father, Tim Kingston, recording a certified cause of death as asphyxia due to accidental drowning.

Mr Kingstons submission of a request to order new inquests under Section 24 of the Coroners Act 1962 follows years of painstaking research and campaigning on the issue, which has included a detailed trawl through each of the inquest files.

He says the unreliability of the inquests carried out on July 12, 1979, and of the three inquests held again on February 15, 1980, should lead to the holding of new inquests.

Mr Kingston, who recently represented the Lucas family at the inquest into the death of Irish Coastguard volunteer Catriona Lucas at the coroners court in Limerick, which highlighted key maritime safety failures by the Department of Transport, said he and other relatives are angry that the inquest verdicts in the Whiddy deaths do not refer to any context or circumstances surrounding the disaster, or to the regulatory failures which contributed to the disaster, which is contrary to established fundamental legal principles  under Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Michael Kingston speaking at the Betelgeuse disaster 40th anniversary mass at St Finbarrs Church, Bantry, in 2019. Picture: Dan Linehan

He believes the deaths should be recorded as unlawful killing due to staggering safety reductions by Gulf Oil as a result of monumental regulatory failures by the Irish State in the lead-up to the disaster which has led to immense emotional consequences for his family and all of the other victims families.

The tribunal of inquiry laid most of the blame for the initiation of the disaster at the feet of the ships owners, Total, but jetty operators Gulf Oil were severely criticised also for several human and procedural failings which prevented a successful rescue of all victims from the offshore jetty.

But it also highlighted a raft of regulatory failures for which the State was responsible.

It said while a harbour authority was in existence at the time of the disaster, it had no effective legal powers and was not in any way responsible for the management of the harbour or safety precautions at the terminal.

Establishing a harbour authority without jurisdiction over Whiddy Island meant that Gulf itself was responsible for drafting bye-laws under the Petroleum Act, 1881, for the safe handling of petroleum products, the Tribunal found.

This was a highly anomalous situation and contributed to the fact that no bye-laws were ever made under the Act of 1881, it said.

It also found that while the Dangerous Substances Act was enacted in June 1972, which gave wide powers to the then Minister for Labour to make safety regulations against the risk of injury caused by petroleum, the Act had not been brought into operation when the disaster occurred.

These regulations were very comprehensive and included matters relating to safety and fire-fighting systems at offshore jetties such as that at Whiddy Island.

No explanation was given to the tribunal for the extraordinary delay that occurred in the preparation of these regulations, the final report said.

The failure to establish by-laws under the provisions of the Petroleum Act, of 1881, or to introduce regulations under the Dangerous Substances Act, of 1972, had serious consequences, the Tribunal found.

The statutory obligations placed on Gulf in relation to the maintenance of proper safety measures and standards and the provision of effective fire-fighting systems, particularly on the position of the duty tug on the night of the disaster, were wholly inadequate, it found.

There was a correspondingly inadequate requirement on the public authorities, both at governmental and local level, to supervise and inspect the safety measures and fire-fighting systems at the terminal, it said.

However, such supervisory functions as were imposed by law on the public authorities were properly carried out by the officials responsible for fulfilling them, it found.

Michael Kingston with Emma and Bernard Lucas at Kilmallock Courthouse, for the inquest into the death of Coastguard volunteer Caitriona Lucas. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

The tribunal also found that modifications made to the jettys original fire-fighting system had the effect of down-grading it, that inadequate consideration was given to the means of escape from the offshore jetty; that the pressurisation system in the personnel building on the jetty was undesirable; that breaches of the hazardous area classification of the jetty had occurred; and that standards of maintenance of important equipment had been lowered.

It found the alteration of the mooring position of the jetty tug seriously weakened the emergency service to the jetty and it found that Gulfs Policy and Procedures manual was seriously inaccurate in relation to the role of the tugs in an emergency and the classification of the hazardous area at the jetty.

Had the Dangerous Substances (Oil Jetties) Regulations, 1979, been in force prior to the disaster, it is very likely that at least some of these deficiencies would not have occurred or, if they had, that they would have been observed by a departmental inspection and remedied, the final report said.

It also found a highly anomalous legal situation existed, in that the jurisdiction of Cork County Council, both as a planning authority and as a fire brigade authority, did not extend to the offshore jetty at the terminal - its jurisdiction ended at the low water mark at the island.

The State has completely failed those who died at Whiddy Island, their families, those involved in the rescue, and the community of Bantry, but now at last, after 45 years, it appears that finally might be about to change, the plea for obvious justice in line with established fundamental legal principles having finally being heard, Mr Kingston said.
A number of people around his cabinet table gave out hell to Abraham Lincoln at one point during the American civil war because he continued to employ Ulysses S Grant as a key general, despite Grant being a notorious binge-drinker whenever his wife wasnt present to influence him towards sobriety. Lincoln, as was his practice, listened attentively to the data being presented about Grants worrying drinking bouts, but at the end of the discussion, refused to fire him. Instead, the president said: I need this man. He fights.

It was a persuasive point. During the civil war, Lincoln had to put up with a number of generals who, despite all their training at West Point, paradoxically didnt fight. These commanders never saw a battle they liked the look of and were geniuses at avoidance-behaviour. In fact, his top military man early on was George McClellan, who was adored by his men, perhaps, it might cynically be suggested, because he so rarely committed them to battle. McClellan always needed reinforcements. Twenty thousand men, he insisted one night, changing his mind after a good nights sleep. Waking up, he doubled that number.

Grant, on the other hand, believed in battle and couldnt wait for the next opportunity to have a go at the Confederates. He was a fearless inspiration to his armies and thats what Lincoln liked. But, while Grants pugnacity endeared him to the president, he had another, arguably equally important strength. He quickly grasped how modern methods of communication, particularly the telegraph and the railroads, had endowed the commander with the power to collect information more quickly and the means to disseminate appropriate orders in response, according to John Keegan in his 1976 book The Face Of Battle.

Grant instinctively understood a reality of war and peace, of democracy and dictatorship, which is that the individual or group who owns the communication owns the outcome.

Before Grant, the orthodoxy was that wars were won by money, munitions, and manpower. Those watching the current conflicts in Palestine and in Ukraine cannot escape the grim appreciation that those three Ms are still paramount. A parallel reality, however, is that if the objective is to capture the public mind, rather than enemy terrain, communication is  and always has been  the most powerful weapon.

The early and medieval Church understood this perfectly. The rose windows in the great cathedrals served as a beautiful precursor to PowerPoint, allowing the local clergymen to make presentations explaining complex concepts and abiding narratives to the illiterate locals. The Church delineated its hierarchy by colour. A cardinal wore a particular colour to which an archbishop could only aspire, while an archbishop wore a colour forbidden to bishops and priests. They pioneered the use of couriers. They understood, as well as any secular ruler, the need for intelligence, and accordingly deployed spies. Signs and signals, words and music  the church owned and used every communications platform available to it.

Inevitably, then, in the 20th century, individual American churchmen  notably a Fr Charles Coughlin, serving in Michigan in the 1920s  spotted the enormous potential of the brand-new medium of radio. He started using local radio in a fairly harmless way: telling bible stories to child listeners. But within a few years, Coughlin [had] invented a new kind of preaching, one that depended [on] the microphone and transmitter. He ushered in a revolution in American mass media by his dramatic ability to blend religion, politics, and entertainment in a powerful brew whose impact is still being felt decades after his demise as a public figure, wrote his biographer, Donald Warren.

This man, of Irish extraction, garnered great wealth through dirty business and accepted money from the Nazis to fund him when he decided to run for the presidency.

Eventually, in 1940, the Catholic Church silenced Coughlin, but too late to prevent him from creating a template for terror and misinformation that continues to apply today.

Fr Coughlin tends to be glossed over when the early power of radio is addressed, largely because US president Franklin D Roosevelt effectively created, in his fireside chats, a franchise allowing him to address ordinary people in a tone that created in each listener the conviction that the president was talking to them and them alone. It was a breathtaking achievement. Roosevelt managed to do, sans AI, what a good algorithm does, today: scratch people where they itch, share their hopes and dreams, direct their rage or energy.

In the past, communications platforms  like, for example, radio and television  had to obey rules about balance. In Ireland, they still do, although the tit-for-tattery interpretation of balance in radio and TV needs work. However, in the US, all was well until along came affable president Ronald Reagan, who, it now appears, was an early version of Donald Trump. He radically weakened what was called the 'Fairness Doctrine', which was a protective fence around public information. But he didnt do it directly. He took the Trump route of appointing apparatchiks to public bodies who would do it for him.

So it was that in 1987, the members of the Federal Communications Commission he had appointed tore down the requirement for fairness and balance in broadcasting, leading first to shock-jockery and eventually  through four decades of culture change  to Fox News, the leading exemplar of abandonment of any kind of balance in how it addresses political issues.

Reagan changed everything in a way that was not fully appreciated at the time.

Ronald Reagan changed everything in a way that was not fully appreciated at the time.

Broadcasting history, like medical history, tends to major on the heroic intervention that generated massive change. In medicine, one of those heroic interventions was the introduction of antibiotics. In broadcasting, it was the arrival of a knight in shining armour, like Ed Morrow, who in one broadcast holed the fascist Joe McCarthy below the waterline. Here, although less deified, The Late Late Show served, in a more diffuse way, something of the same function, facing down prejudice and permanently weakening the power of the Church in Ireland.

The problem with the heroic intervention, applied to the 21st century, is that in Morrows time, and in the gamechanging years of The Late Late Show, their singular strands of broadcasting dominated public awareness. Nothing comparable exists today. Audiences have choices they did not have during the 50s and 60s. One strand alone  the podcast  breeds like guinea pigs do. And the offerings are personalised in a way unimaginable at any stage in the past, with social media (including podcasts) effectively offering crazy to the crazies (alt-right calls, over the weekend, in this country, to burn all buildings planned to house refugees) while providing everybody else with an individual rabbit-hole, intriguing to descend while insulating the individual from other data  and other realities.

Lewis Carroll may have been prescient, portraying Alice, because of her pursuit of the white rabbit, ending up helplessly collusive with the illogical while completely insulated from reality.
Nasarawa State in the North Central region of Nigeria has eliminated right of way (RoW) costs for the construction, placement, laying and maintenance of telecoms network equipment in the state.

An RoW charge varies from country to country, but is usually a fee paid by operators to a countrys or state's government in exchange for deploying fibre optic cable on roadways.

The charges were eliminated by Nasarawa, a state whose current population is approximately 2.5 million, since the passing of legislation last year, after which Nasarawa State Urban Development Board has been told not to collect charges.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) seems to be pleased with this decision and suggests the move will boost efforts to meet the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy's fibre optic cable target.

The Katsina state government (in the northwest of the country bordering Niger), eliminated RoW charges last month. The NCC is reportedly in talks with the countrys 34 other states about waiving the fees.

According to ITWeb Africa, service providers have been paying $9 per metre to lay fibre across Nigeria.

RoW fees have been a bone of contention in some regions but the economic benefits of speedy rollout are outweighing those of short-term profit in a few cases. There has, for example, been a significant boost for Tanzanian operators with the governments decision, announced in July last year, to slash the countrys RoW fee from US$1,000 per kilometre to only US$200 per kilometre.

In India meanwhile, there have been high hopes for faster 5G rollout since the introduction in 2022 of a new right of way portal.
Gerry OCarroll, who died last week, will be remembered primarily for two of the many murder cases that he investigated.

One involved Shaw and Evans, a pair of Englishmen who were responsible for the notorious killings of young women.

The other was the Kerry Babies case in which OCarroll was among the gardai who managed to acquire a confession for murder from an innocent family.

The man who reveled in the moniker the sheriff served as a garda over a long career, beginning in the late 1960s and ending in 2000. He was for the first half of that career a member of the murder squad.

He was also associated with a group known as the heavy gang, although he denied the existence of any such gang. The heavy gang was a loose amalgam of gardai who assaulted and intimidated suspects in custody, beating confessions out of them.

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In subsequent trials, these gardai habitually perjured themselves, often in an organised manner. OCarroll was identified as one of the main culprits in this respect by various witnesses.

He was never charged with anything and always threatened legal action against any reporter or organisation which associated him with the heavy gang.

For some in An Garda Siochana, and in the media, he was considered a diligent and courageous cop.

Others saw him as corrupt in how he conducted his professional duties and an inveterate liar when he frequently addressed controversies in which he had been involved.

What separated him from others who were prominent during a time of serious garda controversies is that he engaged in a career in the media after retiring from the force.

For many years, he wrote a column in the Evening Herald and was a frequent commentator on radio and TV on policing.

This is standard fare for articulate former gardai who often have a positive contribution to make to the media ecosystem.

The difference with OCarroll was that, in light of Kerry Babies case, his credibility was highly dubious, and he continued to spout nonsense about that case which many considered highly offensive to the family concerned.

Starting off

OCarroll was born in 1940 in Listowel, Co Kerry, one of a family of 15 siblings. His childhood was, he would later say, marked by poverty but was none the worse for it.

We took off our shoes in May and didnt put them on again until September and times were indeed tough, he said in an interview in 2006.

But there was a lot of happiness too and we had the kind of freedom back then children now would never be given. We were lucky in that we werent put out to work by our father at an early age. Instead, my parents scrimped and saved and nine or ten of us actually went onto third level.

He wasnt one of them. Instead, he took the boat to England and worked on building sites.

After a while, the life of a labourer no longer held any attraction for him.

On a visit home, his father organised for him to get a place in Templemore. Fortunately for OCarroll, he found himself directed towards a job that he would grow to love. Templemore fashioned him as a policeman.

It was a harsh regime and a lot of us developed a lifelong hostility to the misuse of authority in there but we got discipline, he said.

Some who encountered him later in his career would have found it ironic that he disliked the misuse of authority.

Within the force, OCarroll quickly developed a reputation for getting things done.

He was assigned to the murder squad, which operated in the technical bureau of the gardai. The squads principal tool of investigation was interviewing witnesses and suspects.

In 1976, OCarroll was involved in the investigation into the rape and murder of two women, 22-year-old Elizabeth Plunkett in Wicklow and 24-year-old Mary Duffy in Mayo.

Two Englishmen, Geoffrey Evans and John Shaw, were suspected of crossing the country looking for victims.

They were arrested and OCarroll was detailed to interview Shaw. The suspect gave nothing away for two days.

Then OCarroll made what he said was a heartfelt plea to Shaw.

He retold this story many times, the last of which was last year when he was giving evidence in the Central Criminal Court in a separate cold case prosecution.

I said, John, well say a prayer together. It wasnt the full rosary now but I said well say a Hail Mary. I said, 'Youre a Catholic'. He said 'I am'.

"I said, You made your Holy communion, you wore a little rosette with a badge and your confirmation. Your parents were proud of you. You remember that John?

"And he said, Yes I remember very well, detective. And I said, And look at the monster youve turned into. Well say a prayer for you.

"And he mightve never said a Hail Mary in a long timeand the next thing he saw, what Id like to put, the error of his ways and he broke down and wept and he said, Yes, Ive done terrible things and Ive killed Mary Duffy and I killed Elizabeth Plunkett. And he made a full statement that night.

Shaw and Evans were convicted of murder in 1978.

Shaw died in prison in 2012, and Evans is still serving a life sentence.

OCarroll was involved in up to 70 murder investigations. He undoubtedly did some good work, brought killers to justice and solace to bereaved families. He was, as he was wont to proclaim himself, good at the job.

As part of the squad, he investigated paramilitary activity, including murder, kidnappings, and robbery. And it was the threat posed by the paramilitaries that appears to have prompted some in the gardai to take the law into their own hands.

'Heavy' allegations

The heavy gang was centred on the unit in which OCarroll served.

There were numerous allegations of assault in custody, many of them showing a pattern, as a means of extracting confessions. OCarroll, and other prominent gardai such as John Courtney, always maintained that the allegations were baseless.

Despite that, the evidence mounted that their interrogation methods went way beyond legitimate inquiry.

Then in 1984, along came the Kerry Babies case. In May the body of a baby was found on the white strand, near Cahirciveen.

The baby had been stabbed multiple times. A few weeks later, the gardai discovered that Joanne Hayes, a single woman living with her family in Abbeydorney, 70km from Cahirciveen, had been pregnant but was now without child.

She, her three siblings, and an aunt were brought into Tralee garda station and questioned by OCarroll and others.

Joanne told OCarroll that her baby had died at birth and was buried on the family farm. Beyond a cursory examination, nobody was sent to search the farm.

After hours of interrogation, Joanne admitted murdering her baby and her siblings admitted colluding in the murder and disposing of the body into the sea from Slea Head.

This would have accounted for the baby ending up in Cahirciveen on the next peninsula over.

Joanne was charged and remanded in custody.

She told her solicitor where her baby had been buried and the body was found. Now there were two babies.

Blood tests showed that neither Joanne nor her boyfriend Jerimiah Locke could be the parents of the Cahirciveen baby.

Joanne was released, the charges dropped and a tribunal set up to find out how a family could have admitted to a murder they couldnt have committed.

According to the Hayes family, Joanne had been severely intimidated in Tralee garda station, and her two brothers claimed to have been assaulted.

The tribunal was a chance for a judicial body to expose the heavy gang culture. Instead, tribunal chair judge Kevin Lynch turned his guns on the Hayes family, accusing them of lying.

The report completely avoided dealing with the central issue and to the greatest extent exonerated the gardai involved.

For instance, Lynchs report said statements given by the gardai but subsequently shown to be erroneous are not barefaced lies (as regrettably is the case with members of the Hayes family) but they are an exaggeration over and above the true position, or a gilding of the lily of wishful thinking elevated to the status of hard fact.

The judge also had this to say about the gardai targeting the Hayes family.

It is tenable for some gardai to suspect that Joanne Hayes is the mother of the Cahirciveen baby despite all the scientific evidence but it is not tenable for any of them to say they are certain, or virtually certain, that this is the true position.

At the tribunal, lawyers representing OCarroll and his colleagues raised the possibility of superfecundation, a process by which a woman has sex with two different men in quick succession and gives birth to twins.

It was a ludicrous theory and grossly insulting to Joanne Hayes, but OCarroll dined out on it for years after to justify how he had conducted himself in Tralee garda station.

Consequences

There were two serious consequences for OCarroll following the publication of the whitewashed tribunal report in 1985.

He was confined to desk duty after garda commissioner Larry Wren reported to the government that the officers conducting the investigation into the death of the Cahirciveen baby were grossly negligent in their handling of the case".

For the rest of his days, OCarroll claimed that he was scapegoated.

He had some justification for such a gripe. The case had presented the opportunity to investigate the culture in which the heavy gang had operated for the preceding fifteen years, yet instead just portrayed the Kerry Babies case as an aberration in which a few gardai were shoddy and unprofessional.

OCarroll had been up to his neck in the culture of assaulting suspects, but he was far from alone.

The other consequence was that legally he could attack anybody who raised issues about his conduct in Tralee garda station. Once the tribunal exonerated him from intimidation and assault, his reputation was, in a legal sense, intact.

In 1987, Joanne Hayes told her story in a book published by Brandon Books. OCarroll and three other gardai sued and the case was settled on the steps of the high court.

Each garda received 17,500, a huge amount for a libel action at the time.

The case almost bankrupted the Dingle-based publisher.

Thirty-five years later the government accepted that the tribunal report contained gross errors, particularly in stating that Joanne Hayes and her family had lied about, among other things, their time in Tralee garda station.

The remainder of OCarrolls career was low-key.

The Kerry case rendered him something of an embarrassment among the upper echelons of the force.

When he retired in 2000, then commissioner Pat Byrne and a number of journalists hailed him on RTE as a great cop.

Despite that, he openly carried his bitterness, claiming he had been a victim of blatant injustice.

I was the victim of a witch-hunt as some of my colleagues were. We were a successful unit and certain people in high places, and I mean the Department of Justice, were getting slightly miffed about that and looked for an opportunity and they reverted to me and disbanded the squad.

The claims were baseless and laughable, but he was to repeat them ad nauseam during his subsequent media career.

He continued to claim he had treated Joanne Hayes like a daughter and aired his superfecundation theory at every opportunity.

In 2018 DNA sampling showed that Joanne Hayes could not have been the mother of the Cahirciveen baby, finally putting a stop to OCarrolls ravings.

Last year he accepted the findings.

The DNA, I have to accept, is finite proof, he said.

He would not, however, offer any apology to Ms Hayes. I have only sympathy for two creatures on this, he said. The babies  and thats my final word on that.

By then he had long since become a figure of ridicule on the subject.

There is practically no dispute but that in Tralee garda station he intimidated a frightened, bereaved young woman to a point where she told him exactly what he wanted to hear.

He could have retreated thereafter in shame and regret and left well enough alone.

Instead, he continued to beat a hollow drum, claiming that far from acting the thug and misusing his power, he, and not Joanne Hayes, was the real victim.
As we move into the early weeks of 2024, it feels appropriate to reflect on another tough year for medical scientists in Ireland.

Johnny Logan once famously sang Ive been waiting such a long time, looking out for you, but youre not here, whats another year. He probably wasnt referring to industrial relations processes in Ireland, but I can think of nothing more appropriate to describe them, especially in the case of medical scientists.

By way of example, let me outline the treatment of these dedicated scientists who are vital to the functioning of our health service.

'Medical scientist' is the legally protected term held by the majority of scientific staff working in our hospital laboratories. It is a highly specialised, dynamic and rapidly evolving profession of roughly 2,500 dedicated scientists nationally.

Medical scientists are an integral part of the healthcare workforce, involved in every step of the patient journey including screening for illness, infection prevention and control, risk stratification, acute presentation and management, diagnosis, monitoring disease progression and evaluating treatment efficacy, discharge protocols and palliative care.

An unseen and undervalued workforce, they are there for their patients 24/7/365 in every acute hospital in Ireland. Every time you have a sample taken, be it blood, a swab, a biopsy or anything else that can be taken as a sample, there is a medical scientist waiting to receive and test it.

A common mantra among the workforce is very true  without us, the doctors are just guessing.

95% of clinical pathways require input from laboratories. File photo: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

95% of clinical pathways require input from laboratories. Which antibiotics will work on this infection? Which blood type can I transfuse this patient with? What chemotherapy regime will be most effective for this patients cancer? Does this patient have indigestion or are they having a heart attack?

These are all questions which are answered in the laboratory, and yet the patient will never know of the vital input of the medical scientist who answered it.

In April 2019, I was elected as chairperson of the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association (MLSA), the representative body for medical scientists in Ireland. The profession was in a state of crisis and had been for some time.

Some laboratories were reporting staff vacancies of up to 20%, with an average of 13% of positions vacant nationally. Graduates from the approved medical scientist university courses in Ireland had been going elsewhere for employment for a number of years, balking at the working conditions and onerous demands of such a high-pressure, low-reward career.

Morale among existing staff was stretched to breaking point as they tried to maintain services against a backdrop of increasing demand for more tests, new tests, increased specialisation of tests, and quicker turnaround times. The entire system lay on the brink of collapse; urgent action was required.

Throughout the remainder of 2019, the MLSA formulated a plan to claw our way out of the situation we were in. Membership of the association had dwindled to about 1,300 members throughout the austerity years as trade unions reeled from the effect of FEMPI legislation introduced in 2010 and 2013.

Unions were limited in what they could seek for their members due to public service agreements. Currently, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) are trying to negotiate the removal of this emergency legislation. Agreement has not yet been reached which may result in a full public service strike in the new year.

The MLSA campaign was rightly paused in 2020 due to the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. Test, test, test, said the WHO, and medical scientists delivered. As thousands died in Ireland, medical scientists were lauded far and wide for the enormity of their contribution.

By January 2021, the system could take no more. The entire workforce was burnt out and the challenging working conditions of medical scientists again came to the fore. 96% of MLSA members voted to reject Building Momentum, the next in a series of public sector agreements.

It should be noted that Building Momentum contained many pay rises for public servants, retracting the pay cuts forced on all by FEMPI legislation, yet MLSA members knew this would not be sufficient to address their recruitment and retention crisis.

Meanwhile, the government was reluctant to engage. In November 2021, MLSA members voted by a majority of 98% to take industrial action. The resulting negotiations again saw no movement from the employer side.

Notice was served for late March 2022, but then withdrawn to seek resolution through the Public Service Agreement Group (a body set up within Building Momentum to resolve dispute issues). Again the employer side would not budge and strike notice was re-issued, this time for May 2022.

Strike action

This would result in the first strike action by the MLSA in its 60-year history. On the 18th and 24th of May 2022, the health service in Ireland ground to a halt as procedures were cancelled all over the country.

Lack of laboratory input meant that practically no patient care could go ahead. On the second day of the strike, a two-hour debate in Dail Eireann was held on the plight of medical scientists. All recognised their massive contribution to healthcare.

A motion to grant the demands of medical scientists was defeated that day, voted down by the government in favour of Minister Stephen Donnellys amendment that all sides use the established dispute resolution mechanisms of the State  and suspend industrial action while this process is ongoing.

The Labour Court intervened that day also and invited both sides to exploratory talks. In a letter to both sides, the court referred the issue back to the Workplace Relations Commission where the MLSA reluctantly agreed to an independent report to verify our claim.

After many delays from the employer side (they couldnt find a technical assessor, they needed more time to consider their response to the draft report), that report was published in January 2023. Everything medical scientists had said was completely vindicated in the report, all that remained was to implement the recommendations.

However, it was not implemented.

By June 2023, the MLSA again pleaded the case of medical scientists to the Labour Court. Again the court ruled that the report be implemented. So here we are, still waiting. There is something terribly, terribly wrong with the way industrial relations issues are processed in this country in my opinion.

The MLSA was looking for equal pay for equal work, a cornerstone of any proper workplace practice, yet it has taken years of arguing the same indisputable case to progress the claim. No one disagrees with the claim, there is no argument against it, and yet it remains unresolved after all this time.
The Platform Work Directive (PWD), proposed by the EU Commission in December 2021, provoked platform companies such as Uber and Deliveroo, to vigorously lobby policymakers to ensure that their business model remains untouched.

Following marathon negotiations between the EU Commission, EU Parliament and EU Council a revolutionary agreement was produced promising protections for platform workers. All that remained was for Member States to formally ratify the agreement. Hence, there remained a last-ditch opportunity for platform companies to lobby and ensure the PWD is derailed.

Revenues in the EU platform economy grew from an estimated 3 billion to around 14 billion between 2016 and 2020 with the largest profits being in food-delivery and taxi services. The number of workers in the gig economy is expected to rise to 43 million by 2025. A modest estimation puts 5.5 million gig workers as being misclassified. In other words, bogus self-employed is rife in the sector.

The EU Commission sought, on the one hand, to address algorithmic management by improving the transparency of app-based work, and, on the other hand, to introduce criteria to determine whether platform workers are genuinely self-employed or whether they are misclassified and are being denied labour rights and social protections. This latter aspect, the correct determination of workers employment status, is the more controversial aspect of the PWD and a real source of concern for the likes of Uber and Deliveroo.

The negotiations between the three EU institutions began in July but encountered difficulties due to a split in the EU council between a more socially-minded grouping, seeking to enhance platform workers rights, and a more neo-liberal cohort favouring the status quo.

With time running out and following all-night negotiations, an agreement arrived on December 13, which Nicolas Schmit, Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, described as a historic achievement".

According to the agreement, the presumption of employment exists when two out of five criteria are satisfied. This reverts back to the Commissions original proposal, which the Council sought to water down by proposing that employment exists where three out of seven criteria are satisfied.

The criteria include upper limits on the amount of money workers can receive; supervision of their performance, including by electronic means; control over the distribution or allocation of tasks; control over working conditions and restrictions on choosing working hours; and restrictions on their freedom to organise their work and rules on their appearance or conduct.

Reaction to the agreement was met with cautious optimism as there remained one last roll of the dice for the platform companies to influence the outcome.

The lobbying expenditure of platform companies has risen exponentially with the prospect of the PWD. Digital platforms could also count on the support of powerful business associations such as Move EU and BusinessEurope to lobby on their behalf. Uber sits on BusinessEuropes corporate advisory group.

The lobbying activities of the platform companies, both at the national and the EU levels, have been relentless. The MEP in charge of the PWD, Elisabetta Gualmini, critiqued the platforms lobbying tactics for interfering with [the Parliaments] democratic processes.

Another MEP closely involved, Leila Chaibi, noted that until the last moment, the Uber and Deliveroo lobbies worked behind the scenes to sabotage this directive".

The Irish government faces a dilemma: Either platform capitalism is regulated at EU level, or we will inevitably witness the uberisation of other economic sectors and the immiseration and precariatisation of even more workers. File photo

Ubers ability to curry favour with politicians is well-documented, particularly when it came to President Emmanuel Macron of France, who was particularly receptive to Ubers advances and its flexploitation business model.

Move EU, which represents Uber and Freenow, was deeply concerned by December 13s agreement and call[ed] on EU Member States to not approve it. This would require a coalition of the unwilling between certain national governments and the platform companies.

French Labour Minister, Olivier Dussopt, publicly signalled that he was against the agreement. Ireland's Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney fudged the question by saying: It is essential that this proposal delivers legal certainty for both platforms and persons performing platform work. The fog would lift with decision time.

The decisive meeting was held on December 21. Approval would require a qualified majority of 15 out of 27 EU nations, representing 65% of the blocs population.

As expected, the French government voted in favour of the platform companies and against extending rights to platform workers across the EU. Disappointingly, the Irish government following suit. Reactions were tinged with disbelief and anger.

James Farrar, an Irishman who won a landmark case against Uber, stated the decision has ruined Christmas for millions of the poorest paid, most exploited workers.

Read More Uberisation of workers or will the EU deliver?

The European Transport Union described it as unjust and a slap in the face for workers. Gualmini described Macrons government, and the Irish government by extension, as the killer of Social Europe.

With the EU Parliamentary term concluding in April 2024 time is running out. The Irish government faces a dilemma: Either platform capitalism is regulated at EU level, or we will inevitably witness the uberisation of other economic sectors and the immiseration and precariatisation of even more workers.

Hopes are hanging by a thread, but as EU elections beckon it would be myopic of Mr Coveney to deny vulnerable platform workers enhanced protections and better-quality jobs.
The devastation of seeing your contents and memories float out the front door and down the street is enough to make you want to follow the family photographs and close the door behind you. Without question, one of the greatest impacts a house can suffer is water damage. Even when it comes to a fire, more damage is often caused by the water used to quench it then directly by the fire itself.

In recent months hundreds of property owners in different parts of the country, including Cork, have had to deal with the terrible consequences of flooding. Due to climate change its clear this issue isnt going away. In fact, its going to get worse.

In 2013 insurance experts estimated that between 40,000 and 50,000 properties are at risk. It doesnt take a genius to see that rainfall levels have increased in the subsequent decade, so these figures really need to be updated.

Flooding leaves one in a position of powerlessness, helplessness, and loss. If you have experienced flooding, you will be battle scarred from it, but you will also know what is coming and be more prepared when or if it happens again. If you havent experienced it directly but believe your property is at risk, you should talk to people who have.

Brigid Browne

The first thing you will need is a Flood Plan listing emergency services numbers, local authority representatives, arrangements for evacuation of occupants, safe and secure locations for valuables, tips on how to turn off electricity etc. Youll need to place this in an accessible location where family members of all ages and reach can get it without difficulty or confusion. You may have to do a little drill so that they act more on memory than on impulse. Guidance on making a flood plan and other useful information can be found at http://www.flooding.ie a website created by the Office of Public Works.

Keep an eye on weather reports and access the information on the Met Eireann website (www.met.ie) for yellow, orange and red weather warnings. Last July we saw heavy and consistent rainfall. This swelled rivers and streams around the country. If you are located near a water source you can get pertinent information very quickly and this can inform your Flood Plan. Have a look at the gullies on the side of the road and make sure that these are clean and ready to carry away water. If they are clogged with leaves and debris, call the local authority and theyll send someone out to address the issue. Tidy Towns are often the eyes and ears of the locality and are also very good at making sure the key elements such as unobstructed drainage on our roads and streets get flagged.

Knowing where to get sandbags is essential information, while its also a good idea to have some close to hand. This will enable you to put practical measures in place quickly in the event of a flood while also enabling you to remain calm. While always a very stressful time, panicking is not a useful response The placement of flood barriers at door openings would be of some benefit where the property is only impacted by surface or passing water. Non-return valves on your foul pipes will prevent back siphonage but these may be a little harder to access without some infrastructural upheaval.

Flooding on Main St, Midleton Picture: Eddie O'Hare

You might also consider rearranging your best furniture and electrical items like the TV and game consols and anything that may find its way to a lower press or shelf and place these a little higher. Consider moving your electrical sockets up the wall but be sure to get advice on this from a construction consultant, like a building surveyor, to ensure all works comply with building regulations. Floor finishes too might now have to be reconsidered. Perhaps tiles instead of carpet? You will need to prepare a Flood Pack, with wind-up or barrier powered flashlights and radio, as well as a first aid kit.

Overall its really important to be pro-active. Join community groups for support, to share information and to act as local watchdogs. Build a relationship with the local authority staff and provide feedback and updates to them on patterns or changes that youve noticed in your area. The more information that is shared the better because we need a national joined up plan so that flood prevention measures in one area will not mean an area further along the river becomes subject to flooding due to a change in water loading. If purchasing a property, ensure to check flood maps held by the local authority and the CFram maps (Catchment Flood risk assessment management).

Of course, flooding to property can also happen in other ways. Its winter now but it seems that Spring often brings the coldest weather these days. Exposed waterpipes dont like cold weather. Have a look at your pipes and even if they are in the hot press or plant room within the house itself they should still be insulated. Dont rely on the heat of the house to prevent freezing. If nothing else, just consider how wasteful it is to heat something over and over again because it keeps cooling too quickly. If you insulate youll reduce costs.

When water freezes, it expands and whatever its contained in is put under pressure. Pipes can tear and split and once ice thaws, water flows. When the water level in the attic tank reduces, because of leaks, the ballcock will open the valve and the tank will try to fill. The ballcock wont know theres a leak. So, you could have several tank loads of water pouring into your living space from leaking pipes. This could saturate fabric and even take down ceilings. So insulation is key.

Rosaleen O'Donnell at HS2 hair salon on Main Street, Midleton, following flooding last October. Picture Dan Linehan

The most common flaw with regard to insulation occurs at the pipe joints. These are almost always left exposed. Have a look and see if this is the case in your house. Where you come across exposed joints, insulate them. If your tank is sitting in your attic and whether it is over or under the insulation layer, it should be insulated. Where it isnt, you know what to do!

The SCSI has produced a very useful guide to flooding which you can download: A Clear Guide to Flooding  Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (scsi.ie)

Brigid Browne is a chartered building surveyor and a member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland. She is the owner and managing director of Cashel-based consultancy Fortress Planning, which offers a range of services including Assigned Certifier, Design Certifier, Building Surveyor and Conservation Consultancy to clients all over the country. For more information go to Home | Fortress Planning
Tokyos Haneda airport has returned to normal operations one week after a fatal collision between two planes.

The collision occurred on Tuesday evening when JAL Flight 516, carrying 379 passengers and flight crew, landed right behind a coastguard aircraft preparing for take off on the same runway; both became engulfed in flames.

The crash was suspected to have been caused by human error.

All JALs Airbus A350-900 airliner occupants were safely evacuated in 18 minutes.

Inspectors examine the burnt-out Japan Airlines plane (Kyodo News via AP)

The captain of the coastguards much smaller Bombardier Dash-8 escaped with burns, but his five crew members died.

Haneda reopened three of its runways the night of the crash.

The last runway, however, had remained closed for the investigation, clean-up of the debris, and repairs.

Japans transport ministry said the runway reopened early on Monday, and the airport is ready for full operations.

The collision caused more than 1,200 flights to be cancelled and affected about 200,000 passengers during the New Year holiday period.

Passengers wait in lines for a refund following the plane collision (Kyodo News via AP)

The victims bodies were due to be returned to their families on Sunday following police autopsies as part of a separate investigation into possible professional negligence.

The investigation focuses on what caused the coastguard flight crew to believe they had a go-ahead for their take off, while the traffic control transcript showed no clear confirmation between them and the traffic control.

Traffic control staff assigned to the runway missed an alert system when it indicated the unexpected entry of the coastguard plane.

The Haneda airport traffic control added a new position on Saturday specifically assigned to monitor the runway to step up safety measures.
Medics, patients and displaced people are fleeing from the main hospital in central Gaza as the fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants draws closer, witnesses said.

Losing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital would be another major blow to a health system shattered by three months of war.

Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups have withdrawn from the hospital in Deir al-Balah in recent days, saying it is too dangerous.

Shocked by the scale of health needs and devastation in Northern Gaza.



Urgent, safe and unhindered access to the region is needed to deliver humanitarian aid.



Further delays will lead to more death and suffering for far too many people.#CeasefireNow. https://t.co/9uYTWZLxEc  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 7, 2024

That move spread panic among people sheltering there, causing many to join the hundreds of thousands who have fled to the south of the besieged territory.

Israel says it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis.

Israeli officials have said the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken during the militant groups October 7 attack that triggered the war.

There are fears that the war in Gaza could ignite a wider conflict in the region (AP)

The offensive has already killed more than 22,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swathes of the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly 85% of its population of 2.3 million and left a quarter of its residents facing starvation.

It has also threatened to ignite a wider war with Lebanons Hezbollah and other Iran-backed militant groups allied with Hamas.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken is back in the region this week.

The US, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support for the offensive, has called on Israel to take greater measures to spare civilians but has joined it in rejecting international calls for a ceasefire.

Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gazas hospitals, which are also struggling to treat dozens of people wounded each day in Israeli strikes.

Only 13 of Gazas 36 hospitals are even partially functioning, according to the UN humanitarian office.

Omar al-Darawi, an employee at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said the facility has been struck multiple times in recent days.

Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip (AP)

He said thousands of people left after the aid groups pulled out, and that patients have been concentrated on one floor so the remaining doctors can tend to them more easily.

We have large numbers of wounded who cant move, he said. They need special care which is unavailable.

More dead and wounded arrive each day, as Israeli forces advance in central Gaza following heavy air strikes.

Early on Monday, the health ministry said 73 bodies and 99 wounded people were brought to the hospital in just the last 24 hours.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said staff who visited on Sunday saw sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors.

He added: The bloodbath in Gaza must end.

The situation is even more dire in northern Gaza, which Israeli forces cut off from the rest of the territory in late October.

Palestinians inspect the damage of a destroyed house following Israeli air strikes on Khan Younis (AP)

Entire areas have been demolished, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled, while those who remain face severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies.

The WHO said late on Sunday it has not been able to deliver supplies to northern Gaza in 12 days.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas. The military says it has killed some 8,000 militants, without providing evidence, and that 176 of its own soldiers have been killed in the offensive.

Mr Blinken, who met with the leaders of Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, once again spoke of the need for Israel to adjust its military operations to minimise harm to civilians and allow more aid into the territory. But his main focus appears to be preventing the war from spreading.

This is a conflict that could easily metastasise, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering, Mr Blinken told reporters.

The killing of a senior Hamas leader in a strike in Beirut last week ratcheted up tensions along the Israeli-Lebanese border, where Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have been regularly trading fire since the start of the war.

A Hezbollah rocket barrage hit a sensitive air traffic base in northern Israel on Saturday in one of the biggest attacks in three months of low-intensity fighting along the border.

The militant group said was an initial response to the killing of Hamas deputy political leader Saleh Arouri.

Israel has mostly sought to limit the fighting in its north. Hezbollahs military capabilities are far superior to those of Hamas.

But Israeli leaders have said their patience is wearing thin, and that if the tensions cannot be resolved through diplomacy, they are prepared to go to war.

Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza.

Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people hostage, more than 100 of whom were released during a ceasefire in November.

Hezbollah has said its attacks, which have driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, aim to ease the pressure on Gaza. But the group appears wary of risking an all-out war that would bring massive destruction to Lebanon.
WASHINGTON U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has announced that U.S. Army Capt. Maggie Amadei of Enterprise has been named as the January Veteran of the Month.

Tubervilles Veteran of the Month series recognizes Alabamas heroes for service to our military and their local communities

Our men and women in uniform embody a special kind of courage, said Tuberville. No one displays that better than Capt. Maggie Amadei of Enterprise.

Not only is Maggie a combat veteran, but she is also a Gold Star Spouse, Tuberville said. Maggie and her husband Ben met while both serving in the Army.

They deployed as part of the 101st Airborne Division, and celebrated their first wedding anniversary while in Iraq. But two months after, Bens helicopter was shot down and he lost his life for this country. But this tragedy didnt destroy Maggies desire to serve.

For 15 years, Maggie has helped provide over 1.5 million flight hours to pilots, making sure our pilots are ready. Every day, she helps ensure the next generation of Army aviators are prepared for whatever challenge comes next.

Maggies toughness, resilience, and her commitment to serve are an inspiration.

Senator Tuberville recognizes a different Alabama veteran each month for their service and contribution to their community. Constituents can nominate an Alabama veteran and submit their information to Senator Tubervilles office for consideration by emailing press_office@tuberville.senate.gov.

Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and HELP Committees.
On Jan. 13 and 14, the Community Awareness Organization will host the 35th Annual City-Wide Celebration commemorating the life and legacy of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

King sacrificed his life to bring justice and equal opportunities for people of all races, creeds, and color in America and all over the world. His life and extraordinary contributions have blessed so many and should always be remembered.

The following events are scheduled during the King Celebration Weekend:

The Inaugural MLK Youth Concert, Jan. 13, at 6 p.m., Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1705 Rucker Boulevard in Enterprise, Rev. Jimmy Grider, pastor; and,

Keynote Celebration, Jan. 14, at 4 p.m., Enterprise Civic Center, 2401 Neil Metcalf Road (Highway 167) in Enterprise.

On Jan. 13, the historic first MLK Youth Concert will be presented under the leadership of Lawrence Jackson, musician; and directed by Melissa Carpenter. Rehearsals will be held at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church Jan. 6 at noon and Jan. 11 at 6 p.m.

The concert is set for 4 p.m. Jan. 13 at Mount Zion. All youth are cordially invited and encouraged to attend the upcoming choir rehearsals. For more info, call Anne Bridgette at (334) 300-6935 or abridjet@gmail.com or Gloria Wheeler at (334) 477-8904.

Sundays celebration will feature the Rev. Sherita Moon Seawright, Episcopal Supervisor of the Ninth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which encompasses the entire state of Alabama. She is the wife of the Right Rev. Harry Lee Seawright, Presiding Prelate of the Ninth Episcopal District. Rev. Sherita will make history as the first female to preach at this city-wide celebration that began in 1988. She was born in Clinton, S.C. She and her husband have two children, Shari Nicole and Harry Matthew, and one grandson, Cameron Isaiah. She is the second of four children born to the late Peter and Aurelia Moon.

Rev. Sherita attended South Carolina public schools in Mountville, Cross Hill, and Clinton. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, summa cum laude, from Benedict College, Columbia, S.C., a Master of Arts degree in political science from Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and a Master of Divinity degree (with honors) from Howard University School of Divinity, Washington, D.C. She completed a Chaplain Internship and Residency in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C.

Rev. Sherita grew up in Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Clinton, S.C., where she served as Sunday school teacher and musician. In 1982, she became a member of Prodigal African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Swansea, S.C., and supported him there and in other local churches. As an Itinerant Elder, at Union Bethel AME Church, Brandywine and Temple Hills, Maryland, Rev. Sherita was the Assistant Pastor and Minister to Women. Before moving to Alabama, Rev. Sherita worked as a chaplain for Capital Caring Hospice in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

In July 2016, at the 50th Quadrennial Session of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pa., Rev. Dr. Harry L. Seawright became the 133rd elected and consecrated bishop in the AME Church. Upon Bishop Seawrights assignment to the Ninth Episcopal District (the State of Alabama), Rev. Sherita was installed as a member of the Supervisors Council. She now serves as Episcopal Supervisor of Missions for the Ninth Episcopal District.

Reverend Sherita enjoys helping people. In her role as episcopal supervisor, she is blessed to serve with missionaries and YPDers who share her passion for mission work. She supports the Ninth District Womens Missionary Society (WMS) and the Young Womens Division (YPD )as they provide food and other items to individuals in need and to agencies who support those in need. She looks forward to leading the missionaries and YPDers in more programs.

Rev. Sherita is the author of a poem, A Prayer for the Women Who Wait and a book, When Momma Died- A Journey to Self. She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

The Community Awareness Organization encourages all returning and new members of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Mass Choir to lend their voices. The remaining rehearsals are set for Jan. 8 at 6 p.m., and Jan. 13 at 10 a.m. at Pleasant Shade Baptist Church, Damascus Highway, in Enterprise. The dynamic voices of the choir members blend to present a phenomenal program of gospel and contemporary music during the celebration. The choir is under the direction of Yolanda Daniels-Milton and Joe Merida, organist. The Community Awareness Organization is not hosting a commemorative March.

A cordial invitation is extended to all citizens to come and be a part of this stellar eventthe annual celebration of the life and legacy of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For more information, contact Marge Simmons, program chair, at (334) 477-1962; Essie DuBose, publicity chair, at (334) 347-2834; or Gloria Wheeler, president, at (334) 447-8904.
Monday, Jan 8th, 2024 (9:17 am) - Score 1,080

Three years have now passed since UK broadband ISP FACTCO confirmed that it would be deploying their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the small commuter village of Stocksfield in the south of Northumberland (England), but so far not a single property in the community has gone live.

At present, the best fixed line broadband connectivity available to the village comes via Openreachs older Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2 / SOGEA) network. But locals had been hoping to gain access to gigabit speeds for the first time after FACTCO secured support from the Governments Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) in January 2021 to deploy a full fibre network across the village.

NOTE: The wider parish of Stocksfield also expands to cover the smaller communities of Branch End, New Ridley, Broomley, Hindley and the Painshawfield.

Since then there has been plenty of build activity, which one local described as being a mess of seemingly endless activity (Chronicle Live), and yet the deadlines for when the service is due to start going live keep shifting. Back in September 2022 we were told that they would go live in 2022, which obviously didnt happen and neither did it happen in 2023.

FACTCO acknowledges that their deployment has faced a number of unexpected hurdles, albeit without clarifying precisely what those were. But we do know that the project took a hit after they were affected by Project Gigabits wider suspension of its voucher scheme in the county. A lot of UK voucher projects by other operators have been impacted by similar suspensions, which formed part of an effort to update coverage maps to avoid wasting taxpayers money in areas that didnt need it.

The operators most recent statement on the matter is similar to the one they gave ISPreview back in June 2023. This is except for the fact that the June statement said that their efforts are currently focused on two major sectors, 1 and 4, which will allow connections for 725 premises shortly, while the January 2024 one forecasts that close to 700 premises will be ready for service imminently once the backhaul is connected.

A Spokesperson for FACTCO said: In 2023, FACTCO made considerable progress in providing Stocksfield with full fibre broadband. Although its fair to say weve come across a number of unexpected hurdles, which have prolonged the build more than we wanted, we are currently forecasting that close to 700 premises will be ready for service imminently once the backhaul is connected. Our largest network build to date has certainly not been without its challenges, however, we remain fully committed to delivering a state-of-the-art, full fibre network which will serve over 1,700 homes and businesses for generations to come.

The Governments Building Digital UK (BDUK) team said they were aware of the delays to FACTCOs voucher rollout in Stocksfield and the surrounding areas and were working with them to help resolve these issues. The agency added that the ISP had also submitted a change request to increase the voucher project scope which is subject to review  The supplier will only receive funding once connections are live and residents and businesses confirm that they have received and are content with the new service.

In fairness, building a new FTTP broadband network, particularly for smaller and more rural communities, is often a very slow, disruptive and expensive process. Delays are not uncommon in such areas, although operators do need to have a good level of local communication in order to ensure that residents and businesses are kept fully informed about progress. Hopefully 2024 will be the year when Stocksfield finally goes live.
Monday, Jan 8th, 2024 (6:33 am) - Score 5,400

UK ISP BT and its digital incubation team, Etc. (that is their actual name), has this morning kicked off the first pilot of an Electric Vehicle (EV) charger that has been repurposed from one of Openreachs old street cabinets, which was traditionally used to store broadband and phone cabling. Up to 60,000 more could follow.

BT originally announced last July 2023 that the first phase of their EV charging pilots (here) was planned to begin in Northern Ireland during the Autumn of 2023. But clearly that didnt happen and instead the 2-year pilot programme will finally get underway this month.

NOTE: Openreach s FTTC cabinets tend to only serve their hybrid fibre broadband services, while Primary Connection Point (PCP) cabinets were more focused on phone services (though some do carry G.fast broadband too).

Etc. has today confirmed that its first installation location will now be in East Lothian (Scotland) instead of N.Ireland, with further pilots to roll out across the UK in the coming months. The proposed plan could eventually see BT and Openreach convert or upgrade up to 60,000 street cabinets (from a potential pool of 90,000). The operator previously clarified to us that the focus here is on their FTTC (VDSL2) / DSLAM broadband cabinets, rather than PCPs.

The charging solution works by retrofitting the cabinets with a device that enables renewable energy to be shared to a charge point alongside the existing broadband service with no need to create a new power connection. EV charging can be deployed to cabinets that are in-use for current copper broadband services, or in those due for retirement, depending on the space and power available to the unit. Once the cabinet is no longer needed for broadband, as nationwide full fibre rollout progresses, the broadband equipment is recycled, and additional EV charge points can be added.

The move supports the UK Governments ambitions to increase the number of EV charge points from 53,000 today to 300,000 by 2030. Access to charging is currently creating a significant barrier to EV purchase for many. BT Groups recent research found that 60% of people think the UKs EV charging infrastructure is inadequate, with 78% of petrol and diesel drivers saying not being able to conveniently charge an EV is a barrier to adoption.

Tom Guy, Managing Director, Etc. at BT Group, said: Our new charging solution is a huge step in bringing EV charging kerbside and exploring how we can address key barriers customers are currently facing. Working closely with local councils in Scotland and more widely across the UK, we are at a critical stage of our journey in tackling a very real customer problem that sits at the heart of our wider purpose to connect for good. This is a key step in our mission to build products and services right now that work for the future, with positive transformation at the heart.

The idea here is generally that the operators own staff and engineers will be given preferential access, not only during the pilot but possibly also during the commercialisation phase too (i.e. the public could expect to get access if an Openreach/BT van isnt already parked and using the charger). The original announcement similarly said that the first pilot location would initially only be open for use by their staff, but that will change as more are added.

As weve said before, this isnt going to work in every area, since not all cabinets are suitably positioned and there may be other obstacles too (e.g. issues of council approval, road access, physical location etc.). Likewise, street side chargers need to be kept as small as possible, which means that theyll only support slower charging speeds (up to 7.8kW). We should point out that a lot of their cabinets typically use no more than a few hundred watts, but the power supply can be upgraded and without needing major works.

Focus of BTs EV Charging Pilot Through the trials, Etc. will scope a range of different technical, commercial and operational considerations with bringing this EV charge point network online, including:  Technical  cabinet location, power availability, customer accessibility, digital customer experience and engineering considerations.  Civil planning  location, local council engagement, permissions and physical accessibility.  Commercial  public funding options, private investment, partnership, and wider financial modelling to establish a route to commercial benefit for the Group.  Operational  as a dedicated BT Group venture or in partnership with others.

Doing all this at the same time as gradually retiring their old copper-line based network in favour of full fibre (FTTP) infrastructure seems like a sensible and cost-efficient approach. The move would also be good for Openreach, which is already deep into the process of converting (replacing) all of its diesel fleet to electric by 2030, which reflects around 28,000 vans across the UK that are used for essential work every day. Various models from Renault (here) and Vauxhall (here) have already been deployed.

However, it remains unclear how much BT will charge consumers to fill up their EVs, which is somewhat of a contentious issue given the high price of electricity right now and the tendency of some EV charging networks to charge astronomical sums (this does vary, some are much more affordable). The number of chargers they end up deploying may also depend, at least in part, on how much public subsidy they can access from key government schemes (around 1.6bn of public funding has been committed up to 2030).
(Photo : Unsplash/Brooke Cagle )

While it might be tempting to use complicated words to impress others, especially in professional settings, using straightforward language is more effective in getting your message across, Marc Cuban told Wired in an October video Q&A.

What is Jargon?

Jargon is a specialized language used by people in a particular profession to communicate with each other. Jargon is present in various occupations, including medicine, law, marketing, banking, insurance, education, engineering, farming, auto repair, construction trades, and more.

Using jargon is acceptable when communicating within your profession. However, it is not helpful when your audience lacks the same technical or professional background. If you must use technical terms, explain each term and its context.

What is the Purpose of Business Jargon?

Buzzwords are often shortcuts for conveying complex ideas quickly. For example, saying, "Let's take a rain-check" is more straightforward than explaining to postpone a meeting and reschedule for a more convenient time. However, it's only effective if everyone understands the term's corporate and literal meaning.

Research from Columbia Business School published in Harvard Business Review suggests that jargon can sometimes hinder clear communication. The key is to use it wisely. The same research indicates that using suitable jargon in the right situations can instill confidence in your expertise among customers or clients and signal credibility to professional colleagues.

READ ALSO: Communication is One of the Biggest Challenges as a Leader - Fito Salume

What Do Experts Say?

Warren Buffet

Warren Buffett prefers avoiding jargon as he tackled simplicity in his annual shareholders' letter in 2019.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk, the current wealthiest person globally, dislikes jargon, particularly in the workplace. In a 2018 letter to Tesla employees, he stated, "Don't use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software, or processes at Tesla. Anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don't want people to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla."

According to studies, using complex words to appear intelligent has the opposite effect. It makes you sound less intelligent and can also confuse your message.

Adam Galinsky

People resort to jargon when feeling insecure, attempting to elevate their status, as Adam Galinsky, a professor of leadership and ethics at Columbia Business School, noted in an August article for the school's website.

Using overly complicated terms when simpler ones would do suggests insecurity about your intelligence and an attempt to overcompensate. Experts advise speaking plainly and concisely instead.

The Risks of Using Office Jargon

Although meant as a shortcut, jargon can make communication more time-consuming because many terms are unclear. Additionally, using too many corporate buzzwords tends to discourage employees.

Miscommunication

Office jargon can cause misunderstandings and could cause because not everyone is familiar with the technical terminology. Confusion, misinterpretations, and errors in assignments or projects could arise from this.

Exclusion

Overusing jargon may lead to a feeling of exclusion in the workplace, making people unfamiliar with the words feel inferior or excluded. Collaboration and teamwork may suffer as a result.

Reduced Clarity

Using jargon may result in unclear communication, making it challenging for others to understand what is being said.

RELATED ARTICLE: How to Develop Soft Skills for Improving Workplace Communication

 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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LinkedIn is a solid professional network for job searches and an excellent social platform for organizations seeking partnerships, recruiting, and monitoring the competition. SEO techniques to improve your profile can boost visibility and attract potential employers or clients.

It's crucial to craft a compelling headline and summary with relevant keywords, but using specific keyword-rich descriptions of your skills and experience, emphasizing industry-related keywords, and showcasing measurable achievements can improve your profile's SEO and position yourself ahead in this platform.

What is LinkedIn SEO?

LinkedIn SEO involves optimizing your LinkedIn page and posts to make them easily discoverable through LinkedIn search.

LinkedIn SEO, much like techniques for boosting website rankings on search engines like Google, includes researching and incorporating relevant keywords throughout your LinkedIn page. These keywords convey the essence of your page, such as industry-specific terms or product details, and enhance the chances of potential customers and applicants finding your page or service quickly.

Why is LinkedIn SEO Important?

SEO is about improving content visibility on search engines. Selecting the right keywords and optimizing your content, such as including them in titles, increases the chances of people finding your page when searching for those keywords. LinkedIn SEO involves using keywords that convey the content of your profile, company page, or posts.

READ ALSO: Reaching Out With Recruiters Through LinkedIn Will Get You Ahead of Your Application, Expert Says

5 LinkedIn SEO Optimization Tactics for Better Reach

LinkedIn SEO involves more than just using the right keywords. Here are some actions you can take to enhance the SEO for your LinkedIn page.

1. Optimize Your Headline as an Elevator Pitch

Your headline is among the initial elements people will see. While this can attract clicks, it might not be the most effective way to reach your audience. Instead, use keywords related to your company or industry in your headline. Keep it concise-one or two relevant keywords will suffice.

2. Customize Your URL

LinkedIn will assign a default URL for your page, typically a string of numbers. You can modify the URL to include a keyword relevant to your industry or have your name if your company is already well-known in your niche to boost your LinkedIn page's SEO.

3. Optimize Your About Section

In your About section, explain how your company stands out and why your product is an excellent choice for customers, and share your journey. You can use up to 2,600 characters, roughly translating to 371 to 650 words based on your choice of words. If you're unsure how to begin, use tools like Google Trends to discover trending keywords in your industry and incorporate these keywords into your About section.

4. Write LinkedIn Posts Optimized for SEO

Try LinkedIn's article feature that allows you to host a blog on your LinkedIn page. This means you can explore industry-related topics more in-depth than in a regular post and help boost your SEO profile. Demonstrating expertise in this way can establish your brand as an authority in the field.

5. Keep Your Page Complete and Up-to-Date

Completing every section of your LinkedIn page provides opportunities to add keywords, boosting your page's ranking. Ensure you fill in the following fields and include relevant information:

Your tagline: Your tagline is your page or profile's elevator pitch. Keep it brief, but have one or two keywords that describe your work.

About: Conduct keyword research to determine the best content for this section. Use it as a LinkedIn SEO to explain what you do and how you do it and highlight what makes you stand out from competitors.

Website: Be sure to include your company's website in this field.

Industry: Include your sector to help job seekers find your company's page more quickly.

Specialties: You can add numerous keywords here, linking your company page directly to high-value search terms.

Products: No matter what your product or service is, the Products tab is an excellent place for SEO. Adding a product lets you describe it in a paragraph, and LinkedIn users may add it as a skill on their profiles, expanding your reach.

RELATED ARTICLE: How to Use LinkedIn for Recruiting and Lead Generation

 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski stated that the ongoing "war and associated misinformation" in the Middle East is hurting the company's performance, which has continued into its fourth month.

Israel-Hamas War

On October 7, militants from Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist organization controlling the Gaza Strip, initiated a significant attack on southern Israel that resulted in over 1,200 deaths and 240 people taken hostage. Israel declared war as a response, launching a counteroffensive against Hamas in Gaza. According to the Hamas Health Ministry, over 22,000 people in the territory have been killed, which has led to protests and boycotts of Israeli and American businesses in the Middle East.

McDonald's Facing Backlash

McDonald's depends on numerous independent businesses to own and operate most of its over 40,000 stores globally. Approximately 5% of these stores are situated in the Middle East.

Primarily consisting of locally owned franchises, McDonald's received early criticism when reports suggested that some locations in Israel provided free meals to Israeli soldiers after the war began. This action faced an immediate backlash that prompted owners in Muslim-majority countries to release statements distancing themselves from the controversy.

READ ALSO: Companies Facing Backlash from Consumers: "It Only Takes one Wrong Marketing Campaign" to Stain Reputation

In a LinkedIn post, Kempczinski highlighted that McDonald's franchises in Muslim countries, facing boycott calls over alleged support for Israeli soldiers, are owned by local operators dedicated to serving their communities and employing thousands of fellow citizens. Kempczinski condemned "violence" and "hate speech." McDonald's hasn't expressed support for Israel or the Gaza war, calling the backlash disheartening and ill-founded. Despite calls for boycotts in the Middle East, the global sales of the American burger chain still increased by 10.9% in Q4 2023.

Kempczinski's post comes amid escalating tensions over the recent boycotts. The pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), which had not previously officially targeted McDonald's, has now called for a boycott of the brand.

McDonald's Malaysia, supported by a Saudi firm, filed a $1.3 million lawsuit against the Malaysia BDS group, alleging "false and defamatory statements" that harmed its business. BDS urged McDonald's to sever ties with its franchisee in Israel and Malaysia unless it withdrew the lawsuit. The group expressed that McDonald's Malaysia and its Saudi owner are attempting to silence voices supporting the Palestinian liberation struggle in Malaysia rather than pressuring the parent company to end its franchise agreement in Israel. They called for action, stating, "We cannot let this pass. Let's show McDonald's what grassroots boycotts can do."

McDonald's, facing boycotts over its franchise in Israel, did not comment on a lawsuit filed by McDonald's Malaysia against the Malaysia BDS group. Instead, they referred to a previous statement where CEO Mr. Kempczinski expressed the company's condemnation of all violence and opposition to hate speech, reaffirming their commitment to welcoming everyone.

Companies Beyond the Food Industry Also Face Criticism

Companies beyond the food industry have encountered criticism for marketing choices, like the fast-fashion retailer Zara, which faced boycott calls following advertisements that depicted models in a rubble-filled environment with mannequins missing limbs in December. The ads sparked outrage on social media, with many condemning them for trivializing the ongoing conflict. Zara deleted the ads and apologized, attributing the situation to a "misunderstanding" and stating that the photos were taken in September before the war in Gaza started.

RELATED ARTICLE: McDonald's Blames Hackers On Nasty Tweet About Trump

 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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"Resenteeism," identified as one of the top 10 workplace trends of 2023 on TikTok by project management software provider Workamajig, is a term playfully derived from "presenteeism." which refers to being visibly present for their managers but not fully engaging.

What Is Resenteeism?

Resenteeism is the modern version of 'quiet quitting,' initially coined at a Texas A&M economics conference. Quiet quitting is doing the bare minimum at work instead of putting in extra effort to advance. The idea isn't trivial, serving as an apparent reaction to burnout. Gen-Z, in particular, has embraced this concept as a smart way to work, focusing on efficiency rather than excessive effort.

Trends like "resenteeism" are a response to the previously glorified "hustle culture," according to Esther Cohen, the director of marketing at Workamajig. She noted that these trends, particularly noticeable among younger workers, reflect a shift towards prioritizing work-life balance over traditional career ambitions. Workers seek autonomy, control, flexibility, and better pay and benefits, based on data from TikTok hashtag trends as of May 22, 2023.

Being unable to leave a job due to financial reasons but don't want to stay either is a sign that you may engage in "resententism." This tendency is more common in job markets favoring employers, where employees are less confident about quickly finding another job if they decide to quit.

READ ALSO: Quiet Quitting Explained: A Coping Mechanism After Pandemic Where People Just Work for the Money

What Are Signs of Resenteeism?

Resenteeism in the workplace creates issues for both employers and employees. When you resent your job and feel trapped with no alternatives, it becomes challenging to be engaged or enthusiastic about your role.

From an employer's standpoint, having mentally and emotionally disengaged employees during work hours leads to poorly or incompletely performed tasks.

"Productivity declines," noted Cenedella. In addition to a negative attitude and a general lack of enthusiasm, employers may observe signs of resenteeism, such as tardiness, leaving work early, absenteeism, and performance issues. More subtle indicators may include a decrease in company loyalty, like a team member no longer displaying company branding on their belongings or skipping company events they previously attended.

Why Do People Experience Resenteeism?

To grasp resenteeism in the workplace, it's essential to understand the root cause of resentment. Cenedella notes resentment often arises from feeling undervalued or unappreciated at work, home, or school.

"At work, it may occur when an employee perceives a lack of advancement opportunities," he explained. "Poor management and insufficient pay and benefits can also play a role."

Why Can People Do About Resenteeism?

Many people find it frightening to consider leaving their employment, particularly in the face of difficulties. Employee dissatisfaction may reach a significant level due to a combination of post-Christmas work blues, the impact of quiet quitting, and stagnant salaries. Here are five strategies for addressing this expanding trend in the workplace:

1. Communicate Your Concerns

Be open with your manager or HR department about what you're going through and what is causing your dissatisfaction.

2. Identify Potential Solutions

Be open with your manager about your expectations regarding career growth, work-life balance, and job satisfaction.

3. Take Care of Yourself

Avoid letting resentment overwhelm you by always prioritizing your physical and mental well-being.

4. Look for Other Opportunities

Explore professional development opportunities within your company, or begin searching for a new job that aligns with your values and career goals if you don't see improvements.

5. Keep Perspective

As much as your job is essential, it's not the only aspect of your life, and it's okay for a job to be just a job.

RELATED ARTICLE: Unveiling the Workplace Burnout: "It's Not Me, It's You" -Addressing the Root Causes

 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/SpaceX)

SpaceX sued the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) a day after being accused of unfair treatment of its employees.

Illegal Firing Lawsuit

On Wednesday, a complaint against SpaceX was filed by the board, alleging the unlawful firing of eight workers who criticized Elon Musk with an open letter denouncing his behavior and advocating for a separation between SpaceX and Musk's brand. Only three out of the eight employees who claimed retaliation from SpaceX publicly joined the complaint. If SpaceX doesn't settle the charges, the company is set to go through a hearing with an NLRB administrative law judge on March 5.

SpaceX Counters an Ongoing Lawsuit

A lawsuit has been filed by SpaceX accusing the company of unlawfully terminating employees who wrote a letter to company executives describing CEO Elon Musk as "a distraction and embarrassment."

The filed complaint has asserted that the NLRB structure is governed by officials with unconstitutional removal protections that go against the U.S. Constitution. Musk's company argues that the agency has inherent structural flaws that make it unfit to oversee its efforts in holding private employers accountable for labor law violations. SpaceX argues that the NLRB lacks the constitutionally required control because the president cannot freely remove board members or agency judges. The claim is that the board plays a dual role as both a prosecutor, charging SpaceX with violations of federal labor law, and an adjudicator, as the same NLRB members issue the agency's final order on whether SpaceX violated federal labor law.

The lawsuit is similar to SpaceX's recent lawsuit against the U.S. attorney general and two other Department of Justice officials, aiming to halt a separate hiring discrimination case on the company's unlawful decline to hire refugees and asylum recipients.

"NLRB ALJs are Officers of the United States under the Constitution's Appointments Clause, not mere employees, because among other things, they hold continuing offices through which they preside over adversarial hearings, receive testimony, shape the administrative record, and prepare proposed findings and opinions," SpaceX argued.

READ ALSO: SpaceX Wrongfully Terminating Eight Workers, Faces Criticism on Labor Laws and Working Conditions

Second Accusation of Musk Brand to Regulators

Musk's company has accused a U.S. regulator of violating the country's constitution in its regulatory actions for the second time in less than a month. Tesla, Musk's electric car brand, claimed that California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) violated its free speech rights by portraying Tesla's Autopilot's autonomy as a complete self-driving platform rather than an advanced driver assist system. Tesla's lawyers argued that the DMV tries to restrict Tesla's truthful communication about its vehicles and features unfairly.

Musk's lawyers use a constitutional argument against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where they are currently contesting a consent decree stipulating that Musk cannot post tweets about the electric carmaker without being legally reviewed.

The decree was issued after Musk's tweets caused a substantial drop in share price in 2020. The judge argued that Musk had forfeited his First Amendment rights by agreeing to the consent decree. Still, Musk's lawyers contest that it shouldn't apply since he was acquitted of securities fraud by a California jury in the case.

RELATED ARTICLE: Workers at Non-Union Automakers in the U.S. Lodge Unfair Labor Practice Charges, Defying Union-Busting Tactics

 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/Mohammad Rahmani)

While 2023 was a pivotal year for artificial intelligence, AI is expected to have a more significant impact in 2024, when employees will experience a rapid transformation that impacts their professional lives across various aspects of the workplace, and businesses will need to adapt quickly. Here are the five trends to expect in the AI space this year:

AI will Promote Widespread Inclusivity

AI is expected to be a valuable tool for workers with disabilities, and these advancements could bring positive changes for everyone. Many machine-learning tools designed to benefit disabled workers, like algorithm-based speech-to-text and text-to-speech tools, could become more widely accessible. These tools offer additional support to visually- and hard-of-hearing users. They can remove barriers and empower people with disabilities, promoting independence and inclusion, according to Victor Santiago Pineda, director of the Inclusive Cities Lab at UC Berkeley, U.S.

AI will Improve Equity in the Hiring and Layoff Processes

HR professionals are ready to employ AI in hiring to foster fairness, but existing technology has flaws. Academics and experts aim to diminish algorithmic bias in electronic hiring platforms and HR tools using AI. The Hire Aspirations Institute, led by Cynthia Dwork, a computer science professor at Harvard, is actively addressing bias in screening tools and the professionals who use them.

While AI can aid in diversifying candidate pools, experts and HR professionals acknowledge its limitations, especially in addressing human bias in hiring. Nevertheless, recognizing hiring inequities can heighten awareness, helping HR professionals understand their implicit judgments and work towards overcoming them.

AI will Prioritize Diversity in Hiring and Training

The growth of AI might lead regulators to concentrate more on supporting practices that include workers in both public and private sectors. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission emphasized addressing workplace discrimination in a world where AI is more prevalent in its recent Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP). In the EU, the recently enacted AI act mandates that firms adhere to set standards for workers' rights in HR data and processes, or they may face fines.

Investing in inclusive technology, like language-learning models created by diverse teams, can aid employers in developing personalized educational programs for a broad range of employee experiences. This can offer an equal starting point for workers from diverse backgrounds.

READ ALSO: How to Upskill with On-the-Job Generative AI: A Comprehensive Guide

Employees Want to Work with AI, and Employers will Invest in Upskilling

While some experts acknowledge valid concerns about AI potentially replacing specific roles, they also predict that it won't eliminate all human jobs. Instead, workers will need to adapt to coexist with this emerging technology, and those willing to learn and adjust to AI will experience the most benefits. For many, this adaptation involves re-training in specific areas and taking advantage of employer-sponsored learning opportunities. According to a 2023 survey by Jobs for the Future's Center for Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work (JFF), most respondents believe they will need new skills to compete in an AI-driven workforce. Younger workers, in particular, feel the pressure, with 66% of Gen Z and millennial respondents expressing the need to refine and update their skill sets to stay competitive.

AI Regulation will Continue to Struggle to Keep Pace with the technology

As AI becomes more prevalent, some tech leaders are urging the establishment of clear boundaries. Regulators aim to expand AI while safeguarding the rights and jobs of a diverse workforce. Global collaboration among corporations, governments, and researchers is necessary for effective regulation. However, the rapid progress in AI technology poses a risk of surpassing efforts to create a flexible and comprehensive regulatory framework, which may raise worker concerns about job security, workplace privacy, and industry changes. Such worries can have tangible effects. A 2023 Workplace in America survey by the American Psychological Association found that respondents concerned about AI impacting their jobs experienced higher stress, anxiety, and professional burnout levels than those embracing the technology.

RELATED ARTICLE: Companies Invest Millions for AI Workforce Integration, Anticipating Extended ROI Beyond A Year

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According to the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk's drug use concerns executives and board members at the companies he manages.

Use of Drugs Including Ketamine

Musk has reportedly used substances like LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private events, with a focus on ketamine, which Musk had previously claimed as a prescription for antidepressants.

Musk's public use of marijuana with podcaster Joe Rogan prompted the reassessment of his federal security clearance in the CEO position at SpaceX in 2018. Musk has responded to the report, denying all the allegations and concerns raised by top management at Tesla and SpaceX, stating, "After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASA's request, to do three years of random drug testing. Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol."

Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, stated that Musk undergoes regular and random drug tests at SpaceX and passes them without any issues. Spiro also mentioned "false facts" in the article but did not provide specific details.

Alleged More Drug Use at Parties

Elon Musk has been reportedly involved with drug use at parties, where guests were required to surrender their phones and sign non-disclosure agreements. In 2018, Musk consumed multiple acid tablets at a Los Angeles party he hosted and reportedly used magic mushrooms at a party he attended in Mexico a year later. Executives at Tesla and SpaceX were worried about Elon Musk's reported drug use, expressing concerns that could potentially harm his companies, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Former Tesla's Director Chose Not to Stand for Reelection

As The Wall Street Journal reported, Linda Johnson Rice, a former Tesla director troubled by Elon Musk's drug use and unpredictable behavior, decided not to seek reelection to the electric car company's board. Rice, who was on the company's board until 2019, shared Elon Musk's substance use with Tesla's board members and casually inquired about investigating it, but were reportedly dismissed.

Executives' Concerns

The comprehensive report by The Journal discusses how executives in Musk's companies have struggled to handle his drug use and unpredictable public actions and statements.

At Tesla, certain directors have approached Musk's brother, Kimbal, for assistance regarding his behavior but have been cautious not to directly mention the word "drugs" when expressing their concerns.

READ ALSO: Elon Musk Announces Reinstatement of Controversial Alex Jones on X/Twitter, Sparks Debate on Platform Accountability

Based on reports, Elon Musk may have been under the influence when he tweeted about having "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 a share, which increased Tesla shares by 6% the next day, leading to an SEC investigation that resulted in $40 million in fines, although he did not admit wrongdoing.

Musk, who expressed a dislike for illegal drugs, mentioned to his biographer Walter Isaacson that he microdoses ketamine. There have been observations of him using the drug recreationally. Publicly, Musk stated that, on occasion, ketamine is a preferable option for treating depression compared to SSRIs. He gained attention for smoking weed with Joe Rogan during a podcast episode, leading NASA to conduct a safety review of SpaceX, and Musk mentioned that the entire company had to undergo drug tests for a year as a result.

RELATED ARTICLE: SpaceX Wrongfully Terminating Eight Workers, Faces Criticism on Labor Laws and Working Conditions

 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Male allies are required to break down barriers for women at work, transform workplace culture and drive genuine business outcomes.

There are many courses dedicated to revealing the hallmarks of a good leader. As a male manager, if you want to really make an impact for your team, you need to understand the traits and skills required to be an effective ally.

In the workplace, allies are those who proactively provide assistance and support those who are at a disadvantage. Increasingly, we are seeing the transformational benefits to both workplace culture and bottomline results, when men who are often in positions of power, act as allies for their female co-workers. Importantly, men need to move from just being good guys to be being active allies for women at work.

While women account for almost half of Australias workforce, data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows they represent just 32 per cent of key management positions. Good leaders will set clear diversity, equity and inclusion goals for their team, effective allies will ensure they are met.

For women, this is the difference between just participating in the workplace, and thriving in it.

The unseen roadblocks that hold women back in the workplace

At our current rate, it will take almost 100 years to get to gender equality, and much of this stems from the bias women experience in the workplace, coupled with a lack of support from management.

Women Risings The Voice of Women at Work 2023 Report, shows that almost half (44 per cent) of working women in Australia have felt patronised, undermined or underestimated by their manager or senior leaders because of their gender.

Furthermore, almost a quarter (24 per cent) of women who changed jobs in the last 18 months cited a lack of opportunity to advance as the reason they left.

Organisations with male allies create more diverse teams that perform better

Research by Catalyst shows that when men are deliberately engaged in gender inclusion programs, 96 per cent of organisations see progress in the form of reduced bias, higher engagement and retention, along with increased representation of women in decision-making roles.

According to a study by Deloitte, companies that prioritise diversity and inclusion are also six times more likely to be innovative and agile.

These are staggering statistics that further validate why it is important for men to be aware of the barriers women face in the workplace, and the role they can play in creating an inclusive and productive culture.

Here are three of the most important ways male leaders and managers can be effective allies for their female colleagues:

1. Deal with bias in your workplace

Women are feeling the effects of negative bias at work in alarming numbers. Nearly two-thirds of women have experienced negative bias due to their age and this is prominent across all age groups, particularly women aged 18  24 years and 25  34 years.

More than half the women surveyed by Women Rising have been undermined by a male leader and half have experienced negative bias at work because of their gender.

At a minimum, leaders should establish an employee action group within the organisation, made up of women and men  dedicated to advocating and progressing gender equality and women-focused initiatives.

Education should also be a crucial part of helping employees understand biases and how they impact women.

2. Provide better support and opportunities for mentorship and sponsorship

Results from the Voice of Women at Work 2023 report highlighted that 29 per cent of women are not receiving enough support from managers, mentors or sponsors. Only 7 per cent of women always feel supported within their organisation to progress their careers.

Organisations should allocate funding to support womens leadership development programs and opportunities. Additionally, it is important to schedule routine check-ins with women in the team to find out what guidance and support they need.

Male leaders should actively listen to women and check their own understanding of the challenges women face by asking questions about womens lived experience. Further, they should undertake their own training like the Male Allies program so that the onus for change doesnt rest solely on women.

3. Create an environment of recognition and confidence

Confidence is a significant issue for women at work, with only 6.5 per cent feeling confident all the time and 45 per cent feeling confident only some of the time or not all. The biggest factor undermining womens confidence at work is their inner critic and self-doubt.

A lack of confidence also gets in the way of career progression, with 38 per cent of women reluctant to ask for a pay rise and an equal number disinclined to put themself forward for a promotion.

Building confidence can be achieved from all levels of the organisation. It can be as simple as amplifying womens views in meetings and openly acknowledging female contributions to other colleagues.

Being a passive observer, even when in agreement with the cause, is not enough. Managers and leaders must be proactive and strive to make progress.

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An RMIT research team found that while digital technology provides opportunities for women entrepreneurs, it's just the first step towards equality.

Despite increasing legal protections and constitutional recognition of gender equality in Vietnam, women entrepreneurs are still undervalued and face social barriers.

Traditional and patriarchal values often constrain womens business aspirations. They are socially expected to perform household duties that are not seen as having economic value.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the proportion of women-owned firms accounts for a mere 20% of small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam. Furthermore, women often operate in less capital-intensive sectors.

A community training on digital literacy and privacy skills for low-income women entrepreneurs in Binh Thanh, HCMC. Photo courtesy of RMITs project team

Digital platforms are known to reduce small business ownership barriers for women, many of whom are turning to these platforms to earn more while maintaining domestic responsibilities.

Besides offering flexibility, these platforms provide access to the digital world for women entrepreneurs who often face discrimination when seeking technical skills in a traditional setting.

Linh Phuong, an online store owner, said that the widespread accessibility of smartphones among potential customers gives her business an edge. She uses social media platforms to reach out to and maintain contact with clients. They can place orders, arrange deliveries, and be updated about her products availability.

In a study of approximately 200 low-income women entrepreneurs, a research team at RMIT determined that while digital technology offers opportunities for women entrepreneurs, access to digital technologies is just the first step toward equality.

According to the research team, led by Dr Abdul Rohman and Diem-Trang Vo from RMIT's School of Communication & Design, women have historically experienced gender bias in the tech world. This can result in underperformance in technical fields associated with market success.

Linh Phuong disclosed that she depends on her children to create social media accounts and to deal with issues that arise in her business dealings.

Feeling unacknowledged is another challenge that the women in the study faced. While the Vietnamese government has made efforts to promote gender equality, the digital gender gap in offline environments persists.

Nhu Quynh shared a personal story detailing a lack of familial support for her online business. When faced with problems, her husband and other relatives frequently respond by making statements like, "Women dont need to do something big" or "Why dont you focus on caring for your family?"

Students of the project training for low-income women in Hoc Mon, HCMC. Photo courtesy of RMITs project team

Female entrepreneurs also tend to have low personal data protection literacy skills, which makes them prone to online scams.

As part of their business dealings, they often disclose their phone numbers on social media, which opens the door to malicious actors who exploit their personal information. "One scammer took advantage of that to threaten me," said another woman named Phuong Huyen.

This underscores the necessity for women entrepreneurs to be better equipped with skills to protect themselves and their personal data. While digital technologies have contributed to addressing gender and economic gaps, they also present new threats to women entrepreneurs.

Therefore, investing in digital literacy training can benefit low-income women, as exemplified in a series of community trainings organized by RMIT Vietnam, Traveloka, Nang Moi, and other local organizations across Vietnam.

"While increasing digital literacy skills remains important, mitigating the risks presented by digital technologies is a new challenge that requires an immediate response," Dr Abdul Rohman said.
A boat cruises along a river in Pattaya, Thailand. Photo by Shutterstock

Thai police last week detained a Thai woman for stealing a 300,000-baht (US$8,600) gold necklace from a Chinese man as the Southeast Asian country is seeking to restore tourist confidence.

The 29-year-old woman admitted to the theft and agreed to pay the tourist back the value of the stolen necklace although it had been pawned and sold, Pattaya News reported.

The money was given to the Chinese tourist at the Pattaya City Police Station on Jan. 5.

The theft happened on Dec. 25 on South Pattaya Road as the 36-year-old tourist had been walking back to his hotel after a night out. He was approached by the woman offering to make friends with him, according to Khaosod English news site.

He declined the offer but stated the suspect continued to touch him before he walked away.

Shortly after, he found that his gold necklace that he claimed was worth 300,000 baht had been stolen.

He later filed a report to local police who took over a week to track down the suspect.

On Jan. 5, a court warrant was issued, and the thief was arrested.

In Thailand, thieves can be imprisoned for three years, alongside a 6,000 baht fine.

Thailand is targeting 8 million Chinese tourists in 2024, double last year's figure.
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment)  Shibley Telhami and Michael Hammer have a new commentary out based on their polling at the University of Marylands Critical Issues Poll during the past year. One of the three issues they address is Israel/ Palestine.

They found that 62% of Americans have no idea what Zionism is. Zionism is, of course, a form of Jewish nationalism born in Central Europe in the late 19th century, which seeks to turn the Jewish religion into a platform for a state, and which excludes non-Jews from sovereignty over territory claimed by this Jewish state.

In the case of Palestine, this ideology has produced the statelessness of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and has made citizens of Israel of Palestinian heritage into second-class citizens. That is, Zionism is akin to other ethnic supremacist ideologies such as white nationalism or the Baathist form of Arab nationalism (which made Kurds second-class citizens in Iraq and perpetuated their non-citizen status in Syria).

The mantra often found among US politicians, that Israel must be democratic and Jewish, reflects the ethnic supremacism implicit in Zionist thinking. What would happen, for instance, if the proportion of Israelis of non-Jewish heritage rose to become a majority? If the state must be Jewish, this development would presumably require the expulsion or disenfranchisement of non-Jews.

Such demographic developments are not theoretical but are apparent in the contemporary world. Lebanese Christians were 51% of Lebanons population in 1930 but probably only 22% or so today.

Saying that Israel must be democratic and Jewish is like saying the United States must be democratic and white or democratic and Christian. The second, ethnic supremacist, demand is profoundly undemocratic and so the second part of the phrase stealthily negates the first.

Joe Biden says he is a Zionist, and given his behavior during the past three months, I think we have to conclude that he is an extreme sort of Zionist. It is baffling that the overwhelming majority of Americans doesnt even know what he means when he says this, or what the ideology is of the country that receives more US aid than any other in the world.

Interestingly, 12% of Americans have a negative perception of Zionism, and 8% have a positive one. Some 19% dont care one way or another. Presumably this 39% comprises the bulk of those who say they know what Zionism is.

Americans who view Zionism negatively are more likely to be Democrats or Independents than Republicans, though the spread is not that great (8% are Republicans, 13% Democrats, 14% independents).

Some 15% of Americans believe that criticizing Israeli policies is a form of antisemitism (bigotry toward Jews). Only 37% say that such criticism does not constitute anti-Jewish prejudice. 48% dont know.

If we zero in on the 52% who had an opinion on the matter, 70% said that criticizing Israel does not amount to being prejudiced toward Jews. It is worrying, however, that 28% of those who said they knew the answer to the question believe that the only way to avoid anti-Jewish bigotry is to be silent about Israeli policies and actions.

This issue is of the utmost importance, since 38 states have passed laws forbidding the boycott of Israel and punishing it by denial of state government contracts (including speaking fees to professors and journalists and writers). That is, the belief that you cant criticize Israel is undermining basic first amendment freedoms of Americans, among them the freedom to boycott enterprises with which they disagree. The Civil Rights movement probably could not have succeeded if it had been illegal to boycott white-owned businesses practicing segregation.

The United States and France are characterized by civic nationalism, or at least that is their constitutional tradition. As long as people are loyal to the Constitution in each country, their ethnicity ideally shouldnt matter in the law. Obviously, it does matter, de facto, but even so the terms can change. See, e.g., Barack Obama, who probably could not have been president of the USA until the 21st century. At that point, we were truer to our constitutional tradition of civic nationalism than we had earlier been. Progress is possible in civic nationalism in a way that ethnonationalism forestalls.

The big takeaway from the University of Maryland poll for me is that the corporate news media have again failed to do their job. Americans are not being educated about the world in which they live, which is consequential for our own democracy. If we are simply ignorant, it is more likely that we will get policy wrong and that we will give away our birthright as a free people with a Bill of Rights.
Its Israels way of intimidating and controlling news, said one critic.

By Julia Conley | 

( Commondreams.org )  CNN has long been criticized by media analysts and journalists for its deference to the Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces in its coverage of the occupied Palestinian territories, and the cable network admitted Thursday that it follows a protocol that could give Israeli censors influence over its stories.

A spokesperson for the network confirmed to The Intercept that its news coverage about Israel and Palestine is run through and reviewed by the CNN Jerusalem bureauwhich is subject to the IDFs censor.

The censor restricts foreign news outlets from reporting on certain subjects of its choosing and outright censors articles or news segments if they dont meet its guidelines.

Other news organizations often avoid the censor by reporting certain stories about the region through their news desks outside of Israel, The Intercept reported.

The policy of running stories about Israel or the Palestinians past the Jerusalem bureau has been in place for years, the spokesperson told the outlet. It is simply down to the fact that there are many unique and complex local nuances that warrant extra scrutiny to make sure our reporting is as precise and accurate as possible.

The spokesperson added that CNN does not share news copy with the censor and called the networks interactions with the IDF minimal.

But James Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, said the IDFs approach to censoring media outlets is Israels way of intimidating and controlling news.

A CNN staffer who spoke to The Intercept on condition of anonymity confirmed that the networks longtime relationship with the censor has ensured CNNs coverage of Israels bombardment of Gaza and attacks in the West Bank since October 7 favors Israels narratives.



CNNs Jeremy Diamond points toward Israeli military hardware in a field near Israels border with Gaza.

(Photo: screenshot/CNN)

Every single Israel-Palestine-related line for reporting must seek approval from the [Jerusalem] bureauor, when the bureau is not

staffed, from a select few handpicked by the bureau and senior managementfrom which lines are most often edited with a very specific nuance, the staffer said.

Jerusalem bureau chief Richard Greene announced it had expanded its review team to include editors outside of Israel, calling the new policy Jerusalem SecondEyes. The expanded review process was ostensibly put in place to bring more expert eyes to CNNs reporting particularly when the Jerusalem news desk is not staffed.

In practice, the staff member told The Intercept, War-crime and genocide are taboo words. Israeli bombings in Gaza will be reported as blasts attributed to nobody, until the Israeli military weighs in to either accept or deny responsibility. Quotes and information provided by Israeli army and government officials tend to be approved quickly, while those from Palestinians tend to be heavily scrutinized and slowly processed.

Meanwhile, reporters are under intensifying pressure to question anything they learn from Palestinian sources, including casualty statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Health is run by Hamas, which controls Gazas government. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said in October, as U.S. President Joe Biden was publicly questioning the accuracy of the ministrys reporting on deaths and injuries, that its casualty statistics have proven consistently credible in the past.

Despite this, CNNs senior director of news standards and practices, David Lindsey, told journalists in a November 2 memo that Hamas representatives are engaging in inflammatory rhetoric and propaganda We should be careful not to give it a platform.

Another email sent in October suggested that the network aimed to present the Ministry of Healths casualty figures as questionable, with the News Standards and Practices division telling staffers, Hamas controls the government in Gaza and we should describe the Ministry of Health as Hamas-controlled whenever we are referring to casualty statistics or other claims related to the present conflict.

Newsroom employees were advised to remind our audiences of the immediate cause of this current conflict, namely the Hamas attack and mass murder and kidnap of Israeli civilians on October 7.

At least 22,600 people have been confirmed killed in Gaza and 57,910 have been wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. Thousands more are feared dead under the rubble left behind by airstrikes. In Israel, the death toll from Hamas attack stands at 1,139.

Jim Naureckas, editor of the watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, noted that the Israeli government is controlling journalists reporting on Gaza as its been credibly accused of singling out journalists for violent attacks in order to suppress information.

To give that government a heightened role in deciding what is news and what isnt news is really disturbing, he told The Intercept.

Meanwhile, pointed out author and academic Sunny Singh, even outside CNN, every bit of reporting on Gaza in Western media outlets has been given unmerited weight which not granted to Palestinian reporters.

Western medianot just CNNhas been pushing Israeli propaganda all through Israels attacks, said Singh.
Ordinary people can fix the broken postwar international system and deliver global justice to Palestinians and oppressed people worldwide.

( Waging Nonviolence )  In the past few weeks, the number of innocent Palestinian civilians killed in attacks by the Israeli government has reached unprecedented levels. Both a majority of people around the world and a majority of governments oppose the mass atrocities against civilians in Gaza. Why is this common-sense view not translated into action that stops these international crimes? And what can normal people do to end atrocities in Gaza and elsewhere?

Before answering these questions, I would like to start from my personal experience on the day this last round of violence started.

Like a scene in a horror movie, my Oct. 7 started the way many other Saturday mornings do  my 3-year-old daughter woke me up with a cry: Aba, Aba! (Hebrew for dad). But the normal morning shattered into pieces as I saw the news from Gaza.

My heart pounding, I immediately opened my family and friends WhatsApp chat groups. Living in Ann Arbor, where I lead a research project on global governance, wars and civil resistance at the University of Michigan, I am seven hours behind most of my family in Israel. While I was relieved to learn that they were all fine, I soon discovered some friends had lost family members in the Hamas attack or had them taken hostage. Palestinian friends in Gaza and the West Bank were posting on social media that the Israeli army had started attacking and that civilians were being killed. The Israeli government soon declared war.

Like many millions around the world, I was scrolling through pictures in my news feed in shock. I couldnt stop thinking of the question I am often asked by my students when we talk of wars and mass atrocities in class: How can this be stopped? As I tell my students, my inconvenient answer starts not with a they but with a we  the atrocities against civilians in the Israeli kibbutzes and in the Palestinian city of Gaza are a symptom of a system we have built, a system that requires our active or passive consent daily. We can re-build that system if we choose to. We have the power, and therefore the responsibility, to change the system that allows the atrocities in Gaza.

Resisting war, occupation and apartheid

Hamass attack that day killed more than 1,200 Israelis, including more than 40 children. Even before we knew this, it was clear the attack was serious enough to register as a societal shock in Israel  something comparable to what Sept. 11 was to Americans.

Within a few hours, the Israeli army started attacking the Gaza Strip. Since then, those attacks have killed over 22,500 Palestinians, with the majority of them being children and women, who do not usually participate in fighting. To give some perspective: The United States killed fewer civilians in Afghanistan during its 20 years of occupation  and Afghanistans population is about 20 times larger than Gazas. More specifically, in Afghanistan, one in 3,225 civilians were killed by the U.S. government in over 20 years. In Gaza, Israeli government attacks are estimated to have killed one in 128 civilians in under three months.

Serving as a volunteer on the board of Refuser Solidarity Network, a global network of 8,000 people who function as an international base of support for war resisters and peace activists in Israel, I have spent many nights and weekends since Oct. 7 working to amplify the voices of Israeli war resisters, trying to help in any way possible.

This was and is a difficult period for war resistance, anti-occupation and anti-apartheid groups in Israel. (Again, this is perhaps comparable to U.S. antiwar organizing challenges in the post 9/11 period). Binational groups of Jews and Palestinians working for peace together have faced significant strains, dealing with two national narratives of the events that were at least initially largely unreconcilable. At one point, the national head of the police, Yaakov Kobi Shabtai, threatened to send antiwar protesters to Gaza. Whoever wants to become an Israeli citizen, welcome, Shabtai said. Anyone who wants to identify with Gaza is welcome. I will put him on the buses heading there now.

Hindustan Times: Bloody Blinken Slogans Echo Outside Biden Officials Residence; Blood Spilled On Car | Watch

The police have also refused to authorize antiwar demonstrations and conferences since the beginning of the war, particularly in Arab towns in Israel. A small invitation-only demonstration organized by a few former parliament members was met with arrests, despite being under the 50-person limit for which police authorization is required. Four former parliament members  all Palestinian citizens of Israel  were arrested by police, sparking demonstrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, only to be met with more arrests. When Hadash, a socialist Arab-Jewish parliamentary front, organized an antiwar conference, police threatened the venue owner to retaliate if he did not cancel the event.

The network I volunteer with has been documenting and amplifying these antiwar voices  along with the police attacks against them  on social media and in our newsletters, while also coordinating international solidarity to help them. While it has taken up nearly every free moment, it is inspiring to see the Israeli antiwar movement find a way to focus on empathy and stopping the endless cycle of violence, even in this time of extreme hurt.

For 15 years Israeli war resisters have been telling Israelis that the status quo in Gaza in unsustainable  that we cannot continue to keep millions of Palestinians in a large open-air prison and expect this to go on forever, or to end well. No amount of F-16 planes, billion dollar walls and high-tech weaponry funded annually by billions of American taxpayer dollars can change that reality. Even before the Israel-Hamas war, a majority of citizens in global north countries opposed the status quo in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and supported an end to the Israeli occupation and apartheid.

Citizens in poor countries are unfortunately not often surveyed on their views on global politics, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but the governments in the Global South publicly state that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians territories was the root cause of the conflict. At the same time, a majority of governments in various international organizations repeatedly vote for resolutions against the Israeli rule over the Palestinian Territories. And yet  because our international system is broken  this worldwide consensus does not (and will not) translate into action to stop Israeli apartheid and Israeli occupation.

A single garment of destiny

My students often challenge me with a justified request: So what is the solution to Palestinian-Israeli conflict? How do we fix this? Often those asking want some kind of a quick fix. But after 10 years of research on conflicts and global governance, it is my difficult role to say that the Israel-Hamas war is a symptom of a far graver problem: the fact that our world system is broken. The good news is that we, normal people around the world, can repair it.

In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a text called The Greatest Hope For World Peace, which was only published recently. King argued there that the ultimate answer to war is the creation of a democratic supranational authority. Echoing language from his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, he wrote that it would lessen many tensions that exist today, and it would also enable everybody to understand that we are clothed in a single garment of destiny, and whatever affects one nation directly in the world, indirectly affects all.

In advocating such a form of international democracy, King was following in the footsteps of the likes of Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi and suffragist Rosika Schwimmer, who two decades earlier, in opposition to the creation of the postwar system, the One World movement and vadvocated for international democracy. Today, it is perhaps best understood as advocacy for a kind of worldwide European Union, or worldwide African Union. Einstein told a friend that he would devote his life to that vision, and indeed did so in his final years. Gandhi said in a speech: I believe in One WorldI would not like to live in this world if it was not to be One World.

My research on the One World movement led to the conclusion that their struggle against the remaking of the postwar order failed because they did not escalate their campaign to the point of using methods from the civil resistance toolbox (which I will get to in a moment). Nevertheless, while their theory of change failed, history has proved their analysis of the problems in the postwar system to be correct. Taking in the horrors of the Gaza massacre of Oct. 7  like the intractable war in Ukraine, the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, the rise of artificial intelligence, recurring financial crises, and the rise of ultra-nationalism and extremism  we cannot ignore what is staring us right in the face: Like Gandhi, Einstein, Schwimmer and King warned, the international system built in 1945 is simply not equipped for the challenges of the 21st century.

In the face of our broken world, I possess the same bitter optimism that a realistic observer might have felt in 1944 about the future of Europe. The end of the war was in sight, and the majority of people on the continent then understood that the status quo was unsustainable. At the same time, a small but growing number of people realized that normal people have the power to change Europes political structure. And because normal people had the power to change Europe, they also had the responsibility to try. Still, in the midst of a world war and the Holocaust, a few realistic observers nevertheless saw fertile ground for change. It was that limberness and vision that would give rise to a European Union emerging out of the ashes of the war.

Now, to address the challenges we are facing in the 21st century, we must draw on that same limberness and vision. We must strengthen and radically democratize the international system, remaking the failing mechanisms we built to confront global crises.

Fixing a broken world

The failing international mechanisms we built to confront global crises suffer from one core problem: The lack of popular control and democratic legitimacy leads to injustice and gridlock, in Gaza and beyond. A few examples of how this broken system works include:

The U.N. Security Council and the veto power that allows the United States to authorize war crimes against Palestinians, Russia to authorize war crimes against Syrians and China to authorize crimes against Tibetans.

The secretive Basel Committee on Bank Supervision, where decisions on the levels of risk allowed in the global economy are decided in meetings between government officials from a handful of rich governments and a handful of bank lobbyists (who later give the first ones jobs).

The U.N. sponsored climate change negotiations, where inaction by governments and corporations is hidden by a smoke screen of inter-governmental summits and conferences of the parties (COP 1  COP 28) for over 30 years. Similar to the U.N. Security Council, a veto power over climate negotiations gives the most polluting superpower governments a tool to force non-binding targets.

In my forthcoming book The World Is Broken, I look at these organizations and the international postwar system as a whole, and suggest three minimum components of any real international democracy.

1. End the dictatorship of funding. Rich governments often control international organizations using a funding model that is based on voluntary and conditional contribution. This gives governments, and especially the rich governments total control. To be democratic, these institutions need to have independent public funding.

2. End the dictatorship of veto. In the postwar era, the U.N. Security Council was tasked with maintaining international peace. It, and it alone, can authorize the legal use of force internationally, as well as financial sanctions against threats to international peace (that is, for example, how the sanctions on Iran and North Korea were established, and how individuals related to financing terrorism are blacklisted). But in the council, five superpower governments  the U.K., France, Russia the U.S., China and Russia  can veto or block any decision. This veto power was used by the United States to protect Israeli governments at least 53 times. The U.S. used its veto again and again to protect the Israeli government against an international community that rightly sees actions of the Israeli government  including the building of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian lands  as war crimes according to international law. Other international organizations have similar mechanisms of formal or informal veto powers. We need to take this veto power away from the superpowers and move to rule by majority, where powerful governments can no longer force their will on the rest of the world.

3. End the dictatorship of the executive. Only governments have real power in international organizations. The democratic idea of the separation of powers  such as judicial, executive and parliamentary  is about breaking political power to protect citizens and create checks and balances. But in the postwar international system, governments (the executive power) are unchecked; nothing can hold them accountable or balance them.
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / PPX Mining Corp. (the "Company" or "PPX") (TSX.V:PPX.V) (BVL:PPX) is pleased to announce an updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the Callanquitas gold-silver deposit and a geological potential study on the Company's wholly-owned IGOR project, located in northwestern Peru, approximately 150 kilometers northeast of the city of Trujillo in the Huaranchal district of the La Libertad Region.

The NI 43-101 technical document shall be available within the regulatory filing timeframe and was carried out by the following independent consultants: a) Mining Plus Peru S.A.C., engineering firm responsible for the Callanquitas deposit resource estimate update and b) Geologica Groupe-Conseil Inc., responsible for the geological review, analysis and data compilation to determine the potential of the Igor Project.

Highlights:

Measured & Indicated ("M&I") Resources as oxides: 81,090 Au ounces and 2.9 million Ag ounces.

M&I Resources as oxides: 100,290 AuEq ounces at 4.70 g/t AuEq.

Inferred Resources as sulfides: 34,450 AuEq ounces at 4.63 g/t AuEq.

Potential for additional resources in Callanquitas East as it remains completely open at depth and along strike to the north and south.

The potential of Callanquitas West, which runs close to and parallel to the eastern zone and mirrors Callanquitas East, must be explored. Minimum exploration has been conducted in this zone.

The presence of sulfide ore along strike to the south of the present workings has largely been ignored in favor of oxide ore and additional exploration has the potential to define sulfide structures, known from limited production to carry elevated silver grades.

There is a high potential to increase resources in the areas of Portachuelos, Domo, and Tesoros

The extension of Portachuelos, Domo and Tesoros zones is significant, each being 1.2 to 2 km in length with mineralized structures showing widths from 2 to 5 meters.

John Thomas, CEO of PPX Mining commented: "I am pleased to announce that resources from a section of the Callanquitas veins/breccias remain, allowing PPX to continue operations and to expedite the plant construction (for oxide and sulphide ore), while continuing to expand resources with diamond drilling campaigns from the subsurface and surface of the East and West Callanquitas veins/breccias, targeting the open areas along strike and at depth. Currently, the company, in coordination with its mining partner PLP, is conducting a drilling campaign from the subsurface, and we are excited that Canadian geology consultants are demonstrating the potential of the other mineralized zones of the Igor project, such as Portachuelos, Domo and Tesoros, with clear evidence of high gold and silver grades, offering an excellent opportunity to increase the company's resources."

I. MINERAL RESOURCE UPDATE

Table 1: Callanquitas Mineral Resource as of 30 September 2023

Notes:

Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and have not demonstrated economic viability. The MRE has been categorized in accordance with the CIM Definition Standards (CIM, 2014). All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimates. Minor discrepancies may occur due to rounding to appropriate significant figures. The Mineral Resource was estimated by Ms Munoz QP(Geo) of Mining Plus, Independent Qualified Person under NI 43-101. The Mineral Resource is reported inside an underground shell with a cut-off grade of 2.00 g/t gold equivalent, estimated using a gold price of 1,800 US$/oz and silver price of US$ 20 US$/oz. MRE is reported on a 100 percent basis within an underground shell. The gold equivalent is based in the following formula AuEq = Au + Ag*0.0066. This report is dated the 7 November 2023 and has an effective date of 30 September 2023. The cut-off date for mining depletion is 30 September 2023.

Mineral Resource Estimate

The Mineral Resources Estimate for the Callanquitas Deposit was prepared by Ms. Maria Munoz, full-time employee of Mining Plus Peru S.A.C. The Mineral Resources within the Callanquitas gold-silver deposit are deemed potentially suitable for underground mining. These estimates are derived from drill holes and channel samples spanning the years 2006 to 2018, as documented in the 2018: "Technical Report and Pre-Feasibility Study for The Callanquitas Gold-Silver Deposit, Igor Project, La Libertad Region, Peru". Additionally, the data set includes 7 drill holes and 57 channels from 2019, along with 210 channels from 2023; the latest is in the deepest part to evaluate the expansion of resources at depth.

Post-2018, mining activities in the deposit have enhanced the geological understanding, leading to a new geological interpretation. Furthermore, the estimated resources have been adjusted to account for updated economic parameters, ensuring compliance with the "reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction requirement". These different aspects have generated a material change in resources, mainly due to mining production which has generated a reduction in resources compared to those reported in 2018.

The Mineral Resource is reported inside underground optimized shapes with a reasonable cut-off grade of 2.00 g/t gold equivalent, based on a gold price of US$1800/oz and silver price of US$20/oz, mining costs and metallurgical recovery from the current mining activities.

The Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE), with an effective date of 30 September 2023, has been reported in accordance with the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The estimation process followed the "Estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Best Practice Guidelines" prepared by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM, 2019).

Callanquitas comprises three structures, namely Callanquitas West and Callanquitas East, along with a minor structure named Callanquitas Sigmoid, the latest one is a smaller sigmoid of Callanquitas East. The determination of estimated domains involves a combination of these structures with their associated grade shell. The length sample exhibits variability, although composite lengths of 0.5 m were specifically chosen, representing a multiple of prevalent or dominant raw sampling intervals. Grade capping has been selectively applied to composited grade intervals within each estimation domain. The estimation methodologies for gold and silver grades predominantly employ Ordinary Kriging (OK) across most domains. However, Inverse Distance Square (ID2) was utilized for estimating Callanquitas Sigmoid due to the limited dataset available. To validate the results, bias checks were conducted using nearest neighbor (NN) estimation.

As of September 30, 2023, the MRE includes Measured, Indicated, and Inferred Resources; as Measured and Indicated resources in Oxides, there are around 663,700 tonnes with a gold equivalent grade of 4.70 g/t, with a metal content of 100,290 ounces of gold equivalent, and as Inferred in oxides there are around 528,500 tonnes with a gold equivalent grade of 4.40 g/t, with a metal content of 74,760 ounces of gold equivalent.

Sulfides have been classified as inferred because their information is limited. Mining Plus highlights that the initial Metallurgical tests carried out in-house have demonstrated high recoveries; however, for these resources, the recovery has been considered similar to that of oxides. There are 231,400 tonnes estimated with a gold equivalent grade of 4.63 g/t, with a metal content of 34,450 ounces of gold equivalent.

Mineral Resource Estimate Sensitivity

Mining Plus also evaluated the Callanquitas deposit mineral resource estimate for Mineral oxides by cut-off grade range between 2.0 gt/ AuEq and 7.0 g/t AuEq as per the table below:

Table 2: Cut-Off Grade Sensitivity of Mineral Resources for Mineral Oxides

Geological Data

The updated Mineral Resource Estimate includes drill and channel data as of August 2023. It includes an additional data set of 7 drill holes and 57 channels from 2019, along with 210 channels from 2023 made after the previous Mineral Resource dated December 3, 2018. All data information and underground mapping were used to generate a new geological interpretation and domains, resulting in a better understanding and confidence in the resource estimate. The updated mineral resource estimate includes only the Callanquitas deposit.

Geology of Callanquitas

The gold/silver mineralization of Mina Callanquitas corresponds to an intermediate sulfidation system hosted in the magmatic-hydrothermal breccia units that break the Goyllarisquizga sediments. Mineralization in sediments occurs as the filling of secondary fractures due to the low permeability of the rocks. There is an intrusive that also cuts through the sediments where mineralization is medium to low grade.

Callanquitas East structure has a strike of 5 to 10 NE and Callanquitas West has a strike of 340 NE, in both cases the dip is around 87E with variable thickness, ranging from 0.30 cm to 6.0 m. Sigmoid structure is part of the Callanquitas East structures and is located at the top with sigmoidal behavior.

There is still mineralization potential in the Portachuelos, Tesoros and Domo sectors that have been identified with early exploration, and that have not yet been investigated.

Figure 1: Longitudinal Section with composites and block model coloured by gold equivalent grade - Callanquitas East

Figure 2: Longitudinal Section with composites and block model coloured by gold equivalent grade - Callanquitas West

QA/QC and Sampling Protocols

PPX adheres to industry-standard exploration methodologies and techniques throughout its exploration process. The collection of drill core and underground samples is conducted under the supervision of the company's geologists, following established industry practices; data not aligned with the minimum standards set by PPX and industry practices has been excluded from the resource estimation process. Once transported from the drill platform to the logging facility, the drill data is meticulously compared and verified against the core in the trays. Subsequently, the core is logged, photographed, and split using a diamond saw before undergoing sampling. The sampling process involves bagging the samples, with the inclusion of quality control materials at regular intervals. These control materials consist of coarse blanks, certified reference materials, and duplicate core samples, serving to evaluate sampling precision and reproducibility. To maintain a secure chain of custody during sample transportation from the project site to the laboratory, groups of samples are placed in large bags that are sealed with numbered tags.

The majority of sample analyzes were conducted by SGS Laboratories, with ALS Chemex Laboratories contributing to a lesser extent, both laboratories located in Peru. The analytical method was consistent over time, including a multi-element technique with aqua regia digestion followed by ICP/AES detection, including silver values. Gold content was analyzed using a 30 g Fire Assay with an AAS finish. For silver results exceeding 100 g/t, a reanalysis was performed using aqua regia digestion with an ore grade AAS finish, while values exceeding 1,500 g/t underwent analysis using fire assay with a gravimetric finish. Regarding gold, values above 10 g/t underwent re-assay through Fire Assay with gravimetric finishing.

II. GEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF IGOR PROJECT

Portachuelos, Domo and Tesoros Mineralized Zones

Geologica Groupe-Conseil Inc. (Geologica) has recently conducted evaluations of the geological potential in the three main mineralized zones (Portachuelos, Domo, and Tesoros). Geologica acknowledges that the exploration efforts undertaken by PPX have been adequately executed, employing exploration techniques and methodologies that align with standard practices in the mining industry. The location of these three zones is shown in figure 3. below.

Figure 3: Location of Mineralized zones

Past and recent work completed at the Portachuelos, Domo and Tesoros mineralized zones has indicated lateral extension potential at significant width and grades to justify infill and definition drilling on them. Just like at Callanquitas, interesting grades of gold and silver mineralization have been found in these three (3) main zones. Geologica has independently validated these results through an independent check sampling, encompassing 82 samples (33 channel samples on the surface and 49 drill hole samples), thereby confirming the outcomes obtained in prior work conducted by PPX

The Portachuelos breccia is oriented ESE-WNW. The Domo structures and the Tesoros mineralized zone strike NNE and observed onsite over 1.6 km. The Portachuelos structure and mineralized zone trends SE along lithological contacts and structures trending over 1.5 km and dipping steeply to the SW. Gold and silver mineralization, with locally visible silver, are found in breccias, epithermal veins and mantos that originally contained variable quantities of pyrite, 1% to 25% and massive, arsenopyrite, minor chalcopyrite (< 6% locally), galena (< 4% locally) and sphalerite (< 3% locally). These sulfides have been strongly oxidized to goethite and limonite to depths of 200 to 300 meters below surface. Ag/Au ratios are generally low (about 10:1) in the oxide portion but can increase to over 100:1 at the oxide-sulfide interface at the Callanquitas deposit and similarly at the Portachuelos, Domo and Tesoros mineralized structures.

These mineralized structures show good width from 2 m to 5 m and lateral length extensions from 1.2 km to 2.0 km and are hosted within brecciated and fractured quartzites of the favourable Chimu-Santa Formations and transition zones. The mineralization was injected within altered fractures, faults, fold flanks (mantos) and fold noses. The hot fluids were carrying metal ions from deeper within the intrusion or intrusive magma and formed epithermal veins once cooled. Just like at Callanquitas mine, depth extensions of the three zones (Portachuelos, Domo & Tesoros) could reach 500 meters or more and be open along strike.

The various geophysical surveys (Mag and IP-Resistivity-Chargeability) permitted location of the mineralized structures and their lateral and depth extensions in the central part of the property covering Callanquitas and Portachuelos. Once drilled, these mineralized structures and extensions will eventually permit ore resource calculation, if warranted. The recent core and channel sampling completed by Geologica has permitted to validate and corroborate the assay results previously obtained by PPX and confirm the presence of significant results as well as to observe the lateral continuity of the mineralized zones. The results of the IP-Resistivity survey and total magnetic survey carried out in 2008 are shown in fig 2 and 3 below.

Figure 4: IP-Resistivity Survey

Figure 5: Total Magnetic Survey

Drill core sampling of the 3 areas has confirmed the mineralization present with grades above 1 g/t ranging from 1.06 g/t to 19.11 g/t Au and silver grades up to 560.94 g/t Ag over widths of 1.04 m to 9.05 m. The channel sampling at the surface has also confirmed the mineralization presence in the three areas with grades above 1 g/t Au ranging from 1.14 g/t to 4.50 g/t Au and silver grades up to 209.00 g/t Ag over channel widths of 0.5 m to 3.8 m. The drill holes have illustrated higher gold grades at depth and were observed in the sampled drill holes and surface channel sampling. The most significant diamond drill hole intersections for the Tesoros zone are shown in Table 3, those for Portachuelos in Table 4.

Table 3: Most significant diamond drill hole intersections for the Tesoros zone

Table 2: Most significant diamond drill hole intersections for the Portachuelos zone

Geologica is of the opinion that the Property is one of merit with mineralized structures (Callanquitas, Portachuelos, Tesoros and Domo) and this warrants further exploration with the following Phases. Phase 1 surface exploration work program will consist of surface detailed geological mapping, soil geochemical surveys, geophysical surveys with Gravity, Magnetometric (Mag) and Induced Polarization (IP-Resistivity), at a higher resolution than the previous work, anomalous Geochem and Geophysical anomalies will be followed by mechanical trenching, detailed geological mapping and sampling, particularly over the three zone extensions (Portachuelos, Domo and Tesoros) and a first phase of drilling (1 DDH by zone). Phase 2 will consist in diamond drilling with both infill and definition drilling on all three (3) zones. A total budget of $4,223,000 is recommended.

Marcial Gutierrez, General Manager and Chief Geologist, commented, "We will continue to advance our exploration plans to expand the Callanquitas resource, in both, Callanquitas East, which is widely open at depth and along strike, and Callanquitas West, which is expected to mirror the high grade zones of the eastern breccia. Other key mineralized zones have been partially explored in the past and appear to be extensive and prospective. The Geologica Consultants recommendation for carrying out higher resolution geophysics and further drilling will certainly contribute to advance these key zones towards a resource definition, although widespread gold mineralization has already been found through the limited drilling in Portachuelos, making this massive structure a priority drilling target."

Qualified Persons and Technical Information

The Mineral Resources Estimate was estimated by Ms. Maria Munoz, a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (MAIG), Ms. Munoz is a full-time employee of Mining Plus Peru S.A.C. and she is an independent Qualified Person (QP) as defined by the National Instrument 43-101.

Mr. Alain-Jean Beauregard, Mr. Eddy Canova, and Mr. Daniel Gaudreault, all full-time employees of Geologica Groupe-Conseil Inc. and recognized as independent Qualified Persons (QP's) under the National Instrument 43-101, conducted an assessment of the geological potential of the Portachuelos, Domo, and Tesoros mineralized zones. During their visit to the Igor Property from November 3 to 7, 2023, Mr. Beauregard and Mr. Canova thoroughly examined and sampled the core, underground workings, and adits, with a specific focus on the three primary mineralized zones. Geologica is an independent mining exploration consulting firm based in Val-d'Or (Quebec), Canada.

The Qualified Persons (QP's) have reviewed and approved the technical content of this release.

The full technical report, which is being prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101) by Mining Plus, will be available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under the Company's issuer profile within 45 days from this news release. The effective date of the current mineral resource estimate is September 30, 2023. The 2018 Pre-Feasibility Study is no longer current and as such should not be relied upon.

About PPX Mining Corp:

PPX Mining Corp. (TSX.V: PPX.V, BVL: PPX) is a Canadian-based mining company with assets in northern Peru. Igor, the Company's 100%-owned flagship gold and silver project, is located in the prolific Northern Peru gold belt in eastern La Libertad Department.

All scientific and technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by John Thomas, P. Eng., who is a qualified person under the definitions established by National Instrument 43-101.

John Thomas

Chief Executive Officer

82 Richmond Street East

Toronto, Ontario M5C 1P1

Canada

416-361-0737

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.

Cautionary Statement:

This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements") as such terms are defined by applicable securities laws, including, but not limited to statements regarding test results, future plans or management estimates. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance and often contain words such as "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," and "intend,", statements that an actionor event "may,""might," "could," "should," or "will" be taken or occur, or other similarexpressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factorsor circumstances that are beyond the Company's control, and the Company's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to many various factors. Such uncertainties and risks include, among others, delays in obtaining or inability to obtain required regulatory approvals in connection with this transaction. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company cannot guarantee that the events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. The timing of events and circumstances and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, one should not place undue reliance on forward- looking statements. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of today's date, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or publicly revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by law.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / CMC Metals Ltd. (TSX-V:CMB)(Frankfurt:ZM5P)(CMCXF:OTCQB) ("CMC" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Sailfish Royalty Corp. ("Sailfish") has entered into a share purchase option agreement (the "Agreement") with the Company that grants the option (the "Option") to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Swordfish Silver Corp. ("Swordfish"). Swordfish, through Sailfish de Mexico S.A. de C.V., holds the mineral rights of the Gavilanes silver exploration property (the "Property") located in the Municipality of San Dimas, State of Durango, Mexico. The terms of this agreement were previously announced in a press release dated December 21, 2023 with a majority of the financial commitments in the back-end of the multi-year deal. The deal is also subject to Exchange approval.

The silver-gold polymetallic Gavilanes Project (13,594.5 hectares) has a current NI 43-101 Inferred Resource of 18,174,000 contained silver-equivalent ("Ag-Eq") ounces at an average grade of 320.3 g/t Ag-Eq within 1,765,000 tonnes (Mine Development Associates/Respec Resource Gesociences Inc., 2021). The metal prices assumed in the resource estimate were $19.00 USD/oz silver, $1,600 USD/oz gold, $3.50 USD/lb copper, and $1.00 USD/lb for lead and zinc.

Gavilanes is a low to intermediate sulfidation epithermal deposit and is located in the Sierra Madre Occidental Province in southwestern Durango. Limited drilling at the site has been completed over 0.2 square kilometers of veins. Gavilanes has been subjected to periodic episodes of drilling totalling 61 diamond drill holes (13,011.25 meters). A majority of the drilling (47 holes) was completed by Santa Cruz Silver Mining. The drilling focused on the Guadalupe Solitude structure along only 500 meters. The San Nicolas mineralized structures, which span 2.6 kilometers, have only been tested over 250 meters with drilling intersecting an important gold system that was later confirmed with mapping and surface sampling.

Highlights of some previous intersections from historical drilling efforts include:

SCSN-01: 8 meters 155 g/t silver

SCSN-04: 17.8 meters of 465 g/t silver

SCSN-05: 2.4 meters of 6.75 g/t gold

SCGP-02: 4.25 meters of 233 g/t silver and 0.33 g/t gold

SCGP-11: 4.8 meters of 616 g/t silver

SCGP-12: 4 meters of 243 g/t silver

SCGP-15: 3.4 meters of 298 g/t silver

SCGP-22: 3.3 meters of 2,540 g/t silver

SCGP-26: 8.6 meters of 409 g/t silver

SCHN-12: 6.3 meters of 2,016 g/t silver and 0.16 g/t gold

(note: the results do not include other metals present such as lead, zinc, copper and/or gold which could result in higher silver equivalent grades)

Initial drilling will focus on further extensions of the San Nicolas vein, Descubridora, Veta Del Pueblo and Guadalupe-Soledad veins. Average veins encountered to date are approximately 3.0 meters in width and typical contain varying amounts of silver, gold, copper, lead and zinc.

Recent mapping efforts by Sailfish identified more than 20 veins covering an area in excess of 15 square kilometers some with strike lengths estimated in excess of 2.0 kilometers. Preliminary sampling of a majority of the veins has indicated that they are mineralized (see Map 2). Highlights of the surface sampling include:

Sample 43038, Veta Del Pueblo: 1 meter grading 1,867 g/t silver

Sample 43235, Descubridora Vein: 2 meters grading 24.4 g/t gold and 44.5 g/t silver

Sample 45352, San Nicolas Vein: 1.5 meters grading 6.07 g/t gold and 201 g/t silver

Sample 45331, San Nicolas Vein: 1.0 meter grading 30 g/t gold, 190 g/t silver

Key points arising from these results are:

They demonstrate the potential for very large areas of prospectivity on the main vein structures outside of areas subjected to historical drilling;

The potential for significant gold mineralization especially in the southeastern extensions of the veins which are exposures of the deeper parts of the veins; and,

These sample results do not include other sample results on new veins identified and/or areas immediately outside of the core Gavilanes Zone;

It is also highly probable that the identified volume of mineralized veins will be increased by drilling the dip and strike extensions of the partly drill tested Gavilanes Zone, and early stage detailed mapping of the Central and Western Zones.

Thirty-seven of the Santa Cruz drill holes were used to derive the resource estimate. Sailfish subsequently logged and assayed the remaining ten holes not included in the current resource estimate. Therefore, after the initial round of drilling it is the Company's intent to incorporate these holes and new drilling results into a revised resource estimate in late Q4-2024/early Q1-2025. Gavilanes is located only 23 km northeast of the San Dimas/Tayoltita mine operated by First Majestic Silver Corp and shares many geological and mineralogical similarities with the mine deposit.



Descriptions of the property potential are included within various technical reports and recent studies which will be placed on the Company website (www.cmcmetals.ca).

Mr. Kevin Brewer, President and CEO of the Company noted: "Gavilanes is a transformational transaction. It is a major asset with immense exploration potential that provides the opportunity for significant growth of the Company in 2024 and beyond. To acquire a permitted project with a solid resource base, extensive mineralized veins in three mineralized zones covering an area over 20 square kilometers, and potential to demonstrate an expansion of the resource in the near term with past and proposed drilling, is quite an astounding feat for CMC. We plan to initiate drilling at Gavilanes in April, 2024."

The project has a drill permit from SEMARNAT to complete up to 4,650 meters of drilling. Plans are underway to complete 3,000 meters of step-out drilling from the identified resource as recommended by the 2021 NI 43-101 study. Phase 2 of the project envisions an additional 15,000 meters of diamond drilling targeted at a resource expansion program and proposes to conduct drilling during that program in all three mineralized zones on the property, including the Gavilanes, Central and Western Zones.

Surface rights in the core area are held by the Ejido Los Gavilanes, a communal agrarian cooperative who have established exploration agreements with previous operators. The Company has already had met with the Ejido and has initiated negotiations for an exploration agreement which they hope will be concluded in the next couple of months.

Qualified Person

Qualified Person Kevin Brewer, a registered professional geoscientist, is the Company's President and CEO, and Qualified Person (as defined by National Instrument 43-101). He has given his approval of the technical information pertaining reported herein. The Company is committed to meeting the highest standards of integrity, transparency and consistency in reporting technical content, including geological reporting, geophysical investigations, environmental and baseline studies, engineering studies, metallurgical testing, assaying and all other technical data.

About CMC Metals Ltd.

CMC Metals Ltd. is a growth stage exploration company focused on opportunities for high grade polymetallic deposits in Mexico, Yukon, British Columbia and Newfoundland. Our new flagship project is the Gavilanes Silver-Gold Project, San Dimas, Durango, Mexico. Our polymetallic silver-lead-zinc CRD prospects in the Rancheria Silver District include the Silverknife and Amy projects (British Columbia) and the Silver Hart Deposit and Blue Heaven claims (Yukon). Our polymetallic projects with potential for copper-silver-gold and other metals include Bridal Veil (Newfoundland) and Logjam (Yukon).

On behalf of the Board:

"John Bossio"

John Bossio, Chairman, Board of Directors, CMC METALS LTD.

For Further Information and Investor Inquiries:

Kevin Brewer, P. Geo., MBA, B.Sc.(Hons), Dip. Mine Eng.

President, CEO and Director

Tel: (+52) 669 198 8503

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Suite 1000-409 Granville St., Vancouver, BC, V6C 1T2

To be added to CMC's news distribution list, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or contact Mr. Kevin Brewer directly.

References

Mine Development Associates/Respec and Resource Geosciences Incorporated, 2021. CSA NI 43-101 Technical Report and Estimate of Mineral Resources, Gavilanes Silver Project, San Dimas Municipality, Durango, Mexico, Authors: Dr. Matthew D. Gray and Derrick Unger. 128pp.

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 certain statements that constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law, including without limitation, statements that address the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles and exploitation activities and developments. In this release disclosure regarding the potential to undertake future exploration work comprise forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks, including the ability of the Company to raise the funds necessary to fund its projects, to carry out the work and, accordingly, may not occur as described herein or at all. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, the timing and receipt of government and regulatory approvals, the impact of the constantly evolving COVID-19 pandemic crisis and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Readers are referred to the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators for information on these and other risk factors, available at www.sedar.com. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation."
VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 8, 2024 /CNW/ - Pan Global Resources Inc. ("Pan Global" or the "Company") (TSXV: PGZ) (OTCQX: PGZFF) (FSE: 2EU) is pleased to announce results for nine new drillholes from the La Romana copper-tin-silver (Cu-Sn-Ag) discovery in the Company's 100% owned Escacena Project in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, southern Spain. The drill holes are part of a 25-hole program aimed at delineating the western extension of the La Romana deposit.

The significance of these drill results:

The near surface copper mineralization is extended more than 50m west and is now continuous for a total strike length of 1.4km, remaining open for further expansion along strike to the northwest and down-dip

west and is now continuous for a total strike length of 1.4km, remaining open for further expansion along strike to the northwest and down-dip A new higher grade (1%-plus copper) sector has been identified with grades ranging as high as 7.7% copper over 1.7m . This mineralization is coincident with a 290m x 90m down-hole electromagnetic (DHEM) target, providing a strong guide to potential extensions for future drilling

Drilling Highlights:

LRD173 : 9.7m at 1.69% CuEq 1 (1.61% Cu, 0.02% Sn, 3.8 g/t Ag) from 99m , including 5.7m at 2.70% CuEq 1 (2.58% Cu, 0.03% Sn, 6.2 g/t Ag);

: (1.61% Cu, 0.02% Sn, 3.8 g/t Ag) from , including (2.58% Cu, 0.03% Sn, 6.2 g/t Ag); LRD177 : 8m at 1.48% CuEq 1 (1.21% Cu, 0.10% Sn, 1.5 g/t Ag) from 55m , including 3.4m at 2.85% CuEq 1 (2.72% Cu, 0.04% Sn, 3.2 g/t Ag);

: (1.21% Cu, 0.10% Sn, 1.5 g/t Ag) from , including (2.72% Cu, 0.04% Sn, 3.2 g/t Ag); LRD179 : 18.1m at 0.65% CuEq 1 (0.61% Cu, 0.01% Sn, 1.5g/t Ag) from 108m , including 6.1m at 1.50% CuEq 1 (1.42% Cu, 0.02% Sn, 3.5g/t Ag);

: (0.61% Cu, 0.01% Sn, 1.5g/t Ag) from , including (1.42% Cu, 0.02% Sn, 3.5g/t Ag); LRD172 : 12m at 0.74% CuEq 1 (0.60% Cu, 0.05% Sn, 1.4 g/t Ag) from 76m , including 6m at 1.36% CuEq 1 (1.09% Cu, 0.10% Sn, 2.6 g/t Ag);

: (0.60% Cu, 0.05% Sn, 1.4 g/t Ag) from , including (1.09% Cu, 0.10% Sn, 2.6 g/t Ag); Drilling to resume in 2024, including five holes in the current plan at La Romana

"These drill results highlight a significant new zone of higher-grade copper at La Romana that remains wide open to the northwest. Drilling continues to grow the La Romana deposit, demonstrating good continuity of the mineralization over 1.4 kilometers strike length, and from surface to more than 200m down-dip. We look forward to resuming drilling shortly and advancing the growing pipeline of high priority exploration targets in the Escacena Project, particularly the copper/gold discovery at Canada Honda and high-priority Bravo target following access," said Tim Moody, President and CEO of Pan Global.

"Ongoing exploration continues to demonstrate multi-discovery potential with numerous targets not yet tested. The Project is located in a tier one mining jurisdiction, in close proximity with producing copper mines and advanced development projects, and excellent infrastructure," said Mr. Moody.

Drillhole locations are shown in Figure 1 below. Drillhole assay results are summarized in Table 1 and collar details are presented in Table 2 below.

The main La Romana copper mineralization occurs in two highly continuous layers, Zone B and Zone C, commencing from surface or directly below a thin cover of post-mineral sediments. The mineralization includes primary chalcopyrite and minor bornite, overprinted at shallow depths by secondary/supergene copper sulphide (chalcocite) and an overlying oxide zone with local native copper and copper oxides. The tin mineralization is cassiterite, the preferred mineral for commercial extraction.

Table 1  La Romana new drill results summary

Hole ID From To Interval CuEq1 Cu Sn Ag Au Pb Zn True Width m m m % % % g/t g/t ppm ppm (m) LRD172 76.00 88.00 12.00 0.74 0.60 0.05 1.4 0.02 8 86 12.0 including 82.00 88.00 6.00 1.36 1.09 0.10 2.6 0.03 14 109 6.0 including 84.00 87.00 3.00 1.55 1.28 0.09 3.3 0.03 9 116 3.0 and 123.00 135.00 12.00 0.20 0.15 0.02 0.3 0.01 4 75 12.0 LRD173 99.00 108.70 9.70 1.69 1.61 0.02 3.8 0.02 10 112 7.9 including 103.00 108.70 5.70 2.70 2.58 0.03 6.2 0.02 14 147 4.6 Including 107.00 108.70 1.70 7.93 7.73 0.04 19.1 0.08 35 313 1.4 and 142.00 146.00 4.00 0.36 0.29 0.03 0.7 0.02 8 68 3.3 LRD174 86.00 94.00 8.00 0.55 0.52 0.01 1.1 0.01 2.5 63 7.5 including 91.00 93.00 2.00 1.33 1.26 0.02 2.3 0.01 4 90 1.9 and 134.00 139.00 5.00 0.49 0.27 0.08 0.5 0.04 10 76 4.7 and 165.00 166.00 1.00 1.99 1.95 0.01 3.5 0.02 31 202 0.94 LRD175 55.00 68.00 13.00 0.14 0.11 0.01 0.4 0.0 3 62 13.0 LRD176 27.00 30.00 3.00 0.47 0.44 0.01 0.9 0.01 42 91 2.1 and 95.00 101.30 6.30 0.39 0.35 0.01 0.5 0.02 10 69 4.5 LRD177 4.00 12.00 8.00 0.25 0.23 0.0 0.2 0.0 1 112 3.4 and 55.00 63.00 8.00 1.48 1.21 0.10 1.5 0.02 16 93 3.4 including 56.00 59.4 3.40 2.85 2.72 0.04 3.2 0.04 23 118 1.4 Including 58.20 59.4 1.20 7.50 7.24 0.08 7.7 0.08 42 198 0.5 LRD178 114.20 115.10 0.90 2.20 1.95 0.08 5.6 0.08 63 120 0.64 LRD179 43.00 44.00 1.00 0.17 0.10 0.01 8.4 0.03 1.55 % 3.37 % 0.7 and 108.00 126.10 18.10 0.65 0.61 0.01 1.5 0.01 6 76 12.8 including 120.00 126.10 6.10 1.50 1.42 0.02 3.5 0.01 9 102 4.3 and 162.00 166.00 4.00 0.23 0.21 0.01 0.5 0.01 4 41 2.8 and 171.00 173.00 2.00 0.74 0.63 0.04 1.9 0.02 26 79 1.4 and 206.00 207.00 1.00 0.99 0.75 0.09 1.2 0.05 16 93 0.7 LRD180 119.00 132.00 13.00 0.66 0.60 0.02 1.2 0.01 10 86 9.8 including 127.00 131.00 4.00 1.55 1.45 0.03 2.8 0.02 17 122 3.0

1 Copper Equivalent = CuEq. CuEq is calculated using Cu, Sn, and Ag grades. Metallurgical recoveries include 86% for Cu, 68% for Sn and 56% for Ag, from preliminary studies by Wardell Armstrong International and MinePro. The CuEq calculation uses US$ 8,693/tonne Cu, US$ 29,069/tonne Sn and US$ 23.72/oz Ag, corresponding to the three-year monthly price averages to July 2023. The effective formula is [CuEq %] = [Cu %] + 2.6440 * [Sn %] + 0.0057 * [Ag ppm]

Table 2  La Romana drillhole collar information (9 holes, total 1,590.1m )

Hole ID Easting 2 Northing 2 Azimuth (o) Dip (o) Depth (m) LRD172 735839 4152864 210 -45 203.4 LRD173 735840 4152867 190 -75 200.8 LRD174 735839 4152868 230 -50 182.7 LRD175 735721 4152836 210 -45 89.5 LRD176 735722 4152837 0 -90 159 LRD177 735719 4152837 100 -50 109.7 LRD178 735704 4152871 0 -90 190.5 LRD179 735870 4152842 0 -90 224.7 LRD180 735829 4152904 180 -75 229.8

2 Coordinate system: UTM29N ERTS89

About the Escacena Project

The Escacena Project comprises a large, contiguous, 5,760-hectare land package controlled 100% by Pan Global in the east of the Iberian Pyrite Belt. Escacena is located near operating mines at Las Cruces and Riotinto and is immediately adjacent to the former Aznalcollar and Los Frailes mines where Minera Los Frailes/Grupo Mexico is in the final permitting stage to recommence mining. The Escacena Project hosts the La Romana copper-tin-silver discovery and a number of other prospective targets, including Canada Honda, Romana North, Bravo, Barbacena, El Pozo, San Pablo, Zarcita, Hornitos, La Jarosa, and Romana Deep.

About Pan Global Resources

Pan Global Resources Inc. is actively targeting copper-rich mineral deposits, given copper's compelling supply-demand fundamentals and outlook for strong long-term prices as a critical metal for global electrification and energy transition. The Company's flagship Escacena Project is located in the prolific Iberian Pyrite Belt in southern Spain, where a favourable permitting track record, excellent infrastructure, mining and professional expertise, and support for copper as a Strategic Raw Material by the European Commission collectively define a tier-one jurisdiction for mining investment. The Pan Global team comprises proven talent in exploration, discovery, development, and mine operations - all of which are committed to operating safely and with utmost respect for the environment and our partnered communities. The Company is a member, and operates under the principles of, the United Nations Global Compact.

QA/QC Procedures

Core size was HQ (63mm) and all samples were  core. Nominal sample size was 1m core length and ranged from 0.5 to 2m. Sample intervals were defined using geological contacts with the start and end of each sample physically marked on the core. Diamond blade core cutting and sampling was supervised at all times by Company staff. Duplicate samples of  core were taken approximately every 30 samples and Certified Reference materials inserted every 25 samples in each batch.

Samples were delivered to ALS laboratory in Seville, Spain and assayed at the ALS laboratory in Ireland. All samples were crushed and split (method CRU-31, SPL22Y), and pulverized using (method PUL-31). Gold analysis was by 50gm fire assay with ICP finish (method Au-ICP22) and multi element analysis was undertaken using a 4-acid digest with ICP AES finish (method ME-ICP61). Over grade base metal results were assayed using a 4-acid digest ICP AES (method OG-62). Over grade tin was determined using peroxide fusion with ICP finish (method Sn-ICP81x).

Qualified Persons

James Royall, Vice President Exploration for Pan Global Resources and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has approved the scientific and technical information for this media release. Mr. Royall is not independent of the Company.

www.panglobalresources.com

Forward-looking statements

Statements which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. It is important to note that actual outcomes and the Company's actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information included in this media release are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, economic, competitive, governmental, environmental, and technological factors that may affect the Company's operations, markets, products, and prices. Readers should refer to the risk disclosures outlined in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis of its audited financial statements filed with the British Columbia Securities Commission.

The forward-looking information contained in this media release is based on information available to the Company as of the date of this media release. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 8, 2024) - PORTOFINO RESOURCES INC. (TSXV: POR) (OTCQB: PFFOF) (FSE: POTA) ("Portofino" or the "Company") and LITHIUM CHILE INC. (TSXV: LITH) (OTCQB: LTMCF) ("Lithium Chile") (where Portofino and Lithium Chile are jointly referred to as the "Companies" hereinafter) are pleased to announce a 50:50 net equity Partnership Agreement following a successful tender for an 8,445 hectare concession within the lithium-bearing Arizaro Salar in Argentina ("Arizaro Area IV").

The Companies had previously submitted separate offers in a public tender for five concession areas (Figure 1) in the province of Salta with Arizaro IV being the largest of the five concession areas.

Figure 1: Arizaro Area IV

Mr. David Tafel, President & CEO of Portofino, commented: "The exploration knowledge gained through Portofino's initial concession identification and foresight combined with geological due diligence completed by our expert-led geological team, has provided insight into what appears to be a very deep aquifer. Combined with Lithium Chile's exploration success and infrastructure located immediately south, the partnership can move forward quickly. This is a win-win for both Companies, a partnership strongly supported by the Argentina authorities, and we are excited to advance to drilling as soon as possible."

Steve Cochrane, President & CEO of Lithium Chile, additionally stated: "Being awarded Arizaro Area IV is a wonderful achievement for us! It has the potential to significantly increase our lithium resource without much added expense as we have the equipment, capable team, and infrastructure already in place, which positions us to swiftly advance the project."

Prior Exploration

In conjunction with REMSa, the Salta government-owned provincial mining company, Portofino previously carried out extensive geological due diligence on Arizaro Area IV. Significant surface exploration work on this 8,445-hectare block has revealed a thick overburden (crust), however, samples at surface still assayed as high as 100 milligrams per litre ("mg/l") lithium, which is consistent with surface results of other groups exploring this mature salar. Portofino's exploration activities included:

40 +surface brine samples collected and analysed; 35 trenches reaching shallow water tables using excavation equipment; 69,000 metres ("m") of geophysical surveying utilizing Vertical Electric Soundings ("VES") technology revealing aquifers down to depths of 1,000m; and Low resistivity horizons being identified and interpreted as targets potentially containing large lithium-bearing aquifers (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Arizaro Project Distribution of resistive sections

The VES results with the largest thickness in the low resistivity layer are anticipated to be the highest prospective areas of interest and are located to the east and south. The explored area shares geological characteristics with other areas in the same salt flat where brines with high lithium content have been detected at depth. Adjacent properties within the Arizaro salar, have been drilled to depths of more than 500 m, yielding prospective levels of 300 m to 400 m with >500 mg/L lithium.

Proposed Exploration

The Companies intend to file the necessary environmental and drilling applications to enable commencement of the recommended 4-hole 2,000 m drill program as quickly as possible.

Figure 3: Arizaro IV Proposed Exploration Program

Project Location

The Arizaro IV property is located in the North of Salar de Arizaro (see Figure 4), approximately 25 km west of the town of Tolar Grande and 360 km from the capital city of Salta. Access from the capital by road is along National Road No. 51, passing through the town of Pocitos, and then south by Provincial Road No. 27 to the town of Tolar Grande and from there by a gravel road. The Taca Taca railway station is 10 km east of the property, along the General Belgrano line connecting the city of Salta with the port city of Antofagasta (Chile), having strategically important export capacity.

Figure 4: Access roads, infrastructure and energy resources in the area

Arizaro IV is strategically located north of Lithium Chile's 20,800-hectare project in the Arizaro basin. More specifically, Arizaro IV is situated approximately 18 kilometers north of the ARDDH-02 well that Lithium Chile has already drilled (see Figure 5). Additionally, Lithium Chile's established infrastructure near Arizaro IV allows for optimized resource utilization and seamless integration of exploration activities. This proximity-driven approach underscores the Companies' combined commitment to maximizing efficiency and expediting the project timeline.

Figure 5: Arizaro Salar: Arizaro IV and proximity to current Lithium Chile Properties

Acquisition Terms

A definitive joint venture agreement to be completed includes a bid proposal of US$16.7 million, whereby the initial payment of US$5,739,915 has been completed by Lithium Chile (the "Initial Payment") with the balance due within 12 months. Portofino is committed to a 50% reimbursement upon completion of a near-term financing. Portofino has received strong expressions of interest in a financing from several Canadian institutions and details will follow as soon as finalized.

The Partnership Agreement includes a 50:50 allocation of net equity (following an equity allocation to REMSa) to each of Portofino and Lithium Chile, including pro rata responsibility for the acquisition cost and future exploration expenditures. The Agreement will include a credit for Portofino regarding certain incurred due diligence exploration expenditures.

Finalization will be subject to execution of definitive agreements, completion of Portofino's financing and any required regulatory approvals.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mike Kilbourne, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person ("QP") as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The QP has not completed sufficient work to verify the historic information on the properties in Argentina and neighbouring companies.

About Portofino Resources Inc.

Portofino is a Vancouver-based Canadian company focused on exploring and developing mineral resource projects in the Americas. In addition to the Arizaro project, Portofino holds 100% of the (2,932 hectare) Yergo Lithium property in Catamarca. The properties are situated in the heart of the world-renowned Argentine Lithium Triangle and in close proximity to multiple world-class lithium projects.

The Company also has the right to earn 100% interest in three Canadian lithium (hard rock) projects and five gold projects located within northwestern Ontario.

About Lithium Chile Inc.

Lithium Chile is an exploration and lithium resource company with a property portfolio consisting of 111,978 hectares in Chile and 29,245 hectares in Argentina. The Company has filed its NI 43-101 Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment, which can be viewed on the Company's profile at SedarPlus.ca.

Lithium Chile also owns 4 properties, totaling 21,329 hectares, that are prospective for gold, silver, and copper. Exploration efforts are continuing on Lithium Chile's Carmona gold/silver/copper property which lies in the heart of the Chilean mega porphyry gold/ silver/copper belt.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"David G. Tafel"

Chief Executive Officer

For Further Information Contact:

David Tafel

CEO, Director 604-683-1991

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 contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking statements. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's future business plans. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on certain assumptions and expected future events, namely the growth and development of the Company's business as currently anticipated. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and reflect the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and are subject to change thereafter. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.
CALGARY, ALBERTA, January 8, 2024  Lithium Chile Inc. (Lithium Chile or the Company) (TSXV:LITH) (OTC:LTMCF) is proud to announce that its 100% owned Argentinian subsidiary, Argentum Lithium S.A. (Argentum), has been awarded Block IV in the recently completed bidding round in the Salar de Arizaro. Block IV is an 8,445-hectare concession and was awarded by the Salta Provincial Mining and Energy Corporation (REMSa). Argentum was one of thirteen companies that competed in a public tender process that encompassed five different Blocks.

Block IV was the largest of the five blocks. Strategically located north of Lithium Chiles 20,800-hectare project in the Arizaro basin, Block IV is situated approximately 18 kilometers north of the ARDDH-02 well that the Company has already drilled.

Steve Cochrane, Lithium Chiles President, and CEO stated, Being awarded Block IV is a wonderful achievement for us! It has the potential to significantly increase our lithium resource without the added expense. We have the equipment, capable team and infrastructure already in place, which positions us to swiftly advance the project. Adding an additional 8,400 hectares to our already substantial land position makes Lithium Chile a dominant player in the basin.

Salar de Arizaro: Block IV & Existing Arizaro Project

Extensive geological data on Block IV is already available - from an exploration program completed by Portofino Resources Inc. (Portofino) during 2023. That exploration activity included:

1)40+ surface samples brine samples were collected and analyzed; 2)35 trenches were completed confirming shallow brine tables; 3)69,000 metres of geophysical surveys using VES technology revealed a sub-terranean aquifer with depths up to 1000 metres; and 4)Low resistivity horizons were identified and interpreted as brine bearing targets.

Capitalizing on the extensive work and knowledge gained by Portofino during the exploration program carried out on Block IV, Lithium Chile has signed a Partnership Agreement (the Agreement) with Portofino outlining a joint venture arrangement. The Agreement would enable Portofino to acquire a 50% net equity interest in Block IV, by contributing 50% of award expenses and exploration costs. Completion of the joint venture is contingent on Portofino raising the necessary funds and entering into a definitive agreement - anticipated to be completed in the next 60 days.

In accordance with the commitment made by Lithium Chile in its successful bid, Lithium Chile has made to REMSa the initial payment for the award of US $5,739,915.

An Environmental Impact Study (EIS) will be filed immediately for an exploration program to be completed on Block IV during 2024. The Companys established infrastructure near Block IV allows for optimized resource utilization and seamless integration of exploration activities. This proximity-driven approach underscores the Companys commitment to maximizing efficiency and expediting the project timeline.

Salar de Arizaro: Block IV, Proposed Exploration Program

Lithium Chile also proudly announces a significant milestone in its commitment to environmental stewardship and community engagement. On December 4th, the Company presented the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the production stage of the Arizaro project, to the enforcement authority of the Ministry of Mining and Energy of the Province of Salta.

The comprehensive study, prepared by Lithium Chile in collaboration with renowned environmental legal consultancy EC& Asociados SRL, reflects the Company's dedication to responsible environmental practices and sustainable project development. Notably, members of the Tolar Grandes community actively participated in the creation of the Environmental Baseline, with community-appointed monitors contributing their valuable insights.

Embodying the 'Philosophy of Shared Value', Lithium Chile ensured the integration of participating stakeholders throughout the study's elaboration. Periodic meetings facilitated the gathering of opinions and experiences, emphasizing a collective approach to addressing environmental and social aspects of the proposed development.

Central to the EIA's objectives is the assurance of information transparency and citizen participation, especially among communities within the area of direct influence and indirect influence. The study, available to all citizens interested in environmental aspects of mining projects in the region, aligns with Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the fourth principle included therein: Quality Education.

ABOUT LITHIUM CHILE

Lithium Chile is an exploration and lithium resource company with a property portfolio consisting of 111,978 hectares in Chile and 29,245 hectares in Argentina. The Company has filed its NI 43-101 Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment, which can be viewed on the Companys profile at SedarPlus.ca

Lithium Chile also owns 4 properties, totaling 21,329 hectares, that are prospective for gold, silver and copper. Exploration efforts are continuing on Lithium Chiles Carmona gold/silver/copper property which lies in the heart of the Chilean mega porphyry gold/ silver/copper belt.

Lithium Chiles common shares are listed on the TSX-V under the symbol LITH and on the OTC-QB under the symbol LTMCF.

To find out more about Lithium Chile, please contact Steven Cochrane, President and CEO via email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Michelle DeCecco, Vice President and COO, via email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release may contain certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively "forward-looking statements"). Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expected", "anticipated", "aims to", "plans to" or "intends to" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Such forward-looking statements are based on various assumptions and factors that may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to, factors and assumptions with respect to: the general stability of the economic and political environment in which the Company operates and the timely receipt of required regulatory approvals. You are cautioned that the foregoing list of material factors and assumptions is not exhaustive. Although Lithium Chile believes that the assumptions and factors on which such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because Lithium Chile can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct or that any of the events anticipated by such forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do, what benefits Lithium Chile will derive therefrom. Lithium Chile does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
Highlights

Company has received final assays from Phase II of its two-phase 2023 soil-sampling program

Phase II Program extends two multi-element (Cu-Ag-Au-Te) anomalies with coincident chargeability highs identified along Trojan-Condor Corridor in Phase I (Figure 1)

Multi-element ore and pathfinder element soil geochemical anomalies at 10 additional target areas, including strong porphyry-style Cu-Mo-Au anomalies at Lamont Ridge and Coalmont Road targets

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- COLLECTIVE METALS INC. (CSE: COMT | OTC: CLLMF | FSE: TO1) (the Company or Collective) is pleased to announce it has received final assay results for soil samples collected from Phase II of the Companys two-phase soil geochemical survey (the Program) completed in the summer of 2023 on the Princeton Project (the Project). The Program was designed to follow up on two multi-element soil geochemical anomalies identified along the Trojan-Condor Corridor in Phase I of the Program (please see News Release dated September 21, 2023) as well as systematically test several additional targets with favourable geology, geophysical signatures, and/or historic geochemistry. The Program extended two previously identified anomalies (PA1 and PA2; please see News Release dated September 21, 2023) and outlined several additional anomalies at outboard target areas. The Company believes the Lamont Ridge, Coalmont Road, Findlay, Fourteen Mile, and Trojan-Condor target areas hold potential to host multiple porphyry copper  gold mineralization and plans to pursue more advanced exploration in 2024.

Chris Huggins, Chief Executive Officer of Collective, commented, The results of the 2023 soil program are very encouraging. In addition to further validating previously identified geophysical targets along the Trojan-Condor Corridor, weve defined robust geochemical anomalies at several other targets, most notably porphyry copper targets at Lamont Ridge and Coalmont Road. We plan to continue this strategy of systematically advancing exploration on multiple targets throughout the Property, which hosts several Triassic intrusions analogous to those associated with mineralization at Copper Mountain.

Figure 1 - Princeton Property Copper Soil Samples

The Trojan-Condor Corridor trends along the northwest edge of a large aeromagnetic anomaly similar to that which hosts copper-gold porphyry deposits currently being mined at the Copper Mountain Mine approximately 10 km to the northeast (Figure 2)3. A 2011 ground-based Induced Polarization (IP) survey defined a large (approximately 1.5 x 3.3 km), strong (>20 mV/V) chargeability anomaly along the corridor.

The IP anomaly is strongest (>30 mV/V) over a broad area (approximately 800 x 1000 m) in the northeast portion of the Trojan-Condor Corridor, termed the Condor target (please see News Release dated August 10, 2023). Phase I of the Program identified a modest copper-silver-gold-tellurium soil geochemical anomaly along a single NE-trending line of predominantly B-horizon soil samples over the Condor target. Phase II soil samples on adjacent lines were predominantly Ah-horizon soils and did not yield elevated copper but did yield anomalous lead, barium, gold, silver, zinc, tungsten, tellurium, and elevated molybdenum and selenium (Table 1).

Slightly southwest of the Trojan Minfile showing, where rock samples have yielded up to 0.53% Cu (please see News Release dated October 24, 2023), a second multi-element copper-in-soil anomaly was identified in Ah soils at the southwest extent of the survey grid in Phase I. Phase II B-horizon soil samples extended this anomaly along three lines to the southwest, for a total area of approximately 400 x 1000 m with weak to strongly anomalous copper (up to 724 ppm) and associated gold, silver, molybdenum, lead, zinc, and tellurium.

Copper-gold-molybdenum soil geochemical anomalies were also identified at the Coalmont Road and Lamont Ridge and adjacent targets (Goat, Findlay; Table 1; Figure 2). In the Fourteen Mile area, where high-quality sieved sediment samples collected by the previous operator in 2011 yielded highly anomalous copper (up to 504.5 ppm), 2023 B-horizon soils did not yield elevated copper but did return elevated pathfinder elements1 in the soil grids at Fourteen Mile and Fifteen Mile targets (Table 1; Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Princeton Project Soil Anomalies

Three targets in the northern part of the property (Max, China Ridge, Mt. Pike) yielded multi-element geochemical anomalies more consistent with sulphide-hosted base-metal mineralization (lead, zinc, sulphur and barium). Soil results on these targets will be discussed in greater detail in the coming weeks, in conjunction with geophysical and geological interpretation.

Table 1. Elevated ore and pathfinder element geochemical anomalies in 2023 soil samples* *Anomalies were identified from a 50-m grid created by averaging analytical results for the three (3) closest sample values for each element.

Bedrock outcrop is sparse throughout most of the Project due to varying thickness of glacial overburden and outwash deposits. The soil geochemical response is expected to vary with overburden thickness, soil horizon sampled, and development or disruption of the soil profile.2 The resultant uncertainties in provenance and relative magnitude of identified anomalies must be considered in interpretation of soil geochemical data. While Phase I samples were predominantly Ah-horizon soil, Phase II samples were predominantly B-horizon soil. Previous sampling on the property was largely high-quality sieved sediment sampling from roadside and stream exposures. All (2011 and 2023) soil samples were analysed using an aqua regia digestion and ultra-trace ICP-MS analysis.

Heberlein (2010) found that Ah-horizon soil samples (base of organic layer) produced the most robust response for ore and pathfinder elements (Cu, Au, Ag, W, As, Sb, Ca) at Kwanika, where B-horizon soil samples are deemed ineffective due to tens of metres of glacial overburden. However, at Mt. Milligan, significant surface disturbance from logging and drilling activities have affected the soil profile and resulted in an almost complete loss of a geochemical anomaly from underlying mineralization, which is covered by 5-25 m of glaciofluvial sediments and till. Peak geochemical anomalies occur over thinnest cover and not necessarily strongest mineralization in both cases, demonstrating how the magnitude of soil geochemical anomalies is dependent on thickness of overburden.

The Company plans to continue evaluating targets on the Project in the coming months with re-processed geophysical data in conjunction with all available geochemical and geological data, in preparation for its 2024 Exploration Program. Results of this integration will be released in the coming months.

Qualified Person

This news release has been reviewed and approved by Rick Walker, P. Geo., who is acting as the Companys Qualified Person for the Project, in accordance with regulations under NI 43-101.

The information disclosed is not necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Project.

References

1  Footprints: Hydrothermal Alteration and Geochemical Dispersion Around Porphyry Copper Deposits, Scott Halley, John Dilles, Richard Tosdal, SEG Discovery No. 100, January 2015.

2 - An Assessment of Soil Geochemical Methods for Detecting Copper-Gold Porphyry Mineralization through Quaternary Glaciofluvial Sediments at the WBX-MBX and 66 Zones, Mt. Milligan, North-Central British Columbia, D.R. Heberlein, Geoscience BC Report 2010-08, 75 p.

3  Copper Mountain Mine Life of Mine Plan and 65Kt/D Expansion Study Update NI 43-101 Report, Richard Klue, VP Technical Services, CMMC; Patrick Redmond, VP Exploration and Geoscience, CMMC; Luis Alberto Chang, VP Mining, CMMC; Berge Simonian, Director of Metallurgy, CMMC; Amaru Humala, Director of Mechanical Engineering, CMMC Scott Weston, VP Business Development and Strategy, Ausenco; August 1, 2022.

About Collective Metals:

Collective Metals Inc. (CSE: COMT | OTC: CLLMF | FSE: TO1) is a resource exploration company specializing in precious metals exploration in North America. The Companys flagship property is the Princeton Project, located in south-central British Columbia, Canada, approximately 10 km west of the currently producing Copper Mountain Mine. The Princeton Project consists of 29 mineral tenures totaling approximately 28,560 ha (70,570 acres) in a well-documented and prolific copper-gold porphyry belt and is easily accessible by road, located immediately west of Highway 3.

The Companys Landings Lake Lithium Project is located in northwestern Ontario where numerous lithium deposits have been delineated to host significant reserves of Li 2 O. The Landings Lake Lithium Project is located 53 km east of Ear Falls, Ontario and covers 3,146 hectares. The Whitemud Project, with several identified pegmatite outcrops, neighbours the Landings Lake Project and consists of 381 single cell mining claims totaling 7,775 hectares.

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ON BEHALF OF COLLECTIVE METALS INC.

Christopher Huggins

Chief Executive Officer

T: 604-968-4844

E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Forward Looking Information

Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking statements, including with respect to future plans, and other matters. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including but not limited to, business, economic and capital market conditions, the ability to manage operating expenses, and dependence on key personnel. Forward looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements respecting: results of the Program; further exploration work on the Property in the future. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, anticipated costs, and the ability to achieve goals. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, the continued availability of capital and financing, litigation, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations, loss of key employees and consultants, and general economic, market or business conditions. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prosper Gold Corp. ("Prosper Gold" or the "Company") (TSXV:PGX) is pleased to announce that diamond drilling has commenced at the Golden Sidewalk Project, Red Lake Mining District, Ontario.

Up to 2,500 metres will be drilled at several previously untested targets within the greater Skinner Target Area (see the Company's Dec. 12, 2023 news release for details). The costs of the upcoming drill program will be offset by funding support from the Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP), which will cover up to 50% of eligible exploration costs to a maximum of $200,000 in respect of expenditures incurred by the Company.

Skinner

The Skinner Target Area is a 2.5 by 1.5 kilometre area of coincident high IP chargeability and resistivity under glaciofluvial cover with numerous WNW-trending shear zones with anomalous down-ice gold grain-in-till samples. Preliminary drilling in this area in November of 2022 intersected broad shear zones exhibiting silica-biotite-ankerite alteration and abundant sulphide mineralization which was locally gold-bearing (see the Company's Jan. 9, 2023 news release for details).

Despite glaciofluvial cover in this area till sampling in 2021 by the Company achieved results up to 1,014 gold grains (97% pristine) in sample GST-21-223 and 735 gold grains (95% pristine) in sample GST-21-317 (see the Companys May 17, 2022 news release for details). Based on geological observations from the field and from the 2022 drilling, the Company believes the area has high-potential for higher-grade gold mineralization, particularly proximal to the contact between Narrow Lake Assemblage volcanics and the Trout Lake Batholith several hundred metres to the west of the 2022 drilling where hornfelsed volcanics are more conducive to brittle fracture. The Company will drill several discrete targets associated with favourable geophysical signatures, highly anomalous till samples and/or historically defined mineralized shear zones.

About the Golden Sidewalk

The Golden Sidewalk is a 100% owned, district-scale gold exploration project covering over 160 square kilometres of contiguous mineral claims and mining leases in the western Birch-Uchi Greenstone Belt, approximately 60 km east of Red Lake, Ontario and 60 km northeast of Kinross Golds Dixie Project, acquired from Great Bear Resources in 2022. The vehicle-accessible project straddles 12 kilometres of the Balmer Assemblage  Narrow Lake Assemblage unconformity, a regional-scale feature that has been the Red Lake exploration guide, but which has seen limited exploration in the project area. The Golden Corridor lies immediately north of the unconformity and is characterized as a highly prospective trend of coincident favourable magnetic and resistivity lineaments supported by highly anomalous gold-in-till samples covering 7.0 by 0.5 kilometres. An additional highly prospective target area was defined in 2021, termed the Skinner North Target Area, where 2022 channel sampling results include 9.69 gpt gold over 3.0 metres and 13.13 gpt gold over 1.8 metres and till samples containing up to 1,014 gold grains, was drilled for the first time in November of 2022. Historical drilling by previous operators at the Bathurst Mine, Joe Vein, KT vein, Dunkin and Vihonen prospects reported high-grade gold intercepts which have yet to be followed up by Prosper Gold.

QA/QC Procedures

Quality assurance and quality control measures implemented by the Company include the insertion of certified reference materials in the sample sequence at a rate of 1 in 20 for both blank material and certified reference standards. Analytical results for reference standard and blank samples are scrutinized internally to ensure adequate analytical precision and accuracy in both sample preparation and instrumental procedures. A chain of custody from drilling to laboratory is strictly monitored to ensure sample and analytical integrity and reliability. Half-split core samples are sent to AGAT Laboratories in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where they are analyzed in 50-gram aliquots using Fire-Assay with ICP-OES finish. Any overlimit analyses (>10 g/t Au) are re-analyzed with a pulp metallic screen method designed to give the most accurate representation of gold concentration in each sample. AGAT Laboratories in Thunder Bay, ON, is an accredited testing laboratory having been assessed by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) and found to conform with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed by Rory Ritchie, P.Geo., Vice-President of Exploration for Prosper Gold and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

For an overview of Prosper Gold please visit www.ProsperGoldCorp.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Per: Peter Bernier

Peter Bernier

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Peter Bernier

President & CEO

Prosper Gold Corp.

Cell: (250) 316-6644

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements about the planned exploration of the Golden Sidewalk project, are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mineral exploration; fluctuations in commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume and the additional risks identified the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

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.
A Chinese tourist is welcomed by Thai traditional puppets during a welcome ceremony of the first batch of Chinese tourists under a five-month visa-free entry scheme at Bangkok's International Airport, Thailand, Sept. 25, 2023. Photo by Reuters

Thailand wants to welcome at least eight million Chinese tourists this year, double last year's figure, after both countries agreed to waive visas for each other's citizens beginning in March.

The visa exemption is resulting in an increased number of commercial flights between the two countries, which has helped push down ticket prices and boost Chinese arrivals in Thailand, said Chai Wacharonke, a government spokesperson, as quoted by the Bangkok Post.

Thailand expected to welcome five million Chinese arrivals last year but fell short of its target with only 3.51 million out of a total of 28 million arrivals.

A mall shooting last September in Bangkok that killed two foreigners, including a Chinese national, affected Chinese tourist confidence. A series of Chinese carriers canceled flights to Thailand for December and January due to low demand.

Before the pandemic, Chinese tourists were the biggest market for both Thailand and Vietnam.

In 2019, over 11 million Chinese tourists visited Thailand, accounting for more than a quarter of its total foreign arrivals while Vietnam received 5.5 million Chinese tourists that year.

But the number of Chinese visitors dropped to 1.74 million last year as South Korea emerged as Vietnams largest source of tourist with 3.6 million.
Bangladesh police on Saturday arrested seven opposition party members blamed for an alleged pre-election arson attack on a packed commuter train that killed four people and injured another eight.

Friday night's blaze engulfed the intercity Benapole Express in central Dhaka, with hundreds scrambling to pull passengers from burning carriages.

It was the latest in a series of fires to hit railway services since late last year, blamed by police on "deadly acts of sabotage" by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) ahead of Sunday's national election.

Police said Nabiullah Nabi, a senior BNP official in Dhaka, and six other party activists were arrested in the capital early Saturday.

"Nabi funded and masterminded the attack," Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP by phone.

The BNP and dozens of other opposition parties are boycotting Sunday's vote, which they say is a "sham" designed to entrench the rule of longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The party has vehemently rejected allegations of responsibility for the fires and demanded an international probe into the incidents.

"These are pre-planned acts of sabotage by government functionaries aimed at discrediting the non-violent movement of the BNP," party spokesman A.K.M Wahiduzzaman told AFP.

"Tarique Rahman, our party chief, had expressed his fear that government was hatching these conspiracy to divert people's attention away from the sham election."

Police had earlier lowered the fire's death toll from five to four.

Samanta Lal Sen, a senior official of the Dhaka hospital treating victims of the blaze, said eight people had been critically injured.

Bangladesh foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen described the latest train fire as "an unforgivable crime against humanity".

"The timing of this tragedy... shows an absolute intention to hinder the festivity, safety and security of the democratic processes," he said.

- 'Unprecedented' -

Quamrul Ahsan, chief of the country's state-run railway authority told AFP that 32 passenger trains had been suspended over the weekend to "provide more safety to other passengers".

Ahsan said there had been at least four arson attacks targeting the trains ahead of the election.

"These incidents are unprecedented," he said, adding that authorities had boosted security in some of the inter-city trains.

Hasina, 76, is assured of a fifth consecutive term in Sunday's vote, which observers have criticised as one-sided.

Opposition parties held a series of protests last year demanding Hasina's resignation in favour of a neutral caretaker government to oversee the election and ensure its integrity.

Violence in the run-up to Sunday's vote has killed at least 15 people, and the BNP has called a general strike over the weekend to protest the poll.
Israel bombed southern Gaza Saturday as the UN warned the besieged Palestinian territory has been rendered "uninhabitable" by three months of war.

The fighting, triggered by the October 7 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas militants, has sent tensions soaring across the region, and shows no signs of abating with the conflict entering its fourth month on Sunday.

Civilians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip have borne the brunt of the violence amid widespread displacement, destruction and a deepening humanitarian crisis.

With swathes of the territory already reduced to rubble, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Friday that "Gaza has simply become uninhabitable".

AFP correspondents reported Israeli strikes early Saturday on the southern city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter from the fighting.

On Israel's northern border, Lebanon's Hezbollah group said it launched on Saturday its "initial response" to the killing of Hamas's deputy chief in Beirut, which a US defence official has told AFP was carried out by Israel.

The Iran-backed group said it had targeted the Israeli military's Meron air control base with 62 missiles, while the Israeli army reported "approximately 40 launches from Lebanon" early Saturday, with sirens blaring in the Galilee region.

Contacted by AFP, a military spokesperson confirmed the mountaintop base had been targeted but did not say whether it was damaged. No casualties were reported in Israel.

The Hamas-allied Lebanese movement has been trading near-daily fire with Israeli forces since early October and said the barrage was a response to Tuesday's killing of Saleh al-Aruri in a strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

The army said it had struck Hezbollah "military sites" in response.

Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Friday that Israeli forces were maintaining a "very high state of readiness" along the border with Lebanon following Aruri's killing, which Israel has not claimed.

In Gaza, Hagari said, the army continues "to fight ... in the north, centre and south".

Palestinian man Abu Mohammed, 60, who fled to Rafah from the central Bureij refugee camp, told AFP that as the war nears its fourth month, Gaza's future appeared "dark and gloomy and very difficult".

- 'More than 20' deaths in family -

The war began with Hamas's unprecedented attack which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The militants also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel, including at least 24 believed to have been killed.

In response, Israel has launched a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that have killed at least 22,722 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said it had recorded more than 120 deaths over the past 24 hours.

Victims of renewed Israeli bombardment were brought Saturday to the European hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, where relatives and mourners gathered.

One of them, Mohamed Awad, wept over the body of a 12-year-old boy.

He counted the deaths in his family. "My brother, his wife, his children, his relatives and the brothers of his wife -- there are more than 20 martyrs," Awad, a journalist, told AFP.

Another Palestinian journalist, Akram El-Shafei, has died at the hospital from wounds sustained in Gaza City in November, making him "the 117th journalist... killed by the Israeli occupation during this crazy war", according to Asser Yassin of the Palestinian Media Forum.

Yassin said Israel "directly targets journalist" but that it "only increases our determination to... convey the suffering and pain" to the world.

Israeli officials have rejected allegations that the army deliberately targets members of the press.

Shafei's condition had initially improved, said relative Magda El-Shafei, but he "needed treatment" and there was "nothing" available.

"He's gone," she told AFP.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the majority of the Palestinian territory's 36 hospitals have been put out of action by the fighting, while remaining medical facilities face dire shortages.

A UN team on Friday delivered medical supplies to Gaza authorities in Khan Yunis, and WHO coordinator Sean Casey said it was "the first time we've been able to make this delivery in about 10 days."

The Israeli military on Saturday said its ground and air forces had "killed numerous terrorists ... and destroyed a number of tunnel shafts" in Khan Yunis over the past 24 hours.

Israel says Hamas militants hide in a vast underground network as well as among civilians in schools and hospitals.

Hamas -- listed as a "terrorist" group by the United States and the European Union -- denies charges of using hospitals as shelters for its fighters.

The army said that during "a targeted raid" in Gaza City, now a largely devastated urban combat zone, troops had found military vests "concealed... in a medical clinic".

- Diplomatic push -

Top Western diplomats were in the region as part of a fresh push to raise the flow of aid into Gaza and calm rising tensions.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Turkey on Saturday at the start of his fourth regional tour since the war began.

He will also visit several Arab states before heading to Israel and the occupied West Bank next week, and plans to discuss with Israeli leaders "immediate measures" on aid, according to a State Department spokesman.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh called on Blinken to focus his visit on "ending the aggression" and said US support for Israel has enabled "unprecedented massacres and war crimes against our people in Gaza."

Haniyeh, based in Qatar, added in a video message shared by his office that "the future and stability of our region are closely linked to our Palestinian cause."

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was also due in the region on Sunday, and the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell was meeting Lebanese leaders on Saturday in Beirut.

burs-ami/it
Former Gambian interior minister Ousman Sonko faced trial in Switzerland on Monday, accused of crimes against humanity committed under the regime of ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh.

Sonko, who denies the charges, appeared at the Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland, in the southern city of Bellinzona.

The former minister, who turns 55 on Tuesday, is not expected to address the court during Monday's opening hearings.

The proceedings are likely to last a month and the verdict is not expected before March. If convicted, Sonko could face life imprisonment.

The trial is taking place under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a foreign country to prosecute alleged crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide regardless of where they were committed.

Jammeh ruled The Gambia with an iron grip from 1994 to 2016.

He fled to Equatorial Guinea in January 2017 after losing a presidential election to the relatively unknown Adama Barrow.

Sonko was the small West African nation's interior minister from 2006 to 2016.

- Seeing Sonko 'face to face' -

There are 10 complainants in the case, according to Trial International, including eight "direct victims".

The complainant parties arrived together at the court, brandishing signs reading: "Bring Jammeh and his accomplices to justice."

Plaintiff Ramzia Diab told AFP outside court: "It's an important day for us. We feel that finally we (can search) for justice."

She had initially been afraid to see Sonko in the courtroom, saying he was "a very dangerous human being, in my opinion". "But now, I think I have the zeal and the energy to see him, face to face," she said.

Sonko has been in custody since his arrest in Switzerland in January 2017 after applying for asylum following his sacking.

He was detained after a complaint by Geneva-based NGO Trial International.

He was accompanied in court by his lawyer, Philippe Currat. His daughter, Olimatou Sonko, is also on his legal team.

Following a criminal investigation lasting more than six years, the Swiss attorney general's office filed an indictment against Sonko in April 2023.

He is accused of "having supported, participated in and failed to prevent systematic and generalised attacks as part of the repression carried out by the Gambian security forces against all opponents of the regime".

The charges span a 16-year period and include nine counts of crimes against humanity.

He is accused of having "deliberately killed, tortured, raped and unlawfully deprived individuals of their liberty in a serious manner".

- Legal landmark -

Trial International says Sonko is the highest-ranking state official ever to be tried in Europe for international crimes under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

The NGO's co-founder and executive director, Philip Grant, said he was pleased that some of the plaintiffs were able to appear in court in person to explain their suffering.

"Today we are going to focus on the essentials -- the opening of the trial and the fact that the justice process can finally start for the whole of The Gambia," he told AFP.

Sonko is accused of committing the alleged crimes in his roles first within the army, then as inspector general of the police and finally as a government minister.

His lawyer says responsibility for the events on the charge sheet lies with the national intelligence agency and not his client.

"This agency has never been under the authority or control, in fact or law, of Ousman Sonko," Currat told AFP.

In 2011, Switzerland recognised the right to judge the most serious crimes alleged to have taken place abroad -- providing the suspect is on Swiss soil.

Sonko's lawyer argued on Monday that under the principle of non-retroactivity, he should not be tried for any alleged acts before this date.

"(Sonko) requests you to decide to abandon the proceedings in respect of the acts described in the indictment which are alleged to have taken place before January 1, 2011", Currat said.
It is presented by victims associations as a historic trial for both the Gambia and Switzerland. After a long seven years in pre-trial detention, Ousman Sonko will face charges in court for responsibility in extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and rape under former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, and failure to prevent them.

Sonko was finally indicted in April this year. This is only the second ever international crimes trial in a Swiss civil court after that of Liberian Alieu Kosiah. Like the latter, Sonkos trial will be held in the Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona, southeast Switzerland.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide the media with a detailed schedule of the proceedings, the court secretariat told Justice Info. However, it seems that only 11 victims are due to testify, according to Sonkos lawyer Philippe Currat. The accused will plead not-guilty, and also hopes to get some of the charges dropped, Currat says.

Highest-ranking state official tried in Europe

The trial of one of the senior officials of the Jammeh regime could send a strong signal and give new impetus to the search for truth and justice, for which many Gambians have worked, according to Swiss NGO TRIAL International, which brought the original legal complaint that started this case. Sonko, it says, will be the highest-ranking state official ever to be tried in Europe for international crimes under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Germany and the US have also launched criminal proceedings under universal jurisdiction linked to Yahya Jammeh-era atrocities in the Gambia. Gambias national truth commission, which published its report in December 2021, recommended prosecutions, among other things. But the Gambia has only conducted two related trials so far, with convictions for murder (not international crimes). Former dictator Jammeh himself remains in exile in Equatorial Guinea, where he fled after he was ousted from power in 2017.

Accessibility for Gambians?

In the run-up to the trial, the Swiss public prosecutor wrote to the court on November 17 requesting that it put in place measures to make the hearings accessible to a wider public, particularly in the Gambia. It does not specify the measures. This request is supported by defence lawyer Currat, who stressed that while interest amongst the Swiss public is likely to be only moderate, the trial is of great interest to people in Gambia and it needs to be transparent so that they can understand the proceedings and outcome. Currat said he would like to see the public hearings translated into English and made available online.

The Office of the Attorney Generals letter to the court notes the special character of international criminal proceedings and the associated obligation to the international community. It also cites a precedent from universal jurisdiction trials in Germany. In particular, we would like to draw attention to the important findings from last year's trials in Germany (the so-called Koblenz / Al-Khatib trials), the prosecutor writes. In connection with the participation of the Syrian population in the trial, the Federal Constitutional Court instructed the Koblenz Higher Regional Court in response to a constitutional complaint that it must allow accredited media representatives to follow the proceedings in Arabic.

Asked about this, the Swiss courts secretariat told Justice Info that Switzerland does not have a legal basis allowing for court TV. It said the hearings would be in German, and that only questions to the defendant and victims would be translated  into English. But it also said the course of the main hearing is going to be published on short notice in English on the court website (www.bstger.ch > General announcements), and confirmed that Gambian journalists could be accredited. There is information on the website about accreditation.

Validity of charges contested

Sonko is scheduled to speak on the morning of the first day, according to his lawyer, and the first victim (Binta Jamba, who says she was raped by Sonko) to testify on the second day. But the opening of the trial could be slower. After the initial formalities, the court is expected to ask if the parties wish to raise prejudicial issues. Currat says he plans to raise several.

Among these issues are the validity of the second indictment [it was amended in June at the request of the judges who wanted some of the alleged facts fleshed out]; the testimonies of Gambian witnesses to the investigation in Gambia, for which he says the defence has not obtained any documents; and the applicability of Swiss universal jurisdiction before 2011.

Switzerland only incorporated the possibility to judge international crimes into its Criminal Code in 2011, whereas some of the alleged crimes in this case date further back. If the court were to decide that the law does not apply before 2011, some of the charges would fall.

The charges against Sonko are extremely grave. A particular feature of this case, says the prosecutor, is that the defendant's criminal liability () does not result solely from direct involvement in the alleged offences, but also from the responsibilities that he had in his capacity as the interior minister, as he was directly in charge of the police and of the prison service. The accused allegedly committed the crimes both alone and with a collective of perpetrators consisting of Jammeh and leading members of the security forces and prison services of Gambia. The prosecutor says it was part of a generalized and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gambia, i.e. a crime against humanity.

Currat plans to contest Sonkos command responsibility in some of the events, and present an alibi for some, as well as arguing that Swiss law does not apply before 2011.

Seven years in remand

Sonko, who turns 55 on January 9 (the second day of his trial), will also have been in Swiss remand custody for seven years on January 25. Currat has protested the disproportional length of this pre-trial custody and also his clients conditions of detention, which the lawyer says have affected both Sonkos physical and mental health. Sonko is diabetic. He thinks Swiss rules on remand  which tends to be longer than in other European countries  should be reformed.

Swiss justice has been notoriously slow so far on international justice cases, with Liberian Kosiah having spent six years in pre-trial detention before he finally went to trial. However, current Swiss Attorney General Stefan Blattler, who assumed the post at the beginning of 2022, has vowed to make international crimes a priority.

Sonko was first held in a prison in the Swiss town of Bienne, then in Burgdorf, then in Thun. His lawyer says that Thun is not problematic, but in Bienne he was held in solitary confinement without much light, and in Burgdorf there were serious problems, particularly with access to food, owing to apparent lack of prison staff. Currat says one of Sonkos eyes has been affected and he also went through serious depression.

But, asked if Sonko is fit to stand trial, his lawyer says yes.
Pope Francis on Monday condemned "war crimes" perpetrated against civilians in conflicts such as in Gaza and Ukraine, and said those killed should not be considered "collateral damage".

"The distinction between military and civil objectives is no longer respected," the 87-year-old pontiff said in his New Year's address to diplomats at the Vatican.

"There is no conflict that does not end up in some way indiscriminately striking the civilian population. The events in Ukraine and Gaza are clear proof of this," he added.

"We must not forget that grave violations of international humanitarian law are war crimes", he continued, in a speech dominated by calls for an end to conflicts around the world.

Francis said people "need to realise more clearly that civilian victims are not 'collateral damage' but men and woman, with names and surnames, who lose their lives."

"Were we to be able to look each of them in the eye, call them by name, and learn something of their personal history, we would see war for what it is -- nothing other than an immense tragedy," he said.

Francis once again condemned the October 7 attack by Hamas militants, which resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The Palestinian group, considered a "terrorist" organisation by the United States and European Union, also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain captive, Israel says. At least 24 are believed to have been killed.

- 'Inconceivable suffering' -

"I renew my condemnation of this act and of every instance of terrorism and extremism," the pope said.

Israel has responded since October 7 with relentless bombardment of Gaza and a ground invasion that have killed at least 22,835 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

The pontiff said Israel's "strong" military response "has caused an exceptionally grave humanitarian crisis and inconceivable suffering".

"To all the parties involved, I renew my appeal for a ceasefire on every front... and the immediate liberation of all the hostages held in Gaza," Francis said.

"I ask that the Palestinian people receive humanitarian aid, and that hospitals, schools and places of worship receive all necessary protection," he added.

Most of Gaza's population has been displaced, according to the United Nations, leaving them in overcrowded shelters or tents in the winter cold.

The World Health Organization has warned of the risk of famine and disease, with people struggling to find food, safe water, fuel and medicine.

On Sunday, the UN reported "sickening scenes" at Al-Aqsa hospital, one of the only ones in Gaza that is still partly functioning, with "people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors".
After their heart-fluttering moments together, the inevitable comes Lee Se Young and Bae In Hyuk's way.

In "The Story of Park's Marriage Contract" episode 11, Lee Se Young makes a bold decision. Read to know more.

Kang Tae Ha Breaks Up With Park Yeon Woo

In episode 11, Kang Tae Ha's grandfather Kang Sang Mo (Cheon Ho Jin) is sabotaged by Hwang Myung Soo (Lee Jun Hyuk).

Despite what he has done to the two of them, Kang Tae Ha and Park Yeon Woo (Lee Se Young) decide to save the chairman.

Because of the complexities of their relationship, Kang Tae Ha decides to break up with Park Yeon Woo and finally start anew with their own lives.

Min Hye Suk Steps Down

Park Yeon Woo meets with Lee Mi Dam (Kim Yeo Jin) and returns her book. She also cries in front of her as she tells her plans of going back to Joseon to save Kang Tae Ha's life.

Meanwhile, Min Hye Suk (Jin Kyung) takes over the chairman position at the SH Group due to Kang Sang Mo's absence.

READ MORE: 'The Story of Park's Marriage Contract' Episode 10: Will Bae In Hyuk Face His Demise?

To their surprise, she steps down and recommends Kang Tae Ha as the CEO which leaves everyone speechless. The two apologize to one another and resolve their misunderstanding.

MIn Hye Suk only asks Kang Tae Ha to take care of her son and his stepbrother Kang Tae Min (Yoo Seon Ho).

Park Yeon Woo Cherishes Time With Kang Tae Ha

When Park Yeon Woo reveals her plans of going back to Joseon, Kang Tae Ha couldn't hide his desperation, saying that he'd choose to die rather than live without the former.

Although he's avoiding Park Yeon Woo, her sudden confession shakes him up. Sadly, the former's decision has already been made up.

Kang Tae Ha gives his watch to Park Yeon Woo, accepting his fate. On the other hand, he heads to Busan where he grew up, showing the beauty of the place to create more memories.

Will Kang Tae Ha Face His Demise?

After spending a happy time together, Park Yeon Woo kisses Kang Tae Ha and confesses that she loves her, breaking the viewers' hearts.

ALSO READ: Lee Se Young & Bae In Hyuk Dating IRL? Here's What Agency Said

The last pear petal drops, sending Park Yeon Woo to the Joseon dynasty to prevent the death of Kang Tae Ha in the past. However, everything is meaningless when the latter collapses.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Park Bo Young returns as a part-timer in Cha Tae Hyun and Jo In Sung's reality show "Unexpected Business" season 3.

Joining the show's star-studded guest, the South Korean beauty once again showed off her unique charms working at the supermarket, but this time meeting new people in a foreign country.

As the tvN reality show aired its 12th episode, viewers got to see Park Bo Young's comeback as fellow part-timer Kim Ah Joong completed her part-time missions.

Park Bo Young Worried After Returning in 'Unexpected Business' Season 3

Considered one of the experienced part-timers, the bosses, Cha Tae Hyun and Jo In Sung, welcomed the actress along with other employees on her first day of work.

One of her tasks that day was manning the kimbap station, which also included checking the kitchen and counter.

However, the "Strong Woman Do Bong Soon," who wanted to deliver flawless work, encountered a major challenge. Since her role required interacting with customers, Park Bo Young had a hard time conversing in English.

Due to this, she couldn't help but worry and started to feel emotional as she said, "I want to cry."

Cha Tae Hyun then made sure that everything was under control by saying, "Don't worry about English today," to their newest part-timer.

READ MORE: Park Bo Young Reveals Regret During 'Strong Girl Namsoon' Cameo

After the setback, Park Bo Young was spotted happily mingling and interacting with the customers, especially a baby customer, which showed that she was slowly adapting to her new mission.

As mentioned, the actress first appeared as a guest in "Unexpected Business" Season 1, which aired in 2021 for the show's episodes 2 and 3.

Park Bo Young Stars in Multiple Dramas This 2024

Meanwhile, other than the tvN reality program, Park Bo Young is set to appear in more upcoming projects in 2024.

Concluding 2023 with back-to-back projects, from the K-drama "Daily Dose of Sunshine" to a cameo in the spin-off "Strong Girl Kang Namsoon," she also headlined the hit movie "Concrete Utopia," alongside Lee Byung Hun and Park Seo Joon.

This 2024, the 33-year-old beauty is set to have two new series.

Park Bo Young is in talks to headline the webtoon-based K-drama "Shop of the Lamp," originally written by Kang Full, who is also the genius behind the hit drama "Moving."

She will join as one of the lead stars, alongside Ju Ji Hoon, Kim Seol Hyun, and Bae Sung Woo.

While the exclusive report stated that Park Bo Young is considering the offer "positively," the upcoming drama depicts the story of a mysterious lamp shop where humans interact with the dead.

In addition to her forthcoming projects, the actress teams up with Choi Woo Shik in "Melo Movie," a rom-com series penned by Lee Na Eun of "Our Beloved Summer."

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Park Bo Young Reveals Working as Part-Timer During Chuseok Holiday: 'It was difficult'

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Geca Wills
Im Siwan dished on his thoughts about the K-drama "Boyhood" and the possibilities of having a sequel. The lead actor also mentioned the controversy regarding his pronunciation, which sparked concern among the viewers.

Released in November 2023, the comedy-action series depicts the story of a loner high school student named Byung Tae, played by Im Siwan, who transferred from a different school. His only goal throughout high school is not to get bullied.

Byung Tae's fate changed after he became the most powerful kid in school because of one incident.

Joining Im Siwan as lead stars are Lee Si Woo, Kang Hye Won, and Lee Sun Bin, helmed by Lee Myung Woo of hit K-dramas "The Fiery Priest" and "Backstreet Rookie."

As the comedy-action show wrapped up the first season, Im Siwan talked about his desire to return for Season 2.

Im Siwan on His 'Boyhood' Character

During his interview with JTBC's Newsroom, the actor talked about his experience filming the series.

While doing comedy is quite new to him, Im Siwan said that he received a positive response for his performance in "Boyhood."

"Because I am a person who is a bit far from the usual fun and laughter... That is very encouraging and welcome to me," he said, as obtained by a news outlet.

READ MORE: Im Siwan Lauded By Fans For 'Boyhood' Performance- Actor's Versatility Highlighted

Im Siwan also discussed his affection for the character Byeong Tae.

Depicted as the "Onyang loser" for his fragile body and nerdy looks, he made attempts to crack the code on how not to get bullied by his peers but was able to escape this after he was mistaken to be someone who is well known for his combat skills.

In the same interview, Im Siwan revealed the preparations he made for the role, especially with his dialect.

According to him, he included having a Chungcheong Province dialect to "effectively touch" the emotions contained in his character.

However, in the series, an incident sparked controversy after viewers showed concern about the way he pronounced his lines and were referring to the metaphors and ad libs he used.

"As I delved into it, metaphor turned out to be a significant part. I wanted to incorporate this metaphor as much as possible into the drama. Most of the ad-libs I thought of were almost all metaphorical."

Im Siwan on 'Boyhood' Season 2

"Boyhood" is definitely one of the 2023 K-dramas that garnered major praise from viewers.

Other than the story, the public also lauded Im Siwan's versatility in comedy.

According to the actor, he is also looking forward to having "Boyhood" Season 2 in the future. However, the lead star teased the director that he should release it soon.

"Director, if you delay too much, it won't be 'Girls' Generation' but 'Boy Generation.' If you wait until 'Old Age Generation,' that would be fine," he said as he delivered a special message to the director.

After "Boyhood," Im Siwan is set to return to the small screen as he joins the cast of "Squid Game" Season 2.

While viewers await the highly-anticipated season, drama officials are tight-lipped about the actor's role.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Im Siwan Proves Growing Popularity by Topping December Actor Brand Reputation Rankings

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills


These days, K-pop stars are more than just music artists. Because of their impact and global audience, they've turned into high fashion brand ambassadors. K-pop boy group Stray Kids, for instance, has several members on their path to becoming fashion icons. After all, the style evolution of Stray Kids is remarkable. They went from sporting casual, boyish clothing consisting of ripped jeans and sweaters to wearing more elegant pieces, like button-down shirts and dress shirts, as they matured.

This is why it's no question that Hyunjin, the group's main dancer, is on his path to becoming the newest face of fashion. His style consists of straight-leg jeans, long cardigans, and oversized tees, showing his height and build. So, while his fellow members are busy doing their own thingslike main vocalist Seungmin releasing a solo OST for the K-drama Hometown Cha Cha ChaHyunjin is making a name for himself in South Korea's fashion scene. To find out how exactly, keep reading about his journey:

Partnership with Luxury Italian Brand Etro

Etro makes luxury clothing and accessories for men and women. It's mainly known for its paisley patterns, which it introduced in 1981. In 2021, the Stray Kids' Dance Racha unit consisting of Hyunjin, Lee Know, and Felix partnered with Etro for its bold and fashionable Etro Earthbeat sneakers campaign film. These shoes reflected the group's vibrant and boyish vibe, suiting Hyunjin and his fellow members. Moreover, the creative director of Etro clothingMarco De Vincenzospoke of how music is a big part of his design process. He shared how the music he listens to reflects his state of mind when designing new pieces, influencing his choices.

Thus, having Stray Kidsespecially main dancer Hyunjinheadline a campaign film for Etro sneakers gives life to the product. In the video, Hyunjin's cool and smooth moves showcase the sneakers in an energetic way.

Invitation to the Yves Saint Laurent Libre Le Parfum Launch Party

As Hyunjin becomes more popular for his group's music and his style, brands have gained an interest in inviting him to events. In September 2022, he and fellow Stray Kids member Felix attended Yves Saint Laurent's (YSL) Libre Le Parfum launch party in Paris. YSL is a popular luxury brand that makes shoes, bags, and fragrances, and this specific event was created to celebrate the new Libre Le Parfum.

The launch was attended by international stars, toolike Dua Lipawho sang for the YSL Libre film. Sharing the space with Dua Lipaand even getting a picture with hermeans that Hyunjin is well on his way to becoming a fashion icon like his Hollywood counterparts.

Becoming the Face and Global Ambassador of Versace

Hyunjin was named Versace's Global Brand Ambassador in July 2023, making history as the first Korean star to be given the title. The brand noted its attraction to his energy, creativity, confidence, and freedom of expression, prompting them to make him the official face of its Holiday 2023 campaign. Yet Versace did more than just have Hyunjin showcase their latest piecesit also took his input into account to create new sunglasses. Versace sunglasses are known for having classic and bold designs that showcase confidence and glamour. They're also known for taking inspiration from major music icons.

Take Versace's iconic Biggie sunglasses: Inspired by Biggie Smalls and the '90s music scene; they feature black frames and thick arms embedded with the Versace logo. The brand is now doing the same for Hyunjin, adding unique versions of existing models to their offerings. That includes a new twist on the Biggie, which recently got a new colorway with silver accents in line with Hyunjin's preferences.

Given Stray Kids Hyunjin's partnerships with and influence on major fashion brands, there's no doubt he's becoming one of the newest faces in South Korea today. For more on the latest in K-celebrity style, browse our fashion category here at KDramaStars.
Bae Doona and Ryu Seung Beom will officially headline the upcoming K-drama "Family Plan." The news was confirmed by Coupang Play.

Bae Doona, Ryu Seung Beom, More Confirmed to Star in Coupang Play's 'Family Plan'

According to news, "Family Plan" cast lineup and production were all set.

In addition to Bae Doona and Ryu Seung Beom, the cast also includes a roster of talented stars. Baek Yoon Shik, "All of Us Are Dead" star Lomon, and Lee Su Hyun will also appear as lead stars.

Helmed by twin directors Kim Sun and Kim Gok of the film "On the Line," along with "Hush" scriptwriter Kim Jung Min, "Family Plan" depicts the story of a villain being punished by brain-hacking. This could make a person live their entire life in severe pain to feel the pain of their victims.

'Family Plan' Cast & Release Date

In the star-studded drama, Bae Doona takes on the role of Han Young Soo, a woman who lives with special abilities. She also shows genuine affection for children.

"Family Plan" is the actress comeback after the Netflix series "The Silent Sea" in 2021, alongside Gong Yoo.

On the other hand, the character of Baek Chul Hee, a loving husband to his wife, is played by Ryu Seung Beom, who returned to the small screen after 10 years through the hit K-drama "Moving."

In the Disney+ series, he portrays the role of the villain named Frank, who had an intense battle with Jo In Sung, Ryu Seung Ryong, Han Hyo Joo, and Kim Sung Kyun's characters.

READ ALSO: Did You Know? THIS 'Moving' Character Was Not Part of the Original Webtoon

Like Han Young Soo, he also has special abilities but has tried to hide them because of his shyness.

As mentioned, adding to the list of "Family Plan" stars is Baek Yoon Shik. The veteran actor will set out to portray the role of Baek Kang Sung, the grumpy grandfather who seems very strict but harbors genuine affection for his family.

Interestingly, Lomon plays AS his son, Baek Ji Hoon, who exudes a warm and gentle personality.

Lomon is best known for his performance in Netflix's "All of Us Are Dead," where he played the campus crush named Lee Soo Hyuk.

Lastly, Lee Su Hyun takes on the character of Baek Ji Woo, the fearless daughter who has a sensitive side.

According to reports, "Family Plan" is scheduled to air in 2024. It reportedly already began starting filming in December 2023.

READ MORE: K-Stars Who Dated/Married Foreigners: Song Joong Ki, Bae Doona, More

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
The United States has approximately 900 troops in Syria and 2500 in Iraq as part of the coalition whose goal is the enduring defeat of ISIS.

In recent months, those U.S. forces have been attacked by Iranian proxies using drones and rockets that have resulted in injuries to dozens of U.S. personnel. The United States has repeatedly said it would respond to the attacks at its own time and choosing. Until January 4, 2024, the U.S. responded by targeting facilities, like training areas and weapons storage sites used by the Iranian proxy groups that resulted in a small number of enemy casualties. On January 4, however, the United States employed a different tactic in defense of its troops, as Pentagon Spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters:

On January 4 at approximately 12 P.M. Iraq time, U.S. forces took necessary and proportionate action against Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al Jawari, a.k.a Abu Taqwa, who was a Harakat al-Nujaba leader. Abu Taqwa was actively involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American personnel. The strike also killed another HAN [Harakat al-Nujaba] member, and it is important to note that the strike was taken in self-defense, that no civilians were harmed and that no infrastructure or facilities were struck.

General Ryder noted that U.S. forces are currently in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government to help train and advise in support of the Defeat ISIS mission, and that the United States will continue to consult closely with Baghdad about the safety and security of U.S. troops. He emphasized the danger posed by ISIS, both in the present, given its claim of responsibility for the recent terrorist attack in Iran, and in the past:

Youll recall, it was 10 years ago this coming summer that ISIS was approximately 24 kilometers outside of Baghdad when we kicked off the counter-ISIS mission, after they had subsumed large swaths of Syria and Iraq.

No one wants to see a return of ISIS, said General Ryder. So our focus is going to remain on the Defeat ISIS mission. But again, were not going to hesitate to protect our forces if theyre threatened.

The United States, he declared, does not seek any broader conflict with Iran; we dont seek conflict with these groups, but were not going to stand aside and allow our forces to be threatened without ensuring that were properly protecting them.
The Central Okanagan Regional District should hire more Indigenous people, a new report recommends. Shown here are regional chairman Loyal Wooldridge, a City of Kelowna councillor, and Jordan Coble, a Westbank First Nation councillor, in a video produced to mark Truth and Reconciliation Day.


Monday, January 8, 2024 - A former neighbour to John Matara has revealed that he has a sinister history of assaulting women.

She used to live in the same apartment with Matara and back then, he was pursuing a master's degree at Kenyatta University.

He was bringing different ladies to his house and had been reported to the police on numerous occasions for assault.

According to Mataras former neighbour, Starlet was just one of his victims who seems to have bravely taken a stand against him.

"He was never arrested, though.

Starlet had to die so that this man could be apprehended.

If all the women he assaulted come forward, you will be shocked," she stated.

He also lived a lavish lifestyle although his source of income remained a mystery.

He was known for paying his rent months in advance, making it challenging for the landlord to take action despite numerous complaints from the community.

Matara's lifestyle, marked by constant indoor activities such as smoking weed and receiving meals through Uber Eats, further fueled suspicions about the origin of his wealth.

He was evicted after a violent altercation with a woman that lasted throughout the night.

When neighbours intervened, they discovered that the woman had been tied up and beaten.

She had knife bruises on her hands and leg.

"She could not even walk and had knife bruises on the hands and leg, said the former neighbour.

Matara was not arrested even after the matter was reported to the police.

Frustrated by the lack of action, the tenants eventually joined forces and informed the landlord that they will leave if Matara was not evicted.

The suspect eventually relocated.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Monday, January 8, 2024 - Suspected serial killer John Matara used to prey on unsuspecting ladies online.

Matara used a fake name on his profile and would send messages to ladies luring them to paid meetings.

A lady has shared a message that Matara sent to her last year in December.

He lied to her that he had just landed in Nairobi for holiday and requested her for a date.

He promised to pay her Ksh 10,000 if she agreed to meet him for the date.

Matara used the same tactics to lure his victims.

He would ask ladies for paid meetings on sites and lure them to Airbnbs, where he would threaten them with a knife and demand for money.

Kanyari revealed that Matara demanded Ksh 500,000 from his sister and stabbed her to death when she resisted.

See the message that the suspected serial killer sent to a lady.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Sunday, January 7, 2024  Former US President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested the American Civil War could have been avoided through negotiation, arguing that the fight to end slavery in the US was ultimately unnecessary and that Abraham Lincoln should have done more to avoid bloodshed.

The former presidents comments come a little over a week before the caucuses in Iowa, where he has a significant lead in the polls over his closest rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you, Trump said at a campaign event in Newton, Iowa. I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died. So many people died.

It's not the first time Trump has tried to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln.

In 2020 Trump held a press conference virtually in the lap of Lincolns statute at the Lincoln Memorial to connect to his fellow wartime President. Trump even lobbied for a place next to Lincoln on Mount Rushmore. Now, the Party of Lincoln just finished its convention with the virtual deification of Trump as the new Lincoln.

The American Civil War has emerged as an unlikely talking point on the GOP primary trail. More than a week before Trumps comments, Haley answered a question about the cause of the Civil War without mentioning slavery  the driving force behind the war. She has since backtracked.

According to American historians, there were a series of efforts before the Civil War began to cut a deal to save the Union. But the future of slavery in the South could not be settled through compromise and the nation went to war with itself. Trump did not say how he would have prevented the conflict, which he also called so horrible but so fascinating.

It was, I dont know, it was just different, Trump said of the war. I just find it  Im so attracted to seeing it.

After describing the wounds soldiers sustained on the battlefield, Trump said, Theres nothing nice about it, adding the war was a tough one for our country.

He also suggested that Lincoln would not have the same historical cachet if he negotiated it.

Former Republican lawmaker Rep. Liz Chene, who Trump helped unseat after she voted to impeach him, slammed Trumps take on social media, asking how Republicans who have endorsed the former president can possibly defend this?

Which part of the Civil War could have been negotiated? The slavery part? The secession part? Whether Lincoln should have preserved the Union? Cheney wrote. Question for members of the GOP  the party of Lincoln  who have endorsed Donald Trump: How can you possibly defend this?


Monday, January 8, 2024 - Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss, Mohammed Amin, has broken his silence following the brutal murder of pastor Victor Kanyaris sister, Starlet Wahu, at an Airbnb in South B.

Amin pleaded with anyone who has information about John Matara, the prime suspect in the murder of Starlet and an alleged serial killer, to report to the police.

The DCI boss said that any witnesses and victims of Matara should record statements with detectives.

As we commend those who have since taken the bold step of reporting their dreadful encounters with Matara and/ or members of his suspected gang, we encourage more witnesses of such brutality and monstrous attacks to come out and record statements with our detectives, he said.

Two women have already recorded statements with the police narrating how Matara assaulted them before demanding ransom and fleeing, leaving them nursing wounds.

One of the women said she was Mataras victim in May 2023 and since then, she has been seeking justice in vain.

She said that she reported the matter to Kahawa Sukari Police Station.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Monday, January 8, 2024 - Homicide detectives raided the home of Brian Mwenda and conducted a search that lasted for 8 hours, before arresting him in connection with the brutal murder of Meru blogger Daniel Muthiani alias Snipper.

Detectives conducted the search from 8 am to 3 pm and then bundled him into a waiting vehicle.

They drove him to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters in Nairobi for further questioning.

Mwenda is the seventh suspect to be arrested as investigations surrounding the bloggers murder continue.

Others arrested include Governor Kawira Mwangazas brother.

The Governor alleges there was a political witch hunt in the ongoing investigation into the murder.

On Saturday, detectives camped at her residence where they collected evidence in the murder investigation.

She maintained that her hands were clean, adding that the slain blogger never visited her official residence.

The Governors official residence is under 24-hour police security.

There is an incident book at the gate where all incidents are recorded and the policemen guarding the residence should be the first to be questioned.

I urge the investigators not to be biased, she said.

The Kenyan DAILY POST
Monday, January 8, 2024 - There was drama after South Mugirango Member of Parliament, Silvanus Osoro, stormed a meeting organized by Kisii Governor Simba Arati and disrupted it.

Arati had hosted the meeting to issue bursaries to needy parents in South Mugirango while in the company of his bodyguards.

Osoro reportedly ordered the rogue bodyguards to fire at the parents who had gathered around, prompting them to scamper for safety.

In the video, Osoro is seen storming the meeting as Arati was addressing the parents and after a few minutes, gunshots rent the air.

ODM Communications Director Philip Etale has condemned the act.

 The government of Kenya should tell Kenyans if what happened in South Mugirango in Kisii today during Governor @Simba Arati s meeting with parents of needy children is justified. Why would an MP storm a meeting and his bodyguards start firing at wananchi? Be the judge, Etale tweeted.

Watch the video

South Mugirango MP, SYLVANUS OSORO, causes a stampede at Kisii Governor, SIMBA ARATIs function! Liv shots were fired pic.twitter.com/ZA1o4d0wsZ  DAILY POST  (@TheKenyanPost) January 8, 2024


Sunday, January 7, 2024  The Little Mermaid actor, Halle Bailey has announced they she and boyfriend DDG welcomed a son in 2023.

Bailey shared a photo of the baby's hand, with a gold bracelet adorning his wrist with his name: Halo.

"Even though were a few days into the new year, the greatest thing that 2023 could have done for me, was bring me my son.. welcome to the world my halo," Bailey wrote in the caption, adding with laughing emojis, "the world is desperate to know you."

"My biggest blessing by far son son.. never been so in love," DDG wrote in a caption of the same photo on his Instagram account.

The news comes after months of speculation that Bailey and DDG were expecting, with Bailey even pushing back against the speculations.

For months, she wore baggy clothes to hide her tummy, then in December, she posted a video if herself with a flat tummy but observers commented that she had all the physical attributes of a woman who just welcomed a baby.
ELKO  The Bristlecone Audubon Chapter plans a meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the conference room of the the Nevada Department of Wildlife Headquarters to discuss the sagebrush ecosystem.

The main program will be given by Gerald Miller from the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. In the same room from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., Northeastern Nevada Stewardship will be holding a meeting, so guests are encouraged to enter quietly.

As always please use the side entrance door. Miller has invited that group to stay and hear his sagebrush presentation. Our two groups have a lot of overlapping interests and concerns so it will be good for everyone to meet.

Before Miller speaks, Meghan Collins from the Desert Research Institute will give a brief presentation to both groups about using the Mountain Rain or Snow app. This is a way for everyone to participate in citizen science about weather for the DRI. We can help by sending observations of precipitation during winter storms so that scientists can improve estimates of winter precipitation. It is as simple as answering the question What is falling from the sky right now? along with a geo-tag of your location.

The talk will cover basic biology and ecology of sagebrush, species that use sagebrush habitats, and the varieties of sagebrush that we have in our area. He will also share results of a study started by Kent McAdoo about establishing shrub islands to reestablish sagebrush habitat following afire. This work was finished posthumously by Miller and Brad Schultz.

The wildlife agencys headquarters is at 60 Youth Center Drive in Elko.


Monday, January 8, 2024  A Nashville husband has been charged with beating his wife to death with a hammer and then burying her body in a hole he hired a worker to dig on the couples land, according to police.

Joseph Glynn, 70, was arrested Saturday after he admitted to investigators he killed his wife, Jackie Glynn, 76, on New Years Day at their Green Hills, Tennessee home, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

The following day, Joseph Glynn allegedly put his wifes body inside a plastic cargo box before driving her remains about 60 miles to the couples other property in DeKalb County to dump her body in a hole previously dug out by contractors.

Joseph Glynn told their children that their mother had left because she was terminally ill, according to police.

Suspicious of their fathers account, the children reached out to their mothers medical provider and were told she was not terminally ill.

Her body was discovered in a freshly covered hole  about six feet wide, ten feet long, and six feet deep  by the DeKalb County Sheriffs Office on Friday, still inside the cargo box and covered in new roofing shingles and dirt, Fox 17 reported, citing police.

A Silver Alert was issued for the missing wife the same day her body was discovered.

Joseph Glynn had a contractor dig the hole on Dec. 16, claiming it would be used as a burn pit, according to investigators.

The allegedly murderous husband reportedly told detectives he disposed of the hammer he used to kill his wife murder in a community center trash compactor.

Jackie Glynns car was also found by police in DeKalb County, with her husband suspected of towing her vehicle in an attempt to hide it.

Joseph Glynn is also accused of selling items belonging to his wife in the days after he murdered her, as well as contacting a realtor to sell their DeKalb County property where he had buried her body, according to Fox 17.

He is currently being held in the Davidson County Jail on a $1,030,000 bond and also faces charges of abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering, according to police.

His first scheduled court date is Tuesday morning.

Jackie Glynn was a beloved member of the greater Nashville area who owned and operated the historic wedding venue, the Riverwood Mansion.

Lesli Emmetts, a friend and vendor regularly hired by Jackie Glynn as a photographer at the venue, described her friend as a tiny woman with Big dreams in a commemorating Facebook Post.

Such a sad day with the tragic news of a friend of over 25 years whose life was horrifically taken, her longtime friend wrote.


Sunday, January 7, 2024  ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly twin bomb blasts near the burial site of killed military commander Qasem Soleimani in southern Iran.

At least 84 people were killed and 284 injured in the blasts on Wednesday, January 3, Iranian state-run news agency IRNA reported, in what was the deadliest attack in Iran since its 1979 revolution.

ISIS issued a statement on Thursday  more than 24 hours after the explosions  claiming two suicide bombers had detonated their explosive vests as Shiite mourners gathered for the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Soleimani near his grave in his hometown of Kerman.

The group offered no further proof and their account of the blasts differs from that given by Iranian media and officials.

Irans interior minister said the two blasts happened almost immediately, with the second, deadlier blast coming as others rushed to help the wounded.

Another state media outlet, IRINN, said the first explosion was caused by a bomb placed in a suitcase inside a car and appeared to have been detonated remotely rather than being caused by a suicide bomber.

Videos showed large numbers of people running in the area after the explosions, bloodied bodies on the ground and ambulances driving through the packed crowds.

Iran declared Thursday a day of mourning and President Ebrahim Raisi cancelled a scheduled trip to Turkey.

Before ISIS statement, Irans President Ebrahim Raisi blamed Israel for the explosions and warned it would pay a heavy price.


Monday, January 8, 2024  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Hezbollah that 'no terrorist is immune' as violence on the Lebanese border escalates.

Members of Israel's war cabinet and military leaders have warned the Iran-backed terror group that they are prepared for war if diplomatic efforts fall through.

Earlier this week, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah warned Israel that the group would swiftly respond 'on the battlefield' to the killing of Hamas's deputy chief in Beirut.

Amid fears of Israel launching a possible operation in Lebanon, Defence Secretary Yoav Gallant said: 'We prefer the path of an agreed-upon diplomatic settlement, but we are getting close to the point where the hourglass will turn over.'

It comes as the Washington Post revealed that US officials are concerned that Netanyahu could see expanding the war as a means to keeping his grip on power, amid rising criticism over his government's failure to prevent the October 7 attack.

'Israel has been responding and will continue to respond forcefully to Hezbollah's aggression.

'Hezbollah is seeking an escalation despite the unwanted disruption it could bring to the people Lebanon in addition to the suffering it is bringing the people of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah is 'putting the future of the region at risk, all for the sake of Hamas', the Israeli military spokesperson went on.

'We have a duty to defend our people, if not through diplomatic means, then through the force of arms. The diplomatic window may be short, but it's still open.'

In an apparent reference to the killing of al-Arouri in Beirut, Netanyahu warned on Sunday: 'I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months: no terrorist is immune.

'We are determined to protect our citizens and return the residents of the north safely to their homes.


Sunday, January 7, 2024  Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has told mothers in Italy to return to the office, saying that if she can run the country with a seven-year-old daughter, so can they.

Meloni, who recently returned to work after recovering from a vertigo-inducing ear infection urges mothers to combine motherhood with working.

Meloni said if she and other world leaders including Ursula Von Der Leyen can have a career and children, mothers in Italy can too.

Asked about her party's promotion of motherhood and the traditional family, Meloni told a three-hour press conference: 'If I were asked to choose between the role of prime minister and my daughter, Ginevra, I would have no doubts, like any other mother, because motherhood gives something that nothing else can give.'

But Meloni, who separated from her partner last year after he was recorded asking a colleague for a threesome, said she doesn't believe that motherhood can or should stop women from holding down a job or pursuing a political career.

She said: 'Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, has seven children. Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, has four children. You can do it.'


Monday, January 8, 2024  Kylian Mbappe has reportedly agreed to join Real Madrid when his Paris Saint-Germain contract expires this summer.

According to French transfer market expert Santi Aouna via Footmercato, Mbappe reached an agreement with Real Madrid a few days ago and committed his future to the La Liga giants after refusing to extend his stay at Paris Saint-Germain.

Mbappe was free to negotiate with other clubs from January 1 as he had officially entered into the last six months of his PSG contract. Therefore, Real Madrid began negotiating with the 25-year-old soon after.

On January 4, Mbappe said that he still hadn't made a decision on his future but was "very, very motivated for this year".

"Its very important. As I said, weve got titles to go after and weve already taken one. After that, I havent made up my mind yet. I havent made a choice," Mbappe added.

With the agreement I made with the President last summer, whatever my decision, we managed to protect all parties and preserve the clubs serenity for the challenges ahead, which remains the most important thing. So lets say its secondary."

In the last two summers, both Mbappe and Real Madrid were involved in transfer sagas, but Footmercato and Aouana, who is a highly-respected source of transfer news in his homeland, have reported that Mbappe will become a Real Madrid player in July after reaching an agreement with the La Liga giants "a few days ago".


Monday, January 8, 2024 - More photos of John Matara, the man suspected to have murdered Pastor Kanyaris sister, Starlet Wahu, at Airbnb in South B, have emerged.

According to a member of Kenyan Rastafari movement, Matara is very radical and a bully.

There is a time he created a WhatsApp group for all the Rastas in Kenya and after 30 minutes, no one was allowed to say anything in the group.

Police believe he has committed multiple murders in and out of Nairobi.

See more photos of the suspected serial killer.


Sunday, January 7, 2024  Raymond Nduga has resumed trolling people for calling him out for assaulting his 'wife' in public.

Nduga was caught on camera viciously slapping Dorris Everlyne Tado, sparking outrage among Kenyans on social media.

Ever since the incident, the dread-locked lawyer has been mocking haters, saying Dorris will never leave him because he is rich and very good behind closed doors.

In a recent post, he shared a photo of himself in their kitchen.

Our kitchen is bigger than your poor boyfriend's ISLANDS bedsitter including the balcony and you are abusing me like I care, he captioned the post.


Sunday, January 7, 2024  A passenger has been found dead in a plane toilet during a flight from Tenerife to Manchester.

During the journey on Tuesday, fellow travellers on the Jet2 plane noticed the cubicle had been locked for some time, prompting them to alert staff, The Mirror reported.

The crew eventually opened the door, and found that the man had died, before the plane was diverted to Cork airport in Ireland.

'Flight LS918 from Tenerife to Manchester diverted to Cork Airport on Tuesday 2nd January, due to a customer requiring medical attention,' a Jet2 spokesperson told MailOnline.

'Regrettably, we can confirm that the customer sadly passed away, despite the best efforts of our highly-trained crew who intervened as soon as they became aware.

'This was an extremely difficult situation for our crew and we would like to thank them for their efforts.

'Our thoughts are with the customer's family and friends at this very difficult time.'

One passenger onboard told the newspaper that their husband noticed the toilet door had been locked for some time 'and he said that he thought he was dead. Tragically he was right.'

The passenger said the crew were initially dismissive towards their husband, before they checked the cubicle. They believe the person was travelling alone.

They added that the plane was due to land in Manchester at 8.30pm on Tuesday, but that passengers had to wait for another plane in Cork, eventually arriving at 1.30am.
Monday, January 8, 2024 - Controversial city preacher, Victor Kanyari, has revealed what happened on the fateful night when his younger sister, Starlet Wahu, was brutally murdered at an Airbnb in South B.

According to Kanyari, Starlet met John Matara online and fell in love with him, not knowing that he was a serial killer.

Matara lured her to an Airbnb where they had a good time but things went south in the middle of the night when he started demanding money from her.

Kanyari said his sister called him but he didnt pick up her call because he was asleep.

She called me at 2 AM but I didnt pick up her call.

The man started threatening her at around 3 AM Kanyari said.

Matara was reportedly demanding Ksh 500,000 from Starlet, leading to a scuffle.

He stabbed her in the neck and thigh and left her bleeding.

He locked the door and fled.

Starlet tried to fight for her life but she bled to death near the door.

Below is a video of Pastor Kanyari speaking about his sisters brutal murder.

Here's the full story on how John Matara murdered Starlet Wahu as narrated by Pastor Kanyari. Yaani John Matara had demanded for a Sh500K from Starlet Wahu and when Starlet Wahu was unable to meet the amount he wanted., John Matara stabbed her to death and locked her in the room pic.twitter.com/OOuJVqb7hi  Omwamba  (@omwambaKE) January 8, 2024

The Kenyan DAILY POST
General Secretary of the BrazilVietnam Friendship Association Pedro De Oliveira (L) presents his book on late President Ho Chi Minh to Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. (Photo: VNA)

In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) on January 7, Oliveira said in the 20th century, numerous and important historical events occurred in sequence, causing changes in the world situation.

One of the highlight was the formation of the CPV on February 3, 1930 by Nguyen Ai Quoc (later known as President Ho Chi Minh), he said.

Shortly after the end of the World War II conflict, the Vietnamese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh successfully conducted the Revolution in August 1945 to wrest power from the Japanese fascists back to their hands and were able to declare national independence, and founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in September 1945, which was later renamed the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, he continued.

General Secretary of the BrazilVietnam Friendship Association Pedro De Oliveira and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. (Photo: VNA)

Oliveira cited President Ho Chi Minh as saying for the first time in history, a small colonised country triumphed over a great colonialist power. This glorious victory was not only that of our people, but also of the forces of peace, democracy and socialism throughout the world.

He commended the Declaration of Independence delivered by President Ho Chi Minh, giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945, as well as the Presidents role in the development of the countrys diplomatic sector.

It was Ho Chi Minh himself who developed the values of diplomacy to a higher level, perfectly combining patriotism, national culture and diplomatic traditions with the quintessence of world culture and diplomatic experience, he elaborated.

The cover of the book on President Ho Chi Minh by General Secretary of the Brazil  Vietnam Friendship Association Pedro De Oliveira. (Photo: baoquocte.vn)

Oliveira also highlighted the idea of bamboo diplomacy coined by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, saying here lives the soul, spirit and strength of the Vietnamese nation: to be gentle and dexterous, yet tenacious and fiery.

For achievements brought about by the diplomacy, he highlighted Vietnam has maintained diplomatic relations with 193 countries, adding it is also an active and responsible member of more than 70 major international organisations and forums like the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The foreign service plays a pioneering role in maintaining an environment of peace and stability, making an important contribution to the firm defence of national independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity, he affirmed.

Vietnam's international position and prestige in the region and the world are constantly increasing, actively contributing to peacekeeping and cooperation for development and progress in the world. Never before has Vietnam enjoyed such wealth, strength, position, and international prestige as it does today.

Regarding the Vietnam-Brazil relations, Oliveira stressed the significance of the visit to Brazil by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh last September as the two countries celebrate the 35th anniversary of their diplomatic ties and the 16th year of their comprehensive partnership in 2024.

General Secretary of the BrazilVietnam Friendship Association Pedro De Oliveira at the award ceremony of the eighth National External Information Service Awards. (Photo: baoquocte.vn)

The two sides reiterated commitments to elevating the traditional friendship and good cooperation to a new height in the time ahead, for peace, stability and development in the two regions and the world, he went on.

Oliveira expressed his belief that the relations certainly will be "very positive because of the circumstances are the best possible with the support of the two governments.

Brazil is Vietnam's largest trade partner in Latin America and Vietnam is Brazil's leading trade partner in Southeast Asia. In 2022, the two-way trade hit a record of nearly 6.8 billion USD.

With a book on the life and career of President Ho Chi Minh, Oliveira won the first prize at the eighth National External Information Service Awards. /.
Monday, January 8, 2024 - Former Prime Minister Raila Odingas supporters were teargassed in Nairobi on Sunday while they were celebrating his 79th birthday.

The supporters had gathered at Nairobis Central Business District near the Kenya Archives where they had organised birthday paraphernalia to honour the veteran opposition supremo.

However, police who came from nowhere threw teargas at the crowd forcing them to scamper for safety.

At some point, the organisers pleaded with the police to allow them to carry the cake away, but the determined officers continued firing tear gas.

Wacha tuchukue keki! Wacha tuchukue keki! one of the organisers was heard pleading with the police.

Leaders allied to the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party and other Kenyans took to social media to condemn the move by the police.

Westlands MP, Tim Wanyonyi, said the Government was scared because Kenyans are angry with President William Ruto's administration.

"The police turned up and tear-gassed our supporters.

The Government is scared because of tension and Kenyans who have no money as schools reopen," Wanyonyi said

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Sunday, January 7, 2024  The US Supreme Court has said it will review the Colorado Supreme Courts unprecedented decision removing former President Donald Trump from that states ballot.

The court on Friday evening, January 5 said it had scheduled oral arguments for February 8.

Trump remains on the primary ballot as the lower-court ruling disqualifying him has been put on hold pending Supreme Court action. If the justices do conclude Trump is ineligible for public office, then any votes cast for him wouldnt count.

The high courts decision to hear the case puts the nine justices in center position of the 2024 election as voting starts in the early primary contests and represents the courts most significant involvement in a presidential race since its highly consequential decision 23 years ago in Bush v. Gore.

Though the Colorado ruling applies only to that state, courts in several other states have also reviewed challenges to Trumps eligibility, though no such case has made it as far as the one in Colorado, leaving

Last week, Maines secretary of state removed Trump from that states 2024 primary ballot, and the former presidents team on Tuesday appealed that decision in state court. The Oregon Supreme Court could also soon rule on a bid to remove Trump from that states primary and general election ballots because of his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection

Trumps campaign said it welcomes a fair hearing at the Supreme Court over the Colorado ballot challenge.

The so-called ballot-challenge cases are all part of a well-funded effort by left-wing, political activists hell-bent on stopping the lawful reelection of President Trump this November, even if it means disenfranchising voters, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. We are confident that the fair-minded Supreme Court will unanimously affirm the civil rights of President Trump, and the voting rights of all Americans.

Trump appealed the Colorado decision to the US Supreme Court on Wednesday, a week after the states Republican Party also asked the justices to hear the case. The stunning 4-3 decision last month said Trump is constitutionally ineligible to run in 2024 because the 14th Amendments ban on insurrectionists holding office covers his conduct on January 6, 2021.

In our system of government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people, Colorados ruling is not and cannot be correct, attorneys for the former president wrote in their petition to the court.

The Colorado Supreme Court erred in how it described President Trumps role in the events of January 6, 2021, they argued in the filing. It was not insurrection and President Trump in no way engaged in insurrection.

Trump said Friday night that he hopes the three justices he appointed to the Supreme Court  Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett  would be fair.

All I want is fair, Trump said at a campaign event in Sioux Center, Iowa. I fought really hard to get three very, very good people in. Theyre great people, very smart people.


Monday, January 8, 2024 - Meru County Governor, Kawira Mwangaza, has sent a message to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) after her house was marked as a crime scene following the murder of Meru-based blogger Daniel Muthiani alias Sniper.

Already, Kawiras son, her brother and one of her bodyguards have been arrested over Snipers murder.

In a statement published on her social media page on Sunday, the first-term Governor directed the detectives to expand their probe and question some leaders in Meru who she insisted had made public statements regarding the death of the blogger.

Mwangaza argued that some leaders in Meru including Members of County Assembly (MCAs) had claimed to know those responsible for the heinous act.

She posted a video of one of the local lawmakers speaking and directed the DCI to question them.

Failure to which, Mwangaza asked the DCI to drop the investigation in its entirety and stop arresting other suspects.

Why is the Directorate of Criminal Investigations  DCI slow in getting statements from some Meru MCA and MPs? Mwangaza posed.

They are all over the County and in public meetings claiming to know the Killers. And how/ where the incident took place, she added.

If the DCI wont hold the elected leaders responsible, then they should stop making any further arrests, Mwangaza demanded.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Monday, January 8, 2024 - President William Ruto has instructed Education Cabinet Secretary, Ezekiel Machogu, to form a team that will investigae the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination.

This was after he was briefed by Machogu that 3,000 students who registered for the 2023 KCSE did not sit for the exams.

President Ruto sought to know why the candidates failed to sit for the national examinations.

The timeframe when the investigating committee will present its findings to the President was, however, not indicated.

Additionally, the President called on the Ministry of Education to crack down on students and teachers taking part in exam cheating.

The briefing was done at the Eldoret State Lodge, Uasin Gishu County, moments before the release of the KCSE results.

Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) CEO, David Njengere, remarked that measures had been put in place to prevent the leaking of the 2023 KCSE exams before the tests were administered.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Sunday, January 7, 2024  American actor Christian Oliver has been identified as one of the victims who died tragically alongside his two daughters, ages 10 and 12, as their plane nose-dived and crashed into the waters off of a small Caribbean Island.

Christian Klepser, 51, who went by the stage name Christian Oliver, was confirmed to have been killed in the accident, alongside his children, Madita and Annik. The plane's pilot, Robert Sachs, was also killed.

The tragedy occurred on Thursday, January 4, in the waters off Bequia, which is part of St. Vincent, around noon.

During his career, Klepser appeared in major movies such as Speed Racer and Valkyrie and recently had a part in the latest installment of the Indiana Jones franchise.

Among his first roles in the US was a long-standing stint on Saved by the Bell: The New Class in 1995. He also appeared as a character in the hit video game Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.

Oliver will appear in the upcoming movie Forever Hold Your Peace, which he also produced, and just filmed his last scenes on December 20.

The director of his latest movie, Nick Lyon, paid tribute to Oliver, posting a picture on their last day of filming saying: 'We talked about producing a film together for years and finally did it! Thank you for being a great colleague, actor and friend.'

While his co-star, Bai Ling, was among the first to mourn Oliver on social media, saying that she wrote the post 'with tears in [her] eyes.'

'It was our first and last film together, I loved working with him so much.'

'He was so nice, works so hard and such a brave actor and a beautiful gentle person, we played lovers in this film, just so so so sad,' she wrote.

According to local reports, he arrived with his daughters in the Caribbean on December 26.

Two days before his death, Oliver posted a photo showing a beach in a tropical setting with the caption: 'Let love rule. Wishing all of you the best for 2024.'

Online records show that the actor filed for divorce from his wife Jessica Muroz in December 2021.

During his career, Klepser appeared in major movies such as Speed Racer and Valkyrie and recently had a part in the latest installment of the Indiana Jones franchise.

Among his first roles in the US was a long-standing stint on Saved by the Bell: The New Class in 1995. He also appeared as a character in the hit video game Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.


Sunday, January 7, 2024  US Republican presidential candidate, Nikki Haley has said she wont officially rule out being Donald Trumps running mate if he offers her the job.

Haleys rivals as well as some Republicans have speculated shes really aiming for the No. 2 spot behind the 77-year-old businessman on the 2024 GOP ticket. Haley, a former South Carolina governor and former ambassador to the United Nations has maintained shes not in the race to come in second, but has not specifically said she would refuse Trumps offer.

But she has now revealed why she won't refuse the offer publicly.

First of all, its highly offensive to think I would go through all of this to run for vice president, Haley told the New Hampshire Union Leader in an interview published Thursday, December 5.

I am fighting to become president and Im going to win, she added.

Haley then predicted that ruling out being Trump's VP would be the news for days and take the focus off her recent polling gains against Trump in New Hampshire, where one new survey has her within four percentage points of the 45th president.

In the US, Trump continues to dominate the primary polls by an average of 50 points over his nearest competition, per RealClearPolitics.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaign has particularly focused on the rumors about Haley wanting to run alongside Trump, launching a microsite to track the claims.

She will not answer directly  and she owes you an answer to this  will she accept a vice presidential nomination from Donald Trump? Yes or no, DeSantis himself said last month.

Those within Trumps inner circle have publicly expressed fear the former president would seriously consider Haley for the job.

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon speculated earlier this week that a big fight will break out in the spring over the issue.

Theyre gonna try to force Nikki on the ticket, Bannon said Monday on the Human Events Daily program. Theyll say Trump needs a woman, Nikki, on the ticket, she balances things and she can bring together that 15% of never-Trumpers in the Republican Party. Were going to have to have that fight.

Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. said he would personally intervene if Haley was going to be his fathers VP.

I wouldnt have her and I would go to great lengths to make sure that that doesnt happen, he told Newsmaxs Eric Bolling in an interview in December.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a Trump supporter, also expressed heavy criticism, telling podcaster Tim Pool that I would not only not vote for that ticket, I would advocate against it as strongly as I could.

South Dakota Governor, Kristi Noem, also a Trump supporter, said the choice would be a mistake, but would not alter her backing of the ex-president.

If he picked her, I would tell him I disagreed with him. But then I would support the ticket, because hes still the president and the president still makes the decisions, Noem told Bolling Tuesday.

Noem previously said she would accept the VP spot in a heartbeat if Trump were to offer her.


Sunday, January 7, 2024  An Iowa teenager who shot and killed one student and injured five other people had been bullied since elementary school and was devastated when his younger sister began to experience the same.

Dylan Butler, 17, who was a senior at Perry High School, opened fire on Thursday morning, shooting dead a sixth grader who attended Perry's Middle School. He then turned the gun on himself.

Students, Yesenia Roeder and Khamya Hall, both 17, alongside their mother, Alita, told police that Butler, their late classmate, had been bullied relentlessly since elementary school.

That escalated recently, they told AP, when his younger sister started getting picked on, too.

Officials at the school didn't intervene, they said, and that was 'the last straw' for the shooter.

'He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment,' Yesenia Roeder Hall, 17, said.





'Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No. God, no.'

Butler was armed with a pump-action shotgun and handgun, both of which are illegal for a 17-year-old to obtain in Iowa. He also had a rudimentary explosive device, which was undetonated and was later rendered safe by fire marshals.

The 17-year-old died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound by the time first responders arrived at the school, shortly after 7.40am.

One of the five people injured was the school's principal, Dan Marburger, who was rushed to hospital and is currently in surgery for his gunshot wounds.

The other four people injured were students. Of the five, one is in critical condition, although police did not confirm if this was the principal or a student.

Hours before the shooting took place at 7:37 am, Butler posted a TikTok posing in what appeared to be the school bathroom, with the caption: 'Now we wait.'

Butler posted the TikTok selfie with the song 'Stray Bullet' playing in the background.

In December, just weeks before the shooting, Butler posted another video on the same social media account of him sitting on children's playground equipment with a friend, pretending to be in a gunfight using sticks.

Butler gets 'shot' by the stick, and falls down the children's slide.





On Thursday morning, there were hundreds of emergency services at the scene, which is 25 miles northwest of Des Moines. Ambulances, police units, air ambulances, and firefighters were called to the school at 7.37am.

The Dallas County Sheriff's Office confirmed the shooting, which happened on the first day of classes. The FBI Omaha Des Moines was on the scene, as was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive.

County Sherriff Adam Infante said at a press conference at 11 am that police officers arrived at the high school seven minutes after the first call was made.

The first responders found 'multiple gunshot victims' inside the school - and at a press conference at 3pm, police confirmed the number of injured was five.


Monday, January 8, 2024 - A section of Boda Boda riders and Mama Mbogas has sued the Kenya Kwanza Alliance Government for using them during the presidential campaigns and later dumping them.

In their petition before a Malindi Court, the group says President William Ruto used them and later dumped them when he won the Presidency.

They further argue that Ruto has subjected them to psychological trauma which has made them have a decrease in their daily income.

Additionally, the utterances of the Members of the 1st Respondent political party that the current executive arm of the government of Kenya is composed of the boda boda and mama mboga women subject the persons engaged in boda boda and mama mboga business to psychological trauma owing to the reduction in their source of income and hostility of the people of Kenya who are dissatisfied with the governments inability to bring down the cost of living, the petition reads.

The riders accuse the Government of spreading a misleading narrative that suggests the current political restraints primarily consist of boda boda and mama mboga women, a claim they vehemently deny.

Additionally, the operators highlight a substantial 32% loss, equivalent to Sh 426 billion, in sector earnings due to the ongoing use of certain terms by the Government.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Monday, January 8, 2024  A woman has been left with gruesome injuries after she was whipped 74 times for 'violating public morals' for refusing to wear a hijab while walking through the streets of Tehran.

Roya Heshmati, 33, was lashed with a leather whip and also forced to pay a fine equivalent to 255 fine after she 'encouraged permissiveness' by walking around in public without covering her head.

Writing on her social media page, Heshmati explained how she was beaten mercilessly across her back, legs, and buttocks in a dank room she likened to a medieval torture chamber.

'[The lashing] was over. We left the room. I didn't let them think I had experienced pain We went up to the judge in charge of execution of the sentence. The female agent walked behind me and was careful not to let my headscarf drop from my head.

'I threw off my scarf at the courtroom entrance. The woman asked me to wear the headscarf. I didn't stop and she pulled it over my head again,' she wrote.

The brutal punishment triggered widespread outcry on social media, with Abbas Abdi, one of Iran's leading journalists and social activists writing: 'These lashes did not just come down on the body of one woman, they hit all those who dream of a life with normal freedoms alongside each other.





'Enough is enough. Don't disgust the society any more than this.'

'The convicted, Roya Heshmati, encouraged permissiveness (by appearing) disgracefully in busy public places in Tehran,' the judiciary's Mizan Online website said late on Saturday.

'Her penalty of 74 strokes of the lash was carried out in accordance with the law and with sharia,' and 'for violating public morals,' Mizan said.

The judiciary also claimed Heshmati had connections to 'an organised group outside Iran', though didn't specify details.

Even after suffering the savage beating, Heshmati refused to wear a headscarf provided for her by officials, Iran International reported.

All women in Iran have been required by law to cover their neck and head since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (first, right) and his Lao counterpart Sonexay Siphandone (first, left) witness the signing of the minute of meeting in Hanoi on January 7 (Photo: VNA)

The two sides concurred to continue specifying and effectively implementing agreements reached by the Politburos of Vietnam and Laos, the outcomes the meeting of leaders of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the Cambodian People's Party, as well as the joint statements and deals reached at this meeting.

Vietnam and Laos will deepen their political-diplomatic relations, maintaining and enhancing the efficiency of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, strengthening defence-security cooperation, sharing macro-economic management experience, and fostering the connectivity between the two economies.

The Lao Government will create favourable conditions and give preferential policies for major projects of Vietnam, and adjust regulations on implementation duration for hydropower and mining projects to suit the new situation.

The two countries will boost bilateral trade towards the target of 10-15% growth this year, while focusing on strengthening connections in transport infrastructure, and promoting cooperation in agriculture and rural development.

Vietnam and Laos will continue to prioritise and increase the quality of education-training and human resources development collaboration. Vietnam agreed to grant 1,120 scholarships to Lao officials and students to study in Vietnam, and send teachers to Laos for the teaching of the Vietnamese language.

The two sides agreed to roll out measures to foster tourism connections with each other as well as among Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

They will ask ministries, sectors, and localities to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, while paying greater attention to popularising the Vietnam-Laos great friendship and special solidarity to all people, especially the youth.

The two Governments as well as ministries and agencies of the two countries will continue to support each other at multilateral and regional forums. Vietnam will provide active and effective support to Laos to perform the role of the ASEAN Chair in 2024, AIPA Chair and the host of high-level events.

Concluding the event, the two PMs vowed that they will direct ministries, sectors and localities as well as businesses to strengthen cooperation in implementing bilateral agreements, continuing to provide optimal conditions for investment and business collaboration.

Looking back on bilateral cooperation in 2023, the two sides agreed that the political trust between the two countries was enhanced, guiding the overall bilateral relations. In the year, the two sides completed 13 groups of tasks put forth in the previous meeting.

Bilateral defence-security was fostered, while economic collaboration was promoted. Currently, Vietnam is running 245 projects worth about 5.5 billion USD in Laos.

In 2023, Vietnam invested 116.6 million USD in Laos, a surge of 65.3% year on year, with the accumulated disbursed capital of about 2.75 billion USD. Vietnamese investors paid about 200 million USD as financial obligations in Laos, with the total amount from 2015 to now reaching about 1.7 billion USD, while contributing 150 million USD to social welfare activities in Laos.

Meanwhile, Laos is investing in 18 projects in Vietnam with a combined capital of 110 million USD.

Last year, two-way trade reached about 1.6 billion USD, a slight drop of 2.1% year on year. To date, the Vietnam Electricity (EVN) has signed 19 power purchase agreements with investors to buy electricity from 26 hydropower projects in Laos with a total of 2,689MW.

Many joint projects have been sped up, including Nong Khang airport that was handed over to Laos in May 2023.

Locality-to-locality cooperation was also fruitful, while the two sides have coordinated closely to prepare for Laoss performance as the ASEAN Chair in 2024, noted participants./.
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A recent post on KevinMD resonated with me, probably because I am a doctor who grew up in a rural area and returned to a small-town practice in my home county. Like the author, I experienced the suffocating grip of traditional hospital employment as it slowly drained the life out of me.

Before burnout consumed me, I took proactive steps to start a micro-corporation and transitioned to a more flexible employment contract. While I still worked for the hospital, I became a long-term independent contractor, and this change made a world of difference.

It freed me from their total control and restored my autonomy as a self-employed doctor. In the process of regaining professional control, I also realized that this change had a significant positive impact on my tax planning, compensation, retirement funding, and ultimately accelerated my net worth rapidly.

I felt like I had discovered the holy grail of modern medicine when I regained my professional independence and simultaneously accelerated my net worth, all without having to relocate or manage a practice-office-clinic.

The remarkable thing is that this option is available to virtually every doctor in America. However, it remains relatively hidden from their sight due to a lack of small business literacy and the preference of corporate employers for maximum control over their employees in traditional employment roles.

Based on my personal experience, as well as the countless stories echoed by doctors nationwide, it is clear that preserving professional autonomy is of utmost importance. One effective way to achieve this is by forming a professional micro-corporation.

A micro-corporation empowers you to maintain independence in the marketplace, allowing you to methodically stack jobs and create professional income streams without compromising control over your life.

My dream

Growing up in a small town in the Midwest, I had the opportunity to observe various professionals who were deeply connected to the community and genuinely cared for its people. One individual who particularly inspired me was a pharmacist who ran an independent pharmacy. I was inspired by the way he used his small business to make a positive impact on peoples lives. This experience fueled my ambition to pursue a pharmacy degree and ultimately establish my independent practice in Indiana.

Through a series of experiences, I was led to matriculate from pharmacy school to attend medical school with the goal of establishing a practice in rural America. My vision for work was inspired by my hometown, where a few groups of private practice doctors not only managed a small independent hospital but also delivered babies and lived lives that were deeply intertwined with the community.

My dream had a wrinkle: I yearned to escape the Midwest and immerse myself in the vast open spaces adorned with hills and mountains. Consequently, I completed my training in Southwest Virginia and chose to practice in a small town nestled along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The experience of working in a private practice was truly fulfilling, and I flourished in that environment. However, life took an unexpected turn when my spouse was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer while pregnant. In light of this, we made the difficult decision to relocate to Indiana to be closer to our families for the support we needed during this challenging battle for her life.

A broken dream

I accepted a traditionally employed position with a small county-seat hospital in Northern Indiana. I chose the simplicity of a salaried position so that I could provide maximum support for my wifeand not worry about running a small business. Unfortunately, she eventually succumbed to her cancer in her early 30s, leaving me widowed with two young children. Despite the challenges, I continued to practice full-spectrum rural medicine, from OB to inpatient care to ICU management.

I remarried and fully embraced the rural medical life that I had always dreamed of. With my natural drive and high emotional intelligence, my practice thrived as I immersed myself in small-town living. I found myself roaming the sidelines of high school events and diagnosing rashes in the aisles of Walmart. I would often say to my wife, I cant believe I am getting paid this much to do something I love!

But then, the changes happened one after another.

Hospital mergers, contractual changes, the introduction of the EHR, and chronic understaffing.

Now, my dream began to fade as the burden of uncompensated calls, helping in the ER, and the horrible feeling of being undervalued by my employer weighed heavily on me. The icing on the cake came when they unilaterally made a contractual change that would result in a massive pay cut, while still expecting me to work at my 99 percent MGMA productivity level. I felt like a haymaker for them, yet they claimed they had to make budget cuts despite their annual profits.

The loss of my professional autonomy was always offset by my generous fair market compensation. However, when this stability crumbled and I found myself working harder than ever, burdened with growing administrative tasks, and then asked to take a significant pay cut, it nearly broke me emotionally.

Fortunately, before I completely burned out, I sought the assistance of business consultants who helped me discover a hidden path. This path not only restored my professional autonomy but also ensured that I would receive fair compensation.

The path, in many respects, involved a return to my original dream of operating as a small businessperson in health care, while utilizing my talents to assist others.

No, I didnt completely abandon the system and jump into direct primary care. Instead, I took a different approach. I started a micro-corporation and used it to modify my traditional employment contract into a business-to-business contract known as a professional services agreement, also referred to as employment lite. Essentially, I transitioned into a long-term independent contractor within the same practice, while still caring for my existing patients. At the same time, I decided to purchase a medical office building for my practice and proposed that the hospital rent it from me. Lastly, I insisted on implementing a staffing model that involved multiple nurse-scribes.

I am grateful that I discovered this path, as it has helped me thrive over the past decade.

Now, I am on an awareness campaign to let our physician tribe know that there are job options beyond traditional employmentand that the holy grail of professional independence, great compensation, and not managing a practice/clinicis available to all doctors.

One of the great things about a micro-corporation is its simplicity because you only have to manage one personyourself!

With private practices vanishing from the landscape, micro-incorporation provides the marketplace structure that is needed for doctors to hold onto their autonomy and support their fair market value.

Stop the insanity

Before resigning yourself to accepting that you cant change the current broken system while being herded into traditional employment, I invite you to consider an option that is often overlooked by most doctors. You can choose to micro-incorporate and utilize your professional micro-corporation in the marketplace through a variety of options, including:

Your primary job through employment lite

Your primary job as a single member direct primary care medical practice

Your primary job as a locums

There are numerous professional side hustles that pay you 1099 income as an independent contractor. The options for these opportunities are growing every month, especially as the physician shortage looms and location-independent job opportunities continue to expand.

You can mix and match all of the above in job stacking to reach the lifestyle you prefer and attain the quality of life that you have come to expect as a doctor.

It is time to put an end to the insanity of traditional employment and the perpetuation of a system that is pushing more than 50 percent of doctors into burnout.

Tod Stillson is a family physician, entrepreneur, and Amazon best-selling author of Doctor Incorporated: Stop the Insanity of Traditional Employment and Preserve Your Professional Autonomy. He can be reached at SimpliMD. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and X @DrInc9, or join his Facebook community for doctors, Every Doctor Is A Business.

Dr. Stillson is the founder of SimpliMD, an exclusive physician community that supports doctors on their journey to micro-business competency through community, courses, content, coaching, and consultation. At SimpliMD, he inspires and informs doctors about the benefits of micro-incorporation through his content and regular blog posts titled The Truth.

Schedule a business consultation meeting with Dr. Stillson to discuss how micro-incorporation can help you.
Uganda is set to host the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Group of 77 (G-77) and China Third South summits next week. KFMs Kwezi Tabaro hosts Dr Sam Omara, the Head of Communications, NAM to assess Ugandas readiness to host the summits

Listen to the show below;
Nakawa Chief Magistrate Elias Kakooza has ordered the arrest of Martha Nkwanzi Katanga, daughter of deceased businessman Henry Katanga.

Nkwanzi is accused of destroying evidence in her fathers murder on November 2, 2023, at their family home in Mbuya, Kampala.

The Chief Magistrate issued the warrant of arrest on the request of chief prosecutor Jonathan Muwaganya who said that there is no justification for Nkwanzi to refuse to respond to three sets of court summons yet she is an out-patient who attends Rosewell Hospital while coming from home.

It is clear that she (Nkwanzi) is somewhere at home and not hospitalized. The [medical] report that is being based on [by the defence lawyers] is dated 28 November 2023, Mr Muwaganya argued.

Muwaganya said since Nkwanzi is not hospitalized for postpartum care, she ought to be arrested and presented before court.

Meanwhile, Katangas window, Molly Katanga has been issued with the fourth set of criminal summons after court was satisfied that she is still hospitalised and being treated for the injuries she allegedly suffered during her husbands murder.

Regarding the three suspects already on remand, the DPP says police inquiries are still ongoing and that they cannot be admitted on bail since the case files have been called by the High Court for review.
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has asked Parliament to approve the expenditure of Shs600 million on several tourism activities, including holding a Covid-19 remembrance parade.

This followed a clarification made by Francis Adome, Moroto Municipality MP, who tasked the Authority to clarify this expenditure, during a meeting held between MPs on the Presidential Affairs Committee and the Authority who had appeared to defend their 2024/25 national budget framework paper.

According to the details provided before the Committee, KCCA has allocated Shs600 million for various tourism development activities and the funds will go towards holding a Kampala tourism expo, development of Kampala tourism brand and identity, COVID-19 remembrance parade, digitizing Kampala Tourism Information Centre and development and maintaining 10 tourism sites around the city.

The Deputy Executive Director of KCCA, Eng. David Luyimbazi told the MPs that the COVID-19 remembrance parade an idea borrowed from Canada is intended not just to remember the lives lost to the deadly pandemic, but also to extend appreciation to the medical workers who worked tirelessly to treat and save the lives of the people in Uganda.

This is more of a remembrance campaign, many people died, many businesses closed we cant wish them away. Many countries are remembering this Covid-19 event as part of appreciating the sacrifices people made, the doctors, so this is partly tourism, partly remembrance, he said.
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has revealed that the preparations for the forthcoming Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) conference are 98% complete.

Uganda will be hosting the 19th NAM summit under the chairmanship of President Museveni from 15th-20th January at Speak Resort Hotel in Munyonyo, Kampala under the theme: Deepening cooperation for shared global affluence.

The executive director of KCCA, Ms Dorothy Kisaka, says preparations for the summit are almost complete, noting that all road works, drainage, lighting, and painting will be done by tomorrow, January 9, 2023, and will be inspected by the NAM chairman Lucky Nakyoobe.

She however noted that the removal of street children will be a gradual process since there still pull and push factors that are yet to be addressed.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) and his Lao counterpart Sonexay Siphandone co-chair a Vietnam-Laos investment cooperation conference in Hanoi on January 7 (Photo: VNA)

Along with highlighting the investment environment and incentives for investors of Vietnam and Laos, participants evaluated bilateral investment and business cooperation over the years, and sketched out collaboration orientations in the future.

Vietnamese investors in Laos pointed to obstacles facing them and proposed solutions.

Currently, Vietnam is investing in 241 projects in Laos with a combined capital of 5.47 billion USD.

PM Sonexay noted opinions and proposals by investors, affirming that the growth of Vietnamese investors in Laos has encouraged the development and implementation of socio-economic targets of Laos as well as the country's efforts towards an independent and self-reliant economy.

He held that the two Governments, business communities, and peoples should continue working hard together to make new breakthroughs, implementing new projects and specifying agreements reached between the two Parties, thus making the bilateral ties deeper, more substantial and effective.

The Lao leader said that the Government has focused on building and completing institutions, including policies to encourage investment, while redesigning their planning, including those for 12 economic zones and industrial parks across the country.

It has ordered ministries and sectors to continue researching and supplementing policies to call for investment in particular periods, and listen to the voice of enterprises to deal with their difficulties, he said.

Vietnamese, Lao PMs witness the exchange of cooperation agreements between the two countries (Photo: VNA)

PM Sonexay said he hopes Vietnamese firms will continue to invest in areas of Laoss strengths such as clean agriculture, agricultural processing, mining, and clean energy.

This year, Laos is taking the role of the ASEAN Chair, he said, expressing his hope for support from Vietnam in general and the Vietnamese business community in particular

Laos hopes to welcome more Vietnamese visitors, especially in the Lao Tourism Year 2024, he stated.

PM Chinh highlighted the all-round development in the Vietnam-Laos great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation, including economic and investment collaboration.

He said that the two sides should make a breakthrough in bilateral economic and investment partnership, strengthening public-private partnership to expand infrastructure systems, fostering connections between the two economies by developing expressways, railways, and air routes between the two countries, and building the infrastructure system linking border gates.

Alongside, breakthroughs are also needed in high quality human resources training, which should become a focal point in the bilateral relations in the time to come, said the Vietnamese leader.

He proposed that the two sides focus on prioritised areas such as high-tech industries, innovation, energy, mining, high-tech agriculture, and e-commerce.

He asked ministries, sectors, localities and businesses of the two sides to coordinate closely together in dealing with current problems to speed up projects and strengthen investment cooperation.

The two Governments should continue to complete institutions and policies, creating favourable legal frameworks, improving the investment environment, and speeding up administrative reform to reduce investment costs for businesses, while giving priorities to each other's businesses in the spirit of harmonious interest and shared interest.

PM Chinh emphasised that each cooperation programme and project carries in-depth political meaning, showing bilateral political trust and contributing to the socio-economic development in each country and the growth of the Vietnam-Laos special ties.

At the conference, PM Chinh and PM Sonexay witnessed the granting of investment licences and the exchange of memoranda of understanding among agencies and businesses of the two countries across various fields, including finance, agriculture, and mining./.
At a whopping 70 million, Ireland has one of the largest diaspora of any nation in the world, and every family still here has loved ones abroad: children, siblings, cousins.

People have emigrated from Ireland to escape poverty, persecution and to provide for their families left behind for hundreds of years, which only make the appalling hypocrisy of anti-immigrant sentiment thats burning its way across the country so much worse.

After barely a full week into 2024, two arson attacks have already occurred at sites rumoured to be earmarked for housing asylum seekers.

The Shipwright pub in Ringsend, Dublin, was burnt down on New Years Eve amid rumour and disinformation that it was to be used to house asylum seekers.

In actual fact, it was to be used to house homeless families, the very people the far-right and racists claim should be prioritised over Ukrainian and other international protection applicants.

Gardai have said they are investigating a fire at a former school in Fethard, county Tipperary on Wednesday, January 3, as 'suspected criminal damage'.

Every unoccupied site in the country seems to be a potential site for housing migrants, and for targeting.

A Kilkenny-based company was forced to release a statement on Friday, January 5, after a video was posted online claiming they would house asylum seekers in one of their properties.

Bernard Kavanagh & Sons Ltd issued a statement refuting 'falsified claims' surrounding the redevelopment of the former Josephines Restaurant site in Urlingford, and said that the site will be used to house Ukrainian families and accommodate staff.

No doubt many sleepless nights are ahead for those business owners, as they wonder if they are next to be the target of an escalating pattern of arson or attempted arson attacks on properties in Ireland earmarked for asylum seeker accommodation.

In 2023, there were 10 arson attacks on properties around the country, all on properties either earmarked, or already in use, for accommodation of asylum seekers. Two of these occurred during the violence in Dublin on November 23, a further escalation in anti-migrant tensions that have been too long allowed to fester in Ireland.

Its utterly shameful that we, so long persecuted and stereotyped abroad, would visit the same on those fleeing to Ireland. ne would think the generations of experiencing migration would have induced compassion, particularly in those who emigrated in their youth for some years and then returned home to Ireland to settle down.

The blatant hypocrisy among the far-right is compounded even further considering some of its self-proclaimed leaders emigrated and worked abroad before returning to Ireland.

Such a double standard would be laughable if it wasnt so dangerous. And therein lies a key problem in dealing with the far-right in Ireland, be they anti-migrant, anti-abortion or anti-LGBT.

Their antics are often so utterly ridiculous, like the many tantrums of Enoch Burke and his family in the Court of Appeal or the Sovereign Voyage to protect childhood on the Shannon river organised by the far-right in August, that they distract from the real harm these people would wish upon some of the most vulnerable people in the State.

Ireland is not full, its just led by a government who are incapable of dealing quickly and effectively with rising migrant and asylum seeker numbers, or the housing crisis which they allowed to develop unchecked (and which is now compounding the problem).

Its also full of hypocritical blowhards who are exploiting fear and genuine concerns for their own gain and profit, no matter the cost.
The family of an Irish soldier killed by the IRA has welcomed proposed law changes that would impose fines for the unauthorised use of the Irish title of the Defence Forces, Oglaigh na hEireann.

Several paramilitary groups across Ireland, including the Provisional IRA, have also referred to themselves as Oglaigh na hEireann.

Additionally, Sinn Fein has used the term Oglach to describe individual members of the Provisional IRA.

Under the General Scheme of the Defence Amendment Bill 2023, which has been approved by the Government, it will become an offence for a person to use the term Oglaigh na hEireann for any group unless they have the authority of the Minister for Defence.

A person who commits an offence under this new provision could be fined a maximum of 1,000 euros.

The phrase, or any words closely resembling the term, will not be allowed for use as the name, title, description or styling of any group, organisation or body without ministerial approval.

The proposal follows a Bill brought forward by Senator Malcolm Byrne in 2021, which would have protected the contemporary usage of the title Oglaigh na hEireann for the Defence Forces.

Mr Byrne said the Bill would have protected where the term is used in a historical context but would not permit paramilitary organisations to misuse the name.

David Kelly, whose father was one of two members of the Irish security forces killed by the Provisional IRA during a rescue mission 40 years ago, said its use by the IRA and Sinn Fein is insulting to those killed during the Troubles.

On December 16 1983, Private Patrick Kelly and garda recruit Gary Sheehan were killed in Derrada Wood, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, during an operation to rescue Quinnsworth supermarket executive Don Tidey, who had been kidnapped for 23 days in Dublin.

Mr Tidey exited the ordeal physically unharmed.

Speaking to the PA news agency on Monday, Mr Kelly said his family is re-traumatised by the use of the phrase by unofficial groups.

It is re-traumatising to hear people being recognised as Oglaigh na hEireann and Oglach because my fathers murderers are still walking free, they have been getting away with murder for 40 years.

And at the same time, weve been sitting here with an empty chair at the table for 40 years.

He added: Ive always felt its an insult. Not only to my father who, in brutal reality, was gunned down in a vicious manner alongside a garda.

But its also an insult to the Defence Forces who served with him that day, some of them were taken hostage and used as human shields. Its an insult to the entire Defence Forces who have been loyal to the State since independence.

Also, I would say, ultimately, it is an insult to the Irish people. The Defence Forces are protecting our democratic institutions of the Republic of Ireland.

At the time, the provisional movement didnt recognise our Government, parliament, court system and our security forces.

Mr Kelly said his family really welcomes the move.

He was a member of the legal, legitimate Oglaigh na hEireann and it was a unique case because he was the only member of the Irish Army murdered during the Troubles.

But he was actually murdered by an organisation who claimed that they were the true Oglaigh na hEireann.

At the time, they would have seen my father as a pretender and would have disparagingly referred to the Irish Defence Forces as the 26-County Forces.

He added: Not only were they claiming to be Oglaigh na hEireann, they killed a member of the true Oglaigh na hEireann in Derrada Woods. Our lives have been blighted by it, courtesy of this group.

The South East Fermanagh Foundation victims group said it was encouraged that the Irish Government was moving towards deterring wanton misuse of the term.

SEFF director Kenny Donaldson said: There is one Oglaigh na hEireann and that is the official Irish Army of Ireland, the name has been misused over many years by The Provisional IRA, in both Ireland and Northern Ireland.

He added: This reclaiming of language must act as the launch pad for me to be done around the wilful glorification and glamorisation of terrorism and political violence connected with The Troubles period on both sides of our border and indeed throughout the United Kingdom and further afield.

The Defence Amendment Bill 2023, which is due before the Oireachtas this year, is intended to give effect to a key recommendation of the Independent Review Group on Dignity and Equality issues in the Defence Forces in relation to the establishment of an External Oversight Body.

It will also look at the issue of associate membership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for Defence Forces representative associations, which Mr Byrne has previously raised.
Chairman of the Cambodian People's Party Samdech Techo Hun Sen (C) chairs the meeting (Photo: VNA)

Speaking at a meeting to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Cambodian people and army's victory in overthrowing the genocidal regime (January 7, 1979-2024) held by the CPP in Phnom Penh, Eysan affirmed that this is a historic event for the Cambodian people and closely associated to Vietnam - its neighbour.

All the Cambodian people always understand and grateful to the sincere support of the Vietnamese volunteer army, Party and State for Cambodia in their hardest time, he said.

In localities of Cambodia, there are memorial monuments for the common victory, which was made by the strength and great solidarity between Cambodia and the Vietnamese army, he noted.

Sok Eysan, a spokesman of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) (L), in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency. (Photo: VNA)

We will never forget the contributions by the Vietnamese volunteer army, the Party and State of Vietnam, who helped Cambodia get free from the genocidal regime, Eysan said, affirming that his country considers this an unforgettable historical truth of Cambodia.

Speaking at the meeting, CPP Chairman Hun Sen said this year's event took place in the context that Cambodia has continued to reap many new achievements in various fields, and it has been progressing with self confidence on the path of peace, democracy, rule of the law, and development.

He also affirmed the holding of the ceremony was conducted in the spirit of keeping in mind the tragedy caused by the genocidal regime to the country and people of Cambodia, and forever keeping in mind the noble contributions by members of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation and Vietnamese volunteer soldiers to the toppling of the Pol Pot genocidal regime and the prevention of its return.

Uch Leang, Deputy Director of the Department of Asian, African, and Middle-East Studies under the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, said that the victory was a historical event that demonstrated the spirit of international solidarity between the peoples and armies of Cambodia and Vietnam, opening up a new page in the neighbourly relations and friendship between the two countries.

According to him, through the successful implementation of the win-win cooperation policy in the spirit of national solidarity and unity, the Cambodian government has concluded the persistent war, restored and preserved peace and security for the people.

History professor Sombo Manara from Cambodia's Panasastra University in Phnom Penh also praised the role of the Vietnamese Party, State, people and volunteers in the event, saying that from the human perspective, the assistance helped rescue the Cambodian people from being killed by the genocidal regime.

Forty-five years ago, on January 7, 1979, patriotic forces gathered with the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (KUFNS), with the support of Vietnamese volunteer troops, liberated Phnom Penh, overthrowing the regime, promptly rescuing millions of Cambodians from genocide.

This important historical event marked the moment of revival of the country and people of Cambodia under the brutal genocidal regime which killed nearly 3 million Cambodian civilians - a quarter of the country's population at that time - and pushed Cambodia to the brink of perdition./.
Diane Joyce at Stuff reports:

An outspoken judge has jailed a man for 28 days for swearing at him from the public gallery, saying he's had enough of criminals and their supporters being rude and arrogant.

Judge Tony Adeane, a district court judge working in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne, said Gisborne had a particular problem with bad behaviour in court, after he jailed the man for abusing him.

Chief District Court Judge Russell Johnson said yesterday that members of the public yelling out to a judge was relatively new.

However, Law Society president Jonathan Temm said such behaviour had become par for the course in many courts, although it remained very uncommon for someone to be jailed for abusing a judge.
Are we doing our best to save our rich soil from erosion?
Speaker Rosen Dimitrov Jeliazkov presents the Bulgarian NAs certificates of merit to six Vietnamese individuals (Photo: VNA)

On this occasion, Speaker Rosen Dimitrov Jeliazkov awarded the Bulgarian NAs certificates of merit to six Vietnamese individuals with outstanding achievements in the people-to-people diplomacy and important contributions to the two countries friendship and solidarity.

In the 1950-1980 period, there are around 30,000 Vietnamese people who studied and worked in Bulgaria.

He emphasized that these people are important factors ensuring the success of bilateral collaboration in the process of promoting cooperation between the two countries, expressing his hope that this community will bring their affection, knowledge, and experience from studying and working in Bulgaria to further tighten the Bulgaria-Vietnam friendship and cooperation.

The Speaker said that Bulgaria and Vietnam have huge potential for cooperation in the fields of economics, culture and education. Bulgaria can be a gateway for Vietnam to approach the European market and vice versa, and the latter a bridge for the former to access the ASEAN market.

Speaking at the event, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam-Bulgaria Friendship Association Nguyen Truong Son said Vietnamese people who used to study and work in Bulgaria always bear in mind the support of the Government and people of Bulgaria./.
President Joe Biden will deliver the annual State of the Union address on March 7.
Children from south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region meet with penguins as they visit the Harbin Polarpark in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 6, 2024. These cute kids, nicknamed "little sugar tangerines" (a specialty produce of Guangxi) by netizens in China, have attracted millions of eyes during their trip to the northeast part of the country. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

Children from south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region meet with penguins as they visit the Harbin Polarpark in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 6, 2024. These cute kids, nicknamed "little sugar tangerines" (a specialty produce of Guangxi) by netizens in China, have attracted millions of eyes during their trip to the northeast part of the country. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

Children from south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region meet with penguins as they visit the Harbin Polarpark in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 6, 2024. These cute kids, nicknamed "little sugar tangerines" (a specialty produce of Guangxi) by netizens in China, have attracted millions of eyes during their trip to the northeast part of the country. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

Children from south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region meet with penguins as they visit the Harbin Polarpark in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 6, 2024. These cute kids, nicknamed "little sugar tangerines" (a specialty produce of Guangxi) by netizens in China, have attracted millions of eyes during their trip to the northeast part of the country. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

Children from south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region meet with penguins as they visit the Harbin Polarpark in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 6, 2024. These cute kids, nicknamed "little sugar tangerines" (a specialty produce of Guangxi) by netizens in China, have attracted millions of eyes during their trip to the northeast part of the country. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

Children from south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region meet with penguins as they visit the Harbin Polarpark in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 6, 2024. These cute kids, nicknamed "little sugar tangerines" (a specialty produce of Guangxi) by netizens in China, have attracted millions of eyes during their trip to the northeast part of the country. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

Editor: JYZ
Missing part of Alaska Airlines plane is found in Portland, Oregon, NTSB says, as new details emerge about the aircraft
In a surprising turn of events, iconic BTS-related sculptures and murals across the nation are facing the threat of removal, following an official demand from BTS's management company, Hive. The catalyst for this upheaval is an alleged infringement of intellectual property rights associated with the installations.

Samcheok City Takes Drastic Measures in Response to Hive's Directive

Reportedly, Samcheok City has made the decision to demolish the BTS photo zone sculpture and information sign located at Maengbang Beach.

This response comes after Hive sent an official letter to the local government on December 21 last year, explicitly requesting the removal of all BTS-related sculptures within the city. Despite attempted negotiations, the situation reached an impasse, resulting in the loss of what was considered a crucial tourist attraction.

BTS has left an indelible mark on various locations nationwide, turning them into pilgrimage sites for fans. Maengbang Beach, renowned as the backdrop for the jacket of BTS' hit song 'Butter,' is just one example.

Other notable spots include Hyangho Beach in Gangneung City and the 'BTS Lighthouse' in Gyeongjeonghyang, Yeongdeok, Gyeongsangbuk-do. Even vibrant mural streets dedicated to BTS members V and Suga in cities like Daegu are now facing potential demolition due to Hive's legal demands.

READ ALSO: KCON 2014: BTS Were The Breakout Stars Of KCON

Hive's Firm Stance on Intellectual Property Rights

Hive's insistence on protecting BTS's intellectual property rights has led to the call for the removal of these landmarks.

A local government official revealed, "BTS's agency, Hive, sent an official document, citing potential legal issues and banning the use of these sites due to intellectual property rights infringement." Despite attempts at negotiation, the local government had no option but to comply with Hive's directive.

Controversy and Local Government Dissent

While some local governments argue that their installations were created for the public interest and to attract fans visiting BTS-inspired locations, Hive remains resolute in its demand for the removal of these structures.

Hive officials stress the importance of a 'principled response' to prevent the unchecked use of BTS's intellectual property by local governments.

If Samcheok City proceeds with the demolition of the BTS sculpture this week, there is a looming possibility that other local governments may follow suit.

An official from a local government with a BTS-related tourist site expressed concerns about the potential impact on local tourism and urged for an agreement on continuous management conditions.

The controversy surrounding the removal of BTS landmarks continues to unfold, leaving fans and local authorities grappling with the implications of these unforeseen developments.

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For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Cassidy Jones.
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Voters queue up at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate. (Xinhua)

DHAKA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament.

The voting started at 8:00 a.m. local time at over 42,000 polling centers nationwide and will continue without any break until 4:00 p.m. local time.

According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate.

Meanwhile, the candidates include 1,534 from political parties and 436 independents.

There are nearly 120 million registered voters in the South Asian country. The counting of votes will be done on the spot soon after the voting is concluded.

In order to facilitate the voting process, a public holiday has been declared across the country.

In Bangladesh, a party can only form the government if it manages to clinch 151 seats in total.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is seeking a fourth consecutive term in the country of 170 million population.

Female voters wait in line outside a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate. (Xinhua)

A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate. (Xinhua)

A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate. (Xinhua)

A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate. (Xinhua)

Voters queue up at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate. (Xinhua)

Voters queue up at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate. (Xinhua)

Voters check voting-related information on a bulletin board at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate. (Xinhua)

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina casts her ballot at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate. (PID/Handout via Xinhua)

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (2nd, L) holds a media briefing at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate. (PID/Handout via Xinhua)

Editor: WXL
VMPL

New Delhi [India], January 8: The Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur (IIT Jodhpur) in collaboration with the University of Tulsa, USA is organizing the 20th Annual IFIP WG 11.9 International Conference on Digital Forensics in New Delhi on January 4 - 5, 2020 at Eros Hotel.

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The conference is attended by prominent people from various investigative agencies including forensic labs, academicians, researchers, law enforcement personnel and government officials and participation from 15 countries (including USA, UK, Sweden, South Africa, Hong Kong and Australia) around the world. The two-day conference comprises of 7 sessions where 15 research papers will be presented on topics like Deepfakes, Digital Forensic Models, Network Forensics, Digital Forensic Tools and Techniques, Cloud Forensics, Mobile and Embedded Device Forensics, Industrial Control System and Forensics.

The keynote lectures are delivered by experts including Lt. Gen. M. Unnikrishnan Nair, National Cyber Security Coordinator, National Security Council Secretariat, Government of India, New Delhi, India on "Digital Forensics: Visions and Directions"; and Dr. Gaurav Gupta, Additional Director and Scientist E, Ministry of Electronics, and Information Technology (MeitY) on "Evolving Digital Forensics Echosystem". Lt Col (Dr.) Santosh Khadsare - eSec Forte Technologies while welcoming keynotes emphasized the need of atmanirbharta (indigenous development of products) of digital forensic infrastructure.

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Talking about the conference, Dr. Gaurav Gupta, General Chair of the conference and Additional Director/Scientist 'E' at Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) said "Since criminals are most creative but lazy people on earth, these traits can be used to develop the solutions to tackle the menace of computer frauds and cyber-crimes. This conference will serve as the platform for researchers and practitioners from all around the world to showcase their novel research work targeted towards that goal. The country needs Digital Forensic Mission to develop the ecosystem to ensure people trust in digital technologies".

Dr. Somitra Kr Sanadhya, the Organizing Chair of the conference and Professor (CSE), Dean (Digital Transformation) and Chief Information Security Officer Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT - Jodhpur has contributed immensely in organizing the conference. Talking about his work and the conference, Prof. Somitra said "My area of work is centered around Computer Security; and Digital Forensics is an emerging field which promises to deliver solutions that could benefit law enforcement agencies to speed up investigation of cases that involve electronic evidence. My aim in being associated with organization of the 20th International Conference on Digital Forensics is to introduce Indian students interested in pursuing research in the field of Digital Forensics to the top-notch research happening in this area."

Kottaram V Ramesh, Managing Director, and Chief Vision Officer, INGU's Knowledge Academy Private Limited during his address emphasized the need to develop nurtured talent in Digital Forensics in the country beginning from colleges and institutions.

The IFIP Working Group 11.9 on Digital Forensics is an active international community of scientists, engineers, and practitioners dedicated to advancing the state of the art of research and practice in the important field of digital forensics. The 20th Annual IFIP WG 11.9 International Conference on Digital Forensics will provide a forum for presenting original, unpublished research results and innovative ideas related to the extraction, analysis, and preservation of all forms of electronic evidence. The relevance and connect between 20thIFIP WG 11.9 International Conference on Digital Forensics with the aim and mission of MeitY is promotion of research efforts in the new and interesting field of Digital Forensics. Digital Forensics research outputs are directly related to the development of secure solutions for computer systems and cyber space.

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New Delhi [India], January 8 (ANI): The Congress party will hold a meeting with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab's Amritsar on Monday to discuss the seat-sharing formula for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier today, the Congress incharge for Punjab, Devender Yadav arrived in Amritsar and said that all the discussions will be held in the meeting.

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"Our all leadership is here. We will have a discussion in the meeting and speak only after that," he said.

Meanwhile, AAP MP Sandeep Pathak said that "not just Delhi but there will be discussion on all those states where the Aam Aadmi Party has elected representatives and organizations."

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Congress leader Abhishek Dutt said that we will fight unitedly and win.

"INDIA Alliance will win all 7 seats in Delhi...Businessmen are fed up with the current (central) govt and their policies...We will fight unitedly and win," Dutt added,

Moreover, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit reacted to the seat-sharing between AAP and Congress for Lok Sabha elections and said that all the details should be decided as soon as possible so that we can also prepare for it.

"Our national leadership knows our opinion...Our conflicts with AAP are with respect to the Delhi government...It will be decided later if there will be an alliance, if it happens then who'll contest which seats? I just hope that if an alliance happens then its details should be decided as soon as possible so that we can also prepare for it," Dikshit said.

Earlier on Sunday, Congress held a National Alliance Committee (NAC) meeting to discuss the seat-sharing formula in Bihar in the national capital.

Congress National Alliance Committee members Ashok Gehlot and Salman Khurshid were also present.

The Congress formed the five-member NAC, with Mukul Wasnik as convenor and veteran leaders including former chief ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel, former Union minister Salman Khurshid, and Mohan Prakash as members.

The committee is tasked with examining various aspects of forming alliances with other political entities in the lead-up to the 2024 general elections.

As the 2024 Lok Sabha elections loom just four months away, the allocation of seats becomes pivotal for the Congress, especially after recent electoral setbacks. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jaipur, January 8: Counting of votes for the Karanpur assembly seat, where polling was deferred due to the death of a candidate, commenced at 8 am Monday. The final tally will decide the fate of several candidates, one of whom is BJP's Surendra Pal Singh, who has more at stake than just this seat.

Counting is underway on 17 counters at Dr Bheemrao Ambedkar Government College in Sriganganagar, the district under which the constituency comes.

The seat went under polling on Friday, recording a voter turnout of 81.38 per cent. Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said that counting of EVMs will be done on 14 tables. Two tables have been set up for the counting of postal ballots, in addition to one kept for counting electronically transmitted postal ballots. Karanpur Assembly Election 2024: Over 40% Voter Turnout in Rajasthan Poll Till Early Afternoon.

The election for the seat was postponed due to the death of the Congress candidate and then MLA Gurmeet Singh Koonar. Koonar's son, Rupinder Singh, was fielded by the Congress from the seat. Surendra Pal Singh was inducted into the Rajasthan ministry after the BJP won the assembly polls, bagging 115 of the 199 seats. The Congress criticised his induction in the ministry, terming it a violation of the model code of conduct. Karanpur Assembly Election 2024: Rajasthan Congress fields Rupinder Singh Kunnar from Karanpur seat.

As per rules, Surendra Pal Singh has six months to get elected as an MLA since his induction as a minister. In the Rajasthan assembly polls held on November 25, BJP won 115 seats and Congress 69. BJP's Bhajanlal Sharma took oath as Chief Minister on December 15. Newly elected MLAs Diya Kumari and Premchand Bairwa were made deputy chief ministers.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], January 8 (ANI): Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday arrived at Rajpipla jail in Gujarat's Narmada to meet jailed party MLA Chaitar Vasava whom the party has declared its candidate from the Bharuch seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls a day earlier.

On his arrival the Delhi CM attacked the Gujarat government for the arrest of Chaitar Vasava.

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"Chaitar Vasava, his wife and daughter-in-law of tribal community have been arrested by the BJP government of Gujarat in a fake case. There is a lot of anger in the tribal society. Chaitra Vasava has been fighting for his people's water, forests, land, schools and hospitals. People will take revenge for his arrest and uproot BJP from Gujarat" Kejriwal said.

A local court in Dediapada in Narmada district on December 18 sent Chaitar to judicial custody at the end of the three-day police remand in the November 2 case of alleged extortion and assault of forest officials.

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Chaitar surrendered on December 14 and also moved a bail plea in court on December 18 but it was rejected.

Kejriwal, while addressing the rally, appealed to the people to ensure the victory of Chaitra Vasava in the Lok Sabha elections. Kejriwal had erlier proposed Vasava's name as the Lok Sabha candidate from Bahruch. Vasava currently MLA from the Dediapada assembly of Bharuch, is in jail.

He challenged the BJP to "cage a lion" like Vasava.

Kejriwal said the AAP has "engaged the most expensive and topmost" lawyers of the country to argue the bail pleas of the Gujarat AAP working president and his wife Shakuntala in the Supreme Court in the alleged extortion case.

"Chetar Vasava is in jail but now he will be the candidate for the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat. No other party has yet started the process for its candidate in Bharuch, but the AAP party announced its candidate in Sunday's meeting," he said.

In the previous Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured victory in all 26 seats in Gujarat.

However, the AAP opened its account in Gujarat in the state assembly polls, which were held in 2022, with five of its leaders securing a comfortable win. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) A court here on Monday reserved its order on the bail application of Hari Om Rai, the managing director of Lava International Company arrested in a money laundering case against Chinese smartphone-maker Vivo.

Additional Sessions Judge Kiran Gupta reserved the order for January 12 after hearing the arguments of the counsels appearing for the accused and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

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Senior advocate Vikaram Chaudhari and advocate Nitesh Rana, appearing for Rai, told the court that he has several medical ailments, and due to these, "keeping him in jail might be disastrous".

"Although the doctors in jail are good, but keeping him there will worsen his condition," the court was told by the advocates.

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The application was opposed by the ED. The agency said that if released on bail, the accused may tamper with evidence or influence witnesses.

Rana had earlier told the court that though Rai's company and Vivo were in talks to launch a joint venture in India a decade ago, he had nothing to do with the Chinese firm or its representatives since 2014.

He further told the judge that the accused had no direct or indirect control over Vivo's business.

Rai has been arrested with a few others under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The ED has alleged that Vivo "illegally" transferred Rs 62,476 crore to China in order to avoid payment of taxes in India.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bengaluru, Jan 8 (PTI) The premises of Karnataka Congress MLA K Y Nanjegowda and some of his linked entities were raided on Monday morning by the Enforcement Directorate as part of a money laundering investigation, official sources said.

The 61-year-old legislator represents the Malur seat in the Karnataka assembly.

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The searches are covering his premises and some of his linked entities in Malur and Kolar districts as part of a investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.

The ED case is understood to have been filed on the basis of some local police FIRs.

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Nanjegowda is also the president of the Kolar-Chikkaballapur Milk Union Ltd.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
PJSC Ukrnafta and the local authorities of Boryslav, Lviv region, installed a 30 kW solar power plant worth almost UAH 2 million on the roof of the city hospital, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities Services reported.

As noted in its message on Telegram, Ukrnafta allocated UAH 1 million for the installation of solar panels on the roof of the hospital, the remaining funds - approximately UAH 835,000 were additionally financed from the city budget for the installation of batteries with a capacity of 40 kWh.

The committee noted that the idea of installing a solar power plant on the roof of the Boryslav hospital as part of social support for the region where Ukrnafta operates was proposed by its chairman Andriy Gerus during an off-site meeting on the state and prospects of oil production in Ukraine. According to Gerus, this is a very useful and financially beneficial project for the city.

The committee clarified that the plant was put into operation in January of this year. The video below the committees message notes that the projects payback is about a year.

Boryslav City Council noted on its Facebook that the solar power plant, which opened on January 7, would produce approximately 25,000 kWh per year, which will save up to 35% of the electricity required for the operation of the building.

Before installing the panels, a roof covering an area of more than 750 square meters was covered with euro-roofing felt using funds from the city budget and repaired.

According to a report in ProZorro on a purchase agreement concluded without the use of an electronic procurement system, the installation of a rooftop hybrid solar power plant with a ballast mounting system on the building of the central city hospital of Boryslav was carried out by an individual entrepreneur during December 2023. The contract price is UAH 1.490 million, of which UAH 835,446 are local budget funds, UAH 654,983 are non-repayable financial charitable assistance.
Imphal, Jan 8 (PTI) There was a fresh exchange of fire between Manipur police and militants at Moreh border town along the Indo-Myanmar border on Monday morning, officials said.

According to officials, militants targeted security forces when they were moving through certain pockets of Moreh town.

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"Mortar shells were used by the militants during the attack on security forces," they said, adding no casualties were reported on either side.

On Sunday night, firing was reported at Ward 7 and Moreh Bazar. Militants also used bombs to target security forces, they added.

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(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], January 8 (ANI): The Delhi High Court expressed its displeasure over a tweet posted by YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh saying that he put his video related to Gurmeet Ram Rahim in private mode out of compulsion. The high court also warned him of contempt if it was repeated in the future.

In the last hearing, the Delhi High Court was told by YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh that he would put the video against Gurmeet Ram Rahim in private mode until Monday.

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During the hearing on Monday, Justice Jasmeet Singh expressed his displeasure over Singh's tweet, saying that he put his video in private mode in "majboori" (compulsion).

Justice Singh said, "The court had not compelled him to put the video in private mode. It was a statement made by your counsel. I will initiate contempt proceedings if it is repeated in the future."

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"Please try to understand that there is a dignity to the Court. You can not take the court lightly. Courts do not compel anyone to do anything," Justice Singh said.

Senior advocate Mohit Mathur appeared for Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and submitted that even after the last orders, Shyam Meera Singh had posted certain tweets.

The bench examined the content of the tweet and said, "It is unfair. Please try to understand that the court is competent enough to pass any order about the merits of the case. We do not coerce anyone to do anything."

During the hearing, Shyam Meera Singh was also present in court.

The matter has been listed for hearing on January 10, as senior advocate Salman Khurshid was not available on Monday.

The bench had asked the parties to sit together and arrive at a solution.

The bench had also asked the counsel for Gurmeet Ram Rahim to point out the offensive or defamatory part of the video and tell the counsel for Singh. He may consider changing or deleting those portions.

Earlier, Youtuber Shyam Meera Singh, on December 30, 2023, assured the Delhi High Court that he would delete the tweets he made yesterday against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim.

The Delhi High Court is hearing a suit filed by Gurmeet Ram Rahim seeking a stay and deletion of a video on YouTube uploaded by YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh.

Vacation Bench had directed Syam Meera Singh to delete the tweets made by him after filing the petition yesterday.

The bench said, "Tweets are defamatory and contemptuous. Delete these tweets. I want your client and your client to be responsible. He needs to be responsible if he is a journalist. And no further tweets until the matter is sub-judice."

Advocate Kapil Madan and Advocate Gurmukh Singh assured the court the tweets will be deleted today itself. There will be no further tweets till the matter is sub judice.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has sued Shyam Meera Singh and sought direction to Singh to delete the video uploaded by him related to Gurmeet Ram Rahim

The bench had issued notice and also directed that the soft copy of the video contained in the pen drive be filed. Let it be directed to be part of the record, the court said.

Counsel for Singh submitted that the suit is not maintainable at all as the same is not attested by the superintendent of the Jail. How it is possible for a person who is in jail to see the video on YouTube?

The court asked, Can he pull it down from his channel? He can take out the video until the next date.

The counsel for Singh submitted that the question is whether the video is defamatory or not.

It will set a bad precedent. If it is taken down, the video uploaded by a journalist, counsel Gurmukh Singh for Singh, argued.

On the other hand, Sr. Advocate Mohit Mathur argued that it would prejudice the reputation of the plaintiff until the video was available on YouTube.

We only have to see whether it is defamatory or not, the bench said.

Sr. Advocate Mathur argued that Singh is disclosing the identity of the victims, which is a crime.

The bench said to the counsel for Singh that it is objectionable the way your client is tweeting.

The council also said that the suit is not maintainable. I am not sure which part is defamatory. An advance copy was not supplied.

"You are served; you are appearing; you are tweeting," the court said.

Advocate Madan submitted that the counsel for the plaintiff is not able to show which part is defamatory. My only request is to have it after reopening.

The court asked the counsel to take it down until the next date.

It will be an infringement on the rights of my client. I am asking only for some days to file my response. It requires a detailed hearing. Give me three days, and I will respond, said the counsel.

While opposing the submissions, Sr. Advocate Mathur read over the transcription of the video in question, in which a book written by another Anurag Tripathi was referred to.

Advocate Madan submitted that Singh is not the author of the book. Anurag Tripathi is the author of the book.

Sr. Counsel Mathur argued Despite the filing of the petition and the issuance of notice, several tweets by Singh are not only objectionable but also contemptuous.

At this point, advocate Kapil Madan has submitted that they will delete it today itself.

The court directed the counsel to delete the same today itself.

Advocate Kapil Madan submitted that Singh was referring to the book titled 'Dera Sacha Sauda' by Anurag Tripathi.

If you are reporting or referring something you need to verify, Sr. Counsel Mathur rebutted.

Kapil Madan submitted I am free to practice my profession as a journalist. It is well within their right to make this author a party. It is available on Amazon. This book was published in 2018.

The Delhi High Court issued notice on December 29, 2023, on a suit for injunction filed by Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim against Youtuber Shyam Meera Singh. Gurmeet Ram Rahim has sought direction for the deletion of a video uploaded by Singh.

He has also sought direction from Shyam Meera Singh to delete the video in question.

It is alleged that the respondent Singh uploaded a video on YouTube titled 'How Ram Rahim made a fool of his followers'.

The alleged video was uploaded on December 17. Before moving to the High Court a legal notice was also served upon Singh. Despite this, Singh refused to take down the video, the counsel further submitted.

Counsel for Ram Rahim had submitted before the bench that the video in question is defamatory and disparaging.

It was argued by the counsel that Singh is a habitual offender and an FIR was lodged in Uttar Pradesh against him for insulting the UP Chief Minister.

Earlier, Singh was with a news channel and he was fired, the counsel claimed.

Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim is serving a jail term for rape. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], January 8 (ANI): In line with the preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold a meeting of party leaders in Bengaluru, Karnataka today.

In the meeting, Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh, Union Minister Prahlad Joshi and Karnataka former Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai will be present.

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Earlier on December 28, Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president BY Vijayendra held a meeting with senior leaders of the party in Bengaluru ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Former Chief Ministers BS Yeddyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai and senior leaders including KS Eshwarappa and Ashwath Narayan attended the meeting.

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The BJP suffered a major electoral defeat in 2023 in the Karnataka assembly elections, thereby losing the only state the party ruled in south India.

The Congress bagged 135 out of 224 seats in the state legislative assembly with a 43.2 per cent vote share. The BJP was reduced to 66 seats with a vote share of 36.3 per cent.

The evolving political narrative in India will play a crucial role in influencing the upcoming elections, necessitating scrutiny.

Earlier in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA won 353 seats, the UPA stood at 91, and Others won 98. The voting was staggered in seven phases between April 11 and May 19, in which around 67 per cent of the nearly 900 million eligible people exercised their franchise to elect 542 members of the Lok Sabha.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held this year and that is likely to be between the Modi government's NDA alliance and the INDIA bloc. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Thiruvarur, January 8: A 9-year-old girl died while his brother was left injured after a wall of a house fell on them in Tamil Nadu's Thiruvarur district, police said, adding that the house collapse was triggered by heavy rains. The incident occurred in a village near Nannilam, a town in Tamil Nadu, on Sunday evening, when the duo were asleep in their house, believed to be in dilapidated condition.

The brother of the deceased, identified by the police as Mohandas, is undergoing treatment at Nannilam Government Hospital, as per the police.

The deceased has been identified as Monisha. According to a Nannilam Police official, "Monisha and her brother went to sleep after having their dinner. It was raining heavily, triggering the wall of their house, believed to be in dilapidated condition, to collapse on them. Monisha sustained severe injuries in her head, while her brother also got injured." Tamil Nadu Roof Collapse: Four of Family Killed After Portion of Roof Collapses While They Were Sleeping.

The police said that their father immediately rushed both of them to Nannilam Government Hospital, from where Monisha was transferred to Thiruvarur Government Hospital, where doctors said she was brought dead on arrival, police added. Nannilam Police are investigating the matter.

Rainfall has lashed several districts of the state since last night; the North and Delta Districts received moderate to heavy rainfall. Meanwhile, the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai has forecasted rains over various districts in Tamil Nadu for the next seven days. "Heavy rain is likely to occur at isolated places over Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai, Ranipet, Vellore, Tiruvallur, Chennai, Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi, and Tirunelveli districts and Puducherry," it said on Sunday. Tamil Nadu Shocker: 16 Students Injured as Tree Collapses in Government School in Madurai (Watch Video).

Earlier on Saturday, heavy rainfall in the Western Ghats caused a flash flood at the Old Courtallam Falls at the foothills of the mountain range in Tamil Nadu's Tenkasi. Tamil Nadu has witnessed unprecedented rains this year. At first, Cyclone Michaung brought heavy rains to Chennai and surrounding districts, leaving a destruction trail. Recently, Tamil Nadu's southern districts witnessed heavy rainfalls.

Due to the rains, the state has incurred heavy losses of public and private property, running into crores. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin sought Rs 12,000 crore in central assistance and Rs 7,300 crore of immediate relief for the damages in the flood.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], January 8 (ANI): While presiding over a meeting of Health Department here today, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that use of modern technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) would be ensured to strengthen health services in the State, according to an official statement from the Himachal Pradesh government.

The Chief Minister said that the state government was working on a large scale to ensure the use of AI in various fields. He said that State Government was contemplating to create AI Ministry in the State to give boost to this sector, added the statement.

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The CM said that Himachal Pradesh would be the first State in the country to take such kind of ambitious initiative.

Sukhu further said that the state government was going to establish a National Cancer Center in Hamirpur. For this, all the processes are being completed in a phased manner. This center will have departments of Hospital (Diagnostics, Surgery, Radiotherapy and Medical Oncology), Palliative Care, Center for Preventive Oncology and Center for Molecular Oncology.

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He said that use of high-end technology would be ensured in this center and a world-class diagnostic lab will be established to facilitate the patients. He said that the best health facilities would be provided to the patients by using many new technologies, including molecular oncology.

The state government would also strengthen the existing cancer care units in the State. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], January 8 (ANI): Raidurgam police, under the Cyberabad Police commissionerate, nabbed a notorious ransom kidnap gang. The gang was involved in 23 cases in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Six persons were arrested, including a woman, while two accused absconded, efforts to nab them is underway, said the police.

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The accused were identified as Gunjapogu Suresh, Ballipara Venkata Krishna, Gurram Nikitha, Ramagalla Raju and Shinde Rohith. Two accused Chandu and Venkat absconded, and efforts to nab both of them are underway.

The accused Gunjapogu Suresh resident of Attapur, Hyderabad is the most notorious criminal of the gang. He started crime in the year 2011 when he was a minor, aged 16 years. He got involved in many theft, robbery and kidnap cases for ransom in Telangana.

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The victim Gurram Surendar in the ongoing case was identified as the cousin of the third accused, Gurram Nikitha. The intricate web of connections extends to the workplace, Fabricon in Gachibowli, where the second accused, Ballipara Venkatakrishna, and Gurram Nikitha, forged a relationship that evolved into a romantic entanglement.

Nikitha suggested kidnapping her cousin Gurram Surendar who recently purchased a new home in Hyderabad as a ransom target due to his financial stability.

Gunjapogu Suresh and Ballipata Venkatakrishna asked Nikitha to bring the victim to a nearby location. Nikitha called the victim, Surendar, to Khajaguda Lake Road on January 4, 2024, to discuss a personal matter. Unaware of Nikitha's criminal conspiracy, Surendar arrived at the location where all of the accused forcefully kidnapped him into a car and left the scene, according to the police.

Following their plan, Nikitha went to the Raidurgam police station under Cyberabad commissionerate and filed a kidnapping complaint to appear innocent. During the execution, Suresh contacted the victim's wife, initially demanding Rs. 2 crores but subsequently reduced the ransom demand to Rs. 20 lakhs.

Based on credible information, Raidurgam Police apprehended the accused and brought them to the police station on January 6, 2024. The accused confessed to their guilt after a series of interrogations. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) Prominent Muslim organisation Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind on Monday hailed the Supreme Court's quashing of the remission granted by the Gujarat government to 11 convicts in the gang-rape case of Bilkis Bano, saying the verdict will strengthen people's confidence in the judiciary.

Both the factions of the Jamiat praised the verdict and lauded the judiciary.

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Maulana Arshad Madani, president of one of the Jamiat factions, welcomed the verdict and termed it "exemplary".

"This will strengthen the confidence of common citizens, especially the minorities of the country, towards the Supreme Court," Arshad Madani said.

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He congratulated all those people who took this matter to the Supreme Court and fought the legal battle with strength.

Maulana Mahmood Madani, who heads the other faction of the Jamiat, hailed the verdict as preservation of justice and the rule of law.

"This verdict is a significant victory for the rule of law and sends a clear message that justice cannot be compromised under any circumstances," he said in a statement.

"This also reaffirms the commitment of the judiciary to ensure that justice is served impartially and without interference from external pressures. The decision will serve as a lesson for governments to administer justice impartially," Mahmood Madani said.

The Supreme Court also slammed the Gujarat government of being "complicit" with an accused and abusing its discretion.

It ordered all the convicts, who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, back to jail within two weeks.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Meerut (UP), Jan 8 (PTI) Samajwadi Party leader Mukesh Siddharth, who recently made controversial remarks against Uttar Pradesh minister Somendra Tomar, has been arrested, police said on Monday.

Siddharth was arrested late on Sunday night from Delhi for giving a call to "burn" minister Tomar and his house, they said.

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On Monday, Siddharth was produced in a Meerut court which sent him to 14-day judicial custody, Senior Superintendent of Police Rohit Singh Sajwan told PTI.

A case was registered at Civil Lines police station here on Sunday against Siddharth under various IPC sections, including 143 (unlawful assembly) and 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot).

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Meanwhile, while talking to reporters after coming out of the court, Siddharth reiterated his point and said, "I stand by my words. I will not take back my words even if 100 cases are filed against me."

"I will continue to serve the Bahujan community, for this I am ready to bear any oppression," Siddharth, a former vice-chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, said.

During a protest at the Collectorate here on Saturday over alleged thrashing of Dalit councillors of opposition parties in a Meerut Municipal Corporation Board meeting, Siddharth had given a provocative statement against Minister of State for Energy Tomar. A purported video of his statement made during the protest also went viral on social media.

In the video, the SP leader can be heard allegedly saying that "if Minister of State Somendra Tomar is not arrested by January 10, then his house should be burned, his car should be burned, he should be burned...".

Members of the BJP and opposition parties had come to blows during a Meerut Municipal Corporation Board meeting on December 30. BJP and opposition leaders accused each other of starting the clash and filed complaints against each other.

It is alleged that during the meeting, BJP member Dharmendra Bhardwaj was pushed and assaulted by the councillors of the opposition parties, after which the BJP councillors got enraged and attacked some opposition councillors.

SP councillor from Ward 31 Kuldeep alias Kirti Ghopla was allegedly beaten up during the clash. The opposition councillors also accused Bhardwaj and minister Tomar of beating up Dalit councillors.

Rashtriya Lok Dal president Jayant Chaudhary had met the Dalit councillors last week.

Earlier, UP Congress chief Ajay Rai and Azad Samaj Party national president Chandrashekhar Azad had also visited the Dalit councillors.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) Tanla Platforms on Monday announced the appointment of former TRAI Chairman RS Sharma to its board of directors.

With this, the total number of directors on Tanla's board now stands at 7.

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"Tanla Platforms, India's leading CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) player, announced the appointment of former TRAI Chairman Dr RS Sharma to its board of directors, bringing the total number of directors on Tanla's Board to 7," according to a company release.

Sharma was the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) between 2015 and 2020, and his tenure was marked by initiatives promoting net neutrality and consumer rights.

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Over the years, he spearheaded multiple government initiatives. As the chairman of the Empowered Group of COVID Vaccine Administration (EGVAC), Sharma steered the design and rollout of Co-Win - the digital backbone of the vaccination drive in India.

As CEO of the National Health Authority, he was instrumental in implementing two health initiatives of the government, Ayushman Bharat Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) and Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). He was also the Director General and Mission Director of the Aadhaar-issuing body Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) between 2009 and 2013.

Uday Reddy, Founder Chairman and CEO of Tanla, said that Sharma's incredible vision and track record in India's digital transformation journey makes him an invaluable addition to Tanla's board.

"We are excited to learn from his pioneering experiences and advice for the continued success of Tanla Platforms globally," he said.

An Indian Administrative Service officer since 1978, Sharma holds a PhD in Management and Public Policy from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, a Masters in Computer Sciences from the University of California, USA and a Masters in Mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Sharma also holds an LLB degree.

"Tanla is adept at harnessing disruptive technologies. And I see how they have innovated to foster trust in the CPaaS ecosystem. Joining the board of such a forward-thinking technology company is really an opportunity to contribute to nation-building," Sharma said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Jan 8 (AP) An outspoken critic of Cambodia's government who was badly hurt by assailants four months ago has been arrested on a defamation complaint brought by a Cabinet member for comments he posted on Facebook.

The complaint filed by Minister of Labour and Vocational Training Heng Sour against Ny Nak drew sharp criticism from Human Rights Watch, which said it showed that the government of Prime Minister Hun Manet is as repressive as the one that preceded it. Hun Manet in August succeeded his father Hun Sen, who tolerated little opposition while he was in power for 38 years.

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Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director, said that Hun Manet is following closely in the footsteps of his father in restricting the rights to express opinions, join independent organisations, and hold peaceful public protests, and he is suppressing news of these actions by attacking the few remaining independent media outlets operating in the country".

He said that Ny Nak has done nothing that he should be arrested for and called for his release.

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The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday ordered Ny Nak held on charges of incitement and defamation, after the labour minister filed a criminal complaint against him for comments he posted on Facebook in December last year.

His post questioned the government's decision to hand over some 91 hectares (225 acres) of land in the southern province of Kampot province to an individual he named only as Heng Sour, who a local newspaper later said was the minister.

If convicted on both charges, Ny Nak could face up to five years in prison.

The Labor Ministry said the named individual was not the minister and asked that Ny Nak retract the post because it contained incorrect information, but Ny Nak refused.

A statement from the court issued after his jailing said that by refusing to issue a retraction, Ny Nak showed malicious intent, which justified charging and holding him in pre-trial detention.

Ny Nak, who is an agricultural expert and entrepreneur as well as a social commentator, has gotten in trouble before for his posts. He has more than 400,000 followers.

In September, he criticized Agriculture Minister Dith Tina, especially on rice prices. Shortly after, he was beaten with metal batons by a group of men in black clothing wearing motorcycle helmets who forced his motorcycle off the road.

He had previously been sentenced in August 2021 to 18 months in prison on charges of incitement after making a satirical post criticizing then-Prime Minister Hun Sen's COVID-19 restrictions.

Labor Ministry spokesperson Sun Mesa said on his Facebook page that Ny Nak has the right to speak out on social media, but Heng Sour also has the right to respond by suing him. He accused Ny Nak of violating others' rights by posting untrue information for the purpose aof getting attention to promote himself and his own interests. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the Ukraine Recovery Conference, which Tokyo will host in February, with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.

"I am grateful for the level of cooperation we achieved  a true strategic partnership. I thank Japan for all the valuable assistance to our country," Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday.

"We also appreciate the humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. One of our best international results is our relations with Japan. Now there is a new large package of energy support for Ukraine. I am grateful for the financial support to our country," he said.

According to Zelenskyy, "today we discussed our further cooperation, in particular the Ukraine Recovery Conference scheduled for February, as well as our further joint security steps, work on the Peace Formula and on strengthening sanctions against Russia."
Islamabad [Pakistan], January 8 (ANI): Baloch activist Mahrang Baloch alleged that 'fake' FIRs are being filed against peaceful protestors who participated in the rally against Baloch genocide.

She alleged that the Pakistani state is trying to end the mass movement with "continuous force and violence", but it has the support all across the country.

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"Fake FIRs continue to be filed against peaceful protesters of our mass movement. At this time, fake FIRs were filed against the organizers and participants of the rally against the Baloch genocide in Malir Karachi yesterday. This state is trying to end this mass movement with continuous force and violence, but this is impossible. This peaceful mass movement has public support across the country," Mahrang Baloch posted on X.

https://x.com/MahrangBaloch_/status/1744315715379761195?s=20

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Meanwhile, the Pakistan Supreme Court strongly objected to manhandling the families of the missing persons from Balochistan province in Islamabad and directed the federal government to submit an undertaking in writing that from now on no one shall be arrested "other than in accordance with the law," The Express Tribune reported.

Last month, a group of protesters--mostly women and children--arrived in Islamabad from Turbat district of Balochistan to protest against enforced disappearances in the province.

The Islamabad police, however, launched a crackdown on the protesters and rounded up dozens of them, a move that was widely criticised by civil society as well as political leaders.

Later, the authorities announced the release of the protesters on the order of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Earlier on January 5, Mahrang Baloch termed the court's silence on the rearrest of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) chief Manzoor Pashteen a "joke with the constitution and the law."

She stated that Pashteen was arrested in front of the prison despite the High Court's order to release him, calling it the "height of fascism."

"After the release of PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen, the abduction-like arrest in front of the jail is the height of fascism. For those who say that why are you disappointed with the courts, it is a request to them that when the courts fail to provide justice to the people, then disappointment with the courts is a thousand sins better. The order to release Manzoor Pashteen came from the High Court, but to trample the court order and re-arrest it and the courts are silent on it is a joke with the constitution and the law," she posted on X. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New York, Jan 8 (PTI) The Indian-American diaspora is gearing up to commemorate the consecration ceremony of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, with plans to hold car rallies in the US to celebrate the occasion.

The group California Indians' is organising a special car rally on January 20 to celebrate Bhagwan Shri Ram Ji's homecoming. The organisers said that more than 400 cars will join the rally that is expected to go from South Bay to the iconic Golden Gate Bridge.

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The organisers said in a press release that Indians of Northern California are coming together to celebrate the biggest and proudest event in the modern history of India.

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Local temples and diaspora organisations across the US are planning to hold special celebrations in the days leading up to January 22, when the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will be inaugurated.

Car rallies have been held in Washington, Chicago and other US cities over the past several weeks.

Community leaders including Rohit Sharma, Mani Keeran, Param Desai, Daipayan Deb, Deepak Bajaj and Bimal Bhagwat are planning the California rally, the organisers said.

"We cannot go to Ayodhya but Ram ji is in our hearts and this is our contribution and devotion to his homecoming, the organisers said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jeddah, Jan 8 (PTI) Union Minister for Minority Affairs Smriti Irani accompanied by Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Monday met with Indian volunteers who provide dedicated service to Indian Haj pilgrims and also interacted with Umrah pilgrims from India.

Irani, also serving as the Union Minister for Women & Child Development, travelled to Madinah city - one of Islam's holiest cities - on Monday.

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"Undertook a historic journey to Madinah today, one of Islam's holiest cities included a visit to the periphery of the revered Prophet's Mosque, Al Masjid Al Nabwi, the mountain of Uhud, and periphery of the Quba Mosque  the first Mosque of Islam," she said in a post on X.

"The significance of the visit to these sites courtesy Saudi officials, intertwined with early Islamic history, underscores the depth of our cultural and spiritual engagement," she added.

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According to an official statement, the delegation interacted with Indian volunteers who provide dedicated and selfless service to Indian Haj pilgrims, including during Haj 2023. The delegation also interacted with Umrah pilgrims from India.

The visit shall help provide a first hand insight into the arrangements required to be made for ensuring a comfortable Haj 2024 for the Indian pilgrims, it added.

"The Government of India is deeply committed to assist in providing facilities and services to Indian Muslims who undertake the Haj pilgrimage, thereby providing them with a comfortable and fulfilling experience," it said.

India and Saudi Arabia share warm and cordial ties and the Government of India deeply appreciates the special gesture of Saudi's Ministry of Hajj and Umrah in facilitating this visit of the Indian delegation to Madinah, the statement added.

On Sunday, India and Saudi Arabia signed the Bilateral Haj Agreement 2024 under which New Delhi has been allocated a quota of 1,75,025 pilgrims for the annual Haj pilgrimage in 2024. PTI

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Beijing, Jan 8 (PTI) Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu arrived here on Monday on a five-day state visit during which he is due to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and sign several agreements to bolster the bilateral ties.

Muizzu, who is regarded as pro-China, is accompanied by his wife Sajidha Mohamed and a high-level delegation.

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The President and the First Lady were greeted by senior Chinese officials upon their arrival.

Muizzu's maiden visit to China, however, has been marred by a huge diplomatic row triggered by the derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by some Maldivian ministers after he posted a video of him on a pristine beach during his visit to Lakshadweep.

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The Maldivian envoy to India was on Monday summoned to the external affairs ministry and conveyed strong concern over remarks.

Muizzu is due to hold talks with Chinese President Xi and sign several agreements to bolster the bilateral ties, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.

"The relations between China and the Maldives now stand at a new historical starting point. We believe that through this visit, the two heads of state will provide strategic guidance for the bilateral relations to reach a new height," Wang told the media on January 5.

During President Muizzu's visit, the Maldives and China will hold official talks and sign key agreements to enhance trade, professional development, and socioeconomic cooperation, the Maldivian President's Office said in a press release.

The visit will also pave the way for collaborations in technology and other areas between the two countries, it said.

Muizzu will also attend the Invest Maldives Forum in the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou, China and meet with senior Chinese business leaders to explore avenues for strengthening socioeconomic relations between the Maldives and China, it said.

Muizzu's predecessors in the recent past visited India first, considering the wide-ranging bilateral ties and the Maldives' proximity to India, followed by China which has expanded its influence in the island nation by investing in major infrastructure projects there.

Surprisingly Muizzu, who was sworn in as President in November, chose Turkiye as his first destination for a foreign visit soon after his election followed by the UAE where he met Prime Minister Modi on the sidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) on December 1 and discussed the progress of the wide-ranging bilateral ties.

During the meeting, both leaders agreed to set up a core group to discuss the multi-dimensional relations and further deepen ties.

The meeting took place after Muizzu requested New Delhi to withdraw 77 Indian military personnel from the Maldives and decided to review more than 100 bilateral agreements between the two countries.

Earlier, Muizzu's government announced its plans to drop a hydrographic survey agreement with India.

In December, the new Maldives Vice President Hussain Mohamed Latheef visited China, his first visit abroad, and took part in the China-sponsored China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation, (CIORF) in Kunming.

Significantly, while praising Chinese infrastructure projects, Latheef made no mention of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) under which most of the Maldives' infrastructure projects were built.

The BRI is an ambitious plan initiated by President Xi in 2013 to develop new trade routes connecting China with the rest of the world via land and maritime networks to improve regional integration, increase trade and stimulate economic growth.

Observers say Muizzu's foreign policy perhaps is still evolving as the Maldives domestic political situation has undergone a major change after his election in November last year.

Soon after his election Muizzu fell out with former pro-China President Yameen, regarded as his mentor, and opted to pursue his own foreign and domestic policy.

Under Yameen's Presidency, China carried out major infra projects amid allegations of debt traps by some influential politicians of the Maldives.

Angry with Muizzu, Yameen, who is currently serving a prison sentence for corruption, quit the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and formed his own political party called People's National Front (PNC) from jail to oppose Muizzu.

Also, the island's Parliament is currently dominated by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) headed by Solih and the island nation is due to go to Parliamentary polls in April.

The Maldives is India's key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and occupies a special place in its initiatives like SAGAR' (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the Neighbourhood First Policy' of the Modi government.

The Maldives' proximity to India, barely 70 nautical miles from the island of Minicoy in Lakshadweep and 300 nautical miles from the mainland's western coast, and its location at the hub of commercial sea lanes running through the Indian Ocean gives it significant strategic importance.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Tel Aviv [Israel], January 8 (ANI/TPS): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday visited the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) 769th "Hiram" Brigade, which is waging a defensive battle on the northern border with Lebanon.

769th Brigade Commander Col. Avraham Marciano briefed the Prime Minister on the operations of the 92nd Division over the past three months in the north. Netanyahu also held a dialogue with conscript and reserve battalion and company commanders, who reported to the front line on October 7 and have been carrying out a defensive mission, have thwarted dozens of terrorist cells and have attacked infrastructure of the Hezbollah terrorist organization.

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Netanyahu also visited the 769th Brigade command center where he was briefed on the situation and observed the functioning of the command center in wartime.

The Prime Minister also met with a group of soldiers from the Devora Unit, who are living in the north, but whose families have been evacuated, and heard from them about the need for security and stability in the sector in order for the residents to be able to return to their homes.

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"Hezbollah made a big mistake with us in 2006 and it is also doing so now. It thought that we were like 'spider's cobwebs'. Suddenly it sees what kind of 'spider,'" Netanyahu told the troops. "It sees great force here, the unity of the people, the determination to do everything necessary to restore security to the north. I tell you - this is my policy."

Netanyahu also pledged to do "everything to restore security to the north and allow your families -because many of you are from here - to return home in safety and to know that we are not to be trifled with. We will do whatever is necessary." (ANI/TPS)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
By Vishu Adhana

New Delhi [India], January 8 (ANI): Tour operators in India are gearing up for an impact of calls for a cancellation of holidays in the Maldives as they said that there are "no new inquiries by people" for visits to the island nation.

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The Indian Association of Tour Operators predicts that the repercussions of recent events and the call for a boycott will become apparent within the next 20-25 days.

However, the operators deny reports of mass cancellations, stating, "If a person has paid an advance for plane tickets and hotels, they will not cancel it."

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Many Indians on social media have claimed that they have cancelled their planned holidays to the island nation.

The founder of Make My Trip, Deep Kalra, said that there has been no mass cancellation of planned holidays by Indians to the island nation.

"We have not noticed such a pattern as of now. There has been no such mass cancellation," Kalra said.

Meanwhile, the Indian Association of Tour Operators said that the impact of the chain of events and the call for a boycott will be visible in 20-25 days.

"Suddenly, there has been no inquiry on Maldives. There are sudden drops. Those who have made payments will not cancel them. We are expecting that people will not book trips to the Maldives," Rajiv Mehra, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, said.

When asked whether the reports of mass cancellation are true, Mehra replied, "People have spent lakhs of rupees, but they are not cancelling it. Those who have not made payments are expected to back out. But the real impact of the boycott will be visible in the next 25 days as there are no new inquiries."

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) is the national body for the tourism industry. It has over 1600 members, covering all segments of the tourism industry.

Another operator echoed a similar sentiment, stating that such statements by politicians prevent people from choosing a particular nation for a trip.

Moreover, the Maldives was quite popular among Indians as a tourist destination.

Indian tourists were the highest among visitors to the Maldives till December 2023, according to data from the country's tourism ministry.

The largest number of tourists who visited the Maldives were from India (2,09,198), followed by Russia (2,09,146) and China (1,87,118).

"Maldives is quite popular among Indians. But this incident will have an impact. We are also seeing an impact right now as well. We are expecting a downfall in people choosing the Maldives as a tourist destination," a Delhi-based tour operator said on the condition of anonymity.

The Maldives government on Sunday suspended three ministers over their derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha Shareef, and Mahzoom Majid were suspended over their remarks against PM Modi, which triggered a massive backlash.

Shiuna made derogatory remarks against PM Modi on social media platform X. The post by Shiuna, which has now been deleted, featured images of PM Modi from his recent visit to Lakshadweep. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Islamabad, January 8: A Pakistan special court on Monday issued release orders for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan after his bail was confirmed by the Pakistan Supreme Court in an official Secrets Act case, alias the Cypher case, Pakistan based Samaa TV reported. The process for Khan's release is underway, as per Samaa TV. The release orders were issued by special court Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain.

As per Samaa TV, the PTI founder will remain in Adiala Jail despite bail as he has been arrested in Toshakhana in a 190 million pounds case. The Pakistan Supreme Court in December granted bail to Imran Khan and Pakistan ex-Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the Cypher case. The court directed the PTI leaders to submit surety bonds of Pakistan Rupee (PKR) 1 million each. Pakistan: Anti-Terrorism Court Summons Imran Khan in Case Related to May 9 Protests

The three-member bench, headed by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and including Justices Athar Minallah and Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, issued the order based on a set of PTI petitions. The cypher case involves a diplomatic document that the Federal Investigation Agency alleges was never returned by Imran, with the PTI asserting the document contained a threat from the United States to remove Imran as prime minister. Pakistan Election Body Orders Imran Khan's Party to Conduct Intra-Party Polls Within 20 Days to Retain Bat Symbol

The Special Court (Official Secrets Act) restarted the cypher trial at Adiala district jail after Imran and Qureshi were indicted for the second time on December 13. The trial had faced setbacks when the Islamabad High Court scrapped proceedings due to an "erroneous" government notification for a jail trial. The IHC endorsed Imran's indictment, disposing of his plea, but instructed the special court judge to ensure a "fair trial."

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Abu Dhabi [UAE], January 8 (ANI/WAM): The participants of the annual 'Camel Trek' arrived in the Heritage Village of the Global Village after embarking on a continuous 12-day journey through the UAE desert, starting from the Arada area in Abu Dhabi and concluding in Dubai.

The 10th edition of the annual event was organised by the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Centre. The participants journeyed a total distance of 557 km, commencing their trek from Arada and traversing diverse locations across the UAE desert before concluding at the Heritage Village in Global Village.

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The journey was unforgettable, as it brought together a French mother and her 10-year-old daughter in a unique experience. They shared 12 days of challenges and difficulties in the heart of the UAE desert.

About this experience, the French mother said: "I deliberately took my daughter with me on this challenging journey during the holiday season and New Year celebrations. Life in the UAE is full of luxury and beautiful things for children before adults, so I wanted my daughter to have a different experience. Through it, she can discover that life is not as easy as she lives it. I wanted her to realise how difficult the journey was that the people of the UAE have undertaken to put their country at the forefront."

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A British skydiver who partook in the journey considered his second consecutive participation in the camel trek to be a continuous challenge of a unique experience for him. He said: "I have spent 23 years in the United Arab Emirates, so I have a great background and knowledge of the customs and traditions of this authentic Arab community. My profession in skydiving is full of challenges and requires a lot of courage, but the camel trek experience has a different specificity that is no less challenging than skydiving. It requires compliance with the team leader's instructions and cooperation with colleagues on the trip in order to overcome the difficulties that you may face while crossing long kilometres in areas far from the city."

A Mexican participant said: "It was a different and wonderful experience, it took us away from the hustle and bustle of the city and the daily routine that we live in. The truth is that the trip, despite its difficulty, was very exciting. I spent 12 days wandering the desert. I didn't expect to have all this energy and the ability to travel on camel back every day. In general, the trip is considered an achievement that I did not expect to achieve. I am very happy with this exceptional experience, which has restored a lot of peace to my soul as I have moved away from our smart devices."

The Emirati participant, Saif Kitab Al-Suwaydi, considered the camel a popular heritage that is cherished by every Emirati. The journey, he said, represents the era of the first ancestors whom we are proud of. He added that the camel journey is a challenging and beautiful experience at the same time. He praised the organisers, the Hamdan bin Mohammed Heritage Center for providing the requirements of the journey for all participants and its positive impact on celebrating the authentic Emirati heritage.

It's noteworthy that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, met with participants of the annual Camel Trek at the Seih Al Salam area of Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve in Dubai.

He was briefed on the progress of the journey, led by Abdullah Hamdan bin Dalmook, CEO of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center. The expedition comprised 37 participants representing 16 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Yemen, India, China, Australia, Mexico, Russia, Belarus and the UAE.

Bin Dalmook said that the launch of the event was inspired by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid's vision and directives to promote tolerance, understanding and coexistence. (ANI/WAM)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mumbai, January 8: A day after a letter accusing three police officers of rape, sexual harassment and corruption, purportedly penned by 8 policewomen, surfaced on social media, the Mumbai Police have launched a probe into the matter, an official said on Monday. The mystery letter, claimed to be written by the 8 women constables pointed fingers at a Deputy Commissioner of Police and two police inspectors of the Motor Vehicles Department. Mumbai: Police Launches Inquiry into Allegedly 'Fake' Letter Accusing Senior Officers of Sexually Harassing Eight Women Constable

Addressed to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, the letter, dated last month, leaked on social media and became viral. It alleged that the three officers had taken them to their official residences in their police vehicles and sexually assaulted them. Taking the matter very seriously, the police started a discreet internal probe into the letter and even questioned the alleged eight victim policewomen for verifying the damaging allegations made in their names. Mumbai Shocker: Woman Caretaker Tries To Extort Senior Citizen From Khar by Threatening To Make His Indecent Video Public, Arrested

However, the 8 women cops flatly denied having penned any such letter and even said that their signatures affixed on it were fake, deepening the mystery. The official said that now the police are focussing on tracing the antecedents of the letter, its sender, his/her real motives behind it and warned stringent action would be initiated against the mischief monger.
Male, January 8: The Maldivian government on Monday informed India's High Commissioner Munu Muhawar that the derogatory remarks made by three now-suspended deputy ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi do not represent its views. The Indian High Commissioner had a pre-arranged meeting Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, the Ambassador-at-Large at the Foreign Ministry. "High Commissioner Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues," the Indian High Commission posted on X.

A top Maldivian government official said that during the meeting, Naseer made it clear that the remarks do not reflect the views of the Maldivian government, and reaffirmed Maldives' continued support for its neighbour, the Sun Online reported. The Maldivian foreign ministry said the government is aware of "derogatory remarks" on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position. Maldives President, Foreign Ministry and Tourism Ministrys Official Websites Down and Unreachable

The meeting came after India summoned Maldivian envoy Ibrahim Shaheeb on Monday to the external affairs ministry and conveyed strong concern over remarks posted on social media against the Prime Minister by a number of ministers of the Maldives. Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid - three deputy ministers at the Youth Ministry - had made derogatory remarks against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media platform X, in response to a video promoting tourism in Lakshadweep.

The three ministers were suspended on Sunday after the remarks sparked an uproar on Indian social media. In New Delhi, official sources said the Indian high commission in Male strongly raised the matter with the Maldivian foreign ministry on Sunday. The disparaging remarks by the ministers have drawn flak in India, with many celebrities urging people on X to explore domestic tourist destinations instead of going to the Maldives. There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives following the diplomatic row. #ChaloLakshadweep: EaseMyTrip Suspends All Maldives Flight Bookings Over Derogatory Remarks Against India and PM Narendra Modi, Launches Campaign Promoting Lakshadweep

"The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives," the Maldivian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Former Maldivian president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has also condemned the derogatory remarks of the three officials. "I condemn the use of hateful language against #India by Maldivian government officials on social media. India has always been a good friend to Maldives and we must not allow such callous remarks to negatively impact the age-old friendship between our two countries," Solih posted on X.
FM: Japan to contribute about $37 mln to NATO trust fund for UAV detection systems in Ukraine

Japan recently decided to contribute about $37 million to a NATO trust fund to provide drone detection systems in Ukraine, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said.

At a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv, Kamikawa said Japan is actively promoting support for Ukraine. As part of its support, Japan recently decided to contribute about $37 million to the NATO Trust Fund to provide detection systems for unmanned aerial vehicles, she said.

In addition, the minister said Japan donated five mobile gas turbine generators and seven transformers to help Ukrainians survive the winter.

"Today I will take part in the ceremony of handing over these pieces of equipment," Kamikawa said
Standing in support of India, Nishant Pitti took to social media X, stating, "In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings."
Karnataka BJP has demanded resignation of Minister for Women and Child Welfare Laxmi Hebbalkar following her statement that border district Belagavi belonged to Maharashtra before Independence.
New Delhi, January 8: Apple has recently initiated the process of compensating iPhone users in the United States as part of the "Batterygate" settlement. This development follows a lawsuit that Apple agreed to settle for up to USD 500 million, marking a significant moment for consumers who felt misled by the tech giant's previous actions. The "Batterygate" issue began in 2017, leading many iPhone users to believe their devices were nearing the end of their life and required replacement or new batteries.

As per a report of NDTV, some individuals have already noticed payments of USD 92.17 (approximately Rs 7,600) being deposited into their accounts. The issue, which gained notice as "Batterygate," started when a developer uncovered that updates to iOS 10 caused older iPhones, such as the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7, to experience slowdown and performance. PM Narendra Modi Lakshadweep Island Visit: Google Searches for Beach Destination Lakshadweep Skyrocket After Prime Minister Modi's Tour.

This led customers to believe that their phones were almost no longer for use, which caused them to consider purchasing new phones or installing new batteries. Apple, however, had not initially disclosed that the slowdown was a deliberate measure to prevent phones from unexpectedly switching off when the battery reached a certain threshold.

Multiple lawsuits were filed, claiming that the company's actions resulted in consumers opting to upgrade their mobile devices earlier instead of simply replacing the batteries. In response, Apple issued an apology in 2018 for not being transparent about the reasons behind the performance and subsequently reduced the price of iPhone battery replacements to USD 29. YouTube TV Hits Estimated 6.5 Million Subscribers in Q3 2023, Remains Fastest Growing and Largest Service Than Competition: Report.

In 2020, Apple settled a nationwide lawsuit aiming to avoid the expenses and complexity of court proceedings. This settlement was applicable to US customers who owned an iPhone 6, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7Plus and SE model, provided it was operating on iOS 10.2.1 or a later version. Additionally, it included iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models that were running on iOS 11.2 or above before December 21, 2017. The final date for these users to file a claim for compensation was in October 2020.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 08, 2024 02:41 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Toronto, January 8: A cab company in Canada has been ordered to pay more than C$400,000 in compensation to a wheelchair-bound passenger who suffered due to their Indian-origin driver's negligence. Jane Stillwell got ejected from her wheelchair and suffered significant injuries when driver Gurdeep Singh Sohi made an "abrupt and hard brake" to avoid collision with another car in 2018.

The car ahead of Sohi, employed with Richmond Cabs Ltd, had braked to avoid hitting a raccoon, the Richmond News website reported recently. Stillwell will also get C$171,470 for her future care and C$10,423 in special damages, making the total $406,893, the British Columbia Supreme Court said in a judgment issued on December 27, 2023. In a trial lasting for more than nine days, the court heard that Sohi had picked up Stillwell from the Richmond Hospital to take her to her residence in Steveston in March 2018. Google Agrees To Pay USD 74 Million Yearly to Canada News Publishers To Keep News in Search Results.

Stillwell, who relies on a power wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy, was ejected from the wheelchair as Sohi applied brake, resulting in injuries including whiplash, bruising, lacerations, a broken nose and multiple fractures in her lower body. She was hospitalised for two weeks and experienced a loss of muscle strength and function.

In her lawsuit against Richmond Cabs Ltd and Sohi, Stillwell claimed the two were negligent and liable for her injuries, which happened when Sohi hard braked to avoid colliding with a car at Railway Avenue in Richmond city of British Columbia. She argued that the two were negligent in not affixing her three-point wheelchair seatbelt that would have secured her body in place and he should have at least asked if she needed help doing so. Canadian Government Plans To Maintain Immigration Levels at 5 Lakh Per Year in 2026.

In their defence, Richmond Cabs and Sohi said they did not breach any standard of care regarding his driving and said the law has not recognised a standard of care to assist an adult with fastening their seatbelt. Further, the two said that Stillwell contributed to the incident by failing to secure a belt attached to her wheelchair.

In her ruling, Justice Francesca Marzari wrote: "This was particularly devastating for Ms Stillwell, as the maintenance of muscle strength and function has been a lifelong fight against the effects of muscular dystrophy." She found Sohi was "more likely than not" consistently going faster than the 50 kmph speed limit and was "travelling close enough that a very hard braking manoeuvre was required to avoid colliding with that vehicle when it came to a stop".

Further, Marzari noted it was "uncontroversial" that Sohi did not affix the wheelchair seatbelt and found Stillwell would not have been able to do so herself due to her position. According to the judge, Sohi breached the standard of care owed to Stillwell by not securing the three-point wheelchair seat belt, which is included in the training materials for wheelchair taxi drivers and supported by expert evidence.

"This is particularly true in these circumstances, where Mr Sohi knew that passengers with disabilities require more care to be taken, and that he knew that his passenger in this case was not properly restrained," Marzari wrote in her judgement.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 08, 2024 11:16 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
A US winter storm has brought massive amounts of snowfall, as well as some tornadoes, in much of the North Eastern United States. Severe weather is also hammering the Gulf Coast and the southeastern US.

The Storm Prediction Center stated that around 70 million people in the Southeast are at risk for severe weather, including tornadoes, damaging wind, and flooding rain.

To make matters worse, just days after the first big winter storm in the country, another big winter storm is on its way, and it is expected to bring heavy snow, blizzard conditions, strong winds, potential tornadoes, and serious flooding.

According to CNN, the Storm Prediction Center has now placed three major cities on Level 3 of 5 enhanced risk. These cities are New Orleans in Louisiana, Gulfport in Mississippi, and Mobile in Alabama. Storms are expected to sweep across the area in the afternoon and overnight, with tornadoes being likely. Excessive rainfall with a chance of flooding is also possible.

The storm is expected to move further east on Tuesday, with the cities of Tallahassee, Florida, Albany, Georgia, and Panama City, Florida, being at an enhanced risk of severe weather. This severe weather is expected to happen from the early morning to the afternoon.

These severe winter storm warnings came just after a massive winter storm slammed into the North East, bringing in rain, snow, ice, and even a tornado as the storm moved from the Gulf Coast to Maine.

1st Massive US Winter Storm of 2024 Blanketed North East With Snow

Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories have been issued in the North East since last Saturday across a dozen states. This includes New York, where plenty of posts about the heavy snowfall hit social media, showing Central Park in New York City being blanketed in snow.

READ MORE: 2024 US Presidential Election: Joe Biden Warns America of Donald Trump's Threat to Democracy

"The combination of heavy, wet snow and gusty winds from northeast Pennsylvania through much of southern and central New England will result in difficult travel with some power outages and tree damage," reported the National Weather Service. "Gusty onshore winds may lead to minor flooding along the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England coasts during the Sunday morning high tide cycle."

While there are massive snowstorms further north, cold winter rain fell on some big cities, including Washington DC and Baltimore, Maryland. Meanwhile, southwestern Pennsylvania received six inches of snow; Pittsburgh received three inches of snow.

US Winter Storms Brought a Tornado in Florida

Even South Florida was not safe from the winter storms as a tornado touched down in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. This came shortly after the National Weather Service issued a warning for the area.

According to USA Today, the twister was formed over land and hit the ground at around 6:00 PM just west of Las Olas Boulevard and the Intracoastal Waterway. The tornado caused power outages in its wake, with firefighters still assessing how much damage it has caused.

As for the power, Florida Power & Light is restoring power to some affected areas.

READ MORE: Florida: Ron DeSantis' Anti-Immigration Law Starts Hurting Businesses

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Latest on snow winter storm for January 6, 2024 - FOX 5 Washington DC
Former Vice President Mike Pence dismissed allegations propagated by ex-President Donald Trump and others, asserting that the FBI was not behind the January 6 US Capitol riot, per The NY Post.

Mike Pence, who found himself trapped inside the Capitol during the chaotic events, emphasized the absence of evidence linking the bureau to the instigation of the Jan. 6 riot.

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Pence acknowledged the FBI's repeated assurances that they were not responsible for the riot.

Expressing gratitude for the FBI's efforts to bring nearly a thousand individuals to justice, Pence called for accountability for those who had vandalized the Capitol and committed violence against police officers on that fateful day.

READ NEXT: Jan. 6 Proud Boys Defendan Faces 10 Years in Prison

Donald Trump Continues Baseless Claims Regarding US Capitol Riot

Despite Pence's statements, Donald Trump continued to spread unfounded theories over the weekend, alleging that Antifa and the FBI were behind the attack on Congress rather than his own supporters.

Trump asserted this baseless claim during a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa, on January 5, the Independent noted.

"By the way, there was Antifa, there was FBI, there were a lot of other people there too leading the charge," Donald Trump said.

Trump also addressed the size of the crowd on Jan. 6 riot, calling it the "biggest crowd" he had ever spoken to, and expressed concern for those he referred to as "the J6 hostages," individuals arrested and charged for their actions on that day.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin challenged these conspiracy theories, questioning why Trump would want to pardon those supposedly connected to the FBI and Antifa, during an appearance on MSNBC.

Public Opinion and Mike Pence's Call for a Fresh Start

A recent Washington Post poll revealed that a third of Republicans believe the unfounded conspiracy theory that the FBI orchestrated the Jan. 6 riot - a claim echoed by Trump just days before, according to CNN.

Mike Pence urged those who believe such falsehoods to consider the hardships endured by Capitol Hill Police during the riot.

Looking ahead to the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, Pence saw an opportunity for Republicans to usher in new leadership for the party, emphasizing the need for a fresh start in the upcoming elections.

During the US Capitol Riot, Pence was evacuated from the Senate chamber as rioters, some calling for his death, stormed the halls of Congress.

Mike Pence and Donald Trump did not communicate for several days after the attack, and they have since followed separate paths.

This was evident during President Joe Biden's Inauguration Day when Pence attended the swearing-in ceremony in Washington, while Trump departed for Florida before the event commenced.

Providing context to the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, the Justice Department reported that over 1,200 individuals have been charged with crimes related to the Capitol attack, with more than 700 pleading guilty to various federal charges.

As the nation marked the three-year anniversary of the violent US Capitol Riot on Saturday, the event's toll included the deaths of four rioters and five police officers, with many others left injured.

READ MORE: US Capitol Riot: Proud Boys Leader Sentenced With Almost Two Decades of Jail Time

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Former VP Mike Pence comments on 3rd anniversary of January 6th riots - From CBS4 Indy
There is some good news for Americans, Canadians, and Australians planning to travel to Brazil before April as the country has postponed its plans to impose visa requirements for the US, Canada, and Australia, albeit temporarily, as the country remains one of the top tourism destinations in the world.

While Brazil is a country known for not imposing visa requirements, the country does have them in place for three countries, namely the US, Canada, and Australia, as these three countries have also imposed visa restrictions on Brazilians. However, the South American tourism giant scrapped the visa requirements in 2019 under then-President Jair Bolsonaro in an effort to support the tourism industry.

However, now that Brazil is under a different administration, President Lula has announced he is bringing back these visa restrictions, which were supposed to take effect on January 10. However, Lula's office announced that these restrictions will be postponed, according to the Associated Press.

This temporary postponement of visa restrictions will be in place until April 10. The Brazilian government stated that it was still finalizing the new visa system and wanted to avoid implementing it close to the high season, which usually happens during the New Year's celebrations and Carnival festivities in February.

Tens of thousands of tourists usually come to Brazil during the first quarter, which is usually winter in the northern hemisphere, for the warmer weather in the country, as well as the world-famous Carnival.

Lula reinstated the visa requirements a few months after he took office last year. The list of countries that should have had their visa restrictions reinstated originally included Japan, but the country made a deal with Brazil to ease travel provisions between the two, thereby avoiding having visa restrictions imposed on its citizens.

READ MORE: Latin America Politics 2023: Election, Conflicts, Other Major Issues in the Region

Brazil Still Negotiating Visa Restrictions With US, Canada, Australia

Despite the Brazilian government announcing visa restrictions for these countries in April, it is still negotiating with them so it would not have to impose these restrictions.

According to AFAR, the Lula administration stated it would continue "negotiating visa exemption agreements with these three countries, based on principles of reciprocity and equality between states." This means that there is still a possibility that the upcoming visa restrictions could still be waived if the United States, Australia, and Canada were to stop their visa restrictions for Brazilian citizens as well.

How To Apply for a Brazilian Visa If You Are a US, Canadian, or Australian Citizen?

However, should these talks fail, the restrictions beginning in April do seem inevitable, as the Brazilian government has launched an official website regarding visas.

Citizens from these three countries just need to provide the required information, pay the $80.90 fee, and once accepted, they must download their eVisa and probably also print it out.

Requirements include a passport that is valid until the Brazil trip ends, a completed online visa application form, a Passport-style photo (2" x 2", white background), a confirmed round trip reservation, a printed bank statement showing transactions for the last 30 days and a showing balance of US$2,000.00 or proof of income or credit card statement.

READ MORE: Brazil Launches Investigation on Who Was Behind Brazilian Insurrection

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: E-VISA TO BRAZIL: AMERICANS, CANADIANS AND AUSTRALIANS NEED TO WATCH THIS! - Brazil Unsubtitled
After trying to lay low for a while after her sex scandal, MAGA darling and Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert was caught in a physical altercation with her ex-husband, Jayson Boebert, inside a restaurant in Colorado. It got so bad that the police even had to be called in.

According to Yahoo! News, the altercation happened in a small town called Silt, which is part of Boebert's congressional district, which she is trying to leave for a deep red district where she has a larger chance of winning after her Democratic rival outraised her there. It was her ex-husband who called the police and claimed that he was a victim of domestic violence.

However, after Jayson Boebert called the police on her, she called them as well, denying her ex-husband's domestic violence allegations and telling the police she was willing to speak with an officer at the restaurant.

Police then arrived at the scene, but no arrests were made. The MAGA congresswoman was then reportedly driven home by a friend.

"We were called to the Miner's Claim restaurant in town, and it involved Lauren and her ex-husband," said Silt Police Chief Mike Kite, who then told the media that they were investigating the incident and seeking additional witnesses. They are also looking for videos regarding the altercation.

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert Spokesperson Denies Domestic Violence Allegations Made by Ex-Husband

Soon after media reports of the altercation at the Colorado restaurant came out, a Lauren Boebert spokesperson addressed the situation. While reports state that the MAGA darling pushed her ex-husband after he tried to hug her at the restaurant, the aide stated that Jayson Boebert's behavior at the restaurant was "aggressive and disrespectful."

READ MORE: Lauren Boebert Finalizes Divorce But Seen Kissing Ex-Husband After Sex Scandal With Another Man

The severity of the physical altercation between the two has not yet been determined. The Lauren Boebert spokesperson stated that the Colorado Republican tried to keep her ex-husband back, and this involved putting her hand on his face and nose. This was when he called the police on her.

The congresswoman herself also released a statement following the altercation, stating, "This is a sad situation for all and another reason I'm moving."

Lauren Boebert received much criticism from both the left and the right for announcing that she is leaving her current district for a much redder one, which will have an open seat after Republican Rep. Ken Buck retires, according to the Associated Press.

More Bad News For MAGA Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert as Colorado Voters Lose Faith in Her

Her "Beetlejuice" musical sex scandal turned off many conservative voters as she was still married to Jayson Boebert when it happened. However, her decision to leave her district may have sealed her fate.

Some conservative voters from her current 3rd Congressional District of Colorado, where her recent altercation happened, may just vote for a Democrat for the first time in 2024, even those avidly anti-Biden.

"I still blame Biden and the Democrats for the skyrocketing costs," conservative Colorado voter Maisy Reid told Politico. "But I got a weird sort of feeling when Boebert was ranting about masks because, by that point, masks were irrelevant here. What mattered was the cost of gas and food and rent. It seemed she was out of touch."

READ MORE: Donald Trump Fraud Trial: Ex-POTUS Knew He Was Faking the Size of His Properties as Court Documents Show

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH Lauren Boebert Already Getting Trashed By Republican Rivals In New District - The Ring of Fire
New evidence regarding the January 6 Capitol Insurrection has shown that Donald Trump actively refused to help stop the violent uprising that happened at the US Capitol building on that fateful day where thousands of his supporters stormed the area and disrupted the official declaration of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 US presidential elections.

Sources familiar with the investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith have told ABC News that several close Trump aides, including former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, have told investigators that the then-president was "not interested" in doing more to stop the riot and was instead watching it unfold on TV and doing nothing else about it.

Scavino, who is currently a paid senior adviser to Trump's reelection campaign, initially refused to cooperate with any investigation but was prompted to speak with Smith's team after a judge overruled claims of executive privilege last year. Details of that interview, as well as Smith team's interviews with other White House advisers and top lawyers, have now come out, and they showed what Trump's demeanor was as the insurrection was happening.

Scavino reportedly told investigators that even as the violence was escalating at the Capitol on January 6, Trump "was just not interested" in doing more to stop it. This was further backed by testimony from former Trump aide Nick Luna, who told federal investigators that when Trump was informed that then-Vice President Mike Pence had to be rushed to a secure location, the then-POTUS only responded with "So what?"

The Scavino testimony also showed that the Trump aide informed the then-president, "This is all your legacy here, and there's smoke coming out of the Capitol," and admitted that he hoped his boss would facilitate a peaceful transfer of power from that point.

These newly-surfaced testimonies have strengthened allegations from Democrats and Republicans critical of Trump that he committed "an utter moral failure" and "a clear dereliction of duty" during the events of January 6, 2021.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Received Millions of Dollars From China, Other Countries While US President

Donald Trump Lawyers Cannot Argue Against New E. Jean Carroll Defamation Lawsuit, Judge Rules

Meanwhile, as more of what Trump was doing during January 6 is coming to light, a federal judge has ruled that his attorneys cannot present legal arguments to a jury assessing damages for his latest defamation case filed by former Elle Magazine columnist E. Jean Carrol.

The determination was made in advance of a trial scheduled for January 16. The jury would only be determining defamation damages after Trump made repeated claims about the E. Jean Carrol rape case after he was found liable for sexual assault, according to the Associated Press.

Video of Donald Trump Mocking John McCain at the Campaign Trail Surfaces

While Trump is blaming Democrats for most of his problems, he is also making fun of fellow Republicans, including late Arizona Senator John McCain, who was also a war hero who was captured and tortured in Vietnam.

The ex-POTUS blamed McCain in an Iowa speech for his administration's failure to repeal his campaign promise of repealing the Affordable Care Act, which is widely known as Obamacare.

"Obamacare is a catastrophe, nobody talks about it. You know, without John McCain, we would've had it done," he said, before mocking the late war hero's disability of not being able to lift his arm up after constant torture from the North Vietnamese, saying, "John McCain, for some reason, couldn't get his arm up that day, remember? He goes ... like that. That was the end of that."

READ MORE: Donald Trump is Confused Why Co-Defendants Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro Pleaded Guilty

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Convicted Jan. 6 participant calls out Trump - CNN
Authorities are delving into the social media activity of Dylan Butler, the 17-year-old responsible for the tragic Iowa school shooting, per The Independent.

The incident occurred at Perry High School, resulting in one fatality and five injuries. Butler, a former student, was found dead at the scene.

As investigators probe his motive, attention is focused on several social media posts made around the time of the shooting, including a chilling TikTok video captioned, "Now we wait."

Moments before the attack, Butler posted the video from inside the school with a caption indicating an ominous wait.

The video featured him in a bathroom stall with a blue duffle bag, set to the song "Stray Bullet" by the German band KMFDM.

This song had also been associated with one of the shooters from the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

Pictures on Butler's social media accounts depicted him posing with firearms, prompting federal and state investigators to examine his online presence on platforms like TikTok and Reddit.

Described as a quiet individual who endured years of bullying, Butler, the Iowa school shooting suspect, acted alone during the shooting, armed with a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun.

READ NEXT: Iowa School Shooting

Funeral Arranged for Iowa School Shooting Victim Ahmir Jolliff

The funeral for Ahmir Jolliff, the 11-year-old sixth-grade student killed in the Iowa school shooting, is scheduled one week after the tragic event.

The visitation will occur on Wednesday, January 10, at Caldwell Parrish Funeral Home - Perry Chapel, with the family present from 4-7 PM.

A funeral service will follow at 10:30 AM on Thursday at Perry's St. Patrick Catholic Church.

In an obituary published in the Des Moines Register, Ahmir's family described him as leaving behind a legacy of love, compassion, and advocacy for those in need.

His sociable and joyful nature endeared him to everyone in the community, as he constantly wore a grin and was known for his ample dimples.

Ahmir's family requested that those bidding farewell carry his legacy of making the world brighter.

Principal's Heroic Effort During the Iowa School Shooting

Claire Marburger, daughter of Perry High School's principal, revealed on social media that her father attempted to distract the Iowa school shooting suspect during the Iowa school shooting, according to CBS News.

In a Facebook post, she shared that her father had undergone surgery and was in stable condition after trying to talk down the gunman.

Describing her father as a "gentle giant" and an "amazing person," Marburger expressed that it was unsurprising to learn he had tried to approach and distract the shooter, ensuring some students could escape the cafeteria.

Claire Marburger called for sharing positive memories about the school, community, or her father and urged expressing well-wishes to the other victims' families while showing grace to the family of the shooter.

The Perry High School principal's bravery in the face of danger highlights the selfless acts undertaken to protect students and staff during the tragic event.

READ MORE: Father, Son Arrested Over Fatal Shooting

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Who is Iowa school shooting suspect Dylan Butler? - From New York Post
One person was killed and one was injured as a result of missile attacks by Russian occupiers on Kryvy Rih district of Dnipropetrovsk region, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Serhiy Lysak said on Monday morning.

"They hit Kryvy Rih. A shopping center and more than two dozen households were damaged. A 58-year-old man received shrapnel wounds. He is in satisfactory condition. The consequences of the attack are also being eliminated in Lozovatska community of Kryvy Rih district. There was also an 'arrival.' A 62-year-old woman was killed woman. A household was destroyed," Lysak said on the Telegram channel.

According to him, 24 civilians were injured in Novomoskovsk, five of them children. "A fire broke out, it has already been localized. The blast wave overturned a minibus passing by. Three administrative buildings, two gas stations, a five-story building, and a car were damaged. There are tentatively 24 victims in the city. Five of them are children. Boys four and eight years old. And girls 11, 16 and 17 years old. Everyone in the hospital is in moderate condition," Lysak said.
You could own your own 1950s-style soda shop, its inventory, fixtures and surrounding property for $895,000 in the Slate Belt.

Thats according to an online commercial property listing for DATs Eats, Treats & Sweets, 5684 Sullivan Trail in Plainfield Township. Married owners Joseph and Lilly DiMarco first listed the property last Oct. 19, according to the listing.

The couple from Eldred Township, Monroe County, made $400,000 worth of upgrades to the 1,945-square-foot restaurant when it launched DATs in October 2020. The business is named after their three daughters  Danielle, then 18, Alexandria (Alex), then 23, and Victoria (Tori), then 8. The site was originally built in 1979 as a PNC Bank.

Theres parking for about 25 cars, indoor seating for 42 people and outdoor seating for another 35 guests. The property spans two-thirds of an acre, according to the listing.

The DiMarcos on Dec. 29 took to their Facebook page to announce to loyal patrons the business was available.

We opened this place with family, friends, and the community in mind, the posting stated. ... We are looking for someone to take over DATS, Not Change It, and we are willing to stay on as long as wanted and needed to help make sure our business and legacy continue to succeed and operate as it has been.

Alex DiMarco, who manages the shop, told lehighvalleylive.com last week all kitchen equipment and the familys popular recipes are included in the sale.

DATs is known for its freshly prepared menu items. Theres such appetizers as loaded fries, chips or tots; provolone or mozzarella sticks, mini pierogies; and wings. Theres an assortment of hot dogs and burgers; chicken and steak sandwiches; and hot and cold wraps, as well as salads.

Then, there are the desserts. Everything from handcrafted ice cream cones, floats shakes and sundaes to such things as chocolate mousse cake, New York-style cheesecake and the The Elvis Slice, which is vanilla cake with banana custard filling and peanut butter buttercream with chocolate on top.

The DiMarcos last summer experienced the death of Josephs father, Nicholas Chris DiMarco, which made the family simply rethink the business.

It just made us realize that we need/want more family time, Alex DiMarco said. More time together.

The DiMarcos upon launching the venture in 2020 began renovating the former bank space into a 1950s-style soda shop with pink walls, turquoise booths, a retro jukebox and vintage signs, Alex DiMarco said. The business logo depicts a female server and large vinyl record with the words, DATs What Im Talkin Bout. Theres also music playing from the 1950s era at all times.

That venture came after the DiMarcos were forced to close DiMarcos Bakery and LynDees ice cream shop, Routes 115 and 209, in Chestnuthill Township, Monroe County. A Pennsylvania Department of Transportation project transforming Routes 115 and 209 into a roundabout eliminated the strip mall the bakery was housed in. That change led to the business demise, the owners had said.

It led the family to the township site DATs currently is operating in and marked the last bakery for the family in nearly a century.

Joseph DiMarcos roots have been in the bakery business since he was a child. His late grandfather Nicholas DiMarco started the original family bakery known as Stella Doro in 1922 in Brooklyn, New York, after arriving in the United States from Italy. Nicholas Chris DiMarco then expanded the business with several other locations throughout Long Island.

Joseph DiMarco worked for the family business in high school before attending college and working in the restaurant and catering industries. He moved to Monroe County in 2006 and opened DiMarcos Bakery in Chestnuthill Township in 2008.

After a long time looking for the right location, area, and community to rebuild we decided on this location where we currently are, the Facebook posting stated. Our goal was to build a long standing business again ... .

The family added DATs is thriving and patrons have well supported them over the years.

DAT's Eats, Treats & Sweets, 5684 Sullivan Trail in Plainfield Township, is known for its freshly-made menu items and tasty desserts, owners said. The building, business, recipes and all fixtures and equipment are up for sale in the Slate Belt.Courtesy photo

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Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
Khanisas The Pudding Bar has vacated the Downtown Allentown Market shortly after a year in operation at the new digs.

Jeff Vaughan, spokesman for City Center Allentown, which owns the market, told lehighvalleylive.com Monday co-owners Khanisa and Sean Darby decided not to renew their lease at the end of December. The couple, he said, is instead moving to a sole e-commerce operation. The brands online store, which was down for maintenance Monday afternoon, can be found here.

The Darbys in October 2022 moved into space previously occupied by Batch Microcreamery. Batch in early 2023 ended up opening a location at the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley in Upper Saucon.

The move to Allentown came after more than a year of tumultuous dispute with the Darbys landlord in Easton. Prior, the couple operated in Easton since August 2016 when they opened their initial storefront at 48 West St. Joseph Street on the citys South Side. They later moved to 74 N. Fourth St. in Downtown Easton before stumbling upon the larger space along Northampton Street. The Northampton Street space was the result of the litigation.

Khanisas in May announced on Instagram the business additionally had become a supplier for Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in South Whitehall Township.

No tenant is yet announced to fill the Khanisas The Pudding Bar space at the market. Khanisas departure leaves just one vacancy after Randevoo, an Asian fusion concept, recently moved into space the previously occupied Honmono Sushi. Honmono shuttered in June following its owners moving to Florida.

Randevoo on Friday softly opened at the bustling eating destination, on the ArtsWalk between Sixth and Seventh streets.

We are excited for the opening of Randevoo, their reputation in the Lehigh Valley is fabulous, Vaughan told lehighvalleylive.com Monday. We also wish Khanisas Pudding the best of luck as they continue to grow their brand with their new online business model.

Owner and chef Zach Umstead initially launched Randevoo in 2017 as a food truck. Three years later, he opened his first brick-and-mortar location in a shared space with Lost Tavern Brewing, 444 Main St. in downtown Bethlehem, according to Vaughan and the business website.

Umstead plans to focus on sushi selections at the market. Guests can choose from 14 Randevoo Experience rolls and another 14 traditional rolls (8-piece). Traditional includes such selections as California, spicy tuna, avacado and shrimp tempura. Randevoo Experience rolls tend to be a little more exotic with such selections as Rainbow, with fresh crab topped with a colorful school of fish; and Allentown, with Japanese yellowtail, gochujang aioli, micro cilantro, fried onions and jalapeno.

Patrons also can opt to craft their own rolls by choice of protein, vegetables, toppings and sauce. Additionally, theres other menu highlights, such as sashimi, nigiri and BBQ eel. Appetizers will include miso soup, arugula salad and tuna tataki.

Prices remain affordable, with hand rolls with three ingredients starting at $10. Other items range roughly $7 to $22.

Other recent market tenants include Chezs Delicatessen, which opened sometime in the fall and replaced Ciao Sandwich Shoppe; Pasta & Pies, which opened in August is operating out of space that previously occupied Tavola; and La Kang Thai Eatery, which opened in early July, is in the former The Loaded Plantain space.

Casa Criolla, a Latin-American fusion eatery, in May joined the roster. It moved into space previously occupied by Zacharys BBQ & Soul and prior to that, Fresh Kitchen by Robert Irvine.

Additionally, the Downtown Allentown Market continues to have three other vendors: Johnnys Artwalk Diner and Bar 1838. Zahra, a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean eatery, remains as the markets last original tenant.

Randevoo is open at the Downtown Allentown Market from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday and Tuesday; and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday. The business is closed Sunday.

Randevoo is open in Bethlehem from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday; 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday; noon to 11 p.m. Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. The business is closed Monday.

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Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
Two people died as a result of Russian strikes in Khmelnytsky region on Monday morning, and a fire also broke out as a result of hits on infrastructure, according to the Telegram channel of Khmelnytsky Regional Military Administration.

"At the same time, the enemy attacked the infrastructure of the region. There is a fire that is being localized by the State Emergency Service units. Unfortunately, we already have two dead people. And this is a big loss, because everything can be restored and restored, except human life," the administration said.

According to the regional administration, during an air raid in the sky over Khmelnytsky region, the Ukrainian air defense forces shot down two missiles fired by the Russian occupiers.
UPDATE: Service announced for Bethlehems Central Moravian Church senior pastor

Congregants of Bethlehems Central Moravian Church are mourning the death of their senior pastor, who served for the past decade.

Bishop C. Hopeton Clennon died at noon Sunday, surrounded by family, representatives of the Moravian Church Northern Province announced Monday morning. The family shared he was at peace during his passing.

Our hearts are grieving for a pastor, a bishop, a friend and a person bigger than any words can describe him, a statement by Central Moravian Church read.

Born in Jamaica, Clennon was a graduate of the University of the West Indies and the United Theological College of the West Indies. He was ordained in 1983 and served the Jamaica Province of the Moravian Church before moving to the United States in 1989, according to a bio on Central Moravian Churchs website.

In the Northern Province, Hopeton served as pastor of Schoeneck Moravian Church in Nazareth; as well as Faith Moravian Church in Washington, D.C.; and the Moravian Church of Downey, near Los Angeles, California.

In 1998, Clennon was made the 320th bishop of the worldwide Moravian Unity.

He was installed as senior pastor of Central Moravian in January 2013, serving the then 900-member congregation. He replaced The Rev. Carol A. Reifinger, who retired the past year.

Prior to starting his ministry at Central Moravian, Clennon also served as chaplain of then Moravian College, now Moravian University, and Moravian Theological Seminary.

Clennon leaves behind his wife, Shelia, who is employed as an educator in the Bethlehem Area School District, and the couples two adult children, Andrew and Danielle.

Clennon Monday also was remembered by the Moravian Church of Lebanon. The congregation was one of many that took to social media to post memories on its Facebook page.

If you never met Hopeton, you missed knowing one of the remarkable Moravian leaders of our day, the posting stated.

Bethania Moravian Church in North Carolina posted on Facebook, The Moravian Church lost a great pastor today ... "

An official obituary and more information on Clennons passing will be shared as it is available, representatives of Central Moravian Church said.

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Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
Portlaoise which was the IBAL cleanest town three years ago, is climbing back up the ranking in latest results.

Maynooth claimed the top spot in the January 2024 Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) business survey, and Mullingar jumped to 5th place while Dublin North Inner City was bottom of the list of 40 Irish towns and cities studied.

Portlaoise is praised for a "strong performance" by the judges, who heaped praise on Main Street and a shopping centre.

Just one "heavily littered site" was reported by IBAL. Mountain View housing estate was not just littered but had "large domestic items" dumped in it.

Portlaoise was ranked 18th, maintaining its standard of Clean to European Norms and rising two places from the January 2023 result. The town is kept clean and full of flowers with an eco friendly emphasis by Portlaoise Tidy Towns and Laois County Council.

Judges gave the following result report.

"A strong performance by Portlaoise, with just one heavily littered site, at Mountain View Estate, which was noted in previous IBAL surveys.

"There are some top-ranking sites which were not just very good with regards to litter but in overall presentation and maintenance e.g. the R445 from M7 (creating a very positive first impression of the town), Main Street and Market Square 

the latter was attractively laid out with lovely paving at the bicycle parking area and some colourful hanging baskets.

"R445 Approach from M7: Grade A. This route creates a very positive first impression of Portlaoise and this high marking was sustained for well over the majority of the remaining sites surveyed. It is characterised by attractive buildings and the grass verges were neatly maintained.

"R426 Timahoe Approach Road: Grade A. Apart from one incident, there were no other visible litter issues along this route. All appeared in good order with regard to the presentation and maintenance of the route / properties along the route.

"Kyle Shopping Centre: Grade A. This was an exceptionally freshly presented shopping centre environment. The car park surface / markings were in excellent order. The large expanse of retail space was excellent with regards to litter.

"Market Square: Grade A. This town centre environment was attractively laid out with lovely paving at the bicycle parking area. Area was enhanced by an abundance of colourful hanging baskets. Signage indicates that it is a Litter Free Zone. There was a virtual absence of litter throughout the area surveyed.

"Main Street: Grade A. There were very minor litter items along this busy shopping street. Area was enhanced by some colourful planter boxes and attractive paving. All in all, it was very much deserving of the top litter grade.

"Recycle Facility, Co Co Offices: Grade A. The bin units at this Bring Facility were in good condition. The overall impression was a good one, with just some minor items at the base of the units e.g., paper, broken glass. Perhaps the proximity of the facility to the local authority offices ensures that the users are a little more careful than at other facilities.

"Portlaoise Train Station  Exterior: Grade B. There were too many sweet papers / food related items and cigarette related items e.g., butts, packaging and vaping devices, for the top litter grade. With a little more care on behalf of the users this could easily be achieved.

"Harpur's Lane  residential: Grade A. There was a virtual absence of litter along this area, some loose food related items, but not in significant quantities to bring down the litter grade.

"Derelict Site, Harpurs Lane: Grade A. Portlaoise have had planning applications attached to two adjoining derelict sites which are in almost impeccable condition. No litter seen.

"Mountain View Estate: Grade C. Some of the site is open to the public, other parts are behind railings. A poor site which wasnt just littered but subject to dumping of large household items. Sites like this only attract further discarding / dumping, if not addressed on a regular basis.

"Mountmellick Approach Road: Grade B. Much of this route was fine but the overall grade was let down by an area surrounding red plastic fencing (lying on the ground) where litter had begun to gather  mostly food related items.
The final litter survey of 2023 by business group Irish Business Against Litter shows Maynooth cleanest of 40 towns and cities ranked nationwide, with previous winner Naas also deemed Cleaner than European norms in 11th spot.

For the first time since surveys began 20 years ago, no area was deemed seriously littered. IBAL says the impending Deposit Return Scheme will improve cleanliness levels further but is calling for action on coffee cups.

The An Taisce report for Maynooth stated:

Over the course of 2023 Maynooth attained a level of cleanliness which we have not encountered in over 20 years of surveying. All sites got the top litter grade this time around  well done Maynooth. With so many top-ranking sites, there are some which deserve a special mention e.g., Maynooth University (exceptionally well presented and maintained with an absence of litter throughout), St. Patricks College, Carton Park / Avenue and the Main Street.

The An Taisce report for Naas stated:

Four moderately littered sites helped push Naas off the top of the IBAL table. Millennium Park (business park) was an exceptionally freshly presented and maintained environment with an abundance of greenery throughout. The residential area of Morell Road / Lawns was excellent in terms of overall presentation and litter. The Recycle / Bring Facility at Tesco (Monread Road) was a template for such a site  clearly it is a very well respected and managed one. Notable improvement at Vacant site on Rathasker Road  the previous litter / dumping issues have been addressed, this time it just missed the top litter grade.

While litter levels rose slightly nationwide, over 60% of towns surveyed were deemed clean in 2023, with Maynooth edging out Mallow and much improved Sligo to take the title of cleanest town.

Waterford was again our cleanest city, ahead of Galway. These were the only cities to be judged clean, with Cork City Centre improving to moderately littered but Dublin falling to littered, alongside Limerick.

There is some good news in our cities, however, says Conor Horgan. For years our worst performing areas were deemed either litter blackspots or seriously littered. This baseline would seem to be changing, with littered becoming the bottom tier. Cleanliness begets cleanliness, and there is reason to hope the improvement will continue in future years.

We need action on coffee cups

A surprise finding of the IBAL study was the rise in coffee cup litter, which is now close to peak-Covid levels. Coffee cups were found at over 30% of the 500+ sites surveyed. We are concerned at potential delays in introducing a coffee cup levy, says Conor Horgan. We believe this action is needed to stamp out a product which is out of step with the circular economy. Irrespective of how recyclable or compostable take-away cups are, these statistics show too many of them are ending up on our streets. IBAL says Killarney has benefited from having banned single-use cups last year, a move embraced by the community.

IBAL welcomes the introduction next month of the Deposit Return Scheme as a potential game-changer in the fight against litter, much as the plastic bag levy was. The scheme will see consumers pay a deposit of 15 cent on cans and up to 25 cent on plastic bottles, refundable on their return. This latest survey shows these items to be present in just under half of the hundreds of sites we surveyed. This scheme will remove a large portion of this litter and bring about a significantly cleaner environment in 2024. While there may be some inconvenience for consumers, the prize is a very real, and a very immediate one.

There was another significant rise in the prevalence of disposable vapes, highlighted previously as an emerging source of litter. These were found in more than 10% of all sites covered.

The Cathaoirleach of Clane/Maynooth Municipal District, Tim Durkin, will be presented at noon today in Court House Square, Main St, Maynooth with the Dr Tom Cavanagh Memorial Trophy. 2023 marked the 21st anniversary of the IBAL Anti-Litter League.
A Kildare Garda and his colleague from Laois were singled out for praise by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

The pair were honoured for their bravery at an awards ceremony in Dublin last November.

In the Garda Commissioners latest Monthly Report to the Policing Authority Published in late December, Commissioner Harris noted their awards and those given to two other gardai.

"Bravery by Gardai in different circumstances was also recognised this month at the National Bravery Awards. Garda Shane Smyth (Kildare) and Garda Padraig Marum (Laois) were involved in the rescue of a man from a burning car shortly after midnight on 7 September 2019, near Kill East in Co Kildare. They were each awarded a Silver Medal and Certificate of Bravery, Commissioner Harris stated in his monthly message.

The Gardai were among 26 people honoured at the National Bravery Awards in Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park in Dublin in November.

Garda Marum and Garda Smyth rescued the man from a burning car which exploded moments later.

Shortly after midnight on the 7th of September 2019, Garda Shane Smyth and Garda Padraig Marum arrived at the scene of a high speed car crash, near Kill East in Co. Kildare. The car had crashed into a large stone wall and was on fire. As the car was pinned in between trees, the driver was trapped inside. Both Gardai ran to the burning car as the driver was shouting for help but were unable to open the drivers door which was pinned closed by the tree. Garda Smyth broke the drivers window to get into the car so that they could pull out the driver but couldnt get to him, the Bravery Award citation noted.

The Gardai then ran to the passenger's side of the car and crawled in between the stone wall and the burning car to rescue the driver. Having freed him, they crawled back out, dragging him to a safe distance behind a Garda Van. Minutes later the car exploded, the citation at the awards stated.

Commissioner Harris also mentioned two other Gardai who were honoured at the awards.

Meanwhile, Garda Caitriona Munnelly (Mayo) and Sergeant Brendan OToole (Meath) were similarly commended for their efforts to apprehend a male and the search of a house on fire near Ballivor, Co. Meath. For their actions, both Gardai were awarded a Bronze Medal and a Certificate of Bravery, wrote Commissioner Harris.
Brigid 1500 has today officially announced the line-up for the highly anticipated festival programme, which will be hosted by Kildare County Council.

The festival will celebrate and commemorate the extraordinary St Brigid, a woman, a life, a legacy and the enduring impact of her life as we reach the 1500th anniversary of her passing.

Set to take place across Kildare from January 27 and into February, the programme will bring together artists, performers, enthusiasts, communities and visitors to celebrate St Brigid in a contemporary and modern way.

The vast programme includes something for everyone with a fusion of culinary and visual arts and vibrant musical performances throughout the programme of free and ticketed events.

Commenting on the launch, Sonya Kavanagh, the CEO of Kildare County Council, said: "This programme beautifully weaves together the rich tapestry of our cultural heritage, and we look forward to witnessing the magic it brings to Kildare, capturing the essence of St Brigids legacy and the remarkable contributions of Irish women in the arts."

The lineup includes renowned Irish musicians such as Imelda May, Denise Chaila, Moya Brennan, Eleanor McEvoy, Mary Coughlan, Camille O'Sullivan, Gemma Hayes, Una Healy, and many more as part of the Hot Press Nothing Compares event series.

TV personality, journalist and model Laura Whitmore is poised to take the stage as the Master of Ceremonies for Nothing Compares In Concert at The Moat Theatre.

Tickets for this year's ticketed events go on sale at 8am on Tuesday, January 9, via hotpress.com/nothingcompares.

Given last year's rapid sell-out, the public is encouraged to act quickly due to the limited availability of tickets.

HOT PRESS NOTHING COMPARES LINE UP

Saturday, January 27 - Mother Earth Food Symposium: A culinary delight with a host of talks, workshops and demonstrations featuring leading Irish women in food.

Line-up: Dee Laffan, Karen Ward, Chantelle Nicholson, Holly Loftus, Catherine Cleary, Jess Murphy, Rose Green, Majken Bech-Bailey, Ali Dunworth, Darina Allen, Julia Hemingwayand Darcie Mayland.

Location: The Wonderful Barn, Leixlip.

Time: 11am



Saturday, January 27 - The Wonderful Barn Show: MOTHER EARTH: A star-studded show featuring songs on the theme of 'Mother Earth.

Line-up: Denise Chaila, Gemma Hayes, Una Healy, Roisin O and Tolu Makay

Location: The Wonderful Barn, Leixlip

Time: 8pm



Tuesday, January 30 - We Shall Overcome: A concert centred around songs of social justice and freedom.

Line-up: Eleanor McEvoy, Mary Coughlan, Pauline Scanlon, Jess Kav and Toshin

Location: Athy Library

Time: 8pm



Thursday, February 1 - Nothing Compares  In Concert: A night of extraordinary, genre-spanning music by Irish women.

Line-up: Imelda May, HamsandwicH, Camille O'Sullivan, Niamh Regan, Nell Mescal and Laura Whitmore as MC

Location: The Moat Theatre, Naas

Time: 8pm



Sunday, February 4 - She Moves Through The Fair: A special event featuring traditional and contemporary songs about Irish women.

Line-up: Moya Brennan, Loah, Lisa Lambe and The Henry Girls, plus more to be announced.

Location: St Brigid's Cathedral, Kildare,

Time: 8pm

FREE PERFORMANCES AND ACTIVITIES GALORE

On top of these events, there will be a plethora of free activities and performances across the county for tourists and locals alike.

HerStory light shows will feature around the county at prominent locations in Clane, Newbridge, and Athy, including Naas Potato Market and the new Naas Library and Cultural Centre, while LUXE Landscape Theatre will lead two grand fiery processional events to celebrate St Brigid, which will take place in the towns of Maynooth and Kildare over the bank holiday weekend.

In addition, Riverdance is set to be a featured act at the family event at the scenic Curragh Racecourse on February 3.

As part of the lineup, Riverdance will deliver a captivating performance alongside other acts that will be joining the festivities.

The visual spectacle will combine dance and theatre while honouring the rich heritage of Ireland.

The full festival programme of events can be found on www.brigid1500.ie and all Brigid 1500 social media channels.
Two people died and 33 were injured as a result of a missile attack in Ukraine on the morning of Monday, January 8, Deputy Head of the President's Office Oleksiy Kuleba said.

"Massive missile attack on Kryvy Rih and Kryvy Rih region. A shopping center, high-rise buildings and household, the enemy hit civilian targets. Unfortunately, there is one woman killed. One wounded. The situation is complicated by the bad weather that is raging in the region. There are many cliffs in Kryvy Rih power grids, there are blackouts, electric transport is not working. Specialists are working hard on the ground," Kuleba said on Telegram channel.

According to him, there is one death in Khmelnytsky region.

In Novomoskovsk, Dnipropetrovsk region, where 24 people were injured, according to the President's Office deputy head, private and apartment buildings were damaged, residents are being provided with the necessary assistance.

"Civilian facilities were damaged in Kharkiv. Utilities are working on the spot, liquidation of the consequences of the strike continues. Two people were injured. In the city of Zmiiv, two people were rescued from the rubble. Rescue work continues," Kuleba said.

In Zaporizhia, according to him, there are four wounded, they are receiving medical assistance.

"I am grateful to everyone who helps people, quickly puts cities and villages in order after shelling. It is not important to ignore air raid signals. The enemy is insidious and attacks civilian targets. Thanks to our military," Kuleba said.
Userful Unveils Seven Groundbreaking Innovations for its Infinity Platform, Amplifying its Leadership in Enterprise AV over IP





Userfultm, a leading provider of IT solutions for core enterprise operations, has announced seven industry first enhancements for its Infinity Platform that was launched spring 2023. Userful's software-defined AV over IP platform provides a full suite of integrated AV applications built on an IT infrastructure that is centrally-managed, scalable and secure. It eliminates the operational silos and complexities inherent in traditional AV deployments, and operates on IT standards and protocols, reducing TCO and frees customers from the constraints of restrictive proprietary AV hardware.

Userful's new enhancements include:

1. Most Advanced High-Power Video/Audio Processing Engine on Earth

Userful has integrated NVIDIA's most advanced GPU, Ada Lovelace, with its Chronos Video Engine on its Infinity Platform, making Userful's solution a leading-edge software-defined AV over IP platform. Benchmarking shows that Userful's platform has up to 2x the compute of its next closest competitor in AV, and 24x the compute of traditional proprietary leaders in AV hardware. Userful's engine operates at an unmatched 96 4K60FPS max throughput compute.

2. World's First End-to-End 8K Platform

In addition, Userful's engine can now deliver 24 8K60FPS, which is unrivaled encoding in the industry. Userful is also announcing the launch of its 8K performance uClient adapter, which is the first enterprise-class 8K decoder. This groundbreaking pairing can aggregate multiple sources into a single 8K stream, ready for delivery through 8K LED controllers and/or to 8K LED walls and LCD displays. Through Userful's real-time aggregation technology, the creation of a single 8K output enables highest performance, lowest cost deployment of the most advanced control room and video walls in the industry. Fewer controllers, less sync concern, and maximum control through a software-defined architecture.

3. First Browser-Based Soft KVM for Operations Centers - Secure & Low Latency

After several iterations and improvement in latency and security, Userful formally announces its operations-center-class soft-KVM, uConduct 2.0, as an augmentation of Userful's quad-play for modernized control rooms. Userful's browser-based approach can be operated offline (air gapped from the Internet) or online. uConduct provides operators with simplified workflows, while ensuring secure access and low latency performance (<100ms depending on network design). uConduct provides enterprise class security for most commercial (non-military) deployments. Moving to a soft-KVM architecture enables customers to reduce their cost-per-operator by as much as 75 percent. For clarity, competitive offerings require a separate application, necessitating additional service and maintenance, as well as additional hardware.

4. Browser-Based AV Controls

Userful's new uControl 2.0 enables both layout switching and whole-enterprise environmental switching. With the touch of a single button, different layouts and different sources (audio/video) can be activated on different screens and different rooms. Scalability testing has confirmed support for up to 200 active screens and LED walls.

5. Next-Generation Audio Service Management

In partnership with Dante Audio, Userful's AV engine becomes the first that can map a single audio source to many enterprise AV applications. Userful has brought its leadership and years of experience in source management into the audio world enabling more effective and intuitive mapping of audio sources including the integration of Dante Audio.

6. World's Most Robust Tool for Centralized IT Management of Distributed AV Services ? Global Cluster Manager (GCM)

A first-of-its-kind private management system, Userful's Global Cluster Manager is the world's only secure cloud-based solution for AV over IP deployments that offers unparalleled distributing, monitoring and managing capabilities. GCM empowers IT departments to efficiently oversee and scale their organization's AV over IP servers. As the enterprise expands its infrastructure, GCM becomes indispensable, providing secure server management, resource distribution, and comprehensive monitoring across the organization. This innovative approach ensures real-time visibility into implementation growth through a unified control point, safeguarding sensitive data throughout the process.

Capable of managing up to 10,000 clusters, comprising up to 5 video engine servers per cluster, yielding 50,000 servers for a total compute of up to 10M CPU cores and 400,000 GPUs under management. Translation: Unlimited platform scalability.

7. Broadest Software-Based End-Point Management in Industry

Userful supports endpoints running WebOS 4.1 and later, Android 12, Tizen, and API management of Novastar and Megapixel controllers. By deploying soft clients at the edge, Userful is able to reduce adapter hardware and decoder hardware while enabling admins to monitor and manage displays as nodes. Management functions on the corporate network include screen power management, scheduled update groups, locking of peripherals and image quality management.

Userful will showcase these groundbreaking innovations at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) in Barcelona 2024, reaffirming its dedication to pushing the boundaries of AV technology for enterprise IT. To learn more go to www.userful.com

About Userful

Userfultm is a leading provider of software-defined AV over IP for advanced operations of mission-critical environments and core workflows, serving IT organizations worldwide. Userful's unified software platform provides services and management through a complete suite of enterprise AV applications for comprehensive organizational and situational awareness, and readiness for modernized operations. Userful harnesses the same unified platform to provide global manageability through a single-pane-of-glass.

Built on IT standards and protocols, the Userful Infinity Platformtm is scalable, secure, centrally managed, and future-proof. Its software-defined architecture reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) and eliminates the supply-chain constrained proprietary hardware and the operational silos created by traditional AV deployments.

Userful partners with leading global companies powering a technology ecosystem that ensures seamless integrations and end-to-end interoperability. A multinational company with headquarters in Silicon Valley and Calgary, AB, Userful supports customers in more than 100 countries around the world.

8 january 2024 at 01:05

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Cybin Announces Positive Topline Data from Phase 1 Studies of Proprietary Deuterated DMT Molecules CYB004 and SPL028





Cybin Inc. (NYSE American:CYBN) (NEO:CYBN) ("Cybin" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to revolutionizing mental healthcare by developing new and innovative psychedelic-based treatment options, today announced positive safety, pharmacokinetic ("PK") and pharmacodynamic ("PD") data from its Phase 1 studies of CYB004 (IV) and SPL028 (IV and IM) in healthy volunteers. CYB004 and SPL028 are proprietary deuterated DMT molecules within the Company's DMT program in development for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder.

Results from the Phase 1 studies in the CYB004 and SPL028 programs demonstrated PK and PD profiles with the potential to bridge data across these molecules, and the PK profiles for both molecules demonstrated concentrations in the effective range. Both IV (CYB004 and SPL028) and IM (SPL028) administration routes were safe and well-tolerated, with potential for IM dosing to provide a more convenient dosing method for patients when compared to IV infusion. IM dosing of SPL028 produced robust psychedelic effects lasting a short duration in the majority of subjects, a finding that supports IM administration as a well-tolerated and effective dosing method that is highly scalable.

"The positive data from our Phase 1 studies of CYB004 and SPL028 are highly encouraging with the combined data from these studies enabling us to prioritize our 2024 development plan for our deuterated DMT program. Importantly, these are the first-in-human studies of deuterated DMT in healthy participants. We are pleased that both the IV and IM administrations produced robust psychedelic effects and were safe and well-tolerated. We are especially encouraged that the IM route produced psychedelic effects in the majority of subjects, with a short-duration psychedelic experience from a single administration of SPL028," said Doug Drysdale, Chief Executive Officer of Cybin. "These results for IM dosing of deuterated DMT are highly promising and will help inform dosing in future clinical trials, saving time and resources by eliminating the need for further formulation studies of other methods such as subcutaneous dosing."

Dr. Amir Inamdar, Chief Medical Officer of Cybin, added: "The completion of our Phase 1 CYB004 and SPL028 studies represents a significant milestone in the clinical advancement of our deuterated DMT program. From these studies, we identified a dose that resulted in strong psychedelic effects, was well-tolerated and we believe will result in therapeutic efficacy. Collectively, these positive results will inform a more targeted approach and support an accelerated path to a Phase 2 deuterated DMT study in GAD in early 2024."

Phase 1 CYB004 Topline Results

The objective of the Phase 1 CYB004 study was to evaluate the safety, PK, and PD of escalating doses of DMT and CYB004 in healthy participants. This was a three-part study, consisting of Part A (90-minute IV DMT infusion) in 39 participants, Part B (IV DMT bolus + infusion) in 12 participants, and Part C (IV CYB004 bolus  infusion) in 24 participants.

CYB004 was well-tolerated with no serious adverse events, and the majority of adverse events were mild to moderate and self-limiting. The Phase 1 study's robust dataset on safety, tolerability and PK/PD provided important dosing information allowing the Company to advance its deuterated DMT program into patients in a Phase 2 GAD study in Q1 2024.

Study highlights:

Escalating doses of DMT IV infusion over 90 minutes were well-tolerated

Robust psychedelic effects were produced, and the intensity of effects was related to the rate at which the peak concentration was achieved.

Deuteration of DMT, as with CYB004, resulted in stronger psychedelic effects at lower plasma concentrations, compared with native DMT.

These psychedelic effects were rapid in onset when administered as an IV bolus over 5 minutes and persisted for about 40 minutes after the bolus without the need for an extended infusion.

This short duration of effects has the potential for CYB004 to be a scalable treatment that can be delivered in a shorter period of time compared with longer acting psychedelics.

Phase 1 IV/IM SPL028 Topline Results

The Company today also announced the completion of dosing in a Phase 1 study evaluating IV and IM doses of SPL028 (deuterated DMT) in healthy participants. The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety, PK, and PD of escalating doses of SPL028 in healthy participants. This was a two-part study, consisting of Part 1 (IV vs IM cross-over dosing in 16 psychedelic-experienced healthy participants) and Part 2 (single IV or IM doses of SPL028 in 22 healthy participants with little-to-no psychedelic experience).

IV and IM SPL028 demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile. No serious adverse events were observed, and the majority of adverse events were mild to moderate and self-limiting. Furthermore, the study identified an IM dose of SPL028 that resulted in a breakthrough psychedelic experience, with a total duration ranging from 55 to 120 minutes.

Phase 1 Data Summary: CYB004 and SPL028

IV and IM routes both safe and well-tolerated

CYB004 and SPL028 demonstrated similar PK and PD profiles which allows bridging of data across molecules

PK profiles for both molecules demonstrated concentrations in the effective range

IM dosing of SPL028 produced robust psychedelic effects lasting a short duration in the majority of subjects

"With these important deuterated DMT datasets in hand, as well as the recently announced positive findings from our Phase 2 study of CYB003, our deuterated psilocybin analog in development for the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder, we are well positioned to advance both programs as we pursue our goal of creating safe and effective treatments for multiple mental health disorders," concluded Drysdale.

About Cybin

Cybin is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company on a mission to create safe and effective psychedelic-based therapeutics to address the large unmet need for new and innovative treatment options for people who suffer from mental health conditions.

Cybin's goal of revolutionizing mental healthcare is supported by a network of world-class partners and internationally recognized scientists aimed at progressing proprietary drug discovery platforms, innovative drug delivery systems, and novel formulation approaches and treatment regimens. The Company is currently developing CYB003, a proprietary deuterated psilocybin analog for the treatment of major depressive disorder and CYB004, a proprietary deuterated DMT molecule for generalized anxiety disorder and has a research pipeline of investigational psychedelic-based compounds.

Headquartered in Canada and founded in 2019, Cybin is operational in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Ireland. For company updates and to learn more about Cybin, visit www.cybin.com or follow the team on X, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.

Cautionary Notes and Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release relating to the Company are forward-looking statements and are prospective in nature. Forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather on current expectations and projections about future events and are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "may", "should", "could", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "anticipate", "expect", "believe" or "continue", or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the Company's plans to progress to a Phase 2 deuterated DMT study in patients with generalized anxiety disorder in Q1 2024; potential for IM administration to provide more convenient, patient-friendly dosing; the therapeutic efficacy of the deuterated DMT program; the potential of the deuterated DMT program to be a scalable treatment that can be delivered in a short period of time compared with longer acting psychedelics; and the Company's plans to engineer proprietary drug discovery platforms, innovative drug delivery systems, novel formulation approaches and treatment regimens for mental health conditions.

These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as 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 materially differ from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: implications of the spread of COVID-19 on the Company's operations; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; expectations regarding the size of the psychedelics market; the ability of the Company to successfully achieve its business objectives; plans for growth; political, social and environmental uncertainties; employee relations; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions in the markets where the Company operates; and the risk factors set out in each of the Company's management's discussion and analysis for the three and six month periods ended September 30, 2023 and the Company's annual information form for the year ended March 31, 2023, which are available under the Company's profile on www.sedarplus.ca and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

Cybin makes no medical, treatment or health benefit claims about Cybin's proposed products. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada or other similar regulatory authorities have not evaluated claims regarding psilocybin, psychedelic tryptamine, tryptamine derivatives or other psychedelic compounds. The efficacy of such products has not been confirmed by approved research. There is no assurance that the use of psilocybin, psychedelic tryptamine, tryptamine derivatives or other psychedelic compounds can diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition. Rigorous scientific research and clinical trials are needed. Cybin has not conducted clinical trials for the use of its proposed products. Any references to quality, consistency, efficacy and safety of potential products do not imply that Cybin verified such in clinical trials or that Cybin will complete such trials. If Cybin cannot obtain the approvals or research necessary to commercialize its business, it may have a material adverse effect on Cybin's performance and operations.

Neither Cboe Canada, operating as the Neo Exchange Inc., nor the NYSE American LLC stock exchange have approved or disapproved the contents of this news release and are not responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the contents herein.

8 january 2024 at 07:35

News published onand distributed by:
Medable's New Intelligent Automation Capabilities Cut Clinical Trial Technology Deployment Timelines By 50%





Medable Inc., the leading technology provider for modern clinical trials, announces new intelligent automation technology applied across its clinical trials platform to cut standard trial build timelines by at least half. Early application of the technology in electronic clinical outcomes assessment (eCOA) deployments ? a major delay to study startup industry-wide ? is groundbreaking. By automating laborious, manual tasks such as testing, Medable saves substantial time and removes eCOA from the critical path to trial go-live.

Medable's new AI and automation capabilities catapult the company to the forefront of automating clinical trial operations and align with the industry's perennial need to launch studies faster. Now, sponsors can eliminate common gridlocks caused by conversion, configuration, validation, and quality engineering. Top-10 global pharmaceutical companies are already benefiting from Medable's novel technology, shaving weeks off build times.

As part of a broader roadmap incorporating AI and intelligent automation, Medable's updated eCOA capabilities include an auto-configuration tool that produces standard configurations, such as schedules of assessments, anchor dates, and patient flags, in minutes. Medable's auto-validate tool also eliminates weeks of tedious testing to automatically deliver a downloadable Configuration Validation Report (CVR) that validates the quality of study builds.

"We are reimagining the way clinical trials are deployed by eliminating many of the biggest process bottlenecks," said Michelle Longmire, CEO and co-founder of Medable. "Starting with eCOA, we are accelerating clinical trials while helping to improve data quality ? ultimately enabling our vision of a one-day study start-up to help deliver effective treatments and cures to patients faster. In 2024, expect to see more innovative technologies and new ways of delivering streamlined, patient-centric trials from Medable."

Medable, which ranked in the top 8% of software companies on the 2023 Inc. 5000, has deployed its software-as-a-service platform in more than 300 decentralized and hybrid clinical trials in 60 countries, serving more than one million patients and research participants globally. Customers have achieved impressive results ? including 200 percent faster enrollment and 50 percent cost reductions. A Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development study shows that, on average, decentralized trials can achieve net financial benefits from five to 13 times for Phase II and Phase III trials, equating to roughly $10 million ROI and $39 million ROI respectively.

Learn more and join Medable in San Francisco on Tuesday, January 9th for a panel discussion, "Investing in the Future of AI-Powered Clinical Research" during the 42nd JP Morgan Healthcare conference. If interested in attending, email [email protected].

*NOTE: Medable is committed to upholding safe and ethical AI principles in clinical research to ensure the highest global standards of data quality, privacy, and compliance with regulatory requirements, including 21 CFR Part 11, HIPAA, GDPR, and ICH GCP.

About Medable

Medable is on a mission to get effective therapies to people faster. Its digital clinical trials platform enhances speed, scale, and patient access in clinical research, accelerating medicines for thousands of conditions without treatment or cure. Named a Leader in the industry by Everest Group and awarded Best Digital Health Solution by the Galien Foundation, the Medable platform has been deployed in more than 300 trials in 60 countries and 120 languages, serving more than one million patients globally. Medable is a privately held, venture-backed company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and ranked #398 on the Inc. 5000 in 2023.

8 january 2024 at 07:40

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Habitat for Humanity Canada kicks off national student writing contest





TORONTO, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Students in grades 4, 5 and 6 are invited to share what home means to them in an annual national writing contest that is now open and accepting entries. With submissions being accepted by mail or online at meaningofhome.ca until February 23, 2024, every student who enters the contest will help local Habitat for Humanity organizations across Canada build safe and affordable homes. This year, Habitat's goal is to receive 15,000 student submissions.



Housing continues to be an important concern for all Canadians, including children, who understand how it can provide them with a safe place to study, pursue their dreams and build a better life.

"Nothing compares to the feeling of strength and security that comes from having a safe place to call home. Every child in Canada deserves to feel this way and that's why we continue building and advocating for more affordable housing," says Julia Deans, President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Canada. "The enthusiastic response to this annual contest where children share in their own words what home means to them is truly inspiring."

Every student who enters the Meaning of Home contest earns a $10 donation towards their local Habitat for Humanity. Three grand prize winners will each receive a $30,000 grant to help a local Habitat for Humanity build a place to call home for a family in need of affordable housing. In addition, nine runners-up will receive a $10,000 grant for their local Habitat for Humanity.

Founded in 2007 by SagenTM 1, the Meaning of Home contest has raised over $2.3 million while encouraging more than 100,000 students to become more active and compassionate citizens. Last year over 12,000 entries were received with $302,000 raised, helping families in 42 communities across Canada build a brighter future through affordable homeownership.

"As this contest's founding sponsor, we are amazed at the heartfelt student submissions that pour in year after year," says Stuart Levings, President and CEO of Sagen. "We are proud to have a role in engaging children in caring for their communities at a young age while recognizing how meaningful it is to have a safe place to call home."

1 Sagentm is a trademark owned by Sagen MI Canada Inc.

The Meaning of Home contest would not be possible without the generous support of founding sponsor SagenTM and awards sponsors Urban Systems Foundation and Face to Face Games.

About founding sponsor: Sagentm

Since 2000, Sagen has donated over $6 million in support of Habitat Canada and has helped thousands of Canadian families realize their dreams of affordable homeownership. While Sagen's financial support provides crucial funding for Habitat Canada's homeownership program, its support extends far beyond. Throughout the sponsorship, Sagen employees, including President and CEO Stuart Levings and his executive team, have lent their leadership experience, industry knowledge and time to help launch many of Habitat's signature programs, including the Sagen Homebuilding Grants, the Global Village Volunteer Program in Canada and the Meaning of Home Contest. These programs, along with Sagen's support and involvement in them, have significantly increased Habitat Canada's ability to raise funds, recruit volunteers and, ultimately, support more families and build stronger communities. Find out more at www.sagen.ca

About Habitat for Humanity Canada

Founded in 1985, Habitat for Humanity Canada is a national, charitable organization working towards a world where everyone has a safe and affordable place to call home. Habitat?Canada?brings communities together to help families build strength, stability and independence through affordable homeownership. With the help of volunteers, Habitat homeowners and 46?local Habitats working in every province and territory, we provide a solid foundation for better, healthier lives in Canada and around the world. Habitat for Humanity Canada is a member of Habitat for Humanity International, which was established in 1976 and has grown to become a leading global non-profit working in more than 70 countries. For more information, please visit www.habitat.ca

For more information:

Jennifer Fowler

Director, Communications

Habitat for Humanity Canada

C: 437-317-8581

E: [email protected]

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c1d4840e-0b0d-4e4d-b413-40730073bce9

8 january 2024 at 08:00

News published onand distributed by:
TPM, S&P Global's Premier Shipping and Supply Chain Conference, to Focus on Extreme Normalization Fallout





TPM24 by S&P Global to be held in Long Beach, CA, March 3?6, 2024

Former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to address TPM24 by S&P Global

NEW YORK, January 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Organized by The Journal of Commerce within S&P Global Market Intelligence, TPM, the premier global container shipping and supply chain conference, will be held in the port city of Long Beach, California, on March 3?6, 2024.

Under the theme of "Extreme Normalization Fallout," TPM24 will explore the complex global landscape of post-Covid challenges faced by retailers, manufacturers and other corporates managing end-to-end ocean container, air cargo and overland supply chains. Among those challenges include the disruptive impact of geopolitics, such as the upheaval following attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, decarbonization, and labor actions at major seaports, demanding new strategic perspective and adaptation.

Following the unprecedented supply chain disruptions during COVID-19, the recent mass diversion of container shipping services away from the Suez Canal due to attacks on shipping was a stark reminder of the continued elevated risks facing long haul supply chains even as the COVID impacts recede.

At TPM24, notably Robert Gates, former US Defense Secretary, Director of Central Intelligence and Deputy National Security Advisor, will join as a keynote speaker to offer insights on navigating global supply chains in the face of geopolitical uncertainty. Secretary Gates has served eight U.S. Presidents, is a Medal of Freedom recipient, and is the only Secretary of Defense to work for both Republican and Democratic administrations.

This year, the rigorous, editorially independent four-day program of TPM will be broadened to include TPMTech, TPM Cold Chain, and TPM Academy. TPM, now in its 24th year, is the major annual meeting for cargo owners, container lines, freight forwarders, air cargo providers, and other participants in the global supply chain.

The event aims to anchor participants in the market realities of 2024 while providing substantial insight into the trajectory of the market for the remainder of the year and beyond.

"In the blink of an eye, geopolitical conflict, actual and potential, has gone from a non-issue in supply chains into a major challenge that companies are facing in planning and managing global supply chains. In this environment, Mr. Gates is exceptionally well positioned to offer perspective on what is still a largely new topic for TPM participants," said Peter Tirschwell, vice president at S&P Global Market Intelligence and chairman of TPM24. "I believe TPM24 will serve as the platform where key stakeholders, industry experts, and thought leaders will navigate the current market realities and shape the future of global trade."

TPM24 program includes:

The Global Economic and Trade Outlook: How Container Shipping Demand Is Shaping Up

Container Shipping Outlook: Beyond the Downcycle

What Should BCOs Do If East Coast Labor Peace Is No Longer Guaranteed?

Decarbonization Takes Center Stage for BCOs

An Importer's View of What's Right with Tech ? and What's Not

Surplus Capacity and Weak Demand Will Extend Asia-Europe's "Transition to Normalization"

Delivering Resilience: S&P Global's Supply Chain Views for 2024 and Beyond

Pressure Building on Mexico -to-US Supply Chains

-to-US Supply Chains Understanding the Asia Container Shipping Environment

Is 2024 the Year the Logistics Industry Realizes Its Trade Finance Potential?

Decarbonization, the IMO, and the Impact on Refrigerated Shippers

TPM24 speakers include:

Alex Yao , General Manager-Reefer Trade, COSCO Shipping Lines

, General Manager-Reefer Trade, COSCO Shipping Lines Andrew Petrisin , Supply Chain Advisor and Head of FLOW initiative, US Department of Transportation

, Supply Chain Advisor and Head of FLOW initiative, US Department of Transportation Casper Ellerbaek, Executive Vice President, Global Ocean Freight, DHL Global Forwarding, Freight

David Newton , Vice President and Head of North America Retail, A.P.Moller-Maersk

, Vice President and Head of North America Retail, A.P.Moller-Maersk D'Andrae Larry, Head of Intermodal, Uber Freight

Jeremy Nixon , CEO, Ocean Network Express

, CEO, Ocean Network Express Lars Jensen , CEO and Partner, Vespucci Maritime

, CEO and Partner, Vespucci Maritime Laurent Olmeta , CEO-Asia Pacific, CMA CGM

, CEO-Asia Pacific, CMA CGM Marc Levinson , Economist, Historian, Journalist, Author

, Economist, Historian, Journalist, Author Max Constant , CEO, Terminal Industries

, CEO, Terminal Industries Nico De Golia , Director-Cloud Logistics Sustainability, Microsoft

, Director-Cloud Logistics Sustainability, Microsoft Otto Schacht , Executive Vice President-Sea Logistics, Kuehne + Nagel

, Executive Vice President-Sea Logistics, Kuehne + Nagel Robert Gates , Transformational Leader; former Secretary of Defense

, Transformational Leader; former Secretary of Defense Rolf Habben Jansen , CEO, Hapag-Lloyd

, CEO, Hapag-Lloyd Stephanie Loomis , Head of Ocean Freight-Americas Rhenus Logistics

Registration Information

TPM24 by S&P Global will be held on March 3?6, 2024 at Long Beach Convention Center, California. Further information and delegate registration is available at events.joc.com/tpm.

Media Accreditation

Media registration is now open. Members of the media interested in covering TPM24 are required to apply for accreditation and applications for accreditation can be submitted here.

Visit TPM24 for the most up-to-date event information. Listed session times, topics and speakers are subject to change.

About TPM

TPM, organized by The Journal of Commerce within S&P Global Market Intelligence, is S&P Global's premier conference for the trans-Pacific and global ocean container supply chains.

Founded in 2001, TPM is based on an editorially independent and rigorous program developed by the leading team of specialized, subject matter experts, journalists covering international transportation and logistics. TPM annually presents the industry's most in-depth program delving into the most pressing challenges affecting container shippers in North America and globally. The event annually attracts the most senior-level audience in this industry, and is a platform for a week of essential and intensive networking, negotiations, and relationship building among the multiple parties in the international container shipping supply chain: shippers, carriers, forwarders, technology providers, trucking operators, railroads, ports, terminals, and many others who participate in this market.

About S&P Global Market Intelligence

At S&P Global Market Intelligence, we understand the importance of accurate, deep and insightful information. Our team of experts delivers unrivaled insights and leading data and technology solutions, partnering with customers to expand their perspective, operate with confidence, and make decisions with conviction.

S&P Global Market Intelligence is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). S&P Global is the world's foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help many of the world's leading organizations navigate the economic landscape so they can plan for tomorrow, today. For more information, visit www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence.

Media Contact

SungHa Park

S&P Global Market Intelligence

P. +81 3 6262 1757

E. [email protected]

SOURCE S&P Global Market Intelligence

8 january 2024 at 08:00

News published onand distributed by:
Urbanimmersive Announces Resignation of Ghislain Lemire and Marc Blackburn as Directors





SAINT-HUBERT, Quebec, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Urbanimmersive Inc. ("Urbanimmersive," "the Company," or "UI") (TSX VENTURE: UI) (OTCQB: UBMRF), a provider of 3D digital twin solutions for real estate marketing, today announced that Ghislain Lemire and Marc Blackburn have resigned from the Board of Directors of Urbanimmersive. Mr. Lemire will be replaced as Chairman of the Board by Mr. Simon Bedard. This announcement follows the change in leadership announcement on December 15, 2023 and offers an opportunity for the Company to fill vacant Director positions with targeted expertise aligned with its growth strategy. This new era also represents a strategic turning point for Urbanimmersive, which aims to consolidate its technological offering and build on its complete and diversified product offering to generate growth and consolidate its leading position within the industry.

The Company would like to thank Mr. Lemire and Mr. Blackburn for their respective contributions to the Board of Directors and wishes them all the best in their future endeavors.

TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed this press release and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

About Urbanimmersive

Urbanimmersive develops and commercializes real estate photography technologies and services focused on redefining industry visual content standards. The Company all-in-one platform enables high-volume photography businesses to increase operational productivity delivering feature-rich 3D tours and floor plans, leading-edge property websites and high-resolution AI-indexed images. The Company operating segments include software (SaaS), 3D photography equipment and, in a growing number of North American cities, technology-powered real estate photography service business units leading the industry photo-shoots standards transformation. Learn more at urbanimmersive.com.

Caution of Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties. Such statements relating to, among other things, the prospects for the company to enhance operating results, are necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which are significant in scope and nature. These uncertainties may cause actual results to differ from information contained herein. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of the management on the dates they are made and expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management estimates or opinions change.

For more information, please contact:

Simon Bedard, CA, CPA, CFA, MBA

Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer

514 394-7820 X 224

[email protected]

8 january 2024 at 09:00

News published onand distributed by:
St Dalfour and Renowned Chef Pierre Gagnaire Join Forces to Craft Culinary Magic with St Dalfour Fruit Spreads





MARMANDE, France, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- St Dalfour, the highly awarded and beloved creator of premium fruit spreads, is thrilled to announce an exciting and delectable partnership with world-renowned chef, Pierre Gagnaire. This collaboration promises to bring a new dimension of gourmet experiences to food enthusiasts worldwide, with the launch of exquisite recipes featuring St Dalfour fruit spreads.

St Dalfour has long been synonymous with uncompromising quality and a commitment to natural, wholesome ingredients. Their signature fruit spreads, made with 100% fruit, contain no cane sugar, preservatives, or artificial flavors. These fruit spreads have been celebrated by discerning palates for years, and now, they are set to shine even brighter with Chef Pierre Gagnaire's culinary expertise.

Pierre Gagnaire, a Michelin-starred chef, and visionary in the world of gastronomy, has garnered international acclaim for his innovative approach to cooking. He has created a range of tantalizing recipes around the world, enhancing the flavors and textures of dishes across the culinary spectrum. With St Dalfour, Pierre promises to create recipes that will inspire food lovers to elevate their at-home dining experiences.

"I'm excited to partner with St Dalfour on this culinary journey," said Chef Pierre Gagnaire. "Their commitment to using only the finest ingredients aligns perfectly with my philosophy of food. Together, we will explore new horizons of taste, showing just how versatile and delightful St Dalfour fruit spreads can be in the kitchen."

In addition to these delectable recipes, St Dalfour and Chef Pierre Gagnaire are thrilled to announce that their partnership will extend to a wealth of exciting content accessible to audiences worldwide. This includes cooking tutorials, virtual masterclasses, and exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpses into the creative process. These offerings will allow food enthusiasts to learn from the best and be part of a global culinary community.

John Cooper, Chairman and CEO of St Dalfour, expressed his enthusiasm for this partnership, saying, "We are honored to collaborate with Chef Pierre Gagnaire, whose innovative spirit and culinary mastery perfectly align with the ethos of St Dalfour. Together, we will bring an array of exquisite flavors and creative experiences to kitchens around the world."

The partnership between St Dalfour and Chef Pierre Gagnaire is set to redefine the culinary landscape, inspiring both novice and experienced chefs to explore the endless possibilities that St Dalfour fruit spreads can offer. It is a celebration of the finest ingredients, culinary expertise, and a shared commitment to enhancing the art of cooking.

For more information about St Dalfour please visit www.stdalfour.com

ABOUT ST DALFOUR:

St Dalfour has been producing premium fruit spreads for over 30 years. Their commitment to using only the finest, all-natural ingredients has made them a favorite among food enthusiasts worldwide. St Dalfour products are renowned for their exceptional taste, purity, and quality, offering a taste of France to consumers in over 100 countries.

ABOUT CHEF PIERRE GAGNAIRE:

Chef Pierre Gagnaire is a Michelin-starred chef and a visionary in the world of gastronomy. With a culinary career spanning several decades, he is celebrated for his innovative and artistic approach to cooking. His restaurants, located around the world, are known for their exceptional dining experiences.

Media Contact:

Adam Weinberg

Vice President of Marketing

Charles Jacquin et Cie., Inc.

[email protected]

609-922-4887

SOURCE St Dalfour

8 january 2024 at 10:20

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VEGAMOUR EXPANDS INTO CANADA EXCLUSIVELY WITH SEPHORA





LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8, 2024 /CNW/ -- VEGAMOUR, the leading holistic hair wellness brand, renowned for its plant-based hair wellness solutions, will launch in Sephora across Canada starting today. The brand's range of clean, vegan, high-performance hair care products will be available at all 114 Sephora locations across Canada and on Sephora.ca.

This marks a significant expansion for Vegamour in the North American market, making the brand easily accessible to Canadian consumers. Vegamour is currently sold in Sephora across the U.S. with a presence in 535 store locations and online.

"Vegamour has experienced significant brand growth and increased awareness over the past several years. We have dedicated Sephora consumers within the U.S. who look to Vegamour to help them achieve their hair goals. Expanding into a new market with Sephora Canada will allow us to reach a new audience and make it easy for Canadians to experience Vegamour's hair wellness offerings," says Erin McGilvra, Senior Vice President, Global Sales at Vegamour.

"Haircare innovation is now focused on the overall wellness of hair ? the "skinification of hair" effect - whether that is caring for the scalp, heat reducing tools or damage correction," says Jane Nugent, SVP Merchandising, Sephora Canada. "Vegamour's breakthrough range of shampoos, conditioners and serums support visible results to deliver the healthy-looking hair we are all looking for. Our Canadian clients will love the award winning GRO Hair Serum and care products in the Vegamour range."

Founded in 2017, Vegamour has garnered widespread acclaim for its innovative approach to addressing common hair concerns, including loss, thinning, and damage, without compromising on overall hair health. With a holistic, 360-degree approach, Vegamour seamlessly combines the potent forces of science and nature to create an optimal environment for hair to flourish. The brand's formulations boast sustainably sourced, bioavailable, phytoactive ingredients, redefining the standards within the hair care category.

Vegamour has become synonymous with its beloved GRO Hair Serum, a best-selling product that has amassed a dedicated following, with one serum sold every 15 seconds, totaling over 2 million bottles worldwide since its launch. Fueled by plant-based actives such as Caffeine, Turmeric, Mung Bean, and Red Clover, the GRO Hair Serum visibly enhances hair density and reduces signs of shedding, resulting in thicker, fuller, and healthier-looking hair. Clinically shown to increase the appearance of hair density by up to 52%* and reduce signs of shedding by up to 76%, users can experience transformative results in as little as 90 days*. With over 2,000 5-star reviews, this non-toxic, hormone-free formula delivers exceptional results without harmful chemicals, carcinogens, or side effects.

VEGAMOUR will launch at Sephora Canada stores and on Sephora.ca with the following assortment: GRO Hair Serum for Thinning Hair, GRO Hair Serum Trio for Thinning Hair, GRO Revitalizing Shampoo, GRO Revitalizing Conditioner, GRO Dry Shampoo, GRO Scalp Detoxifying Serum, GRO Revitalizing Scalp Massager and HYDR-8 Leave-In-Conditioner.

Clinicals & Disclaimer: *Formulated with ingredients clinically shown to increase the appearance of hair density by up to 52%. Results from an in-vivo clinical study of a key ingredient with 40 subjects over 150 days.*

*Formulated with ingredients clinically shown to reduce signs of shedding by up to 76%. Results from an in-vivo clinical study of a key ingredient with 19 subjects over 150 days.

*See GRO Hair Serum results in as soon as 90 days. Results from a clinical study with 20 subjects over 150 days.

ABOUT VEGAMOUR:

VEGAMOUR takes a holistic approach to hair wellness that incorporates powerful phyto-actives that work in tandem to address both the symptoms and underlying causes of visible hair damage, thinning and loss. Our inside out approach takes into consideration the health of the entire follicular ecosystem and works to promote a healthy environment for hair to thrive, naturally.

ABOUT SEPHORA CANADA:

Since its debut in Canada in 2004, Sephora Canada has been a leader in prestige omni-retail with the mission of creating an inviting beauty shopping experience and inspiring fearlessness in our community. With the goal of delivering unbiased shopping support and a personalized experience, Sephora invites clients to discover thousands of products from more than 360 carefully curated brands, explore online and through our mobile app, enjoy services at the Beauty Studio and engage with expertly trained Beauty Advisors in 114 stores in Canada. Clients can access the free-to-join Beauty Insider program and digital community, which together enhance the experience of Sephora's passionate clients.



Sephora has been an industry-leading champion of diversity, inclusivity, and empowerment, guided by our longstanding company values. In 2019, Sephora announced a new brand platform, "We Belong to Something Beautiful," to reinforce its dedication to fostering belonging amongst all clients and employees and to publicly strive for a more inclusive vision for retail in the Americas. Sephora continues to give back to our communities and advance inclusion in our industry through its social impact and equity programming, called the Sephora D&I Heart Journey.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Vegamour@purplepr.com

SOURCE VEGAMOUR

8 january 2024 at 10:35

News published onand distributed by:
SEIU Local 2 Members at Pete's Frootique Make Improvements in First Contract





HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Workers at the Sobeys-owned Pete's Frootique in Halifax have taken important steps in their first collective Agreement.



"We're happy to get our first collective agreement!" said Nicholle Savoie, one of worker leaders. "It was a tough fight ? we were on strike for seven weeks ? we felt it was important to take a stand." Savoie has been at Pete's for over four years and works in the cheese department.

A ratification vote took place on Friday, January 5. It's a three-year deal which expires at the end of 2026. The workers had been on strike since November 18, 2023.

"We're grateful for the incredible support we received from the community," said Nick Piovesan, a produce clerk with nine years of service. "Good jobs are an important issue for everyone."

Important steps were achieved in this first collective agreement, including just cause protection, seniority protections, paid sick days, and more.

"We were all at minimum wage," said Tyson Boyd, a four-year employee in the floral department. "Now we will be seeing yearly wage increases, including one when we return to work and another in April."

In 2024 non-probationary wages are going up ranging from $15.45 to $19.57. Most of the employees who were on strike will be making $15.60 come April and a number will be making $16.15, $16.75 or more.

There were almost 50 employees still on probation during the strike. Now all those workers are deemed to have passed probation and go up a wage level. The settlement also includes a lump sum payment for workers of $100 (part-time) and $250 (full-time).

Significantly, the Agreement also has a provision that protects the relativity of wages closest to minimum wage. If the minimum wage eclipses the probationary rate ? the first three wage levels will see relative increases.

The campaign, which began its public actions in October 2023, garnered national attention and support. Multiple community and worker organizations accompanied the workers in rallies and amplified their voices. High profile individuals like federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, celebrated artists like El Jones, Joel Plaskett, and Kate Beaton all spoke out in support of the workers. Local elected officials like the MLA Gary Burhill and NSNDP leader Claudia Chender lent their voices. Hundreds of supporters also participated in actions across the country, especially in Nova Scotia, to help the workers get a fair contact.

We now have a foot in the door and will be looking to build on what we've accomplished when we're back at the table at the end of 2026," said Boyd. "We're looking forward to getting back to work and seeing our regular customers."

SEIU Local 2 represents 20,000 workers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. We are proud members of the largest, fastest growing and most dynamic union in North America.

Media Contact: Diego Mendez | 416-476-7762 | [email protected]

8 january 2024 at 12:00

News published onand distributed by:
SeaShare Welcomes Hannah Lindoff as New Executive Director





SeaShare, a leading non-profit organization helping the seafood industry donate to hunger-relief efforts in the United States, announced today the appointment of Hannah Lindoff as Executive Director, effective April 1. Lindoff succeeds Jim Harmon, Executive Director, who will retire in August.

Ms. Lindoff is a long-time executive at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), a public-private economic development partnership between the state of Alaska and Alaska's seafood industry. She has a profound understanding of the seafood industry and brings significant expertise to help get seafood in the hands of those who need it the most.

"We are extremely happy to bring Hannah onboard to lead SeaShare in this next chapter. She is the ideal candidate for SeaShare to help those in need all over the country by delivering nutrient-dense seafood products to food banks," said Rasmus Soerensen, President of the Board of Directors at SeaShare. "I have had the privilege of working with Hannah for the past 10 years through her work at ASMI. I don't think we could have found a better person to run this organization. This is an exciting development for SeaShare, as we take the organization to new heights."

Lindoff is currently the Senior Director of Global Marketing and Strategy at ASMI and has worked with the organization's international program for more than 15 years. At ASMI, she utilizes her expansive global experience to guide strategy, obtain grant funding, and manage special projects with a cross-departmental and industry-wide scope. Lindoff has a bachelor's degree from the University of Mary Washington and an MFA from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

"I am thrilled to join an organization that represents what I consider the best part of the seafood industry, its generosity and the drive to share with those in need and mitigate hunger in the United States," said Lindoff. "Jim leaves enormous shoes to fill, but I look forward to building on the strong foundation he's created as we continue to enhance our efforts to get some of the best food in the world to those who need it most."

"I would like to extend our gratitude to Jim for his best-in-class leadership at SeaShare during the past two decades," continued Soerensen. "Jim made a tremendous positive impact on the organization, helping feed underserved communities and individuals nationwide with nutrient-dense seafood products. I wish him the best during a much-deserved retirement."

For more than two decades, Harmon has helped SeaShare and the seafood industry answer the call to action to address hunger in the United States. Since its founding in 1994, and throughout Harmon's passionate and effective leadership, SeaShare has distributed more than 265 million nutritious seafood servings to those who need it the most.

"I am excited that SeaShare found the ideal candidate to lead the organization's hunger-relief efforts," said Harmon. "I am profoundly grateful to all the people in the seafood industry who have been so generous to me, and to SeaShare, over the last 23 years. I am honored by the trust you've placed in us, and I am confident that Hannah Lindoff is the right person to build on the results we've achieved so far."

About SeaShare: SeaShare is a 501c3 nonprofit based on Bainbridge Island, WA, founded in 1994 to bring the resources of the U.S. seafood industry to bear in the fight against hunger. It is the only U.S. nonprofit focused on seafood as a source of nutrition for food banks and has distributed over 265 million servings. For more information, or to find out how you can get involved, visit https://www.seashare.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

8 january 2024 at 12:05

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The enemy launched a massive missile attack on Ukraine, firing 59 air attack weapons; Ukrainian forces destroyed eight Shahed-136/131 attack UAVs and 18 Kh-101/Kh-555/Kh-55 cruise missiles, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny said.

"On the night of January 8, 2024, the enemy launched a massive attack on Ukraine, using cruise, aviation, ballistic, anti-aircraft guided missiles and attack UAVs. In total, 59 enemy air attack weapons were recorded," he said in the Telegram channel.

Thus, the enemy launched eight attack UAVs of the Shahed-136/131 type from Primorsko-Akhtarsk region, Russia; seven S-300/S-400 anti-aircraft guided missiles from the Belgorod region; four X-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles from four MiG-31K aircraft (launch area Ryazan, Tambov); 24 X-101/X-555/X-55 cruise missiles from 11 Tu-95MS strategic bombers (launch area some Engels  Russia); eight Kh-22 cruise missiles from Tu-22M3 bombers from the Belgorod region, Russia; six Iskander-M ballistic missiles from Dzhankoy, Chauda  Crimea areas; two X-31P guided aircraft missiles from tactical aircraft (launch area  Belgorod region).

According to Zaluzhny, critical civilian infrastructure, industrial and military facilities were attacked. This time the enemy attacked different regions of Ukraine. In particular, missiles flying along a ballistic trajectory were sent to Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia and Khmelnytsky regions.

"As a result, the defenders of the sky destroyed: eight attack UAVs Shahed-136/131; some 18 cruise missiles X-101/X-555/X-55. Let's hold the skies," he said.
LEADING PROSTHETIC MANUFACTURER, WILLOWWOOD, HIRES NEW MANAGEMENT TEAM MEMBER INTO STRATEGIC M&A POSITION





MOUNT STERLING, Ohio, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its long-term commitment to sustained growth through innovation, WillowWood announced the hiring of Richard Hayes into the newly created position of Executive Vice President, Strategy and M&A. With more than thirty years' experience in executive and commercial leadership positions across multiple sectors, Hayes will lead WillowWood's strategy and FP&A organizations in assessing new market opportunities, partnerships, and M&A targets.

"I'm beyond thrilled to welcome Richard to our management team! His unique mix of global business expertise in addition to having already advised us throughout 2023 make him the ideal candidate for this role," said Mahesh Mansukhani, CEO, WillowWood. "Over the past few years, WillowWood has grown significantly both organically and through strategic acquisitions, always staying attuned to market demands. Given the fast-paced changes within the ever-evolving Prosthetics sector, recruiting a world-class leader like Richard will be crucial for our company's sustained product and business growth.

Prior to joining WillowWood, Hayes spent twenty years at Deloitte Consulting as a Principal, where his focus areas included business and operational strategy, top line growth, profitability and value creation. Hayes was also the lead Principal on several of the firm's Fortune 500 clients.

"I am really honored to join WillowWood's management team at such an exciting time in the company's history. Over the past thirty years, I've spent much of my time advising leading manufacturers across multiple sectors and have witnessed many of the ongoing dynamics confronting the O&P sector", said Richard Hayes, EVP Strategy and M&A for WillowWood, "I now look forward to collaborating with the leadership team and the board on integrating these learnings into a strategy that provides significant value to our customers and partners, while breaking new ground for the company as a whole".

About WillowWood Global LLC

Based in Mount Sterling, Ohio, WillowWood Global (www.willowwood.com) is an industry leading designer, manufacturer, and distributor of prosthetic products, including liners, feet, vacuum systems and components. Recognized for its products' superior innovation, quality, and patient outcomes, WillowWood's portfolio includes the Alpha family of liners, the Koa LP and Meta families of high-activity feet, the LimbLogic vacuum system, and the OMEGA CAD system. For over 115 years, WillowWood's prosthetic products have helped individuals with limb loss find comfort and functionality, remain active and live life to the fullest.

About Blue Sea Capital

Blue Sea Capital (www.blueseacapital.com) is a private equity firm based in West Palm Beach, Florida, that invests in growth-oriented lower middle market companies with EBITDA of up to $30 million. The firm has over $1.3 billion in committed capital and invests across three industry verticals: aerospace & defense, healthcare and industrial growth. Blue Sea Capital's strategy is to partner with talented leaders and differentiated companies, typically as the first or second institutional investor, and deliver strategic and operational value-add that drives growth acceleration, industry outperformance and business transformation.

Media Contact: Hugo Rubin, hugo.rubin@willowwood.com

SOURCE WillowWood Global

8 january 2024 at 13:00

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ABIONYX Pharma appoints Rob Scott, MD, as Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D





ABIONYX Pharma, (FR0012616852 - ABNX - PEA PME eligible), a next-generation biotech company dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative therapies based on the world's only recombinant apoA-I, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Rob Scott as Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D with immediate effect.

Cyrille Tupin, CEO of ABIONYX Pharma, commented: "We are excited to welcome Rob to our team just before the start of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare annual conference in San Francisco. As we develop our portfolio of clinical stage assets based on our unique apoA-I platform, Rob will bring us a wealth of experience to accelerate our programs. I look forward to working with Rob to transform ABIONYX Pharma into a successful biotech company focused on sepsis and other critical indications based on the only recombinant apoA-I in the industry."

Dr. Rob Scott commented: "I am delighted to be joining this next generation biotech, especially at a time of great momentum with the Company's latest outstanding Phase 2a results in sepsis. I look forward to working with the team to design and execute the pivotal approval program as ABIONYX continues to advance its exciting biodrug candidate through the clinical development and partnership process."

About ABIONYX Pharma

ABIONYX Pharma is a next-generation biotech company focused on developing innovative medicines in diseases where there is no effective or existing treatment, even the rarest ones. The company expedites the development of novel therapeutics through an extensive expertise in lipid science and a differentiated apoA-I -based technology platform. ABIONYX Pharma is committed to radically improving treatment outcomes in sepsis and critical care.

8 january 2024 at 13:25

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Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis Promotes Six Attorneys to Partnership and Two Associates to Counsel





ISELIN, N.J., Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP is proud to announce that as of January 1, 2024, six attorneys have been promoted to join the next generation of partners in the firm. In addition, we are pleased to have promoted two associate attorneys to Counsel in the practice.

New Partners

Jessica M. Carroll: Jessica concentrates her practice in litigation, with an emphasis on representing healthcare providers at both the state and federal levels and within arbitration forums. She serves as counsel for hospitals in medical staffing and peer review disciplinary matters and provides risk management guidance on issues at the intersection of state laws and medical licensing regulations. Her work includes the representation of hospitals, physicians, physician practices, and pharmaceutical companies in matters related to restrictive covenants, breach of contract, violations of due process and fundamental fairness, defamation and trade libel claims, as well as matters related to professional licensure and credentialing.

Michael J. Coskey: Michael represents clients in a broad range of real estate transactions, litigation, and land use matters, including the acquisition, disposition and leasing of commercial and multi-family residential properties, and the development and redevelopment of real estate. He also has significant experience representing litigants in complex property tax appeals, including those involving casinos, office complexes, corporate headquarters, industrial facilities, oil refineries, gas stations, warehouses, hotels, banks, telecommunication facilities, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, apartment buildings and condominiums. He advises clients on issues regarding valuation, exemptions, abatements, and farmland assessment qualifications.

Conor J. Hennessey: Conor concentrates his practice in commercial litigation involving real estate transactions, real estate brokerage law, business disputes, commercial contract actions, consumer fraud act claims, professional malpractice cases, and high stakes personal injury cases involving premises liability and medical malpractice. In the specialized area of real estate brokerage law, he has significant experience including the litigation and mediation of business disputes on behalf of brokerages and claims brought against real estate licensees. He represents brokers and salespersons before the New Jersey Real Estate Commission and local real estate boards and provides guidance to clients on general brokerage issues.

David C. Scott: David's environmental law practice emphasizes transactions, permitting, and regulatory compliance. He provides counsel on environmental risks associated with real estate and business transactions and methods for mitigating those risks. He assists solid waste service vendors in obtaining A-901 licenses, represents clients in mergers, divestitures, acquisitions, and the purchase and sale of real estate properties, and has assisted in brownfield redevelopment projects and transactions at former industrial and commercial facilities. David's work also encompasses the management of environmental, health and safety (EHS) risks, oversight of environmental compliance audits, and compliance with federal and state environmental statutes.

Fay L. Szakal: Fay focuses her practice in corporate, real estate and healthcare transactions. Her work encompasses the drafting and negotiation of corporate agreements and contracts, including those related to mergers and acquisitions of business entities, corporate and company formation, real estate and redevelopment matters, healthcare and private equity deals, financing matters, and other commercial transactions. She has experience closing multi-million dollar development project deals involving a broad range of interested parties and complicated transactional issues related to the organization and operation of newly formed companies.

Charles J. Vaccaro: Charles concentrates his practice in commercial litigation. His experience encompasses various areas of civil litigation at both the state and federal level, including contract and business disputes, construction matters, employment law, insurance coverage, consumer fraud, real estate and personal injury matters. In the area of construction law, he has asserted and defended claims on behalf of developers, contractors, condominium associations and other entities in connection with design and construction defect litigation, including matters involving breach of contract, the Consumer Fraud Act, and the Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act (PREDFDA).

New Counsel

Lisa B. DiPasqua: Lisa concentrates her practice in family law. Since joining the firm in 2004, she has dedicated her practice to complex matrimonial matters such as divorce, alimony, child custody and parenting time, child support, equitable distribution and post-judgment divorce matters. She has been involved in numerous appellate matters and notable published family law decisions.

Lauren A. Perrella: Lauren concentrates her practice on commercial real estate transactions. She represents clients in connection with the acquisition, disposition, leasing and financing of industrial, office, retail, multi-family and mixed-use properties. She provides guidance throughout all stages of a transaction, from contracting through due diligence, financing, construction and closing.

To learn more about the firm's capabilities and our work on behalf of clients, visit us online at www.greenbaumlaw.com.

Media Contacts:

Diana Parker [email protected] 732.476.2464

Erin Faltin [email protected] 732.476.3278

Krista Desiderio [email protected] 732.476.3332

SOURCE Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP

8 january 2024 at 13:51

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BAE Systems to provide critical Mk 45 naval gun systems upgrade to Australian Navy frigates





LOUISVILLE, Ky., Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- BAE Systems was awarded a contract by the Commonwealth of Australia to upgrade existing Mk 45 Mod 2 naval gun systems on Anzac class frigates with a Common Control System (CCS). The upgrade modifies existing Mk 45 systems to eliminate obsolescence issues and extend the life of the gun system.

"The Common Control System upgrade is the most cost-effective way to extend the life of Mk 45 gun systems"

The CCS upgrade replaces electronics on earlier Mk 45 Mod 1 and Mod 2 gun systems to be compatible with the Mk 45 Mod 4, the latest configuration used by the U.S. Navy. In addition to delivering commonality and interoperability with the U.S. Navy's gun systems, the upgrade will equip the Mk 45s with the capability to integrate future extended-range precision guided munitions, such as the hypervelocity projectile.

"The Common Control System upgrade is the most cost-effective way to extend the life of Mk 45 gun systems, enabling them to provide critical ship naval fires and creating a configuration that allows for the integration of future precision guided munitions," said Brent Butcher, vice president of weapon systems at BAE Systems. "We are committed to modernizing and equipping allied nations with enhanced Mk 45 gun systems to address current and future threats."

The cost-effective CCS upgrade ensures that Mk 45 gun systems remain supportable for decades to come and ready to integrate the latest, most innovative technology features to support advanced munitions and future mission capabilities for a significantly lower cost than a new gun.

Work on the contract will take place at the BAE Systems production facility in Louisville, Kentucky with the first delivery planned in early 2026.

For more information, please contact:

Michelle Tiemeyer, BAE Systems

Mobile: 717-645-6553

[email protected]

www.baesystems.com/US

@BAESystemsInc

SOURCE BAE Systems, Inc.

8 january 2024 at 14:00

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Deepcell Achieves Key Commercial Milestones





Deepcell, a pioneer in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered single cell analysis to fuel deep biological discoveries, today announced its achievement of key commercial milestones for the REM-I platform. Deepcell also announced plans to discuss its vision for the use of generative AI in single cell analysis during CEO Maddison Masaeli's presentation Wednesday, January 10, 2024 at 3 p.m. as part of the 42nd annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, Calif.

"In a single year, we announced the REM-I platform, completed our technology evaluation program across seven sites, launched the Spark program, operationalized reliable manufacturing, placed our first commercial unit for field testing, and secured orders for units from buyers in university research facilities, academic medical centers and biopharma companies across three continents," said Maddison Masaeli, Ph.D., Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of Deepcell. "We are beyond proud of the growth and progress our company has experienced in such a short time and look forward to our upcoming Beta program and the initiation of commercial shipping over the next few months."

The first REM-I instrument was recently installed for testing at an academic institution where the platform will be used in Alzheimer's disease research. The researchers plan to use the Deepcell Human Foundation Model to identify differential cell states that occur in Alzheimer's disease.

In addition to direct sales in the United States and Western Europe, Deepcell has established relationships with a global network of distributors facilitating the company's reach into Asia and Middle East, and will expand to all markets in the coming year. The company is in the process of manufacturing REM-I instruments to fulfill orders from diverse customers across three continents.

"Our first orders, which span research, academic medical centers, and biopharma, are a testament to the growing awareness of the importance and relevance of morpholomics in understanding cell biology. REM-I is the first platform that enables the high dimensional study of morphology using artificial intelligence, making it possible to study cellular features in ways not feasible until now," said Marc Montserrat, Chief Business Officer at Deepcell. "As we look to the future, we are focused on continuing to drive the adoption of REM-I and setting a new standard for the use of AI in life sciences, including in partnership with other industry leaders such as NVIDIA."

For more information, visit www.deepcell.com/JPM2024.

About The REM-I Platform

The REM-I platform, announced last year, is a high-dimensional cell morphology analysis and sorting platform which comprises the REM-I benchtop instrument, Human Foundation Model, and Axon data suite. By bringing together single cell imaging, sorting, and high-dimensional analysis, the REM-I platform catalyzes new methods of discovery in a wide range of fields including cancer biology, developmental biology, stem cell biology, gene therapy and functional screening, among others.

Unlike microscopy and flow cytometry methods, the REM-I platform offers several unique capabilities for the deep characterization of biological samples, single cells, and the ability to sort cells without the need for labels. By marrying high-resolution imaging of single cells and label-free sorting with artificial intelligence in one platform, the REM-I platform enables a high-throughput, quantitative way to understand and analyze the morphology of cells, unlocking new biotechnological discoveries.

About Deepcell

Deepcell is a life science company which brings artificial intelligence to cell biology, unlocking a new field of high-dimensional biological discovery known as morpholomics. Through Deepcell's AI-powered imaging and microfluidics solution, the REM-I Platform, the company is enabling a new scale of cell biology research and single cell analysis leveraging cellular morphology for unbounded discovery. Deepcell's platform leverages its artificial intelligence model, the Human Foundation Model, to identify and sort cells based on morphological distinctions helping power basic and translational research and offering future applications in diagnostic testing and therapeutics targeting. The company was spun out of Stanford University in 2017 and has raised nearly $100 million in venture capital. It is based in Menlo Park, California. Learn more at www.deepcell.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

8 january 2024 at 14:05

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View of the new town of Run Ta Ek (Cambodia), November 13, 2023. This is the first of the new towns designed to accommodate Angkor Wat relocates. BRICE PEDROLETTI/LE MONDE

The Cambodian authorities' plan to relocate the overpopulated communities around the historic Angkor temples has been causing a stir within long-established "traditional villages." The operation is supposed to concern the countless squatters and traders who have set up shop over the years in defiance of regulations. However, on the eastern side of the archaeological park, the inhabitants of Preah Dak  who have lived there for several generations and speak in a particular diction that closely resembles ancient Khmer  are blaming officials for pushing them to volunteer for the relocation program, which comes with social benefits.

More than a year ago, nearly 3,000 of them had already demonstrated their refusal to settle in two new towns under construction several dozen kilometers from Angkor. Then prime minister Hun Sen warned: "When the time comes, not even a single cent will be given and [the residents will be] expelled from this area. Be advised!" Since then, departures from Preah Dak have continued through 2023 and all residents know they're living on state land. "It's all a blur. Some residents have agreed to leave and regret it," said one resident, who was careful to remain anonymous.

The operation prompted Amnesty International to denounce "forced mass evictions" in a November 15, 2023 report, noting that officials were using the argument that UNESCO might otherwise declassify the site as an incentive to leave. For its part, the APSARA, the national authority responsible for the 400-square-kilometer listed site, has promised that "there is no question of affecting the indigenous population, legally settled on the Angkor site and whose presence was recorded within the 113 traditional villages at the time of Angkor's inscription in the World Heritage List [in 1992]."

'Lack of clarity'

But Amnesty International denounced "the lack of clarity and publicly available information on the 113 villages that may continue to exist in Angkor." Furthermore, no list of these villages has been drawn up. They are simply identified as dots on World Heritage maps. UNESCO immediately informed Amnesty International that it had "at no time requested, supported or participated in this program," while calling on the Cambodian authorities to "carry it out with full respect for human rights."

The social benefits granted to volunteers to settle in the two new towns under construction include title to a 600-square-meter plot of land per family and married child, a bonus equivalent to 300, 30 sheets of corrugated iron and a "poverty card" entitling them to cheaper medical care for 10 years. The move, which is free of charge, is paid for by the army.

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Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi and Ethiopias Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attend the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding agreement, that allows Ethiopia to use a Somaliland port, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, January 1, 2024. TIKSA NEGERI / REUTERS

Ethiopia said it held talks on Monday, January 8, on military cooperation with Somaliland, just a week after a deal with the breakaway Somali region on sea access stoked tensions in the Horn of Africa.

Despite regional and international concern over the pact, Ethiopia's army chief Birhanu Jula "discussed military cooperation" with his Somaliland counterpart Nuh Ismail Tani on Monday, according to a statement on Facebook posted by Ethiopia's defence force.

The discussions in Addis Ababa were held the same day Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud began a visit to neighboring Eritrea. Somalia is seeking international support over the controversial January 1 agreement between Ethiopia and Somaliland  a separatist region over which Mogadishu exercises little real authority.

Read more Subscribers only Famine once again looms over Somalia

The central government has branded the memorandum of understanding (MoU), which gives landlocked Ethiopia access to the Red Sea via Somaliland, an act of "aggression" and a violation of its sovereignty.

Somalia's president has signed a law "nullifying" a contentious agreement between Ethiopia and Somaliland in a largely symbolic gesture of his government's displeasure over the deal to grant port access. President Mohamud said the law voided the "illegal" pact giving landlocked Ethiopia long-sought access to the Red Sea through Somaliland, a separatist northwestern region over which Somalia exercises little real authority.

Mohamud's arrival in Asmara was announced by his office and the Eritrean information ministry in separate posts on X, accompanied by pictures of him being welcomed by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. "The two leaders will discuss issues of mutual benefit for both nations including strengthening ties & fostering cooperation," Mohamud's office said.

Dubbed the "North Korea" of Africa, Eritrea  which has been ruled with an iron fist by Isaias since independence  is one of the world's most isolated states.

'Great concern'

The African Union and the United States among others have called for calm and respect for Somalia's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Somaliland, a former British protectorate, declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but the move has not been recognised internationally and is staunchly opposed by the central government in Mogadishu.

Ethiopia has long sought coastal access and in October last year Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed alarmed its neighbours when he said the country's existence was tied to the Red Sea. The remarks came against a backdrop of apparent tensions with Eritrea, which had allied with Ethiopian government forces in the two-year Tigray war that ended in November 2022.

Read more Subscribers only In Ethiopia's Tigray region, the wounds of war remain raw

Abiy later said Ethiopia would not invade any neighbouring country, while insisting his government would not abandon its demand for port access. The January 1 pact gives Ethiopia access to commercial maritime services and a military base, with Somaliland leasing it 20 kilometres (12 miles) of coastline for 50 years.

Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa and one of the biggest landlocked nations in the world, was cut off from the coast after Eritrea seceded and declared independence in 1993 following a three-decade war.

Also on Monday, Djibouti said it was following "with great concern" the tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia and called for dialogue between the two nations to de-escalate the situation. Djibouti, currently head of the regional grouping IGAD, said it was pursuing efforts with member states to resolve the crisis. Just days before the Ethiopia deal, Djibouti had hosted talks that saw Somalia and Somaliland agree to resume dialogue after years of stalemate.

Read more Subscribers only Why UN peacekeeping missions are losing steam in Africa
TOPSHOT - Smoke billows from Israeli bombardment in the Khiyam plains near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon on January 8, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by RABIH DAHER / AFP) RABIH DAHER / AFP

Hezbollah announced on Monday, January 8, the killing of a "commander" for the first time, naming him as Wissam al-Tawil. A security source in Lebanon, requesting anonymity for security reasons, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Tawil "had a leading role in managing Hezbollah's operations in the south", and was killed there by an Israeli strike targeting his car. The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah "military sites" in Lebanon on Monday, but did not immediately comment on Tawil's death.

It is the second high-profile killing in Lebanon since last week, when a strike attributed to Israel in a Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri.

Hezbollah released photographs of Tawil alongside leaders of the movement as well as top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who headed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's foreign operations until he was killed in a US strike in 2020. Other photos showed him beside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and the group's former top commander Imad Mughniyeh, killed in a 2008 car bombing in Syria blamed on Israel. Tawil also appeared alongside Hezbollah's former military commander in Syria, Mustafa Badreddine, who died in 2016 and had been indicted by an international court for the killing of Lebanon's former premier Rafic Hariri.

An undated handout photo released by Hezbollah military media press office on telegram on January 8, 2024, shows Hezbollah Military Commander Wissam Hassan Tawil, known as Jawad, greeting Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah at an undisclosed location. - / AFP

Regional tensions

Tawil was the highest-ranking Hezbollah member to be killed since near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces across the border began after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, strongly condemned the attack and warned against the "efforts of the Zionist regime [Israel] to expand the scope of conflict and war in the region." Kanani described Israel's actions as "blatant terrorist operations," which he said were due to "painful blows inflicted on its false hegemony in field battles, including in the Gaza Strip."

The killing of Hamas's deputy leader in Beirut last week, in a missile strike widely attributed to Israel, has raised fears of a wider conflagration. Saleh al-Arouri was the most high-profile Hamas figure to die during the three-month war, in the first attack on Beirut since the fighting began. On Friday, Nasrallah warned Israel his fighters would respond swiftly to al-Arouri's killing. The group claimed an attack on an Israeli air control base the next day.

On Saturday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met in Beirut with Mohammed Raad, head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, as part of a push to avoid Lebanon being dragged into the Israel-Hamas conflict. In November, Raad's son was killed in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon along with five other Hezbollah members, the group had said.

On his fourth regional trip since the war began, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia after talks earlier Monday in Abu Dhabi. Blinken "emphasized the importance of preventing further spread of the conflict", during talks with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a US summary of the meeting said.

He will later meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the desert city of Al-Ula, a US official said on condition of anonymity. Early in the war, Riyadh said it had suspended talks with Israel on normalizing ties. Blinken's visit comes alongside that of other top Western diplomats trying to stop the conflict from spreading and to boost desperately needed aid to Gazans.

Read more Subscribers only Israel-Hamas war: Blinken returns to Middle East seeking to prevent spread of war in Gaza
Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani (R) and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken give a press conference following a meeting in Doha on January 7, 2024 during Blinken's week-long trip aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / AFP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Sunday, January 7, that the war in Gaza could spread and threaten security in the wider Middle East, on a regional tour aimed at de-escalating the conflict.

"This is a moment of profound tension in the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering," Blinken told a news conference in Doha alongside Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Blinken warned it was "imperative" Israel put a "premium on protecting civilians," ensuring operations were "designed around protecting civilians (...) and around getting humanitarian assistance where people need it."

Amid the deepening humanitarian crisis and mass displacement in Gaza, Blinken said civilians "must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow." "They cannot, they must not be pressed to leave Gaza," he added after two Israeli ministers suggested Palestinians should be encouraged to emigrate.

'Unimaginable tragedy'

Blinken called the deaths of two Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, which the Qatar-based network has blamed on Israel, an "unimaginable tragedy." "That's also been the case for (...) far too many innocent Palestinian men, women and children," he said.

Blinken arrived in Qatar following stops in Jordan, Turkey and Greece. He went on to Abu Dhabi late Sunday, and on Monday is due to travel to Saudi Arabia. Blinken will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi desert city of Al-Ula, said a US official on condition of anonymity.

Qatar, a wealthy Gulf emirate that hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, also hosts Hamas's political office and is the main residence of the Islamists' self-exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Read more Subscribers only 'The embarrassing silence of Arab countries on the Gaza conflict is cause for concern'

The Qatari premier said talks with Hamas on a fresh truce in Gaza were "ongoing" with US backing. Doha mediated a one-week break in the fighting that began in November and led to the release of scores of Israeli and foreign hostages, as well as aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip.

However, Sheikh Mohammed said a Tuesday strike in Lebanon that killed Hamas's deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri had affected "the complicated process." "Yet we are not giving up. We are moving forward."
Number of casualties of missile attack in Novomoskovsk increases to 27 people  local authorities

The number of casualties of a missile attack in Novomoskovsk, Dnipropetrovsk region, has increased to 27 people, 11 wounded were hospitalized, including four children, Head of the regional military administration Serhiy Lysak said.

"According to updated data, there are 27 victims in Novomoskovsk due to the missile strike. Some 11 remain in the health facility, including four children," Lysak said in his Telegram channel on Monday.

In addition, as a result of the shelling in Kryvy Rih and the region, four people were injured, one person was hospitalized in a moderate condition.

Previously, it was known about 24 victims in Novomoskovsk.
VILLIERS have a project featuring at the BT Young Scientist for the first time in approximately 20 years.

Transition year student Oyindamola Oluwadiya from Dublin is a boarding student at the school and is conducting her project on the theme of sleep and smartwatches.

The project called Orthosomnia (an unhealthy obsession with getting a perfect night's sleep) looks at sleep scores provided by sleeping apps on smartwatches or smartphones.

It studies the relation between sleep scores and sleep and if sleep scores impact your quality of sleep. I picked it because I'm interested in sleep and studying human behaviour, Oyindamola said.

According to Eoghan OBrien, a teacher at the school, this is the first project the school has going up to Dublin since 2003.

Ive been up to BT with other schools and Ive seen that a lot of the students do very topical projects. We try to stick to things that are relevant, Mr O'Brien said.

Louis Duffy, another teacher at the school, said he spoke to students last April, to get them thinking about a project for BT over the summer.

I guess that was the catalyst to get these young people interested in doing science and science projects in the school. The school was very supportive of that, they basically just said yes, lets go ahead and see how we get on, Mr Duffy said.

We were surprised when we came back to see that we had a total of nine entries to the competition. Its a learning process to us and its great having Mr OBrien on board now who has experience of the young scientist, he added.
DROMOLAND Castle has announced the appointment of Olivia Frawley as director of resort sales at the world-renowned 5 star luxury property.

A county Clare native, Ms Frawley joins a strong sales and marketing department and dynamic leadership team at Dromoland Castle.

Ms Frawleys new position will see her drive the overall strategic sales strategy and play a pivotal role for future growth of one of Irelands most recognisable luxury estates with a key focus on USA, UK and European markets along with key domestic markets.

With over 20 years of Irish and international experience, Ms Frawley is renowned in Irish and international tourism and hospitality circles, having recently worked with Irelands overseas tourism marketing agency, Tourism Ireland as Pan Market Luxury executive responsible for championing and spearheading the luxury strategy for Tourism Ireland on behalf of all overseas markets.

She has been the recipient of many Global Travel Industry Awards along with receiving deserved recognition for her sales revenue performance in multiple positions.

Ms. Frawley will commence her position in February 2024.

Commenting on Ms Frawleys appointment, managing director of Dromoland Castle & Country Club Mr Mark Nolan said "We are delighted to welcome Olivia Frawley to our dynamic team here at Dromoland Castle."

"Olivia brings a wealth of experience from both domestic and International tourism and leisure markets along with her work with Tourism Ireland which has had a particular relevant focus on the luxury market  we look forward to her valuable insights and her strategic sales vision for Dromoland Castle Resort," Mr Nolan said

The new director of sales for Dromoland Castle Ms Frawley said that she is "honoured to be joining Dromoland Castle."

"Dromoland is an iconic property, one which I have admired for many years. I look forward to contributing my passion for hospitality and enhancing the hotels already world-renowned standard of excellence," she continued.

"Im excited for the journey ahead and eager to collaborate with the exceptional team already in place at Dromoland Castle."
Royal Enfield, a unit of Eicher Motors Ltd, Monday said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government to develop new products, Electric Vehicles (EVs) products and capacity building, news agency PTI reported.

The company has earmarked an investment of 3,000 crore, the motorcycle manufacturer said, spread over eight years. The investments are expected to generate about 2,000 direct and indirect jobs in the region.

As per a MoU, the investments will be mainly used for the development of new products, Electric Vehicles (EVs) product development and capacity building and also additionally for any capacity enhancement for ICE (internal combustion engine), whenever required.

The investments would be used to set up greenfield and brownfield projects in the region, the company release said.

Royal Enfield CEO B Govindarajan exchanged documents with Tamil Nadu Industries Department Secretary V Arun Roy during GIM 2024 in the presence of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.

"Tamil Nadu has been our home, anchor for our engineering, technical and manufacturing foundations for several decades. This strategic investment in Tamil Nadu marks a significant milestone for us at Royal Enfield" PTI quoted Royal Enfield CEO B Govindarajan as saying.

Also Read | Nawaz Sharif can join poll race as Pakistan SC lifts bans on convicts

The Tamil Nadu government is committed to providing infrastructural support, uninterrupted power supply and regulatory facilitation including other essential infrastructure support.

"We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Government of Tamil Nadu for their unwavering support, and we are eager to partner with the government and create a positive impact on the community and contribute to the state's overall economic prosperity," he said.

Also Read | MakeMyTrip observes 3400% increase in Lakshadweep searches amid Maldives row

Royal Enfield has manufacturing facilities in Oragadam and Vallam Vadagal in Tamil Nadu producing a range of motorcycles. The upcoming expansion will not only strengthen companies' production capabilities but also contribute to the state's position as a major automotive hub, the release read.

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NEW DELHI , BENGALURU : The Adani Group is looking to take its airports business global beginning with the Far East and Southeast Asia, a top executive aware of the development said. The expansion would be part of the second phase of the airport plans of the group, which entered the sector in 2020.

The new strategy will run parallel to the domestic expansion strategy through acquisition of airports being divested by the government, and also looking at bidding for greenfield airports," the executive said on the condition of anonymity.

Any expansion will be funded by group company Adani Enterprises Ltd, the executive added.

In the first phase, the Adani Group had won contracts to operate, develop and manage six airports of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in tier II cities for 50 yearsAhmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram.

It also acquired the GVK groups stake in the Mumbai airport, Indias second busiest airport after the New Delhi airport. It is now building a greenfield airport in Navi Mumbai through its holding in Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), the company that runs the airport in Mumbai.

Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL) holds 73% in MIAL, which, in turn, holds 74% in Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd. With seven operational airports in its management and development portfolio, AAHL services a quarter of Indias passenger footfalls and a third of Indias air cargo traffic.

An email sent to the Adani Group for comment remained unanswered till press time.

Analysts feel that the strategy to go global will not just add to the bottom line, but also help develop best practices for airport management.

It is the right strategy for an Indian airport company like Adani to look beyond India," said Mark D. Martin, the chief executive of Martin Consulting, an aviation consultancy firm. Entering global markets not just adds to the bottom line but also helps learn best practices available elsewhere that can be used in India."

Martin added that infrastructure growth in India has not matched the pace of growth of the countrys aviation market. So, it is imperative for Indian airport companies to bring in efficiencies".

According to numbers shared by the company with investors, AAHL reported 1,905.5 crore in revenue in the September quarter, as against 1,292.26 crore in the year-ago period. Net profit totalled 200 crore.

Indias airport ownership and management landscape has three key players. The biggest (in terms of number of airports) is the AAI, followed by AAHL and the GMR Group (which also owns and runs global airportsone in Greece and one in the Philippines.)

India has also seen the entry of Zurich Airport International AG, which is a marginal entity for now. It is building the greenfield airport in Uttar Pradeshs Jewar, which will act as a second airport for Delhi.

These airport operators are set to compete against each other during the next phase of airport divestment that the government is likely to announce during the second half of 2024 calendar year.

As part of a monetization plan, the government plans to put up 25 AAI airports for operations and management at Bhubaneswar, Varanasi, Amritsar, Trichy, Indore and Raipur, and also in tier II and III cities such as Kozhikode, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Patna and Madurai.

While the Adani Groups bids for the six airports in 2019 were aggressive, industry watchers say the bids this time may be more realistic, implying lower revenues for the government.
In a major commitment to clean energy, Tata Power announced a 70,000-crore investment to develop 10 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power capacity in Tamil Nadu over the next five to seven years. This ambitious project aligns with the power giant's vision of achieving 70 per cent clean and green energy production by 2030 and complete carbon neutrality by 2040, according to a report by Economic Times.

Also Read | Why Tata Power share price is skyrocketing in FY24  explained with five crucial reasons

Tata Power CEO and MD Praveer Sinha unveiled the plan at the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet (GIM) in Chennai on January 8. Sinha emphasised the crucial role of renewable energy in mitigating climate change and securing a sustainable future for India.

Tata Power's Renewable Energy Portfolio

Tata Power has an installed capacity of 982 MW wind power generation with plants spread across seven states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, leading in promoting wind power generation in India, according to the company's website.

Additionally, Tata Power Solar has a portfolio of more than 11.5 GWp of ground-mount utility-scale, over 1.7 GW of rooftop and distributed ground-mounted systems, and over 1 lakh solar water pumps in India.

Also Read | Green energy stocks shine bright as India becomes global renewables leader; experts remain bullish

The stocks of Tata Power were trading in the green, up 0.13 per cent at 341.15, on BSE at 2:18 pm on January 8.

Tata Power's share price bottomed out at around 185 apiece level on the NSE at the end of March 2023, and since then, it has remained an ideal 'buy on dips' stock for investors. In the last two months, Tata Power's share price has been touching new highs regularly, and the share has delivered over 80 per cent return to its long-term investors in the current fiscal, as reported by Livemint earlier.

Meanwhile, India's renewable energy capacity crossed the 179.5 GW mark, making the country the 4th largest player globally in wind and solar power. This rapid green surge isn't just powering homes and industries; it's electrifying stock markets and driving India's ambitious climate goals, according to the REN21 Renewables 2022 Global Status Report.

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SEOUL/LONDON/WASHINGTON : US officials have recovered a panel that blew off an Alaska Airlines airliner triggering a partial grounding of Boeing's 737 MAX 9 and sending shares in the planemaker tumbling on Monday.

A door plug tore off on Friday following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, depressurizing the plane and forcing pilots to turn back.

The plane, with 171 passengers and six crew on board, landed safely.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Saturday ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing MAX 9 jets installed with the same panel, which weighs about 60 pounds (27 kg) and covers an optional exit door.

It was recovered on Sunday by a Portland school teacher identified only as "Bob" in the Cedar Hills neighborhood who found it in his backyard, U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy said.

She said she was "very relieved" it had been found having called it a "key missing component" to determine why the accident occurred.

"Our structures team will want to look at everything on the door - all of the components on the door to see, to look at, witness marks, to look at any paint transfer, what shape the door was in when found. That can tell them a lot about what occurred," she said.

The force from the loss of the panel was strong enough to blow open the cockpit door during flight, said Homendy, adding that it must have been a "terrifying event" to experience.

"They heard a bang," Homendy said of the pilots, who were interviewed by investigators.

Homendy said the cockpit voice recorder did not capture any data because it had been overwritten. She again called on regulators to mandate retrofitting existing planes with recorders that capture 25 hours of data, up from the two hours required in the U.S. at present.

Boeing issues inspection instructions for 737 MAX 9 to airlines

Boeing early on Monday shared instructions with airlines for inspecting the 737 MAX 9 fleet, the company confirmed, after 171 MAX planes were grounded by U.S. regulators on Saturday following an accident where a cabin panel ripped off an Alaska Airlines jet while in mid-air.

The instructions, known formally as a multi-operator message, are a key step to allow airlines to complete or certify inspections have been conducted that comply with the Federal Aviation Administration's directive that would allow them to put planes back in service.

"We agree with and fully support the FAAs decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 MAX airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane," Boeing Commercial Airplanes head Stan Deal said in a letter to employees.

"Our teams have been working diligently  with thorough FAA review  to provide comprehensive, technical instructions to operators for the required inspections," he said. "This morning, our team issued the instructions via a multi-operator message."

The message was delivered to airlines around 3 a.m. Pacific Time (1100 GMT), a source told Reuters, who was first to report that Boeing had sent the instructions.

SHARES SINK

Boeing's shares fell as much as 8% in pre-market U.S. trade on Monday as investors digested the latest setback for the planemaker.

If the losses hold, the company would lose more than $12.5 billion in value, almost the cost of developing a new plane.

The mishap comes as Boeing and supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which made the panel, grapple with ongoing production setbacks that have hampered recovery from an earlier lengthy 737 MAX safety grounding and wider disruption from the pandemic.

Since the 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019, Boeing shares have fallen by more than 40% while Airbus shares are up 25%.

Spirit Aero shares were down 15.9% in U.S. pre-market trading on Monday. Alaska Airlines shares fell 5% while shares in United Airlines, the only other U.S. airline that operates the jets, dropped 2.8%.

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Versuni India (formerly known as Philips Domestic Appliances) launched its new manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad on January 3, with a plan to create more than 1,000 new jobs over the next three years. The companys global CEO Henk S. de Jong says the new facility in India is a testimony to Versunis commitment to Indias fast-growing market.

Excerpts from an interview:

For years China has been the manufacturing focal point in this region. How do you rate Indias capabilities as a manufacturing power?

I see a good future for manufacturing in India. Of course, China has been a major player in the region, but more manufacturing will move into India over time.

The suppliers are getting better and while exports of home appliances are small scale right now, I can see it growing in a big way. We have been manufacturing products in India for many years now and can say that over 70% of the products sold in India are made here. The new facility will help it to grow to 90%.

A significant portion of the components for these products are now coming from India itself. Isnt it?

Our plan is to turn houses of our consumers into homes with the help of our two brands, namely, Philips and Preeti. Over 75% of the components of these products come from India. This helps in speed of production, creating an ecosystem around the factory that eventually can only help in producing better quality products.

We want our products to help consumers spend very little time doing household chores. The new facility in Gujarat will produce flagship products like the Philips airfryers and garment steamers, showcasing a shift in Indian consumer preferences. Versuni is manufacturing the airfryer for the first time in India with a fully integrated automatic robotic coating line.

Research & development has been an area of focus for Philips (and Versuni) over the years. Hows the R&D facility in Chennai doing?

The plan is to capitalise on the growing opportunities in the Indian market. The R&D centre in Chennai continues to innovate and helps us grow. Most of our investments are in R&D and thats hovering around 4-5% of our revenue in India.

Globally, our R&D team is 600-people strong. India has 4-5% of that team. But they are all working together. We do a number of consumer insight studies and then come up with new ideas. We are continually training people and have reduced the bureaucracy. Now there are less people managing R&D and more people working in R&D!

The company seems to have taken a more digital-first approach of late.

We have modernised the IT landscape and have adopted cloud solutions. We are applying AI in our manufacturing, devices, marketing and are launching more digital campaigns. The whole focus is on helping the consumer and the way to do that is to have a digital-first approach.

Is India a unique market, with regard to home appliances?

Some of the trends are unique but some are the same the world over. Cleaning floors, air purifying etc are areas where the trends are the same globally. But Indian kitchens are different. The mixer grinder or the pressure cooker are areas where we have excellent products in India and we continuously innovate. The new pressure cooker under the Preeti brand is where my R&D team in India worked on and came up with something very innovative. Usually, pressure cookers can spill over and it takes a lot of time cleaning up the kitchen counter. Now, we have ensured it doesnt spill over and the retailers are seeing this as a remarkable innovation.

When Philips Domestic Appliances became a stand-alone company (Versuni), with the goal to become a digital first, insights-led organisation, was there a fear of the influential Philip brand getting diluted?

For the consumer, theres no change (Philip and Preeti will be the product names). Yes, some people were a little afraid of what would happen. However, we linked our company name to a new purpose. We are changing our culture. You can say we are like a smaller speedboat, more nimble. Fail fast and repair fast. We are not yet there, but we are on our way.

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After exchange of prisoners, scammers became more active, trying to make money from relatives of those remaining in captivity  Ombudsman

Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets reported on the increased activity of scammers who are trying to profit from relatives of Ukrainians remaining in Russian captivity.

"Be careful, scammers are using the extreme exchange of prisoners of war for their own profit. Accounts have appeared on social networks presenting themselves as defenders released from captivity and promising to provide information allegedly about those military personnel who were 'seen' in enemy captivity. After this, they begin to ask for money," Lubinets said in Telegram channel.

According to him, scammers can post photos and videos from "exchange of 230" or other similar events on their profiles. "Don't believe this! Do not send money under any circumstances! Scammers are hiding behind these pages and social network profiles," the commissioner said.

As reported, on January 3, the largest exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in Ukraine took place; as part of it, some 230 Ukrainians were released.
Elon Musk and his supporters offer several explanations for his contrarian views, unfiltered speech and provocative antics. Theyre an expression of his creativity. Or the result of his mental-health challenges. Or fallout from his stress, or sleep deprivation.

In recent years, some executives and board members at his companies and others close to the billionaire have developed a persistent concern that there is another component driving his behavior: his use of drugs.

And they fear the Tesla and SpaceX chief executives drug use could have major consequences not just for his health, but also the six companies and billions in assets he oversees, according to people familiar with Musk and the companies.

The worlds wealthiest person has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties around the world, where attendees sign nondisclosure agreements or give up their phones to enter, according to people who have witnessed his drug use and others with knowledge of it. Musk has previously smoked marijuana in public and has said he has a prescription for the psychedelic-like ketamine.

In 2018, for example, he took multiple tabs of acid at a party he hosted in Los Angeles. The next year he partied on magic mushrooms at an event in Mexico. In 2021, he took ketamine recreationally with his brother, Kimbal Musk, in Miami at a house party during Art Basel. He has taken illegal drugs with current SpaceX and former Tesla board member Steve Jurvetson.

People close to Musk, who is now 52, said his drug use is ongoing, especially his consumption of ketamine, and that they are concerned it could cause a health crisis. Even if it doesnt, it could damage his businesses.

Illegal drug use would likely be a violation of federal policies that could jeopardize SpaceXs billions of dollars in government contracts. Musk is intrinsic to the value of his companies, potentially putting at risk around $1 trillion in assets held by investors, tens of thousands of jobs and big parts of the U.S. space program.

SpaceX is the only U.S. company now approved to transport NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The Pentagon, meanwhile, has stepped up purchases of SpaceX rocket launches in recent years, and the company has also been looking to develop a large business selling satellite services to national-security agencies.

One former Tesla director, Linda Johnson Rice, grew so frustrated with Musks volatile behavior and her concerns about his drug consumption that she didnt stand for re-election to the electric-car companys board in 2019, according to people familiar with the matter.

Musk didnt respond to requests for comment.

An attorney for Musk, Alex Spiro, said that Musk is regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test." Spiro, who said he represents Tesla, added in response to detailed questions that there are other false facts" in this article but didnt detail them.

The people around Musk long ago became accustomed to his volatile behavior. Some SpaceX executives who had long worked with him, however, noticed a change at a company event in late 2017.

Hundreds of SpaceX employees gathered around mission control at the rocket companys headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., in anticipation of Musk, who was nearly an hour late to arrive at the all-hands meeting about the companys latest rocket.

When he finally took the stage, Musk was strangely incomprehensible at times. He slurred his words and rambled for around 15 minutes, according to executives in attendance, and referred repeatedly to SpaceXs Big Falcon Rocket prototype, which was known as BFR, as Big Fing Rocket."

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell ultimately stepped in and took over the meeting.

It couldnt be learned if Musk was under the influence that day. But after the meeting, the SpaceX executives privately talked about their worries Musk was on drugs. One described the event as nonsensical," unhinged" and cringeworthy."

Spiro called the description of the SpaceX incident false as has been confirmed by countless people who were present." He declined to elaborate on what specifically was false or describe the countless people.

Then in 2018, people familiar with Musks behavior said, another incident seemed to mark a turning point for himand showed that his drug use could have consequences for his businesses. That year, Musk got into trouble with NASA for smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan show, raising red flags for some about the business impact of Musks conduct and causing employees at SpaceX to be randomly tested for drugs.

Worry by board members

In addition to violating federal contracts, any kind of illegal drug use would break company policies at both SpaceX and Tesla, and would raise questions about Musks executive role at the publicly traded Tesla, where the board has a duty to shareholders to oversee management.

Some Tesla board members over the years have talked among themselves about their concerns over Musks alleged drug use but havent said anything formally that would end up as an official board agenda item or in meeting minutes, people familiar with the discussions said. Some directors, including current Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm, have gone to Kimbal Musk, who is a Tesla board member and was a SpaceX board member until early 2022, for help with Musks behavior, without using the word drugs," the people said.

Some on the board and others close to Musk worried he was on drugs when he tweeted in 2018 about plans to take Tesla private, people familiar with the episode said. Kimbal Musk informally approached Musk about it on behalf of some board members, some of the people said. The tweet brought on an SEC investigation into whether the statement was misleading or false, and resulted in Musks agreement to step down as Tesla chairman for a time.

Some close to Musk said they learned he was under the influence during a media interview he gave soon after the tweet when he choked up describing how difficult his year had been.

Part of the issue directors have grappled with over the years is whether drug use by Musk is to blame for his unusual behavior, or if it is something else, such as his consistent lack of sleep, which he has talked about.

Musk oversees six companies, including social-media platform X, formerly Twitter; his tunneling venture, The Boring Co.; his brain implant startup, Neuralink; and a new artificial-intelligence company, xAI. His business life bleeds into his personal time in a way that is uncommon even for other chief executives.

At Tesla and X, he has said he regularly slept at the office. He often emails company lieutenants in the middle of the night, and hosts work meetings at midnight. He said he works almost nonstop. Vacation is a strong word," he said in 2022 court testimony. For me, it is email with a view."

In a new authorized biography of Musk, author Walter Isaacson described Musks demon mode": Musk, Isaacson wrote, entered into a state of intense fury and would frequently lash out at employees and executives. In the Isaacson book, Musk is quoted as saying, I really dont like doing illegal drugs."

Musk and others have attributed his erratic office behavior to his mental health. A Twitter user asked in 2017 if he had bipolar disorder, which can cause mood swings, to which Musk replied affirmatively, although he said he was undiagnosed.

Musk also said, when he hosted Saturday Night Live in 2021, that he had Aspergers, a form of autism.

Drug use has also been a thorny topic for directors at Musks companies because some of them are his close friends, and attend parties and travel with him, according to people familiar with the matter and court documents.

Musk has been known to attend parties and events at Burning Man, the Nevada arts and music festival where drugs are widely used, to blow off steam, according to people close to him.

He also throws his own private events, where drug use is common, according to people who have attended the parties.

The executives whereabouts are often a closely guarded secret, and he is protected by private security. At his companies, executives and employees often have to sign nondisclosure agreements.

Kimbal Musk frequently attends the same parties and events as his brother, including an Art Basel party in Miami in late 2021 when both took ketamine recreationally, according to people with knowledge of their drug use. Kimbal Musk has talked to friends about the benefits of psychedelics, and tweeted in June in support of his wife when she spoke at the countrys largest psychedelic conference about the benefits of the drugs for mental health treatment.

In 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk microdoses ketamine for depression and also takes full doses at parties. Following publication of the article, Musk tweeted that ketamine is a better way to deal with depression compared with more widely prescribed antidepressants that are zombifying" people.

In a separate tweet, Musk later said that he had a prescription for ketamine. The psychedelic-like drug can be prescribed off label" for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and it is also a widely used party drug that can be purchased illegally through dealers.

Government contracts

As a general rule, board members and executives have long struggled with how to deal with substance abuse at their companies.

Some directors have wondered whether it is their role to police drug use outside the office, saying what executives do in their personal livesespecially with drugs that may be legal in certain instances or statesmay not impact their business decisions.

At most companies, board members arent required to investigate an executive for drug use, but they often do take action if they believe it is impacting the business.

That can include encouraging a leave of absence for treatment or opening an investigation, corporate governance experts say. Drug use is a more challenging issue than other substance problems, such as alcohol, because possessing certain drugs, such as cocaine, can bring felony charges.

In 2020, former Zappos chief executive Tony Hsiehs abuse of ketamine ultimately caused executives at the shoe companys parent, Amazon, to step in, according to people familiar with those events.

Amazon executives gave Hsieh a couple of months to clean up his act, and when he wasnt able to do so, he resigned. Hsieh was trapped in a house fire while under the influence in late 2020 and later died from his injuries.

Teslas code of conduct described the electric-vehicle maker as a drug-free workplace and prohibits all employees, including executives, from using them, even out of the office.

Illegal drug use by employees is also in violation of the rules that govern the more than $14 billion in contracts that Musks private rocket company, SpaceX, has with the U.S. government for civilian and military space missions.

Federal contracts require that companies comply with the Drug-Free Workplace Act and foster a drug-free culture with programs and policies, regardless of any state laws that may legalize some usage. Contractors can also lose security clearances because of drug abuse, defined as the use of illegal drugs or prescription medications in a manner that deviates from approved medical direction."

In his role as CEO and founder of SpaceX, Musk has a security clearance that gives him access to classified information.

Investors have often turned a blind eye to concerns about Musk, including his drug use, especially when Tesla is doing well, investors and people close to the board said. And in recent years, Tesla and SpaceX have both performed exceptionally. Tesla stock is up around 1,000% in the past five years, despite declines in 2022, compared with the S&P 500s increase of around 86% in that time period. Revenue at SpaceX also has soared.

Tweet firestorm

In the summer of 2018, some people around the billionaire began getting concerned that he was losing control.

Several months after the all-hands meeting at SpaceX, Musk tweeted in August that he planned to take Tesla private at $420 a share420" is slang for smoking marijuanaand that he had funding secured."

The now-infamous tweet set off a firestorm among investors, who scrambled to understand the billionaires plans for the electric-car maker. Tesla shares increased more than 6% the day of the tweet. The SEC launched an investigation that resulted in a settlement that included fines of $40 million and Tesla adding two independent board members and overseeing the CEOs communications. Musk didnt admit or deny wrongdoing.

Board members told regulators they didnt know about Musks plans and were taken aback by his actions. Privately some on the board became concerned that Musk was on drugs when tweeting, and some directors briefly discussed among themselves the idea of him taking a leave of absence from Tesla, people familiar with the discussions said.

In an interview with the New York Times soon after, Musk choked up multiple times as he described the intense personal toll of leading Tesla, saying, This past year has been the most difficult and painful year of my career."

Behind the scenes, things were much more dire: Musk had been under the influence as he answered the reporters questions, according to people briefed on the episode. The CEO hadnt informed Teslas communications team that he was giving the interview, people familiar with the episode said.

Soon after, Musk smoked marijuana on the comedian Rogans show, which can be streamed online. NASA demanded written assurances that SpaceX was complying with the federal drug-free workplace law and spent $5 million in taxpayer dollars on training for SpaceX employees, according to a letter NASA sent to the company and federal contracting records.

Musk has said the agency required drug testing at SpaceX for a year.

Corporate contractors must follow standard NASA guidelines for drug tests that usually check for marijuana and cocaine and have the ability to also test for amphetamines, opiates and PCP.

Spiro didnt respond to a question on what type of drug tests Musk has taken.

At SpaceX and some of Musks other companies, including the tunnel venture Boring Co., executives began warning employees to follow company rules at all times, including to not use illegal drugs, even out of the office, according to people familiar with the warnings.

SpaceX brought in drug-sniffing dogs on a random basis to make sure employees werent carrying illegal substances, according to the people.

At Tesla, Denholm, the current board chair, James Murdoch and other directors sometimes gathered around Kimbal Musk informally during board breaks or after meetings to ask how Elon Musk was doing or if he was getting enough sleep, people familiar with the conversations said. While the directors wouldnt specifically ask about substance abuse, the people said they understood the questions to be about Elon Musks perceived drug use.

Rice, the director who didnt stand for re-election in 2019, raised concerns about his drug consumption more than once in side conversations with board members about Musks increasingly erratic behavior during her two year tenure on the board, according to people familiar with her concerns. She informally asked whether the board should investigate and was brushed off, one of the people said.

Joe Palazzolo, Micah Maidenberg, Jim Oberman and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this article.

Write to Emily Glazer at Emily.Glazer@wsj.com and Kirsten Grind at kirsten.grind@wsj.com
Boeings 737 MAX model just doesnt seem able to outfly bad publicity. Even if the latest problem is just with one specific plane, its manufacturers will pay the price of greater scrutiny.

Early Monday, futures markets pointed to an 8% fall in Boeings share price as investors tried to assess the potential damage inflicted by a door plug that blew out of a jet flown by Alaska Airlines on Friday evening. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded planes Saturday and ordered airlines to conduct inspections.

The MAX has become one of the most infamous jet models in the history of commercial aviation. Most of the planes were grounded for nearly two years after 2019 following two deadly crashes. Since the ban on flying them was lifted, a raft of manufacturing glitches have delayed Boeings plans to increase production. Just this past December, the company warned about potential loose bolts in the rudder system. Production had been halted in the summer because of mis-drilled holes on fuselages.

Of course, issues involving the body of the aircraft point the finger at the firm that supplies it, Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems, which is responsible for the emergency-door configuration involved in Fridays accident. Futures suggested that Spirit stock could lose almost a fifth of its value Monday.

But the fallout from the Alaska Airlines accident may have more to do with ongoing reputational damage than direct financial consequences.

The jet involved is a MAX 9, which is an elongated variant of the MAX 8 responsible for the 2019 groundings. Alaska and other airlines often dont use all the extra space it offers, and are thus allowed to dispose of an emergency exit and plug the door instead.

An auto-pressurization failure light had lighted up in the affected planes cockpit in prior days. The aircraft had been delivered to Alaska Airlines in November and had only completed about 150 trips. Yet the predecessor to the MAX 9, the 737-900ER, has undertaken millions of flights since 2007 without incident, despite having the same approach to the door.

So the problem could be a one-off. To be sure, it is too early to tell. The missing plug was recovered Sunday and will contain important clues.

Even if it does turn out to be a widespread issue, the result wouldnt be catastrophic. The MAX 9 is very unpopular compared with its competitor, Europes Airbus A321neo, and only makes up 2% of the MAX jets on order at Boeing.

There are 217 of them in service, out of roughly 1,300 MAX jets, with 179 using the plugged-door configuration. United Airlines flies 79, but they only make up 7.5% of its available seats adjusted for trip length, according to analysts at Cowen. Alaska and Panamas Copa Airlines are bigger potential victims, as the model variant accounts for 32% and 37% of their capacity, respectively.

Still, door inspections are easy and unlikely to take much longer than four hours. Many have already been completed without issue. That this happened during the winter lull reduces the financial hit for carriers.

Given that the MAX remains Boeings bestselling aircraft despite everything that has happened, it seems unlikely that existing orders and production rates will be affected. Jets arent consumer-facing products: Once regulators give the green light, airlines only care about flight economics.

Still, constant bad headlines have consequences. Officials may feel more inclined to take their time with the certification process for Boeings MAX 7 and 10 variantswhich sit at the bottom and top of the size spectrum, respectively. Crucially, the plane maker recently asked for the MAX 7 to be exempted from safety standards designed to prevent engine housings from overheating until May 2026, so it can start deliveries as it develops a fix.

A damaged brand may also deter new airline customers. China hasnt ordered MAX planes since 2017. Carriers may start placing greater value on older, tried-and-tested planes at the expense of newer, issue-prone models.

Despite a recent rebound, shares in Boeing and Spirit are down about 30% and 60% over the past five years, respectively, whereas Airbuss are up 60%. If more investors are to jump back in, American aircraft manufacturing must stop putting up signs saying zero days since last incident."

Write to Jon Sindreu at jon.sindreu@wsj.com
Advocates of industrial policy have long argued that manufacturing possesses special powers. Industrys demands lead to technological progress; the goods it produces must pass the muster of global markets, which drives up efficiency. Some then take things further. When countries grow richer, manufacturing moves overseas as firms seek to reduce labour costs. This, they say, justifies tariffs and subsidies to protect manufacturing and boost growth. Making things matters," argued a recent column in the Wall Street Journal by Oren Cass, who runs American Compass, a think-tank at the vanguard of the Republican Partys new-found protectionism.

The problem is that, of late, manufacturings powers seem to have vanished. Figures published on October 26th show that Americas gdp jumped by 4.9% at an annualised rate in the third quarter of the year. Nearly 80% of output is now made up of services, but one might expect manufacturing at least to pull its weight, given its supposed powers. In fact, labour productivity in manufacturing fell by 0.2% at an annualised rate, meaning that the boost to growth was driven by services. To make matters worse, productivity in the manufacturing sector has been in secular decline since 2011the first decade-long fall in the available data (see chart 1). Some economists think it is probably also the first such fall in American history.

View Full Image Graphic: The Economist

What has prompted the reversal? Mr Casss favourite explanation, trade policy, can be dismissed. American manufacturing employment fell sharply in the early 2000s, in part owing to the integration of China into global trade. Some think that this China shock", which led to a wave of outsourcing, also caused productivity to decline by reducing the incentive for American firms to invest. Yet productivity grew until 2011. Moreover, it also subsequently declined in sub-sectors that are mostly domestic and immune to trade, including cement and concrete production.

A better clue is provided by what went well in earlier decades. During the 1990s and 2000s manufacturing productivity soared, with the production of computers and electronics, especially semiconductor chips, leading the way. Gains seem to have topped out at around the time things went wrong more broadly, in the early 2010s. All told, more than a third of the overall slowdown in manufacturing since 2011 is accounted for by computers and electronics.

Yet problems with computers are not the whole story. Productivity has fallen in both durable manufacturing, which includes most tech, and the non-durable sort, which includes items like cigarettes and clothes. Fourteen out of 19 manufacturing sub-sectors, from machinery to textiles, saw declines during the 2010s.

Perhaps all those computers have been put to poor use. America may be a technology superpower, but when it comes to using tech in the physical world it lags behind others. It ranks seventh out of 15 countries in the adoption of robots per worker, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think-tank. South Korea, the world leader, uses over three times more robots per worker. And after adjusting for average wagesricher countries tend to be more advancedAmerica ranks 11th.

But it is not clear whether there was a big change in American manufacturers adoption of tech, compared with other sectors, in the early 2010s. Indeed, the evidence points in the opposite direction. As Chad Syverson of the University of Chicago notes, the ratio of capital to labour has actually grown slightly faster in manufacturing than in the private sector as a whole.

If investment has not plummeted, it must then be paying fewer dividends. Low-hanging fruit might have been plucked more eagerly in manufacturing. This idea is supported by the fact that industrial productivity growth has slowed across the rich world, even if not by as much as in America (see chart 2). The extra bit of American underperformance is trickier to explain. Economists throw out a boatload of hypotheses. America is known to have laxer antitrust enforcement than its peers; perhaps scrutiny was especially needed in the manufacturing sector. Maybe American manufacturing was more advanced when robots arrived on the scene, so had less to gain. Some have even argued that because Americas software and internet sectors have been so lucrative, talent has been diverted away from older industries.

Could things change? Industrial-policy advocates hope that Americas subsidies for chip production and green tech will lead to a manufacturing renaissance. The idea is to boost productivity by enticing companies and investment to cluster in a given region, much as Shenzhen in China used its status as a special economic zone to become an impressive manufacturing hub. A breakthrough in robotics or artificial intelligence could push things along, just as information technology led to a surge in productivity from 1995 to 2004. For the moment, though, this is just speculation. And American manufacturing needs all the help it can get.

For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, finance and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter.

 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
A burning inferno on the runway, followed four days later by a mid-air emergency involving a gaping hole in the side of the plane, isnt the way the airline industry wanted to start 2024.

After a fraught 2023, in which safety specialists and regulators raised alarms about mounting risks, the air-travel business has experienced two near-catastrophic accidents already this yearone with multiple casualties.

The accidents are different, and occurred on opposite sides of the world, but come as the industry is under stress while it pushes to recover to pre-pandemic norms.

I think the system is under strain," said Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. The industry faces an important test, he said, to maintain its safety record while adding thousands of new pilots, flight attendants and air-traffic controllers. We have enough information based on whats occurred to be concerned," he said, referring to the post-pandemic period.

Meanwhile, investigators are piecing together what caused two aircraft to collide at Tokyos Haneda Airport and how 379 passengers and crew on Japan Airlines Airbus aircraft managed to escape the resulting blaze.

U.S. regulators are starting to look at Boeings production process and supply chain to pinpoint what might have caused a metal panel to fling off the side of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX mid-flight on Friday evening, while Portland, Ore., residents are helping to comb the city for where the metal piece might have fallen.

Authorities say that, in both cases, the accidents could have been more severe. For the Alaska Airlines accident, which only caused some minor injuries, the impact would have been worse if the incident had occurred at cruising altitude instead of during the jets climb, or if either of the two seats closest to the fuselage panel had been occupied.

We could have ended up with something so much more tragic, and were really fortunate that that did not occur here," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a briefing on Saturday night.

In Japan, the collision caused the death of five on board the coast-guard plane that had encroached onto the runway. Still, the incident risked being one of the most deadly in history had the evacuation of the passenger jet been less successful, or had the flames that engulfed the aircraft spread more quickly.

Commercial aviation is still one of the safest ways to travel, far outstripping accident rates in most other transport modes. Global accident rates in 2022 were still below pre-pandemic levels despite rising 14.5% from 2021. Between 2013 and 2022 the rate of accidents has fallen nearly 17% from 3.9 per million flights to 3.25, according to the latest available data from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations body.

The industry credits the general decline in accidents to an obsession with safety, from processes that carefully manage the movement of aircraft on runways and in the skies, to regulations that pinpoint the exact sizing of every nut and bolt that is installed on a commercial aircraft.

Safety specialists and regulators have been on guard since the dropping of travel restrictions as passengers rush to get back into the skies and airlines push to make up for the tens of billions of dollars lost during the pandemic lows.

ICAOs annual data for 2023 havent been released, but records kept by the Hamburg-based Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre, show the total number of casesfrom smaller incidents to fatal accidentsreached 1,033 last year, higher than the 10-year average of 869. That accounts for all civilian aircraft with 19 seats or more.

As Covid-19 spread across the globe in 2020, airlines put thousands of aircraft into storage, birds and wildlife moved into unused airports, and aircraft-manufacturing facilities that had reached record production levels just months earlier were staffed by skeleton crews.

Millions of jobs were cut in the biggest-ever retrenchment drive across both the aviation and aerospace industries. The subsequent recovery, meanwhile, has led to the quickest period of hiring, leaving aircraft manufacturers, maintenance specialists, air-traffic controllers, ground-handling firms and airlines complaining about the battle to fill jobs.

Both accidents will, at some level, be attributed to human error. Somewhere in the chain of events a human has made a mistake," said Conor Nolan, a board member at the Flight Safety Foundation.

He said there is a huge demand for traffic at the same time the labor pool is becoming tight, adding that airlines are working harder than ever" on safety because of that pressure. The availability of talent is not just bodies. We need suitably qualified and experienced personnel in so many aspects of aviation and theyre drying up."

The loss of experienced workers, from the retrenchment of experienced factory workers to the early retirement of pilots, has weighed on skill levels. Pilots are speeding through career milestones, moving from regional airlines to national carriers or being promoted more quickly from first officer to captain; specialists say injuries among maintenance and manufacturing workers have increased; air-traffic controllers are facing dangerously low staffing levels; and baggage handlers have died in grisly accidents that authorities have apportioned in part to insufficient training.

Those challenges, and a general rustiness across the industry after nearly two years of depressed flying, have reared their head across the sector, mostly in incidents that have been less severe than those in the past week.

In September, a turboprop aircraft rolled across the runway at Maltas airport after a ground worker removed the tow bar from his tug vehicle before it had been properly parked. In October, a JetBlue aircraft at John F. Kennedy International Airport tipped onto its rear when baggage handlers removed the planes cargo before the passengers at the back had all disembarked. In March, a United Airlines pilot damaged the tail of an aircraft after hitting it against the runway during landing; it flew several more flights before crew and maintenance teams noticed the damage.

In the U.S. and Europe, the Federal Aviation Administration and its European counterpart spent much of 2023 trying to identify the causes behind a surge in near misses on runways across the country that could have led to collisions similar to that seen in Tokyo. In the first 10 months of last year, rates of serious incursions on U.S. runways had jumped to 0.41 from 0.34 in 2022 and 0.24 in 2019, according to FAA data.

The FAA flagged early-warning signs of general fatigue and errors across the system as early as the summer of 2021. The agency urged airlines to be on the lookout for fatigue-related mistakes among employees and across the wider system.

At the same time, Boeing and Airbus have been battling to rapidly recover their manufacturing capacity after slashing production over the pandemic. With airlines now rapidly trying to snatch up availability for new jets, boasting some of the biggest-ever orders for commercial planes, both companies have lamented that they cant build planes fast enough to meet airline demand.

At Boeing, that dynamic has come amid a battle with quality control across the company. For most of 2022, deliveries of its bestselling 787 Dreamliner were halted by the FAA because of repeated lapses in production quality. Last summer, the production of the MAX was all but paused after holes in new fuselage sections were found to be misdrilled. And as recently as Dec. 28, the FAA issued a new directiveunrelated to Friday nights incidentasking airlines to inspect newly built MAX jets for missing nuts in the planes rudder system.

Jefferies aerospace analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said though it is too soon to know the cause of the issue, pressure on Boeing and suppliers to ramp up has heightened the risk of manufacturing flaws.

Given the pressure on production, this is one thing thats going to be top of mind," she said.

As part of its investigation after Friday nights accident, the NTSB is likely to investigate a number of possibilities, including whether the emergency-exit door cover wasnt installed or manufactured correctly. Authorities are now parsing through Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, which supplies those panels, to assess where any fault might have been introduced.

Spirit, a critical supplier to Boeing and Airbus, has been thrust into its own crisis after a series of manufacturing snafus led to the ouster of its former chief executive.

Sharon Terlep contributed to this article.

Write to Benjamin Katz at ben.katz@wsj.com and Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com
NEW DELHI : Mutual funds may get to invest in companies traded in Gujarats Gift City exchanges beyond the normal cap that applies for their overseas investments. The move comes at a time the government is opening up the special economic zone for direct listing of Indian firms.

A 16-member expert panel appointed by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) last week recommended a special carve-out for mutual funds wanting to invest in Gift City. Mint has seen a copy of the report.

Currently, any investments made by mutual funds are considered overseas investments, which are subject to various investment limits.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allows the entire mutual funds industry to invest up to $7 billion in overseas companies. Also, no individual fund is allowed to invest more than $1 billion in foreign securities. The expert committee recommendation, if implemented, will ensure that their investments in Indian companies in Gift City are not considered overseas investment and, instead, a separate limit will be put in place for Gift City.

To be sure, Gift City currently offers only derivatives trading, and does not have any listed companies. The government is working to allow Indian firms to list directly from Gift City, before opening up direct overseas listings.

The move aims to deepen liquidity in Gift City, given that mutual funds have been a key factor behind the rise of Indias onshore capital markets, where they manage assets of 50 trillion. Companies listing in Gift City will help both the special zone and the domestic funds such as mutual funds by providing them greater investment opportunities.

The move may benefit the mutual fund industry, which is constantly looking to broaden investment horizons.

The potential inclusion of Indian companies listed on the IFSC as investment options for mutual funds presents a significant opportunity. It would not only benefit investors but also contribute positively to the development of the Gift City IFSC ecosystem," said Suresh Swamy, partner, Price Waterhouse & Co. Llp. This initiative is poised to pave new investment avenues, bolster the flow of capital, and catalyse economic growth within the IFSC framework."

However, allowing such a framework will need coordination between multiple regulators. This will be a pathbreaking reform for various stakeholders. It will allow Indian companies to access foreign capital in a much familiar setting. It will provide a conducive regulatory framework and tax concessions coupled with trading in foreign currency," said Jaiman Patel, partner, EY India. Having said this, a lot will depend on the finer aspects in terms of implementation. It requires effective coordination among quite a few government ministries along with sectoral regulators in India to amend the existing regulations in a manner which translates the intended vision into reality."

In the current scheme of thinking and structure, the limit cannot be outside, as Gift City is an offshore destination," said A. Balasubramanian, managing director, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC. What could be considered is easing the TCS (tax collected at source) restrictions on investments by mutual funds in Gifty City."

The Securities and Exchange Board of India regulates mutual funds onshore investments, while RBI sets rules for remittance of funds outside by mutual funds. Creating a special carve-out will need amendments to several laws that are overseen by different regulators, market participants said.

In November, the ministry of corporate affairs allowed certain unlisted firms to list overseas. As a first step, the overseas listing framework is being put in place for Gift City where Indian companies will be able to raise dollar funding.

The IFSCA is also considering providing a similar carve-out to alternative investment funds to attract money from wealthy investors into Gift City.
Day trading guide for today: Despite weak global market sentiments, two out of three key benchmark indices of the Indian stock market finished higher on Friday. Nifty 50 index added 52 points and closed at the 21,710 level, and BSE Sensex regained the 72,000 mark by adding 178 points in the last session of the week gone by. However, the Bank Nifty index went off 36 points and finished at 48,159 level. The small-cap index rose more than the Nifty even as the advance-decline ratio remained high at 1.18:1.

"Nifty opened positive for the second consecutive day and closed with gains of 52 points at 21711 levels. Indias service PMI expanded to 59 in December and revived the positivity. Declining VIX further boosted the sentiments. Sector-wise it was a mixed bag with buying seen in IT & Auto," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research at Motilal Oswal.

Day trading guide for stock market today

On the outlook for Nifty 50 today, Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities said, "The short-term uptrend status of Nifty remains intact, but the market is likely to find resistance around 21,800 to 21,850 levels in the coming sessions. A decisive move only above 21,850 to 21,900 levels could open the next upside target of 22,200 levels. Any dips from here could find support around 21,500."

Also Read: Bajaj Auto stock in focus as board to consider buyback of shares today

On the outlook for Bank Nifty today, Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities said, "Exhibiting a robust recovery from the 47,500 support level, Bank Nifty showcases active bullish activity, rebounding from the 14-day moving average support at 47,800. A closing above 48,200 is crucial, as it could propel the index towards 48,500 and 48,800 levels. The immediate support for Bank Nifty today stands at 47,800 level, indicating a key level to monitor in the current market scenario."

Q3 results 2024 in focus

On the outlook for the stock market today, Siddhartha Khemka of Motilal Oswal said, "We expect the market to take cues from the upcoming earning season which will be kick-started by TCS and Infosys on 11th January. HCL Tech, Wipro, and HDFC Life are a few others that will announce their results next week. Healthy pre-quarterly business updates indicate that the earnings growth momentum is likely to continue in Q3 as well. Overall we expect markets to remain in a positive range. Stock-specific action will gather pace with the start of earning season."

FII DII data

In the cash segment, FIIs bought shares worth 1,696.86 crore on Friday whereas they bought 485.32 crore worth of shares in the F&O index future segment. However, DIIs bought 26,024.54 crore worth of shares in the F&O index future segment on Friday while they sold out Indian shares worth 3,497.62 crore in the cash market.

Also Read: Stocks to Watch: Dr Reddy's, Federal Bank, Titan, Adani Wilmar, JSW Steel

F&O ban list

Eleven shares have been put under the F&O ban on Monday. Those stocks are Balrampur Chini, Chambal Fertilisers, Delta Corp, Escorts, GNFC, IEX, India Cements, NALCO, SAIL, PEL, and ZEEL.

Nifty Call Put Option data

On Nifty Call Put Option Data, Chinmay Barve, Head of Technical and Derivative Research at Profitmart Securities said, Major total Call open interest was seen at 21800 strikes with a total open interest of 115848 contracts. Major Call open interest addition was seen at 21800 strikes which added 59949 contracts in open interest," adding, "Major total Put open interest was seen at 21500 strike with total open interest of 108654 contracts respectively. Major Put open interest addition was seen at 21700 and 21500 strikes which added 49392 and 32828 contracts in open interest."

Bank Nifty Call Put Option data

On Bank Nifty Call Put Option Data, Chinmay Barve of Profitmart Securities said, Major total Call open interest was seen at 48500 and 49000 strikes with total open interest of 181505 and 148521 contracts respectively in open interest. Major Call open interest addition was seen at 48500 strike which added 92376 contracts in open interest," adding, "Major total Put open interest was seen at 48000 and 47500 strikes with total open interest of 161399 and 113467 contracts respectively. The strike price of 47800 saw open interest reduction of 12936 contracts."

Also Read: Indian stock market: 7 things that changed for market over weekend

Day trading stocks for today

On intraday stocks for today, stock market experts  Sumeet Bagadia, Executive Director at Choice Broking; Ganesh Dongre, Senior Manager  Technical Research at Anand Rathi and Kunal Kamble, Senior Technical Analyst at Bonanza Portfolio  recommended six stocks to buy today.

Sumeet Bagadia's intraday stocks for today

1] LT: Buy at 3521.90, target 3675, stop loss 3420.

LT share price is currently trading at 3521.90 levels. The stock has a strong support at 3420 levels which is also close to its 20 Day EMA levels and the stock has shown a strong bounce from the same support mentioned. LT can now progress even further towards new all-time high levels and beyond. The strength for the stock to climb upwards is demonstrated by the RSI indicator, which is comfortably trading at 65 levels. The stock is also moving above all important moving averages. Once stock crosses the previous all-time high of 3560 it can move towards the level of 3675 and above.

2] Zydus Wellness: Buy at 1693, target 1744, stop loss 1661.

Zydus Wellness's daily chart indicates a significant shift in market dynamics, transitioning from a period of slight declines and sideways consolidation to a promising upward movement. The current trading session shows an upward momentum, breaking out of a narrow range and forming a rounding bottom pattern on the daily chart. Any upside move above 1700 could potentially signal a breakout to the upside. This development aligns with a positive short-term trend, supported by a notable increase in trading volume.

Ganesh Dongre's stocks to buy today

3] ICICI Lombard: Buy at 1396, target 1420, stop loss 1380.

In the short-term trend, ICICI Lombard share has a bullish reversal pattern, technically retrenchment could be possible till 1420. So, holding the support level of 1380 this stock can bounce toward the 1420 level in the short term. Hence, the trader can go long with a stop loss of 1380 for the target price of 1420.

4] Sona Blw Precision Forgings: Buy at 648, target 665, stop loss 635.

On the short-term chart, Sonocoms share price has shown a bullish reversal pattern, so holding the support level of 635. This stock can bounce toward the 665 level in the short term, so the trader can go long with a stop loss of 635 for the target price of 665.

Kunal Kamble's buy or sell stocks

5] Poonawalla Fincorp: Buy at 458 to 460, target 500, stop loss 440.

Poonawalla Fincorp share has formed a Flag and Pole Pattern on a Daily time frame. Today's closing has given a confirmation of a breakout from the pattern on the upside with volume increasing which indicates that the buyers are regaining control. The security has closed strongly near the high which indicates positive price action with positive sentiments. On the Momentum front, RSI has given a breakout of the falling trend line conforming to the price action.

6] Motherson Sumi Wiring: Buy at 65.50 to 66, target 71, stop loss 63.50.

On a Daily time, frame Motherson Sumi Wiring's share has given a breakout of a Rectangle Pattern on the upside, indicating a positive trend in the stock. Buyers have to look more attractive to buy the security above 65 levels. The Short (9) EMA has crossed the Fast (21) EMA indicating a positive trend with price trading above both the EMA indicates strength on the upside. The breakout in the Relative Strength Index (RSI) supports the upside move, confirming the strength of the current trend and implying the potential for further price appreciation. The volume after the breakout is high, suggesting demand for security.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decision.o Re

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After an over 32 percent jump in the Nifty PSU Bank in 2023, brokerage house Kotak Institutional Equities believes that the valuation convergence prompts a thesis review.

"The investment thesis of preferring Tier-2 PSU bank stocks has performed well in the past year or so, driven by credit cost normalization. However, valuation multiples have now converged sharply, prompting a review of our recommendations," said the brokerage.

Given the relative strength of SBI as a franchise (demonstrated over the last credit cycle), Kotak now recommends owning it over other PSU banks. It has maintained BUY on SBI and ADD on Bank of Baroda, but downgraded Canara Bank (ADD), Union Bank of India (ADD) and Punjab National Bank (REDUCE).

View Full Image Source: Kotak

The brokerage pointed out that the asset quality for PSU banks has seen a steady recovery in the past few years toward the end of the corporate NPA cycle and even held up well through the COVID-19 pandemic  contrary to the expectations of many.

"This recovery cycle began with a declining trend in slippages, which was followed by declining GNPA ratios. We have now seen credit costs also decline as net NPA ratios for most PSU banks have converged to a level of about 1.0 percent. The steady decline in credit cost has driven a steady improvement in RoE closer to mid-teen levels," noted Kotak.

With increasing comfort in the outlook for asset quality and return ratios, the Tier-2 PSU bank stocks saw a sharp rally recently and their valuation multiples have now converged closer to those of SBI, which traded at a valuation premium for a few years. As a consequence, the investment thesis of favoring these inexpensive stocks has played out very well, it added.

Stock returns

In the last 1 year, all Nifty PSU Bank constituents have given positive returns with PNB surging the most, up almost 67 percent, followed by Central Bank of India, which rose 62 percent.

Union Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Canara Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank and UCO Bank have also jumped between 30 and 51 percent in the last 1 year. Bank of Baroda and Bank of India also added over 20 percent each. Meanwhile, SBI is the worst-performing PSU bank in this period, up just a little over 3 percent.

With the recent swift convergence in valuation multiples, the brokerage has reviewed its investment thesis on the PSU banking space. While earlier, it favored holding Tier-2 PSU bank stocks, given the anticipated asset-quality recovery; making an investment case for them now is challenging unless the brokerage believes that Tier-2 banks would be able to deliver superior return ratios for a much longer period, led by a healthy differential in loan growth, superior revenue mix leading to better operating profit ratios and importantly lower credit costs.

"We do not think we have any evidence to change this thesis. SBI, in our view, has demonstrated that its franchise has been better than other PSU banks peers in terms of through-the-cycle credit cost, liability franchise, asset franchise as well as digital/technological enhancements. Hence, we prefer to now go back to recommending SBI over the other PSU banks," it explained.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before taking any investment decision.

CENTRAL BANK OF INDIA More Information

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Shares of Waaree Renewable Technologies, the Solar EPC subsidiary of Waaree Group, hit a new record high of 2,849 apiece in today's trade by gaining 6%, building on its strong momentum for the seventh consecutive trading session. In the last six trading sessions, the shares have jumped from 1,797 apiece to 2,689, resulting in a stellar gain of 50%.

This impressive rally can be attributed to a series of positive developments. In an exchange filing on January 04, the company announced that its Board of Directors will meet on Saturday, January 20, 2024, to deliberate on various matters, including the proposal for the Sub-Division/Split of the equity shares.

Also Read: FPIs continue investing spree, infuse 4,773 crore in first week of January

On December 28, the company signed an agreement with Australia's 5B Industries to produce solar products in India. According to the company, this collaboration will open avenues for the commercialisation of the innovative 5B Maverick solar product, allowing for localisation, scalable production, and competitive deployment in India to supply to both local and international developers as well as EPC companies.

On December 05, the company secured a letter of intent from a leading glass and window solution company for the engineering, procurement, and construction works of a 4.27-megawatt solar power project on a turnkey basis.

Also Read: Five midcap stocks that could turn into largecaps in 2024

Moreover, on November 07, Waaree Renewable Technologies secured a letter of award valued at 1.83 billion from an integrated, specialised seamless tube manufacturer in India. This agreement is for the execution of engineering, procurement, and construction works for a 70-megawatt direct current capacity solar power project, along with its operation and maintenance for five years.

Buoyed by these multiple order wins, the stock concluded November and December with gains of 4.30% and an impressive 38.34%, respectively. The bullish trend continues in the current month.

Also Read: Year-Ender 2023: Green energy stocks shine bright as India becomes global leader

About Waaree Renewable Technologies

The company is primarily engaged in the business of renewable energy solutions, with a specific focus on solar power. The company operates as a solar engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) company. It is also a solar developer that finances, constructs, owns, and operates solar projects.

Wealth creator

In CY23, the company's shares saw a meteoric rise of over 296%, and in CY22, it generated a return of 63.62%, and the year before that, it produced a whopping return of over 1940%.

Also Read: Multibagger Stock: Reliance Power hits 52-week high, up 900% in 3 years; should investors consider buying?

In total, the stock delivered a remarkable return of 13106% in the last three years. Looking at the last decade, it generated an impressive return of 19107%, moving up from 14 apiece to 2,689.

Disclaimer: We advise investors to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund announced the launch of the Baroda BNP Paribas Nifty 50 Index Fund, an open-ended scheme replicating/tracking the NIFTY 50 Total Return index.

The scheme opened for public subscription on January 08, 2024, and will close on January 22, 2024. The scheme re-opens for ongoing subscription and redemption within five business days from the date of allotment of units.

What kind of a mutual fund scheme is this?

This is an open-ended scheme tracking the NIFTY 50 Total Return index. This product is suitable for investors seeking

Long-term capital growth

Investments in equity and equity-related securities replicating the composition of the Nifty 50 index to achieve returns of the stated index, subject to tracking error.

What is the main objective of investing in this fund?

The investment objective of the scheme is to provide investment returns closely corresponding to the total returns of the securities as represented by the Nifty 50 Total Returns index before expenses, subject to tracking errors, fees and expenses. However, there is no assurance that the objective of the scheme will be realised, and the Scheme does not assure or guarantee any returns.

How may one invest in this scheme?

Investors can invest under the scheme with a minimum investment of 5000 per plan/option and in multiples of Re 1. There is no upper limit for investment.

Under normal circumstances, the asset allocation of the scheme will be as follows:

Instruments Indicative allocations (% of total assets) Risk Profile Minimum Maximum Equity and equity-related securities of companies constituting the Nifty 50 index 95% 100% High Money market instruments & units of liquid scheme & cash & cash equivalents 0% 5% Low to Medium

Are there similar mutual funds in the market?

To date, many other asset management companies (AMCs) have launched such funds in India. The following table illustrates the details of such funds in the market.

Name of the mutual fund house Name of the fund Axis Mutual Fund Axis Nifty 50 Index Fund Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund Motilal Oswal Nifty 50 Index Fund Bandhan Mutual Fund Bandhan Nifty 50 Index Fund Taurus Mutual Fund Taurus Nifty 50 Index Fund Franklin India Mutual Fund Franklin India NSE Nifty 50 Index Fund LIC Mutual Fund LIC MF Nifty 50 Index Fund Edelweiss Mutual Fund Edelweiss Nifty 50 Index Fund Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund Kotak Nifty 50 Index Fund Tata Mutual Fund Tata Nifty 50 Index Fund Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund Aditya Birla Sun Life Nifty 50 Index Fund Nippon India Mutual Fund Nippon India Index Fund DSP Mutual Fund DSP Nifty 50 Index Fund ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund ICICI Prudential Nifty 50 Index Fund HDFC Mutual Fund HDFC Index Fund Nifty 50 Plan UTI Mutual Fund UTI Nifty 50 Index Fund HSBC Mutual Fund HSBC Nifty 50 Index Fund Navi Mutual Fund Navi Nifty 50 Index Fund Source: Indmoney.com (As of January 08, 2024)

How will the scheme benchmark its performance?

The performance of the scheme will be benchmarked to the performance of the NIFTY 50 Total Return index. The portfolio of the scheme would endeavour to replicate/track the index.

Are there any entry or exit loads to this scheme?

This scheme involves no Entry Load", which means that investors do not have to pay anything to park their earnings in this scheme. The Exit Load" would be charged as under:

0.2%- If redeemed on or before 30 days from the date of allotment.

Nil- If redeemed after 30 days from the date of allotment.

Who will manage this scheme?

Neeraj Saxena has been chosen as the dedicated fund manager of the scheme.

Does the fund contain any inherent risk?

The scheme involves Very High Risk" as per the details mentioned in the Scheme Information Document and is best suited to investors willing to understand that their principal will be subject to very high risk. However, investors should consult their financial advisors if they doubt whether the product is suitable for them.

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The Assam Cabinet on Sunday convened a meeting to discuss and make decisions, including the declaration of a dry day on January 22 to commemorate the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. Another decision that was taken during the meeting included approval of a new scheme, Mukhyamantri Mahila Udyamita Abhiyan. The scheme aims to provide financial support to rural women entrepreneurs.

Assams Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stated Decisions we took in todays meeting of the #AssamCabinet- Dry Day on 22.01.2024 on the occasion of Pran Pratishtha of Shri Ram Lalla Virajman -Approval to Mukhyamantri Mahila Udyamita Abhiyan- a new scheme to financially support rural women entrepreneurs." Also read: Ram Mandir consecration ceremony to be live telecast at New York's Times Square

Assam Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Numal Momin on Sunday criticised AIUDF Chief and Lok Sabha MP Badruddin Ajmal for his statement that advised Muslims to stay at home between January 20 to January 26 and avoiding travel by train during Ram Temple consecration. Numal Momin said that Badruddin Ajmal should give an apology to the nation and Hindus living across the world.

Ahead of consecration ceremony, Badruddin Ajmal while addressing a gathering in Assam's Barpeta said, "We will have to be cautious. Muslims should avoid travelling from January 20 to 25. The entire world will witness the idol of Ram Lalla being placed in Ram Janmabhoomi. Lakhs of people will travel by buses, trains, aeroplanes, etc. We will have to maintain peace," reported ANI.

Over this, Numal Momin said, "I don't think that Badruddin Ajmal has given a correct statement. He should apologize to the people of our nation. He should apologize for the statement which hurt millions of Hindus living across the world," reported ANI.

Also read: Nearly 100 Congress workers from UP to visit Ayodhya on Makar Sankranti ahead of Ram temple consecration

Terming the Ram Temple consecration as a significant and historic moment for the people of India, Numal Momin said that this is a very significant and important moment for the people of our nation that the Praan Pratistha of Lord Sri Ram will take place on January 22.

Numal Momin termed the Ram Temple consecration as an important and historic moment. He said, "At this moment, the statement given by the AIUDF chief is immature and unwanted. If he has any information about a terrorist attack on the train, he must cooperate with the administration and give the evidence, so that the government can take action."

He added, If it is not, he should not give such a statement which can create a communal tension in the nation. Everyone living in our country must enjoy and respect whether it is Muslim, Christian, Jain, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist".

The Deputy Speaker of the Assam Legislative Assembly said that Diwali is celebrated to commemorate Lord Ram's return to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. Hence, the day of consecration ceremony of Ram Temple should also be celebrated.

(With inputs from ANI)

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone call with the Amir of the State of Kuwait His Highness Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The Head of State thanked the interlocutor for Kuwait's support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, voting for key Ukrainian resolutions at the UN and timely assistance in the provision of generators for the winter period, the press service of the Presidents Office reported.

Zelenskyy informed the interlocutor of countering missile terror, which Russia resumed during the New Year holidays. The parties discussed prospects for cooperation in the energy and agricultural sectors. Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine ensures freedom of navigation in the Black Sea remaining a guarantor of global food security, as well as makes every effort to restore a just peace, the message reads.

"We are actively working on the next steps to implement the Peace Formula. The voice and position of the Gulf countries are important in this regard," the Head of State noted.

The President invited the representative of Kuwait to attend the next meeting of national security advisors and political advisors to the heads of state on the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula to be held in Davos, as well as to take part in the preparation of the upcoming Global Peace Summit.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has commented on the ongoing row between India and Maldives over derogatory remarks made by three Maldivian ministers on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Lakshadweep visit. Adhir Chowdhury claimed that Maldives is now choosing China" over Indi, especially after the latest spat.

Addressing the press, Adhir Chowdhury drew concern and said, Our (India) relationship with the Maldives is getting hampered today. Till today, Maldives has always preferred India over China, but now it is choosing China, and this is a concerning topic for us".

Adhir Chowdhury's comments come at the heel of Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu arriving in China for a five-day state visit. President Muizzu is due to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and sign several agreements to bolster the bilateral ties.

The newly-elected president Muizzu, who is regarded as pro-China", is accompanied by his wife Sajidha Mohamed and a high-level delegation.

During President Muizzu's visit, the Maldives and China will hold official talks and sign key agreements to enhance trade, professional development, and socioeconomic cooperation, the Maldivian President's Office said in a press release.

Muizzu will also attend the Invest Maldives Forum in the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou, China and meet with senior Chinese business leaders to explore avenues for strengthening socioeconomic relations between the Maldives and China, it said.

Muizzu's predecessors in the recent past visited India first, considering the wide-ranging bilateral ties and the Maldives' proximity to India, followed by China which has expanded its influence in the island nation by investing in major infrastructure projects there.

Analysts believe Muizzu's foreign policy perhaps is still evolving as the Maldives domestic political situation has undergone a major change after his election in November last year.

The Maldives is India's key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and occupies a special place in its initiatives like SAGAR' (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the Neighbourhood First Policy' of the Modi government.

The Maldives' proximity to India, barely 70 nautical miles from the island of Minicoy in Lakshadweep and 300 nautical miles from the mainland's western coast, and its location at the hub of commercial sea lanes running through the Indian Ocean gives it significant strategic importance.

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BENGALURU : India's aviation regulator has increased the mandatory weekly rest period for flight crew to 48 hours from the previous 36 hours, the civil aviation ministry said on Monday, as it laid out a host of measures to address complaints of pilot fatigue.

The revised regulations come months after the watchdog decided to conduct a review of pilot fatigue data collected during spot checks and surveillance of airlines after an IndiGo pilot collapsed and died in August before his flight. Also Read | Aviation regulator wants more women officers in sector The regulator also cut the maximum flight duty period to 10 hours from 13 hours for pilots working nights and limited the number of flight landings to two, from six, during night operations. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA) revised regulations, which considered practices in the United States and the European Union, also amended the definition of night duty to cover the first six hours of the day, from five earlier. Also Read | Indian airlines have completed checks of Boeing 737 MAX planes, says DGCA "These changes - that are very much in line with international best practices - will ensure India has the necessary arsenal, as it prepares to clinch the largest domestic aviation market title in the future," civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The DGCA will also mandate all airline operators to submit quarterly fatigue reports and comply with the revised regulations by June 1, 2024.

Also Read | Aircraft induction in India increased by 51% in 2023

Although pilot fatigue is a global problem, India, the world's fastest-growing aviation market, is at the heart of the matter, with hundreds of new planes being ordered by IndiGo and Tata group-owned Air India.

IndiGo, India's biggest airline, has said the pilot who died had a 27-hour break before duty and was in good health.

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Following the controversial remarks made by three Maldivian ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home-grown travel company EaseMyTrip has decided to stop bookings for the island nation, claiming that 'nationalism' is greater than any 'personal interest'. Also Read | India-Maldives Diplomatic Row: 3 ministers suspended, EaseMyTrip stops bookings, Lakshadweep in focus | Top 10 Updates Announcing the news via a post on X (formerly Twitter), EaseMyTrip founder Prashant Pitti wrote, "Water & beaches of Lakshadweep are as good as Maldives/Seychelles. We at @EaseMyTrip will come up with crazy special-offers to promote this pristine destination that our PM @narendramodi has recently visited!" The idea was further supported by EaseMyTrip CEO Nishant Pitti who confirmed that the travel company has indeed stopped flight bookings to the Maldives. In an interaction with news agency ANI, Prashant Pitti said, ...Our company is entirely homegrown and made in India. Amid the row over Maldives MP's post on PM Modi's visit to Lakshadweep, we have decided that we will not accept any bookings for Maldives...We want Ayodhya and Lakshadweep to turn out as international destinations..."

Meanwhile, in an interaction with Moneycontrol, Prashant Pitti said, As many as 2.9 lakh people from India visit the Maldives annually, and we have decided not to serve them anymore. Nationalism is greater than any personal interest,"

What is the controversy about?

A row erupted on social media last week when a minister and some other leaders in the Maldives used derogatory remarks against PM Modi after he posted a video of him on a beach in Lakshadweep.

The post by Mariyam Shiuna  which has now been deleted  featured the pictures of PM Modi from his recent visit to Lakshadweep. The Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts, referred to the Indian prime minister as a clown and a puppet of Israel.

Notably, the Maldives government has now decided to remove the three ministers - Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha Shareef and Mahzoom Majid - from their posts. A Maldives government spokesperson was quoted as saying by local media, All government officials responsible for the comments have been suspended from their post effective immediately".

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The Maldives government suspended three of its ministers- Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha, and Hassan Zihan- for their derogatory remarks on Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following the latter's Lakshadweep visit, as per media reports.

The local media quoted Maldives government spokesperson Ibrahim Khaleel, All government officials responsible for the comments have been suspended from their post effective immediately". Earlier, one of the suspended deputy ministers of the Maldives cabinet, Hassan Zihan, had quoted a local media tweet on microblogging platform X and had called the news Fake".

What happened?

A row erupted on social media last week when a minister and some other leaders in the Maldives used derogatory remarks against PM Modi after he posted a video of him on a beach in Lakshadweep.

The post by Mariyam Shiuna  which has now been deleted  featured the pictures of PM Modi from his recent visit to Lakshadweep. The Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts, referred to the Indian prime minister as a clown and a puppet of Israel.

In a statement on Sunday, the Maldivian Foreign Ministry said they were aware of the derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals", adding that these opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the Government of Maldives."

Here is the top 10 updates

1. EaseMyTrip announces suspension of flight bookings: EaseMyTrip CEO Nishant Pitti announced the suspension of all flight bookings to the Maldives. He took to social media to state, "@EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings." The company has also joined the 'Visit Lakshadweep' campaign, aiming to promote the domestic destination. Pitti highlighted the beauty of Lakshadweep's water and beaches, likening them to Maldives and Seychelles, and assured special offers to promote the locale.

2. 8,000 hotels, 2,500 flights cancelled: Over 8,000 hotel bookings, as well as 2,500 flight tickets, have been cancelled by Indian tourists following the incident. The largest number of tourists who visited the Maldives were from India (2,09,198), followed by Russia (2,09,146) and China (1,87,118).

3. Impact to be felt in 20-25 days, say tour operators: Rajiv Mehra, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, predicted a significant decline in Maldives travel within the next 20-25 days. Mehra noted a sudden decrease in inquiries and bookings, attributing it to the tensions. He highlighted that those who've made payments might refrain from canceling but expect a notable drop in future bookings to the Maldives.

4. Social media boycott trends: The controversy saw many on social media call for a boycott of Maldives as a tourism destination. The hashtag 'BoycottMaldives' has also gained momentum to become a top social media trend in India. Reports and social media assertions indicate that many have scrapped holiday plans. Maldives economy is heavily dependent on tourism while Indians contribute a significant percentage of it every year.

5. Lakshadweep and other Indian islands in focus as alternatives: As the rift widened, #ExploreIndianIslands started trending on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) where Indians praised the exquisite beauty of Indian islands and requested the citizens to prefer them over Maldives.

6. Celebrities join online campaign: With the amazing Indian hospitality, the idea of Atithi Devo Bhava" and a vast marine life to explore. Lakshwadeep is the place to go," Bollywood actor John Abraham said in a post on X.

India is so beautiful. Was over awed by the pristine beauty and the rich history of Andaman and Nicobar Islands while shooting the Kalapani chapter of Veer Savarkars life .. a must visit," actor Randeep Hooda said.

7. Akshay Kumar condemns 'hateful, racist' remarks: Expressing dismay at the remarks made by prominent figures from the Maldives, Akshay Kumar condemned the hateful and racist comments directed towards Indians. He questioned why such unwarranted hate should be tolerated toward a country that extends substantial tourism support to its neighbours. Despite his frequent visits to the Maldives and his admiration for the destination, Akshay Kumar stressed the importance of preserving dignity. He urged people to consider exploring Indian islands and supporting domestic tourism. This statement was shared by Akshay Kumar on X, previously known as Twitter.

8. Salman Khan praises PM Modi for Lakshadweep visit: In a separate instance, superstar Salman Khan commended PM Modi for his visit to Lakshadweep and the picturesque images he shared from the island. The 'Tiger 3' actor expressed his delight at witnessing the Prime Minister amidst the splendid and pristine beaches of Lakshadweep, emphasizing the joy of these sights being located within India. Salman Khan's remarks were posted on X.

9. Maldives government distances self from 'personal remarks' by ministers: The Maldivian government distanced itself from the controversial remarks of key government ministers. The Government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the Government of Maldives...Moreover, the relevant authorities of the Government will not hesitate to take action against those who make such derogatory remarks," the government said in a statement.

10. Former Maldivian leaders criticise 'hateful' language, say India is an age-old friend: Former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih condemned the hateful" language used against India. "I condemn the use of hateful language against India by Maldivian government officials on social media. India has always been a good friend to Maldives and we must not allow such callous remarks to negatively impact the age-old friendship between our two countries..." Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said.

Former foreign minister of Maldives Abdullah Shahid called the derogatory remarks reprehensible and odious" in a post on X (formerly Twitter). I call on the Government to reprimand these officials. Public figures must maintain decorum. They must accept that they are no longer social media activists and that they are now entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the interests of the people and the country. India is a time-tested friend and an unwavering ally. They have historically been the first to respond in our time of need. Our close relationship has been bound by mutual respect, history, culture, and strong people-to-people relations."

Ahmed Mahloof, former Maldivian minister also expressed concern over the Indian Prime Minister, saying Im deeply worried about the escalating situation regarding the sensitive comments about our closest neighbor. Indians boycotting the Maldives would have a huge impact on our economy. It would be hard for us to recover from such a campaign. I call on the government to swiftly take serious action to solve the issue ASAP. We love India and Indians, and India will always remain our closest neighbor".

(With inputs from ANI, Reuters)

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NEW DELHI : Adverse comments against Indias prime minister by three ministers of Maldives appear to have set off a chain reaction of holiday cancellations to the island nation.

Arshdeep Anand, executive committee member of Outbound Tour Operators Association of India, said some travel companies have calculated that between 6 and 7 January, the industry might have seen up to 8,000 cancellations for hotel bookings in the Maldives by small groups from India.

Anand, who is also CEO of HMA Spectrum Handcrafted Holidays, a Delhi-based outbound travel agency, added that her own company has experienced this blowback. A small group of 10 couples, which was spending about 30 lakh on a short getaway to Maldives, has cancelled the trip and opted for an alternative destination. This downward trend for Maldives could spiral further," said Anand, adding that it could also boost tourism to Lakshadweep.

While there is no number available for flight cancellations, an analysis by Mint shows that the average prices of flight tickets for January between Delhi or Mumbai and Malebarring a few dayshave crashed. Compared to the usual, average return ticket fare of 24,000, flights on IndiGo are now available for as low as 18,500. Vistara is offering fares at about 31,000 for a return ticket from the same cities.

Meanwhile, a statement by the Indian Chamber of Commerce exhorted its members and other tourism trade associations to boycott Maldives, and instead promote places like Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, and even other southeast Asian countries.

The developments are symptomatic of how Indians have reacted to derogatory remarks made by Maldivian ministers against PM Narendra Modi, after his visit to the Lakshadweep islands on 2-3 January garnered significant attention on social media.

Maldives deputy minister of Youth Empowerment, Mariyam Shiuna, posted remarks calling the PM names like clown and puppet of Israel on social media platform X, followed by more unflattering posts from two other deputy ministers of the same department, Malsha Shareef and Mahzoom Majid (the tweets have since been deleted).

Following this, a BoycottMaldives hashtag began to trend in India on X.

This led to online travel agency EaseMyTrips co-founder on Sunday also supporting the nation" and suspending all flights to the Maldives. Weve suspended Maldives flight bookings in support of the government, impacting 2.4 lakh annual bookings made through our platform," Prashant Pitti, Co-Founder, EaseMyTrip said in response to queries from Mint, adding that bookings had surged by about 40% last year.

However, we have Introduced Lakshadweep as our premier destination, on par with international favourites, and wish to enter into an alliance with Lakshadweep Tourism to promote the destination," Pitti added. We have introduced enticing packages crafted to elevate travel experience and discover the allure of Lakshadweep like never before."

Luxury travel by high networth individuals (HNIs), though, is not seeing much impact, according to Radhika Khanijo, chief executive of Delhi-based luxury travel firm Welgrow Travels. She said that for now there are no cancellations, and they will have to wait about a week to see how the situation pans out.

On average, she said, HNI travellers to the Maldives spend 45 nights and go at least once or twice a year. The spends range from $2,5005,000 (about 2.07-4.14 lakh) a night.

The head of a leading travel agency based out of Mumbai, on condition of anonymity, also said that so far, no cancellations had happened on its system, and it is yet to see any growth in traffic to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands or Lakshadweep.

The Maldivian government has distanced itself from the ministers posts, and suspended all three.

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Bilkis Bano case: The Supreme Court of India on Monday quashed the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission and early release to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case. The decision was hailed by many political leaders including Rahul Gandhi who called it a victory of justice". Rahul Gandhi took to microblogging site X to hail Supreme Court's decision on Bilkis Bano rape case and said, The tendency to 'kill justice' for electoral gains is dangerous for the democratic system. Today the Supreme Court's decision once again told the country who is the 'patron of criminals'. Bilkis Bano's tireless struggle is a symbol of the victory of justice against the arrogant BJP government.". Further Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also took to X to say that justice has ultimately prevailed. "With this order, the veil over the anti-women policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been removed. After this, public confidence in the justice system will be further strengthened. Congratulations to Bilkis Bano for continuing her fight bravely," Vadra said.

The Supreme Court on Monday held as nullity the May 13, 2022 judgement of another bench of the apex court, which had directed the Gujarat government to consider the remission applications of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven of her family members, saying it was obtained by "playing fraud on court".

In its May 13, 2022 verdict, a bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi (now retired) and Vikram Nath had asked the Gujarat government to consider the plea of convict Radheshyam Shah for premature release in terms of its remission policy of July 9, 1992, holding that the government of the state where the offence had taken place has the jurisdiction to decide the application.

On Monday, the top court noted that Shah had initially approached the Gujarat High Court in 2019 for a direction to consider his application for remission.

The 11 convicts released prematurely were: Bakabhai Vohania, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Govind Nai, Jaswant Nai, Mitesh Bhatt, Pradeep Mordhiya, Radheshyam Shah, Rajubhai Soni, Ramesh Chandana and Shailesh Bhatt.

Besides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano contesting the remission, several other PILs, including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, challenged the relief. TMC leader Mahua Moitra also filed a PIL against the remission and the premature release of the convicts.

Bilkis Bano was only 21-years-old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.

All 11 convicts in the case were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022.

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The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai has anticipated rainfall across multiple districts in Tamil Nadu for the upcoming week, ANI reported. Predictions indicate heavy rainfall in isolated areas spanning 10 districts of the state on Sunday.

In the evening of January 7, traffic crawled and commuters faced significant jams as heavy rains hit Chennai district, it added.

The RMC identified specific regions where heavy rain is expected, including Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai, Ranipet, Vellore, Tiruvallur, Chennai, Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli districts, along with Puducherry.

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Rainfall Predictions

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasts ongoing light to moderate rain, with intermittent heavy spells along with thunderstorms and lightning over Tamil Nadu's coastal districts, Puducherry, and Karaikal, ANI reported.

During the daytime today, light rain with thunderstorms and lightning is expected.

IMD attributes this rainfall to prevailing strong easterly/northeasterly winds in the lower tropospheric levels, allowing moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal into Tamil Nadu.

IMD data reveals that Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu registered the highest rainfall at 167 mm between 8.30 am on January 7 and 5.30 am on January 8. Conversely, Mugalivakkam GCC received the lowest at 53.4 mm during this time frame. According to IMD data, Karaikal, Puducherry, Cuddalore, and Ennore port AWS areas recorded rainfall ranging from 100 to 90 mm.

Also Read | Flipkart implements performance-based job cuts amid restructuring plans, 5-7% workforce to be affected

The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai predicts light to moderate rain in a few areas in South Tamil Nadu, a couple of places in North Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Karaikal over the next 3-4 days. Furthermore, the RMC forecasts heavy rain in isolated places across Villupuram, Vellore, Chennai, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Ramanathpuram, and Kanyakumari over the next 3 days.

Flash Flood Affects Old Courtallam Falls

Following intense rainfall in the Western Ghats, a flash flood occurred at the Old Courtallam Falls situated at the foothills of the mountain range in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu. Consequently, authorities have prohibited tourists from bathing in nearby waterbodies, a popular attraction in the district.

This prohibition on bathing left numerous tourists disappointed during their visits to the waterfalls, particularly on Saturday, a peak weekend time for such outings.

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Excessive Rainfall

Tamil Nadu has experienced an exceptional amount of rainfall this year. Initially, Cyclone Michaung brought substantial rains, causing significant damage in Chennai and its surrounding areas. More recently, the southern districts of Tamil Nadu encountered heavy downpours.

These incessant rains have resulted in substantial losses, both to public and private properties, estimated to be in crores. In light of this, Chief Minister MK Stalin has requested 12,000 crore in central assistance and an immediate relief fund of 7,300 crore to address the flood damages.

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Schools in the region closed

District Collector Sravan Kumar Jatavath on January 8 said that a holiday has been announced for all schools in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi due to heavy rainfall.

Further, district collectors of various regions have also announced holidays for schools and colleges in Nagapattinam, Kilvelur Taluk, Viluppuram, and Cuddalore, due to continuous rain.

Schools in Ranipet, Vellore, and Tiruvannamalai, will also remain closed due to the bad weather.

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(With inputs from ANI)

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An incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 raised serious safety concerns and prompted the temporary grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft. The incident occurred shortly after take-off from Portland International Airport, with a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane still in the climbing phase, according to various media reports. An unused emergency exit door blew out, causing a significant loss of cabin pressure and resulting in a gaping hole in the fuselage.

Fortunately, the passengers escaped serious harm as the aircraft was at a relatively low altitude of around 16,300 feet, revealed a BBC report. Key factors mitigating the impact were the use of seatbelts by passengers and the rapid descent of the plane before reaching its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet.

What did experts say?

Aviation consultant Tim Atkinson highlighted the potential severity if the incident had occurred at cruising altitude, emphasizing the risk of passengers being sucked out of the aircraft.

"Passengers in the seats immediately adjacent, or in other seats around it who weren't wearing a seatbelt could have been sucked out of the aircraft", explained Atkinson, as quoted by BBC.

"I guess the worst case could be you lose a row full of people and a couple of others standing nearby as well."

The incident mirrored a similar 2018 event involving Southwest Airlines, where an engine failure caused decompression at 32,000 feet, resulting in a passenger's tragic death. The immediate concern raised by the Alaska Airlines incident was the potential for similar occurrences in other aircraft. The affected door is designed to be securely bolted to the fuselage, and since the plane involved was only two months old, wear and tear seemed an unlikely factor, the report further added.

The latest mishap could stem from the manufacturing of the door plug that came loose or bolts that were supposed to secure it, or from a quality control issue, said Scott Hamilton of the specialized aviation news outlet Leeham News.

"If it's indeed a quality assurance issue, whether it's in Spirit or at Boeing, I would say it's more than likely a narrow, quality assurance issue," he said, referring to Spirit Aerosystems, Boeing's main subcontractor, as quoted by AFP.

"I think this is more of a one-off anomaly than I would a systemic issue," he said, the report added.

"For me it is a very isolated problem," added Michel Merluzeau, an aeronautics specialist with consulting firm AIR. "I do not at all think it is a design problem," AFP further quoted him.

He said evidence for this is the fact that the FAA ordered inspections that take just four to eight hours.

"We should be back to normal in about a week," said Merluzeau, as reported by AFP.

What has been done so far?

As a precautionary measure, Alaska Airlines opted to ground its fleet of 737 Max 9s, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to follow suit and temporarily ground 171 aircraft for inspections. The cause of the incident remained uncertain, with possibilities ranging from design flaws to manufacturing defects, as per the report.

For Boeing, the incident added to the challenges faced by the 737 Max series. The aircraft involved was a variant of the 737 Max, designed for enhanced fuel efficiency but plagued by safety issues. Previous accidents off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia led to a global grounding of the 737 Max fleet for over 18 months due to flawed flight control software. Since its return to service, the program faced additional problems, including electrical faults and quality control issues.

Boeing, seeking to address safety concerns, recently called for inspections of rudders on airplanes after a missing bolt was discovered. The company faced accusations of prioritizing profit over passenger safety following the earlier accidents. Whistleblowers, including former senior Boeing manager Ed Pierson, alleged undue pressure on employees and compromised production practices, as per the report.

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Israel-Hamas war: The Gaza health ministry has informed that two more journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike while they were travelling in a car. The death toll of journalists in this war waged by Israel on Gaza was calculated at 77 till 31 December 2023.

One of the journalist who lost their life today was a video stringer for AFP news agency, Mustafa Thuria. According to the news agency Thuria had worked with AFP since 2019.

Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh, also lost his journalist son, a 28-year-old Hamza Wael Dahdouh. Dahdouh, also an Al Jazeera journalist, and Thuria had been travelling in the same car when an Israeli airstrike killed both of them.

According to Middle East Eye, Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria were killed by an Israeli missile in Khan Younis, in occupied Palestine.

A third freelancer, Hazem Rajab, was wounded.

Notably, on 25 October, Wael al-Dahdouh, had lost his wife, son, daughter, and grandson to an Israeli airstrike, while sheltering in a relative's home.

Dahdouh's seven-year-old daughter Sham was then the second-youngest of the victims. Wael al-Dahdouh also lost his 15 year old son Mahmoud.

The youngest was Waels grandson, Adam, who was one and a half, reports Al Jazeera.

It's a difficult moment in the life of a Palestinian journalist, when they go to cover an incident for the news and find out that the news is their own family." Wael had told Al Jazeera

Last month, Wael was himself wounded by an Israeli strike that killed his Al Jazeera colleague Samer Abudaqa.

A video posted on an Al Jazeera-linked YouTube channel showed Wael Al-Dahdouh crying next to his son's body and holding his hand. Later, after his son's burial, he said in televised remarks that journalists in Gaza would keep doing their job.

"All the world needs to see what is happening here," he said.

By 31 December, at least 77 journalists and media workers had been killed since the October 7 start of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to the new York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Of those 77, 70 were Palestinian, four Israeli, and three Lebanese.

A Reuters investigations has also found that among journalists who have died covering the conflict was Reuters visuals journalist Issam Abdallah. A Lebanese citizen, he was killed on 13 October by an Israeli tank crew while filming cross-border shelling in Lebanon

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Bangladesh's national elections concluded with incumbent Prime Minister and leader of Awami League, Sheikh Hasina cinching victory and her fifth term in office. A general election that would join the list of Bangladesh's tumultuous poll history, saw opposition parties boycott the voting citing non-guarantee of fair and free polls.

Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party won 223 of 299 seats for a simple parliament majority, according to unofficial results from the offices of the Election Commission. The election for one seat was postponed. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to microblogging site X and said, Spoke to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and congratulated her on her victory for a historic fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary elections. I also congratulate the people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of elections. We are committed to further strengthen our enduring and people-centric partnership with Bangladesh.".

During a press conference Sheikh Hasina expressed gratitude towards India, emphasising its pivotal role in supporting Bangladesh during critical moments in history.

In a press conference at her residence, Ganabhaban, in Dhaka, she said, "India is a great friend of Bangladesh. They supported us in 1971 and 1975. We consider India our next-door neighbour. I really appreciate that we have a wonderful relationship with India."

The Prime Minister stressed the historical significance of India's support during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and the subsequent challenges faced by the nation in 1975. She hailed the enduring friendship between the two countries and reiterated the importance of India as a key ally.

"In the next 5 years, our main focus will be on economic progress and fulfilling all the work that we have started. We have already declared our manifesto, and we follow our election manifesto whenever we prepare our budget and try to fulfil our promises. The development of the people and our country is our main aim," Sheikh Hasina added.

She further expressed her commitment to serving the people of Bangladesh, emphasising the responsibility she feels towards the citizens who have repeatedly voted for her.

"I try to work for my people. With motherly affection, I look after my people. Our people gave me this opportunity. Time and again, people have voted for me, and that is why I am here...I am just a common person but I always feel responsible for my people. I feel this is the opportunity to serve my people and ensure them a better life," she also said.

Hasina was re-elected for a fifth term in the national election that was conducted on Sunday amidst the boycott by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by former PM Khaleda Zia, who is currently in jail.

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Japan purchased for Ukraine, as part of supporting the energy sector, large-sized equipment with a total capacity of about 200 MW, in particular five gas turbine units and seven large transformers.

This was announced during a meeting in Kyiv on Sunday between Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa. The equipment was purchased and delivered by the Japanese government in cooperation with the UNDP and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

"It is very important equipment. Some are still on the way, but two autotype transformers had already been installed, and now we are talking about two more similar ones, as well as five gas turbine units and seven large transformers. We are talking about decentralization of the power system and an additional 200 MW of power," Haluschenko said at a briefing after the meeting.

According to him, the equipment provided by Japan will be dispersed throughout the country.

"This fully coincides with the goals of our national energy strategy aimed at decentralizing energy," the minister added.

In her speech, Yoko Kamikawa strongly condemned Russia's ongoing attacks targeting civilian objects and civilians and assured of Ukraine's full support.

"It is very important to support Ukrainians to protect them this winter. About 5 million of Ukraine's citizens will benefit the equipment that it receives from us," she said.

On Monday, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine noted in a release on its website that seven autotransformers were preliminarily purchased by Ukrenergo with funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the Japanese government and UNDP are providing assistance in transporting them to Ukraine.
Russia launched a "heavy wave" of missiles, putting "all of Ukraine under air raid alert for more than three hours on Monday", The Independent reported. Ukrainian authorities said at least four civilians were killed and at least 30 were injured as Russia sent dozens of missiles across Ukraine early Monday.

Here's a latest development in the Russia-Ukraine war:

1. Russia said on Monday it hit military-industrial targets in Ukraine from sea and air. "This morning, a multiple attack was carried out with high-precision, long-range, sea and air-based weapons, including the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, on facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine," the defence ministry was quoted by Reuters as saying.

2. A total of 59 projectiles were fired at Ukraine, including drones and missiles, the air force said, adding that Moscow had targeted civilian infrastructure. The Ukrainian Air Force intercepted 18 of the 51 cruise missiles and all the drones, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.

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3. The strikes came amid a cold snap sweeping Ukraine, with Vilkul also reporting that 15,000 residents were without power and that local trams and trolleybuses were not running.

4. While it launched "several waves" of missiles targetting Ukraine, Russia said Monday it had moved some 300 people from the border city of Belgorod due to Ukrainian shelling. According to AFP, this was the biggest evacuation from a major Russian city since the conflict began. Belgorod lies less than 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the Ukrainian border.

ALSO READ: Explained: Blood and billions, the cost of Russia's war in Ukraine

5. According to the Associated Press, western officials and analysts had earlier warned that Russia was stockpiling its cruise missiles in preparation for a strategy of winter bombardment, as bad weather keeps the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line largely static after 22 months of war.

Unlike last winter, when the Kremlin's forces targeted Ukraine's power grid, Russia is now aiming at Kyiv's defense industry, analysts were as saying. But the almost daily barrages have repeatedly hit civilian areas.

Russian had launched a "special military operation" against Europe's second largest country Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, millions have been killed and displaced in the region.

(With inputs from agencies)

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The US is facing an acute shortage of certified public accountants (CPAs), with large numbers set to retire soon and insufficient numbers training to replace them.

Financial Times columnist Stephen Foley wrote recently that one response from business has been to outsource more accounting work, particularly to India. Another response has been to raise salaries and hasten promotions.

However, the demand for accountants continues to rise in the tech and financial sectors, and is bound to grow in the area of carbon accounting as well. This induces people with accounting knowledge to take up lucrative jobs in these industries, further shrinking the supply of CPAs.

India could potentially gain from this development, both by absorbing more outsourced work and by sending qualified people to the US to become CPAs.

A CPA is like an Indian chartered accountant. According to the US governments Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), Public accountants work with financial documents that clients are required by law to disclose, such as tax forms and financial statements that corporations must provide to current and potential investors. Some public accountants concentrate on tax matters, advising corporations about the tax advantages of certain business decisions or preparing individual income tax returns."

Other public accountants specialise in forensic accounting, and offer advisory services on cash flow, insurance, investment, retirement, financing childrens education or buying a home.

All public accountants are not CPAs. That C, which stands for certified, makes a big difference. CPAs are certified by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, follow their code of conduct, and are required to put in a certain number of hours of continuous learning throughout their career. The AICPA demands 150 credit hours of college, in contrast to the standard 120 credit hours, as a pre-condition for certification. This typically calls for an extra year of tuition and a longer wait to enter the job market.

Therefore, according to a career profile from a university, CPAs are seen as better qualified to perform accounting functions and are allowed to perform duties that other accountants cannot, including:

Preparing audited financial statements: This is needed for reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a requirement for all public companies.

Representing clients before the Internal Revenue Service: A CPA can represent taxpayers and companies in the event of an audit. While accountants can prepare tax returns, only a CPA can defend a return if the IRS or state tax authorities have questions or concerns.

Conducting company audits: While in-house audits may be completed by an accountant, external audits or auditing of public companies is always handled by a CPA.

The demand for accountants and auditors is forecast by BLS to rise by 4% a year over 2022-32, faster than the 3% overall growth in demand for workers.

Americas Society for Human Resource Management also reports that fewer students are keen to become public accountants. To make matters worse, as Stephen Foley points out, about a quarter of active CPAs are slated to retire in the next few years, along with other members of the baby-boomer generation.

The worlds largest accounting firms have been coping with this by outsourcing more accounting work to places where there are plenty of accountants, such as India. Some also try to offer financing for education in the field in the US.

At present, the US does not consider Indias chartered accountants to be automatically eligible for accreditation as CPAs. Aspirants have to be certified first. This, however, is no big hurdle for Indian chartered accountants, who undergo a gruelling course to qualify as CAs.

The new, credit-based system of graduation in the National Education Policy should help students who wish to qualify as CPAs to accumulate the 150 credits needed to take the certification exam for CPAs. Accountants could well join the stream of high-skill workers moving from India to the US, which currently includes information technology and medical professionals.

The work that big accounting firms outsource to India will create many high-value jobs here as well. Our education system must gear up to produce greater numbers of accounting professionals to meet the growing demand both within and outside India. The government should also continue its efforts to have Indian professional standards in accounting recognised in major economies.
The annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) reports are probably the most valuable addition to Indias official statistical economic database in recent times. Regular labour-market data not only provides a timely assessment of the nations economy, but also aids in making better informed policy decisions. Since the 2022-23 PLFS report was published in September 2023 (for the year ended June 2023), several commentators have highlighted the decent growth reported in Indias total employment, a rising female labour force participation ratio (LFPR) and a higher share of self-employment, often with some conjecture on informal-sector performance. However, there are two nuances that do not appear to have received enough attention.

First, while the LFPR and worker population ratio (WPR) of males aged above 15 years have increased in 2022-23, they have fallen for all ages, and dropped sharply for the prime working age group of 30-59 years. The male LFPR for the 30-59 years group is estimated at 91%, the lowest in the past three decadesversus not just the erstwhile employment-unemployment surveys before the 2017-18 period, but compared to 95-97% in the past five years after annual labour surveys began. The female LFPR for the 30-59 years group, however, has increased to 50.2% in 2022-23, the highest since 2004-05 (it was 39.6% in 2011-12). Similar trends are visible in the WPR as wellup for females aged 30-59 years to 49.4% in 2022-23 from 33.2% in 2017-18, and down to 90.0% from 95.3% for males during the corresponding periods. Further details suggest that while the LFPR and WPR for females have improved across urban and rural areas (with higher share of the latter), these ratios for males have declined in both urban and rural India, with a substantial fall in the latter. Our calculations suggest that LFPR and WPR for males aged 30-59 years in rural areas declined to 89% each in 2022-23, from 95.8% and 95.2% in 2021-22 and 97.6% and 96.4% in 2018-19. Although the contrast of a rise in both male rates for the 15-29-years age bracket and fall in the 30-50-years group is surprising, there could be at least two plausible causes for the latter.

View Full Image (graphic:mint)

It is possible that pandemic-related migration trends are finally reversing, leading to a fall in male workers in rural areas, thus resulting in a WPR contraction. This is assuming that the denominator may not be fully capturing the fall in rural population (i.e., a reversal of the reverse migration that happened during the pandemic). There are, however, three serious problems with this reasoning. One, if misleading population estimates explain the WPR fall in 2022-23, then we should have observed a sudden rise in WPR during the period of the pandemic (2019-20 or 2020-21), as population estimates even then would not have fully captured reverse migration (from urban to rural). However, as the graph depicts, the ratios are largely unchanged in the past five years. Two, had male migration from rural to urban areas explained this fall, we should have noticed a commensurate rise in urban male LFPR and WPR or a rise in the urban male unemployment rate. The urban male LFPR and WPR in 2022-23 was lower than in all the years between 2017-18 and 2020-21, though slightly higher than in 2021-22, and the unemployment rate was the lowest in six years; and three, higher-than-pandemic demand for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) raises doubts over a substantial reversal of reverse migration. This reason, thus, is not very convincing.

The second possible cause for Indias male WPR decline could be a rise in discouraged workers, which, if true, could be a serious concern for the economy. There could be multiple causes for discouragement. One, it could be that a lack of job opportunities in rural areas (especially non-farm) led to a lower workforce. If so, it fits well with sustained strong demand for MGNREGA work in 2022-23 and 2023-24; and two, it is also possible that males found fiscal support (in the form of rural job, free/subsidized gas cylinders, free food, subsidized housing, etc) sufficient to stay at home, out of the workforce. This scenario, in my opinion, would be one of the worst situations because such lazy behaviour is unwarranted and indicates acceptance of subsistence living, which is unproductive for any economy.

The rise in female LFPR could be attributed to a lot of factors. It is possible that fiscal support freed up time for women, which allowed more to join the workforce. However, the majority (up to 85%) of the increase in female employment is in the agriculture sector and self-employment category. This indicates a relatively unproductive use of time and other resources. An analysis of the average gross earnings of self-employed women in rural areas reveals a 3.5% growth from June 2019 to June 2023. This is the slowest growth among all categories and is negative in real terms, in contrast with the average annual (nominal) growth of 5-13% for females in other categories, including casual and salaried workers in both rural and urban areas. Are women engaging in farm activities because they dont have enough time for non-farm jobs? Or is it because non-farm job opportunities are scarce in rural areas? Or do they feel that such employment may only be temporary?

I am uncertain about the possible reasons for the observed decrease in Indias male workforce and the increase in female participation. However, these simultaneous trends could be on account of males becoming discouraged or lazy, even as women of their households return to the farm sector for work since they have few other options. Or, it could be due to a reversal in the trend of male migration, resulting in more time available to women, who, for the time being, have chosen to enter the agricultural sector. The forces behind these labour-force trends are worth studying as they could have significant and contrasting implications for Indias economy.
In the mid-late 90s, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay started thinking about setting up a school to encourage entrepreneurship. An infotech incubator, KReSIT, was created and funded by eminent alumni Nandan Nilekani and Kanwal Rekhi. What was the culture of entrepreneurship in India at the time? Professor Deepak Phatak, professor emeritus at IIT Bombay, recently shared an interesting anecdote about his interaction with an entrepreneur looking for incubation at KReSIT. During the selection interview, the person mentioned that his father wanted to meet Professor Phatak, who agreed without knowing what it was about and then found the father had a worry to express: If the startup were to fail and his son was saddled with debt, how would he find a suitable bride? In a society where stable jobs were the norm, the idea of an IIT graduate from a middle-class family opting for entrepreneurship, risking debt and societal judgement, was unthinkable.

The anecdote points to a key but often under-appreciated barrier to entrepreneurship: social opinion. Usually, discussions on entry barriers revolve around topics like large established competitors and the difficulty of acquiring crucial resources. However, almost everyone has an opinion on how individuals and communities should make their living. Experts often have well-developed mental models that address questions like whether everyone should pursue entrepreneurship, who is likely to succeed and how one should go about it. Non-experts also have opinions on these matters, often held with stronger conviction than experts. Family concerns of marriage prospects, for example, can impact entrepreneurial choices.

Social opinion that paints entrepreneurship as unattractive, just too risky", not for you" or not to be done like this," creates a dilemma for aspiring startup founders: they must conform or go rogue. Should they abide by social opinion and get a safe job or dare to a take a shot at setting up a business by forging their own path? A recent paper published in the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice titled Rogue Entrepreneurship mentions that an unfavourable consensus can stop would-be entrepreneurs from starting ventures. Thus, social opinion is often the first entry barrier faced by an aspiring entrepreneur. Only after this leap is taken do other barriers come into the picture. Social opinion not only shapes individual choices, but also influences the strength of the entrepreneurial support ecosystem. This collective mindset can either foster or impede the growth of nascent entrepreneurial ventures.

Is India better on this aspect in 2024 than it was in the late 90s? The answer is an unequivocal yes. If an aspiring student entrepreneur at IIT Bombay in the late 90s time-travels to the campus today, the person will not be able to recognize it. It has a vibrant incubator, a school of entrepreneurship offering a variety of courses, innovation centres, tinkering labs and a large number of role models. There are also government and private-sector funding opportunities. All this in a country buzzing with aspirations of hosting the worlds most valuable startup ecosystem. An expert consensus at the highest levels of government, academia and industry seems to be largely pro-entrepreneurship today. Leaders are incentivizing entrepreneurial explorations and trying to make them less risky. For example, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, announced that it will allow students and faculty members who want to launch their own ventures to take a break of up to a year. If their ventures fail, students can resume their education and faculty members can return to their academic positions. Social-opinion-driven barriers for entrepreneurship have been significantly lowered in several places and the results are visible. India has created the worlds third largest startup ecosystem in a relatively short span of time.

The evolution of this ecosystem must continue. Barriers need to be lowered further and positive social opinion about entrepreneurship should pervade all geographies, socio-economic classes and organizations. Statistics reveal disparities. Only 18% of Indias unicorns are founded by women, for example, and about 42% of unicorn founders are IITians. A significant portion of venture capital funding still goes into consumer technology startups, with deep-tech startups surviving largely on other forms and sources of capital. Unique barriers persist for aspiring entrepreneurs from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, villages, less advantaged socio-economic classes and conservative communities. Negative, narrow or biased opinions held by various stakeholdersinvestors, families, communities, educational institutes and bureaucratscontribute to these challenges. Pragmatic optimism can go a long way in building confidence and resilience among budding entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs should navigate rather than ignore societal opinions. These embody a mix of traditional wisdom and ingrained biases. Going rogue does not mean throwing out the baby with the bathwater. In this entrepreneurial journey, success lies in striking a delicate balance between established wisdom and breakthrough innovation.
Tiny Qatar has managed to punch above its weight in mediating some of the worlds biggest disputes, including the war in Gaza. Yet as it raised its profile in Washington, the Gulf state has landed some of its American advocates in legal troubles of their own.

In recent years, Qatar has ramped up its lobbying operations in the U.S., a key military ally and commercial partner, to better position itself in relation to its bigger neighbors Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan alleged this month that Qatari officials gave a relative of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez tickets to the Formula One Grand Prix in Miami the past two years and invested tens of millions of dollars in a real-estate venture of a friend of Menendezs. As chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez was in a position to promote Qatars interests, and prosecutors say he did so. The Qatari officials arent accused of wrongdoing, and Menendez, who was already charged with being an illegal agent of Egypt, has denied the allegations against him.

In a separate case, a Republican lobbyist and onetime unpaid campaign adviser to former President Donald Trump admitted to illegally failing to register an advocacy group he set up on Qatars behalf to tarnish Saudi Arabia. The Gulf kingdom, along with the U.A.E., had cited Qatars alleged support for Iran and its proxies in the region, including U.S.-designated terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah, as grounds for imposing a full-scale blockade on Qatar from 2017 to early 2021. The lobbyist, Barry Bennett, agreed to settle charges with prosecutors.

Documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that in a third instance, Qatari lobbyists worked to kill U.S. legislation that would hurt its interests by secretly tainting the bill as a product of its rivals unsavory lobbying." Those efforts led to a thicket of civil litigation still under way.

Part of foreign-influence operations is to expose the foreign-influence operations of other countries," said Ben Freeman, a director at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington think tank. In the last few years, especially, everyone is using the same playbook of exposing the dirty deeds of your rivals."

Qatari officials have said their lobbying efforts were necessary to counter those of the countrys regional antagonists. Qatars embassy in Washington didnt respond to requests for comment on the new cases.

The new details have emerged as Qatar has taken on a high-profile role as mediator in some of the worlds most challenging conflicts, including Afghanistan and Gaza. It has helped to negotiate the return of Ukrainian children from Russia and of Americans detained in Venezuela.

The emirate has long walked a tightrope between the U.S. and its adversaries. It hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East as well as Hamass political leadership and, for years, that of the Taliban. It has purchased billions of dollars in arms from the U.S. and Europe, while also providing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual aid for Gaza, in coordination with Israel and the U.S.

The Gulf state has acted like many others by pouring money into a range of campaigns in Washington to further its national interests. If they have any issue, its that they have a hard time saying no," said Jim Moran, a former Democratic representative who has lobbied for Qatar since 2017.

Prosecutors say some of those lobbying activities werent properly disclosed. Bennett, the Republican lobbyist, admitted in an agreement with prosecutors filed last week that he had secretly run an advocacy group on behalf of Qatar in 2017 called Yemen Crisis Watch, designed to tarnish Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., which at the time were enmeshed in a military campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen. That war left thousands dead and fueled what the United Nations described as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

The Journal reported in 2021 that Yemen Crisis Watchs activities had come under scrutiny by prosecutors.

Bennett was charged with violating a law requiring lobbyists for foreign governments to register all of their work, but prosecutors said they would defer the charges for 18 months and drop them if he acknowledged wrongdoing, paid a fine and abided by the other terms of the deal.

Neither Bennett nor a lawyer for him responded to requests for comment.

In 2017, as the blockade took effect, Qatar embarked on a $200 million lobbying campaign to influence Trump by winning over his friends and associates with trips to Doha. One aim of that effort was to kill legislation that would impose sanctions on Hamass supporters, according to emails reviewed by the Journal. As a host for Hamass political leadership, Qatar was singled out for punishment in the bill.

This is top priority and should be the sole matter everyone is working on for the next two days," a Qatari official told a team of lobbyists in November 2017, as the bill moved through Congress.

The lobbyists planned to discredit the bills supporters in Washington, namely those aligned with Qatars rival, the U.A.E.

If we can taint that bill as being the product of unsavory lobbying, we can stop it in the House," one lobbyist, Nick Muzin, wrote to another. If they could link the bill to Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy, whose security business was developing contracts with the U.A.E., they might have some success, he wrote. Broidy had sponsored conferences in Washington examining whether Qatar was supporting terrorists. A representative for Broidy didnt respond to a request for comment.

The lobbying feud became intensely personal and lasted for years. Hackers obtained access to Broidys emails and anonymously distributed them to reporters. Broidy accused Qatars agents of orchestrating the hack, which they have denied.

The bill ultimately didnt advance.

More recently, as Qatar in 2021 was helping the U.S. evacuate its troops and local supporters from Afghanistan, its officials turned to Menendez, who prosecutors allege did favors for them.

According to the most recent indictment, the then-chair of the Senate foreign relations panel introduced his friend Fred Daibes to a member of the Qatari royal family who ran an investment company tied to the Qatari government. Daibes was looking for investors for a real-estate project and was giving gold bars, cash and other bribes to Menendez and his wife for a range of favors, prosecutors have alleged.

Two months later, Menendez shared with Daibes a draft of a press release in which Menendez said allies in Qatar were serving as moral exemplars." That nod from a powerful American lawmaker for accepting U.S.-bound Afghan refugees was a boon for the Gulf state.

You might want to send to them. I am just about to release," Menendez texted Daibes.

In January 2022, before Daibes was to meet with the Qatari investor in London, Menendez texted both men, according to the indictment. Greetings. I understand my friend is going to visit with you on the 15th of the month," he wrote. I hope that this will result in the favorable and mutually beneficial agreement that you have been both engaged in discussing."

A lawyer for Menendez said the lawmaker acted appropriately, dismissing the allegations as a string of baseless assumptions and bizarre conjectures." A lawyer for Daibes declined to comment.

Stephen Kalin contributed to this article.

Write to Aruna Viswanatha at aruna.viswanatha@wsj.com and Julie Bykowicz at julie.bykowicz@wsj.com
SINGAPOREChina has taken into custody an alleged British spy, the countrys national security agency said Monday, as Beijing steps up warnings over national security and the infiltration of foreign spies in the country.

In a social-media post, Chinas Ministry of State Security alleged that MI6, the U.K. intelligence service, in 2015 recruited a foreign national surnamed Huang and provided both training and specialized spy equipment for intelligence liaisons."

According to the MSS, the British instructed Huang to enter China as a representative of a consulting agency and send back intelligence. The Chinese agency didnt specify Huangs nationality or name the consulting firm.

The British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office didnt reply to a request for comment.

The story topped the list of hot topics on Chinas popular Weibo social media site early Monday, racking up about 140 million views over the day.

Mondays allegation is part of a recent burst of publicity around foreign espionage cases on the part of the previously tight-lipped MSS, which opened its first official social-media account on WeChat in July. In recent days, the agency has used the account to publicize allegations that foreign forces are exploiting Chinese aviation enthusiasts to collect sensitive flight data and launch a comic strip based on real-life counterespionage cases.

The first installment of the comic strip addressed foreign spies, with the MSS promising it would feature tough fights guaranteed to leave hearts pounding."

China is hardly alone in seeking to cast a spotlight on the threat of foreign spies, with governments around the world thrusting national security to the forefront of public messaging in response to geopolitical instability. Western governments, including the U.S. and the U.K., have also grown more vocal in discussing cases of alleged foreign espionage, including several with connections to China.

In August, U.S. prosecutors highlighted the arrests in California of two Navy sailors on charges they shared military intelligence with China. According to unsealed federal indictments, the men were allegedly approached by a Chinese intelligence officer, who asked them to reveal details of U.S. naval ship operating systems and provide information about coming military exercises in the Pacific.

The next month, London police confirmed reports that they had arrested a parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying for China. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he had raised very strong concerns about any interference in our parliamentary democracy, which is obviously unacceptable," with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

In December, Canada said it had barred a Chinese engineering student from entering the country to study on the grounds that he could be pressured into spying.

As tensions with the U.S. and other Western nations have risen, Beijing has turbocharged a long-running anti-espionage" campaign at home. It expanded a law to tighten state control over a swath of data and digital activities, used short videos to promote anti-spying efforts on high-speed rail routes, and mandated counterespionage training in schools and workplaces.

Compared with unsealed espionage indictments in the U.S., the Chinese accounts of foreign spying offer scant details. In Mondays WeChat post, MSS said Huang provided the British with 17 pieces of intelligence of varying sensitivity but didnt say what they were about.

A common theme is the MSS publicity blitz is the variety of ways that unsuspecting Chinese have become conduits for overseas spy operations.

Such was the focus of a WeChat post last week that warned about efforts by foreign organizations to befriend and exploit aviation enthusiasts on Chinese social media. Leveraging the hobbyists curiosity, the post said, the foreign organizations send them smartphone-sized devices that collect flight data and instruct them to place the devices near aviation hubs.

The devices, which transmit data in real time to foreign servers, have been deployed around the Bohai Sea, South China Sea and East China Sea, where they might have collected military aviation information and other sensitive intelligence, according to the post.

With the comic strip launched over the weekend, the MSS is trying to drum up more public enthusiasm for the anti-espionage effort.

In one of the first frames, Xiaoan, a MSS officer with six years of experience in the force, is seen confronting a blond-haired foreigner in a business suit and interrogating him for flouting Chinas anti-espionage law with a steely gaze. In another, Dandan, a female officer with long flowing hair who excels in wrestling, tackles and takes down a burly foreigner in a hoodie on the sidewalk.

Further down, the strip features a QR code for the MSS social-media account and a hotline for people to report suspicious activity.

Write to Liza Lin at liza.lin@wsj.com

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In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has quashed the remission order granted by the Gujarat government to 11 men convicted of gangraping Bilkis Bano during the 2002 riots, triggering reactions from the Opposition parties

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court quashed the remission order granted by the Gujarat government to 11 men convicted of gangraping Bilkis Bano during the 2002 riots, on January 8. The court ordered their return to prison within two weeks, citing the state's lack of authority and procedural flaws in the release process, triggering sharp reactions from the Opposition parties. The Congress has hailed the Supreme Court judgment quashing the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, saying it has removed the veil over the BJP's anti-women policies. Reacting to the ruling, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said justice has ultimately prevailed. "With this order, the veil over the anti-women policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been removed. After this, public confidence in the justice system will be further strengthened. Congratulations to Bilkis Bano for continuing her fight bravely," she said in a post in Hindi on 'X'. The Congress' media and publicity head Pawan Khera said the Supreme Court judgment quashing the release of the 11 rapists by the Gujarat government "exposes the BJP's callous disregard for women". "It is a slap on the face of those who facilitated the illegal release of these criminals and also those who garlanded the convicts and fed sweets to them...," Pawan Khera said. "India will not allow the administration of justice to be incumbent on the religion or the caste of the victim or the perpetrator of a crime," he added. In a post on 'X', the Congress said attacked the verdict shows the anti-women" act of the BJP government in Gujarat. "This decision of the Supreme Court in the Bilkis Bano case is historic. This decision exposes the anti-women act of the BJP government of Gujarat in releasing the rapists of Bilkis Bano. This shows how disgusting the BJP's thinking is towards women," the party said in Hindi.

At least, it does hold some hope for justice," said, CPI(M) leader after SC cancelled the Gujarat order in the Bilkis Bano case.

SUPREME COURT ON BILKIS BANO CASE

The Gujarat government's remission order was without the application of mind", a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had said, asking whether "heinous crimes against women permit remission," whatever faith she may follow or creed she may belong to.

A bench of justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan directed the convicts to surrender before jail authorities within two weeks.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.

All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022.

"We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by the Gujarat government," the bench had said.

In its more than 100-page judgment, the Supreme Court had stated that the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to pass the remission order. It clarified that the state in which an offender is tried and sentenced is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts. The convicts were tried in Maharashtra.

"We need not have gone into the other issues. But for the sake of completion, we have. Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed," the bench had said.

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Congress readies to embark on their much popular Bharat Jodo Yatra's second version- Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra . The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be launched from Imphal on 14 January, and culminate on 20 March in Mumbai. However, Congress has on Monday informed that they are yet to receive ground permission" from the Manipur government for launching the rally in Imphal.

The Congress leaders had earlier said that on 14 January several leaders of the party, including chief ministers and MPs from across the country will gather in Manipur for a peaceful rally.

The AICC in-charge of Manipur, Girish Chodankar said that the party leaders met the state chief secretary Vineet Joshi during the day and was told that the matter was with Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

The chief secretary assured that they will be informed about the granting of the permission on Monday evening itself, he said.

Further, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said that the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will be flagged off on its scheduled date, and that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the state should give the ground permission for it "tonight itself."

"Even if the permission is not granted, we would like a word on it," Chodankar said adding the party leaders met the chief secretary with no intention to politicise the issue.

Notably, Manipur has been in the grip of continued ethnic violence since May, which took place between Kuki and Meitei communities. Over 180 people have been killed in it so far. Several hundreds have been injured.

We applied to the Manipur government on January 2 itself for the ground permission for the launching of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra at Hatta Kangjeibung in Imphal East district on January 14, but it has not yet been approved so far", Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Keisham Meghachandra said.

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On January 8, the Delhi High Court served a notice to the Enforcement Directorate ( ED ) in response to a regular bail petition filed by Sanjay Singh, a senior leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, concerning a money laundering case linked to an alleged Delhi excise policy scam. Sanjay Singh had been detained by the Enforcement Directorate on October 4, 2023, in connection with this case.

Also Read | Excise Policy Case: Delhi HC issues notice to ED on AAP leader Sanjay Singh's bail plea

Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma's bench set January 29, 2023, as the next hearing date, seeking a response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED). In his plea, Sanjay Singh maintained he's not an accused or suspect in the CBI Offence investigation ongoing since August 17, 2022, with three Charge-Sheets filed and no evidence against him.

Also Read | AAP's Sanjay Singh re-nominated to Rajya Sabha, Court allows him to sign nomination form in jail

He emphasized his innocence, asserting protection of life and liberty from a false and malicious case by the Directorate of Enforcement (DoE).

On December 22, 2023, the trial court, led by Special Judge MK Nagpal, dismissed his bail, expressing a prima facie view of his involvement in money laundering.

Also Read | Who is Sanjay Singh? All you need to know about new WFI chief and Brij Bhushan's aide

The court cited evidence connecting Singh to the alleged offence, endorsing the ED's case up to the Supreme Court. Nagpal clarified that observations on the interpretation of PMLA provisions, while dismissing the bail application, remain unchallenged by higher courts.

The court noted the reliance on the Supreme Court's bail order for accused Benoy Babu. It rejected Singh's claims of no recovery or documentary evidence, stating the material gathered by the ED was sufficient, including an unsigned MoU and allegations of his role in the excise policy formulation.

The court dismissed arguments against considering the approver's statements and affirmed the agency's claim of Singh's involvement in generating proceeds of crime.y, keep checking for further updates

(With Inputs from ANI)

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Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar is all set to deliver his verdict on the disqualification petitions against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and several MLAs on January 10, Vidhan Bhavan officials said on Monday.

"The verdict is expected to be out after 4pm on January 10. The Speaker's office is finalising the verdict," Vidhan Bhavan officials were quoted by news agency PTI as saying on Monday. "The operative part of the verdict is likely to be announced on that day, while the detailed order will be given to both groups later," they added.

What we know so far about the case | In 10 points

1. In June 2022, CM Eknath Shinde and several MLAs rebelled against the then chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray. This led to a split in the Shiv Sena. With this, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was ousted from the power in Maharashtra. The MVA-led government had comprised the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Shiv Sena and the Congress.

2. Cross petitions were filed by the Shinde and Thackeray factions, seeking action against the other under anti-defection laws.

3. After the rebellion in June 2022, Shinde went on to become the Maharashtra chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In July 2023, the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP joined his government.

4. The matter went to the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court had set the deadline for delivering the verdict on December 31, 2023. But on December 15, the Supreme Court gave a 10-day extension and set January 10 as the new date for a decision.

5. Meanwhile, the Election Commission gave the 'Shiv Sena' name and 'bow and arrow' symbol to the Shinde-led faction, while the one headed by Thackeray was to be called Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) with its symbol being a flaming torch.

What's next after Speaker's verdict?

According to PTI, functionaries from both factions said they would approach the Supreme Court in case of an unfavourable verdict from the Speaker.

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone call with His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, which was the first conversation between the two heads of state in the history of bilateral relations, the presidential press service has said.

"I hope that the establishment of contacts at the highest level will turn a new page in the Ukraine-Bahrain relations," Zelenskyy said.

The parties discussed issues of bilateral cooperation, global food security and support for the Ukrainian Peace Formula.

The Ukrainian president spoke separately about the measures taken by Ukraine to maintain unimpeded grain exports via the Black Sea and thus ensure global food security.

Zelenskyy expressed gratitude for the participation of the Bahraini representative in previous meetings of national security advisors and political advisors to the heads of state on the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and invited Bahrain to take part in the next meeting to be held this month in Davos.
ABU DHABISecretary of State Antony Blinken is discussing with Arab and Turkish leaders how the Gaza Strip will be governed after the war there ends, an effort to win regional cooperation amid a bloody conflict that is rattling the Middle East, U.S. officials say.

Blinken met Monday with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and will later meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before traveling to Israel. Its his fourth visit to the region since Hamass Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which retaliated by launching a full-scale war in Gaza.

Blinkens aides say leaders in the Middle East have begun talks about what might come next in Gaza, a fraught subject they didnt want to discuss during previous visits. The U.S. officials declined to provide details of the negotiations, pointing to Blinkens prior comments about the importance of unified Palestinian-led governance for the West Bank and Gaza, and efforts to overhaul the Palestinian Authority with the goal of avoiding a lengthy Israeli military operation.

In my meetings on this trip, we also discussed what each country can do to provide the assurances and the incentives required to build a more secure, a more stable, a more peaceful future for the region," Blinken said Sunday night in Doha, Qatar. My takeaway from the discussions so far, including here with our friends in Qatar, is that our partners are willing to have these difficult conversations and to make hard decisions."

The hope is to present some ideas with regional buy-in to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials Tuesday before an expected meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank.

We always see that the priority for us is, first of all, to end this war," said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Qatars prime minister and foreign minister, in a press conference with Blinken on Sunday night. And after ending this war, to find a resolution for the situation in Gaza and the West Bank."

The renewed focus on what comes next in Gazaan issue that deeply separates Israeli officials from regional leaderscomes as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told The Wall Street Journal that some Israeli forces in Gaza would soon shift from what he called the intense maneuvering phase of the war" toward different types of special operations."

The prospect of the conflict potentially starting to wind down in the coming weeks or months has provided an incentive for regional leaders to become more involved in what comes next, U.S. officials say. They hope the prospect of renewing the path for Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israelan effort that was gaining momentum last year before the war beganwill provide some momentum to the current talks.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) visited Israel and Saudi Arabia in recent days in an effort to restart talks on normalizing relations between the two countries.

I leave here fairly optimistic," Graham said last week after meeting with senior Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, to see if there was a consensus over restarting talks with the kingdom. He told reporters that, as part of a deal, the Saudis would need to be involved in the postwar Gaza planning.

Another incentive for Israel is that Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations could help rebuild Gaza, but likely not under an Israeli occupation, U.S. officials say. But Gulf nations, which have historically pumped billions of dollars of aid into the Palestinian territories, say they are unwilling to do so again without a realistic and irreversible pathway to the peaceful resolution of the Palestinian issue.

The prospect of longer-term regional security could lure partners to difficult near-term concessions on governance in Gaza. But any potential deal faces big hurdles: With widespread anger in the region toward Israel and the U.S., it isnt clear how much scope regional leaders have to work with Blinken or Israeli leaders.

The Gaza war has deepened popular opposition to Israel in the Arab world. An opinion poll of 1,000 Saudis conducted late last year by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank found that 96% of them believe that Arab countries should break all contact with Israel in protest of its military actions in Gaza.

Another problem for the U.S. and Israel is the condition of the Palestinian Authority, which U.S. officials see as the governing entity for the future in Gaza. Israeli officials have limited the authoritys access to funds, while Abbass government, which has canceled elections regularly, has been widely criticized in Israel and abroad for alleged corruption and a lack of democratic support.

Assuming Hamas can be defeated or pushed to the side in Gaza, another thorny issue is who will oversee security there. While rejecting a lengthy Israeli occupation, U.S., Arab and Turkish leaders are reluctant to participate in a multinational security force, and Palestinian Authority forces are seen as underfunded and concentrated in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, some in Israel have proposed that local leaders in Gaza help administer the territory under an Israeli security umbrella, but Arab leaders have insisted on a single Palestinian entity.

Write to William Mauldin at william.mauldin@wsj.com and Stephen Kalin at stephen.kalin@wsj.com
The first American spacecraft to attempt to land on the Moon in more than half a century successfully launched early Monday, with private industry leading the charge.

A brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:18 am (0718 GMT) for its maiden voyage, carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander.

Mission control staff cheered and applauded as the lander separated from the rocket around 48 minutes later without problems -- a key milestone for the private company.

ULA's president and CEO Tony Bruno praised the launch on NASA's livestream.

"I am so thrilled," he said. "This has been years of hard work.

"So far this has been an absolutely beautiful mission back to the Moon."

Eric Monda, ULA's strategic planning director, described the launch as "spot on."

"It was so cool. I ran outside to watch," he said.

If all goes to plan, Peregrine will touch down on a mid-latitude region of the Moon called Sinus Viscositatis, or Bay of Stickiness, on February 23.

The suite of NASA payloads aboard Peregrine One will aim to locate water molecules on the Moon, measure radiation and gases around the lander, and evaluate the lunar exosphere (the thin layer of gases on the Moons surface). These measurements will improve our understanding of how solar radiation interacts with the lunar surface. The payloads will also provide data to NASAs Lunar-VISE (Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer) instrument suite, slated to land on the Gruithuisen Domes in 2026.

We are so excited to see this vision become a reality. CLPS is an innovative way of leveraging American companies to send important science and technology payloads to the Moon," said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Moon is a rich destination for scientific discovery. Studying and sampling the lunar environment will help NASA unravel some of the greatest mysteries of our solar system for the benefit of all."

The Peregrine lander is targeted to land Feb. 23 at Sinus Viscositatis, a lunar feature outside of the hardened lava Gruithuisen Domes on the near side of the Moon. Similar natural structures on Earth require large volumes of water to form, leading scientists to believe that this landing site may contain evidence of water on the Moon.

The five NASA payloads aboard Astrobotics Peregrine One lander include the following:

The LETS (Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer) payload is a radiation monitor derived from heritage hardware flown on Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 in 2014. LETS will collect data on the lunar radiation environment and demonstrate the capabilities of the radiation monitors themselves on the lunar surface. LETS units also were flown as BioSentinel payloads aboard Artemis I and aboard the International Space Station. LETS uses the same core technology as the Hybrid Electronic Radiation Assessor system, the primary radiation monitor on Artemis missions. Payload principal investigator: Dr. Edward Semones, NASAs Johnson Space Center.

NIRVSS (Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System) will reveal the composition and surface temperature and fine-scale structure of the lunar soil at the landing site. NIRVSS features an imager, spectrometer, and thermal sensor to study the lunar soil and detect which types of minerals and volatiles are present. Payload principal investigator: Dr. Anthony Colaprete, NASAs Ames Research Center

The NSS (Neutron Spectrometer System) is an instrument capable of indirectly detecting potential water present in the lunar soil at the landing site, as a result of the water in the exhaust deposited by the landers engines. After landing, the system will measure any changes in the characteristics of the lunar soil over the course of a lunar day. Payload principal investigator: Dr. Richard Elphic, NASA Ames

PITMS (Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer) will investigate the makeup of compounds in the thin lunar atmosphere after descent and landing, and throughout the lunar day, to understand the release and movement of volatiles such as water, gases, and other chemical compounds. PITMS is a partnership between NASA, The Open University in Milton Keynes, England, and ESA (European Space Agency). Payload principal investigator: Dr. Barbara Cohen, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

LRA (Laser Retroreflector Array) is a collection of eight retroreflectors that enable precise measurements of the distance between the orbiting or landing spacecraft and the lander. LRA is a passive optical instrument and will function as a permanent location marker on the Moon for decades to come. Payload principal investigator: Dr. Xiaoli Sun, NASA Goddard

Astrobotic is one of 14 vendors eligible to carry NASA payloads to the Moon through the CLPS initiative, which began in 2018 and is designed to establish a commercial marketplace for science, exploration, and technology development investigations on the Moons surface and in lunar orbit. Through CLPS, NASA aims to gain new insights into the lunar environment and expand the lunar economy to support future crewed missions under the Artemis program.

*With Agency Inputs

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A VILLAGE NEAR ORIKHIV, UkraineFrom a bunker on the southeastern front, its easy to hear how Ukraines supply of artillery ammunition has dwindled. For every five or six incoming Russian shells, the Ukrainians fire back once or twice.

As the war approaches its third year, Russia is on the offensive, backed by an economy on a war footing. Ukraine, meanwhile, is short on ammunition as additional aid from its main backer, the U.S., remains blocked in Congress.

With artillery shells running low, Ukrainian troops on the front lines are improvising and using explosive drones to try to hold the Russians back.

Were increasingly using FPV drones because we have a lack of shells," said Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraines minister of digital transformation. But, he added, drones cant replace artillery completely."

Ukraines growing reliance on FPV, or first-person-view, drones offers a preview of what the war might look like if the flow of Western weapons to Kyiv were severely curtailed.

With additional aid packages from the U.S. and the European Union stalled, Ukrainian forces are running short on ammunition, money and manpower. Many brigades are depleted from the summer counteroffensive, which failed to make a significant breakthrough.

Now, the Ukrainians are trying to make do until more resources arrive. As in the first weeks of the warbefore Western weapons flooded into the countrythat short-handedness has led to unorthodox tactics and MacGyvered weapons to plug holes, such as substituting FPV drones for artillery fire.

The drones cant fly as far or fast as artillery. They cant carry as much explosive, or blast through a concrete wall. But at just a few hundred dollars each, the drones cost far less than artillery shells and are much easier to producevolunteers buy drones from commercial vendors and deliver them to the soldiers, who rig them with explosives.

Both sides have made increasing use of FPV drones over the past six months as theyve shown their usefulness on Ukraines flat, open fields. Theyre far more accurate than artillery, allowing the drone pilots to chase down moving vehicles and troops on foot. While artillery usually needs several shots to hit a target, FPV drones hit almost every time.

So far, theyre just about holding back Russian advances around Robotyne village to the south of the town of Orikhiv, since some artillery units in the area were sent to other parts of the front.

Theyre putting more and more hopes on us," said a 33-year-old commander of an FPV drone squad, who goes by the call sign Tulayne, meaning Seal."

The Wall Street Journal observed Tulaynes team on a recent mission in the Robotyne area, where Russian forces have been trying to win back the territory Ukraine seized during the counteroffensive.

The four-man team brought 20 propeller drones, each about the size of a dinner plate, to a bunker a few miles from the front line.

The engineer attached different kinds of munitions to a few of the dronesone for hitting infantry, another designed to penetrate armored vehicles. Then he ran outside to set up an antenna, with wires running into the bunker to connect to the pilot.

A surveillance team spotted at least a dozen Russians in a network of foxholes not far away. Tulayne, who was acting as pilot, slipped on goggles that let him see what the drones camera sees and grabbed a controller. Then the drone whirred into the air.

Tulayne maneuvered toward the entrance to a foxhole, then slammed the drone into it. He and his colleagues watched a live feed from a surveillance drone as smoke rose from the foxhole, waiting for Russians to run out. Theyll come out," Tulayne said of the Russians.

The deputy commander told an engineer to get another drone, armed with a different kind of munition, ready to take off and hit them again: Hes bandaging him," he surmised. We need to fly there fast."

Although the Ukrainians are relying on FPV drones out of necessity, soldiers operating around Robotyne said the devices are transforming the front line. Because large armored vehicles are valuable, easy-to-spot targets, both sides limited their use on the front line and instead began to rely on vans, or even motorbikes.

But using the FPV drones, the Ukrainians are now hitting even small vehicles, and chasing down soldiers on foot.

The result is that the gray zonebetween enemy trenches that neither side controlshas grown wider, according to soldiers in the area, making it tougher to advance.

When we arrived a few months ago, the enemy was still bringing in people and ammunition with Jeeps," said the 31-year-old commander of another FPV platoon working near Robotyne. Weve slowly destroyed all their logistics. Now, they have to bring boxes and evacuate the wounded on foot."

Over the course of their 12-hour shift, Tulayne and his team launched 12 drones. One was jammed by Russian electronic warfare systems. Two failed to detonate. The rest slammed into the same network of Russian foxholes. The team believed they killed two and injured several more.

Still, the FPV teams said they were operating short-handed in several ways, making their job tougher.

Tulaynes platoon should be twice as large as it is, but he hasnt been able to recruit new men, leaving the team overworked.

And even though the drones are cheap, theres a limit to how many can be used. The team must request special approval to hit the same foxhole over and over. During their recent shift, they requested permission and never got an answer.

Most of all, Tulayne said, the lack of artillery support is a handicap.

Though the drones are effective against infantry and vehicles, they cant carry enough explosive to destroy fortifications, which artillery can blast through. In addition, they fly far slower than artilleryabout half a mile a minute. Sometimes, by the time they reach their destination, the target is gone.

A few months ago, the drones were supplementing artillery, swooping in after shells had crashed through fortifications and picking off softer targets.

Id just fly toward the clouds where artillery had hit," Tulayne said. Its been a few weeks since that happened."

In addition to seeking foreign arms, Ukraine is working to beef up its production of FPV drones, including making some that are capable of carrying larger munitions.

We will make a million drones next year," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the end of December. I agree we have challenges. With amounts of aid, with artillery shells."

Meanwhile, however, Moscow is trying to make the most of its resource advantage, and is building its own FPV drone army.

In the last few weeks, their use of FPV drones has increased three or four times," Tulayne said, though he added that Ukraine was still using more. Their artillery is working well. They have an advantage in air reconnaissance."

Though Tulayne said the Russians hadnt gained any territory in the area where his platoon was working, Moscow has slowly been clawing back territory around Robotyne, according to open-source analysts.

Nikita Nikolaienko contributed to this article.

Write to Ian Lovett at ian.lovett@wsj.com
Google and Apple have removed two eSIM offering apps, Airalo and Holafly, from the Indian version of their Play Store and App Store respectively, following an order from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) last week. Notably, the DoT has also asked ISPs to block access to the websites of these apps in India.

Also Read | Beware of fake delivery scam! What to do if victim of cybercrime

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, companies need to obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the DoT to begin selling eSIMs in India. Singapore-based Airalo and Spain-based Holafly have been removed as the two companies did not possess the necessary authorisation.

In addition, the DoT rules stipulate that eSIMs can only be sold through authorised dealers, who must ask customers for proof of identity such as a passport copy or visa before providing the SIM card. Authorised sellers must also provide details of these global SIMs to security agencies.

What are e-SIMs?

As per Apple, eSIM is an industry-standard digital SIM that allows you to activate a mobile plan from your network provider without having to use a physical counterpart. iPhone users can install over 8 eSIMs and use up to two phone numbers at once.

Also Read | Fraud alert: Govt warns of work abroad scams, shares tips to identify fake job offers

Why were the two apps banned in India?

Government sources quoted by the Hindustan Times noted that fraudsters have been using eSIMs with international phone numbers to commit cybercrime in India.

An Economic Times report stated that while Airalo and Holafly have been shut down, other similar eSIM providers like Nomad eSIM and aloSIM are still available in India.

According to the latest NCRB report, cybercrime cases in India increased by 24.4 per cent in 2022, with 65,893 cases registered compared to 52,974 cases registered in the previous year.

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The European Union condemns any foreign weapons supplies for Russia to continue waging its war of aggression against Ukraine. Those involved in supplying Russia with weapons will be held accountable, Lead Spokesperson of the European Commission for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano has said at a press briefing in Brussels on Monday, while commenting on the possible use North Korean missiles by Russia against Ukraine.

"The European Union made it very clear repeatedly to international partners that whoever is assisting Russia in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, that means in the violation and breach of the UN Charter and international law, will bear the consequences. So, we of course condemn any foreign weapon supplies for Russia, weapons which are them used to kill Ukrainian civilians or attack the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure," he said.

Stano also noted that "over the last few days, and actually over the Christmas period, we have seen large-scale repeating missile and drone attacks launched by Russia against Ukraine, focused on civilian targets."

"This constitutes a war crime. Those responsible will be held accountable. And this also underlines the need to continue supporting Ukraine so that it is able to defend itself against this brutal aggression," the spokesperson said.

He also noted that the EU has shown in the past, for example in case of the supplies of Iranian-made drones to Russia, that "we are taking action if we see enough evidence."

"The potential weapon supplies from the North Korea to Russia might constitute also the breach of the UN Security Council resolutions and the UN sanctions. So, of course this is something that we are taking very seriously. We are discussing this also with our international partners, among ourselves in the European Union as well. And this is something we are strongly condemning and we are urging everyone not to continue or not to support Russia's continued aggression against Ukraine," Stano said.
President Biden returns to South Carolina, hoping the state can save him again
Senior Chief Musician Casey Campbell sings with the U.S. Navy Concert Band at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, VA.
Former President Donald, seen here on January 6, is seeking to have the sweeping criminal conspiracy case against him in Georgia thrown out.
Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue has suggested restaurants should offer seconds for free in order to cut food waste.

He said it is purely common sense for businesses to offer seconds rather than put large portions on customers plates.

The Donegal TD was expanding on comments he made during an interview with the Irish Examiner, when he said food services should reduce the portions on customers plates to cut down on the amount of food wasted.

Speaking on Monday, Mr McConalogue said he did not see anything controversial in what he said.

He said 30% of food in Ireland goes to waste and businesses and households have to work to see what we can do to eliminate that.

The simple point I made, which is purely common sense in my view, is that rather than put too much on the plate, it will make sense to go and do seconds, he told RTEs Drivetime programme.

He added: I never suggested that there should be a charge for seconds.

In my experience, its mixed in relation to food service. In terms of restaurants, sometimes you may be asking for more and there mightnt be enough on the plate, but certainly, in many cases, there can be more on a plate as well.

He said the significant food waste by food services and Irish households needs to be addressed.

I very much welcome the debate weve seen the last two or three days in relation to food waste, because its by discussing this we can bring attention to the fact that 30% of the foods that our farmers, our fishers and our food companies produce is put in the bin.

He said a lot of food waste is produced by Irish households, with each household on average losing about 700 euros a year due to food waste.

Statistics by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicate that Irish households threw away an estimated 221,000 tonnes of food in 2021.

The EPA estimated that this was worth 29% of Irelands total (753,000 tonnes), with the food and beverage manufacturing and processing sector accounting for 29%, and restaurants and food services accounting for 25%.

Food waste accounted for 16% of all household waste in 2021, costing the average Irish household about 60 euro per month or 700 euro a year, according to the EPA.

A report published in 2019 found that more than 66% of food waste from the food services sector is avoidable, meaning the food is edible.

It found that hotels have the highest level of food waste and that 11% of wasted food is vegetables. The annual cost of food waste to this sector is estimated to be more than 300 million euro.

Asked if he wants to be Irelands EU Commissioner nominee, Mr McConalogue said: Well, listen, I have more than enough on my plate, as you can see.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: January 08 2024

It is an honor and a privilege to represent the residents of the15th Legislative District and I am incredibly humbled to once again be selected by my peers to lead our caucus, said Legislator Richberg.

Legislator Richberg is joined by his wife, mother, sister and two sons as he is sworn in for his third term as Legislator of Suffolks 15th district.

Suffolk County Legislator Jason A. Richberg was sworn in to serve his third term as legislator of Suffolks 15th district at the legislatures recent organizational meeting. Richberg was once again selected by his colleagues in the Democratic Caucus to serve as the legislatures Minority Leader.

It is an honor and a privilege to represent the residents of the15th Legislative District and I am incredibly humbled to once again be selected by my peers to lead our caucus, said Legislator Richberg. Id like to thank my fellow legislators for entrusting me with this incredibly important role. I will continue to do everything I can to live up to the title and find common ground across the aisle to keep the county moving in the right direction. Over my first two terms in office, weve worked to bring in hundreds of millions in federal and state dollars to fight for environmental quality and support our residents, and we now have more than a billion dollars in reserves. I look forward to continuing on our path towards a safe and thriving Suffolk County for all.

Legislator Richberg was first elected to represent the 15th Legislative District in a special election held on March 10, 2020. The 15th Legislative District encompasses Amityville Village, North Amityville, Wyandanch, Wheatley Heights, Melville, East Farmingdale and portions of Copiague, North Lindenhurst, North Babylon, and West Babylon.
More than 33,000 Ukrainian soldiers trained under Interflex program since 2022  British Ministry of Defense

As part of Operation Interflex, more than 33,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained since June 2022, and training will continue in 2024, the British Ministry of Defense reports.

33,000 Ukrainian soldiers have now been trained via the UK-led Operation Interflex. The UK and its partner nations have been delivering this basic infantry training since 2022, the Defense Ministry said on X Monday.

As the message says, Operation Interflex continues in 2024, as does the UK's support for Ukraine.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: January 08 2024

Over $400 Million in Public and Private Funding Committed to Create "Empire AI."

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the creation of a consortium to secure New York's place at the forefront of the artificial intelligence transformation. The consortium, named Empire AI, will create and launch a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence computing center in Upstate New York to be used by New Yorks leading institutions to promote responsible research and development, create jobs, and unlock AI opportunities focused on public good. Governor Hochul also released a new policy to ensure agencies within state government understand how to responsibly harness the opportunity of AI technology to better serve New Yorkers. Since the days of the Erie Canal, New York has always led the nation on technology and innovation, Governor Hochul said. The Empire AI consortium will be transformative: Bringing jobs and opportunity to New York and making us a global leader in this groundbreaking sector. Together with our partners in academia and the private sector, well harness the power of artificial intelligence and ensure this technology is being used for the public interest. Access to the computing resources that power AI systems is prohibitively expensive and difficult to obtain. These resources are increasingly concentrated in the hands of large technology companies, who maintain outsized control of the AI development ecosystem. As a result, researchers, public interest organizations, and small companies are being left behind, which has enormous implications for AI safety and society at large. Empire AI will bridge this gap and accelerate the development of AI centered in public interest for New York State. Enabling this pioneering AI research and development will also help educational institutions incubate the AI-focused technology startups of the future, driving job growth. Empire AI will be a consortium that includes seven founding institutionsColumbia, Cornell University, New York University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the State University of New York (SUNY), the City University of New York (CUNY), and the Simons Foundation. By increasing collaboration between New York States world-class research institutions, Empire AI will allow for efficiencies of scale not able to be achieved by any single university, empower and attract top notch faculty and expand educational opportunity, and give rise to a wave of responsible innovation that will significantly strengthen our states economy and our national security. The University of Buffalo is under consideration as a potential site. Bringing together AI researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and others, the initiative will be funded by over $400 million in public and private investment. This includes up to $275 million from the State in grant and other funding, and more than $125 million from the founding institutions and other private partners including the Simons Foundation and Tom Secunda. The Simon Foundations Flatiron Institute is a community of scientists working to advance research through computational methods, including data analysis, theory, modeling and simulation. Tom Secunda is co-founder of Bloomberg LP and the Secunda Family Foundation, which provides millions of dollars a year in grants to conservation, healthcare, scientific advancement and other causes. The Governor has also directed the Office of Information Technology Services to issue a first-of-its-kind AI Policy, which can be found here. The Policy establishes the principles and parameters by which state agencies can evaluate and adopt AI systems to better serve New Yorkers, including for example, helping to match people with jobs, more efficiently delivering benefits, exploring accessibility tools, and identifying and mitigating cyber threats. The Policy will also ensure agencies remain vigilant about evaluating any risks of using AI systems and protecting against unwanted outcomes. Todays announcements build on Governor Hochuls commitment to making New York a leader in cutting-edge technology development, bringing companies like Micron and TTM Technologies to the state and investing in advanced semiconductor research and manufacturing in Albany. Governor Hochul has also advanced projects to get technology into New Yorks schools. In December, the Governor broke ground on the Syracuse Science, Technology, Arts and Math High School  Central New Yorks first regional technical high school. In July, Governor Hochul announced New York State Pathways in Technology had been awarded $31.5 million dollars in funding to prepare New York students for high-skill jobs in technology. New York State Office of Information Technology Services Chief Information Officer and Director Dru Rai said, The establishment of the first-ever statewide policy governing AI will serve as a roadmap to leverage this rapidly emerging technology to find maximum benefit while mitigating risk, and complement the extraordinary work our employees are already doing to benefit the people of New York. Under the leadership of Governor Hochul, we are proud to play an important role in the states next phase of AI, and these guidelines will ensure we do so fairly, responsibly and transparently.

SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr. said, Governor Hochuls EmpireAI initiative will put crucial resources in the hands of SUNYs extraordinary researchers and educators. These cutting-edge scientific tools will be utilized to both spur innovation, and establish best practices for the ethical use of AIs transformative power. SUNY is proud to lead the charge in this emerging field, and to be part of Governor Hochul's nation-leading consortium.

CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez said, New Yorks higher education institutions, including CUNY, have long been leaders in research and scholarship and this new initiative and computational facility will allow us to collectively advance and utilize AI technology and create a national model for this work. Im grateful to Governor Hochul for her leadership and to partners like the Simons Foundation whose investment in Empire AI will allow CUNY to participate in this effort and continue elevating the transformative power of research for the public good.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said, The vision for Empire AI is to provide the academic research community in New York with a state-of-the-art computational facility that supports cutting-edge research. We are grateful to Governor Hochul for her bold vision to ensure that academic institutions in New York State can remain competitive and forward-looking as this fast-moving technology continues to transform our lives. Columbia is thrilled to be part of this initiative.

Cornell University President Martha E. Pollack said, I am excited to see the development of this shared computing facility, which will fast-track cutting-edge research and responsible AI tools to the benefit of all New Yorkers. As artificial intelligence promises to transform our economy, accelerate medical breakthroughs, and offer unprecedented tools for research, it is imperative that academic research institutions like Cornell partner to optimize AI technology in service of the public good. I especially want to thank Governor Hochul for a groundbreaking approach that will unlock pioneering AI research by and with Cornell faculty, and put New York at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation.

New York University President Linda G. Mills said, Scientific discovery and innovation across various fields is the product of hard work and collaboration, and is increasingly fueled by access to ever greater computing power. NYU is excited to join our fellow academic partners across the city and state to ensure Empire AI helps New York remain one of the worlds leading tech capitals and at the forefront of AI technology. We also thank Governor Kathy Hochul for her leadership and commitment to this kind of long-term investment, which enables great universities to conduct important research and, in turn, to contribute to New Yorks prosperity, create new jobs and new economic sectors, and secure New York States tech leadership position well into the future.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Martin A. Schmidt said, Since our founding 200 years ago, our mission at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has been to advance technological discovery for the benefit of all. Now, in the century to come and as an inaugural member of Empire AI, we will continue that mission by further exploring how artificial intelligence can improve everyones lives. We applaud Governor Hochuls vision to bring together the states foremost research institutions to realize tangible applications of AI that are pioneering, powerful and safe.

Simons Foundation President David Spergel said, The Simons Foundation is excited to be a partner in building this new AI facility that will enable researchers at CUNY, the Simons Foundations Flatiron Institute and other NY State partners to have access to cutting edge facilities.

Bloomberg LP Co-Founder and Vice Chairman Tom Secunda said, Empire AI is an incredible step forward to ensure our state and nation can harness, understand, and thoughtfully put to work the latest in artificial intelligence and computation to explore new frontiers and serve all New Yorkers. I am grateful for the Governor's leadership and the State's partnership to bring this to reality. It will dutifully serve a generation of researchers and bring hope and opportunity to all.

Tech:NYC President & CEO Julie Samuels said, Empire AI is exciting because it firmly places our state at the epicenter of AI development. By bringing together some of the countrys leading research institutions, along with private sector partners, were ensuring that access to world-class computing power is shared across global companies, non-profit institutions, and academic experts in New York. AI technologies are poised to transform the ways we live and work, and these partnerships are key to generating the flywheel effect of groundbreaking innovation and entrepreneurship across the state. With Empire AI, were pioneering safe, equitable, and accessible AI innovations that will benefit every corner of New Yorks economy.
A tank of the IDFs 7th armored brigade operating in Khan Yunis. (Screenshot of IDF video)

The Israel Defense Forces are transitioning to a new phase of operations in Gaza that has seen decreased numbers of airstrikes and the defeat of most Hamas units in northern Gaza. As that happens, the IDF is also expanding some operations in and around Khan Yunis, a city in southern Gaza that has been a focus of fighting since early December.

Hamas terrorist cells in northern and central Gaza are mostly eviscerated, and the IDF continues to pursue Hamas in southern Gaza  part of a larger mission that Israel says will see fighting continue throughout the year. On Sunday, Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant discussed the threats Israel continues to see on seven fronts. This is terminology he has used in the past to describe all the Iranian-backed threats the occur in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and beyond. Gallant continues to say the goals of the war include the destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities, the elimination of Hamas leadership, and the detection and release of hostages held in Gaza, according to a statement from his office. Gallant made the statement while meeting US Senators. He also recently met with US Senator Lindsey Graham and former US Vice President Mike Pence.

Gallant also continues to focus on the hostages held in Gaza. There are 136 hostages held in Gaza, according to Israels current assessment. Gallant met representatives of the families of IDF soldiers held in Gaza. The precise number of IDF soldiers held hostage has not been released but is included in the overall number of 136 hostages still held. The IDF Chief of Staff also said that fighting in Gaza will continue throughout 2024.

In Gaza, members of the IDFs 7th armored brigade expanded operations in Khan Yunis. The 7th Brigade has been working in recent days to expand its operations in southern Khan Yunis. The soldiers of the brigade have killed many terrorists in close-quarters combat, with tank fire and through coordination with aerial forces, the IDF said. The armored brigade has been fighting in Khan Yunis alongside the commandos and paratroopers of the 98th division. According to the IDF on January 8, the 7th armored helped to locate terrorist infrastructure and weapons hidden in civilian residences. Furthermore, during offensive operations, several RPG missiles were shot at the forces. The forces engaged in close-quarters combat and eliminated the terrorist cell that carried out the shooting with both tank fire and airstrikes, the IDF said.

The 7th armored operates the Merkava 4 tank. This is Israels most recent tank model. An updated fifth generation version of it was unveiled in 2023 and is supposed to be deployed with the 401st armored brigade. The IDF tank units are equipped with Trophy active protection systems for their vehicles, which is supposed to protect them from RPGs and anti-tank missiles. In conversations with an IDF officer involved in repairing tanks that are serving in Gaza, he said the system has been functioning effectively. In addition, tank crews have improvised protection for their vehicles by adding a kind of fence or cage on top, which the units call a pergola to defend against drones. At a site near the border with Gaza, I was able to speak to the crews and the officers involved in repairing the tanks. The tanks have been fighting in Gaza since the ground maneuver began on October 27 and some since October 7, meaning they have now seen 90 days of combat. The tanks that require repairs or are damaged are mostly being turned around and sent back into combat within a day, depending on the type of repair, according to the officer I spoke with.

In Gaza, the tanks are bolstering the operations of the 98th division. The IDF said overnight between January 7 and 8 that they carried out 30 strikes against significant targets. IDF statements on January 8 said that airstrikes and operations by combat helicopters targeted a number of terrorists in the city that were identified by ground forces. This kind of close cooperation and precision strike operations are part of the current phase of war, which includes less large airstrikes than in past phases.

Reporting from Israel, Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at FDD and a contributor to FDDs Long War Journal. He is the acting news editor and senior Middle East correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post.
Inspectors order grounding of 737-9 Max aircraft after incident during take-off of flight in US

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane sits at a gate at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on January 6 in Seattle, Washington. Alaska Airlines grounded its 737 MAX 9 planes after part of a fuselage blew off during a flight from Portland Oregon to Ontario, California.

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane sits at a gate at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on January 6 in Seattle, Washington. Alaska Airlines grounded its 737 MAX 9 planes after part of a fuselage blew off during a flight from Portland Oregon to Ontario, California.  Photo credit: Getty Images via AFP

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane sits at a gate at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on January 6 in Seattle, Washington. Alaska Airlines grounded its 737 MAX 9 planes after part of a fuselage blew off during a flight from Portland Oregon to Ontario, California.  Photo credit: Getty Images via AFP

The accident on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Jan. 5 has thrust Boeing Co.s 737 Max plane - by far its most popular aircraft and its biggest source of revenue - into the spotlight again.

The manufacturers entire fleet of Max aircraft was temporarily taken out of service in 2019 following two deadly crashes. Now, the US Federal Aviation Administration has ordered a temporary grounding of some 737-9 Max aircraft after Fridays mishap involving that model, prompting regulators and airlines around the world to take precaution and discuss next steps.

Here are the measures that regulators, governments and airlines are adopting:

Regulators and Government Agencies

North America

- The US Federal Aviation Administration ordered the temporary grounding and inspections of some 737-9 Max aircraft. The move affects about 171 planes worldwide, according to a statement by the FAA.

- The US National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the matter. Its chair Jennifer Homendy said the probe will include a look at the FAAs oversight of Boeing and the manufacturers process for planemaking on the affected aircraft type.

Europe

- The European Union Aviation Safety Agency, or EASA, told Bloomberg it had adopted the FAAs emergency directive. It noted no European airline in an EASA member state operated an aircraft in the affected Boeing configuration.

- The UK Civil Aviation Authority said it has written to non-UK and foreign permit carriers to inquire about inspections being undertaken prior to flying into or over UK airspace. There are no UK-registered 737-9 Max jets.

Asia

- The Civil Aviation Administration of China on Saturday evening held an emergency meeting on the Alaska Air incident, as it weighed its response to the fuselage blowout, Bloomberg reported. No Chinese carrier operates a 737-9 Max jet.

- Indias Directorate General of Civil Aviation is asking its countrys carriers to make a one-time inspection 737-8 Max jets made by Boeing. Like China, no Indian carrier operates a 737-9 Max jet.

Actions by Airlines

- Alaska Air Group Inc., the airline at the center of the turmoil, initially grounded all 65 of its 737-9 Max jets hours after the accident. It later allowed 18 of the planes to resume flying after receiving detailed maintenance inspections pre-dating the event. However, it subsequently pulled all jets from service again.

- United Airlines Holding Inc., the biggest operator of the affected Max type, says all 79 of its jets are temporarily grounded. The next step is for the airline to determine with the FAA the inspection process and requirements to return the planes to service. It earlier said 33 of the jets had met necessary inspections before grounding all planes.

- Panamas Copa Airlines SA said it grounded 21 of its impacted jets. The carrier has a total of 29 in its fleet, but operates them in two different configurations.

- Aeromexico has followed United and Alaska Air in pulling all 19 of its 737-9 Max jets from service for inspections.

- Icelandair said its small fleet of 737-9 Max jets are not affected by FAA inspections. The carrier has been in contact with Boeing and the FAA.

- Turkish Airlines said its countrys civil aviation authority asked it to examine its small fleet of five 737-9 Max planes. Until the technical review is complete, the carrier has withdrawn the jets from service.

- FlyDubai said its three 737-9 Max jets are unaffected by the FAA directive, the company told Bloomberg.

2024 Bloomberg L.P.
Manchester, VT (05254)

Today

Generally cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Temps nearly steady in the mid to upper 30s. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Variable clouds with snow showers. Low 27F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
Elementum Energy, a UK-based international investor in Ukraine's renewable energy sector, reported damage to a wind turbine located at its wind farm in the south in a recent drone attack.

"Fortunately, there were no injuries among the personnel. The National Police opened a criminal investigation into this fact. After the attack, a partial shutdown of the wind farm was initiated," says the company's press release provided to Energoreform by the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association (UWEA), of which the company is a member.

It is noted that a special team of Elementum Energy is now working on supplying electricity to consumers.

"The wind farm, which operated during the full-scale invasion, was a vital source of energy for the people of Ukraine. Our team will work together with the responsible authorities to keep our wind turbines operating," Olha Rybachuk, managing director of Elementum Energy, is quoted in the release.

It notes, among other things, that Elementum Energy Limited, a London-based company founded in 2019, has consolidated a strong portfolio in Ukraine, including solar and wind power plants with a total installed capacity of 636 MW.

Today, a video of a fallen wind turbine in Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky district of Odesa region was distributed on Telegram channels. The channels noted that the windmill was destroyed by strong gusts of wind.
Projects with New England ties won multiple awards Sunday night at the 81st Golden Globes, with acting wins for Massachusetts native Ayo Edebiri for The Bear, and for Paul Giamatti and DaVine Joy Randolph for their individual roles in The Holdovers  a movie set and filmed in the Bay State.

Edebiri  who plays Sydney in Hulus The Bear about a restaurant and its crew trying to make a rebound in Chicago  was nominated for her first Golden Globe and won for Best Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy.

The actress, who grew up in Bostons Dorchester neighborhood, gave thanks to her family and The Bear co-stars in her acceptance speech.

Edebiri also gave a nod on stage to the assistants of her agents and managers saying To the people who answer my emails, yall are real ones. Thank you for answering my crazy, crazy emails.

Following her win, Boston Public Schools gave a social media shoutout to Edebiri, an alumna of the Boston Latin School, stating its pride in her and her Golden Globes achievement.

The Bear also won for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy for its second season, along with Jeremy Allen White for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy for his leading role as Carmen Carmy Berzatto in the series.

Read more: Jennifer Lawrence mouths audacious message into camera at the Golden Globes

This image released by CBS shows Paul Giamatti as he accepts the award for best actor in a motion picture - musical or comedy for his role in "The Holdovers" during the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. (Sonja Flemming/CBS via AP)AP

Giamatti won for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy for his role as curmudgeonly teacher Paul Hunham in The Holdovers.

The film is about a group of teen boys left behind at their prestigious New England boarding school over winter break in the early 70s, with Giamattis character tasked to look over them through the holiday season.

In his acceptance speech, Giamatti gave thanks to director Alexander Payne and his co-stars Randolph and newcomer Dominic Sessa, who played the character of Angus Tully opposite of Giamatti, and was a student at Deerfield Academy in Deerfield at the time of filming.

The movie filmed across Massachusetts in late 2021 and early 2022 according to the Massachusetts Film Office with locations in Berlin, Boston, Buckland, Cambridge, Clinton, Deerfield, Fairhaven, Gill, Gloucester, Groton, Medfield, Milton, New Bedford, Saugus, Shelburne Falls, Somerville, Southborough, Wakefield, Waltham and Worcester.

Giamatti also gave a shoutout to the entire cast and crew in Boston, Beantown, fantastic people, one and all in accepting his award.

Read more: Small movie theaters in Pioneer Valley still feeling pandemic pinch

Randolph  who played Mary Lamb, the schools head cook who is also grieving the loss of her son in the Vietnam War  won for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture.

To the character Mary. Oh Mary, you have changed my life. You have made me feel seen in so many ways that I have never imagined, Randolph said in her acceptance speech, similarly thanking Payne, Giamatti and Sessa for their roles in her award win.
Last months announcement by Chicago-based McDonalds Corp. that it was debuting the first unit of a new beverage-and-snack concept proved to a headline-grabbing story across the restaurant world.

In addition to its own impressive track record, McDonalds Corp played a major role in the success of the Chipotle Mexican Grill, in which McDonalds was an early investor, so its not surprising that the news the company was creating a secondary brand generated plenty of excitement.

McDonalds new concept, CosMcs, is what restaurant wonks would label a beverage-centric operation. Named for a McDonalds marketing campaign character of the 1980s, CosMcs is a quick service, drive-thru brand consciously designed to exploit two separate food service trends - snacking over full meal consumption and the rapid growth of the coffee and specialty beverage category.

Though the menu at CosMcs includes several McDonalds favorites such as the Egg McMuffin and the McFlurry, much of the rest of the line-up is unique and somewhat edgy. CosMcs handheld options will include Creamy Avocado Tomatillo and Spicy Queso sandwiches, while the drinks menu will offer a large array of teas, cold-brewed coffees, lemonades and energy drinks. The drinks will be customizable with various flavorings, mix-ins and energy shots.

Technology will also play a big role at CosMcs, with multiple drive-thru and pickup lanes, interactive digital menus and, of course, a smartphone app.

The initial test of CosMcs is limited to a single location now operating outside Chicago with nine more in Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio, TX slated to open in the coming months.

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Side Dishes

Champneys Restaurant at the Deerfield Inn will be holding a Robert Burns Night celebration on Saturday, Jan. 20, starting at 6 p.m.

Burns Nights are held to commemorate the birthday of the renowned Scottish poet, Robert Burns. The celebrations, which begin in 1801, have become a worldwide phenomenon, with events held throughout the English-speaking world.

The Burns Night at Champneys will be respect the traditional order of such celebrations, with a dinner that include haggis and other Highland specialties, the recitation of some of Burns work, and a wee dram or two of good Scottish whisky.

The Burns Night will be $85 per person, not including tax or gratuity. Reservations should be made by calling the Deerfield Inn at 413-774-5587.

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On Saturday, Jan. 20, the Munich Haus German Restaurant in Chicopee will hold the first of its 2024 Game Feasts.

The event will begin at 6 p.m., with a buffet menu of wild edibles. Some of the dishes on offer will include wild turkey schnitzel, roasted wild boar, fried alligator, and house-made game sausages.

A carving station will be stocked with venison, elk, bison, and kangaroo; an assortment of sides, cheeses, and salads will round out the feast offerings.

Tickets for the dinner, which are $65, can be ordered by calling 413-594-8788.

Additional feasts are planned for February, March, and April.

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Brignole Vineyards of East Granby (CT) is collaborating with The Tasty Empanada of Thomaston to present a Four Course Dinner with Cooking Demonstration.

To be held on Jan. 19 starting at 6:30 p.m., the events menu will include a charcuterie board and a hearty salad course of local greens, roasted sweet potato, and fried goat cheese.

The main course is planned to be garlic jumbo shrimp in a wild mushroom cream; dessert will be passionfruit flan.

Tickets are available at Eventbrite.com; Brignole Vineyards, which is hosting the evening, can be reached at 860-653-9463.

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Over the New Years holiday Miami-based Burger King, a brand known for its unconventional marketing, ran a Hangover Whopper promotion featuring its signature sandwich.

Customers who might have previously over-indulged were encouraged to submit a selfie of themselves to earn coupons based on the intensity level of the hangover from which they might be suffering.

The Burger King app then used facial recognition technology to assess the hangovers severity using previously published research on the effects alcohol consumption has on facial expressions. The app rated the hangover on a three-point scale, providing a larger discount for higher scores.

The promotion, which ended Jan. 2, only applied to delivery orders made online.

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The East Village Tavern in East Longmeadow has introduced a new brunch menu. Served Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the brunch features Build Your Own Mimosas.

An a la carte menu is featured, and it lists a variety of omelet options, such as an Irish filled with corned beef, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut or a classic Western stuffed with peppers, onions, ham and Cheddar.

Chicken & Waffles is available, as is a Steak & Eggs combination plate.

Other breakfast-style dishes include Eggs Benedict, Pancakes and French Toast.

For those in lunch frame of mind, several wraps, sandwiches, a cheeseburger, and a cobb salad option are also offered.

Located at 53 North Main St., the East Village Tavern is open daily for lunch and dinner. They answer at 413-525-7777.

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KFC is expanding its line-up of snack options by introducing two new wraps.

Available for a limited time only, a Spicy Mac & Cheese Chicken Wrap brings together an Extra Crispy Chicken Tender, mac & cheese and a slather of spicy mayo all wrapped together in a soft tortilla.

The second new option, the Honey BBQ Chicken Wrap, is fashioned from a chicken tender drizzled with honey barbecue sauce, mayonnaise and crunchy pickles.

The new wrap options join three permanent variations on KFCs wrap menu, all of which are available as either a two-for-$5 deal or as part of a KFC Wraps Combo that includes two wraps, a medium drink, and KFCs Secret Recipe fries.

There are KFC locations in Ludlow on Center Street, in Chicopee on Memorial Drive, and in Northampton on King Street.

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Coffee giant Starbucks has announced that, at participating Starbucks locations, it is now accommodating customers who want to use brought-from-home cups. The announcement is part of Starbucks effort to reduce the number of single-use cups that end up in the solid waste stream nationwide.

Customers will be rewarded for their participation in the effort with a 10-cent discount on their drink; those who are participants in the Starbucks loyalty program will have 25 bonus stars credited to their account.

All Starbucks beverages, regardless of format, can be dispensed into clean personal cups. Starbucks has developed a special beverage building cup in which a customers drink is made and blended. That building cup is then used to transfer the drink into a patrons own personal container, where the drink is garnished with toppings as necessary. Personal cups can be used as part of an online or drive-thru order as well as when ordering in-store.

Those without cups who order drinks to be consumed onsite will have the option of requesting a reusable Starbucks glass or ceramic container.

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On Thursday, Jan. 18, Leenas Place in Belchertown is holding a Pie and Wine Pairing event. Scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., the evening will give participants the chance to taste wines and pies from around the world.

Cost to attend is $20 per person.

Leenas Place is located in the clubhouse at the Cold Spring Country Club in Belchertown. For more information, call 413-323-4888.

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Though wine experts often pooh-pooh the idea of matching wines to sweet foods, Wine ETC., a wine and spirits retailer in Simsbury, CT, is taking a different approach to such a pairing problem.

On Friday, Jan. 26, starting at 6 p.m., Wine ETC., in conjunction with Cake Gypsy of Avon, CT, will be presenting a program that pairs four wine samplings with four cupcake varieties. Tickets for the event are $45 and can be purchased online at ctwineetc.com

Their telephone number is 860-217-0688.

Cake Gypsy, which has two Connecticut locations, specializes in cupcakes, offering a wide variety of flavors. Their website is cakegypsy.com.

Hugh Robert is a faculty member in Holyoke Community Colleges hospitality and culinary arts program and has nearly 50 years of restaurant and educational experience. Robert can be reached online at OffTheMenuGuy@aol.com.
A Boston Police officer is raising money for her mother after the woman helped save peoples lives inside her burning multi-family home in Mattapan the day after Christmas and was one of the five people displaced.

Linda Mendez, who identified herself in the GoFundMe as a Boston police officer, said her mother Sharons home was a total loss.

My mother was awakened by the smell of smoke and her kitchen engulfed in flames, Mendez wrote.

Miraculously my mom was able to safely make it out of her unit. She selflessly assisted all three floors of the multi-family notifying the families of fire going in and out the building until everyone made it out, all while calling 911 for assistance, Mendez said.

The fire was reported to have started early in the morning and was knocked down by 3 a.m. on Dec. 26, according to the Boston Fire Department. The Red Cross and fire department were assisting the five people displaced at the scene that morning, the department said, and there were no injuries.

The emergency fundraiser for the officers mother was started two days after the fire with a goal of $25,000. As of Jan. 8, the fundraiser has received over $14,500 in donations.

Another verified fundraiser for other victims of the fire was created on Dec. 28, and is going to help a mother and daughter whod lived in the home for 14 years, according to its creator.

Some of the mother and daughters personal items were salvageable, but the pair is in need of help with securing a new place to move and call home the creator said.

The GoFundMe has a goal of $20,000, and has raised just over $2,200 as of Jan. 8.

The Boston police officer said her mother works as a housing stabilization specialist at the Pine Street Inn, and advocates and gives services to homeless families and people in the city.

Mendez said her mother will use the funds for temporary housing and relocation costs, including her first, last and security deposit, along with replacing her furniture, clothing and many other household/personal necessities.

She is known for her supportive nature to family and friends, always showing up and this time she needs us. She is now in need of financial support during this difficult time, the Boston officer said, and added her mother is loved by many and always has an infectious smile.
A Boston man was sentenced on Friday after he threatened a person from testifying against him in federal court with deportation, Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levys office announced Monday.

Mark Pinnock, 32, was sentenced to 33 months in prison followed by three years of federal supervised release, Levys office said in a statement. Pinnock was already on federal supervised release for sex trafficking when he exposed himself to the person he attempted to stop from testifying.

After serving an eight-year sentence for a sex trafficking offense beginning in 2014, Pinnock started working as an Amazon driver while under federal supervision in July 2022. While delivering a package at a condominium complex, he exposed his penis to a woman working as a custodian, Levys office said.

Following this incident, the US Probation Office sought to revoke Pinnocks supervised release term and a hearing was scheduled to adjudicate Pinnocks offense, Levys office said.

The week before the hearing, Pinnock had a co-conspirator go to the condominium complex at a time when Pinnock knew the woman was working, Levys office said. The co-conspirator claimed he worked for the state and told her not to go to court while he kept his hand in his pocket, as though he held something.

Using an encrypted messaging app, Pinnock sent an anonymous message to the complexs security officer to let the cleaning lady know she would be arrested by immigration officials if she testified, Levys office said. Pinnock then made three phone calls to immigration officials so the woman could be detained for being unlawfully present in the United States, claiming he heard she was gang-affiliated.

The charge of witness intimidation provides a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, restitution, and forfeiture, said the Department of Justice.

In October 2023, Pinnock pleaded guilty to the count of witness intimidation.
A GoFundMe to benefit the family of Jacob Pothier, the 18-year-old Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical High School student who died in a car crash in Dartmouth Friday night, has more than doubled its goal.

Jacob touched so many people in ways we knew; but, in many more ways we never knew. The laughs and those blue eyes will live in my memory forever, Pothiers aunt, Jennifer Cullen, wrote for the GoFundMe campaign.

Read more: New Bedford teen dies after thrown from car in Dartmouth Friday

By 1 p.m. Monday, Cullens campaign had reached over $35,000  more than $20,000 more than its original goal of $15,000. The contributions came from more than 640 donors.

Words cannot even begin to express the heartache my sister, Stacey Pothier, his father, Jason Pothier, and the entire family is facing, Cullen wrote. Nearly two weeks ago, we celebrated Jacobs 18th birthday and Christmas. With the new year ahead, this was something wildly out of the realm of possibility in any of our minds.

Read more: New Bedford teen killed in Dartmouth car crash attended technical high school

On Jan. 5, the car Pothier was in crashed near the intersection of Gulf and Smith Neck Road in Dartmouth around 10:30 p.m., Dartmouth police said previously. Pothier and 44-year-old Dartmouth resident Kathleen Martins were thrown from the car.

Both were taken to St. Lukes Hospital in New Bedford, and Pothier was soon declared dead, police said previously. Martins suffered life-threatening injuries, and was still in critical condition on Monday.

At this time, we are all grieving. The death of Jacob is tragic and senseless. Subsequently, we ask for privacy and prayers as we bury our son, brother, grandson, cousin, nephew, and friend, Pothiers family said in a statement Monday.

Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical High School confirmed to MassLive Monday that Martins was employed as a security officer at the school from August 2021 to March 2023 when she resigned. School officials did not say why she resigned. Dartmouth Public Information Officer Kyle Costa described Martins and Pothier as acquaintances and would not comment further.

Read more: Boston cop raises money for her mom who lost home in Christmas night fire

Costa said Monday that police have not received information indicating that alcohol was a factor in the crash. Dartmouth police are still investigating the incident, and put out a call for information on Facebook Sunday afternoon.

Police are looking for people who may have seen the car that crashed  a white 2022 Honda Accord  traveling in or near the town landing on the west side of the Padanaram Bridge before 10:30 p.m. Friday. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call police at 508-910-1790.
A Rockland man died on Sunday after his car crashed into a tree, Bridgewater police announced on Monday.

At around 10:50 p.m., the Bridgewater Police and Fire departments were notified of a car crashing into a tree in the area around 46 Auburn St., according to a statement from Bridgewater Police Chief Christopher Delmonte.

First responders found a 2006 Chevrolet Avalanche up against a tree with significant damage, police said. Firefighters approached the pickup truck to pull the driver out.

The driver, Linneaus Gitonga, 34, was pronounced dead at the scene. He was the only person in the truck.

Early findings in the investigation suggest the truck was driving fast and veered off the road before it hit a parked an unoccupied pickup truck before it struck the tree, police said.

The crash continues to be under investigation by Bridgewater police detectives, assisted by the Taunton Police Department Accident Reconstruction Team and the Plymouth County Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is expected to slash as much as $375 million in state spending on Monday, as the Democrats administration attempts to head off flagging tax collections, according to published reports.

The announcement comes just weeks after Healey, who has just started her second year in office, said she did not anticipate making such cuts, according to State House News Service.

The cuts expected to be announced Monday will target local earmarks and other programs, the Boston Globe reported, citing lawmakers who were briefed on the administrations thinking. Other likely cuts will impact state spending on health and human services and other programs, the newspaper reported.

Legislative leaders already were casting worried glances at the states financial health before the administrations planned action. Revenue collection numbers released last week apparently reinforced those concerns.

The commonwealth collected nearly $3.8 billion in taxes last month. Thats $82 million, or 2.1%, less than collections at the same time in 2022; and $138 million, or 3.5%, behind official benchmarks, MassLive previously reported.

Year-to-date collections totaled $17.86 billion, which was $60 million, or 0.3%, ahead of collections at the same time in 2023, but still $769 million, or 4.1%, behind projections, according to the Revenue Department.

The slide in tax revenues continues an ongoing decrease in collections that comes even as policymakers on both sides of the State House and the executive branch stare down rising costs for the states shelter system, and eye expanded spending to tame the ongoing housing crisis.

The state collected $2.24 billion in taxes in November, which was 5.5% less than actual collections at the same time last year, and $274 million, or nearly 11%, behind projections, according to Revenue Department data at the time.

State House Speaker Ron Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, waxed philosophical last week when he was asked whether hed regretted backing increased spending at a time of uncertain revenues.

I think that, having been around as long Ive been around, I understand that everything is cyclical, the Quincy lawmaker told reporters in a brief interview outside his State House office. And when youre riding the wave, its only a matter of time before youre gonna fall off the wave, and hit the bottom.

And so, those of us who have been around a while sort of expected some sort of contraction, he continued. And [the] severity is always the question. The severity is what were going to be faced with, Mariano said.

State Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Middlesex/Worcester, who was one of two no votes against the $1 billion tax relief package that Healey signed into law last October, told the Globe that he was very troubled by the announcement.

At the end of the day, earmarks are not going to cover this budget deficit, he said. I am very troubled that we just passed a tax reform package where over a third of the tax cuts went to the wealthy. I think thats extremely concerning.

In a statement last week, state Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder contextualized the drop-off in revenues, noting that losses in such categories as sales tax and business tax collections were partially offset by an increase in income tax withholding.

Revenue collections are uneven and usually weighted toward the second half of the fiscal year. Therefore, it may be premature to use year-to-date results to assess trends for the entire fiscal year, the agency said in its statement.

Nonetheless, senior leaders on Beacon Hill, including those who control the budget-writing process, sounded cautionary notes.

I think were getting clear signals that we need to think about the fiscal stability of the commonwealth. And we need to chart a very careful course in the months ahead based on those signals, state Senate Minority Leader Bruce E. Tarr, R-1st Essex/Middlesex, told the Boston Herald. Obviously, we hope that the numbers are going to change and theyre going to get better. But we need to be prepared for the possibility that they wont.

In a year-end interview with MassLive, House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones Jr., R-20th Middlesex, said one of the main tasks facing the Legislature this year is [finding] a way to navigate the increasingly choppy waters of declining state tax revenues in a responsible manner to protect vital state programs and services.

Paul D. Craney, a spokesperson for the business-friendly Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, had earlier sounded the alarm that the states unfriendly tax climate, underlined by a report last fall, had prompted an exodus of residents, which also cut into revenue collections.

When State House politicians wonder why so many taxpayers are leaving Massachusetts, its because 45 other states have a lower tax burden per capita than Massachusetts, Craney told MassLive last fall.

A study released last week by United Van Lines found that the Bay State was among the states that saw the most outbound residents in 2023, while neighboring New Hampshire gained residents, MassLive previously reported.

Speaking to MassLive during a year-end interview last month, Healey said she had been keeping an eye on the states tax collection picture.

Were going to need to figure out a way to continue to make those investments, we recognize that the revenue picture is evolving, Healey said. We have seen a dip in revenues. Were going to continue to monitor, so that our financial foundations are strong.

When you look at record amounts in the stabilization fund, she continued. " ... And we continue to see growth, albeit growth at a slower rate than our bond rating ... So the ... foundation is there and strong. And obviously, were just going to have to monitor the revenue picture.
Even though Massachusetts communities are still cleaning up from this weekends snowstorm, Mother Nature isnt done with us yet.

A storm system is headed for the Bay State and is expected to land Tuesday night, bringing heavy rain and high winds, according to National Weather Service forecaster Alan Dunham. It could cause mild to moderate flooding throughout the state and wind damage and power outages in southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Islands, he said.

Itll be moving in over the course of Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday evening, Dunham said. Precipitation spreading up from the southwest moving northeast across the state, with the strongest winds and heaviest rain being Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for most of Massachusetts from 7 p.m. Tuesday evening to 1 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. The melted snow may contribute to excessive runoff that causes flooding in low-lying areas.

[The storm is] going to have a definite impact on the morning commute, especially if you have clogged storm drains, Dunham said. Theres a risk of lot of ponding on roadways and rapid rises of small rivers and streams.

Most of Massachusetts is expected to get an inch and a half to two and a half inches of rain, he said. Hampden and Hampshire County and the Berkshires are expected to see the heaviest rain and could get up to three inches. Greater Boston should see an inch and a half to two inches of rain, and the Cape and Islands are expected to get an inch to an inch and a half.

The Berkshires and the higher elevations in Worcester County could see some snow during the storm, but accumulation is not a concern right now, Dunham said.

Especially out west, snow will quickly change over to sleet and freezing rain, then all rain. And everywhere else, any snow will quickly turnover to all rain, he said.

The National Weather Service has also issued a high wind watch for much of Eastern Massachusetts from 7 p.m. Tuesday to 1 p.m. Wednesday. Damaging southeast winds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph could blow down trees and power lines, and travel may be difficult for tall vehicles.

The storm should wrap up Wednesday, first in Western Massachusetts and then in Eastern Massachusetts, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Dunham said.

Thursday and Friday are expected to be clear, with highs in the low 40s and lows overnight in the upper 20s and lower 30s across the state, according to the National Weather Service. The next chance of rain will be overnight Friday.
Interior Ministry: Search and rescue operations at sites of missile strikes in Pokrovsky district completed, five bodies identified, incl. a child

Search and rescue operations at the sites of missile strikes on the town of Pokrovsk and the village of Rivne in Pokrovsky district of Donetsk region have been completed, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

"Pokrovsky district: search and rescue operations at the sites of shelling have been completed. The dead were searched with the help of dogs trained to search for remains. Investigators are examining the found body fragments, criminologists are seizing biological samples and carrying out identification," he wrote on the Telegram channel on Monday evening.

According to Klymenko, five victims have been identified so far. "Three victims from the village of Rivne have been identified: a three-year-old girl, her father and mother, 32 and 30 years old. A 34-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman were found in Pokrovsk," he said.

Criminologists continue to identify fragments of bodies. "According to preliminary information, 11 people died in whole families as a result of the Russian strike," Klymenko said.

Earlier, head of Donetsk Regional Military Administration, Vadym Filashkin, said that on Saturday evening Pokrovsky district was subjected to a massive missile attack. According to him, 134 private houses and 15 high-rise buildings were damaged in Pokrovska merged territorial community (hromada).
The Sunderland man who died after he was struck by a car on Route 116 in Hadley on Saturday has been identified.

Melvin L. Wilson, 33, was struck by a car driving southbound while he walked along the edge of the divided highway at around 5:30 a.m., Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivans office announced in a statement on Monday.

Read more: New Bedford teen killed in Dartmouth car crash attended technical high school

He was hit near the highways exit headed to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, from the states Department of Transportation. MassDOT also warned people just after 6:30 a.m. that multiple highway lanes were closed and suggested drivers find another route.

Hadley police and Massachusetts State Police arrived to the crash site after the driver involved, a 29-year-old woman from Deerfield, called 911, Sullivans office said.

Read more: Car crash on Route 119 in Littleton kills New Hampshire man

First responders arrived to find Wilson unresponsive before he was taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, where he later died, Sullivans office said.

Sullivans office did not indicate if any criminal charges may be filed.

Read more: Cambridge resident killed in fatal apartment complex fire identified

The crash continues to be under investigation by the Hadley Police Department, State Police attached to the Northwestern District Attorneys Office, state troopers assigned to the Crime Scene Services Collision Analysis and Collision Analysis and Reconstruction sections and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Two people were arrested in Reading on suspected drunken driving charges following two crashes that happened less than 24 hours apart, according to the towns police and fire departments.

The first of the two suspected OUI-liquor incidents happened on Friday night. Police were called at 10:36 p.m. to John Street for reports of a car crash, police said.

A gray Land Rover had crashed into a telephone pole on the street, police said. The driver was able to get out of the car and was being helped by bystanders when officers arrived, the department said.
A rocket from Cape Canaveral carrying human remains, including ashes from a Woburn man, successfully lifted off on Monday, Space.com reported.

United Launch Alliances inaugural launch catapulted the Vulcan rocket to the stars, releasing its Peregrine Lunar Lander toward the moon, the first US spacecraft to reach the lunar surface since Apollo 17 in 1972, Space.com said.

The lander is carrying 20 different payloads that include five NASA instruments, including a laser retroreflector array to serve as a location marker and a lunar energy transfer spectrometer to measure radiation levels in the moons orbit and on its surface, the website wrote.

Other instruments will measure hydrogen levels on the moons surface, study the moons atmosphere and analyze shifts in hydrogen-bearing materials on the surface between the moons day and night periods, the website described. The lander is expected to land on the moon on Feb. 23.

The lander was made by Astrobotic, based in Pittsburgh. During a Jan. 5 press conference, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said a piece of Mount Everest was also aboard going back to the moon, Space.com said. He referenced how during a 2010 expedition up its peak, NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski brought moon rocks collected by Apollo 11 in 1969 on the trek.

The lander contains 66 capsules containing ashes and human DNA, facilitated by Celestis Memorial Spaceflights, within one of two missions that were part of the launch. The lunar mission was called Luna Tranquility, while the remaining ashes and DNA are part of the ongoing mission referred to as the Enterprise flight, officially called the Deep Space Voyager Mission.

Aboard the Enterprise flight are capsules containing some of the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, his wife and Star Trek actor Majel Barrett Roddenberry, and those of original series actors Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley and James Doohan, remembered for their roles as Lt. Uhura, Dr. McCoy and Scotty.

Also aboard were hair and DNA from former presidents George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, as well as DNA from science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, NPR reported. Among the many other capsules aboard were some of the ashes of Francis Gillis, a Woburn man with an enthusiasm for the outdoors and a deep passion for science fiction.

He would talk about adventure, his sister Jacqueline Gillis, of Hudson, said to MassLive. He was an avid reader of science fiction, an adventurer; he loved the outdoors and had an interest in science and was a Star Trek and Star Wars fan. He knew after he died, he wanted to go into deep space.

Woburn native and Troop 629 Scoutmaster Francis Gillis died July 20, 2018. His remains will be aboard the Deep Space Voyager Mission, known as the Enterprise Flight, due to launch into deep space on Jan. 8, 2024. Courtesy of Jacqueline Gillis.Jacqueline Gillis

Gillis, who died in 2018, was a retired army lieutenant colonel and was scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 629 in Johns Creek, Ga. Interred at Arlington National Cemetary, his sister brought two grams of his ashes to Celestis and, with his own money, paid for him to be aboard the Enterprise flight.

Im thrilled for him, Jacqueline said. What fun! What a bang for his buck.

Back on Earth, the Vulcan rockets flight also carried controversy. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren issued a statement on Dec. 21 that urged NASA and the Department of Transportation to delay the launch due to the moons importance in Navajo cosmology. The missions are run by private companies, not by NASA.

As stewards of our culture and traditions, it is our responsibility to voice our grievances when actions are taken that could desecrate sacred spaces and disregard deeply held cultural beliefs, Nygren said. ...We stand firm in our position: the moon is not a place for human remains. We call upon NASA to act accordingly and to work with us to protect our sacred sites and cultural heritage, not just on Earth, but in all realms that our traditions hold dear.

Nygren said the Navajo Nation is not against space exploration, but preferred to be consulted before the launch. Celestis CEO Charles Chafer said in a statement attained by NPR that while we respect everyones beliefs, we do not find Mr. Nygrens concerns to be compelling.
(*This story was updated at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2023 to clarify the spending reductions surrounding MassHealth.)

Massachusetts state-run health insurance program, MassHealth, will bear the brunt of the $375 million that Democratic Gov. Maura Healey plans to slash from state spending in response to flagging tax revenues. But the suite of reductions the administration announced Monday leaves few sectors of government untouched.

Programs ranging from behavioral health supports ($5.2 million) and housing services and counseling ($5 million) to grants to local fire departments ($1.6 million), earmarks for parks ($772,500) and economic development projects ($11.3 million) all will fall under the budgetary knife as Healeys office said it looked to rein in costs while avoiding cuts to core functions of state government.

Other areas targeted for reductions include grants for high school dual enrollments ($2.5 million); local public safety earmarks ($1.5 million); grants to local public health boards ($2.49 million), and grants to councils on aging ($950,000).

Whats not on table? Layoffs, a withdrawal from the states Rainy Day Fund, or any money thats supposed to be used to address Massachusetts ongoing emergency shelter crisis, a senior administration official said.

The $1 billion tax cut package that lawmakers passed, and Healey signed into law last year, also will remain untouched.

What the average taxpayer should know here is that were on top of the situation, Healeys budget czar, Matthew Gorzkowicz, said during a Monday briefing on the cuts, which do not require legislative approval, and are expected to go into effect within the next few days.

*Payments to MassHealth will be cut by $294 million, according to an analysis that Healeys office released on Monday. The move was primarily prompted by members using fewer services than we had originally budgeted. The remainder, a smaller part, is from modest, targeted adjustments to what is paid to managed care plans, an agency spokesperson told MassLive.

Other social services accounts, such as the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund, another MassHealth offshoot, will see a $50 million funding cut, according to the analysis the administration released Monday, noting that theres already enough money in the account to cover its anticipated expenses.

Healey let legislative leaders know about the administrations plans in a Monday letter, where she laid out the states current fiscal picture, and alerted them that her office was reducing its 2024 revenue estimate by $1 billion, to $40.41 billion.

In crafting spending reductions, we have done our very best to protect investments that are critical to Massachusetts future, limit impacts to programs and services, and to avoid negative impacts to the most vulnerable of our residents, Healey wrote. In addition we have refrained from any reductions to Local Aid and school funding.

State Sen. Peter Durant, R-Worcester/Hampshire, told MassLive that he was nonetheless concerned about the cuts impact on local government, which rely on these funds to provide services to citizens.

Durant, who received word on the reductions on Sunday night, singled out reductions to fire and public safety spending as particular areas of concern.

Weve said revenue was coming up short and we needed to control spending, Durant told MassLive. Now this is coming to roost.

At the same time, however, the reductions provide policymakers with the opportunity to take a long, hard look at how the state spends the publics money, and from those deliberations, decide whats important to us, Durant said.

The Democratic administrations announcement comes just weeks after Healey, who has just started her second year in office, said she did not anticipate making such cuts, according to State House News Service.

Legislative leaders already were casting worried glances at the states financial health before the administrations planned action. Revenue collection numbers released last week drove Mondays announcement, officials said.

The commonwealth collected nearly $3.8 billion in taxes last month. Thats $82 million, or 2.1%, less than collections at the same time in 2022; and $138 million, or 3.5%, behind official benchmarks, MassLive previously reported.

Year-to-date collections totaled $17.86 billion, which was $60 million, or 0.3%, ahead of collections at the same time in 2023, but still $769 million, or 4.1%, behind projections, according to state Revenue Department data.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Gorzkowicz stressed that the state cant spend what we dont have, and said the administration was making the necessary responsible budget reductions to ensure fiscal responsibility, [and] to make sure that we are not in a situation where we have to dip into our states rainy day fund  which [is] reserved for those really, you know, extraordinary circumstances where we do have a recession, and do have to make tough choices and preserve programs.

In addition to the cuts, officials said theyd identified certain revenue opportunities that would increase the states non-tax revenues by $625 million. Pressed for specifics, Gorzkowicz said the windfall came from interest earnings on state investments, but did not provide much additional detail.

The administration also is leaving untouched the account that it plans to tap to cover the rising costs of the states emergency shelter system.

With the tab there expected to approach $1 billion a year for the next, two budget cycles, the administration has said it plans to drain a $700 million state escrow account to cover some of that expense, State House News Service previously reported.

In a statement on Monday, a spokesperson for the pro-business Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance called on the Democratic administration and the majority-Democrat Legislature to rein in spending and to take bold action and move for broad-based tax relief to stem the outflow of Massachusetts residents and businesses.

Mondays announced cuts were the end result of many poor economic decisions made by Beacon Hill leaders, over the past year  starting with the states millionaires tax, the spokesperson, Paul D. Craney, said in an email.

Our economy thrived for years under a flat tax structure, and we likely could have continued to thrive. Instead, Beacon Hill leaders pigheadedly allowed our competitive edgethe flat taxto be eliminated and were paying the price now, Craney said.
A local election candidate has called on Minister for Children, Disabilities, Equality, Integration and Youth, Roderic OGorman, to meet with people in Ballinrobe as protest against the planned accommodation of 50 male refugees continues outside a local hotel.

This morning (Friday), approximately ten men were gathered outside of the front of the hotel, which had been due to accommodate 50 male international protection applicants today (Monday).

Local county councillor Michael Burke said on Saturday that he had been told by the property owner that the Department of Children, Disabilities, Equality, Integration and Youth had withdrawn the lease agreement for the property.

In a statement issued to The Mayo News, the department said that they were continuing to engage with the provider in relation to the premises in Ballinrobe and is not in a position to comment further.

Local people have maintained a constant presence outside the hotel since news of the proposal to house international protection applicants broke on Friday afternoon.

Over 50 people were gathered outside of the hotel on Sunday evening, including a number of men from Eastern Europe.

Several people who spoke to The Mayo News outlines various concerns regarding the hotel being used for male refugees, including its proximity to a nearby pre-school.

Paul Lawless, a local election candidate for Aontu, has called on Minister OGorman to meet with local people regarding the issue.

Calling for a sustainable and manageable immigration system, Mr Lawless stated: The plans to accommodate 50 males two doors from Nead na nOg pre school without any consultation with parents, the creche owners and the wider community is wrong.

I spoke to one mother whose child attends pre-school who is very concerned. She showed me the smoking area of JJ Gannons which directly overlooks the Nead na nOg pre school. Another mother highlighted the fact that 60 percent of asylum applicants arrive in Dublin Airport without documentation, meaning their past history is unknown.

Speaking to The Mayo News on Sunday, Mr Lawless said that the premises was not a suitable building for 50 men.

Possibly women and children, perhaps they could even use the creche in Ballinrobe and contribute to it, but I can very much understand the concerns of the people here in Ballinrobe.

Michelle Smith, one of the organisers of the ongoing demonstration against plans the plans to convert the hotel into refugee accommodation, told The Mayo News that a petition opposing the proposal had received over 1,000 signatures on Sunday evening.

Speaking to this newspaper on Friday evening, Ms Smith said that protesters would remain at the property as long as we have to to prevent the hotel being occupied by refugees.

The community spirit here has been fantastic, but at the end of the day, this on the Main Street of Ballinrobe, there is a play school two doors down, we have kids going to school here and the businesses here need to be protected, because these foreign nationals will come in with 38 euro a week. What are they going to do and where are they going to go? They have no facilities here for them, said Ms Smith.

Protesters have received fuel, food and other supplies from local people since the demonstration began on Friday evening.

Two men, who said they were there in a work capacity, attempted to enter the property on Friday morning but were refused by demonstraters.

A constant garda presence has been maintained on the property since Friday.

When asked about the matter on Saturday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told RTEs This Week that one that communities did not have a veto over the accommodation of refuges.

The Taoiseach was responding to comments from his fellow Fine Gael party member Michael Burke, who attend a gathering on Friday in support of the protest alongside Cllr Patsy OBrien (Independent) and Cllr Damien Ryan (Fianna Fail).

Taoiseach Varadkar said he totally acknowledges that local people have concerns and fears which must be allayed with communication and provided information.

I also need to be very clear. Nobody in a free society, nobody in a democracy has a right to exercise a veto on who moves into their area or community. That doesnt just apply to international protection, he said.

I have said back to him [Michael Burke] very clearly the situation we are now facing is that the alternative to providing accommodation centres is people on the streets.

We already have 400 people at the moment who we are not able to provide any accommodation for. So, this isnt an ideal situation.

The protests have been condemned by United Against Racisms Mayo branch, who called for local people to oppose the protests.

Ballinrobe native Rory ONeill, better known by his stage name Panti Bliss, has also criticized the opposition to the hotel being used as refugee accommodation as shameful on X  formerly known as Twitter.

There will be further coverage of this issue in Tuesdays print edition of The Mayo News.
The CEO of the Health Service Executive says he won't allow management and staff at one of the busiest hospitals in the country to be tried by social media over the death of a 16-year-old girl.

Aoife Johnston, from Shannon in Co. Clare (pictured below), passed away after a 12-hour wait in the UHL emergency department on December 19, 2022, having been diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and sepsis.

Serious failings were identified in an internal review of the events leading to her death and retired Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, has now been commissioned to carry out an independent investigation.

Speaking publicly about the case for the first time, Bernard Gloster, chief executive officer of the HSE, said there were "significant factors of serious failing that had the most catastrophic outcome and consequences" which is why he has asked Mr Justice Clarke to carry out an investigation.

In an interview on RTE radio this Sunday lunchtime, he said: "This is a very tragic and complex matter, that's why I have asked for, and he has agreed, Mr Justice Frank Clarke to assist me."

Mr Gloster says he will take whatever action is appropriate once he receives the findings of the investigation which is expected to be completed in around eight weeks.

"Based on what he tells me and everything else, I have then to determine whether or not other processes follow from that. I can't engage in speculation or presumption around that but I do want to say, and it's important, there has been no finding against any individual at the moment and I think it's very important that where there is accountability people can be absolutely assured I will discharge that but, equally, I will not commit my staff to trial by social media or the summary justice of populism," he said.

Mr Gloster, who took over as chief executive officer of the HSE in March of last year, told the This Week programme that "everything is on the table" but that foremost in his thoughts is Aoife Johnston and her family and "doing appropriate justice" over the failure that led to her death.

"I do want to express my profound regret and sincere apology to them for what has happened to them. There is nothing I can say that can take away the pain and grief that they must be experiencing and it is just so dreadfully tragic and I do sincerely want to apologise for that."

Mr Gloster has also confirmed that he hopes to meet with members of Aoife Johnston's family in the near future.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that as of evening it is known about the death of four people as a result of Russian missile attacks on Monday.

Emergency and rescue operations are still ongoing in three regions of Ukraine after the Russian army's strikes: Donetsk, Kherson and Khmelnytskyi regions. I am grateful to all the rescuers, police officers, and utility workers who are involved, he said in a video address on Monday.

This morning, unfortunately, began with a massive missile attack once again. Kharkiv and the region, Zaporizhia, Kryvyi Rih, Khmelnytskyi region. Forty-five people were injured, and as of this time, four people have been reported dead. My condolences to the families and friends! he also said.
China decides to sanction five U.S. defense industry companies

Xinhua) 08:10, January 08, 2024

BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- China has decided to sanction five U.S. defense industry companies, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.

The United States recently announced new arms sale to Taiwan and sanctioned Chinese businesses and individuals under various pretexts. The spokesperson announced the decision when asked about China's countermeasures.

The U.S. arms sales to China's Taiwan region in blatant violation of the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, particularly the August 17 joint communique of 1982, and the illegal unilateral sanctions the United States has imposed on Chinese companies and individuals under various false pretexts seriously harm China's sovereignty and security interests, said the spokesperson.

The U.S. arms sales and the illegal unilateral sanctions also undermine the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and violate the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and individuals. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this and has made solemn demarches to the United States, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that in response to these gravely wrong actions taken by the United States and in accordance with China's Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, China has decided to sanction five U.S. defense industry companies, namely BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operation, AeroVironment, ViaSat and Data Link Solutions.

The countermeasures consist of freezing the properties of those companies in China, including their movable and immovable property, and prohibiting organizations and individuals in China from transactions and cooperation with them, the spokesperson said.

"I would like to stress that the Chinese government remains unwavering in our resolve to safeguard national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and citizens," said the spokesperson.

China urges the United States to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, observe international law and the basic norms governing international relations, stop arming Taiwan, and stop targeting China with illegal unilateral sanctions, the spokesperson said, noting that "otherwise there will be strong and resolute response from China."

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
On Tuesday, January 9, at 13.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a press conference titled "Assessment of main political actors of Ukraine based on results of 2023," at which the results of a sociological study will be presented on the final assessment of Ukrainians' attitude to key figures in the political leadership of Ukraine. Participants include founder of the Active Group research company Andriy Yeremenko; PhD in political sciences, Executive Director of the International Association of Small Communities Oleksiy Buriachenko (8/5a Reitarska Street). The event will be streamed on the Interfax-Ukraine YouTube channel. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot using editorial IDs.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, January 8, 2024

Instacart will begin piloting ads on its Caper Carts at Good Food Holdings stores such as Bristol Farms to bring personalized and real-time sponsored recommendations to physical aisles of the grocery store. The recommendations enable consumer to discover new brands and products -- and hopefully, increase the average order value (AOV) in physical stores.

Del Monte Foods, Dreyers, and General Mills are participating in the rollout.

Instacart, which estimates consumers spend more than 30 minutes shopping in-store with a Caper Cart, hopes to have thousands deployed by the end of 2024. The move will be announced at CES on Monday.

Caper Cart is a physical shopping cart powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision that reads items as the consumer puts them in the cart. Its part of the companys strategy to build out its online services by moving them into the physical world, according to Ali Miller, vice president of ads product at Instacart.

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Were getting started by creating new experiences such as ads on screens when youre just getting ready to shop, introducing products that are seasonally relevant, and sponsored recommendations, she said.

If someone puts chocolate cookies in their cart, the technology might recommend Dreyers vanilla ice cream.

The cart reads the barcode and allows the shopper to pay for the products without going through a checkout line. Keying in an item code for produce -- for example, apples -- will weigh the product and add it to the purchase list.

The technology from Instacart Ads on Caper Carts are powered by the online ads platform that Instacart has spent the last few years scaling in-house and Caper Cart technology, which is made up of AI, cameras, and sensors built into the cart. Caper Carts was Instacart CEO Fidji Simos first acquisition as CEO about two years ago.

Instacart has always been interested in technology. Ironically, in February 2021, it acquired more than 250 patents from IBM and entered into a mutual patent cross-license agreement that allows Instacart to strengthen its own patent portfolio. The license gave Instacart the freedom of action to use IBM patents in the future growth of its business. Exact terms were not disclosed.

Some might remember that in 2006, IBM showcased a smart store TV commercial where a nefarious-looking man in a trench coat wandering the aisles of a supermarket, stuffing his pockets with various items while security guards and other patrons looked on.

A light flashed as the man exited the store with the items in his pockets, and a security guard said, excuse me, sir. When the man stopped and turned, the guard grabbed the receipt from a dispenser and said, you forgot your receipt, before waving him on.

Ads on Caper Carts will bring personalized ads experience from Instacarts CPG brand partners to the smart cart screens, but opportunities to explore sharing data from online to offline exist certainly exists, especially with the patents Instacart acquired more than 12 years ago.

One example might be that the information gathered by the app will integrate into the Caper Cart to provide even more personalized recommendations, not just those based on a food aisle that a shopper walks down.

Were just starting to test and learn what works from an ads perspective, as the company starts to rollout the cart to more stores, she said.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, January 8, 2024

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected X Corp's request to intervene in a 10-year-old battle with the federal government over the company's ability to disclose the number of classified requests it receives for data about users.

As is customary, the court didn't give a reason for its move.

The Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case ends a dispute dating to 2014, when X challenged the FBI's restrictions on a proposed transparency report that would have revealed information about the number of classified requests for information about particular users. Those requests either took the form of National Security Letters or orders issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Shortly before X sued, the federal government and six other tech companies -- Apple, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn -- reached an agreement that allowed those companies to disclose broad information about the number of requests for user data, within bands of 1,000. For instance, the companies agreed to say that they received between 0 and 999 National Security Letters within a six-month time period, as opposed to stating the precise number.

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X, which didn't agree to those settlement terms, argued that the FBI's restrictions on the proposed transparency report amounted to an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.

Twitter is entitled under the First Amendment to respond to its users concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing more complete information about the limited scope of U.S. government surveillance of Twitter user accounts, the platform argued in a motion for a declaratory judgment filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

A trial judge and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against X.

Although we acknowledge Twitters desire to speak on matters of public concern, after a thorough review of the classified and unclassified record, we conclude that the governments restriction on Twitters speech is narrowly tailored in support of a compelling government interest: our nations security, a 9th Circuit panel wrote in a ruling issued in March 2023.

X then sought review by the Supreme Court.

The company's request was backed by the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, which argued in a friend-of-the-court brief that the government shouldn't have been able to censor X's report before it was published.
by Wayne Friedman , January 8, 2024

Stepping back a bit from his day-to-day role, Dave Morgan, chief executive officer of Simulmedia, is handing the reins to company veteran Jon Werther, who has been chief operating officer.

Werther will take over the CEO role of the advertising-technology company, with Morgan assuming the title of executive chairman.

Morgan, who started the company 15 years ago, says he wants to double-down my focus on market development, product vision, strategy and partnerships," adding that this "is the best way for us to grow and scale our already profitable and debt-free company.

He adds that there has been massive growth at Simulmedia over the past three years: Connected TV advertising has grown from 1% to 6% to more than 15% of our revenue and should exceed 25% by the end of 2024.

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The company says its performance products -- its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven TV+(R) analytic and activation platform -- have delivered strong results across all streaming and linear TV channels for more than 100 brands including Walt Disney, Experian, MassMutual and Choice Hotels.

Simulmedia claims that its TV+(R) platform is the only company operating today that plans, activates and optimizes campaigns across both CTV and linear in a fully integrated way.

For linear TV, this includes Warner Bros Discovery, NBCU, Disney and Paramount; and more recently, in the connected TV space, for ad-supported Hulu, Peacock, Max, Disney+ and Roku.

Recent previous senior level staffing changes at the company included naming ten-year veteran Marc Siegel, as president of sales and Adam Quinn upped to senior vice president of sales.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. Azerbaijan will become the key gas supplier to Georgia in 2024, providing almost all of the latter's energy demands, Trend reports.

According to data on Georgia's natural gas reserve data, Azerbaijan will provide 3.017 billion cubic meters of gas of Georgia's total 3.217 billion cubic meters, thus accounting for 90 percent of the supplies in 2024.

The volume of gas supplies from Azerbaijan to Georgia was forecasted at 2.858 billion cubic meters in 2023.

Georgia's natural gas reserves for 2024 are estimated at 3.231 billion cubic meters, with 99.6 percent of this volume being imported.

At the same time, Russia is expected to supply 200 million cubic meters of gas.

According to the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan, 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas was exported to Georgia from January through November 2023, which is 13.6 percent more compared to the same period of 2022 (2.2 billion cubic meters).

Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. Annual financial aid is officially allocated to Azerbaijan's religious confessions and is extended to all religious communities including non-Muslim ones, following President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev's decrees, said the State Committee for Work with Religious Associations, Trend reports.

"This support is extended to all religious communities, including non-Muslim ones. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation is involved in the restoration of historical and cultural monuments, as well as the construction of new places of worship. During their travels across the country, President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva visit religious places of worship and engage in discussions with believers," the committee said.

Moreover, President Ilham Aliyev took the religious monuments in the territories liberated from the Armenian occupation under special control, and orders were given to restore all religious places of worship located in these territories, without exception, said the committee.

It was noted that not only the destroyed mosques but also churches have been restored in Shusha. Also, an imam (man who leads prayers in a mosque) has been appointed in the Yukhari Govhar Agha Mosque, located in Shusha.

"The state has been providing material assistance to religious leaders for several years so far. Funding is provided for their social projects, conferences on tolerance, and coexistence, and other events are organized jointly with them. The Bible Society and other non-Islamic religious communities organized trips to Guba, Ismayilli, Kalbajar, and other districts of the country with the participation of representatives of religious confessions operating in Azerbaijan. Such visits strengthen friendly and benevolent relations between the communities," said the committee.

Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
The aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles that have formed the land-based leg of the nation's nuclear deterrent triad for half a century can no longer be upgraded and require costly replacements, Adm. Charles Richard, head of U.S. Strategic Command, said Tuesday.

"Let me be very clear: You cannot life-extend the Minuteman III [any longer]," he said of the 400 ICBMs that sit in underground silos across five states in the upper Midwest.

"We can't do it at all. ... That thing is so old that, in some cases, the drawings don't exist anymore [to guide upgrades]," Richard said in a Zoom conference sponsored by the Defense Writers Group.

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Where the drawings do exist, "they're like six generations behind the industry standard," he said, adding that there are also no technicians who fully understand them. "They're not alive anymore."

Richard rejected suggestions by several think tanks that the incoming Biden administration should consider life extensions for the Minuteman IIIs as a cost-saving measure, delaying replacement with new missiles called the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD).

"I don't understand, frankly, how someone in a think tank, who actually doesn't have their hands on the missile looking at the parts, the cables, all of the pieces inside" can make judgments on the way forward, he said.

With new GBSD missiles built by Northrop Grumman, "we will replace a 60-year-old, basically circuit switch system with a modern, cyber-defendable, up to current standards command and control system," Richard explained.

But he had a different take on life extensions for the B-52 Stratofortress bomber fleet, saying that current modernization programs for the B-52H versions of the bomber, which can carry nuclear weapons, are "going quite well." The aircraft was developed in the 1940s and entered the Air Force inventory in the 1950s.

He said he wants to add command-and-control improvements into the B-52H modernization program but overall, "I'm satisfied with where we are with that."

According to the Defense Department, the nuclear triad's bomber force currently consists of 46 nuclear-capable B-52H bombers and 20 B-2A Spirit aircraft. The undersea leg consists of 14 Ohio-class submarines, each equipped with Trident II missiles; and the land leg consists of the 400 Minuteman IIIs.

In assessing the effectiveness of the nation's nuclear deterrent, Richard warned of Russia and China's growing capabilities and the challenges ahead for the U.S.

"What's different in the world today than it was, say, back in the Cold War [is the fact that] this nation has never before had to face the prospect of two near-peer, nuclear-capable adversaries who have to be deterred differently," he said. "Actions done to deter one have an impact on the other. This is way more complicated than it used to be."

The U.S. also must contend with the divergent worldviews of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, he said, explaining, "Putin makes decisions differently than Xi."

Richard said he has made his concerns known in several meetings with President-elect Joe Biden's transition teams. Without giving specifics, he said the meetings had "gone very well" and added that he is open to a review of the nation's current nuclear strategy, should the incoming administration find it necessary.

The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, conducted by then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on the order of President Donald Trump, called for a $1.2 trillion modernization of the triad, with an estimated $85 billion going to the new GBSD missile system.

The review stated that all three legs of the triad will be vital to the nation's defense for the foreseeable future. "Eliminating any leg of the triad would greatly ease adversary attack planning and allow an adversary to concentrate resources and attention on defeating the remaining two legs," it said.

One of the review's controversial recommendations was a call for the development of small-yield nuclear weapons to be placed on ballistic submarines to counter Russia's stockpile of small-yield weapons.

Last January, the Federation of American Scientists reported that a small-yield W76-2 Trident submarine warhead had been deployed aboard the Ohio-class submarine Tennessee. The Navy declined to confirm the deployment.

Richard said he looks forward to a discussion with the incoming administration on small-yield weapons as part of a new review of the nuclear deterrence mission.

"I welcome an examination of the nation's strategy here," he said. "I recommend that, based on the threat.  The threat is moving so fast that, even given the [short] time since the last Nuclear Posture Review, [it] warrants another look at it to make sure that we still endorse our strategy, and we have sufficient capability to execute that strategy."

He said STRATCOM is "prepared to execute whatever the political leadership of this nation would like to do."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Related: The Minuteman III, Designed for 10 Years of Use, Celebrates its 50th Anniversary
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was subjected Sunday to numerous shelling attacks from Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson region, across the Dnieper River, local officials said.

The head of the Kherson city administration, Roman Mrochko, said two people died in the shelling attacks and several others were wounded.

Meanwhile, Russian military personnel marked Orthodox Christmas on Sunday.

In Ukraine's northeast Kharkiv region, a man was killed and two other civilians wounded in Russian shelling of the Kupiansk district Sunday, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutors Office. A child was among the wounded.

Air defenses shot down 21 of 28 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said Sunday. Russia also launched three anti-aircraft missiles against Ukraine.

On an unannounced visit to the country this weekend, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa pledged Japans continued support for Ukraine. Speaking at a press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv on Sunday, she said Japan had decided to contribute $37 million to the NATO trust fund to provide drone detection systems, according to Japans Foreign Ministry.

In Russia, more than 100 residents of the Russian border city of Belgorod have evacuated to an area farther away from Ukraine, local officials said.

On behalf of the regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, we met the first Belgorod residents who decided to move to the safest place. More than 100 people were placed in our temporary accommodation centers, Andrey Chesnokov, head of the Stary Oskol district, some 115 kilometers (71 miles) from Belgorod, wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod on Dec. 30 killed 25 people, officials there said, with rocket and drone attacks continuing throughout this week.

Russian soldiers celebrated Orthodox Christmas on the front line with military priests leading prayer services both on Sunday and on Christmas Eve night, Russias Defense Ministry said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was joined by families of military personnel who died in the war in Ukraine at Christmas Eve services at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence, in the western suburbs of Moscow.

Many of our men, our courageous, heroic guys, are warriors of Russia even now, during the holiday  with arms in hand, they defend the interests of our country, he said to the attending families, according to the Kremlins press service.

In his annual Christmas interview, carried by Russian state news agency TASS, Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, made reference to the war in Ukraine.

The trials that befall us today ... are not capable of crushing our worldview, which directly includes love for the Motherland and readiness to defend it, he said, when asked how to reassure Russians in the midst of military and civilian deaths.
Brigadier General David Pritchett, an Alabama native and Auburn University graduate, was recognized as the new adjutant general of the Alabama National Guard at a change of command ceremony in Montgomery on Friday, Jan. 5.

Pritchett takes over the leadership position from Major General Sheryl Gordon, who retired after more than six years as adjutant general.

Pritchett, who started his military career with the Marine Corps in 1988, returns to his home state after serving as director of the Joint Staff of the Wyoming National Guard as well as a deputy commanding general for field artillery at the Fires Center for Excellence at Fort Sill.

Hundreds of National Guard members, former members, public officials, and others attended the program to see Gordon, Pritchett, and Gov. Kay Ivey participate in the flag presentations that commemorate the leadership change.

Ivey, as commander in chief of the National Guard, had picked Gordon as adjutant general in 2017 and named Pritchett as Gordons replacement when she announced her retirement in November.

In an interview before the ceremony and again during his remarks to the crowd, Pritchett talked about Americas challenges in dealing with China, Russia, and growing instability in the Middle East.

We live in a very dangerous world, Pritchett said. I would argue that whats going on in our world right now, we certainly have not seen anything on this scale in my lifetime and I would say all the way back to pre-dating World War II.

Pritchett said his main goal is making sure the approximately 12,000 soldiers and airmen in the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard are ready to respond.

We owe it to the soldiers, the airmen, their families and the citizens of this state and the citizens of our country to make sure they are the most properly trained and equipped, so that if they have to deploy for domestic operations or to fight and win our nations wars overseas, that they are best prepared and equipped to do that, Pritchett said. And that will be my main goal, to make sure our soldiers, the airmen, and the families are taken care of.

Pritchett said recruiting is a strength for the Alabama National Guard and said there is a need to add force structure, which means additional platoons, companies, and jobs for soldiers and airmen.

Currently we have more soldiers specifically than there are spots for those soldiers in the Alabama National Guard, Pritchett said. So were over 100% strength. So force structure would mean we need additional units to place those soldiers.

The flip side to that is the states that arent recruiting as well, they will likely lose that force structure. So thats a conversation well have to have to try to bring that right type of structure to Alabama to have additional jobs for our soldiers and airmen here.

Ivey saluted Gordon for her service and welcomed Pritchett back to the state.

First and foremost, I want to express my sincere gratitude, to the 12,000 men and women and their supportive families who serve as protectors and defenders of our great state, Ivey said. Let there be no mistake. You form an integral part of the United States military mission readiness.

Gordons retirement marks the end of a military career that stated in April 1980. Gordon called the National Guard family again and again during her remarks at the ceremony.

Today is a very exciting day for the Alabama National Guard, Gordon said. We are getting a fantastic new leader to take over the helm of what I have been privileged to run for the past six and a half years. So its a great day for us as individuals, but also for our guard family in the state of Alabama.

Gordon was the first woman to serve as adjutant general for the Alabama National Guard.

I tend to forget that Im a female because I have this mindset of Im a soldier, Gordon said. But she said believes her example will lead to more women rising to the top of the leadership ranks.

I have been able to work with our young female soldiers, officers and enlisted, to talk to them, to mentor them, to lead them, Gordon said. And to serve as a role model to say, You, too, can do this. And you will do this.

Gordon said one of the accomplishments she is proud of during her time as adjutant general is the development of a closer working relationship between the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard, which both fall under the adjutant generals command.

Gordon said the Alabama National Guard has expanded a partnership with Romania that started as a military-to-military exchange about 30 years ago to help the former Eastern Bloc nation become a member of NATO and the European Union. Officials from Romania were recognized in the audience at Fridays ceremony.

Weve done a lot of humanitarian efforts with them, building schools and training camps, Gordon said. And theyve come and trained with us and helped us. They sent a team over with us during COVID. And so we just continue to build that relationship and were going to expand it beyond just the military in the civilian and educational sectors.

Gordon said her best advice to Pritchett was to take care of the family.

And I mean the Guard family and his personal family, Gordon said. And they will take care of you. Because we are so blessed to have the outstanding airmen and soldiers within our organization. I talk about servant leadership. And Ive known General Pritchett for a long time. And I know that he is the right person to continue that servant leadership mindset and to take our organization to new heights.

2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit al.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
BEIJING (AP)  China announced sanctions Sunday on five American defense-related companies in response to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and U.S sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals.

The sanctions will freeze any property the companies have in China and prohibit organizations and individuals in China from doing business with them, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted online.

It was unclear what impact, if any, the sanctions would have on the companies, BAE Systems Land and Armaments, Alliant Techsystems Operations, AeroVironment, Viasat and Data Link Solutions. Such sanctions are often mostly symbolic as American defense contractors generally don't sell to China.

The Foreign Ministry said the U.S. moves harmed Chinas sovereignty and security interests, undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and violated the rights and interests of Chinese companies and individuals.

The Chinese government remains unwavering in our resolve to safeguard national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and citizens, the ministry statement said.

The announcement was made less than a week ahead of a presidential election in Taiwan that is being contested in large part over how the government should manage its relationship with China, which claims the self-governing island as its territory and says it must come under its rule.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not specify which arms deal or which U.S. sanctions China was responding to, though spokesperson Wang Wenbin had warned three weeks ago that China would take countermeasures following the U.S. government's approval of a $300 million military package for Taiwan in December.

The deal includes equipment, training and equipment repair to maintain Taiwan's command, control and military communications capabilities.

The U.S. said the sale would support the modernization of Taiwan's armed forces and the maintenance of a credible defense. The proposed sale will improve the recipients capability to meet current and future threats by enhancing operational readiness, a news release from the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

Taiwan is a major flashpoint in U.S.-China relations that analysts worry could explode into military conflict between the two powers. China says that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are interference in its domestic affairs.

The Chinese military regularly sends fighter planes and ships into and over the waters around Taiwan, in part to deter the island's government from declaring formal independence. An invasion doesn't appear imminent, but the constant military activity serves as a reminder that the threat is ever-present.

The U.S. switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, but it is bound by its own laws to ensure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself. America and its allies sail warships through the Taiwan Strait, a 160-kilometer (100-mile) -wide waterway that separates the island from China.
An Army reservist assigned to the California National Guards headquarters in Sacramento County and to a counter-drug-trafficking task force has been arrested by the FBI on a weapons charge and is believed to have leaked sensitive information on drug raids to an individual involved in illegal drug activities, court records say.

Ruby Celly Uribe, 34, a 17-year Army veteran and sergeant first class, was arrested by the FBI and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail early Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, on a charge of possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle.

Uribe made a brief appearance in federal court Friday afternoon, wiping her eyes with a tissue as U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes noted she had no criminal record and agreed to allow her release on an unsecured $25,000 bond.

As part of a 17-page criminal complaint and affidavit unsealed Friday, FBI Special Agent Deanna Williams described a series of suspicious activities by Uribe that included providing military ammunition to a close associate and leaking sensitive information to him about upcoming drug raids.

This investigation revealed that Uribe leaked operational intelligence and law enforcement plans to people involved in drug trafficking organizations, that she misappropriated military property and funds for personal use, and that she illegally possessed and trafficked firearms, an affidavit from Williams states. In particular, Uribe leaked operational information to Person 1, a person she knew to be involved in illegal drug activities, and whom she believed to be connected to other drug trafficking organizations.

The investigation, which included task force briefings on phony drug raids conducted to ferret out possible leaks, included a review of Uribes text messages to others involving counter-drug operations, court records say.

Based upon my training and experience, a trusted insider leaking this kind of information in advance of troop movements could not only have compromised the mission, but also led to the injury or death of military and law enforcement officers, Williams wrote in the affidavit.

The National Guard said in a statement to The Bee that since the beginning of this investigation, the California Military Department has been cooperating with and in support of federal law enforcement authorities.

The allegations against this Soldier do not reflect the highest standards held by the service members of the California Military Department, Lt. Col. Brandon Hill wrote in an email. Due to this being an ongoing civilian criminal investigation and prosecution, we are unable to provide further comment.

Reservist faces weapons charge over short-barreled rifle

Uribe, an Antelope, California, resident, is charged only with the weapons possession charge, one involving a short-barreled .223-caliber Remington rifle found in a safe at her home during a December 2022 search, court records say.

The rifle had a barrel length of 9 inches, only slightly more than half the required size of 16 inches, court records say.

The rifle had a hole drilled above the selector to allow for an autosear to be installed, court records say. The rifle also had parts installed that allowed it to fire in full-automatic mode (i.e., as a machine gun).

The affidavit says that in addition to possessing the weapon and attempting to sell an unserialized ghost gun, Uribe leaked operational intelligence to Person 1, who had then recently retired from the military.

That individual was not named, but court papers say he was arrested by Turlock police in March 2022 on marijuana trafficking charges and was a close associate to someone identified as Person 2, who was charged in a federal drug trafficking indictment out of Fresno.

That case that involves controlled buys of fentanyl and cocaine from Person 2s drug trafficking organization, court records say.

Phony raids to ferret out leaker

After the arrest of Person 1 and the discovery of 223 marijuana plants, six high-capacity magazines and 90 rounds of ammunition, FBI and drug task force investigators held a briefing on Nov. 9, 2022, describing phony plans for an upcoming raid to task force members, including Uribe, court records say.

With the CDTFs cooperation, a fake marijuana grow interdiction operation was briefed to the CDTF National Guard members, court records say. The operation was briefed on November 9, 2022 at approximately 3:30 p.m.

The operation was described as a large scale, multi-resident operation happening in the Turlock, California area. The day of the operation was set for November 11, 2022, and all members of CDTF were required to attend the operation.

Following the briefing, investigators extracted information from Person 1s cell phone that included a Nov. 9 text chat with Uribe in which she shares details of the (ruse) operation, court records say.

Theres a mission manana alli en Turlock apparently its something big, Uribe texted, according to court records.

Oh no s---, Person 1 replied, court records say.

You couldve saved my life

The examination of the phone also revealed a text conversation between the two of them regarding a Jan. 5, 2022, raid wherein Uribe leaked information about another CDTF mission, court records say.

In two weeks they have a big bust starting from LA...taking down everything thats excess..., Uribe texted, court records say. we have box trucks committed to this.

Oh dammm, Person 1 replied, according to court records, adding, You couldve saved my life.

During an interview of Person 1 with the FBI on January 24, 2023, agents asked why Uribe would share information about CDTF operations with him, court records say. Person 1 responded that Uribe believed Person 1 knew all the weed dealers in the area because Person 1 had his own marijuana grow.

Court records also say FBI surveillance of her home revealed that she had a military-owned truck at the residence without permission and that she was using a government credit card to purchase diesel for the truck for personal trips.

2024 The Sacramento Bee. Visit sacbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Some Marine units rotating to the Pacific to bolster security in the region against Chinese influence do not have organic counter-drone capabilities and must rely on partnered forces to combat the unmanned aircraft, commanders for the units said Friday.

Commanders with Marine Rotational Forces South East Asia and Darwin, two rotational forces that train with U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific to deter China through partnerships, told reporters they did not experience any drone threats during recent rotations. However, they said unmanned aircraft present a "wicked problem" that they do not have assets to combat on their own.

Drone use has surged in conflicts around the world as the technology has become cheap and widely dispersed, a massive shift from post-9/11 wars in which the U.S. used Predators and Global Hawks to dominate the skies. Now, drones are proliferating on battlefields such as Ukraine, Gaza and the Red Sea and in Iraq and Syria, where U.S. troops now face regular attacks.

Read Next: Guard Drug Task Force Member Arrested, Accused of Leaking Info to Drug Dealer

The Marine Corps said that its requirement for capabilities to defend against drones isn't new, and the service is working to get necessary gear "into the hands of Marines faster" with "urgently-fielded capabilities," Ashley Calingo, a spokesperson for Marine Corps Systems Command, said Monday.

Unmanned aircraft systems are "a wicked problem that everyone's working hard to come to grips with," Col. Brendan Sullivan, the commanding officer of Marine Rotational Force-Darwin, or MRF-D, told reporters Friday. "That's a huge focus of effort within the First Marine Division and a specific emphasis going for the division commander."

Sullivan said that, while MRF-D was in the Northern Territory of Australia, as well as in Indonesia and the Philippines, it did not have any contact with "unknown UAS" but noted that his unit did not have its own means to destroy drones. UAS stands for unmanned aircraft system.

"We're constantly working to achieve better signature management that allows us not only to reduce exposure to UAS, but all manner of overhead collect," he said.

Overhead collect refers to drones' ability to -- while sometimes undetected -- collect information on targets. In recent years, Chinese drone activity in and around the South China Sea has caused alarm for countries such as Taiwan. Last year, while the MRF-D was training with Australia, Japan and the Philippines, China flew a UAS off of Taiwan's east coast, USNI reported.

Col. Thomas Siverts, the commanding officer of the newly formed Marine Rotational Force-South East Asia, or MRF-SEA, also said that his unit did not experience any "exposure to any outside UAS" during its rotations to the Pacific last year but conceded his unit also does not have capabilities "to counter UAS at this time, but we are certainly working on it."

He added that partner forces such as the Philippines and Indonesia have "robust" counter-drone programs.

The Marine Corps has previously emphasized the importance of counter-UAS operations in its Force Design 2030 concept, a plan to modernize the service within the next decade. In its updated concept published last year, the Marine Corps recognized international conflicts that have seen a proliferation of drone warfare in the last decade.

"Congress similarly recognized the trends emerging from the conflict in Ukraine, which provide evidence to support our close-combat lethality initiatives, focus on counter-UAS, and air and missile defense, and investments in precision fires to support distributed operations and maneuver," according to the Marine Corps design plan.

Programs that the Marine Corps is "actively pursuing" include the Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or MADIS, which is meant to protect critical assets from UAS, according to Calingo.

The other is the L-MADIS, a more mobile version of the system that gives Marine Expeditionary Units the ability to transport anti-drone capabilities via tilt and rotary wing aircraft.

In 2022, the Marine Corps highlighted its efforts to bring counter-UAS to the force in order to protect installations and infrastructure.



"The Marine Corps, and DoD in general, required the capability to defend against [small UAS] years ago," Don Kelley, who was program manager for ground-based air defense at the Marine Corps' PEO Land Systems, said in a press release at the time. "The threat of UAS is only proliferating every day. The bottom line is, we need to provide this capability to our Marines as rapidly as possible."

Calingo, the spokesperson for Marine Corps Systems Command, said Installation Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or I-CUAS, are expected to be fielded to Marines in fiscal 2024 and will "defend covered assets on Marine Corps installations in the continental U.S. and in U.S. territories."

MRF-D, the rotational force based in Darwin, includes roughly 2,500 Marines while MRF-SEA, which completed its second rotation to the Indo-Pacific last month, is composed of nearly 200 Marines and sailors.

MRF-SEA conducted operations in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia to -- in part -- "deter malign influence and support strategic competition efforts that contribute to regional stability in the Indo-Pacific," according to the Marine Corps.

Related: US and Britain Say Their Navies Shot Down 15 Attack Drones over the Red Sea
The Navy is requesting permission for the installation and maintenance of mine training areas off Hawaii and Southern California.

The Navy is preparing to conduct an environmental review of its Pacific training operations around Hawaii and California and is soliciting public feedback until the end of January.

The service has an operating permit for what it calls the Hawaii-California Training and Testing Study Area that expires in 2025, and is required to submit an environmental impact statement as part of the renewal process. The Navy is moving forward at a time when the military considers the Pacific to be its top priority theater amid tensions with China.

Under the new permit, the Navy is requesting a "special use " airspace in Southern California, an expansion of an underwater training range near San Clemente Island and the installation and maintenance of mine training areas off Hawaii and Southern California.

"The Proposed Action is needed to ensure U.S. military services are able to organize, train, and equip service members and personnel to meet their respective national defense missions in accordance with their Congressionally mandated requirements, " the Navy said in a statement. "Proposed training and testing activities are similar to those analyzed in previous environmental impact analyses and are representative of activities that have been conducted off Hawaii and California for more than 80 years."

The Navy said it "would continue to employ appropriate marine species protective mitigation measures when conducting these activities."

But in Hawaii the Navy is facing increased scrutiny of its environmental record as it continues cleanup operations at its underground Red Hill facility, a World War II-era fuel farm that sits just 100 feet above a critical aquifer most of Honolulu rely on for drinking water.

In November 2021 jet fuel from the facility spilled and tainted the Navy's Oahu water system that serves 93, 000 people. The military is working to extract the last of the fuel and preparing for remediation and closure operations that are expected to take several years.

"Protecting our environment is in our national interest and can be done while ensuring our national security. It's not one or the other," said U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono. "I expect the Navy to fully complete the EIS and to work with the appropriate state and federal agencies to mitigate potential negative impacts of renewing current federal regulatory permits and authorizations."

Under the existing permit, Navy personnel operating at sea must acknowledge "mitigation zones" for marine mammals and are instructed that "if marine mammals are observed, Navy personnel must maneuver to maintain distance." Every ship has a logbook on board, and sailors are supposed to log any sighting of marine mammals spotted near their vessels.

According to a legal notice posted online in September, the National Marine Fisheries Service and Navy explored the idea of new mitigation areas in Hawaii to protect marine mammals, including "consideration of new mitigation areas based on newly identified (biologically important areas ), "but the Navy concluded establishing those areas would be "impracticable given overlap with critical Navy training areas in the (Hawaii Range Complex)."

The U.S. Pacific Fleet hosts the biennial Rim of the Pacific Exercisethe world's largest naval war gamein the Hawaiian islands, and has been stepping up training year-round with allied countries in the Pacific. As a result, Hawaii is becoming seen as an increasingly important operations hub.

But island residents and environmentalists have long expressed concern about the impact of those operations, in particular regarding loud sonar under the water and combat exercises where the Navy sinks decommissioned ships.

Wildlife impacts Sonar and other noise associated with the training has been known in some cases to adversely affect marine wildlife.

"We do know that sonar use is very detrimental to whales," said Jonee Peters, executive director of the Conservation Council for Hawaii. In 2015, the council took the NMFS to court, charging that it has allowed the Navy "to conduct training and testing exercises even if they end up harming a stunning number of marine mammals, some of which are endangered or threatened."

Research suggests beaked whales are particularly vulnerable to sonar.

In March 2022, when a beaked whale stranded in Honaunau Bay, bystanders intervened to turn the animal off the rocks, allowing it to swim back out to sea on its own. Local residents reported hearing a siren or alarm-type of sound underwater on the same day and spotted a Navy vessel nearby the following day.

The Navy later confirmed that it used continuous active sonar within 27 nautical miles and 48 hours of the time of stranding, though officials said the stranding has not been definitively linked to the sonar.

"Just being mindful of not doing sonar testing or using sonar during whale season is a good answer," Peters argued, but she added that there should be more research into how sonar effects other marine life.

Environmentalists have also raised concerns about vessels hitting and injuring marine animals, especially whales.

The NMFS authorizes the Navy an "incidental take"a calculation of the number of times the government believes Navy operations could result in marine life getting harassed, injured or killed in a certain area even if sailors are working to mitigate the impact.

The Navy's current operating permit allowed up to three large whales to be killed in "ship strikes"fatal collisions at sea. As of 2024, the Navy has hit that limit through incidents off Southern California.

In 2021, the Navy announced it would review its policies after an Australian navy destroyer crew participating in a U.S.-led multinational exercise off California unknowingly dragged two dead fin whales under their ship's hull into San Diego, where the animals had to be dislodged from the vessel.

Navy officials had long contended that sailors aboard a ship would know if they had fatally struck a whale, but the 2021 incident indicated there could be more impacts than they had known. The Endangered Species Act requires the government to reevaluate its data if new information or factors it hadn't considered come to light.

It's not just military ships moving through the Pacific. The ocean is bustling with commercial, scientific and recreational vessels that constantly move through Hawaii's waters and have at times collided with wildlife.

"When it comes to mitigating the impact of human activity on the natural environment more can always be done, " said Hirono. "Ideally with enough research and technology development we can get to zero whale strikes, but unfortunately we are not there yet. It's important the Navy ensures it is doing everything in its power to minimize these strikes."

Last year the Navy said it would provide extra training to prevent whale strikes as a result of the incident. But the Navy also requested that the NMFS retroactively amend its operating permit for Hawaii and California to allow for more fatal collisions with large whales, from three to five.

A Pacific Fleet spokesperson told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the Navy had requested to amend the permit "is predicated on a revised summary of the probability of future ship strikes in the approximately two years remaining in the (Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing ) authorizations following the Navy ship strikes in the California portion of HSTT during 2021 and 2023."

Peters said she's disturbed by what she thinks is a lack of accountability given that Navy can simply ask to change the regulations. "We shouldn't be changing limits for their convenience, I don't think that's pono," she said.

Deep sea mystery Several groups have also raised concerns about military sinking exercises that the Navy calls SINKEX. The Navy has conducted the exercises for decades to give sailors the opportunity to practice using their weapons on real targetssomething the Navy doesn't have the opportunity to do as often as other branches.

Before they're towed out to sea, the decommissioned vessels must be defueled and scrubbed of potential toxic chemicals in a series of costly procedures laid out by the Environmental Protection Agency. It's more expensive to sink a vessel than to scrap it. But critics argue that there hasn't been enough study of what happens after the ships sink to the ocean floor.

The Navy imposed a moratorium on SINKEX training in 2010 while it conducted a review of the program weighing its benefits, costs and potential environmental impacts. In 2011, the Sierra Club and other groups filed a lawsuit against the EPA alleging that it failed to prevent the SINKEX program from exposing the ocean to toxic chemicals, specifically polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

The training resumed in 2012 with three decommissioned vessels sunk off Kauai during that year's RIMPAC. The plaintiff groups dropped their complaint in 2013 due to a lack of funding, but their criticism of the training has not subsided.

The Navy has argued that the shipwrecks turn into reefs and habitat for undersea life like other shipwrecks have, and that there is little adverse environmental impact. But when it comes to tracking the exercises and their environmental impact in Hawaii, the military has little data. The Navy has been unable to provide an exact figure of how many ships it has sunk in and around Hawaii, though it sinks an average of two ships during RIMPAC years.

In Hawaii sinking exercises are required to be conducted at least 50 nautical miles from shore and in waters at a depth of at least 6, 000 feet. While Navy officials insist the exercises are environmentally sound, they also admit they haven't monitored the wrecks because the depth of the shipwrecks "precludes them from long-term monitoring."

After RIMPAC 2022, the Navy said in a statement to the Star-Advertiser that in 2014 the EPA determined the training "does not pose an unreasonable risk of injury to human health or the environment " and that long-term monitoring of SINKEX hulls is not required as they are selected from a list of Navy-approved vessels that have been cleaned in accordance with ( EPA ) guidelines."

"SINKEX is an important and unique training tool for our Navy and I expect it to be conducted in accordance with all relevant environmental regulations, " said Hirono. But when it comes to studying the sunken ships the Navy has left across the ocean floor around the islands, she said, "the benefit of exploring these vessels should be considered in the context of the significant costs and resources that would be necessary to do so."

Environmentalists argue, however, that it's vital that there be studies of the wrecks to see if the Navy's assertion that they have become reefs is true. Peters said that those areas are habitats for deep sea corals and other creatures that scientists are only now starting to understand.

"Some of them take hundreds of years to grow, and if they're sinking ships out there it could potentially destroy some of those corals," she said. "How are they knowing this is a good thing to do if they're not monitoring?"

___

(c)2024 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Visit The Honolulu Star-Advertiser at www.staradvertiser.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
This story was originally published by ProPublica.

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Marty and Candy Larsen were in their pajamas, getting ready to watch a movie in the living room, when they heard their 27-year-old daughter scream.

I need help! Julia cried.

They could see her standing just a few feet away, her long blond hair unkempt, her blue-gray eyes at once alert and vacant. Shed looked like this in other moments when fear overtook her and reality slipped away. But a new sight jolted them upright: their daughters fingers, wrapped around a pink handgun.

Julia pounded the weapon against a wall, then squeezed its trigger, sending a bullet down an empty hallway. Help me! she shrieked.

The parents scrambled in different directions. Candy was on with 911 while Marty reached toward his daughter. Julia, stand down, he said. How can we help you if you dont stand down?

But Julia fired again, repeating her plea like a mantra.

Help me! she cried. Help me!

The need had been building for almost six years, since she returned home from a stint as a Navy firefighter aboard a warship in the Persian Gulf. She was tormented by the rippling trauma of an on-duty sexual assault and grappling with symptoms that led her to be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder.

She was dependent on the Department of Veterans Affairs for care. Just that morning, when her latest crisis began, a nurse at the local VA clinic in Chico, California, had told her mother to bring her in. When they arrived, a telehealth provider was too busy to see Julia. A social worker asked questions to gauge her risk of suicide or violence; even though Julia refused to answer, she was sent out into the world and told to return for the next available appointment, in 11 days.

Such dysfunction had become the norm at the Chico clinic, one of several hundred such community facilities designed to serve veterans who live far from the nations big cities. From the outside, it looked like a haven for heroes: a state-of-the-art building with a gleaming atrium, a large American flag flying out front. But the clinic hadnt had a full-time, on-site psychiatrist in five years. A single nurse was responsible for connecting hundreds of veterans, some with serious mental illness or active suicidal thoughts, with an ever-changing lineup of telehealth providers in different time zones.

The military has long drawn recruits from remote towns across America, promising them a lifetime of health care in return for their service. But the VA has seldom staffed those same communities with the mental health professionals needed to help them once they return home. Two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned this chronic shortcoming into an emergency. The demand for mental health care has grown at a rate thats triple the rate of growth for all VA medical services. Anguished employees, doing what they can with threadbare staffing and glitchy technology, are burning themselves out trying to avert disasters that feel inevitable. In Chico, nurses and social workers cried after their shifts, and the new site manager, a veteran and longtime health care administrator, had made a grim prediction: We are going to kill someone, she told colleagues.

If hindsight is 20/20, agency officials should have exquisite vision by now. Their files are littered with cautionary tales of missed screenings and insufficient follow-up; in at least 16 instances since 2019, veterans who received inadequate care wound up killing themselves or other people; an additional five died for reasons related to the poor quality of care. Each time, investigators with the VAs Office of Inspector General swooped in to determine whether the system failed; each time, they concluded it had.

To plug the holes, the VA grew its nationwide mental health workforce by more than 4,000 last year and plans to hire an additional 5,000 professionals over the next five years. But the sense of dread lingers. Its a perfect storm of real potential for gaps in care, said Alyssa Hundrup, a director on the Government Accountability Offices health care team.

Just as violence was erupting in Julias home on Jan. 3, 2022, another veteran sat alone in his dark bedroom, not far away, ruminating. Deep circles hung below his eyes. An unruly beard covered his chin.

Andrew Iles, 33, had come to believe the government was monitoring him and that his mother was in on the conspiracy. He, too, had tried to get help at the Chico clinic but for years was passed from provider to provider. Recently, all he could get was a psychiatric pharmacist who prescribed him pills. He felt abandoned, concluded the VA had never wanted to help him and slipped into a state of paranoia so intense that he threw away his belongings and holed himself up inside his mothers house.

His sister, once his protector and closest ally, had stopped bringing her family to see him. His mother had tried to remove all of the firearms from the house but missed a few. Andrew had stowed them away.

Chico, California, sits in the northern Sacramento Valley, in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Its a college town home to museums and breweries, funky cottages and trendy restaurants. Climb into the foothill elevation, though, and you enter another world. Aside from some big-box stores and picturesque downtowns, its mostly wilderness dotted with private homes. Cellphone service is spotty. Roads snake through dense forests.

Andrew Iles grew up in a particularly isolated community called Concow. When he was a kid, only a few hundred people lived there. They drove the same mountain roads, shopped at the same convenience store. There were enough children for a small school, but each grade level had just a handful of students. Most were eligible for free lunch.

Andrews family lived a mile off the main road in a one-room, A-frame home that sometimes had no electricity or running water. His parents, Glen Iles and Sue Hill, used methamphetamines. They disappeared, often for days at a time, and let other drug users hang around the house. Some of them forced Andrew and his big sister, Ashley Hill, to engage in horrific sex acts. The kids stayed quiet about the abuse. We were so afraid to say anything, Ashley recalled.

The siblings sought refuge on the mountainside. It was their own wild playground, full of creeks to splash in and salamanders to chase. But violence was never far. Once, when Andrew and Ashley were in grade school, they found their mother handcuffed to a refrigerator, bleeding from three gunshot wounds. A few years later, they watched Glen hold Sue at gunpoint and threaten to shoot her. Ashley called 911. Glen fled into the forest on his ATV but was caught and sent to prison. The ordeal made the local newspaper.

The arrest was a turning point. Sue stopped using drugs. She found a new partner and moved the family a few times, ultimately settling in a small city in the foothills called Oroville. After finding steady work at a rent-to-own furniture store and a new place to live, she started rebuilding her family.

Andrew grew into a gangly teenager with a sly sense of humor who wore braces, dyed his hair bright colors and swept his long bangs across his face. He and his friends were emo kids; they listened to Fall Out Boy and spoke out against the war in Iraq. Andrew dated the same girl for years. He showered her with attention and wrote her silly notes. He put considerably less effort into his schoolwork. As graduation neared, he started to believe he needed structure and discipline, and he thought the Air Force might provide it. Plus, he had a mind for math and technology, and the idea of working on multimillion-dollar airplanes appealed to him. If I dont do something like this, he told his mother, Ill be in Oroville for the rest of my life.

As a new airman, Andrew was stationed in Arizona as an aircraft electrical and environmental systems apprentice. His supervisors rated his performance as truly among the best. His first evaluations touted his unrivaled initiative and described him as a superior performer and stellar airman. One evaluation ended with a simple declaration: Promote now!

Andrew raised his hand for an assignment on Kunsan Air Base in the Republic of Korea where he could work on F-16 fighter jets. He traveled the country by train, visiting university cities so he could meet people his age. He found it thrilling to be somewhere so different from Concow with such freedom to explore.

His next tour took him to Ramstein Air Base outside Frankfurt, Germany, to work on hulking C-130s. He was 22 then, excited to visit Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris. But he was increasingly looking over his shoulder, wondering what his peers were saying about him.

Around that time, Andrew sent emails to his mother and sister that described neighbors spying on him. Sue and Ashley found the letters troubling. In some ways, Andrew sounded like his father, who had never been diagnosed with mental illness but was prone to paranoia and conspiracy theories.

Andrew had reached the age when, experts say, a typical life can start to veer off course. It is generally believed that some people have a greater biological risk of developing psychotic disorders than others. Genetics can play a role. Environmental factors like stress can trigger the onset of illness or make it worse than it would have been. Symptoms tend to begin when people are in their late teens or early 20s, as their brains mature.

Andrew sought out behavioral health services on the base, he said. But he was certain his bosses saw him differently after that. He felt some treated him like he was less capable, while others seemed to think he was faking. He considered ending his life.

In late 2010, long before Andrew was supposed to leave Germany, he wrote his commanding officer saying he no longer believed he could do his job and asking to leave the military, he recalled. The Air Force approved his request for separation, giving him an honorable discharge, records show, but required him to transfer his remaining active duty service to the reserves, he said.

When asked about the circumstances of Andrews separation, an Air Force spokesperson, Michael T. Dickerson, said he could not comment on anything related to an individuals physical or mental health or the nature of his or her discharge.

Andrew flew back to the United States. He was active in reserves in northern California for a period. But his growing fears about government surveillance kept his mind in constant motion. At night, he thought he could hear strangers talking about him through doors and windows. By 24, hed moved back in with his mom and stepdad in Oroville, the one place hed dreaded ending up.

Julia Larsen grew up a 40-minute drive from Andrew in a quaint foothills town called Paradise. Her father worked for the post office. Her mother ran a home day care. The youngest of three daughters, Julia was bound by few rules. She spent most of her time outdoors, searching for animals or digging in the red earth. A treasured family photo shows her holding a catfish she reeled in herself.

People who knew Julia as a teenager describe her as bubbly and a free spirit. Her senior superlative in high school was biggest daredevil. Her family was always camping or hiking together. On weekends, when her friends came over for backyard sleepovers, her mother often joined them around the campfire. In Julias mind, Paradise lived up to its name. But like many young people, Julia was eager to escape the place she was from. So one day, she and some girlfriends struck up a conversation with the local Navy recruiter.

Julia told her parents while the family ate dinner together at the kitchen table. Marty, a Navy veteran with an anchor tattooed to his forearm, was elated. I couldnt stop bragging about her, he would later recall. Candy worried about Julias safety overseas but trusted her to make the right decision. The two were more like sisters sometimes than mother and daughter.

Julia arrived at boot camp outside Chicago in June 2012. She was 18. She traded a colorful sweater and jeans for a Navy-issued T-shirt and shorts and lined up to have her hair cut. The recruits marched and swam and studied and shot. It was easier than she expected. Her parents and middle sister came to watch her graduate. They cheered from the bleachers and then celebrated over deep-dish pizza and White Castle hamburgers.

When it came time to specialize, Julia became a flight deck firefighter. She went for additional training in the Florida Panhandle, where she learned to work a high-pressure hose and handle rescue equipment. That fall, she was assigned to the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier undergoing major upgrades near the Naval base in Norfolk, Virginia. Her home was a cramped bunk with a flimsy mattress deep in the ships belly. She placed the few personal possessions she had in a tiny locker and reported for duty.

She doesnt remember much about the first day or even the first week. But she remembers the comments a supervisor started making about her body, and the way he pressed himself against her when she was chopping lettuce for the salad bar. Later, while she was on dishwashing duty in the ships scullery, he approached again, she said. He grabbed her arms and folded them across her chest. Unbuttoned her top. Turned her around. He was bulky, much taller than her 5-foot-7-inch frame, and had a thick, dark mustache. Julia had never felt so helpless. She fought to free herself from his grasp, burning her right wrist on a hot dishwasher in the struggle, but was completely overpowered. Before he could get much further, another young sailor walked in. The supervisor got spooked and scurried out.

Julia told a friend. Then she told the team that handled sexual assault allegations, she said. She wasnt afraid of repercussions. She had been so excited to enlist. Was this what the rest of her military experience would be like? The Navy gave her the option to transfer to a different ship. For Julia, it was an easy call. She no longer wanted to be on the Roosevelt.

But while the Navy offered Julia a fresh start, it didnt offer her mental health services, she said, as Department of Defense policies demanded. I would have taken them up on it, she told ProPublica. Asked to respond, a U.S. Navy spokesperson said, While we cannot comment on the care Ms. Larsen may or may not have received, the Navy takes mental health for our Sailors seriously.

It was, experts said, a crucial missed step. Research shows a clear association between military sexual trauma and mental health conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicidal ideation. Studies have shown treatment can help reduce PTSD and depression symptoms, which sometimes emerge years after the traumatic event.

Julia was assigned to the USS Kearsarge, a massive assault ship that was already in the Middle East to support troops in the global war on terrorism. During her second deployment to the region, in the spring of 2016, a Harrier jet burst into flames departing from the Kearsarges flight deck. Julia was startled by the deafening pop. She sprinted toward the burning aircraft with the other firefighters to battle the blaze. Her initial response, quick action and knowledge during an AV-8B Harrier fire on the flight deck was pivotal in the prevention of a major catastrophe and loss of lives, her supervisors wrote in her performance evaluation.

Almost four years to the day after she began boot camp, Julia returned to California. She moved into a house in the southern Central Valley with her boyfriend from the Navy and enrolled at the local college. She set a goal of earning a degree in social work and becoming someone who could help veterans. But Julia couldnt shake the feeling that something was wrong. She had trouble concentrating on schoolwork. Some nights, she couldnt sleep. She sought out counseling through the VA.

By June 2017, Julia had started feeling scared of the world around her. One night, she was certain she could hear people walking on her roof and called the police. The officers who showed up made her feel even more anxious. She worried they would take advantage of her. She pushed one and wound up at the police station. She was later taken to a psychiatric unit.

As soon as Marty heard what happened, he drove six hours to pick up his daughter. He packed her belongings into suitcases and hitched her car to the back of his truck. On the ride back, Julia was convinced they were being followed. She begged her father not to draw attention by driving too fast or changing lanes. Marty was stunned to see his easygoing daughter acting so out of character. It was like a switch had flipped, he recalled.

For veterans in the foothills like Andrew and Julia, the Chico clinic was all they had.

Its mental health team had been trying for years to convince regional leaders to add more positions. Even when the staff included two psychiatrists and a psychologist, plus a nurse, counselor, social workers and designated mental health administrators, the team struggled to keep up with growing demand, former employees told ProPublica. The clinic had more than 500 mental health patients, many of whom had complex illnesses.

The departments longtime manager, a psychiatrist named Russell Cottrell, recalled once noticing that other rural mental health departments in the region had more personnel per patient than Chico did, he said. When he asked about the discrepancy, his bosses stopped sharing the data. He fumed, he said.

I dont think they paid attention to the growth we had, Cottrell told ProPublica. I would point it out and Id get in trouble.

By the summer of 2016, the staff had gotten smaller, and Cottrell was the only psychiatrist in the building. Cottrell was no stranger to hard work; an Army veteran, he had devoted his career to treating the most challenging mental health cases. But he was tired of begging for personnel and running out of energy. That fall, he made plans to retire.

The lead mental health nurse, Michelle Angela, sent an email to a regional mental health leader in the wake of Cottrells retirement announcement. We would like to invite you to come visit us at Chico Behavioral/Mental Health for an update on what the plan will be, she wrote. In addition to our concerns as staff members, our local veterans have been asking if there will be [a medical doctor] on site for their mental health needs.

No such doctor was hired. Instead, the clinic filled the gap with a combination of visiting doctors and doctors in other locations who connected with patients through computer screens.

In many ways, the Chico clinic was on the forefront of telepsychiatry, then an emerging way to deliver treatment that had the potential to broaden access to veterans in remote locations. But some mental health professionals had reservations. While virtual sessions might work for some patients, they worried others needed the trust and connection that could only be established in person.

For Andrew, who started coming in for treatment after his father died in 2013, the changes were disorienting. Andrew had been seeing Cottrell and starting to untangle his thoughts. When Cottrell retired in February 2017, Andrew was assigned to a temporary doctor, then a specialized pharmacist who wrote prescriptions, he said. Andrew resented the arrangement. I wanted to talk to someone routinely, he said, not just get a load of meds.

Julia first arrived at the clinic on June 23, 2017. She wouldnt maintain eye contact with anyone; while in the waiting room, she rearranged the chairs. That day, clinic staff offered her little in the way of answers. She was informed that Chico VA Behavioral Health is an outpatient clinic and we do not have a psychiatrist on site, a social worker wrote in her medical records.

The following month, Julia started coming into the clinic for telehealth appointments with an off-site provider. Her records show she was diagnosed with PTSD from combat and military sexual trauma and bipolar disorder, the latter of which she disputes.

For a while, the patchwork system in the clinics mental health department seemed to be working, current and former employees told ProPublica. But cracks started to show. In 2018, the psychologist left. And the clinic sometimes found itself without a telehealth provider available to refill medications or see patients in crisis, emails obtained by ProPublica show.

That November, a wildfire started burning up in the foothills. It was called the Camp Fire because it originated off Camp Creek Road. The blaze grew into a raging inferno that affected virtually everyone in the region. More than 10,000 homes were destroyed, including the one belonging to Marty and Candy Larsen where Julia grew up. At least 85 people died.

The day after the fire, when the air was still heavy with smoke and ash, Cottrell showed up at the clinic to help. He knew the fire would increase the demand for mental health services, he said. Seven months later, he came back on a part-time basis to help out until the clinic could hire a new full-time psychiatrist on site.

Months passed without a hire. Meanwhile, the Chico clinic moved into a gleaming new facility just a few miles away. The VAs website trumpeted its status as a green building with energy-reducing and cost-saving features. But none of that improved the mental health department, former employees said. In fact, the new building eliminated a designated waiting area for veterans in crisis as well as private offices for mental health practitioners, meaning patients were seen in bare-bones exam rooms that evoked a school nurses office.

Amid the turmoil, Andrew struggled. When he noticed Cottrell back in the clinic, he wondered if Cottrell hadnt really retired but had discarded him as a patient. Experts who were not involved in Andrews care told ProPublica that the constant provider changes would likely have reinforced Andrews paranoia and made him feel less connected to his care. One said the churn would have felt like a parent continually rejecting their child.

Julias life had become a rollercoaster. Some days, she felt great. She enrolled at Chico State and floated around its red-brick campus. She could be very lucid and be her old self, Marty recalled. We kept thinking, shes over it. But stressors would trigger her. She would flash back to her darkest moments, start feeling paranoid. It wasnt unusual for her to go days without sleeping.

She wanted counseling, she told ProPublica. But at the clinic, there was never enough time to get into it all. The focus seemed to be more on medication than talk therapy, she said. They wanted to help me and [then] shoo me along, she said.

The strain on the clinic would only get worse.

The same month that COVID-19 swept across the country, the mental health team learned its designated administrative assistant would be shared by several departments. That made managing appointments even more difficult. Not long after that, one of the two telepsychiatrists started seeing fewer Chico patients.

Cottrell had had enough, he said. He decided he would retire for good at the end of the year. I saw it as a lost cause, he told ProPublica.

That summer, a psychiatrist on the East Coast was hired to do virtual visits on a part-time basis. But increasingly, technical problems were disrupting appointments.

In emails to regional mental health leaders, Chicos front-line workers insisted that hiring an on-site psychiatrist should be the priority and noted the VAs own guidelines, which said veterans who were suicidal, violent or in need of immediate medical attention should not be referred for telehealth services. We currently have numerous serious suicidal ideation patients, a nurse named Diana McMaster wrote. With losing Dr. Cottrell, do we not need a psychiatrist in the building? A lot of times it is left up to Michelle and me to manage what happens with these patients on our side of the video.  That puts us in a precarious position.

Dr. David Gellerman, the chief medical director for mental health services in the VAs Northern California region, replied, writing, No, we are not placing anyone in a precarious position. We can't hire someone who does not exist... if we get a good psychiatrist or [psychiatric nurse practitioner] candidate who can be on location, we can try, but so far we have not had any acceptances.

Gellerman pointed out that precautions were being relaxed in the pandemic. Care by telehealth is better than no care at all, he added.

Reached by email by ProPublica, Gellerman did not comment on the correspondence. He referred a reporter to the VAs public affairs office that covers the broader region of Northern and Central California, Nevada, Hawaii and the Philippines, which did not respond. A national spokesperson said agency guidance does not establish absolute conditions under which virtual care should not be given.

By then, Andrew had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a mental illness marked by a combination of schizophrenia and mood disorder symptoms. People with the disorder can experience psychotic symptoms, losing their connection to reality.

Andrew hadnt been employed since returning to Oroville. He had come to believe people were trying to kill him, even his family. He spent most of his time alone in his bedroom. He slept upright in his computer chair and ate only food that came in a can so nobody could poison him.

Sue quit her job to care for her son. She made sure he had canned food to eat and drove him back and forth from his VA appointments. In conversations with her sister, Sue worried Andrews doctors were always changing and he wasnt getting the help he needed. Ashley felt helpless watching her little brother slip away. He was withdrawn and angry, a far cry from the outgoing kid she remembered. She thought back on how she had tried to protect him when they were children. It felt like Id failed, she said.

The pandemic had rekindled Julias paranoia, too, so much so that she began to believe strangers wanted her dead. That May, her oldest sister, Jordan Pepper, a clinical mental health counselor in Ohio, traveled to Chico and helped her to seek in-patient treatment at the VA hospital near Sacramento, California. Doctors there diagnosed her with general psychotic disorder.

Records show Julia went to the Chico clinic in the weeks and months that followed. Candy and Marty took turns accompanying her. Candy made it a point to get to know the people who cared for her daughter, in some cases getting their personal cellphone numbers. She tried to stay optimistic.

In the fall of 2021, the telepsychiatrist who had been seeing Julia stopped seeing Chico patients. That November, Julia had a virtual appointment with a psychiatric nurse practitioner she had never seen before who prescribed a drug called atomoxetine to help her concentrate, her medical records show. But two days later, Julia called back and asked for something that would work faster. The nurse practitioner prescribed an antidepressant called bupropion and instructed Julia to take the two medications together, her records show.

More than a year later, in its report on Julias case, the VAs inspector general would note that the combined use of atomoxetine and bupropion can trigger psychotic or manic symptoms. The nurse practitioner told investigators that despite what his notes said, he had not intended for Julia to take both. It isnt clear which, if any, Julia took. She doesnt remember.

Around that time, Julia began taking note of unusual things she believed were happening to her: strangers following her at the dog park, electronic files going missing. She installed a camera in her car and started carrying a pink handgun she bought after separating from the Navy.

The Chico clinics mental health department, meanwhile, fell further into disarray, current and former employees told ProPublica. Several other telehealth providers left, including the Connecticut-based telepsychiatrist who was seeing Andrew. Those who stayed buckled under the weight. We were abandoned, said Belva Fay, a senior social worker who was also the clinics acting manager for eight months. We were trying to run a clinic with nobody to prescribe medications, nobody to see emergency cases, nobody to talk to these clients who are angry. 

We kept saying, there is going to be a problem, Fay said. This is going to blow up.

By the time Michelle Gradnigo started as the clinics site manager in October 2021, disaster felt all but certain. Gradnigo, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army and longtime military health care administrator, was so troubled by the lack of on-site mental health care providers that she asked if the clinics primary-care physicians could handle some of the load, she said. The answer was no, she recalled.

I reached out to anyone at the time who would listen and said we are going to kill someone, she told ProPublica.

VA officials told ProPublica the Chico clinic was trying to recruit mental health professionals by offering special salary rate increases, education debt reduction and relocation incentives.

Northern California VA leaders were also trying to grow the virtual mental health program. A proposal obtained by ProPublica through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that mental health vacancies were dogging clinics across the region and that painstaking and time-consuming recruitment efforts were bearing little fruit. The only positions drawing quality applicants, according to the presentation, were virtual.

When the sun rose over the Sierra Nevada mountains on the third morning of 2022, Julias eyes were already open.

She had been awake for days, a fact she blamed on what felt like a constant barrage of electric shocks. She had tried to stop them by covering her walls in aluminum foil, but it wasnt helping. She wanted pills to calm her down. At 8 a.m., she left a message at the clinic that she was in crisis and very anxious, government records show. An hour later, she started texting her mother, who called the clinic in tears. The mental health nurse was home that day with COVID, so a nurse from another department took the call.

The nurse sent an instant message to Julias nurse practitioner, who was seeing patients from another location, asking if Julia should come into the Chico clinic or go to the VA hospital in Sacramento. The nurse practitioner wanted Julia to go to Sacramento, government records show. But the nurse misunderstood and told Julias mother to bring her to Chico.

Marty and Candy brought Julia to the clinic around 2:30 p.m. Her body was tense, her eyes red and heavy with tears. But the nurse practitioner never evaluated her. He had nine appointments that day and no time to see Julia, a violation of VA policy requiring same-day availability for patients in crisis.

A triage social worker tried to ask Julia questions to help determine her risk of suicide or violence, but Julia wouldnt engage, records show. Instead, she quibbled with her diagnoses and voiced frustration over the recent change in her mental health provider. The social worker should have posed the questions to Julias mom, who was inside the clinic while Julias dad waited in his truck. Instead, she marked Julias disposition as routine and concluded she wasnt a threat to herself or others. There is no indication the social worker asked about Julias access to guns or other lethal means.

Later, in an interview with the inspector generals office, the social worker said she was unfamiliar with the protocols. She ultimately gave Julia the nurse practitioners next available appointment, in 11 days.

Julia stormed out of the clinic, furious that she had not been given the medication she wanted, her father recalled. Candy was frustrated; she wanted clear direction on how to help. Exhausted, they all headed back to Candy and Martys home, a cozy ranch on a remote hillside outside of Red Bluff, California.

Back at home, Candy offered Julia some soup and a sandwich and tried to help her calm down. Julia was still agitated, but around 10 p.m., she took a sleeping pill and retired to her parents bedroom. When it was quiet, Candy and Marty got ready to watch a movie in the living room, hoping it might help them relax.

Just before 11 that night, a call came into 911 dispatch.

The recording captured Julia as she pleaded for help, then fired one gunshot, then another. The line stayed open for an hour, chronicling all that unfolded.

After the second bullet fired into nowhere, Candy was determined to lower the temperature. We are trying to help, she assured her daughter. You gotta put the gun down first, honey. Marty followed suit. Were here for you, OK? he told Julia. Its not too late. Nothing bad has happened.

For a moment, it seemed like Julia might relent. OK, she said quietly. OK.

Instead, she fired again.

Acting on intuition, Marty leaped at his daughter in an effort to disarm her. He wrapped his arms around her, he said, and tried to overpower her. Could it have felt to her, in that moment, like she was back in the ship scullery, trying to escape the grip of her attacker? Its impossible to know. But she felt threatened and thrashed with all the strength she could summon, smashing at his ribs and clawing his eyes.

The gun fired again. This time, a bullet struck her mother in the thigh, tearing through a large blood vessel.

Julia didnt realize. She fought her father for control of the gun for the next 10 minutes, pistol whipping his head until he started slipping out of consciousness. After that, she told him she loved him and went outside. He came to, and by the time she returned, had retrieved his own pistol from a drawer in the kitchen. He warned Julia he would shoot and then did, he said, striking her once in each shoulder and once in the thigh.

When the police had Julia in their custody around midnight, both she and her father were seriously injured. Her mother was dead.

The morning after the shooting, her bereaved sister Jordan called the Chico clinic, she said. She wanted someone there to explain Julias mental illness to the authorities, to advocate for her sister. The staff member who answered knew nothing about the shooting. Oh shit, Jordan recalled hearing from the other end of the phone.

That afternoon, just before 4, the clinics phone rang again.

It was Andrew, who was in a particularly rough place. The departure of his telepsychiatrist had made him feel cast aside yet again. Hed enrolled in an intensive VA program for people with serious mental illness, but abruptly withdrawn, believing the VA didnt really want to help him. On the call, he asked to speak to a doctor, he recalled. When he didnt get one, he told a pharmacist that he had not been taking his medication and was feeling paranoid again. The pharmacist encouraged him to restart the prescription and scheduled a follow-up appointment in two days.

Vet does not appear to be a harm to himself or others, the pharmacist wrote in Andrews notes.

The next day, Jan. 5, Andrew sought out the family shotgun. While Sue had gotten rid of most of the firearms in the house just a few months earlier, Andrew had kept three in his possession.

Around 12:30 p.m., Andrew called 911 and told the dispatcher he had shot his mother. He was standing in the driveway when deputies arrived.

Sue died on the scene.

Ashley first learned there had been a shooting at her mothers house when a friend called. She initially thought Andrew had taken his own life. She and her husband raced to the house, arriving alongside first responders. Deputies wouldnt let her on the property until well after night had fallen. Ashley struggled to make sense of what had happened. Officials told her Andrew had performed CPR on his mother. He tried saving her life, Ashley said.

Over the course of about 36 hours, employees worst fears about the Chico clinic had become reality. Many returned to the office in a state of shock.

Gradnigo, the site manager, requested a chaplain be brought into the clinic. But when she asked her supervisors what the next steps would be, she got no response, she said. Hoping the VAs central office might intervene, she sent a tip about the shootings to the agencys inspector generals office, she said. She withheld her name so she wouldnt face retaliation.

Gradnigo was fired in March 2022. The reasons provided to her were inappropriate comments and interactions with colleagues, records show. Gradnigo says the allegations about her conduct are exaggerated or false. She believes she lost her job because she reported wrongdoing and she is Black. She is pursuing a discrimination claim against the VA. The agency did not comment on the claim and told ProPublica it does not comment on personnel matters.

The inspector generals office went on to investigate Julias case. Its report, which was published in February 2023, ticked off all the ways the clinic had failed, from medication mismanagement to not having a same-day access availability and improperly assessing her risk of violence. But the report did not mention a second patient involved in a violent act. It did not address systemic staffing issues. In fact, the office said it did not substantiate employee claims that facility leaders had failed to address their concerns about mental health staffing. The report found facility leaders had ensured the use of telehealth and community care.

The inspector generals office declined to say why it did not include Andrews case in its report or publish a separate review. Spokesperson Fred Baker said the office reviews all complaints it receives. With respect to the employee concerns about staffing, he said, the inspector generals office found that leadership was taking steps to fill vacancies.

The VA declined to make a clinic leader or official at its regional office in Sacramento available for an interview. In a statement, a Washington, D.C.-based spokesperson, Joseph Williams, said the agency fell short in treating Julia. This incident does not represent the quality of care Veterans have come to expect from our facilities, or the standard to which we hold ourselves accountable, and we have taken several measures to ensure that it does not happen again, he wrote.

The agency later said it could not answer specific questions about the care Julia or Andrew received due to privacy concerns.

After the shootings, the Chico clinic hired an on-site psychiatrist and an additional social worker, according to the inspector general report. The psychiatric nurse practitioner who prescribed the medications to Julia resigned. For the last several months, the mental health team has been fully staffed, the VA told ProPublica.

Andrew was charged with his mothers murder in January 2022. He remains in the Butte County Jail. As early as this month, a judge could determine whether Andrew was legally sane at the time of the killing.

In an interview with ProPublica, Andrew described being stuck in a loop when he fired the shotgun. He was convinced his mom was poisoning him, something he now says was a delusion. I love my mom, he said. I wish she was here.

He doesnt want to scapegoat the military or the VA for what happened, he said. He accepts responsibility. But he stressed that he had tried to get help from the VA repeatedly. I do believe if there had been some form of intervention on their end, this might not have happened, he said.

Ashley stayed in Oroville for a while, but it became impossible to go grocery shopping without someone staring at her or asking about her mother. It felt like we were on display, she said. Over the summer, she moved to Texas with her husband, young son and stepfather. Shes hoping to give her son the childhood she and Andrew never had.

Ashley is still mourning her mother, whom she described as a devoted grandmother and her closest friend. She has also been doing whatever she can to support Andrew in jail. She calls and texts him regularly and makes sure he has enough money in his account for the commissary. When he texted about playing Dungeons & Dragons recently, she replied like a mother might. Im so happy that youre doing something fun, she wrote. I love you, Andrew.

Julia was also charged criminally for her mothers death. In January 2023, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She is now a patient at Patton State Hospital, a sprawling forensic psychiatric complex at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. She reads books in the library, helps organize group activities like bingo and keeps her fingernails painted vibrant colors. She has a journal with positive affirmations on each page; she writes down the things shes grateful for.

For some time after the shooting, Julia didnt know she had caused her mothers death. It was only after listening to the 911 recording months later that she began to understand what had happened. Coming to grips with that has been excruciating, she said. Her mom was her best friend. On a recent afternoon, during an open mic event at the hospital, she read a poem she wrote about their relationship. Audience members were brought to tears, she said.

It is hard to say what prompted the shooting. She recalls hearing an explosion in the distance  maybe a gas tank  and feeling like she needed to protect herself from some unknown threat. It felt like I was unconscious, not awake, she told a psychologist who evaluated her in January 2023, records show. It felt like I was in a video game. The psychologist speculated the explosion triggered her PTSD and may have put her in a dissociated state.

Julia isnt sure how long shell be at Patton. She would have to be cleared by the hospital and the court to be released for supervised treatment in the community.

It has taken many months for Marty to begin recovering. His ribs were fractured and his back was broken in two places. He needed 15 staples in his head. The emotional recovery, he knows, will be much longer. Hes chosen to stay in the hilltop ranch where the shooting took place. He bought the property to grow old there, and thats what he still intends to do. He finds comfort in his fruit trees and livestock and the sweeping mountain views.

He said he forgives his daughter. He keeps her military photo in his wallet. But he is furious at the VA. I want to punch VA in the face, he said one afternoon late in the summer, while the sun poured into his den. To him, it was obvious what had needed to happen and what went wrong.

It crystallized deep in his mind the night of the shooting, after Julia had finally relented and he picked up Candys cellphone to speak with the 911 operator.

She really, really needs help, he told the operator while waiting for the police to come and arrest his daughter. We tried to get her help at the VA. And, God, the VA didnt really help that much.

The dispatcher was empathetic. Shed heard Julias cries for help all night; dozens of them were captured in a recording of the call.

Im sorry the VA didnt help her, the dispatcher said.

Editors Note

After reading a February 2023 report by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General about inadequate mental health care at a VA clinic in Chico, California  a document that did not name any veterans or health care professionals or provide specific dates  ProPublica reporters wanted to more fully understand the tragedy that unfolded and what lessons it offered for the larger VA health care system. They spent months investigating the case at the center of the report involving a veteran named Julia Larsen as well as a second case involving a veteran named Andrew Iles who was also treated at the clinic.

The reporters interviewed Julia in person at Patton State Hospital near San Bernardino, California, and spent many hours interviewing her by telephone and video call. They traveled to St. Louis to meet with her attorneys. They reviewed hundreds of pages of her military personnel and medical records, as well as police reports from the night of the shooting and transcripts of interviews Julia gave to detectives and psychologists after her arrest. They listened to the 911 call Julias mother, Candy Larsen, made before she died. They interviewed Julias father, Marty Larsen, at his home in Red Bluff, California. They interviewed her sister Jordan Pepper, childhood friend Brittney Apel and former boyfriend Ignacio Gutierrez by telephone. In addition to Brittney and Ignacio, who served in the Navy with Julia, they interviewed four other people who knew Julia from the military, one of whom Julia told about the sexual assault and corroborated her recollections. They also interviewed Laurie Smith, a close friend of Julias mother.

The reporters interviewed Andrew in person at the Butte County Jail in Oroville, California, and by telephone. They reviewed some of his medical records, military performance reviews and discharge records, as well as his court records and family photos from his childhood. They interviewed his sister, Ashley Hill, at her home in Texas and his half-brother William Iles, aunt MaryJo Hendricks, former girlfriend Kayley Reni and childhood friend Alex Kenworthy by telephone. They interviewed a second childhood friend who declined to be named.

Both Julia and Andrew consented to ProPublica publishing information from their medical records about their diagnoses and medical histories.

To better understand the issues at the Chico clinic, the reporters interviewed a half-dozen current and former employees. They reviewed emails sent between 2016 and 2022 that detailed staffing issues, as well as hundreds of pages in former site manager Michelle Gradnigos discrimination complaint. They also reviewed an internal proposal from 2021 to grow the virtual mental health program and documents from the Office of Inspector Generals investigation obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.

To put the case into broader context, the reporters reviewed and analyzed more than 300 routine inspections and investigative reports published by the VAs inspector general since January 2020, some examining events that occurred in 2019. They brought their findings to experts and interviewed the relatives of three veterans who died by suicide after receiving inadequate mental health care from the VA. They reviewed national reports on mental health staffing and outcomes.

Overall, the reporters spoke to more than a dozen mental health professionals, researchers and policy experts. They consulted with some on how to interview people who have experienced trauma and been diagnosed with severe mental illness. They asked others to describe how the treatment Julia and Andrew received from the Chico VA clinic differed from generally established standards of care and offer insight into the issues facing the VAs health system.
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. Azerbaijan's State Committee for Work with Religious Associations urges the US officials to avoid using non-legal, politically biased, and manipulative naming when referring to the territories of Azerbaijan, Trend reports with reference to the Committee's statement.

The report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed concern about the condition of the so-called "Armenian monuments" in the territories of Azerbaijan liberated from Armenian occupation, and a tolerant approach can be seen regarding the vandalism committed against Muslim monuments.

At the same time, Azerbaijan's State Committee calls on the members of the US commissioners to avoid using names that have no legal character, and are politically biased and manipulative when referring to the territories of Azerbaijan.

Specifically, Azerbaijan does not have an administrative-territorial unit called "Nagorno-Karabakh". There are Karabakh and East Zangezur economic zones.
The Dodgers have continued their free agent spending spree, announcing a one-year, $23.5MM deal with outfielder Teoscar Hernandez. Only $15MM of that salary will be paid to Hernandez this year, as the rest is deferred and will be paid out in installments from 2030-39. Hernandez is represented by Republik Sports.

Reports about the Dodgers interest in Hernandez surfaced soon after the free agent market opened back in early November, and L.A. maintained that interest all the way up until todays agreement. The Dodgers were known to be still be looking for a right-handed bat, and theyve now addressed that need in a big way with a former All-Star and Silver Slugger who has hit 147 home runs over 3002 plate appearances since the start of the 2018 season.

After a string of productive years with the Blue Jays, Hernandez was dealt for Erik Swanson and Adam Macko last offseason, and Hernandezs move to Seattle resulted in a downturn in his production. While he still went yard 26 times, Hernandez batted only .258/.305/.435 over 678 plate appearances, and his 105 wRC+ was well below his 133 wRC+ from 2020-22. Since Hernandezs underlying metrics were largely the same as his career norms, it seems possible that the biggest culprit was simply T-Mobile Park. Hernandez hit only .217/.263/.380 in the Mariners home ballpark last season, as opposed to a much stronger .295/.344/.486 slash line on the road.

While Dodger Stadium has something of a pitcher-friendly reputation itself, it stands to reason that the 31-year-old Hernandez might get back on track in a new environment, and this one-year deal might reflect his desire to re-establish himself before committing to a longer-term contract. MLB Trade Rumors ranked Hernandez 12th on our list of the winters top 50 free agents and projected him for a four-year, $80MM deal, under the logic that the offseasons lack of premium bats would still lead to a big contract for Hernandez even in the wake of an underwhelming 2023 campaign.

It could also be the case that Hernandez was open to a one-year pact specifically to join the Dodgers, as the outfielder is now joining arguably baseballs most loaded lineup. Los Angeles already racked up plenty of runs in their 100-win 2023 campaign, and that powerful collection of position players has now added Shohei Ohtani to the DH spot and Hernandez to a corner outfield role.

Hernandez now gets to join a contender and possibly win a World Series ring, while ideally posting a better platform year that would allow him to score a big multi-year contract next winter. The Angels and Red Sox were two other teams known to be in the running for Hernandezs services, and reporter Francys Romero and MassLive.coms Chris Cotillo (X links) each relayed that those teams had interest in the outfielder on two-year deals. In Bostons case, Cotillo wrote that the Sox were interested in something akin to a two-year, $28MM pact.

Hernandez now looks to be the Dodgers everyday option primarily in left field, though he could slide over to right field when a left-hander is on the mound (thus sending Jason Heyward to the bench). L.A. is still perhaps a little unbalanced with left-handed hitters in its first-choice lineup, yet Hernandez now joins Mookie Betts and Will Smith as big righty swingers, plus the Dodgers have other right-handed bats in Chris Taylor, Manuel Margot, and Miguel Rojas available off the bench.

Margot was also recently acquired as part of the Tyler Glasnow trade with the Rays but is known more for his defense than his bat. Taylor can fill in at multiple positions, and his hitting also became a question mark after a down year in 2022, though he did bounce back with a 104 wRC+ over 384 PA last season. Having Taylor as a supersub around the diamond is perhaps a better use for his skillset than a regular spot in left field, even if defensive metrics have been mixed at best about Hernandezs outfield glovework during his career.

Hernandez has never drawn many walks during his career, and his high strikeout totals add even more swing-and-miss to a team that already saw Taylor, James Outman, Max Muncy, and even Ohtani rank well below the league average in strikeout rate in 2023. Still, the relative lack of contact is something of a minor flaw compared to the huge upside provided by the Dodgers overall offensive attack.

The deferred money will lower the luxury tax number on Hernandezs $23.5MM salary, but his signing represents yet another big expenditure for a Los Angeles team that has basically lapped the rest of the league combined in offseason spending. Led by Ohtanis $700MM deal and Yoshinobu Yamamotos $325MM contract, the Dodgers have now spent slightly under $1.067 billion on free agents alone this winter, to say nothing of the extra money taken on when L.A. acquired and then extended Glasnow. As per Roster Resource, the Dodgers tax number for 2024 now sits at roughly $302.32MM, well over the Competitive Balance Taxs highest penalty threshold of $297MM.

Even with the luxury tax bill continuing to escalate, there is little reason to think L.A. is done making moves, as starting pitching continues to be a need even after adding Yamamoto and Glasnow. More signings obviously cant be ruled out, or the Dodgers could move more young talent in other trades for another starter. The sky is basically the limit for Los Angeles at this point, as the Dodgers have outpaced even their usual high-spending ways (with the many deferrals kicking the financial can down the road to some extent) in building a veritable superteam with Ohtani, Betts, Yamamoto, and Freddie Freeman among the cornerstones.

Reporter Moises Fabian (via X) was first with the news that Hernandez had signed with Los Angeles, and ESPNs Jeff Passan (X links) reported details about the one-year term, the salary, and the deferred money.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
The Rockies deepened their rotation and catching corps late last week with signings of Dakota Hudson and Jacob Stallings, and their next move could be of similar scope in the outfield. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports that the Rox are looking for a depth outfielder  ideally someone who can handle all three positions while hitting from the left side of the dish.

As things stand, the Rockies have a largely right-handed outfield mix. Left fielder Nolan Jones bats left handed, but each of Brenton Doyle, Sean Bouchard and Hunter Goodman is right-handed  as are the bulk of the teams upper-minors options (with the notable exceptions of top organizational prospects Zac Veen and Yanquiel Fernandez, though both are likely more than a year from the Majors still). Colorado re-signed franchise stalwart Charlie Blackmon earlier in the offseason, but hes expected to reprise his role as the teams primary designated hitter in 2024.

Adding some outfield depth from the left side makes a good bit of sense then, although the free-agent market is pretty light. Itd be a shock to see the Rockies spend at the levels necessary to sign Cody Bellinger, and the options beyond him arent exactly plentiful. Joey Gallo would make an interesting upside play at Coors Field, but his production has been in a free-fall since the 2021 trade sending him from Texas to the Bronx. Travis Jankowski and old friends Raimel Tapia and Rafael Ortega could make sense, with the latter two in particular likely to be available on minor league contracts.

Trade scenarios for this type of player abound. There are too many to list in full, though reasonable on-paper trade partners include the Royals (Kyle Isbel, Drew Waters), Mariners (Cade Marlowe, Taylor Trammell, Zach DeLoach) and Tigers (Akil Baddoo). Its also possible that the Rox could simply fill the need with a spring waiver claim or deal for an out-of-options player whos been squeezed out of a roster spot with his current team (e.g. Nick Gordon, Jake Cave).

The extent to which the Rockies can add to their payroll remains unclear. Colorado has added around $9-10MM in salary with the offseason pickups of Hudson ($1.5MM), Stallings ($1.5MM) and Cal Quantrill (projected $6.6MM salary in arbitration, via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz). That said, the Rox still appear headed toward a reduced budget for the 2024 season. They didnt lose much in the way of free agency  lefty Brent Suter being their lone departure of note  but GM Bill Schmidt traded away veterans like C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk, Brad Hand and Pierce Johnson at the deadline. That group combined to help push Colorados 2023 Opening Day payroll to a franchise-record $172MM, but theyre currently about $30MM shy of that total.

Like so many other clubs in MLB at the moment, the Rockies face ample uncertainty regarding their 2024 television broadcasts  and thus, their revenue. AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, the RSN that previously broadcast the teams games, is ceasing operations in 2024 (as first reported by Kyle Newman and Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post back in September). Saunders reported in a mailbag column over the weekend that MLB may step in to handle the Rockies broadcasts in 2024, but theres yet to be a formal announcement on that matter.

However their broadcast situation plays out, its quite likely to adversely impact the teams revenue. Couple that with the Rockies extreme longshot postseason odds, and its unsurprising (though surely still frustrating for their fans) that the team has had a rather quiet offseason and instead appears to be focusing on in-house development with an eye toward 2025 and beyond.
DETROIT -- A federal judge has approved a $2.8 million settlement between the Douglas J Aveda Institute and plaintiffs who accused the school of forcing students to do unpaid labor while enrolled. According to the Associated Press, an estimated 1,500 people will receive compensation as part of the settlement which stems from a class-action lawsuit filed in 2014.

The lawsuit claimed that students who were attending the institute had to perform labor activities such as cleaning floors, washing, drying and folding laundry, and stocking shelves for no pay. The Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice -- which filed the lawsuit -- claimed the duties were not directly connected to the cosmetology education students were receiving and the students should have been compensated for their work.

What this case says is there are limits to what you can ask of your students, said John Philo a lawyer with the law center.

The schools did not admit any liability in the matter, but has agreed to the $2.8 million settlement. An estimated $794,000 of that money will go to the lawyers who handled the case for the students.

Philo said the compensation could be for several thousands of dollars for some of the former students and the total amount each person receives will be determined on how many hours they worked. The Douglas J. Aveda Institute operates campuses in Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Grand Rapids and Royal Oak.
MELVINDALE, MI  Police officers are being recognized for saving the life of a man who slit his own throat in Metro Detroit.

According to the Melvindale Police Department, the incident occurred when officers responded to a report of a suicidal man who had cut his own throat at a residence on Henry Street on Jan. 6.

The victim, a 21-year-old man, was going in and out of consciousness when officers found him sitting on the kitchen floor.

A large amount of blood covered the walls, floor, and appliances, and the man was rapidly bleeding out, police said.

Officers acted quickly and used towels and a blanket to apply pressure and keep the man alive.

The Dearborn Fire Department arrived and rushed the man to the hospital, police said.
UPDATE: The owner of the softballs has been located, MSP said.

TAYLOR, MI  Play ball?

It will be hard without softballs.

And while it may not be softball season in Michigan, Michigan State Police in Metro Detroit are searching for the rightful owner of approximately 600 softballs.

Have you gotten to your destination and noticed that the approximately 600 softballs you started your trip with are now missing? MSP said on social media.

The mysterious softballs are now located at the Metro South post at 12111 North Telegraph Road in Taylor. Photos shared by troopers show hundreds of balls in boxes and packaging sitting in a vehicle.

But police are unsure where they belong or who they belong to. The Metro South post is in front of a softball field at Rotary Park in Taylor.
As Union troops pulled back after the bloody and inconclusive Battle of Wilderness in the spring of 1864, some of their number left behind items that proved curious to Confederate soldiers.

One member of the Fourteenth North Carolina Infantry found copies of the Bible written in Ojibwe, another a beaded satchel that he would later send home.
YPSILANTI, MI -- Ypsilanti will soon lose a spiritual place for supplies and community for those who practice Wicca, hoodoo, voodoo and other religions.

The Conjure Goddess Botanica and Metaphysical Shop is closing its storefront Sunday, Jan. 21, and is set to operate completely online after its last day.

The Conjure Goddess opened its storefront at 226 W. Michigan Ave. on Halloween in 2021 after being an online shop since 2018. The business is a supply shop for metaphysical religions, carrying products like incense, sage, crystals and herbs.

Related: Witchcraft supply shop in Ypsilanti sells everything from sage to chicken feet

Owner Tanet Jordan-Casey said the decision to close was difficult, but ultimately had to happen after she had a stroke in April 2022 and her husband was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension in April 2023.

These illnesses impacted the couples ability to run the shop and caused its hours to be severely reduced to weekends only, Jordan-Casey wrote in an email to MLive/The Ann Arbor News.

The illnesses combined with the summer road construction had severely reduced customer traffic which unfortunately by the end of September of 2023 resulted in us being financially unable to support our growing medical, personal and business expenses, she wrote.

The final decision to close was made in November after Jordan-Casey learned her husband would need a lung transplant this year to survive.

This business was a dream come true, for Jordan-Casey, since she was able to offer a safe space for people practicing alternative spirituality and educate others about African American spiritual practices, she said.

Our shop was the kind of place anyone could feel welcome coming into. We wanted you to feel as if you were a part of our family and could talk to us about anything, she wrote.

When it comes to the storefront, Jordan-Casey said she will miss getting to know those who support the business and sharing her insight and experiences with them.

There are so many compassionate and supportive individuals in this community, and they deserve to have spaces where they are free to express themselves and be heard, she wrote. I will greatly miss being able to share that with all of them.

Right now, Jordan-Casey said her focus is on the health of her and her husband. However, she said if there is an opportunity in the future to return to a location in Ypsilanti, she would do it again in a heartbeat.

I would like to thank the Ypsilanti community for welcoming us with open arms and supporting us, she wrote. The Conjure Goddess was my dream and Ypsi helped me make it come true.

The Conjure Goddess will be open noon to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday leading up to its closure. Learn more about the business on social media.

Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Ann Arbor daily newsletter.
FLINT, MI  A former Mott Community College teacher was sentenced to prison Monday, Jan. 8.

David Gerald Dues, 50, was sentenced by Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth A. Kelly to a minimum of four years, two months, to a maximum of 20 years in prison.
KENT COUNTY, MI  Police arrested two suspects in the New Years Eve shooting at Walmart that injured two people.

The victims  one targeted, the other described as a bystander  are expected to recover from gunshot wounds.

Camrin Nicoles Carpenter, 21, and Latrell Malik Young, 21, were arraigned Monday, Jan. 8, in Wyoming District Court.

Related: Police seek shooter in targeted attack inside Walmart store

Young is charged with assault with intent to murder, two counts of discharge of a firearm in a building causing serious impairment, carrying a concealed weapon and two counts of felony firearms.

Young is held without bond.

Carpenter is charged with assault with intent to murder, armed robbery, carrying a concealed weapon and felony firearms. Carpenter is held on $500,000 bond.

The incident happened around 6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 31, at the Walmart on 54th Street SW. Wyoming police said that the defendants confronted a man and tried to take his cellphone

Carpenter then brandished a firearm before the man ran. The defendants chased the man through the store, Young firing a gunshot with Carpenter close behind, Wyoming police said in a probable-cause affidavit.

The man was struck by four gunshots but was able to escape, police said. He was taken to the hospital by a private vehicle. The defendants went outside in an effort to find him in the parking lot but he was gone, police said.

Police said that Young struck a woman with gunfire.

Read more:

Police arrest 3, recover stolen guns, wallets and credit cards

Pedestrian struck, killed in Kent County crash

Puppy and kitten food sold in Michigan recalled over possible contamination

Michigan prisoner dies by suicide shortly after arriving at Jackson prison
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. US-biased steps against multicultural Azerbaijan look mindless, the Chairman of the Ukrainian Congress of Azerbaijan Public Association and veteran of the first Karabakh war Yuri Osadchenko told Trend.

He made the remark, commenting on the recent decision of the US State Department to designate Azerbaijan as a Special Watch List country for engaging in or tolerating violations of religious freedom.

According to him, the steps taken by the US are more surprising, as it is a well-known and widely accepted fact that representatives of absolutely all religious communities in Azerbaijan live and operate freely.

"In Azerbaijan, the state builds synagogues and churches and renovates them at its own expense. A Catholic church was built in Azerbaijan, and a Lutheran church was renovated. Our country represents several major Christian denominations, including Catholicism and Lutheranism. Historical Albanian-Udi Christian temples are being restored. Some of them have been around for nearly 2,000, some 1,000, 700800 years," said Osadchenko.

He noted that all this is an indicator of religious freedom in Azerbaijan and pointed out the shortsightedness of the aforementioned biased steps by the US.

"Let's remember how 20 years ago Avigdor Lieberman, then the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, said that Azerbaijan is the only country in the world after Israel that builds synagogues at state expense. Nearly 10 years ago, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Steinmeier (Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the current President of Germany) stated that Azerbaijan has two major export items: energy resources and multiculturalism, which could be exported worldwide. This is evidence of how various ethnic groups and religious denominations coexist here in a multicultural way, living together, building a unified state, and developing it for millennia," Osadchenko said.

According to the chairman of the Ukrainian Congress of Azerbaijan, no state in the world, including the US, annually allocates financial resources from the state budget for religious communities.

Every year in Azerbaijan, hundreds of thousands are allocated to Jewish religious communities, including mountainous Jews and European Jews individually, as well as Christian religious communities. The only country in the world that allocates funding from the state budget to religious communities is Azerbaijan," he pointed out.

"During recent meetings with representatives of the Council of Europe who came to Azerbaijan to study the states attitude towards ethnic groupswe also attended those meetings - members of the delegation saw all this with their own eyes, and it's very surprising to see the US top officials, who, of course, are familiar with the conclusions of this delegation, are taking such provocative steps just to get the votes of Californian Armenians before the US presidential election, Osadchenko noted.

As he emphasized, these decisions won't play a special role in the life of society.

Our society lived and will continue to live according to the principles of multiculturalism. The inclusion of Azerbaijan in the mentioned list won't affect either the internal life of the people of Azerbaijan or its external image, because thanks to the huge number of visits of foreign leaders and politicians to Azerbaijan, everyone saw how relationships between different religious communities are developing in the country, he added.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
BIG RAPIDS, MI  A Michigan university is believed to be the first in the country to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create virtual students that will enroll in classes and participate in lessons and assignments.

Ferris State University, which has one of just three undergraduate AI programs in the U.S., has developed two AI students who are enrolling at Ferris State as freshmen this semester and taking classes alongside human classmates.

The two AI students, who are named Ann and Fry, will participate in classes just like any other student would, listening to lectures, turning in assignments and participating in classroom discussions, said Ferris State associate professor Kasey Thompson, who is helping lead the AI experiment.

Ann and Fry will be able to pick their own classes and elect a major, eventually earning their undergraduate degree  if they choose to do so, Thompson said. Researchers are fully leaving it up to Ann and Fry to decide the course of their educational experience, she said.

Like any student, our hope is that they continue their educational experience all the way up as far as they can go, through their PhD, Thompson told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. But we are literally learning as we go, and were allowing the two AI students to pick the courses that theyre going to take. Were in general courses at this point, but hopefully they will complete their undergraduate degree and even graduate degrees and even further than that.

So, what exactly is an AI student? AI technology uses computer systems to simulate human intelligence, including the ability to perform tasks, make decisions, recognize speech and analyze images, according to Ferris State.

Ann and Fry have been given their own backstories, which will be used to help them complete tasks like declaring a major, the university said in a news release. They have not been given a gender or demographic information, Thompson said.

Researchers will set up computer systems and microphones in Ann and Frys classrooms so they can listen to their professors lectures and any classroom discussions, Thompson said.

At first, Ann and Fry will only be able to observe the class, but the goal is for the AI students to soon be able to speak during classroom discussions and have two-way conversations with their classmates, Thompson said.

The AI students wont have a physical, robotic form that will be walking the hallways of Ferris State  for now, at least. Ferris State does have roving bots, but right now researchers want to focus on the classroom experience before they think about adding any mobility to Ann and Fry, Thompson said.

While the concept of having AI students seems like something out a sci-fi movie, Thompson said this is the state of technology today. AI technology is rapidly evolving, and the field of AI has impacted every industry, from healthcare and education to marketing and logistics, according to Ferris States website.

It feels so futuristic, but its actually, you know, now, Thompson said. Theres nothing necessarily futuristic about it.

The goal of the AI student experiment is for Ferris State staff to learn what the student experience is like today, Thompson said. Higher education has evolved significantly in recent years, and more students are taking the nontraditional route, delaying going to college for several years or taking classes remotely.

We actually came up with the idea to help us better understand, how do we serve the future students at Ferris State University? Thompson said. What does the higher educational experience look like for students who may not just be 10 feet from the professor in a traditional classroom setting? That was really sort of the impetus, what started it all.

Researchers plan to monitor Ann and Frys experience daily to learn what its like being a student today, from the admissions and registration process, to how it feels being a freshman in a new school. Faculty and staff will then use what theyve learned to find ways to make higher education more accessible.

Ferris State is believed to be the first in the country to enroll the two artificial intelligence students as freshmen, Thompson said.

The universitys AI program is the only bachelor of science program in Michigan and is one of three nationwide, according to the university. The program has been developed in partnership the U.S. Department of Defense, National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security and Amazon Web Services.

Ferris State is a leader in artificial intelligence education and can leverage its expertise to use the technology we teach to strengthen our ability to lead, said Molly Cooper, a Ferris State professor and scholar of information security, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. The more we use artificial intelligence, we can see what it is capable of and how we can use it to do things more efficiently and effectively.

Last month, Ferris State hosted its first AI Day, where high school students were able to participate in a series of interactive exhibits and workshops including a Deepfake Lab, an AI Social Engineering Lab, autonomous vehicle racing, working with Chat GPT, and AIs use in space and satellite cybersecurity.

Around 300 area high school students attended the Dec. 1 event at the universitys new $32 million Center for Virtual Learning, which opened this fall and houses degree programs including Information Security and Intelligence/Artificial Intelligence-Project Management and Professional Esports Production.

RELATED: AI Day for high schoolers planned at Ferris States new $32M Center for Virtual Learning

Thompson said shes excited to experiment with the ways AI can impact education through the AI student project.

We are hoping that these learnings will impact every aspect of the university, from admissions to registration, to faculty and the way they deliver their curriculum, the way they deliver their lessons to students, and also impact the way that were learning how students learn now, in 2024, which is very different post-COVID, she said.

My excitement is knowing that were going to learn so much more than what weve even conceived at this point.
JACKSON COUNTY, MI  A Michigan prisoner convicted of sexually assaulting a child died by suicide inside an incoming prisoner entrance facility in Jackson.

Michael Muldermans, 72, died Dec. 22, when he suffered fatal injuries from jumping from one of the upper cell galleries at the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson, Department of Corrections Spokesperson Kyle Kaminski wrote in an email.
JACKSON COUNTY, MI  The Pleasant Lake Pub has reopened and Taco Bell is set to open in Brooklyn.

Check out these stories and some recent Jackson County business stories you may have missed.

Youll find huge burgers on the menu at the recently reopened Pleasant Lake Pub

Fire caused the Pleasant Lake Pub to close in 2016, and it looked like it may not reopen.

But Brian Kemppainen purchased the restaurant two years ago and has reopened the pub in Henrietta Township, north of Jackson, with a great menu, warm atmosphere and drinks.

Kemppainen lives with his family in South Lyon, but theyve owned a cottage on Pleasant Lake for more than five years. After previously working in the restaurant industry in his youth, he decided he wanted to open a place of his own.

Read the full story here.

These businesses opened in Jackson County in 2023

Several Jackson County-area businesses have opened in 2023, ranging from long-awaited retail stores to family-owned eateries.

Heres a look at some of the businesses that opened this year. Some of these include the Old Irish Mill in Brooklyn, Murphys Bistro in downtown Jackson, Ross Dress for Less in the Jackson Crossing and Blessed In inside of the Westwood Mall.

Read the full story here.

These Jackson County businesses closed in 2023

In 2023, several Jackson County-area businesses closed their doors to the community. These ranged between abrupt closures to owners retiring.

Here are some businesses that closed this year. Some of these include Slice n Dice Board Game Pizzeria outside of Jackson, Save-A-Lot in Jackson, Swiss Treat and Bras That Fit in Michigan Center.

Read the full story here.

Taco Bell plans to open soon in Brooklyn

Residents can soon dine at Taco Bell in Brooklyn.

Construction at the new Taco Bell location at 413 S. Main St., right next door to the Big Boy restaurant, has nearly come to an end, and officials anticipate opening the week of Jan. 15.

The store originally hoped to open in December but the timeline was pushed out due to weather and equipment delays, officials wrote in an email.

Read the full story here.

5 great new restaurants to try in 2024 in Jackson County

A new year means its the perfect time to explore some new restaurants in Jackson County.

Several eateries opened in the area in 2023, ranging from coffee shops to downtown delis. Here are five new eateries to check out in 2024.

The restaurants include Four Corners Coffee, La Catrina Bar and Grill and KeniKakes & More.

Read the full story here.

Jackson YMCA plans for groundbreaking of new facility with smaller addition

As the Jackson YMCA gears up for a groundbreaking on a new addition and complete renovation of the facility next month, officials have again reduced the size of the addition to deal with increasing construction costs.

The Jackson YMCA, 127 W. Wesley St., has been working on a $25 million capital campaign since 2017 to create a reimagined use of its current facility. YMCA officials are expecting to begin construction on the new facility Monday, Jan. 8.

Everybodys just beyond excited, Tello said. Early on, we did a community needs assessment and were confident that this facility really will meet the need, not only of downtown Jackson and the county, but of our neighborhood right here.

Read the full story here.

Want more Jackson-area news? Bookmark the local Jackson news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Jackson daily newsletter.

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SAGINAW, MI  A smoothie shop that closed after a brief time in Old Town Saginaw is now planning a new start at the Midland Mall.

One Love Smoothie, which operated at 301 S. Hamilton in 2015, is expected to reopen as One Love Smoothie & Grilled Cheese at the mall, 6800 Eastman Ave., this spring.
SAGINAW TWP, MI  A couple of 20-year-olds spent their night in jail after seemingly passing out in a heavily trafficked Saginaw Township intersection.

About 7:20 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 7, police responded to the intersection of North Center Road and Weiss Street for a 2006 Chevrolet Malibu stopped within it. The person who called 911 said they saw two people inside, apparently sleeping, said Saginaw Township Police Sgt. Chad Brooks.
LANSING, MI  In Michigans K-12 public schools, there is such a thing as a free lunch  and breakfast, too.

But whether this change is permanent remains to be seen, as legislative efforts to codify the program have stalled in the state Senate. That could be a problem for school districts, as efforts to keep up with an increased demand for breakfasts and lunches require additional staffing  something administrators arent keen to sign off on without knowing whether the new program will become permanent.
The Southeastern part of Michigan will have its own set of weather conditions with the powerful storm rolling through Michigan tonight and into Wednesday.

For southeast Lower Michigan, its a fairly easy weather story to follow. We will have a burst of snow from late tonight or early Tuesday morning through late morning Tuesday. Temperatures will warm up to between 33 and 35 degrees and snow will change to rain for Tuesday afternoon and evening. Then it will gradually cool off after midnight Wednesday and rain changes back to snow showers by sunrise Wednesday.

Because of the melting and rain, the snowfall totals from this storm wont be really impressive when the snow stops Wednesday. The real story is the burst of snow coming through Tuesday morning could be heavy with big, wet flakes. Tuesday mornings driving could be dangerous.

Heres the radar forecast showing you the burst of snow and then changing to rain or mixed rain and snow.

Radar forecast from 8 p.m. Monday, January 8 to noon Wednesday, January 10NOAA

The heaviest snow around Ann Arbor, Detroit and Flint will probably fall between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. Tuesday, just in time for us to drive to work.

Describing to you what will happen is probably better than a total snowfall map in this case. For all of us in Southeast Lower Michigan expect a vigorous burst of snow amounting to 2 to 4 inches Tuesday morning. Then we can expect several tenths of an inch of rain in off and on rain showers Tuesday afternoon and evening. Finally look for another one to 2 inches of snow late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Probably the better way to show you the snowfall is with a snow on the ground map. Oddly, I can do that now because most of us dont have a lot of snow on the ground right now. So heres what the snow on the ground situation should look like at noon Wednesday.

Snow depth forecast at 10 a.m. Wednesday, January 10. You will have to use the legend to get your location's snow depth.NOAA

I would say we end up with one to 3 inches of snow on the ground when the snow, melting, rain, and then snow again is done.

The most important point with this storm system is there will be a more dangerous time to drive and a safer time. The most dangerous time will be Tuesday morning when the heavy spurts of snow are falling and sticking to the roads. The safer time to drive in southeast Michigan will be late Tuesday morning through early Tuesday evening when temperatures warm several degrees above freezing. This should cause the roads to become just wet and not snowy.

Heres the temperature forecast at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Temperature forecast at 3 p.m. Tuesday, January 9, 2024NOAA

Ann Arbor, all of the Detroit area and the Flint area will warm up to 35 to 36 degrees. We dont have wintry roads with those temperatures. The temperature probably drops back below freezing around midnight Tuesday night. Wednesday morning could be slick once again, but that is more iffy. We may find just wet roads Wednesday morning as the temperature drop will be very gradual Tuesday night, dropping to about 30 degrees by sunrise Wednesday.

Make sure to stay updated with any light changes here.

If you want behind-the-scenes details on this storm and daily weather, join our Michigan Weather Insider text group here. It has a free 14-day trial.
The southwestern part of Michigan will have its own set of weather conditions with the powerful storm rolling through the state tonight through Wednesday.

For southwest Lower Michigan, its a fairly easy weather story to follow. We will have a burst of snow from late tonight or early Tuesday morning through about midday Tuesday. Temperatures will warm up to between 33 and 35 degrees and snow will change to rain for Tuesday afternoon and evening. Then it will gradually cool off after midnight Wednesday and rain changes back to snow showers by sunrise Wednesday.

Because of the melting and rain, the snowfall totals from this storm wont be really impressive when the snow stops Wednesday. But the real story is the burst of snow coming through Tuesday morning could be heavy with big, wet flakes. Tuesday mornings driving could be dangerous.

Heres the radar forecast showing you the burst of snow and then changing to rain or mixed rain and snow.

Radar forecast from 8 p.m. Monday, January 8 to noon Wednesday, January 10NOAA

Describing to you what will happen is probably better than a total snowfall map in this case. For all of us in Southwest Lower Michigan, expect a vigorous burst of snow amounting to 2 to 4 inches Tuesday morning. Then we can expect several tenths of an inch of rain in off and on rain showers Tuesday afternoon and evening. Finally look for another one to 2 inches of snow late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Probably the better way to show you the snowfall is with a snow on the ground map. Oddly, I can do that now because most of us dont have a lot of snow on the ground right now. So heres what the snow on the ground situation should look like at noon Wednesday.

Snow depth forecast at 10 a.m. Wednesday, January 10. You will have to use the legend to get your location's snow depth.NOAA

I would say we end up with 2 to 4 inches of snow on the ground when the snow, melting, rain, and then snow again is done.

The most important point with this storm system is there will be a more dangerous time to drive and a safer time. The most dangerous time will be Tuesday morning when the heavy spurts of snow are falling and sticking to the roads. The safer time to drive in southwest Michigan will be Tuesday afternoon and early evening when temperatures warm a few degrees above freezing. This should cause the roads to become just wet and not snowy.

Heres the temperature forecast at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Temperature forecast at 3 p.m. Tuesday, January 9, 2024NOAA

Grand Rapids and Muskegon will probably just inch above 32 degrees, so road melting will be slower in Grand Rapids. Kalamazoo, Lansing, Jackson and Battle Creek should warm to 35 degrees which will produce significant melting Tuesday afternoon.

Make sure to stay updated with any light changes here.

If you want behind-the-scenes details on this storm and daily weather, join our Michigan Weather Insider text group here. It has a free 14-day trial.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has visited the Alley of Martyrs in Baku, Azerbaijan, to pay tribute to heroic sons who died in the struggle for independence and territorial integrity of the Motherland, Trend reports.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame monument.

Then, he viewed the panorama of Azerbaijan's capital city from its highest point, and was informed in details about the history of the Alley of Martyrs and the improvement work carried out in the city.

Earlier, the UAE president visited the Alley of Honors to pay tribute to National Leader, architect and founder of the modern and independent Azerbaijani state Heydar Aliyev.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. Armenia will accept Baku's demands on transit and border delimitation issues, Trend reports via the Stratfor analytical center's report on forecasts for 2024.

The center analysts said that Yerevan will continue efforts to sign a peace agreement with Baku, but disagreements on terms regarding regional transit corridors will continue to hinder negotiations.

"Presumably, Armenia and Azerbaijan have made headway toward negotiating a peace accord. Armenia, on the other hand, plans to leverage its expanding political connections with the West, as well as its military support, against Baku. Given that Yerevan has limited leverage points, it will accept Baku's demands for transit lines through southern Armenia and boundary demarcation.," the report added.

Proposed by the Azerbaijani side, the Zangezur Corridor aims to establish a transportation link between Azerbaijan's mainland and its exclave, Nakhchivan, passing through Armenian territory. This corridor emerged as part of the above-mentioned trilateral statement signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war.

One point of the agreement outlined Armenia's commitment to ensuring the security of transport connections to Nakhchivan, facilitating the unrestricted movement of people, vehicles, and goods in both directions.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Lou Bono travels to the South Caucasus frequently to discuss US support for the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia and how best to reach a durable and dignified peace, a source at the US Embassy in Baku told Trend.

We have no details to announce, the source said, commenting on the possibility of Bonos visit to Azerbaijan.

According to the embassy, Bono speaks regularly with several key stakeholders in Armenia and Azerbaijan to support the peace process.

We stand ready to assist in any process that brings peace and stability to the people of the South Caucasus, the source added.
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. The next meeting within the framework of the work of the commissions on delimitation of the state border between Azerbaijan and Armenia is expected at the end of January, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said on a local TV channel, Trend reports.

"There is an agreement that the delimitation commissions will meet again at the end of January. We hope that this meeting will take place, he said.

The 5th meeting of the State Commission on State Border Delimitation between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as the Commission on State Border Delimitation and Border Security Issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan was held on November 30.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev and Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan.
Meghna Mittal MEGHNA MITTAL is Deputy News Editor at Moneycontrol. Meghna has experience across television, print, online and wire media. She has been covering the Indian economy, monetary and fiscal policies, Finance and Trade ministries. She tweets at @Meghnamittal23 Contact: meghna.mittal@nw18.com
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. A new highway connecting Baku and Sumgayit cities will be constructed by the end of 2027, Trend reports, referring to the 'Baku city General Plan 2040'.

This will fundamentally resolve the transportation challenges at the northern entrance and exit points of the capital.

Moreover, as per the Plan, by 2040 the length of street and road network in Baku will increase to about 368.7 kilometers.

By 2040, an alternative road network will be established in Azerbaijan's capital to address issues related to traffic congestion in the central part of Baku. This initiative aims to divert significant traffic flows to suburban ring roads, minimizing the need for vehicles to enter the city center when moving between the eastern and western parts.

Additionally, new alternative road infrastructure is planned to proactively prevent future congestion on existing roadways.

To finalize the outer ring routes, there are plans to establish the Outer Ring Road-Boyukshor-Ziya Buniyatov road, along with the Lokbatan-Khojasan-Binagadi-Boyukshor-Sabunchu outer ring road.

To complete the ring road connecting the eastern and northwestern parts of the city via the Zykh-Airport highway, the Khirdalan-M1-Digyakh-Zabrat-Airport ring road is at the planning stage.

Furthermore, as part of the overall plan to alleviate additional traffic in the central part of the capital, a new diagonal transport route is projected from Mehdiabad to Darnagul, continuing through Ziya Buniyadov Avenue, Keshla Avenue, Babek Avenue, the White City, and Nobel Avenue.

For the construction of the outer ring road, new ring roads are also scheduled to connect Sattar Bahlulzade Street with the Zykh-Hovsan highway.
Harsh Kumar  is Correspondent at Moneycontrol based in Delhi. Harsh covers BFSI sector. You can reach him at Harsh.kumar@nw18.com
The D. I. Mendeleev International Scientific and Practical Conference dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the Institute of Industrial Technologies and Engineering was held with the organizational support of the Tyumen Industrial University of the Russian Federation.

Shamil Farzalizade and Elnur Islamov, 3rd year students of Baku Higher Oil School majoring in Chemical Engineering, made a successful presentation on Synthesis of PSI and its derivatives for the future application in wastewater treatment at the conference and were awarded a First Degree Diploma.

The scientific supervisor of these students is Aysel Mamedova, a teacher at the Chemical Engineering Department of BHOS, PhD in Chemistry.

The conference proceedings will be posted at www.elibrary.ru in the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) database.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. In certain social networks, fake accounts related to candidates registered for participation in the early presidential election in Azerbaijan are being created, as well as misinformation on behalf of the candidates is being spread, Media Development Agency and the State Special Communications Service and Information Security of Azerbaijan said in a joint statement, Trend reports.

"Leading up to the election, this type of activity is intentionally aimed at confusing public opinion and tarnishing the reputation of candidates. We urge the public not to trust such false and provocative messages but to rely solely on the official statements of candidates registered for participation in the presidential election and information posted on their official social media accounts," the statement noted.

"We call on the citizens of Azerbaijan, journalists, and activists always to demonstrate principled stances in such situations, to be vigilant, and not to fall under the influence of campaigns based on false information. Appropriate measures are being taken against the sources of such fake accounts," added the statement.

Early presidential election will be held in Azerbaijan on February 7, 2024. The corresponding decree was signed by President Ilham Aliyev.

Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. Turkish Minister of National Defense Yashar Guler met with a group of Azerbaijanis who participated in the 44-day Patriotic War and were visiting this country, Trend reports with reference to the Turkish Ministry of National Defense.

It is noted that the meeting held at the ministry was also attended by the Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces, Army General Metin Gurak, the Commander of the Turkish Navy, Admiral Ercument Tatlioglu, the Commander of the Ground Forces, General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, and the Commander of the Turkish Air Force, Ziya Jamal Kadioglu.

At the invitation of the Turkish Association of War Veterans and with the organization of the Public Association Education of Youth by Reserve Officers, a group of Azerbaijani veterans of the Patriotic War visited Turkiye.
February 29, 2024 02:12 PM IST Lok Sabha polls: DMK allots two seats each to CPI, CPI(M) An official release from the DMK said the seat-sharing talks were finalised today.

February 28, 2024 05:27 PM IST BJP submits memorandum to Bengal's poll panel chief claiming 16 lakh fake voters in state Leading a delegation of the West Bengal BJP unit, party leader Suvendu Adhikari expressed dissapointment with the poll panel's failure to address the issue despite assurances.

February 28, 2024 05:20 PM IST Truth of Congresss Feb 26 Shimla Dinner: Fake handshakes, hugs, and smiles Abhishek Manu Singhvi failed to read There was much bonhomie which would have set at ease any fears the Congress leadership and its high command had of cross-voting. But lurking beneath was an old party rivalry that has now culminated in minister Vikramditya Singhs resignation after a humiliating Rajya Sabha defeat for chief minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu

February 28, 2024 01:27 PM IST PM Modi slams DMK, Congress for creating 'rift' among people The DMK's 'running away' shows its 'hatred' for people's faith, Modi said in an apparent reference to the opposition walkout when the Parliament took up the matter.

February 28, 2024 10:29 AM IST With handouts, piped water and cooking gas, PM Modi woos women voters Polling agency C-voter told Reuters its surveys predict 46% of India's 472 million women voters would opt for the BJP-led alliance in the election against 43% men, which would help it get a healthy majority in India's first-past-the-post polling system.

February 28, 2024 09:23 PM IST Rajya Sabha Elections 2024 Highlights: After RS poll loss, scare for Congress govt in Himachal Himachal Pradesh Rajya Sabha Elections: "I will not press my resignation until a decision is taken. The final decision will be taken in the coming time," said Congress leader Vikramaditya Singh, who submitted his resignation as Himachal cabinet minister earlier in the day.

February 27, 2024 03:28 PM IST LS polls: Pradhan directs HEIs to conduct voter awareness activities from Feb 28-Mar 6 The directive comes following a clarion call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the first time voters to exercise their franchise in large numbers.

February 27, 2024 02:24 PM IST Opposition convinced of loss in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, thus abuses me: PM Modi Modi, speaking at the conclusion ceremony of the BJP state unit's padayatra at the Central Stadium here, urged Kerala's people to bless the saffron party with seats in double digits in the 2024 LS polls.

February 27, 2024 10:42 PM IST No proposal for FM Sitharaman to contest Lok Sabha polls: Source Union Finance Minister Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar are Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka and Gujarat respectively.

February 27, 2024 11:13 AM IST Nirmala Sitharaman, Jaishankar to contest Lok Sabha polls: Pralhad Joshi To a question whether it will be Bengaluru, Joshi said, "How can I answer when nothing has been finalised?" Union Finance Minister Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar are Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka and Gujarat respectively.

February 27, 2024 10:59 PM IST Rajya Sabha Elections 2024 Highlights: BJP wins eight seats, SP two in Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha Elections 2024 Highlights: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won eight Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, while the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance faced a blow as it could only win two seats.

February 26, 2024 08:01 PM IST Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Sitharaman, Jaishankar to contest, seats not finalized, says Pralhad Joshi Joshi assured reporters that both union ministers will undoubtedly run for the Lok Sabha seats. Which constituency and from where they will run, meanwhile, are still up in the air

February 26, 2024 06:07 PM IST Ahead of LS polls, Congress steps up efforts to strengthen party in Hyderabad, woos BRS leaders Out of the total 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, four constituencies  Malkajgiri, Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Chevella  are in the GHMC limits.

February 26, 2024 03:59 PM IST Lok Sabha polls 2024: JP Nadda invites people's suggestions for BJP manifesto As part of the campaign, BJP president JP Nadda also flagged off video vans from the party headquarters to highlight the work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi

February 26, 2024 12:48 PM IST Will scrap 'Agnipath', revert to old recruitment scheme if voted to power: Congress Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to President Droupadi Murmu on Monday, highlighting the "gross injustice" done to the youngsters seeking regular employment in the armed forces due to the "Agnipath" scheme, and urged her to ensure justice for them.

February 25, 2024 06:37 PM IST Resolve to give Modi govt third term with more than 400 LS seats: Shah to BJP workers Addressing booth level workers of the party at Khajuraho, the Union minister also claimed the Congress means corruption and corruption means Congress.

February 24, 2024 08:58 AM IST PM Modis poll vault to cross 370: From Bengal to Tamil Nadu, Kerala to Maharashtra, mega rallies, events planned next week With over 100 seats in the south, including 59 in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, 48 in Maharashtra and 42 in Bengal, the BJP is hoping that their biggest star campaigner and in whose name the party has been winning every election from Panchayat to Parliament, Modi can once again set the stage for them ahead of the announcement of the election dates.

February 24, 2024 10:51 AM IST Lok Sabha Polls: BJP's mega huddle today, 'longer' candidate list likely to be out March first week During its huddle of election incharges and their deputies, BJP will discuss strategies that will be common practice in all states and UTs along with details of poll rallies by top guns like PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda

February 24, 2024 10:59 PM IST Farmers' Protest Highlights: Authorities initiated the process of partially reopening Singhu border earlier today Dilli Chalo March Highlights: Authorities initiated the process of partially reopening Singhu (Delhi-Haryana) border earlier today, almost two weeks after it was sealed in view of farmers' 'Delhi Chalo' march.

February 23, 2024 10:07 PM IST No change in TMC's stand of contesting all 42 LS seats in West Bengal: Derek O'Brien However, O'Brien, the TMC leader in the Rajya Sabha, said, "A few weeks agoWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stated that TMC is fighting all the 42 seats in Bengal. We are also in the fray in a few seats in Assam and the Tura Lok Sabha seat in Meghalaya. There is no change in this position."

February 23, 2024 08:20 PM IST Congress hopeful of finalising seat-sharing with TMC, AAP soon Sources said while the talks with the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP have almost been concluded, discussions are still underway with the Mamata Banerjee's TMC. The sources expressed hope the leadership would work out a solution soon accommodating the expectations of all parties.

February 22, 2024 05:46 PM IST "Break alliance or Kejriwal will be arrested," Atishi accuses BJP of threatening AAP leaders AAP leaders have received messages threatening to arrest Arvind Kejriwal if their party doesnt break the alliance within two days, alleged Atishi

February 22, 2024 04:34 PM IST Lok Sabha polls: Uttar Pradesh sealed, what's next for INDIA alliance? Lok Sabha Elections: The political struggle is far from over, as alliance partners remain hesitant to offer a substantial share to the grand old party.

February 22, 2024 12:52 PM IST Ajay Maken accuses BJP of 'financial terrorism' to cripple Cong ahead of LS polls Income Tax Department has transferred Rs 65.88 crore from three Congress accounts, as well as from the accounts of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and the National Students Union of India (NSUI), alleged Maken.

February 21, 2024 12:53 PM IST Haven't joined INDIA bloc, will support anyone with 'selfless' thought for nation: Kamal Haasan Addressing reporters here after leading the 7th anniversary celebrations of his Makkal Needhi Maiam, Haasan also welcomed the recent political entry of top Tamil actor Vijay.

February 21, 2024 11:41 AM IST Differences among INDIA bloc allies in couple of states, will be resolved: Sharad Pawar Speaking to reporters in Kolhapur, the senior politician said a meeting of the INDIA alliance, formed by several opposition parties to take on the ruling BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, has not been convened of late.

February 20, 2024 04:11 PM IST 'We scrapped Article 370 then to seek 370 seats now,' PM Modi stresses on an evolved J&K Lok Sabha Elections: Prime Minister Narendra Modi also referred to the upcoming Bollywood film Article 370 and slammed previous governments for depriving women of their democratic rights.

February 19, 2024 04:48 PM IST SP releases second list after refusing to join Rahul's Bharat Nyay Yatra Lok Sabha Elections: Akhilesh Yadav said his party will participate in the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra only after seat-sharing agreement with the Congress is finalised.

February 20, 2024 11:47 AM IST PM Modi to visit Jammu on Feb 20: What it means for BJP ahead of LS polls Lok Sabha Elections: Modi will visit Jammu on Tuesday to launch multiple development projects, including for education, railway, aviation and road sectors, worth Rs 30,500 crore.

February 19, 2024 12:49 PM IST Mayawati dismisses rumours of alliance, says BSP to go solo in Lok Sabha polls Mayawati, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has also asked workers of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to be beware of such rumours.

February 15, 2024 06:43 PM IST Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Farooq Abdullahs NC to contest all seats in J&K - what does it mean? Lok Sabha Elections 2024: The decision has surprised many in view of Abdullah's recent lament that We are gradually moving towards a situation where there will be one country ruled by a single party.

February 15, 2024 03:24 PM IST Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Farooq Abdullah says NC to go it alone National Conference is one of the constituents of opposition INDIA bloc formed in July 2023 to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls

February 14, 2024 10:01 PM IST EC seeks 3.4 lakh CAPFs for deployment in LS polls, Assembly elections in 4 states The EC has also sought adequate rolling stocks with all appropriate facilities in the trains, thereby ensuring hassle-free mobilisation and a timely movement of the forces to perform election duties.

February 14, 2024 02:26 PM IST Sharad Pawar-led NCP will not merge with any political party: Supriya Sule Apart from Pawar and Sule, former Maharashtra ministers Anil Deshmukh and Rajesh Tope, MPs Amol Kolhe and Shrinivas Patil along with others leaders attended the meeting.

February 14, 2024 09:25 AM IST Not allowing for 100% VVPATs is 'terrible anyay' on Indian voter: Congress The opposition party also said that not allowing for 100 per cent VVPATs is a "terrible injustice" on the Indian voter.

February 13, 2024 04:43 PM IST 'Legal MSP guarantee' if Congress voted to power, announces Rahul Gandhi amid farmers' Delhi march Gandhi said this step will ensure the prosperity of 15 crore farmer families. This is the first guarantee of Congress on the path of justice."

February 13, 2024 02:31 PM IST AAP wants to contest 6 seats in Delhi, offer one to Congress: Sandeep Pathak The party also announced its candidates for two Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat and one in Goa.

February 13, 2024 01:57 PM IST Ex-Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan to file nomination for Rajya Sabha with BJP backing Chavan joined the saffron party on February 13 in the presence of Maharashtras deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.

February 12, 2024 03:51 PM IST Another week, another blow, Ashok Chavan adds to Congress' exit list In 2010, Ashok Chavan had to step down as the chief minister of Maharashtra for his alleged involvement in Adarsh housing scam

February 12, 2024 02:27 PM IST BJP will win 370 seats, NDA more than 400 seats in Lok Sabha polls: Amit Shah Amit Shah also took a swipe at the Congress and said out of the 10-year rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first five years went in filling up the "pit" dug by the opposition party, when it ruled the country, and another five years in laying the foundation (of development).

February 09, 2024 05:19 PM IST Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Over 96 crore voters to exercise franchise Over two crore young voters between the age group of 18-29 have been added to the voter list.

February 09, 2024 09:01 AM IST AAP to hold meeting on February 13 to decide on Lok Sabha candidates' names for 3 states In a sign of exasperation over protracted seat-sharing talks with its INDIA bloc partner Congress, the AAP on Thursday declared party candidates for three Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam.

February 09, 2024 05:59 AM IST BJP bags Rs 1,294 crore as donations through electoral bonds sold in FY23 Electoral bonds totaling a cumulative value of Rs 2,800 crore were sold during the fiscal year spanning from March 2022 to March 2023.

February 07, 2024 01:59 PM IST 50%-plus vote share, alliances, and gains in east & south: How BJP plans to fulfill PM's target of 'Abki Baar, NDA 400 paar' Getting Ajit Pawar on board in Maharashtra, JDS in Karnataka, Nitish Kumar back in the NDA in Bihar and opening talks with Jayant Chaudhary in Uttar Pradesh and Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh  all this is a part of BJPs strategy to maximise the NDAs tally and vote share in 2024.

February 05, 2024 01:59 PM IST Dont engage children in poll campaign: ECI to political parties The directions from the Election Commission of India have come just two months ahead of the 2024 general elections, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third straight term at the Centre.

February 05, 2024 02:31 PM IST Lok Sabha Election: Women rule revised minimum income scheme in Cong policy to beat BJP Under the scheme, the opposition Congress is planning that women across the country would be given at least Rs 60,000-70,000 annually.

February 01, 2024 06:12 PM IST How FM Sitharaman invoked PM Modi's 'four castes' slogan in Budget 2024 The earlier approach of tackling poverty through entitlements had resulted in very modest outcomes, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech. When the poor become empowered partners in the development process, governments power to assist them also increases manifold, she added.

January 30, 2024 11:15 AM IST 'Modi's guarantee' a jumla, real issue in India is unemployment, inflation: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra The Congress general secretary shared a video on X which showed people queuing up for a recruitment drive to send workers to Israel.
Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr is a New Delhi-based journalist. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
In today's edition of Moneycontrol Pro Panorama: More NBFC's piled in past three years, simultaneous polls may not be an unalloyed...

Moneycontrol Pro Panorama | Markets need their Vitamin D too, as disclosures make them stronger

Begum Sheikh Hasina is set to enter her fifth successive term as Bangladeshs Prime Minister after the elections on Sunday. But her victory will be scarred

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Prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), the country's longest sea bridge, on 12 January 2024. The 21.8km-long MTHL would cater to 70,000 vehicles daily, connecting Sewri at Mumbai to Chirle at Navi Mumbai.

The inauguration of the MTHL is set to revolutionise the daily commute, slashing the travel time from the current two hours to a mere 20 minutes. This remarkable improvement in connectivity is anticipated to fuel a surge in housing demand and a corresponding increase in property values in the Panvel region. The inauguration of the MTHL is set to revolutionise the daily commute, slashing the travel time from the current two hours to a mere 20 minutes. This remarkable improvement in connectivity is anticipated to fuel a surge in housing demand and a corresponding increase in property values in the Panvel region.

The MTHL will make reaching Panvel more convenient from central and south Mumbai than accessing Andheri in the western suburbs or Ghatkopar in the central suburbs, where real estate prices are currently three to four times higher. With improved connectivity and reduced travel time, home buyers will find it beneficial to buy larger homes in Panvel and at a much more reasonable cost, rather than buying more expensive and smaller homes in the Mumbai suburbs which are already densely populated with inadequate infrastructure and lifestyle.

The MTHL will also be linked with the Mumbai-Pune expressway through an elevated corridor. This would be beneficial for frequent travellers from Mumbai to Pune. It will also pass by the under-construction Navi Mumbai international airport. Apart from MTHL, there are a number of ongoing infrastructure projects that promise improved infrastructure development and enhanced connectivity within Navi Mumbai and across to Mumbai.

The Navi Mumbai region is being touted as the next Mumbai 3.0. The government has placed major emphasis on infrastructure development in this region. Large and vital infrastructure projects have been put on the fast track for completion. These include Navi Mumbai international airport (NMIA), the extension of the Sion-Panvel expressway, Metro connectivity between CSM international airport and NMIA, Nerul passenger water transport terminal, the coastal road connecting MTHL and NMIA, future metro lines in Navi Mumbai and the Panvel-Karjat additional railway line, to name a few. These projects tend to bolster the economic development of the Navi Mumbai and Panvel region and the economy of the country as a whole.

Apart from economic benefits, the region also offers home buyers serene surroundings, a pollution-free environment with one of the country's best air quality index (AQI) and improved quality of life. Many reputed developers are coming up with township projects in Panvel. Township projects provide integrated living solutions that enhance residents' convenience and quality of life. Such developments provide better family security and offer residents the entire social infrastructure required for a comfortable living. They are typically designed to focus on community living, offering amenities such as parks, retail, leisure, community centres, healthcare and educational institutions, which foster a sense of community and belonging among residents. Apart from economic benefits, the region also offers home buyers serene surroundings, a pollution-free environment with one of the country's best air quality index (AQI) and improved quality of life. Many reputed developers are coming up with township projects in Panvel. Township projects provide integrated living solutions that enhance residents' convenience and quality of life. Such developments provide better family security and offer residents the entire social infrastructure required for a comfortable living. They are typically designed to focus on community living, offering amenities such as parks, retail, leisure, community centres, healthcare and educational institutions, which foster a sense of community and belonging among residents.

Current trends suggest that the opening of MTHL and the nearing completion of various other infrastructure projects are resulting in a considerable appreciation in property prices, making it an attractive destination for both end-users and investors.

The Panvel real estate market is thriving due to its strategic location, infrastructure development, and the presence of major projects and clean and green environment, making it an attractive investment destination and one of the preferred residential locations for home buyers.
Boeing's new 737 MAX-9 is pictured under construction at their production facility in Renton, Washington, U.S., February 13, 2017. Picture taken February 13, 2017.
Arthur San Agustin, director of the Department of Public Health and Social Services, arrives at the Guam Judicial Center in Hagatna ahead of a court hearing on Aug. 29, 2023.
Calaveras Board of Supervisors View Photo

San Andreas, CA  A vote about who will lead the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors in 2024 is among the items on Tuesdays first meeting agenda of the New Year.

Gary Tofanelli served as Board Chair throughout 2023 and Jack Garamendi was the Vice Chair. Immediately after electing a new chair and vice chair, there will be a vote on approving the committee assignments and upcoming meeting calendar.

Later in the meeting, there will be a presentation on a draft county broadband strategic plan. There will also be informational presentations from the University of California Cooperative Extension and the Department of Agriculture/Weights and Measures.

In addition, there will be vote on sending a letter in support of the Calaveras County Resource Conservation District and its partners for a project called the San Andreas East Fuelbreak.

Tuesdays meeting starts at 8 am with a closed session matter, and the regular session begins at 9 am, at the Government Center in San Andreas.
Conor here: This seems to be the best possible strategy: US activists arent wasting their time with US officials because, as this piece describes, officially appointed U.S. diplomats continue to insist on supporting Israels ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Theres still time to remind Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for example, of his role:

Shame on you. Protesters spill fake blood on Antony Blinkens car to protest against the USs support for the Zionist regimes genocide of the Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/79etYkLfgn  Hassan Mafi  (@thatdayin1992) January 5, 2024

But the main focus looks to be and effort to drum up support from nations more likely to back South Africas case against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

For those interested, here is a link to Code Pink petition that they will deliver in person to UN ambassadors. You can also contact countries directly, using this great resource via Sam Husseini.

By Melissa Garriga is the communications and media analysis manager for CODEPINK. She writes about the intersection of militarism and the human cost of war. Cross posted from Common Dreams.

Peace activists across the country have embarked on a campaign to mobilize global support for South Africas charge of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The campaign, spearheaded by CODEPINK, World Beyond War, and RootsAction, aims to rally nations to submit a Declaration of Intervention supporting South Africas case at the ICJ. The focus is on holding Israel accountable for alleged genocide in Gaza and putting an end to the tragic suffering of an imprisoned population. Delegations from major cities engaged with U.N. missions, embassies, and consulates worldwide, urging countries to invoke the Genocide Convention at the United Nations judicial arm.

The campaign started two weeks ago with an open call for people to join in a petition and letter-writing campaign urging countries to invoke the genocide convention and charge Israel with genocide in the International Court of Justice. Since then, over 30,000 people signed the petition, accompanied by an impressive 118,290 letters sent to various countries urging support of the cause.

The nationwide delegations of grassroots diplomats took on this campaign because officially appointed U.S. diplomats continue to insist on supporting Israels ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, rejecting the sentiments of a majority of people in the U.S. and around the world who want a ceasefire and an end to the slaughter.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby calls South Africas 84-page suit accusing Israel of genocide meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever. Notably, the United States supported Ukraine invoking the Genocide Convention last year in the International Court of Justice with far less evidence.

In the first week of January, delegations of grassroots diplomats embarked on a petition and letter delivery campaign across the United States, urging missions, consulates, and embassies to support South Africas legal action against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under the U.N. Convention on Genocide. While the visits and deliveries varied from city to city, the overall reception by staff and representatives in each U.N. Mission, Embassy, and Consulate was encouraging and supportive, with some delegations able to meet directly with country representatives.

The NYC delegation visited around 30 U.N. missions, engaging in significant diplomatic efforts. They had a positive meeting with Colombias U.N. Ambassador, Arlene Tickner, exploring the potential for a Declaration of Intervention to support South Africas legal action. Another meeting took place with the Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the U.N. At the Bolivia Mission, the delegation received a warm reception, providing a letter and petition. A productive meeting occurred with the Bangladesh U.N. Consul, who expressed interest in connecting with legal experts. The NYC team met African Union diplomats who offered support and suggested additional efforts for South Africa. A meeting at the South Africa Mission involved discussions with the counselor and Deputy Permanent Representative. The delegation expressed their gratitude and support to the South African government. The South African representative acknowledged and appreciated the delegations work in their peace work.

The D.C. team engaged in diplomatic efforts, meeting with the Deputy Minister at the Colombian Embassy to encourage the Colombian governments continued stance against Israeli actions and to join South Africas case. They visited and submitted their petition to the Ghanaian, Chilean, and Ethiopian Embassies, urging support for South Africas case against Israel. The team also had discussions with the Bolivian Embassy. Currently, they are arranging a meeting with the Turkish ambassador to further their diplomatic initiatives.

Three delegations from Miami divided their efforts to visit ten consulates, including those of Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, France, Honduras, Ireland, Spain, and Turkey. The delegations had the opportunity to meet with consular generals from Bolivia, Honduras, and Turkey, all notably welcoming and receptive. In addition, the Miami team reached out to the Turkish ambassador in Washington, D.C., further extending their diplomatic efforts. The Turkiye Consulate in Miami emphasized the visit on their social media platform, underscoring the significance of the engagement.

The Tampa team focused on a single visit to the Greek Consulate, accompanied by a representative from CAIR Florida, based in Tampa. CAIR is a nationwide federation of legally independent chapters dedicated to safeguarding the civil liberties of Americans. The Greek Consulate warmly received the delegation, expressing appreciation for a gift of olive oil. Furthermore, they assured the team they would forward the petition and letter to the Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C., indicating a positive reception and willingness to address the delegations concerns.

Orlando engaged with five consulates representing Mexico, Italy, Brazil, Haiti, and Colombia. The meeting at the Haitian Consulate was mainly positive, with a productive discussion with an Assistant Consul urging support for South Africas case against Israel. Similarly, the delegation met with the Vice Consular of Colombia, delivered a petition, and urged their support for South Africas case against Israel, indicating a proactive approach in advancing their diplomatic efforts.

In Houston, the delegation reported successful engagements during their visits. They met with the Consulate of Belize staff and spoke with Consulate General Francisco Leal of Chile. The Honduran consulate staff extended kindness during their visit. The delegations also visited the Pakistan consulate as part of their diplomatic efforts.

The San Francisco delegation visited three consulates  Chile, Brazil, and Colombia. They engaged with the staff at the Chilean and Brazilian consulates, delivering the petition and letter at the Colombian Consulate, situated in the same building as the Israeli Consulate. Security at the building instructed the delegation to wait outside for a representative. However, the doors were subsequently locked, preventing entry. In response, the delegation affixed the petition and letter to the buildings door to convey their message.

The delegation in Los Angeles visited nine foreign consulates in the city, including Belize, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Turkey, Chile, Colombia, and Kuwait. The delegation expressed gratitude to the staff at the South African Consulate for South Africas filing in the ICJ that charges Israel with genocide. As a goodwill gesture, the activists brought flowers, a simple yet well-received token of peace and unity. They also had an encouraging meeting with Bolivian Consulate Gabriella Silva, who supported the delegations effort.

Delegations from Detroit, Chicago, Boston, and San Antonio also made visits to their local Consulates. Prior to deliveries, Turkey, Malaysia, and Slovakia publicly came out in support of South Africas filing. Since then, Jordan announced that they will file a Declaration of Intervention supporting South Africas case.

This grassroots diplomatic effort represents a unified plea for justice, demanding global solidarity against Israels genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The tireless advocacy seeks to bridge nations in support of South Africas pursuit of justice in the International Court of Justice.

Deliveries will continue into the first of next week with the hopes of engaging with as many missions, consulates, and embassies as possible before the start of the ICJ hearing on Jan. 11.

The oral argument of South Africa will take place on Thursday 11th January 2024 and Israels oral argument on Friday 12th January 2024. The hearings will be streamed live and on demand on the ICJs Website and on the UN Web TV.
Events have gotten ahead of my drafting. I planned to launch at the customary before 7 AM East Coast time, when news is breaking that Israel is indeed attacking Lebanon, even as Tony Blinken was set to visit today..as you will see below, to talk Israel out of this sort of thing. So unless the latest salvo can be depicted as proportionate to the strike on Mount Hermon (more on that soon), we may be seeing the start of an Israel war with Lebanon:

Israel said that it had struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and was ready to attack more of the Iran-backed militias positions, in the latest flare-up that has fueled concerns about a broader regional war as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza. Follow updates.https://t.co/OfhQB9tKhc  The New York Times (@nytimes) January 8, 2024

Back to the earlier text:

It seems important to keep the focus the escalating Israeli war against Palestinians, more than this humble site can do via its Links feature alone. But at the same time, the conflict has moved into a Grand Guignol phase, where there are so many daily horrors that fall into established patterns that it becomes hard to keep track individually, with the cumulative effect numbing.

Being outraged, even if you could maintain the choler, seems inadequate compared to the viciousness of Israels campaign and the despicable glee way too many Israeli officials and members of the public exhibit. And the usual relief valve of writing Congresscritters is so clearly pointless as to confirm the sense of futility in the face of this smug savagery.1

Despite the appearance of a horrible sameness, pressures are building, at the presumed Israel assassination of Hamas leaders, notably deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut attest. Hezbollah responded, as promised, by taking out a major Israeli electronic surveillance post near the Lebanon border, at Mount Hermon. The Times of Israel reported that the IDF admitted to damage to the air traffic control site. Defense Security Asia was more descriptive:

Hezbollah launched a barrage of more than 60 rockets at the Meron military base situated atop Mount Jarmak in northern occupied Palestine, one of the most crucial military installations belonging to Israel Defense Force (IDF), The IDFs Meron base is regarded by observers as one of the most critical Israeli military installations with Israels high-ranking military leaders are known to frequent the base for operational command. The rocket attack on this significant Israeli military facility commenced at 8 am local time and lasted for several hours.

Similarly:

Hezbollah has discovered where the Meron Air Surveillance Base is located at Mount Hermon in northern occupied Palestine, the highest peak in occupied Palestine. Read more: https://t.co/EJmBkyFoAB pic.twitter.com/yNV1SO7Lbp  sonja van den ende (@SonjaEnde) January 6, 2024

This weekend, Tony Blinken engaged in yet another Middle East tour, allegedly to try to prevent an escalation of the war, revealing US impotence, complicity, and cowardice. Its hard to take American finger-wagging and empty virtue-signaling seriously. As an example, the BBC reported Palestinians must be able to stay in Gaza  Blinken. From the article:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Palestinians must not be pressured into leave Gaza, and must be allowed to return to their homes once conditions allow. Mr Blinken condemned statements by some Israeli ministers, who called for the resettlement of Palestinians elsewhere. The US official was in Qatar on his latest Middle East tour. His comments come following reports that dozens of people were killed at a refugee camp in northern Gaza. Footage from Jabalia shows bodies lying in the rubble of a destroyed building  many of them women and children.

Blinken must believe everyone in the Middle East is a fool to try that sort of thing with a straight face. So why is Israel still destroying hospitals? Still killing civilians willy-nilly, actively though strikes and more passively through starvation and disease, the latest being a Covid outbreak? So yes, they get to stay and die in place due to US inaction.

A new piece the Washington Post describes how the US is worried about Israel broadcasting plans to expand the conflicteven as Blinken is making his tour to try to get Middle Eastern leader to exercise restraint. A cynic might wonder if this was intended to assist Israel in its next phase. Its not as if Israels intent to take the conflict to Lebanon were a secret. Alastair Crooke has been discussing it for over a month, based on public statements by Israeli leaders to clear Lebanon near the border so as to calm the nerves of settlers and facilitate their return. From the Post:

In private conversations, the administration has warned Israel against a significant escalation in Lebanon. If it were to do so, a new secret assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) found that it will be difficult for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to succeed because its military assets and resources would be spread too thin

An aside: Scott Ritter has reported that Israel lost its two previous war games agains Hamas and Hezbollah, even with US assistance, so this inability is hardly news. The one thing that Israel has going for it, as Ritter and more explicitly Aurelien (in comments) pointed out is that Lebanon as a country is in terrible shape and the last thing they need is a war. So despite Hezbollah being in better fighting form than it was in 2006 and beat Israel in the end, the broader societal costs are dangerously high. The flip side is Alexander Mercouris has argued that countries that win wars, even with great loss of manpower and infrastructure, emerge stronger. But is Lebanon, even if it were to march into and hold Galilee, too close to being a failed state for that to apply?

Back to the Post:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive Monday in Israel, where he will discuss specific steps to avoid escalation, his spokesman Matthew Miller said before boarding a plane to the Middle East. It is in no ones interest  not Israels, not the regions, not the worlds  for this conflict to spread beyond Gaza, Miller said. But that view is not uniformly held within Israels government.

Since Hamass October assault, Israeli officials have discussed launching a preemptive attack on Hezbollah, U.S. officials said. That prospect has faced sustained U.S. opposition because of the likelihood it would draw Iran, which supports both groups, and other proxy forces into the conflict  an eventuality that could compel the United States to respond militarily on Israels behalf. Officials fear that a full-scale conflict between Israel and Lebanon would surpass the bloodshed of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war on account of Hezbollahs substantially larger arsenal of long-range and precision weaponry. The number of casualties in Lebanon could be anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 and entail a massive evacuation of all of northern Israel, said Bilal Saab, a Lebanon expert at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank. Hezbollah may strike deeper into Israel than before, hitting sensitive targets like petrochemical plants and nuclear reactors, and Iran may activate militias across the region. I dont think it would be limited to these two antagonists, he said.

The Post also reports that Israel was itching to attack Lebanon shortly after the October 7 Hamas raid, based on the view that an uptick in Hebollah strikes into the Israel border area (which I understand normally are at a low level, tit-for-tat basis). The US was so concerned that the article says Blinken was calling Israel three times a day to try to deter them. So apparently Blinken is not completely useless.

The Cradle, in West scrambles to deter Israel from war on Lebanon, added:

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell visited Lebanon on Sunday to meet with top Hezbollah officials, while the top US diplomat, Antony Blinken, is set to travel to Tel Aviv for talks with the Israeli leadership on Monday. Borrell met with the leader of Hezbollahs parliamentary bloc in Lebanon, Mohammad Raad, whose son, a Hezbollah fighter, was killed in an Israeli strike on a home in southern Lebanon in November However, Blinken recently used emergency authorization to bypass the US Congress and send additional munitions to Israel that would be crucial in any broader war with Hezbollah. Blinken and others in the White House have repeatedly said they would put no red lines on Israels use of US weapons despite widespread accusations that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The Houthis in Yemen are standing fast to their demand that they will interfere with shipping to and from Israel until the genocide stops. Maritime Executive reports that international coalition forces prevented two Houthi attacks on Saturday. But as I read it, one attack was a single drone, which seems inadequate to amount to an attack. Perhaps a surveillance device? Or an isolated drone to get the Western ships to waste a missile or two?

But to a so-far apparently neglected issue about the pending International Court of Justice case filed by South Africa contesting Israels genocide weirdly is how the case will be decided. Israel is in a lather about the filing and has been having its ambassadors exert pressure (how exactly?) for various states to make declarations opposing the South Africa case. There has mainly been a dearth of official pronouncements, although Bolivia has announced it is supporting South Africas claim. It turns out that sort of thing matters because the vote process is political.

Below Norman Finkelstein counts noses as to which states acting as judges are likely to vote. His discussion is short but the bottom line is for South Africa to prevail on this action, it needs 8 of 15 votes. So an abstention amounts to a vote for Israel.

Norman Finkelstein provides his analysis and prediction on South Africas ICJ case of Genocide against Israel.  worth a listen. pic.twitter.com/5tQoU1qZTF  Akunjee  (@mohammedakunjee) January 6, 2024

Finkelstein contends that Israel is likely to win because Russias and Chinas votes against Israel are almost certain to be necessary for South Africa to prevail. Finkelstein argues neither will want to support the South Africa case because the same genocide convention being used against South Africa could be turned on them. I see Russia as separately likely to abstain due to Putins past support of Israel.

But if this is how the votes wind up breaking, it would seriously call into question the BRICS talking point of BRICS being more virtuous than the old colonizers. Upstanding conduct and being a global power do not mix well.

____

1 Writing to the press might not be quite as pointless, given that they are smaller organizations than governments and are not used to receiving a raft of letters critical of their coverage. An obvious point of entry is their silence about the systematic murder of journalists.
Yves here. The advertising deluge for Medicare Advantage plans serves to legitimate an inferior product. It is bad enough that Medicare Advantage is intended to create a two-tier Medicare system, one with pretty good coverage for those who subscribe to traditional, as in government-run Medicare, and gappy, even threadbare, Medicare Advantage plans for everyone else. It is bad enough that this second-tier coverage often looks deceptively attractive to particularly budget-strained older Americans, who may feel they cannot afford traditional Medicare premiums and opt for no-fee Medicare Advantage plans. Even worse, it is clear as a matter of policy that Federal officials support the privatization of Medicare, as in shifting more and more Americans onto crappy Medicare Advantage regardless of whether they are needy enough for that to be the less bad of bad choices.

By Sarah Jane Tribble, KFF Health News Chief Rural Health Correspondent, who previously covered health care for Clevelands NPR and PBS affiliate and spent more than a decade as a staff writer for newspapers across the country. Originally published at KFF Health News

In 2016, Richard Timmins went to a free informational seminar to learn more about Medicare coverage.

I listened to the insurance agent and, basically, he really promoted Medicare Advantage, Timmins said. The agent described less expensive and broader coverage offered by the plans, which are funded largely by the government but administered by private insurance companies.

For Timmins, who is now 76, it made economic sense then to sign up. And his decision was great, for a while.

Then, three years ago, he noticed a lesion on his right earlobe.

I have a family history of melanoma. And so, I was kind of tuned in to that and thinking about that, Timmins said of the growth, which doctors later diagnosed as malignant melanoma. It started to grow and started to become rather painful.

Timmins, though, discovered that his enrollment in a Premera Blue Cross Medicare Advantage plan would mean a limited network of doctors and the potential need for preapproval, or prior authorization, from the insurer before getting care. The experience, he said, made getting care more difficult, and now he wants to switch back to traditional, government-administered Medicare.

But he cant. And hes not alone.

I have very little control over my actual medical care, he said, adding that he now advises friends not to sign up for the private plans. I think that people are not understanding what Medicare Advantage is all about.

Enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans has grown substantially in the past few decades, enticing more than half of all eligible people, primarily those 65 or older, with low premium costs and perks like dental and vision insurance. And as the private plans share of the Medicare patient pie has ballooned to 30.8 million people, so too have concerns about the insurers aggressive sales tactics and misleading coverage claims.

Enrollees, like Timmins, who sign on when they are healthy can find themselves trapped as they grow older and sicker.

Its one of those things that people might like them on the front end because of their low to zero premiums and if they are getting a couple of these extra benefits  the vision, dental, that kind of thing, said Christine Huberty, a lead benefit specialist supervising attorney for the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources.

But its when they actually need to use it for these bigger issues, Huberty said, thats when people realize, Oh no, this isnt going to help me at all.

Medicare pays private insurers a fixed amount per Medicare Advantage enrollee and in many cases also pays out bonuses, which the insurers can use to provide supplemental benefits. Huberty said those extra benefits work as an incentive to get people to join the plan but that the plans then restrict the access to so many services and coverage for the bigger stuff.

David Meyers, assistant professor of health services, policy, and practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, analyzed a decade of Medicare Advantage enrollment and found that about 50% of beneficiaries  rural and urban  left their contract by the end of five years. Most of those enrollees switched to another Medicare Advantage plan rather than traditional Medicare.

In the study, Meyers and his co-authors muse that switching plans could be a positive sign of a free marketplace but that it could also signal unmeasured discontent with Medicare Advantage.

The problem is that once you get into Medicare Advantage, if you have a couple of chronic conditions and you want to leave Medicare Advantage, even if Medicare Advantage isnt meeting your needs, you might not have any ability to switch back to traditional Medicare, Meyers said.

Traditional Medicare can be too expensive for beneficiaries switching back from Medicare Advantage, he said. In traditional Medicare, enrollees pay a monthly premium and, after reaching a deductible, in most cases are expected to pay 20% of the cost of each nonhospital service or item they use. And there is no limit on how much an enrollee may have to pay as part of that 20% coinsurance if they end up using a lot of care, Meyers said.

To limit what they spend out-of-pocket, traditional Medicare enrollees typically sign up for supplemental insurance, such as employer coverage or a private Medigap policy. If they are low-income, Medicaid may provide that supplemental coverage.

But, Meyers said, theres a catch: While beneficiaries who enrolled first in traditional Medicare are guaranteed to qualify for a Medigap policy without pricing based on their medical history, Medigap insurers can deny coverage to beneficiaries transferring from Medicare Advantage plans or base their prices on medical underwriting.

Only four states  Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York  prohibit insurers from denying a Medigap policy if the enrollee has preexisting conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.

Paul Ginsburg is a former commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, also known as MedPAC. Its a legislative branch agency that advises Congress on the Medicare program. He said the inability of enrollees to easily switch between Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare during open enrollment periods is a real concern in our system; it shouldnt be that way.

The federal government offers specific enrollment periods every year for switching plans. During Medicares open enrollment period, from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, enrollees can switch out of their private plans to traditional, government-administered Medicare.

Medicare Advantage enrollees can also switch plans or transfer to traditional Medicare during another open enrollment period, from Jan. 1 to March 31.

There are a lot of people that say, Hey, Id love to come back, but I cant get Medigap anymore, or Ill have to just pay a lot more, said Ginsburg, who is now a professor of health policy at the University of Southern California.

Timmins is one of those people. The retired veterinarian lives in a rural community on Whidbey Island just north of Seattle. Its a rugged, idyllic landscape and a popular place for second homes, hiking, and the arts. But its also a bit remote.

While its typically harder to find doctors in rural areas, Timmins said he believes his Premera Blue Cross plan made it more challenging to get care for a variety of reasons, including the difficulty of finding and getting in to see specialists.

Nearly half of Medicare Advantage plan directories contained inaccurate information on what providers were available, according to the most recent federal review. Beginning in 2024, new or expanding Medicare Advantage plans must demonstrate compliance with federal network expectations or their applications could be denied.

Amanda Lansford, a Premera Blue Cross spokesperson, declined to comment on Timmins case. She said the plan meets federal network adequacy requirements as well as travel time and distance standards to ensure members are not experiencing undue burdens when seeking care.

Traditional Medicare allows beneficiaries to go to nearly any doctor or hospital in the U.S., and in most cases enrollees do not need approval to get services.

Timmins, who recently finished immunotherapy, said he doesnt think he would be approved for a Medigap policy, because of my health issue. And if he were to get into one, Timmins said, it would likely be too expensive.

For now, Timmins said, he is staying with his Medicare Advantage plan.

Im getting older. More stuff is going to happen.

There is also a chance, Timmins said, that his cancer could resurface: Im very aware of my mortality.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, January 8. Turkiyes Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan, will undertake an official visit to Kyrgyzstan on January 89, 2024, Trend reports.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan, the visit is upon the invitation of Zheenbek Kulubaev, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan.

During the official visit, meetings at the highest and highest levels are planned to discuss the further expansion of Kyrgyz-Turkish cooperation, as well as the convening of the Sixth Joint Session of the Strategic Planning Joint Group.

According to the National Statistical Committee of Kyrgyzstan, the trade turnover between the countries amounted to $516.8 million from January through October 2023, which is 1.3 percent higher than in the same months of 2022 ($510.371 million). Trade with Turkiye accounted for 4.2 percent of Kyrgyzstans total trade.
After arming Ukraine, the U.K. has nothing left in its military stockpiles

Now that the dust is finally settling, Western governments are coming to the stark realization that their unquestioning support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia was not such a good idea

The Times of London reported this week that, thanks to its constant sending of weapons and money to the Kyiv regime, the United Kingdom has "nothing" left in its own military stockpiles.

For the past several years, the U.K. has been one of Ukraine's biggest weapons suppliers  that is until the weapons supply ran dry. Now, British defense officials in cooperation with other European leaders are "cranking through the gears" to immediately ramp up weapons production.

An unnamed Ukrainian source linked to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office confirmed the uptick in weapons production at the same time that British military intelligence chiefs are saying that they do not believe Ukraine can win the war against Russia in 2024 "because it does not have the manpower or the weapons for a big battlefield breakthrough," to quote The Times.

(Related: Even though the prominent mainstream media outlet has largely been on Ukraine's side since the start of the Russian conflict, the regime of Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the New York Times of "working for the Kremlin.")

Western "war fatigue" spells Ukrainian loss against Russia

How London plans to proceed is still somewhat unknown as internal debates rage within the U.K. government about what it should do concerning its weapons support system for Ukraine.

Some government officials argue that the West simply needs more "time" to ramp up weapons production while others insist the war has already been lost to Russia and that it is time to give up the fight.

As a whole, the West is suffering from a general feeling of "war fatigue," especially now that another battle rages on in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians who live in Gaza and are ruled by Hamas.

The biggest question on everyone's mind, both in the U.S. and abroad, is who will occupy the White House in 2025. Will Joe Biden "win" another term, or will Donald Trump swoop in for an upset? Stay tuned.

In Europe, government officials worry that a Trump victory would spell an immediate end to the West's ongoing efforts to fuel Ukraine's proxy war against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Zelensky's popularity continues to dwindle all throughout the West.

A former Ukrainian official told The Times that Zelensky is losing support because of the huge death toll among Ukrainian soldiers, not to mention the fact that Ukraine has no endgame or even plans for negotiation on the docket.

There is reportedly growing anger and pushback at the spectacle of men and women being "sent to the front line to die" in Ukraine.

Because Republicans in the U.S. Congress are holding up President Biden's proposed billions in additional defense aid for Kyiv, European leaders are coming to the realization that it will be up to them to keep the aid flowing to Ukraine  or not, if that is what ends up being decided.

"Can continental Europe afford to fold just because Trump says no more U.S. dollars?" an unnamed British source who spoke to The Times is quoted as saying about America taking a backseat in the Ukraine war due to its domestic political situation.

"I think most realize that Putin can't be allowed to win as consequences for European security are grave."

Many feel as though Europe is engaging in wishful thinking concerning its self-perceived ability to support Ukraine all the way until the end. Seeing as how Washington's contributions to the war far outweigh Europe's contributions, it would appear as though the war in Ukraine is soon coming to an end  and it appears as though Russia has already pretty much won.

The latest news about the collapsing West can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com
Californias population numbers drop to 2015 pre-COVID levels as EXCESS DEATHS soar

The media is taking notice of a strange spate of excess deaths in California that have no apparent cause.

Since early 2020 when the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) "pandemic" began, roughly 105,000 deaths occurred in California that authorities blamed on "COVID." Another 82,000 Californians died during that same time period from other unknown causes, these being classified as "excess deaths."

As of this writing, the population of California has dropped to what it was in 2015, years before anyone had even heard of COVID. In 2015, 260,000 of the state's roughly 39 million people died. In 2023, not even including November and December data, 240,000 Californians died from something, along with 6,000 additional deaths from "COVID."

These figures are pertinent because officials in the Golden State claim that California's death rate has returned to "pre-COVID" levels, which the data clearly shows is not true.

"Extrapolating the year-to-date figures for 2023 creates a final year-end figure of 280,000  20,000 more people than died in 2015," writes Thomas Buckley for the Brownstone Institute. "That's a non-Covid, population-neutral jump of 8%."

"In other words, despite the protestations of certain officials, the state's death rate has NOT returned to 'pre-Covid' levels  in 2019 the year before the pandemic, 270,000 people died with a population at least 400,000 greater than today."

(Related: The plan with COVID is to massively depopulate the world by 2025.)

Government COVID tyranny responsible for excess deaths

According to Dr. Bob Wachter, medical chair at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), part of the reason for all these continued excess deaths is sick people not receiving the care they needed during the "pandemic."

"(T)he last three years, not only were there a lot of deaths from Covid, there were a lot of additional deaths from non-Covid causes, which are probably attributable to people not receiving the medical care that they normally would have received," Wachter told the San Jose Mercury News, which noted that state ERs were overflowing with COVID patients all throughout the "pandemic."

"In other words, the pandemicist Wachter admitted the pandemic response itself at least contributed to a significant number of excess deaths, a fact that was aggressively and roundly denied and  if mentioned  led to censoring and societal ostracization (and in many cases job losses) by the powers that be during the pandemic," Buckley writes about the matter.

Former U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Dr. Francis Collins, Tony Fauci's former boss, also revealed in recent days that the government's COVID response  Collins himself played an instrumental role in orchestrating that response, it is important to note  is largely responsible for all the excess deaths being reported.

At the height of COVID, Collins was a hardline tyranny promoter who infamously called for a "devastating takedown" of anyone who questioned he and his colleagues' "pandemic" response. Now, Collins is playing the other side, probably because the world is waking up to the realization that we were lied to about COVID.

At no point has Collins ever apologized for his earlier crimes against humanity. Instead, he is trying to quietly pivot away from what he helped orchestrate as he and his colleagues attempt to slither away from everything they did.

"Nationally, pandemic 'all-cause' deaths spiked, for obvious reasons, but they remain stubbornly higher than normal to this day," Buckley notes.

"There could be mitigating factors to California's numbers, specifically the issue of drug overdoses. Since 2018, the overdose death rate has doubled. The last overall figures available are from 2021 which showed 10,901 people dying of an overdose. While not specifically broken out for which drug, the vast majority are from opioid overdoses and the vast majority of those involve fentanyl. In 2022, there were 7,385 opioid-related deaths with 6,473 of those involving fentanyl."

More related news can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

Brownstone.org

NaturalNews.com
Fed up with illegals being bussed from Texas to their sanctuary cities, Democrats push Biden to support GOP call for border crackdown

The bussing scheme that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott came up with to relocate illegal alien migrants from the Lone Star State to the nation's far-left sanctuary cities is seeing success as President Biden and other Democrats in Washington appear ready to finally close the southern border.

Abbott has bussed nearly 100,000 migrants from Texas to various "we welcome our immigrant neighbors" cities like New York, Boston, Chicago and Denver since first launching the program. Leaders of said cities are complaining that there is nowhere to house all those migrants, and are now begging the Biden regime to do something.

Despite previously bragging that their cities would always serve as a sanctuary for illegals, officials in New York, Boston, Chicago and Denver now admit that they cannot provide sanctuary to all the illegals because there are not enough resources available. Amazingly, Biden and other Democrats on Capitol Hill are ready to negotiate, especially since 2024 is an election year.

(Related: Did you know that American leftist groups are setting up "guerrilla camps" along the southern border to help illegals more easily invade America?)

No more funding for Ukraine, Israel until southern border is sealed

Republicans want several things to change as far as immigration law enforcement is concerned, including the so-called "credible fear interview." Abbott hopes this early hurdle for prospective asylum seekers will be tweaked to allow migrants to be sent back home much earlier in the migration process.

Both the White House and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas are also said to be considering new rules to allow for the faster deportation of illegal migrants. Mind you, making such a change would have been unheard of at the start of the Biden regime.

Another reason Biden et al. are softening up to Republican demands for a tighter southern border is because the right is threatening to tie up military funding for Ukraine and Israel unless the left concedes. To win the 2024 election, Democrats are going to have to do something, reports suggest.

Abbott has made it clear that the migrant bussing scheme has only just begun, and that there are a lot more migrants coming to America's sanctuary cities in the coming days.

"Sanctuary cities like NYC & Chicago have seen only a FRACTION of what overwhelmed Texas border towns face daily," Abbott wrote on X (formerly Twitter.)

"We will continue our transportation mission until Biden reverses course on his open border policies."

In fiscal year 2023, an astounding 2.4 million migrants streamed illegally across the U.S. southern border. This is according to official figures  the true number is likely much higher when accounting for migrants who never encounter Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents.

On an average day, CBP encounters around 6,575 migrants, meaning the equivalent number of migrants that Abbott has thus far bussed from Texas to America's sanctuary cities crosses into the U.S. every two weeks.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has also written a letter to Delta Airlines demanding an investigation into claims that the air carrier is flying illegals from the southern border into the U.S. Gaetz wants to know how "non-resident aliens" are able to "book and travel" on Delta flights.

According to Gaetz, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are using federal tax dollars to purchase flights for migrants, even though they are not necessarily passing verification checks.

"Even more alarming than American taxpayers footing the bill for non-resident aliens to be transported into our communities is that they may not be properly vetted," Gaetz wrote in his letter.

The latest news about the illegal onslaught against America can be found at InvasionUSA.news.

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

NaturalNews.com
Israel has dropped more than 65,000 TONS of bombs on Gaza since Oct. 7

A new report from the Gaza Media Office has found that Israel has dropped more than 65,000 tons of bombs on Gaza since Oct. 7.

According to the report, "occupation aircraft," referring to bombers of the Israeli Air Force, dropped over 45,000 missiles and bombs  some weighing as much as 2,000 pounds  since the start of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas.

In its report, the Gaza Media Office referred to Israel's aerial bombardment campaign as part of the country's "comprehensive genocidal war on the Gaza Strip" that deliberately targeted "entire residential areas." (Related: Palestinian Christians in Gaza fear Israel's ongoing bombing campaigns will lead to their EXTINCTION.)

"The weight of the explosives dropped by the army on the Gaza Strip exceeded 65,000 tons, which is more than the weight and power of three nuclear bombs like those dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima," said the media office.

Most Israeli munitions dropped on Gaza are unguided

The Gaza Media Office reports that about two-thirds of the bombs and missiles that Israel drops on Gaza are "unguided and imprecise, commonly known as dumb bombs."

The office pointed out that the use of such bombs indicates that Israel is deliberately and indiscriminately targeting and killing in an unjustified manner Gazan civilians. This is "a clear and explicit violation of international law and various international conventions."

The office has even documented Israel using at least nine internationally banned bombs and missiles against Gazans. These include American-supplied "bunker-busting bombs" like the BLU-113, BLU-109, SDBS, and the laser-guided bunker buster GBU-28 "to destroy infrastructure."

Israel has also allegedly used white phosphorous bombs and other kinds of smart and unguided bombs. The bombs caused "mass killings and injuries within seconds, in addition to causing permanent damage to the injured, such as deformities and disabilities, along with the environmental risks resulting from the release of toxic radiation."

It should be noted that Israel is easily capable of carrying out targeted strikes against Hamas militants in Gaza that greatly minimize civilian casualties if it wanted to, using targeted munitions like guided bombs and missiles. Israel even has technologically advanced laser-guided missile systems that can take out specific apartment units in buildings while keeping the foundations of the building intact.

This ability to make very precise strikes against enemy units is evident because, on Tuesday, Jan. 2, Israel conducted one such targeted strike when it assassinated Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, Lebanon.

Before his death, al-Arouri served as Hamas's deputy chairman of its political wing. He is also known as a co-founder of Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Al-Arouri's assassination in Beirut was carried out with a drone strike that killed six other people  three other Hamas militants and three Lebanese Islamist militia members. No civilians were killed in the strike.

Israeli government advisor Mark Regev even noted in an interview, without admitting that Israel is responsible for the attack, that it was "a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership."

Learn more about Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza at WWIII.news.

Watch this clip of journalist Rachel Blevins discussing Israel's escalation of the conflict through its bombing of Beirut.

This video is from the Pool Pharmacy channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Israel dropping U.S.-supplied 2,000-lb. bombs in dense civilian areas of Gaza.

8,000 children have died in Gaza in just two months of Israeli bombings, excoriating any legitimate claim of "self-defense."

Israel deploying prohibited NEUTRON BOMBS to destroy Gaza and carry out ethnic cleansing, warns nuclear weapons expert.

WAR CRIME? Nearly 50% of bombs dropped by Israel on Gaza were unguided, "area effect" weapons.

Israel's genocidal "war of starvation" against Gaza ensures many survivors of bombings die of thirst and hunger.

Sources include:

New.TheCradle.co

MiddleEastMonitor.com

Reuters.com

Brighteon.com
Expose shows how NGOs funded by American taxpayers are shipping illegal immigrants into the United States

Journalist James OKeefe recently posted a video expose about an Arizona facility that transports illegal immigrants to the Phoenix airport, where they are then sent to different cities throughout the nation  with funding from American taxpayers.

In video footage posted on X, OKeefe visits the site, a repurposed former school building that has been turned into a migrant camp, where workers treat him with great suspicion and secrecy, slamming gates in his face as he tries to report on how buses leave the facility every hour, on the hour, for the airport. A man who refused to give his name but was later identified as Jesus Moreno repeatedly asks him to leave, at one point even offering to pay him money to go away.

Another man working at the facility, Tomas Robles, called OKeefe a domestic terrorist and called the sheriffs office on him.

During OKeefes visit, an American Red Cross worker who was present told him that he is unable to talk to the press but did admit that the shelter was run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

The IRC is a globalist non-government organization (NGO) run by former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. It boasts a huge operating budget; in 2021, it exceeded $1 billion. That year, records show it received more than $400 million in American taxpayers money via government grants, including $178 million from the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration; $123 million from the Department of Health and Human Services; and $114 million from the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance.

They also received funds from the private sector, Catholic charities, and even the European Union.

The secretive network of nonprofits and NGOs that help illegal immigrants make their way through the country only make it even more complicated to determine just how much the countrys border crisis is actually costing taxpayers.

In May, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability launched a probe into the Federal Emergency Management Agencys Emergency Food and Shelter Program following reports that they were providing taxpayer funds to NGOs that incentivize illegal immigration.

A press release announcing the investigation stated: Based on recent reporting, EFSP funds are possibly being used by certain NGOs to offset expenses incurred abroad in efforts to facilitate and incentivize illegal immigration to the United States. If true, this is a gross misuse of federal taxpayer dollars.

It also explained how the American Red Cross has been contributing to illegal immigration instead of alleviating it by making migrants journeys easier to the countrys southwest border.

NGOs regularly facilitate illegal immigration into the U.S.

Other NGOs have also been implicated in fueling illegal immigration into the U.S. For example, Doctors Without Borders has been providing maps and blueprints to caravans of illegals making their way from South and Central America across the border into the U.S.

Meanwhile, the United Nations International Organization of Migration provides them with lists of the various commissions and consulates throughout Mexico that can help them as they make their journey. Maps distributed by the Red Cross provide illegals with advice on making their way across the mass migration trail, including tips on how to safely ride freight trains.

Many of these NGOs are receiving taxpayer money, which means Americans are essentially paying for this influx of illegals who clearly do not care about following the law of the land and will almost certainly end up becoming Democrat voters.

In OKeefes video, he asked an illegal immigrant named Felipe if he plans to vote in the U.S. presidential elections and who would get his vote.

Biden, Felipe responds, because hes given us an opportunity.

Sources for this article include:

TheNationalPulse.com

Twitter.com

Oversight.House.gov

NaturalNews.com
Kim Jong Un: U.S., Japan and South Korea may team up to LAUNCH NUKES against North Korea this year

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un claims the United States, Japan and South Korea may launch a nuclear strike against Pyongyang sometime this year.

Major South Korean media outlet Yonhap News Agency reported on Thursday, Jan. 4, that North Korean media  primarily, the state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)  condemned recent South Korean military exercises, claiming that the exercises are "self-destructive" and accusing South Koreans of being "warmongers."

"There will be the highest risk of clashes this year, as invading forces, such as the United States and Japan, will crawl into the peninsula under the South Korean puppet regime's plea and active cooperation and they will likely stage unprecedented provocative war moves such as a nuclear strike," claimed the KCNA in one of its recent reports. (Related: South Korea accuses North Korea of supplying Russia with over 1M ARTILLERY SHELLS in exchange for advanced technologies.)

Seoul and Washington recently concluded a week-long series of military exercises near the border with the North. These exercises took place from Dec. 29, 2023, to Jan. 4 and involved more than 110 large combat weapons, including South Korean tanks, anti-aircraft platforms and other artillery systems supported by U.S. military attack aircraft and armored fighting vehicles. These weapons systems conducted joint combat firing drills near the border, which Pyongyang called "reckless."

On Wednesday, Jan. 3, one day before the exercises ended, the Republic of Korea Navy conducted live-firing drills and anti-submarine maneuvers in internationally recognized South Korean waters to the east, west and south of the country, involving destroyers, frigates and corvettes.

"With the instinct of confrontation deep in their bones, the puppets [South Korea] again marked the new year by making the aggressive choice that stokes war," said the KCNA in a commentary, noting that "2024 is the year of the highest risk of conflict."

KCNA further claimed that, if South Korea continues with its military exercises, it will face the "most painful moments they cannot even imagine," suggesting a retaliatory nuclear strike against Seoul.

In October last year, the U.S. and South Korea conducted their first-ever trilateral aerial military exercises with Japan in October. These exercises involved an American B-52 bomber and three F-16s flying alongside two Korean F-15K strike fighters and four Japanese F-2 fighter jets.

North Korea responds to military exercises by conducting its own drills along the border

In response to the military exercises, the North Korean military, the Korean People's Army, conducted its own military drills which resulted in at least 200 artillery rounds being fired dangerously close to the western border island of Yeonpyeong.

North Korea claims these are part of its frontline maritime firing exercise, the first of its kind in over a year. Experts warn that Pyongyang will likely intensify a series of weapons tests in the coming months in response to parliamentary elections scheduled in the South in April and the U.S. presidential election in November.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that the 200 North Korean artillery rounds landed in the waters directly north of the disputed western sea boundary between the two nations. The South reportedly suffered no damages, but spokesperson Lee Sung Joon called the North's artillery firing drill "an act of provocation that threatens peace and heightens tensions on the Korean Peninsula."

South Korea responded to the artillery by ordering civilians in Yeonpyeong as well as in the nearby border island of Baengyeong to evacuate to shelters. Lee said the South Korean military would also respond to the North's artillery firing but refused to specify what that response would be.

Watch this clip from political commentator Nate Polson warning of a possible war brewing in the Korean Peninsula following Pyongyang's decision to fire artillery shells in the direction of a South Korean island.

This video is from the Pool Pharmacy channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Even the mainstream media is starting to admit that the world is teetering on "the brink" of complete and utter chaos.

Blinken admits having "real concerns" over military ties between Russia, North Korea.

America is developing a new nuclear gravity bomb that is 24 times more powerful than Hiroshima's atomic bomb.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warns of nuclear war, orders military to get ready for possible U.S.-led invasion.

North Korean leaders promise to "annihilate" the U.S. by the end of the century.

Sources include:

Newsweek.com

Reuters.com

AirAndSpaceForces.com

APNews.com

KoreaTimes.co.kr

Brighteon.com
NARRATIVE COLLAPSE: Washington Post retracts Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallants Oct. 7 Hamas rape claims

At the behest of the Israeli government, thehas self-censored a report it published claiming, falsely, that Hamas militants had specific orders on Oct. 7 indicating "which commander should rape which soldiers."

The fabrication came from none other than Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who apparently lied to the Post about Hamas militants raping Israeli soldiers as part of the Oct. 7 attack that left around 1,200 Israelis dead.

The original Post article, published on Nov. 12 as an "exclusive" piece about the events of Oct. 7, contained a quote from Gallant that read as follows:

"We know from interrogations that Hamas came in with detailed plans of their attack, including which commander should rape which soldiers in different places."

A few days after publishing, the above quote was quietly removed by the Post and replaced with a "correction" that reads as follows:

"A previous version of this article included a quote from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that was not authorized for publication. The quote has been removed."

(Related: Just days after Oct. 7, a Hamas leader warned that Hezbollah both in Lebanon and Iran is ready to "join the battle" in Gaza.)

Israel lies to journalists to spread propaganda, then media outlets "correct" the record quietly

A random social media user is credited with spotting the self-censorship, describing it as "the Israeli way" of engaging in propaganda.

"Privately lying to a journalist to shape her coverage, then scrambling to correct the record when the journalist accidentally prints the lies you told her in confidence," the social media user in question wrote about the discovery.

Other media outlets, including the Associated Press (AP), ran with the same lies early on, claiming that Hamas committed "widespread" sexual crimes against Israelis on Oct. 7. So far, not a single alleged victim has come forward to back that claim.

Even so, senior U.S. government officials in lockstep with senior Israeli government officials continue to spread the lie that Hamas raped women and baked babies in ovens, among other such fables.

President Biden has repeatedly condemned these made-up tales as "appalling," going into detail about "reports of women raped  repeatedly raped  and their bodies being mutilated while still alive  of women's corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them."

These scary-sounding scenarios never happened, as far as we can tell. Not a single piece of evidence exists to show that Hamas committed any such atrocities, it turns out.

The twisted minds behind these tales comes from certain Israeli soldiers as well as members of ultra-Orthodox Israeli "rescue organizations" that immediately exploited these made-up stories to raise millions of dollars for themselves.

Evidence continues to emerge pointing to Israel as the culprit in many of the deaths supposedly caused by "Hamas." Israelis who fled to Kibbutz Be'eri, as one example, have come forward to reveal that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed Israeli civilians, while Hamas simply held live hostages.

A law firm representing 42 survivors of these attacks now seeks $55 million in damages from IDF, Israeli intelligence, and Israeli police for failing to prevent the Oct. 7 attack, as well as for failing to notify organizers of the Nova music festival about what had transpired.

"All that the defendants had to do was to call the organizers responsible [for the party] to disperse the festival in light of the warnings that were received," the legal claim states.

"It is incomprehensible that the defendants did not order the immediate dispersal of the festival."

Interested in learning more about the Israeli conflict in Gaza? Visit Prophecy.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheGrayZone.com

NaturalNews.com
Zero-emission truck company founder sentenced to 4 years in prison for lying about companys tech and achievements

A U.S. District Judge has sent the founder and former CEO of an e-truck company to jail for deceiving investors

Trevor Milton, a former door-to-door salesman and college dropout, founded and became the CEO of the heavy-duty electric vehicle and fuel cell vehicle manufacturer the Nikola Corporation in 2015. In his trial in 2022, witnesses testified that he lied to ordinary investors about nearly every aspect of Nikola, especially about the company's supposedly zero-emission truck prototype. (Related: Study finds gas-powered vehicles are more economical than EVs.)

According to Milton, the prototype was already drivable even though it wasn't. He added that Nikola was already equipped to produce the necessary hydrogen needed to power the truck when it wasn't. He further boasted that the company already had a long list of sales orders, many of which for companies that did not exist.

Nikola was valued at over $13 billion before Milton's lies came to light

For Milton's crimes, a federal jury found him guilty of one count of securities fraud and three counts of wire fraud on October 2022.

During a recent hearing in Manhattan on Dec. 18, U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos sentenced Milton to four years in prison, ordered him to pay a $1 million fine and to surrender some of his properties in Utah. Milton is currently out on bail pending an appeal.

Thanks to Milton's fraudulent activities, he was able to take Nikola public through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) deal with General Motors (GM) in 2020 through a deal that saw GM acquire 11 percent of the company and secure former GM Vice Chairman Stephen Girsky a seat in Nikola's board of directors.

In exchange, Nikola was able to raise over $3 billion. Positive investor sentiment of Nikola caused the company's shares to debut at $65.90 per share, and at one point the company's valuation soared to $13 billion, making it temporarily more valuable than the Ford Motor Company.

Now, Nikola's shares are worth less than a dollar. Milton is no longer the company's CEO and his handpicked successor, Michael Lohscheller, has been replaced by Girsky.

During his trial, Milton tried to argue that the fabulous statements he previously made about the company referred to Nikola's business model. "I did not intend to harm anyone, and I did not commit those crimes," he said during one, rambling 30-minute statement before the court.

"The law does not grant a pass for good intentions," said Ramos after he sentenced Milton to four years in prison, noting how real people were hurt by his lies. "It is decidedly the obligation of business executives who are seeking to have the public purchase their stock to speak the truth."

Prosecutors believe that Milton's lies led to more than $660 million in losses for regular investors. Under federal sentencing guidelines, this should have landed Milton up to 60 years in prison. They conceded that this was too long, but the four years Ramos gave Milton is still less than half of the 11 years prosecutors wanted, which would have been akin to what Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes received a year ago for similarly fraudulent statements she made to investors about her company's blood testing technology.

Follow RoboCars.news for more news about electric vehicles.

Watch the video below to know why electric cars are a scam.

This video is from the White Knight channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

EVs are NOT zero emissions: It takes 500,000 pounds of earth material to build a single 1,000-pound battery.

Electric vehicles performed WORSE in EPA estimates than gas-powered cars: The EV push is a RIGGED SCAM.

Electric vehicles have more quality issues than combustion engine cars, new study finds.

BURNING CASH, NOT GAS: Federal, state subsidies for EVs cost $50,000 per car over a 10-year period.

Study finds electric vehicles are heavier and cause more damage to roads than gas and diesel cars.

Sources include:

WattsUpWithThat.com

WSJ.com

Brighteon.com
People were shocked after hearing a loud bang from Alaska Airlines after the fuselage accidentally blew off. No major injuries or damages were reported after the plane managed to take off.

In a recent advisory, the NWS Anchorage reported that High Wind Watches were reported in the region, especially in the Central and Eastern Aleutians, Alaska Peninsula, False Pass and Bay West.

As January starts, more people are expected to travel outside to enjoy the new year and start returning to work. The colder conditions and snow can cause slower commutes and travel disruption due to the weather.

Airlines Flight Terrying Incident After Fuselage Blew Off

According to recent reports, the plane managed to land without any problem. The aircraft managed to reach 16,000 feet after taking off when the fuselage accidentally blew off.

The 171 passengers were safe, including the flight crew members.

However, a person was immediately taken to the hospital after the plane managed to take off from Portland, Oregon. Authorities are expected to investigate the sudden blowing off of the fuselage that resulted in the explosive decompression.

Immediately, the plane had to go down to 10,000 to keep safe the 177 passengers. Flight attendants were also helpful in appeasing all passengers inside the plane.

The National Transportation Safety Board will also look into the incident. The aircraft falling piece was then found near Oregon.

Staying calm was important when the plane's fuselage blew off. Meanwhile, passengers applauded when the plane was safe. The accident resulted in the oxygen masks immediately dropping.

In the latest press release, Alaska Airlines reported that people inside the plane were medically cleared. Authorities urged people to report if they find the plug dog after the radar found it near Highway 217 in Portland's Cedar Hills neighborhood.

The airline will conduct inspections of the aircraft to ensure the welfare and safety of the passengers. They are expected to coordinate with the Boeing regulators, and they apologized for the unfortunate incident.

Also Read: Coldest Places in the World: Life in Earth's Frozen Habitats

Traveling in January Tips

In January, more Americans are expected to travel for the weekend. The foggy conditions and extreme cold can become challenging for travelers. Travel disruption and slower commutes are possible due to the weather.

Travelers should stay updated with the latest forecasts and anticipate potential slower commutes and delays. Checking regularly for flight details will be helpful to avoid the travel hassle.

For commuters, checking for road hazards is also important, including slower commutes and foggy conditions.

Related Article: Southeast Alaska Landslide: 3 Dead While 5 Remained Missing, Report Shows

For more similar stories, don't forget to follow Nature World News.
The most recent study suggests that protected areas connected to other places than isolated "fortress" parks help African elephants maintain stable populations by allowing them to migrate back and forth between areas as they did naturally in the past.

Protected Areas

In a study published in Science Advances, titled as ''Protecting and connecting landscapes stabilizes populations of the Endangered savannah elephant,'' population numbers in big, connected, and strictly protected areas often increased, fluctuated less from year to year, and were less vulnerable to poaching.

Population growth in buffer zones that are less protected but still connected varies considerably from year to year. Buffer areas' development rates also vary considerably, most likely due to additional risks and dispersal chances in the face of such perils.

The research used 713 population surveys from 103 protected areas from Tanzania southward to compute growth and decline rates from 1995 to 2020. This included about 290,000 savannah elephants, or 70% of the total in Africa.

The scientists discovered that over the last quarter century, population growth has averaged 0.16% every year.

Elephant populations in well-protected but isolated parks, dubbed "fortress conservation," expand swiftly in the absence of threats but are unsustainable in the long run. Future conservation efforts, such as translocation or birth control, will very certainly be required for these elephants, which are both costly and time-consuming endeavors.

The researchers discovered that the most stable populations exist in big, core areas surrounded by buffer zones.

The core areas are distinguished by their high levels of environmental protection and negligible human influence, while the buffers allow for certain activities such as sustainable farming, forestry, and trophy hunting. In contrast to the insular fortresses, core regions are linked to neighboring parks, allowing herds to wander freely.

Elephants can freely roam in and out of protected areas since they are linked. This allows for a natural equilibrium to exist without the need for human intervention, saving conservationists from having to use their limited resources to preserve balance.

"Connecting protected areas is essential for the survival of African savanna elephants and many other animal and plant species. Populations with more options for moving around are healthier and more stable, which is important given an uncertain future from climate change," said Celeste Mare, co-author and doctoral student at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Read Also: African Elephants Living Outside National Parks Have Higher Levels of Stress

Poaching Situation In Africa

The researchers also discovered that several places in southern Africa, such as south Tanzania, northern Zambia, and Zimbabwe, continue to suffer from severe poaching declines.

Poaching is also prevalent in east and west Africa, which is not addressed by the study.

Researchers have traced potential links between elephant populations in southern Africa, but decreasing interactions between people and elephants takes careful consideration of local conditions and is still being worked out.

"If you don't take care of the people in the landscape, then it doesn't matter what you try to do for elephants," said Dr. Robert Guldemond at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Savannah is home to about half a billion people and encompasses nearly half of Africa.

African elephants are thought to number 415,000 in total. There may have been more than 25 million people roaming the plains centuries ago, but due to population growth, such numbers will not be seen again.

Related Article: Elephant Names: New Study Reveals African Elephants Give Each Other 'Specific Calls'
The Indian Ocean, known for its rich biodiversity and abundant marine life, is facing an unprecedented crisis. The yellowfin tuna, a species integral to the ecosystem and a popular choice for sashimi and poke bowls globally, is witnessing a sharp decline in population.

A recent study published in Ocean and Coastal Management reveals alarming statistics that could potentially lead to catastrophic consequences not just for the marine ecosystem but also for coastal communities dependent on fishing.

Overfishing: The Primary Culprit

Overfishing has been identified as the primary culprit. Industrial exploitation since 1950 has led to a staggering 70% decline in biomass of yellowfin tuna populations managed by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO) in the Indian Ocean.

This overexploitation threatens not only the balance of life underwater but also impacts millions who rely on these waters for livelihood and sustenance.

According to the study, the current fishing pressure is unsustainable and exceeds the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) by 28%.

This means that the fish are being harvested faster than they can reproduce, resulting in a depletion of the stock. The study also warns that if the current trend continues, the yellowfin tuna population could collapse by 2026.

The study's lead author, Dr. Maria Lourdes Palomares, a senior scientist at the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia, said that the situation is dire and requires urgent action.

"The Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna are in a critical state. They are overfished and overfishing is still ongoing. We need to reduce the fishing mortality by at least 40% to prevent further declines and ensure the long-term sustainability of this resource," she said.

Also Read: Bluefin Tuna Internal Temperature Study Reveals Feeding and Migration Patterns

The Global Response: A Call for Collective Action

As international alarm bells ring, efforts are being intensified to mitigate this crisis. Conservationists, scientists, and policymakers are rallying together to implement stringent measures aimed at curbing overfishing and promoting sustainable fishing practices.

The global community's response will be pivotal in determining the future of yellowfin tuna in these waters. It underscores an urgent need for collective action that transcends national boundaries and prioritizes ecological preservation over short-term gains.

One of the key steps is to strengthen the role and effectiveness of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), the intergovernmental organization responsible for the management of tuna and tuna-like species in the Indian Ocean.

The IOTC has been criticized for its lack of transparency, accountability, and enforcement, as well as its failure to adopt science-based catch limits and quotas.

Another important step is to increase the involvement and participation of small-scale fishers and coastal communities in the decision-making process.

These groups are often marginalized and excluded from the benefits of the tuna industry, despite being the most affected by its impacts. They also have valuable local knowledge and experience that can contribute to the conservation and management of the resource.

Furthermore, there is a need to raise awareness and educate consumers about the origin and sustainability of the tuna products they consume.

By choosing tuna that is certified by credible eco-labels, such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), consumers can support responsible fishing practices and reduce the demand for overexploited tuna.

The yellowfin tuna crisis is a wake-up call for the world to act now and save this vital species before it is too late. As Dr. Palomares said,"The Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna is not only a food source, but also a symbol of the health and resilience of the ocean. We cannot afford to lose it."

Related article: How Tuna Stay Alive in Heart-Stopping Cold
On January 6, 2023, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N) of Iran commissioned the Shahid Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the lead ship of a new class of missile catamarans. The event took place in Bandar Abbas, a southern port city in Iran, marking a significant addition to the IRGC Navy's capabilities with the introduction of this vessel and 100 fast missile boats armed with either torpedoes or surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

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The Shahid Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis class can be seen as a smaller variant of the Shahid Soleimani class missile catamarans, which are also part of the IRGC Navy. (Picture source: Mehr News)

The vessel is named after Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the former deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units, who was killed alongside General Qassem Soleimani of the IRGC Quds Force in a 2020 American strike in Baghdad. The Shahid Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis class can be seen as a smaller variant of the Shahid Soleimani class missile catamarans, which are also part of the IRGC Navy.

The ceremony was attended by senior military officials including IRGC Chief Commander Hossein Salami and Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri. During the ceremony, it was stated that three Shahid Abu Mahdi vessels could potentially be delivered in under a year. However, it remains unclear whether this represents the official procurement plan or is simply a statement highlighting Iran's capability to achieve such a feat.

The Shahid Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, with the designation code PC313-01, is a 47-meter-long vessel reported to be able to operate at sea for up to 14 days and cover an operational radius of up to 2,000 nautical miles. This catamaran, which features a homegrown hull design, can reach speeds of up to 36 knots.

In terms of armaments, the Shahid Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis is equipped with a variety of weaponry, including six canisters for Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles like the Noor, Qadir, or Ghadir, a 30mm 2A42 cannon, four 20mm Gatling-type guns operating at 1500 rpm, and eight canisters that could house, depending on the sources, either Kowsar IR guided anti-ship missiles, or close-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), potentially enhancing its air defense. The 8 Kowsar/SAMs launchers on the ship seem to have the capability to rotate, facilitating alignment and missile locking.

There is some ambiguity regarding the potential designation of these SAMs, with some sources suggesting they may also be named Kowsar. These short-range multirole missiles, which would be different from the Kowsar anti-ship missile, are apparently designed to engage both surface targets and aerial threats, including drones and helicopters.

The Shahid Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis vessel seems to be equipped with an IIR/EO seeker for missile guidance, fire control radar, navigation radar, and a small helipad intended for VTOL UAVs like the Meraj-313. The design is said to include features intended to reduce radar signature and a high-aspect-ratio for operational flexibility. Therefore, these Shahid Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis vessels are well-suited for quick offensive operations near coastlines, while the Shahid Soleimani class provides more extensive seakeeping and defensive capabilities.

The introduction of the Shahid Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis signifies an expansion of the Iranian fleet, representing the third class of Iranian large catamaran type vessels. The simultaneous development of both the Shahid Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis and the Shahid Soleimani class vessels indicates Iran's approach to diversifying its naval capabilities. Each class is tailored to specific operational roles and tactical requirements, consolidating Iran's presence in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Arabian Sea.
On January 6, 2023, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported that an unmanned aerial vehicle launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen with reported Iranian backing was intercepted and destroyed by the USS Laboon (DDG 59) in international waters of the Southern Red Sea, near multiple commercial vessels. There were no casualties or damage reported.

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The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon (DDG 58) in the port of Rota, Spain, on 11 December 2023. (Picture source: US DoD)

The USS Laboon (DDG-58) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer commissioned in 1995. In 1996, it became the first Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to participate in combat by launching Tomahawk missiles at targets in Iraq.

With a fully loaded displacement of approximately 8,900 long tons, the USS Laboon measures 505 feet (154 meters) in length, with a beam of 59 feet (18 meters) and a draft of 31 feet (9.4 meters). It is powered by two shafts, enabling it to reach speeds exceeding 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) and maintain a range of 4,400 nautical miles at 20 knots.

In terms of armament, the USS Laboon is armed with a wide array of weaponry, including a 5-inch (127 mm) lightweight gun, a 20 mm Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS), a 25 mm Mk 38 machine gun system, missile launchers for Harpoon anti-ship missiles, a vertical launching system (VLS) for surface-to-air missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and ASROC anti-submarine rockets. Additionally, the vessel can operate one Sikorsky MH-60R helicopter.

The USS Laboon is part of Carrier Strike Group 2 (CSG-2), which includes the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), along with various squadrons from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 3. The group also comprises Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers USS Philippine Sea (CG 58), USS Monterey (CG 61), and USS Vella Gulf (CG 72), as well as Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, including USS Mitscher (DDG 57), USS Laboon (DDG 58), USS Mahan (DDG 72), and USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116), all under the banner of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 22.

It's worth noting that the deployment of this strike group in the region was preplanned and not a direct response to the ongoing Middle East conflict. Rear Admiral Marc Miguez, the commander of the strike group, has acknowledged that its presence may have implications for relationships with allies and partners. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has recently directed the USS Gerald R. Ford to prepare to assist Israel, underscoring the strategic significance of having two carrier strike groups in the region.

Several other Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, including the USS Carney, USS Gravely, USS Mason, and USS Thomas Hudner, have recently been involved in intercepting Houthi missiles.

These interceptions are part of the ongoing tensions involving Houthi rebels in Yemen, who receive support from Iran. The region's complexity has been further compounded by the US involvement in the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip. Various groups in the Middle East, such as Hezbollah and the Houthis, have issued threats against Israel and the United States, aligning themselves with the Palestinian cause.

The successful defense operation conducted by these Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers forms a part of a broader naval initiative named Operation Prosperity Guardian, initiated by the Pentagon in December 2023 to counter Houthi-led attacks on Red Sea shipping. The operation's primary objective is to secure Red Sea shipping lanes against Houthi threats, given the numerous attacks on commercial vessels.

Despite the Houthis' declaration to block Israeli vessels from transiting the Red Sea in response to Israel's actions in Gaza, their attacks have extended beyond Israeli ships. This has prompted various shipping companies to reroute their vessels, highlighting the wider implications of these hostilities on global trade. Notably, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden are critical conduits for global commerce, with approximately 10% of worldwide trade passing through this vital area.
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, January 8. The discussion of investment projects in potential collaboration areas took place in Iran with the participation of Rustam Emomali, the Chairman of the National Assembly of Tajikistan and Mayor of Dushanbe, and Iran's President, Ebrahim Raisi, Trend reports.

Tajikistan's Parliament identified energy, transportation, machinery, food, mining, medicines, and agricultural product processing as areas of potential collaboration.

The discussion covered a wide range of important topics of Tajikistan-Iran collaboration, including interparliamentary connections. The emphasis was on Tajikistan and Iran's continued steady improvement in bilateral relations across a variety of mutually beneficial industries. Consistent high-level meetings and interactions were recognized as critical to successfully moving this process ahead.

The parties stressed the role of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Technical, and Cultural Cooperation in strengthening economic connections.

To strengthen cultural ties, the expansion of cooperation in higher education, research, and technology was recognized as significant. The sides also highlighted the importance of exchanges of experience between healthcare professionals, direct connections between scientific medical institutions of both countries, and continuing to organize cultural events.
Speaking to TNIE over the phone from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Sastry said that he has embarked on the padayatra to cover Shiva temples in the route to reach the Ayodhya Ram Mandir. He said that he has increased his pace and is covering at least 40 km a day.
In a comedy film, cinematography often takes a backseat. However, according to Aravind Kashyap, it was not the case with Bachelor Party. Aravinds last films, Kantara is set in the forest locales while Hostel Hudugaru was predominantly shot indoors. On the other hand, Bachelor Party enabled Aravind to explore vibrant destinations like Thailand. After a couple of films mostly set in the dark, inside forests, and night shoots, this came as a breather where I could capture the film in daylight, says the cinematographer. Contrary to popular portrayals of an exotic location like Thailand, Bachelor Party had an entirely different approach, reveals Aravind Kashyap. We scouted offbeat places, showcasing a Thailand beyond the typical party scene. The film features extensive travel, unveiling parts of Thailand never seen in Kannada cinema. Even I was surprised by the undiscovered locations in Thailand, he says.
Sources in the ED said the BSF has been put on high alert about Shahjahan Sheikh. We have information that he is planning to flee to Bangladesh. The Border Guard Bangladesh is carrying out intense patrolling because of the elections in the neighbouring country. Shahjahan may wait for a couple of days to look for right opportunity to cross over, sources said.
There has also been a significant increase in ammonia from urban sources. Increases in nitrogen dioxide and ammonia levels drive the increases in PM2.5. There is a large and significant increase of up to 8 per cent each year in PM2.5 levels in Indian cities with PM2.5 increasing to more than double in Bangalore and Hyderabad from 2005 to 2018.
Former Lok Sanha MP Baig, 77, rejoined the PDP on the 8th death anniversary of party founder and former J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Baig visited the mausoleum of the late Mufti at Bijbehara in south Kashmirs Anantnag district on his death anniversary to pay homage to the former CM.

After paying tribute to the late Mufti, Baig while addressing a gathering of PDP workers said, Earlier, I used to be a colleague of Mehbooba Mufti. I am now her brother and as a brother, if I have to sacrifice my life for her, I will not hesitate. Two big supporters of Mehbooba are my daughters.
AHMEDABAD: With the Supreme Court quashing the remission granted to 11 convicts in the case of the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven of her family members, the Congress on Monday claimed the Gujarat BJP government's approach was to save the criminals rather than ensuring justice for the victim.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, January 8. Turkmenistan took the 79th position in the latest World Passport Index compiled by the Canadian Arton Capital consulting company, Trend reports.

According to the ranking, citizens of Turkmenistan can visit 18 countries without visas, obtain visas on arrival in another 45 countries, and require a pre-entry visa in 135 countries.

The UAE passport topped the ranking, allowing its citizens to visit 132 countries visa-free, obtain visas upon arrival in 48 countries, and require a pre-arranged visa for only 18 countries.

Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and the Netherlands jointly hold the second rank, whose citizens must obtain a visa in advance to visit 20 countries.

Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, and Luxembourg collectively occupy the third position, with compulsory visas needed for visits to 21 countries.

The rating is based on the number of countries that the passport holder can visit without a visa as well as the countries where the passport holder can receive a visa on arrival.
The top court in its judgement said the Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission of sentences awarded to these convicts and only the government of the state where the offenders were tried and sentenced was competent to consider such applications.
The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts.

Accused in the Bilkis Bano case of the 2002 riots, come out of the Godhra sub-jail after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy, in Godhra. (Photo | PTI)
Quoting a source close to the family, The Indian Express reported, " The judgement restored our faith in the judiciary system and that it gives a consolation that justice is alive. But, we cannot feel the victory yet as the convicts will prepare to apply for remission from the other state. We have a doubt if the court will consider the plea of the convicts to remain outside prison while applying for remission."
"The process adopted by the ruling BJP in protecting rapists and their premature release, now they are not getting any place to hide their faces. All the 'jumlas' of the BJP stand exposed and the real face of the BJP has come out. Despite being in jail, all these culprits were given a lot of facilities by the BJP's central and state governments. But sins cannot be hidden or done away with for long," Singhvi alleged.
CBSE, however, said that it was not possible to accede to the request to change the internal assessment marks of the seven candidates, in view of the circulars issued by it which stated that while uploading marks, schools will ensure that correct marks are uploaded as no correction in the marks will be allowed once marks are uploaded.
The JD(U) had contested 17 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when it was part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Of them, it had won 16 seats while its major ally, the BJP had won all the 17 seats it contested. Six seats had gone to the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP)'s kitty.
"A two-page report on the attack was sent on Sunday. We have mentioned minute details of the incident and along with that sent videos of the attack. Media reports have also also been sent," he said.
"In the next five years, our main focus will be on economic progress and fulfilling all the work that we have started. We have already declared our manifesto and we follow our election manifesto whenever we prepare our budget and try to fulfil our promises. Development of the people and our country is our main aim, Sheikh Hasina said at Gono Bhaban during her first press conference.
The three deputy ministers criticised Modi for his post on 'X' following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.
The top court also said that its previous judgement by a separate bench on May 13, 2022, allowing the Gujarat government to decide on the remission plea of one of the convicts, was void. That order had held that the application for remission should be considered in line with the policy of the state where the crime was committed, and not where the trial was carried out. However, in its latest judgment, the Supreme Court said this was wrong, and said only the state where an offender is tried and sentenced is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, January 8. Turkmenistan will pay special attention to cooperation with international financial organizations this year, Trend reports.

This was announced by Deputy Chairman of the Government of Turkmenistan Hojamyrat Geldimyradov at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.

According to him, the plans, taking into account the tasks set, provide for measures to ensure the intensive socio-economic development of the country, modernization of national economy, further introduction of modern digital technologies, successful execution of the State budget, improvement of investment policy, etc.

He noted that special attention will be paid to cooperation with international financial organizations and the use of advanced foreign experience.

Turkmenistan has consistently witnessed economic expansion through concerted endeavors in the energy, transportation, and infrastructure domains.

The country is proactively enacting initiatives to draw in foreign investments, with a particular emphasis on diversifying the economy and enhancing the overall business environment.

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"We have observed a 3400 per cent increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since the Honorable PM's visit. This interest in Indian beaches has inspired us to launch a 'Beaches of India' campaign on the platform with offers and discounts to encourage Indian travellers to explore the country's stunning beaches. Keep watching this space!" MakeMyTrip said in a post on social media platform X.
Lalduhoma said as India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the Centre cannot give refugee status to the fleeing foreigners. The Centre has plans to fence the porous Myanmar border but the Mizoram government reportedly stands opposed to it. It is hopeful that the Centre will not go ahead with this move. The Lalduhoma government is opposing border fencing as it feels it will further divide the Zo tribals who are already separated by interstate and international borders.
From the Kolkatas iconic venue, the CPM vowed to fight both the TMC and BJP in West Bengal in the upcoming general elections. Referring to the Insaaf Yatra (walk for justice), organised by the DYFI covering 2,900 km stretch from north Bengal to south Bengal to urge the people to participate in the rally, CPM state secretary Mohammad Selim said, On behalf of those gathered at Brigade, I congratulate those who have travelled so many kilometres. There is still a lot of distance to be covered. We do not need help from any Delhi to save West Bengal. CPM is the only alternative to the TMC and not the BJP.
In a press conference at her residence, Ganabhaban, in Dhaka, she responded to a question from ANI about her plans for Bangladesh's international engagement over the next five years and the ties with India, saying, "India is a great friend of Bangladesh. They supported us in 1971 and 1975. We consider India our next-door neighbour. I really appreciate that we have a wonderful relationship with India."
It was in May 2021, that the then British PM Boris Johnson and PM Modi adopted an ambitious Roadmap 2030 to elevate bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The Roadmap, other than in defence and security matters, will pave the way for a deeper and stronger engagement, over the next decade, also in the areas of people-to-people contacts, trade and economy, climate action and health.

In an important move, the inaugural India-UK 2+2 Foreign and Defence Dialogue was held in New Delhi in October 2023.
KOLKATA: The row over the attacks on ED teams in West Bengal escalated with the agency on Monday saying that the state police registered an FIR only under bailable and non-scheduled offences in the incident in Sandeshkhali and has not provided a copy of the complaint to it.
On the other hand, the Gujarat Government told the Supreme Court that it decided to release the 11 convicts as they completed 14 years of sentence and as their behaviour was found to be good. The Court was also told that the decision was taken with the requisite approval of the Centra Government (as the case was investigated by the CBI).
While addressing a function to mark the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule (social reformer and the first female teacher of the country) at Dehri in Rohtas district on Sunday, Prof Chandrashekhar who had earlier courted controversy for speaking against Ramchairtamanas, extended his support to RJD MLA Fateh

Bahadur Singh for saying that the temple was a path to mental slavery and schools show the light of the path in life.
Speaking at a Hindu workers' convention in Belagavi, the former Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka said, "Be it today or tomorrow, once the court verdict is delivered on the disputed lands including the one in Mathura, we will proceed with construction of temples. It would be better if you (Muslims) would voluntarily vacate."
Suresh Shiraasangi, a villager from Suranagi said, They used to erect cutouts in different areas earlier but some youths planned to change the cutout area and they came to this area and tried to erect the metal cutout and the incident happened. When the live wire came in contact with the metal, two youths died on the spot and one youth suffered for a few seconds and died. The other youths started screaming after watching this incident and villagers came outside to see what happened. When villagers saw three people screaming in pain, they did not wait for the ambulance but took a vehicle which was available at the time and shifted them to Lakshmeshwar town. Some villagers told them to be careful before putting up the banner but the young people were in a festive mood and they were whistling in happiness. Sadly, it lasted for one minute and they were electrocuted".
He said there have been frequent elections in India, while 85% of the crude oil we use is imported. Hence, there is no relation between the two, he said. Asked whether oil supply to the nation will be adversely affected following attacks on ships in the Red sea, Puri said it could not be predicted. We can only hope it doesnt. However, the nation has to make alternative arrangements for such an eventuality, Puri said. When pointed out that fuel prices had not come down in Kerala in two years, Puri said people should question their government for not reducing its share of excise duty.
The report calls for industry-academia partnerships to become a research and development citadel and to be a destination for start-ups. For this, all districts must emerge as growth centres. The report also stresses the need to develop infrastructure by focussing on energy, roads, airports, seaports, rail transport, water, waste management, housing, land, and urban planning. Expediting works for a second airport in Chennai and air-cargo augmentation across airports are also necessary. This shows the need to expand passenger capacity across Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchy, Thoothukudi, and Salem.
On incentives to semiconductor manufacturing units, the policy said eligible units will be offered a capital subsidy up to 50% of CAPEX assistance provided by the centre. For eligible projects in Sipcot estates, land allotment will be made at a 10% concessional rate in A & B districts and at a 50% concessional rate in C districts for land up to 20% of eligible fixed assets. An interest subvention of 5% as a rebate in the rate of interest shall be provided for actual term loans taken to finance the project.
In contrast to the World Bank, we find that from 1981 to 1990  at the end of the socialist period  Chinas rate of extreme poverty was one of the lowest in the developing world. It averaged only 5.6 per cent, compared to 51 per cent in India, 36.5 per cent in Indonesia and 29.5 per cent in Brazil.
"We have observed a 3400 per cent increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since the visit of PM Modi. This interest in Indian beaches has inspired us to launch a 'Beaches of India campaign on the platform with offers and discounts to encourage Indian travellers to explore the countrys beaches, according to Makemytrip.
Hamza was killed along with Mustafa Thuria, who also worked as a video stringer for AFP and other news organisations, "while they were on their way to carry out their duty" for the Qatar-based network, it said.
"I believe that this is something which should have never happened, which is not acceptable in any way. I believe that the Maldives government should have reacted more quickly with stern actions and reached out to India so that they should have never let this blow out for a big diplomatic crisis which has now been...," Adeeb told PTI in an interview.
"But what we know is that many of them (journalists) have died and we have repeatedly called for their profession to be respected so that they are able to do it freely and in safety."
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, January 8. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have agreed to create a joint working group to remove barriers to bilateral trade, Trend reports.

Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade of Uzbekistan Laziz Kudratov discussed with Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliev on January 5 the implementation of projects within the framework of the roadmap signed a year ago by the presidents of both countries.

On the basis of a joint foreign trade company, UzKazTrade will create an online trading platform to sell a wide range of goods in the markets of both countries.

In addition, the parties agreed to accelerate the establishment of the Central Asia International Center for Industrial Cooperation. It will produce import-substituting products using the manufacturing bases of both countries' border areas.

The volume of bilateral trade has grown almost 2.5 times over the past seven years, from $1.9 billion in 2016 to $4.6 billion in 2023. The sides also noted the possibility of increasing trade turnover to $10 billion in the coming years.

A joint company, UzKazTrade, was established last March to supply fruits and vegetables from Uzbekistan and flour from Kazakhstan. It was announced that UzKazTrade plans to import fruits and vegetables from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan in bulk without a commercial markup.
Iga Swiatek wins Polish Sportsperson of the Year award

Warsaw, Jan 7

Tennis world No.1 Iga Swiatek won the award of Poland's Sportsperson of the Year for 2023 on Saturday evening.

Swiatek's victory was widely expected as the 22-year-old won six titles in 2023. The Pole defended her crown at Roland Garros and she also took the highest podium in Warsaw (WTA 250), Stuttgart and Doha (WTA 500) and WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing. Then she ended her season in a perfect way by winning the WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico.

"I regret that I cannot be at the gala, but as you know, I'm at the United Cup tournament. Every vote means a lot to me. It showed me how much support I have from my fans. That reward gives me additional motivation," Swiatek said in a recorded video.

Her father, Tomasz Swiatek, who appeared on the scene to collect the reward, emphasized that "Iga wouldn't be so successful without the hard work of her whole team."

Swiatek was followed by speedway rider Bartosz Zmarzlik in the second place while volleyball player Aleksander Sliwka came third in the vote. FC Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski, who won the La Liga top scorer title in 2023, didn't enter the top ten list, which was seen as a huge surprise in Poland.

(IANS - Posted on 07 January 2024)

Iga Swiatek wins Polish Sportsperson of the Year award

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Akshay, Salman join chorus against Maldives; amplify calls for boycott

Mumbai, Jan 7

Bollywood celebs on Sunday urged their fans to explore Indian islands after Maldives politician Zahid Rameez criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modis recent visit to Lakshadweep.

Salman took to his X, erstwhile Twitter on Sunday, and wrote, It is so cool to see our Hon PM Narendrabhai Modi at the beautiful clean n stunning beaches of Lakshadweep, and the best part is that yeh hamare India mein hain.

Akshay Kumar shared screenshots of the racist tweets and wrote, Came across comments from prominent public figures from Maldives passing hateful and racist comments on Indians. Surprised that they are doing this to a country that sends them the maximum number of tourists.

He further mentioned, We are good to our neighbours but why should we tolerate such unprovoked hate? I've visited the Maldives many times and always praised it, but dignity first. Let us decide to #ExploreIndianIslands and support our own tourism.

Actress Shraddha Kapoor, who was last seen in the Luv Ranjan directorial Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, said in her post, All these images and memes making me super FOMO now. Lakshadweep has such pristine beaches and coastlines, thriving local culture, I'm on the verge of booking an impulse chhutti. This year, why not #ExploreIndianIslands.

John, who was last seen in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer blockbuster film Pathaan, wrote on X, With the amazing Indian hospitality, the idea of Atithi Devo Bhava and a vast marine life to explore. Lakshwadeep is the place to go. #exploreindianislands.

Zahid Rameez, a council member of the Progressive Party of Maldives, had mocked the PM's visit, and said India would never be able to compete with Maldives in regards to tourism.

(IANS - Posted on 07 January 2024)

Akshay, Salman join chorus against Maldives; amplify calls for boycott

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Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom 'planning to get married' on very special date

Los Angeles, Jan 7

Singer-songwriter Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom are "more in love now than they've ever been".

Orlando proposed to Katy on Valentine's day back in 2019, but the loved-up couple are yet to make it down the aisle. They were originally set to tie the knot in 2020, but their plans were derailed when they couldn't secure their dream location.

As per Mirror.co.uk, they then had to change their wedding plans again during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, Katy and Orlando are now hoping that 2024 will be "the year they make it happen". A source explained: "They're happier then ever and everyone is predicting they'll get married soon, possibly even on Valentine's Day, which is the anniversary of their engagement.

The source explained how both Katy and Orlando originally wanted to get married in Japan, but said the distance made it too difficult to arrange.

"Doing something closer to home in California makes a lot more sense. Their place in Montecito has nine acres so there's plenty of room to do it there. Plus, it's close to LA so all of their showbiz friends could easily attend," the source told Heat magazine.

The couple are believed to have been enjoying a number of romantic dates recently and have been made stronger following the birth of their daughter Daisy Dove Bloom in 2020.

(IANS - Posted on 07 January 2024)

Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom 'planning to get married' on very special date

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance of Iran sent another letter of protest to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Trend reports.

The letter has to do with FATF not removing Iran from the documents related to the group's 7th recommendation and UN Security Council Resolution No. 2231. The 7th recommendation of the FATF is about targeted sanctions related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In this recommendation, the countries are requested to implement certain steps towards implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions, including the freezing of the assets and funds of the specified persons without delay.

On October 18, 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was approved. In line with the implementation of this plan, UN Security Council Resolution No. 2231 suspended the implementation of UN Resolutions No. 1373, 1747, 1803 and 1929 on Iran. However, restrictive measures such as the application of targeted financial sanctions were envisaged.

According to Resolution No. 2231, the provisions of this resolution on the abolition of restrictive measures can come into force in two cases - after 8 years from the approval of the JCPOA and after the announcement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Taking into account that 8 years have passed since the approval of the JCPOA, the provisions of the resolution may come into force. On this basis, on October 19, 2023, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance of Iran applied to the FATF.

The objectives of FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory, and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

During the recent FATF meeting, Iran was warned that it may be added to the list of non-cooperative countries within three months if it does not completely fulfill the FATF requirements. Iran fulfilled 37 of the 41 FATF requirements. The remaining four requirements refer to the legislative field.

The amendments to the Counter-Terrorist Financing Act, Anti-Money Laundering Act, Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo), and International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) were prepared by the Iranian government and sent to the parliament.

Although the four conventions have been approved and sent to the Expediency Council of Iran, the CFT and Palermo conventions have not yet been ratified by the Council.

Iran was included in the FATF blacklist in 2007. The anti-Tehran steps have been taken since 2009. Thus, the countries were cautious in their financial and banking transactions with Iran.

Taking reciprocal steps against Iran through diplomatic means has been postponed since 2016. FATF included Iran on the blacklist again on February 21, 2020.

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Follow the author on X (Twitter):@BaghishovElnur
Emily Atack flaunts baby bump during outing with boyfriend

Los Angeles, Jan 7

English actress-comedian Emily Atack put her baby bump on full display as she stepped out for a walk with her boyfriend.

The pair have known one another since they were children but their relationship in recent years blossomed into a romantic relationship.

The pair have since stepped out for the first time, walking hand-in-hand through London as they battled the cold temperatures. Comedian Emily, 34, looked chic as she wore an ankle-length black dress paired with military-style boots. Keeping warm, the star wrapped up in a black coat with a grey scarf and oversized sunglasses, in images obtained by The Sun.

Meanwhile, Dr Alistar opted for a pair of navy blue chinos, a Barbour jacket and camel-coloured suede shoes. The couple were joined by Emily's sister Martha as well as her husband Mark Durham as they walked Penny, Emily's dog.

As per Mirror.co.uk, Emily, who is five months pregnant, has only been pictured on one occasion and has refrained from talking about her romance in public.

Speaking to The Sun, a source said: "Emily and Alistair consider themselves more family friends but they are cousins who arent related by blood. They grew up together and have always got on really well, but last year they started to get closer. It has been a really natural evolution of their friendship and they both have strong feelings for each other. Emily and Alistair were thrilled when they found out they were expecting and are really looking forward to becoming parents.

Confirming her pregnancy, sharing a picture of her growing bump, Emily said: "Hello everyone, it's been a little while but I'm back with some news. I'm delighted to share with you all that we're having a baby! I've never been so happy and utterly terrified at the same time. Please go easy on me. Every day is mixed with thrill, fear, joy, hysteria, topped off with a lot of vomiting - a bit like when you've just stepped off of the Oblivion at Alton Towers on a hangover.

(IANS - Posted on 07 January 2024)

Emily Atack flaunts baby bump during outing with boyfriend

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Biden, Trump present different narratives of 2021 Capitol riots

Washington, Jan 7

US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump have presented different narratives of January 6, 2021 Capitol riots with the veteran Democrat calling it the day "we nearly lost America" while the business tycoon termed it a "beautiful day".

The contrasting views encapsulate how Trump and Biden are approaching the 2024 campaign, and their split over the issue has become a lightning rod, revealing a troubling rift for Americans -- even after more than 890 pleaded guilty or were convicted on charges stemming from the insurrection, including by Trump-appointed judges, USA Today columnists observed.

For Trump, the charges he is facing for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election are not about him.

"I'm being indicted for you," Trump said at a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa on Friday, repeating a central theme of his campaign.

"In the end, they're not after me, they're after you and I just happen to be standing in their way."

For Biden, the attack on the US Capitol epitomised why he ran for president and is running to prevent Trump from returning to the White House.

"Donald Trump's campaign is about him, not America, not you," Biden said in a critique of Trump on Friday that was unusually direct and hard hitting.

"He's willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power."

Biden looked to George Washington to remind Americans of the ideals on which the nation was founded, including the peaceful transition of power.

Trump had Iowa Republicans cheering his hours-long speeches that included his dismissal of January 6, which he insisted was done "patriotically and peacefully".

As Trump and Biden pitched their campaigns for 2024 on January 6 riots saying democracy was at stake, the latest USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll showed most voters are worried about threats to democracy but are divided over who to blame.

Forty per cent surveyed at the end of December said Democrats were chiefly responsible for the threat; another 40 per cent said Republicans were.

January 6, 2021 has become a rallying cry for Trump's base, who sincerely believe the former presidents rebranding of the day as a "peaceful march" against a "rigged election", political observers said.

(IANS - Posted on 08 January 2024)

Biden, Trump present different narratives of 2021 Capitol riots

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Wrong to infer I didn't back Rwanda plan as UK Chancellor: Sunak

London, Jan 8

Ruling out that he had doubts on the Rwanda plan as Chancellor, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said it was his job to ensure value for money on every proposal while he was in the Treasury.

Citing No 10 papers from March 22, the BBC said last week that Sunak was also concerned about the cost of sending asylum seekers to Africa and wanted to limit the numbers.

Sunak said he has not seen the documents the report was based on as he appeared on the BBC on Sunday.

However, he did not rule out having voiced concerns about the cost of sending asylum seekers to the east African country when at the Treasury.

My job (was) to ask probing questions of every proposal that crossed my desk as chancellor, the Conservative Party leader told the BBC.

You should always ask probing questions, you should always approach things from a position of scepticism to ensure that you get value for money for taxpayers.

But to infer from that that I dont believe in the scheme or the principle of deterrence is wrong. I was doing my job to get good value for money for taxpayers," the Prime Minister added.

The documents had said that as Chancellor, Sunak felt hotels are cheaper than reception centres to house migrants, and was reluctant to fund Greek-style reception centres at a cost of 3.5 million pounds per day.

The Rwanda plan, launched in April 2022 by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, became the core of Sunak's policy to stop the boats -- one of five key priorities, which he set out to achieve when he became the premier in October the same year.

Calling the British Government to publish the No 10 papers, Labour MP Yvette Cooper said: It is time the Tory Government was honest with the public, and publish both the papers outlining Rishi Sunaks concerns and the full details of the cost of the scheme.

(IANS - Posted on 08 January 2024)

Wrong to infer I didn't back Rwanda plan as UK Chancellor: Sunak

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Microsoft's new initiative aims to skill 100K Indian developers in latest AI tech

New Delhi, Jan 8

Microsoft on Monday launched a new initiative -- AI Odyssey, that aims to skill 100,000 developers in India in the latest AI technologies and tools.

"AI is the future of innovation and India is leading the way with its tech talent. The Microsoft Applied Skills credential will help developers demonstrate their competence and creativity in the most in-demand AI skills and scenarios," Irina Ghose, Managing Director, Microsoft India, said in a statement.

Through programmes like AI Odyssey, Microsoft is offering opportunities for developers to build solutions for Indias growth and showcase their talent to solve real-world problems.

To participate in the programme, developers need to register on aka.ms/AIOdyssey and access the learning modules and resources. The month-long programme is open to all AI enthusiasts in India, regardless of experience level or background.

The program has two levels that participants need to complete by January 31.

The first level of the programme educates participants on how to use Azure AI services to create and deploy AI solutions for different scenarios. This will give them access to useful resources, code samples, and guides to master practical AI skills.

The second level of the programme challenges participants to prove their AI skills by completing an online assessment with interactive lab tasks that earn them Microsoft Applied Skills credentials, a new verifiable credential that validates their ability to solve real-world problems with AI.

(IANS - Posted on 08 January 2024)

Microsoft's new initiative aims to skill 100K Indian developers in latest AI tech

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Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. A few flurries are possible. Temps nearly steady in the mid to upper 30s. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Low 27F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. Iran emphasizes the importance of developing regional cooperation in the region, especially in the South Caucasus, spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nasser Kanaani said at the press conference in Tehran on Jan.8, Trend reports.

According to Kanaani, Iran has a clear and precise position on peace and stability, corridors and transit routes in South Caucasus.

The spokesman added that Iran supports the establishment of peace and stability, economic, trade, transport and transit cooperation.

On October 23, 2023, a meeting was held at the level of foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkiye, Russia and Iran within the 3+3 format (Russia, Iran, Turkiye and 3 South Caucasus countries - Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia) in Tehran, the capital of Iran.

At the meeting, a number of discussions were held within the framework of regional cooperation. Georgia did not participate in the meeting.

The first meeting in the 3+3 format was held last year in Moscow at the level of deputy foreign ministers without the participation of Georgia.

---

Follow the author on X (Twitter): @BaghishovElnur
A study published in Scientific Reports shows that better physical fitness is associated with better attention and concentration among adolescent students.

Study: Physical fitness is related to concentration performance in adolescents. Image Credit: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock.com

Background

Physical fitness is associated with better physical and mental health across the lifespan. Evidence indicates that individuals with better physical fitness perform better in cognition and attention tests, have better academic performance, and achieve more cognitive benefits from physical activity interventions.

Adolescence is a vital period for brain development wherein prominent changes in the prefrontal cortex and limbic brain regions can be evidenced. These two brain regions play vital roles in regulating emotions and cognitive functions.

During adolescence, cognitive functioning evolves continuously until reaching a mature level of performance in early adulthood.

Physical fitness, determined by a combination of regular physical activity and genetically inherited ability, positively impacts brain development and cognitive functioning.

Better physical fitness is associated with higher grey matter volume in the hippocampus and basal ganglia, higher white matter microstructure, and higher thickness of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex. All these brain regions are associated with attention and cognition functioning.

In this study, scientists have investigated the association between physical fitness and attention level among adolescent students.

They have systematically assessed the association of five major fitness components, including speed, endurance, strength, coordination, and flexibility, with the level of attention.

Study design

The study was conducted on 140 adolescent students aged 15 to 18 years. A widely-used and well-validated fitness test, namely the German Motor Test, was carried out to assess students' physical fitness. The test measured all five components of physical fitness.

Specifically, a 20-meter sprint and a 6-minute running test were conducted to measure speed and endurance. Push-ups, sit-ups, and standing long jump were carried out to measure strength. Backward balancing and sideways jumping were carried out to measure coordination, and a stand-and-reach test was conducted to measure flexibility.

A widely used d2-test of Attention was carried out to determine students' attention levels. Three standard scores, including the concentration performance, error, and speed scores, were estimated from the test.

Important observations

The study found that the overall physical fitness of students is positively associated with their concentration performance scores and speed scores and negatively related to their error scores. Almost all the components of physical fitness showed significant associations with three attentional variables.

Further statistical analysis revealed that the components of physical fitness collectively explain 26% of the variance in attentional test performance. Except for physical speed, all other elements of physical fitness showed a significant positive association with students' attention levels.

While physical endurance and flexibility significantly predicted the attentional test's working speed, physical strength, and coordination predicted the error score considerably.

This indicates that students with better endurance and flexibility would perform faster in the attentional test. In contrast, students with better strength and coordination would make fewer errors and would detect the test targets more accurately.

Study significance

The study finds a significant positive association between physical fitness and attention level in adolescents aged 15 to 18.

The study's findings indicate that higher physical fitness can benefit performances requiring a high level of attention and concentration.

The study provides an overview of the impact of five major components of physical fitness on the attention level. It shows that all other components significantly and positively influence students' attention levels except for physical speed.

As the scientists mentioned, students in the study belong to high-income families. Thus, there is a possibility that they practice regular physical exercise outside school, which can significantly impact their overall physical fitness.

Therefore, studies involving students from different socio-economic backgrounds must produce more generalizable results.

The study highlights that regular physical activity should be promoted in schools to improve adolescent students' physical fitness and attention levels.
In a recent study by The Baker Institute for Public Policy, Prof. Shishir Shakya of the Appalachian State University and a Visiting Research Fellow from West Virginia University investigated trends in immigrant healthcare professionals, stressing their contribution to the United States (U.S.) health system. He studied legal avenues for medical experts, such as the J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program and the Conrad 30 Waiver Program, addressing health worker shortages.

Study: Understanding the Role of Immigrants in the US Health Sector: Employment Trends From 200721. Image Credit: PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock

Healthcare professionals in the U.S. confront obstacles such as an aging population, labor shortages, and underrepresentation of minorities, which limit their capacity to respond to future health concerns and deliver crucial treatment. Policymakers must balance increasing healthcare access, enhancing quality, and lowering prices without sacrificing compassionate treatment. Immigrants may offer a viable answer to these difficulties.

About the study

In the present study, the researcher provided long-term trends in healthcare subindustries using annual estimates from population usage microdata acquired from the United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS).

The researcher examined patterns in the United States population expansion and immigrant proportions. Individuals who were born in Guam, Puerto Rico, the North Marianas, and the Virgin Islands were natives and non-US residents, including legally authorized refugees, immigrants, undocumented immigrant populations, and temporary residing individuals who were foreign-born.

The native and foreign population definitions align with those put forth by the ACS and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The researcher calculated the overall number of employed civilian U.S. residents aged 16 years and the immigrant proportion. This demographic comprises civilians who are employed, civilians who are working, and civilians who are employed but on temporary leave at the time of collecting survey data.

The researcher excluded unemployed individuals, those in the U.S. armed forces (including those on temporary leave), and those not a part of the labor forces from the number of civilians working in the United States aged 16 years and above. The North American Industry Classification System and the Bureau of Labor Statistics classify workers in the healthcare industry as ambulatory healthcare services, hospitals, residential and nursing facilities, and social support.

Nursing and residential care facilities provide medical and nursing care to patients who need more than in-home care. The social assistance subsector comprises institutions that give social help directly to people and families in need. Healthcare technicians and practitioners, such as registered nurses, doctors, surgeons, and licensed practical and vocational nurses, play a variety of tasks and duties in the healthcare profession. Nursing, psychiatry, home health, and medical assistance are all examples of healthcare support employment.

Results

In 2021, the United States population was 331 million, with approximately 45 million immigrants. The immigrant proportion in the entire population is reaching an all-time high, with 15% being the highest percentage reported among Americans in 1890. From the initial period until the late 1800s, the United States witnessed a tremendous increase in its proportion of foreign-born individuals, predominantly those from North Europe. However, there was a significant inflow of immigrants in the initial 1900 period, mainly from Poland, Italy, and other Eastern and Southern European regions.

Between 2007 and 2018, the immigrant proportion in the worker group aged 16 increased from 16% to 17%. Between 2007 and 2021, the proportion of immigrants in the U.S. population rose from 13% to 14%. Five of the 20 industrial categories expected to develop rapidly from 2019 to 2029 are in the healthcare and social support sector, which comprises businesses providing medical treatment in clinics, hospitals, doctors' offices, residential and nursing care, and social support.

The worker counts increased from 15 million to 19 million between 2007 and 2021, while the proportion of immigrants working in health care climbed from 14% to 17%. The worker count in nursing care institutions rose from 1.7 million (2007), with a 15.5% immigrant proportion, to 1.9 million (2013), with a 16% immigrant share. This trend, however, is reversing, with 1.50 million jobs in the sub-sector by 2021, with an 18% immigrant proportion.

The count of registered nurses in the United States rose from 2.7 million in 2010 to 3.4 million in 2021, while the percentage of immigrant registered nurses increased relatively marginally between 2007 and 2021. By 2034, the U.S. may experience a physician shortfall ranging from 37,800 to 124,000, with general and specialty care gaps. The demand for home health aides has expanded dramatically due to the aging baby boomer generation and Medicare's extension of coverage for home health services in 2017. The typical annual wage for home health and personal care aides was $29,430 in 2021, representing a 25% increase between 2021 and 2031.

Conclusions

The findings showed that immigrants are crucial to the U.S. healthcare industry, with an increasing share of foreign-born individuals in the civilian workforce. Despite witnessing decreases in specific industries, they occupy several healthcare and social support occupations. Programs such as the Conrad 30 Waiver Program and legislation such as Tennessee H.B. 1312 attempt to minimize labor shortages and enhance access to care in rural and neglected regions. However, visa processing times are too long and too expensive to meet the needs of international healthcare practitioners. Addressing these hurdles and integrating immigrant healthcare professionals should be part of a comprehensive strategy to address the United States healthcare system's difficulties.

Journal reference: Shisir Shakya, "Understanding the Role of Immigrants in the US Health Sector: Employment Trends From 200721" (Houston: Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy), January 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.25613/JSF6-J097, https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/understanding-role-immigrants-us-health-sector-employment-trends-2007-21
From off-the-shelf proteins to custom protein products, Bio-Technes protein leadership team provides high-grade project-specific solutions.

Protein expert Anthony Person is well-versed in both academia and the bio-pharmaceutical industry. While studying for his PhD at the University of Arizona, Person discovered the role of the TGF beta super-family and WNT glycoproteins in the morphogenesis of mitral and tricuspid valves in chicken and mouse models. As a University of Minnesota postdoctoral researcher, Person continued his research and discovered how mutations in WNT proteins cause outflow track effects in the heart.

Person's career track then took him to R&D Systems, a Bio-Techne brand, where he worked in the protein bio assay unit. He was there for two years before moving on to Cellscript, a Madison Wisconsin company, to focus on developing mRNA-based cellular transformation technologies.

In 2013, Person reunited with the bio assay unit at Bio-Techne. Focusing intently on the production of proteins, Person advanced to associate director of molecular and cell culture at Bio-Techne. In 2018, he once again advanced, this time to become senior director of protein development. Person and his protein development group now specialize in creating the world's most difficult proteins for therapeutics and research.

Bio-Technes protein production supports fields like academia, biotech, clinical research (CRO), and pharmaceuticals. The past year was dedicated to creating coronavirus proteins crucial for antibody therapies, vaccines, and diagnostics. One highlight was producing numerous spike proteins, a fascinating scientific endeavor. Bio-Techne launched over 140 SARS proteins last year, making it an exciting period for protein scientists as we contribute to therapies benefiting patients.

What protein services does Bio-Techne provide?

Bio-Techne offers over 5,000 ready-to-use research-grade proteins and GMP proteins for clinical purposes. Custom services cater to projects from pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and academia. Bio-Techne specializes in producing some of the most difficult proteins, taking pride in succeeding where others have struggled.

Why does Bio-Techne excel at making difficult proteins?

Bio-Techne introduced their first recombinant protein, interleukin 2, in 1988, and since then, they have been pioneers in protein production. Bio-Technes molecular biology director boasts 33 years of expertise in this field. Among the best globally, the protein purification team brings extensive experience and effective strategies to tackle any challenge.

The cutting-edge infrastructure facilitates side-by-side clone screening, enabling the selection of the best clones and plasmids for optimal protein expression and secretion during transient production. The success ultimately hinges on unparalleled experience. With a longstanding history in protein production, Bio-Techne surpassed many others, leveraging this rich expertise to achieve where others falter.

What is the process for making custom protein?

Customers can post inquiries to the customer service team through the website. A conversation leads to a better understanding of the customer's needs. The technical team uses this information to create a statement of work, including gated timelines. A test is performed to see if a gene of interest can be expressed through the host system, and a sample protein is sent to the customer. After customer approval, the production is scaled up to provide large quantities of the approved protein. All custom projects are confidential, and information is never shared with anyone besides the customer.

Image Credit: Bio-Techne

How does Bio-Techne scale up protein production?

Initially, the focus is on maximizing production in small-scale operations to achieve abundant yields. In a mammalian system, expression levels and the quantity of secreted protein are fine-tuned. For proteins in E. coli, the expression is optimized on a small scale during refolding. The approach depends on fulfilling specific customer requirements. Bio-Techne can scale up the production of mammalian and E. coli-derived products to several grams, catering to the downstream applications of the customers.

Does Bio-Techne provide project management for protein production?

The experts who craft the ready-made products are the same ones driving custom workflows. It is a seamless process where the company directly engages with the custom clients and technical leaders via computer or phone. This direct interaction ensures that customers receive top-notch service for their custom projects. Everything happens in-house; molecular, purification, and cell culture experts and any other necessary team members participate in meetings to ensure all vital information is communicated effectively.

Can you talk about Bio-Technes GMP services?

Customers generally use GMP proteins as ancillary materials for clinical applications, so they must have a consistent supply of high-quality protein with minimal variations between lots. Each project comes with complete documentation of the production of the GMP proteins and their performance in quality control testing. These GMP proteins are produced under strict animal-free conditions, wherever possible. This includes all materials, equipment, dedicated laboratories, and documentation. The Quality Team is responsible for meeting all relevant guidelines from governing authorities.

Image Credit: Bio-Techne

What was the greatest challenge for the team during the pandemic?

There was urgency in launching new products promptly. For instance, the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was on the website. Pharmaceutical and biotech researchers require these proteins immediately. To expedite the process, Bio-Techne streamlined the time-to-market using a transient platform. This involves creating the plasmid, transfecting it into HEK 293 cells, producing the protein rapidly, purifying it, and swiftly making it available on the website.

What is an important but often overlooked aspect of protein production?

Protein stability and formulation are essential. Many competitors prioritize speedy market delivery, but analytically, their proteins lack stability. They are formulated in buffers unsuitable for long-term, freeze-thaw, or four-degree stabilitya crucial oversight. Formulation and stability tests are pivotal for top-notch products.

Bio-Techne possesses top-tier bioassay capabilities, ensuring consistency across protein batches. The proteins maintain stability over time, resisting precipitation during freeze-thaw cycles or prolonged storage at 4 C.

What is the future of protein production?

Staying at the forefront of innovation is the key. Bio-Techne integrates cutting-edge development tools that expedite plasmid creation and employ advanced cell culture devices for controlled automated side-by-side reactions. Automation plays a pivotal role in the purification processes, ensuring top-quality proteins.

Leveraging structural biology, Bio-Techne crafts custom cytokines. The future emphasis revolves around leveraging structural biology for novel cytokine designs, employing automation to minimize production errors, and enhancing scalability.

What are the advantages of protein production with Bio-Techne?

Bio-Techne makes proteins of only the highest quality with dedication and care to ensure consistency. The proteins undergo robust stability tests, and a large analytical core surveys the proteins to ensure accuracy and the absence of contaminants. Bio-Techne is a premium vendor of proteins.

Image Credit: Bio-Techne

About Bio-Techne

Bio-Techne Corporation is a leading developer and manufacturer of high-quality purified proteins - notably cytokines and growth factors, antibodies, immunoassays, as well as biologically active small molecule compounds - which are sold to biomedical researchers and clinical research laboratories; these operations constitute the core Biotech Division, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Protein Platform Division manufactures innovative protein analysis tools under the ProteinSimple brand name that greatly automate western blotting and immunoassay practices. The Diagnostics Division manufactures FDA-regulated controls, calibrators, blood gas, and clinical chemistry controls for OEM customers and clinical customers. Bio-Techne products assist scientific investigations into biological processes and the nature and progress of specific diseases. They aid in drug discovery efforts and provide the means for accurate clinical tests and diagnoses.

With thousands of products in its portfolio, Bio-Techne generated approximately $563 million in net sales in fiscal 2017 and has approximately 1,800 employees worldwide.

Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices and treatments.
Shares of Bajaj Auto Limited traded 1 per cent higher to Rs 7,043 on January 8 as the companys board of directors are set to meet and consider a share buyback proposal.

In a regulatory filing last week, Bajaj Auto informed, The meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company is scheduled on 08/01/2024, inter alia, to consider and approve a proposal to buyback of fully paid-up equity shares of the Company and other matters necessary and incidental thereto.

If approved, then it would be the second Bajaj Auto buyback in the last two years. The auto major had earlier declared share buyback in July 2022 at 4,600 per equity share. The previous Bajaj Auto share buyback size was 2,500 crore done through the open market route.

Rajiv Bajaj, managing director of the Pune-based two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto has indicated the buyback of shares this time is likely to be far bigger. The companys board will decide whether the buyback will be done through a tender offer or the open market.

In an interaction with CNBC TV-18, Rajiv Bajaj, the managing director of the company, said that the buyback would be far bigger this time. Bajaj further said that the company has had an excellent 2023 and will end the financial year 2024 with cash of Rs 20,000 crore.

The Bajaj Auto MD said that whenever the company has more than Rs 15,000 crore worth of cash on its books, he expects to give back over 70 percent to the investors.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 6,978, up over a percent during the last trading session. It pared gains after it touched a record high of Rs 7,084 on January 5.
You have a chance to profit from share investments through upcoming IPOs starting today, January 8. This week, four new IPOs will be launched, providing investors with potential opportunities. Kaushalya Logistics is set to list its shares on NSE Emerge on January 8, with an issue price of Rs 75 per share. The IPOs of Jyoti CNC Automation, Australian Premium Solar, IBL Finance, and New Swan Multitech are also set to open soon, collectively raising approximately Rs 1100 crore. Lets take a look at these upcoming IPOs.

1) Jyoti CNC Automation

Rajkot-based Jyoti CNC Automation, specialising in metal-cutting CNC machines, will initiate its IPO on January 9, closing on January 11 with a price band of Rs 315-331 per share. The company aims to raise Rs 1000 crore, marking the first IPO on the mainboard segment in the current calendar year.

2) IBL Finance

The upcoming IPO of IBL Finance, a fintech-based financial services platform, marks the first IPO of the year under the SME segment. Scheduled to open on January 9 and close on January 11, the company aims to raise Rs 33.4 crore. The fixed price band for this IPO is Rs 51 per share.

3) New Swan Multitech

The New Swan Multitech IPO subscription window is from January 11, 2024, to January 15, 2024. This book-built issue amounts to Rs 33.11 crore, comprising an entirely fresh issue of 50.16 lakh shares. The IPOs price band is set at Rs 62 to Rs 66 per share, with a minimum lot size of 2000 shares per application. Hem Securities Limited and Share India Capital Services Private Limited are the book running lead managers, and Bigshare Services Pvt Ltd serves as the registrar for the issue.

4) Australian Premium Solar

Australian Premium Solar, specialising in monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar module manufacturing, aims to raise Rs 28 crore through its upcoming IPO. The IPO is scheduled to open on January 11 and conclude on January 15, with a set price band of Rs 51-54 per share.

Analysts predict that Jyoti CNC Automations public offering could signal the start of an active phase in the initial share sale market. This momentum is expected to continue for a few months, followed by a temporary pause during general elections. The Indian primary market experienced a dynamic year in CY2023, with fundraising activity picking up from Q2CY23 onwards. The market is poised for further growth as numerous companies plan IPOs, with an estimated cumulative raise exceeding Rs 1 lakh crore, more than double the amount raised in 2023. Mahavir Lunawat, Managing Director at Pantomath Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd., highlighted that 28 companies have received SEBI approval, aiming to raise over Rs 30,000 crore, while 36 others await approval with plans to raise Rs 50,000 crore.
Stocks to Watch on January 8: GIFT Nifty on the NSE IX traded 10.5 points, or 0.05 per cent, higher at 21,788, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for positive start on Monday. Heres a slew of stocks that will be in focus today for various reasons.

Titan: The companys revenue rose 22 per cent YoY in the December quarter (Q3FY24). The jewellery division reported a 21 per cent growth in the domestic market.

Bajaj Auto: The company will consider a share buyback proposal today.

Tata Steel: Tata Steel Indias crude steel production rose 6 per cent both on a quarterly and yearly basis in Q3 to 5.32 million tonne.

Nykaa: It sees the BPC verticals GMV growth in the mid-twenties, and net sales value growth around twenty per cent YoY in Q3.

In Fashion, the industry level consumption remained muted and has not seen the uplift expected during the festive season. Fashion vertical GMV is expected to grow at nearly 40 per cent, with NSV growth seen in the low thirties.

Net sales value on a consolidated basis may grow in the mid-twenties and revenue growth may be in the low twenties year-on-year.

Godrej Consumer Products: The company expects mid-single digit volume growth on a consolidated basis in Q3.

In the domestic business, its organic business delivered steady underlying volume growth of mid-single digits and its inorganic business as Park Avenue and KamaSutra reported a double-digit volume growth.

Adani Wilmar: The companys standalone sales fell 15 per cent in Q3 over last year. However, in terms of volume, it rose 6 per cent YoY.

Marico: The company said its consolidated revenue in Q3 fell in low single digits on a yearly basis, while operating profit saw a low double-digit growth. It expects a low single-digit jump in domestic volumes for the December quarter.

TVS Motor: It has signed a MoU with the Tamil Nadu government to invest Rs 5,000 crore in five years and employ 500 people.

Narayana Hrudayalaya: The companys wholly owned subsidiary has received approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India to launch a health insurance business in India.

Federal Bank: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked the lender to submit a fresh proposal with at least two fresh names for the position of Managing director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank.

Bank of Baroda: The banks global deposits were up 8.3 per cent YoY in Q3 but fell 0.3 per cent sequentially. Domestic deposits rose 6.3 per cent YoY, while advances rose 13.4 per cent.
The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has announced the preliminary exam schedule for the medical entrance examinations to be held in 2024. According to the NBEMS provisional timetable previously released, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2024 test has been slated for March 3. However, the National Medical Commissions (NMC) recommendations state that NEET PG would be held in the final week of June or in the first week of July. Counselling, on the other hand, is anticipated to begin in the first week of August. However, the board has yet to declare the officially confirmed dates for the NEET PG 2024. Candidates can obtain more information on the PG entrance exam by visiting nbe.edu.in or natboard.edu.in.

Based on previous year trends, the details regarding registration and timetable for NEET PG 2024 are scheduled to be issued this week. In 2023, the NBE released the NEET PG information bulletin on January 7, and registration commenced on January 27 for admission to 26,168 Doctor of Medicine (MD), 13,649 Master of Surgery (MS), and 922 PG Diploma programmes at 6,102 government, private, deemed/central institutions.

According to reports, the National Exit Test (NExT) will not be held this year. Under the NMC Act of 2019, NEET PG, a qualifying cum ranking test, is the only entrance exam required for admission to MD, MS, and Postgraduate Diploma programmes.Applicants may register for NEET PG if they have earned their MBBS degree or provisional pass certificate from an accredited medical school in India. The candidates should have fulfilled their 12-month rotational internship requirement and hold a valid registration certificate, either temporary or permanent, from the Medical Council of India (MCI) or the State Medical Council (SMC).

In the meantime, the Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (PGMER-23) were recently released by the National Medical Commission (NMC). Under the guidelines, students will now be permitted to take 20 days of paid vacation and will be given residential accommodations.
In light of heavy rainfall in multiple regions of Tamil Nadu, schools and colleges in numerous districts have announced a holiday for today, January 8. The constant rain in the state caused several of the districts educational institutions to close today. Nagapattinam, Viluppuram, Cuddalore, Ranipet, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, and Kallakurichi are among the districts impacted.

Schools and colleges in the districts of Mayiladuthurai, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Thiruvarur, and Nagapattinam (Kilvelur taluk) have declared a single-day holiday today, according to DT Next. Overnight rains in Nagapattinam, in this case, prompted the closure of schools and colleges. A holiday has also been declared by the schools in the districts of Puducherry, Ranipet, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Ariyalur, Kallakurichi, Chengalpattu, and Karaikal.

The decision was reached by the district collectors in the aforementioned districts after considering the effects of the significant rainfall on the region in question. Despite a severe rain warning in Chennai and adjoining regions today, no school or college holiday has been announced for today.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government rescinded an order extending the winter vacation in Delhi schools to January 10, barely hours after it was incorrectly issued by the Delhi Department of Education. Following that, Delhi Education Minister Atishi ordered a five-day extension of the winter holiday for students in Nursery to Class 5 until January 12.

Winter vacation for students was due to end on January 6, with classes beginning today. However, Delhi has been hit hard by cold waves, and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert due to dense fog, moderate rainfall, and a drop in mercury over the course of the next few days.

All schools in Noida and Greater Noida were also directed by the Gautam Buddh Nagar administration to close for students up to class 8 until January 14 owing to the thick fog and cold weather conditions.

Similarly, in response to the regions extremely cold weather, the Punjab government additionally declared the closing of all schools up to Class 10 till January 14. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann pointed out in an official statement that the action was required for the greater good of children in school.
Claiming that the contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls would be between the BJP and Congress, Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy on Monday said his party would strive towards winning majority of the total 17 seats in the state.

The BJPs state unit held a key preparatory meeting for the Lok Sabha elections here, which was attended by BJP National General Secretaries Tarun Chugh (Telangana incharge), Sunil Bansal, Bandi Sanjay Kumar and other leaders, besides Kishan Reddy.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Kishan Reddy recalled that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had attended a party meeting in connection with the general elections, recently.

BJPs state unit has decided face the Parliament elections with full vigour, he said adding that steps would be taken to strengthen the party from the polling booth level and it would enroll youth on a large scale in view of the enthusiastic response from them.

 BJP is going to win majority of seats (in Telangana). Because, we estimate that the contest would be between Congress and BJP, Reddy said. The BRS would become irrelevant in the coming Parliamentary elections and future Telangana politics, the Union Minister claimed.

Expressing confidence that Narendra Modi would become the PM again, he said the BJP would want the Telangana people to play a role in bringing Modi to power again. BJP had won four out of the 17 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In the recent Assembly elections, it won eight out of the total 119 constituencies.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 8. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has resigned, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on his X page, Trend reports.

The French President accepted Borne's resignation and thanked her for her "dedication and determination."

Borne has headed the French Cabinet of Ministers since May 2022.
Many actors in the Marathi film industry have a background in theatre. Some of them still actively take part in it. Currently, a much-awaited theatre event is taking place in Pune, which is called the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Parishad. Many popular artists from Marathi theatre are attending this meet, which is taking place in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune. There are many cultural programmes that are being held there. Now, a senior Marathi actress, Vandana Gupte has shared a video on social media and complained that she could not find the address where the event was taking place. The Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Parishad has been witnessing many popular names from the Marathi film and television world. Vandana Gupte took to social media and uploaded a video, where she was seen complaining that she was unable to find the exact location of the event.

She said in the clip, I had come to Pune from Mumbai for the 100th Natya Festival being held in Pune. But I could not find the venue of the theatre festival and was wandering around for a long time. I did not see the pavilion where the event was being held anywhere. Things were already getting late, and I couldnt reach there in time as I couldnt find the address. So, Im finally back in Mumbai..

Vandana Gupte is a senior actress who has made a distinct mark with her acting in Marathi films and theatre. She is currently working on the hit drama play Haravlelya Pattyancha Banglaa. Apart from that, she was also seen in the blockbuster film Baipan Bhaari Deva, which was released a few months ago. She was seen in the lead role in the family drama, and it became a huge hit among the audience. After she uploaded the video, it became viral. The actress has deleted the clip.

On the first day of Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Parishad, many folk artists like Vasudev, Pingala, Potraj, Gandhari and Dashavatar, and many theatre artists from the Chinchwad area showed their abilities. Many serial actors were also seen attending the event.
The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the decision of the Gujarat government to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The apex court held that the state, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts and added that Maharashtra was the competent government to grant remission in this case.

Earlier in October, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had reserved its verdict after an 11-day hearing on the petitions, including the one filed by Bano.

Bilkis Bano had moved the Supreme Court challenging the release of 11 convicts who had gang-raped her and killed seven members of her family during the 2002 Godhra riots in Gujarat.

What Does the Petition Say?

The Gujarat government on August 15, 2022 released 11 men convicted of Bilkis gang rape and the killing of her family, causing an outrage. The government cited good behaviour as the reason behind the release of 11 convicts.

The government said it decided to release 11 prisoners since they have completed 14 years and above in prisons and their behaviour was found to be good". It further justified its decision on the grounds that the remission was granted in accordance with the 1992 policy which placed no bar against the premature release of rape convicts.

The Gujarat government told the Supreme Court that the release of the men was approved by the Union home ministry within two weeks.

Following the release, the victim Bilkis Bano filed a petition in the Supreme Court contesting the remission granted to them. Several other PILs, including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, also challenged the relief. TMC leader Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against the remission and their premature release.

What is the Bilkis Bano case?

In February 2002, there were riots in Gujarat after the Sabarmati train carrying karsevaks was burnt in Godhra, in which fifty-nine karsevaks were killed in the train.

Fearing violence, then five-months pregnant Bilkis Bano fled from her village Randhikpur with her three-year-old daughter and 15 other family members. They sought refuge in the Chhaparvad district.

However, on 3 March 2002, a group of around 20-30 people armed with swords and sticks attacked Bilkis and her family. Among the attackers were the 11 men accused of raping her. Bilkis, along with her mother and three other women were raped and assaulted while her three-year-old daughter was killed by the mob.

Of the 17-member group of Muslims from Radhikpur village, eight were found dead, six were missing. Only Bilkis, a man, and a three-year-old survived the attack, according to a report in The Indian Express.

After Bilkis regained consciousness, she borrowed clothes from an Adivasi woman and registered a complaint at the Limkheda police station. She was then taken to a public hospital for examination only after she reached the Godhra relief camp.

The Trial So Far

After the incident, the local police repeatedly rejected Bilkis Banos case, citing insufficient evidence. Her case went to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Supreme Court, which in 2003, ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to undertake an inquiry in the case. The accused in the case were arrested in 2004 and the trial began in Ahmedabad.

Bilkis expressed her worries that witnesses could be harmed and the evidence collected by the CBI tampered with, after which the apex court then transferred the case from Ahmedabad to Bombay.

In January 2008, the Special CBI Court sentenced 11 accused to life imprisonment on the charges of conspiring to rape a pregnant woman, murder and unlawful assembly.

The eleven accused included Radheshyam Shah, Jaswant Chaturbhai Nai, Keshubhai Vadaniya, Bakabhai Vadaniya, Rajibhai Soni, Rameshbhai Chauhan, Shaileshbhai Bhatt, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Govindbhai Nai, Mitesh Bhatt, and Pradip Modhiya.

The court acquitted seven other accused for lack of evidence. One of the accused had died during the trial. The court held that Jaswantbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai, and Naresh Kumar Mordhiya (deceased) had raped Bilkis, while Shailesh Bhatt had killed her daughter, Saleha, by smashing" her on the ground.

The Bilkis Bano gangrape case has been one of the prominent topics since the Gujarat riots and stood out as one of the most talked about verdicts in recent history.

The Bombay High Court in May 2017 upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 11 convicts in the rape case.

Why were the convicts released?

Radheshyam Shah, one of the convicts, filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court seeking remission of the sentence under provisions outlined in sections 432 and 433 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The high court rejected the plea while observing that the appropriate government" to take a decision about his remission is Maharashtra and not Gujarat.

Shah filed a plea in the Supreme Court, pleading that he had been in jail for 15 years and four months without remission as of 1 April 2022. The apex court directed the Gujarat government to look into the issue of remission of his sentence following which the government formed a committee.

The committee took a unanimous decision in favour of remission of all the 11 convicts in the case last year after which they walked out of Godhra sub-jail on August 15, 2022.
The Supreme Court on Monday overturned the Gujarat governments decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The top court ruled that the state, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is only competent to decide the remission plea of convicts. Since the trial and conviction took place in the Bombay High Court, Maharashtra was the competent government to grant remission in this case, the court added.

Heres a complete timeline of Bilkis Bano Case-
This is what justice feels like, Bilkis Bano said after the Supreme Court, earlier in the day, overturned the Gujarat governments decision to grant remission to 11 accused convicted of raping her and murdering seven members of her family during the 2002 riots in Gujarat.

This is what justice feels like. I thank the honourable Supreme Court of India for giving me, my children and women everywhere this vindication and hope in the promise of equal justice for all, Bano said.

ALSO READ: Bilkis Bano Case: Complete Timeline of Events from 2002 Riots to SC Verdict

The top court ruled that the state, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is only competent to decide on the remission plea of convicts. Since the trial and conviction took place in the Bombay High Court, Maharashtra was the competent government to grant remission in this case and not Gujarat, the court added.

In a statement issued through her lawyer Shobha Gupta, Bano thanked the apex court for the verdict and said today is truly the New Year for me. I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and a half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again, Bano said.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court accused the Gujarat government of abusing its power and ordered the 11 men to report to authorities within two weeks.

Bano further said in her statement that journeys like hers can never be made alone. I have had my husband and my children by my side. I have had my friends who have given me so much love at a time of such hate and held my hand at each difficult turn. I have had an extraordinary lawyer, Advocate Shobha Gupta, who has walked with me unwaveringly for over 20 long years, and who never allowed me to lose hope in the idea of justice, she said.

She mentioned that a year and a half ago, on August 15, 2022, when those who had destroyed my family and terrorised my very existence, were given an early release, I simply collapsed and felt she had exhausted her reservoir of courage until a million solidarities came her way.

Thousands of ordinary people and women of India came forward. They stood with me, spoke for me, and filed PIL petitions in the Supreme Court. 6,000 people from all over, and 8,500 people from Mumbai wrote appeals, 10,000 people wrote an Open Letter, as did 40,000 people from 29 districts of Karnataka, she added.

To each of these people, my gratitude for your precious solidarity and strength. You gave me the will to struggle, to rescue the idea of justice not just for me, but for every woman in India. I thank you, Bano further stated.

(With PTI inputs)
The Supreme Court on Monday directed the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape, who have been on remission since 2022, to return to jail within two weeks.

This direction from the top court came when the bench was hearing Banos petition, asking to quash the remission granted to the convicts by the Gujarat government in 2022, an NDTV report said. The SC held that the Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to pass remission orders in case of the convicts.

The apex court bench consisting of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said, The state of Gujarat acted in complicit with the convicts it was this very apprehension which led this Court to transfer the trial out of the state.

This comes after the top court panel on October 12, 2023 reserved its verdict after an 11-day hearing on the pleas, including the one filed by Bilkis Bano.

Reserving its judgement, the SC bench had also directed the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit the original records related to the convicts remission sentence by October 16, 2023.

All the 11 convicts were granted remission on August 15, 2022 by the Gujarat government and released from jail on the basis of obsolete law.

Following the release, the victim Bilkis Bano filed a petition in the Supreme Court contesting the remission granted to them. Several other PILs, including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, also challenged the relief. TMC leader Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against the remission and their premature release.

The convicts release sparked outrage across several sections of the nation and the society.
In a major move, the Centre has decided to spend Rs 688 crore on road safety measures on the six-lane Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway which was opened last year before the Karnataka polls. The Centre has invited bids for the same on Saturday after the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) recently completed a survey of the expressway following a spate of road accidents on the new highway.

The dangerous spots found during the survey, including issues of gradient, will be rectified with corrective road safety measures during the exercise. More lighting, foot overbridges, warning signs, headlight reflectors, road markings, guard rails and crash barriers could come up on the highway.

The NHAI had last year constituted a committee of road safety experts to carry out the safety inspection of the Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had also earlier met Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in Delhi over this issue.

Inaugurated in March 2023, the 118-km-long Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway has cut travel time between the two cities in Karnataka by almost half to just 75 minutes. However, it also caused a number of road accidents. AI-based speed detectors were installed a few months later to penalize motorists driving above the speed of 100 km/hour, which brought down the number of accidents. Siddaramaiah had alleged that the project was opened in haste before the elections by the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state, and adequate road safety measures had not been implemented.

Replying in the Lok Sabha last July, the Centre said the Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway had opened to traffic in January 2023 and by the end of July, it had seen 121 deaths and close to 400 accidents.

According to the Karnataka government, most accidents were attributed to rash and negligent driving and casualties and accidents have come down since July. Many such accidents involved two-wheelers and plying of two-wheelers as well as three-wheelers on the highway was banned by the NHAI since August 1. The safety measures will now also focus on the black spots for accidents.
Amid the ongoing boycott Maldives campaign online, Indian travel company EaseMyTrip in a significant move decided to suspend all Maldives flight bookings following the derogatory remarks made by ministers, now suspended, against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his recent visit to Lakshadweep.

Showcasing his support of the #ChaloLakshwadeep campaign, Nishant Pitti, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of EaseMyTrip took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings.

EaseMyTrip, headquartered in New Delhi, was founded in 2008 by Nishant Pitti, Rikant Pitti and Prashant Pitti.

Speaking on the matter, co-founder of EaseMyTrip, Prashant Pitti said, Our company is entirely homegrown and made in India. Amid the row over Maldives MPs post on PM Modis visit to Lakshadweep, we have decided that we will not accept any bookings for Maldives. We want Ayodhya and Lakshadweep to turn out as international destinations.

Prashant on January 4 in a social media post on X said that the beaches of the Indian island are as good as that of Maldives or Seychelles and keeping that in view the EaseMyTrip will plan special-offers to promote the destination.

Water & beaches of Lakshadweep are as good as Maldives/Seychelles. We at @EaseMyTrip will come up with crazy special-offers to promote this pristine destination that our PM Narendra Modi has recently visited! Prashant Pitti wrote.

#ChaloLakshadweep Water & beaches of Lakshadweep are as good as Maldives/Seychelles We at @EaseMyTrip will come up with crazy special-offers to promote this pristine destination that our PM @narendramodi has recently visited! pic.twitter.com/T2ZTd52TOt  Prashant Pitti (@ppitti) January 4, 2024

Why #BycottMaldives Is Trending?

The #BycottMaldives campaign started trending on social media after a minister and several leaders of Maldives used derogatory words against PM Modi and accused India of shifting focus from the island country by promoting Lakshadweep as another tourist spot.

The row escalated when several Indian tourists reportedly started cancelling their scheduled vacations to the island nation.

The row erupted after PM Modi recently visited the countrys smallest Union Territory, Lakshadweep, and posted some amazing pictures on his social media platform. The Prime Ministers visit was, however, perceived as a move to promote tourism to the archipelago.

Following the backlash for the derogatory social media posts against Prime Minister Narendra Modi with India strongly raising the matter with Male, the Maldivian government on Sunday suspended three deputy ministers for their derogatory social media posts.

The three deputy ministers criticised PM Modi for his post on his Lakshadweep visit, stating that he was an attempting to project the union territory as an alternative to Maldives.
The credibility of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) is questioned with every election in India. Whether it is assembly polls or the Lok Sabha, EVMs  introduced in 1982 to replace the ballot system  have to face agni pariksha despite getting a clean chit in at least 25 court cases and being termed credible, reliable and totally tamperproof.

Since 2001, various courts have either rejected a plea or given clean chit to EVMs at least 25 times. Of these cases, nine were in the Supreme Court in the last 10 years and 16 in various high courts. However, there is a buzz in political circles again, with the Opposition questing EVMs.

The highest number of cases were filed in Delhi, Madras and Madhya Pradesh high courts  three each. There were two cases each in Bombay and Gujarat high courts and one each in Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and Karnataka.

In December, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, requesting for a meeting of INDIA bloc leaders to raise concerns on VVPAT. Last week, the poll body wrote back to him, saying his letter has no new assertions or reasonable and legitimate doubts which require further clarifications than what are already in the public domain.

News18 takes a look at how EVMs have stood the test of time:

History of EVMs

The idea of EVMs was first conceived in 1977 and in August 1980, the Election Commission of India (ECI) demonstrated its first prototype before the representatives of political parties.

After reaching a wide consensus on its introduction, in May 1982, EVMs were used on a pilot basis to conduct elections. For the next one-and-a-half decades, several reforms and policy changes were introduced and committees were formed to analyse the new technology.

In 1998, a general consensus was reached on the use of EVMs. The new system was used in 16 assemblies across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi.

The next year, EVMs were used in 46 Lok Sabha constituencies. The slow yet gradual increase in the use of EVMs continued in various assembly elections. In 2001, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, and West Bengal elections were conducted using EVMs alone and since then it became a norm for all assembly polls.

In 2004, the new technologically advanced voting system completely replaced the erstwhile use of ballot papers with EVMs used in all 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Almost a decade later, in 2013, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) were added to improve the transparency and verifiability in the polling process.

EVMs in Court

The oldest case against EVMs dates back to 2001 in the Madras High Court, seeking to prohibit EC from using EVMs in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election that year.

In its order, the court said the advantages of EVMs outweigh the conventional ballot boxes. It highlighted the need for printing a huge number of ballot papers and invalid votes in the old system.

In the EVMs, invalid votes do not arise, and every vote will be accounted for. The court also said that no rigging is possible, and results can be ascertained in a shorter time.

In 2004, a case was filed in Karnataka High Court related to the efficacy and integrity of the EVM. It said EVMs are vulnerable to tampering and elections conducted with them do not ensure free and fair polling and counting.

The court put aside the doubts, saying the invention of EVM is undoubtedly a great achievement in electronic and computer technology and a national pride.

Cases related to EVMs also emerged in 2009 (Rajasthan), 2010 (Madras), 2012 (Gujarat), 2014 (Madras and Madhya Pradesh), 2017 (Bombay and Uttarkashi), 2018 (Bombay and two cases in Madhya Pradesh), 2019 (Delhi and Gujarat), 2020 (Delhi) and 2021 (Delhi).

Between 2013 and 2023, orders in nine cases were delivered by the Supreme Court in favour of the EVMs. Three cases were disposed of in 2013, one in 2018 and two each in 2019 and 2022, and one in 2023.

In almost all the cases, the EVM came out strong. In two of the cases, one in the Supreme Court (Rs 50,000) and one in Delhi High Court (Rs 10,000), the court not just dismissed the cases but imposed fine on the petitioners.

In the 2023 case, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea that sought directions to the ECI to conduct an independent audit of the source code of EVMs. The court said that the petitioner has placed no actionable material on the record of the court to indicate that the EC is actually in breach of its constitutional mandate of holding elections.

These were just the cases where the technology and the machine were questioned for credibility. Some cases are still pending in courts even as the country gears up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
At least 500 female students from Haryanas Sirsa have accused a professor at the Chaudhary Devi Lal University of sexual harassment. The students wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modis office and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar demanding the accused professors suspension as well as an inquiry into the case led by a retired High Court judge.

According to an NDTV report, copies of the letter were also sent to Vice Chancellor Dr Ajmer Singh Malik, Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya, Home Minister Anil Vij, and National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma, as well as senior state government officials and select media organisations.

The universitys Registrar, Dr Rajesh Kumar Bansal, confirmed receiving the anonymous letter.

The letter said that the professor would call girls to his office, take them to the washroom and touche private parts, and (does) obscene acts. The girls alleged that when they protested against the act, they were threatened with very bad consequences.

The letter further claimed this has been going on for many months and the professor in question has never been held accountable.

The girls also claimed the Vice Chancellor of the University, instead of helping them, threatened to expel us because this professor is a person of immense political influence The Vice-Chancellor is also said to have tried to suppress the allegations by offering the girls better marks in examinations.

The police are investigating the university has its own committee which is probing the allegations. This is a serious accusation there is no name on the letter but we will investigate this. Action will only be taken afterwards. Whoever is guilty will not be spared but if someone is innocent then their character should not be assassinated, Dr Rajesh Kumar Bansal was quoted by NDTV as saying.

Bansal noted that relevant CCTV footage had been handed over to the police.

The letter, however, claimed that the accused professor had deleted his indecent actions from CCTV footage of his office.

The girls mentioned in the letter that they chose to hide their identities fearing dishonour to their families.

Senior Sirsa police official Deepti Garg said an investigation into the case is underway, and that statements of some of the students had been recorded.

The accused professor has also been questioned and a case will be filed if enough evidence against him is found, Garg was quoted by NDTV as saying.
By now, we know that the latest sub-variant of coronavirus, JN.1, is not a monster.

Emerging in August 2023, the JN.1 sub-variant has provided ample time for observation. A notable characteristic is its rapid transmission. Labelling it as a non-lethal virus might lead to complacency, but the reality is that the JN.1 sub-variant has now become the prevalent strain, constituting over 60 per cent of Covid-19 cases in India.

What tends to slip our minds is that even when the virus doesnt result in fatalities, it can still lead to long-term effects, known as long Covid-19, which is broadly defined as signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after infection.

Long Covid-19 the Real Monster

During the second wave, my 59-year-old mother lost her sense of smell  also known as olfactory disorder  post a bout of moderate Covid-19. For over two years now, she has been grappling with a condition where her sense of smell has returned, albeit with increased sensitivity, making it difficult for her to tolerate the scent of numerous fruits, vegetables, and beverages, including coffee.

Fortunately, it remains a relatively minor side effect amid an otherwise perilous list of potential consequences. From cardiac diseases to muscle weakness, fatigue, brain fog, olfactory disorder, and pain in muscles, long Covid-19 is linked to more than 200 symptoms and the list is still evolving.

Sample this: In a latest study, scientists discovered that long Covid-19 is responsible for post-exercise malaise in individuals who werent hospitalised during the infection and had reasonably active lifestyles before. Published in the Nature Communications journal on January 4, a study conducted by Amsterdam University Medical Center revealed alterations in muscle structure and function among those with long-term Covid-19 in comparison to other healthy individuals.

Upon analysing biopsies taken before and after exercise, researchers observed an increased presence of white fibers in the muscles of individuals with long Covid-19 compared to those without the condition.

In another Brazilian study published in May 2023, scientists detected long Covid-19 in 29.6 per cent patients with mild disease Fatigue was the most frequent sequelae and occurred isolated or associated with other clinical manifestationswe also observed a vast impact of long COVID on the quality of life.

More than 5,000 Americans have died from long Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to new estimates from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

By now, we possess robust data from various sources worldwide, including leading domestic health institutions such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Collectively, these studies provide varying estimates of the prevalence of long Covid-19, ranging from approximately 9 to 37 per cent among patients.

Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, co-chairman of the Indian Medical Association Covid-19 task force (national), explained to me that even with a conservative estimate of 5 per cent, the impact is substantial. Its crucial to recognise that long Covid-19 encompasses a spectrum of conditions.

Fatigue is a prevalent manifestation, which is challenging to diagnose in clinical settings.

Individuals who were once highly active may now experience exhaustion, with their heart rate reaching 150 beats per minute during activities that previously required only 72 bpm. Long Covid-19 often leads to silent suffering at home, particularly among women who may not seek medical attention, Jayadevan told me.

In fact, long Covid-19 has been labelled as a curse for low income nations or developing countries.

Poorly understood and recorded

The understanding of the conditions prevalence is inadequate, and it is frequently overlooked by both healthcare professionals and the general public.

Long Covid-19 diagnoses may not be officially recorded, and the condition tends to be underestimated even in top-notch hospitals.

With symptoms ranging from anxiety and muscle pain to brain fog and fatigue, its crucial to acknowledge long Covid-19 as a significant issue. While a concrete solution may not be readily available, recognition can foster empathy from both society and healthcare professionals.

The virus will continue to make changes again and again. So far, there have been nine waves globally with differences between geographical regions and spaced about 6-10 months apart. This will continue but we need to have a realistic strategy rather than comparing it with a common cold and flu.

In essence, it is our responsibility to protect ourselves from contracting the infection, even if the variant seems mild or less severe.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 9. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have seized the largest underground missile factory in the Gaza Strip, where "long-range" missiles are produced, the press service of the Israeli army says, Trend reports.

"The IDF took control of an underground factory to produce long-range missiles capable of reaching northern Israel [from the Gaza Strip]. This is the largest weapons production facility discovered since the start of the war," the press service noted.

The area is reportedly connected to a vast network of underground tunnels used to deliver weapons to Hamas battalions located in the Gaza Strip.

It is also said that the military also took control of the headquarters of the Hamas al-Bureij unit.

A combined attack was carried out on Israel on October 7. From the beginning, a massive rocket attack began from the territory of the Gaza Strip, followed by the penetration of militants by land, water, and air.

Israel declared a state of war after a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. Moreover, Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a mass gathering of reservists.
The national capital experienced its warmest daytime since December 31 on Sunday as the maximum temperature went up to 18.8 degrees Celsius. This is because of the approaching western disturbance, which reduced the fogs density and helped rays of sunlight touch the surface in the city.

Weather experts said that the western disturbance will help in reducing the chillness for the first half of this week.

While the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert for Punjab, Haryana and parts of Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh for cold day conditions and dense fog.

TOP UPDATES

As many as twenty trains approaching Delhi were delayed due to weather-related issues as the minimum temperature in the national capital settled at 5.3 degrees Celsius, two notches below seasons average. The IMD has forecast shallow fog for Monday with the maximum temperature likely to settle at 17 degrees Celsius. The Chandigarh education department on Sunday issued a notice saying that there will be no physical classes for students upto Class 8 till January 13 due to the persistent cold weather conditions. The order also suggested that the schools may organise online classes for these students. Delhi on Sunday finally experienced the first rays of sunshine that had been missing since the beginning of this year. The upper level fog finally cleared out today, which is the major reason why Delhi experienced the first rays of sunlight in days. Upper-level fog usually does not let any sunlight penetrate, leading to gloomy cold day conditions. Delhi did not experience any cold day conditions on Sunday, an IMD official noted. Cold day conditions are likely to subside from majority of the north-western plains, but the coming of western disturbance may bring along some rain and thundershowers to Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan on Monday and Tuesday. The national capital might witness slight drizzle on Tuesday. The weather department official said that it is probable that the western disturbance will cause partly cloudy skies on Monday and light rain on Tuesday. The maximum is forecast to stay below 20 degrees throughout the week, the official added. IMD has also issued a yellow alert for Delhi due to dense fog, light rainfall and drop in temperature for the next few days. Meanwhile, winter vacation in Delhi has been extended till January 10 in view of the cold weather conditions, officials of the Directorate of Education said on Sunday. Weather experts, however, noted that the western disturbance almost always lead to the cold day conditions coming back. Skymets vice president, Mahesh Palawat was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying that following the light rain, the Capital might experience some cold day conditions later this week. However, people let out a sigh of relief after getting some warmth from the sunlight. Experts noted that the after a chain of cold and severely cold days, this respite is dangerous for elderly people. Officials from the weather department also noted that the partly cloudy sky will be there on Wednesday, with shallow to moderate fog in the early hours. It might clear up by Thursday and skies will be mostly clear, they added. Noting that sunny days with clear skies also means lower temperature at night. The night or the minimum temperature are likely to go down to single digits.

(With PTI inputs)
Maldives high commissioner Ibrahim Shaheeb on Monday visited the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhis south block after a summon was sent to him by the authorities.

#WATCH | Ibrahim Shaheeb, Maldives Envoy exits the MEA in Delhis South Block.He had reached the Ministry amid row over Maldives MPs post on PM Modis visit to Lakshadweep. pic.twitter.com/Dxsj3nkNvw  ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2024

Following Shaheebs summon, now Indian High Commissioner, Munu Mahawar, to Maldives has been asked to reach the Maldives foreign ministry at 12:30 pm. The high commissioners official handle on X, however, posted that Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, to discuss bilateral issues.

This comes a day after the Lakshadweep islands pictures shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi set off a social media war between India and Maldives, while also triggering a low-key diplomatic row between the two.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the Lakshadweep island last week for promoting infrastructural development and tourism there. However, he probably might not have anticipated such a harsh and rather uncharacteristic reaction from the Maldives.

Following the Indian prime ministers post on the microblogging site X, a row erupted on social media, amid which some leaders in the Maldives made derogatory remarks against PM Modi.

The Maldivian government  while distancing itself from the derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals  suspended three of its government officials whose comments on X sparked the row to begin with.

In his post, PM Modi had said that the was in awe of the stunning beauty of the islands and the incredible warmth of its people. However, nowhere in his post, did he even make the mention of the Maldives.

What Were Maldives Officials Remarks On PM Narendra Modi?

The social media war, rather began after a senior minister in President Mohamed Muizzus government  Abdulla Mahzoom Majid  accused India of targeting the Maldives. He had said that India faces significant challenges in competing with the islands when it comes to beach tourism.

Although Majid deleted his tweet afterwards, but the war had already begun.

Several derogatory remarks were also targeted at PM Modi. In fact, Maldives deputy minister of youth empowerment, information and arts  Mariyam Shiuna  called PM Modi a clown and puppet of Israel in a post on X. She deleted the post later and was also suspended by the Maldivian government.

Former Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih condemned the use of hateful language against India. India has always been a good friend to Maldives and we must not allow such callous remarks to negatively impact the age old friendship between our two countries, Solih said in a post on X.

The Maldives government in its statement said that these opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government.

The Maldivian government said that it believed that the freedom of expression should be exercised in a democratic and responsible manner, and in ways that do not spread hatred, and negativity and disrupt close relationships between the Maldives and its international partners.
Sikhs for Justice leader and Khalistani Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has again threatened the Indian government on the consecration ceremony of Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22. He has even urged the Muslim community to oppose the inauguration of the temple, which, he claims, is built on Babri Masjid.

The intelligence sources told News18 that Pannun has called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a global enemy of Muslims. He claimed that the temple is built on the bodies of thousands of Muslims, who were forced into conversion.

The January 22 consecration ceremony at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is the most unholy, ungodly, unrighteous ceremony, he has supposedly said. January 22 is Modis Operation Bluestar against Muslims.

After threatening Air India airlines for imposing an international blockade against it amid the India-Canada diplomatic row over the death of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Pannun has now called upon the Muslims to help him launch a protest from Amritsar to Ayodhya and shut down the airports over the Ram Temple event.

It is time that Muslims carve out a country Urdistan from India or else the Hindu regime of Modi will forcefully convert every Muslim, he claimed.

Indian intelligence sources are suggesting that Pannun is seeking mileage out of the current situation as his attempt to start a referendum for a separate Khalistan has failed, and he is in panic mode.

Pannun, an American citizen and a lawyer, had also threatened Indian consulates and missions in Canada, UK and US over Nijjars death. Last year, he had circulated photos of Indian High Commissioner to Ottawa Sanjay Kumar Verma and Consul General in Toront Apoorva Srivastava in a poster in which they were accused of playing a role in Nijjars killing.

Pannun was declared a designated terrorist in 2020 by India under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

He is from a village in Amritsar, Punjab, and graduated in law from Panjab University in 1990s. He is one of the three children of a former Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board employee Mahinder Singh. He is frequently seen in Canada, at pro-Khalistan gatherings and functions.
From pristine beaches to an exhilarating snorkelling experience in Lakshadweep, pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Indias smallest union territory sparked a frenzy on social media among travellers in the country and abroad.

The derogatory posts by Maldivian ministers against PM Modi and India after some users on the internet started Lakshadweep vs Maldives debate, gave a big push to tourism in Lakshadweep, with celebrities and politicians urging citizens to visit places in India.

In addition to the scenic beauty, Lakshadweeps tranquility is also mesmerising. It gave me an opportunity to reflect on how to work even harder for the welfare of 140 crore Indians. pic.twitter.com/VeQi6gmjIM Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 4, 2024

Amid the row, Boycott Maldives started trending on social media, prompting several Indians to cancel their trips to the Maldives, which heavily relies on tourism and received more than 2.09 lakh visitors from India in 2023.

Planning Lakshadweep Visit? A Step-by-Step Guide to Obtain Permit To Enter Indias Smallest UT

Speaking to CNN-News18, Lakshadweep Administrator Praful Patel said that the islands fortune changed after the PMs trip.

With thousands of enquiries about staying in the UT, Patel assured that the administration is not worried about the inflow of tourists as Lakshadweep has sufficient infrastructure to handle them.

We are anticipating a huge surge in tourists in Lakshadweep. We will be benefitted because of this PMs trip and not because of the anger of Maldives, Patel said.

Praful Patel, Lakshadweep Administrator speaks exclusively on current Lakshadweep Vs Maldives row @brajeshksingh speaks to Lakshadweep Administrator Praful K Patel@poonam_burde | #NationAt5 #Maldives pic.twitter.com/V0gchJHrkS News18 (@CNNnews18) January 8, 2024

Why PM Modis Lakshadweep Visit Has Triggered Diplomatic Row Between India, Maldives | Explained

The administrator said resorts and villas are being constructed on some of the islands for tourists. This will help with accommodation. We have received direction on the development of tourism and we are working on that. Some islands are strategically important so to keep a check on that, the system that is there if it continues then there shouldnt be an issue There is no problem in taking an online permit, he added.

The administration is expecting over Rs 20,000 crore investments in the coming days.

Patel said Maldivian leaders, who have made controversial comments do not suit their stature. The PM has been standing with Maldives shoulder to shoulder. Remark by people from Maldives has of course created discontent because of the insult so of course they are angry, he said.

The administrator further said drinking water issues, issues of fishermen and other issues were resolved by the Prime Minister in the last few years.
A concerning trend of a new cyber fraud is on the rise in India, characterised by cyber criminals orchestrating digital arrests through a coordinated and planned approach.

These criminals adopt the guise of law enforcement agencies and senior officers, leading to a disturbing phenomenon where victims are subjected to what is termed as digital arrest. An official figure from the Union government disclosed a staggering 2,000 complaints have been received about the fraud in the past year alone.

In these incidents, victims are not only blackmailed but also coerced into participating in prolonged interactions with fake government officials via Skype. Such virtual arrests have no legal standing. The gravity of the situation has prompted immediate action, with the Centre blocking 90 per cent of the 235 identified fraudulent Skype accounts. Additional efforts are underway to neutralise the remaining.

So far, the names of three organisation have been used by these criminals. They adeptly impersonate officers of Mumbai Police, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This impersonation extends beyond verbal interactions as these criminals present fabricated ID cards and reference the names and ranks of actual officers, adding a layer of authenticity to their deceptive tactics.

The ramifications for victims are severe, as they endure not only financial losses but also significant emotional distress. The cyber fraudsters use the credibility associated with law enforcement and government officials, making it challenging for victims to discern the fraudulent nature of the arrest process.

Victims are blackmailed and made to sit in front of fake government officials for hours, leading to devastating financial and emotional harm. The cybercriminals impersonate cops or top officials, also show their ID card, and take names of actual officers with real ranks so that even if someone tries to Google the information given by them, they believe that arrest process is real, a top official of a central cyber security agency said.

Modus Operandi

In the latest fraud, criminals contact victims through IVR calls and inform them that their IDs like PAN number, Aadhaar have been used in frauds or that SIM cards involved in a crime are linked to their Aadhaar number.

Once the victim joins on Skype, the accused transfer the call to fake government officers who conduct a fake interrogation and ensure that the victim doesnt leave. The officer, who is mostly in uniform, talks to the victim as officer of CBI, Mumbai Police or RBI. The officer accuses the victim of money laundering or being involved in a crime. The criminals try to maintain maximum authenticity by faking ID cards, Skype IDs, emails and show fake warrant issued from courts. Finally, cyber criminals pressure victims to transfer money and, in some cases, also force them to take instant loan to pay the ransom.

Long Skype Calls Under Scanner

According to sources, a central government agency has asked Microsoft to implement a proactive detection and prevention mechanism to identify impersonating accounts and take actions. It has also been asked to monitor longer duration calls, especially day-long ones, from Skype IDs.

Reporting and filing cases

According to a top-level source, since this is the new type of fraud, it has been suggested that CBI, RBI and Mumbai Police file cases and initiate investigation. Also, 220 Skype accounts have been blocked which were used by cybercriminals. This is an organised online economic crime learnt to be operated by cross-border criminal syndicates.

The Centre has also said that the department concerned may initiate legal action against the Skype IDs that are impersonating Reserve Bank of India, Maharashtra Police, and Narcotics Department, maligning/harming the reputation of the organisation and committing fraud.

Cybercriminals from Cambodia actively involved

According to the initial investigation done by central agencies, few IDs have been traced to Cambodia. Sources have told News18 that cybercriminals from Cambodia are actively involved in the crime and getting associated with local cybercrime criminals. Agencies are now trying to trace the places which have maximum number of criminals involved in such type of crimes.
Even though the Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzus government distanced itself from the anti-India remarks and suspended three government officials, recent incidents suggest that they are open to hostile ties with India, said top government sources.

ALSO READ | Modis Lakshadweep Pride, Maldives Envy: Deep Dive into Diplomatic Row Over PMs Archipelago Pics

Not just the row, Muizzu has clearly started his foreign policy with an anti-India note, by visiting Turkey and China first and no mention of any plans of coming to India, which is a traditional practice. The provocation clearly suggests that they are open to a hostile relationship with India and are trying their best to please the Muslim world and China to gain favour on both fronts," said sources.

Muizzus predecessors, in the recent past, visited India first, considering the wide-ranging bilateral ties and the Maldives proximity to India, followed by China which has expanded its influence in the island nation by investing in major infrastructure projects there.

Muizzu arrived in China on Monday on a five-day state visit during which he is due to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and sign several agreements to bolster the bilateral ties. Muizzu, who is regarded as pro-China, is accompanied by his wife Sajidha Mohamed and a high-level delegation.

The Indian side is watching these fast-evolving developments carefully and analysing them."

Government of Maldives issues statement  "The Government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the Government of pic.twitter.com/RQfKDb2wYF ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2024

THE ROW & THE FALLOUT

PM Narendra Modi recently posted pictures and videos of his Lakshadweep visit, which went viral and prompted many social media users to suggest that the union territory could be an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.

Triggering a diplomatic row, a senior minister in the Muizzu-led government, Abdulla Mahzoom Majid, accused India of targeting the Maldives. He said India faces significant challenges in competing with the Maldives when it comes to beach tourism. Majid later deleted his tweet.

Recently, I had the opportunity to be among the people of Lakshadweep. I am still in awe of the stunning beauty of its islands and the incredible warmth of its people. I had the opportunity to interact with people in Agatti, Bangaram and Kavaratti. I thank the people of the pic.twitter.com/tYW5Cvgi8N Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 4, 2024

Later, several high-ranking officials of the Maldivian government also made offensive and derogatory comments, targeting Modi and Indians. The social media war led to en-masse cancellations of trips to the Maldives by Indians. The Boycott Maldives trend led several Indians to cancel their bookings in the past 24 to 48 hours.

ALSO READ | India a Key Player in Maldives Economic Growth: From Tourism, Hospitality to Infra & Human Resources

The government, in turn, suspended Hassan Zihan, deputy minister of transport and civil; Mariyam Shiuna, deputy minister of youth empowerment, information and arts; and Malsha Sharif, deputy minister of ministry of youth empowerment.

Maldives high commissioner Ibrahim Shaheeb on Monday visited the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhis south block after a summons was sent to him by the authorities. Following Shaheebs summons, now Indian High Commissioner Munu Mahawar to the Maldives has been asked to reach the Maldives foreign ministry at 12:30 pm. The high commissioners official handle on X, however, posted: Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, to discuss bilateral issues."

MALDVIES, TURKEY, CHINA & INDIA

Turkey is major base for Kashmiri separatists and vocal against Indian governments stand on Kashmir, which is an internal matter of India. China is openly entering all traditional centres where India was leading such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and now Maldives.

Muizzu will also attend the Invest Maldives Forum in the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou, China and meet with senior Chinese business leaders to explore avenues for strengthening socioeconomic relations between the Maldives and China, it said.

ALSO READ | Why PM Modis Lakshadweep Visit Has Triggered Diplomatic Row Between India, Maldives | Explained

The Maldives is Indias key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and occupies a special place in its initiatives like SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the Neighbourhood First Policy of the Modi government. The Maldives proximity to India, barely 70 nautical miles from the island of Minicoy in Lakshadweep and 300 nautical miles from the mainlands western coast, and its location at the hub of commercial sea lanes running through the Indian Ocean gives it significant strategic importance.

India and the Maldives have been allies for the past 60 years and important for both the countries to maintain that mutual respect. However, the recent incidents, especially use of language by certain officials, is not the tone of foreign policy," said sources.

With PTI Inputs
The Supreme Court on Monday reversed the Gujarat governments decision to grant remission to 11 convicts involved in the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Stating that the Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to pass remission orders in the case, the apex court stated that the remission order was obtained through fraudulent means and suspension of facts.

Heres What Supreme Court Said While Delivering Its Verdict in Bilkis Bano Case

Holding Bilkis Banos plea challenging the remission as maintainable, a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to pass remission orders in the case. The top court stated that the orders of the remission were stereotyped as the convicts didnt approach the court with clean hands.

The top court, while hearing a bunch of petitions against the Gujarat government order, said that the state wasnt competent to release the convicts as the trial, in this case, took place in Maharashtra, therefore it has the right to take a call on remission of sentence of the 11 convicts.

The top court further directed the convicts to surrender before the authorities within two weeks.

Rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed, the Supreme Court bench said, adding, We strike down the remission orders on the ground of usurpation of power by the Gujarat government.

Adding that the victims rights are important and that women deserve respect, Justice Nagarathna said, A woman deserves respect, howsoever high or low, she may otherwise be considered in society or to whatever faith she may follow or whatever creed she may belong to. Can heinous crimes against women permit remission?

Compassion and sympathy has no role to play where rule of law is to be enforced. This court must be a beacon in preserving rule of law, the bench said.
The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat governments decision to grant remission to 11 convicts involved in the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Holding the plea challenging the remission as maintainable, a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to pass remission orders in case of the convicts. The top court stated that the orders of the remission were stereotyped as the convicts didnt approach the court with clean hands.

Bilkis Bano Case: Complete Timeline of Events from 2002 Riots to SC Verdict

The state of Gujarat acted in complicit with the convictsit was this very apprehension which led this Court to transfer the trial out of the state, the Supreme Court bench said.

The rule of law is breached because the Gujarat government usurped power not vested in it and abused its power. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed, the bench said while pronouncing the verdict which spanned over 100 pages.

The development came after the apex court panel on October 12, 2023 reserved its verdict after an 11-day hearing on the pleas, including the one filed by Bilkis Bano.

Order Obtained Through Fraudulent Means: Heres What SC Said On Bilkis Bano Case | Top Quotes

All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and were released on August 15, 2022, on the basis of an obsolete law. The release of the convicts triggered a wave of condemnation and outrage from several sections of society.

All You Need To Know About The Bilkis Bano Case:
Incessant rainfall lashed several parts of Tamil Nadu, mainly Chennai on Sunday leading to vehicles lining up as far as a mans eye can reach. Traffic snarls disrupted day-to-day functioning of several people in the southern state.

District administrations announced holiday for schools and colleges in Nagapattinam, Kilver Taluk, Villupuram and Cuddalore. While schools in Ranipet, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai and Kallakurichi have ordered schools to be shut in view of the continuous rain.

#WATCH | Tamil Nadu: Rain lashes parts of Chennai.(Visuals from Velachery Main Road) pic.twitter.com/feJPpi44dK  ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2024

Tamil Nadu is likely to receive more rain over several of its districts for the next days, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Fishermen also did not venture into the sea owing to the heavy rainfall in the southwest Bay of Bengal.

Moderate rain is very likely to continue at isolated places over Chennai, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts of Tamil Nadu and Karaikal area, an ANI report said.

The weather department forecast light to moderate rain with occasional intensified rains accompanied by thunderstorms and lightining over Tamil Nadu, Pudhucherru and Karaikals coastal districts.

Powerful easterly or northeasterly winds are present at the lower tropospheric levels with conditions favouring moisture incursion from Bay of Bengal over Tamil Nadu, which leads to the current rainfall spell over the state and its surrounding regions.

Earlier last year, Tamil Nadu lived through flood-causing torrential rainfall, Cyclone Michaung and heavy rains causing destruction in the southern state. People had to suffer heavy losses in terms of personal property, family and public property as well.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI)
A 21-year-old Dalit man was allegedly beaten to death by some people after keeping him hostage in a house over his love affair in Khatauli police station area of this district.

The incident took place in Jasola village on Sunday night, police said on Monday, adding the victim was identified as Ankit.

Khatauli Circle Officer Ravi Shanker told PTI that after getting the information, police rushed to the spot and shifted injured Ankit to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

The body has been sent for postmortem examination, police said, and added that a case has been registered against unidentified accused under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

According to a complaint lodged with police by the Ankits family, he was kept hostage since Sunday evening in the house over love affair with a woman, the official said.
The thinnest, the smallest but also the most complex Bulgari calibers crafted in Le Sentier have made the Maison an inescapable player in the field of Haute Horlogerie

Over the years, Bulgari has consistently asserted its expertise in areas where no one would have expected it. n 2000, when Bulgari took over the Roth & Genta factory in Le Sentier, visitors discovered a modest watchmaking workshop founded by two geniuses of the profession, yet known only to insiders. Some 20 years later, the original building dating from the beginning of the last century is now flanked by a new wing featuring contemporary architecture, forming a true Manufacture de Haute Horlogerie in the noblest sense of the term and representing the keystone of Bulgaris time-measuring instrument strategy. While the Italian Maisons first jewelry watch dates back to 1918, followed by the essential Serpenti Tubogas in 1948 and by the famous Bulgari Bulgari launched in 1975, it was at the turn of the century that watchmaking really took shape within the group.

The Bulgari Manufacture de Haute Horlogerie in Le Sentier, Vallee de Joux, was acquired in 2000 and has since been expanded to accommodate production of the brands complication movements  Bulgari

The takeover of Roth & Genta marked the beginning of a vertical integration process for watchmaking activities, aimed at slowly but surely propelling Bulgari into the big league. In the space of ten years, the company became a fully integrated Manufacture with three sites and 400 employees spread between Neuchatel for after-sales service and casing- up; Saignelegier (Jura) for watch components; as well as Le Sentier, in the Vallee de Joux, for Haute Horlogerie movements and components. The latter term is well-deserved, as over the years, Bulgari has consistently asserted its expertise in areas where no one would have expected it, namely in creating calibers of exceptional size and complexity.

The sound of music

It is precisely in Le Sentier that these horological gems become reality, on a site that employs around a hundred people covering every stage of production, from research & development to final assembly. It all begins with the machining of components: plates, bridges, cams, gears, pinions, flat springs all of which are manually chamfered and decorated before being delivered for assembly. It is in the various workshops that the magic happens, giving birth to movements that have garnered widespread plaudits, accompanied by awards such as the best-in-show Aiguille dOr won by the Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar model at the 2021 Grand Prix dHorlogerie de Geneve.

The BVL 348 movement of the Octo Roma Striking Papillon Tourbillon features

a delightfully technical and airy central flying tourbillon  Bulgari

At the heart of the Manufacture in Le Sentier, alongside the Grandes Complications workshop, which produces the BVL 150 caliber, the smallest tourbillon movement on the market measuring 22 x 18mm and 3.65mm thick, along with the workshop dedicated to classic movements, specialized in extra-thin calibers that hold eight world records, is the workshop devoted to striking watches. Here we meet the four master watchmakers who assemble Bulgaris musical timepieces, a task that can take up to six months for the most complex models like the Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Perpetual Calendar with four hammers and 1,200 components. This painstaking process is all a question of know-how, skill, patience and a musical ear to turn these watches into little marvels that will sing The Sound of Music to their future owners.
In West Bengal, there was a common saying during the Left era: Sab tirtha bar bar, Ganga Sagar ek bar. This was the perception as it was tough to reach the pilgrimage site. Ganga Sagar now sees more than 30 lakh Hindus taking the dip during Makar Sankranti, as devotees offer puja at Kapil Muni ashram on the island. Covering the event since 2009, this journalist has been witness to the challenges and change.

To reach Ganga Sagar, devotees have to head to Kakdwip Lot 8, and then Buri Ganga river in a vessel to reach Kachuberia of Sagar island. The ashram is 30 km from the spot.

In 2009, the ferry ghats were in place, but were untidy and ill-maintained. Switch to 2024, as one reaches lot 8, the jetties give the feel of the fair. People wait in queues, with police presence for coordination.

As one boards the vessel, dredging is taking place in Buri Ganga. The vessel driver told News18: Things have changed drastically. The jetties in lot 8 and on Ganga Sagar side of Kachuberia are well-maintained. The most important factor is presence of police and watch tower.

The island side of Kachuberia now has a big gate with Ganga Sagar written on it, a development from 2009.

WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Ganga Sagar to oversee the preparation of the mela. She said,  More than 80 lakh people come here. The magnitude of this mela is huge, bigger than the Kumbh mela, but we dont get any help from the Central government.

Meenu Malhotra, who was visiting Sagar from UP, told News18: We used to think if we could go to Ganga Sagar once, that would be enough. When I came here 20 years ago, there was no accommodation or transport and there was only one hotel in the entire island. Now, there are government tourist cottages and other accommodation facilities.

One can take Toto or car to Kapil Muni ashram, which was not the case earlier.

Sources in administration say they will soon come up with dormitories for visitors.

While the Kapil Muni ashram has been lit up, the vicinity has proper roads, electricity, accommodation facility and water.

Speaking to News 18, DM South 24 Parganas Sumit Gupta said, There has been drastic change in the past 10 to 12 years. At least 1,125 CCTV cameras have been installed with links to our mega control room, covering the stretch from Kolkata ghat to the island. Our officers will sit in this control room for 247 monitoring. We are also trying to make Ganga Sagar green. Its a changed island now.

PREP FOR FAIR: LISTED BY ADMINISTRATIVE SOURCES

Communication: 247 mobile and internet connectivity, 7 Wi-Fi Zones, Wi-Fi calling, free calling zones/ booths, high frequency manpacks (140 RT handsets), ham radio, satellite phones (10 sets), 11 large LED screens for dissemination of information, etc. will be in place for emergency communication. Existing infrastructure has been augmented for handling huge pilgrim rush during mela.

Transport: Around 2,500 buses will carry pilgrims to Ganga Sagar from railway station, airport and bus stands. Twenty-one jetties [permanent-10, temporary-11] will be operational. Six barges, 32 vessels and 100 wooden launches will be deployed at lot 8 and Namkhana for transportation of pilgrims. All vessels, launches and barges operating in the river between mainland and island will be fitted with advanced GPS device with an integrated software which will be monitored from the mega control room. Sagar Bandhu will be present in all buses plying towards the island. Additional trains will be arranged from Howrah, Sealdah and Namkhana. Thirteen buffer zones and 10 parking zones will be prepared along NH-117 and MDR to regulate passenger vehicles. Speed restrictions at 40 km/hour will be imposed in all vehicles to prevent speeding. Combined single ticket system from Kolkata/Howrah to lot 8 to Kachuberia and back will be implemented for seamless travel to and from Ganga Sagar.

Mega Sagar Arti has been planned for all days of the mela. E-darshan, e-snan are among the facilities added.
South Korean actor Kang Kyung-joon has got himself embroiled in adultery allegations. According to reports, the actor has come under the radar for his alleged affair with a married woman in December last year. Recently, affectionate conversations between Kang Kyung-joon and the unnamed woman on Telegram came to light. The truth unfolded when the womans husband sued Kang Kyung-joon for adultery damage in court with a lawsuit of 50 million dollars. While the actors court proceedings are currently underway, the spotlight now seems to have shifted towards his wife and actress Jang Shin-young, because of her similar past with her former husband.

According to a report by All K-pop, Jang Shin-youngs first marriage was in 2006 when she was just 23 years old. After welcoming a son with her ex-partner in 2007, the actress announced her divorce in 2009. Later on, it was revealed that Jang Shin-young lodged a fraud lawsuit against her anonymous former husband. During the divorce trial, it was disclosed that after their marriage, the person conducted several contracts in the name of Jang Shin-young, but without her consent. After her divorce, while working on the drama series Flower of Revenge, she met Kang Kyung-joon and instantly hit off with him. The couple welcomed a son together in 2019.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by All Asian Drama (@shinleeinah)

Now, Jang Shin-young is facing an almost similar situation with her second marriage as Kang Kyung-joon has been booked with adultery charges. Following the grim situation, both have also stopped posting on their social networking sites, reports All K-pop. Fans of Jang Shin-young have come out in support of the actress. On her Instagram posts, social media users have been encouraging her to show strength in such difficult times. One fan wrote, I will always trust and support you. Your family will become stronger! Please be strong! There will be a day when you will be able to laugh looking back at this. I wish you strength. Another quipped, I will always support you. I hope I can watch you act on a project soon. I wish you and your eldest child strength.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by  (@changshinyoung1984)

The production department of the television show The Return of Superman, featuring Kang Kyung-joon stated, Future filming plans will be discussed after the complete resolution of this case. Also, the actors agency KStar Global ENT refused to comment on the matter because it was related to the actors personal life.
After Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor, Randeep Hooda has been extended a special invitation to attend the inauguration ceremony of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The invitation was personally presented to the actor by the RSS members. News agency ANI also shared the same photos and news on social handles.

In the photos, we can see Randeep Hooda holding an invitation to the ceremony. Actor Randeep Hooda receives an invitation to attend the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Temple on January 22nd in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, the caption read. Kangana Ranaut also got the invitation for the ceremony. She recently took to her social media platform, Instagram, and uploaded a story about the invitation. In the story, an invitation can be seen with a song named Mangal Bhawan played in the background. She also showed gratitude and added an emoji to the story. The invite had various pages showing the history of the Ram Temple and how it was constructed.

Take a look here:

Actor Randeep Hooda receives an invitation to attend the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Temple on January 22nd in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/L81rmdEGtP ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2024

It has been reported that PM Narendra Modi will deliver a speech at the inauguration ceremony. Apart from that, many new names from the film industry have also popped up on social media, including Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Sunny Deol, Chiranjeevi, and others. Industrialists like Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Gautam Adani, Ratan Tata, and others have also been invited to the ceremony.

As per reports, the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya is at its final stage. Preparations for the inauguration of the temple are going on at a very fast pace. On January 22, after the consecration of Ramlala, Mahapuja and Mahaaarti will be performed in the Ram temple.

According to media reports, Ram Temple will be open to the public two days after the inauguration. The administration is ready to handle the huge crowd of devotees coming to visit the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Two trespassers who were trying to enter Salman Khans farmhouse Arpit in Navi Mumbai have been held, following farmhouse manager Shashikant Omprakash Bhargavs complaint to the police. The incident occurred on Thursday evening at 4 pm, when the security guard of the farmhouse spotted two individuals trying to breach the boundary wall of the premises.

As per a report by Hindustan Times, when Shashikant was alerted by security guard Mohammad Hussain, he immediately reached the main gate of the farmhouse. Upon his arrival, they questioned the trespassers who claimed their names were Mahesh Kumar Ramnivas and Vinod Kumar Radhesham and they belonged to Uttar Pradesh. Despite the interrogation, when the duo were unable to give out coherent answers, Shashikant informed the police.

At the police station, the trespassing duo revealed that their names were Ajesh Kumar Omprakash Gila and Gurusevak Singh Tej Singh Sikh respectively. As for their occupation, Ajesh Kumar Omprakash Gila is a furniture trader and Gurusevak Singh Tej Singh Sikh is a carpenter from Punjab. The cops also procured two soft copies of

Aadhar Cards, with similar photo on each persons mobile phone. While the first set of cards had the names Ajesh Kumar Omprakash Gila and Mahesh Kumar Ramnivas imprinted on it, the remaining cards had the name

Vinod Kumar Radhesham and Gurusevak Singh Tej Singh Sikh.

As quoted by Hindustan Times, an officer from the New Panvel police station has stated that the trespassers tried to enter the farmhouse after they learnt the Tiger 3 actor was there. He said, Prima facie, it seems that they tried entering the farmhouse after they heard that Salman Khan was inside. They claim that they wanted to meet him. We have arrested them for trespassing and forgery.

The tresspassers have been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 448 (house trespass), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code and a case has been registered against them on Friday.

Salman Khan travels with a big security team, especially since he was subjected to death threats earlier this year. He was granted Y+ security after he reportedly got a death threat from the Bishnoi Gang.

Back in April, when he received the threat, Salman said on Aap Ki Adalat, I am going everywhere with full security. I know whatever is going to happen will happen no matter what you do. I believe that (refers to God) that he is there. It is not that I will start roaming freely, it is not like that. Now there are so many Sheras around me, so many guns are going around with me that I am myself scared these days.
The success of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit has often earned Gujarat the moniker of Davos of the East, drawing parallels with the Swiss city that hosts the World Economic Forum Summit. This years Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit is to be held between January 10-12 and will mark an international celebration of the Gujarat Model, graced by foreign dignitaries including state heads such as UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, top global investors and CEOs of major Indian and foreign businesses.

The enthusiasm is warranted. Two decades ago, before the emergence of the biennial Vibrant Gujarat, the states economy was in shambles. Hopelessness had gripped the air with the bludgeoning effect of the Bhuj earthquake in 2001 and later, the Godhra riots which caused tremendous loss of life and property, painting an unwelcome image for investors. At this point, the state was also crippled with droughts, power outages and relatively poor connectivity and infrastructure.

But in the past 20 years, since the first edition of Vibrant Gujarat held under then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the states fortunes have witnessed a jaw-dropping transformation. This dramatic turnaround is evident in almost every aspect of Gujarats socio-economic indicators, its impressive industrial output and the state of its infrastructure.

Today, Gujarat is one of the fastest-growing states and the fourth largest state in India in terms of economic size, with the highest ease of doing business ranking. The states GSDP shot up from about $11 billion in 2001 to about $272 billion in 2022, marking a whopping 2400 per cent rise. Per capita incomes stand at $3,529, higher than the national average of $2,847. Further, Gujarat accounts for 77 per cent of petroleum oils exports, 33 per cent of drug manufacturing capacity, and at 33 per cent, it is the largest contributor to the countrys total exports. It also accounted for 17 per cent of Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in India in 2022-23.

In 2023, Gujarat had attracted investments of nearly Rs 8 lakh crore or $96 billion in the four years preceding that year. This time too, leading up to the summit, Gujarat has garnered substantial investment commitments to the tune of $86 billion. Compare this with the first edition of Vibrant Gujarat in 2003 when investments of Rs 66,000 crore were proposed. These agreements involve 58 companies, including a joint venture with steelmaker ArcelorMittal, spanning key sectors like energy, oil and gas, and chemicals. The summit has also acquired a highly effective character as in the two editions of 2017 and 2019, with a total commitment of Rs 20 lakh crore, the average execution rate reported by government officials was 75 per cent, which would not have been possible without systemic overhauls.

Why Vibrant Gujarat is a Success

With the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and systemic overhauls to facilitate businesses, the government of Gujarat kickstarted what would be one of Indias greatest growth engines. The Narendra Modi government of the day in the 2000s realised that to attract industries, Gujarat needed a major overhaul starting with its power and water woes.

In 2001, the state of its power sector was grim. Power deficits brought upon the state prolonged power outages. Gujarat State Electricity Board faced severe financial turmoil, experiencing a loss exceeding Rs 2,200 crore. During that fiscal year, the GSEB incurred interest costs amounting to approximately Rs 1,227 crore. The government addressed power outages, with a revamp of technology used, which reduced transmission losses. Within five years, Gujarat had turned into a power surplus state and has not looked back since. Gujarat is power abundant with around 45 GW power generation capacity as against the average demand of 25 GW.

Meanwhile, the drought-ridden portions of Gujarat were transformed into hydrated land, increasing industrial and agricultural output. This water scarcity was addressed with massive canal and dam projects like the Narmada Main Canal, the Sujalam Sufalam Yojana, the Sauni Yojana and the Sardar Sarovar Dam covering the length and breadth of the state.

The government proceeded with addressing delays that businesses struggled with. Land acquisition and infamous clearance delays of six months to one year were done away with in a revolutionary manner. The single window clearance system was improved, with a centralised online portal for businesses to apply and various concerned departments would be prompted to process these applications within short timeframes. The government also ensured that businesses were assisted in their endeavour to establish their bases.

Further, the government created a land bank which essentially includes estates of land acquired beforehand to be offered to the industries right away, eliminating the protracted land acquisition-related delays in setting up shop. This revolutionised Gujarats standing as a competitive business-friendly destination. A notable instance of this successful approach is exemplified by the Tata Nano factory. In the process of relocating from West Bengal and weighing various options, the factory ultimately chose Gujarat. The swift mobilisation of government support and the efficient transfer of land within days played a pivotal role in sealing the deal.

Gujarat leads in energy infrastructure with a 2,700-kilometre gas grid. On the logistics front, it features extensive road networks and 49 ports including a major port handling 40 per cent of Indias cargo. It also has an enhanced 5,220+ kilometre railway network, and 19 airports, including 4 international ones. Upcoming projects include the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail, the famed bullet train project and Indias largest airport in Dholera a mega project in the works.

The Allure of Megaprojects

The Dholera SIR mega project is another enormous undertaking of the Gujarat government. This special investment region is a greenfield industrial planned city in Ahmedabad with airport and port connectivity along with impeccable metro and road access and is taking shape fast.

Owing to its phenomenal rise, the state has bagged some of the biggest mega projects which are further attracting investors. The most notable mega project is the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT), envisioned by PM Modi. This smart city, aiming to be Indias premier financial capital, is rapidly expanding from 1,065 acres to nearly 3,365 acres. GIFT was recently exempted from the states liquor ban to attract global investors. Another significant initiative is the DREAM City in Surat, focused on the Indian diamond industry, housing the worlds largest office building, the Surat Diamond Bourse.

Gujarat is also undertaking the Khavda Renewable Energy Park, a massive hybrid renewable energy project with an estimated cost of $2.26 billion. In three years, this project aims to become the worlds largest operational renewable energy park, covering an area almost the size of Singapore, with a remarkable power generation capacity of 30 gigawatts. These projects are set to be a major attraction for investors at the summit.

Vibrant Gujarat has an exceptional legacy and has played an instrumental role in the economic turnaround of the states economy becoming a beacon of prosperity. It is home to some of the biggest mega-projects in the country, offering one of the most business-friendly environments among all other Indian states. Based on this success, at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be hard selling not just Gujarat but India to global investors as an irresistible investment destination.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
An old saying goes about Indian voters  In India, voters dont cast their vote, they vote their caste.

Politicians and political parties, ever since independence, have been expediently using caste to the hilt of their own political advantage. Remember, in October last year, the Bihar government  led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar  released a caste-based survey? The survey concluded that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) constitute a whopping 63 per cent of Bihars total population.

It is pertinent to mention that historically, the caste census was introduced by the British colonial government in the year 1881. The decadal caste-wise enumeration of population continued until 1931 and the census was discontinued thereafter.

Independent India never restored the caste census as part of the regular census because such an exercise would perpetuate the caste system and strengthen caste divisions in the country. In fact, in 1980 when the Mandal Commission recommended reservations for socially and economically backward classes in the Central government jobs, it used the data of the 1931 caste census only.

Nitish Kumar, a product of Mandal politics, has plucked the dead issue of caste census from the dustbin of history and given it a context to satiate the agenda of caste politics. Not to forget that even the British government considered the exercise of caste census and its implications divisive. Taking a thread out Nitish Kumars move, the Congress had promised a similar caste-based census in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where elections were held in November and December 2023. In the heat and dust of elections, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made a strong pitch for caste census with his slogan  Jitni abadi, utna haq (Rights proportionate to population).

Then sundry columnists joined the caste cauldron bandwagon by writing column after column predicting that caste calculus would factor in voters choice in the heartland states and that the caste dynamics would shape election verdict. In fact, when the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar released the caste census, this same ilk of agenda-driven columnists jumped the gun by arguing that such a landmark move has threatened Prime Minister Narendra Modis grip on power and caste census has the potential to upend Indias politics.

But their wild speculations were dashed to pieces as the BJP swept the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. This is not to dispute that since long, the Hindi heartland states have been considered as the hotbed of caste politics. But in a clean break with the age-old politics, the issue of caste census failed to strike a chord with the voters in the heartland states.

In the Hindi heartland states, the Congress made a political experiment of dividing the Hindu votes by making the caste census a key poll issue. At the same time, the BJP subtly countered the Congress caste census ploy by focusing on the development of all, instead of a particular section. And that certainly worked to the BJPs advantage as there was a massive consolidation of Hindu votes in favour of the saffron party.

If the recent state elections can be considered as an example, it can be concluded that Indian voters are moving out of the caste considerations as they are moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modis sheet anchor for governance  Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (Together with all, development for all). PM Modi has his fingers on the pulse of the nation by emphasising that he believes in only four castes  women, youth, farmers and the poor.

However, undeterred by the massive drubbing in the Hindi heartland states, the Congress  on the other hand  maintains that the Assembly elections results are not a repudiation of the caste-census issue. Sources in the Congress told this writer that the promise of a national caste census would be one of the key poll planks of the Grand Old Party and the INDI alliance in the 2024 general elections. In a bid to micro-divide the Hindu society, the Congress-led INDI bloc wishes to make the 2024 elections an agada (forward) versus pichada (backward) contest to counter PM Modis inclusive development agenda.

Come 2024 elections, the voters will choose between Prime Minister Narendra Modis inclusive agenda and the Congress agenda to divide the Hindu society on caste lines.

The writer is a multimedia journalist having 17 years of experience, with 10 years in senior editorial positions. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
Taiwan Sees a Sea Change While Being a Democracy

Formosa, adequately mentioned in history with Portuguese explorations in 1542, is nestled at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, Taiwan, with recent ancestry spanning 6000 years and with the Taiwan Miracle that was initiated in the 1960s, has come a long way to evolve as a geopolitical entity that is recognised by the civilised world. A democracy, ranked high in civil liberties and human development, Taiwan is a stark positive compared to the dark shadows of China which is mired with autocracy.

In 2020, when President Tsai Ing-wen rode a wave to Office while showing signs of resistance towards the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), the public sentiments over the last few years, especially owing to the anti-China stance to make a mark in international geopolitics and smooth handling of Covid-19 pandemic has gotten emboldened with most differentiating between their hard-earned democracy and the danger that looms while being subservient to PRC.

While the dangers from the PRC are real and imminent, geopolitics and proximity to the US has catered to a restraining effect and the fact that the PRC is not a capable military hegemony yet limits its ambitions and actions against Taiwan through military means. However, the situation with foreseeable future of conflict looms large over Taiwan; especially given the politics within the US that China has been able to interfere with through deft diplomacy, media control and propaganda since the period leading to the ouster of then President Donald Trump.

Since the 1960s, Taiwan has seen a substantial developmental drive and has excelled in technology. Healthcare and more with blooming democracy with civil rights being guaranteed to its citizens and economic advantages being accrued due to geopolitics.

President Tsai Ing-wen cannot run again due to term limits but she has infused much national pride in citizens and diaspora of Taiwan and also positively influenced international favours and good relations towards Taiwan. Her Deputy, Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) fights in a triangular contest with Hou Yo-ih of Kuomintang Party (KMT) and Taiwan Peoples Party (TPP) founder Ko Wen-je in the fray, with elections scheduled on January 13, 2024, under watchful eyes of the world and with the looming threat from PRC.

Dragon Seeks Opportunity to Breathe Fire Over Taiwan

Taiwan is at the cusp of seeking its rightful independence and has enhanced its global connections over the last few years, which has irked the PRC. Chinese military threats with air incursions and naval manoeuvres have been noticed. In December 2023, movement by a surveillance balloon, similar to what was noticed by the US last year, was observed by Taiwan military authorities. Maybe a military exercise or, an incursion into Taiwan is currently off-limits for the PRC. Still, it has continued with much interference to spread disinformation and online propaganda for more than a month now.

China seems to prefer the KMT candidate. People were detained in December 2023 in Taiwan for being part of online disinformation campaigns using Facebook accounts, YouTube, TikTok and more, against other candidates. Chinese agents use online platforms to give financial backing to collaborators in Taiwan and to encourage internet celebrities to peddle pro-China narratives in exchange for cash. In November 2023, 10 former and current military officials were indicted on espionage charges and also four more were accused of passing secrets to the PRC.

CTWant is part of Want Want Group, whose owner Tsai Eng-meng has made his interest in acquiring Taiwanese media outlets to promote positive views of China in Taiwan off late. This pattern is similar to a few media agencies partly owned by China in the US and Europe. China incidentally has been using this method in Bharat as well to sponsor toolkits. Taiwan Affairs Office of PRC provides editorial direction to such media assets that the Chinese own across the globe.

As part of Chinas united front tactics, borough chiefs from Taiwan have been accorded sponsored free and subsidized trips to China, with a view to promote pro-unification sentiment. Some of the recent trips seemingly were to target minority groups that are pro-KMT. With nearly 400 plus trips recently, Taiwan finds it difficult to take harsh actions against all of the borough chiefs; with approximately 30 per cent of them visiting China.

While President Tsai Ing-wen maintains that Taiwan is a sovereign country, in December 2023, Beijing had stated that it would impose trade sanctions if the DPP continued to support independence. This seems a step back from the previous statements from PRC leaders that they would wage a war should Taiwan seek independence. The tenure of President Tsai Ing-wen has largely emboldened the Taiwanese people towards independence while her government sought much international recognition in many aspects of free world activities.

Military intimidation has continued by PRC since 2020 with exercises depicting an amphibious invasion of Taiwan, sending airplanes and warships along the Median of the Taiwan Strait and into Taiwans surrounding airspace; nearly on a daily basis.

Taiwanese expatriates in China are under pressure to support KMT through donations and other financial support, including forcing employees to do so. China is hurling financial threats of taxes, fines etc on businesses to coerce and influence them into supporting KMT. Political candidates of KMT are receiving funds and money from the PRC to build their base and fight the elections. Political funding through different individuals and businesses is getting harder for Taiwanese authorities to track; with some of their candidates and parties clandestinely getting favours. Funds have been diverted through other countries like Vietnam, pro-unification groups operating from the US etc through legitimate commercial enterprises, human resources companies, third-party payments etc.

Economic arm-twisting of Taiwan by China has been an ongoing process. After President Tsai Ing-Wen met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Chinas Ministry of Commerce announced an investigation into Taiwans alleged restrictions on the import of certain goods from China. The investigation involves 2,455 products, consisting of agricultural goods, minerals, chemicals, textiles etc. Beijing could use this investigation as a pretence to levy punitive measures against goods exported from Taiwan and this investigation may be extended until January 12, 2024, a day prior to elections in Taiwan.

Beijing had earlier suspended the import of some fruits and fish from Taiwan after former US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had visited Taiwan. It had also suspended the import of pineapples, apples, and grouper in 2022. China has struck Taiwan economically on many fronts including tourism by curbing the move of its citizens to Taiwan and also limiting Taiwanese from business in China. Amidst the never-ending Chinese economic blockade of sorts, Taiwan has done well with an all-time GDP growth of 6.5 per cent in 2021, the highest since 2010.

Chinas interference and propaganda is getting emboldened with each passing day. Recently, Chinas Taiwan Affairs Office released a statement of its Director Song Tao urging the Taiwanese to stand on the right side of history and get cross-strait relations back on the right track as he called on the Taiwanese to promote peaceful reunification with China, saying it was the desire of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. This coupled with military manoeuvres leaves no doubt about the Chinese interference in elections in Taiwan, as the autocratic dragon attempts to tame an iron-hearted Formosan black bear!

Russia and Chinas Objectives on Taiwan Conundrum

While China would posture, poise and promote the unification of Taiwan even through military means, Russia would like to see Donald Trump back as President of the US. Now, that would mean a stronger US which would stand with Taiwan, something which is bipartisan in the US but the military probabilities to deal with China increase with Trump in Office. Geopolitics around Taiwan has brought Australia, France and allies of the US and Japan to think alike and anti-China on many fronts. The China Plus One has evolved post-pandemic and organisations like QUAD provide a neo-outlook towards and against China and that has bolstered the confidence of Taiwan which perceives the US as its military ally when it is in need and dire straits against China.

In May 2022, in Tokyo, President Joe Biden had iterated that the US would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, and he mentioned that the burden to protect Taiwan was even stronger after Russias invasion of Ukraine. That aside, the US has a policy of strategic ambiguity and the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 states that the United States will make available to Taiwan such defence articles and defence services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defence capability. While with South Korea and Japan, the US has a treaty to protect them by using force at its own disposal, the same is not written for Taiwan and therefore, there will remain a cloak of ambiguity should China attempt to use force against Taiwan.

What will happen if China strikes Taiwan militarily to unify it with the PRC? How will the UNSC judge and how will it act? What stance will the US and its allies take? Will the QUAD conjure capabilities for a showdown? Will Russia leverage that against the US or act against the interests of China at UNSC? Many questions for now while one hopes they remain as such and outcomes of the Taiwan Elections 2024 do not lead the world towards another war. One apprehends that China cannot afford such a war yet.

Bharat Observes

As Taiwan, a friend, goes into elections on January 13, Bharat would be keen on the outcome, as much is happening between the two with definite economic strides and mutually benefitting opportunities. While Bharat has maintained ambivalence in its relations with Taiwan owing to Chinas geopolitical posturing, it has not reiterated on the One China Policy, as Beijing would have wanted it to, post Nancy Pelosis visit to Taiwan.

Geo-economics is taking centre stage with more than 55 per cent of Bharats trade passing through the South China Sea and with India-Taiwan trade crossing $10 billion FY23. Taiwans expertise in ICT-based technology and semiconductor manufacturing has a direct bearing on Bharats Aatmanirbhar drive and economy in turn. The blockade of Taiwan by China will hamper our self-reliance and economy, as trade with Japan and South Korea will be adversely impacted through the Taiwan Strait.

A war between China and Taiwan might draw in the US and that will limit choices for Bharat as it would have to grant logistics access as per LEMOA and being part of QUAD as well, and open up in contingencies involving humanitarian assistance. Such actions might allow raison detre for China to activate military fronts across Tibet and towards Bharat and its peaceful neighbours along various tri-junctions.

While scenarios will happen and some will manifest, one is yet again brought to the conclusion which one had in 2006 as a military thinker  We are 3 decades behind in our capabilities to address China along Tibet and in that naval capabilities ought to have been centerstage and fast-tracked nearly 3 decades ago!

Wish Taiwan a happy and conducive elections and hope that the Chinese hegemony will reduce post USs elections. We will unite closer in our election year  Bharat, USA, Taiwan and our friends.

Colonel Rohit Dev, a 2nd Generation Army Officer, is an Adjunct Professor at the Rashtriya Raksha University, a Geo-political Analyst and a Primetime TV personality. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
January 9, 2024 will herald the dawn of an ambitious new phase in the longstanding partnership between India and the United Arab Emirates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will embark on a landmark roadshow from Ahmedabad airport to the iconic Sabarmati Ashram. Their journey through the streets of Modis home state Gujarat, which will also host the Vibrant Gujarat summit on January 10, will serve as a preview of closer collaboration to come.

As the leaders pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram, they will also commemorate the civilisational bonds between the two countries while charting a future defined by ever closer economic, strategic and people-to-people ties. Sheikh Mohameds participation at the high-profile Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit lends further gravitas to this new phase in the partnership.

High-level visits averaging one per year have firmed the foundation, with Prime Minister Modi having visited the UAE five times since assuming office in 2014. With the inauguration of BAPS Hindu Mandir on February 14, where PM Modi will officiate the ceremony, the count of visits will go up to six.

The foundation stone of the Hindu Mandir was laid on April 20, 2019. The history of this project can be traced back to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, during which the UAE government allocated the land for the temple.

On February 13, Modi will address the mega diaspora event Ahlan Modi or Welcome Modi in Abu Dhabi. The event is expected to be one of the largest gatherings of the Indian diaspora, with an estimated 50,000 attendees. The UAE, home to the largest number of Indian diaspora anywhere in the world, boasts of a population of 3.3 million Indians.

The Modi-MBZ roadshow and Sheikh Mohameds attendance at Vibrant Gujarat highlight how far India-UAE relations have progressed. What began in 1972 as a partnership rooted in historical trade connections has evolved into a comprehensive strategic alliance.

Vibrant Gujarat and the Roadshow in Dubai

Modi initiated the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in 2003 during his chief ministerial tenure. Over the years, the summit has become a crucial platform, drawing top-tier business leaders, investors, and policymakers. Its growth in each edition underscores its pivotal role in advancing Indias economic agenda. The event consistently allures foreign leaders and investors, positioning Gujarat as a prime investment destination.

This years summit, schedule to open on January 10, is already off to a great start with the signing of pre-summit MOUs worth Rs 7.12 lakh crore.

The Vibrant Gujarat roadshow in Dubai was one of the biggest highlights which generated a lot of attention and grabbed eyeballs across the world. It saw the participation of over 130 delegates spanning various sectors such as financial services, sovereign funds, healthcare, renewable energy, and academia. The roadshow explored opportunities in rapidly emerging economic hubs like Gujarat International Finance Tech City (GIFT City), Dholera SIR, DREAM City, Renewable Energy Park, and various tourist locations within Gujarat. Industry experts shared their experiences about the ease of doing business in Gujarat.

Following the roadshow, one-to-one meetings and roundtables took place with over 15 potential investors expressing interest in expanding their operations in Gujarat. These sessions provided a platform for senior management representatives of renowned organizations such as DP World, Sharaf Group, Emaar, shipping lines, alternate funds, USky Transport, RAK companies, and Dubai Chamber of Commerce to engage in discussions regarding potential collaborations and investments with the Gujarat government.

In June 2016, UAE became the first Gulf partner in the Vibrant Gujarat Global summit, participating in the 2017 and the 2021 Vibrant Gujarat Global summit. UAE has invested $2.07 billion in Gujarat. In FY 2022, Gujarat exported goods and commodities worth $7.7 billion.

In December 2021, during the Gujarat CMs visit to the UAE, 19 MoUs were signed across sectors, including power, urban development, logistics, precious metals, retail and financial services. Some of the companies that have signed the MoUs are Conares, Al Hayat, Netra Wind, Narola Group, Bhavnagar Group, LuLu group, Sharaf Group, and Trandworld among others.

Notably, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the sovereign wealth fund of UAE, also intends to establish a presence in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), a financial free zone in Gujarat, in the coming months. This move is expected to enhance investment opportunities for the UAE in India. The partnership between ADIA and GIFT City aims to revolutionize Indias financial sector and position GIFT City as a prominent international financial hub.

From 2017 to 2023, the UAE has invested $10.61 billion as foreign direct investments in India. 2021 was the biggest year of investments with $4.2 billion.

Economic Relations and the CEPA Impact

The implementation of the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on May 1, 2022 was a historic milestone that provided substantial momentum to bilateral trade and investment ties. Since the CEPA came into effect on May 1, 2022, bilateral trade has seen an approximate 15% increase.

CEPA, signed in February 2022, marked India as the first country to enter into such an agreement with the UAE.

In 2022-23, Indias trade with the UAE reached US$85 billion, positioning the UAE as Indias third-largest trading partner and second-largest export destination. India, in turn, became the UAEs second-largest trading partner.

By eliminating duties on over 90% of Indian tariff lines and facilitating market access, the CEPA spurred significant growth in non-oil trade. Indian exports to the UAE, particularly in sectors such as textiles, gems and jewelry, food, and pharmaceuticals benefited greatly from preferential market access.

The first meeting of the CEPA joint committee in July 2023 reviewed implementation progress and set an ambitious target to more than double bilateral non-oil trade to $100 billion by 2030.

The UAE also recently became Indias fourth-largest investor. UAEs foreign direct investment (FDI) in India surged more than threefold, leaping from $1.03 billion in 2021-22 to $3.35 billion in the last fiscal year.

UAE investments primarily target sectors like services, sea transport, power, and construction. The signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two nations, significantly contributed to this rise. Moreover, the UAE has pledged a $75 billion investment in Indias infrastructure and collaboration in the renewable energy sector.

Notably, UAEs FDI constitutes about 2.5% of Indias total FDI from April 2000 to March 2023, amounting to a cumulative inflow of $15.6 billion during this period.

Indias booming industrial and manufacturing capacity finds a reliable energy exporter in the UAE, which has emerged as Indias third-largest source of oil, trailing behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

During Modis third visit to the UAE in February 2018, the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) and the UAEs Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) solidified an agreement outlining constant pricing and oil supply. In this pact, ADNOC commits to invest $400 million in storing crude in ISPRLs underground rock caverns. Such contracts not only highlight economic complementarity but also demonstrate energy security as a fundamental pillar of the bilateral relationship.

Although prioritizing economic collaboration with the UAE has been a key foreign policy goal for India since 2014, its just one aspect of a diverse and resilient bilateral relationship. Dating back to 3000 BCE when Indian traders operated on the UAEs shores, formal diplomatic relations began in 1972. Beyond historical ties, the enduring partnership thrives on shared commitments to contemporary national goals and policy objectives.

Growing Defence Engagement and Maritime Security Cooperation

Dozens of UAE Army personnel arrived in India this week for the Desert Cyclone military exercise. It would be the first joint drill between the Emirati and Indian land forces.

The Zayed First Brigade from the UAE, consisting of 45 soldiers, commenced a two-week joint military exercise with 45 troops from the Indian Armys Mechanised Infantry Regiment in Mahajan, Rajasthan. The exercise aims to boost cooperation and interoperability during peacekeeping operations.

During Prime Minister Modis visit to the UAE in July 2023, the two countries agreed to bolster defence industry cooperation through joint training, research, and technology sharing. This built upon existing defence engagement such as UAEs purchase of the BrahMos cruise missile and Indias exporting of spares for the Rafale fighter aircraft.

The growing defence partnership is a testament to the two countries shared interests and enhanced strategic alignment in the Indian Ocean region. In addition, discussions between PM Modi and Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed emphasized expanding maritime security cooperation to combat piracy and protect sea lanes of communication.

Last August, the Indian Navys INS Visakhapatnam and INS Trikand engaged in a joint maritime partnership exercise with the UAE Navy. This collaborative effort aimed to enhance interoperability and cooperation in addressing challenges like piracy, smuggling, and humanitarian relief operations. The exercise, planned over two days, focused on improving tactical, technical, and procedural cross-training between the naval forces of both nations.

Addressing Climate Change through Ambitious Action and Technology Partnerships

India and the UAE presented a united front at the pivotal COP28 climate summit hosted by the UAE in November 2023. Both countries underscored the urgency of accelerating climate action and called on developed nations to urgently fulfill their commitment of providing $100 billion annual climate financing to developing countries.

Prime Minister Modi and the UAE leadership also agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation through technology transfers and partnerships in priority climate sectors such as renewable energy, green hydrogen, and energy efficiency. This collaboration will be crucial for the two countries to achieve their ambitious climate emission reduction targets.

Platforms for Strategic Alignment: G20, BRICS, I2U2 and The India-France-UAE trilateral

India and the UAE align on the emerging international strategic culture and multilateral reforms. Both nations express similar opinions on strategic issues like the dominance of the US dollar in international trade, counterterrorism efforts, and resolution of conflicts, such as in Ukraine.

The two nations signed an MoU between the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Bank of the UAE, aiming to boost transaction integration by promoting the use of local currencies (rupee and dirham) for cross-border transactions and establishing mutual acceptance of domestic card schemes.

The expansion of BRICS with the UAEs membership in July 2023 and Indias invitation for the UAE to join the G20 summit as a special guest highlight the growing importance of partnerships between major emerging economies.

This expanding strategic alignment was also visible through mutual support for each others agenda priorities  India appreciated the UAEs backing for its G20 presidency while the UAE welcomed opportunities for representation within platforms that champion developing country perspectives such as an expanded BRICS.

Joining an expanded BRICS grouping showcases the UAEs commitment to advocating for the importance of multilateralism in fostering peace and development for the well-being of people and nations globally. The invitation to the G20 underscores the robust bilateral relations and growing collaboration between India and the UAE in international forums.

A significant outcome of the recent G20 summit is the initiation of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). This visionary project involves collaborative efforts by India, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia to establish crucial shipping and railway links, connecting Europe and the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent.

IMEC focuses on creating an economic corridor through interconnected rail networks in the Middle East, ultimately linking with India through maritime routes. This strategic initiative presents a credible alternative to the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has raised concerns about burdening nations with debilitating debt and potentially resulting in a loss of control over critical assets.

These strategic alignments have also led to the formalization of minilateral groupings like the India-Israel-US-UAE (I2U2) and the India-UAE-France maritime trilateral.

The I2U2, an initiative promising economic cooperation and development, concentrates on addressing issues like food security, energy security, water security, and climate change. The minilateral swiftly took action, revealing its initial three projects in the UAE and India, involving a $6 billion investment in desalination plants, clean energy initiatives, and food parks.

While the apparent agenda revolves around economic and technological collaboration, I2U2 signifies the integration of the Middle East and South Asia into West Asia. The geostrategic rationale behind I2U2 aims to restore a balance of power in West Asia. The goal is to extend the partnership to include Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab Gulf states, and in the long term, potentially involve France, Greece, and Italy.

In the Indo-Pacific, the India-France-UAE trilateral has elevated strategic collaboration among these nations, focusing on renewable energy, infrastructure development, defense cooperation, and maritime security. France, the UAE, and India are reinforcing their ties in the Indian Ocean.

Recognizing the economic significance of the Indian Ocean and its role in shaping the balance of power in Asia, the three nations are actively connecting West Asia with the Indo-Pacific. France has positioned itself as a strategic partner for India, supplying advanced military equipment and technology transfers.

The UAE has also increased its defense cooperation with France and deepened its strategic partnership with India. This trilateral partnership reflects Abu Dhabis aspiration to project its power beyond West Asia into the Indo-Pacific. These efforts contribute to a network of coalitions in the Indo-Pacific, such as the Quad, Aukus, the France-India-Australia trilateral, and the Australia-India-Indonesia trilateral, aiming to manage global disorder during the transition from Pax Americana to a multipolar order.

Modis active engagement with the UAE has built a robust partnership between the two nations. The I2U2 Forum, BRICS, the India-France-UAE trilateral, and CEPA showcase the diverse facets of this strategic alliance. As India continues its economic and political ascent, the UAE plays a vital role in facilitating and bolstering this progress.

The alignment of interests and collaboration between India and the UAE aims to enhance regional stability, encourage economic integration between South Asia and the Middle East, and establish shared positions on the global stage amid the current era of global disorder.

Conclusion

The India-UAE bilateral relationship progressed significantly in 2023, marked by robust economic cooperation following the CEPA, burgeoning defence and security collaboration, and strong joint leadership on priority issues like climate change.

Growing strategic convergence was also seen through support for each others multilateral priorities within key global forums. As India rises and the UAE diversifies its partnerships, their cooperation presents a significant partnership between major Asian and Gulf powers that will continue shaping regional and global developments.

In summary, the India-UAE alliance has made fruitful headway thanks to converging interests and civilisational affinities. However, to catapult cooperation to an even more strategic plane, a sober understanding of limitations and a willingness to address contentious issues are imperative. Going forward, both countries remain committed to further expanding cooperation across all domains and elevating the bilateral strategic engagement to new heights.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
Apart from preparing for the Lok Sabha elections ahead, the Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started outreach programmes ahead of the Ram temple inauguration in Ayodhya.

The cadre has started distribution of Akshintalu (sacred mix of rice and turmeric) in every district of the state, asking people to visit the temple after Pran Pratishtha ceremony on January 22. The party believes that the Ayodhya sentiment will be crucial for them in winning Lok Sabha seats in the state.

State vice-president of BJP, NVSS Prabhakar, said: Akshintalu kalashams were sent to all district headquarters in the country. They were received at temple premises and basthi committees were formed to distribute them. Those Akshintalu were mixed with other grains and more kalashas were filled. They will be placed in village temples and special puja will be performed. After that, the committees are distributing the rice in every house.

A similar exercise was done during the Ram Shilan puja in which bricks were sent to Ayodhya from every village in India. The PM has appealed to citizens to light Ramajyothi (earthen lamps) in their houses for overall development of the universe on January 22. We had organised Ram Japam too. The Telangana unit received the kalasham a week ago. We will continue this outreach programme till January 22, Prabhakar added.

The Akshintalu distribution programme was flagged off by BJP MP and president of the partys OBC Morcha K Laxman from the Hanuman Temple at Chikkadpally in Hyderabad. He also took part in door-to-door distribution of the rice in Musheerabad constituency and requested people to visit Ram Lalla once the Pran Pratishtha was done.

In 2019, the BJP won four Lok Sabha seats out of 17 in the state. In the recently concluded Assembly elections, the party managed to increase its tally from one to eight. This has given impetus to the party to increase its tally in Lok Sabha too.
The war of words between Maratha activist Manoj Jarange and OBC leaders escalated on Sunday, with BJP MLC Gopichand Padalkar calling the former a puppet and accusing him of spreading misinformation on the Vanjara and Dhangar communities.

Speaking at an OBC community rally in Pandharpur town of Solapur district, Padalkar said: Puppets are spreading wrong information that Vanjara and Dhangar communities have nothing to do with OBC reservation. But let me tell you that both these communities fall under Nomadic Tribes (NT) but have been getting reservation under OBC quota in central governments jobs and education institutions along with local self-government bodies. So there is no chance that their reservation will be encroached on by the Maratha community.

The rally was attended by other prominent OBC leaders as well, including Maharashtra minister Chaggan Bhujbal and OBC Jan Morcha president Prakash Shendge. In his speech, Padalkar said the Vanjara and Dhangar communities are support Bhujbal and the cause he is fighting for.

Bhujbal and other OBC leaders have maintained that the existing reservation for the Other Backward Classes should not be curtailed while giving reservation to the Marathas.

Maratha activist Jarange had launched a hunger strike for the demand of Maratha quota first in August and again in October. Following Jaranges hunger strike, the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government decided to give Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas who could produce records of the erstwhile Hyderabad state where their ancestors were described as belonging to Kunbi community so that they can avail of OBC quota.

Bhujbal had recently questioned how records showing Maratha families as belonging to the Kunbi caste, an OBC community, were suddenly being discovered.

Initially 5,000 records were found in Marathwada which was part of the Nizams Hyderabad state (before 1948). Later the number went up to 13,500. Even when there were elections in Telangana, the number went up, Bhujbal had said.

At Sundays rally, criticising Jarange and the Maratha community, Padalkar said: You ban entry in villages and boycott OBCs and Dalits, and are now trying to encroach on our reservation. This is nothing but a violation of the Constitution written by Dr BR Ambedkar.

Pointing out that Dr Ambedkar was the first to use the term OBCs, he urged the Dalit community to come together and join hands with the OBC community. He also expressed objection to the Koli (fishermen) community getting OBC certificate, saying they already have provisions for quota under Schedule Tribes certificate.

Padalkar urged Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to follow the Raj Dharma by not giving Kunbi caste certificates to the entire Maratha community.

When our OBC community is not getting enough on the plate, attempts are being made by some to snatch our plate. I want to remind Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde not to play the role of Kaikeyi from Ramayana and send us into exile. Instead, kindly follow the Raj Dharma, he said.

On the one hand, the government says OBC reservation wont be touched. On the other hand, they want to distribute OBC certificates. I feel there is a plan to eliminate the OBC community. Hence, I demand a white paper on recently distributed OBC certificates. It seems the government has opened a shop to distribute OBC certificates.
Leap year is widely considered to be a difficult and more problematic year than usual. This is because of the "extra" day in February that appears once every four years.

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In particular, it is believed that getting married in a leap year is bad - the marriage will not work out and there will be no prosperity in the house. OBOZ.UA explains where the practice of leap years came from and what other superstitions are associated with them.

The history of leap years

The fact that a solar year lasts approximately 365 days was calculated by mankind before the beginning of our era. This duration was included in the calendar of the Roman Empire. However, over time, it became clear that this calculation contained a small error that gradually shifted the start date of the new year. After all, the astronomical year was about a quarter of a day longer than the calendar year. Therefore, on January 1, 45 BC, Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar by decree, making it a consistent solar calendar. Instead of inserting months, he decided to add one day to February every four years. And this really balanced the calculation of time. Instead of an extra day every four years, three days were now added every 400 years. The calendar proposed by the emperor was called the Julian calendar.

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It existed for about 1600 years. Until in October 1582, Pope Gregory XIII adjusted it. After his reform, every year whose serial number is divisible by 4 without a remainder became a leap year, but not years that are divisible by exactly 100. But there is an exception to this rule: years that are divisible by 400. So 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600 and 2000 were. This system of chronology is called the Gregorian calendar. It is now used all over the world.

Why a leap year is considered unlucky

The reform introduced by Julius Caesar confused people. They did not understand why an extra day was needed, because within one human life, the date shift still remains unnoticeable.

People then attributed mystical properties to any unexplained phenomena. And as a rule, they were unfavorable. So people decided that such a change disrupts the natural course of events and can only bring harm and misfortune. Therefore, leap years began to cause people to fear and want to protect themselves from the energy of the "extra" day. Thus, they began to consider a year with 366 days to be a year of repentance. People believed that it should be spent praying for sins and doing good deeds. But important decisions, such as marriage, should be avoided.

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What are the signs associated with a leap year?

People who get married in a long year were promised quarrels, poverty, betrayal and divorce, or early death of one of the couple. All because of the chaos that allegedly reigns in the world during this period. But the superstitions were not limited to this. There were also other prohibitions. For example, in a leap year, it was supposedly impossible to

buy a house and move - there will be no happiness in such a house;

to start big and important things - they would end in failure and losses;

undertake repairs - they will take a long time, cost much more money than planned, and be unsuccessful;

planting trees - they will not take root.

What does statistics say about this?

Demographic data convincingly proves that marriages concluded in a leap year do not break up any more often than all others. Similarly, people born on February 29 are no different from the rest of us on average, except that their actual birthday happens only once every 4 years. The rest of the time, the celebration has to be postponed. Moreover, psychologists don't advise putting off life just because it's a leap year on the calendar. You can not only miss the opportunity, but also increase your own anxiety level.

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What are the traditions of February 29?

In Scotland and Ireland, an extra day is celebrated as Bachelor's Day. On this day, any woman can propose marriage to her lover. It was not only not considered a violation of tradition, but a man who dared to refuse had to pay a fine for it - the cost of a silk dress for a woman in love.

Over time, the tradition spread. In Denmark, for example, such a refusal cost a man 12 pairs of gloves so that a woman could hide the absence of a wedding ring, and a resident of Finland had to pay off a skirt with fabric.

In France, in 1980, a special newspaper began to be published in honor of the leap year. It is called La Bougie du Sapeur and contains many satirical notes. In 1928, London bartender Harry Craddock came up with the idea of celebrating February 29 with a special cocktail. It consists of gin, vermouth, lemon juice, and Grand Marnier liqueur. Meanwhile, residents of Anthony, Texas, celebrate the leap year with a fun four-day festival. It is dedicated to people born on February 29. As if to give them all the missed birthdays.

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Earlier, OBOZ.UA told how Ukrainian Orthodox Christians will celebrate church holidays in 2024 - it will be the first full year that the OCU will spend according to the New Julian calendar.

Subscribe to OBOZ.UA channels in Telegram and Viber to keep up with the latest events.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka will hold a crucial meeting on Monday to strategise and chalk out a winning plan for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

ALSO READ | Karnataka | It is More About JDS Survival: Why HD Kumaraswamy is Thinking Right This Time

In a first for the parliamentary polls, the party will be fighting the election in an alliance with the H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS).

As preparation for the polls, B L Santosh, party national general secretary (organisation), presided over a meeting with top office-bearers of the BJP, including heads of the BJP morchas, in New Delhi on Saturday.

MAKING MODI 3.0 A REALITY

Modi 3.0 is going to be a reality. Our party, along with our alliance partner, JDS, will deliver a handsome win from Karnataka to help the BJP come back to power in the Centre," said a senior Karnataka BJP leader, adding it would be one of the BJPs five-point agenda for the crucial strategy meeting in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

Although there will be a lot of discussions and need for sharp strategy and seamless coordination, the BJP will ensure wins in all 28 Lok Sabha seats," the leader added.

BJP-JDS BHAI BHAI

Leader of Opposition and senior BJP leader R Ashok has a practical approach to how the BJP looks at the Lok Sabha polls. He believes that the BJP-JDS alliance should be handled with a solid strategy, consensus and a sharp-focused election campaign.

ALSO READ | JD(S), BJP Will Complete Seat-sharing Talks for 2024 LS Polls by Jan-end: Kumaraswamy

Speaking exclusively to News18 on what is on the agenda for the meeting to be held at the state BJP headquarters, Ashok said getting the BJP and JDS on one platform and agreeing on seat sharing is one of the challenges before them.

We need to ensure that whatever decisions are arrived at on ticket selection and seat sharing, it would only strengthen the alliance and not bring the other down. The party workers are the soul of every political party. We should ensure they are all onboard and not against each other," he cautioned.

PARAMPARA, PRATISHTHA, ANUSHASAN!

Ashok was pointing out to the dilemma that the Congress and JDS workers were put in during the 2018 Karnataka assembly polls when, after having fought tooth and nail against each other, both parties joined hands to form a coalition government.

The BJP fell short of majority, and the Congress and JDS, in a swift decision, joined hands to form a coalition government under the leadership of JD(S) H D Kumaraswamy. The Congress and JDS party workers had campaigned aggressively against each other only to be forced to work together. Many were unhappy with the decision, and it caused a lot of friction and tension on the ground.

We cant afford to have a situation like the Congress and JDS had. We will have to work together as one unit; only then can we ensure a solid win. This is a major challenge," the leader said.

When asked how the BJP plans to sensitise the karyakartas to work with the JDS party workers, a senior BJP leader tasked with working with the yuva morchas replied with a smile  It is all about parampara, pratishtha, anushaasan," using the famous Amitabh Bachchan dialogue from the Bollywood movie, Mohabbatein.

Met Former Chief Minister of Karnataka and JD(S) leader Shri H.D. Kumaraswamy in the presence of our senior leader and Home Minister Shri @AmitShah Ji.I am happy that JD(S) has decided to be the part of National Democratic Alliance. We wholeheartedly welcome them in the NDA. pic.twitter.com/eRDUdCwLJc Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) September 22, 2023

WINNABILITY, POPULARITY AND EFFICIENCY KEY

On ticket selection, the LoP said that a survey is being conducted on the performance of every sitting MP of the BJP, and tickets will be given based on their performance and popularity.

We are seriously analysing how each of the elected MPs has performed in their term of office. Winnability, popularity and efficiency in implementing schemes are also major factors that are being measured to see if they qualify to get a ticket," the BJP leader told News18.

He added that this would also be on top of the agenda of the meeting.

CONGRESS HOODWINKED PEOPLE OF KARNATAKA

Another point on the meeting agenda would be to highlight the failures of the ruling Congress in the past seven months that they have been in power. The BJP will highlight how the government is focused only on Muslim appeasement, while following the divide and rule policy in administration.

Where is the development after the Congress came to power? Not only are they bent on appeasing the Muslim community, but they are also treating Hindus as second-class citizens. That is totally unacceptable, and we will expose the Congress and their double-faced attitude. We will highlight every promise they made and show how they have blindsided and hoodwinked people of Karnataka. This will also be on the agenda," Ashok said.

He said Karnataka was reeling under drought and the Siddaramaiah government was unable to give relief to farmers. He said that in line with the Congresss false promises, the state owes each farmer Rs 30,000-40,000, but has given them only Rs 2,000 as relief.

NO LEADER IN CONG WHO CAN CHALLENGE MODI

The BJP is deriving confidence in the information that there are very few takers from the Congress Rajya Sabha stable for the poll plunge this year. Ashok spoke of how Siddaramaiah was also among those senior Congressmen who did not support AICC national chief Mallikarjun Kharge as the Congresss PM face.

ALSO READ | BJP-JDS 2024 Deal Sealed? Not Chikkaballapura, But Gowdas Party May Get These Four Seats

Nobody wants Kharge even in their own party. There is no other alternative in the Congress who can challenge Modiji. PM Modi is a success story and there is no leader who can match his stature," Ashok added.

The BJP will cover all 28 Lok Sabha segments and campaign to highlight the decade-long achievements of the Modi government.
For the first time since the INDIA bloc was formed, crucial seat-sharing talks between the Congress and AAP took place at senior leader Mukul Wasniks residence on Monday.

A day before the talks, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, who is on a two-day campaign trip to Gujarat, unilaterally announced jailed Dediapada MLA Chaitar Vasava as its Lok Sabha candidate from Bharuch.

Kejriwal, along with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, also met Vasava and his wife at Rajpipla jail in Narmada. AAP sources told News18 that the party is keen to bring to the table seat-sharing discussions in all key states, especially the ones in which it has sitting MLAs. According to sources within the party, Congress was keen to discuss seat sharing in Delhi to begin with.

While AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak and Delhi ministers Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi spearheaded the talks for AAP, the Congress was represented by Mukul Wasnik, Arvinder Singh Lovely, Mohan Prakash and Ashok Gahlot among others.

Though the state units of both the Congress and AAP have declared that they are not willing to share space in Punjab, AAP is keen to use the strength of the INDIA bloc for a foothold in Haryana, Gujarat, Goa and also Delhi. In all these states, Congress is the senior ally with a larger vote share as far as Lok Sabha elections are concerned. In Gujarat and Delhi, however, neither the AAP nor the Congress have a single Lok Sabha seat. Congress leader Salman Khurshid joined the talks mid-way and left before lunch while Sandeep Dikshit met Congress leaders earlier and left before the meeting started.

Speaking to the media later, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Wasnik said: It was a good meeting. Friends from AAP were sent by the Delhi chief minister for discussions. The national alliance committee of the Congress made by Mallikarjun Kharge held discussions with them on various topics, including seats and how the Lok Sabha elections will be fought. Discussions will continue. We have decided to hold meetings again soon in which we will try and give ultimate shape to our seat-sharing plans.

Wasnik, when asked about the states that were discussed, said: Discussions were held on various topics. I would not like to discuss the details. It is not possible now. It is also not possible to provide you with all the details when discussions are going on.

Leaders from both sides indicated that discussions were not held on seat sharing just in Delhi. However, even though talks were positive, they were termed inconclusive. While seat-sharing talks on Delhi were almost final, the matter is stuck over other states such as Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana and Goa.

Sources indicated that general strategy was discussed, with the AAP leaders explaining how the party could help the Congress.

Please wait for some time. Let us be fully prepared. In a few days, we will share all details, added the Congress leader. To allay any speculation of a rift, Wasnik added: We have already decided to fight elections together in a great way. Indian National Congress and AAP are important constituents of the INDIA bloc and we will fight elections together and defeat the BJP.
With Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray starting the Lok Sabha poll campaign from South Mumbai, unrest has been reported in the Congress camp, with former MP Milind Deora hinting at announcing a candidate after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partners claim over the seat.

Though the INDIA bloc is still discussing seat sharing for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Shiv Sena leaders have claimed to contest from South Mumbai. Milind Deora is learnt to be unhappy with this.

Deora has released a video message for his supporters and voters from South Mumbai that an MVA alliance partner is making a one-sided claim over the Lok Sabha seat. I dont want to create any controversy or get into a debate but the spokesperson of one of the parties, which is part of the MVA, asked us (Congress) to start from zero. Then, on Friday evening, the same party held a rally at South Mumbais Girgaon and claimed that seat. Certainly, you (supporters and party workers) were disappointed due to their claim. This seat is the traditional seat of the Congress, and for the last 50 years, the Deora family has contested this seat. Even though I am not an MP, Deora family is always there for the South Mumbai residents.

He further criticised the Shiv Sena UBT, which is representing the seat in Lok Sabha, by saying, We have won this seat with the help of the work which we have done for the people over 50 years. We have built relations with the people of this constituency, Deora said.

Deora is of the opinion that the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will not be easy for the MVA. Hence, he has asked his supporters and party workers not to make any claim till the alliance talks over the seat are finalised. Deora also sent a staunch message through a video to Shiv Sena UBT without taking its name. If no party is ready to wait till the final talks are over, then the Congress can also make a claim on the seat (South Mumbai, in such a scenario and may announce the candidate, Deora said.

Shiv Sena UBT leader Arvind Sawant has been winning the South Mumbai seat over the last two assembly elections by defeating Congress Milind Deora as both the parties were rivals until the formation of MVA in 2019.
BRUSSELS: EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager will meet the chief executives of Apple, Alphabet, Broadcom and Nvidia in the United States next week, her communications advise said on Friday.

The meetings come a month after Vestager resumed her job following her failed bid to head the Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank, with antitrust experts expecting her to show a tougher line towards companies in both merger and competition investigations.

Vestager will meet Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and its chief legal officer Kent Walker, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in San Francisco and Palo Alto on Thursday and Friday, her adviser Christina Holm Eiberg said.

She will also meet OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and its Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon.

The meetings will focus on European digital regulation and competition policy.

The meeting with Cook comes as the iPhone maker last year offered to let rivals access its tap-and-go mobile payments systems used for mobile wallets in an effort to settle Vestager's investigation and stave off a possible hefty fine.

The European Commission is likely to seek feedback from rivals and customers this month although a final decision has not been made, people familiar with the matter told Reuters last month.

Vestager's meeting with Alphabet on Jan. 11 is the same day an adviser to Europes top court is scheduled to offer a non-binding recommendation on whether judges should accept or reject Alphabet unit Google's appeal against a 2.42-billion-euro ($2.6 billion) EU antitrust fine imposed for market abuse related to its shopping service.
The internet, a boundless wellspring of knowledge, consistently showers its users with insights. And, in this era dominated not only by Google but also by social media content creators, it has evolved into a vast school encompassing everything under the sun. In the midst of this digital plethora, an Indian content creator has seized the spotlight, offering an unconventional approach to teaching spoken English. Dhiraj Takri, the maestro behind this linguistic journey, guides enthusiasts in speaking American English with a twisttrimming lengthy words for speed and ease, all infused with his distinctive Desi touch.

While his presence on Instagram is nothing short of mesmerising with a fan following of 900K users, the conversation around his expertise began when an X user, @Pun_Starr, shared one of his videos with the caption Learn to speak fast English.

Learn to speak fast English pic.twitter.com/Z7KKqz004g PuNsTeR (@Pun_Starr) January 5, 2024

As soon as the post went viral, a groundswell of support emerged for Dhiraj Takri, the Odisha-based maven. Online denizens flooded the comment section with praises and virtual applause.

Also Read: Foreign Content Creators Who Spoke Better Hindi Than Most Of Us

I really like this kids content  it actually makes a lot of sense for spoken English, its engaging and fun and the edits are great. Hope he becomes a total starr, remarked one user. Another added, Not even the most qualified govt uni professors could manage to teach this to a non-urban population of people. this is genuinely impactful and well made educational content and i really hope this dude gets the reach he deserves.

I really like this guy. Hes creative in his expression, a self-learner, and is giving genuinely good advice to anyone who might be learning English as a second or third language. Siddharth Singh (@siddharth3) January 6, 2024

The third one expressed, I deeply respect this individual who stands out from the crowd by engaging in productive and informative content, rather than conforming to the norm of bike stunts or dance reels. Lets refrain from discouraging him simply because he doesnt hail from a privileged background.

Also Read: Theft in Delhis Paschim Vihar? Content Creators Video on Stolen Laptop, TV Comes With a Twist

Meanwhile, the fourth one called out the trollers, writing, Sahi toh bol raha hai. His knowledge of the American accent/phonetics is on point (based on his other videos). Lets be honest, hes being trolled only because he doesnt appear/present himself in a certain manner, not for what hes saying.

Sahi toh bol raha hai. His knowledge of the American accent/phonetics is on point (based on his other videos). Lets be honest, hes being trolled only because he doesnt appear/present himself in a certain manner, not for what hes saying. Abdul Basith (@basithabood) January 5, 2024

Truly, the 21-year-old content creator exceeds expectations with an accent echoing that of an American. The way he keeps it simple, right in your face, and backs it up with real-life examples is simply applause-worthy!
The Japanese people are known for their high civic sense and politeness. Now a photo that captures a Japanese duo ducking on their train seats so that their co-passenger could take a nice photo of Mount Fuji is winning the internet. The photographer managed to take a photo that not only shows Mount Fuji through the train window but also shows the duo putting their heads on the trains foldable table and smiling. Abdullah Ghazanfar, a choreographer and video editor living in Japan, texted this photo to his friend. In his texts, Ghazanfar wrote, You will appreciate this picture more than most. They moved out of the way so I could take a picture of Mt.Fuji. Mount Fuji is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia.

This friend shared the screenshot of Ghazanfars messages on X and soon a popular Instagram account, Upworthy, shared it on Instagram where it gathered over six lakh likes.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Upworthy (@upworthy)

Ghazanfar added more context to this post and wrote, Just wanna clarify that what makes it extra wholesome is that I didnt ask them to move. They saw me trying to half-heartedly take it from across the aisle and give up when I couldnt. They then did this so I could get a better view and encouraged me to try again.

Many people shared similar instances of Japanese hospitality and small but significant acts of kindness in the comments. An Instagram user wrote, On my trip to Tokyo I sat on the fuji side in the aisle next to this old man, and was asleep or half asleep for most of the ride. at some point he tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out the window and said fuji. kindly let me get closer to the window and take a pic will never forget it.

Another person recalled, Exactly the same thing happened to me on my trip in December! The lady was even so kind to tell me Wait a bit, there will even be a better view! and bowed forward again when we reached that point. So cute.

Mount Fuji is an active volcano that is 12,388 ft (3,923 m) tall. It has been dormant since 1707 but is still monitored 24 hours a day. One can catch a view of Mount Fuji on the Tokaido Shinkansen train route between Tokyo and Osaka.

People also shared similar instances from other parts of the world. Someone shared, I just returned from Norway. Two people on the opposite aisle traded seats so that I could see the Aurora Borealis. They live in Norway and see it all the time!
Alaska Airlines and United Airlines grounded all of their Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners again on Sunday while they waited to be told how to inspect the planes to prevent another inflight blowout like the one that damaged an Alaska jet.

Alaska Airlines had returned 18 of its 65 737 Max 9 aircraft to service Saturday, less than 24 hours after part of the fuselage on another plane blew out three miles (4.8 kilometres) above Oregon.

The reprieve was short-lived.

The airline said Sunday that it received a notice from the Federal Aviation Administration that additional work might be needed on those 18 planes.

Alaska said that it had cancelled 170 flights  more than one-fifth of its schedule  by mid-afternoon on the West Coast because of the groundings.

These aircraft have now also been pulled from service until details about possible additional maintenance work are confirmed with the FAA, the airline said in a statement. We are in touch with the FAA to determine what, if any, further work is required.

United Airlines said it had scrapped about 180 flights Sunday while salvaging others by finding other planes not covered by the grounding.

Alaska and United are the only US airlines that fly the Max 9.

United said it was waiting for Boeing to issue what is called a multi-operator message, which is a service bulletin used when multiple airlines need to perform similar work on a particular type of plane.

Boeing is working on a bulletin but had not yet submitted it to the FAA, according to a person familiar with the situation. Producing a detailed, technical bulletin frequently takes a couple days, the person said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the company and regulators have not publicly discussed the process.

Boeing declined to comment.

A panel used to plug an area reserved for an exit door on the Max 9 blew out Friday night shortly after Alaska Airlines flight 1282 took off from Portland, Oregon. The depressurized plane, carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, returned safely to Portland International Airport with no serious injuries.

Hours after the incident, the FAA ordered the grounding of 171 Max 9s including all those operated by Alaska and United until they could be inspected. The FAA said inspections will take four to eight hours.

Boeing has delivered 218 Max 9s worldwide, but not all of them are covered by the FAA order. They are among more than 1,300 Max jetliners  mostly the Max 8 variant  sold by the aircraft maker. The Max 8 and other versions of the Boeing 737 are not affected by the grounding.

US Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Senates Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said she agreed with the decision to ground the Max 9s.

Safety is paramount. Aviation production has to meet a gold standard, including quality control inspections and strong FAA oversight, she said in a statement.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board searched Sunday for the panelled-over exit door that blew out from flight 1282. They have a good idea of where it landed, near Oregon Route 217 and Barnes Road in the Cedar Hills area west of Portland, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference late Saturday.

If you find that, please, please contact local law enforcement, she said.

Early Sunday afternoon, some local residents were scouring a patch of land with dense thickets, sandwiched between busy roads and a light rail train station. The area is located across from a sprawling hospital complex.

Searcher Adam Pirkle said he had ridden 14 miles (22 kilometres), manoeuvring his bicycle through the overgrowth. Ive been looking at the flight track, I was looking at the winds, he said. Ive been trying to focus on wooded areas.

Daniel Feldt navigated the same thickets on foot, equipped with binoculars after searching the area from the roof of a parking garage. Didnt see any holes in the bushes that looked obvious where something had fallen through, he said.

Lisa Helderop, communications director at Providence St. Vincent, the hospital in the area of southwest Portland where the NTSB said the door might have fallen, said two NTSB agents also looked around the hospital campus Sunday with members of the hospitals security team.

There has not been a fatal crash involving a US passenger carrier within the country since 2009 when a Colgan Air flight crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines flight arriving from South Korea crashed at San Francisco International Airport, killing three of the 307 people on board.

Flight 1282 took off from Portland at 5:07 p.m. Friday for a two-hour flight to Ontario, California. About six minutes later, the chunk of the fuselage blew out as the plane was at about 16,000 feet (4.8 kilometres). One of the pilots declared an emergency and asked for clearance to descend to 10,000 feet (3 kilometres), the altitude where the air would have enough oxygen to breathe safely.

Videos posted by passengers online showed a gaping hole where the panelled-over exit had been and passengers wearing masks. They applauded when the plane landed safely about 13 minutes after the blowout. Firefighters then came down the aisle, asking passengers to remain in their seats as they treated the injured.

It was extremely lucky that the aeroplane had not yet reached cruising altitude, when passengers and flight attendants might be walking around the cabin, Homendy said.

No one was seated in 26A and B where that door plug is, the aircraft was around 16,000 feet and only 10 minutes out from the airport when the door blew, she said. The investigation is expected to take months.

The aircraft involved rolled off the assembly line and received its certification two months ago, according to online FAA records. It had been on 145 flights since entering commercial service Nov. 11, said FlightRadar24, another tracking service. The flight from Portland was the aircrafts third of the day.

Aviation experts were stunned that a piece would fly off a new aircraft. Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said he has seen panels of fuselage come off planes before, but couldnt recall one where passengers are looking at the lights of the city.

The Max is the newest version of Boeings venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane frequently used on US domestic flights. The plane went into service in May 2017.

Two Max 8 jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. All Max 8 and Max 9 planes were grounded worldwide for nearly two years until Boeing made changes to an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.

The Max has been plagued by other issues, including manufacturing flaws, concern about overheating that led the FAA to tell pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system, and a possible loose bolt in the rudder system.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to meet Saudi Arabias de facto ruler on Monday before heading to Israel as part of efforts to stop the Gaza war spiralling into a regional conflict.

Blinken will discuss Red Sea attacks by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen, Saudi Arabias southern neighbour, during his talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Their meeting in a lavish tent in Al Ula, a historic oasis in western Saudi, will also touch on a potential normalisation of ties with Israel after initial discussions were put on hold by the Israel-Hamas war, a senior official said.

Blinken, who landed in Al Ula on Monday, emphasised the importance of preventing further spread of the conflict, during talks in Abu Dhabi earlier with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a US summary of the meeting said.

This is a conflict that could easily metastasise, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering, Blinken said on Sunday in Qatar, the previous leg of his whistlestop tour.

The war in Gaza started with Hamass unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in about 1,140 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel has responded with relentless bombardment and a ground invasion that have killed at least 22,835 people, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Vowing solidarity with the Palestinians, Yemens Huthis have launched more than 100 drone and missile attacks on targets in Israel and the Red Sea, disrupting traffic in the key shipping route.

The United States and 11 allies last week warned of unspecified consequences if the attacks continue.

But the situation is tense for Riyadh as it coincides with attempts to settle a long-running war between the Huthis and a Saudi-led international coalition.

Blinkens meeting with Prince Mohammed is also a chance to sound out the Saudis on the prospect of an eventual normalisation with Israel, a senior US official said  even if progress appears unlikely while the three-month war continues.

Saudi Arabia, home of Islams two holiest sites, did not join the handful of Arab countries  including its neighbour the United Arab Emirates  in signing the US-brokered Abraham Accords recognising Israel in 2020.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has rejected reports of him using illegal drugs, saying not even trace quantities of drugs or alcohol were found in his body over three years of random drug tests.

The strong rebuttal from the worlds richest man follows a report by a prominent US newspaper, which claimed that his drug use concerns colleagues in leadership roles at his companies, according to Forbes.

Elon Musk, SpaceX and Tesla chief faced scrutiny from NASA after smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2018. NASA sought assurances of a drug-free SpaceX workplace to maintain its status as the sole government contractor for astronaut transport.

Musk has downplayed the incident, claiming he took only one puff and expressed his aversion to illegal drugs. He reportedly underwent three years of random drug testing, asserting no trace of drugs or alcohol in his system. Musks attorney, Alex Spiro, dismissed a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, saying Musk never failed a test.

On Saturday, WSJ released a detailed account of Musks alleged drug use, causing unease among SpaceX and Tesla executives. The report indicates informal concerns among Tesla board members about Musks drug use, leading to discussions with his brother Kimbal Musk.

Musk is purported to have engaged in recreational ketamine use with Kimbal and consumed unspecified illegal drugs with SpaceX board member Steve Jurvetson. The Journal also highlighted former Tesla director Linda Johnson Rices departure in 2019, reportedly influenced by Musks drug consumption and erratic behaviour.
A wave of Russian strikes killed four people across Ukraine on Monday, officials said, as authorities in the Russian border city of Belgorod evacuated hundreds due to Ukrainian shelling.

As the war approaches its second anniversary, both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of causing dozens of civilian casualties in a sharp escalation of attacks.

Overnight on 8 January, 2024, the enemy launched a massive attack on Ukraine, the countrys air force said on social media.

Russian missiles hit a shopping centre and high-rise buildings in President Volodymyr Zelenskys hometown of Kryvyi Rig, killing one person, deputy head of the presidency Oleksiy Kuleba said.

In Kryvyi Rig, there are many breakages in power grids, there are power outages, and electric transport does not work, he said.

A separate missile attack in the western region of Khmelnytsky killed two people, officials said, while an elderly woman in Kharkiv region died after being pulled from the rubble of her home.

Moscow said in its latest defence ministry briefing that it had only struck military targets.

Bolstered by Western air equipment, Ukraines defence forces had been destroying most of the drones and missiles that Russia launched in regular aerial strikes.

But it downed just 18 out of 51 missiles on Monday.

A large number of ballistic missiles were launched today Many said the rate (of destroyed missiles) is not very high, air force spokesman Yuri Ignat acknowledged.

But air defence achieved a good result Ignat said, with all drones destroyed and some Russian missiles also missing their targets.

Ukraine has warned it needs continued support to sustain its air defence systems, amid an escalation in aerial attacks from both sides.

Unprecedented Evacuations

Russian territory has also seen renewed drone attacks.

Russian air defences downed two Ukrainian drones over the border region of Bryansk on Monday, the ministry said.

The announcement came as Russia moved some 300 people from the border city of Belgorod due to Ukrainian shelling, the biggest evacuation from a major Russian city since the conflict began.

Kyivs forces have launched waves of deadly strikes on Belgorod, which lies less than 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the Ukrainian border.

Some 300 residents who decided to leave are now being housed in temporary accommodation in the towns of Stary Oskol, Gubkin and the Korochansky district, further from the border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Over the past 24 hours we received 1,300 requests to send Belgorod children to school camps away from the city in other regions, he added.

The Kremlin has tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy on the home front, but recent strikes on Belgorod have brought conflict in Ukraine closer to home for many Russians.

On December 30, Ukrainian shelling of the city killed 25 people, prompting schools to shut for an extended period.

Moscow vowed to intensify strikes on Ukraine in response to the attack, the deadliest in Russia since the start of the war in February 2022.
On January 6, journalist Alexander Rybin, who covered news from the L/DPR through many pro-Kremlin publications, was found dead in the Rostov region of the Russian Federation. A week earlier, he had appeared in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, reporting on the corruption of the "authorities."

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This was reported by his colleagues from the online magazine Rabkor, citing relatives and friends. They say that the propagandist's body was found near the highway near the town of Shakhty, but the death was not criminal.

"The last time he spoke on the air was on December 30 from Mariupol. During it, he said that there was no New Year's mood in the city after the shelling, and also suggested corruption in the construction sector. In addition, he wished Russians a change of government," some Russian media write.

At the same time, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Rostov Region said that "no signs of criminal death were found on Rybin's body, which was found on Saturday near a parking lot in the Krasnosulinsky district." They added that they would first conduct a forensic medical examination, and then decide how to qualify the case of the Russian's death.

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It is known that 40-year-old Alexander Rybin was from the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation and studied journalism at Tver State University. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in particular during 2023, he filmed propaganda stories in the L/DNR, and before that - in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

He is called an "ethnographer, traveler, political observer and international journalist" specializing in the Middle East and Central Asia, who has worked with many publications - the Kremlin's mouthpieces.

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Mariupol mayor's advisor Petro Andriushchenko said that the last time propagandist Rybin went on the air was near the ruins of the Mariupol Drama Theater bombed by Russian troops. At that time, he not only criticized the process of "reconstruction" of the city by the occupiers, but also touched upon the topic of touring artists from Central Asia who came to Mariupol "to earn money." The propagandist promised that upon his arrival in Moscow he would prepare and publish a detailed material on the topic of subcontractors who "restore" the destroyed city using migrant labor.

"It didn't work out. Taking into account the personalities of the "rulers of Mariupol from the Russians" and the amount of stolen money, it is clear who is the beneficiary of his sudden death (read RosKapStroy). In short, the end. In any case, minus one Russian propagandist is good. Doubly so when he was removed by the Russians themselves. God bless the deceased," Andriushchenko commented ironically.

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As OBOZ.UA reported, last year in November, a propagandist from Russia 24 Borys Maksudov died in November after coming under attack by a UAV in Zaporizhzhia. A year before his death, the Russian had done a useful job as a fire spotter in the temporarily occupied Shakhtarsk, Donetsk region.

At the end of December 2023, it became known that propagandist Anton Kuznetsov-Krasovsky was poisoned. The former director of Russia Today became "famous" for calling for the drowning and burning of Ukrainian children on live TV.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
An Israeli airstrike killed an elite Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon on Monday, the latest in an escalating exchange of strikes along the border that have raised fears of another Mideast war even as the fighting in Gaza exacts a mounting toll on civilians.

The strike on an SUV killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border, according to a Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity according to regulations. Hezbollah identified the slain fighter as Wissam al-Tawil without providing details.

He is the most senior militant in the armed group to have been killed since Hamas Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel triggered all-out war in Gaza and lower-intensity fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has escalated since an Israeli strike killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut last week.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is back in the region this week, appears to be trying to head off a wider conflict.

Israel says it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis. Israeli officials have said the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken during the militant groups Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.

The offensive has already killed over 23,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swaths of the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly 85% of its population of 2.3 million and left a quarter of its residents facing starvation.

SICKENING SCENES IN GAZAS OVERWHELMED HOSPITALS

Medics, patients and displaced people fled from the main hospital in central Gaza as the fighting drew closer, witnesses said Monday. Losing the facility would be another major blow to a health system shattered by three months of war.

Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups withdrew from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in recent days, saying it was too dangerous. That spread panic among people sheltering there, causing many to join the hundreds of thousands who have fled to the south of the besieged territory.

Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gazas hospitals, which are also struggling to treat dozens of people wounded each day in Israeli strikes. Only 13 of Gazas 36 hospitals are even partially functioning, according to the U.N. humanitarian office.

Omar al-Darawi, an employee at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said the facility has been struck multiple times in recent days. He said thousands of people left after the aid groups pulled out, and that patients have been concentrated on one floor so the remaining doctors can tend to them more easily.

We have large numbers of wounded who cant move he said. They need special care, which is unavailable.

More dead and wounded arrive each day as Israeli forces advance in central Gaza following heavy airstrikes. Gazas Health Ministry said Monday that 249 Palestinians have been killed and 510 others were wounded across the territory in the last 24 hours.

World Health Organization staff who visited Sunday saw sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the U.N. agency, said in a statement. The bloodbath in Gaza must end.

DIRE CONDITIONS IN THE ISOLATED NORTH

The situation is even more dire in northern Gaza, which Israeli forces cut off from the rest of the territory in late October.

Entire neighborhoods have been demolished, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled, while those who remain face severe shortages of food and water. The WHO said late Sunday it has not been able to deliver supplies to northern Gaza in 12 days.

Even there, Israel is still battling what it describes as pockets of militants.

An airstrike early Sunday flattened a four-story home filled with displaced people in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, killing at least 70, including women and children, according to Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gazas civil defense. There was no immediate confirmation from the Health Ministry, which has struggled to maintain its operations in the north.

Search efforts were still underway on Monday. The civil defense circulated a graphic video showing the aftermath of attack, with several bodies scattered among the rubble.

Jabaliya, which was built for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israels creation and is now a dense, built-up neighborhood, has seen weeks of heavy fighting.

More than 23,00 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 58,000 wounded, since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Health officials say about two-thirds of those killed have been women and minors.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes. The military says it has killed some 8,000 militants, without providing evidence, and that 176 of its own soldiers have been killed in the offensive.

SEEKING TO HEAD OFF A WIDER WAR

Blinken, who met with the leaders of Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, once again spoke of the need for Israel to adjust its military operations to minimize harm to civilians and allow more aid into the territory.

But his main focus appeared to be preventing the war from spreading.

A Hezbollah rocket barrage hit a sensitive air traffic base in northern Israel on Saturday in one of the biggest attacks in three months of low-intensity fighting along the border. The militant group said was an initial response to the killing of Hamas deputy political leader Saleh Arouri in Beirut last week.

Israel has mostly sought to limit the fighting in its north, but its leaders say their patience is wearing thin, and that if the tensions cannot be resolved through diplomacy, they are prepared to go to war. They have expressed particular concern about the Radwan Force, the elite Hezbollah unit in which al-Tawil was a commander, which operates along the border.

Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after Hamas Oct. 7 attack ignited the war. Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel that day, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people hostage, over 100 of whom were released during a cease-fire in November.

Hezbollah has said its attacks, which have driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, aim to ease pressure on Gaza. But the group appears wary of risking an all-out war that would bring massive destruction to Lebanon.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa met with top officials in Poland on Monday to strengthen ties with the NATO nation, which borders Ukraine.

Kamikawa conferred with Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski in Warsaw and a placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She also was scheduled to meet President Andrzej Duda.

She began her visit to Poland on Saturday, but interrupted it to make an unannounced visit to Ukraine, where she pledged Japans continued support for the country as it tries to defend itself against Russias full-scale invasion. Japan announced during her visit that it would contribute $37 million to the NATO trust fund to provide Ukraine with drone detection systems.

In Warsaw, Kamikawa told reporters during a short news briefing that she went to Ukraine to show Japans enduring solidarity with Ukraine and praised Poland for its role in helping Ukrainian refugees.

Japan will continue to work with Poland to end Russias aggression against Ukraine as soon as possible and to bring a just and lasting peace to Ukraine, she said, in comments translated by an interpreter.

Both she and Sikorski said at a news conference that Japan and Poland are strong strategic partners who intend to strengthen their ties further.

Kamikawa said that the two countries are united by their values and principles, and noted that their talks also focused on the situation in East Asia.

Sikorski said that he expressed condolences to the minister over an earthquake on the Noto Peninsula that left at least 168 dead and dozens missing and a deadly collision of a large passenger plane and a Japanese coast guard aircraft.

I have already expressed our condolences to the minister for the tragic earthquake on the Noto Peninsula and for the airplane accident, while congratulating her on such a smooth evacuation, thanks to which so many human lives were saved. I assure you of our solidarity with Japan in these difficult times, Sikorski said.
Maldives Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer has condemned the use of derogatory language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi that led to the sacking of three junior ministers from Mohamed Muizzus government.

The recent remarks against foreign leaders and our close neighbours are unacceptable and do not reflect the official position of the Government of #Maldives. We remain committed to fostering a positive and constructive dialogue with all our partners, especially our neighbours, based on mutual respect and understanding, Zameer wrote on X.

The recent remarks against foreign leaders and our close neighbours are unacceptable and do not reflect the official position of the Government of #Maldives.We remain committed to fostering a positive and constructive dialogue with all our partners, especially our neighbours,  Moosa Zameer (@MoosaZameer) January 7, 2024

On Sunday, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu suspended three deputy ministers for making derogatory remarks against Modi. Muizzu, who won the September elections on promises that included removing a small contingent of Indian troops operating maritime aircraft from his archipelago, banned the ministers from work pending an investigation.

On January 4, PM Modi posted on social media praising the pristine beaches of Lakshadweep islands, which lie about 130 kilometres north of the Maldives at their closest point. He posted photographs of himself snorkelling, and suggested the islands should be on the must-visit list of any adventure-seeking tourist. One deputy minister, Mariyam Shiuna, had called Modi a clown following the prime ministers visit to the Lakshadweep.

Read More: Maldives Ministers Social Media Post Over PM Modis Lakshadweep Visit Stirs Row; Indians Cancel Trips En Masse

The three suspended ministers  Malsha Shareef, Abdulla Mahzoon and Shiuna  are all from the youth ministry. They criticised Modi on social media, officials said. The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high ranking individuals, the government said in a statement. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives.

Senior Maldivian politician Qasim Ibrahim said the behaviour of three officials goes against the principles of diplomacy and mutual respect, warning that the incident has the potential to negatively impact the long-standing bond between the two nations.

It is indeed concerning to witness derogatory language being used against the Prime Minister of India @narendramodi by 3 junior officials of the Maldivian government on social media.This kind of behavior not only goes against the principles of diplomacy and mutual respect, pic.twitter.com/HIlM1e06TU  Qasim Ibrahim (@qasimibrahim) January 7, 2024

Ibrahim stressed that India has consistently been a steadfast friend to Maldives, and it is important that the Island nation uphold the values of friendship and goodwill that have defined these ties for centuries. Let us by any means, not allow such degrading remarks to tarnish the strong and enduring friendship between our two countries. We must remember that our actions reflect our values, and it is crucial that we demonstrate respect and uphold the principles of diplomacy in all our interactions, he added.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh is embarking on a two-day UK visit on Monday to boost India-UK bilateral strategic and security ties. The visit was initially scheduled for June 2022 but was postponed. This is the first time in 22 years that an Indian defence minister is visiting the UK.

The visit is the first such undertaken by the Indian defence minister after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his then-UK counterpart Boris Johnson held talks in April 2022 where they agreed to expand the India-UK defence ties.

Rajnath Singh is expected to meet UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and foreign minister David Cameron.

Singh is set to hold important discussions with counterpart Grant Shapps. He will also inspect a ceremonial Guard of Honour in London. Singh will also visit the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr BR Ambedkar in London. A high-level delegation, consisting of senior officials, DRDO representatives and industry leaders is set to accompany him.

The main focus of the visit will be to deepen India-UK military cooperation and forge stronger defence ties with the UK. India and the UK held high-level meetings such as the November 2023 Defence Consultative Group session in Delhi. A report by the Times of India pointed out that the UK was part of discussions despite not being among Indias top five strategic partners.

Ongoing projects led by the UKs Rolls-Royce, GE (Naval) UK and MBDA (UK) will also be discussed along with Indias Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat programmes in the defence sector.

The defence partnership between the UK and India also will see the launch of an Open General Export Licence (OGEL) which shall streamline defence procurements, reduce bureaucracy and quicken delivery timelines.

India and the UK are also negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) which will bolster the 36 billion bilateral partnership.

(with inputs from Times of India)
China said it never asked Maldives to reject India because of conflicts between Beijing and New Delhi amid the ongoing diplomatic row between India and Maldives in an editorial published in Chinas state-run Global Times.

The editorial was released amid the ongoing diplomatic row and Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu visit to China where he signed several bilateral agreements.

Maldives suspended three ministers over derogatory remarks made by them targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his recently-concluded Lakshadweep visit. The newly-elected government led by President Mohamed Muizzu distanced itself from the comments and said that personal views do not reflect the sentiments of the Maldivian government.

It also respects the friendly and cooperative relationship between the Maldives and India, fully aware of the importance for Male to maintain good relations with New Delhi. Beijing has never asked Male to reject New Delhi because of the conflicts between China and India, nor does it view cooperation between the Maldives and India as unfriendly or a threat, the Chinese state media editorial said, adding that China has always treated the Maldives as an equal partner and respected its sovereignty.

India and Maldives bilateral relations are going through a strained phase after Muizzu came to power who said he will strengthen Maldives-China ties when voted to power. His mentor is Abdulla Yameen, the creator of India Out campaign and former president who was jailed for corruption, under whom he served as construction minister. Muizzu appeared to back the India Out campaign during his electoral campaign.

It (China) is also willing to carry out trilateral cooperation between China, India and the Maldives. New Delhi should stay more open-minded, as Chinas cooperation with South Asian countries is not a zero-sum game, the editorial said.

The editorial also pointed to the ritual of Maldives presidents historically visiting India first once they are voted to presidency. It said that Muizzu broke tradition and visited Turkey first. Under normal circumstances, when a new leader comes to power, they arrange their visits based on the importance and urgency of the matters to be dealt with. President Muizzu broke tradition by visiting Turkey for his first official overseas visit instead of India, the editorial said.

Muizzu on Monday visited the Xiamen Free Trade Zone in Chinas Fujian province along with Maldivian first lady Sajidha Mohamed. He will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and will also sign several new agreements.

We believe that through this visit, the two heads of state will provide strategic guidance for the bilateral relations to reach a new height, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said last week.
NASA assured the world that a massive lost asteroid, weighing 54 million tons, will not collide with Earth in 2024. This follows a report by Britains BG News, which suggested a 1 in 10 million chance of impact on March 3 and 1 in 11.5 million on Oct. 5. But NASA has now come forward with a conclusive answer.

The asteroid, known as 2007 FT3, first observed in 2007, disappeared from telescopic view, the New York Post reported. However, scientists have now calculated an 89-potential impact risk this year. As collision dates approached, researchers stated there were no known asteroid threats for the next century.

Meanwhile, NASA and its partners continue to actively monitor celestial bodies and categorise potential risks. There are no known asteroid impact threats to Earth at any time in the next century. Nasa and its partners diligently watch the skies to find, track, and categorise asteroids and near-Earth objects (NEOs), including those that may come close to Earth, a Nasa spokesperson told UKs Standard.

An important note here is planetary scientists define asteroid approaches that come within 30 million miles of Earths orbit as close approaches. The larger an asteroid is, the easier it is for our planetary defence experts to find, meaning that their orbits around the sun are usually very well-known and understood for years or even decades, the spokesperson added.

Scientists were able to collect information about the asteroid before losing track of it. The asteroid made its way onto the US space agencys Sentry Risk Table of objects that could impact Earth. The 2007 FT3 remains untraceable, but if it posed a threat, NASA would know.

Bennu, another such asteroid, has a 1 in 2,700 chance of colliding with Earth in the year 2182, contingent on passing through a gravitational keyhole in 2135. NASA collected samples from Bennu last year, aiming to unravel Earths origin mysteries. In a comical twist, the US agency, in year 2022, crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid at 15,000 mph, simulating deflection efforts.
Israel defence minister Yoav Gallant shot a warning to Lebanese group Hezbollah and its backers Iran by saying that Israel can copy-paste its war on Gazas Hamas to Lebanese capital Beirut.

We are willing to sacrifice. They see what is happening in Gaza. They know we can copy-paste to Beirut, Gallant was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal in an interview released on Sunday.

Gallant also said that Iran is amassing its strength and building an axis to launch an attack on Israel, referring to the slowly increasing attacks by Hezbollah on areas adjoining Israels northern border.

My basic view: We are fighting an axis, not a single enemy. Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it, Gallant told the newspaper. Should Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran be allowed to decide how we live our lives here in Israel? This is something we dont accept, he further added.

Shortly after the interview was released Hezbollah said it has begun taking steps to avenge the death of Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Aruri. The Israeli army said Hezbollah fired a barrage of missiles that hit a sensitive air traffic control base on Mount Meron on Saturday.

It said that air defences were not affected by the attack because backup systems were in place. It further added that no soldiers were hurt and damages will be repaired.

Hezbollah described its rocket barrage as an initial response to the targeted killing of the senior Hamas leader in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut last week, which is presumed to have been carried out by Israel.

Israel says that it wants to limit the fighting in the north where Hezbollah has increased its attacks following the breakout of the Israel-Hamas war after the terrorist group killed over 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped around 250 of them on October 7.

Hezbollah has said that it will support Hamas and continue its attacks on Israel to avenge the deaths of civilians in Gaza, who are caught in the war between Hamas and Israel. More than 22,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 58,000 wounded since the war began.

Israeli leaders last week warned that Israels patience with Hezbollah, whose military capabilities are far superior to those of Hamas, is wearing thin and if tensions cannot be resolved through diplomacy, they are prepared to use force.

I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months: No terrorist is immune. We are determined to defend our citizens and to return the residents of the north safely to their homes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet.
In St. Petersburg, a Russian woman found a napkin with a poem about Stepan Bandera, one of the main ideologues of the struggle for Ukrainian independence in the first half of the twentieth century. The woman said that she was shopping at a local hypermarket.

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The incident was reported in the Russian media. According to preliminary data, on January 5, the woman made purchases in a grocery store on Tallinn Highway.

Upon returning home, she found a folded napkin with lines from a song glorifying Stepan Bandera and Ukrainian soldiers in the groceries. At the end of the letter was a New Year's greeting from an unknown person.

The Russian woman reported the incident to the hypermarket's security service, after which police officers took the napkin for investigation. Currently, the issue of initiating a criminal case under Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on public calls for terrorist acts is being decided.

Earlier it was reported that in the Kaluga region of the Russian Federation, in the village of Kartsovo, teachers and children studying at a local school congratulated Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on his birthday. However, instead of the Russian president, the posters depicted the Ukrainian revolutionary Stepan Bandera, who is so feared and hated by Russians.

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Only verified information on our Telegram channel Obozrevatel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) has denounced the inappropriate criticism of judges that occurred during the election season last year, claiming insulting and destructive remarks were made about the judiciary in general, as well as some Supreme Court and High Court judges.

Last year, over 100 election petition cases were filed in court, some of which concerned challenges to the acceptance of nomination papers of various candidates in the Nomination Court where some litigants who lost their cases alleged the courts had been captured.

Some of that criticism also came from judicial officers, forcing the JSC to approach the Law Society of Zimbabwe, whose engagement resulted in the amicable resolution of matters.

This was said by Deputy Chief Justice Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza on Monday at the official opening of the legal year 2024 at the Bulawayo High Court, who noted that judges had received unjustified criticism from parties who would have lost cases in court.

Justice Gwaunza lamented that during the course of the elections period last year, disparaging and damaging remarks were made against the Judiciary in general and some Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Court.

The unwarranted aspersions stemmed from decisions which the courts had made. Even more concerning was the fact that the disparaging remarks were made by some members of the legal profession who are expected to have known better, said the deputy chief justice.

The JSC engaged the Law Society. The engagement resulted in the matters being resolved amicably.

Justice Gwaunza said there have been instances where litigants who lost cases went on a tirade, casting aspersions on the integrity of the courts and the Judges.

They raised unfounded allegations of corruption, threatened, and attempted to intimidate judicial officers who would have made decisions against them. At the last count, seven Judges had fallen victim to the vile misinformation and attempted intimidation, she said.

Justice Gwaunza said litigants should not use the media to air their grievances as there were court processes if they were unhappy with an outcome.

The media is an important stakeholder in the dissemination of critical information on the justice delivery system to the public. They have reported on matters of public interest arising from the operations of the courts, including the conduct of judicial officers who are the custodians of the Constitution. The media is encouraged to continue to report fairly on matters of public interest arising from and affecting the justice delivery system, she said.

Justice Gwaunza emphasised the importance of constitutionalism, saying that it discourages vexatious and unrelenting litigation by litigants whose conduct is aimed at undermining public confidence in the independence and integrity of not only the judiciary but the entire administration of the justice system.

The respect for the rule of law and for the independence of the courts demanded by constitutionalism requires that litigants should comply with court orders and legitimately use the remedies put in place by the law to challenge the unfavourable decisions of the courts, said the deputy chief justice.

Appeal processes and complaints mechanisms are not intended to be abused by litigants for selfish ends.

Justice Gwaunza said the designation of appeal courts by the Constitution arose out of a recognition of the fallibility of, and the possibility of error on the part of, judicial officers and the need to put in place effective remedies for correcting such errors.

Section 164(3) of the Constitution provides that an order or decision of a court binds the State and all persons and governmental institutions and agencies to which it applies, and must be obeyed by them.

The deputy chief justice advised judges not to shy away from making decisions on account of baseless complaints and allegations raised against them by vexatious litigants.

 Justice is not lopsided. It cannot be the norm that justice can only be said to have been done when the disposition is inclined to a particular outcome favoured by a litigant in question, she said.

It will be an affront to the doctrine of constitutionalism and the essence of the rule of law if Judges were to allow themselves to be intimidated by errant litigants who lose cases in court. In pursuing the entrenchment of constitutionalism, the Judiciary thus notes that vexatious litigation, unrestrained denigration, threats and spurious complaints against judicial officers have no place in a country controlled by a constitutional order.

On that note, Justice Gwaunza said the judiciary will continue to dispense justice in terms of the law, impartially, without fear, favour or prejudice.

The comments made herein are not in any way meant to protect courts and Judges from fair scrutiny, comments and criticisms of their judgments and decisions, because such criticism is a central element of a constitutional democracy, she said.

Constructive criticism of judges aimed at improving court efficiency is encouraged, acknowledged Justice Gwaunza, but only if done with decency and respect.

The philosophy underpinning judicial constitutionalism is that judicial officers are servants of the Constitution, as the upholding of the values and the principles of the Constitution is a manifestation of the realisation of the demands that the supreme law of the land places on the people. Constitutionalism is realised through mechanisms set by the Constitution itself and is as such an inherent aspect of the compliance with the Constitution, she said.

Justice Gwaunza also reminded judicial officers to make sure they make decisions expeditiously in accordance with the applicable law and the facts found proved. CITE
The Kremlin is concerned about a possible uprising in the Siberian regions. In order to prevent such situations, a headquarters has been organized in Buryatia to counter the threats of separatism and nationalism.

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This was reported by the Siberian Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The corresponding decree of the head of the Republic of Buryatia A. Tsydenov with the approved list of staff members was published on the official portal of the republic.

The battalion noted that such a document is unlikely to be an initiative from below. It is likely that the creation of the headquarters is an order from Moscow, which is typical for a totalitarian state. Obviously, similar organizations are already operating or will be created in other regions of Siberia, and possibly throughout Russia. This is especially true in the territories inhabited by indigenous peoples.

Moscow's leadership correctly takes into account the prospects for the near future for Russia. The situation is steadily moving toward the emergence of a mass movement for national independence and self-government. At the same time, this prospect inspires the fighters of the Siberian Battalion.

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"We are preparing for the final destruction of the 'prison of nations' called the Russian Federation. We are preparing to bring freedom and justice to our land. Not only Ukraine, which provided us with an opportunity to receive excellent training in the Armed Forces, but also volunteers and instructors from Western countries, are helping us with this. We are supported not only by our compatriots but also by volunteers from Poland, Lithuania and other Baltic countries. We are looking forward to gaining experience from NATO instructors. There are more and more of us. Freedom and the restoration of justice are getting closer," the soldiers emphasized.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, earlier the soldiers of the Siberian battalion, which consists mainly of representatives of Russian ethnic minorities from across the Urals, told why they came to the defense of Ukraine. The soldiers said they wanted to try to "wash away the blood of Bucha" in this way. They see victory in Ukraine as an opportunity to overthrow the Putin regime and gain independence from Russia for their people.

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Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Alaska Airlines had to take a step backward Sunday in returning its 65 737 Max 9 aircraft to service after hearing from the Federal Aviation Administration. The airline inspected and put 18 of the planes back online Saturday, a day after part of the fuselage blew out during one of its flights over Oregon. But the FAA issued a notice that the planes might require more work, the AP reports. "These aircraft have now also been pulled from service until details about possible additional maintenance work are confirmed with the FAA," the airline said in a statement Sunday. Other developments involve:
Lauren Boebert's ex-husband called police Saturday night from a restaurant in Silt, Colorado, where he claimed his ex-wife had punched him twice in the face, a claim the congresswoman denies. The incident was first reported on social media by American Muckrakers, an anti-Boebert super PAC, and then confirmed by the Daily Beast . The incident, according to a Boebert aide, started earlier in the evening when Boebert showed up at her ex's house to pick up one of their kids and her ex, Jayson Boebert, tried to hug her. The congresswoman pushed him away and he later called to apologize and asked to talk in person, the aide says; Boebert requested a public setting because she was concerned things might get confrontational, and they met at the restaurant, Miner's Claim.

The aide says that at the restaurant, Jayson Boebert was "disrespectful" and "lewd," and that as things got more heated between the two, he made "an aggressive move" toward his ex-wife, "to grab her." That's when, per the aide, the congresswoman "put her hand in his face, put her hand on his nose" to push him back. But the American Muckraker's version of events, which Jayson Boebert says is accurate, claims Lauren Boebert punched him twice in the nose "and then continued to beat him up." The congresswoman called the police non-emergency line after her husband called police to report that he was a victim of domestic violence; she denied her ex's claims and said she'd stick around to talk to cops.

The Silt Police Department confirms to the Denver Post that it is investigating the incident; no one was arrested Saturday. "We have a lot of facts and stuff to get sorted out," the chief of police says. "This is a sad situation for all that keeps escalating and another reason I'm moving. I didn't punch Jayson in the face and no one was arrested," Lauren Boebert says in a statement. She says she is consulting a lawyer about the "false claims" made about her. Jayson Boebert says he told police Sunday that he did not want to press charges. He tells the Post, "Her and I were working through a difficult conversation." (Lauren Boebert has also cited Barbra Streisand when explaining why she's switching districts.)
Updated throughout. The first US moon landing in more than 50 years was in jeopardy Monday after a private company's newly launched spacecraft developed a "critical" fuel leak. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology raced to orient its lander toward the sun so the solar panel could collect sunlight, as battery power dwindled. Initial efforts appeared to be successful, but it soon became apparent that there was "a critical loss of fuel," per the AP . "We are currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time," the company said in a statement that was simultaneously vague and ominous.

The problem was reported about seven hours after Monday's predawn liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket provided the lift for Astrobotic's lander, named Peregrine, putting it on a long, roundabout path to the moon. If the propulsion system was at fault, it "threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the moon" on Feb. 23, the company said.

Astrobotic was aiming to be the first private business to successfully land on the moon, something only four countries have accomplished. A second lander from a Houston company is due to launch next month. NASA gave the two companies millions to build and fly their own lunar landers. The last time the US launched a moon-landing mission was in December 1972. Apollo 17's Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt became the 11th and 12th men to walk on the moon, closing out an era that has remained NASA's pinnacle.



(More moon landings stories.)
UPDATE

Feb 16, 2024 1:39 AM CST

Anders Behring Breivik has lost his bid to end his years of isolation in a Norwegian prison. The 45-year-old, who killed 77 people in 2011 in Norway's largest mass killing, sued the country's authorities, arguing that the conditions of his imprisonment had made him suicidal and that restrictions on his communications should be lifted. But on Thursday, the court ruled his rights were not being violated and that the correspondence restrictions were necessary because he is still a danger to society, the BBC reports. The court also noted the "relatively great freedom" Breivik is allowed to, for example, study and work on "political projects." He also has access to a TV room, kitchen, and exercise room. Breivik's lawyer vowed to appeal.

Jan 8, 2024 8:10 AM CST

The man who carried out Norway's biggest mass killing appeared in court Monday to complain about his prison conditions. Anders Behring Breivik, 44, says it is inhumane that he is forced to live largely in isolation, reports Reuters. Breivik killed a total of 77 people in 2011eight in a car bombing and 69 (most of them teenagers) in a subsequent shooting rampage. "He has been isolated for about 12 years," lawyer Oeystein Storrvik told the court Monday, adding she that thought the length was unprecedented within Europe. "He is only in contact with professionals, not with other inmates."
An Israeli airstrike killed an elite Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon on Monday, the latest in an escalating exchange of strikes along the border that have raised fears of another Mideast war, even as the fighting in Gaza exacts a mounting toll on civilians. The strike on an SUV killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border, according to a Lebanese security official. Hezbollah identified the slain fighter as Wissam al-Tawil without providing details, per the AP . He's the most senior militant in the armed group to have been killed since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel triggered all-out war in Gaza and lower-intensity fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has escalated since an Israeli strike killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut last week.

Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack ignited the war. Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel that day, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people hostage, more than 100 of whom were released during a ceasefire in November. A Hezbollah rocket barrage hit a sensitive air traffic base in northern Israel on Saturday in one of the biggest attacks in three months of low-intensity fighting along the border. The militant group said that was an "initial response" to the killing of Hamas' deputy political leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut last week. Hezbollah has said its attacks, which have driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, aim to ease pressure on Gaza. Israeli leaders have expressed particular concern about the Radwan force, the elite Hezbollah unit in which al-Tawil was a commander, which operates along the border.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who's back in the region this week, appears to be trying to head off a wider conflict. Israel says it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis. Israeli officials have said the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken during the militant group's Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. The offensive has already killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swaths of the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly 85% of its population of 2.3 million, and left a quarter of its residents facing starvation. More here.

(More Hezbollah stories.)
Pope Francis called Monday for a universal ban on what he called the "despicable" practice of surrogate motherhood, as he included the "commercialization" of pregnancy in an annual speech listing threats to global peace and human dignity. In a foreign policy address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, Francis lamented that 2024 had dawned at a time in which peace is "increasingly threatened, weakened, and in some part lost." Citing Russia's war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, migration, climate crises, and the "immoral" production of nuclear and conventional weapons, the AP reports that Francis delivered a list of the ills afflicting humanity and the increasing violation of international humanitarian law that allows them.

But Francis also listed smaller-scale issues that he said were threats to peace and human dignity, including surrogacy. He said the life of the unborn child must be protected and not "suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking." "I consider despicable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother's material needs," he said. Saying a child is a gift and "never the basis of a commercial contract," he called for a global ban on surrogacy "to prohibit this practice universally." Francis has previously voiced the Catholic Church's opposition to what he has called "uterus for rent."

Although commercial surrogacy is common in the US, including with protections for mothers, guarantees of independent legal representation, and medical coverage, it's banned in parts of Europe, including Spain and Italy. Russia's war in Ukraine and the threat to babies born to surrogate Ukrainian mothers exposed the country's thriving industry. Ukraine is one of the few countries that allow surrogacy for foreigners. Critics say commercial surrogacy targets poor women and those from vulnerable communities. Supporters say surrogacy gives women a chance to provide children to childless couples, and that commercial contracts protect both surrogates and the intended parents.

(More Pope Francis stories.)
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a briefing Sunday that two phones sucked out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 had been foundand Vancouver, Washington, resident Sean Bates said the one he found was still working. In a post on X , Bates said he found an iPhone by the side of the road that was still perfectly intact after apparently falling 16,000 feet, CBS News reports. Bates said the phone was "still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to a baggage claim" from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which was forced to return to Portland International Airport on Friday after a door plug blew off minutes into the flight.

In a video, Bates said he found the phone after the NTSB asked people to look out for objects that might have fallen from the plane, the New York Post reports. He said that before he opened it and saw the Alaska Airlines baggage claim, he was a "little skeptical" that it could be from the plane because it was in such good condition. An NTSB spokesperson tells the Guardian that the iPhone is "one of the phones collected that is likely from the flight" and it has been turned over to the airline.

The agency says another phone likely from the flight was found in a backyard. The door plug, around 4 feet long and 2 feet wide, was also found in a backyard. NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said it was found by a teacher identified only as Bob who lives in the Portland area, the BBC reports. "Thank you Bob," she said Sunday. (More Boeing stories.)
The device looks like a pair of ski goggles and its underlying technology lets users overlay virtual images on live videos of the real world. Unlike some other headsets on the market, Apple's mixed-reality device will display the eyes of its users on the outside, according to company demonstrations last June.

The Vision Pro will have its own operating system, dubbed visionOS, as well as a novel three-dimensional user interface and input system that is controlled by a user's eyes, hands and voice.

The product is expected to face a number of challenges, as Apple is diving into an unproven market littered with other tech companies who have tried and largely failed to find mainstream traction for their augmented reality hardware devices. And the hefty price tag has also raised eyebrows since it was revealed at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Shares for Apple (AAPL) ticked up by 1.5 percent in early trading Monday after the Vision Pro's launch date was announced. Apple's announcement also comes as the tech sector's annual CES convention in Las Vegas kicks off this week.

A New Zealand release date has not yet been announced.

CNN
A person has been arrested after allegedly stealing a police car and crashing into two vehicles, which injured two members of the public at a south Auckland intersection on Monday afternoon.

A police spokesperson told Newshub a person stole the police car on Puhinui Road in Manukau at 1:01pm while officers were attending an "urgent matter".

"The offender has driven the Police vehicle off at speed," the spokesperson said.

A few minutes later, the police vehicle collided with two stationary vehicles at the intersection of Great South Road and Alfriston Road.
Laws banning the Nazi salute and the display or sale of symbols associated with terror groups came into effect in Australia on Monday as the government responds to a rise in antisemitic incidents following the Israel-Gaza war.

The law makes it an offense punishable by up to 12 months in prison to publicly perform the Nazi salute or display the Nazi swastika or the double-sig rune associated with the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary group.

The sale and trade of these symbols is similarly prohibited.

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said in a statement the legislation sent a clear message there was no place in Australia for those who glorify the Holocaust or terrorist acts.
The Hogle Zoo in Utah has recently welcomed a new resident - a black-footed cat named Gaia. The fluffy beauty is only 8 months old, and she can charm anyone with her big eyes and sweet look. And this is fantastic, because in fact, this animal is one of the deadliest cats on the planet, capable of grabbing "more prey in one night than a leopard in six months".

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Gaia is described as a "small in size but big in its daring nature" cat. Its features were described in the Huffpost article.

Gaia, who weighs less than three kilograms, comes from a family of successful hunters. The hunting success rate of black-footed cats is more than 60%. For comparison, this figure is 25% for lions.

"They have a reputation of being very fierce cats," said the zoo's deputy director for animal care.

This cat species has an accelerated metabolism, so they are constantly hunting because they are constantly hungry. In one night, such a cute and adorable looking cat can kill up to 14 rodents or small birds, hunting every 30 minutes. Weighing 1-3 kilograms and measuring 35-43 centimeters, this animal, which is half the size of an average domestic cat, can hunt prey larger than itself, such as a Cape hare.

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All this makes the black-footed cat the second deadliest predator in the world after African wild dogs.

"She may look adorable, but looks can be deceiving... She has the biggest eyes you've ever seen," the zoo's staff commented on the arrival of the new resident.

It is worth noting that Gaia arrived at the Salt Lake City Zoo on the recommendation of the Black-footed Cat Consortium. This event was called "an important step in the conservation of her species," noting that there are only 29 black-footed cats in the consortium.

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The zoo is also home to a male black-footed cat named Ryder. The two furry predators will be introduced when Gaia "reaches maturity".

As OBOZ.UA wrote earlier, a few days before the New Year, a baby elephant got lost in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve in India. It got separated from the herd and walked about 4 kilometers on its own. The story ended happily: zookeepers found its mother, and the love of animals amazed the network. Read more in our story.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Police said officers found a total 257 lizards and three snakes during the investigation, both in packages and in addresses used by the group.

The reptiles "were taken to various zoos and wildlife parks for examination by a vet before being released back to the wild," the statement added.

Police estimate the lizards were worth around 5,000 Australian dollars ($3,350) each, making a total of approximately 1.285 million Australian dollars ($860,000).

The police didn't say why the lizards were being allegedly smuggled, but Hong Kong has long been considered a hub for illicit wildlife trade due to its busy port and status as a gateway into mainland China.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Hong Kong also says that "exotic pets are becoming increasingly popular" in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

"Rare species of turtles and tortoises, snakes, lizards, parrots, sugar gliders, hedgehogs, scorpions and many others, are traded as pets," the charity says on its website.

CNN
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Note: We have come a long way since those days. However, the challenges of our present-day firemen in the cold are still the same, and it is still a tough job. We are fortunate to have these well trained and dedicated folks who come to our aid when we need it most. Thank you to all of them for saving our bacon many times over the years.

This flaming red History Nugget has been brought to you by the Fairbanks Igloos of the Pioneers of Alaska. To learn more about the Pioneers, go to our website pioneersofalaska.org.
A Ukrainian tourist rented an apartment near the resort town of Larnaca in Cyprus, and once inside, she saw many traces of the Russian world. In particular, there were magnets with images of the Kremlin, Russian churches, and nesting dolls on the refrigerator.

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The Ukrainian woman talked to the owners of the apartment to find out whether they had "decorated" their home with such elements themselves. The woman shared their answers, as well as her own impressions, in an exclusive commentary for OBOZ.UA.

As it turned out, the magnets were left in the apartment by former guests from the terrorist country. But the owners of the apartment were a couple of immigrants-a refugee from the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus and his wife from Lithuania.

What struck the Ukrainian tourist as most unpleasant was that a five-hryvnia bill with the image of Bohdan Khmelnytsky was attached to a magnet with a photo of Red Square. When the owners realized that they were dealing with a Ukrainian, they hastily put the bill away. But they did not touch the magnets with the Kremlin and nesting dolls. Then our compatriot decided to ask directly what the owners of the apartment thought about Russians.

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"There are still a lot of Russian tourists, but I believe that all Russians who come to Cyprus are against the war," the Ukrainian woman quoted the homeowner as saying.

The Lithuanian emigrant, according to the tourist, also emphasized that Cyprus had accepted many Ukrainian refugees after February 24, "providing them with good living conditions." However, Ukrainians found it doubtful that the owners ask all their guests from Russia what their position is on the war.

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"It is doubtful that the owners ask Russian clients about their position on the war before accepting them as clients, and all that matters is the rubles they leave there, giving a small handout to needy Ukrainians to ease their conscience, because they know which side the truth is on," the Ukrainian commented.

The woman also shared that the next day she rented an apartment on the same booking service on the other side of Cyprus, in the city of Paphos. There, she also decided to ask the owners whether they accepted tourists from Russia, and if so, under what conditions. This time, the owners turned out to be Poles. They, unlike their previous colleagues, assured her that there were Russian tourists, but not many of them - "mostly Russians who are residents of Cyprus."

"The owners refused to comment on whether it is right to rent housing to citizens of the aggressor country. Once again, we can conclude that Europeans continue to believe that only Putin is bad, but Russians are good, and that they are also just victims in this situation and need support," the Ukrainian woman shared her observations with us.

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As OBOZ.UA previously reported, a Ukrainian woman found herself in an unpleasant situation during her working visit to Oslo, Norway. The woman rented an apartment in the center of the capital, using the services of a well-known housing search platform, but once inside, she was shocked by the "pro-Russian interior" of the apartment. In particular, she was greeted by a bust of Lenin and offered to sleep on a bed with nesting dolls image on it.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Polish European Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, who is responsible for agriculture in the European Commission, threatens to disrupt the extension of EU trade preferences for Ukraine. Among other things, the European Commissioner demands a ban on imports of Ukrainian grain, as well as quotas on sugar and poultry.

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This is stated in Wojciechowski's letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Vice President for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis, RMF FM reports. The publication also notes that if the proposals are not taken into account, Wojciechowski promises not to support the EC resolution on the extension of the duty-free trade regime with Ukraine. Interagency consultations on this issue end on January 9.

In his letter to the EC leadership, Wojciechowski suggests that the new regulation should include "safeguard measures" on imports of Ukrainian rapeseed, corn, sunflower, and wheat. It is specified that these are measures that the European Commission has already applied in 2023, which was a complete ban on imports from May to September. Interestingly, Poland did not lift similar unilateral restrictions after the European Commission's embargo was lifted.

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The Polish European Commissioner also calls for the return of quotas on imports of sugar and poultry from Ukraine. According to him, imports of these products from Ukraine to the EU are "growing rapidly" and "threaten to destabilize" the EU's European market.

"Preserving trade benefits for Ukraine included in the EU regulation, which expires this year, without safeguard clauses and quantitative restrictions, threatens another crisis of excess imported agricultural products from Ukraine... We need to rethink the concept of our aid, which implies unlimited openness," Wojciechowski said in his letter.

In general, Wojciechowski blames the current situation on Russia, which has blocked Ukraine's sea export routes in the Black Sea. As an alternative form of support, the European Commissioner suggests that the EU should take care of the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products to European ports, from where the goods will be sent to Africa and Asia.

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As reported by OBOZ.UA, earlier Polish farmers lifted the blockade at the Medyka-Shegini checkpoint. This happened after the Polish government signed an agreement with the farmers on January 6, accepting their terms. These include corn subsidies, as well as guarantees of no tax increases and cheap loans.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Bell Let's Talk kicks off a new year of action and change in mental health on January 24

Canadians voice their reactions to alarming mental health statistics and issues

Bell Let's Talk continues to support organizations all across the country that provide critical services and resources for those living with mental health related issues

Bell Media features special mental health programming in English and French, including a new French language documentary, LE CLOWN EST TRISTE available on Canal Vie, Crave, Noovo.ca, and later on Noovo

MONTREAL, Jan. 8, 2024 /CNW/ - Bell Let's Talk is starting a new year by highlighting that real change is needed for mental health in Canada with a new campaign  Let's create real change  inviting Canadians to take meaningful action in mental health on Bell Let's Talk Day and throughout the year. Building on the shift in emphasis that Bell Let's Talk started in 2023 towards actions that we can all take every day, the focus for 2024 will put the spotlight on mental health organizations across the country that are providing supports and services for Canadians experiencing mental health issues  organizations that Bell Let's Talk is proud to support.

Bell Let's Talk - Let's create real change (CNW Group/Bell Canada) Bell Let's Talk multimedia campaign (CNW Group/Bell Canada) Bell Let's Talk multimedia campaign (CNW Group/Bell Canada)

Bell Let's Talk has brought awareness to the stigma around mental illness over the past fourteen years. Since then, Bell Let's Talk Day has become the world's largest conversation about mental health, increasing awareness and helping create real change. However, many people who are struggling aren't getting the help they need, and people are dying by suicide. Starting on January 24 and throughout the year, everyone  individuals, communities, workplaces and government  can take action and show their support for mental health so that all Canadians can access the mental health and addiction supports they need.

"Despite tremendous progress, real change is needed for Canadians who are struggling with their mental health. We encourage everyone to join us on January 24 and start a year of action to help address the mental health crisis our country is facing."

- Mirko Bibic, President and CEO of Bell Canada and BCE

"As we continue to focus on creating change, we are highlighting mental health organizations that provide supports and services for Canadians all around the country, helping more people get access to the care they need. There are many ways to help make a difference and we look forward to kicking off another year of action and real change for mental health in Canada."

- Mary Deacon, Chair of Bell Let's Talk

The statistics continue to be alarming:

More than 200 Canadians will attempt suicide everyday; twelve will die

The number of opioid overdose deaths in Canada is 21 per day

is 21 per day 1 in 2 Canadians struggling with mental health issues aren't receiving the help they need

1 in 8 people have struggled with severe anxiety

For more information about these statistics visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk

Let's create real change. Take action on Bell Let's Talk Day and all year long!

On January 24 and every day throughout the year, we can all take meaningful action to create change. Let's create real change asks everyone to play a role and provides practical examples of ways to create change in our homes, schools, workplaces and communities. Here are some actions we can all take:

C hoose a mental health organization to learn about or support

hoose a mental health organization to learn about or support H elp a friend struggling with their mental health by learning how to support them

elp a friend struggling with their mental health by learning how to support them A sk about how your school, workplace or community is creating change for mental health

sk about how your school, workplace or community is creating change for mental health N urture your own well-being by practicing and learning mental health strategies

urture your own well-being by practicing and learning mental health strategies G et involved in a mental health initiative or organize an event to support mental health

et involved in a mental health initiative or organize an event to support mental health Engage in conversations about mental health to fight stigma

Visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk for more ideas and share your actions using #BellLetsTalk and help inspire others to join the movement.

Multimedia campaign

The new 2024 nationwide Bell Let's Talk multimedia campaign  Let's create real change  highlights the mental health crisis Canadians are facing through the voices of people sharing their reactions to alarming statistics and issues about mental health and the need for change. Throughout the campaign, Bell Let's Talk will feature 25 mental health organizations and services, such as Canada's new suicide crisis helpline 9-8-8, that are working to address the crisis and creating real change for people in their communities around the country who need help.

"As a psychiatrist, I've seen firsthand how even one conversation can begin a dialogue that allows someone to re-engage with their strengths and to hope. That sense of connection and belonging can be transformative. If you are thinking of suicide, our message to you is: you don't have to face your problems alone. 9-8-8 can offer you a non-judgmental space to talk  whatever you are going through, please know you can always reach out to us. We're grateful to Bell Let's Talk for helping to promote this vital service."

- Dr. Allison Crawford, Chief Medical Officer, 9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline and psychiatrist, CAMH

Bell's ongoing commitment to mental health

Bell expects to reach its current commitment of $155 million by 2025.

Bell Let's Talk 2024 funding announcements include:

The Bell Let's Talk Community Fund , an annual program that provides grants up to $25,000 for local and grassroots mental health initiatives

, an annual program that provides grants up to for local and grassroots mental health initiatives The Bell Let's Talk Diversity Fund , which supports the mental health and well-being of BIPOC communities across Canada

, which supports the mental health and well-being of BIPOC communities across Canada The Bell Let's Talk Post-Secondary Fund, that supports student mental health programs

that supports student mental health programs The Bell True Patriot Love Fund , which provides grants to mental health, projects supporting military members, Veterans and their families

, which provides grants to mental health, projects supporting military members, Veterans and their families New funding for other mental health projects

Bell also supports employees and their eligible family members with workplace programs, including unlimited mental health benefits coverage. As part of Bell's objective to support workplace mental health and encourage greater workplace engagement across Canada, we also offer the Workplace Mental Health Leadership certificate program at no cost to select Bell and Bell Let's Talk partners.

Bell Media programming

As part of the new Bell Let's Talk Day campaign, Bell Media will feature special mental health content in English and French across its TV, radio and digital properties, including a new French language documentary, LE CLOWN EST TRISTE available on Canal Vie, Crave, Noovo.ca, and later on Noovo.

Visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk to see examples of actions that we can all take and learn about some of the amazing mental health organizations creating real change by increasing access to supports and services in communities from coast to coast to coast. Download the Bell Let's Talk toolkit and Conversation Guides and share your own actions using #BellLetsTalk.

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  and is part of Bell for Better . Since its launch in 2010, Bell Let's Talk has partnered with more than 1,500 organizations providing mental health 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:

[email protected]

@Bell_LetsTalk

SOURCE Bell Canada
Over 1.5 million high-risk households cannot obtain affordable flood insurance

TORONTO, Jan. 8, 2024 /CNW/ - For the second year in a row, Canada exceeded $3 billion in insured damage from natural catastrophes and severe weather events. Nationally, insured damage for severe weather events reached over $3.1 billion in 2023, according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ).

2023 Insured Catastrophic Losses (CNW Group/Insurance Bureau of Canada)

In fact, 2023 is now the fourth-worst year for insured losses in Canada. This grim statistic highlights the financial costs of a changing climate to insurers, governments and taxpayers. While 2023 was a record-breaking year for wildfires, flooding also continued to cause destruction in nearly every region across Canada.

After surveying insurers, IBC sees no change in the availability or affordability of wildfire insurance coverage across the country. However, as a result of escalating losses and revised risk modelling, Canada is viewed now as a riskier place to insure. Consequently, numerous Canadians cannot access flood insurance. It is also becoming harder for some households to obtain insurance for earthquakes and related hazards.

"The federal government committed to a national flood insurance program in last year's Federal Budget. However, progress has stalled, leaving too many Canadians vulnerable to the effects of our changing climate," said Craig Stewart, Vice-President, Climate Change and Federal Issues, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). "Once launched, this program would provide Canadians living in high-risk areas with affordable financial protection and peace of mind when a flood strikes. Details of the program must be shared with our industry and the provinces this winter if it's to be operational before the next federal election."

"Canada's property and casualty insurance industry has offered to support a comprehensive and cost-neutral flood insurance program that will replace costly Disaster Financial Assistance and save governments and taxpayers money. After seven years of study, government officials and home insurance professionals agree on this solution. Canadians now need the federal government to move forward with this program and announce details in the 2024 Federal Budget. The homes and financial health of over 1.5 million Canadians are at high and growing risk."

Noteworthy severe weather events last year include the Atlantic Canada cold snap; Ontario and Quebec spring ice storm; the Tantallon, Nova Scotia, wildfire; Nova Scotia flooding; Prairies summer storms; the Winnipeg hailstorm; Ontario severe summer storms; the Okanagan and Shuswap, BC, area wildfires; and the Behchoko-Yellowknife and Hay River, NWT, wildfires.

Insured Damage for Severe Weather Events in 2023

Canada's Top 10 Highest Insured Severe-Weather Loss Years on Record (loss and adjusted expenses in 2022 dollars )

Rank Year Total loss ($ billion) Notable severe weather events 1 2016 5.96 Fort McMurray, Alberta, fire 2 2013 3.87 Alberta floods; Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

floods; December GTA ice storm 3 2022 3.4 Multiple events 4 2023 3.13 Okanagan and Shuswap, BC, area wildfires;

Nova Scotia flooding 5 1998 2.83 Quebec ice storm 6 2021 2.48 Calgary hailstorm; British Columbia floods 7 2020 2.46 Fort McMurray flood; Calgary hailstorm 8 2018 2.40 Multiple events: Ontario and Quebec

rainstorms and windstorms 9 2011 1.97 Slave Lake, Alberta, fire and windstorm 10 2012 1.65 Calgary rainstorm









Sources 19832007: IBC, PCS Canada, Swiss Re, Deloitte. 20082021: CatIQ

"The increasing frequency and severity of climate-related disasters should be of concern to all Canadians, even if they have yet to be directly affected," added Stewart.

With today's extreme weather events, insured catastrophic losses in Canada now routinely exceed $2 billion annually, and most of it is due to water-related damage. Over the last decade, there have been more than 35 catastrophic flooding events across Canada in which insured losses exceeded $30 million per flood. Total insured losses from these events have averaged close to $800 million annually over the last decade.

CatIQ Connect

Insured damage trends, including 2023's towering total, will feature prominently at CatIQ Connect  Canada's premiere catastrophe conference. CatIQ Connect hosts a content-driven discussion to foster collaboration before, during and after catastrophic events. Stakeholders from industry, government and academia delve into detailed overviews of catastrophes, discuss strategies in catastrophe management and explore sector perspectives. Overall themes are preparedness, resilience, available tools and cross-sector collaboration for the greater good of all Canadians.

About Insurance Bureau of Canada

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is the national industry association representing Canada's private home, auto and business insurers. Its member companies make up the vast majority of the property and casualty (P&C) insurance market in Canada. For more than 50 years, IBC has worked with governments across the country to help make affordable home, auto and business insurance available for all Canadians. IBC supports the vision of consumers and governments trusting, valuing and supporting the private P&C insurance industry. It champions key issues and helps educate consumers on how best to protect their homes, cars, businesses and properties.

For media releases and more information, visit IBC's Media Centre at www.ibc.ca. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) @InsuranceBureau and like us on Facebook. If you have a question about home, auto or business insurance, contact IBC's Consumer Information Centre at 1-844-2ask-IBC.

About Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc.

Toronto-based CatIQ is a subsidiary of Zurich-based PERILS AG and delivers detailed analytical and meteorological information on Canadian natural and human-made catastrophes.

Through its online subscription-based platform, CatIQ combines comprehensive insured loss and exposure indices and other related information to better serve the needs of insurance/reinsurance/ILS industries, the public sector and other stakeholders.

CatIQ was established in 2014 with the support of the overwhelming majority of the Canadian insurance and reinsurance industry and is widely recognized as the most reliable source of catastrophe loss information in Canada. For more information, please visit https://public.catiq.com/.

SOURCE Insurance Bureau of Canada

For further information: Media Contact: Brett Weltman, Manager, Media Relations, IBC, [email protected]
Tetley challenges Canadians to redefine their approach to 'waste of time' resolutions and take life one sip at a time

TORONTO, Jan. 8, 2024 /CNW/ - Canadians want to live a more happy and balanced life, as new research from Tetley reveals that 94% want to embrace more happiness and joy, and 89% want more balance. However, it seems that stamina for goal setting is dwindling, with 57% stating they won't make a New Year's resolution for 2024.

Tetley Canada's Live Tea Collection (CNW Group/Tetley Canada)

While a quarter of Canadians admit to making resolutions with the best of intentions, they often lose motivation, and a whopping 42% categorically call them a 'waste of time'. It seems one thing is clear; despite 81% wanting to take more time to focus on their needs and wellbeing, and 83% wanting to show up better for themselves and others in 2024, Canadians are too overwhelmed to make a commitment. They shouldn't give up, however, as research by the University of Pennsylvania notes that people are more driven to tackle new goals at shared breaks like the New Year - the 'fresh start effect' is real!

Redefining Resolutions

When making resolutions, Tetley found the following ranked as Canadians' top focus:

Wellbeing, such as better sleep health, fitness or eating healthier Physicality, such as getting fit, losing weight or a makeover Self-development, such as strengthening relationships, practicing self-love or mindfulness Finance, such as saving money, paying off debts or making a will Career growth, such as getting a promotion, learning new skills or finding a job

According to Happiness Expert, Dr. Gillian Mandich; a scientist on a mission to help people live their happiest life, the secret to achieving a happier, more balanced life is to redefine your approach to resolutions:

"The dwindling popularity of New Year's resolutions signals perhaps Canadians aren't setting themselves up for success, leading to a cycle of feeling unfulfilled," says Dr. Mandich. "Often, we set lofty goals and timelines that can get thrown off when life's curveballs get in the way. However, research by Stockholm University suggests that reshaping your mindset to focus on adopting new habits, rather than avoiding or quitting them, can be more effective for lasting change. For example, rather than saying 'I will stop drinking pop to be healthier', you are more likely to be successful if you say, 'I will introduce more herbal tea and water into my day.'"

Stop and Smell the Roses

Dr. Mandich also notes that mini moments of pause can help to create an effective mindset for attaining the happiness and balance required to achieve greater goals:

"In scientific literature, stopping to smell the roses is known as 'savouring'. Savouring is about recognizing all the good things in our lives; a beautiful flower, the sun shining, or a warming cup of tea. Instead of letting a positive experience pass by, we create a more happy, balanced life for ourselves by taking the time to acknowledge, appreciate and fully enjoy it. Finding these mini moments of joy can help create a mindset that makes bigger goals seem more achievable."

2024: The year of positivi'tea'

When asked, nearly all Canadians (97%) agreed that the right mindset is important to fulfilling wellness goals. To inspire Canadians on this journey, Tetley has released a range of caffeine-free Live Teas, featuring two new flavours which speak to Canadians' desire to Live Happy and Live Balanced in 2024. The teas can act as the perfect sidekick to creating a moment of mindfulness whenever you need it.

"From walking away from your desk to boil the kettle, to the soothing sensation of sipping something warm, to connecting with someone over a cup, tea drinking is an example of an easy-to-implement ritual that encourages you to be mindful, present, and kind to yourself. I love the Live Tea collection because there's a flavour for every feeling I want to create, whether that be a Bold boost of chai before I give a talk, or a refreshing cup of Calm as I wind down after a busy day," says Dr. Mandich.

Whatever our focus for 2024, there's a Live Tea that can help Canadians channel the right mindset:

NEW Live Happy: 94% of Canadians want to embrace more joy and happiness in life. Tetley Live Happy is a vibrant herbal tea that combines the sweet flavour of mango and tangy passionfruit with lion's mane  a plant used for centuries in East Asian medicine. It's sunshine in a cup, hot or cold!

94% of Canadians want to embrace more joy and happiness in life. Tetley is a vibrant herbal tea that combines the sweet flavour of mango and tangy passionfruit with lion's mane  a plant used for centuries in East Asian medicine. It's sunshine in a cup, hot or cold! NEW Live Balanced: Every day can be a whirlwind of emotions and stressors and it's no wonder 89% of Canadians want to lead a more balanced life. Live Balanced tea is a uniquely blended caffeine-free tea, that combines dandelion with roasted chicory root and carob, resulting in a nutty and coffee-like flavour. For those sensitive to caffeine or looking to decrease caffeine intake, Live Balanced allows you to recreate the coffee experience in a new and tasty way.

Every day can be a whirlwind of emotions and stressors and it's no wonder 89% of Canadians want to lead a more balanced life. tea is a uniquely blended caffeine-free tea, that combines dandelion with roasted chicory root and carob, resulting in a nutty and coffee-like flavour. For those sensitive to caffeine or looking to decrease caffeine intake, allows you to recreate the coffee experience in a new and tasty way. Live Bold: 82% of Canadians reported they want to live life more boldly and confidently. Tetley's Live Bold provides a kick-start at any time of day with a unique blend of rooibos chai, cinnamon, clove and pepper. The rooibos base of this tea means it's naturally caffeine free, unlike traditional chai teas.

82% of Canadians reported they want to live life more boldly and confidently. Tetley's provides a kick-start at any time of day with a unique blend of rooibos chai, cinnamon, clove and pepper. The rooibos base of this tea means it's naturally caffeine free, unlike traditional chai teas. Live Calm: Nearly all Canadians (92%) want to appreciate the moments of calm on a hectic day. A cup of Live Calm, with its blend of camomile, spearmint and orange can create stillness so you can take a few deep breaths.

Nearly all Canadians (92%) want to appreciate the moments of calm on a hectic day. A cup of with its blend of camomile, spearmint and orange can create stillness so you can take a few deep breaths. Live Cool: 94% of Canadians want to be able to keep their cool in challenging situations. Live Cool allows you to unwind and feel like you can handle anything that's thrown your way with a delightful blend of peppermint and spearmint.

To learn more about the range of Tetley Live teas, visit: https://tetley.ca/collections/live-teas

* ABOUT THE SURVEY: These are the findings of a survey conducted by Tetley from December 5th to 7th, 2023 among a representative sample of 1,501 online Canadians who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. The survey was conducted in English and French. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/-2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

About Tetley

Tetley is proud to be Canada's #1 tea brand. With over 185 years of experience, their goal is simple: to make teas that help Canadians live better every day. Whether it's kickstarting your mornings with a classic cup of Orange Pekoe, making it easier (and tastier) to get your daily vitamins and minerals with Super Teas, or helping you live in the moment with Live Teas. There's a tea for every occasion.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with Happiness Expert Dr. Gillian Mandich, please contact:

Danee Wilson, [email protected]

SOURCE Tetley Canada
TORONTO, Jan. 8, 2024 /CNW/ - A beloved Tims breakfast menu item is back!

Start your morning right with a pair of delicious, fluffy and high protein Omelette Bites available in two flavours: Bacon and Cheese or Spinach and Egg White. Guests can choose one of each flavour in their order, or get two of their favourite flavour.

Tim Hortons Omelette Bites are BACK! Enjoy these delicious, fluffy and high protein breakfast options, available in two flavours: Bacon and Cheese and Spinach and Egg White (CNW Group/Tim Hortons)

Two Spinach and Egg White Omelette Bites have 13 grams of protein and contain 130 calories while two Bacon and Cheese Omelette Bites have 15 grams of protein and contain 210 calories.

"Many guests had asked us if we could bring back our Omelette Bites and we're excited that they're now on the menu again at participating restaurants across Canada," said Hope Bagozzi, Chief Marketing Officer for Tim Hortons.

"For guests who are looking for a delicious, light, high protein breakfast an order of two Omelette Bites is a great option  and they also make for a great afternoon snack!"

Also New at Tims

Tim Hortons is celebrating its 60th anniversary with Canadians and has an exciting list of plans to commemorate the big milestone  including the return of four retro donuts for a limited time! New cups, donut and Timbit boxes, and other packaging with a Tims 60th anniversary logo are being rolled out now to Tim Hortons restaurants across Canada, while the Dutchie, Blueberry Fritter, Cinnamon Sugar Twist and Walnut Crunch will be back starting this Wednesday.

ABOUT TIM HORTONS

In 1964, the first Tim Hortons restaurant in Hamilton, Ontario opened its doors and Canadians have been ordering Tim Hortons iconic Original Blend coffee, Double-Double coffees, Donuts and Timbits in the years since. Over nearly 60 years, Tim Hortons has captured the hearts and taste buds of Canadians and has become synonymous with serving Canada's favourite coffee. Tim Hortons is Canada's largest restaurant chain operating in the quick service industry with nearly 4,000 restaurants across the country. More than a coffee and bake shop, Tim Hortons is part of the Canadian fabric and guests can enjoy hot and cold specialty beverages  including lattes, cappuccinos and espressos, teas and our famous Iced Capps  alongside delicious breakfast, sandwiches, wraps, soups and more. Tim Hortons has more than 5,700 restaurants in Canada, the United States and around the world. For more information on Tim Hortons visit TimHortons.ca

SOURCE Tim Hortons

For further information: [email protected]
There were announcements every week in 2023 on Large Language Models. It appears that there will be similar pace of announcements with humanoid robots in 2024.

The leaders are Teslabot, Sanctuary AI and Figure. However, there are dozens of other companies.

Nextbigfuture has written just days ago that Elon Musk will likely speed up the scaling of AI training compute from going up 5 to 10 times in 2024 from 15 Exaflops to 100 Exaflops by October, 2024 and maybe 150 Exaflops by Dec 2024 towards 100 times in 2024. This would be striving to reach 1500 Exaflops of AI training compute be December 2024. Elon Musk described how there is project in Kuwait for 2025 that will zettaflops of compute and a gigawatt of power for 2025.

The timeline split of AI vs Robot Hardware has changed the last 90 days ive witnessed industry leading AI in our lab running on humanoid hardware, and frankly its blown me away im watching robots performing complex tasks entirely with neural nets. AI trained tasks that i pic.twitter.com/B59zBIgW3l  Brett Adcock (@adcock_brett) December 26, 2023

There is an Open Source robot, ALOHA, with standard off the shelf hardware and three Stanford PHDs working on it part time that can perform cooking and household chores. There is a split between all autonomous AI and teleoperation.

There are multiple humanoid robotic companies with advanced hand control. Sanctuary AI has about $100 million in funding and has piloted its humandoid robots performing dozens of tasks at a Canadian Tire owned store.



Sanctuary AI humandoid robot was making coffee two years ago. They have a mix of automation and teleoperation.


There may be a political will in the European Council to avoid the presidency of Viktor Orban, the Hungarian leader who has been criticized for his pro-Russian stance. If so, European leaders have enough time to choose another successor to the current president of the European Council, Charles Michel.

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Charles Michel himself said this in a comment to journalists on January 7, Reuters reports. To recap: On January 6, Michel, a former Belgian Prime Minister, announced his decision to run for the EU parliamentary elections in June 2024. This means that he will leave the presidency of the European Council before his term expires at the end of November.

Since Hungary holds the EU Council presidency from July to December, Prime Minister Orban could chair the European Council meeting.

"I want to make it clear: in any case, a decision on my successor should be made in June, and the decision on [my transfer to the European] Parliament will be made in July. Therefore, it is easy for the Council to make a decision, to appoint my successor to the post," Michel assured.

He added that "there are many tools if there is a political will to avoid Orban" at the head of the European Council.

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As OBOZ.UA previously reported:

- A meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban may take place in the near future. The teams of both leaders are working on organizing it, the office of the President of Ukraine said.

- It became known in December 2023 that Orban had agreed to meet with Zelensky "sometime in the future."

Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
The Russian Federation is trying very hard to hide the consequences of the attack on the military airfield in Saki (temporarily occupied Crimea). This may be an indirect indicator that the attack has worked.

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This assumption was made by Natalia Gumenyuk, head of the Joint Press Center of the Operational Command "South", commenting on the "cotton" in Crimea on the air of the telethon "United News". As a reminder, the explosions near the Saki airfield occurred on the night of January 5-6.

"We have completed combat work on a military facility of significant importance. Let's hope that the consequences that are still being investigated will be even more convincing. The fact how hard the Russians are trying to hide them is an indirect evidence of this," noted Humeniuk.

She said that this is a command and control facility, i.e., a concentration of the distribution of forces and means and coordination of air traffic, among other things.

"It is also a facility where ammunition was supposed to be stored... We hope that the data being investigated will be as extensive as possible," said a representative of the South Command.

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Spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Yuriy Ihnat also spoke about the attack on the Russian airfield Saki during the telethon. He said that there was a protected bunker on the territory, which was used as a control center. It was previously hit by cruise missiles.

"There is intelligence data, there is radio communication that the missiles reached their target," Ihnat said. At the same time, the Russians traditionally claimed to the public that all the missiles were intercepted by their air defense system.

"We have the appropriate objective control that there was a hit. There is no information yet on how serious the consequences of this strike are," the Air Force spokesman said.

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As OBOZ.UA wrote:

- On the night of January 6, four Storm Shadow cruise missiles struck an administrative building at the Saki military airfield near the occupied Novofedorivka (Crimea).

- The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine said that the Main Intelligence Directorate, the Air Force and the Armed Forces conducted a complex special operation, during which on January 4 they struck Russian radar positions at the Saki airfield and a military depot near Hryshyno (60 km northeast of Yevpatoria).

- The Institute for the Study of War then noted that Ukrainian missiles and drones are capable of penetrating enemy air defense.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!




Popular Ghanaian actress Nadia Buari has welcomed baby number 5 with her mystery husband.





The thespian disclosed this via her verified Instagram account on Sunday.





She shared a photo of herself and her newborn, whose gender she kept hidden.





In her caption, Buari stated that she has been blessed with another beautiful blessing.





Fans and colleagues thronged to the comment section to congratulate the delectable actress.





Recall that Nadia Buari revealed in an interview in 2019 that she is married with four kids. She, however, did not share information about the man she was married to or when and where she got married.




The National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, on Sunday confirmed that about eight persons died while 38 others were rescued in a boat mishap that occurred in Anambra State.





Although the Anambra State Police Command said five persons died while 30 were rescued, the NIWA General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Alhaji Jibril Dardau, in a statement issued in Lokoja on Sunday confirmed eight dead.





Dardau said the sad and unfortunate incident happened at Umumu Anam, Anambra West Local Government Area, between Thursday and Friday.





The authority sincerely commiserates with the families and friends of the deceased and prays to God to grant rest to their souls, he said.





According to him, preliminary reports indicated that the wooden engine boat rammed into a snag on the water channel and capsized with 50 passengers on board.





From the records, eight persons were confirmed dead at the scene, while 38 others were rescued immediately.





The sad incident involved a passenger boat travelling from Idah in Kogi to Onitsha in Anambra, he added.
Abductors have demanded N30m ransom before the release of seven family members kidnapped in Zuma, Bwari Central ward of the Federal Territory Capital, Abuja.

It could be recalled that bandits five days ago invaded the house of the victims, killed one person, while two policemen sustained bullet injuries in an attempt to foil the kidnap.

According to a source on Sunday, contact was established last Saturday.

He said, The man who was negotiating with the bandits tried to explain the financial situation in the country but the bandits leader cut off the call abruptly.

The source explained that the bandits leader was yet to contact the victims family again after the initial conversation.




The election of Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has been upheld by the Supreme Court.





The Governor, who won under the All Progressives Congress, APC, defeated the governorship candidate of the PDP, Titus Uba.





The governorship election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Abuja had affirmed the election of Alia as governor of Benue State.





Uba, who was not pleased with the judgments, approached the Supreme Court for redress.
The Kogi State Government under Governor Yahaya Bello has deposed a first class traditional ruler, the Ohimege Igu, Konto-Nkarfe, Alhaji Abdulrazaq Isa Koto.

The deposed monarch was also banished to Rijau Local Government area of Niger State.

The state governor, Yayaha Bello also appointed Alhaji Salihu Akawu Seidu, popularly known as SAS, to replace the deposed Ohimege.

He (Seidu) is to be turbaned immediately to avoid vacuum Bello stated.

The governor also announced the appointment of Alhaji Ahmed Tijani Anaje, who until now is the Ohi of Okenwen, as the new Ohinoyi of Ebiraland.

Announcing the developments shortly after a meeting of the State Executive Committee, Bello said, Having followed through our Traditional and Chieftaincy Laws, Rules and Regulations and all the due processes, we have come to the following resolutions.

His Royal Highness, Alhaji Abdulrazaq Isah Koto, the Ohimege-Igu Koton-Karfe, who is also the Chairman, Lokoja/ Kogi Local Government Area Traditional Council is hereby removed and to be deposed to, Rijau Local Government Area of Niger State.

His Royal Highness, Sam Bola Ojo, the Olu Magongo of Magongo is removed and to be deposed to Salka, Magama Local Government Area of Niger State.

His Royal Highness, Samuel Adayi Onimisi, the Obobanyi of Emani, is removed and to be deposed to Doko, Lavun Local Government Area of Niger State.

That Similarly, on decision No. 3, the title OBOBANYI OF IHIMA which reads on the promotion letter, upgrading the stool to first class status, was done without cognisance to the fact that the title; OBOBANYI OF IHIMA is a subject of litigation and the court of law is yet to arrive at the possible final decision, as such, the Government have however received several petitions, calling attention to the need to revert and maintain status quo, until the court of law decides.

To this end, the stool is hereby reverted to OBOBANYI OF EMANI as the present occupant remains deposed.

His Royal Highness, Boniface Musa, the ONU-IFE in Omala Local Government is to be suspended, indefinitely.

On the following stools, after due intervention by the Government to resolve the lingering controversies that have characterized the selection process, the Government hereby, come up with the following appointments of the next occupants.

Alhaji Ibrahim Gambo Kabir is hereby appointed as the MAIGARI OF LOKOJA.

Alhaji Dauda Isah, is hereby appointed as the MAIYAKI OF KUPA.

Similarly, going by the selection decision of the ODAKI RULING HOUSE, dated 27/4/2012 and endorsed by the Lokoja/Kogi Local Government Area Traditional Council, dated 14/5/2012, Mallam Saidu Akawo Salihu is hereby appointed as the OHIMEGE-IGU KOTON-KARFE and to be turbaned immediately to avoid vacuum.

Finally, going by the high court judgment of 1998, which give full recognition to ODODO as bonafide child of ITAAZI the father of Ebira land and UHUODO as a distinct district in Ebira land with equal rights as others, therefore, the stool of OHI OF UHUODO is hereby created and processes for the occupation of the stool to commence with immediate effect.
Justice Olukayode Adeniyi of the FCT High Court on Monday awarded N100 million in damages to the suspended former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, against the Federal Government and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for violations of his rights.

The embattled Emefiele had dragged the Federal Government, Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and EFCC to enforce his fundamental rights to life, personal liberty, fair hearing, and freedom of movement.

Emefiele sought a declaration from the court that his continued detention by the agency of the first and second respondents since June 10, 2023, and subsequent transfer to the custody of the third and fourth respondents on October 26, 2023, without being arraigned in court is unlawful.

He said the respondent, in defiance of several valid subsisting court orders for his release, amounts to a grave violation of his fundamental rights to life and personal liberty, as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

He, therefore, among others, sought an injunction restraining the respondents from further arresting and/or further detaining him on his release by the court without presenting a criminal charge against him.

He also sought damages in the amount of N1 billion in his favour for the violation of his fundamental rights.
Former Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, said yesterday that the PDP G5 group would support President Bola Tinubus re-election in 2027.

According to him, the group has no regret for supporting the president in the last poll.





Ortom stated this at a luncheon hosted by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, at his Port Harcourt residence.

Ahead of the presidential poll, Ortom alongside former governors Okezie Ikpeazu, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Nyesom Wike, and Governor Seyi Makinde who make up the group rejected Atiku Abubakar as the Peoples Democratic Partys presidential candidate vowing to back a southern candidate.

The poll was eventually won by President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress. While Wike joined Tinubs cabinet, Ortom, Ikpeazu, and Ugwanyi all lost their senatorial bids.

Addressing the gathering at the Lucheon, Ortom declared that the PDP G5 would again back Tinubu for a second term in office as Nigerias president.

If we dont work to ensure Bola Ahmed succeeds, there will not be tomorrow for anybody to even contest the election at all.

Our leader, Nyesom Wike, has already made a declaration that in 2027, we are supporting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

We have nowhere to go because that is what Nigerians believe. Even the past administration that took Nigeria from top to bottom, we allowed them to work for eight years.

So, why cant a seasoned administrator in the person of President Tinubu rule us for eight years? he asked.
Aloy Ejimakor, the Special Counsel to Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has lamented that killer Fulani herders are subduing Amotekun in the Southwest.

Ejimakor lamented that while herders are ravaging Yorubaland, the Lagos State Government was demolishing properties belonging to Igbos in the state.

Posting on X, the constitutional lawyer wrote: News: Fulani herdsmen are currently ravaging Yorubaland, subduing Amotekun & causing Yorubas to flee their homes & farms.

In another news: Igbo properties are being demolished in Lagos & Igbos are being accused of plotting to take over Yorubaland (Lagos).

He also decried the rate of checkpoints in the Southeast over Kanus non-release while terrorists massacred people in Plateau and Kaduna States.

From the Christmas Eve genocidal massacre in Plateau to the ongoing carnage in Kaduna, TERRORISTS are on a rampage in a sparsely-policed Northern Nigeria, whereas theres a per half-a-mile army/police checkpoint in the Southeast as a bulwark for not freeing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, he added.
In a massive missile attack on Ukraine on the morning of January 8, Russian invaders hit Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipro region. A shopping center and more than two dozen private homes were damaged.

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Four people were injured, one of the victims was hospitalized, and a woman was killed by the attackers in Kryvyi Rih district. This was reported by the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration Serhii Lysak.

"The enemy fired at civilians again. He sent rockets at people. They hit Kryvyi Rih. A shopping center and more than two dozen private houses were damaged. A 58-year-old man received shrapnel wounds. He is in a satisfactory condition," said the head of the Regional military administrations at 09:24.

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A video of the destroyed mall was posted on local social media, claiming that it was the largest in Kryvyi Rih. In a nearby hospital, the blast wave shattered windows.

According to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, in Kryvyi Rih, in particular, the occupiers destroyed a private house: three people may be trapped under the rubble.

In addition, the Lozuvata community of Kryvyi Rih district was attacked. A private house was destroyed as a result of the attack.

A 62-year-old woman was killed.

As of 12:00, the number of wounded increased: four people were injured in Kryvyi Rih and Kryvyi Rih district. One person was hospitalized in moderate condition.

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Later, Lysak posted photos of the aftermath of enemy strikes in the Dnipro region: in addition to Novomoskovsk, Russian missiles hit Kryvyi Rih and the Kryvyi Rih district on the morning of January 8.

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As a reminder, on the morning of January 8, Russia launched a new attack on Ukraine, launching missiles from Tu-95MS and Kinzhali.

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First, at around 6 a.m., 11 Russian Tu-95MS bombers launched from the Caspian Sea.

In addition, Russian Su-35/Su-34 aircraft were launched from the north. And about seven MiG-31K fighters took off from the Savasleyka airfield in the Nizhny Novgorod region of the Russian Federation, after which the Air Force announced that the occupiers had launched Kinzhal ballistic missiles.

The first explosions occurred in Dnipro, followed by Kryvyi Rih, Khmelnytskyi, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv. There were civilians killed and injured.

For example, in Novomoskovsk in the Dnipro region alone, more than 20 people were injured, including five children aged 4 to 17.

In the Kharkiv region, the occupiers struck at Kharkiv and Zmiiv . They targeted industrial facilities, but traditionally hit houses. In Kharkiv, there were no casualties, and in Zmiiv, rescuers are looking for people under the rubble. As of 11:00 a.m., one Russian casualty has been reported in the town.

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The Lagos State Government has unveiled plans for a massive crackdown on illegal buildings in 2024.





The Commissioner for Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Oluyinka Olumide disclosed this in a recent statement by the Director of Public Affairs, LASPPA, Abimbola Emdin-Umehin Lagos.





According to him, the state government will no longer tolerate illegality.





Olumide was speaking amid the resumption of the enforcement activities by Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority officials in the Ikeja area.





He expressed displeasure at the building under construction at Isaac John Street by Oba Dosunmu Street, GRA Ikeja, whose developer was granted a 6-floor mixed-use construction by the authority but allegedly illegally added two floors to the ongoing construction.





The developer must meet all attached conditions for the property to be regularised or to remove the additional two floors illegally added before the building can be unsealed.





The Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development will work closely with relevant agencies to identify and penalise offenders.





The government will not tolerate any violations of the laws and will take necessary actions against those who engage in illegal development activities.





With the start of Y2024, the Lagos State Government is determined to crack down on unlawful development activities and ensure strict adherence to the physical planning permit laws, emphasising the importance of maintaining order and creating a safe and organised environment for all residents of Lagos, he stated.
President Bola Tinubu has directed that a thorough and comprehensive investigation into the N585.2 million scandal involving the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Beta Edu.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, disclosed this in a statement he personally signed on Sunday.

The minister acknowledged the concerns raised by the public regarding the alleged payment of funds into a private account by the Ministry.

According to the minister, the Federal Government, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is transparent and accountable to the people.

He stressed that the government is committed to ensuring that public funds are allocated and utilized effectively and efficiently to address the needs of Nigerians.

In light of recent events, the President has directed that a thorough and comprehensive investigation be conducted to ascertain the accuracy and validity of the reported details.

The government is determined to unravel the truth as it relates to this matter, and assures that appropriate action will be taken to ensure that any breaches and infractions are identified and decisively punished, in line with the Administrations commitment to public accountability and due process.

The public is advised to note, against the backdrop of various unverified narratives circulating on the Internet, that the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, under the leadership of Minister Mohammed Idris, is the primary source for verified information about events and actions of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Only accurate details will be shared with the public. The Ministry is committed to providing timely updates to keep Nigerians informed about the progress of the investigation.

We urge Nigerians to exercise patience as the investigation unfolds. The government is focused on ensuring a fair and unbiased process, and the findings will be communicated duly and transparently to the public, Idris stated.
Amid the lingering political crisis in Rivers State, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has said he had no regrets about making Siminalayi Fubara governor.

Wike said the decision to make Fubara governor was made to ensure unity in the state.

Speaking at a New Year luncheon he organised in his country home, Rumueprikom, in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the Rivers State on Sunday, the minister said he and some leaders of the state picked and worked for Fubaras emergence.

The immediate past governor also recounted buying nomination forms for Fubara and others who contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state.

According to Wike: Those who open their mouths to talk dont know anything. I was the one who paid for the forms for anybody who wanted to run for elections as governor, House of Assembly and National Assembly. Let one person raise his hand and say he bought forms.

We say we are all family members with no need for acrimony. Dont spend your money, we will agree on who will run. The day we made the final decision, the Chairman of the elders council nearly collapsed.

He is here. OCJ Okocha was there, Awuse was there. Omehia was there. He nearly collapsed. Why? He wanted a governor from the riverine area.

When I looked at him, I said, Why will I allow this old man to just die. I say lets not create the impression that there are people who want to monopolise power.

Lets allow everybody to be part of it because we belong to one Rivers State. If I had wanted, nobody would have stopped me. Nobody had what it takes to even be near me.

And to God be the glory, I dont regret what I did and I will never regret what I did because I want the unity of this state for us to forge ahead. If I wanted an Ikwerre man, nobody would have stopped me.
No fewer than 25 persons have given eyewitness accounts bordering on allegations of s#xual assault, physical abuse, faked miracles and trauma -allegedly suffered in the hands of a late Nigerian pastor, Temitope Joshua, aka TB Joshua, BBC reports Monday.

Joshua, one of Africas most influential religious leaders and richest pastors, had the world at his feet during his lifetime.

He was the founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, a 12-storey building, situated in the Ikotun area of Lagos State, where he lived alongside many of his followers.

Joshua was popular for his miracles  which delivered people  followers and visitors  of any ailment, ranging from cancer and HIV/AIDS to chronic migraines and blindness.

The healings performed by Joshua caught the attention of a far-reaching global audience among evangelical churches throughout Europe and Africa in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Many of his followers were drawn by his philanthropy, but most came for his so-called miracles.

The clergy, born in 1963, died on Saturday, June 5, 2021, a week before his 58th birthday.

The cause of his death was not revealed.

However, a statement by the church said the clergyman spent his last moment on earth in the service of God.

However, the BBC said it conducted a two-yearinvestigation,in collaboration with an international media platform  Open Democracy, which involved more than 15 BBC journalists across three continents.

The report stated that former insiders estimated that Joshua made tens of millions of dollars from pilgrims and other money streams  fundraising, video sales, and stadium appearances abroad.

The investigation centered around allegations of sexual assault, physical abuse, solitary confinement, and fake miracles, amongst others.

More than 25 eyewitnesses and alleged victims, from the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, US, South Africa and Germany, have provided accounts of what it was like inside Joshuas compound, with the most recent experiences in 2019.

Testimony from dozens of survivors suggests Joshua was abusing and raping young women from around the world several times a week for nearly 20 years. the report noted.

One of the victims who was part of the disciples, an elite group of followers who served and lived with Joshua inside his compound; 21-year-old female Briton, Rae, gave a recount of her experience.

She was, at that time, studying graphic design at a university in Brighton, UK, in 2002.

A close friend of Rae, Carla, recalled how they both travelled to Nigeria in search of a mysterious man who could seemingly heal people with his hands. He was a Christian pastor, with a black beard, in white robes. His name was TB Joshua. His followers called him The Prophet.

Rae and Carla planned to visit his church, the SCOAN, for just one week. But Rae never came home. She had moved into Joshuas compound.

I left her there, says Carla, tears flowing freely. Never will I ever forgive myself for that.

For me, it was like she died, but I couldnt grieve her, Carla revealed.

Rae, in her account, stated that she was gay and thought being healed by Joshua would solve her predicament.

She narrated, I was gay and I didnt want to be, she says. I thought: Well, maybe this is the answer to my problems. Maybe this man can straighten me out. Like if he prays for me, I wont be gay anymore.'

Rae described the moment she stepped foot into the Synagogue, saying, I had a really involuntary reaction. I just broke down in floods of tears.

She stated that at that point, Joshua singled her out to become a disciple.

She had thought the clergyman would cure her sexuality and learn under his tutelage, but to her imagination, her thought never materialised.

We all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell, adding, And in hell terrible things happen.

Rae narrated how she went through psychological trauma for two years, during which she was forbidden from leaving the compound, and nobody inside was allowed to talk to her., adding that she attempted to commit suicide five times.

Many of the victims said it happened frequently  as much as two to four times a week  for the duration of their time in the compound. Some described violent rapes which left them struggling to breathe or bleeding.





Many believed they were the only ones being assaulted and did not dare share what was happening to them with the other disciples, as they were all encouraged to report on each other.

Rae noted that its extremely difficult to understand how somebody can go through psychological abuse to the extent that they lose their critical thinking.

I was basically in total isolation I had a complete breakdown. I tried to commit suicide five times, she said.

After spending 12 years inside Joshuas compound, Rae returned to England.

She had slipped away from the disciples while travelling with the church on a tour to Mexico, stating, He made a huge mistake, he lost control of me.

Rae stated that it was only after she left that she realised that her family and friends had been sending her emails. She had never received them.

On the outside, I look normal, but Im not. This story is like a horror story. Its like something you watch in fiction, but its true, Rae said while she recalled the tragic trauma and the impacts its had on her.

She expressed her disappointment that Joshua didnt wait to face the consequences of the atrocities he had committed before his death.

TB Joshua dying before facing justice for the atrocities he committed, has been deeply frustrating. Its only added to the gross sense of injustice felt by all of us as his victims, she noted.

BBC stated that it contacted SCOAN with the allegations in the investigation. They did not respond to them but denied previous claims against Joshua.

Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence None of the allegations was ever substantiated, the church stated.

The BBC stated that former followers have previously tried to speak out about abuse, but say they had been silenced or discredited by SCOAN, while two said they were physically assaulted.

When the BBCs Africa Eye was filming outside the church, a security guard shot above the heads of the crew after they refused to hand over their material, the report noted.

A Nigerian, Bisola, who was also a disciple, stated that she was raped multiple times by the late clergyman.

Bisola, who spent 14 years inside the compound, added that she was asked to recruit virgin girls into the disciple fold under threats of violence.

TB Joshua asked me to recruit virgins for him So that he could bring them into the disciple-fold and disvirgin them, she revealed.

Bisola told the BBC that courting Westerners was a key tactic employed by Joshua

He used the white people to market his brand, she said.

The report stated that many of the young people who left their home countries to meet Joshua in the early 2000s didnt pay for their tickets.

It added that Church groups across England raised funds to send pilgrims to Lagos to witness these miracles  and Joshua contributed Scoan money himself, senior former church insiders said.

Later, once the church was well established, Joshua charged high prices for pilgrims to come and stay.

A broadcast journalist in Namibia, Jessica Kaimu, narrated that she was raped by Joshua at the age of 17, in the bathroom of his penthouse, within weeks of her becoming a disciple.

She stated that Joshua wasnt moved by her screams, saying, I was screaming and he was whispering in my ear that I should stop acting like a baby I was so traumatised, I couldnt cry.

Kaimu noted that she was raped for five years throughout her stay as a disciple.

A woman who craved anonymity stated that it happened to her twice before the age of 15.

It was so painful, he violated me. Words cannot properly express it. It scarred me for life, she said.

The report noted that there were accounts by four of Joshuas male personal servants who were given the job of clearing up the physical evidence of this abuse.

Wed never seen anything like that before, said a journalist who covers African religion, Solomon Ashoms, adding, The mysteries that he had, the secrets that he carried, [were] what people followed.

Another victim, Victoria (not real name), stated that she spent more than five years in the compound, adding that some victims were often hand-picked by Joshua from the church congregation.

While recounting her ordeal, Victoria said she was picked out while attending the churchs Sunday school, and says she was raped in Joshuas private quarters a few months later, after her parents entrusted her into his care.

She was later recruited as a resident disciple.

Victoria said Joshua ordered some of his most trusted Nigerian disciples to help identify new victims, identifying the group which was informally known as the fishing department.

A former South African disciple, Sihle, narrated that she had three forced abortions in the church.

Sihle said, You are given a concoction to drink and you get sick. Or they put these metal pieces in your vagina and they extract whatever. And you dont know whether theyre [accidentally] pulling out your womb.

The investigative report noted that the disciples served Joshuas every need, from massages to helping him dress, and spray his perfume when he entered the room.

They also placed plastic gloves on his hands so he could eat his food without touching a crumb.

A man once regarded as Joshuas number two in the church, Agomoh Paul, who left after 10 years in the compound, revealed that the whole miracle thing was scripted.

That guy [was] a genius. Everything [he did was] planned out, Paul stated.

A major part of this planning was the faking of the miracles said Paul, which he noted he oversaw.

He and other sources say that those cured had often been paid to perform or exaggerate their symptoms before their supposed healing took place.

In some cases, they say, people had been unknowingly drugged or given medicine to improve their conditions while at the church, and later persuaded to give testimony about their recovery. Others were falsely told they had tested positive for HIV/AIDS and that, thanks to Joshuas ministrations, they had now become virus-free.

Paul also noted that Joshua wanted to control everybody, everything. What he was really scrambling for [was] the control of peoples minds.

The disciples said they were made to work, without pay, for long hours each day  running all aspects of the megachurch. All say sleep deprivation was routine, with lights left on in the dormitories at night, the report stated.

The church, which is still in operation today, is led by his widow, Evelyn.

In his lifetime, Joshua attracted dozens of politicians and celebrities to his church.




President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, directed the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, to investigate all financial transactions involving the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.





Dr Betta Edu was the minister in charge of the ministry until the President suspended her on Monday.





Besides her suspension, Tinubu directed that the anti-graft agency to probe transactions of agencies under the ministry.





This was contained in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Ajuri Ngelale.





Edu came under criticism after a leaked memo on December 20, 2023 revealed that she directed the Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, to transfer N585m to a private account owned by one Oniyelu Bridget, who the ministry claimed currently serves as the Project Accountant, Grants for Vulnerable Groups.





But in the statement on Monday, Tinubu said he was committed to uphold the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and accountability in the management of the commonwealth of Nigerians.





The statement read, In line with his avowed commitment to uphold the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and accountability in the management of the commonwealth of Nigerians, President Bola Tinubu suspends the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, from office with immediate effect.





The President further directs the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions involving the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, as well as one or more agencies thereunder.





The suspended minister is hereby directed to hand over to the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, and she is further directed by the President to fully cooperate with the investigating authorities as they conduct their investigation.





Furthermore, the President has tasked a panel that is headed by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance to, among other functions, conduct a comprehensive diagnostic on the financial architecture and framework of the social investment programmes with a view to conclusively reforming the relevant institutions and programmes in a determined bid to eliminate all institutional frailties for the exclusive benefit of disadvantaged households and win back lost public confidence in the initiative.





These directives of the President take immediate effect.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Daniel Bwala said President Bola Tinubu will spend eight years in office as president if opposition party fails to form a coalition ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Bwala stated this in an interview on Channels Televisions Politics Today on Tuesday.

He said, Without a coalition of political parties, Tinubu is going to spend the next eight years. That one is for sure.

The truth of the matter is that there will be a coalition of political parties that will be very strong. This is a fact that I know. The coalition that is coming will swallow some of the elements that are creating the problems in the various political parties, he added.

Meanwhile, Bwala accused Tinubu of instigating crises in opposition parties, making reference to the political crises confronting the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

On the political crisis in Rivers State, Bwala predicted that Governor Siminalayi Fubara would be removed from office, adding that he already stepped into the trap set for him.

Although he didnt indicate who set trap for Fubara, Bwala called for prayers for the governor.

He said, As for Rivers, you only need to pray for that governor. The governor does not know what is even happening. Only time will tell what is happening.

But if he (Fubara) says that is the path he has chosen, you can only wish him well.
Atlantic City residents were cleared to resume using their tap water Sunday afternoon after the Jersey Shore city lifted a boil water advisory that was issued on Friday.

High levels of turbidity, or cloudiness, were detected in tests of the citys municipal water supply, prompting officials on Friday to caution residents against using the water without boiling it. Turbidity has no health effects, but it can interfere with water being disinfected, allowing for possible microbial growth, officials said.

Residents on Friday were urged to use bottled water or not to drink the tap water without boiling it for at least one minute.

The advisory was lifted on Sunday after tests by the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority were returned by the state Department of Environmental Protection showing no signs of contamination, officials said.

Residents on Sunday were encouraged to run faucets for three to five minutes to flush the service lines. They were also asked to clear ice makers and clean and treat water heaters below 113 degrees.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Eric Conklin may be reached at econklin@njadvancemedia.com.
Winter officially began less than three weeks so days are getting slightly longer and the start of Daylight Saving Time 2024 is less than nine weeks away.

Clocks will spring forward one hour overnight on at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 10.

The sun will set at around 6 p.m. in New Jersey on Saturday, March 9. The following day, after the time shift and the end of standard time, sunset is at 7 p.m. The sun will, however, rise nearly an hour later  at about 7:16 a.m. on Sunday, March 10, after coming up at 6:18 a.m. on Saturday, March 9.

Spring will officially arrive at 11:06 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19.

Daylight Savings Time 2024: When does Daylight Saving Time start, clocks spring forward one hour?Canva for NJ.com

In the meantime, the amount of daylight we have each day in New Jersey will continue to slowly increase. On Jan. 19 the sun will set at 5 p.m. or later for the first time since Daylight Saving Time ended in early November.

Daylight Saving Time, sometimes incorrectly referred to by the plural Daylight Savings Time, begins the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday in November. This year it concludes on Nov. 3, 2024 at 2 a.m.

Until 2007, Daylight Saving Time began at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in April and ended at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October.

While most states change clocks for Daylight Saving Time, there are some holdouts.

Most of Arizona and all of Hawaii does not observe Daylight Saving Time. In addition, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands do not participate in Daylight Saving Time.

Indiana didnt start observing Daylight Saving Time until 2006.

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 allows states to exempt themselves from observing Daylight Saving Time.

Four bills were introduced in the state legislature in New Jersey in 2022 that would establish Daylight Saving Time as the official time year-round, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Two are pending, but any bill would need authorization of the U.S. Congress to be implemented as federal law does not allow year-round Daylight Saving Time.

While the U.S. Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act in March 2022, the House of Representatives didnt act on it so it never reached the desk of President Joe Biden.

In 2023, 12 U.S. senators re-introduced the bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

Nineteen states have either passed resolutions or passed legislation calling for permanent Daylight Saving Time, the NCSL said.

A CBS News poll in 2022 showed 46% of Americans prefer year-round Daylight Saving Time, with 33% wanting year-round Standard Time and the remaining 21% happy to continue to switch back and forth.

What role did Benjamin Franklin play in Daylight Saving Time?

Benjamin Franklin is credited with coming up with the notion of making better use of the days light. While visiting Paris in 1784, Franklin came to believe that sunlight was being wasted during the day. In a joking letter to the editors of a Paris newspaper, Franklin proposed a tax on all Parisians whose windows were closed after sunrise.

He believed that this would encourage the economy of using sunshine instead of candles, according to Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time.

During World War I, the German Empire implemented an idea that most resembles the Daylight Saving Time that we observe today.

Believing that it would conserve fuel during the war, the German Empire in 1916 became the first to switch its clocks to save daylight.

In 1918, the U.S. enacted the first Daylight Saving Time law as a way to conserve fuel. It was reintroduced during World War II.

The U.S. put nationwide, year-round daylight saving into effect during World War II starting on Feb. 9, 1942, thinking it would help conserve energy, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Nicknamed War Time, it remained in effect until September 1945 when Japan surrendered.

In 1973, President Nixon signed into law the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act, which made DST permanent in the U.S. This helped reduce confusion throughout the country with some regions of the U.S. participating in the practice and some regions opting out. The law was redacted less than a year later, though.

A common misconception is that Daylight Saving Time was implemented as a way to improve farming practices. However, this is a myth.

During the early adoption of the practice in the U.S., farmers were among the biggest opponents of Daylight Saving Time, believing that it would disrupt their farming practices.

Not really, even though that was cited in the 2005 Energy Policy Act that extended Daylight Saving Time by a month.

A study three years later by the U.S. Department of Energy determined that the extended daylight throughout the year of 2005 saved a mere .5% in electricity use per day and only about .3% over the entire year.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com
Mary Kopko and her late husband Jon loved to travel.

They really enjoyed cruises, Kopko said, and they usually took two a year.
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On the morning of January 8, the Russian terrorist army launched another massive missile attack on Ukraine. The enemy fired dozens of missiles of various types and modifications at different regions of our country.

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A significant number of them were flying on a ballistic trajectory, which is a difficult target for Ukraine's air defense systems. Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said this during the telethon.

According to him, Ukrainian servicemen lack modern Western air defense systems to combat Russian missiles. This is primarily about ballistic missiles.

During the morning attack on January 8, Putin's terrorists launched X-22 and Kinzhal missiles. The enemy also fired at Ukrainian cities with Iskander and S-300 and S-400 air defense systems.

"The enemy launched a large number of ballistic missiles. These are "Daggers" and missiles that enter the target on a ballistic trajectory - X-22, 6 ballistic "Iskanders", S-300/S-400. All of this flies on a ballistic trajectory. We need to understand that such targets can only be shot down by means that can do this, in particular, by Patriot systems," Ihnat said.

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He added that the percentage of destruction of cruise missiles, in particular X-101, remains at the same level. On the morning of January 8, Ukrainian soldiers shot down 18 out of 24 such missiles. In addition, Ihnat emphasized that not all the missiles fired by the Russians reached their target.

On the morning of January 8, air alert was declared in all regions of Ukraine due to the launch of missiles, including "Daggers", by Russia. At night, the aggressor country sent more than a dozen Tu-95MS and MiG-31K aircraft into the sky, and at about 06:45 the first explosions were heard in Dnipro, followed by Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia, and Khmelnytskyi.

Earlier it was reported that the Russian terrorist army launched a series of missile attacks on the Kharkiv region. The regional center and the city of Zmiyiv in Chuhuiv district came under enemy fire. Once again, Putin's terrorists targeted civilian homes.

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As reported by OBOZ.UA, Russian terrorists launched rocket attacks on Zaporizhzhia. As a result of the enemy shelling, there are victims among civilians. As a result of a combined attack of cruise and ballistic missiles in different directions, only 5 explosions were heard in the regional center.

Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Snow showers. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 90%. Snow accumulations less than one inch..

Tonight

Mainly cloudy with snow showers around this evening. Low 26F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 50%.
Russian missiles sometimes reach the western regions of our country. This is because it is impossible to cover the entire territory of Ukraine with air defense systems.

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In addition, based on intelligence, the invaders build routes for missiles and attack drones to pass through areas where it is more difficult for air defense to intercept enemy air assets. This was stated by the spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Yurii Ihnat, during a telethon.

"Both missiles and drones always fly over. We inform each region as the missiles fly over. They are flying along the routes they have calculated, where they have intelligence, where it is more difficult to intercept them by our air defense, including fighters and mobile fire groups," he emphasized.

The fact that cruise missiles and drones fly quite low also complicates the task of air defense forces: this is done precisely to overcome the air defense system.

"We can't completely cover the entire territory of Ukraine with air defense so that no missile can fly over, so we locally defend cities, facilities, and directions. That's why enemy missiles and Shakheds often reach the western regions, change their route, and are shot down on the way to potential targets. Not all enemy missiles reach their targets, there are different options - they can fall into the field, or explode in the air," Ihnat summarized.

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On the morning of January 8, Russia launched a new attack on Ukraine, launching missiles from Tu-95MS and Kinzhali.

The first explosions occurred in Dnipropetrovsk region, then in Khmelnytskyi and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as in Kharkiv region. There were civilians killed and wounded.

In Khmelnytskyi, infrastructure facilities were targeted: a fire broke out, and two people were reported dead by 11:00 a.m.

In Novomoskovsk, Dnipropetrovsk region, almost 30 people were injured, including children aged 4 to 17.

In Kryvyi Rih, a shopping center and dozens of houses were damaged , and a man was injured. The invaders also attacked Kryvyi Rih district, killing a woman. A total of four people were injured in the regional center and Kryvyi Rih district.

In Zaporizhzhia, residential areas were hit: as of 09:30 am, four wounded were reported.

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In the Kharkiv region, the occupiers struck at Kharkiv and Zmiiv. They targeted industrial facilities, but traditionally hit houses. In Kharkiv, there were no casualties, and in Zmiiv, rescuers are searching for people under the rubble. As of 11:00 a.m., one Russian casualty was reported in the town.

In total, during the attack on January 8, the invaders sent 59 air defense systems at our country, including Shahideen, cruise missiles of various types and aerial ballistic Daggers.

Air defense forces shot down all 8 enemy drones and 18 X-101/X-555/X-55 cruise missiles. Some of the Russian missiles did not reach their targets.
Israels mosaic of Jewish ethnic groups is key to understanding the country

The diversity of Israels Jewish population has been a source of tensions, but also strength, over the decades.
Ron Faucheux: Is Iowa worth all the fuss in the presidential election?
Who You Gonna Call When the Lights Go Off?
Ukrainian defenders continue an offensive operation on the left bank of the Kherson region, inflicting significant losses on Russian occupation forces. This time, the Defense Forces destroyed two enemy observation posts and a field ammunition point.

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This was reported by the Operational Command "South". "The Defense Forces continue to inflict fire damage on enemy locations, firing positions, rear, observation posts and ammunition points," the statement said.

It is noted that over the past day, Ukrainian defenders eliminated seven Russian occupants. The Armed Forces also destroyed a Grad multiple rocket launcher system, an armored personnel carrier, an APC-80 and a mortar.

In addition, five cannons, 15 armored vehicles, as well as two observation posts and a field ammunition point were "demilitarized."

"We are moving forward, together - to Victory!" the "South" military command emphasized.

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As a reminder, the Armed Forces of Ukraine repelled another attack by the Russian army near Krynky on the left bank of the Kherson region and inflicted significant losses on the invaders. Among other things, Ukrainian soldiers eliminated an enemy tank with its crew.

As OBOZ.UA reported earlier, according to the General Staff, Ukrainian defenders continue to expand their foothold in the Kherson sector. Despite significant losses, the enemy continues to try to drive our units out of their positions. During the day, the invaders made three assaults on Ukrainian positions, but were unsuccessful.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Napoleon, OH (43545)

Today

Snow showers. Temps nearly steady in the mid to upper 30s. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. A few flurries are possible. Low 27F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph.
On Monday, January 8, a high-ranking Hezbollah commander, Wissam Tawil, was killed in the southern Lebanese city of Majdal Selm, about 6 km from the border with Israel. He was the deputy head of the elite Radwan unit.

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This was reported by Reuters, citing information from sources in the Lebanese security services. According to their data, Tawil was killed as a result of an Israeli drone strike on his car.

According to The Times of Israel, Hezbollah also confirmed the death of Tawil, known as Hajj Jawad, in a statement. The group claimed that Israel was behind the strike in southern Lebanon that killed their senior official.

Lebanese security forces also reported that another Hezbollah fighter who was in the car with Tawil was killed in the strike.

Reuters, citing a Lebanese security source, noted that Wissam Tawil is the most senior Hezbollah commander killed since the outbreak of hostilities three months ago, when the Lebanese terrorist group began firing on northern Israel.

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"This is a very painful blow. Things are about to get worse," the source said.

At the same time, the Israeli Defense Forces did not confirm that they had eliminated Wissam Tawil.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, on January 2, an Israeli drone struck the Hamas headquarters in the suburbs of Beirut. As a result of the drone strike, the deputy leader of Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, who was considered the third in the hierarchy of this terrorist organization, was killed.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
VALPARAISO  While investigating allegations of an Illinois man twice molesting a 12-year-old Portage girl he met online, Portage police say they came across a second man accused of the same offense and of receiving 250 explicit photos and videos involving the same child.

Alejandro Tellez, 25, of Round Lake Beach was charged with child molesting, attempted sexual misconduct with a minor, child solicitation, vicarious sexual gratification and dissemination of matter harmful to minors, records show.

Region mom sentenced in torture death of her 4-year-old son LAPORTE  The mother of 4-year-old Judah Morgan, whose young tortured body was found dead in October 2021, was sentenced to 42 years behind ba

The new case arose as police were investigating allegations that resulted in charges last month against 26-year-old Hickory Hills resident Joe Benavente.

Benavente, who is being held at the Porter County Jail on a bond set by Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer of $200,000 cash and $50,000 surety, is accused of meeting the Portage girl online and twice driving to Portage to have sex with her, according to court records.

While searching the girl's cellphone in the case against Benavente, police said they found saved messages in her Snapchat messaging app account linked to another man that contained three months of explicit images and conversation dating back to July.

The exchange included several instances of the man ordering the girl to perform various sex acts on video and for photographs, including orders to show her face and list her age.

Man charged in domestic shooting deaths of 2, police say "The 53 year old female was transported to a local trauma center where she later succumbed to her injuries," police said.

"You don't mind my age though?" the girl asks at one point, according to police.

"No I don't mind," Tellez allegedly responds. "Do you mind mine?"

The girl reportedly informed police she told Tellez she was 14 but was actually 12 at the time.

Tellez claimed during the chat that the youngest girl he had had sex with was 13, police said.

The two talked about meeting for sex and Tellez allegedly drove to Portage Sept. 9 and had sex with the girl.

Illinois man accused of twice molesting 12-year-old Portage girl he met online is now in local jail He is scheduled to appear Wednesday afternoon before Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer on four counts of child molesting, each of which carry a potential prison term of 20 to 40 years, records show.

The girl told police she waited until her mother went to bed and then slipped out to meet Tellez, who was parked a couple houses away, records show. The pair had sex in his van and then she walked back home.

Police said they traced the man's Snapchat account to Tellez and the girl identified him in a photo lineup.

Benavente is also accused of using Snapchat to communicate with the girl and arranging to twice meet her in Portage for sex.

The girl had told police she told Benavente she was 14 because she feared her real age would make her sound like a child "as in a toddler," police said.

Tellez was picked up Saturday morning by police in Round Lake Beach, which is north of Chicago, an official there confirmed.

He remains in custody in Illinois and his case is pending locally before Porter Superior Court Judge Mike Fish.
VALPARAISO  A 39-year-old Kouts man was sentenced Monday morning to 10 years behind bars and labeled a sexually violent predator after pleading guilty to allegations of molesting a then-8-year-old family member.

Randy DeBoe was taken into custody following the hearing before Porter Superior Court Judge Mike Fish.

DeBoe was ordered to have no further contact with the victim during the term of his sentence, and will be required to register as a sex offender and serve two years on formal probation when released from prison.

He pleaded guilty last month to one felony count of child molesting in return for prosecutors dismissing the remaining counts of child molesting, vicarious sexual gratification and performing sexual conduct in the presence of a minor, records show.

The crimes occurred from April 2021 through May 2022, records show.

The girl reportedly told police DeBoe "has a little problem" involving exposing himself and seeking her involvement in sexual activity.

"He 'just keeps asking me' but that she 'has told him a thousand times, no,'" the girl reportedly told police, saying DeBoe "told her to 'keep this our secret and don't tell anybody.'"

The girl also mentioned pornographic videos DeBoe would show her on his cell phone, police said.

Region mom sentenced in torture death of her 4-year-old son LAPORTE  The mother of 4-year-old Judah Morgan, whose young tortured body was found dead in October 2021, was sentenced to 42 years behind ba

DeBoe denied the allegations at first, saying the girl must be "misrepresenting something," according to police. He then reportedly admitted to instructing the girl about sexual matters and said she may have caught him in a compromising position a few times.

When DeBoe was offered a voice stress test, he became agitated and began to hyperventilate, police said.
What matters most to the people of Indiana during a period of strong economic growth and ahead of this year's critical elections?

Beginning Monday, the 150 representatives chosen by some 6.8 million Indiana residents to manifest their interests at the Statehouse will deliver one interpretation of what Hoosiers want.

The 100 members of the Indiana House and 50 state senators are set to spend the next nine weeks evaluating, revising and approving about 150 to 200 of the more than 700 new laws expected to be proposed at the beginning of this year's legislative session.

Their incentive to get it right hinges on the upcoming elections. Every member of the House and half the Senate will be on the ballot this year  subject to replacement by Indiana voters if they believe someone else can better understand and meet their needs.

Legislative leaders anticipate Hoosiers aren't expecting much from the 2024 Indiana General Assembly, and they're prepared to give it to them.

After last year enacting a two-year balanced budget, along with recent major initiatives aimed at bolstering business competitiveness, improving education and workforce development, and reducing health care costs, top lawmakers say they're focused on implementing those policies instead of crafting more significant changes.

"We'll probably take a pretty measured approach on what we address and what we attack," said House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers. "We'll have fewer agenda bills to signal that leadership is of the 'less is more' opinion right now."

Among the items likely to be taken up by the Republican-controlled House and Senate are measures aimed at ensuring all Indiana students are capable of reading by 3rd grade, reducing student absences and truancy, expanding child care access and promoting rural development.

Meanwhile, term-limited Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb is scheduled to announce his priorities for his eighth and final legislative session Monday, and then expand on them during his last "State of the State" address set to be delivered at 6 p.m. Region time Tuesday.

Similar to his GOP legislative colleagues, however, Holcomb has hinted he's only eyeing incremental changes in public policy, rather than more transformational items like last year's funding for a new, $1.2 billion Westville Correctional Center in LaPorte County, and a second, $500 million round of READI grants to improve quality-of-place in Hoosier communities.

At the same time, Holcomb isn't planning to endorse during the legislative session any of the five Republicans set to compete at the May 7 primary election for the opportunity to succeed Holcomb in the governor's office.

"I've always said good policy makes good politics, not the other way around," Holcomb said. "I want to keep politics out of my policy discussions because I'm not a candidate."

But individual legislators aligned with the gubernatorial candidates, or focused on their own reelections, have other interests that inevitably will drive policy making  certainly during the period prior to the Feb. 9 candidate filing deadline, and likely until the Legislature's March 14 adjournment date.

Northwest Indiana lawmakers, meanwhile, generally seem to be focused on more practical policies, including stronger oversight of the Lake County tourism bureau, authorizing a Hammond food and beverage tax, providing state grants for school lead testing and establishing a voter initiative process for amending the Indiana Constitution.

Either way, legislators only will have a few weeks to garner support for their proposals. Measures filed in the House must advance to the Senate, and vice versa, by the first full week in February or they're likely dead for the year.

A complete list of all pending legislation, along with live and recorded video of House and Senate committee hearings and floor sessions, is available online at iga.in.gov.

Meet the 2024 Northwest Indiana legislative delegation State Sen. Dan Dernulc, R-Highland State Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago State Sen. Dave Vinzant, D-Hobart State Sen. Rodney Pol Jr. State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso State Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell State Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores State Rep. Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond State Rep. Earl Harris Jr., D-East Chicago State Rep. Ragen Hatcher, D-Gary State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso State Rep. Pat Boy, D-Michigan City State Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage State Rep. Mike Aylesworth, R-Hebron State Rep. Mike Andrade, D-Munster State Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville State Rep. Kendell Culp, R-Rensselaer State Rep. Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point State Rep. Jim Pressel, R-Rolling Prairie
The holiday season is over. The sick season is here.

Influenza. Respiratory viruses. COVID-19 and its variants. Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

You likely know someone who is struggling through one of these illnesses. Symptoms swirl around us like sharks in bloodied waters.

Coughs. Sneezes. Wheezing. Sniffles. Body aches. Head congestion. Sore throat.

If you listen close enough in any public place or workplace setting, youll hear a consistent smattering of coughs, sneezes and bless yous.

The state of Indianas level of respiratory illness activity is now listed as high in the red zone, according to the CDC. Nationally, emergency department visits due to influenza and COVID-19 are elevated in all age groups and increasing in all groups but school-aged children. As kids return to school after their holiday breaks end, the numbers are expected to rise.

Meanwhile, vaccination rates for the flu and COVID are lower than recommendations from public health officials. Roughly 5 million fewer adults in our country have received their flu shot this season compared to last seasons numbers. Vaccinations for COVID are also lower than last years numbers, including for seniors who are at higher risk for severe illnesses, according to the CDC.

Unfortunately, too many people confuse COVID vaccine politics with flu vaccine effectiveness, which can be contagious in our polarized society. This makes public health campaigns for flu shots a tough sell to certain demographics of people.

Im seeing more people wearing masks in public to protect themselves from, well, everything thats lurking in plain sight. Some Chicago-area hospitals are again requiring patients to wear masks to curb the rising number of post-holiday cases. So far, most medical facilities in our Region are not issuing the same mandate.

Our hospitals in Northern Indiana and south suburban Chicago are currently strongly recommending but not requiring masking in our facilities, a Franciscan Health spokeswoman said.

Franciscan Health includes hospitals in Munster, Dyer, Crown Point and Michigan City, as well as Olympia Fields in Illinois.

This may change as we continue to monitor state and local infection rates, CDC recommendations, and local, state health department recommendations or mandates.

The Northwest Health facilities also are not requiring masking at this time, a spokeswoman said.

Last year at this time I spent a lot of time in medical facilities with my late mother as she battled cancer. My experiences altered my perception of the pervasiveness of respiratory illnesses in our Region. It felt like most people I knew were sick.

The problem was that most people I interacted with were patients in clinics and hospitals. Masks were mandatory. Coughs were common. Emergency rooms were packed with fear.

This year, Ive already contracted the flu and COVID, with a nagging cough that continues to shadow me. Im told its possible to be exposed to different viruses during the same flu season and suffer through different battles with respiratory infection.

My symptoms seem to go away then return, possibly as part of the same viral infection. Or I could have a post-viral cough, Im told, which is simply a residual effect of my previous infection. Who knows.

Maybe Im simply suffering from man flu, known as an exaggeration of symptoms by men who only have a common cold. For guys like us, sick season is always here.

Anything but a bogus request

I would have bet my next paycheck that the envelope waiting for me on my office desk contained some kind of hate mail. Its return address was 1432 Bogus Street.

Fortunately, I was wrong.

Jerry, I am one of those lonely people you wrote about and it is starting to affect my health, the letter stated. I am 68 and have been retired 10 years. My health is in decline and I cannot do a lot of what I used to be able to do.

The writer elaborated on his or her life regarding financial security, social drinking, a large family and volunteer work.

I have friends in about half the states in the union but I am still lonely, it stated. Its amazing how there can be so many lonely people in a country with 330 million and a world with 8 billion.

And here is the request that is anything but bogus.

All this said, I guess I am writing this as therapy. Maybe you can update your column with a request for everyone that knows people like me to reach out for lunch or a cup of coffee. It would mean a lot.
Q: Its been a week since I tested negative for Covid, but I dont feel totally better. Why am I still sick?

The rapid test is finally, blissfully, negative after a week of dark red positives. Youre technically over Covid  but the virus doesnt seem to be over you, as fatigue, coughing or a general sense of blah persists.

If symptoms linger for four or more weeks after a negative test, thats the point at which they could first be identified as long Covid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But for some people, theres a murky middle stage: Your Covid test is negative and you still feel sick, but you arent technically in long Covid territory yet, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco.
Emma Stone won her second Golden Globe, for her performance in Poor Things, a comedy-drama riff on the Frankenstein legend. In the film, she plays Bella, a Victorian-era woman who was brought back to life with the brain of a fetus; her performance was widely praised by critics.

Manohla Dargis wrote in The New York Times that Stone builds her performance so discreetly  with words, gestures and footfalls that stagger and halt only to then seamlessly flow together  that it can seem as if all the changes Bella experiences were emanating from deep within the character, not the actor.

The film solidified Stones partnership with the Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, with whom she made the 2018 film The Favourite. Stone previously won a Golden Globe in 2017 for her performance in La La Land.

Im a girl from Arizona and hes a guy from Athens. I dont know how this worked, because our personalities could not be more different, but its amazing, Stone said in an interview with The New York Times last year.
A Boeing passenger jet model, the 737 Max 9, remained grounded in the United States on Sunday as airlines awaited instructions from the plane maker and the Federal Aviation Administration on how to inspect the planes and resume service, two days after a harrowing flight raised concerns about the jet.

No one was seriously injured in the episode on an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday night in which a portion of a Max 9 fuselage blew out in midair, exposing passengers to howling wind. The plane landed safely, but the event, on a flight from Portland, Ore., to Ontario, Calif., has spooked travelers and prompted an immediate call for safety inspections on Max 9 planes with similar seat configurations.

Boeing and the F.A.A. were working to draft a message to airlines  primarily Alaska and United Airlines  with detailed instructions on how to inspect the planes, according to a person familiar with the process. Those discussions were well underway on Sunday, and the F.A.A. has final approval over the contents of the message, as is typically the case.
It felt like an explosion. Then the plane rattled, the oxygen masks dropped, and the lights flickered. A white vapor whipped through the cabin. Some people yelled. Others were disoriented.

So began the harrowing minutes aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, when a door-sized section near the rear of the plane blew off 10 minutes after it took off from Portland, Ore., on Friday night, leaving some passengers initially confused, and others utterly terrified.

The first thing I thought was, Im going to die, said Vi Nguyen, 22, a passenger from Portland.

Nicholas Hoch, 33, was sitting in 12A, a window seat near the front of the Boeing 737 Max 9. He tried to stay calm. Still, he began typing out texts to his mother and girlfriend. There was something wrong on the plane, he told them, adding, I love you guys.

The flight, carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, began in ordinary fashion. Headed for Ontario, Calif., it was initially delayed by about 20 minutes to allow for de-icing, said Mr. Hoch, an architect, who was flying to visit his girlfriends family.
The Pentagon came under increased pressure Sunday to explain why senior Biden administration officials, congressional representatives and the president himself were not notified of the hospitalization of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III until days later.

Former Vice President Mike Pence called Mr. Austins delay in disclosing his hospitalization a dereliction of duty. Speaking on CNNs State of the Union, Mr. Pence said that the handling of this by the secretary of defense is totally unacceptable.

He said that Americans have a right to know about his medical condition, about the reasons for it.

Representatives Mike D. Rogers of Alabama and Adam Smith of Washington, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement on Sunday that they were concerned with how the disclosure of the secretarys condition was handled.
Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, held meetings on Sunday with leaders in Jordan and Qatar as part of a weeklong eastern Mediterranean and Middle East tour aimed at reducing the risk that the war in Gaza could spread in the region.

Mr. Blinken met separately in Amman with King Abdullah II and Ayman Safadi, Jordans foreign minister. He thanked the king for Jordans role in sending humanitarian aid to Gaza, and the two agreed to keep coordinating on aid, according to a statement by a State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller.

The U.S. has been pressing Israel for months to allow more aid into Gaza. Mr. Blinken reinforced that message with a visit to a warehouse with boxes of canned food that were intended to be brought to Gaza on trucks organized by the United Nations World Food Program.

Sheri Ritsema-Anderson, the resident U.N. coordinator in Jordan, told reporters that in her 15 years working in the Middle East, she had never seen a humanitarian situation as dire as the one in Gaza, describing it as an epic catastrophe.

She said about 220 trucks of various types of aid and fuel are now getting into Gaza daily, but that is only a fraction of the amount needed.

Before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that prompted Israel to launch airstrikes and a ground invasion in Gaza, which has forced most of the territorys 2.2 million Palestinians from their homes, about 600 to 800 trucks carried supplies into Gaza each day. The territory has been under a de facto blockade by Israel, with the assistance of Egypt, for more than 16 years.
American billionaire Elon Musk allegedly used illegal substances such as LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, and hallucinogenic mushrooms at parties around the world. There are also suspicions that he may have appeared intoxicated in front of his subordinates.

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This was stated by sources of The Wall Street Journal. According to the sources, attendees of parties with Musk were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement or hand over their phones to avoid taking photos and videos.

People who witnessed the drug use claim that the billionaire took several acid pills at a party he threw in Los Angeles (USA) in 2018.

In 2019, he ate mushrooms at an event in Mexico, and in 2021, he took ketamine for fun with his brother Kimball Musk at a house party in Miami, the newspaper writes.

It is stated that the shareholders of Musk's companies were concerned about his behavior. The inventor put investors' assets worth about $1 trillion at risk, as well as tens of thousands of jobs.

It is widely known that Musk smoked a cigarette with marijuana while recording a podcast with Joe Rogan in 2018. He publicly admitted that he took ketamine to treat depression.

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Musk's spokesman, Alex Spiro, claims that the billionaire regularly took drug tests and never failed them. He said that there are "other false facts" in the WSJ's statements, but did not elaborate.

Although the businessman is known for his eccentric and sometimes impulsive behavior, some executives in 2017 questioned Musk's sobriety. This happened after he gave a "bizarre" and "rambling" speech to hundreds of SpaceX employees, raising questions about his substance use.

A witness called the boss's 15-minute remarks "ridiculous," "crazy," and "distasteful." After that, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell intervened and took over, journalists suggested.

Musk's spokesman said the report of the incident was "false, as confirmed by countless people in attendance." Spiro did not provide details.

Some people close to the billionaire claim that he used drugs during an interview shortly after he emotionally described how difficult his past year had been.

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Musk attributed his strange behavior to mental illness and lack of sleep. In 2017, he said that he allegedly had bipolar disorder, but clarified that he had not been officially diagnosed. He also claimed that he had Asperger's syndrome, a type of autism.

In Musk's official autobiography, published last year, author Walter Isaacson wrote that Musk is prone to "demonic" outbursts at work, during which he lashes out at employees and managers. Afterwards, Musk "can hardly remember" what happened.

As OBOZ.UA wrote earlier:

- Elon Musk is of the opinion that Ukraine will not be able to return the territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation.

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- Musk probably thinks that Ukraine will be defeated in the war against Russia. In particular, he agreed with businessman David Sacks' analysis of The Time's scandalous article about the situation in our country.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
JERUSALEM  As the war in the Gaza Strip ended its third month on Sunday, with top diplomats touring the region to try to stop the conflict from spreading, Israel said it had broken up Hamass command structure in northern Gaza and signaled that it would not change its objective of dismantling the groups capabilities across the ravaged territory.

The war must not be stopped until we achieve all of its goals  eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting. His message, he said, was intended for both our enemies and our friends.

Fears of a wider war have added urgency to visits to the region by the American secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, and the European Unions top diplomat, Josep Borrell Fontelles.

Early Sunday, even as diplomats were working to stop the fighting from spreading more broadly, a spike in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank left about a dozen people dead, among them nine Palestinians, including a young child, an Israeli border police officer and a man from East Jerusalem, officials said. Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon, has also become a point of increasing concern.
Mikeas Sanchez writes poetry in Zoque, a language spoken by around 100,000 people. The variant she grew up with, called Copainala, is considered endangered; some 15,000 people use it.

The shrinking boundaries of the language have not limited her gaze; rather, her work has expanded Zoques reach. In her new collection, How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems, which will be published by Milkweed Editions on Tuesday, Macys store windows and buildings like dark, silent tombs share space with sacred mountains and flowers that teach newborns to speak. An epigraph from Leaves of Grass sits comfortably alongside curse words in an ancient tongue.

Sanchez, 43, is part of an Indigenous group from southern Mexico, and among the most highly regarded Indigenous writers in the Americas. She has won poetry prizes and had her work translated in journals and collections in the United States, Europe, South Asia and Latin America. But while she was the first woman to publish a book of poetry in the Zoque language, her writing is compelling in part because she manages to simultaneously honor and challenge traditions  her own and those of others  presenting a Zoque worldview in dialogue with global ecology, feminism and modernity writ large.
Boeings share price fell sharply on Monday, in the first trading session after part of the fuselage of one of its 737 Max 9 jets blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday night.

Boeings share prices fell about 8 percent, and Spirit AeroSystems, which made the door plug that was torn from the plane, saw its stock drop by about 11 percent by the end of the day on Monday.

The Alaska Airlines flight departing from Portland, Ore., lost the mid-cabin door plug midair, exposing passengers to howling winds and forcing an emergency landing. None of the 171 passengers and six crew members aboard were seriously injured.

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered U.S. airlines to ground certain Boeing 737 Max 9 planes configured similarly to the one used by Alaska. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.
TikTok has quietly restricted one of its few tools to help measure the popularity of trends on the video app, after the tools results were used by researchers and lawmakers to scrutinize content on the site related to geopolitics and the Israel-Hamas war.

The tool, called the Creative Center, is meant to help advertisers track popular hashtags on the site. The Creative Center is available to anyone and can produce figures about the number of videos tied to a certain hashtag and information about the audience that saw those videos.

The companys critics had harnessed the tool to argue that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, fails to adequately moderate content on the app and that Beijing influences the posts that appear on it. TikTok itself has cited hashtag data to push back against claims of pro-Palestinian bias.

But as of last week, there was no longer a search button on the tool and links for hashtags related to the war and U.S. politics stopped working. TikTok said the tool was now focused on sharing data on the top 100 hashtags within different industries, such as pets or travel.
Jonathan Majors, an ascending Hollywood star whose career was upended when he was found guilty last month of assault and harassment for attacking his girlfriend, said in an interview broadcast on Monday that he was absolutely shocked by the verdict.

In the interview, portions of which were shown on ABCs Good Morning America, Mr. Majors, 34, said that the episode had been very hard and confusing in many ways.

Im standing there and the verdict comes down. I say, How is that possible based off the evidence, based off the prosecutions evidence, let alone our evidence? How is that possible? he told Linsey Davis of ABC News.

A six-person jury in Manhattan convicted Mr. Majors last month on misdemeanor assault and harassment charges for an altercation with Grace Jabbari, who was then his girlfriend, as they rode in a hired S.U.V. in March.
In her third State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul will propose a first-of-its-kind statewide consortium that would bring together public and private resources to put New York at the forefront of the artificial intelligence landscape.

Under the plan, Ms. Hochul would direct $275 million in state funds toward the building of a center to be jointly used by a handful of public and private research institutions, including the State University of New York and the City University of New York.

Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute would each contribute $25 million to the project, known as Empire A.I. Additional private funding has been secured from the billionaire Thomas Secunda, who helped found Bloomberg L.P., and through the Simons Foundation, whose affiliated research center, the Flatiron Institute, will also be a partner.

The initiative will include a physical center in upstate New York where Ms. Hochul says the substantial computing power necessary to run modern A.I. software will be accessible remotely to members of the consortium.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators on Monday blocked off entrances to the Holland Tunnel and the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, disrupting rush-hour traffic in Manhattan as they protested Israels bombardment of the Gaza Strip and called for a cease-fire.

Protesters gathered at the Holland Tunnel around 9:30 a.m. and held aloft a Palestinian flag and banners that read Lift the siege on Gaza and End the occupation. Nearby, a group of demonstrators in fluorescent vests and masks linked arms and redirected cars away from the outbound ramp. Shortly thereafter, they were arrested, with some chanting Free Palestine as they sat on the ground with their hands tied.

Similar scenes unfolded simultaneously at the three bridges, with traffic resuming, if slowly, by 11. A total of 325 protesters were arrested at all four sites, the police said. They had gathered at City Hall Park early Monday, before dispersing in smaller groups and traveling to the bridges and the tunnel.
Since Claudine Gays resignation as president of Harvard University on Tuesday, it has become an article of faith among some of her supporters and other observers that she was targeted, criticized and essentially driven from the job largely because of her race. The idea is that the people who questioned her abilities and academic integrity  be they Harvard donors who found fault with her leadership after Oct. 7 or conservative activists who led an inquiry into plagiarism in her scholarly work  were marked and even motivated by animus toward a Black woman attaining such a degree of power and influence.

The Rev. Al Sharpton denounced Gays resignation as an attack on every Black woman in this country whos put a crack in the glass ceiling. Janai Nelson, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, wrote that the attacks against Gay have been unrelenting & the biases unmasked. Harvards Corporation, or governing board, noted the repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol. And Gay herself, writing in The Times last week, referred to tired racial stereotypes about Black talent and described herself as an ideal canvas for projecting every anxiety because of her status as a Black woman selected to lead a storied institution.

But I dont think the notion that racism was substantially to blame for Claudine Gays trouble holds up.

As both Gay and Harvard note, she received openly racist hate mail. This is repulsive. But however awful it must have been for Gay to endure their abuse, those people did not force her resignation.
Just before 2023 gave way to 2024, my husband and I drove down a mountain, talking about how to manage election-year anxiety. Specifically, my election-year anxiety. We had just spent a few days in a cottage in the woods, and we were jazzed on silence and stillness and the obligation to do nothing but walk together among the trees. To listen to the wind in the trees.

We werent making New Years resolutions, exactly. We were feeling for ways to carry those days of calm into a troubling new year. I was proposing things like eating by candlelight every night or reading only poems after 5 p.m. My husband was proposing things like hiding my phone.

For most of 2023 I managed to avoid poll-related panic by reminding myself that the election was still more than a year away. There were plenty of other calamities to worry about in the meantime  climate, biodiversity, war, gun violence, racism, health care access and the persecution of my L.G.B.T.Q. neighbors, just for starters. But lurking beneath it all was an understanding of how very much worse such troubles would get if autocrats took control of the American presidency in 2024.

My husband is not very worried about the election. He trusts that American voters arent fools. He is able to check the news at night and only a moment later fall into the sleep of winter bears. I, on the other hand, will lie awake if I so much as glance at the headlines after dark.
Spains new amnesty law, on its way to the statute books after passing Congress in December, has ignited quite a ruckus. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest the law  which provides a blanket pardon to hundreds of politicians, civil servants and ordinary citizens caught up in the illegal referendum on Catalan independence in October 2017  and a majority of Spaniards oppose it. Many commentators and politicians, mainly on the right, have argued that the amnesty weakens the rule of law in Spain and even imperils the countrys democracy.

Much of the anger stems from how the amnesty deal came about. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised during his electoral campaign last summer that there would be no blanket amnesty, even though he had pardoned nine Catalan separatists in 2021. But after an inconclusive election result left Mr. Sanchez needing the support of Catalonias separatist parties to secure a parliamentary majority, he changed tack and introduced the law. That it also applies to Spains Public Enemy No. 1  Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan leader who authorized the referendum and has been a fugitive from Spanish justice since 2017  only intensified the bad feeling.

Yet despite the stench of political opportunism that hangs around Mr. Sanchezs amnesty deal, this is a bold  even a brave  attempt to put an end to the Catalan crisis, offering a way out of a damaging impasse for Spain. It also testifies to the positive role that amnesties can play in democracies. In our current era, defined by impunity and democratic backsliding, amnesty might appear to be a backward step. But it should always be an option available to political leaders to confront moments of crisis. Nothing comes remotely close in advancing peace and reconciliation.

Political amnesties have a long, noble history dating back at least to the murder of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., which prompted the philosopher Cicero to proclaim in the Roman Senate that the memory of the murder must be consigned to eternal oblivion. In more recent times, nations have relied on amnesty to find a way out of political jams and, however imperfectly, to move forward. The 1660 Act of Indemnity and Oblivion accompanied the end of the English Civil War, part of the rebuilding of the English Restoration. In America the Amnesty Act of 1872, which removed most penalties imposed on former Confederates, including the prohibition of the election or reappointment of any person who had engaged in insurrection, rebellion and treason, shaped Reconstruction.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom has warned that the aggressor country Russia will remain a serious threat to the security of all European states in the future. He urged Europe to be prepared for a long confrontation with Moscow.

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Dagens Nyheter quoted the minister as saying this on Sunday, January 7. He recalled Russia's violations of international law.

"We must prepare for a long-term confrontation that will last as long as Russia violates the UN Charter and the European security order," the official said.

He assured that Sweden's military and political support for Ukraine would continue. Billstrom also said that the country fully supports the EU's decision to start membership negotiations with Ukraine.

The Swedish Foreign Minister emphasized that the heroic soldiers of the Ukrainian Defense Forces are fighting for the freedom not only of their country, but also for "European freedom and values."

The minister added that Sweden should be active not only in defense and security around the NATO-Russia border, but also, for example, around Europe's southern border and in the Arctic.

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As reported by OBOZ.UA, in December, Sweden approved a winter military aid package for Ukraine in the amount of 124 million euros. The funds will be used for civilian infrastructure. They reminded that Ukraine is fighting not only for its survival, but also for the security and freedom of Europe.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Gail Collins: Hey, Bret, it really is 2024 now. Happy new year. And the race is on! Next week, the Iowa caucuses. After Iowa 

Bret Stephens: Le deluge.

Gail: OK, I want to hear your thoughts. Any chance Donald Trump wont be the Republican nominee? Do you have a Nikki Haley scenario?

Bret: Gail, my feelings about the G.O.P. primary contest are like Elisabeth Kubler-Rosss five stages of grief. After the 2022 midterms, when Trumps favored candidates were more or less trounced and he looked like a total loser, I was in complete denial that he could win. Then as his standing in the party failed to evaporate as I had predicted, I was angry: Lock him up, I wrote. Next came bargaining: I said he might be stopped if only Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and every other Republican dropped out of the race to endorse Haley.

Gail: Stage 4?

Bret: Now Im just depressed. After he takes back the White House in November, I guess acceptance will have to follow. Is there a Stage 6? Does eternal damnation come next?
Dear Tripped Up,

One day last July, I was dropping off a rental car at Budgets location at Boston Logan International Airport when I misplaced my iPhone. As best as I can recall, I left it in the car while I went to throw away some trash, but neither my wife nor I nor the employee who was helping us could find it. After my flight home, I began tracking the phone using Apples Find My application, and after a trip through western Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the phone began traveling back and forth from an apartment building in Lynn, Mass., to the Budget office at Logan. I reported this to both Budget and the airport police, but the police told me that they could take action only if Budget gave them the name of any employees who lived at that address, and Budget would not help. I want Budget to return my phone or pay for a replacement. Can you help? John, Jacksonville, Fla.

Dear Budget John,

Apologies for the nickname, but I need a way to distinguish you from another traveler named John, who wrote in with a surprisingly similar story about misplacing an iPhone while returning a rental car to Alamo at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Alamo John didnt immediately notice his phone was gone at the agency and headed off to catch a flight, reporting the loss to Alamo from the airport. A few days later, when he downloaded his iCloud data into an old iPhone his daughter had lent him, he noticed that someone had saved a number into his contacts  with a name he didnt recognize  and then called it four times within hours after the phone was lost.

So, using detective skills apparently innate to people named John who leave iPhones at car rental agencies, Alamo John called the number and spoke to a man who spoke little English, but enough to get across that he was related to an Alamo employee. (It would turn out that he, actually, was the employee.) Alamo John then reported this to the rental-car agency, but Alamo repeatedly told him over the following weeks that they had not found his phone.
Sara Rivers Cofield was on her usual search for interesting period clothing about a decade ago when she noticed what appeared to be a textbook silk bustle dress from the 1800s at an antique mall in Maine.

The bronze-colored dress was in good condition, with a draped skirt, puffy bustle, and metal buttons that appeared to depict a Shakespearean motif. Ms. Rivers Cofield, an archaeologist, bought it for $100. Little did she know that the garment also contained a mystery: A secret pocket with a cryptic note.

Part of the message, written on two, scrunched-up translucent sheets of paper, read: Bismark Omit leafage buck bank / Paul Ramify loamy event false new event.

Ms. Rivers Cofield was baffled. Was it a writing exercise? A list? A code? What the?, she wrote on her blog in 2014. Im putting it up here in case theres some decoding prodigy out there looking for a project.
I spoke to Coral about her reporting, and why a system created in the Pajaro Valley in the early 1990s is worthy of attention in 2024. Heres our conversation, lightly edited.

Why are people looking to the Pajaro Valley right now?

The day of reckoning for Americas groundwater is fast approaching. In many parts of the country where agriculture relies on groundwater for irrigation, the groundwater will soon run out, and there arent good policies in place to conserve it. In the Pajaro Valley, that day came 40 years ago, when the groundwater levels fell so low that its famous strawberry crops were destroyed by saltwater intrusion. But the farmers there banded together and came up with a solution that isnt perfect and has cost a lot of money and legal battles, but in the long run has saved the aquifer and the agricultural economy of the region. So a lot of experts and executives say it could offer a road map to avert the coming crises elsewhere.
The Republican Party of Florida ousted its chairman on Monday, more than a month after the police in Sarasota confirmed that he was under criminal investigation for sexual assault.

For weeks, Christian Ziegler, the chairman, resisted calls for him to step down, keeping the scandal in the headlines and exasperating Republicans who insisted that he could not survive the political repercussions of such a serious accusation. In mid-December, the state partys executive committee censured Mr. Ziegler and stripped him of his duties and annual salary of $120,000 after Gov. Ron DeSantis, Senator Rick Scott and some county-level Republican chairs had urged him to go.

Mr. Ziegler was removed by a voice vote of about 200 party members during a meeting in Tallahassee. Only a handful opposed the motion, which included a statement saying that Mr. Ziegler was no longer a member in good standing with the party.

He was replaced by Evan Power, the head of the Leon County Republican Party in Tallahassee, who had been the state partys vice chairman. Mr. Ziegler did not attend the meeting and did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
When the Florida Legislature begins its annual session on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis will be on hand  fleetingly. After giving his State of the State address, he will leave for Iowa, where he has a packed campaign schedule ahead of the Republican presidential caucuses on Jan. 15. Few in Tallahassee expect to see much of him in the months that follow.

His absence will be a conspicuous change from the last few years, when Mr. DeSantis loomed large over the Legislature, his every major wish granted by friendly lawmakers. The Republicans who control both chambers were eager to curry favor with the states political superstar, who seemed poised to lead their partys presidential field.

Instead, Mr. DeSantiss presidential bid has struggled. His pitch to make America more like Florida has lost much of its fizz, with the frenzied culture wars that have gripped the state proving less appealing to a national audience. To date, the governor has lagged far behind former President Donald J. Trump in the polls.

Mr. DeSantiss job approval among Floridians has dipped, polls show. He remains a powerful figure, able to destroy lawmakers dreams with his veto. But everyone in the Capitol knows that Mr. DeSantis is not as invincible as he once seemed.
A judge who was attacked by a defendant in a Las Vegas courtroom last week sentenced the man on Monday to 19 to 48 months in prison on a previous battery charge, emphasizing that his actions last week did not affect her sentencing decision.

The man, Deobra Redden, 30, drew national attention on Wednesday when courtroom video showed him leaping over the bench onto the judge, Mary Kay Holthus of Clark County District Court, causing the flags behind the bench to fall.

Judge Holthus, 62, was injured in the attack, as was a court marshal and the judges law clerk, officials said.

On Monday, Mr. Redden returned to Judge Holthuss courtroom to complete the sentencing hearing that his violent outburst had interrupted.
Four top aides to Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III were informed last Tuesday that he had been hospitalized a day earlier but did not notify the White House until two days later, the Pentagon said on Monday.

The aides were made aware last Tuesday that Mr. Austin was rushed by ambulance to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., but said nothing to White House officials, awaiting updates on the secretarys medical condition, Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, told reporters.

In addition to General Ryder, the aides are Kelly E. Magsamen, Mr. Austins chief of staff, and Lt. Gen. Ronald Clark, the secretarys senior military aide. General Ryder said that a fourth aide, Chris Meagher, the assistant to the secretary for public affairs, notified him.

Mr. Austin remained in the hospital on Monday but was in good condition and conducting official business, General Ryder said. The Pentagon has declined to disclose details of the medical procedure.
President Biden sought to rally disaffected Black supporters on Monday with a fiery condemnation of former President Donald J. Trump, linking his predecessors efforts to overturn the 2020 election to the nations history of white supremacy in what he called the old ghost in new garments.

Speaking from the pulpit of the Souths oldest African Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Biden drew a direct line from slavery, the Civil War and Jim Crow to the divisions of today. Just as it was a self-serving lie to call the Confederate rebellion a noble cause, the president called Mr. Trumps insistence that he won the election an effort to rewrite history.

Once again, there are some in this country trying to turn a loss into a lie  a lie which, if allowed to live, will once again bring terrible damage to this country, Mr. Biden told about 700 parishioners and other guests at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. This time, the lie is about the 2020 election.

The president also took a shot at Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and onetime ambassador to the United Nations who is seeking to deny Mr. Trump the Republican nomination this year. Without naming her, Mr. Biden mocked Ms. Haley for refusing at a recent campaign event to name slavery when asked what started the Civil War.
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., the oldest A.M.E. church in the South, will forever be associated with former President Barack Obama because of his memorable  and melodic  eulogy for the nine victims of a racist massacre in its fellowship hall in June 2015.

But it is Joseph R. Biden Jr. who became the first sitting president to speak at the storied church, when he delivered a campaign address there Monday about threats to American democracy, including those posed by political and hate-fueled violence.

Mr. Obama made his contemplative remarks about race, and warbled his way through Amazing Grace, not at the site on Calhoun Street that the congregation bought in 1865, but around the corner at a college arena. But Mr. Biden spoke as president in the creaky old sanctuary itself, backed by towering stained glass one floor above the scene of the blood bath, a setting that conveyed a mosaic of messages as he sought to re-energize his African American base.

Mr. Biden is far from the first to make a political case from Emanuels pulpit. His predecessors included Booker T. Washington in 1909, W.E.B. Du Bois in 1922 and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1962.
Protesters interrupted President Bidens speech at a church in Charleston, S.C., on Monday, urging him to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.

If you really care about the lives lost here, you should honor the lives lost and call for a cease-fire in Gaza, one person shouted from the audience at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where a white supremacist killed nine people in 2015.

A group of protesters then began chanting, Cease-fire now.

As supporters of Mr. Biden countered with chants of Four more years, Mr. Biden  who had been delivering a speech calling former President Donald J. Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election a self-serving lie akin to the Lost Cause mythology of the Civil War  said: Its all right, its all right. He then paused as the chants continued, and the protesters were ushered out, before saying that he understood their passion and was working to reduce the suffering in Gaza.

The Biden administration has broadly supported Israel  both in word and in the supplying of weaponry  in its invasion and bombardment of Gaza after Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people in an attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Israels military campaign has killed more than 22,000 people in Gaza in the three months since, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
With the Iowa caucuses days away, politicians will be crisscrossing the state, blowing through small-town Pizza Ranches, filling high school gyms, and flipping pancakes at church breakfasts.

What Iowans will not be seeing are Democrats. President Biden spoke Friday in Pennsylvania, and he and Vice President Kamala Harris both were in South Carolina over the weekend and on Monday. But Iowa, a state that once sizzled with bipartisan politics, launched Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008 and seesawed between Republican and Democratic governors, has largely been ceded to the G.O.P. as part of a remarkable sorting of voters in the Upper Midwest.

There is no single reason that over the past 15 years the Upper Midwest saw Iowa turn into a beacon of Donald J. Trumps populism, North and South Dakota shed storied histories of prairie populism for a conservatism that reflected the national G.O.P., and Illinois and Minnesota move dramatically leftward. (Sandwiched in between, Wisconsin found an uncomfortable parity between its conservative rural counties and its more industrial and academic centers in Milwaukee and Madison.)

No state in the nation swung as heavily Republican between 2012 and 2020 as Iowa, which went from a six-percentage-point victory for Barack Obama to an eight-point win for Mr. Trump in the last presidential election.
Israel said its military is starting to shift from a large-scale ground and air campaign in the Gaza Strip to a more targeted phase in its war against Hamas, and Israeli officials have privately told their American counterparts that they hoped the transition would be completed by the end of January, U.S. officials said.

Israels disclosure came as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was expected in Israel to press officials there to curtail their campaign in Gaza and to prevent the war from spreading across the region, particularly in the aftermath of an Israeli strike last week that killed senior Hamas leaders in Lebanon and as Hezbollah said one of its commanders was killed in a strike in the country.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli military, said the new phase of the campaign involved fewer troops and airstrikes. U.S. officials said they expected the transition to rely more on surgical missions by smaller groups of elite Israeli forces that would move in and out of population centers in the Gaza Strip to find and kill Hamas leaders, rescue hostages and destroy tunnels.

The war shifted a stage, Admiral Hagari said Monday in an interview. But the transition will be with no ceremony, he added. Its not about dramatic announcements.
Police officers and emergency personnel were sent on Sunday night to the Washington home of the federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trumps election interference case in what appeared to be an incident of swatting, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The police and fire vehicles were responding to a report that a shooting had occurred at the home of the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, who has been handling the criminal case accusing Mr. Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, the people said. According to an incident report released by Washingtons Metropolitan Police Department that did not name Judge Chutkan, officers were advised that she was not injured and that there was no one in her home when they arrived at the house around 10 p.m. Sunday.

The episode at Judge Chutkans house came two weeks after the special counsel, Jack Smith, who filed the election subversion indictment against Mr. Trump, was the victim of a swatting incident at his home in Maryland, according to a person familiar with the situation. On Christmas Day, someone called the police in Montgomery County and filed a false report that Mr. Smith had shot his wife, the person said. The swatting of Mr. Smith was reported earlier by NBC News.

Swatting is the colloquial term for filing false reports to the police to set off a threatening or potentially dangerous response by officers. Incidents of swatting have become more common in recent years and have been used against various politicians and public figures.
WILMINGTON, Del.  Mitch Landrieu, the coordinator of President Bidens ambitious infrastructure program, is stepping down from his post to help lead the presidents re-election campaign, the White House said in a statement on Monday.

Mitch has always known that the real measure of success is not about scoring partisan points  its about building bridges, and fixing the problem at hand, Mr. Biden said in the statement. He added, Mitch has consistently demonstrated that when we work together, we can do big things.

The $1 trillion infrastructure package that Mr. Biden pushed through Congress with bipartisan support in 2021 is among the key accomplishments that he hopes to sell to voters to win another term.

Mr. Landrieu will aim to rejuvenate a presidential campaign stumbling over lingering voter frustration about Mr. Bidens performance and the economy. Natalie Quillian, the White House deputy chief of staff, will take over Mr. Landrieus duties overseeing the implementation of the infrastructure package.
Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump in the election interference case in Georgia asked on Monday to have the criminal charges against him there dismissed based in part on an argument that Mr. Trump is also making in the federal criminal case against him: that presidents should enjoy sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts taken while in office.

The indictment in this case charges President Trump for acts that lie at the heart of his official responsibilities as president, the lawyers in the Georgia case wrote in the new motion. The indictment is barred by presidential immunity and should be dismissed with prejudice.

In August, a grand jury in Fulton County, Ga., indicted Mr. Trump and 18 of his allies on racketeering and other state charges as part of what prosecutors say was a multipronged effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Four of the defendants have pleaded guilty and pledged to cooperate with prosecutors.

Among other legal troubles, Mr. Trump has also been indicted on four federal charges in Washington for his attempts to remain in power after Joseph R. Biden Jr. defeated him nationally in 2020. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court will hear arguments on whether Mr. Trump should have absolute immunity from prosecution.
A series of powerful major weather systems are moving across the United States this week, bringing extremely dangerous blizzard conditions to the center of the country, widespread damaging winds across the East, tornadic storms to the South and significant flooding to the Northeast, forecasters warn.

Its a pattern where we can see relatively strong storm systems running from the Western U.S. across the country to the East over a period of several days, Greg Carbin, the branch chief of forecast operations for the National Weather Service, said on Sunday.

That pattern, he said, is producing a combination of winter weather, but also severe storms and wet weather.
When marine scientists sent an underwater camera down to the seafloor off the Southern California coast, they expected to find the remnants of barrels used to dump chemical waste decades ago.

Instead, they found hundreds of World War II-era munitions, including anti-submarine explosives and smoke devices, dotted along the ocean floor in rough lines stretching over a mile.

Eric Terrill and Sophia Merrifield, scientists from the University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography, announced on Friday the findings of their underwater surveying project, which was conducted in April last year.

The seafloor south of Los Angeles was an industrial dumpsite from the 1930s to 1970s. Previous studies had shown tens of thousands of barrel-like objects littering it, which the scientists believed could contain the chemical waste, including the banned pesticide DDT.
Monday marks one year since thousands of right-wing protesters draped in the colors of the Brazilian flag stormed into Brazils Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices with a violent fury and the goal of overturning an election.

Saturday marked three years since thousands of Americans did just about the same thing.

They were two shocking attacks on the Western Hemispheres two largest democracies, both broadcast around the world and both prompted by presidents who had questioned their legitimate election losses. Each posed an extraordinary test of the countrys democracy, and each raised the question of how a deeply polarized society would move forward in the wake of such an assault.

With time, the answer to that question is becoming clear: The parallel attacks have had nearly opposite aftermaths.

In the United States, support is soaring for Donald J. Trumps campaign to retake the White House, as he frames his 2020 election loss as the real insurrection and Jan. 6 as a beautiful day.
Chinas top intelligence agency said Monday that it had detained the head of an overseas consulting agency for working as a spy for the British government to collect Chinese state secrets.

The Chinese Ministry of State Security said it caught a consultant with the surname Huang, who collected China-related intelligence and found personnel on behalf of MI6, the British intelligence agency. The agency recruited and trained Huang  who is from an unspecified third country  in the United Kingdom and other places, the ministry said in a post on its official WeChat account. The British government equipped the individual with special spy equipment, the ministry wrote.

After meticulous investigation, the national security agency promptly discovered criminal evidence that Huang was engaged in espionage activities, and took criminal coercive measures against Huang in accordance with the law, the state security ministry wrote.

The post said that Huang provided the British government with 14 state secrets, and three pieces of intelligence. The statement did not specify the company that Huang worked for or the persons nationality.
Indias top court on Monday restored life sentences for 11 Hindu men convicted of the gang rape of a Muslim woman in a case that became a powerful symbol of the widespread violence against Indian women and of communal tensions often exacerbated by Indian politicians.

The victim, Bilkis Bano, was three months pregnant when she and 15 members of her family tried to flee their village in 2002 during Hindu-Muslim violence in the state of Gujarat, in western India. The chief minister of Gujarat at the time was Narendra Modi, who is now the Indian prime minister.

Ms. Bano and her family came under attack by heavily armed Hindu rioters, who, in addition to raping Ms. Bano, also killed her 3-year-old daughter by smashing her head on a rock and raped her mother and a cousin. The attackers were convicted of rape and murder.

On Monday, Indias Supreme Court said that the Gujarat government had acted beyond its powers in granting the assailants early release from prison in August 2022. The court ordered the men, who had been greeted by right-wing Hindu nationalists with sweets and garlands upon their return home in 2022, to surrender within two weeks.
Pakistans Supreme Court on Monday overturned a law that barred politicians with past convictions from seeking political office, in a move that paves the way for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to run in parliamentary elections in February.

A seven-justice panel of the countrys top court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, ruled 6-1 that a person could not be banned for life from running for office. The court said instead that politicians could be barred for a term of only five years.

Critics had said that the law was draconian and used for political persecution.

Mr. Sharif, a three-time former prime minister, was disqualified from running for office for life in 2017. He never finished any of his terms in office, running afoul of the countrys powerful military or, in the latest case, being toppled by corruption allegations.

Mr. Sharif left Pakistan for London in 2019 but returned in October to revive his political career and to take part in the Feb. 8 general elections. Marriyum Aurangzeb, the central information secretary for the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, Mr. Sharifs political party, hailed the decision as a vindication for Mr. Sharif.
For roughly 16 years Ousman Sonko wielded sweeping power in Gambias security apparatus, crushing opposition to the West African countrys authoritarian president.

On Monday, Mr. Sonko entered a Swiss court accused of crimes against humanity, in what lawyers call a significant milestone for Gambia, Switzerland and the wider international effort to prosecute war crimes and those who facilitated them.

In their indictment, Swiss prosecutors have accused Mr. Sonko, acting alone or as part of a group, of having deliberately killed, tortured, raped and unlawfully deprived individuals of their liberty.

Mr. Sonko, who turns 55 on Tuesday, denies the charges. His lawyer, Philippe Currat, promised a robust challenge to the charges and the admissibility of the prosecutions evidence. The alleged crimes took place between 2000 and 2016, a period of brutal repression in Gambia in which the president, Yahya Jammeh, tightened his grip over the country.
Russia launched a large-scale air attack against Ukraine on Monday, Ukrainian and Russian officials said, pounding several regions with missiles that killed at least four people, wounded more than 30 others and heavily damaged residential buildings and industrial sites.

Air raid alerts blared across the country from about 6 a.m. after the Ukrainian Air Force reported the takeoff of nearly 20 Russian fighter jets that it said fired more than 50 cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles. The tactics appeared to be in keeping with Moscows strategy of overwhelming Ukrainian air defenses with waves of different types of aerial weapons.

Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraines top commander, said that his forces had intercepted about a third of the missiles, suggesting that many had slipped through. Critical and civilian infrastructure, industrial and military facilities have been attacked, he said in a statement.

Russias Defense Ministry said it had targeted Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities.

Although the exact targets of the attack and the scale of the damage were not immediately clear, the assault came as Russia has stepped up its airstrikes against Ukraine in recent days, in what appears to be a strategy to degrade Ukrainian industrial and military capabilities and to wear down Ukrainian morale as the war drags on.
ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, Ukraine  Under the cover of darkness, leaning forward under the weight of packs and rifles, a squad of soldiers walked along a muddy lane and slipped into a village house.

They were Ukrainian infantrymen of the 117th Separate Mechanized Brigade, assembling for a last briefing and roll call several miles from Russia positions before heading to the trenches on the front line. Stolid men in helmets and rubber boots, they listened in silence as an intelligence officer briefed them on a new route in to their positions.

Morale is all right, said the deputy battalion commander, who uses the call sign Shira, standing nearby to see the men off. But physically we are exhausted.

Ukrainian troops along most of the 600-mile front line are officially in defensive mode. Only in the southern region of Kherson are they still on the offensive in a tough assault across the Dnipro River.
Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said on Monday that the leader of Saudi Arabia told him that establishing diplomatic recognition between the kingdom and Israel was still possible, but it required an end to the war in Gaza and practical steps toward a Palestinian state.

Theres a clear interest here in pursuing that, Mr. Blinken said after meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. Theres a clear interest in the region in pursuing that.

Mr. Blinkens remarks were the strongest public statement yet that normalization of ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel  a move that could set up a political realignment of Middle East powers and result in a U.S.-Saudi mutual defense treaty  remained a possibility since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks, which set off the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Mr. Blinken also said that Prince Mohammed and other leaders with whom he had met in the region said they were willing to coordinate and work together to help Gaza stabilize and recover, to chart a political path forward for the Palestinians and to work toward long-term peace, security and stability in the region as a whole.

All the leaders, he added, were ready to make the necessary commitments.

Mr. Blinken and other aides of President Biden are seeking to revive discussions about normalizing relations with Israel, in the hopes that such a step might prod the Israelis to agree to work toward establishing a Palestinian state.

But the heavy death toll in Gaza, where health officials say more than 22,000 people have been killed in Israels response to the Oct. 7 attacks, has inflamed anti-Israel sentiments in Saudi Arabia and other nations in the region. That will make it more difficult for Prince Mohammed to navigate a path to normalizing relations between Riyadh and Jerusalem, should he choose to try.
Hezbollah said on Monday that one of its commanders had been killed in a strike in southern Lebanon, adding to concerns that Israels fight against Hamas in Gaza could erupt into a wider regional war.

The killing of the commander, identified by Hezbollah as Wissam Hassan al-Tawil, came as Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited troops near the border with Lebanon and vowed that Israel will do everything to restore security to the north, according to his office.

Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, and Israel have traded increasingly intense and deadly cross-border fire since the Israel-Hamas war began three months ago, eliciting Israeli warnings of a full-scale war. Six days ago, a strike in Beirut  attributed, like the one on Monday, to Israel  killed a top Hamas official who was a liaison to Hezbollah and to the two groups mutual patron, Iran.

Video A video circulating on social media on Monday showed the scene of a strike in Khirbet Selm, a village in southern Lebanon.

The U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, is visiting leaders in the Middle East this week on a trip aimed at preventing the fighting from expanding along other fronts. He arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday night.

A Lebanese security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that Mr. al-Tawil was a commander in Hezbollahs Radwan unit, which Israel says aims to infiltrate its northern border. The official said that Mr. al-Tawil had been killed in an Israeli strike in Khirbet Selm, a village in southern Lebanon that is about nine miles from the Israeli border.

The Israeli military did not directly comment on the attack. In a statement, it said that an Israeli fighter jet had carried out a series of strikes, hitting a Hezbollah military site, without giving further details.

Mr. al-Tawils role in Hezbollah was not immediately clear. But in an apparent effort to signal his seniority, Al Manar, a Hezbollah-owned Lebanese broadcaster, and media controlled by Irans Revolutionary Guards Corps, posted images of him alongside various high-ranking Hezbollah officials including the groups leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as well as with Qassim Suleimani, the Iranian general who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020.

A day earlier, the Israeli military said that it had killed at least seven members of Hezbollah in strikes aimed at destroying the Radwan unit and that it was ready to attack more of Hezbollahs positions. The Israeli militarys chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi, said that its forces were determined to keep pressure on Hezbollah and that if those efforts fell short, Israel was ready to fight another war.

We will create a completely different reality, or we will get to another war, he said on Sunday.

Hezbollah attacks damaged an Israeli military base on Saturday, one of the groups biggest assaults against Israel in months of back-and-forth strikes across the border. The powerful Lebanese militia has pledged support for Hamas, and in recent days, it has stepped up assaults on Israel in response to the killing last week of Saleh al-Arouri a senior Hamas leader, outside of Beirut.

The rocket fire on the base, the Northern Air Control Unit on Mount Meron, left it with significant damage, according to accounts in the Israeli news media, but the facility is still operating and has been reinforced with additional systems, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli militarys chief spokesman, said on Sunday.

The clashes have added to concerns that the Israel-Hamas war could grow into a wider regional conflict, and have forced tens of thousands of people on each side of the Israel-Lebanon border to evacuate their communities. In solidarity with Hamas, the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has attacked ships in the Red Sea and launched missiles at Israel. The United States has struck targets in Iraq, while Israel is presumed to have carried out targeted assassinations in Syria and Lebanon.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly declared in recent weeks that there are only two options for restoring calm in the conflict with Hezbollah: a diplomatic solution that would move the Radwan forces farther from the border, north of the Litani River; or, failing that, a major Israeli military offensive aimed at achieving the same goal.

Calm, they say, is a prerequisite for about 80,000 Israelis who have been evacuated from the area to be able to return to their homes. A similar number of Lebanese have fled their homes on the other side of the border.

Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a totally unnecessary war, Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, told reporters on Monday.

We are now at a fork in the road, he added. Either Hezbollah backs off, hopefully as part of a diplomatic solution, or we will push it away.

The Biden administration has been calling for an agreement that would move Hezbollah forces away from the border, but with little apparent progress. Although Israeli officials have said that time for a diplomatic deal is running out, analysts say that Israel is wary of significantly expanding the conflict with Hezbollah while the military is still engaged in intensive fighting in Gaza.
As Israel prepares this week to face accusations at the International Court of Justice that it has committed genocide in the Gaza war, it has appointed one of the countrys most prominent jurists as the ad hoc judge to sit on the bench on its behalf.

The choice of Aharon Barak, a retired Israeli Supreme Court president who fled Nazi-occupied Lithuania as a boy, was immediately praised by many Israelis after it was announced on Sunday  and greeted with surprise and even criticism by others.

While Mr. Barak, 87, is an internationally respected legal authority, he has also been at the center of a deeply polarizing domestic legal furor over the past year. He was vocal in his opposition to the right-wing governments judicial overhaul plan, which is aimed at curbing the powers of the court. Mr. Barak, who had long been a symbol of judicial overreach for those who wanted to rein in the court, encouraged the nationwide protests against the plan.

Simcha Rothman, a right-wing Israeli legislator and a driving force behind the judicial overhaul efforts, responded curtly to the appointment in a social media post with the words: My resounding silence.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague, the highest legal body of the United Nations, hears disputes between states. To hear the Gaza case, which was brought by South Africa, its regular 15-judge panel will be expanded to 17, with one additional judge appointed by each side.

Both South Africa and Israel signed the 1948 Genocide Convention, and South Africa is accusing Israel of violating that agreement. South Africa accused Israel last month of trying to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as it pummels the enclave in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel led by Hamas.
There is a serious deer problem in Offaly and North Tipperary, and many people are demanding that the issue be tackled by carrying out a cull.

Wild deer numbers throughout Ireland have risen sharply in recent years, which has been exacerbated by the reduction in hunting and deer management activity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The high deer numbers are linked to Bovine TB outbreaks in many herds of cattle, bringing devastation in their wake. Overgrazing by deer is also a serious pressure and threat for native woodlands across Ireland.

Another problem is the hazard they pose to road users.

Tipperary TD and Chairperson of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee Jackie Cahill, last week welcomed the deer cull proposal being brought before Cabinet by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue.

On Thursday 21st, during their monthly meeting, the councillors of Nenagh Municipal District praised Deputy Cahill and added their voices to the calls for action.

Cllr Michael O'Meara pointed out that North Tipperary and South Offaly is overwhelmed with deer. The place is teeming with them, he commented.

I was talking to a couple of deerstalkers recently and they told me about the ins and outs of what a deer cull would involve.

The situation is very serious. I know farmers whose dairy herds have been decimated after the cattle caught TB from the deer. The impact is not just financial, but mental as well.

It's certainly had a major impact on people's livestock in Lower Ormond, commented Cllr Joe Hannigan. The deer population is increasing and spreading at a serious rate. I've been told that if a deer gets TB then it's alienated by the other members of its herd.

We never had deer in the Puckaun/Kilbarron region until about five years ago. Before there were pockets of deer here and there as well as deer in Portumna Forest Park, but now they are everywhere. We have no choice. They have to be culled.

Cllr Rocky McGrath, Cathaoirleach, said proposals to introduce wolves to deal with the problem were not sensible. The councillor said his car was nearly hit by a stag while driving at night. It was frightening, he said. The speed and size of the stag were massive.

Cllr Ger Darcy pointed out that up until about five years ago the numbers of deer in North Tipperary were small and posed no issue.

Now it's a very different story. They are a serious hazard on our roads. They can weigh from a hundred to two hundred kilos.

If your car hit one of them it could cause serious damage to your car.

They also often damage fencing on farms.

Last week Deputy Cahill said that he was delighted to hear that Minister McConalogue will be bringing a deer cull proposal before Cabinet shortly. This is long overdue, and it is essential for a variety of reasons. One major issue many of us are familiar with, myself included, is the huge number of accidents that have occurred as a result of deer crossing on roads."

Deputy Cahill said that from a deer welfare point of view, their habitats were seriously overpopulated which was resulting in a lack of forage, and this was also driving them to travel outside of their habitats.

He said that the deer population needed to be restored to optimal levels to ensure they had sufficient forage to flourish within their habitats.

This deer overpopulation is also a major contributing factor in the increasing rates of TB in cattle. Deer are straying from their habitats, mixing with cattle, and spreading the infection. A deer cull will be a significant step towards the control of TB in our bovine herd.
A sobering slap in the face after weeks of festive delirium, January could be the worlds harshest reality check. Work schedules are back in full swing, bank balances have hit rock bottom, and its probably raining outside.

By the third Monday in January  in this case the 15th  most of us are ready to throw in the towel, leading the date to often be declared the most depressing day of the year.

But theres no reason why we should all wallow in self-pity and despair Being blue isnt always a negative state of mind  switch thoughts to azure oceans and cerulean skies, and suddenly the world starts to look like a better place.

Weve selected some of the brightest holiday ideas o you can swap those January blues for more soul-soothing ones

Island hop on a cruise

Surround yourself with every shade of blue on a cruise through the Caribbean. Onboard the 4,198 passenger mega-ship Odyssey of the Seas, observation capsule North Star promises 360-degree views, 300ft above sea level. Setting sail from Florida, call into some of the best beaches on Aruba and Royal Caribbeans very own private island in the Bahamas, Perfect Day at CocoCay. Theres also a chance to stop at Curacao, the former Dutch-governed island famous for its electric blue liqueur.

How: The eight-night Southern Caribbean & Perfect Day full board cruise costs from 748pp. Flights extra. Departs April 13. Visit royalcaribbean.com or call 0344 493 4005.

Fly through sea and air



Theres no better way to fully immerse yourself in sun, sky and scenes of blue sea than by skydiving above an Indian Ocean paradise. Launched last September, Ifuru is a private island resort with the first permanent skydiving dropzone in the Maldives, designed in collaboration with world champion skydiver Will Penny. Between November and March, guests can glide above tropical islands in the Raa Atoll while dolphins play in the waves. Alternatively, take the opposite direction and travel below water to dive with whale sharks.

How: A seven-night all-inclusive stay costs from 3,108pp, including flights and transfers. Email sales@nonewsnoshoes.co.uk or call 01670 510580.

Walk through a painting

Its called the Cote dAzur for a good reason. Beguiled by the French Rivieras light and colours, artists like Matisse, Monet and Renoir all found inspiration for their palettes along this blue coastline, while Chagall and Picasso even called it home. Discover the regions cinematic scenery on an easy-going hiking trip through the Provencal countryside, including Frances smallest national park, Port Cros. Expect to walk between two and four hours per day.

How: The six-day Walking the Cote dAzur & Golden Isles tour costs from 1,120pp, including B&B accommodation. Flights extra. Available from April 1 to October 25. Visit walkersbritain.co.uk or call 0800 008 7741.

Embrace wild extremes

Contrasted against ochre sands, Middle Eastern skies look bluer than anywhere else on the planet. At this time of year, when temperatures are comfortably warm without being searingly hot, wild and rugged Oman is a delight to explore. Wander through spice markets in Muscat and hike through the Hajar Mountains. Cool off in wadi oases and camp overnight in the Wahiba Sands desert to admire the stars.

How: A nine-day escorted Undiscovered Oman trip costs from 2,799pp. Flights extra. Departs February 10. Other departures available. Visit yellowwoodadventures.com or call 0207 846 0197.

Look above and below the surface

Dont be fooled by its name; Egypts Red Sea boasts a myriad of colours. One of the worlds top dive destinations, its packed with multi-hued soft corals and vibrant fish life, with air temperatures of 25C making it an ideal winter sun getaway. A 30-minute drive from Hurghada International Airport, the lagoons of El Gouna host more than 100 bars and restaurants, including the cool adults-only Cooks Club with its own saltwater lagoon and private beach.

How: A seven-night B&B stay costs from 560pp, including flights. Select dates in February. Use code BIGSALE. Visit easyjet.com or call 0330 551 5165.

Discover natural beauty

Stretching is wings as wide as the length of a pencil, one of the worlds largest butterflies can be found fluttering through rainforest canopies and along the sparkling coastlines of Costa Rica. The blue morpho is one of many shimmering creatures inhabiting one of the most biodiverse places on our planet, which has become a premier beach and wildlife destination. Split time between the jungle and choose from two coastlines lapped by the Pacific Ocean or the Caribbean Sea.

How: A 10-night trip costs from 5,325pp, including mixed board accommodation and flights. Visit abercrombiekent.co.uk or call 03330 604 425.
The 5-year-old girl who was seriously injured in the Parnell Square attack in November last year will have to "relearn everything", according to an update from her family.

The update was shared on the official GoFundMe page established by a friend of the child's family the wake of the attack, which saw a carer and two other children injured in a knife attack on November 23, 2023.

"Our darling girl has now entered the 3rd phase of her recovery", the update on Friday, January 5, read.

"This will be the longest as she will relearn everything as a result of her injury. She has done really well thus far and the medical team is very happy with her improvement.

"Once again, she is so strong and we are proud to be by her side supporting her, guiding her, and, above all, loving her every step of the way."

The GoFundMe fundraiser, which was set up by a friend of the girl's family, has currently raised over 66,000 since November.

A 50-year-old man, Riad Bouchaker, has since been charged with three counts of attempted murder following the attack in Dublin's inner city.
For the last couple of months of working in Africa on and off I have been finding nourishment for my life and soul in my local church. I have also thought while there that our world at the moment seems to be constantly evolving and taking new forms and it has been somewhat overwhelming especially with wars, droughts, famines, homelessness and climate change trying to make sense of this thing called life.

One morning on the way there recently as I listened to my radio in the car, the news spoke about the 36 million people or so that have been affected by food shortages and drought in East Africa particularly in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Kenya and Somalia where many of the Irish aid agencies like the one I work for Self Help Africa and Irish missionaries supported by the Irish Government's Irish Aid and are trying so hard to save childrens and peoples lives and then another broadcast shortly after revealed about the atrocities in Israel, Gaza and Palestine and then went onto the devastating war in Ukraine where lots of more people lost their lives by more evil acts and then it was announced about the shocking numbers of homeless people and children living in our own country of Ireland that had reached an all time high. It made me feel unbelievably sad and heartbroken about how little some people value human life.



Core values



One of the things that rarely changes in this world though and what can provide a guiding light for us throughout our life is our core values. Values are what define the very core of our being. They define who we are in a lot of ways. Values are at the heart of our life. We are all part of the human race and thus quite similar in many ways. However, there are subtle differences between us and these are what make us unique. Even when two or more people look completely alike, there will still be differences resulting from their values. Values are very important in your life.

They help shape your life and even determine how much success you will have. Everything you think, everything you feel and every action you take is because of your beliefs and values. Values reflect our sense of right and wrong. They help us grow and develop. They help us create the future we want. The decisions we make every day are a reflection of our values. We learn most of our values from our parents and extended families, friends, colleagues and our communities. Some of life's decisions are really about determining what you value most.

When many options seem reasonable, it's helpful and comforting to rely on your values  and use them as a strong guiding force to point you in the right direction. Our family values stem from our social and cultural values. Sometimes new life experiences may change values we previously held. In todays world, it may seem our society doesnt practice many values. We have a rise in discrimination, abuse of power, greed, inequality and many more. What are we leaving behind for our future generations? Maybe its time society takes a hard look at its values especially now as we face more conflicts and effects from climate change. Values can be contagious; if you practice them, many others will also, including our children. Hopefully more practice from all of us will leave the world a better place for future generations.

Your life values?

One of the best things I've read in a long time was the shortest speech from Bryan G Dyson who was a CEO of one of the world's biggest companies: Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them  Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and youre keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls  Family, Health, Friends and Spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it.

Work efficiently during office hours and leave on time. Give the required time to your family, friends and have proper rest. Value has a value only if its value is valued. Your values inform your thoughts, decisions, and actions and help you align your career or life path to whats important to you. Theyre the essential foundation in finding your life purpose, because they remind us and others who we truly are. Who were meant to be. What gift were meant to share with the world. So make sure as much as possible that your values are valued by you and everyone you meet.

So what values will matter?



How will the value of your days be measured or valued? What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave. What will matter is not your success, but your significance. What will matter is about what you learned as well as what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many felt good when they were around you and how you served them. What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what. Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice. Choose to live a life that matters and enjoy yourself while doing it before it is too late!!!



Life's mission



Dissatisfaction will happen in your life. People may lose faith in you. Every day can bring forth more challenges. But the joy, hope and vision you hold in your dreams, your aspirations, your goals, can see you through difficult times as long as you never give up believing in yourself! So please everyone who is reading this recent thought for the week, Re-set, Re-adjust, Re-start, Re-focus, Re-pray, as many times as you need to and never give up! Read the last line as many times as you need to. Dont lose sight of that, dont worry about how many chances others think you should have, remain in your own lane, and do what gives you the best chance to be successful. Life comes with so many ups and downs that there will be times when we have to adjust to things, start fresh, start again, and just take a few days to rest to get our minds right.

My favourite quote of Rome wasnt built in a day remains undefeated, it becomes a daily thing. We are allowed to rest, we are allowed to take days to recharge our mind, body and soul. Its not a crime to care about yourself, and put your well being first, people may just guilt trip you for being selfish, get on you about only thinking of yourself, and just remember that if we are right with ourselves we will be useless to others anyways. It starts and ends with us. Get your mind right, get your life on track, get to a point where when your eyes open it isnt something we dread, its something that makes us pop out of bed and continue the mission. Its not a day long mission, its a life long mission and with that comes both the good and the bad, and at times the ugly.

Things we can never fully prepared for, but we can be in a place where we are able to work through it, with a level head knowing that these storms dont last forever and to remember to never give up. As usual, a story from my Nana Scully's prayer book may help...



Build values wisely



An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business to live a more leisurely life with his wife and enjoy his extended family. He would miss the paycheck each week, but he wanted to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go & asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but over time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career. When the carpenter finished his work, his employer came to inspect the house. Then he handed the front-door key to the carpenter and said, This is your house my gift to you. The carpenter was shocked! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.

So it is with us. We build our lives, a day at a time, often putting less than our best into the building. Then, with a shock, we realize we have to live in the house we have built. If we could do it over, we would do it much differently. But, you cannot go back. You are the carpenter, and every day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Someone once said, Life is a do-it-yourself project. Your attitude, and the choices you make today, help build the house you will live in tomorrow. Therefore, Build wisely.

Value caring for others



"Once a group of 50 people were attending a training work conference. Suddenly the speaker stopped and decided to do a group activity. He started giving each attendee one balloon. Each one was asked to write his or her name on it using a marker pen. Then all the balloons were collected and put in another room. Now after a while these delegates were let into that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written within 5 minutes. Everyone was frantically searching for their name, colliding with each other, pushing around others and there was utter chaos. At the end of 5 minutes no one could find their own balloon.

Now each one was asked to randomly collect any balloon and give it to the person whose name was written on it. Within minutes everyone had their own balloon. The speaker then began, This is happening in our lives. Everyone is frantically looking for happiness all around, not knowing where it is. Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. We are or should be in this together and should be doing things to help one another out. Give them their happiness; you will get your own happiness. And this is the purpose of human life, to help, appreciate, love and care for one another no matter who they are as much as we can. As the reading I heard at a recent mass said, Everything under the sun has been prearranged and there is a season for everything and no one can hurry things up. Truly managing today and caring for others and appreciating life well is the correct attitude toward life.

There is no need to wait for tomorrow, because tomorrow consists of a lot of uncertainty. No one knows for sure what will happen in the environment around them or how it will change, especially from the many changes and difficulties the world is facing at this present time. It will be hard to predict or even to understand. When you are wholeheartedly waiting for tomorrow, you are wasting today.

Giving up today is giving up your best opportunity. Only today is real and valid. In the journey of life, tomorrow seems pale and dim compared to today. Today, you can heal wounds, help and care for one another, wipe away tears, pray for each other, build bridges, look after your family, friends, culture and way of life and help those in need of help and justice and fulfill dreams from yesterday. Holding on to today, you have mastered the secret of time. Appreciating today is cherishing your life. For me in our world today I feel that most of us dont fully appreciate our lives here until a vital part of them is taken from us. We take things and people for granted. We go through our days rushed and stressed without gratitude or love. We dont thank God for this glorious gift of life we have been given and for all of the loving people in it. Learn this lesson now. Love God and Love People always. Take it into your soul. Make a home for it in your heart. Appreciate your Life today and be thankful for it and for the loved ones and friends in it. Appreciate each moment you have been given in this life.

Let the people around you know just how much you love them. Let God in Heaven know just how thankful you are for your Life. If you do this then you too will make each day better and brighter for those around you. Life really comes down to loving and being loved and in loving God and in loving people. Spend your liveliness this week thoughtfully on words and actions that serve you and others well and focus honestly about what are your true values and do you truly value your values or do you need to change them for the betterment of yourself and the world around you. Be thankful for what you have. Celebrate your gifts, your creativity, and your voice in this grand chorus of life. You and I are both here to inspire one another, to help one another, to share with one another. Sing from your soul. Appreciate your life today and the lives of those around you. We are all in this together.

Thought for the week



As your thought for the week, reflect and pray on your values and maybe the following loving poem by Jenny Crespo might help called, 'Value Time.' "Time, such a precious word. It gives us the gift of moments. Moments so beautiful that change our lives forever. But those moments turn into memories that can never be recaptured. We are left with footprints in our minds and in our hearts. Longing to recapture time, hoping it will last forever. To be left with the reality of the passing of time; So precious and so fleeting. We can't bring it back or relive. Only be grateful that it happened. So cherish and value every moment, never taking anything for granted, Because some day, that will be the moment you'll want to relive. Love and value with all your heart. Let your loved ones know how much you care. Smile even when you want to cry. Live life to the fullest, Because you never know when your time will pass with the wind." Also if you have time this week please reflect and pray on this loving poem by Kendra Clarke called, 'Never Give Up.'

"When your heart has been broken and your world has fallen apart, Do not lose hope, or ever give up. When life then knocks you down, and All you can muster, is a frown, Just remember, to never give up, It may feel like it wont end But your heart will surely mend If you are patient, and do not give up. You may never comprehend, But on God you can depend, Just surrender, you just cant give up. The light will indeed shine, It will all be in Gods time. So you see, dont you dare give up.

For the future will truly bring at time when pain will lose its sting, But to get there, you must not give up. God says Hes always near, Dont be scared, have no fear, He wants to be there, so never give up. He will help you to get through, And on this you know its true, Hes just asking, that you never give up. Hes your shining light, Be led by faith and not by sight. Arent you glad that you did not give up, Through it all, never lose sight. Hes your strength and Hes your light, when you make it, thank God, you never gave up. Amen". Please value your life. Few good things come easily and it most often takes hard work and perseverance to attain that which we desire.

Often the only obstacle between us and something better is simply not giving up. The road to success is paved with obstacles but you have to persist, keep at it, keep learning, value your life and never give up. No matter how difficult things may seem, believe in yourself, your life and in your ability to succeed. Whatever it is that you aspire to achieve, never, ever give up and always value Life! Many people die, said Oliver Wendell Holmes, with their music still in them. Thats tragic. Follow your dreams! Never give up believing in yourself. Take control of yourself. Your life. Your choices. If something isnt working. Start again. As many times as it takes. Whatever it takes.

God bless you always and value your life always.
The Gauselmann Group, a stalwart in the German gaming industry, has officially rebranded itself as the Merkur Group. This significant change, which took effect on January 1, marks a new chapter for the company, aligning its corporate identity with the Merkur brand that has been a part of its history since the 1970s.

The rebranding initiative culminated with renaming the group's holding company from Gauselmann AG to Merkur AG. This change is officially recorded in the commercial register, signaling the organization's beginning of a new era. Despite this substantial transformation, the ownership structure of the business unit, established in 1980 as a holding entity for central services within the Gauselmann Group, remains unchanged.

Reflecting Digital and International Growth:

The decision to rebrand comes 67 years after the Gauselmann Group's founding and half a century following the introduction of the Merkur brand in the 1970s. Paul Gauselmann, the group's founder and chairman of the management board, notes that the change reflects the company's evolution towards a more digital and international orientation. He emphasizes that the incorporation of the Merkur brand into the company name is a strategic move to leverage the brand's appeal and heritage.

Merkur Brand Harmonisation:

The rebranding process, announced in September and finalized on January 1, 2024, represents a broader strategy of brand harmonization within the group. The transition of the adp Gauselmann GmbH subsidiary to adp Merkur GmbH in March 2022 was an earlier step in this direction. The Merkur brand has a long history with the company, having been introduced in the 1970s with the Merkur B amusement with prizes (AWP) machine. It later expanded its presence by opening its first arcade, Merkur Spielothek.

Legacy of the Laughing Sun Brand Logo:

Over the years, the Merkur brand, symbolized by the laughing sun logo, has become synonymous with quality and innovation in the gaming industry. The brand has been responsible for developing, producing, and distributing numerous games, machines, and gaming systems, establishing a solid identity in the market.

Continuity and Stability as Core Values:

While embracing change, the Merkur Group maintains its commitment to continuity and stability, which have been fundamental to its success. Paul Gauselmann underscores these values as crucial for the group's future achievements, ensuring that the transition to the Merkur brand enhances the company's legacy while paving the way for future growth and innovation.

Merkur Group's Expansive Portfolio: Leading Brands in Online and Land-Based Gaming

The Merkur Group, a leader in the gaming industry, operates several prominent brands, including Merkur Slots and Merkurxtip. Merkur Slots, licensed by the German Federal G.L.L Authority, caters to the German market, offering a range of land-based and online gaming options. Expanding its reach, Merkurxtip serves the Czech Republic, operating under Czech federal regulations. This diversified approach allows the Merkur Group to effectively meet regional gaming needs and regulatory requirements, reinforcing its position in the European gaming sector.

A Significant Milestone - A New Era for Gauselmann:

The transformation of the Gauselmann Group into the Merkur Group represents a significant milestone in the company's history. This rebranding reflects its adaptation to an increasingly digital and global gaming landscape while continuing to honor the legacy and values that have defined the company for decades. With the Merkur brand at the forefront, the group is poised to strengthen its position and expand its influence in the international gaming industry.


Cornel West @ NPU Justice Summit 2012

(Image by bradleysiefert from flickr) Details DMCA



Readings for Epiphany Sunday: Is. 60:1-6; Ps. 72: 1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13; Eph. 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt. 2: 1-12

Just last night, I found myself in a ZOOM conversation with colleagues at OpEdNews.. The name of Cornel West came up. My friends referenced his discussion with Norman Finkelstein, and West's insistence on regarding Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters as "brothers and sisters."

West, of course, is the great theologian and former Harvard professor who is running this year as an independent candidate to replace Joe Biden as president of the United States. Finkelstein is a widely published social scientist and descendent of Holocaust victims.

In their conversation, both men condemned Israel's ongoing genocidal attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. Finkelstein found them unforgivable. In the latter's completely secular opinion, Benjamin Netanyahu and by extension, Joe Biden are beyond any absolution for their crimes. Calling them and their supporters "brother" or "sister" is an abomination.

For his part however, West refused to give up even on Israel's prime minister or on the U.S. president. While both, he said, deserved removal from office and a lengthy prison sentences for obvious war crimes, West still considered them "brothers" loved by God.

As a theologian myself, I found myself agreeing with both men. Netanyahu's cynical religious pretensions are despicable. His invocations of the Bible to justify his slaughter of innocents represents the worst and most blasphemous form of religion I can imagine.

I must confess that in my heart, I wish upon him the pain that Gazan babies and their mothers must endure as their limbs are amputated without anesthesia, because of the prime minister's refusal to allow medical supplies into the concentration camp he's mercilessly carpet-bombing. I have the same feelings towards Netanyahu's sponsor, Joe Biden. He fully deserves the epithet "Genocide Joe."

And yet, biblical readings for this Epiphany Sunday tell me that Cornel West is right. Despite shockingly primitive and cruel understandings of God found in the books of Genesis and Exodus, the Divine One of the Judeo-Christian tradition ultimately reveals God's Self as the loving Mother/Father of EVERYONE regardless of our crimes, and especially (in today's particular readings) - regardless of ethnic identification. To all of them, Yeshua's final words apply. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

More specifically, the Divine One's universal and unfailing love is the very theme of today's readings.

Epiphany Sunday

Remember: the word "epiphany" means the appearance or manifestation of God - a revelation of who God really is.

On this Epiphany Sunday, Christians recall the tale of astrologers from "the East" who followed a miraculous star leading to the birthplace of Yeshua of Nazareth.

Epiphany recalls the time when such seekers recognized in Yeshua the long-awaited manifestation of the Universal God announced in today's selection from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah and today's responsorial Psalm 72 tell us clearly that God is not what ethnocentric believers expected or even wanted. S/he loves everyone equally, not just Jews, much less Americans.

That's part of why Herod "and all Jerusalem with him" were "troubled" when they unexpectedly met the travelers who were seeking the world-centric and cosmic-centered manifestation of God that Isaiah had foreseen.

The God Herod and the Jerusalem establishment knew was like the one worshipped by Jewish Zionists today. He exclusively loved and favored Jews, the Hebrew language, and the Holy Land. He was pleased by Jewish customs and worship marked by animal sacrifice and lots of blood.

So, Herod and Jerusalem were "troubled" when the foreigners came seeking the Palestinian address of a newborn divine avatar. The astrologers claimed that the very cosmos (the Star!) had revealed God's Self to them even though they were not Jews. Evidently, the wise men possessed (or were possessed by) cosmic consciousness. They realized Life's Great Source (whatever its name) not only transcended themselves and their countries, but planet earth itself. All creation somehow spoke of its Divine Source.

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) January 8, 2024: The self-styled conservative columnist David Brooks (born in 1961) published "What Biden Needs to Tell Us" in the New York Times (dated January 4, 2024):

Click Here

David Brooks is also the author, most recently on the new 2023 book How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (Random House) - which I discuss in my OEN article "David Brooks' Accessible new 2023 Book" (dated November 27, 2023):

Click Here

Now, in Brooks' "What Biden Needs to Tell Us," he sets up and operationally defines and explains certain contrasting key terms: a zero-sum mindset versus a positive-sum mindset; liberal democratic capitalism versus populism (also known as liberalism versus populism, for shirt); the forces of civilization versus the forces of barbarism.

According to Brooks, "Populism thrives on a zero-sum mindset. . . . America's populist in chief, Donald Trump, exemplifies this mentality. . . . MAGA is the zero-sum concept in political form. . . . Every day for Trump is an Us/Them dominance game."

According to Brooks, President Joe Biden has not been doing enough to articulate and advance "a vision for how to return to a positive-sum world of growth, innovation and peace."

In certain ways, the positive vision that Brooks envisions is somewhat consonant with Heather McGhee's 2021 book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (One World/ Penguin Random House) - even though he does not happen to mention her book.

In any event, Brooks also says, "We are in the middle of a multifront conflict that pits the forces of civilization against the forces of barbarism. In a civilized world, people create rules and norms to make competition fair, whether it's economic, intellectual or political competition. Barbarians seek to tear down those rules so thuggery can prevail."

In addition, Brooks says, "Biden needs to paint a portrait of America's future not with statistics but with a vision of a way of life. Liberal capitalism involves a set of concrete social actions: starting a business; building better schools; working together with people in companies; rising from poverty to buy a house; raising children not to be culture warriors but workers and innovators.

"This liberal dream is still ingrained in the nation's bones. It's been covered over by several years of bitterness, disillusion and pessimism. Maybe Biden can reach something deep in every American and revive the optimism that used to be our defining national trait."

Now, the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) discusses what Brooks refers to as "the optimism that used to be our defining national trait in more than one of the essays that he reprinted in his first book Frontiers in American Catholicism: Essays on Ideology and Culture (Macmillan, 1957, pp. 10, 12-13, and 30-32).

Over the years, I have often discussed Ong's works in my OEN articles - for example, in my article "Thomas J. Farrell on Thomas J. Farrell" (dated November 17, 2023):

Click Here

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This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Think of Donald Trump as, in his own fashion, a creature of climate change. After all, in 2015, he descended that escalator into the election race denouncing immigrants at the southern border (those "Mexican rapists") and calling for a "big, fat, beautiful wall" to be built along those very lands. As 2024 begins, his people are already preparing for a Trumpian future of vast detention camps (or, if you prefer, "concentration camps") for staggering numbers of immigrants (and god knows who else), many of whom will head for the U.S. because of the devastation that climate change is already delivering elsewhere on Earth. And it's a phenomenon that will only grow so much worse in the decades to come. After all, as the New York Times recently reported, "The number of asylum cases pending in U.S. immigration courts has surpassed one million, up from about 750,000 in 2022, and from barely 110,000 a decade ago. Another one million cases being assessed by asylum officers are also pending, more than double the number two years ago." And increasing numbers of them are climate refugees.

We are, in other words, entering a new world. Just imagine that, according to the experts on the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, over the next three decades, up to 143 million people globally could be turned into climate refugees, "uprooted by rising seas, drought, searing temperatures and other climate catastrophes." And mind you, that isn't by any means the largest number of climate refugees predicted. Try, for instance, the 1.2 billion by 2050 suggested by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Sadly, should Donald Trump win the presidency again in 2024, he will have done so by campaigning on his own fantastic, mocking version of "climate change," which goes like this: "The world is going to be destroyed because the oceans are going to rise 1/100 of an inch within the next 300 years. It's going to kill everybody." Yes, indeed, only 1/100th of an inch! And to ensure that unreality, the man who has sworn from day one of his next presidency that he will "drill, drill, drill" will undoubtedly lend quite a hand to making so many of the rest of us climate refugees on this wounded planet of ours (not to speak of putting Mar-a-Lago underwater). And with that, take a moment with TomDispatch regular Rebecca Gordon to consider just what it means to be a refugee on Planet Earth in these grim years and those to come. Tom

Nowhere to Run

Where Will the World Find Refuge in 2024?

By Rebecca Gordon

Back in 1968, my father announced that, if Richard Nixon were elected president that November, he was going to move us all to Canada. I'm not sure who "us all" actually was, since my younger brother and I were then living with my mother and my parents had been divorced for years. Still, he was determined to protect us, should someone he considered a dangerous anti-Semite make it into the Oval Office -- and leaving the country seemed to him like the best way to do it.

As it happened, Nixon did win in 1968 and none of us moved to Canada. Still, I suspect my father's confidence that, if things got too bad here, we could always head somewhere else (Canada? Israel?) was a mental refuge for him that fit his own background very well. It was, after all, what his father had done in 1910, when his family was attacked by Cossacks in what's Ukraine today. His parents had him smuggled out of town in a horse-drawn rig under bales of hay. He then walked across a significant part of Europe and took a boat from Antwerp, Belgium, to New York City. There, he was met by a cousin who brought him to Norfolk, Virginia. Eventually, my grandfather managed to bring his whole family to Norfolk, where he became, among other things, the president of his local Zionist club, fostering his dream of refuge. My father grew up in the haze of that dream.

In the Shadow of the World Wars

In fact, my father's reliance on the guarantee that he could go "somewhere else" accorded well with the post-World War II international consensus that people in danger of persecution where they lived had a right to seek refuge in another country. Shortly after the formation of the United Nations, that view was codified in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

The Convention consolidated various treaties created by European nations to address the desperate situation of millions of people displaced by the two World Wars. It defined a refugee as a person who:

"As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."

More recent regional agreements have expanded that definition to include people subject to external aggression, internal violence, or the serious disturbance of public order, whose lives, in short, have become unsustainable thanks to various forms of systemic violence. The Convention also laid out the obligations of nations receiving refugees -- including providing housing, work permits, and education -- while recognizing that receiving countries might need assistance from the international community to meet those obligations. It also affirmed the importance of maintaining family unity (something blatantly violated by the Trump administration under its policy of family separation at the U.S.-Mexican border).

With the phrase "events occurring before 1 January 1951" the Convention's framers alluded to the two world wars of the preceding decades. What they didn't foresee was that millions more refugees would be churned up in the second half of the twentieth century, much less what humanity would prove capable of producing in this one.

The trajectory was clear enough, however, when, the year before Nixon was elected, the 1967 Protocol to the Convention removed limits on migration-producing events occurring after 1951 and geographical restrictions of any sort. No matter when or where people became refugees, they were now subject to protection in all 148 nations that signed on, including the United States, which signed and ratified both the original Convention and the 1967 Protocol.

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Sunshine Coast, QLD - 06 January 2023 - Aussie Bargain Car Rentals, a leading car rental service in the Sunshine Coast, is thrilled to announce its latest fleet of SUV rentals designed for the ultimate scenic driving experience. This initiative caters to tourists and travellers looking to explore the picturesque landscapes of the Sunshine Coast. Their SUVs provide the perfect combination of comfort, style, and ruggedness, ideal for navigating the scenic 
The simplest way to characterize the rapidly rising Gabon-Nigerian content creator is unpredictable. Williem BN, real name Emulo Williams Chijiuka, has rapidly gained popularity for his choreographic performances in the media. Williams was raised in Libreville, Gabon, alongside his siblings. Dancers such as Clout Dipson, Aja Is Saxy, Poco Lee, and Michael Jackson cultivated his passion for dancing and performances. In 2015, he would take his career on stage. He spent 
Running back Jam Griffin is returning to Oregon State for his senior year after spending one year at Mississippi.

Griffin announced Sunday that hes transferring to OSU to bolster the Beavers running back position. Griffin played at Oregon State during the 2022 season after spending three years at Georgia Tech.
Portland-based NuScale Power said Monday it has laid off 154 employees, 28% of its staff, as it strives to find commercial customers for its nuclear reactor technology.

Thats a substantial reduction in the workforce of the struggling nuclear energy company but smaller than had been suggested by a report Friday in HuffPost, which indicated up to 40% of NuScale workers had lost their jobs.

The bulk of NuScales employees work in Oregon, mostly at its research and engineering site in Corvallis. NuScale also has a small team at its headquarters office in Southwest Portland. The company declined to say how many Oregon workers lost their jobs but said it laid off fewer than 50 people at any single location.

NuScale said the job cuts will save the company between $50 million and $60 million annually, after paying severance costs of around $3 million.

NuScale pioneered a new class of nuclear plant known as a small modular reactor, based on technology developed at Oregon State University. The company says its reactors are more cost-effective and safer than conventional nuclear plants, and NuScale had won key regulatory approvals and $600 million in federal backing to develop its technology.

While several other companies are working on their own small reactors, too, utilities have been slow to adopt the technology. In November, a coalition of Western utilities dropped plans to build a NuScale reactor in Idaho, sending the companys stock plunging.

NuScales shares fell 8% Friday, to $2.65. Shares fell another 2.9% early Monday. The company had $117 million in cash at the end of September, down from $268 million in cash and short-term investments at the start of the year.

Projected costs for the Idaho project ballooned by 75% last year, to $9.3 billion, and the target price for power from NuScales reactor climbed by more than 50%. That made it less appealing to the utilities seeking an affordable alternative to electricity generated by fossil fuels.

NuScale said Monday that its layoffs represent a shift away from the research stage of its operations toward commercialization of its small modular reactors. But it did not announce any deals to actually deploy reactors.

Our U.S. Nuclear Regulatory-approved, industry-leading SMR technology is already many years ahead of the competition, John Hopkins, NuScales CEO, said in a written statement. Today, commercialization of our SMR technology is our key objective, which includes near-term deployment and manufacturing.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | 503-294-7699

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California investigators have released new information in hopes of putting to rest the final unidentified victim of the notorious Happy Face serial killer.

Keith Jesperson is serving multiple life sentences at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem for murders he committed while working as a truck driver in the 1990s. Authorities have identified seven of eight of his confirmed victims, leaving only a woman whom Jesperson called Claudia unidentified.

Jesperson was convicted of killing the woman, whose true name may not be Claudia, exactly 14 years ago, the Riverside County District Attorneys Office announced Monday.

We are hoping that someone, anyone might recognize her, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in a video release. Even the smallest piece of information could be the key to bringing this victims name to light.

The woman was hitchhiking toward Los Angeles in August 1992 when she caught a ride in Jespersons purple Peterbilt rig at a Victorville, California, truck stop. They stopped for lunch at the Burns Brothers diner near Indio, about 115 miles away on Interstate 10.

Jesperson then continued east, killed the woman in his truck and dumped her body on the side of U.S. Route 95 north of Blythe, California.

Investigators believe Claudia was white with fair skin, about 25 to 35 years old, stood 5-feet-7 and had a medium build and likely had brown or dyed blond hair. Claudia had two dots tattooed on her right thumb and was wearing a gray shirt with a skeleton riding a motorcycle on it.

She was a frequent hitchhiker and is believed to have been raised in the Los Angeles, San Bernardino or Riverside County area.

Jesperson, now 68, earned his serial killer sobriquet for the smiling doodles he included in taunting letters he anonymously sent to The Oregonian before his arrest in 1995.

 Zane Sparling; zsparling@oregonian.com; 503-319-7083; @pdxzane

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LOrange  one of our favorite new restaurants of 2023  might have opened with Old Portland value in mind. But a tasting menu was always part of the plans.

This Tuesday, chef Joel Stocks will launch the first tasting menu at LOrange with a seven-course set dinner (plus a welcome amuse and post-meal mignardises) with a single seating for just eight people at the bar. LOranges dining room and lounge will remain open for regular service.

Stocks, a Culinary Institute of America grad who spent time at The French Laundry, Alinea and The Herb Farm, among other lauded American and European restaurants, envisions meals kicking off with raw cold seafood before moving into more substantial cooked fish and meat dishes.

Weve got duck confit with foie gras on the opening menu, beef and mushrooms, Stocks said. Its all kind of tasting-menu style food that I really like to eat.

15 1 / 15 L'Orange restaurant in Southeast Portland

The dinner costs $190 and includes wine or non-alcoholic drink pairings (chosen by LOrange owner Jeff Vejr), but not gratuity. Emily Stocks, Joels wife and the co-founder of Jem  the pandemic-era supper club the couple ran out of their Northeast Portland garage  will be in the house at LOrange to help out with service.

Its like a little Jem revival, Stocks said. Minus the cute garage.

LOranges Tuesday-Wednesday tasting menu starts this week at 2005 S.E. 11th Ave., 503-880-5682, lorangepdx.com. Reservations are required.

Further reading:

With upcoming restaurant LOrange, chef, wine expert pine for Old Portland value

Wine-focused LOrange combines modern technique, Old Portland feel (review)

Portlands 10 best new restaurants of 2023

 Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com

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With four kids ranging in age from 5 to 9, Forest Grove parent Yareli Chavez knows a little something about the gauntlet working families face if they want to secure a preschool spot in the Portland suburbs, particularly if they cannot afford to fork over thousands of dollars a month.

There were always a lot of barriers, says Chavez, whose youngest child is now in her last year of preschool. Different programs had different criteria that you had to meet. Maybe your child has to be a certain age, or you have to be a farmworker or make a certain income.
Not long ago I came across a video online, I cant find it now of course, where a woman said something like, I think I found my hobby. My hobby is spa.

Yes, I thought. Spa is my hobby, too.

What is a hobby if not something you sink a bunch of time and money into that isnt even remotely required for the basics of living? Something bourgeois that gives you a small amount of joy and maybe a little community? It cant be something that actually contributes to society in any way. This is purely a self-involved activity.

I have been working my way towards excellence in spa for years. I consider it my duty to visit the saunas, spas and hot tubs of Portland, both in my personal life and as a reporter. I even have a small sauna in my garage.

So when the Ritz-Carlton, Portlands brand-new downtown luxury hotel and residence at 900 S.W. Washington St., announced the 19th-floor spa was opening in mid-December, I made a reservation.

Read: 9 places to soak and sauna in Portland, from basic to luxurious

The spa at the Ritz-Carlton has a steam room and sauna, plus a cold shower, regular showers and several areas for relaxing. To access those amenities, you either need to pay for a spa service if you arent staying at the hotel, or pay $50 for a day pass if you are staying at the hotel.

The spa services at the Ritz-Carlton include 50-minute massages starting at $220, facials starting at $220, Wellness Journeys, starting at $365 and nail services, starting at $70. Paying for any of these gives you access to the spa for the day, but, unfortunately for me, currently, nail appointments arent available before 2 p.m. on weekdays.

Massage appointments are much more plentiful, so I booked a 50-minute stress relief massage ($225) for a late Thursday morning.

Just a note: The Oregonian paid for the services and Ritz-Carlton employees were aware that I was a reporter.

Its immediately apparent upon arrival at the Ritz-Carlton that you arent at my regular spa, the Everett House. At the Everett House in Northeast Portland, a 60-minute massage will run you around $105 depending on the style, and 90 minutes of spa time is $35. You park on the street, or lock your bike up outside.

At the Ritz-Carlton, the only parking option, unless you go to a nearby garage, is valet. (Two hours of street parking wont be long enough.)

In for a penny, in for a pound, I thought and handed over the keys of my nearly decade-old Leaf with a broken window to an impeccably dressed valet driver.

Then, I entered the building, greeted the people at the front desk and took the express elevator to the 19th floor.

The elevator to the Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

From that moment on, I was no longer in downtown Portland. Instead, I was in some luxury spaceship where the windows projected views of an idealized, misty city, backed by tree-covered hills.

The Ritz-Carlton is nice, but nice doesnt quite cover it. Its several degrees nicer than any other hotel in Portland, and it emanates newness.

Its impossible not to mention here that even building something so opulent to begin with was controversial. The hotel stands at what was once the Southwest 10th and Alder food cart pod. Not everybody is happy about the switch.

Then theres the fact that the developer behind the project, Walter Bowen, has been ambiguous about how he would live up to the citys ordinances that require new construction to contribute to the creation of affordable housing.

And, it remains to be seen whether Bowen, whose company is already facing foreclosure on a hotel in California, can actually sell units in the super up-market building while around it, downtown is mired in post-pandemic malaise, drug use and bad publicity.

All this gets to the heart of something that has been troubling Portland for years: What should downtown be, and by extension, what should Portland be? Are we living in a big town or a small city? Is this a world-class destination or a place for regular people to live? Should we vie for Seattles tourists or swear off competition altogether?

Big questions indeed. But when you are engaging in the hobby of spa, it is best to empty your mind of real concerns.

So I walked into the glowing entryway of the Ritz-Carlton Spa, determined to consider these issues later, in my car listening to the Poverty, By America audiobook on my way home.

Melissa Chafkar, director of the Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

Melissa Chafkar, director of the Ritz-Carlton Spa, welcomed me at the front desk, which sits next to a waiting area overlooking downtown and the Willamette River. These massive windows are a hallmark of the Ritz-Carlton, which is now one of Portlands tallest buildings.

The Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

Chafkar showed me the relaxation area, with snacks and lemon cucumber spa water, and then ushered me into the womens locker room, where a locker with a robe, towels and sandals was ready for me.

The spa amenities are all single-gender, and in the locker rooms. While that means you dont need to wear a swimsuit in the sauna or steam room, one of my all-time least favorite ways to spa, you do need to wear a towel or robe. Again, this is not the Everett House, where nearly everyone is naked and all genders are welcome in all spaces, most of the time.

Another way you know you arent at the Everett House? The spa water is plentiful, as are the towels, the cups and the amenities. At the vanities, the drawers are stocked with individually packaged bamboo accessories like brushes, combs and razors. Boxes on the counters contain hair ties and Q-tips.

There are even iced washcloths scented with eucalyptus that you can use on your face and neck in the sauna and steam room.

Available amenities at the Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

The Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

The spa water at the Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

Chafkar offered me champagne or tea. I opted for tea, and she brought it in on a tray, with a little teapot and a pink rose in a vase.

The locker room was clean and bright like the rest of the spa area. I disrobed, grabbed my book and some spa water and headed for the dry sauna first.

The sauna is huge but during my visit, I was the only one using it.

I went back several times, bringing my book, water or tea and later, a cold washcloth. One could easily spend the day just switching back and forth between the sauna and a cold shower.

Inside the Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

The women's sauna at the Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

But, if I am completely honest, I love a steam room even more than a sauna. At home, we pour water on the rocks of our sauna to steam it up, not something that is done at most public saunas in Portland though it is a part of sauna culture in other countries.

The steam room is impressive. Its big, sure, but also, it is surprisingly quiet, compared to the steam rooms at both Knot Springs and Everett House.

You cant bring a book into a steam room, so this was when I most wished for a little company and started scheming ways to bring friends with me on my next visit.

The women's steam room at the Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

After a steam and a shower, I put my robe on, took my tea and made my way to the communal relaxation area to wait for my massage.

Here there is more spa water, as well as coconut macaroons and a fancy trail mix with white chocolate and dried blueberries alongside almonds, cashews and dried cranberries. The room, once again, is notable for its windows, which on the day I visited looked out onto the city, foggy forest-covered hills and Lincoln High School.

The relaxation room at the Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

The free snacks and drinks at the Ritz-Carlton Spa in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

After the snacks, a massage therapist named JT met me in the room and took me to the massage room. This was not your standard, over-priced hotel massage. Yes, it was expensive, but it was also one of the best massages I have ever received and very well thought-out, from the scents of the oil to the bell that JT placed on my body and actually rang at the beginning and the end of the massage.

Also, the massage table moved to accommodate different chest sizes, something I have never experienced in my life which made it a lot more comfortable to lie on my stomach.

A lovely 50 minutes and when it was over, I dressed, paid and tried out the Mind-Sync chair (a vibrating meditation chair). Then, one of the attendants showed me the rest of the spa area, including the large gym, which is available to people using the spa who arent hotel guests, and the hot tub and outrageous infinity pool, which are only for hotel guests and residents at this time.

The infinity pool at Ritz-Carlton in downtown Portland. This pool is only available for guests and residents.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

Is that pool alone, which they keep at 84 degrees, worth the $500-plus a night for a room? Maybe.

After the tour, I made my way upstairs to the 20th floor to Bellpine, the hotels restaurant, for a post-spa lunch of pumpkin bisque ($18) and side salad ($9). While the menu also includes things like a prime rib burger for $24, I thought a pumpkin bisque with shrimp seemed like the thing to eat after a morning at the spa.

I was correct  the soup was light and delicious and the views, once again, were unmatched.

Bellpine restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

Pumpkin bisque at Bellpine at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

The final price tag for about four hours of extreme luxury was $344.20, including valet parking, the massage, food and tips.

Was it worth it? If I were going to spend $350 of my own money on a spa day, I would probably try to get to Tacomas Olympus Spa, a women-only Korean spa that is unlike anything in the Portland area. It isnt exactly fancy, but there are a lot of pools, one thing the Ritz-Carlton Spa is lacking, and the body scrub is unreal.

In town, I will probably stick to Everett House for my run-of-the-mill spa time.

But, if I ever need a couple of hours of opulence, I already have a plan: Ill take the bus to the Ritz-Carlton and get a pedicure.

Lizzy Acker post-massage lunch at Ritz-Carlton in downtown Portland.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian

Jeff Manning contributed to this report.

 Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052; lacker@oregonian.com; @lizzzyacker

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I ask local elected leaders to strongly oppose the merger of Kroger/Fred Meyer with Albertsons/Safeway. It seriously jeopardizes local access to quality and affordable food and pharmacies.

Heres why they should oppose it:

The merged company would command a 70% market share in many Pacific Northwest cities, and in certain Portland neighborhoods. This could allow it to effortlessly increase prices, winnow product options, cut hard-won union jobs and reduce customer service to boost profits.

The merged firm says it will close or sell stores to address this. My husband and I reside in North and Northeast Portland, where multiple stores are at risk of closure. The proposed solution to sell stores to a smaller rival is unlikely to be successful, leaving us with fewer stores. You can check this online map to see if your neighborhood might be at risk for store closures.

As an outdoorsy and active kid, I always eagerly anticipated the next meal. During leaner years after my parents divorce, my single mom stretched our familys meager food stamp allotment to help keep us fed.

Thats why this issue has always been on my agenda and why I helped create the 20-Minute Complete Neighborhoods plan, with a specific focus to address grocery store deserts. I also fought against sub-par stores like Wal-Mart whenever and wherever state law allowed.

Oregons U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden recently voiced his opposition to this proposal. Portland, Multnomah County and other jurisdictions should do the same.

Learn more by visiting these links for those who support the merger and those who oppose the merger.

Sam Adams, Portland

Adams served as mayor of Portland from 2009 - 2012.

To read more letters to the editor, go to oregonlive.com/opinion.
Audio from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 as the pilot communicated with air traffic controllers reveals how she navigated 177 passengers and crew members to safety at Portland International Airport.

We are in an emergency, we are depressurized, we do need to return back, the pilot told air traffic control minutes after a door plug in the fuselage blew out, stripping a teenager of his shirt and terrifying passengers.

So, youre ready for the approach now? an air traffic controller asked.

We need about 10 minutes, she responded.

Roger, the man responds. Just let me know when youre ready.

Well let you know.

Federal officials are investigating what they have referred to as an accident, and have asked the publics help locating the piece of the plane that they believe landed somewhere west of Portland, in or near the Cedar Hills neighborhood of Beaverton. The piece of fuselage was a plug for a part of the plane that could be converted into a door.

 Fedor Zarkhin of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
Officials identified the 38-year-old pedestrian killed in a crash Nov. 14 in Southeast Portland.

The pedestrian, Nicholas Depaolo, was in the center lane of Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard, near the 4300 block, around 6:13 a.m. when the driver of a 2018 Toyota Tacoma hit him, the Portland Police Bureau officials said in a press release. He wasnt in a crosswalk, and police said they dont know why he was in the road.

The driver was not charged or cited in connection with the crash.

Depaolo was one of 75 people who died in traffic crashes in Portland in 2023  the highest number since 1986, when 79 people died, police said. At least 21 of Portlands road fatalities this year were pedestrians, according to Portland Bureau of Transportation data.

 Fedor Zarkhin

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The 2024 81st Golden Globe Awards are back, airing live tonight, Sunday, January 7 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Tune in to see the award show comeback of a lifetime as Poor Things, Anatomy of a Fall, Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, and others compete for Best Motion Picture. Watch with a free trial of Fubo. To check out more of the nominations announcements, see the video provided below.

How to watch: You can watch the 2024 Golden Globe Awards for FREE with Fubo (free trial), with DirecTV Stream (free trial) or with Hulu (free trial).

Whats the Golden Globes drama?

After a few tough years for the award show after a 2021 Los Angeles Times investigation exposed major lack of diversity problems in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and it became clear that the awards had operated as a pay-to-play program for many years, celebrities and sponsors distanced themselves. Tom Cruise and Scarlette Johanson returned previously received awards while many vowed to boycott the event. NBC even refused to air the event show in 2022. It looked as though the Golden Globes had finally met their end. On the contrary, after an ownership change, low-key 2023, and promises to do better, the award show hopes to make an epic comeback.

Who is hosting the 2024 Golden Globes?

Actor and author Jo Koy will host and present this years event. More presenters include:

America Ferrera, Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Hailee Steinfeld, Issa Rae, Oprah Winfrey, Shameik Moore and Simu Liu. As previously revealed, the January 7 festivities lineup includes Amanda Seyfried, Angela Bassett, George Lopez, Julia Garner, Justin Hartley, Michelle Yeoh, Will Ferrell, Gabriel Macht, and others.

Who is nominated for a 2024 Golden Globe? See the full list here.

BEST MOTION PICTURE

Anatomy of a Fall

Killers of the Flower Moon

Maestro

Oppenheimer

Past Lives

The Zone of Interest

BEST MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Air

American Fiction

Barbie

The Holdovers

May December

Poor Things

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE LEAD (DRAMA)

Annette Bening

Cailee Spaeny

Carey Mulligan

Greta Lee

Lily Gladstone

Sandra Huller

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A MALE LEAD (DRAMA)

Andrew Scott

Barry Keoghan

Bradley Cooper

Cillian Murphy

Colman Domingo

Leonardo DiCaprio

BEST DIRECTOR (DRAMA)

Bradley Cooper - Maestro

Celine Song - Past Lives

Christopher Nolan - Oppenheimer

Greta Gerwig - Barbie

Martin Scorsese - Killers of the Flower Moon

Yorgos Lanthimos - Poor Things

HOW TO WATCH THE 2024 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS

What: The 2024 Golden Globe Awards

When: Sunday, January 7 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET

Where: Streamed live from The Beverly Hilton

Channel: CBS

Stream: You can watch the 2024 Golden Globe Awards for FREE with Fubo (free trial), with DirecTV (free trial), or with Hulu (free trial). If youre out of free trials, you can sign up for Fubo for $24.99 for the first month, the $32.99/month after that.
Lawyers for the families of a 22-year-old man who died after a weeks-long decline into mental illness and a 32-year-old woman who died after becoming severely dehydrated  both at the Washington County Jail  have filed a pair of tort claim notices reserving the right to sue.

The letters warning of possible lawsuits were each sent to the county weeks after the April 2022 death of Bryce Bybee and the July 2023 death of Meagan Bruce. The Oregonian/OregonLive learned of the tort claim notices last month, as the result of a public records request. No tort claim notices have been filed in the deaths of four other people who died in 2022 or 2023 while in jail custody, according to the county.

In the five years leading up to 2022, Washington County reported a total of six jail deaths, but both Washington and Multnomah counties have experienced a spate of jail deaths in recent months.

Multnomah Countys jails reported no deaths in 2020 and 2021, three in 2022 and seven in 2023, most often because of overdoses or suicide.

The Clackamas County Jail hasnt seen the same bump in deaths as its metro area neighbors. The jail reported one death in 2019, one in 2020, three in 2021, one in 2022 and none in 2023. All but one of those were suicides.

As of last week, no lawsuits have been filed based on the 2022 and 2023 deaths in any of the three Portland area counties. But the deaths have prompted reviews of procedures.

In Washington County, a review by the district attorneys office that was completed one year after the death of 22-year-old Bybee determined there wasnt evidence to justify criminal charges against any county jail staff, contracted medical workers or employees at the Oregon State Hospital.

Thats even though a staff person there didnt appear to respond to the jails efforts to try to expedite Bybees admission as a patient, according to the DAs Office. Bybee hadnt been eating or drinking regularly, was often uncommunicative and had bedsores in the weeks leading up to a judge ordering his transfer to the state psychiatric hospital for treatment for schizoaffective disorder, according to the review.

Bybee was found dead in his jail cell on April 17, 2022, two days past the deadline the judge had set for his transfer. An autopsy concluded he died from [c]omplications of schizoaffective disorder and self-neglect. The medical examiner noted an association between sudden death and psychotic disorders and fatal arrhythmias.

Bybee had been booked into jail based on allegations that included armed robbery.

The Oregonian/OregonLive asked for reports into the death of 32-year-old Bruce, but the county said it was unable to provide any such reports. Bruce was booked into jail with unspecified drugs in her system, according to a tort claim notice. She was facing several criminal allegations, including the theft of a Subaru and stealing from a Fred Meyer. Two to three days after arriving at the jail, she was found unresponsive in her cell on July 7, 2023. The tort claim notice states that she was left dehydrated in her cell, had no fluid in her bladder and was not given the proper care and attention (that) someone going through withdrawal needs.

In response to this story, the county issued a statement: We are saddened by these deaths and strive continuously to intervene immediately when life-threatening emergencies occur in the jail.

 Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee; 503-913-4197

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Mother Nature has a laundry list of winter weather conditions she is eager to deliver to Western Washington.

Heavy rain and strong winds, of course. Some river flooding and coastal flooding, because why not? Mountain snow and even Western Washingtons first blizzard warning since 2012, a masterful 180 following Decembers record warmth.

A flurry of warnings, watches, hazards and advisories will accompany this weeks active weather, which could even end with snow in Seattle.

A very potent weather system is responsible, said Dustin Guy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.

Monday will be increasingly rainy, while the mountain passes are expected to pick up as much as a foot of fresh snow, according to the weather service.

Some spots, around Hood Canal, north of Everett and along the Cascade foothills and valleys, may see wet snow or a rain/snow mix in the morning hours before rain prevails.

A stronger system will follow Monday night into Tuesday, bringing more rain and 40-50 mph winds across most of Western Washington. The strongest gusts will blow in the mountains and along the northern coast and into the San Juans and Whidbey Island, where there is a 50% chance for gusts exceeding 60 mph.

There is a wind advisory in effect through 10 p.m. Tuesday across much of the lowlands of Western Washington, with wind speeds and gusts varying by location. The Seattle area, for example, will see 25 to 35 mph winds with gusts up to 45 mph.

Its going to be a very windy period coming up here starting Monday night and taking us all the way through Tuesday, Guy said.

Those strong winds (50-60 mph) in the mountains, combined with a healthy dumping of 2 to 5 feet of snow in elevations above 2,000 feet, will create periods of whiteout and near-zero visibility on Tuesday, the weather service said.

A winter storm warning for up to 12 inches of snow is in effect through 4 a.m. Tuesday in both the Cascades and Olympics.

Then, a blizzard warning for up to 30 inches of snow and winds gusting as high as 60 mph begins 4 a.m. Tuesday and lasts until 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Blizzard warnings are rare in Western Washington  the last one was over a decade ago  and they require a combination of blowing snow, 35+ mph winds and quarter-mile visibility for three hours or more, according to the weather service.

Needless to say, the heavy snow combined with gusty winds is going to make very treacherous traveling conditions in the mountains, Guy said.

The Washington State Department of Transportation and Washington Emergency Management are urging drivers to avoid traveling through the passes.

Snow elevations will be higher along the south slopes of the Olympics, and thus heavy rain will force sharp rises on Mason Countys Skokomish River. Minor flooding is possible Monday night or Tuesday, the weather service said.

Down near the surface, precipitation will fall in the form of 1 to 2 inches of rain on Tuesday, with the highest amounts at the coast. As the system churns offshore, seas will build, creating high surf conditions (breaking waves of up to 30 feet) and potential coastal flooding.

Only minor coastal flooding is forecast at Westport, Friday Harbor and Port Angeles on Tuesday, but there may be increased tides, so there are coastal flood watches in effect for a potential 2 to 3 feet of coastal flooding at the coast and in the San Juans and Admiralty Inlet.

Heavy mountain snow and strong winds will continue into Wednesday, with both easing toward the afternoon. Seas will also subside, but the weather service is monitoring high tides and possible minor tidal overflow with king tides.

Then, Mother Natures real fun begins.

Offshore winds and a stream of cool air flooding the region from the north will force temperatures down in the latter half of the week.

There is still a lot of uncertainty in how cold we get, the weather service said Sunday evening, but even lows in the 20s  the most likely scenario  would be much below normal and cool enough for snow.

Chances for lowland snow had increased slightly by Monday morning, with a 40% to 60% chance for at least 1 inch of snow between Thursday and Saturday, and a 30% chance for 2 inches or more, according to the weather service.

But forecasting lowland snow in Western Washington is extraordinarily difficult because all the ingredients really have to come together perfectly for that to really pan out, Guy said Monday morning.

We certainly are looking at colder air coming in, he continued, but any snowfall estimates will be solidified over the next few days.

___

(c)2024 The Seattle Times

Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Scientists Find Naturally Occurring Pathogenic Fungi to Control Eucalyptus Snout Beetle

The Eucalyptus snout beetle has a heavy impact on Eucalyptus forest plantations worldwide. (above) A Eucalyptus snout beetle infected by pathogenic fungi. Scientists say the fungi could be used to develop a bio-pesticide to control the beetle. The Eucalyptus snout beetle has a heavy impact on Eucalyptus forest plantations worldwide.A Eucalyptus snout beetle infected by pathogenic fungi. Scientists say the fungi could be used to develop a bio-pesticide to control the beetle.

Jan. 8, 2024 (Press Release) - Scientists have found naturally occurring pathogenic fungi infecting the Eucalyptus snout beetle in Eucalyptus forest plantations, and characterised them to develop a bio-pesticide for controlling the beetle.

Gonipterus platensis, or the Eucalyptus snout beetle, has a heavy impact on Eucalyptus forest plantations worldwide, and it is mostly controlled using the micro wasp Anaphes spp., although control rates rarely become financially viable. This led a team of scientists to look for naturally occurring pathogenic fungi to tackle the Eucalyptus snout beetle problem.

Worldwide, the Eucalyptus forest covers more than 20 million hectares. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Eucalyptus snout beetle could cause defoliation levels of 100% and produce wood volume losses of up to 86%. Although Eucalyptus wood is important for paper pulp production, the biological control of the Eucalyptus snout beetle is far from total, and on some occasions chemical control is needed, too.

The identification of fungi pathogenic to the Eucalyptus snout beetle is not new. What is remarkable in this new research is that the scientists collected the fungi from naturally infected beetles in the current distribution area in Colombia, so the fungi will be well-adapted to the environmental conditions, which is promising for controlling the beetle in forest plantations.

To ensure that the recovered fungi are suitable for developing a bio-pesticide, the scientists characterized them in terms of insecticidal activity, UV-B radiation tolerance and other parameters. This characterisation ensures that the fungi are suitable for mass production of a bio-pesticide and, when used in forest plantations, are resistant to the environmental conditions. Beauveria pseudobassiana and Metarhizium brunneum were the most virulent fungi. B. pseudobassiana was the most adapted for producing a bio-pesticide and tolerant to the environmental conditions.

The fungi could be used to develop a bio-pesticide, after trials in Eucalyptus forests. Later, the fungi could also be used in other countries where the insect is causing severe damage.

This work was supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Colombia, through Corporacion Colombiana de Investigacion Agropecuaria  AGROSAVIA, as part of the project "Strategies for planning and management of forest plantations and agroecosystems in Colombia". The scientists are looking for new funding to run tests in field conditions.

Research article:

MEJIA, CINDY, GLORIA BARRERA, JOHN ALEXANDER PULGARIN DIAZ, CARLOS ESPINEL. 2024. The Eucalyptus snout beetle in Colombia: selection and evaluation of entomopathogenic fungi as bioinsecticides against Gonipterus platensis. Biological Control: 105407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocontrol.2023.105407.

For further information, please contact:

Alexander Pulgarin Diaz, Doctoral Researcher, University of Eastern Finland / School of Forest Sciences: alexander.pulgarin.diaz (at) uef.fi

SOURCE: University of Eastern Finland
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As I say, I re-read C. S. Lewiss book Mere Christianity on the flight over. It has been a fair while since Ive read that particular book, and here are a couple of the many passages that struck me. I supply no page references both because there are multiple editions and because I was reading it on my iPad:

I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe, and I am going to begin by telling you one thing that Christians do not need to believe. If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong.. As in arithmetic  there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong; but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others. The first big division of humanity is into the majority, who believe in some kind of God or gods, and the minority who do not. On this point, Christianity lines up with the majority  lines up with ancient Greeks and Romans, modern savages, Stoics, Platonists, Hindus, Mohammedans, etc., against the modern Western European materialists. (C. S. Lewis, The Rival Conceptions of God, in Mere Christianity)

And this, from a few pages later:

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it? A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal; a fish would not feel wet. Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too  for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist  in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless  I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality  namely my idea of justice  was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creature with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning. (C. S. Lewis, The Rival Conceptions of God, in Mere Christianity)

But now  partly adhering, though not by design, to a celebration of British authors  I serve up something from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial How Religion Poisons Everything File, which never fails in its steady stream of horrors visited upon innocent humanity:

Michael W. Parker, DSW; W. A. Achenbaum, PhD; Walter L. Larimore, MD, and Harold G. Koenig, MD , Rowe and Kahns Model of Successful Aging Revisited: Positive SpiritualityThe Forgotten Factor, The Gerontologist 42/5 (2002), 613620. At the time of this articles publication, the authors were affiliated, respectively, with the Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; the Department of Social Work, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; the College of Humanities, Fine Arts and Communication, The University of Houston, Texas; Focus on the Family , Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Duke University Medical Center and GRECC, VA Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina:
First of all, I need to explain that, for the next ten days or so, I will have limited and only occasional access to the internet and, for three of those days, very possibly none at all. So my ability to interact with people in the comments section to this blog, and to respond to emails, will be sharply restricted.

That said, its good to be back in London again, even if for only a couple of days (at least at this end of this trip). When a man is tired of London, said Samuel Johnson to his friend and biographer James Boswell in 1777, he is tired of life. The full quote actually runs as follows: Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

I cant honestly say that I could never conceive of being tired of London; I like the English countryside, as well, and I like other cities and countrysides, too. (Switzerland and Norway come readily to mind.) And the constant bustle and noise of at least the central parts of major urban areas can grow tiresome. But London is certainly one of my favorite places to visit. And I would find it difficult to understand anybody who didnt find the city amazingly interesting and fascinating on multiple levels.

My wife has outdone herself this time. Our lodgings are located at the intersection of the River Thames and Westminster Bridge. Out one window, we have the iconic view across the river of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, the towers of Westminster Abbey, and of course the bridge  as well as, straight down the river, of the distinctive Secret Intelligence Service Building, the headquarters of MI6 (famous, among many other things, from the James Bond movie Skyfall). Directly across the river from us, as seen from a different window, is the plainly identified New Scotland Yard.

But my wife and I are both jet-lagged and, regrettably, we definitely wont be enjoying our stay here to the full extent of its potential. Moreover, as, now, a certifiable geezer, I just dont feel like staying up to the wee hours of the morning and then getting up to salute the break of dawn.

The following item went up yesterday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Testimonies of the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon

As we begin the 2024 curriculum for Come, Follow Me, which is focused on the Book of Mormon, its appropriate to consider, once more, the testimonies of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon. They represent the only secular evidence, the only evidence in addition to a personal spiritual witness, that has been given to us by the Lord himself. Happily, the Interpreter Foundations 2021 dramatic film Witnesses, its 2022 docudrama Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, and its more than thirty free short videos about the witnesses, as well as the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon website, are excellent resources for personal and family study, as well as for sharing with friends, neighbors, and extended family. Here are links to each of these resources: Witnesses  https://witnessesfilm.com/ Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon  https://witnessesundaunted.com/ Witnesses Insights  https://interpreterfoundation.org/witnesses-insights-episode-1/ (includes embedded videos, audio recordings, and transcripts) Witnesses Insights YouTube playlist  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRMn4gyXMWLuvSbl9qG9TlbU42oB52Nst Witnesses of the Book of Mormon website  https://witnessesofthebookofmormon.org/

I watched a movie called Vindicta on the flight over. I chose it mainly because I had been reading a lot, and I needed a film that was shorter than two hours in order to fit it into the remaining time. Im afraid that I cant recommend it.

Otherwise, I spent my time re-reading C. S. Lewiss Mere Christianity. (Its been a while.) I was impressed all over again, except with his discussion of the Trinity. That one, Im afraid, is a losing cause. Not even the great C. S. Lewis can make sense of it or lend it clarity. And, ironically, he really didnt even need to try. Nicene trinitarianism is a relatively late and quite foreign intrusion into Christian thought, and not at all essential to it. (Please see my Notes on Mormonism and the Trinity.)

I also read the opening chapters  focused on the dramatic geological history and the initial (and surprisingly recent) peopling of the northern and southern islands  in Michael Kings Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand.

My friend and former Maxwell Institute colleague Dr. Glen Cooper kindly called my attention, a couple of days ago, to an interesting article about the great Austrian-American a logician, mathematician, and philosopher Kurt Godel (1906-1978). The articles author, Alexander T. Englert, is himself associated with the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, as was Kurt Godel before him.

Some of you might find it enjoyable, as well. Godels belief in a Wiedersehen, an afterlife, and his rejection of atheistic materialism surprised me somewhat, and his understanding of the purpose of mortal life as a time of learning strikes me as very similar to the Latter-day Saint understanding of it: Well meet again: The intrepid logician Kurt Godel believed in the afterlife. In four heartfelt letters to his mother he explained why.

Posted from London, England
I posted the article, Moses, Science, and Water from Rocks at Catholic365 (11-18-23). It was an excerpt from chapter 9 of my book, The Word Set in Stone: How Archaeology, Science, and History Back Up the Bible (Catholic Answers Press: 2023). In this portion of my book I contended that there is a verified natural explanation for water coming out of the rocks in the Sinai Peninsula, and that it need not necessarily have been miraculous. Readers may want to read that short article first before reading this one. I think many people casually assume that these stories are miraculous. Id like to examine them a bit more closely.

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Here are the passages about Moses drawing water from rocks:

Exodus 17:6 (RSV) Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. Numbers 20:7-12 and the LORD said to Moses, [8] Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water; so you shall bring water out of the rock for them; so you shall give drink to the congregation and their cattle. [9] And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. [10] And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? [11] And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. [12] And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. Deuteronomy 8:14-15 . . . the LORD your God, . . . [15] who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, Nehemiah 9:15 Thou didst give them bread from heaven for their hunger and bring forth water for them from the rock for their thirst, Psalm 78:16, 20 He made streams come out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers. . . . [20] He smote the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. . . . Psalm 105:41 He opened the rock, and water gushed forth; it flowed through the desert like a river. Psalm 114:8 who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. Isaiah 48:21 They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he cleft the rock and the water gushed out.

I think its certainly possible to interpret these events as supernatural, but not necessarily so. In my opinion, exegesis of these texts do not absolutely require a supernatural explanation, and they are compatible with the explanation I have proffered.

God became angry with Moses (Num 20:7-12) because 1) he didnt follow His instructions, which were to tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water as opposed to striking the rock, and 2) because he gave himself the glory rather than giving it to God, Who had led him to the place where water would come out (shall we bring forth water for you . . .?). A physical supernatural explanation isnt required because of the reasons I gave in my original article: the land they were in had water within its rocks, which has been proven by science and simple observation.

It can still be regarded as supernatural, however, in the sense that God led Moses to places (e.g., Horeb: Ex 17:6) where God knew that the water was naturally present in the pores of the rocks. It could also be the case when Moses merely spoke to the rock, that God intended to either supernaturally cause it to come out at that instant, or knew (knowing everything) that it was going to come out (naturally) at the time Moses spoke to the rock, and in that particular place.

Moses hitting the rock twice in anger exhibited a disbelief in God, Who would have made the water gush forth when Moses simply spoke to the rock. Hitting it not just once but twice was in effect making a statement: I am doing this merely of my own power, and can do it anywhere I like, whereas the truth was that God was leading him to the right places. It wasnt just Moses picking any old rock that he pleased and striking it. In other words, even though water can be found in rocks in the Sinai Peninsula, its not in absolutely every rock in every place.

The passages about God causing it sound like He supernaturally caused it to happen (in the physical sense) but its not required because in the Bible, there is often multiple causation, with God as the primary cause and persons as a secondary cause, as His agents, so to speak. Thus, the last six passages above that state that God brought the water out of the rock have to be understood in light of the first two, where He used Moses as the agent for His purpose and showed him where to draw the water. This is how they are easily logically harmonized.

In a similar way there are many passages saying that God hardened Pharaohs heart and several others that say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Both are true, in different senses. In a literal sense, Pharaoh did it. In a different sense, God did by allowing it to happen in His Providence by virtue of mans free will, which in this instance was accomplishing Gods purpose (to free the Hebrews from slavery).

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Practical Matters: Perhaps some of my 4,500+ free online articles (the most comprehensive one-stop Catholic apologetics site) or fifty-five books have helped you (by Gods grace) to decide to become Catholic or to return to the Church, or better understand some doctrines and why we believe them.

Or you may believe my work is worthy to support for the purpose of apologetics and evangelism in general. If so, please seriously consider a much-needed financial contribution. Im always in need of more funds: especially monthly support. The laborer is worthy of his wages (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV). 1 December 2021 was my 20th anniversary as a full-time Catholic apologist, and February 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of my blog.

PayPal donations are the easiest: just send to my email address: apologistdave@gmail.com. Heres also a second page to get to PayPal. Youll see the term Catholic Used Book Service, which is my old side-business. To learn about the different methods of contributing (including Zelle), see my page: About Catholic Apologist Dave Armstrong / Donation Information. Thanks a million from the bottom of my heart!

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Photo credit: Moses Brings Forth Water Out of the Rock (Antonio Gonzalez Velazquez, 1723-?) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]

Summary: I support my theory about the exact nature of the incidents in the wilderness where Moses caused (?) water to supernaturally (?) come out of the rocks.
The Reverend Dr Glenn Taylor Webb died in Palm Desert on January 6th, 2024.

He was one of the few Obaku/Rinzai trained Zen priests living in the United States. He was ordained by Miyauchi Kanko Roshi in 1970. Webb trained both at his masters temple Kankoji, as well as at the Rinzai training monastery Myoshinji.

Dr Webbs Zen successor Dr Kurt Spellmeyer writes how together with his young American dharma heir, Kangan Glenn Webb, Miyauchi (Roshi) set out on a journey to the mother temple on the Chinese mainland. When they reached Han Shan Si, the master and his student were welcomed by the abbot, who acknowledged Webbs transmission.

In addition to his Zen life, Dr Webb was an academic. In 2011, Dr. Glenn Taylor Webb was awarded Japans Order of the Rising Sun. At the time the consulate provided a biographical sketch. The article outlined how Dr Webb

was born in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1935. At the age of 3, he started learning classical piano, which he continued, reaching the highest level of national competition. He studied in New York with Julliard teachers and gave recitals around the country, until the age of 17. During one of his recitals in New York, he met Daisetsu Suzuki, who first brought Zen Buddhism from Japan to the West. Dr. Suzukis world view inspired Webbs interest in Japanese studies and religious studies.

Dr. Webb attended Abilene Christian University in Texas, where he met and married his wife, Carol St. John. He graduated with a BA in Art and Religion in 1957, after which he was a graduate fellow for a year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Supported for the next 7 years by U. S. National Defense Foreign Language grants, he studied Japanese language and culture in the Art History and East Asian Studies Program at the University of Chicago, where he earned a Masters degree.

In 1964, Dr. Webb won a Fulbright Scholarship, which allowed him to pursue doctoral work at Kyoto University for two years. There, Dr. Daisetsu Suzuki, whom he had met at 16, became his mentor, along with other prominent Japanese scholars. Webb additionally trained in Buddhist temples to gain a deeper understanding of Buddhist teachings and was even ordained in the Rinzai Zen priesthood. Along with his wife, Carol, he also began studying Urasenke chanoyu, and they both became accredited instructors. After returning to the States, Dr. Webb earned a PhD in East Asian studies from the University of Chicago, with his dissertation entitled Japanese Scholarship on Momoyama Culture.

In 1966, Dr. Webb began teaching full time at the University of Washingtons School of Art and Jackson School of International Studies. He co-directed the Center for Asian Arts and promoted cultural exchange between the United States and Japan. One of his projects was running the Kyoto Program, wherein University of Washington students studied in Kyoto under the foremost figures in Japanese traditional arts. In 1970, Dr. Webb published his first book, The Arts of Japan  Medieval to Modern, based on the work of renowned art historian Seiroku Noma. To further students study of Zen and chanoyu, Dr. Webb established the Seattle Zen Center, which is still in operation today. He also worked to incorporate the study of chanoyu into the curriculum of the University of Washington, laying the first foundation of todays vibrant chanoyu community in Seattle.

Dr. and Mrs. Webb moved to Malibu, California in 1987, where he undertook the directorship of the Institute for the Study of Asian Cultures (ISAC) at Pepperdine University. While there, Dr. Webb invited many leaders of Buddhist groups, including the Los Angeles Zen Center and the Jodo and Nichiren Temples to speak at Pepperdine. He also invited the Bukkyo University in Kyoto to bring its students for visits to Pepperdines Malibu campus, promoting the cultural exchange between Japan and the United States. Even after his retirement in 2004 and his move to Palm Desert, Dr. Webb has continued to maintain a strong connection with Bukkyo University in Kyoto and Los Angeles, in which he serves as academic advisor and visiting professor.

Finally, as Emeritus Professor, Dr. Webb maintains a relationship with Pepperdine University, and both of the Webbs have been actively involved in the Urasenke Tankokai Los Angeles Association since they moved to Southern California. After serving as a president for 12 years, Dr. Webb is now the associations honorary president. But the true legacy of Dr. Webbs career is found in the large number of students he has touched  in both Japan and America  during his 50 years of teaching.



Carol and Glenn Webb had two children Burke Mayo and Reginald Anderson. Burke predeceased his father.

He was a brilliant scholar. An influence on many of us in the Zen world. Including me.

But most of all he was a good person.

May his memory bring blessings to all
B5 Plus proudly garnered the prestigious Exporter of the Year award for both 2021 and 2022 at the 31st and 32nd President's National Awards for Export Achievement 2023, graced by the esteemed presence of H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana.



In marking this significant milestone, B5 Plus reaffirms its commitment not only to pushing boundaries and fostering Ghana's economic dynamism but also to making a substantial contribution to the country's foreign exchange reserves through exceptional export activities.



Established in 2002 under the visionary leadership of Chairman Mr. Mukesh Thakwani (Mr. Mike), B5 Plus Steel Industry embarked on a mission to emerge as a premier global steel entity. Guided by an exceptional workforce, pioneering methodologies, and an unwavering commitment to ethical practices, our journey has consistently pursued excellence.



Our expansive 'state-of-the-art' steel manufacturing facility, situated in Larkpleku Village, Prampram, established under the 1D1F (One District One Factory) program, stands as one of Africa's largest. Featuring units like the Rolling Mill, Steel Melting Shop (SMS), PEB Manufacturing, Batching Plant, Oxygen Plant, Tube Mill Factory, Block Factory, Aluminium and Trailer Manufacturing Units, Crane Girders, and Weighing Scales, the recent acquisition of United Steel Company's Assets has substantially fortified our capabilities.



B5 Plus has emerged as a pivotal player in the regional steel industry, boasting an extensive network of wholesalers, dealers, and distributors

spanning Ghana and West Africa. Our influence extends across multiple West African countries, facilitated by strategically located manufacturing facilities, significantly contributing to Ghana's export prowess.



These prestigious accolades not only highlight our exceptional performance but also reaffirm our pivotal role in propelling Ghana's global economic advancement and consistently augmenting the country's foreign exchange reserves.



B5 Plus stands as an inspiring figure within the business community, embodying resilience, innovation, and global competitiveness, solidifying our stature as a key player in Ghana's economic landscape, particularly within the manufacturing sector.



In celebrating this monumental achievement, B5 Plus remains steadfast in pushing boundaries, contributing to Ghana's economic vitality, and leaving an enduring impact on the global stage, continuously bolstering the country's foreign exchange reserves.



B5 Plus Steel Industry is steadfast in leading the global steel industry through the excellence of our workforce, innovative methodologies, and ethical practices.



Our 'state-of-the-art' steel manufacturing facility in Larkpleku Village, Prampram, stands as one of Africa's largest and, with the recent acquisition of United Steel Company's Assets, has further fortified our capabilities.



Chairman Mr. Mukesh Thakwani dedicates this prestigious award to our invaluable employees, emphasizing our commitment to delivering top-notch quality products at competitive rates across Ghana, West Africa, and beyond, guided by the motto "B5 Plus Be Strong."



This sentiment resonates throughout B5 Plus, reaffirming our unwavering dedication to excellence. Mr. Thakwani assures that the company remains resolute in delivering the best, consistently surpassing expectations, and setting new benchmarks in quality and affordability while actively contributing to Ghana's foreign exchange earnings.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The maiden edition of the Greater Accra Emergency Medical Services Excellence Awards ( GAEMSEA) under the National Ambulance Service has been held at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly conference room.



The event was a gathering of Emergency Medical Technicians within the Greater Accra region whose works had been recognized by the committee and judges of the GAEMSEA.



This years awards night celebrated Emergency Medical Technicians ( EMTs) who distinctive works have contributed immensely to the EMS delivery system.



Speaking at the event, the Deputy Minister of Health, Honorable Tina Mensah extended here sincere appreciation to National Ambulance Service for the commitment and selfless service demonstrated to ensure the health and safety of fellow citizens in the country.



 Tonight is a celebration of the remarkable commitment and selfless service demonstrated by our frontline heroes who work to ensure the health and safety of our fellow citizens, I extend my sincere appreciation for your invaluable service to our beloved Ghana  she said



In a remarks by the Board Chairman of National Ambulance Service, Nana Wiafe Ababio, he said the awards symbolizes a collective gratitude for the sacrifices made and the communities uplifted by the unwavering efforts of our Emergency Medical Technicians and not just tokens.



 This awards are not just tokens, they symbolize our collective gratitude for the sacrifices made and the communities uplifted by the unwavering efforts of the Emergency Medical Technicians  he stated



The Chief Executive Officer for National Ambulance Service, Prof Ahmed Nuhu Zakariah thanked the Greater Accra Regional Administrator and the entire organizing committee for their dedication in putting together this meaningful event.



The Greater Accra Regional Medical Coordinators of National Ambulance Service, Dr Theophilus Nii Saka Bulley and his Deputy Dr Felicia Birch Freeman also plays a major role in the pre-hospital care settings in the area of medical direction during patient care , bed arrangement for patients during inter hospital transfers , good care of critically ill patients and training of EMTs personnel and the immense contribution for the success of Awards ceremony.



The Greater Accra Regional Administrator of National Ambulance Service, PAEMT Daniel Asare and his Deputy PAEMT Walter Foli Ashom thanked all sponsors of the event and urged all EMTs to emulate this kind of dedication and hardwork of their colleagues to help better the Emergency Medical System.



List of GAEMSEA winners 2023



BEST EMT DRIVER ( ADVANCE)

- Newton Wutor



BEST EMT DRIVER ( BASIC)

- Jalil Abdul Abubakar



DISPATCHER OF THE YEAR ( ADVANCE)

- Joyce Sellassie Avadzinu



DISPATCHER OF THE YEAR ( BASIC)

- Micheal Obodai Torgbor



BEST EMT ( ADVANCE)

- Richard Awuah Adusei



BEST EMT ( BASIC )

- Christopher Asare



BEST STATION MANAGER

- Nathaniel Essoun Amoah



EMS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

- Rahman Musah Abdul

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Three ministers and four governors have been disqualified from last month's election in the Democratic Republic of Congo, because of fraud and violence.



They are among 82 candidates excluded from the legislative, provincial and local elections by the electoral body.



But its announcement did not address the presidential election that saw President Felix Tshisekedi re-elected by a landslide.



The opposition has called the entire election a "sham" and demanded a rerun.



This admission of such widespread problems is likely to strengthen the opposition case.



However, only one of the 18 opposition candidates has gone to court to challenge the poll. The main ones say they have no faith in the courts and have instead called for protests without saying when.



The 20 December election was marred by widespread logistical problems. It had to be extended to an unplanned second day in some parts of the vast country.



About two-thirds of polling stations opened late, while 30% of voting machines did not work on the first day, according to an observer group.



Millions of people waited for hours before they were able to vote. Many gave up and went home.



In its statement disqualifying the 82 candidates, the electoral commission said they had committed fraud, corruption, acts of violence against election workers and voters, and vandalism of equipment.



Among those barred are:



Antoinette Kipulu Kabenga, minister for vocational training



Didier Mazenga Mukanzu, regional integration minister



Nana Manwanina Kiumba, a minister in the president's office



Gentiny Ngobila, the governor of Kinshasa province



Three other provincial governors and 10 senators



Supporters of Mr Ngobila have taken to the streets to protest at what they term the politically motivated disqualification.



The ministers have not yet commented but the party of President Tshisekedi says it disassociates itself from the 12 of its members who were banned.



All votes cast for the 82 candidates have been annulled. The results of the elections they were contesting have not yet been declared - only the result of the presidential race has been announced so far.



There were about 100,000 candidates across all the elections held on 20 December.



The commission also said elections would be cancelled in two of the country's 182 constituencies. It was not possible to vote at all in a further two areas in the east, because of the presence of armed groups in the mineral-rich region, as well as one part of the west.



Despite the problems, election chief Denis Kadima has previously insisted that the presidential result reflected the will of the Congolese people.



Mr Tshisekedi, 60, was elected for a second term with 73% of the vote, with his nearest challenger, mining magnate and former provincial governor Moise Katumbi, on 18%.



Official turnout was about 43% of the 44 million registered voters.



If the results are confirmed by the Constitutional Court, President Tshisekedi will be sworn in for a second term on 20 January.

Source: BBC









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Pressure group, OccupyGhana is seeking legal advice on how it can compel the Special Prosecutor to disclose the name of the alleged Ghanaian rich businessman who reportedly attempted to bribe some members of the Majority caucus in Parliament.



The report of the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) regarding the investigation into the alleged attempted bribery of members of the majority caucus of the Parliament of Ghana stated that although witnesses who appeared before investigators did not divulge the name of the businessman involved, the OSP was able to obtain the information and the name of the wealthy individual on its own.



However, the OSP did not disclose the name of the said businessman.



Reacting to this report, OccupyGhana in a statement claims We have instructed our lawyers to advise whether we and Ghanaians have the constitutional right to information, to the name of the businessman, which the OSP inexplicably redacted from the report. If we receive advice that we are entitled to that information, we will commence the relevant proceedings under the Right to Information Act to compel the OSP to reveal the name



Read the full statement below



OCCUPYGHANA PRESS RELEASE



Accra, 5 January 2024



Re: REPORT OF INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED ATTEMPTED BRIBERY OF A SECTION OF THE MAJORITY CAUCUS OF PARLIAMENT



OccupyGhana has read with much disappointment, the report of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) on the above, dated 28 December 2023. The OSPs investigation was triggered by our 3 November 2022 petition to that office to investigate the alleged, attempted bribery of the majority caucus of Parliament by an unnamed businessman. This was after both Andy Appiah-Kubi, MP and Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, MP, Majority Leader and Minster for Parliamentary Affairs, had taken turns to make these allegations.



That is why we find shocking the claim by the otherwise respectable Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, MP that the only bases of his allegations, were rumours and Appiah-Kubi, MPs allegations. We find it difficult to believe that with all the resources at his disposal, the Majority Leader and Minister would trot out and repeat allegations that he now say he did not verified either beforehand or after-the-fact. Then there is the reported hostility by Appiah-Kubi, MP towards officers of the OSP and his flat-out refusal to cooperate with the investigation. What is even more shocking is the report that both Appiah-Kubi, MP (the accuser) and the unnamed businessman (the accused) apparently engaged in a rehearsed and well-choreographed joint and similar denial of the attempted bribery event.



The result is that the OSP could not obtain any prosecution-worthy evidence on yet another allegation of corruption involving Parliament, an institution which has been plagued by and dogged with several corruption allegations over the years. Although there have been no charges or prosecutions, the repeated allegations that MPs engage in various acts of corruption is not one that Ghanaians can ignore. Some derisorily, and maybe with some justification, refer to our Parliament as Ghanas leading transactional centre.



From time to time, some MPs end up confessing that these shenanigans happen. While examples are legion, there has been one assured result  investigations lead to nothing. For example, in 2014, Alban Bagbin (then MP and now Speaker of the House) was reported to have admitted that there is evidence that some MPs take bribes and come to the floor and try to articulate the views of their sponsors. As expected, a reported parliamentary inquiry led to nothing. In 2017, some minority MPs on the Appointments Committee, led by Mahama Ayariga, MP, reported an attempt to bribed them to approve a ministerial nominee. Another reported parliamentary enquiry led to nothing, as expected.



This time, two senior sitting MPs took turns to announce on radio that an unnamed rich businessman attempted to bribe a section of Parliaments majority caucus. These MPs are considered as heavy weight leaders in our politics, and the least expected of them are dignity and the courage to stand by their convictions, if they have any. They ought to be good examples for the rest of us and our children. Yet, their behaviour renders them unfit to be leaders. One would have expected them to resign in good conscience, but alas, we are stuck with such mediocrity.



As the OSP indicated in the report, the case is all but dead for lack of serious evidence to prosecute; but these Honourable MPs (a phrase that is now generally accepted and understood as an oxymoron) will continue to occupy their seats and offices, and earn their salaries and even ex gratia, not caring about the damage they are causing to this country.



But we are not done yet. We have instructed our lawyers to advise whether we and Ghanaians have the constitutional right to information, to the name of the businessman, which the OSP inexplicably redacted from the report. If we receive advice that we are entitled to that information, we will commence the relevant proceedings under the Right to Information Act to compel the OSP to reveal the name.



Corruption, like fungi, thrives in darkness and shadows, taking advantage of secrecy, self-imposed redactions, unjustified self-censorship and lack of accountability. The corruption fungus abhors and cannot stand sunlight, and we will do all in our civil power to direct the power of light unto this matter. It just might produce the further evidence that the OSP requires to revive the dead.0

Source: OccupyGhana









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The Chairman of Ghana's Pilgrims Affairs Office, also known as "Hajj Board", Hon. Ben Abdallah Banda is leading a six-member Ghanaian delegation to the 2024 Hajj Conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.



The team left Accra over the weekend for the three-day conference which commences today in Jeddah.



The Hajj conference organized annually under the auspices of the custodian of the two holy mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Said Abdulaziz, brings together Hajj stakeholders from various countries in charge of their country's Hajj to discuss operational issues.



The key objective of the conference is to improve pilgrimage service to give all pilgrims the best experience.



Ghana's delegation is expected to share their Hajj experience and proposals to the forum with the aim of improving service, especially for Ghanaian pilgrims.



The conference also affords Saudi authorities to highlight key projects and initiatives, both current and upcoming, which are geared towards improving the Hajj and Umrah sectors.



Other members of Ghana's delegation are Hon. Alhaji Manaf, Alhaji Farouk Hamza, Ahmed Abdulai Abu, Zakaria Seidu and Ahmed Tijani.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The AttorneyGeneral (A-G) and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has expressed disagreement with the chorus of calls for a complete overhaul of the 1992 Constitution.



In an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic to share his views about the Constitution Day celebration and on whether there was the need for a review of the Constitution, he described the 1992 Constitution as possessing all the elements of a good constitution anywhere in the worldwhich assures a sound democratic order.



The Constitution, he said, contained values and principles that met international standards, and had over the past 31 years, entrenched and promoted democracy, human rights and constitutionalism in the country.



Importance of the Constitution



On the importance of a constitution to the life of a nation, the Attorney-General stated that apart from the Independence struggle, the set of rules by which a nation is governed, represents the single most important document the nation can give to itself. It is that system which defines objectives of the State, institutions established to accomplish those objectives, limitations on the powers of State, the duties of the citizen to the State, the interaction between the States powers and the inalienable rights of the citizen. That set of rules is embedded in the Constitution, and we cannot underestimate its significance.



Is a new Constitution necessary?



Regarding the calls for a reform of review of the Constitution, Mr. Dame noted that it has become fashionable for people to allege the need for a reform of the Constitution. Some people go as far as saying that Ghana needs a new Constitution. To answer this question, we must examine the relevance of our Constitution to our current national life, and I will be as objective as possible. We must not be unduly influenced popular thinking. We should subject the calls for a change or review of our Constitution to a critical thinking and there must be intellectual honesty in determining whether our Constitution measures up to international standards or the requirements of a democratic order.



When this is done, it will be clear to all that the Constitution of Ghana delivers to the nation the principles of a sound accountable democratic order and measures up to the international standards of a solid Constitution anywhere in the world. It must be realised that the Constitution is the product of decades of constant but peaceful evolution.



Although he noted the necessity for a review of some of the provisions, as well as a periodic assessment of the constitution, Mr Dame said the regular agitation for constitutional review by sections of the populace, with some even calling for a completely new constitution, were unnecessary.



Our Constitution is quite strong in terms of the establishment of the institutions to deliver a sound economic and social life. I share the view that rather than overhauling the Constitution, there is the need for us to continue to strengthen the capacity of institutions to hold the Government more accountable and ensure that the right thing is being done, he said.



Comparison with the Constitution of the United States of America



Buttressing his case for why the Constitution in its current form, can be interpreted and applied in a way which satisfies the aspirations of the people, the Attorney-General stated that it ought to be noted that the original Constitution of the worlds oldest democracy, the United States of America contained only 6 broad articles spread over 4 pages. Since its adoption in 1787, about 250 years ago, it has undergone only 27 amendments. All in all, it is still nowhere near the size of our Constitution and does not contain a bill of rights as exhaustive and comprehensive as in Ghana. An American constitutional scholar told me, that in Ghana, we seem to have more rights laid out in our Constitution than in America.



Accountability  the role of the Judiciary



The Attorney-General indicated that the Constitution had responded to the need for accountability in the country by setting up some institutions to control the use of executive power. Two of such institutions were the Judiciary and Parliament. On the Judiciary, Mr Dame cited numerous provisions in the Constitution to explain how the Constitution guaranteed an independent judiciary which was vested with full judicial review powers to ensure that every person or institution was subjected to the Constitution. The Bill of Rights in the Constitution was more elaborate as compared to other countries in the promotion of democracy and protection of fundamental human rights.



The Attorney-General referred to articles 2 and 130 of the Constitution and stated that the mechanism for the exercise of judicial review of executive and legislative actions by the Supreme Court was stronger in Ghana than in most countries. In comparison with the United States, he said judicial review was not specifically spelt out by the American Constitution but had to be assumed by the US Supreme Court through a process of constitutional interpretation.



Again our judicial review exercised by the Supreme Court of Ghana is better than the concept of judicial review in the United Kingdom where the Supreme Court may pronounce on the consistency of legislation in the UK with a European Convention but does not have the power to pronounce on the legitimacy or lawfulness of an Act of Parliament by virtue of the concept of Parliament supremacy. Ghana lent more towards the United State of America model rather than the more limited kind of judicial review as in the United Kingdom. We also rejected the concept of judicial review in some Eastern and Central European countries, where judicial rulings on the unconstitutionality of legislation may be over-ridden by a prescribed majority of the legislature the Attorney-General said.



The Principal Legal Adviser to the Government also referred to the comprehensive bill of rights in the 1992 Constitution to protect human rights as another example that set apart the Constitution from others.



Despite the comprehensive bill of rights in Chapter 5 of the Constitution and other parts of the constitution, the Constitution in Article 33 (5) even states that the human rights provisions are not exhaustive as those not specifically mentioned in the constitution would still be recognised so far as they are intended to secure the freedom and dignity of people, Mr. Dame said.



Parliaments role in promotion of accountability



Mr. Dame noted that the Constitution stipulates concrete areas of Parliamentary oversight where Parliament could effectively exercise its powers to scrutinise actions and decisions of the government.



He supported his point by citing numerous provisions in the Constitution. In particular, the Attorney-General referred to Parliaments constitutional function to approve Ministers and Deputy Ministers of State under article 78 as well as Justices of the Supreme Court in article 144 of the Constitution. He further alluded to some other powers of Parliament such as the approval of the budget under article 179 of the Constitution, the power to impose or vary taxation under article 174, the power to ratify international treaties and agreements under article 75, Parliaments power to approve loans and international business and economic transactions under article 181, Parliaments power to approve any transaction or undertaking involving the exploitation of natural resources in the country under article 268, Parliaments power to appoint an auditor to audit the Auditor-General under article 187 as well as Parliaments power to appoint committees to conduct investigation and inquiries into the activities of ministries and departments under article 103 of the Constitution. These powers of Parliament, he observed, are already in the Constitution and are capable of placing Parliament in a strong position to curb executive power.



Indeed, I believe that if Parliament was to be exercising its powers more stringently and appropriately, I am sure that most of the concerns of people regarding the Constitution will be addressed. The failure on the part of Parliament to exercise these oversight responsibilities cannot be attributed to defects in the Constitution. Mr. Dame said.



Significance of Constitution Day



Mr Dame lauded the celebration of the Constitution Day, which he said was very important as it creates an annual avenue for an examination of the significance of the Constitution in the democratic dispensation of the country.



It may be necessary at certain critical times to re-examine the effect of the Constitution on our national aspirations. However, it does not mean that every day, every week, every month there should be topics and seminars for reviewing the Constitution. To do so in itself inspires a lack of confidence in the concept of constitutionalism and by extension, our National Constitution.



It is important to clarify that I am not against a review of the Constitution. What I say is that at certain critical points, there ought to be discussions about certain aspects of our Constitution and how it impacts national life. But it ought not to be a regular affair as to entertain such daily or weekly enterprises for the review of the Constitution in itself engenders a certain lack of confidence in our national Constitution. That is why I welcome the institution of the Constitution Day because it provides for us an annual opportunity for us to reflect on the constitution, its benefit, the lapses, and how far we can go to strengthen the constitution.



However, I think in terms of international standards that are required for a constitution to have a sound democratic order, this Constitution clearly satisfy the standards, he added.



Other views on the need for constitutional reform



The issue of constitutional review has gained momentum in recent times with some constitutional experts, scholars, civil society organisations and trade unions adding their views to the national debate.



While institutions such as the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and constitutional experts such as Sam Okudzeto have called for amendments of various provisions of the Constitution, scholars such Professor Vladimir Antwi-Danso, an international relations expert, have called for a completely new constitution to replace the 1992 Constitution.



Such views for a new constitution have however been rejected by other experts, including former Chief Justice, Justice Sophia Akuffo, who argued that the best approach was to maintain the constitution and amend the parts not fit for purpose.



For eminent constitutional expert, Prof. Nana Susubribi Krobea Boaten (SKB Asante), who is regarded as the architect of the 1992 Constitution, there is even no need for any amendment as a mere amendment of the text of the Constitution, without attitudinal change in line with the values of the constitution, would not necessarily improve the fortunes of the country. Nana SKB Asante also believes in a strengthening of institutions of state and an attitudinal change of our leaders.



Areas of reform of the Constitution



The A-G shared his views on a few significant provisions of the Constitution which, in his view, required urgent reform like amendment of articles 78,(1), 11(7), 55 and 243,etc.. In subsequent editions, the Daily Graphic will capture them.



Pull quote



Rather than overhauling the constitution, there is the need for us to continue to strengthen the capacity of institutions to hold the government more accountable.





Source: Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson









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Hollywood megastar Will Smith has made a surprise call to a Guinean man who cycled across Africa to get to university.



Last year, Mamadou Safayou Barry captured the headlines over his 4,000km (2,500 mile) trek.



In a video call to Cairo, where Mr Barry is studying, Smith told him he was "deeply moved" by his efforts and gifted him a new bike and a laptop.



He learnt about the epic trip from a BBC Instagram post last September.



"I want the world to hear your story," the lead in numerous blockbusters said.



On a short film uploaded to Smith's YouTube channel, the student appeared shocked to be talking to the Men in Black star. "This is Will Smith!" a smiling Mr Barry said. "A lot of your films I love."



"I don't know how to thank you Wallahi [I swear]! I don't know how to thank you," he said later when he heard about the gifts.



Smith's publicity team had contacted the BBC after the story of Mr Barry's odyssey had been published saying that it had touched the actor. They wanted to see how they could speak to him.



Last May, the 25-year-old set off from the West African country of Guinea for Egypt's prestigious Al-Azhar University, hoping he would be accepted.



The married father of one could not afford the cost of a flight, so instead got on his bike and took four months to pedal through Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Niger and Chad.



He travelled through regions where jihadist fighters often stage attacks, and which have seen several military coups.



He was arrested and detained three times for no good reason - twice in Burkina Faso and once in Togo.



However, Mr Barry's luck turned when he reached Chad. A journalist interviewed Mr Barry and posted his story online, prompting some good Samaritans to fund a flight to Egypt for him.



Once he got to Cairo he was offered a university place, initially for Islamic studies and then onto engineering, and a full scholarship.



"When you commit to a journey, the universe conspires to help you," Smith told a beaming Mr Barry, citing author Paulo Coelho.



On the video, someone can be seen wheeling in a bicycle to give to the student, as well as handing him the laptop.



Smith has also donated vouchers so that he can buy flights either back to Guinea to visit his family, or so they can visit him.

Source: BBC









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The internet has been flooded with congratulations and goodwill messages for award-winning television host, Berla Mundi following her marriage today.



Even though speculations had been rife about Berlas impending marriage since the last quarter of 2023, her close friend and colleague, Giovanni broke the good news in a Twitter (X) post today.



He wrote earlier today, Already excited about the goodness of the Lord this year 2024. Congratulations my Teshie Beyonce-Queen B! Bless your union.



Berla married her now husband, David Tabi in the presence of family and a few friends in a very private ceremony. (Read Sugar daddies competing with young men for their girlfriends unfair  Berla Mundi)



There are no photos or videos online at the moment from the ceremony since from reports, guests were not allowed to take pictures of the couple and ceremony.



Even in the absence of pictures, her fans and Ghanaians continue to pour in congratulatory messages for the latest bride in town.

Source: graphiconline









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The Bird-in-Hand Family Inn in Lancaster County plans to reopen on Tuesday, three weeks after an explosion destroyed the inns front office building and killed one person.

The hotel at 2740 Old Philadelphia Pike in Leacock Township is currently taking reservations.

We look forward to welcoming guests back to our hotel, John E. Smucker II, the inns president and chief executive officer of the Bird-in-Hand Corporation, said in a news release.

Guests will be accommodated in the Pool Building, which was undamaged by the fire. The Pool Building has 64 rooms and suites, and recreational facilities, including two heated indoor pools, a hot tub, a game room and an exercise room. The check-in desk has been temporarily relocated to the buildings D Lobby, near the second carport.

Guests can be confident that our Pool Building has passed all appropriate inspections, Smucker said. Once we receive an occupancy permit for the undamaged portion on the west end of the Front Building, we anticipate opening up those rooms as well.

Officials at the inn said the there was an estimated $1 to $2 million in damage to the sales office, registration area and several of the rooms in the front building due to the fire.

Hotel staff is in the process of contacting guests who hold reservations for closed portions of the inn to inform them of the updates.

Our family has served visitors to Lancaster County for decades, and we look forward to carrying on our tradition of hospitality long into the future, Smucker said.

The Bird-in-Hand Family Inn was severely damaged in the massive explosion shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 18. The explosion took the life of Michelle Miller, 61, who worked as a night auditor at the hotel for 34 years, the Bird-in-Hand Corporation, said on its website.

Smucker told LancasterOnline the hotel did not have any guests when the explosion happened because of annual repairs made the week before Christmas. They had not started any repairs before the explosion, LancasterOnline said.

The state police fire marshal and Lancaster County Criminal Investigation Unit are investigating the explosion.

Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant & Smorgasbord located in an adjacent building reopened on Dec. 28.
Philadelphia police searching for a missing 4-year-old have charged the boys mother with his presumed murder.

The mother of Damari Carter, 28-year-old Dominique Bailey, of the citys Overbrook neighborhood, and her boyfriend, 30-year-old Kevin Spencer, of West Philadelphia, are currently facing multiple charges, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer and 6ABC.

This all began on Dec. 30, when the Philadelphia Departments Special Victims Unit received information about a child who had gone missing in West Philadelphia.

Baileys relatives told investigators that they hadnt seen Damari Carter in weeks and that Bailey claimed that he had been struck and killed by a car. But detectives found no evidence of that ever happening.

Nakia Bailey, Carters aunt, told 6ABC she last saw him on his birthday, Nov. 25.

On Jan. 4, Bailey was then questioned by investigators at the Special Victims Unit headquarters. Authorities later searched Spencers house, located along the 3800 block of Reno Street.

They then brought him in for questioning, while authorities were captured on video carrying out bags of evidence gathered at the scene.

The whole weekend was spent searching for Carter, as authorities searched neighborhoods and combed through dumpsters located blocks away from Spencers home, 6ABC reported.

In a statement given on Jan. 5, Bailey provided information on her involvement in the death of Carter.

Even though investigators believe Carter was beaten to death, his body has yet to be found. So far, authorities havent found anything related to his disappearance, 6ABC said.

The family is understandably devastated by the situation.

How could anybody look and put their hands on him and hurt him like that? Aiyana Parrish, Carters cousin, asked 6ABC. It broke my heart.

What happened to him was senseless. Im heartbroken, Nakia Bailey said to 6ABC, who revealed the mother and child lived with her in Texas before moving to Philadelphia last year. We still havent had peace. We dont know where he is and its all because of my sister.

Nakia Bailey urges authorities to locate Carter so she can have closure and prepare a proper funeral for him.

It didnt have to happen, she said to 6ABC. That baby was wanted. If not by her, by everyone else. His father wanted him.

Nakia Bailey also revealed that she had adopted Carters 6-year-old brother and is at a loss about how she will break the news to him.

Dominique Bailey has been charged with murder, abuse of a corpse, making false reports, and endangering the welfare of a child.

Spencer was also charged with murder, abuse of a corpse, and related offenses, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
A chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting won Madison Link, of Erie County, a blue ribbon at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.

The Homemade Chocolate Cake Contest was held Saturday at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg, which runs through Jan. 13.

Judges evaluated more than 60 cakes on taste, presentation, consistency and other metrics. Baking contests are an annual tradition at the Farm Show. Along with chocolate cakes, judges scrutinize apple pies and angel food cakes.

Contestants compete at county and community fairs to become eligible to compete on the statewide level at the Farm Show.

Angelica Coneybeer, of Greene County, won second prize and Kelly Wagner, of Schuylkill County, won third prize.

Heres Links winning chocolate cake recipe:

Js Slice of Heaven

Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup milk

1 cup hot coffee

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add oil, coffee and milk. Mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat for two more minutes. Batter will be thin. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans. Pour batter into pans and bake for about 30-45 minutes. Cool in pans for about 15 minutes, remove and allow cakes to cool completely on racks.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

1 cup butter

1 cup peanut butter

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons heavy cream

Combine butter and peanut butter, using an electric mixer to beat until creamy and well combined. With mixer at low speed, add powdered sugar until combined. Stir in vanilla extract. With mixer at low speed, add heavy cream, increasing speed to high. Beat until fluffy. Spread between layers of cake and on sides.

Chocolate Ganache:

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

Chop bittersweet chocolate into fine pieces. Bring cream and corn syrup to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Whisk gently until smooth, about 30 seconds. Let stand, whisking occasionally until thickened slightly, about 5 minutes.

Decoration:

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

Instructions:

Frost cake with peanut butter frosting. Pour glaze onto center of cake. Use spatula to spread to edge of cake, letting excess drip down sides. Garnish with peanut butter cups.

Keep cake refrigerated until ready to serve.
As of Monday, Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine said it is requiring face masks in some but not all areas in response to an increase in COVID cases in our region.

Revised masking requirements have also been announced in recent days by numerous other Philadelphia healthcare systems.
A craft brewery in Perry County that closed a year ago is back.

Liquid Noise Brewing Co. reopened late last month at 600 S. State Road in Marysville under new ownership.

Four partners, including Skanna Tang, David Chibnik, Ivan Liu and Justin Schaefer, purchased the business last spring with the intention of breathing new life into the operation, which blends three key attributes.

Great food, great beer and local community is really what our focus will be, Schaefer said.

The original owners closed Liquid Noise in December 2022 after opening a few weeks before the pandemic shutdowns in 2020.

The brewery was destined to become all but a memory until the partners purchase it after Schaefer said they kept hearing from the community about how much they wanted Liquid Noise to return.

The partners spent the better part of 2023 renovating the brewery-restaurant and waiting on license approvals. They lightened up the industrial, gray atmosphere, added pinball, arcade and skills games and expanded the menu.

With a family-friendly atmosphere, Liquid Noise appeals to everyone, Schaefer said, adding plans call for regular trivia nights, live music and other events.

It was important Liquid Noise set itself apart from other breweries, he said, adding, Not everyone wants to go to a brewery with triple IPA and truffle fries.

Head brewer Sean Carson and assistant brewers Colin Albright, and Matt Gusick have been brewing together for 10 years. Carson previously assisted brewing at Spring Gate Brewing Company in Lower Paxton Township and Cold Springs Inn & Brewing Company in Monroe Township.

Ten beers fill Liquid Noises taps, including two IPAs, Irish Red, stout, pilsner and golden lager, emphasizing a variety of styles.

We are really trying to find a broad spectrum where everyone can find something either a beer or something on the menu they would enjoy, Schaefer said.

Along with beer, Liquid Noise offers custom alcoholic seltzers. Diners can pick their own flavors and mix-and-match among flavors such as mojito, Arnold Palmer, grapefruit and spicy blood orange.

As for the food, the menu covers appetizers to desserts with smash burgers, 1/2-pound all-beef hot dogs, wings, salads, fried shrimp baskets, pizza and gluten-free options.

Its open 4-10 p.m. Monday, Wednesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. Closed Tuesdays.
By Tara Copp, Colleen Long and Kevin Freking, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON  Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin remained in the hospital Sunday as more details emerged about key decision-makers, even President Joe Biden, being kept in the dark for days that the Pentagon chief had been in the intensive care unit at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The Pentagons failure to disclose Austins hospitalization reflects a stunning lack of transparency about his illness, how serious it was and when he may be released. Such secrecy, at a time when the United States is juggling myriad national security crises, runs counter to normal practice with the president and other senior U.S. officials and Cabinet members.

A senior defense official said Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks was not notified until Thursday that Austin had been hospitalized since Jan. 1. Once notified, Hicks began preparing statements to send to Congress and made plans to return to Washington, the official said. Hicks was in Puerto Rico on leave but had communications equipment with her to remain in contact and had already been tasked with some secretary-level duties on Tuesday.

The Pentagon did not say if Hicks was given an explanation on Tuesday for why she was assuming some of Austins duties, but temporary transfers of authority are not unusual and the official said it is not uncommon for authorities to be transferred without a detailed explanation. Hicks decided not to return after she was informed that Austin would resume full control on Friday. The official was not authorized to provide details of the transfer of authority and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Biden also was not told of Austins hospitalization until he was informed on Thursday by his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. Thats according to three people with knowledge of the hospitalization who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

In a statement issued Saturday evening, Austin took responsibility for the delays in notification.

I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better, said Austin, acknowledging the concerns about transparency. But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.

Austin, 70, remained hospitalized due to complications following a minor elective medical procedure, his press secretary said, as it became increasingly clear how closely the Pentagon held information about his stay at Walter Reed. In his statement, Austin said he is on the mend and is looking forward to returning to the Pentagon soon, but he provided no other details about his ailment.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the episode erodes trust in the Biden administration and called on the department to provide lawmakers with a full accounting of the facts immediately.

I am glad to hear Secretary Austin is in improved condition and I wish him a speedy recovery. However, the fact remains that the Department of Defense deliberately withheld the Secretary of Defenses medical condition for days. That is unacceptable, Wicker said in a statement.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced support for Austin at a news conference in Qatar on Sunday.

He is an extraordinary leader in this country, in uniform and now out of uniform. And its been a highlight of my service to be able to serve alongside him, Blinken said. And Im very much looking forward to see him fully recovered and working side by side in the year ahead.

The Pentagon Press Association, which represents journalists who cover the Defense Department, sent a letter of protest on Friday evening, calling the delay in alerting the public an outrage.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, speaks during a briefing with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)AP

At a time when there are growing threats to U.S. military service members in the Middle East and the U.S. is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defense leader, the PPA said in its letter.

Other senior U.S. leaders have been much more transparent about hospital stays. When Attorney General Merrick Garland went in for a routine medical procedure in 2022, his office informed the public a week in advance and outlined how long he was expected to be out and when he would return to work.

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Michael Balsamo and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.
By Noelle Phillips, The Denver Post (TNS)

Colorados Silt Police Department is investigating a Saturday night incident at a restaurant involving U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and her ex-husband, Jayson Boebert.

Silt police Chief Mike Kite confirmed the investigation to The Denver Post but said he could not provide more details because police were still gathering facts.

Police were called to the Miners Claim restaurant in Silt on Saturday night, but Kite declined to describe the nature of the incident or the accusations. The Silt Police Department will release its report on the incident once the investigation concludes, he said.

We have a lot of facts and stuff to get sorted out, Kite said.

No one was taken into custody at the restaurant, he said.

Lauren Boebert, who represents Colorados 3rd Congressional District, filed for divorce from her husband in April, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce became final in October. The couple married in 2005.

The incident involving the Boeberts was first reported Saturday night by American Muckrakers, a political group working to oust the second-term congresswoman. The group reported on X that Boebert twice punched her husband and then called police.

However, Kite would not confirm that report. He said police were requesting video footage from the restaurant.

Both Boeberts have law enforcement records.

Lauren Boebert was arrested and summonsed at least four times for petty crimes prior to being elected to Congress. One of those cases was dropped.

Jayson Boebert was arrested in 2004 and pleaded guilty to public indecency and lewd exposure after exposing himself to two minors in a bowling alley.

In August 2022 Jayson Boebert was involved in a neighborhood dispute that involved Garfield County sheriffs deputies after neighbors complained about children riding a dune buggy too fast through the neighborhood. Despite reports of threats and property damage, no one was charged in connection with that incident.

Lauren Boebert was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020 to represent the Third Congressional District on the Western Slope. She won reelection in 2022. The pro-Trump Republicans entire tenure has been filled with controversy, including in September when she was escorted out of a production of Beetlejuice at the Denver Performing Arts Center after other patrons complained about her vaping and disruptive behavior.

Last month Boebert, who faced a tough challenge from Democrat Adam Frisch, announced she is switching districts and would run in the 4th Congressional District to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Ken Buck. In her announcement about the switch, Boebert said she was looking for a fresh start after a particularly difficult year for her and her family.

2024 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at denverpost.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The state Supreme Court has been asked to use an appeal in a central Pennsylvania rape case to declare unconstitutional keyword warrants used by police to obtain information from internet search engine databases.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF), the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), and the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (PACDL) did so Friday in a friend of the court brief in the appeal of John E. Kurtz, 49, of Shamokin.

The former state prison guard is appealing his 2021 conviction of rape, attempted rape, kidnapping, attempted kidnapping and other charges involving five women between 2012 and 2017 in Northumberland, Columbia and Montour counties.

Kurtz, who police called a serial rapist, was designated a sexually violent predator and sentenced to 59 to 270 years in state prison.

Keyword warrants compel search engines to hand over the personal data of users who have searched specific terms, within a certain timeframe, sometimes within a certain area.

In November the Supreme Court agreed to hear Kurtzs contention the Superior Court panel that upheld his conviction erroneously concluded:

An individual does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her electronic content, particularly in his or her private Internet search queries and IP address.

Probable cause may be established to support a search warrant to Google requesting the content of an individuals private Internet search queries where the suspect is unknown and no evidence is presented establishing that Google was used in the planning or commission of the crime.

The Supreme Court in its order states it has not previously ruled on those issues.

It is the position of EEF and the others that keyword warrants let police indiscriminately sift through search engine databases and so not target specific people or accounts.

They argue those warrants require a provider to search its entire reserve of user data to identify any and all users or devices who searched for words or phrases specified by police.

Police generally have no identified suspects when they seek such a warrant; rather, only an investigators hunch that the perpetrator might have searched for something related to the crime, they claim.

Internet search data was obtained in the Kurtz case during the state police investigation into the July 19, 2016, kidnapping and rape of a Northumberland County woman while her husband was at work.

On Sept. 14, 2016, police obtained a search warrant directed to Google Inc. for records of searches made for the womans name or home address during the week preceding the incident.

Google returned a report that identified an Internet protocol (IP) address as having conducted two searches of her address several hours before the attack.

State police later determined through requests submitted to the American Registry of Internet Numbers and Kurtzs telecommunications service provider that the IP address corresponded to his.

Kurtz, in a police interview following his arrest, admitted committing the kidnapping and rape. He also incriminated himself in incidents with four other women.

In the appeal of his conviction, Kurtz contended the Google search warrant lacked probable cause.

He also argued he had a reasonable expectation of privacy over his Google search queries as it is nearly impossible to participate in contemporary society without conducting Internet searches.

The Superior Court panel found there was probable cause for the Google search warrant and addressed the privacy issue this way:

By typing in his query into the search engine and pressing enter, Kurtz affirmatively turned over its contents to Google and voluntarily relinquished his privacy interest in it.

The EEF brief cites the arrest in which the investigator stated it was believed the perpetrator was very familiar with the victim and she and her residence were not randomly targeted.

Since it is likely Kurtz knew the victim, police would not need a search engine to identify her or her house, it states.

Even if the Superior Court panel was correct the warrant would uncover the identity of the attacker, it is insufficient to provide probable cause to support a search of an unknown number of users and their search queries, EEF contends.

Keyword search warrants are totally incompatible with constitutional protections for privacy and freedom of speech and expression, said EFF surveillance litigation director Andrew Crocker.

Keyword search warrants are digital dragnets giving the government permission to rummage through our most private information, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court should find them unconstitutional, said NACDL Fourth Amendment Center litigation director Michael Price.

The Colorado Supreme Court in September 2023 became the first in the country to rule on the constitutionality. It said upheld the warrant, finding the police relied on it in good faith, according to the EFF, which filed two amicus briefs and was heavily involved in the case.
UPDATE: 4-year-old among two fatalities in central Pa. house fire: coroner

The coroner was called to the scene of a Monday morning house fire in York County, according to dispatch reports.

A house fire with entrapment was first reported around 10:43 a.m. on Black Rock Road, at Musselman Road and Dubs Creek Road in West Manheim Township, according to York County dispatch logs.

The initial 911 caller reported two explosions, which were unconfirmed, Ted Czech, spokesman for York County Department of Emergency Services, told The York Dispatch.

The dispatch logs show a helicopter was also requested for medical transport. The extent of injuries and number of people hurt is unclear Monday afternoon.

Czech told the Dispatch that the Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal was called to the scene. Roads are shut down in the area while the fire is extinguished and investigated.
A proposal to renovate and redesign a Philadelphia park has some members of the state GOP, as well as many online commenters, up in arms, mainly because it involves removing a statue of William Penn.

The National Park Service unveiled its proposal on Jan. 5 to make Welcome Park a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.

The redevelopment would offer an expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia as well as a new planted buffer on three sides, and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches.

Several elements of the park would remain, such as the city street grid. However, the statue of Penn and a model of the Slate Roof House, where Penn lived would be removed.

Located on the site of Penns home, and part of Independence National Historical Park, Welcome Park was named after the ship, the Welcome, that Penn took from England to the U.S. The park was built in 1982 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Penns arrival.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, parts of the parks granite floor are broken and the area is in general need of repair.

However, some Republican members of the Pennsylvania legislature see this proposal as the latest salvo in the ongoing culture war.

The decision by President Biden and his administration to try and cancel William Penn out of whole cloth is another sad example of the left in this country scraping the bottom of the barrel of wokeism to advance an extreme ideology and a nonsensical view of history, Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, said in a statement.

This issue is also deeply personal to me, Cutler said. The first Cutlers came to Pennsylvania in 1685 on the ship Rebekah, not long after Penns arrival in 1682. They came to Pennsylvania because they were Quakers who shared Penns view of religious tolerance and peace.

Cutler said he plans to introduce a resolution to honor Penn and will encourage the National Park Service to rethink their proposal, the Inquirer said.

Scott Martin, R-Berks, and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the move Absolutely disgraceful on X, formerly known as Twitter.

As the United States and our Commonwealth are planning the coming celebration of America250, for anyone to think doing this to the founder of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia, which was the epicenter of freedom and our nations founding, was a good idea, is completely absurd, he wrote.

A social media post from the NPS on the proposal resulted in a deluge of negative comments, with one person writing, How about no more of our tax money for the US Park Service?

There are two other statues of Penn in Philadelphia. One is at Penn Treaty Park, while the other famously stands atop the dome of City Hall.

The public is invited to submit comments on the Park Services proposal until midnight Jan. 21.
DALMATIA  The deaths of a man and woman whose bodies were found Sunday in Northumberland County have been classified as homicides, according to state police.

Police said they were dispatched about 5 p.m. Sunday to Malta Road in Lower Mahanoy Twp. near Dalmatia, where they found the bodies of Brandi Hauck and Tracey Adams. They did not say if the bodies were inside a residence or outside.

State police have released very little information about the deaths.
Editors note: This story has been updated to include statements from HACC.

Charges have been dropped against two union representatives who were arrested while setting up a table to promote their organization on HACCs Lancaster campus in August.
Randy Toor is accused of assaulting a Mexican migrant worker at his Mount Baldy ski chalet in December and police are now appealing for more potential victims and witnesses to come forward.
President Biden was interrupted by a group of protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza while speaking at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina and his response was brilliant.

Biden was saying in his speech, He knows the power of truth. And the power of lies. He knows what happens when peoare allowed to whitewash history, erase history, bury history. He knows what the Bible teaches. We shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free, but the truth, the truth is under assault in America. As a consequence, so is our freedom, our democracy, our very country because without the truth, theres no light. Theres no path from this darkness.

A protester interrupted the President, If you really care about the lives lost, you should honor the lives lost in Palestine.

A small group of protesters chanted, Cease-fire now.

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Biden responded, Look, folks. I understand their passion, and Ive been quietly working  quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza. Using all I can to do that. But I understand the passion.

A woman in the church stood up and said, Youre a good man. They dont realize that.

Video:

As Biden was speaking about truth and our democracy being under assault by lies, he was interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Biden responds, "I've been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza." pic.twitter.com/83KJs5DZGn  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) January 8, 2024

Whoever thought that it was a smart strategy to go to one of the sight of the worst hate crimes in American history and protest for a ceasefire made a big mistake. Even for those who support a ceasefire, it was a cringeworthy moment, and completely disrespectful to the church and members of the congregation who lost loved ones and suffered injuries in the mass shooting.

President Biden handled the situation very well, and more Americans need to understand that his administration is pressuring Israel to get out of Gaza, so it was important that he made the point in that moment that he is trying to get Israel out of Gaza.

The disrespect shown by the protesters to the church may have done more to hurt the efforts to get a ceasefire than help.

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Missouri Sec. of State Jay Ashcroft (R) threatened to remove President Biden from the ballot for insurrection but fell apart when asked what Biden did.

Ashcroft was asked on CNN, Im wondering though, what would then be your justification for removing Joe Biden from the ballot in Missouri? Has he engaged in your mind in some kind of insurrection?

The Missouri Secretary of State answered, Uh, there have been allegations that hes engaged in insurrection. How so? And all there have, no, please let me finish. There have only been allegations.

Ashcroft was asked for proof again, You cant say something like that and not back it up. What, what do you mean?

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The Republican said, I am continuing, but you interrupted me before I could back it up. Go ahead, sir. Are you scared of the truth?

CNNs anchor did not back down, Oh, Im not terrified of the truth at all. It seems like you might be. Lets see what you have to say.

Ashcroft kept fumbling, There have only been allegations against President Trump. What allegations? President Trump has never been, um, uh, adjudicated guilty in a court of law.

The man in charge of Missouris elections was asked again, What did Joe Biden do, in your mind, that equates to insurrection? What allegations are you talking about?

Ashcroft retreated to vague allegations, I have seen allegations from the Lieutenant Governor of Texas. That has said that the, that Joe Biden has, has, uh, has, uh, been part of insurrection or rebellion. Weve seen the president, uh, sorry, the governor of Florida say the same thing.

One last attempt was made to get a specific answer, Insurrection over what? What would the governor of Texas say that Joe Biden was causing an insurrection over? If youre going to make the claim, give me, give me some specifics. Are you just going to cite the governor of Texas or Florida and not actually say what they are arguing? Do you know what theyre arguing?

Ashcroft falsely claimed that Trump was kicked off the ballot for only allegations, All what Im telling you is this. They made allegations, and all it took for the president, for former president Trump to be taken off the ballot in Colorado and in Maine were allegations.

Video:

With zero evidence, Missouri Attorney General Jay Ashcroft (R) says on CNN that President Joe Biden has been accused of engaging in insurrection, and he would consider taking him off the states ballot. pic.twitter.com/bdUmCljvUw  Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) January 8, 2024

Republicans keep trying to play tit-for-tat with Biden and Trump, but they are running into the same problem. President Biden hasnt done anything wrong, and when reporters start asking questions, the allegations against Biden fall apart.

Ashcroft tried all of the usual Republican tricks. He spoke in the vaguest of terms. He provided no details, and when he was pressed for facts, he attacked the motives of the questioner.

None of it worked.

Ashcrofts performance also revealed why Republicans keep talking about taking Biden off the ballot but dont do it.

Trump was charged with crimes related to an attempted coup. If Republicans remove Biden from a ballot, Biden will sue. The President will win, and it will only harm the GOP.

Republicans have nothing, and their efforts to make something up against Biden result in failure and embarrassment.

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We have been honored to be able to put your interests first for 14 years as we only answer to our readers and we will not compromise on that fundamental, core PoliticusUSA value.
Donald Trump is threatening to indict Joe Biden if he wins the election unless he gets immunity from criminal prosecution.

Trump Threatens That He Will Indict Biden Unless He Gets Immunity

Trump posted on Truth Social:

I will be attending the the Federal Appeals Court Arguments on Presidential Immunity in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Of course I was entitled, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief, to Immunity. I wasnt campaigning, the Election was long over. I was looking for voter fraud, and finding it, which is my obligation to do, and otherwise running running our Country. If I dont get Immunity, then Crooked Joe Biden doesnt get Immunity, and with the Border Invasion and Afghanistan Surrender, alone, not to mention the Millions of dollars that went into his pockets with money from foreign countries, Joe would be ripe for Indictment. By weaponizing the DOJ against his Political Opponent, ME, Joe has opened a giant Pandoras Box.



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As President, I was protecting our Country, and doing a great job of doing so, just look around at the complete mess that Crooked Joe Biden has caused. The least I am entitled to is Presidential Immunity on Fake Biden Indictments!

Trump Is Trying To Extort His Way Out Of Criminal Charges

Donald Trump has a very limited arsenal of tactics that he has used throughout his entire life. He lies, threats, fear, and extortion.

The former president seems to think that by threatening President Biden, he will get the federal court system to give him immunity. Trump is also spreading the lie that Biden is controlling the criminal proceedings against him. Donald Trump knows that this is not true. He knows that he is being prosecuted due to his conduct. It is not the presidents job to interfere in elections and try to overturn the results based on the false pretense of election fraud.

Innocent people dont need immunity, but guilty people try to use tactics like threats and extortion to get out of trouble.

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A startup transportation company lost money on its first two truckloads of watermelons when three graduating University of South Carolina business students launched Red Lab Logistics in 2019.

Four years later, it's a multimillion-dollar firm with 20 employees and a third-floor office on King Street in Charleston.

Recently, Red Lab was transported to the top of a list of the fastest-growing private firms in South Carolina. It ranked No. 127 on the Inc. 5000 list of quickly expanding companies across the U.S. No other South Carolina firm notched a higher ranking.

The business idea gelled when Sigma Nu Fraternity members and rising seniors Nick Macuch of Beaufort, Addison Miles of Myrtle Beach and Toby Skarke of Spartanburg decided in the summer of 2018 they wanted to start a business together.

Macuch and Skarke worked in internships at a Lowcountry logistics company that summer. Miles had entrepreneurial experience from starting his own lighting company while in high school.

"Interns usually get the assignments for things the other company workers don't want to do, but we learned some of the backend operational stuff," Skarke said.

"We didn't learn a lot about the overall business side," Macuch noted.

After talking and doing some research on the logistics business over the next few months, in the fall of 2018 they decided to move forward with the business plan, received a motor carrier license, opened a bank account with $14,000 of their savings, got insured and started the business as equal partners from a converted garage in Columbia.
The U.S. Supreme Court did not rule as expected Jan. 8 on whether it will hear a dispute over who should operate the ship-to-shore cranes at the Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston, leaving attorneys somewhat perplexed and wondering when a decision might be made.

Justices for the nation's highest court were scheduled to discuss the case behind closed doors in a conference on Friday. Decisions reached during such meetings are usually posted online the following Monday.

But when the Jan. 8 orders list was released, the Leatherman case which will determine whether State Ports Authority workers or members of the International Longshoremen's Association will operate the Leatherman's cranes  was notably absent.

A lawyer for the SPA said the delay might be due to the court's request that the union's Charleston branch file a brief stating its position in the dispute.

The court asked ILA Local No. 1422 to file its brief by Jan. 22, but the group waived its right to file a response on Jan. 2, saying it would let the national office speak on its behalf.

The case had already been docketed for conference by that time, although it's uncertain whether the justices actually discussed the case Jan. 5 or opted to wait until after the initial Jan. 22 deadline passed.

"It is unclear at least to me whether the case was on the conference list last week or not," said Carter Phillips, a lawyer with the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP in Washington, D.C., which represents the ports authority.

Phillips said the scheduled conference was never removed from the official docket.

"I assume the court will relist the petition soon and well have a better idea at least of what the timing of a decision from the court will be," he said.

ILA lawyer John Sheridan said he understood the case would not be sent to the conference on Jan. 5, "despite what it said on the docket," because of the court's request for a response from the local chapter.
Randi Weinstein has witnessed first-hand the benefits of connection and community for food and beverage professionals who might feel isolated in their careers.

Now in her eighth year of leading an educational workshop for women in hospitality, the former Charleston Wine + Food Festival logistics director is looking to build on what she has created at this years FAB (Females and Business), scheduled to return to the Lowcountry June 2-4.

Preparation for this years event started the day after FAB 2023 concluded last June. Thats when Weinstein and her team sent out a feedback form to the hundreds of participants, some of whom attended the event through a scholarship. The content for FAB 2024 was largely driven by the responses they received.

While last year leaned into a theme  Back to Business after the COVID-19 pandemic  the upcoming three-day workshop will focus more broadly on the pillars of FAB: building relationships and collaborating within the industry.

In 2017, its inaugural year, FAB brought more than 230 attendees and 30 speakers representing a variety of areas of the hospitality industry to Charleston. Seven years later, the conference will host 450 professionals and 62 speakers, including Lyndsay Green of the Detroit Free Press, former Food & Wine Editor Dana Cowin, Cynthia Wong of Life Raft Treats, Maryam Ghaznavi of Ma'am Saab, Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel of Birdies in Austin, Texas, and Lynnette Marrero of Speed Rack, which shines a spotlight on female mixologists across the country and raises money for breast cancer research, education and prevention.
The January temps were just above freezing, and the wind off the North Sea was whipping the Cheviot Hills in northern England, and our little town of Wooler, mercilessly. Had it been raining, the rain would have been horizontal. But it was not raining, and a day without rain, even if overcast and windy, was an invitation to bundle up in woolies, all-weather overcoats, gloves and a warm cap, slip out of the manse by the back door and into the unpopulated Cheviots  to Humbleton Hill, to be exact. There, an Iron Age hill fort crowned the grassy summit that loomed at a distance over our small and sheltered town.

My path led across the exposed north flank of Humbleton Hill, past a few shepherds cottages and toward the ravine where a Scottish raiding party had been ambushed by the English in the border reiver days of the 14th century. This is a terrain of granite hills, harsh gullies and windswept moors where, in winter, you can have the feeling that the Ice Age is just tapering off, leaving everything tense and expectant. That rising path was cold and blustery. I hummed hymn tunes to boost my vigor. Exhilarating!

But when I turned the bend around the hill to its western slope, a gale-force wind blasted all meditative tunes to bits and pierced my thin protective gear like icy needles. The wail of the wind was now rising to a roar, now subsiding to a whine, whipping off the high moor and down the narrow valley. I couldnt stand up straight. The path forked. To climb the left-hand path to the top of the hill would be inviting disaster. I kept on the path that led to the top of the valley.

Somewhere beyond that fork in the path I noticed a ruined cairn on the moor to my left, close to the edge of the granite cleugh  a gaping ravine gouged out by an Ice Age glacier that formed the clifflike southern face of Humbleton Hill. Was this pile of stones a Bronze Age burial chamber, which would be marked on my Ordinance Survey Explorer Map of the Cheviot Hills? That would draw me off the path!
What I thought was the rising tide  my physical vigor that kept rhythm with the rising energy of spring  is more like the ebb at my more advanced age. And, the side of life I thought was like the ebb tide, like Lent, is in truth more like the flow. Read moreAging for Amateurs: The two narratives of life
It's the clinics that were never built, the doctors who didn't venture out on their own, that were the hidden toll of what advocates perceived as heavy-handed regulation of health care that favored existing hospitals and clinics.

With a new year, and many of those regulations repealed in the previous Legislature, the growth from doctor-driven projects will start, said Dr. Marcelo Hochman, a Charleston plastic surgeon and president of Independent Doctors of South Carolina.

"Thats where I think the exciting stuff is going to come," he said, not just for physicians, but for patients and their families, as well.

It was a long and grueling battle to amend or repeal the state's Certificate of Need law, which required a state license to build new hospitals or projects over a certain size, as well as to buy expensive medical equipment. Often, those projects were appealed by competitors that could tie up a proposed facility for years. Much of that was repealed after Gov. Henry McMaster signed a new law last year after calling on the Legislature for its repeal.

South Carolinians will have greater access to affordable health care services with the repeal of the Certificate of Need laws, he said last year. Everyone benefits when the proven power of the free market is unleashed in our state.

Just months later, there were already signs it is kicking in.

"I am seeing fresh new ideas," Rep. Sylleste Davis, R-Moncks Corner, chair of the House Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee, said after a mobile health conference in October.

"People are investing," said Rep. Jordan Pace, R-Goose Creek.

Part of that investment is coming from outside the state. Novant Health, which has hospitals in North Carolina, is acquiring three hospitals in South Carolina, including East Cooper Medical Center in Mount Pleasant. Novant Health has been "waiting for the right opportunity," a Novant Health spokeswoman said. "With CON changing in South Carolina, we look forward to partnering with physicians and others as we continue our long-term vision to improve the health and wellness of communities across the state."
On March 5, special agents with the South Carolina Department of Social Services, Office of Inspector General, arrested a Dorchester County woman in connection with fraudulently receiving $9,584 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Read moreDSS charges Dorchester County woman with food stamp fraud
MYRTLE BEACH  Schools in Horry and Georgetown counties will be closed Jan. 9 as district officials brace for potentially dangerous weather.

In Horry County, schools will shift to remote learning for the day. That means all schools will be closed but the district will offer virtual education. School staff members will provide directions for students regarding learning for that day. All extracurricular activities, including sports, planned for Jan. 9 will be rescheduled.

HCS officials said in a statement that the virtual learning day will not have to be made up.

"Students who are unable to participate due to power outages, lack of internet service, or other barriers will have the opportunity to complete assignments at a later date," the district said in its statement.

In Georgetown County, schools will also be closed Jan. 9 and extracurricular activities will be canceled or postponed. However, the district will not offer eLearning day on this day.

"Instead, eLearning will be held on Tuesday, February 20, one of the district's scheduled eLearning/Inclement Weather makeup days," the Georgetown County School District said in a news release. "GCSD district administration will continue to monitor conditions across our county. We expect a return to normal operations on Wednesday, January 10, 2024."

Horry and Georgetown joined multiple other school districts in closing in anticipation of a storm that is expected to bring high winds and possibly tornadoes.

Horry County Emergency Management has already issued a high wind watch for the coastal areas of the county for Jan. 9, with the warning being effective in the morning and expected to last through the evening.

The wind gusts are expected to reach up to 55 mph at times throughout the day, which can cause "considerable structural damage, especially on roofs," and small trees to be uprooted and blown over, according to the National Weather Service.

"Those along the coast should consider securing yard items/decorations," according to Horry County Emergency Management.
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-- Restaurant & event space posted pre-pandemic sales of approximately $2.5 million & acquisition would provide 1812 Brewing Company brands direct access to the greater Watertown/Fort Drum greater population of approximately 117,600 people --WATERTOWN, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / 1812 BREWING COMPANY, INC. (OTC Markets:KEGS) (the "Company" or "KEGS") is pleased to announce that in late December it executed a definitive agreement to acquire the operations and assets of Maggie's on the River ("Maggie's") ( www.maggiesontheriver.com) Maggie's, located at 500 Newell Street in Watertown, NY, is a former industrial space renovated by the former Red Lion Brewing Company in the late 1990s and later became a restaurant and event space only under its current name. Maggie's is a full-service dining operation with 44 draft beer lines on the first floor with an addition 12 draft beer lines on the second floor. It is Watertown's only waterside dining restaurant with its riverside deck, and the newly renovated 2nd and 3rd floors are available for full use for dining and/or private parties.KEGS' Chairman and CEO Tom Scozzafava stated, "As the City's only full-scale production and packaging facility, 1812 Brewing Company seeks to establish itself as "Watertown's Brewery" to consumers, and while we have our 13,000 square foot Watertown brewing and bottling facility, I wouldn't consider it an ideal location for retail operations. Maggie's represents high visibility retail, an excellent reputation and staff along with 56 draft beer lines - ideal to showcase 1812's products." Mr. Scozzafava continued, "And while the Company values its history and retail operations in Sackets Harbor, NY, the opportunity to have brand exposure to the Watertown/Fort Drum greater population of 117,000 consumers versus the roughly 1.4k in Sackets Harbor is a tremendous opportunity to expand our reach. For a beer company, this isn't just opening another restaurant. It's getting our beer to a much, much bigger marketplace." "Finally," Mr. Scozzafava added, "1812 Brewing Company operates one of two waterside restaurants in Sackets Harbor and Maggie's is the City's only waterside restaurant. The building's aesthetic and atmosphere are perfect for a "craft brewery" affiliated operation, and Sackets Harbor is highly, highly seasonal and a Watertown location will help smooth that out." The transaction is subject to financing and licensing approval by the New York State Liquor Authority. To date, the Company has received financing approval by Watertown Savings Bank, the Watertown Local Development Corporation, and the Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency.The Company also recently announced that effective immediately, (i) War of 1812 Amber Ale, (ii) Thousand Islands IPA, (iii) Helles Bells Lager, and (iv) Route 11 Lager are available for e-commerce orders with this direct link on the Company's website under the heading "Order beer online here!":The Company also announced that its gold-medal winning beer War of 1812 Amber Ale has been picked up by approximately 50 locations of Ontario Canada's largest beer-only retailer, The Beer Store ( www.thebeerstore.ca) . Ontario customers can find the locations that carry War of 1812 Amber by searching on the The Beer Stores's beer search window.About 1812 Brewing Company ("KEGS or the "Company"):KEGS is an operator of and investor in companies in the craft beer industry. The Company seeks to build a nation-wide network of craft breweries to develop and foster respective brand growth at the local, regional, and national level. KEGS looks to build a network wherein certain economies of scale can be shared across it such as production, distribution footprint expansion, inter-member contract brewing, new product development, sharing of best brewery practices and scale logistics and transportation. The network is to be built through investment by 1812 Brewing Company while maintaining the members' respective local and regional uniqueness, brand autonomy and direct involvement with its consumers. The Company seeks to be an "incubator" of growth for its holdings in the industry.The Company's current holding, 1812 Brewing Co., produces award-winning beers such as War of 1812 Amber Ale ("1812 Amber Ale"), 1812 Light, Hazy Oasis Pale Ale, Thousand Islands IPA, Malicious Intent XX IPA, Route 11 Lager, Railroad Red Ale, Helles Bells Pilsner, St. Stephens Stout, Third Rail Porter, Featherhammer Maibock.For more updates follow us on our Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin.Contact Name: Tom ScozzafavaContact Phone Number: 315-788-1812Contact Email Address: contact@1812 ale.com Safe Harbor: This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions.SOURCE: 1812 Brewing Company Inc.
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / National plaintiffs law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP encourages investors in ChargePoint Holdings, Inc. ("ChargePoint" or the "Company") (NYSE:CHPT) who suffered losses from purchasing or otherwise acquiring the securities of ChargePoint between June 1, 2023 and November 16, 2023 to contact us immediately regarding a pending securities fraud class action against ChargePoint. The deadline to apply to be lead plaintiff is January 29, 2024.Class Period: June 1, 2023 - November 16, 2023Lead Plaintiff Motion Deadline: January 29, 2024Case information: lieffcabraser.com/securities/chargepoint Contact us: Email or text investorinfo@ lchb.com or call 1-800-541-7358ChargePoint is an electric vehicle infrastructure company. Its core business involves providing networked solutions for charging electric vehicles, including the ChargePoint cloud subscription platform and charging hardware.The action alleges ChargePoint made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that it was experiencing elevated component costs and supply overruns for first generation direct current ("DC") charging products and, as a result, the Company's business and prospects were much worse than defendants claimed.On September 6, 2023, after the market closed, ChargePoint reported its second quarter fiscal year 2024 financial results, including an "$28.0 million, or 19 percentage point, inventory impairment charge." The Company stated the "inventory impairment charge was taken to address legacy supply chain-related costs and supply overruns on a particular DC product." As a result, ChargePoint reported a second quarter generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") gross margin of 1%, down from 17% in the prior year's same quarter. On this news, the Company's share price declined $0.77 per share, or 11%, from its closing price of $7.06 on September 6, 2023, to close at $6.29 per share on September 7, 2023, on unusually heavy trading volume.Then, on November 16, 2023, after the market closed, ChargePoint released preliminary financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024, which included an "additional non-cash inventory impairment charge" in the amount of $42 million "related to product transitions and to better align inventory with current demand." As a result, the Company expected to report "GAAP gross margin of negative 23% to negative 21%." ChargePoint also reported revenue had fallen to "$108 million to $113 million, as compared to $150 to $165 million as previously expected." Moreover, the Company's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer were both replaced, effective immediately. On this news, the ChargePoint's share price declined $1.11 per share, or 35%, from its closing price of $3.13 on November 16, 2023, to close at $2.02 per share on November 17, 2023, on unusually heavy trading volume.About Lieff CabraserLieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, with over 120 attorneys in offices in San Francisco, New York, Nashville, and Munich, Germany, is an internationally recognized law firm committed to advancing the rights of investors and promoting corporate responsibility. Recognized as a "Plaintiffs' Powerhouse" by Law360, Lieff Cabraser has litigated some of the most important civil cases in the United States, and has assisted clients in recovering over $129 billion in verdicts and settlements. For over 50 years, Lieff Cabraser has remained committed to ensuring access to justice for all.Source/ContactSharon LeeLieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP415 956-1000 slee@ lchb.com SOURCE: Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein
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Our AI-powered tool, trained on 12+ million government RFPs and developed with AWS, streamlines the creation of technology procurement documents for government agencies, enabling swift articulation of requirements and detailed contract deliverables.SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / City Innovate announces it has been selected by AFWERX for an SBIR Phase 1, focused on automating the development of complex RFP packages to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018, which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded, and on December 14th, 2023, City Innovate started its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.City Innovate City Innovate green and white logo"Our selection by AFWERX is a testament to our commitment to revolutionizing government procurement with Generative AI, aiming to significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Department of the Air Force's operations," said Jay Nath, co-founder and co-chief executive officer at City Innovate."City Innovate has worked hard over the last year to continue to bring innovative solutions to market that dramatically streamline document creation and reduce timelines from years to months, freeing up agency staff to focus on more high-value work," said Kamran Saddique, co-founder and co-chief executive officer at City Innovate.About City InnovateCity Innovate is the leader in Document Process Automation, providing a transformative enterprise solution for government agencies with complex document-centered processes. Whether in Admin, Policy, HR, Budgeting, Contracts, Grants, or Procurements, City Innovate accelerates time to result while ensuring compliance, insight, and oversight. For more information, visit www.cityinnovate.com About AFRLThe Air Force Research Laboratory is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace force. With a workforce of more than 12,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit afresearchlab.com Contact InformationCity Innovate Press InquiriesHead of Marketingmarketing@ cityinnovate.com SOURCE: City InnovateView the original press release on newswire.com
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Former Sangoma chief revenue officer carries two decades of technology and telecommunications experience, setting the stage for the next phase of Cloudli's growthMONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 /Cloudli Communications , a leading North American provider of voice, data and messaging solutions, announced today the appointment of Jamie Minner as its new chief executive officer."I am excited to join Cloudli and work with this dynamic team to help our partners and customers both tackle their business challenges and seize new opportunities," Minner said. "The business communications ecosystem is truly at an inflection point, and we're seeing significant shifts in how partners and end users think about technology and its role in their organizations. Cloudli is ideally positioned to champion this redefinition and we will be at the forefront of the innovation and change that architects the future of the industry." Minner joins Cloudli as a seasoned leader in the UCaaS and technology space, with signifcant experience in channel and channel partnerships. At his most recent role as Sangoma's chief revenue officer, Minner substantially grew the company's channel presence and also played a pivotal role in unifying teams across multiple organizations and geographies. He previously held senior leadership roles at NetFortris, TPx, Momentum, Comcast and Cbeyond."We are pleased to welcome Jamie to lead the team at Cloudli," said Jeff Tung, partner at CPS Capital, Toronto-based private equity firm and investor in Cloudli. "The fresh perspective, insight and energy that he brings will steer us through the next phase of our evolution and help us achieve new milestones as a unified Cloudli team." Minner succeeds former CEO Gavin Macomber, who successfully led Cloudli for over three years, achieving substantial growth and acquiring companies like Omnivigil and ConnectMeVoice during his tenure."There are exciting times ahead in the business communications industry," said Minner. "For Cloudli, the future is bright, and I look forward to growing with the Cloudli team as we embrace new challenges and attain new heights." About CloudliCloudli Communications delivers feature-rich communications solutions to businesses of all types and sizes, with a track record that spans decades. Today, our key solutions include work-from-anywhere unified communications solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and industry-leading IP fax solutions that prioritize security and flexibility, without compromising deliverability and reliability. With a clientele exceeding 9,000 that spans the United States and Canada, Cloudli helps businesses across North America better communicate with their customers - how, where and when they want - without compromising security, reliability and efficiency. Find us on theweb ,LinkedIn ,Twitter ,FacebookandInstagram .Cloudli Communications is owned by CPS Capital, a Toronto-based private equity firm.###Media Contact: Taylor Gaines (CommCentric Solutions for Cloudli)813-727-6871tgaines@ commcentric.com SOURCE: Cloudli
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LAVAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE:BHC)(TSX:BHC), and its gastroenterology business Salix Pharmaceuticals, today announced that, as scheduled, oral arguments were heard today at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the "Court") in the matter of Salix Pharmaceuticals, LTD et al v. Norwich Pharmaceuticals, Inc. As expected, no ruling was issued by the Court following these oral arguments."We were pleased to have had the opportunity to present our oral arguments to the Court of Appeals today," Thomas J. Appio, Chief Executive Officer, said. "We look forward to the Court's decision in due course. We will continue to advocate for the safety of patients who have benefited from continued access to XIFAXAN, and look forward to continuing to serve those patients." About XIFAXANXIFAXAN (rifaximin) 550 mg tablets are indicated for the reduction in risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) recurrence in adults and for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) in adults.About SalixSalix Pharmaceuticals is one of the largest specialty pharmaceutical companies in the world committed to the prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. For more than 30 years, Salix has licensed, developed and marketed innovative products to improve patients' lives and arm health care providers with life-changing solutions for many chronic and debilitating conditions. Salix currently markets its product line to U.S. health care providers through an expanded sales force that focuses on gastroenterology, hepatology, pain specialists and primary care. Salix is headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey. For more information about Salix, visit www.Salix.com and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.About Bausch HealthBausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE:BHC)(TSX:BHC) is a global diversified pharmaceutical company whose mission is to improve people's lives with our health care products. We develop, manufacture and market a range of products primarily in gastroenterology, hepatology, neurology, dermatology, international pharmaceuticals and eye health, through our controlling ownership interest of Bausch + Lomb Corporation. With our leading durable brands, we are delivering on our commitments as we build an innovative company dedicated to advancing global health. For more information, visit www.bauschhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.Forward-looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements about the future performance of Bausch Health, which may generally be identified by the use of the words "anticipates," "hopes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "should," "could," "would," "may," "believes," "subject to" and variations or similar expressions, including statements about the Company's appeal with respect to, and actions to vigorously defend, its intellectual property. These statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of management and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. In particular, Bausch Health can offer no assurance as to the timing of any approval by the FDA of any ANDA or amended ANDA and as to the outcome of any appeal. Actual results are subject to other risks and uncertainties that relate more broadly to Bausch Health's overall business, including those more fully described in Bausch Health's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and detailed from time to time in Bausch Health's other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian Securities Administrators, which factors are incorporated herein by reference.###Investor Contact: Media Contact:Kevin Wigginsir@ bauschhealth.com corporate.communications@bauschhealth.com(514) 856-3855 (848) 541-3785 (877) 281-6642 (toll free)SOURCE: Bausch Health Companies Inc.
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC a nationally recognized law firm, notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Dollar General Corporation ("Dollar General" or "the Company") (NYSE:DG) and certain of its officers.Class Definition:This lawsuit seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Dollar General securities between May 28, 2020 and August 30, 2023, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/dg Case Details:The Complaint alleges that defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Dollar General stores were chronically understaffed and suffering from logistical and inventory management problems which left stores with tens of millions of dollars' worth of outdated and unwanted inventory, mispriced goods, and lost and damaged items; (ii) large backlogs of unsellable merchandise had built up at Dollar General's stores, which inventory had not been timely written down due to understaffing and Dollar General's failure to manage its inventory; (iii) the allotment of employee hours per store per week imposed by Dollar General management placed employees in virtually impossible situations where assigned tasks, including those necessary to effective store operations, could not be completed within the allotted time; (iv) Dollar General was systematically overcharging customers for items upon checkout above the listed price in violation of state laws, including state law violations identified by state regulators in Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio; (v) Dollar General's reported revenue and earnings during the Class Period were artificially inflated by defendants' over-pricing scheme; (vi) Dollar General's failure to manage store inventories and accurately price items upon checkout risked the loss of customers, lower sales, adverse regulatory actions, and reputational fallout; and (vii) Dollar General was not on track to achieve its guidance during the Class Period and such guidance lacked a reasonable factual basis.What's Next?A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint, you can visit the firm's site: bgandg.com/dg or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Law Clerk and Client Relations Manager, Yael Nathanson of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 332-239-2660. If you suffered a loss in Dollar General you have until January 26, 2024, to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.There is No Cost to YouWe represent investors in class actions on a contingency fee basis. That means we will ask the court to reimburse us for out-of-pocket expenses and attorneys' fees, usually a percentage of the total recovery, only if we are successful.Why Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman:Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a nationally recognized firm that represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. Our firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide.Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.Contact:Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLCPeretz Bronstein or Yael Nathanson332-239-2660 | info@ bgandg.com SOURCE: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC
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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Duke EnergyEfforts are geared toward needed health and safety home improvements Each of 15 nonprofits across the state received up to $20,000Duke Energy has awarded $225,000 to South Carolina organizations that help seniors make needed home repairs that enable senior citizens to continue to enjoy life in their current homes.Duke Energy's Senior Home Repair Program provided 15 qualifying nonprofits grants of up to $20,000 through a request for proposals announced in September."South Carolina's senior population should never have to decide between basic necessities and living out their lives in safety in their own home," said Mike Callahan, Duke Energy's South Carolina state president. "A simple home repair or safety improvement can be the big difference.Each organization will administer the funds based on the nonprofit's mission, some addressing long waiting lists for such repairs. Grant uses include installing safety handrails in bathrooms, replacing rotting floors, installing handicap ramps and repairing unsafe steps. Grant funding cannot be used for weatherization, energy efficiency upgrades, or solar products and equipment.Grants were awarded to the following organizations:Academic Technology and Wellness Academy (Cherokee County) - $10,000 AIM - $20,000 Caring and Sharing Inc. (Georgetown, Florence and Williamsburg counties) - $20,000 Citizens United for Redevelopment and Economic Stability of Chester - $10,000 Darlington Long-Term Recovery Group - $10,000 Habitat for Humanity Greenville County - $20,000 Habitat for Humanity Spartanburg - $20,000 Habitat for Humanity of York County - $20,000 Helping Florence Flourish - $15,000 Home Works of America, Inc. (Greenwood County) - $10,000 Marion Dillon Habitat for Humanity - $15,000 Marlboro County Coordinating Council Inc. - $10,000 Rebuild Upstate (Oconee and Pickens counties) - $10,000 Sumter United Ministries - $20,000 United Way of Sumter, Clarendon and Lee Counties - $15,000"For Florence to flourish, it takes generous neighbors and businesses who are able and willing to invest in the lives of those who find themselves in need," said Chris Handley, executive director of Helping Florence Flourish. "I'm thankful for the Duke Foundation's gift of $15,000 which will help us help a homeowner on a fixed income with much needed home repairs." "Home preservation and repair are core components of Habitat's mission because these efforts help ensure the wellbeing of home occupants, contribute to safe home environments and foster thriving communities," said Jennifer Faner, chief operating officer of Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County. "Our aging in place strategies focus on ensuring that our neighbors will have the ability to live in their own home and community safely, independently and comfortably, regardless of their age, income or ability level. We are so grateful to the Duke Energy Foundation for their continued support of Habitat, and their commitment to the Greenville community." Duke Energy FoundationThe Duke Energy Foundation provides more than $30 million annually in philanthropic support to meet the needs of communities where Duke Energy customers live and work. The foundation is funded by Duke Energy shareholders.Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,600 people.Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2023 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' "World's Best Employers" list. More information is available at duke-energy.com . The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.Contact: Ryan Mosier 24-Hour: 800.559.3853View original content here.View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Duke Energy on 3 blmedia.com Contact Info: Spokesperson: Duke EnergyWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/duke-energy Email: info@3 blmedia.com SOURCE: Duke Energy
PR-Inside.com: 2024-01-08 08:00:40

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LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc (LSE:HEMO), which is developing new therapies and treatments for blood diseases, is pleased to announce the successful completion of its Process Qualification ("PQ") run of the end-to-end process for the manufacture of HEMO-CAR-T cells. This PQ run was a part of the Company's plan to address the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") concerns that resulted in a Clinical Hold ("CH") of the HEMO-CAR-T Investigational New Drug ("IND") application, as announced previously. The FDA has accepted the Company's plan.The process was carried out in the Company's current Good Manufacturing Practice compliant clean rooms. It was followed by analytical release tests conducted by the Company required to verify the quality of the manufactured HEMO-CAR-T cells. The HEMO-CAR-T cells are also being tested by a third party to ensure they comply with a set of required quality attributes.This PQ run is the only manufacturing run required for the submission of a complete response to the CH of the IND application to the FDA for HEMO-CAR-T. It was the key remaining step prior to applying for the lifting of the CH which is needed to obtain consent from the FDA to commence Phase I clinical trials of HEMO-CAR-T. Following the successful completion of all tests across the PQ run, data will be compiled for inclusion in the complete response submission pack.Dr Vladislav Sandler, CEO & Co-Founder of Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals, commented: "We are pleased that we have now completed the necessary PQ run. We are now working hard to re-submit the IND as expeditiously as possible to move forward with clinical trials of HEMO-CAR-T." About AML and CAR-T Therapy AML, the most common type of acute leukemia in adults, has poor survival rates (a five-year survival rate of less than 30% in adults) and is currently treated using chemotherapy, rather than the potentially more benign and effective form of therapy being developed by Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals. The successful development of a new therapy for AML would have a major impact on treatment and survival rates for the disease.CAR-T therapy is a treatment in which a patient's own T-cells, a type of immune cell, are modified to recognize and kill the patient's cancer cells. The procedure involves: isolating T-cells from the patient; modifying the isolated T-cells in a laboratory using a CAR gene construct (which allows the cells to recognize the patient's cancer); amplifying (growing to large numbers) the newly modified cells; and re-introducing the cells back into the patient.Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure Certain information contained in this announcement would have been inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation No 596/2014 (as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018) until the release of this announcement. The person responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on behalf of Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc is Dr Vladislav Sandler, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder.Enquiries:Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plcDr Vladislav Sandler, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founderheadquarters@ hemogenyx.com Peter Redmond, DirectorSP Angel Corporate Finance LLPTel: +44 (0)20 3470 0470Matthew Johnson, Vadim Alexandre, Adam CowlPeterhouse Capital LimitedTel: +44 (0)20 7469 0930Lucy Williams, Duncan Vasey, Charles GoodfellowAbout Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plcHemogenyx Pharmaceuticals is a publicly traded company (LSE: HEMO) headquartered in London, with its US operating subsidiaries, Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals LLC and Immugenyx LLC, located in New York City at its state-of-the-art research facility.The Company is a pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical group developing new medicines and treatments to treat blood and autoimmune disease and to bring the curative power of bone marrow transplantation to a greater number of patients suffering from otherwise incurable life-threatening diseases. Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals is developing several distinct and complementary product candidates, as well as a platform technology that it uses as an engine for novel product development.This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@ lseg.com or visit www.rns.com SOURCE: Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC
PR-Inside.com: 2024-01-08 22:00:16

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Expanding Access to Specialized Wound CareEMERYVILLE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Jovive, a provider of patient-centric outpatient healthcare services that is owned and operated by Vituity, is pleased to announce the grand opening of Jovive Wound Care outpatient clinics in Mission Viejo and Loma Linda, CA. These two specialized facilities are dedicated to delivering comprehensive wound care services in an outpatient setting to help enhance patient outcomes and improve overall quality of life.Providing wound care in an outpatient setting has been found to minimize the risk of infections and promote faster wound healing by providing a controlled environment where providers can monitor and manage wounds while keeping patients out of the hospital setting. Jovive Wound Care clinics also help reduce the total cost of care by eliminating the need for prolonged hospital stays, reducing the overall burden on healthcare resources, and making it easier for patients to access timely and appropriate care."The Southern California communities of Mission Viejo and Loma Linda have been in need of wound care locally, with some residents traveling up to an hour away to receive treatments which could involve weekly appointments," said Evan Houck, DO, Medical Director, Jovive Wound Care, Loma Linda. "Our physician leaders and innovators identified the need of those communities and are excited to launch two outpatient wound care clinics to serve these areas. We look forward to actively engaging in these communities via outreach programs throughout the year." Jovive is committed to simplifying wound care from start to recovery by offering seamless care coordination and support to communities. From coordinating transportation to providing post-visit follow-ups, Jovive guides patients at every step while working to alleviate gaps in care and raise awareness about wound care and prevention. The two new outpatient wound care clinics developed a physician-designed technology platform to help document, track, and enhance performance."By integrating intensive training, innovative technology, and proven protocols, we enhance healing and remission rates, minimize infections and complications, and achieve enduring results," said Bill Khoury, MD, Medical Director, Jovive Wound Care, Mission Viejo. "In addition, outpatient wound care is often more cost-effective than inpatient care. As an outpatient practice, Jovive Wound Care eliminates facility fees and is in a patient's community, reducing travel and making it easier for patients to complete treatment without relapse." Patients can learn more about the Mission Viejo clinic (26732 Crown Valley Pky, Suite 585, Mission Viejo, CA 92691; 909-435-4852) or the Loma Linda clinic (11340 Mountain View Ave, Suite B, Loma Linda, CA 92354; 949-850-9964) at JoviveWoundCare.com . Both clinics are open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.About Jovive, part of VituityJovive is owned and operated by Vituity, a national physician partnership with a history of healthcare quality and innovation. As a 100% physician-led and -owned multispecialty partnership with a nationwide footprint, nearly 5,000 Vituity clinicians care for more than 8 million patients across 450 practice locations.Contact InformationJacob VossAssociate Director, Media and Engagementjvoss@ realchemistry.com (651) 964-8756SOURCE: Jovive HealthView the original press release on newswire.com
PR-Inside.com: 2024-01-08 20:50:43

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WALLACE, ID / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Magellan Gold Corporation (OTC PINK:MAGE) ("Magellan" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a certain agreements with AJB Capital Investments LLC ("ABJ") and Gold Express Mines, Inc. ("GEM") pursuant to which AJB assigned to GEM all of ABJ's right, title, obligation, liability and interest in that certain Promissory Note, dated February 2021 (the "Promissory Note"), issued by the Company to AJB.The aggregate principal amount of the Promissory Note outstanding is $100,000. The Promissory Note is now payable to GEM.Pursuant to developing a new strategy, the Company has accepted the resignations of Mr. Mark Rodenbeck and Mr. Deepak Maholtra as members of the board of directors of the Company, and has appointed John P. Ryan, and Howard M. Crosby as new members of the board of directors. Mr. Ryan will also serve as the Chief Financial Officer of the Company. Both Mr. Ryan and Mr. Crosby also serve as Officers and Directors of GEM.The Company thanks Mr. Rodenback and Mr. Malhotra for their time and expertise in serving the Company in the past several years.Since June 2020, Mr. Ryan has served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the board of directors of GEM, a multi-commodity mining company focused on the discovery and development of precious and base metal assets. Mr. Ryan also serves as the Vice President of Corporate Affairs of Key Mining Corp., an exploration stage mining company and as its Corporate Secretary. From November 2016 to September 2020, Mr. Ryan served as a director and Interim CEO of Bunker Hill Mining Corp., a development stage mining company focused on a restart of the Bunker Hill Mine in North Idaho. Mr. Ryan has founded and served as an Officer and Director of many natural resource companies which have gone on to senior listings in the United States, Canada, and other listing venues. Mr. Ryan obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in mining engineering from the University of Idaho and his juris doctor from Boston College Law School.Since June 2020 Mr. Crosby has served as Vice President and Director of GEM. Mr. Crosby also serves as a Director of Key Mining Corp., a Company focused on the development of mining assets in Chile. Since October 2014, Mr. Crosby has served as the Chairman of the Board of Desert Hawk Gold Corp., a gold mining company with a permitted gold asset in Utah. From 2005 to 2016, Mr. Crosby served as a director of White Mountain Titanium Corp. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Crosby served as a director of Bunker Hill Mining Corp. Over his thirty-year career Mr. Crosby has founded and served as an Officer and Director of numerous mining and energy companies, several of which achieved senior listings in the United States.About Magellan Gold CorporationMagellan Gold Corporation (MAGE) is focused on the exploration and development of precious and base metals assets, primarily in the State of Idaho. Further details of the plans for the Company will be forthcoming in future press releases.Please also visit our website at www.magellangoldcorp.com Forward Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements contained in this press release, other than statements of historical facts or statements that relate to present facts or current conditions, including but not limited to, statements regarding our cash and financial resources and our clinical development plans, are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "aim," "seek," "anticipate," "could," "intend," "target," "project," "contemplate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "forecast," "potential" or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified and some of which are beyond our control. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to: competition, our ability to grow and manage growth, retain our management and key employees; changes in applicable laws or regulations; the possibility that the we may be adversely affected by other economic, business or competitive factors; our estimates of expenses and profitability; the evolution of the markets in which we compete; our ability to implement our strategic initiatives; and the risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at www.sec.gov . You should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The events and circumstances reflected in our forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur, and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a dynamic industry and economy. New risk factors and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all risk factors and uncertainties that we may face. Except as required by applicable law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise.Contacts:Magellan Gold CorporationMike Lavigne, CEO mblavigne@ magellangoldcorp.com SOURCE: Magellan Gold Corporation
PR-Inside.com: 2024-01-08 21:55:21

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Regenerative Medicine Franchise Experiencing Explosive Growth NationwideCHARLOTTE, NC / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / QC Kinetix , a fast-growing regenerative medicine franchise that offers a cutting-edge, non-surgical alternative to joint and pain relief, is thrilled to announce that the brand not only made its debut onFranchise Times' Fast & Serious list but clinched the No. 1 ranking!Photo by Jonathan Keitt The list recognizes the top 40 smartest-growing franchise brands. QC Kinetix boasted an impressive 1,051.5% increase in sales from 2020 to 2022, reaching a milestone of $101 million in systemwide sales. This period also saw an astonishing 1,777.8% growth in units."This unparalleled growth we've experienced reflects our robust franchise support infrastructure and the increasing demand for non-surgical pain treatments," said Scott Hoots, CEO of QC Kinetix. "The trust of our patients and the hard work of the entire QC Kinetix team, from corporate to franchise owners and their staff, fuels our mission to help more patients in more cities." From its first clinic in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2017, QC Kinetix has expanded its footprint to 199 clinics across more than 100 cities nationwide. Clinics are concierge-style and offer patients advanced regenerative medicine treatments as an alternative to pain medications and surgery. Recently, their services have expanded beyond treating pain to include hair growth treatments and men's hormone replacement therapy.Looking forward, QC Kinetix aims to hit 300 open locations in the United States by the end of 2024. The brand is also setting its sights on international territories, exploring expansion in the United Kingdom and Australia."As we grow, our focus will remain on being a leader and trusted voice in the regenerative medicine industry. We're excited for what the future holds and the opportunity to change even more lives," said Hoots.For more information about QC Kinetix and its franchise opportunities, visitwww.qckinetix.com Media Contact:Jennifer Williams 919.459.3592 jwilliams@919 marketing.com About QC KinetixQC Kinetix is a franchise company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, leading the way in promoting an active lifestyle through comprehensive regenerative medicine treatments designed to address musculoskeletal conditions and joint pain. QC Kinetix leverages the body's inherent healing properties through state-of-the-art natural biologic treatments, offering alternatives to invasive surgery and addictive pain medications. QC Kinetix also offers hair restoration treatment for men and women, low testosterone therapy for men, and a line of supplements for joint health, men's health, and hair health. With rapid expansion underway throughout the United States, the healthcare franchise currently operates in over 100 cities. QC Kinetix clinics are committed to maximizing the body's ability to alleviate pain and restore health from within, significantly enhancing overall function and quality of life. For more information, please visitwww.qckinetix.com SOURCE: QC Kinetix
PR-Inside.com: 2024-01-08 09:10:21

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KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8, 2024 - (ACN Newswire) - TAMCO Switchgear Testing Laboratory has been accredited with ISO 17025, a globally recognized international standard for testing and calibration laboratories, from Standards Malaysia. This accreditation marks a pivotal milestone for TAMCO Switchgear as it further strengthens its product quality control in ensuring a safe and reliable power supply to support the NETR initiatives.The ISO 17025 accreditation signifies that the TAMCO Switchgear Testing Laboratory, located in Bukit Raja, Selangor meets the highest standards for competence in the testing of medium-voltage switchgear which were previously conducted by foreign laboratories namely KEMA in the Netherlands, CESI in Italy, ASTA in Australia, and IPH in Germany. By implementing in-house testing in accordance with ISO 17025 accreditation, TAMCO Switchgear is able to reduce the lead time of product delivery to meet the demanding project requirements.We are proud to have received ISO 17025 accreditation as this accreditation is a testament to our commitment to quality and compliance. It allows us to serve our customers and the industry better, and achieve the global goals together, such as NETR, said Dr. Ir. Segaran Narayanan, CEO of TAMCO Switchgear.Malaysias National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) was introduced to ensure the nation remains relevant and competitive in a world where industrial and commercial bases are rapidly changing by the day. The NETR is a significant milestone for Malaysia and comprehensively charts our nations trajectory towards a brighter, cleaner, and more resilient future.TAMCO Switchgears Testing Laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and is staffed by highly qualified engineers and technicians. In 2008, the laboratory underwent significant developments, coinciding with the relocation of the manufacturing plant. This strategic move aimed to enhance the efficiency of product testing and certification processes. Towards this end, the laboratory is equipped to test a wide range of medium-voltage switchgear products, to ensure a reliable power transmission for the electricity supply throughout the nation.With its ISO 17025 accreditation, TAMCO Switchgear is well-positioned to meet the growing demand for high-quality medium-voltage switchgear products in Malaysia and the surrounding region. The accreditation also opens doors to new markets by meeting regulatory requirements in different regions. It enhances the competitiveness of the business, making it more attractive to clients who prioritize working with accredited laboratories.The ISO 17025 accreditation is an internationally recognized standard for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. To achieve accreditation, a laboratory must demonstrate that it has the necessary staff, equipment, and procedures to conduct testing and calibration to the highest standards.For more information about TAMCO Switchgear and its industry-leading solutions, please visit www.tamco.com.my For media enquiries, please contact:Esther Liew | esther.liew@tamco.com.my | +03-3361 8200
PR-Inside.com: 2024-01-08 19:05:25

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WorldWide Electric's strategic acquisition of North American Electric, Inc. combines two leading customer-centric organizations to create an unparalleled customer experience across the industrial market for electric motors, motor controls, gear reducers and generators.ROCHESTER, NY and HERNANDO, MS / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / WorldWide Electric Corporation is excited to announce the acquisition of North American Electric, Inc. The synergies created by this landmark acquisition places WorldWide Electric among the top-tier companies within its markets. It also reinforces WorldWide Electric's priority of providing its customers the industry's best service along with adding world-class in-house motor control panel manufacturing capability.WWE-NAE-Logos Company LogosBoth companies embrace customer-centricity as a substantial competitive advantage - each provides high-touch, accessible sales support and application expertise, in-stock inventory, excellent distribution channels, and a broad offering of industrial products. WorldWide Electric President and CEO James Taylor describes the acquisition as a significant win for the customers of both organizations. "We are thrilled to welcome North American Electric's Team into the WorldWide Electric family. Our shared sense of customer service and the similarities between our two companies will improve the buying experience." Taylor added, "We will adopt best practices across our business to continue to provide the highest level of service and the same high-quality products." Since 1993, North American Electric has grown its business and reputation by offering its customers competitively priced electric motors, motor controls, and gearing. North American Electric operates a world-class UL508A-certified facility for motor controls production at its headquarters in Hernando, Mississippi. David Hackman, Co-founder and President of North American Electric, described the value it brings to WorldWide Electric: "WorldWide Electric recognizes our strengths - exceptional customer service along with the critical technical support and training required for customer success. Adding additional incremental manufacturing capabilities to WorldWide's portfolio will make custom control panels and packaged solutions available with best-in-class lead times - a value proposition other prominent manufacturers will have difficulty competing against." With the acquisition of North American Electric, WorldWide Electric is adding to its overall capabilities and market presence. For 25 years, it has been a leading provider of electric motors, motor controls, and gear reducers. This is WorldWide Electric's fourth acquisition in as many years, including: Louis Allis, a company with a rich history and over 100 years of experience manufacturing and servicing large, custom AC and DC electric motors, Georator Corporation frequency convertors and generators, and Gleason-Avery, a manufacturer of quality fractional and sub-fractional gear motors. As WorldWide Electric continues to evolve, these strategic acquisitions underscore its commitment to growth while maintaining customer centricity in a competitive landscape and offering a comprehensive suite of products and services that meet the diverse needs of its customers.Contact InformationMichael HewsonDirector of Marketingmhewson@ worldwideelectric.net 5858250930Related FilesAcquisition Press Releaese 01-04- Final.docx SOURCE: WorldWide Electric CorporationView the original press release on newswire.com
Nigerian movie director Moses Inwang and his wife, actress Emem Inwang, have parted ways.

Inwang announced this on his Instagram page on Monday. He acknowledged the difficulty of the news but emphasised the necessity of the decision to end their marriage.

Expressing that it is a challenging period for both of them, Inwang shared that they believe going separate ways is the optimal choice for their happiness and personal growth.

He encouraged the public to honour and understand their choice as they embark on the new chapter.

He stated that their separation would not negatively impact their children, saying, We are dedicated to fostering a positive and healthy co-parenting relationship for the well-being of our boys.

Inwang and his wife had been married for ten years.

The statement read: Happy New Year, family, friends and fans. Today, I wanted to share some personal news that has been a difficult but necessary decision.

After much reflection and discussion, Emem and I have decided to part ways after about ten years of marriage. While this is undoubtedly a challenging time for both of us, we believe it is the best path forward for our happiness and personal growth.

As we navigate this new chapter, we kindly request your understanding and respect for our privacy. While we may be parting ways as partners, we remain committed to maintaining a positive and healthy co-parenting relationship for the well-being of our boys. Thanks for the love and support.

Love turned sour

Moses and Emem tied the knot in April 2014, having met at Emem Isongs movie premiere. Inwang proposed to his wife with a necklace with a heart-shaped pendant.

In 2015, Inwang expressed that he hadnt imagined marrying an actress until he encountered his wife, the 2012 Carnival Calabar Queen.

He highlighted that his divorced wife stood out among his exes due to her exceptional calmness and beauty.

Meanwhile, in a joint interview at the time, Emem revealed that after spending three months with her now ex-husband, she realised he was the one.

It was her first relationship, and she expressed no interest in marrying a movie director despite her dream of being an actress.

According to them, their marriage was unexpected. The union has been blessed with two sons  Eden and Jordan Inwang.

Inwangs most recent directorial project is Blood Vessel, a film that narrates the tale of six young men brought together by fate who embarked on a perilous ocean journey aboard a ship laden with stolen crude oil bound for Europe.

In 2012, Inwang gained recognition for his directorial and production efforts in the psychological thriller Torn. The film, released nationwide in 2013, marked a milestone in his career.

He also directed and produced other successful movies such as Damage, Cold Feet, Stalker, Last 3 Digits, Alter Ego Crazy People, American Driver, Unroyal, Merry Men 2 and others.

Similarly, Emem who won the 2014 Nollywood Movies Awards (3rd edition) for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in the movie Itoro has been featured in many movies such as Dr. Love of 2020), Itoro of 2013 Lock Down of 2021, Unroyal of 2020; Crazy People of 2018 and others.

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Nigerias ruling party, APC, is so hopeful of victory in Kano State that its local chapters have started distributing celebration dresses to members.

Local chapters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano State have distributed new party dresses to members for a planned swearing-in of its candidate, Nasir Gawuna, ahead of the Supreme Court judgement on the governorship election in the state.

The development followed fasting and animal sacrifices observed over the week by members of the APC and those of the ruling New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the state. The two parties had asked their members to pray for a favourable Supreme Court judgement.

The NNPP called on its members to fast for the success of its candidate and current governor of the state, Abba Yusuf, while supporters of the APC candidate, Nasir Gawuna, engaged in reciting the Quran and sacrificing animals at their bases.

Kano, the most populous state in northern Nigeria, is a predominantly Muslim state and the APC and NNPC have been at loggerheads to govern the state. The NNPP candidate was declared the winner of the March 2023 governorship election in the state but the APC challenged the declaration and secured victory at the tribunal and the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court, Nigerias highest court, is expected to give a final ruling on the matter this week.

On Sunday, PREMIUM TIMES saw many members of the APC in Fagge Local Government Area distributing the new dress adorned with President Bola Tinubus cap symbol. The party leaders urged members to fast-track sewing the cloth in anticipation of a favourable Supreme Court judgement. Such dress is popularly called aso-ebi across Nigeria when members of a group agree to wear the same dress for an occasion.

Some of the APC members said that they are confident that the Supreme Court judgement will favour their candidate just like that of the appeal court.

One of the APC members, Faisal Ibrahim, said he had sewed his clothes waiting for the swearing-in ceremony of Mr Gawuna as the governor of Kano.

I have finished preparation for the swearing-in ceremony and I am confident of victory because the evidence we (APC) relied upon and won the cases at the Election Petition Tribunal and the Appeal Court are relevant also at the Supreme Court.

When you follow the evidence tendered by our party at the initial courts from the beginning you will conclude that victory is by our side. This gave me the courage to prepare for the swearing-in ceremony, Mr Ibrahim, an APC member from the Fagge D1 ward, said.

One of the party leaders in Fagge D1 ward, Ahmad Dangwarzo, said they have distributed many such dresses to their members across the state for the planned swearing-in ceremony of Mr Gawuna.

The APC leaders across the state are distributing different kinds of clothing in their respective council areas and we are confident of winning at the Supreme Court unless the constitution is changed but nothing will change the judgement of the previous courts, Mr Dangwarzo said.

Also, the North-west APC supporters group in a statement signed by Abdullahi Gandujes former Chief Press Secretary, Abba Anwar, said they have mobilised their followers to welcome Mr Gawuna to the state ahead of the Supreme Court judgement.

The Director General of the Confederation of APC Support Groups (CASG), Engineer Kailani Muhammad, mobilises APC supporters from across seven North-west states, in anticipation of the judgement favouring All Progressives Congress (APC).

Engineer Muhammad believes that, without any intent for court contempt, we are hopeful, praying and committed to believing that, the case before the Supreme Court will favour our gubernatorial and deputy gubernatorial candidates, His Excellency Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna and His Excellency Murtala Sule Garo respectively.

While commending the National Chairman of APC Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, CON, as one of the main brains and architects behind APCs victory at the Tribunal and Court of Appeal, the Director General believes that both Gawuna and Garo would be loyal to the National Chairman, the party and democracy in general.

It is due to our fervent prayers and belief that we are hopefully hopeful that APC will emerge victorious at the Supreme Court. That is why I am saying, on behalf of the members of the Confederation of APC Support Groups that we have started mobilising our members from the North West zone, comprising 7 states, to celebrate and support the upcoming administration of Gawuna-Garo, Mr Anwar said in the statement.

While the APC members have made arrangements for the swearing-in ceremony of their candidate, the NNPP is yet to reveal its plans.

The Supreme Court has set Friday to rule on the matter.

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A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered that Cyril Ndifon, the suspended dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar be remanded in Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja.

Mr Ndifon, a professor of law, was suspended as dean of the faculty after some female students of the faculty held a protest rally, accusing him of sexual harassment.

The lecturer, who had since denied the allegation, claimed that some of his colleagues uncomfortable with his style of leadership manipulated the students against him.

But an investigation panel set up by the university indicted him of sexual assault.

Counts charge

Mr Ndifon is being prosecuted by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), which filed a four-count charge against the professor in October.

In count one, Mr Ndifon was alleged to have, between June and September 2023, used his office and position to gratify himself by soliciting for nude photographs and videos from a year 2 Diploma female student of the university through WhatsApp chats on his telephone number.

ICPC said the offence is punishable under Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

In count two, he was alleged to have corruptly requested nude photographs and videos from a 400 level female student of the Faculty of Law with the plan of changing her project supervisor to himself in order to guarantee favourable grades for her, contrary to and punishable under Section 8(1)(a) (il) of the agencys Act.

In count three, he was alleged to have corruptly requested to see nude photographs of a 16-year-old prospective post-UTME female student, as an inducement to consider her for admission into the Faculty of Law contrary to and punishable under Section 18(d) of the Act.

He is accused, in count four, of causing a female student to send pornographic, indecent and obscene photographs of herself to him through WhatsApp chats on his telephone number between May and September 2023, an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 24 of the Cybercrime (Prohibition & Prevention) Act, 2015.

Mr Ndifon was alleged to have committed the offences while serving as a public officer charged with responsibility for the certification of students as fit in learning and character as a prerequisite for the award of a Bachelors degree in Law and admission into the Nigeria Law School.

The university lecturer pleaded not guilty to all the four-count charge read to him when he appeared before the court on Monday, the Punch newspaper reported.

Bail application

His lawyer, Okon Efut, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, prayed the court to admit his client to bail, particularly on health grounds.

Speaking from the dock, Mr Ndifon said: My lord, I was supposed to have an eye surgery on Glaucoma.

Mr Efut, the professors lawyer, told the court that it was on the basis of his health condition that the magistrate court in Calabar admitted his client to bail on 27 October, 2023, after being in detention for about 22 days.

He said based on the medical report, the eye surgery was expected to be carried out on 11 January.

But ICPC lawyer, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, opposed the application for bail.

He said on receipt of the process, the commission filed a counter affidavit dated and filed on 5 January

The lawyer alleged that one of the counsels to Mr Ndifon threatened the commissions star witness on phone and said they were in possession of the call logs.

Mr Akponimisingha argued that one of the cardinal reasons for granting bail was the assurance that a defendant would not interfere with the case.

He further said that the name of the lawyer who threatened the ICPC witness was in the bail application filed by Mr Efut and that he was also at the court sitting.

The judge, James Omotosho, consequently, asked the lawyer to come forward. What is your name? he asked.

Sunny Anyanwu is my name, my lord, he replied.

Following the judges enquiry during the hearing on Monday, Mr Anyanwu accepted to respond to the allegation by filing an affidavit of facts.

Mr Anyanwu admitted calling one Tochi Kanu on the phone, but said the person he called was different from the names of the four witnesses in the charge and proof of evidence.

When the judge asked him about his interest in the matter, he said Mr Ndifon was his lecturer and that he came as counsel to defend him or support the defence.

The judge, Mr Omotosho then asked Mr Akponimisingha the name of the person who was alleged to have been called.

The name is Tochi Kanu Jane, he replied.

The judge consequently directed Mr Anyanwu to file his affidavit of facts for the court to decide on the issue.

Justice Omotosho wondered why Mr Ndifon had not gone for the surgery since 27 October 2023, when the magistrate court granted him bail.

Mr Akponimisingha, the ICPC lawyer, told the court that Mr Ndifons medical report was served on the commission late and that they were still verifying its genuineness.

Justice Omotosho ordered that Mr Ndifon be remanded in Kuje Correctional Centre.

He adjourned the matter until 10 January for a hearing of the bail application and to enable Mr Anyanwu to file his affidavit of facts.

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President Bola Tinubu has dismissed the chief executive officers of two agencies of the federal government.

Those dismissed are Babatunde Irukera, the CEO of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and Alexander Okoh, the CEO of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, on Monday, the president directed them to hand over to the next most senior officer in their respective agencies, pending the appointment of new CEOs.

Read the full statements

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

PRESIDENT TINUBU DISMISSES TWO CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

In conformity with plans to restructure and reposition critical agencies of the Federal Government towards protecting the rights of Nigerian consumers and providing a strong basis for enhanced contributions to the nations economy by key growth-enabling institutions, President Bola Tinubu has dismissed the following Chief Executive Officers:

(1) Mr. Babatunde Irukera  EVC/CEO, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC)

(2) Mr. Alexander Ayoola Okoh  Director-General/CEO, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE)

The two dismissed Chief Executives are directed to hand over to the next most senior officer in their respective agencies, pending the appointment of new Chief Executive Officers.

By this directive of the President, their removal from office takes immediate effect.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

January 8, 2024

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The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, says the South-east region must achieve peace and security before demanding the release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

Mr Kalu said this while speaking with journalists in his Bende country home on Sunday.

He spoke on how best the region could approach its demand for Mr Kanus release from detention.

According to him, the region could only realise its objective through peaceful negotiations and not by arm-twisting the federal government.

He said that although the leadership of the South-east region had made several efforts for Mr Kanus release, the effort of some amounted to playing to the gallery.

Mr Kalu countered the widely held belief in the South-east that once Mr Kanu is released peace would automatically return to the region.

To get Kanu released is not about how much you talk about it in the pages of the newspapers or television, it needs strategic thinking and strategic steps to get it done.

Many thought that by arm-twisting the federal government through sit-at-home every Monday, through violence and destruction, the federal government could immediately release Kanu.

You can never arm-twist the federal government, but you can dialogue, Mr Kalu said.

He said that the threat to burn down the region, if the government refuses to listen to its request, was equal to shooting oneself in the foot.

The houses you are shooting are in the South-east.

When you say, if you dont release Kanu, the people will sit at home and not go to work, people are going to work in Lagos, Kano, Sokoto and other parts of the country.

So, who are you shooting? Its like a man shooting his own leg and taking accolades for it, and this is the greatest level of folly, he said.

The deputy speaker also said it would amount to daring the federal government to say its fire-for-fire and violence for violence.

Tinubu hadnt committed any sin against South-east

Mr Kalu further said that President Bola Tinubu had not committed any sin against the South-east.

He said that the president, on the contrary, had shown love to the region by giving us the Number six citizen (deputy speakership), chief of naval staff, and minister for works.

He, therefore, said that what the South-east should do in the present circumstance was to join his advocacy for peace, through the Peace in the South-east Project, unveiled on 29 December.

That event, which brought the president, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, Emir of Bichi, Nasiru Ado Bayero, to Bende is significant and symbolic because Kanu is from Bende, he said.

The deputy speaker, therefore, admonished the gunmen fomenting violence in the region to surrender their arms to the security agencies.

He expressed the hope that they would be granted amnesty by the federal government, once they dropped their arms for peace to reign in the region.

(NAN)

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Ousman Sonko, a 54-year-old former interior minister of the Gambia, goes on trial for crimes against humanity in the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in the city of Bellinzona Monday.

This is for his alleged role in a series of crimes perpetrated against Gambians under the 22-year rule of small countrys former dictator Yahya Jammeh.

Mr Jammeh ruled Gambia with an iron fist and was accused of numerous human rights violations including murder and severe torture by the countrys Truth, Reconciliation and Reconciliation Commission.

Mr Sonko first served in the military, rising through the ranks to command the State Guards, an elite military unit which guards the Gambian presidency, in 2003.

Mr Sonko would serve both as the head of the Gambia police and the interior minister presiding over the internal security matters of the country from 2005 to 2016.

In 2016, Mr Sonko fell out with Mr Jammeh and fled to Switzerland.

He was arrested in Bern in January 2017, a day after the Geneva-based rights organisation Trial International filed a criminal complaint against him. He was formally indicted by the Swiss Office of the Attorney General before the Federal Criminal Court in April 2023.

Mr Sonko faces charges of murder, rape, false imprisonment, torture, among others. Nine Gambian victims are bringing the case against him in the three-week trial which ends by 30 January. A tenth plaintiff passed away in October allegedly as a result of lasting injuries inflicted by Mr Sonko.

The Swiss Office of the Attorney General also accuses Mr Sonko of having co-perpetrated deprivation of liberty and acts of torture of peaceful demonstrators in 2016, when he was Minister of the Interior. These acts have been qualified by the Swiss prosecutor as crimes against humanity.

This trial is a significant moment in Swiss judicial history, said Leslie Haskell, president of TRIAL International.

Mr Sonko is the second person to face trial in Switzerland under the principle of universal jurisdiction which holds that crimes against humanity are committed against all humans regardless of where they were committed.

The first person to face trial in Switzerland under universal jurisidiction, Alieu Kosiah of Liberia, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years prison in 2022.

Ousman Sonko will also be the highest-ranking state official ever to be tried for international crimes under the principle of universal jurisdiction in Europe.

According to the indictment, Mr Sonko participated in the murder of Almamo Manneh in January 2000. Mr Manneh was a former member of the elite guards of the Gambian presidency, State Guards, who was accused of being part of a coup.

After murdering Mr Manneh, Mr Sonko allegedly raped Mr Mannehs wife dozens of times an abuse which persisted over five years. Jamba first narrated her story before the countrys Truth Commission in October 2019.

The Commission finalised its reports and submitted them to the Gambian president in November 2021. In 2022, the government published a white paper accepting the recommendations of the Commission. Mr Sonko is named on the list of the 90 most adversely mentioned individuals published in July 2022.

The Commission found Mr Sonko to be involved in a scheme to cover up the killing of at least 51 West African migrants in the country in 2005.

The migrants who hailed from at least four West African countries Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo were accused of being mercenaries and handed to members of Mr Jammehs hitsquad to be shot at point blank, the Commissions investigation found.

Mr Sonko is accused of participating in the murder of a former ally of Yahya Jammeh, Baba Jobe. Mr Jobe was killed on his hospital bed at the countrys main referral hospital in Banjul in October 2011.

Mr Sonko also faced allegations of participating in the torture of several civilian and military officers accused of plotting to overthrow Mr Jammehs regime in 2006.

Mr Sonko is also accused of participating in the torture of opposition political activists in April 2016. A rare protest broke in the Gambia led by political activists and members of the opposition UDP. The protesters, led by Ebrima Sandeng, were rounded up and tortured.

Mr Sandeng would die in state custody. At least five victims of torture in that incident have since died, and one of them Nogoi Njie was expected to testify against Mr Sonko in Switzerland.

Mr Sonko is the second member of Mr Jammehs regime to face trial. In November, Bai L. a former member of a paramilitary unit known as Junglers created by the former President, was sentenced by a German court to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity.

Michael Correa, another alleged member of the same death squad, will stand trial in Denver, USA, in September. He faces charges of torture and conspiracy to commit torture.

A verdict in Mr Sonkos trial is expected later in the year.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project.

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A former Director of Finance at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Olamide Ohunyeye, has revealed that residents of Ondo State must look out for an experienced and selfless leader who can drive the socio-economic development of the state.

The state is set for another off-cycle governorship election slated for 16th November by INEC.

The tenure of the incumbent governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who succeeded the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, will end by 23 February 2025.

The late governor passed on in office on 27 December 2023.

Although political parties are yet to conduct primaries to pick their candidates, aspirants have started declaring their intention to be the next occupant of the Government House, Alagbaka, Akure, the state capital.

The parties, according to INEC, are expected to conduct their primaries in April.

Mr Ohunyeye, a retired brigadier general, explained that the state has the needed natural and human resources to compete with other oil-producing states of Rivers, Akwa Ibom and the rest, saying a leader with genuine interest for the people would tap into huge resources in the overall interest of the people.

He spoke at the weekend in Ilutitun, Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo state during a civic reception organised for him by the people to mark his recent retirement from the Nigerian Army.

While lamenting the increasing level of unemployment rate among the youths and other negative economic indices in the state, Mr Ohunyeye maintained that the state is too endowed and gifted to experience hardship and lack of infrastructural facelifts.

According to him, For Ondo State, I want a leader that will place the state at the platform of oil-producing states of Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and others. I want to see massive and rapid infrastructural development, I want to see complete capacity building, I want to see complete efficient and judicious use of our numerous resources and agricultural products, which are hidden in the soil of Ondo state.

I want to see an Ondo State where the unemployed youths are employed, teachers are properly trained, and education and healthcare systems are improved upon. A state that will witness development in all ramifications of life.

The retired army general, who appreciated the people for the recognition and honour accorded him during the reception, said he would be more committed and dedicated to uplifting the people in the area and the state at large.

I feel extremely very excited and joyous that after 36 years of my sojourn in the military, my community and even the state are celebrating me that I have done well to serve my fatherland, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and welcoming me back to the society for more service to the people, he said.

Speaking during the reception, Sehinde Akinbuwa, a community leader, commended the retired army general for his selfless service to the nation and the community in the last 36 years, adding that the community would continue to support him in his future endeavours.

While congratulating him on his retirement from active service in the army, Mr Akinbuwa advised Mr Ohunyeye to consider taking up a leadership role in the state for the people to benefit from his wealth of experience and expertise in administration.

Mr Akinbuwa said, As General Ohunyeye transitions into civilian life, it is incumbent upon us to encourage and support him leveraging his wealth of experience and wisdom to continue serving our community, and the state.

Just as great generals of the past have transcended their military service to lead their nations in times of peace, we urge him to chart a new path in civilian leadership, inspiring and mentoring the next generation towards excellence, he said.

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The Taraba State Government has announced plans to reintroduce history as a subject in the basic education curriculum in schools in the state.

Governor Agbu Kefas made this known when he hosted journalists to a dinner in Jalingo, the state capital, on Sunday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that History was removed from primary and secondary education curriculums in the 2009/2010 academic session.

NAN reports that in November 2022, the federal government reintroduced History as a stand-alone subject in the basic education curriculum in Nigeria 13 years after its abolition.

History, he said, has a connection with development of any society.

No society will truly develop without its inhabitants having a good knowledge of their history.

That is why we will introduce history studies in our primary and secondary schools in the state to lay a solid foundation for accelerated development, he said.

The governor also said in no distance time, primary school teachers in the state must be first degree holders while secondary school teachers must have a minimum of Masters degree in order to enhance the quality of education in the state.

He urged journalists to monitor the implementation of the state governments free education policy in primary and secondary schools to ensure that all the school administrators were doing the right thing.

While commending journalists for their objective reportage so far, Kefas pledged to renovate the Press Centre in Jalingo and also provide operational vehicles to the various groups under the Nigera Union of Journalists.

Speaking, Danjuma Adamu, the immediate-past Taraba State Commissioner for Information, urged the state government to take journalists as partners in progress.

Also speaking, Zainab Jalingo, the state Commissioner for Information, called for continued partnership with journalists to serve the people of state better.

Earlier, Matthew Jen, the NUJ Chairman in Taraba State, and Gabriel Yough, the state NUJ Correspondents Chapel Chairman, assured the governor of continued objective reportage for the benefit of all. (NAN)

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An Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon has reportedly killed a top Hezbollah Commander, Al Jazeera is reporting.

The deceased commander has been identified as Wissam al-Tawil, also known as Jawad, deputy head of a unit in the elite Radwan force.

Unnamed security sources told AFP news agency that Jawad played a leading role in managing Hezbollahs operations in the south.

He was killed in an Israeli raid targeting his car in the south, they said.

The killing of Jawad is coming a few days after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the killing of a Hamas deputy leader, Saleh al-Arouri, will not go unpunished. The Hamas leader was killed in a drone strike in Lebanon. The drone attack is believed to have been carried out by Israel which has not claimed, nor denied responsibility.

Hezbollah has lost more than 130 fighters in Israeli shelling on southern Lebanon since cross-border bombardment began on 7 October. Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel have also killed about a dozen Israelis.

Mr Nasrallah also warned Israel in two televised addresses last week not to launch a full-scale war on Lebanon noting that whoever thinks of war with them will regret it.

Todays killing further raises concerns about the possibility of hostilities between Israel and Hamas extending to other states of the Middle East.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East speaking with leaders of the region about the need to contain the ongoing offensive.

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Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu will, this week, sign into law the 2024 Lagos State Appropriation Bill.

Mr Sanwo-Olu said signing the Bill, passed a few days ago by the Lagos State House of Assembly, will mark an important milestone in the delivery of all that his administration has promised the people of Lagos.

Speaking during the 24th Annual Thanksgiving Service with the First Family of Lagos State, themed, The Righteous Shall Praise Your Name, held at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, the governor said his administration remained dedicated to the successful implementation of pivotal projects to foster the robust growth of the state and ensure the well-being of its citizens.

The service was attended by the governors wife, Ibijoke; Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat and his wife, Oluremi; the immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, and wife, Bolanle; Ogun State First Lady Bamidele Abiodun; Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, represented by the Chairman of the Assembly on Home Affairs, Jubril Abdulkareem; Chief Judge of Lagos State, Kazeem Alogba; former deputy governors, religious and traditional leaders, public office holders and politicians, among others.

Mr Sanwo-Olu hinted that the Red Line Rail project would be commissioned next month by President Bola Tinubu.

He disclosed that the project was 99.9 per cent completed and, based on President Tinubus availability, might be commissioned next month.

Providing some insights into year, Governor Sanwo-Olu noted that the Year 2024 will be an important one for his administration in terms of enforcement of the various laws and regulations made to safeguard the lives and property of residents. Without adherence to the rule of law, no society can guarantee progress and prosperity,  he said.

Governor Sanwo-Olu called on Nigerians, especially Lagos residents, to continue to pray for him and other public office holders who have been given the privilege to serve as leaders in various capacities.

He said public office holders needed divine wisdom and grace, as they make multitudes of decisions that will impact peoples lives.

He said: We are unwaveringly dedicated to the successful implementation of pivotal projects. In every sector, we have major projects ongoing that will define the legacy of our administration, and positively transform the economy and landscape of Lagos State.

Indeed, all Lagosians have so much to look forward to this year 2024, which is also the first full year of our second and final term in office. You are already familiar with our T.H.E.M.E.S+ development agenda, which will guide and propel all that we do for the progress and development of the State.

Mr Sanwo-Olu enjoined residents to play their part in respecting and obeying the laws of the land by paying taxes, obeying traffic rules, disposing waste responsibly and speaking up when others break the law. He said these were responsibilities of good people of Lagos State.

On our part, as Government, we will continue to strive to make it easier for you to be law-abiding. Our transport reforms are all aimed at improving the commuting experience for all Lagosians, just as our Emergency Hotlines are there to make it easy for you to say something if you see something!

In the same way, we have in place various reforms aimed at making it easier for you to pay your taxes, and generally making Lagos a more enabling place for business and investment. Together, we can all play our part in achieving a truly Greater Lagos.

Speaking on the significance of the Thanksgiving Service, Mr Sanwo-Olu said there is so much to be grateful for, urging the people to raise their voices in praise, adoration and supplication, to commit Lagos State and Nigeria to God, for guidance and mercies.

In his exhortation, the Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Stephen Adegbite, said there was need to appreciate God.

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As part of its efforts over the last three months to redeem outstanding forward liabilities to foreign airlines, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disbursed about $61.64 million to the airlines through various banks.

Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of the bank, Hakama Sidi Ali, on Sunday, said the forex settlement brings to $2 billion the total backlog cleared in three months.

Mrs Ali said the banks action underscores its commitment to the resolution of pending obligations while alleviating the current pressure on the countrys foreign exchange and the Naira.

She expressed the hope that the apex banks action would give boost to the Naira against other currencies and further increase investor confidence in the Nigeria economy.

There had been concerns globally about Nigerias status as the country with the highest amount of foreign airlines trapped funds, which accrued from ticket revenue.

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The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the election of Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia.

Mr Alia, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), defeated Titus Uba, his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival at the 18 March 2023 poll.

Mr Uba, who was speaker of the Benue State House Assembly when he vied to rule the state, accused Nigerias electoral commission, INEC, and Mr Alia of electoral malpractices during the election.

After he lost his cases seeking to nullify Mr Alias election at the Benue State Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, Mr Uba approached the Supreme Court where he sought to invalidate the polls.

However, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court led by John Okoro said issues raised in the appeal did not qualify as post-election matters.

Mr Uba had challenged the candidacy of Governor Alia, who ditched his cassock as a Roman Catholic priest for the APC governorship ticket.

In resolving the dispute, the Supreme Court prevailed on the lawyer to the PDP and Mr Titus, Sebastine Hon, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to withdraw the appeal, paving the way for its dismissal on Monday.

Governor Alia, his deputy, Sam Ode, and a retinue of state officials were at the Supreme Court to witness Mondays proceedings.

Background

A three-member panel of the court led by Onyekachi Otisi had upheld Mr Alias election after dismissing the appeal filed by Mr Uba and his party.

In September, the election petition tribunal, the first court of instance to sit over the disputes arising from the election, had held that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the issues relating mostly to pre-election issues raised by Mr Uba in his petition.

Dissatisfied with the decision, the PDP candidate appealed, seeking to overturn Mr Alias victory.

In its unanimous verdict, the Court of Appeal resolved all the issues in favour of the governor, including the alleged non-qualification of Mr Alia and his deputy, Mr Ode, to contest the March 2023 election.

Ms Otisi said the PDP governorship candidate failed to prove the allegation of forgery of INECs documents levelled against Mr Ode.

Ebonyi governorship suit

Also on Monday, the Supreme Court heard an appeal filed by the PDP and its candidate in Ebonyi State, Chukwuma Ifeanyi, against Governor Francis Nwifurus election.

The court reserved judgement on the appeal until a date to be communicated to the parties.

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal in Lagos led by Jummai Sankey had upheld the election of Mr Nwifuru as the duly elected governor of Ebonyi State.

In its unanimous decision, the appellate court dismissed the appeal filed by Mr Odii of the PDP.

The panel also resolved all the five issues raised against the appellant and dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.

Ms Sankey had said the PDP and its candidate lacked the right to meddle in the internal affairs of the APC as it relates to the nomination of candidates.

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Nigeria and Saudi Arabia on Sunday signed an agreement for the 2024 Hajj operations.

The agreement was signed in Jeddah by Nigerias Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, at a bilateral meeting with Saudi Arabias Minister of Hajj and Umrah, Taofiq AlRabiah, on the sideline of the 3rd Edition of the Hajj and Umrah Conference and Exhibition.

In a statement signed by the ministers aide, Alkasim Abdulkadir, the minister assured that the 2024 Hajj Operations will be guided by a new culture of precision that will ensure that pre-Hajj, Hajj and Umrah activities are carried out on time.

The meeting also focused on the airlifting of pilgrims, Nigerian government-endorsed airlines, Hajj accommodations, and the feeding of pilgrims.

We discussed ways of improving services of Hajj and Umrah on both sides; this is a process that is always being reviewed, and from what was discussed, there will be improvements in this years Hajj, the minister said.

According to Mr Tuggar, Nigeria contributes the 4th largest number of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia and the 5th largest when it comes to Umrah.

He noted that the arrangements the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had put in place would improve the 2023 Hajj operations and ensure the safety and comfort of Nigerian pilgrims.

In 2023, although Nigerian authorities said the country had a successful Hajj operation, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) announced the death of about 13 Nigerians in the course of the 2023 Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia during Sundays meeting said it will review all issues raised by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, assuring the Nigerian delegation of the cooperation of the Saudi Hajj authorities to ensure a seamless 2024 Hajj and Umrah operation.

The Nigerian delegation to the ratification and 2024 Hajj and Umrah Conference had officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), including the commissions Chairman, Jalal Arabi, Nigerias acting Ambassador in Saudi Arabia, Mahmud Lele, and Nigerias Consul General in Jeddah, Bello Kazaure.

A total of 95,000 Nigerians participated in the 2023 Hajj. It is expected that about that number would be in Saudi Arabia for the next hajj.

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A former Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has said that the G5 governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would replicate support for President Bola Tinubus candidacy in 2027 if he decided to seek re-election

Mr Ortom stated this on Sunday during a New Year luncheon hosted by the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, in Rivers State.

Members of the G5 governors are Mr Ortom, Mr Wike, former Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, former Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, and the Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde.

While four of the governors completed their second term in May 2023, Mr Makinde, who was the only first-time governor at the time, was re-elected in the 18 March governorship election.

READ ASO:

The group led by Mr Wike refused to back the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the February 2023 election due to the partys refusal to remove its National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to ensure balance in its leadership.

It had canvassed the emergence of a Southerner as the national chairman of the party since both Mr Ayu and Atiku are both northerners.

No Regrets

Mr Ortom said the G5 had no regrets supporting Mr Tinubu in last years election and would back him for a second term.

If we work to ensure Bola Ahmed succeeds, there will be tomorrow for anybody to even contest the election at all.

Our leader, Nyesom Wike, has already made a declaration that in 2027, we are supporting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

We have nowhere to go because that is what Nigerians believe. Even the past administration that took Nigeria from top to bottom, we allowed them to work for eight years.

So, why cant a seasoned administrator in the person of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu rule us for eight years, the former Benue governor said.

Mr Ortom assured that President Tinubu would address the economy, security, and other major challenges facing Nigerians.

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Access Bank Limited has completed the acquisition of African Banking Corporation Zambia Limited, trading as Atlas Mara Zambia.

The banks parent company, Access Holdings, made this known on Monday, more than eight months after the deal was originally announced.

The lender consummated the transaction through its Zambian banking operation, making the new acquisition a wholly owned subsidiary of Access Bank Zambia.

Nigerias biggest lender by assets announced last April it received the final regulatory approval for the deal from the Central Bank of Zambia, giving it the latitude to expand its footprint in the southern African nation.

It had projected that the purchase would be concluded by last September, but that didnt happen.

A business combination of Access Bank Zambia and African Banking Corporation is to follow. In January 2021, the bank wrapped up its purchase of Cavmont Bank Limited of Zambia, later merging it with Access Bank Zambia.

The lender expects the merger to produce one of the top five banks in Zambia, hoping to leverage Atlas Maras big traction in the retail and public sectors to create a market leading universal banking platform in the country.

It has stated its ambition to transform its Zambian unit to rank among the three biggest banks by assets in that market come 2027.

This marks a significant milestone for Access Bank as we work towards achieving our vision of being the Worlds Most Respected African Bank, Access Holdings CEO Herbert Wigwe said in a regulatory filing.

We are poised for success by harmonising the robust brands, rich heritage, shared values, and best practices of both companies to create opportunities for all our stakeholders in Zambia and the SADC region, Mr Wigwe added.

Last July, the financial services group bought the majority equity stake in Angolas Finibanco S.A and there are at least six other deals in the pipeline across different markets on the continent.

Its acquisition of Standard Chartered Banks banking businesses in Angola, Cameroon, The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania, and of the majority stake in African Banking Corporation Tanzania Limited is already in the bag, having signed deals to complete the transactions.

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The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, on Monday ordered the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to pay N100 million to former central bank chief Godwin Emefiele as damages for his prolonged detention over corruption allegations last year.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Adeniyi, in his judgement on Monday, restrained the federal government and its agents, including the EFCC, from arresting Mr Emefiele unless an order was obtained through a competent court.

The judge, Olukayode Adeniyi, that the commissions detention of Mr Emefiele in the course of his investigation was a violation of his right to liberty.

The judge gave the ruling in a suit brought by Mr Emefiele challenging his detention for several weeks by the EFCC.

The EFCC has, however, vowed to appeal the judgment, saying Mr Emefiele was detained based on a court order.

The decision failed to take cognizance of the fact that the former CBN boss was held with a valid order of court. Consequently, the Commission will approach the Court of Appeal to set it aside, EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale said in a Monday statement.

The judge held that the respondents  the federal government and its agents  needed not incarcerate the applicant in order to carry out an investigation for a long period against the provisions of the law.

 No material placed before the court to show that the release of the applicant will in any way interfere with the investigation of allegations preferred against him.

 The first respondent as a creation of the law is constantly bound by the law.

 The remand order that was not obtained properly is considered to be a fragrant violation of the fundamental right of the applicant.

 The facts placed before the court show that he was incarcerated beyond the period stipulated by the law with charging him to court.

He held that the agents of the government who are in charge of arrest and detention should abide by the provisions of the law.

He added otherwise, they would be liable to pay compensation to a person whose fundamental right was violated.

The judge further held that it is not the length of time that determines violation of fundamental rights but the illegality of the action.

Mr Emefiele had sued the federal government, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), the chairperson of the EFCC and the commission itself before the court to enforce his fundamental rights to life, personal liberty, fair hearing and freedom of movement.

Mr Emefiele sought a declaration of the court that his continued detention by the agency of the first and second respondents since 10 June2023 and subsequent transfer to the custody of the third and fourth respondents on 26 October 2023 without being arraigned in court is unlawful.

He said the respondents in defiance of several valid subsisting court orders for his release amounts to a grave violation of his fundamental rights to life, personal liberty, as guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

He, therefore, among others sought an injunction restraining the respondents from further arresting and or further detaining him up on his release by the court without proffering a criminal charge against him.

He also sought damages of N1 billion in his favour for the violation of his fundamental rights.

EFCC is currently prosecuting Mr Emefiele on procurement fraud charges before another judge of the FCT High Court, Hamza Muazu.

A Special Investigator, Jim Obazee, engaged by the Tinubu administration, has reported discovering 593 bank accounts located in the United States, United Kingdom and China in which the CBN under Mr Emefiele, allegedly kept Nigerian funds without authorisation by the Board and Investment Committee of the bank.

The investigator also said it discovered how billions of naira were allegedly stolen by Mr Emefiele and other officials from the CBNs accounts including a fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million  about N2.9 billion at the then official exchange rate of N461 to a dollar.

Mr Obazee disclosed these in his report in which he recommended the prosecution of Mr Emefiele and at least 13 other individuals, including his deputy governors, for alleged gross financial offences.

Mr Emefiele vehemently denied the allegations and threatened a legal action to clear his name.

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The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) said on Monday that it did not announce the adoption of the Computer-Based Testing model for the conduct of the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) for school candidates.

The examination body said it only announced the CBT model for private candidates starting 31 January.

This was contained in a statement by WAECs Acting Head of Public Affairs, Moyosola Adesina.

Mrs Adesina said the clarification became necessary due to reports that the examination body planned to implement the model for the school candidates, and the accompanying criticisms.

WAEC had in November announced that the CBT model would be used for private candidates taking the examinations in 2024.

Criticisms

Some days ago, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYF), a northern Nigerian pressure group, called for the rejection of the new model.

The group said in a statement by its president, Yerima Shettima, that the new model would result in mass failure for students, especially those in rural areas and who have little or no computer skills.

It suggested that the CBT exams should have been optional, allowing candidates to choose between the pen and pencil format and the computer-based model.

Clarifications

In reaction to the criticisms, WAEC said on Monday that the agitation for the rejection of the CB-WASSCE was in response to an earlier media report in which the examination body purportedly announced that it had ditched the Paper and Pencil Testing model and had adopted the Computer Based Testing model for the conduct of the School Candidates Examination.

The body described the narrative as false and misleading.

The statement reads in part: The attention of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has been drawn to a media report stating that a youth forum has called for the rejection of the planned Computer Based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (CB-WASSCE) for Private Candidates  FirstSeries, 2024. The said examination is to be conducted by WAEC Nigeria and is scheduled to hold between 31 January and 17 February 2024.

For the avoidance of doubt, the West African Examinations Council hereby states unequivocally, that it had never announced the adoption of the Computer Based Testing model for the conduct of the WASSCE for School Candidates, 2024.

The statement added that the Head of National Office, WAEC Nigeria, Amos Dangut, had also clarified in an interview with the Punch Newspaper that the Computer Based Testing model would not be applied to the WASSCE for school candidates just yet.

WAEC said there is still a lot to be done to equip schools with the needed infrastructure, resources, and adequately train manpower to engage and cooperate with WAEC for the conduct of CB-WASSCE for candidates.

He also clarified that the introduction of CB-WASSCE is currently exclusive to the First Series of the Private Candidates examination which, since its inception, has been conducted in urban areas, the statement said.

The statement added that WAEC has on several platforms, outlined the mode for taking the upcoming CB-WASSCE and put measures in place to ensure that candidates, the examination environment, and the general public are adequately sensitised on the requirements and outlay for the examination.

Candidates are hereby reminded that all Multiple Choice (Objective) questions would be delivered (posted) and answered on computer while Essay (Theory and Practical) questions would be delivered (posted) on screen, for candidates to answer questions of their choice in provided Answer Booklets, it added.

Trial

WAEC said it would conduct a trial test and a free mock examination at designated platforms for prospective candidates, whether secondary school students or out-of-school individuals, to familiarise themselves with the testing environment before the commencement of the actual examinations.

Notification for the mock examination will be sent to prospective candidates through their emails. Announcements for the scheduled mock examination will also be made through mainstream and new media. In addition, candidates are also advised to visit WAEC Nigerias website and social media spaces for relevant information and guidelines on how to navigate the CB-WASSCE platform, the statement reads.

WAEC added that it has engaged the services of CBT centres across the country, and checked their suitability to host candidates for the CB-WASSCE, throughout its duration.

Some candidates will be assigned to sit the examination at designated WAEC Branch and Zonal Offices, for administrative purposes, it said.

As an organisation that prioritises excellence, innovation, and professionalism as its core values, the general public can be assured that WAEC would not compromise its standard on quality assessment and global best practices, to ensure the smooth conduct of the WASSCE for Private Candidates  First Series, 2024.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe

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Doyin Okupe, a former director general of the Peter Obi 2023 Presidential Campaign Organisation, has resigned from the party, citing ideological differences.

Mr Okupe announced his resignation from the party in a letter addressed to the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure.

In the letter, dated 8 January, Mr Okupe said the party was only used as a special purpose vehicle to actualise the presidential ambition of Mr Obi during the last presidential election.

Mr Okupe, who claimed to be on the centre-right of the ideological spectrum, said the lefty leaning of the LP does not conform with his own ideological stance.

I have been a rightist and a Liberal Democrat all my entire life. It is therefore this ideological conflict that makes me seek an exit so that I may continue my political activities with liberalism, sincerity and freedom, he said.

Messrs Okupe and Obi left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the LP shortly before the presidential primaries.

Mr Obi was given the presidential ticket of the LP. Mr Okupe served as the campaign DG and temporary running mate until the selection of the eventual running mate, Ahmed Datti.

In December 2022, Mr Okupe, a former presidential spokesperson, resigned as the campaign DG following his conviction in a money laundering case.

In a sitting of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Ijeoma Ojukwu, the presiding judge, sentenced Mr Okupe to two years imprisonment after he was found guilty of 26 out of a 59-count charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

However, he was given the option to pay a N500,000 fine on each of the counts  totalling N13 million. He subsequently announced his resignation as the campaign DG.

The resignation letter in full:

I submit herewith my letter of resignation from the Labour Party with effect from today.

You will recall that our flagbearer, Mr Peter Obi, myself and others left the PDP abruptly and had to look for a Special Purpose Vehicle in which to contest the 2023 Presidential Elections.

The Labour Party. your good self and other members of your executives provided us with this veritable platform with no burdensomeness whatsoever, and for which we were extremely grateful.

We did contest the election on the platform of the Labour Party and lost. This makes it exceedingly difficult for me to continue to stay in the Labour Party which is ideologically rooted in the left of the center.

I have been a rightist and a Liberal Democrat all my entire life. It is therefore this ideological conflict that makes me seek an exit so that I may continue my political activities with liberalism, sincerity and freedom.

I wish to thank you in particular and other members of the leadership of the party for the cordiality and respect accorded to me as the Director General of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organization.

I wish you and the party success in your future endeavours.

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Can our security agencies be as effective in Katsina, Plateau or Taraba as those of Mali? I am positive that they can if they employ strict professionalism assisted by technology. The society must also curb its mercantile laxities which have made people in positions of authority commoditise human life. The unmistakable message to the Nigerian security agencies is that anything short of the Malian standard is not good enough for Nigeria.

Enough is enough! That was the sentiment expressed by Nigerians following the recent gale of kidnappings and terror attacks unleashed by bandits on defenceless folks in various parts of Nigeria, especially in the northern parts (Kaduna, Plateau and Taraba states) where trips hitherto classified as routine are now acknowledged as a walk in the valley of the shadow of death.

Nigeria cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be classified as a failed state. Things are bad on the security front, no doubt, but they could have been worse. However, that is not to say that we have confronted the demon competently as we ought to have done. While Nigerians are generally appreciative of the efforts of the security forces in ensuring a safer environment for the people, they wonder how long it is going to take to exorcise the ghost of insecurity from the land.

Long Road To Grief

We have travelled a long road since the unmasking of the billionaire kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, popularly known as Evans. The story of how the criminal operated for many years in plain sight is the stuff of which award winning thrillers are made. But since that time, we have advanced deeper into the forests of bestial infamy and human life has been cheapened in the process.

Zamfara State alone boasts of over 30,000 bandits and 100 camps. Ali Kawaje, better known as Ali Kachalla, was a bandit leader in the Kuyambana Forest, whose gang shot down a Nigerian Air Force Alpha Jet and also destroyed a Mowag Piranha armoured personnel carrier in Dansadau in 2021. He was killed by Nigerian armed forces on 11 December 2023.

Abubakar Abdullahi, known as Dogo Gide, is a bandit leader who achieved notoriety among fellow bandits for killing bandit leader Buharin Daji and 24 of Dajis gang members; he also killed a rival bandit leader named Damina. Hes a Boko Haram ally. Kachalla Halilu Sububu Seno is the leader of a Fulani bandit group commanding over 1,000 bandits in the Sububu Forest across Zamfara State and has connections to bandit groups across West African countries.

Crime is a worldwide phenomenon. What is different from place to place is the response of the government. Where the security forces exhibit zero tolerance for the criminals, the underworld kingpins take their evil trade elsewhere. The problem in Nigeria is that in recent years, we have lowered the bar of strategy and engagement. We celebrate mini victories in the battlefield, while the network of terror metastasises.

Other terror merchants of note in the region are Kachalla Turji, also known as Gudda Turji; Dan Karami, the leader of a gang that operates around Safana, Dan Musa, and Batsari local government areas; and Adamu Aliero Yankuzo, leader of a 2,000-man bandit group that operates in the forested regions of Katsina and Zamfara states. There are also groups with known affiliation to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram. Ansaru, a jihadist group linked with al-Qaeda, is believed to have been operating in the Kaduna State, having entered Nigeria through the largely unmanned Niger and Benin Republic border posts. Boko Haram is believed to have sent specialised personnel, including bomb makers and military advisors, as well as military equipment, to its affiliates in the region. The notorious Bello Turji Kachalla operates in Zamfara and Sokoto states, imposing levies on many villages and appointing village heads to oversee conquered territory.

Hefty Loot

SBM Intelligence, a research company, in a report published in 2020, stated that between 2011 and 2020, at least $18.34 million (about N22.3 billion at the black market rate) was paid as ransom to kidnappers in the country. Considering that many kidnap cases go unreported or are quietly settled by desperate citizens, the total financial damage of kidnapping and associated terror is gargantuan.

Crime is a worldwide phenomenon. What is different from place to place is the response of the government. Where the security forces exhibit zero tolerance for the criminals, the underworld kingpins take their evil trade elsewhere. The problem in Nigeria is that in recent years, we have lowered the bar of strategy and engagement. We celebrate mini victories in the battlefield, while the network of terror metastasises.

I suggest we go over to our fellow African brother, the Republic of Mali, to borrow some fairly used ideas on how to wrestle terror to the ground.

The following story (edited for clarity) is told by P Michael of the Global Anti Human Trafficking Organisation (GAHTO), Mali. In the ranking of countries through a standardised security threat index, the Security apparatus indicator considers the security threats to a state, such as bombings, attacks and battle-related deaths, rebel movements, mutinies, coups, or terrorism. The security pparatus also takes into account serious criminal factors, such as organised crime and homicides, and the perceived trust of citizens in domestic security. The higher the value of the indicator, the more the threats in the state. Mali is ranked Number 3, while Nigeria ranks 10th. So, technically, Nigeria is considered safer than Mali. But how is it that kidnappers succeed in collecting ransom in Nigeria, while they are electronically tracked and apprehended in Mali?

So ransom collection in Nigeria could be between the kidnappers and security agencies. If not, no Nigerian should pay ransom to any kidnapper if really our policemen have the necessary security gadgets. This is just a trafficking issue and not that some criminals will hide somewhere and call people twice to pay ransom. You cannot call three times before being caught in Mali. That is the reason I said, maybe Nigerian Security Agents could be in collaboration with the kidnappers to take ransom from people.

Malian Example

Lets hear from P Michael who saw it all first hand:

Why do kidnappers succeed in collecting ransom from their victims? Based on my job, I learnt something special this week from Security Agents in Mali that we went on a rescue mission together. I dont know if the Nigerian Security Agencies are in collaboration with kidnappers to take ransom and share together, if not no kidnapper can succeed in taking any ransom where the security formation is effective.

The story is that, I received a message from Nigeria concerning a 16-year-old girl who was trafficked to Mali for sex trade. This victim called her parents about the situation and they passed the message to me from a government agency for an urgent rescue.

When I called the number that the victim used to call her parents and I asked the traffickers to send the victim to me so that she could go back to Nigeria, they refused. Later they removed the line from their phone; now the number was out of use. I now informed a security agent about the situation because what is important is to rescue the 16-year-old girl from sexual exploitation.

Now, the number I used to contact the traffickers was no longer in use. I didnt know the name of the village the victim was in. I sent the phone number which they had removed to the security agent. After two hours, the security notified me of the name of the village and the current new number the traffickers were using. We embarked on the mission without calling the new number. We arrived at the village at midnight because it was about a 15 hours journey. The second day, information reached us about the exact location at which the phone number was last used before they switched off the phone. After an hour, information came again that the person was having an appointment with somebody by 11:00am. We hung around the place. When the person came around, there was a vibration from one of their security gadgets to know the person coming with the number. We monitored her entry to the house. We were able to rescue the victim on 20/12/22. No call. Nothing!

So ransom collection in Nigeria could be between the kidnappers and security agencies. If not, no Nigerian should pay ransom to any kidnapper if really our policemen have the necessary security gadgets. This is just a trafficking issue and not that some criminals will hide somewhere and call people twice to pay ransom. You cannot call three times before being caught in Mali. That is the reason I said, maybe Nigerian Security Agents could be in collaboration with the kidnappers to take ransom from people.

Yes, We Can

Can our security agencies be as effective in Katsina, Plateau or Taraba as those of Mali? I am positive that they can if they employ strict professionalism assisted by technology. The society must also curb its mercantile laxities which have made people in positions of authority commoditise human life. The unmistakable message to the Nigerian security agencies is that anything short of the Malian standard is not good enough for Nigeria.

Wole Olaoye is a public relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on wole.olaoye@gmail.com; Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021.

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Yusuf Yahaya, the managing director and the chief executive officer of Kaduna Electric, has resigned from the company.

Abdulazeez Abdullahi, the companys Head of Corporate Communications, disclosed this in a statement.

Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (Kaduna Electric) hereby announces the resignation of Yusuf Usman Yahaya as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Company, the company said.

It said Mr Yahaya was appointed in July 2022 in furtherance of concerted efforts by stakeholders Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Central Bank of Nigeria, African Export-Import Bank and Fidelity Bank for intervention in Kaduna Electric alongside selected electricity distribution companies in Nigeria.

Since his appointment, the statement noted that Mr Yahaya has led and executed a decisive turnaround programme to effect critical people and organizational reform, accomplish commercial growth, and enhance service delivery to our customers aided by extended investments in network and energy management infrastructure.

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Kaduna Electric wishes to convey its gratitude to Engr Usman Yahaya for his leadership and management in initiating much-needed corporate turnaround of the company and extends our best wishes in his next endeavours, it said.

In his farewell message to the company on Friday, Mr Yahaya said he was moving from the company as others carry on the pending task of the sale of core investor interests.

I am moving on from Kaduna Electric. When I was appointed about 18 months ago, it was at a time of critical lows at the company and in response to which stakeholders Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and Lenders African Export-Import Bank and Fidelity Bank had stepped in as part of an intervention across multiple Electricity Distribution Companies including Kaduna Electric, Mr Yahaya said.

The intervention was intended for six months and we have stayed for much longer given unforeseen challenges around the intervention objectives and very difficult persistent circumstances.

In the time since then, we have taken on the challenges by addressing corporate reform and turnaround spanning infrastructure revamp across our network in Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States, enhancing commercial performance, improving the balance sheet of the company and delivering improved services to our customers.

In the course of these, we also sought to enhance the terms and working conditions of our most prized asset employees.

Amid very limited investments and daunting environmental socio-economic challenges, he said the company accomplished so much and there is much more to be done as the turnaround effort is underway.

As my tenure has come to an end at Kaduna Electric, I am moving from the company as stakeholders carry on the pending task of the sale of core investor interests in aid of the steady ownership and critical investments that are desperately needed. I thank you all for our time and work together, he said.

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Emeka Anyaoku, former Commonwealth secretary-general, has called on the federal government to strengthen efforts at tackling increasing cases of killings and insecurity across the country.

Mr Anyaoku made the call on Sunday at the 2024 Summit and Award ceremony of the Old Boys Association of Merchants of Light School, Oba, in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra.

Police had confirmed that 96 people were killed and 221 houses destroyed in December, in Plateau State, Nigerias North-central region, when gunmen attacked 15 communities in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi local government areas of the state.

In several cities in Nigeria, heinous crimes, including insurrection, banditry, and kidnapping, have led to the killings of innocent citizens.

Mr Anyaoku noted that the ugly trend of killings has continued unabated because of the lack of arrests and subsequent prosecution of perpetrators of the dastardly acts.

The Federal Government should devote efforts to find those responsible for these killings.

What is particularly depressing is that these killings occur and nobody seems to be held responsible and charged accordingly.

The first thing the government should do is to deploy its agencies and forces to apprehend those perpetuating the killings because that is the only way to address the problem.

If they are apprehended, prosecuted and punished, that will serve as a deterrent to others, Mr Anyaoku stressed.

Not doing enough for education

Mr Anyaoku also charged the federal government to work harder to meet the 26 per cent budgetary allocation to education as recommended by UNESCO.

The federal government is not doing enough for the education sector. The percentage of education in the budget is well below the UNESCO recommendation.

I like to see the government work harder to meet up with the UNESCO recommendation of 26 per cent budgetary allocation, he said.

Mr Anyaoku, an alumnus of the Merchants of Light School, advocated for endowment funds for educational institutions across the country.

He said that such funds would provide alumni associations the opportunity to support their schools.

In many institutions in foreign countries, the schools endowment funds are the main source of financial support for the institutions.

In proposing the endowment fund for Merchants of Light School, I hope the alumni will willingly and regularly donate to support the development of structures and facilities in the school, the diplomat said.

Earlier, Tony Nwokoye, a professor and president of the alumni association, said the summit served as a homecoming for old boys of the school.

He said it was also an opportunity to take stock of developments in the school and determine possible areas of intervention.

Mr Nwokoye expressed optimism that the N2 billion Endowment fund being floated by the alumni association would go a long way in revitalising the school over the years.

(NAN)

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As political gladiators and parties prepare for the governorship primaries scheduled for April in Ondo State, Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa is facing allegations that his academic credentials are fake.

Ondo State Redemption Initiative (OSRI), which claims to be a social-political group, on Monday, raised the alarm over the governors qualifications, warning the ruling All Progressives Congress to beware of his political aspiration.

A statement signed by the groups President, Adebayo Ogunsanmi, Secretary, Jide Oriola, and Publicity Secretary, Sunday Ayeni, alleged that Mr Aiyedatiwas educational claims were fraudulent.

According to the group, Mr Aiyedatiwas resume indicates that he obtained an Advanced Diploma in Business Administration from the University of Ibadan in 2001. However, it asserted that after investigation, it found that such a diploma was not available at the University of Ibadan in 2001.

While scrutinising the governors academic records, the group said his educational journey commenced at Saint Peters UNA (now FAC) Primary School in Obe Nla/Obe Adun, Ilaje Local Government Area (LGA), Ondo State, from 1970 to 1976. He pursued his secondary education at Ikosi High School in Ketu, Lagos State, completing it in 1982.

The group further noted that in 1986, Mr Aiyedatiwa achieved his Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) in Economics and Government at Lagos State College of Education (now known as Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education) located in Ijanikin, Lagos.

He claimed to have earned an Advanced Diploma in Business Administration from the University of Ibadan in 2001, after which he claimed to have become an alumnus of Lagos Business School  Pan Atlantic University, situated in Lekki, Lagos, though year and course of study were not included.

He further claimed to have obtained a Post Graduate Certification in Chief Executive Education (CEP) in Business Management, after which he received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Liverpool in the UK, in 2013, the statement read.

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The group stressed that the governors academic records were false and advised the APC not to field a candidate with questionable academic records.

But the governor has described the allegations as a blackmail attempt.

A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Ebenezer Adeniyan, in reaction to the allegation, noted that it was a mischievous plan by some political actors to embark on fresh unsubstantiated allegations against the Governor.

Mr Adeniyan said that after failing in their attempts to paint the Governor in bad light with the stories around the death of the former Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, the actors have resorted to blackmail.

The first of such is to use faceless groups and individuals to make allegations of certificate forgery against the Governor.

A governorship aspirant last night held a meeting with some individuals at a popular hotel in Akure where he gave the directive to those present to write stories alleging that the Governor used forged certificates to contest an election.

It is important to alert members of the public to this plot, aimed at discrediting Mr Governor ahead of the coming governorship election in the State, Mr Adeniyan stated.

The spokesperson added that Mr Governor contested on a joint ticket with his former principal in the 2020 governorship election, his credentials were duly submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and those are in the public domain.

He contended that any attempt to raise allegations around the governors credentials must be a plot by those who failed in their efforts to impeach him when he was Deputy Governor.

Contentions have heightened since Mr Aiyedatiwa took over as governor, following the death of Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, former governor of the state.

Though he is yet to officially declare his intention to contest the governorship, his ambition is well-known within government circles.

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( Read 2725 Times)

Bhilwara: On the seventh day of Little Picasso 2023, organized in memory of the late Shyamsundar Ajani, more than 50 young artists gathered at the City Square on January 7, 2024, under the guidance of renowned mural artist Rajesh Joshi. The young talents, supported by the local Art Institute and RCM Group, Ankur Furniture, Art and Collection, and Ostawal Group, engaged in mural painting on the theme of Ramayana.*

*Kailash Paliya, the secretary of the institute, informed that with the aim of making Bhilwara clean and beautiful, the concluding day of Little Picasso 2023 was dedicated to the guidance of the city's acclaimed mural artist Rajesh Joshi. Under his direction, more than 50 children and youth artists created murals on the City Square walls depicting various episodes from the Ramayana, including Ram's forest exile, Sita's abduction by Mareecha, arrival in Ayodhya via the Pushpaka Vimana, the Kevat episode, and the court of Lord Ram.*

*The artists utilized a 100-feet by 6-feet long wall to create vibrant and detailed murals, adding artistic charm to the city. Young talents like Balkishan Jangid, Anjali Suthar, Anushka Parashar, Khushi Meena, Umang Upadhyay, Divya Jain, and Kailash Paliya were among the participants in this program, contributing to the beautification of Bhilwara through their creative expressions.*

Source :
Rise in awareness regarding mobile health among people and a growing emphasis on electronic health record (HER) reports is expected to drive the global patient engagement solutions market growth.

NEW CASTLE, Del., Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Patient Engagement Solutions Market by Component (Hardware, Software, and Service), by Deployment Mode (On-premise and Cloud) by Functionality (Communication, Health Tracking, and Insight, Billing, and Payments, Administrative, and Others), and End User (Providers, Payers, and Patients): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032". According to the report, the patient engagement solutions industry generated $17 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to generate $50.5 billion by 2032, witnessing a CAGR of 11.5% from 2023 to 2032.

Prime Determinants of Growth

The notable factors positively affecting the patient engagement solutions market include rise in awareness regarding mobile health among people and growth in emphasis on electronic health record (HER) reports. However, extensive investments required for healthcare infrastructure and high complexity associated with the integration of advanced solutions with existing healthcare infrastructure components often hinder market growth. However, rise in significance of cloud computing technologies to deliver remote patient monitoring and assistance services offers lucrative market opportunities for the market players.

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Report Coverage & Details:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 20232032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $17 Billion Market Size in 2032 $50.5 Billion CAGR 11.5 % No. of Pages in Report 320 Segments Covered Component, deployment mode, functionality, end user and region. Drivers Rise in awareness regarding mobile health among people Growth in emphasis on electronic health record (HER) reports Opportunity Rise in significance of cloud computing technologies to deliver remote patient monitoring and assistance services Restraints Extensive investments required for healthcare infrastructure High complexity associated with the integration of advanced solutions with existing healthcare infrastructure components

COVID-19 Scenario

The patient engagement solutions market witnessed stable growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to the dramatically increased dependence on digital devices. The surge in the online presence of people during the period of COVID-19-induced lockdowns and social distancing policies fueled the need for patient engagement solutions.

In addition, businesses needed to optimize their business operations and offerings to maximize their revenue opportunities while optimizing their operations to support the rapidly evolving business environment post the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with the majority of the population confined in homes during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The software segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

On the basis of component, the software segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for less than two-fifths of the patient engagement solutions market revenue, and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to the growth in need for a high level of personalization one of the primary reasons enterprises have increased their investment in the patient engagement solutions market.

The on-premise segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period

On the basis of deployment mode, the on-premise segment accounted for the largest share in 2022, contributing to more than half of the patient engagement solutions market revenue, an increase in the need for secure and reliable data within the organization has fueled the market growth for on-premises-based patient engagement solutions. However, the cloud segment is expected to portray the largest CAGR of 12.6% from 2023 to 2032 and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. It provides several advantages such as reducing costs, supporting business, and effectively controlling the business environment in the organization.

The communication segment to maintain a significant growth rate over the forecast period

On the basis of functionality, the communication segment accounted for the largest share in 2022 contributing to more than one-fourths of the patient engagement solutions market revenue, owing to the growth in demand for patient engagement solutions for communication has fueled the market growth for the global market in these enterprises. However, the health tracking insight segment is expected to portray the largest CAGR of 14.3% from 2023 to 2032 and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. It provides various benefits to several organizations.

The providers segment is anticipated to grow significantly during the forecast period

On the basis of end user, the providers segment accounted for the largest share in 2022, contributing to more than two-fifths of the patient engagement solutions market revenue, owing to the development of digital technologies in the patient engagement solutions providers. However, the payers segment is expected to portray the largest CAGR of 13.3% from 2023 to 2032 and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. Payers use patient engagement solutions to improve communication, promote preventive care, and facilitate health monitoring, all of which contribute to overall population health.

North America region held a major share in 2022 and is projected to grow significantly over the forecast period

On the basis of region, the North America segment held the highest market share in terms of revenue in 2022, accounting for more than one-third of the patient engagement solutions market revenue. The increase in the usage of patient engagement solutions in businesses to improve businesses and the customer experience is anticipated to propel the growth of the market in this region. However, the Asia-Pacific segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 14.3% from 2023 to 2032. Countries such as China, India, and South Korea are at the forefront, embracing digital technologies to enhance their effectiveness and competitiveness, further expected to contribute to the growth of the market in this region.

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Competition Analysis:

Recent Product Launches in the Patient Engagement Solutions Market

In September 2023 , Oracle Corporation launched a new generative AI healthcare assistant designed to save clinicians time by responding to voice commands.

, Oracle Corporation launched a new generative AI healthcare assistant designed to save clinicians time by responding to voice commands. In April 2023 , athenahealth, Inc. launched athenahealth Patient Digital Engagement Index, a first-of-its-kind measurement capability for medical practices to understand how patients use digital tools when receiving care  and how to take the interaction to the next level.

Recent Partnerships in the Patient Engagement Solutions Market

In April 2023 , Aetna partnered with Mae on improving maternal healthcare for black women. Under the partnership, members of Aetna are expected to be able to access engagement platform of Mae that helps patients track physical, social, and emotional needs during pregnancy and postpartum.

, Aetna partnered with Mae on improving maternal healthcare for black women. Under the partnership, members of Aetna are expected to be able to access engagement platform of Mae that helps patients track physical, social, and emotional needs during pregnancy and postpartum. In April 2023 , Microsoft Corporation collaborated with Epic, to develop and integrate generative AI into healthcare by combining the scale and power of Azure OpenAI Service1 with Epic's industry-leading electronic health record (EHR) software.

Leading Market Players: -

Aetna Inc.

Allscripts healthcare solutions (Veradigm LLC)

Athenahealth

Oracle Corporation

Epic Systems Corporation

GetWellNetwork, Inc.

IBM Corporation

IQVIA Inc

Lumeon Inc.

McKesson Corporation

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players in the patient engagement solutions market. These players have adopted different strategies such as new product launches, collaborations, expansion, joint ventures, agreements, and others to increase their market share and maintain dominant shares in different countries. The report is valuable in highlighting business performance, operating segments, product portfolio, and strategic moves of market players to showcase the competitive scenario.

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CHICAGO, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Barcodes Group announced the beginning of a new era as Levata. The rebrand captures its purpose to elevate the potential of its customers by integrating technology, expertise, and service to power their modern environments.

Levatas enterprise-level combinations of hardware, software, supplies, and services power a suite of integrated mobility, automation, and visibility solutions.

"We've created our new brand, Levata, to give our company one global and unified identity that represents what we strive to bring to our customers and how we've evolved our value proposition," says Daniel Nettesheim, President & CEO. "At Levata, our purpose is to elevate our customers' potential to thrive in a world of motion by enabling their business transformation. With this brand, we want to fully amplify our strengths as an international, technology solutions integrator."

Levata's enterprise-level combinations of hardware, software, supplies, and services power a suite of integrated mobility, automation, and visibility solutions in five areas:

As a critical component of its solutions, Levata supports IT and operational teams with managed services. In addition, Levata has industry-leading partnerships with top technology brands to offer the right products for business transformation. While Levata manages and harnesses the technology, customers can use valuable insights to fuel what's next.

"Levata is inspired by the Italian phrase 'levata del sole,' meaning sunrise, and the English word 'elevate,'" explains David Slater, CMO of Levata. "Our new brand seeks to capture all that we do to elevate customer experiences with the full range of our capabilities."

Barcodes Group is the parent company of leading technology providers including Barcodes, Inc., OCR Canada, ID Wholesaler, Digital ID UK, and SLS Solutions.

ABOUT LEVATA

Levata enables customers to rise as an enduring force in a world of motion by providing strategies, solutions, and services that power modern environments. With the technology to enable mobility, automation, and visibility, the expertise to connect people, data, and assets, and the insights to move businesses forward, Levata elevates the potential of thousands of organizations worldwide. Levata, formerly known as Barcodes Group, has operated as a market leader in end-to-end technology solutions for over 40 years. Learn more at www.levata.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Alana Tufford, Director, Enterprise Marketing

Levata

905-475-5505 x242, [email protected]

SOURCE Levata
DUBLIN, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Beauty Regimes as Preventative Medicine - How to Align to the Self-Care Trend" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report explores how the interest in holisitic wellness is enhancing the relevance of the self-care trend and its influence on the health and beauty industry.



Self-care involves consciously caring for oneself to ensure all of your needs are met. Maintaining and enhancing one's mental, physical, and emotional health can contribute in equal measure toward a holistic self-care routine. Elements of the cosmetics & toiletries regime can be considered self-care. For example, maintaining one's hygiene and the appearance can be considered an act of physical self-care, while investing in calming, soothing products can be considered an act of mental self-care.



Key Highlights

The youngest generations have almost equal concern for their physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Social media is motivating and inspiring consumers to engage in self-care practices and seek out products that can support their self-care routines.

Brands continue to take inspiration from the food & beverage industries to attract health-conscious consumers.

Report Scope

Understand the relevant consumer trends and attitudes that drive and support innovation success so you can tap into what is really impacting the industry.

Gain a broader appreciation of the fast-moving consumer goods industry by gaining insights from both within and outside of your sector.

Access valuable strategic take-outs to help direct future decision-making and inform new product development.

Key Topics Covered:

What?

Why?

How?

What's next?

Take-Outs

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/l20zkr

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ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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MIAMI LAKES, Fla. , Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) proudly announces Dr. Tracy Romanello, D.O. as a newly conferred Fellow, recognizing her outstanding commitment and contributions to the field of hospice and palliative medicine.

This prestigious honor is a testament to Dr. Romanello's dedication, expertise, and unwavering commitment to enhancing the quality of life for patients and families facing serious illness. She has demonstrated exemplary leadership, scholarship, and a deep understanding of compassionate care, embodying the values and mission of the AAHPM.

Dr. Romanello serves as a leader in palliative care and hospice medicine by supervising and providing exceptional care to patients and their families while advancing the field of medicine. She also develops and educates future physicians as academic faculty. Dr. Romanello is Board Certified in Family Practice and Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment and Fellowship Trained and Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine.

"Being recognized as a Fellow is a humbling reminder of the profound privilege it is to journey alongside patients and families during their most challenging times, "said Dr. Romanello. "I work with an amazing team at Catholic Hospice and Catholic Palliative Care Services. They inspire me daily to be a better leader, educator, and clinical provider of quality and compassionate care."

Dr. Romanello will receive the designation during the closing plenary session at the Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care in Phoenix, Arizona on Saturday, March 23, 2024, joined by colleagues working in the field of hospice and palliative care. Dr. Romanello has demonstrated a significant commitment to the field of hospice and palliative care, and we celebrate her achievement.

About the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine

The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) is the professional organization for physicians specializing in hospice and palliative medicine (HPM), as well as nurses, PAs, social workers, and other health and spiritual care practitioners committed to improving quality of life for seriously ill patients and their families. For more than 30 years, AAHPM has been dedicated to expanding access to high quality palliative care, and advancing the discipline of HPM, through professional education and training, development of a specialist workforce, support for clinical practice standards, research and public policy. AAHPM is governed by a 20-member Board of Directors and managed by a full-time staff along with additional, support provided by Association Management Center (AMC) based in Chicago, IL.

Since 1988, Catholic Hospice has provided care to more than 70,000 patients and families from all religious backgrounds throughout Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. As a not-for-profit hospice provider dedicated to giving those with a life-limiting prognosis the supportive and quality care they deserve. Our highly trained staff members spend more hours a day with patients and their loved ones than any other hospice provider. Catholic Hospice cares for patients in any residential setting: at home, nursing home, assisted living facility, or in one of our three inpatient care centers. Catholic Hospice also provides special programs such as L'chaim Jewish Hospice Service (est.2000), Camp Erin, formally Camp Hope (est. 1995): a bereavement camp for children as well as other bereavement support groups. We Honor Veterans, Pet Peace of Mind, and Catholic Palliative Care Services (CPCS) are all offered through Catholic Hospice services. Catholic Palliative Care Services, established in 2013, provides specialized medical care for individuals and their loved ones facing serious illness, led by specially trained Palliative Physicians, our interdisciplinary team provides choices and patient centered care aimed at improving the overall quality of life.

Contact:

Linda Lamers

CHS, Sr. Director of Marketing/Communications

(954) 484-1515

SOURCE Catholic Health Services
NOVI, Mich., Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Danlaw, Inc., a renowned pioneer in the field of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology, is thrilled to announce its acquisition of Australia-based Cohda Wireless. This strategic move marks a significant milestone in Danlaw's global expansion initiative, aimed at advancing connected vehicle safety and smart city solutions. Since 2004, Cohda has been widely recognized for its cutting-edge V2X technology solutions that have consistently set industry standards. The acquisition of Cohda by Danlaw reflects a commitment to innovation and a shared vision of creating a more connected and safer future for vehicles, cities, and underground mining operations.

Dr. Paul Gray and Tom Rzeznik at Cohda's headquarters in Adelaide, Australia Cohda Wireless Logo

The synergies between Danlaw and Cohda will yield remarkable results in the V2X technology landscape. By aligning the strengths, resources, and expertise of both companies, this acquisition will accelerate the development and delivery of a suite of comprehensive solutions for connected vehicle safety, and smart city applications.

Key benefits of the Danlaw-Cohda partnership include:

Enhanced Safety Solutions: With a broader range of technologies and expertise, Danlaw and Cohda will continue to provide increasingly robust safety solutions for connected vehicles, reducing accidents and saving lives.

Improved Connectivity & Location Accuracy: The integration of Cohda's V2X-Locate technology along with its ETSI, North American, and China based V2X communication stacks, will offer better positioning accuracy and connectivity solutions for vehicles, enabling real-time communication between vehicles and infrastructure, pedestrians, and other road users.

Smart City Advancements: The partnership will lead to the development of innovative smart city solutions, facilitating more efficient traffic management, reduced congestion, and enhanced urban planning on a global scale.

Accelerated Innovation: Danlaw's commitment to innovation will be further bolstered with access to Cohda's talent pool and industry leading V2X intellectual property, fostering the creation of groundbreaking V2X technology solutions for automotive OEMs, smart city initiatives and underground mining programs.

Global Footprint: Combining Danlaw's strong presence in North America and India with Cohda's well-established reach in Europe and APAC, the acquisition notably reinforces the global footprint of both companies, leading to localized assistance and solutions across all key regions, ensuring a truly global and responsive partnership.

Raju Dandu, Danlaw's Founder-Chairman said, "This is truly exciting for the Danlaw family, as we see the combination of resources of these two great companies, ushering in new levels of transportation safety and efficiency, with the potential to transform mobility across the globe for the betterment of society."

Further to Raju's comment, Danlaw's CEO, Tom Rzeznik stated, "This acquisition is a testament to Danlaw's dedication to creating a safer and smarter future for transportation and urban environments. With Cohda's expertise on board, we are confident that our combined efforts will accelerate advancements in V2X technology."

Dr. Paul Gray, Cohda's CEO added, "We are thrilled to join forces with Danlaw, a company that shares our global commitment and passion for innovation and safety. Together, we are poised to lead the way in V2X technology and make a lasting impact on the industry."

This acquisition affirms Danlaw's commitment to maintaining and enhancing the quality of service and support that Cohda's existing customers have come to expect. The acquisition of Cohda by Danlaw is effective immediately, and both companies are working closely to leverage their combined strengths for the benefit of the automotive industry, smart cities, and mining operations.

ABOUT DANLAW, INC.:

Danlaw is a global leader in connected car technology and automotive electronics. We focus our efforts on research and development to create intelligent solutions for an increasingly connected world. Our team is dedicated to revolutionizing mobility by driving innovation and bringing people together. Danlaw's 500+ engineering professionals have been providing automotive embedded electronics solutions to OEMs, tier-1 suppliers, and Smart City initiatives for 40 years. Danlaw has engineering and manufacturing facilities in the USA, UK, EU, and India.

ABOUT COHDA WIRELESS:

Cohda Wireless is a global leader in the development of Connected Vehicles and Connected Autonomous Vehicle software with proven applications for Smart City, Mining and other environments. Cohda's technology connects vehicles with infrastructure and pedestrians to make our streets, cities and working environments safer, smarter and greener. Cohda is headquartered in Australia and has offices in Europe, China and the USA.

Cohda Wireless's innovative software solutions enable autonomous vehicles to connect with other vehicles and with Smart City infrastructure. These connections span Vehicle-to-Vehicle, Vehicle-to-Infrastructure, and Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (collectively called V2X), and allow CAVs to 'talk' to each other, Smart Cities, and vulnerable road users to avoid accidents, reduce congestion and be more efficient. Cohda partners with Tier 1 Automotive Suppliers, ITS Equipment Vendors, and Mining Equipment Technology and Services (METS) vendors to provide complete hardware/software solutions to Car Makers, Smart Cities, and Mine Operators, respectively. Cohda's products are used widely in locations including the USA, Europe, Australia, Japan, Africa, Middle East, China, Singapore and Korea.

SOURCE Danlaw, Inc.
BANGALORE, India, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Enoxaparin Sodium Market is Segmented by Type (20 mg/0.2mL, 30 mg/0.3mL, 40 mg/0.4mL, 60 mg/0.6mL, 80 mg/0.8mL, 100 mg/1mL, 120 mg/0.8mL, 150 mg/1mL, 300mg/3mL), by Application (Hospital, Clinic)



The global Enoxaparin Sodium Market size is expected to reach USD 5354.7 Million by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 8.3% from 2023 to 2029.

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Major Factors Driving the Growth of Enoxaparin Sodium Market:

The 40 mg/0.4 mL dose offers a precise and manageable dosage, allowing for more efficient therapy and improved patient adherence. This formulation's dominance in the Enoxaparin Sodium market may be attributed to its widespread acceptance, which represents a balance between therapeutic effectiveness and the requirement for a convenient and uniform dosage regimen in varied healthcare settings.

The Market for enoxaparin sodium is expanding due to a number of important causes. First off, thromboembolic illnesses including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) are becoming more commonplace worldwide, requiring the use of efficient anticoagulant medications. In addition, there is a greater need for Enoxaparin Sodium in postoperative treatment to avoid clot formation due to the increase in surgical procedures and hospitalizations, particularly in orthopedic and general operations.

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TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF ENOXAPARIN SODIUM MARKET:

The 40 mg/0.4 mL formulation of Enoxaparin Sodium is widely used in anticoagulant treatment due to its uniform dose, effectiveness, and ease of administration. Because of its ease of use in a variety of therapeutic settings, including the prevention of thromboembolic events following orthopedic procedures, this dose is frequently chosen. The rising prevalence of thromboembolic illnesses, such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), and unstable angina, is a major factor driving the market for enoxaparin sodium. These illnesses represent a significant worldwide healthcare burden, making the use of anticoagulant medications like Enoxaparin Sodium necessary for both prevention and treatment of thromboembolic episodes.

The growing number of hospital stays and surgeries performed globally is driving the industry. Patients who have surgery, especially orthopedic and general operations, are more likely to experience thromboembolic events. The growing use of enoxaparin sodium in surgical centers and hospitals can be attributed to its widespread use as a preventive strategy in postoperative settings. The demand for Enoxaparin Sodium is mostly driven by the demographic trend towards an elderly population. An increased risk of thromboembolic illnesses is generally associated with aging, age-related problems, and comorbidities. The market for Enoxaparin Sodium is driven by the aging of the worldwide population and the corresponding rise in the occurrence of illnesses requiring anticoagulant medication.

Increased detection rates of thromboembolic illnesses are a result of increased knowledge about these ailments and improvements in diagnostic methods. The expanding use of enoxaparin sodium as part of anticoagulant methods for treating and preventing thromboembolic events is a result of increased awareness and early diagnosis. One major factor driving the increase is the use of enoxaparin sodium in the treatment of acute coronary syndromes, such as unstable angina and myocardial infarction without ST-segment elevation. The medication's ability to effectively lower the risk of further cardiac events has established it as an essential part of the ACS treatment strategy, which is driving market growth.

The market is expanding because Enoxaparin Sodium has favorable reimbursement policies in a number of worldwide healthcare systems. Reimbursement assistance makes this anticoagulant more accessible and cheap, especially for long-term treatment regimens, by encouraging patients and healthcare providers to choose it.

The introduction of generic versions of Enoxaparin Sodium affects the market and encourages competition among producers. This rivalry frequently results in price reductions, expanding the drug's accessibility and lowering its cost, especially in areas with budget-conscious healthcare systems.

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ENOXAPARIN SODIUM MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

With a about 60% market share, Europe is Enoxaparin Sodium's largest market, followed by North America with a roughly 17% market share.

There are a lot of competitors in this sector right now.In the Enoxaparin sodium injection market, companies like Sanofi, Teva, Techdow (Hepalink), Fresenius Kabi, Rovi, Amphastar, Nanjing King-friend, Sandoz, and a few others are significant players. Sanofi, Teva, Techdow (Hepalink), Fresenius Kabi, and Rovi own around 85% of the market share for enoxaparin sodium.

With a 63% market share, the largest customer group by application is Hospital.

The most widely used and effective kind, with a 40% market share, is 40 mg/0.4 mL.

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Key Companies:

Sanofi

TEVA

Techdow (Hepalink)

Fresenius Kabi

Rovi

Amphastar

Nanjing King-friend

King-friend Sandoz Inc

Apotex

Hangzhou Jiuyuan Gene Engineering

Cipla Ltd

Taj Pharma

Chengdu Baiyu Pharmaceutical

Suzhou Erye Pharmaceutical

Changzhou Qianhong Bio-pharma

Hebei Changshan Biochemical Pharmaceutical

Beijing SL Pharmaceutical

Huadong Medicine

Bharat Serums

Intas

Lupin Ltd

Troikaa Pharmaceuticals

Aristopharma

Fosun Pharma

SciencePharma

Pisa

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SOURCE Valuates Reports
South Korea's first CAR-NK cell therapy cleared for human trials in Australia and domestically; Cancer Moonshot participant GC Cell partnering with medical AI leader Lunit to collaborate on AB-201 clinical development

YONGIN, South Korea and SYDNEY, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- GC Cell, a fully integrated cell therapy pioneer, is proud to announce the approval from both the Australian Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) and the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) for a Phase 1 Investigational New Drug (IND) trial for its AB-201 cancer treatment, a HER2 targeted chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer (CAR-NK) cell therapy that shows great promise. Additionally, GC Cell is excited to reveal a strategic partnership with Lunit, the medical AI leader, to enhance precision and clinical intelligence of AB-201's efficacy evaluation by applying its advanced AI technology, in addition to traditional Immunohistochemistry (IHC) based assessments. After participating in the US White House's Cancer Moonshot initiative this past October, both accomplishments represent major milestones in GC Cell's efforts to revolutionize immunotherapy-based cancer treatment while harnessing AI and digital transformation to fight cancer.

"Our preclinical studies suggest the possibility that AB-201 causes complete cancer remission and tumor suppression," remarked James Park, CEO of GC Cell. "We are thrilled to move forward to Phase 1 trials  the first Korean company to do so for CAR-NK cell therapy  and we are grateful to Lunit for joining hands with us in our digital transformation and the fight against cancer  now armed with the power of AI. This initiative is part of GC Cell's broader strategy to integrate digital & AI technology into all aspects of healthcare, from research and development to patient care. I believe it will prepare our company for the upcoming era of digital healthcare."

Promising treatment to begin clinical trials

AB-201, a novel CAR-NK cell therapy targeting solid tumors, represents a breakthrough in cancer immunotherapy, capable of killing malignant cells. While existing NK cell treatments typically dissipate within a few weeks, AB-201 has demonstrated persistence for over three months in preclinical studies, highlighting its potential in managing long-term, advanced cancers. A multi-country study, the Phase 1 trial will evaluate safety and efficacy in 48 patients with HER2-overexpressing breast, gastric, and gastroesophageal junction cancers. GC Cell holds exclusive rights to AB-201 in the Asia Pacific region, while ex-Asia-Pacific rights were licensed to Artiva Biotherapeutics, Inc. in an exclusive partnership.

Lunit partnership for AI-powered pharma development

A recent McKinsey report found that AI has the potential to increase the value of the pharmaceutical R&D industry by six to eleven billion US dollars. Employing the technology, GC Cell anticipates that AI-driven imaging can analyze vast amounts of data with a high degree of precision and consistency while reducing variability by individual interpretation. This leads to a more accurate assessment of HER2 expression levels, which is vital for appropriate treatment decisions. With such quantitative analysis, AI can help standardize the assessment of cancer target expression across different laboratories and geographical locations. This standardization is essential for multicenter clinical trials and for ensuring that patients receive consistent care regardless of where they are treated. It's a pivotal step in GC Cell's journey towards a digital future, aligning with the broader healthcare industry's shift towards technology-enhanced solutions.

About AB-201

AB-201 is an allogeneic HER2-targeted chimeric antigen receptor NK (CAR-NK) cell therapy for the treatment of solid tumors in the outpatient setting with the option for repeat dosing. A novel, high affinity anti-HER2 antibody converted to scFv structure confers highly specific tumor targeting and is coupled with a unique costimulatory structure and IL-15 expression for enhanced activity and persistence. AB-201 has demonstrated potent anti-tumor activity in multiple preclinical HER2-positive tumor model systems. The underlying NK cell is derived from umbilical cord blood donors preselected for advantageous attributes including the high affinity variant of the CD16 receptor and a KIR-B haplotype. AB-201 cell products maintain high expression of CD16, as well as other activating innate cell tumor engaging receptors, enabling the potential for dual targeting therapeutic approaches via monoclonal antibody combinations. The resulting CAR-NK is manufactured at very large scale and cryopreserved in infusion-ready media to enable repeat clinical administrations in the outpatient setting.

GC Cell holds exclusive rights to AB-201 in the Asia-Pacific region, while ex-Asia-Pacific rights were licensed to Artiva Biotherapeutics, Inc. in an exclusive partnership. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration previously cleared Artiva's investigational new drug (IND) application for AB-201 in 2022.

About GC Cell

With a core focus on cell therapy, GC Cell offers complete bio healthcare solutions from diagnosis to treatment, and the brand's comprehensive value chain spans R&D, production, commercialization, and distribution.

More info: https://gccell.com//

SOURCE GC Cell
Cync  expands mass and luxury market compatibility to expedite smart home adoption

Company to add 18 Matter-compatible Cync smart products to its portfolio

Cync products can be integrated into Savant professional smart home ecosystems and controlled with Savant's award-winning app

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- GE Lighting, a Savant company continues its legacy of quality and innovation with the launch of yet another first-of-its-kind Cync smart home innovation and exciting Cync product updates at CES 2024.

GE Lighting, a Savant company to Launch Industry Leading Full Color Smart Undercabinet Fixtures in 2024

The all-new Cync Reveal HD+ Full Color Undercabinet Fixtures and Pucks are the first and only full color and edge-lit smart undercabinet lights available in the North American market. Cync Reveal products offer exceptional clarity, millions of color options, and smart control in an elegant, easy-to-install undercabinet fixture. The smart fixtures' slim profile and edge-lit design illuminates countertops with diffused pools of vibrant colors and pure, clean light.

The latest addition to the Cync whole-home portfolio provides a seamless update to kitchen lighting, where innovation meets impeccable design for a truly immersive lighting experience.

Up to 10 fixtures can be connected to one another for a robust lighting solution to enhance every occasion, featuring millions of color options, including a full range of whites.

Easily installed with captive screws as a plug-in or hardwired, the space-saving fixture can instantly transform the mood and ambiance of any room. They will be on display at Pepcom and The Venetian during CES and will be available for purchase later this year at Lowes.com, Target.com and Amazon.com starting at $59.99 MSRP.

"We're thrilled to be able to reach more users with affordable and high-quality smart products that can be easily installed by consumers or added to Savant smart homes to create more convenience and comfort," said Kara Perdue, vice president of product management at GE Lighting, a Savant company. "Cync smart technology can now be welcomed into more homes via better compatibility and flexibility of control, and consumers will enjoy other recent enhancements such as innovative firmware and software updates."

Cync now gives users an expanded array of options when it comes to control. Whether it be the Cync app, powered by Savant, Alexa or Google voice, Matter, or the Savant professional app, users can choose the method of control that fits their lifestyle. In addition, Cync recently made several over-the-air updates to broaden the dimming range to an industry-leading less than 1 percent brightness. More music and light shows have just been added to the Cync app to help create the perfect vibe. More Cync enhancements are coming in 2024.

Cync Bolsters its Matter-Compatible Roster

A total of 20 Cync Matter-compatible products will now be available in 2024. In addition to the Cync Direct Connect Full Color Smart Bulb and Cync Smart Indoor Plug, 18 more products will hit retailers this year. The expanded lineup includes the entire Direct Connect Full Color and Reveal line of bulbs and wafers, Outdoor Smart Plug and Smart Thermostat.

In Cync with Savant Homes

In 2024, Savant users in North America will be able to incorporate Cync products into their professionally installed ecosystems and control Cync products through the Savant professional app or voice. For nearly 20 years, Savant has been a technology pioneer in the smart home industry. Available through more than 5,000 dealers worldwide, Savant has created the ultimate smart home experience highlighted by its award-winning app.

Savant Power: The Future of Smart Energy

Smart home energy management gives homeowners the ability to monitor and optimize the power required to light their residences. The Savant Power Storage System featured at CES provides visitors an inside look at revolutionary technology that lets users monitor and control energy consumption from the Savant professional app, cut energy costs during peak pricing periods, and power the whole home during blackouts. The system has already earned awards from Green Builder , Residential Tech Today , Technology Designer Magazine and CEDIA .

To request a tour of our private CES booth, please email the media contact listed below. Click here to access additional product information and images.

GE is a trademark of General Electric Company. Used under trademark license.

About GE Lighting, a Savant company

Headquartered at historic NELA Park in East Cleveland, Ohio, our roots date back nearly 130 years to Thomas Edison and the invention of the world's first light bulb. Today, as part of Savant Systems Inc. we're bringing the future to light by ensuring brighter lives and a more sustainable world through innovation and energy efficiency in lamps, switches, fixtures and so much more. We're also unleashing the ultimate personalized living experience through a growing suite of smart home products that help consumers connect with confidence and experience the comfort, quality and security for which GE branded products are known. Learn more at gelighting.com

Contact:

Ben Sabol

[email protected]

216.233.9062

SOURCE GE Lighting, a Savant company
International academic journals are an important platform for publishing scientific research results. They disseminate information on innovation and development, and preserve the human civilization. China has always attached great importance to openness and collaboration, stressing that sci-tech development should align with frontier domains and explore the mysteries of the universe for the good of humanity.

Science and Technology Daily has launched a new column, Global Journal Observatory, with the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Esteemed editors-in-chief of renowned academic journals and experienced professionals in the field are invited to share how their journal was established, its development prospects, and their insights into the discipline construction to promote scientific exchanges and sharing of research results.

BEIJING, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Andre Anders, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Physics, shared his insights as follow:

The Journal of Applied Physics was started in 1931, from the realization that physics has profound implications for everyone's real life. When physics made incredible strides from the classical basics of Newton and Maxwell to the quantum and relativistic world of Planck and Einstein, it increasingly affected everyone's life through its applications such as the electric light, radio and radar.

Andre Anders. (COURTESY PHOTO)

At this juncture, the Journal of Applied Physics was established and has been the journal of choice for over 90 years. The Journal of Applied Physics is not an engineering journal. Namely, it publishes research that bridges the world of fundamental science (addressing what I call the "Why?" question) with the engineering world (the "How-to?" question). For decades, the Journal of Applied Physics has represented the standard of peer-reviewed knowledge in applied physics, and it continues to do so despite many other journals appearing in recent years.

Indeed, both broad-range journals and a plethora of highly specialized journals are available to today's researchers. Still, the work of well-known experts including Nobel Prize-winning researchers is published in the Journal of Applied Physics.

The number of authors from China has steadily and remarkably increased over the last years. Not only has the absolute number of authors and papers increased, but also the fraction of contributions from China. Specifically, 36 percent of submissions and 30 percent of our publications originate from China.

I attribute this to two main factors. For one, China is a large and important country that has greatly invested in its education and research, thus increasing its research output. But perhaps more importantly, the quality of work done by China has increased very notably, leading not only to an increase in submissions but also to a much-increased acceptance rate, which today rivals that of other most advanced nations.

In recent years, realizing the growing importance of China for all sciences, including the various subfields of applied physics, the publisher and the journal connected with Chinese colleagues through AIP Publishing's Beijing office, amplifying the opportunities open to Chinese researchers through invited papers as well as Guest Editorships and contributions to Special Topic issues. The journal appreciates the great effort by Chinese authors to present their work in a foreign language, English.

Publishing is  like all things in modern life  subject to accelerating changes. We, as a team of active researchers and editors supported by a team of professionals in publishing, embrace change. For example, we look for ways to reduce the publishing time while ensuring high standards of peer review. Going all-electronic was a revolution a couple of decades ago. Now, the next revolution is in full swing. Correctly using AI is one, and publishing various models for publishing "open access" is another. For those and other topics, engaging with the Chinese research community is critical and we look forward to many more years of collaboration with our Chinese friends.

Another change is that 2023 marks my 10th and final year as editor-in-chief. I look forward to handing it over to the next editor-in-chief whose name will be announced in the new year, and seeing the journal succeed under this new leadership, and in particular, celebrating the success of the Chinese applied physics community.

Andre Anders has served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Physics since July 2014.

SOURCE Science and Technology Daily
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 20, 2023, after more than three weeks of trial, San Diego Attorneys Jordon Harlan, Andrew Hillier and Francis DiGiacco received an impressive jury award of $9,372,000 in a California Family Rights Act retaliation case against Concentra Health Services, Inc. This verdict follows more than three years of intensive investigation and litigation, and delivers to Plaintiff Marilyn Buron, long-awaited justice.

Marilyn worked as a full-time occupational therapist at Concentra's Kearny Mesa facility for 15 years, treating patients with arm and hand injuries and providing post-operative care. In late November 2020, Marilyn's son developed a life-threatening condition that required Marilyn to take job-protected leave to care for him through surgery and recovery. Marilyn alerted her supervisors at Concentra and took job protected leave from December 1, 2020 through February 22, 2021.

After nearly three months of caring for her son and husband, Marilyn was eager to return to work and had been in communication with her supervisor in efforts to schedule shifts. However, on February 23, 2021, Marilyn returned to find that she had no patients on her schedule, and her personal belongings were removed from her workstation and shoved into a drawer. She soon learned that while she was on leave, Concentra made the decision to transition Marilyn from full-time to per diem, and replace her with a less-qualified employee who was 41 years her junior.

The case was heavily litigated for three years before trial, and consisted of extensive motion work, discovery, four focus groups by Marilyn's attorneys, and nearly 20 depositions. According to attorney Jordon Harlan, "At each step of this process, Concentra refused to accept responsibility for violating the law. Ultimately, the jury had to hold them accountable."

At trial, Jordon, Andrew, and Francis demonstrated to the jury that Marilyn taking family care leave was "an issue" for Concentra, and that the termination resulted in significant emotional distress to Marilyn. "Marilyn took pride in a career that was stolen from her," said attorney Andrew Hillier, "at the time she needed it most."

After deliberations, the jury found that Concentra violated the California Family Rights Act and other important protections provided by law when they replaced her during her job-protected leave, and did so knowingly. The jury awarded Marilyn $1,562,000 in damages for the emotional pain, humiliation, and devastation she experienced. The jury also awarded $7,810,000 in punitive damages against Concentra to prevent them from ever doing this to anyone again.

SOURCE Harlan Law
The award-winning Scuba S1 has been recognized as a CES 2024 Innovation Award Honoree.

With a robot pool cleaner for every pool size, cleaning need, and budget, the Scuba Series is packed with industry first technologies, taking the chore out of pool maintenance.

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Aiper, the global creator of innovative, cordless robotic pool cleaners, will be in Las Vegas, Nevada to debut at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) its next generation line of cordless pool cleaning robots: the Scuba Series. With a robot solution for every pool size, budget, and cleaning need, the Scuba Series includes the Scuba SE, Scuba E1, Scuba S1 Pro, and Scuba N1 Ultra as well as the Scuba S1, which is a CES 2024 Innovation Award Honoree. Developed to address the biggest consumer pool cleaning pain points, the Scuba Series is enhanced with first-of-its-kind technologies that achieve a more thorough clean and worry-free user experience  leaving more time for splashing around in a pristine pool. Launching in Q1 2024, Aiper also announces its first-ever app for iOS and Android, giving pool owners more control, cleaning features, and pool monitoring options than ever before. The Scuba Series will be available for purchase starting this month at Aiper.com and other select retail locations, including Walmart and Lowe's.

Scuba Series Family Image

"Pool owners don't need to waste time and energy cleaning their pools manually or wrestling with other corded cleaning products," says Richard Wang, CEO and Founder of Aiper Global. "We're constantly innovating and growing within the technology sector, which is underscored by the Scuba Series  our next generation line of pool cleaning robots which are designed to push the limits of pool cleaning with industry-first technology advancements that deliver a smarter cleaning experience to homeowners."

Each robot in the Scuba Series is uniquely designed to maneuver across above-ground or in-ground pools of various shapes, materials, and sizes without assistance. Models vary in function, from focused cleaning on the pool floor to widespread cleaning of pool walls and waterlines. Aiper robots are cord and hassle-free, cleaning leaves, hair, dirt, sand, insects, green algae, microorganisms, and other particles using powerful suction technology.

The Scuba SE: Easy in Every Way

The Scuba SE is an entry-level pool cleaner for anyone new to the world of underwater cleaning or pool ownership. Ideal for above-ground pools up to 860 sq. ft., the Scuba SE can clean pool floors in 90 minutes while you kickback poolside. This small but mighty cleaner features a lightweight design and dual motor system. An audio system sounds an alert when the robot is done cleaning or when the battery is low.

The Scuba SE will be available for preorder on January 9, 2024, and available for sale in late February 2024 for $199.99.

The Scuba E1: Above All

Inspired by the Mars rover, the Scuba E1 combines a sleek streamlined design with a tri-motor system and roller brushes to improve underwater movement and collect debris. With the world's first dual ultra-fine filter system, the cleaner collects the tiniest particles not visible to the human eye and microorganisms on the bottom of the pool floor. Anti-collision bumpers protect it and the pool walls from accidental damage. The Scuba E1 is ideal for above-ground pools up to 1100 sq. ft. with the ability to clean pool floors in 1.5 hours.

The Scuba E1 will be available for preorder on January 9, 2024, and available for sale in February 2024 for $399.99.

The Scuba S1: On Track to Perform

As Aiper's flagship product and a CES 2024 Innovation Award Honoree, the Scuba S1 delivers systematic cleaning to in-ground pools up to 1600 sq. ft. in 2.5 hours. Caterpillar treads provide better traction and superior obstacle traversal. Customizable, choose between four cleaning modes: floor, wall, and wall + floor as well as a new eco mode for periodic cleaning every 48 hours, ensuring the pool is always swim-ready. With patented WavePath Navigation Technology 2.0, the robot follows the natural flow of the pool to increase cleaning coverage from edge-to-edge. Sold separately, an optional Solar Panel accessory provides an energy-efficient, plug-free charging option.

The Scuba S1 will be available for preorder on January 9, 2024, and is available for sale in late January 2024 for $699.99.

The Scuba S1 Pro: Live Life Sideways

Living life on the edge (or sideways) is exactly how the Scuba S1 Pro likes to roll for in-ground pools up to 2,150 sq. ft. In addition to having caterpillar treads, dual ultra-fine filters, and WavePath Navigation Technology 2.0  the Scuba S1 Pro also uses sensors to maneuver around obstacles and has five cleaning modes, including the world's first horizontal waterline cleaning mode called WaveLine Technology. The Scuba S1 Pro is compatible with a cordless communication buoy called the Aiper HydroComm (sold separately)  with world's first technology that allows users to wirelessly connect to the pool cleaning robot through the Aiper app. Via the Aiper app and cordless HydroComm, select the Waterline Recall to prompt the robot to climb up to the waterline for easy retrieval.

The Scuba S1 Pro will be available for preorder on January 9, 2024, and is available for sale in March 2024 for $1,199.99.

The Scuba N1 Ultra: Beyond Compare

Even the most experienced pool owners and professional cleaners need help sometimes, and the Scuba N1 Ultra is here to help get even the biggest jobs done. Comparable to the Scuba S1 Pro, this robot is the most powerful in the line and is perfect for commercial-sized in-ground pools up to 2,150 sq. ft. Industrial strength, the robot has an expanded 7.5-litter debris collection bin to capture even more. With Aiper's world's first Precision Multi-dimensional Maneuvering technology, the Scuba N1 Ultra thoroughly cleans hard to reach areas.

The Scuba N1 Ultra will be available for sale in March 2024 for $1,399.99.

The Scuba Series and the industry-first Aiper HydroComm will be unveiled at CES 2024 at the Aiper booth (#9053) in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Together with HGTV star Chip Wade, Aiper will be hosting in its CES booth a New Product Launch event on January 9 at 11:30am Pacific Time with splashy product demos and more. Aiper will also have a presence at CES Unveiled on January 7, Pepcom Digital Experience! on January 8, and Showstoppers @ CES 2024 on January 9.

For more information about Aiper products visit www.Aiper.com.

About Aiper

Aiper is the leading global creator of innovative cordless robotic pool cleaners on a mission to Bring Vacation Home by inspiring pool owners to turn their backyards into a personal oasis with the help of smarter cleaning solutions. After doing a deep dive into the pain points of traditional pool cleaners, the company embarked on a path to merge technology with innovative design to create the world's most easy-to-use robotic pool cleaners that are not only cord and hassle-free but can automatically handle all the dirty work so pool owners can stop manually cleaning. Unlike other products on the market, each Aiper robot is guaranteed to minimize the time and money spent laboring cleaning and give more time back to enjoy quality time with friends and family by the pool. Through that, Aiper has earned its place as the world's best cordless robotic pool cleaner since its launch. In 2023 and 2024, Aiper products have been named CES Innovations Award Honorees.

SOURCE Aiper
For the first time, ads on Caper Carts will bring an entirely new personalized ads experience from Instacart's CPG brand partners to the smart cart screens, with launch partners including Del Monte Foods, Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, and General Mills. Customers using Caper Carts at participating retailers will soon experience two new features:

New products and brands, deals, and seasonal promotions to surprise and delight customers at the start of the shopping journey on the Caper Cart home screen. For example, a customer might see a creative banner highlighting limited-edition Chocolate Strawberry Cheerios from General Mills for Valentine's Day.

Personalized product recommendations based on their real-time shopping behaviors or cart contents. For example, if a customer adds ice cream cones, they might see a complementary item recommendation, like Dreyer's ice cream.

The new ads on Caper Carts offering is launching soon at Good Food Holdings' Bristol Farms stores in Southern California, with additional retail partners rolling out in the months ahead. Instacart expects to have thousands of Caper Carts deployed by the end of 2024.

"Our acquisition of Caper has been a core part of our strategic evolution to support retailers and brands not just online but also in-store. It was one of the first major decisions I made as CEO of the company as we launched our Connected Stores technologies, and today we're excited to introduce the next phase of this work with a new advertising solution that will further enable thousands of CPG brands to connect with high-intent customers with measurable results  in all the ways people choose to shop," said Fidji Simo, CEO and Chair of Instacart. "Today's announcement expands on the success of our advertising solutions and smart carts to power a more inspirational, connected in-store shopping experience for customers. We're proud to bring these solutions in-store for the first time for our CPG brand partners, while simultaneously offering new revenue opportunities for our retail partners."

"Since deploying Caper Carts last year, we've been incredibly excited to provide our customers with a greater personalized experience while driving value as they shop," said Neil Stern, Chief Executive Officer of Good Food Holdings. "With the introduction of ads on Caper Carts, we'll soon be able to unlock a new, incremental revenue stream while offering customers valuable suggestions and promotions from our brand partners."

Ads on Caper Carts are a new in-store retail media offering building on Instacart's performant, online advertising solution. The new ad capabilities enable CPG brands to engage with customers in-store in a more personalized way based on past purchase behavior or real-time shopping behavior. Instacart's deep online grocery expertise and insights allow the company to help customers discover their favorite products with its advertising solutions as they shop online, and now, in-store.

Retailers that offer ads on Caper Carts will have the ability to grow their revenue through a revenue share model, in addition to driving increased consumer engagement in-store. Today's announcement builds on Instacart's Carrot Ads technology, which enables retailers like Schnucks, Sprouts, Price Chopper NY, and Tops Markets to establish and grow retail media networks on their owned and operated websites and apps  powered by Instacart Ads technology. With Carrot Ads, retail partners are leveraging the best of Instacart Ads, including the company's industry-leading technology, products, engineering, sales talent, and data insights.

Today's in-store advertising announcement also marks Instacart's continued, off-platform ad capabilities expansion. Over the last year, Instacart has extended its off-platform advertising capabilities to Roku and The Trade Desk, which are all rooted in enhancing CPG brands' advertising with Instacart's retail media data. With more than 5,500 brand partners - from category leaders to emerging brands - Instacart continues to help brands drive growth, prove ROI, and move products off shelves.

Caper Carts are part of Instacart's Connected Stores suite of technologies, built to help grocers bridge the online and in-store shopping experience. By using computer vision and AI, the cart can automatically identify items as they are placed in the basket, allowing customers to bag as they shop and checkout directly from the cart. Customer reception to Caper Carts has been strong with users offering a net promoter score of more than 70. In addition to the new ad capabilities, customers appreciate the ability to link their loyalty accounts to the carts, giving them access to personalized promotions and savings while shopping in-store. Caper Carts appeal to grocers of all sizes  retailers currently using or soon deploying carts include Bristol Farms, Fairway Market, Geissler's, ShopRite, and Sobeys.

Supporting Quotes

"Today's omnichannel shopper expects frictionless experiences whether they're shopping online or in-store. In addition to customized Instacart ad experiences on app, we can now utilize another touchpoint on the shopper journey through in-store Caper Carts ads. The Caper Carts provide an opportunity for us to provide meal inspiration, introduce new products or simply remind the shopper to stock-up on pantry staples, while continuing to deliver a personalized, relevant experience based on past shopping behaviors," said Jen Reiner, Vice President, Omnichannel Marketing, Del Monte Foods, Inc.

"Instacart and Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream have formed a partnership built on the foundation of being consumer and shopper progressive. Our collaborative efforts strive to deepen our understanding of the ever-changing consumer shopping experience, specifically emphasizing the digitally-forward customer. The Caper Cart initiative is a great example of an initiative that seeks to fuse the digital and physical shopping experience into one seamless journey. Having the unique opportunity to feature our ads on the Caper Carts will allow us to engage and inspire customers on the interactive home screen during their shopping trips. The future of our consumer connections will continue to be reshaped by innovative partnerships such as this," said Andy Hill, Head of Sales at Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream.

"We're proud to continue our partnership with Instacart by being one of the first brands to showcase our products on Instacart's AI-powered smart carts," said Raquel Navarrksi, Customer Vice President, General Mills. "We're committed to showing up where our consumers are, no matter how they choose to shop. We're excited to innovate alongside Instacart to help consumers discover and rediscover all their favorite General Mills products as they browse the grocery aisles and shop in-store."

"Late last year, we unveiled our plans to update most of our traditional shopping carts with Instacart's smart carts, aiming to make shopping easier, more personalized, and efficient for customers," said Bob Rybick, President and CEO of Geissler's Supermarkets. "Now, with the introduction of ads on Caper Carts, we'll be able to take that goal a step further  not only enhancing the in-store experience by helping customers discover new products, brands and promotions, but also unlocking a new revenue stream and opportunities to strengthen customer loyalty."

About Instacart

Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. The company partners with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 80,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Instacart makes it possible for millions of people to get the groceries they need from the retailers they love, and for approximately 600,000 Instacart shoppers to earn by picking, packing and delivering orders on their own flexible schedule. The Instacart Platform offers retailers a suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power their e-commerce experiences, fulfill orders, digitize brick-and-mortar stores, provide advertising services, and glean insights. With Instacart Ads, thousands of CPG brands  from category leaders to emerging brands  partner with the company to connect directly with consumers online, right at the point of purchase. With Instacart Health, the company is providing tools to increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for consumers, and expand the role that food can play in improving health outcomes.

For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company, and to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com .

SOURCE Instacart
SINGAPORE, Jan. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Juniper Biologics ("Juniper"), a global science-led pharmaceutical company headquartered in Singapore, proudly announces its latest achievement, winning the award for Molecular Science & Technology Acquisition of the Year at Acquisition International's M&A Awards 2023. This recognition highlights Juniper's unwavering commitment to advancing treatments in oncology-supportive care and its overarching mission to enhance the quality of life of patients worldwide.

Now in its seventh year, Acquisition International's M&A Awards recognizes the excellence of top executives, analysts, investors, and professionals in the M&A sector across diverse industries. In the healthcare domain, Juniper Biologics stands out for the second consecutive year, this time for its acquisition of Caris Molecular Intelligence, a tumour profiling service for Asia. Juniper Biologics was awarded Best Cell & Gene Therapy Acquisition 2022 for TG-C LD (TissueGene-C low dose) for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis, in the previous year.

Caris Molecular Intelligence is a patented service that uses technologies, such as next-generation sequencing, to examine each tumour at the various biological stages of cancer. This provides individualised data on the molecular characteristics of a patient's cancer, enabling oncologists to make informed treatment decisions.

The acquisition signifies Juniper's commitment to spearheading personalized cancer care, a move strategically designed not only to contribute to the well-being of the population but also to unlock new avenues for growth. With 2.2 million new cancer cases and 1.4 million cancer-related deaths annually in the region, many of which are addressed too late or incorrectly, there is a substantial demand for innovative therapies and precision medicine.

On being awarded the M&A Awards for the Molecular Science & Technology Acquisition of the Year, Raman Singh, CEO of Juniper Biologics expressed: "We're deeply honored to receive recognition once again, this time for the acquisition of Caris Molecular Intelligence. This award underscores our commitment to collaborative efforts aimed at improving patient outcomes and expanding treatment options. It serves as a catalyst for future opportunities, empowering us to pursue strategic partnerships and acquisitions that positively impact patients and align with our mission to improve quality of life through innovative solutions."

With a growth mindset and a dedicated focus on unmet needs in the healthcare industry, Juniper Biologics remains poised to seek strategic collaborations that create real impact while uplifting various underserved communities and individuals.

About Juniper Biologics

Backed by The Sylvan Group, Juniper Biologics is a science-led healthcare company focused on delivering novel therapies to improve the health and quality of life of patients, by building a growing presence in Oncology and Oncology Supportive Care, Rare/Orphan Diseases and Gene Therapy. It was founded on a vision to provide treatments for unmet medical needs focused on specialist therapy areas in which it can make the most difference. Through bold and transformative science, Juniper Biologics is committed to creating possibilities that have the potential to become the next generation of life-changing medicines for patient communities in China, Japan, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, and Africa.

Website: https://www.juniperbiologics.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/juniper-biologics

SOURCE Juniper Biologics
SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Display, the world's leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that it is unveiling its OLED TV panel featuring its latest 'META Technology 2.0' at CES 2024.

With peak brightness being a crucial component of higher picture quality, 'META Technology 2.0' features 42% brighter images than conventional OLED displays to achieve 3,000-nit peak brightness. As higher peak brightness ensures a more vivid viewing experience akin to what the human eye perceives, this marks the highest brightness level of any large-sized OLED panel yet.

LG Display's OLED TV panel with META Technology 2.0

Last year, LG Display surpassed the limits of OLED picture quality with the unveiling of 'META Technology' after a decade of research and development in high-brightness technology, further widening its competitive advantage. Since then, LG Display has successfully developed 'META Technology 2.0' within a year to solidify its leadership in the field of OLED technology.

META Technology 2.0 comprises 'Micro Lens Array Plus (MLA+)' featuring a pattern of optimized micrometer-scale lenses, the upgraded brightness enhancing algorithm 'META Multi Booster,' and the full-range brightness detail enhancing algorithm 'Detail Enhancer,' which all combine to achieve a new maximum brightness of 3,000 nits, allowing the OLED panel to express the precise colors and brightness nature intended in any environment.

LG Display's 'Micro Lens Array' technology features a layer of micrometer-sized convex lenses. A total of 42.4 billion micro lenses (in a 77-inch 4K display) maximize light emission within the OLED panel to achieve revolutionary brightness. The process of creating billions of microscopic lenses in a pattern is extremely technically challenging.

Based on big data on MLA accumulated over the past year, MLA+ features an optimized lens angle that emits even the minimal light that would have been lost due to internal reflections. With an increased maximum brightness, OLED TV panels with META Technology 2.0 can more meticulously portray contrasts for a finer and more realistic viewing experience, from the immersive visuals of a cascading waterfall to the glimmers of individual droplets reflecting the sunlight.

Also referred to as 'Dragonfly Eye Technology,' MLA+ and its billions of micro-lenses create more accurate and detailed images with a wider viewing angle of 160 degrees, just as a dragonfly can see 360 degrees through millions of convex lenses.

'META Multi Booster', the company's exclusive brightness-optimizing algorithm, analyzes each scene in extreme detail to enhance not only peak brightness, a fundamental strength of LG Display OLEDs, but also color brightness for more refined and optimized picture quality.

By incorporating MLA+ and META Multi Booster, META Technology 2.0 achieves improved color brightness of up to 1,500 nits, 114% brighter than conventional OLEDs. This enhancement in color brightness is effective when depicting HDR images by making brighter areas appear brighter and darker areas appear darker.

Furthermore, the strength of META Multi Booster is best demonstrated when depicting images with bright, vivid colors, such as the vibrant and diverse hues of auroras filling the night sky.

Displays typically struggle to accurately render darker images (low gradation) in contrast to brighter images (high gradation). LG Display's proprietary 'Detail Enhancer' is a full-range brightness detail enhancing algorithm that ensures consistent and accurate color expression regardless of brightness levels.

By incorporating a new data processing technique into OLED's 'Pixel Dimming' technology, which precisely controls the light of 33 million pixels (based on an 8K display) individually, Detail Enhancer allows the OLED panel to accurately convey unique colors as they were intended to be seen. When depicting dark underwater scenes, viewers can experience the distinct colors and details of a tropical fish without distortion.

OLED's self-emissive structure allows each pixel to emit light independently without a backlight unit, which unlocks an infinite contrast ratio and extremely vibrant and precise color expression. LG Display's OLED TV panel based on META Technology enhances energy efficiency by 22% compared to conventional OLEDs of the same brightness. In addition, its remarkably low blue light emissions and flicker-free status contribute to better eye health and even minimize its environmental impact by using 90% fewer plastic materials than conventional LCDs.

LG Display unveiled its 83-inch OLED TV panel featuring META Technology 2.0 for the first time at CES 2024. As demand for ultra-large TVs continues to increase, the company plans to apply META Technology 2.0 to its lineup of large-sized and ultra-large OLED TV panels, including the 55-, 65-, 77-, and 83-inch 4K OLEDs and the 77- and 88-inch 8K OLEDs, to further strengthen its OLED leadership in the global premium TV market.

"META Technology 2.0 represents the pinnacle of displays after surpassing the limitations and boundaries of OLED to create the perfect harmony between humans, nature, and the environment," said Hyeon-woo Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of Large Display Business Unit at LG Display. "We will firmly establish our technological edge in the OLED TV panel market with the latest evolution of our META Technology."

About LG Display

LG Display Co., Ltd. [NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220] is the world's leading innovator of display technologies, including thin-film transistor liquid crystal and OLED displays. The company manufactures display panels in a broad range of sizes and specifications primarily for use in TVs, notebook computers, desktop monitors, automobiles, and various other applications, including tablets and mobile devices. LG Display currently operates manufacturing facilities in Korea and China, and back-end assembly facilities in Korea, China, and Vietnam. The company has approximately 70,707 employees operating worldwide. For more news and information about LG Display, please visit www.lgdisplay.com .

Media Contact:

Joo Yeon Jennifer Ha, Manager, Communication Team

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE LG Display
North America's Original Blow Dry Bar Franchise Debuts in Canfield, Offers Founders Rate for Mane Squeeze Membership

CANFIELD, Ohio, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Blo Blow Dry Bar, North America's original blow dry bar and blow dry bar franchise, will open its newest bar on Friday, Jan. 12 in Canfield. Located at 4559 Boardman Canfield Rd., the new bar will offer guests five signature styles on its hair menu, a la carte options, a variety of hair treatments, plus five signature makeup looks and a brand new section of customized looks to provide endless inspiration. Also, for a limited time, the new bar will offer a founder's rate for its signature Mane Squeeze Membership that includes two blowouts a month for $75, $5 off each additional blow out and 10% off retail.

The new bar is owned and operated by local entrepreneurs Lisa Henn and Evangela Hazimihalis. Longtime friends, Henn and Hazimihalis have been talking about opening a blow dry bar in Canfield for years. Both knowing how difficult it is to do hair at home, their ultimate goal was to bring a place where women could walk in and get their hair done with no stress involved. Now, this dream is coming to life and they are excited to bring Blo Blow Dry Bar to their home community.

"Evangela and I have talked a lot about how hard it is to do our own hair for events," said Henn. "Whether someone is getting their hair done for a wedding, work event, school dance or just to get out of the house for a self-care day, we want them to feel beautiful and confident after an appointment at Blo Blow Dry Bar. If we can make that happen, then we have succeeded."

Blo Blow Dry Bar guests will be able to purchase a single discounted blowout for $34, running from Jan. 12  Feb. 11. The new Blo Blow Dry Bar of Canfield will also offer a Founders rate membership, discounted to $75 a month. To celebrate the opening, Blo Blow Dry Bar Canfield will host a grand opening event on Jan. 20 with raffles and special decor.

Blo Blow Dry Bar is on a mission to create a space where people of all ages, ethnicities, and orientations are welcomed, represented, and made to feel gorgeous while emphasizing the need for self-care and wellness. Combining a sophisticated design with a fun and energetic environment, Blo cultivates a seamless and enjoyable experience for guests upon their arrival, during, and after their services. Expertly trained blo-ers are available for consultation seven days a week to meet the needs of all guests. The brand's hair menu includes five signature styles from sleek and straight to bouncy curls, plus a wide assortment of customized looks including updos and braids. Blo Blow Dry Bar also offers makeup services from expert artists on hand to help guests look and feel amazing for any occasion.

Blo Blow Dry Bar is open Monday - Thursday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Friday  Saturday 9 a.m.  7 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. For more information on Blo Blow Dry Bar in Canfield, please visit https://blomedry.com/blo-canfield/ or call (330) 286-3484.

About Blo Blow Dry Bar

Blo Blow Dry Bar is North America's original blow dry bar and the world's largest blow dry bar franchise. The company transformed beauty norms and reinvented the salon industry when it launched the "no cuts, no color" concept: only blow outs. Since opening its first location in Canada in 2007, Blo has grown to over 150 locations across the U.S. and Canada and continues to expand rapidly. The brand has also evolved over time, adding makeup services, a membership program, and quality retail products to its bars. With a mission to enhance the lives of those in the community through the power of flawless blow outs and beauty services, Blo Blow Dry Bar offers perfectly styled hair and exceptional customer experiences seven days a week. For more information visit www.blomedry.com.

Media Contact: Emily Otter, Fishman Public Relations, 440-623-6532, or [email protected]

SOURCE Blo Blow Dry Bar
TAIPEI, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- MSI, the global leader in AI PC, gaming, creative, business, and AIoT solutions, is expanding its presence at CES 2024. In addition to displaying a wide range of consumer electronics products at the Venetian Las Vegas, MSI will broaden its showcase at Westgate Las Vegas to feature electric vehicle charging, automotive, and industrial AIoT solutions. This includes intelligent chargers, AI driver assistance systems, and smart industrial computers. The unveiling will include the new "Eco Series" AC EV charger and the "Hyper Series" DC fast-charger, inviting media friends and industry professionals to visit.

CES 2024 - U.S. Consumer Electronics Show

Exhibition Dates: January 9 to 12, 2024

Exhibition Hours:

January 9: 10 AM6 PM

January 10 to 11: 9 AM6 PM

January 12: 9 AM4 PM

Exhibition Location: Westgate Las Vegas, Booth 1912

Key Highlights of MSI's AIoT Showcase:

MSI "Eco Series" Smart AC Charger:

Following the introduction of EV charging products in 2023, MSI is set to unveil the "Eco Life" and "Eco Premium" next-generation EV chargers in 2024. These chargers feature a vibrant and customizable design, coupled with a power output of up to 22 kW (three-phase power). This provides consumers and operators with more personalized and powerful charging options, enhancing both visual aesthetics and charging efficiency. Similar to how a car reflects the owner's personality and taste, this EV charger aims to become the ideal spokesperson for car owners and charge point operators (CPOs).

MSI also offers Energy Management Systems (EMS) and customized API integration services. This allows operators to effectively monitor station status both in the cloud and on-site. The system includes smart features such as dynamic load balancing, time-of-use pricing, and member account management, enhancing operational efficiency and creating more applications.

MSI "EV Series" Smart AC Chargers:

The "EV Premium" and "EV AI" smart chargers from MSI feature a stylish and minimalist design, combining AI license plate recognition and integrated payment capabilities. This series offers charging efficiency of up to 14.4 kW / 60 A and flexible support for various charging interfaces, including US Type 1 (SAE J1772), European Type 2 (IEC-62196), and NACS. The user interface includes a 7-inch screen, mobile app, and cloud platform, providing functions such as QR code payment, Energy Management System (EMS), dynamic load balancing (DLB), RFID card sensing, and charging scheduling. They are the optimal solutions for residential and commercial charging.

MSI MS-C903 Intel Tiger Lake-UP3 Compact Smart Industrial Computer:

MSI's intelligent industrial computer serves as an ideal computing platform for machine vision applications. The showcased AI solution integrates 360-degree real-time inspection capabilities, combining Intel OpenVINO computer vision and deep learning application tools to optimize high-speed edge computing and visual recognition capabilities. The MS-C903 features high performance, low power consumption, and provides stable and rapid image processing capabilities for extended periods. It caters to customer needs for deploying smart factories and intelligent city solutions, overcoming common challenges in advanced AIoT applications.

MS-C902 Intel Alder Lake-P U-series Ultra-Thin Smart Industrial Computer:

Featuring a fanless design with a thickness of only 29mm, the MS-C902 is designed for applications in digital electronic billboards and industrial IoT system integration markets. It supports four independent 4K displays and dual 2.5GbE LAN for high-speed wired network transmission, meeting the demands of large image file transfers, real-time streaming, and live recording applications.

MSI AI DVR:

With integration of AI and Driver Monitoring System (DMS), the AI DVR offers an intelligent driving safety solution. It monitors the driver's state in real time, alerts to fatigue and dangerous driving behaviors, and uses precise recording and smart analysis to improve driving habits. The automatic event logging feature makes it easy to manage, enhancing a secure, intelligent, and connected driving experience.

MSI Al Box:

Utilizing AI technology for real-time image recognition, the Intelligent Control Box detects vehicles (cars, buses, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles), people, and other objects based on the camera's position. It provides real-time driving assistance reminders, reducing the occurrence of accidents.

MSI AIoT: https://www.msi.com/to/aiot

MSI AIoT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MSIAIoT

MSI AIoT LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/msi-aiot

MSI Global YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MSI

Subscribe to MSI RSS Feeds via https://www.msi.com/rss for real-time news and more product info.

About MSI AIoT

MSI integrated server in conformity to the cloud idea, satisfy the needs of customers in industrial computers, introduced robots for AI living and realized automotive electronics with human technology to provide the optimum solution of AIoT. It is also a leading brand in AI, business, and IoT market. For more product information, please go to https://www.msi.com/to/aiot

All rights of the technical, pictures, text and other content published in this press release are reserved. Contents are subject to changes without prior notice.

SOURCE MSI
Doha Debates, Al Jazeera and leading authors team up for audio series that presents three possible tomorrows and the real-world inspirations behind them

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- "Necessary Tomorrows," a podcast from Doha Debates combining science fiction and documentary to envision hopeful futures, debuts today on Al Jazeera Podcasts . The series is Doha Debates' first collaboration with Imposter Media , Wolf at the Door Studios and Al Jazeera.

"Necessary Tomorrows," presented in science fiction and narrative nonfiction episode pairs, envisions three possible futures that are within our power to create. In the sci-fi episodes, acclaimed authors Christopher Brown, Deji Bryce Olukotun and Quelemia Sparrow envision futures that seem impossible in 2024: animals have the rights of humans, capitalism is banned in outer space and AI has become our kin. In the nonfiction episodes, listeners not only meet the writers behind these futures, but the activists, scientists and researchers working in the present day to turn fiction into fact.

Hosting the series is "Ursula," an AI instructor from 2065 who presents the listener with these hopeful visions in order to ease their anxiety about what's to come.

In the first episode, "The Last Impala," award-winning sci-fi novelist Brown ("Tropic of Kansas," "Rule of Capture," "Failed State") presents a 2065 courtroom drama inspired by a real-world legal movement in which nature is granted the same rights as humans. The episode follows Wanida Chao, a reluctant lawyer defending a climate refugee who has been accused of not only murdering an antelope, but an entire ecosystem.

Its companion nonfiction episode features activist Susana Alamanza and her real-world fight for environmental justice in Austin, Texas, and Jack Fiander (Yakama Nation), an attorney for the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe who sued the city of Seattle on behalf of salmon in 2022.

The other fictional episodes of "Necessary Tomorrows" also speculate on how contemporary issues will play out in the 2060s. Novelist Olukotun ("After the Flare," "Nigerians in Space") explores a future where a jackpot of asteroid-derived cobalt is able to transition Earth to 100% renewable energy. Indigenous playwright, director and actor Sparrow imagines that a revered AI trained on the traditional knowledge of the Musqueam Nation is kidnapped to work in a Canadian theme park.

Directing the series and producing for Imposter Media is Brett Gaylor, a Peabody-winning documentarian whose works include immersive and cross-platform media like the interactive documentary "Discriminator" and the TV documentary/web series "The Internet of Everything."

"With 'Necessary Tomorrows,' we tried to avoid depicting dystopian futures that imagine what would happen if the world ended," said Gaylor. "There's enough of that in science fiction. Instead, we dreamedwith an amazing set of collaboratorsabout what it would take for the world not to. With Doha Debates, Wolf at the Door, and Al Jazeera, we're using the creative potential of audio storytelling to build the capacity for hope."

Through its podcasts, films, live debates and educational content, Doha Debates aims to bridge differences, build consensus and find solutions to urgent global issues. This is the organization's first partnership with Al Jazeera Podcasts.

"We are always looking for new ways to inform our audience and expand our offer of shows beyond daily news," said Carlos Van Meek, Al Jazeera Digital's Director of Innovation and Programs. "We are excited about this partnership and how this podcast uses sci-fi and fact to reflect on our possible future."

Amjad Atallah, managing director of Doha Debates, added: "This series uses science fiction to tackle some of today's most critical global issues through the lens of bold new storytelling. We hope it sparks lively discussions about how we build a better world."

Fiction episodes of "Necessary Tomorrows" air on Mondays and nonfiction episodes air on Fridays. The podcast can be heard on all major podcast platforms and at aj.audio/nt1.

Doha Debates

Website: DohaDebates.com

X/Twitter: @DohaDebates

Instagram: @DohaDebates

Facebook: Facebook.com/DohaDebates

YouTube: YouTube.com/DohaDebates

Threads: Threads.net/@dohadebates

TikTok: @DohaDebates

About Doha Debates

Doha Debates believes the world will be a better place if we make room to listen to and understand all sides of an issue and seek consensus together. As divisions on social, geopolitical, scientific and other issues become more entrenched, people retreat into echo chambers and refuse to listen to a spectrum of perspectives. We believe that positive, meaningful change only happens when we build bridges among a diversity of viewpoints.

Even on the most complex and divisive problems, with the right tools, empathy, and determination, we can learn from each other and walk away with a more robust and nuanced understanding of an issue. Inspired by Majlis-style debates, which creates a welcoming space for discussion of diverse views, we engage with young people from every region and country who are invested in solving urgent global issues. Through our programming and content, Doha Debates provides intellectual and practical tools to empower a new generation of leaders who can bridge divides and resolve differences. Learn more at DohaDebates.com .

Doha Debates media contact

Sumi Alkebsi, Communications Manager

Email: [email protected]

About Al Jazeera Podcasts

Since 2017, Al Jazeera Podcasts has pioneered global daily news and news commentary shows in the audio world, competing directly with some of the most popular US and UK-based news outlets. As such, we received praise for our ability to cover international news, focusing on how they affect the Global South with quality reporting and storytelling for English-speaking audiences. Al Jazeera Podcasts' shows have won multiple accolades, including the Online Journalism Awards, the Signal Awards, the Lovie Awards, the Anthem Awards, the Gracies, Shorty Awards, and the New York Festivals Radio Awards.

For any media inquiries, please contact: [email protected]

About Imposter Media

Imposter Media is the documentary studio of Brett Gaylor. His recent releases are "Fortune!", an AR documentary released at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, and "Discriminator," an interactive film that had its world premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. His 2020 documentary "The Internet of Everything" broadcast in more than 20 countries and was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award. His interactive series "Do Not Track" is the recipient of the International Documentary Association award for best nonfiction series, the 2016 Peabody Award and the Prix Gemaux for Best Interactive Series. His short "OK Google" animated a year of his son Rowan's accidental voice searches and received the 2019 Webby Award. His 2009 feature "Rip! A Remix Manifesto" was the recipient of audience choice prizes at festivals from Amsterdam to South Africa, broadcast in 20 countries, and seen by millions of people worldwide on Netflix, Hulu and The Pirate Bay.

Imposter Media media contact

Brett Gaylor, Executive Producer

[email protected]

About Wolf at the Door Studios

Wolf at the Door is a creative studio that develops and produces premium narrative fiction. The company has produced audio drama for companies including Warner Brothers, DC Comics, iHeart Media, Spotify, Wondery, Blumhouse, Shondaland, and directed top voice talent such as Toni Collette, Corey Hawkins, Snoop Dogg, Gina Rodriguez, Winston Duke, and Hasan Minhaj. Their first original production, "The Imperfection," premiered in the inaugural podcast section of the 2021 Tribeca Festival and was nominated for Podcast of the Year and Best Fiction Writing at the Ambie Awards; the project is currently in development as a television show. Their podcast "The Very Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen" won Tribeca's Fiction Audio Storytelling Award in 2023. They also produced "Batman Unburied," which topped Spotify's worldwide charts and was translated into 11 languages. Wolf at the Door is committed to elevating underrepresented talent both above and below the line and is a certified minority-owned business.

Wolf at the Door Studios media contact

Chica Barbosa, Producer

[email protected]

SOURCE Doha Debates
The increasing awareness of the role of fortified poultry vitamins in enhancing poultry health and productivity is a key driver propelling growth of the poultry vitamin market. Rising consumer demand for high-quality poultry products further amplifies the market's momentum.

PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, " Poultry Vitamin Market by Product Type (Chicken, Ducks, Turkey, and Others), Nature (Conventional, and Organic), and Vitamin Type (Retinol, Calciferol, Tocopherol, Phylloquinone, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis And Industry Forecast, 2023-2032. According to the report, the poultry vitamin market was valued at $1.4 billion in 2022 and is estimated to reach $2.8 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 7.6% from 2023 to 2032.

Request Sample Report: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/15952

Prime determinants of growth

The increase in awareness of the role of fortified poultry vitamins in enhancing poultry health and productivity is a key driver propelling growth in the poultry vitamin market. Rise in consumer demand for high-quality poultry products further boosts the market growth. However, a notable market restraint in the poultry vitamin industry stems from the fluctuating costs of raw materials and the subsequent impact on pricing. Poultry vitamin supplementation presents an opportunity for producers and feed manufacturers to meet this demand by developing and promoting fortified feeds that enhance the overall nutritional content of poultry products.

Report coverage & details:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 20232032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $1.4 billion Market Size in 2032 $2.8 billion CAGR 7.6 % No. of Pages in Report 300 Segments covered Product type, nature, vitamin type and region. Drivers  Increase in meat production and consumption  Standardization of meat products due to disease outbreaks Opportunities  Increase in utilization of antibiotics for poultry vitamin Restraints  Stringent regulations and international quality standards

The chicken segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on product type, the chicken segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than four-fifths of the global poultry vitamin market revenue. Growing consumer awareness about the nutritional benefits of poultry products has fueled demand for specialized vitamins to enhance chicken health and productivity. The others segment is the fastest-growing segment and is projected to attain the highest CAGR of 10.1% from 2023 to 2032. Health-conscious consumers are driving demand for leaner and more nutritious options, fostering a shift towards specialty poultry breeds.

Buy This Report (300 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, and Figures) @ https://bit.ly/3v7gxdz

The conventional segment to maintain its lead position throughout the forecast period

Based on nature, the conventional segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for four-fifths of the global poultry vitamin market revenue. The conventional poultry vitamin segment holds the maximum market share due to the various benefits offered by convention farming to the farmers, such as ease, convenience, and safety of crops in farming. The organic segment is the fastest-growing segment and is projected to attain the highest CAGR of 8.7% from 2023 to 2032. An upsurge has been witnessed in the adoption and popularity of organic poultry vitamin in the past few years. The growing concerns regarding environment, sustainability, and healthy food are few factors that are expected to boost the demand for the organic poultry vitamin globally.

The others segment to maintain its lead position throughout the forecast period

Based on vitamin type, the others segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than one-fifth of the global poultry vitamin market revenue. Increased consumer awareness of the nutritional value of poultry products has fueled demand for specialized vitamin formulations. Companies are focusing on developing innovative vitamin supplements tailored to address specific health concerns in poultry, promoting overall well-being and disease resistance. However, the Phylloquinone segment is the fastest-growing segment and is projected to attain the highest CAGR of 9.8% from 2023 to 2032. Phylloquinone, a vital component in poultry nutrition, is witnessing key market trends reflective of the growing emphasis on animal health and product quality.

North America to maintain its dominance by 2032

The North America region held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for less than two-fifths of the global poultry vitamin market revenue, and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. In the North American poultry industry, a notable trend revolves around the increasing adoption of specialized vitamin supplements. As consumers prioritize healthier food options, poultry producers are focusing on enhancing the nutritional profile of poultry products. However, Asia-Pacific region is projected to attain the highest CAGR of 9.3% from 2023 to 2032. Producers are embracing sustainable practices, incorporating vitamins to enhance poultry health and productivity. Rise in disposable incomes and a growing middle class are fueling greater consumption of premium poultry products, further emphasizing the importance of vitamin fortification.

Enquire Before Buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/15952

Leading Market Players:

CUPPO TEE COMPANY LIMITED

POULTRY VITAMIN HOUSE COMPANY

BOBA BOX LIMITED

SUMO'S (M) SDN BHD

GONG CHA GLOBAL LTD

KF TEA FRANCHISING LLC

CHATIME GLOBAL LLC

TP TEA

TBAAR INC.

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players in the global Poultry vitamin market. These players have adopted different strategies such as new product launches, business expansion, partnerships, mergers, and others to increase their market share and maintain dominant shares in different regions. The report is valuable in highlighting business performance, operating segments, product portfolio, and strategic moves of market players to showcase the competitive scenario.

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Processed Poultry Meat Market : Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 2022-2031

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
NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Blue Ridge Bankshares, Inc. (NYSE American: BRBS) between March 10, 2023 and October 31, 2023, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important February 5, 2024 lead plaintiff deadline in the securities class action first filed by the Firm.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Blue Ridge securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Blue Ridge class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=20587 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than February 5, 2024. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Blue Ridge Bankshares, Inc.'s financial statements from March 10, 2023 to the present included certain errors; (2) as a result, Blue Ridge Bankshares would need to restate its previously filed financial statements from March 10, 2023 to October 31, 2023; and (3) as a result, defendants' statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Blue Ridge class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=20587 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm.

Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm's attorneys are ranked and recognized by numerous independent and respected sources. Rosen Law Firm has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for investors.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

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SOURCE THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P. A.
Regional study launched in collaboration with Clean Energy Business Council and from Schneider Electric's Sustainability Research Institute Unveils New Perspectives on Energy Transition in MENA

DUBAI, UAE, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Schneider Electric, a leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, has launched its latest research report by the Schneider Electric Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), offering a look into the decarbonization of the Middle East by 2060.

Schneider Electric launches report on the decarbonization of the Middle East by 2060 in coordination with Clean Energy Business Council

The report titled Climate Horizon: Opportunities for a greener world in the Middle East  launched in coordination with Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC)  was officially unveiled by Peter Herweck, Chief Executive Officer of Schneider Electric, Vincent Petit, Senior Vice President, Climate and Energy Transition Research, Head of the Schneider ElectricTM Sustainability Research Institute and His Excellency, Dr. Nasser H. Saidi, Chairman, Clean Energy Business Council, on the sidelines of COP28. The report highlights Schneider Electric's commitment to energy-efficient solutions across the region and beyond.

His Excellency Dr. Nasser H. Saidi, Chairman, Clean Energy Business Council said: "The report, an outcome of in-depth research on the Middle East energy landscape, outlines two key future scenarios: one emphasizing the role of energy services in achieving a net-zero economy and the other focusing on a radical economic transformation. As we collaborate with Schneider Electric on this initiative, we are excited about steering towards a climate-positive future, aligning with our commitment to sustainable progress."

Vincent Petit, Senior Vice President, Climate and Energy Transition Research, Head of the Schneider ElectricTM Sustainability Research Institute said: "The findings from this report, offer crucial insights into the unique challenges and opportunities associated with the energy transition in the Middle East, and highlight the balance required between technological advancements and policy development in the pursuit of decarbonization. This study not only sheds light on the region's evolving energy landscape but also positions Schneider Electric as a thought leader actively contributing to the discourse on sustainable practices and the transition to a low-carbon future."

The Schneider Electric Sustainability Research Institute continues to be at the forefront of research and thought leadership in sustainability, showcasing Schneider Electric's dedication to spearheading global and local transitions towards a climate-positive future.

Download the full Middle East report titled Climate Horizon: Opportunities for a greener world in the Middle East here.

About Schneider Electric

Schneider's purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. We call this Life Is On. Our mission is to be your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency.

We drive digital transformation by integrating world-leading process and energy technologies, end-point to cloud connecting products, controls, software, and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure, and industries.

We are the most local of global companies. We are advocates of open standards and partnership ecosystems that are passionate about our shared Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values.

For more information please visit: https://www.se.com/ae/en/

Follow us on: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | Blog

Contact

Disha Dadlani

+971 58 825 2214

[email protected]

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2312809/Schneider_Electric_CEBC_Middle_East.jpg

SOURCE Schneider Electric
- Argo will receive upfront payments of $185 million from Novartis and is eligible to receive potential option and milestone payments as well as tiered royalties on commercial sales.

- Novartis will receive an ex-Greater China exclusive license for a Phase 1/2a stage cardiovascular asset, a worldwide exclusive license for a Phase 1 stage cardiovascular asset as well as an option to license compounds directed against up to two cardiovascular targets.

- Discovered and developed with Argo's advanced RNA interference (RNAi) technology, these programs will reinforce and expand the Novartis RNAi portfolio on Cardiovascular and Metabolic diseases (CVM).

SHANGHAI, Jan. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai Argo Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. ("Argo"), a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of next-generation RNAi therapeutics, today announced that it has entered into two exclusive license and collaboration agreements with Novartis PHARMA AG ("Novartis").

Under the first agreement, Argo has granted Novartis exclusive global licenses to develop and commercialize a Phase 1 stage program. The first agreement also includes a research collaboration and Novartis also receives an option to potentially license compounds directed against up to two additional targets for cardiovascular disease treatment. Under the second agreement, Argo granted Novartis an exclusive ex-Greater China license to develop and commercialize a Phase 1/2a clinical-stage program for cardiovascular disease treatment.

Discovered and developed with Argo's cutting-edge RNAi platform technology, these clinical-stage assets offer industry-leading efficacy and durability therapies. The transactions have a combined potential value of up to $4.165 billion for Argo and tiered royalties.

"This is the first significant overseas out-licensing transaction in the RNAi field from a Chinese biotech company. We are pleased that Novartis, a global leader in cardiovascular disease and RNAi therapeutics, recognizes the significant value that the Argo team has created with advanced RNAi platform technology and new generation CVM pipeline over the past two years." said Dongxu Shu, president and chief executive officer of Argo Biopharma. "The proven development capabilities, global commercial reach, and breadth of experience Novartis has in CVM make it the ideal partner to accelerate the development of our drug candidates and bring these medicines to patients".

"We believe the cardiovascular programs that Argo has developed using its state-of-the-art RNAi platform complement the Novartis pipeline of RNA-based therapeutics," said Shaun Coughlin, Head of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Area research at Novartis. "We look forward to working with Argo to bring these investigational therapies forward to help address unmet patient needs in cardiovascular medicine."

Also under the first agreement, Novartis can select up to two targets against which Argo will perform discovery and optimization, to deliver PCCs, at which time Novartis will have the option to take a worldwide exclusive license.

The second transaction is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.

About Shanghai Argo Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

Founded in April 2021, Argo is a privately held biotechnology company based in Shanghai. The company's primary focus is on RNAi drug research and development. Argo has developed industry-leading RNAi platform technology named RADS (RNAi molecules with superior Activity, Duration and Safety), which embodies Argo's technological prowess in delivery, chemical modification, and sequence designs, consistently yielding top-tier RNAi therapeutics.

Argo's present pipeline includes more than 20 therapeutic programs for the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, hematology, complement pathway diseases, viral infection and neurodegenerative diseases. Five leading programs are in the clinical development stage, and all have demonstrated well-tolerated safety profiles and best-in-class potential.

Additional information about Argo is available at www.argobiopharma.com.

SOURCE Shanghai Argo Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
NEW YORK, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The smart pole market by type (retrofit installations and new installations), product (component, software, and services), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa, and South America) - Forecast and Analysis 2023-2027" report has been added to Technavio offering. With ISO 9001:2015 certification, Technavio has proudly partnered with more than 100 Fortune 500 companies for over 16 years. The potential growth difference for the smart pole market between 2023 and 2027 is USD 12.48 billion.

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Smart Pole Market 2023-2027

Get deeper insights into the market size, current market scenario, future growth opportunities, major growth driving factors, the latest trends, and much more. Buy the full report here

What are the main growth drivers in the Smart Pole Market?

The Smart Pole, with integrated LED lighting powered by solar panels, exemplifies multifunctionality, boosting market expansion. Equipped with surveillance cameras, environmental monitoring, and digital signage, it ensures comprehensive monitoring and public communication. Its traffic monitoring capabilities, energy storage, and adaptive lighting control enhance efficiency. Crafted from sustainable materials, it offers vandalism protection and streamlined maintenance management. This amalgamation of features underpins its significant role in urban infrastructure advancement and sustainable city development.

What are the market trends in the Smart Pole Market?

The expanding smart pole market trend aligns with the rising prevalence of smart city integration. Smart poles, integrating G technology, IoT (Internet of Things), and Wi-Fi connectivity, serve as pivotal components. Enabled with smart sensors, Bluetooth beacons, and data analytics, they facilitate remote management and offer real-time information display through public Wi-Fi hotspots. These innovative poles conduct pedestrian counting, monitor air quality sensors, and provide weather forecasting tools. Their integration embodies urban evolution, emphasizing the fusion of technology for enhanced city living experiences.

What are the challenges faced by the Smart Pole Market?

The principal challenge obstructing the smart pole market's growth lies in the substantial costs involved. Integrating EV charging stations, emergency call boxes, and public address systems escalates expenses. Urban data collection, network security, and reliance on cloud computing further contribute to the financial burden. Market leaders and competitors are faced with the task of overcoming these cost barriers to facilitate widespread adoption, ensuring the efficient integration of advanced functionalities while maintaining competitive pricing models.

Learn about additional key drivers, trends, and challenges available with Technavio. Read a Free Sample PDF Report Now

How is the Healthcare Smart Pole Market Segmented?

The smart pole market is segmented by type (retrofit installations and new installations), product (component, software, and services), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa, and South America).

Which segment significantly contributes to the Smart Pole Market?

The market share growth by the retrofit installations segment will be significant during the forecast period. Retrofit installations are intended to replace the current standard street lighting poles with smart ones. The upgrading of streetlights to energy-efficient smart poles is becoming an increasing trend across Europe and the Middle East, driven in particular by regions such as Europe and Middle East Africa which have a lower rate of LED perforation. In advanced economies, the demand for smart pole retrofitting is very high as opposed to developing economies. Consumer perceptions of technology and innovative products were also influenced by a rapidly growing technological trend resulting from the Pandemic.

Which region majorly contributes to the Smart Pole Market?

North America is estimated to contribute 34% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period.

View the Free Sample Report for insights into the contribution of all the segments and regional opportunities in the report.

Who are the key companies in the Smart Pole Market?

Acuity Brands Inc., Eaton Corp. Plc, ELKO EP Holding SE, General Electric Co., Goldspar Australia Pty Ltd., Hubbell Inc., Itron Inc., Jaquar Group, Koninklijke Philips NV, Lumca Inc., Mobile Pro Systems, Norsk Hydro ASA, OMNIFLOW SA, Renesas Electronics Corp., Shanghai Sansi Electronic Engineering Technology Co. Ltd., Siemens AG, Signify NV, Sunna Design SA, Valmont Industries Inc., and Wipro Ltd.

Related Reports:

The e-gates market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 20.41% between 2022 and 2027. The market size is forecast to increase by USD 2,425.26 million.

The Security Orchestration Automation Response (SOAR) Market size is estimated to grow by USD 1,244.96 million at a CAGR of 15.8% between 2022 and 2027.

Smart Pole Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 16.74% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 12.48 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 15.5 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution North America at 34% Key countries US, Canada, China, Germany, and UK Competitive landscape Leading Companies, Market Positioning of Companies, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled Acuity Brands Inc., Eaton Corp. Plc, ELKO EP Holding SE, General Electric Co., Goldspar Australia Pty Ltd., Hubbell Inc., Itron Inc., Jaquar Group, Koninklijke Philips NV, Lumca Inc., Mobile Pro Systems, Norsk Hydro ASA, OMNIFLOW SA, Renesas Electronics Corp., Shanghai Sansi Electronic Engineering Technology Co. Ltd., Siemens AG, Signify NV, Sunna Design SA, Valmont Industries Inc., and Wipro Ltd. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, 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.

ToC:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market Sizing

Historic Market Sizes

Five Forces Analysis

Market Segmentation by Type

Market Segmentation by Product

Market Segmentation by Geography

Customer Landscape

Geographic Landscape

Drivers, Challenges, & Trends

Company Landscape

Company Analysis

Appendix

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contacts

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Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com

SOURCE Technavio
GENEVA, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The L'OCCITANE Group, a pioneer in premium sustainable beauty and wellness and a certified B Corporation, today announced an evolution in its leadership structure. The responsibilities of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Group Managing Director will be combined into one role, effective 1 April 2024. This initiative sustains the company's transformation into a geographically balanced, multi-brand group.

Laurent Marteau

Andre J. Hoffmann, acting CEO, has decided to step down from this position. He will remain an Executive Director and member of the Board of the L'OCCITANE Group and continue to focus on strategic, policy and leadership matters within the company.

Laurent Marteau, the Group's current Managing Director, has been appointed L'OCCITANE Group CEO.

Laurent Marteau has over 20 years of experience in the global beauty industry. He worked for the LVMH Group in various senior management roles and countries for 15 years. He joined the La Prairie Group in 2014 as VP for Global Travel Retail & Special Channels and became a member of the Board of Directors in the same year. In 2020, he expanded his responsibilities and was made VP for Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. He joined the L'OCCITANE Group as Group Managing Director in 2022.

'As our Group grows, we need to evolve,' said Reinold Geiger, Chairman of the L'OCCITANE Group. 'Laurent embodies the L'OCCITANE Group's entrepreneurial mindset and deep commitment to people and nature. His in-depth knowledge of the global market, combined with an inclusive leadership style, makes him a strong CEO to bring together a multi-brand and multicultural Group delivering value for all our stakeholders.'

Andre J. Hoffmann has been acting as Vice-Chairman of the L'OCCITANE Group since 2016 and took on the role of Group CEO in 2021. He will work alongside the Group's senior management team to help ensure a smooth transition.

Reinold Geiger added: 'I want to thank Andre, my business partner of almost 30 years, for his leadership during his time as CEO. In recent years he has led the company towards its strategic objectives, including its geographical expansion, and has been instrumental in the successful acquisition and integration of new brands such as ELEMIS, Sol de Janeiro and Grown Alchemist. He will continue to play a significant role in the Group, supporting its strategic direction as Executive Director and member of the Board.'

CONTACT: [email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2311833/Laurent_Marteau.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2311832/LOCCITANE_Group_Logo.jpg
Nicoll Brings 20+ Years of Brokerage Experience and Notable Achievements

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Transwestern Real Estate Services (TRS) announces it has named Emily Nicoll City Leader for the Minneapolis market. In this role, Nicoll will oversee the operations of the company's Minneapolis office, as well as drive the growth and success of both the business and the Transwestern brand.

Emily is a dynamic leader with deep knowledge of the Minneapolis market and a proven ability to grow relationships. Post this Emily Nicoll, Minneapolis City Leader Transwestern Real Estate Services

"Emily is a strong leader who comes to Transwestern with a deep understanding of the Minneapolis commercial real estate market and a proven ability to grow multi-market relationships," said Munson. "Equally important, she brings dynamic leadership and enthusiasm to the role. Her priorities and energy align perfectly with our vision for the Minneapolis office and the many clients we serve."

Nicoll joins Transwestern from CBRE, where she was a Senior Vice President in the Occupier Services group, focusing her career on providing strategic and transactional support for corporate tenants. This included working with clients across their portfolios to identify and capture unique market opportunities, and helping to proactively craft value-add solutions for their real estate needs. During her 20-year tenure, Nicoll represented high-profile clients such as Cargill, Dorsey & Whitney, Northwestern Mutual, WPP, and the YMCA of the North, and has been repeatedly recognized for her accomplishments. Honors include the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal's 40 Under 40, MNCAR's 2017 Office Transaction of the Year, Twin Cities Business Magazine's 2020 Notable Women in Commercial Real Estate, and Bisnow's 2023 Minneapolis's Women Leading Real Estate.

Well-respected in the community, Nicoll is heavily involved in both real estate professional groups and nonprofit organizations. She served as President of the Board for the Minnesota Commercial Real Estate Women (MNCREW) and is a member of the Minnesota Commercial Association of Realtors (MNCAR). Additionally, she holds committee positions for the Children's Theatre Company, and previously served on the Board of Directors for both the Alzheimer's Association and Milkweed Editions, an independent literary publisher.

"Transwestern's authentic focus on empowering its people to do extraordinary things together was a primary driver behind my decision to make this leap," said Nicoll. "The company's reputation for exceptional client service is upheld by its culture of collaboration and innovation. I look forward to partnering with my new team on initiatives that can create even greater success for all of us in the Minneapolis market."

Nicoll holds the LEED AP designation and is a graduate of Denison University in Ohio.

Photo available for download here.

About Transwestern Real Estate Services

Part of the Transwestern companies, Transwestern Real Estate Services (TRS) strives to add value for investors, owners and occupiers across all commercial property types. Fueled by a holistic perspective of the real estate life cycle, agility and creativity are hallmarks of our approach, while vast national resources and sound market intelligence underpin customized recommendations and property solutions.

Five dynamic, integrated companies make up the Transwestern enterprise, giving us the perspective to think broadly, deeply and creatively about commercial real estate. Clients and investors rely on us for expertise that spans institutional and opportunistic investment, development, hospitality, and brokerage and asset services. Our award-winning, collaborative culture empowers team members with resources and independence to work across boundaries in pursuit of innovative solutions, reinforcing a reputation for service excellence that translates to measurable results. Through offices nationwide and alliance partners around the globe, we positively impact the built environment and our communities while fostering a work climate that champions career vitality for all. Learn more at transwestern.com and @Transwestern.

SOURCE Transwestern
The Aussie payments and cashflow solutions company selected the cloud-based platform to speed up innovation and expand its market presence

BRISTOL, England and SYDNEY, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pismo , provider of a cloud-native and API-based platform for financial services, announces a significant milestone in its growth journey. Australian fintech Tyro Payments is adopting the Pismo payment-processing platform to enhance its product portfolio. Tyro, which specialises in merchant credit, debit, and EFTPOS acquiring, plans to bolster its banking offering through Pismo's innovative solution.

"At Tyro, we are thrilled to be partnering with Pismo as we continue to strengthen our cashflow management solutions for small businesses across Australia," says Dominic White, Chief Product Officer at Tyro.

Vishal Dalal, CEO (North America, EMEA, APAC) at Pismo, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership: "We are proud to be chosen by Tyro Payments, which supports more than 68,000 businesses in the Australian market with their innovative payments and cashflow solutions. We look forward to building a foundation for long-term growth."

Both technical teams are working to integrate the systems, which are expected to be fully operational in the first quarter of 2024.

Media contacts:

Pismo

Patricia Bartuira

+1 (786) 270-6253

[email protected]

Debora Fortes

Pismo

[email protected]

Tyro

Gemma Garkut

+61422040559

[email protected]

SOURCE Pismo
UNION CITY, Calif., Jan. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- U-tec is headed to CES and will launch the next generation of its award-winning flagship ULTRALOQ Bolt series, the ULTRALOQ Bolt Fingerprint Matter Edition, the World's First Fingerprint Smart Deadbolt with Matter Over Thread. U-tec will be at CES exhibiting at the Venetian Expo, booth 52623 and at ShowStoppers, January 9 in Las Vegas.

World's First Fingerprint Smart Deadbolt with Matter Over Thread

Bolt Fingerprint Matter is an advanced smart lock offering a six-in-one unlocking experience and multi-layered security. This device seamlessly integrates with Matter connectivity, creating a unified smart home ecosystem. With advanced fingerprint recognition and mobile control, it allows effortless and secure access management, all in a stylish and durable design.

Regardless of whether your smart home is powered by Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, Apple Home, or Amazon Alexa, you will enjoy peace of mind with a smart home interconnected by Matter.

"We are proud to work with Matter to launch this life-changing digital experience for consumers that lets them integrate their ULTRALOQ smart locks with other Matter compatible devices into users' daily routines," said Clark Ruan, VP of U-tec.

Three key features of ULTRALOQ Bolt Fingerprint Matter include:

Cutting-Edge Support for Matter over Thread

ULTRALOQ Bolt Fingerprint Matter uniquely supports Matter over Thread technology, ensuring seamless integration with various smart home devices for a future-proof experience.

Six-in-One Unlocking Methods for Keyless Experience

Offering multiple unlocking methods such as fingerprint recognition, passcodes, mobile app access, and backup keys, the smart lock ensures unparalleled security with flexibility.

Extended Battery Life of up to one year

Designed to support 8 alkaline cells, the smart lock provides extended battery life and minimizes battery replacements, catering to today's dynamic and connected lifestyles.

About U-tec

U-tec's mission revolves around empowering homeowners with innovative, user-friendly smart home solutions. The company creates products that not only enhance security but also simplify daily life, offering peace of mind through accessible and reliable technology. Founded in 2015, the company has quickly established itself as an innovator in the industry, leveraging cutting-edge technology to create intuitive smart home solutions.

For more information, please visit www.u-tec.com.

Instagram: @utec.ultraloq

Twitter: @ultraloq

Facebook: @ultraloq

#smartliving #smarthome #uhome

SOURCE U-tec
Funding Will Accelerate Company's Transition to 100% Electric, Ushering In a Greener Era for School Transportation

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Zum will receive over $26 million through the EPA's first Clean School Bus Program Grants Competition.

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Zum will receive over $26 million through the EPAs first Clean School Bus Program Grants Competition.

The funding will help Zum, the leader in modern student transportation, as it transitions its fleet of school buses to 100% electric school buses. Made possible through President Biden's Investing in America agenda, the grant will also accelerate the expansion of Zum's industry-leading AI-driven technology platform, a key tool in Zum's effort to fully decarbonize the school bus industry and bolster the fight against climate change.

"We commend the Administration's tireless work to advance the acceleration of student transportation into a green era," said Zum Founder and CEO Ritu Narayan. "At Zum, our goal is to ensure that all students have access to safe, reliable and sustainable transportation, and this grant award will propel our electrification efforts in many of the districts that we serve. We are grateful and honored to be a part of this initiative."

"Today we're once again accelerating the transition to electric and low-emission school buses in America, helping to secure a healthier future where all our children can breathe cleaner air," said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. "I've sat next to students on their very first clean school bus ride and their excitement reflects the power of good policy. Thanks to President Biden's historic investments in America, thousands more school buses will hit the road in school districts across the country, saving school districts money and improving air quality at the same time."

"This is an exciting milestone in our journey to transition Oakland's entire school bus fleet to 100% electric," stated Kim Raney, Transportation Director, Oakland Unified School District. "We appreciate the work being done by local, state and federal policy makers to support the work being done at the local level and commend our partners at Zum for driving this initiative forward to ensure a healthier, more sustainable experience for the parents and students that we serve."

Founded and led by a first-generation immigrant and mother, Ritu Narayan, Zum is reimagining the yellow school bus system. Thousands of schools across the country have partnered with Zum for school transportation, including Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest district in the country; San Francisco Unified School District; Seattle Public Schools; Howard County Public Schools; Oakland Unified School District; and Metro Nashville Public Schools.

Zum has transformed the outdated student transportation industry, previously riddled with inefficiencies and a lack of transparency, through its innovative approach to digitization and electrification. Zum has unified parents, students, school administrators, and drivers on a single personalized end-to-end technology platform, enabling never-before achieved levels of visibility and data-backed accountability, which has ushered in a new era of increased safety, reliability, and sustainability for the school districts.

To learn more about how Zum is working with thousands of schools across the nation to deliver safe, reliable, zero-emission, and modern student transportation, please visit Zum's website .

About Zum

Zum is an American company modernizing student transportation by partnering with school districts to provide safe, sustainable, efficient and equitable service. Zum's technology optimizes school bus routes, reduces student commute times, and tracks children's arrival and departure from school while connecting parents, drivers, schools and administrators in real time. Zum is the first and only 100% carbon neutral student transportation company, helping schools optimize their school bus fleets by providing electric school bus solutions that reduce diesel emissions and save costs. Zum has been recognized by the Financial Times as one of the Fastest Growing Companies of 2023, named on CNBC's Disruptor 50 list, and selected by Fast Company as a World Changing Idea. Learn more at www.ridezum.com.

CONTACT:

[email protected]

SOURCE Zum
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Dhaka, Jan 8 : Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has won an overwhelming majority in Bangladesh's parliamentary election, giving her party -- the Awami League -- a fourth consecutive term, the media reported, citing an election official.

After an election campaign fraught with violence and a boycott from the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), it is confirmed as per several media reports that Hasina's party has won 216 seats out of 299, Sky News reported.

"The ruling Awami League party has won more than 50 per cent of seats," the official said.

A final official declaration on the outcome of the vote is expected by the Election Commission late Monday, Sky News reported.

Around 40 per cent voted out of a total 120 million people who were eligible, according to Kazi Habibul Awal, the Chief Election Commissioner.

Independent candidates took 52 parliamentary seats, while the Jatiya Party -- the third largest in the country -- took 11, according to local TV stations.

Hasina's party has already crossed the majority mark and counting is still on. This will be her fifth term as Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

Hasina's government had arrested thousands of rival politicians ahead of the polls. The Opposition BNP led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia boycotted the polls.

Zia, 78, is under house arrest after being convicted in a corruption case, Sky News reported.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hasina was re-elected to parliament from the Gopalganj-3 constituency.

According to a report by bdnews24, Hasina bagged 249,965 votes while her nearest rival M. Nizam Uddin Lashkar from the Bangladesh Supreme Party secured just 469 votes.

Hasina has been voted to parliament from the Gopalganj-3 seat for the eighth time since 1986.

The win also means the 76-year-old has become the country's longest-serving leader.

The BNP led by former PM Khaleda Zia refused to accept the election outcome, Sky News reported.

In the build-up to the election, there were at least 18 arson attacks, including one on a train on Friday night that resulted in four deaths.

Seven men belonging to the BNP and its youth wing were arrested for their alleged involvement in the train attack.

The Sheikh Hasina government went on to defend the election, saying 27 parties and 404 independent candidates participated in it.
500 pre-fabricated toilets to be installed in Ayodhya. Image Source: IANS News

Lucknow, Jan 8: The Uttar Pradesh government has unveiled a plan to boost religious tourism and improve sanitation along the Saryu Ghats in Ayodhya by installing 500 prefabricated toilets along the river bank.

The Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) will oversee the implementation of the prefabricated toilets scheme, covering major ghats, just in time for the upcoming Makar Sankranti snan (holy dip) event on January 15.

The move follows Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's directive to develop Ayodhya as a religious tourism destination.

The selection and operation of the 500 prefabricated toilets will involve an agency selection process, utilizing the quality cost-based selection method.

Interested agencies must present working prototypes, emphasizing cost-effectiveness. Out of the 500 toilet blocks, 450 will have Indian water closets (IWCs), including 10 designed for differently-abled individuals, while the remaining 40 will feature European water closets (EWCs).

Control rooms, supported by a 24/7 toll-free helpline, will be established for user support.

Access to these toilets will be free for the public for at least 12 months, with the selected agency responsible for maintaining cleanliness, proper functionality, septic waste management, uninterrupted water supply, and the use of eco-friendly cleaning chemicals.

To enhance user experience, the toilets will have multilingual signage, including Hindi, English, Telugu, Gujarati, and Marathi.

Gender-differentiated color-coding (blue for males, pink for females) and instructional signage in multiple languages will be incorporated. Prominent display of helpline numbers in Hindi and English at each booth will further assist users.

This initiative aligns with the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, guidelines from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and directives from the Swachh Bharat Mission SBM 2.0, government said.
Tel Aviv, Jan 8 : During a trial at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) this week, the Israeli government will present a series of harrowing video accounts of torture and the brutal carnage that was carried out by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023.

The government will screen raw video footages received from the body cams of the slain Hamas terrorists.

The videos include militants torturing, brutalising and massacring innocent civilians in southern Israel shortly after the Hamas launched its unprecedented assault.

These footages were earlier screened before international media, visiting state heads, diplomats, human rights organisations and also for members of Knesset, or the Israeli Parliament.

The hearings pertain to a case filed by South Africa on December 29, 2023 accusing Israel of committing "genocidal" acts" in Gaza amid the raging war with Hamas.

Following its 84-page application to The Hague-based ICJ -- which is the UN's principal judicial organ -- South Africa's presidency said in a statement that the country was obliged "to prevent genocide from occurring".

South Africa is scheduled to present its oral arguments on Thursday, with Israel set to do the same the following day.

Immediately after South Africa submitted its application, spokesperson for Israel's Foreign Ministry Lior Haiat had said that the nation's claim "constitutes despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court".

He said South Africa was "cooperating with a terrorist organisation that is calling for the destruction of the State of Israel".

While confirming that the Israeli government will attend the hearings,National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told local media last week that the Jewish nation has "signed the convention against genocide for decades, and we will certainly not boycott the proceeding, but stand up and repel the absurd blood plot against us."

The US has also denounced the case, saying it was meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Israel has named retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Aharon Barak, as the country's appointee to the 15-judge ICJ panel that will hear the case.

South Africa has been highly critical of Israel's ongoing military operation in Gaza. In November 2023, it recalled all of its diplomats from Israel.

Israel, in turn, recalled its Ambassador from Pretoria.

--IANS

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Tokyo, Jan 8 : A runway at the Tokyo Haneda International Airport reopened on Monday after it was shut following last week's collision between a Coast Guard aircraft and a Japan Airlines (JAL) passenger plane.

Runway C, one of four runways at the country's busiest airport, was reopened after the removal of the wreckage of the JAL aircraft and the completion of repairs, reports Xinhua news agency.

The closure of Runway C following the accident led to the cancellation of over 1,200 flights, affecting more than 200,000 passengers during the busy New Year holidays, according to Japan's Kyodo News.

The JAL aircraft collided with the Coast Guard plane on Runway C while landing on January 2, with both aircraft catching fire.

All 379 people aboard the JAL flight escaped before it was engulfed in flames, but five of the six crew on the Coast Guard plane died while the surviving pilot sustained serious injuries.

The Coast Guard plane, which belonged to the Haneda Airport base, was taxiing on the runway to transport relief goods for quake-hit areas after a series of temblors of up to 7.6 magnitude struck central Japan on January 1.
Kolkata, Jan 8 : West Bengal Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya has filed an FIR against the BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya over a social media post in which he linked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with last week's attack on ED officials and CAPF personnel in North 24 Parganas district.

In a post on X on Sunday, Malviya had said: "ED has issued a look out for Sheikh Shahjahan, the dreaded criminal and one of Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek's trusted henchman. He is wanted for, among other crimes, in the massive Ration Scam (in which food supplies meant for the poorest of the poor in Bengal was sold in open market for over a decade).

"West Bengal Governor has ordered WB DGP to immediately arrest Sheikh Shahjahan and investigate his links with terror organisations. But Shahjahan, who claimed to be don of Sandeshkhali, is absconding. This wouldn't have been possible without the patronage of Mamata Banerjee, who is also the Home Minister of West Bengal."

On Sunday night, Bhattacharya, who is the minister of state for finance (independent charge), filed the FIR at Nimta Police Station in North 24 Parganas against Malviya.

She filed the FIR, a copy of which is available with IANS, not as a state minister but as an elected legislator from Dum Dum (North) constituency in North 24 Parganas.

In her FIR, Bhattacharya claimed that such comments against an elected public representative in the highest position in the state administration is totally unacceptable and an attempt to malign that chair.

She also described the comments by Malviya as criminal in nature.

In the FIR, she also referred to Malviya's comments in the social post accusing the Chief Minister of having a track record of shielding criminals.

"She has a track record of shielding criminals. Soon after the Bogtui massacre, Mamata Banerjee drove around with accused Anubrota Mondal in her official car. There is no doubt that Sheikh Sajahan, wherever he is, is under her protection. But just like she couldn't save Anubrota, she won't be able to save Sajahan too. Her blood soaked empire, built on crime, is crumbling" Malviya had said in his X post.
Pannun calls for shutdown of airports from Amritsar to Ayodhya ahead of Jan 22. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Jan 8 : Khalistan leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun continued his incendiary provocation of violence against India on Monday, calling for shutdown of airports from Amritsar to Ayodhya ahead of the January 22 Ram temple Pran Pratishtha ceremony.

The legal counsel of the outlawed Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) group also exhorted Muslims in the country to "oppose" the ceremony, and urged them to carve out 'Urduistan' from India.

"From Amritsar to Ayodhya, shut down airports. Now is the time, Muslims, you carve out a country Urduistan from India," Pannun said in a fresh video message released on Monday.

Threatening that the ceremony is going to have a "global consequence", Pannun said, "every Muslim must protest".

Pannun's threats come as preparations for the Ram Mandir's Pran Pratishtha' in Ayodhya are in full swing with over one lakh devotees expected to be in the city for the event, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The newly-inaugurated Maharishi Valmiki International Airport in Ayodhya has already received more than 40 requests for landing of chartered flights for the mega religious event.

Last week, the Sikh separatist had issued another video calling for India's "economic destruction" by targeting the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) from March 12, coinciding with the 31st anniversary of serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993.

Pannun was declared a designated terrorist in 2020 by India under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

While the US claims to have shielded him from a purported assassination by Indian agents, he is wanted in nearly two dozen cases, including some of terrorism and sedition in India.

In September 2023, his properties in Amritsar and Chandigarh cities were seized by the NIA, which also charged him and his separatist organisation under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the UAPA on November 20.

Following the NIA charges, the radical Sikh and his secessionist group gave a call to pro-Khalistan elements to "picket" Air India's outbound flights from the airports in the Canadian cities of Toronto and Vancouver on December 1, 2023.

--IANS

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Jaipur, Jan 8 : The counting of votes for the Karanpur Assembly seat in Rajasthan was underway on Monday and Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Koonar was leading with a margin of 2,442 votes over BJP's Surendra Pal Singh TT.

The counting started at 8 a.m in Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Government PG College.

After six rounds, Rupinder Singh Koonar has secured 32,085 votes followed by BJP's Surendra Pal Singh TT at 29,643.

This seat has remained in the news due to the appointment of BJP candidate Surendra Pal Singh TT as a minister in the Bhajan Lal government. The result will decide whether TT will continue as minister or not. The eyes of the entire state are fixed on this election result. Counting of votes will be completed in 18 rounds.

TT has also been given four important departments in the government.

The Congress had filed a complaint with the Election Commission regarding violation of the code of conduct.

This is the first major test of the Bhajan Lal government after the BJP came to power.

The Karanpur Assembly constituency has 2, 40, 826 voters, including 1,25,850 men and 1,14,966 women, 180 service voters and 10 transgender voters. There was 74.40 per cent voting in the voting held here on January 5.

It needs to be mentioned that Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Kunnar passed away and hence elections were cancelled here.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : The Supreme Court on Monday said that the convicts in Bilkis Bano case must report back to concerned jail authorities within a period of two weeks.

A bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the plea of protection of liberty of convicts cannot be accepted and the "natural consequences" of setting aside remission orders must follow.

"We think that a person is entitled to protection of his liberty only in accordance with law. When a person's liberty cannot be violated in breach of law, can a person's liberty be protected in the face of a breach or violation of law?

"In upholding rule of law, are we depriving respondents (convicts) the right to freedom and liberty? We wish to make it clear that only when rule of law prevails, liberty and other fundamental rights would prevail in our constitution," the bench said.

The top court quashed the decision passed by the Gujarat government setting free convicts under the state's remission policy on August 15, 2022 in the case of Bano's gang rape and murder of her family members committed during the 2002 state riots.
Mumbai, Jan 8 : The Shiv Sena (UBT) attacked Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar for their meeting over lunch on January 7, saying it imperils democracy and the Constitution, here on Monday.

SS-UBT MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut said the Speaker is presently deciding on the sensitive case of disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs, including Shinde.

"Under the circumstances, the Speaker is like a judge who has gone to meet the accused (CM) behind closed doors and have lunch with him. The Speaker has been given this responsibility (disqualification case) by the Supreme Court. This is objectionable," said Raut sharply.

Attacking the development and raising doubts on the fate of the pending disqualification case, Raut said that first Narwekar abruptly fell ill and then he suddenly recovered and got into his car to go to meet the CM.

"A person who is expected to pronounce the verdict on the accused goes and meets the latter, just three days ahead of the January 10 deadline. What kind of justice can be expected now," said Raut, speaking with mediapersons.

He said that this had endangered the Constitution of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and the justice system has reached a crucial point in the country where a 'judge' and 'accused' (Shinde) meet, lunch together, and then the 'judge' (Narwekar) leaves the place all smiles.
PESHAWAR, April 16, 2019 (Xinhua) -- A policeman stands guard near a destroyed militant hideout during an operation against insurgents in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, April 16, 2019. At least six people including a policeman and five militants were . Image Source: IANS News

Peshawar, Jan 8 : At least five cops were killed and 22 people injured on Monday after a bomb went off near a police van in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said.

According to the police, the van was targeted with an improvised explosive device in Bajaur district, reports Xinhua news agency.

The personnel were on their way to provide security to polio vaccination teams in the district when they were targeted, said the police.

The polio vaccination drive was suspended as a result.

Following the incident, a heavy contingent of police, along with rescue teams, reached the area and shifted the injured to a nearby hospital, where several othe wounder were said to be in critical condition.

Security forces cordoned off the area and have launched a search operation.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the blast.
Tokyo, Jan 8 : The death toll from a devastating 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan's Ishikawa prefecture on January 1, increased to 161 as of Monday, local authorities said.

Meanwhile, efforts on underway to find at least 103 people who are currently unaccounted for, Xinhua news agency.

Of the deaths, 70 have been confirmed in both Wajima and Suzu cities, 11 in Anamizu Town, five in Nanao City, two each in the towns of Noto and Shika, and one in Hakui City, according to Japan's public broadcaster NHK.

A total of 565 people were also injured as a result of the massive temblor and the continued aftershocks.

Bad weather however, is hampering rescuers, with heavy rain and snow triggering warnings of landslides and building collapses.

A cold air mass has been bringing snow to Ishikawa prefecture and other parts of the Hokuriku region as well as Niigata prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

As of 6 a.m. on Monday, snow accumulation in Ishikawa prefecture had reached 13 cm in Suzu, 11 cm in Nanao and 9 cm in Wajima.

The weather agency urged people in the disaster-hit areas to take extra caution with quake-damaged buildings that could collapse under the weight of the snow and to stay warm to prevent hypothermia amid severe cold.

More than 2,000 people were reportedly still cut off due to massive damage to roads, while several others are living in emergency shelters.

The Japanese military has been handing out supplies including food, water and blankets for those who have had to vacate their homes.

In a statement on Sunday, the Defence Ministry said that it had sent nearly 6,000 troops out to help with the relief mission.

Since the January 1 temblor, more than 1,200 tremors have been recorded in the region until Monday, according to NHK.
Lucknow, Jan 8 : In an unexpected development, Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati on Monday urged the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh to allot her an alternative office for the BSP since she apprehended an untoward incident taking place in the present Mall Avenue office here.

In a series of tweets, Mayawati claimed that she felt 'unsafe' in the present office which has a flyover running almost parallel to it.

"Policemen are deployed whenever there is an event at the party office. As such I am forced to conduct majority of the meetings at my residence," she tweeted.

Without naming the Samajwadi Party, Mayawati accused the 'conspirators' of making the bridge higher than the BSP office and termed such forces as 'anti-Dalit'.

She said that she had already shifted the statues of Dalit icons to her residence so that they would not be vandalized by 'such forces'.

The flyover adjacent to the BSP office was built during the regime of Akhilesh Yadav.

She also recalled that the same forces (read SP) were responsible for the infamous June 2 State Guest House incident of 1995 in which she and her supporters were attacked by SP men.

BJP spokesman Rakesh Tripathi, meanwhile, said that there was no threat to the security of Mayawati since the Yogi Adityanath government had ensured the safety of all. "As far as shifting of the office is concerned, she can apply to the government and action will be taken according to rules," he said.
Islamabad, Jan 8 : At least five cops were killed and 22 people injured after a bomb went off near a police van carrying personnel to provide security to polio vaccination teams in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, officials said.

The incident occurred in Bajaur district's Mamund tehsil.

According to the Bajaur police spokesperson, the 22 injured local civilans as well.

"Twelve out of the 22 wounded are being treated at the hospital, while 10 others seriously injured had been referred to a Peshawar medical facility", said Wazir Khan Safi, the medical superintendent at Khar District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ).

Police spokesperson Israr Ahmed confirmed that the personnel were on their way to provide security to polio teams carrying out vaccination campaign in the area.

"Polio campaign in the area had now been suspended. Seriously injured people would be taken to Peshawar via helicopter. The area has been cordoned off", confirmed Saqib Raza, Malakand Division Commissioner.

KP Chief Minister Justice (retd) Arshad Hussain Shah strongly condemned the incident, terming it as cowardly.

"The police morale would not be defeated by such cowardly incidents", he stated.

Polio vaccination campaigns, health workers and security officials have ofthen been targeted by militants of the banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other affiliate groups who have strongly oppose such drives.

Locals in the tribal districts of Pakistan have also been threatened of serious consequences if they comply with the polio vaccination workers.

In the past, pamphlets distributed by militant groups have threatened locals and directed them to keep themselves and their families away from the vaccination drive.

The Taliban resistance against the polio immunisation drive gained strength after the CIA claimed to organise a fake polio vaccination drive in Abbottabad to track down Osama Bin Laden, who was killed by a US Navy Seal operation in 2011.

Since then, the Taliban have strongly opposed the campaign, while many religious leaders in the bordering areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan also contribute to misinformation regarding the drive, claiming that vaccine contains pork and alcohol, which are forbidden in Islam.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world, yet to be declared free of the polio.
Chennai, Jan 8 : Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) on Monday said it will invest another Rs. 6,180 crore in Tamil Nadu apart from the earlier announced Rs 20,000 crore investment for electric vehicle and others between 2023-2032.

According to Hyundai Motor, out of the fresh investment announcement, Rs 180 crore will be for a dedicated aHydrogen Valley Innovation Hub,a in association with Indian Institute of Technology-Madras.

The car maker has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government for investing Rs 6,180 crore.

The substantial investment is a testament of the companyas commitment to fortifying the state's pursuit to boost the socio-economic development in the state and make the country self-reliant.

This collaboration with the state government goes beyond mere investment; it is a catalyst for cultivating a robust hydrogen technology ecosystem that mirrors our commitment to sustainability and a green future, said Unsoo Kim, Managing Director and CEO.
London, Jan 8 : Ruling out that he had doubts on the Rwanda plan as Chancellor, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said it was his job to ensure value for money on every proposal while he was in the Treasury.

According to The Evening Standard, Sunak said it was "wrong" to infer that he did not back the scheme to stop channel crossing, following a BBC report, which said he was not convinced of the plan's effectiveness.

Citing No 10 papers from March 22, the BBC said last week that Sunak was also concerned about the cost of sending asylum seekers to Africa and wanted to limit the numbers.

Sunak said he has not seen the documents the report was based on as he appeared on the BBC on Sunday.

However, he did not rule out having voiced concerns about the cost of sending asylum seekers to the east African country when at the Treasury.

"My job (was) to ask probing questions of every proposal that crossed my desk as chancellor," the Conservative Party leader told the BBC.

"You should always ask probing questions, you should always approach things from a position of scepticism to ensure that you get value for money for taxpayers.

"But to infer from that that I don't believe in the scheme or the principle of deterrence is wrong. I was doing my job to get good value for money for taxpayers," the Prime Minister added.

The documents had said that as Chancellor, Sunak felt "hotels are cheaper" than reception centres to house migrants, and was reluctant to fund "Greek-style reception centres" at a cost of 3.5 million pounds per day.

The Rwanda plan, launched in April 2022 by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, became the core of Sunak's policy to stop the boats -- one of five key priorities, which he set out to achieve when he became the premier in October the same year.

Calling the British Government to publish the No 10 papers, Labour MP Yvette Cooper said: "It is time the Tory Government was honest with the public, and publish both the papers outlining Rishi Sunak's concerns and the full details of the cost of the scheme."

--IANS

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BJP's new minister in Rajasthan trails as Congress' Kunnar leads in 14 rounds (Ld). Image Source: IANS News

Jaipur, Jan 8 : Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Kunnar on Monday was leading in the Karanpur Assembly seat in Rajasthan where BJP's Surendra Pal Singh TT, who is a minister in the new cabinet, was trailing.

After 14 rounds of counting, Kunnar has secured 74,467 votes while Surinder Pal Singh got 65,662.

Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot congratulated Kunnar in advance. He said, "Hearty congratulations and best wishes to Congress candidate Shri Rupinder Singh Kunnar for his victory in Srikaranpur. The people of Srikaranpur have defeated the pride of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The public has taught a lesson to the BJP, which flouted the code of conduct and morality by making its candidate a minister during the elections."

PCC president Govind Singh Dotasra said, "BJP's new "parchi government" kept changing the names of Congress's schemes. On the other hand, the public changed their Minister."

The counting of votes for Karanpur Assembly seat in Ganganagar district started at 8 a.m.

Even before the elections, this seat has remained in the news due to the appointment of BJP candidate Surendra Pal Singh TT as a minister in the Bhajan Lal government.

TT was made the Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Bhajan Lal government and was also given four important departments. I

The Congress leaders had filed a complaint with the Election Commission regarding the violation of the code of conduct.

The election in Karanpur was on January 5.

It needs to be mentioned that Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Kunnar passed away and hence elections were cancelled. The Congress had fielded Gurmeet Singh Kunnar's son in place.
January 08 : In the ever-evolving landscape of the Indian film industry, actress Kangana Ranaut has once again taken the spotlight, this time with a series of thought-provoking posts on her social media. Known for her unfiltered opinions and fearless stance, Ranaut has turned her attention to the portrayal of women on-screen, expressing concerns about the current state of the industry.

Taking to her social media platform, Kangana voiced her discontent over the prevalent trend of reducing women to mere decorative elements on the screen. She passionately lamented the violent and disgraceful stripping of women's dignity and clothes in recent films, she wrote, The latest trend of films where women are reduced to mere flower on the wall, violently and disgracefully stripped of their dignity and clothes is beyond appalling. Reminds me of the time when I entered films, vulgar item numbers, quick in and out sleazy and dumb roles against older men were prevalent.

Many years later fighting for pay parity, trying to encourage female lead films like Gangster, Woh Lamhe, Fashion, Queen, Tanu Weds Manu, Manikarnika, Thalaivii, Tejas I ruffled many feathers along the way.

Went against big production houses like YRF and Dharma. Said no to big heroes like Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor. Not because I had anything personal against them, all for the cause of woman empowerment and today looking at the condition of women in films my heart sinks is film industry only to blame for this? Audiences have no participation in this steep regression of women in films? added Kangana.

On the work front, Kangana is busy with Emergency, biographical historical drama film directed and produced by Kangana Ranaut, from a screenplay by Ritesh Shah and story by Ranaut. Based on the Indian Emergency, it stars Ranaut as former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi. The film also features Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Mahima Chaudhry and Milind Soman in pivotal roles.
Mumbai:Air India planes are parked at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, on Friday Jan. 28,2022.(Photo:IANS). Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Jan 8 : Amid the online boycott Maldives campaign, EaseMyTrip, headquartered in the national capital, has opted to halt all flight bookings to the Maldives.

This decision comes in response to derogatory remarks made by now-suspended ministers against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stemming from his recent visit to Lakshadweep.

Established in 2008, EaseMyTrip was founded by Nishant Pitti, Rikant Pitti, and Prashant Pitti.

"In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings #TravelUpdate #SupportingNation," the founder and CEO, Nishant Pitti wrote on X.

Maldivian government on Sunday suspended its three ministers for remarks against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Lakshadweep visit, local media reported.

The ministers -- Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha and Hassan Zihan -- have been suspended for their derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Modi on X, Atoll Times reported.

Though Prime Minister Modi promoted Lakshadweep as a tourist destination and did not even mention Maldives, irked minister of the Island country said: "India faces significant challenges in competing with the Maldives in beach tourism."
New Delhi, Jan 8 : The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday said that checks and inspection of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft by Indian operators have been satisfactorily performed on the fleet, with no adverse findings.

The development comes after Alaska Airlines grounded all of its Boeing 737-9 aircraft after one such plane had to make an emergency landing last week in Portland, Oregon, with a window and a part of the fuselage missing.

On January 6, the DGCA directed Indian air operators to carry out an immediate one-time inspection of the emergency exits on all Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft currently operating as part of their fleet.

"As a precautionary measure, DGCA on January 6 directed all Indian operators with Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft to check the operation and proper closing of all over wing emergency exits by January 7," said Director General of the aviation watchdog, Vikram Dev Dutt.

"These checks have been satisfactorily performed on the operational fleet of Boeing B737-8 Max aircraft by Air India Express (four), SpiceJet (eight) and Akasa (20). Akasa Air fleet includes one B737-8200 aircraft which has a mid-cabin door on which the operational check has also been completed satisfactorily," he added.

A SpiceJet spokesman said: "We have conducted a comprehensive examination of our Boeing 737 MAX fleet, as per the directives of the DGCA. No adverse findings were identified during this inspection. Our flight operations remained unaffected and continued to operate as usual.

"It is important to note that SpiceJet does not operate the B737-9 variant of the MAX."

Akasa Air said that following the Alaska Airlines incident and the subsequent guideline issued by the DGCA, it has completed a thorough inspection of its entire fleet of in-service Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

"We can confirm that there are no adverse findings. We can also confirm that there was no disruption to our operations during this time. Akasa Air does not have any Boeing 737 Max-9 aircraft in its fleet, the aircraft on which the incident occurred," said an airline spokesperson.
Kolkata, Jan 8 : The West Bengal unit of the BJP on Monday filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) at a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court seeking its intervention in the matter of the attack on ED and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district on Friday.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya admitted the petition and the matter will come up for hearing on January 11.

The move by the party comes just a day after the state BJP president and Lok Sabha member Dr Sukanta Majumdar handed over a memorandum to Governor CV Ananda Bose seeking his intervention in the matter.

Earlier, the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, had urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah for a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the matter.

On Friday night, the ED had also issued a press notification claiming that there was an orchestrated attack on its officials and the CAPF men when Trinamool Congress leader Sajahan Sheikh was inside his residence in front of which the attack took place.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress state spokesman has said that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe is going on against one of the three ED officials attacked on Friday.

"We do not want any ED official to be injured in any attack. We wish them speedy recovery. However, an explosive information has surfaced that a CBI probe is going on against ED's Assistant Director Rajkumar Ram, one of the three officers injured on the day," Ghosh said.

He also alleged that there are charges against the official concerned regarding assets disproportionate to known source of income, during the period between 2016 and 2020.

"How, could such an officer be included in the central investigative team?" Ghosh questioned.
Lucknow, Jan 8 : The UP Congress will extend invitation to the constituent parties of the INDIA bloc to join the second edition of Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, when it passes through Uttar Pradesh tentatively between February 14 and 25.

"However, there will not be any compulsion for participation," said the newly appointed party general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pande.

"Hopefully, the seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh (among INDIA bloc parties) too will be decided by then," he told reporters.

The first edition of the yatra made a touch-and-go appearance in Uttar Pradesh in early 2023.

The second edition will have its biggest run in Uttar Pradesh -- the most populous state where the yatra will cover 1074 km, spending 11 days and passing through 20 districts -- of east, central, and west UP regions.

When asked about Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati attacking Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav through a post on X, and the possibility of the SP and the BSP coming together, Pande said, "When everyone's aim is the same, all the like-minded parties will have to come together with a single goal."

Without taking the name of Mayawati or any party not currently in the INDIA bloc, Pande said: "The coordinators in INDIA bloc are in touch with all the parties which match our ideology and have the common goal of defeating the BJP. These discussions are happening differently in different states. We are trying to understand the dynamic situation in every state. We are serious about our alliance. We want that only one candidate should be fielded against the BJP on each seat."

UPCC will also run a 100-day Samvaad campaign and take out Mashaal Yatras across the state.

Avinash Pande also said, "We are going to hold a Samvaad (dialogue) programme and workshop to strengthen the party at organisational level across all districts. On the day Rahul Gandhiji's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra begins in the Manipur capital Imphal, the UPCC will take out Mashaal Nyay Yatra on January 14 for five kms with senior leaders and frontal organisations at all regional head offices."

"We will go to Ayodhya for darshan on January 15, and then again from January 16 to 18 our Samvaad meetings will go on. On January 26, Nyay Yatras will be taken out in all blocks. Then, Samvaad programme will run across all districts and by February 14 tentatively Rahul Gandhi's Nyay Yatra would enter UP," he stated.

The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will be launched at 12 noon from violence-hit Manipur's capital Imphal on January 14. Party leader Rahul Gandhi will address the 6,700-km march twice daily over the course of 66 days.

The major points on the route map of the yatra in Uttar Pradesh this time are Varanasi, Prayagraj, Amethi, Rae Bareli, Lucknow, Bareilly, Aligarh, and Agra.

The INDIA bloc did not exist when the first edition of the 136-day Bharat Jodo Yatra was taken out from Kanyakumari to Srinagar between September 7, 2022 and January 30, 2023.

That yatra had virtually skipped Uttar Pradesh in 2023, barring its entry from Loni in Ghaziabad on January 3, Baghpat on January 4, and made its exit from Kairana (Shamli) to Panipat in Haryana on January 5.
Bengaluru, Jan 8 : Karnataka former Chief Minister and BJP strongman BS Yediyurappa slammed Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Monday saying that he was issuing statements with the arrogance of being in power.

Bengaluru, Jan 8 (IANS) Karnataka former Chief Minister and BJP strongman BS Yediyurappa slammed Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Monday saying that he was issuing statements with the arrogance of being in power.

Speaking to reporters, ahead of a high-level BJP meeting in Bengaluru over preparations for the Lok Sabha elections, Yediyurappa stated that Shivakumaras statements will not bring him respect.

"I have observed the statements made by Shivakumar regarding the DJ Halli and KG Halli communal violence incident which made national news. He is saying whatever comes to his mind," he said.

Regarding the BJP meeting, Yediyurappa stated that the party will discuss the Lok Sabha poll preparedness.

aI have invited prominent leaders to strengthen the organisation. Many others issues will also be discussed," he stated.

Karnataka BJP in-charge Arun Singh, state President BY Vijayendra, LoP R. Ashoka and former National General Secretary CT Ravi and others are attending the meeting.

Shivakumar had stated that injustice was meted out to the accused in the KG Halli and DJ Halli communal violence incident.

"Innocents are being framed by the previous BJP Government and they should be protected," he said.

Shivakumar added that he does not have any issue with action being taken against those involved in violence, but if innocents are booked he will discuss the issue with legal experts and also party leaders.

The parents and relatives of 37 accused had met Shivakumar during Jana Spandana programme in Bengaluru and urged that the cases against them in connection with violence be dropped.

They maintained that the Congress had promised them that the cases would be withdrawn against their kin after the party comes to power and six months down the line they had got no relief.

Three people were killed and over 50 injured in the violence in DJ Halli and KG Halli, allegedly due to a derogatory social media post by a relative of then Pulakeshinagar MLA, Akhanda Srinivas Murthy in August 2020. The MLAas house and KG Halli police station were torched.

In Shivamogga, Hubballi and a few other places, communal incidents had resulted in violent protests during the previous BJP regime.
Patna, Jan 8 : JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar on Monday slammed his alliance partner RJD MLA Ajay Yadav for his remarks that BJP will explode bombs in Ayodhya and blame Pakistanis backed militant organisations or Muslims to gain electorally in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

"The leaders should avoid making controversial statements which can hurt religious sentiments. We all know that the Ram temple in Ayodhya is built because of SC's direction and Pran Pratishta of Ram Lala will take place on January 22. We have to respect the religious sentiments of every person and not make any objectionable remarks which can hurt anyone," Neeraj Kumar said.

He said that in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also released funds for renovation of temples.

"The renovation of Badi Patan Devi and a temple of Sitamarhi which belongs to Sita are underway. The Bihar government has sanctioned huge amounts for these projects. So, it is a matter of great happiness that the Pran Pratishta of Ram Lala will take place at his birth place in Ayodhya on January 22," Kumar said.

Earlier, the RJD MLA from Ajay Yadav had said that a blast may take place in Ayodhya and BJP will blame Pakistani backed militant organisations or Muslims for the act so that they are able to gain votes in the upcoming general elections.

"We are apprehensive about the way the large number of people will visit Ayodhya. They (BJP) will explode bombs there and blame Pakistan's supported militant organisations or Muslims to gains electorally in the upcoming elections," Yadav said.

Addressing a gathering at his home, Ajay Yadav -- RJD MLA from Atri assembly constituency -- also made a personal comment on PM Modi.

He said that he is feeling ashamed that Modi will do Pran Pratishta of Maryada Purusottam Lord Ram in Ayodhya.

"Lord Sri Ram fought for his wife against the strong and learned Ravan while Modi Ji is a person who left his wife. A person who has left his wife is doing the Pran Pratishta of Lord Sri Ram," Yadav said.

--IANS

ajk/dan
Kochi, Jan 8 : The Kerala High Court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to actor Suresh Gopi in a case related to "improper touching" of a woman journalist.

In the case, he was questioned for a few hours by the Kozhikode Police in November last year.

The High Court pointed out that even though an arrest is not warranted, if done, Gopi should be given bail.

Sensing a probable arrest, the actor approached the High Court on December 29 with an anticipatory bail plea, as in the charge sheet filed by the police, they have included Section 354 (using criminal force on a woman with the intention to outrage her modesty).

The alleged case dates back to October 27, 2023, when Gopi, while addressing media persons, had placed his hand on the woman journalist's shoulder while responding to her questions. Following the incident, journalist bodies protested against the inappropriate behavior of Gopi and demanded an apology.

Despite Gopi tendering an apology the next day, the issue snowballed into a heated discussion on the social media platforms leading to the woman journalist filing a complaint against the actor.

Gopi is all set to contest the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket and many of his supporters allege that he is being targeted through this case.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : Google on Monday announced the second cohort of the GNI Startups Lab -- a 12-week catalyst programme that aims to help the next generation, independent, early-stage Indian news startups achieve financial and operational sustainability.

Created in partnership with Anymind Group and T-Hub, the GNI Startups Lab India supports high-quality reporting for local communities, niche audiences and previously underserved communities across the country.

"Chosen out of over 110 applicants from across India, the ten news startups cover a diverse array of categories of journalism, including investigative, political, medical, youth, climate, and local news that provides a voice to underrepresented communities," Durga Raghunath, Head of India News Partnerships, said in a blogpost.

"The diverse cohort features newsrooms from around the country, producing news in multiple Indian languages, including English, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu," she added.

Moreover, the tech giant mentioned that to support the news industry in tackling the scourge of misinformation, it partnered with subject matter experts to empower journalists and newsrooms with digital tools and skills needed to find, verify, and tell engaging stories while tackling the ever-evolving risk of misinformation.

Through 2023, via efforts like the GNI India Training Network and Data Dialogue, Google supported the training of more than 15,000 journalists and journalism students in over 15 languages, impacting over 240 newsrooms and media colleges.

In July last year, the company launched the GNI Indian languages programme in partnership with Mediology to help 400 language news publishers modernise their online presence and enhance user experiences across web, app and video formats so that more users can better access more content.
Chikkamagaluru : , Jan 8 (IANS) Fourteen Hindu activists appeared before the local court on Monday in connection with the alleged vandalism of tombs at Baba Budangiri or Datta Peetha in Karnataka's Chikkamagaluru district.

The demolition incident had taken place on December 3, 2017. The Hindu activists were issued summons to appear before the court on Monday.

Sources said that the Hindu activists are planning to hold a protest after the court proceedings opposite to the Mahatma Gandhi statue to condemn the anti-Hindu stand of the Congress government in the state.

The vandalism took place during the tenure of the Congress government in 2017. When dispute arose during the Datta Jayanti, the Hindu activists broke sacred 'ghoris' in Datta Peetha. The government had given consent to the submission of charge sheet in this regard.

On October 24, 2023, the Chikkamagaluru Rural police submitted the charge sheet against the accused persons in the case. The accused are facing charges of trying to demolish tomb in Data peetha and obstructing police officials from discharging their duties.

The cases were registered under ICP Sections of 143, 447, 298, 504, 153A, 295A, 353, 506, 114, 120B read with 149 and Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Properties Act 1984.

The issue of summons has created another huge controversy in the state after the arrest of kar Sevaks in a 1991 case. Allegations have surfaced that cases are being reopened to torture Hindu activists. However, CM Siddaramaiah has clarified that the development was a part of legal proceedings in the case and there was no connection with the Congress government.
Hyderabad, Jan 8 : Police in Hyderabad have booked a relative of former Telangana minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy for allegedly driving a car rashly and in a drunken state injuring two persons.

Allola Agraj Reddy, who was driving a Honda City car, hit a two-wheeler near Forum Mall circle under the limits of KPHB police station of Cyberabad police commissionerate in the early hours of Sunday.

Agraj, said to be the nephew of the former minister belonging to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), was driving the car over the wrong route.

He, along with two other friends, were returning home after partying at a pub in Gachibowli. Kukatpally Assistant Commissioner of Police Shiva Bhaskar said they had engaged a driver but he was not driving the car at the time of the accident.

"When the police began questioning, the three youths blamed each other. However, with CCTV footage and other clues it was prima facie established that Agraj was driving the vehicle," he said

A breath analyser test indicated that the 26-year-old was drunk while driving.

Two youths who were riding the bike were injured. They were admitted to hospital and their condition is stated to be stable.

They have been identified as Banwarilal (24) and Dhuruchand (33), both natives of Rajasthan. They were returning home from a movie.

A case of rash and drunken driving has been registered against Agraj Reddy. Police have issued a notice under section 41 CrPC to Agraj Reddy, directing him to appear before them for investigation.
Canberra, Jan 8 : Ten people were injured on Monday after a light plane flipped and crashed on a small island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, local media reported.

The plane with 10 people on board was returning to the runway on Lizard Island, about 1,600 km northwest of Brisbane, shortly after taking off on a scheduled service to Cairns early Monday morning, Xinhua news agency quoted The Australian daily as saying in a report.

Pictures from the scene showed debris littering the field near the badly damaged upturned fuselage.

During the climb, the engine of the Cessna 208 operated by Townsville Airlines began to run rough and the pilot attempted to return to Lizard Island, Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said.

"There were reports of serious injuries among the occupants," Mitchell was quoted as saying.

Queensland Health confirmed all 10 people were transported to Cairns Hospital and they "are in a stable condition", according to local news website News.com.au.

Queensland Ambulance Service Acting Assistant Commissioner Brina Keating said one person suffered an arm injury while another suffered a head injury and lacerations.
Kolkata, Jan 8 : West Bengal State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha, on Monday, filed an affidavit tendering unconditional apology to the Calcutta High Court in a contempt of court rule issued against him on the massive violence during the panchayat polls in the state last year.

The contempt of court rule was issued against him by the Calcutta High Court acting on a petition filed by the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, accusing the State Election Commission of dishonouring the directives in ensuring free and fair civic body polls.

After Sinhaas affidavit was submitted on Monday at the Division Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, the Bench observed that it will first go through the details of the affidavit and then hear the matter again on February 23.

The rule against the State Election Commission was issued on October 13 last year and in November Sinha personally appeared at the Calcutta High Court following a directive from the court in the matter.

He was then asked to file his affidavit in this connection by December last year.

Finally on Monday, Sinhaas counsel submitted the affidavit on behalf of his client. When the Chief Justice enquired from Sinhaas counsel about the summary of the contents of the affidavit, the latter informed the court that an unconditional apology has been tendered in case there had been mistake on part of his client.
Jaipur, Jan 8 : Surendra Pal Singh TT, who was made a minister in Rajasthan even before being elected as an MLA, on Monday lost the Assembly election to Congress rival, Rupinder Singh Kunnar by 11,283 votes from the Karanpur seat.

The BJP candidate was the Minister of State (Independent Charge) in Bhajan Lal's cabinet.

This is the first time in Rajasthan that a leader who became a minister before becoming an MLA has lost the election. The Assembly elections were held in November, but the election on Karanpur seat was postponed due to the death of the Congress candidate and the then MLA Gurmeet Singh Kunnar . The Congress then gave the ticket to his son, Rupinder Singh Kunnar.

Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Congress State President Govind Singh Dotasara, while congratulating Rupinder Singh Kunnar on the victory, said that this mandate was a "slap on the dictatorship of BJP".

At the same time, BJP state president C.P. Joshi said that he will review the reasons for the defeat. Kunnar got 94,761 votes and TT got 83,500 votes.

Counting was done on Monday at Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Government PG College. Voting on this seat was held on January 5. Even before winning the elections, this seat was in the news due to the appointment of BJP candidate Surendra Pal Singh TT as a minister in the new government.

The eyes of the entire state were fixed on this election result. Counting of votes was completed in 18 rounds. TT was ahead in the first two rounds, but started falling behind from the third round onwards.

After the defeat in the Assembly elections, the question is being raised is whether TT will remain a minister now or not?

According to rules, any Indian citizen can remain a minister for six months without becoming an MLA. TT has lost the Assembly elections, so there will be moral pressure on BJP and TT to leave the ministerial post, but legally he can remain a minister for six months.

At present, it has been only eight days since he became a minister. He had not even taken charge yet. Everything will depend on the BJP leadership whether it wants to retain TT as a minister or not.

After the death of Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Kunnar, elections were not held on the Karanpur Assembly seat on November 25.

In Rajasthan, out of 200 Assembly seats, BJP won 115 seats, Congress 70 seats, BAP three, BSP two, RLD one, RLP one and independents have eight seats.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : The Delhi High Court on Monday expressed concern over the inadequate medical infrastructure in the national Capital to treat critical care patients and questioned the AAP government about the apparent mismatch between demand and available resources.

A Division Bench, headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, directed the Delhi Government to disclose the amount spent on enhancing the health sector in the last five years.

The court, dealing with a suo motu PIL initiated in 2017 regarding the availability of ICU beds and ventilator facilities in government hospitals, stressed the need for medical infrastructure to keep pace with the city's population.

Last month, the Bench directed the Delhi Government to file a status report outlining its plans to address this issue.

The recent application filed by Amicus Curiae, Advocate Ashok Aggarwal, brought up an incident where a critically injured man, refused treatment at several government hospitals, died after jumping from a moving PCR van.

The man, who jumped out of a moving police van, lost his life as government hospitals in the national Capital allegedly denied him treatment.

An official said that the injured man was transferred from one hospital to another, where the unavailability of beds or equipment ultimately contributed to his death.

The entire incident unfolded on the night of January 2 when a PCR call was received around 9 p.m. from a woman reporting a man in an inebriated condition engaged in a quarrel in northeast Delhi's New Usmanpur area.

The 47-year-old man, Pramod, reportedly died after being denied admission by Jag Pravesh Chandra (JPC) Hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, and Lok Nayak Hospital (LNJP).

During the hearing, the court questioned how it was possible that no beds were available in four government hospitals, suggesting a shortage of overall bed capacity.

The court also expressed concern about budget allocations for healthcare getting diverted to other funds and directed the government to explore the feasibility of setting up a central portal indicating real-time information about bed availability in all city hospitals.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : After three Maldivian ministers made derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned Maldives High Commissioner Ibrahim Shaheeb over the matter.

Shaheeb reached the Foreign Ministryas office at South Block in Delhi on Monday morning.

According to the information, India has expressed its displeasure on the issue. The three ministers who made objectionable remarks on Modi have been dismissed by the Maldives government.

The Indian High Commission in Male had raised this issue with the Maldives government on Sunday.

It may be noted that the controversy started at a time when Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has left for a week-long visit to China.

After India raised strong objection, the Maldives government has issued a statement giving clarification. According to the Maldives government, the statements given by the ministers in this matter are personal. The government of Maldives says that the government has nothing to do with this matter.

The controversy started when three Deputy Ministers of Maldives criticised Prime Minister Modi on social media platforms after his visit to Lakshadweep. They alleged that India is trying to present Lakshadweep as an alternative tourist destination to Maldives.

Prominent opposition leaders of Maldives have also criticized their own government on this matter.

The derogatory remarks of Maldivian ministers are also being condemned across India.

Indian film stars, sportspersons and celebrities are urging people on social media to visit Indian tourist places instead of going to Maldives. Many Indian tourists have also given information on social media about cancellation of their trip to Maldives.
Kolkata, Jan 8 : Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a case under the FEMA Act against a foreign currency exchange dealing company owned by Trinamool Congress leader Shankar Adhya, who was arrested by the central agency sleuths on January 5 in the ration distribution case.

The case against this company, sources said, was started after the ED sleuths got definite clues on a major portion of the ration distribution case proceeds which were first converted from Indian rupees to foreign currency and simultaneously, transferred mainly to Dubai through the Hawala route.

The ED counsel has already updated a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata about the details on how the proceeds were channelized abroad through such foreign exchange and hawala routes.

Sources said that the two directors of the company are the arrested leaderas mother Shebani Adhya and brother Malay Adhya, but in reality Shankar Adhya was the steering brain behind the entity.

Sources said that as per the rule, the travel details of the individual, who is going for the foreign currency exchange, have to be submitted at the time of conversion as per the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), However, said sources, ED sleuths have got definite evidence that such basic norms were not adhered to by the said corporate entity at the time of conversion.

Sources said that such conversions without following the proper procedures happen if the money converted is ill-gotten and unaccounted and in this case the converted money was mainly the proceeds of the ration distribution case.

Adhya is currently in ED custody as ordered by the special court on Saturday. He is known to be an extremely close confidante of current West Bengal forest minister and former state goods & supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick, who was arrested by the ED sleuths in October last year.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : A Delhi court on Monday reserved its order for January 12 on the bail plea of Hari Om Rai, the Managing Director of Lava International, in a money laundering case against the Chinese smartphone-maker Vivo.

The Enforcement Ditectorate (ED) had arrested Rai with four others -- Chinese national Guangwen alias Andrew Kuang, Chartered Accountants Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik -- on October 10, 2023.

On December 20, 2023, Special Judge Kiran Gupta of Patiala House Courts took cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the probe agency and summoned the accused, who are in judicial custody, on February 19.

Notably, on December 19 last year, the ED arrested three more persons, who are the top executives of Vivo India.

The three accused -- Vivo India interim CEO Hong Xuquan, Vivo Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Harinder Dahiya and consultant Hemant Munjal -- were recently also granted release by the court and the probe agency had challenged the court's order before the High Court.

On Monday, during Rai's bail plea hearing, Senior Advocate Vikaram Chaudhari, representing Rai, argued that his client's three medical conditions could worsen in jail and urged for bail.

However, ED's Special Public Prosecutor Manish Jain opposed the bail, saying that the merits of the case and Rai's medical condition should be considered separately.

Rai's bail petition says that the allegations against him are false, stressing that he had no direct or indirect control over Vivo's business and did not derive any monetary benefit from the company.

Advocate Nitesh Rana, also representing Rai, said that the proposed joint venture between Lava and Vivo did not materialise, and negotiations ceased in 2014.

The plea says that Rai had no association with Vivo or its representatives after 2014, and the deterioration of international relations between India and China in recent years does not imply any wrongdoing on Rai's part during the relevant business discussions.

The court had earlier directed the concerned jail authority to file the medical status report of Rai.

Earlier, a source told IANS that the arrests were made after the financial probe agency carried out searches at the premises of the four accused and recovered cash to the tune of Rs 10 lakh. The ED action came more than a year after it carried out searches at 48 locations across the country belonging to Vivo Mobiles India Private Ltd and its 23 associated companies such as Grand Prospect International Communication Pvt Ltd (GPICPL), and claimed that it has busted a major money laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian firms.
Cybercriminals find new way to access Google accounts without password: Report. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Jan 8 : Threat actors tied to North Korea stole at least $600 million in cryptocurrency in 2023, a new report has revealed.

Blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs estimates that additional hacks carried out by North Korea in the final days of last year could bring the total to around $700 million.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was responsible for almost a third of all funds stolen in crypto attacks last year, despite a 30 per cent reduction from the $850 million haul in 2022.

Since 2017, nearly $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen by Pyongyang-linked threat actors because of hacks perpetrated by the DPRK.

"North Korea conducts nearly all of its attacks by compromising private keys and seed phrases, which are critical security elements of digital wallets. Hackers transfer the victimsa digital assets to wallet addresses controlled by North Korean operatives," the report said.

"They are then swapped mostly for USDT or Tron and converted to hard currency using high-volume OTC brokers," it added.

Moreover, the report mentioned that the DPRKas money laundering methods constantly evolve to evade international law enforcement pressure.

As US sanctions and enforcement actions targeted Tornado Cash and ChipMixer (its previous go-to obfuscation platforms), North Korea pivoted to another mixer it had already begun using, the BTC service Sinbad.

After Sinbad was sanctioned by OFAC in November 2023, North Korea continued exploring other laundering tools.

With nearly $1.5 billion stolen in the last two years alone, North Korea's hacking prowess necessitates constant vigilance and innovation on the part of businesses and governments, the report suggested.
Bengaluru, Jan 8 : Karnataka government has announced Rs 2 lakh compensation for the family members of three fans of superstar Yash who died following electrocution while they were trying to erect a cut-out of the actor in Gadag district of Karnataka.

District in-charge Minister H.K. Patil said that Rs 50,000 compensation will also be given to three others who have suffered serious injuries in the incident.

Sources said that superstar Yash will also visit the victim families. The actor will arrive in Hubballi on a special flight from Bengaluru and will visit the Soranagi village. He is also expected to make a visit to the hospital and meet the injured.

Three persons were killed and three others suffered serious injuries while they were erecting a huge cut-out of superstar Yash to wish him on his birthday.

The incident took place on Monday in Soranagi village near Lakshmeshwar town in Gadag district, Karnataka.

The deceased have been identified as Hanumantha Harijan (24); Murali Nadumani (20); and Naveen Gaji (20) while the injured have been identified as Manjunath Harijan, Prakash Myageri, and Deepak Harijan.

Some youth were trying to set up the cut-out to express their love for the 'KGF' Series superstar Yash on January 8 to celebrate his birthday however due to the darkness at night, the victims were unable to see the high-tension electric wire.

Local MLA Chandru Lamani visited the injured persons at the hospital in Lakshmeshwar and offered condolences to the families of those who died in the incident.

SP B.S. Nemagoud said that a group of nine people were trying to install a cut-out with an iron frame which came in contact with the electric wire due to which the incident took place.

"The condition of two injured persons is critical," he said.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : Microsoft on Monday launched a new initiative -- AI Odyssey, that aims to skill 100,000 developers in India in the latest AI technologies and tools.

The programme offers a comprehensive learning experience that helps developers acquire and demonstrate the relevant skills needed to execute critical projects using AI technologies that align with business goals and outcomes.

"AI is the future of innovation and India is leading the way with its tech talent. The Microsoft Applied Skills credential will help developers demonstrate their competence and creativity in the most in-demand AI skills and scenarios," Irina Ghose, Managing Director, Microsoft India, said in a statement.

Through programmes like AI Odyssey, Microsoft is offering opportunities for developers to build solutions for Indiaas growth and showcase their talent to solve real-world problems.

To participate in the programme, developers need to register on aka.ms/AIOdyssey and access the learning modules and resources. The month-long programme is open to all AI enthusiasts in India, regardless of experience level or background.

The program has two levels that participants need to complete by January 31.

The first level of the programme educates participants on how to use Azure AI services to create and deploy AI solutions for different scenarios. This will give them access to useful resources, code samples, and guides to master practical AI skills.

The second level of the programme challenges participants to prove their AI skills by completing an online assessment with interactive lab tasks that earn them Microsoft Applied Skills credentials, a new verifiable credential that validates their ability to solve real-world problems with AI.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : The latest AMFI Data for December 2023 paints a positive picture of India's mutual fund industry, especially in equities.

The significant rise in equity mutual fund inflows to Rs 17,000 crore, up by 9 per cent, shows that investors strongly believe in the potential of the stock market, said Robin Arya, smallcase Manager & Founder, GoalFi.

A notable highlight is the steady increase in monthly Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) flows, growing by an impressive almost 24 per cent Year-on-Year.

At the same time, SIP Assets under Management (AuM) have jumped by nearly 37 per cent Year-on-Year, Arya said.

Viraj Gandhi, CEO, SAMCO Mutual Fund said owing to commendable performances, evidenced by a notable 6 per cent rise in Nifty Small-Cap 250 and an almost 7 per cent rise in Nifty Midcap 150 during the month, Mid and Small Cap funds continued to attract significant net inflows, aggregating to Rs 5,250 crore, a staggering growth of 25 per cent on YoY basis.

This constituted nearly one-third of the total net equity-oriented inflow for the month.

In parallel, sectoral/ thematic funds emerged as front-runners in garnering the highest net inflows, amounting to Rs 6,005 crore, compared to Rs 1,965 crore in Nov 2023.

Overall, we saw Rs 16,997 crore garnered by equity linked schemes for the month of December 2023 , while SIP book for month stands at Rs 17,610 crore, Gandhi said.
Chennai, Jan 8 : The multi-business Adani Group has decided to invest a whopping Rs 42,768 crore in Tamil Nadu in renewable energy, cement manufacturing, data centre, city gas distribution and generate 10,300 employment opportunities.

The Group announced this decision during the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet 2024 held on Monday.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also exchanged at the investors' meeting by Karan Adani, Chief Executive Officer of Adani Ports and SEZ Limited (APSEZ) and the Tamil Nadu government.

The break-up of the investments by different Adani group companies are as follows: Adani Green Rs 24,500 crore (employment 4,000), Ambuja Cements Rs 3,500 crore (5,000), Adani Connex Rs 13,200 crore (1,000) and Adani Total Gas & CNG Rs 1,568 crore (300).
'HanuMan' director Prasanth Varma says stories need to be local to go global. Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, Jan 8 : Director Prasanth Varma, who is awaiting the release of his upcoming superhero film 'HanuMan', has said that for a story to have a global appeal, it's imperative for it to be rooted in its culture and bring to celluloid the life of its people.

The director spoke with the media on the sidelines of an event organised for the film, which also saw Telugu superstar Rana Daggubati supporting the young filmmaker and his creation.

Talking to the media, Prasanth said: "The global audience has already seen superheroes from Marvel and DC. To establish a new superhero in the minds of a global audience, you need to be local to go global."

The director continued, "The success of 'RRR' is the biggest example of that. The makers of 'RRR' weaved a story which was so rooted in culture. They paid attention to minute things, the language, the costume, the landscape and the result is there for everyone to see".

"You need to be rooted to take your stories to the global audience, telling them a genre story like 'James Bond' won't impact them as they already have those films," he added.

'HanuMan' is set to arrive in cinemas on January 12 in multiple languages.
It's Lakshadweep! Oops, no, Maldives! Ranveer gets his geography wrong. Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, Jan 8 : Actor Ranveer Singh, who joined the slew of actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Shraddha Kapoor, in promoting the Lakshadweep islands, has caught the attention of the netizens for mistakenly posting a picture of Maldives.

Amid the row over Maldives politician Zahid Rameez criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Lakshadweep, the actor, who is known for his work in 'Gully Boy', took to X (formerly Twitter) and posted a picture of a beautiful island.

Along with the photo, he wrote: "This year letas make 2024 about exploring India and experiencing our culture. There is so much to see and explore across the beaches and the beauty of our country. Chalo India letas #exploreindianislands Chalo bharat dekhe".

However, it caught the attention of the social media users, and they wrote: "You are promoting Indian islands while putting a picture of Maldives. What is wrong with you, Ranveer?"

The actor was quick to delete the picture from his social media post.

Reacting to the faux pas, one fan said: "Too late to delete, the internet always wins". Another wrote: "deleted".

Earlier, in the day, Ranveer along with his wife and actress Deepika Padukone were spotted at the Mumbai airport, as they jetted off to an undisclosed location for a vacation.

Meanwhile, he was last seen as the lead in 'Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani'. He next has 'Singham Again'.
Tel Aviv, Jan 8 : The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel intelligence Shin Bet on Monday said that they have successfully located the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, media reports said.

"The IDF has located the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar however the security agencies are unable to take him out as he has surrounded himself with Israeli hostages," Times of Israel reported.

The media reports said that the IDF has prevented all the action against Sinwar as it can physically damage the hostages.

Sinwar is considered to be the alleged mastermind behind the October 7 attacks in which 1200 Israelis were killed while over 200 were taken hostage by Hamas.

Also, the Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said they will find and kill the alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack.

Israel launched a ground offensive inside Gaza on October 27 after Hamas attacked Israel in a surprise attack on October 7.

Since the outbreak of hostilities, Israel has killed at least 22,835 Palestinians -- mostly being children and women -- while 57,000 Palestinians have been injured.
Tel Aviv, Jan 8 : A senior commander of the Hezbollah group was killed in an Israeli air strike at Majdal in Lebanon.

Senior Hezbollah commander, Wissam Al-Tamil who is also known as Jawas was deputy head of the elite Rawdan force of Hezbollah.

According to Arabian media reports he was killed while he was traveling in a car along with another Hezbollah leader.

It may be noted that the Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasarullah had in two televised addresses warned Israel that there would be severe retaliation if there was an attack in Lebanon.

This address was following the killing of Hamas deputy political head, Saleh al-Arouri who died in a drone attack allegedly by Israel in Beirut along with six other men of the terror group.

a"IANS

aal/rad
Investor friendly policies made it possible for TN to become haven for investments: Stalin. Image Source: IANS News

Chennai, Jan 8 : Several MoUs with an investment intention of Rs.664,180 crore have been inked between the Tamil Nadu Government and various industrial groups, said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin.

Speaking at the valedictory function of the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet, Stalin said the state has attracted investment proposals from varied sectors like automobiles, Electric Vehicle (EV), aerospace, Defence, footwear and others.

Stalin said the investment proposals can generate about 26.90 lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities.

He also said the government will take special effort to convert the MoUs into actual projects and a special group headed by Industries Minister TRB Rajaa and senior officials will look into it.

Stalin said the clearances will be given under a single window system. The Chief Minister said the projects are proposed to be set up across the state so that there is a distributed growth.

Giving an overall sector-wise break-up of the MoUas, Stalin said the investment from the manufacturing sector was about Rs.3.79 lakh crore; energy Rs.1.35 lakh crore; Information Technology and Digital Services Rs.22,130 crore; MSMEs Rs.63,573 crore and others.

Some of the mega investment proposals are from the Adani Group Rs.42,768 crore (Adani Green Rs.24,500 crore, Ambuja Cements Rs.3,500 crore, Adani Connex Rs.13,200 crore and Adani Total Gas & CNG Rs.1,568 crore); Tata Power Renewable Energy about Rs.71,000 crore; Chennai Petroleum Corporation Rs.17,000 crore; Leap Green Energy Rs.22,842 crore; SembCorp Rs.36,238 crore; Salcomp Manufacturing India Rs.2,271 crore; Boeing (to set up global capability centre) Rs.309 crore; Ashok Leyland Rs.1,200 crore; Stellantis EV Rs.2,000 crore; Eicher Motors Rs.3,000 crore; Sify Technologies Rs.2,500 crore; JAM Infra (Jindal Defence) Rs.1,000 crore; Saint Gobain Rs.3,400 crore and several others.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : A 35-year-old woman was found dead, in mysterious circumstances, at her house in south Delhi on Monday and her missing husband is suspected to be behind her killing, a police official said.

The deceased was identified as Rekha Roy, a native of West Bengal.

According to police, at 8.10 a.m., a police control room (PCR) call regarding a woman lying unconscious in her room at Masoodpur area was received at Vasant Kunj North police station.

Upon reaching the spot, a police team found that the room was locked from inside.

"A woman was found inside the room in unconscious state and no external injury was seen on her body," said a senior police official.

On enquiry, it was revealed that Rekha along with her husband namely Bishavnath Roy was residing on the above address as a tenant since last one month.

"Rekha's husband initially worked as a garbage picker in Vasant Kunj and for the last two months, he was working at B-7, Petrol Pump. Rekha has two kids, who are in their native village," said the official.

On further enquiry, it revealed that a heated argument took place between husband and wife a day before her body was found.

"Now the husband of the deceased is at large and his mobile phone is switched off. The FSL and crime teams have inspected the spot. Legal action is being taken and efforts are being made to nab the accused," said the official.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : Due to miscalculation of a zero, Mankind Pharma ended up donating Rs 250 crore instead of the initially planned Rs 21 crore towards Covid-19 relief efforts for frontline workers, MD Rajeev Juneja said during a recent interview.

In conversation with YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia on The Ranveer Show, Juneja said the huge sum was the result of a miscalculation, after a family debate on donating money for Covid-19 relief.

"We had a debate at home. We felt that we have a lot, and we should definitely give. We thought of donating Rs 21 crore. But my son said, you have such a big business, you should donate more. At the same, it was reported that Akshay Kumar donated Rs 50 crore. My son came to me and pressed upon the topic again. And we immediately went ahead with it," Juneja, told Allahbadia on his podcast called "The Ranveer Show".

Juneja, 58, said that making contributions known to the public, instead of keeping it discreet, can inspire others to give.

"There is a popular saying that when you are giving from one hand, the other should not know. I think the other hand should know, it inspires other people".

The pharma giant donated towards the Prime Minister's relief fund, and also to various other funds as well as oxygen cylinders.

"We donated plenty of stuff. It was an emotional thought. As a family, when we think of a noble deed, we announce it to the family. We understood that doctors and nurses were dying and we started calculating estimates. However, due to miscalculation, the estimated donation amount had one less zero than the actual amount we donated," Juneja said.

Mankind Pharma had also announced that it would donate a certain amount of money on the death of any frontline worker including chemists, police officers, nurses or doctors.

"What we had pledged, we had to donate 10x more. So we ended up giving around Rs 250 crore at that time. We gave without any expectation. But we got so much love and appreciation for that. It was all unexpected. It happened just like that. Something big happened out of a mistake," he further added.

Juneja stated that the company's contributions were met with unexpected love and appreciation, turning a mistake into a remarkable act of kindness.

"It happened just like that. Something big happened out of a mistake," he told the host.
Kolkata, Jan 8 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday accused the West Bengal Police of diluting the seriousness of the charges in the case related to the attack on its officials on January 5.

The attack on the ED sleuths took place as they reached the residence of a local Trinamool Congress leader to conduct raid and search operations at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district, in connection with the ration distribution case.

In a strongly-worded statement issued on Monday, the ED has accused the local Nazat Police Station of registering an FIR incorporating mainly the clauses related to bailable and non-scheduled offences.

The ED has also accused the state police of not sharing the copy of the FIR with their officials.

According to the ED, after the attack, their officials lodged a complaint at Nazat Police Station for registration of an FIR for offences under Section 307, 333, 326, 353, 392, 395, 397, 149, 148, 186, 189, 426, 435, 440, 341 and 342 r/w Section 120B, 109 and 115 of the IPC 1860.

The ED's statement added that the police registered the FIR for offences mainly under bailable and non-scheduled offences like 147, 148, 149, 341, 186, 353, 323, 427, 379, 504 and 34.

"A copy of the FIR has not been shared with this Directorate," the ED's statement read.

The ED, in the statement, has also accused the Bangaon Police Station of not furnishing the copy of the FIR to the directorate on the basis of the complaint made by the directorate about the resistance their team faced while bringing out arrested Trinamool Congress leader Shankar Adhya from his residence at Bangaon on the same night.

He was arrested in connection with the ration distribution case.

According to the ED's statement, all their team members as well as the CRPF personnel were threatened, assaulted by the crowd and obstructed while they were performing their official duty at around 11:30 PM.

"In this case Bangaon police was informed through email at 8:46 AM and thereafter SP Bangaon was contacted on mobile at around 4:00 PM with the request to provide sufficient security to the ED team.

"Despite this request, the crowd was allowed to gather near the premises being searched. The crowd pelted stones and attacked the ED team at around 11:30 PM.

"No physical injury was noticed to any ED officials but the crowd damaged the vehicle of the ED search team. A formal complaint has been lodged with the police authorities concerned. An FIR copy is awaited in this case also," the ED's statement read.
Kochi, Jan 8 : The Kerala High Court on Monday admitted a plea challenging the order of Lok Ayukta and Upa Lok Ayukta, rejecting a complaint filed against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and others alleging misuse of funds from the Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF).

"We will admit it and consider everything," a division bench headed by Chief Justice A.J. Desai said, issuing a letter under Rule 51D of the High Court Rules (instead of notice) to Vijayan.

Petitioner R.S. Sasikumar has pointed out a few instances of "misuse" by the state government, including giving financial assistance to the family of late Uzhavoor Vijayan, a leader of a political party, which is a part of the Vijayan government, with a total amount of Rs 25 lakh sanctioned from the CMDRF towards his medical expenses, and the educational expenses of his two children.

Another case where assistance was given from the CMDRF was for clearing the arrears of loans taken by late CPI-M MLA K.K.Ramachandran Nair from government-recognised institutions and providing a government job to his son and payment of Rs 20 lakh to the legal heirs of late police officer P. Praveen, who died in a motor accident while performing escort duty for the former Home Minister and CPI-M state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the petitioner said, claiming that all these were actuated by corruption, favoritism, and nepotism.

Sasikumar had approached the Lok Ayukta and Upa Lokayukta which rejected the complaint and found that the Chief Minister was vested with the authority to allocate money from the CMDRF and hence, he filed the petition before the High Court.

Sasikumar pointed out that the notice has been served in the name of Vijayan and this is a serious thing and soon after this came out, former Leader of Opposition and veteran Congress legislator Ramesh Chennithala who said with the court sending a notice, Vijayan, if he has any scruples left, should quit.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Jan 8 : The air quality in the national Capital on Monday again deteriorated with several monitoring stations entering into the 'severe' category.

New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS) The air quality in the national Capital on Monday again deteriorated with several monitoring stations entering into the aseverea category.

The air quality at Anand Vihar plummeted in the aseverea category with PM 2.5 at 495 and PM at 480 while the NO2 reached 147 and CO at 128, both in the amoderatea category, as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) at 6 p.m.

The AQI at ITO also remained in aseverea category with PM 2.5 reaching 423 and PM 10 at 366, or avery poora.

The CO was recorded at 103 or amoderatea. The PM 2.5 at Punjabi Bagh also reached 488 while PM 10 was at 454, both in the aseverea category.

The air quality at Jahangirpuri air quality monitoring station also entered the aseverea category with PM 2.5 at 421 and PM 10 at 438. The CO reached 62 or asatisfactorya level.

The PM 2.5 at Okhla Phase-II was recorded at 478 and PM 10 at 470, both in the aseverea category. The NO2 was at 146 and CO was at 106, in the amoderatea levels.

At Mundka the AQI remained in the aseverea category with PM 2.5 at 448 and PM 10 at 424, while the CO was at 63 or asatisfactorya.

The AQI between zero and 50 is considered agooda; 51 and 100 asatisfactorya; 101 and 200 amoderatea; 201 and 300 apoora; 301 and 400 avery poora; and 401 and 500 aseverea.

However, at Bawana, the air quality was in avery poora category with PM 2.5 at 387 and PM 10 at 356. The AQI monitoring station at Dwarka Sector 8 recorded PM 2.5 at 480 and PM 10 at 468, both in the aseverea category while the NO2 was at 111.

The AQI at the Indira Gandhi International Airport station plummeted with PM10 at 430 and PM2.5 at 407, both in the aseverea level.
Lucknow, Jan 8 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday stressed on preparing a regional index of education, health, economic condition of families and industry.

Addressing a meeting here on Monday, the chief minister discussed the ongoing efforts, current results and future policy towards fulfilling the resolve of making the state a state with a trillion-dollar economy.

Various ministers of the state government were present in the meeting organised by the Planning Department.

In the meeting, the Principal Secretary of the Planning Department and representatives of the finance sector consulting company Deloitte gave detailed information about the current state of the economic environment of the state and the possible future results, expectations of the industry, etc., sector-wise.

He said that by making a regional index, the condition of a district, kind of its needs will be known and efforts can be started immediately.

Yogi Adityanath also discussed the ongoing efforts, current outcomes, and future policies aimed at achieving the ambitious goal of establishing Uttar Pradesh a $1 trillion economy.

The state's total GDP, which stood at Rs 16.45 lakh crore in 2021-22, has now surged to over Rs 22.58 lakh crore in 2022-23.

With a 9.2 per cent contribution to the national income, Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the second-largest economy in the country, playing a pivotal role as the growth engine of the country, an official said.

An assessment of the state's growth rate compared to the national standards has also revealed positive results.

Uttar Pradesh's growth rate at current prices and constant prices in 2021-22 was 20.1 per cent and 9.8 per cent against the country's growth rate of 18.4 per cent and 9.1 per cent, respectively.

Similarly, in 2022-23, the national growth rate of constant prices was recorded at 7.2 per cent, against the state's growth rate of 9.8 per cent while the state's growth rate of current prices was recorded at 14.3 per cent during the period.

In the present scenario, the GDP of the state is estimated to be more than Rs 25.55 lakh crore in 2023-24.

To reach the $1 trillion target by 2027, it is imperative that all departments escalate their efforts, the CM said.

The need of the hour is to work together with right policy and planned implementation and it is crucial to gather accurate data, Adityanath stressed.

The chief minister directed officials to organise workshops/ training for statistical officers at each department level to ensure proper assessment of the situation in various sectors.

"We possess significant potential, and the current landscape offers favourable opportunities. We will have to take full advantage of this. The progress of all departments should be reviewed every month by the Planning department against the targets set for economic betterment," he directed.

He further said that digital technology has been incorporated to improve the primary segment of the economy, with initiatives such as digital crop surveys being successfully implemented.

This has to be implemented effectively in all 75 districts.

Notably, the area of cultivation and production of sugarcane increased by 26.8 per cent in 2021-22, while horticultural crop production saw a substantial rise of 31.9 per cent.

State-sponsored schemes aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in pulses and oilseeds in Uttar Pradesh are yielding favourable results.

However, there is a need to further enhance crop diversification and improve supply chain management.

The state has secured the top position in milk production.

Additionally, it ranks third in terms of progress in egg production, achieving an annual growth rate of 12.80 per cent.

Industrial power consumption in the secondary segment has increased by 17 per cent.

Survey of units established in the Industrial Authority area, identification of unused plots, and establishment of a new Industrial Corridor are underway.

According to officials, Uttar Pradesh has been experiencing rapid growth in the tertiary sector, encompassing hotels/ restaurants, transport, communication, real estate, professional services, public services, defence, and other services.

There has been unprecedented development in services related to the tourism sector.

According to the Union Ministry of Tourism's report in 2023, Uttar Pradesh has got the distinction of having the highest number of tourist arrivals in 2022.

In the financial year 2022-23, the state welcomed over 31.8 crore tourists, with Varanasi, Mathura, and Ayodhya emerging as major centres.

This positive trend is expected to continue in the coming days.

In addition to catering to domestic tourists, it is imperative to develop a comprehensive action plan to attract foreign tourists.

This involves identifying potential countries and formulating a tailored policy for branding the state in alignment with the preferences and interests of these countries.
Imphal, Jan 8 : AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal (Organisation) on Monday said that they are waiting for the permission to use the Hapta Kangjeibung ground in Imphal East district on January 14 to launch the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra led by former party President Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress leaders met Manipur Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi on Monday and requested him to provide permission to hold the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra launching meeting at the Hapta Kangjeibung ground.

The Chief Secretary assured the Congress leaders that they will be informed about the granting of the permission very soon.

A Congress leader said that the party applied to the government on January 2 seeking permission for the launching of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra at Hapta Kangjeibung in Imphal.

Claiming that the Yatra is not a political programme or any election campaign, Venugopal said it demands justice for the women, youth, farmers and poor and this Yatra will be historic as well.

"Don't make politics by denying the permission of the ground," the Congress leader indirectly told the BJP government.

Accompanied by Manipur state Congress President Keisham Meghachandra Singh and former three-term Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh (2002-2017), Venugopal told the media person that they do not want to politicise the issue as the entire country is not looking towards Manipur.

"I am from Kerala. People from Kerala are also astonished about the grave situation prevailing in Manipur. Manipur needs justice, that's why the Yatra will be started from this state. We want to ensure the future of Manipur and the state needs healing into its grave wound," Venugopal said.

He said that from Manipur, the Yatra will go to Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya and will reach Mumbai by covering 6,500 km in 15 states.

Rahul Gandhi's earlier Bharat Jodo Yatra, which covered 4,500 km from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, evoked tremendous success and got unprecedented public response.

The Congress Rajya Sabha member said that no political party and no political leader in India conducted such a historic campaign.

Venugopal said that a preparatory meeting was held in Imphal to make success of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which according to the Congress leader will be another successful event.

"We are very hopeful that there will be no politics over this yatra. The Manipur Chief Minister should understand the importance of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and think about Manipur first and not BJP politics," he said.

State party chief Meghachandra said that on January 14 several leaders of the party, including chief ministers and MPs from across the country will gather in Manipur for a peaceful rally.

Keeping the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in mind, the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra by Rahul Gandhi will be launched from Imphal on January 14 and culminate on March 20 in Mumbai.

Manipur is devastated by over eight month long ethnic violence between the non-tribal Meitei and tribal Kuki-Zo community and over 185 people have been killed and over 1,500 people injured and displaced over 70,000 people of both communities so far.
Chennai, Jan 8 : DMK leader and Member of Parliament from Nilgiris, A Raja has arranged flight tickets to transport the body of three-year-old Nancy who was killed in an attack by a leopard on January 6 at Pandalur.

In a press statement on Monday, the Nilgiris district administration said the former Union Minister, A Raja, had also made arrangements for flight tickets for the deceased girlas parents to Jharkhand.

The MP acted after he understood that the body takes more than three days to reach Jharkhand by road.

The childas body was embalmed at Udhagamandalam Medical College and Hospital and will be taken to Coimbatore and from there by air to Chennai and then to Ranchi.

The leopard that killed the girl had earlier killed another person besides injuring three persons.

The leopard was tranquilized and captured on January 7.

It may be recalled that the people of Pandalur had conducted a series of protests and had blocked the road leading to a war of words with the forest officials.

a"IANS

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New Delhi, Jan 8 : India's healthcare sector has shown substantial growth and is increasingly gaining prominence on the global stage. However, to ensure the sector is able to deliver world-class services, a steady flow of top-notch professionals is required to manage operations.

Realising the need to cater to the increasing demand for skilled operations managers in hospitals, a Post Graduate Executive Programme in Hospital Management offered jointly by Max Healthcare and IIM Kashipur seeks to provide the healthcare sector with competent and committed professionals.

The government has prioritised expanding healthcare infrastructure and implementing public health initiatives, leading to increased investments in hospitals, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and health technologies. According to a report by the Boston Consulting Group and B Capital, the Indian healthcare industry is projected to reach a value of $37 billion (Rs 3.08 lakh crore) by 2030.

Despite these advancements, the healthcare system faces challenges such as limited infrastructure, shortage of healthcare professionals, and evolving customer expectations. The increasing need for qualified professionals in the healthcare industry has led to the creation of specialised courses designed to meet the sector's distinct requirements. Consequently, there is an increasing need for trained individuals capable of managing the dynamic and challenging environment within hospitals and other healthcare facilities, leading to a demand for specialised programmes in hospital management that can prepare aspiring healthcare professionals for leadership roles.

Taking note of the evolving demands, Max Healthcare decided to tie up with a hallowed institute like IIM Kashipur to offer a programme that would equip aspiring healthcare professionals with the requisite knowledge, skills, and managerial expertise to excel in the challenging field of hospital management. It offers a comprehensive blend of theoretical concepts, practical case studies, and industry exposure, providing participants with a deep understanding of the healthcare industry.

The programme covers healthcare operations management, quality and patient safety, finance, marketing, and strategic management, empowering participants to cultivate a diverse skill set and strengthen their leadership and managerial abilities.

To cater to working professionals, the programme provides a blended learning approach, incorporating classroom sessions, online modules, and interactive discussions.

This approach enables participants to manage their professional obligations alongside their education effectively.

The curriculum reflects the most up-to-date trends and practices in hospital management, ensuring that participants acquire pertinent knowledge and skills to succeed in their roles.

Umesh Gupta, Senior Director-HR and Chief People Officer at Max Healthcare Ltd, said: "As the healthcare industry rapidly evolves, our commitment to develop, nurture, and empower skilled leaders has never been more crucial. The collaborative initiative with IIM Kashipur to introduce the PG Executive Program in Hospital Management stands as a testament of our dedication in equipping aspiring professionals with the specialized knowledge required to excel in the dynamic realm of hospital management."

The partnership between Max Healthcare and IIM Kashipur highlights their commitment to addressing the evolving needs of the healthcare industry and providing a platform for healthcare professionals to advance their careers in hospital management.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : Insuretech platform InsuranceDekho on Monday announced that it has suspended the sale of travel insurance to the Maldives in "support of national interest".

This decision comes in response to derogatory remarks made by now-suspended Maldivian ministers against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stemming from his recent visit to Lakshadweep.

"We at InsuranceDekho have decided to immediately stop issuance of travel insurance to the Maldives on our platform. We stand united with our country and align with our nation's interests," Yajur Mahendru, product head at InsuranceDekho, posted on LinkedIn.

"It's time to explore our own our island treasures, such as the beautiful Lakshadweep, that beckon with unparalleled beauty and charm," he added.

Earlier, EaseMyTrip suspended flight bookings to the Maldives.

"In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings #TravelUpdate #SupportingNation," the founder and CEO, Nishant Pitti wrote on X. Many Indian tourists also cancelled their upcoming tours to Maldives.

Maldivian government on Sunday suspended its three ministers for remarks against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Lakshadweep visit.

The ministers -- Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha and Hassan Zihan -- have been suspended for their derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Modi on 'X'.

--IANS

shs/pgh
Mumbai, Jan 8 : A day after a letter accusing three police officers of rape, sexual harassment and corruption, purportedly penned by 8 policewomen, surfaced on social media, the Mumbai Police have launched a probe into the matter, an official said on Monday.

The mystery letter, claimed to be written by the 8 women constables pointed fingers at a Deputy Commissioner of Police and two police inspectors of the Motor Vehicles Department.

Addressed to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, the letter, dated last month, leaked on social media and became viral.

It alleged that the three officers had taken them to their official residences in their police vehicles and sexually assaulted them.

Taking the matter very seriously, the police started a discreet internal probe into the letter and even questioned the alleged eight victim policewomen for verifying the damaging allegations made in their names.

However, the 8 women cops flatly denied having penned any such letter and even said that their signatures affixed on it were fake, deepening the mystery.

The official said that now the police are focussing on tracing the antecedents of the letter, its sender, his/her real motives behind it and warned stringent action would be initiated against the mischief monger.
Gurugram, Jan 8 : Real estate major DLF has recorded sales of luxury residences in its latest offering, 'Privana South' here, at over Rs 7,200 crore.

This comes as part of its pre-formal launch sales. The units were sold off within 72 hours in its pre-launch phase.

DLF on Monday said the residential project is spread across about 25 acres in Sectors 76 and 77, Gurugram.

The exclusive enclave will comprise 1,113 luxury residences across seven towers, presenting 4 BHK apartments and penthouses.

The project offers a clear view of the Aravalli Range and is in the vicinity of the upcoming Haryana government's Safari Park project spread over 10,000 acres.

DLF officials said that each buyer was allotted only one unit, with about 25 per cent of the sales coming from Non-Resident Indians, and a booking amount of Rs 50 lakh.

Sectors 76 and 77 are well-connected with direct access to all the major hubs of Gurugram and Delhi. They offer smooth road travel to prominent destinations like Jaipur, Manesar, Panipat, Sonipat, Karnal and beyond.
Hyderabad, Jan 8 : Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K. Kavitha on Monday exuded confidence that the party will wrest the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat from the BJP in the coming general elections.

Kavitha, who has already declared that she will contest once again from Nizamabad, attended the constituency-level preparatory meeting presided over by BRS Working President and her brother K. T. Rama Rao at the party office in Hyderabad.

Rama Rao stated during the meeting that unlike in 2019 when there was a direct fight between BJP and BRS, the constituency is likely to witness a three-cornered contest this time.

He mentioned that an analysis of voting trend in the recent Assembly elections shows that the BRS is ahead of both the Congress and the BJP in terms of votes polled.

KTR, as Rama Rao is known, told party leaders and workers that regardless of Assembly elections result, if they work hard to represent the interests of Telangana people, the party can win the Lok Sabha elections.

On the defeat of the BRS in the recent Assembly polls, he remarked that electoral victories and defeats are not new for the party.

The BRS leader said that the Congress won the elections because of its a420 promisesa and alleged that the party is now going back on its promises.

Kavitha asked BRS leaders from Nizamabad constituency to do self-introspection. She urged them to ensure the party's victory to give it as a gift to party chief KCR.

The MLC expressed unhappiness over the performance of MLAs, saying they did not give priority to workers.

Kavitha, who is daughter of KCR, has already declared that she will contest once again for Lok Sabha from Nizamabad. She is likely to once again face BJP's sitting MP. D.

Arvind. Arvind, son of former Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member D. Srinivas, had defeated Kavitha by a margin of over 71,000 votes in 2019. The constituency had hit headlines after 177 farmers jumped into the fray demanding remunerative price for turmeric and red sorghum and setting up of a Turmeric Board, taking the total number of candidates to 185.

Kavitha, who had won the seat by 1.67 lakh votes in the 2014 elections, had been targeting Arvind for failing to fulfil his promise of the Turmeric Board. The acrimony between the two leaders had reached its peak last year after Arvind had allegedly made objectionable comments against Kavitha, following which her supporters ransacked the residence of the MP in Hyderabad.

Arvind had unsuccessfully contested in the recent Assembly elections from Koratla constituency, a part of Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency. The BRS retained the seat.

Kavitha had served as the BRS campaign incharge for Bodhan and Nizamabad Urban segments, both part of Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency. The BRS lost Bodhan and Nizamabad Urban to Congress and BJP, respectively. Out of seven Assembly seats in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, the BRS won three seats while Congress and BJP bagged two seats each.

--IANS

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An opinion piece that you describe, praises or criticizes, on the whole or partly, to cultural or entertainment work. It must be written by an expert on the matter

The new season of American Horror Story, a long-running horror series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk in 2011, is marked by two unprecedented events (for AHS). First, Murphy and Falchuk have handed over the creative reins to Halley Feiffer, an award-winning playwright and cult-film actress known for her work on Broadway and in films by Noah Baumbach. And for the first time, an AHS season is based on a novel, one that puts a twist on Ira Levins classic Rosemarys Baby (made into a film by Roman Polanski in 1969).

The 12th season of AHS is adapted from Delicate Condition, a novel by Danielle Valentine about Anna Alcott, an indie actress desperate to have a child. Played by Emma Roberts with just the right touch of naivety, desire and ambition, Anna undergoes a grueling in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. But things start to go terribly wrong and not even her husband (played by none other than Matt Czuchry of Gilmore Girls fame) is willing to believe that someone is playing twisted games with her.

Since its start in 2011, this franchise has aimed to showcase an American brand of horror. Murphy and Falchuk, who previously co-created the boundary-pushing Nip/Tuck, have always strived to innovate with AHS. It practically created its own subgenre within the diverse horror landscape by exploring racial and neurodiversity themes, and featuring queer characters and older women in unexpected roles. The series has also embraced a visually stunning aesthetic that reimagines even the most cliched tropes.

The American Horror Story anthology has maintained continuity through series mainstays like Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy and Jessica Lange. Their intersecting paths in various roles have become the true driving forces of each season, as these actors undergo compelling transformations from ghosts and witches to serial killers, freaks and post-apocalypse survivors. The show continuously pushed boundaries, offering a myriad of nuanced characters, while still acknowledging their very real humanity.

Haley Feiffers mastery as the showrunner of this illustrious and enigmatic series is remarkable. She skillfully embraces the minimalist cinematography that is so popular these days, sometimes even capturing scenes upside down. Not to mention the exceptional portrayal of characters, particularly the striking duo of black-feathered women who do more than just chase the protagonist. The change in series leadership is seamless and barely noticeable unless you dwell on it. Feiffers vision is marked by abundant light and few night scenes, even though several episodes were directed by the dark and brooding Jennifer Lynch.

The story is actually quite simple: theres a woman who wants something she cant have, and is manipulated and used by everyone around her. Feiffer uses the human body as a catalyst for the nightmare, reminiscent of Julia Docournaus (Titane) cinematic style, but without any hidden nods to the French filmmaker. One scene in particular  the one with the hair  is infinitely striking and brings Murphy and Falchuks classic tale to a painfully intimate level. The loss of control in the face of an unstable reality, fueled by induced paranoia, adds to the horror.

Macabre fable

The criticism of Hollywood and its ruthless pursuit of fame  consuming stars to fuel the dream factory  takes on a dark, fable-like quality in this season of AHS. Kim Kardashian, playing the role of both agent and best friend to Emma Roberts character, is the deceitful temptress who entices the protagonist into a choice between an Oscar and life itself. Anna Alcott (Roberts) has been nominated for an Oscar and must now embark on a promotional tour that means abandoning everything else  even the possibility of motherhood.

Feiffers vision presents a domesticated version of the Murphy/Falchuk formula, in which a powerful villain controls the protagonists world. The nightmare in this season of AHS is entirely plausible, as Anna Alcott life is manipulated by remote forces who have hacked her mobile phone. It is not social networks that dictate our lives, but rather our acceptance of being enslaved by a system of seemingly personalized systems.

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New Delhi, Jan 8 : The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed against the Allahabad High Court order upholding the acquittal of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni in the 2000 Prabhat Gupta murder case.

A bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal said that it is not inclined to interfere with the concurrent findings of the courts below and dismissed the special leave petition filed by a family member of the deceased.

In May last year, the Allahabad High Court had dismissed the UP government's appeal filed against the acquittal order passed by trial court in 2004.

A bench of Justices Attaur Rahman Masoodi and Om Prakash Shukla had also dismissed the revision plea under Section 397/ 401 Cr.P.C. filed by the complainant/ revisionist Santosh Gupta, father of deceased Prabhat Gupta.

In 2004, Teni was acquitted by the trial court but the then state government appealed against acquittal in the high court. Student leader Gupta was shot dead near his house in Tikonia in Lakhimpur Kheri and four people including Teni were named as accused.

The others were Subhash Mama, Shashi Bhushan Pinky, and Rakesh Dalu.

Allegedly, Teni had a dispute with the deceased regarding the Panchayat elections, and hence, the latter was shot dead by Teni and other accused.
Kolkata, Jan 8 : Leading human rights group, Association for Protection of Democratic Right (APDR) has forwarded a communique to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) accusing West Bengal government of discriminating against the Teesta River flash flood victims.

APDR General Secretary, Ranjit Sur, said that the affected victims of Garfur Busty, Teesta Bazar, numbering eight families were not compensated with the amount of Rs 75,000 which the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had disbursed at an administrative programme on December 8 last year.

"There are complaints about some non-genuine beneficiaries availing the compensation and hence there was clear discrimination in award of the compensation, where collusion of panchayat officials with the alleged fake victims became apparent," Sur said.

In the communique to the NHRC, the APDR has also said that in absence of a proper rehabilitation programme many victims are still forced to stay in deplorable conditions at makeshift shelters in a community hall of Teesta Bazar.

"Moreover, the victims happened to belong to an economically weaker section as most of them were daily wagers that were dependent on river based economic activities like quarrying on Teesta River Bank.

"Closure of quarries by district administration affected their livelihood and they are staring at starvation and malnutrition issues in near future," said the APDR communique to NHRC.

The association has also requested the commission to depute an inspection team and address the grievances of affected victims more comprehensively including speedy compensation, rehabilitation and restoration of their livelihood through resumption of quarry at Teesta River bank.
Toronto, Jan 8 : A Sikh man held a candlelight vigil seeking justice for his parents from India who were killed in a shooting spree in Canada's Ontario province in November last year.

Jagtar Singh Sidhu and Harbhajan Kaur, both in their 50s, were shot more than 20 times just before midnight on November 20 at their rental property along the Caledon-Brampton border.

While Sidhu died on the spot, Harbhajan Kaur succumbed to injuries in the hospital where she was rushed to along with their daughter who was shot 13 times and continues to battle for her life.

"I'm feeling very sad because my whole family has been shot... (They) were just at the wrong place at the wrong time," Gurdit Singh Sidhu, the couple's son, told CP24 news channel.

Gurdit Singh and his sister had come to Canada as students a few years ago and sponsored the arrival of their parents who were supposed to return to India this month.

At the vigil, held on Saturday at Brampton, attendees carried placards that read: "Innocent visitors brutally killed", "Is Canada safe to live?", "Stop illegal weapons," and "Complete failure of law & order".

Gurdit Singh's cousin, Paramvir Bhatti, said they want concrete actions from all levels of government to ensure that communities are safe and violent incidents like this could be avoided.

"Once (the suspects) are caught, they should be always behind bars for their life without parole. That's what we want," he told CP24.

Remembering his parents as "nice" and "good" people who were helpful to others and always cooked for the family, Gurdit Singh rued that so far police have made no arrests in the case.

The heartbroken son is seeking answers to several questions, which include a visit by an officer from Peel Regional Police's Homicide and Missing Persons Bureau to meet his parents just four days before their murder.

"They must have known something was going to happen," he said, adding that the shooting and the death of his parents could have been avoided in the first place.

A spokesperson for Peel police confirmed on Saturday that the homicide bureau did connect with the family on November 16 in relation to an undisclosed investigation.

"All aspects of this case are now part of an active and ongoing investigation with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), and any further updates will be provided at the appropriate time," Constable Tyler Bell-Morena said in a statement.

Launching a homicide investigation soon after the incident, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said that they could have possibly died in a case of mistaken identity, and that they believe "multiple suspects" were involved in the killing.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Jan 8 : A man was dragged and stabbed multiple times, leading to his death, by five men in the outskirts of Delhi, police said on Monday.

According to police, at 8.18 p.m. on Sunday, Samaypur Badli police station received a PCR call reporting a stabbing and physical assault at Bhagat Singh Park in Siraspur area.

The initial investigation revealed a heated altercation involving Amandeep alias Kaali and five people.

"Amandeep, accompanied by his sisters Gurvinder and Jaswinder, had a confrontation with Mange, a 30-year-old running a loading and unloading business, along with his cousin Vijaypal alias Billu, 19, visiting from Punjab. Ravi, a 32-year-old driver, and Sagar, Ravi's neighbour, were also part of the dispute," said a senior police official.

Gurpreet, 24, brother of Amandeep, intervened during the altercation and tragically ended up being dragged and stabbed by the group of five, resulting in multiple wounds.

"Gurpreet was rushed to BSA Hospital, Rohini, where he was declared brought dead," said the official.

Following the incident, Ravi and Billu have been apprehended by the police.

"The crime team collected blood samples as crucial evidence from the scene. Gurpreet's post-mortem examination was conducted, and his body has been handed over to the family," said the official.

The incident led to a tense atmosphere in the area initially, but the situation has since calmed down.
Gurugram, Jan 8 : The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Gurugram Police probing a murder case in which a former model and girlfriend of slain gangster Sandeep Gadoli, was allegedly killed by the owner of the hotel where she was staying, has arrested a 20-year-old woman for her involvement in the crime, an official said on Monday.

The police have so far arrested four persons including the prime accused, Abhijeet Singh. The accused woman was identified as Megha, a resident of Najafgarh in Delhi.

During questioning, Megha said that the woman had helped Abhijeet in hiding, throwing away the murder weapon, documents and personal belongings of Divya Pahuja, 27, who was murdered by Abhijeet.

"The woman has been taken on a 2 day-police remand for further questioning. She would be thoroughly questioned about her involvement in the incident and the weapon used in the murder, documents and personal belongings of the deceased," Vijay Pratap Singh, DCP (crime) said.

Following Abhijeet's disclosure and scanning of CCTV footage, the SIT of the Gurugram Police nabbed the woman from her house at Najafgarh in Delhi.

According to Abhijeet, who allegedly shot Divya at her head, had called Megha to Hotel City Point after the murder and asked her to dispose of the belongings of the deceased woman.

Megha told the police that when she reached the hotel, she saw Divya's body.

Abhijeet asked her to dispose of the belongings of the deceased woman, but she was too scared to follow his instructions, sources said.

According to sources, Megha was working with an online food delivery company.

Sources also claimed that Divya's body might have been thrown into a water body near Patiala.

Searches are being made in the area by special teams, accompanied by divers.

Divya was shot dead in Gurugram's Hotel City Point last Tuesday.

The police have recovered the car which was used to take the body to Patiala, but have not recovered the body yet.

According to police, Abhijeet and Divya were in a relationship.

He told the police that he shot at her in a fit of rage after she refused to delete some of his objectionable pictures.

During questioning, he said that Divya used to blackmail him and also extorted money.

Divya came in contact with Abhijeet through a jailed gangster, Binder Gujjar.

Gujjar had apparently asked Abhijeet to assist with his children's education and during that phase, Abhijeet came in contact with Divya.

Binder Gujjar is said to be the prime conspirator in the alleged "fake encounter" of gangster Sandeep Gadoli, along with the Gurugram Police, which took place in Mumbai in 2016.

Divya was the prime accused in the case. Later, she was arrested in connection with the gangster's murder, and she spent seven years in jail.

She was granted bail last year in June by the Bombay High Court.

Divya's family has alleged that her murder was conspired by Sandeep Gadoli's family members, along with Abhijeet.
Cuttack, Jan 8 : Gujarat Giants moved to the top of the points table in the Ultimate Kho Kho Season 2 with a 42-22 victory over Telugu Yoddhas at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Monday.

The victory was built on the back of a strong defensive performance as Gujarat Giantsa defenders earned a total of eight dream-run points. Arnav Patankar and V. Subramani led the attacking show for Gujarat Giants with ten points each.

Gujarat Giants started the match with an excellent defensive performance. The first batch of Vinayak Pokarde, Akshay Bhangare and Ram Mohan ran rings around the Telugu Yoddhas attackers, aided by a series of successful reviews. When they were done, they had amassed a whopping five dream run points. At the end of Turn 1, Telugu Yoddhas only held a slender 8-5 lead.

However, Telugu Yoddhas hit back with a good defensive performance of their own in Turn 2. Their first batch of Lipun Mukhi, Prasad Patil and Arunk Gunki managed four dream run points. Gunki, in particular, was impressive, spending nearly three minutes on the mat.

However, Gujarat Giants seized back the advantage, sending back the next Telugu Yoddhas batch in no time. The scores, when the innings ended, read 19-12 in favour of the Gujarat Giants.

Telugu Yoddhas needed a big performance in Turn 3 to find their way back into the match, but that did not happen. Gujarat Giantsa first and second defensive batches managed three dream run points combined with Ravi Vasave even managing to remain unconquered.

That meant that the scores were locked 22-22, heading into the final turn, leaving Telugu Yoddhas with a near-impossible task. With Gujarat Giants attackers putting up a dominating show in Turn 4, the match ended in a comfortable victory for them.

On Tuesday, Odisha Juggernauts will take on Mumbai Khiladis while Chennai Quick Guns meet Gujarat Giants in the final round of group games.
New Delhi, Jan 8 : The Delhi High Court has expressed anguish over the AAP government's lack of action in constructing chambers for lawyers, despite a directive issued 12 years ago.

Hearing a petition by the Sales Tax Bar Association, Justice Subramonium Prasad directed the Chief Secretary to present a roadmap for implementation.

The court said that its orders should not be flouted, and the Chief Secretary needs to outline when the construction will be completed.

It asked the Special Commissioner, Department of Trade and Taxes and the Special Secretary, Public Works Department (PWD) to be present in court on the next date of hearing.

The high court had initially ordered the construction of a building for lawyers' chambers in January 2011, and the recent petition was filed last year when the order was not implemented.

The court noted that the status report indicated the government's contemplation of constructing a twin tower on the land, requiring a change of plan.

The judge expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of concrete action over the past 12 years and stressed the importance of adhering to court directives.

Justice Prasad has posted the matter for next hearing on January 12.
Hyderabad, Jan 8 : Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Monday expressed his government's strong desire to revive Kamlapurum Pulp Mill of Ballapur Industries Ltd (BILT) and urged the IRP Finquest to expedite the process.

Hyderabad, Jan 8 (IANS) Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Monday expressed his governmentas strong desire to revive Kamlapurum Pulp Mill of Ballapur Industries Ltd (BILT) and urged the IRP Finquest to expedite the process.

He held a review with senior officials on the status of revival of the unit.

The new Congress government has prioritised the revival of sick industrial units like BILT Mill in Mulugu district to boost economic activity and provide local employment.

In this context, the Chief Minister held a meeting with Hardik Patel, MD of Finquest Financial Solutions Pvt Ltd which has secured BILT assets in the state following the order from National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and is in the process of disposing it to potential investors.

The Chief Minister also had discussions with CEO of ITC's PSPD (Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division) Vadiraj Kulkarni on their ongoing projects in Telangana and future expansion plans.

ITC is in negotiations with Finquest to acquire BILT assets.

Revanth Reddy assured that the government will extend all possible support to ITC for the successful revival of the BILT factory in Kamlapurum.

Ministers Anasuya and Konda Surekha, the Chief Secretary and senior officials attended the meeting.

The Kamlapuram Mill in Mulugu is a dedicated pulp mill manufacturing rayon grade pulp for the viscose staple fibre (VSF) industry.

The unit started commercial production in September 1981. Run by Ballapur Industries Ltd (BILT), the unit became sick and was closed in 2014. This affected the livelihoods of 750 worker families and hundreds of other families indirectly dependent on this factory.

Several attempts were made by the past government to revive the closed unit by extending incentives in 2015 and 2018 without any success. The case was referred to NCLAT which appointed Finquest Financial Solutions Pvt Ltd as the Interim Resolution Professional in 2020
Panaji, Jan 8 : Hundreds of sugarcane farmers demanding the reopening of a sugar factory on Monday intensified the protest by shifting their agitation to the capital city.

The protesters sought to know why the government was hesitating to come clear over the issue.

Started by the protest at Dharbandora on January 3, near the sugar factory, 45 km away from here, on Monday protesters shifted the protest to Panaji and complained that "nobody from the government side came to them to clear their doubts".

"This forced us to protest at Azad Maidan-Panaji, so it will be near to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant or his officers to meet us," farmers told media persons.

President of 'Goa Us Utpadan Sanghatana' (Sugarcane Producers association) Rajendra Desai told IANS that the government has failed to keep its promise of restarting operations of the sugar factory.

"Our demand is that the government should restart factory operations. The Chief Minister had promised us to restart factory with a new set up of ethanol plant. He should tell us when he will start it," Desai said.

According to Desai, "one group was ready to set up an ethanol plant on Public Private Partnership, but despite a certain individual's interest, the government was hesitating to give him nod.

Farmers alleged that they are not getting appointment with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik for the last three months to discuss the issue.

In July last year, around 200 sugarcane farmers were detained by the police for blocking the national highway at Dharbandora in South Goa while seeking assurance on restarting operations of the lone sugar factory.

"The government had promised us to restart the sugar factory then. But till today, no step has been taken by the government to restart operations," Desai said, adding there are more than 600 farmers dependent on sugarcane cultivation.

In 2020, the state government shut down the operations of the sugar factory and, since then, the local farmers have been selling their produce in the neighbouring states.

'Sanjivani Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana' (Goa's only sugar factory) was set up in 1972.

The sugar factory, however, went into losses in the last one decade, and 4 years ago, its operations were stopped.
No one can beat Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram: BJP leader Rajagopal. Image Source: IANS News

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 8 : Veteran BJP leader and former union minister O. Rajagopal on Monday said that no one can beat senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Thiruvananthapuram.

"No one can beat Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram. He came from Palakkad and has won the hearts of people here. That is why he continues to win. No one can defeat him in the years to come," Rajagopal said while speaking at an award function in presence of Tharoor.

Rajagopal finished as runner up to Tharoor during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

After Rajagopal finished his speech, Tharoor touched the feet of veteran BJP leader.

Tharoor has said that he is prepared to contest for the fourth time from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat in 2024.

"I will win even if I have to fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Tharoor said a few weeks back.

Tharoor, a former undersecretary general at the United Nations, was a surprise choice when he flew back to India and after meeting the then Congress top brass and secured a party ticket to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Thiruvananthapuram.

Since then he has completed a hat-trick of wins and the only tough time he had to face was in 2014 after the untimely death of his wife Sunanda Phuskar.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, he won with a margin of 99,989 votes, while during 2014 Lok Sabha election the margin was 15,470 and during his debut election in 2009 Lok Sabha election the winning margin was 99,998 votes.

It is expected that the BJP senior leaders like S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Rajeev Chandrasekhar may contest against Tharoor in upcoming Lok Sabha election.
A 2019 article in The Guardian put the word hangxiety  a portmanteau of the words hangover and anxiety  on the map. The pithy term quickly became popular in WhatsApp groups and on social media feeds, often accompanied by the Literally Me meme. No one had ever given such a specific name to that mixture of headache, palpitations, restlessness and a deep sense of guilt and malaise caused by the previous nights excessive drinking. Its not just a simple hangover; its much worse. Since we live in an age in which the word anxiety can be attached to just about anything that comes up, making this emotion much more specific and enabling it to develop into a disorder  from eco-anxiety to fascist anxiety  it is worth asking whether a hangover can actually cause anxiety. The answer is yes, hangxiety is real, Joaquin T. Limonero, the president of the Spanish Society for the Study of Anxiety and Stress and coordinator of the stress and health research group at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, told EL PAIS. Since that is the case, what causes it?

It is a combination produced by the brains biochemical alterations, stemming from the consumption of alcohol, and certain psychological factors. As the psychologist explains, alcohol acts on the most important inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA, which is responsible for sending chemical messages from the brain to the nervous system; It is the part of the brain most linked to decision-making [and] planning and it is also where emotions are made conscious. Limonero adds that alcohol stimulates GABA. Thats why you relax, calm down and have fun when you drink. With one drink, everything is fine. But with two or three drinks, things start to get out of control: theres a decrease in glutamate, the main excitatory transmitter in the brain. More glutamate means more anxiety. Less glutamate means less anxiety. Its simple, pure chemistry. The problem is that, the next day, when the sun comes up, there is a rebound effect: The brain seeks to regulate itself and regain normal functioning levels, so it decreases GABA neurotransmitters and increases glutamate. This activation of glutamate is what produces that feeling of anxiety.

But there are more factors at play beyond the imbalance between GABA and glutamate, such as raised cortisol levels. Alcohol interrupts the natural cycle of cortisol, a hormone that increases naturally during the day and alerts us to possible threats, and is reduced at night, the psychologist explains. This hormone is commonly related to stress, since it stimulates our glucose production, and when our body detects some kind of danger, it stops the absorption of glucose and starts producing energy. As it decompensates after the consumption of alcohol, anxiety increases because we are more vigilant, more active and more tense. Hydration levels also impact hangxiety. Another factor that influences this feeling of anxiety is dehydration: we know that alcohol dehydrates and decreases the concentration of water in the body, which often causes us to wake up with a headache. But our heart must also work harder because of that dehydration. Another symptom of anxiety? Palpitations. In addition, the psychologist says, we have to add lack of sleep: when we drink alcohol, we sleep worse. That lack of sleep also causes tiredness and irritation. In other words, it is conducive to anxiety.

In addition, we cannot neglect to mention other psychological factors. For instance, theres the guilt and regret that arise from that feeling of not knowing what exactly we did the night before, whether we made a fool of ourselves, or crossed a line by making an inappropriate joke with someone from work over Christmas drinks, or sent a message to an ex. We have blurred memories of the night before, which can lead to a state of agitation caused by uncertainty and regret: What will they think of me? explains Limonero. The psychologist adds that context is important: getting drunk with friends is not the same as doing so with coworkers. When in doubt, its better not to drink too much.

Guilt and regret over having done or said the wrong thing lead to hangxiety. Milko (Getty Images)

The problem of hangxiety has an easy solution: dont drink. Period. But lets be realistic, especially at Christmas. Remember that it is temporary, like the hangover itself, which can last a few hours or a couple of days, says the psychologist. He also recommends consulting a mental health specialist if we experience prolonged anxiety over time. If we already have an anxiety disorder, the best thing to do is to drink as little as possible, which will spare us trouble the day after.

As for the remedy, everyone and their mother has their own cure for a terrible hangover. Still, everybody agrees on one or more points: drink plenty of water, rest and, if necessary, take some medication to alleviate the headache. Is it advisable to take anxiety medication? For me, that would be counterproductive, says Limonero. He says that the best thing is to hydrate, eat healthily even if ones body is asking for junk food, take vitamin B and dont consume caffeine, because it will key us up again, and we want to calm down. Thats true for most things in life.

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Shillong, Jan 8 : Five days after Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) withdrew from the tripartite peace talks with the Centre and the Meghalaya government, the outlawed militant outfit's interlocutor for the peace talks, Sadon Blah on Monday blamed the government for group pulling out of the peace process.

He said that the HNLC was forced to withdraw itself from the peace process after the government adopted a "legal" instead of a "political approach".

"The government must consider the general and basic demands of the HNLC to facilitate the participation of the leaders in the peace talks and take forward the peace process by considering the matter from the political perspective and not from the legal angle," he told the media.

Blah stated that the ball is in the governmentas court, and if they are ready to reconsider amnesty to the cadres of the HNLC, the tripartite peace talks with the Centre and State government can be resumed.

He informed that most of the cases against the HNLC cadres involve bomb blasts, and according to Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, they are not considered "heinous crimes".

Even during a war, the critical problems can be resolved through a political approach, Blah remarked.

He said several rounds of discussions were held in the past nearly two years on how to take forward the peace talks. The government had stated that it would provide the HNLC members safe passage but did not talk about granting general amnesty to them even though the outfit has been demanding for it.

Blah said that as the negotiator for the HNLC, he had apprised the views and demands of the outfit to the officials of MHA and Intelligence Bureau as well as officials of the state government, and the government's interlocutor A.K. Mishra.

Blah, who is also the President of Hynniewtrep National Youth Front, said that his organisation strongly condemned the Meghalaya government for failing to bring this peace process to its logical conclusion.

With camps in Bangladesh, the Meghalaya-based extremist outfit HNLC, in a statement earlier, claimed that their core demands for general amnesty to their cadres and lifting of ban were not accepted.

The outfit demanded the withdrawal of all cases against its cadres before talks could proceed further.

The tripartite peace talks between the Centre, the state government, and the HNLC began last year.

Earlier, the NIA, in August 2022, had filed a charge sheet against four members of the outlawed organisation including its Chairman-cum-Commander-in-Chief Bobby Marwein for allegedly triggering a bomb blast on the premises of Star Cement Factory in East Jaintia Hills district in December 12, 2020 for their failure to pay extortion.

In August 2021, violent protests broke out in different places in Meghalaya after General Secretary Chesterfield Thangkhiew of HNLC was killed in a police operation. Police have alleged that he was involved in the IED explosion in Shillong.

While militancy is on the decline in Meghalaya over the last several years, since 2020, the HNLC has been behind a few low-intensity IED blasts in the state. The HNLC, which has been demanding a sovereign Khasi tribal homeland in Meghalaya, is a breakaway faction of the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council, the first tribal militant outfit of the mountainous state, formed in the mid-1980s.
Hyderabad, Jan 8 : The new Congress government in Telangana has constituted a Cabinet sub-committee to implement six guarantees.

The sub-committee will be headed by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Ministers Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy and D. Sridhar Babu will be the members.

Srinivasa Reddy revealed this on Monday while addressing media persons after a review meeting held by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on the applications received during Praja Palana programme which concluded on January 6.

A total of 1.05 crore applications were received across the state during the programme which had started on December 28.

The minister said the officials successfully completed the programme and applications were received in all villages.

Data entry of the applications by 30,000 operators is progressing swiftly. He reiterated that the government is committed to implement the six guarantees in 100 days and would ensure that all eligible people get the benefits under the six guarantees.

Meanwhile, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Working President K.T. Rama Rao accused the Congress of attempting to halt welfare programmes initiated by the previous BRS government.

At a party meeting in Telangana Bhavan, KTR asserted that BRS would stand with the beneficiaries of these programmes and oppose any efforts to dismantle them. He alleged that the Congress government is already freezing bank accounts of selected beneficiaries of Dalit Bandhu, a revolutionary scheme aimed at empowering Dalit families through financial grant of Rs 10 lakh each for their economic self-reliance.

He also criticised the cancellation of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, designed for house construction for the poor.

"The Congress, despite having ruled for 50 years, has never implemented such innovative welfare programmes. Now, they want to sabotage our initiatives like Dalit Bandhu, Gruha Lakshmi, BC Bandhu, and sheep distribution," he said.

KTR specifically condemned the alleged backtracking plans of the Congress on Dalit Bandhu, claiming they have forgotten their election promise to increase the grant per family from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh.

Furthermore, he cited the abrupt cancellation of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, despite completing beneficiary identification and necessary proceedings. He vowed to stand by the affected families and fight for their rights.
Patna, Jan 8 : With the seat sharing process underway in the INDIA bloc, Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary D. Raja met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his official residence here on Monday.

Raja, who came to Patna to attend an event, went to meet Nitish Kumar after it and the two leaders were together for half an hour.

After the meeting, Raja refused to interact with the media persons.

Sources have said that both the leaders discussed the current political situation of the country and also the seat sharing formula in Bihar.

In the last few months, the Left parties were getting close to Nitish Kumar. In November last year, they had organised a public rally in Patnaas Millar School Ground where Nitish Kumar was invited.

Recently, the Jyoti Basu Foundation invited Nitish Kumar in Kolkata on the death anniversary of former West Bengal Chief Minister on January 17. There is a buzz that Nitish Kumar may go to Kolkata for the event and give a message to his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee who had projected Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge as a prime ministerial candidate of the INDIA bloc.
BJP's new minister in Rajasthan loses election to Cong rival. Image Source: IANS News

Jaipur, Jan 8 : Rajasthan's Minister of State for IGNP and Agriculture Marketing Surendra Pal Singh T.T. on Monday resigned from his post after losing in the Srikaranpur Assembly poll.

Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma forwarded the minister's resignation to Governor Kalraj Mishra, who accepted it, a Raj Bhawan statement said.

Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Koonar defeated the minister in Srikaranpur Assembly seat by a margin of 11,283 votes.

The Chief Minister, in a post on X, said that Surendra Pal Singh TT "happily accepted the mandate and resigned from the post of minister. He will again be dedicated to the development work" of the constituency.
Kolkata, Jan 8 : The CBI on Monday filed a fresh supplementary charge sheet in a special Kolkata court accusing former West Bengal Education Einister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee of direct involvement in all the four cases registered by the agency on irregularities in recruitment of secondary and higher secondary teachers as well as non-teaching staff done by the West Bengal School Service Commission.

However, it is not yet clear whether this fresh supplementary charge sheet is the final charge sheet filed by the CBI in the matter.

Chatterjee is currently in judicial custody and he has been there since his arrest by the ED, which is conducting a parallel probe in the school job case, in July 2022.

The fresh charge sheet by the CBI is significant given the Supreme Court fixing a specific deadline for the central agency to wind up the investigation process in the school job case.

Sources said that besides Chatterjee, a number of former officials of the state Education Department have been mentioned in the fresh supplementary charge sheet, including three persons now named as "accused", while earlier being shown as "witnesses" in the case.

Sources said that the central agency will shortly submit a compliance report on its part to the Calcutta High Court, where more details pertaining to the findings of the investigation in the school job case will be revealed. Sources also said that the fresh supplementary charge sheet had been drafted in such a way so that avenues for further and continuing investigation by the central agency in the matter remains open.
Hyderabad, Jan 8 : Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Monday asked the leaders of his Congress to aim at winning at least 12 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the coming elections.

Revanth Reddy, who is also the state party chief, asked the leaders to work hard to ensure that the party secure more votes than the votes it got in Assembly elections.

He held a meeting with in-charge ministers of five districts and MLAs to discuss the preparations for the Lok Sabha polls.

The meeting was attended by leaders from Adilabad, Nizamabad, Medak, Mahabubnagar and Hyderabad districts.

The Chief Minister informed the leaders that he will start visiting districts after January 26.

The first public meeting will be held at Indravelli in Adilabad district. He recalled that it was Indravelli he had addressed the first public meeting after taking over as state chief.

He suggested Congress leaders from Adilabad make arrangements for laying the foundation stone for a memorial park at the martyrsa memorial in Indravelli. He promised that the families of martyrs will be identified and they will be provided all the assistance.

Revanth Reddy said development of Assembly constituencies will be the responsibility of in-charge ministers of undivided districts. He told the party leaders that they will be involved in welfare and development works.

Reiterating that he is not like his predecessor, he said he would be available to MLAs after January 26. The Chief Minister said he would meet MLAs at the State Secretariat between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. for three days a week.

--IANS

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Cuttack, Jan 8 : Chennai Quick Guns ascended to the top of the points table in Season 2 of the Ultimate Kho Kho with a dominating 42-19 victory over Rajasthan Warriors at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Monday.

The match featured one of the most memorable defensive performances in Ultimate Kho Kho history with a Chennai Quick Guns batch managing to last six minutes and 58 seconds on the mat a" the longest ever a" and score eight dream run points.

Chennai Quick Guns started the match with an excellent attacking turn. They sent back the first Rajasthan Warriors batch in just 2.28 seconds, with Sachin Bhargo dismissing two defenders with one skydive.

Rajasthan Warriorsa second batch managed a dream run point but Chennai Quick Guns finished the turn on top with a lead of 16-1.

Then came the defensive masterclass that killed the match. The first Chennai Quick Guns batch of Ramji Kashyap, Madan and Vijay Shinde never stopped running as they raked up the dream run points.

By the time the final member of the batch a" Madan a" was dismissed, they were two seconds away from spending an entire turn unconquered and had eight dream run points. Madan, in particular, was outstanding as he kept eluding the Rajasthan Warriors attackers. The score, at the end of the first innings, read 24-7 in favour of Chennai Quick Guns.

The Chennai Quick Guns attackers made short work of three defending batches in Turn 3, leaving Rajasthan Warriors with the mathematically impossible task of making up a 33-point gap in the final turn.

The heavy defeat means that Rajasthan Warriors have ended a disappointing campaign without a single victory.

Earlier, Gujarat Giants earned a comfortable 42-22 victory over Telugu Yoddhas.

Gujarat Giants started the match off with an excellent defensive performance. The first batch of Vinayak Pokarde, Akshay Bhangare and Ram Mohan ran rings around the Telugu Yoddhas attackers, aided by a series of successful reviews. When they were done, they had amassed a whopping five dream run points. At the end of Turn 1, Telugu Yoddhas only held a slender 8-5 lead.

However, Telugu Yoddhas hit back with a good defensive performance of their own in Turn 2. Their first batch of Lipun Mukhi, Prasad Patil and Arunk Gunki managed four dream run points. Gunki, in particular, was impressive, spending nearly three minutes on the mat.

However, Gujarat Giants seized back the advantage, sending back the next Telugu Yoddhas batch in no time. The scores, when the innings ended, read 19-12 in favour of the Gujarat Giants.

Telugu Yoddhas needed a big performance in Turn 3 to find their way back into the match, but that did not happen. Gujarat Giantsa first and second defensive batches managed three dream run points combined with Ravi Vasave even managing to remain unconquered.

That meant that the scores were locked 22-22, heading into the final turn, leaving Telugu Yoddhas with a near-impossible task. With Gujarat Giants attackers putting up a dominating show in Turn 4, the match ended in a comfortable victory for them.

On Tuesday, Odisha Juggernauts will take on Mumbai Khiladis while Chennai Quick Guns will take on Gujarat Giants in the final round of group games.
Ahmedabad, Jan 8 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, along with his Punjab counterpart, Bhagwant Mann, on Monday visited incarcerated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Chaitar Vasava at Rajpipla jail in Gujarat.

Both criticised the ruling BJP in the state for what they termed as "its peak in authoritarianism".

Mann said the BJP's approach towards individuals who work for public welfare is a challenge for the entire nation. "Those who work in the public's interest are being targeted and unjustly jailed on fabricated charges by agencies like the ED and the CBI. This kind of authoritarianism cannot last," the Punjab CM said.

The visit follows a rally on Sunday in Netrang, a tribal-dominated area in Bharuch district, Gujarat, where both leaders campaigned in support of Vasava.

During the rally, Kejriwal announced Vasava as the AAP candidate for the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The seat is currently held by BJP's former Union minister Mansukh Vasava.

Chaitar Vasava is a legislator from Dediapada in Narmada district. He was arrested last year on charges of intimidating forest officials and firing shots during a dispute over land cultivation rights of local tribals in Narmada district.

The case also involves his wife, Shakuntalaben, who faces similar charges.
Imphal, Jan 8 : Manipur's Moreh, on the India-Myanmar border, continue to remain a trouble spot with gunfights between suspected militants and security forces continuing in area for the second day on Monday.

Police said that the gun fight between the suspected militants and the security forces has been reported in Moreh on Sunday and Monday but there is no reported casualty on either side.

Additional security forces have been sent, and massive search operations were underway to nab the militants.

Since December 30, 10 Manipur Police commandos and a Border security Force (BSF) trooper have been injured in different incidents of attacks by suspected Kuki militants at Moreh in Tengnoupal district.

Moreh, which is just 4 km to the west of Myanmar's largest border town Tamu, is 110 km south of state capital Imphal.

Some tribal organisations are opposing the deployment of state forces in the area. The mixed populated border area had also witnessed a series of violent incidents since May 3.

Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh earlier said that foreign mercenaries from Myanmar might be involved in the attacks on security forces in the border town of Moreh.

"We have taken all necessary measures to counter such extremist activities," he said, adding that the state government has been maintaining a close coordination with the Central government, and counter-insurgency operations are being conducted jointly by state and Central security forces.

Singh also conveyed the government's firm commitment to the people, saying it would not succumb to such threats and pressure, and take necessary measures to counter such insurgency activities.

--IANS

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Bengaluru, Jan 8 : Kannada film actor Yash has visited the families of the three persons in Karnataka's Gadag district, who allegedly died of electrocution while they were erecting a banner to celebrate the actor's birthday.

Three other persons were also seriously injured during this incident which took place early Monday morning.

Yash announced on Monday that he stands in soldarity with the bereaved families like their son and will extend all necessary help possible to them.

"This is not the appropriate time to make announcements. They (families of the deceased youth) will be taken care of. This should not set a precedent," he said.

"We don't like the erection of banners, cutouts and I don't like to show off with my fan base. I started fearing my birthdays as one or the other tragedies occur. To be honest, I am fed up with myself. Let the fans bless me from wherever they are. They should take utmost care of themselves and achieve big in life," Yash, who is known for his "Rocky Bhai" image, appealed to his fans.

"Before 15 days, there were Covid cases. I had decided not to celebrate my birthday on this pretext with my fans. Anyone can extend a helping hand, but will the deceased son return to his family? What about the family who lost their dear ones? If death occurs in our families it's the same. Those who died were too young," the actor said.

"I appeal to everyone. Please shun away from erecting banners. The fans followed and chased me on their bikes exposing them to grave danger. Please do not indulge in risk. If you want to show love, do good deeds. You will be happy in your lives. That is enough. Even if it hurts, I want to maintain a distance. Every fan of mine should focus on achieving big in life," he added.

"If you have love and respect, behave responsibly," he said.

Yash, who arrived in a special chartered flight from Goa to Hubballi airport, travelled by road to Sorangi village from where the tragedy was reported in Gadag district.

He inspected the spot where the incident occurred and visited the houses of all the three deceased youth as well as pacified them.

The deceased have been identified as Hanumantha Harijan, 24, Murali Nadumani, 20, and Naveen Gaji, 20, while the injured have been identified as Manjunath Harijan, Prakash Myageri and Deepak Harijan.

Several youth were trying to erect a banner to express their love for the 'KGF' fame actor Yash on January 8 to celebrate his birthday. However, due to the darkness at night, the victims were unable to see the high-tension electric wire.

Local MLA Chandru Lamani visited the injured persons at the hospital in Lakshmeshwar and offered his condolences to the families of those who died in the incident.

Superintendent of Police, B.S. Nemagoud, said that a group of nine people were trying to install a banner with an iron frame which came in contact with the electric wire due to which the incident took place.

"The condition of two injured persons is critical," he added.

The Karnataka government has announced two lakh rupees as compensation for the family members of the three deceased victims who died on the incident.

Gadag Minister In-charge H.K. Patil said that a compensation of Rs 50,000 will also be given to three others, who have suffered serious injuries in the incident.
In the first 48 hours of 2024, Japan made headlines twice: on New Years Day, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the center of the country, leaving at least 100 people dead. The following day, a Japan Airlines plane and a coast guard plane collided and caught fire at Tokyos Haneda airport. Although five of the six crew members aboard the coast guard aircraft died, all 379 people on board the Airbus A350 survived thanks to the flight crews quick response and the passengers attentiveness to instructions.

The coast guard plane was carrying supplies to help the area affected by the earthquake that had struck the Noto peninsula in the Ishikawa prefecture the previous day, forcing the authorities to activate a major tsunami warning along the countrys west coast. It was the most urgent warning since the triple disaster of 2011, in which a magnitude 9.1 earthquake, a giant tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident claimed a total of 20,000 lives.

Although the official figures of the New Years earthquake are not insignificant  100 dead and 211 missing, according to a January 6 count  the consequences could have been far worse had it not been for Japans readiness for such disasters. September 1 marked the 100th anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that would change the course of the countrys history. More than 105,000 people lost their lives back then, 70,000 of them in Tokyo, while around 370,000 homes were destroyed. A century later, Japans seismology institutes are global leaders, with cutting edge seismometer networks and early warning systems.

According to Miguel Martinez Paneda, senior structural engineer at Arup, the main difference in the ratio of deaths and damage between the Noto earthquake and other recent large-scale earthquakes, such as those in Morocco or Turkey, is that Japan is very aware of the seismic risk and that most of its buildings are constructed in the knowledge that they will have to withstand an earthquake. Martinez Paneda told EL PAIS that in other places, there can be a generational time-lapse between one earthquake and the next, so the perception of risk can be lost.

Japan is prone to earthquakes due to its location within what is known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, where 90% of the planets seismic activity is concentrated. The Asian nation records hundreds of tremors annually, albeit mostly of low intensity, and has consequently been reviewing and updating its construction laws and national seismic standard for decades, and incorporating lessons learned. Unlike most European and American building codes, the Japanese focus not only on preventing collapse in the event of large earthquakes, but also on ensuring that buildings can continue to be used during small earthquakes, says Martinez Paneda.

Toshitaka Katada, a professor at the University of Tokyo who specializes in disaster management, told EL PAIS that the governments rapid response  a quick warning of an impending emergency was sent to cell phones and rescue teams were deployed  as well as public awareness of what to do in such situations, have also helped to save many lives. The Japanese learn from an early age how to act in the event of an earthquake and, every year, children and adults carry out evacuation drills. In the aftermath of the 1995 6.9 magnitude Kobe earthquake, which killed 6,000 people, community associations have proliferated to help prepare for potential disasters. In Katadas opinion, Japan is probably the best prepared country for such an event.

Modern evacuation protocols

The diligence often associated with Japanese society was also instrumental in preventing the Haneda airport crash from turning into a tragedy. For many, it is a miracle that all 367 passengers, including eight children and 12 Japan Airlines crew members, escaped virtually unharmed. Only 17 people were injured, all of them now out of danger. While investigations continue to look into how the coast guard aircraft from which only the captain was saved ended up on the same runway as the Japanese companys aircraft, experts say that the success of the evacuation is due to modern protocols and the professionalism with which they were applied.

Firefighters work at Haneda International Airport after the Japan Airlines A350 plane crash in Tokyo, Japan, January 2. ISSEI KATO (REUTERS)

According to Emirates flight attendant Barbara Perez Sanchez, [Crewmembers] are highly trained to evacuate a plane in 90 seconds. We are very familiar with the procedures. Perez Sanchez also stresses the exemplary performance of her Japanese colleagues. According to the Japanese airline, 18 minutes elapsed from the time the plane stopped until the last person descended the emergency ramp. For Perez Sanchez, the amazing reaction of the passengers also played a key role: They did not panic, they remained seated, without getting up to pick up their bags, listening attentively to the crews instructions and following their orders, she told EL PAIS.

Many industry professionals have remarked online that the video Japan Airlines uses to explain to its travelers what to do in an emergency is a clear guide that prepares for a textbook evacuation. Its super accurate and super direct, says Perez Sanchez. It highlights the seriousness of Japanese society and the value it places on safety. There is an existing debate on whether these audiovisual products are effective. There has been criticism in recent years that they are more akin to a short film promoting tourism than a set of instructions.

Perez Sanchez says that the plane crash will be thoroughly analyzed and will probably lead to changes in general aviation regulations. This happened in 1985, after a Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo to Osaka crashed into a mountain. It was the deadliest plane crash in aviation history: only four of the 524 people on board survived. That tragedy, which occurred after a faulty tail repair by Boeing technicians rather than the airline itself, is still very much kept in mind by the company which now implements one of the strictest protocols on the planet, as demonstrated by Tuesdays evacuation. Consequently, it regularly appears as one of the 25 safest airlines in the world on Airlineratings.coms annual list.

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Novelist George Eliot once asked, What are we here for if not to make life less difficult for each other? While Eliot was presumably asking about people at large, she could have easily been reciting the motto of every public and school librarian, particularly those working with neurodiverse students. PW spoke with three librarians about the ways they are making life less difficult for kids with learning differences and creating spaces that are truly welcoming for all.

An elementary school media specialist turned high school media specialist at Topeka High School in Topeka, Kans., Tonya Foster welcomed a suggestion from a student on the autism spectrum, Elizabeth (not her real name), when she wanted to start a Spectrum and Friends Club at her school. The members are on the autism spectrum or are friends of these kids, Foster said. They meet once a month to get to know each other, advocate for one anotherand as Elizabeth also suggested, it would also be a good idea to have a craft or some activity, too. 

These activities include relaxing with coloring pages or making crafts using items from the librarys maker space. As for advocacy, Elizabeth poses questions to members to think about and discuss, such as, What would make things better for you at schooland how can we do this? Foster and Elizabeth also lined up professional speakers and experts to talk to the students and their families about living on the spectrum, and to offer additional resources that are available to them on the state level.

In addition to the Spectrum and Friends Club, Foster is continually working on making the schools historic library, with its stained-glass windows and fireplace, a little more student friendly for any and all. Her hope is that it will be a go-to space for kids, whether they are looking for books and/or other resources, or are in need of a break from class or the cafeteria, a space to decompress from high school stressors, or just some company.

She has done this by offering a range of activities, including library tables covered in paper to color and doodle on, coloring pages, and popular pop-up craft times (e.g. embroidery, decorating cookies, etc.) available during students homeroom periods. Once our kids learn about these resources and activities in the library, more and more are seeking them out to fill their own needs.

Foster has found that the pop-ups especially are allowing more kids the opportunity to shine, and build a more inclusive community. We find that theyre putting down their phones, and actually mixing and talking with other students from different classes, and getting to know kids they didnt know before.

These shared experiences and positive responses have confirmed what Foster has long known and felt about the high school students who come into her library today. I feel that most kids have some kind of special need, whether its identified or not. Even if youre a strong academic student, theres always something that you struggle with, she said. With some kids, its more obvious than others. So were just trying to help them meet whatever needs they have and offer a safe place to do this.

Jackie Quinn is a youth service librarian at the Teaneck Library in Teaneck, N.J., where her focus is the SEL needs of her younger patrons. This begins with curating a collection of books that address a variety of critical issues and making it accessible to them and their parents or caregivers.

Our collection development and accessibility are essential because kids are not going to be looking for these titles, and their parents and/or caregivers may not know what SEL resources they are looking for, Quinn said. So we create these lists of topics and books to make these titles easier to find.

Quinn said that making these choices happens rather organically. It all depends on the needs of our community and our 10+ years of experience knowing what our families need, whats going on in the world, and the impact these books make on kids.

The titles for her programs explore specific SEL issues such as empathy and self-regulating strategies. The goal is to introduce the right books at the right time. When this happens, she often hears young readers say, Oh yeah, I feel like that sometimes, too!

Quinn has noticed an increase in the number ofand interest intitles on emotions that are often hard to express, and societal issues that can be difficult for parents to address and explain. With this in mind, Quinn recently completed a course sponsored by LibraryLinkNJ called Mental Health First Aid for Youth. Having this coursework has helped me to acknowledge where I can help, and when I need to stop and call a professional or a parent.

Together, Quinn and her staff enlisted the help of a Betta fish named Strawberry to help engage younger patrons at the reference desk when it had been turned around during the pandemic and Plexiglass was put up. By adding a fish, a fish tank, and a step stool, kids were able to see Strawberry, see us, and say hi!  Quinn said. Strawberry helped us get back to our kids.

Sadly, Strawberrys recent death taught the students about dealing with the loss of a beloved pet. The library made a public announcement, Quinn wrote an obituary, and the staff chose to place a picture of Strawberry on her former perch along with a list of books about pet loss. This just felt right, Quinn said, because so many people came specifically for Strawberry that we needed to actually announce it.

At first, discussing Strawberrys death with the kids was hard for Quinn, who was afraid that she would get emotional. But then she remembered what author Mo Willems said when she relayed that she didnt like reading his Knuffle Bunny Free to kids because she didnt like to cry in front of them. He reminded me that kids need to see all the emotions because they need to know how to identify what they are when they feel them, Quinn said. Ive learned that when they see emotions being expressed, instead of being hidden or bottled up, this helps kids know that its okay for them to express themselves.

At the Union City Library, a branch of Alameda County Library in California, childrens services librarian Polina Rubanova is passionate about offering a variety of inclusive programs for her neurodivergent readers and their parents/caregivers. From sensory playgroups to adaptive art and music therapy, these programs trace their roots back to 2018 when a parent volunteer, Sameena Ishaq, wanted to create library opportunities for her neurodiverse son. This same desire to meet community needs is also the impetus behind the librarys latest effort, entitled Storytime with AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication). The storytime is a collaboration between Project LISTEN with AAC at Cal State East Bay, Rubanova, and the mother-daughter volunteer team Sabena Dsouza and Himani Hitendra.

Rubanova said that the storytimes participants may be non-speaking and have AAC as their primary method of communication. Participants are also often either exploring AAC or using tools like an iPad with an AAC application or a dedicated speech-generating device. Children might have these devices, but you wouldnt expect them to know how to use them just because they have them, Rubanova said. Its really caregivers who have to become fluent in using them to demonstrate what is possible for their children. There has to be a supportive environment to have the greatest impactand the earlier the families are supported the better!

Himani is both a fluent AAC user and advocate at age 14. Today, she volunteers for Storytime with AAC along with her mother, who is a coordinator for this bi-monthly program. Rubanova said that seeing AAC families like Dsouza and Hitendra communicate allows beginning AAC users to observe what is possibleand gives them hope for the road ahead. Finding themselves represented in stories does this, too.

A recent storytime with the picture book A Day with No Words by Tiffany Hammond, illustrated by Kate Cosgrove, features a non-speaking child using AAC. Our AAC users relate to this story so muchno matter their age, Rubanova said. It has a good theme, promotes self-expression, is beautifully illustrated, and has a deep message of empathy, she added. According to Rubanova, these are must-have elements that allow the AAC users to learn new words as their caregivers demonstrate them on the devices, and to build vocabulary and language skills. They also help facilitate comments and discussion on how they relate to the story and the characters.

We want to encourage a full range of expression for AAC users. They can use their device not only to ask for something but they can comment and say how they feel, Rubanova said. Another important part of this is encouraging use in multiple settings, like the library. This helps normalize AAC as a mode of communication and build their skills using the devices.

By finding community and normalcy in the library, AAC users and caregivers can see a clear path forward. Leaning on each other, the AAC users and the caregivers can get a fuller sense of possibility and where they can go with their devices and their AAC journeys.

Rubanova feels joy in seeing the kids discover their voices, and the caregivers gain a sense of empowerment for greater advocacyand to ask for more for their children.

We say that libraries are for everyone, Rubanova said, but it takes more than words. It comes down to passion, hard-working volunteers, community connections, and the library listening to community members and their needs to make libraries more welcoming and inclusive for all.
Taiwans presidential candidates have entered their final stretch ahead of this months election. The outcome of the January 13 contest will play a crucial role in shaping the islands relationship with China. With cross-Strait ties at their tensest point in decades, the stakes couldnt be higher  not only for Beijing and Taipei, but for the latters most committed security partner: the United States, which must be ready to work with whomever is elected.

Since entering the race, Vice President Lai Ching-te of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has led the field, but his election is far from certain. Recent opinion polls show him at an uninspiring 35% support, followed closely by Hou Yu-ih of the Kuomintang (KMT) at 29%, a narrow margin given Taiwans less-than-precise polling. Ko Wen-je of the upstart Taiwan Peoples Party (TPP) trails at just 24%, but hes a political survivor whose popularity may not be fully reflected in the polls. Adding further uncertainty are the 12% of voters who still describe themselves as undecided.

While from an American perspective, the overwhelming issue in this election is the threat from China, the saying that all politics are local applies to Taiwan. The race will ultimately go to the candidate the greatest number of voters trust to deal with the many socio-economic challenges plaguing Taiwan, such as sky-high housing prices, perpetual underemployment, and energy shortages. These problems far preceded the presidency of incumbent Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP and reflect deep-rooted challenges neither party has managed to resolve in successive administrations.

There is, nevertheless, a widespread perception that Tsai should have done more to resolve some of these domestic problems, and this is reflected in Lais lackluster performance in the public opinion polls. This anti-incumbent sentiment isnt new and helps explain why no party has won more than two consecutive presidential elections since Taiwan democratized in the 1990s. Had the two opposition parties managed to unify behind a single candidate, as they unsuccessfully tried to do in November, it would have been their election to lose.

As things currently stand, however, most observers expect Lai to emerge victorious. Regardless, the president-elect will likely have received a plurality of less than 40% of the votes, hardly the popular mandate needed to push the sorts of bold policy changes Taiwans economic and social challenges would demand.

Where the election will likely have a truly consequential impact is in cross-Strait relations and Taiwans resulting security environment. But this wont be shaped so much by the next president as it will by Beijings reaction to their election and governing agenda.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the various parties arent far apart on their approach to China. The KMT is not a pro-Beijing party in favor of unification, as some seek to portray it. And while the DPP angers Beijing by rejecting its one China principle and promoting a Taiwanese identity separate from China, it long ago stopped calling for a formal declaration of independence.

The three parties vying for this electionand the vast majority of Taiwan votersfavor preserving the status quo. Even if a staunchly pro-independence or pro-unification figure managed to get elected, Taiwan has constitutional and legal mechanisms that make it nearly impossible for a president to radically change the islands status.

Beijing, however, draws a sharp contrast between the candidates. China deeply distrusts the DPP, and its Taiwan strategy consists in large part of seeking to oppose and delegitimize that party and its leaders in favor the KMT, with which Beijing feels more comfortable engaging.

This means that if Lai is elected, Chinas military provocations and diplomatic isolation tactics will almost certainly continue. There is little Lai can do about this, short of the politically suicidal tasks of changing his partys nominally pro-independence charter and recognizing the 1992 consensus. The latter refers to an agreement by which the KMT and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) affirmed there is just one China but never defined what that meant. Beijing insists on the consensus as the basis for cross-Strait dialogue, but it is extremely unpopular among the DPPs base.

Tsai worked hard to allay Beijings concerns about the DPP and even sought to continue some of the dialogue that enabled her predecessor, the KMTs Ma Ying-jeou, to oversee an unprecedented period of cross-Strait peace and stability. Lai has pledged to continue Tsais moderate approach to China, but Beijing doesnt recognize Tsais approach as moderate. It refuses to speak with her, and Lais self-description as a pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence makes it even more unlikely that Beijing will engage with him.

Beijings reception of a Hou or Ko presidency would be different. While both opposition candidates share the DPPs goal of preserving Taiwans sovereignty and promise to strengthen the islands military deterrence, they place a greater emphasis on de-escalation through dialogue. Most importantly from Chinas perspective, they lack Lais pro-independence baggage and are more willing to pay lip service to Beijings one China principle.

To be sure, a significant decrease in tensions wouldnt be guaranteed by an opposition victory and could be constrained by broader geopolitical dynamics and political conditions in China and Taiwan, both of which are less conducive to the degree of cooperation the two sides shared in the eight years prior to Tsais election. Nevertheless, at least a temporary thaw is likely, and Beijing has expressed desire to return the relationship to a more stable trajectory if it believes the political conditions are ripe.

Beijings preferred candidate is the KMTs Hou, because he is the least problematic candidate from the CCPs perspective. The CCP and KMT already have long-standing channels of communication and mutual understanding through agreements such as the 1992 consensus. Beijing also hopes a re-emphasis on social and economic interaction will reverse the recent trend of cross-Strait decoupling that makes its long-term goal of peaceful unification appear increasingly untenable, though it realizes a return to the kind of integration developed during the Ma era is not on the table.

Beijing would also likely be amenable to a Ko presidency, though more uncertainty would be present. While Ko has so far stopped short of endorsing the 1992 consensus, he is a proud pragmatist who, unlike the DPP, isnt ideologically opposed to doing so if his attempts to develop a less controversial foundation for cross-Strait dialogue are unsuccessful.

Regardless of who is elected, the new president will prioritize Taiwans ties with the United States, which have strengthened since Tsai took office in 2016. Each of the candidates would lean on the U.S. for new arms sales and other forms of support in the security, economic, and political realms. For its part, Washington must work closely with whomever wins the election to maintain a united front against China.

If the DPP holds onto the presidency, this will be relatively straightforward. Beijing is unlikely to decrease its military and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan, and Washington will have to demonstrate its commitment to Taiwans security in the face of Beijings incessant provocations. At the same time, the U.S. should seek to avoid actions that could escalate tensions or increase the risk of armed conflict.

If the KMT returns to power, Taipei will try to take a more conciliatory approach to Beijing to reduce tensions, and it may prefer Washington adopt a more subtle approach to certain forms of support. A TPP presidency under Ko would likely have similar dynamics.

If Taiwans voters choose a candidate who prioritizes pursuing stability and de-escalation across the Taiwan Strait, Washington should support their right to do so. If the KMT or TPP succeeds at reducing cross-Strait tensions for the next four or eight years, it will be one less source of immediate friction and an opportunity to more thoroughly prepare for long-term strategic competition with Beijing.

The U.S. should recognize, however, that the long-term threat to Taiwans sovereignty remains, regardless of any short-term thaw in cross-Strait relations. Beijing will likely try to take advantage of the de-escalation to lull Taiwan into a false sense of security. In such an event, U.S. involvement will be even more critical to ensure Taipei doesnt get distracted from improving its defense capabilities and enhancing deterrence vis-a-vis China.

Ultimately, it will be the Taiwanese people that decide the outcome of this crucial raceand the successful and flourishing democracy on the island is in Americas interest regardless of who wins. The U.S. must be willing and ready to work hand-in-hand with whomever they choose.

Michael Cunningham is a research fellow in the Heritage Foundations Asian Studies Center.
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TLC / Reality TV World

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 01/08/2024



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SOPHIE AND ROB

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JASMINE and GINO

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SAM and CITRA

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NIKKI and JUSTIN

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ASHLEY and MANUEL

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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.

featured Jasmine admitting to Gino she's not ready to have a baby, Rob clashing with Sophie's mother Claire, Nikki considering ending her engagement to Justin, Manuel offending Ashley, and Clayton upsetting Anali again during Sunday night's Season 10 broadcast on TLC.'s tenth season stars returning cast members Gino, a 52-year-old from Michigan, and Jasmine, a 36-year-old from Panama.The season also stars Sophie, a 23-year-old from the United Kingdom, and Robert, a 32-year-old from California; Manuel, a 34-year-old from Ecuador, and Ashley, a 31-year-old from New York; Justin, a 36-year-old from Moldova, and Nikki, a 47-year-old from New Jersey.In addition, features Nick, a 30-year-old from Australia, and Devin, a 23-year-old from Arkansas; Anali, a 26-year-old from Peru, and Clayton, a 29-year-old from Kentucky; and Citra, a 26-year-old from Indonesia, and Sam, a 30-year-old from Missouri.features Americans who have fallen in love with foreigners bringing their fiances to the United States on K-1 visas.However, once the couple is in America together, the American must marry their overseas partner within the 90-day period allowed by the visa or the foreigner has to return to his or her home country."These long-distance, international couples go the distance as they navigate cultural differences, discover surprising personality traits, and process lingering tensions brought on by doubtful friends and families," TLC teased of the new season.Below is what happened on Episode 12 of 's tenth season.Rob told Sophie that he'd never want her to have a "side piece," meaning a female hookup outside of their relationship and future marriage. Sophie, meanwhile, didn't want Rob to even think about being with another woman in the future.Sophie had three weeks left on her K-1 visa, and so her mom Claire was going to visit soon so she could attend the wedding. Sophie's mother wasn't a big fan of Rob, so she wasn't sure how this visit was going to go."She doesn't know how to shut up when she needs to," Rob told the cameras of Claire. "[She] says some really problematic sh-t at the wrong times."Sophie thought that was messed up of Rob to say, and she noted how Claire was going to be in their lives no matter what and so he'd have to learn to like her and deal with her in a respectful manner.Rob promised Claire that he'd have a fresh start with Claire and not say anything negative, but he was worried Claire was going to ruin his relationship."We've hit some bumps in the road. The last thing I need is for Claire's mom to come in and make it harder," Rob explained in a confessional.Once Claire arrived, Claire told Rob that if he hurt Sophie, she'd kill him. Claire didn't waste any time speaking her mind, mainly because she thought Rob was "immature" and needed to grow up.When talking about the wedding, Rob and Claire were joking around. Rob laughed at Claire's jokes, but when he said something, Claire was rubbed the wrong way. Rob felt he was always one word away from saying the wrong thing or offending Sophie's mom."Do you hate me?" Claire asked Rob.Claire could tell that Sophie liked Rob because he's a "beautiful" man, but she pointed out to the cameras, "You can only stare at a painting for so long." Claire was concerned about how her daughter was living, and she was about to see Rob's apartment.The dynamic between Rob and Claire worsened once Claire saw Rob's small apartment and how his bathroom wasn't even indoors. Claire pictured a better life for her daughter, but Rob felt he was doing the best he could.Claire wanted Sophie to be in a safe and comfortable place, and she told Rob that he could have saved up more money and done more.Sophie agreed with everything Claire was saying and added how Rob should've secured a job, and then Rob lashed out at the ladies."None of you guys have ever lived on the bottom... I don't have [financial support]. I have zero help from anybody," Rob shouted.Claire claimed she had no help either, but Rob called her out on "bullsh-t" and complained about how she was judging him really hard.Jasmine and Gino were shown going to a salsa dancing lesson in Miami. Jasmine seemed very stressed about wedding planning, and so Gino just wanted to have a good time and be happy with his fiancee.Jasmine was actually impressed by Gino's moves at the end of the day, and she gushed about how she felt "so proud" of him.The next morning, the couple went out for coffee and took in some of the sights of Miami. Gino felt he and Jasmine were back to the old fun couple they used to be, before they began facing complications and having frequent arguments.Jasmine missed her son a lot, but she couldn't wait to bring her kids over to the United States. Gino said he was also looking forward to being a father figure."[But] I would like to have one child on my own, and I would like to do it soon," Gino told his fiancee."I am not ready," Jasmine replied.Jasmine explained to the cameras how there was a lot of pain and fear inside of her, and that Gino had no idea what she had gone through.Jasmine told Gino that she loved her kids more than her own life but one of the hardest things she had ever gone through was accepting her son's "diagnosis." Her son apparently has special needs and has difficulty communicating.Jasmine worried her next child could face similar challenges, and she cried about how people could be very mean and had very little tolerance for him. Jasmine, for example, said people stared at her and gave "ugly looks" if her son misbehaved in a restaurant."I don't know if I have the strength to go through this [again]," Jasmine said, breaking down into tears. "What if I cannot give you a neurotypical kid? I don't know, Gino, it scares me to death.""They're still a human being and we're going to take care of it. You can't predict that," Gino responded. "It's still a child; there is no difference whether he has a disability or not... Nothing is your fault."Gino said it was painful to see Jasmine so emotional and sad, and he felt very helpless in that moment. Gino tried to assured Jasmine that he'd always be there for her, even if they couldn't have a baby together."You are such a kind soul, and I am so lucky to have you," Jasmine told her fiance. "If we ever have a baby here, she is going to be very lucky to have you as a dad."With only 12 days left to wed, Citra was afraid that Sam was going to end up in jail. It made her angry that Sam hadn't mentioned his legal situation to her before she moved to the United States, and she didn't know how this was going to affect her wedding or make her father react.Sam acknowledged that Citra had every reason to be mad, but he didn't want to lose her. Sam didn't want Citra to regret leaving her home to be with him.Citra, however, ultimately decided to stand by Sam, who said there were "no words to explain" how great that made him feel.But Citra knew there was a risk her father -- who was a police officer -- may demand her return to Indonesia. And as a punishment for Sam, Citra cooked him an extremely spicy meal. Sam liked the food, but he joked about how it burned and numbed his tongue.Later on, Sam introduced Citra to his mother Deedee and sweet grandmother. Citra thought the meeting was going to be scary, especially due to the women's differences when it came to religion, but the meet and greet actually went well and pretty smoothly.Deedee didn't like the idea of Sam converting to Islam in order to make Citra happy, and so she asked Citra if she'd still marry Sam if he chose not to become Muslim.Citra hinted that her relationship would be over in that case."I approve of them marrying, but not of the Muslim way," Deedee told the cameras.Citra thought Sam's mother was nice, and Deedee ultimately wished the best for her son.Justin apparently didn't understand why Nikki was mad at him. Justin said he had "a sex friend" before he and Nikki got engaged, which made Nikki feel "betrayed."Justin, however, didn't think there was anything wrong with what he had done since he wasn't sure at the time if he and Nikki were going to work out.Nikki explained to Justin how she felt like his "sugar mama," but Justin assured her that wasn't the case.Justin then suggested to Nikki that they could just have fun in the bedroom and maybe even have a threesome. It was apparently Justin's dream to sleep with two women at once.Nikki laughed at Justin and told him that she had been experimental in her twenties and she was over that stage of life. Nikki wondered if Justin wanted to have this threesome just because of her gender."I feel like I'm not enough... Why don't you just go be with another woman?" Nikki questioned in a confessional. "I don't know if Justin is just trying to get a reaction out of me. He knows I can go crazy. He either likes to get me jealous, or he's serious."Nikki asked Justin how many girls he had slept with before they got serious together, and he replied, "Maybe two." Justin also insisted he had protected sex with them.Nikki shared with Justin how she was ready to settle down with a man, and so she wanted to know if he was on the same page. Nikki said Justin's sex drive was already at its worst, and so that concerned her.Nikki feared Justin was going to cheat on her in the future or play games with her, and so she didn't know how to proceed in their relationship. Nikki didn't like feeling that she meant nothing to Justin when he was being intimate with other women.Nikki then Zoom chatted with her mother Myrna, and Nikki explained how Justin hadn't been taking their relationship seriously until he proposed marriage. Nikki said she had the feeling in her gut that Justin wasn't being faithful to her -- and that she was right.Nikki also broke the news that Justin wanted to have a threesome with her and another woman, and Myrna appeared shocked. Myrna advised Nikki to stand her ground and tell Justin to forget about his fantasies.Myrna told Nikki that she deserved to get married and have a normal life and relationship.Meanwhile, Justin vented to his friend about how Nikki wanted to control everything and he sometimes saw her masculine side, which he apparently didn't like."She argues, fights, and wants sex. That's not how it works for me," Justin complained to his pal.Justin's friend told him to be more manly and aggressive with Nikki, and he totally agreed with that advice.Nikki was contemplating whether she should end her engagement. She felt very drained and tired, but her engagement party was coming up in a few days."Trust is earned -- not given. There is a lot to think about... my K-1, our relationship and our engagement celebration," Nikki concluded.Manuel's best friend Jonathan lived in New York City, and so Jonathan paid the couple a visit.Jonathan advised Manuel to keep practicing his English skills because repetition was key, and then Ashley told the boys to go explore Rochester and have a good time.Ashley wanted Jonathan to cheer Manuel up, and it was also nice for Manuel to have a pal to talk to about his upcoming marriage.Manuel apparently missed Ecuador a lot, from the food to his family and friends, but he said everything was going well with Ashley. Manuel pointed out how living in the United States, however, was hard and frustrating sometimes.The trio then went out for smoothies, and Ashley told Jonathan that she could spend her money on herself whenever she wanted and on whatever she desired, but Manuel clearly wanted to send more money home to his family in Ecuador.Ashley said she had sent his family money twice in two months and so Manuel should be happy about that. Manuel didn't seem to think it was enough, but Ashley reminded Manuel that she paid all the bills and he wasn't allowed to dictate how she spent her money."I worry about others, you worry about yourself," Manuel announced."I take a lot of offense to that, and I might cry," Ashley replied.Ashley then lamented to the cameras, "He doesn't feel supported by me, but all I am doing is supporting him. The food you eat is the food that I bought. The cell phone you use is the cell phone I bought. I give you love, I give you affection, and we're banging it out multiple times a day."Ashley concluded, "I brought you here on my back without a cosigner... How are you going to say you don't feel supported by me? It's disrespectful!"Clayton and Anali were apparently on Day 59 of not having sex in America. Anali was upset at Clayton for talking about their private life to his best friend Kameron in California, but Clayton apparently felt the need to vent about their lack of intimacy.Anali explained to the cameras how Clayton should come to her with his issues or concerns -- and not to other people, especially when the details were so personal.Anali said the most awkward part of the conversation with the fact she was right there to listen to it, and Clayton said he understood. Clayton apologized and admitted his behavior was rude, which Anali appreciated, but she hoped Clayton would learn quickly how to respect her and make her happy.Clayton and Kameron then took a dance class so that Clayton could impress Anali at their wedding. Anali had joked with her fiancee before about how he moved like a tree and wasn't exactly graceful.Kameron thought it was strange that Anali was essentially hiding Clayton from her life and her family at home, but Clayton was afraid that if he confronted Anali, she'd potentially break it off and leave him."I think a reason this is happening is she also has some uncertainty about you. You're about to get married, and I just don't want to see you hurt, man," Kameron explained to his best friend.Kameron could tell that Clayton didn't want to lose Anali because she was his source of happiness, but he predicted things were going to spiral downwards.Later, Clayton told Anali that he really wanted her to tell her father about their relationship and upcoming marriage. Anali immediately got angry and defensive, and she walked away from Clayton and started crying.Clayton wondered if there was a larger issue at hand and that maybe Anali was simply afraid to tell her overprotective father about them.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
While U.S. and European Union diplomatic chiefs are working to contain the spread of the Gaza war in the Middle East, Israel is sending mixed signals about the future of the conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Sunday at the start of the weekly government meeting, on the eve of the arrival in Israel of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, that the war must not be stopped until we achieve all of its goals: eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel. I say this to both our enemies and our friends.

The army, however, has already declared the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, dismantled in its northern fiefdom in the Gaza Strip, while the Defense Ministry is advancing post-war plans and ordering the demobilization of tens of thousands of reservists called up three months ago. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced Saturday night that Israeli troops had completely destroyed the military structure of Hamas in northern Gaza, where they have eliminated some 8,000 militiamen. We are now focused on dismantling Hamas in the center of and south of the Gaza Strip, he said, adding that the IDF would do so using a different approach, the details of which he did not specify. Hagari also did not specify the extent of the Hamas militia presence throughout the remainder of Gaza.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant alluded Friday to operations against specific targets, as opposed to the massive bombardments of the northern section of the Gaza Strip over the past three months. In the Rafah pocket, on the border with Egypt, and the besieged refugee camp of Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, some two million civilians are crowded in inhumane conditions. Israel claims that Hamas military wing is hiding its top leadership in a network of tunnels that it says runs through both populated areas, forming an underground city full of terrorists.

Military intelligence sources quoted by the Israeli press admit that there are still groups of Hamas fighters in the north of the Palestinian enclave, although they now only act on their own, outside the organizations chain of command, staging isolated ambushes and sabotage against Israeli forces. At the moment, we are concentrating on the center and south of Gaza, Hagari said, on the basis of the lessons we have learned from the fighting so far.

The international community, led by the U.S. and the EU, has called on Israel to minimize civilian casualties in its military operations. At least 113 people lost their lives in bombardments on Gaza Sunday, according to the records of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which has been governed de facto by Hamas for 17 years. The total number of fatalities in Gaza after three months of hostilities is now close to 23,000, 70% of whom are women and minors.

An Israeli military vehicle patrols near the border with Gaza, January 7. MENAHEM KAHANA (AFP)

At least two Palestinian journalists were killed Sunday in an Israeli attack, among them Hamza al-Dahdouh, the son of Wael al-Dahdouh, the Gaza delegate of the Al Jazeera television network, who lost part of his family in the Israeli bombardment. Mustafa Thuraya, who was accompanying him in a car near Rafah, was also killed, Gaza authorities said. The Qatar-based Al Jazeera network has accused the Israeli army of deliberately targeting Palestinian journalists in Gaza, most of whom were working with the international media, whose presence on the ground has been vetoed by the Israeli government since the beginning of the conflict. At least 110 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to Palestinian sources, a figure that also includes intellectuals and internet news broadcasters. The Committee to Protect Journalists places the number of reporters killed in the Gaza Strip at 77.

In addition to reducing civilian casualties in the Palestinian enclave, international diplomacy is particularly concerned about the escalation between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah militia on the Lebanese border following the death of Hamas number two, Saleh al-Arouri, in an attack in Beirut. The exchange of fire reached its most intense level in three months of conflict on Saturday, when Hezbollah attacked a strategic air surveillance center in northern Galilee. The Israeli Air Force bombed positions held by the pro-Iranian group after intercepting a hostile aircraft that had entered Israeli airspace. The Lebanese Shiite militia confirmed that five of its fighters were killed by Israeli strikes on Saturday.

Senior U.S. administration officials have expressed concern about the possibility of Netanyahu extending the war to Lebanon for reasons of political survival, The Washington Post reported Sunday. These sources further noted that the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has warned that it will be difficult for the IDF to launch a successful incursion into Lebanon while its operations remain concentrated in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of Israelis, called to a protest by the families of the 139 hostages still held in Gaza, demanded the resignation of the prime minister on Saturday night in Tel Aviv.

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Zudio was the standout performer as it tapped into the pentup demand in small-town India, at a pace never seen before, notes Indrajit Gupta, co-founder and director, Founding Fuel.

IMAGE: Inside a Zudio booth. Photograph: Kind courtesy myzudio/Instagram.com

India's massive consumer market represents one of the biggest open market opportunities in the world. We've known this for the past 10 years and more. Yet the confusion that grips marketers -- local and global -- refuses to go.

Chasing Zudio

With apparel and lifestyle brand Zudio, Noel Tata's Trent showed the courage to step out of the comfort of operating in top-tier markets.

Zudio was the standout performer last year as it used discipline and a great sense of value to tap into the pentup demand in small-town India, at a pace never seen before.

Zudio's runaway growth is predicated on creating aspirational yet affordable fast fashion for young couples in the age group 28-35 in towns where organised retail is yet to enter.

Almost all products -- apparel and accessories -- are below the Rs 1,000 price point.

The store economics -- the location, the store design, the focus on fast-moving items -- have been planned meticulously to ensure that the business reaches inventory turns that are way above the average.

By the end of 2023, revenues are estimated to be in excess of Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) from its network of more than 400 stores.

The stage is now set for a big battle between Reliance and Trent this year.

Reliance is partnering Chinese mega fast fashion brand Shein, which was valued at $100 billion -- more than the combined worth of H&M and Zara.

A new team based in Bengaluru will aim to play catchup with Trent's enormous success with Zudio.

What's interesting is that Zudio's unique yet painstakingly detailed and integrated business model and an astute understanding of the aspirational small-town consumer has been driven by two expat leaders.

IMAGE: Kindly note the image has been posted only for representational purposes. Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters

Disney's strategic retreat

If India is the last big frontier for most multinationals, what prompted Disney to push ahead with its plans to put its entire streaming (Disney+Hotstar) and television business (Star TV) on the block?

It isn't just Disney. Most streaming services like Netflix have hit the wall. They made merry during the pandemic, and commissioned new original shows and movies. Today, they are licking their chops. Their served market -- consisting of people like us -- is now saturated.

IMAGE: Kindly note the image has been posted only for representational purposes. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

The nub of the issue

The inability to expand the streaming market beyond India One. Creating exclusive content that appeals to small-town India and also prompts them to buy a subscription plan has proven to be a challenge.

Spotify recently learnt it the hard way. They were initially equally amazed at the sheer size of its user base. But after two years of investment, they realised that converting a user used to free content in small-town UP to pay extra for subscription was an inordinately tough task.

Only a few are willing to convert. The subscription opportunity is shallow, not only in small-town India but also across digital business media platforms.

The initial spurt in subscriptions is now giving way to plateauing growth rates and a high churn.

This begs the question

How well do creative leaders in streaming platforms or even digital business media know their prospective audience?

Not quite well, it seems. As the Zudio case shows, achieving product-market fit -- and also making money sustainably -- is clearly easier said than done. And venture capitalists are unlikely to fund losses forever.

IMAGE: A Vistara aircraft prepares for takeoff in Mumbai. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

Air India's moment of truth

By January 27, 2024, the Tata group will have had two years to fix the troubled Air India.

Initially, expectations ran high that the erstwhile flag carrier would be quickly able to restore much of its lost charm and loyalty.

I had argued in the past that, given its decrepit state of operations, any quick wins would be well nigh impossible.

Simply ordering a large brand new fleet was the easy part.

First of all, aircraft deliveries take time. Fixing the interiors of the existing aircraft and getting grounded aircraft to fly again were tough, plus getting enough trained crew in place was an even bigger headache.

That's exactly how the turnaround saga has panned out. Now, the delivery of new airline orders has begun. The staff have a new livery.

New long-haul, direct flights to a variety of locations across the US and Europe have gradually fallen into place. But it may still take more time to gradually restore consumer confidence in Air India.

By all indication, it will remain one of the most closely watched turnarounds in recent corporate history.

In the interim, the Tata group has been fortunately able to use Vistara to burnish its ability to offer a premium, full-service experience to flyers.

If the eventual plan is to create a master brand in Air India, and subsume all the other brands -- Vistara, Air India Express, and Air Asia -- under it, how that exercise is carried out remains to be seen.

After the pandemic, Vistara has re-emerged as a strong, distinctive brand and is preferred by most business travellers. Snuffing it out or bringing it under the Air India umbrella may not be easy.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
In a major relief for pilots in dealing with fatigue, aviation watchdog DGCA on Monday came out with revised norms that increase their weekly rest time to 48 hours and limit the number of landings to two during night operations.

Image used for representative purpose only. Photograph: Pixabay.com

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has also extended the night hours for pilots and now, it covers the period from 0000-0600 hours whereas it was 0000-0500 hours earlier.

Besides, all airlines have to compulsorily submit quarterly fatigue reports, which "should follow a follow a non-punitive and confidentiality policy".

The revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms for the flight crew, prepared after data analysis and stakeholder consultations, also come at a time when there are rising concerns about pilot fatigue, especially after an IndiGo pilot collapsed and died at Nagpur airport in September last year.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said a bunch of much-awaited reforms in FDTL for pilots has come through.

"The introduction of these reforms in the civil aviation sector would be a substantial step forward in addressing pilot fatigue, enhancing overall flight safety and balancing it with the projected growth of the aviation sector in India," an official statement said on Monday.

The airline operators are required to comply with the revised regulations latest by June 1.

The amended norms mandate increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours from 36 hours earlier for the flight crew to ensure "sufficient time for recovery from cumulative fatigue".

"After in-depth analysis of pilot rosters, fatigue-related reports and direct feedback from pilots, we have introduced revised 'FDTL Regulations' that include, increased rest periods, redefining night duty, and regular fatigue reports to be shared by airlines.

"In addition, we will soon transition towards a new regime of fatigue management i.e. Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS), which will be a data-driven approach to enhance monitoring of flight crew fatigue," Scindia said in a post on X.

The minister also emphasised that the latest changes -- that are very much in line with international best practices -- will ensure India has the necessary arsenal, as it prepares to clinch the largest domestic aviation market title in the future.

Regarding the night hour extension, the statement said the enhancement of one hour during the early morning will ensure adequate rest and also align the night duty period, which encompasses Window of Circadian Low (WOCL) from 0200-0600 hours.

WOCL is the time during which the circadian body clock cycle is at its lowest in terms of alertness.

The revised regulations have also taken into consideration different types of operations across time zones.

The maximum flight time and maximum flight duty period for flight operations encroaching night have been restricted to eight hours and ten hours, respectively.

The number of landings has been limited to two as against the maximum permissible six under the previous regulations during night operations, thus enhancing flight safety, the statement said.

As per the statement, the June 1 deadline for implementing the revised norms would ensure sufficient time for airline operators to adapt to the changes while taking into account the logistics, system changes and consequential arrangements.

The FDTL regulations have been instrumental in managing fatigue-related aviation safety risks for more than a decade now, it added.

In November 2023, the DGCA came out with draft amendments to the FDTL norms.

To address and mitigate concerns on pilot fatigue through a data-driven approach, the DGCA analysed extensive numbers of pilot rosters, along with pilot fatigue reports submitted by airline operators.

"Based on the study and analysis, some of the key areas inducing fatigue such as maximum Flight Duty Period, Night Duty, Weekly Rest Period, Flight Duty Period Extension etc. were identified.

"The revised FDTL regulations have been formulated after extensive data analysis and feedback from various stakeholders which includes airline operators, pilot associations and individuals," the statement said.

It also said that the worldwide best practices -- of FAA in the US and EASA in the European Union -- have also been taken into consideration in amending the regulations while keeping in mind the specific operating environment in India.

Further, the DGCA is looking to adopt a new regime of fatigue management -- Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS).

The revised FDTL regulations are a stepping stone towards FRMS implementation in India, the statement said.

The FRMS is a data-driven approach to enhance monitoring and reporting of flight crew fatigue.

The collaboration of various aviation stakeholders such as regulator, airline operators and flight crew will be required to implement stringent monitoring, record keeping and reporting to ensure adherence to a FRMS regime, it said.

Leading carriers Air India and IndiGo have introduced tools to analyse and keep a tab on pilot fatigue.
Indias exports to Iran have been falling over the last one year, amid decline in rupee reserves of the West Asian economy.

Photograph: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters

Going ahead, the possibility of augmenting exports to Iran may not be easy for India, considering the geopolitical tensions  Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts  and the West Asian countrys support for Russia and Hamas, people aware of the matter said.

Exports to Iran saw a downward spiral since November last year.

During calendar year 2023, outbound shipments to Iran contracted nearly 44 per cent to $888 million during January-October.

The decline has been led predominantly by basmati rice, along with high-quality tea and other food items such as sugar, fresh fruits and boneless bovine meat.

Exports of basmati rice witnessed a 42 per cent decline to $553 million during the first 10 months of the calendar year.

The contraction has been massive, considering that as much as 62 per cent of Indias exports to Iran can be attributed to aromatic long-grain rice.

That apart, in FY23, a fifth of Indias basmati rice exports were shipped to Iran.

Exporters said that one of the key challenges has been the depleting rupee reserves since India stopped buying crude oil from Iran due to US sanctions on Tehran.

Since Indias trade with Iran is now mainly dominated by non-sanctioned products, there is a thin capacity to import from West Asian nations.

We need to look into how we can export non-sanctioned goods, such as pharmaceuticals and agriculture products to Iran.

"India should engage with Iran on this, Ajay Sahai, director-general (D-G) and chief executive officer (CEO), Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), said.

Around 17-18 months ago, India was hopeful that Iran would reach an agreement with the US and the sanctions would be lifted.

"This would have worked in favour of India since the Indian and Iranian economies have a lot of complementarities.

"If they were allowed to export oil, then our exports would have grown several fold, a senior government official said.

However, when the war started between Russia and Ukraine, Iran supported Russia.

"Then it went into a tailspin, the official added.

During January-October, bilateral trade between India and Iran stood at $1.4 billion, with exports at $888 million, down 44 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), and imports at $529 million, down 3.85 per cent.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has updated Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for politically exposed persons (PEPs) who transact with regulated entities (REs), seeking to comply with the recommendations of intergovernmental organisation Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Photograph: PTI Photo from the Rediff Archives

PEPs are individuals entrusted with prominent public functions by a foreign country, including the heads of states/governments, senior politicians, senior government or judicial or military officers, senior executives of state-owned corporations and important political party officials, said the RBI.

This change is expected to provide more clarity to undertake Customer Due Diligence (CDD), said the RBI in a communication to REs.

REs have the option of establishing a relationship with PEPs (whether as customer or beneficial owner).

REs have to perform the regular customer due diligence and also follow additional conditions prescribed by the RBI to transact with PEPs.

Some additional conditions include establishing an appropriate risk management system to determine whether the customer or the beneficial owner is a PEP.

REs have to take reasonable measures for establishing the source of funds/ wealth.

They also need to get approval from senior management to open an account for a PEP.

Defining PEP is seen as a move to comply with the FATFs recommendations, as the term was not mentioned in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

This would have been seen as a regulatory gap from the FATF country review perspective.

FATF defines PEP as an individual who is or has been entrusted with a prominent function.

Many such individuals hold positions that can be abused for the purpose of laundering illicit funds or other predicate offences such as corruption or bribery.

Because of the risks associated with PEPs, the FATF Recommendations require the application of additional AML/CFT measures to business relationships with PEPs.

"These requirements are preventive (not criminal) in nature, and should not be interpreted as meaning that all PEPs are involved in criminal activity, said the FATF website.
'The success of one or two IPOs does not dictate whether the upcoming IPOs will be successful or not, but it certainly indicates that the markets and investors are enthusiastic about startup IPOs.'

IMAGE: Kindly note the image has been posted only for representational purposes. Photograph: Kind courtesy Reto Scheiwiller/Pixabay.com

With the equity markets making record highs, a wave of new-age startups is setting sights on public listing in 2024.

As many as 12 companies are considering going public in the new year.

According to industry observers, improving market conditions, the private sector's need for stable capital, and a growing appetite for new-age technology businesses are fuelling optimism for public market debuts among these startups.

"The public markets are showing an increasing appetite for non-traditional, technology-based businesses," said Pratip Mazumdar, co-founder and partner at investment firm Inflexor Ventures.

New-age technology initial public offerings (IPOs) have gained momentum recently.

In 2023, five companies went public, up from three the previous year. These include Yatra, Zaggle, Yudiz, IdeaForge, and Mamaearth, with a combined issue size of around Rs 3,650 crore.

In 2022, logistics unicorn Delhivery, market intelligence platform Tracxn, and drone startup DroneAcharya raised just over Rs 5,550 crore through their IPOs.

As many as 11 startups went public in 2021, driven by a funding boom and macroeconomic tailwinds during the year. However, instances of listing have since slowed down.

Following the successful IPOs of companies like Mamaearth in 2023, several startups are hoping to replicate this success in 2024.

"The past year witnessed a noticeable decline in growth investing, leading to pent-up demand among startups for substantial capital to fuel their scale-up initiatives.

"Going public emerges as a strategic move to access the necessary funds required for robust expansion and development," said Mazumdar.

Brainbees Solutions, the parent company of online retailer Firstcry, recently filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

The Pune-based unicorn's IPO includes a fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 1,816 crore (Rs 18.16 billion) and an offer for sale (OFS) of more than 54 million equity shares.

Shortly before, Ola Electric filed its DRHP with Sebi, becoming the country's first electric vehicle company to do so.

The firm, led by Bhavish Aggarwal, announced a fresh issue of equity shares of up to Rs 5,500 crore (Rs 55 billion) and an OFS of more than 95 million equity shares at a face value of Rs 10 each.

The biggest startup IPO of next year is expected to come from food delivery giant Swiggy.

The company had previously shelved its listing plans after a series of valuation cuts. Since then, it has reduced its cash burn and demonstrated a path to profitability, leading to a mark-up in its valuation.

The Bengaluru-based company is now looking at a potential issue size of $1 billion (Rs 8,300 crore/Rs 83 billion) for its IPO sometime around mid-2024.

Other startups like Prosus-backed PayU and drone startup Garuda Aerospace are also looking to go public this year.

Companies that have filed their IPO papers with Sebi include hospitality giant OYO, co-working space provider Awfis, fintech startup PayMate, healthtech startup Portea Medical, and insurtech firm Go Digit.

Also, those that previously deferred their IPO plans due to volatile market conditions, such as Mobikwik, Snapdeal, Ixigo, and Capillary Technologies, may consider going public.

"The success of one or two IPOs does not dictate whether the upcoming IPOs will be successful or not, but it certainly indicates that the markets and investors are enthusiastic about startup IPOs," said Divam Sharma, co-founder of Unlisted Assets, a technology-driven platform for buying and selling unlisted shares.

While companies may still face challenges, the current recovery in macroeconomic conditions is a positive sign for startups' listing plans.

Ankur Bansal, co-founder and director of venture debt firm BlackSoil, said the success of these IPOs shall be contingent upon metrics like robust financial performance, a well-defined business model, a clear growth strategy, a competitive market position, and a compelling value proposition.

"Factors like a track record of milestones, a proficient management team, and a favourable market environment are critical. Finally, reasonable valuation is crucial to a startup IPO's success," he said.

Amid the increased investor scrutiny during the ongoing funding slowdown, companies exhibiting strong fundamentals may find more success.

"Startups should concentrate on three key areas: Strong financials, distinct routes to profitability, and robust business models to cope with these storms.

"Investors will root for companies that can ride out this turbulence and demonstrate long-term value," said Sridhar Rampalli, managing partner, Pavestone Capital, a growth-stage investment firm.

While companies may face challenges brought about due to market volatility, regulatory hurdles in sectors like fintech, competition from other IPOs, and the need to meet high investor expectations, 2024 is expected to pan out better for startups looking to go public than the past two years.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
'We have interesting leads on the agents. The roles of agents in this entire operation, who were doing what.'

IMAGE: A passenger from the flight, which was sent back from France, evades the media as he leaves the airport. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

One of the many investigators questioning the 66 people who were on the flight on their way to Nicaragua and who were sent back to India from France shares interesting insights with Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com after questioning the people who were travelling, how they planned to pay anywhere between Rs 60 lakh (Rs 6 million) and Rs 80 lakh (Rs 8 million), and whether or not, and under what circumstances, will FIRs be filed against these travellers.

This official from the Gujarat police requested to speak without his identity being disclosed for this interview because of the sensitivity and involvement of foreign embassies in this investigation which with the help of the CBI -- the central nodal agency in such cases -- spans across Dubai, France and probably countries like Nicaragua, Mexico and the USA.

What are the various possibilities the Gujarat police is investigating in this case where people from Gujarat and Punjab were deported from France on December 26?

We are looking for the possible network of agents -- a mixed bag that would include locals as well as global agents -- who were behind all these passengers travelling to the USA (via Nicaragua, a Central American country).

If somebody is going from here (India) to Dubai and from Dubai to Nicaragua and from Nicaragua to the USA, the process requires agents I guess at every node in this journey.

What made these people take such a huge risk in their effort to reach the US illegally?

Traditionally, people from Punjab and Gujarat have been going to the USA and Canada illegally.

These people must have been fascinated by life there (in Western countries like the US and Canada), which must not be true, but yes, they're fascinated by life there.

Any insights you received while questioning these people from Gujarat as well as the agents you must have arrested or maybe questioned?

In Gujarat, it's largely a tradition in some districts to go to the USA and Canada; same is in Punjab also.

Illegally?

Yes, both the ways -- if legally possible, then legally, but if not legally possible, they will find out alternate avenues.

Did you get a chance to figure out the modus operandi of these agents as well people who were trying to move to the US? Was this -- the India-Dubai-Nicaragua-Mexico-US channel -- used for the first time?

Not for the first time obviously. Earlier also some flights and a few people went to the Mexico border.

As of now we are focused on this particular case in which the plane has been returned from France for immediate investigation.

However, any lead or any agent in between who could eventually pop on our radar, we will go into all those aspects too.

Have you arrested any travel agents from Gujarat yet?

We haven't registered an FIR yet; we are doing primary inquiry only as of now.

Yes, we have travelled a lot, in the sense that our investigation has progressed quite well; probably we'll go for filing an FIR also in time to come.

Will FIRs be also filed against these people who were travelling illegally?

As of now we are treating them as victims of a systematic (human trafficking) racket as of now.

Let us see how they are cooperating with the police and what evidence they bring to the table. Their statements and their cooperation will yield us (help us arrest) some agents and expose the whole network.

We have both the alternatives (to treat these people as victims or file an FIR against them). We'll see how we can take any lawful action against these people after discussion with our PPs (public prosecutors).

IMAGE: Passengers from the Nicaragua bound flight leave the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj international airport in Mumbai. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

How did they get these visas? Did they get a visa to Nicaragua from India or from Dubai?

Visas are issued against the passport. It is immaterial from where you are travelling. If you own a USA passport and you travel from Singapore or Bangkok or Mumbai the visa is issued against that passport that you are a USA citizen. Same about that thing (the visas issued to these Indian travellers).

Till Dubai all of them had a visa with them; from Dubai to Nicaragua for Indian passengers, for Indian passport-holders, visa is issued in Nicaragua on arrival. They were supposed to get a visa at Nicaragua after landing.

Is that the reason why these agents choose Nicaragua for such illegal operations?

That goes without saying. They will be looking for the places from where they can easily make (their journey) closer to the USA border.

What made the French police suspicious about this chartered flight? Are you in contact with the French police?

The input we got is that they had some hint, input (from their local sources) that people from India were being trafficked -- human trafficked -- through this flight.

But when they (the French police) stopped the plane, and all the passengers were interrogated, all were very candid in saying they all were going on a tourist visa. Nobody was being forced, or, nobody was being taken hostage or they were travelling against their will.

After their interrogation and basic inquiry, they sent the plane back (to India).

And these people are being questioned now and being treated as victims as of now?

Yes, questioning is going on and for technical purposes we are treating them as victims. But that is not necessary; (how we treat them) depends on the process of investigation, who turns approver, who gives what witness, evidences to us and who doesn't cooperate with us.

Under which sections would the investigations be carried on or would the FIRs be filed if at all?

We haven't yet drafted the FIR. It will take some time from now. But yes, we will find out the sections (under which to register FIRs against these people); actually the money flow is huge. Huge money transactions are there (These passengers reportedly were to pay Rs 60 to Rs 80 lakh to agents for their illegal travel to the US).

We'll work it out how things (investigations) can move from here. We have good leads also.

Hopefully in the coming few days we'll be able to have clear picture. That picture is clear in our head. But yes, being sensitive, we are not in position to explain it to you.

Are you also in touch with the Dubai and French police?

Basically, in India, the CBI is the nodal agency in such cases (through which the local police coordinate with international police). We are in touch with CBI and we have sought needful information through CBI from my office.

What interesting leads have you got during the investigation?

We have interesting leads on the agents. The roles of agents in this entire operation, who were doing what, etc.

We are still interrogating them and getting finer details so that the story becomes pretty clear.

What are these people, who you are questioning, telling you?

They are telling their stories, their life stories. Why did they want to go to the USA, how their experience (of travelling from India-to-Dubai-to-France) was.

How were they to make the arrangement for Rs 60 lakh to Rs 80 lakh for their travel to the US?

Nobody has made any payment. There is no advanced payment. They were supposed to pay after landing in the USA and that too it was not supposed to be a single installment.

The arrangement was that they would make this payment (Rs 60 lakh to Rs 80 lakh) over a period of three years.

IMAGE: The passengers who arrived in Mumbai. Photograph: ANI Photo

It's like an EMI?

That is like an EMI. As far as Gujarat is concerned, if somebody X from village Y plans to go to the USA then the village people, the elderly, their relatives take the responsibility (to provide financial assistance).

(In this case the village elderly could have assured the agents that) He (someone they knew from among the 66 people who were deported) is from a good family and we'll pay your money back after their landing there and we take the responsibility. That is how it works.

These people (who move to the US via such channels), after going to the USA and finding a job there, get good money from their job, and with some amount of help from there and some amount from here (from the village elderly, relatives, etc), sell their ancestral properties, farmlands, jewellery and make arrangements for fulfilling their financial obligations.

But unless and until you land in the USA, you are not supposed to make the payment. That is why these passengers are also not that cooperative to us.

Are these travel agents reputed or are they fly-by-night travel agents?

They have very a good name as far as the passengers going to the USA are concerned (the passengers who were on board that flight headed to Nicaragua shared a good relationship with these agents).

There are domain experts also, but it is not that everybody is involved in sending people to the USA illegally. There are people who are going out legally also.

How many people from Gujarat were there on this flight?

We have about 66 people from Gujarat and we have questioned all these 66 people. These people from Gujarat belong to Anand, Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Patan and Banaskantha district, which borders Rajasthan.

But yes, for the time being it is also kind of sensitive. Actually there are many agencies involved like the ministry of external affairs, foreign embassies like the French embassy and Dubai (United Arab Emirates) embassy.

Sharing of information is very critical in this aspect. People will think at least ten times before sharing any information.

It should not bring an embarrassment to the government.
Amid the India-Maldives diplomatic row, EaseMyTrip on Monday said it has suspended all flight bookings to the island nation on its website "in solidarity" with India.

Photograph: Kind courtesy Ministry of Tourism, Republic of Maldives

In a series of posts on social media platform X, EaseMyTrip CEO Nishant Pitti said the "Water & beaches of Lakshadweep are as good as Maldives/Seychelles. We at @EaseMyTrip will come up with crazy special-offers to promote this pristine destination that our PM @narendramodi has recently visited!"

The EaseMyTrip CEO also asked travellers "to discover the enchanting beauty of Ayodhya and the pristine allure of Lakshadweep" and "Say no to Maldives bookings and explore the wonders of Ayodhya and Lakshadweep".

In another post on X, Pitti wrote: "Embark on a journey with @EaseMyTrip to discover the enchanting beauty of Ayodhya and the pristine allure of Lakshadweep! Immerse yourself in rich culture and breathtaking landscapes. Say no to Maldives bookings and explore the wonders of Ayodhya and Lakshadweep. Watch our video on the new website to ignite your wanderlust! #ExploreWithEase #Ayodhya #Lakshadweep".

"In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings".

Meanwhile, the Maldivian envoy to India was on Monday summoned to the external affairs ministry and was conveyed strong concern over remarks posted on social media against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a number of ministers of the Maldives, sources said.

The government of the Maldives on Sunday suspended three deputy ministers for derogatory social media posts against Modi.

The three deputy ministers criticised Modi for his post on X following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.

According to Maldivian media reports, deputy ministers in the youth ministry, Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid, have been suspended over their posts.

In New Delhi, official sources said the Indian high commission in Male strongly raised the matter with the Maldivian foreign ministry on Sunday.

The disparaging remarks by the ministers have drawn flak in India, with many celebrities urging people on X to explore domestic tourist destinations instead of going to the Maldives.

There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives in view of the row.
After 30 years, Kashmiri Pandits held a havan and puja at the Anandeshwar Bhairav temple at Maisuma in the heart of Srinagar.

The gates of the temple were re-opened after over three decades in an area, which is the stronghold and residence of JKLF chief Yasin Malik.

All photographs: Umar Ganie for Rediff.com IMAGE: Kashmiri Pandits offer prayers amid tight security, here and below.

IMAGE: Women sing traditional religious songs inside the temple.

IMAGE: The temple under tight security.

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
Wissam al-Tawil, commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, appears at an unknown location, in this undated image obtained from social media.

An Israeli airstrike killed an elite Hezbollah commander Monday in southern Lebanon, the latest in an escalating exchange of strikes across the border that have raised fears of another Mideast war even as the fighting in Gaza exacts a mounting toll on civilians.

The strike on an SUV killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah unit that operates along the border, according to a Lebanese security official who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations. The commander, Wissam al-Tawil, was a veteran of the Iranian-backed Lebanese force who took part in the 2006 cross-border kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers that triggered the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, an official in the group said.

He is the most senior Hezbollah militant killed since Hamas Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel triggered all-out war in Gaza and lower-intensity fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has escalated since an Israeli strike killed a senior Hamas leader last week in Beirut.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is back in the region this week, appears to be trying to head off a wider conflict.

In other developments, Israel said it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza, though fighting and bombardment there continue. Israeli forces are now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis, where thousands more Palestinians fled.

Israeli officials say the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken during the militants Oct. 7 attack.

The offensive has already killed over 23,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swaths of the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly 85% of its population of 2.3 million and left a quarter of its residents facing starvation.

Sickening scenes in Gazas overwhelmed hospitals

Medics, patients and displaced people fled from central Gazas main hospital as fighting drew closer, witnesses said Monday. Losing the facility would be another major blow to a health system shattered by three months of war.

Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups withdrew from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, saying it was too dangerous amid Israeli bombardment, drone strikes and sniper fire. That spread panic among people sheltering there. Thousands left, joining the hundreds of thousands who have fled further south, said a hospital staffer, Omar al-Darawi.

Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gazas hospitals, which are struggling to treat the continuous flow of wounded from Israeli strikes. Only 13 of Gazas 36 hospitals are even partially functional, according to the U.N. humanitarian office.

The Al-Aqsa hospital was struck multiple times in recent days, al-Darawi said. After the pullout, large numbers of patients who cannot be moved were concentrated on one floor to be treated by remaining doctors. They need special care, which is unavailable, he said.

World Health Organization staff who visited Sunday saw sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. The bloodbath in Gaza must end.

More dead and wounded arrive at the hospital each day as Israeli forces advance in central Gaza, backed by heavy airstrikes. The military said Monday it had uncovered a large Hamas site for building rockets in the nearby Bureij refugee camp.

Thousands have been fleeing the area, heading south. Fifteen members of the Ayash family crammed into a van with their belongings for the journey. Along the way there was banging, missiles, bombing, and planes, said Khawla Ayash.

Reaching Muwasi, a coastal area outside Rafah, they unloaded bags, blankets and thin mattresses and began setting up tents alongside other relatives.

The U.N. childrens agency UNICEF warned that 90% of Gazas children under 2 were consuming only bread and milk.

As the threat of famine intensifies, hundreds of thousands of children face severe malnourished, with some at risk of death, said Catherine Russell, UNICEFs executive director. We cannot allow that to happen.

Dire conditions in the north

The situation is even more dire in northern Gaza, which Israeli forces cut off from the rest of the territory in late October.

Entire neighborhoods have been demolished, and most of the population has fled. Tens of thousands who remain face shortages of food and water. The WHO said Sunday it has been unable to deliver supplies to northern Gaza for 12 days because of bombardment and the inability to guarantee safe passage with the Israeli military. Israel still battles what it describes as pockets of militants.

An airstrike early Sunday flattened a four-story home filled with displaced people in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, killing at least 70, including women and children, according to Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gazas civil defense. There was no immediate confirmation from the Health Ministry, which has struggled to operate in the north.

Since the war began, more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed, about two-thirds of them women and children, and more than 58,000 have been wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in populated residential areas, but the military almost never comments on the intended target in strikes that kill large numbers of civilians. The military says it has killed some 8,000 militants, without providing evidence, and says 176 of its own soldiers have been killed in the offensive.

Seeking to head off a wider war

Blinken focused on preventing the war from spreading as he held talks in Gulf countries and Jordan over the past two days.

For the past three months, both Israel and Hezbollah have sought to limit their cross-border exchanges. Hezbollah appears wary of risking an all-out war that would bring massive destruction to Lebanon.

But last weeks killing of Hamas deputy political leader, Saleh Arouri, in Beirut threatens to throw the two sides into an escalating spiral.

A Hezbollah rocket barrage hit a sensitive air traffic base Saturday in northern Israel in one of the groups biggest attacks of the war  an initial response to Arouris killing, Hezbollah said.

Israeli leaders say their patience with Hezbollah rocket fire is wearing thin and that if diplomacy doesnt stop it, they are prepared to go to war. They have expressed particular concern about the Radwan Force, the elite Hezbollah unit in which al-Tawil was a commander, which operates along the border.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting troops near the border, vowed to return security to the north.

We prefer that this be done without a wider campaign, but that wont stop us, he said.

Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after Hamas Oct. 7 attack, saying it aimed to ease pressure on Gaza. Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel that day, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people hostage, over 130 of whom remain in captivity.

In the cross-border, exchanges nearly 200 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly fighters but also 20 civilians. On the Israeli side, five civilians and 12 soldiers have been killed and more than 150 injured. Tens of thousands of people in both countries have been driven from homes near the border.

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The Supreme Court said on Monday it will have to constitute a bench to hear a plea against the collegium system of appointment of judges to the apex court and high courts.

"I will have to constitute a bench," Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud told advocate Mathews J Nedumpara tersely, after the latter mentioned an old plea filed by him for urgent listing.

Nedumpara referred to the recent interviews of former apex court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, who retired on December 25 last year.

In an interview with the PTI on December 29, Justice (retd) Kaul had said the National Judicial Appointments Commission was never given a chance to work, leading to angst in political circles and friction in the working of the collegium system of judges appointing judges to higher judiciary.

The Narendra Modi government, after coming to power in 2014, had got enacted the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act.

The NJAC, tasked with the responsibility of making judicial appointments, comprised the Chief Justice of India, two senior Supreme Court judges, the Union law minister and two other eminent persons nominated by the CJI, the prime minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

However, in October 2015, the Supreme Court had struck down the NJAC Act holding it unconstitutional.

In the interview, Justice (retd) Kaul had said one has to accept there is a problem with the collegium system and it will be "unrealistic" to say that it is working smoothly.

"If people say it (collegium) works smoothly, that would be unrealistic in a sense because that is not a fact. That is reflected by the number of appointments which remain pending. Even till today, certain names which have been recommended, are pending," Justice (retd) Kaul had said.

"We have to accept that there is a problem in the system. If we close our eyes to the problem, we will not come to a solution. You must acknowledge the problem first and then only you can come up with a solution," he had said.

Justice (retd) Kaul, who was a member of the Supreme Court collegium for over a year, had said at present the collegium system is the law of the land and it must be implemented as it stands.
Maldivian Member of Parliament and former deputy speaker, Eva Abdulla, on Sunday said it was 'important' that the Maldivian government issue a formal apology to the Indian people for the derogatory remarks by a section of MPs' against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his recent visit to Lakshadweep.

Photograph: Eva Abdulla on Facebook

The Maldivian MP said it was also important for the government to distance itself from the comments made by the minister.

"It is absolutely critical that the Government of Maldives distanced itself from the comments by the minister. I know that the government has suspended the ministers, but I think it is important that the Government of Maldives issue a formal apology to the Indian people," she told ANI.

In a post that has now been deleted, the Maldivian Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Mariyam Shiuna, made a mocking and disrespectful reference to Modi over his visit to the Indian island cluster.

The Maldives former deputy speaker Abdulla said the remarks by the minister are "simply shameful, racist and intolerable."

She said the minister's words are in no way a reflection of the opinion of the people of Maldives and that the Maldivian people are very aware of how dependent "we have been on India, and that India has always been the first responder whenever we are in need.

"We've been dependent on India for economic relations, social relations, health, education, trade, tourism and the Maldives people are very grateful for this and very aware of this," she added.

Abdulla said she wants to apologise for the remarks and that "across the political spectrum, political parties and politicians, we've all condemned these derogatory remarks by the minister."

She also urged Indians to keep coming to the Maldives.

"We appreciate and value your presence here in the Maldives. We value the doctors you send, the teachers you send, the tourists you send. So please do keep coming back. I do hope that these remarks by the minister will be a one-off, and it won't be a reflection of either the Maldives people or even the government," she said.

The government of the Maldives on Sunday suspended three deputy ministers for derogatory social media posts against Modi.

The three deputy ministers criticised Modi for his post on 'X' following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.

The disparaging remarks by the ministers have drawn flak in India, with many celebrities urging people on X to explore domestic tourist destinations instead of going to the Maldives.

There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives in view of the row.
Nationalist Congress Party leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday took a veiled jibe at his uncle Sharad Pawar over his age, saying some people are not ready to retire even though they are in their 80s.

IMAGE: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Photograph: @AjitPawarSpeaks/X

"Employees of Maharashtra government retire at the age of 58. Most people normally stop their active professional life after turning 75. But there are a few (Sharad Pawar) who, even after crossing 80 years of age and now 84, are not ready to retire," said Ajit Pawar while addressing a gathering of party workers in Thane district.

Ajit Pawar and some MLAs loyal to him had joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra last July. He subsequently staked a claim to the Nationalist Congress Party's name and poll symbol. The move was challenged in the Election Commission by NCP founder Sharad Pawar.

"We are here to work and we can perform," Ajit Pawar said, adding that he joined the stated government to serve the people whose problems and other issues cannot be solved without power.

In a veiled warning to Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange who has announced a march to Mumbai, Ajit Pawar said nobody will be allowed to take law into his hands.

"A debate on the Maratha community's demand for reservation is underway these days. Some people talk of coming to Mumbai to raise their demand. Nobody will be spared if an attempt is made to take the law into their hand. Nobody is above the law," he added.

He also said the government was committed to granting reservations to the Maratha community within the Constitutional framework.

In an apparent reference to NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) MLA Jitendra Awhad, whose remarks on Lord Ram had created a huge row, Ajit said some people are diverting discussions from developmental issues to unnecessary controversies, and urged people to ignore such distractions.

He appealed to NCP workers to unite ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, showcasing NCP's strength in the district, and supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's candidacy for a third term.

Pawar further said funds for the development of Thane district would not be compromised.
The Supreme Court on Monday held as nullity the May 13, 2022, judgment of another bench of the apex court, which had directed the Gujarat government to consider the remission applications of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven of her family members, saying it was obtained by "playing fraud on court".

IMAGE: The Supreme Court of India.



In its May 13, 2022, verdict, a bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi (now retired) and Vikram Nath had asked the Gujarat government to consider the plea of convict Radheshyam Shah for premature release in terms of its remission policy of July 9, 1992, holding that the government of the state where the offence had taken place has the jurisdiction to decide the application.

On Monday, the top court noted that Shah had initially approached the Gujarat high court in 2019 for a direction to consider his application for remission.

"By order dated July 17, 2019, the high court disposed of the criminal application by observing that he should approach the appropriate government being the state of Maharashtra. His second such application before the Gujarat high court was also dismissed in 2020," it said.

The Supreme Court said Shah later moved the SC but did not disclose that he had, within 14 days of the order dated July 17, 2019, approached the Maharashtra government with his application for remission, and that the CBI and the special judge (CBI), Mumbai, had given a negative recommendation in his case.

"Thus, by suppressing material aspects and by misleading this court, a direction was sought and issued to the respondent state of Gujarat to consider the premature release or remission of the writ petitioner, ie, respondent No.3 on the basis of the remission policy," the bench said.

The top court said Shah had, in order to persuade the bench in his favour in 2022, also made a "misleading statement" that a divergence of opinion between the Bombay and Gujarat high courts led to filing of the writ petition.

"At this stage, we may point out that if respondent No.3 (Shah) had felt aggrieved by the order of the Gujarat high court dated 17.07.2019, it was open to him to have challenged the said order before this court by filing a special leave petition, but he did not do so.

"Rather, he complied with the order of the Gujarat high court by filing remission application dated August 1, 2019, before the government of Maharashtra where not only the process for consideration of the remission prayer was initiated, but opinions of various authorities were also obtained," the bench said.

The apex court said when the opinions were found to be negative, Shah filed a petition before the SC in 2022 seeking a direction to the state of Gujarat to consider his remission application suppressing the above material facts.

"This he could not have done, thereby misrepresenting and suppressing relevant facts, thus playing fraud on this court," the bench said.

"We are of the considered view that the writ proceedings before this court is pursuant to suppression and misleading of this court and a result of suppressio veri suggestio falsi (the suppression of truth is the suggestion of falsehood). Hence, in our view, the said order was obtained by fraud played on this court and hence, is a nullity and non est in law," the bench said.

The 11 convicts released prematurely were: Bakabhai Vohania, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Govind Nai, Jaswant Nai, Mitesh Bhatt, Pradeep Mordhiya, Radheshyam Shah, Rajubhai Soni, Ramesh Chandana and Shailesh Bhatt.

Besides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano contesting the remission, several other PILs, including one by CPI-M leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, challenged the relief. TMC leader Mahua Moitra also filed a PIL against the remission and the premature release of the convicts.

Bilkis Bano was only 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.

All 11 convicts in the case were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022.
The Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission of sentences awarded to 11 convicts in the case of gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 communal riots in the state, the Supreme Court held on Monday.

IMAGE: Protest against the remission of sentence granted to 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano case by Gujarat government, at Azad Maidan, in Mumbai in September 2022. Photograph: ANI Photo

The top court said only the government of the state where the offenders were sentenced was competent to consider an application for remission and pass an order.

Observing that Maharashtra and not Gujarat had the jurisdiction to consider the applications, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said the place of occurrence of the incident or the place of imprisonment of the convicts were not relevant considerations.

"Government of State of Gujarat (respondent No.1 herein) had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission or pass the orders of remission on August 10, 2022 in favour of respondent No.3 to 13 (convicts) herein as it was not the appropriate government within the meaning of sub-section (7) of Section 432 of the CrPC," the bench said.

"When an authority does not have the jurisdiction to deal with a matter or it is not within the powers of the authority i.e. the State of Gujarat in the instant case, to be the appropriate Government to pass orders of remission under Section 432 of the CrPC, the orders of remission would have no legs to stand," it added.

Accusing the Gujarat government of abusing its power, the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission granted to the 11 men convicted in the case. It also said Gujarat's action amounted to "usurpation of power" of the Maharashtra government.

After Bilkis Bano had voiced apprehension over tampering with evidence and risk to witnesses, the Gujarat High Court had transferred the trial in the case from Ahemadad to Mumbai.

The Supreme Court said just as an order passed by a court without jurisdiction is a nullity, in the same vein, an order passed or action taken by an authority lacking

in jurisdiction is a nullity and is non est (does not exist) in the eye of law.

"On that short ground alone the orders of remission have to be quashed. This aspect of competency of the Government of State of Gujarat to pass the impugned orders of remission goes to the root of the matter and the impugned orders of remission are lacking in competency and hence a nullity. The writ petition filed by the victim would have to succeed on this reasoning," the bench said.

The top court, while quashing the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission, said the state's orders were "stereotyped" and passed without application of mind. It asked the convicts to surrender before the prison authorities and undergo further imprisonment.

The 11 convicts released prematurely were: Bakabhai Vohania, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Govind Nai, Jaswant Nai, Mitesh Bhatt, Pradeep Mordhiya, Radheshyam Shah, Rajubhai Soni, Ramesh Chandana and Shailesh Bhatt.

Besides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano which contested the remission granted to them by the Gujarat government, several other PILs, including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, had challenged the relief. TMC leader Mahua Moitra had also filed a PIL against the remission and their premature release.

Bilkis Bano was 21-years-old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train-burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.

All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday secured a record fourth straight term as her Awami League party won two-thirds of the seats in the general elections marred by sporadic violence and a boycott by the main opposition BNP and its allies.

Hasina's party won 200 seats in the 300-seat parliament while counting is still underway after the end of the day-long voting on Sunday.

"We can call Awami League winner with the already available results but the final announcement will be made after the end of the counting of votes in the rest of the constituencies, an EelectionCcommission spokesman told reporters.

Hasina won the Gopalganj-3 seat for the eighth time since 1986. She bagged 249,965 votes while her nearest rival M Nizam Uddin Lashkar from the Bangladesh Supreme Party secured just 469 votes.

The 76-year-old leader, who has been ruling the strategically located South Asian nation since 2009, secured a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall term in the one-sided election, which witnessed a low turnout.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader claimed that the people have rejected the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami's boycott of the election by casting their ballots.

"I sincerely thank those who braved the fear of vandalism, arson, and terrorism to participate in the 12th national parliamentary elections, Quader said.

Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader won the Rangpur-3 seat in the 12th national parliamentary election.

According to the initial estimates, the voter turnout was around 40 per cent but the figure could change after the final count, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal earlier said.

The 2018 general election recorded an overall turnout of more than 80 per cent.

Despite the largely peaceful voting, officials and the mainstream media reported at least 18 arson attacks across the country since late Friday, with 10 of them targeting polling places.

Former premier Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders said the party plans to intensify its anti-government movement through a peaceful public engagement programme from Tuesday as it dubbed the polls as "fake." The BNP boycotted the 2014 election but joined the one in 2018. This time, they boycotted the polls. Fifteen other political parties also boycotted the election.

The party leaders claimed that the low turnout was evidence that their boycott movement had been successful. They said that peaceful democratic protest programmes will be accelerated, and the people's right to vote will be established through this programme.

The BNP is observing a 48-hour nationwide general strike which began at 6 am on Saturday and ended at 6 am on Monday. It had called upon voters to shun the election to mark the beginning of an end of what it calls a "fascist government."

Earlier, an Election Commission spokesman said that other than some sporadic incidents of violence, the voting was largely peaceful in 299 of the 300 constituencies. The Commission suspended polling in one seat because of the death of a candidate.

The Election Commission cancelled the candidature of a ruling Awami League candidate in northeastern Chattogram at the fag-end of the voting hours as he scolded and threatened a police officer.

The usual election-day fervour was nowhere to be seen. Even in front of the election campaign booths, there was no presence of voters except the ruling party-backed supporters and election agents.

Voters cast their votes without any disruption in the absence of long queues, leaving presiding officers with idle time.

Prime Minister Hasina cast her vote at Dhaka City College polling centre soon after the voting started. Her daughter Saima Wazed accompanied her.

She alleged that the opposition BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami alliance does not believe in democracy. "People will vote as they wish. And we were able to create that voting environment. Although the BNP-Jamaat alliance has caused many incidents, including arson attacks," she told reporters.

In response to a question, Hasina said that India is a trusted friend of Bangladesh.

"We are very lucky...India is our trusted friend. During our Liberation War, they supported us not only that after 1975, when we lost our whole family -- father, mother, brothers, everyone (in a military coup) -- and only we two (Hasina and her younger sister Rehana) survived... they gave us shelter. So, we have our best wishes to the people of India," she told reporters.

In August 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, his wife and their three sons were assassinated in their home by military officers. His daughters Hasina and Rehana survived the purge as they were abroad.

In response to a question on how acceptable the election will be while the BNP is boycotting it, Hasina said that her responsibility is towards the people.

"Whether people accept this election or not it is important to me. So, I don't care about their (foreign media) acceptance. No matter what did the terrorist party say or not?" she said.

The 27 political parties that contested the elections include the opposition Jatiya Party. The rest are members of the ruling Awami League-led coalition, which experts dub as "satellite parties."

A total of 119.6 million registered voters were eligible to vote at Sunday's polls in more than 42,000 polling stations, according to the country's Election Commission.

More than 1,500 candidates from 27 political parties were contesting in the election, besides 436 independent candidates.

Over 100 foreign observers, including three from India, monitored the 12th general election, which was held under tight security.

More than 7.5 lakh members of law enforcement agencies and security forces were deployed to ensure law and order during the polls.

Former Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Sakhawat Hussain termed Sunday's polls a unique one compared to the previous two elections.

"This time the election is taking place between candidates from the same party in the name of independents and dummies. As a result, voters are less interested in the polls," said Sakhawat.

"So, it is a unique model election. Results of the election are certain, everybody knows who is going to win. The only uncertain thing is who will be in the opposition bench," he added.

On Friday, the UN Special Rapporteur, Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, said he was "deeply disturbed" by the repressive environment surrounding the polls in Bangladesh.
The Maldivian envoy to India was on Monday summoned to the external affairs ministry and was conveyed strong concern over remarks posted on social media against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a number of ministers of the Maldives, sources said.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu on the sidelines of the COP28 Summit in Dubai on December 1, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

The government of the Maldives on Sunday suspended three deputy ministers for derogatory social media posts against Modi.

The three deputy ministers criticised Modi for his post on 'X' following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.

According to Maldivian media reports, deputy ministers in the youth ministry, Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid, have been suspended over their posts.

In New Delhi, official sources said the Indian high commission in Male strongly raised the matter with the Maldivian foreign ministry on Sunday.

The disparaging remarks by the ministers have drawn flak in India, with many celebrities urging people on X to explore domestic tourist destinations instead of going to the Maldives.

There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives in view of the row.

The Maldivian foreign ministry said the government is aware of "derogatory remarks" on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position.

"The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives," the Maldivian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party discussed seat-sharing prospects for the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab, Delhi and other states on Monday, and decided to meet again to give a final shape to the arrangements between the two key constituents of the INDIA Opposition bloc.

IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shakes hands with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren (left) looks on, during the Opposition parties meet, in Bengaluru, July 18, 2023. Photograph: Shrikant Singh/ANI Photo

Top Congress leaders and members of the party's seat-sharing committee Mukul Wasnik and Ashok Gehlot were present at the meeting in New Delhi while those from the Aam Aadmi Party included Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak and Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj.

The leaders of the two parties discussed the possibilities of seat sharing but did not divulge any details.

"We had a very good meeting. Senior AAP leaders attended the meeting for holding discussions with us on behalf of Arvind Kejriwal. The National Alliance Committee formed by the Congress president held discussions with the AAP leaders and a final decision will be taken later," Wasnik told reporters after the meeting.

"We had in-depth discussions regarding seat sharing and on various other topics. We will meet again after a few days and the final discussion on seat sharing will take place. We will give a final shape to the seat-sharing plans later. We will contest the election together with vigorous preparations and defeat the BJP," Wasnik, who is the convenor of the Congress's NAC, said.

"It would not be proper to reveal what transpired during the discussions. One has to wait for some time. We have already decided to contest the election together. The Congress and the AAP are important constituents in the INDIA bloc," he added.

A source in the AAP claimed that the decision on seat sharing will come through further meetings.

The Kejriwal-led party has also expressed its willingness to contest the Lok Sabha polls in states, such as Gujarat and Haryana and Goa, the source said.

Apart from Wasnik and Gehlot, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely and senior party leaders Salman Khurshid and Mohan Prakash were present at the meeting.

The leaders agreed on maintaining coordination between the two parties. It was suggested by a Congress leader that a joint war room should be set up with representatives of both parties to ensure a positive outcome from the seat-sharing discussions and strategic management during the polls, sources said.

The AAP is in power in Delhi and Punjab. The Congress units in both the states are opposed to any truck with the AAP.

The AAP leaders remained tight-lipped over the deliberations. However, the sources said both sides discussed the seats they are willing to contest in Delhi.

While the AAP wants to contest four of the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital, the Congress is eager to field its nominees from the New Delhi, Chandni Chowk and North East constituencies, they claimed.

The two parties were involved in seat-sharing discussions in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well, but no consensus was arrived at as both wanted to contest four of the seven seats in Delhi.

AAP convenor Kejriwal has already announced the name of jailed MLA Chaitar Vasava as the party's candidate from the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat.

The AAP has, in the past, shown reluctance to contest the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab in an alliance with the Congress.

The Congress has initiated talks with other parties of the INDIA bloc in different states and is in the process of finalising the seat-sharing arrangements with them.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had earlier said the party's seat-sharing committee is holding discussions with other parties in order to put up a united front against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in this year's Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in 2019, securing 56 percent votes.

The Congress had polled 22 percent votes and the AAP 18 percent votes. Both parties had failed to win a single seat in the national capital.

In none of the seven Lok Sabha seats, the combined vote share of the Congress and AAP candidates was more than the BJP nominees.
IMAGE: Manoj Bajpayee in Bhonsle.

Manoj Bajpayee is exasperated by reports that he is all set to get into active politics in Bihar.

"You know, for 25 years since my Satya days, people have been speculating about my joining politics. They just don't understand. I am this guy who left his village at 19. He is given up everything, sacrificed the joy of being with his parents in the village to explore an unknown world, chasing his dreams," the actor tells Subhash K Jha.

"When this guy is getting everything he ever wanted for himself and his family, when all his dreams are coming true, why would he at any point of time give up all he has for an alternative career of uncertainty?"

Manoj says he has no interest in politics.

"It has always been an unknown area for me. I would never ever get into politics. Each time there is a state or parliamentary election the speculation starts as to whether I am getting into politics. Well, I am not -- not now not ever. I am tired of the speculation."

"Now with social media, anyone can say anything without clarifying with the person concerned. You can't use my name as clickbait. I am very tired of this, Subhash. This person whom they are pushing into politics is not me," he says.

"No one cares to check facts these days.This is my last word on this issue: Never ever will I join politics. No matter how many state and parliamentary elections come, I am not going to clarify. This is my last interview on this subject."
The Maldivian government should have apologised and President Mohamed Muizzu should have reached out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sorted out the diplomatic crisis, former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb said on Monday as he described the derogatory comments against the Indian leader as "unacceptable."

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu on the sidelines of the COP28 Summit in Dubai on December 1, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

A row erupted on social media last week when a minister and some other leaders in the Maldives used derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Modi after he posted a video of him on a pristine beach in Lakshadweep.

On Sunday, the Maldivian government suspended three ministers who posted "derogatory remarks" against Modi and distanced itself from their comments on social media, saying these opinions are "personal and do not represent the views of the Government".

The development came after Opposition leaders slammed the "appalling language" used by the officials against the Indian leader.

"I believe that this is something which should have never happened, which is not acceptable in any way. I believe that the Maldives government should have reacted more quickly with stern actions and reached out to India so that they should have never let this blow out for a big diplomatic crisis which has now been...," Adeeb told PTI in an interview.

Describing the comments as "uncalled for", he said that the ruling party has these "extreme elements" who are calling for India out.

"But when you are in the government, you should be more responsible because you are responsible for the livelihood of Maldives people and you should be diplomatic in matters like this," said Adeeb, a former tourism minister.

When asked to comment on the suspension of three ministers, Adeeb said, "They should have resigned...There should have been more strong action as well as it should have been done Sunday morning itself, but it was delayed until last night..."

Adeeb said that the government "should have put up an apology statement as well as President Muizzu should have reached out to Prime Minister Modi. Because these are not acceptable comments, this is racist and this is bigotry."

He said the derogatory remarks have hurt the sentiments of Indians "because Prime Minister Modi is not only the prime minister of India, but he's the global leader, the regional leader, and he has helped us. Even in COVID times, Maldives survived. The economy survived because of the Indian support and help. So I think the president should have reached out to the prime minister himself and sorted out this diplomatic crisis."

Noting that India has become the major tourism market for the Maldives post-COVID, he said that the crisis will hurt Maldives tourism.

"It will obviously hurt. And when tourism is hurt, it directly reflects on the economy, because the economy is also fragile and totally dependent on tourism. So we should take more action on resolving this as soon as possible...," he added.

When asked whether Maldives is now going close to China and distancing itself from India, he said, "Yes, I see that they are distancing themselves from India. That has been seen in the last 60 days."

President Muizzu, who is regarded as pro-China, is in China on a five-day state visit during which he is due to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and sign several agreements to bolster the bilateral ties.

"We'll know what direction it will head because we have to see what the agreements they're going to sign. What are the decisions they're going to make?" the former vice president said, commenting on the president's ongoing visit to China.

He suggested the current government to balance its foreign policy.

"We cannot be one-sided. We have to be more balanced and more friendly with all the nations and especially our neighbours so that we can go forward. India is going to be a 5 trillion economy, and I think Maldives, I believe Maldives should go hand in hand with India in their economic development as well as the development of our people," he added.

The Maldives is India's key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and occupies a special place in its initiatives like SAGAR' (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the Neighbourhood First Policy' of the Modi government.

The recent controversy erupted just before Muizzu's first state visit to China.

Muizzu has asked India to withdraw 77 Indian military personnel from the Maldives and his government has also decided to review more than 100 bilateral agreements between the two countries.
Iris Fontbona, in an image shared on social media.

Almost a month after the death of Andronico Luksic Abaroa (1926-2005)  the man who created the biggest business empire in Chile  several politicians paid tribute to his memory in the National Congress. After a series of laudatory speeches offered by parliamentarians, Andronico Luksic Craig took the floor. The eldest son  who, at the time, was vice-president of the Bank of Chile  hadnt made it in time to his fathers funeral, since he was in Indonesia at the time of his death. It had taken him 39 hours to fly back to Santiago, the Chilean capital.

In the first public farewell to the patriarch of the business clan, he stated: Without a doubt, from now on, my mother takes the reins her children will support her. Im sure that [God] will give us a mother for many more years. Luksic Craig was referring to Iris Fontbona, the richest woman in Latin America, with family assets calculated at $28.8 billion, after a growth of 18% in 2023. This is according to the ranking recently published by Bloomberg.

Most of the fortune comes from control of almost 70% of Antofagasta PLC  one of the largest copper producers in the world  and 83% of Quinenco, the conglomerate that brings together the Luksic Group companies that arent involved in mining. Fontbona and her children also own more than 84% of the Plava Laguna Hotel Group, registered in Zagreb, Croatia.

According to Bloomberg, the family controls Antofagasta PLC and Quinenco through several investment vehicles based in the principality of Liechtenstein, a small tax haven located between Austria and Switzerland.

Iris Balbina Fontbona Gonzalez, 81, was born in the northern city of Antofagasta, a mining center. The nitrate industry had its peak there, between the second-half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. It attracted both Chileans and foreigners to the area.

Iris is the only daughter of the marriage between Luis Fontbona Buxallen and Emma Gonzalez Morales, both from the city of Valparaiso. After studying Commerce, Luis moved with his wife to Antofagasta, which, at the time, had about 50,000 inhabitants. The city is located in the middle of the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert. Iris grew up there, studying at a Catholic girls school.

In the early-1960s, young Iris met Andronico Luksic Abaroa, a businessman of Croatian descent. He was 16 years older than her. Luksic  who had studied in France and was dedicated to the mining industry  had recently been widowed and was responsible for two small sons: Andronico and Guillermo. They married and had three children: Paola (1962), Jean Paul (1964) and Maria Gabriela (1965). In the middle of that decade, the entire family moved to Santiago, although in the summers, it was common to see them all at their house in the Hornitos spa town, an hour from Antofagasta. They also owned a 50,000-hectare estate on the banks of the Panguipulli River, in the south of Chile.

How Luksic amassed his fortune in the mining, financial and industrial sectors has been well-documented. However, little is known about Iris Fontbona. Completely hermetic from the press and highly-protected by her inner-circle, the information that circulates about her usually comes from third parties, who prefer to remain anonymous. Andronico Luksic Craig  without officially being a spokesperson for her  is the one who has referred to his stepmother most frequently. I have two mothers, he once noted. One who died in 1959, when I was four-years-old, and another who took care of me since I was seven, who has been my mother to this day, whom I love, respect and adore above all things.

After the death of her husband in 2005, Fontbona inherited his fortune and became the matriarch of the Luksic family. The three male children took over the different parts of the business empire. While Iris doesnt participate on the boards of the groups companies that are listed on the stock market, according to the Chilean newspaper La Segunda, she does control the board of directors of the foundation created by her husband. From this foundation, she exercises ownership over the entire empire that the businessman and his family created in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, the United States and Croatia. This is according to the records from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which were accessed by the Chilean newspaper.

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The Maldivian government on Monday informed India's high commissioner Munu Muhawar that the derogatory remarks made by three now-suspended deputy ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi do not represent its views.

IMAGE: A diplomatic row unfolded between India and Maldives after Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared his Lakshadweep visit photos on social media platforms. Photograph: @narendramodi/X

The Indian high commissioner had a pre-arranged meeting Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, the Ambassador-at-Large at the Foreign Ministry.

"High Commissioner Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues," the Indian high commission posted on X.

A top Maldivian government official said that during the meeting, Naseer made it clear that the remarks do not reflect the views of the Maldivian government, and reaffirmed Maldives' continued support for its neighbour, the Sun Online reported.

The Maldivian foreign ministry said the government is aware of "derogatory remarks" on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position.

The meeting came after India summoned Maldivian envoy Ibrahim Shaheeb on Monday to the external affairs ministry and conveyed strong concern over remarks posted on social media against the Prime Minister by a number of ministers of the Maldives.

Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid -- three deputy ministers at the Youth Ministry -- had made derogatory remarks against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media platform X, in response to a video promoting tourism in Lakshadweep.

The three ministers were suspended on Sunday after the remarks sparked an uproar on Indian social media.

In New Delhi, official sources said the Indian high commission in Male strongly raised the matter with the Maldivian foreign ministry on Sunday.

The disparaging remarks by the ministers have drawn flak in India, with many celebrities urging people on X to explore domestic tourist destinations instead of going to the Maldives.

There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives following the diplomatic row.

"The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives," the Maldivian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Former Maldivian president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has also condemned the derogatory remarks of the three officials.

"I condemn the use of hateful language against #India by Maldivian government officials on social media. India has always been a good friend to Maldives and we must not allow such callous remarks to negatively impact the age-old friendship between our two countries," Solih posted on X.
Five of the six accused in the Parliament security breach case have been taken to Gujarat for the polygraph and narco-analysis tests, the police said on Monday.

IMAGE: The accused (third from right) of the Parliament security breach incident being brought to Patiala House Court by the Delhi police Special Cell, in New Delhi, January 5, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo

The five accused are Sagar Sharma, Manoranjan D, Amol Shinde, Lalit Jha and Mahesh Kumawat, they said.

The police officials said all the five accused will have to undergo the polygraph test, while Sagar and Manoranjan will have to undergo additional naro-analysis and brain mapping tests.

"The tests will be conducted at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar," said a police officer.

Neelam Azad, the sixth accused, did not give her consent for the test before a court in Delhi on Friday.

The Delhi police had earlier moved the court seeking permission to conduct the polygraph test of all the accused.

The police had informed the court that an expert has recommended Sagar and Manoranjan for narco-analysis and brain mapping after conducting a psycho-analysis test on them.

In a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack on December 13, two people -- Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D -- jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during the Zero Hour, released yellow gas from canisters and shouted slogans before being overpowered by the MPs.

Around the same time, two other accused -- Shinde and Azad -- also sprayed coloured gas from canisters while shouting "tanashahi nahi chalegi" outside the Parliament premises.

All the six accused are in police custody for eight days.

A narco-analysis test involves the intravenous administration of a drug that causes the subject to enter into a stage of anesthesia during which the person becomes less inhibited and is more likely to divulge information, which would usually not be revealed in the conscious state.

Brain mapping, which is also called neuro mapping technique, analyses the brain's responses to images or words related to the crime.

In a polygraph test, efforts are made to ascertain whether the subject is lying or not by tracking breathing rate, blood pressure, perspiration and heart rate, while the person is asked various questions.
Following are the highlights of the Supreme Court judgement pronounced on Monday quashing the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in the state.

IMAGE: A view of the Supreme Court of India. Photograph: ANI Photo

The top court said that the orders were "stereotyped" and passed without application of mind.
Bihar Education Minister Chandrashekhar reiterated that temples are the path to "mental slavery" while schools mean the path of light in life, extending support to party MLA Fateh Bahadur Singh whose similar statement drew the ire of a fringe outfit that announced a "reward" of Rs 10 lakh to cut off his tongue.

IMAGE: The Shri Ram Janambhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust shared this photograph of the Lord Ram temple at Ayodhya. Photograph: @ShriRamTeerth/X

Addressing a function in Rohtas district to mark the birth anniversary of social reformer Savitri Bai Phule on Sunday, Chandrashekhar, an Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, criticised the Ram temple in Ayodhya, calling it "a site of exploitation to fill pockets".

"The site that has been allotted for the Ram temple is simply the site of exploitation. It is a place to fill the pockets of some conspirators from a certain community. We should be aware of pseudo Hindutva and pseudo nationalism. Lord Ram lives in each one of us and everywhere, there is no need to go anywhere or in any temple to find Lord Ram," he said at the function organised by Singh.

Temples are the path to mental slavery, while schools mean the path of light in life, Chandrashekhar added.

"Where will you go if you get injured? Temple or hospital? If you want education and want to become an officer, MLA or MP, will you go to a temple or a school? Fateh Bahadur Singh said the same thing that Savitr Bai Phule had said," he asserted.

Chandrashekhar said that "conspirators" against Singh's statement announced a price for his tongue.

Referring to Mahabharata, he said, "Now, this Eklavya's son will not give up his thumb. Now, people know how to make offerings. Conspirators should remember that the 'Bahujan' people will sweat so much that it will become an ocean and the opponents will be seen standing across the seven seas..(after the 2024 polls)".

Senior state BJP leader Nikhil Anand told PTI that with such statements RJD leaders were trying to please their Muslim voters.

"RJD is ready to go to any level to abuse Hindus and appease Muslims. Ayodhya and Mathura are the questions related to India's spiritual-cultural heritage and religious self-respect," he alleged.

"RJD leaders such as Chandrashekhar and Fateh Bahadur should ask their party supremo Lalu Prasad and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav why they recently went to Tirupati with their family and got tonsured. They should also tell us which religious rituals they follow at home," he said.
Pakistan's then President Pervez Musharraf's "overreach" in publicly airing his hawkish views on Kashmir, his lack of intent in containing terrorism and insistence on a formulation linking forward movement in overall ties to progress on Kashmir led to the collapse of Agra Summit in 2001 and not because of LK Advani's hardline approach.

IMAGE: Then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee with then Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf at Agra in 2001. Photograph: Reuters

This is what ambassador Ajay Bisaria, who served as a key aide of Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he was the prime minister, said in his upcoming book while throwing light on various dramatic details of the historic Agra Summit.

On the second day of the Summit, Musharraf met with editors of major newspapers and TV networks for a breakfast conversation during which he "let loose" his hawkish position on Kashmir and equated terrorists with freedom fighters, Bisaria recounts.

In the book, Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship Between India and Pakistan, Bisaria says this public telecast sounded to observers like a mid-summit report on the talks, where Pakistan's hard views were being inflicted on India, while New Delhi's positions were unclear.

The former diplomat says he and Brajesh Mishra, Vajpayee's principal secretary and National Security Advisor from 1998 to 2004, watched Musharraf's televised remarks with "dismay" in the makeshift PMO in Agra.

"Mishra turned to me and said that the PM needed to be informed of this development since he was sitting in conversation with Musharraf oblivious to everything happening outside the meeting room."



"Mishra scribbled a few lines. I had them quickly typed up, adding a couple of sentences of my own. The note basically said that a press conference by Musharraf was being telecast, where he had repeated his hardline positions, harping on the Kashmir issue and had talked of terrorists as freedom fighters," Bisaria writes in the book being published by Rupa.

It fell upon Bisaria to walk into the room where the two leaders and the two notetakers were sitting."

"My arrival interrupted the conversation as both leaders looked up," he says.

"Musharraf had been talking and Vajpayee was listening, apparently with great interest."

"I handed over the paper to the boss and said that there had been some important developments. After I left the room, Vajpayee looked at the paper and then read out from it to Musharraf, saying edgily that his behaviour was not helping the talks," says Bisaria in the book.

Bisaria says he was "playfully" accused by some colleagues of torpedoing the Agra initiative.

The former diplomat further says the narrative that emerged from the meetings in view of Pakistani leaks was that while Vajpayee and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh were for an understanding and "OK" with Pakistan's "convoluted draft" of the Agra joint statement (linking progress in bilateral ties to forward movement on the Kashmir issue), Advani, the hawk, had vetoed it since he did not want any progress with Islamabad.

"Advani was quite aware of the slant in the media reporting, making him the villain of the piece."

"Later Pakistani writings tend to highlight the almost agreed upon draft. The reality was different," Bisaria writes.

Bisaria, who retired from foreign service in June 2022, also referred to Jaswant Singh's talks with then Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on the draft statement.

"Jaswant Singh walked into Vajpayee's hotel suite to show him the paper he had negotiated with his counterpart, Sattar. Vajpayee asked his other cabinet colleagues to come to the suite."

"Brajesh Mishra was already present," he writes.

"Pakistan's initial formulations linking a Kashmir settlement to other bilateral matters had been diluted, but the first operative paragraph still referred to 'progress towards settlement of (the) Jammu and Kashmir issue.' The draft ended with calling for addressing all issues 'in an integrated manner.'

"The draft also asked for a sustained dialogue at the political level on terrorism, but made no promises of Pakistan curtailing it. While the overall formulations seemed innocent enough, the draft was sending a political message that India was letting Musharraf get away lightly on the terrorism issue.

"Several red flags went up in the room."

In the book, Bisaria says that Jaswant Singh recalled the "'collective view expressed there was that without sufficient and clear emphasis on terrorism, also accepting categorically that it must cease, how could there be any significant movement on issues that are of concern or are a priority only to Pakistan?'"

"'And none that are in the hierarchy of priorities for India? How can we abandon Shimla or Lahore? Or forget the reality of Kargil? I went back and reported failure to Sattar'," Bisaria writes quoting Singh.

"As Jaswant Singh walked out of the room, Advani sighed and said, in English, that he would now be the 'fall guy'".

Advani was the Union Home Minister at that time.

Bisaria notes in the book that "Musharraf's overreach in terms of publicly broadcasting hawkish positions on Kashmir-- and his insistence on a formulation linking progress on all issues with progress on Kashmir -- had led to the unravelling of the summit."

He says another factor was that both countries attempted to summit a mountain with little planning or even Sherpas to help them.

"Negotiating a joint statement at the level of the prime minister and foreign minister was not the smartest choice by Pakistan," he says.

"There had been little diplomatic bargaining, no backchannel dialogue, and limited diplomatic attempts to choreograph the Summit's outcomes to bridge the vast chasm in the two positions on Kashmir and terrorism," he says.

Bisaria also recounts his conversation with Vajpayee and Brajesh Mishra months later.

"If India had gone with a bland text to declare the Summit a success and then cross-border terrorism had continued, would we not have appeared even more gullible than we did when the Summit was declared a failure?"

"Mishra agreed that would have been a worse outcome."

Bisaria adds: "Still, the invitation to Musharraf served a purpose, Vajpayee did manage to read Pakistan's loquacious dictator, and this experience would help him evolve his Pakistan policy over the next three years.

"The Summit did not succeed, but diplomacy had worked. It had worked for both countries," he says.
The Indian Navy, which was earlier looking towards the US for design expertise, technical know-how and operational practices, is now considering the advantages of working with the Royal Navy.

IMAGE: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with members of the United Kingdom's House of Commons Defence Committee in New Delhi, July 19, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has left on a two-day visit to London, underscoring India's growing defence relations with the United Kingdom.

He is accompanied by a high-level ministry of defence delegation, comprising senior officials from the Defence Research and Development Organisation, service headquarters and the Department of Defence Production.

The defence minister's key meeting will be with his UK counterpart, Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps. They are expected to discuss a wide range of defence, security and industrial cooperation issues.

Relations between the two countries are guided by the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the overall framework of the India-UK Roadmap 2030.

The inaugural India-UK 2+2 Foreign and Defence Dialogue was held in New Delhi on October 16 last year.

Fresh impetus has been imparted to India-UK defence relations by cooperation in designing and building India's third aircraft carrier, a jet engine for India's indigenous medium combat aircraft and a diesel power pack for the Indian Army's futuristic light tank.

Powering India's aircraft carrier, New Delhi and London are moving closer towards developing marine electric propulsion for the Indian Navy's second indigenous aircraft carrier, or IAC-2.

The Indian Navy, which was earlier looking towards the US for design expertise, technical know-how and operational practices, is now considering the advantages of working with the Royal Navy.

Like the Royal Navy's two Queen Elizabeth-class (QE-class) aircraft carriers, the IAC-2 is likely to be a 65,000-tonne, conventionally powered carrier that embarks 50-plus aircraft, including 10 helicopters.

Since the Royal Navy carriers are significantly smaller than the US Navy's 100,000 tonne, nuclear powered supercarriers, it is becoming even more likely that India might choose the Rolls-Royce MT30 power pack that drives the QE-class.

Selection of the MT30 power pack for the IAC-2 could set the stage for Rolls-Royce turbines to power many of the Indian Navy's next generation of warships, instead of the American, Russian, and Ukrainian turbines that India currently uses.

At the second meeting of the India-UK Electric Propulsion Capability Partnership Joint Working Group in New Delhi on November 21, the two sides exchanged information on electric propulsion, while discussing industrial cooperation in this field.

Jet engine co-creation

British engine-maker Rolls-Royce has offered to work with the DRDO in designing and developing jet engines for the Indian Air Force's Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), which will form the backbone of the IAF's fifth-generation fighter fleet in a decade.

Rolls-Royce has told Business Standard that the new engine would be a greenfield design and would take a decade to create and operationalise.

Combat aircraft engine makers, of which there are only a handful, are unwilling to share the intellectual property that accrues from a co-creation project.

The US and India had begun a project to co-develop a fighter engine under the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative, but the American firms decided against sharing intellectual property.

Similarly, French engine maker Safran was unwilling to cooperate with the DRDO to co-create the Kaveri engine. Currently, the IAF, the Indian Navy and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited operate some 750 Rolls-Royce aero engines.

These include the Rolls-Royce Adour 804/811 which has powered the IAF's Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft. In the 2000s, HAL began manufacturing the Hawk trainer in Bengaluru, while also building the Rolls-Royce Adour 871 engines that power it.

Tank engines against China

Following China's intrusions into Eastern Ladakh in 2020, the Indian Army found itself confronting Chinese armour on that flat, high-altitude desert border. Consequently, India's defence design and production establishment has swung into action building a new 25-tonne light tank for the Indian Army.

Rolls-Royce subsidiary, MTU, which has been acquired by Rolls-Royce Power Systems, is keen on providing its MB 838 engine to power the light tank.
Observing that it will lay down the guidelines on conducting by-elections, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Bombay high court order asking the Election Commission to immediately hold the by-poll for the Pune Lok Sabha seat, which has been vacant since March 29, 2023, after the death of MP Girish Bapat.

Image used for representational purpose only. Photograph: ANI Photo

The top court rapped the poll panel for not holding the by-election for the seat for such a long period despite the law mandating conducting polls expeditiously.

The seat got vacant on March 29, 2023. What was the Election Commission doing since then? asked the bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

We will lay down guidelines on holding of elections on account of vacancy, the bench said.

The top court took note of the submission of the poll panel that the tenure of the present Lok Sabha is ending on June 16 this year, and holding the by-election will not serve the purpose in view of the fact that the general elections are also due later this year.

It issued notices to Pune resident Sughosh Joshi and others on the plea of the Election Commission against the December 13 order of the Bombay high court.

It said the guidelines may be needed keeping in mind Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act.

The provision mandates the Election Commission to fill the casual vacancies in the Houses of Parliament and state legislatures through by-elections within six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy, provided that the remainder of the term of a member in relation to a vacancy is one year or more.

On December 13 last year, the Bombay high court asked the Election Commission to immediately hold the by-election for the Pune Lok Sabha seat, stressing that people from the constituency cannot be left unrepresented for a long time.

The high court had ripped into the EC's stand on not holding the election as it was busy with other polls, including preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, calling it bizarre and wholly unreasonable.

The Pune Lok Sabha seat has been vacant since the death of sitting Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Girish Bapat on March 29, 2023.

In any parliamentary democracy, governance is done by elected representatives who are the voices of people. If the representative is no more, another must be put in place. People cannot go unrepresented. That is wholly unconstitutional and is a fundamental anathema to our constitutional structure, the high court had said.

The court passed the order on a plea filed by Pune resident Sughosh Joshi against a certificate issued by the EC that it will not hold the by-election to the constituency.

The EC had said it would not be holding the bypoll on two grounds  one, it was busy with other polls including the preparatory activities for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and two, that even if the Pune bypoll was held, the elected representative would get a very short tenure.

The high court had refused to accept these grounds and said both are not valid concerns. They are, in fact, an abdication of constitutional duties and obligations which cannot be accepted, it said.

Bapat died aged 72 in Pune on March 29. He had served as an MLA five times from Kasba Peth constituency in the city. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Pune in 2019.
The Supreme Court on Monday held as maintainable the PIL filed by Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped while seven of her family members were killed during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, against the state government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case.

IMAGE: Firecrackers being burst outside the residence of Bilkis Bano in Devgadh Baria, Gujarat, January 8, 2024, following the Supreme Court verdict. Photograph: ANI Photo

The apex court said Article 32 of the Constitution is a part of Part-3 of the Constitution of India which deals with fundamental rights and the right to file a petition under the article is also a fundamental right.

"In the instant case, the petitioner -- Bilkis Bano -- has filed her writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution in order to enforce her fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution which speaks of right to life and liberty and Article 14 which deals with right to equality and equal protection of the laws.

"The object and purpose of Article 32 of the Constitution, which is also recognised to be the 'soul of the Constitution' and which is a fundamental right in itself, is for the enforcement of other fundamental rights in Part-3 of the Constitution. We think that the aforesaid constitutional remedy is also to enforce the goals enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution, which speaks of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity," a bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said.

Accusing the Gujarat government of abusing its power, the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission granted to the 11 men convicted in the case. It also said Gujarat's action amounted to "usurpation of power" of the Maharashtra government.

The top court said keeping in mind the expanded notion of access to justice, which also includes speedy remedy, the petition filed by Bilkis Bano cannot be dismissed on the ground of availability of an alternative remedy under Article 226 (to approach the HC) of the Constitution or on the ground of its maintainability under Article 32 of the Constitution before this Court.

According to Article 32, "It is a fundamental right, which states that individuals have the right to approach the Supreme Court (SC) seeking enforcement of other fundamental rights recognised by the Constitution."

The top court said there is another stronger reason as to why Bilkis Bano approached this court by filing a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution rather than invoking Article 226 of the Constitution before the high court.

"That is because earlier, one of the respondents, namely, respondent No.3 Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, had preferred writ petition invoking Article 32 of the Constitution before this court by seeking a direction to the state of Gujarat to consider his case for remission under the policy of 1992.

"This court issued a categorical direction to that effect. In fact, the respondent-state has understood the said direction as if it was a command or a direction to grant remission within a period of two months. But, before this court in the said proceedings, one of the serious contentions raised by the state of Gujarat was that it was not the appropriate government to grant remission which contention was negatived by the order dated May 13, 2022," the bench said.

Another bench of the apex court had on May 13, 2022, asked the Gujarat government to consider the remission plea of Shah. On Monday, the top court nullified that order, saying it was obtained by "playing fraud on the court" and by suppressing material facts.

The top court said this was one of the grounds raised by Bano to assail the orders of remission granted to convicts.

"That being so, the high court of Gujarat would not have been in a position to entertain the aforesaid contention in view of the categorical direction issued by this court on May 13, 2022.

"In the teeth of the aforesaid order of this court, the contention regarding the state of Gujarat not being the competent state to consider the validity of the orders of remission in a petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, particularly when the question of competency was raised, could not have been dealt with by the Gujarat high court on the principle of judicial propriety," the bench said.

The apex court said, therefore, Bilkis Bano rightly approached it challenging the orders of remission.

"Thus, we hold that the writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution is clearly maintainable," it said.

Besides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano contesting the remission, several other PILs, including one by CPI-M leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, challenged the relief. TMC leader Mahua Moitra also filed a PIL against the remission and the premature release of the convicts.

Bilkis Bano was only 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.

All 11 convicts in the case were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, 2022.
Creating an LLM trained on Indian languages is not easy.

Experts say each language in India has a nuance of its own, so creating a ChatGPT-like product is an ambitious challenge.

2023 was all about Open AI's ChatGPT chatbot, a software application designed to mimic human-like conversation based on user prompts.

The year ended on the note that India-based large language models (LLMs) -- the backbone of tools like ChatGPT -- will be available soon.

Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola Electric, announced Krutrim, an LLM his company describes as 'India's own AI' (artificial intelligence).

Aggarwal is not the first to venture into Indian LLMs. Bhashini, a Government of India initiative, AI4Bharat of Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Sarvam.ai, and project Vaani are some other such projects.

Creating an LLM trained on Indian languages is not easy. Experts say each language in India has a nuance of its own, so creating a ChatGPT-like product is an ambitious challenge.

Billionaire Vinod Khosla, a pioneer in Silicon Valley AI investments and an early supporter of OpenAI, said about Sarvam's $41 million fund-raise: 'We need companies like Sarvam AI to develop deep expertise for building AI in and for India.'

To create an LLM three things matter the most: Access to data in the local language, computing power and third constant training of datasets.

All three conditions are hurdles when building an Indian LLM. That is unlike ChatGPT, which was primarily created in the English language and had access to ample amount of data.

Access to data in Indian languages is an issue to begin with.

"The ecosystem of Indian languages is way more difficult and confusing.

"When you try to enable a lot of people to do things, they need to be able to fall back on really trustworthy and easy to use standards," says Vivekanand Pani, co-founder and chief technology officer of Reverie Language Technologies, a Reliance Jio portfolio company.

"And today Indian languages definitely suffer big time," Pani adds.

Reverie has since 2009 been working for the inclusion of Indian languages in digital devices.

'Pain point'

"My biggest pain point when it comes to creating access in Indian languages is that [it is] unlike in English, in which data creation was possible because it had a great technological support ecosystem," explains Pani.

"In Indian languages we have standards that are ambiguous for people who are creating the basic typing tools or spell checks," adds Pani, who has worked in the Indian language segment for years.

English is the most popular language for Web content, representing 58.8 per cent of Web sites as of January 2023, according to a report by Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform.

The report said the United States and India, the countries with the most number of internet users after China, are also the world's biggest English-speaking markets.

ChatGPT took almost six years to be where it is today despite English language data being available in abundance.

Such data in English is digitised and there are companies who help digitise text or offline data. That is not the case with Indian languages.

However, recent efforts by the Indian government have created tools to get data in Indian languages.

Bhashini and AI4Bharat have speech recognition and translation in 22 languages and both have text-to-speech capabilities.

Before Aggarwal announced Krutrim, a Bangalore-based startup made headlines for aiming to create an Indian AI. Sarvam.ai got $41 million in a Series A funding round, one of the highest ever amounts raised by an Indian AI startup.

The firm aims to create a full-stack Generative AI (GenAI), a type of AI technology that can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, and audio.

Sarvam AI will focus on training AI models to support Indian languages and voice-first interfaces.

"Our intent is that 500 million Indians should be able to use GenAI. We believe that India cannot be just a user of OpenAI's ChatGPT. We need to understand the models and how one can be delivered in an Indian context," says Vivek Raghavan, co-founder of Sarvam.ai.

Year ahead

Raghavan feels GenAI will be used differently in India.

"I think in India if GenAI is going to be used then it will be through the medium of voice. We have made it very hard to type in our own languages and hence in many cases the interfaces will be voice," he says.

Pani and Raghavan believe as translation mechanisms have improved, there are now more techniques that allow creation of data in Indian languages.

Mayuresh A Nirhali, head of engineering & products at Reverie, says a format like ONDC, the open e-commerce network launched by the government, would be a better approach while building an Indian LLM.

"I think we should consider an ONDC type of format to bring government and corporates together in solving this problem," says Nirhali.

"Not just companies, even at the government level, there are different departments doing different things and following different approaches in sourcing data and building models," Nirhali adds.

Nirhali has a point about LLM projects getting a common platform like ONDC.

Other than Bhashini and AI4Bharat, there are other efforts such as Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru and AI and Robotics Technology Park are partnering with Google to launch an LLM called Project Vaani.

Vaani expects to create a dataset of more than 150,000 hours of speech, part of which will be transcribed in Indian language scripts.

The dataset of natural speech and text from about 1 million people in 773 districts of India will be open source.

Despite challenges Pani believes that 2024 will be significant for Indian LLM.

"India as a user base for such services is seen as a fastest growing region, which is why the interest," he says.

Krutrim is a significant step. Its biggest positive is the fact that it is trained on 2 trillion tokens.

The LLM will have generative support for 10 Indian languages and will support inputs in 22 languages.

Of course, Krutrim's ability will only be seen when it is available for all to test.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Considerable cloudiness. High 42F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. A few flurries are possible. Low around 30F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Dmytro Kuleba is deeply convinced that Ukraine will prevail. But at a time when Western support seems to be wavering and Russias war against Ukraine has become a battle of attrition, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister insists that support for Volodymyr Zelenskiys government is also support for democracy, as he tries to rekindle in his allies that sense of urgency that was apparent in the first year of the Russian invasion. Ukraine should be an issue that unites, not divides, he remarks during an interview last Thursday at the Foreign Ministry, surrounded by sandbags in the face of a war that is approaching the 700-day mark. Ukraine must win. Russia must lose. And all the political thinking should be centered around achieving this goal, says Kuleba, who insists that Vladimir Putin is not interested in a frozen conflict, or in peace, that everything else is just noise and that none of Ukraines allies have put those options on the table. On February 1, the EU will again discuss a 50 billion financial lifeline for Ukraine  currently blocked by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban  while another similar aid package remains frozen in Washington. Kuleba believes the funds will come. We do not have a plan B, he insists.

Question. This is a very challenging year, with elections in half the world: in the U.S., the European Parliament, in several EU countries. Ukraine is and will remain a very important issue in campaigns. Do you fear that Ukraine will become a hostage to political infighting, as we are already witnessing in Washington?

Answer. Well, it would be very short-sighted for political forces of any country to turn Russian aggression against Ukraine into an issue of domestic debate. Because this is not about the issue of Ukraine, its about Russian aggression against Ukraine and the issue of the entire democratic world. And all democratic forces participating in campaigns and elections should realize that. Russia knows no democracy. Russia does not respect democracy. And if Russia prevails, if the Russian style of politics becomes dominant and gains popularity, there will be no real elections. There will be no real democracy. And this is definitely not something these political forces are looking for. Defeating Russia in Ukraine is in the best strategic interests of European and North American nations, and other nations of the world as well. So the issue of Ukraine should be one of uniting, not dividing.

Q. But do you think these politicians are aware of this?

A. If we assume that all politicians are intelligent and strategically minded people, then they must be aware of it, yes.

Q. The United States has some $61 billion in funds for Ukraine pending approval, chiefly due to the Republican blockage. What will happen if that money is not approved?

A. We will continue fighting with the resources available to us because for the world, democracy, security, and prosperity is at stake. For Ukraine, the existence of the nation is at stake. If one decides to suspend or withhold support now, because of the lack of resources, Russia will be able to succeed on the battlefield and break through the lines. Providing Ukraine with support will have to be resumed because there will be a very strong public reaction in favor of supporting Ukraine. And the same politicians who decided to withhold that support will be making the decision to provide it, but in much more difficult circumstances. So even from a rational perspective, from a purely realistic policy, it makes more sense to provide assistance now in order to avoid a crisis in the future.

Q. In December, the EU failed to approve 50 billion in support for Ukraine due to Hungarys veto. The EU leadership has said that these funds will arrive one way or another. Are you confident of this?

A. I am pretty confident and I have a slightly different interpretation of what happened in December. I dont think this decision was not adopted because of Hungarys veto. I think the decision was postponed for a month in order to try to avoid Hungarys veto and provide an extra month to negotiate with the European Union to reach an agreement for a consensus-based position. But there is a clear understanding and unanimity and consensus among 26 members, minus Hungary, that this aid will be provided one way or another. So lets see how it ends.

Dmytro Kuleba (left), with the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell (center), in Kyiv last October. AP

Q. And if the funds are delayed?

A. Well, then our Finance Minister will once again have to work the magic of his management.

Q. Do you have a backup plan in case those funds do not arrive?

A. We do not have a plan B. From the outside perhaps people see and think differently, they can talk about plans A, B, and C, they can publish articles and analytical documents. But from here, inside, all of your energy and all of your intellectual power has to be focused on one thing: making plan A work.

Meeting between Zelenskiy and Orban

Q. You are trying to set up a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is perceived as close to Russia.

A. We are working on it. We discussed a meeting between Orban and Zelenskiy to go through the agenda to sort out all the issues, because if we are talking purely about Hungarian national interests, I think its more than evident strategically that having a peaceful, democratic, European Ukraine is in the best interests of Hungary. You can talk with Putin, you can do business with him. But I dont believe that Hungary wants to have Russia as its neighbor.

Q. Indeed, Hungary does business with Russia and Orban has met with Putin.

A. They do business because that is Prime Minister Orbans policy. Given that Hungary is the only country in the European Union that maintains a dialogue with Russia, at leader and foreign minister level, I believe that it is an issue for the EU to sit down and analyze how this aligns with the unions policies, and not ours.

Q. In December, the EU agreed to open accession negotiations with Ukraine. In community institutions there is increasing talk of a gradual integration model for new members. What do you think?

A. Every EU enlargement required an effort. In the course of every wave of EU enlargement, there were critical voices saying that this is not the way to evolve and that instead of expansion, the EU should seek in-depth integration. But every EU enlargement resulted in an increase in the prosperity and safety of Europe. And now we are back on the same ground. Ukraine is an important player, a big country, and there is a difference between integrating a smaller country and a larger country. But if you think about this enlargement in business terms, Ukraine is a big market, a big contributor to boosting European industries and, furthermore, Ukraine guards the whole eastern flank of Europe. Accession is a matter of compromises because you have to strike a balance between existing rules and practices and the incoming member. But Im sure that we will get it done because the strategic benefit of Ukraines accession to the EU will outweigh any negative voices.

Q. Would Ukraine be open to one of those forms of gradual integration, for example, first the single market and other programs, and then moving up to full membership?

A. We will not accept any quasi-membership or suspended membership or Plan B membership. But to be fair, the real criteria for membership is participation in decision-making  the Commission, the European Parliament and all other structures  and access to the common market, which is already included in our association agreement with the union. You can be within the EU and not be a member of the Schengen area or the monetary union. The very nature of the EU envisages some gradual integration but access to the common market and political participation is at the core of the concept of membership. And we will not accept any alternative scenarios or compromises with regard to these two elements.

Q. Do you have a schedule?

A. Well, of course people love to make plans, but you know the saying: when people make plans, God laughs.

A fire in an apartment building in Kyiv as a result of a Russian attack on January 2. Libkos (Getty Images)

Q. Lately we have read about Russias alleged intentions to freeze the conflict and that Putin wants to negotiate. Is this a way of sending a message to Ukraine to surrender?

A. Putin doesnt want a frozen conflict, or peace. Those who are suggesting a frozen conflict, arguing that they are acting in the best interests of Ukraine and the world, are in reality helping Putin and ignoring what todays Russia is. Between 2014 and 2022 [during the Donbas war in the east] we held almost 200 rounds of talks with Russia, it was already a de facto frozen conflict. We tried. We announced and established 20 ceasefires, all of which were broken by Russia, and endless negotiations ended up with Putins large-scale invasion. There are wars which are black and white, where one side must win and another side must lose. And the Russian aggression against Ukraine is that kind of war. Ukraine must win. Russia must lose. And all the political thinking should be centered around achieving this goal.

Q. Have any of your allies suggested freezing the conflict?

A. It is not on the table. Our allies have not asked us to negotiate with Russia to freeze the war, either when we have sat down with the delegations, or in behind closed doors meetings in a reduced format. This is not something that anyone can dare to put on the table as an option. Everything else is just noise.

Q. The EU and the G-7 are moving forward to draw up a scheme that would allow Ukraine to receive the benefits of frozen Russian assets, but some countries still have many legal doubts about it. Is it just a debate or will Ukraine end up receiving these funds to finance reconstruction?

A. It will happen 100%. The question is to what extent it will happen because there are three elements to it: the frozen assets themselves, the revenues on the assets, and taxation on those revenues. But it will happen because it makes sense that Russia should pay. And there are enough frozen assets to tackle the reconstruction of Ukraine. We estimate that the total amount of frozen assets is equivalent to more than 80% of our reconstruction demand. We can rebuild schools, we can rebuild hospitals, we can rebuild infrastructure at the expense of the country that destroyed it.

Q. Do you think it will happen before the war is over?

A. It doesnt work in a way that you get all the money in one day, its a process. I think that the first money proceeding from these frozen assets will arrive in Ukraine before the end [of the war], but we have to build a comprehensive system to resolve legal issues and build financial and transparency mechanisms. Its a complicated legal, regulatory and financial instrument. But again, even though some have doubts, one way or another, this decision will have to be made because its the most natural decision of all.

Q. The EU has approved 12 packages of sanctions, and the US has imposed its own, but you have explained that parts and components manufactured in the West have been found in weapons that Russia has used to attack Ukraine. Why does this keep happening?

A. Grace schemes and circumvention of sanctions. Unfortunately, Russia has devised ways to receive spare parts and some materials it needs for its defense industry, including the production of missiles and drones, from various parts of the world, including from Western countries. And this is why we are working very thoroughly with our partners on closing this route. Its shameful to see that Russia is still successful in bypassing sanctions when it comes to the delivery of spare parts. It needs to build missiles and rockets which it fires on Ukraine, destroying our infrastructure, and the countries of origin of these spare parts then help Ukraine to recover, to rebuild this infrastructure. We have to break this vicious circle. Im not saying that these countries are turning a blind eye to Russia, to Russian purchases, or to the delivery of these spare parts as a result of purely commercial activity, but governments must step up efforts to close these circumvention routes.

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To the Editor: The impact of the closing of R.E. Dunklee and Sons Machine Shop is difficult news to learn.
Graffiti, including an apparent swastika, on the Esteyville Common bandstand in Brattleboro, has been sprayed over with gray paint.
Election integrity activists want a federal judge to order Georgia to stop using its current election system, saying its vulnerable to attack and has operational issues that could cost voters their right to cast a vote and have it accurately counted.

During a trial set to start Tuesday, activists plan to argue that the Dominion Voting Systems touchscreen voting machines are so flawed they are unconstitutional. Election officials insist the system is secure and reliable and say it is up to the state to decide how it conducts elections.

Georgia has become a pivotal electoral battleground in recent years with national attention focused on its elections. The election system used statewide by nearly all in-person voters includes touchscreen voting machines that print ballots with a human-readable summary of voters selections and a QR code that a scanner reads to count the votes.

The activists say the state should switch to hand-marked paper ballots tallied by scanners and also needs much more robust post-election audits than are currently in place. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg, whos overseeing the long-running case, said in an October order that she cannot order the state to use hand-marked paper ballots. But activists say prohibiting the use of the touchscreen machines would effectively force the use of hand-marked paper ballots because thats the emergency backup provided for in state law.

Wild conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines proliferated in the wake of the 2020 election, spread by allies of former President Donald Trump who said they were used to steal the election from him. The election equipment company has fought back aggressively with litigation, notably reaching a $787 million settlement with Fox News in April.

The trial set to begin Tuesday stems from a lawsuit that long predates those claims. It was originally filed in 2017 by several individual voters and the Coalition for Good Governance, which advocates for election integrity, and targeted the outdated, paperless voting system used at the time.

Totenberg in August 2019 prohibited the state from using the antiquated machines beyond that year. The state had agreed to purchase new voting machines from Dominion a few weeks earlier and scrambled to deploy them ahead of the 2020 election cycle. Before the machines were distributed statewide, the activists amended their lawsuit to take aim at the new system.

They argue the system has serious security vulnerabilities that could be exploited without detection and that the state has done little to address those problems. Additionally, voters cannot be sure their votes are accurately recorded because they cannot read the QR code, they say. And the voting machines large, upright screens make it easy to see a voters selections, violating the right to ballot secrecy, they say.

Lawyers for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wrote in a recent court filing that he vigorously disputes the activists claims and strongly believes their case is legally and factually meritless.

Experts engaged by the activists have said theyve seen no evidence that any vulnerabilities have been exploited to change the outcome of an election, but they say the concerns need to be addressed immediately to protect future elections.

One of them, University of Michigan computer scientist J. Alex Halderman, examined a machine from Georgia and wrote a lengthy report detailing vulnerabilities that he said bad actors could use to attack the system. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, in June 2022 released an advisory based on Haldermans findings that urged jurisdictions that use the machines to quickly mitigate the vulnerabilities.

During a hearing in May, a lawyer for the state told the judge physical security elements recommended by CISA were largely in place. But the secretary of states office has said a software update from Dominion is too cumbersome to install before the 2024 elections.

The fact that the voting system software and data was uploaded to a server and shared with an unknown number of people after unauthorized people accessed election equipment in January 2021 makes it even easier to plan an attack on the system, Halderman has said. That breach at the elections office in rural Coffee County was uncovered and exposed by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

A sprawling Fulton County racketeering indictment against Trump and 18 others included charges against four people related to Coffee County. Two of them, including Trump-allied lawyer Sidney Powell, have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors.

In several rulings during the litigation, Totenberg has made clear that she has concerns about the voting system. But she wrote in October that the activists carry a heavy burden to establish a constitutional violation connected to the voting system or its implementation.

David Cross, a lawyer for some of the individual voters, said the judge has only seen a sliver of their evidence so far. He said he believes shell find in their favor, but he doesnt expect to see any changes before Georgias presidential primary in March. He said changes might be possible before the general election in November if Totenberg rules quickly.

Were hopeful but we recognize its an uphill fight for 2024, just on the timing, he said, acknowledging the likelihood that the state would appeal any ruling in the activists favor.

Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, was similarly optimistic ahead of trial: We have the facts and the science and the law on our side, and really the state has no defense.

A representative for Raffensperger didnt respond to multiple requests to interview someone in his office ahead of the trial.

The activists had planned to call the secretary of state to testify. They wanted to ask why he chose a voting system that uses QR codes that arent readable by voters. They also believe his office has failed to investigate or to implement proper safeguards after the Coffee County breach and wanted to ask him about it under oath.

The judge ordered him to appear over the objections of his lawyers. But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled he doesnt have to testify, citing his status as as top official and saying the plaintiffs didnt show his testimony was necessary.

This trial bears heavily on the public interest, and voters deserve to hear from Secretary Raffensperger in the trial. Its a travesty that they wont, Cross said. And its unfair to our clients who need answers to questions at trial that only he can provide.

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Police in Cambodia detained a group of 13 activists from the Mother Nature Movement, including on German national, and questioned them after they held a rally on Jan. 7, 2024.

UPDATED on Jan. 8, 2024 at 5:38 p.m. ET.

Cambodian authorities detained and released 13 members of the Mother Nature environmental activist group on Sunday for holding a rally to raise awareness about the countrys largest island of Koh Kong Krau.

Described by environmental activists as untouched, the 103 square km (about 40 square miles) island is known for its beauty and abundant natural resources, including forests, white sandy beaches, clean sea water, waterfalls and plentiful wildlife.

In June 2023 Mongbay reported that Cambodias military facilitates logging on Koh Kong Krau and other nearby islands.

In 2020, RFA reported that an ally of then-Prime Minister Hun Sen had secured permission to develop parts of the island. This was contrary to statements by the Ministry of Environment that it had been sending experts to study including Koh Kong Krau as a marine national park since 2016, and it expected it would have national park status by 2021.

Sundays detention and interrogations came after the group members dressed in T-shirts advocating the protection of Koh Kong Krau and exercised together on the banks of the Chaktomuk river and discussed the issue of Koh Kong Krau and held banners that read "Sunday for Koh Kong Krau.

Once in custody, the police asked the activists to write their biographies including any instances of past crimes. Authorities then asked them to provide further answers on the purpose of the riverside rally and released them in the evening of the same day.

Mean Lisa, who was among the detainees, told RFA Khmer that the members had gathered on Sunday to exercise together and discuss the island. She said the authorities persecute young people who strive to protect the environment and natural resources.

"We take Sundays to discuss Koh Kong Krau every week, she said. Secondly, we want to encourage young people from all walks of life and the public to get involved in protecting the environment and natural resources. Third, we want the ministry to honor its promise to make Koh Kong Krau a marine national park."

Am Sam Ath, the director of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, told RFA that the activities of the Mother Nature group, are important to raise awareness about protecting natural resources and they benefit the nation as a whole.

He added that these activities should be encouraged because they are fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens and not crimes.

If the authorities take them for questioning, it is a threat to intimidate young people to participate in activities to protect natural resources, the environment, as well as to participate in public to develop a good society, he said.

Among the detainees was German national Jannik Gaul, who was a friend of one of Mother Nature members.

At the police office, Gaul was questioned in an isolated room alone. After his release, Gaul texted to the Mother Nature group that the police made him speak in front of a video camera saying that members of Mother Nature lied to him to join an illegal demonstration.

His phone was taken for a couple of hours . He also said the immigration police officer wants him to leave Cambodia.

The police also released a statement Sunday night saying that Gaul admitted his mistake. Police accused Mother Nature of acting illegally, endangering security and public order.

Translated by Sokry Sum. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

Update fixes spelling of Koh Kong Krau and removes sensitive information.
Ny Nak, an agricultural expert and critic of the Cambodian government, and his wife, Sok Synet, are seen in a social media post, Nov. 18, 2023. (Facebook/Nak Ny)

The wife of a detained government critic who was severely beaten by thugs in September said on Monday that her husband regrets recent Facebook comments hes made and wants to apologize to Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former Prime Minister Hun Sen.



Sok Synet said in a Facebook video that Ny Nak, an agricultural expert who goes by pseudonym IMAN-KH, admitted wrongdoing during her visit with him at Prey Sar prison near Phnom Penh.

He really regrets and knows his mistake, she said in a Facebook video. I ask Samdech Father and Samdech Hun Manet to help my husband to be able to issue an apology message and then help my husband to be free to participate in political life with the government in the agriculture sector.

Samdech is an honorific often used for the prime minister. Hun Manet was appointed to the office in August after his father, Hun Sen, resigned after leading the country since 1985.

Numerous government critics and opposition activists have made public apologies and in-person appeals for forgiveness to Hun Sen in recent years after they ran into legal trouble following criticism of powerful Cambodians.

In September, Ny Nak was badly beaten by about eight assailants on the streets of Phnom Penh just hours after he panned a Ministry of Agriculture report on rice prices. No one has been arrested in the attack.

Ny Nak previously served an 18-month jail term for comments about Cambodias COVID-19 restrictions. After his release last year, he resumed his Facebook posts about the government.

Heng Sours complaint

Last week, Ny Nak posted a comment that mocked a Ministry of Commerce statement about registering 10,000 new companies in the new year as it seeks to encourage investment in Cambodia.

On Friday, he was arrested on charges of incitement and defamation.

The arrest was based on a criminal complaint from Minister of Labor Heng Sour.

Ny Nak has mentioned a man named Heng Sour in other Facebook posts about a government land transaction, although it was unclear if he was referring to the minister of labor. Heng Sour and Hun Manet have denied that the government has given land to the minister.

On Monday, Ministry of Commerce deputy chief of Public Relations and Communications Borapich Serei said in an email to Radio Free Asia that her ministry has had absolutely no involvement or connection to the incident or the individual mentioned. The email was sent in response to RFAs story on Friday about Ny Naks arrest.

Ros Sotha, president of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, said Ny Nak may be facing pressure to issue an apology.

The first pressure is the pressure of physical suffering that has not yet received justice, he said, referring to the September street attack. The second pressure is the pressure on him that he is being imprisoned for a public defamation charge.

Ny Naks arrest is yet another example of the systematic persecution of an outspoken government critic who is peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression, said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

Ny Nak has done nothing that he should be arrested for, and the authorities should immediately drop the charges against him, and release him, he said in a statement on Sunday.

RFA was unable to reach Sok Synet for comment on Monday.

Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
There are '007s' in everyday life, not just in the movies, one newspaper warns.

China's Ministry for State Security says it has arrested a man who has been working with Britains intelligence service MI6, whose London headquarters is seen in this 2010 photo.

China's Ministry for State Security said Monday it has arrested a man surnamed Huang, who heads a foreign consultancy in the country, as an alleged British spy, with one newspaper warning that there are "007s" everywhere in real life.

"Recently, the national security agency uncovered a case in which the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) used personnel from a third country to conduct espionage activities against China," state news agency Xinhua reported, citing a statement on the ministry's official WeChat account.

"The overseas national surnamed Huang is head of a foreign consultancy," it said. "In 2015, the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) developed Huang as part of an intelligence cooperation relationship."

Huang's is the latest in a string of arrests of foreign nationals and raids on foreign consultancies that come in the wake of amendments to China's Counterespionage Law in 2023, which has been criticized by investors for its vague definition of what exactly constitutes espionage.

It also appears to form part of a nationwide campaign to "awaken" China's citizens to the existence of foreign spies in their everyday lives, according to recent ruling Communist Party propaganda.

"MI6 then instructed Huang to enter China multiple times using his public identity as cover to collect China-related intelligence for British espionage and to identify personnel for MI6 to incite to rebellion," the report said, accusing the British intelligence services of giving "special spy equipment" to Huang for the purpose.

The nationalistic Global Times newspaper says countries have expanded their spying efforts on China to include science and technology, among other areas. In this picture, a worker makes semiconductor chips at a factory in eastern China's Jiangsu province in 2021. (AFP)





Huang had given up 12 pieces of evidence showing the leakage of "state secrets" and three other pieces of intelligence, according to the ministry.

He is currently being held under "criminal coercive measures," according to Xinhua.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning declined to comment on the report at a regular news briefing in Beijing on Monday, referring journalists to the ministry's WeChat official account.

007s around us

The nationalistic Global Times, sister paper to Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, drew parallels with the fictional hero of the James Bond books and movies, who is also known as "007."

"Countries such as the UK, in line with their broader strategy of countering China, have expanded their espionage efforts beyond traditionally targeted areas to encompass economic, military, scientific, technological, and financial domains," it said.

The paper quoted Li Baiyang, associate professor of intelligence studies at Nanjing University, as saying: "We should be wary of the 007s around us; we shouldn't naively think that 007 is a character that exists only in films."

"It [espionage] is actually everywhere, [and they are] planting their spies in other countries," Li told the paper, echoing recent public service announcements about "foreign spies" who have allegedly infiltrated every aspect of life in China.

Last August, the security ministry opened an official account on WeChat, calling on Chinese citizens to enhance the awareness of counterespionage of the whole society, and form a strong joint force to maintain national security.

State media said it was a necessary move, to put all of China on an anti-espionage footing as a result of new criminal activities that endanger national security.

Online comic book

In an apparent bid to broaden popular participation in the nationwide spy-catching campaign, the ministry on Sunday launched an online comic book detailing a fictionalized version of its work that it said was based on a real case.

Foreign businesses and lawyers have warned in recent interviews with Radio Free Asia that the amended Counterespionage Law gives no definition of what constitutes a state secret, a matter of national security or the national interest, but expands the definition of espionage to cover cyberattacks against government departments or critical information infrastructure.

China's Ministry for State Security on Sunday launched an online comic book detailing a fictionalized version of its work that it said was based on a real case. (WeChat/Ministry for State Security)





It also gives the authorities broader powers to access data and electronic equipment and to issue travel bans to individuals.

In October, the authorities arrested a 39-year-old Chinese national, identified only by his surname Hao, whom the ministry claimed was recruited by the CIA while he was studying in Japan.

In November, the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court court in the southwestern province of Sichuan sentenced a man identified by his surname Wang to six years' imprisonment and the confiscation of 500,000 yuan (US$68,700) of his personal assets after finding him guilty of "espionage."

A Chinese lawyer told Radio Free Asia at the time that definitions in the Counterespionage Law are so vague that even government information in the public domain could be classified as a "state secret."

Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
"Credible evidence is emerging that Andy Li [shown] was tortured when in prison in China before confessing to allegedly conspiring with Jimmy Lai to collude with foreign entities to endanger national security," Lai's lawyers say in a statement. Li was captured while trying to flee to Taiwan by speedboat.

Lawyers acting for Hong Kong pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai, who is currently standing trial under a draconian security law that cracks down on dissent, have appealed to the United Nations to investigate, saying a key witness for the prosecution was tortured before "confessing" to conspiring with Lai.

Lai's international legal team at London's Doughty Street Chambers lodged the appeal with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment over the treatment of Andy Li, among a group of 12 Hong Kong protesters captured by China's Coast Guard as they tried to flee to democratic Taiwan by speedboat.

"Credible evidence is emerging that Andy Li was tortured when in prison in China before confessing to allegedly conspiring with Jimmy Lai to collude with foreign entities to endanger national security," Lai's lawyers said in a statement on Jan. 4.

"Andy Lis evidence against Jimmy Lai  which it is suspected was coerced and obtained after he endured torture, inhuman and degrading treatment in Chinese detention, with the knowledge of the Hong Kong authorities  is central to the prosecutions case," it said.

Defense team leader and Kings Counsel Caoilfhionn Gallagher said there are grave concerns that Li's testimony against Lai was "coerced," and that his legal team are arguing that it should be discarded.

Police officers patrol outside Hong Kongs West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts, where publisher Jimmy Lai's trial is taking place, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024. (Billy H.C. Kwok/AP)





"International law prohibits reliance on evidence derived through torture, inhuman or degrading treatment," she said. "Such statements are involuntary, inherently unreliable, violate the right to a fair trial, and reliance upon them indirectly legitimises torture and taints the justice system."

Prosecutors at Lai's ongoing trial appear to be relying on Andy Li's testimony as a key plank in the case against Lai, Gallagher said.

"The Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have so far failed to investigate these concerns, and in any event how could they credibly mark their own homework?" she said. "They must now answer to the United Nations."

Collusion with foreign forces

Replying on Friday to requests for comment from Reuters and the Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper, a Hong Kong government spokesman said it "strongly condemns and firmly opposes" the initiative by Lai's legal team, which it said was designed "to abuse the United Nations mechanisms to interfere with the judicial proceedings".

Amnesty International listed Li and the other speedboat fugitives as being at "imminent risk of torture and other ill-treatment" after their arrest on Aug. 23, 2020, after which they were held in incommunicado detention.

Following his handover to authorities in Hong Kong, Li pleaded guilty to charges of "collusion with foreign forces" alongside Lai in August 2021, after being accused of "conspiring" with Lai's aide Mark Simon and activist Finn Lau, now in exile, to ask foreign governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong.

In May 2021, Li's family raised concerns that he was being secretly held in the maximum security Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre following his return to Hong Kong from Chinese custody. The center has a history of alleged abuses against inmates, according to media reports at the time.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee speaks during a press conference in Beijing, Dec. 18, 2023. The rights group Hong Kong Watch has called on the British government to impose sanctions on Lee, (Andy Wong/AP)





Meanwhile, the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch called on the British government to impose sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, in connection with the naming of its members as "collaborators" or "co-conspirators" in Lai's national security trial.

Hong Kong Watchs co-founder and Chief Executive Benedict Rogers, the Executive Director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, or IPAC, Luke de Pulford, and Bill Browder, a financier and human rights campaigner who pioneered the introduction of Magnitsky sanctions worldwide  all British nationals  were among those named.

In a letter for Foreign Secretary David Cameron, the six Hong Kong Watch Patrons called Magnitsky-style sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, including asset freezes and a travel ban.

"John Lee has been, and continues to be, involved in activities which amount to a serious violation of the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment," the letter said, pointing to Lee's involvement in the transnational repression of prominent Hong Kong activists in exile.

Edited by Luisetta Mudie and Malcolm Foster.
The story follows a US media report of missile fuel tanks filled with water, amid widespread military graft.

Rampant corruption and funding shortfalls are eating away at the People's Liberation Army's ability to equip its own forces, according to a former People's Liberation Navy Lieutenant Colonel, who described air force personnel taking away chunks of solid missile fuel to use as fuel for meals of traditional Chinese hotpot during his time as a serving officer.

PLA Navy Lt. Col. Yao Cheng, a former staff officer of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force Command who fled to the United States in 2016, said corruption is rife throughout the Chinese military, and is often driven by a lack of adequate supplies or equipment.

"The budget for dinners and gifts is taken from the equipment department," Yao told RFA Mandarin, responding to a recent report from Bloomberg blaming ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's recent purge of the People's Liberation Army rocket chiefs on their failure to keep the nation's missiles fueled and at the ready.

"Some military departments have no money, and if they need money, their chief has to allocate some from the equipment budget," Yao said. "The equipment budget would have been sufficient, but not after being misappropriated."

He added: "When I was in the military, we would ... drain fuel from aircraft fuel tanks for cooking, which burns green and has no smell at all."

"When we would eat hotpot, we would take out the solid fuel in the missiles piece by piece, because there were insufficient supplies," Yao said. "I would often go along to the armory and ask them for a small round piece of solid fuel when we wanted to have hotpot."

Traditional Chinese hotpot is eaten out of a communal table-top pot that is kept constantly on the boil, as guests throw in raw meat, seafood and other delicacies to cook on demand. Pots can be fueled with anything from electricity to camping stove fuel.

Military purge

Bloomberg cited US intelligence assessments as saying that Xi's military purge came "after it emerged that widespread corruption undermined his efforts to modernize the armed forces and raised questions about Chinas ability to fight a war," quoting people familiar with the assessments.

"The corruption inside Chinas Rocket Force and throughout the nations defense industrial base is so extensive that U.S. officials now believe Xi is less likely to contemplate major military action in the coming years than would otherwise have been the case," the agency reported.

It cited examples of missiles filled with water instead of fuel, as well as vast fields of missile silos in western China with lids that dont function in a way that would allow the missiles to launch effectively.

Chinese military vehicles carrying DF-5B intercontinental ballistic missiles participate in a parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Oct. 1, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP)

Xi replaced Li Yuchao as commander of the People's Liberation Army Rocket Corps  which controls the country's nuclear missiles  in July, as state media reported that Li and his former deputies Zhang Zhenzhong and Liu Guangbin had been placed under investigation by the Chinese Communist Party's disciplinary arm, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu was reportedly being investigated for corrupt procurement of military equipment after being out of the public eye since Aug. 29, along with several other senior officials from the Chinese military's procurement unit, media reports said at the time.

Chinese lawmakers on Friday approved the appointment of Adm. Dong Jun, the former commander of the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to the position of defense minister, state Xinhua news agency said.

Adm. Dong Jun replaced Li Shangfu, who was removed from office in October, as defense minister last month.

A person familiar with the Chinese military who gave only the surname Duan for fear of reprisals said he was unable to verify the content of the Bloomberg report, but agreed that corruption is rife in the military, which he described as a "closed and independent system."

"Corruption in the military is far worse than in local government," Duan said, citing the investigations in recent years into two former vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, along with a number of other high-ranking Commission officials.

"Overseas media report that missiles are filled not with fuel, but with water," Duan said. "While we can't get conclusive proof of such a thing happening, it's entirely possible that it did."

Defense Department's report to Congress

Requests from Bloomberg for comment from the U.S. Department of Defense resulted in a referral to its 2023 report to Congress into China's military and defense capabilities.

In that report, the department said Xi had "strengthened and accelerated" his anti-corruption campaigns in the People's Liberation Army shortly after taking office, consolidating his grip on power in the process.

"Military discipline inspectors led by the CMC Discipline Inspection Commission have targeted individual power networks and occupational specialties historically prone to corruption," it said, citing probes into officers connected to Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong and former Chief of Joint Staff General Fang Fenghui.

"In mid-2023 ... the PLA launched an inquiry into corruption linked to the procurement of military equipment, indicating that the PLAs anti-corruption campaign remains incomplete."

Chinas Defense Minister Li Shangfu, shown at a conference in August 2023, was removed from office in October. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP)

The report estimated that Chinas stockpile had more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023, and would likely expand that number to more than 1,000 by 2030.

"The PRC probably completed the construction of its three new solid-propellant silo fields in 2022, which consists of at least 300 new ICBM silos, and has loaded at least some ICBMs into these silos," the report said, referring to silo fields at Yumen in Gansu, Hami in Xinjiang and Ordos in Inner Mongolia.

"This project and the expansion of Chinas liquid-propellant silo force is meant to increase the peacetime readiness of its nuclear force by moving to a launch-on-warning (LOW) posture," it said.

A Jan. 5 commentary in the official Liberation Army Daily called for "strict management to create combat effectiveness," particularly at grassroots level, to "prevent small problems from turning into big problems."

"We must be soberly aware that violations of laws and disciplines by individual officers and soldiers at the grassroots level still occur from time to time," the paper said.

"Some still refuse to restrain themselves ... and embark on illegal and criminal paths."

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.


How to deal with China is one of the central themes of the campaign.

Ko Wen-je, Taiwan Peoples Party (TPP) presidential candidate, Lai Ching-te, ruling Democratic Progressive Partys (DPP) presidential candidate and Hou Yu-ih, candidate for Taiwan's presidency from the main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT), pose for a group photo at the first televised election address in New Taipei City, Taiwan Dec. 20, 2023.

Taiwan is gearing up for a pivotal presidential election on Saturday that will shape its future relationship with China and its stance on independence. The election will decide whether to continue on the path set by the current President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), known for her independence-minded approach.

Despite never having governed the democratic island of 24 million people, China considers Taiwan part of its territory and does not dismiss the possibility of using military force to occupy it. Beijing regularly sends warplanes near the island, crossing into the Taiwan Strait. In response, the United States has increased its military exercises with allies in the region.

The incoming president of Taiwan will play a crucial role in defusing or escalating tensions between these global powers. Here are guides to each candidate and a short explanation of what the election means for Taiwan.

Lai Ching-te, Taiwans vice president and the ruling Democratic Progressive Partys (DPP) presidential candidate gestures at an election campaign event in Taipei City, Taiwan Jan. 3, 2024. (Ann Wang/Reuters)





Lai Ching-te, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)

Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, is a former physician with a gentle demeanor who has risen to prominence in Taiwans political landscape. He has served in various high-level positions, including as the mayor of Tainan, a major city in southern Taiwan.

Lai is particularly favored by staunch supporters of Taiwan independence, yet he has historically also garnered support from centrist voters. Viewed with suspicion by China, Lai has previously identified himself as a pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence. Lai has committed to maintaining the current President Tsais cautious approach: that because Taiwan is already independent, it needs no further declarations.

Tsai, first elected in 2016, cannot run for a third term due to constitutional limits. Her tenure has been marked by a refusal to acknowledge Taiwan as part of China, a stance that has led to heightened tensions with Beijing, including severed formal communications and increased military pressure. Among these challenges, Tsai has successfully forged a strong partnership with the U.S. in balancing Chinas influence.

Despite Lais pledges to continue Tsais policies, his victory is not assured. The Taiwan electorate, while predominantly identifying as Taiwanese rather than Chinese, is also keen on re-establishing dialogue with mainland China. Nevertheless, should he emerge victorious, it is expected that Beijing will persist in its threats and efforts to isolate Taiwan.

Apart from that, the DPP, originally an opposition party to the Kuomintangs (KMTs) decades-long dictatorship, now faces criticism for becoming the establishment, particularly from the younger generation. Under Tsais rule, issues like slow wage growth, high housing costs, and power shortages have become points of contention.

Hou Yu-ih, the presidential candidate of the main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT), speaks during a campaign rally in Taoyuan, Taiwan Jan. 6, 2024. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)





Hou Yu-ih, Kuomintang (KMT)

Hou Yu-ih, a robust former police officer who led Taiwans National Police Agency in 2006, carries what a former DPP legislator describes as a Taiwanese flavor thanks to his background  born to street-market pork dealers in Chiayi, a pro-independence stronghold in the south.

The KMT sees his roots as advantageous, potentially helping to shed the partys elite image and attract voters beyond its traditional base of mainland Chinese immigrants and their descendants. In the previous year, Hou was re-elected as the mayor of New Taipei City, an area encircling the capital, where he is appreciated as a moderate with a reputation for effective governance.

Hou advocates for reducing tensions across the Taiwan Strait through dialogue with Beijing, aligning with the 1992 consensus. This consensus holds that both sides acknowledge the existence of one China but interpret it differently. This approach, used by the current leader Tsais predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT, had eased cross-strait tensions.

However, the flexibility around this consensus may be diminishing. In 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping linked the 1992 consensus with the mainlands stringent one China principle, suggesting a governance model for Taiwan similar to Hong Kongs. This model theoretically allows for an autonomous political system, but in practice, China has significantly eroded democratic freedoms in Hong Kong.

Ko Wen-je, Taiwan People's Party (TPP) presidential candidate makes a speech during an election campaign event ahead of the election in Kaohsiung, Taiwan Jan. 7,2024. (Ann Wang/Reuters)





Ko Wen-je, Taiwan Peoples Party (TPP)

Ko Wen-je, originally a surgeon, made a dramatic shift to politics in 2014 when he ran as an independent candidate for the mayorship of Taipei, Taiwans capital. His entry into politics was marked by a stunning victory over a KMT candidate despite his lack of political experience.

Four years ago, he established the TPP, positioning himself as a rational and scientific technocrat. Unlike many of his counterparts, Kos focus has primarily been on domestic issues, such as energy and housing, rather than on cross-strait relations with China.

The TPP, under Kos leadership, is not yet strong enough to secure a legislative majority. However, Kos strategy seems to be positioning the party to potentially hold the balance of power in parliament. Advocating for a coalition with the KMT, Ko presents himself as offering a third choice to voters, aiming to strike a balance between provoking and deferring to China. However, his policies regarding China align more closely with those of the KMT.

In fact, Ko and Hou announced a partnership in November, signaling a potential threat to the DPP rule. Polls indicated that this alliance could have overturned the DPPs dominance. However, the coalition quickly unraveled due to disagreements over who would run for president and vice president, despite earlier agreements to collaborate on legislative candidates to optimize their representation in Taiwans 113-seat parliament.

Edited by Elaine Chan and Mike Firn
But ongoing N Korea provocations may be a diplomatic shift to use Japan to influence the U.S., says expert.

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's military exercise during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. North Korea conducted a new round of artillery drills near the disputed sea boundary with South Korea on Saturday, officials in Seoul said, a day after the North's earlier exercises prompted South Korea to respond with its own drills in the same area.

South Korea has officially declared that the maritime buffer zone with North Korea no longer exists, setting a precondition for Seoul and Washington to conduct reconnaissance operations near the border in response to Pyongyangs ongoing military provocations.

North Korea has breached the September 19th military agreement over 3,000 times and has conducted artillery fire in the West Sea [Yellow Sea] over the last three days. As a result, the zone designated for the cessation of hostile actions effectively, no longer exists, South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff, or JCS, said Monday.

Speaking to reporters in Seoul, JCS spokesperson Lee Seong-Joon said that the ongoing provocations have essentially rendered the inter-Korean agreement inactive.

In 2018, the two Koreas agreed to halt what the other has defined as hostile actions toward one another near the border, including the maritime border, the Northern Limit Line, or NLL, but the North has conducted a number of provocations since then, violating the terms of the agreement.

In November, North Korea formally declared an immediate and complete withdrawal from the military agreement, pledging to deploy its latest weaponry along the border with South Korea. The move came as Seoul suspended a part of the agreement following the Norths satellite launch that violated the United Nations Security Council resolution.

With North Koreas latest provocation in the maritime border, which has effectively nullified the inter-Korean agreement, South Korea, in collaboration with the United States, may resume immediate reconnaissance and surveillance activities near the border, as indicated by South Koreas Prime Minister Han Duck-soo in November.

Seouls reaction on Monday comes as North Korea proceeded with military provocation off its western coast for three consecutive days since Friday.

According to a series of statements released by the Souths JCS, North Korea carried out over 90 rounds of artillery fire north of South Korea-ruled Yeonpyeong Island between 4 p.m. and 5:10 p.m. Sunday. None landed south of the NLL.

Separately, on Saturday, North Korea also fired approximately 60 coastal artillery shells off its western coast, the JCS said.

However, this statement countered claims from the Norths powerful sister Kim Yo Jong Sunday, that Seoul had misinterpreted the event. She asserted that North Korea had only detonated explosives around 60 times to mimic the sound of its 130mm coastal artillery, rather than firing actual artillery shells.

The JCS released statements later calling North Koreas actions as comical, asserting that these actions were intended to undermine trust in the military and incite internal conflict in the South. The JCS maintained that its military assets detected projections of North Korean artillery shells, in addition to setting off explosives.

Shelling toward islands

On Friday, North Korea launched some 200 artillery shells into waters off its western coast near South Koreas Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands. Unlike the Saturday and Sunday developments, however, the artillery firing was directed in the southern direction, and Seoul conducted naval fire drills by its troops to reciprocate the provocation.

North Korea has been escalating military tensions recently in the Korean peninsula as it is also restoring its guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone. South Korea has reciprocated the moves by imposing unilateral sanctions and announcing its decision to dissolve its foundation designed for facilitating the inter-Korean economic complex.

South Koreas President Yoon Suk Yeol has implemented a hardline policy towards Pyongyang, with his conservative administration openly vowing to proceed reciprocal responses to North Koreas provocations.

Cheon Seong-whun, a former security strategy secretary for South Korea's presidential office noted that Pyongyangs provocation appears relatively controlled and restrained, as evidenced by the absence of artillery fire south of the NLL.

They seem to be focusing on justifying their actions as a response to joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises. Theres no need for an excessive response. I believe its sufficient to closely monitor their actions while continuing to emphasize the importance of dialogue.

The U.S. and South Korean military forces began their first joint drills for this year on Thursday, involving the U.S. Air Force asset, Rivet Joint, a reconnaissance aircraft designed for intelligence collection.

Cheon also pointed out that North Koreas actions seem to be an attempt to form a new diplomatic strategy, excluding South Korea. They need an external threat, hence they label South Korea and the U.S. as adversaries, but at the same time, they are reaching out to Japan, as shown by the recent letter to Prime Minister Kishida. This shift warrants attention.

According to North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday, North Koreas leader Kim Jong Un addressed the Japanese leader, Fumio Kishida, as Your Excellency, expressing his deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims of Japans latest earthquake.

There is a possibility that North Korea might try to reach out and potentially influence the U.S., not through South Korea, but through Japan, said Cheon, suggesting that Pyongyangs next move could lead to the potential for dialogue between North Korea and Japan.

Edited by Elaine Chan and Taejun Kang.
The aftermath of an artillery blast is seen at a market in Kawlin township in northwestern Myanmars Sagaing region, Jan. 2, 2024. Blurring in photo is from source.

Military junta soldiers massacred 19 civilians in two townships in northwest Myanmars Sagaing region after detaining them, residents said, in the latest slaughter of civilians in the countrys nearly three-year civil war.

Piles of corpses of all 19 people were discovered on Sunday near the Five Mile bus terminal located at the convergence of Kawlin, Wuntho and Pinlebu townships, local residents told Radio Free Asia.

The dead had lived in Wuntho township and Kawlin township, both of which had been seized by anti-regime Peoples Defense Forces, or PDFs, made up of ordinary people who have taken up arms against the junta, which took control of the country in a February 2021 coup detat.

Junta soldiers, already pushed back by recent advances by rebel groups, have resorted to brutality to stop residents from providing support to the PDF, residents said.

The military column that killed the civilians was headed from Paungbyin township to Kawlin and Wuntho townships, resistance forces and residents said.

They were found dead on the night of Jan. 5, the same day of their arrest, residents said, though Radio Free Asia has not yet been able to confirm the deaths with the ruling military council.

Displaced civilians from Kawlin township in northwestern Myanmars Sagaing region are seen Nov. 2, 2023. (Kawlin Info)

The shadow National Unity Government has been operating Kawlin townships administrative, legislative and commercial sectors since resistance forces captured the township on Dec. 3, 2023.

In coordination with Operation 1027, a series of defensive attacks by an alliance of three ethnic armies in northern Shan state launched on Oct. 27, joint forces comprising the Kachin Independence Army and local PDFs have captured Kawlin, Mawlu, Khampat and Shwepyiaye towns in Sagaing region.

Signs of atrocities

The bodies of five residents from Kawlin, whose hands and feet were tied, were collected and buried on Sunday, according to an official from the local PDF.

The bodies were those of a father and two sons, female rice merchant Khin Sein, and driver Tun Phaw Hlaing, he said. The adults were between the ages of 30 and 50.

One of the five bodies we took away yesterday had been shot many times in the abdomen very closely, said the official who declined to be named to ensure his safety. Another body was found with serious injury to the head.

Some 5.56-millimeter cartridges made by Myanmars military defense industry were found near the bodies, he said.

RFA could not reach junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun or Sai Nai Nai Kyaw, the spokesperson for Sagaing's ethnic affairs minister, for the comment on the massacre.

Junta forces attacked civilians in Kawlin and Wuntho townships to try to recapture Kawlin township from the local PDF, said a Wuntho resident on condition of anonymity.

They have threatened the locals with killing possible informants of the resistance forces when they advanced on Kawlin, the person said.

Civilians displaced by fighting in Myanmar are seen on the move in Salingyi township, Sagaing region, Nov. 26, 2023. (RFA)

Kyaw Win, the UK-based executive director of the Burma Human Rights Network, said the mass killings of civilians is a war crime and a crime against humanity.

Military troops have also committed similar crimes across the country, he said.

Women and children

Deadly attacks by junta soldiers have taken their toll on civilian women and children in Myanmar.

In December alone, nearly 40 women and children lost their lives, with most killed by airstrikes, artillery shells and gunshots, according to the Burmese Womens Union.

Of the 33 women killed, 22 had been arrested by the military junta, the womens rights umbrella organization said. The women who died in the attacks included six in Sagaing region, six in Rakhine state, four in Mandalay region, two in Mon state, three in Magway, four in Bago region, four in Shan state, three in Kayin state and one in Chin state.

A total of 15 women died during bombardments in December, 17 women were killed by artillery shelling, and one died from a gunshot, said Wai Wai Myint, an official from the Burmese Womens Union.

Six children between the ages of 1 and 7 years old died in airstrikes by junta forces, including three in Sagaings Paungbyin town, one in the regions Pale township, and two in Nyaunglebin township in Bago region.

Aye Myint Aung Aung, a leading member of the Women Alliance Burma, a group that emerged from protests following the 2021 coup, said women and children are not safe in conflict-torn areas of Myanmar.

The military council will show no mercy to any civilians, and has targeted them, she told RFA. Along routes [traveled by] military columns, they raped and killed women. These soldiers did not even have compassion for the children.

RFA could not reach a spokesman for the junta for comment on women and children casualties.

In all of 2023, nearly 400 women were killed and over 540 were arrested by the military council, according to the Burmese Womens Unions.

Translated by Aung Naing for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
The alliance has reportedly taken control of 13 townships since implementing Operation 1027 in October.

Hseni city gate in northern Shan state was seized by the Three Brotherhood Alliance on Jan. 6, 2024.

Myanmars Three Brotherhood Alliance claimed the capture of two cities, according to a statement released Monday. The resistance group announced they stormed two junta camps on Sunday, causing troops to withdraw.

The alliance reportedly captured Hseni in northeastern Shan state on Sunday morning. The junta camp there also acts as the armys regional operational command headquarters, according to the alliance. Later that day, the allied forces moved to the city of Kutkai and seized it late at night, according to locals.

All junta troops from Hseni and Kutkai withdrew and fled to Lashio on Sunday afternoon, said one local who has been following military movements in the area.

The alliance comprises three resistance groups, including the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, Arakan Army, and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army. Since the Three Brotherhood Alliances Operation 1027 began in late October, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Armys fighters have claimed control of most major areas in Hseni.

The junta's regional headquarters and smaller camps are located several kilometers away from the city. The area has been under a blockade for almost two months. Troops retaliated during Sundays attack using heavy artillery and airstrikes, a local told Radio Free Asia, asking to go anonymous to protect their identity.

The alliance attacked the camps in Kutkai multiple times earlier this month, they said, adding that junta troops responded with airstrikes on Sunday evening during the fighting.

One fighter involved in the ground battles told RFA Kutkai was entirely captured, despite the juntas heavy defense. However, others said the status of Hseni could not be confirmed at this time.

It is true that our forces captured the whole of Kutkai city last night, said a spokesman for the Taang National Liberation Army, asking to remain nameless for fear of reprisals. As for Hseni, I cant confirm it, because we are not there.

Myanmars regime has not released any information about battles in Hseni and Kutkai. RFA was unable to reach junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment regarding junta injuries and fatalities.

On Thursday, the alliance also overtook a military command center in northern Myanmar, claiming control of the city of Laukkai according to a statement released Friday.

Since the launch of Operation 1027 more than two months ago, the Three Brotherhood Alliance has reportedly captured 14 townships in northern Shan state and seized control of more than 200 junta camps.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.
Students and instructors in Myanmar are boycotting school in droves and joining the resistance.

Students are seen at Myanmars Dagon University in Yangon on Dec. 5, 2023. The ruling junta has encouraged students to attend universities.

Myanmars university student population has plummeted by more than 90% since the militarys takeover nearly three years ago, according to statistics published by the juntas department of education.

Students and instructors interviewed by RFA Burmese, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns, said the decline in enrollment numbers reflects their choice to boycott the juntas education system and join the resistance movement.

On Nov. 23, the junta re-opened 47 universities across the country and 24,243 students enrolled for the 2023-24 academic years, according to statistics published by the Department of Higher Education.

But the Department of Basic Education said that 161,850 students took the university entrance exam during the 2022-23 academic year  109,851 of whom passed.

The numbers from the two departments show that only around 22% of students who passed the entrance exam ended up enrolling at a university.

The rate of enrollment also reflects a staggering drop from that of the year prior to the militarys Feb. 1, 2021, coup.

During the 2019-20 academic year, when the civilian-led National League for Democracy was still in power, 910,229 registered for the university entrance exam, of whom 291,798 passed. Of those who passed, 260,173 enrolled, or nearly 90%.

The numbers show that, under the junta, university enrollment has declined by more than 68%, while the population of university students contracted by more than 90%.

The decline also comes despite junta exhortations for students to attend universities published in state media.

Higher education basically stopped under junta

When interviewed by RFA, students and instructors said that they can no longer expect to receive or provide an education that differentiates between right and wrong under the regime, and therefore had decided to suspend their studies.

Others said they could not bring themselves to attend or teach at a university amid widespread suffering in the country and would rather forgo their studies or resign than allow the junta to claim that it had returned enrollment rates to the levels seen prior to the coup detat nearly three years ago.

I feel ashamed to attend university while many families have lost their homes and family members due to the junta, said one student from the University of East Yangon, who is boycotting classes and has vowed not to return until the military is removed from power.

As a member of the young generation, I will fight to remove the military dictatorship however I can. So, I decided not to attend university.

A first year student told RFA that while some students continue to attend university classes, many others have left.

It is their choice to do so, the student said.

Meanwhile, an associate university professor who has joined Myanmars anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement, or CDM, boycotting state employment said that the countrys higher education system had essentially ground to a halt under military rule.

Around 60% of teachers at this level have joined the CDM, the professor said. In reality, [the junta] arent able to open colleges and universities [due to enrollment declines and boycotting teachers], but they did so anyway.

The professor acknowledged that tens of thousands of students are attending classes at the countrys major universities in cities such as Dagon, Yadanabon, Mawlamyine, Magway and Monywa.

But the countrys higher education system has basically stopped due to the CDM of university teachers and students since the coup, they said.

Other sources told RFA that the junta decided to reopen schools despite having so few students enrolled in a bid to show that a sense of normalcy had returned to the country under its watch.

Knowledge no longer protected

An official with the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, Federal Democratic Education Cooperation Network told RFA that a genuine education is impossible in Myanmar while a military regime that routinely persecutes its opponents is in charge.

Knowledge is no longer protected under the regime, the official said. We expect an education system that differentiates between good and evil, but this is no longer possible. We cant expect such an education amid an environment filled with injustice and corruption.

Students at Yadanabon University in Myanmar take part in a civil disobedience campaign in this undated photo. (Yadanabon University Students' Union)

In the meantime, the NUGs Ministry of Education has launched several online programs to support an interim education for CDM students who have boycotted their schools since the coup.

An official from the ministry told RFA that students who are unable to take advantage of the interim education programs due to security concerns will be given a chance to enroll in universities in the countrys post-revolution period.

[They] will be allowed to join their original university, while assistance will be provided for those who are unable to rejoin their original universities to attend public online universities and other classes, the official said.

Attempts by RFA to contact the juntas Department of Higher Education for comment on the state of the countrys university enrollment went unanswered.

Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
A rocket barrage on a strategic air base in northern Israel sent from Lebanon by Hizballah is the latest in a growing string of events in the Middle East that analysts say could boost China's standing in the region and create new opportunities for it to expand its influence.



That January 6 attack adds to other intensifying violence -- from attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Huthis on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, strikes by Tehran-linked groups on U.S. bases in Iraq, a deadly bombing in southern Iran claimed by the Islamic State group, and the ongoing war in Gaza -- that highlight rising instability that could undermine efforts by the United States and its allies to prevent a regional escalation in the Middle East.



In the face of this fluid environment, observers have pointed to the potential diplomatic and political opportunities for China -- from siphoning U.S. attention away from the Indo-Pacific to being able to showcase its diplomatic leadership -- whose influence in the Middle East has grown extensively in the last decade.



The large-scale humanitarian crisis and mounting civilian casualties in Gaza from Israeli strikes launched in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas -- designated a terrorist group by the EU and the United States -- that killed some 1,200 people, has been an opportunity for China to blame the hostilities on the United States' Middle East policies.



At international bodies like the United Nations, Beijing has taken aim at Washington and accused it of double standards as part of what experts believe is a campaign designed to not only boost its influence in the Middle East, but across the Global South as well.



But how much sway does Beijing actually have in the Middle East and how well positioned is China to use it to further its goals in the region and beyond?



How China Approaches The Middle East Crises



China has charted a cautious policy on the Israel-Hamas war in which it has sought to contrast itself with the United States as being against foreign interventions and neutral in the conflict. But Beijing has not explicitly condemned Hamas and has grown increasingly critical of Israel as it stepped up its campaign in Gaza.



Beijing has so far managed to transform this stance into some diplomatic gains.



On November 20, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed Arabic and other Muslim ministers to Beijing for a conference as part of a diplomatic push to end the war in Gaza in a move that experts say sought to take advantage of perceived gaps in Western policy.



"China is a good friend and brother of Arab and Islamic countries," Wang said. "We have always firmly safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of Arab [and] Islamic countries and have always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people."



In the other crises in the region, Beijing has similarly looked to paint itself on the side of peace while pursuing its own interests.



China's Foreign Ministry quickly condemned the January 3 twin bombing in Iran that killed dozens but has not commented on attacks in Iraq targeting U.S. bases carried out by Iranian-backed militia groups. Beijing has spoken in vague terms about Hizballah's missile barrages into northern Israel and an assassination in Beirut blamed on Israel, making vague calls for a calming of tensions while explicitly not mentioning any group by name.

In approaching the Huthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, China has charted a slightly different course.



A Hong Kong-flagged vessel was attacked by Huthis in December and Cosco, the Chinese state-owned shipping giant that holds almost an 11 percent share of the trade market, suspended shipping to Israel through the Red Sea on January 8.



Some Chinese analysts, such as Jiang Limeng of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, which is connected to the country's Ministry of State Security, have warned that the Red Sea problems could harm Chinese interests by raising energy prices, curbing global trade, and contributing to wider instability in the Middle East. But other Chinese experts view the attacks as an opportunity.



In a video posted in late December on Douyin, the domestic Chinese sister app of the social-media platform TikTok, Xiao Yunhua, a professor at the People Liberation Army's National Defense University, argued that the Huthis "inadvertently did China a big favor" because choking the shipping lanes will likely lead to the increased use of Chinese-built and -backed railways for overland trade between China and Europe.



"The Huthis have indirectly contributed to the shift in transportation from sea to land, undermining U.S. maritime supremacy and promoting [Beijing's] international strategy of global multipolarity," Xiao said.



Is Chinese Influence Growing?



China has cast itself as a neutral geopolitical player in the Middle East and in recent years has boosted its standing with regional players like Iran and Saudi Arabia.



Energy, particularly oil, has been behind much of Beijing's recent outreach.



China is the world's top buyer of oil from Saudi Arabia -- the world's second-largest producer behind the United States -- and half of China's oil imports and a little more than one-third of all the oil burned in China, comes from the Persian Gulf, according to Kpler, a global intelligence consultancy.

China has also more than tripled its imports of Iranian oil in the past two years, according to Kpler.



China also promised Iran in 2021 to invest a reported $400 billion in the country in exchange for oil and fuel supplies, though Western sanctions against Tehran have prevented Beijing from realizing the terms of that sprawling agreement.



Beijing has also been active diplomatically.



In June 2023, China elevated its relationship with the Palestinian Authority to a "strategic partnership" -- the second-highest rank in Beijing's diplomatic interactions and Chinese leader Xi Jinping offered a three-point proposal for a path toward a two-state solution meant to achieve "a just and lasting solution to the Palestine issue."



In March 2023, Beijing also brokered a deal to help Iran and Saudi Arabia restore relations, which helped boost China's standing as a peacemaker in the region.



Analysts say that raised expectations for China to play a larger diplomatic role following the outbreak of war in Gaza, but that Beijing has so far not lived up to those expectations.

Fan Hongda, a professor of Middle East studies at Shanghai International Studies University and well-known scholar on the region, wrote in November that Beijing could face numerous problems if the Israel-Hamas war continues and instability spreads to other countries.



"With Beijing already paying great attention to the Palestinian issue, other countries -- and especially the Middle East -- are scrutinizing China's ability to respond to the Gaza-Israel war," he wrote. "This is clearly a challenge for China as well."



That warning has since played out. China's mediation efforts have largely tapered off following its November conference and China's Middle East envoy, Zhai Jun, has kept a low profile since his sole visit to the region in October.



The war in Gaza has also greatly damaged Beijing's relationship with Israel, which had previously become an increasingly close partner in the Middle East and where Chinese companies invested heavily into cutting-edge technologies and strategic ports in the country.



Short-Term Opportunity Vs. Long-Term Risk



Fan also warned that the growing instability is against China's interest as it would push the region away from a focus on trade and economic investments and instead increasingly towards security. "[If] the situation in the Middle East continues to worsen, Middle Eastern leaders will inevitably focus more on national security, which is not a core area of China-Middle East cooperation," he wrote.



While China has shown that it can respond to opportunities, Fan warned that a drawn-out conflict could expose Beijing's limits in the long-run.



While Wang has spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss stabilizing the region, the United States has emerged as the only actor with enough diplomatic power to engage across the Middle East.



Blinken is currently on a regional tour that includes Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece. Meanwhile, questions remain over whether Beijing is willing or able to exercise pressure on Tehran or its partners to lower tensions.



"China can do little to convince Iran to rein in Lebanese Hizballah from attacking Israel in the north nor stop Iraqi [Shi'ite] militias from harassing American troops and diplomats," wrote Ahmed Aboudouh, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council.

"Even if it could, the Chinese would not go out of their way and endanger their relations with strategic partners to give Washington a free win," he added.



This situation could ultimately backfire on China should instability continue to spread, wrote Niu Xinchun, director of Middle East Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, which is run by China's Ministry of State Security and based in Beijing.



"If the Middle East really plunges into full-scale turmoil, China, as the region's largest trading partner and the largest buyer of Middle East oil, will turn out to be the biggest victim," he wrote.



Niu added that China remains the only permanent member of the UN Security Council that does not have a military base or troops stationed in the Middle East and will have less influence to use as the conversation shifts to national security issues.



"[China's] influence on the emergence and scale of crises in the region is limited," he wrote.
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Before the interview, there was the head massage.



Arstan Abdyldaev, aka Arstan Alai, then a candidate in the 2017 presidential election, insisted on it.



Already famous for predicting the disappearance of winter and for hailing Russian President Vladimir Putin's abilities as a "complex biorobot," the businessman-turned-clairvoyant wanted to know if I could feel the energy of the universe flowing through him.



I couldn't, but he wasn't offended.



Some people could feel the connection immediately, he explained to me, smiling sympathetically. For others, it might take "years."



After the massage, he sat down with me and a colleague to discuss his and Kyrgyzstan's respective roles in saving humanity as he rolled out a second presidential bid.



The election would end with him receiving just over 0.1 percent of the vote, less than the 0.5 percent that he scooped in 2011. It was in that year that he went viral with the phrase "zima ne budet" (there will be no winter) during a press conference in which he claimed to be in possession of "the code to the future."

There was a third unsuccessful presidential bid, in the 2021 election won by current President Sadyr Japarov. But there won't be a fourth.



On December 15, after relatives raised the alarm when he failed to come home, Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security (UKMK) confirmed that Abdyldaev had been arrested on charges of inciting religious enmity.



Then, on January 5, according to the state prison service, he was found hanged in the canteen of a special medical and correctional institution outside Bishkek that he had been transferred to without consultation with his lawyer after experiencing what the prison service called "an unspecified personality disorder and hallucinations."



Abdyldaev is one of several public figures who have died under investigation during Japarov's three years in power -- a period that has seen the country join its authoritarian regional neighbors in the "unfree" category of international democracy indexes.



But his tragic end has a symbolic feel.



Once the only country in Central Asia where an independent candidate as mercurial and quirky as Abdyldaev could throw his or her hat into the presidential ring, Kyrgyzstan is now a country where the people who go to prison cannot be sure if they will leave it alive.



'Who Strung You Up?'



Officially, the circumstances of Abdyldaev's death are being raked over by the prosecutor-general and a commission set up by the Justice Ministry.



In comments that might foreshadow the outcome of those probes, Justice Minister Ayaz Baetov wrote in a January 5 Facebook post that surveillance footage given to the ministry by the state prison service showed "clear signs of suicidal behavior" on the prisoner's part. He did not provide any details.



Neither of Abdyldaev's children believe it was possible that he could have taken his life, however.



At his 55-year-old father's funeral on January 7, Toro Abdyldaev spoke through tears as he listed his father's long history of supporting charitable causes and offering interest-free loans to young entrepreneurs.



"If I could have one wish, I would ask [him]: 'Father, how are you? Who strung you up?'" he said during the ceremony in the village of Orok, near Bishkek, where Islamic rites were observed.



His sister, Aksana Arstanbekova, said Abdyldaev had been in "good spirits" when they last spoke and confident that he would not be spending too much more time in jail.



Both have alleged that his corpse showed bruising not concurrent with a hanging.



Another lingering question is why the authorities felt the need to arrest him in the first place.



Abdyldaev had faced prosecution before the Japarov era, in 2019, when he referred to himself as a god, having previously only portrayed himself as a prophet-type figure with visions of the world's Kyrgyz-led future.

Then, as now, the authorities opened a case into incitement of religious enmity.



Abdyldaev's supporters sprang to his defense, holding a press conference at which they called for the charges to be dropped.



"All Kyrgyz are gods," one was quoted by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service as saying at the time. "Our ancestors were gods. And we are also gods. So let them bring a criminal case against all of us, too!"



The charges were subsequently dropped.



But this time around, they stuck.



"He considers himself a 'new god,' a 'savior,' and considers other religions, beliefs, and views to be inferior, weak, and invalid delusions, and assesses them negatively," the UKMK said in a December 15 statement justifying the detention as well as raids on his property.



Speaking anonymously to RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service later that week, a supporter of Abdyldaev denied these claims, as well as the UKMK's suggestions that Abdyldaev may have been intimate with some of his female adherents.



"We meet three times a week, older and younger people, both women and men. Some come specially from remote regions to listen to Arstan Alai. During his lectures he talks about a new era, a new scientific civilization. There were no conversations [against] religion. On the contrary, he says that in the new century, all religions will unite."



Abdyldaev did occasionally allow himself to venture into more political matters, however. In at least two interviews last year he called Japarov's arrival to power a "tragedy for the Kyrgyz people," foreseeing the president's eventual downfall in what would be the country's fourth revolution.



No Country For Watchdogs



Abdyldaev was one of the last people that I interviewed while living in Kyrgyzstan.



One of the first people that I interviewed there was Marat Kazakpaev, then a lecturer at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University.



His phone number had been given to me by a civil society leader. "You can phone him any time of day. He loves to talk," she promised.

Sure enough, Kazakpaev was generous with his time, and a dead certain for a fast quote on election nights. So, there was naturally a lot of shock when the analyst was suddenly jailed on high-treason charges in April 2021.



UKMK chief and Japarov friend and political ally Kamchybek Tashiev told local media that the investigation into Kazakpaev's alleged espionage had predated the duo's arrival to power, which may well have been the case.



But it was under the Japarov/Tashiev watch that Kazakpaev died on June 10, 2022, in a hospital, after first falling into a coma while in jail.



The year before, Kazakpaev had complained of being intimidated by UKMK operatives -- claims Tashiev personally refuted. By April 2022, Kazakpaev's wife, Anar Kazakpaeva, told the National Center for the Prevention of Torture that her husband's health was at grave risk.



After a medical examination that confirmed a severe case of hypertension, the center recommended Kazakpaev's release from jail for planned treatment in line with Kyrgyz law -- but the UKMK ignored the advice.



Just over a week after Kazakpaev's death, the UKMK was in the spotlight again after a noted banker accused of corruption died in his jail cell. The UKMK said that Bakyt Asanbaev had committed suicide.



But Kyrgyzstan's then-ombudswoman, Atyr Abdrakhmatova, still had plenty of questions, noting that Asanbaev had been interrogated by an investigator without his lawyer present on the eve of his death. "Then there is the question of why he was moved to a different cellwhy were there extension cords and other things that would allow for something like this to happen to a person?" Abdrakhmatova told journalists.



Subsequent government investigations into the deaths failed to find any fault with the authorities.



But pro-government lawmakers were soon finding plenty of faults with Abdrakhmatova's rigorous approach to her job. In May 2023, she was handed her marching orders by parliament, which endorsed a career prosecutor as her replacement.

January 10 will mark the anniversary of the election victory that confirmed Japarov's remarkable rise to power -- from a prison cell, no less -- following postelection unrest in 2020.



Since then, the former opposition politician has overseen constitutional changes that have greatly strengthened his office and weakened parliament. He has also cracked down on online critics and trained his sights on reshaping the country in his own image -- even changing the national flag.



Of his 16 opponents in the 2021 presidential contest, at least nine have spent time in jail during his presidency, while one has now died there.
Vladimir Putin has claimed a fifth presidential term with a landslide victory in a tightly controlled election that has been condemned by the West as neither free nor fair as the Russian leader seeks to prove overwhelming popular support for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and increasingly repressive policies.

With 99.75 percent of ballots counted, Putin won another six-year term with a post-Soviet record of 87.29 percent of the vote, the Central Elections Committee (TsIK) said on March 18, adding that turnout was also at a "record" level, with 77.44 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.

The 71-year old Putin -- who has ruled as either president or prime minister since 2000 -- is now set to surpass Soviet dictator Josef Stalins nearly 30-year reign to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than two centuries.

"This election has been based on repression and intimidation," the European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told journalists in Brussels on March 18 as the bloc's foreign ministers gathered to discuss the election, among other issues.

The March 15-17 vote is the first for Putin since he launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that has killed tens of thousands of Russians and led to a clear break in relations with the West. In holding what has widely been viewed as faux elections, Putin wants to show that he has the nations full support, experts said.

The vote was also held in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are located. Moscow illegally annexed the regions since launching the invasion, though it remains unclear how much of the territory it controls.

The Kremlin's goal "is to get as many people as possible to sign off on Russia's war against Ukraine. The idea is to get millions of Russian citizens to retroactively approve the decision Putin single-handedly made two years ago," Maksim Trudolyubov, a senior fellow at the Kennan Institute, wrote in a note ahead of the vote.

In remarks shortly after he was declared the winner, Putin said the election showed that the nation was "one team."

But Western leaders condemned the vote, with a White House spokesman saying they "are obviously not free nor fair," and EU foreign ministers roundly dismissing them as a sham ahead of agreeing to impose sanctions on individuals linked to the mistreatment and death of Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told RFE/RL in an interview in Tbilisi on the second day of a visit to the Caucasus that the Russian election was "not free nor fair." He said those who have had the courage to oppose Putin "are either force to flee, to live abroad, they are jailed, or some of them are killed as we saw with Aleksei Navalny."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, speaking at the start of the EU foreign ministers' meeting, said Russia's election was "an election without choice."

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said the conditions for a "free, pluralistic, and democratic election were not met," and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the election outcome highlighted the "depth of repression" in Russia.

"Putin removes his political opponents, controls the media, and then crowns himself the winner. This is not democracy," Cameron said.

France, Britain, and other countries condemned the fact that Russia had also held its election in occupied regions of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Putin has become "sick with power" and he is just "simulating" elections.

"This imitation of 'elections' has no legitimacy and cannot have any. This person must end up in the dock in The Hague [at the International UN Tribunal for War Crimes]," Zelenskiy said on X.

Putin's allies were quick to heap praise on the Russian leader for his election success.

China, one of Russia's most important allies, congratulated Putin, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian saying President Xi Jinping and the Russian leader "will continue to maintain close exchanges, lead the two countries to continue to uphold long-standing good-neighborly friendship, deepen comprehensive strategic coordination."

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called Putin's victory "decisive," the state news agency IRNA reported, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a congratulatory message to Putin quoted by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that Russian voters had shown "unshakeable support and trust in" their president, state media reported.

In the tightly controlled race, Putin was opposed by three relatively unknown, Kremlin-friendly politicians whose campaigns were barely noticeable.

Prior to the election the Kremlin banned anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin from the ballot after tens of thousands of voters lined up in the cold to support his candidacy. Nadezhdin threatened to undermine the narrative of a united nation behind Putin and his war, experts said.



Russias opposition movement suffered a serious blow last month when Navalny, who was Putins fiercest and most popular critic, died in unclear circumstances in a maximum-security prison in the Arctic where he was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism widely seen as politically motivated.

Russian political analyst Ivan Preobrazhensky said in an interview with Current Time that Putin was also frightened by the rebellion staged by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in June when Prigozhin's forces briefly took control of Rostov-on-Don and were greeted by many citizens as heroes.

Prigozhin ended his rebellion before reaching Moscow and was later killed in a plane crash that many believe was retaliation by the Kremlin.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa
Welcome to Wider Europe, RFE/RL's newsletter focusing on the key issues concerning the European Union, NATO, and other institutions and their relationships with the Western Balkans and Europe's Eastern neighborhoods.

I'm RFE/RL Europe Editor Rikard Jozwiak, and this week I'm drilling down on two issues: the latest -- and weakest -- sanctions on Russia; and Schengen entry (of sorts) for Bulgaria and Romania.

Brief #1: The EU's New Sanctions Package On Russia: Weak And Watered Down

What You Need To Know: Just before the winter holidays and only a few days after a historic but turbulent European Union summit in Brussels, the bloc finally managed to agree on its 12th round of sanctions against Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

From EU officials speaking on background, I understand that the aim is to have yet another sanctions package ready for the second anniversary of the invasion on February 24 and that the Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian cities over the holidays convinced more officials in Brussels that further restrictive measures are needed.

That said, it still takes a while for all 27 member states to agree on new sanctions, with the latest round taking over a month to green-light. And with no consensus on how to tackle the Russian energy sector, dramatic measures are in short supply.

The biggest takeaway is that the EU, from the start of the new year, has banned imports of both natural and synthetic Russian diamonds, a business that generated over $4 billion for Moscow last year. Starting from March 1, imports of Russian diamonds processed in third countries will also be banned.

The rest of the sanctions package was much weaker tea. A few more Russian exports face EU import bans in the future -- liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), processed aluminum, pig iron, and copper wires -- which should deprive the Kremlin of an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion in revenue. The bloc will also cease the export to Russia of thermostats, static converters, resistors, propellants, and lithium batteries -- components also used in drones and other military equipment. And it will be prohibited for EU companies to provide services such as software for industrial design and for Russian nationals to hold high positions in EU companies providing crypto-asset services.

Deep Background: Senior European Commission officials briefed journalists that the 12th package would reduce Russia's war chest and close previous sanction loopholes. But looking at the final text, it seems that the EU has created new loopholes and exceptions as well. The diamond ban, for example, doesn't cover industrial diamonds. The LPG ban doesn't come into effect for another year. And some of the other import bans mentioned above also have phase-in periods ranging from between six to 18 months.

Croatia got an extension till 2025 on its exemption on importing Russian vacuum gas oil, an oil product often upgraded to diesel or gasoline, and the same goes for crude oil imports to some landlocked Central European countries. Exemptions related to the imports of certain Russian steel products were also prolonged from 2026 to 2028.

While no measures so far target the Russian nuclear sector, Hungary received legal assurances that there will be sanctions exceptions -- so-called "derogations" -- for all services related to the extension of Hungary's Paks nuclear power plant, which the Russian energy giant Rosatom is working on.

Germany also pushed for the final sanctions text to include clarification regarding what Russians traveling into the European Union can bring with them. This was after widespread media reports in the fall that some EU border guards were seizing personal items such as toothpaste and clothes. The text now notes that the EU allows "the entry into the Union of personal effects, which do not pose significant circumvention concerns, such as personal hygiene items, or clothing worn by travelers or contained in their luggage, and which are clearly intended for their or their family members' strict personal use."

While cars with Russian license plates are forbidden from entering the bloc, there are now exemptions for diplomatic vehicles entering the EU and for cars belonging to EU citizens living in Russia.

Drilling Down

Along with the new exemptions, many of the new measures are, in fact, either lacking bite or have been completely watered down from the initial proposal, seen by RFE/RL, that was first presented to member states by the European Commission in November.

Take the oil cap that was set up late last year with the Group of Seven leading industrial nations at $60 per barrel. The cap will not be touched, but Brussels is pushing for more transparency as regulators fear that extra costs -- for example, related to insurance and freight -- are being inflated to create more revenue for Russia. The problem here is that the EU can ask for more information from shipping companies but can do little in the way of enforcement.

It's a similar issue with another novelty introduced in this latest package. The EU will introduce a notification register that will list all sales of EU tankers to all third countries in order to see how many of them are now part of Russia's "dark fleet" of vessels carrying oil around the world that is priced above the cap. The dark fleet is estimated at around 200 vessels, including those from EU countries. So, there isn't an actual ban on selling tankers to Russia. This is just a transparency measure for Brussels to "understand how the chain works," according to an EU official with knowledge of the issue who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Other proposed sanctions have also been watered down. Take the list of mainly Russian companies that EU firms aren't allowed to trade with anymore because Brussels suspects them of contributing to Russia's war machine. In the original November 2023 proposal, there were 31 companies -- all Russian, apart from one from Singapore, one from Uzbekistan, and two from Kazakhstan. When the final list was published on December 18, the two Kazakh companies had been removed. When I asked a European Commission official on background why this was, I was told that it was connected to the EU's engagement with third countries.

-- all Russian, apart from one from Singapore, one from Uzbekistan, and two from Kazakhstan. When the final list was published on December 18, the two Kazakh companies had been removed. When I asked a European Commission official on background why this was, I was told that it was connected to the EU's engagement with third countries. In perhaps the starkest example of watering down, the original European Commission proposal stated that EU subsidiaries of Russian companies must get an authorization permit from Brussels to transfer funds above 100,000 euros ($109,000) either to Russia or to a third country -- a move that would potentially make it harder for Russia's EU subsidiaries to survive. What remains now -- again -- is just a notification system, meaning that the companies don't need a green light to send money out of the EU. While it may increase transparency, it certainly won't squeeze the Kremlin much economically. A European Commission official, speaking on the condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak on the matter, said that certain member states were concerned that the original measure could be a heavy administrative burden for countries every time they needed to grant a potential authorization.

Brief #2: Bulgaria And Romania Partially Join Schengen

What You Need To Know: The European Union on December 30 agreed on the removal of internal border controls with Bulgaria and Romania for air and maritime traffic, with the new measures expected to come into force by March 31. For Sofia and Bucharest, this is a historic step, as the two countries have been waiting to join the bloc's visa-free Schengen Area ever since they became EU members in 2007. (Schengen now includes all of the EU member states, apart from the island nations of Cyprus and Ireland, as well as the non-EU countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.)

This is also an unprecedented step as the two countries are only being granted partial Schengen entry, as for now land border controls between the two countries and the rest of the EU will remain. This means that motorists will continue to queue at borders, such as between Bulgaria and Greece and between Romania and Hungary, to enter the de facto Schengen zone, which won't help Romanian and Bulgarian hauling companies. The decision to have, for the first time, a staged Schengen entry -- air and maritime first, followed by the opening of land borders -- could potentially be a formula used for Moldova and Ukraine and countries in the Western Balkans when they eventually join the EU.

Deep Background: The decision comes after a crushing disappointment for Bulgaria and Romania at the end of 2022 when they were blocked, but Croatia secured full entry into the Schengen Area, applicable as of January 1, 2023. That time -- as has been the case for many years -- the Netherlands wasn't satisfied that Sofia and Bucharest had fulfilled all the criteria for joining Schengen, especially when it came to the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). The CVM was set up by the European Commission when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU to ensure progress on judicial reform and the fight against corruption in both nations and to combat organized crime in Bulgaria.

In the fall of 2023, the CVM process was formally closed for both Bulgaria and Romania. With a European Commission fact-finding mission to Bulgaria near the end of last year giving a positive assessment about Sofia's readiness to join Schengen, the Netherlands finally relented. This was confirmed at a Dutch parliamentary debate on December 20. It's possible that the Dutch change of heart was due to a desire to sign off on the Schengen issue before the likely formation of a more EU-skeptical government, led or heavily influenced by the populist Geert Wilders, who finished first in parliamentary elections in November 2023.

Drilling Down

Instead, the biggest obstacle to the pair's Schengen entry proved to be Austria. For some time, Vienna has expressed concern about including Bulgaria and Romania in the visa-free zone, citing fears of increased illegal immigration into the EU, with migrants using the two countries as transit points. The conservative-led Austrian government has taken much harder lines on many issues, notably on everything pertaining to migration, but also by delaying its approval of the EU's Russia sanctions and by watering down positive EU language on Ukraine. For context, Austria will hold parliamentary elections in the fall, in which polls indicate that the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria will comfortably finish first. In the end, Austria, Bulgaria, and Romania worked out a deal at the end of 2023, helped along by other EU member states and the United States.

Apart from the partial accession to Schengen in three months' time, there was also a commitment from Bucharest and Sofia to make several key changes in the near future. This includes a tripling of personnel from the EU's external border agency Frontex on Bulgaria's border with Turkey and beefing up security on its border with Serbia.

The Austrians are also asking the European Commission to increase financing to strengthen Bulgaria's and Romania's external borders with more fences, drones, and electronic surveillance systems. Vienna has also asked to deploy EU officials who can advise about documents for some flights at airports in Bulgaria and Romania and to conduct random spot checks upon arrival in Austria. Unsurprisingly, the Austrians are also asking both countries to take back all third-country asylum seekers, notably from Afghanistan and Syria, who have come to Austria via Bulgaria or Romania.

Perhaps the most interesting commitment from the European Union is boosting controls on the land border between Bulgaria and Romania -- a border that is already under a good deal of surveillance. Some diplomats I spoke to suggested that this might be being done to prepare for a future decision to "decouple" Romania from Bulgaria, meaning that the former will be a fully fledged Schengen member before the latter.

The reason for this suggestion is that Bulgaria is considered by Brussels to be the more problematic of the two -- mainly due to its border with Turkey, which is one of the main migration routes into the EU. While the 500-kilometer Bulgarian-Turkish border is partially fenced and guarded, there are still places, especially in the mountains, that can be used for illegal crossings, and EU officials have sometimes voiced concerns about the poor cooperation of Turkish border guards.

So, when can Bulgaria and/or Romania become full Schengen members? Few believe there will be any movement before the elections for the European Parliament in June. A joint Austrian-Bulgarian-Romanian statement issued when the deal was announced just mentioned "a commitment to discuss in 2024 a date for a possible lifting of the checks at land borders."

The statement from the Council of the EU, where ministers from each member state meet to amend and adopt laws and coordinate policies, noted that it "shall endeavor to take a decision lifting checks on persons at internal land borders," whereas the European Commission said that discussions will continue in 2024 and "a decision by the Council on this matter is expected to be taken within a reasonable time frame."

Looking Ahead

Brussels is still slowly waking up after the Christmas and New Year's holidays, but on January 10 a NATO-Ukraine Council on the ambassadorial level will be convened in Brussels in which Kyiv will brief the military alliance members about the latest barrage of Russian missiles targeting Ukrainian cities and key infrastructure. It's likely that NATO will reiterate its call on members to provide the war-torn country with more air-defense systems.

That's all for this week. Feel free to reach out to me on any of these issues on Twitter @RikardJozwiak, or on e-mail at jozwiakr@rferl.org.

Until next time,

Rikard Jozwiak

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A new statue has been put in place to commemorate the people of the so called forgotten cemetery, which was rediscovered during an archaeological dig.

The N61 Coolteige Road Project was initiated to straighten, and make safer, a stretch of road just north of Roscommon Town.

An archaeological assessment before the road works began uncovered a previously unknown archaeological site consisting of an enclosed settlement and burial ground near the summit of a low hill in Ranelagh Townland, just north of Roscommon town. Full excavation of the Ranelagh site. commenced on October 15th, 2015, and was completed on October 28th, 2016.

The cemetery contained 557 intact burials and another potential 108. Extensive radiocarbon dating was carried out of the burials and found that the majority of the burials extended from the 4th century to the 13th century. The earliest in situ burial discovered at the site was that of an older adult female who dated to AD 428 to 601. The latest burial comprised of a baby dating to 1463 to 1641 AD. The majority of the remains date to the early medieval period  AD 640  1020.

On Thursday, December 21st The Souls Of Ranelagh by renowned Roscommon sculptor Mark Feeley was erected on a mound on the new roundabout on the N61 just outside Roscommon Town. The monument commemorates, depicts, and represents the forgotten people of the Ranelagh graveyard, which was excavated during the archaeological dig in 2015/2016, and their long-forgotten story.

The Roscommon Town Team explained that the stone used in the monument was taken from a significant depth from Lecarrow Quarries, to signify the monument's connection with the county and its people. The back of the sculpture is also covered with amazing fossils, millions of years old.

It features a Celtic cross, representing the transition from Paganism to Christianity during the lifetime of the site at Ranelagh.

The Souls Of Ranelagh being lifted into place.

It is also a religious memorial to the people who were buried there, affording them dignity in their death and acknowledging their existence, said Marie Gillooly on behalf of Roscommon Town Team sub-committee.

A local historian and tour guide, Marie has been a passionate advocate for commemorating the site and its people.

The sculpture also features the Warrior Woman, symbolic of all the invading races that attacked, and often settled in Ireland in the past.

She represents the Anglo- Saxons, the Normans, the Vikings and any other invading force that has settled here in years gone by, she said.

It also highlighted a specific person within the archaeological find. The analysis of an older female's remains found on the site shows that she, or her immediate ancestors, were migrants to Ireland. She had no other relatives in the Ranelagh area, and she exhibited links with the Anglo-Saxon population in Britain. Some of her ancestry profile has been previously observed in Viking period burials in Yorkshire, and analysis of her remains indicated that she grew up in an industrialised, urban environment.

Research also indicated that she had red hair, pale to intermediate skin tone and brown or hazel eye colour.

This description of this female fits perfectly with what Mark has created. One wonders how she ended up buried in Ranelagh, and how did she settle here, obviously living into old age, said the Town Team.

If you continue our migrant settling history and narrative into this century, she can also represent our immigrants in todays Ireland, integrating into our society as previous immigrants did. Obviously, they have not invaded our country  they have adopted it as their home  she represents them settling here and making it their home as she obviously did. The Warrior Womans sword is pointed into the earth. The blade has a 'bloodline' at its centre, which was designed to allow blood to flow off during battle.

However, in this sculpture the blood line represents her bloodline and ancestry flowing back into the earth of Ranelagh where her descendants are still probably in residence to this day.

This female figure also represents the longevity of this forgotten cemetery here in Ranelagh  in that the burial of men ceased in the 9th century, while the burial of women continued into the 14th century, some 500 years later. Furthermore, approximately 2/3 of the remains found on site are females, so women are very highly represented on the site. As well as the Warrior Woman, the sculpture also features a life-sized farmer, who represents the farming community that lived in the ring forts surrounding this site and who used it as a regional administrative centre.

He also represents the males that were buried in this forgotten cemetery, Ms Gillooly said.

He is holding a spear, which represents one of the artefacts found on the site  the only single weapon found - a socketed iron spearhead. He is depicted as a strong man, indicating the strength needed to farm completely manually during this time. Most males would have been involved in heavy physical labour from adolescence. The third figure in the sculpture is poignantly a childs face, representing the children found at the forgotten cemetery.

Like the farmer, the child is coming out of the rock, representing the fact that the children buried in this cemetery were of the land of the area.

The tear drops on the childs face reflect the hardship of the times. Life for men, women and children was an arduous physical existence, with a high risk of dying in infancy and younger childhood. Mr Feeley, who was commissioned to carry out the work, said it was only fitting that there is a proper memorial to the people who had been forgotten for centuries.

All I want to do is to spark an interest in people to learn about the fascinating story of the people of Ranelagh, our ancestors here in Roscommon, to research it properly and learn about our rich history and culture here in this amazing county of ours, he said.

In 2021 at a meeting of Roscommon County Council a motion was passed by county councillors to erect a sculpture in recognition of the discovery of the archaeological site on the N61 in Ranelagh. Thereafter, the proposal was forwarded to the Roscommon Town Team to proceed with the project.

A subcommittee of the Town Team was set up and a project plan established and implemented.

In 2023, Transport Infrastructure Ireland published the 'The Forgotten Cemetery' by Shane Delaney and Eileen Murphy, which describes the excavation and post-excavation work carried out at the site.
9 Reasons to book Lakshadweep holidays instead of Maldives

Lakshadweep vs Maldives has been trending on social media and people are searching for which is a better option among these.

Lakshadweep vs Maldives, Which is cheaper and better for beaches, travel, and tourism? Ever since the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Lakshadweep island and posted pictures and videos on social media, a major row erupted as Indians suggested Lakshadweep as an alternative to Maldives. After this, three ministers of Maldives made a derogatory comment on PM Modi that escalated the issue. Later, the Maldives Government suspended those three ministers.

In the meanwhile, Lakshadweep vs Maldives has been trending on social media while people are also searching for which is a better option among these in terms of beaches, travel, and tourism.

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Here are 9 reasons to book Lakshadweep holidays instead of Maldives:

'Private' Island

Lakshadweep islands, especially Thinnakara and Bangaram are developed only for tourism. There are neither roads nor villagers on these islands, only a handful of tents or beach resorts, and the staff at your service. As per the report, there are hardly 10  15 tourists on the entire island and it virtually makes it a private island during holidays in Lakshadweep Islands.

Unexplored Islands

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While a tourist destination is usually exploited and commercialized, Lakshadweep Islands is one such place that has hardly been discovered and explored. Therefore, you get close to the nature. Lakshadweep Holidays is exotic and its tour package prices are also reasonable. You can travel to Lakshadweep via air or even cruise. So, why go to Maldives?

Best Choice Economically

Since there are no separate restaurants or shops, the price of the Lakshadweep tour package includes everything from boarding and lodging to transport to all the meals. You only need to pay for island hopping sightseeing and water sports, which may not exceed more than $100 (INR 7000) per head, in general. This is very different from the Maldives, and another such place where you pay money even for a bottle of water, leaving alone the meals, transport, and all such hidden expenses.

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Live Corals and Colourful Fishes

The Lakshadweep Islands are known for their rich flora and fauna marine life and stunning corals. Besides, it is a very delicate region and highly protected by environmentalists and naturalists. There are a plethora of live corals and colorful fishes across the islands.

No separate visa required

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Lakshadweep Islands is a part of India so you won't need any separate visa to go to Lakshadweep Island if you are a foreigner and coming to India. All you need is a visa to India and a special permit to visit the Lakshadweep Islands. However, if you are an Indian, then you don't need to go through the process of applying for any separate visa.

Easy Connectivity

It's very easy to reach Lakshadweep Islands, especially if you are planning a couple of months before your arrival date. Agatti Airport, the airport of the Lakshadweep Islands, is reached by a flight operated from Kochi and Bangalore and both the cities have international airports and process good connectivity across the globe.

Cruise to Lakshadweep

If you don't want airways, then go seaway by cruise. With this option, you also get the experience of a cruise that is uncommon in India.

Other Tourist Destinations

Whenever you visit the Lakshadweep Islands, you may visit either from Kochi or Bangalore. Kochi is in Kerala, a very popular tourist destination for foreigners and Indians. This gives you an option to visit Kerala before your trip to Lakshadweep Islands. If you are flying from Bangalore, then you may visit the nearby Mysore Palace or Hampi or the National Parks like Bandipur National Park.

Why go to the obvious?

Most of the islands in the Maldives are exploited beyond recovery with hardly any corner of Maldives not being photographed. Go on Instagram, you will find millions of photos of those places. However, there are only a few pictures of the Lakshadweep Islands. Only a handful of tourists visit the Lakshadweep every year and that's why it is a good option in comparison to Maldives.

(For more news apart from Lakshadweep vs Maldives Which is better and cheaper for beaches, travel, and tourism tour package price, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman)
Evotec SE (EVO) announced progress within the strategic partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb. Evotec received a $25 million payment to progress further research. A first programme, EVT8683, was in-licensed by Bristol Myers Squibb in September 2021 as BMS-986419. A Phase II study for BMS-986419 is scheduled to commence in 2024.

The companies entered their strategic neuroscience collaboration in December 2016. In March 2023, the companies extended and expanded the partnership for an additional 8 years.

Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, said: "As the first asset from our neuroscience partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb is moving towards a Phase II study, our partnership is still growing in the drug discovery phase as well."

For More Such Health News, visit rttnews.com.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Editors Pick

IAE International Aero Engines AG, a consortium comprised of RTX Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney and others, has successfully tested the V2500 engine with 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel or SAF. In a statement, RTX said the V2500 engine, which currently powers the A320ceo family aircraft and the Embraer C-390 Millenium, was tested at MTU Maintenance Hannover, Germany.

Apple, Inc. is reportedly in active talks with Alphabet's Google to use its Gemini Artificial Intelligence tools to power iPhones in a bid to out-shine its smartphone competitors, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday. It is competing with Google's own Pixel 8 Pro and Samsung's Galaxy S24 smartphones, which already use Gemini.

Pizza giant Domino's Pizza Inc. is offering customers 50 percent off on all menu-priced pizzas ordered online to celebrate the ongoing college basketball tournaments. From today through March 24, the 50 percent off deal is available on menu-priced pizzas ordered through Domino's online ordering channels, which include www.dominos.com and Domino's mobile app.
China has imposed sanctions on five US defense industry companies.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the retaliatory actions are in protest against the United States' latest round of arms sales to Taiwan, and U.S. sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals.

The sanctioned firms are BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operation, AeroVironment, ViaSat and Data Link Solutions.

The countermeasures, taken in accordance with China's Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, consist of freezing the properties of these companies in China, and prohibiting Chinese citizens and organizations from transactions and cooperation with them.

According to Beijing, the US arms sale to Taiwan is blatant violation of the one-China principle and the 1982 China-US joint communiques.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson urged the United States to stop arming Taiwan, and stop targeting China with illegal unilateral sanctions.

The Spokesperson warned of "strong and resolute response from China".

The Chinese action comes less than a week ahead of Taiwan's presidential and parliamentary elections.

The United States has no official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but through the Taiwan Relations Act, it has continued selling arms and providing military training to Taiwanese Armed Forces.

In December, the State Department approved a $300 million equipment package in support of Taiwan's tactical information systems.

Taiwan is a major producer and supplier of semi-conductor chips to U.S. tech firms.

Close relationship between these allied countries is a major irritant to Beijing. Under its One-China policy, the Chinese Government states that Taiwan is a breakaway province and part of it, but the government in the East Asian island nation rejects that claim.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Monday, as news of sharp price cuts by top exporter Saudi Arabia and output increases announced by OPEC offset concerns around the risk of escalation in the Middle East conflict.

Benchmark Brent crude futures fell 1.1 percent to $77.88 a barrel while WTI crude futures were down 1.2 percent at $72.97.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia on Sunday cut oil prices to Asian to their lowest level in 27 months amid competition from rival suppliers and concerns about supply overhang.

Saudi Aramco slashed the official selling price (OSP) for February-loading Arab Light to Asia by $2 a barrel from January to $1.50 a barrel over Oman/Dubai quotes.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, rose 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December to 27.88 million bpd.

Geopolitical tensions were also on the radar with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning that the conflict in Gaza could "easily" spill over into a full-blown regional conflict.

Israel struck Hamas and Hezbollah terror facilities in Khan Yunis and Lebanon in overnight strikes, the Israel Defense Forces said earlier today.

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Market Analysis
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG), an insurance brokerage firm, on Monday announced that it has acquired German insurance broker Koberich Financial Lines.

The financial details of the transaction are not yet known.

"Koberich complements Gallagher's existing financial lines expertise and is an excellent strategic fit as we continue to expand in Europe," said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., CEO of Arthur J. Gallagher.

On Friday, Arthur J. Gallagher shares closed at $225.28, down 0.27% on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Business News
Cancer immunotherapy company Compugen Ltd. (CGEN) announced Monday that Compugen is entitled to receive a $10 million milestone payment from British drug major AstraZeneca (AZN), after the first patient was dosed in AstraZeneca's ARTEMIDE-Bil01 trial with rilvegostomig.

Rilvegostomig is a PD-1/TIGIT bispecific antibody where the TIGIT component is derived from Compugen's clinical-stage anti-TIGIT antibody, COM902.

The ARTEMIDE-Bil01 trial is expected to recruit about 750 subjects in more than 20 countries with biliary tract cancer who will be randomized to receive rilvegostomig or placebo with investigator choice chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment after resection with curative intent.

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Business News
On Sunday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40. The launch was scheduled for 5:35 p.m. ET.

The Starlink 6-35 mission is expected to send 23 satellites to low-Earth orbit to provide internet services globally.

This marks the second launch from the Space Coast and the third for the year for SpaceX. Last year, the company launched 96 orbital missions, including Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. This year, it expects approximately 12 launches per month, totaling 144 for the entire year.

The first stage booster with tail number B1067 had flown its 16th flight with this launch and about eight and a half minutes after lift-off it landed on the droneship "A Shorfall Of Gravitas".

Just after an hour, SpaceX had confirmed the successful deployment of the Starlink 6-35 mission.

The upcoming SpaceX mission is Starlink 7-10 flight which is set to launch on January 9 from Space Launch Complex 4 of Vandenberg Space Force Base at 12 a.m. ET, followed by another Starlink mission from Cape Canveral on January 13.

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Business News
World's most indebted property developer, Evergrande informed to Hong Kong exchange in a filing that the executive director and vice-chairman Liu Yongzhuo of its EV subsidiary has been detained "on suspicion of illegal activities." The nature of the crimes has not been disclosed.

Liu had joined the company in 2003 and since then has served as vice president of the developer, and Chairman of Evergrande High-tech group.

Earlier, Evergrande group's founder and Chairman Hui Ka Yan, and General Manager of Evergrande's wealth management company, Du Liang were arrested for the same reason.

Evergrande has more than $300 billion in liabilities and around $23 billion in offshore debt and has been struggling to renegotiate its debt obligations. Recently, the creditors have started considering its petition for liquidation, regarding which final decision will be taken on January 29.

For the first half of 2023, the company had reported a loss of 6.9 billion yuan which is equivalent to $964 million. The company suffered a loss of approximately $10 billion for the year 2021 and 2022.

Production has been halted at the company for several months due to lack of funds and its attempts to find new investors have not been fruitful.

Last year, the Chinese company announced its plan to sell a 27.5 percent stake in its electric vehicle arm to UAE-based carmaker NWTN for $500 million. But the agreement was later abandoned.

According to a Reuters report, during last November the company offered offshore bondholders an opportunity to swap their debts into a 30 percent stake in each of Evergrande NEV and Evergrande Property Services.

Earlier, Evergrande had announced its goal of making one million vehicles per year by 2025. However, it sold only 760 units of its EV model Hengchi 5 in the first half of last year.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
By Su Xincheng, KYODO NEWS - Jan 8, 2024 - 09:35 | Feature, All, Japan, Travel/Tourism

Six times each year, a 36-year-old Chinese actress makes her way to Japan, not for the glitz of film industry events, but with a different purpose in mind: to take advantage of Japan's renowned advanced medical beauty treatments.

The Beijing-based actress has long been an admirer of Japan's aesthetic medical techniques, including treatments like Botox to smooth wrinkles and innovative procedures using stem cell injections to achieve a youthful appearance.

"The technology and service quality at Japanese clinics are exceptional," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Their focus on specialized research and the doctors' commitment to their skills deeply impress me."

She spends about 2 million yen ($13,800) on beauty treatments on each visit, during which she also travels to scenic spots and enjoys Japanese cuisine.

The actress is among a rising number of wealthy Chinese tourists who visit Japan primarily for medical services rather than the shopping-focused trips that brought many Chinese visitors in the past.

The current trend reflects a growing health consciousness in China after the coronavirus pandemic, travel industry experts said.

Clinics and other companies in Japan are trying to seize the expanding demand. Kenkoin Clinic, located in Tokyo's upscale Ginza shopping district, offers personalized preventive healthcare services, featuring some of the best imaging systems in Japan, including CT scans and MRI exams.

Prior to the pandemic, the clinic saw many Chinese patients monthly, including those seeking health checkups, intravenous infusions and supplements. The number dropped during the pandemic but is now steadily climbing back, with about 50 to 60 percent of the pre-pandemic patient volume returning.

"The majority of our foreign patients are Chinese," said Hidetaka Mori, managing director of Kenkoin Clinic, adding that more than half of its sales come from Chinese customers.

Mori said that while doctors in China are usually too busy to talk with patients at crowded hospitals, the clinic makes sure to allow plenty of time for its doctors to interview each patient.

"With personal concierges assigned to each, we ensure swift service and utmost privacy from check-in to departure, as patients want to avoid encountering others," Mori added.

The move is backed by the Japanese government, which is seeking to revitalize local economies with an expansion of inbound travel as the country's population ages.

In an attempt to boost medical tourism, the country introduced a medical visa in 2011, now permitting foreign visitors to stay for healthcare for up to one year.

The number of such visas issued jumped from 70 to 1,804 annually in the 11 years through 2022, but the actual figure for people visiting the country for medical care is likely to be much higher as many also arrive on tourist or business visas, industry experts said.

The Japanese government estimates that in 2020, more than 10,000 visitors from China came for comprehensive medical examinations, spending around 1.5 million yen on average. A smaller group of some 1,000 paid around 4 to 5 million yen to receive advanced cancer treatments. Both spending figures include travel costs.

"Japan has a high reputation for cancer screening, while its proximity, cleanliness, safety as well as the belief that there are many skilled doctors are appealing to Chinese people," said Tsuyoshi Kondo, president of Friendly Japan, a Tokyo-based consulting company specializing in the promotion of Chinese tourism to Japan.

Beyond traditional hospitals and clinics, a diverse range of companies outside the healthcare sector have made inroads into the market in an attempt to attract more Chinese tourists.

The Japanese unit of Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group launched a new service on its Tmall Global platform, a cross-border e-commerce site, in September 2023.

The service enables Japanese medical firms and clinics offering medical checkups to set up virtual outlets so that Chinese tourists can conveniently book medical services online before their arrival in Japan.

Tao Chengbin, operating officer and the head of the EC Marketing Department at Alibaba.com Japan Co. said that Japan was the first overseas market for the company to introduce such a service, noting the popularity of the country's healthcare products among Chinese people.

"In recent years, the consumption style of Chinese visitors to Japan has been changing considerably, as they have started placing more emphasis on experiences rather than shopping," he said.

Tokyo-based Hirotsu Bio Science Inc. is one of the companies seeing business opportunities in utilizing the platform, offering more affordable medical services to Chinese visitors.

The startup opened a store on the e-commerce website featuring its N-Nose tumor check system, a new testing technology that uses eelworms to detect signs of a variety of cancers from urine samples.

In the service, priced at 1,095 yuan ($153), consumers can buy a test kit via Tmall Global and receive it before coming to Japan. After taking a urine sample on arrival in the country and submitting it to one of around a dozen designated pharmacies in Tokyo, they can then receive the results after returning home.

Toshiki Mano, a professor at Tama University Institute for Healthcare and Long-Term Care Solution, said that in addition to China, there are many potential patients in Asian emerging countries such as Vietnam who are likely to become interested in medical services in Japan.

"The market for medical tourism is likely to expand considerably, as the scope of services has widened from treatments to cosmetic surgery, health examinations and regenerative medicine," Mano said.

Nevertheless, Japan faces challenges in further expanding the sector, including weak recognition of its medical services abroad and hospitals' limited capacity to accept foreign visitors while offering the same level of care as local patients. Developing translation services at regional institutions will be another hurdle.

The payment structure also needs to be reviewed, as foreign visitors, who are not included in Japan's public health insurance system, face much higher charges than local residents not only for medical fees but also for medicines, Mano said.

"While it is understandable that medical fees for foreign visitors are double compared to Japanese because of additional services such as translation, it is a problem that prices of medicines are two to threefold higher," he said.

Still, Mano sees room for further growth. "It's evident that the industry's growth is robust and multifaceted, as its coverage area may expand to such new sectors as wellness," he said.

Related coverage:

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FEATURE: China's Ultraman obsession growing as superhero franchise makes mark

FEATURE: Couple provides homemade meals to support families of sick children
New 4th Gen Kia Carnival has SUV styling and could give current VIP-mobile, Toyota Fortuner, a run for the money

Indias most affordable premium minivan will hit the market by the end of 2024. Were talking about Kia Carnival which is over 5.1m long and masks its minivan proportions with SUV-inspired design attributes. 4th gen Carnival is spotted testing in India too and is likely to launch by 2024 end.

4th Gen Kia Carnival Testing Continues In India

In India, Kia is gearing up for Sonet facelift launch to happen by the end of this month. Seltos facelift was launched a couple of months back. Carens seems to be too new for a mid-life facelift. So, Carnival is the obvious choice for Kias next launch after Sonet. This is a long-awaited launch too.

If we take a look at Kias website, Carnival has been removed. Kia has been selling 3rd generation Carnival in India since 2020. When 4th generation Carnival went on sale the same year in multiple markets. 4th generation Carnivals facelift has debuted globally with EV9-inspired design language.

A pre-facelifted 4th gen model was showcased at 2023 Auto Expo. The company intends to launch it in India by the end of 2024. 4th generation Carnival has shed its minivan design language and embraced an SUV-inspired design. In fact, Kia advertises Carnival in USA (previously Sedona) as an MPV and not a minivan.

For India, Kia is launching 4th Carnival facelift as the test mules indicate. This is a slight styling revision when compared to already well-implemented pre-facelift model. There is a new fascia and rear section drawing inspiration from Kias flagship EV9. Wider and more pronounced LED signatures front and rear along with new vertically arranged headlights are primary highlights.

Premium interiors

Carnival gets electric sliding doors, (relatively) luxurious interiors and a ton of gizmos and creature comforts. Highlight features are double-glazed windows, seamlessly connected twin horizontal 10.2-inch displays, layered dashboard, multi-zone climate control, digital IRVM, massaging seats and manually-adjustable 2nd row recliner seats.

When launched in India, it will get multiple seating layouts as well. Acres of space on the inside and a premium limousine-like experience are Carnivals forte (see what I did there?). In India, it enjoys quite a niche as it is the least expensive minivan/MPV with sliding doors. It blows punches towards much pricier Toyota Vellfire, Lexus LM and Mercedes-Benz V-Class.

Last year, there were rumours regarding Kia ditching the 2.2L diesel engine for not meeting stringent RDE norms and E20 compatibility. But this engine survived and continued to do duties until recently. We would wager that the same 2.2L diesel engine with 197 bhp and 440 Nm with 8-speed TC is likely to be 4th Gen Carnivals sole powertrain.

Kia could be targeting higher sales numbers this time around with Carnival. With SUV styling, acres of space, supreme comfort and immense presence, Carnival could be a significant threat to current VIP-mobile, which is Toyota Fortuner. A price point between Rs. 30 lakh and Rs. 35 lakh (ex-sh) is likely.

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Hyundai commitment towards a sustainability and a green future sees the company earmark an additional Rs 6,180 crores investment in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet 2024 held on January 7 and 8, at Chennai Trade Centre has wooed investors from various segments and from across the globe. It was at this meet that Hyundai Motors, a leading automaker in India, has announced investment to the tune of Rs 6,180 crores in Tamil Nadu and an MoU to this effect was also signed between Hyundai Motor India and Guidance Tamil Nadu.

Hyundai Signs MoU of Rs 6,180 Crore Investment in Tamil Nadu

The MoU was signed between Mr. Unsoo Kim, MD and CEO, Hyundai Motor India Limited and Mr. V Arun Roy, IAS., Secretary to Government, Industries Department, Government of Tamil Nadu. Thiru M K Stalin, Honble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Thiru Piyush Goyal, Honble Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Textiles, and Dr. T R B Rajaa, Honble Minister for Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce were present at the signing.

Along with this investment and signing of MoU, Hyundai also signed another MoU with IIT Madras to set up a dedicated Hydrogen Valley Innovation Hub. The auto maker also showcased its fuel cell electric vehicles at the NEXO and ADAS Experience Zone at the show.

Out of this investment of Rs 6,180 crores in Tamil Nadu, Hyundai Motors has set apart Rs 180 crores towards a Hydrogen Valley Innovation Hub along with IIT Madras. This is in addition to Rs 20,000 crore investment which will be spread over 10 years in the development of electric vehicles, setting up of charging infrastructure and generating employment and developing skill in the region.

Hyundai has been specially concentrating on investments in Tamil Nadu over the past 27 years. With this new investment, the company continues to show their support towards the state, both in terms of socio economic development and self-reliance. Hyundai continues to pay special attention to project the state of Tamil Nadu in terms of the hydrogen technology ecosystem in its aim towards achieving a milestone of becoming a $1 trillion economy.

Hyundai Showcase Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

Hyundai Motor and Kia are set to incorporate advanced PEM technology into next-generation fuel cell systems for passenger cars. Apart from passenger vehicles, the company is also actively expanding its fuel cell business to include commercial vehicles, marine vessels, aerospace applications, power generation, etc.

Hyundai recently showcased its Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) NEXO and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) Engagement Zone at Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet 2024. NEXO is the companys initiative towards a cleaner and greener environment with hydrogen fuel cell engine generating electricity. It combines oxygen with compressed hydrogen to emit only water. Visitors to the show were also shown Hyundai SmartSense (Level 2 ADAS) technology which has been integrated and demonstrated using an immersed experience with Gaming.
By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, KYODO NEWS - Jan 8, 2024 - 20:22 | All, Japan

Yoshitaka Ikeda became the first lawmaker arrested in the latest political fundraising scandal involving the Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction, further blurring Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's political fate.

Kishida, whose popularity has already reached its lowest level since taking office in October 2021, will try to restore the public's trust in politics by setting up a "political reform" panel, which he will lead, within the LDP in the not-so-distant future.

He has also expressed an eagerness to deepen discussions to revise the political funds control law, which has often been criticized for containing loopholes that enabled lawmakers to generate slush funds that might have been used for election campaign activities, including vote-buying.

But it remains uncertain whether Kishida can drive substantial reforms to improve the transparency of the LDP's factions and political fundraising. His leadership is increasingly seen as weakening, with speculation mounting that he might be forced to resign as early as the spring.

In addition, a scenario where more lawmakers are arrested in connection with the recent political fundraising scandal could lead to growing calls for Kishida to dissolve the House of Representatives, paving the way for a snap election and allowing voters to reject politicians perceived as tainted by receiving dubious funds.

If Kishida signals his intention to make such a decisive political move, many lawmakers might seek to oust him, believing it would be challenging for the LDP to win a potential lower house election under his leadership.

"No matter how the situation develops down the road, the prime minister cannot regain his support from the public and cannot reform political funds issues," one of the LDP lawmakers said.

"What he can do is to take full responsibility for the funds scandal, which is certain to be scrutinized" in the upcoming ordinary parliamentary session scheduled to be convened later this month and "make way for the next person," the lawmaker added.

On Sunday, Ikeda, a lower house lawmaker, was arrested on suspicion of having received a total of 48.26 million yen ($333,000) over five years through 2022 from slush funds created by the faction formerly led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The intraparty group, which Ikeda belonged to, allegedly failed to declare in political funding reports hundreds of millions of yen in fundraising party revenue transferred to its members, sources close to the matter said.

Other factions within the LDP, headed by Kishida, have also been suspected of having engaged in similar conduct, with prosecutors questioning former LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai, a party heavyweight, voluntarily.

As the funds scandal has increased political distrust among voters, Kishida pledged at a press conference on Thursday to establish the reform panel to decide rules to boost the LDP's factions' transparency and strengthen the ruling party's governance.

Later, however, Kishida was criticized by opposition parties for picking former Prime Minister Taro Aso, the LDP vice president who is the leader of another powerful faction, as an adviser to the panel.

Kenta Izumi, chief of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters, "People are wondering what kind of discussions and proposals will come out" of the panel, which will be operated by the "boss who has run an LDP faction."

"I don't think the public has any expectations for the panel," Izumi said, urging Kishida to prioritize punishing LDP lawmakers suspected of having amassed slush funds in violation of the political funds control law.

Takashi Mikuriya, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Tokyo, said the prime minister is in a "miserable plight" with his Cabinet's approval ratings continuing to plunge.

"Rather than being compelled to step down while being told that he will not be the face of the next election, why doesn't he take on the funds issues and show his willingness sacrifice himself?," Mikuriya said, calling on Kishida to specify how to tackle the scandal.

Yasunori Sone, a professor emeritus of political science at Keio University, said the scandal has "provided a window of opportunity not only for the LDP but also for the ruling and opposition parties to advance discussions on political reforms."

Nevertheless, some LDP lawmakers said Kishida may resign as prime minister shortly after an initial budget for the fiscal year from April 2024, which usually takes place annually in March, is passed in parliament.

If he really wants to proceed with political reforms under his leadership, he might dare to dissolve the lower house as a gamble to rebuild his government by asking voters to refresh lawmakers ahead of the LDP presidential race slated for around September.

Another LDP lawmaker has vehemently opposed the potential move, saying, "We do not think our party can win the general election under Kishida. We would like him to leave without taking any risks."

Related coverage:

Japan ruling party lawmaker Ikeda arrested over slush fund scandal

Japan PM forced to rely more on "kingmaker" Aso amid funds scandal

Japan PM vows to establish rules to boost transparency of LDP factions
Over the past 40 years, Ken Gammies students have marched in the Rose Parade, toured Europe and competed throughout California. But as the veteran Vista band director prepares to retire in June, its the magical moments in the band room that burn brightest in his memory.

There are things that happen in rehearsals, when the band plays a phrase and it just sparkles  and all I can do is enjoy it, he said last week during an interview at Roosevelt Middle School, where he has taught for 27 years.

Before that, Gammie, 64, spent a decade teaching at Vista High School, and four years at schools in Orange County.

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He built the Roosevelt band from its early days meeting in portable classrooms into a signature program at the campus, where half of all students participate in either band or chorus. Gammie also instilled a lifelong love of music in his students, some of whom went on to their own careers playing and teaching.

To students, parents and colleagues, he is a master at harnessing adolescent energy that can so often spin into chaos, and directing it instead toward creativity.

My reward is, I get to start everybody (in music,) and I get to see them go from zero to 100, said Gammie, whos been working in the Vista Unified School District for so long that hes now teaching the children of some of his original students.

During the past four decades, he also judged marching band tournaments and concert festivals, and worked with professional musicians as director of the pit orchestra for Moonlight Amphitheatre.

As a retirement tribute, some of his alumni have commissioned a musical score, aptly named Legacy, from Ted Ricketts, the music director at Walt Disney World. The Roosevelt band will perform the piece in a year-end concert at Moonlight Amphitheatre, along with an unknown number of alumni. Luckily, they say, the stage is a big one.

One of the alumni participating will be Jennifer (Haley) Myers, who was a student of Gammies in the Vista High School band. She later became a flute teacher, and is now the program administrator of Boise State Universitys Blue Thunder Marching Band.

Myers said Gammie combines his musical gift with a unique insight into the adolescent mind.

His musicianship is of a high quality, said Myers, 49. He understands what is necessary, and he understands kids. He understands how they think and how they work,and how to access the desire to make it better. At the same time hes able to outline what that higher level is, and makes it look fun and interesting and desirable.

Gammie grew up in Buena Park near Knotts Berry Farm when it was sill a berry patch with a roadside fruit stand. His dad was a trumpet player, and Gammie was raised on the strains of jazz greats.

I was chomping at the bit to play the trumpet, Gammie said. He had all these great recordings of Rafael Mendez, Harry James, Doc Severinsen and Louis Armstrong.

Once he began to play, Gammie was captivated, playing in his high school marching band, wind ensemble and brass choir.

Any playing experience I could get I went after it, he said.

Gammie said he was fortunate to enroll at Cal State Long Beach as the university was developing a well-known music program.

I was in the right place at the right time, he said. I was around terrific players, and when youre playing with good people, everyone gets better.

After graduating from college, he took a job at Disneyland as a fanfare trumpet leader, playing the ceremonial instrument for parades and other festivities. He started teaching in the Orange County area, and found his calling among his students.

At their age, their curiosity factor is off the hook, he said. If you can get them motivated about something as academically, socially and intellectually stimulating as music, that is the best of both worlds.

The principles of collaboration and collective improvement that he had experienced as a trumpet player applied perfectly to his band room.

Its the nature of musicianship, he said. Everybody inspires everyone else to work at their highest level of efficiency and productivity.

The most experienced students help the newer ones, simultaneously embracing the opportunity to show off while also nurturing their classmates musical progress, he said.

Gammie fosters all of that by creating an environment that emphasizes excellence and teamwork, said his former colleague Greg Llacer.

Llacer, 57, taught with Gammie at Vista High School, and is now director of undergraduate research and fellowships for Harvard University.

He insists on good technique, he insists on good practice standards, LLacer said. But he does it in a way thats very, very supportive. Its a great balance of expectations and how to get to success.

Alyssa Keene, 25, of Oceanside, studied with Gammie at Roosevelt, and went on to major in music at UCLA. Shes now a professional trumpet player, and returned to his classroom recently to help teach his current students.

Its been awesome to allow him to pass his musical knowledge to the next generation, she said. Its almost like the passing of a legacy, this ability he has to inspire people to want to teach others.

After Gammie announced his retirement, a group of his former students brainstormed about how to commemorate his career, and decided to commission an original piece in his honor. They enlisted Ricketts, one of Gammies former colleagues at Disneyland, who became a composer and music director for Walt Disney World, to write a piece in Gammies honor at his final band concert May 19.

The event will showcase the fruits of 40 years of musical labor  a journey has been difficult but undeniably enriching, Gammie said.

There arent any quick fixes to become a musician, he said. Its that struggle and effort that makes them better students, citizens and friends.

deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan
Zheng Qinwen poses with her trophy after winning the WTA World Tour Zhengzhou Open on Oct. 15, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Jianan)

Seven Chinese players have made it into the top 100 in the WTA world rankings, with Zheng Qinwen reaching a career-high 13th.

WUHAN, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's top women's singles player Zheng Qinwen has reached a career-best 13th place in the WTA world rankings, while six other Chinese players stand in the world's top 100.

In Monday's newly-released rankings, 21-year-old Zheng escalated to a career-high world ranking of 13 with 2,790 points after she led China to the United Cup quarterfinals last week.

29-year-old Zhu Lin remained 33rd, closely followed by Wang Xinyu, who climbed one place up to 34th by surpassing Canada's Fernandez Leylah. Wang Xiyu marched to 62nd place, nine spots up in the standings, thanks in part to her last-four finish in the Auckland ASB Classic. Yuan Yue improved four places to rank 73rd, Bai Zhuoxuan sits 87th, and Wang Yafan is 97th.

Poland's Iga Swiatek ranks world No. 1, and has now remained in that spot for 85 consecutive weeks. Belarus's Aryna Sabalenka remains second and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan sits third. 
VIENTIANE, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith has vowed to transform the economy by guiding it towards independence and Lao ownership, so as to make it more resilient.

Lao Economic Daily on Monday quoted Lao President Thongloun saying at a nationwide meeting of the finance sector 2023, "From now on, the Party Central Committee and the Politburo will quickly devise policies to transform our country, in particular the economic system, from the current overwhelmingly dependent situation to a system based on independence and Lao ownership of the economy."

The move comes as the economy is heavily dependent on external factors, such as heavy reliance on imports for domestic consumption, which causes economic fragility and exposes the country to external shocks and disruption, according to the report.

At the meeting held in the Lao capital Vientiane on Dec. 19, 2023, President Thongloun laid down the concept of an independent and Lao-owned economy for economists, researchers, scholars and various institutions to consider, analyze and shape this economic model that better suits Laos' circumstances.

Giving guidance on the proposed economic model, the president said an independent and Lao-owned economy does not mean that Laos has to produce and manufacture everything. Rather, the concept aims to reduce Laos' heavy dependence by making the most effective use of the country's natural resources and other areas of potential, so that more Lao people are involved in the process.

Lao President Thongloun stressed the need to commercialize and capitalize on natural resources sustainably and to export products to a broader global market. Foreign capital, know-how and technology should also be encouraged to commercialize natural resources, while value must be added to these products to maximize the benefits.

He also instructed meeting participants to do their best to ensure effective revenue collection and spending to strengthen the budget, while spreading the risks regarding foreign currencies and preventing a single foreign currency monopoly.

The main focus for the finance sector of this economic model should be on preventing the accumulation of debt to an unmanageable level, he added. 
New research suggests that the Green Monster  a curious structure first spotted in Webb data in April 2023  came from that blast wave slamming into material surrounding the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant.

Cassiopeia A is located about 11,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Cassiopeia.

Also known as Cas A, SNR G111.7-02.1 or NRAO 711, the object spans approximately 10 light-years.

When the original star ran out of fuel, it collapsed onto itself and blew up as a supernova, possibly briefly becoming one of the brightest objects in the sky.

Although astronomers think that this happened around the year 1680, there are no verifiable historical records to confirm this.

A curious structure dubbed the Green Monster was first identified in infrared data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in April 2023, but its origin was not clear.

However, by combining the Webb data with X-rays from NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers think they have hunted down the source of this feature.

We already suspected the Green Monster was created by a blast wave from the exploded star slamming into material surrounding it. Chandra helped us clinch the case, said Dr. Jacco Vink, an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam.

When a massive star exploded to create Cassiopeia A about 340 years ago, from Earths perspective, it created a ball of matter and light that expanded outward. In the outer parts of Cassiopeia A the blast wave is striking surrounding gas that was ejected by the star between about 10,000 and 100,000 years before the explosion.

That formed a favorable environment for dust formation after the ejected stellar material cooled down.

The Chandra data reveal hot gas, mostly from supernova debris including elements like silicon and iron, but also from energetic electrons spiraling around magnetic field lines in the blast wave.

These electrons light up as thin arcs near the blast wave, and also show up in parts of the interior.

Webb highlights infrared emission from dust that is warmed up because it is embedded in the hot gas seen by Chandra, and from much cooler supernova debris.

Despite this chaotic stellar scene, the Green Monster clearly stood out in the original Webb image.

While analyzing Chandra data of the remnant, Dr. Vink and colleagues found that filaments in the outer part of Cassiopeia A, from the blast wave, closely matched the X-ray properties of the Green Monster, including less iron and silicon than in the supernova debris.

This implies a common origin for the Green Monster and blast wave.

The Chandra data also show that the material in the Green Monster is all moving towards us, indicating that it is plowing into the stars ejected gas on the near side of Cassiopeia A.

Its speed is about half the average speed of the blast wave, suggesting that the density of material in the Green Monster is much higher than the average density of material surrounding Cassiopeia A.

This result can help reconstruct the complicated history of mass lost by the star before it exploded.

We concluded that the Green Monster is also part of the blast wave and is photobombing the central part of Cassiopeia A rather than being part of it, said Dr. Ilse De Looze, an astronomer at Ghent University.

We then digitally removed the Green Monster from the rest of the image to learn more about what is behind it.

Its like we were handed a completed, 3D jigsaw puzzle, and we were able to take parts out to see whats on the inside.

The debris from the star is seen by Chandra because it is heated to tens of millions of degrees by shock waves, akin to sonic booms from a supersonic plane.

Webb can see some material that has not been affected by shock waves, what can be called pristine debris. Much of this lies behind the Green Monster.

The combination of Webb and Chandra data therefore gives a fuller census of debris from the exploded star.

Weve made the first map of the web-shaped, pristine debris in the center of this supernova remnant, said Dr. Dan Milisavljevic, an astronomer at Purdue University.

No one has ever seen structures like this before in an exploded star.

To learn more about the supernova explosion, the astronomers compared the Webb view of the destroyed stars pristine debris with X-ray maps of radioactive elements that were created in the supernova.

They used NASAs NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) data to map radioactive titanium  still visible today  and Chandra to map where radioactive nickel  which decays to form iron  was by measuring the locations of iron.

Two aspects stood out in this comparison. Some filaments of pristine debris near the center of Cassiopeia A, seen with Webb, are connected to the iron seen with Chandra farther out. Radioactive titanium is seen where pristine debris is relatively weak.

These comparisons suggest that radioactive material seen in X-rays has helped shape the pristine debris near the center of the remnant seen with Webb, forming cavities.

The fine structures in the pristine debris were most likely formed when the stars inner layers were violently mixed with hot, radioactive matter produced during collapse of the stars core under gravity.

These Webb survey data and initial findings, supported by other telescopes like Chandra, help address unresolved questions about massive star explosions that have broad implications for the formation and evolution of stellar populations, and the metal and dust enrichment of galaxies, said Dr. Tea Temim, an astronomer at Princeton University.

The results will appear in two papers (paper #1 and paper #2) in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

_____

Dan Milisavljevic et al. 2024. A JWST Survey of the Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A. ApJL, in press; arXiv: 2401.02477

Jacco Vink et al. 2024. X-ray diagnostics of Cassiopeia As Green Monster: evidence for dense shocked circumstellar plasma. ApJL, in press; arXiv: 2401.02491
RAMALLAH, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Palestine has agreed to receive tax funds held by Israel through the transfer via Norway, but Israel has rejected this U.S. proposal, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said Monday.

Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting held in Ramallah, he said Israel still rejects the U.S. administration's proposals on the issue of clearing, such as transferring the money to Norway.

He said that the Palestinian Authority (PA) refused to accept clearance funds last month after Israel had deducted 517 million shekels (139 U.S. million dollars) from the total 750 million shekels.

Israel collects taxes on behalf of the PA on imports into Palestinian territories and transfers the funds monthly. 
TOKYO, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A fire broke out at late former Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka's residence in Tokyo on Monday, local media reported.

The Tokyo Fire Department received a report of the fire at the residence in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward at around 3:20 p.m. local time (0620 GMT), public broadcaster NHK said.

About 20 fire trucks and other vehicles were dispatched to put out the fire, and the fire was almost extinguished around 5:40 p.m. local time, NHK said.

The blaze burned approximately 800 square meters of the area within the compound and destroyed a two-story wooden house completely, it added.

According to the police, there were no immediate reports of injuries or individuals who might not have escaped the area. The police are investigating the cause of the fire.

A man who lives near the fire scene said, "When I heard the sound of a fire engine's siren, I looked outside and saw the flames rising quite high from the Tanaka residence," NHK reported. 
This aerial photo taken on Jan. 7, 2024 shows tourists having fun at an ice amusement spot on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Dubbed China's "ice city," Harbin has recently seen a tourism boom. An ice amusement spot, transformed from an ice collecting site out of use, has attracted lots of visitors to have fun here with ice packs scattered on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

Tourists take photos at an ice amusement spot on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 7, 2024. Dubbed China's "ice city," Harbin has recently seen a tourism boom. An ice amusement spot, transformed from an ice collecting site out of use, has attracted lots of visitors to have fun here with ice packs scattered on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

This aerial photo taken on Jan. 7, 2024 shows tourists having fun at an ice amusement spot in sunset on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Dubbed China's "ice city," Harbin has recently seen a tourism boom. An ice amusement spot, transformed from an ice collecting site out of use, has attracted lots of visitors to have fun here with ice packs scattered on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

Tourists take photos at an ice amusement spot on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 7, 2024. Dubbed China's "ice city," Harbin has recently seen a tourism boom. An ice amusement spot, transformed from an ice collecting site out of use, has attracted lots of visitors to have fun here with ice packs scattered on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

A tourist watches a cube of ice at an ice amusement spot on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 7, 2024. Dubbed China's "ice city," Harbin has recently seen a tourism boom. An ice amusement spot, transformed from an ice collecting site out of use, has attracted lots of visitors to have fun here with ice packs scattered on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

Tourists take photos at an ice amusement spot on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 7, 2024. Dubbed China's "ice city," Harbin has recently seen a tourism boom. An ice amusement spot, transformed from an ice collecting site out of use, has attracted lots of visitors to have fun here with ice packs scattered on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

Tourists are seen at an ice amusement spot in sunset on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 7, 2024. Dubbed China's "ice city," Harbin has recently seen a tourism boom. An ice amusement spot, transformed from an ice collecting site out of use, has attracted lots of visitors to have fun here with ice packs scattered on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

Tourists are seen at an ice amusement spot in sunset on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 7, 2024. Dubbed China's "ice city," Harbin has recently seen a tourism boom. An ice amusement spot, transformed from an ice collecting site out of use, has attracted lots of visitors to have fun here with ice packs scattered on the Songhuajiang River Harbin section. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)
Passengers check in at Xinchang Railway Station in Shengzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 8, 2024. The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou intercity railway, China's first high-speed railway controlled by private capital, celebrated its 2nd anniversary of operation Monday. With a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the railway has delivered a total of 20 million passengers since it started operation. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

This aerial photo taken on Jan. 8, 2024 shows a bullet train pulling into Xinchang Railway Station in Shengzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou intercity railway, China's first high-speed railway controlled by private capital, celebrated its 2nd anniversary of operation Monday. With a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the railway has delivered a total of 20 million passengers since it started operation. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Passengers board a train at Xinchang Railway Station in Shengzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 8, 2024. The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou intercity railway, China's first high-speed railway controlled by private capital, celebrated its 2nd anniversary of operation Monday. With a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the railway has delivered a total of 20 million passengers since it started operation. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Passengers wait to board a train at Xinchang Railway Station in Shengzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 8, 2024. The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou intercity railway, China's first high-speed railway controlled by private capital, celebrated its 2nd anniversary of operation Monday. With a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the railway has delivered a total of 20 million passengers since it started operation. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

This aerial photo taken on Jan. 8, 2024 shows a train departing from Xinchang Railway Station in Shengzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou intercity railway, China's first high-speed railway controlled by private capital, celebrated its 2nd anniversary of operation Monday. With a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the railway has delivered a total of 20 million passengers since it started operation. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

This photo taken on Jan. 8, 2024 shows a train pulling into Xinchang Railway Station in Shengzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou intercity railway, China's first high-speed railway controlled by private capital, celebrated its 2nd anniversary of operation Monday. With a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the railway has delivered a total of 20 million passengers since it started operation. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Passengers wait to check in at Xinchang Railway Station in Shengzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 8, 2024. The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou intercity railway, China's first high-speed railway controlled by private capital, celebrated its 2nd anniversary of operation Monday. With a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the railway has delivered a total of 20 million passengers since it started operation. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)
Global South treads own path to weather transforming global order

Xinhua) 08:16, January 08, 2024

This photo taken on Aug. 21, 2023 shows a view near the venue of the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Xinhua/Zhang Yudong)

The Global South is building an alternative path forward for South-South cooperation.

BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The BRICS doubled its size after more than 40 countries showed interest or formally applied to join the young international organization, signaling an evolution toward a more multipolar world.

The Global South, designated as the word of the year 2023 by the Financial Times, is clearly treading its own path to weather a transforming global order.

GLOBAL SOUTH IN ASCENT

A new pole of the global economy is forming. Before expansion, BRICS states accounted for 32 percent of global GDP, more than 15 percent of global trade, and more than 40 percent of the world's population.

According to statistics from the Britain-based Acorn Macro Consulting, based on purchasing power parity, the gross domestic product of the BRICS countries before expansion exceeded that of the G7.

The latest ranking by the International Monetary Fund shows that Brazil has surpassed Canada to become the world's ninth-largest economy. After expansion, the BRICS nations will further consolidate Global South strength, demonstrating more robust economic prowess.

People walk near the venue of the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Aug. 21, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhang Yudong)

The IMF estimates also showed that based on purchasing power parity, the world's top five economies in 2030 will, in sequence, be China, the United States, India, Japan and Indonesia.

Global South leaders are pushing against foreign interventions in geopolitical affairs. The readmission of Syria into the Arab League in May after 11 years of suspension signals a new consensus among Arab countries -- only a regional solution can end the protracted crisis.

In June, Latin America and Caribbean leaders jointly urged Washington to end its illegal political, commercial and financial blockade on Cuba.

A report from the World Trade Organization also suggested that developed economies are still major participants in world trade but no longer dominate.

"I think this is a historic moment for humanity -- in which, for the first time, countries from the South may use their strength," said Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva before BRICS' Johannesburg summit in August 2023.

FALTERING STEPS OF WEST

Along the wax comes the wane. Over the years, with Brexit, divisions in the United States, the spread of Western populism, the surge of right-wing extremism, and escalating racial conflicts and hate crimes, social turmoil and disorder have proven to be common in Western countries.

The Ukraine crisis and the most serious Israel-Palestine conflict in decades have also left the West struggling.

"The internal stress" in the West-dominated world order is leading to "more doubts around the world about its effectiveness and legitimacy," said Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz Global Advisers.

At the 2023 Munich Security Conference, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "shock" at how much credibility the West was losing from the Global South before the French ambassador was expelled from Niger, French troops pulled out from Mali and the coup epidemic spread to a few more francophone West African countries later in the year.

Former colonies now harbor a collective sense of disillusionment, if not anger and resentment, toward the Euro-Atlantic hegemony. This sentiment is rooted in the solutions it provided, or the lack of which, to the global challenges that unfairly burden people at the bottom of the global wealth pyramid.

Along the Black Sea, U.S.-dominated NATO is seeking unilateral security at the cost of having more kids going to bed on an empty stomach in Africa and the Middle East.

Displaced Palestinians keep warm by a fire at a temporary shelter in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Dec. 18, 2023. (Photo by Yasser Qudih/Xinhua)

Along the Red Sea, Washington watches the humanitarian crisis explode and spill over while continuously curbing international efforts at the UN to protect civilians and restore peace.

"They lost credibility with the veto. What is good enough for Ukraine is not good enough for Palestine. The veto told us that Ukrainian lives are more valuable than Palestinian ones," an African diplomat was quoted by Reuters after the United States vetoed the "humanitarian pause" at the Security Council on Oct. 18, 2023.

The old order led by the West can no longer keep pace with the times, and developing countries are increasingly aware of the reality.

Western research institutions and media outlets wonder if this is the beginning of a new world order.

VOICES LOUDER, GETTING HEARD

Last August, media outlets worldwide were preoccupied with the wildfires that ravished the historical town of Lahaina, Hawaii.

Only a few weeks later, the flooding that hit Eastern Libya, killing more than 4,300 people, received disproportionately small attention in the West.

Global South countries have endured such injustices for far too long and are speaking up on the global stage.

"The days when a few nations set the agenda and expected others to fall in line are over." Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's foreign minister, said at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

And the voice is catching the attention of Global North leaders, observed Anjali Dayal, an associate professor of international politics at the New York-based Fordham University.

"We saw that more leaders were paying attention to the biggest constituency of UN countries -- countries that are not big powers but that suffer the biggest consequences and very seldom get to cast the decisive vote," she said.

"Increasingly, the poor are saying to the rich that your priorities won't mean more to us until ours mean much more to you," said Howard W. French, a columnist at Foreign Policy and a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

COOPERATION FOR BETTER

While calling out the West for its broken promises, including an annual 100 billion U.S. dollars in climate funding, the Global South is building an alternative path forward for South-South cooperation.

In 2023, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a leading international infrastructure investor, priced its first five-year Climate Adaptation Bond and raised 335 million dollars. Platforms such as the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition and the South-South Cooperation Center for Technology Transfer also assist developing countries with clean energy governance, planning and capacity building.

This photo taken on Sept. 25, 2023 shows display boards of the eighth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. (Xinhua/Sui Xiankai)

Green cooperation is only part of the closer South-South partnership. With a total value of 4 billion dollars, China has set up a Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund and has implemented more than 130 projects in nearly 60 countries, including Ethiopia and Pakistan, covering poverty reduction, food security and epidemic prevention.

Three decades ago, the pioneer in decolonial theory, Argentine-Mexican philosopher and historian Enrique Dussel, elaborated on the Eurocentrism in the concept of modernity: "Modernity as such was 'born' when Europe was in a position to pose itself against an Other ... Europe could constitute itself as a unified ego exploring, conquering, colonizing an alterity that gave back its image of self."

Three decades later, in a confident and united voice, the Global South is resisting universal modernity or the West's roadmap for modernization.

As the Gulf News put it, there is "a sense of urgency by countries to ... strengthen partnerships away from Western influence."

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
KABUL, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of a blast that ripped through a mini-bus in the Afghan capital Kabul city on Saturday has risen to five, a local television channel Tolonews reported Monday.

Citing security sources, the media outlet reported that five people were killed and 15 others injured in the terrorist attack that happened in Dasht-i-Barchi area of Kabul city on Saturday evening.

Earlier, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran counted two dead and 14 others injured in the blast, all civilians.

The Islamic State (IS) has reportedly claimed responsibility for the blast.

In the meantime, the Afghan caretaker government chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid asserted recently that the administration has smashed the hideouts of the IS group and the security forces have been chasing the remaining 70 to 80 operatives of the terror outfit. 
San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston speaks to the crowd of Transit Funeral attendees and supporters of funding for public transit in front of City Hall in downtown San Francisco on June 3, 2023. Adam Pardee/Special to SFGATE

YIMBYs and NIMBYs, a tale far less old and far more annoying than Cain and Abel, is a perfect fit for a post-pandemic, cyberurbanized California.

For those unaware, a NIMBY is an aging white couple in a coastal community using racially coded arguments to oppose an affordable housing project that threatens to bring in ruckus. A YIMBY, on the other hand, is someone on Twitter yelling indecipherably about how legalizing 5-over-1 single staircases is the only way your children will avoid homelessness in California.

The thing they have in common: Youve never really met either.

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Surely, cartoonishly racist NIMBYs exist, as do YIMBYs who would tolerate a firing range in their backyard if it kept them feeling smugly superior to their narrow-minded neighbors. But in reality, the vast majority of people fall somewhere in between, in a category called the DWIMBY: Depends Whats in My Backyard.

While DWIMBY decidedly lacks panache, it is the most accurate way to describe approximately 80% of people yelling about Bay Area housing on Twitter. Take the notorious Sunset-dwelling NIMBY: The very neighbors disgusted by the Sloat Tower, a 50-story phallus built over reclaimed sand dunes in a veritable transit desert, were the same folks who came together two years ago to support 135 units of affordable teacher housing, just a few blocks away.

But nuance leaves no room for moral superiority, which is the real point after all. So DWIMBYism recedes to the shadows, and the NIMBY and YIMBY labels are deployed mostly as political insults rather than anything honestly indicating anyones policy positions.

A rendering of a proposed 50-story skyscraper at 2700 Sloat Blvd. in San Francisco. Rendering by Solomon Cordwell Buenz

In the latest iteration of the ever-simmering blood feud, three local housing advocates released a report exonerating San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston of the housing obstruction charges leveled against him. Prestons decades of work as a tenants rights attorney are clear evidence of his progressive bona fides, yet a 2021 column in the San Francisco Chronicle painted him as a NIMBY. The column pulled information from a report titled "Dean Preston's Housing Graveyard," which the writer explained was authored by "members of local YIMBY groups that support building more housing for people of all income levels." (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)

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Citing the report, the writer said Preston has opposed development plans and legislative proposals  at the city and state level  that could have yielded enough units to house more than 28,000 people. The column was supposedly the first in an 11-part series examining the housing record of each supervisor, based on the reports authored by the self-proclaimed YIMBY group; there was one more column in 2022, based off a report examining the housing records of former Supervisors David Campos and Matt Haney, but no current supervisors other than Preston have been the subject of a report from the group, or a corresponding column from the Chronicle.

The responding pro-Preston report, released in December 2023 and covering votes cast since 2019, found Preston voted in favor of 29,815 homes, 86% of them affordable.

Where the two examinations of Prestons housing record diverge is on what it means to block housing. The Chronicle story based off the YIMBY group's report argues Preston rejected housing because he pushed for additional reviews resulting in delays, even if those projects were subsequently approved. Counting the number of units he opposed is an important part of his record nonetheless, the article says. The report from Prestons supporters considers his reasoning for additional reviews: to study gentrification impacts, earthquake and fire safety or chemical contamination, or push for greater affordability.

Regardless of what one may think of Preston, the fact that two interest groups can come to opposite conclusions about the voting record of a single politician is a flashing red sign that somethings rotten in our housing discourse. As Preston told me in a recent interview: Im not here to spend all my time helping developers finance their projects, he said. Im not here to stop them, but the market doesnt produce for certain people, so the job of government is to make sure those people have housing.

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The current housing crisis in San Francisco is likely to become a key factor in the city's 2024 elections. Alexander Spatari/Getty Images

Largely, YIMBYs argue that a lack of housing supply  a debt accumulated over decades of underbuilding relative to population growth  has pushed rents skyward. Private property owners have captured local governments, they say, spurring the creation of layers of bureaucratic regulations and zoning laws intended to stop new development, locking in property values and locking out undesirables.

The biggest barrier in San Francisco to housing are the layers of discretionary review the city has built up over time, Matthew Lewis, the director of communications for California YIMBY, told me. The problems the city is facing are not any one persons fault, its the conglomeration of years of bad process, bad policy and bad decisions.

The problem, of course, is that a lot of that so-called bad process involves perfectly prudent measures. It took decades of tenant organizing, environmental justice advocacy and some of the worst disasters of the 20th century to give us things like environmental reviews, safety checks and inclusionary zoning.

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This is what the YIMBY-NIMBY debate often overlooks: People experience Californias housing crisis in vastly different ways. For some particularly vocal groups, the housing crisis is most acutely felt as a shortage of options: There arent adequate apartment choices in their preferred walkable neighborhoods, at least not at a price reasonable enough to continue allowing them to contribute $1,500 per month to their employer-sponsored 401(k)s.

Others experience the crisis as a crushing burden, livelihoods and future prospects slowly suffocated by rent. Theyre forgoing medical care, higher education and often bare necessities just to keep an overly expensive roof over their heads. There is an entire census tract in San Mateo County where 80% of residents are rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their household income on rent. People stay in overcrowded homes or abusive relationships because theres nowhere else to go. The racial wealth gap expands ever more.

Even among homeowners, tremendous disparities exist between retired coastsiders and poor people or those in redlined communities who, despite our countrys best efforts to prevent them from amassing intergenerational wealth, have managed to escape the precarity of renting. The latter have a much stronger case for opposing a tidal wave of development capital from flooding their neighborhood.

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Ultimately, ones understanding of the housing crisis and disposition toward new construction depends on personal experience. If you are an upwardly mobile urban dweller dissatisfied with shared, coin-operated laundry, new market rate construction addresses your problems fairly quickly. If, alternatively, your family eats cereal with a fork so everyone can use the milk, a YIMBYs argument that every 10% increase in the housing supply reduces rents 1%, even if true, rolls over you like lead paint. Rent is unaffordable now, and 1% doesnt begin to move the needle. So while a developer wins a big contract to build a bunch of new units that still arent accessible to you, and while politicians don hard hats for press photos and pat themselves on the back to celebrate, isnt it reasonable to demand something meaningful in return?

YIMBYs conflate any neighbor raising a concern or seeking any benefit from private market development with the very real issue of upper-income white NIMBYs, Preston told me.

Therein lies the problem. The YIMBY movement on the whole is so absolutist, so all-or-nothing, that even decadeslong tenant rights activists like Preston are painted as NIMBYs if they oppose a project, even if they do so to increase the affordability or review gentrification or environmental impacts. Redlined communities who dont want another traffic-choked mixed-use development spewing pollution into their yards are NIMBYs. And when everyone, from a wealthy white politician to a minority homeowner scraping by, is the enemy, then your multiracial movement for housing justice wont spark the changes youre hoping.

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Celsius Resources announced on Monday that its Philippine subsidiary, Tambuli Mining Company (TMCI), had made a significant step forward by applying for a declaration of mining project feasibility (DMPF) for its Sagay Copper-Gold Project on the island of Negros.

The AIM-traded firm said the application signified the presence of valuable minerals within the designated area, underscoring the company's commitment to recover the resources using socially responsible, environmentally sustainable, and economically viable methods.

It said the application encompassed a comprehensive set of key documents, including the mining project feasibility study report, the final exploration report, the environmental impact statement report, the environmental protection and enhancement programme, the final mine rehabilitation and decommissioning plan, the social development and management programme, and the care and maintenance programme.

The board said the plans and programmes were developed after extensive consultation with stakeholders, ensuring the integration of social and environmental safeguards while considering the local context.

Notably, the project had garnered endorsements from local government units within the host area in the form of resolutions that expressed no objection to its implementation.

"This is another achievement for Celsius' portfolio of assets in the Philippines," said executive chairman Julito 'Sarge' Sarmiento.

"As with the Maalinao-Caigutan-Biyog Copper-Gold project, we aim to develop the Sagay Project into a productive mine that would not only bring value to our stakeholders and shareholders but also showcase our commitment to sustainable and responsible mining practices.

"We are at such a critical and pivotal point in human history where the ongoing climate change emergency demands an accelerated transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and a green economy would necessitate the extraction of more so-called green metals like copper."

Sarmiento said the company believed that mineral extraction must be done through innovative solutions, optimising benefits and avoiding adverse social and environmental impacts.

"We will work closely with the national and local government units as development partners to pursue shared goals."

At 1111 GMT, shares in Celsius Resources were up 3.6% at 0.65p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
Investors' focus on Tuesday will be on the latest monthly consumer price figures in Tokyo.

Consensus was that overnight the country's Bureau of Statistics would announce that core CPI fell from a 2.3% annual pace in November to 2.1% for December.

On home shores meanwhile, the only significant report due would be that from the British Retail Consortium covering like-for-like retail sales during that same month.

In the U.S., at 1100 GMT the National Federation of Independent Business would release its optimism index for small businesses in December.

The Department of Commerce's November report on the monthly trade balance in goods would be published at 1330 GMT.

German industrial production figures for November were scheduled to go out at 0700 GMT.

Tuesday 09 January

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (US) (13:30)

Industrial Production (GER) (07:00)

Unemployment Rate (EU) (10:00)

AGMS

Agriterra LD

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI), Foresight Group Holdings Limited NPV

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

BRC Sales Monitor (00:01)
UK firms remain reluctant to hire new staff, an industry survey showed on Monday, as the weak economic outlook continued to weigh heavily.

According to the latest UK Report on Jobs from KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, recruitment intentions were subdued in December.

Permanent and temporary billings also declined, although at a softer rate than November.

The permanent staff placements index rose to 45.6 from 41.6 in November but remains below its 2022 average of 55.3.

The permanent staff salaries index rose to 56.5 from 56.0. It also remains below its 2022 average, of 71.8, however.

The permanent staff availability index fell to 58.7 from 61.9, while overall vacancies also declined slightly, for the third time in four months.

Survey respondents cited muted demand for staff and recruitment freezes, in light of wider economic conditions.

Justine Andrew, partner and head of education, skills and productivity at KPMG UK, said: "Its a muted end to the year for the labour market, which despite some loosening during 2023, continues to be tight.

"While the data for December shows hiring activity for both permanent and temporary roles fell at a softer rate than the previous month, businesses are still making redundancies and pausing hiring due to a lacklustre economic outlook."

Neil Carberry, REC chief executive, said: "Recruiters went into 2024 with hope that an upturn is coming, based on feedback from clients.

"Driving this economic growth would be a huge benefit for us all, leading to more successful firms, higher pay and the ability to cut taxes and fund public services. But the growth must come first."

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "Labour market tightness is continuing to unwind faster than the Monetary Policy Committee anticipated in Novembers Monetary Policy Report, supporting the case for a modest reduction in Bank Rate this year.

"The balance is consistent with the unemployment rate rising by about 0.6 percentage points ever six months.

"Meanwhile, the net balance of recruiters reporting that salaries are rising for new hires remains consistent with a sharp slowdown in year-over-year growth in average weekly earnings, to about 3% by the end of the year."

A panel of around 400 UK recruitment and employment consultancies was surveyed between 6 and 18 December.
SYDNEY, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Two passengers were injured on Monday after a light plane overshot the runway on a small island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, local media reported.

The plane was reportedly carrying nine passengers when it attempted to land on Lizard Island, about 1,600 km northwest of Brisbane, according to 9News network.

Queensland Police told 9News they were alerted to an "aviation incident" around 7:20 a.m. on Monday (2120 GMT Sunday).

Details of the crash were light at this stage, but the two people's injuries were believed to be minor, the police said.

A Royal Flying Doctor Service plane and two rescue helicopters were sent to the scene, the Australian news channel Sky News reported. 
Semiconductor wafer and materials specialist IQE announced on Monday that Raytheon has officially qualified its North Carolina site to produce epitaxial wafers intended for advanced infrared sensing and imaging applications.

The AIM-traded firm said the development would solidify its position as a trusted technology partner for the defence giant, ensuring a secure supply of high-performance infrared photodetector epiwafers manufactured in the United States.

It said the collaboration aimed to enhance national security and strengthen domestic supply chains, aligning with the increasing emphasis on self-sufficiency in critical technologies.

IQE is a market-leading global player in the supply of compound semiconductors to the aerospace and security industries, said chief executive officer Americo Lemos.

Having received a Raytheon Premier Supplier Excellence Award, this qualification demonstrates the continued confidence that Raytheon has in IQE.

We are proud to be a strategic partner, ensuring the volume production of sensor and imaging materials made in the US for a resilient supply chain.

At 1039 GMT, shares in IQE were flat at 20.9p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) has officially announced its collaboration with Sirius, a subsidiary of International Holding Company (IHC) located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with the aim of investing in cutting-edge technologies to enhance India's digital economy. This strategic partnership has given rise to a novel joint venture (JV) named Sirius Digitech International, which will be headquartered in Abu Dhabi. The Sirius JV is set to investigate potential ventures in blockchain, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT) within the Indian market.

The newly established investment entity will concentrate on the sectors of finance, health, and environmental sustainability initiatives. Projects involved in these verticals and utilizing emerging technologies are expected to secure funding from the joint venture. However, specific details regarding the capital injection are currently undisclosed to the public.

Reports indicate that the company intends to leverage various digital platforms to access India's rapidly expanding digital economy. Analysts suggest that while the company may initiate new projects from the ground up, the preferred approach for the joint venture would be to invest in already established early-stage projects in India that leverage disruptive emerging technologies.

Sirius JV will capitalize on the global digital transformation expertise of Sirius and Adanis strategic insights to focus on leading the $175 billion opportunity in the digitalization of the Indian economy", read the statement. "This digital opportunity is rapidly evolving to become a $1 trillion market by 2030".

Executives at both Adani and Sirius are optimistic about the prospects of the joint venture, relying on the combination of both their strengths. The joint statement hinted at deploying sensor technologies with AI in key industries for real-time decision making while mulling opportunities stemming from incorporating blockchain in industrial applications.

Adani will own 49% of the joint venture, while Sirius will enjoy a majority stake of 51%, with Indian regulators required to give final approval before the commencement of business. With over 1.4 billion population, India has been touted as the next frontier for emerging technologies. Web3 and AI startups have set up shops in India despite the murky nature of regulations and harsh government policies.
India has marked a significant achievement in space exploration by effectively positioning a spacecraft into an orbit dedicated to studying the sun for a period of five years. This accomplishment places India among a distinguished set of nations already engaged in solar research, following its distinction as the first country to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon's southern polar region just four months prior. This success further solidifies India's standing as a nation at the forefront of advancements in space exploration.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced that the space observatory, Aditya L-1, has achieved its designated position for monitoring the sun's outer layer and transmitting data to Earth. Launched on September 2, the spacecraft completed its journey to the destination in a span of four months. "The orbit of Aditya-L1 spacecraft is a periodic Halo orbit which is located roughly 1.5 million km [kilometers] from earth", according to an ISRO statement. Aditya-L1 is named after the Hindu god of the sun, called Aditya in Sanskrit. "L1" refers to Lagrange point 1, the location in space between the sun and Earth, where the satellite has been parked.

"This demonstrates Indias capability to travel over a million kilometers away from the Earths orbit. It is a capability that very few countries have and India is the first in Asia to do so", according to Chaitanya Giri, associate professor of environmental sciences at Flame University in Pune. "The ability to maintain deep space communication with a spacecraft that has traveled so far and sustain a mission for a long period is also significant".

The Indian mission has a planned duration of five years during which it will conduct a comprehensive study of the sun. Positioned at the "Lagrange 1" point, the spacecraft ensures an uninterrupted view of the sun, including during eclipses. The primary objective of the mission is to enhance our knowledge of space weather and variations in the space environment between Earth and the sun. This information is crucial for safeguarding satellites and other spacecraft, as emphasized by space scientists.

"It is vital to understand space weather at a time when there are thousands of satellites in space. Space weather is about disturbances that happen on the sun such as solar winds, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These three components need to be studied", Ajay Lele, space scientist and former senior fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, said.

Aditya-L1 is anticipated to provide alerts about space storms that may influence Earth, occasionally impacting the functionality of satellites and radio communications. The spacecraft is outfitted with seven scientific instruments designed for the study of solar wind particles and magnetic fields. Previous solar observatory missions have been conducted by the U.S. space agency NASA, the European Space Agency, Japan, and China.
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled for a three-day visit to the UK, marking a significant development in bilateral defense and security cooperation, as the last ministerial-level visit occurred 22 years ago. The previously planned visit in June 2022 was canceled by the Indian side for "protocol reasons," heightening anticipation for the upcoming tour. In addition to extensive discussions with his UK counterpart, Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, Singh is anticipated to review a ceremonial Guard of Honour and pay visits to the Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar memorials in London.

A community interaction with members of the Indian diaspora in the UK is also expected to be part of his three-day itinerary. "This visit is significant in terms of both optics and substance. In terms of the former, this is the first visit of India's defence minister to the UK in 22 years - the last visit was by then defence minister of a previous BJP-led government, George Fernandes, to London on 22 January 2002", said Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, Senior Fellow for South and Central Asian Defence, Strategy and Diplomacy at the London-based think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

As a defense analyst who has consistently advocated for such a visit in his high-level discussions over the years, Roy-Chaudhury suggests that Singh's upcoming visit next week signals an enhancement in India's political ties and the cultivation of trust with the UK. This positive development follows British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's visit to India for the G20 Summit in September of the previous year.

"In substantive terms, the visit will seek to deepen military cooperation and defence industrial partnerships with the UK by building on the November 2023 Defence Consultative Group (DCG) meeting in Delhi at the level of Secretaries and the inaugural meeting of the 2+2 Foreign and Defence Dialogue at the level of Joint Secretaries in October 2023", he said.

"The UK is no longer one of India's top five strategic partners. However, the resumption of a strong India-UK defence technological and industrial partnership could take place through the delivery of ongoing projects on aero-engines with Rolls-Royce; naval electric propulsion with GE (Naval) UK and Rolls-Royce; and ground-based air defence system with MBDA (UK)", he said. "Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to visit one of these arms manufacturing sites during his visit to the UK", he noted.

It will be a keenly watched visit, taking place against the backdrop of ongoing Indian concerns over pro-Khalistan violence in the UK as well as some contentious legacy issues on UK defence supplies to India. However, analysts believe with this opportunity for a dialogue at the ministerial level, the focus should be on the operationalization of the Narendra Modi-led government's Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat agenda in the defence sector.
The Tamil Nadu and Singapore governments are actively collaborating to develop a comprehensive framework for India's inaugural Net Zero Industrial Park. Senthil Raj, the Managing Director of SIPCOT (State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu), announced at the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet (TNGIM) that this framework is expected to be finalized within the next year. The blueprint will serve as a guide for the creation of a net-zero industrial park, envisioned by SIPCOT for construction in the northern region of Chennai, potentially making it the country's pioneering Net Zero Industrial Park.

In the previous year, SIPCOT entered into a collaborative agreement with the Singapore-India Partnership Office (SIPO) under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). This collaboration was established during the visit of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, along with other state ministers and key officials from the Government of Tamil Nadu, to Singapore. The purpose of the agreement is to jointly work on the development of a sustainable industrial park, and this initiative was promoted during the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet (TNGIM).

The co-operation between SIPCOT and MTI-SIPO brings together Singapore agencies like the Centre for Liveable Cities and JTC Corporation as knowledge partners for SIPCOT, the developer of industrial spaces in Tamil Nadu. "After last years visit to Singapore and the signing of the MoU, we have been closely working with SIPO. Conversations have been going on between us. We keep learning from models of parks from several countries, such as Vietnam and Singapore, and trying to figure out how to arrive at our framework. We hope to conclude this in the next one year", he said during a session at the TNGIM.

Highlighting the net zero framework, Professor Tai Lee Siang, Head of Pillar, Architecture and Sustainable Design, Singapore University of Technology & Design, said the net zero industrial park project could be executed with a green masterplan and the establishment of green buildings that would tackle business as usual. Other scopes would be over provision of renewable energy at the district and building level and increasing the network effect of a green district to mitigate logistics and supply chain carbon emissions. "The issue of climate change can no longer be tackled by increasing green spending without addressing business as usual thoroughly and systematically. We need a major reset", added Siang.
PHNOM PENH, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia exported 837 million U.S. dollars worth of raw cashew nuts in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 16.9 percent, according to the Cashew Nut Association of Cambodia's report on Monday.

The report said the Southeast Asian country exported a total of 656,000 tonnes of the commodity in 2023, representing a year-on-year drop of 7.6 percent in volume.

Some 618,000 tonnes, or 94.2 percent of the commodity, were shipped to neighboring Vietnam, it said.

The association's president Uon Silot said the decline in export was a good sign for Cambodia's cashew processing industry because it reflected an increase in the number of cashew nut processing enterprises in the kingdom.

"More local enterprises have purchased raw cashew nuts for processing in the country, which has led to a drop in the exports of the commodity to Vietnam," he said.

Cashew is among the country's potential cash crops in addition to rice, rubber, cassava, palm oil, bananas, mangoes, longans, and pepper.

According to the association, the kingdom currently has about 700,000 hectares of cashew plantations in 10 provinces. 
Dr Reddy's Laboratories: The drug major has recalled approximately 8,280 bottles of Tacrolimus, used to prevent organ rejection post-transplant, from the US market. This action follows the US Food & Drug Administration flagging a packaging error, amid the "presence of foreign tablets/capsules" in the lot.

Reliance Industries: Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani announced that his company will be opening a new data centre in Chennai in partnership with Canada's Brookfield. The entry into this fast-growing market represents a significant investment in the venture, which was established in July 2020. At that time, Reliance invested around Rs 378 crore to join an existing joint venture that already had Brookfield Infrastructure and Digital Realty, a US-based real estate investment trust, as partners. The ownership of the venture is split equally between the three companies, with each holding a 33% stake.

Federal Bank: The Reserve Bank of India has asked the bank to recommend the names of at least two executives for appointment as the lender's managing director and chief executive after current chief Shyam Srinivasan steps down. RBI said Srinivasan will be allowed an extension of one year as its MD and CEO after his three-year term ends on 22 September.

Titan: The jewelry and watchmaker has experienced a revenue growth of 22% in the quarter ending in December. During the period of October to December, the company added 90 stores across different sectors, which brings the total number of retail stores to 2,949. The jewelry division has reported a growth of 21% in the domestic market.

Bajaj Auto: The company will consider a share buyback proposal at its meeting scheduled for Monday. The proposal is to buy back fully paid-up equity shares of the company and other necessary matters.

Godrej Consumer Products: The FMCG major said it is expecting a "mid-single digit volume growth" on a consolidated basis in the December quarter. In the domestic business, GCPL's organic business delivered steady underlying volume growth of mid-single digits and its inorganic business as Park Avenue and KamaSutra reported a double-digit volume growth.

Adani Wilmar: The company experienced a 15% decline in sales when compared to the previous year. However, the volume of sales increased by 6% year-on-year, which is a significant resilience. Despite facing numerous challenges, the company was able to maintain its growth trajectory, mainly due to the expanding market for its packaged oils and food products.

Marico: The FMCP firm said its consolidated revenue in the December quarter declined to low single digits on a year-on-year basis, although operating profit saw a low double-digit growth. The maker of Parachute oil also said it expects a low single-digit jump in domestic volumes for the December quarter

JSW Steel: JSW Utkal Steel Ltd, a subsidiary of JSW Group, has obtained possession of 2677.80 acres of forest land in Rajnagar, Odisha. The land will be used to establish a greenfield Integrated Steel Plant. Meanwhile, Sajjan Jindal, the chairman of the JSW Group, has announced that the company is planning to double its investments in Tamil Nadu across various sectors over the next few years.
ECTA stands as a model for future trade agreements, laying the foundation for a future marked by prosperity and interconnectedness for India and its trading partners.

A year after its commencement, the India- Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) stands as a symbol of Indias meticulous planning and execution in forging mutually beneficial trade partnerships. This crafted agreement, developed through extensive stakeholder consultations, reflects the world view of a confident and aspirational New India, and its notable influence within a brief period is evident.

Fortifying Strategic Partnership

ECTA bolsters the longstanding bond between India and Australia, two vibrant democracies that uphold the rule of law and possess similar legal systems. Both countries stand united within the Quad and the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) and proactively collaborate within frameworks such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). This agreement is evidence of their shared vision of a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

Enhancing Trade and Entrepreneurship

Marked as Indias initial trade pact with a developed nation in more than a decade, ECTA holds immense potential. India primarily imports raw materials and intermediate goods from Australia while exploring finished goods. Additionally, ECTA aids in minimizing input costs for Indian entrepreneurs, bolstering the competitiveness of their goods, both in domestic and international markets. This advancement supports the expansion of Indian startups, providing them with significant opportunities for substantial scaling.

Job Creation and Market Access

ECTA is anticipated to generate a significant number of jobs in labor-intensive sectors as Indian products gain fully duty-free access to the vast Australian market. In April- November 2023, Indias merchandise exports to Australia surged by 14 percent, outperforming its global trade performance despite a challenging global climate. While Australia's overall imports decreased by 4 percent, its purchases from India witnessed a notable upswing, pinpointing the agreements effectiveness.

Exploring Novel Export Avenues

Exports to Australia under preferential lines have grown considerably in job-creating sectors. Engineering goods recorded a 24 percent, readymade garments saw a 27 percent rise, and electronics and plastic exports outperformed the overall sector growth. Additionally, India is diversifying its trade basket by exporting over 700 novel items to Australia, encompassing smartphones, gems and jewelry, light oils, and non-industrial diamonds. This marks a significant expansion of Indias export offerings to Australia.

Indias dedication to becoming a developed nation by 2047 aligns with its trading partners. Australia recognizes this strength and values Indias concerns about safeguarding sensitive sectors like agriculture and dairy. The confidence in Indias growth trajectory, investor-friendly policies, and game-changing reforms have elevated Indias appeal for Australian businesses. Subsequently, the total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from Australia rose to $307.2 million in January- September 2023, a notable seven times higher than the figure for the entire year of 2022.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A new rocket will head toward the surface of the moon for the first time in decades, according to NASA.

The rocket, called Vulcan, was built by the company United Launch Alliance for Astrobotics Peregrine Mission One. The mission is slated to be one of the first United States commercial robotic landers launching to the moons surface as part of the agencys Artemis program.

It is scheduled to lift off no earlier than Monday, Jan. 8, from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Its part of NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative  sending five payloads to the moon that will aim to locate water molecules on the moon, measure radiation and gases around the lander, and evaluate the lunar exosphere (the thin layer of gases on the moons surface). These measurements will improve our understanding of how solar radiation interacts with the lunar surface. The payloads will also provide data to NASAs Lunar-VISE (Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer) instrument suite.

We are so excited to see this vision become a reality. CLPS is an innovative way of leveraging American companies to send important science and technology payloads to the Moon, said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, science mission directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Moon is a rich destination for scientific discovery. Studying and sampling the lunar environment will help NASA unravel some of the greatest mysteries of our solar system for the benefit of all.

It is targeted to land Feb. 23 at Sinus Viscositatis, a lunar feature outside of the hardened lava Gruithuisen Domes on the near side of the moon. Similar natural structures on Earth require large volumes of water to form, leading scientists to believe that this landing site may contain evidence of water on the moon, according to NASA.

NASA is targeting 2:18 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 8, for the launch to the moons surface.

The launch will be broadcast live starting at 1:30 a.m. It will air on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agencys website.

With the Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. NASA will collaborate with commercial and international partners to establish this first long-term presence on the moon. It will then use what is learned on and around the moon to take the next giant leap  sending the first astronauts to Mars.
NEW YORK  A 27-year-old resident of a New York City migrant shelter was charged with murder Sunday in the fatal stabbing of another resident, police said.

Police were called to the Randalls Island shelter around 7:30 p.m. Saturday for a report of an assault in progress. The victim, stabbed in the torso, was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The suspect was taken into custody at the scene, police said.

Mayor Eric Adams in August announced a plan to house as many as 2,000 migrants on the island in the East River amid an influx of asylum seekers to the city. More than 161,000 migrants have arrived and sought city aid since spring 2022, Adams and other officials said last month.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A Staten Island business owner and his wife recently visited Israel, contributing to humanitarian aid efforts for soldiers engaged in the ongoing war with Hamas.

Henry Salmon and his wife, Linda, were in Israel from Dec. 5 to Dec. 21 as part of a long-planned family vacation, and said they were surprised by how ordinary things seemed in the city of Raanana, where their son, Matthew, has lived for the past four years with his wife and four children.

Life there is as normal as it can be, Salmon said, pointing to the rush-hour traffic he and his wife found themselves in as they traveled from Ben Gurion Airport to their sons suburban home.

Most businesses, stores and restaurants remain open, he said, though some were closed, because owners have been called into military service in the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. Yet the war, sparked by the October Hamas-led attack on Israel, remains on everyones mind amid high tensions, he said.

The couple was briefly rushed into an airport shelter upon arrival, as sirens blared, he said. But after about five minutes, he recalled that they walked out to experience a cautious normality for the duration of their stay.

Everybody is focused on whats happening in the war, Salmon said. Everybody knows somebody whos been called into service, and many know soldiers whove already died.

News of a potential withdrawal of Israeli soldiers came Tuesday, according to CNN, which quoted the Hamas-controlled health ministrys report that 22,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attack. Israeli victims totaled more than 2,200 in December 2023, including civilians and soldiers, the Israeli Army has reported.

Salmon, a native Staten Islander and a real estate appraiser and president of Equity Valuation Associates in Castleton Corners, volunteered for three days on a farm, along with his wife, Linda, picking and packing produce for soldiers and the needy.

Linda Salmon and her daughter-in-law also spent a day making 250 sandwiches for delivery to Israeli soldiers, her husband said.

We went there, obviously, to visit family, but we also wanted to volunteer and do whatever we could to help, said Henry Salmon, noting his travel plans were made in August 2023, before the attack on Israel started the ongoing war.

The two participated in the humanitarian efforts through Leket Israel, a registered not-for-profit Israel-based charity.

All around Raanana, evidence of the war  and a strong support for the Israeli military  continues amid the return to normalcy, he said, noting that the whole town shows up for military funerals, waving flags of Israel in a show of support. Its very, very quiet as they watch the hearse pass by, he said.

At a visit to a childrens event at a public park, many of the fathers carried semi-automatic weapons and pistols, Salmon said. Because you never know whats going to happen.

Salmon, along with most everyday citizens in Israel, mourns the deaths of so many innocent civilians on both sides of the conflict, he said, noting that the carnage is an unavoidable tragedy of war.

When youre there, and you see it, and you talk to the people, and its real ... these people are hurting, he said. They dont want this. They dont want death and destruction.

And, as the war continues, most Israelis quietly go about living, he said.

The restaurants were busy, and people were doing their best to carry on, he said, noting he and his wife had initial reservations about visiting his son to celebrate Hanukkah while the war rages on.

But, ultimately, they are glad they went, he said.

I have to say itll be something [we] will remember for the rest of our lives, he said. People were thanking us for supporting Israel.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Rep. Nicole Malliotakis recently announced millions in new health-care funding for 9/11 first responders and survivors.

The congresswoman made the announcement in front of FDNYs Rescue 5/Engine 160 firehouse in Concord on Friday as she stood among dozens of first responders.

Sadly, Staten Island has seen hundreds of people die, and we are a community that has really lost so much, not just on September 11 but in the 22 years since, said Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn). Today, were here because Im proud to say that the United States Congress was able to do something that was needed -- which was to extend the funding in the National Defense Authorization Act.

The bill, signed into law at the end of 2023, included a bipartisan amendment endorsed by Malliotakis that adds an additional $444 million to address the budget shortfall of the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program, ensuring adequate funding until 2029. In addition, $232 million was added to extend the coverage for military and civilian 9/11 first responders who responded to the attack at the Pentagon and the site of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The funding will allow the WTC Health Program, established in 2001 by Congress, to continue covering the medical treatment for those first responders and survivors who span across all 50 states.

So really, this is something that was one day, but now 22 years later we are still seeing suffering among so many, Malliotakis said.

According to the FDNY, there are 11,000 firefighters who suffer from WTC-related diseases, including 3,500 who have cancer. This includes a retired Staten Island firefighter, Michael Daly of Great Kills, who died at age 56 this past November after fighting a very long battle with 9/11 related illnesses.

I speak on behalf of also the 120,000 people effected by the effects of 9/11 and also having firsthand experience -- having a member of my family, my father, being effected by the outcome of 9/11 and suffering for over eight years with a significant cancer, and eventually succumbing to that illness, said Jim Brosi, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, addressing those at Fridays announcement. (Staten Island Advance/ Priya Shahi)Priya Shahi

I speak on behalf of also the 120,000 people effected by the effects of 9/11 and also having firsthand experience -- having a member of my family, my father, being effected by the outcome of 9/11 and suffering for over eight years with a significant cancer, and eventually succumbing to that illness, said Jim Brosi, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, who spoke at Fridays announcement. I can tell you that the one caveat that made that process bearable, that made it somewhat humane, was the fact that we had access to very good coverage, if not the best coverage, in the world.

He added that addressing the impact helps ease worries about bills, access and having the best chance for a long life despite past exposures. Although the exposure from the attacks cant be undone, he thanked advocates like Malliotakis who help keep the issue in the spotlight.

For us, 9/11 wasnt just one day. Its been 8,000 days, and that sacrifice continues every single day, said Patrick Hendry, president of the NYC Police Benevolent Association, during Fridays event. (Staten Island Advance/ Priya Shahi)Priya Shahi

For us, 9/11 wasnt just one day. Its been 8,000 days, and that sacrifice continues every single day. Weve lost over 330 police officers to 9/11-related illnesses, and thousands more rely on that medical care that the World Trade Center Health Program provides. That funding is necessary, said Patrick Hendry, president of the NYC Police Benevolent Association, during Fridays event.

Representatives from the following unions were also at the event: NYPD Detectives Endowment Association; NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association; NYPD Captains Endowment Association; Uniformed Firefighters Association; Emergency Medical Services Local 2507; NYPD Lieutenants Benevolent Association, and the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A new shimmery pink, limited-edition Stanley cup has gone viral  prompting hundreds of people to camp at their local Target store for a chance to purchase it.

The 40-ounce Starbucks X Stanley Quencher cups were sold exclusively at Target for $49.95 starting last week. The trendy tumblers were special-edition cups in collaboration with Starbucks for Valentines Day. Stanley cups  specifically the Quencher tumblers  are the companys top-selling product. Thats due to a rise in popularity of the cups on social media.

So are the cups still available to buy?

Almost all Target and Starbucks locations have reported the cups are sold out  but you could get lucky if you find one tucked away on a shelf.

A Starbucks representative told USA Today that the cups wont be restocked in stores.

So if youre desperate for that cup, youll likely have to find someone re-selling the item. According to USA Today, the cups have already appeared upcharged on third-party e-commerce and re-seller sites like eBay. In fact, the tumbler is selling for as much as $550 on eBay.

The upcharges come after the limited-edition cups caused chaos at multiple Target stores across the country.

Videos on social media emerged that showed lines outside stores and crowds scrambling to get their hands on the item. Two other limited-edition cups  bubblegum pink and cherry red  also sold out quickly.

The cups were available in-store and online nationwide while supplies lasted.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  As part of an ongoing defamation lawsuit filed by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani against President Biden, a Staten Island-based attorney representing Giuliani is part of a legal team eyeing bank records for campaign organizations that backed the president during his 2020 run for office.

The lawsuit, being heard in the U.S. District Court, District of New Hampshire, alleges in part that Biden  backed by said campaign groups facilitated by multiple banks also named as defendants in the suit falsely stated during a televised debate that Giuliani was being used as a Russian pawn, and that he was being fed information that is Russian that is not true.

Because Biden is currently president now, his part in the allegations most likely will be stayed until he is out of office. The banks named in the suit do not have the same option.

Staten Island-based attorney Lou Diamond, an attorney for Giuliani, said Sunday he believes the banks will want to settle before they could be questioned in open court about what Biden accusers claim to be money from foreign nations, in return for political favors. The campaign groups named in the suit include Biden for President, Biden Victory Fund, Biden Action Fund and Biden Baldwin Victory Fund.

We want to lock in that he has an (unknown) source of income, and we want to know what that source is, said Diamond. If anyone is a pawn he is.

House Republicans recently voted to authorize an impeachment inquiry to determine whether Biden used his office as vice president to shape foreign policy in Ukraine for the benefit of his son, Hunter. House investigators have yet to demonstrate any concrete evidence of wrongdoing.

The president denied those allegations, saying the conspiracy theory was a Russian plant and that President Trump and Giuliani were pushing the false information.

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council in the Indian Treaty Room on the White House campus, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Washington. The House on Wednesday authorized the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, with every Republican rallying behind the politically charged process despite lingering concerns among some in the party that the investigation has yet to produce evidence of misconduct by the president. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)AP

Giuliani has contended that Bidens comments were discredited by the FBI weeks before the 2020 debate.

Diamond, who has been friends with Giuliani for decades, said previously they will push to depose the president in court.

Attorneys for the president have requested until Jan. 25 to respond to an amended civil complaint from Giulianis camp, documents show.

Defense attorney William Christie, of the Shaheen Gordon firm, did not return a request for comment. Nor did the White House.

At a recent press conference announcing the lawsuit, Giuliani accused the press of forcing on us an American president who is a pathological liar.

His lies cost me a good deal of my law practice, they cost me directly a good deal of my 1 million person audience on Common Sense, where I was cut off by YouTube which operates as a co-conspirator in another conspiracy of Bidens which was to suppress free speech; it cost me clients in my consulting business.

I havent calculated the amount... but its in the millions and billions of dollars.

Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani leaves the federal courthouse in Washington, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy, days after being ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation lawsuit. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)AP

GIULIANI FOUND GUILTY OF DEFAMATION

In December, a jury awarded $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers who sued Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020, which led to harassment and racist threats, the Associated Press reported.

Facing several other legal issues and an inability to pay other attorneys, he filed for bankruptcy days later.

The verdict in Georgia followed testimony from Wandrea Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who tearfully described becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Republicans as they tried to keep then-President Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.

The former Mayor has vowed to appeal the decision, while Diamond contends the damages in fact provide favorable yard stick for his client, when it is found that he was a victim of defamation on a televised event. What could be more far reaching than making false accusations during a national debate, said Diamond.

His client, he furthered, can draw a more direct line to the financial losses hes suffered.
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BEIRUT, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A senior Hezbollah commander and another member of the Shiite military group were killed on Monday in an Israeli drone attack targeting their car in the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Selm, Hezbollah said in a statement.

Wissam Hassan Tawil, a high-level commander from Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, was killed along with Adham Cherri, in the Israeli attack earlier in the morning, said the military group.

Confrontations on the Lebanon-Israel border intensified on Monday, with Israel targeting several Lebanese villages that include Marwahin and Aita al-Shaab. At the same time, Hezbollah announced that its fighters struck the Israeli Ya'ara Barracks.

The Lebanon-Israel border witnessed increased tension since Oct. 8 after Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets toward Israel in support of the Hamas attacks on Israel the previous day, prompting Israel to respond by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.

The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have killed 209 on the Lebanese side, including 154 Hezbollah members and 35 civilians, according to Lebanese security sources. 
Cabin layout The National Transportation Safety Board, which arrived on the scene in Portland within hours of the incident, will examine Boeings manufacturing process for the 737 Max 9 as it investigates what may have led to the panels blowout. Jennifer Homendy, the safety agencys chair, said at a press conference that components around the door opening, including hinges and stop fittings, as well as the pressurisation, would be of particular interest. Boeings former Wichita, Kansas-based subsidiary builds about 70 per cent of the 737s frame set, according to Spirits website. The green aluminum fuselages are shipped by rail to Boeings factory in Renton, Washington state, where wings, tails and interiors are installed. These include different cabin configurations depending on the seating density. In the stretched Max 9, customers can opt for additional emergency exits so that cabins can squeeze in more seats. Alaska Air and United Airlines Holdings opted to cover the door-shaped opening with a plug thats indiscernible from the inside of the plane. Investigators will likely look into how the doors are plugged and even question why they exist if they could come open, Healing said.

The hinged section is secured by four bolts and opens outward from the top, according to Chris Brady, a former head of the UK Flight Safety Committee. Something must have been amiss with at least one of those bolts, he said on a video posted to Youtube. Boeings global president and chief executive, Dave Calhoun. Credit: Jamila Toderas Spirit has struggled with quality issues, high worker turnover, labour strife and financial stress since the COVID pandemic and 2019 Max grounding. New chief executive Pat Shanahan is shaking up operations and has struck a new pact with Boeing to put its top supplier on better footing.

Troubled history The Alaska Air scare prompted US regulators to order emergency inspections for about 171 of Boeings Max 9 models worldwide. While the disruption to air travel is likely to be short-lived  the inspections only take four to eight hours per jet  the repercussions will likely still be lingering when Calhoun outlines his road map for the year to investors during a January 31 earnings call. Its not good for anybody, especially given this aircrafts history, said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at aviation consultant AeroDynamic Advisory. In the background of this, there is bad need for cultural changes that put senior corporate management more closely in touch with the design and manufacture of aircraft. Boeing said it supported the grounding and that it was in close touch with the regulator and with customers. A technical team from the US plane maker is supporting the probe. For his part, Calhoun, who has led Boeing since early 2020, had previously cautioned that the road to a brighter future would be bumpy. When we set our recovery plans, we knew issues would come up along the way, Calhoun said in a memo to workers in late October. This is a complex long-cycle business and enduring change takes time.

Its too soon to know what caused the door plug to fail during the Alaska Air flight, and whether Boeing or Spirit made critical missteps. Boeing has ultimate responsibility for ensuring an aircraft is airworthy. Every jet in final assembly undergoes pressure tests to find leaks and ensure doors are sealed. And in the aftermath of the Max tragedies  where almost 350 people died in crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019  Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspectors must sign off before the workhorse jets are handed off to customers. Zero defects One of the consequences of the Alaska Air incident may be a slower increase to the 737 manufacturing pace than Boeing had planned for the year. The plane maker faces immense pressure to return its factories to 2019 rates at a time when customers are clamouring for the latest aircraft, and investors are expecting cash generation to surge.

Before the incident, analysts had predicted that Boeing would deliver about 580 of their 737-series jetliners this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Thats a considerable jump from the 375 to 400 deliveries that the company targeted for 2023. A delivery surge would also propel Boeing to its first annual profit since Calhoun took over as CEO. Loading There is a risk of having to slow down the ramp, said Aboulafia. The aftermath could well be time-consuming and a diversion of resources. As the latest Max crisis unfolded, Boeings commercial airplanes chief, Stan Deal, and Brad McMullen, the senior vice president of sales, led teams of people reaching out to keep customers ahead of fast-moving developments. Hours before the FAA acted, United Airlines, the biggest operator of the Max 9 variant, had already begun pulling planes out of service at Boeings direction, starting with five Max 9 built in a similar time frame to the Alaska Air jet.
When I was 12 years old, my parents gave me a choice. I could stay at the leafy-green Perth private school Id cracked into that year on an academic scholarship, or move to a selective public school.

At the time, I shrugged my shoulders: I liked where I was, but wondered what a change might bring. In a decision that felt like a coin toss, I went down the public school path.

Illustration: Andrew Dyson

My decision was not guided by whether I might ultimately earn more as a graduate of a public rather than private school. But that is a preoccupation for aspirational parents who often pay huge premiums to send their children to private schools, ranging from relatively lower-fee Catholic system schools to exclusive institutions charging more than $45,000 a year.

The huge cost many families are willing to cop suggests there are benefits to kids attending private school.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Historian and heritage specialist James Lesh is quoted as saying there is little to no evidence that heritage is a barrier to housing supply (Tug-of-war in the inner west set to hit home across the city, January 8). The attack on heritage is in effect the same land grab on older inner-city areas that developers ran in the late 60s and early 70s, a campaign all about developer profits and not about affordability of housing or good urban planning. We are indeed in a housing crisis, but levelling our oldest, densest suburbs and removing the little architectural heritage we have wont make housing more affordable. The market has created and continues to drive unaffordable housing and the only solution is for governments to step in and re-build social housing to the level it was in the 1970s. The federal government must also abolish negative gearing and impose a capital gains tax on second and further housing. As for areas with little in the way of heritage, perhaps the post-war commuter belt suburbs along the East Hills, Illawarra and Northern railway lines would offer both big blocks and easy access to public transport within 30 minutes of the city centre. Colin Hesse, Marrickville Three Californian bungalows and a church in MacArthur Parade up for heritage listing. Credit: Janie Barrett Young people want to live in inner suburbs precisely because of scale and character, not just accessibility. The pro-development lobby must know that land values alone in heritage inner suburbs will render new builds widely unaffordable. And older houses are often replaced by huge modern ones, not affordable housing. We have to stop viewing housing as a means of wealth-creation. And government urban planners, not developers alone, must step up and design the kind of sympathetic low to medium-density housing you see in, say, Amsterdam suburbs. Alison Stewart, Riverview Residents who seek to protect the historic character of Sydneys early suburbs and who provide important feedback to ensure development is good aesthetically and environmentally have not created the housing crisis; the fault lies with years of policy failure resulting in the commodification of housing, and vast greenfield, low-rise developments that lack infrastructure. There is no evidence that heritage protections limit supply significantly, but tweaking of heritage protections to allow dual occupancies can be achieved. It is largely the built form and streetscapes that attract people to places such as Balmain and Summer Hill. Wrecking that character based on incorrect assumptions is in nobodys interest, except developers. Marie Healy, Hurlstone Park The concern about removing heritage listing from suburbs is perfectly understandable. State governments have ridden roughshod over the desires of locals and councils about the way suburbs and communities should develop. Planning about how to best increase densities has been almost non-existent and by default has been handed over to developers who are dominated by nothing other than profits. The result for communities has been totally negative. Until state governments can do better than an all encompassing rezoning of 400 metres around transport hubs and add some thoughtful planning to the issue then communities have every reason to be concerned. Geoff Wannan, Dawes Point Religious freedom or the right to religious coercion? With the exception of the right to actually have children, the rights of parents are neither fundamental nor foundational (Firing staff for sexual ethics at stake, January 8). They are instead derivative, derived from the rights of their children, and so subordinate to those rights. Parents do not have a right to have their children treated in a way that harms other children, and forcing LGBTQI students to hide their sexuality lest they be expelled harms them immensely. Martin Bibby, Beecroft

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Religious schools lobby groups claim that it would be a breach of religious freedoms to remove their current exemptions from the Anti-Discrimination Act. They claim they must be able to hire or fire staff on the grounds of adherence to their definitions of Christian ethics, especially on sexual matters. What they are arguing for is not religious freedom, but the right to engage in religious coercion. They want to retain the backing of the state to compel their staff to adhere to religious teachings around permissible sexuality, on pain of dismissal from employment. This is an outrage.

Schools are taking government money to engage in discrimination of the sort that it is rightly illegal for the government to perform in public schools. Religious organisations should have their Anti-Discrimination Act exemptions removed for any activity they perform with the assistance of public funds. Greg Platt, Wyoming How far could such unkind discrimination take us if taken to its logical conclusion? Clearly religious freedom must be a qualified right. Its time the churches accepted that they operate in a pluralistic society with a firm division between the church and the state. Sue Adams, Dulwich Hill Each census shows that more and more Australians are losing their religion, yet religious groups are demanding the right to discriminate against LGBTQI groups, including by expelling students. As LGBTQI groups are also Australian taxpayers, any move to grant or continue the right of religious groups to hurt others should mean that such groups do not receive one cent of taxpayer funding. Pauline Croxon, Undercliffe Parents should have the right to choose a school which reflects their beliefs, whether that is for a secular or religious education. Teachers know what the ethos of a school is and should expect to operate within that ethos. I dont understand why teachers would choose to work in a school whose beliefs they dont support. These are very simple principles which deserve to be respected; I can see no benefit in having schools dragged through the courts for upholding their advertised faith. Vivienne Parsons, Thornleigh Northern Ireland not a model for the Middle East Ray Bassett writes that Northern Ireland found a path to peace. Are there lessons for Israel/Hamas (An Irish lesson for Middle East, January 8)? However, he neglects to inform the reader that the Northern Irish government is dysfunctional and hasnt operated for several years, with the two extremes of the political divide refusing to cooperate with each other. The Northern Ireland power-sharing arrangement needs to be redesigned so that, if extremists wont cooperate, centrists can govern instead. Peter Marshall, Captain Flat An Irish lesson for the Middle East? Credit: Jim Pavlidis

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I agree with Ray Bassetts observation that unless there is some form of communication, there is no path to peace. However, I think he avoided the underlying tenets which need to be sorted out. In the case of Northern Ireland, the Irish constitution claimed that the whole of the island was Ireland - a point which the population of Northern Ireland, who wished to remain part of the UK, did not accept. The resolution to this was achieved by the Irish government agreeing to arrange a referendum to change their constitution so that the Republic of Ireland no longer claimed Northern Ireland. In the Middle East there is a similar set of mutually exclusive tenets regarding the existence of Israel. It seems that Hamas believes Israel should not exist whilst Israel believes it should. Unless at least this is sorted (never mind the myriad other issues), I fear there is unlikely to be a lasting peace - but talking is certainly the path to get there. Juan Roberson, Leura Plain sight As a person who may be a particularly likely target of hate and violence by neo-Nazis, I think that the ban on public self-identification is a grave mistake, forcing them underground (Nationwide ban on display and trade of Nazi hate symbols now in effect, smh.com.au, January 8). Id prefer them to be easily identified so that the threat they pose is in plain sight. Andrew Cohen, Glebe Boys club The Liberals just dont get it (Libs fear as gender out of balance, January 8). Despite exposed misogyny and losses to the teals, their policy of selection on merit has failed to increase female representation. This is because their culture and basic fabric is the old boys club, which is opposed to and frightened of progressive change. Thus, the dominance of white men in their preselections and their opposition to any progressive policy, whether it be tax, climate, indigenous affairs or social welfare. This also explains their nine years of governing inertia, the elections of Abbott, Morrison and Dutton, the emasculation of Malcolm Turnbull and why Bridget Archer is in Coventry. To be an effective party again, they need grass root and administrative change, lose their tin ears and once again be a broad church. Rowan Godwin, Rozelle Todays piece on women and the Liberal party reminds me of the famous Churchill quote, I no longer listen to what people say. I just watch what they do. Behaviour never lies. The internecine war within the Coalition around gender is both long-running and self-defeating. Think of Julie Bishop, Julia Banks and Bridget Archer as examples. All moderates, all outspoken independent thinkers and advocates, all well-respected and ultimately either resigning or placed under constant pressure internally to tow the party line. Look at the rise of the teals; invariably a woman candidate, at the cost of Liberal seats. Not even the co-author of the 2022 election review; Jane Hume, would comment. A dreadful position to be in considering that Elizabeth Couchman was one of the original founders of the Liberal Party. I wonder if female Liberal ministers would have given us the robodebt debacle?

Bernard Stever, Richmond Liberal MP Bridget Archer Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

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While gendered preselection is a problem for the Liberal Party, a bigger problem is policies. As things stand the party seems to be more focused on the past decade than the next. Lindsay Foyle, Stanmore Do Dutton and the Libs not understand that the only way to win back their traditional seats is to preselect high-profile, successful women to take on the teals? Denis Suttling, Newport Beach On behalf of Messrs Dutton and Littleproud, I would like to know if any of these women wanting to get into politics know how to cook and when to keep silent in the presence of a man? If not, how dare they think they can represent a Coalition electorate? David Neilson, Araluen (NT) It looks like the Liberal Party have got the wrong end of the problem. Its not preselecting more women but getting more women to join the party and attend branch meetings. Until this is done, there will not be a significant pool of talented women to select from. And, in any event, the views of women in the development of party policy would be invaluable. It simply beggars belief that a long-established party has not bothered to accommodate the 50 per cent of the talent available. Pasquale Vartuli, Wahroonga Outdated disaster How refreshing to see the Australian Federal Police come out strongly against that organised and outdated disaster called Summernats (Police investigate brawl involving crowd safety staff at Summernats car festival, January 8). Is it any wonder that rev-heads juiced up on alcohol end in violent confrontations? The police spokesman saying that these people havent evolved very far and that an IQ station should be policed at the border is refreshing. John Kingsmill, Fairlight Summernats car in the burnout competition. Credit: Photo: Martin Ollman

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Swim schools With the number of tragic drownings occurring, swimming education should be readily available to all students (Ninth drowning in two weeks as man dies on NSW Central Coast, January 8). The Department of Education does provide learn to swim programs. However some schools have forgone, or greatly reduced their participation, in these life saving programs. The excessive cost of bus hire is a major factor in substantially increasing the costs. Full access to all students, regardless of socio- economic circumstances, will save lives. John Cotterill, Kingsford Dead boring The recent correspondence describing listening to Peter Dutton as feeling like being lectured by an undertaker reminds me of the description of Margaret Thatcher as talking to you like your dog had just died (Letters, January 8). Aidan Cuddington, Umina Beach Silence of the lambs Pity about the almost 650,000 young lambs that were transported to slaughter before Christmas because of an oversupply(Lamb price heads down as farmers cull herds, January 8). Janine Burdeu, Mona Vale

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A man who was arrested and charged after intervening in a homophobic attack during Sydney WorldPride has successfully overturned his conviction and says he intends to help other victims.

Mirco Olivieri, a 30-year-old member of the LGBTQI community, attended the pride festival with a friend in January 2023.

People take part in a march for equality during Sydney WorldPride last year. Credit: Dean Sewell

The fashion consultant was walking past a kebab shop near Stonewall Hotel on Oxford Street in Darlinghurst when he saw two large men harassing a young gay man named Jack Schmidt.

After Olivieri intervened, he was pushed to the ground and was called a homophobic slur, according to court documents.
Fees at some of Sydneys private schools will hit almost $50,000 this year, as inflationary pressures, rising salaries and intense competition for teachers ramp up the costs of education.

At least 20 independent schools will charge parents more than $40,000 for year 12 tuition plus extra levies in 2024. Some of the highest-fee institutions plan to lift their fees by more than 10 per cent.

Independent Catholic school Kincoppal-Rose Bay will lift fees for year 12 to $43,168 in 2024. Credit: Louise Kennerley

Three weeks before the start of the 2024 academic year, however, some private schools, including Kambala in Rose Bay, have yet to issue fee advice to parents. This has prompted speculation that the $50,000 barrier could still be topped this year.

In a letter to parents, Kincoppal-Rose Bays council chair, Mark Sinclair, said the school had not been immune to rising costs for transport, technology, energy, insurance and maintenance. These increases have also come at a time when government funding to the school is being reduced, he wrote.
Police have launched a global appeal to find James Dalamangas, considered one of Australias most wanted men, warning time is now of the essence as an end date looms to prosecute him in Greece over his alleged involvement in a Sydney nightclub murder.

NSW Police State Crime Command detectives and the Australian Federal Police believe Dalamangas is still living in Greece, having left Sydney soon after the fatal incident almost 25 years ago.

A photo of James Dalamangas (left) and an age progression photo of him. Credit: AFP

Dalamangas is wanted over the fatal stabbing of father-of-two George Giannopoulos at a nightclub in Belmore, in Sydneys south-west, on April 25, 1999. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he has never been found.

Detectives have released an age progression photo of Dalamangas, who would now be aged 53 or 54. Police say he is approximately 182 centimetres tall, has brown hair, brown eyes and a Greek inscription tattoo on his right forearm. He may be using the names James, Jim or Tim with the surnames Dimitrious or Kanis.
Police arrested four teenagers in Brisbanes northside after they allegedly stole an Audi S3.

But Queenslands newly appointed Acting Assistant Commissioner for Youth Crime, Andrew Massingham, was frank when he laid out polices plan to address youth crime in 2024.

What we need to do is determine those youths that are the most violent, and act swiftly, he said.

Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham: We will stem the flow of juvenile offending, but that cannot be done by arrest alone.

Massingham, who most recently was Brisbanes regional crime co-ordinator, spoke after four teenagers were arrested in the citys northside, alleged to have stolen an Audi S3 from Bardon. Police chased them down using a helicopter and the dog squad.

One of the teenagers, police said, had five warrants out for his arrest, and was a known repeat offender across Brisbane, with five burglaries, seven unlawful uses of cars, and property crimes to his name. The 16-year-old Chermside West boy also allegedly livestreamed from the Audi with the police in pursuit.
Qantas budget airline Jetstar has decided not to make wing-edge adjustments to its older planes to reduce noise over Brisbane.

Jetstar will instead push ahead with adding newer, quieter A321neo aircraft to its fleet, after a business case ruled out adding vortex generators to the wings of its older A320 planes.

Brisbane community groups are questioning Jetstars decision not to retrofit noise restrictions measures on older planes, instead pushing ahead with quieter newer planes. Credit: Louie Douvis

We have completed a detailed assessment of fitting vortex generators to our existing Airbus A320 fleet which weights up the cost of installation, the impact to our flight schedule of taking aircraft out of service to complete the work, and the extent of the benefits which are very limited, a Jetstar spokesperson said.

Currently, we are not planning to proceed with installation.
BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Monday called for advancing the Party's self-reform and winning the tough and protracted battle against corruption.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. 
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has knocked back a major project near Melbourne, undermining plans for a wind farm, because it would require dredging and seabed reclamation in internationally recognised wetlands.

Queensland conservationists say the decision should set a precedent for the Walker Corporations Toondah Harbour project. Plibersek is still considering whether to allow a 400-berth marina and 3600 apartments to be built at Cleveland on similarly recognised wetlands in Moreton Bay.

The Cleveland site is one of Australias protected wetland areas because of international wading birds, dugong, dolphins and other marine species.

The Walker Groups latest images for the controversial $1.4 billion Toondah Harbour development at Cleveland. Cassim Island, used as a roosting site by international migratory birds, is in the foreground. Credit: Walker Group

Plibersek rejected an application to build the land-side infrastructure required to construct an offshore wind farm near the Victorian town of Hastings.
Thank you for joining our live coverage of the Victorian floods, that will be it from us tonight.

The blog will return on Tuesday morning, as the flood emergency continues to evolve throughout the state.

Here is a look at some of the major news from Monday:

Evacuation orders have been issued for parts of Rochester , Seymour as fast-rising water threatens to inundate homes and trap anyone who stays behind.

, as fast-rising water threatens to inundate homes and trap anyone who stays behind. For much of Yea , it is now too late to leave and people are being urged to seek shelter on high ground if possible.

, it is now too late to leave and people are being urged to seek shelter on high ground if possible. In Rochester , which experienced devastating floods in October 2022, about 35 homes are at risk of above-floor flooding and another 250 could see overland flooding.

, which experienced devastating floods in October 2022, about 35 homes are at risk of above-floor flooding and another 250 could see overland flooding. In Seymour , nearly 200 homes are at risk of flooding, with 50 homes immediately at risk of seeing over-floor flooding and another 140 that could see flooding below-floor level.

, nearly 200 homes are at risk of flooding, with 50 homes immediately at risk of seeing over-floor flooding and another 140 that could see flooding below-floor level. Rainfall records were broken across central parts of the state; Heathcote recorded a whopping 184mm in 24 hours. Thats three months worth of rain in a day. Rochester , also broke a 120-year daily record, recording 125mm and in Bendigo there was 92mm in 24 hours, the most amount of rain in 90 years.

recorded a whopping 184mm in 24 hours. Thats three months worth of rain in a day. , also broke a 120-year daily record, recording 125mm and in there was 92mm in 24 hours, the most amount of rain in 90 years. The SES responded to 1200 calls for help, and emergency services carried out 38 water rescues. They urged Victorians not to drive through floodwaters, warning it could be the last decision they make.

Our live blog will continue to be free for all readers due to the importance of this information.

Please stay safe and we will see you all in the morning.
A blindsided Victorian government is scrambling to meet its offshore wind target timeline after the federal government rejected a new terminal at the Port of Hastings, with project documents showing the decision could throw the states energy transition into disarray.

Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos on Monday said the state was undeterred and would consider next steps after his federal counterpart, Tanya Plibersek, refused Commonwealth approvals for the Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal  a proposed hub for offshore wind farm construction south-east of Melbourne  over concerns of breaching international guidelines.

The decision has left Victoria trying to ensure it can meet its legislated targets of building 2 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2032 and nine gigawatts by 2040. Applications for state environmental approvals submitted by the state-owned Port of Hastings show the swift development of the project was critical to this goal.

The expeditious development of this project is essential to meet the Victorian governments offshore wind targets, the application says.
Shortages of bus drivers and buses needed for the additional 1400 services to replace trains when a busy suburban rail line is shut for a year have potential to make the ongoing Rozelle Interchange traffic snarl look like a picnic.

Bankstown line passengers will be forced into the nightmare of catching replacement buses along congested roads. Credit: Edwina Pickles

Amid a chronic shortage of drivers and fears of worsening road congestion, replacement buses will have to carry up to 60,000 passengers each weekday during the 12-month shutdown of the rail line between Bankstown and Sydenham from as early as July to allow it to be converted to handle driverless metro trains. Ahead of the 12-month shutdown, the rail line is being closed for a month  from December 27 to January 25  as well as for two weeks from April 13 to 28.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union divisional secretary David Babineau told the Heralds transport and infrastructure editor Matt OSullivan there was not the capacity to cope with the tens of thousands of passengers who would have to catch replacement buses each day during the closure. We havent got drivers, and we havent got enough buses.

Babineau, who is also a member of the state governments bus industry task force, warned that the T3 Bankstown lines work was poorly considered and ill-timed, saying that it would create a greater shortage of drivers elsewhere in Sydney, which already needed up to 300 recruits to plug vacancies.
Hogg ended up subjected to horrific domestic violence in the five years she was involved with her former abuser, the final attack leaving her in a nine-month-long induced coma. She suffered lifelong brain injuries and physical wounds so bad that at one point, doctors wouldnt let her look in a mirror. But like so many other women have found, the precursor to her ordeal seemed innocuous: small financial red flags. Now based in Western Australia, the victim-survivor and advocate has decided to share her story alongside the launch of an Economic Abuse Reference Group in the state: the story of how her money was weaponised against her and how the abuse plagued her for years, even after she had left him. How to leave an abuser

When Hogg began having to go to work with black eyes, she confided in her bosses, asking them to take her work car off her to avoid further confrontation. Incidents kept occurring, however, and Hogg began the process of detaching from her abuser financially by cancelling her credit cards, opening new bank accounts and moving house. Loading Despite the abuse, which included significant assaults after which she had to be hospitalised several times for head injuries, Hogg said she kept going back to her abuser, making excuses for him. Until about five years into the relationship, when she almost lost her life to another of his attacks. In late 2016 during an argument, he punched her about 10 times in the face, choked her until she was unconscious and stomped on her head.

She remembered passing out and police trying to rouse her, shaking her and asking if she was OK. Hogg was placed in a coma for nine months as medicos tried to save her swollen brain from further damage. When I did come to, I had had some horrific injuries, I had my eye socket smashed, half of my teeth were missing, I had severed tendons in my foot where he cut my foot open with a steel tin, she said. They didnt show me a mirror  just so that I could mentally get my head around it [first]. Her abuser was sentenced to 6 years in prison over the attack.

It took her 18 months to learn to walk and talk properly again and her financial wounds made her recovery much harder. I had that much debt that just carried with me for three years, and it affected how I recovered as well; because I was in debt I went into public housing, she said. I just went, look, if this is what its going to cost me to get away and get away freely, Im just going to have to pay, she said on accepting the debts that he hard run up for her. The shocking number of WA women being financially abused Swan MP Zaneta Mascarenhas has recently led a private members bill in federal parliament urging the end to violence against women and said through doorknocking her electorate she heard dozens of stories of financial abuse.

Loading She said it was a form of domestic violence not well understood or labelled but was a powerful instrument to control someones behaviour, often with children caught in the crossfire whose ability to participate in schooling and sport was then compromised. A shocking 36 per cent of the 1000 WA residents surveyed for the recent Hidden Costs Report, launched during last years 16 Days in WA domestic violence campaign, had experienced financial abuse. This commonly meant a partner using all their partners pay for joint expenses but retaining theirs for personal use (62 per cent), refusing to contribute financially (52 per cent), and exerting complete financial control (50 per cent). The Consumer Credit Legal Service deals with dozens of financial abuse cases every week but chief executive Bev Jowle said it was still an underreported and unrecognised issue in the broader community.

We know that womens refuges and womens services to see it continually, she said. It can go on for decades and leave women in absolute poverty. Jowle is forcing the issue with policymakers and organisations that can help, such as banks. Along with organisations like Womens Legal Service WA, and the Centre for Womens Safety and Wellbeing Jowle helped establish the WA chapter of the Economic Abuse Reference Group late last year. She said the national model, looking into the prevalence of and solutions to financial abuse, had put the issue on the agenda for banks, governments and regulators, but it had lacked a WA focus.
Beirut: Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in a strike in south Lebanon on Monday, sources familiar with the groups operations said, inflicting a heavy blow after three months of hostilities at the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.

Wissam al-Tawil was a commander of Hezbollahs elite Radwan forces and the most senior Hezbollah officer killed so far in the conflict, a senior source in Lebanon said, adding he played a leading role in directing its operations in the south.

An undated picture showing senior Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil. Credit: AP

More than 130 Hezbollah fighters including Radwan members have been killed in hostilities since the groups Palestinian ally Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on October 7, igniting a conflict that has rippled around the region.

It has marked the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah since they went to war in 2006, with Hezbollah firing guided rockets and other weapons at Israeli positions and Israel launching air and artillery strikes.
A day before, the Biden-Harris campaign blasted out excerpts from a Margaret Sullivan column in The Guardian, upbraiding the media on its tendency to fall into performative neutrality, focusing too much on Bidens presentation and poll numbers and not enough on stressing what a second Trump presidency would mean. Loading Journalists should not fear looking as if theyre in the tank for Biden if they zero in on Trumps seditious behaviour, Sullivan said; the media should worry less about the horse race than about underscoring that many of Trumps threats are authoritarian. She is right that the media must constantly remind itself not to use old tropes on a new trollop like Trump, particularly since the media is in a confluence of interest with Trump  as he himself has pointed out. Thanks to Trump, journalists can be festooned with gold  lucrative book contracts, TV deals and speaking gigs. The man who enriched himself with millions from foreign states and royalty seeking favours from the United States has the power to enrich us, too. Hes a once-in-a-lifetime story, the outlandish star of an even bigger reality show than his last.

He put up a video on Truth Social on Friday touting the idea that God created him as a caretaker and shepherd to mankind. (It also chided Melania, showing her tripping and acting as if all she had to do was lunch with friends.) A narrator intones: God said, I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, fix this country, work all day, fight the Marxists, eat supper, then go to the Oval Office and stay past midnight at a meeting of the heads of state, topping off a hard week with Sunday church. So God made Trump. It was bound to happen: Trump playing divine victim, to pass himself off as Christlike or even hardworking. Both are equally untrue. At his Friday afternoon speech in Sioux Center, Iowa, Trump resorted to his bully-boy ways, mocking Bidens stutter. Donald Trump supporters storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Credit: AP I am not sure whether pounding away on the facts will work in a country with alternate realities. According to a new Washington Post/University of Maryland poll, 25 per cent of Americans said it is probably or definitely true that the FBI was behind January 6. Among Republicans, the Post said, 34 per cent said the FBI organised and encouraged the insurrection, compared with 30 per cent of independents and 13 per cent of Democrats.

If people dont know by now that Trump tried to overthrow the government he was running on January 6; if they dont know that the MAGA fanatics breaking into the Capitol, beating up cops and threatening to harm Pelosi and hang Mike Pence were criminals, not patriots and hostages, as Trump risibly calls them; if they dont know that Trump created the radical Supreme Court that is stripping women of their rights, then they dont want to know, or they just dont care. But the media must pound on. The duplicitous enablers at Fox News aside, journalists learnt a lot in 2016 and have changed practices to better fence with Trump, fact-checking him more closely, engaging in defensive reporting, no longer covering every tweet like holy writ. Threats to democracy now count as a beat, just like schools and courts; the Times uses the rubric Democracy Challenged. Loading When Dick Cheney was a deranged vice president, I was not permitted to call him a liar in my column. But now the Times lets columnists call Trump a liar. We have learnt to separate the man from the office. Just because someone sits in the hallowed White House doesnt mean he deserves the respect of the office. Not if hes ginning up a fake war or if hes flirting with treason and white supremacy. Still, the Biden-Harris campaigns trumpeting of Sullivans column gives the impression that it expects the media to prop up the incumbent. Biden has to press his own case and not rely on the media or Trumps fatuousness to win the election for him.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Its midday in Americas Midwest and Im in a packed community hall in Iowa, praying for Donald Trump. A woman next to me has her head lowered, and her eyes closed as she stands in a black hoodie emblazoned with the words: Jesus Is My Saviour; Trump is My President. In front of me is a tall, lean man dressed as Abraham Lincoln, his top hat, white beard and bow tie making him the spitting image of the nations 16th leader. Supporters bow their heads in prayer before Donald Trumps commit to caucus rally in Clinton, Iowa. Credit: AP And on the stage is a local pastor, Dick Green, invoking the scriptures of the prophet Ezekiel: God looked for a man to stand in the gap, but none was found. God found one in Donald J Trump, Green says, as the audience cheers ahead of the former presidents scheduled appearance. Lord bless this rally and our time with president Trump. The road to the White House runs through Iowa, the agricultural state that has traditionally been the first in the US to nominate its chosen presidential candidate, kick-starting the general election.

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Here, amid the rolling plains, the evangelical churches and the hog farms of Americas pork capital, bedrock issues such as faith, freedom and the economy will take centre stage on January 15 when Republican Party members take part in the all-important Iowa caucuses. The event is where party members nominate their presidential candidate. Democrats in Iowa also plan to start their caucuses on the same day as Republicans but wont release the results until March 5. Do well here and youre likely to build momentum for primaries held in later states, such as New Hampshire and South Carolina. Do poorly, however, and it could be debilitating  potentially even ending a candidates campaign. Former president and now presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at a commit to caucus rally. Credit: AP With days until the first votes are cast, Ive decided to visit Iowa  incidentally, on the third anniversary of the US Capitol attack  to talk to voters at one of Trumps commit to caucus rallies. Ive covered many of the former presidents campaign events before, but these are somewhat smaller and more targeted, designed to galvanise his base and ensure they turn up next week to caucus on his behalf, so he secures the nomination ahead of his closest rivals: Florida governor Ron DeSantis and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley. After all, this is an election like no other: if the polls are to be believed, Trump remains the overwhelming frontrunner to become the Republican nominee, paving the way for a potential 2020 rematch with Joe Biden, despite facing 91 criminal charges.

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The incumbent president raised the stakes over the weekend, using his first campaign speech of the year to frame the contest as a fresh test for American democracy. But for Trumps supporters, who braved near-zero temperatures to gather in the city of Newton to see their man on Saturday, it is Biden and the Democrats who are the real threat: fuelling an invasion of illegal immigrants; allowing men to compete in womens sports; weaponising government to prosecute the leading candidate. I think its a witch-hunt; I think its all political, Knoxville resident Anna Heaton tells me when I ask what she thinks of Trumps legal woes. They want him out because he will win. One of the Trump faithful at the Iowa rally. Credit: Farrah Tomazin As for the Capitol riots, when Trump supporters stormed the historical Washington building, hoping to stop Bidens victory from being certified? He wasnt there, she says. You cant control what other people do. Its their choice, so I dont think he should have to be responsible. The first thing you notice at a Trump rally is the queue to get in. Trump wasnt due to speak until 1pm but I arrived about 9.30am after receiving an email the night before with guest instructions suggesting attendees come early.

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But by the time I got there, the line was already hundreds of people deep; soon enough, it was winding around the community centre car park. Most of the crowd were die-hard Trump fans, dressed in Trump MAGA beanies or F--- Biden caps, while volunteers with clipboards went around taking names and handing out I will caucus for Trump stickers. Loading One man pushed a small trolley filled with Trump merchandise for sale; another blasted the Beach Boys from the speaker of his Trump Tractor, which was painted in the stars and stripes of the American flag. Behind me, I notice a diverse group of university students, who turned out to be part of a study program overseen by Duke University in North Carolina. Among them is Andrew Sun, 20, who had spent the past few days with his colleagues attending caucus events across Iowa featuring DeSantis, Haley and another Republican candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy. Im a registered Democrat in North Carolina, so this experience has been more of a spectating experience, but its also been eye-opening, he says.

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I can disagree with a lot of the positions that are being put forward, but its still interesting to see how theyre communicating in order to activate people. Few politicians activate their base as much as Trump, whose grievance-fuelled brand of politics catapulted his political career in 2016 and has underpinned his comeback after losing the 2020 election. Heather Hora, a corn and soybean farmer who now represents a state district in south-east Iowa, reckons no one was stronger on China than Trump, who she says brought back common sense to agriculture. In Iowa, Andrew Sun (right) and his Duke University friends with a Trump fan dressed as Abraham Lincoln. Credit: Farrah Tomazin Michael Goodart says he wasnt initially a Trump supporter, but the thing that changed me was he actually followed through with his campaign promises. And Charlie McClintock laments Bidens economic record, insisting Bidenomics  the presidents push to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out  simply isnt working. It used to be that you could go make a pay cheque and get a little bit extra to put in the bank, he says. A lot of people out there now are living pay cheque to pay cheque, and its destroying the middle class, let alone people that are struggling to get food to eat, and heat their homes.

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Ghislaine Maxwell took Jeffrey Epstein to Britain to introduce him to Prince Andrew and other royalty, court documents have claimed.

The claim, made by Alfredo Rodriguez, the manager of Epsteins mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, casts doubt on Maxwells denial that she introduced the paedophile to Prince Andrew.

Prince Andrew with Jeffrey Epstein at a party at Mar-a-Lago in 2000. Melania Trump is on the left and US politician Gwendolyn Beck is third from left. Credit: Getty

What is your understanding as to how Prince Andrew is associated with Jeffrey Epstein? Rodriguez was asked.

Rodriguez answered: Because there were pictures with him together.
BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- China still boasts favorable conditions to attract foreign investment, an official with the country's Ministry of Commerce told the China Economic Roundtable hosted by Xinhua News Agency.

Noting that China was estimated to contribute around one-third of the global growth and remain the biggest engine of global economic development in 2023, Zhu stated that the fundamentals of China's sound economic development remained constant in the long run.

Zhu added that multinationals value the Chinese market's massive scale, innovative competitiveness, and attractiveness of global innovation factor resources.

From January to November 2023, China's high-tech industries attracted investment of 386.65 billion yuan (about 54.45 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 37.2 percent of total foreign direct investment volume. During the period, the number of new foreign-invested firms in China increased by 36.2 percent year-on-year.

The data reflects the effectiveness of a series of policies issued by the government, such as the Catalog of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment, support on the development of foreign-funded research and development centers, and expansion of foreign investment in the manufacturing sector.

At the annual Central Economic Work Conference held last month, the country also pledged to expand high-level opening up and reinforce the stable performance in foreign trade and foreign investment.

Looking ahead, Zhu noted that more efforts will be made to ease market access. For example, the ministry will work hard to eliminate all restrictions for foreign investors entering the manufacturing industry, intensify stress tests on opening up in pilot free trade zones, and deepen opening up in the service sector.

Many multinationals, according to Zhu, remain bullish on the Chinese market and committed to investing in China because "investing in China means investing in the future."

China Economic Roundtable is an all-media talk platform launched by Xinhua News Agency, with the third episode featuring the foreign trade and investment. 
If an item is on sale, should someone who steals it be able to get a deal as well?

That question was raised by a recent case in Colorado, where two men accused of stealing shoes, KitchenAid mixers and other items from a department store argued that they should face a lesser charge based on the sale prices of the items.

The court dismissed the argument that sale prices applied to the value of stolen goods. Credit: Natalie Boog

The argument was vitally important to their case. In Colorado, theft under $US2000 ($2980) is a misdemeanour punishable by up to a year in jail. But theft between $US2000 and $US5000 is a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison.

The district attorneys office argued that the documented value of the items was $US2094.98. That would make the theft a felony.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The General Audit Chamber has just presented its report titled "Auditing Public Travel and Parlatino Membership" to Parliament. This audit evaluates the efficiency, effectiveness, and compliance of travel-related activities to ensure that public funds are used in a responsible and transparent manner. Although travel can be a necessary component of government functioning, it is equally important for Members of Parliament (MPs), Ministers, and the civil service to adhere to established rules and regulations governing travel expenses. They can demonstrate responsible use of public funds and ensure transparency and fairness.

The regulations governing travel for MPs and Ministers allow them to travel in first or business class. Additionally, they are entitled to receive a per diem of ANG 720 per day. However, they are not required to provide accountability for how the per diem is used. Additionally, there is no requirement that any unused per diem funds be reimbursed. This lack of tracking and reporting obligations creates a gap in accountability, which could potentially lead to inappropriate spending.

The General Audit Chamber identified the highest travel expenses incurred by ministers and civil servants in a single business trip during 2022. Highlighting shortcomings in following regulations and policies, the Audit Chamber recommends improvements to address these issues. This is to ensure the efficient and effective use of public funds allocated for travel.

On Parliament's request, the Audit Chamber audited membership in Parlatino to evaluate its effectiveness. Parlatino is an intergovernmental organization, comprising of national parliaments of Latin American and Caribbean nations. Since joining in 2010, Parliament spent about ANG 2 million on travel expenses and membership fees.

The Audit Chamber has determined that membership in Parlatino presents both advantages and challenges compared to a regional approach. With this report, it aims to provide Parliament with the necessary insights to make a well-informed decision on the future direction.

The report recommends strategies to enhance transparency and accountability in public officials' travel due to the country's precarious financial situation.

The report is published in English and Dutch and is available on the General Audit Chamber website (www.arsxm.org) and via links on the General Audit Chambers social media platforms, Facebook and LinkedIn.
BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- China still boasts favorable conditions to attract foreign investment, an official with the country's Ministry of Commerce told the China Economic Roundtable hosted by Xinhua News Agency.

Noting that China was estimated to contribute around one-third of the global growth and remain the biggest engine of global economic development in 2023, Zhu Bing, director of the commerce ministry's department of foreign investment administration, stated that the fundamentals of China's sound economic development remained constant in the long run.

Zhu added that multinationals value the Chinese market's massive scale, innovative competitiveness, and attractiveness of global innovation factor resources.

From January to November 2023, China's high-tech industries attracted investment of 386.65 billion yuan (about 54.45 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 37.2 percent of total foreign direct investment volume. During the period, the number of new foreign-invested firms in China increased by 36.2 percent year-on-year.

The data reflects the effectiveness of a series of policies issued by the government, such as the Catalog of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment, support on the development of foreign-funded research and development centers, and expansion of foreign investment in the manufacturing sector.

At the annual Central Economic Work Conference held last month, the country also pledged to expand high-level opening up and reinforce the stable performance in foreign trade and foreign investment.

Looking ahead, Zhu noted that more efforts will be made to ease market access. For example, the ministry will work hard to eliminate all restrictions for foreign investors entering the manufacturing industry, intensify stress tests on opening up in pilot free trade zones, and deepen opening up in the service sector.

Zhu said that China has extended its preferential tax policies for foreign nationals working in the country till the end of 2027, which gives a stable expectation for foreign investors.

The ministry will also step up efforts to go abroad to introduce investment opportunities in China, improve the working mechanism, and provide more support for local governments to attract foreign investment, Zhu added.

Many multinationals, according to Zhu, remain bullish on the Chinese market and committed to investing in China because "investing in China means investing in the future."

China Economic Roundtable is an all-media talk platform launched by Xinhua News Agency, with the third episode featuring the foreign trade and investment. 
BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- With opening-up policies in the pipeline, foreign companies are betting on the Chinese market, an official with the country's Ministry of Commerce told the China Economic Roundtable hosted by Xinhua News Agency.

Foreign enterprises' interest in investing China is growing, said Zhu Bing, director of the commerce ministry's department of foreign investment administration. He added that the number of newly-founded foreign-invested firms across the country increased 36.2 percent year on year in the first 11 months of 2023.

"In particular, investment from developed countries like the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia increased significantly," Zhu said.

According to experts, the growing appeal of the Chinese market is largely attributed to the country's efforts to flesh out its pledge to open its door wider.

In December 2023, China's State Council issued a comprehensive plan to promote the high-level institutional opening-up of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) by aligning it with high-standard international economic and trade rules.

The plan contains a total of 80 measures covering seven areas, including initiatives to facilitate trade in goods and services, promote digital trade and enhance intellectual property rights protection, among others.

Earlier in July 2023, China has issued a 24-point guideline which is designated to improve the climate for foreign investment and attract more capital.

"China's institutional opening up has made foreign enterprises feel more reassured," said Zhao Yugang, an official with the Shanghai Pilot FTZ management committee.

Zhao said that in order to boost its attraction to international investors, the Shanghai Pilot FTZ will continue to ease foreign investment access and create a fair competitive environment.

China Economic Roundtable is an all-media talk platform launched by Xinhua News Agency, with the third episode featuring the foreign trade and investment. 
The good news is that weve been spared a Tube strike, 20 minutes away from what promised to be a week of disruption and immeasurable damage to the London economy. The less good news is that it seems to have come about by the Mayor finding funds, 30 million, for a settlement apparently down the back of a sofa. That elusive plant, the Magic Money Tree, is, it seems, alive in City Hall. The settlement is not conclusive, but it buys time, a useful commodity in an election year. Well done to the Mayor, but now that the unions have discovered that theres spare cash squirrelled away for the asking, how long before they try the same thing again?
Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, attends a seminar marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Gan Ku, late vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the eighth NPC, and meets with Gan's family ahead of the event in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 8, 2024. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A seminar marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Gan Ku, late vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the eighth National People's Congress (NPC), was held in Beijing on Monday.

Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, attended the seminar and met with Gan's family ahead of the event.

Gan is celebrated as an excellent CPC member, a time-tested and steadfast communist soldier, and an outstanding descendant of the Zhuang ethnic group.

At the seminar, Li Hongzhong, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, stressed the importance of following the glorious example set by Gan, and urged concerted efforts to promote the building of a strong country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through a Chinese path to modernization. 
OK sure it wasn't funny but who could begrudge the Killers of the Flower Moon star her heartfelt acceptance of the Best Actress in a Drama award? Especially when the actress, the first Indigenous woman to win the award, opened by speaking a few words in the Blackfeet language, in which she is not fluent but means a great deal to her. "You say your name, you say where you're from, and you say hello, to everyone, hello my friends," she explained later.
Public transport is not nearly so regular and convenient as in the capital, and Dominic misses the convenience of Londons 24/7 lifestyle and the ability to pop out and get a pint of milk at 4am if required.
"The charges relate to allegations made against the officer while he was off duty on Saturday, May 14, 2022," said Detective Superintendent Carly Humphreys, Head of Professional Standards Department at City of London Police. "The officer was immediately suspended following his arrest.
"Hanis death has destroyed our family. I am filled with excruciating pain, sadness and loneliness. I wish that I could have been there for Hani when he took his last breath to comfort him when he was in agony. I was not afforded the chance to tell my son that I loved him just before he passed away."
Caroline Turner, director of the UKLFI, said in her letter to the police: "In my view all these slogans are likely to stir up racial hatred of Israelis and Jews, and to encourage violence against Israelis and Jews contrary to the Public Order Act 1986."
McSweeney, from Dagenham in east London, had only recently been released from prison when he carried out his brutal June 2022 attack on Ms Aleena, in which he kicked and stamped on her.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: Over the past decade we have seen the crucial support services that used to step in and tackle persistent absence eroded and it is immensely frustrating that the Government is only now slowly beginning to realise the impact that has had.
More than 330,000 operations and appointments have been cancelled in London alone over the past year due to industrial action in the NHS, the highest figure of any region in England.
The report, by WSP, said the Sphere, which would have been covered with exterior LED lights the size of an ice hockey puck to broadcast images externally, was likely to have significant adverse effects on people living nearby and on the night-time environment.
A Network Rail spokesman said: "We're sorry for disruption to services between Reading and London Paddington this morning owing to a cracked rail crossing which was identified by our engineers during an overnight inspection of the lines.
VIENTIANE, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Laos' Ministry of National Defense is gearing up to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Lao People's Army on January 20.

The ministry was organizing countrywide ceremonies to mark the historic occasion and had appointed a special committee to prepare activities, Lao Public Security Television on Monday quoted Deputy Minister of National Defense Thongloy Silivong as saying.

A competition will be held in which people are invited to create works of art or literature to celebrate the founding of the Lao People's Army.

From now until January 20, promotional activities will be widely organized and publicized among the public. 
He encouraged the Government and doctors leaders to find a resolution to the dispute, saying: Given the impact these days have had, and given the impact that further days would have, I think NHS leaders I represent would say, This is not a time for standing on ceremony. This is not a time for worrying about losing face. Actually, the public, patients and NHS staff as a whole would give enormous credit to either the Government or the BMA if they were seem to be the ones who were who were removing obstacles to getting on the negotiation.
However, it provides another example of how the Russian authorities consciously couch the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the spirit of the Second World War, and their strong focus on the supposed infiltration of external threats into the country.
The SNP is not an abstentionist party, she said, adding: (Mhairi Black) needs to live up to her responsibilities or give the post over to someone who will and Im hoping that Mhairi will apologise to her colleagues this week.
He was on a panel of witnesses that also included Martin Coates, chief executive of rocket company Orbex, which plans to launch from Sutherland Spaceport on the Scottish mainland, and David Oxley of the regional development agency Highlands and Island Enterprise (HIE).
The needs of workers have been overlooked, or used as part of some shameless blame game for far too long. I have written to the Secretary of State today urging him to take decisive action to deliver the pay awards that workers deserve and that the Northern Ireland Office and British Treasury have already agreed to fund.
They were then placed under house arrest until August. Since then, they have been under judicial control, a lighter preventative measure meaning they have regular check-ins with the police but can move around freely as long as they do not leave the country.
The force pushed one victim into a lake near the bottom of the slope, while the other body was found in the mass of snow.
But interest continues to grow as more women opt to postpone pregnancy until later in life when fertility wanes, and as more same-sex couples look for ways to start families when they can't conceive on their own.
Murphy accepted the award with lipstick on his nose after his wife - Yvonne McGuinness - grabbed his face and kissed him as he was announced as victor. Oppenheimer was overall the biggest winner of the night, taking home five gongs. It was also named best drama motion picture, with best supporting actor going to Downey Jr for his role in the thriller  which also stars British actresses Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh.
Recently, Swift appeared to address speculation about her sexuality in a foreword to a new version of her album 1989, where she said she surrounded herself with female friends for a period of time in order for speculation about her love life to stop - but that it had not stopped the gossiping about her private affairs.
ZAGREB, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The CEO of Croatia's leading consulting agency hopes to boost ties with China, the second-largest economy in the world, he told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Nikola Vrdoljak, CEO of the 404 Agency, voiced his plan to expand business connections with Chinese companies this year.

"We have already been doing business with several big Chinese companies, the most important being Huawei (Technologies), for many years already. We hope to continue that cooperation and be a good partner to all Chinese companies coming to Croatia or Europe," Vrdoljak told Xinhua.

The 404 agency has been doing business with Chinese companies mainly in the technology sector, and has gained a lot of experience.

Meanwhile, the Croatian CEO said he plans to visit China again this year, to explore more opportunities for cooperation.

Vrdoljak was one of the 17 Croatians, including 15 entrepreneurs and two officials from the country's Ministry of Economy, who attended a training course in China in September last year. The trip gave him a better understanding of China, as well as its future, he said.

Vrdoljak expressed his full confidence in the Chinese economy, although he said China is currently going through a restructuring process.

"I believe that is going to be just another step to create a more modern, more complex, and more technologically advanced economy," he said, adding that Europe should look at China as a partner to expand business cooperation and explore opportunities.

Regarding China-Europe relations, Vrdoljak said he hopes the relationship "will focus more on business and culture and less on political competition."

Increased cooperation between China, Europe, the United States and other global actors "will bring us more peace and prosperity in 2024," he said. 
Costin Iordache will be the new interim general director of TAROM as of January 9, 2024, the company informed on Monday.

He will replace Bogdan Popescu, who resigned at the end of December 2023, agerpres reports.

"The Board of Directors of the TAROM airline decided on Friday, January 5, 2024, to appoint Mr. Costin Iordache as interim general director of the company. Costin Iordache is a graduate of the Academy of Economic Studies, as well as of the Leadership Excellence programme, at the University of Berlin. Mr. Iordache has over 18 years of experience in nationally and internationally renowned companies, such as ABN Amro Bank, Romtelecom or Telekom Group," reads a press release of the national airline operator.Thus, in making the decision, the members of the Council appreciated both the direct contribution of Costin Iordache to the stabilization of TAROM's activity during his previous mandate as general manager (January - October 2023), as well as the way in which he made the team as financial manager in the new top management structure of TAROM.According to the sane source, together with the commercial and general manager, Costin Iordache "succeeded in leading the company in an important phase of the restructuring plan, the main objective of which the current mandate continues to aim, following the development of the following stages, with the aim to revitalize and optimize the company's activities,"The main objective of the management team remains "the implementation of the restructuring plan that will lead to the revitalization of the company and its transformation into a profitable and modern organization, including those stages that previously require approvals from external forums."
CANBERRA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Authorities have celebrated a successful edition of Australia's biggest motoring festival despite safety concerns following a crowd brawl.

Organizers of Summernats, Australia's biggest celebration of horsepower, on Sunday announced a record sell-out crowd of 130,000 people attended the 36th edition of the four-day festival at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC), beating the previous record crowd of 125,000 set in 2023.

Attendees at the festival saw 2,500 cars from Australia and New Zealand displayed as well as competitive driving events, music and exhibition and trade shows.

A 1968 Dodge Charger belonging to Queensland-based collector Joe Bauer was on Sunday named the Summernats 36 Grand Champion, which recognizes modified car excellence, and Victoria's Andrew Lynch won Summernats Burnout Masters for the first time.

However, the event was marred by a large crowd brawl on Saturday.

Videos of the altercation published on social media show a large group of men, some of whom were wearing vests marked "crowd safety", clashing.

Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Policing made no arrests in relation to the brawl but said it was investigating.

In a statement on Sunday, Summernats organizers said they, along with security contractor Red Dawn, have launched an investigation into an incident involving patrons and security staff.

"Summernats and Red Dawn take their responsibilities for the safety and security of everyone at the event very seriously," the statement said.

It marks the second consecutive year where poor crowd behavior tarnished the event after ACT Policing closed the cruise circuit early in 2023 due to safety concerns and criticized organizers for inadequate crowd control. 
The Republic of Moldova is exposed to Moscow's hybrid actions, that's why Romania will continue its support in the areas where Chisinau needs it the most, Defence Minister Angel Tilvar said on Monday.

Angel Tilvar, together with Chief of the Defence Staff, General Gheorghita Vlad, met with Minister of Defence of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Yuriko Backes, and Luxembourgish Chief of Defence, General Steve Thull, at the "Getica" National Joint Training Centre in Cincu, Brasov, according to a National Defence Ministry (MApN) press release sent to AGERPRES.

The meetings took place on the occasion of the visit of the allied officials to the Luxembourgish troops of the NATO Battle Group, deployed in the Romanian training facility, agerpres reports.In this context, Minister Tilvar presented the multidimensional efforts Romania made to support Ukraine since the first days of the Russian invasion, as well as the decision of the Government in Bucharest to continue this support. Angel Tilvar underlined the importance of supporting the training process of the Ukrainian military, highlighting, in this context, the importance of the European F-16 Training Centre inaugurated in Fetesti, at the end of last year, where Romanian pilots, as well as pilots from allied and partner countries, including Ukraine, can be trained.In this context, the two officials discussed concrete ways in which the two countries can work together to support the training of Ukrainian pilots at the Centre.Regarding the current stage of bilateral military relations, the Minister of National Defence thanked his Luxembourgish counterpart for the important contribution of the Grand Duchy to the development of the Cincu Battle Group, an important element of the deterrence and defence posture in the Black Sea region, which is a proof of allied solidarity and unity. The invitation for the participation of the Luxembourg military in training exercises conducted by Romania was also reiterated."Romania hosts one of the largest Luxembourgish contingents deployed abroad in recent years, which is proof of excellent cooperation in a project that is essential for the allied posture of deterrence and defence in the Black Sea region. We appreciate the very good cooperative relationship we have with all the allies participating in the NATO Battle Group in our country - France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Together we are working for its continued development, including infrastructure," Angel Tilvar is quoted in the release as saying.In context, the Romanian minister proposed to his counterpart to substantially raise the level of military cooperation by concluding a bilateral cooperation agreement, which was appreciated by the Luxembourg side."We are also interested in deepening the cyber defence component of our bilateral cooperation in the military area, in which Luxembourg has made some top achievements," said the Romanian minister.General Gheorghita Vlad noted that the presence of the Luxembourgish military in Romania is a very important message of the unity of NATO states in the face of the deteriorating regional security situation. "Further training and exercises are planned in order to increase the joint reaction capability and the interoperability of the Battle Group with the Romanian Ground Forces," said the Chief of the Romanian Defence Staff.The two ministers also discussed the importance of the NATO Summit in Washington, which will take place this year, Angel Tilvar stressing the need to maintain a strengthened allied presence in the Black Sea region, as well as the importance of increasing support for vulnerable partners in the area, especially the Republic of Moldova.
The Ministry of Finance (MF) borrowed on Monday over 1.5 billion RON from banks, through two issues, one of state bonds and one of discounted treasury certificates, according to data made public by the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

Thus, the MF attracted 800.4 million RON through a state bond issue, with a residual maturity of 76 months, at an average yield of 6.49% per year. The nominal value of the issue was 500 million RON, and the banks invested 890.4 million RON, agerpres reports.

Also, the ministry attracted 703 million RON through an issue of treasury certificates with a discount, with a residual maturity of 7 months, at an average yield of 6.03% per year. The value of the issue was 400 million RON.The Ministry of Finance has planned for in January 2024 loans from commercial banks in the amount of 5.6 billion RON, to which the amount of 720 million RON can be added through additional sessions of non-competitive offers, related to bond tenders.The total amount, of 6.32 billion RON, is by 1.795 billion RON higher than the one that was scheduled in December 2023, of 4.525 billion RON, and will be intended for refinancing the public debt and financing the state budget deficit
Students return to classes

Students return to classes on Monday, according to the calendar approved by the Ministry of Education.

The following holidays are scheduled as follows:

* one week, at the decision of the county/municipal school inspectorates, from 12 February to 3 March;

* from Saturday 27 April to Tuesday 7 May;

* from Saturday 22 June to Sunday 8 September.

The national programmes Scoala Altfel (A different kind of school) and Saptamana Verde (Green Week) run until 26 April 2024, in intervals of five consecutive working days, to be decided by each school. The two programmes are planned to take place in different intervals.

The school year 2023-2024 ends on 21 June 2024.

By exception, the following is established: for the 12th grade, the 13th grade evening and part-time classes, the school year shall last 34 weeks and end on 7 June 2024, and for the 7th grade, the school year shall last 35 weeks and end on 14 June 2024.

The school year for secondary school - technological and for vocational classes lasts 37 weeks and ends on 28 June 2024, told Agerpres.
"Why can't he say he's sorry?" Brian Stewart not only left his son with a fatal illness, but that lingering question as well.

Stewart, 32, of Columbia, Ill., was sentenced Friday in St. Charles County Circuit Court to life in prison for injecting his son, now 7, with the AIDS virus in February 1992. And for the first time in the case, the boy's thoughts were brought into the courtroom to be read aloud by his mother Jennifer.

"I think he shouldn't ever be out of jail," the child said. "He shouldn 't have done this. Why did he do such a bad thing to me? I am very mad at him. Why can't he say he's sorry?"

Stewart, a former blood worker at what is now Barnes-Jewish Hospital, was found guilty Dec. 5 of injecting his son with HIV-tainted blood when the boy was 11 months old. The case drew worldwide attention when Stewart was arrested in April and tried early last month.

After listening to the boy's words, those of his sister and his mother, Circuit Judge Ellsworth Cundiff imposed the maximum sentence and an oral pounding.

Cundiff told Stewart life in prison was far too lenient.

"I can't imagine anything worse. You've reached new heights. You're in a class by yourself," Cundiff said.

Evoking sobs from Jennifer, Cundiff said the boy is going to die because of what Stewart did. As a religious man, Cundiff said he believes the boy will go to heaven, but that Stewart has a different fate.

"I believe when God finally calls you, you are going to burn in hell from here to eternity," Cundiff said. "Maybe that's the only justice in this case."

Stewart will be eligible for parole in 15 years.

Jennifer had had just over a month since the jury rendered its guilty verdict to think about how to approach Stewart's sentencing.

Jennifer's 9-year-old daughter had been working on a statement all week. Jennifer started writing her own statement about 8:30 a.m. on Friday. She had written bits and pieces on a legal pad, then placed the paragraphs in the right order with arrows and symbols. She read it to Debbie Barger, her best friend. Both cried through its entirety.

Her son wrote his statement that morning. She said his words came quickly. Before leaving the house, Barger helped Jennifer gather the pictures of her children that she wanted to show the judge.

They left the children with a baby-sitter, Barger's daughter, and some money for doughnuts.

Jennifer put on her makeup on the way as Barger drove her to the courthouse. She had her hair pulled back in a ponytail and was wearing a neat, gray and white-checked suit. The two dealt with the tension by joking about hitting every red light. They entered through a rear door to avoid the television cameras stationed outside.

Jennifer took a seat in the courtroom next to her family and court counselor.

She was quickly called to the stand and began by reading the statement from her daughter. It was anguished.

"Some kids at school found out and said, `I don't want to be friends with you because your brother is this or your brother is that.' One of my friends down the road, her mom said I couldn't play with her," she wrote.

The 9-year-old said the children at her school frequently make fun of her brother. When he goes to the hospital, she wonders if she'll ever get to see him again.

"I love my brother and I'm sorry this happened to him!!!" she wrote.

Jennifer ended with her statement, fighting back tears. She feels guilty, she said, because they must live in poverty to qualify for the financial aid that pays for her son's expensive medications.

The boy takes 15 medications around the clock, some through a tube in his stomach. He's nearly deaf because the medicine destroys nerve endings in his ears.

Jennifer said her 3-year-old daughter constantly says: "Don't cry mommy, don't cry. It will be all right."

"I feel guilt, fear, shame and perpetual defeat because I am unable to give my family the joy they desire," Jennifer said.

Her children are the ones who have been given a life sentence to a prison with "walls filled with tears, torment and isolation" she told the judge.

`Seems to be inhuman'

Stewart was stoic throughout the hearing. Jennifer told reporters later that she couldn't look at Stewart because "he seems to be inhuman."

After the sentencing, three jurors sought out Jennifer and hugged her. In a private room, they told her they felt justice had been done and that they were sorry for her son.

Jennifer said she doesn't want to go into hiding, and will do as much as she can to educate others about AIDS.
Joe Holleman Political correspondent/columnist Follow Joe Holleman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Side gigs provide extra income, but for one high-level St. Louis County employee, they more than double it.

Sam Alton works as chief of staff to St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell. He also moonlights as a prosecutor, judge and attorney for several county municipalities.

But payroll records show that Alton has made more money in roughly the past five years from these municipalities than he has earned from actually running Bells office.

From Jan. 1, 2019, through Oct. 31, 2023, Alton has been paid $650,180 for his work in the prosecutors office.

In that same period, municipal records show that Alton has made $659,102 for legal work in Bel-Ridge, Edmundson, Jennings, Olivette, Pagedale and Vinita Park.

County Councilman Dennis Hancock, a Republican from Fenton, said the large amount of money Alton has earned on the side, while also working as Bells chief of staff, calls Altons priorities into question.

Its a question of dedication, of loyalty. Is he 100% dedicated to the county? Hancock said. Thats a fair question.

On Monday, responding directly to Hancocks question, Alton said that his dedication is 100% to the county and to Wesley Bell.

And I dont think our community partners, the people we work with, would say any different, Alton said.

Hancock was the council member who asked Alton about his outside employment during a November budget hearing.

Wed been hearing about this (outside work) for a while, and it had come up a few times, Hancock said recently.

When asked about his workload outside of his county job, Alton told Hancock that he spent a negligible amount of time with his side business.

Pressed by Hancock to be more specific, Alton said he worked less than three hours a week.

Hancock said he was dissatisfied with Altons answer.

Ive been involved in municipal government for years, said Hancock, who served 14 years as the mayor of Fenton.

Two to three hours? Thats one meeting, which doesnt take into account any prep time or phone calls from municipal officials, Hancock said.

Hancock said he declined to pursue the matter at that time because he could find no prohibition of Alton making large amounts of money outside of his county job.

But that certainly seems to be something we need to look at, Hancock said.

He said one possibility would be to amend the County Charter to prohibit certain high-salary employees from holding other jobs  similar to the anti-moonlighting provisions that county voters approved in 2022 to ban County Executive Sam Page from working part time as an anesthesiologist.

Also, questions have circulated in political circles for several years about possible conflicts of interest that may arise from Alton being employed by the county prosecutor while he also works as a prosecutor or judge for municipalities.

Instead of hiring a full-time attorney, most of the countys 87 municipalities use lawyers hired on a part-time basis to prosecute and adjudicate cases in their municipal courts, as well as using them for advice on legislative, personnel and other legal matters.

Bell, Altons boss and good friend, also has a history of working as a lawyer for municipalities. Before being elected in 2018 as the countys top prosecutor, Bell worked as a municipal judge in Velda City, a prosecutor in Riverview and as city attorney in Wellston.

In a statement Monday, Bells office defended Altons outside employment and pointed to the same conclusion reached by Hancock, that there is no rule or law against (Alton) holding outside employment.

Prosecutors who are paid considerably less than their private-sector counterparts always have been allowed (long before our current administration) to work part-time secondary jobs, the statement said, adding that this allows Bells office to retain lawyers who could otherwise leave for greener pastures.

The statement goes on to say that because Alton is on call to both Bell and other staff members at all times, Bells office has no problems with Altons outside work.

Alton said that the work he does for municipalities is done after the hours taken up by his work for Bell.

Financial records from the six municipalities concerning payments to Alton cover the period from the start of Bells first term through October of last year.

The Post-Dispatch began requesting the municipal information, under the Missouri Sunshine Law, in early November. The information was fully received just last week.

How much was Sam Alton paid? Government 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023* Total Pagedale $49,326.00 $50,835.00 $62,158.00 $41,741.58 $63,355.00 $267,415.58 Jennings $70,380.18 $70,380.18 $70,380.18 $71,733.69 $46,920.16 $329,794.39 Vinita Park $14,010.00 $9,600.00 $13,200.00 $15,568.00 0 $52,378.00 Bel-Ridge $8,795.00 0 0 0 0 $8,795.00 Olivette $370.00 0 0 0 0 $370.00 Edmundson $350.00 0 0 0 0 $350.00 $143,231.18 $130,815.18 $145,738.18 $129,043.27 $110,275.16 $659,102.97 St. Louis County $130,000.00 $130,000.00 $131,805.00 $139,457.00 $118,918.40 $650,180.40

The largest client on Altons side-employment list is Jennings, which has paid him $329,794 in that 58-month period.

Altons earnings from Jennings might have been more in 2023, but he resigned his position of city attorney in August.

At that time, Alton said Jennings Mayor Gary Johnson had created a hostile working environment and illegally attempted to oust Alton from his position, which he had held for 10 years.

Pagedale came in second place among Altons clients, paying him $267,415.

He also was paid $52,378 by Vinita Park; $8,795 by Bel-Ridge; $370 by Olivette and $350 by Edmundson.

Payments from Bel-Ridge, Olivette and Edmundson stopped after 2019, the first year of Altons county job, and Vinita Park quit paying Alton after 2022, records show.

Since Alton began as Bells chief of staff, the prosecutors office has had to defend its spending.

In 2019, the prosecutors office was grilled about paying out more than $30,000 on meals. In 2020, Alton was questioned about paying out $117,000 of federal COVID-19 relief funds to buy 65 iPads and 17 big-screen TVs. And in 2022, Bells office was lambasted for spending $130,000 from an employee salaries account to buy two four-wheel-drive Ford Expeditions equipped with special law-enforcement option packages.

J.D. Evans, first assistant attorney under Bell predecessor Robert McCulloch, performed similar staff-related functions as does Alton, although Evans was not classified as a chief of staff.

Evans said he never had outside employment while acting as what he called being McCullochs lawyer.

He said his duties included meeting with other prosecutors about cases, interviewing applicants, handling various administrative duties and also prosecuting some cases.

We tried to be in there early, and wed stick around late, Evans said of himself and Dean Waldemer, formerly McCullochs chief trial attorney and now a circuit judge.

It certainly seemed like a full-time job to me, Evans said. I was well-compensated and thoroughly enjoyed the work.
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said late Sunday on social media that his home was the target of a swatting incident.

The Republican candidate for governor posted on X, formerly Twitter, at 9:59 p.m. that my home was just swatted and that he and his family were safe.

On Monday, his office said police told Ashcroft that there was an emergency call reporting a shooting at his home. A news release said Ashcroft was at home with his wife and children when law enforcement called him and asked if everything was fine at the house.

It ended up with me walking out of my front door with my hands up with several armed police officers in front of my house, Ashcroft said in a statement released by his office.

Im so thankful the Jefferson City Police Department handled the situation with an extreme amount of professionalism and that no one was hurt, he said.

It is unfortunate their resources and manpower had to be used on a prank, Ashcroft said. I am hopeful those responsible for such childish ... acts will be brought to justice.

Lt. David Williams, spokesman for the Jefferson City Police Department said Monday morning that the department was directing comments to Secretary Ashcrofts office as it relates to the call.

On Monday afternoon, he added, We are investigating a call for service. The call is classified as a suspicious activity call.

Swatting incidents involve a false police report being made to trigger a heavy law enforcement response at a targets address.

Swatting has been viewed as an increasing problem, with law enforcement being called to the addresses of officials across the political spectrum, such as Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

Police were also summoned to the home of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows on Dec. 30, a day after she announced former President Donald Trumps removal from that states presidential primary ballot.

The Maine Department of Public Safety did not share a suspected motive at the time, but she had no doubts it stemmed from her decision to remove Trump from the ballot. The swatting attempt came after a conservative activist posted her home address on social media.

In Ashcrofts case, the swatting incident occurred a day after Ashcroft suggested President Joe Biden could be kept off Missouris ballot if Colorado and Maine were allowed to keep Trump off their ballots. Its not known if the comment was related to the swatting incident.

As a class B misdemeanor under Missouri law, making a false police report carries a maximum of six months in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
FLORISSANT  Formerly saying it wasnt its role, a U.S. government agency tasked to find and remediate elevated levels of lingering radioactive waste from the World War II-era has asked for permission to install informational signs in communities along Coldwater Creek.

They have requested to put them in our parks, our city property, Florissant City Engineer Tom Goldkamp said of the Army Corps of Engineers Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, or FUSRAP.

Goldkamp said Florissant officials approved the request, but it was still unclear when the signs will go up and exactly where. An illustration of the signs shared with Florissant notes what FUSRAP is and that a Coldwater Creek Floodplain Investigation is underway.

Two bullet points stress:

Areas of low-level radioactive contamination may exist that do not pose a health risk if left undisturbed.

Contact FUSRAP directly if you plan to dig or have questions about property improvements near the creek.

Jeremy Idleman, a spokesman for the FUSRAP program in St. Louis, said the signs are still in draft form and that locations havent been finalized.

We havent gotten that far to decide where they will be placed, but they will be placed in public access areas, he said.

Florissant is just one municipality Coldwater Creek goes through in north St. Louis County. For years, FUSRAP and its contractors have been testing and remediating within the 10-year floodplain of the creek, stretching from the northern edge of St. Louis Lambert International Airport to the confluence with the Missouri River.

Regulatory goals for the costly cleanup were established in 2005. By now, the primary source of radioactive waste stored along Coldwater Creek by the airport, and surrounding areas, have mainly been remediated. The ongoing focus has been testing so the creek can finally be cleaned up by 2038. Elevated levels of contamination have been found several miles downstream, including in the creek bank near Jana Elementary School, which was closed following public concerns.

There have also been concerns that contamination would be dislodged when a McDonnell Boulevard bridge over the creek is replaced near the airport.

But reporting signals that many North County residents arent aware of the toxic legacy. Or if they are, they think the contamination was limited to the airport area.

In 2019, the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry recommended signage. The Corps previously said it wasnt its role to put up signs and that the contamination levels it was finding downstream were low and below ground surface.

In 2022, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis, filed the Coldwater Creek Signage Act to put signs up along the creek to warn the community of potential exposure risks in areas where remediation hasnt been completed. The bill didnt pass, but the Corps, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Bushs office have been in communication about the matter.

Our office is proud to be working with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize signage and get it posted, Bush said in prepared remarks. Our community deserves to be made whole, and we must start that process by ensuring residents are aware of the existence of any environmental harms in our own backyard.

Idleman said the effort to put up signs now came out of a collaboration with the EPA to increase awareness about FUSRAP and provide sound information.

We are just doing informational signs, not warning signs, he said.

On Jan. 16, the EPA will also host public meetings from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Hazelwood Civic Center. Officials plan to address concerns and discuss a Technical Assistance Needs Assessment, or TANA, that is coming soon for the Coldwater Creek area. The TANA will be informed by community feedback and interviews.

Kellen Ashford, an EPA spokesman, said by email that after consulting with the Corps, the EPA determined that a TANA would help ensure the community has the resources necessary to understand complex, technical information that could enable meaningful community involvement with the remedial process being done by the Corps.

Editors note: An earlier version of this story omitted the word risk in this sentence: Areas of low-level radioactive contamination may exist that do not pose a health risk if left undisturbed.
JERUSALEM  Hezbollah has struck an air traffic control base in northern Israel, the Israeli military said Sunday, and warned of another war with the Iran-backed militant group

The increase in fighting across the border with Lebanon as Israel battles Hamas militants in Gaza gave new urgency to U.S. diplomatic efforts as Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to visit Israel on his latest Mideast tour.

This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering, Blinken told reporters after talks in Qatar, a key mediator. The escalation of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has complicated a U.S. push to prevent a regional conflict.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah fire hit the sensitive air traffic control base on Mount Meron on Saturday but air defenses were not affected because backup systems were in place. It said that no soldiers were hurt and all damage will be repaired.

Nonetheless, it was one of the most serious attacks by Hezbollah in the months of fighting that has accompanied Israel's war in Gaza and forced tens of thousands of Israelis to evacuate communities near the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah described its rocket barrage as an initial response to the targeted killing of a top Hamas leader in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut last week, which is presumed to have been carried out by Israel.

The Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi, said military pressure on Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, was rising and it would either be effective or we will get to another war. Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari asserted that Israels focus on Hezbollahs elite Radwan force was pushing it away from the border.

Israel has mostly sought to limit the fighting in its north. Hezbollahs military capabilities are far superior to those of Hamas. But Israeli leaders have said their patience is wearing thin, and that if the tensions cannot be resolved through diplomacy, they are prepared to use force.

I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months: No terrorist is immune," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet. We are determined to defend our citizens and to return the residents of the north safely to their homes.

Lower-intensity fighting along Israels northern border broke out when Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 250 people hostage. Hezbollah has said its attacks aim to ease pressure on Gaza.

In a joint news briefing with Blinken, Qatars government acknowledged that the killing of the senior Hamas leader in Lebanon can affect the complicated negotiations for the potential release of more hostages held by Hamas in Gaza but we are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement.

Inside Gaza, the war against the militant group entered its fourth month Sunday.

The Israeli military has signaled that it has wrapped up major combat in northern Gaza, saying it has completed dismantling Hamas military infrastructure there. Now it presses its offensive in the south, where most of Gazas 2.3 million Palestinians are squeezed into smaller areas in a humanitarian disaster while being pounded by Israeli airstrikes.

Netanyahu insists the war will not end until the objectives of eliminating Hamas, getting Israels hostages returned and ensuring that Gaza wont host a threat to Israel are met.

Biden administration officials have urged Israel to wind down its blistering air and ground offensive and shift to more targeted attacks against Hamas leaders.

More than 22,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 58,000 wounded since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Health officials say about two-thirds of those killed have been women and minors.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas.

An airstrike near the southern city of Rafah killed two journalists on Sunday, including Hamza Dahdouh, the oldest son of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera's chief correspondent in Gaza, according to the Qatari-owned Arabic-language channel and local medical officials. Al Jazeera broadcast footage of Dahdouh weeping and holding his son's hand. Israel's military had no immediate comment.

Al Jazeera strongly condemned the killings and other brutal attacks against journalists and their families by Israeli forces. Dahdouh also lost his wife, two children and a grandchild in an Oct. 26 airstrike, and was wounded in an Israeli strike last month that killed a co-worker.

The world is blind to whats happening in the Gaza Strip, he said, blinking back tears.

Another airstrike hit a house between Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, killing at least seven people whose bodies were taken to the nearby European Gaza Hospital, according to an Associated Press journalist at the facility. One man hurried in carrying a baby, and later walked the blanket-wrapped child to the morgue.

Everything happening here is outside the realms of law, outside the realms of reason. Our brains cant fully comprehend all this that is happening to us, said a grieving relative, Inas Abu al-Najja, her quavering voice rising. Men worked the rubble with picks and bare hands.

On Sunday, officials at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis received the bodies of 18 people, including 12 children, killed in an Israeli strike late Saturday on a home in the Khan Younis camp set up decades ago to house refugees from the 1948 war over Israels creation.

Israeli forces pushed deeper into the central city of Deir al-Balah, where residents in several neighborhoods were warned that they must evacuate.

The international medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, said it was evacuating its medical staff from Deir al-Balah's Al Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital.

A bullet penetrated a wall of the hospitals intensive care unit on Friday, and drone attacks and sniper fire were just a few hundred meters from the hospital over the past couple of days, said Carolina Lopez, the groups emergency coordinator there. She said the hospital received between 150 and 200 wounded people daily in recent weeks.

The International Rescue Committee and Medical Aid for Palestinians said they also were forced to withdraw from the hospital. The amount of injuries being brought in over the last few days has been horrific, surgeon Nick Maynard with the IRC medical team said.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Jobain from Rafah, Gaza Strip.

Updated at 4 p.m.
As we embark on the first few days of the new year, many of us are beginning to embrace things that bring us joy and for a lot of people  tha
JAKARTA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Two were killed and 11 were injured as a bus plunged into a 30-meter-deep ravine in North Tapanuli Regency (Taput) of North Sumatra in Indonesia, local media reported on Monday.

The accident occurred at around 6:30 a.m. local time on Sunday. The two deceased were the bus driver and a passenger and 10 passengers were slightly injured while one suffered from serious injury.

Local Police Chief Dahnial Saragih explained that based on the description of a passenger, the driver who was suspected to be sleepy was the cause of the calamity.

"For the slightly injured, after being treated at the Adiankoting Health Center, they have been picked up by their families. The seriously injured is still under treatment," Saragih said.

Police have conducted a crime scene and further investigation is underway. Two of the dead have been handed over to their families. 
Contents.com Secures $18 Million Series B Investment to Spearhead a New Era in AI-Driven Content Creation: Revolutionizing Enterprise Content Management with Advanced AI Orchestration, Seamlessly Integrating Multiple Large Language Models, and Pioneering Innovative, High-Quality Multilingual Content Solutions for Global Business Markets. The round is led by Sinergia Venture Fund of Alkemia Capital with Thomson Reuters Ventures. Additionally, the Azimut Digitech Fund, under the advisory of FNDX, participated in the round.

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Contents.com today announces a new Series B funding round of $18 million, supported by major European and American venture capital funds.





Series B funding





This funding aims to consolidate its leadership position in the market for generating and orchestrating multilingual content for medium and large enterprises, thanks to its proprietary all-in-one technology platform based on artificial intelligence. AI is revolutionizing the way people acquire information and satisfy their thirst for knowledge.

Founded in 2021, Contents.com has rapidly expanded its international presence, now boasting clients in Europe, Latin America, North America, and Asia. Worldwide, medium and large enterprises use the Contents.com SaaS technology platform to manage integrated and coordinated workflows for producing multilanguage and multi-format digital content, including images and videos. The Contents.com platform offers an optimized user experience, integrated with major CMS, eCommerce, and DAM solutions in the enterprise sector. It simplifies the use of the most famous international LLMs (Large Language Models) to produce original content, thereby reducing time and costs while maintaining quality. This facilitates the work of the marketing, ecommerce, and media management departments of client companies.

Since its establishment in 2021, Contents.com has experienced remarkable growth, attracting thousands of customers globally, including several billion-dollar companies, and achieving double-digit year-over-year growth. The company's mission is to integrate AI seamlessly into business operations. This funding will enhance their technological capabilities and expand their global team, reinforcing their leadership in the AI content creation industry.

Sinergia Venture Fund of Alkemia Capital is leading Contents.com's operation, with participation from Thomson Reuters Ventures and others. The capital raised from this initiative is earmarked for significant expansion of Contents.com's international business. This includes enhancing their technological capabilities and solutions, as well as a strategic increase in their corporate staff, with a particular emphasis on growing their Innovation Technology and Sales teams.

"In an era where innovation drives progress, Contents.com aims to assist global companies to stay ahead. On this extraordinary journey, our fundraising philosophy has remained the same: to seek not just funding, but collaborations that align with our values and innovative vision. Series B isn't just a financial milestone, but a demonstration of our bold challenge to the conventions of the tech world. This funding will push us beyond traditional boundaries, revolutionizing high-quality, multilingual content creation globally. We're committed to transforming global communication, connecting ideas and cultures through AI-based advanced solutions. Together with our partners, we're redefining the global tech landscape, making an impact well beyond our corporate growth. We are here with Contents.com to influence global content creation," declares Massimiliano Squillace, CEO & Founder of Contents.com.

"We are excited about our role as the lead investor in the recent capital increase of Contents.com. Our trust in Massimiliano, the founder, and his exceptional team is the foundation of this decision. We strongly believe in their vision and Contents.com's innovative approach to the generative AI market. The generative AI market is in a phase of exponential growth, with forecasts indicating a global market value that could exceed $50 billion by 2026. This technology is opening new frontiers in various sectors, from digital marketing to industrial automation. Contents.com is perfectly positioned to capitalize on these opportunities and drive innovation in this rapidly evolving sector," says Simone Cremonini, Partner of Sinergia Venture Fund of Alkemia Capital.

"The Contents.com team has built an application that enables the practical use of generative AI for enterprise content creation. We are excited to work with them to bring the application's rich capabilities to our teams and to our customers so that in turn, they can create high quality multilingual content," says Tamara Steffens, Managing Director of Thomson Reuters Ventures.

For this Series B transaction, Contents.com was represented by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. An experienced team led by Partner Attilio Mazzilli and Of Counsel Livia Maria Pedroni provided strategic legal advice, underscoring Orrick's commitment to supporting innovation and growth in the technology sector.

About Contents.com

Contents.com is Series B company leader in AI content creation for enterprise, providing a robust AI platform that facilitates the generation of diverse content types including text, audio, video, and animations. The platform is equipped with advanced tools tailored to support a variety of content needs. Its innovative Brand Voice service stands out, allowing businesses to craft content that resonates with their unique brand identity through AI-driven customization. Designed for a wide range of users, from small bloggers to large corporations, Contents.com makes content creation more efficient, creative, and accessible in multiple languages, catering to a global audience.

For more information, please visit the website www.contents.com and follow us on LinkedIn

Press Contacts

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Contact Information

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PR & Event Manager EMEA

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SOURCE: Contents.com

View the original press release on newswire.com.
WALLACE, ID / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / Magellan Gold Corporation (OTC PINK:MAGE) ("Magellan" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a certain agreements with AJB Capital Investments LLC ("ABJ") and Gold Express Mines, Inc. ("GEM") pursuant to which AJB assigned to GEM all of ABJ's right, title, obligation, liability and interest in that certain Promissory Note, dated February 2021 (the "Promissory Note"), issued by the Company to AJB.

The aggregate principal amount of the Promissory Note outstanding is $100,000. The Promissory Note is now payable to GEM.

Pursuant to developing a new strategy, the Company has accepted the resignations of Mr. Mark Rodenbeck and Mr. Deepak Maholtra as members of the board of directors of the Company, and has appointed John P. Ryan, and Howard M. Crosby as new members of the board of directors. Mr. Ryan will also serve as the Chief Financial Officer of the Company. Both Mr. Ryan and Mr. Crosby also serve as Officers and Directors of GEM.

The Company thanks Mr. Rodenback and Mr. Malhotra for their time and expertise in serving the Company in the past several years.

Since June 2020, Mr. Ryan has served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the board of directors of GEM, a multi-commodity mining company focused on the discovery and development of precious and base metal assets. Mr. Ryan also serves as the Vice President of Corporate Affairs of Key Mining Corp., an exploration stage mining company and as its Corporate Secretary. From November 2016 to September 2020, Mr. Ryan served as a director and Interim CEO of Bunker Hill Mining Corp., a development stage mining company focused on a restart of the Bunker Hill Mine in North Idaho. Mr. Ryan has founded and served as an Officer and Director of many natural resource companies which have gone on to senior listings in the United States, Canada, and other listing venues. Mr. Ryan obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in mining engineering from the University of Idaho and his juris doctor from Boston College Law School.

Since June 2020 Mr. Crosby has served as Vice President and Director of GEM. Mr. Crosby also serves as a Director of Key Mining Corp., a Company focused on the development of mining assets in Chile. Since October 2014, Mr. Crosby has served as the Chairman of the Board of Desert Hawk Gold Corp., a gold mining company with a permitted gold asset in Utah. From 2005 to 2016, Mr. Crosby served as a director of White Mountain Titanium Corp. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Crosby served as a director of Bunker Hill Mining Corp. Over his thirty-year career Mr. Crosby has founded and served as an Officer and Director of numerous mining and energy companies, several of which achieved senior listings in the United States.

About Magellan Gold Corporation

Magellan Gold Corporation (MAGE) is focused on the exploration and development of precious and base metals assets, primarily in the State of Idaho. Further details of the plans for the Company will be forthcoming in future press releases.

Please also visit our website at www.magellangoldcorp.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements contained in this press release, other than statements of historical facts or statements that relate to present facts or current conditions, including but not limited to, statements regarding our cash and financial resources and our clinical development plans, are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "aim," "seek," "anticipate," "could," "intend," "target," "project," "contemplate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "forecast," "potential" or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified and some of which are beyond our control. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to: competition, our ability to grow and manage growth, retain our management and key employees; changes in applicable laws or regulations; the possibility that the we may be adversely affected by other economic, business or competitive factors; our estimates of expenses and profitability; the evolution of the markets in which we compete; our ability to implement our strategic initiatives; and the risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at www.sec.gov . You should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The events and circumstances reflected in our forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur, and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a dynamic industry and economy. New risk factors and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all risk factors and uncertainties that we may face. Except as required by applicable law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise.

Contacts:

Magellan Gold Corporation

Mike Lavigne, CEO

[email protected]

SOURCE: Magellan Gold Corporation

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MEMPHIS, TN / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2024 / FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) announced that Silvia Davila has been elected to the FedEx Board of Directors.

Ms. Davila serves as the regional president of Latin America for Danone S.A., where she is responsible for leading operations in Mexico and for all categories in the Latin America region. She brings vast experience in leading financial and digital transformations to achieve sustained growth, as well as promoting diversity and inclusion and leveraging innovation for ESG agendas. Prior to Danone, Ms. Davila served as the vice president and global food chief marketing officer at Mars Belgium. She has held various leadership roles at Mars, Procter & Gamble, and McDonald's.

"Ms. Davila is a tremendous addition to the FedEx Corporation Board of Directors, and we are pleased to welcome her and her unique skillset," said Frederick W. Smith, FedEx Corp. Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board. "Her leadership skills and extensive expertise will provide great value to FedEx as we continue to execute our global transformation."

Ms. Davila will serve on the Compensation and Human Resources and Cyber and Technology Oversight Committees.

Following Ms. Davila's appointment, the FedEx Board of Directors consists of 14 directors, 12 of whom are independent.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from FedEx Corporation on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: FedEx Corporation

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/fedex-corporation

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE: FedEx Corporation

View the original press release on accesswire.com
On January 2, 2024, Eric L. Press, a director on the Board of Directors (the Board) of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE: ARI), informed the Company of his decision to resign as a member of the Board, effective January 31, 2024. Effective January 31, 2024, in connection with Mr. Press resignation, the size of the Board will decrease to nine directors. Mr. Press decision to resign from the Board was not the result of any dispute or disagreements with the Company on any matter relating to the Companys operations, policies or practices.
LONDON & TOKYO & JERSEY CITY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- B2C2, the leading institutional digital asset liquidity provider, today announces that Thomas Restout has been appointed Group CEO, replacing Nicola White who has left the company.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108543647/en/

B2C2 appoints Thomas Restout as Group CEO (Photo: Business Wire)

Thomas Restout was previously EMEA CEO of B2C2. He joined the company in September 2022 from Morgan Stanley, where he was most recently Global Head of Macro Electronic Trading. He was a member of the Morgan Stanley Securities Digital Currencies working group and spearheaded Crypto trading for the Fixed Income division. Having met B2C2s co-Founder, Max Boonen during his tenure at Goldman Sachs, Thomas was one of B2C2s earliest investors. His strategic insights have been pivotal to B2C2s growth with decisions to pursue over-the-counter trading and expand into the Japanese market, having been drawn from his experience at Goldman Sachs. Thomas began his career at Natixis.

Commenting on the appointment, Max Boonen, co-Founder of B2C2 said Thomas, an early supporter of B2C2, was already a rising star when we met on the trading floor 10 years ago. His stellar career in TradFi has given him a fantastic foundation to support our clients in the crypto space.

Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President & CEO of SBI Holdings, Inc. said: B2C2 is well placed to benefit from the growth in institutional trading of cryptocurrencies. Thomas has been instrumental in B2C2s progress over the past 12 months, notably with the acquisition of Woorton in France. The company will continue to thrive as an innovator dedicated to building a resilient digital assets ecosystem, providing critical, deep liquidity to institutional clients globally.

Thomas Restout said: B2C2s business is stronger than ever, and I look forward to working alongside our outstanding management team to execute on our global strategy of building on our position as one of the leading liquidity providers in crypto markets. We will continue to offer exceptional service and build long term relationships with our clients, as the institutional markets in digital assets mature.

About B2C2

More than just a liquidity provider, B2C2 is a digital asset pioneer building the ecosystem of the future. The firm has unlocked institutional access to crypto by providing reliable liquidity across market conditions. B2C2s success is built on crypto native technology and continuous product innovation, making it the partner of choice for diverse institutions globally. Founded in 2015 and majority owned by Japanese financial group, SBI, B2C2 Ltd is headquartered in the UK, with offices in the US and Japan.

B2C2 Ltd is registered in England and Wales under company number 07995888 with its registered office at 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. B2C2 Ltd is the parent company of the B2C2 group of companies. Products may be provided by different members of the B2C2 group of companies, depending on the jurisdiction of the client and the regulatory status of the product and/or B2C2 group member. B2C2 is a registered trademark.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108543647/en/

Media Contacts:

[email protected]

Serra Balls and Millie Talbot, Eterna Partners

+ 44 (0)7775763018

Source: B2C2
OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (BRK.A; BRK.B)  Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement to fully settle the Delaware litigation, including all claims and counterclaims, between Pilot Corporation and Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Pilot Travel Centers LLC, and National Indemnity Company.

About Berkshire

Berkshire Hathaway and its subsidiaries engage in diverse business activities including insurance and reinsurance, utilities and energy, freight rail transportation, manufacturing, retailing and services. Common stock of the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading symbols BRK.A and BRK.B.

Cautionary Statement

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Berkshire assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240107307283/en/

Marc D. Hamburg

402-346-1400

Source: Berkshire Hathaway
Car IQ Pay is now accepted at over 12,000 Exxon and Mobil stations, including 8,200+ with retail diesel pumps and over 800 with commercial truck diesel pumps. They now have even more locations for fueling both large and small truck fleets.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Car IQ Inc., a leading innovator in vehicle payment solutions is expanding its merchant network to include Exxon and Mobil stations. This allows fleet companies to offer their drivers the convenience of fueling vehicles through Car IQ Pay, eliminating the need for physical credit cards, at stations nationwide. This opens a number of additional Exxon and Mobil fueling locations including diesel stations and convenience stores to the Car IQ network.

Car IQ Pay gives fleet customers an easier way to pay for fuel, by connecting the vehicle directly to the pump, eliminating the need for drivers to use a credit card, PIN number, or vehicle odometer reading. The platform streamlines reporting and eradicates the need for time-consuming back-office reconciliation because it eliminates multiple expense reports from drivers. ExxonMobils acceptance of Car IQ Pay at Exxon and Mobil stations gives fleet customers more options when it comes to fueling and paying with their vehicles.

We are excited about the opportunity with Car IQs unique service offering, said Scott M. Waite, Commercial Programs Manager of ExxonMobil Fuels. This game-changing technology mitigates risk with each transaction, reducing fraud, chargebacks and disputes and provides huge marketing opportunities.

Car IQs innovative fleet payment platform eliminates the hassle of fleet credit cards, and instead authorizes merchants to accept payments directly from vehicles. With secure transactions, service providers are able to automatically initiate and complete payments for vehicle-related expenses including fueling, tolls, and more. The streamlined payment solution also provides opportunities for merchants to embrace new, technology forward marketing opportunities. The Car IQ solution provides a safe, secure, and flexible payment option for fleets at Exxon and Mobil locations.

Adding Exxon and Mobil stations to the Car IQ acceptance network is a significant addition. It provides vast coverage for our fleet partners, said Sterling Pratz, CEO of Car IQ. With Car IQ, fleet vehicles can connect directly to thousands of Exxon and Mobil fuel pumps nationwide and pay for fuel and other services with our technology. Each payment is completed without the hassles of a credit card, which is a major relief for fleet owners and managers.

About Car IQ Inc.

Founded in 2017, Car IQ Inc. has created the first digital payment platform for vehicles that allows fleets to remove the driver from the payment process, eliminating the distribution of cards, preventing fraud.

With Car IQ Pay, the innovative platform powered by Visa, vehicles automatically initiate and complete payments for services ranging from fueling, toll management and paid parking, EV charging, and more. Car IQ is accepted at fuel stations nationwide. For more information, visit www.cariqpay.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240103538873/en/

Car IQ Media Contact

Hilary Wolfe

[email protected]

Source: Car IQ Inc.
Mr. Edward Gosselin, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Paul Sarjeant, President and Chief Operating Officer to attend the 2024 Vancouver Resource Investment Conference exhibiting at booth 733

QUEBEC CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Kobo Resources Inc. ("Kobo or the "Company") (TSX.V: KRI) is pleased to announce its participation in the upcoming 2024 Vancouver Resource Investment Conference (the VRIC) in Vancouver on January 21-22, 2024.

The VRIC has been the epicentre of junior mining investment in Canada for 25 years and attracts over 5,000 mining investors annually. The VRIC will include a marketplace of over 300 investment opportunities in the mining industry, spanning early-stage exploration to advanced producing mines.

This conference offers an unparalleled opportunity for Kobo to showcase the recent exploration progress at its 100%-owned Kossou Gold Project and planned initiatives for 2024. The conference's schedule includes curated meetings that pair investors with suitable projects, complemented by expert commentary and insights on the latest trends and developments in the mining industry.

Investors interested in attending the VRIC can register here: https://cambridgehouse.com/vancouver-resource-investment-conference. Kobo invites attendees to visit its booth where they will have the opportunity to engage directly with the Company's management team and learn more about Kobos recent exploration efforts and upcoming plans.

About Kobo Resources Inc.

Kobo Resources is a growth-focused gold exploration company with a compelling new gold discovery in Cote dIvoire, one of West Africas most prolific and developing gold districts, hosting several multi-million-ounce gold mines. The Companys 100%-owned Kossou Gold Project is located approximately 20 km northwest of the capital city of Yamoussoukro and is directly adjacent to one of the regions largest gold mines with established processing facilities.

The Company is drilling to unlock the potential size and scale of Kossou within 9+ km strike length of highly prospective gold in soil geochemical anomalies with excellent rock and trench sampling results. The Company completed ~6,000 m of RC drilling and ~5,400 m of trenching in 2023 and is planning on additional drilling and trenching in 2024. Significant gold mineralisation has been identified at three main targets within a 300 m wide, 2+ km long, pervasively altered structural corridor defining a potentially large mesothermal gold system. Kobo offers investors the exciting combination of high-quality gold prospects led by an experienced leadership team with in-country experience.

Kobos common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "KRI. For more information, please visit www.koboresources.com.

X: @KoboResources | LinkedIn: Kobo Resources Inc.

NEITHER THE TSXV NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSXV) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-looking Information:

This news release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; and the delay or failure to receive board, shareholder or regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, Kobo assumes no obligation and/or liability to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108291984/en/

For further information:

Edward Gosselin

Chief Executive Officer and Director

1-418-609-3587

[email protected]

Source: Kobo Resources Inc.
The acquisition adds approximately $1.4 billion to MAIs client AUM and expands firm's presence in Cincinnati and Northern Virginia

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- MAI Capital Management, LLC (MAI), a registered investment adviser specializing in comprehensive investment and financial planning for high-net-worth individuals and families, announced today the acquisition of Madison Wealth Management. The addition of Madison will expand MAIs presence in Ohio and Northern Virginia, making Cincinnati one of MAIs biggest markets, while adding strong talent and expanded resources to the team.

This partnership underscores MAIs commitment to partnering with experienced professionals who share our client-first philosophy, said Rick Buoncore, Managing Partner at MAI. The Madison team has demonstrated not only growth and success across two major metros, but also a dedication to their communities that we at MAI share. We look forward to expanding our reach and integrated capabilities with the addition of this talented team.

Founded in 2000, Madison Wealth Management is a trusted, independent financial planning and investment management firm headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, with an established presence in the Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia area. With over $1.4 billion of client assets under management, it provides customized financial planning and investment portfolio management, retirement and stock option planning and trust and estate advisement.

We are thrilled to be joining forces with MAI, with whom we share a vision for the future of our business, said Madisons Chief Investment Officer Ed Kuresman. MAIs partnership validates the next stage of extremely thoughtful and strategic growth for our business, clients, and team.

Co-Founder and President Jim McDermott added, Madison was founded on building deep, long-lasting relationships. This partnership enhances and accelerates our mission as a full-service wealth management boutique passionately dedicated to our clients personal goals and financial lives.

Madison Wealth Management will receive the robust internal infrastructure that MAI extends to all acquired firms, including HR, operations, and marketing resources. At MAI, Ed Kuresman and Jim McDermott will both assume the title of Regional President.

Madison Wealth Management joined MAI effective January 5 as MAIs 33rd acquisition. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About MAI Capital Management

MAI is a fee-based registered investment adviser and wealth management firm based in Cleveland with 26 additional offices nationwide. As of December 29, 2023, MAIs assets under management totaled $18.8 billion. The firm also provides comprehensive investment management and planning services to high-net-worth individuals, families, and athletes. MAI is led by Managing Partner Rick Buoncore. For more information, please visit mai.capital.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108157790/en/

Media

Sarah Levine, Prosek Partners

[email protected]

Source: MAI Capital Management, LLC
SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ZEGOCLOUD, a leading global cloud communication service provider, unveiled its whitepaper "The Global Development of the Digital Human Industry: Trends, Applications, and Policy Landscape" today. This report delves into the burgeoning digital human sector, highlighting artificial intelligence's pivotal role in future digital interactions.

Digital humans are increasingly essential for human-machine symbiotic interaction and represent a growing economic segment within the metaverse. ZEGOCLOUD's analysis pinpoints the core aspects of digital humans - identity, personification, and interactive intelligence - and their collective contribution to human-machine unity.

The whitepaper underscores the sector's lucrative financial trajectory, driven by substantial investments. It explores the broad spectrum of digital human applications, from virtual idols to digital customer service employees, which enhance enterprise productivity and consumer engagement.

Furthermore, the report addresses the global policy dynamics influencing the industry's growth. It sheds light on the cautious yet constructive approaches by different governments, with some nations like China taking affirmative steps to integrate these technologies into their digital economic strategies; India is rapidly adopting the metaverse, with a majority of businesses preparing for integration and the launch of AI-powered virtual anchors. At the same time, Dubai leads the Middle East with strategic initiatives to become a global metaverse hub, supported by regional advancements in digital anchors and technology adoption.

The industry's ascent raises data security, ethical governance, and social regulation issues. The whitepaper calls for refined industry standards and administration to ensure digital humans' safe, ethical deployment.

"We are confident that digital humans will transform customer interaction and unlock opportunities across diverse sectors," states Kuk Jiang, ZEGOCLOUD's co-founder. "Our commitment at ZEGOCLOUD is to deliver top-tier real-time communication solutions that foster the growth of digital humans and the broader metaverse."

The report arrives when the market witnesses an explosive trend in digital human applications. It underscores the industry's current state and predicts the development of new commercial models and the necessity for robust governance to navigate ethical and privacy considerations in the digital age.

To access the full report, visit HERE.

About ZEGOCLOUD

ZEGOCLOUD revolutionizes virtual engagement with real-time interaction services for hassle-free cloud communication, connecting enterprises, teams, customers, and users. It lays the groundwork for businesses and developers to build RTI into their apps across the mobile internet and the metaverse.

Follow ZEGOCLOUD - https://www.linkedin.com/company/zegocloud/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108744928/en/

Media

Tanya Quan

[email protected]

Source: ZEGOCLOUD
This undated aerial photo provided by Volkswagen Group China shows the modular electric drive matrix (MEB) plant of Volkswagen (Anhui) Components Co., Ltd. in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province. (Xinhua)

With China's mature economic development and immense market size, there remains substantial growth potential in the long run, said Ola Kallenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group.

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Multinational corporations are eager to increase their investments in the prosperous Chinese market as the new year begins. Despite a challenging global environment and lackluster economic recovery, these companies continue to see untapped potential in China.





"NEXT CHINA" IS STILL CHINA

China offers promising opportunities for businesses from different countries to expand, thanks to its solid infrastructure, extensive consumer market and favorable investment climate that is constantly improving.

Ola Kallenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group, said that the company has made significant strides in China over the years, laying a solid foundation for future growth.

With China's mature economic development and immense market size, there remains substantial growth potential in the long run, said Kallenius in an interview with Xinhua, adding that his company hopes to seize this opportunity and further deepen its strategic presence in China.

Germany's Volkswagen Group, another multinational automotive company, is pushing for complete production, research and procurement localization. Last November, the group revealed that Volkswagen China Technology Company (VCTC), its largest development center outside Germany, plans to unveil an electric platform for the entry-level segment within 36 months.

"With the development of a China-specific platform for the entry-level segment, we are taking on significant development tasks for our 'in China for China' strategy," Ralf Brandstaetter, chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, said.

An employee operates at a workshop of the BAIC-Faurecia Automotive Systems Huanghua Branch in Cangzhou City of north China's Hebei Province, Dec. 9, 2020. (Photo by Yuan Liwei/Xinhua)

The rise of China's electric vehicle industry has provided ample business opportunities for French automotive equipment manufacturers such as Valeo and Faurecia.

Faurecia's 2023 third-quarter financial report revealed an 11.8 percent increase in sales in the Chinese market, showcasing robust performance.

Patrick Koller, chief executive of Faurecia, has repeatedly emphasized the Chinese market's strategic importance for the company on different occasions, saying the increasing influence within China's automotive sector is expected to further drive the development and progress of Faurecia's automotive electronics supply chain.

Christian Dreger, senior research fellow at European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), told Xinhua that the European market and enterprises pay significant attention to China's economic development.

The scale of China's market, the population's level of education, high-quality infrastructure, and China's influential role in driving economic growth in Southeast Asia are all crucial factors for the recovery of the European economy, Dreger said.

This photo taken on Nov. 8, 2023 shows a booth of GE HealthCare at the 6th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang)

ENCHANTING MARKET

China's huge market has attracted increasing investments from multinational manufacturing, international food services, high-tech companies and financial institutions, showcasing its resilience amid a sluggish global economy.

Global food service giants continue to thrive. Take Yum China, the operator of KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in the country. The company reported steady growth in operations and added 500 stores as of the third quarter of 2023. It now operates over 14,000 restaurants and aims to have 20,000 stores in China by 2026.

Leading U.S. company Apple revealed that the Greater China market accounted for one-fifth of its revenue last year. CEO Tim Cook said China's market is vital for Apple, and he remains "very optimistic" about the company's long-term prospects there.

For Apple, China is a crucial source in the supply chain. One hundred and fifty-one of the company's 200 major suppliers, including foreign and Chinese, have a manufacturing presence in the country.

Employees work at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory in east China's Shanghai, Dec. 22, 2023. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

The robust support from China's industrial ecosystem also boosts production efficiency. Tesla's Shanghai plant, the U.S. carmaker's first gigafactory outside the United States, delivered 947,000 vehicles in 2023 and can produce a car in less than 40 seconds.

According to Reuters, U.S.-based Citigroup plans to establish a wholly-owned China investment banking unit as early as the end of 2024 and hire roughly 30 people. It will focus on the domestic capital market, with plans to expand its workforce to nearly 100. 
EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Nutcracker Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company dedicated to developing transformative RNA therapies through its proprietary platform, today announced the promotion of Samuel Deutsch, Ph.D., as the companys chief scientific officer (CSO). Dr. Deutsch has been a part of the Nutcracker team since its inception, and previously served as its executive vice president of Research and Early Development, a role he has held for more than two years.

Im thrilled to assume my new role, and to continue leading Nutcrackers research team through a new era of growth and innovation, said Dr. Deutsch. As we continue to build upon our prior work in RNA drug development, I look forward to sharing with the scientific community our work on new drug programs with novel mRNA modalities and improvements to our core technology platform in the coming months.

Dr. Deutschs previous roles at Nutcracker include vice president of Biology and senior vice president of Research and Early Development. Before joining Nutcracker, Dr. Deutsch was a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and led the DNA synthesis foundry at the Joint Genome Institute. His experience also includes leading research in molecular hematology at the Geneva University Hospital, and cancer genomics at the World Health Organization.

Sam has brought invaluable experience and leadership to Nutcracker since its establishment in 2018, said Igor Khandros, CEO. His expertise will prove instrumental as we head into this pivotal year for our company, in which our lead mRNA drug candidate, NTX-250, will enter clinical trials. Im confident in his ability to lead our scientific team with excellence.

Dr. Deutsch earned a bachelors degree in genetics from the University of Nottingham, and received his Ph.D. in molecular medicine from the University of Geneva. He also completed a postdoc in synthetic biology and genomics from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has authored more than 75 peer-reviewed papers and has several patents to his name.

About Nutcracker Therapeutics, Inc.

Nutcracker Therapeutics, Inc., is an RNA therapeutics company that has combined the power of advanced engineering with high-precision biosynthesis to deploy a complete RNA platform that encompasses the design, delivery, and manufacturing of RNA medicines. Armed with this high-tech advantage, the company has initiated multiple therapeutic programs with the support of clinical investigators at leading institutions. Nutcracker Therapeutics technology platform has the potential to significantly reduce costs and cycle times for RNA therapeutic development, with dramatic advantages in speed and capacity scaling over other RNA manufacturing approaches.

For more information, visit www.nutcrackerx.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108487558/en/

Media Contact

Maggie Williard

HDMZ

[email protected]

(908) 914-6091

Source: Nutcracker Therapeutics, Inc.
Investing.com -- Shares in Boeing (NYSE: BA) fell sharply in premarket trading in New York on Monday, as reports say that the planemaker and U.S. regulators have hit a snag in carrying out safety inspections in the wake of a mid-air breach of a 737 Max jet last week.

On Friday, a plug in an emergency door ripped from the left side of a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet shortly after the takeoff of an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California. Pilots turned around and landed the plane. Several passengers were treated for minor injuries, but no deaths were reported.

The Federal Aviation Administration subsequently ordered the temporary grounding of around 171 Boeing jets on Saturday. The agency later said the planes will not return to the air until it is "satisfied that they are safe."

But, citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters has reported that the FAA and Boeing have yet to agree on the criteria for the safety checks -- a crucial step before the inspections can take place and flights can resume.

Boeing, meanwhile, is planning to hold a company-wide meeting to discuss the incident, according to media reports. The firm has already faced heavy scrutiny over two fatal crashes of its 737 Max 8 plane in 2018 and 2019.

According to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, a "missing component" from the Max 9 jet involved in the incident had been found and recovered from the backyard of a home in suburban Portland. A spokesperson for the NTSB called the piece "key" to determing why the accident happened.

Analysts at Citi said in a note to clients that they do not expect this latest issue to impact other variants of the 737 because the Max 9 model is "the only one supporting a configuration that allows for a plugged door." As a result, they argued that there was likely a fault with "this particular aircraft" rather than a broader design problem.

"This likely limits [Boeing]s financial exposure to an immaterial amount in the context of longer-term targets," the Citi analysts added.

Kansas-based Spirit Aerosystems (NYSE: SPR) manufactured and installed the plug that blew out, Reuters has reported, citing sources. Shares in the group also slumped premarket on Monday.
AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Atlas Technical Consultants (Atlas), a leading infrastructure and environmental solutions provider, announced today the appointment of Jacqueline (Jacque) Hinman as Chief Executive Officer. Hinman replaces retiring Chief Executive Officer L. Joe Boyer.

Ms. Hinman has 35 years of career engineering industry experience, which includes serving for nearly 20 years with Fortune 500 engineering company CH2M, most recently as Chairman and CEO prior to its acquisition in 2017. She also served as President of several CH2M divisions. For six years, Ms. Hinman was with Tyco Earth Tech Division as Senior Vice President. She began her career at CH2M before rejoining the company in 1996. Ms. Hinman serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Dow (NYSE: DOW) and International Paper (NYSE: IP). Ms. Hinman is a civil engineering graduate of Penn State University and attended the Stanford University Executive Program.

Mr. Boyer has been CEO since founding Atlas in 2017. With extensive industry knowledge and deep infrastructure and environmental experience, he led the growth and scale of Atlas to more than $600M in revenue and 3,600+ associates.

Hoon Cho, Chairman of Atlass Board of Directors and Co-Head of Private Equity at GI Partners, which last year completed a take-private transaction of Atlas, commented, We are pleased to announce this leadership transition to support our growth objectives at Atlas. Jacque is an experienced leader having led a global multi-billion-dollar company in the engineering and industrial sectors. Combined with her background working within the private equity model and her Board experience, she is the right person to take the company forward. On behalf of GI Partners, I would like to thank Joe for his contributions to Atlass success and growth.

About Atlas Technical ConsultantsAtlas, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a leading provider of infrastructure and environmental solutions, partnering with clients to improve performance and extend the lifecycle of built and natural infrastructure assets stressed by climate, health, and economic impacts. Atlas became a public company in February 2020 upon the merger with Boxwood Merger Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company. With 3,600+ employees nationwide, Atlas brings deep technical expertise to public- and private-sector clients, integrating services across four primary disciplines: Environmental (ENV); Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC); Engineering & Design (E&D); and Program Management/Construction Management, and Quality Management (PCQM).

About GI PartnersFounded in 2001, GI Partners is a private investment firm with over 150 employees and offices in San Francisco, New York, Dallas, Chicago, Greenwich, Scottsdale, and London. The firm has raised more than $42 billion in capital and invests on behalf of leading institutional investors around the world through its private equity, real estate, and data infrastructure strategies. The real estate strategy focuses primarily on specialized real estate, including technology, sciences, and healthcare properties. The private equity team invests primarily in companies in the healthcare, services, and software sectors. The data infrastructure team invests primarily in hard asset infrastructure businesses underpinning the digital economy. For more information, please visit www.gipartners.com.

Atlas Contact:Karlene Barron770-314-5270[email protected]

GI Partners Contacts:Chris TofalliChris Tofalli Public Relations LLC 914-834-4334[email protected]

GI Partners[email protected]

Source: Atlas Technical Consultants, Inc.
Irving, Texas, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In one of his first official visits, Roger Krone, the new President and CEO the Boy Scouts of America, met with Derrick Driscoll, Chief Operating Officer of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) at their headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is the nations leading voice in fighting child sexual abuse and exploitation, said Krone. The BSA has some of the most vigorous youth safety protocols of any youth-serving organization, and I believe NCMECs experience and insight can be indispensable in our continuing efforts to create safe spaces for youth inside and outside of Scouting.

Both of our organizations are committed, first and foremost, to the safety of children, so it is fitting that we collaborate to share perspectives and ideas as we walk this path together, said Krone.

Krone said relationships with organizations like The Center for Missing and Exploited Children are critical because of the insight and resources they offer can strengthen efforts nationwide.

One of the purposes of this visit is to discuss how we can work together to ensure that our youth safety policies remain cutting edge and effective in a world where the tactics that abusers use to access kids get more sophisticated every day, said Krone. Were not standing still. We want to evolve and advance our policies for our Scouts, families, and communities, and we strongly believe NCMECs resources can be an important part of that.

All youth-serving organizations have a responsibility of making sure that the children under their purview are safe, said Driscoll. We appreciate BSA and their leadership for making child protection a priority and are looking forward to collaborating with them further as they work to help make sure that all Scouts have a safe childhood.

Other topics the organizations discussed included the challenges of keeping youth safe online, as well as ways to prevent suspected abusers from moving from organization to organization.

Right now, there is no database of banned individuals, said Dr. Michael Bourke, retired Chief Psychologist for the United States Marshals Service and chair of the BSA Youth Protection Committee. In other words, there is no official way for organizations to share the names of individuals banned for breaking key youth protection policies."

The BSA is also collaborating with organizations including the Barbara Sinatra Childrens Center Foundation, Childrens Advocacy Center, and others.

Krone was also joined by the BSAs Youth Protection Executive, Glen Pounder, Chief Marketing Officer Michael Ramsey, and the BSAs General Counsel, Joseph Zirkman.

In addition to Driscoll, the team met with NCMECs Stacy Garrett, Vice President of Content and Community Engagement, Staca Shehan, Vice President of Analytical Services and John Shehan, Senior Vice President of the Exploited Children Division and International Engagement.

About Youth Protection in the BSA

The Boy Scouts of America places the greatest importance on creating the most secure environment possible for its youth members. Working with experts over decades, the BSA has developed procedures and policies and provides resources and tools for leaders in its programs. The guidelines include mandatory youth protection training, criminal background checks, no one-on-one adult and youth interactions, mandatory reporting of suspected abuse to law enforcement, a volunteer screening database, and more.

Roger Krone became the BSAs President and CEO in November of 2023. He recently served as Chairman and CEO of Leidos, a $15 billion Fortune 250 government technology solutions firm. An Eagle Scout who spent summers at Scout camp and Philmont Scout Ranch, Krone regularly applied the lessons he learned in Scouting during an engineering and aerospace career spanning more than 45 years.

About the Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) provides the nations foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be Prepared. For Life. The BSA welcomes all of Americas youth, including girls and young women, into our programs. Our goal is to give them fantastic experiences in the outdoors, and elsewhere, where they can grow with us in a safe environment. More than 130 million Americans have been through our programs since our founding, and currently more than 1 million youth are served by 460,000 dedicated adult volunteers in local councils throughout the country.

To learn more about the BSAs commitment to safety, visit https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/

About The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Since 1984, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a private non-profit organization, has led the fight to protect children by creating vital services for them and the people who keep them safe. NCMEC believes that every child deserves a safe childhood and as part of its work as the clearinghouse and resource center on issues relating to missing and exploited children, NCMEC operates a hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678), and has assisted in the recovery of more than 400,000 missing children. NCMEC also operates the CyberTipline, a mechanism for reporting suspected child sexual exploitation, which has received more than 150 million reports. To learn more about NCMEC, visit www.missingkids.org.

For more information on the Boy Scouts of America, please visit www.Scouting.org.

###

Scott Armstrong Boy Scouts of America 315-439-6139 [email protected]

Source: Boy Scouts of America
Washington, D.C., Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Monday January 8th, Godspeed Capital Management LP (Godspeed), a lower middle market Defense & Government services, solutions, and technology-focused private equity firm, announced the acquisition of Cyberspace Solutions, LLC (CSS or the Company), a provider of all-source intelligence gathering, analysis, and systems development solutions for national security missions, by its intelligence, AI/ML, and Data Analytics platform, Crimson Phoenix. CSS was formerly owned by Illuminate Operations, Inc.

Chertoff Capital, LLC, the investment banking subsidiary of The Chertoff Group, served as the exclusive investment banking advisor to Illuminate Operations, Inc.

TRANSACTION DETAILS

CSS is a provider of all-source intelligence gathering, analysis, and systems development solutions, including data and analytical support services for the Intelligence Community and U.S. Special Operations Command. CSS combines decades of intelligence expertise to deliver actionable insights that enable its national security customers to make fast and informed decisions. The Company now joins with Crimson Phoenix to support its intelligence strategy and national security objectives.

Jason Kaufman, Chertoff Capital president said, CSS is a trusted provider of all-source intelligence data and analytical support services for national security missions. The acquisition of CSS by Crimson Phoenix not only optimizes portfolio value for our client but also propels the Company towards a future marked by innovation and market leadership. We are pleased to have served as the trusted advisor to Illuminate and look forward to Crimson Phoenixs future success.

Ryan Hoffman, Chertoff Capital principal said, CSS aligns perfectly with Crimson Phoenixs national security objectives. It brings a talented workforce and coveted customer relationships to the platform. This transaction reflects our dedication to delivering strategic value for mission-oriented companies. We are thrilled to have advised Illuminate on the sale and are excited for Crimson Phoenixs promising future.

Tameika Hollis, CEO of Illuminate Operations, Inc., said, Chertoff Capital provided excellent advice throughout the entire transaction process. They were instrumental in crafting a clear description of the value proposition of the business being divested, identifying the relevant set of potential suitors, soliciting interest, shepherding the process of selecting the acquirer, navigating the challenges of bringing the transaction to a successful conclusion, and ultimately finding a great new home for the business. We appreciate their hard work and wise insights.

About Chertoff Capital

Chertoff Capital is the investment banking subsidiary of The Chertoff Group, a specialized advisory firm that helps organizations achieve their business and security objectives in a complex risk environment. As an industry leading investment bank serving high growth, mission-focused companies in the defense technology, government services and cybersecurity markets, Chertoff Capital provides clients with a highly differentiated advisory offering that brings together transaction expertise and unparalleled business strategy insights. Chertoff Capital professionals have advised on well over 100 transactions over the last 20 years. Chertoff Capital is an SEC registered broker dealer and a member of FINRA.

About Cyberspace Solutions

Cyberspace Solutions, LLC, is a leading provider of all-source intelligence, gathering, analysis, and systems development solutions for Intelligence Community, Defense, and Law Enforcement customers. CSS customizes solutions and provide actionable intelligence for targeting and other vital mission priorities.

About Crimson Phoenix

Crimson Phoenix is a leading digital, data, and intelligence analysis and solutions platform designed to support the critical mission requirements of the U.S. Intelligence Community and U.S. Special Operations Command. Headquartered in the DC/Virginia area, Crimson Phoenix offers a differentiated suite of mission-critical capabilities and solutions in artificial intelligence & machine learning, cybersecurity, digital and data enablement, software development, and intelligence targeting and analysis.

About Godspeed Capital Management

Godspeed Capital is a lower middle-market defense & government services, solutions, and technology focused private equity firm investing alongside forward-thinking management teams that seek an experienced and innovative investment partner with unique sector expertise, operational insight, and flexible capital for growth. While a typical investment will involve companies generating approximately $3 million to $30 million of EBITDA, Godspeed Capital has significant support to complete larger transactions through strategic co-invest relationships. The firm focuses on control buyouts, buy-and-builds, corporate carve-outs, and special situations.

Attachments

Ellen Murray Chertoff Capital 703-835-5550 [email protected]

Source: Chertoff Capital
NEW YORK, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Citeline, a Norstella company providing robust data and expert business intelligence to the pharmaceutical industry, will offer exclusive access to insights from the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM) Jan. 811, 2024 in San Francisco.



JPM, the industrys largest healthcare investment symposium, provides a detailed look at the state of the industry today and where it is headed in the coming year. This invite-only event brings together global industry leaders, emerging fast-growth companies, technology creators, and members of the investment community to discuss the latest market trends and innovations.

Citeline will provide daily updates and insights from JPM24. Those who register for updates will receive a top-level summary (via Scrip) and a detailed breakdown of what was announced in each companys presentations (via Biomedtracker).

Key industry experts from Citeline attending JPM include analysts and reporters from Citelines Scrip and Biomedtracker publications. Further Citeline coverage will also be provided by journalists from Medtech Insight.

Following the conference, Citeline will host a webinar with a panel of industry experts to discuss key JPM takeaways with an outlook for 2024. The webinar will take place Feb. 6.

Sign up for access to Citelines JPM updates. For access to Scrip and Biomedtracker, visit Citeline.

About Citeline

Citeline, a Norstella company, powers a full suite of complementary business intelligence offerings to meet the evolving needs of life science professionals to accelerate the connection of treatments to patients and patients to treatments. These patient-focused solutions and services deliver and analyze data used to drive clinical, commercial, and regulatory-related decisions and create real-world opportunities for growth.

Citelines global teams of analysts, journalists, and consultants keep their fingers on the pulse of the pharmaceutical, biomedical and medtech industries, covering it all with expert insights: key diseases, clinical trials, drug R&D and approvals, market forecasts, and more. For more information on one of the worlds most trusted health science partners, visit Citeline and follow on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).
Attending the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on January 8 to January 11, 2024, in San Francisco, California

In-person at the AlphaNorth Capital Event on January 19 to January 21, 2024 in Nassau, Bahamas

Virtually at the Maxim Group 2024 Healthcare IT Virtual Conference on January 24, 2024

In-person at the Eight Capital innoVIII: Software Spend Symposium on February 13, 2024

TORONTO, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HEALWELL AI Inc. (HEALWELL or the Company) (TSX: AIDX) (OTCQX: HWAIF), a data science and AI company focused on preventative care, is pleased to announce that Dr. Alexander Dobranowski, CEO of HEALWELL AI, will be attending and participating in the following upcoming investor conferences:

42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare ConferenceDate: January 8-11, 2024Location: San Francisco, CALink: https://www.jpmorgan.com/about-us/events-conferences/health-care-conference

This premier conference is the largest and most informative health care investment symposium in the industry which connects global industry leaders, emerging fast-growth companies, innovative technology creators and members of the investment community.

10th Annual AlphaNorth Capital EventDate: January 19-21, 2024Location: Nassau, BahamasLink: https://cem.ca/conference/alphanorth-capital-event-2024/

Hosted at the Royal Atlantis Resort by CEM, this event introduces growth-stage companies (Resource, Technology, Biotech, Special Situations) to active top-level capital finance individuals through a weekend of pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings and networking activities.

Maxim Group 2024 Healthcare IT Virtual ConferencePresentation Date: January 24, 2024Time: 4:00pm  4:30pm ET (1:00pm-1:30pm PT)Link: https://m-vest.com/events/healthcare-it-01242024

Allen Klee, Senior Research Analyst at Maxim Group, a leading full-service U.S. investment bank, sits down with Healthcare IT companies to discuss solutions to improve health outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, benefit healthcare providers, and improve customer experience.

Eight Capital innoVIII: Software Spend SymposiumDate: February 13, 2024Location: Toronto, ON

Hosted at the St. Regis Toronto, the Eight Capital innoVIII: Software Spend Symposium will feature a keynote address as well as fireside chats with several of Canadas leading IT consultants and software vendors. The sessions will provide insights from these industry executives, including valuable context from their conversations with customers, and thus provide an edge in the investment process. For additional information, please contact your primary Eight Capital representative.

Dr. Alexander DobranowskiChief Executive OfficerHEALWELL AI Inc.

About HEALWELL AI

HEALWELL AI is a healthcare technology company focused on AI and data science for preventative care. Its mission is to improve health care and save lives through early identification and detection of disease. As a physician-led organization with a proven management team of experienced executives, HEALWELL AI is executing a strategy centered around developing and acquiring technology and clinical sciences capabilities that complement the Company's road map. HEALWELL is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol AIDX and on the OTC Exchange under the symbol HWAIF. To learn more about HEALWELL AI, please visit: https://healwell.ai/.

Disclaimer

Known and unknown risk factors, many of which are beyond the control of HEALWELL, could cause the actual results of HEALWELL to differ materially from the results, performance, achievements, or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include but are not limited to those factors which are discussed under the section entitled "Risk Factors" in HEALWELL's most recent annual information form dated March 31, 2023, which is available under HEALWELL's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca. The risk factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect HEALWELL and the reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that forward looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about managements expectations and plans relating to the future. HEALWELL disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements 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 statements, except to the extent required by applicable law. All of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements.

For more information: Pardeep S. Sangha Investor Relations, HEALWELL AI Inc. Phone: 604-572-6392 [email protected]

Source: HEALWELL AI Inc.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Li-FT Power Ltd. (LIFT or the Company) (TSXV: LIFT) (OTCQX: LIFFF) (Frankfurt: WS0) is pleased to announce that Ms. Eva Bellissimo, Mr. Paul Gruner, and Ms. Andree St-Germain have joined the Companys Board of Directors, effective immediately. The Company would also like to announce the resignation of Julie Hajduk and Wanda Cutler from LIFTs Board of Directors. The Board would like to sincerely thank Ms. Hajduk and Ms. Cutler for their service and contribution to the Company and wishes them well in their future endeavours.

Ms. Bellissimo co-leads the Global Metals & Mining Group at McCarthy Tetrault LLP, a leading national law firm with offices in Canada, New York and London, and brings to LIFT a wide breadth of legal, financing, cross-border M&A and corporate governance expertise. With more than 20 years of experience in the mining industry, Eva has been a trusted advisor to numerous companies in the sector, having led hundreds of transactions. Named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada and recognized by Chambers Canada for her resource sector expertise, Eva has developed a strong reputation as a strategic lawyer and advisor. Eva has sat on a number of public company boards and currently chairs the governance committee at I-80 Gold Corp, a TSX and NYSE listed issuer. Eva also lectures on Mining Finance at the Osgoode Certificate in Mining Law Program.

Mr. Gruner is a senior executive leader with a background in renewable energy, oil & gas, and mining. He brings a wealth of experience in Indigenous business leadership across diverse regions, having previously served as the CEO for Deton Cho Management LP, the economic arm of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation in the Northwest Territories, and the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation, the economic arm of the Tahltan Nation. Mr. Gruner currently serves as the CEO for Tcho Investment Corporation, which is the economic arm of the Tcho First Nation whose traditional territory includes the area where the Yellowknife Lithium project is located. His track record speaks volumes about his ability to achieve outstanding business results while collaborating closely with Indigenous stakeholders. He has a dynamic range of experience in strategic leadership, mergers and acquisitions, business development, strategic partnerships, financial management, project management, corporate governance, contract negotiations, capacity building and job creation for citizens, and environmental, social, and corporate governance.

Ms. St-Germain is the CFO of Integra Resources Corp and an experienced mining executive with an extensive background in M&A, strategic planning, project development and mining finance. She began her mining career in investment banking and joined Golden Queen Mining in 2013 as CFO. During her tenure at Golden Queen, she played an instrumental role in securing project finance and overseeing Golden Queen as it transitioned from development to production. She then joined Integra Gold as CFO in early 2017 and helped oversee the sale to Eldorado Gold. Ms. St-Germain is a director of Osisko Mining Corp and Ascot Resources Ltd. Andree holds the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D) designation.

Francis MacDonald, CEO of LIFT comments, Firstly, I would like to thank Julie Hajduk and Wanda Cutler for their service on LIFTs Board since the inception of the Company. They have both helped to oversee LIFT grow from a small private company into one of the premier hard rock lithium explorers in North America.

I would like to welcome Eva, Paul, and Andree to the LIFT Board. Their combined experiences across capital markets, M&A transactions, Indigenous-lead business initiatives, and corporate governance will support LIFT in reaching its strategic goal of rapid project development.

LIFT Engages Native Ads

LIFT is pleased to announce that the Company has engaged Native Ads Inc. ("Native Ads"), a New York-based company with offices in Vancouver B.C., to execute a comprehensive digital media marketing campaign for LIFT, supporting ongoing efforts to increase awareness. This comprehensive advertising program will be designed to build brand familiarity and general recognition with the LIFT brand and raise awareness within online investor content platforms. Native Ads will employ state-of-the-art digital advertising, paid distribution, media buying and content creation to execute this important initiative. This programmatic digital advertising campaign is planned to run for up to 12 months or until budget exhaustion, at the cost of approximately $125,000 (USD). Services provided pursuant to the agreement will include media placements and distribution and strategic services, including content creation, web development, advertising creative development, search engine optimization and strategic digital advertising consulting. The Company retains the option to extend both the campaign's duration and budget. The campaign will commence in Q1 of 2024, with exact timelines to be agreed upon by the Company and Native Ads. The Company and Native Ads act at arm's length, and Native Ads has no present interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company or its securities.

LIFT Engages New Era Publishing Inc.

The Company also announces that it has entered into an agreement (the Agreement) with New Era Publishing Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, to provide marketing services including content creation and distribution and market awareness and educational campaigns. Prior to the commencement of services, New Era will receive an advance deposit of US$625,000 to secure appropriate space for the campaign, with a further US$625,000 to be paid to commence creative development and digital marketing. New Era provides capital markets advisory, media and editorials and a comprehensive report service with the goal of marketing awareness on various websites and platforms. Members of New Era have purchased securities of the Company because of what those members deem to be the value proposition of the company and will disclose their ownership in all marketing material and will not sell any shares during the active period of the campaign. New Era will provide the Company with an opportunity to review all content describing the Company generated by New Era prior to its publication and New Era will not publish or distribute any content without the prior approval of the Company.

Stock Options Grant

The Company announces that it has granted stock options (the Options) to its directors, officers, employees and consultants to acquire a total of 410,000 common shares of the Company at an exercise price of $7.00 per share for a period of five years. The vesting terms are structured as follows: 165,000 options undergo a phased vesting, with 25% vested on the grant date and an additional 25% on each 6/12/18-month anniversary. Another set of 245,000 options follows a distinct vesting schedule, with 50% vesting on the 12-month anniversary and the remaining 50% vesting on the 24-month anniversary.

About LIFT

LIFT is a mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, and development of lithium pegmatite projects located in Canada. The Companys flagship project is the Yellowknife Lithium Project located in Northwest Territories, Canada. LIFT also holds three early-stage exploration properties in Quebec, Canada with excellent potential for the discovery of buried lithium pegmatites, as well as the Cali Project in Northwest Territories within the Little Nahanni Pegmatite Group.

For further information, please contact: Francis MacDonald Chief Executive Officer Tel: + 1.604.609.6185 Email: [email protected] Daniel GordonInvestor RelationsTel: +1.604.609.6185Email: [email protected] Website: www.li-ft.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, forward-looking statements), including those identified by the expressions anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, expect, intend, may, should and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This press release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements and information reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the company with respect to the matter described in this new release.

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which are based on current expectations as of the date of this release and subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Additional information about these assumptions and risks and uncertainties is contained under "Risk Factors and Uncertainties" in the Company's latest annual information form filed on March 30, 2023, which is available under the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca, and in other filings that the Company has made and may make with applicable securities authorities in the future. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made only as to the date of this press release and we undertake no 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. We caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Source: Li-FT Power Ltd.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novotech, a global full-service clinical Contract Research Organization (CRO) focused on partnering with biotech companies to accelerate the development of advanced and novel therapeutics at every phase, announced today that it will have the largest ever presence at the J.P.Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, CA, USA, January 8-11, 2024.



This marks a significant milestone for the company as it has finalized the integration of its acquisitions of EastHORN and CBR International solidifying its position as a leading global CRO for the biotech sector.

The executive team will be participating in the following partnering platforms during the Conference:

CTIC  January 7, 2024, at the Intercontinental San Francisco

Biotech Showcase  January 8-10, 2024, at the San Francisco Hilton

BIO Partnering  January 8-11, 2024, at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis

RESI  January 9, 2024, at the Marines Memorial Club

Schedule a meeting with the team

Novotech offers an integrated and scaleable clinical development approach across more than 25 geographies and is highly regarded for its scientific expertise in key therapeutic areas including:

Oncology

Cell & Gene Therapy

Liver disease

Infectious diseases and vaccines

Orphan and rare diseases



Novotech has more than 3,000 employees across 34 office locations in the US, Greater China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.

The CRO offers biotechs a unique and unparalleled suite of early to late-phase services across the US and Europe, with a foundation in Asia Pacific where the company has built a reputation for delivering high-quality expedited clinical trials. Its commitment to collaboration is evident in the 50 Leading Site Partnership agreements it has signed over the past three years.

About Novotech Novotech-CRO.com

Founded in 1997, Novotech is a global full-service clinical Contract Research Organization (CRO) focused on partnering with biotech companies to accelerate the development of advanced and novel therapeutics at every phase.

Recognized for its industry-leading contributions, Novotech has received numerous prestigious awards, including the CRO Leadership Award 2023, the Asia Pacific Cell & Gene Therapy Clinical Trials Excellence 2023, the Asia-Pacific Contract Research Organization Company of the Year Award since 2006.

The Company offers a comprehensive suite of services including laboratories, Phase I facilities, drug development consulting, regulatory expertise, and has experience with over 5,000 clinical projects, including Phase I to Phase IV clinical trials and bioequivalence studies. With a presence in 34 office locations and a dedicated team of 3,000+ professionals worldwide, Novotech is a trusted end-to-end strategic partner of choice.

For more information or to speak to an expert team member visit www.Novotech-CRO.com
Jakarta, Indonesia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 8, 2024) - Kommunitas, a leading organization in the crypto and Web3 landscape from Indonesia, is proud to announce its outstanding achievements throughout the year 2023. With unwavering dedication and a commitment to excellence, Kommunitas has once again demonstrated its position as a trailblazer in the crypto industry.





Kommunitas Yearly Achievement 2023



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8632/193412_ad1987b914da8aa2_001full.jpg

Throughout the year, Kommunitas has achieved significant milestones and made remarkable contributions to the crypto and Web3 realms. From groundbreaking research to innovative projects, Kommunitas has been at the forefront of driving progress and shaping the future.

Some of the key highlights of Kommunitas' achievements in 2023 include:

Regulatory Recognition: Kommunitas token (KOM) and 500 other crypto tokens were officially listed in Decree Number 4 issued by Bappebti, indicating increased recognition and regulation in the crypto industry.

Fundraising Success: Kommunitas raised a total of 12,198,924 USDT in 2023, showcasing a significant leap from the 6,970,000 USDT raised in 2022.

Top Performing IKOs: The fastest FCFS rounds in 2023 witnessed lightning-speed transactions, with GoWrap sold out in less than 10 seconds. 4 Top-performing IKOs like Earn Network, Propbase, Vinu Chain, and Tectum.

Financial Growth: The combined revenue in 2023 soared to an impressive 34,068 USDT, reflecting the robust financial growth and collaborative spirit of the vibrant KOMmunity.

Staking Pool Rewards: The rewards from Kommunitas' 730-days staking pool in 2023 totaled an outstanding 25,408 USDT worth of project tokens.

VSB Activity Rewards: The combined rewards from vote, share, and buy (VSB) activities in 2023 amounted to a remarkable 43,780 USDT, showcasing a long-term commitment by the KOMmunity.

Airdrop Success: The total Kommunitas airdrop rewards amounted to 41,036 USDT, highlighting the community's engagement and success in distribution events.

L2E Rewards: The total Kommunitas L2E rewards reached 7,665 USDT.

Event Distribution: The overall event distribution rewards tallied an impressive 123,669 USDT, emphasizing the collective strength and success of the vibrant KOMmunity.

Token Burns and Staking Transformation: An extraordinary transformation in token metrics saw a staggering 68,586,305 KOM token burned, and the total KOM staked in the staking platform ascended from 407,584,239 KOM in 2022 to a monumental 1,036,490,000 KOM in 2023, underlining the KOMmunity's unwavering commitment.

Awards and Recognition: Robby Jeo, CEO at Kommunitas, received an Honorable Mention award from Coinvestasi, recognizing his pivotal role in advancing the crypto and Web3 landscape in Indonesia. Additionally, Kommunitas secured a position on CryptoRank's list of Top 10 Most Popular IDO Platforms in June.

These accomplishments are a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire team at Kommunitas. Through their expertise and relentless pursuit of excellence, Kommunitas continues to set new standards and inspire others in the crypto industry.

"We are thrilled to celebrate another successful year of achievements," said Robby Jeo, CEO at Kommunitas. "These accomplishments reflect our unwavering commitment to pushing boundaries, driving innovation, and making a positive impact in the crypto and Web3 landscape."

Looking ahead, Kommunitas remains committed to its mission of fostering innovation and inclusivity in the crypto and Web3 space. The organization will continue to pursue ambitious projects, collaborate with industry leaders, and empower individuals to reach their full potential.

About Kommunitas:

Kommunitas is a decentralized crowdfunding ecosystem for Web 3.0 or crypto projects. With a focus on connecting retail investors and projects seeking funding, Kommunitas strives to advance the crypto and Web3 landscape through innovation and collaboration.

For further information about Kommunitas, please visit this website.

Contact Person:

Robby Jeo

(CEO Kommunitas)

+6281914567889

Email: [email protected]

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/193412
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and 10 others injured when a blast went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, police officials said. 
London, United Kingdom--(Newsfile Corp. - January 8, 2024) - Certified Carbon Credits Limited (CCCL), a global leader in carbon offset solutions, is excited to announce a groundbreaking 20-year agreement with Kenya's Mikoko Initiative C.B.O. This historic accord, set to manage a minimum of 1,000,000 tonnes of carbon credits per year, focuses on blue carbon credits, emphasizing mangrove and other forest projects in Kenya.

The Agreement: A Milestone in Carbon Credit Management

Under the agreement, CCCL will purchase certified carbon credits from the Mikoko Initiative's mangrove restoration projects. This collaboration represents a significant step towards environmental sustainability, aligning with both organizations' commitment to combating climate change and supporting biodiversity.

Quotes from Leadership

Honourable Owen Yaa Baya, Deputy Majority Leader of the Kenyan Parliament and Member of Parliament for Kilifi North, representing Mikoko Initiative, expressed excitement about this partnership. "This agreement with CCCL is a testament to our dedication to preserving Kenya's natural habitats and our proactive approach in the fight against climate change," said Baya.

Daniel Brody, President of CCCL, commented on the partnership's significance. "Our collaboration with Mikoko Initiative marks a new era in sustainable development. By focusing on blue carbon projects, we aim to set a benchmark in the carbon credit market, ensuring environmental preservation and community support," Brody stated.

Innovative Technology Integration

Further enhancing this venture, CCCL has commissioned XGC Software Inc. to develop a blockchain-ERP solution for efficient carbon credit management. This technology promises to revolutionize the way carbon credits are managed, ensuring authenticity and impact. More information about this technology can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dawn-trust-xgc-software-incs-blockchain-revolution-carbon-bnmbc

About Certified Carbon Credits Limited

Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and office in Toronto, Canada, CCCL specializes in certifying and selling carbon credits with a commitment to environmental sustainability and social responsibility. The company is at the forefront of global efforts to combat climate change. https://www.certifiedcarboncredits.org

About Mikoko Initiative C.B.O

Based in Watamu, Kenya, the Mikoko Initiative C.B.O is dedicated to environmental work, particularly in mangrove restoration, contributing significantly to carbon reduction efforts and ecological conservation in Kenya.

About XGC Software Inc.

XGC Software Inc. is a public company that stands at the intersection of Blockchain ERP and Healthcare Technologies. With a focus on acquiring and nurturing innovative technologies, XGC is dedicated to improving the earth's and people's outcomes through technology. For more information on XGC's strategy and how it's shaping the future of healthcare, visit https://www.xgcsoftwareinc.com.

Contact Information:

- Certified Carbon Credits Limited: Dan Brody, President [email protected]

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding CCCL and Mikoko Initiative C.B.O's future plans and expected performance. Actual results may differ due to various factors.

###

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/193305
Paid press release content from The Financial Capital. The StreetInsider.com news staff was not involved in its creation.

Tax Network USA is a full-service tax resolution firm specializing in IRS and State tax solutions. The company expressed readiness to help clients and announced plans for expansion to ensure all American taxpayers have access to reliable tax consulting assistance.



The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced its official tax brackets for 2024 in November last year and is planning to launch one of the largest collection campaigns to date. Some consider it a sequel to last years special reminder letter campaign; in reality, it is a continuation of IRSs efforts to tackle the issue of outstanding tax debts across the nation on an incomparably larger scale relative to previous years.

After celebrating the New Years Eve millions of Americans are now pulling financial worries from under the rug. Tax Network USA, the leading full-service tax resolution company, extends its services to taxpayers seeking a concrete solution to all tax-related problems.

Joshua Wesley Hanna, Vice President of Tax Network USA, emphasized that tax resolution firm is on a mission to help taxpayers weather the storm of notices and letters by the Internal Revenue Service, which is brewing up at a rapid pace.

The letters have been sent, and many Americans have already received a notice of outstanding debt as early as the New Years Day. This is a pressing issue for millions of taxpayers since deadlines started sooner than expected.

To prevent an avalanche of steep loans and bad decisions, Tax Network USAs Vice President Joshua stated that the company is readily and able to provide American taxpayers dependable tax relief services and support while officially announcing drastic plans for scaling and growth to ensure consistent results and availability of services to everyone.

We simply need to be able to handle an expansion in collections within the IRS like never before, Joshua said.

From tax planning and preparation to consulting and beyond, Tax Network USA Inc. has been supporting American taxpayers since 2009. Headquartered in Encino, California, this firm continues to help its clients by providing round-the-clock support, free consultations, and a barrage of free-to-use tax calculation tools on its official website.

As Joshua underscored, the most vulnerable taxpayers are those who had no information that IRS will launch its largest campaign to date so early, and those who might have miscalculated their back taxes.

The company issued an advisory note to all American taxpayers to be extremely careful when dealing with the International Revenue Service and their tax reminder letters/notices. The process of dealing with back taxes, especially when considerable amounts of money are owed, is laden with risks and is best addressed with the help of a tax professional.

Understanding the gravity of consequences the IRSs recent campaign can have on innumerable taxpayers, Tax Network USA has already taken the necessary steps to ensure help is available wherever needed. The firm now boasts an expanded roster of industry specialists, boasting decades of combined experience and a shared commitment to assisting Americans in settling tax debts as efficiently as possible.

Vice President of Tax Network USA Inc. Joshua continued, underscoring that preserving the rights of American taxpayers is the companys main goal, stating:

Of all three-letter agencies in our nation, not one burdens the American people more than the IRS. Any special deals to collect back taxes are likely to have a catch to them. Therefore, its always wise to have a licensed tax attorney guide you through the process and preserve your rights when making deals with them, Joshua concluded.

Tax Network USA is well-equipped with industry leading expert tax consultants and attorneys, insights, experience, and technology to fully address the ongoing IRS campaign, encouraging taxpayers to reach out for help as soon as their back tax notices arrive. Abiding by its motto Reduce, Settle, Resolve, the firm highlights that experts can help trivialize complex tax cases or at least mitigate financial risks tied to IRS letters.

More information about Tax Network USA is available on the companys official website.



Contact Info:

Name: Evan Hardacre

Email: Send Email

Organization: Tax Network USA Inc

Address: 15760 Ventura Blvd STE 1560 Encino CA 91436

Website: https://tnusa.com/



Release ID: 89118073

In the event of any inaccuracies, problems, or queries arising from the content shared in this press release, we encourage you to notify us immediately at [email protected]. Our diligent team will be readily available to respond and take swift action within 8 hours to rectify any identified issues or assist with removal requests. Ensuring the provision of high-quality and precise information is paramount to us.
AUSTIN, Texas , Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- MDisrupt, the leading health expert marketplace connecting healthcare experts with innovative health tech companies, is excited to announce a partnership with the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF). This collaboration is dedicated to supporting early-stage companies led by diverse founders in the digital health sector that are developing solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program.

California Health Care Foundation Partners with MDisrupt to Fuel Digital Health Pioneers Revolutionizing Healthcare

MDisrupt is committed to bolstering CHCF's program-related investments (PRIs), which are investments made in early-stage companies. Leveraging the power of MDisrupt's national cohort of healthcare subject matter experts, this support aims to strengthen the clinical, regulatory and commercialization efforts of these innovators. The primary goal is to ensure that all Californians have easy access to the best-in-class health solutions by enabling the companies developing them to access critical healthcare experts to bring their solutions to market quickly and effectively.

"By supporting our PRIs with health expert operators, we are bridging knowledge gaps to overcome systemic barriers that exist today for diverse entrepreneurs. Partnering with MDisrupt allows us to deepen our commitment to serve populations with low-incomes by empowering the operational teams driving digital health innovations, often mirroring the diversity of the Medi-Cal populations they serve,'' said Vanessa Villaverde , senior program investment officer, California HealthCare Foundation.

MDisrupt's extensive network of health experts, technologists, and industry leaders include clinicians, health system executives, payors, market access and commercialization experts, complementing CHCF's deep understanding of healthcare policy and its commitment to health equity. Together, the partnership is poised to offer entrepreneurs access to a broad network of healthcare leaders with deep subject matter expertise.

"By combining our expertise with the profound policy expertise and resources of CHCF, we are looking forward to accelerating the development and adoption of innovative health solutions for the Medi-Cal population," stated Ruby Gadelrab , founder and CEO of MDisrupt. "We believe this partnership stands as a testament to what can be achieved when philanthropic organizations unite with private sector operational experts with a common purpose of improving health outcomes for all."

Prospective partners are encouraged to reach out to MDisrupt for more information on utilizing operational experts to enable your portfolio of program-related investments.

For additional information on partnerships or to schedule an interview, please contact [email protected] .

About MDisrupt:

MDisrupt is the healthtech and life sciences industry's leading expert marketplace, with over 2000 experts from established institutions such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, CVS, Willis Towers Watson, U.S. FDA, Optum, and Cleveland Clinic. We connect healthtech and life science companies with vetted and curated health experts to help them build, commercialize, and scale their health products. MDisrupt serves companies across the healthtech and life sciences sectors, including startups, scale-ups, and established enterprise organizations.

About California Healthcare Foundation:

The California Health Care Foundation is an independent, nonprofit philanthropy that works to improve the health care system so that all Californians have the care they need. We focus on making sure the system works for Californians with low incomes and for communities who have traditionally faced the greatest barriers to care.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/breaking-barriers-california-health-care-foundation-partners-with-mdisrupt-to-fuel-digital-health-pioneers-revolutionizing-healthcare-for-all-302028231.html

SOURCE MDisrupt
Therapeutic advancements for sickle cell disease, RSV, breast cancer, Crohn's and other ailments poised to advance patient health despite urgent challenges facing life science companies

LONDON , Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CLVT), a global leader in connecting people and organizations to intelligence they can trust to transform their world, today announced the release of its annual Drugs to Watch report. The report provides in-depth predictive analysis of drugs with the potential for standout commercial and/or clinical success. The report, a key industry resource in the evolving healthcare landscape, has identified over 85 Drugs to Watch over the 11-year course of its publication.

This year, analysts identified 13 new-to-market therapeutics and drugs poised to launch in 2024 which Clarivate predictive analytics project will achieve blockbuster status by 2029 or deliver game-changing benefits to patients. These promising advancements include a broad spectrum of therapeutic innovation for conditions including breast cancer, hemophilia A, sickle cell disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and multiple myeloma, among others.

In addition, the report spotlights the growing chronic disease market in Mainland China, highlighting seven drugs that are likely to achieve $1 billion blockbuster status by 2029 or to have a significant impact for Chinese patients in need of better treatment options.

Mike Ward , Global Head of Thought Leadership, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Clarivate said: "The fundamentals underpinning the biopharma sector have never been stronger, with new technologies fueling medical advancements and providing treatment options to patients with previously unmet needs. Leveraging deep industry expertise and comprehensive therapeutic area differentiated data, this year's Drugs to Watch report identifies innovative medicines based on recent scientific breakthroughs poised to have extraordinary impacts on patient outcomes."

2024 is anticipated to be a transformational year of innovation for the pharma industry. New modalities like antibody drug conjugates and AI/machine learning, underpinned by scientific breakthroughs in the past decade, are achieving clinical successes and providing therapies for patients with limited treatment options. However, external influences such as government initiatives to contain healthcare costs, the sustained high cost of capital and global geopolitical disputes are negatively impacting investor appetites for the sector.

The 2024 edition of Drugs to Watch highlights trends that will likely be consequential to the discovery, development and delivery of new medicines, and spotlights drugs and drug candidates that are likely to achieve important milestones in the coming years as they establish themselves as either blockbuster or breakthrough medicines.

The 2024 Drugs to Watch, are:

Aflibercept (high dose; EYLEA HD), developed by Bayer and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc

For individuals with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME) or diabetic retinopathy (DR) whose treatment choices include invasive, burdensome administration that limits treatment uptake, high-dose aflibercept offers less-frequent administration while achieving similar efficacy and safety as the current standard of care.

Budesonide (TARPEYO/Kinpeygo/Nefecon), developed by Calliditas Therapeutics AB, Everest Medicines and STADA Arzneimittel AG

TARPEYO/Kinpeygo (developed under the project name Nefecon) is a second-generation, synthetic, non-halogenated form of the corticosteroid budesonide. The delayed release formulation of budesonide has shown greater efficacy for protein reduction and slowing the decline in kidney function in primary immunoglobulin A (IgA) as well as a much better safety profile than conventional corticosteroids.

Datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd), developed by AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo

With the potential to become the best-in-class TROP2-targeted antibody drug conjugate (ADC), datopotamab deruxtecan is set to be second to market (after TRODELVY; Gilead Sciences Inc) for both HR-positive/HER2-negative and triple-negative breast cancer, and to enter the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) market. The collaboration between AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo combines the former's strategic focus on NSCLC and breast cancers and investment in ADCs with the latter's proprietary DXd ADC technology.

Efanesoctocog alfa (ALTUVIIIO/BIVV001), developed by Sanofi (Bioverativ Therapeutics Inc) and Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi)

Efanesoctocog alfa is the first once-weekly factor VIII (FVIII) replacement intravenous infusion therapy, which will help reduce the burden associated with the injection frequency of other currently available FVIII therapies. For patients reluctant to receive novel therapies, such as mAbs or gene therapy, efanesoctocog alfa will likely be an appealing option. Clinicians also view efanesoctocog alfa favorably given the attainable FVIIII levels, injection frequency and safety profile demonstrated in clinical trials to date.

Ensifentrine (RPL554), developed by Verona Pharma

Ensifentrine is an inhaled dual phosphodiesterase (PDE)3 and PDE4 inhibitor that is expected to reduce exacerbations in moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without the systemic side effects of current PDE inhibitors that are delivered orally. If approved, it would be the first in class as well as the first novel mechanism that has become available for maintenance COPD treatment in more than 10 years. The clinical and safety profile of ensifentrine makes it a promising addition to the limited treatment class options available for this patient population.

Exagamglogene autotemcel (CASGEVY /exa-cel) and lovotibeglogene autotemcel (LYFGENIA/lovo-cel/formerly LentiGlobin), developed by CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (exa-cel) and Bluebird Bio (lovo-cel)

All eyes are on exagamglogene autotemcel (exa-cel) and lovotibeglogene autotemcel, which are set become the first disease-modifying therapies for sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta-thalassemia, a significant achievement for a patient population with debilitating, life-altering diseases that have limited symptomatic and curative treatments currently available. The excitement around exagamglogene autotemcel also stems from the landmark first approval of a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy globally, and the approval sets the stage for upcoming approvals in other regions.

Mirikizumab (Omvoh/ LY-3074828), developed by Eli Lilly and Company

Mirikizumab, an mAb targeting the p19 subunit of IL-23, was approved as first-in-class therapy for ulcerative colitis by the EMA and the U.S. FDA and will likely be the third in the class approved for Crohn's disease. Included in Drugs to Watch 2023, a delayed U.S. launch meant that it remains a drug to watch for 2024.

Niraparib + abiraterone acetate (AKEEGA), developed by Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

This is the first and only dual action (or fixed-dose combination [FDC]) tablet combining a PARP inhibitor (niraparib) and a next-generation hormonal therapy (abiraterone acetate). Its ability to serve as a treatment for patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious BRCA-mutated, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) should help to fullfil the need for more effective treatments.

RSVpreF (ABRYSVO/PF-06928316) and RSVpreF3 (AREXVY/GSK-3844766A), developed by Pfizer Inc (ABRYSVO) and GSK plc (AREXVY)

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections continue to be a public health concern, particularly for infants and older adults (65 years and older). A common upper respiratory infection that can result in hospitalizations in severe cases, RSV infection tends to be seasonal and present with symptoms similar to those of influenza and COVID-19. The first approvals of RSV vaccines (RSVpreF and RSVpreF3) targeted at infants and older adults mark a significant public health milestone.

Talquetamab (TALVEY), developed by Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

After receiving conditional and accelerated approval from the European Commission and FDA, respectively, talquetamab became the first-in-class bispecific antibody targeted to CD3 and GPRC5D to treat multiple myeloma. It was approved based on the pivotal phase 1/2 MonumenTAL-1 trial for heavily pretreated patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) multiple myeloma. Ongoing phase 3 trials are expected to provide confirmation of clinical benefit in talquetamab's approved setting and lead to label expansions in other multiple myeloma patient populations, including in combination with other approved agents. Talquetamab is poised as an important addition to the treatment armamentarium for this incurable, often-relapsing disease.

Zolbetuximab (IMAB362), developed by Astellas Pharma Inc

Metastatic HER2-negative gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma is notoriously difficult to treat and has a significant unmet need for new efficacious treatments. In contrast to HER2-positive disease (for which HER2-targeted agents such as trastuzumab [Genentech] and ENHERTU [Daiichi Sankyo] are available), targeted treatment options are more limited for HER2-negative patients. Zolbetuximab would address some of that unmet need as a first-in-class claudin 18.2 (CLDN18.2) inhibitor in oncology as well as first-line metastatic HER2-negative gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma.

New technology platforms that are likely to achieve significant proof of medical use in the market in 2024 include CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing as well as artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) tool applications in drug discovery, clinical development and commercial launch. In the long run, the latter technologies hold enormous potential to help drugmakers cut costs and shorten innovation cycles, enabling the delivery of more innovative drugs to patients faster going forward.

Access the Drugs to Watch 2024 report from Clarivate, here.

For more Drugs to Watch updates and analyses throughout the year, visit the Drugs to Watch web page and follow Clarivate for Life Sciences & Healthcare on LinkedIn and X. Join the conversation, using #DrugstoWatch2024.

To learn more about how Clarivate can help healthcare companies inform and shape the drug discovery, development and delivery process, visit https://clarivate.com/industries/life-sciences-and-healthcare.

Methodology for the Clarivate Drugs to Watch 2024 Report

To identify this year's Drugs to Watch, Clarivate drew from the expertise of over 160 analysts covering hundreds of diseases, drugs and markets, along with 11 integrated data sets that span the R&D and commercialization lifecycle, including: Cortellis Competitive Intelligence, Disease Landscape & Forecast, BioWorld, Drug Timeline & Success Rates, Cortellis Clinical Trials Intelligence, Cortellis Generics Intelligence, Cortellis Deals Intelligence, Access & Reimbursement payer studies , Clarivate Real World Data and Analytics , Web of Science Derwent Innovation, and other industry sources including biopharma company press releases, filings and peer-reviewed publications. Candidate drugs in phase 2 or phase 3 trials, at pre-registration or registration stage, or already launched in 2023 were selected for analysis, including both novel treatments and already-marketed drugs pursuing new indications that could be particularly impactful. Drugs launched prior to 2023 were excluded. The dataset was filtered for drugs that had total forecast sales of $1 billion or more by 2029. Clarivate experts and analysts evaluated each drug in its individual context, based on factors such as expected approval or launch dates, competitive landscape, regulatory status, trial results, market dynamics and other key factors, and added novel drugs that, while likely to fall short of blockbuster status, are poised to be therapeutic game-changers.

Please note that Clarivate analysts generated the data shown in this report prior to December 31, 2023. The Drugs to Watch 2024 Report and the treatments referenced in this release are based on Clarivate's current expectations per existing data, but actual results derived from the drugs named in the report and here may differ significantly.

Clarivate is committed to comprehensively supporting customers across the entire drug, device and medical technology lifecycles to advance human health. By combining patient journey data, therapeutic area expertise, artificial intelligence and analytics in ways that unlock hidden insights, data-driven decisions and accelerating innovation, Clarivate's end-to-end research intelligence is designed to enable customers to make informed evidence-based decisions.

About Clarivate

Clarivate is a leading global information services provider. We connect people and organizations to intelligence they can trust to transform their perspective, their work and our world. Our subscription and technology-based solutions are coupled with deep domain expertise and cover the areas of Academia & Government, Life Sciences & Healthcare and Intellectual Property. For more information, please visit clarivate.com.

Media Contact:

Catherine Daniel

Director, External Communications, Life Sciences & Healthcare

[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clarivate-identifies-thirteen-potential-blockbuster-drugs-and-gamechangers-in-annual-drugs-to-watch-report-302027294.html

SOURCE Clarivate Plc
EPA award will allow First Student to outfit more school districts with electric buses

CINCINNATI , Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, First Student, the leading school transportation provider in North America , and industry leader in electrification, secured an additional round of funding through the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean School Bus Program to accelerate the deployment of electric school buses across the U.S.

The EPA award will enable First Student to deploy more than 370 new electric school buses in school districts across the United States , bringing zero-emission student transportation to more communities. These awards are significant for the environment. Replacing just one diesel school bus with an electric school bus can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54,000 pounds each year. This investment will also accelerate First Student's commitment to transition 30,000 diesel-powered school buses to electric by 2035 by allowing it to further scale its EV production and deployment capabilities.

"We thank the Environmental Protection Agency for these awards and for accelerating the equitable deployment of electric school buses across the U.S. First Student looks forward to continuing our partnership with the EPA as we work to fulfill our commitment to transition 30,000 diesel school buses with clean, electric-powered school buses by 2035," said First Student Chief Executive Officer and President John Kenning . "As the largest student transportation provider in the country, and the leading operator of electric school buses, our team has the resources and expertise to not only bring students to and from school safely, but also work with districts, utilities and municipalities to build the necessary charging and maintenance infrastructure for the future. We appreciate the EPA's recognition of the turnkey nature of our proposal and are excited to continue modernizing fleets and improving the environmental health of the students and communities we serve."

First Student's application to the EPA's Clean School Bus Program highlighted the company's expertise and resources in assisting school districts with the transition from fossil fuel to electric school buses. In awarding the grants, the EPA recognized First Student's ability to bring utilities and municipalities together with school districts in order to build the charging infrastructure and create a seamless experience for schools.

First Consulting, First Student's team of internal expert consultants, is available to collaborate with school districts to streamline the process of implementing, managing and maintaining electrified fleets. As the leading operator of electric school buses in North America , this team can leverage their extensive experience to ensure a smooth transition for school districts, focusing on safety and efficiency in pursuit of environmental sustainability.

"This award is a huge win for the future of America's electric school bus fleet. Electric school buses provide cleaner air and quieter, safer rides for students and the communities where they operate, ensuring that they start their day ready to learn and achieve their full potential," said First Student Head of Electrification Kevin Matthews . "First Student has both the resources and expertise to assist districts, utilities, and municipalities develop the requisite charging and maintenance infrastructure to carry the EPA's vision forward. We thank the Environmental Protection Agency for recognizing First Student's proposal and the potential of our team to transform transportation safety and environmental stewardship."

The Clean School Bus Program allocates funds for school districts to help cover the cost of replacing fossil fuel school buses with zero-emission vehicles. Today's award represents the second batch of funding First Student has received through the program. In November 2022 , the EPA granted First Student with funds to provide 12 school districts with of a total of 170 electric school buses.

About First Student

As a leading school transportation solutions provider in North America, First Student strives to provide the best start and finish to every school day. With a team of highly trained drivers and the industry's strongest safety record, First Student delivers reliable, quality services, including full-service transportation and management, special-needs transportation, route optimization, and scheduling, maintenance, and charter services with a fleet of about 40,000 buses. For more information, visit firststudentinc.com.

Contact: Jen Biddinger

513.362.4600

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-student-secures-additional-clean-school-bus-program-funding-from-epa-302028861.html

SOURCE First Student
SAN DIEGO , Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 20, 2023 , after more than three weeks of trial, San Diego Attorneys Jordon Harlan, Andrew Hillier and Francis DiGiacco received an impressive jury award of $9,372,000 in a California Family Rights Act retaliation case against Concentra Health Services, Inc. This verdict follows more than three years of intensive investigation and litigation, and delivers to Plaintiff Marilyn Buron , long-awaited justice.

Marilyn worked as a full-time occupational therapist at Concentra's Kearny Mesa facility for 15 years, treating patients with arm and hand injuries and providing post-operative care. In late November 2020 , Marilyn's son developed a life-threatening condition that required Marilyn to take job-protected leave to care for him through surgery and recovery. Marilyn alerted her supervisors at Concentra and took job protected leave from December 1, 2020 through February 22, 2021 .

After nearly three months of caring for her son and husband, Marilyn was eager to return to work and had been in communication with her supervisor in efforts to schedule shifts. However, on February 23, 2021 , Marilyn returned to find that she had no patients on her schedule, and her personal belongings were removed from her workstation and shoved into a drawer. She soon learned that while she was on leave, Concentra made the decision to transition Marilyn from full-time to per diem, and replace her with a less-qualified employee who was 41 years her junior.

The case was heavily litigated for three years before trial, and consisted of extensive motion work, discovery, four focus groups by Marilyn's attorneys, and nearly 20 depositions. According to attorney Jordon Harlan , "At each step of this process, Concentra refused to accept responsibility for violating the law. Ultimately, the jury had to hold them accountable."

At trial, Jordon, Andrew, and Francis demonstrated to the jury that Marilyn taking family care leave was "an issue" for Concentra, and that the termination resulted in significant emotional distress to Marilyn. "Marilyn took pride in a career that was stolen from her," said attorney Andrew Hillier , "at the time she needed it most."

After deliberations, the jury found that Concentra violated the California Family Rights Act and other important protections provided by law when they replaced her during her job-protected leave, and did so knowingly. The jury awarded Marilyn $1,562,000 in damages for the emotional pain, humiliation, and devastation she experienced. The jury also awarded $7,810,000 in punitive damages against Concentra to prevent them from ever doing this to anyone again.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/harlan-law-and-hillier-digiacco-llp-obtain-9-37-million-verdict-against-national-healthcare-conglomerate-302029035.html
KeifeRx is currently advancing programs investigating KFRX03, KFRX04, KFXR05 and KFX06 in neurodegenerative, neuroinflammatory, and mast cell-associated diseases

WASHINGTON , Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- KeifeRx, an emerging clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the discovery and development of new treatment options for neurodegenerative and immune diseases, announced today entry into an amended exclusive licensing agreement with Georgetown University to advance the development of novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) chemical entities (NCE) for the treatment of multiple disease indications. The amendment provides an extension of the exclusively licensed rights to these four novel chemical entities for the treatment of new disease conditions including inflammatory, mast-cell associated diseases, and oncology, in addition to existing rights in neurodegenerative diseases. KeifeRx is currently conducting optimizing and IND-enabling studies involving four separate formulations of the TKI (renamed KFRX03, KFRX04, KFRX05, and KFRX06) with patent life through 2037.

Early-stage clinical trials conducted at Georgetown University, along with compelling preclinical research conducted at the university led by KeifeRx's co-founder, Charbel Moussa , MBBS, Ph.D., and colleagues, demonstrated the ability of TKIs to penetrate the brain, induce autophagy, and enable the bulk disposal of disease-causing toxic proteins to treat neurodegenerative diseases, as well as the ability to target mast cells and simultaneously modulate peripheral and central immunity, providing therapeutic potential for an array of immune diseases. These properties offer the potential to significantly improve upon current neurodegenerative and immune disease treatments, which are primarily palliative and offer minimal and temporary benefits due to their inability to adequately eliminate toxic proteins and mitigate inflammation.

"Entry into this expanded exclusive licensing agreement with Georgetown is a pivotal milestone for the growth of KeifeRx as we have significantly increased the range of indications we can pursue with our portfolio of new chemical entity TKIs, including the treatment of neurodegenerative, neuroinflammatory, and mast cell-related diseases," said Chris Hoyt , Chief Executive Officer of KeifeRx. "We look forward to working with the research team at Georgetown University to spearhead the development of KFRX03, KFRX04, KFRX05, and KFRX06 for the treatment of multiple, underserved disease indications. The IP covering these assets extends through 2037, making the portfolio a high-value drug opportunity given its numerous potential disease indications, including Alzheimer's disease, ALS, mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and urticaria."

About KeifeRx

KeifeRx is an emerging clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a portfolio of novel and optimized, low-dose, orally-delivered tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) for the treatment of multiple, high-need neurodegenerative and immune diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Lewy Body Dementia. KeifeRx's diverse pipeline of early- and late-stage products leverages mechanisms of action inherent to TKIs which thus far have been underexplored. This includes the ability to penetrate the brain, induce autophagy, and enable the bulk disposal of disease-causing toxic proteins to treat neurodegenerative diseases. Georgetown University owns several issued patents and pending patent applications on the underlying technology related to the use of TKIs for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases with KeifeRx co-founder Charbel Moussa , MBBS, Ph.D., named as one of three inventors. KeifeRx has an exclusive license to the intellectual property from Georgetown University. For more information on KeifeRx, please visit https://www.keiferx.com .

For more information, please contact:

Tiberend Strategic Advisors, Inc.

Daniel Kontoh-Boateng (Investors)

[email protected]

David Irish (Investors)

[email protected]

Jason Rando (Media)

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SOURCE KeifeRx, LLC
A town that was washed away in Pakistan's devastating floods is being rebuilt with climate-resilient housing, and renamed ClimateChangeTown.pk to collect funds

Sindh People's Housing for Flood Affectees (SPHF) highlights the devastating impact of climate change and raises funds for rebuilding efforts by naming a newly rebuilt town ClimateChangeTown.pk

The website will help generate much-needed funds for villages in flood-prone areas to build climate-resilient housing in association with Sindh People's Housing for Flood Affectees (SPHF)

CLIMATECHANGETOWN.PK, Pakistan , Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The worst-ever flooding to hit Pakistan till date, continues to have a devastating impact on lives, with many of those affected still left homeless and vulnerable. To draw attention to the plight of those affected and raise funds to aid in rebuilding efforts, Sindh People's Housing for Flood Affectees (SPHF) proposed a unique solution. They appealed to the government to name one of the newly rebuilt towns 'climatechangetown.pk', making it the first town in the world to have a website as a name.

Khalid Mehmood Shaikh , CEO SPHF, said, "Every town in the world has a name. We thought of naming the town something that would get the world to pay attention to the climate change crisis that Pakistan is currently facing. Our people are in dire need of help, and with this website, the world will know exactly how and where to help them."

Pakistan produces less than 1% of the world's carbon footprint yet is suffering the biggest consequences of climate change. According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Pakistan is currently the fifth most climate-vulnerable country in the world. Experts are predicting that flooding is now going to be a yearly occurrence in Pakistan .

The rains that began in June last year affected over 33 million people in Pakistan . Sindh saw the worst of it, with over 85% of the loss and destruction occurring the area, affecting 12.36 million people and damaging 2.1 million homes.

Building a resilient home for each of these families is important since previously, their homes were 'kutcha' (made of mud) thus making them acutely vulnerable to climatic disasters. SPHF is now helping people build 'pukka' (solid) houses, using resilient construction materials and pre-defined guidelines, to withstand climatic challenges like heavy rains, flash flooding etc. While the government has stepped forward to support reconstruction efforts, there's still a huge funding gap. One that SPHF aims to overcome by reaching out to the world.

Mr.Shaikh added, "Officially renaming of a town is a bold move  but it's the kind of bold action that we need to fight against climate change. It's a reminder to the international community that Pakistanis are not responsible for causing climate change, they are merely victims. And we need the world to come together to help us stay afloat."

Through climatechangetown.pk, SPHF is hoping to turn the tide for flood victims and direct much-needed funds towards providing them with better living conditions. The funds will be used to expand the rehabilitation efforts that started with climatechangetown.pk, to other villages across the country. With Pakistan being a climate hotspot, these villages and towns, which were once a reminder of devastation are now a symbol of resilience in the face of climate change.

With this campaign, SPHF plans to rebuild more than 2 million homes, making it the world's largest housing reconstruction program.

https://climatechangetown.pk/

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2311998/SPHF_CLIMATECHANGETOWN_PK.jpg

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SOURCE Sindh Peoples Housing for Flood Affectees (SPHF)
Membership Growth of 1.7 Million since Year End of 2022

Full Year System-Wide Same Store Sales Increase of 8.7%

165 New Planet Fitness Stores

Equipment placed in 135 new franchised locations

Company to discuss operating metrics in fireside chat at the ICR Conference on Tuesday, January 9, 2024

HAMPTON, N.H. , Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Planet Fitness, Inc. (NYSE: PLNT), one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers with more members than any other fitness brand, today provided an overview of key year-end operational metrics.

As of December 31, 2023 , Planet Fitness grew its membership to approximately 18.7 million members, an increase of 1.7 million since the end of 2022, and full year system-wide same store sales increased by 8.7 percent. Additionally, in 2023, the Company placed equipment in 135 new franchised locations and opened 165 new Planet Fitness stores, including 18 corporate-owned locations, bringing system-wide total stores to 2,575.

"We are pleased to have delivered another strong year of member growth, demonstrating important momentum for our business, and continued recovery from the impact of COVID interruptions. Our New Growth Model, which reduces the capital requirements for opening and operating a Planet Fitness location, underscores our focus on utilizing a disciplined, data-driven approach to improving store level returns. As we navigate a dynamic macro-economic environment, we remain committed to delivering long-term sustainable growth while balancing the needs of all stakeholders, including the franchisor, franchisees, shareholders, and most importantly, our members," said Craig Benson , Interim Chief Executive Officer. "The search for our new CEO is well underway. The Board is focused on finding a leader they believe will guide us in capturing the growth opportunities that lie ahead."

Full Year Results



The Company plans to release its full fiscal year 2023 results and a 2024 outlook on February 22, 2024 .

Live Webcast



Management's previously announced fireside chat presentation at the 2024 ICR Conference is scheduled for January 9, 2024 , at 1:00 pm Eastern Time .

A live webcast of the presentation will be available at http://investor.planetfitness.com.

About Planet Fitness

Founded in 1992 in Dover, NH , Planet Fitness is one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers in the world by number of members and locations. As of December 31, 2023 , Planet Fitness had approximately 18.7 million members and 2,575 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia , Puerto Rico , Canada , Panama , Mexico and Australia . The Company's mission is to enhance people's lives by providing a high-quality fitness experience in a welcoming, non-intimidating environment, which we call the Judgement Free Zone. More than 90% of Planet Fitness stores are owned and operated by independent business men and women.

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SOURCE Planet Fitness, Inc.
LOS ANGELES , Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Resecurity ( USA ), a global cybersecurity solutions provider protecting Fortune 500 and government agencies worldwide, proudly announces the successful completion of its official registration process with the National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) in Saudi Arabia . This achievement solidifies Resecurity's status as a registered and authorized cybersecurity service provider within the Kingdom. Resecurity has been added to the list of accredited cybersecurity service providers on the official WEB-site of the NCA under number 248. Resecurity's comprehensive portfolio of services is tailored to government and law enforcement organizations, making them a trusted partner in the field of cybersecurity fully compliant with existing regulations and legislation.

On April 25, 2022 , the NCA issued a public call to entities providing cybersecurity services, solutions, or products in Saudi Arabia to register their data through the NCA's website. The initiative, which became a mandatory requirement for relevant entities starting August 1, 2022 , aims to enhance the overall cybersecurity landscape in the Kingdom and foster a secure and reliable cyberspace conducive to growth. Separately, the NCA indicated that this requirement enhances the efforts made in developing and regulating the cybersecurity market and industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , and outlined the same precedes the issuance of necessary regulatory licenses to practice some activities related to the sector during the coming period.

Upholding the Best Cybersecurity Standards

Resecurity, in alignment with the NCA's vision, has successfully navigated the registration process, showcasing its commitment to upholding the highest standards of cybersecurity. As a registered service provider, Resecurity is well-poised to contribute to the development of the Kingdom's cybersecurity market.

"Completing the official registration with the National Cybersecurity Authority is a testament to Resecurity's unwavering commitment to cybersecurity excellence and compliance. Our mission has always been to empower organizations with advanced security solutions, and this milestone underscores our dedication to fortifying the digital resilience of Saudi Arabia . We are excited to collaborate with the Kingdom in building a robust and secure cyberspace for its citizens and businesses." - Gene Yoo , CEO of Resecurity shared his perspective on this achievement:

"Our journey in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is marked by this significant achievement. We are excited about the opportunity to contribute to the Kingdom's cybersecurity landscape and work collaboratively towards a digitally secure future in scope of Saudi Vision 2030." - said Mohammed Alghamdi , Managing Director of Resecurity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia :

NCA's Vision for a Secure Digital Future

The NCA's decision to enforce the registration requirement is rooted in its commitment to creating a safe and reliable Saudi cyberspace. By establishing a mandatory registration process, the NCA aims to ensure that entities providing cybersecurity services contribute to the overall security posture of the Kingdom.

By completing the official registration with the NCA, Resecurity reinforces its commitment to delivering cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions. As a registered service provider, Resecurity is now better equipped to contribute to the advancement of Saudi Arabia's cybersecurity infrastructure and assist businesses in navigating the constantly evolving threat landscape.

Moving Forward Together

Resecurity looks forward to collaborating with the National Cybersecurity Authority and fellow registered entities in creating a secure digital environment that facilitates growth, innovation, and prosperity. Last year, Resecurity announced the appointment of Mohammed Alghamdi as the Managing Director for its operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). With a distinguished professional career spanning government relations management and successful collaborations with both private and public sector organizations, Mr. Alghamdi is well-equipped to lead Resecurity's strategic initiatives and business development in the region. Mr. Alghamdi's career includes notable tenures at prestigious global consulting firms, including Booz Allen Hamilton, Oliver Wyman , and Bain & Company. He specializes in addressing clients' most critical issues: strategy, marketing, organization, operations, technology, transformation, digital, advanced analytics, corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions (M&A), and sustainability across all industries and geographies. As the Managing Director for Resecurity in KSA, Mr. Alghamdi will play a pivotal role in overseeing government affairs and mission-critical operations specifically relevant to the national security, aerospace and defense (A&D) verticals.

About Resecurity

Resecurity, Inc. ( USA ) is a cybersecurity company that delivers a unified platform for endpoint protection, risk management, and cyber threat intelligence. Known for providing best-of-breed data-driven intelligence solutions, Resecurity's services and platforms focus on early-warning identification of data breaches and comprehensive protection against cybersecurity risks. Founded in 2016, it has been globally recognized as one of the world's most innovative cybersecurity companies with the sole mission of enabling organizations to combat cyber threats regardless of how sophisticated they are. Most recently, Resecurity was named as one of the Top 10 fastest-growing private cybersecurity companies in Los Angeles, California by Inc. Magazine. An Official Member and a Gold Sponsor of InfraGard National Members Alliance (INMA), AFCEA, NDIA, SIA, FS-ISAC and the American Chamber of Commerce in Saudi Arabia (AmChamKSA), Singapore (AmChamSG), Korea (AmChamKorea), Mexico (AmChamMX), and UAE (AmChamDubai). Visit https://resecurity.com to learn more about Resecurity.

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SOURCE Resecurity Inc.
TOKYO, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport reopened on Monday, after a fatal collision between a Japan Airlines (JAL) passenger jet and a Japan Coast Guard plane forced its closure.

Runway C, one of four runways at the country's busiest airport, was reopened after the removal of the wreckage of the JAL aircraft and the completion of repairs.

The closure of Runway C following the accident led to the cancellation of over 1,200 flights, affecting more than 200,000 passengers during the busy New Year holidays, Kyodo News reported.

The JAL aircraft collided with the Coast Guard plane on Runway C while landing on Jan. 2, with both aircraft catching fire. All 379 people aboard the JAL flight escaped before it was engulfed in flames, but five of the six crew on the Coast Guard plane died while the surviving pilot sustained serious injuries. 
FILE PHOTO: Actor Jonathan Majors walks outside the court after the jury found him guilty in his assault and harassment case at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, U.S., December 18, 2023. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Actor Jonathan Majors, who was dropped by Disney's Marvel after being found guilty last month of attacking his ex-girlfriend, said in an interview on Monday that he was responsible for problems with the relationship but not for her injuries.

In his first televised remarks since a New York jury found him guilty in December, Majors told ABC News he should have never been in the car with his then-girlfriend. Prosecutors alleged Majors assaulted her in a hired car in March, leaving her with a broken finger and other injuries.

"If I'm man enough or brave enough to say 'I want to see somebody else or I'm done now,' I'm not in that car, we're not here," he said when asked if he was responsible for her injuries.

"I'm responsible for that... none of her injuries," he added in the pre-taped interview that aired on "Good Morning America".

A statement for the woman, Grace Jabbari, said Majors' comments continued to show he still takes "no accountability for his actions," and "demonstrates a clear lack of remorse for his actions," ABC reported.

Majors, who faces sentencing Feb. 6 after being found guilty of one count of assault and one count of harassment, was a rising Hollywood star set to play the leading role in Marvel's upcoming "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" after portraying villain Kang the Conqueror in 2023's "Ant-Man."

Majors said he hoped to work in Hollywood again. Asked if he thought he deserved a second chance, he said: "I think I do, I hope other people think that."

Majors and Jabbari met on the "Ant Man" set, according to ABC. Their relationship was unhealthy and he should "have walked away" from it, he said.

"I'm sorry," Majors told ABC. "I was reckless with her heart.... not with her body."

(Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Mary Milliken and Hugh Lawson)
(Reuters) -A Romanian court has accepted a challenge brought by U.S.-British social media influencer Andrew Tate against the seizure of his assets as part of a pending human trafficking criminal case, court documents showed on Monday, meaning judges must rule on the issue again.

Tate, who gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle, was indicted in June along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, allegations they have denied. It is not yet clear when their trial will begin.

In January 2023, Romanian authorities said they had seized goods and money worth 18 million lei ($4 million) as part of a criminal inquiry into Tate, including cash, designer watches and luxury cars. A month later, prosecutors said they had also seized some properties and cryptocurrency.

In December, the Bucharest court overturned Tate's challenge against the asset seizure but on Monday, the Bucharest Court of Appeals accepted his request and ordered that the seizure be reanalysed. Technically the assets remain seized until that reassessment and ruling is made.

"We salute the decision today and applaud the judge for what we consider to be a legally correct and justified ruling," Eugen Vidineac, lead counsel for Tate, said in a statement.

Romania's anti-organized crime prosecuting unit DIICOT could not immediately be reached for comment.

It is unclear when the trial of the Tates and the two Romanian women will go ahead. While the investigation ended when the four were indicted, the case is now with the Bucharest court's preliminary chamber, which needs to inspect the files to ensure their legality.

The trial cannot start until that process is completed, but Romania's courts remain backlogged with cases.

The Tate brothers were held in police custody pending a criminal investigation from late December 2022 until April, to prevent them from fleeing the country or tampering with evidence.

They were then placed under house arrest until August. Since then, they have been under judicial control, a lighter preventative measure meaning they have regular check-ins with the police but can move around freely except for leaving the country.

Tate, a self-described misogynist, has gained millions of fans by promoting a lifestyle that critics say denigrates women.

($1 = 4.5413 lei)

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie and Alan Charlish; Editing by Jon Boyle and Hugh Lawson)
FILE PHOTO: A person holds Polish flags as supporters gather at the final rally of the largest opposition grouping Civic Coalition (KO), ahead of a parliamentary election on Sunday, in Pruszkow, Poland, October 13, 2023. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

WARSAW (Reuters) -Two members of Poland's former government faced jail terms on Monday after a court said orders to take them to prison had been prepared in the latest twist in a case that has pitted the new administration against the president.

In 2015, weeks after the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power, President Andrzej Duda issued a pardon to former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski who had been found guilty of abuse of power while serving as head of an anti-corruption agency.

Lawyers questioned whether Duda was entitled to pardon him before an appeals court issued a final ruling. The Supreme Court said last year that the case should be reopened.

Kaminski and his deputy Maciej Wasik were sentenced in December to two years in prison. Both denied any wrongdoing.

Duda on Monday reiterated that he believed his pardon should stand, but shortly afterwards a Warsaw court said that documentation needed to take Kaminski and Wasik to prison was ready.

"Executive documentation was prepared, including orders to bring convicts M.K. and M.W. to penitentiary units," local media cited the court as saying.

PiS lawmaker Rafal Bochenek said Monday's decision by the court was "scandalous and outrageous" in a post on social media platform X, adding that it was "proof of the lack of respect for the law and constitutional principles, including the presidential power of pardon" by the new government.

The head of Duda's office said he had invited Kaminski and Wasik to the presidential palace at 1000 GMT on Tuesday for a ceremony marking the appointment of new advisors.

'CHAOS'

Some lawyers have said the dispute was an illustration of judicial disarray following the former nationalist government's reforms.

According to many lawyers and the speaker of the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, the verdict in December meant Kaminski and Wasik lost their parliamentary mandates, but both deny that and have said they plan to attend the next sitting.

The case also kindled a conflict within the Supreme Court where judges are fighting over which chamber should have the final word on the issue.

Sejm Speaker Szymon Holownia has said there is "procedural chaos" in the judicial system.

Holownia wanted the appeal of his decision invalidating the mandates to be heard by the Labour Law Chamber while Kaminski and Wasik said it should be the Chamber of Extraordinary Control, which ruled on the issue last week.

The latter is a chamber created under the former government and manned by judges appointed under rules that critics and European bodies have said fail to meet rule-of-law standards.

"This is a six-dimensional multiverse of a chaos situation, but the panel of 'old' judges from the 'old' chamber appears unfazed by this and will hear the case next week," Jakub Jaraczewski, Research Coordinator at Democracy Reporting International, wrote on the social media platform X.

(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Pawel Florkiewicz, Alan Charlish; Editing by Toby Chopra and Barbara Lewis)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will conduct live firing drills in some areas in the East China Sea from 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) to 3 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, according to the China maritime safety administration.

No vessels are allowed to enter the designated area, the administration said in a statement on Monday.

The drills are in the waters off the coast of Ningbo and Zhoushan, port cities that lie just south of the financial hub of Shanghai, said the statement.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
BEIJING (Reuters) -China said its security agencies found another incident of spying in which the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, used a foreigner in China to collect secrets and information.

The case by China highlights the ongoing heated exchanges the countries have traded over accusations of perceived spying that threatens their respective national securities.

China's Ministry of State Security revealed on its WeChat social media account on Monday that a foreigner, only identified by surname Huang, was in charge of an overseas consulting agency, and in 2015, MI6 established an "intelligence cooperative relationship" with the person.

After that, M16 instructed Huang to enter China several times, and instructed him to use his public identity as a cover to collect China-related intelligence for British spying, the statement said.

MI6 also conducted professional intelligence training for Huang in Britain and other places, and provided special espionage equipment for intelligence cross-linking, China's government said.

"After careful investigation, the state security organs promptly discovered evidence of Huang's involvement in espionage activities, and took criminal coercive measures against him," the government said.

The consulting agency was not disclosed by the Chinese government. The British Foreign Office declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the British government has said Chinese spies are targeting its officials in sensitive positions in politics, defence and business as part of an increasingly sophisticated operation to gain access to secrets.

Recently, a researcher in Britain's parliament denied he was a Chinese spy.

China repeatedly condemned the assertions with a foreign ministry spokesperson saying they were "entirely groundless."

"We urge the UK to stop spreading disinformation and stop political manipulation and malicious slander against China," said foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning when queried at a press briefing.

China has been cracking down on perceived threats to its national security, revealing several cases of spying that it uncovered in recent years.

The government has been warning its citizens in the country and abroad of the dangers of getting caught up in espionage activities. It has been encouraging people to join counter-espionage work that includes creating channels to report suspicious activity.

China has also unleashed a sweeping crackdown on foreign consultancy and due diligence firms over threats of revealing state secrets that has unnerved foreign companies operating in the country.

(Reporting by Bernard Orr; Editing by Michael Perry and Ed Osmond)
Members of Ecuadorean Armed Forces stand guard outside the Zonal prison number 8 after the transfer of the criminal leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as "Fito",from the prison, in Guayaquil, Ecuador August 14, 2023. REUTERS/Vicente Gaibor del Pino

By Alexandra Valencia

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador's "most-wanted prisoner", the leader of the Los Choneros criminal group, disappeared from the jail where he was being held, authorities said on Sunday and launched an operation to locate him.

General Cesar Zapata, the national commander of police, told a press conference that the country's armed forces had determined that one of the inmates in the Guayaquil prison was missing.

While Zapata did not mention the inmate by name, the prosecutor's office said it would investigate "the alleged escape" of Jose Adolfo Macias, the leader of Los Choneros.

Macias, whose alias is "Fito", was sentenced in 2011 to 34 years in prison for various crimes including drug trafficking and murder.

Los Choneros is a criminal organization authorities have linked to extortion, murder and drug trafficking, among other crimes, and accused of controlling the country's main prisons.

"We're grateful for the courage and commitment of the law enforcement forces, who, in an operation involving more than 3,000 people, have intervened in the prison in search of the most-wanted prisoner," said presidential spokesman Roberto Izurieta at the press conference.

Rival criminal organizations frequently clash in Ecuador's overcrowded prisons and official numbers show more than 400 inmates have died since 2021.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
ROME (Reuters) - Italian opposition parties called on Monday for the dissolution of extreme-right parties after a video was released showing hundreds of men making fascist salutes during a rally in Rome.

The rally was held on Sunday in front of the former headquarters of the MSI group - a neo-fascist party that eventually morphed into the conservative Brothers of Italy, which was co-founded by Giorgia Meloni, now the prime minister.

The event marked the 46th anniversary of the killing of three neo-fascists in Via Acca Larentia, in southeast Rome.

Two of the men were gunned down by suspected far-left militants while the third was killed by police after a riot broke out shortly after the shooting. No one was ever convicted over the deaths.

In the video, lines of men can be seen making stiff-armed salutes and shouting "present" three times as one of their number yelled "For all fallen comrades!" - a typical rallying cry at neo-fascist events.

"This is an unacceptable disgrace in a European democracy," said Carlo Calenda, head of the centrist Action party.

Commemorations for the Acca Larentia killings take place each year, but opposition parties said such displays of pro-fascist sentiment were outlawed and demanded an investigation.

"It looks like 1924," said Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein, referring to the year fascist leader Benito Mussolini scored a resounding election victory prior to shutting down multi-party politics in Italy.

"What happened is unacceptable. Neo-fascist groups must be disbanded, as the constitution spells out," she added.

Italy's post-war constitution forbids the reorganisation of Mussolini's dissolved Fascist party, but extreme right groups have sidestepped the problem by giving their organisations new names and claiming to be new entities.

Brothers of Italy made no immediate comment about the neo-fascist rally, while Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who leads the more moderate Forza Italia party, said any celebration of dictatorship should be condemned.

"There is a law stating that you cannot make an apology of fascism in our country," he said.

Meloni praised Mussolini in her youth but has since changed her stance, saying in 2021 that there was "no space" in her party "for nostalgia for fascism, racism or antisemitism."

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer and Angelo Amante, editing by Alvise Armellini and Mark Heinrich)
By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -A former Gambian minister under ousted dictator Yahya Jammeh went on trial in Switzerland on Monday for crimes against humanity in a milestone case where a serial rape victim will testify after a multi-decade wait for justice.

Former interior minister Ousman Sonko becomes the highest-ranking official to be tried in Europe under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows grave crimes to be prosecuted anywhere, said the Swiss campaign group TRIAL International which filed the complaint against him.

Nine Gambian plaintiffs are coming to Switzerland for the hearing at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona.

Binta Jamba, one of the plaintiffs who alleges Sonko raped her multiple times, stood outside the courtroom carrying a sign reading: "Bring Jammeh and his accomplices to justice".

Sonko, 54, faces charges including murder, multiple rapes, and torture between 2000-2016 in what is Switzerland's second trial ever for crimes against humanity. He denies the charges.

"It has been a long period of waiting, waiting with anger, anxiety. But I am very optimistic now and I feel so happy. I am smelling justice," 67-year-old plaintiff Madi Ceesay said before the trial. He alleges he was detained and tortured under Sonko.

The defendant's lawyer, Philippe Currat, asked the court to abandon the case, citing problems with the investigations and hearings.

"Since the beginning I have been stupefied by the way this file has been handled," he told Reuters. He said some of the evidence in the indictment had been based on secret hearings in Gambia and that interviewees had not been informed of their rights.

'STRUGGLING FOR 25 YEARS'

According to the indictment, Jamba was raped multiple times by Sonko between 2000-2002 after he murdered her husband in connection with an alleged planned coup attempt.

Once, in 2005, he held her captive for five days, beating her and raping her repeatedly, the indictment said. She fell pregnant by him twice and he paid for the abortions, according to the charges.

"Me and my family have been struggling with this for almost 25 years now," she said in a message sent to Reuters before the trial. "Without justice I will never have peace in my life."

Currat says he can prove Sonko was abroad during much of the period of the rape accusations.

He will also argue that many of the alleged crimes against humanity, including the rape charges, happened before a relevant Swiss law took effect in 2011 and are not admissible.

Sonko, 54, was arrested in early 2017 in Switzerland, where he was seeking asylum. Jammeh's 22-year repressive rule ended in January 2017 after he lost an election and was forced to flee.

Sonko could face a life sentence as a maximum possible penalty.

Fatoumatta Sandeng, the daughter of Solo Sandeng, a Gambian opposition activist killed in custody in 2016, said she is eager to look into Sonko's eyes in court. "If we don't hold people accountable, things like this will keep happening in Gambia, in Africa, all over the world," she said.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Pap Saine in Banjul; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Andrew Heavens)
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis, tackling conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine in his yearly address to diplomats, said on Monday that "indiscriminately striking" civilians is a war crime because it violates international humanitarian law.

Francis, 87, made his comments in a 45-minute address to Vatican-accredited envoys from 184 countries that is sometimes called his "state of the world" speech.

In it, he also talked about conflicts in Africa and Asia, migration crises in the United States and Latin America, climate change and the persecution of Christians.

Expressing concern that the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip could spread in the wider Middle East, he called for a "ceasefire on every front, including Lebanon".

He condemned Hamas' Oct. 7 cross-border attack from Gaza into southern Israel as an "atrocious" act of "terrorism and extremism", and renewed a call for the immediate liberation of those still being held by militants in Gaza.

In remarks linking the two high profile conflicts, Francis said modern warfare often does not distinguish between military and civilian objectives.

There is no conflict that does not end up in some way "indiscriminately striking" the civilian population, he said.

"The events in Ukraine and Gaza are clear proof of this. We must not forget that grave violations of international humanitarian law are war crimes, and that it is not sufficient to point them out, but also necessary to prevent them.

"There is a need for greater effort on the part of the international community to defend and implement humanitarian law, which seems to be the only way to ensure the defence of human dignity in situations of warfare," he said.

Israel's military campaign in densely populated Gaza has so far killed 22,835 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel says 1,200 people were killed in Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage and around 240 were taken hostage.

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"Perhaps we need to realise more clearly that civilian victims are not 'collateral damage', but men and women, with names and surnames, who lose their lives," Francis said.

The pontiff also said a resurgence of antisemitism since the start of the Gaza war was a "scourge" that must be eliminated from society.

In other parts of his address, Francis took another swipe at the armaments industry, calling for the establishment of a fund where money saved by reducing weapons stockpiles is diverted to eliminate hunger.

He also called for the universal prohibition of surrogate motherhood, calling it "deplorable" and a grave violation of the dignity of both the woman and the child. "A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract," he said.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; editing by Kevin Liffey, Mark Heinrich, Peter Graff)
FILE PHOTO: Iranian pilgrims wait at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran, Iran, as they depart for the annual haj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, July 31, 2017. Nazanin Tabatabaee Yazdi /TIMA via REUTERS/File Photo

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran hopes technical problems preventing Iranian Muslims from making the Umrah pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will soon be resolved, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday.

Iran initially announced in December that the first Umrah pilgrims would travel on Dec. 19 following an agreement between Tehran and Riyadh to allow the pilgrimage to take place after a pause of eight years.

However, this flight and subsequent ones were cancelled due to Riyadh failing to provide "necessary final permits" for the entry of Iranian planes into Saudi airports, the spokesman of Iran Air Hessam Qorbanali had told state TV.

"The relevant authorities have informed that it is just a technical issue and that there is no political dispute as the bilateral agreement regarding Umrah pilgrimage is well-established and Saudi Arabia is committed to it," Kanaani said during a televised press conference on Monday.

Saudi Arabia did not comment on the matter.

Kanaani added that Iran's head of Haj and Pilgrimage was in Saudi Arabia with a team of experts to resolve the problems.

According to semi-official Tasnim news agency, representatives of Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation are also in Saudi Arabia working on the issues.

China mediated an agreement in March under which Iran and Saudi Arabia resumed full diplomatic relations which were cut in 2016 over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric and the storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Since 2016, Iranian pilgrims have only been able to complete the Haj pilgrimage, a religious duty deemed compulsory for Muslims which is subject to strict annual quotas and timings.

Umrah, known as the "lesser pilgrimage", can be undertaken at any time of the year and is not generally deemed compulsory in Islam.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom, editing by Ed Osmond)
BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- As China beefs up efforts to expand institutional opening up and reduce restrictions on foreign investment, more opportunities will emerge for global investors to share in the dividends of China's development, experts said.

In the third episode of the China Economic Roundtable hosted by Xinhua News Agency, government officials and the head of a private business shared opinions on China's foreign trade and investment.

Zhang Wei, vice president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said that institutional opening up aims to promote economic development by allocating resources to the process of opening up to the globe.

"Strengthening institutional opening up is a very effective way to promote the high-quality development of China's economy, and it is also a very important form of support," Zhang said.

In December 2023, China's State Council issued a comprehensive plan to promote the high-level institutional opening up of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) by aligning it with high-standard international economic and trade rules.

A total of 80 measures covering seven areas were outlined in the plan, including initiatives to facilitate trade in goods and services, promote digital trade and enhance intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, among others.

Zhao Yugang, an official with the Shanghai FTZ management committee, said at the roundtable that institutional opening up serves as reassurance for foreign investors.

The comprehensive plan allows overseas importers and producers to apply for customs pre-ruling in the Shanghai FTZ, which provides policy support for further enhancing the predictability of trade activities, Zhao said.

"The IPR protection system for goods in transit mentioned in the plan provides a guarantee for the development of trade activities of a wider scope and at a higher level," according to Zhao.

China's high-standard opening up is based on its massive market and integrated industrial system. China's per capita GDP has exceeded 12,000 U.S. dollars and the country boasts the world's largest middle-income population of over 400 million, which is constantly growing.

In the meantime, China is the only country that has all the industrial categories listed by the United Nations and its industrial advantages are unmatched by other countries.

China's opening-up advantage has changed from low cost to cost-effectiveness, not only because of the large scale of China's market, but also because the big market delivers innovative scenarios to enterprises, Zhang noted.

"Because China has a more inclusive management style, the advantages of its innovative scenarios are actually difficult to find on a global scale," Zhang said.

From the perspective of the Shanghai FTZ, Zhao said that he has felt the confidence of multinationals in China's super-large market during his communication with them.

In the first 11 months of last year, 48,078 new foreign-invested firms were set up across China, an increase of 36.2 percent year on year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed. 
FILE PHOTO: A smartphone with a displayed NVIDIA logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

By Joseph White

DETROIT (Reuters) - Nvidia said four Chinese electric vehicle brands will use its technology as the brains for automated driving systems, underscoring the U.S. chip maker's determination to expand in China despite Washington's tighter export rules.

Chinese automakers Li Auto, Great Wall Motor, Zeekr and the new EV unit of Chinese telecommunications company Xiaomi will use Nvidia's DRIVE technology to power automated driving, Nvidia said on Monday at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

China's rising EV brands are a key market for Nvidia's automotive technology business. Chinese automakers are racing each other to launch more advanced in-vehicle infotainment displays and automated driving functions. That's created a growth opportunity for Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm and other semiconductor manufacturers.

Nvidia and its U.S.-based rivals face challenges meeting demands from Chinese customers for powerful chips, while remaining in compliance with tighter U.S. controls on exports of advanced semiconductors to China.

POWERING ONLINE CAR SHOPPING

In related CES announcements, Nvidia said it is working with advertising giant WPP, Lotus and six other companies to develop more advanced online shopping tools. Using Nvidia technology, automakers and dealers hope to create online shopping sites with three dimensional graphics and more lifelike graphics, said Danny Shapiro, Nvidia's vice president for automotive.

(Reporting By Joe White; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
By Mushtaq Ali

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb blast in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border killed five police on polio vaccination guard duty and wounded more than 20 on Monday, the latest in a series of attacks by Islamist militants ahead of the Feb. 8 national elections.

The Pakistan Taliban, an umbrella group of militants also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility in a statement sent to Reuters.

The blast hit a truck full of police on their way to guard a polio vaccination drive in the Bajur tribal district, police official Kashif Zulfikar said.

Islamist militants in Pakistan often target polio vaccination teams, believing the immunisation effort is a Western tool to spy on them and make Muslims infertile.

The TTP has been waging a war against the state for years, seeking to overthrow the government and replace it with a harsh brand of Islamic rule.

The militants have ramped up their attacks since they revoked a ceasefire with the government last year.

Political analysts have voiced concern, with some politicians calling for a delay in the elections in the northwest.

A six-man suicide squad drove an explosive-laden truck into a military camp in northwest Pakistan last month, killing at least 23 soldiers, the heaviest death toll in a single attack in years.

(Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) leaves the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. November 1, 2023. REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -California will hold the special primary election for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's recently vacated congressional seat on March 19, according to the secretary of state website.

Unlike in most states, where primaries are divided by political party, all of the declared candidates in a California jurisdiction are put against each other in the primary.

If a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, no special general election will be held, according to a calendar released by the state's secretary of state.

If there is a special general election, it will take place on May 21, according to a proclamation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday.

THE TAKE

The special election will determine who will hold the seat until November, eventually likely giving Republicans a critical vote in an extremely tight House of Representatives ahead of the Nov. 5 general election that will determine control of the entire chamber.

But until then, the seat will be empty for up to five months, depriving House Republicans of a key vote until then.

CONTEXT

McCarthy was ousted by a gang of eight Republican rebels, who bucked the party and banded together with House Democrats to boot the speaker in an unprecedented vote.

McCarthy's departure triggered three weeks of uncertainty, with House Republicans struggling to select a replacement for McCarthy. Mike Johnson, a Louisiana conservative, ultimately claimed the mantle.

McCarthy announced his resignation effective at the end of 2023, further narrowing House Republicans' thin majority.

The Republicans currently have a 220-213 House majority.

WHAT'S NEXT

McCarthy's seat is considered safe for Republicans.

(Reporting by Shakil Ismail and Makini Brice; writing by Paul Grant; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Sandra Maler)
FILE PHOTO: A Volkswagen logo is seen on a Volkswagen ID.5 electric car on display at a showroom of a car dealer in Reze near Nantes, France, November 13, 2023. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo

By Abhirup Roy and Victoria Waldersee

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -Volkswagen's voice assistant integrating ChatGPT into its cars will be able to converse with users in a back-and-forth dialogue by the middle of the year, the carmaker said on Monday as it presented the technology in Las Vegas.

Volkswagen presented its first vehicles featuring ChatGPT, to be available for customers in North America and Europe from early in the second quarter of this year, at the CES electronics trade fair.

From raising the temperature when it hears "I'm feeling cold" to showing the nearest Indian restaurant upon hearing "I want butter chicken", the AI can recognise and respond to a range of demands, according to executives from Volkswagen and Cerence, who partnered with Volkswagen on the technology.

Customers can now adjust functionalities from their vehicle without touching a button, Kai Gruenitz, the Volkswagen brand's board member for technical development, told Reuters on the sidelines of the CES trade fair.

"Our customers don't want to manually adjust their seats ... they want to use speech dialogue systems," he said.

Critics say adding generative AI in vehicles, though a step forward from the interactions possible today, is far behind the AI leap that was expected a few years ago, especially with fully autonomous vehicles. Automakers disagree.

"So if you have Apple CarPlay or Android or something, you are not able to adjust functionalities inside of the vehicle. That's the next step," Gruenitz said. "I think what our customers are really looking for is seamless, intuitive usage of their car."

Volkswagen said it was the first volume manufacturer to make the technology a standard feature in its compact segment cars.General Motors said last March it was working on a virtual personal assistant using AI models behind ChatGPT.

Mercedes-Benz ran a test programme last June enabling around 900,000 vehicles which had the automaker's "MBUX" system to download ChatGPT, with the view of users eventually being able to carry out tasks like making movie or restaurant reservations from behind the wheel.

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in Las Vegas and Victoria Waldersee in Berlin; Editing by Rachel More and Jonathan Oatis)
In this photo provided by the US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon flies as part of joint air-to-ground training involving American and Bosnian forces on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. (US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina)

STUTTGART, Germany  U.S. special operators on the ground in Bosnia coordinated with two U.S. Air Force F-16s flying overhead to rehearse a close air support mission with local forces, American officials said Monday.

The bilateral drill with Bosnia and Herzegovina amounted to a show of force at a time of tension in the country, where concerns are growing over a secessionist movement.

The military cooperation demonstrates the United States commitment to ensuring the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the face of anti-Dayton and secessionist activity, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement Monday.

The embassy added that the U.S. will act if anyone tries to change this basic element of the 1995 Dayton Accords or the Bosnian constitution, which provides no right of secession.

In recent weeks, the leader of the Republic of Srpska territory, Milorad Dodik, has threatened to declare independence from Bosnia-Herzegovina. The territory is majority ethnically Serbian and comprises a little less than half of the nations land.

More than 100,000 people were killed in fighting in the Balkans prior to the accords, when Serbians in Bosnia tried to break away and join Serbia. The accords established Serb and Bosniak-Croat entities held together by joint institutions.

Dodik, who is backed by Russia, has defied U.S. and British sanctions over his policies, according to Associated Press reports.

On Tuesday, Dodiks government plans to hold a celebration of a controversial national holiday that Bosnias top court has declared unlawful. On Jan. 9, 1992, Bosnian Serbs proclaimed the creation of an independent state in Bosnia, which led to the bloodshed.

Dodik has dismissed the U.S. jets flyover, saying it would contribute to Tuesdays celebrations, which routinely include a parade of armed police and their equipment, the AP reported.

The drills in Bosnia involved air-to-ground training with Army Special Forces joint terminal attack controllers and local troops in the Tuzla and Brcko region.

American support for Bosnia and Herzegovinas Armed Forces is ironclad, forged over years of close cooperation, U.S. European Commands deputy commander, Lt. Gen. Steven L. Basham, said in a statement.

JTAC teams provide close air support and are used to direct the action of military aircraft from a forward position in support of ground forces, the embassy statement said.

The mission was supported by a KC-135 Stratotanker that will provide aerial refueling for the F-16s over the Srpska territory, the embassy said.

The exercise was being led by U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa with support from U.S. Special Operations Command Europe.

U.S. aircraft will return to base immediately following mission completion, the embassy statement said. The ability to rapidly deploy, reach a target and return home demonstrates the United States ability to project power anywhere at a moments notice and operate alongside allies and partners.
Former Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston, now the CEO of Army Emergency Relief, says he wants to make the organization the nonprofit of choice for soldiers. He is focusing his efforts on making AER more competitive in the battle for donor dollars. (Army Emergency Relief )

The recently retired top enlisted soldier who leads Army Emergency Relief, the services official nonprofit, has one overriding goal for the organization: to make it the top choice for soldiers among its peers.

But a little more than a week into the job, retired Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston said a major challenge facing AER is the gap between donations and contributions.

Were giving out sometimes more than we take in, he said Friday in an interview. Thats hard to sustain ... and thats one of my concerns.

On Jan. 1, Grinston became the first former enlisted soldier to lead the organization since it was launched in 1942.

He said hes looking for ways to stand out in the battle for donations, where everything from GoFundMe drives to other well-established nonprofits are competing for dollars.

Were looking at (increasing fundraising) from two sides, he said. Theres inside the Army, soldiers helping soldiers. And then those organizations outside of the Army, those people that maybe do business with the Army or just want to help support their soldiers.

About a decade ago, roughly 25% of Army personnel contributed to AER, Grinston said. But during the past couple of years, that number has hovered at about 6%, he said.

The past year was a busy one for AER, which assists Army families experiencing unexpected financial difficulties by offering a variety of aid, including grants, loans and scholarships.

In 2023, the organization provided roughly $57.6 million in assistance and $5.3 million in scholarships, according to AER.

Major efforts include helping soldiers and families when disaster strikes, such as the tornadoes that hit the Fort Campbell, Ky., community in December 2022.

The nonprofit also helped about 1,500 families affected by Typhoon Mawar, which swept through Guam in May.

The assistance comes in many forms, with AER managing more than 30 different programs. The top needs are often for small things, such as car repairs, Grinston said.

If I cant get to work, I have to fix that car, he said. And that takes money away from me buying food ... and thats where we need to come in.
The Navy and Marine Corps conducted long-range maritime strikes in the Hawaiian Islands Operating Area using a variety of fast-responding forces during a sinking exercise on the decommissioned guided missile frigate ex-USS Ingraham on Aug. 15. The sinking exercises, known as SINKEX, have been conducted for decades to give sailors the opportunity to practice using weapons on real targets. (U.S. Navy)

(Tribune News Service)  The Navy is requesting permission for the installation and maintenance of mine training areas off Hawaii and Southern California.

The Navy is preparing to conduct an environmental review of its Pacific training operations around Hawaii and California and is soliciting public feedback until the end of January.

The service has an operating permit for what it calls the Hawaii-California Training and Testing Study Area that expires in 2025, and is required to submit an environmental impact statement as part of the renewal process. The Navy is moving forward at a time when the military considers the Pacific to be its top priority theater amid tensions with China.

Under the new permit, the Navy is requesting a special use airspace in Southern California, an expansion of an underwater training range near San Clemente Island and the installation and maintenance of mine training areas off Hawaii and Southern California.

The Proposed Action is needed to ensure U.S. military services are able to organize, train, and equip service members and personnel to meet their respective national defense missions in accordance with their Congressionally mandated requirements, the Navy said in a statement. Proposed training and testing activities are similar to those analyzed in previous environmental impact analyses and are representative of activities that have been conducted off Hawaii and California for more than 80 years.

The Navy said it would continue to employ appropriate marine species protective mitigation measures when conducting these activities.

But in Hawaii the Navy is facing increased scrutiny of its environmental record as it continues cleanup operations at its underground Red Hill facility, a World War II-era fuel farm that sits just 100 feet above a critical aquifer most of Honolulu rely on for drinking water.

In November 2021 jet fuel from the facility spilled and tainted the Navys Oahu water system that serves 93,000 people. The military is working to extract the last of the fuel and preparing for remediation and closure operations that are expected to take several years.

Protecting our environment is in our national interest and can be done while ensuring our national security. Its not one or the other, said U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono. I expect the Navy to fully complete the EIS and to work with the appropriate state and federal agencies to mitigate potential negative impacts of renewing current federal regulatory permits and authorizations.

Under the existing permit, Navy personnel operating at sea must acknowledge mitigation zones for marine mammals and are instructed that if marine mammals are observed, Navy personnel must maneuver to maintain distance. Every ship has a logbook on board, and sailors are supposed to log any sighting of marine mammals spotted near their vessels.

According to a legal notice posted online in September, the National Marine Fisheries Service and Navy explored the idea of new mitigation areas in Hawaii to protect marine mammals, including consideration of new mitigation areas based on newly identified (biologically important areas ), but the Navy concluded establishing those areas would be impracticable given overlap with critical Navy training areas in the (Hawaii Range Complex).

The U.S. Pacific Fleet hosts the biennial Rim of the Pacific Exercise  the worlds largest naval war game  in the Hawaiian islands, and has been stepping up training year-round with allied countries in the Pacific. As a result, Hawaii is becoming seen as an increasingly important operations hub.

But island residents and environmentalists have long expressed concern about the impact of those operations, in particular regarding loud sonar under the water and combat exercises where the Navy sinks decommissioned ships.

Wildlife impacts Sonar and other noise associated with the training has been known in some cases to adversely affect marine wildlife.

We do know that sonar use is very detrimental to whales, said Jonee Peters, executive director of the Conservation Council for Hawaii. In 2015, the council took the NMFS to court, charging that it has allowed the Navy to conduct training and testing exercises even if they end up harming a stunning number of marine mammals, some of which are endangered or threatened.

Research suggests beaked whales are particularly vulnerable to sonar.

In March 2022, when a beaked whale stranded in Honaunau Bay, bystanders intervened to turn the animal off the rocks, allowing it to swim back out to sea on its own. Local residents reported hearing a siren or alarm-type of sound underwater on the same day and spotted a Navy vessel nearby the following day.

The Navy later confirmed that it used continuous active sonar within 27 nautical miles and 48 hours of the time of stranding, though officials said the stranding has not been definitively linked to the sonar.

Just being mindful of not doing sonar testing or using sonar during whale season is a good answer, Peters argued, but she added that there should be more research into how sonar effects other marine life.

Environmentalists have also raised concerns about vessels hitting and injuring marine animals, especially whales.

The NMFS authorizes the Navy an incidental take  a calculation of the number of times the government believes Navy operations could result in marine life getting harassed, injured or killed in a certain area even if sailors are working to mitigate the impact.

The Navys current operating permit allowed up to three large whales to be killed in ship strikes  fatal collisions at sea. As of 2024, the Navy has hit that limit through incidents off Southern California.

In 2021, the Navy announced it would review its policies after an Australian navy destroyer crew participating in a U.S.-led multinational exercise off California unknowingly dragged two dead fin whales under their ships hull into San Diego, where the animals had to be dislodged from the vessel.

Navy officials had long contended that sailors aboard a ship would know if they had fatally struck a whale, but the 2021 incident indicated there could be more impacts than they had known. The Endangered Species Act requires the government to reevaluate its data if new information or factors it hadnt considered come to light.

Its not just military ships moving through the Pacific. The ocean is bustling with commercial, scientific and recreational vessels that constantly move through Hawaiis waters and have at times collided with wildlife.

When it comes to mitigating the impact of human activity on the natural environment more can always be done, Hirono said. Ideally with enough research and technology development we can get to zero whale strikes, but unfortunately we are not there yet. Its important the Navy ensures it is doing everything in its power to minimize these strikes.

Last year the Navy said it would provide extra training to prevent whale strikes as a result of the incident. But the Navy also requested that the NMFS retroactively amend its operating permit for Hawaii and California to allow for more fatal collisions with large whales, from three to five.

A Pacific Fleet spokesperson told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the Navy had requested to amend the permit is predicated on a revised summary of the probability of future ship strikes in the approximately two years remaining in the (Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing ) authorizations following the Navy ship strikes in the California portion of HSTT during 2021 and 2023.

Peters said shes disturbed by what she thinks is a lack of accountability given that Navy can simply ask to change the regulations. We shouldnt be changing limits for their convenience, I dont think thats pono, she said.

Deep sea mystery Several groups have also raised concerns about military sinking exercises that the Navy calls SINKEX. The Navy has conducted the exercises for decades to give sailors the opportunity to practice using their weapons on real targetssomething the Navy doesnt have the opportunity to do as often as other branches.

Before theyre towed out to sea, the decommissioned vessels must be defueled and scrubbed of potential toxic chemicals in a series of costly procedures laid out by the Environmental Protection Agency. Its more expensive to sink a vessel than to scrap it. But critics argue that there hasnt been enough study of what happens after the ships sink to the ocean floor.

The Navy imposed a moratorium on SINKEX training in 2010 while it conducted a review of the program weighing its benefits, costs and potential environmental impacts. In 2011, the Sierra Club and other groups filed a lawsuit against the EPA alleging that it failed to prevent the SINKEX program from exposing the ocean to toxic chemicals, specifically polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

The training resumed in 2012 with three decommissioned vessels sunk off Kauai during that years RIMPAC. The plaintiff groups dropped their complaint in 2013 due to a lack of funding, but their criticism of the training has not subsided.

The Navy has argued that the shipwrecks turn into reefs and habitat for undersea life like other shipwrecks have, and that there is little adverse environmental impact. But when it comes to tracking the exercises and their environmental impact in Hawaii, the military has little data. The Navy has been unable to provide an exact figure of how many ships it has sunk in and around Hawaii, though it sinks an average of two ships during RIMPAC years.

In Hawaii sinking exercises are required to be conducted at least 50 nautical miles from shore and in waters at a depth of at least 6, 000 feet. While Navy officials insist the exercises are environmentally sound, they also admit they havent monitored the wrecks because the depth of the shipwrecks precludes them from long-term monitoring.

After RIMPAC 2022, the Navy said in a statement to the Star-Advertiser that in 2014 the EPA determined the training does not pose an unreasonable risk of injury to human health or the environment and that long-term monitoring of SINKEX hulls is not required as they are selected from a list of Navy-approved vessels that have been cleaned in accordance with (EPA) guidelines.

SINKEX is an important and unique training tool for our Navy and I expect it to be conducted in accordance with all relevant environmental regulations, Hirono said. But when it comes to studying the sunken ships the Navy has left across the ocean floor around the islands, she said, the benefit of exploring these vessels should be considered in the context of the significant costs and resources that would be necessary to do so.

Environmentalists argue, however, that its vital that there be studies of the wrecks to see if the Navys assertion that they have become reefs is true. Peters said that those areas are habitats for deep sea corals and other creatures that scientists are only now starting to understand.

Some of them take hundreds of years to grow, and if theyre sinking ships out there it could potentially destroy some of those corals, she said. How are they knowing this is a good thing to do if theyre not monitoring?

(c)2024 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Visit at www.staradvertiser.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The Coast Guard led a search-and-rescue operation Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024, to save six Chinese nationals in distress after their boat, seen here, started taking on water near Guam. (U.S. Coast Guard)

The U.S. Coast Guard, Navy and Guam first responders worked together over the weekend to rescue six Chinese boaters in distress off Guams coast.

The six people were sailing about 30 miles northwest of Guam on Saturday when they issued a distress call and reported their 23-foot recreational vessel was experiencing severe difficulties and taking on water, U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam said in a news release that day.

Guam Fire Rescue relayed the distress call to the Coast Guard, which in turn dispatched a 45-foot response boat from its station in Apra Harbor. Dispatchers also contacted the Navy, which ordered Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 to assist in the search.

An MH-60S Seahawk crew from the squadron found the vessel, which was in critical condition and taking on water in multiple locations, according to the release. The Coast Guard crew deemed it unsafe to tow, and the six boaters were taken aboard the response boat.

The rescue was swift and effective despite scattered rain showers and 6-foot waves, Lt. Chelsea Garcia, the Coast Guards rescue mission coordinator, said in the release.

The Coast Guard delivered the boaters to Hagatna, where Homeland Security agents took custody of them for further care and assessment.

No injuries were reported, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sara Muir told Stars and Stripes by email Friday.

The situation highlighted the risks of traversing the waters between Guam and islands like Saipan or Rota in the Northern Marianas Islands, especially for those without much experience, Muir said.

The unpredictable ocean conditions, coupled with the considerable distance and potential for rapid weather changes, demand a high level of navigational skill, comprehensive knowledge of maritime safety practices and thorough preparation, she wrote.

Muir referred additional questions about the boaters to Homeland Security and Guams Customs and Quarantine Agency.

Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday; the Guam customs agency acknowledged the request but was unable to provide a response by Monday evening.
The Philippines, embroiled in tensions with China over the South China Sea, may face an increased threat of cyber attacks at the hands of their adversary. (Dreamstime/TNS)

(Tribune News Service)  While recent tensions in the South China Sea have highlighted the Philippines maritime vulnerabilities, the more insidious risk of state-sponsored cyberattacks  and a lack of resources to handle them  may be the countrys bigger challenge.

In a November report, a Chinese group known as Stately Taurus was blamed for an attack that had compromised a Philippine government agency for five days earlier in 2023, coinciding with clashes between the two countries ships in the South China Sea. Stately Tauruss operations align with geopolitical topics of interest to the Chinese government, according to Palo Alto Networks, the U.S. cybersecurity firm that produced the report.

Philippine officials say it is difficult to pin any cyberattack on one specific country. Still, online security breaches in the Southeast Asian nation are widespread. Over 60,000 user accounts were compromised in the third quarter of last year, according to cybersecurity company Surfshark, putting the Philippines among the worlds 30 most-attacked countries. In September, state insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corp. suffered a huge data leak.

Hackers defaced the website of the countrys House of Representatives just weeks later.

Cyberattacks are a bigger threat than the firing of water cannons, said Sherwin Ona, a cyberdefense consultant to the National Security Council and an associate professor at De La Salle University in Manila.

The governments cyber response team has 35 members. The group is so understaffed that it is sometimes forced to work with anonymous black hat hackers, who may have previously attacked government websites but are willing to offer tips on looming threats, said Jeffrey Ian Dy, undersecretary at the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

Do we even have the capability, with just 30 people looking at each and every weakness? We do not, Dy said, adding that the team would ideally number about 200. We do our best to defend the republic.

Shortage of funds is the primary obstacle, he said. The Philippines lacks a competitive pay scale to recruit and retain cyber talent within government agencies, according to research backed by the United States Agency for International Development.

Government agencies are not the only ones taking increasing notice of the threat. Romeo Brawner Jr., the Philippine armed forces chief of staff, announced plans in October to recruit more cyber warriors to combat what he described as near-daily threats, including from unidentified foreign forces.

Worldwide, cyber is really becoming a very important domain in warfare, Brawner said at the time. This new breed of warriors dont necessarily have to be muscled; what we need are individuals who are intelligent and very skillful in [the] cyber domain.

In recent months, governments around the world have warned of Chinas potential digital threat.

In its latest Annual Threat Assessment, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that China probably currently represents the broadest, most active, and persistent cyber espionage threat to U.S. Government and private-sector networks. In May, the U.K.s spy agency warned of fresh threats from Chinas nation-state hackers.

Chinas Foreign Ministry said it opposed baseless rumors and slanders and that the countrys stance on cybersecurity was consistent and clear, in an emailed response to Bloomberg Newss request for comment. China usually says it is a victim of hacking when it is accused of carrying out cyberattacks. It also calls the U.S. the worlds top hacker.

Ona said that the experience of Taiwan, which has been subject to massive cyberattacks from China, is particularly instructive for the Philippines. China is using Russias playbook and uses it against its adversaries, he said.

With assistance from Manolo Serapio Jr., Margi Murphy, Jamie Tarabay, Philip Glamann and Zheping Huang.

2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Visit bloomberg.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Farmers aboard their tractors roll down a main road in Kaiserslautern, Germany, on Jan. 8, 2024, highlighting their opposition against agricultural policy changes announced by the German government. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes)

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany  Farmers in Germany kicked off a week of protests Monday with widespread highway shutdowns and city center demonstrations, including near U.S. military communities, in opposition to the federal governments proposed cuts to agricultural subsidies.

The weeklong demonstrations are set to last until Jan. 15, the German Farmers Union announced, and are expected to cause significant traffic disruptions in numerous German cities, including those in the Kaiserslautern Military Community and around U.S. posts in Bavaria.

Early Monday morning, a convoy of 566 tractors, trucks and other vehicles, accompanied by 550 people on foot, assembled along Berlins 17th of June Street, effectively paralyzing the boulevard between the Brandenburg Gate and the citys famous Victory Column, German news service Deutsche Welle reported.

In the Kaiserslautern area, home to tens of thousands of U.S. service members, around 1,000 participants with more than 600 vehicles blocked traffic at 35 locations. The protests included access ramps to at least five major highways and several district roads during the morning commute, Kaiserslautern police said.

For more than three hours on Monday afternoon in Kaiserslauterns city center, 530 tractors and semi-trucks rolled through, honking their horns and waving at bystanders.

Their discontent primarily comes from the governments plan to eliminate a tax break on agricultural diesel. Farmers argue that it will raise their costs and could drive them out of business.

Onlookers cheer for a farm protest convoy Jan. 8, 2024, in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Farmers and truck drivers are participating in nationwide protests against government taxation and subsidy cuts. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) A convoy of tractors lines up in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Jan. 8, 2024, as farmers launch a week of protests against agricultural subsidy cuts, which they say are threatening the future of farming in Germany. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) More than 530 tractors and trucks gathered in downtown Kaiserslautern, Germany, Jan. 8, 2024, to protest against the removal of diesel fuel subsidies. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) An onlooker cheers for a driver of an old German military vehicle participating in a farmers protest in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Jan. 8, 2024. The vehicle's hand-painted poster criticizes the German government as "clueless." (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes)

Lukas Gebhardt, a farmer from nearby Hoeringen, joined the protests with his John Deere tractor to express concerns over the impact of increasing expenses on small family farms.

With the fuel taxes, more costly vehicle registration and ongoing regulatory changes affecting agricultural businesses, everything is getting more expensive, Gebhardt told Stars and Stripes. Were here to tell the politicians that there is a limit.

The protests, which have also drawn support from various professions, including animal transport companies and truckers, reflect a broader discontent with economic policies.

The German governing coalition revised its stance last week, offering to keep some of the subsidies; however, farmers are calling for the plan to be abandoned entirely.

Rainer Mueller, a driver for Kaiserslautern-based construction company F.K. Horn, said he and his co-workers joined the protest to show solidarity with farmers and highlight the cascading effect of tax hike policies on middle-class businesses.

These changes affect every company involved in transportation, Mueller said. It is about the trucking tolls, the diesel taxes. All this raises the costs for everything. In the end, that means businesses cant afford to hire people or cannot start construction projects. It affects us all.

The 569th U.S. Police Squadron warned of traffic disruptions, and Ramstein Air Base advised commuters to plan for delays. U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria also issued warnings, noting that while the protests are not directed at American service members, disruptions to commutes are expected.

In the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria, home to U.S. training areas in Hohenfels and Grafenwoehr, there were more than 30 blockades and protest sites, where up to 6,100 people participated with around 6,000 vehicles, Oberpfalz police said Monday.

Protests in Amberg and Weiden included motorcades and gatherings at key locations, adding to the widespread impact.

Most of the protest sites were preapproved by communities as legal protest activities under German law. Police said most demonstrations were conducted safely, with some exceptions.

A 30-year-old Bavarian farmer is facing charges of dangerous interference with road traffic and coercion after causing a backlog of several miles, following an unapproved protest on the A93 highway, according to police.

Further protests have been announced throughout Germany for the week, culminating in a national farmers rally in Berlin on Jan. 15.
BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, President of the Republic of Maldives Mohamed Muizzu will pay a state visit to China from Monday to Friday.

Muizzu, 46, served as the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure from 2012 to 2018. He became mayor of the capital city Male in 2021.

In September 2023, he was elected as the eighth President of the Maldives as the presidential candidate for the coalition of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People's National Congress (PNC), taking office in November.

Currently serving as the president of the Maldives and leader of coalition of PPM and PNC, Muizzu is married and has one daughter and two sons. 
Pinchas Houminer outside his dry cleaning business at the Efrat Israeli settlement in the West Bank in November. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

EFRAT, West Bank  Its been nearly three months since Palestinian workers were allowed in this Jewish settlement, part of a ban imposed by the Israeli government after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank are now without a source of income; hundreds of Israeli employers have been deprived of the labor that keeps their businesses running.

For Pinchas Houminer, who runs a laundromat in Efrat, it has also come at a personal cost.

For decades, a pair of Palestinian brothers - Abdelsalem Mughrabi, 51, and his brother Mohamed, 56 - were the backbone of his laundromats operations. Houminer provided them a reliable source of income as they grew their families and sought to build better lives.

In the fraught and unequal context of occupation, marred by violence, discrimination and mutual mistrust, the men developed a genuine friendship, all three say. The relationship endured as West Bank settlements expanded, reaching further into Palestinians towns and villages. But the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, and Israels war in Gaza, is testing the ties between the men like never before.

Determined to keep the relationship alive, Houminer has resorted to a new daily ritual.

On a sunny day in November, he loaded a pile of button-down shirts into his white Hyundai sedan, drove through the fortified gates of the settlement and pulled onto Route 60, the main artery that runs through the West Bank.

Five minutes and a checkpoint later, he parked along a steep driveway in the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Arroub. The call of the muezzin, summoning Muslims to prayer, echoed through the valley dotted with olive trees. A young man bounded up to Houminers car. Ahlan! he said - Hey! - and shook his hand.

The young mans father, Abdelsalem, emerged from a house flanked by fig trees and greeted Houminer in Hebrew. The men hung freshly pressed shirts in Houminers car and retrieved the crumpled batch from the back - that afternoons work. Then Houminer drove back down the hill.

This has been their routine since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants rampaged across communities in southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 240 hostage, according to Israeli authorities. Israels retaliatory war against Hamas has killed more than 22,000 people in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry; the United Nations says at least 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces across the West Bank, many of them in military raids.

The government has banned most of the nearly 200,000 Palestinians who work in Israel and West Bank settlements from entering Israeli communities.

In Efrat, a Jewish settlement of 15,000 people 12 miles south of Jerusalem, Palestinians from al-Arroub and other nearby villages staffed shops and cleaned homes, often for better pay than they would have received from Palestinian employers.

Even that small window of coexistence has now been shut. Its very difficult, very, very difficult, said Houminer, a short, bespectacled man with a mop of gray hair and piercing blue eyes, shaking his head as he turned onto the road leading out of al-Arroub.

The car crawled to a stop in front of a checkpoint. An Israeli soldier told Houminer he worried about his frequent excursions to al-Arroub. Houminer said he wasnt concerned.

Maybe Im stupid, he told a Washington Post reporter who was traveling with him that November morning. Maybe I have to be afraid.

A very good relationship

Houminer was born in Jerusalem to a family that had lived there for generations. But housing was expensive, and he and his wife, Drora, were looking for an affordable place to raise their young family.

In May 1987, he rode a Palestinian bus to Efrat to buy an apartment. I was a Jew alone with all the bus full of Arabs, and with no fear, he said. It was natural, you know?

Houminer, Drora and their four children moved to Efrat that July, four years after the settlements founding, joining about 50 other families.

In December, the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising, erupted, the start of years of violent and often deadly confrontations in Israel and across the West Bank.

We used to go the [Palestinian] villages freely, no problem, Houminer said. But afterwards . . . he trailed off.

By the early 1990s, the violence had died down. Relations warmed between Efrat and neighboring Palestinian villages, visible from the hilltop settlement. Palestinians were hired by the growing communitys supermarket and new restaurants. Houminer attended the wedding of a Palestinian employee.

He hired Mohamed around then, and a decade or so later, his brother Abdelsalem.

Abdelsalem described Houminer as a good man with a sense of humor.

I was happy and he was happy. Many times he used to leave me alone in the laundromat, Abdelsalem said. He used to let me manage the laundry, deal with the customers. We used to see each other more than we see our own families.

Mohamed retired in 2020 but remained in touch, calling his relationship with his former employer superb. His brother stayed on.

Efrat became known as a place of relative peace, a contrast to the hard line outposts where violence by radical settlers against Palestinians has drawn international condemnation.

Efrats longtime mayor, Oded Revivi, promoted coexistence with their Palestinian neighbors, inviting them each year to a celebration for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Palestinians could get medical treatment at the settlement clinic and pay traffic tickets at its post office.

Clients of the laundromat treated him with kindness and respect, Abdelsalem said. One began to teach him English when he took in his clothes each week. Another gave him sweets on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.

Years ago, Houminer couldnt remember exactly when, a Palestinian man tried to stab someone in the Efrat supermarket. But the incident didnt harden residents attitudes against their Palestinian neighbors, Houminer said. Before Oct. 7, he says, he always felt safe.

The relationship between us and the Arabs around here, the villages here, was very good, he said.

Efrat expanded, drawing new immigrants from the United States and other English-speaking countries. Drora taught at the local school. Their children grew up and moved away. When Houminers daughter Nourit was married in 2006 in the settlement of Ariel, Mohamed got a permit from Israeli authorities to attend.

I was the only Arab person, but I know the whole family, he said. I know people in Efrat better than I know people in the camp. I worked 33 years in Efrat. The people who were sitting at the table, they were my friends.

When the Mughrabis parents died, Houminer went to al-Arroub to pay his respects. And when Drora fell several months ago, Mohamed visited her in the hospital. She died on Oct. 11 from internal bleeding.

Now I am alone, Houminer said. But we had a very good life here.

Abdelsalem Mughrabi, left, and his brother, Mohamed Mughrabi, on the roof of their home in the al-Arroub refugee camp in the West Bank in November. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

Life under occupation

The Mughrabi family came to the West Bank during the Nakba - catastrophe, in Arabic - the term Palestinians use to remember the mass expulsion from their lands when Israel was founded in 1948.

The Mughrabis father lived with his parents and siblings near the city of Ramle, in the center of what was then British-controlled Palestine. After being driven from their home, they ended up in al-Arroub, a camp established by the United Nations in 1949.

Each family was granted a small one- or two-room house with an outdoor toilet. The Israeli military kept tight security. When Abdelsalem was growing up, he says, his parents told him to take detours to avoid soldiers - and if you drop a pen in the street and you are passing next to the army, dont pick it up.

Life in al-Arroub, home to about 15,600 people, is difficult, he said. Many refugees live in substandard shelters, according to the United Nations; during the winter, the sewage system often floods. Unemployment is high. Most of those who can find jobs work for the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations or private employers in Israeli towns and settlements.

Israeli raids, and clashes between Israeli soldiers and young Palestinians in al-Arroub, occur regularly. The Mughrabi family has tried to stay out of the fray.

We dont participate in anything, said Mohamed, sitting across from his brother at their home. None of us has ever been in prison.

But its impossible, the brothers say, to escape the violence and discrimination that constrain their lives. Abdelsalem and his siblings built their house in the 1990s to create more room for their growing families. Perched on a hill near the entrance to the camp, its within sight of Route 60 and an Israeli watchtower.

Ten years ago, Abdelsalem says, some neighborhood children threw stones at the soldiers there. The soldiers retaliated with stun grenades. One grenade came into the familys house, where his wife, five months pregnant, was standing by a window.

It caused her to miscarry, he said.

The occupation does not distinguish between the people who are throwing rocks and between the civilians like me who are living in their houses, Abdelsalem said.

Friendly workplace interactions with Israeli civilians have no impact on the behavior of soldiers, his brother said: They treat Palestinians with violence and brutality.

The punishment for Palestinians is collective punishment.

This time is different

The shock attack of Oct. 7 upended Houminers understanding of his world.

Before, he believed Palestinian militants attacked Jewish Israelis because they dont have a state, we occupy their land, he said. Now, I know that all of this is not true - the only reason is the hatred of Jews.

Abdelsalem, stuck at home, now passes his days watching the news out of Gaza with his brothers, gripped and horrified by Israels Western-backed bombing campaign and its toll on women and children.

Civilians in Efrat and nearby settlements, newly suspicious of their Palestinian neighbors, are arming themselves and conducting nightly patrols.

Outside al-Arroub, the brothers say, checkpoint soldiers are more aggressive than usual.

Houminer says he no longer knows how to interact with Mohamed - or whether their relationship can ever regain its easy rhythm. He was hurt when Mohamed didnt call to check on him and his family after Oct. 7. His sons-in-law are in the army.

I really dont know what to do, he said, squinting in the doorway of the laundromat. I need him, I love him, and Im working with him for 20 years.

A woman with a British accent who had come to pick up her dry cleaning chimed in: We all love him!

I really care about him, Houminer said. But from the other side, I dont know that he cares about me the same. Hauling shirts to the Mughrabis house each day has kept the relationship going on some level. Houminer gets some help with work, he says, and Abdelsalem can still make some money, though its a fraction of what he earned before.

In the brothers view, the Hamas attack was inevitable. Mohamed described it as a response to Israels tightening occupation, the uptick in settler violence and challenges by far-right Jewish activists to the delicate status quo at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a site of deep religious significance to Jews, Muslims and Christians.

All this accumulated pressure bred the explosion in Gaza, he said.

He insists the family has nothing against Jews. At the end of the day, we want to live in peace, he said.

Abdelsalems brief driveway interactions with Houminer leave little time or space for conversation about Oct. 7 or the war in Gaza. Its better not to talk about it, he said.

He was pained that the new restrictions prevented him from visiting Houminer after his wife died in October. If the situation was normal, I wouldve gone to pay my respects, he said.

Mohamed fears the relationship is breaking apart.

Abdelsalem, more of an optimist, suggested his long friendship with Houminer could return to normal, but it will take time.

His brother disagreed: This time its different.

Sufian Taha contributed to this report.
A screen displays a broadcast of a news report featuring North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Seoul Station in Seoul, South Korea, on April 21, 2020. (SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg)

South Korea said North Korean weapons have been used by Hamas in its war with Israel, even as Pyongyang has denied the arms trade.

South Koreas spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, released a photo of a North Korean rocket part on Monday to show Hamas fighters used an F-7 rocket-propelled grenade launcher manufactured in North Korea.

The NIS is collecting and accumulating specific evidence regarding the scale and timing of North Koreas supply of weapons to Hamas and others, but currently its difficult to provide them, considering source protection and diplomatic relations, it said in a statement.

Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7 and killed almost 1,200 people. Israel responded with an offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 22,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whos visiting the Middle East this week, warned that the conflict could easily spread across the region.

The news that Hamas used North Korean weapons was reported by Voice of America last week with a picture showing an F-7 rocket with Korean characters engraved on it. The NIS said its assessment is the same as the VOA report.

North Korea has denied its weapons were used by Hamas to attack Israel, saying its a groundless and false rumor. Korean Central News Agency, the state news agency, in October accused the U.S. of seeking to divert the blame for the war from itself to a third country.

Pyongyang has also been said to be supplying weapons to Russia. The transfer of such missiles increases the pool of munitions the Kremlin can draw upon to attack Ukraine, while providing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with weapons, cash and commodities that help prop up his sanctions-hit economy.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

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The Sckak family is seen in an undated photo. (Fadi Sckak)

Each night was the same. From his home in California, Fadi Sckak would dial his mother, Zahra, who was sheltered with her brother-in-law amid the rubble and tank fire in Gaza Citys besieged Sabra neighborhood. Often, hed have to call more than 60 times before a connection was made and she was able to assure her son that, yes, she was still alive.

Fadis father, Abedella, had died on Nov. 26. Eight days earlier, the 56-year-old had been struck in the calf by what the family believes was a stray Israeli bullet as the couple fled what remained of their home for the past 15 years. Without medical care, Abedellas condition steadily deteriorated. First his legs went numb. He stopped talking. And then, he was gone.

Late last month, in an act of desperation, Fadi Sckak, 25, contacted the news media to make a public plea for help. Aided by the Arab American Civil Rights League, Sckak, a business student at San Jose State University, was then connected with a group of American military veterans who specialize in coordinating humanitarian evacuations from war zones. They were moved by the story, particularly because one of his two brothers, Ragi, is an infantry soldier in the U.S. Army who was deployed in South Korea as their parents crisis unfolded.

What ensued was an extraordinary rescue operation, executed deep within the bombed-out Palestinian enclave after several days of intensive negotiations between the U.S. and Israeli governments. At the urging of White House officials and other key figures in Washington, senior Israeli officials approved Zahra Sckaks extraction along with her brother-in-law Farid, a U.S. citizen, and supported their unimpeded passage to the border with Egypt, where they crossed to safety on Dec. 31.

The daring daytime mission was performed by a small team of volunteers who shuttled them south through the Gaza hellscape. It was conducted without incident, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to elaborate, citing concerns for the safety of those involved. No shots were fired.

In an interview, Zahra Sckak, 44, called the journey terrifying. She declined to identify her location, fearful that doing so would put her life in jeopardy once more, but said she is receiving medical care and gradually recovering. Sckak expressed gratitude to her son Fadi, who told me not to worry, and acknowledged that it has been difficult to reconcile all that had to transpire for her to leave Gaza.

Its like, something big happened, she said, but I didnt know anything about it. Its unbelievable.

This account is based on interviews with 11 people familiar with the Sckak familys ordeal, and efforts by the United States and Israel to facilitate last months secretive operation. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the still-sensitive details about how the two governments, motivated by the plight of a deployed American soldier, intervened to save his loved ones.

The Associated Press previously reported that Zahra Sckak and her brother-in-law had safely made it out of Gaza.

The Israeli government did not respond to requests for comment. Senior U.S. officials have been guarded when discussing the operation, which occurred as hundreds of other American citizens are believed to be stranded in Gaza amid Israels punishing military campaign. Begun after Hamas militants staged a brazen cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200, the Israeli offensive  which is backed by Washington  has killed more than 22,800 people, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Spokespeople at the White House, Pentagon and State Department declined to address most questions about the rescue or make those directly involved available for interviews. But four U.S. officials said the matter was closely tracked by senior leaders in Washington and the Middle East.

While there are many Americans still at risk, and our government is paying close attention to their situation and doing everything we can to get them back, this opportunity presented itself, said one of the officials. We did everything we could to get this soldiers family back to safety. Were lucky to have worked with all of the interagency and partners to have a successful outcome.

Administration officials have emphasized that no U.S. troops were ever in Gaza during the rescue. At the White House on Thursday, John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, described the operation as part and parcel of an ongoing effort that we have had working with Israeli counterparts and the Egyptians to allow for safe passage of Americans.

A State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, told reporters that the U.S. government played more of a liaison role. The United States, he said, keeps in touch with Americans who want to leave, and has assisted 1,300 citizens, family members and lawful permanent residents since the war began.

Alicia Nieves, a legal advocate with the Arab American Civil Rights League who has assisted the Sckak family, said that soon after Israel began its military campaign in Gaza, Zahra and Abedella Sckak, who lived for a time in the United States, applied though the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem for authorization to cross into Egypt. By the time Zahra and Farid, her brother-in-law, were approved for departure in early December, Nieves said, Abedella Sckak was dead.

Its almost like a black box, how it worked, she added. And there are still people, a handful that we know of, that still cant get on the [departure] list as Americans.

For Alex Plitsas, an Army veteran and member of the Special Operations Association of America (SOAA), the group that helped connect U.S. and Israeli officials who coordinated the extraction, the mission evoked the celebrated World War II film Saving Private Ryan, in which a team of American troops is dispatched to pull out a young soldier from the fighting in Normandy after his three brothers were killed in combat.

Im like, Oh God, this poor kid, his fathers dead, his mothers all thats left, shes trapped  weve got to get her the hell out of there, Plitsas said. Thats what went through my brain.

The volunteers who drove the Sckaks out of Gaza are associates of SOAA, he added.

Ragi Sckak, seen here while deployed in South Korea, is an Army infantryman based at Fort Carson in Colorado. (Ragi Sckak)

Ragi Sckak, the soldier, said in an interview that he had approached his Army superiors in South Korea to ask for help evacuating his parents from Gaza but was directed to what he characterized as unhelpful immigration documents. As a junior soldier, he said, he didnt feel empowered to escalate his request.

Everything changed once his brothers story appeared in the national news in late December. He was called into the office of Lt. Col. Lloyd Wohlschlegel, his battalion commander, and put on a call with a more senior military official who said the White House was pursuing options for extracting his mother from Gaza.

I was like: Finally, Ragi Sckak recalled.

Plitsas, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, contacted an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  a professional acquaintance, he said  to apprise the Israeli government of the Sckaks situation. Army Col. Steve Gabavics, who is based at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, made contact with Israels Defense Ministry.

Brett McGurk, a senior White House official with extensive connections in the Middle East, also got involved. McGurk, according to people familiar with his role in the negotiations, emphasized to the Israeli government that the Biden administration supported efforts to evacuate the Sckaks and urged his counterparts to prioritize the case.

Andrew P. Miller, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli and Palestinian affairs, was actively involved, too. He emailed Fadi Sckak, the soldiers brother, a few days before the rescue to inform him of a strategy that was coming together.

The current plan is that your mother and uncle will be picked up  and taken to Rafah Border crossing for transit into Egypt, said the email, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. This is all being coordinated with the IDF, shorthand for the Israel Defense Forces, he said.

In his email, Miller noted that the U.S. Embassy in Cairo would interview Zahra Sckak for a nonimmigrant visa. An immigrant visa, he said, could be obtained through a separate process. Please let us know what she is thinking, Miller wrote.

On Dec. 24, Lt. Gen. Michael Fenzel, a senior American military official assigned to coordinate with Israeli and Palestinian officials, signed a letter for Israeli authorities verifying the Sckaks relationship to a U.S. service member. Other senior officials at Army headquarters, including departing Army Staff director Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, and personnel in Army Secretary Christine Wormuths office, also took measures to ensure there were no administrative roadblocks.

In Gaza, Zahra Sckaks physical condition was worsening. A preexisting knee injury limited her ability to walk, and shed become dehydrated, exacerbating an infection she had developed while sheltering in a crowded apartment building. Ben Clay, a former Special Forces soldier working on the case with other military veterans, sent her instructions for how to distill and purify water from non-potable sources such as toilet tanks.

The family members eventual transit out of Gaza and through the border with Egypt required multiple attempts, those familiar with the operation said. The first was cut short because of a miscommunication about the approved window for their travel. The scarcity of fuel was another obstacle.

When the team of volunteers delivered Zahra Sckaks and her brother-in-law to Gazas border crossing at Rafah, the gate was closed, forcing them to stay the night nearby. When they returned the following day, Fadi Sckak said his mother had to make a scene, shouting in English at Palestinian officials who questioned how she and her brother-in-law had obtained permission to enter Egypt and what support was awaiting them on the other side.

Originally from Jordan and the Gaza Strip, Zahra and Abedella Sckak had moved to the United States to start their family. The children were born in Texas before they relocated to California.

In 2008, everyone moved back to Gaza, Abedellas home, to be near extended family. Fadi Sckak returned to the United States at age 15 and his brother Ragi came back after high school. As a student working retail jobs and sending most of his earnings to his parents, Fadi Sckak said he never had the means to begin the costly U.S. immigration process for them.

Fadi Sckak said that his parents struggled to find work in Gaza, where even before the war employment was scarce. Instead, he said, they relied solely on the money I sent them as their primary source of income. While living in the United States years ago, he added, his father worked several jobs. He drove an ice cream truck for a time, cooked at Pizza Hut and KFC, and worked as a handyman to provide for the family.

His mother, he said, had memorably made a scene another time, when he attempted to obtain the paperwork needed to travel back to the United States as a teenager amid another period of war, in 2014. She held his U.S. passport high as she pushed her way through a clamoring crowd of Palestinian travelers trying to cross the border.

My mother definitely has a lot of courage, and thats what kind of made me who I am today, he said. Shell do anything for me, so its like, why wouldnt I do the same?

Ragi Sckak was given permission to return home to Colorado two months early from his training rotation in Korea. He is beginning paperwork that will allow Zahra to become his military dependent, granting her benefits and helping facilitate efforts to secure her U.S. citizenship. He said hes looking forward to reuniting with his mother, but feels constant pain and regret that he hadnt known how to get the attention of military and government leaders soon enough to rescue his father.

Zahra Sckak said she looks forward to creating a new life with her sons in the United States. Thats what I wish for, she added. This is my dream come true.

Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Undocumented immigrants walk along the U.S.-Mexico border wall after they ran across the shallow Rio Grande into El Paso on March 17, 2021, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (John Moore, Getty Images/TNS)

(Tribune News Service)  Americans increasingly favor tougher measures to curb immigration at the U.S. border with Mexico, though sentiment is shifting against the practice of border states to send migrants northward, according to a CBS News/YouGov poll.

With Senate negotiations on border policy stuck in a partisan deadlock, the issue has become an early battleground in the 2024 election  spurred by former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

Asked whether President Joe Bidens administration should be tougher on immigrants crossing the border, 63% in the poll agreed, compared with 55% in September.

Two lawmakers said Sunday that Senate negotiators on border security are expected to present a proposal this week after months of impasse.

Were hoping to get a text out later this week, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, the main Republican negotiator, said on Fox News Sunday. Everybody will have time to be able to read it and go through it. Nobody is going to be jammed in this process.

Representative Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, cited chaos at the border with Mexico and said hes hopeful a Senate package will emerge this week.

Thats encouraging. I want us to see that. I want us to start talking about these national-security issues that we have, he said on ABCs This Week.

Poll respondents faulted both the White House and congressional Republicans for the situation at the U.S.-Mexican border  68% disapproved of Bidens handling, while 65% said the same about GOP lawmakers.

Support for officials in U.S. border regions who are sending migrants to northern cities and states declined to 43% from 50% in September.

Lankford and Gonzales didnt provide specifics on which policies the bill might include, nor on a potential top-line spending number. Republicans are demanding stricter asylum policies and measures to reduce the number of migrants entering the southern border in exchange for clearing the foreign military aid sought by the White House.

Were working to thread the needle for things that actually work, Lankford said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has been considering talks with the White House over immigration policies. Lankford suggested that such talks would be helpful.

At the same time, Congress must reach a deal for funding the U.S. government to avoid the start of a government shutdown on Jan. 20.

Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York whos closely aligned with Trump, sought to blame any government shutdown on President Joe Biden.

We dont support shutting down the government, but we must secure the border, Stefanik said on NBCs Meet the Press. So, the person whos threatening a government shutdown is Joe Biden, who refuses to secure the border.

The Jan. 3-5 CBS poll of 2,157 people has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

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Astrobotics Peregrine lunar lander is preparing to be encapsulated in the payload fairing, or nose cone, of United Launch Alliances Vulcan rocket on Nov. 21, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (United Launch Alliance)

In late 2022, NASA kicked off its Artemis campaign by flying the Orion spacecraft, without anyone on board, in a test flight around the moon. Now, it is aiming for the surface.

In the wee hours Monday morning, a spacecraft owned and operated by a commercial company and without anyone on board is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral on a mission that could result in a landing Feb. 23, marking the first American soft landing on the lunar surface in more than 50 years. If successful, it would also serve to kick-start a fleet of robotic missions NASA hopes to send to the moon in the coming years by working with private industry to eventually return astronauts there.

The next launch to the moon could come in mid-February, when another company, Intuitive Machines, is scheduled to launch its lander to the moon on SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket. On Friday, a spokesman for the company said it is targeting a landing on Feb. 22 or before, which, if successful, would beat Astrobotic by a day and make Intuitive Machines the first commercial entity to land on the moon.

Mondays launch of the Astrobotic spacecraft would mark another potentially important milestone, the first flight of a long-awaited new rocket designed by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The Pentagon is eager to use the rocket, dubbed Vulcan, to launch national security missions, but first ULA needs to successfully complete two certification missions before it would be allowed to launch satellites for the Defense Department.

Mondays launch, scheduled for 2:18 a.m. Eastern, is also a big moment for Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Jeff Bezos. Two BE-4 engines manufactured by Blue Origin will power the first stage of ULAs Vulcan rocket in their first flight. Bezos and ULAs CEO, Tory Bruno, first announced the engine deal in 2014 after ULA, which had been using Russian engines, was forced by Congress to find a domestic supplier. But the engines took much longer to develop than initially anticipated, forcing a delay in the debut of Vulcan. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Blue Origin also intends to fly its New Glenn rocket for the first time this year. It is powered by seven BE-4 engines.

The missions come as NASA is working toward the second flight of Orion around the moon, this time with four people on board: NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman as well as Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Currently, the flight, a 10-day mission around the moon known as Artemis II, is scheduled for late this year. But that could slip into 2025, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in an interview, as engineers continue to study how the capsules heat shield performed during its first flight to the moon. While there was still plenty of margin, NASA officials said, more of the heat shield burned off during reentry than had been anticipated.

At some point all these technical geniuses are going to come together and make a decision, Nelson said. Im very optimistic that they will have the heat shield with the integrity they want. But obviously, were not going to fly until we do, and well have that answer pretty soon.

Meanwhile, SpaceX continues to test its Starship rocket and spacecraft, the vehicle NASA has selected to land astronauts on the moon for the first two human landings under Artemis. Its two previous launch attempts failed to reach orbit, but Elon Musks company showed significant progress between them. Recently, it test-fired the engines of the next booster and ship it intends to launch. It appears to be getting close to another attempt but still needs sign-off from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Astrobotics Peregrine spacecraft will take a fairly direct route to the moon, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said in a November briefing. But its landing will be delayed until Feb. 23 as it loiters in lunar orbit, waiting for the sun to shine on the intended landing spot.

Most of the time between launch and landing is actually waiting for the local lighting to be correct, he said. So basically were trying to land at a specific spot on the moon at a specific time, i.e., morning at this location.

On Friday, he told reporters that the company faced a whole lot of challenges that weve had to overcome including a lot of doubters.

When we started in Pittsburgh, he said, referring to the companys headquarters, the idea of building a space company, much less one to go to the moon, was completely foreign and alien. And folks certainly and literally laughed at the concept.

He said he was well aware of the difficulty of landing on the moon and of the past failures of so many other attempts. It will be exciting, nail-biting and terrifying all at once  a whole range of emotions, he said. If you look back in the course of history, only about half of those missions have been successful. And most of those have been funded by superpowers with vastly larger budgets than this mission has been granted. So its a really, really big challenge.

Still, he said, To be leading America back to the surface of the moon for the first time since Apollo is a momentous honor that were lucky to be to be a part of.

NASA said Friday that the value of Astrobotics contract is $108 million.

A spokesperson for Intuitive Machines said the company expects its spacecraft to touch down approximately seven days after launch. But it has said only that its launch date would come in mid-February, so its not clear which company will land first.

There are a number of other significant space events coming up in 2024.

On Jan. 19, the Japanese space agency intends to land a robotic vehicle on the moon, an outcome that would make Japan the fifth country to do so. But landing on the moon is risky  and many have tried and failed in the past. Last year, ispace, a Japanese company, lost a spacecraft as it attempted to land on the moon. Russia also lost a spacecraft attempting a lunar landing last year.

Axiom, a Houston-based company, intends to fly its third private astronaut mission to the space station on Jan. 17. And in February, SpaceX is set to launch its eighth crew rotation mission to the International Space Station.

In April, Jared Isaacman, the billionaire entrepreneur who commissioned a private astronaut mission aboard SpaceXs Dragon capsule, also is scheduled to fly another all-civilian mission. This time, the crew would step outside Dragon to perform a spacewalk using pressure suits designed by SpaceX.

Also in April, Boeing is expected to launch a pair of NASA astronauts to the space station on the first crewed test flight of its Starliner spacecraft. If that is successful, it would finally give NASA a way besides SpaceX to get its astronauts to space. Boeing, which was granted a contract to ferry astronauts to the space station in 2014, at the same time as SpaceX, has faced years of setbacks and delays and has yet to fly with crew, something SpaceX has done several times.

SpaceX launched a record 98 rockets to orbit in 2023 and is looking to launch as many as 144 this year, as it continues to put up its Starlink internet satellite constellation.

Planned space missions in 2024

Jan. 8: ULA plans to launch an Astrobotic spacecraft to the moon aboard a Vulcan rocket powered by engines manufactured by Blue Origin.

Jan. 17: Axiom plans to launch a group of private citizens to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX rocket, Axioms third charter mission to the space station.

Jan. 19: The Japanese space agency plans to land a robotic vehicle on the moon.

February: SpaceX is set to launch its eighth crew rotation mission to the International Space Station.

Mid-February: Intuitive Machines plans to launch its spacecraft to the moon aboard a SpaceX booster.

April: SpaceX plans to launch a crew of private astronauts on a mission to orbit the Earth, chartered by entrepreneur and philanthropist Jared Isaacman, that is expected to include a spacewalk.

April: Boeing is expected to launch a crew to the International Space Station on its long-delayed Starliner capsule.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin listens to a question during his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in January 2021. (EJ Hersom/Department of Defense)

WASHINGTON  Members of Congress are demanding to know why it took the Pentagon days to notify Congress and the White House about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins hospitalization, prompting some lawmakers to urge for resignations over the incident.

Calls for accountability mounted Monday as Austin remained at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., for an undisclosed medical condition, and lawmakers questioned the lack of transparency about his surgery and hospitalization.

We are concerned with how the disclosure of the secretarys condition was handled, said Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Republican and Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Several questions remain unanswered, including what the medical procedure and resulting complications were, what the secretarys current health status is, how and when the delegation of the secretarys responsibilities was made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the president and Congress.

Austin was hospitalized Jan. 1 due to complications from an elective surgical procedure, according to the Pentagon, but the White House was not notified until Jan. 4. Congress did not learn of Austins hospitalization until Jan. 5, infuriating some Republicans in particular.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, accused the Defense Department of deliberately withholding information and said the incident further eroded trust in President Joe Bidens administration.

When one of the countrys two national command authorities is unable to perform their duties, military families, members of Congress and the American public deserve to know the full extent of the circumstances, he said. Members [of Congress] must be briefed on a full accounting of the facts immediately.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., another member of the Armed Services committee, also said Austin must come to the panel with an explanation.

Other Republicans are pushing for Austins resignation.

Republican Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas, an Army veteran, wrote on X that Austins failure to alert the president of his hospitalization was a dereliction of duty that deserves removal from his job as Secretary of Defense.

On Monday, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., issued a statement calling on Austin and those that lied for him to step down. She said Austin breached the trust of Congress and left a dangerous leadership vacuum at a time when U.S. troops are under attack in Iraq and Syria.

This concerning lack of transparency exemplifies a shocking lack of judgment and a significant national security threat, she said.

The White House continued to stand by Austin on Monday and said there were no plans to fire him.

The presidents number one focus is on the secretarys recovery, and he looks forward to having him back at the Pentagon as soon as possible, John Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, told reporters. The president respects the fact that Secretary Austin took ownership for the lack of transparency. He also respects the amazing job hes done as defense secretary.

Still, Kirby acknowledged there is an expectation that the hospitalization of a Cabinet member is communicated up the chain of command. Air Force Gen. Charles CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, found out about Austins hospitalization on Jan. 2, and Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who took over some of Austins duties last week, learned about Austins hospitalization on Jan. 4.

Well take a look at the process and procedure here and try to learn from this experience and [see] if there are changes that need to be made, Kirby said.

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., a member of the Armed Services committee, said Congress needs to launch an investigation into whether the incident violated any law.

The American people deserve a full explanation for this serious lapse of communication, she said.
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Supreme Court of Pakistan ended lifetime disqualification for politicians on Monday under the Constitution of the country, saying that parliamentarians would be barred from holding office for a maximum of five years under the law, according to the written order issued by the court.

The seven-member bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa gave the 6-1 majority verdict after hearing multiple appeals regarding the lifetime disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.

The chief justice also read out the judgment telecasted live saying that the apex court quashed its judgment in the Samiullah Baloch case in 2018 when it ruled that disqualification handed down under Article 62(1)(f) would be for a lifetime.

In its decision on Monday, the apex court said, "There is no law that provides for the procedure, process, and the identification of the court of law for making the declaration mentioned in Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and the duration of such a declaration."

The apex court's decision came in the context of an amendment in the Elections Act 2017 by the Pakistani Parliament in June 2023, which specified that the period of electoral disqualification would be for five years, not for life. The amendment was approved by the President's Office as well.

Several Pakistani politicians, including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, were disqualified permanently under the article of the Constitution, which set the precondition for a member of parliament to be honest and righteous.

Commenting on the decision, former Minister of Law and Justice, Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar told Xinhua that all the politicians disqualified earlier would be allowed to contest the elections after the decision by the apex court. 
Members of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit fire mortors during training at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, July 28, 2019. (Dalton Swanbeck/U.S. Marine Corps)

Writers, poets, photographers  or anyone with a story to tell or image to share about the Marine Corps  have until Jan. 15 to submit an entry for the Marine Corps Heritage Foundations annual awards program.

The competition is open to work across 18 categories from civilians and service members in any branch. Prizes include a $2,000 prize, commemorative plaque and an invitation to the foundations annual black-tie dinner.

Categories include autobiography, biography, non-fiction, poetry, reporting and features, along with various photography and videography classifications.

For example, the Robert A. Gannon Award, named after the noted poet, is given for a volume of original verse by a Marine poet dealing with Marine Corps life. The James Webb Award, named for the U.S. senator, author and Navy Cross recipient, honors distinguished fiction related to the service.

The foundation added a new category this year for digital media. The Corporal Jan Bender Award was created in tribute to the generation of Marines who fought in the Global War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere around the world, the foundation said in a Nov. 15 news release.

Bender, as a combat correspondent, captured some of the first digital coverage of the war, including scenes from Operation Al Fajr, the Second Battle of Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004.

Established in 1979, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation is dedicated to preserving the Corps narrative of sacrifice and triumphs, according to its official website.

Retired Marine Maj. Gen. James Lukeman, the foundations president and CEO, said the awards recognize work that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Someone whos written poetry about the Marine Corps, you might never hear about them, but theyre able to submit their work and we recognize it, and it gets more well known, he said in the release.

Cpl. Dalton Swanbeck took home the Sergeant Major Bradley Kasal Award in 2020. It recognizes a distinguished example of a single still photograph by an individual, in black and white or color, that captures the character of the individual Marine or the core values of the Marine Corps.

Swanbeck, during a 2019 deployment to Kuwait, photographed Marines firing mortars at night.

I never expected to win an award for doing my job, but honestly it made me proud of what I was doing and getting recognized for it, he recently told Stars and Stripes by email.

Another new category allows artists to submit work that might not fit into the other categories. Examples include digital art or multimedia art forms that tell the Marine Corps story.

Having such an array of award categories that offer recognition and a real-time portrayal of the Marine Corps story is unparalleled, longtime military reporter Hope Seck told Stars and Stripes during a recent phone interview.

Seck has won three awards through the program for her journalism.

In 2015 and 2017, she took home The Colonel Robert D. Heinl Jr. Award, which is given for the best article pertinent to Marine Corps history published in a newspaper, magazine, journal or other periodical during the preceding year.

Secks April 2014 story for the Marine Corps Times, Left behind: Without security, without citizenship, interpreters are exposed to death squads, earned her the honor in 2015.

In 2019, Seck won the Major Megan McClung Award for her reporting on Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. The award is given for a distinguished example of reporting by an individual covering United States Marines abroad.

The submission window closes Jan. 15. Details and submission forms are accessible at the foundations official website at marineheritage.org.
Donnie Erwin in an undated family photo. (Yvonne Erwin-Bowen)

In 1991, a missing persons case rocked James Hinkles hometown of Clinton, Mo. The abduction of Angela Hammond, a 20-year-old taken from a phone booth as she called her fiance, garnered national attention and a feature on Unsolved Mysteries. For Hinkle, it also sparked a lifelong fascination. The disappearance hit too close to home for Hinkle, who was chilled to think that clues to her whereabouts could have been anywhere, undiscovered, along the country roads near his home.

That never left me, Hinkle told The Washington Post. That whole experience  just like that, somebody could be gone  never left me for my entire life.

For years, Hinkle followed missing persons cases in Missouri. He listened to podcasts and scrolled through Reddit threads. And he wondered, like every true-crime aficionado, if he would ever solve a mystery himself.

It wasnt out of the question. Few could boast the skills that Hinkle acquired over his life: He had worked at times as a volunteer firefighter, a camera drone operator and a rescue scuba diver. In 2022, Hinkle learned of a story that was too heart-wrenching to put down: The case of Donnie Erwin, a Navy veteran who had vanished almost a decade ago after leaving for a short drive near the Lake of the Ozarks, right in Hinkles backyard. He got his drone, his diving gear and a kayak, and took up the search.

For months, Hinkle scoured backcountry roads and kayaked through lakes and flooded quarries in the region, documenting his trips on YouTube. In December, Hinkle, piloting his drone, noticed an odd silhouette in a pond near a road not far from Erwins former home.

The silhouette appeared to be Erwins car. Hinkle alerted investigators, who recovered human remains and a metal hip of the same make as Erwins. A Christmas Day announcement from the Camden County Sheriffs Office confirmed Hinkles remarkable achievement: He had made the breakthrough in a missing persons case that had sat cold for almost a decade.

I try not to be too proud of myself, Hinkle said. I wanted to go out and go to work, and do something nice for this guy that Id never met.

The case of Donnie Erwin, like many disappearances, had simmered as a local mystery before fading with time, leaving the burden of grieving and searching to a weary family. Erwin, then 59, left his home in Camdenton, Mo., in December 2013 in his Hyundai Elantra to drive to a nearby gas station and pick up cigarettes. He never returned. Authorities searched in the hills and lakes of the Ozarks by foot, on horseback and by boat, but they never found Erwin or his car.

Yvonne Erwin-Bowen, Erwins younger sister, took on the task of keeping her brothers memory alive and sustaining an increasingly disheartening search. She distributed fliers with Erwins information across the Ozarks, standing at street corners and driving to bass tournaments in hopes that fishermen with sonar-equipped boats might offer their help. She posted regular updates on a Facebook page, Find Donnie Erwin, which drew a community of sympathetic followers and others searching for missing loved ones in the state.

On occasion, volunteer groups moved by Erwin-Bowens story picked up the search. They faced a mystery that grew more confounding with each unsuccessful outing. Erwin had left home with nothing but a gift card. The gas stations he frequented were close by, and he used crutches after losing part of his left leg, so it was doubtful that he had traveled far without his car. But with every year, he seemed to fade deeper and deeper into the wilds of the Ozarks.

Erwin-Bowen remained hopeful on her Facebook page. She wrote posts addressed to her missing brother when she hung a Christmas ornament with his name on it, as well as in February, when his Kansas City Chiefs won their most recent Super Bowl. But by then, she had decided that she could not bear to spend another year searching for her brother herself.

I had spent nine years pounding the pavement, Erwin-Bowen said, and still having the same heartbreak every single time.

Hinkle learned of Erwin from a friend in 2022. It pulled at him like the countless other missing persons cases he had pored over, but another detail about Erwins story stood out: Erwin was a Navy veteran who had served on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. Hinkles son had joined the Marines. It was enough to finally bring him to act on his curiosity for missing persons cases. Maybe, this time, he could join the hunt, too.

Hinkle, who works as a videographer, organized search trips in his spare time to quarries and state parks in the state. At each body of water, he combed the depths for anything resembling Erwins car, first with a kayak outfitted with sonar gear, then by scuba diving. He documented the searches on a YouTube channel that he created after taking on Erwins case. For about a year, he was also unsuccessful. But Hinkle was compelled to continue as the case neared its 10th anniversary.

It was frustrating, Hinkle said. But, you know, you mark those pins off your map. You get up the next day and schedule another time to go out and look. And you never give up, and you never lose.

By December, Hinkle had traversed several caves and quarries, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to check whether a regional military base had encountered Erwins vehicle and backtracked to Erwins childhood home in Kansas City, Mo. He decided to start the search anew from Erwins Camdenton home. On Dec. 14, Hinkle was guiding his drone down a highway near Camdenton when he spotted an odd silhouette in a small pond. He took his kayak onto the pond and confirmed the shape he had seen from above was a car.

If you asked me three days ago what Id be doing today, it wouldnt be this, a breathless Hinkle said to his camera in a video he recorded of the search. Id hoped, but I wouldnt have guessed this.

Hinkle contacted the Camden County Sheriffs Office. A few days later, authorities pulled the car up from the pond to discover a sodden, algae-covered Hyundai Elantra with Erwins license plate. Investigators eventually recovered human remains and a metal hip that was consistent with one that Erwin had before his disappearance, according to the sheriffs office.

The sheriffs office notified Erwin-Bowen of the discovery of the remains on Christmas Eve, as her family, and Erwins son, prepared to gather for the holidays.

It was the best Christmas ever, Erwin-Bowen said. Just knowing that I can finally lay my brother to rest.

Investigators are still waiting on an autopsy report to confirm that the remains recovered from the pond belong to Erwin, and plan to drain the pond to search for any additional evidence, according to a sheriffs office spokesperson. Erwin-Bowen said that once the family has confirmation, they will hold a funeral for Erwin in the Ozarks and cremate his remains for his son to take home.

Hinkle said hes still reeling from the unlikely conclusion to his search.

When the reality kind of finally set in  you know, wed found this guy, one of our veterans is coming home  Ive had moments where I just sit alone and try to keep myself together, he said.

Once he gathers himself, Hinkle said he plans to continue working on other missing persons cases in Missouri. The details of Angela Hammonds story are still seared in his mind. And he knows now that with a kayak, a drone and a YouTube channel, even the coldest cases can be cracked.

If somebody said, Hey, were going to go search,  Hinkle said, Id be there. Absolutely.
The 43-year-old appeared via video link alongside his brother-in-law Thomas Bomber Kavanagh

Senior Kinahan crime figure Liam Byrne has been described in a UK court as the connection between two firearm conspiracy plots.

The 43-year-old appeared at the Old Bailey in London today via video link after being extradited from Spain last month.

Byrne and his brother-in-law Thomas Bomber Kavanagh (56), described as the cartels top man in the UK, are facing charges over a weapons plot which was busted after the Encrochat messaging service was compromised by authorities under Operation Venetic.

Both men watched proceedings this morning from HMP Belmarsh and only spoke to confirm their names while two co-accused, Liverpool men Daniel McLoughlin (36) and Shaun Kent (37), also appeared via video link.

Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh

During the hearing barrister Max Baines, prosecuting, said that the matter relates to two firearms conspiracies connected by a common defendant, that being Mr Byrne.

He is accused of conspiring with McLoughlin and others unknown to possess firearms and ammunition between April 29 and May 28, 2020.

Byrne is also charged with conspiring with Kent, Jack Kavanagh and Peter Keating to possess firearms and ammunition between January 1, 2020, and June 3, 2021.

Both Byrne and Bomber Kavanagh were expected to be arraigned today but this was adjourned because of an application to join other charges against their co-accused to their case.

The court was told that Shaun Kent is facing charges in Manchester which are closely connected to the main firearms conspiracy in this indictment.

Mr Baines said there are overlapping messages that are relied on in this matter and that there is a clear factual nexus for the cases to be joined together.

He added that they expect an objection from Byrnes lawyers for these charges to join his case, and that his legal team are also seeking the disclosure of the Manchester evidence which is in a virtual pack and contains messages from third party handles.

The prosecutor also said that a suggestion at a previous hearing that Thomas Kavanagh would bring forward an application to dismiss charges against him appears to have fallen away.

The presiding judge said that, in order to allow the defendants time to oppose the application and for the disclosure of evidence, she would adjourn the matter until March 1.

A trial date has also been set for September with the case expected to last up to six weeks.

The men are also accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice between 2020 and 2021.

This relates to a series of acts, namely possess firearms and thereafter hide them and then reveal their whereabouts to the National Crime Agency to enable Thomas Kavanagh to receive a reduced sentence on Operation Hornstay with the intent to pervert the course of justice".

Kavanagh is currently serving a 21-year jail term for conspiring to import 30m worth of cocaine and cannabis into the UK and was arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) as part of that operation.

His son Jack Kavanagh was detained in Spain last year and is currently fighting extradition.

Byrne had been residing in Dubai but flew in to Spain last May for a family gathering where he was arrested on foot of an extradition warrant. He was returned to the UK last month.

His younger brother David was shot dead in the Regency Hotel in 2016 as part of the Hutch/Kinahan feud which claimed 18 lives.

A trial date has been set for September 2024 with the case expected to last up to six weeks.

The previously heard that the investigation centres on Encrochat communications and information received about firearms, some of which were hidden in Ireland.

This related to 11 firearms and that information was allegedly provided in relation to the location of weapons which were concealed in the Republic of Ireland.
Hughes Foucart, a French national of Arthur Griffith Park, Lucan had pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the woman at ONeills pub

An IT worker who punched a woman in the jaw in a pub row has been spared a criminal record after paying 3,000 in compensation.

Hughes Foucart (51) made the worst mistake of his life when he lost his temper during a dispute and struck out, hitting the woman.

Judge David McHugh dismissed the charge under the Probation of Offenders Act after the accused made the payment.

The judge said he would make no further comment on the case as he had not originally dealt with it.

Foucart, a French national of Arthur Griffith Park, Lucan had pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the woman at ONeills pub, Main Street, Lucan on June 17, 2022.

Blanchardstown District Court heard previously that the victim was socialising with friends in the smoking area when Foucart came out and got into a verbal dispute with the people she was with over something trivial.

Foucart lost his temper and punched the woman on the side of the jaw, causing swelling and bruising. The victim and accused were strangers and had no previous dealings with each other, the court heard.

The dispute had been with another person in her company.

Foucart had no previous convictions.

His solicitor, Luke Staines, had asked the court for leniency, saying an assault conviction would be devastating for Foucart.

The court had heard if the victim did not wish to receive the compensation, the money could be donated to charity.
A video shows a car driving at speed being followed by police vehicles

Watch: Convoy of police pursue stolen car through west Belfast

A 29-year-old man has been charged by police investigating the reported theft of a vehicle and two assaults in Newtownabbey.

The incidents happened in Fairyknowe Park on January 5.

A video shows a car driving at speed being followed by police vehicles.

The man was charged with offences including driving with excess alcohol in breath, dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, burglary with intent to steal, aggravated vehicle taking causing damage to the vehicle, criminal damage, and threats to kill.

He was due to appear before Belfast Magistrates Court on January 6.

As is usual procedure, all charges were reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service.
Judge Maire Conneely told Denise OBrien (45) she would strike the case out, leaving her without a conviction if she made a 200 charity donation

A woman caught shoplifting clothes was stealing in desperation to pay off a drug debt after she became addicted to cocaine.

Denise OBrien (45) had intended to sell the clothes but was stopped by security, Dublin District Court heard.

Judge Maire Conneely told her she would strike the case out, leaving her without a conviction if she made a 200 charity donation.

OBrien, with an address at a city centre hostel pleaded guilty to theft.

The court heard she went to Penneys, Mary Street on November 27 last year and took 210 worth of clothing.

She concealed it on her person and was stopped as she left the shop without paying.

OBrien had no previous convictions. The accused was working but developed a cocaine addiction and ran up debts to do with that, her solicitor Donal Quigley said.

She took the clothes in an act of desperation, intending to sell them to pay off her debts. The accused had been through treatment, was now clean and hoped to go back to work.

The drug debt and intimidation that led to this situation was being investigated, the court heard. The judge adjourned the case to March for the charity donation to be made.
It is profoundly disheartening that this investigation has been ongoing for years without any convictions

Carey is filmed during the RTE Investigates: The Accountant, The Con, The Lies programme. Photo: RTE

Victims of an alleged mortgage scam involving former Ireland hockey international Catriona Carey have said they are utterly dismayed by the glacial pace of the garda investigation.

Three people were arrested in connection with the investigation into Careys UK company, Careysfort Asset Estates, last year, but no formal charges have been brought.

A file is still being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB).

Gardai previously contacted British police forces to seek assistance as Careysfort was registered in the UK. They also had to contact Europol as some money had been wired to accounts in EU jurisdictions, which has led to delays in the investigation, sources said.

Carey is filmed during the RTE Investigates: The Accountant, The Con, The Lies programme. Photo: RTE

Distressed mortgage holders who lost out on thousands of euro say they are feeling let down and frustrated.

Carey claimed she would buy their loans from their lenders and then sell the loan back to them at a discount once they paid Careysfort Asset Estates a deposit.

Its been nearly two years since RTE Investigates exposed how more than 200,000 received by the company was instead spent on holidays, designer clothes, furniture and a 55,000 BMW.

Firefighter Andrew Hickey, from Co Carlow, paid Carey 15,000 for a deal that never happened.

He said the victims hard-earned money was callously pilfered.

I am utterly dismayed by the glacial pace of the garda investigation, he said.

Gardai have been presented with ample hard evidence

It is profoundly disheartening that this investigation has been ongoing for years without any convictions. I am perplexed as to why the process has been so agonisingly slow.

Our money was squandered on holiday cruises, a car, designer clothes, watches and dining out in extravagant establishments with callous disregard.

Gardai have been presented with ample hard evidence.

I myself dedicated countless months to gathering information for them. RTE Investigates handed them everything on a plate. Yet here we stand, years later, with no justice.

Miriam Tormey, from west Dublin, borrowed 20,000 to pay Carey in a bid to save a property in debt.

However, the deal she was promised never materialised.

Any time I think about it, I get pissed off, she said.

Catriona Carey during her playing days

Even with the garda investigation, were never going to get our money back as its been spent. Im having to pay back the loan that I took out with interest on top. I havent a penny to my name. If this case involved bigwigs, rather than ordinary people like us, I wonder would the investigation be as slow.

Carey was arrested by gardai and questioned about the alleged deception last year. She was released without charge.

Her former business partner Patrick Maher was also arrested and released without charge.

Another person suspected of having involvement in the alleged scam was arrested and released without charge.

Catriona Carey was also arrested by officers from the Corporate Enforcement Authority, which is carrying out an investigation into alleged breaches of company law. She was released without charge.

Carey is also currently before the courts on a number of civil matters

In response to queries, a garda spokesperson said: We have no updates at this time. Investigations are ongoing.

Carey is also currently before the courts on a number of civil matters.

Pepper Finance lodged High Court proceedings over an outstanding mortgage debt last October.

Bank of Ireland is also suing the former Kilkenny camogie player over an outstanding debt.
Wicklow man Gary Davis, who was known as Libertas online, had been held in notorious US federal prison Misery Mountain

Gary Davis was known as Libertas on Silk Road

THE Irishman jailed for his part in running a massive dark net drugs website is set to walk free this week from the US federal prison where infamous mobster James Whitey Bulger met his grisly end.

Gary Davis (35), from Kilpeddar, Co Wicklow, who had been an administrator on the infamous Silk Road site, has been in custody in the US since 2018.

He is due to be released from federal correction institute Hazelton in West Virginia later this week, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

A deportation order is in place which means Davis will likely be handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be sent back to Ireland when released.

Davis, known online as Libertas, was extradited from Ireland in 2018 after a long legal battle but admitted his role in a plea deal in October that year.

The following July he was given a six-and-a-half year sentence for conspiracy to traffic drugs.

FCI Hazelton, also known as Misery Mountain, is a collection of prisons near the town of Bruceton Mills where inmates from all over the US and abroad can end up serving their time.

One of its recent most high-profile prisoners, the Boston-Irish mob boss Whitey Bulger, was murdered there just days after being transferred.

Bulger, who had evaded authorities for decades, was long suspected of being an informant by other gangsters and was reported to have had his eyes gouged with an attempt made to cut out his tongue.

Mafia hitman Fotios Freddy Geas is accused of orchestrating the attack and is due to go on trial later this year.

During his legal battle to avoid being extradited to the US, Davis had argued among other points that he would be detained in an inhumane and degrading manner.

Gary Davis

After he was indicted, he declined to comment when approached by the Sunday World at his Wicklow home in 2015. He said he couldnt possibly comment until his extradition hearing had been finalised.

Davis ended up spending nine months at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, which has been referred to as the Guantanamo Bay of New York due to its poor conditions.

At his sentence hearing, Daviss defence argued that the prisons unsanitary and overcrowded conditions were cited in other cases for a reduced sentence.

Despite the conditions, including sharing 26-bed dormitories, his prison record showed he had completed 35 classes, had positive work reports and had tutored other inmates.

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of up to 20 years for Davis due to what they saw as his high-ranking role in Silk Road.

Libertas, the Silk Road account that Davis operated, was responsible for dealing with queries from sellers and organising the drugs for sale on the site into categories.

From February 2, 2011 to October 2, 2013 the FBI said transactions worth $213.9 million were carried out on Silk Road.

In addition to his prison term, Davis was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to forfeit $25,000.

He was targeted by the US authorities after a scanned image of Daviss passport was found on the laptop of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.

Investigators also found information which showed Libertas was paid $1,500 in bitcoin every week for dealing with queries from sellers and organising drugs for sale on the site.

Ulbricht, who used the online alias Dread Pirate Roberts, was arrested after an elaborate FBI operation against the website. He was given a life sentence for his part in setting up the website.
A man in his mid 50s was taken to Regional Hospital Mullingar by emergency services personnel and is currently in Beaumont Hospital.

The man has been transferred to Beaumont Hospital

Gardai are appealing for witnesses to an early morning assault in Co Westmeath that has left a man in critical condition.

The incident took place outside a premises on Patrick Street, Mullingar at around 1.40am on Sunday morning, 7 January.

Gardai were alerted to the disturbance, which involved two men, shortly afterwards.

A man in his mid 50s was rushed to Regional Hospital Mullingar by emergency services and is currently in Dublins Beaumont Hospital, where his condition is understood to be critical.

The scene was preserved for forensic examination and investigations are ongoing.

Investigating gardai are now appealing for witnesses to come forward.

A spokesperson said: Any persons that were in the vicinity of Patrick Street, Mullingar between the hours of 1am to 2am on the morning of Sunday, January 7, 2024 that have video footage of this incident are asked to make it available to investigating gardai.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Mullingar Garda station on 044 938 4000, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any garda station.
Hennessy Snr, a father of four, was shot three times as he ran at machine-gun wielding killer Tristan Sherry

The daughter-in-law of slain criminal Jason Hennessy Snr has paid tribute to him  describing the 48-year-old as our hero for protecting his family during the gun attack that claimed his life.

Hennessy Snr, a father of four, was shot three times as he ran at machine-gun wielding killer Tristan Sherry after he entered Brownes Steakhouse shortly after 8pm on December 24.

Its understood Hennessy Snr, who was known to gardai for his involvement in organised crime and who was due to face money-laundering charges next year, was not Sherrys main target on the night.

Jason Hennessy Snr (centre) with his family

His children, include sons Devon and Jason Jnr.

Where do I even start, Kirstie Duffy, the wife of Devon, wrote.

The best man in the world you were. Youre our world and always will be... Ill cherish our memories for life.

You were so loved by everyone  ever the community hard-working man you were!

The best husband, dad, granda, and also the best father-in-law to me  treated me like your daughter.

Ill never forget that you idolised you grandchildren and Ill forever tell them about you and how you protected the whole family that night.

Youre our hero and will always be our hero. Its not goodbye. Its see you soon. Love you so much. The Boss Man.

Hennessy Snr, who worked as a recovery truck driver, had less than 10 convictions to his name  having only become involved in serious and organised crime in the last 10 years of his life.

A talented boxer in his youth, its understood he drifted from selling alcohol, on which the duty hadnt been paid, into drug dealing  ultimately leading to his becoming a key figure in a West Dublin-based organised crime mob at the time of his death.
JERUSALEM, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese automaker Geely launched Monday the sales of two new electric vehicle (EV) models of its brand Zeekr in Israel, the company announced at a launching event in the coastal city of Tel Aviv.

One of the models offered in Israel is the electric mid-size shooting brake sedan Zeekr 001, which features a 620 km range, a top speed of 200 km/h, equipped with a 100-kWh battery.

The second model is the electric subcompact luxury crossover SUV Zeekr X, offering a maximum range of 440 km, a speed of up to 180 km/h, and featuring a 69 kWh battery.

So far, Geely has offered one electric model in Israel, the compact crossover Geometry C, with its sales starting in late 2021.

This model topped Israel's EV sales in 2022, and last year came second on the list, following another Chinese model, the subcompact crossover Atto 3 manufactured by BYD Auto. 
Amanda Brown hit the headlines two years ago, when she spoke out publicly following Tweeds death

Amanda Brown - the stepdaughter of deceased Irish rugby international Davy Tweed - has written a book about the years of sexual abuse he subjected her to as a child.

The 43 year-old mum of one, hit the headlines two years ago, when she spoke out publicly following Tweeds death in a motorcycle accident in north Antrim.

The hard-line unionist politician and former Irish rugby star, lost control of his motorbike while approaching a junction, near Dunseverick in Co. Antrim.

A former member of Ian Paisleys DUP and later an elected Councillor with Jim Allisters TUV party, 62 year-old Tweeds public life after his rugby career ended, was seldom far from controversy.

David Tweed in a stand-off with cops at Drumcree

As a politician, Tweed came to prominence during the Drumcree crisis. And he was a regularly appeared at loyalist protests outside a Catholic Church in Harryville, Ballymena.

When a Catholic priest walked through a baying loyalist crowd to say Mass at the Church, Tweed was heard to shout; Here comes a paedophile!

In 2009, Tweed appeared in court on child sex abuse charges, for which he was acquitted.

But three years later, in 2012, railway inspector Tweed, was convicted on 13 counts of gross indecency, indecent assault of two young girls and inciting gross indecency, spanning an eight year period.

David Tweed with Ian Paisley

At the time, Amanda Brown gave evidence against her stepfather and he was jailed for eight years.

Four years later though - following a successful appeal against conviction -Tweed walked free when the Appeal Court agreed that the trial judge hadnt fully briefed the jury on the so-called Bad Character clause.

At the time of his death in October 2021, Tweed received fulsome praise from his former political allies Ian Paisley MP and TUV leader Jim Allister.

But following a series of articles in the Sunday World, where Amanda Brown and Tweeds four daughters revealed the sexual abuse Tweed subjected them to as children, politicians Paisley and Allister were compelled to apologise to the women.

Amanda's book

Amanda Browns book No Peace Until Hes Dead  My Story of Child Abuse at the the Hands of Davy Tweed and My Journey to Recovery is due for publication soon by the Dublin-based Irish Academic Press.

At the moment it is available for pre-publication order from Irish Academic Press and Amazon.

Last night, Amanda Brown told the Sunday World: To say Im absolutely beaming with pride is an understatement.

I have so many feelings running through my head at the moment. But I want to thank all the people who believed in me and encouraged me along the way. she said.

And Amanda added: Im also proud of my little self.
The Defence Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal team carried out a controlled explosion on the device

The army bomb disposal unit was called to Arklow on Saturday afternoon after a walker discovered a hand grenade washed up on the shore.

Local gardai responded to the walkers report about the device, which is believed to date back to the Irish War of Independence, and the army were alerted to attend the scene.

The grenade was found on Ennereilly Beach and, upon arrival, gardai promptly cordoned off the scene and evacuated the nearby car park.

With the area secured, the Defence Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal team carried out a controlled explosion on the device.

On Ennereilly Beach, at approximately 2.30 p.m. on Saturday, January 6, a walker on the beach found what appeared to be an old hand grenade, a Garda spokesperson said.

Gardai from Arklow cordoned off the scene and the beach car park was evacuated. The EOD team from the Defence Forces attended and a controlled explosion was conducted on the device, which appears to have been from the time of the War of Independence.

While it is not known where the grenade originated from, during the War of Independence, Arklow was home to the Kynochs munitions plant, which was one of the largest such facilities in Britain and Ireland for more than 20 years.

It closed less than a year after a deadly explosion at the factory in 1917 killed 27 men. Ennereilly Beach is some 4km from the site the factory once occupied.

This is not the first time a hand grenade has been found in Wicklow. In 2010 a World War II era grenade was found during renovations to a house in Dunganstown near Brittas Bay. In 2019 a hand grenade was fond on The Cove beach in Greystones.
Only two of a litter of seven survived the ordeal

A litter of young puppies were found in a plastic bag after being abandoned on the side of the road.

Dogs Trust Ireland told of how the four-week-old canines came into their care, explaining that someone had found seven pups completely defenceless and soaked to the skin.

Tragically, two of the tiny pups had already died while the remaining five were brought to the animal charity.

The puppies were far too young to be separated from their mother, let alone to have been left outside in the cold and rain. Despite the very best efforts of our veterinary team, sadly only two survived this terrible ordeal, Dogs Trust Ireland explained in a social media post.

Sharing a photo of their two little fighters, Faith and Hope, they explained that the pups have been rehomed and are now thriving.

Dogs Trust Ireland is highlighting the worrying increase in the number of dogs coming into their care after being abandoned.

Veterinary and welfare manager at Dogs Trust Ireland, Niamh Curran-Kelly, said: Cases like this are incredibly upsetting for everyone involved. At just four-weeks-old, puppies are still heavily dependent on their mother and wouldnt be fully weaned yet.

They were far too young to be separated from her, let alone to have been left outside in the cold and rain. Despite receiving the very best care, we were saddened that only two of the puppies have survived this ordeal. Thankfully, these two little fighters are thriving, and both have recently been adopted.

Last November, Dogs Trust launched their Save the Next Dog campaign, announcing that it was contacted more than 3,500 times by people hoping to surrender their furry friends in 2023 - the highest volume of such requests the charity has received since opening their doors in 2009.

Regional Rehoming Manager Eimear Cassidy said: We are being contacted by dog pounds and other welfare organisations around the country, as well as members of the public, asking us to take dogs.

Everyone involved in dog welfare is trying their very best to help as many dogs as possible but the sheer number of dogs who have nowhere to go is overwhelming.

To find out more about the campaign and how you can help, see www.dogstrust.ie/crisis.
Where are we all going to go if these 50 people, without documentation likely, are hovering here, where we are standing now?

The Department of Integration is continuing to engage with the owners of a Co Mayo hotel about the possibility of housing asylum seekers following two nights of protests.

The demonstrations began on Friday evening outside the former JJ Gannons Hotel on Ballinrobes Main Street after it emerged that there were plans to accommodate 50 international protection applicants in the building from Monday.

The adult male asylum seekers were to be housed at the hotel using 12 rooms for a period of one year.

On Saturday, local Fine Gael councillor Michael Burke claimed that the owner of the JJ Gannons Hotel had withdrawn the lease, telling The Journal that he doesnt want any hassle".

Taking to social media, he added: I am delighted with this announcement and its a good result for all the people that turned out last night and has been in contact with me over the past 24 hours. Thank you everyone for the support.

But later that evening, the Department of Integration said in a statement that engagement on the issue has not ceased.

The Department is continuing to engage with the provider in relation to the premises in Ballinrobe, and is not in a position to comment further, it said.

The protest outside the JJ Gannons Hotel on Friday gained traction after Burke shared a press release about the Departments decision to house asylum seekers in Ballinrobe.

It was organised using a social media page called Ballinrobe Says No and encouraged locals to stand outside the premises overnight and into the early hours of Saturday morning.

A livestreamed video of the protest showed a local business owner speaking to fellow demonstrators using a microphone.

She spoke about how people were upset that they received just two days' notice about the arrival of asylum seekers in the town.

Unfortunately we are going to have to stand here and stay here, and not allow this to happen, she said.

If this happens my daughter will not walk down this street, and I wont walk down this street. Where are we all going to go if these 50 people, without documentation likely, are hovering here, where we are standing now?

They will be here Monday morning unless we all stay here, stand here, and do something about it, she added.

Fianna Fail councillor Damien Ryan also spoke out at the protest and said that he shared the same concerns about the arrival of asylum seekers as the towns residents.

He said that he believes Irish people embrace a level of acceptance with genuine refugees but said people in Ballinrobe are infuriated to hear of 50 males going into a building with no collaboration and no communication.

He told the crowd that he would attend the protest all weekend, adding there is strength in numbers.
Arson is a very serious crime, whatever political beliefs people may have

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he expects arrests and charges in relation to recent arson attacks on accommodation rumoured to be for asylum seekers.

Speaking to RTE Radio Ones This Week, Taoiseach Varadkar said: "A number of searches have occurred, people have been questioned.

I do expect that there will be arrests and charges in the coming weeks.

Arson is a very serious crime, whatever political beliefs people may have, he added.

He also commented on the protest that unfolded in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, against housing 50 asylum seekers in the former local hotel  JJ Gannons.

The protest

My understanding from Mr OGorman is that discussions and engagement are still ongoing between the Department and the owner [of the property].

"I acknowledge that people living there have concerns and fears.

It's important that we have information and communication, that people's fears are allayed, that any information they need is given.

"But it also needs to be very clear nobody in a democracy has the right to exercise a veto on who moves into their area or community, and that doesn't just apply to international protection.

It applies to traveller accommodation, social housing, student accommodation.

We already have 400 people at the moment who we are not able to provide any accommodation for, so this isn't an ideal situation.

We're facing a situation where hundreds of millions of people are on the move around the world for lots of different reasons  fleeing war, fighting poverty.

That's several thousands of those who come to Ireland, he added.

Firefighters battle blaze at vacant Ringsend pub that was earmarked for the homeless

Mr Varadkar said a huge number of communities around the country have accepted and welcomed Ukrainians into their communities.

"We do have responsibility to reassure people that our immigration system in Ireland is rules-based, that we're fair and welcoming to those who come to the country legally, but we're also firm and tough with those who do not.

I think people need that reassurance, and there are a lot of myths that are being spread, he said.

Taoiseach added migration has been a good thing for Ireland.

If you go into our hospitals and care homes, you see a very diverse workforce, we wouldn't be able to run our public services without migration.

The tech companies, the big pharma companies, they wouldn't be here.

We couldn't afford and invest in housing and pensions and education the way we do now if it wasn't for that, he said.

When asked about 457 people who have come to Ireland seeking international protection and ended up being homeless due to lack of accommodation, he said: I don't think there's any limit on the compassion of the Irish government or the state or indeed Irish people.

There are limitations on capacity, and that is the reality of the situation.

We're trying to provide shelter for everyone who comes here, but that can be very difficult.

"Under international law, when somebody seeks international protection, we have an obligation to provide shelter for them.

We do our best to do so, but it's not always possible in all circumstances, he added.
Francis made his comments in an address to Vatican-accredited envoys from 184 countries that is sometimes called his "state of the world" speech

Pope Francis delivers his yearly address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican, sometimes called his "State of the World" address, at the Vatican January 8, 2024. Photo: Reuters

Pope Francis, tackling conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine in his yearly address to diplomats, said on Monday that "indiscriminately striking" civilians is a war crime because it violates international humanitarian law.

Francis, 87, made his comments in a 45-minute address to Vatican-accredited envoys from 184 countries that is sometimes called his "state of the world" speech.

In it, he also talked about conflicts in Africa and Asia, migration crises in the United States and Latin America, climate change and the persecution of Christians.

Expressing concern that the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip could spread in the wider Middle East, he called for a "ceasefire on every front, including Lebanon".

He condemned Hamas' October 7 cross-border attack from Gaza into southern Israel as an "atrocious" act of "terrorism and extremism", and renewed a call for the immediate liberation of those still being held by militants in Gaza.

In remarks linking the two high profile conflicts, Francis said modern warfare often does not distinguish between military and civilian objectives.

There is no conflict that does not end up in some way "indiscriminately striking" the civilian population, he said.

"The events in Ukraine and Gaza are clear proof of this. We must not forget that grave violations of international humanitarian law are war crimes, and that it is not sufficient to point them out, but also necessary to prevent them.

"There is a need for greater effort on the part of the international community to defend and implement humanitarian law, which seems to be the only way to ensure the defence of human dignity in situations of warfare," he said.

Israel's military campaign in densely populated Gaza has so far killed 22,835 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel says 1,200 people were killed in Hamas' October 7 rampage and around 240 were taken hostage.

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"Perhaps we need to realise more clearly that civilian victims are not 'collateral damage', but men and women, with names and surnames, who lose their lives," Francis said.

The pontiff also said a resurgence of antisemitism since the start of the Gaza war was a "scourge" that must be eliminated from society.

In other parts of his address, Francis took another swipe at the armaments industry, calling for the establishment of a fund where money saved by reducing weapons stockpiles is diverted to eliminate hunger.

He also called for the universal prohibition of surrogate motherhood, calling it "deplorable" and a grave violation of the dignity of both the woman and the child. "A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract," he said.
Ensuring Rotoehu residents are prepared in case of a natural disaster is the reasoning behind the development of a Civil Defence Emergency Management Plan for the lake community.

Unprecedented rainfall last year that resulted in the highest lake levels at Rotoehu since the 1970s, causing flooding of some properties, slips and road closures, highlighted the need for a plan for resident Julie Riggir.

A detour through forestry roads added an extra two hours drive time for the 30 residents at Rotoehu if they had to travel to and from Rotorua.

The high lake levels have also resulted in infrastructure like jetties and ramps becoming submerged or floating and navigation aids being moved, creating hazards in and on the water.

Julie moved to Rotoehu in October 2022, and was unsure what to do when the high lake levels started impacting properties.

It was very concerning.

When I decided to move here, I did a lot of study around where it would be safe to stay. I thought the lake was a safe place to stay and I didnt consider it would be a place that might flood.

You really dont think about being prepared for an emergency until it actually happens to you. So, thats one thing I would recommend to everyone. If you havent already made a plan, you should do it now before something does happen, Julie says.

Rotorua Lakes Council set up an Incident Management Team to provide support for residents at Rotoehu and Rotoma affected by the high lake levels.

The team ensured there was ongoing water supply, roading maintenance, rates relief, information and welfare support if needed.

Julie says a small group of Rotoehu residents met with the councils Emergency Management Civil Defence Coordinator Linda Johnston to work towards a community emergency management plan.

Linda says ensuring individuals, communities and organisations are prepared for an emergency is vital.

She has been a part of the (CDEM) at Council since 2014. One of her tasks is building community resilience.

It's important to be prepared for an emergency because you never know when it's going to happen or where you or members of your family will be when it occurs.

Any one of your family or you could be at home, work, school or pre-school or a childcare centre.

Our team helps various community groups to develop and implement emergency response plans, which will help in emergencies, Linda says.

Rotorua Lakes Council is part of the Emergency Management Bay of Plenty Group which provides a regional perspective across all of the seven councils in the Bay of Plenty.

The aim of the Emergency Management Bay of Plenty is to:

Coordinate all planning activities related to hazard and emergency management

Encourage cooperation and joint action within the region

Determine the aspirations of our community and

Examine the risks that hazards may pose to the goals, and prioritise each hazard.

Rotorua Lakes Council is required by the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 to plan for emergencies. The council must also maintain a Civil Defence Emergency Management Team and appoint someone as the Civil Defence controller. That role sits with Infrastructure and Environment General Manager Stavros Michael.

Lindas role as full-time Civil Defence and Emergency Management Officer includes recruiting and training volunteers to support post-event responses.

Linda says households, as well as communities, should have a plan in place in case of a disaster and that plan should include:

Always knowing where your family members are;

Having a plan detailing where they will meet;

Ensuring they have enough food and water to get them through at least three days.

Even after an event the impact on residents can be felt for months or years, Linda says.

After the media coverage fades, our team will continue working on the challenges posed. In the case of Rotoma and Rotoehu that included ongoing collaboration with the communities to provide social and financial support to those in need.

Additionally, when the road closures were still in place, we reached out to the Ministry of Education to explore options for educational resources for children unable to attend school.

Currently, the council CDEM team has community plans in place for Waikite Valley, Paradise Valley, Mamaku, Rerewhakaaitu, Lake Tarawera, Lake Okareka and Lake Rotoma.

Any group or community can request our support to develop a community emergency response plan and it was a real pleasure to work with the Rotoehu community with their plan.

The Rotoehu Community Plan is a wallet-sized info card created by the community and designed by the council staff. The area is also covered by the more comprehensive Lake Rotoma Plan, Linda says.

Julie says Linda was really open to listening to the Rotoehu group and ensured that what they thought was necessary was incorporated into the plan.

You could say it was a custom made plan for Rotoehu and I know the plan will be essential, especially if we have another event like we had.

Julie says two other Rotoehu residents, Jill Walker and Robin Skerrett, also deserved credit for their work in bringing the plan together with vital information that will be helpful before and during an event.

If a whanau, business or community group is interested in creating a plan check the Rotorua Lakes Council website, or call 07 348 4199.

Councils role in a civil defence emergency

Rotorua Lakes Council Civil Defence Emergency Management is legislated to provide a coordinated and integrated approach to the way significant risks and hazards are managed in the Rotorua District the four core elements of CDEM are:

Reduction

Readiness

Response

Recovery

If there is a civil defence emergency, Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) typically establishes an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and an EOC team is called into action.

There are nearly 100 council staff who have had civil defence training and can be called on to be part of an EOC team. This is work they take on in addition to their regular jobs.

During an emergency, these council staff must temporarily stop their usual work to focus on the civil defence response.

The council EOC works alongside teams from other first responders such as police, Fire Service, St John, Red Cross, the local hospital and others.

Council staff who are trained to be part of an emergency response can also be called on to assist in other regions or even other countries where there is an emergency that has not affected Rotorua. For example, during Cyclone Gabrielle, two council staff members were assigned to Tairawhiti region to provide support there.

The three main goals in an emergency response situation are to prevent loss of life, help the injured and relieve personal suffering and distress.

How prepared are you in case of an emergency?

Find out what you should know and how you can prepare: Civil Defence Emergency Management - Rotorua Lakes Council
One of New Zealands longest serving judges has died, just two years after leaving the bench.

Judge Tony Adeane, 72, passed away in Napier on Saturday after a period of illness.

Adeane became a District Court judge in 1993 and presided over more than 630 jury trials and countless other hearings, mostly in Hawkes Bay, before reaching the compulsory retirement age of 70 in 2020.

He was known locally for his firm but fair manner. He had a dry-wit that could bring a full courtroom to laughter, and a gravitas that could bring it to reverential silence.

A busy list day would see Adeane deal with more than 140 people, many of whom hed come to know through a decade or more of court appearances. Respect was often, but not always, mutual, and he had little patience if he thought he was being given the runaround by defendants, lawyers, police, or anyone else.

Judge Adeane achieved a degree of national prominence in 2007 when he sentenced three men to short prison sentences after theyd gone on tagging sprees.

Adeane was raised in Gisborne. He attended Gisborne Boys High School, where he was in the same class as Justice Robert Dobson and Chief Ombudsman (and former principal Family Court Judge) Peter Boshier.

He studied law at Victoria University and joined Gisborne law firm Chrisp and Chrisp in 1974, becoming a partner in 1976 and remaining with the firm for 20 years, specialising in criminal law.

Adeane was appointed a District Court Judge on December 16, 1993, and presided in the courts of Napier, Hastings, Wairoa, Gisborne, Ruatoria and Waipukurau, with occasional visits to other courts around the country.

He was married to Linda for 50 years and the couple had two children.

In a rare interview with the Dominion Post in 2009, Adeane said he had a "typical middle-class upbringing".

He was an argumentative teen who enjoyed a good debate. Law suited him, although as a 15-year-old who loved fast cars and motorbikes he toyed briefly with becoming an apprentice mechanic.

"My grandfather was an engineer in the Gisborne refrigeration company. He once took me to see where the mechanics worked. It was about 7.30 one morning and they were under a wet, dripping, greasy car. He said, `If that's what you want, then leave school.' I stayed at school, he said.

Adeane enjoyed being a judge.

It can be challenging and tiring, but on a busy list day, with 140 people appearing, there will always be surprises, and invariably something amusing," he said at the time.

Those moments of levity were important in long days dominated by themes of sadness and despair.

"I read 20-30 probation reports a week. So often the probation and parole reports tell a sadly familiar story - boys raised outside the family, exposed to drugs as children, physically or sexually abused, out of school at 14 without qualifications, dependent on a benefit pittance and producing children while still children themselves.

"It's hardly surprising that such bleak prospects don't inspire effort or achievement. It may be unfashionable, to identify the issues in such stark terms, but those are the facts and they can't be addressed until they are faced," he said.

One of our cornerstone justice beliefs is that the problems of young offenders are best addressed within the family. Yet the reality in many cases is that the family is either non-existent or has itself been the source of the child's problems.

"I need to keep reminding myself that the people I see in court are only a tiny percentage of the population. Sometimes sitting in court all day you could develop a feeling that crime is everywhere, that crime is running out of control, but I don't believe it is, he said.

Adeane was a keen motorcyclist and fisherman. He got his first motorbike at 15, and his last, an 860cc Triumph Bonneville was only relinquished seven years ago.

Adeane left behind his wife Linda, son Mark, daughter Frances, sister Jude and four grandchildren, Raphael, Jack, Leah, and Grace.

-Marty Sharpe/Stuff.
Tony Bryant Marbella Monday, 8 January 2024, 11:47 Compartir Copiar enlace

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Age Concern Marbella/San Pedro will begin 2024 with a series of events at its social activity centre in San Pedro, the first of which will be a talk offering financial advice on Friday 26 January.

The event will be overseen by guest speaker Chris McCaan from Blevins Franks Wealth Management, who will offer his knowledge about subjects concerning pensions and investments, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session. The talk will focus on helping British expatriates make the most of their finances in the most tax-efficient way.

Seating for the talk is limited and those wishing to attend can make a reservation by phoning the charitys helpline (689 35 51 98) from Monday to Friday between 10am and 6pm.

Age Concern's activity centre in San Pedro Alcantara. SUR

More information about the services offered by Age Concern Marbella/San Pedro can be found on the organisations Facebook page, or www.ageconcernmarbella.com
by Martina Fuchs

GENEVA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- China is "the hero of global biodiversity" and plays a fundamental role in the sustainable development agenda, the head of the newly-launched Nature Positive Initiative told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Speaking ahead of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, next week, Marco Lambertini said that China is leading the way in reversing biodiversity loss and combating the global climate crisis.

"China is the hero of the Global Biodiversity Framework, leading almost 200 nations to agree to the most ambitious and comprehensive global plan for nature ever adopted," he said.

In December 2022, China held the presidency of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), and spearheaded a series of achievements including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The adoption of the landmark framework under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity has been described as the "Paris moment" for nature.

Lambertini, a former director general of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said: "China has shown leadership particularly in the energy sector. Honestly, if China was not to invest what they invested in the development of new technologies, of renewable energies, and scale up the production, we wouldn't be where we are now with solar energy being competitive with oil, gas and even coal."

Last September, 27 of the world's largest nature conservation organizations, institutes, business and finance coalitions and sustainability standard-setting agencies came together to launch the Nature Positive Initiative. It is aimed at driving alignment around the definition, integrity and use of the term "nature positive," and supporting broader, longer-term efforts to deliver nature-positive outcomes.

"Nature positive by 2030" refers to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 from a 2020 baseline, through measurable gains in the health, abundance, diversity and resilience of species, ecosystems, and natural processes.

"China has played a fundamental role in that phase of the sustainable development agenda," Lambertini said.

"The government is discussing right now, through the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), the exact recommendations and approaches that will deliver a net positive outcome for nature, while developing the economy," he said.

SUSTAINABILITY FUELS GROWTH

Lambertini stressed that a positive economic outlook for any country is closely linked to sustainability.

"China has already demonstrated the ability to do that in the energy sector. Now it's time to demonstrate the same in agriculture, fishing, forestry infrastructure, and all sectors with a high ecological footprint. The only way to achieve a resilient and strong economy is to embrace environmental sustainability," he said.

In its latest World Economic Outlook in October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast global real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2023 at 3.0 percent, but cut its 2024 forecast to 2.9 percent.

Meanwhile, China's economy is expected to have grown by 5.4 percent last year thanks to a "strong" post-COVID recovery, the global lender said in November.

Lambertini said: "China has a lot to teach and share with the rest of the world in terms of their domestic successes in nature conservation. The whole discussion around the conservation of priority ecosystems and threatened species, the sustainable management of freshwater resources, and the plan around the Yangtze River are great examples."

"All these are incredible successes at the domestic level that can be shared internationally, and equally, China can learn from the rest of the world," he noted.

Under the theme "Rebuilding Trust", the WEF's 54th annual meeting will bring together over 100 governments, major international organizations, civil society leaders, experts, youth representatives, social entrepreneurs, and news outlets in the Swiss mountain town of Davos from Jan. 15-19.

Lambertini said: "The dependence of business on nature has never been more recognized than today. The WEF program this year will feature a lot of nature topics, from the conservation of the oceans, forests, freshwater, to the link between nature and climate." 
Maria Albarral Marbella Monday, 8 January 2024, 17:57 Compartir Copiar enlace

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Estepona, Marbella and Benalmadena are among the five municipalities with the highest population growth in Spain, which highlights the transport problem on the Costa del Sol. The existing infrastructure can no longer support the growth in population and the solutions need to be long term.

There are a number of sustainable transport options that the various interested parties have put on the table including the Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Costa del Sol (the public consortium offering shared services to eleven municipalities on the western stretch of Malaga province) which is pushing for private investment. The group of local authorities has included 30,000 euros into its 2024 budget to study the options that would be most attractive to investors.

"Transport has to be attractive for private initiatives to be able to implement it. We believe that it is a solution because the others that have been proposed are very costly, which makes it difficult to implement", said the president of the Mancomunidad, Manuel Cardena, following a recent budget meeting. He stressed that "solutions are needed now".

Train and metro

The Mancomunidad's intention, according to Cardena, is to be able to present this initiative in the first half of this year. "We are talking about a hybrid between a train and an overground metro, being a sustainable and environmentally friendly electric transport that is already used in other parts of Europe, he said.

A further two proposals include boats and the freeing up of the A-7 motorway. "We continue to work on the maritime connection. We are studying the legislation to improve access to the ports and following an initial study the figures we have had from the maritime sector look good, Cardena said.

The president of the Mancomunidad also referred to freeing up the A-7 motorway as one of the solutions to the problem. "The Spanish government should, at the very least, copy what they do at Las Pedrizas toll road in Malaga, that from midnight all the heavy lorries can pass free-of-charge, and relieve some of the pressure on the A-7", he said.
Alfonso Torices Madrid Monday, 8 January 2024, 10:53 | Updated 22:03h. Compartir Copiar enlace

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This coming Wednesday (10 January), the Ministry of Health will impose the mandatory use of masks in all health facilities in Spain. This government decision, according to news agency EFE, comes after the Minister of Health did not achieve her objective of doing it by consensus after calling an urgent meeting of the regions at the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS) to face the challenge of "the spikes of respiratory viruses" that have been reported in recent days. Monica Garcia proposed to the regions that they impose the obligation to use a face mask inside all health facilities for the duration of the current epidemic.

However, the Minister of Health did not achieve her objective and initial information from her meeting with the regions indicated that a consensus was not possible and that the majority of the regions, which individually have the powers to order this measure, said that each of them should decide, according to the evolution of the epidemic in their own areas, whether the public should wear masks or not, whether it is only a recommendation or an obligation, and in which places and which people should do so. The Ministry of Health gave the regions time to study the proposals and respond but tonight EFE has reported that the decision has been taken out of their hands and the national government in Madrid will instead impose the mandatory use of masks in all health facilities in Spain on Wednesday.

If this hadn't come about, only three Spanish regions, the Valencian Community, Murcia and Catalonia, were prepared to declare the use of face masks mandatory inside all health facilities and socio-health residences. A fourth region, Aragon, also established the obligation to use face masks, but only for professionals in health centres, hospitals and nursing homes.

Six other regions, Galicia, Cantabria, Navarra, Asturias, La Rioja and Euskadi, had limited themselves to requesting the use of masks in health centres and residences only as a recommendation and six more, Madrid, Andalucia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Extremadura and Castilla y Leon, were only prepared to advise the use of face masks for people who have symptoms of respiratory infections.

Another of the measures that the minister proposed, and which is being studied, "is the self-certification of three days' sick leave, for those who have a minor illness", Garcia said in an interview on Onda Cero radio. In her opinion, in the early stages of illness, "it should not be necessary to go to the doctor, and yet we are somehow forcing them to go for a sick leave report. This is a measure that has already been implemented in many countries, and which is based on the responsible declaration during the first three days".

"Cause for concern"

The minister said that the incidence of flu in recent days "is a cause for concern" as "we are at much higher levels of influenza than in recent years". She also stated that the problem is not so much the infections as the potential collapse of the public health system.

Garcia admitted that this is a "worrying" flu epidemic, of greater intensity than that of previous years and with numbers of infected people similar to those before the pandemic. Infections are quickly escalating, with a 75% increase in positive diagnoses in the last week of the year and a 61% increase in hospitalisations due to flu infection in the same period. Covid and the respiratory syncytial virus (RCV), the other two major causes of contagion, have already doubled the epidemic peak and although they still generate many hospital admissions, they are close to declining.

The incidence of acute respiratory infections is especially high in regions such as Castilla-La Mancha, which, with 1,709 cases of flu per 100,000 inhabitants, almost doubles the national average (953) and in others such as the Valencian Community (1,500), Asturias (1,318). and Castilla y Leon (1,209), all of them with diagnosis rates much higher than the rest of the country.

Experts expect that the epidemic of new flu cases will continue to escalate at least until the third or fourth week of January, since to the current large numbers we will have to add the thousands of infections produced at family gatherings on New Year's Eve and Three Kings and, above all, the avalanche that the return to school will generate, since children are the group with the highest rate of infections by influenza A.

These forecasts suggest that the pressure on health centers and hospitals will continue to increase throughout the month and will continue in the first weeks of February.

Among the possible reasons for the greater intensity of the current winter flu epidemic, almost all experts agree on two. The first is the low levels of flu vaccination this autumn-winter, since it is estimated that the coverage of risk groups has not reached 65% in most regions when the World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 75%. The second is the sharp decrease in the use of masks, hydroalcoholic gels and frequent hand washing, all of them very effective preventive methods to minimise infections and which became widespread during the Covid pandemic to avoid infections, but which at the same time protected against other viruses such as the flu.
Jesus Nicolas Monday, 8 January 2024, 18:09 Compartir Copiar enlace

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The port of Torrevieja in Alicante province has seen a clear increase in activity recently. In just two weeks, three large-tonnage vessels have entered the salt quay. The sodium chloride from Torrevieja is in high demand at this time of year when northern Europe is shivering, with temperatures in Scandinavia reaching 20 degrees below zero in the main cities. These countries do not want to be cut off, their roads need salt and one of the ports that can supply it in the most efficient and urgent manner is that of Torrevieja.

Laguna Rosa, a nature reserve with a 'pink' salt lake near Torrevieja, is owned by the Spanish government and operated under concession by the company Nueva Compania Arrendataria de las Salinas de Torrevieja (Ncast), part of the French group Salins. The industrial director of the Torrevieja complex, Joseph Perez, stated that these last few days have seen frenetic activity at the Poniente quay, also known as the salt quay in the port. From the shores of the lake, huge quantities of the mineral are being conveyed to the port, mainly destined for England, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, as well as Iceland, where 16,000 tonnes have already been shipped in just two vessels.

Perez estimates that around 150,000 tonnes will be exported this year, the majority this winter. "They tend to be very similar every year, but this year we do expect it to be somewhat higher than last year, around 15,000 or 20,000 tonnes more. The same as we can load in a week," Perez pointed out.

The rate of arrivals at the port is proof of this. "This week three ships have been loaded; last Friday the last one was loaded and three more are expected to arrive next week." On call and on demand, always ready to attend to any unforeseen event in the form of a storm thousands of kilometres to the north, is how they are used to working in the saltworks.

Fortunately, Torrevieja has an advantage that other ports do not have: its own facilities. With a specific quay for loading salt, the ships do not have to wait to be positioned and for their turn to load, but are attended to immediately. Only when several vessels arrive in port at the same time, as has been the case in recent days, do they have to wait. In that case, they will spend at most one day anchored outside the port area.

"The port of Torrevieja has the advantage of having its own facilities, a special quay for loading salt" Joseph Perez

Few sales in Spain

Despite working to diversify their clientele, 80 per cent of the salt exported from Torrevieja, Perez asid, continues to be for de-icing roads, 60% of the total sold. This same use at a national level is being less common. "We are loading lorries, but much fewer than normal." The difference is especially large in comparison with when Storm Filomena hit Spain in 2021. Then, according to Perez, the maximum amount of salt sold for de-icing roads in Spain was recorded.

If Filomena were to repeat itself, the response capacity of the Torrevieja salt pans would be the same, given that, according to the director, there are currently some 300,000 tonnes available. "In Spain, a normal winter only needs around 30,000 or 40,000 tonnes."

On a climatological level, moreover, the perfect conditions have combined to increase the amount of salt, unlike in previous years when the intrusion of fresh water after episodes of torrential rains has reduced the quantity.

"The salt marshes need sun and wind, and this year we have had both," he said.
Marcellus, N.Y.  Nojaim Brothers, one of the last locally-owned supermarkets in Onondaga County, plans to close its doors for good this spring.

Owner Richard Nojaim late last week alerted most of his staff of 14 full-time employees and 20 part-timers of the pending closure. Stewarts Shops, a chain of 359 convenience stores throughout New York and Vermont, plans to build a store in its place at the heart of the village.
Syracuse, NY -- A Covid treatment drug that has proven highly effective at keeping sick patients out of the hospital should be used more as virus cases spike across the region, Onondaga Countys health commissioner said.

Paxlovid is a safe and effective prescription drug for nearly any Covid-positive adult, said Dr. Katie Anderson, a trained epidemiologist. Thats especially true for seniors, who are the most likely to suffer hospitalization and death from Covid.

But, nationally, two-thirds of older people eligible for Paxlovid are not getting it, despite the drug being widely available at pharmacies, Anderson said.

The reason for the hesitancy in taking Paxlovid isnt precisely known, she said. Sometimes, Covid-positive patients appear to reject taking the pill treatment. In other cases, she said, primary care providers seem reluctant to prescribe it to patients who are suffering non-life-threatening Covid symptoms at home.

One big stumbling block could also be price: Paxlovids maker, Pfizer, is selling the treatment for $1,390 after its government contract expired last year. That means that people with private insurance might have to pay large amounts out-of-pocket for it, depending on plan. (Older people on Medicare or those on Medicaid can still get the treatment for free, as can the uninsured. Also, some pharmacies still have free Paxlovid left over from the government contract; check your pharmacist for details.)

Health-related concerns about Paxlovid stem from reports that it may negatively interact with other medications, or that the drug may cause a Covid rebound for those suffering from the disease. Those concerns are causing too many people to be cautious, Anderson said.

The vast majority would benefit from Paxlovid if Covid-positive, Anderson said. (Paxlovid does not prevent someone from getting Covid in the first place.)

The health commissioner made her comments as local hospitals are seeing the biggest spike in Covid-positive patients in more than a year.

RELATED: Covid is spiking again in Syracuse hospitals, but thats the new normal, doc says

What were struggling against is a significant amount of apathy or antipathy when thinking about Covid and protecting yourself, Anderson said. The challenge is, how do we break through the thought that we have moved on from Covid, when we cant.

The latest surge comes as the number of people getting Covid vaccinations has gone down each year they have been available, with a 20 to 25% vaccination rate last year and only 18% this year, she said. The initial vaccine was administered to more than 50% of the nations population.

So far, Central New York has avoided the calamity of a year ago, when the combination of Covid, RSV and flu brought the childrens hospital to its knees, Anderson said. This year, RSV struck first, with Covid and flu coming later -- though Covid and flu cases are still rising.

But theres a good chance in future years that all three diseases could strike again at the same time, Anderson said. Coupled with a hospital labor shortage and overburdened emergency rooms, there may not be enough capacity to handle future surges, she said.

Thats why vaccines, Paxlovid and targeted masking are important tools, Anderson said.

As for masking, the county and state are still following federal guidance for Covid-positive people: five days of isolation, followed by five days of masking, Anderson said. (Ten days of isolation is advised for people with high risk of complications.)

The latest vaccine has proven to be effective at preventing serious illness for all known Covid variants, she added. However, the latest strain is proving more contagious, if not more serious, than previous ones.

We have a lot of tools at our disposal, Anderson concluded. The main concern is that people are not taking advantage of the tools.

Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-6070.
People look at a vehicle destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

GAZA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said in a press statement that the Israeli army killed 249 Palestinians and wounded 510 others during the past 24 hours.

This brings the total number of deaths to 23,084 and injuries to 58,926 since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, it noted. 

People look at a vehicle destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A boy looks at a vehicle destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

People look at a vehicle destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

People look at a vehicle destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

People look at a vehicle destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A man walks among the rubble of destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Jan. 8, 2024 shows a shell in front of the rubble in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Jan. 8, 2024 shows damaged buildings in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

People are seen among the rubble of destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Jan. 8, 2024 shows damaged buildings in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

A man walks past destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Jan. 8, 2024 shows a street with destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Jan. 8, 2024 shows the rubble of destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Jan. 8, 2024 shows a destroyed car in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

A man walks on a street with destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Jan. 8, 2024 shows a destroyed building in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)

Children walk among the rubble of destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, on Jan. 8, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Monday. (Photo by Abboud/Xinhua)
Syracuse, N.Y.  Two men have been charged with possessing illegal guns, cocaine and cannabis after one of the men attempted to flee police in the Westcott neighborhood, troopers said.

Troopers were executing a search warrant in a drug investigation at a home at 241 Roosevelt Ave. shortly before 11 a.m. Friday when one man tried to flee in a vehicle, according to Trooper Jack Keller, a spokesperson for the State Police.
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re: Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 MAX mid-cabin exit door blows out mid-air, forcing emergency landing Just a noob question for aviation experts on the forum;



We know This wasnt the first flight of the aircraft. So it had attained the cruising altitude many times before this incident. And the airframe would have noticed much higher differential pressure as compared to the altitude where the incident happened. The door/window exploded outwards at an elevation which was way below the cruise level. At cruising altitude differential cabin pressure would have been enormous as compared to where it happened. Also Assuming no Maintenace of the door/window section was carried out, since aircraft is considerably new.



So my question, is it possible to have the opposite of the Helios flight, where pilot at ground wanted to test the seals, closed the bleed valve to test pressurisation of the cabin and eventually forgot to release the pressure bleed valve which over pressurized the cabin resulting into the incident ?



Any possibility of this happening ? Would like to know some experts opinion on this.
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2021 Tata Altroz XZ Petrol : Blunders & oversights by the Software Engineering and Development team I own a Tata Altroz XZ 2021 manual transmission non-turbo model. After driving the vehicle for 2+ years with 32000km on the odometer, I believe I am qualified to give an in-depth analysis and opinion on this vehicle to such an extent that no developers/testers of this car ever went before. Therefore, here are my honest and open opinions/suggestions to the Altroz engineering and development team-



One thing I realize here is that Tata engineered its new generation software with the knowledge of its acquired company Jaguar's code and with a strict Make in India concept. With TCS/Tata implementing the above blend, it has led to some serious oversights in key features' front end and a huge lack of testing their features.



Before starting, I want to mention that the Altroz XZ 2021 and Altroz XZ 2020 are significantly different. They have done a hidden cost cutting due to global chip shortage and Make in India restrictions and the dealers don't inform this for some reason. For example, the instrument cluster is changed from TFT to Analog, but in test drive vehicles, they still have TFT clusters. This is very misleading!



Keeping the above fact in mind, I will be highlighting around 40 problems and oversights in Altroz XZ 2021 model:



A. Instrument cluster:



#1. The cruise control set speed is not displayed in the cluster.

When I asked this question to the dealership, they said it was displayed. When I asked them to show it, they had no answer. So they sent out a driver to check, and then they realized that it was not displayed anywhere. When I raised a support case with this issue, the support staff said it would be escalated to the engineering team and later said that it could not be added. This is a very simple software change, I myself being a software developer, know how simple it will be.



#2. No indication of the headlights on/off and fog lights on/off.

In the manual, it clearly says that the status of both headlights and fog lamps will be displayed in the instrument cluster. But it's nowhere present.



#3. Huge difference between TFT and analog cluster, but the price difference is just 10k.

When the dealership realized that the cluster was different, they panicked and offered me an on-spot 10k discount. When I asked for the TFT cluster and offered to pay whatever extra for the same, the support representatives and engineers said it was not possible. So why is it not possible? Weren't the XZ before August 2021 coming with TFT clusters? So why not install one in my vehicle? This leads to the following question:



#4. Can't replace my analog with the TFT cluster.

Modern cars have every unit in a plug-and-play format, so why isn't it possible to plug in TFT instead of analog? The physical dimensions of both the clusters are exactly the same. The only explanation that I can find here is that they have replaced the ECU altogether. Now if they are making this, they should be clear while giving out test drive vehicles with older and better ECU with the same model name and number. The service people scream out if we plug in an OBD2 scanner to the OBD2 port, but they go ahead and change the ECU itself without telling the customers and brand it under the same model.



#5. Gear display mystery:

Any child who has the basic knowledge of how manual cars work will tell which gear is the car being driven on. But Altroz shows a different (lower) gear when we press the clutch a little and drive. If we put the car in neutral while the car is moving at normal speed, the gear shows as 5th gear cause RPM is idle and speed is more (which happens in the case of higher gears). Basically what they have done is that they have mapped the RPM, speed, and clutch press position and programmed a formula to determine the current gear. This being the case, makes the gear display feature itself useless.



#6. The buttons of "set" and "mode" are near the cluster itself and not on the right steering mounted buttons.

If it was a pure analog cluster like the old timers, I agree that the physical pressure from our finger is required to reset the trip and that button press should be kept close to the cluster. But this is all going to the ECU. So why are they sacrificing customer comfort by keeping them in such a place where I have to get my hands inside the ring of the steering wheel to operate them and keep the right steering mounted button as dummy buttons?





B. Infotainment system:



First things first, they should remove the "fast" word in the Harman infotainment system branding immediately. Cause it is anything but fast.



#7. Bluetooth has a latency of more than 1 second.



#8. Touch response is extremely slow and sometimes dangerous to operate even while driving in slow-moving traffic.



#9. They have eaten away the infotainment system buttons!

Where did they go? Do they even know how critical those buttons were for customer comfort? The issues it causes deserve a whole new set of questions as stated below:



#10. How does the co-passenger change the volume while using Android Auto?

Do they expect them to use the steering wheel volume control while the driver is driving? Or do they even know what I am talking about? Let me explain: Android auto takes up the whole screen and the on-screen volume icons will go away(of course they haven't tested this in their labs). So how do you control the volume? They said that the infotainment system consists of all the options that these buttons were offering. But will they be so while using Android Auto? Definitely not!



#11. How do I quickly switch between Android auto and infotainment system home screen?

You may say to go to the infotainment system home screen every time to change the volume and then go back to Android Auto. But how easy is that? And how will the co-passenger know about all these? Won't they just be looking for a volume button?



#12. How do I power on the infotainment system without powering on the vehicle itself?

There was actually a way to do it before. They were boasting about the "1 hour power on" feature. How do you activate that without the infotainment system power-on button?



#13. How do you turn on the infotainment system?

They should realize how ridiculous it sounds to a naive person, to hear that the power on/off button of a system is inside the display of the system itself. Yes, you read it correctly. It's like a smartphone without a physical power button.



#14. The current trip meter resets after even less than 1 second of power off of the vehicle (basically immediately after ECU off)

How do I save fuel in between signals while it resets the current trip readings every time I turn off the engine? I am a car guy and would like to have analytics. Either give an engine cutoff switch that doesn't switch off the ECU while turning off the engine or find a way to keep the statistics as it is for a few seconds cause there are chances that we may be at a traffic signal and will start the car momentarily.



#15. The option to switch on DRL goes away after turning on the headlights

Why can't I keep the DRL running alongside the headlights? it's not against the law. I have seen Harrier, Safari, and Nexon do it.



C. Idle start stop system(ISS):



This is a very good technology in theory and implemented properly in other company cars. But Tata's implementation has so many issues:



#16. Battery SoC check at 85% for ISS activation.

This is a nonsensical number. It triggers rarely cause it's highly impossible to maintain such a high battery level all the time in situations where the car is used once a week or so. Other brand cars have 50% which is good enough or a better battery. We can easily start the Altroz without any engine hiccup whatsoever even when the battery low icon is displayed. I have tried that myself.



#17. Battery SoC value not displayed anywhere.

The trigger of ISS is highly unpredictable and makes it scary and panic when it triggers all of a sudden out of nowhere and turns off the engine. It is very irritating. So if an indication of the battery SoC were given anywhere, we would at least be aware as to when it triggers.



#18. No option to permanently turn off the ISS

Along the same line, when I turn off the ISS with that button provided on the right-hand side button cluster, it turns back on at the next vehicle start.



#19. Autostart due to the ISS happens unexpectedly.

Due to cabin temp, due to low battery, and whatnot, the engine starts unexpectedly. Now when the vehicle turns off due to ISS, at least they should give the driver the freedom to turn it back on when they need it. Or if the AC is on, the outside temperature is warm, etc, don't turn off the vehicle in the first place. That will save more fuel than turning it off! Instead, they have coded these nonsensical checks everywhere which are completely unnecessary. Checks like steering should be straight, movement of the vehicle should be >10kmph for the ISS to activate, etc, which causes the feature to be useless in crowded traffic cities of India like Bangalore.



#20. ISS doesn't trigger back if you stop again before crossing 10kmph or if the steering angle is not straight.



#21. ISS autostart/clutchstart turns off the active cruise control.

This is some weird connection between two seemingly unrelated systems.



D. Engine Start/Stop button:



#22. No way to turn off only the engine and not the instrument cluster+ECU.

Similar to how ISS does it, considering how ISS is useless as stated above, is there a way that I can take things into my own hands to save some fuel? Turns out there isn't. Long press of the button won't do it.



#23. The engine stop button turns off the instrument cluster as well.

They could have hooked the ECU switch-off logic to the driver door open trigger or have had a 30-second delay or something It's as simple as that.



#24. Accessories mode (amber light mode on engine start stop button) is useless

This mode doesn't do anything. To me, both the off and accessories modes are the same. Cause except for the window controls, nothing is on. No infotainment system, no instrument cluster, no fog lamps, etc. Why is there even a mode like that if it doesn't do anything significant?



E. Right-hand aft button cluster:



This includes ISS off, front fog lights, rear fog light (which again is taken out in XZ after August 2021), and one empty poverty button.



#25. Fog lights button has auto cut-off.

It turns off every time I turn off the headlights and it is expected to work in this way only. But it doesn't come back up again when I turn on the headlights again. There is an unnecessary auto cut-off in the ECU code for this, probably a copy of the code from Jaguar.



#26. No rear fog lights.



#27. The buttons aren't lock-type but are push-type/toggle-type.

The best solution to the above-mentioned fog lights issue and also the permanent ISS off issue is to make them lock-in buttons rather than push buttons. But they prefer IT parts profit over customer comfort and satisfaction.



#28. Senseless logic and relations between headlights, DRL, and fog lamps.

Here is that deadly blend of Jaguar code implemented by TCS/Tata engineers without any background knowledge of the same. They seem to have rectified this mistake in their EV vehicles, but the fix has not been pushed to 2021 petrol/diesel models.



#29. Eco/Sport mode button lowers the music volume.

I shift a lot between the modes on the flow in highways to optimize the mileage. I know that's how it is supposed to be used. Now I don't want to hear that voice confirmation (cause it's already shown in the cluster). Moreover, I don't want my ongoing music to lower its volume just for this thing. So I disabled the voice alerts and muted the notification sounds completely. But still, your code lowers the volume for no reason.



#30. Eco/sports mode state doesn't get saved

One thing I realize here is that they don't have a state machine that saves the current state of vital pieces of information. Fog light status, eco/City/sport mode status, ISS off status, AC settings status, etc. These are critical data modes that need to resume after I start my car again.



F. HVAC system:



I don't have much to say here, but there are a couple of things that irritate here as well



#31. While in auto mode, the fan speed isn't displayed in the notification tab of the infotainment system.

When in auto mode, the amber light on the auto button is on, which is enough to tell that AC is in auto mode. But they are showing it again in the infotainment system in place of the fan speed. I have to toggle the "AC" button to get it out of the auto mode to get the display of the fan speed. This I have to do every time, again no state saving here!



#32. During the hot season, there is no way to get the AC to operate in semi-hot mode cause the "HI" option causes too much heat and the 30C still causes the temp to drop below 25C. We cannot maintain that ideal temperature in a hot and humid season.



G. Wiper stick and indicator/light stick:



There are no issues as such here, but room for innovation is present here.

The logic of the auto wiper speed is messed up. Either it wipes too fast or too slow. The speed change knob doesn't cause much difference. That being said, during a mist, we have to clear the screen manually. To do that, the option of mist is below the "off" state of the wiper. So in order to activate the mist option, we have to go to "off" state, activate the mist, and then again keep it in auto state.



#33. Why not have a mist state on the back push of the stick along with the down push of the stick?

Some cars have this implemented and it's such a simple solution!



#34. Auto wiper logic may need a revisit.



#35. Similar to the mist logic suggested, giving a low beam pass also will help.

We all know about the high beam pass which can be given by pulling on the indicator stick. But what about when the lights are already in high beam? Why not give an option for a low beam pass on the push of the stick while in a high beam? Volkswagen, Skoda, Ford, etc have this feature implemented in their cars and it's very useful.



H. ECU power restrictions:



I am well aware of the BSVI norms. However, the implementation of the same in Tata vehicles is a little extreme.



#36. 2nd gear sometimes jerks rather than avoiding it as per BSVI norms.



#37. Power on 2nd gear is sometimes highly restricted (especially during high AC) during some critical signal light take-off times which creates a lot of panic in high traffic behind.



#38. Engine cutoff at 165kmph

When the vehicle has a dial of 220kmph and the aerodynamics of the vehicle is capable of crossing 180kmph, the speed is restricted to 165kmph at 4200 rpm. What's the use of such good aerodynamics if the speed is restricted like this? I know that turbo engines have 180kmph restrictions. So why not the same on non-turbo engines? And no one told me this during the purchase of the vehicle, nor it's mentioned anywhere in the manual. I got to know this from the service people.



#39. OBD2 data extraction of cruise control set speed and battery EoC values.

If they provide this data, we can poll this through apps like Torque or any of the OBD2 apps and get the required information. But like all other car manufacturers, they have kept this information hidden and haven't displayed it in the cluster as well.



I. Misc:



Keyless entry:



#40. The trunk unlock button after the trunk is closed keeps the ambient lights and cabin lights on for 10 minutes.

When we press that button, as per manual, the trunk can be opened without the key being close to it. Fine, but there is no indication whatsoever or wherever. And you know what happens after we close the trunk? Everything locks alright as expected per the manual, but the ambient light and the cabin lights remain on for the next 10 or so minutes.



#41. Door lock mechanism:

I have a colleague who was fond of Tata Punch but decided not to go for it cause he has a two-year-old kid. If you had ever driven an Altroz or a Punch you would instantly know why. Yet you didn't do anything about it.

Volkswagen Polo has a safety implementation wherein all the doors, including the driver door, remain unopenable while the speed crosses 40kmph. This is one such example of a half-cooked feature that ends up compromising safety.



#42. Left bank due to transmission mounted on the left-hand side:

This information I obtained from the service station. When I realized that the vehicle was always banking left at high speeds, they said it was because of the transmission weight on the left-hand side.



#43. No engine killswitch is provided for the vehicle but upon holding the engine start-stop button for 3 seconds turns off the engine and cluster and brings the vehicle to the useless accessories only (amber) state:

In certain car blogs, it is stated that the reason for not providing a kill switch in cars is that the running engine provides electrical power for steering and brakes, therefore engine needs to be all the time while the car is in motion. If this was the reason for not providing a kill switch, then why is this "dangerous" 3-second button hold engine cutoff feature that we can trigger at high speeds? If they can allow this feature, they should allow a killswitch as well to compensate for their broken ISS logic so that we can actually save some fuel in reality!



These 40+ questions and pointers are clear proof that the project managers, the engineers, and even the testers of the Altroz team haven't even driven and properly tested the vehicle they are engineering. This is the sad reality of the Altroz which many of us are driving out there!



That being said, I would also like to highlight a handful of unique and good features in this car:



#1. Aerodynamics is excellent, but the ECU nulls it all out.



#2. Auto increase in RPM while slowly releasing the clutch at 0-10kmph speed without pressing the accelerator (also known as "creep" feature): Very helpful while hill climbing and in bumper-to-bumper traffic.



#3. Auto open/close side view mirrors while unlocking/locking.



#4. The ambient light tone is unique and excellent.



#5. Retaining the traditional position of horns(on either side of the steering wheel) and not keeping it at center: Must required and very useful in a country like India.



#6. Exceptional backend programming for features such as cruise control, ABS, etc: But lack of proper front end nulls it all out!



Tested and working solutions to a few of the problems mentioned:



#1: While changing the cruise speed, better to hold the "+" and "-" instead of tapping the button. Holding it makes the speed rise steadily and right where you stop holding the button, the speed stabilizes. Also, better to memorize the set speed before canceling the cruise.



#9 - #13: Infotainment buttons can be bought at the Tata service for around 6k and a local modification shop in a metro city can help you with cutting out the center dashboard where the buttons will be placed. The wiring harness is already present for the XZ variant so it's plug and play. I have successfully performed this modification on my car and it works perfectly fine.



#14, #16 - #20, #22, #23: Install a kill switch! - This is how I did it after a year of research and consulting a trusted Tata service person who has been very helpful to me.

This will only work for the Petrol variant: Pull out the Ignition coil fuse from the engine fuse bay which is next to the battery. It's a 15A fuse. This will cut the current flow to the spark plug and cease the engine. One should be very careful here since Altroz has a BS6 phase 2 engine which monitors the slightest voltage variations throughout the vehicle and ceases the engine. During the installation process, I faced the ignition coil circuit malfunction error and had to clear the fault code through the Torque app to start the engine again. Therefore, use only "8 gauge wire" (not more, not less) and take as much less wiring as possible since the more the length of the wire, the more the resistance and voltage drop. ALWAYS use an inline 15A fuse. You will get the fuse holder in local shops. Break open a spare fuse and solder the fuse probes onto the ends of the wire to plug them into the fuse bay and use an SPST/SPDT toggle switch for the kill switch. Where to install the switch inside the dashboard is up to you. I have driven at good speeds on expressways, and on village roads with extreme bumps and vibrations, and have reached the 6k RPM limit, have operated the vehicle with full AC, and lights, and in steep climbs, all of them after installing the kill switch and it hasn't failed a single time. The kill switch also adds a safety mechanism against thieves (there was one video that surfaced showing a Tata safari being stolen at night where the Car's security alarm didn't go off upon breaking into the car and only went off when the thief started the ECU by joining starter wires. A complete lack of security reliability from Tata forces us to find our own safety solutions here! In such cases, the kill switch will provide you with precious time to stop the theft as the car won't start when the kill switch is in the off position!).



#29 - #31: The kill switch kind of overcomes this problem as well. Imagine switching off the vehicle for a traffic signal and when you start it again, the drive mode resets, the fog lamp goes away, and AC settings reset. With a kill switch, you are not shutting down the ECU, thus maintaining all these states as it is. Therefore, only use the start stop button to turn off the engine when you reach your destination and plan to lock the vehicle, and use the kill switch to "pause" the vehicle.



General helpful information to the audience: The car comes with an OBD2 port from where we can extract the telemetries of the ECU. All we need is an OBD2 Bluetooth dongle. We can get it from Amazon for around Rs.500 and the Torque Pro app which is available in Play Store for Rs.250. The paid version has so many useful features and is worth the money. We can write scripts to trigger a certain voice message or a tone on receiving certain values from certain PIDs and all we need is basic coding knowledge for the same. The app only polls the data and cannot modify any data, so it's completely legal under the law.



No matter how good a vehicle is, just a couple of bad pointers are enough to ruin it. And I have listed 40+ of them. I am really not sure what kind of engineering and development work went into this vehicle in between, which started ruining the features of Altroz one by one in the name of cost-cutting. And if at all they are doing cost cutting, why not properly inform the dealership so that we can make proper decisions while investing in a vehicle? We might have gone for the XZ+ model or for a better car either within Tata or other brands. At least we should be given that transparency. For them, it's just another sale, but for a few customers, it's a dream to own a car! Attached Thumbnails
















NEW DELHI, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Incessant rain has disrupted normal life in several parts of India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, forcing the local administration to shut educational institutions and government offices, a state government official confirmed to Xinhua on Monday.

For the past three days, heavy rain hit various districts in the area. Schools, colleges and some government offices in these districts have declared a holiday for Monday, as water logging was reported on a large scale.

According to the state government official, the Nagapattinam district received rainfall of 16.7 cm during the past 24 hours, Karaikal received 12.2 cm of rainfall.

A report by "India Today" stated that in the state's capital city of Chennai the traffic moved at a snail's pace as daily commuters faced long traffic-jams on Sunday evening.

The India Meteorological Department said in a forecast that more rain was expected for the next seven days in various districts in Tamil Nadu. 
openSUSE offers Leap, an LTS-style distribution that shares the code base SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), effectively making Leap a non-commercial version of its enterprise-grade operating system. Users that prefer more up-to-date free software can use its rolling release distribution Tumbleweed. Users can also use the Open Build Service. Moreover, the flexibility of openSUSE makes it easy to re-purpose for specific goals like running a web- or mail server.

Like most Linux distributions, openSUSE includes both a default graphical user interface (GUI) and a command line interface option. Users of openSUSE may choose several desktops environments GUIs like GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, MATE, LXQt, Xfce. openSUSE supports thousands of software packages across the full range of free software / open source development.

The operating system is compatible with a wide variety of hardware on numerous instruction sets including ARM-based single-board computers. Examples include the Raspberry Pi 3 and Pine64 on the ARMv8 platform also known as aarch64, the Banana Pi and BeagleBoard on the ARMv7 instruction set, and the first iteration of the Raspberry Pi on the ARMv6 ISA. RISC-V, PowerPC (PPC64 and PPC64le) and S390 are supported as well.

The goals of the openSUSE project are:

Make openSUSE the easiest Linux distribution for anyone to obtain and the most widely used open source platform.

Provide an environment for open source collaboration that makes openSUSE the world's best Linux distribution for new and experienced Linux users.

Dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux hackers and application developers.

With the launch of the openSUSE project, openSUSE is now developed in an open model - public development builds, releases, and sources will be posted frequently here and you will have access to our Bugzilla database for defect reporting. You can also sign up on special interest mailing lists to make sure that you are always getting the most recent news on the openSUSE project and the openSUSE distribution.

openSUSE tools:

Open Build Service (OBS) Our build tool, building all of our packages as well as ones for SUSE Linux Enterprise, Arch, Debian, Fedora, Scientific Linux, RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, and more.

openQA Automated testing for *any* operating system, that can read the screen and control the test host the same way a user does.

YaST The best/only comprehensive Linux system configuration & installation tool.

Kiwi Create Linux images for deployment on real hardware, virtualisation, and now even container systems like Docker. Kiwi is the engine that builds the openSUSE release images.



What's New

Complete release notes here.
Subsidized capitalism 101: Microchip Technology is a US corporation that manufactures microcontrollers, memory devices, and other integrated circuits. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Microchip will likely be one of the many companies chosen by the US government to receive federal funding from the CHIPS Act program.

The US Department of Commerce recently announced a preliminary agreement to provide Microchip Technology with $162 million of federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act. The company will use the funds to further support its semiconductor supply chain, decreasing its reliance on foreign chip foundries and strengthening its resilience.

The proposed funding would be split across two projects, the DoC said, with approximately $90 million going to "modernize and expand" Microchip's plant in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The remaining money ($72 million) would be used to expand a plant in Gresham, Oregon. The two expansion projects are expected to create 700 new construction and manufacturing jobs, and are estimated to "nearly triple" Microchip's semiconductor output at the aforementioned sites.

According to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, the investment is a meaningful step in the government efforts to bolster the US supply chain for "legacy semiconductors." Chips manufactured on mature nodes are everywhere, Raimondo said, powering cars, washing machines, and even missiles.

Microchip CEO Ganesh Moorthy remarked how his company manufactures semiconductors that are the "backbone" of electronic applications in various industries, including aerospace and defense, automotive, and medical. The fabs in Oregon and Colorado perform "specialized manufacturing" as well as additional reliability and safety qualification for products designed for mission-critical markets.

Microchip is also working with NASA to build the High Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) project, which will eventually replace the old RAD750 PowerPC microprocessor for manned and unmanned space missions. The RISC-V based system is expected to provide a 100x increase in computing power within the same energy consumption constraints.

The US government and Microchip have reached a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT), which will now be reviewed through a "comprehensive" due diligence process. The US DoC has so far received more than 570 statements of interest and more than 170 requests for funding within the CHIPS Act program, and is expected to announce additional PMT agreements throughout 2024.

According to Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Laurie Locascio, the US CHIPS Act is a virtuous example of how government and industry can work together to strengthen the country's economy, improve national security, and increase the supply of high-quality jobs for American workers.
In brief: Apple might be the biggest company in the world by market cap, but not everything goes Cupertino's way. The tech giant has had a difficult few weeks, and it looks like things aren't getting any better following news that iPhone sales have fallen 30% YoY in China during the first week of January.

Apple has long been one of the few western companies to maintain strong ties with China; CEO Tim Cook called the pair's relationship "symbiotic" last March. But Apple's presence in the Asian nation has suffered over the last few months.

In September, Apple shares fell following reports that China was preparing to expand a ban on the use of its devices beyond sensitive departments to government-backed agencies and state companies.

October brought more bad news for Apple, this time it was from data analyst companies GfK and IDC. It showed that the iPhone 15 hasn't been selling as well in China as its predecessor, with sales down 6% in its launch month compared with the prior year. The entirety of 2023 has seen Apple's market share in the country fall around 4% year-on-year, while local rival Huawei has seen its share rise 6%.

From one of Tim Cook's visits to China last year

The situation for Apple appears to be getting worse. Jefferies analysts (via CNBC) said iPhone sales in China were down a massive 30% during the first week of the year, while Xiaomi and Huawei have remained stronger with flat sales. The analysts believe iPhone volume will fall by double-digits in 2024. Jefferies previously said that Huawei's Mate 60 Pro has been outpacing the iPhone 15 in China.

It's not just China where Apple is facing problems right now. There's the legal battle it is fighting in the US over the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 that could see the devices permanently banned from sale due to a patent infringement. It could also be facing an antitrust lawsuit from the US government. Moreover, the company has seen its stock downgraded twice during the first week of January, by Barclays and Piper Sandler. Barclays, in its downgrade note, blamed "lackluster" iPhone 15 sales data from China for the move.
Samsung teases yet another showcase for its CES 2024 press conference, the company's newest foldable technology spearheaded by the "In&Out Flip," and OLEd displays with both folding and sliding capabilities, Tech Crunch reports.

The CES 2024 showcase, as per a Samsung Display press release, will be unveiling details and specifics on the more "eye catching product" on the tech trade show, the "In&Out Flip." A product Samsung teases as a folding gadget that resembles a flip phone. It can fold in all directions thanks to its special in-and-out folding technology.

(Photo : JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)

A man walks past the logo of Samsung Electronics at the company's headquarters in Suwon on June 13, 2023.

"In&Out Flip" supposedly achieves a sleeker and smaller design with a single display that can be folded outwards to allow usage of the display even when folded, in contrast to standard in-folding devices that require an extra panel on the outside for showing information while folded.

The Korea Times adds that attendees to Samsung Display's exhibition will get a rare opportunity to watch a smartphone durability test. The foldable smartphone will be put through harsh weather, including 60 degree heat and minus 20 degree cold, sand abrasion, and submersion in water, to demonstrate its resilience.

Aside from the "In&Out Flip" Samsung Display will also reportedly showcase a variety of other cutting-edge devices. Among these is the Rollable Flex, a particularly unique gadget that, when unrolled, can expand the screen up to five times its initial size, mimicking the process of unfolding a scroll.

The Flex Hybrid, which blends the features of slidable and foldable technology, is another innovative invention. Finally, a wireless earphone cover with an integrated display will also be reportedly on exhibit from Samsung Display.

Read Also: Samsung to Showcase OLED Gaming Monitors at CES 2024CES 2024 gets another update from Samsung.

Samsung's OLED Spectacles

Samsung Display will also reportedly demonstrate its OLED technology in a range of form factors and sizes. Included in this are QD-OLEDs made for displays with the maximum pixel density and refresh rates possible for self-illuminating technology. Additionally, the business will also showcase QD-OLEDs, which are made especially for televisions and have the maximum brightness on the market.

The Flex Note Extendable is one of these innovative OLED devices, made specifically for car interiors. It will reportedly support a foldable panel that can be stretched and unfurled to give consumers a bigger screen. When fully folded, the Flex Note Extendable measures 11 inches; however, by unfolding one side, it can be expanded to 13.8 inches, or a 10:9 aspect ratio. The dimension may be expanded even further to 17.3 inches with a 4:3 aspect ratio by sliding out the opposite part.

Samsung is also poised to showcase its advancements in the large-size display industry by launching the world's first 360Hz OLED monitor and the best self-illuminating ultra-high definition (UHD) OLED monitor.



A new 31.5-inch UHD (3840x2160) QD-OLED display is being introduced by the firm. It is the best self-illuminating display in terms of pixel density and UHD resolution. The visual sharpness of a 65-inch 8K TV is comparable to the enhanced pixel density of 140 PPI (Pixel Per Inch), the display will reportedly offer a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz.

Samsung on CES 23024

Tech Crunch proves to be skeptical of the showcases as the report implies the latest technology showcases are within the proof of concept stage, often signaling that the devices could be under an evolutionary dead end.

Engadget reports that Samsung's CES 2024 showcase will happen one day before the exhibits officially open, specifically on January 8 at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET. Vice Chairman, CEO, and head of Samsung's DX (Device eXperience) Division Jong-Hee Han will reportedly be in charge of the event.

Related Article: CES 2024: Las Vegas Set to Unveil Cutting-Edge Tech Marvels Shaping the Future

 2024 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Do you want to download and use Smule on Windows PC? Dont worry anymore. In this article, we will provide you with some simple steps to download and install Smule on Windows PC.

Smule is one of the most feature-rich singing and music-making application available for Android and iOS users. Well, Smule also allows users to collaborate with friends and fans to produce new music.

If you are a Smule user and want to use this reliable singing and music-making application on your PC, you are reading the right article.

So heres how you can easily download and install Smule for Windows PC.

ALSO READ: Snapseed For PC

Smule For Windows PC Download

As of now, there is no official application or program of Smule specifically developed for Windows PC.

Consequently, theres only one method for installing Android apps and games on Windows or MacOS, i.e. using an Android emulator.

Bluestacks is possibly the best well-optimized Android emulator that performs as an Android phone.

So heres how you can download and install Smule app for Windows.

Download the Bluestacks emulator and install the .exe file on your computer.

emulator and install the .exe file on your computer. Once installed sign-in with your Google account on Bluestacks

Now directly download and install Smule from Google Play Store .

. The application will install in a few minutes.

How To Download Smule For PC Without Bluestacks?

Undoubtedly, Bluestacks is a feature-rich Android emulator. That said, it consumes a considerable amount of system resources and it offers poor performance coupled with laggy experience on low-powered laptops.

So if you want to use Smule for pc without Bluestacks then you can check out these alternate Android emulators.

1. Nox App Player

Nox App Player is another great android emulator for using Smule on a Windows and macOS computers. This emulator offers one-click installation without any bloatware or third party apps.

Nox App Player is very stable and the keymapping feature comes in handy while using Smule.

2. KO Player

The next best emulator for Smule on the list is KO Player. Well, this emulator is perfect for playing games and running resource-intensive HD videos.

KO Player offers One-click recording which might come handy if you plan to record music.

3. MEmu

MEmu Play is an Android 5.1 Lolipop-based Android emulator for Windows PC. The installation is quick and simple with no bloatware or third-party apps. One of the major highlights of MemeU Play is Key-Mapping.

Smule: Best Singing & Music-Making Application

As mentioned earlier, Smule allows users to sing karaoke to millions of songs. Additionally, the app also offers music and lyrics for every single song on its platform. Smule offers a decent selection of studio effects which enhance the quality of your vocals.

Also Read:

CONCLUSION
PlayStation has been at the forefront of console gaming for the past couple of decades. PS2 really cemented its place in the industry, and PS4 just took it to another level.

PlayStation 5 is a gaming beast whose power is often compared to gaming PCs. Packed with realistic graphics on a 4K resolution, the latest console from Sony doesnt kid around.

Apart from the gaming front, we have a bone to pick with Sony. Unlike the earlier versions, there is no option to modify the theme & background, and wallpaper on the PS5 due to its dynamic themes.

The wallpaper of the current game you are playing appears as the background.

Fortunately, we have found a way to change wallpaper on PS5.

There is a workaround to change the theme and wallpaper on PlayStation 5 without requiring any third-party app or script.

Change Theme & Wallpaper On PS5

We will take screenshots of a photo from the internet and then use them to change the wallpaper on PS5.

Browsing the internet on the PlayStation 5 is a little difficult since they dont have separate browsers like PS4 and PS3.

You can still browse the internet using the following method.

1. Press the Playstation button on your controller.

2. Now go to Game Base, which will open the friends menu.

3. Head to messages, which is third from the top.

4. Open a chat with any of your friends. We created a dummy PSN account and added it for this tutorial.

5. Select the chat box to start typing.

6. Type in Bing.com(you can do the same with Google) and press R2 on the controller to send it as a message to the chat.

7. Select the Bing.com message and it will open in PS5s inbuilt browser.

8. Head to Images after Bing.com has loaded in the browser.

9. Select the search box and the on-screen keyboard will appear.

10. Type the wallpaper name which you want to change on the PS5. We searched for Halo Infinite background.

Press R2 on the controller to search for wallpapers.

11. Select a wallpaper from the results. We selected the first one for this tutorial.

Note  Try to get a wallpaper whose resolution is 40962160 pixels or similar if you have a 4K TV. 2K displays can do well with 2,0481,080 pixels.



Your PS5 wallaper and TVs resolution should be close to avoid tearing up of pixels on the screen.

12. It should open as an image in your browser.

13. Press and hold the create button (also called share) on your PS5 controller to take a screenshot.

14. A screenshot symbol will appear on the top-right of the screen. This means that the screenshot is successfully taken.

15. Hold down the Create button to open the screenshot menu and then select the screenshot we took.



It should appear on the bottom left corner of the screen.

16. Select the edit button to edit the screenshot and make it perfect for the cover.

17. The edit menu will open up. Select the crop button to cut out the unnecessary elements.

18. Tap on the zoom button for cropping by zooming on the screenshot.

19. Zoom into the screenshot using the left joystick until the picture is inside the box, leaving the other stuff out.

Tap on Done when you are satisfied with the cropping.

20. Now tap on the move button to position the rectangular cropping box into the center and get the perfect wallpaper out of the screenshot.

Use the left joystick to position the box correctly at the center.

21. Tap on done when you have correctly positioned the cropping box to the center of the picture.

22. Select the save button to finalize and save the changes you just made.

23. Tap Replace Original to save the screenshot as a usable PS5 wallpaper.

24. Press the PlayStation button on the controller and head to the profile menu.

25. Tap on Profile and head to your profile.

26. Go to the Edit Profile button which is on the right side of the screen.

27. Select Cover Image from the options.

28. Tap on Change Image to select an image as wallpaper for your PS5.

29. Select the wallpaper for PlayStation 5 which we edited a couple of steps back.

30. See the wallpaper in action and then tap Save to change the wallpaper on PS5.

31. Now head back to the profile and you will see the wallpaper changed on your PlayStation 5.

Over to You

This is how you can change wallpaper on PS5 using a workaround method. We are waiting for Sony to bring an official update to allow users to modify backgrounds. You can rely on this until that happens.
YAOUNDE, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Public schools in Chad reopened on Monday after over two months of a teachers' strike.

Minister of National Education and Civic Promotion Ndolembai Sade Njesada said that classes had effectively restarted in several schools.

"Once again, teachers have done everything in their power for the effective resumption of classes across the country. The reopening is effective in most schools. We will try to recover lost time," Njesada told reporters after visiting schools in Chad's capital, N'Djamena.

Teachers of primary, secondary schools and university in the Central African country went on strike on Nov. 2 last year to demand improvements in working conditions and the reinstatement of salaries that were cut during the economic crisis experienced in 2016.

The union representing public school teachers reached a tentative deal with the government on Friday, ending the strike that had forced scores of schools to close and kept students out of class. 
A business manager suspected of having ordered the attack on an elected official from Saint-Denis

Tigrane Seydoux, the Frenchman behind the fashionable Italians in Madrid in which you always have to visit the bathroom

Energy transition: The experts say so, the Court of Auditors says so

Ticks: How to protect yourself from the increasing tick population when taking a walk in the forest

A member of the Fatwa Council in Britain calls on Western Muslims to adhere to their religion and identity

Death and stuff, the worst series of the week: the copy of a copy of a copy of Agatha Christie

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YANGON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of 86 people were killed, and 326 others injured in 163 traffic accidents on Myanmar's Yangon-Mandalay highway in 2023, Deputy Sheriff of Highway Police Office Myo Lin Thant told Xinhua on Monday.

The main causes of car accidents in Myanmar are vehicle defects, human faults, and road and weather conditions. Most of the traffic accidents occurring in the country are due to reckless driving, he added.

Although there were fewer traffic accidents in 2023, the number of dead and injured was higher than that in 2022, Myo Lin Thant said.

To reduce traffic accidents on the highway, the speed of vehicles is measured by radar devices along the expressway and action is taken against speeding vehicles, he added. 
BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Monday called for advancing the Party's self-reform and winning the tough and protracted battle against corruption.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

After persistent anti-corruption efforts over the past 10 years of the new era, an overwhelming victory has been achieved in the fight against corruption, with the gains fully consolidated, Xi said.

"But the situation remains grave and complex," Xi noted.

"We should be fully aware of new development in the fight against corruption and the breeding grounds and conditions for corruption," Xi said, urging more efforts to win the tough and protracted battle.

Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi and Ding Xuexiang attended the meeting.

Li Xi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CCDI, presided over the meeting. 
This photo taken with mobile phone shows a blast site in Bajaur district of northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Jan. 8, 2024. A bomb went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, leaving five policemen killed and at least 14 others injured, rescue and police officials said. (Str/Xinhua)

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A bomb went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, leaving five policemen killed and at least 14 others injured, rescue and police officials said.

According to the police in the area, a police truck was targeted with an improvised explosive device in Bajaur district of the province on Monday morning.

The policemen were on their way to provide security to polio vaccination teams in the district when they were targeted, said the police.

Following the incident, a heavy contingent of police, along with rescue teams, reached the area and shifted the injured to a nearby hospital, where several people are said to be in critical condition.

Security forces cordoned off the area and kicked off a search operation in the surrounding areas.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the blast. 

This photo taken with mobile phone shows rescuers transferring an injured man to an ambulance at a blast site in Bajaur district of northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Jan. 8, 2024. A bomb went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, leaving five policemen killed and at least 14 others injured, rescue and police officials said. (Str/Xinhua)

This photo taken with mobile phone shows rescuers transferring an injured man to an ambulance at a blast site in Bajaur district of northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Jan. 8, 2024. A bomb went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, leaving five policemen killed and at least 14 others injured, rescue and police officials said. (Str/Xinhua)

This photo taken with mobile phone shows a blast site in Bajaur district of northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Jan. 8, 2024. A bomb went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, leaving five policemen killed and at least 14 others injured, rescue and police officials said. (Str/Xinhua)

This photo taken with mobile phone shows a blast site in Bajaur district of northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Jan. 8, 2024. A bomb went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, leaving five policemen killed and at least 14 others injured, rescue and police officials said. (Str/Xinhua)
FILE - Vicar Wolfgang Rothe, left, blesses the couple Christine Walter, center, and Almut Muenster, right, during a Catholic service with the blessing of same-sex couples in St Benedict's Church in Munich, on May 9, 2021. Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document released Monday Dec. 18, 2023 explaining a radical change in Vatican policy by insisting that people seeking Gods love and mercy shouldnt be subject to an exhaustive moral analysis to receive it. (Felix Hoerhager/dpa via AP, File)
FILE - Whitney Houston performs during the 21st American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Feb. 7, 1994. Houston, who died in 2012, is nominated for a 2020 Billboard Music Award for top dance/electronic song for Higher Love, her platinum collaboration with Norwegian DJ-producer Kygo. She originally released a cover of Steve Winwoods Higher Love as a Japan-only bonus track on her 1990 album Im Your Baby Tonight, but Kygos dance remix of the song became an international hit after it was released last year. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File) ORG XMIT: NYET425
The laggards Loading Energy companies were a drag on the local bourse and ended the day in red after shares in the sector dipped 0.1 per cent following a slump in oil prices. Brent crude fell 3.4 per cent to $US76.12 a barrel after top exporter Saudi Arabia cut the February official selling price of its flagship Arab Light crude to Asia to the lowest level in more than two years. The global benchmark had increased to almost $US80 a barrel in recent weeks over rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Energy giant Woodside fell 0.4 per cent and Santos dipped 0.3 per cent. Shares in Ampol, Yancoal, Whitehaven Coal and Viva Energy Group, however, rose.

Suncorp led the large-cap declines, its shares falling 1.4 per cent, followed by IGO (down 0.9 per cent) and Lottery Corporation (down 0.6 per cent). Meanwhile, Worley shares were in trading halt pending a further announcement after News Corp reported allegations of illegality and bad faith by an Ecuadorian tribunal. The Australian dollar traded unchanged at 67.16 US cents. The lowdown The Reserve Bank of Australia is looking for a slowdown in the economy to keep the cash rate on hold when it meets for the first time in 2024 next month.

BetaShares chief economist David Bassanese said the impact of the November retail trade data on the Reserve Banks decision wont be crucial. Month-to-month sales numbers at the end of the year should be taken with a grain of salt because of the volatility due to shifting seasonal patterns, Bassanese said. Black Friday sales are becoming a more and more important picture of spending in November, and that maybe to some extent the strong spending in November could dampen spending in December. The gains on the ASX come after the US market rallied overnight in New York. The S&P 500 closed 1.4 per cent higher at 4763.54, the Nasdaq Composite rallied 2.2 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6 per cent, held back by a slump in Boeing shares. US megacaps such as Amazon and Googles parent company Alphabet gained more than 2.3 per cent as Treasury yields fell ahead of readings on inflation and a new supply of US government debt this week, with the benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield hitting a low of 3.966 per cent on the session. This is definitely a yield-driven market for now and investors are trying to discount when and how many rate cuts we will see, the timing and the magnitude of rate cuts, said Bill Merz, head of capital markets research at US Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.

Now were probably in a more rational place in terms of yields, and its a question of, is the market getting that right and are yields falling for the right reasons or the wrong reasons? And investors have so far taken the view that yields are falling for all the right reasons, that the Fed is navigating what thus far has been a soft landing. Loading Apple gained 2.4 per cent after the iPhone maker said its Vision Pro mixed-reality device will be available for sale from February 2 in the United States. Chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices surged more than 5.5 per cent each. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index was up 3.3 per cent after dropping 5.8 per cent last week, its biggest weekly percentage fall since October 2022. Meanwhile, Boeing plunged 8 per cent after the plane maker and US regulators gave the go-ahead on Monday for airlines to inspect jets that were grounded after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines-operated 737 MAX 9 in mid-flight that forced a dramatic landing of the airliner over the weekend.

The S&P 500 energy index led declines among the 11 S&P 500 sectors, and was last down 1.2 per cent after hitting its lowest level in a month. On Friday, the benchmark S&P 500 snapped a nine-week streak of gains, as investors dialled back expectations on how aggressive the Federal Reserve would be in cutting interest rates this year following a mixed bag of economic data. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said on Monday that the central banks dual goals of lowering inflation and maintaining low unemployment are not yet in conflict. Money markets now see a 69.5 per cent chance of at least a 25-basis-point rate cut as soon as March, according to CMEs FedWatch Tool, down from 88.5 per cent a week ago. Tweet of the day

Quote of the day We have recently seen an increase in fraudulent account login attempts on The Iconic, which our security and fraud teams continue to actively manage in conjunction with our security partners, the retailer said in a statement on Tuesday. The online retailer has pledged to issue full refunds to customers who have been left out of pocket following an uptick in hackers using stolen login details to access their accounts. You may have missed US miner Alcoa will stop producing alumina at its loss-making Kwinana refinery by September, leading to the loss of 550 direct jobs with another 200 to go in the following 12 months.
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Exclusive Eating outRestaurant news Chef Karen Martini returns to her roots to help revive a St Kilda favourite The celebrity chef will take over the Saint Hotel dining room, bringing Italian grills and bright snacks, plus a new name that honours a hospitality pioneer. Ardyn Bernoth and Emma Breheny January 8, 2024 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Chef Karen Martini has taken over the dining room at the Saint Hotel in St Kilda, marking a homecoming for her to a suburb struggling to find its culinary feet again. Martini has strong ties to St Kilda, having spent 16 years at the Melbourne Wine Room at the George Hotel in Fitzroy Street, which pioneered the idea of serving upmarket food in a wine bar setting, then later opening much-loved pizzeria Mr Wolf in Inkerman Street, which she sold in 2021. Karen Martini will take over the Saint Hotel dining room in St Kilda, which will become Saint George. Supplied From late January, Martini and her partner, Michael Sapountsis, will team up with Public Hospitality, a Sydney group making inroads in Melbourne, to run the Fitzroy Street hotel. The hospitality group owns more than 20 venues, including Kews Clifton Hotel, where Guy Grossi runs Puttanesca restaurant. Martini and Sapountsis will change the venues name to Saint George, honouring both the current building and The George Hotel, also in Fitzroy Street, where the pair were part of the groundbreaking Melbourne Wine Room team in the 1990s.

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Saint Hotel was relaunched last March as a plush pub-meets-steakhouse. The stylish revamp, the pubs third major overhaul since opening in 1915, had the potential to be St Kildas saving grace, with five venues opening over two soaring levels punctuated by an atrium, but has failed to deliver on its promise. The revamped Saint Hotel in St Kilda, which reopened in March this year. Joe Armao At Saint George, Martini will offer two menus of light, fun, Italian-inspired food: one will be called the Tavern menu and the other the Grill. A Josper wood grill will touch main courses such as bistecca di Fiorentina and whole flounder, which join pasta dishes such as spaghettini with spanner crab in brodetto sauce (a type of Italian fish stew). The Tavern menu includes dishes geared to casual visits, such as fritto misto (fried seafood), fish burgers and pasta with bolognese sauce. The venue will reopen in late January, having had a quick makeover to add colour to the dark and moody space. In its last refurbishment, $4 million was spent on leather banquettes, dark-stained timbers and touches of marble and bronze.

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The Age Good Food critic Larissa Dubecki reviewed the opening last May and found the relaunch appealing, though questioned the expense of some menu items, including the $95 crayfish pasta. Martini aims to make her menu pricing more accessible. Karen Martini (centre) is also involved with the reboot of Johnnys Green Room bar above King and Godfree in Carlton. Supplied In October, Martini exited her hatted restaurant Hero in Federation Square following a breakdown in contract negotiations with the state government-run leadership of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Last month, she helped relaunch Johnnys Green Room, the rooftop bar above King and Godfree in Carlton that originally opened in 2018. The bar closed in July for a refurb that includes a retractable rooftop for year-round visits, plus new furniture and a greater seating capacity.

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In her role as culinary director at the freshly relaunched bar, Martini has written a menu that includes tuna crudo with pickled fennel, calamari fritti on skewers with Italian-style tartare sauce, and stracciatella with green melon and cucumber. Is St Kilda about to have a restaurant and bar renaissance?

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Pubs are pocketing a rising proportion of the states gambling profits and poker machines are being concentrated at a smaller number of venues as large hotel groups shape their business models around gaming.

The latest quarterly data released by NSW Liquor and Gaming shows that pubs reaped 45 per cent of the total gaming revenue in NSW, despite owning a quarter of the poker machines. Most machines are owned by registered clubs.

The Crossroads Hotel in Casula, which was at the centre of a COVID outbreak in 2020, recorded the second-highest gambling revenue in the third quarter of 2023. Credit: Brook Mitchell

The most profitable hotel by gaming revenue was the Markets Hotel in Homebush, followed by the Crossroads Hotel in Casula and the Wentworth Hotel in Homebush West.

Liquor and Gaming does not break down the gambling revenue by venue. The total amount lost by punters on poker machines in hotels hit $946 million for the 92 days to September 30, 2023, which was a slight increase on the same period in 2022.
LHASA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The import and export value of four major land ports in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region totaled 4.56 billion yuan (about 642.2 million U.S. dollars) from January to November 2023, a year-on-year growth of 80.2 percent, according to the regional department of commerce.

During this period, the ports of Gyirong, Burang, Zham and Lektse handled a total of 129,900 tonnes of goods, up 47.4 percent year on year, according to a document released by the regional department of commerce at the second plenary session of the 12th People's Congress of the Xizang Autonomous Region on Sunday.

During the same time, inbound and outbound vehicles made 11,084 trips through the ports, marking a year-on-year increase of 110.2 percent.

Xizang has seen its foreign trade continue to grow rapidly since the resumption of two-way cargo customs clearance and personnel exchanges at the ports of Zham, Gyirong and Burang. The fourth land port of the plateau region, the Lektse port started operation in November last year.

The incomes of people living in the border areas in Xizang have also increased. From January to October, the volume of trade among the border residents has increased by 32.4 percent year on year to nearly 1.33 billion yuan, according to the document.

Official statistics showed that the total foreign trade of Xizang expanded 72.5 percent year on year in the first eight months of 2023. Its trading partners cover over 90 countries and regions.

In recent years, Xizang has made full use of its geographical advantages and policy resources to actively build an important channel for opening up to South Asia, and achieved positive results in expanding its opening up in a wider range and at a deeper level. 
Victoria is experiencing a double wave of COVID-19 as a new and fast-moving subvariant triggers the second surge of disease in short succession and the highest number of hospitalisations with coronavirus in more than six months.

Chief health officer Dr Clare Looker said an unfortunate phenomenon had occurred when a new variant called JN.1 took hold just as the state was beginning to emerge from an earlier COVID wave.

Rather than a lull or a return to baseline between waves, weve had a bit of a wave-on-wave pattern, Looker told this masthead on Monday.

Part of the concern with this new variant has been the speed with which its taken off. So over a few weeks, weve really seen it very quickly be the dominant variant in the community.
In early 1993, and against continued conflict in Northern Ireland, a series of clandestine meetings took place in a private house in Derry, the regions second city. These encounters involved representatives of the British Security Services (MI5/MI6) and senior figures in the IRA.

Illustration by Jim Pavlidis Credit:

At those face-to-face meetings, organised by three local individuals, the position of each side was explored and the prospects of establishing a pathway to a settlement were assessed, away from the glare of publicity. It was the start of what was to become one of the worlds most successful peace processes. Those meetings were the catalyst for the events that led to the Good Friday Agreement five years later.

The meetings occurred at a time of heightened conflict, as well as the memorable comment in Westminster by then British prime minister John Major that it would turn his stomach to speak to the IRA. Yet when this back channel was exposed in the media, the reaction was different from what could be expected. The British cabinet minister responsible, Patrick Mayhew, offered his resignation, but it was soon realised that his sanctioning these meetings received widespread approval and even some plaudits from the opposition benches.

The British public strongly supported and appreciated his efforts at securing peace. The obvious lesson is that peace can only come when political figures are prepared to take risks, and that the public will often understand. Is there anything here that could be read across to the current Gaza/Israeli conflict?
Washington: US President Joe Biden says he has been quietly working to pressure the Israel government to get out of Gaza, telling protesters who disrupted a major campaign speech that he understands their passion for a ceasefire.

After months of growing dissent over his support of Israel, Biden came face-to-face with protesters in South Carolina as he gave an address designed to win back black voters ahead of this years election.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Credit: AP

The president was only minutes into a speech focusing on the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump when he was confronted by demonstrators who had been sitting in the middle of his chosen venue: the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, where a white supremacist killed nine people in 2015.

The truth is under assault in America, Biden said. As a consequence, so is our freedom, our democracy, our very country because without truth, theres no light, and without light, there is no path from this darkness.
JAKARTA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Monday criticized some countries for applying double standards regarding the Gaza conflict.

Marsudi made the statement in her ministry's annual speech in the historic Merdeka Building in Bandung, where in 1955, dozens of countries pledged to reject colonialism and promote world peace.

"The Global North is suddenly silent witnessing crimes against humanity. Where are all the lectures that they often give about human rights? Don't Palestinians have the same rights as the rest of us?" the foreign minister said.

Marsudi referred to 2023 as the worst year for Palestinians, citing more than 21,000 fatalities in Gaza due to the Gaza conflict, 70 percent of whom were children and women, emphasizing Indonesia's constant support for Palestine. 
CANBERRA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Glass bottles are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions from the winemaking process, Australian research has found.

In a study published on Monday, a team from the University of South Australia (UniSA) and the University of Adelaide found that the production and transport of glass bottles account for more than two-thirds of the winemaking industry's total carbon footprint.

According to their research, the production of a single glass wine bottle generates 1.25 kg of carbon dioxide. Their unique shape means they also take up more space and require more fuel to be transported.

"If we could find another way to tackle the (bottling) process, we'd be looking at a much more carbon-efficient wine industry," Jakob Mesidis, lead researcher on the project from UniSA, told the Australian Associated Press.

Alternative receptacles for wine include casks, cans and plastic bottles, all of which can be transported more efficiently and recycled more easily.

A survey of 1,200 people undertaken by Mesidis and his fellow researchers found that consumers favored glass wine bottles, associating them with tradition and prestige, over the alternatives.

In September 2023, a group of winemakers from South Australia (SA) urged consumers to overcome their "snobbery" towards cask wine to help producers reduce costs and improve sustainability.

SA is Australia's capital of wine production, with the state accounting for 55 percent of the nation's wine grape harvest, according to data published by peak industry body Wine Australia in December. 
Awami League nears victoryHasina set for 4th term as PM





DHAKA :

BANGLADESH Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to secure a record fourth straight term as her Awami League party was on Sunday leading in most of the seats in the general elections marred by sporadic violence and a boycott by the main Opposition BNP and its allies. Hasina won the Gopalganj3 seat for the eighth time since 1986. She bagged 249,965 votes while her nearest rival M Nizam Uddin Lashkar from the Bangladesh Supreme Party secured just 469 votes, bdnews24 reported.

The 76-year-old leader, who has been ruling the strategically located South Asiannation since 2009,is set to secure a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall termin the one-sided election. According to the Daily Star newspaper, Awami League has so far won 8 out of 9 seats in the 300-member parliament. The Jatiya Party has won one seat. However, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported that the Awami League has won in 79 constituencies while the Jatiya Party secured five seats. Independent candidates won the race in 23 seats,itadded.Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader claimed that the people have rejected the BNPand Jamaat-e-Islamis boycott of the election by casting their ballots. I sincerely thank those who braved the fear of vandalism, arson, and terrorism to participate in the 12th national parliamentary elections, Quader said.

Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader won the Rangpur-3 seatinthe12thnationalparliamentary election. According to the initial estimates, the voter turn out was around 40 per cent but the figure could change after the final count, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal earlier said. The 2018 general election recorded an overall turn out of more than 80 per cent. Earlier, the voting ended at 4 pm. An election commissions pokesman said that other than some sporadic incidents of violence, the voting was largely peaceful in 299 of the 300 constituencies. The Commission suspended polling in one seat because of the death of a candidate.The election commission cancelled the candidature of a ruling Awami League candidate in northeastern Chattogram at thefag-end of the voting hours a shescolded and threatened a police officer.The development left the polls in the constituency to be contested by two rebel candidates who belong to the ruling party as well.The voterturn out was low as the ailingjailedex-premier Khaleda Zias Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) stayed away from the polls asking people to boycott it.
Citys sweet offering for Ayodhya event





Staff Reporter

Nagpurs very own celebrity chef Vishnu Manohar, who already has several records to his name, is all set for another record. He will be preparing Shri Ram Halwa at three places -- Ramtek, Koradi, and Ayodhya -- on different dates from January 21, to mark the historic occasion of consecration of Shri Ram Temple at Ayodhya. The celebrity chef Vishnu Manohar, who had participated in the Kar Seva during the Ramjanmabhoomi movement, has come up with the concept of Kar Seva Se Pak Seva (from Kar Seva to cooking service). Under this concept, he eyes setting five new records. The first one will be of cooking a record quantity of Bhogichi Bhaji -- a special dish made with seasonal vegetables but without onion and garlic, and offered to deity on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. He will cook the dish on January 14. The second record will be of making a special Kadhai (cauldron) of 15,000 litres capacity and weighing 1,700 kgs. The Kadhai will be made from steel used for making gates of dams. It will be the worlds biggest Kadhai to be used manually. Crane will be deployed to lift it, he told The Hitavada. It will be ready by January 17/18. This Kadhai will be used for making Shri Ram Halwa at three places.

According to Vishnu Manohar, the Kadhai will start its journey from Nagpur to Ayodhya on January 20. A procession will be taken out to mark the occasion. Various dignitaries have been invited to grace the occasion. On January 21, it will reach Ramtek, where another record of 5,000 kg halwa will be set. On January 22, one more record of 6,000 kg halwa will be set at Koradi. At these places, the records will be in the name of the Shri Ram Mandir Trust, Ramtek and Shri Mahalaxmi Jagdamba Mandir Sansthan, Koradi.

The Kadhai will start its journey to Ayodhya on January 23. The main record will be set at Ayodhya, where I am planning to make 7,000 kgs of Shri Ram Halwa on January 29 and 30. We have sought 1,000 litres of ghee from Tirupati Tirumala Devsthanam. Besides, hundreds of kilogrammes of rava, cardamom, cashewnuts, raisins, milk, sugar will be used for making the halwa. After offering it to Ram Lalla, it will be distributed as prasad to about one-and-a-half lakh devotees, said the celebrity chef. The record will be set in the name of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Trust. The temple at Ayodhya is all set to be consecrated on January 22. There is lot of excitement across the country regarding the main ceremony. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the main consecration ceremony, which will be attended by several VVIPs from India and abroad. The Vedic rituals for consecration ceremony of the idols of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya will begin on January 16.
CM Dr Yadav dedicates countrys first hygienic food street Prasadam in Ujjain





Staff Reporter

Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav has said that devotees visiting Ujjain for Darshan of Mahakal will get healthy food through Prasadam. This is the countrys first healthy and hygienic food street. The idea is that people must have right eating habit and healthy food. Public health safety is the top most priority. Over 25,000 vendors have been penalised for selling food items in the open and to control the sale of non-vegetarian food items in an unhygienic manner. Good health of citizens is priority of the State Government. Chief Minister Dr. Yadav said that the Government of India is committed to have a medical college in every Lok Sabha constituency. The state government will ensure that every district has a medical college. The schemes will be implemented while giving importance to the welfare of women, farmers and youth along with the poor sections of the society. Chief Minister Dr Yadav was addressing inauguration of Food Street Prasadam and health institutions in Ujjain on Sunday. Dr Yadav and Union Minister Mandaviya jointly inaugurated Ujjain Food Street (Prasadam). Ujjain a mythological city: Chief Minister Dr Yadav said that Ujjainis a replica of earth. The calculation of time starts from Mahakaal. Ujjain is the Greenwich of the future. When the Sun changes its orbit on 22nd December, its shadow is not visible. Therefore, an observatory was established in Ujjain in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology. Many saints and seers belong to Ujjain.Dr. Yadav said that father of Lord Shri Ram had come to Ujjain for performance of his fathers last rituals. Lord Shri Krishna got his early education. Emperor Ashoka sent his son and daughter from here to other places to spread Buddhism.Emperor Raja Bhoj, Vikramaditya, Bhartuhari belong to Ujjain. Chief Minister Dr. Yadav expressed gratitude to Union Health Minister Dr. Mandaviya.

Food Streets in other cities of country - Union Minister Dr Mandaviya: Union Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilizers, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya said that Food Street has been launched at the sacred place. This will help visitors get healthy food. Dr Mandaviya said that the Prime Minister has made efforts to strengthen the health infrastructure through Ayushman Bharat and Health Infrastructure Mission.He said that all the needed financial resources will be provided to Madhya Pradesh for health sector initiatives. Prime Minister Modis vision is that citizens must be healthy in a developed India. It is for the first time human health has been liked to development processes. It is important to have hygienic food for good health. Such food streets will be started in other cities. He said that the world has witnessed leadeship of Prime Minister during the fight against Covid. Developed countries realised the capabilities of Prime Minister Modi. The Government of India is providing Rs. 100 crore to each district in the health sector.A new India is emerging. Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla said that after the development of Mahakal Lok, the number of devotees has touched averatge 1.5 lakh and on Saturdays and Sundaysit goes to 4 lakh. There is no shortage of funds. The Prime Minister has launched many schemes through the National Health Mission.Ujjain Food Street is a model, in which 17 shops are providing different types of food.

Ujjain Food Street at a glance: Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav has said that the devotees visiting Ujjain for Darshan of Mahakal will get healthy food through Prasadam in this complex. This is the countrys first healthy and hygienic food street. The idea is that people must have right eating habit and healthy food. Public health safety is the top most priority. Over 25 thousand vendors have been punished for selling food items in the open and to control the sale of non-vegetarian food items in an unhygienic manner. Good health of citizens is priority of the state government. Dr Yadav said that the Government of India is committed to have a medical college in every Lok Sabha constituency. The state government will ensure that every district has medical college. The schemes will be implemented while giving equal importance to the welfare of women, farmers and youth along with the poor section of the society. Dr Mohan Yadav was addressing the inauguration of Food Street Prasadam and health institutions in Ujjain today. Chief Minister Dr. Yadav and Union Minister Shri Mandaviya jointly inaugurated the Ujjain Food Street (Prasadam). With the inauguration of Ujjain Food Street, the devotees visiting Mahakal Lok will get hygenically prepared nutritious food. Avantika Haat has been developed near the smart parking in Mahakal complex.

Under Prasadam, street food has been made available to the devotees and tourists in 900 square feet area under Eat Right India. Aprons and gloves are being used by the employees working here. Special care has been taken of hygiene. Dustbins have also been placed at various places. Along with the facility of mobile food tasting unit, digital menu board, various cultural festivals will also be organized in Prasadam. Union Minister Dr Mandaviya and Chief Minister Dr. Yadav also inaugurated the website and brochure related to Ujjain Food Street. After the inauguration of the Food Street, Chief Minister Dr. Yadav also interacted with various service providers. MP Anil Firojia, MLA Satish Malviya, Sheri Anil Jain, Jitendra Pandya, Dr Tej Bahadur as well as Ujjain Mayor Shri Mukesh Tatwal, Municipal Corporation Chairperson Sushri Kalavati Yadav, Ujjain Development Authority Chairman Shri Shyam Bansal, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Government of India, Additional Chief Secretary Health of Madhya Pradesh Mohammad Suleman and many other public representatives were present.
CM Dr Yadav in Ujjain; makes public health safety his top priority





Staff Reporter

Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav has said that the devotees visiting Ujjain for Darshan of Mahakal will get healthy food through Prasadam. This is the countrys first healthy and hygienic food street. The idea is that people must have right eating habit and healthy food. Public health safety is the top most priority. Over 25 thousand vendors have been penalised for selling food items in the open and to control the sale of non-vegetarian food items in an unhygienic manner. Good health of citizens is priority of the state government.

Chief Minister Dr Yadav said that the Government of India is committed to have a medical college in every Lok Sabha constituency. The state government will ensure that every district has a medical college. The schemes will be implemented while giving importance to the welfare of women, farmers and youth along with the poor sections of the society. Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav was addressing the inauguration of Food Street Prasadam and health institutions in Ujjain today. Chief Minister Dr. Yadav and Union Minister Shri Mandaviya jointly inaugurated the Ujjain Food Street (Prasadam).

Ujjain a mythological city

Chief Minister Dr. Yadav said that Ujjainis a replica of earth. The calculation of time starts from Mahakaal. Ujjain is the Greenwich of the future. When the Sun changes its orbit on 22nd December, its shadow is not visible. Therefore, an observatory was established in Ujjain in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology. Many saints and seers belong to Ujjain.Dr. Yadav said that father of Lord Shri Ram had come to Ujjain for performance of his fathers last rituals. Lord Shri Krishna got his early education. Emperor Ashoka sent his son and daughter from here to other places to spread Buddhism.Emperor Raja Bhoj, Vikramaditya, Bhartuhari belong to Ujjain. Chief Minister Dr. Yadav expressed gratitude to Union Health Minister Dr. Mandaviya.

Food Streets in other cities of country - Union Minister Dr Mandaviya

Union Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilizers, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said that Food Street has been launched at the sacred place. This will help visitors get healthy food. Dr. Mandaviya said that the Prime Minister has made efforts to strengthen the health infrastructure through Ayushman Bharat and Health Infrastructure Mission.He said that all the needed financial resources will be provided to Madhya Pradesh for health sector initiatives. Prime Minister Modis vision is that citizens must be healthy in a developed India. It is for the first time human health has been liked to development processes. It is important to have hygienic food for good health. Such food streets will be started in other cities. He said that the world has witnessed leadeship of Prime Minister during the fight against Covid. Developed countries realised the capabilities of Prime Minister Modi.

The Government of India is providing Rs. 100 crore to each district in the health sector.A new India is emerging.
CM inaugurates Satnami Youth Introduction Meet





Staff Reporter

RAIPUR,

Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Sunday inaugurated the Satnami Youth Introduction Meeting organised by Satnami Utthan and Jagriti Samiti. The event commenced with Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai offering prayers to Baba Guru Ghasidas and lighting the ceremonial lamp. Addressing the gathering, CM Sai underscored the societal benefits of such events, praising Guru Baldas Saheb for setting a noteworthy example by getting his sons marriage solemnised in a mass marriage ceremony. He emphasised marriages sacred and spiritual nature in Indian culture, highlighting its enduring significance over seven lifetimes. Drawing a comparison with the Western countries, CM Sai said that while marriage is often viewed as a contractual arrangement in the West, it is considered a sacred sacrament in India.

He commended mass marriages for their potential to save significant expenses. CM Sai extended his blessings and best wishes to all the young men and women attending the introduction meeting, expressing hope for their bright and successful future. Responding to the Satnami communitys request for land in Nava Raipur for social activities, CM Sai assured that the State Government would provide necessary support for the communitys development. He pledged to consider the demand for land for social activities in Nava Raipur. The event was attended by religious Guru Shri Bal Das Saheb from Bhandarpuri, former Rajya Sabha MP Bhushan Jangde, and MLA Guru Shri Khushwant Saheb
Drone Mission State Govt seeks to involve technical institutes for project implementation





By Vikas Vaidya

To implement the Drone Mission, an ambitious project of Maharashtra Government, Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister, had sought the assistance of technical institutions (educational). Accordingly, with Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai that had submitted Drone Mission Project report, the regional engineering colleges, technological institutes will be the part of the mission. It was in June 2023 that the Deputy Chief Minister had asked the officials to develop Maharashtra Drone Hub in State. The notification for the Drone Mission was issued in the last week of December, according to which every area will be covered under Drone Mission. The Government believes that the mission would help in enhancing the quality of services in sectors such as security surveillance, rescue and relief work during disasters, delivery of emergency medicines and vaccines to remote areas, monitoring of infrastructure projects and traffic management, said a source. Government has given an approval of over Rs 238 crore for five years for the implementation of the Drone Mission. The funds will be distributed through Higher and Technical Education Department to IIT, Mumbai; regional centres, district-level centres.

A brainchild of Devendra Fadnavis, this Drone Mission will give a major boost to the development and use of drone technology in State. The government plans to take help of engineering education and research institutes, government agencies, industrial establishment. Various divisional-level and district-wise network of drones would be established. Agencies of various administrative departments, regional engineering colleges will have active participation in the implementation of Drone Mission. District-level drone centres would be set up at 12 places while regional drone centres would be developed at 6 venues. IIT-Mumbai will be the headquarters of the drone centres. A committee headed by the Chief Secretary will oversee the implementation of a five year plan drafted on the basis of the report prepared by a team of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay. The Chief Secretary (Dr Nitin Karir)-headed team would monitor it. The committee has Director of Technical Education (presently Dr Vinod Mohitkar) as Member Secretary. The other members include Additional Chief Secretaries of Home (Radhika Rastogi), Finance and PWD (Manisha Mhaiskar), Principal Secretaries of Urban Development, Higher and Technical Education (Vikas Rastogi), Planning (Saurabh Vijay), Energy (Lokesh Chandra), Information and Technology, Industry, Water Resources, Rural Development and Water Resources, Agriculture, Disaster Management, Public Health (Milind Mhaiskar), Skill Development (Ashish Kumar Singh), Director General of Police, Director of Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre, Nagpur; Dean (Research and Development), Dr Arnab Maiti, Associate Professor, IIT, Mumbai.
Press Release

January 8, 2024 Bulacan family receives critical aid from Malasakit Center as Bong Go continues advocacy of aiding poor and indigent patients The Malasakit Center program, an initiative spearheaded by Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, has once again demonstrated its vital role in assisting Filipinos in need. A recent case involving the Rodriguez family from San Rafael, Bulacan, highlighted the significant impact of this program on the lives of many poor Filipinos needing medical assistance from the government. Raul Rodriguez, a 52-year-old father from San Rafael, Bulacan, shared his family's harrowing experience. His son, Daniel, 11, suddenly fell ill during a family reunion. "Hindi po siya makakain na. Parang wala na siyang ganang kumain," Raul said. Daniel's health rapidly deteriorated, losing his appetite and developing swelling in his face. Concerned, Raul took him to a local hospital in Bulacan, where doctors advised immediate admission to a specialized facility in Metro Manila. The family faced immense challenges, including financial constraints and the mother's health issues. "Wala naman po 'yung mga makapagbantay... Panggastos din naman namin sa ospital at wala naman po mapagkukunan," Raul expressed the difficulties they faced, including financial hardships and the absence of caretakers due to his wife's illness. Despite these difficulties, they managed to bring Daniel to the Philippine Children's Medical Center (PCMC) in Quezon City for hemodialysis treatment. After three weeks at PCMC, Daniel's condition worsened, leading to an emergency transfer to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI). Upon arrival at NKTI, Daniel's condition was critical, with his heart functioning at only 25%. It was during this dire situation that Raul learned about the Malasakit Center and its services. "Ang pagkakaalam po namin, sa Malasakit Center, eh, talagang tumutulong po sa mga kapus-palad na nangangailangan ng tulong (pampagamot)," he said, acknowledging the center's role in aiding the underprivileged. Malasakit Centers bring together representatives from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health (DOH), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. These one-stop shops aim to support impoverished patients in reducing their hospital costs to the least possible amount. Go is the principal author and sponsor of Republic Act No. 11463 or the Malasakit Centers Act of 2019, which institutionalized the Malasakit Centers program. As of now, 159 Malasakit Centers are operational across the country, poised to assist with patients' medical expenses. The DOH reports that the Malasakit Center program has already provided aid to around ten million Filipinos. With the help of the Malasakit Center, the Rodriguez family received the necessary support and resources to manage Daniel's medical expenses. Raul expressed profound gratitude to Go and the Malasakit Center, acknowledging that without their assistance, the family would have been lost and unable to afford the necessary medical care. "Kami po ay nagpapasalamat sa kanya ng marami. At kung hindi po sa kanya, hindi po namin alam kung anong gagawin namin," Raul expressed. The assistance from the Malasakit Center proved to be a turning point. Daniel is now on the path to recovery. Go, in response to the family's situation, reinforced his commitment: "tutulong ako sa abot ng aking makakaya. 'Yan lang po ang pwede kong ialay sa Pilipino. Ang aking serbisyo at pagmamalasakit po sa inyo." The story of the Rodriguez family is a powerful testament to the impact of the Malasakit Center in providing essential medical aid and support to Filipino families facing health crises. Go's initiative continues to offer hope and tangible assistance to many, emphasizing the importance of compassionate and accessible healthcare in the country.
ISTANBUL, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Turkiye's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) has grounded all of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft in the wake of the incident in the U.S., local media reported on Monday.

THY decided to ground all five of its Max 9 planes "until the technical investigation process is completed and the measures requested by the authorities are taken," according to the NTV broadcaster.

It said the grounding decision would be valid for the aircraft at the airport where they would first land.

"Flight safety is our top priority," THY press advisor Yahya Ustun wrote in a post on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter.

Although THY has a small fleet, the NTV noted that the grounding is expected to affect the flights adversely, causing cancellations and travel disruptions.

According to the NTV report, the airline's two planes landed in Iran when THY announced its grounding decision. The broadcaster said that it was unclear whether THY would bring its aircraft from Iran to Turkiye.

"It is also not yet clear how THY will compensate for the damage caused by the withdrawal of the aircraft from the service," the NTV added.

The emergency exit door of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 type aircraft exploded at 16,000 feet on Friday, leaving a large hole and decompressing the passenger cabin.

The incident, which happened soon after the plane's take-off from Portland International Airport in the U.S. state of Oregon, had left the passengers in panic. The plane, destined for Ontario, California, made an emergency landing back in Portland.

Videos and photos showing the large hole of the plane, with oxygen masks falling from the ceiling, went viral on social media platforms in Turkiye.

"Without the seat belt, many passengers would have floated in the air," wrote Ugurcan Kizilkurt, a Turkish X user.

Abdulkadir Tuncerdem, a licensed technician for Boeing, also said on X that "inspections will show if it was the design flaw that caused this incident." 
Forgotten idea: When the wheels of BRT project stopped turning





By Dhanendra Chourasia

Jabalpur, a rapidly growing city in the heart of country is facing significant challenges in providing its citizens with an affordable, efficient and sustainable public transportation system. The main modes of public transportation in Jabalpur are buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws. The Jabalpur City Transport Services Limited (JCTSL), which is responsible for providing bus services in the city, operates a fleet of over 100 buses that cover a total of 44 routes. However, this is far from sufficient to meet the needs of the city's growing population. One of the biggest barriers to improving public transportation in Jabalpur is the lack of investment in infrastructure and services. Besides, the unconcerned attitude of concerned authorities, especially the Jabalpur Municipal Corporation towards implementation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems is adding to the woes.

It may be noted that in the year 2007, a workshop on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system was organised under the aegis of Jabalpur Municipal Corporation in the city. BRT system experts from various part of the country like Delhi, Lucknow came here to attend the workshop and gave invaluable suggestions for improving traffic and transportation in the city through the system. Later, under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Rs 170 crore were proposed to be spend over 32 important city roads of the system. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) of these roads was also prepared and sent to the State Government and Central Government. But, after executing formalities for few years, the JMC forget the significant project and till the date it is gathering dust. As per the information, the city spends only 0.7 per cent of its budget on public transportation, which is significantly lower than the national average. This lack of investment has resulted in a number of problems for commuters in Jabalpur. Buses are often overcrowded and unreliable, with long wait times and frequent breakdowns. Auto-rickshaws and taxis are expensive and drivers do not use meter, leading to disputes and frustration for passengers.
Mah CM inspects Mumbai Coastal Road Project





MUMBAI,

MAHARASHTRA CM Eknath Shinde inspected the Coastal Road Project at Priyadarshini Park and said that the project will be completed by January 31. After the inspection, CM Shinde said, The first phase is to be completed by January 31. 11 km of the tunnel will be constructed in the first phase. This will benefit commuters, especially during peak hours in the morning and the evening when theres heavy traffic. This tunnel is being made using advanced techniques. In case a fire breaks out or there is smoke, the commuters wont feel suffocated. Arrangements to throw out smoke have been made. This is the largest tunnel in the country, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde added further.

On being asked if commuters need to pay tax for the new tunnel, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde said, Commuters will not have to pay toll tax to use this road.

Shinde predicted that Phase 2 would be completed by May. Further construction will continue to happen after that. The traffic will automatically smoothen after the completion of this tunnel, concluded Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde. Earlier, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in its budget 2022-23 allocated Rs 3200 crore for its ambitious Mumbai Coastal Road project.
Modi ki Guarantee: Accountability Ahead





By E V Murli :

THE new state government, anchored on the principles of Modi ki Guarantee, the onus lies heavily on Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai and his team of ministers to translate these promises into tangible actions. The Modi ki Guarantee extends beyond mere manifesto commitments; it signifies a commitment to efficient, transparent, and corruption-free governance. Chief Minister Sai faces a daunting task, especially considering the relative inexperience of the ministerial team, with few having prior exposure to bureaucratic intricacies. The essence of Modi ki Guarantee necessitates not only delivering on promises but also ensuring the conduct of ministers and elected representatives aligning with the principles of good governance. One critical aspect is the interaction between the elected representatives and the public they serve. Party workers who became elected representatives bear a significant responsibility that accompanies the privileges of their position.

The Modi ki Guarantee emphasizes the importance of maintaining positive relationships with constituents, addressing their concerns, and avoiding the temptation to assume an extra-constitutional authority. The conduct of ministers is important in upholding the integrity of the government. With inexperienced ministers, there is an increased risk of power misuse by vested interests. The Modi ki Guarantee explicitly demands that those in power remain vigilant, ensuring their authority serves the public interest rather than personal agendas. It is imperative to prevent any misuse of power by ministers or their close associates. Furthermore, the transition from party worker to minister brings additional challenges. Often, it is the individuals close to the ministers or their family members who wield influence, potentially tarnishing the governments reputation. Modi ki Guarantee underscores the need for ministers to align their conduct with party principles and leadership directives, ensuring that the pursuit of personal interests does not overshadow the collective commitment to the public. Chief Minister Sai plays a central role in steering the government towards fulfilling the ethos of the guarantee articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It requires a delicate balance between implementing policies, preventing power misuse, and maintaining transparency. The chief minister must guide the ministerial team in adhering to the party line, safeguarding the governments credibility. As the state government navigates its early days, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai faces not only the challenge of delivering on promises but also the imperative of establishing a governance model that reflects the true spirit of Modi ki Guarantee.The success of this venture lies in the hands of the chief minister and his team, who must remain steadfast in their commitment to efficient, transparent, and corruption-free governance.





IN THE New Year, Kerala Samajam Bhilai-Durg hosted a memorable Christmas and New Year gettogether, providing families with an opportunity to come together and indulge in delightful cuisine. The event not only satisfied the taste buds but also showcased the diverse artistic talents within the community. The highlight of the event was a vibrant cultural program, featuring captivating performances by members and their talented wards. Various groups delighted the audience with heartwarming carol singing, while dance performances added an extra layer of festivity to the celebrations. The event became a platform for youngsters and couples to showcase their vocal prowess, presenting popular Hindi and Malayalam songs with remarkable skill. The event revealed a wealth of hidden talents from the community. The participants beautiful renditions left the audience captivated, showcasing the rich pool of artistic talents. In an era where platforms like Karaoke have become popular, individuals have honed their talents, delivering impressive performances that resonate with soulful melodies.

Credit is due to the Kerala Samajam for their commendable efforts in organizing such events that not only foster a sense of community but also provide a stage for individuals to shine. Through these initiatives, the Samajam has played a crucial role in encouraging and nurturing the diverse talents within their community. Such gatherings not only celebrate cultural diversity but also serve to hone up the creativity.





THERES an emerging trend that speaks volumes about the intersection of expression, politics, and administrative negligence throughout the state. Even in Bhilai, known as steel city, is grappling with an unsightly display of hoardings and public property defacement that has become very common. It seems that the concrete jungle is not enough for some, as individuals and groups take it upon themselves to turn every available surface into their personal canvas for political messages and advertisements. Bhilais public spaces are caught in a battle between free expression and the need for an aesthetically pleasing environment. One cannot help but wonder about the lackadaisical response from the administration. It appears that the authorities are more indebted to political bosses than to the principles enshrined in the constitution. Despite clear guidelines and regulations against unauthorized hoardings and defacement, the enforcement seems to be as elusive as the elusive promises made during election campaigns.

The defacement of public property raises questions about the administrations commitment to civic beauty and the responsibility of those in power. Citizens are left to navigate through a maze of visual pollution, wondering if the administration is turning a blind eye to the issue. Bhilai, is now witnessing a different kind of production  an assembly line of unsanctioned banners. The irony is obvious as a city known for precision in manufacturing struggles with the lack of precision in maintaining its visual aesthetics. The unchecked hoarding spree not only defaces public spaces but also erodes the trust citizens place in their elected representatives and the administrative machinery. Its high time the administration sheds its political shackles and upholds its duty to the citizens and the constitution, ensuring that Bhilais streets reflect the beauty of democracy, not the chaos of political indebtedness. This is for the state administration too.
Optimising tech in judiciary a strategic move towards easy access to justice: CJI





RAJKOT,

CHIEF Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said on Saturday that optimising tech within the judiciary is not just about modernisation but also a strategic move towards democratising access to justice, and underlined the need to train lawyers to use technology. Leveraging these advancements will help bridge gaps, enhance efficiency, and ensure that justice delivery is not impeded by geographical and technological barriers, he said while addressing a gathering at the inauguration of a new district court building in Rajkot. He also inaugurated an AI-based text-to-speech call-out system from the venue.

Highlighting the importance of district courts, Justice Chandrachud said they hold a crucial position for the realisation of the right to justice and are a cornerstone of the ideals of our Constitution in envisioning a society where every citizen is assured that right to justice. Talking about the new court building in Rajkot, he called the inclusion of a conference room and a training room, equipped with the latest audio-video devices and systems, a forward-looking feature. This resonates with the hybrid and online conferencing systems implemented in the courtrooms of the Supreme Court, adapting to the changing times and leveraging technologies for the swift delivery of justice, Justice Chandrachud said.

Optimising technology within the judiciary is not just about modernisation, it is a strategic move towards democratising access to justice. By leveraging these advancements, we aim to bridge gaps, enhance efficiency, and ensure that justice delivery is not impeded by geographical and technological barriers, he said. With the Supreme Court about to launch the construction of its new futuristic building with 27 courtrooms equipped with the latest technology and facilities for stakeholders, Chandrachud said, he felt inspired by the new building of the district court in Rajkot.
Poor people victims of contagious diseases





By Zoya Teirstein

A 16-MONTH-OLD boy was playing in a splash pad at a country club in Little Rock, Arkansas, this summer when water containing a very rare and deadly brain-eating amoeba went up his nose. He died a few days later in the hospital. The toddler wasnt the first person in the United States to contract the freshwater amoeba, Naegleriafowleri, this year. In February, a man in Florida died after rinsing his sinuses with unboiled water  the first Naegleriafowleri-linked death to occur in winter in the US. 2023 was also an active year for Vibrio vulnificus, a type of flesh-eating bacteria. There were 11 deaths connected to the bacteria in Florida, three deaths in North Carolina, and another three deaths in New York and Connecticut. Then there was the first-ever locally transmitted case of mosquito-borne dengue fever in Southern California in October, followed by another case a couple of weeks later. Scientists have warned that climate change would alter the prevalence and spread of diseases in the US, particularly those caused by pathogens that are sensitive to temperature. This years spate of rare illnesses may have come as a surprise to the uninitiated, but researchers who have been following the way climate change influences disease say 2023 represents the continuation of a trend they expect will become more pronounced over time: The geographic distribution of pathogens and the timing of their emergence are undergoing a shift.

These are broadly the patterns that we would expect, said Rachel Baker, assistant professor of epidemiology, environment, and society at Brown University. Things start moving northward, expand outside the tropics. The number of outbreaks Americans see each year, said Colin Carlson, a global change biologist studying the relationship between global climate change, biodiversity loss, and emerging infectious diseases at Georgetown University, is going to continue to increase. Thats because climate change can have a profound effect on the factors that drive disease, such as temperature, extreme weather, and even human behavior. A 2021 study found water temperature was among the top environmental factors affecting the distribution and abundance of Naegleriafowleri, which thrives in water temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit but can also survive frigid winters by forming cysts in lake or pond sediment. The amoeba infects people when it enters the nasal canal and, from there, the brain. As surface water temperatures increase with climate change, it is likely that this amoeba will pose a greater threat to human health, the study said.

Vibrio bacteria, which has been called the microbial barometer of climate change, is affected in a similar way. The ocean has absorbed the vast majority of human-caused warming over the past century and a half, and sea surface temperatures, especially along the nations coasts, are beginning to rise precipitously as a result. Studies that have mapped Vibrio vulnificus growth show the bacteria stretching northward along the eastern coastline of the US in lockstep with rising temperatures. Hotter summers also lead to more people seeking bodies of water to cool off in, which may influence the number of human exposures to the bacteria, a study said. People get infected by consuming contaminated shellfish or exposing an open wound  no matter how small  to Vibrio-contaminated water. Mosquitoes breed in warm, moist conditions and can spread diseases like dengue when they bite people. Studies show the species of mosquito that carries dengue, which is endemic in many parts of the Global South, is moving north into new territory as temperatures climb and flooding becomes more frequent and extreme. A study from 2019 warned that much of the southeastern US is likely to become hospitable to dengue by 2050. Other warmth-loving pathogens and carriers of pathogens are on the move, too  some of them affecting thousands of people a year. Valley fever, a fungal disease that can progress into a disfiguring and deadly illness, is spreading through a West that is drier and hotter than it used to be. The lone star tick, an aggressive hunter that often leaves the humans it bites with a life-long allergy to red meat, is expanding northward as winter temperatures grow milder and longer breeding seasons allow for a larger and more distributed tick population.

The effect that rising temperatures have on these diseases doesnt necessarily signal that every death linked to a brain-eating amoeba or Vibrio that occurred this year wouldnt have happened in the absence of climate change  rare pathogens were claiming lives long before anthropogenic warming began altering the planets dynamics. Future analyses may look at the outbreaks that took place in 2023 individually to determine whether rising temperatures or some other climate change-related factor played a role. What is clear is that climate change is creating more opportunities for rare infectious diseases to crop up. A rapid test for Naegleriafowleri in water samples already exists and could be used by health departments to test pools and other summer-time hot spots for the amoeba. States could conduct real-time monitoring of beaches for Vibrio bacteria via satellite. Cities can monitor the larvae of the mosquito species that spreads dengue and other diseases and spray pesticides to reduce the number of adult mosquitoes. If we were looking proactively for pathogens before they caused disease, we could better anticipate local outbreaks, Brooks said. In other words, he said, we should be finding them before they find us. (IPA) (This article was reposted from Grist.org. Courtesy: Peoples World)
Rediscovering Bastars forgotten tribal heroes





By Dr Abhinav Mishra

In the shadowed forests of Bastar, during the oppressive British rule in India, a tale of unsung valour unfolds. The tribal people of this region, renowned for their desire for autonomy, were mercilessly subjugated under several draconian laws imposed by the British. They were trapped, desperate to break free from the colonial stranglehold, leading to Bhumkal revolt. While history remembers tribal heroes like Gunda Dhur and Gend Singh, it has largely forgotten others like Duma Mudiya and Malaul Mudiya, whose stories of bravery and sacrifice have been confined to the anecdotes of Abhujhmar in Bastar. At that time, the Bastar region was under the dual rule of the British and the Marathas, with their administrative centre in Nagpur (Maharashtra). The British, in their pursuit to control Jagdalpur, would traverse through Ravghat in Abhujhmar, looting tribal properties and their livestock and forcing them into laborious tasks like carrying palanquins. Duma Mudiya, an unsung martyr from the Abhujhmar region, was a symbol of resistance and respect.

His name, Mudiya, means sir in the Gondi dialect, reflecting his revered status among the Halba and Muriya tribes of Dugal and Kolor forests of Narayanpur. Shiv Kumar Pandey, a distinguished expert in Bastars tribal history and culture, provided a harrowing account of these unsung heroes of Bastar and their brave stand against the British. He remarked, Duma Mudiya was a brave soul who lived a life of celibacy and isolation, defending his land as if he was an incarnation of the local deity, Rav Baba. The Abhujmariyas believed that Rav Baba, also known as Raja Rav, was omnipresent at Ravghat, safeguarding not just the people but all flora and fauna. This spiritual belief fuelled their resistance and provided a sense of protection and resilience against the invaders. Shiv Kumar further explained that Duma Mudiya led a small but fierce team of tribal soldiers, defending northern Narayanpur against all adversaries. His relentless defence and repeated victories against the British, who were determined to kill him, were attributed to his ardent devotion to Goddess Maavli. Legends say she was his constant protector, except for one fatal moment during his bath at River Talacher, which led to his brutal assassination.

Displaying extreme brutality, the enemy soldiers, after beheading Duma Mudiya committed further atrocities on his body. They drove a stick of Tendu wood deep into his head and impaled his torso with a bamboo stick, a grim testament to the cruelty he faced even in death. This savage act marked a tragic end to a hero who fought valiantly for his people and land. In parallel, the narrative of Malaul Mudiya unfolds during the Bhumkal revolt in 1910, where he stood against the British in Abhujhmar. Regarding another unsung hero of Abhujhmar, Shiv Kumar recounted, Known for his adeptness in Tantric knowledge, Malaul created a mystical circle of protection, within which British bullets lost their lethality, while his arrows, bound with tantric energy, never missed their mark. However, in a desperate and cunning move, the British poured petrol into the river, setting it aflame. The sight of burning water scattered Malauls warriors, leaving him alone to fight.

Eventually, as his arrows dwindled and he was forced to step out of his circle, his powers faded, leading to his tragic capture. Bound to a Sal tree, he met a cruel end, filled with bullets and pierced with bamboo. Both Duma and Malauls sacrifices are barely a whisper in our history books. Yet, in Abhujhmar, their legacy is profound and poignant. The tribals of Narayanpur have erected a mrityu stambh (Pillar of Death) for Duma Mudiya, a solemn reminder of his bravery and the brutality he faced. Meanwhile, the tree to which Malaul Mudiya was tied, riddled with bullet marks, stood as a silent witness to his valour until it was cut down for a route to Orchha.
SUSPENDED Maldives acts against 3 Ministersfor derogatory remarks against Modi





NEW DELHI :

 Indian envoy also took up the matter with the Maldivian Govt

A row erupted on social media last week when three Maldives Deputy Ministers Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid made derogatory remarks against PM Modi after he posted a video of him on a pristine beach in Lakshadweep.

THE Maldivian Government on Sunday reportedly suspended three Deputy Ministers for derogatory social media posts against Prime Minister Narendra Modi following a backlash with New Delhi strongly raising the matter with Male and the island nations top Opposition leaders slammed the ruling establishment over the row. The three Deputy Ministers criticised Modi for his post on X following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives. Several Maldivian media outlets, quoting officials, reported that Deputy Ministers in the youth ministry, Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid, have been suspended over their posts.

The row erupted on a day President Dr Mohamed Muizzu embarked on a week long visit to China. In New Delhi, official sources said the IndianHigh Commissionin Male strongly raised the matter with the Maldivian foreign ministry. Our high commission in the Maldives had strongly raised and expressed concerns about the comments made in regard to the Prime Ministerbycertainministers in the Maldives Government with the foreign office today, said a source. The disparaging remarks by the ministers have drawn flak in India, with many celebrities urging people on X to explore domestic tourist destinations instead of going to the Maldives. There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives in view of the row. The Maldivian foreign ministry said the Government is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position.

Authorities in Maldives on Sunday suspended three Deputy Ministers who have come under fire for their postsonX in whichtheyare seen verbally abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India, the Atoll Times reported. Sources said the Indian mission in Male took objectiontothesocialmediaposts against the Prime Minister.

The Government of Maldives is aware of derogatoryremarksonsocialmedia platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do notrepresent the views of the Government of Maldives, the Maldivian foreign ministry said in a statement. It said the Government believes that the freedom of expression should be exercised in a democratic and responsible manner, and in ways that do not spread hatred, negativity, and hinder close relationships between the Maldivesandits international partners. Moreover, the relevant authorities of the Government will not hesitate to take action against those who make such derogatory remarks, it said.
Three criminal laws framed with spirit of citizen first, dignity first, justice first: PM





JAIPUR,

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the three new criminal justice laws were enacted with the spirit of citizen first, dignity first and justice first and that the police now need to work with data instead of danda. Addressing the 58th conference of Director Generals of Police (DGPs) and Inspector Generals of Police (IGPs) here, Modi exhorted the police to focus on the safety of women to ensure they can work fearlessly kabhi bhi aur kahin bhi (anytime, anywhere). He emphasised that the new criminal laws were framed with the spirit of citizen first, dignity first and justice first and instead of working with danda, police now need to work with data. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam have been enacted recently to replace the Indian Penal Code-1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure-1898 and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872, respectively. The Prime Minister said these new laws were a paradigm shift in Indias criminal justice system. He said a special focus was laid on sensitising women and girls about their rights and protection provided to them under the new laws. Modi said the Indian police should transform itself into a modern and world-class force to realise the vision of a developed India by 2047 -- the centenary of Indias independence.

PM HAILS NAVYS HEROIC OPERATION IN RESCUING SAILORS OF MERCHANT SHIP, SUCCESS OF ADITYA L1: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hailed as heroic the successful conduct of an operation by the Indian Navy to free a merchant ship from the clutches of pirates in the North Arabian Sea. Addressing the 58th conference of the DGPs and the IGPs here, Modi also referred to the success of Indias first solar mission craft Aditya L1 and said it is a testament to the power of India and the prowess of Indian scientists. Two days ago, the Indian Navy completed a very successful heroic operation. When it got the message that a merchant ship was in distress, the Indian Navy and the marine commandos got active, he said. The Prime Minister said there were 21 sailors in the ship of which 15 were Indians. The ship was about 2,000 km away from the Indian coast.

He said the Navy rescued all the sailors from danger. The Indian sailors (after they were rescued) were hailing the bravery of the commandos and raising the slogan of Bharat Mata ki Jai, he said. On January 5, the Indian Navys elite marine commandos rescued all 21 crew members including 15 Indians from a bulk carrier after boarding it from a warship in a swift operation in the North Arabian Sea that followed after around five to six armed pirates attempted to hijack the Liberian-flagged vessel. On the Aditya L1 mission, Modi said the spacecraft reached its destination, the L1 point, about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth from where it will study the Suns wonders, uninterrupted by eclipses and occultations. This is the spot from where Aditya L1 will be in clear view of the Sun. This is going to greatly help in scientific research like our moon mission, he said. The Prime Minister said the success of the Aditya L1 is a testament to Indias power and prowess of Indian scientists. It is another great example, he said.
UP CM Yogi urges residents





Light Ram Jyoti in every house

LUCKNOW :

IN LINE with the preparations for the consecration ceremony of Lord Shri Ram in Ayodhya, the Uttar Pradesh Government is gearing up to celebrate Deepotsav across Uttar Pradesh on January 22. However, it will be different from the Deepotsav held in Ayodhya, on the occasion of Diwali where earthen lamps are lit on the banks of Saryu river.

Instead, the Government is urging residents to light the Ram Jyoti in every household. Prime Minister Narendra Modi named this Deepotsav as Ram Jyoti and now the Yogi Government has pledged to light this RamJyoti in every house in the state, along with all the mythological places in the state. Starting from January 14, various cultural programs will begin in the entire state, including Ayodhya, involving Ramayana recitations,RamLeela,andaseries of classical music performances
A man injured in Bajaur blast receives medical treatment at a hospital in northwest Pakistan's Peshawar on Jan. 8, 2024. At least six policemen were killed and 22 others injured when a blast went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday morning, police officials said. (Photo by Umar Qayyum/Xinhua)

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least six policemen were killed and 22 others injured when a blast went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday morning, police officials said.

The policemen were en route to provide security for an anti-polio campaign when the explosion occurred in the Mamund area of Bajaur district of the province, District Police Officer Bajaur Kashif Zulfiqar told Xinhua.

He said that the death toll might further rise as at least five policemen are in critical condition, adding that the police officials were targeted with an improvised explosive device planted at the roadside.

Pakistan on Monday kicked off a week-long nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign across the country to inoculate more than 42 million children aged five or below.

The official confirmed that all the casualties were police personnel. At least 10 seriously wounded cops are being shifted to neighboring Peshawar city for better treatment, he said.

Police and rescue teams reached the site immediately after the blast and transferred the injured to a nearby hospital. A state of emergency has also been declared in hospitals in the district, according to official sources.

Police have launched an investigation into the incident to arrest the culprits, said police.

Caretaker Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Syed Arshad Hussain Shah condemned the blast targeting policemen, saying that the police have given sacrifices to protect the public's lives and properties.

"The police morale would not be defeated by such cowardly incidents," the chief minister said. 

People transfer a man injured in Bajaur blast to a hospital in northwest Pakistan's Peshawar on Jan. 8, 2024. At least six policemen were killed and 22 others injured when a blast went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday morning, police officials said. (Photo by Umar Qayyum/Xinhua)
Aerial photo taken on March 24, 2022 shows a bridge built by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) in Hulhumale, Maldives. (CSCEC/Handout via Xinhua)

"The relations between China and the Maldives now stand at a new historical starting point," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

MALE, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- "Doctor, I can see your name tag now. Thank you," Ahmed Kalo said right after Chinese doctors at the China-Maldives Ophthalmology Center removed the bandages covering his eyes.



The 69-year-old has been blind for many years due to a stroke. Kalo's son, Shafraz Ahmed, said his father was dealing with hypertension, diabetes and heart disease but had not received the required medical attention from multiple hospitals due to the intricate nature of his condition.

"This was said to be an impossible and unlikely operation to succeed. I'm extremely thankful to everyone who sent their wishes. Thank you, the people of China," Shafraz Ahmed said in an X post.

The ophthalmology center is an iconic project under China-Maldives medical cooperation. Meanwhile, China is welcoming Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu for a state visit to start the new year. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the two heads of state will discuss raising bilateral relations to new heights.

Photo taken on Jan. 13, 2020 shows a view of the newly established China-Maldives Ophthalmology Centre at the Hulhumale Hospital in Maldives. (Xinhua/Tang Lu)

NEW HISTORICAL STARTING POINT

"The relations between China and the Maldives now stand at a new historical starting point," the spokesperson said, stressing the time-honored friendship has set a fine example of equality and mutual benefit between countries of different sizes.

Over the past decade, bilateral relations have deepened and practical cooperation between the two countries achieved fruitful outcomes in various fields, including Belt and Road cooperation, Wang said.

President Muizzu recently hailed the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, which officially opened in August of 2018, as the archipelagic country's most iconic and transformational project. Traveling by boat from the capital, Male, to the neighboring island of Hulhumale is no longer necessary, a welcome commuting change for hundreds of thousands of people.

Such projects, built with China's assistance, also include the construction of social housing units in the country, the expansion and upgrading of the Velana International Airport, and the ophthalmology center, which opened in 2020.

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 1, 2019 shows the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge in Maldives. (Photo by Wang Mingliang/Xinhua)

In the first two months, the ophthalmology center completed 1,200 outpatient visits and 164 eye surgeries to widespread acclaim.

Three years later, China's medical aid to the Maldives is shifting from "giving people fish" to "teaching people how to fish," with the priority on training local medical teams. In August 2023, two local medical staff, Almas Adnan Ismail, a doctor, and Hawwa Nihla, a nurse, received four months of training at China's Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center at Sun Yat-sen University.

"Now I am confident in performing cataract phacoemulsification surgeries independently," said Ismail. According to Chen Weirong, head of the China-Maldives Ophthalmology Center, Ismail and Nihla can independently handle common eye diseases.

Chen said that more healthcare professionals like Ismail and Nihla will emerge from the project.

Maldives is one of the first countries to join the Belt and Road Initiative, said Chinese Ambassador to the Maldives Wang Lixin, saying the next steps for the bilateral cooperation will lead to more expanded joint Belt and Road cooperation in infrastructure, raising living standards, modern agriculture and the blue economy.

China's Capital Airlines' flight JD455 is welcomed with a water cannon salute at the Velana International Airport in Male, Maldives, Jan. 18, 2023. (Xinhua/Che Hongliang)

DEEPER, STRONGER CONNECTIONS

Before the pandemic, China had been the largest source of tourists to the Maldives since 2010, with nine cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, having charter flights or direct flights to and from Male.

In 2023, with direct flights resumed and the inflow of Chinese tourists returning, China became the third-largest tourist source of the Maldives, taking up 10 percent of the total tourist arrivals.

In October, President Muizzu told Xinhua that he believes the number of Chinese tourists traveling to the Maldives will increase significantly and may return to pre-pandemic levels.

The Chinese Language Center of Villa College, inaugurated in September 2022, has become a preferred platform for acquiring Chinese educational services, allowing Maldivian tourism professionals to provide better services to Chinese visitors.

"Over the past year, we jointly pressed the 'fast-forward button' for post-pandemic recovery in China-Maldives relations," said Ambassador Wang, citing the resumption of direct flights, the China-Maldives visa-free agreement and the "Chinese Ambassador Scholarship" established at Maldivian universities as ways to enhance people-to-people exchanges and bilateral friendship.

Furthermore, bilateral trade is growing as more Chinese products enter the Maldivian market, and aquatic products from the Maldives, such as tuna fish, appear on more dinner tables in China.

In February 2020, the Maldivian government donated 1 million canned tuna to China as a gesture of goodwill extended to the Chinese people.

Looking ahead, China is willing to further strengthen exchanges and interactions with the Maldives, promoting mutual understanding and a solid foundation of public support for the sustained development of China-Maldives relations, Wang said.

"As China gets ready to welcome the new year, the year of the dragon," said Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer. "We remain confident and positive in our strong bond of friendship." 
BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Upon the designation of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), the Liaoning Provincial People's Procuratorate has ordered the arrest of Xu Wenrong, a former deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corporation, for suspected bribe-taking.

Xu's case was investigated by the National Commission of Supervision before being handed over to prosecutors, the SPP said in a statement on Monday. 
SOFIA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian President Rumen Radev here on Monday appealed to the Constitutional Court for a number of amendments to the Constitution adopted by the Parliament, his press office said in a statement.

The amendments Radev referred to, which were adopted on December, 2023, contained contradictions with other constitutional provisions, and changed the balance between institutions and the mutual control between them, directly affecting the form of state governance, the statement said.

The President in particular did not agree with the changes giving the right to people with dual citizenship to be members of the Parliament and ministers, the statement said.

Up to now, the Constitution said that eligible for election to the Parliament and the Council of Ministers shall be any Bulgarian citizen "who does not hold another citizenship."

The head of state also did not agree with other changes, such as the suspension of his powers related to the dissolution of the parliament, and the appointment of a caretaker government.

Radev also opposed "the hasty adoption of constitutional amendments with the minimum required majority and no substantive discussion," according to the statement.

The amendments to the Constitution were tabled in July 2023 by the ruling majority which has tense relations with Radev. 
MOSCOW/KIEV, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed and dozens injured in a new round of Russian attacks that hit several regions of Ukraine on Monday, authorities said.

Two people were killed in the western Khmelnytsky region, where missiles struck industrial facilities, the regional administration said.

A 62-year-old woman was killed, and 31 others were wounded in the central Dnipropetrovsk region where an attack damaged a shopping center, an apartment building, two petrol stations and more than 20 private houses, regional governor Sergii Lysak said on Telegram.

One person was killed, and three others were wounded in the eastern Kharkiv region, the regional administration said.

Four men and a woman were injured in five missile strikes at the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported, citing regional governor Yurii Malashko.

Earlier in the day, local authorities and media outlets said that explosions were heard in several cities across Ukraine.

Explosions shook the central Ukrainian cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih, as well as the eastern city of Kharkiv and the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency said in an earlier report.

The regional administration said on Telegram that air defense was also activated in the western Khmelnytsky region.

According to preliminary reports, Russia attacked Ukraine with 11 Tu-95 bombers and four MiG-31 fighters.

Media outlets reported that air raid alerts were issued for the entire country starting at approximately 6 a.m. local time (0400 GMT), citing Ukraine's military officials.

The Russian Defense Ministry noted Monday that the Russian armed forces attacked Ukrainian military facilities with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

"This morning, strikes were carried out with high-precision, long-range, sea- and air-based weapons, including the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, on facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine," it said in a statement.

According to the Russian ministry, one of the attacks hit the site of a meeting of commanders of units of a Ukrainian territorial defense forces brigade. 
BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Monday refuted a joint statement released by the Trilateral Indo-Pacific Dialogue between the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK).

Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a query on the joint statement, which was released on Jan. 6 by the U.S. State Department. It expressed the three countries' concerns over China's maritime claims in the South China Sea and "escalatory behavior," and said that the United States, Japan and the ROK "will continue their trilateral maritime security and law enforcement cooperation in accordance with international law."

The three countries also reaffirmed that peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait are indispensable to security and prosperity in the international community.

"China has noted the U.S.-Japan-ROK dialogue and its resulting joint statement," Mao said, expressing serious concerns about the statement's rhetoric on China.

"We firmly oppose the attempt from these countries to cobble together exclusionary groupings in the name of cooperation, grossly interfere in China's internal affairs, attack and smear China and stoke confrontation and antagonism," the spokesperson said.

She said that the situation in the South China Sea is generally stable. China is committed to safeguarding its own territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and maritime interests, while managing differences properly with countries directly concerned through dialogue and consultation.

"Certain non-regional countries have sought to flex their muscles and incite confrontation in the South China Sea, which is not conducive to peace and stability in the region," she said.

"I want to stress that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and the Taiwan question is entirely China's internal affairs and brooks no foreign interference," Mao said.

She said that the key to maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is upholding the one-China principle and firmly opposing separatist moves toward "Taiwan independence."

The Asia-Pacific region is a cooperation pacesetter, not a chessboard for geopolitical contests, she stressed.

"We urge relevant parties to earnestly respect regional countries' efforts toward peace and stability, abandon the Cold War mentality, stop creating bloc confrontation, and cease to fuel tensions in the region," Mao added. 
KIEV, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Explosions were heard in several cities across Ukraine on Monday morning as Russia launched missile attacks against the country, local authorities and media outlets said.

Explosions shook the central Ukrainian cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih, as well as the eastern city of Kharkiv and the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, reported the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The air defense in the western Khmelnytsky region was also activated, the regional administration said on Telegram.

According to preliminary reports, Russia attacked Ukraine with eleven Tu-95 bombers and four MiG-31 fighters.

Air raid alerts were issued for the entire country of Ukraine starting at approximately 6 a.m. local time (0400 GMT), media outlets reported, citing Ukraine's military officials as saying. 
A doctor is seen at a temporary clinic in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. Israel has been fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, after the Palestinian faction launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The Israeli army has so far killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in its military operations in the enclave, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

CAIRO, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas discussed on Monday the current situation in the Palestinian territories, mainly the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip.

During a meeting in the Egyptian capital Cairo, Abbas reviewed the latest developments of the Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip and the "catastrophic human tragedy" in the seaside enclave, the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement.

In addition, Abbas talked about the Israeli escalation and violence in the West Bank, the statement added.

For his part, Sisi underlined Egypt's intensified efforts and ongoing contacts with various parties to push for a ceasefire and the immediate entry of humanitarian aid in sufficient quantities into Gaza, to end the suffering of civilians in the coastal territory.

Meanwhile, the two leaders stressed the pivotal role of the Palestinian Authority and the necessity of taking all measures to support it in fulfilling its role.

They also affirmed that the Palestinian issue requires the international community and active forces to assume the highest levels of historical, political and humanitarian responsibility, to work towards a just and comprehensive settlement, which includes the establishment and recognition of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Sisi and Abbas considered that this is the primary guarantee for security and stability in the region, categorically rejecting any efforts or attempts aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause or displacing Palestinians outside their lands.

Israel has been fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, after the Palestinian faction launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The Israeli army has so far killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in its military operations in the enclave, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Monday. 

A doctor checks the condition of a boy at a temporary clinic in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. Israel has been fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, after the Palestinian faction launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The Israeli army has so far killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in its military operations in the enclave, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A doctor checks the condition of a boy at a temporary clinic in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. Israel has been fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, after the Palestinian faction launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The Israeli army has so far killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in its military operations in the enclave, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A doctor picks medicines for a patient at a temporary clinic in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. Israel has been fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, after the Palestinian faction launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The Israeli army has so far killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in its military operations in the enclave, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A doctor checks the condition of a boy at a temporary clinic in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. Israel has been fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, after the Palestinian faction launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The Israeli army has so far killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in its military operations in the enclave, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A doctor picks medicines for a patient at a temporary clinic in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. Israel has been fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, after the Palestinian faction launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The Israeli army has so far killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in its military operations in the enclave, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A doctor checks the condition of a boy at a temporary clinic in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. Israel has been fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, after the Palestinian faction launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The Israeli army has so far killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in its military operations in the enclave, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A doctor prepares an injection at a temporary clinic in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan. 8, 2024. Israel has been fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, after the Palestinian faction launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The Israeli army has so far killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in its military operations in the enclave, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Monday. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani security forces on Monday said that a soldier lost his life and a terrorist was arrested during an operation in the North Waziristan district of the country's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

According to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, the troops effectively cordoned off a terrorist location leading to an exchange of fire.

The military said that a soldier embraced martyrdom after engaging militants gallantly, adding that a terrorist was apprehended in injured condition during the operation. However, the military did not disclose the identification of the detained terrorist.

The ISPR said that the military has started a search operation to eliminate any terrorists found in the area.

The military added that the security forces of Pakistan are determined to eradicate the menace of terrorism and "such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve." 
Press Release

January 8, 2024 Bong Go applauds increased DOH budget; calls for prudent utilization of funds, proper implementation of programs, and prioritization of poor patients Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, commended the collaborative efforts that led to a significant increase in the 2024 budget for the Department of Health (DOH). The 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) has earmarked approximately P241.1 billion for the DOH, significantly rising from the initially proposed P199.1 billion in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), highlighting an increase of P42 billion. As chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography and vice chairperson of the Senate Commitee on Finance, Go played a key role in ensuring a sufficient budget for health this year after concerns were raised last year due to a proposed decrease in the health budget. He expressed his elation over the budget augmentation. "This budget represents hope and improved health opportunities for millions of Filipinos. I am immensely proud that we have managed to secure this for our kababayans," he stated. The budget notably includes increased funding for the operations of DOH Regional Hospitals, which has been raised to approximately P50.9 billion in the GAA, up from around P49.8 billion in the NEP. Furthermore, the Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP) program has received a substantial boost, with the GAA allocating nearly P58.1 billion, significantly higher than the NEP's proposal of about P22.3 billion. The Cancer Assistance Fund also experienced an increase, with approximately P1.25 billion allocated in the GAA, up from the NEP's P1 billion and 2023's budget of P500 million. The health budget also includes around P20 billion for Public Health Emergency Benefits and Allowances. About P28.6 billion was allocated for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program to improve health facilities nationwide including the establishment of 132 more Super Health Centers that Go has advocated for in the past. With the significant increase in the health budget, Go further emphasized the importance of effective budget utilizatio and proper implementation of these funded programs. "With great budget comes great responsibility. Every peso must be spent wisely, with transparency and accountability, to serve the Filipino people especially the less fortunate," he remarked. "Unahin natin ang kapakanan ng mga mahihirap dahil sila ang nangangailangan ng serbisyo medikal mula sa gobyerno. Tandaan natin na ang kalusugan ay katumbas ng buhay ng bawat Pilipino," he added. He further emphasized the prioritization of the marginalized. "Our primary concern must be the underprivileged -- those facing challenges accessing even the most basic healthcare services. This budget increase is a commitment to them, ensuring that financial constraints do not hinder anyone's right to health services," Go stated. Go actively advocated for DOH's budget increase. In a letter dated November 20, 2023, addressed to Senator Sonny Angara, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, Go outlined specific budgetary requests, emphasizing the need for additional funds across various health and education sectors. During the budget deliberations, Go also emphasized the significance of the Republic Act No. 11959, or the Regional Specialty Centers Act, a multi-year initiative to decentralize specialized medical services, allowing patients in provincial areas to access advanced medical care without traveling to Metro Manila. He principally sponsored and is one of the authors of the law. Likewise, the senator stressed the importance of the Malasakit Centers, a key component of his healthcare advocacy. Go is the principal author and sponsor of Republic Act No. 11463 or the Malasakit Centers Act of 2019, which institutionalized the Malasakit Centers program. Highlighting the critical role of these centers, Go stressed the need to ensure that every patient is assisted and guided accordingly on how to avail of medical assistance, particularly with the increased budget for the MAIP program. He called for the effective use of this budget to support indigent patients, advocating for an inclusive approach to providing aid without selectivity. "Dapat walang matanggihan na pasyente considering the substantial increase in the budget we are allocating for the MAIP Program," he emphasized. Furthermore, he recalled the commitment made by DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa, Jr., during a Commission on Appointments hearing, where the secretary assured that no patient in need would be denied assistance. A department memorandum issued by Herbosa mandates that all patients at Malasakit Centers must receive the necessary services. To end, the senator called for strengthened efforts in healthcare infrastructure and services, especially in rural and underserved areas. "We need to bridge the healthcare gap between urban and rural areas. It's essential that our people, regardless of where they live, have access to quality healthcare facilities," Go stressed. He then reiterated his commitment to the health sector. "I will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that our health system is inclusive, resilient, and capable of addressing the needs of every Filipino. This budget increase is a step in the right direction, but our work does not stop here. We must keep pushing forward," he affirmed.
THE HAGUE, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The leader of the Dutch far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) Geert Wilders on Monday withdrew three controversial draft bills which were considered as obstacles to the formation of a new government.

The PVV won the Dutch elections last November by a landslide, and has begun negotiating with other major Dutch parties on the formation of a center-right-wing government.

The draft bills were previously submitted by the PVV to the House of Representatives. They have been heavily criticized, and have never had parliamentary majority support.

Since the elections, Wilders has moderated his tone, and the latest move is seen as a gesture of compromise towards the other parties in coalition talks.

After a break of two weeks due to the Christmas and New Year holidays, the PVV is scheduled to resume negotiations with the right-wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the new centrist party New Social Contract (NSC), and the farmers' movement BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) on Tuesday. 
The Border Security Force (BSF) apprehended 10 Indians for allegedly smuggling cattle from India to Bangladesh, early today and handed them over to New Jalpaiguri police station. Acting on a tip off, troops of Fulbari Border Outpost of 176 Battalion BSF under the control of North Bengal Frontier intercepted a buffaloladen lorry on National Highway 31 at around 4.30 am today.

Intelligence Branch of the BSF got a specific information that the lorry was on the way to Assam to supply buffalo for smuggling to Bangladesh. The BSF intercepted that lorry (No. UP 23 AT 1256) at Fulbari Toll Plaza near Siliguri in Jalpaiguri district. As the BSF asked the driver to show documents of the lorry for carrying buffalo, the driver produced some papers.

But documents as produced by the driver of vehicle seem to be suspect, the BSF official said. The BSF finally seized the lorry and 26 female buffaloes and 28 calves. The BSF detained 10 people, all Indian citizens, for alleged smuggling of cattle and handed them over to the police.

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The apprehended Indians were identified as Sanwar Sheikh (34) Nurnobi Mondal (28), Guljar Ali (27), Abdul Bacher Tarafdar (38), Yusuf Ali (42), Abu Salam Pramanik (44 ), Abdul Barek Tarafdar (45) Anwar Hussain (27), Sohidur Hossain (40), who was the lorry driver, all residents of Dhubri district of Assam, and Mahiruddin Sheikh (35), co-driver, a resident of Kokrajhar district in Assam.

The BSF also recovered 10 mobile phones and Rs 61,190 from their possession. According to the BSF, total value of seized items is Rs 15,33,480. The apprehended Indian nationals were handed over to New Jalpaiguri police station.
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan strongly condemns the terrorist attack in which a blast ripped through a mini-bus in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul on Saturday, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

"The government and the people of Pakistan extend their heartfelt condolences to the Afghan interim government and the people of Afghanistan over the loss of innocent lives and pray for the early recovery of the injured," the ministry said in a statement on Monday night.

Citing security sources, Afghan television channel Tolonews reported that five people were killed and 15 others injured in the terrorist attack that happened in Dasht-i-Barchi area of Kabul on Saturday evening.

The Islamic State (IS) group has reportedly claimed responsibility for the blast.

Pakistan reiterates its strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stands in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan in this hour of grief, according to the ministry. 
Addressing the Brigade rally organised by the CPI-Ms youth wing DYFI, the partys state secretary and politburo member Muhammad Salim today criticised the ruling party in the state over issues such as corruption in the 100 days work scheme. Mr Salim took aim at the Trinamul Congress (TMC) on multiple fronts, questioning its accountability.

He said the people have lost trust due to alleged corruption in various financial matters, including funds for housing schemes, the MGNREGA 100 days work scheme, funds for various civil works and and food for ICDS. Mr Salim said: People dont have money in their hands. No funds for the 100 days work. In the panchayat elections, the TMC promised, pisi bhaipo will bring money from Delhi.

Tell me, where did the money go for those who worked? How much did they receive, and how much did they actually get? Mr Salim also challenged the central BJP governments attempt to repeal the law related to the 100 days work scheme, emphasising the Lefts historical support for such legislation. Minakshi Mukherjee, the DYFI state secretary, delivered a fiery speech on the stage, maintaining that Leftists dont engage in dirty politics for power.

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She stated that the Lefts fight is not confined to alleys, panchayats, or the battles of MLAs or MPs; instead, it extends to the global st ruggle against oppression, looting and atrocities. Ms Mukherjee said that as long as the world witnesses injustice, as long as there is exploitation of the downtrodden, the leftists will continue their relentless fight, echoing the slogan In the struggle for justice, the fight is not momentary but prolonged and continuous, she said. She said: This is not our first step.

We have marched for various causes  be it for establishing colleges, producing Bokreswar thermal power-Haldia petrochemicals, or maintaining peace and harmony in this state. The fight is not something new for us but a continuation of our commitment to the ideals of the organisation, the path shown by leadership, and the responsibility towards the common people. The struggle for justice is not a transient one; it is a long, uninterrupted battle.
The Inland Waterways Authority of India, under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways (MoPSW), is set to host the inaugural Inland Waterways Development Council (IWDC) meeting on January 8 in Kolkata. The day-long meeting on board the vessel MV Ganga Queen, to be chaired by Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal, will bring together key figures from across the waterways states and central government.

The event will also see the participation of ministers from various state governments, accompanied by their Principal Secretaries/Secretaries, alongside numerous senior officers of the central government and domain experts in the field. Mr Sonowal will also unveil groundbreaking initiatives, including Harit Nauka  Guidelines for Green Transition of Inland Vessels and the River Cruise Tourism Roadmap 2047, during the meeting. Additionally, the event anticipates the signing of several Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), marking collaborative efforts towards advancing the inland waterways and associated sectors.

The inaugural IWDC meeting boasts a packed agenda with consecutive sessions addressing vital issues in the development of inland waterways in India. The sessions encompass topics such as fairway development, private sector engagement and best practices, optimising cargo transport efficiency in Inland Water Transport (IWT), fostering the promotion and development of eco-friendly vessels for passenger transportation, exploring the economic advantages of river cruise tourism, and emphasising sustainable practices, among others.

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It is to be noted that the ministry has set a bold objective to elevate the modal share of Inland Water Transportation (IWT) from the current 2% to 5%, aligning with the goals outlined in the Maritime India Vision 2030. Furthermore, as part of the ambitious Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, the ministry aims to substantially increase the existing IWT cargo volume from approximately 120 MTPA to over 500 MTPA, signifying a significant leap forward in the development of inland waterways in the country.

In the state of West Bengal, the Sagarmala Programme is actively driving maritime development with 62 projects valued at Rs. 16,300 Crores. Notably, 19 projects worth approximately Rs. 1,100 Crore have been successfully completed, while 43 projects, totaling around Rs. 15 thousand Crores, are at various stages of implementation.

Among these initiatives, 11 projects, with a partial funding of around Rs. 650 Crore from the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways (MoPSW), are making significant progress. Six of these projects, valued at approximately Rs. 400 Crore, have reached completion, while the remaining five, worth Rs. 250 Crore, are in different phases of implementation.
Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamul Congress national general secretary, announced an old age pension scheme called Shroddarghyo and launched payment of Rs 1,000 per month to elderly persons living in areas under Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat.

More than 75,000 elderly people will be benefited under the scheme without the assistance of the state government. Mr Banerjee announced the scheme while addressing a gathering at Pailan in Diamond Harbour area this afternoon. The event was simultaneously held in 164 locations in Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency with a meeting (sabha) in every area (anchal) and ward.

There are seven Assembly constituencies under Diamond Harbour Parliamentary seat. The money for the scheme will be provided by the Trinamul Congress workers. A total of 76,120 residents will get this financial assistance. Mr Banerjee said 16,000 volunteers will disburse the financial assistance between 8 and 10 January.

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Elected representatives, local leaders and social activists handed over the cheques to the beneficiaries. He said: While addressing a gift distribution programme at Falta on 10 November 2023 I had announced that an old age pension will start from 1 January 2024. Within two months, we worked to bring the pension to 76,120 beneficiaries through registration camps. More than 85,000 people had registered their names in the camps. Our volunteers had visited every home to cross check the data.

A total16,380 volunteers have been assigned for the job. He said 15,000 to 20,000 people received the cheques today while the remaining 60,000 people will get it within the next 72 hours. Meanwhile, breaking his silence, Mr Banerjee brushed aside the rumours spread by some people with vested interests that a rift had been created between Mr Banerjee and party chairperson Mamata Banerjee. He said he would work for the party under the leadership of Miss Banerjee and in whichever manner she thinks him fit for the party.

He said the old-timers are with Miss Banerjee and the new leaders are also standing by her. If the party asks me to go to every constituency with a photograph of Mamata Banerjee I will obey this command, he said, adding in 2019, the victory margin was 3.22 lakh votes and in 2024 the margin will go to 4 lakh votes.

Coming down heavily on the Centre, he said: While some talk about Insaaf, Nyaay, others talk about Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas, what we did today in Diamond Harbour in Nyaay, Insaaf and Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas. As long I am here, no divisive force will be able to win.
Armed robbers raided the house of a policeman in Ausgram in the small hours today and looted gold jewellery, cash, electronic goods and thrashed the family members. Susanta Biswas, an ASI with the Traffic department of the Howrah (Rural) had returned home at Chhora colony in Ausgram on leave.

His wife Jayanti Biswas alleged: They were 10 persons and were armed with guns, rods and daggers. They were knocking on the door at around 2:00 AM today and before we realised what was happening, they broke in. A local youth whod attempted to resist the gang was set upon by the robbers and was left bruised all over. Hes been shifted to the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital for medical assistance.

The daring robbery sparked sensation in the area as this was the second such incident in Ausgram within a month. On last 18 December, 2023, soon after midnight, a 15- member gang of robbers had struck at the house of an engineer Apurba Dutta whod just returned from his workplace in Zambia, in Africa the other day and had taken away several thousands of Dollars, and Zambian currency, gold jewellery, cell phones alongside several thousands in Indian currency notes.

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The gang remain untraced. Senior policemen including Amandeep Singh, SP, East Burdwan rushed to the policemans house this morning and ordered an intensified probe into the robbery as the gang had dared to hit the house of a policeman. The district police however have not traced the robbers as yet.
Serampore MP Kalyan Banerjee on Sunday came down heavily on senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and the Modi-led BJP government for what he claimed were hand in glove to thwart the INDIA alliance partners attempt to dislodge the government at the Centre.

Responding to media queries on the attack on a team of ED officials at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district, Banerjee said: Any form of violence is neither anticipated nor condoned. However, the Serampore MP attributed such unexpected incidents to the flawed policies of the Modi-led BJP government at the Centre which aimed at distorting Indias federal structure and system.

Speaking at the inaugural function of a book fair at Konnagar, Banerjee said: The Modi-led BJP government at the Centre is deliberately disregarding the countrys federal structure which subsequently conveys a wrong message to the common people, resulting in disastrous events.

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Lashing out at Adhir Chowdhury, the Serampore MP said, Chowdhury has made his intentions clear, which indicate that he is in no way interested in the unity among INDIA alliance partners. Banerjee alleged that Choudhury is in touch with BJP leader Shuvendu Adhikari and the saffron party.
In an inspection carried on by an independent team under the Ministry of Home affairs, Serampore police station was judged of the three best in the entire country. The Serampore IC Mr Debendu Das received the award from the hands of Mr Amit Shah, the Union home minister in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

The superintendent of police, Chandannagar commissionerate, Mr Amit P Javalgi said: In an inspection of police stations in the nation, among the three selected best police stations, Serampore police station is one of them. It is a great honour for Serampore police station and Chandannagar commissonrate. All praise goes to inspector -in- charge Mr Debendu Das and his team of dedicated officers and staff.

Serampore police station has perfectly qualified in its working manner, record maintenance, public relations, services rendered to the public, social welfare activities and special services rendered to the senior citizens. Serampore police station is the only police station in the nation which have implemented the use of Bar code system to safeguard its case properties. One click will reveale the details of the entire activities carried on by the Serampore police station. The award (trophy) received from the hands of Mr Amit Shah is now placed in the Serampore police station premises for public viewing.

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The entire police station is colourfully decorated and illuminated. People from different walks of life are extending their best wishes to the Serampore IC. Mr Debendu Das, however, said it is the team work of the dedicated officials of Serampore police station which has brought great honour to all of us and the Chandannagar police commissionerate.
Sheikh Shahjahan, the absconding Trinamul Congress leader, has reportedly been removed the post of karmadhakshmya in the party-ruled zilla parishad (ZP) of North 24-Parganas district on Monday at a time when his party leadership in the district claimed he is still there in his Sarberia locality.

Governor C V Ananda Bose on Sunday evening sought a detailed report from the state government seeking clarifications on why Shahjahan, accused of orchestrating an attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) that is probing the ration distribution scam in the state, officials in the districts Sandeshkhali area had not been arrested.

Denying the report of removing Shahjahan from the ZP portfolio Narayan Goswami, sabhadhipati of the parishad in the district, told The Statesman, No decision has been taken so far to remove him from the post of karmadhakshmya in-charge of fisheries but from now I would look after his department of fisheries in the ZP.

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As per the ZP rules, sabhadhipati can take additional charge of a ZP member holding a portfolio if the latter remains absent for a long time. With the directives of my party leadership, I will look after his responsibility, Mr Goswami said.

Shahjahan has not been attending the ZP for the past seven days, according to the sabhadhipati.

The Trinamul Congress strongman has been absconding soon after the attack on three ED officials, who along security personnel had raided his residence at Akunjipara in Sarberia of Sandeshkhali area in North 24-Parganas district on Friday.

While probing the ration distribution scam the central investigating agency found his alleged involvement in irregularities in public distribution system (PDS) involving around Rs 10,000 crore.

ED has already issued a lookout notice across the country to arrest Shahjahan.

Some insiders in Trinamul Congress in the district felt that there is hardly any chance of an absconding leader like Shahjahan to come back and join his office in the ZP again when the investigating agency is desperately looking for him.

The sabhadhipatis decision to take additional responsibilities of Shahjahans responsibility seems the first step to remove the latter from the portfolio of karmadhkshmya, one of the insiders felt.

Trinamul Congress core committee in-charge of the district has held a meeting today to discuss several issues, including the Sandeshkhali incident.

The core committee may take decision on Shahjahan, who got a berth in the ZP after the rural body polls held in the state during June in 2023.
Can I ask you something if you dont mind? Asked the young man, whom I had requested for an interview. It was June 2009 and joint forces comprising central counter-insurgency paramilitary forces namely Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and West Bengal police had just been deployed in the dense jungles of Lalgarh in the western district of West Midnapore, which was in the grips of a Maoist attack. The militants had captured the entire area, surrounded administrative buildings including the local police station (where personnel were forced to lock themselves in) and killed government officials, politicians and police.

I was reporting from the strife-torn region for the national newsmagazine I then worked for and I approached a jawan of the CRPP for an insiders account. He was not authorized to be quoted but he nevertheless revealed what he was entitled to including the rigorous daily routine he and his comrades had to follow and the perpetual threat to their lives which was an integral aspect of assignments in hostile regions.

He said that he was proud to be a solder and felt that it was an honor to wake up at the crack of dawn every day and prepare for any eventuality including death. Several of his friends had died after being ambushed by the insurgents and blown to bits in landmine explosions. But he had a burning question.for journalists. For the life of him he and his comrades could not comprehend why there are so many articles about excesses committed by the forces but rarely about the sacrifices they make? We often discuss this amongst ourselves, he said in Hindi. He was from a remote village in Bihar.

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We leave the comforts of our homes and families far behind and we go to the ends of the earth to fight for our brothers and sisters. We know that a few individuals do commit crimes and we do not condone it but why do you only write about the wrongdoings and rarely about the sacrifices we make? Dont you appreciate us?

Of course we do. And we do also write about soldiers sacrifices. I told him that.

I would love to come across a few, he said, smiled and disappeared into the deathly silence of the dense, dark forest. I dont know if the young man survived the conflict but I wish that he could read the recently-released book written by Ushinor Majumdar, a journalist. It is, if it can be called that, an ode to the unsung heroes of another paramilitary force, the Border Security Force (BSF), whose role in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, is virtually undocumented, not to mention unknown.

Called Indias Secret War: The BSF and Nine Months to the Birth of Bangladesh, and published by Penguin Random House, India, the book is a revelation.

Delving deep into international archives which have been classified for decades, Majumdar ferrets out secret stories about how officers and soldiers of the then still fledgling force which was formed in May 1965, literally went the extra mile, often deep into enemy territory, risking their lives (and sometimes livelihoods) to help the Bengali-speaking people of then East Pakistan in their quest for freedom from the oppressive and tyrannical rule of West Pakistan.

Indeed, according to the author, these stories were earlier not publicized because of the secret nature of the missions. Ushinor narrates the story of Bangladesh with intrigue, sprinkling it is with generous doses of the element of suspense. Yet the treatment is sensitive, full of empathy.

Though the struggle for liberation began years ago and intensified between March 1971 and December 1971, the war lasted thirteen days from December 3 to December 16. The Bangladesh flag flew in Dacca on December 16, 1971, writes the author. This book tells an untold story of how India, through the BSF, supported that liberation war.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has started oil production from its much-delayed flagship deep-sea project in Krishna Godavari basin in Bay of Bengal, helping reverse years of decline in output, the company said on Monday.

ONGC has started producing from the Cluster-2 project in KG-DWN-98/2 block and will slowly ramp up output.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the development saying this will boost our mission for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and will have several benefits for our economy as well.

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KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 block sits next to Reliance Industries KG-D6 block in the KG basin, and has a number of discoveries that have been clubbed into clusters. It is situated offshore the Godavari river delta in the Bay of Bengal.

This development is set to boost ONGCs overall oil and gas output by 11 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively, it said.

According to the reports, the remaining oil and gas fields of the block are expected to become operational by mid-2024. At peak, the field is likely to produce 45,000 barrels of oil per day and over 10 million metric standard cubic meters per day of gas.

In a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the project is likely to add 7 per cent to Indias current oil and gas production. Prime Minister Modi also lauded the achievement as a significant milestone in Indias energy sector.

Responding to Puris post, the Prime Minister said, This is a remarkable step in Indias energy journey and boosts our mission for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. It will have several benefits for our economy as well.

It is to be noted that the cluster-2 oil production should have begun by November 2021 but was delayed because of the Covid pandemic.

ONGC has hired floating vessel Armada Sterling-V, owned 70 per cent by SPOG (Shapoorji Pallonji Oil & Gas) and 30 per cent by Malaysias Bumi Armada, for producing oil from below seabed.

The FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading vessel), Armada Sterling-V, has been waiting to receive oil since January 2, 2023, after she was hooked up on December 27, 2022.

While certain specialised subsea hardware was sourced internationally, the bulk of the fabrication work was carried out at the Modular Fabrication Facility in Kattupalli, Tamil Nadu.

ONGC previously set May 2023 as the first Cluster-2 oil deadline, extended to August 2023, September 2023, October 2023 and finally December 2023.

Cluster 2 field is divided into two blocks namely 2A and 2B, which as per the original investment decision were expected to produce 23.52 million metric tonnes of oil and 50.70 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas over the life of the field.

It was estimated to contain reserves of 94.26 million tonnes of crude oil and 21.75 bcm of associated gas, while Cluster 2B is estimated to host 51.98 bcm of gas reserves.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has started oil production from its much-delayed flagship deep-sea project in Krishna Godavari basin in Bay of Bengal, helping reverse years of decline in output, the company said.

ONGC has started producing from the Cluster-2 project in KG-DWN-98/2 block and will slowly ramp up output.

KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 block sits next to Reliance Industries KG-D6 block in the KG basin, and has a number of discoveries that have been clubbed into clusters. It is situated offshore the Godavari river delta in the Bay of Bengal.

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This development is set to boost ONGCs overall oil and gas output by 11 per cent and 15 per cent , respectively, it said in a statement.

According to the reports, the remaining oil and gas fields of the block are expected to become operational by mid-2024. At peak, the field is likely to produce 45,000 barrels of oil per day and over 10 million metric standard cubic meters per day of gas.

In a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said the project is likely to add 7 per cent to Indias current oil and gas production. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also lauded the achievement as a significant milestone in Indias energy sector.

The cluster-2 oil production should have begun by November 2021 but was delayed because of the Covid pandemic.

The state-owned ONGC has hired floating vessel Armada Sterling-V, owned 70 per cent by SPOG (Shapoorji Pallonji Oil & Gas) and 30 per cent by Malaysias Bumi Armada, for producing oil from below seabed.

The FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading vessel), Armada Sterling-V, has been waiting to receive oil since January 2, 2023, after she was hooked up on December 27, 2022.

While certain specialized subsea hardware was sourced internationally, the bulk of the fabrication work was carried out at the Modular Fabrication Facility in Kattupalli, Tamil Nadu.

ONGC previously set May 2023 as the first Cluster-2 oil deadline, extended to August 2023, September 2023, October 2023 and finally December 2023.

Cluster 2 field is divided into two blocks namely 2A and 2B, which as per the original investment decision were expected to produce 23.52 million metric tonnes of oil and 50.70 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas over the life of the field.

It was estimated to contain reserves of 94.26 million tonnes of crude oil and 21.75 bcm of associated gas, while Cluster 2B is estimated to host 51.98 bcm of gas reserves.
This photo taken by an infrared camera on April 9, 2023 shows a black bear in Gaoligong Mountain National Nature Reserve, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (Xinhua)

China emerges as the global biodiversity hero and sustainability leader, pioneering ambitious plans to reverse biodiversity loss and combat climate change, according to Marco Lambertini, head of the Nature Positive Initiative.

by Martina Fuchs

GENEVA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- China is "the hero of global biodiversity" and plays a fundamental role in the sustainable development agenda, the head of the newly-launched Nature Positive Initiative told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Speaking ahead of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, next week, Marco Lambertini said that China is leading the way in reversing biodiversity loss and combating the global climate crisis.

"China is the hero of the Global Biodiversity Framework, leading almost 200 nations to agree to the most ambitious and comprehensive global plan for nature ever adopted," he said.

In December 2022, China held the presidency of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), and spearheaded a series of achievements including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The adoption of the landmark framework under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity has been described as the "Paris moment" for nature.

This aerial photo taken on June 4, 2023 shows a view of the Tuotuo River at the source region of the Yangtze River, China's longest river, in northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Hongxiang)

Lambertini, a former director general of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said: "China has shown leadership particularly in the energy sector. Honestly, if China was not to invest what they invested in the development of new technologies, of renewable energies, and scale up the production, we wouldn't be where we are now with solar energy being competitive with oil, gas and even coal."

Last September, 27 of the world's largest nature conservation organizations, institutes, business and finance coalitions and sustainability standard-setting agencies came together to launch the Nature Positive Initiative. It is aimed at driving alignment around the definition, integrity and use of the term "nature positive," and supporting broader, longer-term efforts to deliver nature-positive outcomes.

"Nature positive by 2030" refers to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 from a 2020 baseline, through measurable gains in the health, abundance, diversity and resilience of species, ecosystems, and natural processes.

"China has played a fundamental role in that phase of the sustainable development agenda," Lambertini said.

"The government is discussing right now, through the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), the exact recommendations and approaches that will deliver a net positive outcome for nature, while developing the economy," he said.

Flie photo taken by Mo Jirui shows birds in Shankou Mangrove Nature Reserve in Hepu County of Beihai City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua)

SUSTAINABILITY FUELS GROWTH

Lambertini stressed that a positive economic outlook for any country is closely linked to sustainability.

"China has already demonstrated the ability to do that in the energy sector. Now it's time to demonstrate the same in agriculture, fishing, forestry infrastructure, and all sectors with a high ecological footprint. The only way to achieve a resilient and strong economy is to embrace environmental sustainability," he said.

In its latest World Economic Outlook in October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast global real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2023 at 3.0 percent, but cut its 2024 forecast to 2.9 percent.

Meanwhile, China's economy is expected to have grown by 5.4 percent last year thanks to a "strong" post-COVID recovery, the global lender said in November.

This aerial photo shows a view of the Qizimei mountain national nature reserve in central China's Hubei Province, Dec. 15, 2022. (Photo by Wang Fajun/Xinhua)

Lambertini said: "China has a lot to teach and share with the rest of the world in terms of their domestic successes in nature conservation. The whole discussion around the conservation of priority ecosystems and threatened species, the sustainable management of freshwater resources, and the plan around the Yangtze River are great examples."

"All these are incredible successes at the domestic level that can be shared internationally, and equally, China can learn from the rest of the world," he noted.

Under the theme "Rebuilding Trust", the WEF's 54th annual meeting will bring together over 100 governments, major international organizations, civil society leaders, experts, youth representatives, social entrepreneurs, and news outlets in the Swiss mountain town of Davos from Jan. 15-19.

Lambertini said: "The dependence of business on nature has never been more recognized than today. The WEF program this year will feature a lot of nature topics, from the conservation of the oceans, forests, freshwater, to the link between nature and climate." 
The recently appointed Punjab Congress affairs in-charge Devendra Yadav will begin his three-day tour of Punjab on Tuesday.

Sources say this gave a clear indication that Congress was trying to ascertain their strength in each of the 13 parliamentary constituencies in the state in view of the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

On January 9, Yadav will be at its Sector 15 Congress office. He will meet senior Congress leaders of Punjab. This will be followed by another round of meetings with the sitting Congress MPs from the state and former MPs and Congress leaders who fought LS polls in 2019.

After that, he will meet Congress legislators and former MLAs at the party office.

On January 10, a meeting will be held with all the block presidents at the Punjab state Congress office, Sector 15. Later in the afternoon, Yadav will meet the office bearers of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee and later, Congress leaders and party workers and activists.

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On January 11, Yadav will have a one-on-one meeting in the morning with all the district presidents of the party in Punjab.

Later, he will meet office-bearers of all ancillary cells of the Congress party. In the evening, he will again meet Congress leaders and party workers.

Sources say, Yadav is here to ascertain how well placed the party is to go all alone in the LS polls, and if not so, which are the seats they should stake claim to fight elections in case of an alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state.

Sources say that the Congress wants to retain the seats of at least six sitting MPs.
Days after the alleged disappearance of 26 girls from a childrens home here, they were found safe with their families even as the Madhya Pradesh police arrested the director of the shelter home on charges of forced conversion and violation of child rights on Monday.

Three officials of the Department of Women and Child Development (WCD) were also suspended on charges of failing to monitor the shelter homes activities.

The police registered an FIR against Anil Mathew, director, Aanchal, under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom Act 2021and the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005, on Sunday. He was subsequently arrested.

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The court rejected Mathews bail plea and sent him to jail.

Bhopal Collector Kaushalendra Vikram Singh had ordered an inquiry into the matter. He suspended WCD project officer Komal Upadhyay, WCD supervisor Manjusha Rai, and former project officer Brijendra Pratap Singh on charges of failing to monitor the activities of the childrens home, Aanchal, a non government organization (NGO) located in Parwaliya area on the outskirts of Bhopal.

The matter came to light after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) conducted an inspection of the shelter home on January 4 after receiving complaints of harassment and forced conversion.

According to sources, none of the 26 girls complained about forced conversion or harassment in their statements given to police.

Some media reports also quoted the NGO coordinator, Sanjeev Joshi, as saying that the facility is a hostel but was wrongly described as an orphanage. He also claimed that the inhabitants of the shelter home are not orphans and that the NGO offered free education to children of slum dwellers and daily-wage labourers.
The Supreme Court on Monday struck down Gujarat governments August 15, 2022 decision to release the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case under 1992 remission and premature release policy.

Pronouncing the verdict, the Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice BV Nagarathna, ruled that Gujarat had no jurisdiction to grant remission to the convicts.

The top court directed all the 11 convicts to report to jail authorities within two weeks.

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It also said that its May 13, 2022 order directing Gujarat government to decide the remission in case of the convicts was obtained by fraud and thus, is non-est in law.

On August 15 last year, the Gujarat government had released 11 convicts in the case of gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her seven family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The Gujarat Government, the apex court said, usurped the power of the Maharashtra government and asked why it didnt file a review petition seeking correction of the courts May 13, 2022 order.

We fail to understand why the State of Gujarat did not file a review petition against the judgment dated May 13, 2022. Had the Government filed a review and impressed upon this court, the ensuing litigation would not have occurred, the top court said.

The Court noted that the competent authority to grant remission in the case of convicts is Maharashtra government under whose jurisdiction they were sentenced and not the Gujarat government under whose territorial limits the offence was committed.

We strike down the remission orders on grounds of usurpation of powers by the Gujarat government, the top court said.

Bilkis Bano had challenged the Gujarat governments decision to release the 11 convicts in the case of her gangrape and murder of her family members in 2002.
The Kerala High Court has on Monday admitted a plea challenging the order of Lok Ayukta rejecting a complaint filed against the chief minister and 17 former Ministers, alleging misuse of funds in the Chief Minister Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF) during the tenure of the previous Left Front government.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice A J Desai and Justice V G Arun admitted the plea filed by RS Sasikumar, former syndicate member of Kerala University. We will admit it and consider everything, said the Bench while admitting the plea.

The court issued a letter under Rule 51D of the High Court Rules, instead of notice to Chief Minister Piarayi Vijayan, who is the second respondent in the case.

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Besides the letter issued to Pinarayi Vijayan, the Bench issued notices to former ministers of the state , including  AK Balan, E Chandrasekharan,KT Jaleel, Kadakampally Surendran, MM Mani, Mathew T Thomas, J Mercykutty Amma, AC Moideen, K Raju, Ramachandran Kadannappally, T P Ramakrishnan, C Raveendranath, K K Shailaja, G Sudhakaran, P Thilothaman and Dr TM Thomas Issac. The court also sent a notice to the Kerala Lok Ayukta which was arrayed as one of the respondents in the case.

Kerala University former syndicate member R S Sasikumar has approached the Kerala High Court challenging the order of the three-judge Kerala Lokayukta bench which rejected his petition filed against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and 17 former cabinet ministers in connection with the alleged nepotism in releasing assistance from the Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) during the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) regime.

Sasikumar, in his appeal, has sought to strike down the verdict of the Kerala Lokaukta as illegal. He also alleges in his appeal petition that the Lokayukta is not allowed to say that the complaint is not maintainable.

The Kerala Lokayukta on 13 November last year rejected the petition filed by Sasikumar against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and 17 former cabinet ministers in connection with the alleged nepotism in releasing assistance from the Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) during the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) regime.

While rejecting the petition, the Lokayukta Bench comprising Lokayukta Justice Cyriac Joseph and Upa Lokayuktas Justice Haroon Al Rashid and Justice Babu Mathew P Joseph said theres no evidence to prove nepotism or corruption in granting assistance from the CMDRF

It further said that the chief minister has the authority to pay the money and that the Chief Minister and the ministers have not committed any irregularity.

There is no evidence to prove that the CMDRF funds were misused. The Chief Minister has the right to grant a maximum amount of Rs 3 lakh from the relief fund, the Lokayukta said.

Sasikumar, in his complaint said the state cabinet had illegally transferred funds from the Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) to the families of NCP leader Uzhavur Vijayan, former Chengannur MLA K K Ramachandran Nair, and Praveen, the escort driver of the CPI-M state secretary who died in an accident while on duty.

He also said Uzhavur Vijayans family was given Rs 25 lakh and kin of Praveen, driver of late CPI-M leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was granted Rs 20 lakh. He said that Ramachandran Nairs loan liability of Rs 9 lakh was also given from the Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).
The decision by leading Indian travel portal, EaseMyTrip, to suspend all Maldives flight bookings with immediate effect in response to the unprovoked and hateful remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi made by senior politicians of the ruling party in Maldives, will set the cat among the pigeons in an island nation that depends almost entirely on tourism for its survival.

In a tweet, EaseMyTrips CEO Nishant Pitti, made it clear the decision was taken in solidarity with our nation.

India sends the most tourists to Maldives, more than 2 million of the 17 million who visit the country. Just as important, India is the embarkation point for tourists of many other nationalities who travel to the Maldives from Indian airports.

Co-founder of #EaseMyTrip, Prashant Pitti says, Our company has recently taken the decision to not accept bookings for #Maldives.

Recently, EaseMyTrip suspended all Maldives flight bookings after rowing over anti-#PM Modi posts.#Maldives #Lakshadweep #IndiaSupportEaseMyTrip pic.twitter.com/kzGGWAraV1  The Statesman (@TheStatesmanLtd) January 8, 2024

While other travel portals have not responded, nor have airlines that operate services from India to Maldives, already and in response to Mr Pittis announcement, many thousand Indians have cancelled their travel plans to the Indian Ocean country, which after a change in regime last year, has adopted a pronounced anti-India and pro-China foreign policy.

Tourism directly contributes about a third of Maldives GDP; indirectly, according to some estimates, the figure may be much higher. According to US Department of State statistics, tourism contributes 60 per cent of the countrys forex earnings.

The controversy broke out after Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the stunning beauty of Lakshwadeep islands in southern India, which he had visited last week. Senior members of Maldives ruling coalition reacted to these remarks, which had nothing to do with the Indian Ocean country, by using unacceptable language about Mr Modi. This unleashed a storm of protest from several Indians, including film star Akshay Kumar and others.

A tweet by a #Maldives minister(now deleted) days after PM #NarendraModis visit to the #Lakshadweep archipelago has triggered a row on #socialmedia. In his tweet, the minister accused India of targeting Maldives and said India faces significant challenges in competing with the pic.twitter.com/ZZ8VLz8uKb  The Statesman (@TheStatesmanLtd) January 7, 2024

But it was clearly Mr. Pittis direct response  suspending all flight booking to Maldives  that alerted the administration in Male to the storm its politicians had unleashed. While three senior Maldives politicians have been suspended for their offensive remarks about Mr Modi, it is clear that the waters remain choppy, with several thousand hotel bookings and air tickets having been cancelled.

As one of those who cancelled his travel plans told The Statesman on condition of anonymity: I see no reason to travel to a country whose animosity towards Indians is so pronounced that a tweet by our PM praising his own country draws such a hateful response. Why must I spend my hard-earned money in sustaining the economy of such a country? I have many better options.
I can breathe again, said Bilkis Bano after Supreme Court struck down the Gujarat governments decision to free 11 men convicted for gang-raping her and killing her seven family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Reacting to the verdict, the gang-rape survivor thanked the Supreme Court for giving her and her children hope in the promise of equal justice to all.

Today is truly the New Year for me. I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again, Bilkis Bano said in a statement released through her advocate.

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This is what justice feels like. I thank the honourable Supreme Court of India for giving me, my children and women everywhere, this vindication and hope in the promise of equal justice for all, she added.

Her reaction came after the Supreme Court quashed Gujarat governments August 15, 2022 decision to release the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case under 1992 remission and premature release policy.

Pronouncing the verdict, the Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice BV Nagarathna, ruled that Gujarat had no jurisdiction to grant remission to the convicts.

The Gujarat Government, the apex court said, usurped the power of the Maharashtra government and asked why it didnt file a review petition seeking correction of the courts May 13, 2022 order.

The Court noted that the competent authority to grant remission in the case of convicts is Maharashtra government under whose jurisdiction they were sentenced and not the Gujarat government under whose territorial limits the offence was committed.

We strike down the remission orders on grounds of usurpation of powers by the Gujarat government, the top court said.

The top court directed all the 11 convicts to report to jail authorities within two weeks.
In an embarrassment to the BJP, Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Kooner on Monday defeated the ruling partys Surenderpal Singh in the bypoll held for Rajasthans Karanpur assembly constituency.

Singh was made a minister in the just formed Bhajanlal Sharma-led BJP government in Rajasthan even before the elections amid allegations of violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

The Congress had accused the BJP of violating poll ethics by making Singh a minister even before the polls were held.

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Reacting to the Congress candidates victory, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot said the people of Karanpur defeated the arrogance of the BJP.

The people of Karanpur have defeated the arrogance of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The public has taught a lesson to the BJP, which tried to undermine the code of conduct and ethics by making the candidate a minister amidst the elections Gehlot said.

He congratulated the winning candidate and termed his victory a result of the welfare works done by his father late Gurmeet Singh Kooner.

Congratulations and best wishes to the Congress candidate Shri Rupinder Singh Kunner for his victory in Karanpur. This win is dedicated to the public service initiatives of the late Gurmeet Singh Kooner, he added.

Elections to the Karanpur assembly constituency in Rajasthans Sriganganagar district were postponed after the death of then Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Kooner.

The Congress had fielded his son Rupinder against the BJP minister.

With todays victory, the Congress tally of MLAs have now increased to 70. The grand old party had won 69 seats against the BJPs 115 in the November 2023 assembly elections.
India has always helped us and it would be a very short-sightedness on part of the present administration to think we can really try to not keep the age-old relationship with New Delhi, said former Maldivian defence minister Mariya Ahmed Didi amid row over derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by some of the archipelagic states ministers.

In a video statement shared by news agency ANI, Didi noted that India has been helping Maldives in the defence sector and both Male and New Delhi share the same quest for democracy.

We are a small country who are friends with all, but we cannot deny that we share borders with India. We share similar security concerns. India has always helped us. They have been helping us even in the defence sector with capacity building, providing us with equipment, and trying to make us more self-sufficient. We are like-minded in our quest for democracy and respect for human rights, she said.

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The former Maldivian defence minister further added, Its a very short-sightedness on the part of the present government to really think that we can really try to not keep the age-old relationship that we have always had with India.

A massive diplomatic row was triggered after several ministers in the Mohamed Muizzu government passed disparaging and unsavoury remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modis Lakshadweep visit.

Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed had also slammed the ministers for their appalling remarks against PM Modi and asked President Mohamed Muizzus government to distance itself from the controversy.

What appalling language by Maldives Government official @shiuna_m towards the leader of a key ally, that is instrumental for Maldives security and prosperity. @MMuizzu gov must distance itself from these comments and give clear assurance to India they do not reflect gov policy, he wrote on X.

After outage and condemnation from all quarters, the Maldivian government had suspended two ministers and a ruling coalition leader for making derogatory remarks against Modi and distanced itself from what it called were personnel opinion.
Preparing for the Lok Sabha polls due in a few months from now, the Madhya Pradesh Congress on Monday held meetings of Lok Sabha in-charge leaders, District Congress Presidents and heads of various party wings.

The meetings were held at the State Congress headquarters in Bhopal and attended by the AICC in-charge of MP, Jitendra Singh, MP Congress chief Jitu Patwari and other leaders.

The leaders in the meetings held detailed discussions about the strategies for the general elections. The meetings discussed the planning about the upcoming polls and leaders contributed their ideas and views.

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After the meeting, Congress media section head K K Mishra said the party has decided to conduct organizational meetings in all the assembly sections of the state from 18 to 24 January.

He said the meeting also discussed about steps to ensure the success of Rahul Gandhis Bharat Jodo yatra from 14 to 20 January, which would also pass through nine districts of MP covering a distance of 700 kilometres in seven days through Morena, Gwalior, Shivpuri, Guna, Rajgarh, Agar-Malwa, Ujjain, Ratlam and Jhabua.

Speaking to some media persons after the meetings, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath asserted that there was no feeling of disappointment and the party leaders and workers were enthusiastic about the Lok Sabha polls.

He also said that the issue of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) was also discussed during the meeting.

Currently, the Congress has only one seat of Chhindwara Lok Sabha in its bag out of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh. The ruling BJP has the remaining 28 seats.

Nakul Nath, son of Kamal Nath, was the sole Congress candidate in MP who won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Maldives Envoy to India, Ibrahim Shaheeb was summoned on Monday by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) amid the row over derogatory remarks made by some Maldivian ministers on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media.

In a video shared by news agency ANI, the Maldivian envoy was seen arriving at the MEA office in Delhi in the morning and then leaving a short while later.

Earlier on Sunday, the Indian High Commission in Male had raised with the Maldivian government the issue of derogatory comments made against Prime Minister Modi by certain leaders of the archipelagic state.

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This followed the massive row that erupted after Maldives deputy minister, along with other cabinet members and government officials, made derogatory and appalling references to Modis recent Lakshadweep visit.

The Prime Minister had visited the Union Territory of Lakshadweep on January 2 for the inauguration and foundation laying ceremony of several development projects.

He had shared some pictures of his visit, including an exhilarating experience of him trying his hand at snorkelling and sitting on a chair near a beach under pristine blue skies and ocean.

For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list, he wrote along with pictures in a message to promote local tourism.

Reacting to his Lakshadweep images, Mariyam Shiuna has made disparaging remarks in a tweet which was deleted later. Other Maldivian lawmakers  Malsha Shareef and Mahzoom Majid  also made similar remarks against PM Modi, with one of them accusing India of targeting Maldives tourism.

After the outage and condemnation from within and outside the country, the Maldivian government suspended two ministers and a ruling coalition leader for making derogatory remarks against Modi and distanced itself from the controversy.

Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer said that these remarks against foreign leaders are unacceptable and do not reflect the official position of the Maldives government.

He stated that the Maldives remains committed to fostering a positive and constructive dialogue with all its partners, particularly its neighbours.
President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (R) meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on Jan. 8, 2024. President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed here on Monday the importance of avoiding the expansion of conflict in the region and finding a clear solution to achieve regional stability. (WAM/Handout via Xinhua)

ABU DHABI, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed here on Monday the importance of avoiding the expansion of conflict in the region and finding a clear solution to achieve regional stability.

During their meeting in UAE's capital Abu Dhabi, they discussed bilateral relations and ways to enhance them to serve their shared interests.

They also touched on several regional and international issues of mutual concern and the events in the Middle East, especially those in the occupied Palestinian territories and the serious repercussions of the Gaza crisis on peace, stability, and security in the region.

The UAE president stressed the need to work on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to protect civilians' lives, ensure the establishment of permanent and safe mechanisms for delivering humanitarian aid to the residents of the Strip without hindrance, and prevent their displacement. 

President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (R) meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on Jan. 8, 2024. President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed here on Monday the importance of avoiding the expansion of conflict in the region and finding a clear solution to achieve regional stability. (WAM/Handout via Xinhua)

President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (R) meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on Jan. 8, 2024. President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed here on Monday the importance of avoiding the expansion of conflict in the region and finding a clear solution to achieve regional stability. (WAM/Handout via Xinhua)
Amid a diplomatic row between India and Maldives over the derogatory remarks by some Maldivian ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chinese state media said Beijing has never asked Male to reject New Delhi and called for a trilateral cooperation.

As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu lands in Beijing on a four-day state visit, an editorial published in the Global Times, a mouthpiece of the countrys ruling Chinese Communist Party, asked India to have an open-minded approach while dealing with south Asian matters.

Muizzus decision to visit China before India does not necessarily mean that he is pro-China and anti-India. It only demonstrates that Muizzu is treating India with a normal mind-set and steering the relationship between the Maldives and India to a normal state-state relationship, the editorial read.

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It further said that Chinas cooperation with South Asian countries is not a zero-sum game.

Beijing has never asked Male to reject New Delhi because of the conflicts between China and India, nor does it view cooperation between the Maldives and India as unfriendly or a threat. It is also willing to carry out trilateral cooperation between China, India and the Maldives. New Delhi should stay more open-minded as Chinas cooperation with South Asian countries is not a zero-sum game, it added.

Muizzu is regarded as a pro-China leader and has chosen to visit China, moving away from the tradition set by his predecessors to visit New Delhi after becoming the president.

Ties between India and Maldives have been strained since Muizzu came to power. His first decision was to ask India to remove friendly Indian troops from the Maldivian soil.

The latest trigger was the disparaging and unsavoury remarks by some of the Maldivian ministers against Modi over his visit to Lakshadweep.

Following the row, India registered strong protest and summoned Maldivian envoy. The Maldives government also took note of the issue and reportedly suspended the lawmakers.
In a bid to foil the infiltration of terrorists from Pakistan and nefarious activities along the border, a night curfew has been imposed along the International Border (IB) in the Samba district of Jammu.

The restriction is also aimed at ensuring better area dominance by BSF troops, according to an official order.

The order issued by District Magistrate Abhishek Sharma is a step taken to prevent cross-border infiltration and smuggling of weapons through drones in the extreme foggy weather conditions prevailing along the Indo-Pakistan border.

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According to the order, the movement of civilians has been stopped from 9 pm to 6 am in a kilometre-long strip from the IB in the Samba district. No person or group of persons shall move in the area up to one kilometre along the International Border in district Samba from 2100 hours to 0600 hours during the night. the DM said in the order and invoked Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code to impose a night curfew along the IB.

The instruction was issued following a meeting of a district-level standing committee where authorities of the BSF suggested imposition of a daily night curfew on a one-kilometre-long strip from the IB, enabling them to perform their duties more effectively, the order said.

It is felt by the district administration that it is expedient that the movement of people in border areas is regulated so that there is better area domination by BSF in border areas and nefarious designs of forces inimical to Indian security are subverted, the DM said in the order.

In case movement is necessary, the person or persons are required to produce their respective ID cards to BSF and police authorities, the DM said.

Any person found violating the order shall be dealt with in accordance with law. Since it is not possible to serve the order individually, it is being issued ex-parte, the order read.

This order shall come into force with immediate effect and shall remain in force for a period of two months from the date of its issuance, if not withdrawn or rescinded earlier, it added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday night arrived in Ahmedabad on a two-day visit to inaugurate the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit.

The investors summit, PM Modi said, will be attended by several world leaders, including UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Landed in Ahmedabad a short while ago. Over the next two days, will be taking part in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and related programmes. It is a matter of immense joy that various world leaders will be joining us during this Summit. The coming of my brother, HH @MohamedBinZayed is very special.

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The prime minister said that he has a very close association with the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and that he is glad to see how it has contributed to Gujarats growth.

I have a very close association with the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and I am glad to see how this platform has contributed to Gujarats growth and created opportunities for several people, he added.

During his two-day visit, Modi will hold bilateral meetings with world leaders, followed by a meeting with CEOs of top global corporations.

He is also scheduled to visit the GIFT City where he will interact with prominent business leaders in the Global FinTech Leadership Forum.

The Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit was started in 2003 under the leadership of Modi when he was the state chief minister.

The tenth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit is being held from 10 to 12 January 2024 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Its theme is Gateway to the Future. This Tenth Edition of the Summit will celebrate 20 Years of Vibrant Gujarat as the Summit of Success.

There are 34 Partner countries and 16 Partner organisations for this years summit. Further, the Ministry of Development of the North-Eastern Region will utilise the Vibrant Gujarat platform to showcase investment opp
In an interesting turn of events ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Hyderabad and its adjoining districts of Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri, where Congress had drawn a blank in the recently-concluded assembly elections, are right on the top of the list for the most number of applications received for the five guarantees of the party.

More than 1.25 crore applications were received during Praja Palana meetings held by the state government across the state. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday formed a four-member sub-committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka for smooth implementation of the poll promises.

Reddy had held a review meeting after the special drive for applications ended on Saturday.

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However, not all the applications were related to the poll promises. About 20 lakh applications were submitted across the state for ration cards and other issues. The state government had clarified that the farmers receiving input subsidy are not required to enlist many people also submitted their applications for these schemes.

A fresh database would be created for the applications received during the Praja Palana drive on a war footing and completed by 30 January. The list of beneficiaries would then be released paving the way for implementation of the Congress poll promises.

Hyderabad topped the list with 10.7 lakh applications for 5 guarantees, 3 lakh applications from the city for other demands. In total the city saw submission of a whopping 13.7 lakh applications. Rangareddy was next with 10.2 lakh total applications and Medchal-Malkajgiri saw submission of 9.2 lakh applications. While AIMIM and BJP (Goshamahal) retained their seats in the Old City area BRS won 15 seats in Hyderabad, all 5 in Medchal-Malkajgiri and another 4 in Rangareddy districts.

Robin Zaccheus, a RTI activist said, People of Telangana trust the six guarantees of Congress. It will be appropriate and wise to elect the Congress government for smooth implementation of all the schemes and to take major decisions in the interest of the state.

Telangana Congress spokesperson Sama Ram Mohan Reddy said it does not matter if Hyderabad or adjoining areas did not vote for Congress, the poll promises would be implemented for everyone in the same manner as the rest of the state.

In Hyderabad, people did not believe that Congress could win the seats. But now that the Congress has won and formed the government they have found hope that after ten long years, their needs will be looked into and the same BRS, BJP and AIMIM leaders who had said before elections that Congress was not capable enough to deliver its promises were seen proudly posing for photographs while attending Praja Palana meetings for submission of applications, said Sama Ram Mohan Reddy.
Minister of State for IGNP and Agriculture Marketing Surendra Pal Singh TT, who lost his Srikaranpur assembly poll today, resigned and submitted his letter to Governor Kalraj Mishra.

The Governor immediately accepted his resignation letter from the Bhajan ministry, a Raj Bhawan statement said tonight.

The Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma has duly forwarded TTs letter to the Governor in the evening.

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Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Koonar defeated ruling BJP candidate TT on Srikaranpur assembly seat by a margin of 11283 votes.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday termed the Supreme Courts verdict in Bilkis Bano case a victory of justice against the arrogant BJP government. Commenting on the Supreme Courts verdict, the Congress leader said that the tendency to kill justice for electoral gains is dangerous for the democratic system.

The tendency to kill justice for electoral gains is dangerous for the democratic system. Today the Supreme Courts decision once again told the country who is the patron of criminals. Bilkis Banos tireless struggle is a symbol of the victory of justice against the arrogant BJP government, the Gandhi scion wrote on X.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court struck down Gujarat governments August 15, 2023 decision to release the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case under 1992 remission and premature release policy.

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Pronouncing the verdict, the Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice BV Nagarathna, ruled that Gujarat had no jurisdiction to grant remission to the convicts.

The top court directed all the 11 convicts to report to jail authorities within two weeks.

On August 15 last year, the Gujarat government had released 11 convicts in the case of gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her seven family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The Gujarat Government, the apex court said, usurped the power of the Maharashtra government and asked why it didnt file a review petition seeking correction of the courts May 13, 2022 order.

The Court noted that the competent authority to grant remission in the case of convicts is Maharashtra government under whose jurisdiction they were sentenced and not the Gujarat government under whose territorial limits the offence was committed.

We strike down the remission orders on grounds of usurpation of powers by the Gujarat government, the top court said.
Denmark stands at the threshold of a historic transition as Queen Margrethe II, Europes longestserving monarch, announced her abdication after a remarkable 52-year reign. The unexpected revelation during her traditional New Years Eve address captured the attention of a nation accustomed to her steady presence.

At 83, Queen Margrethe reflects on a reign that has been marked by grace, dedication, and a deep connection with the Danish people. Her decision to step down on 14 January symbolises a poignant passing of the torch to Crown Prince Frederik, the eldest son who will inherit the responsibility of leading Denmark into its next chapter. The queens choice to cede the throne is not merely a ceremonial event. It carries profound significance for a nation that has witnessed her navigating the evolving landscape of Danish society. Born in 1940,

Queen Margrethe became heir at the age of 13, a pivotal moment when constitutional amendments opened the path for women to inherit the throne in 1953. Throughout her reign, she has been a symbol of continuity and adaptation, embodying the resilience of tradition while embracing progressive change. The queens unexpected decision finds its roots in a period of personal reflection prompted by a successful back operation earlier in the year. In her own words, the surgery compelled her to contemplate the future and whether the time had come to entrust the nations fate to the next generation. Its a decision shaped by a nuanced understanding of duty, tradition, and the evolving dynamics of the monarchy.

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With this Denmark bids farewell to a monarch who not only upheld the symbolic role of the crown but also carved a distinct identity for herself. Her love for archaeology, participation in excavations, and creative personality endeared her to the Danish people. Through her reign, she became more than just a constitutional figurehead. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksens acknowledgment of the queens lifelong dedication to duty underscores the deep respect the monarch commanded. The queens role, though largely ceremonial, carried immense symbolic weight.

She represented continuity in a nations narrative, offering stability in times of change and embodying the essence of Danish identity. Crown Prince Frederik, set to ascend the throne as King Frederik X, inherits not just a title but a legacy shaped by decades of service. His reign begins in a Denmark that has transformed socially, culturally, and politically since Queen Margrethes accession in 1972.

As the nation embraces this new era, its an opportunity for the monarchy to evolve while preserving its cultural significance. The queens abdication also invites contemplation on the role of monarchies in modern democracies. Queen Margrethes reign, characterised by staying above partisan politics, prompts reflection on the delicate balance between tradition and progress in a constitutional monarchy
In the intricate web of Indias socio-political landscape, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) has emerged as a contentious thread, weaving through public discourse, protests, and legal battles since its passage in December 2019. Now, with reports suggesting the imminent notification of long-awaited rules, the spotlight intensifies on a legislation marred by controversy. The CAA, designed to grant citizenship to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians fleeing persecution in neighbouring Muslim-majority nations, has faced criticism for its perceived exclusion of Muslims.

The absence of Muslims from its provisions coupled with concerns about its compatibility with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), had sparked widespread protests and opposition. Despite its passage in 2019, the laws functionality has been in limbo for four years, awaiting the framing of essential rules. The recent revelation that these rules are now ready and set to be notified before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections signifies a pivotal moment in the CAAs tumultuous journey. One key aspect of the CAA that has drawn scrutiny is the deadline initially set in the Act, limited to those who entered India before 31 December 2014.

Reports indicate that this deadline might see an extension, raising questions about the inclusivity and fairness of the legislation. This potential extension reflects a nuanced acknowledgment of the evolving circumstances faced by individuals seeking refuge. The political arena has not been immune to the CAAs influence, with leaders, particularly from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), making repeated assurances of its impending functionality. Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a recent rally reaffirmed the governments commitment to the CAA, stating that it is the law of the land and asserting that everyone is entitled to citizenship under its provisions. This persistent emphasis on the Act suggests its significance as a political tool and a testament to the governments determination to implement it.

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The reported creation of an online portal for CAA-related citizenship applications adds a digital layer to the unfolding narrative. The absence of document requirements for applicants, except a declaration of the year of entry without travel documents, aims to streamline the process. However, the efficacy and transparency of such a system will be closely scrutinised, particularly in the context of the governments broader efforts toward digital governance. Legal challenges to the CAAs validity, currently pending before the Supreme Court, add another layer of complexity to the unfolding scenario.

The governments defence of the CAA as a benign piece of legislation underscores the need for a comprehensive examination of its legal and constitutional implications. As India stands on the brink of witnessing the CAAs implementation, a critical juncture beckons. The delicate balance between addressing the legitimate concerns of persecuted minorities and upholding the principles of equality and secularism hangs in the balance. The impending implementation raises both hope and trepidation.
Urdu is a subcontinental language of refinement, politeness, and sophisticated undertones. It has a quaint foundational mix of Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and unbeknownst to many, even Sanskrit influences that have evolved its own genteel sound and expressions.

The natural language of romance ensures a widespread resonance in Hindi movies and Urdu mushairas which dole out subtle but powerful insinuations of emotions. In its naturally sweet-sounding structure, even the most pejorative term acquires a poetic sound. One such word is Auqaat. Erstwhile Urdu speaking elitists and feudalists who reveled in classism contributed their own expressions of putdowns, and so Auqaat was born.

The literal translation of Auqaat is time or circumstances, with metaphorical allusions to the pointed persons resources, means, power and ability. But the practical and colloquial usage was to suggest the stature or social position of a person in terms of class, caste, success or even profession. Therefore, the popular (if inelegant and extremely entitled) refrain by the proverbial haves at the decidedly lesser, have nots in questioning, teri auqaat kya hai (a literal how dare you? by asking, what is your status?).

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In the modern context of political correctness, evolved societal necessities and egalitarian preferences, asking someone about their auqaat is considered boorish and uncouth, besides sounding classist. It has acquired an avoidably slanderous context and must be shunned in usage at others. A few years back, a famous actor had ostensibly committed suicide.

As is the wont these days, a media circus ensued with TV room charade of hyperbolic, unsubstantiated, and misogynistic accusations to suggest conspiracy theories. The actors female friend and fellow-actor found herself in the middle of the trial-bymedia and had to endure a month of pretrial confinement.

The sheer TRP and political value of the case was such that many prominent personalities fell over each other to join the melee and speculate the most venomous and shrilly aspersions, and there was simply no space for measure, restrain and dignity onto the person who had no choice but to suffer the indignities silently. It took the senior most police officer of a state, who ironically served under the institutional motto of Satyamev Jayate (Truth alone Triumphs) to jump into the fray and attempt ingratiating himself even further with the powersthat-be.

He thunderingly announced that the female-actor does not have the auqaat to comment on the Bihar chief minister. The language was intimidating with unbridled power assertions at someone who was already down and out. As it turned out, there were good reasons for making such unwarranted comments, as the supposedly apolitical professional had forsaken that mandated restraint by invoking and questioning someones auqaat. His outburst didnt stem from the merits of the case (which didnt warrant his participation, beyond a point), but still demeaned, shamed, and degraded a persons dignity. Later, he was to put in his papers prematurely and attempt seeking a ticket of the party to which the Chief Minister had belonged.

Recently, yet another set of already diminished citizens in the shape of truckers (about 90 lakhs in India) were protesting the passing of new laws that sought to make them even more vulnerable to its potential misuse. As it sadly happens, the truckers are a heterogenous and disorganised body of workers (few unions notwithstanding) who toil incredibly hard and are barely able to make a living for themselves and their families.

Given the already existing reality of harassment and corruption that they endure at the hands of various enforcement agencies, they were potentially saddled with even more punitive portents with the passing of this bill. More importantly, they claim that their concerns and sensitivities remained unconsulted and unincluded in the new laws. With sheer desperation they protested at the inequities of implication for themselves, as opposed to the protection afforded to those who actually put these truck driverss own safety at risk by insisting on faster deliveries.

Recently, the senior most Government official (oddly enough called Public Servant) in a district i.e., the Commissioner, was holding a meeting with truckers in his office as they discussed the issue. A video emerged of the enraged Commissioner raising his voice and pointing his finger imperiously at the already aggrieved truckers, Kya Karoge Tum Kya Auqaat Hai Tumhari (What will you do? What is your social standing?).

To which the hapless truck driver is seen replying, Yehi to ladai hai ki hamari koi auqaat nahi hai, (This is exactly what we are fighting for, that we have no status in society)! The dreaded invocation of auqaat to show an ostensibly lesser person his place, by a modern-day feudal lord played out. The so called auqaat of the beleaguered trucker was sought to be shamed by someone calling himself a public servant.

Thankfully the government reacted swiftly and shunted out the concerned public servant but the psychological and emotional damage by referencing to someones auqaat will soon dim away from public memory. Empathy and an individuals basic dignity are the first to be sacrificed whenever a question of someones auqaat is posed. In a seminal speech, the father of the Indian Civil Services i.e., Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, had told the first batch of probationers on 21 April 1947: It will be your bounden duty to treat the common men in India as your own, or to put it correctly, to feel yourself to be one of them and amongst them, and you will have to learn not to despise or to disregard them..

The wise man had alluded to the changed times from the Raj Days and the need to evolve accordingly by doing certain things and refraining from others, by contrasting the past from the present/future. The whole Service was known not to be Indian nor to be civil, nor imbued with any spirit of service, and yet it was known as the Indian Civil Service.

The thing is now going to change. Sadly, seventy-six years post-independence, some babus still talk about the auqaat of others and the official trappings of hubris, entitlement and superiority still thrive in the corridors of power.

(he writer is Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), and former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)
India on Monday summoned Maldives High Commissioner Ibrahim Shaheeb to the foreign office amid a row over the derogatory remarks made by three Maldivian ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his visit to Lakshadweep.

Though there was no official word on the Maldivian envoys meeting with Indian officials, it is understood that he was firmly told that New Delhi was not satisfied with mere suspension of the three ministers and that the onus of repairing bilateral ties rested solely with Male.

Hours later, Indian High Commissioner to Maldives Munu Mahawar met with Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at the Maldives Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Male. High Commissioner of India to Maldives, Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues, the Indian High Commission said in a social media post on X.

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The Indian High Commission in Male on Sunday took up with the Maldivian government the issue of offensive comments made against Modi by certain leaders of the archipelagic state. An embarrassed Maldivian government swung into action immediately, suspending the three ministers  Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha Shareef and Mahzoom Majid.

Modi had visited the Union Territory of Lakshadweep on January 2 for the inauguration and foundation laying ceremony of several development projects. Subsequently, he had shared some pictures of his visit, including an exhilarating experience of him trying his hand at snorkeling and sitting on a chair near a beach under pristine blue skies and ocean.

For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list, he wrote along with pictures in a message to promote local tourism.

Reacting to the images of Lakshadweep posted by the Indian leader, Mariyam Shiuna had made disparaging remarks in a social media post which she deleted later. Other Maldivian lawmakers  Malsha Shareef and Mahzoom Majid  also made similar remarks against PM Modi, with one of them accusing India of targeting Maldives tourism.

Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer said these remarks against foreign leaders are unacceptable and do not reflect the official position of the Maldives government.

He stated that the Maldives remains committed to fostering a positive and constructive dialogue with all its partners, particularly its neighbours.

The India-Maldives diplomatic row erupted at a time when the new Maldives President, Mohamed Muizzu, who is considered pro-China was all set to take off for China. Significantly, he has already asked India to withdraw its military personnel from the Maldivian soil.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Jan. 8, 2024. Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi attended the meeting. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Monday called for advancing the Party's self-reform and winning the tough and protracted battle against corruption.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

After persistent anti-corruption efforts over the past 10 years of the new era, an overwhelming victory has been achieved in the fight against corruption, with the gains fully consolidated, Xi said.

"But the situation remains grave and complex," Xi noted.

"We should be fully aware of new development in the fight against corruption and the breeding grounds and conditions for corruption," Xi said, urging more efforts to win the tough and protracted battle.

Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi and Ding Xuexiang attended the meeting.

Li Xi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CCDI, presided over the meeting.

Xi noted that 2023 marks the first year that the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress are implemented on all fronts.

The CPC Central Committee has unswervingly advanced the Party's self-reform and deepened its efforts to promote full and rigorous Party self-governance, which has guaranteed that the new journey gets off to a good start, he said.

As the world's largest Marxist governing party, the CPC faces the strategic question of how to escape the historical cycle of rise and fall, and how the Party can remain steadfast in its commitment to never change its nature, its conviction, or its character, he said.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, in its great endeavor of promoting full and rigorous Party self-governance, the CPC has, based on Comrade Mao Zedong's first answer of "putting the government under the supervision of the people," found a second answer to the question -- advancing the Party's self-reform, he noted.

Over the past 10 years, through the practice and theoretical exploration of exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance, a series of important theoretical results have been accomplished, Xi said, adding that these results theoretically answer the major questions including why the CPC should carry out self-reform, why it is capable of self-reform, and how it can promote self-reform.

Xi pointed out nine important issues to advance the Party's self-reform:

-- the fundamental guarantee is to uphold the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee;

-- the fundamental purpose is to guide the great social revolution;

-- the fundamental guidance stands as the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era;

-- the strategic target is to break the historical cycle of rise and fall;

-- the main direction is to tackle the special challenges that a large party like the CPC faces;

-- the effective method is to improve the systems for exercising full and rigorous self-governance;

-- the focus is to forge strong Party organizations and cultivate highly-committed Party members;

-- the key task is to improve Party conduct, enforce Party discipline and fight corruption;

-- the strong impetus is from the integration of self-regulation and oversight from the people.

Xi stressed that, in order to advance the anti-corruption campaign in the new era, continuous efforts should be made to eliminate the breeding grounds and conditions for corruption.

He called for coordinated actions to ensure that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity or desire to become corrupt, as well as persistent efforts to expand the scale and extent of anti-corruption campaigns, and regular and long-term measures to prevent and curb corruption.

Xi underlined the importance of enhancing the Party's centralized, unified leadership in the fight against corruption.

He also stressed the importance of maintaining a tough stance against corruption and said that in the continued grave and complex situation, there is no possibility of stopping, slackening or compromising the anti-corruption campaign.

Combating corruption in the form of collusion between officials and businesspeople should be the priority, Xi said, urging efforts to crack down resolutely on the profit-driven abuse of power and prevent various interest and power groups from infiltrating the political arena.

Xi called for greater efforts to rectify corruption in the finance, state-owned enterprise, energy, medicine and infrastructure project sectors, as well as efforts to punish graft occurring on people's doorsteps.

Deepening reform is necessary to stem the spread of corruption, Xi noted, calling for an integrated early warning and punishment mechanism, and for the strengthened handling of new and disguised forms of corruption.

Underscoring the need to improve the legal system that fights corruption, Xi said national anti-graft legislation should be promoted continuously, and the Supervision Law should be amended in pace with the times. He also called for an education campaign on discipline within the Party.

Xi urged redoubled efforts to tackle and punish acts of bribery, and efforts to retrieve and address the illicit interests gained by those who give bribes.

He urged constant and rigorous efforts to purify the political eco-system, prevent the rules of business dealings from entering into the Party, and persistently rectify misconduct in the selection and appointment of officials.

Efforts should be made to promote a culture of integrity in the new era, carry forward the proud traditions and venerable conduct of the Party, and ignite Party members' lofty ideals and pursuits, Xi noted.

Stressing the importance of fostering strengthened familial ties, values and traditions, Xi urged efforts to ensure leading officials establish good discipline values among their families and relatives.

Noting that discipline inspection and supervision agencies are important forces driving the Party's self-reform, Xi said that these agencies should be loyal, reliable and pure in an absolute manner.

Xi ordered efforts to build a strengthened contingent of disciplinary inspection and supervision cadres, as well as efforts to forge them into an "iron army" that the Party can trust and that can meet the people's expectations.

While presiding over the plenary session, Li Xi said that Xi's speech made strategic plans for the advancement of the fight against corruption, calling for the thorough study and implementation of the spirit of the speech, as well as Xi's important ideas for the Party's self-reform.

Li urged efforts to advance full and rigorous Party self-governance and self-reform to provide a strong guarantee for building a strong country and realizing national rejuvenation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization.

The third plenary session of the 20th CPC CCDI opened on Monday. Li delivered a work report on behalf of the CCDI standing committee on Monday afternoon. 


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DAMASCUS, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iran-backed militias launched three assaults on U.S. military bases in Syria on Monday, the latest in a series of escalated attacks carried out against the backdrop of the Israeli military assault in Gaza, a war monitor reported.

The militias launched two rockets from within Syrian territory on a U.S. base established inside the Conoco Gas Field in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour on Monday evening, with witnesses reporting two powerful explosions in the base area accompanied by billowing smoke rising from the site, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based watchdog group said the U.S. forces stationed in the area immediately went on high alert in response to the attack.

The attack follows strikes on the Al-Omar Oil Field Base in Deir al-Zour and the Kharab al-Jir base in the northeastern province of Al-Hasakah earlier in the day, the observatory noted. It said the base in Al-Omar Oil Field, the largest U.S. base in Syria, came under an attack with 24 rockets, calling it a major attack on the base.

According to the observatory, the latest assault on the Conoco base marks the 82nd attack on U.S. bases within Syrian territory by Iran-backed militias since Oct. 19, 2023, as a retaliation for the U.S. support to Israel in its military campaign in the Gaza Strip. 
Job Title: Creative Producer Specialist Consultant (Creative Economy Week)- Uganda

Organisation: British Council

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About US:

The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. We work in two ways  directly with individuals to transform their lives, and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term, creating benefit for millions of people all over the world. We help young people to gain the skills, confidence and connections they are looking for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities. We support them to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and culture stimulates creative expression and exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. We connect the best of the UK with the world and the best of the world with the UK.

Job Summary: Within a specific period, the delivery partner/curator will be expected to deliver Creative Economy Week as will be discussed and agreed upon with the British Council team. CREATIVE ECONOMY WEEK Uganda provides a spotlight on British Council programmes and partner organisations/hubs, including those targeting women and people with disabilities, with a targeted focus to increase the profile of our work in Fashion including associated activity in Film and Visual Arts in Uganda while supporting professional development and opportunities for young creatives 18-35, access new livelihood opportunities increased awareness of opportunities across the creative sector value chain.

This will be delivered as public-facing events and online live streaming, with panel discussions, policy round tables with sector practitioners, the relevant government authorises and stakeholders within the creative sector.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

The Cultural producer will be expected to:

Deliver the Creative Economy week stated for March. Key responsibilities for the delivery of the Creative Economy Week are:

To work in partnership with the Uganda arts team to support the launch of the Creative Economy Week series of activities including Creative Hustles (minimum of three expected in the week)

To work closely with the Marketing team, arts team to build/support a marketing strategy for the creative economy week.

Stakeholder mapping and management of different partners for the creative economy week.

Organize access to market opportunities.

Create/curate one (1) online campaign to lead Creative Economy week visibility.

Organise two Physical networking opportunities targeting those in the fashion sector including linking to the British Council Creative DNA programme

Confirm speakers/participants for panel discussions and policy round tables in partnership with the British Council Arts team.

Contract speakers ahead of the event.

Open registration and publicise each event in partnership with the British Council Arts team.

Deliver two subsequent Creative Hustle activities as part of the wrap-around British Council programme activity.

Manage the delivery of each event: registration confirmation, venue booking, catering, event setup including online event management, supervision and delivery, participants attendance sheets, baseline and end-of-event surveys, videography, photography, etc.

Manage payment to all vendors and speakers.

Manage end-of-event M&E, report, and attendance database to submit to the Uganda Arts team.

To liaise with Business Support Services as required across Finance, Procurement, and Marketing and Communications.

Organise the launch of the research findings.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

Minimum/essential Understanding of Arts and Culture scene in Uganda.

Recent professional experience in a creative programme management role.

Strong experience of successful endto-end programme and event management.

Experience of managing finances and organizational resources.

Strong experience facilitating and managing learning events, conversations, discussion programmes with young people 18-35 with a focus on digital engagement..

Wide stakeholder management experience including ability to identify and pick potential speakers for the programme including UK based speakers.

Connection to international and other local hubs to bring learning to support this project.

Knowledge background of the cultural and creative industries in SSA

An interest and developing expertise in working with young people with an emphasis on underrepresented groups from the cultural sector.

We are looking for candidates who have skills and experience of reaching wide networks of young people across identified programme countries (f2f and virtually) including engaging young people in policy and creative enterprise dialogue.

Understand the types of digital engagement opportunities through online learning and the British Council Uganda creative sector ambitions to connect with young people.

Language requirements: English

English Requirements  All applicants should have a pre-existing legal status to live and work in Uganda. The British Council will not facilitate/sponsor visa applications and work permit.

Desirable

A strong understanding of creative and cultural industries

Established a network of artists, stakeholders, and organizations in Uganda.

An innovative approach to the use of digital and social media to connect audiences.

Ability to identify opportunities for partnerships and expansion of the delivery of our work.

Experience working with the Fashion sector in Uganda.

Consultancy Duration  January 2024 and June 2025

All the activities will need to be delivered to the timelines and on the dates specified above. Applicants will need to confirm their agreement to deliver to these dates and timelines for their applications to be considered.

Selected Partners will need to attend a joint inception planning meeting (online/face-to-face) before the start of the programme.

How to Apply:

All candidates should apply online through the British Council online application system at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline: 8th January 2024 by 23:59 East African Time

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
Maldives is one of the worlds leading destinations for sun, surf, and sustainability. Indian tourists were the most frequent visitors to the Maldives until December 2023.

According to the data from Maldives tourism ministry, 2,09,198 tourists visited from India. While 2,09,146 and 1,87,118 tourists visited from Russia and China respectively.

However, things did not start off well for Maldives in 2024. The Maldives deputy cabinet ministers Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha Shareef, and Mahzoom Majid made derogatory remarks against PM Modi from his visit to Lakshadweep promoting it as a tourism attraction to Indians.

The remarks have cost the Island nation as the tour operators in India said that there no new enquiries by people to visit the country. There has been a visible impact in the booking to Maldives with many Indians cancelling their trip as well.

Though many Indians claim to have cancelled their planned holidays, Deep Karla, the creator of MakeMyTrip, said that "there has been no mass cancellation of planned holidays by Indians to the island nation."

MakeMyTrip also announced an increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep by 3,400% ever since PM Modi visited the island on January 2. With such a large search response and increased interest in Indian beaches, MakeMyTrip launched the 'Beaches of India' campaign, which provides a variety of deals and discounts to encourage travellers to visit beaches around the nation.

Amid the row, the hashtag #BoycottMaldives gathered attention on social media, with the Indian Association of Tour Operators expecting a greater impact within the next 20-25 days.

Suddenly, there has been no inquiry on Maldives. There are sudden drops. Those who have made payments will not cancel them. We are expecting that people will not book trips to the Maldives, Rajiv Mehra, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, said.

The Indias unsettling reaction to the remarks made by the Maldives' ministers, as well as the impact of the boycott, have had an unforeseen influence on Maldives tourism. The Maldives government dismissed the three ministers on Sunday for making insulting statements against PM Modi.
Even as the row between India and Maldives rages on, Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Lakshadweep that sparked it off seems to be paying dividends. Travel aggregators report a spike of nearly 3,000 per cent over the weekend for travel to the islands.

Our governments call to explore hidden gems for travel has sparked a tremendous wave of interest, said online travel portal ixigo's CEO & co-founder Aloke Bajpai, and added that this highlighted the hidden potential within our own borders.

According to ixigo, search for travel to Lakshadweep went up 2,900 per cent over the past three-four days. Other websites and travel booking agents have also reported a similar phenomenal increase in interest, even as many claimed they were cancelling their trips to Maldives.

It was late last week that PM Modi visited Lakshadweep and posted some stunning photos of his stroll on its pristine beaches. Modi had tweeted, calling on citizens to visit the Union territory, a group of 36 islands in the Arabian Sea. The call was seen as a move by India to draw tourism away from the nearby Maldives, which was seen to be slowly moving away from its earlier diplomatic stance of being well within Indias sphere of influence.

The reaction by three Maldivian ministers soon led to a full-blown diplomatic row, with the Maldives ambassador being summoned by MEA on Monday.

While the spurt in travel searches and the move to make Lakshadweep a tourism hub may sound smart, the reality is that any thoughts of challenging Maldives will take years  Lakshadweep barely has any five-star resorts, the existing one limited to the island of Bangaram. That island is also the only one where alcohol is permitted since the islands follow an insular way of life.

Travel options themselves are scarce, with one flight daily and that too a turbo propeller Alliance Air flight from Kochi, and no connection from the major metros. The other option is by ship, with three ships plying between Lakshadweep and Kochi.
Union Home Minister Amit Shahs scheduled visit to Jammu and Kashmir on January 9 has been deferred due to adverse weather conditions.

Shah was scheduled to attend the Vikasit Bharat Sankalpa Yatra in Jammu, inaugurate projects worth Rs 1,379 crore, including E-buses in Jammu city, and lay the foundation stone for projects worth Rs 2,348 crore.

He had plans to distribute appointment letters to those appointed on compassionate grounds, and his itinerary included a review of the security and development of Jammu and Kashmir.

His itinerary included travel to Dera Ki Gali in Poonch to meet the families of civilians recently killed in that area, following an attack where four soldiers died on December 21. He was also scheduled to undertake a review of the security situation in the region.

Shah was to address a rally at Gulshan Ground in the heart of the city as part of the ongoing Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra (VBSY). The yatra has been benefiting numerous people across Jammu and Kashmir and was expected to gain further momentum with the home minister's participation.

He was also planning to oversee a comprehensive review of development works in Jammu and Kashmir and initiate several new projects.

Shah had planned to preside over a high-level meeting at the Raj Bhawan, where he would conduct a detailed review of the development projects in Jammu and Kashmir. The meeting was supposed to be attended by LG Manoj Sinha, Union Home Secretary A.K. Bhalla, and senior civil administration officers.

On January 2 in New Delhi, Shah had reviewed the security situation of Jammu and Kashmir with top functionaries of the central government and Jammu and Kashmir administration.

In that meeting, he emphasised the need to strengthen counter-terrorism operations and eliminate the terror ecosystem.

Shah advised appropriate deployment of security agencies in vulnerable areas while stressing adherence to due procedures in counter-terror operations. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) General Manoj Pande, and top officials of intelligence and security agencies had attended the meeting.

In the last four years, numerous projects have been launched in Jammu and Kashmir under central schemes and the UT sector. Several works have been ongoing under centrally sponsored schemes and the Prime Ministers Development Plan (PMDP), among others.

The UT administration has taken up multiple pending projects, some of which had been stagnant for several years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to undertake a one-day visit to the UT by the end of January or the beginning of February. During this visit, Modi is likely to visit Jammu and Srinagar, announcing several new projects and inaugurating others.
The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat government order granting remission to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. The court ordered the 11 to surrender within two weeks.

Hearing the plea, a bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that the plea was maintainable and said victims rights are important. Victim's rights also important. A woman deserves respect. Can heinous crimes against women permit remission? These are the issues which arise, LiveLaw reported.

Observing the Gujarat government lacked the competence to grant remission to the convicts, reading the judgment, Justice Nagarathna said the government of the state where the convicts are sentenced was the appropriate government to grant remission and not the government where the offence took place. The bench observed that the convict made misleading statements, suppressed facts while filing petition for remission.

The bench said the May 13,2022, order directing the Gujarat government to consider remission is a nullity as it was obtained by playing fraud on the Court and by suppressing material facts.

The case involves the gangrape of Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.

The convicts Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radhyesham Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt and Ramesh Chandana were released on August 15, 2022, after due completing 15 years in prison, along with considerations of their age and behaviour during incarceration. The Gujarat government had then informed the SC that the Centre had also "conveyed (its) concurrence/ approval".

Directing the eleven convicts in the case to surrender in prison within two weeks, the Court said, "Rule of law must prevail". We hold that deprivation of liberty to the respondents (convicts) is justified. They have lost their right to liberty once they were convicted and imprisoned. Also, if they want to seek remission again, it is important that they have to be in jail, the Court said.
The Supreme Court will deliver the verdict on Monday in the batch of petitions challenging the remission granted to the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case.

The case involves the gangrape of Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.



A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had on October 12 last year reserved its verdict after an 11-day hearing on the petitions, including the one filed by Bano.



The convicts Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radhyesham Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt and Ramesh Chandana were released on August 15, 2022, after due completing 15 years in prison, along with considerations of their age and behaviour during incarceration. The Gujarat government had then informed the SC that the Centre had also "conveyed (its) concurrence/ approval".



The move had sparked widespread criticisms and the petitions were filed in November 2022 by several people besides Bano herself. The others include CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma.



Accepting the petitions, the Supreme Court maintained that the PILs against the premature release of convicts may be maintainable if remission affects the public.



After the hearing, the SC directed the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit by October 16 the original records related to the remission of sentence of the convicts.



While hearing the matter in September last year, the top court had asked whether convicts have a fundamental right to seek remission. During the earlier arguments, the apex court had observed that state governments should not be selective in granting remission to convicts and the opportunity to reform and reintegrate with society should extend to every prisoner.
Following are the highlights of the Supreme Court judgement pronounced on Monday quashing the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in the state, saying the orders were "stereotyped" and passed without application of mind.

* Writ Petition filed by Bilkis Bano under Article 32 of the Constitution before the Supreme Court court is maintainable. It was not mandatory for the her to approach HC.

* Since the writ petition filed by the victim has been entertained by us, the writ petitions filed as PIL challenging remission are maintainable and kept open to be raised in any other appropriate case.

* Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to entertain the prayers seeking remission of sentence of the convicts as it was not the appropriate government within the meaning of section 432 of CrPC.

* SC holds as 'nullity' and non est (Latin term meaning not found) in law the May 13, 2022 order of another bench asking the Gujarat government to consider remission plea of convicts.

* SC says Gujarat government passed stereotyped and cyclostyled remission orders.

* Impugned orders of remission passed by the Gujarat government in favour of convicts are not in accordance with law.

* Gujarat government had usurped the powers of the State of Maharashtra which alone could have considered the applications seeking remission.

* Remission policy dated July 9, 1992 of the State of Gujarat was not applicable to the convicts, says SC.

* State of Gujarat acted in tandem and was complicit with one of the convicts Radheshyam Shah.

* Most important constitutional value is personal liberty which is a fundamental right enshrined in Article 21 of our Constitution.

* Judiciary is the guardian of the rule of law and the central pillar of a democratic State.

* Court must be a beacon in upholding rule of law failing which it would give rise to an impression that the apex court is not serious about rule of law.

* In a democracy where rule of law is its essence, it has to be preserved and enforced, particularly by courts of law.

* Rule of law does not mean protection to a fortunate few.

* Article 142 of the Constitution cannot be invoked by SC in favour of convicts to allow them to remain out of jail.

* SC directs convicts to report to the jail authorities concerned within two weeks from today.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday welcomed the Karnataka governments circular advising temples to conduct special pujas to commemorate the consecration of Ram Mandir on January 22. The circular has been reportedly sent to about 34,000 temples in the state.

Responding to the Karnataka government's decision, Union Minister Prahlad Joshi told ANI, Wisdom has dawned on them.

Karnataka Muzrai Minister Ramalinga Reddy said, There are 34,000 temples in the state. I had advised the Commissioner to issue a circular to all temple priests and executive officers to conduct special pujas On January 22. Reddy added that they (Congress) are born Hindus and they dont mix Hinduism with politics, unlike BJP which mixes politics with religion.

BJP leader C.T. Ravi also welcomed the decision. "It is good. We too thank them. They have made a good decision. Wisdom has dawned on Congress after several years. Lord Ram belongs to everyone. Congress had left Lord Ram and now they are coming to him. This is good, it will be good for the country," ANI reported quoting Ravi.
The Gurugram police on Monday arrested a 20-year-old woman for her alleged involvement in the murder of former model Divya Pahuja who was shot dead at a city hotel on January 2.

Police said the arrested woman, identified as Meghaa resident of Najafgarh in Delhihelped Abhijeet Singh, the hotel owner and the prime accused in the case, to hide the crime weapon and dispose of Divyas personal belongings.

Megha, who was nabbed from her house at Najafgarh, was produced in a city court which remanded her in two-day police custody. The woman was working with an online food delivery company.

"The woman has been taken on a 2 day-police remand for further questioning. She would be thoroughly questioned about her involvement in the incident and the weapon used in the murder, documents and personal belongings of the deceased," Vijay Pratap Singh, DCP (crime) said.

With the arrest of Megha, the number of persons arrested in the case rose to four. Police have already arrested main accused Abhijit Singh, Hemraj and Omprakash in the case, while they are conducting raids to nab two other accused -- Balraj Gill and Ravi Bandra.

Abhijeet had reportedly told police that he had called Megha to Hotel City Point after the murder and asked her to dispose of the belongings of the deceased woman.

Police are yet to recover Divyas body even a week after the incident even as the investigators are raising doubts that the accused might have thrown it in Ghaggar river near Patiala.

A team of police is trying to fish out the body from the river with the help of divers, an investigating official told PTI.

Divya was shot dead in the hotel on January 2 night. The CCTV footage showed three men dragging Divyas body wrapped in a sheet out of the hotel and keeping it in the boot of a blue BMW car. The trio later escaped the crime scene in the same car, but were arrested in the next day.

Divya was a former model and an accused in the murder of gangster Sandeep Gadoli in a controversial encounter at a Mumbai hotel on February 7, 2016.

Mumbai Police arrested Divyawho reportedly was also the girlfriend of Gadolialong with her mother and five policemen in connection with the incident.

According to Mumbai Police officials, Virendra Kumar alias Binder Gujjar, who had run a rival gang, allegedly conspired with Haryana Police officials to eliminate Gadoli.

Gujjar was in prison at the time of the encounter, but he hatched a conspiracy and roped in Divya as a honey-trap to kill Gadoli, they had said.

The Bombay High Court granted bail to Divya in June 2023, about seven years after she was arrested.
In a shocking case, around 500 female students of Chaudhary Devi Lal University in Haryanas Sirsa have accused a professor of sexual assault and sent a letter to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Governor Bandaru Dattatreya and the state womens commission demanding action against him.

According to reports, the letter was sent on Thursday, following which the government formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the allegations.

This is the fourth such letter written by the students after the universitys internal complaints committee gave a clean chit twice to the professor, reported the Times of India.

In the letter, the students accused the professor of filthy and obscene acts. "He calls us individually to his office bathroom and touches us inappropriately...When we protested against this, he threatened us with dire consequences, they said.

The students alleged that the vice chancellor, instead of taking any action, threatened to expel them because the professor is a person of immense political influence.

"We can't write out names and contact numbers as it will malign our own image if no action is taken by the professor. The dignity of our family will be at stake. He has political influence and has threatened to get us expelled if we speak against him," the letter said.

The students also alleged that the professor had already destroyed all evidence including the CCTV footage of his office.

Confirming the receipt of the letter, University Registrar Dr Rajesh Kumar Bansal said a university committee is probing the allegations.

"Action will only be taken afterwards. Whoever is guilty will not be spared but if someone is innocent then their character should not be assassinated," he told NDTV.

The accused professor, however, dismissed the allegations, terming them politically motivated.

"I am being targeted because I have been active in some work at the university. I am ready to face any probe against me. This is nothing but political vendetta," he told the ToI.
The premises of Karnataka Congress MLA K.Y. Nanjegowda and some of his linked entities were raided on Monday morning by the Enforcement Directorate as part of a money laundering investigation, official sources said. The 61-year-old legislator represents the Malur seat in the Karnataka assembly.



The searches are covering his premises and some of his linked entities in Malur and Kolar districts as part of an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said. The ED case is understood to have been filed on the basis of some local police FIRs.

Nanjegowda is also the president of the Kolar-Chikkaballapur Milk Union Ltd.
With its organisational teams ready, the Madhya Pradesh Congress has started active preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and will be holding organisational conventions at every assembly seat in the state between January 18 and 24.

The decision in this regard was taken at a joint meeting of parliament coordinators for the Lok Sabha seats; district Congress presidents, district in-charges and state presidents of the various front organizations and departments and cells of the party on Monday.

Also, state party chief Jitu Patwari, leader of opposition Umang Singhar and deputy leader of opposition Hemant Katare will undertake district level tours for poll preparations. It will start with Gwalior-Chambal region on January 9 and districts like Datia, Bhind, Morena, Sheopur, Shivpuri, Guna and Ashoknagar will be covered till January 12, the MP Congress has said.

Before the joint meeting, separate meetings of the political affairs committee and the state election committeethat were constituted on January 6were also held to strategise for the Lok Sabha polls.

The 32-member political affairs committee is headed by AICC general secretary in-charge for Madhya Pradesh Bhanwar Jitendra Singh while Patwari is the convener. Former chief ministers Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh, former union ministers and state presidents Suresh Pachauri and Arun Yadav, former leader of opposition Ajay Singh are among the members of this committee. The 34-member state election committee is headed by Patwari and also includes Nath, Singh, leader of opposition Umang Singhar, Pachauri, Kantilal Bhuria and others.

All these senior leaders attended the respective meetings on Monday in presence of Jitendra Singh. Patwari presided over the meetings.

Following the meetings, the chief spokesperson of MP Congress, K.K. Mishra said that a number of decisions including the assembly seat wise conventions were taken. Mishra said that the party leaders and workers will keep a keen eye on the voters list revision exercise taken up by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and take necessary actions.

Also decisions were taken for effective completion of the Madhya Pradesh leg of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra to be held under leadership of Rahul Gandhi from January 14 to March 20. The yatra will pass through nine districts of the state (Morena, Gwalior, Shivpuri, Guna, Rajgarh, Agar Malwa, Ujjain, Ratlam, Jhabua), covering 700 kms in seven days.

Also, party leaders were asked to ensure maximum collection of party funds through contribution under a format decided on the occasion of 138th anniversary of the party.

Madhya Pradesh has 29 Lok Sabha seats, of which BJP holds 28 and Congress holds only one at Chhindwara. Faced with a big defeat in the recently held assembly polls in the state, the Congress has brought about significant organizational changes  giving the charge to the young guard under Jitu Patwari as the state president.

Also, perhaps taking lessons from the delayed actions regarding ticket distribution and other preparations before assembly polls, the party has set up organizational bodies for the Lok Sabha elections four months in advance.
Passive income when you're no longer actively working is anchored for many by their Social Security draw. But for the average retiree, that's only $1,844.76 a month, according to November 2023 figures from the Social Security Administration.



For most folks, that means relying on other income sources, including the dividends you can generate from your stock investments. I'm an average retiree myself, and I've amassed a modest collection of real estate investment trusts (REITs) in my stock portfolio over the past few years just for that purpose.

Image source: Getty Images.

By tax law, REITs must pay at least 90% of their taxable income as dividends. That income comes from pools of property across about any sector you can think of, so you can diversify your selections while choosing companies with long track records of reliably growing their business and their dividends.

Three that I'd like to highlight here are American Tower (NYSE: AMT), Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE: FRT), and Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE: MAA).

The chart below shows the steady growth of their dividends and the consistency of their yields since American Tower converted into a REIT in 2012, about 15 years after its original IPO.



MAA Dividend Chart

Here's more about each.

1. American Tower

American Tower is one of the world's largest REITs and owners of multi-tenant communications real estate, with a portfolio of about 225,000 traditional cell towers and other antenna sites around the world and a network of data centers across the United States.

The growing global appetite for must-have space by thousands of customers, including all the major mobile carriers, has enabled Boston-based American Tower to raise its dividend every year since its REIT conversion, including by an average of 12.5% each year for the past three.

American Tower stock currently yields about 3.2% at a share price of about $214 and comfortably covers that dividend with a payout ratio of about 61% of its cash flow.



Story continues

2. Federal Realty Investment Trust

Federal Realty is a Dividend King and one of the oldest REITs. It was originally founded in 1962 not long after Congress authorized REITs as a way to make real estate investing more accessible to the average American.

The Dividend King status comes from its 56 straight years of dividend increases. Its income comes from a collection of 102 open-air centers, housing 3,300 commercial tenants and 3,100 residential units.



Their location in affluent, first-ring suburban markets on the East and West Coasts should help suburban Maryland-based Federal Realty continue the resilience it's shown through good and bad economies and everything in between.

Federal Realty stock currently trades for about $102 a share and yields about 4.3%. Its payout ratio of about 51% is based on cashflow that's modest enough to point to the ability to grow the dividends faster than the 1.3% a year or so of the past three years, if the C-suite is so inclined.



3. Mid-America Apartment Communities

Mid-America Apartment Communities, or MAA, is a Tennessee-based developer and manager of apartment communities in the mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Southwest.

A portfolio that as of June 30, 2023 included 101,986 units in 300 apartment complexes across 16 states and the District of Columbia makes MAA one of the U.S.'s largest owners of multifamily properties.



The growing ranks of young professionals, families, and downsizing retirees in the Sunbelt and other desirable markets where MAA is focused should keep demand for its living spaces high. Meanwhile, its stock is trading at about $132 a share and yielding about 4.3%, and MAA is riding a 14-year streak of dividend increases.

That includes an impressive annualized three-year growth of just over 23% and a payout ratio of only 55%, based on cashflow that should easily support even more boosts.



Reliable payment stream for retirees, passive or otherwise

American Tower, Federal Realty, and MAA are excellent choices for 2024 and beyond for reliable payment streams (and the possibility of capital growth) for folks seeking to bolster their income, no matter how active or passive their retirement may be.

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After gaining a landslide victory in the Bangladesh elections, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday stressed on her aim to maintain good relations with every country.

Hasina has called India as a great friend, while speaking to the media at The Ganabhaban, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh

With the main opposition BNP boycotting, the elections were relatively one-sided, with low voter turnout as well. Only 41.8 percent voter turnout was recorded for Sunday polls.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Hasina over phone and congratulated over her win in the general elections.

Spoke to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and congratulated her on her victory for a historic fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary elections. I also congratulate the people of Bangladesh for the successful conduct of elections. We are committed to further strengthen our  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 8, 2024

While referring to the incidents in 1975, Hasina said that "India is a great friend of Bangladesh. They have supported us in 1971 and also in 1975. They gave shelter to me and my sister and my other family members.

Back in 1975, Shiekh Mujibur Rahman, his wife and their three sons were assassinated in their home by military officers. Rahman's two daughters--Hasina and Rehana--survived as they were abroad at that time. During the period of exile, Hasina stayed in India for six years.

"I have a good relationship with every country because that is our motto," she said.

Bangladesh has good diplomatic ties with its neighbours China and India. She is credited for skilfully negotiating the interest of both the countries.

Though Hasina said that she has good relations with President Joe Biden, US called for credible and inclusive polls, while India said elections are internal matter.

She said that the main focus of her government in the next five years will be on economic progress.

She said she tries to work for her people. "With motherly affection, I look after my people who gave me this opportunity. Time and again people have voted for me, and that is why I am here," she added.

While referring to the polls, she said the "election was free and fair". "If any party does not participate in the election, it does not mean there is no democracy," she added.

Hasina said her new government's mission would be to develop a smart Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has secured a record fourth straight term as her Awami League party won an overwhelming majority in the general elections marred by sporadic violence and a boycott by the main opposition BNP and its allies.



Hasina's party won 223 seats in the 300-seat Parliament. Election was held for 299 seats. The election to one seat will be held later due to the death of a candidate, according to media reports.



The main opposition in Parliament, the Jatiya Party, got 11 seats, Bangladesh Kallyan party won in one constituency while independent candidates came out victorious in 62 seats. Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal and the Workers Party of Bangladesh won one seat each.



Hasina, 76. also the president of Awami League, won the Gopalganj-3 constituency in a landslide victory, her eighth term as a Member of Parliament.



Hasina, who has been ruling the strategically located South Asian nation since 2009, secured a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall term in the one-sided election, which witnessed the second-lowest turnout since the restoration of democracy in 1991.



The turnout in the controversial February 1996 polls was 26.5 per cent, the lowest in Bangladesh's history.



The turnout in Sunday's election was 27.15 per cent at 3:00 pm, but after voting closed at 4:00 pm, the Election Commission estimated the final tally could stand at around 40 per cent, a 13 per cent jump in an hour.



With this win, Hasina is poised to become the longest-serving prime minister in Bangladesh since independence.



Former premier Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which boycotted the election and observed a strike on election day, said the party plans to intensify its anti-government movement through a peaceful public engagement programme from Tuesday as it dubbed the polls as "fake."



The BNP boycotted the 2014 election but joined the one in 2018. This time, they boycotted the polls. Fifteen other political parties also boycotted the election.



The party leaders claimed that the low turnout was evidence that their boycott movement had been successful. They said that peaceful democratic protest programmes will be accelerated, and the people's right to vote will be established through this programme.



Voters showed little interest in the outcome of Sunday's polls -- a race between Awami League candidates and Awami League "independents".



Following BNP's boycott threat in the lead-up to the election, the Hasina administration undertook a series of strategies that allegedly included creating pressure.



Ahead of the elections, Hasina's government arrested tens of thousands of rival politicians and supporters, a move which rights groups have condemned as an attempt to paralyse the Opposition.



Hasina went for a tight-fisted seat-sharing with the Jatiya Party and other allies and invited all her party leaders and activists to join the race as independent candidates to make the election look participatory and competitive.



But unexpected victories of these independent candidates have significantly altered the political landscape, hinting at a new era of internal competition within the ruling party itself.



Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader claimed that the people have rejected the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami's boycott of the election by casting their ballots.



"I sincerely thank those who braved the fear of vandalism, arson, and terrorism to participate in the 12th national parliamentary elections, Quader said.



Despite the largely peaceful voting, officials and the mainstream media reported at least 18 arson attacks across the country since late Friday, with 10 of them targeting polling places.



As Bangladesh steps into this new term under the Awami League's governance, the reshaping of the Opposition poses critical questions about the future of the country's parliamentary dynamics and political balance, bdnews newspaper said.
Maldives foreign ministry clarified to the Indian envoy on Monday that the recent controversial remarks by a few members of the cabinet do not represent the official stand of the government. Maldives on Sunday issued a statement saying the controversial remarks made by a few suspended ministers were personal opinions.



Indias High Commissioner to Maldives Munu Mahawar met with Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives to clarify the countrys stand. Earlier today, India also summoned Maldivess High Commissioner to India, Ibrahim Shaheeb, to register Indias strong protest to the comments and reportedly told the commissioner that Maldives has spoiled the bilateral relationship and the onus is on President Muizzu to repair it, Hindustan Times reported.

High Commissioner Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues, Indias High Commission tweeted.

Reportedly, the Ambassador at Large clarified to Indias High Commissioner that the remarks of three deputy ministers do not represent the views of the government. Sun quoting a Maldives official who is in the know of developments reported that Naseer made it clear to the Indian High Commissioner that the remarks do not reflect the views of the Maldivian government. The Ambassador reportedly reaffirmed Maldives continued support for its neighbour.

Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid - three deputy ministers at the Youth Ministry - had made derogatory remarks against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media platform X, in response to a video promoting tourism in Lakshadweep. The three ministers were suspended on Sunday after the remarks sparked an uproar on Indian social media.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the Maldives government said, "The Government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the Government of Maldives.

-with PTI inputs.
An Israeli airstrike has killed an elite Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon on Monday. Israel-Lebanon border tensions escalated since a Hamas senior leader was killed in an airstrike in Beirut last week.

The strike on an SUV killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border, according to a Lebanese security official. Hezbollah identified the slain fighter as Wissam al-Tawil without providing details.

Wissam al-Tawil was the senior militant in the armed group. The commander "had a leading role in managing Hezbollah's operations in the south", a security official told AFP.

The killing of the senior commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan force is a "painful" blow for the terror group, reported The Times of Israel.

Israel is also carrying out an unprecedented wave of deadly strikes in Syria targeting cargo trucks, infrastructure and people involved in Iran's weapons lifeline. Four people were killed in late December in a strike on buildings and trucks being used by Iran-aligned militia groups along Syria's eastern border with Iraq.

Hezbollah's secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel in two televised addresses last week not to launch a full-scale war on Lebanon. "Whoever thinks of war with us - in one word, he will regret it," Nasrallah said.

Hezbollah on Saturday said it had hit a key Israeli observation post with 62 rockets as a "preliminary response" to Arouri's killing. Deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri was killed by Israel last week.

Hezbollah has been carrying out attacks against Israel since October 8, a day after Hamas attack. Israel airstrikes on the Lebanese side of the border has killed at least 151 Hezbollah members so far.

A total of 23,084 Palestinians have been killed so far amid Isral-Hamas war. As many as 58,926 people were reported to be injured by the Gaza Health Ministry.
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu arrived in Beijing to sign bilateral agreements with his counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday. In the wake of Muizzus visit, China's state media in an editorial referred to the ongoing India's diplomatic row with the Maldives, and called for an "open-minded" approach.

A massive row had erupted after derogatory remarks were made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, by some ministers with the Maldives government after the PM visited Lakshadweep.

Maldives government suspended three ministers over their derogatory remarks against PM Modi on Sunday. Also, an official statement was released by Maldives distancing itself from the row. Maldives said in the statement that the views expressed by certain ministers do not represent the governments view.

Meanwhile, the editorial by Global Times said China has always treated Maldives as an equal partner and respected its sovereignty.

"It also respects the friendly and cooperative relationship between the Maldives and India, fully aware of the importance for Male to maintain good relations with New Delhi. Beijing has never asked Male to reject New Delhi because of the conflicts between China and India, nor does it view cooperation between the Maldives and India as unfriendly or a threat," it added.

The editorial also mentioned that China is willing to carry out trilateral cooperation between China, India and Maldives. New Delhi should stay more open-minded, as China's cooperation with South Asian countries is not a zero-sum game," it said.

India-Maldives relation became tense after Mohamed Muizzu came to power.

Muizzu is on a five-day visit in China, where he is expected to hold a series of bilateral talks with Jinping.

Amid the row, the Maldivian envoy to India was on Monday summoned to the external affairs ministry and conveyed strong concern over remarks.

"The relations between China and the Maldives now stand at a new historical starting point. We believe that through this visit, the two heads of state will provide strategic guidance for the bilateral relations to reach a new height," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told the media ahead of Muizzus visit.

The visit will also pave the way for collaborations in technology and other areas between the two countries, it said.

Soon after Muizzu came to power, he requested New Delhi to withdraw 77 Indian military personnel from the Maldives and decided to review more than 100 bilateral agreements between the two countries.

The Maldives is India's key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and occupies a special place in its initiatives like SAGAR' (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the Neighbourhood First Policy' of the Modi government.

"Under normal circumstances, when a new leader comes to power, they arrange their visits based on the importance and urgency of the matters to be dealt with. President Muizzu broke tradition by visiting Turkey for his first official overseas visit instead of India," Global Times said in the editorial.
Trapped tourists in the Krizna Jama cave in southern Slovenia were successfully rescued and extracted on Monday. A family of three adults and two guides were trapped in the cave since Saturday due to heavy rains.

The water level rise due to heavy rains left them trapped and also hampered the rescue effort. According to Walter Zakrajsek, the head of the Cave Rescue Service, the rescue operation was possible only after water levels receded.

The operation was completed around mid-afternoon following hours long rescue operation by a six-member team of divers, he told STA news agency.

The eight-kilometre cave system with a string of emerald-coloured underground lakes is accessible only in boats and rafts and with a guide.

Earlier, the team of divers had said that they had reached the tourists trapped and provided them with food and essentials. The tourists were located in a dry area about two kilometres inside the cave. A small boat was brought in to bring out the trapped tourists.

Rescuers earlier said that all five people were doing well despite spending two nights inside the cave.

Krizna Jama is the fourth-biggest known underground ecosystem in the world.

The water temperature inside the cave was 6C (42 F) with very low visibility.
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 8: Residents of Dharavi visited Makhdoom Shah Baba Dargah and paid their respects at the holy shrine, praying for the speedy redevelopment of Dharavi.



Hundreds of residents paid their respects on the concluding night of the famous Mahim mela.



Nearly 150 Dharavikars marched on foot armed with thals on their heads and walked towards Mahim Dargah with just one wish in their heart, and that is a redeveloped and prosperous Dharavi.



They reached Mahim Dargah by late evening and offered their prayers.



Quaiser Bano, a tailor by profession says that her family has been residing in Dharavi for more than five decades. They have been surviving with bare minimum facilities and living in congested houses for ages.



"I was happy to know that our Dharavi is being developed. This should have been done long back. We also deserve a better home and good living conditions. I pray to Makhdoom baba that this happens very soon and no hurdles should come in between, "she said.



Another resident identified as Khan Mohammed Qadar said, "We welcome the redevelopement of Dharavi. Its about time now. We pray that it happens soon. Everyone has a right for good housing facilities and better living conditions."



Another resident Zubeda Appa who runs an NGO for women in Dharavi shared, "We only pray for a redeveloped Dharavi where our children have a brighter and better future. All should support this redevelopment and help in changing it for the good."



Mehrunissa Khan, a jewellery worker from Dharavi said, "We have been longing to see a vibrant and redeveloped Dharavi. The Government has taken the right step, this was pending for decades. We hope everyone comes together and helps this redevelopment see the light of the day.



(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with PNN and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR

PWR
New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) Sunsure Energy has pledged an investment of Rs 3,150 crore in renewable energy projects in Tamil Nadu in the next three years.

As part of the memorandum of understanding with the state government, it will set up four renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of 500 Megawatt (MW), the company said in a statement on Monday.

"Sunsure Energy signs MoU with Tamil Nadu for Rs 3,150 crore investment in the state's renewable energy capacity over the next 3 years. The agreement is aimed at bolstering Tamil Nadu's renewable energy capacity through four greenfield projects with a combined capacity of 500 MW," it said.

The projects will be set up at various locations, including Tuticorin & Tirunelveli, Theni, and Tiruchirappalli, the company said.

The projects have the potential to create more than 1,200 jobs in the state.

The company intends to develop three solar power plants with capacities of 100 MW each and a wind power plant with capacities of 200 MW strategically positioned across the state.

"We will utilise our sectoral expertise in the renewable energy sector to contribute our part in boosting the state's renewable energy generation capacity and support its socio-economic and development goals," Sunsure Energy Founder, Chairman & CEO Shashank Sharma said.

Sunsure Energy is one of India's largest commercial and industrial (C&I) focused renewable energy power producers.
Mumbai, Jan 8 (PTI) Welspun One on Monday said it has inked an initial pact with the Tamil Nadu government for a proposed Rs 2,000-crore investment in the state over the next five years.

This comes on the back of a similar initial pact for Rs 2,500 crore investment proposal signed with the state government in 2021.

The second pact signed at the Tamil Nadu Global Investors' Meet 2024, outlines Welspun One's commitment to drive the proposed development of industrial and logistics parks with an estimated investment outlay of Rs 2,000 crore over the next five years, Welspun One said in a statement.

This initiative is expected to generate direct employment opportunities for 5,000 people and contribute to the development of ancillary industries, creating indirect employment opportunities for 10,000 people, it added.

"Welspun One's ongoing commitment to invest in Tamil Nadu reflects a collaborative spirit and a common resolve to meet all mutually agreed obligations, guided by the facilitation of Guidance, the pivotal agency of the Tamil Nadu government for investment promotion," said Welspun World Chairman Balkrishan Goenka.

The company is confident that these collaborations and projects will play a substantial role in shaping the industrial and economic dynamics of the region, he added.

"Our first MoU with the Tamil Nadu government laid a strong foundation, and we are on track with our investments as per the initial agreement," said Anshul Singhal, Managing Director at Welspun One.

Welspun One's focus is on creating sustainable infrastructure, generating employment opportunities, and contributing meaningfully to the state's industrial growth, he stated.

With these two pacts, Welspun One's cumulative investment in Tamil Nadu is set to rise to Rs 4,500 crore, the company said.
New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) Amid the India-Maldives row, full service carrier Vistara on Monday said it will monitor the demand for flights between the two countries as the "situation is evolving right now".

Vistara operates one flight each daily from Mumbai and Delhi to Male.

Airline's Chief Commercial Officer Deepak Rajawat said it has not cancelled anything as of now and will monitor the demand for flights.

"The situation is very evolving right now... we will have to monitor in a week or so," he said at a briefing in response to queries about the Maldives situation.

Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet also operate flights to the Maldives. There were no comments from the three airlines on the current situation.

India has conveyed its strong concerns to Maldives over remarks posted on social media against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a number of ministers of that country.

The disparaging remarks by the ministers have drawn flak in India, with many celebrities urging people on X to explore domestic tourist destinations instead of going to the Maldives.

There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives in view of the row.

On Sunday, the government of the Maldives suspended three deputy ministers for derogatory social media posts against Modi.

The three deputy ministers criticised Modi for his post on 'X' following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.
In this article, we will take a look at the 30 places where people live the longest in the world. If you want to skip our discussion on the factors contributing to the longevity of people globally, you can go directly to the 5 Places Where People Live The Longest in The World.

There are many places across the world that have gained attention for their unique lifestyle factors, healthcare systems, and cultural practices that contribute to the longevity of their residents. One of the key factors contributing to high life expectancies in these places is the effectiveness of the healthcare systems. The global healthcare market size 2023 has reached $8,348.44 billion and is anticipated to expand to $8,963.64 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4%. The market is expected to grow further to $10,908.9 billion by 2028 at a CAGR of 5.0%. This positive trend is attributed to various factors, including advancements in medical technology, an aging population, increased health insurance coverage, government healthcare initiatives, and the integration of AI and technological innovations in the medical field. Taiwan and Belgium rank among the top countries with the best healthcare systems in the world. Meanwhile, Singapore and Vatican City are among the places where people live the longest in the world. You can also check out the 40 Cities with the Highest Life Expectancy in the US.

The healthcare sector is increasingly embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning, which play a crucial role in analyzing patient data to help create personalized treatment plans. For instance, Caption Health has developed an AI-powered clinical application that helps in conducting ultrasound scans to identify heart failure signs. This method allows individuals without specialized expertise to use the technology, making it more accessible and cost-effective for patients. As these technological advancements continue, the global AI healthcare market is expected to observe growth. With a value of $14 billion in 2020, the market is projected to reach $119.8 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 35.9%.

Story continues

Key Players in the Healthcare Industry

The healthcare industry's key players majorly contribute to the sector through technological applications and research and development. One prominent industry leader is UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH), a multinational health insurance and services company headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, with a market capitalization of $497 billion as of January 5. United Health's subsidiary, Optum Rx, introduced the Optum Rx Weight Engage program on December 12, 2023. This weight management support initiative is set to benefit plan sponsors' consumers and employers. Another notable player in the industry is CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS), a health solutions company. On November 8, 2023, the CVS Health Foundation committed $3 million over five years to organizations such as the Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County in Florida, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute in Texas, and the Rosecrance Foundation in Chicago. This initiative aims to make it easier for people to access mental health care and personalized treatments for healthier lifestyles.

Similarly, Elevance Health Inc (NYSE:ELV) also prioritizes people's well-being, ensuring individual control over health while also working to strengthen the medical workforce. On November 1, 2023, Elevance Health announced a $1.42 million investment to support the National Inclusive Curriculum for Health Education. This program focuses on creating a curriculum about Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) that medical schools across the country can use. Elevance Health has already provided funds to seven medical schools in 2023 for this curriculum. The company is now accepting proposals for funding for the academic year 2024-2025.

Here's what ClearBridge Investments said about Elevance Health Inc (NYSE:ELV) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:

Our health care positioning also fared well. We continue to maintain an overweight position to managed care companies via long-term holdings in UnitedHealth and Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV), as we believe the short cycle nature of their insurance franchises allows them to reprice their book of business in a relatively short time frame, even if health care costs come in higher than previously anticipated.

Places Where People Live The Longest in The World

Image by coombesy from Pixabay

Our Methodology

To shortlist the 30 places where people live the longest in the world, we referred to the World Population Review. Our selection criteria focused on the average life expectancy for both genders. The list includes both countries and islands/territories. The places have been ranked in ascending order of their average life expectancy as of 2023. Lets begin our list of the places where people live the longest in the world.

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Places Where People Live The Longest in The World

30. Luxembourg

Average Life Expectancy: 82.74 years

Luxembourg's life expectancy slightly decreased from 82.96 years in 2022 to 82.74 years in 2023, reflecting a decline of around 0.22%. Approximately 95% of Luxembourg's residents are covered by the country's mandatory social health insurance (SHI) program.

29. Reunion

Average Life Expectancy: 82.78 years

Situated in the Mascarene Islands, Reunion operates as a French overseas region. Piton de la Fournaise, an active volcano soaring at 2,632 meters, stands as the most iconic landmark on the island. The average life expectancy in Reunion is 82.78 years.

28. Ireland

Average Life Expectancy: 82.87 years

Irelands life expectancy rose from 81.66 years in 2022 to 82.87 years in 2023. This translates to an increase of about 1.48%.

27. Guernsey

Average Life Expectancy: 82.94 years

Guernsey, located in the English Channel, operates as a self-governing British Crown dependency. Its notable features include beach resorts and captivating scenery. The average life expectancy in Guernsey stands at 82.94 years.

26. Iceland

Average Life Expectancy: 82.96 years

Iceland experienced a decrease in life expectancy from 83.64 years in 2022 to 82.96 years in 2023, reflecting a decline of around 0.81%. Iceland has a publicly funded universal healthcare system that prioritizes its resident's well-being.

25. Gibraltar

Average Life Expectancy: 83.0 years

Gibraltar, situated on the southern coast of Spain, is a British overseas territory. It is characterized by the presence of the Rock of Gibraltar, a limestone ridge that rises to a height of 426 meters. The average life expectancy in Gibraltar is 83 years as of 2023.

24. Canada

Average Life Expectancy: 83.02 years

Canada's life expectancy decreased about 0.94% from the previous year, from 83.80 years in 2022 to 83.02 years in 2023. Canada has a strong healthcare system, which effectively minimizes health disparities, contributing to a positive impact on the overall health of its residents.

23. New Zealand

Average Life Expectancy: 83.15 years

New Zealand witnessed a rise in life expectancy from 82.54 years in 2022 to 83.15 years in 2023, indicating a rise of 0.74% from the previous year.

22. Guadeloupe

Average Life Expectancy: 83.33 years

Guadeloupe, classified as a French overseas region, is a collection of islands situated in the southern part of the Caribbean Sea. The average life expectancy in the region stands at 83.33 years.

21. France

Average Life Expectancy: 83.35 years

France experienced a rise in life expectancy from 82.59 years in 2022 to 83.35 years in 2023, reflecting an increase of about 0.76%.

20. Israel

Average Life Expectancy: 83.39 years

Israel witnessed a slight increase in life expectancy, from 83.35 years in 2022 to 83.39 years in 2023.

19. Martinique

Average Life Expectancy: 83.45 years

Martinique is an island located in the eastern Caribbean Sea, within the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies. With a life expectancy of 83.45 years, Martinique is at the seventeenth position on our list of the 30 places where people live the longest in the world.

18. Norway

Average Life Expectancy: 83.55 years

Norways life expectancy rose from 82.55 years in 2022 to 83.55 years in 2023. This indicates an increase of about 1.21%.

17. San Marino

Average Life Expectancy: 83.58 years

San Marino experienced a slight decrease in life expectancy, from 83.86 years in 2022 to 83.58 years in 2023. San Marino has an exceptional healthcare system, allowing the country to be on the list of the 30 places where people live the longest in the world.

16. Sweden

Average Life Expectancy: 83.65 years

Sweden recorded an increase in life expectancy to 83.65 years in 2023 from 82.70 years in 2022. Swedens healthcare system is one of the most well-developed healthcare systems in the world.

15. French Polynesia

Average Life Expectancy: 83.7 years

French Polynesia is an overseas territory of France that enjoys a significant degree of autonomy. It comprises five archipelagoes located in the south-central Pacific Ocean. The average life expectancy in French Polynesia stands at 83.7 years as of 2023.

14. Andorra

Average Life Expectancy: 83.71 years

Andorra has observed an increase in life expectancy, from 83.42 years in 2022 to 83.71 years in 2023. This marks an increase of about 0.35%.

13. Australia

Average Life Expectancy: 83.73 years

Australia recorded an increase in life expectancy, from 83.09 years in 2022 to 83.73 years in 2023. Australias healthcare system ranked as the 5th best in the World Index of Health Innovation in 2022, an improvement from its 7th position in 2021.

12. Malta

Average Life Expectancy: 83.83 years

Malta witnessed an increase in life expectancy, rising from 82.20 years in 2022 to 83.83 years in 2023. This indicates an increase of about 1.98% from the previous year.

11. Spain

Average Life Expectancy: 84.05 years

Spains average life expectancy rose from 82.55 years in 2022 to 84.05 years in 2023, an increase of 1.82% from the previous year. Additionally, the countrys healthcare system was ranked 19th across Europe according to the Euro Health Consumer Index.

10. South Korea

Average Life Expectancy: 84.14 years

South Korea demonstrated a notable improvement in life expectancy, rising from 82.97 years in 2022 to 84.14 years in 2023. This signifies a meaningful 1.41% increase.

9. Vatican City

Average Life Expectancy: 84.16 years

Situated within the heart of Rome, Vatican City is known as the smallest sovereign state globally. The average life expectancy in Vatican City stood at 84.16 years in 2023.

8. Italy

Average Life Expectancy: 84.2 years

Italy, a country known for its history, art, and delicious food, witnessed an increase in life expectancy, from 82.58 years in 2022 to 84.2 years in 2023. The country is at the eighth place on our list of the 30 places where people live the longest in the world.

7. Singapore

Average Life Expectancy: 84.27 years

Singapore experienced a decrease in life expectancy from 86.35 years in 2022 to 84.27 years in 2023, a decline of about 2.41%. Despite this decrease, Singapores healthcare system ranks 10th globally according to the World Index of Health Care Innovation.

6. Switzerland

Average Life Expectancy: 84.38 years

Switzerland witnessed an increase in life expectancy, from 83.23 years in 2022 to 84.38 years in 2023. The improvement in life expectancy in the country can be attributed to Switzerland's strong healthcare system.

Companies in the healthcare industry, such as UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH), CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS), and Elevance Health Inc (NYSE:ELV), are playing an important role in improving the lives of people globally.

Click to continue reading and see the 5 Places Where People Live The Longest in The World.

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Disclosure: None. 30 Places Where People Live The Longest in The World is originally published on Insider Monkey.
Chandigarh, Jan 8 (PTI) Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Monday issued directions for conducting a thorough check of firefighting systems in large and small industrial units across all districts.

For faulty fire systems in industrial units, he directed the officers to conduct inspections and ensure immediate repairs.

Chautala said if any institution fails to rectify its firefighting system even after a 30-day notice from the fire department, appropriate action should be taken against it.

He also directed inspections of educational institutions, universities, colleges, petrol stations, industries, marriage banquet halls, and the fire systems in the districts.

He was speaking after flagging off 40 firefighting bikes from the Public Works Department rest house in Panchkula.

"Sixty more such bikes will be handed over to the remaining districts soon, a contribution from Hero Motor Corporation under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)," he said, according to an official statement.

Meanwhile, interacting with reporters on the sidelines of the event in Panchkula, Chautala, when asked will his Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) contest the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the BJP or put up its own candidates, said, "This will be decided by the two parties".

The BJP and the JJP have in the recent months remained non-committal whether they will contest the upcoming polls together.

To another question, Chautala said the JJP has so far held rallies in six of the 10 Lok Sabha segments in the state and will be holding rallies in the remaining constituencies in the coming weeks.

On a question about the opposition INDIA bloc, he said, "Many rounds of meetings have been organised by them so far, but it appears there is no consensus, had it been so, they would have issued a seat sharing (formula) by now".

Earlier during the event in Panchkula, Chautala was briefed by the Director General of Fire and Emergency Services, Yashpal Singh, who provided detailed information about the department's operations and challenges.

Chautala also engaged in discussions with fire officials from Karnal, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Jind.
Cairo, Jan 7 (AP) Production at Libya's largest oil field was suspended on Sunday, the country's state-run oil company said, after protesters forced the facility to close over fuel shortages.

The National Oil Corp. declared force majeure at the Sharara oil field in the country's south starting Sunday. Force majeure is a legal maneuver that releases a company of its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances.

The company said in a statement that the closure of the field forced the suspension of crude oil supplies to the western Zawiya terminal on the Mediterranean coast.

Libya produces more than 1.2 million barrels of oil per day, and Sharara is the country's largest field, with a capacity of up to 300,000 barrels per day.

The company said negotiations with the protesters were underway to resume production as soon as possible.

Local media reported that residents of the desert town of Ubari, about 950 kilometers (590 miles) south of the capital Tripoli, shut down the field to protest fuel shortages.

The protesters also called for rehabilitating infrastructure and repairing roads in the southwestern region of Fezzan, one of the historic three provinces of Libya. They had closed the field for two days in July.

Libya's light crude has long featured in the country's yearslong civil conflict, with rival militias and foreign powers jostling for control of Africa's largest oil reserves.

Libya has been in turmoil since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The North African nation has for most of the past decade been split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each backed by militias and foreign governments. (AP)



RUP

RUP
Chennai, Jan 8 (PTI) Motorcycle manufacturer Royal Enfield, a unit of Eicher Motors Ltd, has earmarked investments of Rs 3,000 crore spread over a period of eight years in Tamil Nadu towards development of new products, the company said on Monday.



The investments are expected to generate about 2,000 direct and indirect jobs in the region.



As per a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Tamil Nadu government during the Global Investors Meet here, the investments would be used to set up greenfield and brownfield projects in the region, among other things.





This investment will be mainly used for the development of new products, Electric Vehicles (EVs) product development and capacity building and also additionally for any capacity enhancement for ICE (internal combustion engine), whenever required, a release from the company said.







Royal Enfield CEO B Govindarajan exchanged documents with Tamil Nadu Industries Department Secretary V Arun Roy during GIM 2024 in the presence of Chief Minister M K Stalin.





"Tamil Nadu has been our home, anchor for our engineering, technical and manufacturing foundations for several decades. This strategic investment in Tamil Nadu marks a significant milestone for us at Royal Enfield." Govindarajan said.





Key provisions of the MoU include the infrastructural support and regulatory facilitation. The government would also prioritise providing uninterrupted power supply and other essential infrastructure support.





"We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Government of Tamil Nadu for their unwavering support, and we are eager to partner with the government and create a positive impact on the community and contribute to the state's overall economic prosperity," he said.





Royal Enfield has manufacturing facilities in Oragadam and Vallam Vadagal, producing a range of its motorcycles.







The upcoming expansion will not only strengthen Royal Enfield's production capabilities but also contribute to the state's position as a major automotive hub, the release added.
Dhaka, Jan 8 (PTI) Foreign observers, including those from the US, Canada, Russia, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab Parliament, have termed the just-concluded general elections in Bangladesh as free, fair, and peaceful.

The observers praised the election process in Bangladesh, with one of them pointing out that the caretaker government system over which the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted the polls was anti-democratic.

It's been a very fair and free process for people walking in. There's a lot of good security and a very transparent process, said Shaoquett Moselmane, an Australian observer.

I found the election to be very peaceful, free, and fair, state-run BSS news agency quoted Jim Bates, a former US Congressman, as saying at a press conference at the end of the polling on Sunday.

Incumbent prime minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League won 223 seats in the 300-member Parliament.

The government invited a large number of foreign observers from India and other as well as multilateral organisations to observe the elections amid the opposition boycott.

The turnout in Sunday's election was 27.15 per cent at 3:00 pm, but after voting closed at 4:00 pm, the Election Commission estimated the final tally could stand at around 40 per cent, a 13 per cent jump in an hour.

The observers visited different polling centres in and around Dhaka as well as adjacent districts.

Some of them even visited the polling centres before the start of voting at 8 am to check ballot stuffing.

Andrey Y Shutov from the Russian Election Commission, CEO of the Central Election Commission of Palestine Hisham Kuhail, Mohamadou Musa Njie of the Gambia High Commission, Scottish MP Martyn Day, head of the election unit of the OIC Shakir Mahmood Bandar, member of Arab Parliament Abdihakim Moalliam, executive director of South Asia Democratic Forum Paulo Casaca, Members of the Canadian Parliament Victor OH and Chandrakanth Arya, among others, shared their experiences.

However, none of them spoke about any irregularities.

Elections in Bangladesh have the shortest voting hours, from 8 am to 4 pm, compared to other countries of the world, he said, adding that the voting hours in many countries stretch up to 9 pm from the morning, while in California the voting starts one month before the polls.

South Asia Democratic Forum Executive Director Paulo Casaca said the electoral process was very good, marvellous and magnificent in Bangladesh.

He said Bangladesh was taking the process of democracy much further than any other country.

Paulo Casaca is a former Portuguese member of parliament and member of the European Parliament.

He also said that the caretaker government system only exists in Pakistan.

"In Bangladesh, it was also used. But fundamentally this is anti-democratic," he said.

"Democracy is, of course, a choice. Of course, its polarisation, but it cannot be toxic polarisation. The choice was taken out by your main opposition by not showing up," he said when asked about the opposition boycott.

"But what is the alternative? It's a coup detat. Is this a good thing? Is the dictator and coup detat the best alternative to low turnout?" he said when asked about the low turnout of voters.

CEO of American Global Strategies Alexander B Gray, sharing his experiences after visiting 10 polling centres, said: "I saw with my own eyes that the election was free and fair, and professionally administered, having a high degree of enthusiasm from the voters, polling staffs and others concerned.

He said not a single voter or anyone expressed their concerns and complaints to him.

This election met the highest standards of democratic accountability and professionalism and Im very much convinced that the Election Commission has operated professionally and with integrity, he said.

Member of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation Shutov said the voters were very active in Bangladesh and thus all candidates and voters were involved in the political process.

These determined people can decide the future of this country and it makes us think that this election is legitimate.

Shutov said he was impressed by the openness and transparency of the election, while each voter got all the information about polls.

This election was open and transparent and we think that the electoral system in Bangladesh is efficient. Bangladesh has a long tradition of elections the political process of Bangladesh is developing stably, he said.

Chandrakanth Arya, an Indo-Canadian Liberal politician, said that a record number of over 1,900 candidates representing some 28 political parties took part in the election, where all the contestants had free access to people and there was no hindrance in campaigning on their behalf.

We would like to congratulate the Election Commission for conducting a very free, fair and successful election. I would like to recognise and commend the excellent work of the election commission in marshalling all the government institutions of the state in delivering a free, fair, peaceful and successful election, he said.

He termed the BNP election boycott tactical or strategic and said the decision of the opposition political party was in their interest. Its not our job to comment on the judgment of that decision.

The election process was free, so we accepted it, he said.

Martin Day, an MP from Scotland, said the polling process was very smooth and quite impressive although the voter turnout was a bit low.

Hisham Kuhail of Palestine said: What we saw today is a good voting process on a voting day nobody forces anyone to vote.

He also observed that the election process was quiet and peaceful.

There was efficient use of available resources, the presiding officers were competent, while the participants were very happy with the voting process, he said.

Shakir Mahmood Bandar from the OIC congratulated the government for the successful holding of the elections.

Till now the election is being conducted fairly, he said after 5 pm, when the counting was still going on.

Separately, Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen on Sunday said that whether the people of the country supported the election was the big issue, not the stance of Western countries.

Why do you worry so much about nations in the West? Do you lack self-confidence? The most important point is that the government was elected by the people, he said, replying to a question after he met with some foreign observers.

The question of Western recognition came up as the major opposition party BNP boycotted the polls.

The US last year announced a visa policy to ensure free and fair elections in Bangladesh, but Russia called the US measure an interference.

We believe in the people, Momen said, adding: When we got independence in 1971, did the Western world support us?

Whether the people of the country supported it or not is a big issue. I am not interested in what a foreigner says, I believe in what our people say, the Dhaka Tribune quoted Momen as saying.

He also expressed gratitude to the people for casting votes in a hostile environment.

They set fire to the train and killed people. There was panic. But people voted for us. They supported us in this hostile environment.

Asserting that there was no rigging in the election, the foreign minister said that there were no fake votes anywhere. "The election was free, fair, and acceptable."

The Election Commission has taken appropriate steps, he said.

No one can say that the vote has already taken place, he said, adding that a foreign observer went to a polling centre at 6 am when there were no people there.

I heard they went so early in the morning to see whether anyone was stuffing the ballot box in the dark of night very surprising.

He said the foreign observer team also discussed the issues of the BNP with him.

He said: The bitterness that has been created with the opposition party, they want to know what we think about reducing the bitterness in the future.

They have only one issuethe prime minister must resign. Is there any such method in the world? Momen said, asking if Biden would resign in America before the election.

He said the BNP was making the excessive demand deliberately so that there was no opportunity for any kind of discussion.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday secured a record fourth straight term as her Awami League (AL) party won an overwhelming majority in the general elections marred by sporadic violence and a boycott by the main opposition BNP and its allies.

Hasina, 76, also the president of Awami League, won the Gopalganj-3 constituency in a landslide victory, her eighth term as a Member of Parliament.

Hasina, who has been ruling the strategically located South Asian nation since 2009, secured a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall term in the one-sided election, which witnessed the second-lowest turnout since the restoration of democracy in 1991.

With this win, Hasina is poised to become the longest-serving prime minister in Bangladesh since independence.

Former premier Khaleda Zia-led BNP, which boycotted the election and observed a strike on election day, said the party plans to intensify its anti-government movement through a peaceful public engagement programme from Tuesday as it dubbed the polls as "fake".

The BNP boycotted the 2014 election but joined the one in 2018. This time, they boycotted the polls. Fifteen other political parties also boycotted the election.

Ahead of the elections, Hasina's government arrested tens of thousands of rival politicians and supporters, a move which rights groups have condemned as an attempt to paralyse the Opposition.

Hasina went for a tight-fisted seat-sharing with the Jatiya Party and other allies and invited all her party leaders and activists to join the race as independent candidates to make the election look participatory and competitive.

As Bangladesh steps into this new term under the Awami League's governance, the reshaping of the Opposition poses critical questions about the future of the country's parliamentary dynamics and political balance, bdnews newspaper said.
Abu Dhabi, Jan 8 (AP) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has opened his third day of meetings on an urgent Mideast diplomatic mission to prevent Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza from exploding into a broader regional conflict.

Blinken was meeting Monday with United Arab Emirates leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed before travelling to Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aimed at enlisting the key Arab leaders in a push to not only keep the war contained but also prepare for post-conflict Gaza's future.

With Sheikh Mohammed in Abu Dhabi Blinken emphasised the importance of preventing further spread of the conflict and stressed continued US commitment to securing lasting regional peace that ensures Israel's security and advances the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, the State Department said.

Blinken arrived in Abu Dhabi from similar meetings in Qatar, Jordan, Turkiye and Greece, where he claimed at least modest success in his mission with pledges from those countries to consider contributing to the effort to plan for Gaza's reconstruction and governance once the fighting has ended.

Gaza has been decimated by three months of Israeli bombardments that have sparked anger around the world for the massive damage and huge number of civilian casualties.

Financial and in-kind support from the UAE and Saudi Arabia will be essential to the success of any such plan and US officials said Blinken on his fourth trip to the region since the war began in October hoped to overcome initial Arab resistance to considering day after scenarios for Gaza.

Arab countries have been pressing for an immediate cease-fire and an end to civilian deaths before discussing such plans.

But after his first meetings on his latest tour, Blinken said he had been speaking with officials about contributions they could make to post-war plans and about using their influence to tamp down resurgent fears that the conflict could expand and potentially draw in direct US involvement.

This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering, Blinken told reporters during a joint news conference in Doha with Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

So from day one, among other priorities, we have been intensely focused on working to prevent the conflict from spreading," he said. We share a commitment to ensure that the conflict does not expand."

He said his talks had also included not necessarily easy discussions of what each country can do once the conflict is over to provide the assurances and the incentives required to build a more secure and more stable, more peaceful future for the region.

And my takeaway from the discussions so far, including here with our friends in Qatar, is that our partners are willing to have these difficult conversations and to make hard decisions. All of us feel a stake in forging the way forward, Blinken said.

Arab states have been highly critical of Israel's actions and have eschewed public support for long-term planning, arguing that the fighting must end before such discussions can begin. They have been demanding a cease-fire since mid-October as civilian casualties began to skyrocket.

After his talks with Blinken, Sheikh Mohammed called for an immediate cease-fire, saying the constant images of death and destruction in Gaza are de-sensitising people to the horrors of what is happening.

This is a big test for our humanity, he said. We are looking for a sustainable future. However, the focus is now on stopping the fighting.

In Amman on Sunday, Jordan's King Abdullah II warned of the catastrophic repercussions of the war in Gaza while calling on the US to press for an immediate cease-fire, a statement from the Royal Court said.

Israel has refused to agree to a cease-fire and the US has instead called for specified temporary humanitarian pauses to allow aid to get in and people to get to safety.

Another urgent priority for Blinken is to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza. In Amman, Blinken toured the World Food Program's regional coordination warehouse, where trucks are being packed with aid to be delivered to Gaza through both the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings.

We're determined to do everything we possibly can to ameliorate the situation for the men, women and children in Gaza, Blinken said.

From Saudi Arabia, Blinken will travel to Israel, the West Bank and Egypt on Tuesday and Wednesday before returning to Washington.

The US has been pressing Israel for weeks to let greater amounts of food, water, fuel, medicine and other supplies into Gaza, and the UN Security Council passed a resolution on December 22 calling for an immediate increase in deliveries. Three weeks ago, Israel opened Kerem Shalom, adding a second entry point for aid into Gaza after Rafah.

Still, the rate of trucks entering has not risen significantly. This week, an average of around 120 trucks a day entered through Rafah and Kerem Shalom, according to UN figures, far below the 500 trucks of goods going in daily before the war and far below what aid groups say is needed.

Almost the entire population of 2.3 million depends on the trucks coming across the border for their survival. One in four Palestinians in Gaza is starving, and the rest face crisis levels of hunger, according to the UN.

More than 85 per cent of people in Gaza have been driven from their homes by Israeli bombardment and ground offensives. Most live in UN shelters crowded beyond their capacity, in tent camps that have been sprung up, or on the streets.

Blinken's visit comes as developments in Lebanon, northern Israel, the Red Sea and Iraq have put intense strains on what had been a modestly successful US push to prevent a regional conflagration since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, and as international criticism of Israel's military operation mounts. (AP) PY

PY
Rome, Jan 8 (AP) Pope Francis called Monday for a universal ban on the despicable practice of surrogate motherhood, as he included the commercialisation of pregnancy in an annual speech listing threats to global peace and human dignity.

In a foreign policy address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, Francis lamented that 2024 had dawned at a time in history in which peace is increasingly threatened, weakened and in some part lost.

Citing Russia's war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, migration, climate crises and the immoral production of nuclear and conventional weapons, Francis delivered a lengthy laundry list of the ills afflicting humanity and the increasing violation of international humanitarian law that allows them.

But Francis also listed smaller-scale issues that he said were threats to peace and human dignity, including surrogacy. Francis said the life of the unborn child must be protected and not suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking.

I consider despicable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother's material needs, he said.

Saying a child is a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract, he called for a global ban on surrogacy "to prohibit this practice universally.

Francis has previously voiced the Catholic Church's opposition to what he has called uterus for rent, and some European countries prohibit it, including Spain and Italy. At the same time, however, the Vatican's doctrine office has made clear that homosexual parents who resort to surrogacy can have their children baptized.

In his geopolitical roundup, Francis singled out Russia by name in noting that large-scale war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine had ground on. It marked an unusual break with Francis' usual tendency to spare Moscow direct, public blame for the invasion when expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

Francis was more balanced in his lament of Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, condemning Hamas' October 7 assault on southern Israel and every instance of terrorism and extremism. At the same time, he said the attack provoked a strong Israeli military response that had left thousands dead and created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

He called for an immediate cease-fire, including in Lebanon, the liberation of hostages held in Gaza, and reiterated the Holy See's position seeking a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians and an internationally guaranteed special status for Jerusalem.

In other comments, Francis:

 Lamented various humanitarian and refugee crises in Africa, and without naming names blasted military coups and elections in several African countries marked by corruption, intimidation and violence.

 Called for a respectful diplomatic dialogue with the Nicaraguan government to resolve what he called a protracted crisis. The government's crackdown on the Catholic Church has resulted in the detention of dozens of priests and bishops. The government has accused the church of aiding popular protests against his administration that he considered an attempted coup.

 Called for the resumption, as early as possible, of Iran nuclear talks to ensure a safer future for all. Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had increased the rate at which it is producing near-weapons-grade uranium, reversing a previous slowdown.

Francis also said that the manufacturing of nuclear weapons was just as immoral as the possession and use of them. Francis has already changed church teaching to include the possession of nuclear weapons as inadmissible, but on Monday included the production of such weapons as part of his overall criticism of the weapons industry.

Perhaps we need to realize more clearly that civilian victims are not collateral damage' (of war) but men and women, with names and surnames, who lost their lives, he said. They are children who are orphaned and deprived of their future. (AP) NPK

NPK
Singapore, Jan 8 (PTI) The corruption probe into Singapores Indian-origin Transport Minister S. Iswaran is a very worrying development and has had a big impact on the constituency he was elected from, a senior minister said.

Members of Parliament (MPs) in the group representation constituency (GRC) of West Coast, which was led by Iswaran, are working to engage residents and tackle pressing issues such as cost of living and inequality, National Development Minister Desmond Lee said.

Since (the news broke of Iswaran corruption case) July, we have been able to hold the team together, energise them to continue serving the ground with passion and dedication, said Lee, who oversees is part of the West Coast GRC.

Iswaran was arrested by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) on July 11, 2023, and is out on bail.

The probe stems from an earlier unrelated investigation on a separate matter. However, further details about what Iswaran is being investigated for have not been released.

He has been placed on leave of absence and had his monthly pay reduced to SGD 8,500 until further notice, though he continues to draw his MP allowance.

Asked if the incident is still casting a shadow on his GRC, Lee said in an interview with The Straits Times and Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao that the incident has had an impact, is a big impact but did not elaborate further.

But that has not distracted us from the important mission of continuing to serve our residents and ensuring that there is no disruptive trend to the continuity of services, and that there are people that residents will continue to look for assistance, he said.
Dhaka, Jan 8 (PTI) A three-member delegation from the Election Commission of India on Monday lauded Bangladesh's top electoral body for its meticulous planning and the peaceful conduct of the just-concluded polls that reelected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas party for a straight fourth term.

Incumbent prime minister Hasina's Awami League (AL) won 223 seats in the 300-member Parliament on Sunday in the polls boycotted by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition.

The Bangladesh government invited a large number of foreign observers from India and other countries, as well as multilateral organisations, to observe the elections.

The three-member delegation is led by the Election Commission of India's Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Dharmendra Sharma and includes Director General B Narayanan and Principal Secretary Mohammed Umar.

Appreciating the Bangladesh Election Commission for its meticulous planning and arrangements in conducting the general election, the delegation said that it saw citizens exercising their electoral rights peacefully.

We appreciate the efforts of the Election Commission of Bangladesh and its meticulous planning and arrangements made for the conduct of the election process and facilitating this visit, said a press release by the Indian Election Commission, carrying the statement of the visiting delegation.

We saw citizens of Bangladesh exercising their electoral rights at these stations peacefully, it said.

They also thanked the Bangladesh Election Commission for inviting them as observers to witness the countrys 12th Parliamentary elections.

Poll monitors from several other countries, including the US, Canada, Russia, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab Parliament, termed the just-concluded general elections in Bangladesh as free, fair, and peaceful.

The observers praised the election process in Bangladesh, with one of them pointing out that the caretaker government system over which the opposition BNP boycotted the polls was anti-democratic.

It's been a very fair and free process for people walking in. There's a lot of good security and a very transparent process, said Shaoquett Moselmane, an Australian observer.

I found the election to be very peaceful, free, and fair, said Jim Bates, a former US Congressman, at a press conference at the end of the polling.

Bangladesh invited a large number of foreign observers from different countries and multilateral organisations to observe the elections amid the opposition boycott.

Hasina, who has been ruling the strategically located South Asian nation since 2009, secured a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall term in the one-sided election, which witnessed the second-lowest turnout since the restoration of democracy in 1991.

With this win, Hasina is poised to become the longest-serving prime minister in Bangladesh since independence.

Former premier Khaleda Zia-led BNP, which boycotted the election and observed a strike on election day, said the party plans to intensify its anti-government movement through a peaceful public engagement programme from Tuesday as it dubbed the polls as "fake".

The BNP boycotted the 2014 election but joined the one in 2018. This time, they boycotted the polls. Fifteen other political parties also boycotted the election.
Jeddah, Jan 8 (PTI) Union Minister for Minority Affairs Smriti Irani accompanied by Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Monday met with Indian volunteers who provide dedicated service to Indian Haj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia and also interacted with Umrah pilgrims from India.

Irani, also serving as the Union Minister for Women & Child Development, travelled to Madinah city - one of Islam's holiest cities - on Monday.

"Undertook a historic journey to Madinah today, one of Islam's holiest cities included a visit to the periphery of the revered Prophet's Mosque, Al Masjid Al Nabwi, the mountain of Uhud, and periphery of the Quba Mosque  the first Mosque of Islam," she said in a post on X.

"The significance of the visit to these sites courtesy Saudi officials, intertwined with early Islamic history, underscores the depth of our cultural and spiritual engagement," she added.

According to an official statement, the delegation interacted with Indian volunteers who provide dedicated and selfless service to Indian Haj pilgrims, including during Haj 2023. The delegation also interacted with Umrah pilgrims from India.

The visit shall help provide a first hand insight into the arrangements required to be made for ensuring a comfortable Haj 2024 for the Indian pilgrims, it added.

"The Government of India is deeply committed to assist in providing facilities and services to Indian Muslims who undertake the Haj pilgrimage, thereby providing them with a comfortable and fulfilling experience," it said.

India and Saudi Arabia share warm and cordial ties and the Government of India deeply appreciates the special gesture of Saudi's Ministry of Hajj and Umrah in facilitating this visit of the Indian delegation to Madinah, the statement added.

On Sunday, India and Saudi Arabia signed the Bilateral Haj Agreement 2024 under which New Delhi has been allocated a quota of 1,75,025 pilgrims for the annual Haj pilgrimage in 2024.
London, Jan 8 (PTI) The next UK Parliament is set to be the most diverse yet based on current candidate selections by major British political parties, according to latest projections by a UK-based think tank and charity created to promote diversity and social cohesion.

British Futures Diversity in the next Parliament report released on Sunday reveals that ethnic minority representation, including parliamentarians of Indian heritage, in the House of Commons is set to rise from 10 per cent to around 12 per cent after the next General Election. This outcome is forecast regardless of the political outcome, reflecting a "new cross-party norm" of ethnic diversity in British politics.

With the governing Conservatives and Opposition Labour Party having selected roughly around nine-tenths of their candidates for winnable target constituencies and early retirement seats, the think tank's projection finds that the number of ethnic minority members of Parliament is set to increase from 65 to at least 75, and even as many as 83, for the first time at the next general election.

Rishi Sunak, the first British Prime Minister of Indian heritage, had indicated last week that he is considering going to the electorate in the second half of the year.

"The next Parliament will be the most diverse ever, reflecting a new norm across political parties, said Sunder Katwala, Director of British Future.

"More ethnic minorities and more women are likely to sit in the Commons than ever before. Parliament is gradually catching up with the electorate that it represents. But this needs to accelerate further if it is to keep pace with the growing diversity of our society and close the gender gap, he said.

The projected increase of diversity in the Commons would still be below the 15 per cent required in order to keep pace with the diversity of the electorate. Therefore, Katwala strikes a note of caution to say that despite progress, political parties could miss a 2024 opportunity and called for more proactive action.

"In the longer term, Parliament and political parties should collect data on ethnicity and social class, to track representation, identify gaps and ensure all groups are getting a fair chance, he added.

The Labour Party is projected to have the largest number of ethnic minority MPs, at around 55 if the party wins an overall majority, compared to around 21 Conservatives. The 2019 general election saw 66 ethnic minority MPs elected to the Westminster Parliament  of which around 25 per cent of Indian heritage  dubbed a diversity milestone as for the first time 10 per cent of MPs were from an ethnic minority background.

That record looks set to be surpassed once again later this year, British Future said.

The projections also show that there will be a record number of women elected, particularly if the Labour Party is successful in gaining seats at the General Election.
SPARKLE, SHINE AND READY YOUR HOME TOGETHER AS A FAMILY THIS LUNAR NEW YEAR WITH THE 3M SCOTCH-BRITE BRAND

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Welcome the Lunar New Year of the Dragon in 2024 with a sparkly clean home using the 3M Scotch-Brite range of home cleaning products that deliver easy-to-use solutions for everyone. The 3M Scotch-Brite range of products includes sponges, sweepers, scourers and cloths that will allow consumers to keep every part of the home clean and tidy at all times.

The 3M Scotch-Brite range of products includes sponges, sweepers, scourers and cloths that will allow consumers to keep every part of the home clean and tidy at all times.

The ever-popular 3M Scotch-Brite household brand can help families save time as cleaning becomes more efficient during the annual pre-Lunar New Year spring cleaning. With a wide range of products available for every need, families can be assured that a product will be suited for every corner of the house. Spring cleaning should also be a family affair, where everyone contributes to the joy of a sparkling home during the festive period.

"At 3M, we have an unwavering commitment to innovation and these Scotch-Brite products simplify cleaning tasks and provide a new level of efficiency to ensure that cleaning is a breeze. Embracing the spirit of the upcoming Lunar New Year season, the Scotch-Brite brand offers a perfect blend of effectiveness and ease, ensuring our homes are clean and radiantly festive-ready. Be it for the spring cleaning that awaits as an activity for the entire family or any minor clean-ups throughout the 15 days of celebration  with the Scotch-Brite brand, you can focus on the things that matter  time with your family," shared Stephanie Ng, Category Development Marketing Manager for the Scotch-Brite brand, 3M Malaysia and Singapore.

Cleaning Made Easy: Dive into a World of Convenience with the new Scotch-Brite Hands-Free Mop and Easy Sweeper Plus+ Combo!

As the vibrant festivities of Lunar New Year approaches, families prioritise having a clean and welcoming home. Spring cleaning holds deep-rooted cultural importance during this auspicious time, symbolising the removal of the old to make way for the new. The role of spring cleaning should not only fall on one family member, but everyone should participate as a family activity so that all tasks can be completed efficiently and in less time.

Story continues

The Scotch-Brite Hands Free Mop with Compact Bucket, a revolutionary addition to our cleaning solutions, is perfectly timed for pre-Lunar New Year preparations. The 2-way mop cloth works well for wet and dry cleaning and is versatile not only for various types of floors but also for the walls and ceilings.

Say goodbye to stubborn hair and dust, as this hands-free mop smoothly removes impurities, ensuring a thorough clean. The durable bucket also features a splash-proof design, complementing the mop's efficiency. With a double scraper that swiftly removes water and a compact design for easy storage, the hands-free mop is a must-have for households seeking a convenient and effective cleaning solution. The 4x absorbency also ensures a superior cleaning experience, making it the perfect choice for spring cleaning. For added convenience, refills that can absorb 4x its weight in water is also available.

For a quick 5-minute clean-up before and after your reunion dinner, Scotch-Brite Easy Sweeper Plus+ Paper Wiper Mop is another excellent companion and efficient helper  so easy to use, even the family's youngest members can lend a hand. The Scotch-Brite Easy Sweeper Refills are also available in wet and dry options to enhance your cleaning experience. The dry refills use electrostatic charge for efficient dust pickup, while the wet refills offer 27% more moisture* and has 99.9% anti-bacterial properties where its anti-bacterial foam keeps odour-causing germs from building up on the sponge for a more hygienic clean, every time.

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Versatility meets toughness: Scotch-Brite Scrub Dots Sponges and Scotch-Brite General Purpose Cloth  from gentle cleansing to heavy-duty scrubbing, we've got you covered this festive season!

Maintaining a hygienic and visually pleasing home environment is crucial, especially during Lunar New Year. Many households have seen food scraps stuck in sponges, stubborn grease on pans and dusty ceiling fans. As families prepare for the auspicious celebration of Lunar New Year, having the right product companion will ensure effective cleaning, contributing to a fresh and welcoming environment for the festive season.

Enhance your cleaning routine with the exceptional performance of the Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch Scrub Dots (Non-Scratch/Heavy Duty) Sponges, the solution for the toughest messes. With the sponges, you will not have to worry about any remnants from your Lunar New Year reunion dinner from fried spring rolls or braised mushrooms getting on the sponge after cleaning, ensuring cleanliness and hygiene.

For everyday grease, grime or dirt on surfaces like non-stick coated pots and pans, consumers can use the Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch Scrub Dots Sponges that deliver a gratifying clean without scratching delicate surfaces. On the other hand, for heavier tasks, especially with stainless cookware, Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty Scrub Dots Sponges are effective in cleaning stubborn stains and burnt bits. The sponge is uniquely designed with 3M technology that has over 500 dots to cut through messes without scratching or without messes getting stuck. For optimal performance, it is recommended that the scrubbing sponge be replaced every four weeks.

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When tackling a deep clean or just looking for user-friendly cleaning products, the Scotch-Brite brand has got you covered. With high-quality and convenient cleaning solutions, 3M aims to simplify the process and help you discover the joy of a cleaner home. So, let's come together and make cleaning a breeze with the Scotch-Brite brand.

For a limited time, enjoy discounts up to 30%* during this Lunar New Year from now till 29 February 2024 when you purchase Scotch-Brite products on 3M Official Lazada & Shopee Stores and at selected physical retailers. To sweeten the deal, receive a free Scotch-Brite Limited Edition Dragon Scrub Sponge with a required minimum purchase on selected Scotch-Brite products on 3M Official Lazada & Shopee Stores and at selected physical retailers from 1 January 2024 onwards*.

The Scotch-Brite Hands Free Mop with Compact Bucket, Scotch-Brite Easy Sweeper Plus+ Paper Wiper Mop, Scotch-Brite Scrub Dots Sponges and Scotch-Brite General Purpose Cloth and other Scotch-Brite products are available for purchase at key retail stores in Malaysia and Singapore. Online shoppers may visit the official online stores of Malaysia or Singapore based on their location to make purchases. The options are as follows:

Malaysia Online Official Stores

Lazada

Shopee

Singapore Online Official Stores

Lazada

Shopee

*Terms and conditions apply, while stocks last.

Scotch-Brite is a trademark of 3M.

About the Scotch-Brite Brand

Scotch-Brite is a line of home cleaning products produced by 3M that has been a household brand in many countries for decades. The product line includes a range kitchen cleaning products that include scouring sponges and pads; other tools for home uses such as floor and bathroom care tools, scrubbers and cloths. With Scotch-Brite, it gives you the power to "briten" up homes and clean the toughest mess.

Follow us on:

Facebook (MY) - https://www.facebook.com/ScotchBriteMalaysia

Facebook (SG) - https://www.facebook.com/ScotchBriteSingapore

About 3M

3M (NYSE: MMM) believes science helps create a brighter world for everyone. By unlocking the power of people, ideas and science to reimagine what's possible, our global team uniquely addresses the opportunities and challenges of our customers, communities and planet. Learn how we're working to improve lives and make what's next at 3M.com/news or on Twitter at @3M or @3MNews .

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SOURCE 3M Malaysia and Singapore
Beirut, Jan 8 (AP) The elite Hezbollah commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Monday in southern Lebanon fought for the group for decades and took part in some of its biggest battles.

Wissam al-Tawil, a commander in Hezbollah's secretive Radwan Force deployed along the border with Israel, was killed when the strike hit his SUV in his hometown of Khirbet Silem. The strike was about 10 kilometres from the border, beyond the villages and towns that have witnessed the two sides exchange fire over the past three months.

Israeli officials have been demanding for weeks that the Radwan Force withdraw from the border area to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by the fighting to return to their homes. During a visit to Israel last month, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said a negotiated outcome would be the best way to reassure residents of northern Israel.

Al-Tawil was the highest-ranking Hezbollah official to be killed since the exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel border began following the deadly October 7 attack into southern Israel by Hamas, a Hezbollah ally.

A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that al-Tawil had a role in sparking the summer 2006 war with Israel and fought in Syria's civil war, where he was in charge of coordinating between the Lebanese group and the Syrian army in the battles against the Islamic State group.

On July 12, 2006, al-Tawil was a member of a special Hezbollah unit that crossed into Israel, captured two Israeli soldiers and killed others, triggering a monthlong fight with Israel that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon and 160 in Israel, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Years later, when Hezbollah joined the war in Syria in 2013, fighting alongside Syrian government forces, al-Tawil was a close aide to Hezbollah's chief commander there, Mustafa Badreddine, who was killed in 2016, the official said.

Al-Tawil, whose two brothers were killed fighting with Hezbollah, participated in dozens of attacks against Israeli forces and their Lebanese allies during Israel's 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon until it withdrew in 2000.

During his long years with the group, al-Tawil was close to Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's military chief from the group's founding in 1982 until he was killed in a bombing in the Syrian capital in 2008.

Al-Tawil also had close links with Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's Quds Force, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020. (AP)



GRS

GRS
Palghar, Jan 8 (PTI) Police have foiled a dacoity planned at a petrol pump on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway in Maharashtra's Palghar district and arrested six persons, including a woman, in this connection, an official said on Monday.

Acting on an information, the crime branch sleuths on Friday night found a jeep parked near Jivdani helipad in Virar area with a group of individuals discussing their plans, an official from Virar police station said.







After overhearing the conversation, the police learnt about their plan to commit dacoity at a petrol pump in the area and immediately alerted senior officials.

The police were attacked when they tried to apprehend the dacoits, resulting in injuries to two security personnel, the official said.







Later, the police arrested six persons, including a woman. All the accused, in the age group of 20 to 48 years, suffered minor injuries while being apprehended, as per the FIR.

Another accused, hailing from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, managed to escape, the official said.





The police seized a chopper, some large knives and other accessories commonly used in dacoities from the accused and impounded their jeep, the official said.

A case was registered against the accused under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act and the Maharashtra Police Act.

Three of the arrested persons hailed from Guna in Madhya Pradesh, two from Ahmednagar and one from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in Maharashtra, the police added.
Bhopal, Jan 8 (PTI) The Congress on Monday held multiple meetings in Bhopal primarily to brainstorm strategies for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections against the backdrop of a drubbing it had received at the hands of BJP in assembly polls two months ago.

Meetings of the election and the political affairs committees and of office-bearers, including Lok Sabha seat incharges, district chiefs, and heads of various party wings were held at the party headquarters here, a party functionary said.

MP Congress media cell in-charge K K Mishra told reporters that the party will hold organisation meetings in all the assembly constituencies from January 18 to 24.

AICC in-charge of MP, Jitendra Singh, state party president Jitu Patwari and other senior leaders attended the meetings.

A senior leader told PTI that Congress will hold a meeting of its disciplinary committee this week following complaints of sabotage in the assembly polls.

The party leaders dealt at length about strategies for upcoming general elections during meetings and leaders shared their views, he said.

The BJP won 163 out of 230 seats in assembly polls held last November, reducing the Congress tally to 66.

Mishra refused to share details of the meetings of the election and the political affairs committees, saying they revolved around the party's strategies for the Lok Sabha elections.



"The meeting of district chiefs of Congress party and others also discussed ways to make Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' in the state a success," he said.

The yatra would also pass through nine districts in the state covering a distance of 700 km in seven days via Morena, Gwalior, Shivpuri, Guna, Rajgarh, Agar-Malwa, Ujjain, Ratlam and Jhabua.

Speaking to media persons after attending the meetings, former chief minister Kamal Nath said Congress workers and leaders are not disappointed (due to assembly poll results), and on the contrary, they are upbeat to face the Lok Sabha polls.



He also said the issue of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) was also discussed during meetings.

Notably, the Congress has been blaming the EVMs for its disastrous show in the recent elections.



In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP virtually whitewashed Congress in Madhya Pradesh by winning 28 out of 29 constituencies.
Mumbai, Jan 8 (PTI) The World Bank has approved financial assistance of Rs 2,328 crore to develop infrastructure to divert flood water from western Maharashtra to Marathwada, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday.

The state government will contribute Rs 998 crore for the plan, he added.

"The World Bank has approved financial assistance of Rs 2,328 crore for the project that will help in diverting flood water from western Maharashtra to Marathwada, which faces water scarcity," he said in a statement.

Sangli and Kolhapur districts had witnessed flooding in September 2018, and a World Bank team that visited these areas at the time decided to provide aid for the water diversion project, Fadnavis said.
Imphal, Jan 8 (PTI) The editor of a vernacular newspaper in Manipur, who was arrested for allegedly publishing sensitive details in a report, has been released on bail, an official said on Monday.

He was arrested on Friday and granted bail by a local court on Sunday, he said.

"The editor, Dhanabir Maibam, had published sensitive details in a news report," the government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

Maibam was remanded to police custody till Sunday.

He was booked under various sections of the Official Secrets Act, including ones that entail punishment for promoting enmity on the ground of religion and race, the official said.

Sources said the report in Huyen Lanpao highlighted some "developing incidents" at Moreh town, which has witnessed a surge in gunfights between state forces and suspected Kuki militants.

Earlier, on December 28, another editor of a vernacular daily was arrested on similar grounds and later released on bail.

The Congress, in a statement on Sunday, had condemned the arrest of the two editors and demanded their immediate release.

The Indian National Congress strongly deplores the arrest of the editors of reputable vernacular newspapers. We firmly believe that journalists should be allowed to pursue their professional duties without fear of intimidation, especially when reporting on matters of public interest, the partys media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said.

The BJP government in Manipur has indulged in a string of assaults on freedom of press by arresting journalists, slapping grave charges and even confronting the Editors Guild of India (EGI) when they attempted to honestly report the true picture of the strife-ridden state, Khera alleged in the statement.
Itanagar, Jan 8 (PTI) An inter-state coordination meeting among senior officials of several districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam was held on Monday in view of elections to be held this year.

The meeting was held at Gohpur in Assams North Lakhimpur district, officials said here.

The assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh and Lok Sabha Polls are due this year.

The meeting was attended by the deputy commissioners of Biswanath and North Lakhimpur districts of Assam and their counterparts from Papum Pare and Pakke Kesang of Arunachal Pradesh.

The superintendents of police of Papum Pare, Capital, Naharlagun, Biswanath and the deputy SP of Pakke Kesang district were present at the meeting, the officials said.

Papum Pare Deputy Commissioner Jiken Bomjen, during the meeting, sought cooperation from the Assam authorities for smooth conduct of elections to be held in Arunachal Pradesh as and when announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

He also requested for smooth passage of various election teams and ensuring the security of election-related materials.

Special attention was also sought to avert infiltration of bogus voters, and the movement of unaccounted cash, alcohol and freebies across the inter-state border by the law enforcing agencies on both sides, the officials said.

The DCs of Papum Pare and Pakke Kessang also requested the Assam authorities to allow vehicles to be requisitioned during elections in case of shortcomings.

The DCs from Assam agreed to cooperate and render all possible help for smooth conduct of elections in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Biswanath DC also agreed to create a resting booth in the Behali Reserve Forest for the polling teams if needed, the officials added.
We will meet again to take final call on seat-sharing, will fight Lok Sabha elections together: Cong's Mukul Wasnik after talks with AAP.
New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) A man allegedly tried to strangle a woman and fled with her purse and phone when she was crossing an isolated street in southwest Delhi's Dwarka, police said on Monday.

The accused has been arrested, they added.

According to the police, the incident occurred on January 6 at 6.30 am on an isolated street in the Uttam Nagar area.

A team was formed to nab the accused following a complaint by the woman, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Harsha Vardhan said.

The team analysed several CCTV footage in the area and arrested the accused on the same day, Vardhan said.

The police said the accused has been identified as 38-year-old Shiv Kumar, a resident of the Chanakyapuri area here.

The incident's video caught on a CCTV was widely circulated on social media.

It showed that the accused who was walking behind the woman overpowered her and tried strangulating her. He then snatched her purse and phone before fleeing the spot.

"The accused was found previously involved in six criminal cases," the DCP said.
Bengaluru, Jan 8 (PTI) Karnataka BJP President B Y Vijayendra on Monday said there is a pro-BJP wave in the country and the party will win all 28 seats from the state in the coming Lok Sabha elections.





Addressing a BJP Lok Sabha poll planning meeting here, he said intelligent people of the country will not fall for the "gimmicky guarantees "of the Congress party as they know that Modi guarantee is the best.







"Narendra Modi is set to become Prime Minister for the third time and under his leadership the country will rapidly move on the path of development, if the BJP wins the next election," Vijayendra said.







Hitting out at the Congress government in Karnataka, he said the state's financial health has deteriorated "due to the incompetent Congress".







"The government has completely failed to maintain law and order. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has presented 14 budgets, has completely failed in the matter of resource mobilisation," Vijayendra claimed.







Despite severe drought situation in many parts of the state and the suicide of 500 farmers in recent times, the state government has not given any compensation to the distressed, according to him.







Vijayendra said voters of the state are all set to teach the Congress government a lesson in the next Lok Sabha elections, adding that his party would win all the 28 seats in the upcoming polls.







In the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 25 seats in Karnataka, while an independent backed by the party also emerged victorious. The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) had won in one constituency each.







Former chief ministers B S Yediyurappa, Basavaraj Bommai and D V Sadananda Gowda and National General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Kota Srinivas Pujari were among those present.
Kochi, Jan 8 (PTI) Lakshadweep Lok Sabha MP Mohammed Faizal on Monday criticised Maldives ministers' statements against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his social media post on the tourism potential of the archipelago, urging them to "think twice" before commenting on India's internal matters.



"The Hon'ble Prime Minister's remarks pertained to Lakshadweep tourism, which is entirely an internal matter of India. The comments made by Maldivian deputy ministers on this matter are unwanted and uninvited," Faizal told PTI over phone.



The government of the Maldives on Sunday suspended three deputy ministers for derogatory social media posts against Modi.







The three deputy ministers used disparaging comments against Modi for his post on 'X' following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the union territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.



Faizal said Lakshadweep is a union territory under the control of the Union Home Ministry and of course under the Prime Minister.



"When the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India speaks about its own territory and discusses the development of tourism there, it doesn't make any sense for Maldives officials to make statements on that. It is unwanted," Faizal said, amid the ongoing diplomatic row over remarks on social media against Prime Minister Modi by several ministers of the Maldives.



According to Maldivian media reports, deputy ministers in the youth ministry Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid have been suspended over their posts.



When asked about his expectations about whether the government of the neighbouring country would rectify its error, the Lakshadweep MP said the Maldivian government's statement is already available and is self-explanatory.



The Maldivian foreign ministry said the government is aware of the "derogatory remarks" on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position.











"The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives," the Maldivian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.



Reacting to a query on whether he thinks that PM Modi was insulted by the Maldivian ministers, Faizal said, "Obviously...(those) in high positions like deputy ministers, before making such comments, should think twice. (It's) on an internal part of India, which does not at all concern them.



"Why should they make such comments? It actually was an unwanted thing. It is not welcome at all," he said.



Observing that the Maldivian government has disregarded and disavowed the statements, Faizal said it indicates that the Maldivian government is not involved in the matter.



"However, from our perspective, as the Lakshadweep MP and representing our country, we always aspire to maintain a positive relationship with Maldives. Notably, among the islands of Lakshadweep, there is Minicoy, which shares the same culture, cuisine, and dialect.



"So, we see Maldives as one of our islands. Maldives should think positively, and let us grow together," he said.
Press Release

January 8, 2024 Hontiveros wants 'extensive' Senate probe of Panay blackout, amid reports of NGCP's inaction, lack of updates Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday filed a Senate resolution calling for an "extensive" inquiry into the recent power outage which affected households throughout Panay and Guimaras, amid reports of inaction and lack of real-time information from grid operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) during the incident. In proposed Senate Resolution No. 890, Hontiveros said that a 'deeper and more extensive' investigation is needed to address all factors behind the Panay blackout last January 2, which disrupted the daily lives of people in five provinces, caused substantial financial losses for businesses, and impeded the operation of government offices, schools, and hospitals. "Considering that past investigations and probes have not yielded palpable results, an even more comprehensive, thorough, and extensive examination needs to be conducted, including a review of the concession agreement between the National Transmission Corporation and the NGCP, as well as NGCP's 25-year legislative franchise itself," her resolution stated. "We must urgently review and strengthen the effectiveness of all protocols, such as DOE's mechanisms during incidents like simultaneous and unplanned power plant shutdowns. NGCP claims that its decision to take no action like manual load dropping during the blackout was according to 'standard protocols.' Standard procedure ba talaga na magsawalang kibo kapag may krisis gaya ng blackout?," Hontiveros said. Hontiveros, who hails from Panay, noted that Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Raphael Lotilla has blamed NGCP for the power outage, since the "company failed to prevent the system-wide power shutdown by proactively calling on the distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in Panay to reduce their load and avoid a sub-system-wide collapse." She also questioned the slow and inadequate real-time updates to energy stakeholders and the public amid the power outage. Real time monitoring of the Visayas grid using the NGCP's own Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, Hontiveros said, should have allowed it to provide information and act immediately during the critical 2-hour period between the disruption of PEDC Unit 1, and the subsequent shutdown by other power plants. "Nakakaawa yung mga kasimanwa natin na naiwang nangangapa sa dilim dahil sa blackout, at dahil din sa kawalan ng impormasyon. Why was there no real-time information from NGCP when it had all the tools to provide it? Pinagtiis na naman tayong mga Pilipino sa paulit-ulit na palpak na serbisyo," Hontiveros said. The senator then said that should the Senate's investigation reveal gross negligence and incompetence in the system operations of NGCP, then "Congress should commence a review of the NGCP's concession agreement and ultimately, its 25-year legislative franchise." "Our nation's grid operator cannot and should not be remiss in its obligation to transmit electricity to where it is needed throughout the country. Tandaan natin na hindi lang abala ang dulot ng mga blackout - malaki ang epekto nito sa kabuhayan, kaligtasan at kalusugan ng mga Pilipino," she concluded.
Jay Miller, 39, Manager of Marketing, Knoxville Utilities Board

The Knoxville Utilities Board is practicing what it preaches  connectivity  with help from Jay Miller. He's more than just a manager of marketing, working to ensure KUB is accessible for everyone by utilizing social media to share important updates. By transforming the KUB Fiber service he helped bring to fruition into a well-known, reliable source of internet, Miller is working to remove barriers that prevent people from being connected to society.

When you reflect on your career so far, which achievement stands out most?

I am most proud of my role in helping to bring municipal fiber internet to the greater Knoxville community. I was fortunate enough to be on the team who helped develop the business plan and assisted with securing the approval of the Knoxville City Council. I was also fortunate enough help create the KUB Fiber brand, along with customer interfaces, payment systems, and the marketing and sales teams. I believe KUB Fiber will improve lives in the Knoxville community in material ways now and long into the future, and I am proud to have played a small role in making it happen.

What is the greatest professional obstacle youve had to overcome and how did you overcome it?

I didnt always feel confident that my ideas were worth expressing and I would make excuses to keep them to myself. Ive worked with people I trust professionally and personally to gain more confidence.

I understand that all of my ideas are not worth expressing, but I am more confident socializing the ones I believe in. I think some good things have come out of that.

40 Under 40 Class of 2023 member Jay Miller, Manager of Marketing, Knoxville Utilities Board.

What will you focus on in 2024?

Professionally, I will focus on helping more people understand the benefits of KUB Fiber. There are still many places in our community where accessibility, affordability and reliability prevent people from accessing remote health care, education, work and more. I want to help remove those barriers through education about municipal fiber.

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Personally, I will focus on being more present with my friends and family. I have some great people around me all the time.

What is your biggest professional dream?

I want to be in a role where I can make positive contributions to the community. I am fortunate to have a job that allows me to do that today. I want to be doing work my children can be proud of.

What mistake did you learn the most from?

I used to think that working harder and longer and more than everyone else made me a better person. I have come to realize that without balance most of that time is wasted and no one thinks youre cool.

What motivates you?

My family and friends. There is a collective ethos among us to do good, be kind and help others. If they are not proud of me, then I know I need to change.

What is the most overrated piece of business advice youve heard?

"Work hard, keep your head down, and people will notice you." While I believe it is important to be realistic about your role and your ambitions, I think people are generally too busy to notice many of the great ideas that exist in any organization. I think it is important to find ways to make good ideas heard, for yourself and for co-workers. Sometimes, the way you deliver them is as important as the idea itself.

What trait do you most want in a co-worker?

I want co-workers who are committed to doing the right thing for the organization and the community. It is much easier when everyone is working toward the same goal and can be trusted to do the right thing.

What about Knoxville would you like to improve?

Knoxville is a great place to live, but I wish there were more hoagies and perogies. There are some great delis and sandwich shops, but not enough. And I have yet to find good perogies outside of my own kitchen.

What don't people know about you?

I lived in Italy for several years after graduating from Penn State. I once drove more than 3,000 miles round trip from Zimbabwe to Cape Town, South Africa, and back, with just a dog as a companion. Bill Murray once told me I had nice hair when we met in Chicago.

Family: Wife Tabitha; sons Jayce and Remy

Years worked at current company: 6.5

Degrees and certifications: Bachelor's from The Pennsylvania State University; master's from the University of Tennessee

Community involvement: Knoxville Chapter of the American Marketing Association member; Historic Holston Hills Community Club member

This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

-Allie Feinberg

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knox News 40 Under 40: Jay Miller, Knoxville Utilities Board
Belagavi, Jan 8 (PTI) The opposition BJP and JD(S) on Monday rallied against Karnataka Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar after her recent statement on Belagavi being 'a part of Maharashtra before Independence'.



Hebbalkar, a native of Belagavi, had made the comments recently while speaking at a Kannada litterateurs meet at Karadaga village here.



Before independence, Karnataka and Maharashtra had many commonalities. Belagavi was a part of Maharashtra and we were living with warmth, the Woman and Child Welfare Minister said, remarking that people here are "blessed" to have been born in Karnataka.



Kannada litterateurs have made the people aware of the rich Kannada language, culture, land, water and the state's heritage, she added.



Karnataka has given eight Jnanpith awardees. Our literature, art and culture is such a matter of pride and joy for us, she said.





Her statement on Belagavi being a part of Maharashtra before independence drew sharp criticism from the opposition parties today.



State BJP President B Y Vijayendra said that with these comments, the minister had attempted to disturb the sovereignty of Karnataka and the linguistic harmony at the inter-state border. He called for her immediate dismissal from the state cabinet.





"It is nothing but a political gimmick of the minister occupying a responsible post, who takes pride in calling herself a 'Kannadatti' (native of Karnataka), to set a harmonious society on fire in this election season.





"Let Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who makes long speeches about commitment to Kannada, dismiss the disloyal minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar from the cabinet immediately. Let him thereby show their real concern for the sovereignty and linguistic harmony of Karnataka," Vijayendra said.



Criticising the minister, former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy said that she has not yet come out of her "infatuation" for Maharashtra.





People in responsible positions should not speak like this. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should teach the minister properly, Kumaraswamy said.







Leader of opposition in the Karnataka assembly R Ashoka charged the minister with indulging in "vote bank politics."



When there is so much agitation happening over the border row, when the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti miscreants create so much ruckus in the state, the ministers statement was for vote bank politics. Parliament elections are approaching and she wants to rekindle the issue, the BJP leader said, alleging that Hebbalkar had "hurt the sentiments of Kannadigas."



The border row over Belagavi between Karnataka and Maharashtra dates back to 1957 when states were reorganised on linguistic lines. Maharashtra laid claim to Belagavi, which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, as it had a sizable Marathi-speaking population. It also laid claim to over 800 Marathi-speaking villages which are currently part of Karnataka.







Karnataka maintains that the demarcation done on linguistic lines as per the States Reorganisation Act and the 1967 Mahajan Commission Report is final.
Mumbai, Jan 8 (PTI) Prompt action by the Mumbai police on a complaint filed at Cyber Helpline '1930' led them to stop unauthorised transaction of nearly Rs 3.70 crore, from a total amount of Rs 4.56 crore lost by a person who was duped by online fraudsters, an official said on Monday.

The incident occurred on January 4 when the victim, a city resident, lost Rs 4.56 crore to cyber crooks, who promised him attractive returns on stock investments, he said.

The victim immediately filed a complaint with the Cyber Police Station of the Mumbai crime branch and also alerted them on '1930' helpline, the official said.

Cyber officials acted swiftly and coordinated with the bank's nodal officer and retrieved Rs 3.67 crore by freezing the accounts used to transfer the money, he said.

In 2023, the Mumbai police managed to save Rs 26.48 crore lost to cyber fraudsters after victims dialled the helpline number, the official said.
Jaipur, Jan 8 (PTI) Rajasthan Minister of State Surendra Pal Singh resigned from his post after losing the election to the Karanpur assembly seat on Monday.

Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Koonar won the seat with 94,950 votes as against Singh's 83,667.

The BJP nominee was inducted into the Bhajanlal Sharma ministry on December 30, ahead of the polling on January 5. The minister of state (Independent charge) was later allocated the Agriculture Marketing Board, Indira Gandhi Canal Department and Minority Affairs Department.

Under the rules, he had to get elected as an MLA within six months of his appointment as a minister.

Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma forwarded the resignation letter of Minister of State (Independent Charge) Surendra Pal Singh and it has been accepted by the Governor with immediate effect, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said.

Polls were held on 199 of the 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan on November 25. Election in Karanpur was deferred due to the death of Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Koonar. The Congress this time fielded his son Rupinder Singh Koonar.
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. High near 50F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 32F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
FILE - E. Jean Carroll leaves Manhattan federal court, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023, in New York. A judge late Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024, said former President Donald Trumps lawyers can't present legal arguments to a jury assessing damages at a defamation trial this month on a jury's conclusion last year that he didnt rape the columnist in the mid-1990s. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
Alaska Airlines and United Airlines grounded all of their Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners again on Sunday while they waited to be told how to inspect the planes to prevent another inflight blowout like the one that damaged an Alaska jet.

Alaska Airlines had returned 18 of its 65 737 Max 9 aircraft to service Saturday, less than 24 hours after part of the fuselage on another plane blew out three miles (4.8 kilometers) above Oregon.

The reprieve was short-lived.

The airline said Sunday that it received a notice from the Federal Aviation Administration that additional work might be needed on those 18 planes.

Alaska said that it had canceled 170 flights  more than one-fifth of its schedule  by mid-afternoon on the West Coast because of the groundings.

These aircraft have now also been pulled from service until details about possible additional maintenance work are confirmed with the FAA, the airline said in a statement. We are in touch with the FAA to determine what, if any, further work is required.

United Airlines said it had scrapped about 180 flights Sunday while salvaging others by finding other planes not covered by the grounding.

Alaska and United are the only U.S. airlines that fly the Max 9.

United said it was waiting for Boeing to issue what is called a multi-operator message, which is a service bulletin used when multiple airlines need to perform similar work on a particular type of plane.

Boeing is working on a bulletin but had not yet submitted it to the FAA, according to a person familiar with the situation. Producing a detailed, technical bulletin frequently takes a couple days, the person said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the company and regulators have not publicly discussed the process.

Boeing declined to comment.

A panel used to plug an area reserved for an exit door on the Max 9 blew out Friday night shortly after Alaska Airlines flight 1282 took off from Portland, Oregon. The depressurized plane, carrying 171 passengers and six crew members, returned safely to Portland International Airport with no serious injuries.

Hours after the incident, the FAA ordered the grounding of 171 Max 9s including all those operated by Alaska and United until they could be inspected. The FAA said inspections will take four to eight hours.

Boeing has delivered 218 Max 9s worldwide, but not all of them are covered by the FAA order. They are among more than 1,300 Max jetliners  mostly the Max 8 variant  sold by the aircraft maker. The Max 8 and other versions of the Boeing 737 are not affected by the grounding.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Senates Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said she agreed with the decision to ground the Max 9s.

Safety is paramount. Aviation production has to meet a gold standard, including quality control inspections and strong FAA oversight, she said in a statement.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board searched Sunday for the paneled-over exit door that blew out from flight 1282. They have a good idea of where it landed, near Oregon Route 217 and Barnes Road in the Cedar Hills area west of Portland, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference late Saturday.

If you find that, please, please contact local law enforcement, she said.

Early Sunday afternoon, some local residents were scouring a patch of land with dense thickets, sandwiched between busy roads and a light rail train station. The area is located across from a sprawling hospital complex.

Searcher Adam Pirkle said he had ridden 14 miles (22 kilometers), maneuvering his bicycle through the overgrowth. Ive been looking at the flight track, I was looking at the winds, he said. Ive been trying to focus on wooded areas.

Daniel Feldt navigated the same thickets on foot, equipped with binoculars after searching the area from the roof of a parking garage. Didnt see any holes in the bushes that looked obvious where something had fallen through, he said.

Lisa Helderop, communications director at Providence St. Vincent, the hospital in the area of southwest Portland where the NTSB said the door might have fallen, said two NTSB agents also looked around the hospital campus Sunday with members of the hospitals security team.

There has not been a fatal crash involving a U.S. passenger carrier within the country since 2009 when a Colgan Air flight crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines flight arriving from South Korea crashed at San Francisco International Airport, killing three of the 307 people on board.

Flight 1282 took off from Portland at 5:07 p.m. Friday for a two-hour flight to Ontario, California. About six minutes later, the chunk of the fuselage blew out as the plane was at about 16,000 feet (4.8 kilometers). One of the pilots declared an emergency and asked for clearance to descend to 10,000 feet (3 kilometers), the altitude where the air would have enough oxygen to breathe safely.

Videos posted by passengers online showed a gaping hole where the paneled-over exit had been and passengers wearing masks. They applauded when the plane landed safely about 13 minutes after the blowout. Firefighters then came down the aisle, asking passengers to remain in their seats as they treated the injured.

It was extremely lucky that the airplane had not yet reached cruising altitude, when passengers and flight attendants might be walking around the cabin, Homendy said.

No one was seated in 26A and B where that door plug is, the aircraft was around 16,000 feet and only 10 minutes out from the airport when the door blew, she said. The investigation is expected to take months.

The aircraft involved rolled off the assembly line and received its certification two months ago, according to online FAA records. It had been on 145 flights since entering commercial service Nov. 11, said FlightRadar24, another tracking service. The flight from Portland was the aircrafts third of the day.

Aviation experts were stunned a piece would fly off a new aircraft. Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said he has seen panels of fuselage come off planes before, but couldnt recall one where passengers are looking at the lights of the city.

The Max is the newest version of Boeings venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane frequently used on U.S. domestic flights. The plane went into service in May 2017.

Two Max 8 jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. All Max 8 and Max 9 planes were grounded worldwide for nearly two years until Boeing made changes to an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.

The Max has been plagued by other issues, including manufacturing flaws, concern about overheating that led FAA to tell pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system, and a possible loose bolt in the rudder system.

(AP)
Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on overall spending levels for the current fiscal year that could help avoid a partial government shutdown later this month.

The agreement largely hews to spending caps for defense and domestic programs that Congress set as part of a bill to suspend the debt limit until 2025. But it does provide some concessions to House Republicans who viewed the spending restrictions in that agreement as insufficient.

In a letter to colleagues, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday the agreement would secure $16 billion in additional spending cuts from the previous agreement brokered by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden and is about $30 billion less than what the Senate was considering.

This represents the most favorable budget agreement Republicans have achieved in over a decade, Johnson writes.

Biden said the agreement moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities.

It reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring, Biden said in a statement. It rejects deep cuts to programs hardworking families count on, and provides a path to passing full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and are free of any extreme policies.

The agreement speeds up the roughly $20 billion in cuts already agreed to for the Internal Revenue Service and rescinds about $6 billion in COVID relief money that had been approved but not yet spent, according to Johnsons letter.

Its a good deal for Democrats and the country, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told colleagues in a briefing call.

Essentially, Democrats see the trade-offs they made as mild. In a description provided to reporters, they said the COVID savings would have no significant impact on any current projects or activities in motion. And they said that moving all of the $20.2 billion in IRS cuts to this year instead of over two years would still leave the agency able to maintain critical investments that Congress provided in 2022. At the time, Congress provided the IRS with an additional $80 billion that could be spent over 10 years.

Overall, the agreement calls for $886 billion in defense funding. It would provide $772 billion in domestic, non-defense spending, when including $69 billion called for in a side deal to the debt ceiling bill that McCarthy had reached with the White House, Democrats said.

The most conservative House Republicans opposed the earlier debt ceiling agreement and even brought House proceedings to a halt for a few days to show their displeasure. Many were surely wanting additional concessions, but Democrats have been insistent on abiding by the debt ceiling agreements spending caps, leaving Johnson in a difficult spot.

Its even worse than we thought, the House Freedom Caucus said of the agreement in a tweet posted on X. This is total failure.

Lawmakers needed an agreement on overall spending levels so that appropriators could write the bills that set line-by-line funding for agencies. Money is set to lapse Jan. 19 for some agencies and Feb. 2 for others.

The agreement is separate from the negotiations that are taking place to secure additional funding for Israel and Ukraine while also curbing restrictions on asylum claims at the U.S. border.

In a joint statement, Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries voiced their support for the agreement.

It will also allow us to keep the investments for hardworking American families secured by the legislative achievements of President Biden and Congressional Democrats, Schumer and Jeffries said.

But they also warned House Republicans about trying to add conservative policy riders to the bills in the coming days, saying Democrats would not support poison pill policy changes in any of the twelve appropriations bills put before the Congress.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, who helped lead the debt ceiling negotiations when McCarthy was speaker, noted that two-thirds of both parties in the House supported that agreement.

This deal, which adheres to that framework, deserves equally as robust support, McHenry said.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tweeted that he was encouraged that leaders identified a path toward completing the spending bills. It was a cautious recognition that some obstacles could lie ahead.

America faces serious national security challenges, and Congress must act quickly to deliver the full-year resources this moment requires, McConnell said.

(AP)
Zachary R. Walden, 32, Criminal Court Judge, Criminal Court, Eighth Judicial District, State of Tennessee

Judge Zachary Walden has broken boundaries as the youngest trial court judge in the state, and he hasn't forgotten where he came from. He presides over rural counties in East Tennessee, which he says was his dream thanks to his upbringing in a small town. In 2024, he hopes to incorporate a veterans treatment track in recovery court, which he helped expand from 40 to 50 participants. He said he's enthusiastic about giving back to people who served the nation.

When you reflect on your career so far, which achievement stands out most?

My first jury trial as an attorney stands out. Theres nothing like the rush you feel as a trial lawyer when you stand up to make an opening statement or trap someone on cross-examination. As a criminal defense attorney, you typically lose more trials than you win, but I was able to achieve an acquittal for my client after less than 20 minutes of jury deliberation.

What is the greatest professional obstacle youve had to overcome and how did you overcome it?

My biggest professional obstacle has been my youth. As the country's youngest trial court judge, I'm keenly aware of the need to uphold the court's respect. I've turned this challenge into an asset, pushing boundaries and questioning the status quo. Recognizing that some may doubt my experience, I respond by ensuring I'm the most prepared person in the courtroom every day.

40 Under 40 Class of 2023 member Hon. Zachary R. Walden, Criminal Court Judge, Eighth Judicial District, State of Tennessee.

What will you focus on in 2024?

Currently, I preside over a felony Recovery Court with 50 participants from five counties. In 2024, my primary focus will be expanding the Recovery Court program to incorporate a dedicated Veterans Treatment Court track. This initiative aims to support justice-involved veterans dealing with substance abuse disorders. We'll enlist veterans as mentors, offering intensive treatment and rehabilitation. Recovery courts have a proven track record in reducing repeat offenses, and Im enthusiastic about extending this chance to those who've served our nation.

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What is your biggest professional dream?

Im living it. Since September 2022, I've had the privilege of serving my community within the criminal court system, where I engage in daily efforts to assist individuals in need. My journey has been deeply rooted in my upbringing in a small town, where I've had a lifelong aspiration to not only pursue a fulfilling professional career but also seize the opportunity to give back and uplift our rural communities. By doing so, I hope to create a positive impact that resonates far beyond the confines of the courtroom and promote lasting change.

What motivates you?

What motivates me is a commitment to treating each day, each case, and every person with the utmost importance and respect. In a busy courtroom with over 100 cases, it's tempting to view some matters as routine, but I believe that even brief moments in court hold immense significance for the individuals involved, whether they are defendants, victims, or lawyers. This perspective drives me to ensure that everyone who enters my courtroom feels valued and heard.

What is the most overrated piece of business advice youve heard?

Go it alone. Especially in the legal field, its truly terrible advice. Theres a reason why we call it the practice of law. New lawyers, even lawyers who are solo practitioners, can benefit from mentorship. Im fortunate to have worked at Eldridge & Blakney in Knoxville, where I was mentored by outstanding lawyers. Even now, I view my predecessor, Judge Sexton, as a mentor and am always grateful to anyone I can call on for advice.

What don't people know about you?

I've been playing the piano since the age of 6. Currently, I'm an active member of my church band, where I continue to play and share my passion for music. Music has always been a great creative outlet.

Family: Parents Bob and Pam Walden

Years worked at current company: 1

Degrees and certifications: J.D. from University of Alabama School of Law; bachelor's and BBA from the East Tennessee State University; Bar Admissions: State of Tennessee; United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee; United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee; United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Community involvement: Tennessee Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division; East Tennessee Governor and High School Mock Trial Long Range Coordinator; Knoxville Bar Association, President of Knoxville Barristers (Young Lawyers); Tennessee Judicial Conference, Public Trust and Confidence Committee; tnAchieves Mentor; Covenant Life Church, Musician

This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity

-Allie Feinberg

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knox News 40 Under 40: Zachary Walden, 8th Judicial District Tennessee
Russia launched its latest barrage of hypersonic and cruise missiles against Ukrainian targets early Monday, striking near the front lines of fighting in the east as well as in central and western parts of the country, officials said. At least four civilians were reported killed and at least 30 injured.

Western officials and analysts had previously warned that Russia was stockpiling its cruise missiles in preparation for a strategy of winter bombardment, as bad weather keeps the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line largely static after 22 months of war.

Unlike last winter, when the Kremlins forces targeted Ukraines power grid, Russia is now aiming at Kyivs defense industry, they say. But the almost daily barrages have repeatedly hit civilian areas.

Mondays attacks struck a string of urban areas, including housing and a shopping mall, across Ukraine.

Russia fired 51 missiles of various types, as well as eight Shahed drones, at Ukraine, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.

The Ukrainian Air Force intercepted 18 of the cruise missiles and all the drones, he said.

Russias Defense Ministry said its forces used precision sea-launched and air-launched long-range missiles, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, to strike what it called facilities of Ukraines military-industrial complex.

In the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, a woman died in a missile attack outside the city of Kryvyi Rih and 24 people were injured in a strike on the town of Novomoskovsk.

In Kryvyi Rih itself, which is Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyys home town, more than 20 houses and a shopping mall were damaged in the attack, said regional governor Serhii Lysak.

At least four missiles hit Kharkiv, the countrys second-largest city, injuring one person, said mayor Ihor Terekhov. A woman rescued from the rubble of a building later died, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. More people may be trapped, he said.

Authorities in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine said two people died as at least six explosions were heard during the morning missile attack.

In Zaporizhzhia, a major southern city along the Dnipro River, two people were injured in a missile strike on a residential district, said regional governor Yurii Malashko.

Two people injured in a Jan. 2 attack died on Monday, officials said.

Meanwhile, Russian troops conducted 131 artillery attacks on the Kherson region, killing two people and injuring five, according to governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Kherson and the surrounding region have been consistently targeted since Russian forces withdrew from the city to the eastern side of the Dnipro in the autumn of 2022.

Separately, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces have made unsuccessful efforts to advance during the past day in several areas along the front line, including around Lyman in the Kharkiv region and in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

In the Russia-occupied Luhansk region in Ukraines east, a Russian warplane accidentally released a bomb on the town of Rubizhne, said Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the regions Moscow-appointed government.

The bomb, an FAB-250 that carries a high-explosive warhead, did not cause injuries, Pasechnik said.

The incident comes six days after Russia accidentally dropped munitions over the village of Petropavlovka in the Belgorod region, which has come under repeated Ukrainian attack.

Last April, another bomb accidentally dropped by one of Russias warplanes caused a powerful blast in the city of Belgorod, injuring two and scaring local residents.

(AP)
When Donald Trump launched his 2024 presidential campaign after a disappointing midterm election for Republicans, his trajectory was something of a mystery. But seven days before Iowas kick-off caucuses, his standing among the GOP faithful is hardly in doubt.

Voters, campaign operatives and even some of the candidates on the ground here overwhelmingly agree that the Republican former president is the prohibitive favorite heading into the Jan. 15 caucuses  whether they like it or not.

Everybody sees the writing on the wall, said Angela Roemerman, a 56-year-old Republican from Solon, Iowa, as she waited for former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley to arrive for a weekend rally at Field Day Brewing Co. in North Liberty.

Its a little depressing, Roemerman said as her order of tortilla chips arrived, lamenting all the drama surrounding Trump. We dont need another four years. But Trumps going to win.

Just beneath all the perceived certainty about Trumps victory, however, lies serious risks for the front-runner. Trump continues to fuel sky-high expectations, despite questions about the strength of his voter-turnout operation, a closing message clouded by lies about the 2020 election and stormy weather forecasts that could dissuade supporters from showing up.

Few believe such issues will lead to a straight-up loss next week in Iowa, but in the complicated world of presidential politics, a win is not always a win.

Meeting expectations

Should Trump fail to meet expectations with a resounding victory in Iowa, he would enter next-up New Hampshire and South Carolina much more vulnerable. Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continue to pour millions of dollars into Iowa advertising as they cross the state, backed by well-funded allies with robust get-out-the-vote operations, in a relentless effort to narrow Trumps margin of victory.

At the same time, Trumps team privately acknowledges that it has cut back on its door-knocking, get-out-the-vote operation heading into the final week. They insist they can ensure his loyalists show up on caucus day more effectively by relying on rallies, phone calls and a peer-to-peer text message program. Thats even as allies of DeSantis and Haley push ahead with traditional get-out-the-vote plans at voters doorways.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who has endorsed Haley and spent the weekend campaigning with her across Iowa, conceded that it will be tough to beat Trump here.

Theres obviously a strong implication Trumps gonna likely win the Iowa caucus, Sununu told The Associated Press, even as he insisted momentum was building for Haley that will show up more clearly in New Hampshires Jan. 23 first-in-the-nation primary. In New Hampshire, she clearly has a chance to do something no one thought was possible, which was to beat Trump in an early state.

Aware of the risks, the former presidents team is scrambling to lower expectations for Iowa.

Trumps advisers in recent days have been quick to remind reporters  at least privately  that no Republican presidential candidate has won a contested Iowa caucus by more than 12 points since Bob Dole in 1988.

The Trump campaign sees Doles margin as the floor for Trumps victory, a senior adviser told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity to share internal discussions. The adviser described the mood on the campaign as confident but not comfortable, acknowledging questions about the strength of rival organizations and, as always, the weather, which could affect turnout if there is snow or extreme cold.

Frigid forecast

Heavy snowfall, blowing and drifting snow and dangerous travel conditions are expected Monday and Tuesday of this week to be followed by frigid temperatures that could drift below 0 degrees by caucus day.

The weather has already forced the Trump campaign to cancel multiple appearances by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who had been scheduled to court Iowa voters on Trumps behalf Monday.

Ever defiant, Trump projected confidence as he raced across the state for a series of commit to caucus rallies over the weekend before returning to his Florida estate. Hes scheduled to return to Iowa on Wednesday for a Fox News town hall.

At every stop over the weekend, he talked about his dominant standing in the polls. Hes also frequently repeated lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him by voter fraud, a claim refuted by the courts and his own administration but one that fueled a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Still, weather is the more immediate concern heading into the final full week of campaigning in Iowa.

Trump told an audience of more than 2,000 in Clinton on Saturday night that his aides told him he shouldnt worry about cold weather, although his opponents probably should.

The other side will never vote, because they dont have any enthusiasm, Trump said. Stoking the crowd, he added, We wont lose one vote, because our people, theyre going to walk on glass.

Thats not to say theres no risk.

The biggest risk is you say, you know, Were winning by so much, darling, lets stay home and watch television, Trump said the night before in Mason City. And if enough people do that, its not going to be pretty.

Trumps risks

Indeed, Trump has a loyal base of support but hes also targeting a significant number of first-time caucus participants who dont necessarily know where to go next Monday or how the complicated caucus process works. The events feature a series of speeches and votes that can span multiple hours, and in many cases, theyre not held at regular polling locations.

A Des Moines Register poll conducted in December found that 63% of likely first-time Republican caucus participants say Trump is their first choice.

One of the first-time participants may be William Caspers, a 37-year-old farmer from Rockwell, Iowa. He said he had never attended a political event of any kind before Trumps Mason City event on Friday. While hes supporting Trump 100% in 2024, he said he was only pretty sure he would caucus for him.

Where is it going to be? Where do I go? Im kind of confused about that, Caspers said. He noted that he was in the bathroom when a caucus explainer video played at the big screen at the front of the event hall. Several hundred other voters were still in line outline during the video.

So, the caucus is this Monday? Caspers asked an AP reporter, who clarified that it was Monday Jan. 15.

Not far away, Jackie Garlock, of nearby Clear Lake, was wearing a white hat indicating her status as one of Trumps caucus captains. The campaign has promoted its efforts to recruit and train hundreds of such captains, who will represent the campaign within a given precinct on Monday night.

Garlock said she only briefly attended one virtual training on Zoom, which she described as largely a pep rally. She also said that shes not particularly good or experienced at political organizing.

But shes not worried.

I have a lot of confidence, she said of Trumps chances next week as she scanned the crowded North Iowa Events Center. I just look at the number of people who are here and I think, how can they all be wrong?

Haley and DeSantis

Meanwhile, Haley and DeSantis are spending big money to attack each other on Iowa television, although Haley has had a decided spending advantage in the caucus final days.

Overall, Haley and her allies are on pace to spend more than $15 million in Iowa television advertising this month alone; DeSantis team is spending less than $5 million, according to an AP analysis of data from the media tracking firm AdImpact.

Virtually none of the attack ads from Haley or DeSantis is directed at Trump. Thats even as Haleys primary super PAC is running multiple ads describing DeSantis as a dumpster fire, and one of DeSantis evolving group of super PACs recently launched an ad campaign calling Haley Tricky Nikki.

Trump and his allies are spending nearly $10 million this month in Iowa. And hes shifted some of his attacks away from DeSantis and toward Haley. But hes also investing in ads targeting Democratic President Joe Biden, his likely general election opponent.

Of all the candidates on the ground in Iowa this week, only DeSantis is predicting an outright victory over Trump. He moved his entire campaign leadership to the state in recent months and visited each of Iowas 99 counties.

Youre going to see an earthquake on Jan. 15, DeSantis told dozens of supporters at a downtown bar in Dubuque.

(AP)
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War cabinet minister Benny Gantz has come to the defense of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amidst speculations of escalating tensions between the two and following a report by the Washington Post suggesting that the US believes Netanyahu might initiate a conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon to bolster his political survival.

Gantz released a bilingual statement in both Hebrew and English, emphasizing Israels priorities. The only consideration here is Israels security, and nothing else. That is our duty to our country and our citizens, Gantz stated, firmly dismissing any political motives behind potential military actions.

He wrote that the reality where the citizens of Northern Israel cannot return to their homes  requires an urgent solution. The world must remember that it was the terrorist organisation Hezbollah that initiated the escalation. Israel is interested in a diplomatic solution, but if one cannot be found  Israel and the IDF will remove the threat. All of the War Cabinets members share this view.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
The IDF has uncovered advanced Hamas technological equipment, including components for building precision missiles, suggesting that the terror group has developed capabilities previously not attributed to the group.

The IDF reported that soldiers from the Nahal Brigade and special forces conducted a raid in the Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods of Gaza City. During this operation, they discovered a tunnel shaft leading to an underground facility used for weapons manufacturing.

At the site, the IDF found evidence indicating Hamass advancement in precision weaponry. Components proving terrorists of the Hamas terror organization learned under Iranian guidance how to operate and build precision components and strategic weapons, the IDF stated. Additionally, the IDF released images purported to be the rocket engine and warhead of a cruise missile developed by Hamas.

Previously, Hamas was known to have a range of weaponry, including anti-tank guided missiles, small explosive drones for short-range use, and makeshift explosive-laden autonomous submarines. However, the possession of long-range guided missiles represents a significant escalation in their armament capabilities. Hamas also has shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, though these are reportedly ineffective against Israeli aircraft.

The extent of Hamass deployment of these guided missiles remains uncertain, with questions about whether they have been used or are still in the development phase.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
The IDF has acknowledged that its air traffic control base on Mount Meron suffered damage in a missile attack carried out by Hezbollah on Shabbos.

Hezbollah launched a series of rockets and anti-tank missiles at the base, located approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the Lebanon border, causing visible damage to two radar domes, as depicted in footage released by the terrorist group.

Although the IDF has not provided specific details about the extent of the damage sustained by the base, Hezbollahs video clearly shows that the radar domes were among the impacted areas.

Nevertheless, the IDF reassures that its air defense systems continue to operate effectively thanks to backup systems in place.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
The Iran-backed Houthi rebel group has put forward a unique proposal for ships navigating the Bab El-Mandeb strait. The group, which has been involved in recent attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, suggests that vessels declare their lack of affiliation with Israel to avoid potential assaults.

Describing their idea as a simple and cost-effective solution, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the leader of the groups supreme revolutionary committee, took to his X account to address international shipping companies and transportation ministries. He advised that every ship approaching the strait should broadcast a specific message: We have no relation with Israel.

However, Al-Houthi cautioned that if a ship were to make the declaration but subsequently set course for an Israeli port, it would be marked as blacklisted. In such a case, the ship would face seizure on its next attempt to cross the Red Sea.

Over the past three months, the Houthi rebels have carried out more than 100 drone and missile strikes on targets in the Red Sea and Israel, posing a significant threat to a transit route responsible for up to 12 percent of global trade, as reported by Pentagon figures.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant met with former Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, Sunday night, at the Ministry of Defense headquarters in Tel Aviv. Minister Gallant provided VP Pence with a strategic overview of the challenges faced by the State of Israel in the region, and an operational update of developments in the war against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.

Minister Gallant highlighted the importance of maintaining strong bipartisan support for Israel as it pursues its goals in the war: the release of 136 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza including U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, and the dismantling of the Hamas terrorist organization.

Minister Gallant also discussed the extraordinary cooperation between the respective defense establishments, on every level  including exchanges in operational know-how, intelligence and strategic policy dialogues.

He concluded the meeting by expressing his appreciation to VP Pence for his longstanding friendship and contribution to U.S.-Israel ties throughout his career, and his ongoing commitment to the security of the State of Israel.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
A protest by anti-Israel demonstrators in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood this past Shabbos has stirred controversy, particularly due to the actions of the local police. The incident occurred when protesters blocked the Avenue Road Bridge of Highway 401, a crucial access point to the Armour Heights area, leading to the closure of the major junction by police.

What has sparked debate and criticism is footage showing police officers delivering coffee to the protesters. This gesture by the police in apparent support for the demonstrators is causing concern among critics who believe the protest aimed to intimidate the local Jewish community, especially as it took place on Shabbos.

This approach by the Toronto police stands in stark contrast to their response to the truckers protests two years ago, which saw arrests and freezing of supporters bank accounts.

Rebel News editor Ezra Levant commented on the situation, highlighting the blockades location: Theyre blockading a Jewish neighborhood, and its not the Hamas thugs thatll stop you  its the cops.

Similar anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests have occurred in other North American cities, including Seattle, Washington. There, protesters recently shut down Interstate 5, a major highway, to draw attention to the situation in Gaza and U.S. support for Israel. The Seattle police and the Washington State Patrol responded but did not disperse the group or make arrests.

The Toronto protest, however, has garnered particular attention for its perceived targeting of the Jewish community and the unusual level of support shown by law enforcement. The incident also came in the wake of an apparent antisemitic attack on a Jewish-owned grocery store in Toronto, which was set on fire last week.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Israels Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, has stated that the October 7th assault by Hamas had a significant impact on Israelis, deeply shaking their sense of security and causing a profound shift in their perception of the world around them.

Gallant gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal on Sunday. The following are some of his remarks:

October 7 was the bloodiest day for Jewish people since 1945, Gallant, a general-turned-politician, told The Wall Street Journal. The world needs to understand. This is different.

My basic view: We are fighting an axis, not a single enemy, Gallant said. Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it.

Gallant says the IDF would be shifting from intense maneuvering phase of the war toward different types of special operations.. [but] will last for a longer time.

Were close to the next phase in the north, including Gaza City, where Israeli troops have largely established control

Gallant says that a multinational task force led by the U.S., with European and Middle Eastern partners, should oversee the rehabilitation of Gaza.

We need to take into consideration the huge number of civilians, Gallant said, adding that military tactics would need to adjust. It will take some time, Gallant said. But we arent going to give up.

We see humanitarian aid as a strategic necessity, said one Israeli official. It will let us go after terrorists and separate them from civilians.

Regarding Northern Israel, Gallant said:

The priority isnt to get into a war with Hezbollah, Gallant said. But, he said, Eighty-thousand people need to be able to go back to their homes safely. If no agreement is negotiated to make that possible, he said, Israel wouldnt shrink from military action.

We are willing to sacrifice, he said. They see what is happening in Gaza. They know we can copy-paste to Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

Gallant added that Hamas leaders didnt expect Israel would mount a large-scale ground operation in response.

They didnt take it seriously, even when we first went in, Gallant said. He said Israels ultimate aim is to persuade its enemies that any future attack would provoke ruinous consequences.

Should Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran be allowed to decide how we live our lives here in Israel? Gallant asked. This is something we dont accept.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
PHOENIX, Jan. 8, 2024 /CNW/ - 4Front Ventures Corp. (CSE: FFNT) (OTCQX: FFNTF) ("4Front" or the "Company"), a vertically integrated, multi-state cannabis operator and retailer, announced that the Company has entered into a conditional amendment to the loan and security agreement (collectively, the "Amendment") with its senior secured lender, LI Lending, LLC (the "Lender") under which the Lender will convert approximately 44% ($USD 23,000,000) of the principal amount of its debt into class A subordinate voting shares of the Company (the "SVS"). The conversion price of $CAD 0.125 ($USD 0.094) per SVS (the "Conversion Price"), was negotiated with the Lenders and reserved with the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") at the closing price on December 22, 2023. Under the terms of the Amendment, the Company will also provide 15% warrant coverage with an exercise price of $CAD 0.144 (USD$ 0.108), being a premium of 15% from the issue price of the SVS, each exercisable into one SVS for a term of three years. The terms for the remaining loan balance of $USD 28,700,000 will be unamended, and the interest rate will remain at 12%. The Amendment is subject to requisite third-party concessions and approvals, including regulatory approval from the Canadian Securities Exchange.

4Front Ventures Corp. Logo (CNW Group/4Front Ventures Corp.)

In addition, the Company announced that its board of directors (the "Board") have appointed Andrew Thut as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 8, 2024. Mr. Thut will succeed Leo Gontmakher, who has served as Chief Executive Officer since May 30, 2020. Mr. Gontmakher will remain on the Board as a director and serve as a consultant to the Company.

"Today marks a significant milestone for 4Front as we announce the culmination of several strategic actions aimed at strengthening our balance sheet and materially accelerating our path to positive cashflow generation through the reduction of senior secured debt and the associated debt service payments," stated Andrew Thut, incoming CEO of 4Front Ventures. "This transaction is more than just financial; it's a material strategic arrangement designed to facilitate sustainable and profitable growth and position the Company well for the eventuality of cannabis rescheduling, federal banking reform, and improved access to capital."

Story continues

"Our latest actions demonstrate a commitment to transforming our balance sheet, safeguarding the financial health of the Company, and focusing on long-term growth, where we are still bullish on our ability to double the revenue of our Company over the next 12-18 months in Illinois alone. Moreover, this strategic move significantly reduces our annual expenses by approximately $3 million, opening new avenues for investment and growth. LI Lending's continued, unwavering support and belief in the equity value and future upside of 4Front will allow us to realize our strategic growth plans and accelerate value creation for our shareholders."

"Further, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Leo for his leadership of 4Front. I am honored to have the opportunity to step into his shoes at such an important inflection point for the Company. As we undertake an operational and strategic review of the business, I look forward to working alongside Leo and the entire 4Front team and our Board to drive growth, operational excellence, and value for all stakeholders."

Leo Gontmakher said: "I am grateful to have served as CEO of 4Front and have had the pleasure of working with Andrew for the past five years. During this time, Andrew has always distinguished himself with exemplary performance in various roles, including his former role as the Chief Investment Officer. Andrew has always provided strong leadership and has helped lay the foundation for the next phase of 4Front's growth. As demonstrated clearly by the conversion of this debt to equity, I and the investors of LI Lending are fully committed to the success of 4Front."

Board chair Robert Hunt: "On behalf of the entire 4Front Board, we thank Leo for his service as CEO to the Company and are delighted to have Andrew assume this role after more than a decade of service to the Company. The Board has complete confidence that Andrew is the right person to lead the business forward. His proven leadership and commitment to the Company will enable him to guide 4Front through its next chapter and help drive long-term value for our shareholders."

Leo Gontmakher and Roman Tkachenko, directors of the Company, each own 14.28% of the Lender.

About 4Front Ventures Corp.

4Front is a national, vertically integrated multi-state cannabis operator that owns or manages operations and facilities in Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington. Since its founding in 2011, 4Front has built a strong reputation for its high standards and low-cost cultivation and production methodologies earned through a track record of success in facility design, cultivation, genetics, growing processes, manufacturing, purchasing, distribution, and retail. To date, 4Front has successfully brought to market more than 20 different cannabis brands and over 1800 products, which are strategically distributed through its fully owned and operated Mission dispensaries and retail outlets in its core markets. As the Company continues to drive value for its shareholders, its team is applying its decade of expertise in the sector across the cannabis industry value chain and ecosystem. For more information, visit https://4frontventures.com/ .

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking, such as statements regarding the terms and conditions of the Amendment, third-party concessions, regulatory approvals, the potential acceleration of our path to positive cash flow generation and facilitation of sustainable and profitable growth, the possibility of cannabis rescheduling, federal banking reform and improved access to capital, the commitment of our lenders to safeguarding the financial health of the company and focusing on long term growth and our expectations regarding the growth of the company in Illinois and ability to realize our strategic growth plans and accelerate value creation. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words and phrases such as "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "continue," "could," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "seek," "should," "will," "would," "expect," "objective," "projection," "forecast," "goal," "guidance," "outlook," "effort," "target" or the negative of such words and other comparable terminology. However, the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Any forward-looking statements expressing an expectation or belief as to future events is expressed in good faith and believed to be reasonable at the time such forward-looking statement is made. However, these statements are not guarantees of future events and involve risks, uncertainties and other factors beyond 4Front's control including but not limited to receipt of third-party and regulatory approvals, if any, on terms and conditions stated in the Amendment, the coming into force of any proposed government federal legislation including regarding cannabis rescheduling and banking reform and the risk factors and other cautionary statements as set out in the materials we file with applicable securities authorities including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022. If the third party concessions and regulatory If such approvals are not obtained on terms satisfactory to 4Front and LI Lending or at all, the transactions contemplated by the Amendment may not occur. Therefore, you are cautioned against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed in any forward-looking statement. Except as required by applicable law, including Canadian and U.S. federal securities laws, 4Front does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform them to actual results or revised expectations.

Cision

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SOURCE 4Front Ventures Corp.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2024/08/c7865.html
By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Yochanan Herschlag is a frum young man, whose father is a sofer. Yochanan is from Yeshiva Avni Kodesh and has been languishing in prison for a long time on false accusations. Due to financial hardship, he is unable to afford a capable attorney who can defend him in the legal battle to prove his innocence.

https://thechesedfund.com/pidyonshvuyimfund/hershlag

The Rambam lists 8 Mitzvos that are fulfilled with this Mitzvah:

1] Lo saametz es Levavcha  Do not tighten your heart(Dvarim 15:7)

 2] veLo Sikpotz es yadcha  Nor shall you tighten your hand (Dvarim 15:7)

 3] Lo saamod al dam rayacha  Do not stand idly by your brothers blood (VaYikra 19:16)

 4] Lo yirdeno beferech leainecha  Do not let him go down in excessive labor in front of your eyes (Vayikra 25:53)

 5] Pasoach tiftach es yadcha lo You shall surely open your hand for him (Dvarim 15:8)

 6] Vechai achicha imach  And your brother shall live with you (Vayikra 25:36)

 7] Veahavta lerayacha kamocha love your friend as yourself (Vayikra 19:18)

 8] Hatzel lakuchim lemavais  Save those taken toward their death (Mishlei 24:11)

I personally know this sofer as a tzaddik of a person as do so many others  including rebbitzen //////yamima Mizrachi, and mashgichim of Yeshivos. At this point, his defense fund has $6578 and he requires another $43,422.

https://thechesedfund.com/pidyonshvuyimfund/hershlag

Yochanan is a fine young man from the best of the yeshiva students, and truly a G-d-fearing talmud chachom, who is engaged in the settlement of the Land of Israel; and he has no criminal record whatsoever.

Yohanan was caught in his place of residence, and his very presence in the vicinity caused him to be treated as a violent nationalist.

Rabbi Chaim and Rebbetzin Yamima Mizrachi are familiar with the case and are asking everyone who can afford to, to contribute a significant sum for the Mitzvag of Pidyon Shevuim. A mitzvah which all generations have strove intensely to fulfill, and whose reward cannot be described or measured.

In addition, his father was attacked by Arabs and sustained an eye injury which severely limits his output. He is barely able to help his sons legal case.

https://thechesedfund.com/pidyonshvuyimfund/hershlag

  

   

   

  

Behold we issue a warm and special request for the dear and fine very G-d fearing Chassidic man who devotes his life to raising and education his family for the glory of Torah and Chassidus

Rabbi Yonason Herschlag Shlitta

For decades he earned his living as an expert and well-known scribe, but due to a recent eye injury resulting from an attack of blood-thirsty Arab terrorists, he is barely able to continue writing, and his livelihood has been crippled. This is on top of the fact that the rabbi and his wife approached the light of Hashem and mitzvoh observance on their own, with no relatives or foundation to support them, and they alone must care for their large family.

Therefore, we enjoin him with a request of our Jewish brethren, please receive him with a warm welcome and with generous and substantial contributions that are worthy for this great mitzvoh. And may this mitzvoh guard and help the doers and the deeds granting great success and all good.

  

 

 
Lebanese security sources have reported that a senior commander in Hezbollahs elite Radwan force, Wissam al-Tawil, was killed in what appears to be an Israeli strike, dealing a significant blow to the militant group. Al-Tawil, identified as the deputy head of a unit within the Radwan force, was killed alongside another Hezbollah fighter when their car was targeted in the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm.

The incident has been described as a severe setback for Hezbollah. A Hezbollah source speaking to Reuters characterized the strike as a very painful strike. The same source hinted at potential repercussions, saying, Things will flare up now.

Further details about the commanders role within Hezbollah were shared by another security official with AFP, under the condition of anonymity. The official said, The commander had a leading role in managing Hezbollahs operations in the south, adding that he was killed in an Israeli raid targeting his car in the south.

Separately, the IDF said that it carried out a series of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets, including rocket launchers and a military compound.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
South Koreas National Intelligence Service (NIS) reports that Hamas is utilizing weapons manufactured in North Korea in its conflict with Israel in Gaza.

The use of North Korean weaponry by Hamas had been suspected since the outbreak of hostilities three months ago. However, North Korea has publicly denied any involvement in attacks against Israel, issuing its first denial shortly after the October 7 attack.

The NISs confirmation of North Korean involvement followed a Voice of America report, which featured a photograph of an F-7 grenade launcher allegedly used by Hamas, with Korean writing visible on it.

The NIS said its assessment is the same as the VOA report, the Yonhap news agency reported.

This revelation comes amidst reports that North Korea is also supplying weapons to Russia for use in the Ukraine conflict. It coincides with the discovery by Israeli Defense Forces of sophisticated Chinese-made weaponry in Gaza, including assault rifles, grenade launchers, and communications equipment. While these arms were manufactured in China, the involvement of the Chinese government in their transfer or sale remains unconfirmed. Its speculated that a third-party state or an illegal weapons dealer might have facilitated their acquisition by Hamas.

The ongoing conflict has also strained Israel-China relations, particularly after Beijings call for a ceasefire and a two-state solution following the October 7 attack, without condemning Hamass actions. The Chinese Communist Party has also been observed promoting anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric online since the wars onset.

Complicating matters further, Hamass actions on October 7 resulted in the deaths of four Chinese nationals and the kidnapping of Chinese-Israeli Noa Argamani, who is still being held captive in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Argamanis mother have appealed to the Chinese government and its leader, Xi Jinping, for intervention in securing her release.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
HMRC has stepped up pressure on cryptocurrency speculators it suspects have underpaid tax on their assets.

The tax office has been collecting data on crypto traders for the past few years, and is now targeting them specifically to check if they have paid tax correctly.

HMRC has sent a total of 8,329 'nudge' letters to individuals it suspects owe tax on their crypto assets, according to accounting firm UHY Hacker Young.

Pay up: HMRC sent over 8,000 nudge letters to cryptoasset holders who it suspects may have underpaid tax

Some crypto holders may be unaware they owe capital gains tax on the sale of assets, or even income tax on their holdings if HMRC deems them a crypto 'trader'.

Traders could subject to paying income tax if they mine cryptocurrency, gain interest from staking their cryptocurrency or regularly trade significant amounts.

HMRC recently urged Britons to come forward and disclose any unpaid tax on crypto assets, like exchange tokens, NFTs and utility tokens.

The voluntary disclosure mechanism, launched in December 2023, encourages people to tell HMRC about any unpaid tax on income or gains made from their crypto holdings.

Neela Chauhan, partner at UHY Hacker Young said the 'nudge' letters are likely to be followed by 'enquiry' letters from HMRC, which will ask for specific information from taxpayers about their crypto holdings.

'HMRC is only going to become more determined to intensify its tax crackdown on crypto investors in the next few years,' she said.

'As HMRC gains access to more data, crypto traders will no longer be able to evade the tax authority's attention.

'Non-compliance may arise because crypto investors do not know what tax they owe on their digital assets.

'While HMRC is willing to offer some forbearance in the short term, such as through its voluntary disclosure mechanism, it is unlikely to be so tolerant for long.

'Investors need to be fully aware of what tax they need to pay or they will be issued with a heavy penalty on top of the tax they already owe.'

In July 2022, research from HMRC found that one in 10 Britons held crypto assets.

Ownership was more prevalent among men than women, and was more concentrated in younger age brackets.

However, around three in five UK crypto asset holders did not know the tax implications of trading in crypto.

Rules around crypto assets and tax can be complex, but generally HMRC treats crypto like any other financial assets.

HMRC seems to be regularly issuing 'nudge' letters to encourage taxpayers to look more closely at their tax affairs.

Last year, there was a sharp increase in the number of letters sent to online marketplace sellers who it believed may not have declared tax.

New rules which came into force on 1 January require platforms to collect information about users, which they will have to report on directly to HMRC from January 2025.

HMRC already had the power to request this information, but new rules mean it will happen automatically - making it easier for the taxman to go after resellers who are failing to pay tax.
Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX  Free Report) had its target price increased by Royal Bank of Canada from $80.00 to $82.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the building manufacturing companys stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Louisiana-Pacific from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Louisiana-Pacific from $57.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, December 14th. TheStreet raised Louisiana-Pacific from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research report on Thursday, December 7th. StockNews.com raised Louisiana-Pacific from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, November 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a hold rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Louisiana-Pacific in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Louisiana-Pacific presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $73.71.

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Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Louisiana-Pacific

Louisiana-Pacific Stock Performance

LPX opened at $68.54 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $4.95 billion, a PE ratio of 27.98 and a beta of 1.83. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $68.27 and a 200-day moving average of $62.12. Louisiana-Pacific has a 52-week low of $49.47 and a 52-week high of $79.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 3.00.

Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The building manufacturing company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $658.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $618.60 million. Louisiana-Pacific had a return on equity of 15.65% and a net margin of 6.90%. The firms revenue was down 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.61 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Louisiana-Pacific will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Louisiana-Pacific Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd will be issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 22nd. This is a boost from Louisiana-Pacifics previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Louisiana-Pacifics dividend payout ratio is presently 39.18%.

Insider Transactions at Louisiana-Pacific

In other news, Director Lizanne C. Gottung sold 3,313 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total value of $221,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 28,495 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,909,165. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Lizanne C. Gottung sold 3,313 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total value of $221,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 28,495 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,909,165. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Michael W. Blosser sold 4,060 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total value of $272,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,858 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,340,486. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Louisiana-Pacific

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Zions Bancorporation N.A. bought a new stake in Louisiana-Pacific during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in Louisiana-Pacific by 36.5% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 497 shares of the building manufacturing companys stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Louisiana-Pacific during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Louisiana-Pacific during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Louisiana-Pacific during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $45,000. 91.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Louisiana-Pacific Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides building solutions primarily for use in new home construction, repair and remodeling, and outdoor structure markets. It operates through: Siding, Oriented Strand Board, and South America. The Siding segment offers LP SmartSide trim and siding products, LP SmartSide ExpertFinish trim and siding products, LP BuilderSeries lap siding products, and LP Outdoor Building Solutions; and engineered wood siding, trim, soffit, and fascia products.

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Arras Minerals Corp.

Figure 1.

Arras Minerals License Package (Pavlodar, Kazakhstan)

Figure 2.

Location of the three holes re-assayed by Arras at the Quartzite Gorka project, Elemes licence. Collars for all historical drilling are shown and approximate outline of the sub-cropping breccia bodies.

Figure 3.

Photos of the re-logging of diamond drill core from Quartzite Gorka, including re-assayed holes Q4, Q10 and Q11 showing the typical styles of veining, mineralization and alteration observed at this prospect.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arras Minerals Corp. (TSX-V: ARK) (Arras or the Company) is pleased to announce the results from the re-analysis of samples from three historic diamond drill holes from the Quartzite Gorka project (Quartzite Gorka or the Project) located within the Companys Elemes exploration licence (Elemes or the Licence) in northeastern Kazakhstan. The Elemes licence is not included in the Teck-Arras Strategic Exploration Alliance announced on December 7, 2023.



Highlights from the Re-Assay include:

Q11 - 127.0m of mineralization grading 0.66 % CuEq or 0.80 g/t AuEq (0.61 g/t Au, 0.25 % Cu, 3.6 g/t Ag and 90.4 ppm Mo) starting at 41.0 m from surface. Including 62.0m grading 1.53 % CuEq or 1.87 g/t AuEq (1.04 g/t Au, 0.43 % Cu, 4.8 g/t Ag and 156.3 ppm Mo) from 41.0 m depth down-hole.

Q10 - 132.6m grading 0.80% Cu Eq or 0.96 g/t Au Eq (0.39% Cu, 0.52 g/t Au, 4.1 g/t Ag, 59.5 ppm Mo) from 140.7m depth. Including 57.1m grading 1.00 % CuEq or 1.20 g/t AuEq (0.85 g/t Au, 0.45 % Cu, 4.8 g/t Ag and 51.0 ppm Mo) from 188.7 m depth down-hole.

Q4 - 68.2m of mineralization grading 0.48 % CuEq or 0.58 g/t AuEq (0.41 g/t Au, 0.23 % Cu, 4.5 g/t Ag and 3.7 ppm Mo) starting at 19.8 m from surface. Including 14.0m grading 0.69 % CuEq or 0.84 g/t AuEq (0.84 g/t Au, 0.16 % Cu, 7.7 g/t Ag and 3.6 ppm Mo) from 73.2 m depth down-hole.



The mineralization is interpreted as a breccia-hosted intermediate sulfidation epithermal system that forms part of a far larger porphyry-epithermal system within the Elemes licence. The Elemes license also hosts the Berezki copper-gold and Karagandy-Ozek gold prospects all of which were part of the key focus for the 2023 summer field program with more than 30,000 soil samples taken which are now being analyzed.

Once analysis of the full 2023 summer field program has been completed, the Company plans to develop an extensive exploration strategy. This strategy will encompass additional geological mapping and KGK drilling to investigate the geological features concealed beneath younger cover sequences. Any identified targets will then be subject to the company's initial drilling campaign.

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Tim Barry, CEO, commented, The results come from the Elemes Licence and represent an entirely new mineralizing system which sits approximately 80 kilometers to the west of our Beskauga Project which presently has a NI43-101 compliant resource of 111.2 million tonnes grading 0.39% copper, and 0.49g/t gold in the indicated category, and 92.6 million tonnes grading 0.24% copper, and 0.50g/t gold in the inferred category. These results from the Quartzite Gorka project further reinforces our strategy of building a belt scale portfolio of high-quality assets in the highly prospective Bozshakol-Chingiz metallogenic belt.

A summary of the results announced in this news release is outlined in the table below.

Hole_lD

Azi

Dip

Hole depth (m)

Intersection Interval Au Cu Ag Mo Cu Eq Au Eq From (m) To(m) (m) (g/t) (%) (g/t) (ppm) (%) (g/t) Q4

090 -70 250.0 19.8 250.0 230.2 0.18 0.09 1.9 2.8 0.20 0.24 Including 19.8 88.0 68.2 0.41 0.23 4.5 3.7 0.48 0.58 Including 73.2 87.2 14.0 0.84 0.16 7.7 3.6 0.69 0.84 Q10

050 -70 279.5 0.0 279.5 279.5 0.31 0.20 2.3 30.0 0.40 0.48 Including 140.7 273.3 132.6 0.62 0.39 4.1 59.5 0.80 0.96 Including 188.7 245.8 57.1 0.85 0.45 4.8 51.0 1.00 1.20 And including 261.0 266.0 5.0 0.62 1.49 5.0 232.2 1.82 2.19 Q11

050 -70 291 0.0 291.0 291.0 0.29 0.13 2.0 40.5 0.32 0.39 Including 41.0 168.0 127.0 0.61 0.25 3.6 90.4 0.66 0.80 Including 41.0 103.0 62.0 1.04 0.43 4.8 156.3 1.53 1.87

Table 1. Summary table for historical drill holes Q04, Q10 and Q11 from the Quartzite Gorka Project, Elemes Licence

Notes: Copper Equivalent (CuEq) grades reported for the drill holes at Quartzite Gorka were calculated using the following formula: CuEq % = Copper (%) + (Gold (g/t) x 0.8264) + (Silver (g/t) x 0.0107) + (Molybdenum (ppm) x 6.0000). Gold Equivalent (AuEq) grades reported for the drill holes at Quartzite Gorka were calculated using the following formula: AuEq g/t = Gold (g/t) + (Copper (%) x 1.2100) + (Silver (g/t) x 0.0129) + (Molybdenum (ppm) x 4.0334). Assumptions used for the copper and gold equivalent calculations were metal prices of US$3.00/lb. Copper, US$1,700/oz Gold, US$22/oz Silver, US$18/lb. Molybdenum, and metallurgical recoveries were assumed to be 90% for Cu and Au and 50% for Ag and Mo. Intervals are core-length weighted and original core recovery is estimated to be > 90 %.

The Quartzite Gorka project: is located within the 425 square kilometre Elemes mineral exploration licence. Elemes benefits from excellent modern infrastructure and ease of accessibility, being located only 20 kilometres (km) from Arras operational base in the city of Ekibastuz, northeastern Kazakhstan. A paved highway runs through the licence, and within 3 km of the Quartzite Gorka project. 1100 KVA power lines, heavy rail, and the IrtyshKaraganda irrigation canal all lie within a 15 km radius of the project.

Arras Minerals License Package (Pavlodar, Kazakhstan)





Figure 1. Arras Minerals License Package (Pavlodar, Kazakhstan)

Quartzite Gorka was drilled between 2007 and 2010 by the previous operators. 30 shallow drillholes for a total of 7,550 metres have been historically drilled at the project, to a maximum depth of 301 metres with an average depth of 252 metres per hole. 14 historical drill core (Figure 2) and all available coarse rejects have been acquired by Arras and are stored at the Companys core storage facility in Ekibastuz. All available drillcores have been re-logged in detail by Arras employees for lithology, structure, alteration, mineralization and petrophysical properties.

The mineralization seen at Quartzite Gorka is interpreted as a breccia-hosted intermediate sulfidation epithermal system that forms part of a much larger porphyry-epithermal system within the Elemes licence that includes the Berezki Central, Berezki East and Karagandy-Ozek prospects. The Elemes licence is located within the Bozshakol-Chingiz metallogenic belt that also hosts the Companys flagship Beskauga copper-gold-silver Project approximately 80 km to the east, and KAZ Minerals Bozshakol porphyry copper-gold mine (one of the largest copper resources in Kazakhstan) approximately 60 km to the northwest.

The re-analysis demonstrated the high-grade nature of the mineralization. Individual assays returned up to 11.2 g/t Au, 4.92 % Cu, 0.48 % Pb, 2.61 % Zn, 0.16 % Sb, 29.1 g/t Ag, and 1,232 ppm Mo, respectively. Mineralization comprises of quartz-pyrite-chalcopyrite  tourmaline, anhydrite, carbonate, k-feldspar, hematite, sphalerite, galena, tetrahedrite, bornite, molybdenite as a cement within the hydrothermal breccia and as quartz veins (Figure 2). Occasionally the cement lacks quartz and comprises of massive sulfide only. Alteration of the clasts within the breccia is variable and comprises of strongly silicified, phyllic (quartz-pyrite  sericite, chlorite), argillic (kaolinite-dickite-illite) and potassic (k-feldspar-magnetite-secondary biotite) altered host diorite. Some clasts are rimmed by massive pyrite. The clasts contain rare porphyry-style quartz-chalcopyrite veins. The host diorite intrusion is fine-grained, equigranular and typically highly magnetic. The breccia bodies are enveloped by potassic (k-feldspar-magnetite-secondary biotite) alteration before transitioning to propylitic (chlorite-hematite-carbonate  epidote) alteration. Rare quartz-chalcopyrite veins  k-feldspar halos and disseminated chalcopyrite-pyrite occur in the host diorite.

Location of the three holes re-assayed by Arras at the Quartzite Gorka project, Elemes licence. Collars for all historical drilling are shown and approximate outline of the sub-cropping breccia bodies.





Figure 2. Location of the three holes re-assayed by Arras at the Quartzite Gorka project, Elemes licence. Collars for all historical drilling are shown and approximate outline of the sub-cropping breccia bodies.





Photos of the re-logging of diamond drill core from Quartzite Gorka, including re-assayed holes Q4, Q10 and Q11 showing the typical styles of veining, mineralization and alteration observed at this prospect.





Figure 3. Photos of the re-logging of diamond drill core from Quartzite Gorka, including re-assayed holes Q4, Q10 and Q11 showing the typical styles of veining, mineralization and alteration observed at this prospect. Intercepts exceeding 1 % CuEq highlighted in red. Abbreviations used in the descriptions: HyBX  hydrothermal breccia, Di  diorite, hem  hematite, qtz  quartz, tour  tourmaline, cpy  chalcopyrite, py  pyrite, ttr  tetrahedrite, bn  bornite, sph  sphalerite, gal  galena, epi - epidote. Note historical intercepts for non-re-assayed holes are non-NI 43-101 compliant and were only analyzed for Cu, Au and Ag.

Re-logging, Assay, QAQC Procedures: All available drillcores have been re-logged in detail by Arras employees for lithology, structure, alteration and mineralization. In addition, Arras also measured several petrophysical properties on the drillcore including density, magnetic susceptibility, conductivity, resistivity and induced polarization. High resolution photographs of all drillcore were captured using Seequents Imago cloud-based image management software. The core was also analyzed for alteration minerals using TerraSpec SWIR/NIR spectroscopy, with interpretation pending.

The re-assayed coarse rejects from Quartzite Gorka were prepared in Arras in-house sample preparation laboratory in Ekibastuz by Arras employees. As the coarse rejects had been in dry storage since 2007/08, they were first re-homogenized by passing through a roller crusher (<2 mm), before being split using a riffle splitter. An approximately one-kilogram split was then pulverized using cup vibration mills to below 75-microns. The pulp was then split again, with 250 g shipped to Stewart Assay and Environmental Laboratories LLC (SAEL), located in Kara-Balta in Kyrgyzstan, for geochemical analysis. Prior to analysis, SAEL undertook Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) on selected pulps, ensuring 85 % passing below -75-microns. A 30 g aliquot was then analyzed for gold content by fire assay with an Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) finish (SAEL method: Au-AA25). A second pulp split was analyzed for 46 elements by a combination of Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) after four-acid digestion on a 1.0 g aliquot (SAEL method: MA/UT). All samples exceeding 1% copper and/or zinc were re-analyzed using 4-acid digest ICP-MS ore grade methods. SAEL laboratory is accredited to ISO 17025:2005 UKAS ref 4028 and have internal QA/QC programs for monitoring accuracy and precision. Internal QA/QC samples were inserted by the analytical laboratory and reviewed by the Company prior to release. No material QA/QC issues have been identified. SAEL is entirely independent of the Company.

Qualified Person: The scientific and technical disclosure for the Quartzite Gorka Project included in this news release has been prepared under supervision of and approved Tim Barry, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of Arras Minerals Corp., who is also a Member and Chartered Professional Geologist (MAusIMM CP(Geo)) of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr. Barry has sufficient experience, relevant to the styles of mineralization and type of deposits under consideration and to the activity that he is undertaking, to qualify as a Qualified Person (QP) for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects (NI 43-101).

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Tim Barry"

Tim Barry, MAusIMM CP(Geo)

Chief Executive Officer and Director

INVESTOR RELATIONS:

+1 604 687 5800

info@arrasminerals.com

Further information can be found on the Companys website https://www.arrasminerals.com or follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arrasminerals or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/arrasminerals

About Arras Minerals Corp.

Arras is a Canadian exploration and development company advancing a portfolio of copper and gold assets in northeastern Kazakhstan, including the Option Agreement on the Beskauga copper and gold project. The Company has established the third-largest license package in the country prospective for copper and gold (behind Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group). Arras and Teck Resources entered into a Strategic Exploration Alliance covering a portion of the Companys regional license package in December 2023 in which Teck will sole fund an initial US$5 million generative exploration phase. The Companys shares are listed on the TSX-V under the trading symbol ARK.

Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors concerning estimates of Measured, Indicated, and Inferred Resources: This press release uses the terms measured resources, indicated resources, and inferred resources which are defined in, and required to be disclosed by, NI 43-101. The Company advises U.S. investors that these terms are not recognized by the SEC. The estimation of measured, indicated and inferred resources involves greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic feasibility than the estimation of proven and probable reserves. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that measured and indicated mineral resources will be converted into reserves. The estimation of inferred resources involves far greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic viability than the estimation of other categories of resources. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that estimates of inferred mineral resources exist, are economically minable, or will be upgraded into measured or indicated mineral resources. Under Canadian securities laws, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies.

Disclosure of contained ounces in a resource is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations, however the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute reserves by SEC standards as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. Accordingly, the information contained in this press release may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies that are not subject NI 43-101.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and Arras future results that are subject to the safe harbors created under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Exchange Act, and applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding plans and expectations of the exploration program Arras is in the process of undertaking, including the expansion of the Mineral Resource, and other aspects of the Mineral Resource estimates for the Beskauga project. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about Arras exploration projects, the industry in which Arras operates and the beliefs and assumptions of Arras management. Words such as expects, anticipates, targets, goals, projects, intends, plans, believes, seeks, estimates, continues, may, variations of such words, and similar expressions and references to future periods, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond managements control, including undertaking further exploration activities, the results of such exploration activities and that such results support continued exploration activities, unexpected variations in ore grade, types and metallurgy, volatility and level of commodity prices, the availability of sufficient future financing, and other matters discussed under the caption Risk Factors in the Management Discussion and Analysis filed on the Companys profile on SEDAR on March 30, 2023 and in the Companys Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2022 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed on February 24, 2023 available on www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by the Company in this release is based only on information currently available and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise.

Figures accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/db04312b-028c-42b2-a493-ef3d0b3c332b

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bef83fd1-b20b-4d92-83e0-3844abc79d1d

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/15abbd00-87f8-4973-8b48-5755a2a10289




A general view of the Burj Khalifa and the downtown skyline in Dubai

By Xie Yu and Yantoultra Ngui

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A growing number of wealth managers in Asia are setting up offices in Dubai, capitalising on warming diplomatic ties between China and the Middle East and betting on a surge in demand from clients for geographical diversification.

Dubai, a major financial hub in the Gulf region, is emerging as a preferred wealth hub for many entrepreneurs and rich families in Asia, mainly China, as they look to take advantage of favourable policies and expand their businesses, wealth managers said.

Noah Holdings, one of China's top wealth managers overseeing round $23 billion in client assets, for example, is expecting to get a business license in Dubai by the end of this year, said Qing Pan, its chief financial officer.

The Dubai office will serve Chinese entrepreneurs who are setting up their businesses in that market, he said.

"Noah's strategy has been following the growth of clients' wealth. That's why we will have to be there and take care of the wealth generated locally," Pan said, adding that the firm plans to send some staff from China first and recruit locally later.

"Many Chinese entrepreneurs are looking for new markets and diversifying their supply chains, and many are excited by the opportunities offered by the Middle East."

The Middle East has grown increasingly important to Beijing as its ties with Washington have soured amid disagreements on a range of issues from trade and technology to human rights and Taiwan.

A post-COVID economic rebound, neutral political stance, ease of doing business, convenient time zones, and tax free status have all contributed to the Middle East attracting droves of wealthy individuals in recent years.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has in the recent past introduced incentives such as the 'golden visa' system. Dubai launched a 'family wealth center' last year to help wealthy individuals and businesses deal with cultural issues and governance.

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As a result, western wealth managers including Swiss private bank Lombard Odier are looking to expand their business presence in the region to tap into the influx of expatriates and growing population of rich individuals.

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

In Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore have long been the most preferred offshore wealth hubs for rich individuals. But some clients are now looking to diversify into other markets and get exposure to new investment opportunities, said wealth managers.

The global number of high net worth individuals (HNWI) fell 3.3% to 21.7 million in 2022, but the Middle East's HNWI population increased 2.8% in the same year, according to Capgemini's 2023 wealth report.

The UAE saw the highest net inflow of millionaires in the world in 2022, and the private wealth hub was estimated to have received a net inflow of another 4,500 in 2023, according to data from Dubai-based wealth and immigration adviser Henley & Partners.

Betting on the trend, Singapore-based multi-family office Farro Capital set up an office in Dubai last month. Patrick Tsang, chairman of Hong Kong-based single family office Tsang Group, said the firm was planning to launch new offices in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia's Riyadh this year after its Dubai foray in 2022.

Hong Kong-based Landmark Family Office is also planning to set up an office in Dubai in the coming months. Landmark's founder and CEO Cameron Harvey said the firm's Dubai office would be used to help clients based in China, Southeast Asia, and Australia find investment opportunities in the Middle East.

A recent survey of 76 Asia Pacific-based single and multi-family offices, done by Campden Wealth and Raffles Family Office, found average asset allocation to the Middle East region at only 1%, with 7% of the respondents planning to increase that.

"We live in very interesting times where geopolitics have become more critical to families than ever before," said Manish Tibrewal, co-founder of Singapore's Farro Capital, adding Dubai's push to regulate virtual assets, and the golden visa system, among others, have enhanced its appeal.

(Reporting by Xie Yu in Hong Kong and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
BabySmile "Baby Motion Sensor E-202" (Photo: Business Wire)

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., January 08, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Baby Health Care, Inc., a subsidiary of SEASTAR Corporation in Japan and creator of the BabySmile brand, proudly announces the unveiling of the 'Baby Motion Sensor E-202' at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. Highly acclaimed in Japan and a recipient of the prestigious BabyTech Award, this product signifies a major advancement in infant care and monitoring under the BabySmile line.

Developed through collaboration between engineers and physicians, the E-202 has received high praise from doctors and medical professionals in Japan, reflecting our commitment and effort in creating reliable and innovative products.

The unveiling of the E-202 at CES 2024 marks a significant milestone for Baby Health Care, Inc. and the BabySmile brand. It represents the fusion of advanced technology and compassionate care, stepping towards a safer future for children under the BabySmile name.

Various dangers lurk during a baby's sleep, such as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), falls from the bed, and suffocation hazards. The 'Baby Motion Sensor E-202' addresses these risks, providing peace of mind to parents who often feel relentless stress and fatigue while their baby sleeps.

Responding to these challenges, we developed this baby motion sensor to reduce the daily burden on parents and alleviate their constant worries. For more detailed information about the product, please visit here.

We help create a society where people can enjoy a spiritually enriched life along with moms wishes for their babies health. With the "Quality" based on our one and only unique technology and our original "Design," we produce baby friendly medical devices and deliver happiness to moms all over the world who suffer from seeing their babies in unhealthy conditions.

The Baby Health Care, Inc. stand will be open to all the attendees between January 9-12 at booth 55229, Venetian Expo & Convention Center.

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About Baby Health Care, Inc.: Baby Health Care, Inc. is a pioneer in infant medical devices, including the "BabySmile S-504" electric nasal aspirator. Driven by a mission to protect and nurture babies' health, the company continues to create innovative home medical devices, fostering a new culture of healthcare that prioritizes the wellbeing of infants above all.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240104477293/en/

Contacts

Media Contact:

Kaz Yamafuji

Public Relations Manager

Email: kaz.y@babyhealthcare.us

Website: https://www.babyhealthcare.us/
Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. But while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse.

So, the natural question for BenevolentAI (AMS:BAI) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.

View our latest analysis for BenevolentAI

When Might BenevolentAI Run Out Of Money?

A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. As at June 2023, BenevolentAI had cash of UK84m and no debt. In the last year, its cash burn was UK82m. Therefore, from June 2023 it had roughly 12 months of cash runway. That's not too bad, but it's fair to say the end of the cash runway is in sight, unless cash burn reduces drastically. Importantly, if we extrapolate recent cash burn trends, the cash runway would be noticeably longer. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

ENXTAM:BAI Debt to Equity History January 8th 2024

How Well Is BenevolentAI Growing?

At first glance it's a bit worrying to see that BenevolentAI actually boosted its cash burn by 12%, year on year. The silver lining is that revenue was up 41%, showing the business is growing at the top line. Considering the factors above, the company doesnt fare badly when it comes to assessing how it is changing over time. While the past is always worth studying, it is the future that matters most of all. So you might want to take a peek at how much the company is expected to grow in the next few years.

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How Easily Can BenevolentAI Raise Cash?

Even though it seems like BenevolentAI is developing its business nicely, we still like to consider how easily it could raise more money to accelerate growth. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.

Since it has a market capitalisation of UK113m, BenevolentAI's UK82m in cash burn equates to about 72% of its market value. That's very high expenditure relative to the company's size, suggesting it is an extremely high risk stock.

How Risky Is BenevolentAI's Cash Burn Situation?

Even though its cash burn relative to its market cap makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought BenevolentAI's revenue growth was relatively promising. Summing up, we think the BenevolentAI's cash burn is a risk, based on the factors we mentioned in this article. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 2 warning signs for BenevolentAI (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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.
A low temperature warning was announced for the Republic of Ireland on Monday, with parts of the country expected to experience a drop to minus 5C (Celsius) overnight.

Irish weather agency Met Eireann forecast lingering frost, icy patches, and mist on Monday morning with highest temperatures throughout the day between 2C and 6C.

It said Monday night will be very cold with icy patches and a widespread sharp to severe frost.

The agency announced a Status Yellow low temperature and ice warning for the whole country due to the cold conditions, scheduled for between 9pm on Monday and 10am on Tuesday.

Motorists should exercise caution this morning, particularly on untreated roads, as freezing temperatures have caused widespread ice throughout the road network. Stick to main, gritted roads when possible. Slow down, and increase your braking distance from the vehicle in front. pic.twitter.com/5wbKbw3n8J  NI Road Policing and Safety (@NIRoadPolicing) January 8, 2024

Forecasters said lowest temperatures overnight would be between minus 5C and 1C in light easterly breezes.

In Northern Ireland, the UK Met Office also forecast bitterly cold temperatures for Monday night.

It said there would be widespread frost and a minimum temperature of minus 4C.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland urged motorists to exercise caution, particularly on untreated roads.

It said freezing temperatures have caused widespread ice throughout the road network.

In a statement, it said: Stick to main, gritted roads when possible. Slow down, and increase your braking distance from the vehicle in front.
China News Service: The US State Department on January 6 released the Joint Statement on the Trilateral US-Japan-ROK Indo-Pacific Dialogue, expressing their concerns over Chinas maritime claims in the South China Sea and escalatory behavior, and saying that they will continue their trilateral maritime security and law enforcement cooperation in accordance with international law. The three countries also reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as indispensable to security and prosperity in the international community. Whats Chinas comment?



Mao Ning: China noted the US-Japan-ROK dialogue and their joint statement. We express serious concerns about the statements rhetoric on China. We firmly oppose relevant countries attempt to cobble together exclusionary groupings in the name of cooperation, grossly interfere in Chinas internal affairs, attack and smear China and stoke confrontation and antagonism.

The situation in the South China Sea is generally stable. China is committed to safeguarding our own territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, while properly managing differences with countries directly concerned through dialogue and consultation. Certain non-regional country has sought to flex muscles and incite confrontation in the South China Sea, which is not conducive to peace and stability in the region.

I want to stress that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinas territory and the Taiwan question is entirely Chinas internal affairs that brooks no foreign interference. The key to keeping the Taiwan Strait peaceful and stable lies in upholding the one-China principle and firmly opposing separatist moves toward Taiwan independence.

The Asia-Pacific is a pacesetter of peace and development, not a chessboard for geopolitical contests. We urge relevant parties to earnestly respect regional countries effort for peace and stability, abandon the Cold War mentality, stop creating bloc confrontation and stop fueling tensions in the region.

Reuters: Taiwanese officials said three Chinese balloons detected flying over the Taiwan Strait on Sunday threatened aviation safety. Can the Foreign Ministry offer assurance that Chinese balloons flying over the Taiwan Strait are not a threat to international civil aviation?

Mao Ning: Im not aware of the specifics you mentioned and its not related to Chinas foreign affairs.

CCTV: The US has been tightening control over chip export to China and strengthening curbs on Chinas semiconductor companies. Do you have any comment on this?

Mao Ning: The US has been stepping up control over chip export to China and going after Chinas semiconductor industry in the name of national security. This is out-and-out economic bullying.

The US semiconductor export controls against China amount to discriminatory practices that violate the most-favored-nation principle stipulated in Article 1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Blacklisting Chinas telecom equipment companies and prohibiting Chinese-made telecom equipment from entering the US market in the name of protecting cyber security violate the principle of general elimination of quantitative restrictions stipulated in Article 11 of the GATT. The ban also contravenes stipulations in the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement. Despite its rhetorical emphasis on international rules, the US habitually ignores and breaks existing rules.

The US uses national security as a pretext to restrict chip export to China, but the measures it has taken clearly go beyond the realm of national security and have gravely hindered the normal trade of ordinary chips for civilian use. The Nvidia RTX 4090 is a consumer graphics card for video game enthusiasts. But the company has been forced to pull this product off the Chinese market due to US export controls. The US has been asking certain countries to join itself in curbing Chinese companies. This has nothing to do with security. This is pure economic coercion.

All of the above shows that the US is going after Chinese chip industry neither for national security reasons nor as part of a legitimate competition. This is unilateral bullying without principles or bottom lines that essentially denies emerging markets and developing countries the right to a better life for their people. The US behavior is taking a serious toll on the stability of the global industrial and supply chains. It poisons the atmosphere for international cooperation and fuels division and confrontation. This selfish move will inevitably backfire.

Danish Broadcasting Corporation: The Queen of Denmark Margrethe II announced her abdication of the throne on New Years Day. Shes set to give the position over to her son this week. Shes visited China quite a few times during the rein and met several Chinese leaders, including Xi Jinping. Does the Foreign Ministry have a comment on her abdication?

Mao Ning: Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is the first western head of state to visit China after we began reform and opening up in 1978. She visited China twice in 1979 and 2014. She is an old friend of the Chinese people and made important contribution to China-Denmark relations and friendship. Our relationship with Denmark enjoys good momentum and we are ready to continue advancing our two countries comprehensive strategic partnership together with the Royal House and the Danish people.

AFP: According to the Ministry of State Security, Chinas national security authority uncovered an espionage case involving the UKs Secret Intelligence Service and has taken criminal compulsory measures against the suspect surnamed Huang. Apart from what has been released by the Ministry of State Security, can you provide more information about the case? Does the Foreign Ministry have any additional comment?

Mao Ning: You may refer to the information concerning the case released on the WeChat account of Chinas Ministry of State Security. I have no additional information to offer.

Bloomberg: You just now had a long statement on how US export controls violate the principles of free trade in GATT. And you also said that the US is stretching national security. China has recently stopped the export of some kind of graphite or its licensing for national security reasons. Theres also been a ban on the export of some kinds of rare earth processing technologies and rare earth themselves. How is this different from what the US is doing in exporting US technology to China?

Mao Ning: On the Chinese export controls you just mentioned, you can find the reasons behind these measures in previous statements and announcements released by Chinas competent authorities. Our measures do not target any particular country or company, which is fundamentally different from the measures deliberately imposed by the US to target particular countries and companies in the name of national security. You may ask the competent authorities for more information.

AFP: The Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into imported brandy originating from the EU. Is there a connection between this probe and the EUs investigation into Chinese EVs?

Mao Ning: I would like to refer you to Chinas competent authorities for your specific questions. More broadly, China is committed to high-standard opening up and the principles of market economy and the WTO rules. We are ready to provide an open, inclusive, transparent and non-discriminatory environment for EU and other international businesses that trade and invest in China. This has been our position all along and has not changed.

Ukrainian News Agency: On January 6, Russian military attacked residential buildings in Pokrovsky district of the Donetsk region and killed 11 civilians, including five children. Several countries in the United Nations, particularly Denise Brown, Assistant Secretary General, Permanent Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs in Ukraine, condemned Russian strikes and expressed the condolences to the victims family. Does China support this position of the UN regarding the condemnation of the killing of Ukrainian civilians by the Russian military?

Mao Ning: Chinas position on the Ukraine crisis is consistent and clear. We call on relevant parties to exercise maximum restraint, refrain from attacking civilian facilities and protect civilians. China always believes that dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis. We hope all parties will work for a political settlement of the crisis, reach a ceasefire soon and jointly deescalate the situation.

Global Times: Al Jazeera released a statement on January 7 condemning Israel for killing its journalist Hamza Dahdouh during Israels attack against southeastern Gaza. Hamza is the son of Al Jazeeras Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh whose wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed during a previous Israeli air strike. It was reported that Mustafa Thuria, a video stringer for AFP, was also killed during the attack. Whats your comment?

Mao Ning: We mourn for the two journalists death and extend our deep sympathies to Mr. Wael Dahdouh for his loss.



During the past three months, the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict has taken nearly 23,000 lives in Gaza, including over 100 media workers. According to relevant UN agency, nearly 90 percent of people in Gaza have been displaced. Despite the repeated international call for ceasefire, the fighting is still raging and killing innocent civilians every day. China strongly calls on relevant parties to the conflict, especially Israel, to exercise restraint, faithfully implement relevant UN resolutions, start an immediate ceasefire, protect civilians and prevent such tragedies from reoccurring.
BEIJING & BOSTON, January 08, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) Co., Ltd. ("Biocytogen", HKEX: 02315), a global biotech company focusing on the discovery of novel antibody therapeutics, today announces that it has entered into an Exclusive Option and License Agreement with Radiance Biopharma Inc. ("Radiance"), a biotechnology company specializing in developing next generation Antibody Drug Conjugates.

The agreement grants Radiance an option to license from Biocytogen a first-in-class fully human anti-HER2/TROP2 bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (BsADC) for therapeutic product development, manufacturing and commercialization for all human indications worldwide. HER2 and TROP2 are two tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) that have been found to be commonly expressed and co-expressed by multiple tumor types, including breast, gastric, colorectal, bladder, pancreatic, and non-small-cell lung cancer.

Under the terms of the agreement, upon the option exercised, Biocytogen will be entitled to receive an option fee, licensing fee, development and commercialization milestone payments, as well as single-digit royalties on net sales. In addition, Biocytogen has the right to collect the sharing of sublicensing fee, if any, between Radiance and third party.

Dr. Yuelei Shen, President and CEO of Biocytogen, said: "We are excited to collaborate with Radiance, a strong team with extensive experience in drug development, to develop a leading proprietary fully human bispecfic antibody drug conjugate. We are optimistic that the combination of our strength in BsADC discovery and the extensive experience of Radiances team will help expedite the commercialization of this dual-targeting BsADC":

Marc Lippman, MD, Chairman of the Board of Radiance said: "We are excited to enter into this Exclusive Option and License Agreement with Biocytogen for a novel human anti- HER2 and Trop2 Bispecific Antibody Drug Conjugate. Preclinical data from in vitro and in vivo assays of this BsADC shows promising high potency of anti-tumor activities in leading tumor indications. We are eager to work with Biocytogen to move the product to the clinic to benefit patients."

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About Biocytogen

Biocytogen (HKEX: 02315) is a global biotechnology company that drives the research and development of novel antibody-based drugs with innovative technologies. Founded on gene editing technology, Biocytogen leverages genetically engineered proprietary RenMice (RenMabTM/RenLite/RenNano/RenTCR-mimicTM) platforms for fully human monoclonal/bispecific/multispecific antibody discovery, bispecific antibody-drug conjugate discovery, nanobody discovery and TCR-mimic antibody discovery, and has established an off-the-shelf library of over 400,000 fully human antibody sequences against approximately 1000 targets for worldwide collaboration. As of June 30, 2023, 50 therapeutic antibody and multiple clinical asset co-development/out-licensing/transfer agreements and 42 target-nominated RenMice licensing projects have been established around the globe, including several partnerships with multinational pharmaceutical companies (MNCs). Biocytogen pioneered the generation of drug target knock-in humanized models for preclinical research, and currently provides a few thousand off-the-shelf animal and cell models under the companys sub-brand, BioMiceTM, along with preclinical pharmacology and gene-editing services for clients worldwide. Headquartered in Beijing, Biocytogen has branches in China (Haimen Jiangsu, Shanghai), USA (Boston, San Francisco), and Germany (Heidelberg). For more information, please visit http://en.biocytogen.com.cn.

About Radiance Biopharma

Radiance is focused on developing a pipeline of antibody-based cancer therapeutics including mono and bispecific Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of cancer and to address other unmet medical needs. Marc Lippman, MD, a co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Radiance is a renowned oncologist and former founding board member of Seagen, a leader in the field of ADCs, recently acquired by Pfizer. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Radiance has a world class, proven leadership team that brings together the best of ADC engineering, clinical, managerial expertise and track record. Radiance is an affiliated company to Alphageneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing unique targeted cell and gene therapies for treating cancer and other unmet medical needs. For more information, please visit www.radiancebiopharma.com.

This Media Release contains forward looking statements. The words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend" and "plan" and similar expressions identify forward looking statements. Actual results or performance may differ materially from any future results or performance expressed or implied by such statements. The important factors that could cause our actual results or performance to differ materially include, among others, risks associated with pre-clinical and clinical development of products, uncertainties related to the outcome and conduct of clinical trials including unforeseen safety issues, uncertainties related to product manufacturing, the lack of market acceptance of our products, our inability to manage growth, the competitive environment in relation to our business area and markets, our inability to attract and retain suitably qualified personnel, the unenforceability or lack of protection of our patents and proprietary rights, our relationships with affiliated entities, changes and developments in technology which may render our products or technologies obsolete, and other factors. Radiance does not undertake any obligation to update or revise forward looking statements in this Media Release nor to confirm such statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances after the date made or in relation to actual results, unless required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240107000861/en/

Contacts

For Further information on Radiance Biopharma

Info@radiancebiopharma.com

Tel. 617.621.7143

Investor Relations:

Trinity Capital Advisors jerry.alain@trinitycapitaladvisors.com

Biocytogen:

Antibody assets and platforms: BD-Licensing@biocytogen.com

Media: pr@bbctg.com.cn
In her latest blast Missouri State Rep. Ingrid Burnett issues a dire warning against the potential Republican takeover of the Jackson County Legislature during the 2024 election cycle.

Remember that we talked about this on Friday and today's meeting will be a show down worth watching.

Context . . .

Legislator DeRon McGee is out and wisely wants to stay away from this dumpster fire during 2024 and whilst the stadium hot mess plays out.

Legislator Megan "Captain Marvel" Marshall sparked this switcheroo amid behind the scenes personal beef and a very public show down with one of her colleagues.

So far, Legislator Donna Peyton is the only Democratic Party member openly vying for the position with her colleague Venessa Huskey ready to serve as Vice Chair.

However . . .

A (typically) panicked e-mail blast from Rep. Burnett seems to indicate that Legislator and congressional contender Sean Smith will be vying for chair rather than the 5th District Legislator Jeanie Lauer serving as bi-partisan compromise.

But let's move beyond the courthouse sausage-making . . . Here's the fun part . . .

CHECK E-MAIL BLAST PANIC, FEAR & LOATHING THAT "TRUMP REPUBLICANS" MIGHT TAKE OVER JACKSON COUNTY!!!

It's almost as if the QAnon Shaman and his horns were on the courthouse steps . . .

Check the money line:



"Meanwhile, we have a super-majority of Democratic members on our County Legislature, and they are preparing to vote for a new Chair. There are two members seeking this seat - one is an elected at-large Democrat and the other an in-district Republican. I have been made aware that some of our Democratic members are preparing to vote for the Republican for no other reason than to settle petty differences. Can you imagine a Trump Republican leading the legislature? Can we not find common ground to select one of the seven Democrats to lead Jackson County rather than a Republican member, who clearly and vocally challenges our own Congressman Cleaver and would likely lead important committees giving him a clear platform to preach his rhetoric?



"This year, Trump will be on the ballot again an in the state of Missouri likely to receive well over the 2020 vote of over 15% against President Biden. Are we going to let that happen in Jackson County?



"Are we prepared to watch our elected County Legislators cede the bully pulpit, gain the agenda and shift the balance of County Government to a Trump Republican during one of the most important Presidential elections of our Country's history? Over personalities?"

Here's most of her e-mail blast via www.TonysKansasCity.com screencaps sent by AWESOME INSIDERS . . .

Developing . . .
The idea of having dual citizenship is becoming increasingly popular. For many, holding two passports is not just a symbol of cultural connection but also a practical step towards greater global mobility.

Dual citizenship makes living, working, or studying in another country easier, offering flexibility in a globally connected world. Whether you seek new business opportunities, educational experiences, or a different environment, these countries provide various options.

Knowing about dual citizenship is important for making an informed choice about your future. Each country has its own rules and advantages related to holding dual citizenship, which can greatly affect your lifestyle and opportunities.

These are the five Asian countries where you can obtain dual citizenship. We will explore these countries, understanding their citizenship laws, the benefits they offer, and the cultural and economic opportunities they present.

1. The Philippines

The Philippines stands out as a prime destination for dual citizenship seekers. This archipelago nation, known for its breathtaking beaches and rich cultural heritage, offers dual citizenship to those of Filipino descent. If you have Filipino parents or grandparents, you can reclaim your Filipino heritage and enjoy the benefits of being a citizen of this country. The process involves simple legal procedures, making it an option for many.

2. India

India, a land of diversity and history, allows dual citizenship through the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) program. This program is not full dual citizenship per se, but it grants many of the same benefits, such as the right to live and work in India indefinitely. The OCI is available to individuals who were Indian citizens or are descendants of Indian citizens. This is an excellent opportunity to connect with your Indian heritage while enjoying the perks of being an OCI cardholder.

Related Article: 5 Must-See Ancient Monuments in Asia You Might Not Aware Of

3. Pakistan

Pakistan offers a similar arrangement to India with its National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP). This program allows individuals of Pakistani origin and their spouses to enjoy many rights of citizenship without giving up their current nationality. With this card, you can enter and leave Pakistan freely, own property, and engage in business. It's a great way to stay connected to your Pakistani roots while living abroad.

4. Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, known for its stunning landscapes and rich history, also offers dual citizenship. It's available to persons of Sri Lankan origin and their children. By becoming a dual citizen of Sri Lanka, you can enjoy the right to own property, engage in business, and fully immerse yourself in the Sri Lankan way of life. The application process involves proving your Sri Lankan origin and meeting other requirements set by the government.

5. Thailand

Thailand is another enticing option, though it's important to note that Thailand's dual citizenship policy is more complex. You can acquire Thai citizenship if you meet certain criteria, such as fluency in the Thai language and a history of living in the country. Once obtained, you can enjoy the benefits of living and working in Thailand, a country known for its friendly people, delicious cuisine, and dynamic economy.

Read Also: Find Out 2024's 5 Safe and Exciting Solo Travel Destinations in Asia
During the winter holiday travel season, which spanned from Dec. 20, 2023 through Jan. 8, 2024, American Airlines achieved a remarkable operational performance. This period saw the airline successfully minimize flight cancellations and significantly improve on-time performance across its network, effectively handling the high travel demand.

American Airlines Excels During Winter Holiday Travel

American Airlines, a major U.S. airline, has performed excellently during the winter holiday travel season. This period started on Dec. 20 and will end on Jan. 8.

According to Breaking Travel News, American Airlines has helped nearly 7.8 million customers on over 71,000 flights during this time. The airline had very few canceled flights, leading among big carriers in this area. In fact, for the first six days, not a single main flight was canceled, and only 16 were canceled during the holidays.

American Airlines' success comes even with tough weather conditions and more air traffic control delays. These delays were due to extra flights not part of regular schedules. Despite these challenges, American Airlines had a much better on-time performance for departures and arrivals than last year's holiday season. The improvement was about 15% for both.

Related Article: Ryanair Adjusts Strategy as Online Agents Drop Flight Listings

David Seymour, the Chief Operating Officer of American Airlines, spoke about the hard work of their team. He said they have met their commitment to safety and reliability, despite difficult weather and more air traffic. Seymour also thanked federal partners like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). He credited them for helping make the holiday travel successful.

American Airlines also focused on improving how they handle baggage. Their efforts have paid off. The airline has seen a 66% better rate in handling baggage without issues than last holiday season.

American Airlines Union Considers Major Changes for Pilots

American Airlines' pilot union, the Allied Pilots Association (APA), is looking into a big change. They are thinking about adding pilots from smaller airlines like Envoy Air to the main pilot list at American Airlines. This was revealed in a memo from the union. The APA has set up a special team to see how this change might work.

The union's President, Ed Sicher, said in the memo that this team will also look into what could happen if the age when pilots retire is raised from 65 to 67. They want to make sure this change doesn't cause any problems for their pilots, as reported by Reuters.

This idea of changing the retirement age is getting mixed reactions. Some pilot unions, like the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), are against it. They think it could make flying less safe because no safety group has checked what this change could mean. However, the Regional Airline Association (RAA) believes this change could let around 5,000 pilots keep working for two more years.

This news comes at a time when there's a big need for more pilots in the industry. American Airlines hasn't made any comments on this yet.

Read Also: Southwest Airlines Faces Delays and Cancellations Amid Busy Holiday Travel Season
Turkey, led by Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, strives towards a massive tourism revenue goal of $100 billion, despite facing global instability and natural disasters. The announcement came during an event in Antalya, a key tourist destination in Turkey, which has seen a record number of visitors and a significant increase in tourism revenue. To achieve this goal, the country focuses on infrastructure improvements, cultural initiatives, and sustainable tourism.

Turkey Sets Sights on $100 Billion Tourism Goal

Turkey is making big moves to reach its tourism goal of $100 billion. The country's Culture and Tourism Minister, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, announced this ambitious target recently. Despite facing challenges like global unrest, wars, and last year's major earthquakes, Turkey is moving forward confidently in its tourism sector.

Ersoy shared this news at an event organized by the Antalya Union of Chamber of Tradesmen and Craftsmen (AESOB). The Daily Sabah reported that he revealed that Antalya, a key tourist destination in Turkey, had a record number of visitors last year. Antalya hosted about 15.69 million tourists, breaking its previous record set in 2019. Turkey's tourism revenue also significantly jumped, reaching nearly $46.3 billion in 2022.

The increase in tourists is partly thanks to people coming from Russia and Germany, as well as a growing number of visitors from the United Kingdom and Poland. This trend is expected to continue, with more tourists visiting Turkey in the coming years.

Related Article: Latest Archaeology Digs In Turkey Finds 12,000 Years Of Anatolian Food Culture

Ersoy emphasized that reaching the $100 billion goal will require efforts from various groups, not just the government. Local authorities need to invest in infrastructure like expanding the capacity of Antalya Airport and improving roads. Improving urban transport is also important to help tourists explore more areas beyond their hotels.

The government is also focusing on cultural and artistic activities. Projects like "Gelecege Miras" ("Legacy for the Future") are receiving significant investments. Ersoy encouraged people to visit historical sites like the ancient city of Side, where restoration work is underway.

Sustainable tourism is another key focus. Turkey is working on wastewater treatment facilities to protect the environment. This effort has helped Turkey and Antalya earn Blue Flag certifications for their beaches and facilities.

Turkey Offers Visa-Free Entry to Six Countries, Boosts Tourism

Turkey has made a big move to welcome more tourists and improve relationships with other countries.

Travel and Leisure reported that people from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, the United States, Canada, Bahrain, and Oman can visit Turkey for up to 90 days without needing a visa. This decision will make traveling easier for people from these countries and help Turkey's tourism industry.

Turkey, also known as Turkiye, is a country in the Middle East famous for its different landscapes and rich history. It's a popular place for travelers from all over the world. The country is known for its beautiful scenery and historical sites.

Now, with the new visa-free policy, tourists from these six countries can easily visit famous places in Turkey. They can see the Hagia Sophia History Museum, the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, and the Ephesus Experience Museum. These places show Turkey's amazing architecture and cultural heritage.

Read Also: What You Need to Know About Denizli's Ancient Cities
Passengers try to rebook their tickets from cancelled United Airlines flights in San Juan

Passengers try to rebook their tickets from cancelled United Airlines flights in San Juan

By David Shepardson, Valerie Insinna and Tim Hepher

(Reuters) - Safety checks on some Boeing jets hit a snag over paperwork on Sunday, as U.S. authorities searched for a missing panel that blew off a new Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet in midair on Friday.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing jets installed with the same panel after the eight-week-old Alaska Airlines jet was forced to make an emergency landing with a gap in the fuselage.

"They will remain grounded until the FAA is satisfied that they are safe," the agency said in a statement on Sunday.

The door plug tore off the left side of an Alaska Airlines jet following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board.

The force of the 737 MAX 9 decompression was so strong it blew open the cockpit door, according to a person briefed on the investigation.

The accident has put Boeing back under scrutiny as it awaits certification of its smaller MAX 7 as well as the larger MAX 10, which is needed to compete with a key Airbus model.

On Saturday, the FAA initially said the required inspections would take four to eight hours, leading many in the industry to assume the planes could very quickly return to service.

But criteria for the checks have yet to be agreed between the FAA and Boeing, meaning airlines have yet to receive detailed instructions, people familiar with the matter said.

The FAA must approve Boeing's inspection criteria before inspections can be completed and planes can resume flights.

Of the 171 planes covered by the order, 144 are operating in the United States, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. Turkish Airlines, Panama's Copa Airlines and Aeromexico said they were grounding affected jets.

Typically, whenever planemakers order routine maintenance checks, they get paperwork approved by regulators in advance.

Story continues

But because the response to the unexpected Alaska Airlines incident was relatively swift, Boeing has not yet secured FAA approval to tell airlines how to carry out the regulator's order.

The FAA has the final word on how the order is implemented.

FLIGHTS CANCELED

Alaska Airlines said on Sunday it was "just waiting for the direction from the FAA and Boeing so our inspections can begin." The airline canceled 170 flights affecting nearly 25,000 customers and said travel disruptions from the grounding were expected to last through at least midweek.

United Airlines canceled 230 flights on Sunday, or 8% of scheduled departures, after parking all 79 of its 737 MAX 9s awaiting the inspection directions.

"Weve begun steps such as removing the inner panel to access the emergency door, and begun preliminary inspections while awaiting final instructions," United said in a statement.

Boeing declined to comment on whether it had submitted its inspection criteria to the FAA, which had no further comment.

In message to employees on Sunday, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said the company's response to the accident must be the team's focus right now.

"When serious accidents like this occur, it is critical for us to work transparently with our customers and regulators to understand and address the causes of the event, and to ensure they dont happen again," Calhoun said.

The company plans to hold a company-wide webcast on safety on Tuesday to address its response. It also canceled a leadership summit for company vice presidents previously scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

SEARCH FOR PANEL

It is too early to say what caused Friday's event, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters on Saturday.

The aircraft panel is likely to have landed somewhere in the western suburbs of Portland, but has not yet been found.

The NTSB has asked the public for help finding the panel and also plans to ask commercial property owners to check the rooftops of industrial buildings in the area.

The extra exit door is typically installed by low-cost airlines using more seats that require additional evacuation routes. However, those doors are plugged on jets with fewer seats like the Alaska Airlines plane. To passengers, the area looks like a normal window seat.

A cell phone was located Sunday in the search area that may have blown out of the plane, according to the person familiar with the investigation.

In 2019, global authorities subjected all MAX planes to a wider grounding that lasted 20 months after crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia linked to poorly designed cockpit software killed a total of 346 people.

Boeing has delivered 214 of the 737 MAX 9 model, or 15% of the more than 1,300 MAX aircraft in service, most of which can still fly, including 737 MAX 9 jets with ordinary doors instead of the replacement panels.

CABIN ISSUES

The fuselage for Boeing 737s is made by Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems, which also manufactured and installed the plug that suffered the blowout.

Sources familiar with the process said Boeing also has a potential role, since it typically removes the semi-fitted door panel after receiving the fuselages by rail from Spirit. It uses the gap to feed in cabin equipment and speed up production, before completing final installation.

Spirit referred questions to Boeing, which did not respond to a request for comment on who carried out final installation.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Valerie Insinna and Tim Hepher; Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington and Hannah Lang; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Jonathan Oatis and Jamie Freed)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Boeing early on Monday shared instructions with airlines for inspecting the 737 MAX 9 fleet, the company confirmed, after 171 MAX planes were grounded by U.S. regulators on Saturday following an accident where a cabin panel ripped off an Alaska Airlines jet while in mid-air.

The instructions, known formally as a multi-operator message, are a key step to allow airlines to complete or certify inspections have been conducted that comply with the Federal Aviation Administration's directive that would allow them to put planes back in service.

"We agree with and fully support the FAAs decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 MAX airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane," Boeing Commercial Airplanes head Stan Deal said in a letter to employees.

"Our teams have been working diligently  with thorough FAA review  to provide comprehensive, technical instructions to operators for the required inspections," he said. "This morning, our team issued the instructions via a multi-operator message."

The message was delivered to airlines around 3 a.m. Pacific Time (1100 GMT), a source told Reuters, who was first to report that Boeing had sent the instructions.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not immediately comment but a source said it signed off on Boeing's instructions to airlines.

Boeing is "working closely" with MAX 9 customers and providing technical assistance, while staying in contact with the FAA, Deal said.

Boeing plans to hold a "short factory stand down" during the Monday morning meetings at the Renton, Washington-facility that makes the MAX, Deal said. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will host an internal Boeing webcast for employees on Tuesday.

Alaska Airlines did not immediately comment.

The FAA on Saturday ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing MAX 9 jets after a door plug tore off from a brand-new MAX 9 shortly after it took off from Portland, Oregon.

Story continues

On Sunday, the U.S. regulator said the affected fleet of Boeing MAX 9 planes, including those operated by other carriers such as United, would remain grounded until the regulator was satisfied they were safe.

Boeing shares were down 6.6% in Monday trading, though off the day's lows.

(Reporting by Valerie Insinna and David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
The Poor Man Tyre Shop in Valencia and a nearby apartment building were destroyed by fire 
A bill has been put forward by OFW Party-List Representative Marissa Magsino, urging the declaration of December 18 as "Overseas Filipino Workers' (OFWs) Day" annually in the Philippines. This initiative is in reference to the United Nations General Assembly's resolution from December 18, 1990, which established the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families, concurrently marking December 18 as International Migrants Day.

Read More: Philippine President Has a Message for Pinoy Expats on OFW Family Day

Significance of December 18 for Overseas Filipino Workers

Under House Bill No. 7903, December 18 would be marked as a special working holiday across the country. Representative Magsino emphasized the crucial role played by overseas Filipino workers, hailing them as modern-day heroes due to their substantial financial contributions through remittances. She highlighted that these remittances serve as a lifeline for families while also stimulating local markets and boosting the national economy.

Read More: 10 Filipino Films Spotlighting the Sacrifices of OFWs

Contributions of Overseas Filipino Workers to the Philippines

Statistics from the Philippine Statistics Authority reveal that approximately 1.8 million OFWs are dispersed globally. Representative Magsino underscored the important role OFWs played during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She noted that despite the global challenges, the remittances from these workers amounted to an impressive US$34.884 billion in 2021, playing a crucial role in sustaining the national economy during such challenging times.
Udaku Special

AJIRA ZA UHAKIKA NJE NJE, BONYEZA HAPA





NECTA Matokeo ya Kidato cha Pili | Form two 2023 Results 2023/24 were officially unveiled on Sunday January 7, 2024 following an anxious wait by many Students, Parents , Guardians and Loved ones of the Students who took the Examinations.

The NECTA Matokeo ya Kidato cha Pili | Form two 2023 Results 2023/24 were released to the Public on Sunday January 7, 2024 by the NECTA Executive Secretary Dr. Said Mohamed from 1.25 PM on a Live Press Conference. on our previous updated we previously tried to pinpoint the NECTA Form Two Results | Matokeo ya Kidato Cha Pili 2023/2024 - Dates,The results are now accessible via the direct links below or through www.necta.go.tz .

The 2023 Form Two National Assessment / Exams were conducted From October 30 , 2023 to 6th November 2023 as thousands of Student took the Week Long National Examinations . For a few months now the Students , Parents and Guardians have been on the lookout for this NECTA Matokeo ya Kidato cha Pili | Form two 2023 Results 2023/24 also know as FTNA or Form Two National Assessment Results.

For Tanzanian students, the NECTA Form Two Exam is an essential part of their scholastic path. This examination, which is given by the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA), provides a thorough analysis of students' knowledge and abilities at the end of their second year of secondary school.

It provides a comprehensive evaluation of their academic achievement by covering a wide range of disciplines, such as Mathematics, Kiswahili, English languages, Geography, Biology, Chemistry, History, Physics, Bookkeeping, and Commerce.

More About NECTA Matokeo ya Kidato cha Pili | Form two 2023 Results 2023/24

All national exams in Tanzania are administered by the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA), a government organization. Matokeo Kidato Cha Pili, often referred to as the Form Two National Assessment (FTNA) or secondary education examination, is one of the most important exams administered by NECTA. Through the implementation of Parliamentary Act No. 21 of 1973, the National Examination Council of Tanzania administers this evaluation, which assesses students' academic achievement in their second year of secondary education and offers crucial information that can effectively direct their future educational course.

In addition NECTA also oversees developing study schedules and curriculum . It also supervises and controls Tanzania's educational system.

Students who took the exam can view their results by using their exam number and name. Candidates can see the results via the official NECTA website or by clicking the link provided in this post below.

How to Check NECTA Matokeo ya Kidato cha Pili | Form two 2023 Results 2023/24

Tanzanian students can now get their Form Two National Assessment (FTNA) results online for the years 20232024. See the step-by-step instructions below to obtain the NECTA FTNA Results 2023 online.

Method 1:

Step 1 : visit www.necta.go.tz

Step 2 : Click on Results from the Main menu | Alternatively view the "News Section" for results

Step 3 : The Results window will show all results available.

Step 6: Select Exam Type as FTNA.

Step 5: Select your Year as 2023

Step 6: Students can now check their FTNA result directly here.

Students can save or print out their result for future reference.

Method 2:

Alternatively Use the Direct Link link below to check your Form two 2023 results in a shortcut manner.

Click Here to Check >> Matokeo ya Kidato cha Pili 2023

Understanding the Form two 2023 Results 2023/24

Comprehending the grading scheme is crucial. The grades, which range from A (Excellent) to F (Fail), provide pupils with important information regarding their academic path. Rather than using these outcomes as a pure pass/fail situation, the goal is to use them as a roadmap for future progress.

ALSO READ:NECTA Matokeo ya Darasa la Nne | Standard Four 2023/ 2024 Results
Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.





I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.





More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.





The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.





About me:

I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.

Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).

Age: 42

Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.





I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).
There has been no electricity shortage in Ukraines energy system so far. The generating capacity of Ukrainian power plants is enough to meet the consumer needs, although some imports have been scheduled to take place during the day.

The relevant statement was made by the Ukrainian Energy Ministry on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Today, some electricity imports are expected to take place, totaling up to 2 megawatt-hours. No exports have been scheduled, the report states.

On the morning of January 7, 2024, Ukraines energy system was balanced. One of thermal power plant units resumed operation after emergency maintenance.

At the same time, the ministry urged household consumers to use electricity reasonably, in particular reduce the load at peak hours.

Meanwhile, according to the data from the ministry, following Russian shelling, two mines were left without electricity in the Donetsk region. Eighteen workers were reported to have been there as the power supply interrupted.

An explosive object and missile fragments were discovered near an oil pipeline in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Relevant services are working at the scene.

Due to hostilities, equipment was damaged at a thermal power plant in the Donetsk region.

Additionally, following Russian attacks, overhead power line PL 110 was cut off in the Kharkiv region. Household consumers were left without electricity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Mishal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, in a phone call on Monday discussed the prospects for cooperation in the energy and agricultural sectors.

That's according to the press service of the Ukrainian leader, Ukrinform reports.

Zelensky thanked Sheikh Mishal for Kuwait's support of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, voting on key Ukrainian resolutions at the UN, and timely assistance in providing electricity generators ahead of winter.

He also informed the emir about countering the missile terror that Russia renewed during the New Year holidays.

The two discussed the prospects for cooperation in the energy and agricultural sectors.

Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine ensures freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and thus remains the guarantor of global food stability, while making maximum efforts to restore a just peace.

"We are actively working on further steps to implement the Peace Formula. The voice and position of the Gulf countries are important here," Zelensky said.

He invited a Kuwaiti representative to attend the next meeting of national security advisers and political advisers to the heads of state regarding the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula, due to be held in Davos, as well as to participate in the preparation of the upcoming Global Peace Summit.

In mid-January, Switzerland will host a meeting of advisers to the heads of state to discuss the Ukrainian Peace Formula on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.
President Volodymyr Zelensky and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain held the first-ever phone call in the history of bilateral relations between the two countries.

Zelensky said this in a post on his Facebook page, Ukrinform reports.

The heads of states discussed bilateral cooperation, global food security, and support for Ukraines Peace Formula.

This was the first conversation between the two heads of state in the history of bilateral relations. Last year, Bahrain's Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani paid his first visit to Ukraine, Zelensky noted.

The President said he hopes that the contacts at the highest level will mark the beginning of a new chapter in the bilateral relations.

He thanked Bahrain for its participation in the earlier Peace Formula advisors meetings and invited Bahrains representative to participate in the next meeting in Davos.

Among other things, Zelensky briefed the Bahraini leader about Ukraines efforts to maintain global food stability.

As reported by Ukrinform, President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Mishal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, discussed the prospects for cooperation in the energy and agricultural sectors.
The Lukashenko regime will not invite OSCE observers to monitor the so-called "elections" to the House of Representatives and local councils on February 25.

Thats according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Ukrinform reports.

"Belarus will refrain from inviting OSCE observers to the parliamentary elections," the report reads.

The Lukashenko regime accused the West of "illegal sanctions policy" and "attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of Belarus."

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the OSCE condemned massive violations of human rights, torture, and cruel treatment of peaceful protesters by the Belarus authorities during the rigged presidential elections on August 9, 2020. The Organization then called on the Lukashenko regime to annul the results of the voting due to violations committed at all stages of the electoral process and to hold another real presidential election based on international standards.

Photo: AA
Germany intends to double military aid to Ukraine and expects other EU member states to increase their contributions as well.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made the statement at a joint press conference with his Luxembourg counterpart Luc Frieden in Berlin, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to Scholtz, the volume of lethal aid to Kyiv from individual member states should be large enough.

"What we see so far is not large enough. Larger contributions are needed," the head of the German government emphasized.

He noted that a request was sent to the EU to "interview" individual countries because it is possible that some plans are yet to be announced.

Read also: Bundestag Defense Committee Chair calls for sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine

"Germany's plans are defined: we have taken care of the possibility of investing EUR 8 billion from our budget," Scholz said, clarifying that not all projects have been defined yet.

The chancellor also called for presenting "as precise as possible an overview of what specific contribution European partners will make to support Ukraine this year" before the meeting of the European Council on February 1 at the latest.

In turn, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Luc Frieden, noted that for the Duchy and for all Europeans, Ukraine and its future are important, because it is about fundamental principles, the future of the entire continent, and the protection of peace, freedom and sovereignty of all European countries.

He added that the aid should match the capabilities and be proportional to the countries' GDP and their defense budgets. Frieden informed that his country allocates 16% of its defense budget to help Ukraine, and promised to continue the support.

Both heads of government also expressed hope that at the extraordinary EU summit on February 1, a joint decision of all 27 countries, including Hungary, will be reached regarding further financing of Ukraine.

In the context of EU enlargement, Scholz called the decision to start accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova "historic steps".

Frieden added that enlargement will be necessary in the next 10 years.

This is the first foreign visit of the new head of government of Luxembourg.

A few days ago, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, who used to hold Prime Ministers office, visited Berlin.

As reported, on December 14, the European Council decided to launch negotiations on EU membership with Ukraine and Moldova.

At the same time, the heads of state and government were unable to reach a consensus and adopt amendments to the EU budget for 2024-2027, which included, in particular, setting up the Ukraine Facility worth EUR 50 billion for budget support of Ukraine amid war and to create conditions for its post-war recovery.

Photo: Bundestag
A door was torn off the side of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 on Friday - Instagram/@strawberrvy

The companys stock fell as much as 9pc on Monday in New York, as investigations into the incident three days earlier continued.

In London, shares in aerospace parts manufacturer Senior, which works closely with Boeing, dropped more than 2pc.

A door was torn off the side of an Alaska Airlines 737 on Friday in a dramatic blow-out that depressurised the aircraft and forced the flight to turn back and land.



Officials discovered the door plug that was torn off behind a teachers house in Portland, Oregon, on Monday.

In the wake of the incident, the US Federal Aviation Administration has ordered airlines to temporarily ground all 171 of the 737 Max 9s currently operating in America, pending inspection.



Analysts said they did not expect the incident to lead to serious problems for Boeing but they were carefully watching the reactions of regulators including those in China, where deliveries of the 737 Max planes have been paused since 2019.



Nicolas Owens, an analyst at Morningstar, predicted no material financial impact, but added: The dramatic nature of the flaw will have the effect of once again calling Boeings product governance into question by customers, regulators, and the flying public.

In another note, analysts at JP Morgan said: Perhaps the most consequential foreign regulator now is China, where the government has not yet allowed carriers to resume 737 Max deliveries.



Boeing has seemed on the cusp on resuming deliveries to China for some time, with positive signals in recent months.



Fridays accident could delay this process, though Chinese carriers do not fly Max 9s and we are not aware they have ordered any.



Boeing said it was supporting the regulatory investigation and has stressed safety is our top priority.



The company is to host a video conference open to all employees on Tuesday to discuss how it is responding, hosted by president and chief executive Dave Calhoun.



In a statement on Sunday, Mr Calhoun said: While weve made progress in strengthening our safety management and quality control systems and processes in the last few years, situations like this are a reminder that we must remain focused on continuing to improve every day.



The incident is a fresh blow to Boeings 737 Max jets, the fourth generation of the companys best-selling narrow-body plane that has endured a troubled history.

Story continues

An earlier model of the Max was previously grounded worldwide, after two crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia respectively.



Subsequent investigations revealed that Boeing had failed to share information with regulators about problems with flight control software, which was found to have pushed down the noses of planes automatically.



This time, investigators have said their initial findings do not suggest the Alaska Airlines blowout was caused by any widespread flaw in the 737 Max 9 fleet.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
The recent display of academic timidity during a congressional hearing has laid bare a disconcerting truth: America's elite universities no longer hold the moral high ground.

As a recent survey indicates, public trust in the leadership of these institutions has eroded significantly. This raises a critical question: how can institutions that fail to provide strong leadership produce future leaders capable of navigating complex moral questions?

The Ideological Capture of Higher Education

A concerning trend highlighted by the survey is the ideological capture of higher education by socialist, Marxist, and liberal ideologies. The outcomes of this ideological shift are alarming, with rising rates of atheism, antisemitism, anti-Americanism, and moral abolitionism among recent generations. The once-proud institutions that fostered thought leaders and innovators have transformed into breeding grounds for conformity to politically correct ideologies, stifling intellectual diversity.

READ ALSO: Inequities In Dual Credit Programs: Challenges And Solutions In Illinois Schools

The Role of University Presidents as Leaders

University presidents are entrusted with the responsibility of being leaders. However, the current landscape reveals a lack of moral clarity among these figures. The essence of leadership lies in a commitment to truth, facts, and eternal realities. It is the duty of university presidents to create an environment that encourages exploration, discovery, and the celebration of diverse perspectives rather than one dominated by politically correct conformity.

The Void of Steadfast Leadership

In a time of unprecedented division, reminiscent of pre-Civil War tensions, the need for steadfast and unabashed leadership is paramount. The current state of academia falls short in producing leaders capable of unifying a divided nation. The consequence is a generation of befuddled students lacking moral clarity and strong leadership models. The article questions where the next morally anchored leader, akin to President Lincoln, will emerge in a system that prioritizes equivocation over moral conviction.

Embracing Objective Moral Clarity

President Lincoln's leadership, deeply rooted in moral clarity, serves as a stark contrast to the current post-modern approach prevalent in elite institutions. Today's universities, with their fluidity of post-modern personal truth, have neglected the pedagogy dedicated to sorting out right from wrong. The article emphasizes that the search for objective moral clarity leads to the understanding that obedience to eternal truth aligns with a higher purpose, guiding leaders to act justly.

The Dangers of Moral Equivocation

The article delves into the consequences of moral equivocation among today's graduates, who question everything without taking a stand on firm moral ground. The failure to recognize that not taking a stand is, in fact, taking a stand, leaves these graduates adrift in a sea of indecision. The survey results indicate that the only ones endorsing the value of today's college education are those indoctrinated to believe in the subjective worth of their degrees.

Hope Outside Elite Institutions

While elite institutions may have lost their way, the article finds hope in leaders outside the traditional halls of academia. Colleges and universities committed to embracing and promoting eternal truths offer a beacon of promise. Graduates from these institutions, equipped with a strong understanding of right and wrong, are positioned to tackle the complex challenges facing the nation.

In the quest to reverse the tide of division and moral confusion in society, the article argues for a reevaluation of where leadership is cultivated. Rather than relying on elite colleges and universities, the focus should shift to institutions and leaders with the fortitude to stand for fairness, justice, and truth. It is through a commitment to objective moral clarity that the rising generation can be equipped to lead with conviction and address the pressing issues that confront the nation.

RELATED ARTICLE: Harvard President Claudine Gay Resigns: Examining The Impact Of DEI Ideology On Universities
In a landmark development, George Washington University (GWU) has agreed to a $5.4 million settlement with former students who claimed the institution breached its contract by swiftly transitioning to online-only classes at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The settlement, approved by a district judge in Washington, D.C., signals a resolution to a three-year legal saga, shedding light on the complexities universities face when navigating the uncharted territory of pandemic-induced disruptions.

The Genesis of Legal Challenges

The legal journey began in 2020 when Mark Shaffer, a parent of a GWU student, initiated a lawsuit, alleging the university's breach of contract by transitioning abruptly to online classes. The suit garnered attention as one of many amid the wave of litigation against universities facing similar accusations during the early days of the pandemic. The $5.4 million settlement underscores the serious legal ramifications institutions face in the wake of such challenges.

READ ALSO: News Update: US Department Of Education Launches Federal Investigation Into San Diego State University President's Email

Terms of the Settlement

The district judge's approval of the settlement brings closure to the four student plaintiffs, each set to receive $10,000. Additionally, the remainder of the settlement fund, earmarked at approximately $193 per student, will be distributed as a tuition refund to those who attended online classes during the spring semester of 2020. While the settlement explicitly states that it does not imply wrongdoing on the part of GWU, it does provide a measure of financial redress for the affected students.

Legal Landscape and Reversals

The legal battle surrounding universities' pivot to online learning during the pandemic has been fraught with twists and turns. Initially, in 2021, a lower district court dismissed the GWU lawsuit. However, a year later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit partially overturned this decision, prompting further litigation. This case mirrors a broader trend, with appeals courts revisiting and reversing lower-court dismissals in lawsuits against other institutions, including New York University and GWU's neighbor, American University.

The Precedent Set by Settlements

The settlement aligns with a growing trend of private universities opting to settle similar lawsuits rather than engaging in protracted legal battles. Notably, Columbia and Johns Hopkins, among others, have reached multimillion-dollar settlements in response to allegations of contract breaches related to the transition to online learning. These settlements raise questions about the financial toll and reputational risks institutions face when opting for legal resolutions rather than confronting the uncertainties of continued litigation.

Complexities of Online Learning Disputes

Universities worldwide faced unprecedented challenges in adapting swiftly to online learning modalities during the pandemic. While these decisions were often made in the interest of public health and safety, they triggered legal debates surrounding contractual obligations. The GWU settlement, by emphasizing that it is not an admission of wrongdoing, highlights the nuanced nature of these disputes and the delicate balance institutions must strike between financial considerations and reputational preservation.

Lessons for Higher Education

The legal resolutions in cases like GWU's settlement serve as a lesson for higher education institutions to reassess their contractual obligations and communication strategies. As universities grapple with the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, ensuring transparent and well-documented communication about changes to educational modalities becomes imperative to mitigate potential legal challenges. The evolving legal landscape signals a need for greater preparedness and proactive measures in addressing the uncertainties of academic disruptions.

GWU's $5.4 million settlement marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing legal discourse surrounding universities' responses to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As higher education institutions continue to navigate the complexities of online learning disputes, the settlement serves as a reminder of the importance of transparent communication and proactive engagement with contractual obligations. As the legal landscape evolves, universities must remain vigilant in adapting their practices to align with both educational imperatives and legal considerations.

RELATED ARTICLE: Ohio Auditor's Office Raids Eastern Gateway Community College Over Financial Irregularities
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth has unveiled a series of proactive measures titled "New Steps for a New Year" aimed at addressing the multifaceted challenges facing the campus amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

These steps, outlined in a letter to the campus community, focus on evaluating and enhancing various aspects, including student disciplinary processes, free expression, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Kornbluth's announcement comes at a time of heightened scrutiny on university leadership, following recent controversies at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Evaluation and Improvement of Campus Systems

MIT's commitment to continuous improvement is evident in the decision to evaluate and enhance student disciplinary processes, free expression, and DEI programs. This comprehensive approach acknowledges the importance of fostering an inclusive environment while maintaining a commitment to free expression-a delicate balance that universities nationwide are grappling with.

READ ALSO: FTC Sues Grand Canyon University, Alleging Deceptive Practices Targeting Doctoral Students

Quality-of-Life Survey for Students and Employees

Kornbluth's initiative includes the implementation of a quality-of-life survey for both students and employees. This strategic move emphasizes MIT's dedication to understanding and addressing the concerns and needs of its community members. The survey is expected to provide valuable insights that will guide future decisions and initiatives aimed at improving the overall well-being of those on campus.

Addressing Campus Conflict and Enhancing Discourse

In her letter, Kornbluth acknowledged the importance of addressing conflict on the MIT campus and emphasized efforts to enhance the overall tenor of discourse. This commitment reflects a proactive stance on fostering a healthy and respectful exchange of ideas within the academic community. By recognizing the challenges and actively working towards resolution, MIT aims to create an environment conducive to collaborative learning and research.

MIT's Response in Light of Recent Resignations

Kornbluth's announcement comes in the aftermath of the resignation of Harvard University President Claudine Gay amid allegations of plagiarism and criticism of her performance at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism. Kornbluth, who appeared alongside Gay and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill at the hearing, highlighted the challenges faced by campus leaders nationwide. The proactive steps taken by MIT's president underscore a commitment to transparency, accountability, and the well-being of the university community.

Rebuilding Trust and Caring for the Community

In her letter, Kornbluth emphasized the ongoing efforts of campus leaders to "listen seriously, rebuild trust, and care for our community." This recognition of the importance of trust and community well-being aligns with MIT's commitment to nurturing an environment where students, faculty, and staff feel supported and valued.

Reflection and Collective Responsibility

Kornbluth's call for reflection and collective responsibility encourages every member of the MIT community to consider their role in contributing to a positive and inclusive campus culture. By fostering a sense of shared responsibility, MIT aims to empower its community to actively engage in the ongoing efforts to create a more harmonious and constructive environment.

MIT's President Sally Kornbluth's announcement of "New Steps for a New Year" reflects the institution's commitment to addressing challenges head-on and fostering a positive and inclusive campus environment. As universities navigate complex issues related to free expression, diversity, and campus conflict, MIT's proactive approach serves as an example of leadership actively working towards solutions. The emphasis on listening, transparency, and collective responsibility underscores MIT's dedication to continuous improvement and the well-being of its academic community.

RELATED ARTICLE: California State University Faculty To Strike In January 2024 Due To Compensation Issues
As we bid farewell to the challenges of the past year, the landscape of higher education stands at the threshold of 2024, poised for potential transformations and grappling with persistent issues. The tumultuous year behind us, characterized by budget deficits, leadership controversies, and the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, prompts an exploration of what lies ahead.



Here are five key trends likely to shape the narrative of higher education in the coming year:

Changing Admissions Landscape

The spotlight on college admissions will intensify in 2024. Legal challenges to race-conscious considerations in financial aid and admissions practices are expected to rise following last year's Supreme Court decision. Institutions, in response, may navigate innovative enrollment strategies to uphold student diversity while complying with the Court's ruling. Furthermore, the scrutiny on legacy admissions may lead more colleges to abandon the practice, signaling a shift toward fairer admissions policies.

As colleges grapple with declining freshman numbers, direct admission programs and expanded college preparation initiatives may become prevalent strategies to boost enrollments. The overhaul of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) adds another layer of complexity, potentially impacting low-income students' access to federal Pell Grants.

READ ALSO: University Herald's Top 10 Articles In 2023

Legislative Oversight and Federal Campaigns

In the wake of heightened legislative activity at the state level over the past five years, 2024 is poised to witness increased federal scrutiny of higher education. The U.S. House of Representatives' hearing on antisemitism has set the stage for Congress to launch an aggressive campaign against higher education, particularly elite institutions. Representative Dan Crenshaw's proposed bill targeting DEI statements and House Republicans' promises of further hearings signal a growing federal interest in reining in perceived issues within universities.

While the proposed measures may not become law, they reflect a broader sentiment among lawmakers aiming to extend anti-higher education efforts. The potential consequences could include funding challenges and increased pressure on universities to address perceived cultural and diversity issues.

Expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI's transformative impact on various aspects of daily life extends into higher education. Beyond concerns of student cheating, colleges are increasingly exploring AI's potential to enhance teaching, personalize student learning, and streamline administrative tasks. The establishment of a Council on Equitable AI in Higher Education by Complete College America indicates a concerted effort to leverage AI for equalizing access to a college degree.

The rise of AI in diverse industries prompts universities to offer sophisticated courses and degree programs in machine learning, big data, and AI. With AI becoming integral to research endeavors, institutions will compete for federal AI funding across various fields. However, this push for AI integration highlights potential disparities, with well-resourced institutions gaining a competitive edge.

Curricular Innovations and Alternatives

As employers reassess the value of traditional degrees, colleges will experiment with curricular alternatives to meet evolving demands. The resurgence of interest in three-year undergraduate degrees, exemplified by initiatives like the "College in 3 Exchange," aims to fundamentally redesign curricula, making them more relevant and reducing required credit hours.

Colleges will increasingly enrich traditional majors with skills-oriented courses, industry-approved certificates, internships, and capstone assignments. The shift towards online education, buoyed by improved public opinion, will likely result in the expansion of online programs, particularly at the graduate level, catering to the needs of working-age adults.

Campus Budget Woes Persist

The financial challenges gripping higher education are unlikely to abate in 2024. Persisting budget deficits, driven by enrollment losses, rising costs, and declining revenues, will continue to impact institutions across the board. Financial crises won't spare prestigious universities, as private donor rebellions observed in 2023 may exacerbate the situation for some.

Expect more colleges to face financial brinkmanship, leading to consolidations, closures, and declarations of financial exigency. This ongoing financial turmoil poses one of the most significant challenges to higher education in decades, demanding strategic solutions and adaptability from institutions grappling with the uncertain economic landscape.

As higher education steps into 2024, the convergence of shifting admissions dynamics, legislative scrutiny, AI integration, curricular innovations, and persistent financial challenges sets the stage for a year of adaptation and transformation. Colleges and universities will need to navigate these trends with resilience, strategic planning, and a commitment to meeting the evolving needs of students and the broader academic community.

RELATED ARTICLE: Crucial Changes To FAFSA 2024-2025: Here's What You Need To Know
Breeze Airways launched Columbus service in 2021.

Breeze Airways is offering 35% discounts on roundtrip flights from Columbus through May 22.

The discount flyer announced Monday that customers can get the discount if they use the promo code "GETFRESH" and book the flight on the Breeze App or at flybreeze.com.

The promotion is available until the end of the day Friday.

What better way to kick things off in the New Year than by booking your next adventure, said Breeze Airways President Tom Doxey in a news release announcing the promotion. With travel dates spanning into the spring and early summer, this promotion is a great way to look ahead with the added flexibility of no change or cancellation fees.

Breeze launched its Columbus service in 2021 to and from five cities with fares as low as $39.

The airline now serves nine cities directly from Columbus, all but one  Orange County, California  in the eastern U.S.

jweiker@dispatch.com

@JimWeiker

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How to get discounts on Breeze Airways for next four months
Terrorist and other criminal acts involving chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) materials onboard aircraft remain a threat to international peace and security. To deter this threat, the Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Relating to International Civil Aviation (2010 Beijing Convention) criminalizes the unlawful release or discharge of any BCN weapon or similar substances from civil aircraft and their use on board or against civil aircraft. UNODC is mandated by the General Assembly to assist Member States to adhere to and effectively implement the 2010 Beijing Convention, as one of the nineteen instruments which form the international legal framework to counter terrorism, seven of which deal, to varying degrees, with CBRN terrorism.

As such, UNODC recently participated in an International Air Law Treaty Workshop, organized by the International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO) Legal Affairs and External Relations Bureau and hosted by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) at the Singapore Aviation Academy from 12 to 14 December 2023. The event brought together over 40 civil aviation and government officials and featured experts from ICAO, UNODC, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), CAAS, and the private legal sector who presented on civil aviation issues, including emerging threats against civil aviation.

In its presentations, UNODC highlighted the CBRN aspects of the Beijing Convention in relation to the other CBRN counter-terrorism instruments and United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (UNSCR 1540) and UNODC legislative and technical assistance tools available. UNODC also contributed to discussions related to the history of the 2010 Beijing Convention, particularly its development related to other relevant CBRN instruments.

The event builds on previous cooperation between UNODC and ICAO, including ICAOs contribution to the development of UNODCs Counter-Terrorism Legal Training Curriculum (Module 6) on The International Legal Framework against Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism and UNODCs 2020 online event on the international legal framework against biological terrorism.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Pakistan is set to strengthen economic ties with Egypt as it hosts the 4th Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference (PATDC) and Single Country Exhibition (SCE) in Cairo

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jan, 2024) Pakistan is set to strengthen economic ties with Egypt as it hosts the 4th Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference (PATDC) and Single Country Exhibition (SCE) in Cairo.

Dr Gohar Ejaz HI, SI, Federal Minister for Commerce and Industries and Investments, alongside the Chief Guest Mr Ahmed Samir, Minister for Trade and Industry of Egypt, will inaugurate the event at the Egypt International Convention Center on January 9th, 2024,said a press release issued here on Monday.

Marking the first occasion of Pakistan bringing over 100 companies to Egypt, the delegation, led by the Federal Minister, will be in Cairo from January 9th to 11th, 2024.

The official component of the delegation comprises the Secretary for Commerce, the Chief Executive of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), the Secretary board of Investment (BOI) and other senior officers from the Ministry of Commerce, BOI and TDAP. This highlights Pakistan's commitment to fostering strong economic relations with Egypt.

The conference, scheduled for January 9th, will be followed by a two-day single-country exhibition on January 10th and 11th, 2024.

More than 200 businessmen from Pakistan, representing various sectors such as textile, engineering goods, food & agriculture, and services, will participate to explore and establish business collaborations.

Moreover, 150+ prominent businessmen and chamber representatives from the middle East and North African (MENA) region will converge in Cairo, furthering the prospects of commercial ties with Pakistan. Muhammad Zubair Motiwala, Chief Executive of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, extends a warm invitation to the business and trade community of Egypt and the MENA region to attend the conference and exhibition. He emphasizes, "We are showcasing the best products produced by Pakistan in Egypt."

This initiative aligns with the Government of Pakistan's "Look Africa" Policy, which has previously yielded significant commercial benefits in Johannesburg, Lagos, and Nairobi. In 2024, the focus is on strengthening ties with the MENA region, with Cairo as the chosen destination. The event aims to create opportunities for trade enhancement, joint ventures, and collaborative efforts between Pakistan and MENA countries.
Turkish state-run lender Ziraat Bank received a $500 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank)

ANKARA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jan, 2024) Turkish state-run lender Ziraat Bank received a $500 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank).

According to a statement from Ziraat Bank on Monday, the two-tranche financing deal with a three-year maturity with China Eximbank aims to help Turkiye and China boost bilateral trade volume.

"Our bank will continue to contribute and generate economic value to all sectors that are priority for the development of Turkiye, especially our exporters, with the funding obtained from the loan agreement, which also includes the local currency tranche," read the statement.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

As part of its efforts to promote educational equity, the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) has reached an understanding with the Qazi Foundation, to provide financial aid for deserving university scholars hailing from the district of Chakwal

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jan, 2024) As part of its efforts to promote educational equity, the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) has reached an understanding with the Qazi Foundation, to provide financial aid for deserving university scholars hailing from the district of Chakwal.

Facilitated by the Office of Deputy Commissioner Chakwal, the newly forged partnership derives from a broader commitment between the two organisations to strengthen research, innovation, and educational initiatives in the region.

At the signing ceremony held at the DC office, Qurat-ul-Ain Malik, Deputy Commissioner, acknowledged NUST's contributions to inclusive growth at the national level and extolled the philanthropic efforts of the Chakwal community towards transformative education.

At the occasion, Maria Qadri, Director University Advancement Office-NUST, presented an overview of the need-based programme, and expanded upon how this agreement would profoundly impact the lives of present and future generations of students.

Qazi Akbar, on behalf of his brother Qazi Ashraf - Head of the Qazi Foundation, endorsed the agreement and reaffirmed his commitment to the cause.

The partnership will initially help generate funds for as many as 14 students currently enrolled in multiple programmes at NUST, besides the conduct of admission awareness sessions for enhanced visibility across the district.

The event drew a diverse audience, including chamber members, members of the business community, and local media, all eagerly anticipating the continued success of this noble initiative.
(@FahadShabbir)

Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jan, 2024) European Council president Charles Michel announced Sunday that he will step down early, setting off a race against time for EU leaders to find a successor for the key position.

The 48-year-old former Belgian prime minister has been organising EU summits and government meetings since 2019 and should leave office in November.

But he said he would leave early as he will stand in the European parliament elections to be held in June. Michel will be the head of the liberal Reformist Movement in the elections.

"Four years after starting my term as a European leader, it's my responsibility to give an account of my work these past years and to propose a project for Europe's future," Michel said.

He added that he was ready to take a "personal risk" in standing down in such controversial circumstances.

An EU summit is scheduled for just after the June 6-9 elections, and "at this moment it will have to decide when my successor will take up the job," Michel said.

If European Union leaders cannot find a successor by then, Hungary's nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, who has had frequent battles with Brussels, could take the job temporarily.

As council president, one of Michel's main tasks has been overseeing EU summits that have decided the bloc's responses to crises including Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Orban has maintained close ties to Russia's President Vladimir Putin since the war started.

Hungary is due to take over the rotating presidency of the 27-member group from July 1. In that role, it organises EU ministerial meetings.

Michel said he will remain as the council president until he is sworn in as a European parliament deputy, which is scheduled for July 16.
The UN rights chief on Monday condemned the violence and repression during controversial elections in Bangladesh that were boycotted by the opposition, urging the country to strengthen democracy

Geneva, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jan, 2024) The UN rights chief on Monday condemned the violence and repression during controversial elections in Bangladesh that were boycotted by the opposition, urging the country to strengthen democracy.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured her fifth term in power following Sunday's vote, after the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called a general strike and, along with dozens of others, refused to participate.

"I implore the government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the human rights of all Bangladeshis are fully taken into account, and to strengthen the underpinnings of a truly inclusive democracy," Volker Turk said in a statement.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights pointed out that "thousands of opposition supporters have been detained arbitrarily or subjected to intimidation".

"Such tactics are not conducive to a truly genuine process," he warned.

Hasina has presided over breakneck economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty, but her government has been accused of rampant human rights abuses and a ruthless crackdown on dissent.

Turk said that mass arrests, threats, enforced disappearances, blackmailing and surveillance were all methods reportedly used by law enforcement officials in the months leading up to the vote.

He also lamented reported acts of political violence, including arson attacks allegedly committed by opposition groups.

"Around 25,000 opposition supporters have been arrested, including key party leaders, since October 28," the statement said, adding that at least 10 of them had reportedly died or been killed in custody.

This, it cautioned, raises "serious concerns about possible torture or harsh conditions of detention".

Many rights defenders had meanwhile been forced to go into hiding and even flee the country, while dozens of people had reportedly been victims of enforced disappearances.

"These incidents must be independently investigated, and those responsible must be brought to justice in fair and transparent trials," Turk said.

"Violations and irregularities during the campaign and on election day itself should also be thoroughly and effectively investigated."

The UN rights chief highlighted that "democracy was hard won in Bangladesh and must not become cosmetic".

"The future of all Bangladeshis is at stake."
LONDON (Reuters) - BT, Britain's biggest telecoms group, said it would convert the first of its street cabinets traditionally used to house cabling to an electric vehicle (EV) charging unit in a pilot that could lead to a network of 60,000 new points.

The first unit will be installed at a cabinet in East Lothian, Scotland, BT said on Monday, adding that it will roll out further trials across Britain in the coming months.

BT said its research showed a shortage of chargers on Britain's roads was deterring some people from buying an EV, with 38% of drivers saying they would have an EV already if charging were less of an issue.

There were 53,906 EV charging points across the UK at the end of December, according to figures quoted by BT from Zapmap. The government wants to increase the number to 300,000 by the 2030s.

Tom Guy, managing director of BT's start-up arm Etc, said: "Our new charging solution is a huge step in bringing EV charging kerbside and exploring how we can address key barriers customers are currently facing.

"Working closely with local councils in Scotland and more widely across the UK, we are at a critical stage of our journey in tackling a very real customer problem that sits at the heart of our wider purpose to connect for good."

BT said it would retrofit the cabinets to add a charge point alongside the existing broadband service with no need to create a new power connection.

EV charging can be deployed in cabinets used for current copper broadband services, or in those due for retirement, depending on the space and power available, it added.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kate Holton)
Two United Nations rights experts demanded Monday that Hamas be held accountable for a multitude of alleged crimes, including sexual torture, during its terror attack on Israel October 7.

Alice Jill Edwards, U.N. special rapporteur on torture, and Morris Tidball-Binz, special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, are independent experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

Both said that a growing body of evidence points to such disturbing, grave acts of sexual torture (including) rapes and gang rapes, sexual assaults, mutilations and gunshots to genital areas."

"These acts constitute gross violations of international law, amounting to war crimes which, given the number of victims and the extensive premeditation and planning of the attacks, may also qualify as crimes against humanity," they said in a statement.

The experts pointed to evidence of individuals burned alive and bodies found decapitated, mutilated or with trauma consistent with executions.

Each and every victim deserves to be recognized, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or sex, and our role is to be their voice, they added.

Israel has previously criticized the U.N. for not doing enough to address such acts of violence that occurred during Hamas terror attack, which triggered the war raging in Gaza and resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain captive, Israel says. At least 24 are believed to have been killed.

Israel has responded with relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground invasion that has killed more than 23,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Some material for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with officials in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia Monday, then heads to Israel, as he pushes for more humanitarian aid to Gaza, the protection of civilians and to ensure the conflict does not spread to other parts of the region.

In talks with UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the State Department said Blinken emphasized the importance of preventing further spread of the conflict and stressed continued U.S. commitment to securing lasting regional peace that ensures Israels security and advances the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

In Saudi Arabia, Blinken has talks scheduled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In meetings Sunday with Jordan King Abdullah II and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the top U.S. diplomat spoke of the need for Israel to curb civilian casualties during the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza and significantly increase the amount of humanitarian aid reaching famished Palestinians in Gaza.

But the U.S. has continued to support Israel in refusing Arab demands for a cease-fire to halt the fighting in the three-month war.

Israel has vowed to continue the war until it believes the threat of future Hamas attacks has been eradicated and the militant group no longer controls Gaza, the narrow territory along the Mediterranean Sea.

Jordans royal court said King Abdullah "warned of the catastrophic repercussions" of Israels war in Gaza against Hamas while calling on the U.S. to press for an immediate cease-fire.

Israeli and U.S. officials have said they believe that a cease-fire would only allow Hamas to be able to regroup in its fight against Israeli forces.

While in Amman, Blinken also visited a World Food Program warehouse where trucks are loaded with aid for famished Palestinians in Gaza.

"The efforts right here to collect and distribute food to people in need are absolutely essential," Blinken said. "The United States has worked from day one to open access routes into Gaza."

"We continue to work on that every single day, not only to open them but to multiply them, to maximize them and to try to get more assistance, more effectively," he said. "We're determined to do everything we possibly can to ameliorate the situation for the men, women and children in Gaza."

The United States has urged a lasting peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians. This involves achieving Palestinian political rights  notably the establishment of a Palestinian state with security assurances for Israel.

Blinkens trip comes at a time when the risk of a broader regional conflict is surging, despite collective efforts of Western and regional powers to confine the Israel-Hamas war to the Gaza Strip.

Israel began its military campaign to wipe out Hamas after Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel on October 7. Israel said about 1,200 people were killed and about 240 captives taken in the terror attack.

Gaza health officials say more than 22,000 Palestinians, a large percentage of them women and children, have been killed in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The United States has stated its opposition to forcibly removing Palestinians from Gaza. The U.S. is also working on a postwar road map for the Palestinian territories.

"Gaza cannot, once again, serve as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against Israel, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told VOA last week.

"What we ultimately want to see is Gaza and the West Bank reunited under Palestinian leadership," and "certainly there's no role for Hamas in that."

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant outlined the country's plans for the next stage of its operations in Gaza. The new approach involves a more targeted strategy in northern Gaza and a continued pursuit of Hamas leaders in the south.

Gallant said in a statement that after the war, Gaza would no longer be under Hamas control. While Israel would retain operational freedom, there would not be any Israeli civilians present in the Gaza Strip.

Some material for this report was provided by Reuters and The Associated Press.
Authorities in northwestern Pakistan said Monday that at least six police officers were killed and nearly two dozen injured when a roadside bomb struck their truck in a remote region bordering Afghanistan.

The officers were traveling to Bajaur, a militancy-hit border district, to escort anti-polio workers on the first day of a weeklong national immunization drive. Witnesses reported that the powerful blast destroyed the police vehicle.

Rescue workers expected the death toll to increase, saying several officers among the injured were rushed to local hospitals in critical condition. The attack prompted local authorities to suspend the polio immunization campaign in the area.

The anti-state Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing. The group, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, actively targets security forces in areas near and on the Afghan border.

Polio Drive

Health officials said that during the immunization campaign launched Monday, anti-polio teams would go door to door across Pakistans 159 districts to administer vaccine drops to more than 44 million children under 5.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in which the highly infectious polio virus still paralyzes children. However, the cases in both countries significantly declined in 2023, with six reported in each.

With a population of about 241 million, Pakistan came close to eradicating polio in 2021, when it reported only one case of paralysis from the virus. However, the country saw a spike in 2022, with 20 confirmed cases of infection.

The World Health Organization said last month that political instability, insecurity in some districts, and vaccination boycotts continue to hinder anti-polio efforts, particularly in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Bajaur is located.

The province had four of the six polio cases the country reported in 2023.

The WHO has cautioned that polio vaccination programs in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which also reported six cases last year, continue to miss many children, posing a significant risk to gains made against the crippling disease.


In recent weeks, Chinas state-owned Global Times newspaper reported several cases involving Chinese students being interrogated and denied entry at the U.S. border.



During a Foreign Ministry press briefing on January 4, China Review News, a Hong Kong-based pro-Chinese Communist Party digital media outlet, asked spokesperson Wang Wenbin about these reports.



The U.S. "has long been wantonly suppressing and ill-treating Chinese students, Wang answered answered, adding that China views such acts as selective, discriminatory and politically motivated law enforcement.



The U.S. likes to portray itself as open, inclusive, and a place for academic freedom, but it wrongly adopted Proclamation 10043 and put it into force, overstretched the concept of national security, politicized and weaponized academic research and repeatedly interrogated, harassed and deported Chinese students, Wang said.



That is misleading.



Chinese students remain the largest group of international students on U.S. campuses for the 13th consecutive year.



Only a small number of post-graduate students receive extra scrutiny due to the sensitive subject matter of their studies and possible ties to the military-civil fusion strategy employed by the Chinese Communist Party.

That strategy aims to develop the most technologically advanced military in the world by eliminating barriers between the countrys civilian researchers and its military and defense sectors.



What is Proclamation 10043?



On January 4, the Global Times reported two separate cases of Chinese students being detained at the U.S. border and then deported in late 2023.



One involved a Chinese researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of Healths National Cancer Institute. Global Times said the student was questioned after arriving at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in November 2023 and told that the U.S. State Department had canceled their F-1 student visa. Global Times said a similar incident, involving a Chinese Ph.D. candidate at Yale University, occurred in December.



The two students U.S. visas were likely canceled in accordance with Proclamation 10043, a presidential proclamation issued in May 2020 by then U.S. President Donald Trump prohibiting students and researchers with ties to Chinas military-fusion strategy from obtaining visas to study at U.S. universities.



Proclamation 10043 says that Beijing uses some Chinese students, mostly post-graduates and post-doctorate researchers, to operate as non-traditional collectors of intellectual property.



It states: Thus, students or researchers from the PRC studying or researching beyond the undergraduate level who are or have been associated with the PLA are at high risk of being exploited or co-opted by the PRC authorities and provide particular cause for concern.

China has been acquiring key technology through licit and illicit means, including investment in private industries, talent recruitment programs, directing academic and research collaboration to military gain, forced technology transfer, intelligence gathering, and outright theft, the State Department said.



One recent example of the MFC strategy in action involved Ji Chaoqun, who came to the U.S. on a student visa to study electrical engineering. The U.S. Justice Department said Ji was an agent of Chinas Ministry of State Security and that he collected personal data on Chinese-American scientists and engineers to be recruited by Chinas spy agency. Ji was tasked with obtaining access to U.S. advanced aerospace and satellite technologies, the Justice Department said. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in January 2023.



Another case involved Ye Yanqing, who received a J-1 exchange visitor visa from the State Department to study at Boston Universitys Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering. She was indicted in January 2020 for visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy.



Ye remains in China.



Zheng Zaosong, a J-1 exchange scholar at Bostons Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center was indicted in January 2020 after he was caught attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research out of the United States aboard a flight destined for China. In January 2021, Zheng was sentenced to time served (approximately 87 days), three years of supervised release, and ordered removed from the United States.



On January 28, 2020, the same day that the indictments of Ye Yanqing and Zheng Zaosong were announced, Charles Lieber, Chair of Harvard Universitys Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, was arrested. In April 2023, Lieber was sentenced by the Boston Federal Court for lying about his affiliation with Chinas Thousand Talents Program and the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT), as well as failing to report income he received from WUT.



Unfairly targeting Chinese students?



Under Proclamation 10043, the State Department revoked more than 1,000 visas issued to Chinese nationals as of the fall of 2020.



1,964 visas were denied under the presidential proclamation during fiscal year 2021  about 2% of the total number of visas issued to Chinese students.



For comparison, that same year, the U.S. issued 90,301 F-1 visas (student visas) and 3,048 J-1 visas (scholar visas) to Chinese students as the COVID-19 pandemic gradually subsided.



In the 2022 fiscal year, the U.S. issued more than 155,000 visas to Chinese students and scholars and 289,526 visas in fiscal 2023. Students from China remain the largest group of international students in the United States for the 13th consecutive year.

While Proclamation 10043 did not result in any significant decline in the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S., critics say it has created a chilling effect among those in China who are now discouraged from applying to U.S. schools.



Think Global, a research and consultancy company, said in a 2022 report that [i]n the face of this uncomfortable climate, candidates started looking for other alternatives in prestigious European universities or in new ones such as in Qatar or China.



The National Foundation for American Policy, an Arlington, Virginia-based think tank, wrote in 2021 that Proclamation 10043 is costly to the U.S. in the long run.

It asserted that every 1,000 Ph.D. students blocked from attending U.S. universities cost the American economy an estimated $210 billion in expected value of patents produced at universities over a decade and nearly $1 billion in lost tuition over the same period.
Tensions rise in Northern Israel as Hezbolla strikes an air traffic control base. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the region trying to prevent the conflict from widening. Plus Ukraine was again battered by Russian missiles, well have an update from Kyiv.
A possible Chinese attempt to take over self-governing Taiwan has been a threat to the island for decades. Its a topic among the candidates in Taiwans upcoming presidential election, but some residents on the island say the threat of a Chinese attack is more real than ever before and they are taking action. VOAs Elizabeth Lee has the details. VOA footage by Bill Gallo and Stephen Boitano. William Yang contributed.
Indonesia's presidential candidates held a second debate on Sunday, where they discussed defense, geopolitics, and diplomacy.

Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, former Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, and former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan will compete in a Feb. 14 election to lead the world's largest archipelagic nation.

Nearly 205 million people are eligible to cast their ballots in the vote, aiming to determine the successor of President Joko Widodo after his 10-year tenure.

Frontrunner Subianto stated that if elected, he would strive to maintain positive relationships with all global powers in line with Indonesia's "non-aligned" foreign policy.

"With good relations with all powers, we can secure our national interests," Subianto said in the debate broadcasted across Indonesian television screens. "A thousand friends are too few, one adversary is one too many. We will pursue a good neighbor policy.

The former special forces general emphasized the importance of bolstering military power to defend independence as he expressed concern about situations akin to the challenging circumstances faced by Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Indonesia is a staunch supporter of Palestinian independence. It has called for a resolution to the conflict based on internationally agreed parameters set by the United Nations, which include a two-state solution.

Pranowo outlined a proposal for a temporary agreement on the disputed South China Sea, underlining Indonesia's status as a non-claimant in the region.

He said the temporary agreement was necessary in light of China's ongoing military modernization, expected to be finalized by 2027.

"[The resolution efforts] have been more than 20 years, and there has been no progress," he said.

He also pitched the need to strengthen patrols by the Indonesian navy.

"We need floating tankers that can be used by our Navy to patrol. This makes logistics very cost-effective," he said.

Baswedan raised the issue of non-traditional threats such as a rise in hacking incidents, pledging the establishment of a cyberdefense structure.

"The key doesn't solely lie in the technology itself. The essence lies in the comprehensive involvement of everyone," he said.

He also said that he would make Indonesia a decisive leader in the global setting, not "merely a spectator," through its soft power such as the arts.

"Through these efforts, we aim to make Indonesia both a gracious host in its own land and a charming guest in other countries, he added.

Subianto is ahead of his rivals in opinion polls since choosing Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the president's eldest son, as his vicepresidential candidate.

Pranowo is far behind in second place.

Recent surveys suggest that Baswedan, in third place, might have a chance to beat Pranowo and be in the second-round runoff vote.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with Arab leaders before heading to Israel. U.S. regulators said Sunday that certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets will remain grounded until deemed safe to fly. And artificial intelligence dominates this years Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Iran on Monday threw its weight behind calls from neighboring Iraq to oust the U.S.-led anti-jihadi coalition from its territory after a U.S. strike killed a pro-Iran commander in Baghdad.

"Regarding Iraq and the actions that the American government took recently, the Iraqi government has clearly announced its position," foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani told a press conference.

Iran is confident that its neighbor has "the ability, strength and authority necessary to maintain security" on its territory alone, Kanani said.

"We have repeatedly expressed our views to the authorities of the countries of the region, including Iraq, and declared that the presence of American forces in any form whatsoever... would not help to maintain stability and peace," he said.

The Pentagon said Monday it was not currently planning to withdraw its roughly 2,500 troops from Iraq, despite Baghdad's announcement last week it would begin the process of removing the U.S.-led military coalition from the country.

"Right now, I'm not aware of any plans (to plan for withdrawal). We continue to remain very focused on the defeat ISIS mission," Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder told a news briefing, using an acronym for Islamic State. He added that U.S. forces are in Iraq at the invitation of its government.

Ryder said he was also unaware of any notification by Baghdad to the Department of Defense about a decision to remove U.S. troops and referred reporters to the U.S. State Department for any diplomatic discussions on the matter.

A U.S. drone strike Thursday killed a military commander and another member of Harakat al-Nujaba, a faction of Hashed al-Shaabi  a collection of mainly pro-Iran former paramilitary units now integrated into Iraq's armed forces.

Washington called the attack in Baghdad an act of self-defense, but Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani's government decried it as an act of "blatant aggression" by the U.S.-led coalition.

Sudani said Friday he was determined to "put an end" to the anti-jihadi coalition.

His government relies on support from Tehran-aligned parties, and he has repeatedly said in recent weeks he would like to see foreign troops leave Iraq.

Regional tensions are soaring, with the repercussions of the Israel-Hamas war being increasingly felt in Iraq and across the Middle East.

U.S. and other coalition forces in Iraq, deployed since 2014 in the fight against the Islamic State group (IS), have come under regular attack since the fighting erupted on October 7 between Israel and Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas.

Washington says there have been more than 100 attacks on its forces in Iraq and neighboring Syria since mid-October.

Most have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose American support for Israel in the Gaza war.

The United States has around 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria as part of the multinational coalition set up at the height of IS's territorial gains. Other coalition partners include France, Spain and Britain.

In late 2017 Iraq declared victory over IS, but remaining jihadi cells in remote northern areas continue to launch sporadic attacks.
An Israeli airstrike killed a key Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon on Monday, the latest sign of a possibly widening conflict in the Middle East.

A Lebanese security official said the attack on an SUV killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border with Israel. Hezbollah identified the commander as Wissam al-Tawil, with one security official saying he "had a leading role in managing Hezbollah's operations in the south."

Israel said it military hit Hezbollah targets on Monday but did not comment on Tawis death.

Tawil is the most senior Hezbollah militant killed since Hamas' shock October 7 attack into southern Israel triggered all-out war in Gaza and sporadic fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has escalated since a strike attributed to Israel killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut last week.

Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri was the most high-profile Hamas figure to die during the war, in the first attack on Beirut since the fighting began.



Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel last Friday that his fighters would respond swiftly to Arouri's killing. The group claimed an attack on an Israeli air control base the next day.

During the cross-border fighting over the last three months, more than 180 people in Lebanon, including over 135 Hezbollah fighters, have been killed, but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists have died, according to a tally by the French news agency, Agence France-Presse.



In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

The attack in Lebanon came as Israel says it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza against Hamas militants and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis.

Israeli officials have said the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to erase Hamas control of the Gaza Strip, ending the threat the militant group poses to Israel and freeing what is believed to be 129 hostages still held by Hamas.

Hamas killed about 1,200 people in its October attack on Israel and captured 240 hostages, while the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry says Israels counteroffensive has already killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, with vast swaths of Gaza left in rubble and 85% of its population of 2.3 million displaced.

Israel said Monday its forces carried out new attacks against Hamas militants in central and southern Gaza, with the new attacks coming as Israeli officials prepared for a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The top U.S. diplomat said he would raise the issues of Israel doing more to prevent civilian casualties from its Gaza operations and of facilitating humanitarian aid deliveries to Palestinian civilians.

Blinken has also expressed concerns about the conflict spreading in the region.

This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering, Blinken said Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting as he spoke to a weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday.

"The war must not be stopped until we achieve all the goals: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," he said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting Sunday. "I say this to both our enemies and our friends."

Among the thousands killed in the war are, as of Sunday, 79 journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The organization said the dead included 72 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese journalists.

CPJ emphasizes that journalists are civilians doing important work during times of crisis and must not be targeted by warring parties, Sherif Mansour, CPJs Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in a statement.

Al Jazeera urged the International Criminal Court, governments, human rights organizations and the United Nations to hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes and demanded an end to the targeting and killing of journalists.

Israels military has not commented on the strike but in a statement on Dec. 16, responding to the death of another Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza, the army said, "The IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists."

Some material for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Faizan

Faizan Ali, an associate professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, has been named to the annual Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list. Those on the list are among the top 0.1% cited researchers in the world.

Ali, whose research interests are in the areas of customer experience, human-computer interaction in hospitality and tourism and vulnerable tourists, has published over 175 conference papers and articles in international refereed journals that have received more than 10,500 citations.

Ali is the recipient of several Best Paper awards from international conferences and is a three-time recipient of the Emerald Literati Awards, which recognize the outstanding contributions of authors and reviewers.

Since 2001, the Highly Cited Researchers list has identified global research scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their field or fields of research.

It's a humbling recognition, Ali said.  A heartfelt thanks to my mentor, Professor Cihan Cobanoglu, for the constant guidance that makes this journey possible.

Cobanoglu, dean of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, recruited Ali to USF after meeting him at a conference in Thailand in 2013.

Haley

Food Bank hires first logistics officer

While most understand the basic concept of food in, food out with regard to food banks and their critical work to feed people facing hunger, the actual process of ordering, storing, sorting, transporting and distributing food is incredibly complex. To oversee its Sarasota-based operations, All Faiths Food Bank has hired a new chief logistics & supply chain officer, Bill Haley, who began his post in late November.As the CLO, Haley is responsible for providing strategic leadership, vision and guidance for the operations department  developing, evaluating and improving the organizations current activities and projected growth.

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The CLO position is a new one for AFFB, created as part of the implementation of the organizations new strategic plan.

Haley worked for nearly 25 years in logistics, supply chain and operations at Cummins, where he most recently served as executive director of Global Planning and Logistics. He has an MBA in management and operations from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and a bachelors in industrial engineering.

Gulfside Bank VP on government council

Beth Green, senior vice president and private banking director of Gulfside Bank, will serve on the 2023-2024 Government Relations Council of the Florida Bankers Association.

The GRC has 60 members that tackle the issues facing the banking industry and after debate and discussion, the GRC's recommendations are sent to the FBA Board for final decision. Members meet three times a year in Tampa, Miami and Tallahassee.

Established in 1888, the Florida Bankers Association is one of the states oldest trade associations, with over 200 member institutions of all sizes. Deposits of FBA member banks account for 95 percent of the states total bank deposits. The FBA board works to set policy and oversee the general operation of the association.

Lastra

WFLA finds best director of sales at home

WFLA News Channel 8 has named Kelly Lastra as director of sales for News Channel 8, The CW Tampa Bay and SNN Suncoast News Network.

She was promoted to director of sales effective Jan. 1 after holding the position of local sales manager for the stations.

Kelly has more than 20 years of experience in broadcast sales management and a proven track record of delivering results, said Mark Higgins, vice president and general manager of WFLA News Channel 8, The CW Tampa Bay and SNN Suncoast News Network. We conducted a nationwide search and found the best candidate for the position to be right here at home.

Over the past 25 years, Lastra built her career on establishing strong business relationships. As a team leader, she has played a significant role in News Channel 8s recent growth overseeing top revenue initiatives, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Olympics and new business development.

She attended the University of South Florida.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: USF professor makes annual list of Highly Cited Researchers
Taiwan will hold its contentious presidential and legislative election on January 13, with millions of Taiwanese voters expected to vote and elect a new president to lead the democratic island amid heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

Some analysts say the election outcome could significantly impact Taiwans direction in the next four years and the dynamics between China and Taiwan.

It's going to be a matter of whether or not we get more of the same level of tension across the Taiwan Strait or if we see a reset of cross-strait relations, Lev Nachman, a political scientist at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, told VOA by phone.

In his view, if the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) wins a third consecutive term, cross-strait tensions would likely remain high. And if the China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) party returns to power for the first time since 2016, tensions across the Taiwan Strait may be reduced.

Since cross-strait relations have traditionally been the issue that defines presidential elections in Taiwan, the three candidates have been doubling down on relevant rhetoric on the campaign trail in recent weeks.

DPPs Lai Ching-te, Taiwans current vice president, has been framing the election as a choice between democracy and autocracy. He criticized Beijings attempt to interfere in the election and vowed to use democracy as a compass to guide Taiwan through the turbulent international situation.

Presenting the KMT as the peacemaker, the partys presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih, a former police chief, characterizes the election as a choice between war and peace. He accused the DPP of pushing Taiwan to the brink of war with China and urged voters to use their votes to ensure stability across the Taiwan Strait.

Seeking to present himself as an alternative to the two main political parties, Ko Wen-je from the Taiwan Peoples Party (TPP), a medical-doctor-turned-former-mayor, described the relationship between China and Taiwan as a tumor that should be left alone and said cross-strait relations should be handled with a combination of deterrence and the will to communicate.

Confronted with three presidential candidates who have presented different approaches to handling cross-strait relations, Taiwanese voters are also divided.

Some DPP supporters told VOA that Lai is the only candidate who is committed to safeguarding Taiwans democratic way of life while several KMT supporters believe the China-friendly opposition party can help resume dialogue and even official communication between both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

I believe the KMT candidates can help bring peace back to the Taiwan Strait because they are willing to hold dialogue with Beijing, unlike the DPP, which has been taunting China by being too close to the U.S., Chang Shu-Shian, a 68-year-old retiree in Taipei, told VOA.

While supporters of the two main parties view cross-strait relations as an important factor that determines which candidate they support, some young voters think its important to give a new party like the TPP, which emphasizes addressing long-standing social and economic issues troubling young Taiwanese people, a chance in the upcoming election.

I want to show the two main political parties that voters care about more than just cross-strait relations, Stanley Chiou, a 36-year-old engineer in Hsinchu, told VOA by phone.

Since Lai from the DPP has vowed to continue Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wens foreign policy and cross-strait agenda, some experts think his potential victory could ensure ties between Taiwan and the U.S. remain robust while Beijing would likely impose greater pressure on Taipei.

Given that in recent months, Beijing's various departments and government agencies have already labeled Lai as a troublemaker and as someone who is pro-independence, I think it is likely that we will see an increase in both economic and military pressures [from Beijing] following a potential Lai win, Amanda Hsiao, senior China analyst at the International Crisis Group, told VOA in a video interview in Taiwan.

Other analysts say a potential KMT victory may be viewed as a setback for the Biden administrations foreign policy since the U.S. has provided Taiwan with a lot of support in recent years.

Given the fact that U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly said the U.S. would come to Taiwans defense in the event of a Chinese military invasion, if Taiwanese people still choose a government favoring closer ties with China, it would mean Taiwanese people have less trust in Bidens policies, Austin Wang, an expert on Taiwan politics at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told VOA by phone.

Apart from showing the lack of trust in Bidens policies in Taiwan, the victory of a China-friendly new administration would also affect the U.S. election and Washingtons strategy in the Asia Pacific, Wang said.

Since Nachman, of the National Chengchi University, and Wang both think Taiwan would likely have a divided government after Saturdays election, they say disagreements between different branches of the government could surface over contentious issues, such as how to handle cross-strait relations and Taiwans defense budget.

From current President Tsai Ing-wens perspective, her goal is to try to cement as much policy as she can before shes out of office, Nachman told VOA. A lot of the decisions that shes made regarding issues such as defense spending cant just be undone with a snap of a finger.
Russia resumed its winter bombardment strategy, pummeling several areas across Ukraine on Monday using its largest hypersonic and cruise missiles and killing at least four people while injuring 30 others.

Russias Defense Ministry said its forces used precision sea-launched and air-launched long-range missiles, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, to strike what it called facilities of Ukraines military-industrial complex.

Western officials and analysts had warned that Russia was stockpiling its cruise missiles to target mainly Ukraines defense industry this winter, as opposed to the countrys infrastructure last winter. But so far, Russian strikes have frequently hit civilian areas.

Ukraines air force said the countrys air defenses shot down all eight drones launched by Russia, but only 18 of the 51 Russian cruise missiles deployed in overnight attacks.

The Ukrainian air force said the targets of the missiles included critical infrastructure facilities as well as civilian and military industrial sites. It also noted that not all missiles that were not intercepted reached their targets.

Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy head of Ukraines presidency, said Russian missiles struck a shopping center and high-rise buildings in Kryvyi Rih, the south-central city that is the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Kuleba said one person was killed.

In the western region of Khmelnytskyi, officials said a Russian missile strike killed at least two people.

Oleg Synegubov, the regional governor of the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, said one person was killed in the city of Zmiiv.

The latest attacks came as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg prepared to hold a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council Wednesday to discuss Russias recent drone and missile attacks, which have included larger numbers of drones and missiles since the beginning of the year.

Almost every night. Tonight again. With obligatory destruction of civilian infrastructure and deliberate killing of civilians, Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Monday. Only because Russia is willing and able to do so. Only because Russia has many long-range missiles.

Zelenskyy expressed confidence Sunday that Russia could be defeated and warned that the war in Ukraine has shown that Europe should develop a joint weapons production with Ukraine and build a sufficient weapons arsenal for its defense.

Two years of this war have proven that Europe needs its own sufficient arsenal for the defense of freedom. Its own capabilities to ensure defense. Its own potential that will allow all of Europe, or any part of it, to stand and preserve itself under any global situation, he said.

Zelenskyy made the comments via a video link at a Stockholm defense conference, while Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom expressed his countrys commitment to support Kyiv.

Swedens military, political, and economic support for Ukraine remains the Swedish governments main foreign policy task in the coming years, he posted during the event on X, formerly Twitter, the messaging app.

Japan also pledged its support to Kyiv Sunday when Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa made an unannounced visit, becoming the first official foreign visitor in the Ukrainian capital in 2024.

"Japan is determined to continue to support Ukraine so that peace can return to Ukraine, Kamikawa said through an interpreter at a joint news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

Kamikawa, who was forced into a bomb shelter by an air alert in Kyiv, condemned Russias missile and drone attacks on civilians, particularly on New Years Day, adding that her country would provide an additional $37 million to a NATO trust fund to help purchase drone-detection systems.

Some material for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
The U.N. rights chief on Monday condemned the violence and repression during controversial elections in Bangladesh that were boycotted by the opposition, urging the country to strengthen democracy.



Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured her fifth term in power following Sunday's vote, after the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called a general strike and, along with dozens of others, refused to participate.



"I implore the government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the human rights of all Bangladeshis are fully taken into account, and to strengthen the underpinnings of a truly inclusive democracy," Volker Turk said in a statement.



The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights pointed out that "thousands of opposition supporters have been detained arbitrarily or subjected to intimidation."



"Such tactics are not conducive to a truly genuine process," he warned.



Hasina has presided over breakneck economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty, but her government has been accused of rampant human rights abuses and a ruthless crackdown on dissent.

Turk said that mass arrests, threats, enforced disappearances, blackmailing and surveillance were all methods reportedly used by law enforcement officials in the months leading up to the vote.



He also lamented reported acts of political violence, including arson attacks allegedly committed by opposition groups.



"Around 25,000 opposition supporters have been arrested, including key party leaders, since October 28," the statement said, adding that at least 10 of them had reportedly died or been killed in custody.



This, it cautioned, raises "serious concerns about possible torture or harsh conditions of detention."



Many rights defenders had meanwhile been forced to go into hiding and even flee the country, while dozens of people had reportedly been victims of enforced disappearances.



"These incidents must be independently investigated, and those responsible must be brought to justice in fair and transparent trials," Turk said.



"Violations and irregularities during the campaign and on election day itself should also be thoroughly and effectively investigated."



The U.N. rights chief highlighted that "democracy was hard won in Bangladesh and must not become cosmetic."



"The future of all Bangladeshis is at stake."
You've written your essays, submitted your grades and test scores and finally -- finally! -- earned admission to a U.S. college or university.

Now comes the really tricky part: Paying for it.

US News & World Report offers a crash course on financial aid for international students here. (December 2023)
The United States says it opposes outside interference or malign influence in Taiwans elections, ahead of the islands hotly contested presidential and legislative elections on January 13.

We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan, which is fundamentally at odds with the goal of peace and stability, a State Department spokesperson told VOA on Monday.

We have deep confidence in Taiwans democratic process and believe it is for Taiwan voters to choose their next leader, free from outside interference, the spokesperson added.

Washingtons strong words come as China ramps up an intimidation campaign ahead of the ballot, deploying military aircraft and naval vessels near the Taiwan Strait and flying several balloons across Taiwan and near its military bases.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry accused China on Saturday of harassment and waging psychological warfare on the islands people by repeatedly sending balloons over Taiwan close to the election date.

On Sunday, Taiwans Defense Ministry said it detected another three balloons that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, according to a posting in social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

China asserts Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinas territory. A Chinese spokesperson said she was not aware of the specifics when asked about the Chinese balloons and the concerns over aviation safety.

"Its not related to Chinas foreign affairs," said Mao Ning, a spokeswoman from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during a briefing on Monday.

China Urges Voters to Make Correct Choice

Voters on the democratic island of Taiwan head to the polls this Saturday to choose both their president and representatives for parliament, the Legislative Yuan, in an election that is expected to have a vital impact on cross-Strait relations.

A Chinese official responsible for handling ties with Taiwan urged Taiwanese voters to make the correct choice in the upcoming election without specifying which candidates or parties China may prefer, though Beijing is widely seen as supporting the opposition Kuomintang or KMT party to win. Some analysts say the election of the China-friendly KMTs candidates could help promote the resumption of dialogue between both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Zhang Zhijun, the head of China's quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, stated in a New Years message that people in Taiwan face an important choice between the prospects for peace and war.

Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate, Lai Ching-te, has framed the election as a choice between democracy and autocracy. Lai, Taiwans current vice president, has been labeled by China as a separatist.

Presenting his party as the peacemaker, KMT presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih characterizes the election as a choice between war and peace.

Seeking to present himself as an alternative to the two main political parties, Ko Wen-je from the Taiwan Peoples Party or TPP has said the relationship between China and Taiwan should be handled with a combination of deterrence and the will to communicate.

As China ramps up its military activity around the island in the run up to the elections, Washington has re-iterated its position that the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway and cautioned the Beijing against using Taiwans election as a pretext for instability.

Beijings continued provocative actions in the Taiwan Strait are indicative of its unilateral attempts to change the status quo which has preserved global peace and stability for decades," said the State Department spokesperson.

Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies or CSIS, told VOA that the last thing countries in the Indo-Pacific region want is another crisis. This sentiment is particularly pronounced amid the ongoing Ukraine war and the Gaza conflict.

He added the U.S. commitment to defend Taiwan is an important signal and indicator of the credibility and reliability of the U.S. as the security guarantor in the region, more broadly.

Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at CSIS, said Chinas escalating military activities are meant to intimidate Taiwan but he played down the possibility of an actual military conflict.

I dont think they [escalating Chinese military activities] are the beginnings of the intention to actually attack Taiwan or create some other type of crisis through an embargo [in the Taiwan Strait] or other scenario that people have talked about.

Chinas Communist led government has never exercised control over Taiwan but claims sovereignty over the self-ruled democracy.

Taiwan's government rejects Beijings sovereignty claims and says only the island's 23 million people can decide their future.

The U.S. switched its diplomatic recognition from the government in Taipei to the government in Beijing in 1979. Since then, the U.S. policy has maintained that differences between the two sides should be settled peacefully, and in accordance with the will of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The United States acknowledges but has never endorsed Beijings sovereignty claim over Taiwan. Neither does the U.S. support Taiwan independence.
U.S. President Joe Biden has no intention of firing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after Austin mysteriously failed for several days to publicly say he has been hospitalized and has yet to disclose his medical issue, the White House said Monday.

"There is no plan for anything other than for Secretary Austin to stay in the job," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Austin, just below Biden at the top of the chain of command of the U.S. military, was hospitalized on New Years Day, but complications developed from what has been described as an elective medical procedure he had on December 22.

Pentagon press secretary Major General Patrick Ryder said that at "no time was national security in jeopardy" because of Austin's hospitalization, although his duties were transferred to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks during some of his hospitalization.

The spokesperson said Austin "has no plans to resign."

"He continues to stay focused on conducting his duties as the secretary," Ryder said, and is receiving operational and intelligence reports.

The spokesperson said Austin is no longer in the intensive care unit but is still at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center "in a more private area" of the hospital. Ryder said the defense chief "continues to experience discomfort, but his prognosis is good."

The Pentagon declined to disclose any details of Austin's elective medical procedure.

For days, the 70-year-old Austin never told Biden or had the Pentagon announce his hospitalization, which would be commonplace for figures at the highest levels of the U.S. government.

Austin said on Saturday that he took "full responsibility" for the secrecy over his hospitalization.

But top Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, the leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate to face Biden in the November presidential election, called for Austin's dismissal.

Austin should be fired for his "improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty," Trump said.

"He has been missing for one week, and nobody, including his boss, Crooked Joe Biden, had a clue as to where he was, or might be," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Republican Representative Elise Stefanik also called for Austins dismissal, saying in a statement, "There must be full accountability beginning with the immediate resignation of Secretary Austin and those that lied for him and a congressional investigation into this dangerous dereliction of duty."

Officials disclosed Sunday that Austin's hospitalization was kept far more secret than previously known, including from Hicks, his Pentagon deputy. Austin's duties require him to be available at a moment's notice to respond to any military or national security crisis.

Kirby said he had no information on the nature of Austin's medical issue, but that Biden and Austin had talked in recent days.

The spokesperson said the White House would review what rules or procedures weren't followed when Austin was hospitalized and failed to disclose it.

"We'll do what's akin to a hot wash," Kirby said, looking at the disclosure procedures in place and "try to learn from this experience."
Photo: Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

Almost four years after Patricia Arquette played Gypsy Rose Blanchards mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, on Hulus The Act, Gypsy Rose has been released from prison after serving eight years for being convicted of the second-degree murder of her mother. Arquette tells Vulture at the 2024 HEAVEN Gala at the Wiltern in Los Angeles that she hasnt had any contact with Blanchard, but she calls the news of her release very surreal, especially in light of Joyce Mitchell, whom Arquette portrayed in Showtimes Escape at Dannemora, being released from prison as well. I hope she just has a beautiful, happy life, Arquette says of Gypsy Rose while acknowledging her newfound social-media fame. People are quick to be so mean on the internet because theyre hiding behind the screen, and I hope people are kind to each other.
Canadian flag flies in front of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

By Nivedita Balu

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's anti-money laundering agency is increasing its reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) to detect suspicious transactions, betting the use of the latest technology will help better fight financial crimes, a top official said.

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC) raised a few eyebrows last month when it fined the country's two biggest banks - Royal Bank of Canada and CIBC - for a total of C$9 million ($6.7 million) for violations that included failing to submit suspicious transaction reports, setting a record for fines issued on individual banks.

In comparison, the agency has collected C$23 million in penalties across most business sectors since it received the authority to do so in 2008.

Canada has a reputation of being a law-abiding democracy; think tanks like C.D. Howe estimate between C$100 billion and C$130 billion is laundered annually in the country.

FINTRAC's Deputy Director for Supervision Donna Achimov told Reuters that AI is allowing humans who have the right mindset to analyze much more data than ever before and making it easier to detect more suspicious activity.

The federal government has also added new powers relating to national security, helping FINTRAC staff up in recent years. Staffing levels increased about 28% in fiscal 2023 from two years ago.

The additional resources will help the agency led by Sarah Paquet to work in real-time and mitigate money laundering and terrorist financing risks.

Achimov said one way forward for FINTRAC is to use new technology to scour for suspicious transactions, or additionally to even partner with financial institutions to lower risks.

Suspicious transactions for the 2022-2023 financial year reached 560,858 compared with 585,853 in the previous year and sharply higher than the 114,422 reported in 2015-2016.

About 75% of all suspicious transactions between April and September 2023 were reported by financial institutions.

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The agency has also significantly increased the frequency of meetings to a quarterly occurrence with the larger banks and has held meetings with small and medium-sized banks regularly.

FINTRAC's increased scrutiny comes at a time when TD is facing a rare probe and a likely fine by the U.S. Department of Justice related to its AML practices, shortly after it called off its First Horizon acquisition.

AML and legal experts said FINTRAC's decision to name the banks instead of handling administrative penalties behind closed doors indicates an increase in enforcement activities in the future.

"Everybody's got to take a closer look ... we got to make sure that we've got our i's dotted, cross our t's and we're not letting that dirty money get into our institutions," said Garry Clement, financial crime prevention expert and CEO of Clement Advisory Group.

($1 = 1.3351 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Toronto; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
Elnur Enveroglu

Do you know Macron? Hes a very nice guy, said the Republican before describing a conversation he had with the French head of state.

The French daily publication Le Figaro has published footage in which former US President Donald Trump imitated French President Emmanuel Macron during a rally on January 5 in Mason City, Iowa.

According to the publication, the American billionaire seemed to allude to trade tensions between France and the United States in 2019 over the French tax imposing 3% of the turnover generated in France on digital giants, including GAFA such as Google, Amazon, or Facebook.

It should be noted that the Trump-Macron friendship was once at such a level that even all the headlines in the media praised them with envy. After the incident in 2019, a sudden rift began to appear between the couple. For some reason, Macron, who was always supported by his American counterpart Donald Trump, criticised him at the side event held within the framework of the 70th anniversary of NATO. Macron discredited Trump's management ability in NATO and expressed the facts that will cast a shadow on his leadership.

Although Trump has always been prone to arguments and even squabbles with his colleagues, and Macron is one of the several heads of state to break up with him, the relationship between them caused an uproar in the media for a while.

The warm relationship that developed in 2017 cemented the Macron-Trump friendship even more with a kiss on the cheek at a White House meeting in 2018. These relationships had such an effect that it would be hard to imagine that such deep rifts would ever develop between them.
Even the slight strengthening in the yuan can be attributed as much to Fed chair Jerome Powell as Beijings efforts to put a floor under the expansion.

Singapore, which had been dogged for part of 2023 by fear of recession, finished strongly. South Koreas economy closed out December with solid momentum. Markets across Asia have been obsessed with when the Federal Reserve will begin to cut interest rates; the prospect of the Peoples Bank of China further reducing borrowing costs is met with a yawn.

Bullishness about China was abundant when President Xi Jinping began to dismantle COVID zero at the end of 2022. Credit: AP

Neighbours whose economic fortunes were supposed to be tied to the heft of the countrys rebound from the pandemic seem to be doing pretty well without it. Far from being pushed into a slump, some bellwethers had a thoroughly respectable year.

This isnt the way things were meant to be. Bullishness about China, and its ability to propel the rest of Asia, was abundant when President Xi Jinping began to dismantle COVID zero in the closing months of 2022.

Prospects for the region were considered intimately linked to Beijing. But as Chinas rebound faded, it became commonplace to proclaim that this implied bad tidings for regional economies. That they didnt bomb suggests there is a broader shift at work.

There was no shortage of people telling me Asia was China and China was Asia. It might be time to question that assertion.

Perhaps Asias economic fate isnt tethered so strongly to China after all. Or, if it is, there are at least some important nuances. Some thinking looks out of date. As a reporter arriving in Washington in 1998, the common refrain was that where Japan goes, so does the rest of Asia. I was sceptical: South-East Asia enjoyed six years of dizzying expansion after Japans property bubble burst around 1990. Before leaving the US to undertake my current assignment in Singapore, there was no shortage of people telling me Asia was China and China was Asia. It might be time to question that assertion.

Goldman Sachs Group had a wake-up call. It anchored hopes for a strong 2023 in part on a buoyant China  and the prospect that such encouraging conditions would translate into an epic year for emerging markets, generally.
As jobs become automated, soft skills  those that cant be offered by a computer  could become increasingly valuable. Loading For anybody who wants to develop their career in an AI future, focus on the basic soft skills of problem-solving, creativity and inclusion, says Cayla Dengate, news editor at LinkedIn Australia. Some concerns about the dangers of AI in the workplace remain in 2024. Artificial intelligence automates away a lot of the easy parts and that has the potential to make our jobs more intense and more demanding ... there have always been unethical uses of technology. Peter says. She says education and policy are vital to curb irresponsible uses of AI.

Hybrid work Are we nearing the end of the work from home era? While COVID fast-tracked flexible working models, in 2023 many organisations began ushering employees back to the office. In a KPMG survey of more than 1300 chief executives released in October, most predicted a complete eradication of working from home over the next three years. Younger workers, who require more support than previous generations after COVID, benefit from a return to the office. Credit: Peter Rae Still, many employers are grappling with keeping employees happy.

Were seeing a divide between managers and staff in terms of how much time they want to be spending in the office versus working from home, says Dengate. Loading An idea thats gaining momentum is that a workplace is not somewhere to sit down and quietly do your work. Going into work is about connecting with your colleagues and having a bonding experience, more so than just working. Younger workers, who require more support than previous generations after COVID, also benefit from a return to the office. That generation really do need mentors, they need to be getting feedback and to feel that others in the workplace value them and that they have the opportunity to learn, says Johnson.

The fall of corporate jargon Circling back, taking things offline, sorry if that was unclear  corporate jargon has been slowly falling out of favour for the past few years  and younger generations are leading the charge. A global report from LinkedIn from June found that 60 per cent of Gen Z and 65 per cent of Millennials want to reduce or eliminate the use of workplace jargon, while a quick scroll on TikTok reveals many young office workers mocking the veiled language. Sometimes corporate buzzwords can help a team feel like theyre all speaking the same language, says Dengate. But the flip side is that it can isolate people who arent in on the lingo.

Remote workers are more likely to dislike corporate buzzwords because it makes them feel left out. They dont know what the latest acronym is, and it stands in the way of understanding. Wellbeing From managers supporting staff through a divorce to lunchtime meditation, the personal and professional have become increasingly intertwined. Worker wellbeing is a growing concern for organisations with increases in psychosocial risk claims and work absences due to stress and exhaustion. The pandemic was a trigger for many workers. People did some soul-searching and asked themselves, do I care about where I work? Is this feeding my soul? says Dengate.

In response, she says organisations took a stronger stance on social issues, such as the environment, to create a workplace where peoples personal mission is aligned with their workplace. While breath work and nutrition seminars are positive steps, wellbeing solutions in the workplace should go beyond the individual to be meaningful. We need to be looking more closely at what people are doing at work and whether its good for them, says Johnson. How is the work youre doing designed? What extent are you receiving feedback? Do people just have too much to do in the time that they have available? Paid job interviews Recognition is growing for just how much work goes into looking for a job. From multiple rounds of interviews to business proposals, the application process can be incredibly time and labour-intensive  and some are calling for applicants to be compensated for their time.

The idea is gaining traction abroad. Canadian food justice organisation FoodShare offers prospective candidates $75CAD per interview ($83), while Zero Waste Club in the UK compensates workers with $275 for attending a two to three hour workshop. Its a concept Dengate believes will catch on in Australia in 2024. Loading Part of the reason why is to level the playing field. Its not one person asking to impress the other. Its an acknowledgement that this person is important, and their time is valuable. Dengate says compensating workers for work during the interview process can also be beneficial for organisations. Paying somebody to attend a job interview forces companies to be more direct about who they want and why, without wasting time on additional job interviews and additional applicants, she says.
Nine people were rushed to hospital in critical conditions after suspected overdoses on party drugs at a music festival in Melbourne on the weekend, renewing calls for the introduction of pill testing.

Eight of the partygoers were put into induced comas and on breathing tubes after the Hardmission Festival at Flemington Racecourse on Saturday. Some had been discharged by Monday afternoon.

Eight people were rushed to hospital after overdosing on drugs at a music festival on the weekend.

Two men in their 20s were taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where they remained in a critical condition on Monday afternoon.

Another man, also believed to be in his 20s, was in a stable condition by Monday afternoon at the Austin Hospital and was expected to fully recover.
Senior women in the Liberal Party are growing increasingly concerned about female representation as men dominate preselection battles ahead of the next election.

A review of the Liberal Partys 2022 election loss, released one year ago, recommended a target of 50 per cent female representation within parliamentary ranks in 10 years.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and male colleagues during question time at Parliament House. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

But with preselections under way in Victoria and NSW, only one new woman, Mary Aldred, has been preselected in a Liberal-held seat, and top female members fear the federal partys record-low level of women MPs will not improve.

In Victoria, just three women have been endorsed as candidates for the 13 lower house seats where preselections have been held.
Clearwater boat company MarineMax announced Monday it will acquire William Tenders USA, a boat distributer and retailer, for an undisclosed price.

The acquisition is set to close at the end of March, according to a media release. The deal would help MarineMax expand its superyacht business, the company said.

William Jet Tenders is a U.K.-based company that manufactures tenders or smaller boats that service luxury yachts. MarineMax would acquire the North American operations, based out of Pompano Beach in South Florida. William Tenders USA has a showroom and 20 dealers across the United States and the Caribbean.

MarineMax is the seventh-largest public company in the Tampa Bay area, according to Florida Trend. It has 130 locations across the world.

This transaction aligns with a key element of our growth strategy of acquiring high-quality businesses that expand our unique portfolio of assets, strengthen our margin profile, and deepen our relationships with customers across the recreational marine ecosystem, said MarineMax CEO Brett McGill in a statement. Like MarineMax, Williams Tenders USA is a business that is passionate about the boating lifestyle.
Major pharmaceutical businesses aren't known for their rocket-like returns, but they aren't known for experiencing total wipeouts either. That's why a quickly growing, yet already big company like Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) is especially appealing for investment. In theory, it could have significant upside without too much in the way of catastrophic risk.

But could a timely and sufficiently sized investment in this biopharma be enough to make you a millionaire by the time you retire? It's more plausible than it might seem -- here's why.

How long will this company be on a tear?

Addressing whether Novo Nordisk is a stock that'll help you retire as a millionaire means appreciating what it's doing today and what it plans to do in the future. The company's cash cows of the moment include Ozempic, its medicine for type 2 diabetes, and a variation of Ozempic, called Wegovy, that's indicated for weight loss. The pair are tremendously hot sellers, bringing in nearly $5 billion in sales in Q3 of 2023.

Management expects demand to remain hot this year, and it's ramping up its manufacturing capacity to supply more to the U.S. market. As the market for weight loss and type 2 diabetes medicines is still growing, analysts at GlobalData estimate that Ozempic alone will bring in revenue of around $19 billion in 2029. For reference, the entire company's trailing-12-month sales currently total $31 billion, so a significant amount of growth is slated for the next few years.

While it's possible that competition from players like Eli Lilly could put a crimp in Ozempic's march forward, Novo Nordisk won't be sitting still. Its research and development (R&D) pipeline is investigating the molecule behind Ozempic, semaglutide, for a bunch of purposes beyond its original design, including for Alzheimer's disease and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).

While it might not succeed with 100% of these attempts, it has so many different programs that at least a couple are likely to proceed to commercialization, assuming regulators assent. Beyond that, it has various mid- and late-stage programs for treating other metabolic and cardiovascular illnesses. With roughly $7 billion in cash, equivalents, and short-term investments on hand, Novo Nordisk has more than enough resources to implement its plans over the coming years.

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So, as far as biopharma businesses go, Novo Nordisk is in a strong position, and its near-term prospects are favorable. That bodes well for its potential as a fruitful investment for the purposes of saving for retirement.

This road to building wealth is going to be long

Now that we understand what this company is likely to be spending its time and resources on, let's calculate whether it's a good vehicle for wealth-building over the long term.

Novo Nordisk's annualized total return since its initial public offering (IPO) is nearly 18% per year, considerably better than the market's annualized total return of 10% per year. For the purposes of our projection here, let's use a more conservative figure of 15% for the stock's forward returns; without perfect knowledge of the future, we should assume returns will revert to the market's average over the long term.

Let's also look at the returns over a time horizon of 20 years and assume you'll keep building up your position by investing an additional $100 each month on top of an initial investment of $5,000. In other words, we're assuming that you're mid-career, and therefore, your target retirement date is still quite a distance away.

Under those conditions, in 2044, you might have roughly $205,000. After waiting another decade and continuing to invest -- making for an uninterrupted holding and investing streak of 30 years -- you'd have $853,000.

Obviously, neither of those figures is enough to make someone a millionaire on its own. Nor is there any guarantee that its winning streak will continue or that it'll even retain its value. But when considering the broader context of building up enough wealth for retirement, the picture is much sunnier.

Yes, Novo Nordisk could help you retire as a millionaire. If you purchase its shares via dollar-cost averaging (DCA) over a long period, there is a high chance you'll be better off than before. And with the help of the rest of your well-diversified portfolio, assuming you can invest diligently and consistently, you'll have a real shot at having total wealth in excess of $1 million. The hardest part is being patient along the way.

Should you invest $1,000 in Novo Nordisk right now?

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By Claudia Savage, Rebecca Black and Jonathan McCambridge, PA

Northern Ireland should face fresh Assembly elections or the UK and Irish governments will have to come up with an alternative if the DUP does not return to Stormont, Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy has said.

As the region approaches two years without devolved government, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson insisted his party remains in talks with London over unionist concerns around post-Brexit trading arrangements.

The DUP has insisted it will not go back into power-sharing government until it secures legislative assurances from the UK government on Northern Irelands trading position within the UK.

In December, Northern Ireland secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris indicated the UK governments talks with the DUP had concluded, but on Monday Mr Donaldson said more progress is needed.

Mr Heaton-Harris is obliged by current legislation to call a fresh election if Stormont has not reformed by January 18th.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says that more progress is needed (Liam McBurney/PA)

The DUP leader said he hoped for an update in the coming days over what progress has been made on the trade border impasse.

Mr Donaldson said his party remain focused on getting a fair and balanced outcome.

Our goal throughout this process has been to restore Northern Irelands place within the UK internal market as set out in our manifesto, he said.

However, Mr Murphy slammed an endless charade and pressed Mr Donaldson to make a decision on re-entering the Stormont Assembly.

This is a charade at this stage, its been facilitated for far too long by the British Government who eventually said pre-Christmas that this is over, he told reporters in the Great Hall at Stormont on Monday afternoon.

What we need to do is get to the point of decision, and thats what Jeffrey Donaldson and his party need to do, come back and tell us, are they going to join with the rest of us in doing power sharing, or are they not, he said.

And if theyre not, then the two governments have a decision to take in terms of where we go after that.

He added: If the DUP are going to decide that they cant and wont do powersharing, then there is either an election called on January 18 or the two governments have to get their heads together and come up with an alternative.

They have responsibility to the Good Friday Agreement to guarantee that the continued operation of the elements of the Good Friday Agreement, and theyve responsibility for actually jointly crafting something going forward.

Every sector in society that we meet would want this Executive to be back. We want to be back in the Executive working with the other parties, including the DUP, to try and tackle some of the big issues but if theyre going to conclude they cant and wont do powersharing then we have to move on to a new area.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said in December that talks with the DUP over the trade border impasse had concluded (Liam McBurney/PA)

Talks between Mr Heaton-Harris and the main Stormont parties over a 3.3 billion (3.9 billion) financial package to accompany the return of devolution broke up at Hillsborough Castle in December without any agreement to restore the Assembly and Executive.

The package would include money to make an outstanding pay award to public sector workers.

With their pay demands still unmet, unions are planning a major strike across Northern Ireland on January 18th.

Mr Donaldson said in a statement on Monday afternoon that progress is being made with the Government, but more work needs to be done.

Northern Ireland should never have been subjected to arrangements that not one unionist MLA supported, he said.

For as long as I have been involved in Northern Ireland talks processes, the lesson at every juncture has been that lasting progress is only achieved when the outcome could be supported by unionists as well as nationalists.

Mr Donaldson continued: The Northern Ireland that this party is trying to build is one where we all can feel at home whether we are British, Irish, Northern Irish or somewhere in-between.

The arrangements foisted on unionists by the NI Protocol jeopardised all of this. They were hugely destabilising and set Northern Ireland back rather than moving us forward. The balance must be restored.

Whilst we are making progress with the Government, there remains more work to be done.

We have been given a task by the electorate and we are going to finish the job.
The UK government has challenged Ireland to set out its own record on tackling legacy issues, as it formally registered its regret at Dublins decision to take legal action against its Troubles legislation.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has written to Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin, questioning the move by Irelands Government to challenge the UKs contentious legacy laws in the European Court of Human Rights.

The British Ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston issued the letter on Sunday evening.

In it, Mr Heaton Harris again challenges Mr Martin to list the number of prosecutions mounted in the Irish state since 1998 related to Troubles incidents.

Aspects of the recently passed UK laws include a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who co-operate with the new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 will also halt future civil cases and legacy inquests.

The UK governments laws are opposed by many victims groups in Northern Ireland and all the main Stormont parties.

Announcing the interstate case in December, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said his administration was left with no option but to legally challenge the UK government over the Legacy Act.

He said the strong legal advice was that the UK Legacy Act breached the UN Convention on Human Rights.

Tanaiste Mr Martin said they were taking the case reluctantly after having spent time trying to change the UK governments mind.

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) confirmed to the PA news agency that a letter had been issued formally registering profound regret at the interstate case.

The Secretary of State, in his letter, repeats his call for the Irish Government to clarify the number of criminal prosecutions brought in Ireland since 1998 relating to Troubles-related cases, and presses the Irish Government more widely to answer questions regarding its own record on tackling legacy issues in its own jurisdiction, the NIO said in a statement.

The letter criticises the timing of the Irish decision, describing it as a delicate time in Northern Ireland amid the efforts to restore powersharing at Stormont.

The NIO added: The decision also comes before the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, led by Sir Declan Morgan as chief commissioner, is fully established and able to demonstrate its ability to discharge the UKs international obligations.

The UK government reasserts its particular disappointment that the Irish Government has taken this course of action without, to date, any engagement with the ICRIR to understand better how it intends to implement the legislation and deliver for victims and survivors.
By Cillian Sherlock, PA

A low temperature warning was announced for the Republic on Monday, with parts of the country expected to experience a drop to minus 5 degrees Celsius overnight.

Met Eireann forecast lingering frost, icy patches, and mist on Monday morning with highest temperatures throughout the day between 2 and 6 degrees.

It said Monday night will be very cold with icy patches and a widespread sharp to severe frost.

The agency announced a Status Yellow low temperature and ice warning for the whole country due to the cold conditions, scheduled for between 9pm on Monday and 10am on Tuesday.

Motorists should exercise caution this morning, particularly on untreated roads, as freezing temperatures have caused widespread ice throughout the road network. Stick to main, gritted roads when possible. Slow down, and increase your braking distance from the vehicle in front. pic.twitter.com/5wbKbw3n8J  NI Road Policing and Safety (@NIRoadPolicing) January 8, 2024

Forecasters said lowest temperatures overnight would be between -5 and 1 degree in light easterly breezes.

In Northern Ireland, the UK Met Office also forecast bitterly cold temperatures for Monday night.

It said there would be widespread frost and a minimum temperature of -4 degrees.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland urged motorists to exercise caution, particularly on untreated roads.

It said freezing temperatures have caused widespread ice throughout the road network.

In a statement, it said: Stick to main, gritted roads when possible. Slow down, and increase your braking distance from the vehicle in front.
Key Insights

DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad's significant public companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public

74% of the company is held by a single shareholder (DKSH Holding AG)

Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

If you want to know who really controls DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad (KLSE:DKSH), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 74% stake, public companies possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Individual investors, on the other hand, account for 12% of the company's stockholders.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad.

View our latest analysis for DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad

KLSE:DKSH Ownership Breakdown January 8th 2024

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

KLSE:DKSH Earnings and Revenue Growth January 8th 2024

DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad is not owned by hedge funds. DKSH Holding AG is currently the company's largest shareholder with 74% of shares outstanding. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 3.6% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 1.1% by the third-largest shareholder.

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While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad. It has a market capitalization of just RM741m, and insiders have RM18m worth of shares, in their own names. This shows at least some alignment, but we usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 12% stake in DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 74% of DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad (at least 1 which doesn't sit too well with us) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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.


Plans submitted to the City of Bethlehem say the parking authority (BPA) and West Broad Street Associates, which owns commercial property across from the existing garage, seek a "vacation" of Walnut Street. That means the city government would turn the right of way over to private users.



"The proposed vacation does not close Walnut Street at any point; however, the vacation will narrow the street corridor," according to a memo from Darlene Heller, director of planning and zoning, to the city's Planning Commission.



Meanwhile, the BPA still does not have a final approved plan to replace the Walnut Street Garage. On Monday, workers were preparing the site for demolition and putting up an opaque screen over a construction fence along Walnut Street.

The proposed vacation does not close Walnut Street at any point; however, the vacation will narrow the street. How that would affect parking spaces on Walnut Street was not noted.



"As part of the overall development of the parking garage site, the street vacation allows for the reconfiguration of the Walnut Street Corridor in this block to calm traffic and improve pedestrian safety," according to Heller's memo. Wider sidewalks on Walnut Street are part of that plan.



"The street vacation allows for the removal of the existing left turn lane (out of the garage) and the widening of sidewalk," the memo says. A traffic study on the city website says the left land is little-used and removing it will not hinder traffic.



The Bethlehem Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB), an advisory body, rejected two BPA proposals for a new garage last week. Both plans are for garages that occupy a smaller footprint than the current deck but are higher. Both also would include retail and residential space.



HARB makes recommendations, but City Council will make the final decision.



Some residents have objected to the plans at recent public meetings, citing the mass of the building. Some have questioned why the BPA wants fewer spaces. In the most recent submission to the city, the BPA says the new deck would have 590 spaces, about 180 fewer than the current garage.



The existing garage closed last week. It is 48 years old, about the same age as Easton's Pine Street Garage, which lasted for 50 years.



Also up for review Thursday is the BPA's request for new zoning lines at the deck. The 33 W. Walnut St. site encompasses four parcels; the BPA wants to combine them into one, with "Central Business" district zoning. "CB" zoning would allow a deck, retail and residential uses.



The commission will meet Thursday at 5 p.m. in Town Hall. The meeting agenda and a link to a webcast are on the city website. Agendas are subject to change.
A cherished religious and cultural tradition made its return to Bethlehem on Sunday.

Three Kings Day, also known as Dia de los Reyes, is a tradition for many Latin American countries. The day commemorates the Biblical story of the three kings who followed the star of Bethlehem to bring gifts to Jesus Christ.

Organizers of the even say it's important to pass on this tradition to younger generations.

"We're trying to remind them of that culture and remind them of the traditions of Navidad, as we call it," said Myrna Rivera, ArtsQuest volunteer. "With the Puerto Rican music, the food and just so that they don't forget it."

Today's ArtsQuest event celebrated the annual tradition with live music, food, and even photo opportunities with a camel.
The 108th Pennsylvania Farm Show is celebrating its opening weekend.

The celebration of the state's agriculture industry opened Saturday in Harrisburg.

Among the many creative displays: The traditional butter sculpture. It depicts a family sitting around a dinner table enjoying locally-grown items.

Another big display,  a farm show sign shaped like the state of Pennsylvania  was made from apples.

The Farm Show runs daily through Saturday, Jan. 13.
HARRISBURG, Pa.  The Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) has launched a new website for residents to appeal denied healthcare coverage.

The state-administered site, iro.insurance.pa.gov, was developed by Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Office of Digitial Experience team. It allows residents to request a free third-party review if they believe their insurer has wrongly denied a claim for medical coverage, according to a press release from Gov. Shapiro's office.

According to the press release, the website launch comes with new state-specific standards that went into effect Jan. 1  following the passage of Act 146 back in November.

"Pennsylvania consumers who believe they were wrongly denied should know that we have their back  and they should feel empowered to file an independent appeal with us," said Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Michael Humphreys. "Too few people challenge denials through internal or external review processes."
This story first appeared in The Investigator, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring the best investigative and accountability journalism from across Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.

HARRISBURG  In the new year, Pennsylvania lawmakers plan to put a lot of their energy into changing permitting processes, getting a long-sought constitutional amendment over the finish line, and figuring out how to overhaul the commonwealths education funding system.

The business of lawmaking wont resume right away when Harrisburgs customary holiday break winds down. State House Democratic leaders say a leak above their chamber will keep them out of the building  and out of session  until the spring.

But leaders in both chambers say they dont plan to be idle during that time.

Looming over the entire body is a nearly year-old court ruling that declared Pennsylvanias education funding system to be unconstitutionally inequitable and ordered lawmakers to correct it. For months, a bipartisan commission has been holding hearings on the issue, and state House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) says that work will continue during the recess in 2024.

The commission plans to release a report based on its hearings in early January. After that, Bradford said, the Democratic-controlled state House and GOP-controlled state Senate have a lot of hard work ahead to figure out a consensus plan.

The commonwealth made a down payment in the just-passed state budget, he said, but there's clearly decades of underfunding and inadequacy, and then the ripple effects of that  so we've got to really talk about what those equity issues look like and how to affirmatively address them.

Bradford said his caucus priorities also include continuing to vocally push several bills Democrats already passed  particularly ones that would raise the commonwealths $7.25 minimum wage, broaden protections for LGBTQ people, and require universal background checks for gun purchases.

He said it is embarrassing that the legislature is still weighing these issues.

The state Senate hasnt acted on any of these bills  Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) said the Democrats minimum wage number, for one, was unreasonable.

The caucuses also split last session on a long-delayed constitutional amendment that would open a window for people to sue over sexual abuse they suffered as children. State House Democrats passed it, but state Senate Republicans countered that they would move the measure only if it were bundled with provisions to expand voter ID and make it easier for the legislature to reject executive branch regulations. Bradford said the effort continues to be a priority for his caucus.

A spokesperson for the state Senate said its leaders are primarily concerned with pushing bills in one area: permitting and regulatory reform.

Spokesperson Kate Flessner listed bills that the chamber has passed but which havent gotten state House consideration, including one that would require agencies to make public more information about the status of permits, one that would require legislative approval of more regulations, and one that would create a new automatic review process for many regulations.

These measures, Flessner said, are intended to cut government red tape to help grow family sustaining jobs.

Lawmakers will return to Harrisburg in January for a constitutionally required meeting on the first Tuesday of the year, and will also convene in the Capitol rotunda  instead of in the state House chamber, to avoid construction  on the first Tuesday in February for the governors state of the state address.

BEFORE YOU GO If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.
Assessing the Upcoming Dividend and Historical Performance

Dollar General Corp (NYSE:DG) recently announced a dividend of $0.59 per share, payable on 2024-01-23, with the ex-dividend date set for 2024-01-08. As investors look forward to this upcoming payment, the spotlight also shines on the company's dividend history, yield, and growth rates. Using the data from GuruFocus, let's look into Dollar General Corp's dividend performance and assess its sustainability.

What Does Dollar General Corp Do?

Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with DG.

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With over 19,000 locations, Dollar General's banner is nearly ubiquitous across the rural United States. Dollar General serves as a convenient shopping destination for fill-in store trips, with its value proposition most relevant to consumers in small communities with a dearth of shopping options. The retailer operates a frugal store of about 7,500 square feet and primarily offers an assortment of branded and private-label consumable items (80% of net sales) such as paper and cleaning products, packaged and perishable food, tobacco, and health and beauty items at low prices. Dollar General also offers a limited assortment of seasonal merchandise, home products, and apparel. The firm sells most items at a price point of $10 or lower.

Dollar General Corp's Dividend Analysis

A Glimpse at Dollar General Corp's Dividend History

Dollar General Corp has maintained a consistent dividend payment record since 2015. Dividends are currently distributed on a quarterly basis. Below is a chart showing annual Dividends Per Share for tracking historical trends.

Dollar General Corp's Dividend Analysis

Breaking Down Dollar General Corp's Dividend Yield and Growth

As of today, Dollar General Corp currently has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.71% and a 12-month forward dividend yield of 1.74%. This suggests an expectation of increased dividend payments over the next 12 months.

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Over the past three years, Dollar General Corp's annual dividend growth rate was 19.80%. Extended to a five-year horizon, this rate decreased to 15.30% per year. Based on Dollar General Corp's dividend yield and five-year growth rate, the 5-year yield on cost of Dollar General Corp stock as of today is approximately 3.48%.

Dollar General Corp's Dividend Analysis

The Sustainability Question: Payout Ratio and Profitability

To assess the sustainability of the dividend, one needs to evaluate the company's payout ratio. The dividend payout ratio provides insights into the portion of earnings the company distributes as dividends. A lower ratio suggests that the company retains a significant part of its earnings, thereby ensuring the availability of funds for future growth and unexpected downturns. As of 2023-10-31, Dollar General Corp's dividend payout ratio is 0.27.

Dollar General Corp's profitability rank, offers an understanding of the company's earnings prowess relative to its peers. GuruFocus ranks Dollar General Corp's profitability 9 out of 10 as of 2023-10-31, suggesting good profitability prospects. The company has reported positive net income for each of year over the past decade, further solidifying its high profitability.

Growth Metrics: The Future Outlook

To ensure the sustainability of dividends, a company must have robust growth metrics. Dollar General Corp's growth rank of 9 out of 10 suggests that the company's growth trajectory is good relative to its competitors.

Revenue is the lifeblood of any company, and Dollar General Corp's revenue per share, combined with the 3-year revenue growth rate, indicates a strong revenue model. Dollar General Corp's revenue has increased by approximately 15.90% per year on average, a rate that outperforms approximately 83.8% of global competitors.

The company's 3-year EPS growth rate showcases its capability to grow its earnings, a critical component for sustaining dividends in the long run. During the past three years, Dollar General Corp's earnings increased by approximately 17.20% per year on average, a rate that outperforms approximately 57.55% of global competitors.

Lastly, the company's 5-year EBITDA growth rate of 16.30%, which outperforms approximately 68.21% of global competitors.

Next Steps

Considering Dollar General Corp's consistent dividend payments, robust dividend growth rate, prudent payout ratio, strong profitability, and solid growth metrics, the company presents an attractive proposition for value investors focused on income-generating stocks. The forward-looking indicators suggest that Dollar General Corp is positioned to continue its dividend payments, which could be a boon for those seeking steady returns in a volatile market. As the company navigates the retail landscape, its strategic initiatives and competitive position will be key in maintaining its dividend track record. Will Dollar General Corp's dividends continue to reward investors in the years to come? That remains a question worth exploring for those considering an investment in this leading discount retailer.

GuruFocus Premium users can screen for high-dividend yield stocks using the High Dividend Yield Screener.

This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Alliant Energy's West Riverside Energy Center, a 727-megawatt, natural-gas plant in Beloit, began operation in 2020.

We Energies would double its share of the natural gas power produced by Alliant Energy's West Riverside Energy Center in Beloit, according to a proposal now under review by state regulators.

The $94.5 million purchase of 100 megawatts of the Beloit electric generating plant's capacity would be We Energies second purchase of West Riverside Generating capacity since Alliant opened the $670 million plant in 2020. The first 100 megawatt sale was approved by the state Public Service Commission in March.

The PSC on Thursday launched a docket to review We Energies' acquisition of additional capacity at the natural gas-powered plant and a smaller 25 megawatt purchase by Madison Gas and Electric for $24.2 million.

The proposed purchase comes at a time of transition in We Energies' power-generating portfolio as it prepares for the shut down its coal-powered Oak Creek Power Plant and nears completion of 600 megawatts of solar power at three Wisconsin sites. The company has said natural gas needs to be part of that transition because it can be tapped when needed to fill in gaps at times when renewable resources aren't producing enough power to meet demand.

"This purchase is part of our generation reshaping plan to reduce emissions and provide customers affordable, reliable and clean energy," the company said in a statement.

Alliant's Wisconsin Power & Light subsidiary will continue to operate the plant, and will retain ownership of about 56% of it when the purchases are finalized. Smaller shares of the plant are also owned by three cooperative utilities.

The utilities' options to buy part of the 727-megawatt plant date to the 2015 settlement of a dispute between the utilities over whether the West Riverside expansion was needed and if it was the most cost effective way for Alliant to add generating capacity as it began its transition away from coal. We Energies, which had recently completed construction of its Elm Road Generating Station in Oak Creek and had excess generating capacity, argued it could less expensively sell power to Alliant.

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We Energies' sister company, Wisconsin Public Service Corp. exercised the first option on West Riverside. The utility's parent company has since decided that capacity as well as the new purchase would go to We Energies changed as it became clear that We Energies would have a greater need for the power, the company said.

In the application to the PSC, We Energies states that the purchase of West Riverside capacity is an important element of its "Generation Reshaping Plan," that includes coal plant retirements, investments in wind, solar and battery storage and development of on-demand natural-gas generating plants. The plan outlines how the company will work toward becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

Four coal-powered generating units at Oak Creek Power Plant, totaling 1,100 megawatts, are scheduled to shut down between May and the end of the 2025, but that schedule is dependent on approval of its purchase of West Riverside, according to the application.

"Not allowing Wisconsin Electric to acquire the second 100 MW tranche of West Riverside would force the company to reconsider the schedule for retiring the Oak Creek units, potentially keeping them in operation longer, requiring additional capital investment, and leading to greater CO2 emissions," the application states.

Buying an additional share of West Riverside's capacity would cost We Energies customers millions less than buying the same amount of power from Alliant, the application states.

Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said his organization doesn't have a firm position on the proposed sale. However, he said, CUB plans to intervene in the case to try to ensure the sale is the best deal for all of the utilities' customers - making sure the purchases best fit the long-term needs of the buyers and also those of Alliant, which is expected to make additional investments in natural gas-powered generation in the future.

"The goal is always to have the most cost-effective portfolio, looking ahead for decades," he said.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: We Energies looks to double stake in Alliant's West Riverside natural gas plant
For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it currently lacks a track record of revenue and profit. Sometimes these stories can cloud the minds of investors, leading them to invest with their emotions rather than on the merit of good company fundamentals. While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else investors will move on and the company will wither away.

Despite being in the age of tech-stock blue-sky investing, many investors still adopt a more traditional strategy; buying shares in profitable companies like WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC). While this doesn't necessarily speak to whether it's undervalued, the profitability of the business is enough to warrant some appreciation - especially if its growing.

See our latest analysis for WiseTech Global

WiseTech Global's Earnings Per Share Are Growing

If a company can keep growing earnings per share (EPS) long enough, its share price should eventually follow. That makes EPS growth an attractive quality for any company. Over the last three years, WiseTech Global has grown EPS by 8.5% per year. That's a good rate of growth, if it can be sustained.

One way to double-check a company's growth is to look at how its revenue, and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins are changing. WiseTech Global maintained stable EBIT margins over the last year, all while growing revenue 29% to AU$817m. That's a real positive.

You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. For finer detail, click on the image.

ASX:WTC Earnings and Revenue History January 8th 2024

Of course the knack is to find stocks that have their best days in the future, not in the past. You could base your opinion on past performance, of course, but you may also want to check this interactive graph of professional analyst EPS forecasts for WiseTech Global.

Are WiseTech Global Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

Owing to the size of WiseTech Global, we wouldn't expect insiders to hold a significant proportion of the company. But we are reassured by the fact they have invested in the company. Indeed, they have a considerable amount of wealth invested in it, currently valued at AU$2.2b. Holders should find this level of insider commitment quite encouraging, since it would ensure that the leaders of the company would also experience their success, or failure, with the stock.

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While it's always good to see some strong conviction in the company from insiders through heavy investment, it's also important for shareholders to ask if management compensation policies are reasonable. Well, based on the CEO pay, you'd argue that they are indeed. For companies with market capitalisations over AU$12b, like WiseTech Global, the median CEO pay is around AU$6.2m.

The CEO of WiseTech Global only received AU$1.1m in total compensation for the year ending June 2023. First impressions seem to indicate a compensation policy that is favourable to shareholders. CEO remuneration levels are not the most important metric for investors, but when the pay is modest, that does support enhanced alignment between the CEO and the ordinary shareholders. It can also be a sign of a culture of integrity, in a broader sense.

Does WiseTech Global Deserve A Spot On Your Watchlist?

One important encouraging feature of WiseTech Global is that it is growing profits. Earnings growth might be the main attraction for WiseTech Global, but the fun does not stop there. Boasting both modest CEO pay and considerable insider ownership, you'd argue this one is worthy of the watchlist, at least. Another important measure of business quality not discussed here, is return on equity (ROE). Click on this link to see how WiseTech Global shapes up to industry peers, when it comes to ROE.

There's always the possibility of doing well buying stocks that are not growing earnings and do not have insiders buying shares. But for those who consider these important metrics, we encourage you to check out companies that do have those features. You can access a tailored list of Australian companies which have demonstrated growth backed by recent insider purchases.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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.
Key Insights

Ekovest Berhad's estimated fair value is RM0.65 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

Current share price of RM0.56 suggests Ekovest Berhad is potentially trading close to its fair value

The average premium for Ekovest Berhad's competitorsis currently 112%

Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Ekovest Berhad (KLSE:EKOVEST) as an investment opportunity by taking the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. This will be done using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. There's really not all that much to it, even though it might appear quite complex.

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

View our latest analysis for Ekovest Berhad

The Model

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. To start off with, we need to estimate the next ten years of cash flows. Seeing as no analyst estimates of free cash flow are available to us, we have extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the company's last reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today's value:

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10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF (MYR, Millions) RM185.0m RM221.7m RM254.9m RM284.4m RM310.4m RM333.5m RM354.5m RM373.9m RM392.2m RM409.8m Growth Rate Estimate Source Est @ 26.85% Est @ 19.86% Est @ 14.97% Est @ 11.54% Est @ 9.14% Est @ 7.47% Est @ 6.29% Est @ 5.47% Est @ 4.89% Est @ 4.49% Present Value (MYR, Millions) Discounted @ 17% RM158 RM161 RM158 RM151 RM140 RM129 RM117 RM105 RM94.1 RM83.9

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = RM1.3b

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (3.6%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 17%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = RM410m (1 + 3.6%)  (17% 3.6%) = RM3.1b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= RM3.1b ( 1 + 17%)10= RM637m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is RM1.9b. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of RM0.6, the company appears about fair value at a 15% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

KLSE:EKOVEST Discounted Cash Flow January 8th 2024

Important Assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Ekovest Berhad as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 17%, which is based on a levered beta of 2.000. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for Ekovest Berhad

Strength

No major strengths identified for EKOVEST.

Weakness

Interest payments on debt are not well covered.

Shareholders have been diluted in the past year.

Opportunity

Forecast to reduce losses next year.

Has sufficient cash runway for more than 3 years based on current free cash flows.

Current share price is below our estimate of fair value.

Threat

Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow.

Looking Ahead:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Ekovest Berhad, there are three fundamental factors you should consider:

Risks: For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Ekovest Berhad (1 is significant) you should be aware of. Future Earnings: How does EKOVEST's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Malaysian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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.
When a single insider purchases stock, it is typically not a major deal. However, when multiple insiders purchase stock, like in TPXimpact Holdings plc's (LON:TPX) instance, it's good news for shareholders.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

View our latest analysis for TPXimpact Holdings

TPXimpact Holdings Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The Group CFO Stephen Winters made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for UK47k worth of shares at a price of UK0.21 each. We do like to see buying, but this purchase was made at well below the current price of UK0.42. While it does suggest insiders consider the stock undervalued at lower prices, this transaction doesn't tell us much about what they think of current prices.

In the last twelve months TPXimpact Holdings insiders were buying shares, but not selling. They paid about UK0.26 on average. It is certainly positive to see that insiders have invested their own money in the company. However, we do note that they were buying at significantly lower prices than today's share price. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

AIM:TPX Insider Trading Volume January 8th 2024

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

TPXimpact Holdings Insiders Bought Stock Recently

It's good to see that TPXimpact Holdings insiders have made notable investments in the company's shares. Specifically, Group CFO Stephen Winters bought UK42k worth of shares in that time, and we didn't record any sales whatsoever. This could be interpreted as suggesting a positive outlook.

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Insider Ownership

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Insiders own 25% of TPXimpact Holdings shares, worth about UK9.5m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At TPXimpact Holdings Tell Us?

Insider purchases may have been minimal, in the last three months, but there was no selling at all. That said, the purchases were not large. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. Insiders do have a stake in TPXimpact Holdings and their transactions don't cause us concern. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. In terms of investment risks, we've identified 2 warning signs with TPXimpact Holdings and understanding these should be part of your investment process.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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.
Weather Alert

...Elevated Fire Danger Today and Tuesday... ...Hard Freeze Expected Tonight... The combination of very dry air and northwest winds gusting up to 20 mph will create an elevated risk of uncontrolled fire spread this afternoon. Relative humidity values will fall to 20 to 35%, with the lowest humidity levels over the Ozark Foothills of southeast Missouri. A more substantial fire danger is expected Tuesday, as southwest winds increase significantly, with gusts of 25 to 40 mph forecast Tuesday afternoon. Relative humidity values Tuesday afternoon will fall to 25 to 35%. If you are planning outdoor burning today and Tuesday, use extra caution and have fire suppression equipment ready. Tonight, very cold and dry surface high pressure will allow temperatures to drop into the middle and upper 20s throughout the region. Although the growing season has not officially started, tender vegetation could be impacted by these cold temperatures. Please take necessary actions to protect any tender vegetation tonight.
Nigar Hasanova

The Azerbaijani delegation will participate in a winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to be held in Strasbourg on January 22-26, Azernews reports.

At the opening of the session, the Assembly will elect its president and vice president. The agenda of the session will include recent developments in the Middle East, the situation of children in Ukraine, and allegations of systemic torture in Europe.

Debates on recent developments in the Middle East, including Hamas attack on Israel and Israels response, allegations of systemic torture in places of detention in Europe, and countering SLAPPs as an imperative for a democratic society will be among the highlights of the 2024 PACE Winter Session. A request has also been made for a debate under urgent procedure on the situation of children in Ukraine.

The Presidents of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, and Montenegro, Jakov Milatovi?, as well as the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein, Daniel Risch, will address the parliamentarians. Liechtensteins Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education, and Sport, Dominique Hasler, Chair of the Committee of Ministers, and Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pej?inovi? Buri? will present their communications to the Assembly and will take questions from members.

Also on the agenda are debates on globalisation in times of crises and war and the role of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) after the Russian  Ukrainian war, with the participation of OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, the theme of migration and asylum in the election campaign, and the prevention of child abuse in institutions in Europe.

The Assembly will adopt its final agenda at the opening of the Winter Session.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued multiple recalls last week, including more than 100,000 Ford trucks recalled for a rear axle issue that may cause an increased risk of crash.

Are you looking to see if any recalls were issued on your vehicle? If the car isn't listed below, owners can check USA TODAYs automotive recall database or search NHTSAs database for new recalls. The NHTSA website allows you to search for recalls based on your vehicle identification number or VIN.

Here is what to know about the vehicle recalls published by the NHTSA from Sunday, Dec. 31 to Monday, Jan. 8.

Ford F-150 recall for rear axle issue

Ford is recalling 112,965 of its 2021-2023 F-150 trucks equipped with the Trailer Tow Max Duty package and a 9.75-inch heavy duty axle with a 3/4 float axle design because the rear axle hub bolt may fatigue and break. That can result in damage to the axle hub splines. Damaged axle hub splines can result in a vehicle roll away when the vehicle is in park without the parking brake applied, or cause a loss of drive power. Both of these conditions can increase the risk of a crash, the company said in a NHTSA report.

The remedy is currently under development. Owners will be instructed to take their vehicle to a dealer for an interim repair if they experience symptoms related to rear axle bolt breakage, such as a clicking or rattling noise. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed Jan. 29, 2024. Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 23S65.

Recalled vehicles:

2021-2023 Ford F-150

Tesla recall in China: More than 1.6 million Tesla electric vehicles recalled in China for autopilot, lock issues

Hyundai recall

Hyundai is recalling 10,984 of its 2024 Kona SUVs because the 12-Volt battery cables may chafe against the engine control module bracket and short circuit during a crash, increasing the risk of an engine compartment fire, the company said in a NHTSA report.

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Dealers will install sheathing over the wiring, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed February 23, 2024. Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460. Hyundai's number for this recall is 252.

Recalled vehicles:

2024 Hyundai Kona

Rivian recall: Auto-hold or park may not work properly

Rivian is recalling 7,873 of its 2022 R1T and R1S vehicles because the accelerator pedal may not detect when the driver releases the pedal, failing to activate "auto-hold" or "park" as intended, which can increase the risk of a crash, the company said in a NHTSA report.

Rivian has released an over-the-air (OTA) software update. Rivian will also replace the accelerator pedals, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed February 16, 2024. Owners may contact Rivian customer service at 1-888-748-4261. Rivian's number for this recall is FSAM 1342.

Recalled vehicles:

2022 Rivian R1T

2022 Rivian R1S

A Rivian truck has multiple suspension heights to climb over large obstacles in Fargo Canyon near Indio, Calif., on Dec. 31, 2022.

BMW recall for pedestrian sound issue

BMW is recalling 4,926 of its 2024 i5 eDrive40 and i5 M60 sedans because during vehicle start-up, the artificial sound generator control unit may experience a fault and fail to generate the external pedestrian warning sound. That could increase the risk of injury of pedestrians, the company said in a NHTSA report.

Dealers will update the external artificial sound generator software, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed Feb. 13, 2024. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417. Note: This is an expansion of Recall 23V-026.

Recalled vehicles:

2024 BMW eDrive40

2024 BMW i5 M60

BMW motorcycle recall for headlight concern

BMW is recalling 2,369 of its 2021-2024 BMW R 18, R 18B, and R 18 Transcontinental motorcycles because the headlight low beam attachment points may break, shifting the reflector out of position, and provide insufficient illumination.

The remedy is currently under development. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed February 13, 2024. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.

Recalled vehicles:

2021-2024 BMW R 18

2021-2024 BMW R 18 B

2021-2024 BMW R 18 Transcontinental

Audi recall: Air bag fix

Just over 1,000 vehicles from various Audi models in the 2023 and 2024 model years have been recalled by Volkswagen Group of America for an issue involving the driver's side air bag. The device may not have been properly installed and do not comply with federal regulations, NHTSA said.

Dealers can inspect and reinstall the air bag for free. Notification letters are set to be mailed to owners on Feb. 16. Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Audi's number for this recall is 69GA.

Recalled vehicles:

2023-2024 Audi Q7

2023-2024 Audi Q8

2023-2024 Audi RS Q8

2024 Audi SQ7

2023-2024 Audi SQ8

Cake Motorcycles recall: Battery replacements

Cake Motorcycles is recalling 264 of its 2018-2023 Kalk INK&, Kalk& and Kalk :work motorcycles because the lithium-ion battery cells can fail while charging. A battery cell failure increases the risk of a fire, the company said in a report filed with NHTSA.

Cake will replace the battery pack, free of charge. As an interim action, owners will be instructed to check their battery serial number and if necessary, follow interim charging instructions until the remedy battery is available. Interim letters notifying owners of the safety risk are expected to be mailed Jan. 12, 2024. A second notice will be sent once the remedy becomes available, anticipated March 2024. Owners may contact Cake customer service at service@ridecake.com.

Recalled vehicles:

2018-2023 Cake Kalk

Cake Motorcycles's electric off-road Kalk INK motorcycle.

Ineos Grenadier recall for steering concern

Ineos is recalling 61 of its 2023-2024 Grenadier SUVs because non-locking nuts may have been mistakenly installed on the steering rod ball joint. Loose or missing nuts can result in the steering rod ball joint disconnecting from the steering knuckle, causing a loss of steering and increasing the risk of a crash, according to a NHTSA report.

Dealers will install locking steering rod ball joint nuts, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed Jan. 26, 2024. Owners may contact Ineos customer service at 1-919-296-3626.

Recalled vehicles:

2023-2024 Ineos Grenadier

Contributing: Emily DeLetter, USA TODAY

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Car recall check: Ford, Hyundai, BMW, Audi among 139,400 recalled
Last week, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) commemorated the 30th anniversary of its armed rebellion in the southernmost Mexican state of Chiapas. Despite the celebration with dance and music at its headquarters, the guerrilla group once glorified as a new beacon of hope by the prominent pseudo-lefts manifests all the symptoms of an approaching collapse.

Members of the EZLN during a National Indigenous Congress in 2017 [Photo by Mariana Osornio/Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

On January 1, 1994, about 3,000 Zapatistas armed with old rifles, machetes, and sticks took over ranches and a few towns in central Chiapas. Their commanders read out and distributed their First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, which proclaimed the goal of marching on Mexico City and deposing the federal government in order to win jobs, land, housing, food, healthcare, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice, and peace. Within a couple of days, however, the Zapatistas had been forced to retreat into the jungle and Chiapas highlands.

With the support of the Clinton administration, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari deployed 30,000-60,000 troops, fighter jets and helicopters that overwhelmed the guerrillas. The military resorted to indiscriminate bombings and summary executions, killing in total about 200 fighters and civilians. Global protests erupted against the onslaught, including a rally with over 100,000 that filled the Zocalo square in Mexico City, and Salinas declared a ceasefire on January 12.

Peace talks began the following month, with Zapatista spokesman and de facto leader Subcomandante Marcos declaring on TV the intention of to transform ourselves completely into a peaceful, civilian political force.. . He added: The seizure of power? No. Just something more difficult: a new world.

In 1996, the San Andres Accords were signed supposedly granting sovereignty to the Zapatistas over the municipalities they gained control of in the jungle, but reprisals continued. The most famous aggression was the 1997 massacre of 45 indigenous people, including children, at a church in Acteal, targeting a human rights group sympathetic to the EZLN.

In 2001, right-wing President Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN) invited the Zapatistas to Mexico City, where they were allowed to march undisturbed and give speeches in Congress. A demilitarization and an Indigenous Rights Act granting watered-down rights to governance and resource use were agreed upon, but only partially observed by Fox.

Nonetheless, the EZLN gradually set up an indigenous enclave in the jungles of Chiapas, which remained dependent on aid from NGOs and visitors.

A balance sheet

The Zapatista uprising was scheduled for January 1, 1994, to coincide with the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the US and Canada. During the previous decade, the elimination of subsidies, price floors and social programs, and other policies to open up Mexico to globalized capital threatened the livelihoods of laborers at plantations, along with the viability of small coffee, corn and bean farms in Chiapas.

A 1992 constitutional change allowing the sale of ejidos as a precondition for NAFTA was the last straw for the EZLN, which had succeeded in recruiting several hundred young peasant-laborers from the local Mayan communities.

The initial leaders were petty-bourgeois intellectuals who belonged to the National Liberation Front (FNL) guerrilla organization. In founding the EZLN in 1983, they decided to drop any mention of socialism and Marxism, instead peddling a mixed bag of Emiliano Zapatas radical agrarianism and conceptions of local self-government, the guerrilla tactics of Che Guevara, liberation theology, and identity politics.

Behind their petty-bourgeois radical and eclectic rhetoric, there were definite political aims. As the spigots of political support, money and weapons from Moscow and Havana were drying up and finally closed with the Stalinist dissolution of the USSR, the former guerrilla movements agreed to peace accordsthe 1986 Esquipulas Accord in Central America, the 1993 Oslo Accord between Israel and the PLO, among othersand turned themselves into bourgeois parties.

The Zapatistas never won a significant following among indigenous communities outside of a small region in Chiapas, and its greatest political impact was as a political prop for more established petty-bourgeois nationalist organizations in Europe, the US and Latin America.

Even within their territory, however, the experiment of local autonomy has nothing to show for it. Along with the rest of Chiapas, which remains the poorest state of Mexico, the EZLN communities have been dragged by the global capitalist crisis into the same storm of violence, repression, persistent deprivation and outward migration.

Last November, the EZLN announced the dissolution of its main political structures, the Rebel Autonomous Zapatista Municipalities and Councils of Good Governance, and the closing of its Caracol community centers to the outside public.

In a series of communiques, it announced that, except for existing private plots, Zapatista land will become non-property or common land which explicitly will not be ejidos, a traditional form of communal ownership of the land combined with individual use of a few hectares at a time. Instead, it will be open for cultivation by non-Zapatistas, including several hectares for national and international civil society. The plan is for so-called Local Autonomous Governments (GAL) to manage these properties.

Removing the empty tag lines, this is a plan to set up a political structure that will encourage outside investors and increase proceeds for the Zapatista leadership, which already taxes individuals and imposes a 10 percent tax of agricultural income of families, according to a leaked military report. Among other initiatives to reach out to non-Zapatistas, their plan can be summed up as, If you cant beat them, join them.

While itself a sign of economic and political bankruptcy, it is unclear whether the EZLN still controls any significant territory or if it will be able to hold on to it. Thousands of youth have migrated, unable to secure decent livelihoods. Locals interviewed recently by the media and researchers say that the shut down Zapatista bodies had been unable to renew generationally, that aid from outside has dried out and that few or no Zapatistas remain in numerous communities.

This dissipation has encouraged the encroachment by drug cartels, the military and paramilitary forces tied to the government and landowner organizations. Last year, the Frayba Human Rights Center reported that thousands of families have been displaced due to the violence, which has included dozens of attacks against Zapatistas, along with the burning of schools and crops. Frayba writes: These groups use exclusive army weapons and are uniformed.

The EZLN blames current Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) and his Morena party, which rules Chiapas, for letting violence get out of control. They claim the government seeks to justify military action to cleanse the southeast and finally be able to impose its mega-projects, in particular AMLOs multibillion-dollar tourist attraction Tren Maya that the Zapatistas oppose for its environmental impact.

El Pais reported leaked internal documents of the Mexican military showing an even greater surveillance of the EZLN than the drug cartels, with one military report from January 2020 discarding any danger to the Tren Maya project, concluding that the EZLN simply does not have the resources to oppose it.

The EZLN leadership however has responded by isolating itself further and making appeals to the same capitalist government to defend it. The organization discouraged outsiders from attending the anniversary celebration, stating, It is not safe.

A petty-bourgeois nationalist trap for the working class

The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), which publishes the WSWS, was alone in opposing the international pseudo-lefts glorification of this petty-bourgeois nationalist guerrilla movement.

In different documents at the time, the ICFI stressed that guerrillaism had resulted in far too many defeats and betrayals, disarming workers and paving the way for fascist military dictatorships. The infatuation with such movements by the 1990s had attained a deeply reactionary character.

Rather than providing a revolutionary road forward for the Mexican workers and oppressed peasantry, as stressed in a 1998 lecture by Bill Van Auken, the Zapatistas have been converted into another instrument for settling political accounts within the Mexican bourgeoisie.

In a piece on the march by the Zapatistas to Mexico City in 2000, the same author wrote:

Their program of cultural and ethnic autonomy fits in with the orientation of those who see the answer to intensified exploitation of the working class by globally mobile capitalism as a restoration of economic power to the national state.

By the late 1980s, the social austerity, privatizations and deregulation to better compete for this globalized capital had stripped the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which had ruled Mexico since 1929, of any reformist veneer from a bygone era. The politics of the EZLN presented no real threat to these policies; on the contrary, its vague calls for democratization, autonomy and against corruption were exploited by numerous right-wing capitalist politicians like Fox and even a section of the PRI.

Only a few months after its armed action, the EZLN welcomed with honors and endorsed Cuahtemoc Cardenas, the 1994 presidential candidate of the bourgeois Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), who had recently left the PRI to give a new left facade to the discredited capitalist state. The EZLN would later declare its support for the governments of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia and others in the so-called Pink Tide which had similar agendas.

Maria de Jesus Patricio, known as Marichuy, presidential candidate for the EZLN and National Indigenous Congress, 2017 [Photo by EneasMX/Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

In their last major political activity, in 2018, the Indigenous National Congress (CNI) and the EZLN selected Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez, known as Marichuy, as their presidential candidate, refusing to back AMLO. The campaign was aimed above all at reviving their own image on the basis of identity politics, claiming for instance that she is the poorest of the poorest for the sole fact of being a woman. Facing the anti-democratic obstacles known globally to smaller parties, the mostly student activists of the Marichuy campaign gathered only 282,000 signatures nationwide, less than a third of the ballot requirement. This was seen as yet another sign of political crisis of the Zapatistas.

Briefly a model for the New Left

The vicarious thrill of armed rebellion, the rejection of revolution and the emphasis on indigenous and female identities pressed all the right buttons for the layers of the so-called New Left across Europe and America that had been radicalized in significant measure by Castroism and other bourgeois nationalist movements.

This milieu had settled into middle class lifestyles and professional careers and, by 1991, overwhelmingly embraced the capitalist triumphalism declaring socialism dead after the Stalinist dissolution of the USSR. Supporting the Zapatista cause as a new model of struggle became a way to cast a radical light on their promotion of identity politics and embrace of post-modernism, which provided ideological tools to better advance their careers and justify their abandonment of any association with Marxism. In exchange, the EZLN leadership got wealthy patrons, at least for a few years.

Having claimed that Castroism demonstrated that a democratic revolution or even socialism and a workers state could be achieved without the building of a Marxist party in the working class, by the end of the century these layers had become hostile to any movement that could seriously upset the stock market and the series of US-led wars that today have metastasized into a global conflagration.

The EZLN became the most celebrated example of the radical democratic politics advocated by figures like Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Speaking for these ex-radical layers of the middle class, Laclau and Mouffe in their 1985 book Hegemony and Socialist Strategy advanced this as a form of post-Marxism without apologies that rejected any significant role for the working class in history, much less a revolutionary one.

However, the upper middle class continued to shift to the right and has now switched their red star Zapatista pins for AMLO hats.

The end of the infatuation with the EZLN was signaled by an article titled Why we loved the Zapatistas, which was one of the first contributions of the Democratic Socialist of Americas (DSA) Bhaskar Sunkaras to Jacobin magazine after its founding in 2011. Speaking for the same middle class pseudo-left milieu, he argued that we loved the Zapatistas because they were brave enough to make history after the end of historyreferring to Francis Fukuyamas phrase depicting the end of the USSR and because we were afraid of political power.

As demonstrated by trips last year to the region by Sunkara, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other leading members, the DSA has decided that they can better serve their interests by acting as de facto State Department envoys to the Pink Tide governments. A statement published last June condemning US media attacks against AMLO states: The DSA International Committee stands in solidarity with the working class of Mexico, the MORENA Party, and AMLO in its fourth transformation process.

Beyond the militarization now being employed against migrants and the partnership with the fascist paramilitary bands attacking their former Zapatista friends, a foremost aspect of the AMLO administration has been the enormous accumulation of wealth by the bourgeoisie. During the first two years of the pandemic, as the country saw 605,000 excess deaths, 21 percent of new wealth went to the top 1 percent, while the poorest 50 percent saw just 0.40 percent, according to Oxfam. AMLOs close ally, billionaire Carlos Slim nearly doubled his wealth to $105 billion since the pandemic began.

In a 1995 statement, the International Workers Bulletin, the predecessor of the WSWS, concluded:

The events in Mexico demonstrate once again that the only way forward for the working class in the oppressed countries is to unite with their class brothers and sisters in the imperialist centers in a common struggle for the overthrow of capitalist exploitation and the establishment of socialism.

This struggle requires the building of sections of the ICFI in Mexico and across Latin America on the basis of a careful assimilation of its historic fight against Pabloite revisionism and all petty-bourgeois nationalist opponents of Trotskyism. It is the continuity of this political struggle that explains why the IC was able to respond to the Zapatista rebellion with a correct, Marxist assessment that maintains all of its force and validity today.
Reporting teams from the World Socialist Web Site spoke with people protesting Israels war on Gaza at demonstrations on Saturday in Manchester and Leeds. These were part of around 50 protests across Britain.

Manchester

Wahida, a mother from Oldham, spoke to WSWS reporters at the demonstration in Manchesters St Peters Square.

I knew about the oppression of the Palestinian people years ago, but in those days there was no internet, or smart phones so it wasnt easy to join a group and protest. Its so shocking and painful and you dont know where to go. Now this has happened, Im not going to let it go until Palestine is free.

Wahida

Asked about the smear that opposing Zionism and the genocide is antisemitic, Wahida retorted, Thats a lie! Of course, you can criticise actions and countries for what theyre doing. Its so nice to see a Jewish protest, so obviously its nothing to do with Jews because Jews are with us.

On the Labour Partys support for Israels genocide, she said, Both the parties weve got now, I wouldnt vote for them. Were going to have to find someone else. I just hope that the power of the people, the voice of the people comes through. It is doing worldwide. The powers that be, the leaders, theyre not going to change their mind.

During the pandemic, Boris Johnson said about the old people, theyve all had a good innings, let them die, its disgusting. On the LBC interview [Labour Party leader Sir Keir] Starmer was asked is it right cutting off water and electricity in Gaza, and he said yes it is.

In one phone call, the American leader could stop the arms to Israel. This situation were in now, with Palestine being oppressed, its happening because somebody wants it to happen. Palestine is just the start, theyre going to go for the others after that. I didnt know until recently, theyve already got South Lebanon, the Golan heights that partly belongs to Syria, theyve got that. You learn so much on the internet. A greater Israel contains a lot of other Arab countries.

The West wanted a base in the Middle East and they got it. We need the leaders to cave into the pressure, but theyre just going for it more, saying their strength is unshakeable, our partnership is unshakeable with Israel, theyre giving them more arms.

My husband joined me on one march, and then he goes no, people lose their jobs, people are getting bullied at work. Ive got a son of 17, hes doing A levels, Ive told my son to be careful, you dont know who youre talking to in your peer groups. My friends are with me. But I dont have an employer over my head, so I dont have to worry. When you go on X [formerly Twitter] people ask you where you work, as a friend. Then they go and report you to your employer, to get you sacked.

Leeds

Around 500 people marched from the Leeds City Square, through the main shopping areas before returning to City Square for a rally.

Some of the protesters at the Leeds demonstration

Mariam said, I think the number of civilian casualties is really heartbreaking. This wasnt just over the last few months, everybody knows about it now.

I wish our government would listen to the people try to stand for justice. None of the major governments are in line with public opinion and its just an embarrassment really that these are the people who are leading our country and I agree change needs to happen.

How many more children have to die until they finally stopits a massacre. I also think that the escalation of war in other countries is concerning and when will it actually end. As well as those killed by bombs many are being killed through widespread disease, lack of healthcare and there are so many deaths that arent being recorded so the figures are even higher.

Shabnam brought a homemade placard reading, No money for the Poor, NHS and Homelessness!!!, Working Class Elderly and Children, Your Local Area.

She said, We have so many crises in the UK including homelessness, the elderly, cost of greed, over three thousand people sleeping rough daily and the government, instead of doing something about the crisis, are funding Israel. How do you justify supporting and funding a genocide, I didnt ask for that. I cant afford to make ends meet, why is my money going to kill kids? My anger and every single weekend the reason I come out is because the government needs to stop and the people need to unite. People need to wake up and realise what is happening. Its not just about us or the ethnic minorities.

Shabnam

Keir Starmers views on Palestine are beyond disgusting. If the working class unite we should be able to fight. Where is our money going when we are barely surviving? They just use people as currencypeople died in the most horrific way during COVID. The way the government handled everything, having parties while people were dying in hospitals. People died through killing themselves and Do Not Resuscitate policies, whilst the government were having cheese and wine. So people need to understand its all connected and when they unite they can achieve great things.

Jonathan said, This is textbook genocide, youve got to prove intent in action. In this particular case all the genocidal rhetoric thats coming out of the heads of the Israeli government it is very easy to prove intent. The action you can see, all the people that are being killed every day, the children, the parents are being blown to bits. So, in terms of proving that its genocide its a very simple case in my opinion. Im not an expert but Ive listened to experts who have put the case forward and theres no ambiguity. What annoys me personally is that everyone seems to think that history started on October 7. This started in 1948 when Israel took over Palestine, but people dont talk about that.

Jonathan

The propaganda thats coming out of the western media and Israeli sources everyone is focussing on October 7. A lot of the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] killed their own people. No one mentions that, they all want to blame Hamas. I have personally taken the time to research this genocide. It gives me a much better understanding and clarity whats going on. The one thing that I thought united us in the world was the protection and safety of children and I couldnt be more wrong. More than 12,000 children are dead. The death toll yesterday was 30,636 people killed, its unacceptable.

What makes it worse is our government is supporting it. A lot of people arent aware that [prime minister] Rishi Sunaks wifes father has got a company which has just made a deal with British Petroleum in the billions with Israel. They are all in bed together and not enough people know about this. America are sending billions to fund this war and look at their own economytheyve got an amphetamine epidemic in San Francisco, their own people are suffering . The money they have spent on war could support their own people. It breaks my heart. I agree society has to change.

All the people that have died cant be in vain. This needs to be a catalyst for change in my opinion.

Maarjan, a student said, Israels claim of self-defense is just being used as an excuse to wipe out and ethnically cleanse Palestinians. We really need to stop and just question ourselves and think, why are we believing these false claims of self-defense? In the West Bank, there's violence there against innocent civilians, where is Hamas there?

Maarjan

Innocent children are being killed. This is not collateral damage. This whole attack on Hamas is actually killing 20,000 plus civilians. How is that self-defense? It's just an excuse. It's clear that it's genocide, deliberate killing. It's capitalism. The genocide is being justified, by whatever means necessary.

America and the UK are equally responsible. We know Britain started this entire problem with the occupation. But also the Arab leaders, where are they? We've heard empty threats about what they're going to do to Israel, but we've seen no action, and they are just sitting back and watching this happen. The people who are in power are just siding with the enemies because they're afraid of losing power, afraid of losing money.

It feels like we're living in a dystopian society at this point. I mean, just the fact that there's been this genocide ongoing for months. Nobody has done anything to stop it.

Education worker Charlotte said, I just can't believe that it's still ongoing. I think that there is a plan; it's a plan that they've had for years. I read that their plans were set from 2015, maybe possibly even earlier.

Charlotte

Speaking up about it is so important, especially people who have children themselves. I just can't imagine not saying anything about something, so horrific. If you have a voice, and if you really care about humanity, then use it. I've been speaking out, but I'm not meant to speak out because of my job in education, but I'm not going to stop speaking out for something that I believe is right.

I feel people are being brainwashed by the media.

When 9/11 happened, we were in the primary school. They got us all into a hall and we had to watch the video on TV. And from that moment, we were drilled into the idea that Muslims and Islam is a terrorist culture. You have to speak up now especially.
Part of the Melbourne rally on January 7, 2023

Thousands of protesters turned out to rallies across Australia last weekend, opposing the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. This was the thirteenth consecutive week of marches since the bloodbath began in October last year and the first demonstrations of the new year.

In Melbourne around 5,000 people attended despite heavy rainfall. After gathering at the State Library of Victoria, they marched to Victoria Barracks, which is used as an administration centre for the Department of Defence. In Sydney around 5,000 attended at Hyde Park.

The protesters continued to call for an immediate ceasefire and demanded the Australian Labor government withdraw its support for Israel, including arms sales and cooperation with the Israeli military.

In Sydney the WSWS spoke to Mohamed, 41, who works in construction and regularly attends the rallies. Its completely against humanity. Its taking away people's human rights. It's blanket bombing, an absolute massacre and genocide at a mass scale. The western world is doing nothing about it. These people have lives, they have families. Even if you do blame Hamas, they are such a small percentage of this population. If there was one person in a building, they blow the entire building up. These people have been under siege for nearly two decades, so life for them was already horrendous.

Ive been speaking to people from Gaza who have just arrived here, with no help from the Australian government. Weve had to fund them ourselves. It cost nearly $100,000 to bring a family of five over with air flights, paying off the Egyptians at the Rafa border.

The first thing they said to me is, what youre seeing on the news is only scratching the surface, its hundreds of times worse. What comes out is only from a couple of dozen journalists in a population of more than two million people under siege and constant blockade.

The other thing they comment on is the lack of sleep. We dont even think about it but if you go without sleep for three days you start losing your ability to think clearly. These guys have gone three months, day in, day out, without getting even a partial nights sleep. At night theyre getting bombarded and during the day they must line up for hours to go to the toilet or go get water.

When you talk about sub-human, were talking about sub-animal, we get locked up in Australia for treating animals the way that the Gazans are getting treated at the moment. That just kills you from the inside if you have any sense of humanity.

The fact this is being blindly funded by western governments, who are giving them a blank cheque both monetarily and morally to do whatever they wish really does feel like the end times.

This isnt even hidden, its in plain sight, people getting massacred and Israeli politicians using words such as were going to turn Gaza into a parking lot, or they all leave. That kind of talk should have stopped with the Second World War. What happened to them is now happening to us. This isnt a Jewish thing, it is 100 percent Zionism thats the issue, and imperialism.

When asked about the danger of a broader war breaking out, Mohamed said, I really hope it doesnt happen, but I think its inevitable. Theyre pulling troops out of Gaza to go put them on the South Lebanese border and the Golan Heights. You have the bombings in Iran. The Americans are trying to get a coalition in the Red Sea. Theyre trying from every angle to get these countries all involved. The end game is whats scary.

Israels been there for 75 years, and Americas had some type of involvement in that area for decades and decades, so what more do they want? Theyve already got all the oil wells, the gas wells, agreements with a lot of the Gulf countries and, behind closed doors, probably Saudi Arabia as well.

At a higher level they want to get Russia and China. Americas been declining for many, many years and this is their way of weakening those two powers. This is probably their only footstep into that doorway.

When a WSWS reporter pointed out that Australia was a key US linchpin against China, Mohamed said, Thats scary for us as a developed nation thats never been in any of our own wars. This is where theyre pushing to and that might be one year away, that might be five years away, might be ten years away, but that's ultimately what theyre after. The only thing thats going to stop this are the people of those nations, its up to Australians and Americans to stop this from happening.

When asked what he thought about socialism, Mohamed said, anythings better than what we have now. Im not completely familiar with all the ins and outs but its definitely something that would interest me because whats happening now isnt working.

Aisha, a Macquarie University student majoring in international relations, said, Israels excuse for this genocide is they want to get hostages back and they want to eradicate Hamas, but this has been going on for so many years and theres still Hamas, so theyre doing something wrong. Its either that they cant fight Hamas, or they dont want to reveal what theyre planning, which is the genocide of the Palestinian people. They dont want to eradicate a threat against the Israeli community, they want to claim Palestinian land.

When asked about the danger of a war by the US against Russia and China, Aisha said, The US is trying to find any way to weaken Russia and Chinas allies so they can break their economy and the US can have the strongest economy. I dont just think theyre descending us into war, theyre also removing all the rights of the working class. If the working class keeps doing things like this [protests], thats how we regain our power.

Katrina, a pastry chef in Melbourne, told the WSWS, Im here because we have to stand up for the oppressed. The power we have as a person in Australia is to be on the street, to let our governments know that were in support of Palestine. The Australian governments support for what Israel is doing is disgusting, its absolutely disgraceful. I have been a Labor Party supporter because thats what my parents did, my grandfather was a senator, but I will never ever vote for them again. They have completely lost my support over this.

Asked why she thought the government was aligned so closely with Washington, Katrina said, Too much following America. America needs to go to war. They need to have war to keep their economic system going, because it is all based on militarism. And if they dont go to war, then their whole economy collapses.

Katrina supported the call for a workers blockade of ships exporting military equipment to Israel, and spoke about why she thought that had not happened. Our trade unions are pretty weak these days. Theyre nowhere near as powerful as they used to be, and Im disappointed that theyre not out here in bigger numbers, because when there is ever a WorkChoices or that sort of [industrial relations law] protest, were all out there. Im not a unionist, I havent got a union because my job doesnt have a good union, so I wont join, but I just think they have totally failed us.

This affects everybody. Dont just sit in your home in Australia and think, This doesnt affect me, because it does. It affects every single human being, because one day theyll come for you. One day theyll decide you dont have the right, and thats what it comes down to.
On Friday, wastewater data from Biobot Analytics and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) affirmed that the US has now reached its second-highest level of COVID-19 infections of the pandemic. It is anticipated that by midweek, rates of infections will reach 2 million per day with approximately one in 24 people infectious in the population, and up to 100 million Americans could be infected over the entire course of the wave.

Hospitalizations have been climbing fast since the beginning of November, up more than twofold at close to 35,000 COVID admissions for the week ending December 30, 2023, and approaching the highs seen last winter.

Deaths have also been trending upwards, having reached over 1,600 for the week ending December 9. Given the current rates of hospitalizations and the dominance of the JN.1 variant, which the CDC estimated Friday now accounts for 61.6 percent of all sequenced cases, one can assume fatalities will continue their upward trajectory through December and into January.

Dr. David Christopher, an Ohio emergency room doctor, recently warned on his social media, Its a total plague ward sh*tshow in most Emergency Departments right now. Dont believe me? Then ask anyone you know who works in one. If theyre being honest, willing to talk and arent too exhausted youll likely hear some horror stories. It hasnt been this bad since December 2021.

The same crisis conditions are happening throughout the Northern Hemisphere, including in Canada. Ontario-based senior scientist and epidemiologist Dr. Diego Bassani wrote, Third highest number of daily hospital admissions in Ontario since the pandemic started was reached on January 1, 2024, and school has not even resumed yet. Another very normal new year.

Mask mandates have once again been implemented at a number of hospital chains in the US and other countries, as COVID-19 and other respiratory pathogens are overwhelming health systems globally.

Amid the rapidly rising tide of COVID infections and hospitalizations in the US, Floridas reactionary anti-vaccine surgeon general, Harvard-trained Dr. Joseph Ladapo, has issued a call to halt the use of anti-COVID-19 mRNA vaccines across his state.

As a public health initiative, especially with the growing height of the current surge, this maneuver is criminally dangerous and politically motivated to garner the attention and approval of the fascistic right in the upcoming Iowa caucuses, where Governor Ron DeSantis trails former President Donald Trump. Ladapos call to stop vaccinations is akin to advocating the abandonment of safety belts while driving in dense traffic at high velocities.

Ladapo, employing tactics familiar from anti-vaccine organizations, pseudo-scientific reasoning and willful disinformation and omission, baselessly claims that the minute fragments of DNA that remain after the mRNA vaccine manufacturing process could somehow integrate themselves into ones DNA and potentially cause cancers, impact chromosomes and have unintended consequences for varied organs including the testes and ovaries, which could then transmit these health problems to offspring. All of this is total nonsense and blatant disinformation.

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo gestures as he speaks to supporters and members of the media before a bill signing by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Nov. 18, 2021, in Brandon, Fla. [AP Photo/Chris O'Meara]

The mass production of the lifesaving mRNA vaccines entails the use of bacterial DNA to amplify the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, which are then chemically released and cut into linear DNA pieces and converted into the necessary mRNA. Enzymes are then added to chop any remaining DNA into tiny harmless fragments.

Although other vaccines employ their own production methods, the use of cell cultures means DNA fragments are present in such treatments, including the COVID vaccines. Furthermore, the foods we eat and infections we catch with bacteria, fungi and viral pathogens means we are constantly exposed to DNA fragments from a variety of sources.

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, who also serves as an FDA advisory committee member for the COVID vaccines, explained that any vaccine grown in cells, including measles and chickenpox vaccines, will have traces of harmless DNA fragments. There are trace quantities of DNA (billionths to trillionths of a gram) per vaccine dose, which is utterly and completely harmless for several reasons.

Among these reasons, the first is that the DNA fragments would have to enter a cells cytoplasm, which hate foreign DNA and employ several molecular/immunological mechanisms to destroy these fragments. Unlikely to survive the cytoplasm, the DNA fragments would then have to cross the nuclear membrane into the nucleus where the DNA is stored, but this requires that they possess a nuclear access signal that such fragments do not possess.

Once inside the nucleus, the DNA fragments would have to insert themselves into the cells DNA, which implies they would need enzymes to cut the DNA, which they lack. If the DNA fragment was miraculously integrated, it would need to occur in the right area of the DNA where the oncogenes are affected. Once the DNA fragments hypothetically were incorporated into the cells genome at an oncogenic site, that cell would then have to undergo division and acquire new mutations to evolve into a cancer cell. However, before then, the immune system would recognize and destroy these cells before they developed into cancer.

The chances that mRNA vaccination would in any way affect an individual in the manner described above, Offit said, are zero.

The claim made by Ladapo and others of his mindset that the mRNA COVID vaccines harbor cancer-promoting Simian Virus 40 (SV40) in Pfizer vials is also a lie. Although SV40 promoter was discovered in the Pfizer vaccines, it is nothing like the full SV40 virus. Promoters are DNA sequences that help stimulate gene expression and are part of the tools in molecular biology kits.

Philip Buckhaults, director of the Cancer Genetics Lab at the University of South Carolina, explained to AP, Its just the volume knob that drives high level expression of anything out under its control The fear about the SV40 sequences is total nonsense. The vaccine is not going to cause cancer. There is no cancer-causing gene in the vaccine.

Alesandro Faia, a spokesperson for the EMA noted, There is no evidence to indicate the presence of SV40, a virus found in monkey kidneys that can potentially cause cancer in humans, in the formulation of COVID-19 vaccines.

Pfizer acknowledged that no monkey DNA was used in creating their inoculation, writing, The vaccine is a completely synthetic vaccine. There were preclinical animal challenge studies utilizing rhesus macaques; however, no part of our vaccine or studies utilized green monkeys. The claim that the vaccine included monkey DNA is inaccurate.

The fears being drummed up by Ladapo have a historical context. Between 1955 and 1963, about 30 percent of the polio vaccines given in the US were found to be contaminated with SV40. Monkey kidney cells had been used to produce those vaccines. However, the CDC in subsequent studies found no causal association between the contaminated polio vaccines and cancer development.

Three years after the initial rollout of the mRNA COVID vaccines, billions of doses have been administered across every country on the globe. They have proven not only quite effective in preventing severe disease and death from infection, but they have also shown themselves to be some of the safest vaccines ever conceived. More recently, studies indicate they help reduce the risk of developing Long COVID.

Additionally, multiple independent labs in Europe, US and even Australia have repeatedly analyzed batches of these mRNA COVID vaccines and have emphatically stated that they have found no safety concerns related to these residual fragments of DNA that have been identified.

As a spokesperson for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recently wrote to FactCheck.org, a nonprofit organization aimed at addressing deception and confusion in US politics by researching misinformation and hoaxes, [The agency] can confirm that we have not seen any reliable evidence of residual DNA exceeding approved safety levels [for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.] Nor is the EMA aware of scientific evidence showing that very small amounts of residual DNA that may be present in vaccine batches could integrate into the DNA of vaccinated individuals.

Professor of surgery Dr. David Gorski of Wayne State University, who is also managing editor of Science-Based Medicine, a site which addresses misinformation promoted in medicine, told the Washington Post, Ive never seen a state health authority parrot anti-vaccine disinformation as a justification for stopping the use of a vaccine that has saved so many lives before. The Republican Party has adopted anti-vaccine, anti-public health ideology of this sort as part of its belief system.

The promotion of anti-vaccine legislation as an official state public health policy is unprecedented and underscores the deep lurch to the right in every aspect of mainstream political life with untold consequences for the future.

At the same time, the policy of the Biden administration of simply ignoring the pandemic has resulted in a similar dead-end for the Democratic Party. As of mid-December, only 18 percent of American adults had taken the latest COVID booster shot. Precisely because profits must always be prioritized over life under capitalism, the policies of the Democrats give breathing space for dangerous quackery in science and the discouragement of rational thought.

The social and political dynamics of the pandemic have become ever more urgent, with revolutionary implications. To stop the pandemic requires the use of scientifically-grounded conceptions based on an international collaboration of scientists, public health departments, heath systems, and workers across all industries to address. It requires the deployment of all available public health measures, including vaccines, mass testing, contact tracing, and more, none of which will be implemented under capitalism.
President Joe Bidens speech last Friday in Pennsylvania was delivered on the eve of the third anniversary of the failed coup attempt by Donald Trump, the first time that any American president sought to overturn an election in which he was defeated. Biden described in some detail the violence of the attack on Capitol Hill and Trumps own role in summoning and inciting the mob that sought to block congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election.

But Bidens speech left out two central issues related to January 6: The role of the Democratic Party before, during and since the coup attempt, and the objective source of the mounting danger to American democracy.

In his speech, Biden indicted Trump for remaining silent for hours as the mob broke through police lines, stormed the Capitol and poured through its halls, sending US senators and members of the House of Representatives, as well as Vice President Mike Pence, fleeing for their lives.

As America was attacked from within, Donald Trump watched on TV in the private small dining room off the Oval Office, Biden said. The entire nation watched in horror. The whole world watched in disbelief. And Trump did nothing.

This begs the question: What was President-elect Joe Biden doing? He made no public denunciation of the attack on Capitol Hill. He sounded no alarms. He made no warning to the American people to be on their guard, let alone issue an appeal to the population to take action to defend their democratic rights. When he finally appeared on camera, it was, incredibly, to appeal to Trump, the chief coup plotter, to call off the mob which he had himself brought to Washington.

There is little doubt that Biden, a highly experienced state operative, spent those hours seeking to contact top officials in the military-intelligence apparatus, trying to determine the prospects of the coup. Only after he was assured the coup was failing did Biden come before the television cameras and urge Trump to send his supporters home.

This stance was in keeping with the conduct of the Democratic Party throughout the months leading up to January 6, 2021. Biden himself had said, during the summer of 2020, that his worst nightmare was Trump refusing to vacate the White House after an election defeat. But he expressed confidence that should that happen, the military would quickly remove the erstwhile commander-in-chief and escort him into retirement.

Throughout the fall campaign, Biden and the Democrats dismissed Trumps repeated threats that he would not accept an election defeat, claiming there was no danger from that quarter and the American people could look forward to another peaceful transfer of power. These reassurances were intensified during the months between the election and January 6, as Biden publicly mocked any suggestion that Trump was serious about remaining in power.

After January 6, operation cover-up began, with Biden moving rapidly to protect the Republican Party. Barely one day after the majority of congressional Republicans voted not to certify the presidential election result, effectively adopting the position of the rioters who had attacked the Capitol, Biden declared, We need a Republican Party. We need an opposition thats principled and strong.

This became a mantra not only for the Biden White House, but for the Democratic leadership in Congress. They wanted to prevent a collapse of the two-party system, a key bulwark of big business politics, which gives the capitalist class an effective political monopoly in America.

The various hearings into January 6 meandered on and off, in fits and starts. The investigation by the House Select Committee into the events of January 6 played a critical role in the cover-up of the role of state agencies in the coup attempt.

While valuable evidence was brought forward about the events leading up to January 6, the committee refused to examine the role of the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and other state agencies, even as reports surfaced of top generals blocking the dispatch of the National Guard to defend the Capitol. In its public hearings and final report, the committee portrayed the attack on the Capitol as an event for which Trump himself was personally responsible, but only Trumpa one-man coup. Biden echoed this narrative in his speech Friday.

He combined silence on the wider responsibility for the coup with silence on its deeper social causes. It is perfectly true, as Biden said in Fridays speech, that if Trump succeeds in returning to the White House as result of the 2024 election, he will revive his plans for dictatorship:

Trump plans to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploywhich hes not allowed to do in ordinary circumstancesallow him to deploy US military forces on the streets of America. He said it. He calls those who oppose him vermin. He talks about the blood of Americans being poisoned, echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany.

But Biden was silent on the most important question posed by this reality. How is it that a twice-impeached ex-president who sought to overthrow the Constitution is in a position to return to power?

The Democrats have certainly contributed to the revival of Trumps political fortunes by blocking any serious investigation into January 6. Trump should be in jail, not on the campaign trail, along with many high-level co-conspirators.

Bidens claim to make the defense of democracy the axis of his administration and his reelection campaign is a transparent lie. The central focus of his administration has been war, first the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, and now the genocidal Israeli onslaught on Gaza. Both wars, carried out in the interests of American imperialism, are being waged without any democratic mandate and in the face of growing popular opposition.

Biden, no less than Trump, is unalterably committed to the defense of the American ruling class and its worldwide interests. To carry on these wars, Biden requires the bipartisan support of the Republican Party, even as it prepares to nominate the fascist Trump in the 2024 election.

And as part of this war drive, Biden is continuing Trumps attacks on democracy, although with different rhetoric. Migrants are still jailed in camps and deported in the millions, but without gloating speeches from the White House. The wars in Ukraine and particularly in Gaza are accompanied by an assault on the right to dissent, now focused on college campuses, with bogus claims of fighting antisemitism.

In its New Years statement, published in four parts January 3-6, the WSWS International Editorial Board has provided a comprehensive analysis of the crisis and breakdown of capitalist democracy, which is taking place worldwide, not just in the United States.

The statement traces this collapse to the underlying social and economic roots: the increasing domination of society by a handful of giant financial institutions and the extreme social tensions generated by an unprecedented growth of social inequality, with a tiny handful of billionaires owning more wealth than the majority of the population. The statement explains that democratic rights are incompatible with the domination of society by a clique of capitalist oligarchs:

All talk about defending democracy and fighting fascism while ignoring the fundamental question of class and economic powerand, therefore, recognizing the necessity for the mobilization of the working class on a global scale for the overthrow of capitalismis cynical and politically impotent demagogy. The wealth of the billionaires must be expropriated and the gigantic corporations must be transformed, without compensation to the large shareholders, into publicly controlled utilities, run on the basis of social need, not private profit. The anti-democratic institutions and repressive organs of the capitalist state (the professional military, police and intelligence agencies) must be abolished and replaced by organizations of workers control and power, to establish a democratic and planned economy on a world scale.

Such a socialist program, the basis upon which democratic rights can be defended, can only be achieved through the independent political mobilization of the working class against both the Democrats and Republicans.
More than 300 British artists, curators, writers, designers and others have addressed an open letter to the Turner Contemporary, the contemporary arts space in Margate, Kent, demanding that the venue take a stand against the Israeli mass murder in Gaza. The group also includes musicians, actors, composers, teachers and educators, photographers and students.

The Turner Contemporary commemorates the association of English painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) with Margate. As its website explains, built on the site of the boarding house where the artist stayed during his visits to Margate, the gallery is inspired by the life and work of the celebrated artist, who found inspiration in the towns skies and light and believed in the power of art as an agent for change.

Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, Kent [Photo by DeFacto / CC BY 4.0

The letter of protest addressed to the Turner Contemporary refers to the the horrific dehumanisation of the Palestinian people, the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in the West Bank. It points out that hundreds of leading scholars, UN experts and the South African government have all either publicly warned about or accused Israel of mass murder.

The letter refers to the inconsistent position of the Turner Contemporary, which boasts on its website about its various progressive social and political positions. The gallery, for example, claims to be on a mission to protect the planet from the pressing environmental challenges it facesfrom pollution and habitat destruction to loss of biodiversity and resource depletion.

Furthermore, the institution insists that we are committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in all areas of our work. We stand in solidarity with the fight for racial justice and recognise the importance of being an anti-racist organisation. The Turner website goes on: We want to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for all, where everyone feels a sense of belonging and can experience the transformative power of art.

Despite all this hot air, as the open letter points out, the Turner Contemporary has failed to publicly denounce the genocide in Gaza, call for a permanent ceasefire or take a clear stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

The letter argues that as an international cultural institution which has for many years supported a diverse range of artists from around the world and exhibited a wide range of socially and politically engaged art, the Turner Contemporarys failure to speak out at this moment on an ongoing genocide is ethically inconsistent and untenable.

Brian Eno, 2017 [Photo by Jindrich Nosek / CC BY 4.0

It notes that the worsening humanitarian crisis, with victims of famine and disease now adding to the already unbelievable death toll, is extremely distressing for many in the arts community. Many of those who have worked with Turner Contemporary,

including both those from the local arts community and the global creative community have been very vocal in support of Palestine and feel strongly that Turner Contemporary needs to take responsibility for their position as an employer and supporter of the arts by making a clear statement in solidarity with the Palestinian people and offering its support as an institution at this time.

The open letter asserts that British institutions have a profound responsibility to address the injustice wrought upon the Palestinian people, given the UKs historical and ongoing complicity in Israels brutal regime of genocide, occupation and settler-colonialism. The Turner Contemporarys

voice and platform are powerful factors at this critical moment in our human history. Breaking your silence by speaking up now would be an important act of solidarity not only with the Palestinian people but with the countless artists and art workers who have done so while putting their livelihoods at risk in the censorious culture that has emerged around this crisis.

It concludes:

As cultural workers and audiences for art at Turner Contemporary, we ask the following: 1. Turner Contemporary makes an unequivocal statement in support of the Palestinian people 2. Turner Contemporary calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza 3. Turner Contemporary engages with local and national organisations to take positive action towards pushing for change and justice for Palestine

The open letter is signed by a number of Turner Contemporary staff members, both anonymous and self-identified. More than one hundred of the signatories describe themselves as artists, the largest single group. The two dozen writers include Charlie George, Amber Trentham, Rosa Woolf Ainley, Daniel York Loh, Jemma Desai, Raman Mundair, Pauline Goldsmith, Matthew Hill, Devjani Bodepudi and Sally OReilly.

Borders Behind, Adnan Joubran

Musicians Brian Eno, Adnan Joubran, Taru Dalmia, Oliver Izod, Steph Dickinson, Rena Minegishi and Said Anazoure added their signatures, along with curators Anne Duffau, Warren Harper, Sophie Williamson and Helen De Witt, filmmakers Miranda Pennell, Mania Akbari and Toral Dixit and actors Ruth Lass, Pauline Goldsmith and Freya Warsi.

British artists and actors in large numbers have continued to take a stand against the campaign of mass murder in Gaza, the joint effort of the Netanyahu fascist regime and the Biden White House.

In mid-October, more than 2,000 British filmmakers, actors, visual artists, playwrights, musicians, photographers, poets, authors, comedians, producers, curators, DJs, architects and designers signed an open letter asserting that Our governments are not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them.

More than a thousand British and Irish actors, writers, artists, directors, critics, musicians and playwrights added their names to a petition in November and December demanding that art institutions stop their censorship of pro-Palestinian artists and individuals in the cultural field who were seeking to defend the Palestinians from the Israeli genocide. Among the better known figures were actresses Olivia Colman, Harriet Walter, Juliet Stevenson, Nicola Coughlan and Aimee Lou Wood.

A large group of electronic music DJs and musicians in Britain signed an open letter in November speaking out against Israels brutal and ongoing attack on Gaza. The signatories indicated that they were troubled to see that most of Londons electronic music venues and collectives have been silent in response to Israels horrifying and ongoing violence against the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, with the financial and political support of Western states.

Early in the Israeli onslaught, 8,000 primarily British and US artists, writers and other cultural workers signed an open letter denouncing the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian population of Gaza and demanding an immediate ceasefire.
On Friday, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a legal challenge to a decision by the highest court of the state of Colorado barring former president Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot for the Republican primary election in the state.

Members of the Supreme Court sit for a group portrait following the addition of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Octobert 7, 2022. [AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite]

The decision by the Supreme Court to intervene in the case marks a further aggravation of the political and constitutional crisis in America. It is no exaggeration to state that at this point it is not clear whether the candidates nominated by each of Americas two establishment parties will appear on the ballot in every state. It is also unclear whether the loser will accept the result, or, for that matter, under what conditions the election will actually take place, if it takes place at all.

On December 19, citing Trumps violent effort to retain the office of president on January 6, 2021, having lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College vote in the November, 2020 election, Colorados Supreme Court barred Trump from appearing on the state ballot. The court based its decision on a constitutional provision from the Civil War era that prevents any individual who has served as an officer of the United States and has previously taken an oath to support the Constitution from holding office again if that person engaged in insurrection or rebellion.

This constitutional provision in question, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, has been largely dormant since the aftermath of the Civil War, at which time it was originally used to bar those who had supported the slaveholders Confederacy from holding office. It was invoked again in 1919, in the aftermath of the October Revolution in Russia, to bar Wisconsin socialist Victor L. Berger, representing a district in Milwaukee, from the federal House of Representatives. The resort to this provision now, more than a century later, points to the extremity of the crisis now convulsing the American political establishment.

The Colorado Supreme Court decision was followed a week later by a unilateral decision to remove Trump from the Maine ballot by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat. Meanwhile, state officials and courts in Michigan, New Hampshire and California have declined to remove Trump from the ballot. There are currently challenges to Trumps ballot access pending in various procedural configurations in at least a dozen states.

Republican officials aligned with Trump have responded to efforts to remove him from the ballot with provocative threats to retaliate by removing Democratic candidates from ballots in states they control, such as Texas and Florida.

Speaking in Iowa Friday, Ron DeSantis, the fascistic Florida governor and a candidate for the Republican nomination, suggested that Biden could be removed from the ballot in Florida for allegedly allowing an invasion of immigrants. You could make a casewere actually, Im actually looking at this in Florida now. Could we make a credible case that Biden, because of the invasion of eight million?

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at a town hall meeting in Eagle Pass, Texas, Monday, June 26, 2023. [AP Photo/Eric Gay]

Biden, the Democratic front runner, and Trump, the Republican front runner, are both massively unpopular. However, Trump is currently ahead of Biden in several national polls, with support for Biden dropping in part as a result of his role in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. A Morning Consult survey published Wednesday showed Trump with 42 percent of the vote, against 41 percent for Biden.

The Supreme Courts order accepting the appeal of the Colorado case on Friday is only a paragraph long and is unsigned. The order merely schedules the oral argument for February 8 and does not address any of the substantive issues in the case.

The briefs for Trump and his supporters are due January 18, the briefs in opposition are due January 31, and Trumps reply is due February 5. The Supreme Court usually decides the cases for each term by June, but this schedule suggests the case will be fast-tracked for a speedier decision.

Because the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal, the Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to a stay of its own decision, permitting Trump to appear on the Republican Party primary ballot in Colorado, at least while the case is pending.

The Colorado case, which is now titled Donald J. Trump v. Norma Anderson, et al. in the Supreme Court, started out on September 6, 2023 as a challenge by legal activists representing six Colorado voters to Trumps eligibility to appear on the ballot. This original lawsuit presented overwhelming factual evidence of Trumps role in the January 6, 2021 coup attempt, and argued on that basis that Trump should be disqualified as an insurrectionist under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

A judge from a lower Colorado court ruled initially that Trump could be legally categorized an insurrectionist in light of his role in the January 6 events, but ruled in favor of Trump on a technicality, finding that Section 3 did not apply because the phrase officer of the United States did not include the president. However, the Colorado Supreme Court, on appeal, overturned the lower court decision and found both that Trump was an insurrectionist and that he could be excluded from the ballot on that ground.

The US Supreme Court is currently in the grip of a far-right faction of the American ruling class, with three justices out of the nine having been appointed by Trump himself. This faction abolished the constitutional right to abortion last summer, paving the way for a massive rollback of democratic rights.

Under traditional principles of judicial ethics, the three justices appointed by Trump might be expected to recuse themselves from the Colorado case, in which Trump personally is a party, but so far none of the justices have given any indication that they intend to do so.

The Supreme Court is also currently in the midst of a historic corruption scandal implicating multiple justices. Justice Clarence Thomas, the most egregious by far, has been exposed as having received lavish gifts and favors from ultra-rich supporters, including far-right Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow, a collector of Nazi memorabilia.

Nevertheless, it is by no means clear which way the Supreme Court will rule in the Colorado case. One thing that is certain is that a decision either way will only intensify the political crisis in America.

A brief filed on behalf of the entire Republican Party in the Supreme Court called the case a constitutional crisis, national in scope, insisting that Trump be returned to the ballot.

Meanwhile, officials for the State of Colorado are arguing in the Supreme Court that Trumps intentionally mobilizing, inciting, and encouraging an armed mob to attack the United States Capitol on January 6 qualifies as engaging in insurrection.

In Trumps own legal filings, he compares his January 6 coup attempt with the Black Lives Matter movement, which he accuses of being violent, while he insists that he urged his own supporters to lay siege to the Capitol building peacefully and patriotically.

Trumps exclusion from the ballot in Colorado would result in a qualitative acceleration of the factional fragmentation of official American politics, with insurrectionist Republicans likely being excluded from the ballot in Democratic-controlled states and Republicans attempting to exclude Democrats in retaliation. This could produce an election so irregular that it would not be accepted as legitimate either within the United States or internationally.

However, a victory for Trump in the Supreme Court would be no less destabilizing. It would further embolden the most ferocious and fascistic layers that Trump has gathered around himself, in open defiance of American political norms.

At the same time, a decision in favor of Trump would be widely viewed as illegitimate, given that Trump did, in fact, engage in insurrection on January 6, 2021, if that phrase is to be assigned any legal meaning at all. His victory would be seen as the product of his having stacked the Supreme Court with his own corrupt political operatives, who ruled in his favor not based on the law but based on their own political loyalties.

In this January 6, 2021, file photo with the White House in the background, former President Donald Trump speaks at the "Save America" rally in Washington. Trump urged the right-wing mob, who he knew to be armed, to march to the Capitol and "fight like hell." [AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin]

As a result of the Biden administrations efforts to achieve bipartisan unity behind Washingtons imperialist military operations and plans in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, the leading Republican politicians and officials who supported Trumps January 6 coup attempt have been spared serious accountability or consequences. Those same Republicans now denounce the Biden administration in extremely violent language, and if given the opportunity are entirely capable of making a second and even more determined attempt to install Trump as a presidential dictator.

On the same day that the Supreme Court issued its decision to hear the appeal, Trump posted a series of messages to his Truth Social platform declaring himself second only to Jesus Christ, and claiming that God gave us Trump to lead the country and fight the Marxists.

The post read: God had to have somebody willing to go into the den of vipers, call out the fake news with their tongues as sharp as serpents, the poison of vipers is on their lips ... so God made Trump.
Forward Pharma A/S

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Forward Pharma A/S (Forward or the Company) today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a termination of the Deposit Agreement, dated October 14, 2014, among Forward Pharma A/S (Forward Pharma), the Depositary Bank of New York Mellon, and Owners and Holders of ADRs.



As a result, the existing ADR facility will be terminated effective at 5:00 PM (Eastern Time) on February 5, 2024.

Kindly see additional information at the website of the Depositary Bank of New York Mellon (https://www.adrbnymellon.com/files/ad1136444.pdf).

Forward Pharma A/S Investor Relations Contact:

Investor Relations

investors@forward-pharma.com




Malaysias ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition announced a cabinet reshuffle last month after more than a year in power. The changes are bound up with the governments agenda to tackle mounting government debt by pushing through major attacks on the social and economic conditions of workers and the poor.

Malaysian Minister of Finance II Amir Hamzah (left) with Director General of Valuation and Property Services Abdul Razak bin Yusak in mid-December 2023. [Photo: X/Twitter @MOFmalaysia ]

One of the key appointments on December 12 was that of Amir Hamzah Azizan to the position of second finance minister, overseeing government spending and the federal budget. At a press briefing announcing the cabinet changes, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who also serves as first finance minister, noted the focus is on the economy and not to be sidetracked by political pressures. In other words, Amir Hamzah, who is described as a technocrat, is to carry out the dictates of big business without even the pretense of accountability to the public.

Amir Hamzah is a relative political newcomer with extensive senior corporate experience. Between March 2021 until his newest appointment, he served as the CEO of the largest Malaysian pension fund, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). Previously he served at senior levels at the state-owned oil company, Petronas, as well as ten years at Royal Dutch Shell.

What concerns Anwar and the Malaysian ruling elite is rapidly increasing government debt, currently RM1.5 trillion ($US322 billion), which is approximately 80 percent of GDP. They fear this will inevitably lead to credit rating downgrades, unsustainable levels of interest repayments, an inability to refinance, and ultimately default, ushering in political turmoil and the threat of a social upheavals as happened in Sri Lanka in 2022.

The danger was underscored when Fitch Ratings re-affirmed its BBB+ credit rating on the Malaysian governments long-term debt on December 5, only a few notches above junk bond status. Fitch noted that one of the key risks that could lead to a credit rating downgrade was an increase in the government debt ratio over the medium term, for instance, due to insufficient fiscal consolidation [i.e. budget cuts].

This situation is made increasingly untenable due to debt being compounded by historically high budget deficits, thus necessitating more borrowing. The budget deficits for the three years 2021 to 2023 each exceeded RM90 billion ($US19 billion). The 2024 budget deficit is forecast to be RM85.4 billion ($US18.3 billion), which is still much higher than the pre-pandemic peak deficit of RM53.4 billion ($US11.5 billion) in 2018.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, centre with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, left, and other leaders at UMNO headquarters, Aug. 12, 2023. [AP Photo/Vincent Thian]

For Malaysia's ruling class, a major demand is to reduce government price subsidies, on which workers and the rural poor rely to partly offset cost-of-living increases related to food, utilities, and fuel. While subsidies for 2023 were expected to tally RM64 billion ($US13.7 billion), the revised estimate is approximately RM81 billion ($US17.4 billion), resulting in a further increase in the 2023 budget deficit.

The insistence that workers and the poor must foot the bill was spelled out by former United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) health minister, Khairy Jamaluddin. UMNO is a component part of Anwars coalition government. Khairy, who is the son-in-law of former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was a former UMNO youth leader and a contender for party leadership until his expulsion by UMNO President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in January 2023.

In a November 27 open letter, Khairy demanded that Anwar quickly arrest the drift and course correct by dropping deadwood in Cabinet and appoint a technically competent second minister of finance to drive tough reforms.

These tough reforms consist of cuts to government subsidies, cuts to public sector pensions and salaries, which currently absorb almost half of government revenue, and the reintroduction of the goods and services tax (GST). These measures would have a devastating impact on working people.

The Anwar coalition government is already moving in this direction. The 2024 budget tabled in mid-October included an increase in the services tax from 6 percent to 8 percent. However, in line with Khairys demands, other sections of the business elite have called for introducing the GST.

The GST was initially introduced by the UMNO government of former Prime Minister Najib Razak. To a large extent, this was to offset significant falls in oil dividend revenue from Petronas due to a crash in the global price of oil from July 2014.

Set at a rate of 6 percent on goods and services sold in Malaysia, the application of the GST was much broader than the current sales and service tax (SST), was widely despised and one of the reasons for the shock defeat of the UMNO government in the 2018 general election. In 2017, the GST contributed 18 percent of the governments revenue. One of the first acts of the first Pakatan Harapan government was to repeal the GST in mid-2018, replacing it with the SST on September 1, 2018.

The Pakatan Harapan government also floated the price of chicken on November 1, previously subsidised and capped at RM9.40 ($US2) per kilogram. It is estimated that this cost-cutting measure saves the government RM100 million ($US21.5 million) per month. The cost of chicken has already exceeded the former ceiling price, eroding the consumption of this primary protein by Malaysian workers.

Further cuts are in the pipeline. On November 27, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the government would introduce a targeted subsidy mechanism for petrol (referred to as RON95) in the second half of 2024. At present, RON95 is subsidised and sold at RM2.05 ($US0.44) per litre. It is estimated that without subsidies, RON95 would cost RM3.22 ($US0.69) per litre, a 29 percent increase that would disproportionately be felt by the working class who have to travel further for work.

Some of the other key cabinet changes that occurred on December 12 include a round-robin between three senior UMNO ministers. Specifically, UMNO deputy president Mohamad Hasan was moved from defence to foreign affairs, UMNO vice-president Khaled Nordin was moved from higher education to defence, while UMNO Supreme Council member Zambry Abdul Kadir was moved from foreign affairs to higher education.

At least one of these ministers, Khaled Nordin, expressed surprise at his reassignment. Behind the scenes, there is undoubtedly bitter infighting. Pakatan Harapan is an unstable alliance between Anwars Peoples Justice Party, the ethnic-Chinese Democratic Action Party, the Borneo-based Gabungan Parti Sarawak, the Islamist AMANAH party, and UMNO.

UMNO ruled Malaysia from 1956 until 2018 through a combination of electoral gerrymander and police-state repression, including against Anwar himself. It is now little more than an unstable parliamentary front, having fractured amid deep divisions and rivalry in the ruling class.

The current coalition was only cobbled together in the facing of declining economic conditions and growing popular discontent after the November 19, 2022 election failed to produce a parliamentary majority for any party.
Experts from the United Nations have called on the United States to halt what would be the nations first execution by nitrogen gas, warning that it could cause severe suffering and possibly be considered torture. The state of Alabama plans to put Kenneth Eugene Smith to death on January 25 using nitrogen hypoxia, or asphyxiation, by depriving the condemned prisoner of oxygen by having him breathe pure nitrogen gas.

Kenneth Eugene Smith [Photo: Alabama Department of Corrections]

In a joint statement issued January 3 in Geneva, Switzerland, four independent UN monitors accuse Alabama of a rush to utilize the experimental execution technique that could inflict grave suffering on Smith in violation of the International Convention against Torture, which the US ratified in 1994, and the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1988 without a vote.

We are concerned that nitrogen hypoxia would result in a painful and humiliating death, the experts write. They note that the execution method has never to date been used in an execution.

Smith, 58, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of Elizabeth Sennett, after being offered $1,000 to kill her by the victims husband, a pastor, who was seeking to receive an insurance payout. Despite an 11 to 1 vote by the trial jury to sentence Smith to life in prison, the judge overruled the jury and sentenced him to death. Alabama abolished judicial sentencing override in 2017, but the state has not applied this retroactively to those sentenced prior to this date.

If Alabama attempts to execute Smith it will be his second trip to the states execution chamber. He spent four hours on November 17, 2022, strapped to a gurney while the execution team repeatedly failed in its attempts to insert the intravenous line to inject lethal chemicals into his body.

According to an account published by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), an individual of unknown medical credentials repeatedly stabbed Smith in the collarbone area with a large needle while attempting to place a central IV line. Smith described experiencing sharp and intense pain. The effort was abandoned when it became clear that the team would not be able to kill Smith before the death warrant expired at midnight.

When guards came to remove him from the execution chamber, Smith was trembling, sweating, hyperventilating, dizzy, and could not lift his own arms to be handcuffed or walk unassisted, DPIC writes. Smith thus became one of a growing number of death row inmates who have lived after a failed execution attempt, discrediting any claims that lethal injection is a painless method of state killing.

Having already failed once at putting Smith to death, Alabama authorities are now planning to use a totally untested method for his upcoming execution. Although their plans have been shrouded in secrecy, according to the Associated Press, the execution will be carried out by placing a mask over the inmates nose and mouth, forcing him to breathe only nitrogen, depriving him of the oxygen needed for bodily functions and causing death.

There is no scientific evidence that proves this method will be painless. Despite this, Republican Trip Pittman, the owner of the Pittman Tractor Company, who sponsored the bill authorizing nitrogen gas executions as a state senator, claimed in an interview, I know in a pure nitrogen environment you pass out. It is instantaneous. You basically black out. There is no time for pain or anything else.

Contradicting these unfounded claims, Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, told the Alabama Reflector, This is death by asphyxiation. This is choking someone to death with gas. Why anyone would think that would be something pleasant or painless is really beyond my understanding.

The Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution, adopted in 1791 as part of the US Bill of Rights, reads, Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. The US Supreme Court has ruled that executions of the mentally impaired and those convicted for crimes committed as juveniles are unconstitutional but has consistently upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment itself.

Capital punishment has been outlawed in Western Europe and Canada. The US and Japan are the only two Group of Seven (G7) nations that have retained the death penalty. Japan did not carry out any executions in 2023, leaving the US as the only G7 member to carry out executions last year.

Lethal injection remains the most-used method of execution among the 27 US states that retain the death penalty, along with the US government and the US military. Electrocution, lethal gas, hanging and the firing squad remain on the books in some of these states, often as an alternative method if lethal injection is unavailable. States have scrambled to procure drugs to use in lethal injections after companies in Europe and domestically have refused to provide them for executions.

Large-scale gas chambers designed for mass killing were used by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, killing millions of Jews, the disabled, socialists and other opponents of the fascist regime. Gas inhalation for executions has only ever been used in the US and Lithuania. The first gas chamber execution in the US was in 1924, when Chinese national Gee Jon, 29, was put death in Nevada.

Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 after a brief hiatus, 11 of 1,582 executions have been carried out with hydrogen cyanide gas: Mississippi, 4; California, North Carolina and Arizona, 2 each; and Nevada, 1.

Walter LaGrand, 37, a German national, was the last person executed by gas in the US, on March 3, 1999, in Arizona. His brother Karl LaGrand, 35, was put to death by lethal injection in the state a week earlier. The two had been convicted and sentenced to death for a murder committed during a bank robbery.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder objected to the executions in a meeting with President Bill Clinton, expressing concern that neither brother had received consular assistance at the time of his arrest. Karl LaGrand had already been executed when Berlin filed suit in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop the older brothers execution.

The White House argued it was a matter for the State of Arizona. The Arizona Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended a 60-day reprieve to await the decision of the ICJ, but Arizona Governor Jan D. Hull ignored it and the execution proceeded.

A German political scientist wrote in a post on executedtoday.com in 2008:

Given a choice in their method of execution, both brothers tactically opted for the gas chamber to give the legal challenges to lethal gas a chance to save them. With those challenges foundering, both were offered a late switch to lethal injection in exchange for dropping [their] suit. Karl took the deal. Walter, as the New York Times put it, opted for the gas, with its resonance of the Holocaust for Germans. Before the executioner switched the lever to initiate a chemical reaction between cyanide pellets (KCN) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) the inmate was given his last words. Walter LaGrand said: To all my loved ones, I hope they find peace. To all of you here today, I forgive you and hope I can be forgiven in my next life. This dates gassing with hydrogen cyanide (HCN) took 18 minutes until the heart of Walter LaGrand stopped beating. While the execution took place witnesses left the room nauseated.
The number of journalists killed by Israel in Gaza grew to 109 on Sunday with a targeted drone strike on the car of Al Jazeera reporter Hamza al-Dahdouh, killing him alongside fellow journalist Mustafa Thuraya.

Hamza was the eldest son of the Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief, Wael al-Dahdouh, and the fifth member of al-Dahdouhs family to be killed in a series of deliberate and targeted murders by the criminal US-backed Israeli regime.

Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh holds the hand of his son Hamza, who also worked for Al Jazeera and who was killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. Dahdouh lost his wife, two other children and a grandson earlier in the war and was nearly killed himself in a separate Israeli war crime. [AP Photo/Hatem Ali]

Hamza was everything to me, the eldest boy, he was the soul of my soul, Dahdouh told Al Jazeera on Sunday. These are the tears of parting and loss, the tears of humanity.

In a statement published after hours of silence in the face of questions by reporters, the Israeli military confirmed that it deliberately targeted the journalists vehicle, referring to the murdered men as suspects.

The statement declared:

An Israeli military aircraft identified and struck a terrorist operative who was operating an aircraft that posed a threat to troops. We are aware of reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorists were also hit.

The third man in the car was Hazem Rajab, a photojournalist whose responsibilities include operating photographic drones. The group of journalists was in reality targeted for performing their professional obligations in what Israel officially designated a safe zone for civilians.

Speaking in Qatar on Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked whether the United States condemned the targeting of journalists by Israel.

Blinken refused to condemn either the murder of Hamza or Israels practice of deliberately killing journalists, instead shedding crocodile tears about what a tragedy his death was.

I am deeply, deeply sorry for the almost unimaginable loss suffered by your colleagues, Blinken said. I am a parent myself. I cant begin to imagine the horror that hes experienced not once, but twice. This is an unimaginable tragedy.

Blinken is a key enabler and supporter of Israels policy of massacring journalists. The United States has never condemned the practice and maintains its position that there are no red lines for what Israel is allowed to do. The United States has provided Israel with 10,000 tons of military equipment over the past three months, delivered by over 200 cargo planes.

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US military repeatedly targeted and killed Al Jazeera journalists. In a 2003 diary entry, UK Home Secretary David Blunkett urged UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to attack Al Jazeera journalists. Blunkett said that the UK should not rule out targeting journalists because they are attempting to win a propaganda battle on behalf of your enemy.

On October 25, Axios reported that Blinken asked the prime minister of Qatar to turn down the volume on Al Jazeeras coverage because it is full of anti-Israel incitement, and then bragged about it in a meeting.

However the Qatari government responded to Blinkens demand, Israel has been working to turn down the volume on Al Jazeeras coverage by systematically murdering Al Jazeera correspondents and their families in Gaza.

In October, Israel murdered the wife, two children and infant grandson of Wael al-Dahdouh in an airstrike on their home. In December, a drone strike injured Wael and killed his camera operator near Khan Younis.

In a gesture of heroism and resistance, al-Dahdouh continued to work the day after each attack.

In a statement, Al Jazeera condemned Sundays strike:

The assassination of Mustafa and Hamza, Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Al-Dahdohs son, while they were on their way to carry out their duty in the Gaza Strip reaffirms the need to take immediate necessary legal measures against the occupation forces to ensure that there is no impunity.

The statement continued:

The assassination of his son Hamza in January 2024 confirms without a doubt the Israeli forces determination to continue these brutal attacks against journalists and their families, aiming to discourage them from performing their mission, violating the principles of freedom of the press and undermining the right to life.

It concluded:

We urge the International Criminal Court, governments, human rights organizations, and the United Nations to hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes and demand an end to the targeting and killing of journalists.

The Committee to Protect Journalists called for an investigation into the killing. Sherif Mansour, Middle East and North Africa program coordinator at the Committee said in a statement:

The Al Dahdouh family and their journalist colleagues in Gaza are rewriting what it means to be a journalist today with immensely brave and never-before-seen sacrifices.

Agence-France Presse global news director Phil Chetwynd declared, We vigorously condemn all attacks against journalists doing their jobs and it is essential we have a clear explanation as to what happened.

On Friday, the Euro-Med Monitor reported that 30,676 Palestinians have been killed in Israel Defense Forces attacks since October 7, taking into account both those whose bodies have been identified and those who have been missing for more than two weeks, most buried under the rubble of demolished buildings.

To date, 1.9 million Palestinians have been internally displaced, amounting to 90 percent of the population of Gaza. Many have been forced to flee multiple times, and Israel has destroyed or damaged approximately 70 percent of Gazas civilian infrastructure.
It has now been a little over a month since the passing of comrade Helen. In many respects I still find it somewhat unbelievable that after working with her for nearly 50 years I will no longer have the opportunity to talk with her, to share political experiences, to hear her insightful comments. Above all, I will miss her deep concern for the development of the party, and particularly its cadre.

I first joined the Young Socialists and the Workers League in 1975, just a few months after the desertion of Tim Wohlforth, a founding member and leader of the Workers League. Living in New York at the time, I met Helen very shortly after joining. I had many discussions with her about the desertion of Wohlforth and the role of Pabloism and its followers adaptation to Stalinism.

Helen at a Young Socialists march in defense of the Washington Post pressmen, April 4, 1976. Paul Sherman is to the left speaking on the bullhorn.

I particularly remember a discussion we had one Saturday as we took a lunch break while selling the Bulletin on Utica Avenue in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. In that discussion she explained to me the betrayal of the LSSP in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, when it joined the bourgeois government in 1964.

She explained how serious this wasthe first time in history a party claiming to be Trotskyist joined a bourgeois government. This betrayal confirmed the struggle waged by the International Committee of the Fourth International against the Socialist Workers Partys (SWP) reunification with the Pabloites the year before.

Nine members of the SWP, including Tim Wohlforth, demanded a discussion within the SWP on how such a betrayal could take place, knowing that it would lead to their expulsion. Helen was extremely proud that our party was formed on such powerful revolutionary principles, which is why she said not a single member followed Wohlforth back into the SWP.

To Helen ours was a party of the great principles of internationalism and the central revolutionary role of the working class. She would explain that there was no reforming the capitalist system or hoping that bourgeois nationalist or Stalinist parties could be pressured to the left. She would often paraphrase Trotsky, stating that the crisis of mankind can be reduced to the crisis of revolutionary leadership of the working class, and it was to resolve that crisis of leadership that Helen dedicated her life.

These were the principles which drove our many discussions in those early years. While campaigning on high school campuses, she would explain that single issue protests which were promoted by the SWP against the Vietnam War were a trap for the students and kept them within the orbit of the Democratic Party.

I remember the report Helen gave to a Young Socialists regional committee meeting a few days after she read a brief piece in the New York Times reporting how a 16-year-old youth, Gary Tyler, was facing execution in Louisiana for a crime he did not commit.

Gary Tyler's mother, Juanita, speaks at the Young Socialists Fourth National Conference in Detroit, May, 1976. Paul Sherman, right, is on the platform next to Helen Halyard.

In the report, Helen explained that the frame-up of Gary Tyler was an attack on the entire working class, an example of capitalist justice. She said that we needed to oppose those who would try to limit this to an issue of southern racism and appeals to the Democrats to grant his freedom. Instead, Helen explained that this was authored by the Democrats, including Louisianas then-governor, Edwin Edwards. Garys case, she insisted, was an example to the whole working class of what the ruling class was prepared to do to maintain its power. Garys freedom would be won through the struggles to unite both black and white workers against capitalism.

Helen was extremely affected by the assassination of comrade Tom Henehan on the night of October 15, 1977, while he was supervising a Young Socialists dance in support of Gary Tyler. Tom and Helen had worked very closely together in building the Workers League.

But Toms assassination did not deter Helen from building the revolutionary party. In a discussion I had with her about two months afterwards, she stressed that the most decisive issue of our time was the building of a revolutionary leadership in the working class and that Toms murder was an attempt to prevent that from happening. Far from representing its strength, his murder represented the fear that the ruling class felt from the building of a revolutionary party.

In 1984, Helen was extremely proud to represent the party as its vice-presidential candidate alongside Ed Winn. This was the first time that the party was able to field candidates in a presidential race.

Ed Winn and Helen Halyard campaign for US president and vice president with Young Socialist members at Ford's Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan. To Ed Winn's left is YS leader Paul Sherman.

After five years of massive concessions and industrial layoffs, as well as the out-and-out union busting of the air traffic controllers, the Phelps Dodge copper miners and many others, the working class was looking for a way forward against the collaboration of the trade union apparatus with the Democratic Party.

Helen worked tirelessly during that campaign to expound the partys platform to workers. She was especially critical of the role played by Jesse Jackson in his bid for the Democratic nomination, explaining to countless workers and youth that Jackson was a safety valve to keep the anger of the working class tied to the Democratic Party.

Helen explained that his Operation Push was not a vehicle to end inequality, but a means of developing a black upper-middle class that would be used as a buffer against the working class.

Helen opposed all forms of identity politics that sought to divide the working class along racial, national, and ethnic lines. She understood, as she often wrote, that only through the unity of the working class could capitalism be destroyed, and war and inequality ended.

On the platform of the Workers League May Day meeting in Detroit, May 1, 1994. From left, Paul Sherman, Jerry White, Larry Porter, Barry Grey and Helen Halyard.

Helen was often sharp and unyielding when she detected an incorrect political position. The first, but I must say, not the only time I found myself on the receiving end of her criticism was when I was conducting the task of contacting other YS branch secretaries to discuss their progress and the distribution of the Young Socialist newspaper. In discussing means of increasing the circulation I proposed to one branch secretary that he organize a sale of the Young Socialist and call all their members and ask them to come out and help sell the paper.

As soon as I got off the call, Helen asked me if I thought we were part of the Catholic Charities asking for donations. She went on to explain that we dont ask for help because this is the fight of the working class. For Helen, the building of the revolutionary party was an objective necessity that workers had to take up. It was not something for liberal do-gooders, but a necessity that arose from the contradictions of capitalism.

On another occasion, I organized a walkout of just students at my high school to oppose budget cuts in the district. Afterwards, Helen was critical because such actions divided the students from the teachers and left the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) leadership off the hook. She explained that it was the responsibility of youth to turn to the working class and work to expose the reactionary role of the trade union bureaucracy.

Helen especially showed her strength during the struggle against the betrayal of Trotskyism by the renegades of the Workers Revolutionary PartyGerry Healy, Michael Banda and Cliff Slaughter. Their adaptation to Stalinism and the bourgeois-nationalist movements in the Middle East represented the greatest betrayal of the principled positions for which the Socialist Labour League had fought for decades, in particular in the major splits in the ICFI in 1953 and 1963.

For Helen, the building of an international revolutionary movement around common principles and ideals was the most important task a person could dedicate their life to.

I last saw Helen in December 2019. Unfortunately, the outbreak of the horrific COVID-19 pandemic prevented us from meeting again personally, although we of course continued to collaborate over the phone and in meetings.

At our last meeting in 2019, Helen gave me a copy of a biography of Frederick Douglass. I had at that time been reading a biography of John Brown. We discussed the political ideas and different tendencies within the abolitionist movement and how those ideas developed over decades and prepared mens minds for the Civil War. In our talk she compared the long period of reaction that preceded the Civil War to the period of reaction today, as we are again headed to massive revolutionary upheavals. She emphasized that our party was laying the foundations for that movement through the work of educating and developing cadre in the working class.

Helen understood that she was fighting for great ideas, that our party represents the only tendency in the working class that stands for internationalism, for socialism, for the complete physical and spiritual liberation of the working class and all of humanity from capitalism. She was hostile to all those who sought to keep the working class tied to reformism, identity politics and nationalism.

It is a pity that Helen will not see the triumph of the working class and socialism, but she was deeply confident of that triumph. Her ideas and work will live on in the party that she built and the cadre that she inspired.
Ukraine carried out another series of rocket strikes on the Russian city of Belgorod on Friday, resulting in at least two civilians with shrapnel injuries.

Fridays attack marked the seventh consecutive day that Ukraine had carried out strikes on Belgorod, which is located just 25 kilometers from the Ukraine border and is often characterized by Ukrainian nationalists as historic Ukrainian lands. The attacks have been described as indiscriminate by Russian authorities and have resulted in the deaths of a number of Russian civilians. A number of Belgorod residents have begun leaving the city due to the ongoing attacks.

On December 30, Ukraine carried out its largest attack to date on Belgorod, resulting in the deaths of at least 25 civilians who were celebrating the New Year at the citys main square. More than 100 were wounded and five of those killed were children, according to Belgorod authorities.

In response, Russia called an emergency UN Security Council meeting last Sunday, where the Russian ambassador to the UN Vasily Nabenzya called the strikes, a terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime against a civilian city.

In order to increase the number of casualties of the terrorist attack they used cluster munitions, Nabenzya claimed.

The strikes mark a significant escalation in the targeting of the Russian civilian population and attacks inside Russian territory by NATO-backed Ukraine. Already, the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has resulted in an estimated 400,000 Ukrainian military deaths and tens of thousands of Russian dead.

The Ukrainian government has yet to comment directly on the attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin has sworn the attacks would not go unpunished.

According to Russian media reports, the attacks were ordered personally by Zelensky and carried out by the head of Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR), Kiril Budanov, and the neo-Nazi Kraken regiment, which was formed by veterans of the better-known fascist Azov regiment. The Kraken regiment forms part of the HUR and thus operates separately from the regular Ukrainian Armed Forces.

This suggests that the attacks were likely carried out outside the command of the regular Ukrainian Armed Forces, led by General Valery Zaluzhnyi, who has been embroiled in a public conflict with Zelensky over the wars future direction. Zaluzhnyi publicly warned in November in the British Economist that the war was at a stalemate. His statements were quickly contradicted by Zelensky and his cabinet, who promptly canceled the upcoming 2024 presidential elections, in which Zaluzhnyi would have been his main rival.

On Friday, Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, appeared on Ukrainian television and claimed that Ukrainian special forces had carried out another raid in the Belgorod region and injured a rather iconic person within the Russian military. Budanov, who was reportedly favored as Zelenskys pick to replace former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, is clearly being empowered by Zelensky to carry out an adventurist military campaign.

Over the past year, Budanovs military intelligence service has been central to a series of drone attacks, including on Moscow and the Kremlin, and incursions into Russian territory that have been spearheaded by fascist forces. A year ago, a picture circulated of Budanov in his office with a map of Russia, carved up between different powers, behind his desk.

The United States and the European imperialist powers have defended the attacks despite the civilian casualties. British envoy Thomas Phipps cynically blamed Moscow for all civilian deaths as a result of the war.

There are hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. There is not a single Ukrainian soldier in Russia. If Russia wants someone to blame for the deaths of Russians in this war, it should start with President Putin, Phipps said.

As the 30,000 dead civilians in the Gaza genocideand the millions of dead in the US wars in the Middle Eastdemonstrate, Western imperialism has no qualms about indiscriminate mass murder as long as it serves their interests. According to the UN, more than 10,000 civilians, including more than 560 children, have been killed and over 18,500 have been injured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

While Russian attacks against Ukrainian cities that have resulted in civilian casualties are quickly picked up as headline news in Western media and condemned as war crimes, not a word is said against the Israeli government slaughter of over three times as many civilians within just three months, carried out with weapons supplied by the US.

After the disastrous failure of the NATO-orchestrated counteroffensive in 2023 and the deaths of over 125,000 Ukrainian soldiers in just a few months time with no territorial gains, the Zelensky government is now clearly resorting to provocative attacks on both military and civilian targets in order to elicit a stronger Russian response and in turn maintain imperialist backing for the war.

Already, the logic of the war, which de facto is waged between NATO and Russia, is extending well beyond Ukraine. On Friday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded to the increasing volley of missile attacks by Russia with unsubstantiated claims, suggesting that Russia was now using missiles and ballistic launchers supplied by North Korea.

The most effective response to Russias horrific violence against the Ukrainian people is to continue to provide Ukraine with vital air defense capabilities and other types of military equipment, Kirby said. Iran and the DPRK [North Korea] are standing with Russia. Ukrainians deserve to know that the American people and this government will continue to stand with them, Kirby added, indicating that the Ukraine war is being viewed as a precursor to a much larger world war by the American ruling class.

While provocatively striking inside Russia, the Ukrainian government is also doubling down on its efforts to mobilize yet another half-million Ukrainians for the continuation of the war.

With a reported death toll of at least 400,000, Ukraine is in dire need of both soldiers and ammunition. Prior to the Christmas holiday, Zelensky announced that the Ukrainian military would conscript 500,000 soldiers to continue the war and later submitted a draft law to parliament to take up the issue.

According to Ukrainian news outlet New Voice, General Zaluzhnyi told Ukrainian parliament during a meeting of the National Security Council, I need people. The Russians have already called up 400,000 and are preparing several hundred thousand more. And who do I have? Zaluzhnyi added, There will be 80 days of training for each person mobilized. But give me people,

The Ukrainian media is reporting that the mobilization has effectively begun. Viktor Yahun, a leading figure in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which has played the central role in cracking down on political opposition to the war and the Zelensky regime, told Espresso TV that mobilization must be total and that had to be a total check of who and where everyone is. If a person has not passed the military medical commission and has not provided documents proving that he or she is working for the defense, not the economy, all the rest are excuses.

Yahun then demanded that those who refuse to serve in the armed forces be deprived of their citizenship: I would deprive of citizenship those people who say they do not want to fight. If you dont want to fulfill your duties, then what rights can you have?
In an interview published in the New York Times on January 3, the former top lawyer for the D.C. National Guard, Col. Earl Matthews, accused Army officials of retaliating against him for exposing the role of pro-Trump generals in standing down National Guard troops as far-right militia forces and other fascists stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Col. Earl G. Matthews, government official and attorney in the Department of the Army during the Trump administration

In a 37-page whistleblower reprisal complaint filed with the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General on October 20, 2023, but publicly released only last week, Col. Matthews accused responsible management officials, or RMOs, associated with the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania of retaliating against him for refuting lying congressional testimony submitted by Lieutenant General Walter E. Piatt and General Charles A. Flynn to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in June 2021.

In the complaint, Matthews asserts that the RMOs refused to consider him for promotion despite glowing recommendations from his superior officers. He further charges that they engineered a baseless investigation against him last February that resulted in his being kicked out of the Army War College and escorted from a hotel by military police.



Its textbook whistle-blower retaliation, Matthews told the Times. In the whistle-blower complaint, Matthews lawyers accuse the RMOs, including civilian and military officials, of falsely accusing [Matthews] of misconduct and/or unprofessional behavior, and refusing to slate (i.e., consider) him for duty assignments or promotions for which he is qualified.



The complaint alleges that on February 4, 2023, while Matthews was participating in a Senior Leader Development Seminar (SLDS) for Army generals at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, Colonel Cary Metz informed Matthews that a report had been submitted accusing him of either assaulting or threatening an Army Reserve general officer. The allegation was later changed to the claim that Matthews invaded the personal space of a general and refused to leave when asked.



Within 10 minutes of Metz notifying Matthews of the complaint, hotel security and military police came to Matthews room and escorted him out of the building.

Twelve days after being kicked out of the course, on February 16, Matthews drafted a memorandum for record about the incident, which he circulated to senior military and civilian officials inside and outside the Army War College.



On February 27, Maj. Gen. David Hill, commandant of the Army War College, appointed Col. Orlando Ortega to investigate Matthews dismissal from the course and forceful removal from the hotel. The investigation cleared Matthews of any wrongdoing and found no evidence that he was threatening, disrespectful or discourteous to any general.



In the course of the investigation, the director of the Senior Leadership Development Seminar (SLDS), Daniel Pinnell, was interviewed. Pinnell said that Col. Betty Cummiskey had brought the allegation of misconduct by Matthews to his attention. According to Matthews complaint, Cummiskey declined to be interviewed or to provide a sworn statement in the course of the investigation into Matthews alleged misconduct.



Even though Cummiskey did not provide a statement, Pinnell backed her allegation based on Matthews alleged unprofessional actions during and following SLDS, and his widely publicized attacks on Army senior leaders in relation to the January 6 insurrection.



Pinnell added that it would be improper to continue [Matthews] service as a USAWC DIMA (United States Army War College Drilling Individual Mobilization Augmentee).



By widely publicized attacks, Pinnell was referring to a December 2021 memorandum written by Matthews, with input from other National Guard officers. In the memo, Matthews accused Generals Piatt and Flynn of consistently and repeatedly misrepresenting and misleading the House Oversight Committee regarding the response of the National Guard during the attack on Congress. Matthews characterized the testimony offered by Flynn and Piatt as that of absolute and unmitigated liars.

Indonesian Armed Forces Chief Gen. Andika Perkasa, left, and Gen. Charles Flynn, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, center, inspect soldiers during the opening ceremony for annual joint combat exercises in Baturaja, South Sumatra province. [AP Photo]

I wrote that memo because I saw real wrongdoing, Matthews told the Times. In an interview with CNN last Friday, Matthews reiterated: Almost every word that General Piatt and General Flynn stated in that [congressional] testimony is inaccurate and untruthful. And Im a lawyer, Im telling you, almost every word they uttered in that testimony is inaccurate and untruthful.



In addition to contradicting the generals testimony, Matthews has, in protected communications submitted to Congress, accused the generals of lying to the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General in that offices investigation of the coup.



Matthews also publicly challenged a misleading, factually flawed, and revisionist recitation of the January 6 events authored by Gen. Piatt and titled Report of Operations of the United States Army. Matthews asserted that this report was created solely to improperly absolve certain Army senior leaders, including Piatt himself, of any responsibility for the delay of the D.C. National Guard on January 6.

Ex-President Donald Trump and Maj. Gen. Walter Piatt view air assault exercises outside Hangar 2060 at Fort Drum, N.Y., Aug. 13, 2018. [AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster]

Matthews is still in the US Army Reserve and also is the general counsel, corporate secretary and chief administrative officer for defense contractor Albers Aerospace. He was a political appointee in the Trump administration through November 2019. From 2022 to 2023 he served on Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkins Commission to Combat Antisemitism.



On January 6, 2021 Matthews was the executive officer for then-D.C. National Guard Commander Maj. Gen. William Walker. Walker, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee have all publicly accused Pentagon generals of refusing to authorize the deployment of soldiers to assist overwhelmed police during the fascist siege of the Capitol.

Matthews, Walker, Contee and Sund have all submitted testimony to Congress that they heard Generals Piatt and/or Flynn cite the negative optics of Guard soldiers deploying to the Capitol. This bogus justification was given during a phone conference that began at 2:30 p.m. on January 6, well after Trump supporters had breached Capitol police lines.

In testimony before Congress, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund holds up a memo issued by then-acting Secretary of Defense Miller that disarmed National Guard troops and forbade them from deploying to the Capitol. [Photo: C-SPAN.org]

Despite the public testimony of the police chiefs and National Guard officers, the House January 6 Select Committee refused to hold a public hearing on the Pentagon stand-down, relegating the issue to an appendix in its 800-plus-page Final Report. That report whitewashed the Republican Party and elements within the judiciary and the police-military-intelligence apparatus for aiding Trumps coup.



The refusal of Pentagon generals to deploy National Guard troops to the Capitol for nearly four hours, while authorizing security teams to protect their own personal residences, is a testament to the widespread support Trumps coup had within the police-military apparatus. The victimization of Col. Matthews for speaking out against generals who aided Trumps attempted coup demonstrates the continuing support for the fascist Trump within the US military only 10 months before the 2024 presidential election.




Ongoing global protests over the Christmas-New Year period against the US-backed Israeli mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing in Gaza have again highlighted the isolation of ruling elites everywhere from the worlds population. Alongside the million-strong protests in the worlds capital cities, those in the remote Pacific islands testify to the vast international solidarity that has emerged.

Protesters in Samoa oppose Gaza genocide and call for total and permanent ceasefire on December 6, 2023. [Photo: @samoa4ceasefire]

Nic Maclellan, correspondent for the Fiji-based Islands Business magazine, last week posted on X (Twitter) a round-up of pro-Palestine activities in Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, New Caledonia, Micronesia, Saipan and Guam.

Protests took place in opposition to the pro-US/Israel positions of authoritarian island governments and powerful local churches. On 27 October, the UN General Assembly voted on a motion calling for an immediate, durable and sustainable humanitarian truce in Gaza. The resolution passed with 121 in favour versus just 14 against, including Israel and the US. Another 44 countries abstained and 14 did not vote at all.

The Pacific Islands had more opponents than any other region, with Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Tonga all voting against. Only the Solomon Islands voted in favour; the remaining Pacific Island states either abstained (Kiribati, Palau, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu) or did not vote (Samoa).

The tiny Pacific states are facing escalating imperialist bullying as Washington and its local allies, Australia and New Zealand, ratchet up diplomatic, economic and military pressure to join region-wide US-led preparations for war with China.

Of those island states which lined up to support the No vote, Nauru, Marshall Islands and Micronesia are impoverished micro-states. The latter two plus Palau, which abstained, function as subservient colonies of the United States in all but name under so-called Compacts of Free Association with Washington.

The two states with the regions largest populations that aligned with Washington and Tel AvivPNG and Fijioccupy highly significant geo-strategic locations and have signed major security agreements with Washington and Canberra to counter China. Last September, PNG Prime Minister James Marape followed the US in moving the countrys embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, funded by the Netanyahu government.

The developing protests in defence of the Palestinians, regardless of their relatively small size on the international stage, represent a determined stand by Pacific peoples against significant imperialist pressure exerted by local governments. The list of actions reported by Maclellan includes:

After Fiji condemned Hamas in the wake of 7 October and voted No in the UNGA resolution, citizen groups were soon calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to hostilities. Fijis NGO Coalition on Human Rights sharply criticised the government of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (a former coup leader) in an Open Letter in Solidarity with the Palestinian People and other newspaper advertisements. Fiji Womens Rights Movement, Fiji Womens Crisis Centre and other groups have held regular Thursday in Black protests.

Following the significant blowback, some senior government ministers, including Rabukas deputy prime minister and home affairs minister, opposed the No vote and Fiji switched its vote to Yes in the second UNGA resolution on 12 December.

Samoa did not vote on the first UNGA ceasefire resolution. In response, a Samoans for Ceasefire group was formed, organising rallies and collecting signatures on a petition for an immediate ceasefire. After a campaign calling on the Samoan government to use its influence and advocate for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine, Samoa also switched to vote Yes in the second UNGA resolution.

In the Cook Islands, the Pacific Islands Forum summit last November which involved 18 member countries and observers from the US and elsewhere, saw locals rally outside the venue, calling on Pacific leaders to condemn the killing of displaced Palestinians and Gods innocent children in Gaza. Israel, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine have all lobbied for official Forum Dialogue Partner status, seeking to influence UNGA votes.

In New Caledonia, the USTKE trade union federation organised rallies in the capital Noumea calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the occupied territories. Coinciding with a Pacific Defence Ministers meeting hosted by France in December, 1,500 protesters also marched to denounce the remilitarisation of New Caledonia by the French government.

In Micronesia, there are also calls for a ceasefire and an end to the massacre of women and children in the Occupied Territories and Gaza. Poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner wrote an opinion piece for the Marshall Islands Journal, criticising its UNGA vote against the ceasefire and arguing that Marshall Islands needs to update its foreign policy on Israel and stand against genocide.

A Marianas for Palestine group has called rallies on Saipan, urging leaders to call for protection of civilians and non-combatants in Gaza. If theres a war out there, its intimately connected to the way that the militarisation out here is happening, the group noted.

In the US Pacific territory of Guam, which houses vast US military bases targeting China, local resident groups have rallied for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the Gaza blockade, an increase in humanitarian aid, and cessation of US funding for Israels war.

In Papua New Guinea, the governments decision to shift the embassy to Jerusalem was criticised by the PNG opposition, civil society groups, as well as Palestinian Authority officials and Hamas.

Israel has for many years sought to build diplomatic, economic and religious influence among Pacific nations in order to maintain a reliable voting base in the UN. Last August, Jerusalem Post opinion writer Avi Kumar declared that the Pacific Island states have the best record of voting in staunch favour of Israel at the United Nations.

This is buttressed by pressure wielded by the powerful churches. When the PNG embassy moved to Jerusalem, Marape used this to declare: For us to call ourselves Christian, paying respect to God will not be complete without recognizing that Jerusalem is the universal capital of the people and the nation of Israel. In the early stages of the war in Gaza, more than 600 religious pilgrims from the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga were stranded in Israel during the Feast of Tabernacles and later repatriated on special flights.

The unprecedented wave of protests in the Pacific are small in global terms and limited in scope, largely oriented to appeals to governments over the UNGA vote, which itself committed those countries voting in favour to nothing. Nevertheless, the emergence of broadening opposition to the genocide in Gaza is a significant development for impoverished and oppressed Pacific peoples, who are beginning to stand in opposition to war abroad and political and social oppression at home.
MIAMI & MONT-SAINT-GUIBERT, Belgium, January 08, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--oGabi SmartCare today announced the FDA certification of its digital pediatric solutions. The Belgian medtech start-up will launch the marketing of its connected bracelet specially designed for children aged 0 to 12 and its digital platform in the 2nd quarter of 2024 in the United States. Gabi SmartCare, which has recently signed collaborations with more than 30 American hospitals, aims to become a leader in digital pediatric healthcare.

Gabi SmartCare offers out-of-hospital medical monitoring of newborns and children thanks to its miniaturized monitoring bracelet and digital platform accessible to doctors.

Founded in 2017 and based in Miami (FL) and Belgium, the company is pleased to announce that it has been granted medical certification and permission to market its solutions by the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the drugs and medical certification in the United States. This certification authorizes Gabi SmartCare to market its full solution, i.e. its connected bracelet, the monitoring of a child's vital parameters as well as its analytical platform, Gabi Analytics, which enables doctors to track a patient's state of health in real time and facilitates remote diagnosis.

Gabi SmartCare's solutions meet a number of key needs: firstly, a credible technological solution that enables better diagnosis and medical monitoring of children; less hospitalization, fewer risks of readmission and continuity of care after hospitalization; greater comfort for patients and their families; and a significant reduction in healthcare costs for both families and the healthcare system as a whole.

For Jonathan Baut, CEO of Gabi SmartCare, "FDA certification of our solutions is the gateway to market our solution in the medical sector. It gives us access to our first high value-added market, the 'hospital at home', where we already have strong traction. We are the only digital pediatric solution that enables home monitoring with remote follow-up, and we want to become the leader in this field."

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In October 2023, Gabi SmartCare entered into a partnership with more than 30 hospitals in the United States. 28 of these collaborations involve monitoring children exposed to substances and other environmental, social and biological factors during pregnancy and after birth, in order to study the impact on infant and child development. The medtech start-up has also launched collaborations with 5 other renowned pediatric hospitals, including Children's Mercy (Kansas City) and Columbia University Medical Center (New York).

David Kalfa, Associate Professor of Surgery, Columbia University Irving Medical Center : "1% of newborns are suffering from congenital heart diseases every year and must go through one or several surgeries, sometimes from their first days of life. A close monitoring is required before and after surgery to offer the most optimal care to these babies and children. I am convinced that Gabi SmartCares innovative solution offers the very first remote medical device that allows to remotely monitor children with congenital heart defects before, after or in between surgical procedures. Their solution could be a game changer in our field by changing the way that patients are being monitored and cared to optimize clinical outcomes and quality of life."

From February to December 2022, Gabi SmartCare has conducted a clinical study involving almost 100 children, in collaboration with a number of American and Belgian hospitals. The initial results are very positive: 96% of doctors say that Gabi SmartCare's devices are beneficial for their patients, and 95% believe that having access to the data collected could have prevented certain hospitalizations. What's more, 93% of parents said they were reassured to be able to monitor their children's vital data, and 99% stressed the ease of use of Gabi SmartCare's solutions.

The company is currently working on diagnostic algorithms and intends to develop preventive algorithms using artificial intelligence technologies.

As a next step, Gabi SmartCare is committed to demonstrating the effectiveness of its solution in reducing healthcare costs, following the successful model of similar solutions for adults.

The medtech start-up is planning to raise further funds in the near future in order to accelerate its development. It has raised more than 3 million in April 2021 from Analis, a market leader in scientific instruments and laboratory furniture, and Belgian investors (W.IN.G by Digital Wallonia, NOSHAQ and DGO6 - Direction Generale Operationnelle de l'Economie, de l'Emploi et de la Recherche du Service Public de Wallonie).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240108595274/en/

Contacts

Lora Nivesse, +32 478 287 414, ln@gosselindewalque.com
In just one week, the hotly anticipated presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan will be finished, and the choice of the self-ruled island's voters will finally be known.

Candidates of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) are vying for the top job, following years of strained cross-strait relations since Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning DPP was first elected president in 2016. Voters will also be electing a new legislative body.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

The stakes are particularly high, as the crucial election on January 13 is poised to shape cross-strait relations as well as bilateral ties between mainland China and the United States.

The DPP candidate, Vice-President William Lai Ching-te, is currently ahead in the polls, ahead of KMT's Hou Yu-ih and TPP's Ko Wen-je. The KMT, though, has a slight lead in the polls for the 133 legislative seats.

In the lead-up to the widely watched election, presidential candidates have been scrambling to assure voters that they are the best choice to achieve cross-strait peace. Tensions have been high as Beijing has stepped up military, political and economic pressure on the self-ruled island, particularly over the past year.

They have also centred the issue in televised pitches to voters, with Hou calling on Lai to renounce his pro-independence stand, citing concerns over war, while Lai accused the KMT of creating an identity divide on the island with its embrace of the "one-China shrine".

Beijing has warned of the risks of war if the DPP stays in power, and slammed "pro-independence forces" in Taiwan for sowing chaos in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mainland China has been flexing its muscles in that regard, with intensified military operations around the island and the suspension of tariff cuts in response to what it perceives as increased attempts to bolster separatist forces and solidify Taipei's ties with Washington.

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Major military drills were carried out after Tsai met then-US House speaker Kevin McCarthy during an April stop in California. In August, the People's Liberation Army also staged drills in response to Lai's layovers in New York and San Francisco.

Lai's ticket with Hsiao Bi-Khim, Taiwan's former de facto ambassador to the US, has been hailed by DPP lawmakers as a "perfect match" that has boosted the chance of victory.

KMT and TPP had aimed for a joint ticket to improve their chances to beat the DPP, but the deal collapsed in late November in a potential blow to Beijing, which has described Lai and Hsiao as dangerous "separatists" and "troublemakers".

Efforts to build a KMT-TPP joint ticket were shepherded by former Taiwanese president and KMT head Ma Ying-jeou. Ma visited mainland China early last year, a historic first trip by a former or sitting Taiwanese leader.

Months before the elections, Beijing unveiled a sweeping guideline to turn Fujian province, located on the west coast of the Taiwan Strait, into a model zone for integration - a clear statement of intent for the continued advancement of what it terms "peaceful reunification".

And in December, President Xi Jinping called cross-strait unification an "overall trend, a righteous cause, and the common aspiration of the people" as he led commemorations marking the birthday of late leader Mao Zedong.

Beijing views Taiwan as part of China which must be reunited, by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to arm Taiwan.

At their summit in November, Xi told his US counterpart Joe Biden that Taiwan is the "most dangerous" issue in the two countries' bilateral relations.

Facing ramped up pressure, Taipei has aimed to boost its defence capabilities, including extending mandatory military service from four months to a year and explicitly boosting its capacity for asymmetric warfare.

The island also opened its first training centre for tactical combat casualty care in December.

Growing distrust and hostility between Taipei and Beijing is affecting journalists, with those from mainland China facing especially strict barriers to covering the elections on the ground.

Despite restrictions, observers and academics will be closely following these results to see how the important and complex relationships across the Taiwan Strait, and beyond, will change over the next four years.

Fallout from Taiwan elections risks creating further mistrust in US-China relations, analyst warns

Mainland Chinese reporters on short-term permits 'can only observe' as island votes for new president

Beijing urges Taiwanese to 'stand on right side of history' ahead of presidential election

Opinion: Global markets bracing for a 2024 full of potentially volatile elections

President Tsai Ing-wen weighs in after DPP's William Lai faces new independence row

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledges reform in future-focused New Year's address

Controversy over cuts to classical Chinese content heats up presidential race

Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen alt=Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen>

Ballot power: 2024 elections could steer global relations for years to come

The world's democracies will hold more than 60 national elections this year, a number that will not be reached again until 2048

The US vote has greatest import for relations with China, but so do those in Taiwan, Indonesia, India and Mexico, among others

The year 2023 was marked by an escalating rivalry between China and the US-led West, compounded by growing fears of conflict over Taiwan, military tensions in the South China Sea, Russia's continued invasion of Ukraine, and a new Middle East war between Israel and Hamas.

So the new year is saddled with a bitterly divided geopolitical landscape, complicated international cooperation on climate change, economics, trade and technology, as well as a dangerous arms race. And with a packed election calendar, 2024 could be a true global inflection point.

Read more

Illustration: Davies Christian Surya alt=Illustration: Davies Christian Surya>

Can US and China give each other the reassurances they want on Taiwan?

The coming summit between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden offers an opportunity to lower the temperature on a highly sensitive topic

January's elections in Taiwan could create further volatility because Beijing views front runner William Lai as a 'troublemaker through and through'

Taiwan has long been the flashpoint of the China-US relations with Beijing repeatedly warning Washington that mishandling the issue is likely to have a devastating impact on the relationship.

Meeting in Bali last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his US counterpart Joe Biden that Taiwan was "the first red line" that must not be crossed.

Read more

Illustration: Henry Wong alt=Illustration: Henry Wong>

How Taiwanese presidential candidates' US tours helped 'clear misperceptions'

DPP, KMT and TPP candidates have visited the US in recent weeks, meeting informally with foreign-policy makers and officials

DPP's William Lai played down his independence rhetoric while KMT's Hou played up support for a strong military, analysts say

Three months before Taiwan's presidential election, the main contenders have mostly wrapped up efforts to garner support in Washington, and, analysts say, managed to convince policymakers that they do not seek to cross any red lines set by the US or Chinese governments.

With military tensions in the Taiwan Strait and around the island reaching unprecedented levels, their audiences were mostly looking for assurances from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate that he would not declare independence; from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) candidate, they wanted to know that he would not work to appease Beijing.

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Photo: James Wendlinger alt=Photo: James Wendlinger>

Halting tariff cuts mainland China's 'early warning' ahead of Taiwan election

Twelve products from Taiwan under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) will be affected from January 1

But analysts say the price of commodities is around 0.5 to 2 per cent of the total exports from Taiwan to mainland China

Beijing has sent an early warning against possible economic fallout should Taiwan's election result next month lead to a further deterioration of ties, analysts said, as mainland China suspended tariff reductions on several Taiwanese products under a landmark trade-deal on Thursday.

Imports of 12 products from Taiwan, including propylene and paraxylene, covered by the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) would be affected from January 1, according to the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.

Read more

Photo: Xinhua alt=Photo: Xinhua>

Xi says Taiwan unification will 'surely' happen as he marks Mao anniversary

The Chinese president leads a ceremony honouring the former leader at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Tuesday

Xi tells event to mark Mao's 130th birthday that 'complete reunification of our motherland is a righteous cause'

Chinese President Xi Jinping paid tribute to Mao Zedong and hailed his political teachings on Tuesday, the 130th anniversary of the late leader's birth, saying mainland China will "surely" be unified with Taiwan in the future.

"The complete reunification of our motherland is an overall trend, a righteous cause, and the common aspiration of the people. Our motherland must be reunified, and it will surely be reunified," Xi said in his speech delivered at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Read more

Photo: EPA-EFE alt=Photo: EPA-EFE>

Taiwan election hopeful Lai says KMT's embrace of 'one China' is dividing island

Vice-president and DPP candidate suggests a win for his main rival, Hou Yu-ih, could spell disaster

Lai says Kuomintang used to be anti-communist but senior figures are now trying to placate Beijing

Taiwan's presidential front runner William Lai Ching-te has claimed his Kuomintang rival's embrace of the Communist Party and "one China" is dividing the self-ruled island.

Lai, vice-president and candidate for the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party in next month's election, made the remarks in a televised pitch to voters on Wednesday.

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This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Authorities said 17 passengers cars and 18 semi trucks were involved in Saturday's crash on Interstate 5

Authorities say two people were killed and nine others were injured in a 35-car pileup on a foggy California highway.

Crews responded to the southbound side of Interstate 5 near Millux and Old River Roads on Saturday after learning that a multi-vehicle crash had occurred "in fog," according to the California Department of Transportation.

Kern County Fire Department Battalion Chief Jim Calhoun said 35 vehicles  17 passenger cars and 18 semi trucks  were involved in the crash around 7:30 a.m. local time, according to NBC affiliate KGET-TV and CBS affiliate KBAK-TV.

Two people were pronounced dead, while nine others were hospitalized with what KGET-TV reported as minor injuries.

The KCFD and California Highway Patrol did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs requests for comment.

The scene of the crash was chaotic when crews arrived, Calhoun said, per KBAK-TV.

"Everybody just started screaming for help, just like that, and there were little kids as well crying," said Yesenia Cruz, one of nearly three dozen drivers involved in the crash.

Related: 7 People Dead, Over 25 Injured from Pileup Involving 158 Vehicles amid 'Super Fog' on Louisiana Highway

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Several bystanders found themselves inside a plume of natural gas after a number of compressed natural gas tanks located on some of the semi trucks ruptured, Calhoun said.

So we had to deal with that first and get everyone evacuated from that area, the fire chief added.



Related: Boy, 12, Killed in Car Driven into Texas Tree by Fellow 12-Year-Old

The scene of the massive crash spanned nearly a half mile, according to KGET-TV and CW affiliate KTLA.

One body reportedly could not be reached until about 5:30 p.m., about 10 hours after the crash, KGET-TV reported.

Related: Bus Crash Leaves 1 Dead and More Injured in New York Interstate Rollover

CHP Buttonwillow Public Information Officer Manny Garcia said visibility was approximately 100 feet at the time of the crash, according to KBAK-TV. However, KGET-TV reported that authorities said visibility was at just 10 feet when they arrived at the scene.

The heavy fog is believed to have caused the crash, per the reports.

Interstate 5 was closed for much of the day Saturday while crews cleaned up the scene and investigated the crash, according to California officials.

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Read the original article on People.
A lot has been written this year about the juggernaut double feature that is Barbenheimer. That doesnt necessarily mean its going to be about Barbie vs. Oppenheimer when it comes to some of the below-the-line crafts races at the Oscars.

Although Christopher Nolans Oppenheimer certainly will do well in the below-the-line categories, as will Martin Scorseses Killers of the Flower Moon, there are two crafts categories that will more likely come down to Barbie and another movie, Yorgos Lanthimoss Poor Things. Those categories are Best Production Design and Best Costume Design.

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Both movies have blown away audiences since their releases. As you probably already know, Greta Gerwigs Barbie, starring Margot Robbie as the title character and Ryan Gosling as her somewhat clueless paramour Ken, was one of the biggest blockbusters of 2023, having made $1.4 billion worldwide after an astounding $162 million domestic opening back in July.

SEEMakeup Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Awards nominations: Oscar hopefuls Maestro, Poor Things 

Lanthimoss Poor Things stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe, and its a sumptuous visual masterpiece that in any normal year would be a cant-miss in both crafts categories. Lanthimos is no stranger to the Oscars; his last movie, The Favourite, received 10 nominations, five of them below-the-line, including Costume and Production Design. Gerwigs previous two movies, Little Women and Lady Bird, also received multiple Oscar nominations, with Little Women winning for its costumes.

So the pedigree is there for Barbie and Poor Things to do very well at this years Oscars. Both films are very likely to be included in the Best Picture nominations, and both Gerwig and Lanthimos are presumed to be in the running for Best Director noms as well. But its in the specific categories of Costume and Production Design where theyre likely going to be neck-and-neck for the next few months.

SEEIs Barbie a lock for Best Compilation Soundtrack at the Grammys?

Barbie costume designer Jacqueline Durran is a two-time Oscar winner for Little Women and Anna Karenina with six other nominations, mostly for her work with director Joe Wright. Barbie is her second movie with Gerwig. Poor Things costume designer Holly Waddington has already been nominated for and won a number of critics awards but is new to the Oscar scene.

Since Barbie is based on a hugely popular Mattel doll that girls can dress up in various costumes, Durrans biggest challenge was to deliver hundreds of original outfits for all the different Barbies and Kens in their circle of friends. Meanwhile, Waddington had to come up with many different looks for Emma Stones Bella Baxter over the course of her evolution, as well as for all the wacky characters she encounters, many of whom dress quite outlandishly. Case in point is Ruffalos manipulative fop, Duncan Wedderburn. But Waddington found a way to give the characters looks that are more out-of-time than in a normal period piece.

Both films were nominated by the Costume Designers Guild for their 26th Annual CDG Awards, although Poor Things was nominated in the guilds period category while Barbie was considered sci-fi/fantasy. So both films can thus win when the guild announces its winners on February 21, 2024.

SEE2024 Oscars scorecard: Barbie, Oppenheimer have early lead after Golden Globes and Critics Choice nominations

Barbie production designer Sarah Greenwood has been honored with six Oscar nominations, most recently for Joe Wrights Darkest Hour, because she too has been a frequent collaborator with that filmmaker. Besides creating the sumptuous, pink-tinged Barbieland with her set decorator Katie Spencer, Greenwood had to modify locations like Barbies Dream House into something very different once the men in the story take over.

The production design on Lanthimoss movie was by the duo of Shona Heath and James Price, working together for the first time since it was such a big job. It involved creating alternate versions of London, Lisbon and Paris that mixed the glorious looks of period locations with odd, futuristic modifications. Its quite something to behold but hard to describe because it straddles two categories at the Art Directors Guilds Excellence in Production Design Awards. Is it period design? Is it fantasy design? Where Poor Things and Barbie end up in that groups awards  nominations will be announced on January 9  will be quite interesting. They may very well consider Barbie to be contemporary, which means the two films wont face each other for ADG recognition.

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One advantage that Barbie certainly has in both categories is that the craftspeople involved are already very well known to Oscar voters. Lets face it, when you see the name of a known colleague or friend on a ballot, you are more apt to vote for them than less established creators. But make no mistake that everyone in production design will know the names of Heath and Price after watching Poor Things.

Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, leading to six or seven weeks of jockeying and campaigning, as both Barbie and Poor Things try to make a mark on the presumptive below-the-line frontrunners, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon.

Personally, I think the two movies will split, with Barbie winning for its costumes while the Poor Things production design is too overwhelmingly fantastic to be ignored.

PREDICTthe 2024 Oscar nominations

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Grammy winner Chris Tomlin will embark on his first major global headlining trek in over a decade when his Holy Forever World Tour launches in April, Billboard can exclusively reveal.

Tomlins name has become synonymous with modern worship music, as the Texas native has issued songs that have evolved into music standards sung by church congregations around the world. He has earned 11 Christian Airplay chart-toppers, including the 15-week No. 1 Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies) and the 18-week No. 1 Made to Worship. His 2013 album Burning Lights debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart, becoming the fourth Christian album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

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In addition to Stateside concerts in such cities as Boston, Seattle and Las Vegas, the Holy Forever World Tour will make stops in England, the Netherlands, Germany and Hungary. The trek follows Tomlins sold-out U.S. Evening of Worship fall 2023 tour, which wrapped in November.

Ive never played in Hungary or Dusseldorf [Germany]  those [cities] near the end of that European run will be brand new for me, Tomlin tells Billboard of gearing up for the overseas shows. Theres something about when Ive played overseas, theres something about the hunger to those audiences. In America, we have so much  especially even when it comes to Christian music, theres so many concerts going on and churches on every street. But in a lot of places, that just doesnt happen. I remember a few places we played around the world, we played a two-hour set and theyre like, Are you kidding me? Thats all youre going to play? So, we played for another two hours. Its exciting to be part of that. Music is global. The church is global.

Sibling trio CAIN, known for Christian Airplay chart-toppers Yes, He Can and Rise Up (Lazarus), as well as the top 10 hit Im So Blessed, will open the U.S. shows on the tour.

They are the hottest thing going, as far as our genre of music and all the new bands that are coming out, Tomlin says of the trios Taylor, Madison and Logan Cain. They are resonating with the next generation and their music is so good. They are siblings, so their harmonies are insane. They have such a heart for worship and for connecting with people.

It also doesnt hurt that Tomlins daughters are big fans of the group. Every morning when Im taking my girls to school, we have Im So Blessed cranked up in the car. So to have them on the tour will bring a really different dynamic than Ive had on my tours.

He says attendees can expect some onstage collaborations between Tomlin and CAIN. I think it has to happen, he says, recalling a recent jam session with the group. We were playing and writing a bit; I had my guitar with me and the three of them were singing. It was so spontaneous and real and pure. I have a great expectation for those shows.

The Holy Forever Tours namesake is Tomlins 2023 six-week No. 1 Christian Airplay hit Holy Forever, which Tomlin wrote with Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, Phil Wickham and Jason Ingram.

I think its one of those songs that probably will be one of the anchor songs of my career, Tomlin says, noting that the writing session drew together separate song and melody ideas from Tomlin, Ingram and Johnson, melding them into Holy Forever.

When it started crystalizing, it was like, Wow, these different parts of songs we all had are coming together, Tomlin says, noting the key line from the song, A thousand generations falling down in worship. Generation after generation, were just the next one to take the baton and every generation has done it differently, he says.

Given the songs global impact, Tomlin has a singular hope for every concert on the upcoming tour.

I always pray when people are walking through those doors that they sense the grace of God, that on these nights people who are carrying heavy burdens are lifted up again in their soul and theyre reminded of Gods grace, to remind us of something greater than ourselves, he says.

Pre-sale for Tomlins Holy Forever Tour begins Jan. 19, with general on-sale starting Jan. 22 at christomlin.com.

Holy Forever World Tour dates:

Thursday, April 18: Newark, NJ  Prudential Center

Friday, April 19: Hershey, PA  GIANT Center

Saturday, April 20: Boston, MA  Agganis Arena

Wednesday, April 24: Tulsa, OK  Mabee Center

Thursday, April 25: St Louis, MO  Chaifetz Arena

Saturday, April 27: Kansas City, MO  Cable Dahmer Arena

Wednesday, May 1: Spokane, WA  Spokane Arena

Thursday, May 2: Everett, WA  Angel of the Winds Arena

Friday, May 3: Portland, OR  Moda Center

Thursday, May 9: Fresno, CA  Save Mart Center

Friday, May 10: Anaheim, CA  Honda Center

Saturday, May 11: Henderson, NV  Dollar Loan Center

Sunday, May 26: West Sussex, UK  Winston House  Big Church Day Out

Monday, May 27: Belfast, United Kingdom (UK)  SSE Arena Belfast

Tuesday, May 28: Rotterdam, Netherlands (NL)  Ahoy Arena

Thursday, May 30: Dusseldorf, Germany (DE)  Mitsubishi Electric Halle  D.LIVE

Saturday, June 1: Szeged, Hungary -Hungary Szent Gellert Forom (Forum) Stadion  This Is The Day

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What do you want to know about Memphis?

Know Your 901 is an initiative launched by the know-it-alls at The Commercial Appeal that will seek to answer your questions about the Bluff City and the Greater Memphis region.

Readers, we want your queries and your input! All subject matter is welcome: Culture, art, history, geography, celebrity, TV, music, food, and et cetera. Send questions to knowyour901@commercialappeal.com and we will try to give you an answer in a future column.

Today's column is in response to a frequent query...

What was Elvis Presleys best album and where was it recorded?

Although many consider Elvis' mid-1950s sessions with Sam Phillips at Sun Records his most seminal work and his RCA recordings in Nashville and New York in the late-'50s his most successful, in terms of a single album, the consensus is Presley's best and most creatively satisfying LP was 1969s From Elvis in Memphis, recorded  where else?  in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

By January 1969, Presley was at a creative crossroads. With his years of movie commitments satisfied and the televised '68 Comeback Special behind him, Elvis was ready to get back to serious recording. As it happened, the hottest producer (Chips Moman), band (The Memphis Boys) and studio (American Sound) in the world were right in Presley's backyard in the Bluff City.

Fifty-five years ago this month, Presley entered American with Moman and The Memphis Boys and created his most accomplished body of work. (That effort was celebrated this past week as part of Elvis' annual birthday festivities at Graceland.)

A guitarist, songwriter and producer, Lincoln Chips Moman had been instrumental in the early history of Stax, before going to launch American Sound Studios. While Presley was busy turning out his movie musicals in the '60s, Moman and American  located on Thomas Street in North Memphis  had grown into a monster. Moman had recruited a crack unit of players from the house bands at Hi Records and Phillips Records to form the American Studios group, dubbed The Memphis Boys: guitarist Reggie Young, drummer Gene Chrisman, pianist Bobby Wood, organist Bobby Emmons and bassists Mike Leech and Tommy Cogbill.

ELVIS TRIVIA: Think you know everything about the King? Try to answer these questions

The lineup, mostly with Moman behind the board, would become a hit-making machine in the latter half of the '60s, working up a series of chart smashes for artists like the Box Tops ("The Letter''), Dusty Springfield ("Son of a Preacher Man''), Neil Diamond ("Sweet Caroline''), B.J. Thomas ("Hooked on a Feeling'') and Bobby Womack ("Fly Me To The Moon").

Songwriter Mark James, who penned Elvis Presley's hit "Suspicious Minds", embraces Reggie Young, guitarist of the American Sound Studios band The Memphis Boys, during the unveiling of the American Studios historical marker at 831 Thomas in 2014.

Given the firm grip of Elvis' manager, Col. Tom Parker, his label RCA and song pluggers at Hill and Range Music Publishers, getting Elvis into Moman's studio proved a challenge. It was Marty Lacker  a onetime foreman for Presley, who'd gone to work for Moman  who essentially brought the project in through the back door.

"Marty was working for me and he was still in close with Elvis," Moman recalled in a 2009 interview with The Commercial Appeal. "So Marty was talking to me about Elvis and talking to Elvis about me and slowly bringing us together. He's really the one that got that album to take place."

The sessions, which took place in January and February of 1969, began with a bit of turbulence, as Moman was forced to take charge, clearing the studio of Presley's pals and business associates, and setting the tone for the record he wanted to make.

The real secret of the sessions was finding the right material for Presley. A gifted songwriter himself, Moman was always looking for the next hit tune. Among those who provided songs for the Presley album were up-and-coming young writers like Mac Davis ("In the Ghetto"), Mark James ("Suspicious Minds") and Eddie Rabbitt ("Kentucky Rain"). Combining the fresh material with a mix of old country, R&B and rock favorites, Presley was able to showcase his range and interpretive gifts.

While the sessions at American were not unique from a musical standpoint  "we did exactly what we normally did" Moman would recall  Presley was being pushed in the studio for the first time in more than a decade, performing with a newfound energy and enthusiasm across the more than 30 tracks that were cut.

Elvis Presley performs on stage in 1969.

Released in June of 69, From Elvis in Memphis would reach No. 13 on the Billboard album charts, while a string of singles from the sessions, including In the Ghetto, Dont Cry Daddy, Kentucky Rain and Suspicious Minds would return Elvis to top of the singles charts. The King's musical resurgence continued with his return to live performing later that year in Las Vegas.

RANKING ELVIS' BEST SONGS: Our picks vs. ChatGPT's

A year later another album, Back in Memphis, containing leftovers from the American sessions, was released. Over the decades various compilations and deluxe editions have further chronicled the sessions, including the elaborate 2019 digital box set, American Sound 1969.

But when it comes to one defining LP, its hard to top From Elvis in Memphis, as the essential album in the Kings canon.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: What is Elvis' best album? The story behind our top pick
After a strong close in 2023, the stock market hasn't exactly lit the world on fire in early 2024. If there's an upside to a less-than-stellar market, though, it's that it opens up more opportunities for investors to find companies whose shares are trading at value prices.

When all is said and done, a share of stock is simply an ownership stake in a company. Over time, that company's ability to generate cash will play a huge role in how its stock performs. When you can buy your claim on those future cash flows at a low price, you set yourself up with the potential for strong returns over the long haul.

With that in mind, if you've got $5,000, here are three value stocks to consider buying and holding for years.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. A spirits company people turn to in all sorts of economic times

Diageo (NYSE: DEO) is the British company behind such globally popular alcohol brands as Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, and Baileys. While those brands may conjure up images of nights on the town, the reality is that they all are consumed in homes as well as at bars, pubs, and restaurants.

From Diageo's perspective, it doesn't matter all that much whether a consumer is enjoying the product in public or in private. If the bottle of alcohol contains a Diageo brand, then Diageo will benefit from the related purchase transactions.

It's that sort of dynamic that makes the spirits business one of the more recession-resistant ones out there. Of course, that means that Diageo isn't likely to be the world's fastest-growing company in boom times, but it also means that its earnings are also not likely to collapse in a tough economy.

Trading at less than 18 times the company's projected earnings, Diageo looks like it's trading at a reasonable value for a company with long-term steady prospects. Add around a 2.8% yield, and investors stand to get a reasonable payment as they wait for those longer-term prospects to materialize.

Story continues

2. North America's energy pipeline behemoth

Enbridge (NYSE: ENB) owns and operates one of North America's largest pipeline systems. It moves around 20% of all natural gas consumed in the United States and lays claim to the world's longest crude oil and liquids pipeline.

While the push for more renewable energy is raising questions as to the very long-term future of pipeline companies like Enbridge, over the next few decades, its prospects look solid. In the U.S. Energy Information Administration's 2023 outlook, oil and natural gas usage is expected to remain about steady at least through 2050.

Steady demand for decades to come plus an already large infrastructure in place is a great recipe for a business to trade with a reasonable valuation and offer shareholders a healthy dividend. That's exactly the profile that Enbridge has.

Thanks to its recently announced 29th consecutive annual dividend hike, Enbridge now offers investors a strong 7.3% dividend yield. That dividend is well supported by the company's operating cash flows. When added to a valuation of around 18 times the company's projected earnings, you get a company at a decent price point to go along with that solid and growing income.

3. Heads, you win; tails, you still don't lose

Grocery store giant Albertsons (NYSE: ACI) is in the process of being acquired by an even larger grocery chain, Kroger. Albertsons' shares are being acquired for $34.10 per share, less a $6.85-per-share special dividend that was already paid to Albertsons shareholders. That nets to $27.25 per share.

At a recent market price of $23.04 per share, Albertsons' shares are trading about 15% below that buyout price. A decision on that merger is expected soon. If it's allowed to complete, there's a clear upside to Albertsons shares.

If, on the other hand, the merger gets blocked by regulators, Albertsons' shares still look reasonably priced as an independently operating company. Trading at less than 9 times the company's expected earnings and with those earnings expected to grow by about 8% annualized over the next few years if it stays independent, its shares look downright cheap.

If the buyout closes, Albertsons' shareholders get a nice, near-term upside. If it doesn't, they get a solid business at a reasonable price.

Get started now

As great as it is to find solid companies trading at reasonable prices like Albertsons, Enbridge, and Diageo appear to be, the reality is that the market rarely lets bargains last for long. As a result, if they look like they might be the type of companies you'd like to buy at prices you're willing to pay, make today the day you consider them for your own portfolio. You just might find that $5,000 invested across them could result in you owning shares in decently valued companies with solid long-term prospects.

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Chuck Saletta has positions in Enbridge and Kroger and has the following options: long January 2025 $37.50 calls on Enbridge, short January 2025 $30 puts on Enbridge, short January 2025 $37.50 puts on Enbridge, and short January 2025 $40 calls on Enbridge. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Enbridge. The Motley Fool recommends Diageo Plc and Kroger. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Got $5,000? Buy and Hold These 3 Value Stocks for Years. was originally published by The Motley Fool
Samuel Theis, a French actor-director known for starring in this years Anatomy of a Fall as the husband to Sandra Hullers character, has been accused of sexual assault by a crew member on his new film, a French production called Je le jure (I Swear).

According to a report in Liberation from January 5 (via Screen Daily), the crew member accused Theis of raping him at a party last summer when the alleged victim was too drunk to consent. The alleged incident took place in Metz, France at an apartment rented for the production.

More from IndieWire

Theis told the publication the encounter was consensual, and his lawyer told Liberation he has not been charged with any crime to date. The crew member quit the production immediately after the alleged assault.

Post-production is continuing on I Swear, but according to Liberation, the production company Avenue B has forced Theis to complete the project remotely away from crew, with Theis being required to give notice to the production should he want to intervene and so that anyone who doesnt want to collaborate with him can avoid working with him directly. Those who do can choose to visit him at the remote location.

IndieWire has reached out to representatives for Theis and Avenue B for comment.

I Swear stars Marina Fois, Micha Lescot, Louise Bourgoin, and Emmanuel Salinger. The film is Theis third feature following Party Girl, which won the Camera dOr, and Softie, which premiered at Cannes Critics Week in 2021. I Swear follows an alcoholic man selected for a jury to decide the fate of an arsonist accused of manslaughter.

According to Screen Daily, the film will be released in France by Ad Vitam but does not have a release date or an international sales agent.

Theis could be nominated for a Cesar award later this month for his work on Anatomy of a Fall, but the Academy last year made the rule change that those accused or convicted of acts of sexual violence cannot attend the ceremony, though they can still be nominated.

The production company on I Swear Avenue B is run by producer Caroline Bonmarchand, who told LIberation that despite Frances evolving vigilance on sexual misconduct in the workplace since #MeToo, film productions are still not equipped to deal with such cases despite moves to require sexual violence prevention training among crew members, directors, actors, and producers.

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The Giudices didnt let inclement weather squash their party plans.

After returning home from their Bahamas vacation, The Real Housewives of New Jersey family immediately began celebrating Gia Giudices special day. Although the Rutgers University graduate didn't turn 23 until Monday (January 8), she spent the preceding days with fun-filled festivities, including a cozy birthday dinner at her familys Montville mansion.

Gia's mom, RHONJ OG Teresa Giudice, shared several peeks at the intimate get-together on Saturday, January 6, saying they decided to stay in because of a snowstorm.

So we were gonna go out for Gias birthday, but now were just ordering in, Teresa said, before turning the camera toward Gia and her longtime boyfriend, Christian Carmichael. Happy birthday, Gia! Were having a cozy night with the fam, just eating at home. Look at all the food we got.

Teresa Giudice's birthday celebration for Gia Giudice

Gia Bday Celebration

Gia Giudice celebrates her birthday at home with family. Photo: Teresa Giudice/Instagram

Teresa continued to film around her kitchen while her husband, Luis Louie Ruelas, unpacked all the takeout items, which included an assortment of pasta dishes, salads, and about half a dozen pizzas.

And look what Louie made: chocolate chip cookies, Teresa said.

Gia Party

Gia Giudice blows out the candles of her 23rd birthday cake. Photo: Teresa Giudice/Gia Giudice/Instagram

But cookies werent the only sweets at the celebration. Later that night, Teresa returned to Instagram to show off Gias beautiful birthday cake by Palermo Bakery. The heart-shaped dessert was covered with black frosting and featured stunning pipping around the border as well as Capricorn Baby written on top.

Teresa posted a video of the family singing Happy Birthday to Gia before she blew out the heart-shaped candles.

Gia Giudice hits the town in a shimmery birthday dress

Gia Party 1

Gia Giudice celebrates her 23rd birthday in New York City. Photo: Teresa Giudice/Gia Giudice/Instagram

Gia Giudice posing in an olive green, 2 piece, outfit in front of a beach and waterfront at night.

We're Obsessed with Gia Giudice's Bedazzled Birthday Manicure (PHOTO)

A day before the cozy get-together, Gia celebrated her special day with Christian and some of her closest friends. Teresa shared some footage of the groups pregame session at her home, where she also provided a closer look at Gias gorgeous party outfit. The Jersey daughter decided to wear a sequin black minidress from Bloomingdale's, strappy black heels from Ferragamo, and a shimmery Dior handbag.

Look at how beautiful Gia looks for her birthday, the Jersey mom said while highlighting her daughters ensemble. I love your dress, Gia. And your shoes, those are hot.

Gia and her crew then took the celebration to a Mediterranean restaurant in New York City, where they enjoyed a six-course meal; bottles of Champagne; and, of course, some cake. She spoke about the shindig earlier that night in a GRWM (get ready with me) TikTok video.

So tonight we are going to Kyma, Gia said. I am super excited. Ive heard great things about it and I cant wait for all my friends to go We are taking a party bus into the city. I figured it would be more fun and it would get everyone to the reservation on time, hopefully. I think the restaurant gives Mykonos vibes and Mykonos is literally my favorite place.
During an interview with E! News, the actress recalled "freaking out" that guests were cold and not enjoying themselves at her 2019 wedding to Cooke Maroney

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Jennifer Lawrence admits to being a very stressed-out bride.

While walking the red carpet at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards, the actress, 33, opened up about her 2019 wedding to husband Cooke Maroney, and how she spent much of her special day worried about her guests instead of enjoying the moment.

Lawrence joked to E! News that she found parts of the experience "awful" and "so stressful" as she tried to make sure she was being a good host.

"You're not having fun. You're just like, 'Is that person having fun?' " she explained.

The No Hard Feelings star recalled worrying that her guests were cold at her wedding, which took place at the historic Belcourt of Newport mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.

"I'll never forget  I was freaking out about the guests being cold, and all of my friends were lying. They're like, Nobody's cold, nobody's cold, everything's fine, everything's fine,' " she told E! News.

Making matters worse, Lawrence's mother affirmed her fears. "My mom was like, It's freezing out there. Your grandmother almost died,' " she revealed.

Gotham/GC Images Jennifer Lawrence and husband Cooke Maroney

Related: Jennifer Lawrence and Cooke Maroney's Relationship Timeline

Lawrence added that she was also worried during her rehearsal dinner where Robert De Niro was one of the guests in attendance.

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 celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"I looked over and I saw Bob, who doesn't know anybody and he's kind of wandering around, and I immediately was like, No, this isn't what he wants to be doing. I don't want him here,'" she explained. "So I went over and whispered, I was like, Go home,' and he was nice  he like talked to my parents and was polite  but I was like, 'Go.' "

"That just genuinely made me feel better," she added of the Hollywood legend's exit.



Christopher Peterson / SplashNews.com Jennifer Lawrence and husband Cooke Maroney take a stroll arm in arm around Central Park in New York City.

While she may have been anxious on her big day, Lawrence partied with her wedding guests late into the night. A source told PEOPLE at the time of the nuptials that the Hunger Games star and Maroney were "the last people to leave at 5:30 a.m."

"It was an all-night party," the source said. "They waited until all the guests were gone so they could personally say goodbye. When they left, Jen looked happy."

Related: Jennifer Lawrence and Cooke Maroney Enjoy Casual Date Night in New York City

Last year, Lawrence recalled also feeling a bit overwhelmed when her husband proposed to her. "[It was] terrifying, but very, very exciting," she said on Amelia Dimoldenberg's YouTube series Chicken Shop Date.

"I didn't say what I wanted to," she continued. "I imagined it a million times, and then I ended up just going, 'What? What? What?' And then going, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.' "



The couple, who celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in October, have since welcomed a son, born in April 2022.

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Read the original article on People.
It's never too late to get a call that might change your life.

Topeka comic Jay Patterson received one such call last year when she was asked to be a contestant on a new reality show called "The Trust: A Game of Greed" premiering Wednesday on Netflix.

Patterson joined 10 other contestants in the Dominican Republic for two-and-a-half weeks where they competed for a share of $250,000.

But unlike other shows where the prize money is awarded at the end, the contestants are given the money upfront. The premise, according to Netflix, is to see if they will take their fair share or be greedy for financial gains.

The first season of the eight episode mini series is hosted by veteran journalist and former CNN correspondent Brooke Baldwin.

Jay Patterson displays a promotional photo from her upcoming Netflix show "The Trust: A Game of Greed." A collection of Patterson's comedy and life achievements can be seen Thursday on a wall in her basement.

No experience? No problem for Topeka comic on Netflix reality show

At 70, Patterson had no idea she would be given an opportunity like this.

"Especially at this age, you know, like maybe when I was younger, it was like, 'Oh, wouldn't that be cool if maybe I could be an actress or whatever?'" she said. "But no. It was a total surprise."

Through her involvement with the local stand-up comedy and open-mic scene in Topeka with Top City Comedy and appearances on Joel Marshall's "Lunch Therapy" podcast, word got out that she might have what it takes.

"I'm one of those people that if I just sit back and let things happen, that was a moment that it just happened and it was nothing I expected," she said.

Back in February 2023, Patterson and her husband, Danny, were on a cruise in the Hawaiian Islands when they first had a taste of what was to come.

A series of online interviews with Netflix producers followed and that's when the secrecy started.

Jay Patterson, her husband Danny, and their dog, Bend, watch the trailer for the upcoming Netflix reality show "The Trust: A Game of Greed." Jay Patterson is one of 11 contestants on the show that premieres on the streaming service Wednesday.

"She really wanted it bad," Danny Patterson said. "You can't tell anybody that you're going. We're on the ship and people are wondering why we're not going on tours and stuff."

After coming back home, months of waiting ensued before the call came that she would be a contestant.

"And then she's off to the Dominican Republic, and I can't tell anybody," Danny Patterson said. "I made up the story that she was at her comedy workshops."

'The Trust: A Game of Greed' was a social experiment

The bottom line of reality shows have always been a game of capturing the viewers' attention.

A 2022 article in Time points out that as early as the rise of televisions themselves, such shows as "Candid Camera" in 1948, adapted from the radio show "Candid Microphone," showed that hiding cameras and watching people react in curated situations makes for great content.

The genre has expanded since then with shows like MTV's "The Real World" in 1992 bringing viewers the format viewers are now used to seeing with selectively edited scenes of cast members interacting in situations, as well as one-on-one interviews.

Netflix's "The Trust "is part of the next generation of competition reality shows that takes elements of from CBS's "Survivor" and "Big Brother" but moves the genre into more of a study of human psychology.

The show will be the latest to arrive to the streaming service followed by Peacock's show "The Traitors," which premiered January 2023, and "Squid Game: The Challenge" that premiered on Netflix in November 2023.

Topeka comic says Netflix filming was 'an interesting experience'

From doing five minutes on a show with comedian and "Saturday Night Live" cast member Punkie Johnson in the Kansas City area to a Netflix reality show, Topeka comic Jay Patterson, 70, shows some of her memorable moments from her comedy career Thursday.

For Patterson, it's difficult for her to fully describe the experience.

"I don't want to use the word surreal, I really don't," she said, "but you're kind of like, am I really here?"

Upon landing in the Dominican Republic, Patterson recalled how being a "seasoned woman" might impact how others treated her.

"I'm around a lot of young people because of comedy," she said. "So its not uncomfortable for me to be around the age group that I was with. But it might be uncomfortable for them to be around my age, you know, like Im their mother or their grandmother, like get (rid of) grandma."

A scene from episode 101 of "The Trust: A Game of Greed" shows Topekan Jay Patterson, far right, with contestants, from left, Brian Firebaugh, Bryce Lee, Tolu Ekundare and Lindsey Anderson.

As she pointed out, there's no telling how she will actually appear until the episodes are released.

For her husband, this is a bit concerning.

"They can edit whatever they want," Danny Patterson said. "They can create the person they want."

Overall, Jay Patterson said it was "an interesting experience" and looks forward to seeing the episodes unfold.

"I just seem ready for it," she said. "I feel comfortable., I feel happy. I don't feel nervous, and I'm glad I feel that way."

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka's Jay Patterson stars in Netflix's 'The Trust: A Game of Greed'
Danish model Josephine Skriver first posed for the SI Swimsuit Issue in 2020, when she traveled to the Dominican Republic with photographer Kate Powers. The stunning images that resulted from the collaboration in the Caribbean resulted in Skriver earning Rookie of the Year honors.

The 30-year-old returned to the fold in both 21 and 22, and her work with the brand took her to Sacramento, Calif., and Montenegro. Skriver is known for her time as a Victorias Secret Angel, and has also collaborated with notable brands like Armani, Balmain, Gucci, Max Mara, Tom Ford, Calvin Klein and Rag & Bone.

Today, Skriver is a proud mom of one. She and her husband, musician Alexander DeLeon, welcomed a daughter named Aurora last summer. Shes also the cofounder of JOJA, an activewear brand she founded with fellow supermodel and best friend Jasmine Tookes.

JOJA is a woman-owned brand that designs with attention to detail, keeping womens bodies in mind, Skriver told us of the company last year. We believe that every detail matters, and we put great effort into every aspect of our designs, from selecting the right materials to stitching each piece with precision. Our goal is to create clothing that is both fashionable and practical, making every woman feel confident and beautiful.

In honor of the multihyphenates continued success across various verticals, were throwing it back to a few of our favorite images from Skrivers rookie photoshoot in the Dominican Republic.

Kate Powers/Sports Illustrated

Kate Powers/Sports Illustrated

Kate Powers/Sports Illustrated

Kate Powers/Sports Illustrated

Kate Powers/Sports Illustrated

Kate Powers/Sports Illustrated

Make sure to follow SI Swimsuit on YouTube!
All successful designers have their signature details, the subtle and not-so-subtle little things that they become known for without hesitation. For London-based label, Chet Lo, it's the designer's distinctive spikes that adorn dresses, tops and headpieces which have become instantly recognizable among his burgeoning community of fashion fans. Now, the signature spikes are taking on a whole new form, as the lauded designer joins forces with Singapore's CHARLES & KEITH to make his footwear debut.

A collaborative collection with CHARLES & KEITH was inevitable, the designer tells us, after three seasons of working together on Chet Lo's fashion week shows. "It felt like a very natural progression when they reached out to us for a collaboration, I was so happy to do it and the timing felt ideal," Lo adds. Alongside the already-existing relationship, it's the shared love of culture that made the collaboration all the more special. "Because they are a Singaporean brand with such a strong presence in the East, it felt like the collaboration was the perfect way for me to be in touch with my roots and Asian culture," the designer explains.

Combining classic accessories with footwear styles (including ballet flats, to Lo's initial surprise,) the collection fuses the designer's signature spikes with elegant silhouettes, resulting in chic black handbags, pointed heels and headbands.

Ahead of the collection's official release, we caught up with Chet Lo to find out more about the brand's foray into footwear and why the collaboration marks such a pivotal moment for the Chinese designer.

Scroll down for the full interview.

chet lo charles and keith footwear spikes heels shoes black bags

Tell us a bit about how the collaboration with Charles & Keith came about, what were your initial thoughts?

We have been working with CHARLES & KEITH for quite some time now, they are such an incredible emerging brand and have been supporting me for the last three seasons, allowing us to use their footwear and accessories to incorporate into our shows. It felt like a very natural progression when they reached out to us for a collaboration, I was so happy to do it and the timing felt ideal.

Because they are a Singaporean brand with such a strong presence in the East, it felt like the collaboration was the perfect way for me to be in touch with my roots and Asian culture. It was also a great opportunity for us to make shoes and leverage their expertise in this area as we were never really able to properly make our own. Being able to see the products come to life in such a beautiful and professional manner... I am so happy with the result. It feels like a big accomplishment in my career and it's incredible to be able to expand the Chet Lo world a little bit more.

How did you go about translating your signature spikes into footwear? What was that process like and what did it involve?

For Chet Lo ready-to-wear, we normally develop the spikes with knit techniques which is a very delicate process. For this collaboration with CHARLES & KEITH, we had to find a more durable solution because of the nature of the product. Footwear has different requirements, and therefore we did a lot of sampling, different techniques were involved too, and we finally came across the embossing technique that encapsulates what we are about, but at the same time is more robust. We also experimented with some beautiful 3D-printed plexiglass techniques, which opened doors to creations that we would have never dreamt of without this collaboration.

chet lo charles and keith footwear spikes heels shoes black bags

What can you tell us about the decisions surrounding the colour palette for the collection?

It was a reflection of where we have been in the past, where we are now and where we want to be in our future. When referencing this bright fuchsia pink, that was very much a tribute to where we come from, as the Chet Lo brand started off as this incredibly girly colourful insane world. As I grow up and mature, I've gone a little bit darker and a bit more mature in my colour palette, I wanted to reflect that as well and it's another way for me to diversify and touch different kinds of clientele. We have the mature women that want to wear darker or sultry colours but we have also that younger girl who's obsessed with the pop of color and isn't afraid to wear it. In this collection, I feel we have the perfect balance between the two.

Previously, we've spoken about your desire to continue exploring and evolving with each passing season, what new themes did you explore for this collaboration?

For this collaboration, it was definitely more about understanding that CHARLES & KEITH resonates with a wider audience, designing specific pieces that will appeal to different demographics. Consequently, we explored various silhouettes in the shoes -- a process that's totally new to me.

Personally, I never envision a woman wearing flats so it felt crazy to do a ballerina flat! I actually had to ask my team if they would wear flats, and I think this has pushed me to learn to think of the client first. That's very much what this collaboration was founded on and I learned a lot from CHARLES&KEITH, I'm super excited to go forward in this direction, even in my own collections.

chet lo charles and keith footwear spikes heels shoes black bags

What can you tell us about the approach to styling this collaboration, where were your influences and references coming from?

There are a lot of different types of styling that you can do with each products. For instance, we have the plexi glass heel that is made for more of an elegant evening look and then you'd have the ballerina flat which is better for a day-time look. It can still be very elegant and beautiful but I would pair it with a cute calf-length skirt, for example, so you can show off the ties and wear a tighter top.

For the mules, I would pair it with an extra-large t-shirt almost like a dress and just keep it very casual but at the same time sexy and fun. As for the headbands, they literally go with everything and are made to be worn all the time. Finally, with the bags, again we have a style with a cute bag charm on it which is perfect for your everyday and then we have a handbag that has a metal handle, which is perfect for an evening event -- or if you want to be more elegant and go out in town, its the bag you want to carry.

chet lo charles and keith footwear spikes heels shoes black bags

What's your favourite piece from the collection? How would you style it?

My favourite piece is definitely the plexi heel, it's incredibly sexy and I see her going out at night and being super confident. The design also has a feel of protection, if ever she is in danger, the spikes would play as her armour. I would pair the plexi heels with a long gown with a beautiful back slit so you can see the heel for a sexy and sultry look.

Finally, how do you see the collaboration evolving? Can fans expect to see a round two in the future?

Here's hoping! It was such a fantastic process working with CHARLES & KEITH and I would love to do a round two! I definitely think this was a fabulous working experience, I'm open to any possibilities in the future and I think theres so much more that we can play on and touch on... I'm just as excited to see as you are!
KERING IN ITALY: Marking the 25th anniversary of its presence in Italy as a luxury group, with the acquisition of Gucci in 1999, Kering shared on Monday its study conducted in partnership with leading Italian consultancy firm The European House  Ambrosetti.

Among the results, the study quantified Kerings overall economic impact in Italy at 10.9 billion euros, equal to 0.6 percent of the countrys gross domestic product, listing 94,000 jobs and 49 sites for product development, manufacturing, logistics, laboratories and offices. More than 10 billion euros were generated in exports, equal to 1.7 percent of Italys total exports. The figures all refer to 2022 and consolidated revenues pertain to the Italian legal entities of the group, not retail sales.

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The relationship between Kering and Italy began at the end of the last century with Gucci, and since then we have progressively expanded and diversified our presence and investments, from artisan skills to logistical expertise and managerial competence in the broadest sense, said Francesca Bellettini, deputy chief executive officer of Kering in charge of brand development. We are particularly proud of the fact that now all our brands have found and cultivated here, in Italy, the expertise and skills that make their products unique and highly desirable.

Bellettini, who also holds the role of CEO of Saint Laurent, last month attended the official inauguration of the new Atelier Maroquinerie in Scandicci, near Florence, covering almost 310,000 square feet and employing more than 500 artisans and technicians. The facility will produce all of the brands prototypes and samples as well as bespoke items for Saint Laurents VIP clients.

We were well aware of the positive impact and the virtuous relationship between Kering and Italy. The concrete and factual assessment offered by this study is the best testament to support our beliefs, said Jean-Marc Duplaix, deputy CEO of Kering in charge of operations and finance. The extent and quality of the economic relationships developed by Kering in Italy, as shown by the study, recognize us as one of the most important foreign players in the country. The study confirms our positioning as a group with deep and solid Italian roots, and we intend to continue developing investments and attracting and retaining the best talent, always in the spirit of sustainable business growth.

Recent Kering investments in Italy include, among others, the Bottega Veneta shoes atelier in Vigonza, near Padova, the groups logistics hub in Trecate (Novara) spanning more than 162,000 square meters, and MIL, the Material Innovation Lab based in Milan, dedicated to the sourcing of sustainable materials and fabrics. TIL, the Test and Innovation Lab is located in Tuscanys Prato, and is an analysis lab that performs chemical, physical and biological testing on finished products, semi-finished products, and raw materials, namely for ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, jewelry and eyewear categories.

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Chili generally tends to be a crowd-pleaser. There's just something inherently comforting about a steaming bowl of meat, beans, and spices that makes it a reliable favorite. Many styles of chili exist, all with different flavor combinations. But while each is delicious in its own way, the kind that interior designer and TV personality Joanna Gaines makes is next-level satisfying, due to how it transforms both the taste and texture of the dish.

Gaines' chili recipe, originally shared in the first volume of her "Magnolia Table Cookbook," starts off like plenty of other chili recipes. It's made with ground beef, canned tomatoes and chiles, and southwestern-style beans, and is topped with shredded cheese and served with cornbread. In addition to these common ingredients, however, the cookbook author also incorporates chips  Fritos, to be exact. This has the effect of both introducing an extra hint of saltiness and adding a crunch factor. It's no wonder Gaines described the topping as "a revelation" in her book.

Read more: 14 Liquids To Add To Scrambled Eggs (And What They Do)

Adding Fritos To Chili

bowl of chili topped with fritos - Thecrimsonmonkey/Getty Images

Though Joanna Gaines has shared many of her own original recipes in her cookbooks and cooking show, the chili recipe isn't one of them. As she revealed in her book, she inherited the recipe from her sister-in-law, who gifted her a family cookbook when she married into the Gaines family. However, the family wasn't the first to combine Fritos with chili.

In the southwestern United States, particularly in Texas and New Mexico (where Joanna's husband Chip Gaines spent his childhood), there's a regional specialty called Frito Pie. This popular dish is made simply by topping a bag of Fritos with chili, and can be garnished with a scoop of sour cream. The Gaines family recipe technically inverts the order, topping the chili with Fritos, instead of the other way around. However, as Joanna showcased in an episode of her 2020 YouTube vlog series, "Quarantine Cooking," she serves hers more like a Frito Pie, with the corn chips on the bottom.

Joanna Gaines' Tips For Making Chili

chili being cooked in pot - Rudisill/Getty Images

One of the great things about chili is that it offers a lot of flexibility in terms of what ingredients and spices you can add. All of them, along with their exact measurements, are outlined in the "Magnolia Table Cookbook," but Gaines herself admits that she doesn't always follow her recipes to a tee. Even if you don't have every single ingredient, you can still make a tasty chili, even if you're using chili from a can. Gaines, after all, improvises when she's missing ingredients; for example, she says that southwestern-style chili beans can easily be substituted for any other canned variety.

Since Fritos are a major part of this recipe, you'll also want to be mindful of the salt content. If you plan to put a lot of Fritos in your chili, you may want to either opt for the lightly salted kind so you have better control over your sodium intake, or simply cut back on the amount of salt you incorporate in the stew in first place.

Read the original article on Daily Meal.
Margot Robbie has been dominating the red carpet with ultra-glam and undeniably chic outfits ever since she stepped onto the scene. From her daring silhouettes and prim and proper dresses to her recent positively pink ensembles in honor of Barbie, it's safe to say the Australian actress has staked her claim as a Hollywood style icon. Here, we take a look at her best red carpet moments over the years.



March 10, 2024

Robbie arrived at the Oscars wearing a sparkly black Versace gown with chunky gold and diamond jewelry.

John Shearer - Getty Images

February 25, 2024

Robbie attended the 35th Annual Producers Guild Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom wearing a darling black and white Balmain mini dress.

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin - Getty Images

February 24, 2024

The Australian actress brought the drama at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in a black Schiaparelli Couture mini dress accented by a voluminous pink shoulder and train.

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin - Getty Images

February 18, 2024

The Barbie star turned up at the BAFTAs in a custom Giorgio Armani Prive silk pink and black velvet gown paired with black opera gloves.

Karwai Tang - Getty Images

February 12, 2024

Robbie channeled Barbie at the Oscars Nominee Luncheon in a pink skirt suit from Chanel.

VALERIE MACON - Getty Images

February 10, 2024

At the AACTA Audience Choice Award in Australia, Robbie dazzled in a sparkly Vivienne Westwood gown.

Chris Hyde - Getty Images

January 11, 2024

Robbie stunned in an embellished cut-out dress by Celine with Manolo Blahnik heels and Fred Leighton and Kwiat Jewels at the 14th Annual Governors Awards.

Michael Buckner - Getty Images

January 14, 2024

Robbie looked gorgeous in a rose-adorned red Balmain dress at the Critics Choice Awards.

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin - Getty Images

January 7, 2024

Robbie looked pretty in pink at the 81st Golden Globe Awards. She channeled Superstar Barbie (1977) in a sequin Armani gown with a dramatic tulle boa, custom Manolo Blahnik heels, and over $3 million of Lorraine Schwartz jewelry.

Michael Buckner/Golden Globes 2024 - Getty Images

November 27, 2023

At the Gotham Awards, Robbie paid homage to Black Magic Barbie (1964) in a custom black Prada cape and dress with Manolo Blahnik's Jada mules.



Nina Westervelt - Getty Images

November 18, 2023

Robbie attended a Barbie screening in a fun and feathery matching pajama set from Sleeper. She tied the look together with a pink Bottega Veneta purse and Manolo Blahnik mules.

Eric Charbonneau - Getty Images

November 14, 2023

Robbie put her svelte figure on display in a transparent, black corseted gown by Schiaparelli at the Saltburn premiere in L.A.

Michael Tran - Getty Images

July 12, 2023

Robbie channeled 1960s Elegant Evening Barbie with a feather-trimmed custom Vivienne Westwood dress at the European premiere of Barbie.



Dave Benett - Getty Images

July 9, 2023

She looked just like Solo in the Spotlight Barbie (1960) in a sequined Schiaparelli Haute Couture dress trimmed with tulle at the L.A. premiere of Barbie.



Michael Buckner - Getty Images

July 7, 2023

While in Mexico City, she posed as 1992's Totally Hair Barbie in a multi-colored Pucci minidress with hot pink pumps.



Future Publishing - Getty Images

July 6, 2023

Robbie went to the Mexico City Barbie premiere as Earring Magic Barbie (1992). She wore a hot pink mesh and leather Balmain minidress with matching pumps and statement celestial earrings.

Future Publishing - Getty Images

July 3, 2023

Robbie pulled off Sparkling Pink Barbie (1964) in a custom bedazzled hot pink set in Seoul.



Han Myung-Gu - Getty Images

June 30, 2023

Robbie shined in a sparkly pink bustier mini dress at the the Barbie Celebration Party at Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.

James Gourley - Getty Images

June 25, 2023

The actress looked pretty in polka dots at Barbie photocall in L.A.



Jon Kopaloff - Getty Images

May 1, 2023

Robbie wore a remake of Cindy Crawford's 1993 Chanel Gown at the 2023 Met Gala: Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.

Michael Buckner - Getty Images

April 25, 2023

Robbie kicked off the red carpet Barbiemania with a two piece gingham set from Prada during CinemaCon.

Alberto E. Rodriguez - Getty Images

March 12, 2023

At the Oscars, Robbie looked elegant in an off-the-shoulder gown by Giorgio Armani Prive.

ABC - Getty Images

January 16, 2023

For the Australian premiere of Babylon, Robbie looked glamorous in a vintage baby blue dress with a red lace trim by Versace.

Brendon Thorne - Getty Images

January 12, 2023

Robbie brought the drama to the UK Premiere of Babylon in a bold red Valentino cape dress.

Dave Benett - Getty Images

January 10, 2023

Robbie opted for a 1920's-esque pink halterneck dress by Chanel for the Golden Globe Awards.



Amy Sussman - Getty Images

December 15, 2023

For the L.A. premiere of Babylon, Robbie showed off her assets in bold wrap dress by Alaia with a chic hood and fur-trimmed train.



Steve Granitz - Getty Images

November 19, 2022

Robbie looked chic in a midriff-baring asymmetrical green gown at the 13th Governors Awards.

Gilbert Flores - Getty Images

September 21, 2022

Robbie wore a dramatic cut-out dress by Celine complete with a cape at the Amsterdam European premiere.



Samir Hussein - Getty Images

April 25, 2021

Robbie stunned in a silver floral Chanel dress at the 93rd Annual Academy Awards.

Pool - Getty Images

February 28, 2021

Robbie kicked off the 2021 awards season in a floral chanel ensemble at the Golden Globes.



Todd Williamson/NBC - Getty Images

February 9, 2020

The actress wow'd in a vintage Chanel gown with dramatic sleeves at the 92nd Oscars.

ROBYN BECK - Getty Images

February 2, 2020

Robbie attended the EE British Academy Film Awards ceremony in a demure, lace peplum gown.



NurPhoto - Getty Images

January 19, 2020

Robbie arrived to the SAG Awards in a ruffled, plaid gown by Chanel.



FREDERIC J. BROWN - Getty Images

January 5, 2020

The actress looked fabulous in a colorful beaded bustier teamed with a white skirt courtesy of Chanel at the Golden Globes.



Steve Granitz - Getty Images

October 13, 2019

Robbie kept her look low-key in a white two-piece set by Mara Hoffman at a Bombshell screening.

Steve Granitz - Getty Images

July 30, 2019

For the London premiere of Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood, Robbie wore a daring Oscar de la Renta gown.

Isabel Infantes - PA Images - Getty Images

July 22, 2019

Robbie looked ethereal in a plunging white gown with transparent sleeves at the Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood premiere.

Albert L. Ortega - Getty Images

December 10, 2018

Robbie looked glamorous in a plunging polka dot with rose details by Rodarte at the Mary Queen of Scots premiere in England.

Dave J Hogan - Getty Images

December 4, 2018

For the NYC premiere, Robbie sparkled in a sequin transparent Chanel gown.

Manny Carabel - Getty Images

March 4, 2018

Weeks later, she opted for another sparkly Chanel gown for the Vanity Fair Oscar party.

John Shearer - Getty Images

March 4, 2018

Robbie radiated in a custom off-the-shoulder white Chanel gown at the Oscars.

WWD - Getty Images

February 18, 2018

Margot Robbie attended at the EE British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England

Anadolu - Getty Images

January 23, 2018

Robbie turned heads in a minimal plunging satin gown at the I, Tonya premiere in Sydney.

Don Arnold - Getty Images

January 15, 2018

Robbie looked ladylike in blush pink Rodarte dress with floral details at the Paris premiere of I, Tonya.

Marc Piasecki - Getty Images

January 21, 2018

The Australian actress wore a shimmery Miu Miu gown with a fur center trim to the 2018 SAG Awards.

JEAN-BAPTISTE LACROIX - Getty Images

January 7, 2018

For the 2018 Golden Globes, Robbie wore a black Gucci dress with silvery embroidery in support of the Times Up movement.

Kevork Djansezian/NBC - Getty Images

November 11, 2017

Robbie brought her fashion A-game to the Governors Awards red carpet in a flower-adorned Altuzarra dress with a feathery clutch.

Steve Granitz - Getty Images

September 20, 2017

Robbie looked gorgeous in a darling Brock Collection dress at the Goodbye Christopher Robin world premiere in London.

Mike Marsland - Getty Images

April 25, 2017

Robbie looked just like candy in a multi-colored beaded Prada dress at the Time 100 Gala.

Taylor Hill - Getty Images

November 28, 2016

Robbie kept things in minimal in a white plunging gown at the Gotham Independent Film Awards.

Jemal Countess - Getty Images

August 1, 2016

Robbie took center stage at the Suicide Squad premiere in a two-tone black and metallic dress.

Noam Galai - Getty Images

June 27, 2016

Robbie arrived at the The Legend of Tarzan premiere in a fur-trimmed Gucci kimono.

JB Lacroix - Getty Images

May 2, 2016

Robbie stunned at the Met Gala in a Calvin Klein cutout dress.

Kevin Mazur - Getty Images

March 1, 2016

Robbie looked fabulous in black open back dress for the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot world premiere in NYC.

Nicholas Hunt - Getty Images

February 28, 2016

Robbie shined bright in a metallic gold Tom Ford gown at the Academy Awards.

VALERIE MACON - Getty Images

February 25, 2015

Robbie hit the Oscars red carpet in a plunging black Saint Laurent gown with transparent sleeves and a statement necklace.

Kevin Mazur - Getty Images

March 30, 2014

Robbie looked red hot in an off the shoulder jumpsuit at the Jameson Empire Film Awards.

Dave J Hogan - Getty Images

March 2, 2014

For her first Oscars appearance, Robbie debuted her new brunette tresses with strapless Saint Laurent gown.



Steve Granitz - Getty Images

January 16, 2014

Robbie showed off her figure in a black jumpsuit with lace sleeves at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards.

Lester Cohen - Getty Images

January 12, 2014

Robbie made her first appearance the Golden Globes in a custom silk crepe gown by Gucci.



Jeff Vespa - Getty Images

January 9, 2014

Robbie radiated in red for the UK premiere The Wolf Of Wall Street.

Ian Gavan - Getty Images

December 17, 2013

The then-up-and-coming actress attended The Wolf Of Wall Street premiere in a one-shoulder white dress with black details at the hip.

Michael Loccisano - Getty Images

February 24, 2013

Robbie looked elegant in a white floral minidress for one of her major red carpet appearances at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party at Sunset Tower.

Jon Kopaloff - Getty Images

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In the last year, multiple insiders have substantially increased their holdings of Hai Leck Holdings Limited (SGX:BLH) stock, indicating that insiders' optimism about the company's prospects has increased.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

Check out our latest analysis for Hai Leck Holdings

Hai Leck Holdings Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The Founder Buck Poh Cheng made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for S$3.4m worth of shares at a price of S$0.38 each. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being S$0.34). While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock if insiders have bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price.

While Hai Leck Holdings insiders bought shares during the last year, they didn't sell. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

SGX:BLH Insider Trading Volume January 8th 2024

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Hai Leck Holdings Insiders Bought Stock Recently

It's good to see that Hai Leck Holdings insiders have made notable investments in the company's shares. We can see that Founder Buck Poh Cheng paid S$3.4m for shares in the company. No-one sold. That shows some optimism about the company's future.

Does Hai Leck Holdings Boast High Insider Ownership?

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Hai Leck Holdings insiders own about S$40m worth of shares (which is 53% of the company). I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders.

Story continues

So What Does This Data Suggest About Hai Leck Holdings Insiders?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. And an analysis of the transactions over the last year also gives us confidence. Along with the high insider ownership, this analysis suggests that insiders are quite bullish about Hai Leck Holdings. One for the watchlist, at least! So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. For example, Hai Leck Holdings has 4 warning signs (and 2 which don't sit too well with us) we think you should know about.

But note: Hai Leck Holdings may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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.
For the first time, the Sewn Products Equipment and Suppliers of America (SPESA) is bringing its Advancements in Manufacturing Technologies Conference to Los Angeles.

The 12th edition of the conference will be held on April 11 at the California Market Center (CMC), a mixed-use facility in the citys downtown fashion district with offices, showrooms and event spaces. The CMC is home to showrooms for more than 300 brands including Bestseller, DL1961, Emporio Armani, Fendi, Hugo Boss, Mavi and more.

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[People are] saying that manufacturing is leaving Los Angeles, but its still one of the largest hubs in the U.S., SPESA president Michael McDonald told Sourcing Journal. And I still think theres a strong history and a strong manufacturing sector there, so its an exciting place to be.

The last Advancements in Manufacturing Technologies Conference was held in Detroit, with a tie-in to the citys North American International Auto Show, and it has previously traveled to destinations like Raleigh, N.C.; Chicago and Dallas. SPESA tailors the content to the city, and this years event will reflect Los Angeles distinct market, targeting suppliers of equipment and software as well as manufacturers and designers.

Adding local expertise, SPESA is partnering with the California Fashion Association (CFA) for the conference. Founded in 1995, the organization focuses on growing the states apparel industry by providing educational resources and promotional support to its members, including FAM Brands, Michael Stars, NYDJ and Trina Turk. [CFA president Ilse Metcheck] knows the history of Los Angeles, but then she also knows the industry today, McDonald said. Were excited to just kind of pick her brain and then work with her members to bring them what they want to hear, not what we want to tell them.

The agenda will feature conversational discussions with speakers from established firms as well as startups. Among the topics SPESA is planning to cover are automation and artificial intelligence. We cant keep chasing the cheapest needle, said McDonald. We found it probably about 15, 20 years ago; its not going to get cheaper than it was in China back then. So the only way that we can manufacture and maintain the price level the consumer wants is to manufacture better, and thats through automation.

Per McDonald, automating sewing is the greatest engineering challenge in manufacturing today of any industry because of the material handling needed, and it will require collaboration to solve. He added that much of the innovation in automation gained in the 80s stalled as production moved overseas, but in the last few years, investment and advancements have picked up again.

Another key conference topic will be sustainability and circularity. Manufacturing for circularity is a real shift in the industry thats exciting from a supplier perspective, because its going to require all this new technology that doesnt quite exist yet, McDonald said.

Noting that sustainability regulations that originate in Europe often expand to the U.S. later, McDonald said the industry should plan for future circular requirements. If youre not doing it voluntarily, its going to be forced upon you as an industry, he said. We need to start focusing on that and solving those problems before we have to.
There are roughly 3,800 captive elephants in Thailand.

nong2/Getty Images

In Thailand, its very easy to encounter an elephant. Some sites allow quiet observation, as you admire the massive animals from afar. Other tourist venues offer activities like feeding, riding, or bathing with elephants. Many places toss around the term ethical when describing the encounters, but they often are not the sanctuaries they promote.

Visiting an animal sanctuary while traveling can be a great way to support local animal welfare and conservation efforts, but you need to do your homework because there are many bogus sanctuaries operating that can lure in well-meaning and unsuspecting tourists, Wendy Higgins, director of international media for Humane Society International, told Travel + Leisure.

An immediate red flag is if visitors can participate in any hands-on interactions with elephants such as playing with babies or taking elephant rides. Another warning sign is if the elephants perform in shows or demonstrations, like painting, Higgins said. These are entirely unnatural displays for which the elephants will be forced to train, and there is no welfare benefit to the elephant whatsoever. A true sanctuary will never encourage or force any animal to interact with people, especially tourists.

Westend61/Getty Images

Elephant tourism has been an important part of Thailands economy for five decades. There are about 4,000 wild elephants in Thailand, reports the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with an additional 3,800 elephants in captivity. The country is home to three-quarters of the captive elephants in Asia with a 70 percent increase in just a decade, according to a 2020 report from the non-profit World Animal Protection. Of the venues studied across Asia, the report found that 63 percent of elephants live in dire conditions at 208 locations and only 7 percent of elephants were kept in high welfare venues.



When travelers visit Asia, particularly places like Thailand, they are focused on captive elephants because of opportunities to interact with them, Nilanga Jayasinghe, a wildlife conservation manager at WWF, told T+L. However, it's important to remember that there are also wild elephants in these places, and they are facing significant conservation challenges. There is direct value in keeping these elephants wild, living as elephants should live.

Asian elephants are classified as endangered with their numbers decreasing by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUC) Red List, which tracks the conservation status and extinction risk of species. They have been threatened by conflict with humans, poaching, and illegal elephant trade. The main threat is habitat loss and fragmentation  where parts of their habitat are destroyed, leaving smaller, disconnected areas. They live on the most populous continent on the planet alongside a burgeoning human population, so habitat loss is a significant threat, said Jayasinghe.







"Unethical elephant facilities attract tourists because people love elephants and are delighted at the possibility of getting up close and personal. What they won't necessarily know is that the elephants are not willing participants in that encounter, and can suffer greatly for the tourist trade."

Wendy Higgins







In Thailand, captive elephants are classified as "beasts of burden" with few welfare protections. Thailands Cruelty Prevention and Welfare of Animals Act of 2014 was enacted to prevent animal cruelty and promote welfare but, until recently, there was little enforcement and little motivation to improve conditions.

Now, the livestock ministry, which has jurisdiction over captive elephants, is working to develop welfare standards and legal penalties to enforce the law, reports the Asian Elephant Specialist Group, a global network of specialists studying and monitoring the conservation of Asian elephants. And a Thailand-based independent welfare organization is performing welfare audits of tourist camps.

How to Tell if a Sanctuary Is Ethical

As a general rule, a true sanctuary will allow you to look but not touch the elephants, said Higgins. A sanctuary will allow you to see elephants just being elephants in as near a wild setting as possible, and the tourist is a mere observer.

Another pro-tip: research what is offered at an elephant tourist location and look at photos before visiting. These are some telltale signs that sanctuaries are not ethical:

Elephants are restrained, particularly chained by the foot.

Workers carry bullhooks. These are long poles with sharp hooks on the ends that have been used to control elephants.

The location offers elephant rides, elephant painting, or other interactive experiences, like feeding the elephants.

They engage in captive breeding to always have baby elephants on hand for tourists to pet or feed.

Westend61/Getty Images

Unethical elephant facilities attract tourists because people love elephants and are delighted at the possibility of getting up close and personal. What they won't necessarily know is that the elephants are not willing participants in that encounter, and can suffer greatly for the tourist trade, said Higgins.

Visiting these establishments perpetuates a cycle of animal suffering in which the animals experience boredom, frustration, and even physical pain or fear. These places can also pose a danger to the human visitors in some cases because elephants are very large powerful animals whose behavior can be unpredictable in an overcrowded or stressful situation.

If you choose to visit a genuine elephant sanctuary, look for ones that give back to practical and local conservation efforts, Higgins suggested. By supporting those sanctuaries that are doing things right, and promoting your visit on social media with a reminder that you chose it for its ethical practices, it's a great way to encourage other travelers to do the right thing too.

The WWF suggested visiting places like Kui Buri, Khao Yai, or Kaeng Krachan national parks where you can see elephants in the wild.

Its a much more enriching experience to go see them in the wild if you are visiting a country like Thailand, where you can experience them in all their majesty, said WWFs Jayasinghe. You dont have to touch or bathe an elephant to experience how amazing they are.



Related: Why I'll Never Ride an Elephant  and You Shouldn't Either (Video)

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Read the original article on Travel & Leisure.
Increased prices and a low supply of this pantry staple have people talking.

Dotdash Meredith/Janet Maples

Trader Joes recently experienced an olive oil shortage, leaving shelves bare and customers confused. One frustrated shopper posted on a recent Reddit thread, saying, Whats going on with all olive oil at TJ? The customer then described going to a Staten Island store followed by another location in Queens where there was not one bottle of olive oil.

This lack of olive oil at Trader Joe's and some interesting Reddit comments about a possible draught in Spain got us thinking: Is this a TJ's problem or a wider one? We spoke to two olive oil business experts to find out.

Is There an Olive Oil Shortage?

George Gyftakis is the founder of Little Gypsy Farms, a farm-direct producer who specializes in craft estate-grown extra virgin olive oil from Greece.

Like many producers of artisan products, Gyftakis says disruptions to the market started during Covid when labor and shipping got halted. There seem to be other issues to contend with, such as climate change, drought, and extreme heat that have hit regions of Spain, Greece, and Italy.

The heat alone has damaged olive trees, stunting growth, and in some cases killing the trees, he says. Wildfires swept across Greece in the last few years ravaging groves and planting new trees take years before they will produce a meaningful amount of olives for harvest.

When we asked Gyftakis specifically about Trader Joes empty shelves, he said it probably has a lot to do with the low-priced blended olive oil that the retailer most likely purchases to provide the lowest supermarket price. Gyftakis states this low-quality oil becomes much more scarce with the supply so tight as it is used to blend other oil batches.

dulezidar/Getty Images

As for Gyftakis and his team, he said they have a bit of an advantage since they farm everything themselves. We have a lower overall cost since we are not purchasing our oil on the wholesale market.

Matteo Frescobadi, brand manager of Italy-based Laudemio Frescobaldi Extra Virgin Olive Oil agreed that the shortage found nationally and internationally is due to the two-year drought in Spain.

"Spain is the major world producer of extra virgin olive oil supplying the global mass market of EVOO, he says. So, two years of low production in Spain means low availability of EVOO for the whole world.

Although he uses olives within Florence and Tuscany in Italy, Frescobadi says he has not been greatly impacted by the shortage, and in fact, stated his 2023 harvest offered an abundant production to supply the US market as well as the rest of the world.

Will Olive Oil Prices Go Up?

If you havent seen olive oil prices go up yet, there is a good chance you will soon. Since there is more demand with some supply setbacks due to the climate, this can cause prices to increase both in retail and wholesaleso much in fact, Gyftakis said prices went up about 100 percent in the last 12 months.

The good news is that Gyftakis said the demand for olive oil has been higher over the years because more consumers are educating themselves about its many health benefits, including lowering cholesterol and improving cognitive function.

Nico Tondini

The Takeaway

Olive oil may be harder to find in grocery stores like many shoppers experienced at Trader Joes, but that doesnt necessarily mean all will be impacted, as stated by both olive oil professionals, whom you can also purchase the product directly.

The Reddit thread that originally posted about the shortage had many commenters weighing in, saying theyve still been able to find olive oil at their local Costco without any disruption thus far, and there is no word on whether those prices have increased.



Read the original article on All Recipes.
PROVIDENCE  In August 2020, the state's honorary historian laureate, Patrick T. Conley and his wife, Gail, made an extraordinary gift to one of the nonprofit foundations he led.

Quietly, and without recording the deed for almost two years, the Conleys gifted "Gale Winds"  their 10-room, waterfront home on Bristol Point Road in Bristol  to the Heritage Harbor Foundation.

The gift was given under the terms of a "life estate" that would enable the couple to continue living there, as tenants, while the foundation paid one or more of their mortgages, totaling $880,000, according to a board member and a fundraising letter written by Conley.

On paper, it may have sounded like a win-win for both the Conleys and the foundation.

The couple could potentially live out their lives mortgage-free. The foundation would get what was described, in a January 2023 fundraising package, as a "prestigious headquarters ... [and] site for small scale, but elegant events" with its "voluminous library on American legal and constitutional development" as a resource for nearby Roger Williams University's law school.

On May 22, 2023, however, the foundation gave the property back to the Conleys.

Patrick T. Conley signed the quitclaim deed as "President, Heritage Harbor Foundation, a Rhode Island nonprofit corporation."

Patrick Conley

Why give back a bayfront estate?

First, some background:

The foundation deeded the property back to the Conleys after a capital fund drive to raise money to free "Gale Winds"  valued at a potential $4.5 million  of "$880,000 of encumbrances," according to a Jan. 12, 2023, letter from Conley to potential donors.

A companion goal: to retire the $110,000 mortgage on the foundation's headquarters on the Wampanoag Trail.

Conley described the aims this way in his fundraising appeal to Heritage Hall of Fame members and directors emeritus:

"To build the amount of interest-earning funds at the Rhode Island Foundation; and render our permanent prestigious home, Gale Winds, free of encumbrances in order to broaden our grant-making and project-creating ability."

"We all voted happily to accept the gift when it was first offered. We again voted unanimously to return it when the mortgage payments cut into our grant-making ability," writer/publisher Kenneth Dooley, a Heritage Harbor board member, told The Journal last week.

"The Conleys returned all of the mortgage payments, with interest," Dooley said.

From left, Brig. Gen. James J. D'Agostino; Reginald Centracchio, former adjutant general of the R.I. National Guard; Gov. Dan McKee; and Rhode Island Honorary Historian Laureate Patrick Conley attend a 2021 event.

Who is Patrick Conley?

A lawyer, real estate investor and former professor of history and constitutional law at Providence College, Conley, now in his 80s, has been a familiar and sometimes controversial figure for decades.

On his resume, he wrote: "Owner of more individual parcels of Providence real estate than any individual in the citys history, and holder of more Rhode Island real estate titles (via tax sale purchases) than any person in Rhode Island history."

He made news most recently as the defender of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame's decision to induct  and in his words, vindicate  retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a Middletown native who was pardoned by then-President Donald Trump after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during the transition period before Trump's 2017 inauguration. Revelations about those contacts had led Flynn to resign as Trump's national security adviser after only 24 days.

What does the Heritage Harbor Foundation do?

The foundation was created in 2015 with the $3.6 million in proceeds from the sale of "assets of the proposed Heritage Harbor Museum" at the former Narragansett Electric power plant in Providence that never got off the ground.

It is one of three nonprofits led for years by Conley. The others are the Rhode Island Publications Society and the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.

The foundation helps to fund the other two, according to the prospectus obtained by The Journal.

"It also aids the Rhode Island Publications Society's continuing output ... [having] already published over 115 books and pamphlets on Rhode Island's heritage and history." (Among the most recent: "The State of Rhode Island: Politics & Government," a look at what has and has not changed in Rhode Island in the last 20 years," it reads.

As of June 30, 2022, the foundation had $3,186,043 invested with the separate Rhode Island Foundation, $22,562 in bank accounts and $318,000 invested in what was broadly described, in the prospectus, as "outstanding investment liens."

On Monday, Dooley conveyed this message from Conley, that as of today: "All 'outstanding investment liens' have been paid and closed at a 14% return on investment." He did not elaborate.

A 2012 Journal file photo shows Providence City Archivist Paul R. Campbell, left, and historian Patrick T. Conley as they read some of the articles and advertisements in the 184 Revolutionary War-era Providence newspapers (Manufacturers and Farmers Journal and Providence and Pawtucket Advertiser) Conley donated to the city archives.

Between 2017 and 2023, the Heritage Harbor Foundation funded a total of $1,251,284 in "grants and heritage projects," according to a summary compiled by board member Russell DeSimone, the grants committee chairman.

That includes $551,009 in "external grants" to "over 100 nonprofits," in amounts ranging from the $520 given the Town of Johnston to help provide a new home for an oft-vandalized Columbus statue to $10,000 given the Pothier Foundation for a St. Jean Baptiste celebration in Woonsocket and $40,000 given to Writers' Associates LLC last fall to burnish the Hall of Fame website.

Another $546,377 was spent on "internal grants."

One went to the Heritage Hall of Fame ($95,000) for operations and the other ($451,377) to the Rhode Island Publications Society for "over 3 dozen books and booklets on Rhode Island distributed free to libraries and others, including the recently published 308-page book on 'The State of Rhode Island: Politics and Government.'"

In addition, "the foundation has acquired and renovated approximately 5300 square feet of space for its headquarters at 1445 Wampanoag [Trail], East Providence," DeSimone wrote in a summary provided to The Journal last week.

"This [now] mortgage-free facility includes offices, meeting rooms, a public lecture hall, our library and research archives, a photography studio display and storage areas for Rhode Island Publications Society books and a small museum of Rhode Island immigrant history," DeSimone wrote.

"All of these operations are supervised by 85-year-old Dr. Pat Conley free of charge ... [who] also substantively edits (at no charge) all of the books and booklets produced by the Publications Society," DeSimone wrote.

"This amount also represents the creation and management of a 1200-volume library of Rhode Island books and a research archive consisting of nine large file cabinets of Rhode Island research materials open to scholars."

What happened after the August 2020 gift of 'Gale Winds'?

On July 28, 2022, the Conleys recorded the quitclaim deed, signed almost two years earlier, that gave their Bristol home to the Heritage Harbor Foundation subject to "the retention of a life estate" by Patrick and Gail Conley.

Among the other conditions of the gift:

That the property be known as "Gale Winds" in perpetuity.

That the foundation "maintain the building and grounds [in] a manner consistent with its current condition and elegance ... [and] catalog and maintain the contents of the Conley Library ... for its use by visiting scholars."

That after the Conleys die, an addendum to the deed required the foundation to seek "a succession of tenants, preferably those with historical and heritage and/or library expertise, to reside at the premises as caretaker and curator [to foster] the educational and cultural mission of the foundation and its operations."

There was also this:

"Should the foundation need to sell Gale Winds because the maintenance of this estate seriously impairs the foundation's financial resources and seriously diminishes its grant-giving and internal project capability, then [$1 million] of the sale proceeds shall be distributed to" the Conleys' seven children.

In the fundraising package he sent potential donors last January, Conley quoted the late Vartan Gregorian, a onetime Brown University president and Hall of Fame inductee:

"We cannot and must not lose our sense of history and our memory, for they constitute our identity. We cannot be prisoners of the present and wander out of history. For a society without a deep historical memory, the future ceases to exist and the present becomes a meaningless cacophony."

"Please contribute to creating 'our deep historical memory,'" Conley wrote potential donors.

Why give back a gift?

Board member Ken Dooley explained the foundation's dilemma:

"It was appraised by two impartial evaluators (one being a bank) at $3.3 million in mid-2019," he said. "The surge in real estate values, especially for prime waterfront estates ... raised its reasonable value to over $4 million at the end of 2022."

After the mortgages were deducted from the gift, the net value "exceeded $3 million," Dooley explained, but the foundation soon found that the mortgage payments were "burdensome and interfered with its grant-making power," even with the Conleys paying the taxes and utilities and financing the renovations and maintenance of the property.

Dooley said the foundation then transferred Gale Winds back to the Conleys, who reimbursed the foundation for the mortgage payments and interest the nonprofit made on the property.

"Gail and Patrick then committed to give the foundation proceeds from the eventual sale of Gale Winds upon their death. That amount is estimated to be well more than 2 million dollars," Dooley said.

A year-to-year comparison indicates what happened.

In 2019, the foundation announced $86,155 in grants to 12 organizations. In Tax Year 2021, it reported just $29,900 in grants to the IRS. (It is not clear why the numbers do not completely match a summary provided to The Journal last week.)

It is not known whether anyone on the board questioned how the giveback comported with the state and federal rules that govern private foundations, including the rule that prohibits the "transfer to, or use by or for the benefit of, a disqualified person of the income or assets of a private foundation." (Conley would not comment on this.)

Conley explains the deal

In an email to The Journal on Friday, Conley explained what he hoped would happen to his bayfront estate "at the pre-eminent tip of Bristol Point with an eleven-mile view down Narragansett Bay" when he and his wife, Gail  for whom "Gale Winds" is named  gifted it to the foundation.

He said he and his wife wanted to "create another cultural and charitable institution" in Bristol  already home to Roger Williams University, Mount Hope Farm, Brown's Haffenreffer Museum, the Herreshoff Marine Museum and Blithewold  by granting their home to the foundation.

"To accomplish this," he said, "one problem had to be overcome, namely the cost of maintaining this project due primarily to an $880,000 mortgage encumbrance on Gale Winds," he wrote.

"Initially I went to our investment partner, the Rhode Island Foundation to seek help," he continued. "After meeting with its president and chief financial advisor, I was informed that RIF financial assistance with our mortgages was not available because it would set an undesirable precedent for RIF's other investment partners."

With this avenue closed, Conley said, he decided to set the stage for a fundraising drive.

Among his first steps: placing "the fully executed and unanimously approved deed of gift to the foundation, reserving a life estate for Gail and me, in escrow with the [RIF] secretary because of the possibility that the mortgagee might demand immediate and full payment of the mortgage if the property's transfer was recorded."

He said he prepared a detailed "Capital Fund Prospectus setting forth in detail to potential donors the outline of my plan to pay off the obstructing mortgages to facilitate the foundation's acquisition of the property."

"I also assured them and the foundation that the doubling of the foundation's corpus and the rental of this spectacular property for mini-weddings and conferences after our deaths would ensure that it would not financially burden the foundation."

By 2023, though, Conley said the fundraising effort had "completely failed." And the original transfer agreement from 2020 contained a provision that when he turned 85 "and became at least semi-retired," the foundation would also begin paying other expenses related to Gale Winds  including taxes, renovations, insurance and maintenance that the Conleys had been paying, "it was obvious the gift project had failed."

And so, "on the eve of my 85th birthday," Conley explained, he got approval of every director at the foundation to transfer the property back to himself and his wife.

"We never took a charitable tax deduction for our gift because it was always tentative," he said.

Breaking it down further, Conley said while the foundation held the title to the property, it paid the first mortgage and insurance to Eastern Bank, while Conley and his wife paid the second mortgage to Bank 5, the taxes, utilities, and other expenses.

"With the property back in our name," the Conleys applied for and received a $4.99-million reverse mortgage with Finance America that paid off the two existing mortgages and "gave us a substantial line of credit."

"At our request, our accountant then computed the amount the foundation had paid on the first mortgage during its ownership of the property. It totaled $87,181.04, which we repaid to the foundation with interest.

"This payment was not legally required, but we considered it our moral obligation," Conley said.

Looking ahead, Conley said: "Gail and I have also decided that upon the death of the survivor, Gale Winds will be sold and its proceeds will be gifted to the foundation as our legacy."

"Given the appreciation in value as computed by Finance America, that sum should be well in excess of $2 million," he continued.

But "if some benefactor should donate a large sum to the foundation to pay off the reverse mortgage, our original legacy dream of a foundation headquarters at Gale Winds would be revived," he wrote, still holding out hope.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI Historian Laureate Pat Conley once gave his home to his nonprofit
More than 40 states from Washington to Massachusetts are set to be impacted by new winter storms on the move.

After up to 18 inches of snow pummeled California to Colorado this weekend, nine states in the West and the Plains are under blizzard warnings Monday. The storm will impact Washington, Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.

10:30 PM SUNDAY night at the El Paso Area National Weather Service in Santa Teresa, NMwe only got a trace. #nmwx #txwx pic.twitter.com/PuF9acpWDh  NWS El Paso (@NWSElPaso) January 8, 2024

Monday night into Tuesday, that snow will move into Chicago, Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

PHOTO: Snowfall Forecast Map (ABC News)

MORE: What every motorist needs to know about driving in snow

Meanwhile, in the South, tornadoes and flash flooding are possible on Monday along the Gulf Coast, from Texas to Florida. New Orleans to Pensacola, Florida, are in the bull's-eye, but tornadoes are also possible in Houston.

A tornado watch was issued in an area including Houston and Beaumont, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana, through 9 p.m..

Schools in Louisiana's St. James, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes will dismiss early on Monday due to the looming severe weather.

PHOTO: Severe Weather Threat - Monday Map (ABC News)

On Tuesday, the severe weather and tornado threat will be from Florida to the Carolinas, including Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Savannah, Charleston, and Charlotte.

PHOTO: Severe Weather Threat - Tuesday Map (ABC News)

In the Northeast, flooding is possible Tuesday from Virginia to Maine, especially along the Interstate 95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia to New Jersey to Connecticut and Massachusetts.

PHOTO: Rainfall Forecast Map (ABC News)

The threat for flooding from the quickly falling 3 inches of rain is further enhanced by the snow melt from this weekend's storm.

Orange County, New York: Heavy snowfall has been ongoing for just over an hour. Approximately 3 inches of snow fell between 8:59 pm and 10:01 pm  pic.twitter.com/7ggsNeflR2  OCWeatherNY (@OCWeatherNY) January 7, 2024

PHOTO: A person walks a dog as snow falls in Portsmouth, N.H., Jan. 7, 2024. (Caleb Jones/AP)

PHOTO: Snow is falling heavily in Port Jervis, New York, January 7, 2024. (Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via AP)

Over 40 states under blizzard, wind, snow or flood alerts as winter storms cross country originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
SOUTH MILWAUKEE  Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Monday announced a bill creating a medical marijuana program and state-run dispensaries in Wisconsin, marking the first time an effort to legalize cannabis has been pushed by at least one leader of the Republican-controlled state Legislature.

But it doesn't appear to have the backing of key members of the Senate yet, including the leader of Republicans in that chamber and the senator that has introduced a less restrictive medical marijuana bill in the past.

Wisconsin is one of 12 states where recreational or medical marijuana is not available. Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers have for years called for the legalization of marijuana for recreational and medical use but have been blocked so far by GOP legislative leaders.

Now, Republican lawmakers  at least on the Assembly side  are growing warmer to the idea of allowing marijuana use for medicinal purposes, but the bill released Monday would not allow users to smoke cannabis, nor would it pave the way for private dispensaries in Wisconsin.

"The people of Wisconsin have said they want us to try to find solutions for the problems that vex our society," Vos said. "There are very few Republicans that I know, and I would say most employers and even an awful lot of citizens, that do not want to see this become an end-around to get us toward recreational marijuana."

In a statement, Evers' spokeswoman Britt Cudaback did not say whether Evers would sign the bill released Monday. He told reporters last week that he would approve a restrictive medical marijuana bill, unless Republicans include a "poison pill" like cuts to taxes or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that he opposes.

"The governor will be reviewing Assembly Republicans proposal, and he looks forward to hearing from Wisconsinites and other stakeholders as the bill moves through the legislative process," Cudaback said.

Vos said the bill has the support of at least 50 Republicans in the Assembly, which would be enough to pass the proposal without Democratic votes. Vos said there would be hearings in the next few weeks and the Assembly would pass it before it adjourns in February.

"We wanted to focus on putting a program together that would get the votes in the Assembly to show that we actually were serious about getting this done," Vos said.

Democrats have previously accused Republicans of promoting their medical marijuana bill during an election year, despite knowing it doesn't have the votes to become law.

Sen. Melissa Agard of Madison, who has been a key Democratic supporter of full legalization, said "putting forward an overly restrictive medical cannabis bill does not move our state in the right direction."

"It is disappointing to see that yet again, Wisconsins Republican Legislators are acting as health professionals when they are not. I firmly believe we must trust doctors, patients, and caretakers to make these personal, medical decisions," Agard said in a statement.

Using marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor's approval is a popular idea among Wisconsin voters  83% supported it in 2019, the only time the Marquette University Law School poll asked the question.

Senate Republicans have not supported legalization in the past

GOP leaders have previously said support was building in their caucuses for the idea, but previous iterations of the bill haven't gotten far in the Legislature, beyond getting a public hearing in 2022.

In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, did not say whether he supported the Assembly GOP's plan, but said "specific details of the proposal are important and need to be thoroughly vetted before the Senate decides how to proceed."

"The Assemblys medical marijuana proposal will move through the normal legislative process, including committee action, before being considered by the full Senate," LeMahieu said.

Several Senate Republicans have not supported legalizing marijuana in the past. Rep. Jon Plumer, R-Lodi, told reporters at a separate press conference at the state Capitol that he hopes to get them on board this time but did not name another Senate Republican aside from Sen. Mary Felzkowski of Irma.

"We've had conversations with the Senate. I know that Mary Felzkowski had the last two sessions a bill. So I'm hopeful that we can get something done but with both houses," Plumer said.

But Felzkowski, who has led the bill in the past, said in a statement that she saw the bill for the first time on Monday and had been consulted about the proposal "at a ten-thousand foot view."

"While some concepts in the bill sound incredibly well thought out, my concerns with several provisions, most notably the choice to require the state to directly dispense medical marijuana, instead of going the route of a proven, private-sector model of delivering this care, led to my decision to remain un-involved in this particular legislation," Felzkowski said.

More: Medical marijuana bill coming back to Wisconsin in January. Here's what else is ahead on pot legalization in 2024.

More: Speaker Robin Vos says GOP is building support for a medical marijuana bill

State would run dispensaries, provide smokeless options

Republicans had already indicated their proposal would be more restrictive than the 38 states that currently allow medical use.

The plan calls for five dispensaries managed by the state Department of Health Services in each Medicaid region, which Republicans said would mark the first time a state has run dispensaries.

When asked why Republicans supported government-run businesses in this scenario, Vos said marijuana is still illegal under federal law.

"We want to guarantee that law enforcement knows that it's well-controlled and well-documented," Vos said.

Felzkowski said she believed that "private entities, run by those with expertise in this area of medicine, are more efficient and more effective than any government agency."

Participants would get their doctor's confirmation of their medical condition, pay a $100 registration fee per year and visit a pharmacist at the dispensary to get the prescription.

Unlike previous versions of the bill, Vos said most forms of cannabis would be allowed, including concentrates, oils, tinctures, edibles, pills, topical creams and vapors, among others. Participants would not be able to smoke marijuana.

The bill lays out nine medical conditions that would qualify for the program, including cancer, glaucoma, severe chronic pain, multiple sclerosis and terminal illness with life expectancy of less than a year. Vos said additional conditions could be added through legislation, but authors looked at other states to create a list.

Minnesota's medical marijuana program, for example, includes about 20 medical conditions, including obstructive sleep apnea, obsessive-compulsive disorder, HIV/AIDS and autism spectrum disorder. Patients ages 21 and older can use dried flower, which is consumed by smoking.

About 40,000 people participate in Minnesota's program, which Vos said lawmakers used as an estimate of how many would participate in Wisconsin. If the bill passed both chambers and was signed by Evers, the program could be implemented this year.

Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: GOP medical marijuana bill would create state-run dispensaries
Utahs 2024 legislative session begins in just over a week. As of this writing, there are 238 numbered bills, but if recent history holds, there will be more than 1,000 bill files opened, more than 900 introduced and close to 600 passed into law.

Here are five broad categories to watch this legislative session:

Education: Lawmakers will look at banning phones, absenteeism

In addition to an annual funding debate about how much money is enough, look for discussions on banning phones in classrooms, dealing with chronic absenteeism, challenging books with sensitive materials and addressing concerns for students in rural areas.

Last year, a bill that would have banned cellphones and smart watches in classrooms failed to make it out of committee. In December, Gov. Spencer Cox said there was overwhelming evidence that learning loss coincides with the widespread use of cellphones and will be asking every principal in the state to take more measures to prevent smartphones from being in kids hands during during class time. Legislators will decide if state law is the best way to address phones in schools.

Chronic absenteeism is a concern nationally as well as in Utah. Recent polling showed that 94% of Utahns say school attendance is important but nearly 25% of school-aged kids in Utah continue to be chronically absent. A bill passed last session focused on creating evidence-based prevention, as well as intervening early. Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Salt Lake, chairperson of the House Education Committee, said that while there have been ongoing discussions, there are currently no bills.

Social media for minors

Last year, the Utah Legislature passed bills requiring social media companies to verify the age of its users and to authorize a private right of action to collect attorney fees and damages from social media companies for harm caused. There is a new state website dedicated to holding social media companies accountable where Utah is asking for public input on the new rules.

This year, Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, is running a Social Media Regulation Act Amendments bill, although there is currently no language in the bill. Additionally, the governor is asking for approximately $1 million to defend the current law from lawsuits brought by social media giants.

Related

Diversity, equity and inclusion

Last year, Sen. John Johnson, R-North Ogden, introduced a bill that would have defunded all DEI offices at Utahs public colleges and universities. He said that requiring diversity statements would deter conservative applicants and has continued to push the issue through the interim. It is widely anticipated that a similar bill  or multiple bills  will be heard on Capitol Hill again this year, although none are currently public.

Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, is running another bill that would target diversity statements after a similar bill failed during the 2023 session. She appears to have support from legislative leadership ad the executive branch. At his December press conference, Cox called DEI statements requested as part of the higher education hiring process very political and bordering on evil. He told reporters that after the 2024 legislative session it wont be happening in the state of Utah, these diversity statements that you have to sign to get hired.

On Friday, University of Utah President Taylor Randall released a statement notifying all hiring units to discontinue the use of any type of diversity statement in the hiring process. Randall also affirmed the universitys commitment to nondiscriminatory hiring practices.

Related

Water

Expect water to make a splash again at this years legislative session. Lawmakers are expected to take up the mantle of conservation, looking for more ways to take care of this finite resource in the nations second most arid state.

Saving the Great Salt Lake will continue to be a big topic as the saline body of water comes under increasing pressure. All eyes will be on how the snowpack behaves during the session and what that may mean going into the future.

In addition, the Colorado River and its fate will cause more than a ripple on Capitol Hill, as a sweeping report by the Colorado River Authority of Utah will debut to help Utah position itself in the seven basin states struggle over its resources.

Related

Affordable housing

Affordable housing means more than subsidized housing to assist some of Utahs unsheltered population. It also means starter homes for young families. Utahs housing shortage is bad and likely to get worse, persisting through the end of the decade, according to housing expert Dejan Eskic, with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.

With that in mind, the Cox-Henderson administration announced an ambitious plan to build 35,000 starter homes within the next five years. The proposal would allocate $150 million to five different areas. There are four bills on housing affordability that have been titled, but are not yet numbered and have no publicly available text.

These and other policy areas will be discussed, debated and voted on during the legislatures 45-day session. You can follow all proceedings on the states legislative website: le.utah.gov.

Related

Contributing: Amy Joi ODonoghue, Marjorie Cortez, Lisa Riley Roche

Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Policy
Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Monday announced a $2 billion investment in public schools over the next 10 years, a large contribution aimed at shoring up dilapidated infrastructure at schools across the state.

Little said the investment, which he announced in his State of the State address, provides property tax relief that would also provide school districts with the ability to repair and replace their school buildings, citing reporting from the Idaho Statesman and ProPublica. Local school districts have long struggled to fix their dilapidated, aging school buildings, in part because of the high two-thirds voter approval threshold that school bonds require. Schools face leaking roofs, collapsing ceilings from water damage and failing plumbing, the investigation from the Statesman and ProPublica found.

Idaho consistently ranks among the bottom nationally in per-student and school infrastructure funding.

Weve all seen the pictures and videos of some Idaho schools that are neglected  crumbling, leaking, falling apart, Little said. In one school I visited, raw sewage is seeping into a space under the cafeteria. Folks, we can do better.

As elected leaders, it is not just our constitutional obligation but our moral obligation as well to prioritize and strengthen public schools, Little added.

Education has been a focus of Littles since he became governor in 2019. The state increased school funding by 16.4% last year and added $410 million in tax revenue funding for schools in 2022.

Littles budget director, Alex Adams, told reporters Monday that he hopes to raise a $1 billion bond, which would be distributed to school districts around the state by a to-be-determined formula. The money could be used for school expansions or major renovations, Adams said. The other $1 billion would come from state sales tax revenue, with $125 million per year for construction and $75 million for maintenance over the next 10 years.

Adams said the governors office expects the specifics of the school funding plan to be sorted out during the legislative session.

Were the first to acknowledge that were not coming in and saying, This is the plan, he said. Were coming to the Legislature, saying, Lets work together.

Some lawmakers remain skeptical of the plan. House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, told reporters Monday that lawmakers are concerned about the governors increased spending and the use of the states sales tax revenue.

That concerns me, he said. It puts the state in a bad place going forward.

Littles proposed investment also includes $75 million for a program providing state education grants, known as Idaho Launch, that gives money to graduating high school students who enroll in in-demand job training  a program lawmakers, including Moyle, have remained critical of.

Idaho Republican Party Chairwoman Dorothy Moon, in a statement after Littles speech, said she was hoping to hear him promote smaller government and fiscal responsibility, and was left mostly disappointed.

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers, who make up less than a fifth of the Legislature, said they supported the governors new education funding but still consider it insufficient.

The facilities money that the governor is putting forward is bare bones, said Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise. What hes talking about is $1 billion over 10 years. We need $1 billion today, adding that the funds do not include new schools or expansions that may need to be built.

New school funding amid school choice debate

Littles proposed injection of funding into Idahos public schools comes as lawmakers in the Legislature are debating ways to use public funds to help residents pay for private schools or home-schooling.

A group of lawmakers proposed offering up to $5,000 in tax rebates to parents who choose not to send their children to public schools this month.

During his speech, Little said he supports expanding school choice in ways that do not draw resources away from our public schools. He told reporters afterward that he would have concerns about anything that significantly detracts from longterm, ongoing funding for public education.

Some other states have already implemented rebates or education savings accounts, also known as school vouchers. Teachers unions and public school advocates have largely opposed such measures over concerns that they would decrease funding for public schools.

This policy is not about helping kids who need it, its about siphoning funds from public schools in order to provide a massive giveaway for private-school families, Reclaim Idaho, an advocacy group that supports higher public school funding, said in a news release about the tax rebate proposal. Reclaim Idaho noted that a large majority of voucher funding in states with existing programs has gone to students already enrolled in public schools.

Universal voucher programs in some other states have quickly risen in costs, like in Arizona, where the governor projects the program could cost the state $944 million. The recently proposed bill in Idaho would be capped at $50 million, though lawmakers said they would be open to conversations about costs in the years to come.

House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, told reporters after Littles speech that he thinks it would be feasible to pass new school infrastructure funding and a school choice bill at the same time.

If its done right, I think we can get both done, he said.

Little proposes mental health center, social media regulation

Much of Littles address was a recorded video, in which he and other state leaders, including Republican U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher, talked about their infrastructure spending, school maintenance and tax cuts. His speech also mentioned a slew of other proposals for the year, such as money for university infrastructure, transportation and a mental health facility.

Infrastructure remains a priority for Little, he said. After funding bridge improvements with $400 million over the previous two years, Little hopes the Legislature will appropriate $200 million more to finish repairing the states 900 bridges that have been rated poor or predate the Moon landing, he said.

The governor said he wants to issue an $800 million bond for new transportation projects.

During his speech, Little touted Idaho being the first state to ban critical race theory in our schools and signing a bill defending integrity in womens sports, in reference to a bill banning transgender women and girls from competing in school athletics.

Littles proposed budget included $25 million for a 26-bed mental health center for incarcerated people. The Idaho Department of Correction would run the center, while the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare would run the services inside. The announcement followed an investigation by ProPublica, which reported that Idaho is one of the remaining states to imprison people who are deemed dangerously mentally ill, because the state has no hospital center for them, according to reporting in ProPublica.

Little said he also wants to implement legislation limiting the negative effects social media can have on children. He said he wants the Legislature to pass meaningful reforms to better protect our children from the harms of social media.

The governor also wants resources put towards a Statewide Student Behavioral Health Initiative to reduce suicides and to double funding for school advisors. In October and November, several teen suicides in the Boise area were reported in just a few weeks, sending shock waves through the Treasure Valley.

Legislative session to include abortion, library bills

Littles speech steered clear of two controversial topics that lawmakers have said will likely crop up this legislative session: abortion and library bills.

Democratic leaders said they expect more bills related to libraries. A bill to allow residents to sue librarians for exposing children to harmful material narrowly failed to become law last year.

There will be lots of culture war distractions and attacks on vulnerable minority communities, attacks on libraries, attacks on voting rights, etc., Rubel said.

Republican lawmakers said that in recent months they have been meeting with physicians and others to hear about impacts of the states abortion bans on womens health.

We want to make sure that physicians feel comfortable practicing in the state, Majority Leader Megan Blanksma, R-Hammett, told reporters. Were just talking about standards of care, adding that lawmakers are looking at physician retention, improving the foster care system and making adoption easier.

Maternal-fetal medicine doctors have reported leaving the state as a result of the states laws. Of the nine maternal fetal medicine specialists who practiced in Idaho before the states abortion ban took effect, only four remain, the Idaho Medical Association previously told the Idaho Statesman. In a survey conducted by the Idaho Coalition for Safe Reproductive Health Care, the vast majority of physicians said theyd reconsider plans to leave Idaho if a health exception was added to the states abortion laws.

We dont want to lose our docs, and we want them to feel comfortable here, Blanksma said.

Abortion is illegal in nearly all cases. Though abortions are legal in cases to prevent the death of a pregnant patient, physicians have said it is unclear how the states exemptions would apply to a person whose health is seriously threatened by their pregnancy.

This has become a fundamentally unsafe place, Rubel said, because if  god forbid  you have a complication, you are up the creek, and you better hope that your complication isnt so urgent and severe that you dont have 12 hours to hightail it out to Oregon.
In the news release, IEHP earns NCQA Health Equity Accreditation, issued 08-Jan-2024 by Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) over PR Newswire, we are advised by the company that there are rewrites to paragraphs 4-6 as well as the removal of paragraph 2, rather than what was originally issued inadvertently. The complete, corrected release follows:

IEHP earns NCQA Health Equity Accreditation

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif., Jan. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) received Health Equity Accreditation by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), becoming one of two public health plans in the state to earn the designation.

Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) received Health Equity Accreditation by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). The Rancho Cucamonga-based organization is the second public health plan in the state to earn the designation. (PRNewsfoto/Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP))

"This honor represents another milestone in IEHP's quality journey," said Genia Fick, vice president of quality. "The NCQA Health Equity Accreditation demonstrates IEHP's strong fundamental processes as we strive for optimal care and vibrant health throughout the Inland Empire."

NCQA awards this accreditation to organizations that meet or exceed its rigorous requirements for health equity. According to the NCQA, standards for the Health Equity Accreditation program focuses on the foundation of health equity work by:

Building an internal culture that supports the organization's external health equity work.

Collecting data that helps the organization create and offer language services and provider networks mindful of individuals' cultural and linguistic needs.

Identifying opportunities to reduce health inequities and improve care.

"Earning Health Equity Accreditation shows that an organization is making a breakthrough in providing excellent health care to diverse populations," said NCQA President Margaret E. O'Kane. "I congratulate any organization that achieves this level of distinction."

With its entrance into the Covered California health exchange, 2024 is expected to be an impactful year for IEHP. Health Equity Accreditation is among the quality program requirements for Covered California, which ends open enrollment on Jan. 31.

Story continues

"This accreditation reinforces IEHP's long-standing commitment to address health disparities and move IEHP's mission for health equity forward," said Lorena Chandler, IEHP's vice president and chief health equity officer. "We are excited to find better ways to serve our members."

About IEHP

With a mission to heal and inspire the human spirit, Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) is one of the top 10 largest Medicaid health plans, the largest not-for-profit Medicare-Medicaid public health plan in the country, and for the third year in a row, certified as A Great Place To Work. In its 27th year, IEHP supports more than 1.4 million Riverside and San Bernardino County residents enrolled in Medicaid or IEHP DualChoice (those with both Medi-Cal and Medicare). Today, IEHP has a growing network of nearly 6,800 providers and more than 3,000 team members who are fully committed to the vision: We will not rest until our communities enjoy optimal care and vibrant health. To learn more, go to iehp.org.

About NCQA

NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA's website (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more-informed health care choices. NCQA can be found online at ncqa.org, on Twitter @ncqa, on Facebook at facebook.com/NCQA.org/ and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa.

IEHP Logo (PRNewsfoto/Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP))

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iehp-earns-ncqa-health-equity-accreditation-302027808.html

SOURCE Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)
A Superior Court judge sided with Gaston County in a lawsuit that alleged that the presence of a Confederate monument outside the Gaston County Courthouse was a constitutional violation and should be removed.

The lawsuit, filed in 2020 by the Gaston County branch of the NAACP, sought the removal of a monument of a Confederate soldier that stands prominently in front of the Gaston County Courthouse. The lawsuit argues that the monument's prominent public location violates rights protected by North Carolina's constitution.

In a hearing on Friday, state Senator Brad Overcash, one of the attorneys who represented Gaston County, argued that a state law involving monuments prevented the county from removing the monument.

Brad Overcash speaks to Judge Robert Ervin Friday morning, Jan. 5, 2024, at the Gaston County Courthouse.

He said that as an "object of remembrance" located on public property, it can't be permanently removed, according to the law.

Gagan Gupta, an attorney for the NAACP, said that the state monuments law did not apply, arguing that nothing in the law prevented the judge from declaring that the monument was unconstitutional.

Stuart Paynter listens as Gagan Gupta speaks to Judge Robert Ervin Friday morning, Jan. 5, 2024, at the Gaston County Courthouse.

Stuart M. Paynter, another attorney for the NAACP, argued that the monument, rather than celebrating veterans, was established as a monument to white supremacy.

The monument was given to Gaston County more than a century ago by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group that has broadly perpetuated the Lost Cause narrative, which casts Confederate veterans as war heroes who defended states' rights while minimizing the brutalities of slavery and its role in the conflict.

The keynote speaker for the ceremony that took place when the cornerstone was laid for the monument in 1912 was North Carolina Attorney General Thomas Bickett, a white supremacist whose father was a Confederate soldier.

In his speech, Bickett praised white supremacy and Confederate soldiers, saying, "they stood for the integrity of the white race."

"This is not my opinion. This is the uncontroverted record of it," Paynter said.

Paynter argued that African Americans who encounter the statue outside the courthouse may feel less welcome inside the courthouse.

This was the case for one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Jose Troche. Troche, who is from Puerto Rico, said that when he went to the Gaston County Courthouse in 2020 to apply for a marriage license, he and his soon-to-be wife, who is Black, ended up having a conversation about the statue.

"There's this nasty memory. We had this conversation about, why the hell is this thing here?" he said. "That memory is always going to be a part of the story, a part of the day. It's an unnecessary part of the day or an unnecessary memory. What purpose does it serve to two people who are in love going to get married?"

Paynter argued that this impact on Black Gaston County residents is a violation of the North Carolina Constitution.

Judge Robert C. Ervin disagreed.

He found that while there are exceptions in the monuments law that could allow Gaston County to move the monument under very specific circumstances, the monument does not violate the constitutional rights of Black residents. He wrote that Black residents are still able to conduct business at the courthouse, despite the presence of the monument.

Judge Robert Ervin listens to arguments concerning the Confederate monument Friday morning, Jan. 5, 2024, at the Gaston County Courthouse.

"The plaintiffs perceive that Gaston County and its Board of Commissioners have implicitly and effectively inscribed the words 'In White Supremacy We Trust' into the stonework over the entrance by refusing to remove the Confederate Heroes statue from the entrance to that same courthouse," Ervin wrote. "The court leaves it to the exercise of the sound discretion of the county and its Board of Commissioners to decide what messages they wish to communicate either directly or implicitly to the plaintiffs, their citizenry, and the world."

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Confederate monument not a constitutional violation, judge says
Delaware lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are gearing up to tackle gun ownership, affordable housing, good governance and improved health care access, among other issues, as they return to Dover this week.

Legislators begin the second year of the 152nd General Assembly on Tuesday, Jan. 9, and Republicans and Democrats have a long list of priorities for 2024.

Here is a rundown of the bills and legislative priorities for this years session:

Participants attend the Delaware General Assembly's House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee hearing at Legislative Hall in Dover, Wednesday, June 7, 2023. The committee heard two bills focusing on police reform and transparency.

Responsible gun ownership

Passed in the Senate last year, Senate Bill 2 would require people to undergo a gun safety training course and apply for a permit to qualify for purchase.

2023 LEGISLATIVE SESSION: Delaware lawmakers seek to require permit, training before buying handgun

House Bill 270, sponsored by state Rep. Kim Williams, would require ammunition sold in retail settings to be locked up, or only accessible to employees.

Safe and affordable housing

Legislators from the Senate and House will focus on initiatives that expand and diversify housing supply across Delaware this session.

Efforts to get Senate Bill 90  which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of income  passed this year will also be made. It was approved by the Delaware Senate in 2022 but remains held up in the House.

A rendering of the Mews on 6060 project, submitted to New Castle County in October 2023. The project would be an 80-unit affordable housing complex for people aged 62 and older, designed to help residents "age in place."

Senate Democrats are also looking to repeal a section of state code that allows landlords to evict tenants when theyre charged with a crime.

HOUSING CRISIS: Over 100,000 Delawareans struggle to pay mortgage, rent

Protecting and expanding reproductive rights

Lawmakers are considering legislation that would require insurance companies to cover abortions among other efforts to protect and expand reproductive rights.

ABORTION ACCESS: With Delaware abortion providers in demand post-Roe, new telehealth option may fill gaps

The General Assembly will also have to act on a state constitutional amendment protecting personal reproductive rights if it is to be acted upon by the 153rd General Assembly.

Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate and must pass in identical forms in consecutive General Assemblies to become law. No signature from the governor is required.

Mental health care

Last year, House Speaker Valerie Longhurst introduced a behavior health care package, which a spokesperson said is still making its way through the legislative process.

House Bill 200 would increase the number of school-based mental health workers in Delaware high schools, for example.

Long-term care reform

Lawmakers hope to get bills across the finish line that improve long-term care services in Delaware.

A long-term care legislative task force in spring 2023 produced more than a dozen recommendations to improve nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Delaware, particularly for dementia care.

RELATED: Delaware assisted living regulations haven't been changed in decades. Is now the time?

Legislators introduced a number of bills as a result, yet advocates and industry members have questioned and criticized some aspects of the proposals.

Several long-term care administrators pushed back on the legislation, citing it as a burdensome requirement for facilities that are already facing staffing shortages. Advocates, however, felt the requirements need to be stronger to have an actual impact on improving the quality of care.

INVESTIGATION: Why families regret trusting this Delaware assisted living facility with their loved ones

Senate Republicans eye education focus, reform

Delaware Senate Republican spokesman Matt Revel said the caucus wants to renew focus on the core subjects of reading, writing and math, while removing burdensome additional requirements that have been placed upon our states educators.

Test scores in recent years have fallen, and Republican lawmakers believe a renewed focus will result in higher test scores and improved teacher morale, Revel said.

STATEWIDE TEST RESULTS 2023: Comparing top performances across Delaware school districts

Republicans in both the Senate and House are also exploring legislation that would tackle disciplinary issues within public schools, and some legislators want to work with educators to loosen restraints on accessing funding.

Reining in regulations, improving government accountability

Coming off of public comment from the recently passed regulations mandating a move to electric vehicles, Senate Republicans say the way the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and Gov. John Carneys administration have pursued this goal is problematic.

Our regulatory process is being overused and the states executive branch simply has too much unilateral power, Revel said. We believe the regulatory process must be reined in and these types of decisions should be left to the General Assembly via legislation.

PREVIOUS: Delaware implements electric vehicle mandate, phasing out the sale of gas-powered cars

Revel said many people during the public comment period for the EV mandate felt the efforts should have been pursued through legislation.

Rep. Lyndon Yearick, R-Dover South

House Republican Whip Lyndon Yearick said legislators are also focused on overall government accountability and transparency and want to make sure contentious bills dont bypass committee scrutiny and ensure the legislative process is followed for all proposals.

Repealing bail reform, further penalties for shoplifting

Senate Republicans argue that Delawares bail reform bill passed in 2018 has resulted in high recidivism  a criticism that Republicans across the country have used in recent years as states moved away from cash bail.

However, the data doesn't back up that claim. In fact, the "return to prison" rate has declined 60% since 2019, according to data from the state Department of Justice.

Revel said legislators have made attempts to repeal the bill in the past and they will do so again this session.

Republican lawmakers are also considering legislation to help deter shoplifting, as the caucus says they requested figures and found that since 2021, there has been a steady increase in reported retail thefts, Revel said.

While "organized retail theft" reports have generally trended downward since a high of 248 in 2016, Delaware saw a jump in shoplifting arrests last year.

In 2022, there were 2,659 arrests, representing a 1% increase from 2020, but there were more than 2,700 arrests in 2023, according to data from the Delaware Criminal Justice Information System.

Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com. Follow her on X at @mandy_fries.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware legislation to watch in 2024: Gun reform, long-term care
Derek Larson

In 1849 the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr penned the phrase plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, which is commonly translated into English as the more things change, the more they stay the same. Looking back to January of 1924, a century ago, headlines from national newspapers reveal a country very much changed from todaybut also very much the same.

1924 was an election year of course: Calvin Coolidge, the incumbent, had not actually been elected presidenthe was elevated to the office upon the death of Warren Harding in August of 1923. January opened with news of Republican politicians clearing the field for Coolidge, declaring they would support him in the fall. The big political news from the White House for the new year was that only 3,891 people waited in line to shake the Presidents hand on January first, a 50% decline from the year prior and the beginning of the end of the traditional New Years welcome.

Domestic headlines that first week of 1924 were dominated by the fight against alcohol. Just three years into Prohibition the struggle to enforce the federal ban was already failing. While dry New Years parties received some press, the New York Times declared 100 DRY AGENTS FAIL TO STOP DRINKING AS NEW YEAR DAWNS on its January 1st front page. Though prohibition enforcers were on duty at all the principal restaurants presumably some of the tens of thousands who waited to see the electrified ball drop at the Times building had access to drink in their private homes and hotel rooms around the city. Across the country in Los Angeles, the Times reported some 12,000 people crossed the border into Tijuana where drink was still available for their celebrations.

Just like today, news of scandal sold papers too. The New York, Los Angeles, and Denver papers all carried stories of two silent film stars, Mabel Normand and Edna Purviance, who witnessed the fatal shooting of oilman C.S. Dines in LA on January 1st. The shooter, Normands chauffeur, said he took action because Dines was bothering Miss Normand and she was in no condition to stay any longer when the driver went to pick the women up at a party at the victims apartment. According to the driver, Dines tried to stop the pair from leaving when the driver pulled my gun and let him have it. Coincidentally, Mabel Normand, famous for her on-screen roles alongside Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle, had also been the last person to see the prominent movie director William Desmond Tayor alive when he was murdered two years prior.

Personal news, about celebrities or not, appealed to readers as well. A dispatch from Reno, NV, on New Years Day heralded Dr. Arthur F. Newcomb Gets Divorce From His Alleged Nagging Wife. Another predicted the end of the marriage of an American countess who had married the son of the former German ambassador, saying she was weary of the difficulties her life in Germany had imposed on her and was willing to make almost any sacrifice to become an American citizen again. On the positive side of the ledger the LA Times announced Cupid to Start the Year Right in a story about the clerks who issued 181 marriage licenses on the 31st, concluding that tomorrow ought to be a big day for the furniture houses.

New Years resolutions were similarly popular a century ago. The LA Times carried a feature on Jan. 1st noting Happy New Year! Were Going to Reduce! It called on readers to pledge to eat less and to send the money they saved on food to the Near East to help feed orphan children. The author chided her audience, proclaiming they would need all the aid you can get for your will is as flabby as jello. Resolving to forget the poor stock market performance of 1923 and allowing We are permitted to look for good times was all the NY paper would promise for the economy in 1924.

Ultimately, though a century has passed, we can look back on the news of 1924 and it all seems familiar enough to be written today. The more things change

 This is the opinion of Times Writers Group member Derek Larson. He teaches history and environmental studies at The College of St. Benedict and St. Johns University. His column is published the first Sunday of the month. He welcomes your comments at twg@anderson-larson.net.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Derek Larson: 'The more things change, the more they stay the same'
At the 81st Golden Globes, the pair were both nominated for their lead roles in the Martin Scorsese-directed drama.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone, the stars of Killers of the Flower Moon, honored the Native American tribes at the center of the historical drama with their red carpet fashion at the 2024 Golden Globes.

"The Osage Nation, we're standing in unison with them for this movie," DiCaprio told Entertainment Tonight reporter Rachel Smith during the red carpet pre-show.

Gladstone told Smith that her earrings were a Blackfeet design made by Lenise Omeasoo of Antelope Women Designs, while DiCaprio wore a pin with the symbol of the Osage Nation on the lapel of his Armani tux. "I have my Osage pin on tonight," he said proudly.

Jon Kopaloff/WireImage Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio

Gladstone, who grew up on a Montana Blackfeet reservation, is a Golden Globe nominee for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture  Drama for her role as Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman who owns significant mineral rights in 1920s Oklahoma.

DiCaprio plays Gladstone's husband and is nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture  Drama. This marks the Titanic actor's 14th Golden Globe nomination.

Killers of the Flower Moon is also nominated for Best Motion Picture  Drama, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score, with Martin Scorsese earning a Best Director nod and Robert De Niro picking up a nom in the category of Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture.

The film is based on David Granns 2017 nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, about the systemic murders of members of the Osage Nation by a political boss and the victims' own white family members.

Scorsese, who lost in the directing category to Oppenheimer filmmaker Christopher Nolan, worked with members of the Osage Nation to center the Indigenous experience in the film's narrative.

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV.

Related content:

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
First US moon landing mission in decades launches with NASA science, humans remains on board

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A towering new rocket has taken flight, carrying what could be the first commercial lander to touch down on the moon  and the first lunar landing mission to launch from the United States since 1972.

The Vulcan Centaur rocket, a never-before-flown model developed by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, roared to life at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:18 a.m. ET Monday. The launch vehicle soared through space for nearly an hour, expending its fuel as it ripped away from Earths gravity and sent the lunar lander, called Peregrine, on its way to the moon.

Just after 3 a.m. ET, the Peregrine spacecraft separated from the rocket and began its slow journey to the lunar surface. If all goes according to plan, the lander could touch down on the moon on February 23.

Whats on board

Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic Technology developed the Peregrine lander  named after the falcon that is the fastest-flying bird in the world  under a contract with NASA.

Its a dream  For 16 years weve been pushing for this moment today, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said during a webcast of the launch. And along the way, we had a lot of hard challenges that we had to overcome and a lot of people doubted us along the way. But our team and the people that supported us believed in the mission, and they created this beautiful moment that were seeing today.

The space agency paid Astrobotic $108 million to develop Peregrine and fly NASAs science experiments to the lunar surface.

But the space agency is just one customer among many for this mission.

Of the 20 payloads that Peregrine will carry to the moon, five are NASA science instruments. The other 15 come from a range of customers.

Some are additional science payloads from nations such as Mexico, while others include a robotics experiment from a private UK-based company and trinkets or mementos that the German shipping company DHL put together.

Peregrine is also carrying human remains on behalf of two commercial space burial companies  Elysium Space and Celestis  a move thats sparked opposition from Navajo Nation, the largest group of Native Americans in the United States. The group contends that allowing the remains to touch down on the lunar surface would be an affront to many Indigenous cultures, which regard the moon as sacred. Celestis offers to carry ashes to the moon for prices starting at more than $10,000, according to the companys website.

The five NASA-sponsored experiments include two instruments to monitor the radiation environment, helping us better prepare to send crewed missions back to the moon, said Paul Niles, NASAs project scientist for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, the arm of NASA that provided funding for Peregrine, during a Thursday news briefing. Other instruments will analyze the makeup of the lunar soil, looking for water and hydroxyl molecules. NASA will also study the moons super-thin atmosphere.

Once on the moons surface, Peregrine is expected to operate for up to 10 days before its landing site is plunged into darkness  making it too cold to go on.

Also on board the Vulcan Centaur rocket, packed separately from the Peregrine lander, was another payload from the space burial company Celestis.

The object, on a mission dubbed the Enterprise Flight, contains 265 capsules with human remains as well as DNA samples from former US presidents John F. Kennedy, George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower.

The remains also include the creator and several cast members of the original Star Trek television series, as well as an Apollo-era astronaut, together with people from all walks of life, interests, and vocations, according to the companys website.

The Apollo astronaut whose remains are aboard the Enterprise Flight is Philip Chapman, who was selected for the astronaut corps in 1967 but never flew to space. He died in 2021.

The Enterprise Flight payload is headed for deep space where it will spend eternity orbiting the sun.

A new rocket

The excitement of an impending lunar landing attempt aside, the launch of ULAs Vulcan Centaur rocket was an event in its own right.

The rocket is one of the most highly anticipated new vehicles to take flight in years. If the rockets mission is successful, it could be a game-changer for ULA and the broader launch industry.

ULA was formed in 2006 in response to the US militarys need to keep both Boeings Delta and Lockheed Martins Atlas rockets operational. But the launch industry looks far different today than it did nearly two decades ago, and in the meantime SpaceX has emerged as a dominant force that undercuts ULA on price.

ULA and its CEO, Tory Bruno, envision Vulcan Centaur will replace its Atlas and Delta rockets. Vulcan Centaur already has about 70 missions lined up, according to Bruno.

ULA has a pristine launch record with practically no failed missions. Vulcan Centaur builds on the success of ULAs Atlas rockets by using essentially the same upper stage  the portion of the rocket that powers a spacecraft to orbital speeds after the initial liftoff.

But a major change was made to the rockets first stage, the bottom portion that gives it the initial burst of power off the launchpad.

Vulcan Centaur was propelled by two side boosters as well as two US-made rocket engines  which the Jeff Bezos-funded company Blue Origin developed  at the base of its first-stage booster, replacing Russian-made engines that powered the Atlas rockets. ULAs reliance on Russian engines became politically unpopular as tensions between the United States and Russia have grown in recent years.

Vulcan Centaurs debut was already years overdue, though its common in the aerospace industry for companies to blow past deadlines.

ULA encountered lengthy delays awaiting Blue Origins new engines. And a Vulcan Centaur upper stage was inadvertently destroyed on a test stand last year.

Despite those setbacks, Bruno said in November that development of Vulcan Centaur has been one of the more orderly and well-executed development programs that Ive worked on in my very long career in the aerospace industry.

In the moments after liftoff, the rocket appeared to be operating as intended.

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The clock is ticking on Oklahoma County Commissioners as they continue to search for a location for the new county jail.

An end-of-2024 deadline to commit $50 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars set aside to build a mental health facility as part of the project means they realistically need to have a jail location (or at least one for the mental health center) locked down by the end of February, Chairman Brian Maughan believes.

Less pressing, perhaps, is a deadline to use $260 million in bond money approved by voters in 2022 to build the new jail. So far, only $45 million in bonds voters approved have been sold (that happened in March), but ballot language requires the county to have allocated 85% of funds from bond sales within three years of the transaction.

The February date for the ARPA funds to be committed is critical.

"When you have every architect, engineer and contractor telling you that there's just no way they could complete the project by the end of 2026 if you go past that point, that's what we face, and we will have to decide at some point to fish or cut bait," Maughan said.

As time passes, commissioners are pondering where and how to build a new jail that will have generational impacts, both for future jail detainees and county commissioners.

Oklahoma County already carries a bruised and battered reputation attached to the current jail, widely considered to be one of the deadliest in America.

Outside influences emerging after voters approved a $260 million bond issue to build a new jail impacted the county's options, Maughan believes.

Informal surveys conducted before the election showed plenty of potential locations Oklahoma County could pursue that might serve as a jail location.

But a subsequent real-estate boom took some of those options off the table, Maughan said.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 caused economic disruptions involving labor and materials that influenced needed services to actually design and build the new building, tightening the length of time Oklahoma County had to find a location that works, Maughan said.

"These were circumstances beyond our control  issues way bigger than us  that changed the dynamics dramatically," he said.

In mid-2023, a Citizens Bond Oversight Advisory Board formed by commissioners was given a list of properties submitted by the city of Oklahoma City and landowners to consider as potential locations for a new jail. That list later was trimmed by the board after evaluating proposed sale prices, typographical, environmental and functional concerns.

More: Broken Trust: How the Oklahoma County jail leadership failed those it sought to protect

Ultimately, both the board and county commissioners settled on land owned by the City of Oklahoma City near Will Rogers World Airport as the new jail's best location.

The selected site mattered, because one ideally sized would allow Oklahoma County to build a one- or two-story building that would be less expensive to operate and maintain, plus provide detainees better access to natural light, open air and a suite of services related to mental health and addiction issues the current jail doesn't provide.

The county offered Oklahoma City $2.5 million for the land, but the city rejected the county's officer after being told by the Federal Aviation Administration that using that land for a jail could jeopardize federal funds that could be used to support the airport's future growth.

Commissioners also encountered pushback from elected local and state leaders and from property owners near several other proposed locations, prompting them to remove those locations from its list.

Stockyard City in the historic Oklahoma City Stockyards is seen on Dec. 13, 2023.

Only two properties officially are being considered by Oklahoma County today: One at SE 29 and the Kickapoo Turnpike just west of Choctaw, and unspecified properties within an unincorporated area inside Oklahoma County near where the Oklahoma National Stockyards is located.

Steve Mason, who agreed to lead the citizens oversight advisory board when it was formed after the election, said he knew voters' support for the bond issue might wane once specific sites were being discussed.

"I knew that building a county jail would be one of the most important projects within this community for decades to come," Mason said.

"What we learned in this site selection process that started last January, though, is that 90% of the people in this county don't want a new jail near them, and that is what created the dilemma that puts us where we are today," Mason said.

While expecting pushback, "I sure didn't expect we would have the negative pushback we have received on every site," Mason said.

An illustration showing a look inside the proposed Oklahoma County Jail.

Jail choices today challenged by perception, commissioners say

Both Maughan and Commissioner Carrie Blumert said they recognized whatever choice they ultimately make likely will upset neighbors, regardless of where they choose to build. No one wants a jail near where they live or near their children's schools, they understand.

But both, along with Commissioner Myles Davidson, also stress residents need to understand the jail the county wants to build is not the same as what it has today.

The commissioners expect the new jail will be much more aesthetically pleasing than the current jail, safer for both detainees and the surrounding public, and believe some of the ongoing pushback the county is getting is based upon perceptions the public has about the current building.

They also would prefer a location big enough to support the construction of a single- or two-story jail, a design currently preferred by the U.S. Justice Department and jurisdictions across the country.

"I don't want to have to go back to a high rise or towers. I will fight that as hard as I can, because I think so many of the issues we are dealing with today are tied to the current jail, which frankly, we just can't fix," Maughan said.

Beyond the proposed mental health treatment center, the site also needs to be big enough to provide detainees with ample opportunities to exercise outside, plus provide room for detainee interactions with families and attorneys.

Establishing the new jail in a location where it could partner with a new crisis center being built by Oklahoma City through MAPS 4, a new restoration center for addiction treatment services, a relocated/expanded Diversion Hub and the Donahue Center being built by Oklahoma's Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services all could help Oklahoma County decrease its number of detainees, Blumert said.

Commissioner Carrie Blumert

"Ninety-nine percent of people I speak with are aware of the current jail and its situation, its poor design. They agree we need a new facility," Blumert said. "What I try to emphasize is that new facility will look completely different.

"This is a huge opportunity for us, one I do not take lightly at all."

Beyond that, land with minimal environmental issues and access to water, sewer, natural gas, telecommunication services and good roads and a nearby highway are important, Maughan said.

Then, there are political hurdles that must be overcome, beginning with two commissioners agreeing on what location to pursue or to drop from consideration.

"Then we have to ask if the city will zone it  are there five votes on the City Council to approve that? If they can't see it, then it doesn't matter how good the site looks to the county," Maughan said.

A state law forbidding a jail from being located within 1,000 feet of a school is a barrier, as is an opinion from Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna that states Oklahoma County can't undertake an eminent domain action against another governmental entity to secure a jail location.

"At this stage, I would be surprised to see any location that's been eliminated come back," Maughan said.

Commissioners hope new jail can serve county for decades

Oklahoma County has endured criticism about its current jail practically since it opened in 1991, when design flaws permitting escapes became apparent and later issues involving overcrowding and safety led to high numbers of detainee deaths over the years.

While elected county leaders make a number of decisions weekly that impact their constituents' lives, the importance of jail-related decisions seem to transcend most in importance.

Maughan said he has been told county officials in the 1980s hoped to they could build a new jail to replace Oklahoma County's courthouse facility for the next 25 years.

The current jail has operated for longer than that, with problems for its detainees exacerbated over time by overcrowding and deferred maintenance needs.

What commissioners build next has to last longer, Maughan said.

"It has to be a functional site. The current jail's site was not functional from the get-go, and that's why we have the problems we have with it today," he said.

"I honestly felt like after the first round of submissions were made and reviewed by our Citizens Bond Oversight Advisory Board, that we would select a site, buy it and would be done," Blumert said, saying the site the county offered to buy near the airport turned out "too good to be true."

Blumert said she shouldn't have been surprised it would take the county this long, given commissioners hope to build something today that will serve the community for the next 40-plus years.

Previously, Davidson has stressed the jail's design is key to keep associated problems from just being kicked down the road.

Blumert agrees with Maughan that time is growing short, but stopped short of saying a site must be in hand before the end of February.

Commissioners meet again Wednesday morning.

"We need to move as quickly as possible, as soon as we can. Thankfully, we meet every week, and I am fully prepared to call a special meeting, if one is needed," Blumert said. "We are trying to do it the right way, best we can, so that people who come after me 20 years from now are not sitting here trying to correct mistakes we might have made."

Mason agreed the project needs to be done right, remembering a speech that President John F. Kennedy gave at Rice University in 1962 about sending astronauts to the moon.

"Sometimes, we do things that are hard, but we do them because they are necessary," he recalled Kennedy saying.

Mason described efforts exerted by his committee colleagues, county officials, HOK (selected to design the jail) and the city of Oklahoma City to find a suitable location as herculean.

"We are all working as a team to get this done, and we need everyone encouraging and supporting us with the knowledge that it needs to occur ... has to happen," Mason said.

"This isn't going to the moon, but this is an important, critical project."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OK County commissioners on the clock to select jail site or risk losing money
Robert Holder was in a police academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in May 2020.

At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic sent swaths of the country into lockdown, and policing was thrust into the national spotlight after a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer murdered George Floyd.

Holder, now a recent Fort Collins Police Services academy graduate, had been drawn to law enforcement most of his life. Wanting to follow in his uncles footsteps, he joined the military first and then started his law enforcement career nearly four years ago. Holder said he sees being in law enforcement as being in a position to have that ability to bring peace to a situation.

While entering the law enforcement field in 2020 was challenging, Holder said he was grateful that things were already progressing and on the way to changing when I was (in the academy), so I didnt have to unlearn things.

Since becoming a police officer, Holder said his goal has been to disprove the general negative perception of police officers and be "one of the good cops."

Fort Collins Police Officer Robert Holder, who recently graduated from the police academy, sits for a portrait at the Fort Collins Police Services headquarters in Fort Collins on Dec. 29.

You have the ability to do the right thing as an individual, Holder said. ... I want to be one of the good cops, someone people want to look up to.

Looking for an opportunity to grow his career and a better place to raise his children, Holder decided to apply to Fort Collins Police Services last year because he said the department coincides with my values.

Holder was one of seven officers who graduated from the Fort Collins police academy last month and one of hundreds who applied for the role. He's now in the department's 16-week field training program.

Fort Collins Police Services regularly gets hundreds of applicants for its in-house police academy, which has graduated five classes since it began in 2021.

Though weve noticed a drop (in applications) since 2020-2021 with the pandemic, the national conversations with policing, Sgt. Mike Boward said, the department still has no issues recruiting enough new officers to remain fully or nearly fully staffed.

But not all law enforcement agencies in Larimer County have been able to stay fully staffed.

Loveland Police Chief Tim Doran said he has been "facing the ghosts of the past"  largely public scrutiny over the arrest of Karen Garner and the prior administration's handling of the ex-officer's use of force in that arrest  while working to keep up with recruitment and retention over his first year as chief.

Larimer County Sheriff John Feyen said the sheriff's office is also struggling to maintain high staffing levels, a problem he said other sheriff's offices are facing in the state. He said it's an issue he will be heavily focused on in his second year in office.

Here's a look at where local law enforcement agencies stand with their staffing and how those that are falling behind are working to keep up:

Fort Collins police continue to see hundreds of applications for openings

Applications for Fort Collins police openings have dropped a little since 2020  from right around 600 in 2018 and 2019 to 490 applications in 2022  but the department has still received plenty of quality applicants to remain fully staffed or nearly fully staffed, Boward said.

The department hired 19 of the 490 applicants in 2022, Boward said.

"Policing is a tough job, so the place you choose to work is a big deal," Chief Jeff Swoboda said. "... Fort Collins Police Services has benefited from having a solid reputation for a long time."

As someone who came from an outside department in 2018, Swoboda said Fort Collins is known nationally as a department that is "forward-thinking" and trains officers well, making it a "destination department."

Fort Collins Police Services is the fourth-highest paid department in the state, and the highest paying outside of the Denver metro area, Swoboda said. The city is also typically ranked among the best places to live in the country, which are other reasons people are drawn to apply at the department. Holder said another reason he wanted to work in Fort Collins was the access to better schools for his children.

The department launched its own police academy in 2021, and its sixth academy class starts Monday, Jan. 8. Having an in-house academy allows the department to train its officers beyond the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) requirements, Swoboda said.

With the 12 recruits starting with the department in the next academy class, Fort Collins Police Services will have 233 of its 234 sworn officer positions filled, Boward said. With the large amount of applications the department receives, Swoboda said the department could be fully staffed if it wanted to be  even hire an additional officer or two if he felt it had the right applicants  but he won't hire someone just to fill an opening.

"We'll run short  we're not so thirsty to get to full staff that we'll hire people we don't think should be Fort Collins police officers," Swoboda said. "... We're really not just chasing openings. We're hiring the right person who we believe will enter into our culture."

Boward said the department's philosophy is to "hire character, train skill," which means it looks for candidates who demonstrate integrity, empathy and a dedication to service knowing high-quality individuals can be trained to be police officers.

Fort Collins does an intensive screening process of applicants, which includes in-person visits by recruiting staff to an applicant's current department (if they're coming from another department), doing a ride-a-long and speaking with supervisors and co-workers to see what kind of officer they already are.

"Unfortunately, there are people who shouldn't be police officers," Boward said. "That's part of our job too, to make sure people that shouldn't be a police officer are screened out."

"Just because we change the patch on their arm doesn't mean they'll change as a person," Boward said.

Knowing officers around you are held to a high standard and were thoroughly vetted makes other officers feel more confident in doing their jobs because they don't have to worry about their colleagues doing the wrong thing, Swoboda said.

The thorough vetting process is expensive, "but the expense of hiring the wrong officer is much higher," Swoboda said.

Swoboda said he believes part of what attracts applicants to Fort Collins police is that they "treat their recruits like adults" and "talk about the issues" facing law enforcement, whether that's how public perception is impacting the profession or how law changes  like the addition of body-worn cameras  will impact their day-to-day work.

Holder said that's part of why he decided he wanted to work for Fort Collins Police Services after a few years at another department. He described the culture at Fort Collins as "no-nonsense," and that officers "do our jobs and do it right."

Swoboda said he encourages officers to think differently and problem-solve, and "we're going to give you that autonomy."

Boward said it's hard to know exactly why the number of applications the department has received have dropped in the last few years, but he acknowledged "some of the national conversations, narratives have affected some people," including some officers who have left the profession in recent years.

"Say we have 490 people apply, we could have 490 different reasons why people apply," Boward said. "... The same goes for people that leave."

Swoboda said officers are encouraged to utilize mental health resources  including giving officers and professional staff paid time away to see the in-house psychologist  because "thinking about mental health is not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength."

For those rethinking if law enforcement is the right career for them, Fort Collins Police Services allows officers to take an unpaid leave for up to a year to try out other career paths, and if they change their mind within that year and there's an opening at their position, they are hired right back, Swoboda said. About half of the people who have taken advantage of that option in the past few years have come back, he said.

Fort Collins Police Services has a lot of long-term employees, including Boward, who has been with the department for nearly 25 years.

"Why I've stayed and why a lot of our officers have stayed is because we have really good support from our community," Boward said. "There can be challenges for sure ... But all the little things that you see, community members thanking you and showing that appreciation, even if not everybody shares that, that's what keeps me going."

Loveland police keeping up with staffing turnover under new leadership

Loveland's police department is staffed at 93%, Chief Tim Doran told the Coloradoan at the end of December, with four more officers waiting to start, which will bring the department to 97% staffed.

The more troubling number, Doran said, is the percentage of officers who can operate on their own, which sits at 85%. This doesn't include officers who are injured and on "light-duty" assignments, or the four officers who are still in training.

At its staffing low point earlier this year, the department was down 18 officers, Doran said, but it started 2024 down only four officers.

"Loveland has some wind under its wings in terms of recruiting right now," Doran said. "That's game-changing."

Doran credits the increased interest in working at the department to its improving reputation, competitive pay and retirement benefits. Doran said new recruits told him they wanted to come to Loveland for the benefits as well as the department's change in leadership, mission and direction.

After leaving Fort Collins Police Services last year to take over as Loveland's chief, Doran led the shift in the department's mission statement from "Save Lives, Fight Crimes, Survive, to Justice, Kindness, Humility."

The general theme he's hearing from new officers is "they know someone here who is so happy, they want to leave their current department and come to a department whose morale is higher," Doran said.

Doran said the department has also started offering signing bonuses  as much as $15,000 for an officer who is already POST certified  for people who are hired and complete the background check process and training.

"The bar is high in Loveland," Doran said, and about a third of applicants don't pass the background check. But with only four vacancies at the start of 2024, Doran said he believes he's getting plenty of high-quality applicants.

Fourteen officers left the department in 2023  more than an average year, Doran said  likely in part because of new leadership and because of the scrutiny the department has faced in recent years, Doran said. He said higher turnover the first year under new leadership is to be expected.

"When you're in a department that's had some challenges, you're facing the ghosts of the past," Doran said.

Of the people who were fired, Doran said he "knew they didn't fit, and I didn't wait for them to decide on their own."

Despite the scrutiny and the departures of some officers, Doran said "the morale of this department is extraordinarily high given all the things faced by the city of Loveland in the past three years."

'Recruit, reward and retain' to be Larimer County Sheriff's 2024 motto

The Larimer County Sheriff's Office is facing a staffing challenge in a variety of areas, which is an issue Sheriff John Feyen said he plans to focus on addressing in 2024.

Feyen said the sheriff's office is only 85% staffed on the operations and patrol side and 80% staffed in the Larimer County Jail. On the jail side, that equates to 47 vacant positions, Feyen said.

When Feyen took officer last January, these staffing numbers were similar. Last January, the jail had 37 open positions and the operation and patrol side had 14 openings, compared to 15 or 16 at the end of 2023, Feyen said.

"I'm grateful that we're not sliding backwards, but we've got to make advancements on those vacancies that we have and take the time to find out why this is happening," Feyen said.

Larimer County isn't the only sheriff's office in the state to experience staffing issues, Feyen said.

"For whatever reason, it seems like, at least amongst the sheriffs I speak with, compared to their municipal partners in their counties, this is a challenge that is not unique to Larimer," Feyen said. "Recruiting and retaining seems to be a challenge uniquely to the sheriff's offices right now, and I don't know why that is."

The sheriff's office was granted additional funding to hire more jail deputies now that the jail expansion project was completed earlier this year, increasing the jail's capacity from about 450 to 600. The jail's average daily population still hovers around 450, which has helped with the lack of staff, Feyen said.

"There's about 100-150 overtime shifts per month in the jail that we're having to fill with the staff that we have," Feyen said. "That takes a toll on work-life balance. ... That is not helping our retention."

Recruitment and hiring have been ongoing all year, including six deputies who graduated from academy in December and started training in the jail, but "unfortunately, we're losing folks on the back end for a variety of reasons."

Feyen said people have left for other departments or left the profession entirely, and some have been fired.

"With our efforts currently, we are keeping up with the hemorrhaging," Feyen said. "... Whatever we are doing is not making a headway in what we have to do to serve the citizens in Larimer County."

County sheriff's departments face a unique challenge in recruiting because deputies are typically asked to do more and cover a larger area than municipal police departments, Feyen said.

Deputies might be in situations where they're forced to handle a call alone because they're in Red Feather Lakes and their backup is 30 minutes away, as opposed to a city police department where backup may be around the corner, Feyen said.

Sheriff's office deputies are responsible for more than just law enforcement duties, Feyen said. They may be asked to help with a search and rescue mission to find a missing hiker or respond to wildfires.

"Some people are like, 'I'm good with being a peace officer, that other stuff I have no interest in doing,' " Feyen said, which presents a big challenge with recruitment.

Feyen said he is entering 2024 with the motto "recruit, reward and retain" to try and address the staffing shortage, starting with thinking "outside the box" when it comes to recruitment strategies. One of those strategies might be to market the jail as a good training ground for people new to law enforcement before they make their way to patrol or operations in the Larimer County Sheriff's Office or another department, Feyen said.

"Let's be willing to look and be creative in how we market ourselves and what audiences we're marketing to," Feyen said.

While the range of what the sheriff's office is responsible for is a recruiting challenge, Feyen said it's also an opportunity for people who are curious about what a career in law enforcement or public service could look like.

"Your merit as a peace officer is not going to be measured by how many people you put in jail, it's going to be measured by the size of your heart and how many people you help," Feyen said. "(With the sheriff's office) you aren't always a peace officer. ... There's a lit of different ways to serve your community, as long as you do it with care and compassion."

How Windsor  one of Northern Colorado's smaller police departments  is faring

As Larimer County communities grow, their police departments are growing with them, and Windsor is one of them.

Windsors population has almost doubled since 2016, and so has its number of sworn police officers, Commander Richard Zeigler said. A new headquarters for the growing department is set to be completed later this year.

Windsors a growing community, and that definitely increased our call load, Zeigler said.

Neighboring Timnath is growing at a similar rate, with its police department getting its own headquarters just over a year ago to accommodate the department's anticipated growth.

The department is nearly fully staffed  50 sworn officers on staff of the 52 positions in the department  which is typical, Zeigler said. It is actively hiring.

Growing departments typically offer more opportunities for people to participate in specialty areas, including new opportunities to work as school resource officers or on the K9 Unit, which the department started last year, Zeigler said.

The department also attracts officers from other agencies that have a higher call load and require more overtime work when some are looking for a little better work-life balance, Zeigler said.

We still have quite a few calls  but you dont get called in very much for additional overtime, Zeigler said.

Better work-life balance means Windsor is getting good, qualified candidates coming here and helping increase the skill level of our department, Zeigler said.

The department has also done some more intentional recruitment with police academies and has sponsored two classes of new recruits through the academy at Aims Community College in the last three years, Zeigler said.

We dont hire someone to hire, we go for quality candidates and think about the long-term impact on the community and try to hire that quality employee rather than just a body to fill a seat, Zeigler said.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: How Fort Collins, Larimer County law enforcement fare with recruiting
Israel says it has begun a new, less intense phase of the war, admitting publicly for the first time that the conflict has shifted.

The next step will involve fewer airstrikes and troops, and operations would now focus on central and southern Gaza, an IDF spokesman said.

Rear-Adml Daniel Hagari said: The war shifted a stage.

But the transition will be with no ceremony...its not about dramatic announcements.

His comments to the New York Times follow weeks of international pressure over the number of civilian deaths in Gaza. Last week, Israel sent some reservists home and moved to reinforce its northern border with Lebanon.

Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, is due to arrive in Israel for talks amid fears that the conflict could spread to the wider region.

On Sunday, Mr Blinken said Palestinians displaced by the now four-month-old war must be allowed to return home, while warning that the violence could easily metastasize into a regional conflict.

04:00 PM GMT

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We will be back tomorrow with all the latest updates.

03:47 PM GMT

Car belonging to deceased Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil destroyed in Israeli strike

03:40 PM GMT

Hezbollah 'underestimating Israel,' says Netanyahu

Hezbollah underestimated us big-time in 2006, and is underestimating us again, Benjamin Netanyahu has said, as he visited troops near Israels northern border with Lebanon.

On a visit to troops in Kiryat Shmona, the Israeli prime minister told the 769 Brigade: We will do everything to restore security to the north and allow your families, because many of you are local, to return home safely and know that we cannot be messed with.

We will do whatever it takes. Of course, we prefer that this be done without a wide campaign, but that will not stop us.

He added: We gave them an example of what is happening to their friends in the south, this is what will happen here in the north. We will do everything to restore security.

03:31 PM GMT

UN very concerned by death toll of journalists in Gaza

Very concerned by high death toll of media workers in #Gaza. Killings of all journalists, incl Hamza Al-Dahdouh & Mustafa Abu Thurayya in reported IDF strike on car, must be thoroughly, independently investigated to ensure strict compliance w/ intl law, & violations prosecuted  UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) January 8, 2024

03:09 PM GMT

Pictured: IDF in the Gaza Strip

An Israeli military vehicle operates in the Gaza Strip - ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES/via REUTERS

Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip - ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES/via REUTERS

02:58 PM GMT

UN experts demand accountability for sexual torture during Hamas attacks

UN experts demanded accountability for sexual violence against Israeli civilians during the October 7 Hamas attacks, saying that mounting evidence of rapes and genital mutilation point to possible crimes against humanity.

Israeli authorities have opened an investigation into possible sexual crimes during the most deadly attack on Israel in its history. Hamas denies the abuses.

The growing body of evidence about reported sexual violence is particularly harrowing, two UN-appointed independent experts said in a statement on Monday. The statement referred to allegations of sexual torture including rape and gang rape as well as mutilations and gunshots to genital areas.

These acts constitute gross violations of international law, amounting to war crimes which, given the number of victims and the extensive premeditation and planning of the attacks, may also qualify as crimes against humanity, the experts said.

Each and every victim deserves to be recognised, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or sex, and our role is to be their voice, they added.

02:27 PM GMT

Israel's 'brutal' war creates generation of Gaza orphans, says Jordanian King

Jordans King Abdullah said that Israel has created a whole generation of orphans with its brutal war in Gaza, where he said over 30,000 people, mostly women and children, had been killed or were missing as a result of the conflict.

In remarks at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, where the monarch also spoke of unspeakable crimes during that African conflict, he said a lesson to be drawn was that Israels indiscriminate aggression in Gaza would never guarantee its security. His remarks were reported in state media following a statement by the royal palace.

More children have died in Gaza than in all other conflicts around the world this past year. Of those who have survived, many have lost one or both parents, an entire generation of orphans, he said.

How can indiscriminate aggression and shelling bring peace? How can they guarantee security, when they are build on hatred?, he said of Israels war against the militant group Hamas.

01:38 PM GMT

Rafah in pictures:

A Palestinian vendor sells balls at a market in Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip - AFP

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, ride a vehicle in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip - IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, seek shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah - IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS

12:56 PM GMT

Palestinians must be able to stay in Gaza, Blinken says

Palestinians must not be pressured into leaving Gaza, Anthony Blinken said, as he condemned calls by some Israeli ministers for the resettlement of the enclaves citizens as irresponsible.

Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow, the US Secretary of State said. They cannot, they must not be pressed to leave Gaza.

His comments come amid rifts in the Israeli government over plans for post-war Gaza.

Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister, has said that most Israelis support a humanitarian solution involving the voluntary migration of Gazas Arabs and their absorption in other countries.

Isaac Herzog, Israels president, said that resettling Palestinians out of Gaza is absolutely not the official position of the countrys government or the Israeli public.

But he added: In a society where free speech is the basis of our national DNA, people can say whatever they want.

12:11 PM GMT

Israeli strike on Lebanon kills senior commander in elite Hezbollah unit

An Israeli strike on south Lebanon killed a senior commander in Hezbollahs elite Radwan force on Monday, three security sources told Reuters.

The security sources identified him as Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy head of a unit within the Radwan force.

Hezbollah Military Commander Wissam Hassan Tawil - AFP

They said he and another Hezbollah fighter were killed when their car was hit in a strike on the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm.

This is a very painful strike, one of the security sources said. Another said: things will flare up now.

11:59 AM GMT

Civilians killed in Gaza war 'aren't collateral damage,' says Pope

Pope Francis has condemned war crimes perpetrated against civilians in conflicts such as in Gaza and Ukraine, and said those killed should not be considered collateral damage.

The distinction between military and civil objectives is no longer respected, the 87-year-old pontiff said in his New Years address to diplomats at the Vatican.

There is no conflict that does not end up in some way indiscriminately striking the civilian population. The events in Ukraine and Gaza are clear proof of this, he added.

We must not forget that grave violations of international humanitarian law are war crimes, he continued, in a speech dominated by calls for an end to conflicts around the world.

The Pope said people need to realise more clearly that civilian victims are not collateral damage but men and woman, with names and surnames, who lose their lives.

11:12 AM GMT

Pictured: A boy cooks near debris in Gaza City

A boy cooks near debris in Gaza City - Mohammed Ali/Xinhua News Agency / eyevine

10:29 AM GMT

Israel has 'duty' to protect West Bank Palestinians, says Germany

Israel has the duty to protect Palestinians in the West Bank, Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, said in Ramallah on Monday.

Her comments came after the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces had killed six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli officials said an Israeli police officer was killed in the violence.

On Sunday, Ms Baerbock urged Israel to ease its military campaign in Gaza and do more to protect civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Germany has been one of Israels most steadfast supporters since the start of the conflict with Hamas, but she warned that Israels security also depended on limiting civilian deaths.

10:22 AM GMT

Healthcare workers forced to withdraw from 'only functioning hospital' in Gaza

Staff at international aid agencies have been forced to withdraw and cease activities at Gazas only functioning hospital.

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC)s Emergency Medical Team (EMT) have ceased operations at the Al-Aqsa hospital after the Israeli military dropped leaflets designating areas surrounding the hospital as a red zone.

Professor Nick Maynard, a surgeon and clinical lead for the EMT, said: The amount of injuries being brought in over the last few days has been horrific, and with a huge reduction in the number of staff able to come to the hospital there is even less capacity for treating them. There are patients clearly dying in the emergency department who could be saved if there were enough staff.

Dr James Smith, emergency medical specialist with the EMT, said: We fear for the immediate safety of people in the area, the Palestinian staff weve worked alongside, the hundreds of patients in the hospital, and thousands of displaced people in the hospital compound and nearby camps.

A local emergency physician in the area told the team: Im really scared because the past few days theyre getting closer and closer, and no place is safe anymore. Where should people go if they get injured?!

09:52 AM GMT

Pictured: Border police officers mourn near the grave during a funeral for Sgt Shai Garmai in Karmiel, Israel

Border police officers mourn near the grave during a funeral for Sgt Shai Garmai in Karmiel, Israel - Amir Levy/Getty Images Europe

09:33 AM GMT

Blinken meets Arab leaders

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, held more talks with Arab leaders on Monday as part of a diplomatic push to stop the war in Gaza spreading further.

Mr Blinken met Abu Dhabis ruler, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in the United Arab Emirates and was due later on Monday to hold talks in Saudi Arabia with Mohammed bin Salman, the countrys crown prince, in the oasis town of AlUla before heading on to Israel.

Mr Blinken visited Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, and sought to reassure Arab officials that the United States opposes the displacement of Palestinians outside Gaza, and instead wants Israels Muslim majority neighbours to play a role in the enclaves future governance.

09:06 AM GMT

WHO cancels delivery of medical supplies to north Gaza because of unsafe conditions

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it had been compelled to cancel a mission to bring medical supplies to northern Gaza on Sunday after failing to receive security guarantees.

It was the fourth time WHO was forced to call off a planned mission to bring urgently needed medical supplies to the Al-Awda Hospital and the central drug store in northern Gaza since December 26, it said.

The WHO office in the occupied Palestinian territories wrote on X, formerly Twitter: It has now been 12 days since we were last able to reach northern Gaza.

Heavy bombardment, movement restrictions, and interrupted communications are making it nearly impossible to deliver medical supplies regularly and safely across Gaza, particularly in the north.

The delivery planned for Sunday had been designed to sustain the operations of five hospitals in the northern part of the enclave, according to WHO.

08:41 AM GMT

'Increasing hostilities' at one of Gaza's last functioning hospitals, says WHO

International aid groups said that Israeli attacks on one of Gazas last functioning hospitals forced them to evacuate.

Shocked by the scale of health needs and devastation in Northern Gaza.



Urgent, safe and unhindered access to the region is needed to deliver humanitarian aid.



Further delays will lead to more death and suffering for far too many people.#CeasefireNow. https://t.co/9uYTWZLxEc  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 7, 2024

The World Health Organisation said on Sunday it had evacuated more than 600 patients from the Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza following troubling reports of increasing hostilities.

Doctors Without Borders said a day earlier it had evacuated its staff from the same hospital after a bullet had penetrated a wall in the intensive care unit.

08:35 AM GMT

Pictured: Smoke and flames rise from different parts of Salah al-Din Road following Israeli attacks in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza

Smoke and flames rise from different parts of Salah al-Din Road following Israeli attacks in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza - Anadolu/Anadolu

08:34 AM GMT

West told to put its money where its mouth is if it really wants to help people of Gaza

Western nations that claim to care about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza should put their money where their mouth is and resettle Palestinians in their own countries, a far-Right member of Israels parliament has said.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Simcha Rothman, whose ultra-nationalist party forms part of Benjamin Netanyahus coalition government in the Knesset, urged Western countries to support the people - and getting them out of danger and poverty.

Several members of ultra-nationalist parties, including Mr Rothmans National Religious Zionism Party, have called for Palestinians to leave Gaza in recent weeks, eliciting condemnation from the West.

Read more here

08:33 AM GMT

Confidential US report finds Israel unlikely to win against Hezbollah on second front

Israel is unlikely to win a war against the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah if it decides to open a new front on its northern border, according to a confidential report by US intelligence.

The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) found that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would be too stretched by fighting on two fronts, with the air force already overworked by constant raids on Gaza.

IDF pilots would face far more dangerous missions going up against Hezbollahs powerful air defences, the DIA warned, according to a report in the Washington Post.

Read more here

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With his plane trailing smoke, new pilot Barrett Ellis began to turn around.

"We are going to return for landing," he told the tower controller at Wiley Post Airport in Bethany.

Thirteen seconds later, he said, "We are losing power." After another 13 seconds, he said he was "declaring an emergency." The controller cleared him to land at any runway.

He didn't make it.

The 1968 Beechcraft single-engine plane crashed just before 10:20 a.m. Dec. 10 and burst into flames. The initial impact was with a 15-foot-tall pile of concrete rubble at a recycling facility.

The pilot tried to rescue his sole passenger, his wife Megan. She died at the scene. He died after being taken to a hospital. Both were 43.

The Oklahoma City Fire Department is seen at the site of a plane crash on Dec. 10, 2023, near Wiley Post Airport in Bethany.

In a preliminary report, the National Transportation Safety Board recounts the exchange between the pilot and controller. It also uncovered a possible cause for the tragedy  a massive oil leak.

The investigation found oil had puddled on the hanger floor, on an asphalt taxiway, by the turn to a concrete taxiway and on the runup pad. Also found were oil drips, oil spray from the propeller and oil tracks.

"The nose landing gear deposited an easily discernable, dark black, oily, tire track as the airplane moved toward taxiway C1," the NTSB reported.

In this image from an aviation investigation preliminary report, the path of a 1968 Beech plane is shown as it leaves Wiley Post Airport, turns to head back and then crashes. The times reflect the hour, minute and second at that point.

"The initial source of the engine oil leak could not be conclusively determined due to mechanical damage sustained during multiple connecting rod separations and thermal damage sustained during the postimpact fire."

The crash came less than five minutes after the pilot had been cleared for takeoff.

A security camera on one hanger recorded the plane in a climb from the runway just before 10:17 a.m. "There was possible evidence of intermittent smoke trailing behind the airplane," the report notes.

The same camera "captured the airplane again" as it headed back two minutes later, the report notes. "The video footage showed the airplane descending with light colored smoke trailing the airplane."

The nose landing gear fork and wheel from a crashed plane is shown covered in engine oil.

Two witnesses also reported seeing smoke trailing from the airplane. A third witness stated "the engine was sputtering as it flew over."

The pilot had purchased the plane on June 30, according to the report. The engine oil and filter had last been replaced Nov. 11 and an oil sump heater had been installed Dec. 1.

A Dec. 5 lab analysis of the replaced oil noted "a lot of metal" and that internal corrosion could be an issue if the airplane had been sitting.

It could be next year, or longer, before a final report is completed.

In an Oct. 8 Facebook post, Barrett Ellis had called his plane a "pretty red girl" and "our family's new ticket to adventure."

"Yesterday I became a pilot, and I'm so proud of myself that I've returned to Facebook to tell you all about it," he wrote.

"This was not an easy thing to do: hours in the cockpit, hours in the books, two examinations, and 13 months of making life work around trips out to the airport. I'm incredibly grateful to my excellent instructor, Scott Dorsey at Route 66 Flight School, and my supportive wife."

Barrett Ellis was an attorney for the University of Oklahoma Foundation. Megan Ellis was executive director for The Sooner Nation Collective, which helps student-athletes get paid for their name, image and likeness while boosting charities.

Oklahoma City Fire Department workers process the scene of a plane crash on Dec. 10, 2023, near Wiley Post Airport in Bethany.

Other deadly aviation accidents

The crash was the fourth deadly aviation accident in Oklahoma in 2023, according to an NTSB database.

In September, a grounds worker at the Broken Bow Airport died when they were hit by an airplane's right wing. The worker had been mowing grass along a runway. The plane had just landed.

On Jan. 28, 2023, a pilot died in a crash near Hooker about two hours after leaving an airport near Colorado Springs, Colorado. The pilot was returning to Liberal, Kansas.

On Jan. 16, 2023, a pilot and instructor were fatally injured in a crash near Kingfisher in the first flight after a new autopilot system had been installed.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Fatal OKC airplane crash investigation focuses on evidence of oil leak
Cold weather and snow are expected across much of the UK - Simon Maycock / Alamy Live News/Alamy

Snow and ice will cause rush hour travel disruption across the South East on Monday morning, the Met Office has warned.

The public were urged to take care in the cold conditions, with roads and train services likely to be affected across Greater London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

Craig Snell, a forecaster at the Met Office, told The Telegraph on Sunday night: We are expecting snow across the South East overnight and into tomorrow. The main risk will be icy patches for journeys to work tomorrow and there could be knock-on delays to roads and railways.

He urged travellers to be extra vigilant outside, especially if walking on foot to work tomorrow be careful as it could be slippery under foot. That remains the way for the rest of the week, he said.

It comes after authorities issued an amber cold weather health alert to last until Friday.

The UK Health Security Agency and the Met Office issued the alert for the north-west of England, the West Midlands, East Midlands and the south-west of England until midday on January 12.

An amber alert means cold weather impacts are likely to be felt across the whole health service for an extended period of time.

Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at UKHSA, said: With the Met Office forecasting drops in temperature across the United Kingdom into next week, it is important to check in on the wellbeing of those most vulnerable to the cold.

A yellow cold health alert, one level below amber, remains in place for the north-east of England, Yorkshire and The Humber, the East of England, the south-east of England and London.

Sunak visits flood victims

Earlier on Sunday, the Prime Minister met residents affected by flooding in Oxford. Rishi Sunak spoke to people on their doorsteps before visiting Environment Agency workers at their depot on Osney Island.

Mr Sunak said: Flooding has been having a devastating impact on communities up and down the country.

I was in the East Midlands last week on Thursday and Im in Oxfordshire here today talking to some of those that have been affected, but also saying thank you to our first responders who were doing a fantastic job over the past week.

Mr Sunak said there were over 1,000 Environment Agency personnel on the ground in local communities helping with the flooding, with over 200 pumps deployed.

Weve invested 5.2 billion in flood defences over the period in question - thats a record sum, far more than weve done, in the future thats contributed to protecting over 300,000 homes, he said.

And of course, there have been many people affected by whats happened over the past week, but also over 49,000 have been affected by flooding.

After being shown pumps and barriers working to get rid of water from the still-flooded River Thames in Osney, Mr Sunak spoke with Environment Agency staff.

Houses have historically been severely damaged by floods in the area, but there has reportedly been less devastation this time.

Mr Sunak said: Just walking around talking to residents, everyones been very complimentary about the response, just as Ive been walking around talking to people, people have been at pains to say they felt the engagement has been great and actually what has been happening has made a difference.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) just hit the market with some notable artificial intelligence (AI) news, and it didn't involve new AI chips trying to play catch-up to Nvidia. Rather, the latest announcement involves Intel's in-house generative AI software business, which is now being christened Articul8 AI.

With some outside investment help from data center, cell tower, and internet infrastructure manager DigitalBridge Group, as well as a consortium of other investment firms, Intel has spun off Articul8 AI as a separate company.

Of course, Intel did announce a slew of new chips aimed at various AI applications in December. The company is also receiving the first of a new batch of advanced machines from top semiconductor manufacturing equipment company ASML Holding, which will be critical to Intel's roadmap of new chips in the coming years.

But why separate the AI software business, especially when Nvidia -- the dominant player in AI training chips -- has built its technological lead with a combination of hardware and software? And does Intel's move to set Articul8 free make it a good investment for 2024?

Intel's piggy bank strategy

Perhaps Intel's release of Articul8 AI sounds familiar. Under the guidance of CEO Pat Gelsinger the last few years, Intel has been closing down non-strategic business lines and selling equity stakes in others to outside investors.

For example, in late 2022, Intel sold a small stake in its autonomous vehicle chip segment Mobileye, relisting the stock on public exchanges after it acquired it back in early 2018. It retains majority ownership of Mobileye at this point.

Something similar was accomplished with the sale of another subsidiary business, IMS Nanofabrication, over the summer of 2023. IMS makes the equipment used to fabricate key components (called photomasks) used in advanced ASML lithography machines (more on that in a moment). Intel sold a 20% stake in IMS to private equity company Bain Capital, and a couple of months later, another 10% stake in IMS to fellow chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (or simply TSMC), the leading chip manufacturer Intel is trying to chase down.

Story continues

Most recently, Intel said it would be spinning off its programmable chip business within the next few years. This programmable chip unit, which specializes in a semiconductor type called FPGAs, was assembled primarily via the mega-acquisition of Altera back in 2015.

The disassembly of Intel, or something more?

It's clear Gelsinger and the top team at Intel want to raise cash. But this isn't just the simple disassembly of the Intel semiconductor empire. Gelsinger has been clear he wants to return Intel to chip manufacturing greatness. TSMC passed Intel's chip manufacturing technology capabilities a few years ago, and soon after surpassed Intel in terms of overall revenue.

INTC Revenue (TTM) Chart

The problem, in the eyes of many both inside and outside the semiconductor industry, is that TSMC poses supply chain and geopolitical risks -- owing to China's overtures toward reunifying the island of Taiwan with the rest of the country. Intel sees an opportunity to position its vast manufacturing capabilities, historically reserved for its own chip designs, as an alternative third-party contract manufacturer to TSMC.

A long list of fabless (no chipmaking, just engineering) semiconductor companies, including Nvidia, might be interested in diversifying their chip supply chain if Intel can accommodate.

But therein lies the rub. Intel can't just simply decide to compete with TSMC's manufacturing prowess. It needs to purchase that capability. That's where ASML's lithography equipment, as well as other chip manufacturing equipment suppliers, come in. And ASML's latest-and-greatest, its High-NA EUV lithography machines, don't come cheap. These marvels of industrial technology cost upwards of $400 million each, plus ample ongoing operating expenses thereafter.

Suffice to say, Intel is in need of a lot of cash it doesn't currently have on balance if it wants to retake the chip manufacturing technology crown from TSMC. As I wrote in November, Intel's free cash flow was deeply negative in 2023, and it has far more debt than cash on balance.

INTC Free Cash Flow Chart

And what is it up against? Heavy spending (in this case, capital expenditures on property and equipment) from highly profitable TSMC as it tries to maintain its leadership in chipmaking. So Intel has quite a ways to go to narrow the gap.

INTC Capital Expenditures (TTM) Chart

Bringing the AI software story full circle

And this is likely why Intel just announced another spinoff of one of its non-core assets, Articul8 AI. Intel gets to retain some ownership in the now-independent software company, which it will help with go-to-market strategies for the budding generative AI industry. But in the meantime, Intel also raised some cash for what is sure to be an expensive manufacturing journey in the coming years.

So does this most recent sale make Intel a buy? Perhaps, for the right investor. Just know the risk. Intel has lined up a steady stream of liquidity it can tap into in the coming years with all of these business sales to outside investors. Now it comes down to whether Intel can execute -- and it will be difficult, given that the complexity of crafting next-gen chips is only rising.

I still count Intel as a higher-risk and only potentially higher-reward semiconductor rebound story at this juncture. There are other chip stocks with better risk-to-reward profiles out there right now.

Should you invest $1,000 in Intel right now?

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Nicholas Rossolillo and his clients have positions in ASML and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends ASML, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Intel and Mobileye Global and recommends the following options: long January 2023 $57.50 calls on Intel, long January 2025 $45 calls on Intel, and short February 2024 $47 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Intel Is Selling a Stake in Its AI Software Business -- Does That Make Intel Stock a Buy for 2024? was originally published by The Motley Fool
Vermont experienced widespread snowfall over the weekend thanks to a wintery storm that blanketed much of the Northeast.

The Green Mountain State received its first dusting of 2024 on Thursday evening, leaving behind less than an inch of snow in most areas. A second, much heavier wave hit Vermont on Saturday evening and lasted until late Sunday, the storm left more than a foot of snow in parts of Massachusetts.

Early predictions indicated that southern areas would see the most snow and they were right. How did Vermont towns and cities fare this weekend?

Snowfall totals across Chittenden County

Snowfall throughout Chittenden County ranged from 4 to 7.5 inches, trouncing last month's snowstorm, which dropped between 1 and 4 inches in most nearby towns.

Out of all cities and towns in the county, Shelburne and Hinesburg received the most snowfall at 7.5 inches, followed by Winooski with 7 inches. Next came South Burlington and Milton with 6.5 and Essex with 6.3. Burlington, with 6.1 inches, just barely beat out Williston and Colchester, who each boasted 6 inches. St. George secured 5.3 inches and Twin Orchards scored 5 inches. Underhill finished last with 4 inches of snow.

Which parts of Vermont got at least a foot of snow

Most Vermont cities and towns clocked at least a half foot of snow this weekend, a feat achieved by only 14 places last month.

Here are the special few towns and cities that accumulated a foot or more between Saturday and Sunday, according to a report from NWS Burlington at 10:03 p.m. on Jan. 7.

West Barnet - 16 inches

Groton - 15 inches

Barnet - 14.8 inches

Orange - 14.5 inches

Marshfield - 14.5 inches

Washington - 14 inches

Chelsea - 14 inches

Newbury - 14 inches

Corinth - 14 inches

Randolph - 13.5 inches

Barre - 13.5 inches

East Brookfield - 12 inches

Sharon - 12 inches

Storm brewing tomorrow through Wednesday

As Vermonters enjoy the remnants of a snowy weekend, they are also bracing themselves for a third storm  this time "multi-faceted" with a mix of snow, rain and strong winds  scheduled to hit tomorrow afternoon and last through Wednesday, according to NWS Burlington. Widespread power outages are expected between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

"Moral of the story, keep an eye on the forecast and prepare for a significant system to impact the region," NWS Burlington reported on Facebook.

Megan Stewart is a government accountability reporter for the Burlington Free Press. Contact her at mstewartyounger@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: How much snow fell in Vermont in early January? Here's the inch counts
5 p.m. update: Severe weather threat upgraded for area

Warning of the possibility of "very powerful wind fields," the National Weather Service has upgraded the threat matrix for the Tallahassee area to an Enhanced (level 3 of 5) risk of severe weather.

"A high impact event is expected on Monday night into Tuesday as an extremely dynamic system impacts the area," forecasters said in their evening discussion. "The wind field with this system still looks incredible with the 00z ECMWF ensemble still forecasting a record breaking low level jet in excess of 70 knots across the area. We rarely see this kind of wind field over our area. The main question is how much instability moves inland.

The National Weather Service has upgraded the severe weather threat for the Tallahassee area and Big Bend.

After a lesser threat overnight Monday with the potential for supercell storms, an intense squall line is expected to tear through the area Tuesday morning and afternoon. The storm system could bring with it several possibly strong tornadoes, damaging to destructive winds that could be widespread and localized flash flooding.

"With a very strong wind field, wind gusts outside of severe weather will potentially be very impactful," according to the evening forecast. "Gusts of 50 to 60 mph outside storms possible along the coast and 40 to 50 mph possible inland. These gusts could cause some coastal flooding as well."

About 40 to 45 mph wind gusts are expected even before the squall line arrives. Wind gusts along the coast could be closer to 60 mph at times "with the fetch off the Gulf," forecasters say.

"Due to the powerful wind field, clean up items that can blow away," forecasters say. "Additionally, keep devices charged all day as there could be scattered power outages *before* severe weather arrives."

Rainfall of 2 to 3 inches is expected across the Big Bend. Minor to moderate coastal flooding from storm surge is expected on Tuesday, most likely along the shores of Apalachee Bay.

The National Weather Service has upgraded the severe weather threat for the Tallahassee area and Big Bend.

"Significant beach concerns are also possible. Surf will build to 8 to 11 feet during this time, which could result in beach erosion," forecasters say. "Deadly rip currents are likely to continue through at least the middle of the week."

Original story

Forecasters continue to warn of a "potent" and dangerous severe weather threat coming to north Florida Monday night and into Tuesday.

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee has been warning residents for almost a week that a "pretty significantly severe event" packing "multiple high-impact hazards" will threaten north Florida and could spawn "several tornadoes, some strong." The area is currently under a slight risk (Level 2 of 5), though the Weather Service said that could be upgraded.

"Our guidance has been to not just focus on the storms but the non-thunderstorm winds could be pretty impactful," said Israel Gonzalez, a local NWS forecaster. He noted that there has been rare and consistent model agreement on the storm threat, adding that the word "slight" may provide a false sense of security.

The severe weather threat will come in two waves starting Monday evening.

"The ceiling for this event is high, and we still can't rule out a significant severe event," the National Weather Service warns in its latest forecast. "Tornadoes (some strong) & damaging to destructive winds remain the primary hazards."

The threat comes in two rounds starting Monday night with rain off the Gulf of Mexico. That will transition to thunderstorms with an isolated threat of severe weather and supercells that could include damaging winds, tornadoes and heavy rains.

All the while, a squall line will be developing to our west in the Mississippi valley or Louisiana area, which will rake the Gulf Coast with 40-45 mph winds well ahead of the arrival of the heaviest storms. That could result in power outages and trees falling given already wet soils.

Even non-storm wind gusts could pack a punch well before a squall line roars through north Florida.

Even higher wind gusts approaching 60 mph are expected along the coast from Franklin County westward to Walton County, forecasters warn. On the coast, "extremely dangerous beach and boating conditions are expected" and storm and gale watches are in effect.

Locally heavy rainfall is also possible with 2-4 inches expected. Forecasters say flash flooding is possible with isolated totals of 4-6 inches of precipitation possible.

Forecasters say "all modes of severe weather are possible" with this storm, and Gonzalez said "we are grateful to be able to get as much advanced notice, so it's not taking people off guard."

Heavy rain is also expected with the storm system.

"Now is the time to prepare ahead of the high-impact weather event coming Monday night and Tuesday," the latest forecast warns. "Use today to review your severe weather safety plans and secure any loose outdoor objects. Ensure you have multiple ways to receive warnings ahead of our next system."

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee, Florida severe weather threat upgraded for winds, tornadoes
With the already nerve-wracking 2024 presidential elections approaching, a concerning report reveals attempts by Cuba to undermine our democratic process by targeting Florida-based and national political candidates who dislike the islands repressive government.

A recent report from the U.S. intelligence community reveals that Cuba attempted to influence the U.S. 2022 midterm elections. Few details of the interference uncovered or the damage done were revealed, but it was enough to warrant concern.

Of course, the midterms were probably a practice run. If Cuba tried it two years ago, theyll likely try again in 2024 when with a high-stakes presidential election on the line.

Meddling in 2016

While other foreign adversaries, such as Russia and China have also pulled off similar shenanigans, specifically during the 2016 presidential elections, the United States should be ready to thwart this intrusion from an enemy just 90 miles away.

The report, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, revealed the Cuban government built relationships with sympathetic media outlets. It then used them to spread derogatory content about politicians who oppose the communist regime. The declassified portion of the intelligence assessment does not say how effective Havanas influence campaign was on Floridas elections, nor does it name specific individuals who were targeted.

But it is safe to say that Cuba would like to target Florida resident and presidential candidate Donald Trump, a staunch anti-communist candidate who rolled back Obama era-concessions meant to thaw relations between the two countries. Cuba would not like to see Trump reelected.

And It doesnt take a genius to figure out that Cuba would also likely be targeting Cuban-American members of Congress, many of who reside in South Florida, along with other local politicos known for their criticism of the island government. Needless to say, this is an unacceptable effort by a foreign power to sway American voters and elections, and it must be addressed.

Alleged spy

The elections-interference report came two weeks after the arrest of a once highly placed analyst assigned to the U.S. Interest Section in Havana. He allegedly was working for the Cubans.

Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, living among us in Miami, had been a long-time U.S. diplomat now said to be passing information to the Cubans. He is awaiting a January court date.

All this is further proof that Cuba indeed belongs on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, which Cuba has bitterly refuted.

White House officials were mum on whether the United States plans any retaliatory response to Cubas election meddling. Still, Florida politicians, the likely targets, said the Biden administration should do more to respond to a threat they view as pernicious and ongoing.

The Biden administration must immediately condemn these actions, make clear they will not be tolerated and expel Cuban diplomats from U.S. soil, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told McClatchy. Continued failure to treat Cuba like the tyrannical spying regime that it is only emboldens it.

The senator is right.

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez said during a press conference in Doral that he believes he and fellow Republicans Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart were targeted, though he said he had not been told that directly by U.S. intelligence officials.

They redacted a whole bunch from the report, but you can infer from what you can read who exactly it was they were talking about, he said.

Diaz-Balart called it a wake-up call and said the United States must take a stand now: Now is the time to impose tough consequences, including tighter sanctions, on the malevolent dictatorship that seeks to damage our democracy.

The Biden administration  and the rest of us  must affirm that the integrity of our elections is not up for debate.
Governor Bill Lee speaks to the media about school vouchers after a panel consisting of parents, the head of New Hope Christian Academy, and Speaker Cameron Sexton on Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at the New Hope Christian Academy library in Memphis, Tenn.

Tennessee state officials finally released their long-delayed letter grades for schools last month, just before the holiday break, using a new formula championed by Gov. Bill Lees administration.

But even before they knew their grades, leaders of a high-performing suburban Memphis school district denounced the system as a sham.

This is all an attempt to paint Tennessee public schools as failing, thus ushering in a new era of vouchers for all, a statement from Arlington Community Schools said. It was signed by Superintendent Jeff Mayo and school board members, including Dale Viox, president of the Tennessee School Boards Association.

Meanwhile, other suburban Memphis school districts have begun lining up against private-school voucher expansion, too, another key part of Lees education agenda. Lees voucher program uses taxpayer money to help families fund private school tuition, and the proposed expansion is expected to be a top legislative priority when the General Assembly returns on Jan. 9.

Lees proposal would remove income limits and ultimately extend the program statewide. It would be a huge leap forward for a program that was once billed as a pilot project and barely survived challenges in the legislature and the courts.

Viox said the TSBA is already instructing its members to pass formal board resolutions opposing vouchers. And its urging school boards to promote the strengths of their public schools and appeal directly to lawmakers.

I think youre going to find more and more people want to speak out about it, Viox told Chalkbeat, because theres a lot of people in this area that I know personally and across the state that care a great deal about public education and doing right by students.

Mayo and Viox talked with Chalkbeat about their opposition to the voucher program, and why they believe Tennessees new letter grade system is part of an attack on public schools.

This interview was conducted on Dec. 11 before school letter grades were released on Dec. 21. It has been edited for length and clarity.

What is it about the A-F letter grades and proposed voucher legislation that warrants the kind of statement you made?

Mayo: The best way that Ive been able to describe the A-to-F grading system is its sort of the appetizer to whats to come with the voucher system. And I think  if the state or the governor, or (the Tennessee Department of Education)  whomever is pushing for this  can paint the picture that school districts that are successful, high-performing, such as ours, are failing, then that sets the tone for support of the voucher expansion program, which, you know, ultimately, takes money away from public education. 

We are held accountable for every penny that we receive from the state.  Every dime of it we have to say, How is that contributing to students growth, or students achievement, whereas in a private school, thats not the case.  Theyre not held under the same state accountability that we are. There is no teacher evaluation accountability model that Im aware of. 

And so to say that its going to even the playing field is inaccurate. And thats the whole reason were calling this whole thing a sham.  I believe expansion of this has been part of the roadmap since day one.

Viox: Its a bad idea to take taxpayer money and give it to private entities.  We know that across the nation  voucher programs are just rife with misuse.  And then if you want to talk about inclusivity and diversity: A private school can refuse you for any reason whatsoever.  So as many kids as you may think that youre going to be able to include, youre going to exclude twice as many under this program, because private schools are not going to take them, either for their religious beliefs or sexual orientation or whatever. 

You ask why its such a strong statement. Because were in a strong position. We have high-performance students, we have a very high-performance district, and this is probably not going to trickle down to us for a long time. But what it does do is it affects our educational partners in Shelby County. And if you think you can just forget about public education in Shelby County, and just focus on Arlington, Tennessee, youre wrong. Because failing Shelby County schools will impact every one of these districts, and everyone in the state.  Across the state of Tennessee, we need to build up public education to what it can be, and not take money away and give it to private companies.

What do you hope the statement accomplishes?

Mayo: Its debacle after debacle that were dealing with, with no guidance, no real assistance from TDOE when these new mandates are handed down.  My staff has to stop, they have to decide: How are we going to do this? What are we going to do to help our students get on the other side of this? 

Even if we get an A, that doesnt change my stance on this. Its still, its a broken process. And instead of scratching that and rebuilding it, we keep piling on more ineffective accountability measures to pulverize public schools. Thats why this statement from my vantage point needed to be as strong as it is.  TDOE asks for input, but we never see our input in the end product of any of these new laws or mandates  . And so its exhausting.

Viox: At this point, it is difficult to ignore what the state is doing to attack public education.  And like he said, theyre tired. And as an advocate for public education, I am as well.

Is there any set of accountability metrics that would move you more in favor of voucher expansion?

Viox: Not me.  These guys can go out and raise money for anything they want in any way they want. And public schools cant do that.  (TSBA is) going to the state to try and say, Hey, look, at least let our PTAs and people do lotteries, because  we cant do that now. But private schools can raise money however they want. ... And what we see with other voucher expansions throughout the U.S. is the private schools are turning around  and raising their tuition for those public school kids by that same voucher amount. So essentially, theyre double dipping.

Mayo: I think its a long range plan to continue to siphon money from public schools.  Its not uncommon for the  TDOE to deliver down mandates that are unfunded, that districts are expected to scramble around and find the money to, you know, make it happen. So if youre looking at, you know, already being very low-funded when you compare to the nation, what our state funds for education, and then this continuation of vouchers siphoning money away from that, you know, thats the whole mantra behind this being a sham.

Viox: If youre this  bent on getting a voucher program, fund it separately. We would have no problem with that. And I think if you look at across the nation, people that have expanded their voucher programs, its come with a really hefty price tag.

Can you talk to me more about what specifically that (separate funding) would look like?  If Arlington loses any students, you are losing funding by a declining enrollment.

Viox: If you come to any of our schools and cant find something youre interested in, in the various clubs, and school sponsored sports, and all of the things that we offer  just hundreds and hundreds of activities for students. I feel like we would not necessarily lose students to  private schools.  As long as the funding is there and completely separate, thats honestly not a concern for me. Now, thats not to say it wont be a concern for other school districts that are struggling.  Theres always going to be private schools. Any specific government money to help them expand, I wouldnt be in favor for. 

When you look at all these other states, I dont know what their oversight is, but I think Arizona in their first year before they expanded their voucher program, on the surface found almost a million dollars, it was over $700,000 in misappropriated funds.  And never forget, that if they give him a years worth of public funding, and they live within your district, and they go to that private school, and either dont make it or dont actually use it for those (school) funds, they come back to us, and we are going to educate those kids.

If the voucher expansion were to pass as its been proposed ... what challenges could you immediately see for Arlingtons district?

Mayo: It will not be immediately impactful to us. But as I stated earlier, I believe the expansion is to continue. I think that is the long-range plan. So eventually, we could be faced with losing students, which impacts funding, which impacts teacher layoffs, it impacts the diminishing of programs that weve invested a lot of money in through our capital improvement projects. 

Im a long-range planner. And I think those are things that you have to look at.

Viox: Im also a higher level view guy: If it affects Metro Nashville, and it affects Shelby County, then it will affect us. The greatest impact is going to be on them. They are our brothers and sisters in public education, and we cannot just completely discount how its going to affect them. Because as it affects Shelby County, it will trickle out into the municipalities as businesses leave.

Mayo: The A-to-F distinction that I dont think weve really talked a lot about is the impact it has just on our local community. Because lets face it, Arlington is growing because of our schools. Businesses are coming here. Parents are moving here, you know. And then if all they have to go by is they pull up our website  and they see that Arlington, well, looks like a really good community and everything, but their school district has an F. Thats the only piece of information that parents have, if theyre not familiar with whats been going on in the state of Tennessee.

Is there anything this conversation is missing?

Mayo: It really takes creativity away sometimes from the school district, because I know were in the process of developing our 2025-26 school year calendar. One of the people in the group said, You know, have we ever thought about a year round school? ... If we wanted to do that, how could we ever do that, if were having to offer learning camps and all of that as a product of third grade retention?  If we wanted to be innovative and wanted to be creative and experiment with that, how could we do that? We couldnt.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tennessee public school leaders sound the alarm about vouchers
South Korea accused North Korea of firing hundreds of artillery shells near its disputed sea boundary for the third straight day as the North pledges further military action in response to any provocation.

South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sunday claimed North Korea fired off over 90 rounds near the countrys western sea boundary with the North, the Associated Press reported. The South warned of an overwhelming response if the North does not stop halt the firings, the news wire added.

Kim Yo Jung, the sister of the Norths leader Kim Jong Un, said Sunday the Korean Peoples Army (KPA) detonated blasting powder, which simulated the sound of its coastal artillery, in a test of the South Korean militarys detection abilities.

She maintained the North did not fire a single shell into the disputed waters.

The result was clear as we expected. They misjudged the blasting sound as the sound of gunfire and conjectured it as a provocation, Kim said in a statement issued by state media KCNA, adding later, The ridiculous behavior of these puppets in military uniform is nothing new today.

Kim reiterated the North will launch an immediate military strike if the South makes even a slight provocation, calling the South gangsters.

I cannot but say that [South Korean] people are very pitiful as they entrust security to such blind persons and offer huge taxes to them, she said. It is better 10 times to entrust security to a dog with a developed sense of hearing and smell.

In the wake of the Norths firings last Friday, South Korea directed troops on border islands to fire artillery rounds near the sea boundary. The shells landed at the buffer zone between the two countries, known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The area was created under a 2018 agreement that required the two Koreas to dismantle or disarm several guard posts and created a no-fly zone at the border and a ban on aerial reconnaissance and live-fire exercises.

Tensions between the two Koreas have spiked in recent months as the North continues missile tests and the South expands military training with the U.S. The recent breaches of the 2018 agreement put the deal at risk, with experts warning the North will boost weapons tests in the coming months, the AP reported.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A male victim of the blast receives treatment at a hospital in Peshawar - Anadolu/Anadolu

A bomb attack on a Pakistan police van deployed to escort polio vaccinators has killed six officers, in the countrys bloodiest attack on its anti-polio campaign for a decade.

Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the roadside blast near the Afghan border, though they said the attack was not related to vaccinations.

The blast in Bajaur wounded another 27 and brought the total number of polio workers and their escorts killed in Pakistan since 2012 to 102. Authorities immediately suspended vaccination in the district.

Pakistan has suffered bloody opposition to international polio eradication efforts for more than a decade.

Conspiracy theories against polio vaccines, administered as a mouth drop in poorer countries, are a rallying cry for firebrand clerics along the border with Afghanistan and have become a major hurdle to stamping out the crippling childhood disease.

A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child at a neighbourhood of Karachi, Pakistan - Fareed Khan/AP

Accusations are rife that the drops are harmful, tainted with pork, or even a Western plot to sterilise Muslims.

Opposition intensified when it emerged the CIA ran a fake hepatitis B vaccination programme trying to pinpoint Osama bin Laden by taking DNA samples from children to identify his relatives.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of militants known as the Pakistani Taliban, has in the past denounced the door-to-door vaccination campaign as a government plot to spy on them.

Motorbike-riding militants regularly open fire on polio vaccinators, but the Bajaur attack is the bloodiest since a 2014 bomb killed six polio guards and a bystander in Charsadda.

The TTP claimed responsibility for the Bajaur attack, saying it had successfully detonated a mine on a police vehicle nine miles from the Afghan border.

But the TTP statement said claims the attack was associated with the polio vaccination campaign were entirely false, AFP reported.

The TTP has been fighting an insurgency against Pakistans government for more than 15 years and has killed thousands of people.

Eradication campaign hindered by conflict

They are allied with the neighbouring Afghan Taliban, and in recent years have taken refuge in Afghanistan from offensives by the Pakistan army. Attacks by the TTP have seen a dramatic spike in attacks since the fall of Kabul in 2021.

After more than 35 years of the global push to stamp out polio, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where the wild strain of the polio virus is still circulating.

War, insurgency and suspicion in the neighbours have handicapped the eradication campaign despite huge sums of international funding.

The Afghan Taliban at times forbade door-to-door vaccination during their long insurgency campaign, accusing the international-backed government of using vaccination teams to spy on their fighters.

That ban was rescinded after the Taliban ousted Ashraf Ghanis government and the World Health Organisation says its teams now have access across the country.

Overall, the international eradication scheme has seen cases fall from around 350,000 cases in 1988 to just a dozen in 2023  six in Pakistan and six in Afghanistan.

But stopping the last few cases in each country has proven frustratingly difficult.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security

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On the wall of the mens bathroom in the Wickenden Pub in Providence, Rhode Island, three names have been scrawled in blue pen, each one crossed out. Arthur Knight, Nick Rossi, Nick A. Below them, a fourth name is left uncrossed: Three Question Nick. Those names may just be the drunken scribbles of a punter in the wood-panelled dive bar, but anyone who frequented the Wickenden between 2015 and 2017 will have heard of the final one.

Three Question Nick was the name given to one of the bars regulars  an oddball with thick-rimmed glasses who used to come in and bend the ear off anyone who would listen. None of his stories appeared to add up; he was a Harvard man who supposedly worked in politics but never seemed to have a job to go to. He was always peddling some get-rich-quick scheme or finding a way to fleece a drinking partner out of a few dollars. He was, by all accounts, more an irritation than an enigma. Nevertheless, people who knew him back then were not surprised to learn years later that he was a conman. You never really believed what was coming out of his mouth, says Corey Lamoureux, a bartender at the Wickenden.

Night after night, he would prop up the bar and fire an endless stream of questions at whoever occupied the next stool. The boss gave him the nickname because he became so annoying. Hed sit there and ask so many questions that our boss said, Listen, you can ask three questions; if you ask a fourth Im throwing you out.

Three Question Nick claimed, among other things, to be a Harvard graduate - UNPIXS

Three Question Nick is just one of at least 16 names US law enforcement believes he has gone by over the years. All of them link back to one man  an American fugitive wanted on two counts of rape and for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of unpaid debt; a man who, on Friday, after months in an Edinburgh prison, boarded a private flight from Edinburgh Airport after losing his final appeal against extradition to the US.

In Utah, where he is accused of raping two women in 2008, Rossi will be held in a half-empty county jail on the edge of a town called Spanish Fork. The Sheriffs Office told the BBC it is currently housing just 450 prisoners who are either awaiting trial or serving sentences of less than a year.

The story of Nicholas Rossi, who faked his own death and invented a new identity in Britain in an attempt to shed the trail of alleged criminality he had left behind in the US, is so outlandish a Hollywood producer would deem it far fetched.

Rossis most recent alias was Arthur Knight. For a year, in an attempt to avoid extradition, he argued in an Edinburgh court that he had been the victim of a terrible case of mistaken identity. He claimed to be an upper class English gentleman with Irish heritage (his stilted accent was far from convincing), a university professor and a happily married man who had tragically found himself in poor health despite only being 35. He attended court in a wheelchair, an oxygen mask strapped to his face, the muscles in his legs supposedly so badly atrophied he couldnt walk or lift his arms above his head  except, conveniently, any time he needed to raise his hand to attract the attention of his barrister.

Knight wore either a three-piece suit or a dressing gown to court. For a hearing in June last year he arrived sporting a black barristers gown and a yarmulke, having converted to Judaism in HMP Edinburgh, where he had been held since 2022. He claimed to have nothing to do with the alleged fraudster and alleged rapist from Rhode Island, Nicholas Rossi. He claimed the tattoos on his arms which matched those Interpol had on file for Rossi had been added to his arm while he was in a coma; he claimed the fingerprint records which linked him to Rossi had been manipulated and used to frame him.

After some of the most bizarre scenes the Edinburgh Sheriff Court has surely ever seen, Sheriff Norman McFadyen finally ruled in August he could be sent back to America to stand trial. Having finally been extradited, the District Attorney for Salt Lake County told the BBC he will now face separate trials for each allegation.

The tattoos Interpol had on file for Rossi matched those of Arthur Knight - UNPIXS

Rossi was arrested on December 13, 2021, at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow, where he had been admitted with Covid. His arrest followed an investigation led by Interpol, with input from police forces from Utah to Essex, that had started in 2017 and concerned allegations of two rapes in Utah, an assault in Massachusetts and another assault (and suspected kidnapping) in Rhode Island. A woman in Essex has claimed a man who went by the name Nicholas Rossi and resembles the man claiming to be Arthur Knight raped her in 2017. Rossi was arrested in connection to the alleged incident last October; last week, he was re-bailed until March 21. Inquiries are ongoing. He is also alleged to have defrauded his foster parents of $200,000.

As his story has gained notoriety more allegations have arisen. His ex-wife, Kathryn Heckendorn, has spoken about the domestic abuse she suffered at Rossis hands. They married in 2015 in Dayton six months after meeting at church. She didnt know of his previous sexual offence until after they were married. She describes him as controlling, manipulative and physically violent. He broke me down and we got married without telling anybody, she told the BBC. It was the first day he hit me, right after we were married.

She told how she would be hit on a daily occurrence. [I would be] put down verbally [and told] just how stupid, dumb I was. If I didnt act that way, I wouldnt have to get hurt.

When she escaped, a recording she had made of the abuse helped ensure she was believed in court. A judge accused Rossi of gross neglect of duty and cruelty and granted her a divorce.

People in Rhode Island who knew Rossi dont recall seeing him around after 2017 - UNPIXS

His stepfather, David Rossi, has also spoken out, saying that his stepson suffers from mental health problems and visited psychiatric wards as a child. According to reports, Rossi, who grew up in Rhode Island, became a ward of the state in 1999, aged 12, and spent a number of years in care in Nebraska, Florida and Ohio.

In 2008, he was found guilty of sexual imposition and public indecency after luring a woman called Mary Grebinksi into the stairwell of a building on a college campus in Dayton, Ohio, pressing his body weight against her and touching her against her will. I saw his dark eyes behind his dark rimmed glasses and they were void of any emotion, any human feeling, it was like looking into something dead, Grebinski said in a video she posted on YouTube in July.

After his conviction, he spent years trying to make Grebinski pay by flinging new evidence at the courts and eventually suing her (unsuccessfully) for defamation and mental distress.

Then, in 2011, he re-emerged in Rhode Island. By this stage, he was in his twenties and using the surname Alahverdian, his biological fathers name. He spoke publicly of the abuse he had suffered in care and campaigned for a childrens bill of rights.

The patrons of the Wickenden Pub, in Providence, Rhode Island, only began hearing about Rossis crimes in 2017. We had found out about his first conviction because one of our friends was a police officer, says Corey Lamoureux. But, by then, he had disappeared, after making noises about getting married and moving abroad.

In the three years that followed, Lamoureux only heard about Rossi via another pub regular, Stephen OShea, an author who once described Rossi as hard to shake off, like a wet shirt.

Stephen said he spoke to him a couple of times on the phone, says Lamoureux. He owed [him] a lot of money and had made promises to pay him. And then we all got the call that he was dead.

Rossi with his ex-wife Kathryn Heckendorn, who made a recording of the abuse she endured. A judge accused Rossi of gross neglect of duty and cruelty and granted her a divorce - UNPIXS

In the spring of 2020, a woman claiming to be Rossis wife phoned Lamoureux. [She told me] Nick always looked up to you, he was really glad you guys were friends, he talked highly of you, would you please come to the memorial service? He said he would make it if he could.

Even at that point, no one at the pub thought he was dead.

Father Bernard Healey, of Our Lady of Mercy in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, received a call too, asking if he would hold a memorial service for Rossi. It was strange, because the woman sounded like Hyacinth Bucket, Healey has said.

His body, the wife said, had been buried in Switzerland (odd, given an obituary on a memorial website had said his remains had been scattered at sea), but she wanted to host a memorial for him. He agreed. I then started getting emails about setting the times and date for the service, and I recall she became a little obsessive.

Rossis ex-wife Kathryn said she was physically and psychologically abused by him during their seven-month marriage - UNPIXS

The invitations went out, then Healey got a call from the police. Detectives told him they thought Rossi had faked his death, that he was wanted by Interpol, the federal government and other state authorities. They said he was using some sort of voice distorter over the phone, Healey said. He wrote to the wife to postpone the memorial.

Rossi was very much alive and living in Britain. In early 2020, around the same time as people in Rhode Island began receiving calls about a terminal illness, Nafsika Antypas hired Rossi (or Nicholas Brown as she knew him) to do PR in the UK for her Canadian vegan food brand. She had found his profile on Upwork, a site that connects companies with freelancers. He said he was experienced in PR and marketing and had a little TV experience, a Harvard graduate. I decided to have a call with him that very day. Antypas recalls how he seemed a little odd. He had a stutter. I thought maybe just because he was nervous to speak to me.

In the three months Rossi worked for her, Antypas says she paid him $30,000CAD (17,500 at todays exchange rate), while he failed to deliver the work she had set him. She would chase him constantly, but recalls how every time she questioned him he would tell her she was being paranoid.

He kept coming up with these excuses, she says over the phone from Montreal. He was in the hospital, and then his wife was in the hospital, and then his dogs were in the hospital, and then he was on his second honeymoon.

When she issued him with an ultimatum, refusing to pay any more until she saw evidence of his work, he threatened her. He created a smear campaign against her, writing articles and creating a fake website. He sent legal letters threatening to sue her and harassed her parents on the phone. Antypas has had little success in bringing her case to the attention of authorities in the UK or Canada. Between the money she paid him and the money she has spent trying to clear up the trail of destruction he left, she has lost an awful lot in the ordeal.

Rossi arriving with his wife Miranda at Edinburgh Sheriff And Justice Of The Peace Court, for a preliminary extradition hearing - PA

Interpol finally tracked Rossi down to a flat in Glasgows West End in December 2021. When they arrived, they found his new wife, Miranda Knight. Arthur, she said, was in hospital. At the QEUH, the officers were told they had better act quickly: Rossi had been trying to leave in a private ambulance. When he was arrested he said: I am Arthur Knight. Ive never even been to the US.

Back home in Rhode Island, Nicholas Rossi is a constant source of amusement in the pub where he spent three years of his chequered life. At one point we wanted to fly overseas and just sit in a courtroom and yell at him because we know its him, says Lamoureux, whose assessment of Rossi is less that he is mentally ill and more that he thinks hes smarter than anyone else.

In the coming months, Rossi will have to face the charges that have brought him back to the US. Lamoureux suspects hell keep up his bizarre story of mistaken identity until the end. Hes going to go down swinging with this Arthur Knight character. It wouldnt shock me if hed tried to sell the rights to this story already.

If a team of producers is already scouting out characters and locations for the Netflix series, they could do worse than to start in the mens bathroom of a Rhode Island dive bar, where the names of a local fugitive are scrawled on the wall, and above them the message: I faked my own death at the Wickenden Pub.

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One tourist was rescued from the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday off Public Beach Access 21 in unincorporated Bay County.

PANAMA CITY BEACH  A Walton County motorcyclist is dead after a Friday crash on Panama City Beach.

According to a news release from the Panama City Beach Police Department, the incident occurred about 4:40 p.m. along Panama City Beach Parkway near Richard Jackson Boulevard. The victim was 19-year-old Steven Collins of Walton County.

"A preliminary investigation reveals that a 2009 Suzuki motorcycle was traveling west on PCB Parkway in the area of Home Depot, while a 20134 Ford F-150 was traveling east on the Parkway," the release reads. "The truck attempted to cross the westbound lane into the Home Depot parking lot and was struck by the motorcyclist, who was ejected from the bike."

Collins suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash. He was treated by Bay County EMS, then taken to a local hospital, where he died.

Arrest: 'Worst type of case': Panama City Beach police charge Alabama man with human trafficking

No one else was injured in the crash, which is being investigated by the Beach Police's Traffic Homicide Unit. Alcohol is not thought to have been a contributing factor.

More information on the crash will be released as it becomes available.

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Walton County motorcyclist fatally injured in Panama City Beach crash
Small acts of kindness in the overwhelming face of uncontrolled violence and disaster are an essential reaffirmation of humanity when it feels most eclipsed by cruelty and hatred. Those of us who have worked, served or lived amid or close to war and persecution often find remarkable and unexpected expressions of kindness, beauty amid ugliness and glimmers of hope in situations of despair.

When I visit with refugees, often still traumatized by recent losses and in conditions of need, I am struck by the number of times they have shown me, a stranger in their midst, simple acts of kindness: in places where everyone sits on earthen floors, rummaging for something approximating a chair for the elderly man interviewing them to sit on, guiding me to a safer place, or sharing their food, when they are surviving on rations.

Last year, I found a rudimentary tea shop, a rickety table and plastic stools, in an alley of a slum of Istanbul, Turkey, where I was interviewing undocumented young men from Afghanistan. I asked about their journeys, especially about recent, brutal pushbacks from Turkey to Iran and from Greece to Turkey.

I remember one young man, a member of the persecuted Hazara minority of Afghanistan, who had been in constant danger and hardship after fleeing his country four months previously.

Ashley Judd: We have the power to help women and girls caught in crises. Why won't we?

'We ate grass, we were so hungry'

He waited to the side much of the day as I conducted long interviews with others, and then came to tell me his story. He had been interrogated by an ISIS-affiliated militia when he crossed from Iran to Pakistan, a group targeting Hazaras for attack. Iranian police shot at his group as they crossed the mountainous border from Pakistan.

We ate grass, we were so hungry, crossing the mountains on foot, he told me.

A woman wearing gloves against the below-freezing temperature holds onto a fence as Denver officials clear out an illegal tent encampment of migrants on Jan. 3, 2024.

After he crossed the barbed wire fences and trenches on the border separating Iran and Turkey, Turkish border police caught him and about 50 people he was traveling with and took them to a base about five minutes from the border fence.

"At the base they stripped us of our clothes and our belongings, set them on fire, and beat and kicked us ," he said. "They used police batons and wooden sticks to beat us, about 2 inches in diameter. They also whipped us with their belts. They hit me on my arms and knees with a wooden stick. I tried to protect my head with my hands, which is why my arms got beaten.  Some people were taken away and I never saw them again."

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Only a couple of nights before talking to me, he tried going to Greece, he said, but the police caught me, stripped me and sent me back.

Beaten and stripped, young refugee continued his journey

This young man, brutalized and literally stripped multiple times, had nothing but the clothes he could scrounge to cover his nakedness. The last thing he said was: Tomorrow, I will try to cross into Greece again. The whole journey has been really hard. I have only survived by my parents prayers.

Bill Frelick is director of Refugee and Migrant Rights for Human Rights Watch.

The young Hazara man disappeared in the shadows. I went on to the last interview of the day. I never saw or heard from him again.

At the end of the day after my last interview, I gathered my things and went to the shopkeeper to settle the bill for the tea the refugees and I had been drinking for most of the day. He waved his hands, shook his head, and said no need. The young Hazara man had paid for the tea.

Bill Frelick is director of Refugee and Migrant Rights for Human Rights Watch.

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.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Migrants face brutal border journey. But there's hope amid despair
When you buy and hold a stock for the long term, you definitely want it to provide a positive return. But more than that, you probably want to see it rise more than the market average. Unfortunately for shareholders, while the Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI) share price is up 62% in the last five years, that's less than the market return. The last year has been disappointing, with the stock price down 3.4% in that time.

Now it's worth having a look at the company's fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

View our latest analysis for Service Corporation International

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

During five years of share price growth, Service Corporation International achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 4.1% per year. This EPS growth is lower than the 10% average annual increase in the share price. So it's fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did five years ago. And that's hardly shocking given the track record of growth.

The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Service Corporation International's TSR for the last 5 years was 76%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

Story continues

A Different Perspective

Service Corporation International shareholders are down 1.7% for the year (even including dividends), but the market itself is up 22%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 12%, each year, over five years. It could be that the recent sell-off is an opportunity, so it may be worth checking the fundamental data for signs of a long term growth trend. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Service Corporation International that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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.
United Launch Alliances Vulcan Centaur rocket lifts off from its Florida launch pad. (NASA via YouTube)

Update: Astrobotics Peregrine lander fell back to Earth 10 days after launch due to a propellant leak that ruled out a moon landing.

United Launch Alliances next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket lifted off for the first time tonight, making use of booster engines built by Jeff Bezos Blue Origin space venture to launch what could be the first mission to put a commercially built lander safely on the moon.

At the end of a seemingly trouble-free countdown, the rocket rose from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:18 a.m. ET Monday (11:18 p.m. PT Sunday). It was the first-ever launch for the Vulcan rocket, and the first-ever use of Blue Origins BE-4 engines.

Two BE-4 engines, fueled by liquefied natural gas, powered the first-stage booster spaceward with an assist from two side boosters. Were seeing excellent performance out of the BE-4s, ULA flight commentator Rob Gannon said.

About five minutes after liftoff, Vulcans Centaur V upper stage separated from the first-stage booster and carried Pittsburgh-based Astrobotics Peregrine lander into orbit. Spacecraft separation took place 50 minutes after launch, sending Peregrine on the next leg of its trek to the moon.

Yee-haw! I am so thrilled, ULA CEO Tory Bruno said after separation. Soon after Brunos joyful whoop, Astrobotic confirmed contact with the lander.

Big kudos and congrats to the whole team! Bezos said in an Instagram post.

Peregrine landers peregrinations

Peregrine is programmed to go on a roughly 45-day journey that traces looping orbits around Earth and the moon. If all goes according to plan, the 8-foot-wide lander will touch down Feb. 23 at Sinus Viscositatis, an area near a geologically intriguing set of lava hills known as the Gruithuisen Domes.

NASA is paying Astrobotic $108 million to fly a suite of science instruments that will take stock of the radiation environment and the chemical composition around the landing site  perhaps including on-the-ground detection of water in lunar soil.

This is the first of a series of commercial moon landing missions supported by NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS, to prepare the way for NASAs crewed Artemis missions to the lunar surface.

It is a game-changing program for us, said Sandra Connelly, NASAs deputy associate administrator for science. It really is leveraging industry in new ways.

Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said tonights launch marked the beginning of the dawn of a new era for the surface of the moon and how we think about space.

This is an opportunity for commercial payloads to fly to the surface of the moon on a regular, routine basis, he said. That means our nations scientists, the worlds scientists, can access the moon in ways never before possible.

If Peregrine touches down successfully, it would mark the first soft lunar landing by a U.S.-built spacecraft since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

Success isnt assured, however. Back in 2019, the Israeli-built Beresheet lander was primed to become the first commercial lander on the moon, but that mission ended in a crash landing. Since then, China and India have successfully put robotic landers on the lunar surface, while Japanese and Russian attempts fell short. (Another Japanese moon probe is due to attempt a landing later this month.)

NASAs science mission is expected to run through the 14-day stretch of sunlight at the landing site, but the solar-powered lander is likely to run out of power during the 14-day lunar night.

In addition to the NASA-funded instruments, Peregrine is carrying a wide assortment of commercial payloads  including mementos and plaques, a mini-rover, micro-robots from Mexico, miniaturized data archives that blend digital and DNA records, and sets of memorial capsules containing cremated remains. (Ashes and DNA samples will also be flown into deep space aboard Vulcans Centaur V upper stage.)

Crucial test for Vulcan and its engines

A successful launch was arguably as critical for United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin as the mission to the moon will be for Astrobotic and NASA.

Its been nearly a decade since Bezos and Bruno announced that their companies were working together on a new type of rocket engine that would power a new type of rocket.

At the time, ULA and Blue Origin said they were targeting 2019 for the first flight of the Vulcan rocket with BE-4 engines  but the debut was delayed by a series of technical challenges. Eventually, Vulcan rockets will be built so that the engines can be recovered from the booster and reused, but that wont be the case for the early launches.

Each BE-4 engine provides 550,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff  which is more than twice the thrust of SpaceXs methane-fueled Merlin engines. The BE-4 engines were designed at Blue Origins HQ in Kent, Wash., and tested at the companys facility in West Texas. Blue Origin built a $200 million factory for scaled-up production of the engines in Huntsville, Ala.  not far from where ULA builds its Vulcan rockets.

RELATED: Milestone moon lander mission targets an otherworldly frontier for DNA storage

The Centaur V upper stage used a different brand of rocket engine: Aerojet Rocketdynes RL10, which is made in Florida. The upper stage was also equipped with 12 MR-107 attitude-control thrusters that were built at Aerojets facility in Redmond, Wash.

United Launch Alliance is depending on the Vulcan Centaur rocket to fill the gap that will be left by the impending retirement of its Atlas V rocket. This is the first of two certification launches that Vulcan has to complete before it can be considered for national security space missions, which is why ULA refers to the launch as Cert-1.

Meanwhile, Blue Origin is depending on the BE-4 to power not only ULAs Vulcan rockets, but also its own orbital-class New Glenn rocket. New Glenns first flight is currently scheduled for later this year.

Vulcans success is likely to boost confidence that ULA and Blue Origin will be able to follow through on their launch schedules  which feature the first launch of Sierra Spaces Dream Chaser cargo shuttle on Vulcan, and a pair of robotic Mars probes on New Glenn.

Amazon will no doubt breathe easier as well. The company has reserved 38 Vulcan launches with ULA and 12 New Glenn launches with Blue Origin to put thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit for its Project Kuiper broadband network. None of those launches can lift off without the BE-4.

More from GeekWire:
NVIDIA was one of the first big-name companies to hold a keynote at CES 2024. If you don't have time to watch the full video but still want to find out how NVIDIA revealed its news, you can watch our supercut, which boils the event down to just under 10 minutes.

As expected, the company refreshed its lineup of graphics cards with RTX 40 Super GPUs that are slated to deliver performance boosts at lower prices. The RTX 4080 Super ($999) and RTX 4070 Ti Super ($799) are set to go on sale later this month and are said to be faster than their predecessors.

NVIDIA hasn't divulged the full specs of the latest GPUs yet, but the RTX 4070 Ti Super will have 16GB of memory, compared with the previous model's 12GB. With DLSS enabled, the 4080 Super is said to deliver twice the performance of the 3080 Ti. NVIDIA will also offer a mid-range RTX 4070 Super GPU, which will cost $599 and have 20 percent more cores than the previous version.

Given the current landscape, NVIDIA had a number of AI products to discuss too. For one thing, it's partnering with Getty Images to offer a text-to-image generative AI service that appears to include intuitive editing tools. The keynote took a look at some of NVIDIA's robotics work as well.

NVIDIA also announced several GeForce Now updates. The service will soon support G-Sync as well as day passes, which provide 24 hours of access to the paid tiers. More notable games such as Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV are on the way to the platform, which will soon open for business in Japan.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.
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Herbert Siguenza, seen here leading the cast of South Coast Repertory's 2023 production of "Quixote Nuevo" by Octavio Solis, will reprise his role at Seattle Rep beginning Jan. 19. (Jenny Graham)
It's been more than 2,300 years since the nation of Greece was last considered a military powerhouse -- around about the time Alexander the Great was burning down Persepolis.

Today, the country's air forces lean heavily on aging F-16 fighter jets first flown in the 1970s, and even more sclerotic F-4 Phantom jets that date back to 1960, flying alongside similarly Vietnam-war era UH-1 "Huey" helicopters. But Greece's military is about to get an upgrade.

As the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency -- the Pentagon arm responsible for coordinating foreign military sales contracts -- advised Congress last month, the U.S. State Department has just cleared a Greek request to buy a whole fleet of new UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT).

Assuming Congress approves the sale, Lockheed Martin stands to reap nearly $2 billion in revenue ($1.95 billion to be precise) from this deal. So what does this all mean for shareholders? Let's find out.

What Greece is buying, and why

In this initial deal, Greece intends to purchase 35 Black Hawks from Lockheed, along with 80 engines to power them (two per helicopter, plus 10 spares), and a whole list of ancillary equipment (radar, radios, and other electronics, machine guns, rocket launchers, and ammunition, for example). Thus, multiple defense contractors are likely to share in the revenue from this deal -- but as primary contractor, all the money will run through Lockheed Martin.

Greece intends to use the new helicopters to replace the Hellenic Army's current multi-role helicopter fleet, which, according to data from FlightGlobal's 2024 World Air Forces report, leans heavily on 63 UH-1H Huey helicopters built by Textron's (NYSE: TXT) Bell Helicopter unit.

What it means for Lockheed and Textron

And that number may be instructive. Can 35 Black Hawks actually do the work of nearly twice as many Hueys? Perhaps, if the new Black Hawks are easier to maintain and require fewer repairs than the older Hueys they replace. But also perhaps not.

Story continues

As it turns out, an October report from online news site FlightGlobal noted that Greece initially intended to purchase 49 Black Hawks from Lockheed. If it turns out that this remains Greece's intention, and the initial 35-helo purchase is just a first installment on Greece's shopping list, this deal could actually turn out to be about 40% bigger than it seems -- implying Lockheed Martin might get another $780 million in revenue out of it, growing the size of this deal to $2.7 billion.

What would that mean for Lockheed Martin? Rotary and mission systems, the Lockheed unit that owns Sikorsky and builds the Black Hawk, is currently the company's second-biggest revenue producer at $18.1 billion collected in 2022 (the most recent full year for which we have data). Rotary is the company's second to last most profitable segment, however, generating operating profit margins of only 9.2%, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, a bit below the 10.5% operating profit margin for Lockheed Martin as a whole.

Thus, even at the upper end of its estimated value, this deal will only add about $250 million in incremental profits for Lockheed Martin, or about 3% of Lockheed's total annual take -- and this amount will probably be spread over a period of years. Thus, even at $2.7 billion, this deal isn't going to be enough to move the needle on Lockheed Martin stock, which still seems pricey to me at nearly 17 times earnings, and 1.7 times annual sales.

(As a general rule, I prefer to buy defense stocks at a price-to-sales ratio of 1 or less.)

A better stock to buy

Curiously, defense investors might actually be better off taking a look at Textron, the company whose helicopters are being replaced (in Greece at least) by Lockheed's helicopters.

Seemingly priced similarly to Lockheed stock at 17 times trailing earnings, Textron's price-to-sales ratio of 1.2 seems closer to fair value. Analysts polled by S&P also anticipate that Textron will grow earnings faster than Lockheed over the next five years, at a rate approaching 12%, versus Lockheed Martin's growth rate of 7%.

While neither stock is a clear-cut buy for me at current prices, I suspect Textron stock is still closer to bargain territory than is Lockheed. Investors looking for a defense stock to own in 2024 should keep an eye on Textron.

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Lockheed Martin to Replace Greece's Entire Helicopter Fleet. Is Lockheed Stock a Buy? was originally published by The Motley Fool
Superalimentul care are mai multa vitamina B decat carnea. Ce beneficii mai are pentru sanatate

Carnea este unul dintre cele mai iubite alimente, nelipsite din dieta multor oameni. Exista, insa, si persoane care vor sa o inlocuiasca, insa nu stiu care sunt produsele ce ii pot imita perfect proprietatile. [citeste mai departe]
Chinas top spy agency says it exposes British espionage case China said its security agencies found another incident of spying in which the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, used a foreigner in China to collect secrets and information, according to Reuters. The case by China highlights the ongoing heated exchanges the countries have traded over accusations of perceived spying that threatens their [] The post Chinas top spy agency says it exposes British espionage case appeared first on Stiri online, ultimele stiri, presa online, ziar online - Sursazilei.ro . Citeste articolul mai departe pe sursazilei.ro

Sursa articol si foto: sursazilei.ro

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Hungarian vintners export about 3.5 million litres of sparkling wine a year, the National Chamber of Agriculture (NAK) said.

The most important export markets for locally produced sparkling wine are Canada, Estonia, Romania, Sweden and Latvia, NAK said.



Most of the some 20 million litres of Hungarian sparkling wine produced each year is consumed in Hungary. Among imported sparkling wine, products from Italy and France are the most popular in Hungary.
Over the years, Hungary has emerged as a world class location for filmmaking, attracting numerous Hollywood productions to its picturesque landscapes, historic architecture, and talented workforce.

With its special blend of old-world charm and modern infrastructure, the country has become a go-to destination for filmmakers looking for diverse backdrops and cost-effective production options.



In this article which lists top Hollywood films made in Hungary, we also delve into the factors that have contributed to Hungary's rise as a filming hotspot and explore some of the reasons why both film directors and A-list stars love Budapest as a filming location.



Captivating Canvas of Special Locations in Hungary

One of the primary reasons behind Hungary's popularity as a filming hotspot is its diverse range of scenic locations. The country boasts a wide array of landscapes, from rolling plains to dense forests, majestic hillsides, and historic castles. This makes it an ideal setting for a variety of film genres, from fantasy and historical dramas to action-packed thrillers and romantic comedies.



The capital city stands out as a particularly favored location due to its stunning architecture, which spans centuries and includes Baroque, Gothic, and Art Nouveau styles. The city's top landmarks, such as the Hungarian Parliament Building, Buda Castle, and the Chain Bridge, have graced the screen in numerous top productions. These iconic structures add an air of authenticity to period films, offering filmmakers an opportunity to recreate scenes from various historical eras, right up to the modern day.



Furthermore, Hungary's geographic location provides a versatile range of weather conditions. The snowy landscapes in winter, vibrant colors of autumn, and lush greenery of spring and summer allow filmmakers to capture the essence of different seasons without having to travel far. This convenience is particularly appealing to filmmakers with tight schedules and budgets, however many of the films covered below were big ticket affairs.



Cost-Effective Hungarian Talent

Hungary's filmmaking industry is home to a pool of highly skilled and experienced professionals, including directors, producers, set-builders, technicians, stuntmen and make-up artists. The local talent has received international recognition for their work, contributing to the country's reputation as a credible destination for high-quality film production.



Moreover, Hungary offers a cost-effective option for filmmakers, providing them with attractive tax incentives and competitive production costs. The Hungarian Film Fund, established in 2011, provides financial support and co-production opportunities for both local and international filmmakers, further bolstering the country's appeal as a filming destination.



Hungarian Government Support and Cutting-Edge Infrastructure

A critical factor that has contributed to Hungary's rise as a filming hotspot is the government's support and commitment to the filmmaking industry. In addition to the financial incentives, the Hungarian government has streamlined the permit process, making it easier for filmmakers to secure the necessary approvals for daring movie projects.



The country's well-developed infrastructure is also a major draw for filmmakers. Budapest, in particular, offers state-of-the-art studios and production facilities equipped with the latest technology. These facilities can cater to large-scale productions, accommodating everything from set construction to post-production needs. The presence of these resources has played a significant role in attracting big-budget Hollywood movies to Hungary.



Notable Hollywood Productions and TV Series Filmed in Hungary

Hungary's allure as a filming hotspot has attracted a plethora of Hollywood productions over the years. Many filmmakers have opted to shoot major scenes or even entire movies in the country, harnessing its unique atmosphere to add depth and authenticity to their stories.



1. "Blade Runner 2049" (2017) - The futuristic and visually stunning sequel to Ridley Scott's iconic "Blade Runner" was partially filmed in Budapest. The city's distinct blend of historical and modern architecture provided the perfect backdrop for the movie's dystopian setting.



2. "The Martian" (2015) - Ridley Scott's sci-fi blockbuster starring Matt Damon utilized Hungary's otherworldly landscapes, particularly the vast salt flats of the Little Hungarian Plain, to depict the desolate Martian surface.



3. "Red Sparrow" (2018) - This spy thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence made use of Budapest's historic landmarks and charming streets to recreate various European locations, adding an air of intrigue and espionage to the film.



4. "Dune" (2021) - Denis Villeneuve's epic sci-fi film, based on Frank Herbert's novel, chose Hungary's vast landscapes to create the desert planet of Arrakis. The sandy dunes and barren terrain of Hungary's Boda Sand Dunes in Fertorakos provided a stunning backdrop for the fictional world of the interstellar empire.



5. "Inferno" (2016) - Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's novel, starring Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, made extensive use of Budapest's iconic landmarks. The city's historic buildings, bridges, and hidden alleyways played a significant role in the film's thrilling chase sequences and mysterious ambiance.



6. "Evita" (1996) - This musical drama starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas showcased Hungary's rich architectural heritage. Budapest's ornate buildings, particularly the Hungarian State Opera House and the Dohany Street Synagogue, doubled as Buenos Aires landmarks, bringing the story of Eva Peron to life.



7. "The Borgias" (2011-2013) - This historical drama TV series followed the notorious Borgia family during the Italian Renaissance. Hungary's grand castles and palaces, such as Eger Castle and Keszthely Castle, served as ideal locations to depict the opulent settings of the Vatican and other European cities.



8. "Spy" (2015) - Paul Feig's action-comedy film, starring Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham, utilized Budapest's charm and versatility for its various European locations. The city's elegant boulevards and vibrant neighborhoods added flair to the film's spy capers and undercover missions.



9. "With Sunshine" (1999) - The film follows a Jewish family living in Hungary through three generations, rising from humble beginnings to positions of wealth and power in the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. The patriarch becomes a prominent judge but is torn when his government sanctions anti-Jewish persecutions. His son converts to Christianity to advance his career as a champion fencer and Olympic hero, but is caught up in the Holocaust. Finally, the grandson, after surviving war, revolution, loss, and betrayal, realizes that his ultimate allegiance must be to himself and his heritage.



10. "Hellboy" (2019) - This superhero film, based on Mike Mignola's comic book character, filmed many of its key sequences in Hungary. Budapest's atmospheric streets and historic buildings were utilized to create the eerie and gothic setting of the movie.



11. "World War Z" (2013) - Marc Forster's zombie apocalypse thriller, starring Brad Pitt, found its European locations in Hungary. The picturesque streets of Budapest and the nearby countryside were used to depict various scenes set in different cities around the continent.



12. "A Good Day to Die Hard" (2013) - The fifth installment in the "Die Hard" franchise brought the action to Budapest. The city's urban landscape and iconic landmarks were featured prominently in this high-octane action film, adding to the excitement of the chase sequences.



13. "Atomic Blonde" (2017) - Charlize Theron's stylish spy thriller was also shot in Hungary, using Budapest's historic and Soviet-era architecture to recreate the atmosphere of 1980s Berlin. The city's gritty streets and distinctive buildings complemented the film's espionage plot.



14. "Spy Game" (2001) - Tony Scott's espionage thriller, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, utilized Budapest as a stand-in for various international locations. The city's architecture and bustling streets allowed the film to seamlessly switch between different settings, adding to the movie's intense spy atmosphere.



15. "The Witcher" (2019 - Present) - Based on Andrzej Sapkowski's book series, this Netflix fantasy series starring Henry Cavill filmed extensively in Hungary. Budapest's iconic Castle District and the picturesque countryside served as the backdrop for the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, making it a perfect setting for the show's medieval-inspired world.



16. "Hercules" (2014) - This action-adventure film, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, chose Hungary as its filming location due to the country's vast landscapes and medieval architecture. The production used several Hungarian castles and scenic locations to bring the mythical world of Hercules to life.



17. "Robin Hood" (2010) - Ridley Scott's reimagining of the classic tale, starring Russell Crowe, took advantage of Hungary's historic sites and dense forests to create the medieval world of Nottingham. Various locations around Budapest and the Danube Bend were used to depict the film's epic battles and stunning landscapes.



18. "Belgravia" (2020) - This historical drama miniseries, based on Julian Fellowes' novel, filmed extensively in Hungary to recreate 19th-century London and Brussels. Budapest's elegant architecture and cobbled streets were used to portray the opulence and grandeur of the period drama.



19. "Munich" (2005) - Steven Spielberg's gripping historical drama, based on the events surrounding the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, found much of its European settings in Hungary. Budapest's elegant boulevards and historic locations served as a backdrop for the film's intense and politically charged narrative.



20. "A Good Woman" (2004) - Set in the 1930s on the Amalfi Coast, this romantic drama starring Scarlett Johansson and Helen Hunt was primarily shot in Hungary. Budapest's art nouveau buildings and charming streets stood in for the Italian coastal town, enhancing the film's period elegance.



21. "The Alienist" (2018-2020) - This crime thriller TV series, based on Caleb Carr's novel, used Hungary extensively to recreate 19th-century New York City. Budapest's Old Town, with its well-preserved architecture and cobblestone streets, provided a convincing backdrop for the show's dark and atmospheric scenes.



22. "Hanna" (2011) - Joe Wright's action thriller, starring Saoirse Ronan, filmed in Hungary to depict various locations across Europe. The country's diverse landscapes and well-preserved historic sites were used to create the film's dynamic and suspenseful setting.



23. "Dracula Untold" (2014) - This dark fantasy film starring Luke Evans explored the origin of the iconic vampire Dracula. Hungary's historic castles and dramatic landscapes, particularly those in the region of Transylvania, were used to create the eerie and Gothic atmosphere of the film.



24. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011) - This spy thriller, based on John le Carre's novel, used Budapest as a filming location to represent 1970s-era London and other European cities. The city's architecture and period details allowed the film to authentically recreate the Cold War setting.



25. "Strike Back" (2010-2020) - This action-packed TV series, based on Chris Ryan's novel, filmed multiple seasons in Hungary. The country's diverse landscapes and adaptable locations allowed the show to depict various countries and settings across the globe.



26. "Jupiter's Legacy" (2021) - This superhero TV series, based on Mark Millar's comic book, also utilized Hungary for its filming needs. Budapest's cityscape and countryside doubled as American and other international locations, adding depth and variety to the show's fictional world.



27. "The Rhythm Section" (2020) - Directed by Reed Morano, this action thriller stars Blake Lively, Jude Law, and Sterling K. Brown. Budapest served as a prominent filming location, providing a gritty and atmospheric backdrop for the film's intense action sequences and spy intrigue.



28. "Season of the Witch" (2011) - Directed by Dominic Sena, this fantasy adventure film stars Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman. Hungary's medieval castles and scenic landscapes added to the film's dark and mystical ambiance, transporting audiences to a world of witchcraft and supernatural battles.



29. "The Spy Who Dumped Me" (2018) - Directed by Susanna Fogel, this action-comedy stars Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon. Hungary's capital, Budapest, became a central setting for the film's spy capers and comedic antics, blending action and humor in equal measure.



30. Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) - This French period comedy-drama film directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau is based on the 1897 play of the same name by Edmond Rostand. It stars Gerard Depardieu, Anne Brochet and Vincent Perez, and was a co-production between companies in France and Hungary.
Opposition-leaning commentators depict a pessimistic image of Hungarys political future, while their pro-government counterparts hope that the country has left the difficulties of the past two years behind.

In his weekly Magyar Hang column, environmentalist and sociologist Andras Lanyi takes it for granted that Fidesz will score a resounding victory at the European parliamentary elections in June this year. He remarks however that staunch Fidesz supporters only represent about one quarter of Hungarians and therefore the fate of the elections is decided by those who vote for the government because they see no attractive leaders on the opposition side.



He doesnt even exclude the possibility that Fidesz could defeat the opposition in the capital by supporting city transport expert David Vitezy, whom the LMP proposes for the post of Budapest mayor. Such a huge blow, Lanyi writes, might finally wake up opposition voters and sweep away the current parties of the opposition which have proven completely unfit for the job.



In Heti Vilaggazdasag, Arpad W. Tota is also convinced that Fidesz will be the sure winner of the European parliamentary elections. He ascribes that first of all to the financial superiority of the government side but not without adding the weaknesses of the opposition.



He points out that only two opposition parties run a real chance of passing the 5% threshold in the European elections. He suggests that the disparate forces of the opposition should unite in one single party, allowing considerable autonomy to its various components. His problem is that he doesnt believe the biggest of them, the Democratic Coalition, could be inclusive and tolerant enough to unite the others.



In his first Demokrata editorial in 2024, Andras Bencsik believes that the New Year will be decisive not just for Hungary but for the whole several-thousand-year-old Western civilisation. He describes the stake of the European parliamentary election not as who wins and who loses but if what he calls dignified European life will get a new chance. He defines that European life as one where history is written peacefully on paper rather than with drones and destruction wrought by rampaging immigrants.



In his New Year editorial in Mandiner, Matyas Kohan hopes that Hungary is in for better days than last year which was spent fighting problems in the economy and what he calls Brussels attempts at starving the country. The first one third of the European funds Hungary is entitled to has been unblocked, and teachers wages can finally be raised to decent levels, he remarks.



What is even more important, he continues, Hungarys allies are slowly realising that their policy towards Ukraine is leading nowhere. Thus, Kohan writes, Hungarys views can finally break out of their isolation, as shown by the outcome of the elections in the Netherlands as well as the results of opinion polls in Germany and Austria. Nevertheless, he doesnt expect a catharsis, and would gladly put up with a return to the normality of pre-Covid years when Hungarys economy was steadily growing.



This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher.

Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online.

Click here to Share Your Story
By Azernews

Elnur Enveroglu

Azerbaijan-US relations have experienced a period of tension again in the last few weeks. The reason for this is the biased behaviour of the United States against Azerbaijan in various forms. Certainly, the events circulate in the context of the signing of a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia until 2024, as promised by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last year. The announcement of the Armenian Prime Minister's desire for peace has caused a strong reaction from the existing anti-Azerbaijani and revanchist groups both in the West and in Yerevan. However, the more biased behaviour of the US Department of State in recent days and the issuing of statements with groundless claims against Azerbaijan prove once again that official Washington is not interested in finding a solution to the peace process.

The year 2024 went down in history as a more serious year regarding the straining of US-Azerbaijani relations. Thus, the State Department unfairly accused Azerbaijan of violence against religious tolerance and added the country to the Special Watch List along with a number of countries, further shaking diplomatic relations.

To recall, on January 7, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accepted the credentials of three ambassadors: Peru, Luxembourg, and Japan. In fact, if we exclude Japan, the other two countries - Peru and Luxembourg - cannot be considered countries with such close relations with Azerbaijan. For example, we can mention that Japan was one of the first countries to recognise Azerbaijan's independence on September 7, 1992. In addition, Japan is among the countries that provide constant support both economically and politically. If we look at the statistics in general, we can note that Japan's exports to Azerbaijan in 2022 amounted to 6.1 billion yen (41.5 million US dollars). Most of the exports consisted of metal, steel cars, machinery, electric machinery, and other products. At the same time, Japan participated and supported ANAMA in several mine clearance projects in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has always been grateful to the Japanese government for its sincerity and helpfulness.

As for Luxembourg, if we remember how the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and MPs scolded Luxembourg for its pro-Armenian policy, it is difficult to explain President Aliyev's sweet dialogue with the ambassador of this country. We must note with regret that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg, who turned a blind eye to 30 years of occupation and destruction of Armenia, for some reason has a different attitude towards Azerbaijan's liberation of its sovereign territories. Conducting politics with double standards seems to have been inherited from the United States and France to Luxembourg. However, Mr Jean Asselborn could have listened to the true voice of Azerbaijan by acting somewhat objectively.

At the same time, the Azerbaijani President defiantly ignores the new US Ambassador, Mark Libby, who has been in Baku for a month.

Official Baku cannot forgive the State Department's demarche, which declared a refusal to cooperate with Baku until the signing of the peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia and the entry into force of the 907th amendment of the Freedom Support Act, which prohibits state aid to Azerbaijan.

It is difficult to say what official Baku wants to achieve from Washington with such an attitude. However, knowing the nature and mood of the country's leadership, it is not difficult to guess that the actions of the State Department are perceived as a personal insult.

It is difficult to guess how long it will take for these moods to change. However, there has already been a case in history when Baku quickly changed its harsh negativity towards the West into reconciliation and even asked for help. This was in August 2008, when Russia committed aggression against Georgia and bombed the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline. At the same time, the PKK in Turkiye sabotaged by blowing up the BTC oil pipeline. That's when Baku "suddenly realised" that it could lose everything without the support of the "hated" West. But apparently, now Baku has decided that, in case of anything, Luxembourg will give it more support.

It should be remembered that the Azerbaijani leadership received all previous US ambassadors immediately after they arrived in Baku, calling the US a "strategic partner," without whose support Azerbaijan's energy projects would be impossible.
Ascension's Prospect Medical Commons, the medical office building across the street from Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Hospital on Milwaukee's east side on Jan. 4, 2024.

All of the pediatricians at Ascension's Prospect Medical Commons, part of Columbia St. Mary's Hospital campus on Milwaukee's east side, have left, causing disruptions in care for some of its young patients.

The last pediatrician at Prospect Medical Commons, the medical office building at 2311 N. Prospect Ave. across the street from Columbia St. Mary's, left in December.

The medical office previously had several pediatricians, but in recent years, they all gradually left the organization. The five-story building also houses offices of family medicine doctors, OB-GYNs and other specialists.

In an emailed statement Thursday, an official with Ascension Medical Group Wisconsin said children are still able to receive pediatric care from family medicine doctors at the location and denied that the loss of the pediatricians had disrupted patient care.

"While we explore options to strengthen pediatric services, pediatric patients are still being cared for at this location by our family medicine practitioners, who are fully qualified to care for them," said Patricia Golden, a physician and chief medical officer with Ascension Medical Group Wisconsin.

The departure of the Ascension pediatricians comes amid a broader loss of physicians over the last couple of years at Ascension, including notable departures of OB-GYNs and family medicine doctors. A group of them left Ascension to work for competitor Froedtert Health.

More: Nurses overworked, doctors disgusted, patients unattended: Inside Columbia St. Mary's

More: Ascension Wisconsin was blasted for poor staffing, lapses in care. Here's what the new CEO Daniel Jackson plans to do.

Building directories posted on the wall near Prospect Medical Commons' elevators on Thursday still listed the names of some pediatricians who left months ago.

Some parents reported never receiving notice of their pediatrician's departure last month and finding out only when they called the clinic to schedule an appointment.

Story continues

Corrine Mitchell, a Shorewood mother whose two children were patients at Prospect Medical Commons, learned on Dec. 26 that their pediatrician had left, when she called to try to set up a same-day appointment for her 3-year-old daughter. Her daughter had had a severe asthma attack the night before and was a frequent patient of the clinic because of a history of medical issues since infancy.

"I was panicked. Totally panicked," Mitchell said upon learning that the clinic no longer had any pediatricians. "I needed care for my child that day. ... My only option was to go elsewhere. This place I had been taking my kid all the time and that knew her, it wasn't there anymore."

She ended up taking her daughter to an urgent care, where her oxygen levels were checked and she was given a steroid to help her breathe easier, Mitchell said.

She was shocked that no one notified her that her children's pediatrician had left the practice. This was already her children's second pediatrician, after their first left Ascension over the summer.

"I have a sick kid, so I need to go to the doctor all the time," she said.

In Thursday's statement, Golden said that "due to a system communications breakdown," patients' parents were not immediately provided written notification of their pediatrician's departure.

"We regret this error, and it's important to know that this change did not disrupt patient care," Golden said.

"Clinic staff have been calling patient families for awareness and to ensure the process of transitioning each patients care to a new provider is seamless and efficient," she added.

More: Ascension St. Joseph's opens free child care area patients can use during prenatal appointments

Ascension has been referring patients like Mitchell's children to family medicine doctors at Ascension and to a few Ascension pediatricians still located in West Allis and Franklin.

Shoreview Pediatrics, an independent, privately-owned medical practice located nearby on Milwaukee's east side, has seen a recent uptick in parents calling to see if they're accepting new patients, said office manager Tiffanie Meeks. She said the practice's six pediatricians all are accepting new patients.

Mitchell ended up finding a new pediatrician for her children, one from Children's Wisconsin, earlier this month. But the relationship between her children and their new pediatrician will take longer to build.

"Its hard, especially because my child has a rich medical history unfortunately," Mitchell said. "It feels like a breakup almost because these doctors have known my child for her whole life, and now theyre just gone."

Her children's first pediatrician became involved when Mitchell was pregnant with her first child, now 6 years old. Shortly after birth, that pediatrician was able to visit Mitchell on Columbia St. Mary's postpartum floor and do a checkup on the baby.

Because Mitchell's OB-GYN and the pediatrician were both located at Prospect Medical Commons, Mitchell was able to coordinate her postpartum checkups with her baby's checkups in the weeks and months after birth.

The transition for me was really seamless, just going to the same building, knowing that the doctors that the baby and me were seeing were on the same page," she said.

A health care provider at Columbia St. Mary's who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing their job said that transition is critical and worried that the lack of pediatricians will result in gaps in care.

"Where's the handoff?" the provider said. "There's going to be babies that will fall through the cracks, that will not be sent for critical follow-up."

Columbia St. Marys Hospital in Milwaukee delivers about 2,000 babies a year, the most of any Ascension hospital in Milwaukee, according to data from the Wisconsin Hospital Association. When Ascension St. Francis Hospital on Milwaukees south side stopped performing deliveries in December 2022, those patients were directed to Columbia St. Marys.

More: In unanimous vote, Common Council urges Ascension Wisconsin to reopen shuttered Milwaukee hospital delivery unit

Without any Ascension pediatricians based on Milwaukee's east side, OB-GYNs at Columbia St. Mary's will have to refer expecting parents to family practice doctors or to pediatricians located elsewhere, or with other health systems.

It is unclear what prompted the pediatricians at Ascension's Prospect Medical Commons to leave. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reached out to a few and did not receive a response.

"There just seems to be a pattern of doctors leaving, things closing, and that's disappointing," Mitchell said.

Contact Sarah Volpenhein at svolpenhei@gannett.com or 414-607-2159. Follow her on Twitter at @SarahVolp.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Pediatricians leaving Ascension Medical Group leaves patients in lurch
Expats may well find themselves faced with fascinating but unreadable script while living in Hungary  and were not talking about the standard Hungarian language which as we all know is pretty challenging.

The rich historical tapestry of this special country includes the symbolism of the ancient Hungarian script, an intricate system of writing that reveals tales of a bygone era. Its also used on some road signs, which is where many expats encounter this enigmatic writing.



This ancient Hungarian script is called rovasiras, it stands as a testament to the resilience and tenacity of the Hungarian people throughout their turbulent history. From its mysterious beginnings to its modern-day revival, this unique writing system continues to inspire awe and curiosity, offering a captivating glimpse into Hungary's cultural heritage.







So now step back in time as we delve into the depths of Hungary's linguistic history, tracing the origins of the ancient Hungarian script and uncovering its significance in shaping the nation's identity. From its mysterious roots to its modern-day revival, this insiders guide will shed light on a facet of Hungarian culture that remains cherished and revered yet closed to most.







Glimpse into Hungarys Past



The ancient Hungarian script, known as "rovasiras," is an ancient writing system that traces its origins back to the early centuries of the Hungarian people. Rovasiras is unique in that it is a non-alphabetic script, consisting of symbols and characters that represent syllables rather than individual sounds. This distinctive feature sets it apart from most of the writing systems prevalent in other parts of the world.



Unraveling Hungarian Origins



The exact origins of the ancient Hungarian script remain shrouded in mystery, captivating historians and linguists for generations. Some scholars believe that the script developed organically from various tribal markings and symbols used by the Hungarian tribes in the Carpathian Basin during the early Middle Ages. Others speculate that it was influenced by Turkic, Sumerian, or other ancient scripts present in the region at the time.



Golden Age of Rovasiras



The heyday of the ancient Hungarian script is often referred to as the "Golden Age of Rovasiras," which flourished between the 10th and 13th centuries. During this period, rovasiras was widely used for inscriptions on stone monuments, wooden objects, and even personal belongings. It played a crucial role in recording historical events, laws, and religious texts, offering a unique glimpse into the daily lives and beliefs of the early Hungarian people.



Rovasiras's Decline and Perseverance



Despite its prominence during the Golden Age, the usage of rovasiras gradually declined with the spread of Latin script and Christianity in Hungary. The influence of Latin and other Western European scripts became dominant, leading to a decline in the ancient Hungarian script's prevalence.



However, the spirit of rovasiras never truly vanished. Some remote regions, particularly in Transylvania, kept the script alive through the centuries. The preservation efforts of passionate scholars and archeologists played a significant role in keeping the memory of rovasiras alive, ensuring its legacy was passed down through generations.



Rediscovery and Revival of Rovasiras



The 20th century witnessed a renewed interest in Hungary's cultural heritage, and this rekindled enthusiasm led to a resurgence of the ancient Hungarian script. Scholars and linguists began extensive research into the ancient writings, and efforts were made to decipher and understand the inscriptions.



Moreover, the Hungarian government and cultural institutions took active steps to support the revival of rovasiras. Schools and cultural centers started teaching the script as part of the curriculum, and traditional craftspeople began incorporating it into their artwork. This revival not only strengthened the sense of national identity but also allowed for a deeper appreciation of the nation's rich linguistic history.



Embracing Cultural Heritage Today



In modern Hungary, the ancient script of rovasiras has become a symbol of cultural pride and national identity. It can be found adorning various cultural artifacts, public spaces, and traditional crafts, reminding citizens and visitors alike of the profound historical roots of the Hungarian nation.
The National Defence Service (NVSZ) has launched a media campaign to eliminate gratuity payments from Hungarian health care, the services officials said.

Under a law taking effect on January 1 in 2021, giving and accepting gratuities is a crime, but the practice has not yet disappeared from the Hungarian health-care system, the spokeswoman for NVSZ told a press conference.



Not having the powers of an authority, NVSZ only reported and initiated an investigation into 19 cases last year alone, Judit Pap said, adding that both a doctor and a patient faced penalties.



She noted cases in which an investigation was launched against a cardiologist for 67 instances and another investigation launched against an oncologist for taking a gratuity from a patient for an otherwise free chemotherapy treatment.



According to NVSZs press material, the service has initiated investigations against 250 health-care workers in 105 cases since 2021.



The project has been financed with 473 million forints (EUR 1.2m) from domestic sources and with EU support, NVSZ said.



MTI Photo
A left-wing columnist dismisses as pure conjecture speculation about the chances of the Archbishop of Esztergom becoming the next Pope.

In Nepszava, Tamas Ronay wonders why much of the Hungarian media uncritically reproduced an opinion piece published on the Italy Start website, in which the Hungarian Cardinal figures at the top of a list of potential papal candidates. Pope Francis, Ronay writes, is stubbornly working on progressive reforms.



Meanwhile, three out of four cardinals under 80 years of age (who will have to vote for his successor) are already his appointees, which suggests to Ronay that reformist candidates will have a better chance of election than conservatives.



Ronay doesnt qualify Cardinal Erdo either as a conservative or as a reformer but remarks that he is influential mainly among conservative African bishops. He also mentions that the head of the Hungarian Catholic church figures as number one on Italy Starts list of papal hopefuls because the potential candidates are listed in alphabetical order.
The government is relaxing rules with a view to boosting wind power generation, the energy ministry said on Friday. The new rules reduce the protective radius around wind farms to 700 meters in line with European norms and it will be easier to obtain a permit from Jan 1, the ministry said in a statement.

Also, the restriction on total power output will no longer apply.



Nevertheless, strong guarantees will obtain in respect of protecting localities, the environment, farmland and landscapes. The related decree published in the official Hungarian Gazette proscribes wind turbines and the border of their parks from being set up in an area intended for construction or within 700 meters of a protection zone.



Exceptions can be made when it comes to industrial investments which are designated as of special importance in terms of the national economy.



Turbines must not be set up on farmland with great production potential or where the landscape is under national or World Heritage protection. In areas where wind energy at a height of 150 meters exceeds 500 watts per square metre, authorisation may be expedited, while environmental protection and construction authorisation deadlines are to be set at a maximum of 50 days.



The statement says that the future of the Hungarian economy lies in green energy, and wind power can complement the countrys rapidly growing solar output.



The goal is to triple the current wind energy capacity of around 330 megawatts by 2030, it added.



The government also wants to boost storage: a fund totalling 137 billion forints will be open for tender in mid-January for families and businesses building new energy storage capacities, the statement said.



Agriculture Minister: Environment Protection Investments at Record High In 2023
New Delhi: Amidst the escalating row in the India-Maldives tourism saga, there is a good search boom regarding airfares from India to Maldives. Following derogatory remarks made by Maldives ministers against India and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings.

Apart from this, EaseMyTrip co-founder Prashant Patti also reportedly asserted that the firm wanted Ayodhya and Lakshadweep to be top international destinations for tourists.

Was planning to go to Maldives for my birthday which falls on 2nd of feb. Had almost finalised the deal with my travel agent (adding proofs below)

But immediately cancelled it after seeing this tweet of deputy minister of Maldives. #boycottmaldives pic.twitter.com/hd2R534bjY  Dr. Falak Joshipura (@fa_luck7) January 6, 2024

Standing in support of India, many on social media have shared purported screenshots of their canceled air travel and hotel bookings.

It is noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Lakshadweep seems to have heightened the popularity of India's smallest Union Territory among people across the country. The controversy originated from a tweet on X by a Maldives minister, accusing India of targeting the nation and asserting that India faces challenges in competing with the Maldives in beach tourism.

Notably, the Maldives government suspended three of its ministers - Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha, and Hassan Zihan - for their derogatory remarks on Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following the latter's Lakshadweep visit.

The Maldives is a popular destination among Indians as a tourist spot. You will be surprised to know that Indian tourists were the highest among visitors to the Maldives until December 2023, according to data from the country's tourism ministry. The largest number of tourists who visited the Maldives were from India (2,09,198), followed by Russia (2,09,146) and China (1,87,118).
Mumbai: The founder of Jet Airways Naresh Goyal -- currently in jail -- cracked up during a Special Court hearing on his bail plea, cried and said with folded hands that he wanted to die in the prison.

Goyal, nabbed on September 1, 2023 in connection with a money-laundering case, is currently in judicial custody and lodged at the Arthur Road Central Jail (ARCJ), as his bail plea is pending.

Appearing briefly in person after the Special ED Court Judge M.G. Deshpande granted his request on Saturday, a trembling Goyal, 74, said his health has turned very precarious, his wife Anita is down with cancer and their only daughter is also unwell.

With tears welling up his eyes, the apparently dejected Goyal said that he has lost all hopes in life and future, so it would be better to die in prison rather than live on in such circumstances.

He narrated all his chronic ailments and his regular ordeals while going for treatment to the government-run Sir J.J. Hospital along with other prisoners, long queues, little follow-up, and urged the Special Court not to send him to hospital but allow him to die in the jail itself.

The Special Judge Deshpande, who heard him out patiently noted that Goyal's whole body was trembling, and he needed help even to stand up, and has asked the ED to file its reply in the matter, while posting the matter for further hearing on January 16.

The Special Court also assured Goyal that he would not be abandoned and all possible care regarding his mental and physical health would be taken with proper treatment, while extending his judicial custody by 10 days till January 16.

The Special Judge Deshpande also directed the lawyers to take suitable steps pertaining to his illness and compliance of his orders, as Goyal's lawyer, Senior Advocate Abad Ponda made a plea for bail.

In the bail plea, Goyal has claimed that he did not siphon off loan amounts for personal benefits as alleged by the ED in the Canara Bank loan of Rs 538.62 crore given to the Jet Airways group.

He has also denied the ED's allegations that his funds were diverted for personal gains and pointed out that it was approved by the independent board and the audit committee of the company.

Earlier, in November 2023 the Bombay High Court had dismissed a plea by Goyal challenging his arrest by the ED, and before that in September 2023, the Special ED Court had rejected his plea for treatment by his family doctor and home-cooked food in view of his health status.
New Delhi: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the stunning beauty of Lakshadweep --the country's Union Territory witnessed massive search volume on Google.

Data shows that the search volume of the archipelago surged by a massive bulk, something that was not seen in the last 20 years. PM's images, captured in the picturesque islands, took social media by the storm.

PM Modi, sharing his experiences from Lakshadweep, thanked the people of the islands for their hospitality.

The Prime Minister posted on X, ""Recently, I had the opportunity to be among the people of Lakshadweep. I am still in awe of the stunning beauty of its islands and the incredible warmth of its people. I had the opportunity to interact with people in Agatti, Bangaram and Kavaratti. I thank the people of the islands for their hospitality. Here are some glimpses, including aerial glimpses from Lakshadweep..."

Recently, I had the opportunity to be among the people of Lakshadweep. I am still in awe of the stunning beauty of its islands and the incredible warmth of its people. I had the opportunity to interact with people in Agatti, Bangaram and Kavaratti. I thank the people of the pic.twitter.com/tYW5Cvgi8N  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 4, 2024

For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list.



During my stay, I also tried snorkelling - what an exhilarating experience it was! pic.twitter.com/rikUTGlFN7  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 4, 2024

Meanwhile, in the promotion of Lakshadweep, the tiniest Union Territoy of India, it is Modi Government's consistent India-focussed approach that gets prominent focus. Among several nation-building initiatives, that ranges from from Make in India, Manufacture In India, Startup India and the recent call for Wed in India by PM Modi in his Mann ki Baat radio address in November last year --each one of them has Investment in India at the heart of the initiative.

Espousing the promotion of Lakswadeep, External Minister Dr S Jaishankar had tweeted, "By visiting Lakshadweep, PM @narendramodi has focused attention on its immense potential for tourism. This is a great inspiration for all of us. More visitors will contribute to Lakshadweeps prosperity. They will also experience its unique culture and traditions. As India becomes more world ready, lets showcase the beauty and diversity of our great nation."

By visiting Lakshadweep, PM @narendramodi has focused attention on its immense potential for tourism. This is a great inspiration for all of us.



More visitors will contribute to Lakshadweeps prosperity. They will also experience its unique culture and traditions.



As India pic.twitter.com/GBZxQcGmPg  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) January 5, 2024

Modi government's 'Make in India' initiative, that was launched in 2014 to facilitate investment, foster innovation, build best in class infrastructure, and make India a hub for manufacturing, design, and innovation. It is one of the unique 'Vocal for Local' initiatives that promoted India's manufacturing domain to the world.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a couple of days said India needs a movement like 'Wed in India' on the lines of 'Made in India' and asked affluent industrialists to hold at least one destination wedding in their families each year in Uttarakhand saying it will help the hill state emerge as a wedding destination.

Now if you compare Lakshwadeep's domestic tourism potential, you can draw a big analogy with that of PM's recent call to affluent business families to hold destination weddings in the country instead of going abroad. The one common link that immediately you can infer is Spend in India.

This infact is a big step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat, where there is a beautiful confluence of Indian people spending in India and at the same time save the outflow of funds.
Neither any Indian nor any Pakistan could forget the February 2019 series of events that created almost a war-like situation between India and Pakistan. A day after the Balakot surgical strike, while countering the misadventure by the Pakistan Air Force, Indian Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by Pakistan after he landed in the enemy territory. However, then Pakistan PM Imran Khan announced in the national assembly his government's plan to release Abhinandan.

However, now the upcoming book 'Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship Between India and Pakistan' by former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has revealed what transpired between India and Pakistan in those three nights between February 26 to February 28. In his book, Bisaria said that India's move to deploy nine missiles aimed towards Pakistan sent shivers down the spine of the Pakistani army and the government. He wrote in the book that spooked by the missile deployment, an anxious Pakistani government urgently sought intervention at midnight, approaching the then Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria's residence seeking to de-escalate the tension by arranging a discussion between Imran Khan and PM Narendra Modi.

The particular night, that PM Modi once termed as the 'qatal ki raat' (night of bloodshed), occurred on February 27, 2019. It marked the first of two nights during which the captured Indian wing commander, Abhinandan Varthaman, remained in Pakistan's custody.

Bisaria disclosed that he received a midnight call from the then Pakistan High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood, who was in Islamabad at that time. Mahmood conveyed Khan's eagerness to engage in a conversation with Modi. Bisaria promptly consulted individuals in Delhi and responded to Mahmood, informing him that Modi was unavailable at that late hour. He suggested that any urgent message could be relayed to the high commissioner directly. Subsequently, Bisaria did not receive further communication from Mahmood that night.

India's coercive diplomacy ultimately led to Abhinandan's release two days later. While Pakistan had termed it an effort to ease tensions with India, Western Diplomats believed that Pakistan was nervous and really spooked by India's move.
NEW DELHI: In a big blow to the Gujarat government, the Supreme Court on Monday overturned its order granting remission to 11 convicts involved in the heinous gangrape and murder of Bilkis Bano's family during the 2002 Godhra riots. The bench, comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, declared the remission ''null and void'', emphasizing that the Gujarat government lacked the authority to pass such orders.

Abuse Of Power By Gujarat Govt: SC

The apex court criticized the Gujarat government for usurping the powers of the Maharashtra government, stating that the remission order was a result of "usurpation and abuse of power." The bench highlighted that the government's actions were a violation of the rule of law and questioned why no review petition was filed by Gujarat, emphasizing that it was not the appropriate government to decide on the remission.

Fraud, Suppression Of Facts By Convicts: SC

The Supreme Court asserted that the convicts had not approached the court with clean hands, pointing out that the proceedings were initiated due to the "suppression of facts." The bench labelled the entire process as a "fraud played on this court" and emphasized that the orders were obtained by playing fraud on the court and suppressing material facts.

Legal Options For Convicts Now

After the Supreme Court's verdict, the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case still have some legal options to explore. They can file a review petition in the Supreme Court within 30 days, challenging the decision. Additionally, after serving some time in prison, the convicts may seek mercy by filing a pardon application. However, this would necessitate appealing to the Maharashtra government, the appropriate authority for such requests.

Right To Seek A Review Under Article 137 Of Constitution

Article 137 of the Constitution grants individuals the right to seek a review of old judgments or orders. The convicts can utilize this provision by filing a review petition within 30 days of the court's decision. The bench that delivered the original order would be the one to entertain the review plea.

Grounds For Review: Presenting New Evidence

Review petitions can be filed on grounds such as the discovery of new evidence that was not presented during the initial hearing. The court will assess the admissibility of any new information and determine whether it warrants a review.

The Tragic Bilkis Bano Case

In March 2002, during the post-Godhra riots, Bilkis Bano endured a brutal gangrape and witnessed the murder of 14 family members, including her three-year-old daughter. The convicts, sentenced to life imprisonment, were released on August 15, 2022, under the remission policy prevailing in Gujarat at the time of their 2008 conviction. The Supreme Court's recent decision has reignited legal discussions surrounding this tragic case.
New Delhi: With approximately 3 months remaining until the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, political parties are intensifying their preparations for the significant polls. The Congress is in discussions with allies of the INDI alliance, while the BJP is actively gearing up to secure the seats it won in the 2019 elections.

On Sunday, late evening, Uttar Pradesh BJP held a core committee meeting at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's residence. The meeting saw the participation of State President Bhupendra Chaudhary, General Secretary Organization Dharampal Singh, and CM Yogi. During the meeting, the party finalized the names of convenors for the Lok Sabha seats secured by the BJP. The announcement of Lok Sabha constituency in-charge names is also expected shortly.

Adding to the political fervor, another significant meeting regarding election preparations will take place in Lucknow today between BJP and RSS eying the win o all 80 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. The meeting, divided into two sessions, will witness the presence of influential figures.

The first session, commencing at 9:30 am, will include BJP's National General Secretary Organization BL Santosh, Sangh's Co-Sarkaryavah Arun, BJP State President Bhupendra Chaudhary, State General Secretary Organization Dharampal Singh, and other organizational officials.

The second session, starting from 2 pm, will have Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and both Deputy Chief Ministers in attendance. This assembly underlines the party's strategic focus on upcoming elections and organizational initiatives.

Meanwhile, with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is set to initiate a series of individual meetings starting today. At 10:00 am, a gathering of all district and metropolitan presidents will convene at the party headquarters. Subsequently, there is a scheduled meeting for MLAs on Tuesday, followed by a meeting of assembly constituency presidents on January 11. Akhilesh Yadav is planning a Rath Yatra and a cycle yatra in the near future.

The Election Commission is yet to announce the dates for the general elections however the polls are expected to be conducted in the month of April and May in seven phases.
Key Insights

The projected fair value for Marco Polo Marine is S$0.083 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

Marco Polo Marine is estimated to be 39% undervalued based on current share price of S$0.05

Marco Polo Marine's peers seem to be trading at a higher discount to fair value based onthe industry average of 72%

In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of Marco Polo Marine Ltd. (SGX:5LY) by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. We will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model on this occasion. Believe it or not, it's not too difficult to follow, as you'll see from our example!

We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

Check out our latest analysis for Marco Polo Marine

Crunching The Numbers

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Seeing as no analyst estimates of free cash flow are available to us, we have extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the company's last reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF (SGD, Millions) S$17.4m S$16.4m S$15.8m S$15.4m S$15.3m S$15.3m S$15.4m S$15.6m S$15.8m S$16.0m Growth Rate Estimate Source Est @ -9.75% Est @ -6.22% Est @ -3.75% Est @ -2.02% Est @ -0.81% Est @ 0.04% Est @ 0.64% Est @ 1.05% Est @ 1.34% Est @ 1.55% Present Value (SGD, Millions) Discounted @ 6.5% S$16.4 S$14.4 S$13.0 S$12.0 S$11.2 S$10.5 S$9.9 S$9.4 S$9.0 S$8.6

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = S$114m

Story continues

After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the initial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.0%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 6.5%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = S$16m (1 + 2.0%)  (6.5% 2.0%) = S$366m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= S$366m ( 1 + 6.5%)10= S$195m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is S$310m. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of S$0.05, the company appears quite good value at a 39% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

SGX:5LY Discounted Cash Flow January 8th 2024

The Assumptions

The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Marco Polo Marine as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 6.5%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.893. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for Marco Polo Marine

Strength

Earnings growth over the past year exceeded the industry.

Debt is not viewed as a risk.

Dividends are covered by earnings and cash flows.

Weakness

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Shipping market.

Shareholders have been diluted in the past year.

Opportunity

Annual earnings are forecast to grow faster than the Singaporean market.

Good value based on P/E ratio and estimated fair value.

Threat

No apparent threats visible for 5LY.

Next Steps:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For example, changes in the company's cost of equity or the risk free rate can significantly impact the valuation. Can we work out why the company is trading at a discount to intrinsic value? For Marco Polo Marine, there are three fundamental items you should further examine:

Risks: As an example, we've found 1 warning sign for Marco Polo Marine that you need to consider before investing here. Future Earnings: How does 5LY's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the SGX every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

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NEW DELHI: In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has invalidated the Gujarat government's directive granting remission to 11 convicts involved in the heinous gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots. The court has categorically declared that the state's action constitutes a clear case of both usurpation and abuse of power.

The apex court said it is the duty of this court to correct arbitrary orders at the earliest and to retain the foundation of trust of the public. The Supreme Court directed all 11 convicts to report to jail authorities within two weeks.

""It is a very good judgement which has upheld the Rule of Law and the faith of the people of this country, particularly the women, in the legal system, the courts, and that there is an assurance for justice," said advocate Vrinda Grover.

The apex court also held that the judgement of May 13, 2022, which directed the Gujarat government to consider remission of convict, was obtained by 'playing fraud' on the court and by suppressing material facts.

The top court also said that the convicts had not approached the court with clean hands. Noting that the state, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts, the apex court held that Gujarat was not competent to pass the remission orders but the Maharashtra government.

Bilkis Bano and others had approached the top court, challenging the premature release of 11 convicts. The Gujarat government had released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15, 2022. All the 11 life-term convicts in the case were released as per the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008.

In March 2002, during the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara.
NEW DELHI: In a recent visit to Lakshadweep, Prime Minister Narendra Modi painted a captivating picture of the islands, pitching it as a gem for domestic tourism and an idyllic locale for destination weddings. What ensued was a social media storm, comparing the scenic beauty of Lakshadweep with the Maldives, with some even favouring the former based on the visuals shared by PM Modi.

The seemingly innocuous banter took an unexpected diplomatic turn when Maldivian ministers responded with tweets mocking PM Modi's Lakshadweep tour. The controversial tweets raised concerns, breaching diplomatic decorum and sparking criticisms from various quarters. As the social media debate escalated, Maldives ministers seemed to overlook the significant size and strength of India in comparison to their smaller nation. Highlighting the vast difference in landmass, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands alone dwarf the entirety of the Maldives nearly 30 times over.

Beyond the banter lies a stark reality - the Maldives heavily depends on India's support for its tourism industry. The trending hashtag #boycott-maldives on social media platforms underscores the potential repercussions on Maldives' tourism business. The suspension of three Maldivian ministers for their comments reveals a recognition of the consequences by the Maldivian government. The incident is not an isolated one; it adds to the growing anti-India sentiments in the Maldives. The recurrent anti-India rhetoric, including protests and demonstrations, raises doubts about the future of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Analysts speculate that PM Modi's emphasis on promoting Lakshadweep tourism extends beyond a domestic initiative. It serves as a strategic move, signalling to the Maldivian president the extent of their dependence on India. The Maldives' anti-India stance may lead to repercussions, potentially affecting Indian sailors in Maldivian waters and straining bilateral relations.

India's pivotal role in supporting the Maldives' economy and tourism contrasts with recent events suggesting a strained diplomatic relationship. As both nations stand at a crossroads, the question remains whether they can navigate through this turbulence, preserving historical ties and mutual benefits.

In tonight's edition of DNA, Zee News anchor Sourabh Raaj Jain will conduct an extensive analysis of the prevailing anti-India sentiment within the Maldives and its tourism sector's delicate reliance on India. Tune in for a deep dive into the complexities of diplomatic tensions and their potential impact on both nations, only on Zee News.
New Delhi: Congress candidate Rupender Singh won the Karanpur assembly seat in Sriganganagar, Rajasthan in the by-election today. Confirming the victory of Singh, Former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot took on microblogging site to congratulate the son of former late MLA Gurmeet Singh Kooner who contested the by-elections after demise of his father.

"Warm congratulations and best wishes extend to Shri Rupinder Singh Kunnar, the victorious Congress candidate in Srikaranpur. This triumph is a testament to Kunnar's dedication to public service, as acknowledged by Gurmeet Singh. The residents of Srikaranpur have successfully challenged the pride of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The public has imparted a valuable lesson to the BJP, which violated the code of conduct and ethical standards by appointing its candidate as a minister during the elections," wrote Gehlot.

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                      Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) January 8, 2024

Congress leader Sachin Pilot also congratulated Singh for his victory in by-elections and expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the people of Karanpur constituency. "Best wishes to Shri Rupinder Singh Kunnar ji on his victory in Shrikaranpur assembly by-election. Self. The public had voted keeping in their heart the public interest, public welfare and development work done by Shri Gurmeet Singh Kunnar ji," wrote Sachin Pilot.

"I am happy that the self-respecting people of Shrikaranpur have expressed faith in the policies and ideology of Congress and have chosen progress, prosperity and their secure future. I express my heartfelt gratitude to the people of Shrikaranpur for the blessings in the form of this mandate," added Pilot

After the demise of Gurmeet Singh Kooner during the assembly polls, the Congress fielded his son Rupinder Singh Kooner from the seat, in a bid to get sympathy votes. On the other hand, the BJP has fielded Surendra Pal Singh from the seat. Now, in a likely bid to counter the sympathy factor, the BJP fielded Surendra Pal Singh a Minister of State (Independent) in the Bhajan Lal cabinet.
Israel, an all-weather ally of India, today backed New Delhi indirectly amid the ongoing Lakshadweep vs Maldives row. The Israeli embassy in India today said that it will commence a key project on the archipelago tomorrow. Israel is the first foreign country to support India's bid to promote tourism in the Lakshadweep islands.

"We were in Lakshadweep last year upon the federal government's request to initiate the desalination program. Israel is ready to commence working on this project tomorrow," said the embassy.

It further asked people to visit the 'enchanting' island. "For those who are yet to witness the pristine and majestic underwater beauty of the Lakshadweep Islands, here are a few pictures showing this island's enchanting allure," said the embassy.

We were in #Lakshadweep last year upon the federal government's request to initiate the desalination program.



Israel is ready to commence working on this project tomorrow.



For those who are yet to witness the pristine and majestic underwater beauty of #lakshadweepislands, here pic.twitter.com/bmfDWdFMEq  Israel in India (@IsraelinIndia) January 8, 2024

It may be noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had paid a visit to Israel in 2017 where he had witnessed a demonstration of sea water purification technology pioneered by Israel at a water desalination unit on Olga Beach in Haifa. During the visit, PM Modi along with Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu reached a deal to have similar desalination technology in India, especially for UTs like Andaman and Lakshadweep. This technology will help provide clean drinking water to the Island.

By backing India, Israel has shown that it will stand by New Delhi in any situation. Notably, India was among the first nations to support Israel after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack.

Three ministers of Maldives' pro-China government made disparaging remarks against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After this, India raised the matter with Maldives and even summoned the Maldives' ambassador to lodge its formal protest. On January 2, PM Modi visited the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and shared several pictures, including an 'exhilarating experience' of him trying his hand at snorkelling.
BEIJING: In the wake of a diplomatic dispute between India and the Maldives following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Lakshadweep, China has called upon New Delhi to approach its South Asian neighbours with an ''open mind.'' The Global Times, China's state media, emphasized in an editorial that it considers the Maldives an ''equal partner and respects its sovereignty.''

Maldives An Equal Partner: China

The editorial affirms China's respect for the friendly and cooperative relationship between the Maldives and India, recognizing the significance of Male maintaining good relations with New Delhi. Contrary to speculation, Beijing clarified that it has never pressured the Maldives to reject India due to Sino-Indian conflicts. Moreover, China views cooperation between the Maldives and India as neither unfriendly nor a threat, expressing willingness for trilateral cooperation.

Not A Zero-Sum Game: China

China emphasized that its cooperation with South Asian countries is not a "zero-sum game." The editorial urged New Delhi to adopt a more open-minded approach, emphasizing the need to understand that China's engagement in the region is not at the expense of India.

Muizzu's China Visit

The Global Times addressed the misinterpretation by Indian media regarding President Muizzu's visit to China before India. It highlighted that such speculations, assuming the order of visits reflects the importance of nations, reveal India's perception of South Asia as its sphere of influence. President Muizzu's decision to visit China first does not imply a pro-China and anti-India stance but rather signifies a normal state-to-state relationship. The editorial encouraged understanding this diplomatic move within the context of fostering healthy relations.

Maldives Suspends Ministers Over Derogatory Remarks On PM Modi

In a related development, three Maldivian ministers were suspended for making derogatory comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Lakshadweep. The Maldivian government distanced itself from these remarks, clarifying that they represented the ministers' personal opinions and not the official stance.

Tensions between India and the Maldives have escalated since President Muizzu assumed power, defeating his India-friendly predecessor. The strained relations, fueled by perceptions of Muizzu as a pro-China politician, have added complexity to the diplomatic landscape.

President Muizzu Arrives In China

President Muizzu, accompanied by his wife, visited the Xiamen Free Trade Zone in China's Fujian province. During the visit, he is expected to hold talks with Chinese President Xi and sign several agreements, marking a new historical starting point in Sino-Maldivian relations.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, expressed optimism that the visit would provide strategic guidance for bilateral relations to reach new heights. As President Muizzu engages in diplomatic discussions and agreements, the international community awaits the outcomes of this significant visit.
NEW DELHI: As the general elections are approaching, political activities have increased exponentially in diverse spheres. Different groups are gearing up to enter the election mode. Keeping this in view, Academics4Nation, a group working among professors and researchers, has launched a campaign called #Academics4NaMo. More than five hundred professors and research scholars have joined this novel initiative. Its first meeting was held at the South Campus of Delhi University, which was attended by academics from prestigious Universities including JNU, Delhi University, IIT, Ambedkar University, IIMC, and many other educational institutions.

The central aim of #Academics4NaMo is to apprise the intellectual world of the work done by the Modi government in the last ten years. In the coming days, several such meetings will be organized in different educational institutions and research institutes of the country, highlighting the achievements of the Modi government through discussion.

In the meeting held in Delhi, the Director of Delhi University South Campus and member of the Advisory Council of Academics4Nation, Prof. Shri Prakash Singh asserted that the time is right for Bharat to regain its glory through the development journey envisioned by the Honorable Prime Minister.

It is imperative to take this message to the thinkers, writers, and researchers of the country. All this is possible only when Narendra Modi is re-elected as the Prime Minister in 2024.

Dr Devi Dayal Gautam, Convenor of Academics4Nation, stated that the objective of this initiative is to ensure the return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the third consecutive time by creating a pragmatic narrative and right discourse through scholarly enterprise.

Dr Swadesh Singh, founder and former Convenor of Academics4Nation, informed that a similar effort was also made in the 2019 general elections, which was highly appreciated.

He affirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the battle of numbers, and now it is time to advance the accurate narrative. Dr Singh highlighted the role of mainstream media and social media in communicating facts and eliminating disinformation. Other faculty members contributed enthusiastically through their suggestions to run this campaign effectively.

The meeting concluded with a firm resolve that this campaign will contribute intellectually in favour of PM Modi in the upcoming 2024 elections through brainstorming, dialogue, and action. The new website of Academics4NaMo www.academics4namo.com was also presented at the meeting.
AHMEDABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will lead a road show on Tuesday from outside the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport here a day ahead of the inauguration of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, officials said. The 3-km-long roadshow will start in the evening after the PM receives the UAE President at the airport, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-East), Ahmedabad city, Safin Hasan.

"The roadshow will culminate at Indira Bridge, which connects Ahmedabad with Gandhinagar. From the bridge circle, both dignitaries will head to their respective destinations in Gandhinagar," Hasan told reporters on Monday. The police officer said elaborate security arrangements are in place. PM Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the 10th edition of VGGS at Mahatma Mandir Convention Centre in Gandhinagar on Wednesday.

Modi will also hold bilateral meetings with world leaders, and CEOs of top global corporations during his three-day visit to Gujarat from January 8 to 10, the PMO had said in a release. On January 9, at around 9.30 am, Modi will arrive at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar where he will hold bilateral meetings with world leaders, followed by a meeting with CEOs of top global corporations.

At around 3 pm, he will inaugurate the Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade Show, the PMO said. After inaugurating the summit on Wednesday, Modi will hold a meeting with CEOs of top global corporations. He will then travel to GIFT City where, at around 5.15 pm, he will interact with prominent business leaders in the Global FinTech Leadership Forum.

The 10th edition of VGGS is being held from January 10 to 12 in Gandhinagar. Its theme is 'Gateway to the Future'. This edition will celebrate "20 Years of Vibrant Gujarat as the Summit of Success". There are 34 partner countries and 16 partner organisations for this year's Summit.

The Summit will host various events including seminars and conferences on globally relevant topics such as Industry 4.0, Technology and Innovation, Sustainable Manufacturing, Green Hydrogen, Electric Mobility and Renewable Energy and Transition towards Sustainability.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to announce its verdict on several petitions challenging the Gujarat government's decision to grant early release to convicts involved in the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots today.

According to the causelist available on the apex court's website, a special bench comprising Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan will deliver the judgment on January 8.

Bilkis Bano Case: Key Points

At the age of 21, Bilkis Bano, five months pregnant, endured a harrowing gang rape while fleeing the horrors of communal riots sparked by the Godhra train-burning incident. Tragically, her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed during the riots.

In a hearing last September, the Supreme Court raised the question of whether convicts possess a fundamental right to seek remission. On October 12, while reserving judgment, the top court directed the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit the original records related to the remission of sentence for the 11 convicts by October 16.

During earlier arguments, the court emphasized that state governments should not selectively grant remission to convicts, asserting that the opportunity for reform and reintegration into society should be extended to every prisoner.

Apart from Bano's petition challenging the remission granted by the Gujarat government, several other PILs, including one by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul, and former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma, have contested the relief. Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against the remission and the premature release of the convicts.
New Delhi: According to Acharya, Pandit and Sandeep has allegedly defrauded him of Rs 14 crore in this biopics investment

As per a complaint filed by Acharya Manish, Pandit and sandeep approached him in early 2019 to invest in the Modi biopic, claiming he would get first recovery rights to recoup his investment after the movie's release. Convinced by their assurances, he took massive loans to invest Rs 14 crore in the film.

However, after the movie released and earned over Rs 32 crore as per Acharya Manishs information, Pandit allegedly refused to pay him his due. Over multiple meetings, the accused showed an inability to pay him and allegedly threatened him against taking legal action. In a detailed complaint complaint No. 4518/P/SSP, dated 17.08.2023 to the Mohali police, Acharya has described how he was allegedly induced by Pandit into investing the massive sum into the film on false assurances.

He has accused Pandit and sandeep of breach of trust, cheating, fraud, and siphoning off funds while causing financial loss to him. He has also accused the producer of tax evasion by concealing actual revenues and inflating expenses to show losses in the film's financials. He has demanded an ED, Income Tax, and GST probe into their finances.

Acharya Manish has urged the police to register an FIR against Pandit and carry out a criminal investigation into the matter. He has also sent copies of the complaint to the President, Prime Minister, Home Minister, I&B Minister, and various enforcement agency heads across the country. As per the complaint, Pandit has been intimidating him against taking legal recourse and warning him of implications. However, Acharya has filed the complaint so that other innocent investors duped by the accused can get justice.

The complaint's shocking allegations of deceit, fraud, and threats by influential Bollywood entities also merit wider debate and scrutiny around practices in the film industry. With an FIR and police investigation awaited, the case will be watched closely by all concerned stakeholders.
New Delhi: Tech giants Google and Apple have taken down two apps offering international eSIM services from their respective app stores  Google Play Store and Apple App Store in India. The names of the two apps providing international eSIM services are Airalo and Holafly, respectively.

The decision follows orders from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) last week, which operates under the telecom ministry. To combat cyber fraud, the DoT has also instructed internet service providers (ISPs) and telecom companies to block access to the websites of these apps in India.

According to media reports, both Airalo, based in Singapore, and Holafly, based in Spain, need to obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the DoT to commence selling eSIMs in the country.

Government's Reasons for Banning These Apps

Government officials state that fraudsters were found misusing eSIMs with international phone numbers to carry out cybercrimes in India and deceive innocent citizens.

Do you know what an eSIM is?

According to tech giant Apple, an eSIM is an 'industry-standard digital SIM that allows you to activate a mobile plan from your network provider without having to use a physical counterpart.' It is interesting to note that iPhone users can install over 8 eSIMs and use up to two phone numbers simultaneously.

It is noted that neither Apple nor Google has issued an official statement regarding this action. The removal of Airalo and Holafly creates inconvenience for Indian users who relied on these services for international travel or roaming. However, other eSIM providers such as Nomad eSIM and aloSIM are still available for Indian users.
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercy is ushering in a new era of patient-focused care with the introduction of three leaders to spearhead specialty service lines  Brian Connor, neurosciences; Michelle Fortune, surgery and gastroenterology (GI); Dawn Martin, women and children. They join Matt Wright, who leads orthopedics and sports medicine, and Dana Haynie, focused on cancer care, as service line presidents.

Mercy (https://www.mercy.net/newsroom/mercy-quick-facts/), one of the 20 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized quality care and one of the nations largest Accountable Care Organizations. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state health care system including more than 50 acute care and specialty (heart, childrens, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has over 900 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities, more than 4,500 physicians and advanced practitioners and more than 47,000 co-workers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. (PRNewsfoto/Mercy)

Mercy's strategic shift to performance divisions  teams focused on specific tasks to provide patients with a seamless, coordinated experience  includes primary care, specialty service lines and operations. These new leaders will improve patient access across Mercy, while developing impactful strategies, identifying areas for investment and improving performance.

Connor, who now leads neurosciences, brings experience from his role as chief operating officer at Health First in Melbourne, Florida. His leadership spans various health systems in Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, with notable experience at the Oklahoma Stroke & Neurological Institute. With a background in respiratory therapy, he prioritizes connecting with frontline health care workers and fostering a culture of teamwork and excellence.

Fortune, the new leader for surgery and GI services, arrives from St. Luke's Hospital in Columbus, North Carolina, where she served as chief executive officer. With experience in leading outpatient surgery centers, perioperative services and anesthesia at Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina, and National Surgical Hospitals in Chicago, Illinois, Fortune is well prepared to guide the surgery and GI teams and collaborate across services.

Martin, assuming responsibility for the women and children service line, was most recently president and CEO of Ascension Sacred Heart in Pensacola, Florida, where she led a 586-bed hospital with an embedded children's hospital and women's care center. With additional experience in Ascension hospitals in Connecticut and Tennessee, she has a strong background in Catholic health care, leading surgery centers, outpatient facilities and establishing steering councils for key service lines.

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"Our goal is to provide a consistently positive experience for our patients and consumers across Mercy's many states," said Dr. Jeff Ciaramita, Mercy president of specialty service lines. "With the collaborative efforts of Brian, Dana, Matt, Michelle and Dawn, together with our regional teams, we are well positioned to enhance and rapidly expand our quality care in each community. This strategic approach will provide our patients with increased access to low-cost, high-quality health care services everywhere that Mercy serves."

Mercy is actively interviewing candidates for the final service line president position in cardiovascular care, reinforcing the commitment to comprehensive and integrated health care services.

Mercy, one of the 20 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized quality care and one of the nation's largest Accountable Care Organizations. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state health care system including more than 50 acute care and specialty (heart, children's, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has over 900 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities, more than 4,500 physicians and advanced practitioners and more than 47,000 co-workers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mercy-announces-new-leaders-to-enhance-services-in-neurosciences-surgery-and-gi-women-and-children-302026667.html

SOURCE Mercy
Amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, an Israeli airstrike today killed an elite Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil in Lebanon. The strike took place when Wissam al-Tawil was travelling in an SUV. Tawil is said to be a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force.

The Israeli strike is part of Jerusalem's counter-offensive against attacks by Hezbollah on installations of Israeli defence installations. The secretive force operates along the border. Wissam al-Tawil is Hezbollah's most senior militant to have been killed since October 7 terror attack by Hamas into Israel. The fight between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated since the October 7 attack.

Israel recently said that it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis. Israel has maintained that the fight against Hamas is not over yet and will continue for many more months as the IDF seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages.

Over 23,000 Palestinians including thousands of Hamas terrorists have already been killed in Gaza in the Israel-Hamas war. On the other hand, around 2,000 Israelies including soldiers have been killed in the action.

Hezbollah has said its attacks, which have driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, aim to ease pressure on Gaza. But the group appears wary of risking an all-out war that would bring massive destruction to Lebanon.
DUBLIN, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Middle East & North Africa Data Center Market - Industry Outlook & Forecast 2023-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

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The Middle East and North Africa data center market is expected to reach a value of $8.38 billion by 2028 from $5.04 billion in 2022, growing at a CAGR of 8.82% from 2022-2028



In the Middle East and North Africa data center market, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia play significant roles, contributing around 30% and 27% to the regional capacity, respectively. It is expected that the market in these countries will experience growth over the next four to five years due to a shift from an oil-based economy to a more digital one. Additionally, Egypt is a critical player in North Africa, followed closely by Morocco. Factors such as adopting cloud-based services, developing smart cities, and expanding fiber connectivity drive continuous investments in regional data centers.

The UAE dominates the Middle East and North Africa data center market regarding data center developments. In addition, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, and Oman are among the major contributors, with high data center development activities in the Middle East and North Africa data center market. Qatar, Egypt, Morocco, and Kuwait are emerging markets that witness significant growth due to digitalization and growth in connectivity.

In the Middle East and North Africa data center market, the presence of smart cities in the region also drives investments. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco, and Egypt are some of the major countries in the region that triggered the smart city investments. For instance, the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia is under development as a part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030, which will also comprise the data center development under a joint venture firm, ZeroPoint DC.

Due to the burgeoning data center activities, the Middle East and North Africa data center market is poised to offer significant revenue opportunities for construction contractors. Key players in this sector include AECOM, Laing O'Rourke, Dar Group, Mercury Engineering, Deerns, Anel Group, Linesight, M+W, McLaren Construction, Atkins, B2 Architects, ENMAR Engineering, Arup, DC Pro Engineering, Edarat, Sterling and Wilson, United Egypt, Westwood Management, HHM Building Contracting, Red Engineering, and Turner & Townsend. For example, Laing O'Rourke has been selected by Khazna Data Centers to oversee the construction of a data center and office space in the Dubai Design District.

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Major global cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services, Tencent, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, Oracle, and Huawei Technologies, are in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) data center market. For instance, Microsoft intends to establish a cloud region in Saudi Arabia.

The presence of industrial parks, available land, and government support incentivize operators to develop data centers in various Middle Eastern and African countries. For instance, the Bahrain government has announced the launch of its first data center park, with stc Bahrain collaborating with the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications to develop the first data center within the park.

The Middle East and North Africa data center market is experiencing continuous growth in connectivity, with the deployment of new submarine cables such as Africa-1, 2Africa, India Europe Xpress (IEX), Raman, Saudi Vision, Blue, Equiano, Medusa Submarine Cable System, and SeaMeWe - 6. These cables are expected to become operational during the forecast period, enhancing regional connectivity.

MARKET TRENDS & OPPURTUITNIES

Procurement of Renewable Energy



The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) data center market is experiencing a significant surge in adopting renewable energy sources. Numerous countries in this area have initiated renewable energy projects as part of their government's efforts to achieve carbon-neutral goals. For example, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has set ambitious targets in its Energy Strategy 2050, intending to increase the proportion of renewable energy in its total energy mix from 25% to 50% by 2050.



Similarly, Saudi Arabia has launched the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) under Vision 2030, encompassing 13 projects anticipated to generate over 4.8 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy. Additionally, Bahrain has outlined plans to produce approximately 280 megawatts (MW) of electricity from renewable sources by 2025, to reach around 700 MW by 2030 to meet national renewable energy targets. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia's 2030 Vision includes developing ten renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of 7 GW, marking a significant step in the kingdom's renewable energy journey.



Rising Adoption of Artificial Intelligence



The Middle East and North Africa data center market is experiencing significant growth due to the increased adoption of advanced technologies like AI and ML. These technologies are becoming more prevalent in data centers, which are used to manage the power grid and electricity distribution more effectively. AI is crucial in helping operators determine the optimal times to generate, store, and use energy, offering the added advantage of remote power generation and distribution control.

In the Middle East and North Africa data center market, countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco stand out as major players in AI adoption. For instance, the UAE government has developed a comprehensive strategy for AI integration as part of the Centennial 2071 project. This initiative focuses on applying AI-based technologies across various sectors, including healthcare, education, and aviation.

In Saudi Arabia, AI is expected to contribute significantly to the country's economy, with an estimated impact of over USD 130 billion, equivalent to 12% of the GDP. Similarly, the UAE anticipates AI to substantially contribute more than USD 95 billion to its economy by 2030, representing a 13.6% share of the GDP.

Bahrain is also actively investing in AI development through its Digital Strategy 2022, which aims to foster the growth of AI and its applications. As part of this strategy, Bahrain has established the AI Academy further to promote AI education and research within the country.

SEGMENTATION INSIGHTS

In the field of data center development, there is a widespread focus on achieving a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of less than 1.5 for most facilities. However, in countries like Turkey, where partial free cooling is adopted during peak winter months, the aim is to achieve an even more efficient PUE of less than 1.3.

The Middle East and North Africa data center market is investing substantially in the power infrastructure, ensuring a minimum N+1 redundancy. In 2022, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems held a significant market share, accounting for over 30% of the total electrical infrastructure in data centers.

Given the high-temperature climate in some countries within the Middle East and North Africa region, there is a notable emphasis on investing in cooling infrastructure. In 2022, more than 65% of the total mechanical infrastructure investment was directed toward cooling systems by service providers.

Market Opportunities & Trends

Edge Data Center Investments Driven by 5G

Procurement of Renewable Energy

Deployment of Submarine Cables & Inland Connectivity

Adoption of AI

Data Center Investments Boosted by Digital Transformation

Market Growth Enablers

Procurement of Cloud

Data Center Investments Driven by IoT & Big Data

Migration of On-Premises Infrastructure to Colocation & Managed Services

Adoption of Prefabricated Data Centers

Market Restraints

Data Center Security Challenges

Dearth of Skilled Workforce

Location Constraints on the Development of Data Centers

VENDOR LANDSCAPE



Prominent Data Center IT Infrastructure Providers

Arista Networks

Atos

Broadcom

Cisco Systems

Dell Technologies

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

Huawei Technologies

IBM

Lenovo

NetApp

Prominent Support Infrastructure Providers

4Energy

ABB

Airedale

Canovate

Caterpillar

Cummins

Delta Electronics

EAE Group

Eaton

Envicool

HITEC Power Protection

Johnson Controls

Legrand

Rittal

Rolls-Royce

Schneider Electric

Siemens

STULZ

Vertiv

Prominent Data Center Construction Constructors

AECOM

AlDar Properties

Anel Group

Arup

Ashi & Bushnag

Atkins

Advanced Vision Morocco

ARSMAGNA

Dar Group

DC Pro Engineering

Deerns

Edarat

EGEC

ENMAR ENGINEERING

Harinsa Qatar

HATCO

HHM Building Contracting

Hill International

ICS Nett

INT'LTEC

ISG

LAING O'ROURKE

Linesight

M+W Group (Exyte)

Mace

Mercury Engineering

McLaren Construction Group

MIS

NDA Group

Orascom Construction

Prota Engineering

Qatar Site & Power

RED Engineering

RW Armstrong

Shaker Group

Sterling and Wilson

Summit Technology Solutions

Sudlows

Telal Engineering & Contracting

Turner & Townsend

United Egypt

Prominent Data Center Investors

Africa Data Centres

Adgar Investments and Development

Amazon Web Services

Batelco

Bynet Data Communications

Equinix

Etisalat

EdgeConneX

Future Digital Data Systems

G42

Gulf Data Hub

Google

Khazna Data Centers

Moro Hub

MedOne

MEEZA

Mobily

Microsoft

Oman Data Park

Ooredoo

stc

Serverfarm

Turkcell

Turk Telekom

Telecom Egypt

Tencent

New Entrants

Compass Datacenters

Digital Realty

EDGNEX

Global Technical Realty

Infinity

Quantum Switch

ZeroPoint DC (NEOM)

SEGMENTATION

Segmentation by Infrastructure

IT Infrastructure

Electrical Infrastructure

Mechanical Infrastructure

General Construction

Segmentation by IT Infrastructure

Server Infrastructure

Storage Infrastructure

Network Infrastructure

Segmentation by Electrical Infrastructure

UPS Systems

Generators

Transfer Switches & Switchgear

PDUs

Other Electrical Infrastructure

Segmentation by Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems

Racks

Other Mechanical Infrastructure

Segmentation by Cooling Systems

CRAC & CRAH Units

Chiller Units

Cooling Towers, Condensers, and Dry Coolers

Other Cooling Units

Segmentation by Cooling Technique

Air-based Cooling

Liquid-based Cooling

Segmentation by General Construction

Core & Shell Development

Installation & Commissioning Services

Building & Engineering Design

Physical Security

DCIM/BMS Solutions

Segmentation by Tier Standard

Tier I & II

Tier III

Tier IV

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qe8kjt

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(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musks drug use has worried executives and board members at businesses he runs, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the billionaire and the companies.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Musk has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties, the Journal said, citing unnamed witnesses and others with knowledge of the matter. People close to the Tesla Inc. and SpaceX chief executive officer told the newspaper his drug use is ongoing, and that in particular hes consuming ketamine. Musk said in August he has a prescription to use the drug as an antidepressant.

After Musk puffed on a blunt containing marijuana on Joe Rogans podcast in September 2018, the Pentagon reviewed the federal security clearance tied to his role as CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which is certified to launch military spy satellites, Bloomberg News first reported in March 2019.

After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASAs request, to do 3 years of random drug testing, Musk, 52, posted Sunday on X, the social media company he owns. Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol.

Musk didnt respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg News. Alex Spiro, an attorney for the billionaire, told the Journal that his client is regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test, and referred to false facts in the article but didnt detail them.

SpaceX is now the only US company approved to transport NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The Pentagon also has stepped up purchases of launches from the closely held company in recent years, and in June contracted with SpaceXs satellite communications business Starlink to support Ukraines military.

Story continues

The Journal reported that Linda Johnson Rice, who became a Tesla director in 2017, didnt stand for reelection two years later out of frustration with Musks behavior and her concerns about his drug use.

Musk oversees six companies: Tesla, SpaceX and X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter; the tunneling venture The Boring Co.; brain implant developer Neuralink; and artificial intelligence startup xAI. His $219.4 billion net worth ranks No. 1 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

(Updates with Musk not responding to a request for comment in fifth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2024 Bloomberg L.P.
FILE PHOTO: A worker walks past Boeing's new 737 MAX-9 under construction at their production facility in Renton, Washington

By Valerie Insinna, David Shepardson and Lisa Barrington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The cockpit voice recorder data on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet which lost a panel mid-flight on Friday was overwritten, U.S. authorities said, renewing attention on an industry call for longer in-flight recordings.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy said on Sunday no data was available on the cockpit voice recorder because it was not retrieved within two hours - when recording restarts, erasing previous data.

The U.S. requires cockpit voice recorders to log two hours of data versus 25 hours in Europe for planes made after 2021.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has since 2016 called for 25-hour recording on planes manufactured from 2021.

"There was a lot going on, on the flight deck and on the plane. It's a very chaotic event. The circuit breaker for the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) was not pulled. The maintenance team went out to get it, but it was right at about the two-hour mark," Homendy said.

The plane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were sent to NTSB labs on Sunday to be read but no voice data was available, she said.

DEBATE WITH FAA

The NTSB has been vocal in calling for the U.S. to extend its rule to 25 hours. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) a month ago said it was proposing to extend to 25 hours  but only for new aircraft.

"I'm calling on the FAA to change the rulemaking," Homendy said, adding that she wanted to see aircraft retrofitted with 25-hour recorders, not just new planes.

"If that communication is not recorded, that is unfortunately a loss for us and a loss for the FAA and a loss for safety because that information is key not just for our investigation but for improving aviation safety," she said.

Congress should take action in the FAA reauthorization bill to ensure the proposed rule is adopted, Homendy said.

Story continues

Debate about whether to adopt the longer recording standard weighs considerations about cost and privacy implications against safety.

The U.S. FAA has previously rejected the NTSB's call for mandating the retrofitting aircraft with new cockpit voice recorders, saying the costs would be significant at $741 million versus $196 million under incremental upgrades it proposed.

Pilots have also opposed the move, with the union representing pilots for air-freight company Atlas Air telling the FAA the longer recordings would be an invasion of worker privacy.

"(It) would significantly infringe upon the privacy rights of pilots and other flight crew members, as well as drastically increase the likelihood that CVR recordings will be misused or disseminated without authorization," the union said in a Dec. 28 response to the FAA's 25-hour proposal.

The issue has taken on new urgency after a series of near miss incidents raised alarms about U.S. air safety.

The NTSB has conducted 10 investigations since 2018 where the CVR was overwritten, including four runway incursions, Homendy said.

(Reporting by Valerie Insinna, Lisa Barrington; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jason Neely)
By Stephanie Kelly

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices fell over 3% on Monday on sharp price cuts by top exporter Saudi Arabia and a rise in OPEC output that offset supply concerns generated by escalating geopolitical tension in the Middle East.

Brent crude settled down $2.64, or 3.4%, at $76.12 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures lost $3.04, or 4.1%, at $70.77 a barrel.

Both contracts climbed more than 2% in the first week of 2024 as geopolitical risk in the Middle East intensified after attacks by Yemen's Houthis on ships in the Red Sea.

On Sunday, rising supply and competition from rival producers prompted Saudi Arabia to cut the February official selling price (OSP) of its flagship Arab Light crude to Asia to the lowest level in 27 months.

"That's raising concerns about demand in China and global demand as well," Price Futures Group analyst Phil Flynn said. "The stock market is off to a weak start this year and this news from Saudi Arabia has caused the bottom to fall out."

A Reuters survey on Friday found that OPEC oil output rose in December as increases in Angola, Iraq and Nigeria offset continuing cuts by Saudi Arabia and other members of the wider OPEC+ alliance.

The boost came ahead of further OPEC+ cuts in 2024 and as Angola exited from OPEC starting this year, factors which are set to lower January output and market share.

"If we were just to focus on the fundamentals, including higher inventories, higher OPEC/non-OPEC production and a lower than expected Saudi OSP, it would be impossible to be anything other than bearish on crude oil," said IG analyst Tony Sycamore.

"However, that doesn't take into account the fact that geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are undeniably rising again, which will mean limited downside."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held more talks with Arab leaders on Monday as part of a diplomatic push to stop the war in Gaza from spreading further.

Story continues

The conflict has already sparked violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and also led to Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes.

Meanwhile, the oil price slide was tempered by a force majeure by Libya's National Oil Corporation on Sunday at its Sharara oilfield, which can produce up to 300,000 barrels per day.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; additional reporting by Natalie Grover and Noah Browning in London, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Florence Tan in Singapore; editing by David Goodman, Kirsten Donovan, Sharon Singleton, Barbara Lewis and Richard Chang)
MarketsandMarkets Research Pvt. Ltd.

Chicago, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The presence of several big telecom operators, as well as opportunities for digital skills, and AI integration with 5G networks across France, presents market opportunities

France is one of the leading European countries to focus on advanced technologies for data communication purposes in various sectors. The increasing demand for optical networking equipment for data transmission with high-speed in datacom and telecom industries is likely to boost the demand for optical transceivers directly.

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The growth of the optical transceiver market in France can be attributed to the adoption of advanced technologies in various applications. For instance, Orange (France) showcased innovations and technological breakthroughs related to 5G technology at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2012), held in February 2022. The company also launched several Orange 5G Labs, which enable European companies to test and develop future 5G applications. Adding to this, the company is committed to becoming net zero carbon by 2040, and network innovation will be a key contributing factor.

The technological innovations are designed to improve customer experience by providing high-speed data transfer rates with ensured security and reliability. In April 2020, Orange (France) announced that it created new opportunities for bandwidth-intensive applications in collaboration with Dell (US). Dell (US) also announced that it is expanding its partnership with Orange (France) to implement 5G networking in the country.

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Digital skills are the foundation of a digital society. They allow people to use digital services and conduct basic online activities, especially when mobility is limited. The recession and COVID-19 crisis demonstrated the importance of adequate digital skills enabling citizens to access information and services for the entire population. The rise in data traffic for enabling digital skills is managed over data centers specially designed for healthcare and other human capital applications.

Story continues

These data centers demand high-speed and long-distance transmission to reach a certain population in the region. Artificial intelligence and technological advancements have altered the way humans interact with machines. Because 5G network architecture easily supports AI processing, it accelerates this revolution. The 5G network architecture will have a significant impact on the future of artificial intelligence.

CONTACT: About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets has been recognized as one of Americas best management consulting firms by Forbes, as per their recent report. MarketsandMarkets is a blue ocean alternative in growth consulting and program management, leveraging a man-machine offering to drive supernormal growth for progressive organizations in the B2B space. We have the widest lens on emerging technologies, making us proficient in co-creating supernormal growth for clients. Earlier this year, we made a formal transformation into one of America's best management consulting firms as per a survey conducted by Forbes. The B2B economy is witnessing the emergence of $25 trillion of new revenue streams that are substituting existing revenue streams in this decade alone. We work with clients on growth programs, helping them monetize this $25 trillion opportunity through our service lines - TAM Expansion, Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy to Execution, Market Share Gain, Account Enablement, and Thought Leadership Marketing. Built on the 'GIVE Growth' principle, we work with several Forbes Global 2000 B2B companies - helping them stay relevant in a disruptive ecosystem. Our insights and strategies are molded by our industry experts, cutting-edge AI-powered Market Intelligence Cloud, and years of research. The KnowledgeStore (our Market Intelligence Cloud) integrates our research, facilitates an analysis of interconnections through a set of applications, helping clients look at the entire ecosystem and understand the revenue shifts happening in their industry. To find out more, visit www.MarketsandMarkets.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com




BAMAKO, Mali, Jan. 8, 2024 /CNW/ -- Orange Finances Money Mali, a leading Electronic Money Establishment and subsidiary of Orange Mali, is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with TerraPay, a global cross-border payments network with an extensive reach. This partnership marks a significant milestone in the digital financial landscape for Mali, connecting over 12 Million Malians to the vast diaspora residing across the globe, including other African countries.

TerraPay_Logo

Bringing together Orange Finances Money Mali's commitment to promoting financial inclusion and TerraPay's proven expertise in facilitating secure cross-border payments, this partnership is set to empower Malians with innovative and seamless financial services.

Financial inclusion continues to be one of the biggest challenges across West Africa and Orange Finances Money Mali has been dedicated to bridging this gap by striving to boost accessibility and inclusion through their services. One of the key highlights of this alliance is the ease with which Orange Money Mali customers can either cash out the funds received in their wallets or directly use them for everyday needs, including bill payments, supermarket purchases, and person-to-person transfers.

Orange Finances Money is dedicated to issuing, managing, and distributing electronic money under the Orange Money brand in Mali.

Djeneba Tandjigora, Chief of Transfer Services and Core Business at Orange Finances Money Mali, expressed his enthusiasm about the collaboration, stating, "Orange Money Mali customers can now receive money transfers from several countries using TerraPay's global network. This strategic collaboration simplifies transactions making them quick and secure, enhances the customer experience for Orange Money users and strengthens financial inclusion in Mali."

Amel Kane, Regional Sales Manager Francophone West Africa at TerraPay, views this collaboration as an opportunity to enhance the quality of service and customer satisfaction. "With a direct connection to Orange Finances Money Mali, TerraPay can ensure a seamless cross-border payment experience, reducing operational issues and providing prompt assistance to our partner's clients. This collaboration reinforces our commitment to expanding our direct rails and continually improving our service offerings," stated Amel.

Story continues

Combining Orange Finances Money Mali's rapidly growing client database and TerraPay's wide network spanning 120+ receive countries, 210+ send countries, 7.5Bn+ bank accounts, and 2.1Bn+ mobile wallets  this partnership is poised to make a significant impact on the region's digital and financial services landscape.

Partnering with Mali's biggest mobile money operator enables TerraPay to stay true to its commitment to quality and provide the best cross-border payment services in the region. Orange Finances Money Mali and TerraPay's strategic partnership not only strengthens connectivity between Mali and the global financial network but also positions both entities for accelerated growth in the digital payments landscape. The convenience and accessibility offered by this collaboration will undoubtedly benefit industry players, the public, customers, and merchants alike.

About TerraPay:

TerraPay simplifies the movement of money everywhere  providing a single connection to the most expansive cross-border payments network regulated in 29 global markets and enabling payments to 120+ receive countries, 210+ send countries, 7.5Bn+ bank accounts and 2.1Bn+ mobile wallets. TerraPay is on a mission to connect a borderless financial world, making moving money everywhere instant, reliable, transparent and fully compliant. TerraPay pushes the boundaries for global businesses  ranging from banks, fintechs and money-transfer operators to travel businesses, creator economy platforms and e-commerce marketplaces  while driving financial inclusion in even the most inaccessible markets. Founded in 2014, TerraPay is headquartered in London, with global offices in Bangalore, Dubai, Miami, Bogota, Dar es Salaam, Kampala, Hague, Dakar, Joburg, Nairobi, Milan, Singapore and is expanding rapidly, having received funding from leading investors, including the IFC (the World Bank), Prime Ventures, Partech Africa and Visa.

About Orange Finances Money Mali:

Orange Finances Money Mali is an Electronic Money Establishment, subsidiary of Orange Mali and approved by the Central Bank of West African States. Created in 2015, the company guarantees the issuance, management, and distribution of electronic money under the Orange Money brand in Mali.

Media Contact:

Juveria Samrin

juveria.n@terrapay.com

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Audacy, the nations second largest radio chain and a major player on the Chicago airwaves, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Texas bankruptcy court Sunday, seeking to reduce nearly $2 billion in debt.

The Philadelphia-based radio giant, which owns 225 stations, including Chicago powerhouses such as WBBM-AM 780, WXRT-FM 93.1 and WSCR-AM 670, blamed a perfect storm of pandemic headwinds, revenue declines and mounting debt from its 2017 megamerger with CBS Radio as driving the need for financial restructuring.

We are unquestionably a much stronger company today in serving our listeners and customers than ever before, David Field, Audacys chairman and CEO, said in an employee memo Monday. But the duration and severity of the perfect storm has necessitated the actions we are announcing today.

Field said it would be business as usual for Audacys radio stations during the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the memo, which was obtained by the Tribune.

Audacy station managers in Chicago referred inquiries to a company spokesperson, who declined further comment on the bankruptcy filing.

The Chapter 11 agreement would reduce Audacys $1.9 billion in debt to $350 million by converting long-term loans to equity stakes in the reorganized company, pending approval by the Texas bankruptcy court. Much of that debt  about $1.4 billion  was accumulated through the CBS Radio merger, which tripled the size of Audacy and gave it substantial radio presence in major markets, including Chicago.

Audacys $1.9 billion in debt would have required interest payments of $120.6 million last year, according to the bankruptcy filing. While the merged company was initially able to service the debt, Audacy has struggled to satisfy obligations under its capital structure since the pandemic hit four years ago, according to the filing.

In 2019, Audacy generated $1.5 billion in revenues, according to the bankruptcy filing. Revenues declined to about $1.25 billion in 2022, and are down another 6% year-over-year through the first nine months of 2023, according to the companys financial filings.

Story continues

Nationwide, local over-the-air radio revenues fell from $8.1 billion in 2022 to $7.7 billion last year, due to a drop in political advertising, according to data from BIA Advisory Services.

The radio chain, then known as Entercom, completed its $2.4 billion acquisition of CBS Radio in November 2017. The merger added a Chicago cluster of CBS stations including news stations WBBM-AM 780 and WCFS-FM 105.9; Top-40 station WBBM-FM 96.3 (B96), sports-talk station WSCR-AM 670 (The Score); country station WUSN-FM 99.5 (US-99); and eclectic rock station WXRT-FM 93.1. It also immediately flipped WJMK-FM 104.3 from classic hits to a classic hip-hop station, now known as WBMX-FM 104.3 Jams.

The company, which rebranded as Audacy in 2021, is the second-largest radio chain in the U.S. behind iHeartMedia.

In 2022, Audacys Chicago stations brought in $97.9 million in local over-the-air advertising revenues, led by WBBM-AM at about $31.9 million, according to BIA. Audacy stations accounted for about 29% of the $337.8 million in revenue generated by the broader Chicago radio market in 2022.

The Chicago radio cluster represented more than 7% of Audacys local over-the-air revenues in 2022, according to BIA.

Audacy stations are also regularly well-represented among the top 10 in Chicago listenership surveys, according to Nielsen.

In his memo, Field said the radio stations will operate normally during the bankruptcy process, with no disruption to wages and benefits, and the current leadership team remaining in place. He cited other radio chains that have successfully emerged from bankruptcy, such as Cumulus and iHeart, as promising for the future of a restructured Audacy.

In Chicago, Cumulus owns WLS-AM 890, WLS-FM 94.7 and WKQX-FM 101.1 (Q101), while iHearts portfolio includes WVAZ-FM 102.7 (V103), WLIT-FM 93.9 (Lite FM) and WKSC-FM 103.5 (Kiss FM).

Since the closing of the CBS Radio merger, Audacy has reduced annual expenses by $310 million through such cost-cutting measures as employee downsizing, consolidating locations and reworking or terminating burdensome contracts, according to the bankruptcy filing.

Field spun the bankruptcy filing to employees as a positive step forward for the company.

Today marks the dawn of a new era for Audacy with a robust balance sheet that will facilitate our future growth and performance, Field said in the memo. I fully recognize that this has been a difficult period as we have coped with a long stretch of challenges and uncertainty.

rchannick@chicagotribune.com
Xi uses metaphor to stress rarity of ceramics

Chinadaily.com.cn) 08:46, January 08, 2024

"Very few ceramics from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) have survived. The scarcity is like the giant panda. Exceptionally rare, very rarely preserved even around the globe," President Xi Jinping said to his foreign guests in 2019.

Xi, foreign leaders and other dignitaries visited an exhibition of cultural relics at the China National Convention Center in Beijing on May 15, 2019, before they attended the opening ceremony of the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations.

While walking in front of a blue-and-white qinghua porcelain ware produced in the Yuan Dynasty, Xi narrated the metaphor, which deepened the impression and understanding of the foreign guests of the uniqueness of Chinese porcelain.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Nigar Hasanova

The full restoration of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and the country's sovereignty within international legal boundaries creates the first real chance for it to sign a peace agreement with Armenia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which Ukraine can only dream of.

According to Azernews, German journalist Thomas Fassbender mentioned it in his article "Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict: peace and two wars after 30 years?" published in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.

"After decades of tension, including two wars since the collapse of the USSR, Azerbaijan-Armenia relations have a chance to establish real, sustainable peace. It was a long and bloody road," he stressed.

The German journalist added that hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their homes as a result of the conflict.

T. Fassbender noted that there are new opportunities in the South Caucasus region:

"The initial situation is not so bad. "Azerbaijan, which is very superior militarily, carried out anti-terrorist measures in September of last year."

According to him, it is an undeniable fact that there is no basis for the rumours that Armenians were subjected to ethnic cleansing, because the representatives of the UN and Western countries, including the EU, stated that during these measures, the civilian population and infrastructure in the Garabagh region were not harmed. and Armenian residents of the region did not complain about it:

"The main motive of Armenian residents leaving Garabagh was probably concerns about the future. During the first Garabagh war, Azerbaijan was occupied by Armenia, that is, until 1994, at least 600,000 Azerbaijanis were forcibly displaced, and cities and villages were destroyed. "Azerbaijan returned these territories to its control only in 2020."

"The reason for the current cautious optimism is, first of all, the restoration of Azerbaijan's national sovereignty within the framework of international legal boundaries. By the way, Ukraine can only dream of this at the moment. But there are obstacles to this," he said.

The journalist emphasised that the Zangazur Corridor, which is one of these obstacles, should not be ignored.

"In 2020, after the Second Garabagh War, in the three-way cease-fire declaration, Armenia undertook to ensure unhindered transport links between the rest of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Given the current lack of mutual trust between the two countries, the implementation of such a corridor is likely to be difficult. At least this is what it looks like from the outside."

He believes that the corridor is not the only obstacle in this matter.

"Azerbaijan would like that nearly 200,000 Azerbaijanis who were forced to flee from Armenia to Azerbaijan after 1988 could return to their homeland. In turn, Baku points to the possibility of returning Garabagh Armenians to Azerbaijan."
The Galaxy Leader cargo ship is escorted by Houthi boats in the Red Sea in this photo released November 20, 2023. Houthi Military Media/Handout

International oil buyers are purchasing more US shale amid attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, said a Mizuho analyst.

US petroleum exports rose by 35% on-week to nearly 5.3 million barrels a day for the week ended December 29.

Oil prices have not been getting much of a boost from the Red Sea attacks.

The ongoing attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthi rebels are causing chaos for the world's supply chains  but American oil exports appear to be benefiting from them.

That's because international demand has shifted to ample US shale oil supply  which is the "safer and cheaper way to procure supply, especially for EU customers," Robert Yawger, the executive director for energy futures at Mizuho Securities USA, wrote in a note on Thursday, per MarketWatch.

Due to the attacks, many ships are rerouting from the Red Sea  which connects to the Suez Canal, a vital trade link between Asia and Europe  to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, but this makes journeys longer and more expensive.

So, many buyers appear to be simply purchasing oil from the US instead of the Middle East. US petroleum exports rose by 35% on-week to nearly 5.3 million barrels a day for the week ended December 29, according to the US Energy Information Administration. This is the first time US exports have spiked since the Houthi started their Red Sea attacks in mid November.

Yawger expects US petroleum exports to hold above the 5 million barrels a day level in the coming weeks amid intensifying geopolitical tensions.

The US has spearheaded a multinational operation to protect shipping lanes around the Red Sea, but many shipping companies are still avoiding the region and are warning of major disruptions to their schedules.

For oil consumers at least, there's a simple solution to the problem, wrote Yawger.

"Forget about the Houthis/Iranian menace in the Red Sea," he wrote. "You don't need a US Navy escort from danger  just a nice, clean two- to- four-week round-trip journey to the US."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), cautioned investors about the high risks and volatility of cryptocurrency assets on Monday in a post on X (formerly Twitter), as the Web3 industry anticipates the SECs decision on several spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications.

Investments in crypto assets also can be exceptionally risky & are often volatile. A number of major platforms & crypto assets have become insolvent and/or lost value. Investments in crypto assets continue to be subject to significant risk, Gensler said.

The SEC chiefs warning did not specifically reference the proposed ETFs but coincided with a series of amended Form S-1 filings, also known as the initial registration forms for new securities.

The agency is expected to respond to the applications, which include submissions from industry heavyweights such as BlackRock, Ark Invest/21Shares, and Fidelity, by January 10, with the potential for a landmark approval that could introduce the first spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States.

The SECs potential approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF has been long-awaited and could signal a new era of mainstream investment opportunities for digital assets. Such a move would not only provide a regulated investment vehicle for Bitcoin but could also pave the way for further integration of cryptocurrencies into traditional financial systems.

The amended S-1 filings by various asset managers are seen as a final step before potential approval, with some firms even slashing fees to attract investors to their prospective ETF products. For instance, ARK Invest and 21Shares have proposed waiving their 0.25% fee for the first six months for the initial US$1 billion in assets under management, while BlackRock has set a competitive ongoing fee of 0.3%.

While the commission has the option to deny the applications, recent legal developments, such as a federal judges order for the SEC to reconsider a previously denied spot Bitcoin ETF application from Grayscale Investments, the operator of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the worlds largest Bitcoin fund, suggest that the regulators rationale for any decision will be closely examined.

The potential approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States would follow in the footsteps of its neighbor, Canada, which permitted the listing of such products on exchanges starting in 2021.
Key Insights

The considerable ownership by private equity firms in Singapore Telecommunications indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy

Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited owns 51% of the company

19% of Singapore Telecommunications is held by Institutions

A look at the shareholders of Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SGX:Z74) can tell us which group is most powerful. With 51% stake, private equity firms possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And last week, private equity firms endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 4.9%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Singapore Telecommunications, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Singapore Telecommunications

SGX:Z74 Ownership Breakdown January 8th 2024

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Singapore Telecommunications?

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.

Singapore Telecommunications already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Singapore Telecommunications' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

SGX:Z74 Earnings and Revenue Growth January 8th 2024

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Singapore Telecommunications. Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited is currently the largest shareholder, with 51% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 4.7% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 3.4% by the third-largest shareholder.

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While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Singapore Telecommunications

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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Singapore Telecommunications Limited. As it is a large company, we'd only expect insiders to own a small percentage of it. But it's worth noting that they own S$6.9m worth of shares. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 29% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Equity Ownership

With an ownership of 51%, private equity firms are in a position to play a role in shaping corporate strategy with a focus on value creation. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.

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. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 3 warning signs with Singapore Telecommunications (at least 1 which doesn't sit too well with us) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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.
Social Security is a cornerstone for many Americans' retirement plans. Nearly six in 10 retirees say it's a major source of income, according to a Gallup poll from April. So, ensuring you maximize your benefits is essential.

Spousal Social Security benefits take an already complicated decision and add a whole new level of calculus on top of it. Understanding the basics of how spousal benefits work can go a long way toward making the most of what's available to you.

Here are three important details all retired couples should know.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. You can receive spousal benefits without any work history of your own

While you need to work for at least 10 years to qualify for a Social Security benefit on your own earnings record, that's not the case for claiming spousal benefits. When you claim Social Security based on your spouse's earnings record, there's no requirement for you to have worked at all.

As long as you're married to someone who qualifies for benefits on their own earnings record for at least one year, you can receive a spousal benefit. That can be a great help for immigrants who had limited opportunities to work in the U.S., or for parents who became homemakers relatively early in life, giving up career opportunities.

If you do qualify for benefits with a limited work history of your own, you may still be able to receive a higher benefit by claiming on your spouse's record. That's where claiming decisions start to get complicated.

2. You'll max out your spousal benefit at full retirement age

Unlike Social Security benefits based on your own earnings record, spousal benefits do not earn delayed retirement credits. That's the boost you'll receive in your monthly check by delaying your Social Security application beyond your full retirement age.

As such, anyone planning to claim spousal benefits will likely want to claim Social Security when they reach full retirement age. That's age 66 for anyone born in 1954 or earlier, but it increases by two months for each year after that until reaching age 67 for people born in 1960 or later.

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The maximum benefit you can receive as a spouse is 50% of your spouse's primary insurance amount (PIA), the amount your partner will receive at their full retirement age. But if you claim early, the Social Security Administration will reduce your benefit. The following table shows how someone with a full retirement age of 67 will see their spousal benefit reduced by claiming early.

Claiming Age Percentage of Spouse's PIA 62 32.5% 63 35% 64 37.5% 65 41.67% 66 45.83% 67 50%

Data source: Social Security Administration.

There's one more hiccup that could throw you for a loop. You can't claim your spousal benefits unless your spouse is receiving their own retirement benefit. That could leave some spouses with a reduced (or no) retirement benefit based on their own work history while they wait for their spouse to reach their retirement age.

3. You could receive a bump in benefits if your spouse passes away before you

Your spousal benefits technically end if your spouse passes away before you. However, you typically then become immediately eligible for a potentially larger benefit based on what your spouse was receiving before they passed away. That's called a survivor's benefit.

Since survivor benefits are based on the amount a person received before their passing, it means if they delay until age 70, it can provide a bigger benefit for the spouse later. Note, however, if the surviving spouse claims their survivor benefit before their full survivor's retirement age, it'll reduce the survivor's benefit. The good news is, unlike with regular spousal benefits, you can claim your own benefit without claiming your survivor benefit, which makes it easy to wait until you're eligible for the full amount.

As such, it behooves the higher earner from a couple to wait until they've maxed out their benefit to ensure a bigger benefit for their spouse, in case they pass away early. But that also means a spouse may need to wait even longer to receive regular spousal benefits, especially if there's a significant age gap between the couple.

Survivor benefits are an important consideration for long-term retirement planning, and you shouldn't simply look to maximize your spousal benefits by claiming earlier than you have to. Most couples will do well with a simple strategy where the low-earning spouse claims at full retirement age while the high-earning spouse claims at age 70. That may mean giving up some benefits in the short term for the insurance of survivor benefits.

That said, everyone's situation is different, and you may want to consult a professional financial planner to help with your unique situation.

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Social Security Benefits for Spouses: 3 Things All Retired Couples Should Know was originally published by The Motley Fool
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER  SpaceX may not have had a moonbound rocket on the pad, but it did manage its second launch of the year from the Space Coast on Sunday afternoon. United Launch Alliance, which is targeting the moon, was set to lift off with its first launch of the year about nine hours later.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 more of SpaceXs Starlink satellites carved up the dying blue skies at sunset with a 5:35 p.m. Eastern liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Stations Space Launch Complex 40.

The first-stage booster made its 16th flight, having previously flown on two crewed and two cargo missions to the International Space Station, among others. SpaceX managed another recovery landing of the first stage downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

It marks the second launch for SpaceX from the Space Coast and third for the year for the company, which has also flown once from California. SpaceX officials have said 2024 could see as many as 12 launches per month or 144 for the year. In 2023 Elon Musks company flew 96 orbital missions among Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from its Florida and California facilities.

Meanwhile, United Launch Alliance, which flew only three times in 2023, is gearing up for the first-ever launch of its new Vulcan Centaur rocket on the Certification-1 mission from Canaverals Space Launch Complex 41 during a 45-minute window that opens at 2:18 a.m. Eastern on Monday.

The countdown for that flight began at 3:58 p.m. Eastern on Sunday at T-minus 8 hours, 50 minutes, although that countdown features built-in holds: one 30-minute hold before fueling at T-minus 4 hours, 30 minutes, and a second 60-minute hold before terminal count at T-minus 7 minutes. Live updates at ulalaunch.com will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern, while NASA will provide video coverage starting at 1:30 a.m. Eastern on nasa.gov.

Space Launch Delta 45s weather squadron forecasts an 85% chance for good conditions, with chances dropping to a 30% chance in the event of a 24-hour delay and 45% if delayed 48 hours.

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The replacement for its Atlas V and Delta IV family of rockets, the new Vulcan is set to send up a commercial lunar lander named Peregrine from Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology as the first of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions.

Also flying and attached to the Centaur upper stage and headed for a permanent deep space orbit are the partial remains and DNA of more than 150 people including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and actors James Scotty Doohan, Nichelle Lt. Uhura Nichols and DeForest Dr. McCoy Kelly, as part of Celestis Inc.s Enterprise Flight. Once at its final destination, the stage will become Enterprise Station.

If all goes well, it could be the first of six Vulcan flights on ULAs manifest for 2023. ULA will also fly nine more Atlas V rockets and the final Delta IV Heavy mission.

The 16 missions would match its record set in 2009, and combined with SpaceX and a possible NASA launch of the Space Launch System on the Artemis II mission from Kennedy Space Center, the Space Coast is on target to surpass its 2023 record of 72 launches.

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Mediapunch / Shutterstock.com

Personal finance expert and New York Times bestselling author Suze Orman recently said that young people could retire as millionaires  that is, if they do one specific thing.

See: 10 Things Boomers Should Consider Selling in Retirement

Find: Pocket an Extra $400 a Month With This Simple Hack

In a Jan. 1 Wall Street Journal article, Orman was asked where young people tend to go wrong about their finances. According to her, this boils down to one thing that could end up costing younger Americans deeply.

They dont understand the value of compounding and that the key to their financial independence is their age, Orman told The Wall Street Journal.

Also: The 6 Investments Everyone Should Make During an Economic Downturn

Sponsored: Get Paid To Scroll. Start Now

Young Americans Must Invest Earlier

In turn, she emphasized the importance of starting retirement planning as early as possible and taking advantage of the biggest thing younger generations have on their side  time.

She further noted that you could become a millionaire if youre 25 and you put $100 a month into a Standard & Poors 500 index fund  through a Roth IRA  every single month for 12 months, every year, until you are 65.

Its very probable that you will average a 12% annual rate of return over 40 years. At the end of those years, you have a million dollars, she said. You wait 10 years until youre 35? At the age of 65, youll have $300,000. [Young people] dont get that. They would rather dress cool, go on their TikToks.

Orman has often talked about the power of compounding. For instance, in a 2019 CNBC article, she said that you should be investing more in your 20s than you do in your 30s (if you can).

And in a 2023 LinkedIn post, she said that you cant make up for lost compounding.

Every dollar you dont save in your 30s, 40s and 50s is a dollar that cant compound. A $10,000 investment made at age 45 will be worth around $32,000 at age 65, assuming a 6% annualized return. Invest the same $10,000 at age 55 and it will be worth less than $18,000, she wrote at the time.

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In addition, Orman also said that she hates budgets, as by restricting yourself all of a sudden you explode and you go out and you buy everything at once.

You should ask yourself when do you buy what you can afford versus what you need, when you can afford more than what you need.

She added that she and her wife always ask themselves: Is this a want or a need? Do that every time for the next three months. Just try it.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Suze Orman: Young People Could Retire Millionaires By Doing This One Thing
Top congressional leaders are now trying to sell their members on a $1.6 trillion top-line federal spending deal announced over the weekend.

But a wave of opposition  mostly from the right but even some from the left  in the hours since the deal was announced underscores that averting a shutdown remains far from a sure thing.

The deal provides a framework that will allow lawmakers to negotiate in earnest in the days ahead on the 12 bills needed to keep the government open but major hurdles remain that could easily trip up the talks and generate new headlines to revive the market's shutdown fears.

The deal has already engendered heated resistance from House Speaker Mike Johnsons right flank, with a host of Republicans announcing their opposition. The terms being tossed around by these members Sunday and Monday ranged from "bogus" to "terrible" to "another loss for America."

The House Freedom Caucus, a collection of many of these most far-right members, summed things up by calling the deal "even worse than we thought."

The bipartisan agreement would have the government spend $886 billion on defense and $773 billion for non-defense spending this fiscal year, in line with the deal struck last year to avert a debt ceiling crisis between President Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The deal notably formalizes $69 billion in funding that was agreed to in a handshake side deal between McCarthy and the White House.

The immediate opposition made clear Johnson will need Democratic votes to pass his deal  a maneuver that could imperil his young speakership.

"Although both sides are spinning the deal as a win, this looks to us mostly like House GOP capitulation" to the realities of bipartisan governance, Tobin Marcus of Wolfe Research said in a note to clients on Monday morning.

Read more: How a government shutdown would impact your money

House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks in the House Chamber after being elected on Oct. 25, 2023. (Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua via Getty Images) (Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images)

Now, with senators returning to Washington today and the House of Representatives set to follow tomorrow, it remains a tight timeline. Four of the 12 bills need to be signed into law by Jan. 19 and the remainder by Feb. 2, due to Speaker Johnsons two-step plan enacted last year.

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Fights over immigration, Ukraine, and 'poison pills'

One line from the statement hailing the deal by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries hinted at some of the issues to come.

"We have made clear to Speaker Mike Johnson that Democrats will not support including poison pill policy changes in any of the twelve appropriations bills put before the Congress," they wrote.

In a notable contrast, Speaker Johnson signaled essentially the opposite in his explanation of the deal, saying in a letter to his colleagues that the agreement allows House Republicans to "fight for the important policy riders" in their appropriations bills.

At issue are a series of provisions  many around hot-button cultural issues like abortion and gender-affirming care  the House Republicans have inserted into their versions of the spending bills.

Lisa Gilbert of the left-leaning group Public Citizen said in a statement Monday there were a whopping 560 such controversial riders and "bills loaded with poison pills cannot and will not be a serious basis for final negotiations.

In his note Monday, Marcus also noted the policy rider side of the debate and wrote that "conservatives are going to lose this fight, but it is not 100% clear to us that Johnson has already conceded this loss, or if he might yet be driven by the conservative wing of his caucus to stage a protracted quixotic fight over policy riders."

Another clear sticking point in the days ahead could be a House Republican demand that immigration talks should take precedence in a shutdown conversation. "Shut down the border or shut down the government," has been the refrain from many in Johnson's caucus.

The most conservative House Republicans are largely taking an all-or-nothing approach on that issue and saying their preferred bill  dubbed H.R. 2  is the only way to avert a shutdown. That bill passed the House last May with all Democrats and two Republicans opposed.

Even Sunday, just hours before the deal was announced, Republican leaders were linking the two issues. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)  No. 4 in the House org chart  said Sunday morning on NBC that "we dont support shutting down the government, but we must secure the border."

President Joe Biden departs the White House on Friday before a campaign event. (Andrew Thomas/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

House Republicans are also skeptical of President Bidens request over additional foreign aid to Ukraine, promising to only consider it only if their preferred immigration measures are signed into law.

In his own statement on the deal, President Joe Biden hailed the agreement as moving Washington "one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown" but also notably linking it with the Ukraine and immigration debates. He adding that "Congressional Republicans must do their job ... and fulfill their basic responsibility to fund critical domestic and national security priorities, including my supplemental request."

President Biden recently asked Congress for nearly $106 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine and Israel  as well as funding for combatting China and money for the border. Republicans have blocked that request so far, saying policy change, and not just money, is what is needed for the border.

Possible opposition from the left

The deal was hailed by Democratic leaders but could also engender some opposition on the left, specifically around a provision in the deal that would accelerate $10 billion in IRS funding cuts. It would move those cuts  agreed to in the debt-ceiling deal last year  from FY2025 to FY2024.

It was a key goal for Republicans but one opposed by Democrats.

Adam Ruben of Economic Security Project Action announced his opposition to the provision in a statement, saying "theres every reason for Democrats to expect that if they agree to Republicans blackmail over the IRS now that Republicans will demand further leniency for billionaires next year."

The agreement also rescinds $6.1 billion in COVID-relief funds, which Johnson and other Republicans have been pushing for.

The Senate is scheduled to return to Washington today with the House of Representatives gaveling back Tuesday for a final sprint toward a deal in these complex and overlapping talks.

Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

Click here for politics news related to business and money

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
(Bloomberg) -- Twilio Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Lawson is stepping down from leading the software company he co-founded amid slowing sales growth and pressure from activist investors.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Lawson will be replaced by Khozema Shipchandler, who most recently led the communication business unit, Twilio said in a statement Monday. Lawson will also step down from the board and Jeff Epstein, a former Oracle Corp. executive, will become board chair. Twilio shares jumped 7% in New York at 10:35 a.m.

The company, known for its businesses-to-consumer communication services, has struggled to maintain its once-high revenue growth and investor excitement. It has announced three separate rounds of layoffs since fall 2022.

Lawsons departure was a step in the right direction, said Sagar Gupta, a portfolio manager of Anson Funds, which has taken a stake in Twilio and had discussed the CEO role with the companys board.

That said, we believe that more actions are needed to maximize value for shareholders, he said. We look forward to continuing to engage with Twilios board and management team going forward.

Anson Funds has pushed for a sale of Twilio in its entirety or a divestment of the data and applications business unit.

The Information earlier reported Anson Funds involvement and that Legion Partners had also built up a stake in Twilio.

Shareholders have tired of the growth-at-all-costs approach which has been dominant in the software industry in recent years. And Lawson is associated with that course, said RBC Capital Markets Analyst Rishi Jaluria. Lawsons founder shares in the company, which conferred special voting rights, expired last year. That made him vulnerable to the possibility of investors voting against him remaining on the board at the annual meeting this year.

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For more: Software Companies Finally Had to Care About Profit in 2023

Lawson co-founded the company in 2008 after stints at Amazon Web Services and Stubhub Inc. The time has come for me to pass the reins of this extraordinary company to a new CEO to lead Twilio through its next chapter, he said in the statement. Lawson is known as a major donor to Democratic candidates and supporter of nonprofits.

Shipchandler, the new CEO, previously served as the companys chief financial officer. He successfully pivoted Twilios communication business unit  by far its largest  into profitable growth over the past year, Epstein said in the statement. This appointment ensures that Twilio is best positioned to deliver increased value to all stakeholders going forward, he added.

Still, RBCs Jaluria said that investors unhappy with Lawson may be lukewarm on his successor. Khozemas been the loyal right-hand man to Jeff Lawson this whole time, so I dont know if were going to get anything significantly different.

Lawsons leaving could open the door to Twilio splitting its communications and software businesses, Piper Sandler analyst James Fish wrote in a note. Twilios software unit includes the Segment Customer Data Platform, which is one of the companys major growth bets. Fish questioned why a wider CEO search wasnt conducted.

(Updates with context from fifth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2024 Bloomberg L.P.
Upbit, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, has secured a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The license, which was officially granted to Upbit Singapore, allows the exchange to offer regulated digital payment token services in the Lion City, under the city-states Payment Services Act.



Before this full licensing, Upbit received an in-principle approval from Singapores central bank last October, which permitted its continued operation while the full licensing process was underway. Upbit and 15 other crypto entities, including USDC stablecoin issuer Circle and the largest U.S.-based exchange Coinbase, have now obtained the MPI license for digital payment token services in Singapore.

Singapore has been promoting itself as a global crypto hub, prioritizing technological advancements such as tokenized assets and programmable money over speculating in cryptocurrencies. Its regulatory clarity has been attracting some of the largest exchanges into the country, Hassan Ahmed, Coinbases Singapore country director, told Forkast in an earlier interview.

Regulatory scrutiny against cryptocurrencies has intensified globally since major events such as the Terra-Luna crash and the FTX fiasco. However, the ability of exchanges like Upbit to secure full licensing in jurisdictions with advanced regulatory frameworks is a positive step forward for the industry.
By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by Elon Musk's X Corp to consider whether the social media company, formerly called Twitter, can publicly disclose how often federal law enforcement seeks information about users for national security investigations.

The justices declined to hear X's appeal of a lower court's ruling holding that the FBI's restrictions on what the company could say publicly about the investigations did not violate its free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

X had said it was "critical" for the justices to take up the case to establish clear standards for when and how tech companies can speak about government demands for confidential information about their users for surveillance.

"History demonstrates that the surveillance of electronic communications is both a fertile ground for government abuse and a lightning-rod political topic of intense concern to the public," X's lawyers wrote in its petition to the Supreme Court.

Musk in a post on X called it "disappointing that the Supreme Court declined to hear this matter."

The long-running lawsuit was filed in 2014, long before Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked information in 2013 about the extent of U.S. spying and surveillance efforts.

In response to the public outcry over the revelations from Snowden's leaks, the U.S. government at the request of tech companies - including Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook-owner Meta Platforms - agreed to relax restrictions on what they could reveal about data that the government had sought in connection with national security probes.

The revised policy, announced in 2014, allowed companies to disclose in broad ranges rather than in exact figures how often they received of national security-related demands for information.

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Congress in 2015 enacted a law allowing companies to disclose limited information about how often they received so-called national security letters and orders under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act seeking user data. But they could still do so only in broad ranges rather than exact figures. Depending on the type of report they published, companies could disclose government demands for data in increments of as little as 100 or as much as 1,000.

Twitter, as X was then known, in its lawsuit said it wanted to go further and disclose the exact number of times in a prior six-month period that the government served it with national-security orders seeking information.

It had submitted a draft report for the FBI before suing that would do just that, but the FBI concluded the information in the report was classified and could not be publicly released.

A trial judge rejected Twitter's lawsuit, and a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in March 2023, saying the "government's restriction on Twitter's speech is narrowly tailored in support of a compelling government interest."

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham, Alexia Garamfalvi and Jonathan Oatis)
Abbas Ganbay

The new year began with a note of protest and an announcement from Washington that Azerbaijan is on a special list of countries and under special surveillance, fearing religion. Having failed to justify their actions, the US authorities, apparently under pressure from the Armenian lobby, decided to resume their anti-Azerbaijani rhetoric. Azerbaijan is known worldwide for its commitment to tolerance. The culture of its Turkic ancestors, as well as its faith, was founded with deep love and spiritual equality with other religions.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, by adding Azerbaijan to the "black list" of countries in the freedom of religion, added gravity and problems on the way to signing a peace treaty with Armenia. This action by Blinken is a gesture of lies and propaganda to reduce the pressure of the Armenian lobby on him, as well as on most of the congress and candidates for the US presidency. Having gradually lost the support of the American people in the presidential race, the administration of President Joe Biden is trying to gain the support of the Armenian lobby in 6 states. In turn, the Armenian lobby is not satisfied with the fact that the Biden administration has not given "due" support to Armenians on the issue of the return of "Artsakh" and its residents.

One of the authors of the report presented by the head of the US Department of State is Daniela Ashbakhyan, a representative of the very nation whose "religious values" and "feelings" are allegedly "belittled" and "insulted" by Azerbaijan.

Every year on November 16 Azerbaijan celebrates the International Day of Tolerance, established in 1995 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of UNESCO.

Today, not only churches and synagogues but also numerous Christian and Jewish religious educational institutions operate freely in Azerbaijan without any obstacles. The Azerbaijani State provides them with the necessary support within the framework of the law. Azerbaijani people have always, not only in the East but all over the world, been and still are characterised by a specific tolerant attitude towards different religions and religious-philosophical trends.

Armenian lobby receives support from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a consequence of the unjustified inclusion of Azerbaijan in the "black list" of countries in the freedom of religion. Earlier, such cases, based on Azerbaijan's experience, were handled by Armenian lobbies around the world, in condemning and accusing Azerbaijan, of encroaching on other people's property and appropriating it for themselves. Publishing the annual list, the Secretary of State retained all 12 countries blacklisted last year, including China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Aware of the kinship of the "Hai's" with India, Blinken declined to include India on the blacklist.

The only change, Azerbaijan was added, and the reaction of the Armenian nationalists who want to take "revenge" is not surprising, they demand to lead the "sanctions".

As a "Christian" country, America defends separatists who destroyed churches, mosques, and synagogues during the First Garabagh War and the following decade. State Secretary Blinken turns a blind eye to the desecration of Synagogues in Yerevan as well as other weighty and provable cases.

It is also worth recalling that the Armenian Church and Armenians continue to exist in Azerbaijan.

Certain separatist groups use religious elements of faith to justify their activities, often terrorists.

In that context, it is very important to establish a dialogue between cultures and religions to preserve the cultural diversity of human civilization, and the experience of countries and regions with strong traditions of tolerance and religious tolerance is instructive in that regard. In this respect, Azerbaijan is a unique example of the peaceful coexistence of many ethnic groups and religious beliefs.

The roots of this tradition go deep into history: the land of Azerbaijan was inhabited by Jewish settlers who fled the plundered kingdom of Judah after the capture of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (586 B.C.). According to historical sources, there were up to 40000 captives in Babylon at that time.

In the middle of the first century AD, the first followers of Christianity fled to Azerbaijan, laying the foundation for the subsequent establishment of the independent Albanian Church. The emergence of Islam further strengthened the tradition of religious tolerance in the ancient lands of Azerbaijan. Islamic tolerance was based on the Holy Quran's verses that "there is no compulsion in religion / la-ikraha fid-din -Holy Quran: 2/256".

According to numerous testimonies of historians, in the seventh and eighth centuries, Muslims treated followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism with respect and tolerance. The West's double standards towards Azerbaijan are not new, and such actions have always come from personal gains in achieving world order.

Surprisingly, Secretary of State Blicken did not pay attention to the recent Nazi procession in Yerevan, as well as the cold-blooded attitude to the mass burning of the Holy Quran in the countries of the "crusaders". We know that the minions of "order out of chaos" wanted to lead the world to religious war and a new crusade, provoking the Islamic world by burning the holy book of Muslims. The US authorities are well aware of the state of religion in Azerbaijan, and of its relations with Armenia, and despite this continue to act on the weight of a bag of gold.

"Jew-hatred has no bounds: the few Jews left in the Armenian capital continue to be persecuted, culminating, after several deliberate arson attacks on the country's only synagogue, in a neo-Nazi march in the city center, unimpeded by authorities or police," writes The Jerusalem Post journalist Mark Fish.

On the first of January, a serious incident took place in the Armenian capital, which has a small Jewish population, where a group of neo-Nazis paraded through the streets of Yerevan carrying flags with stylised swastikas and chanting derogatory slogans against "enemies".

The movement in question is the Husnak movement, a nationalist movement whose website praises Hitler and contains anti-Semitic cartoons, as well as articles calling for the deportation of Jews and for "exposing their activities towards children." More than a month has passed since news spread around the world of the second arson attack on Armenia's only synagogue in a matter of weeks by local anti-Semitic organisations

According to reports published on social media, the same young neo-Nazis organised a march to the memorial of Garegin Nzhdeh, who was a Nazi collaborator (and whose birthday falls on January 1). A bouquet of flowers was laid at the memorial.

The Jewish community is outraged that the Armenian authorities have not taken any action against the "shameful acts and against the extremist group that has raised its head." Furthermore, the Jewish community representatives added that the police did not stop the march or summon any of the participants for questioning, and in all likelihood, given what has been happening in the country recently, they should be quite satisfied with these actions.

Moreover, no one has been arrested for attempting to set fire to the only synagogue in the country. According to media reports, a group calling itself the "Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia" has threatened attacks against rabbis and Israelis around the world and praised Hamas and Hezbollah since the 7 October massacre.

Let's fix the Secretary of State's two-facedness, duplicity, and disguise by the fact that despite these aggressive actions against Jews and other nations, the Secretary of State still added Azerbaijan to the "watch list" and not Armenia.

Let us also remind about Vladimir Poghosyan, a former advisor to the Armenian Armed Forces, who made anti-Semitic statements and said that he helped Hamas and Hezbollah to kill Jews.

"I will shout to the whole world about the just killing of Jews." In addition, he claimed that Jews have no right to exist because, in his words, "you are jackals who should be completely exterminated." He also made some serious statements, including that Israel was lucky not to be helping Hamas and Hezbollah: "I would have killed 100,000 Jews."

There are streets named after Garegin Nzhdeh, a Hitlerite general sentenced to execution by the Soviet court, in Agarak, Aparan, Artik, Ashtarak, Burastan, Byuravan, Dvin, Goris, Mrgavan, Mrgavet, Nshavan, Sisian, Stepanavan, Vanadzor, Verin, Artashat and Yeghvard. In Armenia, an entire village is named in Nzhdeh's honor.

The state has done nothing to stop it.

The new year may go down the path of war, and it is also possible to prevent all this and achieve peace, but as long as there are double standards and corrupts bending the law, the road to achieving peace in the South Caucasus and the world at large will not be easy.








Assessing the Sustainability of Verizon's Upcoming Dividend

Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) recently announced a dividend of $0.67 per share, payable on 2024-02-01, with the ex-dividend date set for 2024-01-09. As investors look forward to this upcoming payment, the spotlight also shines on the company's dividend history, yield, and growth rates. Using the data from GuruFocus, let's look into Verizon Communications Inc's dividend performance and assess its sustainability.

What Does Verizon Communications Inc Do?

Warning! GuruFocus has detected 7 Warning Sign with VZ.

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Verizon Communications is primarily a wireless business (it provides about 70% of service revenue and nearly all operating income). It serves about 92 million postpaid and 22 million prepaid phone customers (following the acquisition of Tracfone) via its nationwide network, making it the largest U.S. wireless carrier. Fixed-line telecom operations include local networks in the Northeast, which reach about 25 million homes and businesses and serve about 8 million broadband customers. Verizon also provides telecom services nationwide to enterprise customers, often using a mixture of its own and other carriers' networks.

Verizon Communications Inc's Dividend Analysis

A Glimpse at Verizon Communications Inc's Dividend History

Verizon Communications Inc has maintained a consistent dividend payment record since 1985. Dividends are currently distributed on a quarterly basis.

Verizon Communications Inc has increased its dividend each year since 2000. The stock is thus listed as a dividend achiever, an honor that is given to companies that have increased their dividend each year for at least the past 24 years. Below is a chart showing annual Dividends Per Share for tracking historical trends.

Breaking Down Verizon Communications Inc's Dividend Yield and Growth

As of today, Verizon Communications Inc currently has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 6.52% and a 12-month forward dividend yield of 6.62%. This suggests an expectation of increased dividend payments over the next 12 months.

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Over the past three years, Verizon Communications Inc's annual dividend growth rate was 2.00%. Extended to a five-year horizon, this rate increased to 2.10% per year. And over the past decade, Verizon Communications Inc's annual dividends per share growth rate stands at 2.40%.

Based on Verizon Communications Inc's dividend yield and five-year growth rate, the 5-year yield on cost of Verizon Communications Inc stock as of today is approximately 7.23%.

Verizon Communications Inc's Dividend Analysis

The Sustainability Question: Payout Ratio and Profitability

To assess the sustainability of the dividend, one needs to evaluate the company's payout ratio. The dividend payout ratio provides insights into the portion of earnings the company distributes as dividends. A lower ratio suggests that the company retains a significant part of its earnings, thereby ensuring the availability of funds for future growth and unexpected downturns. As of 2023-09-30, Verizon Communications Inc's dividend payout ratio is 0.53.

Verizon Communications Inc's profitability rank, offers an understanding of the company's earnings prowess relative to its peers. GuruFocus ranks Verizon Communications Inc's profitability 7 out of 10 as of 2023-09-30, suggesting good profitability prospects. The company has reported positive net income for each year over the past decade, further solidifying its high profitability.

Growth Metrics: The Future Outlook

To ensure the sustainability of dividends, a company must have robust growth metrics. Verizon Communications Inc's growth rank of 7 out of 10 suggests that the company's growth trajectory is good relative to its competitors.

Revenue is the lifeblood of any company, and Verizon Communications Inc's revenue per share, combined with the 3-year revenue growth rate, indicates a strong revenue model. Verizon Communications Inc's revenue has increased by approximately 0.70% per year on average, a rate that underperforms approximately 63.27% of global competitors.

The company's 3-year EPS growth rate showcases its capability to grow its earnings, a critical component for sustaining dividends in the long run. During the past three years, Verizon Communications Inc's earnings increased by approximately -1.20% per year on average, a rate that underperforms approximately 60.84% of global competitors.

Lastly, the company's 5-year EBITDA growth rate of -4.50%, which underperforms approximately 74.76% of global competitors.

Next Steps

Given Verizon Communications Inc's robust dividend history and its current yield, the company presents an attractive prospect for income-focused investors. However, the sustainability of Verizon's dividends will depend on its ability to maintain profitability and manage its payout ratio effectively. While the growth metrics suggest some challenges, the company's position as a leading wireless carrier and its consistent performance may provide a cushion against market volatility. Investors should weigh these factors alongside their investment strategy and risk appetite. For those seeking to explore further, GuruFocus Premium users can screen for high-dividend yield stocks using the High Dividend Yield Screener.

This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


VCS's outstanding security services portfolio offers comprehensive solutions tailored to meet Vietnam's challenging cybersecurity industry needs.

SAN ANTONIO, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan researched the cybersecurity services industry and, based on its findings, recognizes Viettel Cyber Security with the 2023 Vietnam Company of the Year Award. The company stands out as a trailblazer in the cybersecurity domain. It is committed to innovation and continuous research, consistently raising the bar in the cybersecurity industry. The company provides clients with expert consultation and helps them make informed security strategy, risk management, and compliance decisions while staying in line with best practices and regulations. VCS is mainly known for its managed security services (MSS) and for providing an all-inclusive package that comprises managed detection and response, 24/7 monitoring, cutting-edge security analytics, real-time threat intelligence (TI), and swift incident response.

2023 Vietnam Cybersecurity Services Company of the Year Award

VCS's commitment to tailoring services to the unique requirements of various customer segments has played a pivotal role in its success, as has its emphasis on designing user-friendly experiences. The company sets itself apart from competitors through cost-cutting and offering innovative and high-quality cybersecurity solutions that align with the market's unique demands, thereby stimulating demand in a relatively untapped territory. VCS is dedicated to providing an outstanding customer experience, adopting a data-driven and customer-centric approach, and maintaining excellence over time.

Anh Tien Vu, cybersecurity practice industry principal at Frost & Sullivan, observed, "Viettel Cyber Security's impressive achievements include the identification of over 400 zero-day vulnerabilities, marking a significant milestone in Vietnam's cybersecurity landscape. This remarkable track record has earned VCS numerous prestigious accolades and recognition from industry leaders such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft."

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VCS's customer-centric approach has yielded remarkable results, bolstering customer loyalty, enhancing overall satisfaction, and positively influencing the company's customer base, thus driving growth and performance. It recognizes that its skilled workforce of over 200 security experts in Vietnam is the cornerstone of its strong industry position, and each team member is trained to maintain the highest level of service excellence. VCS has firmly established itself as the leading cybersecurity vendor in the Vietnamese market, boasting comprehensive offerings, cutting-edge technology, and a substantial 20% market share. This leadership position is a testament to the company's unwavering dedication to delivering high-quality security solutions tailored to diverse client needs.

"VCS is a paragon of success in Vietnam's cybersecurity landscape. With a commitment to innovation, VCS's robust research and development efforts consistently introduce new products and enhancements that align with customer needs, placing the company at the forefront of evolving security trends," added Norazah Bachok, best practices research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents a Company of the Year Award to the organization that demonstrates excellence in terms of growth strategy and implementation in its field. The award recognizes a high degree of innovation with products and technologies, and the resulting leadership in terms of customer value and market penetration.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in various regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analyses, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Frost & Sullivan

For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
Vogue House was built in 1958 and has been occupied by Conde Nast for the past six decades

Vogues London offices have been sold to a shipping billionaire in a 75m deal.

Publisher Conde Nast has sold Vogue House in Londons Mayfair to Eyal Ofer, a Monaco-based businessman worth an estimated $23bn.

The seven storey building on Hanover Square, which was built in 1958, had been marketed for 70m but Mr Ofer is understood to have paid 75m for the property. His company, Global Holdings Management Group (GHMG), confirmed the sale on Monday.

The deal comes as Vogue and other Conde Nast magazines based at Vogue House, including Tatler and GQ, move out of the building.

Staff were told last January that Conde Naste would leave the office block after more than six decades.

Vogue House pictured in 1963 - Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Vogue House has hosted some of the biggest names in fashion, music and royalty over the decades, with notable associations to Anna Wintour, supermodels such as Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, and Princess Diana.

Conde Nast said it had made many attempts to find a way to expand and redesign the space to meet our needs, [but] there were just too many challenges to be able to do so.

The building will be renamed 1 Hanover Square once the sale is completed.

Mr Ofer, 73, inherited his fortune from his father Sammy Ofer, an Israeli shipping tycoon who was at one time the countrys richest man.

He joined his fathers business in the early 1970s and played a leading role in growing the company by investing in property, hotels and banking.

Israeli businessmen Eyal Ofer (R), his brother Idan Ofer (L) and their father Sammy Ofer - Ofer Vaknin/AFP

The businessman has a longstanding association with Britain. In 2012 he helped to fund the building of the Gloriana, the first Royal barge to be built for over 250 years, to celebrate Queen Elizabeth IIs diamond jubilee. In 2013, he donated 10m to Tate Modern.

Vogue House adds to Mr Ofers extensive property portfolio, which includes several buildings on New Yorks Park Avenue. Last year he bought the luxury hotel Mondrian Park Avenue hotel and Anagram Columbus Circle, a residential tower between New Yorks so-called Billionaires Row and Central Park.

Conde Nast has sold the leasehold of Vogue House to Mr Ofer. The freehold is owned by The Church of Englands property arm.

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The biggest construction project happening in Johnston right now is the Amazon Distribution Center, at 2120 Hartford Ave., that's been in the works since 2021.

But, right across the street from the distribution center, another major construction project is happening, which recently piqued the interest of a What and Why RI reader.

"Across the road from the Amazon Distribution Center in Johnston is a structure being constructed. It appears to be part of the Amazon project, but not sure," they wrote. "What is it and what will it be used for?"

As it turns out, it's not part of Amazon's footprint. It's a rehabilitation hospital.

Encompass Health building a rehabilitation hospital

Encompass Health, a publicly traded company based in Alabama, is building a rehabilitation hospital at 2109 Hartford Ave., with plans to open this summer.

"A question that I get a lot from constituents is, 'Are there going to be ambulances racing in and out of there,''' Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. said. "No, it's not that type of hospital."

The facility will have 50 inpatient beds and treat patients with conditions such as strokes, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and amputations. They will also offer physical, occupational and speech therapies.

Encompass Health is building a rehabilitation hospital on Hartford Avenue in Johnston.

Polisena said Encompass has invested about $40 million in the construction, which includes a therapy gym, cafeteria and pharmacy. They've paid the town roughly $140,000 in permit fees to date.

The Johnston location is part of aggressive growth by Encompass Health, which is the nation's largest owner of rehabilitation hospitals. It's one of 20 locations they plan to open across the country within the next two years, according to their website.

We are excited to expand our rehabilitation services in the Northeast through this project, which will serve as Encompass Healths first hospital in the state of Rhode Island, said Pat Tuer, president of Encompass Healths Northeast region, in a press release. We look forward to improving access to high-quality, individualized rehabilitative care and allowing more residents to receive specialized care close to home.

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More Johnston: This fried-chicken restaurant has aggressive expansion plans  including a site in RI

The path to this point hasn't been without controversy.

In a 3-2 decision, the Health Services Council voted in March 2020 to move the proposal forward, despite a state consultant finding that Rhode Island has enough rehab beds to last another 10 years, The Public's Radio reported. This raised concerns about whether the facility would destabilize existing hospitals and nursing homes.

Then-State Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott approved the project, but it was later overturned by a state hearing officer. Encompass appealed the decision in Superior Court, where the project was again given the green light.

They have not started hiring yet, and Polisena said he hasn't heard an estimated number of employees. The website says people interested in working there can reach out to a recruiter.

So what about the Amazon Distribution Center? When is that opening?

Since the original question asker brought up the distribution center, we checked in on the status of that project as well.

What and Why RI: Dynamite sandwiches are local to Woonsocket. How did they get their name?

Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly said their goal is to get the center "up and running" this year and that they will be hiring more than 1,000 people.

According to Polisena, the building construction is done, and they are working on installing their robotic racking system. He anticipates a summer or fall opening.

What and Why RI is a weekly feature by The Providence Journal to explore our readers' curiosity. If you have a question about Rhode Island, big or small, email it to klandeck@gannett.com. She loves a good question.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: When is RI Amazon Distribution Center in Johnston opening?
YORK  When Kylianna Roy arrived at Nebraska's only womens prison in September 2021, she heard some advice from the other women incarcerated at the facility: dont drink the water and dont wash your hair every day.

If she drank it, they warned her, she would get sick. And if she washed her hair every day, they said, it would fall out.

For nearly a decade, the people incarcerated at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women have been raising concerns about the appearance, taste, odor and potential health effects of the facilitys water. But prison administrators have failed to respond adequately to their complaints, according to accounts from more than a dozen current and former inmates, as well as public records that span nine years.

Even as the Department of Correctional Services has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on infrastructure upgrades and chemicals to address the facilitys water quality issues, those housed at the York facility continue to complain of water that is often murky, plagued by a pungent smell and littered with sediment.

They have dealt with hair loss, nausea and gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea, which they attribute to the water that, they say, has also dried out their skin and sometimes caused it to break out in rashes.

In November, Valeisha Walker, who has been incarcerated at the prison since January, filed a handwritten federal lawsuit seeking an injunction over the prisons water and its possible health consequences.

Pointing to the installation of filters and a facility-wide chemical injection system, among other efforts to address the water quality issues in recent years, a corrections department spokesperson said in December there are "no unresolved issues at this time, relative to water operations and quality at the facility."

But that claim is disputed by accounts of the current and former incarcerated individuals who spoke to the Lincoln Journal Star and York News-Times, many of whom risked or faced punishment to talk with reporters through unsanctioned phone calls about the physical and mental effects of the facility's water.

It was degrading, said Roy, who spent more than two years in the facility before her release in October. It was degrading to already know that youre at your lowest and you cant even have good drinking water.

Destiny Miller, who arrived at the York prison in September 2021, like Roy, said that upon arrival she encountered stomach issues, thinning hair and an itch that I cant scratch.

Miller has tried changing her soap, detergent and shampoo to no avail; she has received no diagnosis or explanation for her chronic stomach problems. But prison administrators have told her over and over again, she said, that there is nothing wrong with the water.

It just feels like theres something really wrong here, she said in a phone interview.

The issue, too, has been a source of strife for the families of women incarcerated in York who have, at times, had to act as advocates for their loved ones, pressing prison administrators for fleeting answers on the state of the facilitys water and sounding the alarm to advocacy organizations and news outlets.

My daughter is my life, said Brenda Flores, whose daughter, Priscilla Camacho, is among the approximately 304 inmates housed at the 275-bed prison. I told the warden and I told the nurses, I said, Thats my daughter. If it was your kid, you would do the same exact thing.

These women are human beings, she added. Theyre humans. Theyre not animals.

The prisons warden, Angela Folts-Oberle, declined an interview request. Tom Fritz, the prisons maintenance manager, had previously referred questions to Folts-Oberle.

In an emailed statement, Dayne Urbanovsky, the corrections departments director of strategic communications, maintained that there are no ongoing issues with the water at the York facility, pointing to the prisons on-site licensed water operator and monthly water samples, which are submitted to the Public Health Environmental Laboratory.

We also work with the York City Water Department to ensure that water testing continues and that staff are trained appropriately, Urbanovsky said. There is regular communication with (Nebraskas Department of Environment and Energy) to make sure concerns are addressed in an appropriate and timely manner.

Just trying to make sense of things

One of the first documented signs of trouble in the prisons water system occurred in 2014, when a water sample taken from a single building on the York campus offered an early indication of the issue that would afflict the facilitys water system for years to come.

The sample had higher concentrations of copper than federal regulations allowed for, according to public records provided by the Department of Environment and Energy. Ingesting copper at high levels can cause adverse health effects including gastrointestinal distress and liver and kidney damage, state health officials told prison administrators.

After learning about the high levels of copper in the facilitys water, Carla Walker, then an inmate at the prison, wrote in December 2014 to the Department of Health and Human Services, warning that women incarcerated there were losing clumps of hair, developing skin discoloration and breaking out with acne.

Please understand that I am not screaming, 'The sky is falling!'" she wrote. I am just trying to make sense of things.

An uptick in complaints about the facility's water prompted the State Ombudsman's Office, the watchdog created by the Legislature, to begin monitoring the prisons water issue in 2016. Since then the office has received 22 complaints about the prisons water quality.

By 2017, water samples taken from multiple prison buildings contained high concentrations of copper, leading HHS officials to require the Department of Correctional Services to perform a corrosion control study to identify the best way to keep copper out of the prisons drinking water.

The states water quality division  which used to be a subset of HHS but is now a division of the Department of Environment and Energy  called for the corrections department to install a corrosion control treatment system by Oct. 1, 2021.

Meanwhile, the department renovated the prisons 200,000-gallon water tower tank in 2017, adding a mixer to help with water movement in response to complaints about water quality. The department spent $22,000 replacing the mixer two years later.

And the state installed a reverse osmosis filtration system in the prison's nursery, which temporarily houses babies born to incarcerated mothers, and where water samples contained almost twice the allowable limit for copper.

The reverse osmosis systems use multiple filters to remove contaminants, such as copper, from water and are typically installed underneath sinks, providing filtered water through a single faucet, not the entire water system.

The department has since installed five more reverse osmosis filtration systems, including at least one in each of the prisons housing units, but most of the prisons water  including water used for showering, laundry, other hygiene needs and water routed directly to in-cell sinks in some housing units  is not filtered through reverse osmosis systems.

The state in 2018 paid HDR Inc., an Omaha-based engineering firm, $86,566 to study the corrosion in the York prisons water supply in order to determine how best to reduce its copper levels. The firm carried out the study and ultimately recommended that the prison pilot a chemical treatment of the water that included injecting orthophosphate and chlorine into the water supply.

HDR and prison officials moved forward with the chemical treatment over a handful of alternative approaches  even though the chemical injections could only combat the corrosion, while some alternatives may have eliminated it altogether.

One such alternative included lining the prisons copper pipes with an impermeable epoxy barrier, which would have kept the water supply from coming into contact with the copper pipe walls, according to a proposal HDR provided the Department of Correctional Services in 2018.

Another alternative, which an HDR engineer had called the other main option besides chemical treatment, was a total pipe replacement, which had proven in previous projects to be an effective method for reducing copper levels in drinking water supplies.

However, corrections staff told the firm that replacing the facilitys pipes was not a feasible alternative due to the cost of such a replacement and the logistics of replacing the prisons pipes while maintaining prison security, according to the proposal.

The state moved forward with the chemical treatment of the water as engineers warned that the source of the copper was the pipes themselves, according to minutes from a November 2018 meeting between HDR engineers and officials from the states prison and water quality departments.

The copper is coming from the plumbing, not the groundwater, an HDR engineer said in the meeting, in which an HHS official also said the state already has data that says the copper is coming from (the) pipes, according to the minutes.

Still, in the end, all parties agreed to move forward with a pilot project to examine the efficacy of the chemical injections, indicating chemical treatment of the water was the surest feasible path forward.

State officials rejected the proposal to line the pipes with the epoxy barrier after studies performed elsewhere suggested that it could bring changes in water color and a slight plastic taste, according to the minutes.

The DHHS and NDCS dont want changes in color or taste, even if the water is perfectly safe to drink, a state health official said in the 2018 meeting.

Years of delays

Though the department decided in late 2018 to move forward with its plan to inject chemicals into the prisons water on a test basis, contractors didnt start feeding orthophosphate and chlorine into the water at the prisons test site until March 2021, according to emails between HDR engineers and HHS officials.

Before the pilot could begin, pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and two failed bidding processes caused the Department of Correctional Services to requir(e) more time than anticipated, HDR officials said in a letter to HHS.

And the implementation of a facility-wide chemical injection system  which was the ultimate goal of the pilot project  was delayed by at least six months after the early results of the chemical test showed that water samples taken from one test site actually contained higher copper levels than before the water was treated with the chemicals, according to the letter.

In a November 2021 report detailing the results of the pilot study, HDR engineers described challenges in the evaluation of the test results, including inaccuracies with gauges that made it impossible for operators to determine how much of each chemical they were actually injecting into the water.

For the first month of the study, operators hadnt injected any chlorine into the test sites water supply at all after a relief valve was erroneously left open, meaning a month of the partial system test was lost, engineers said in the report.

The engineers also noted the prison staffs unfamiliarity with the chemical injection equipment and water quality sampling procedures as a reason for the studys delay.

HDR engineers nonetheless recommended that the prison move forward with a full-scale implementation of the chemical feed system to treat the facilitys entire water supply, recommending the prison consider hiring a third party that specializes in drinking water systems to operate the one at the York prison  a step that the department did not take as it moved forward with the chemical injections.

Contractors finished constructing the full-scale chemical feed system in May 2022, according to a letter from HDR. The work cost the state $145,234.

After a final inspection and approval from the Department of Environment and Energy  and more than seven years after the 2014 sample had high copper levels  the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women started treating its full water supply with orthophosphate and chlorine in June 2022.

In the years between when the prison began exploring a corrosion control study and when the full-scale chemical treatments were implemented, water samples collected from the facility continued to contain high concentrations of copper. Samples collected in July 2020, December 2020 and June 2021 all had higher concentrations of copper than federal regulations allow for.

As brown as brewed tea

Though copper levels recorded in prison water samples started to decrease in July 2021  before the prison actually implemented the chemical treatment of the water  and decreased substantially after the treatment began, the facilitys water issues remain unsolved, according to public records and inmate accounts.

Christian Henderson, a transgender man incarcerated at the prison who has filed more than a dozen grievances or other written complaints over water quality, access and general sanitation issues in the past three years, began raising concerns with prison officials in November 2021, according to documents he provided.

He filed his initial grievance form around the same time that the state began piloting its routine chemical injections, imploring officials to provide free bottled water for the incarcerated population.

In a written response to Henderson, prison administrators said the water quality is perfectly fine for drinking, and there is nothing wrong with the water.

Henderson filed 17 more grievances and interview request forms between December 2021 and April 2023 over water quality, access to drinking water and timely water testing results, according to the documents.

In April, the facility's then-maintenance supervisor called Eric Cox, a Department of Environment and Energy water system inspector, and asked him to investigate the issue following complaints of discoloration and sediment, according to an inspection summary filed by Cox and posted on his departments public records portal.

Coxs summary noted the same discoloration and attributed it to iron pipes in the facility's water system reacting to the chlorination, noting higher amounts of iron and manganese in (the) water.

The prison had previously issued a health advisory in 2020 over high levels of manganese in the water.

Coxs April report also noted black sediment appearing in the prisons drinking fountain water  which is filtered through the reverse osmosis systems meant to ensure such water is safe for consumption.

Chlorine is affecting the treatment of (the reverse osmosis) device and deteriorating the filters, he said, adding that reverse osmosis filtering could be discontinued and that the facility's chemical feed schedule may need to be adjusted.

Coxs report suggests the reverse osmosis systems and the chemical injection system  the prisons two recent attempts to address the historically high levels of copper  have been working against each other.

The chemical injection system appears to pump inconsistent levels of chlorine and orthophosphate into the prisons water supply, according to monthly chemical reports. The inconsistencies sometimes lead to excess orthophosphate, which the Department of Environment and Energy acknowledged can lead to aesthetic issues like turbidity or color.

It stains our sinks, said Henderson, who is incarcerated in the prisons North Hall, where he said he was constantly cleaning the sink because it is being stained brown by the facilitys water.

In a November phone call from inside the prison, Henderson described the composition of the facilitys water by referring to a bottle he had filled from the sink inside his cell.

Right now, its been sitting on the shelf for a good 24 hours, and the water is perfectly clear, he said, describing sediment that had settled at the bottom of the bottle.

If I shake it, he said, itll be as brown as brewed tea.

An Oct. 4 maintenance report obtained through a public records request noted that one sink in a North Hall cell fills with black/dirty water when the adjacent room uses their sink. The issue, which was the subject of a work order, had not been fixed as of Nov. 29, the latest date for which a maintenance report was available.

Though Henderson said inmates arent made to drink the water from their cells sinks, he said those incarcerated in North Hall  unlike other housing units  are locked in their cells for 12 to 14 hours a day, unable to access water filtered through a reverse osmosis system, leaving some inmates with little choice but to store bottled water in their cells for the hourslong lockdown periods.

I survive off $50 in an entire month, Henderson said. I cannot afford to purchase bottled water.

Since the reverse osmosis systems were implemented, the prison has not provided incarcerated individuals with bottled water for free anywhere in the prison, the inmates said  not even when well maintenance work left the facility reliant on water from a 1930s-era backup well for weeks this fall.

Staff members, meanwhile, are allowed to bring outside water into the prison for their shifts, inmates said.

One woman incarcerated at the prison took inmates' pleas for change to federal court in late November.

In a lawsuit, Valeisha Walker wrote that the facilitys water has been coming out brown and questioned how the prison had been accredited by independent auditors if we are living in these conditions, according to the suit, which names Folts-Oberle, the prisons warden, as the respondent. The case has not yet had a hearing.

"Some of the inmates are getting sick" with a bacterial infection, H. pylori, Walker also wrote, naming one woman who had been hospitalized recently for another illness: inflammatory colitis, or inflammation of the colon.

Eleven women separately said that they had tested positive for H. pylori while incarcerated at the prison. The infection, which can cause anything from no symptoms to gastric cancer, can be caused by contaminated water but is more often spread person to person.

Urbanovsky, the Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman, did not directly respond to questions over how many inmates at the York prison have tested positive for H. pylori this year, saying the infection is not a mandated reportable infection.

Theyre allowing things to break down

Months after Coxs inspection of the prisons water system, a separate inspection of the prisons primary water well in late September revealed critical issues with the wells lining and bowl assembly that prompted emergency repairs in early October, according to emails between prison staff and Department of Environment and Energy employees posted to the departments public records portal.

The $56,052 maintenance on the prisons primary well forced it to rely on a 1930s-era backup wells nonpotable water for bathing, hand-washing, laundry and nearly every use except drinking. Prison occupants had to use the water filtered through the facilitys six reverse osmosis systems for drinking and food preparation.

We would stand in line all night just for water, said Antwanique Crawford, who has been incarcerated in York since January 2022, and who said the water from the system in her housing unit was dripping out at a slow pace, while the prison relied on a backup well that an engineer from the Department of Environment and Energy had recommended be replaced in an email from August.

A Department of Environment and Energy spokesperson pointed to this recent maintenance on the water system, which can dislodge built-up iron and manganese, as a possible explanation for any potential aesthetic issues with the water, but public records and inmate accounts suggest the problem started long before this most recent maintenance.

The prison has spent at least $389,514 on water system maintenance, filter installations and other efforts to address the facilitys water issues since 2018. And the Department of Correctional Services has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on general facility maintenance at the womens prison over the past three years, according to the departments latest operating budget request.

But when the department made its most recent budget request to the Legislature in 2022, officials sought hundreds of thousands of fewer dollars for maintenance than had been spent in previous years.

Urbanovsky, the departments communications director, said it is difficult to estimate the amount of repairs that a facility will require, when budget requests are created.

Now that the work has been completed, the facility should only need to complete regular preventative maintenance to the system.

Still, internal inspections of the prisons facilities  documented in weekly reports  provide a window into the prisons general state of disrepair and suggest that maintenance issues often go unresolved for weeks, if not months or longer.

In the weekly reports, obtained through a records request, prison staff have sought repairs for dozens of issues, including a cooler not cooling in the facilitys kitchen, ongoing sewer problems in North Hall, broken toilets in a housing unit known as The Bay, baseboards falling off the walls in the facilitys canteen and the need for a new ceiling in the laundry room and a new floor in the property unit.

Theyre not fixing the things that we need fixed, said Miller, who lives in The Bay and described the same broken toilets in a November phone call that prison staff noted in reports as far back as January.

Theyre allowing things to break down, she said.

The prison sought a $200,000 renovation of the showers in North Hall in a September 2022 budget request meant to address mold, among other issues. A quarterly inspection in September 2023 suggested that the showers still had not been renovated.

The mounting maintenance needs at the York facility come as the state moves forward with the construction of a $350 million mens prison in Lincoln, even as the inmates in the state's only women's prison say that their concerns over the condition of the facility, its water and the populations health needs are often ignored.

They dont do anything about peoples health until its too late, said Janessa Arias, who tested positive for H. pylori in October and who pointed to the 2021 death of Nicole Wetherell, who died of cervical cancer while incarcerated at the facility after prison health officials failed to provide her a Pap smear for nearly a decade.

It shouldn't take someone losing their life for them to believe something is going on with our bodies if were saying something, Arias said.

The states Inspector General for the Department of Correctional Services faulted the prison system for Wetherells death in an October 2022 report that highlighted gaps in preventative care and an antiquated medical records system that runs afoul of state law.

Six months after Wetherells death at the prison, Amanda Nelson, who was incarcerated in York from September 2020 to September 2022, wrote a letter to the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy  yet another inmate to raise alarm to government officials about stomach issues at the facility.

She sought an explanation of the prisons water testing practices. She warned that she wouldnt forget about the letter nor let the prisons water issues go unaddressed. And she signed the handwritten note with her name, inmate ID number and an explanation for her urgency.

Thank you, she wrote. Myself and other females are sick of always feeling sick.

Photos: Nebraska's new Reception and Treatment Center
While Elijah McClain's mother insisted that justice was not served in the death of her son, the district judge who presided over three trials said he carefully weighed the "unequivocal" evidence against the lone police officer ultimately convicted but also considered mitigating circumstances, notably his lack of criminal history and his service to his country.

Seventeenth Judicial District Judge Mark Warner Friday sentenced former Aurora Police Officer Randy Roedema to 14 months in jail, with work release, on the third-degree assault conviction and four years probation on the more-serious criminally negligent homicide conviction  for which he could have been sentenced up to three years in prison.

The way Warner put it, his hands were tied by the requirements of the law and he handed the penalty he believes best fit the crime.

The judge also hinted of the sadness that will follow those involved in the trials. He began Friday's sentence delivery by remembering McClain, whom he described as "quirky, interesting, peaceful and hardworking man."

"There was a comment made in one of the trials that there's something terribly tragic about watching a movie with a tragic end and watching it again and again knowing what the end is going to be," he said. "I don't think there's anybody who's been involved in this case who could un-see what was on those videos."

"And certainly I expect Ms. McClain could never erase those images from her memory," he added.

Warner, who studied political science at Iowa State University and received his law degree from the University of Denver College of Law, is a veteran judge who previously served as chief deputy district attorney. Then-Gov. Bill Owens appointed him as district court judge in 2005

He ran the three trials, which received an enormous amount of media attention not only from Colorado but nationwide, tightly. Notably, he sought to protect the juries from the onslaught of publicity with the list of jurors  which is a public record  seal. He said he would lift the sealing order later this month. He also indicated he wouldnt hesitate to extend that order or shorten it.

The trials started in September in Warner's Adams County courtroom in Brighton with Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt, who were charged with criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter and second-degree assault.

Roedema was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault in McClain's death, but the jury acquitted Rosenblatt of all charges.

In October, jurors heard opening statements for the trial of Nathan Woodyard, the first officer to stop McClain. He, too, was acquitted of all charges.

In November, the defense and prosecutors made their opening statements in the trial of Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec, who faced charges in Adams County of reckless manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and three counts each of second-degree assault. The were convicted of criminally negligent homicide. Cichuniec was also convicted of one of the two second-degree assault charges against him for injecting the ketamine.

The three Aurora police officers had stopped McClain the night of Aug. 24 in 2019 as he walked home from a convenience store because a 911 caller had reported a suspicious person when he spotted McClain, who waved his arms while listening to music and wore a black mask covering most of his face. He was unarmed and had not been accused of any crime.

McClain, seemingly caught off guard, initially tried to keep walking and told officers he was going home.

The officers tackled McClain and put him in a chokehold until he was temporarily unconscious. Then Cooper and Cichuniec injected him with the powerful sedative ketamine, and McClain never regained consciousness. He died in the hospital three days later.

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On Friday, Rodema blamed that 911 caller for McClains death.

I wish the bystander would not have made that call. We all responded in the way we were trained to do," he said.

During the sentencing, the judge, who had listened hundreds of hours of testimony since Sept. 15 and read pages and pages of motions and discovery, offered insights into his thinking and approach.

For example, while a probation officer recommended that Roedema be sentenced to probation only, Warner said, "It's not the role of a probation officer to make a sentencing recommendation. That's what I'm here to do."

He reminded the defendant's attorneys they have 49 days to appeal his sentence, which they indicated they will do.

Warner also told the attendees that criminally negligent homicide is not considered a violent crime under Colorado law.

"And despite what folks opinions, or my opinion might be, about whether this was violent or not, that doesn't control it," he said. "It's the Colorado General Assembly. As an example, if the court were to impose a three-year sentence, to the Department of Corrections, Mr. Roedema would be eligible for parole in roughly 13.5 months, and he would be eligible for a transitional community corrections sentence even prior to that."

Under criminal negligence, he said, a person went through a "gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise. He fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk."

"The higher charge of recklessly causing the death of another means that somebody is clearly aware of the risks and disregards it," he said. "Here, what the jury found is he failed to perceive, or failed to become aware of, that risk."

Under the statutes, Warner was under several directives he must follow follow when handing down sentences. Notably, he must "punish a convicted offender by assuring the imposition of a sentence he deserves in relation to the seriousness of his offense." The judge must also assure a "fair and consistent treatment of all convicted offenders by eliminating unjustified disparity in sentences"; prevent crime and "promote respect for the law by providing an effective deterrent to others likely to commit similar offenses"; and, promote rehabilitation by "encouraging correctional programs that elicit the voluntary cooperation and participation of convicted offenders."

Warner must also a select a sentence, length and level of supervision that "addresses the offender's individual characteristics and reduces the potential that the offender will engage in criminal conduct after completing his or her sentence."

Finally, he must promote "acceptance of responsibility and accountability by offenders and to provide restoration and healing for victims and the community, while attempting to reduce recidivism and the costs to society by the use of restorative justice practices."

Warner said the court is bound not to put an emphasis on any the these factors to the exclusion of others.

In sentencing Roedema, Warner said the evidence was "fairly unequivocal" that the former officer used "relatively significant force against Mr. McClain when he was handcuffed and really wasn't much of a threat to anybody,"

He also added: "The mitigating circumstances here include the lack of any criminal history, a positive social history and his service to his country and community."

He finished by noting the requirements of the statutes.

"The court is doing this in part, of course, to provide punishment but taking into account the Colorado sentencing statutes in particular for criminally neglected homicide," Warner said. "He'll likely be serving just as much, or more, of a sentence than if I were to sentence him to the Department of Corrections and he will be under the supervision of the probation department for a longer period of time."
Colorado Springs police are seeking information on a weekend shooting that left one person wounded, officials said.

Officers responded to a 7 a.m. phone call about a shooting victim arriving at a local hospital. The victim was not in suitable condition to tell police where the shooting occurred.

Investigators concluded that the victim was shot during a possible robbery in the 1500 block of Newcastle Street west of Union Boulevard.

Police did not release the victim's name or condition.

Anyone with information that might aid this active investigation is asked to call the Colorado Springs Police Department at 719-444-7000. Callers who wish to remain anonymous may contact the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 719-634-STOP (7867) or 1-800-222-8477.
Colorado Springs police are looking for at least two burglary suspects who reportedly fled officers in a stolen vehicle before abandoning the car early Sunday, according to law enforcement officials.

Just before 5 a.m., officers responded to a call about possible vehicle break-ins in the 9100 block of Crowne Springs View in northeast Colorado Springs, police said. When the officers found the suspects, they drove off in a vehicle, hitting a squad car in the process.

Not far from the original scene, police found the vehicle the suspects had been driving, but it had been abandoned. Guns and other items, which police suspect were stolen, were found inside the vehicle, according to CSPD.

Investigators suspect the vehicle, which had been reported stolen, had been involved in additional crimes.

No suspect information was given, and no arrests were announced.
The Chairman of the National Council of the Supreme Assembly of Tajikistan, Rustam Emomali, who is on an official visit to Tehran, met with the head of the Islamic Council of Iran, Muhammad Bakir Ghalibaf, Azernews reports, citing press service of the Parliament of Tajikistan.

The sides noted the importance of increasing trade turnover between the two countries to $ 500 mln.

A wide range of priority areas for the development of cooperation between Tajikistan and Iran, in particular in the fields of industry, energy, transport, and tourism, were discussed at the meeting.
The state of Colorado late last week pushed back against the federal government, disputing the allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice that the state discriminates against disabled people by forcing them to languish in nursing homes rather than receiving available care at home.

On Sept. 29, the Civil Rights Division filed a sweeping lawsuit against the state, alleging that Colorado violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to adequately help eligible disabled people transition out of nursing homes.

Federal lawsuit: Colorado unlawfully detains the disabled in nursing homes

In that lawsuit, the federal government accused Colorado of inefficiency and repeated delays in coordinating the available Medicaid-funded services so disabled people can leave restrictive settings.

But on Friday, the Colorado attorney generals office filed a 31-page rebuttal, not only accusing the U.S. Department of Justice of being overly vague and lacking specific examples, but also disputing the core of the federal governments case.

Colorado has a comprehensive and effective working plan for adequately serving Colorado Medicaid members in the community, the state argued.

The state further said that the federal allegations fail to spell out specific remedies and that, in fact, a large-scale and expensive overhaul of current transition services for disabled people could fundamentally alter Colorados community-based Medicaid program and put other recipients at risk.

Colorado officials also disputed the federal government assertion that nursing home care paid for by the state was on average nearly three times more expensive than community-based care. The state said in its response there are times when nursing home care is less expensive, depending on the needs of the client.

It did acknowledge, however, some services can be provided to some individuals in their homes, and whether this is true is highly dependent on the type of service and the needs and preferences of each individual person.

The back-and-forth legal wrangling is the latest in an ongoing fight that dates back to 2016.

It was then that Disability Law Colorado forwarded multiple complaints to the Department of Justice accusing Colorado of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act., said Meghan Baker, a lawyer and facilities team leader for the Denver-based protection and advocacy group.

A Colorado veteran needed help. He ended up dead after the VA referred him to a nursing home

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court further defined that protection in a ruling that said states were required to accommodate, when possible, the transition of people with intellectual disabilities out of institutional settings and provide community-based care if they wanted it.

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Acting on the Disability Law Colorado complaints that included both intellectual and physical disabilities, the Department of Justice launched an investigation in 2017. More than three years later, in March 2022, the federal government wrote to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis that it had found the state was violating the law.

The letter said unnecessary confinement in restrictive nursing homes, when other community or home-based-options were available, was common in Colorado.

State officials pledged to make corrections and accelerate Colorado's ongoing transition programs. Over the course of the next year, Colorado officials and Justice Department attorneys met numerous times to negotiate a settlement of the federal governments findings, according to a recent legal filing.

But those negotiations stalled and the lawsuit against the state was filed Sept. 29. At this point the federal government is demanding Colorado ensure more disabled individuals can receive services in home-based settings.

'Unexplained or suspicious' deaths pile up among residents of Colorado's growing assisted-living industry

The state has countered that it is already providing those services and also in court filings has suggested that further negotiation with federal authorities could resolve the matter.

The Denver Gazette wrote about the issue on Nov. 22, highlighting the harrowing plight of one woman who tried for months to leave a nursing home and return to her apartment. She said she was told repeatedly she needed to wait a bit longer while state services were being coordinated.

When she finally left the nursing home in July, believing that her home health care was finally in place, it was not, The Gazettes story showed. She claimed that, as a result, she was left alone in her apartment for two days with no food, no assistance, trapped in her wheelchair soaked in urine and feces until her son found her.

In Colorado, federal Medicaid money for disabled people is administered by the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing, paying for the transition services that are supposed to help move people out of nursing homes and return to less restrictive settings.

Previously, that agency said it was disappointed in the federal allegations and that Colorado had a deep commitment to building a system that ensures people with disabilities have the option to live and receive care in the community.

In response to the latest filing, Marc Williams, a spokesperson for HCPF, said in an emailed statement on Monday that the agency will reserve further comment until after the case is resolved.

Baker, the lawyer at Disability Law Colorado, said in a statement her organization was grateful to Department of Justice for filing suit against the state, adding she found it unfortunate that legal action was even necessary because Colorado had not made these issues more of a priority.
Penrose Library at 20 N. Cascade Ave., the Pikes Peak Library Districts oldest location, will close for two months starting Feb. 1 for what officials describe as an overdue facelift.

Built in 1968, the flagship of the 16-branch system has not been refreshed in years, said Chief Librarian and CEO Teona Shainidze-Krebs.

Im very excited; its going to be so much better, she said. It warms my heart.

The project also will allow the venerable facility to make safety and security upgrades throughout this year, said Michael Brantner, the library districts chief safety, community resources and security officer. In recent times, the library has experienced cases of trespassing, vandalism, theft, fighting and intrusion into the facility.

The presence of methamphetamine residue in restrooms discovered at Penrose last February led to library closure and remediation.

The first phase of the remodeling project necessitates being closed to the public, which is expected to last about eight weeks, said Brantner.

Initial work will lower the height of existing bookshelves and rearrange them to give an open and more contemporary look and feel, he said. The changes also will provide more visibility, easier access to reach books and additional room for materials, Brantner said.

The top shelf is empty because its so high, most patrons cant reach it, he said. The same with the lowest shelf  its bare.

That portion of the project is expected to cost $90,000 to $95,000, Shainidze-Krebs said, adding that modifying the shelves will save about three-fourths of the $400,000 expense it would have cost to purchase new units.

Employees who work at Penrose Library will stay on the job, helping with the interior reconfiguration and temporarily being dispatched to other branches, she said.

Other improvements will continue throughout this year but should not require further closures of the building, Brantner said.

Nearby branches, such as the Old Colorado City location at 2418 W. Pikes Peak Ave., and the Cheyenne Mountain library at 1785 S. 8th St., are available for Penrose users during the renovation.

But the temporary shutdown may be more inconvenient for some patrons than others.

Penrose Library is known for being hospitable and welcoming, and shuttering the building during the snowy spring months will create hardships for homeless people who use the library for respite during the daytime, said Corey Almond, vice president of adult services for Catholic Charities of Central Colorado, which runs a soup kitchen in the neighborhood.

Penrose Library is a safe place with attentive and helpful staff where everyone feels comfortable, he said.

When Penrose Library is closed, we find that things as basic as charging cellphones and going to the bathroom become issues for many who may rely on the library for temporary shelter and comfort during the day, Almond said. During closure there is a gap that is not easily filled in the downtown area.

By law, public libraries must serve everyone in a community, employees say, including the indigent. In recent years Penrose Library has added features to help ease the burden for those living on the streets, including installing an outdoor water bottle refilling station and a cell phone bank, and providing containers for temporary storage of backpacks and other belongings.

But improper behavior also has surfaced. In addition to issues within the building, homeless people have camped illegally outside the library after hours.

All library users must follow conduct rules, Brantner said, or are subject to suspension of services.

Theres no right way to use a library, but there are lots of wrong ways, he said.

In the past eight months, the security team has documented 200 incidents, he said, related to people creating unsafe conditions, being disruptive to others, violating internet use, abusing library privileges or property, engaging in criminal activity on site, not complying with staff direction, breaching terms of suspension, disrupting alarms and other problems.

Thats a slight increase over the number of incidents in 2022 and 2021, according to Brantner.

Such issues are not uncommon at urban libraries today, Shainidze-Krebs said.

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Denver Public Library also abides by its library use policy that details how the organization interacts with the different populations that use the facility, said spokesperson Olivia Gallegos.

The role of the Denver Public Library is to ensure a safe and secure environment for customers and library staff, she said in an email. The folks who walk through our doors are a reflection of society. Our team continues to evaluate and make changes to our safety and security protocols as we feel necessary.

Said Shainidze-Krebs: People have their own assumptions about Penrose Library, and were here to make sure this place is safe for everyone.

To that end, upcoming planned renovations at Penrose include:

 Installing boulders to prevent vehicles from hitting the building.

 Creating areas for people to store personal belongings on a short-term basis.

 Remodeling the computer lab.

 Replacing electrical outlets with a charging station.

 Replacing and rearranging tables and chairs.

 Moving staff desks to more prominent locations throughout the building.

 Updating security hardware.

 Installing fencing under stairwells and around the perimeter of the building.

Securing the property will help protect the site from intruders, particularly after hours, Brantner said.

Penrose Library is a main hub for patrons who live and work downtown and use the library not only to check out materials and peruse its special collections and law library but also attend meetings, classes and programs.

Library district officials also are expecting more people to frequent the facility as new housing comes online downtown. About 430 apartment units opened in the citys central core in 2023, according to Carrie Simison, spokesperson for Downtown Partnership of Colorado Springs. Another 1,600 units are expected to open downtown in the next year and a half, she said.

Hopefully, well have the majority (of renovations) done before the giant boom in downtown, Brantner said.

Feedback from staff, library users, elected officials, business leaders and Colorado Springs police led to the decision to refurbish the site, Shainidze-Krebs said.

She said she frequently heard, You need to improve the safety and maybe remodel Penrose Library, upon taking the job of CEO and chief librarian last April.

We are a public entity, and we want to listen to our patrons and community leaders, she said.

When the improvements are completed, Shainidze-Krebs said Penrose wont look old and tired but new and modern, like Library 21c, which opened a decade ago.

I dont want people just saying, Oh, I wish Penrose Library was more like 21c; I want people to come to Penrose and not make the comparison, she said.

On a side note, Shainidze-Krebs said that Sand Creek Library, at 1821 S. Academy Blvd. which has been closed since Dec. 11 due to sewage line repairs being made by Academy Plaza shopping center, will reopen by the end of January, as Penrose prepares for its closure starting Feb. 1.
Promising change, Clear Creek County's new sheriff has rearranged the beleaguered department with fresh leadership and promised transparency, which includes an enhanced social media presence.

Sheriff Matt Harris hopes to usher out the Clear Creek County Sheriff Department's most recent era, which was defined by the case of an officer shooting and killing a young man who was suffering from a mental health crisis.

Christian Glass, who was shot and killed by a Clear Creek Sheriff's deputy, had died in his car surrounded by seven law enforcement officers from various agencies.

In a Facebook post, which emphasized a New year, new approach, Harris  who had his first day on duty Tuesday  swore in two top positions from existing staff after deciding not to reappoint existing undersheriff John Stein.

Harris told The Denver Gazette that when he told Stein of his decision not to extend the undersheriff's contract last month, he promptly resigned from the force.

"We needed to bridge the gap with relationships with staff, community and county officials," said Harris, who was a federal law enforcement officer for 27 years and taught at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Not having a good relationship with county officials and the county management team who holds the purse strings was not acceptable to me."

In one of his first moves on his first day as new sheriff, Harris swore in Matt Brown, a 23-year-veteran of the Clear Creek County Sheriffs, to replace Stein. Seth Marquardt, a 17-year-veteran of the force, is now Captain of Special Services and will be heading up the Community Relations Division, a new arm of the Clear Creek force dedicated to better engage with the community, Harris said.

The department will renew its account on the social media platform X that has been dormant for the last five years.

The Clear Creek County Sheriffs have been under intense scrutiny since former Clear Creek County Sheriff Deputy Andy Buen shot and killed Glass on June 11, 2022.

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Video of the hour-long incident, which was recorded on police body worn camera, showed that Buen shot Glass through the window of his car during an intense nighttime standoff on a mountain road near Silver Plume. Glass, 22, had called 911 for help when his car got stuck on rocks.

In November, former Clear Creek County deputy Kyle Gould received two years of probation for pleading guilty to failing to intervene in excessive force by a peace officer.

Gould, 37, was the supervisor who gave an order to "breach" the window of Christian Glass' car.

Buen faces several charges, including second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and official misconduct. He pleaded not guilty last month, and his next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 5, 2024.

Glass never left his car during the hour-long fatal incident, at times showing heart hands through the driver's side window. The situation escalated out of control.

Harris' impression of the incident after watching Glass' death was that "our deputies werent in danger. We ran out of patience. This is a kid who called us for help because he was having a mental crisis."

Moving forward, Harris believes that his force "should not be defined by one bad critical incident." He acknowledged that there is angst among his deputies over Glass' death. He has plans for policy changes, transparency and community involvement to help rectify the situation, he said.

Part of the fallout from Glass death was the resignation of former Clear Creek County Sheriff Rick Albers, who left the force in May after the announcement of a $19 million settlement involving several agencies. Since then, the department had operated under the direction of Stein. He gave up his county-owned vehicle after his resignation and another officer drove him home.
Abbas Ganbay

The reach of a beloved ritual at the University of South Florida has grown to a new part of the world. For the 152nd time, a nation's flag has been raised in the engineering school to honor a graduating student, Azernews reports, citing TAMPA BAY.

For Vagif Asadov, walking into the lobby of the USF engineering building is not just about learning how to be a software engineer. It's about being a part of history.

"Helping people to know about our country, it's the best feeling ever," he said.

The atrium with the 21-foot ceiling is covered in flags, and it includes the major world players  Japan, Korea, Germany, Britain, and Brazil.

But, there are also ones that don't often get big headlines in this country much like Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Nepal, Uganda, and Kazakhstan.

"The goal here is to demonstrate that the college is a welcoming place," said Bernard Batson, the associate dean of engineering at USF.

But, one country that is not represented is where Asadov hails from. It's a land of rolling hills that straddles Eastern Europe and West Asia.

Azerbaijan has cities with modern architecture but a history that goes back to the Stone Age.

Ten million people live there, who are almost exclusively Muslim and have been governed by a secular autocrat after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

"They have been through a lot throughout history," said Asadov. "We have had our ups and downs in history to get the flag up. We tried so hard to be an independent country, of course, we are right now."

But on a Friday in October, the 152nd flag was added to USF's collection, because Asadov and his fellow countryman, Vagif Mammadov, are both upperclassmen on track to graduate. It was time to put up the Azerbaijani flag, with its white crescent and eight-pointed star.

The blue is for the country's Turic heritage, the red is for progress and the green stands for Islam.

"It is the most proud I have ever felt in my entire life," said Asadov. "I am not going to lie, being able to contribute to the process to hang my flag. It's the best feeling ever."



They are among the 27 Azerbaijani students among the 50,000 students across all majors. The 30-inch by 20-inch flags are organized by region and now cover 78% of the world.

"Both our masters and our PhD students are [overwhelmingly] international," said Batson.

This isn't just about the numbers for USF. Having and attracting students from many backgrounds is about keeping the engineering school relevant in its research and contribution.

"Engineering is really a global enterprise," said Batson. "If we're really going to solve problems, whether it's clean water, engineering better medicines, we need people from diverse backgrounds and for our diverse perspectives."

Asadov chose USF thanks to its national rankings in engineering, because he could afford it, and because he wanted warm weather. He has spent the last few years trying our food, meeting new people and even rooting for the Bulls at Raymond James Stadium.

"We got to play all types of sports, the gyms are not as famous back where we come from," he said

But, that's not the reason he plans to move back home after he graduates next year. He believes his new skills as a programmer will be more useful and more marketable in Azerbaijan.

"I'm going to be needed more where I come from, compared to the United States," said Asadov.

But now, a piece of Azerbaijan will be at USF long after he crosses the stage at graduation.
Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters, who is slated to go on trial next year over allegations she tampered with the county's election equipment, has filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the prosecution.
Several highways around southeastern Colorado are closed and near-zero temperatures are expected tonight amid the winter storm Monday.

Sub-zero temperatures are expected to hit multiple counties tonight into Tuesday morning with some areas reaching as low as -11 degrees and wind chills hitting -30 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Pueblo.

Colorado Springs residents can expect lows of 8 degrees, and residents in eastern El Paso County could see temperatures as low as 4 degrees. Woodland Park is expected to drop to lows of 0 degrees tonight.

Several southwestern Colorado cities are expected to fall below 0 degrees including Alamosa (-11), Antonio (-9), San Luis (-2) and Creed (-6).

Here are the closed roads, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation:

I-25 Mile Point 0 to Mile Point 11, Raton Pass

I-70 Mile Point 437 to Mile Point 449, Burlington to Kansas border

US 36 Mile Point 210 to Mile Point 224, Idalia to Kansas border

US 40 EB Mile Point 386 to Mile Point 487, Limon to Kansas border

US 160 Mile Point 345 to Mile Point 497, Trinidad to Kansas border

US 287 Mile Point 0 to Mile Point 75, Oklahoma border to Lamar

US 287 SB Mile Point 133 to Mile Point 75, Kit Carson to Lamar

US 385 Mile Point 187 to Mile Point 95, Burlington to Granada

CO 96 Mile Point 166 to Mile Point 207, Eads to Kansas Border

CO 109 Mile Point 0 to Mile Point 52, US 160 to La Junta

Click here for the latest alerts from CDOT.

Monday morning weather report

Heavy snow and high winds were expected in the northern part of the county, with snow accumulations of 2 to 6 inches. The highest amounts were expected along and south of the Palmer Divide, according to the weather service. Wind gusts were anticipated to be as high as 65 mph.

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The storm warning caused multiple area schools and military bases to announce two-hour delays. A few school districts, including District 49 and Lewis-Palmer District 38, are closed Monday. The Air Force Academy is also closed Monday.

Click here for the latest school closures and delays.

Residents were told to plan on slippery roads and significantly reduced visibility due to widespread blowing snow, the Weather Service said. Colorado Springs Police Department was on accident alert status from 6:15 a.m. to 10 a.m. due to the storm.

Colorado Springs was put under a high wind warning beginning at 5 a.m. through 5 p.m. Monday.

The wind warning is in place for southern El Paso, Pueblo, Crowley and Otero counties, according to the Weather Service. Winds of 35 to 45 mph with gusts of 60 to 70 mph are expected in these areas.

"Light snow showers are expected with some minor accumulations of a trace up to an inch or 2, but the bigger story for us will be the strong winds. Sustained winds of 40 mph with gust upwards of 70 are forecasted for the area," KOAA meteorologists said.

The damaging winds could blow down trees as well as power lines, and widespread power outages are a possibility in the counties.

Teller County and the Rampart Range were scheduled to remain under a winter weather advisory until 2 p.m. Monday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 7 inches were forecast, the Weather Service said.

Residents can expect wind gusts as high as 50 mph and slippery road conditions.

Southeastern Colorado, including Kiowa, Bent and Prowers counties, are under a blizzard warning that started at 5 a.m. Monday and is forecast through 5 a.m. Tuesday. Snow accumulations of 2 to 7 inches are expected, the Weather Service said.

Travel in these counties could be very difficult to impossible. Significantly reduced visibility is possible due to blowing snow.

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Colorado Springs weather forecast, according to the NWS:

Monday: There will be a 40% chance of snow, mainly before noon, with areas of blowing snow before 8 a.m. Cloudy skies that will gradually become mostly sunny, with a high near 26 degrees.

Tuesday: Sunny skies, with a high near 38 degrees.

Wednesday: There will be a 20% chance of snow showers after 11 a.m. Mostly sunny skies, with a high around 35 degrees.

Thursday: A 30% chance of snow showers after 11 a.m. Partly sunny skies and a high around 31 degrees.
ADQ, an Abu Dhabi-based investment and holding firm, has appointed Ghannam Butti Al Mazrouei as the new Chairman of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), along with two new Board Directors.

Al Mazrouei has been a member of the Board of Directors at ADX since 2015. In addition to his new role as Chairman, Al Mazrouei is the Secretary General of the Emirati Talent Competitiveness Council where he oversees an AED24 billion ($6.53 billion) programme that serves to increase and enable greater participation of UAE nationals in the private sector. Al Mazrouei also serves on the boards of Abu Dhabi Retirement Pensions & Benefit Fund and AafaQ Islamic Finance.

Joining ADX as a new director of the Board Reem Ali Khamis Beljafleh, Head of Human Capital at ADQ, brings over 15 years of professional experience in shaping human resource practices, elevating employee performance, and talent management to her role. The second new director of the Board, Jawad Shafique, Director  Financial Services at ADQ, oversees the organisations investments in related sectors with over 18 years of experience in investment management, mergers and acquisitions, turnarounds, and corporate restructuring.

The ADX Board of Directors now comprises five members, with Kamal Al Maazmi, Director General of Strategic Financial Affairs at the Department of Finance in Abu Dhabi, and Juma Al Hameli, Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer at Abu Dhabi Global Market, having retained their seats. Each member brings with them a wealth of experience and industry knowledge that will prove invaluable to ADX and will further strengthen the standing of Abu Dhabi as a global capital market.--TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Arabia has secured the first rank across Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region in terms of the amount of venture capital (VC) funding in 2023, according to MAGNiTT, the Mena-based venture data platform.

This historic achievement reflects the development the kingdom is witnessing in various economic and financial sectors in light of the Saudi Vision 2030 and its goals to strengthen the national economy.

The kingdom captured the highest share of total VC funding in the region in 2023, accounting for 52% of the total capital deployed in the region, up from 31% in 2022.

The funding deployed into Saudi Arabian startups grew by 33% in 2023 versus 2022, according to key Saudi investment company SVC.

SVC is a subsidiary of the SME Bank, one of the development banks affiliated with the National Development Fund. It aims to stimulate and sustain financing for startups and SMEs from pre-Seed to pre-IPO through investment in funds and co-investment in startups and SMEs.

This confirms the attractiveness of the Saudi market, enhances its competitive environment, and consolidates the strength of the kingdoms economy as the largest economy in Mena, and its leading position globally as a G20 country, and a member of BRICS group, which represents one of the strongest economic blocs in the world, said a top official.

"The Kingdoms leading position in the VC scene in the region comes as a result of the many governmental initiatives launched to stimulate the VC and startups ecosystem within the Saudi Vision 2030 programs, and the development of the legislative and regulatory environment for the ecosystem, in addition to the emergence of active investors from the private sector as well as innovative entrepreneurs," stated its CEO Dr Nabeel Koshak

"We are proud that SVCs strategy contributed to the development of the VC ecosystem in the Kingdom, as it was ranked fourth in the region in terms of the amount of VC funding in 2018, to be the top country in the region last year," he added.

Dr Koshak pointed out that the funding deployed into Saudi startups grew 21 times in 2023 versus 2018, the year SVC was launched.

"We at SVC are committed to continuing to lead the development of the VC ecosystem in Saudi Arabia through stimulating private investors to provide support in turn for startups and SMEs to be capable of fast and high growth, leading to diversifying the national economy and achieving the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
WATERLOO  A Waterloo couple has been arrested in connection with the sexual abuse of a young girl.

Waterloo police arrested Wesley Dale Widner, 40, and Jay Nicck Widner, 29, on Thursday on charges of second-degree sexual abuse. Bond for Wesley Widner was set at $25,000. Bond for Jay Widner, who is also awaiting trial in another case, was set at $30,000.

Court records allege Wesley Widner let an 8-year-old girl climb on him while he was naked and allowed her to touch him.

Jay Widner later reported the incident to Iowa Department of Human Services staff and allegedly said, "I was OK with it and at the time, I agreed to it because I didn't want to cause a fight, but he's done a number of questionable things, court records state.

Jay Widner is currently awaiting trial for a child endangerment charge in a June 2023 incident where she allegedly struck a 7-year-old girl in the face while she was covered with a blanket and threatened to kill her, according to court records. The girl suffered minor bruising, records state.

15 signs your child is affected by bullying and what you can do about it Changes in eating habits Declining grades or loss of interest in school work Self-destructive behavior Feelings of helplessness or decreased self-esteem Feeling or faking sickness, headaches and stomach aches Unexplained injuries Lost or destroyed clothing, books, or other belongings Difficulty sleeping or frequent nightmares Avoidance of social situations or sudden loss of friends What you can do Signs that your child is bullying: Getting into fights Has friends who bully New money or possessions Detention Blames others Worried about reputation
According to Susan Reverby's Ordered to Care , the most salient fact about the occupation of nursing has been its traditional conceptualization by both the public and medical professionals as women's work, a judgment that has had a dramatic impact both on the nature of the tasks nurses perform and on the status of the profession. Reverby demonstrates how this ideology of nursing grew, not out of a belief in women's rights but from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century understandings of womanly character and duty.



Before 1870, nursing took place either in the home, where women nursed their loved ones as part of their familial obligations, or in hospitals, which were custodial institutions for the poor. Despite the differences in the settings, women in each of these roles were assumed to be "naturals" for the job, so hospital nurses were paid wages whose meagerness suggested money's irrelevance to the true character of nursing.



Even after 1870, when scientific and medical advances hastened the development of nursing as skilled paid labor, the ideology concerning nursing changed very little. True, leaders in nursing education advocated professionalism: being a woman was necessary, but not sufficient, for nursing. They envisioned the establishment of strict training schools, controlled by women, to teach the elements of health care that were no longer attended to by the rapidly specializing physician. They were pleased to be aided in their efforts by hospital administrators and doctors, who understood that the movement to upgrade and standardize nursing education would support their own plans for reforming medicine.



But the goals of the three groups, Reverby argues, were radically divergent. Hospital administrators realized that training schools attached to their own institutions could become sources of cheap and malleable labor. Doctors saw nursing education as a way of improving care in the hospital, but they opposed any move to bolster nurses' control of their own labor or to improve their scientific skills, arguing that nurses should remain submissive and nurturing. As hospital exigencies quickly came to dominate the decision-making process in the training schools, nursing educators lost control over admission standards, the quality of education, and the labor of students on the wards.



 1. The information in the passage suggests that Susan Reverby would be most likely to DISAGREE with which of the following statements about nursing education?



A. Nursing education in the nineteenth century dramatically changed the ideology of nursing.

B. Nursing education did not significantly affect the professional relationship between nurses and doctors.

C. Hospital exigencies limited the autonomy of nurses in relation to doctors.

D. Hospital administrators hoped that standardized nursing education would promote their own goals.

E. Prior to 1870, there was no formal education for nurses because women were assumed to be naturally capable of the work.







 2. Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?



A. The ideology of nursing as a profession has been informed by a commitment to women's rights.

B. Conflicts between leaders in nursing education and hospital administrators prevented the professionalization of nursing.

C. Traditional ideas about women's work hindered the evolution of the ideology of nursing.

D. Doctors did not recognize nurses as professionals because the nursing school curriculum was too general.

E. Scientific and medical advances of the late nineteenth century had little effect on the practice of nursing.





3. According to the passage, the ideology of nursing has determined



A. the settings in which nursing actually occurs

B. twentieth-century notions of female character and duty

C. the status of the nursing profession

D. the goals of doctors and hospital administrators

E. the role of women in different branches of medicine





4. The word "naturals" (see highlighted text) is used primarily in order to



A. suggest Susan Reverby's view of the appropriateness of women for the occupation of nursing

B. point to the irrelevance of women's rights for nurses

C. explain the interest of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women in nursing as a profession

D. differentiate the role of women as nurses in the home from the role of women as nurses in hospitals

E. emphasize the importance for nursing ideology of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century notions of womanly character and duty
globaldesi wrote:



I was really forward for such post. Really a great insight for people like me who are not sure Amazing post bb I was really forward for such post. Really a great insight for people like me who are not sure

Thanks! I appreciate your kind words. It all started with a PM and hearing the same question over and over. I figured it was time to put something more significant together. While more experienced candidates may not fit the mold of the traditional 2-year MBA, I think there are many other options available. Perhaps not as many "traditional" programs but they also may not suit as well. There is always an option of an Online MBA. I know a year ago it sounded like a horrible idea but last year, almost all programs were online... I think i can see more online mba activity spurring on the back burner where they are no longer taboo.I think the only part that remains tricky for a seasoned professional is switching industries. I would personally suggest not using the MBA for it but perhaps leveraging one's network and getting very very specific with your goals. E.g. instead of saying, I really want to get out of pharmaceutical sales job, how about say, I want to do financial analysis for a CPG company, and even better than that, I want to do finance at __________ (and that would be one of the 3 companies in the area that you have researched). That level of specificity does a few things: 1) it shows you are a goal-oriented person who did their research so people would be naturally helpful 2) it gives them hooks to jog their mind and remember that their cousin works at one of these companies. That's faster and cheaper than studying for the GMAT and then taking 2 years ... though of course this is a simplistic example but it does drive a point._________________
Re: While a new surge of critical interest in the ancient Greek poems conv [ #permalink

Main point question. Need to understand the flow of ideas presented by the author.

Q1).Which one of the following best states the main idea of the passage?



Too detailed and opposite of what the author is trying to convey

True but too detailed to be the main point

BINGO - precisely the main point as can be seen in the last paragraph - Parry Jr. efforts have left to a resurgence of studying Homeric texts in a literary and poetic manner vs. historical & facts based

TRAP - first few words are what we are looking for but this is not the main point

BS Option

Detail question - need to locate the two mentioned critics in the first para

Q2). According to the passage, the work of Simone Weil and Erich Auerbach on Homer was primarily concerned with which one of the following?



WRONG - this is not true

BINGO - the author mentions that only non specialists were looking at Homeric poems the right way ( i.e in a poetic way)

Nah! This is not mentioned in first para

Irrelevant to the question

BS Option

Detail question but the location of the answer is tricky = refer to the first line of the passage to find it

Q3). The passage suggests which one of the following about scholarship on Homer that has appeared since 1970?

BINGO - this is the resurgence that is being talked about in the passage

Nope - this is not true

Too strong verbiage - "Has rejected as irrelevant" needs to be discarded

BS Option - this is not at all the case as those two nonspecialists were doing the right thing before the specialists caught on

Never a point of contention , so another BS Option

Another detail question but the options are tricky!

Q4). The author of the passage most probably quotes Alexander Pope (lines 24-26) in order to

TRAP - this is very close to what we are looking for but I guess the "English critics" ,akes this wrong

"Prove" is too strong a verbiage, Mr. Pope does no such thing

BINGO - the crux of why the author quotes Alexander Pope is to show that what was valid in 1715 was valid up until 1970

Rendering what? BS Option likely

Nope, no such agreement between poets and critics is discussed

Detail question - again tricky only because of the options. Found in the final paragraph of the passage

Q5). According to the passage, which one of the following is true of Milman Parrys immediate successors in the field of Homeric studies?

HOLD

Wrong because this is what the latter succesors did but not the immediate ones

BIG TRAP

Opposite, this is exactly what they did not do and what they ought to have done

Opposite - same as above

Bingo - this is explicitly mentioned in paragraph two

BS option

Structure - summary ind of question. An understanding of the main point is essential to answer this

Q6). Which one of the following best describes the organization of the passage?

HOLD

The first line of the passage introduces a situation of resurgence and then the origin of that is discussed. Perfect!

No hypothesis is advocated, this is a merely descriptive passage without a conclusion by the author

Nah - there are no two focus authors in the passage

Is this a current debate? Don't think so. Wrong.

BS Option. Three solutions? Discard

Regards,

Gladi







Do. Or do not. There is no try. - Yoda (The Empire Strikes Back) Signature Read More

Taxing passage. Got four out of six in 6 mins 39 sec.Here are my explanations.(A) The Homeric poems are most fruitfully studied as records of the time and place in which they were written.(B) The Homeric poems are the products of a highly developed and complicated tradition of oral poetry.(C) The Homeric poems are currently enjoying a resurgence of critical interest after an age of scholarship largely devoted to the poems nonpoetic elements.(D) The Homeric poems are currently enjoying a resurgence of scholarly interest after am age during which most studies were authored by nonacademic writers.(E) Before Milman Parry published his pioneering work in the early twentieth century, it was difficult to assign a date or an author to the Homeric poems.(A) considerations of why criticism of Homer had moved to peripheral issues(B) analyses of the poetry itself in terms of its literary qualities(C) studies in the history and nature of oral poetry(D) analyses of the already ancient epic tradition inherited by Homer(E) critiques of the highly technical analyses of academic critics(A) It has dealt extensively with the Homeric poems as literary art.(B) It is more incisive than the work of the Parrys.(C) It has rejected as irrelevant the scholarship produced by specialists between 1935 and 1970.(D) It has ignored the work of Simone Weil and Erich Auerbach.(E) It has attempted to confirm that the Iliad and the Odyssey were written by Homer.(A) indicate that the Homeric poems have generally received poor treatment at the hands of English critics(B) prove that poets as well as critics have emphasized elements peripheral to the poems(C) illustrate that the nonpoetical emphasis also existed in an earlier century(D) emphasize the problems inherent in rendering classical Greek poetry into modern English(E) argue that poets and literary critics have seldom agreed the interpretation of poetry(A) They reconciled Homers poetry with archaeological and historical concerns.(B) They acknowledged the tradition of oral poetry, but focused on the uniqueness of Homers poetry within the tradition.(C) They occupied themselves with the question of what qualities made for great poetry.(D) They emphasized the boundaries of oral poetry.(E) They called for a revival of Homers popularity.(A) A situation is identified and its origins are examines.Why is this correct?(B) A series of hypotheses is reviewed and one is advocated.(C) The works of two influential scholars are summarized.(D) Several issues contributing to a currently debate are summarized.(E) Three possible solutions to a long-standing problem are posed.verdict - GOod passage with some tricks mostly in the options.Regards,Gladi_________________
The teenager accused in connection with a fatal shooting at Woodside Village in May has been found incompetent to stand trial.

Amarion Marquis Hairston, 15, faces a slew of charges including first-degree murder; multiple charges each of malicious wounding and use of a firearm in commission of a felony; shooting in a public place, causing injury; use of a firearm in commission of malicious wounding; and possession of a firearm under the age of 18.

Danville Circuit Judge James Reynolds found Hairston incompetent to stand trial during a hearing Monday morning.

The defense had filed a motion for competency and Hairston was evaluated by a doctor.

Hairston was determined to be incompetent to stand trial due to his age and his failure to understand the charges against him or to fully assist his attorney in representing him.

He will receive restoration services while held at W.W. Moore Jr. Juvenile Detention Home to enable him to understand the charges against him and assist his attorney, restoring him to legal competency, Newman said.

Once that is completed, the court can find him competent and proceed to a trial, he said.

Hairston will be tried as an adult due to the severity of the crimes, Danville Commonwealth Attorney Michael Newman said.

Hairston was 14 at the time of the incident on May 1 when 37-year-old Marcus Hairston was shot to death at Woodside Village. The victim and the suspect were not related, said Newman said.

It was shortly after midnight May 1 when officers responded to Woodside Village Apartments in the 1300 block of Piney Forest Road.

When they arrived, they found Marcus Hairston.

Officers administered CPR upon finding Hairston, but he was pronounced dead at the scene, police said in a news release.

Another person suffered injuries described as non-life threatening at the scene.

Later, authorities were alerted that a third victim arrived at Sovah Health-Danville with a gunshot wound also described as non-life threatening.

A second suspect in the case, Martique Holland, is scheduled to stand trial on March 11.
Following a Thursday evening reorganizational meeting of the Pittsylvania County School Board, the leadership roles remain unchanged.

Calvin Doss was elected chair and Kelly Merricks was tapped as vice chair.

Mark Shields is the newest member on the board following last months retirement of Sam Burton. Burton, who served for 29 1/2 years, was the last remaining member who got his start via appointment, a common practice in the early 1990s before the board switched to an election process.

Shields and three other members who were reelected in November  George Henderson, Kevin Mills and Don Moon  were sworn in Thursday for their four-year terms by Angie Reece Harris, the newly elected clerk of court for Pittsylvania County.

The terms of Doss, Merricks and Willie T. Fitzgerald will end on Dec. 31, 2025.

The school boards first meeting of the year is at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the ECC auditorium of the School Board Administration Building located at 39 Bank St. in Chatham.
For the first time in more than a decade, voters in the Dan River Region will head to the polls for a special election Tuesday.

The last time such an event happened was in 2011, according to Danville Registrar Peggy Petty. That was when residents selected Bill Stanley to fill the state Senate seat left vacant when Robert Hurt was elected to Congress.

Of course, it wasnt at breakneck speeds like this time.

We did three months worth of work in 10 days, Peggy explained to the Register & Bee during an interview at her office Saturday. The office also served as the early voting location for Danville residents.

For candidates  especially factoring in the holidays  it made for an unprecedented quick campaign cycle.

Yes, its unusual to do it this fast, but I think we stepped up and met the challenge, Pittsylvania County Registrar Shani Shorter said Saturday in a phone interview. And we have a fantastic crew.

In Danville and Pittsylvania County, voters will choose between Republican Tammy Brankley Mulchi and Democrat Tina Wyatt Younger to fill the 9th Senate District following state Sen. Frank Ruffs impending retirement.

Many in Pittsylvania County  voters of 20 of 29 precincts  also will select a new delegate after Les Adams, R-Chatham, announced his resignation last month. Republicans tapped Martinsville businessman Eric Phillips at a mass meeting to be their candidate. Democrat Melody Cartwright, of Martinsville, also is running for the seat.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin set Tuesday as the special election date for both races, which is only one day before the General Assembly returns to Richmond for its 2024 legislative session.

Around mid-afternoon Saturday, some 333 people had cast in-person early ballots in Danville. In Pittsylvania County, 534 residents had voted in-person by the deadline Saturday, according to Shorter.

Both registrars expect a low turnout for Tuesdays election.

In Danville, nearly 400 of 1,040 absentee ballots were returned by Saturday, Petty confirmed.

Thats pretty good, she noted. Those ballots are for residents on whats known as a permanent absentee voter list. Basically, anyone can request to automatically receive an absentee ballot for any election.

Pittsylvania County sent out almost 1,400 absentee ballots, Shorter said. She wasnt sure how many were returned since had just started receiving them back in bulk.

We havent counted them yet, she explained.

The rapid race set off a scramble for poll workers, but both Dan River Region locations were able to find enough volunteers to come out Tuesday.

It went a lot better than I thought it would, Petty noted, who even worked on Christmas Day herself to get everything in order for the special election.

Weve had a lot of people with interest, so its been great, Shorter said of the Pittsylvania County side.

Saturday marked the last day to vote early in the special elections. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday in Danville and Pittsylvania County.

Voters should go to their designated polling place with an ID. If someone doesnt have an acceptable ID, they may sign a statement affirming their identity, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.

Also, anyone who isnt registered may do so on Election Day. Those residents will vote via provisional ballot.
GREENSBORO  The end of watch for Sgt. Philip Nix happened on a day when the veteran police officer wasnt even scheduled to work.

An end of watch signals the death of a cop on duty  and for law enforcement thats whenever the officer is called into service.

For Nix, 50, that was on a Saturday just over a week ago. A Sheetz convenience store in Colfax was the place. A store theft was in progress.

And Nix was there, off-duty at the time, using his laptop to catch up on things. That wasnt unusual.

Neither was what happened next: Realizing a crime was unfolding, Nix approached the suspected shoplifters, who were in a car preparing to make their escape.

And he was gunned down.

A second off-duty police officer and a Guilford County paramedic arrived and immediately rendered aid. But it was too late.

It didnt take long for authorities to track down the suspects. The person charged with the slaying  Jamere Justice Foster  was only 18 years old. ZQuriah Blackwell, who is charged with accessory to murder, is also 18. The other person allegedly involved in the tragedy is John Walter Morrison, 28.

It was revealed in court last week that after Nix was shot, Blackwell allegedly told Foster they needed to get away because he had just killed a cop and to ditch the gun. Morrison is believed to have said they are now hot.

According to authorities, the three later sold their 10 cases of stolen beer  valued at $232.90  to get drugs.

Spent bullets and stolen beer. Those two things cost Nix his life.

Senseless a judge has called the tragedy.

Its not every week Greensboro loses a member of law enforcement in the line of duty. The incident has since rippled through a city that, like many municipalities, is struggling to contain a record rise in violent crime.

Many just didnt expect that a beloved police officer would be added to the list of those taken too soon.

****

While most of us might not take a phone call or answer an email when were away from work, for off-duty officers such as Nix that fateful day, it was never an option. When a cop leaves the job, the job never leaves them.

Losing a team member or an officer or deputy is never easy, said Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers, who lost a bailiff after they tested positive for COVID-19 in 2020.

Because vigilance is such a fundamental tenet of the job, Rogers said that officers are never really off duty.

Our goal is to always make sure we serve and protect, Rogers explained. Even though he was not in uniform, he was still serving and protecting this great city and county.

According to the FBI, 118 officers were lost in the line of duty during 2022  primarily from firearms.

Nix joins a list of Triad-area officers killed while serving and protecting that dates back decades. And each time it happens, its a sobering reminder of the dangers inherent with wearing a badge.

Like in 2001. Officer Sheila Twyman, 47, was on routine patrol when her vehicle collided with a tractor-trailer truck. The accident resulted in the first death of a High Point officer since 1928.

In 1992, Officer Porter Robinson tried stopping a car at West Market Street and Edwardia Drive in Greensboro that had been reported stolen to the Burlington Police Department. When the suspects fled, the 24-year-old Robinson went after them. The suspects wrecked their vehicle trying to negotiate a sharp curve. Robinsons cruiser also left the road and crashed directly into a tree. He was later pronounced dead at Moses Cone Hospital.

Then there was 2018. Officer Jared Franks was investigating a possible robbery in progress and attempting to locate the suspect vehicle when his patrol car collided with another police car at the intersection of South Elm-Eugene Street and Webster Road. The Greensboro officer, 24, died as a result of his injuries.

For Nix, he wasnt even working. Not that it wouldve mattered.

Thats really, really tough, but unfortunately not entirely uncommon, said Bill Alexander, a retired police officer and academy trainer who is now CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. The men and women in uniform, really across the broad stretch of law enforcement, which includes police officers and sheriffs and Departments of Correction, have historically and almost always viewed themselves as always on duty.

That includes running to the store or dining at a restaurant.

You just cant separate your personal life from your professional life when you are in the law enforcement profession, explained Alexander, whose nonprofit is responsible for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, the nations monument to those killed in the line of duty. Theres never a time where they are not on duty or cognizant of their surroundings or not taking the mission and the oath they have given to protect and serve their communities.

****

Nix was a UNCG graduate who had worked for Greensboro police for more than two decades. He most recently served as the supervisor for the departments Family Victims Unit, which operated out of the Family Justice Center.

Those who knew him say he was someone who helped the most vulnerable when they needed it the most. Irreplaceable has been one word used to describe Nix. So has compassion.

A funeral is scheduled for Thursday at Westover Church. The service will begin at 2 p.m. although its unknown whether it will be open to the public. A fund by the Greensboro Police Officers Association has raised more than $80,000 of its $100,000 goal in support of the family.

Meanwhile, those who knew Nix are reliving their moments with him in their minds eye. People like Carrie Howard, who worked with Nix for seven years at the Family Justice Center, said that he was indispensable to her job as a victims advocate.

He always had an open-door policy and made time to assist me in any capacity he could, she wrote in an online post. He was kind, funny, patient and dedicated.

Many like Melissa Gaiser have found themselves profoundly touched by the tragedy. So much so the Greensboro resident, with friends and family in law enforcement, wanted to find some way to honor Nix and his service to the community.

That led her to positioning a blue flood light on the American flag outside her house, and then using color-changing bulbs to complete the display in support of the Greensboro Police Department.

It really struck a chord in me when I heard about it, Gaiser said. There was a murder in our immediate family back in 2002, so it brought back a lot of those feelings. Its so disturbing to lose someone so suddenly and violently around the holidays. My heart goes out to the Nix family.

Harlon Costner, a retired U.S. Marshal, watched early last week as a procession transported the fallen officers body to a local funeral home.

The more I learn about his legacy, Costner said, the more I respect it.
CHAPEL HILL  Four days of waiting in UNC Hospitals psychiatric emergency room left Callum Bradford desperate for an answer to one key question.

With knots in his stomach, the transgender teen asked: Will I be placed in a girls unit?

Yes.

The answer provoked one of the worst anxiety attacks Callum had ever experienced. Sobbing into the hospital phone, he informed his parents, who fought to reverse the decision they warned would cause their son greater harm.

Although they succeeded in blocking the transfer, the family had few options when a second overdose landed Callum back in UNCs emergency room a few months later. When the 17-year-old learned he was again scheduled to be sent to a girls inpatient ward, he told doctors the urge to hurt himself was becoming uncontrollable. The exchange is documented in hospital records given by the family to The Associated Press.

I had an immense amount of regret that I had even come to that hospital, because I knew that I wasnt going to get the treatment that I needed, Callum said.

As the political debate over health care for transgender youth has intensified across the U.S., elected officials and advocates who oppose gender-affirming medical procedures for minors have often said parents are not acting in their childrens best interest when they seek such treatment.

Major medical associations say the treatments are safe and warn of grave mental health consequences for children forced to wait to access puberty-blocking drugs, hormones and, in rare cases, surgeries.

Youth and young adults ages 1024 account for about 15% of all suicides, and research shows LGBTQ+ high school students have higher rates of attempted suicide than their peers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

North Carolina lacks uniform hospital treatment standards and runs low on money and staff with proper training to treat transgender kids.

Sending a transgender child to a unit that does not align with their gender identity should be out of the question, said Dr. Jack Turban, director of the gender psychiatry program at the University of California, San Francisco, and a researcher of quality care barriers for trans youth in inpatient facilities.

If you dont validate the trans identity from day one, their mental healths going to get worse, Turban said.

When North Carolina lawmakers allocated $835 million to shore up mental health infrastructure earlier this year, none of the money was allocated to meet the specific needs of trans patients.

A nationwide dearth of pediatric psychiatric beds has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic as an unprecedented number of people sought emergency mental health services, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Demand has yet to fall back to pre-pandemic levels.

North Carolina is short about 400 youth psychiatric beds, leaving UNC with no choice but to send patients to other facilities, even those that cannot accommodate specific needs, said Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, chair of the UNC Department of Psychiatry.

We have no choice but to refer people to the next available bed, she said.

UNC declined to comment on Callums case, despite the familys willingness to waive its privacy rights. But Meltzer-Brody broadly addressed barriers to gender-affirming treatment for all psychiatric patients.

The public hospital systems policy recommends inpatient assignments based on a patients self-identified gender when feasible. But with the ER overrun in recent years, Meltzer-Brody said meeting that goal is a challenge.

The LGBTQ+ civil rights organization Lambda Legal says denying someone access to a gender-affirming room assignment is identity-based discrimination.

Parents including Callums father, Dan Bradford, describe feeling helpless while their children are receiving psychiatric care involuntarily, which isnt uncommon after attempted suicide.

A psychiatrist himself, Dan Bradford has always supported his sons medical transition, which began with puberty-blocking drugs, followed by a low dose of testosterone that he still takes. Eventually, Callum underwent top surgery to remove his breasts. Irreversible procedures like surgery are rarely performed on minors, and even then only when doctors determine its necessary.

In Callums case, the gender dysphoria was so strong that not pursuing gender-affirming medical treatments, like pretty quickly, was going to be life-threatening, his father said.

North Carolina law bars medical professionals from providing hormones, puberty blockers and gender-transition surgeries to anyone under 18. Callum was able to continue treatment because he began it before an August cut-off date.

When these public policies are discussed or passed, that sends a really strong message to these kids that their government, their society and their community either accepts them and validates them or doesnt, said Turban, the psychiatry researcher at UC San Francisco.

Fearing the plan to place his son in a girls ward would be deeply traumatizing, Dan Bradford secured a spot at a residential treatment center in Georgia. He has since returned home and for the first time in years, hes thinking about his future.

Although he said his experiences eroded his trust in the states inpatient care network, he is optimistic that new resources could give others a more gender-affirming experience, if theyre paired with policy changes.

Im still here, and Im happy to be here, he said. Thats all I want for all my trans friends.
Saudi-based Ladun Investment said one of its key subsidiaries - Built Industrial Company - has secured a SAR185.3 million ($49.4 million) project contract from Royal Commission for Jubail & Yanbu (RCJY) to build the headquarters of Jazan City for Basic and Downstream Industries.

The project scope includes procurement, construction and all other related works, said Ladun Investment in its filing to Saudi bourse Tadawul.

Nestled in the heart of Jazan city, the new HQ building will come up on a 28,697-sq-m area and will be aesthetically designed to accommodate an estimated 1,500 employees.

This comes close on the heels of its contract win for residential units at Jazan City for Basic and Downstream Industries.

Ladun Investment had last month announced that Built Industrial Company had been awarded a SAR189.4 million contract by RCJY to build housing units for families in the residential area sector of the Jazan City.
Mebane's city council is expected to decide today on a proposal from Buc-ee's to open its first North Carolina location in that city.

The company's plans call for a 75,000-square-foot iteration of the Texas travel-plaza chain, with 120 fueling positions and about 650 parking stalls.

Specifically, the store would be located on a 32-acre property on Trollingwood Hawfields Road, which is next to Interstate 40/85.

It's Buc-ee's second attempt to open in North Carolina. In 2020, the company attempted to build a store in northern Orange County, only for residents to strongly oppose construction of the gas-station in fears of negative environmental effects on the Eno River watershed.

Buc-ee's second try in Mebane hasn't been without its own obstacles.

In December, Mebane's planning board voted 6-3 against the construction of the store.

That decision, which is just a recommendation to Mebane's city council, was accompanied by the concerns of more than 30 residents at the Dec. 12 meeting.

Mary McFarland, a resident who said she has lived in Mebane for 20 years, referenced new problems with deer in the area, which she says is caused by increased development.

"We have never had a deer problem," McFarland said. "We have always sold tomatoes out of our front yard. Now I can't even get enough tomatoes for a tomato sandwich when I want to."

McFarland also added that the decision might have already been made in spite of residents' concerns.

"Once it's done, you can't turn back time," McFarland said. "Is this what you want Mebane to be known for?

Omega Wilson, an environmental justice activist who was born and raised in Mebane, spoke about how he had worked with North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper on issues related to environment sustainability.

Those issues and concern for the future, Wilson said at the meeting, were not present in Buc-ee's presentation.

"What seemed to be missing is where we're going environmental justice-wise," Wilson said. "It seems as though it is a minute part of your plan to put solar panels on the square footage of what you're already building in this state or anywhere else."

Christopher Chung, the CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC), also attended the meeting and spoke in favor of the development.

EPDNC typically helps attract developments such as these from major companies in order to expand economic development across the state.

"You would much rather have growth than you would shrinkage and decline," said Chung. "I could show you how this would generate more tax revenues and employment base than something like a 75,000 square foot warehouse. I have 27 years of evaluating what makes good and not so good economic sense. If I were in your shoes, I would vote to support this."

Chung was referencing the previous site plans for the area which included a 279,000 square foot light industrial warehouse.

The Mebane city council approved the rezoning request for the warehouse in Dec. 2022, but a decision tonight would allow for the beginning of the construction process for the Buc-ee's store, according to Mebane's development director Ashley Ownbey.

If the council approves Buc-ee's zoning request and the special use permit, then Buc-ee's would begin a technical review process that would take several months.

The N.C. Department of Transportation's review process would also take a substantial period of time, Ownbey said. Site work on the Buc-ee's store would only begin after approval from both the city and NCDOT.
New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show only two more states added more people to their population totals than North Carolina in the year leading up to July 1, 2023, as population trends in general bounced back from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Census Bureau estimated North Carolinas population on July 1 as 10,835,491. The official count from the 2020 Census was 10,439,459.

The Census Bureau estimated that North Carolinas population increased 1.3% from 2022 to 2023, adding almost 140,000 residents during that period. The Census Bureau estimates population growth annually from July 1 of one year to July 1 of the next.

Texas added almost 475,000 residents during the year and Florida added 365,000. Georgia, number four on the list, added some 116,000 new residents.

Russell Smith, professor of geography at Winston-Salem State University, said people continue to discover the attractions that North Carolina has to offer.

Recent economic development announcements are opening a lot of peoples eyes about North Carolina as a great place to live, Smith said, adding that fast-growing central parts of the state are close to the mountains and close to the beach.

When you combine affordability and economic opportunity, people are going to be attracted to that, Smith said.

At the same time, he added, the growth comes with cautions: Fast growth equals more traffic and higher housing costs, as communities grapple with a lack of affordable housing.

I think the government and developers need to work together to balance growth with the construction of infrastructure to support that growth, Smith said.

The Census Bureau said that the 2023 numbers showed population trends returning to their pre-pandemic characteristics. Before the pandemic, the overwhelming majority of states had more births than deaths. But from 2021 to 2022, half of the states had more deaths than births.

In the latest estimates, the number of states with more deaths than births dropped to 19. North Carolina stayed among the states that had more births than deaths throughout the pandemic, but the effect of the 2023 rebound here was a dramatic increase in the number of births over deaths: In 2021 there were only 1,267 more births than deaths in North Carolina. In 2023, there were 12,657 more births than deaths.

Net migration had a bigger impact on the states growth: The state had almost 100,000 more people moving in than moving out in 2023, and net international migration contributed almost 30,000 residents to North Carolina.

North Carolina shares its role as a population magnet with other southern states. According to the Census Bureau, the South accounted for 87% of the countrys population growth in 2023.

In addition to Florida and Texas (both up 1.6%) fast-growing southern states in addition to North Carolina included South Carolina (up 1.7%), Delaware (up 1.2%), Tennessee (up 1.1%) and Georgia (up 1.1%). The District of Columbia, also included by the Census Bureau as being part of the South, grew 1.2%.

The Census Bureau said eight states lost population during 2023: New York (down 102,000), California (down 75,000), Illinois (down 33,000), Louisiana (down 14,000), Pennsylvania (down 10,000), Oregon (down 6,000), Hawaii (down 4,300) and West Virginia (down 4,000).

The new estimates stood in dramatic contrast to the 2022 figures, which showed 19 states losing population.

With an increasing share of the population, North Carolina stands to gain increasing clout in Congress: North Carolina gained a 14th representative in the U.S. House from the 2020 Census, a record high for the state. Similarly, the number of electoral votes commanded by the state has grown to 16, also a record high.

Anytime you can have more people speaking in uniformity for the state, it makes the case much stronger for legislation, Smith said.
In pushing for a bill of rights for homeless Michiganders, Democratic state Rep. Emily Dievendorf encountered a cruel irony: A homeless constituent providing advice on the measure was denied entry to the state Capitol because he didnt have a photo ID.

Under Dievendorfs bill, homeless people in Michigan would have the right to move freely in parks, on sidewalks and in other public spaces, and could not be denied employment for lacking a permanent address. They also would be guaranteed emergency medical care, privacy protections for their personal belongings and access to the official documentation required to cast a vote in Michigan  in other words, a photo ID.

As a society, we have to admit that it takes time for folks who are struggling and dont have a roof over their head to stabilize themselves while they wait for housing opportunities to happen, said Dievendorf. This bill is about a baseline of humanity and respect that we should give humans who are unhoused.

Connecticut, Illinois and Rhode Island have similar measures on the books. And this past summer, New York City became the first city in the nation to pass a homeless bill of rights. It includes the right to shelter, the right to sleep outside and the right to vote.

But the state laws were enacted a decade ago, and homeless advocates say they are often ignored. In the years since, efforts to pass bill of rights measures in at least a half-dozen other states have fallen short. In New York City, Democratic Mayor Eric Adams is fighting to suspend the citys separate, four-decade-old right-to-shelter policy, under which it has to provide temporary housing for every homeless person.

Dievendorfs bill, introduced last year, hasnt advanced out of committee in Michigans Democratic-dominated legislature.

As the homeless population has grown and become more visible, many cities and states have pivoted from a focus on the rights of homeless people to the rights of local residents and businesses that are being forced to contend with homeless encampments and other fallout from the nations shortage of affordable housing.

In the past two years, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas have approved statewide camping bans on public property (though the Missouri Supreme Court last month struck down that states law over a technical issue). In Georgia, a new law requires cities and counties to enforce existing bans on public camping; steers money toward transitional housing that requires drug treatment; encourages the creation of sanctioned camping areas; and calls for a performance audit of spending on programs for homeless people.

San Diego and Portland, Ore., recently tightened their camping restrictions. And San Diego has joined left-leaning cities including Albuquerque, N.M.; Honolulu; Las Vegas; Milwaukee; St. Paul, Minn., and Seattle in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to give them more authority to dismantle homeless encampments.

The friction in many communities affected by homelessness is at a breaking point, those and other cities wrote in an amicus brief supporting Grants Pass, Ore., which was sued by three unhoused residents who argued the city shouldnt be allowed to punish them for sleeping in public when there is nowhere else for them to go.

Despite massive infusions of public resources, businesses and residents are suffering the increasingly negative effects of long-term urban camping, the brief says. Among them: enormous volumes of garbage, human waste and other health hazards like used needles.

Grants Pass is appealing a 2020 district court ruling that its ordinances regulating homelessness are unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court could decide this month whether to take the case.

Criminalization of homelessness?

A point-in-time count released last month by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that about 653,100 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, up 12% compared with 2022.

The number of homeless people has spiked since the coronavirus pandemic, but city efforts to crack down on camping, loitering and panhandling predate the public health crisis.

Even in Rhode Island, one of the three states that have a homeless bill of rights, advocates say authorities often ignore the law in their zeal to get homeless people off the streets. Providence is one of the cities asking the Supreme Court for more authority to clear encampments.

The National Homelessness Law Center and other advocacy groups argue that state and local policies that criminalize homelessness only make the problem worse.

Because people experiencing homelessness are not on the street by choice but because they lack choices, criminal and civil punishment serves no constructive purpose, the report states. Instead, arrests, unaffordable tickets, and the collateral consequences of criminal convictions make it more difficult for people to exit homelessness and get back on their feet.

Steve Berg, chief policy officer for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said he expects more cities and states to take a punitive approach this year.

Instead, advocates argue, the solution to homelessness is more housing and behavioral health services for the many unhoused people who are struggling with mental illness or substance use.

A complex problem

But even many progressives argue that housing and services must be combined with enforcement. In a separate amicus brief supporting Grants Pass, the left-leaning California State Association of Counties and the League of California Cities point to the billions of dollars public officials have spent on supportive services, outreach teams, emergency shelters, rental subsidies, micro-dwellings and safe camping sites with 24-hour security, bathrooms and storage. It hasnt been enough.

Homelessness in California is a complex problem with many root causes, and it demands a comprehensive solution, they argue in the brief. Enforcing camping restrictions, they say, is a critical component to the overall well-being of the community.

In August, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom used stronger language in criticizing a court order barring San Francisco from clearing homeless encampments, calling it preposterous and inhumane.

People are moving out of the cities. Businesses are shutting down. People are dying of overdoses because of this, Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle. Ultimately, everyones going to blame me for everything.  But damn it, they need to be accountable as well. These judges are wrong on these overriding sweeping orders.

In conservative states with recently enacted camping bans, legislators have relied on model legislation drafted by the Cicero Institute, a Texas-based think tank founded by Joe Lonsdale, the co-founder of tech firm Palantir and managing partner at the venture capital firm 8VC.

A new Georgia law is the most far-reaching. It goes beyond a camping ban by steering the state away from the housing first strategy embraced by many advocates. Under that approach, people experiencing homelessness are provided with free permanent housing first  before they receive help with mental health issues, substance use or job placement. Lonsdale and other critics say that given the high percentage of homeless people experiencing those problems, housing first usually fails.

The law also takes aim at what Lonsdale and other critics refer to as the Homeless Industrial Complex, or the array of homeless-service providers that, they argue, benefit from the status quo. Under the Georgia law, the state will examine the awarding of contracts and grants to service providers to determine whether they are meeting metrics of success.

Multiyear effort in Michigan

In pushing for a homeless bill of rights in Michigan, Dievendorf is resurrecting legislation that died in 2016 and 2017.

Lisa Chapman, policy director for the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, said its unfortunate that a bill to give homeless people basic rights is even necessary. A persons housing status shouldnt dictate whether they are protected under the law, she said.

Of course, we want everyone to have the same rights, Chapman said. But in reality, people experiencing homelessness arent being treated equally, and there have been cities in the state responding to rising homelessness with criminalization.

She also cited the increasing use in Michigan of so-called hostile architecture on city benches to physically prevent people from sleeping on them.

In July, the Grand Rapids City Commission approved two ordinances designed to crack down on street homelessness. The first bars loitering in public or private buildings  including doorways  and prohibits accosting another person who is using an ATM, waiting at a bus stop or eating or drinking outdoors.

The second ordinance prohibits the storage of unattended or excess personal property in public rights-of-way and parks, and allows the city to impound such property, without prior notice. The ACLU of Michigan criticized both measures as unconstitutional.

This approach only pushes our unhoused neighbors further into the margins of society, exacerbating their struggles, the ACLU wrote in a letter to Democratic Mayor Rosalynn Bliss and other members of the commission. Indeed, we fear that may be the goal because it is uncomfortable to be confronted with the reality that others have so much less.
The Triad is in the midst of a mixed-bag scenario when it comes to respiratory viruses, a local infectious diseases expert said Friday.

Dr. Christopher Ohl, with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, said the recent sharp increase in Triad influenza cases prompted him to dust off his Facebook presentations that were done on a weekly basis during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Part of his incentive is with the increasing volume of respiratory virus cases in Triad emergency departments and urgent care facilities.

This past week, our urgent care volumes set records for the number of patients seen, Ohl said.

If you really need to go to the emergency department, expect a wait. We are keeping track of it and changing shifts, but were not so tight that we have to cut back on normal services, and we dont anticipate that being the case.

Ohl cautioned that within Baptist facilities, our flu numbers continue to increase, and we havent had the usual dip we see right around Christmas time when schools are out.

For the next three to four weeks, flu is going to give us some trouble. In terms of hospitalizations in our region, flu is a bigger problem than COVID.

However, Ohl projected the region may have seen the worst of the RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) community spread that can cause severe infections in children and adults over age 60.

Fortunately, the number of RSV (cases) that had been quite high (before Christmas) and a bit of a problem in our pediatric units have started to fall, Ohl said.

It looks like it has peaked and will continue to decline as we go through January.

In terms of COVID-19, Ohl said cases remain on the rise, but at a lower amount than the flu.

Thankfully, not a lot of people are being hospitalized with COVID in the Triad, Ohl said. It is evolving to where it is mostly seen during normal respiratory virus season.

According to the latest N.C. Department of Health and Human Services report for the week that ended Dec. 30, there were 4,118 confirmed cases of the flu reported by the states hospitals.

DHHS reported Wednesday the number of flu-related deaths has reached 30 in North Carolina, including three among children ages 5 to 17. So far, the state has recorded 22 deaths among those 65 and older, two for ages 50 to 64 and three in ages 25 to 39.

DHHS does not provide the region of the state in which flu-related deaths occur, citing patient privacy policies.

Meanwhile, the latest DHHS report had 1,834 cases of COVID-19 statewide, including 866 COVID-19 hospital patients, and 877 cases of RSV.

The latest COVID variant, known as JN1, currently comprises about 37% of cases in North Carolina and about 44% of cases nationwide.

Ohl said that JN1 is an omicron variant that is a bit more infectious, but luckily it doesnt appear to be more severe than other variants and the fall COVID booster seems to be protective for JN1.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that about 44% of U.S. adults had gotten flu shots by Dec. 23, according to the most recently available Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination survey data.

By comparison, about 19% of U.S. adults were reported to have received an updated COVID-19 shot as of early December.

We are approaching the peak of winter respiratory virus season and encourage people to get tested early and seek treatment as soon as they begin to develop symptoms, Dr. Elizabeth Cuervo-Tilson, the states health director and chief medical officer, said Wednesday.

Dont wait to seek treatment if you test positive for the flu or COVID-19, as treatments can help prevent severe illness, especially for those who are high risk of serious complications based on their age or medical conditions.

Next steps

Ohl said the current respiratory season is a good time to revisit how individuals prepare for and respond to the three viruses.

That includes revising testing and isolation protocols, including prioritizing testing for COVID-19.

Ohl said that while there are plenty of COVID-19 test kits available for purchase at local pharmacies, the supply of free tests remain limited. An over-the-counter test for flu is becoming more available, as well as urgent care facilities.

Ohl continued to take a common sense approach to wearing a mask, such as health care settings, crowded public venues and public transportation, and for those who are immunocompromised.

It is not too late to get vaccinated for the flu and COVID, Ohl said, although he said the Forsyth County Department of Public Health recently ran out of about 5,000 free COVID-19 vaccines for adults.

The department has a new order in and its expected to arrive any day, Ohl said.

If your COVID test is negative and you have a fever with your illness, you can assume that it is influenza.

If you dont have a fever, it is advisable to take a COVID test the next day because it can show up as positive a day or two after the symptoms show up. If it is negative the second day, you have a cold.

Ohl said isolating for five days remains the primary recommendation for COVID-19, and then wearing a mask in public for at least another five days.

Ohl stressed that when in doubt about being sick, just stay at home and keep from spreading your virus to others.
Triad and Northwest North Carolina homeowners would face between a 20.5% and 41.3% jump in their residential insurance rates if the N.C. Rate Bureaus latest increase request gains regulatory approval.

Dont panic, though, since the state insurance commissioner seldom agrees to a rate hike anywhere close to the bureaus full request, whether regionally or statewide.

N.C. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey disclosed the bureaus filing Friday with an Aug. 1 effective date if approved for new and renewed policies.

The bureau represents companies that write insurance policies in the state and is a separate entity from the insurance department. It typically asks for rate increases  some substantially higher in areas prone to damage from natural disasters, such as hurricanes, floods and winter storms.

For example, the bureau wants a 36.6% rate hike for homeowners in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, as well as in Alamance, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Rockingham, Stokes and Surry counties.

It is by far the largest rate increase range sought by the bureau for the urban parts of the Triad since at least 2009.

The remaining requested increases are: 41.3% for Wilkes County; 25.2% for Davidson and Randolph counties; 22.3% for Yadkin County; and 20.5% for Alleghany, Ashe and Watauga counties.

Its the seventh rate increase requested by the bureau since 2009.

The rate hikes sought for the Triad were: 13% in 2009; 17.7% in 2012; between 16.2% and 20.6% in 2014; 17% in 2017; 20% in 2018; and 24.5% in 2020.

The approved increases for the Triad were: 3% in 2009; 7% in 2012; 0.1% in 2014; 5.5% in 2017; 3.5% in 2018; and 5.9% in 2020.

A public comment period is required by law to address the proposed rate increase.

A simultaneous in-person and online forum will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Jan. 22 in the Albemarle Building, 325 N. Salisbury St. in Raleigh, and at https://ncgov.webex.com/ncgov/j.php?MTID=mb3fe10c8f69bbedd2aaece485915db7e.

Written and emailed comments can be submitted through Feb. 2 at either NCDOI.2024Homeowners@ncdoi.gov, or to Kimberly Pearce, 1201 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1201.

If the insurance department denies the bureaus rate requests, the commissioner will call for a public hearing.

Even if the bureau will secure a small percentage of its overall request, it has gotten the attention  and opposition  of the N.C. Realtors advocacy group.

The association said it is "raising the alarm to consumers to ensure this significant rate hike is known before the state-required public response period ends in January."

The Rate Bureau's extreme rate hike request of 42% average statewide is a gut-punch to homeowners and homebuyers when they're already facing challenges affording homes amid record high mortgage rates and property tax increases,' association president Tony Harrington said.

"The NCR calls on the Insurance commissioner to reject the insurance companies' unreasonable request  and to take a stand on behalf of his constituents across the state."

Recent bureau rate hike requests have become fodder for primary and general election campaigns for insurance commissioners.

Causey, a Republican in his second term as commissioner, has faced criticism in particular from Democrat primary candidate David Wheeler for his willingness to agree to higher rate increases than his predecessors.

Wheeler also cited automobile, condominium and renter, dwelling and mobile home rate hikes approved by Causey.

Causey has approved 18 rate hikes without taking any of them to a public hearing for input from policyholders, the public and consumer advocacy groups, or (go) to court to stop them, Wheeler said.
Bianca Williams was tired of trying to find a store that either accepted federal food benefits for low-income mothers and their children or a store that had quality produce.

So the Milwaukee resident  who has seven kids, including two currently being breastfed  decided in November that shed rather turn to frozen Thanksgiving leftovers and food from family and friends.

More than six million people in the U.S. get benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women and Children, commonly known as WIC. But its not always easy to get the fresh produce, baby formula and other nutritious WIC-approved items.

Williams' closest Walmart shuttered in 2016. Since then, she said, WIC can be too much of a hassle."

Sometimes, to be honest, I dont even use it, said Williams, who makes about $7 too much a month to qualify for food stamps, because its so hard to get to and from the grocery store, and find a vendor that does accept (WIC).

Unlike food stamps, WIC-approved items cant be bought online, though a few states are working on pilot programs to make it a reality. Complex requirements make it tough for smaller stores  and sometimes big-name grocers  to participate in WIC. Some states are trying to expand access after vendors left over the last five years due to changes in the program or closing down during the pandemic.

Its really set up to be a program, at least in our area, that a large full-scale grocer can participate in, said Ann Sanders, the director of public benefits policy and programs at the Pennsylvania nonprofit Just Harvest. Since 2019, the state has seen a net loss of 353 vendors.

Though both are under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, WIC differs from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, because SNAP participants can buy almost any grocery item they want  regardless of the nutritional value. With WIC, states use federal guidelines to choose products and quantities that vendors are required to carry; brands commonly found on WIC-approved lists include Cheerios, Juicy Juice and Similac.

Many smaller stores participate in WIC because community members need the help, but it can come at a cost, according to the National Grocers Association, which lobbies for independent stores.

Its not necessarily a big moneymaker for them by any means, said Stephanie Johnson, the associations vice president of government relations, adding that some even lose money from participating in WIC.

WIC programs have been making a slow transition from paper vouchers to electronic benefits, known as eWIC. Its easier for shoppers, but stores had to spend money on upgrading cash registers, which in Georgia caused some to quit the program.

Michael Gay, who owns Food Fresh, the only grocery store in rural Claxton, Georgia, said eWIC is very time-consuming at the register" to parse out which items are eligible. Despite that and other frustrations, he has stuck with the program because, I want you to have it ... I want to sell it, and I want your baby to eat."

National chains don't always participate in WIC, either. Aldi doesnt because it only carries its own brand of formula. Trader Joes told The Associated Press in a statement that the majority of its products dont meet WIC's brand or size criteria.

About half of Target stores accept WIC, spokesperson Brian Harper-Tibaldo said, because there are different sizes and layouts. He said smaller stores might not have enough shelf space to meet minimum stocking requirements.

Ashley Yancey recently tried to find formula for her daughter at a Target about 30 miles from her home in Douglasville, Georgia, and was stunned the location didnt accept WIC. Often, her nearest WIC vendor is out of the product.

Its embarrassing, kinda, she said about her attempt to use WIC at the Target store. Because its like, are you too good to take WIC? Are you looking at me like Im poor?"

Yancey doesnt have a car, and likes the freedom of doing most of her grocery shopping online, where she can use her SNAP benefits; the USDA started piloting online SNAP purchases in 2019 and expanded it during the pandemic.

Its harder that I cant get my milk like that, she said. I have to borrow somebodys car to go look for the milk, just to not find the milk. It is inconvenient that they dont take WIC online.

The USDA is reviewing comments on a proposed rule that would remove barriers to online shopping, like not requiring a cashier to be present for WIC transactions. The agency also has paired with the nonprofit Center for Nutrition to pilot online shopping in seven states and with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Major retailers Walmart and Hy-Vee are participating in some places.

I think the states want to see (online shopping), I think they know it would make a big difference for their participants, and I think retailers are on board, too, said Ali Hard, the policy director for the National WIC Association, which is an advocacy group and frequent federal partner. Its a huge equity issue if WIC participants cant buy their groceries in the same way everybody else can.

In states where the number of WIC stores has drastically decreased, officials say the impact is most pronounced in rural areas. Louisiana has lost 68 WIC vendors since 2019, and is working on a recruitment plan for stores.

We want to focus on more of the rural areas and determine where there might be a store that we can have a conversation with, Bureau of Nutrition Services Director Jennifer Nicklas said. Some of it just organically happens when we know weve had an existing relationship with the store before  thats going to really help us to develop where exactly we want to have those conversations.

In New Hampshire, minimum inventory requirements kept smaller, more rural stores out of the program, said Hailey McAlary with the state Bureau of Family Health and Nutrition, so the state decided those stores no longer have to carry things like juice concentrates and pureed meat for infants.

I think participation and vendor certification are really connected  food shopping, we all know, has to be convenient, said Rebecca White, the public and government affairs associate for Hanover Co-Op Food stores in New Hampshire and Vermont. People will buy foods based on what works with their schedule and their lifestyle.
A bon voyage to two of North Carolinas wine country pioneers: Michael and Amy Helton who founded Hanover Park Vineyards near Yadkinville. The couple recently announced their retirement and sale of the winery.

When it opened in 2000, Hanover Park was one of only 10 wineries in North Carolina. The Heltons proved that a boutique family winery could be profitable; Hanover Park proved a catalyst for North Carolinas explosive wine industry growth over the next two decades. (The state hosts more than 200 wineries now).

The Heltons  both former art teachers in Winston-Salem  served in key leadership and educational roles with the North Carolina Winegrowers Association. The Hanover Park brand is known for old-world styles with French Rhone influences.

This is the latest shake-out in a series of transactions involving some of the states most visible and pioneering wineries.

RayLen Vineyards near Mocksville was recently purchased by JOLO Vineyards near Pilot Mountain. JOLO had earlier purchased Hutton Vineyards near Rockford.

Grove Winery, Autumn Creek Vineyards, Dobbins Creek Vineyards, and Golden Road Vineyards changed hands in recent years. RagApple Lassie Vineyards near Booneville is listed as temporarily closed amid re-financing efforts. Stonefield Cellars, Adagio Vineyard and Daveste Vineyard are listing their properties for sale.

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Taste of North Carolina  this winters gala event hosted by the N.C. Winegrowers Association  is Feb. 9 at the Benton Convention Center North in Winston-Salem. Held in conjunction with the associations annual wine conference, Taste of N.C. allows foodies and wine enthusiasts an opportunity to sample food-wine pairings from top restaurants, caterers and wineries in the Triad.

The event is open to the public. For information or tickets: www.ncwinegrowers.com

The Winegrowers Association has expanded its Taste of North Carolina food-wine pairing program to also include Raleigh, Charlotte and Asheville. The marketing effort is meant to raise awareness of North Carolina wines.

An international wine festival in May, hosted by Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, is also meant to draw attention to N.C. wines and industry efforts to improve quality. Details to come.

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Some wines Ive enjoyed and you might, too:

2021 Fair Valley Chenin Blanc ($10): Chenin Blanc remains prized in South Africa. Hints of pear, blood orange,and Fuji apple.

NV Korbel Rose Sweet ($13): Korbels portfolio of affordable sparklers is a go-to for celebratory occasions. Elevated sugars but acidity gives it nice balance. Rose pedal, cherry, clementine.

2022 The Pinot Project Pinot Noir ($15): I like the intentionality of marketing a quality Pinot Noir at an everyday price. Looking for a lighter-styled, fruit-forward red? Make it this one.

2022 Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc ($17): From Californias Sonoma region, this opulent winery has a gift for Sauvignon Blanc. Apple, peach, melon.

2021 Esporao Colheita White ($18): A blend of Antao Vaz, Alvarinho, Vermentino and a few other grapes from Portugal that may be off the average enthusiasts radar. Crisp apple, papaya and Bosc pear.

NV Old Vine Red Lot #73 ($18): Old-school California Zinfandel. Rustic and chewy blackberry, anise and cracked black pepper.

2022 Villa Gemma Rosato ($24): A mouth-filling blush with heft. Black cherry, cranberry, and rose pedal. From the Montepulciano grape in Italy.

2019 Marina Cvetic Montepulciano dAbbruzzo Reserve ($38): This is the same grape in all its red glory from Italys dAbbruzzo region. Dried cherry, black tea, black licorice and smoke.

2021 Herdade de Grous Moon Harvested Alicante Bouchet ($30): A key blending grape in most parts of the world, this varietal dominates this red from Portugal. Medium tannins with dried black fruits and hints of cedar cigar box.

2013 Beronia Gran Reserva Rioja ($36): This is the quintessential Tempranillo-based red from Spain tasted at its peak. Grand reserves from the Rioja region spend extra time in barrel and bottle before released to the world. If you like your reds on the mature side but have no patience to cellar, look for Grand Reserve Rioja. Complex plum, currant, cedar, cola and black licorice.
The city of Browning had been without water for about five days when the specific part needed to fix the problem arrived broken.

That's when Dan Wipf, manager of Big Sky Colony Electric, got a call from the tribe asking for help. Located in Cut Bank, Big Sky Colony Electric sells all sorts of electrical parts to people around the world.

Fortunately, Wipf said, he had the Variable Frequency Drive  the part the tribe needed  on his shelf. The Variable Frequency Drive (VFD), which controls the speed of a motor, was retrofitted to the Stu Miller Water Treatment Plant on the Blackfeet Reservation, and the tribe later reported that water was operational.

Kwebb Galbreath, the tribes water director and incident command lead, said Big Sky Colony Electric prevented the tribe from going into a very disturbing place.

I really appreciate them for helping us out, he said. I just cannot formulate the words of gratitude that we as a tribe have for them. We were in a very desperate place, and they really came through for us. It was amazing.

Galbreath confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that the boil order had been lifted.

"The plant is up and running," he said. "The water is drinkable. Life is good."

Wipf said he hopes the incident will help get the word out that Big Sky Colony Electric sells these kinds of parts. He said VFDs can weigh between 70 and 100 pounds, so shipping the product from an out-of-state vendor can be expensive, time consuming and risky, as the part can be easily damaged.

He wants Montanans to know that Big Sky Colony Electric can be of service and may only be a car ride away.
A Montana judge has struck down a new cumulative fee on marijuana dispensaries after a group of businesses sued the state over the new law last year.

Helena Judge Mike Menahan issued the order on Jan. 5 following a lawsuit filed by Granite Peak Holdings, TSB Montana and MaraMint, all marijuana dispensaries operating in Montana.

In early 2023, state lawmakers passed House Bill 903, which created a cumulative fee schedule on each dispensary location, even if they operated under the same license. Fees also increased cumulatively for each location, so a first location would have a $5,000 fee, the second would have a $10,000 fee, a third would have a $15,000 fee and so on. The previous fee was $5,000 for each location operated by a licensee.

Back in November, the state agreed to a 60-day pause on the new fee schedule. Menahans order strikes it down permanently.

Under the now-void law, a dispensary like Granite Peak would have paid a $280,000 dispensary renewal fee instead of $50,000 for its 10 locations, in addition to $245,000 for four newly opened locations.

Menahan's order also dictates that any fees paid under the now-void cumulative assessment will be returned to the businesses that paid them.

In his order, Menahan wrote that the previous fee generated sufficient fees to cover the costs to the Department (of Revenue) for implementing and enforcing the (Montana Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act).
The Dubai Centre for Family Businesses, which operates under the umbrella of Dubai Chambers, has launched the Family Business Governance Assessment Tool.

The innovative new platform is designed to help family businesses self-evaluate the maturity of key aspects of governance within their organisations and contribute to their sustainable success.

Aimed at supporting family business leaders and owners, the comprehensive self-assessment platform introduces interactive survey tools that enable family businesses to evaluate their existing governance standards and formulate strategies for the implementation of best practices. Developed in alignment with expert insights and evolving regulatory trends, the platform promotes consistently effective approaches to governance that have been adopted by family businesses globally.

Governance frameworks

Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah, President and CEO of Dubai Chambers, commented: Implementing governance frameworks is a crucial step in achieving effective decision-making and smooth succession that contributes to the continuity of family businesses. With an estimated AED3.67 trillion ($1 trillion) in assets expected to be transferred to the next generation in the Middle East over the coming decade, ensuring smooth leadership transitions and strengthening governance are key priorities in preparing family businesses for the future.

Lootah added: The launch of the new evaluation tool reaffirms Dubai Chambers commitment to boosting the competitiveness of family businesses and ensuring their continuity and sustainable growth.

The Family Business Governance Assessment Tool helps family businesses develop a roadmap to enhance their governance practices. The tool enables companies to benchmark their performance against other family businesses in Dubai and identify key aspects of governance where improvements are needed. It can also be used at regular intervals to allow family businesses to monitor their progress over time.

Good governance

The launch of the tool comes as part of the Dubai Centre for Family Businesses drive to raise awareness about the importance of good governance among family businesses in Dubai. Working towards preserving the legacy of family businesses for future generations, the centre has introduced a number of initiatives aimed at supporting the growth and continuity of family businesses in the emirate.

The Dubai Centre for Family Businesses was established to strengthen the family business ecosystem in the emirate, support and nurture the family business community, and enhance its capabilities in line with global developments to unlock sustainable economic growth.--TradeArabia News Service
DECATUR  Prosecutors say when another teenage male walked in on 17-year-old Louis L. Binkley as he lay on a bed with a female friend in her Decatur bedroom, the other male got upset and an argument ensued.

But while the other teenager, also aged 17, confined his anger to yelling, Binkley is accused of pulling a semi-automatic pistol and shooting his rival in the chest.

And he is further accused of continuing to fire several more times as the other male fled for his life out of the 20-year-old womans Decatur apartment in the 400 block of North Pine Street on the evening of Oct. 7.

The wounded man survived with a bullet hole in his lower right chest and police started looking for Binkley, who was known to the woman by his Facebook profile name Mr. El-Blamo.

The cops caught up with Binkley Nov. 22 and he is due to appear in Macon County Circuit Court on Feb. 7 for a pretrial hearing. He is denying committing aggravated battery through the discharge of a firearm. He has also entered not guilty pleas to further charges of the aggravated discharge of a gun, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and having no FOID card.

A sworn affidavit filed by Decatur police said officers had interviewed the wounded man  and a male friend who had been with him  on the day of the shooting and quickly traced the apartment location of the gunfire.

Upon searching the apartment, a crime scene was located, said Officer Tyler Nottingham who signed the affidavit.

Two spent 9mm shell casings and two fired projectiles were found inside the apartment.

The victims version of events was backed up by both the woman and the victims 15-year-old male friend who told police he also fled when the gunfire started.

According to the affidavit, the woman, who is quoted as telling cops she had earlier invited Binkley to visit her apartment, said: ...She observed Louis shoot (the victim) and continue to shoot at him several times.

Tried as an adult but still too young to be held in the Macon County Jail, Binkley is in custody at a juvenile detention facility after Judge Rodney Forbes ruled that he was a delinquent minor and there was an urgent necessity to detain him in custody.

2023 mugshots from the Herald & Review Lourash Hirstein Phillip Gehrken Joseph A. Williams Jetrevius O. Jarrett Edwards King-Woods Wilson Derrickson Colby J. Park
Social Security imposter scams continue to be widespread across the United States. Scammers use targeted, sophisticated tactics to deceive you into providing sensitive information or money.

If you receive a suspicious letter, text, email or call, do not respond. We want you to know how to identify a scammer and avoid becoming a victim.

We will NEVER:

Text or email images of an employees official government identification.

Suspend your Social Security number.

Threaten you with arrest or other legal action unless you immediately pay a fine or fee.

Require payment by retail gift card, wire transfer, internet currency, or cash by mail.

Promise a benefit increase or other assistance in exchange for payment.

Mail or email official letters or reports containing your personal information.

We only send text messages if you have opted in to receive texts from us, and only in limited situations, including the following:

When you have subscribed to receive updates and notifications by text.

As part of our enhanced security when accessing your personal my Social Security account.

If you owe money to us, we will mail you a letter with payment options and appeal rights.

We encourage you to report suspected Social Security imposter scams  and other Social Security fraud  to the OIGs website at oig.ssa.gov/report. You can find more information about scams at ssa.gov/scams. Please share this information with your friends, family and colleagues to help spread awareness about Social Security imposter scams.

Supplemental Security Income

Q: How do I report a change of address if Im getting Supplemental Security Income?

A: A person receiving SSI must report any change of address by calling our toll-free number, 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778), or by visiting a local office within 10 days after the month the change occurs. You cannot complete a change of address online. You should report your new address to Social Security so you can continue to get mail from Social Security when necessary, even if you get your benefits electronically by direct deposit or Direct Express. Learn more about SSI at ssa.gov/ssi.

Q: I am receiving Supplemental Security Income. Can my children receive dependents benefits based on my benefits?

A: No. SSI benefits are based on the needs of one individual and are paid only to the qualifying person. Disabled children are potentially eligible for SSI, but there are no spouses, dependent childrens, or survivors benefits payable as there are with Social Security benefits. For more information, see our publication, Supplemental Security Income, available online at ssa.gov/pubs. Simply type the title of the publication in the publication search box at the top of the page. You also may want to read Understanding Supplemental Security Income, available at ssa.gov/ssi/text-understanding-ssi.htm. For even more information, visit sa.gov.
Three years ago, the nation's schools received the first installment in what would become the largest infusion ever of federal funds for education  $190 billion to not only safeguard against COVID, but reverse the academic crisis that followed.

Evidence of the damage from a year of remote learning was inescapable: major setbacks in reading and math, thousands of students unaccounted for and high rates of depression and misbehavior.

In the years that followed, the funds undoubtedly did some good. Some districts used the money to offer summer school for all of their students, provide one-on-one tutoring parents could never afford on their own and hire thousands of new teachers.

But a 10-month examination by The 74 shows that many districts haven't used the funds with the urgency intended. Some have barely tapped monies advocates say are critical for academic recovery, while others have pumped millions of dollars into major classroom additions, upgrading athletic fields and other expenditures unrelated to the pandemic.

With just over a year left to allocate the funds, the question isn't only if districts will hit the September 2024 deadline, but whether the unprecedented windfall will leave students better off.

Districts have not made it easy to answer those questions. Despite the unprecedented expense, Congress said little about districts' responsibility to keep the public informed.

"Are districts with the biggest declines in student achievement spending their money the way you hope they would?" asked Matthew Steinberg, an education professor at George Mason University. "We just don't know."

A recent government report said gaps in spending data "make it difficult for the oversight community, decision-makers, and American taxpayers to fully understand where the money went and how it was used."

When districts do report on their spending, the documents are often "full of jargon and gobbledygook," complained Eileen Chollet, a parent in Virginia's Fairfax County schools.

And the federal government hasn't necessarily been a model of openness. A U.S. Department of Education "transparency portal" tells users how much money districts received. But its most recent spending report is two years old and the funds are grouped into vague categories like "supplies" and "other services."

To get a deeper look at how school systems across the U.S. have spent their funds, The 74 filed public record requests with 13 districts and two charter school networks  from large urban centers like Oakland to the small rural community of Monmouth-Roseville in western Illinois. Together they received $3.4 billion. In response, districts sent everything from neat spreadsheets to erratically formatted PDF's and printouts of internal data portals. Some, including the Arlington Independent School District in Texas and the Granite School District in Utah, responded within weeks. Others took months to deliver the records, and one  Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic enclave in New York's Hudson Valley  never complied.

The documented expenditures, dating back to 2020, range from seven-figure payments to education consulting firms like Engage2Learn in Arlington to small Amazon orders under $100 for stress-relievers like aromatherapy supplies and fidget cubes delivered to Colorado Early Colleges, a charter network.

Invoices and emails shed light on the unexpected costs associated with reopening schools. Colorado Early Colleges spent about $70,000 for an exterior fence at its Aurora campus so students and staff could eat outside despite concerns about proximity to the community's rising homeless population.

Amid staggering declines in achievement, officials say it's easy to forget the severe threat that COVID posed especially in predominantly Black communities. The cost of masks, testing and contract tracing were justified, said Cathryn Stout, communications chief for the Memphis-Shelby County Schools, one of the districts The 74 profiled.

"I'm gonna push back hard against anybody who said that that was unnecessary spending," she said. "All of our juvenile hospital beds were full."

But as schools emerged from those nerve-wracking early days, they faced a new pressure: Spending the federal money wisely on a relatively short timeline. Many districts tapped the temporary funds for routine expenses, like payroll and membership fees for professional organizations.

The Oakland Unified School District, for example, used relief funds to make a $1.6 million payment on a $100 million state loan it received in 2003, records show. Stockton Unified, also in California, spent over $2 million on high-level central office positions, like a facilities director and its head of curriculum and instruction.

And in the Granite Public Schools in Utah, roughly $86,000 in relief funds covered accommodations at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas last summer for teams from 14 schools to attend an annual conference.

"They've got a conference facility that is massive, a wonderful ballroom," said Jeff Jones, CEO of Solution Tree, the professional development company that held the event.

The training focuses on what educators call "professional learning communities," in which teachers review student data, discuss a book they've read or debrief after giving a lesson. District spokesman Ben Horsley said state officials never questioned Granite's use of relief funds for what he described as a "critical component of helping schools improve instruction." And he noted that one of the district's highest-performing schools saw even more growth in student achievement after teachers put what they learned into practice.

As districts bank accounts grew, so did the opportunity for waste, misuse and questionable business deals:

- The Detroit Public Schools Community District signed a $3 million tutoring contract with a vendor led by Superintendent Nikolai Vitti's wife, Rachel Vitti. Leaders disclosed the relationship before bringing in the literacy nonprofit Beyond Basics in 2021 and said they chose the provider because of its strong track record. Still, amid pushback, Rachel Vitti resigned from her role directing the nonprofit last summer.

- The Youngstown, Ohio, district lost $5 million in relief funds on an internet service contract with an Arizona company to offer Wi-Fi signals from city buildings and utility poles. But the project collapsed because the city didn't own all the utility poles. The district couldn't recover the money it spent on equipment, and the unused supplies now sit in a warehouse.

- The San Joaquin County district attorney in California launched a criminal probe into the Stockton Unified School District for spending roughly $7 million on ultraviolet air purifiers from a company linked to a former mayor with a history of legal trouble. A state audit pointed to the board's decision to approve the contract even though district staff gave the proposal a low rating. Less than half of the 2,200 filters purchased were installed and the rest are stored in a warehouse. "This thing was streamlined and fast-tracked," Marcus Battle, a former budget officer named in the audit, told The 74. Board members, he said, were "willing to circumvent a lawful procurement process to get this approved."

'Transformational for tutoring'

As auditors continue to pore over district records, more problematic expenditures are bound to surface. But the relief funds have also fueled major upgrades to reading instruction and creative efforts to improve learning and school climate, initiatives many districts hope to sustain once the funds dry up.

COVID aid brought tutoring, once a perk reserved for more affluent families, to students who previously had no access to that level of support.

The relief funds have been "transformational for tutoring," said Susanna Loeb, a Stanford University education researcher leading efforts to expand and evaluate tutoring programs.

While the response to many virtual, on-demand programs has been disappointing, districts that stuck to high-dosage tutoring  generally defined as meeting in small groups, three times a week, with the same tutor  say it's bumping struggling students up a grade level and helping them pass end-of-course tests. Too few students, however, have had access to that level of support. Federal data released in February showed that 80% of schools were offering some form of tutoring, but only 1 in 10 students had access to the high-impact model experts recommend.

Districts have also spent millions to help students recover from months of isolation. Recent data on more than 7,000 districts from Burbio, which tracks COVID spending, showed over 1,400 planned to spend at least $1.5 billion collectively on mental health to respond to an escalation in violent behavior and alarming rates of depression and anxiety among students. About 500 districts planned to spend a total of almost $230 million on counselors and mentors.

Some four to five dozen Michigan districts tried to purchase dogs as therapy animals to respond to students' mental health challenges. Kevin Walters, who supervises the Michigan Department of Education's grants office, told The 74 that he had to instruct school leaders that while federal relief dollars allowed them to contract with companies that rent out therapy animals, they could not purchase their own.

As part of its plan to spend $19 million on mental health, the Memphis-Shelby County Schools opened 60 "reset" rooms where students can cool off when they become disruptive or seek help if they've been bullied.

Tito Langston, the district's interim chief financial officer, called it money well spent. Before White Station Elementary opened one of the special classrooms, it wasn't unusual for Langston to get a call during the school day because of a behavior problem with his own child, who has autism. Now, his son has a place to refocus.

"He called me and said, 'Dad, I went to the reset room. I feel better now,' " Langston said.

Many districts offer evidence  in the form of higher test scores or improved behavior  to demonstrate the value of projects launched with relief funds. In Illinois's Monmouth-Roseville, for example, students who received tutoring outpaced their peers' growth in literacy and math in 2022.

But there are also many instances of students not getting the extra help they need.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona urged districts to use relief funds to address teacher shortages by offering competitive stipends for substitutes. But Laurisa Schutt, former executive director of First State Educate, a Delaware nonprofit, said she hears stories of students with substitutes "watching movies all day or kids with nobody in the classroom. They're just given worksheets, and they're sitting there."

'Not in a test tube'

Accurately measuring if popular programs or policies have been effective at helping students recover learning lost due to school closures is not easy.

"There's so much money that it must have done something good," said Kenneth Shores, an assistant education professor at the University of Delaware. But the pandemic aid offered a rare chance to quickly test which recovery efforts were most effective.

"That learning opportunity," he said, "was totally squandered."

Researchers need to know which students received extra help to determine if it made a difference. But Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research at the American Institutes for Research, said Congress didn't require districts to collect such information.

In the Wichita Public Schools, which received a total of $266 million, leaders "gave up" on trying to tie specific programs funded with relief funds to student progress, said Susan Willis, the district's chief financial officer. Leaders are looking for improvement in the areas they always track, like graduation rates and reading scores, she said.

"A student is not in a test tube with one initiative," she said. "Was it the tutoring? The mentoring? It probably was a combination of all those things."

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools aimed to track the impact of its investments when it included specific targets in its original plan for the third round of relief funds  something Goldhaber said the "overwhelming majority" of districts didn't do.

Schools with reset rooms, for example, were expected to see at least a 3 percentage point reduction in out-of-school suspensions. An early 2022 report showed the district was meeting that goal, but it hasn't posted more recent data and board meetings have been consumed by controversy over the district's search for a new superintendent.
Webb Wilder

Like a bug-eyed alien from a planet unknown, Webb Wilder landed in Nashville during the 1980s with a rockabilly bent. His debut album, It Came from Nashville, was rocket fuel.

For what continues, see Webb Wilder land at The Down Home in Johnson City on Saturday, Jan. 6. Oh, its an out-of-this-world adventure. Music, often primal. Lyrics, occasionally bizarre.

Bespectacled and bespoken, Wilder evokes a Southern gentlemen gone wild. His nods to rockabilly lore stretch from his native Mississippi and Elvis Presley to across the pond to reference layers of British rock including The Beatles. Six-string prowess keen, Wilder revels in rock that rocks with guitar. Blues, its there. Smidgens of country, too. But when the lights drop, rock flames up upon the white-hot flick of Wilders ever-rocking wick.

If You Go

Who: Webb Wilder

When: Saturday, Jan. 6 at 8 p.m.

Where: The Down Home, 300 W. Main St., Johnson City

Admission: $30

Info: 423-929-9822

Web, audio and video: www.webbwilder.com

Daniel Byrds Boogie Machine

Originality in music typically rests upon then thrusts from standpoints of that which came before.

Guitar in hand, songs in mind, Daniel Byrds Boogie Machine certainly applies. Slide along with Byrd and band on Friday, Jan. 5 at Delta Blues BBQ in downtown Bristol, Tennessee.

Byrd hails from Buffalo, New York. Yet with a slide on his fretting hand, Byrd plays guitar in the vein of Elmore James as routed through Duane Allman. Byrds rock drips blues much as Buddy Capps Delta Blues menu drips in barbecue sauce. Quite tasty. From Statesboro Blues to ripe originals, Byrds blues-rock boogies much as Canned Heat did when paired with blues man John Lee Hooker. Byrd stirs quite an inferno.

If You Go

Who: Daniel Byrds Boogie Machine

When: Friday, Jan. 5 at 7 p.m.

Where: Delta Blues BBQ, 724 State St., Bristol, Tenn.

Admission: Free

Info: 423-573-3382

Web, audio and video: www.facebook.com/DanielByrdsBoogieMachine/

Honky-Tonk Night

Theres a knight in shining armor near the door. And axe-throwing within.

But come Wednesday, Jan. 10, Honky-Tonk Night commences at The Axe & Ale House on Moore Street in downtown Bristol, Virginia. Bristols Momma Molasses and Ole Justin Chambers provide the twang-infused music.

Molasses leans country with her new album, Take Me to the Country. Molasses recorded the album at Mike Stephensons Classic Recording Studio a few doors down from Axe &Ale. She blends her folk-infused voice with country instrumentation to achieve an album steeped in staunch originality. Paired with Chambers, Molasses leads a night of music unlike any other in all of downtown Bristol.

If You Go

What: Honky Tonk Night

Who: Momma Molasses and Ole Justin Chambers

When: Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 6 p.m.

Where: The Axe & Ale House, 155 Moore St., Bristol, Va.

Admission: Free

Info: 276-285-2020

Web, audio and video: www.facebook.com/mommamolasses/

Music Notes

Three months remain until the 9th Annual James Wimmer Bristol Bluegrass Spring Fest. Slated to stage on Friday, April 5 and Saturday, April 6 within Delta Bristol at Marriott in Bristol, Virginia, tickets are on sale now.

Ralph Stanley II & the Clinch Mountain Boys headline Friday. They augment a day-long lineup that includes Mountain Citys Kody Norris Show, Authentic Unlimited, and The Gospel Playboys.

Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Larry Sparks & The Lonesome Ramblers lead Saturdays round of bluegrass. Sparks helms a list that includes The Grascals, Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers, Lonesome River band, and The Gospel Plowboys.

Tickets are on sale now. Daily rates are $40 for Friday and $45 for Saturday. A two-day ticket retails for $80. However, up-close VIP seating, which includes an event t-shirt, sells for $120.

For more information call 276-935-7975 or 276-244-5002. To make reservations to stay at the hotel during the festival, call 276-466-4100. Check the festival out online at www.mountainheritagemusic.com.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops deliver an entire concert in this weeks free MP3 downloads. Drop by https://archive.org/details/ccdrops2010-12-04.n140.flac16/ccdrops2010-12-04d01t07.flac. Find a full show from 2010. Performed in late 2010, the show includes such Chocolate Drops barnburners as Johnny Cash and June Carters Jackson as well as an incredible Hit Em Up Style.
A Catawba County man charged in the death of 45-year-old Yolanda Burrell appeared in Catawba County District Court on Monday.

Wilbern Carlos Springs, 47, is charged with murder and first-degree kidnapping. Burrell died on Saturday, according to the Catawba County Sheriffs Office.

District Court Judge Wesley Barkley informed Springs that the murder charge carries a maximum sentence of death or life in prison without parole. The first-degree kidnapping charge has a sentence of up to 231 months in prison, Barkley said.

A probable cause hearing was set for Jan. 29.

Springs did not speak during Mondays court session. Springs nodded his head to answer yes when Barkley asked if he needed a court-appointed attorney. Barkley appointed Victoria Jayne to represent Springs in the case.

On Saturday, deputies were called to a reported domestic dispute at a home on the 4000 block of Deal Road in Claremont. Deputies encountered an adult male armed with a firearm, the sheriffs office said in a news release.

The man went back into the residence when approached by deputies, the sheriffs office said.

Deputies were informed there was a body in the home. Deputies and officers with Catawba Countys Special Tactics and Response (STAR) Team made immediate entry into the Deal Road residence, the sheriffs office said.

Deputies found Yolanda Burrell dead inside the residence.

Springs is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
" " Wilma Mankiller served in the top leadership role of the Cherokee Nation from 1985 to 1995. Peter Turnley/Corbis Historical/Getty Images

If you fish in your pocket or purse for a U.S. quarter today, there's a chance you'll see Wilma Mankiller's face. She was the Cherokee Nation's first female principal chief, and she inspired generations of Cherokees and young Native people like me.

In 2022, Mankiller was one of the first women honored by appearing on a series of quarters, along with renowned poet and activist Maya Angelou and physicist and astronaut Sally Ride. Mankiller's quarter, issued in the summer of 2022, marks the first time that a Native American woman has been featured on a U.S. coin since Sacagawea appeared on the golden dollar in 2000.

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As a historian of Native American history, I credit my professional career to Mankiller, whom I heard speak at Salem Women's College when I was an undergraduate student there. I had never seen a non-Native audience listen so intently to a woman who looked like my father's ancestors and grew up in rural Oklahoma, as he did. Like many young Cherokee people, I was raised outside the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation.

Following her lecture, I tore through her autobiography, "Mankiller: A Chief and Her People." In her book and through her life's work, Mankiller introduced a generation of people not just to Cherokee history but also to a model of Native women's leadership, leading by listening to the voices from her community and supporting the programs they sought.
Its a new year and time to make resolutions for the next 12 months. Is succession planning one of the goals your farm needs to tackle in 2024?



There are many reasons a family business puts off planning for the next generation of ownership. Perhaps the simplest to address is not knowing where to start. Beginning the process by at least gathering information and initiating conversations will also help you save the most time and money in the process, said Joy Kirkpatrick during a University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension webinar. Doing nothing is the least logical and most expensive strategy to succession planning. You may think youre avoiding discomfort in the moment, but its probably just creating more issues for the future, explained the farm succession outreach specialist.

To get an idea of where to start, Kirkpatrick described farm transition as a three-step process:

Where is the farm now? Where do you want it to be? How do you get there?

The first phase consists of gathering information about the farms finances, facilities, personnel, and business plan. Up-to-date financial information and a clear picture of the farms current operation were the top requests from a group of transition professionals Kirkpatricks group surveyed, so having those details prepared will help them help you when it is time to bring them into the discussion. Kirkpatrick advised devising a short elevator pitch about your farm that you can succinctly deliver to your succession team members to help them understand the situation.

The financial picture includes looking at how the owner wants the business assets to be distributed. Typically, this can be broken down into three buckets, Kirkpatrick said: retirement assets, business assets, and inheritance assets. The ideal is to hit all three categories, she added.

That financial information will also help you in the second step as you outline what you want the farm to grow into with the next generation. Does the business have the financial capacity to accomplish those goals? Off-farm income plays into this discussion, too.

Determining realistic goals for the farm is where conversations with potential successors must be had. Work on the businesss vision and goals together, and if you have a successor, communicate with them as a business partner. It takes intentional work to shift conversations from a child/parent dynamic to an employer/employee dynamic, Kirkpatrick recognized. That includes gradually transitioning management duties and building trust that the owner is willing to transition and the successor is able to take on those responsibilities. Theres a two-way street for that trust, she stated.

Begin discussing what is considered fair versus equal if there are multiple heirs to the farm assets, Kirkpatrick added, noting that transition professionals like lawyers and accountants want to see this discussion had at least started. Once you have a baseline of the farms current situation and potential, then bring in those professionals, Kirkpatrick said. For the professionals to do a good job for you, you have to be able to tell them what you want, she described.



The elephant in the room

It is hard to discuss succession planning, Kirkpatrick recognized. It feels like youre bringing up the elephant in the room.

Still, she encouraged farms to talk about it. The more discussions you have, the more the messiness of the process will begin to unravel. If you bring it up and the conversation stagnates, resist the urge to go back to doing nothing, Kirkpatrick said. Sit with the uncomfortable feelings because that is how the farm business is going to be able to grow.

She gave a specific call to action to farm owners. You will determine the path of whatever happens to this farm, Kirkpatrick urged. Dont assume that a successor will bring the topic up if they want to be part of the business. Be clear with them about what they need to do if they do want to come into the operation, and then follow through with that. The successor needs to build their skills, but the owner holds the keys.





To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2024

January 1, 2024
KANNAPOLIS  One man is dead and another is in the hospital following an early morning shooting at a Kannapolis business.

According to a press release from the city of Kannapolis, on Sunday, Jan. 7, at approximately 2 a.m., Kannapolis Police officers responded to an incident at S&M E-Juice, located at 1121 S. Cannon Blvd. When officers arrived, they found two people had been shot. Both individuals were transported to Atrium Health Cabarrus.

Shovontae Shikim Byers, 23, of Kannapolis, died from his injuries. The other victim, Quentin Parhams, 28, of Concord, has non-life-threatening injuries. No arrests have been made at this point, Kannapolis Police said.

If you have information about this incident or any others, you are urged to contact the Kannapolis Police Department at 704-920-4000. To remain anonymous and qualify for a reward you can contact Cabarrus Area Crime Stoppers at https://cabarruscrimestoppers.com/submit-a-tip/ or 704-93CRIME.
CONCORD  You may want to take a moment to check your North Carolina voter information.

Out of the 154,003 registered voters (as of Jan. 3, 2024) in Cabarrus County, 147,635 will see changes to their ballots beginning with the March 2024 primary election.

In October 2023, the North Carolina General Assembly approved new voting maps. Due to this redistricting, 38 of 39 Cabarrus precincts have either an N.C. House, N.C. Senate or congressional district change.

Cabarrus County Board of Elections Director Carol Soles encourages voters to visit the State Board of Elections online voter search tool at vt.ncsbe.gov/reglkup/ to view their updated information.

The site provides voters with a wide variety of details, including their:

Jurisdictions

Voting locations

Sample ballots

Absentee ballot information

Voter history

Voters can find updated ballot district changes under the Your Jurisdictions section.

Soles also encourages voters to view and print out their sample ballot before heading to the polls. This will look nearly identical to your election ballot, allowing you to see your jurisdictions and candidates as well as practice marking the ballot.

During the last presidential primary in 2020, 39,558 of the countys 139,313 registered voters cast a ballot.

This year, Primary Election Day is March 5. Cabarrus County Board of Elections begins mailing absentee ballots on Jan. 19 and in-person early voting begins Feb. 15.

North Carolina residents can register to vote online or in person through the DMV, or by filling out the appropriate form available at www.ncsbe.gov/registering/how-register and submitting by mail.

To stay up to date on statewide voting information, visit www.ncsbe.gov. For Cabarrus County updates, visit www.cabarruscounty.us/elections.

About the Board of Elections

The Board of Elections is the only statutory, bi-partisan, quasi-judicial, supervisory board in N.C. state government.

The local boards duties are imposed by law and include the making and issuing of rules, regulations and instructions, not inconsistent with law or the rules established by the State Board of Elections, as it deems necessary for the guidance of election officers and voters.

Board of Elections meetings are open to the public and are usually held on the second and fourth Monday of every month at 12:30 p.m. (when there is business) in the County Board of Elections Office, 369 Church St. N, Concord.
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The White House is losing the immigration debate.

There hasn't been any question that it has deserved to lose this debate from the beginning.

But for the longest time, there wasn't much focus on the border, except on the right.

Now, the negotiations between the White House and congressional Republicans over a package of immigration provisions and new funding for Ukraine have put the border at the center of the political discussion, and the White House is faring poorly.

In an interview on the show "CBS Mornings" the other day, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sat through what must have been the roughest handling he's ever encountered from the mainstream press.

Co-host Tony Dokoupil challenged him on specific policy changes Republicans are advocating, and when Mayorkas was evasive, told him, "Republicans want a stop to the flow  with very specific ideas. You're not even talking about those ideas this morning."

This was significant, not because Dokoupli is becoming an immigration restrictionist, but because a mainstream news anchor  on a morning show, no less  has absorbed the notion that GOP border hawks have constructive ideas on immigration worth considering.

When is the last time that happened?

It turns out that when your policy has been to permit 4.5 million new illegal immigrants and counting to enter the United States, straining communities around the country, your credibility takes a hit and even sympathetic people begin to look for alternatives.

The insistence of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre that President Biden is either doing everything he can at the border, that he's helpless because the immigration system is broken or that [insert some other excuse here] was always tinny and unconvincing, but now is laughably implausible given the scale of the unspooling disaster.

She said a couple of weeks ago that the numbers at the border are "not usual," even though December was another record for encounters.

When reminded of this at a recent briefing, she denied she said it and emphasized that there are "ebbs and flows" at the border, raising the question of when the "ebbs" are going to happen.

A couple of things have turned the tide of the debate, besides the sheer numbers involved.

One might be called the "Bill Melugin effect," after the Fox News reporter who has delivered stunning images from the border day and after day, even when the rest of the media wasn't paying attention.

It's one thing to read a New York Times headline, " We Are Not Equipped to Deal with This': Migrant Surge Overwhelms U.S. Border"; it's another to see it happening in real time, and hear directly from the people involved.

The cries for help from Democratic mayors have also validated the idea that there is indeed a crisis and it comes with real costs.

But, unwilling to stray too far from the party line, the mayors blame Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for sending migrants their way and plead for more resources rather than call on the Biden administration to exclude the illegal immigrants in the first place.

Finally, there's the growing recognition that the chaos at the border is hurting Biden, and he needs to do something about it.

"There's no doubt that there's been a shift on this partly because of the influx of these migrants in these big cities," Democratic strategist David Axelrod told the Times.

This reality puts the White House in the weaker position in the negotiations  it is the administration that most needs a change at the border to stop its political bleeding (and get the Ukraine funding it wants), while the status quo favors Republicans.

None of this means that the GOP will get what it wants.

To ensure a meaningful change, it needs to limit Biden's authority to release people into the country, and the details will matter.

But the party has the upper hand, thanks to a Biden failure at the border that may, finally, be unsustainable.

(COMMENT, BELOW)
UK-headquartered Conexus Resources Group has inaugurated a $100 million state-of-the-art aluminium rod plant in Bahrain which has a capacity of 32,000 metric tonnes per annum.

The company, operating in 15 countries across the world including Switzerland and Singapore, will leverage the groups combined expertise in cutting-edge processing and logistical capabilities in managing global value chains to process liquid aluminium from Bahrains national manufacturer, Alba, into high-quality aluminium rods, serving regional and international clients.

The new company, Konexus Aluminium, affirms Bahrains standing as a leading destination for manufacturing and export hub to international markets.

Healthy pipeline

Currently the second largest non-oil contributor to real GDP standing at 13.9% as of 2023, Bahrains manufacturing sector has maintained a healthy pipeline of national and international companies which includes Alba, the largest single-site smelter outside of China producing more than 2% of the world's aluminium output, offering manufacturing companies investment-ready land for aluminium downstream projects. The sector remains a point of focus as one of the five priority non-oil sectors outlined by the national Economic Recovery Plan.

Dr Khaled Fahad Alalawi, Assistant Undersecretary for Industrial Development at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, remarked: This inauguration marks yet another milestone achievement that stands as a testament to Bahrains thriving manufacturing sector, where Bahrain continues to provide companies with an ideal gateway to tap into the Middle East market and beyond.

Giant stride

He continued: Over the past 18 months, Conexus Resources have made remarkable progress in establishing their rod plant facility, owing to the collaborative efforts of Team Bahrain as well as Alba. This initiative is a giant stride for the local manufacturing sector and is furthered by a larger strategic plan that will see the development of the kingdoms aluminium downstream park, further placing Bahrain at the forefront of aluminium manufacturing on regional and global levels.

Manufacturing companies operating in Bahrain benefit from a business-friendly environment, a favourable tax regime, with 100% foreign ownership enabled across most sectors, and expert insights backed by a diverse portfolio of aluminium manufacturing companies that effectively complement downstream clustering. Export-focused firms gain streamlined connectivity to international markets with advanced air and sea freight connectivity and direct access to the Saudi Arabia via the King Fahad Causeway.

High-quality aluminium rods

Brijender Pal Singh, Chief Executive Officer of Conexus Resources Group, added: We are pleased to officially go-live with production at our newly constructed and inaugurated state-of-the-art aluminium rod plant in Bahrain. Konexus aims to provide high-quality aluminium rods to global industrial uses, and Bahrain was a clear destination of choice given the availability of experienced and highly skilled local talent, duty-free trade advantage and strategic location that offers direct access to one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

Ali AlMudaifa, Chief of Business Development at Bahrain Economic Development Board, said: Beyond its strategic location and free trade agreements covering 22 countries, Bahrain provides investors the best value manufacturing operational costs in the region with unparalleled export efficiencies owing to a world-class logistics zone, providing fertile ground for companies looking to set up and expand across the region  the Konexus Aluminium plant is a welcome addition to Bahrains thriving aluminium industry, adding-value with their niche experience and capabilities.--TradeArabia News Service
Young officers looked on, unsure how to respond. It's no wonder. Since 2020, the fascist far Left has demonized the police and tried to defund them into oblivion. Yet these same demoralized cops  and their 800,000 brothers and sisters in blue across this land  are the key to saving America.

As with King Arthur and Excalibur, an extraordinary individual must liberate the sword of law enforcement and wield it effectively against those who would obliterate this constitutional republic.

Last month, a pack of jihadists stormed the White House gates and splattered them with fake blood and red-paint handprints. Whatever one thinks of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue's current tenant, attacks on the Executive Mansion must be punished.

Like Hamas's anti-Israel butchery, these outrages are part of the far-Left's relentless assault on Western civilization. "To put 300,000 terrorist sympathizers in the streets of Washington on short notice, you need a well-oiled machine," Washington Times columnist Don Feder observed. "They're the result of a coalition of radicals united by their hatred of America and the West  a coalition that is willing to condone the most horrific violence to advance the revolution."

Only a leader with stones of steel  and legions of disciplined, dedicated patriots  can reverse this catastrophe.

Without the presidency, Donald J. Trump is just a private citizen. He made the Bully Pulpit great again, and still preaches effectively, even without it. He also enjoys (as we noted in a previous article) a tight bond with the police.

One of us produces WABC Radio's Cop Talk program. Joe Diamond has spoken to countless officers who want Trump back in the Oval Office. Likewise, they enthusiastically support his pro public-safety agenda, which includes plans to bolster police departments and toughen punishment for assaulting cops.

"We will restore law and order to our communities," Trump promised voters in Durham, New Hampshire, on December 16: "I'm going to indemnify, through the federal government, all police officers and law enforcement officials throughout the United States from being destroyed by the radical Left for taking strong actions against crime."

Police officers have an even larger role to play in America's salvation. This is where Trump should crank his bully pulpit to full volume.

At every campaign stop  in his typically awe-inspiring fashion  Trump must galvanize every patriotic police officer. Specifically, he should:
Insight Would Ronald Reagan abandon Ukraine to Russia? By Andrew L. Stigler Chicago Tribune/(TNS) Published Jan. 8, 2024

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As the fighting in Ukraine continues, some representatives in Congress, primarily Republicans, oppose additional financial and military support for Ukraine's resistance to Russia's ongoing invasion.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he has reservations about continued support for Ukraine because he believes that there is inadequate oversight on how the aid is spent and sees no strategy to win. Johnson also argued that America's border problems should take priority, a preference shared by many on the right. Congress will take up the issue again this year, but the future of American aid to Ukraine is in serious doubt.

Four decades ago, a Republican president supported a different victim of Russian aggression, in a situation similar to the one that the United States faces today. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, President Jimmy Carter offered limited aid to the Afghani resistance. But it was a Republican who championed and dramatically expanded funding for the Afghan mujahedeen during most of the nine-year effort to compel a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. That leader was the icon of the GOP, Ronald Reagan.

During Reagan's first term, the prospects of wearing down the Soviet Union and convincing the Soviet leadership to quit Afghanistan did not look promising. J. Bruce Amstutz's book "Afghanistan: The First Five Years of Soviet Occupation," published in 1986 as the Soviet occupation continued with no end in sight, summarized the conventional wisdom of the early 1980s that Moscow could not be pressured to withdraw.

Amstutz, a Foreign Service officer who had been stationed in Kabul from 1977 to 1980, argued that Moscow had invested "Soviet prestige and resources" in the fight for control of Afghanistan and had no intention of departing. The Soviets were set on obtaining the "geopolitical power projection benefits from eventual consolidation of Soviet control." Amstutz noted the "Soviet bureaucratic imperative of never admitting to mistakes," as well as an "absence so far of much Soviet domestic opposition to the war." Note that all of these caveats can be applied, word for word, to Putin's current effort in Ukraine.

Yet, defying these causes for pessimism, Reagan continued and even increased his support for the Afghan resistance for many years. He recognized America's unique role as a defender of freedom, even the freedom of an Asian nation far from the West.

After meeting with mujahedeen leaders in Washington in November 1987, Reagan spoke of the need for continued aid: "And as the resistance continues the fight, we and other responsible governments will stand by it. The support that the United States has been providing the resistance will be strengthened, rather than diminished, so that it can continue to fight effectively for freedom. The just struggle against foreign tyranny can count upon worldwide support, both political and material."

Far from relenting after a couple of years, as many of today's Republicans in Congress propose regarding Ukraine, Reagan increased American support in 1987. And Reagan's determination paid off. The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, a historic superpower defeat that contributed to the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Afghan and American perseverance culminated in a tremendous setback for the Soviets' regional ambitions.

American aid to Ukraine since February 2022 greatly exceeds what the United States provided to the Afghans in the 1980s. But the geostrategic stakes are much higher as well. In 1980, America merely aspired to take Afghanistan, an impoverished and strategically irrelevant nation, out of the Soviet sphere. Today, American aid to Ukraine is helping prevent a huge Eastern European country of more than 40 million from becoming the first European nation to be conquered since World War II.

The recent Ukrainian counteroffensive did not lead to sweeping advances, and it was unrealistic to assume it would. But Ukrainians are imposing a tremendous cost on the Russian aggressor. Russia has lost a catastrophic number of soldiers  315,000 have been killed or wounded, according to a recent estimate, which is higher than the number of Russian soldiers killed and missing (which excludes the wounded) from all of Russia's post-World War II conflicts combined, including the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Ukrainian resistance has been incredible, purchased at great cost. It will take time for these costs to have an impact, and Kyiv's allies need to buy Ukrainians that additional time.

Republicans in Congress often play an eager role in funding America's defense, and Congress as a whole spends hundreds of billions each year to prepare for notional wars in the near and distant future. It is puzzling, then, to see so many members wavering in their support for Ukraine. This is not a notional future war but a fight for the actual independence of a real neighbor of NATO fighting a real war against real aggression by a real dictator.

If he were alive today, would Reagan be bailing out on the Ukrainians?

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Andrew L. Stigler is an associate professor in the National Security Affairs Department of the United States Naval War College. The views expressed are his own and not those of any government department or agency.
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When the Endangered Species Act was signed into law 50 years ago, nothing about it was controversial. The legislation had passed unopposed in the Senate and by a near-unanimous majority (355-4) in the House. No one in Congress, the news media, or the scientific community seems to have had any qualms about enacting what is now one of the most potent and rigorous environmental laws on the federal books.

"Essentially no skepticism was expressed about either the law's conservation goals or its regulatory strategies," University of California, Berkeley professor Holly Doremus, a leading environmental law scholar, wrote in the Journal of Law & Policy. "Legislators appear to have regarded it as an opportunity to deliver ringing rhetoric that would please the environmental movement without facing any immediate political costs."

Accepted at face value was the assurance that with the new statute in place, endangered plant and animal species would be protected and their populations restored to healthy levels. That was the reason for the Endangered Species Act, explicitly spelled out in the text. Section 2(b) says the law's purpose was "to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered species and threatened species." The law also defined those key words, "conserve" and "conservation." They mean "to bring any endangered or threatened species to the point at which the measures provided pursuant to this chapter are no longer necessary."

Measured against that yardstick, the Endangered Species Act has been a failure.

To begin with, there are more endangered and threatened species than ever before. When the law went into effect in 1973, fewer than 130 species were on the government's list of domestic plants and animals at risk of going extinct. Today, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, there are well over 1,600. And just as the ESA has not prevented the endangerment of many additional species, it has not achieved its mission of bringing endangered flora and fauna populations back to health. All told, only 57 domestic species (3 percent of those listed) have recovered, while 11 (1 percent) have gone extinct. After a half-century under the stringent safeguards established by the law, 96 percent of the endangered-species list is still, by the federal government's reckoning, endangered.

Attempting to put lipstick on a pig, defenders of the status quo cheer the fact that 99 percent of listed species haven't gone extinct. But as Jonathan Adler of the Center for Environmental Law at Case Western Reserve University observes, that is like celebrating because 99 percent of patients admitted to the emergency room years ago are still on life support. The whole point of treatment is for patients to get well, not to linger in ill health.

Similarly, the whole point of the Endangered Species Act was to conserve at-risk plants and animals, not just to list them. What went wrong?

The essence of the problem lies in how the law treats property owners. The ESA makes it illegal to harm an endangered species, including by destroying or changing the habitat where that species lives. Since two-thirds of species on the endangered list are found on private property, owners can face crippling restrictions on the use of their own land. Rather than encourage property owners to protect the habitat on which such species rely  for example, by reimbursing them for the profit they stand to lose if a planned development is halted or a stand of timber goes unharvested  the law threatens them with painful losses if they don't. Often their response has been to preempt that threat by eliminating the evidence before the government learns about it.

"When it comes to private land, ESA encourages not preservation of endangered species, but their quick shooting," science writer Ronald Bailey wrote in 2003. "If an endangered species is found on a farmer's property, she has every incentive to, as they say, 'shoot, shovel, and shut up.'"

Sam Hamilton, a career Fish and Wildlife Service official who became the agency's director under President Barack Obama, grasped the issue. "The incentives are wrong here," he once said. "If I have a rare metal on my property, its value goes up. But if a rare bird occupies the land, its value disappears. We've got to turn it around to make the landowner want to have the bird on his property."

Sadly, Hamilton died just months after being named to head the Fish and Wildlife Service and was never able to effect that turnaround. As the Endangered Species Act embarks on its second half-century, it is clearer than ever that the law needs an overhaul. Will it take another 50 years to make that happen?

Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe, from which this is reprinted with permission."
100 years ago,

Jan. 8, 1924

MATTOON  "The National Bank of Mattoon and the Central Illinois Trust and Savings Bank will not take over the State Trust and Savings Bank." The above statement was made to a representative of the JG by G.S. Richmond, president of the National Bank of Mattoon and W.T. Osborne, president of the Central Illinois Trust and Savings Bank, following the examination that was made by these gentlemen of the "paper" on which the bank had made its loans. "This bank closed for examination and adjustment by order of Andrew Russel, auditor of public accounts," is the text of a placard hanging in the front door of the bank, placed there Monday afternoon, after it became certain the National Bank of Mattoon and the Central Illinois Trust and Savings Bank had decided not to take over the closed financial institution. The latest card replaced one which had been placed at the glass door early Monday morning.

50 years ago, 1974

MATTOON  Mattoon Police Chief Robert Plummer, 59, died at 9:28 a.m. today in Memorial Hospital. He was taken to the hospital a few minutes earlier after collapsing in the police station. Plummer was talking to Donald Cordes, Mattoon City Hall custodian, and Ed Horn, investigator for the Coles County state's attorney's office at approximately 9:05 a.m. when he suddenly collapsed in his chair. Cordes immediately went to the door of the police squad room and yelled to firemen downstairs. Members of the fire department's rescue unit rushed to the squad room, administered oxygen to Plummer and began thumping his chest. Ray Belleau, radio dispatcher, called an ambulance. Ambulance personnel arrived within minutes at the station and took Plummer to the hospital where he died...MATTOON  New York may have its Park Ave., but Mattoon is not without its own "Avenue." Frank Rose, one of the oldest residents of Western Avenue, recalls life on "The Avenue" during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Rose, 87, was born on Charleston Ave. in 1887. After the death of his parents, he moved in the early 1890s to his grandparents home, at 3500 Western. In those days, the farm was "out in the country," and one of Rose's earliest recollections was, watching the street being paved. "I used to always love watching the horses," he recalls. Rose has spent all but two of his 87 Christmases in the house at Western Ave. where he established his businesses during his adult life.

25 years ago, 1999

STRASBURG  A rural Stewardson home was damaged by a fire that started in the chimney early Tuesday. Volunteer firefighters from Strasburg and Windsor responded to the Jim and Marty Haarman residence, located about three miles east of Strasburg. The Haarmans were asleep when the fire was noticed by their son, Chad, about 1 a.m. He then alerted the family and the Strasburg Fire Department. Windsor firefighter Russell Rincker said the home sustained a lot of smoke and water damage, but the fire was contained to the south roof area of the home. The home has a woodburning stove in the basement area. Rincker estimated $65,000 worth of damage...MATTOON  A development group plans to construct a new apartment residential area west of Interstate 57 behind the Super 8 and Fairfield Inn Hotels. Kent Heckaman, director of development for the Sterling group of Mishawaka, Ind., told the Zoning Board of Appeals Thursday of plans to build a minimum of 128 units and a maximum of 144 units. Construction is expected to start in the spring and take from 16 to 18 months. First the property must be rezoned from industrial to C-4, general commercial, and receive a special-use permit for multi-family residential units.
Piedmont Triad International Airport will offer its next series of federal Transportation Security Administration PreCheck enrollment sessions on Feb. 12-16. The cost of a PreCheck membership is $78, which is valid for five years.

The PreCheck program is an expedited screening program that enables identified low-risk air travelers to enjoy a faster and easier airport screening experience. The program is open to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals and lawful permanent residents.

The sessions will be held from 9 a.m. to noon, and from 1 to 5 p.m. each day. Screenings will be held at the arrivals level on the American side in the Winston-Salem room.

The screening process features in-person background check and fingerprinting. Applicants are asked to bring proof of identity and U.S. citizenship

For PreCheck-approved travelers, there is no need to remove shoes, light outerwear or belts, or to take out 3-1-1 liquids or laptops from carry-on bags.

Appointments are requested at www.IdentoGO.com/tsa-precheck, but walk-ins are welcome as time permits. Applicants are required to fill out an online pre-enrollment application at https://www.tsa.gov/precheck.

Following the in-person enrollment appointment, most applicants receive their Known Traveler Number in about three to five days. The KTN number must be added to flight reservations to enjoy TSA PreCheck benefits.

For those who cannot make the PTI enrollment event, but are still interested in enrolling in TSA PreCheck, they can complete the application online and schedule an appointment at a Idemia enrollment center nationwide. Idemia is a TSA PreCheck authorized enrollment provider,
Happy Monday. Batten down the hatches.

Try as we might to adhere to all ten, one commandment stands above the others in degree of difficulty.

Killing, stealing and adultery, the big three are straightforward. Honoring father and mother, not taking the Lords name in vain, those are harder but not impossible. The same applies to bearing false witness.

The bit about false idols seems vague. But number ten? Coveting? Holy moly.

We cant leave the house without feeling the pull of covetousness. The neighbor can keep his donkey; but that new Ford F-150? With the heated steering wheel and the full tow-package? Wowsers.

The most recent episode  and by a large margin the weirdest  came on a recent day trip to visit the in-laws.

For years, weve been zipping west down Interstate 40 to Burke County to see them. All the while watching in awe as construction crews worked non-stop on the massive whirlpool interchange between I-40 and I-77 in Statesville.

In seemingly record time, engineers and crews completely redesigned and rebuilt that interchange.

The N.C. Department of Transportation oversaw the widening of some 7 miles of interstate from four to eight lanes, replaced bridges and built high-arching ramps that weave through one another. The whole thing resembles a whirlpool, though the state prefers to refer to it as a partial turbine.

To-may-to, too-mah-to.

Ready access to $260 million and political pull get things done. Lo and behold, all travel lanes of the whirlpool are now opened to traffic in all directions.

Heres the kicker  the coveting, as it were: The bulk of the construction, again per DOT, wrapped up in five years.

Right on time for holiday travel, the N.C. Department of Transportation has reached a significant milestone on the I-40/I-77 interchange project in Iredell County, said Jen Goodwin, a spokesperson for the N.C. DOT in a news release last month heralding the milestone. All travel lanes in the project limits are open and in their final pattern, about 10 days ahead of schedule.

The five years, mind you, was for work on travel lanes. Construction on nearby bridges and overpasses started in 2012.

Still, the project is a feat of engineering. Certainly worthy of admiration and pats on the back. With traffic patterns set, all that remains is finishing work.

Nobody is saying that it wasnt needed. The whirlpool replaces an old-school cloverleaf built in the 1960s that was obsolete the day politicians held a ribbon-cutting.

The whirlpool now moves some 70,000 vehicles a day through the interchange. By 2035, that number is expected to increase to 110,000.

Heres the thing, though.

While the achievement should be lauded, its difficult as a longtime resident of the Triad not to be a little envious.

Forsyth County taxpayers have been waiting since the early 1990s for a simple ring-road. Other North Carolina cities including Greensboro, Fayetteville, Raleigh, Charlotte and Wilmington have enjoyed the ease and convenience to different degrees for years.

Worse, as we learned in the fall, the wait for a functional ring road got even longer when powers-that-be in charge of the State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) decided last autumn that the western leg of the Beltway would be dropped down a list of priorities.

The bulk of the money for the western leg, the section designed to connect U.S. 52 in Rural Hall to I-40 near Clemmons, wont be coming until after 2033.

This was a blow to us, Pat Ivey, DOTs division engineer for Davie, Davidson, Forsyth, Rowan and Stokes counties, told a colleague when the reordering was announced. It is very disappointing, but not surprising due to the cost estimates, and we dont have the funding to cover our needs.

So yeah, driving through  and marveling at  a massive traffic whirlpool can strain a corollary to commandment number 10: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors new interchange.

Heavy rain, wind and locusts

GREENSBORO  More, much more, will be said over the coming hours today about a wall of weather approaching from the west.

Torrential rain, thunderstorms and tornadoes are possible Tuesday across large swathes of the southeastern United States. Wind gusts of more than 50 mph are within the realm of possibility.

Those conditions would include us here in the Triad. Flooding, in addition to the wind and storms, would follow if forecasts calling for up to 2 inches of rain are in the ballpark.

Snow and its dreaded cousin ice could be in the offing for higher elevations and points north. Ordinarily wed snicker at the advice offered by local police and the state highway patrol when bad weather threatens: leave early, go slow, allow plenty of distance or better year, just stay home.

Not this time, however.

Storms, flooding, high winds, tornadoes, snow and ice. Can pestilence and famine be far behind?
The Daily Minute is the Journal Star's morning news briefing where you can get the latest news in about a minute each weekday. Previous Daily Minute videos are archived here.

Good morning, Lincoln. Here's what you should know today.

Prison control bill

A proposal put forth by an Omaha lawmaker Friday would put Nebraska's Legislature in charge of the state's prison system, which, for now, is under the purview of the governor's executive branch.

If made law, Sen. Justin Wayne's bill would put senators in charge of the general management, control and government of the Department of Correctional Services, giving the Legislature hiring power over the department's director.

The power to make such a change is already prescribed to lawmakers in Nebraska's Constitution, which grants the Legislature the power to manage "all state charitable, mental, reformatory and penal institutions."

Proposal for former Sears building

A proposed redevelopment of the former Sears building at Gateway Mall would bring new-to-the market retailers, a service center for electric vehicles and a medical clinic to the site.

Those details are included in a redevelopment plan that will be presented to the city's Urban Design Committee during a public hearing Tuesday.

According to a staff report included with the agenda for the meeting, a company called Reserve Development plans to convert the 120,000-square-foot building at 6400 O St into, "an upscale quality smaller tenant space with three new to Lincoln retailers, an American multi-national high end green electric vehicle service facility and a Lincoln hospital-based urgent care and outpatient medical office facility within the existing building area while keeping the former Sears building shell."

Bracelets for charity

And, Chloe Wolff, a sixth grade student at Lux Middle School, raised more than $300 to donate to local charities by selling homemade bracelets.

Chloe has always loved helping people  and crafts of all sorts  so when she went to her parents with an idea to make and sell bracelets and donate a portion of the proceeds to a local nonprofit, it really wasnt shocking to them at all.

In September, Chloes mom helped Chloe make a Facebook post, notifying friends and family of the fundraiser and directing people to pick a size, a few colors and even a design of words or smiley faces. Chloes idea was something of a hit, and she wound up selling around 100 bracelets from the post.

Thats it for Monday, Jan. 8. Stay in the know with Lincolns longest-standing news source at JournalStar.com and well see you back here tomorrow.

The Journal Star's most memorable photos of 2023
Scientists long ago figured out that genetic changes give pathogens such as bacteria and viruses the ability to infect new species and develop resistance to drugs.

But they didnt know what might allow prions  the infectious agents that cause fatal neurodegenerative diseases, including chronic wasting disease in deer and mad cow disease in cattle  to make such changes. Prions, pronounced pre-ons, are composed solely of proteins and lack any type of genetic material.

Jason Bartz, a professor of medical microbiology and immunology in Creighton Universitys School of Medicine, said researchers have theorized that small numbers of prions with subtly different shapes, known as substrains, hiding out in the larger crowd might provide an opening for such changes.

This fall, Bartz and his students published the first solid evidence that substrains are present in a prion mix in a stable rodent model and that administering anti-prion drugs can allow drug-resistant ones to emerge. The paper was published in September in PloS Pathogens, a peer-reviewed, open-access medical journal.

As a result of that work, the National Institutes of Health recently awarded the team a five-year, $2.7 million grant that will allow them to apply the methods they developed to other basic questions about prions, such as how they infect other species.

Prions can evolve like other microorganisms in that they respond to selective pressures and they can adapt to different environments, Bartz said. This idea of substrains just helps them more rapidly adapt to new environments.

Such questions are important in an agricultural state like Nebraska, Bartz said. Exports of American beef dropped off to some countries for a time in the early 2000s after the first case of mad cow, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, was identified in the United States in 2003 in a cow imported from Canada.

Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, was first discovered in Colorado in 1967 and was identified in Nebraskas Kimball County in 2000. Surveillance by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission detected 31 positive cases in deer from 603 samples collected in central and north-central Nebraska during the November firearm deer season. The agency has tested more than 57,000 deer and more than 400 elk for the fatal neurodegenerative disease since 1997. A total of 1,269 deer and 19 elk have tested positive for CWD to date.

The agency noted that there is no strong evidence that chronic wasting disease, a prion disease that attacks the brains of infected deer, moose and elk, poses a risk for humans. Public health officials, however, recommend avoiding human exposure. People should remain cautious in how they handle, process and consume deer, avoiding butchering or processing deer in a way that could spread spinal cord or brain tissue to meat or the environment.

Bartz noted that deer range with other animals, including cattle, sheep and pigs. While chronic wasting disease has not transmitted from deer to any of those species, there may be potential for such transmission to occur. Among other things, he and his students want to understand whether there is a risk of transmission.

Wed like to understand at fine detail, how does that work? he said. If we know how it works, then we can try to prevent it.

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Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian is voicing support for a long-derailed plan to create a commuter rail line between the cities of Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee, with related items expected to come through the city in the coming months.

He said he has spoken with Racine Mayor Cory Mason about the project. In 2022, Racine received $5 million from the federal government for a new study on the feasibility of the commuter rail project.

Im very supportive, Antaramian said. Its an excellent opportunity for the community and the whole region.

Last year, a profile of the project was posted on the Federal Transit Administration website, proposing a private entity, the Wisconsin Transit & Realty Group, own and operate the rail line.

In the profile, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation proposed to implement commuter rail service along an existing 33-mile freight rail corridor from Downtown Kenosha, through Racine and to the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, in conjunction with the WTRG.

The line would serve nine stations, three existing and six new, providing a connection to Metras Union Pacific-North commuter rail line in Kenosha. The project, running along Lake Michigan parallel to I-94, would involving upgrading the tracks to allow operating speeds up to 79 mph.

Beyond new stations and updated tracks, the project proposal included up to three 10,000-foot passing sidings, implementing positive train control, upgrading grade crossings along the route with quadrant gates and signaling, building a maintenance facility, and rehabilitating or replacing various bridges.

Plans for the KRM commuter railway date back to the 1990s, but were stalled in 2011 when the State Legislature and governor dissolved the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority, the organization created to oversee the project.
1. Yes. It will be convenient and the fares are cheap. I plan to use the transit system often.

2. Yes. I have a vehicle, but I may still use the service now and then, especially in bad weather.

3. No. I dont use the current bus service, and I dont plan to use the micro-transit service either.

4. No. It may be fine in town, but it still involves a transfer for longer trips. That wont work.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say. It depends on how well the service works once its in place.

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The UAE has announced its participation in developing a module on Nasas Lunar Gateway Station alongside the US, Japan, Canada and the European Union, in addition to sending the first Emirati astronaut into lunar orbit as part of the project.

The nations contribution in the development of the Crew and Science Airlock module on the Lunar Gateway Station, aims to strengthen its global presence in the fields of space science and technology, said a Wam news agency report.

The plan was annnounced in the presence of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai on Sunday.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said during the event, which was held at Qasr Al Watan in Abu Dhabi: The UAEs participation in this international project reflects our commitment to promoting partnerships with the world that contribute to the advancement of knowledge and progress for humanity.

He expressed his pride in the national institutions and teams that contribute to achieving the UAEs ambitions in the space sector, and reiterated the leaderships continued support for ongoing participation in international missions and events that advance the sustainable development of the country and the global community.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said: We have a longstanding journey in the space sector, our team comprises highly skilled professionals capable of leading the most challenging scientific missions. Our unwavering ambition knows no limits when it comes to our future Emirati projects.

He further noted: A significant mission awaits us in this project that represents a groundbreaking initiative for humanity's return to the Moon, landing on its surface and establishing it as a base for future missions toward Mars. The Emirati team alongside other international teams, are capable of accomplishing this mission, and we will support them by providing all the necessary resources.

The UAE is the fifth partner in this project, which will be among the most important global achievements of the 21st century, and represents a historic achievement among the UAE's accomplishments in the space sector.

This contribution comes in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The project represents humankinds renewed ambition to revisit the Moon after an absence of more than fifty years. This initiative involves landing on the Moons surface in preparation for upcoming missions directed towards Mars.

Airlock features and details

The UAE will be responsible for developing the lunar space station's Crew and Science Airlock, a critical component for maintaining a safe environment for astronauts. This unit will act as a portal of the station, serving as the entry and exit point for missions and astronauts travelling to the Moons surface from the Lunar Gateway Station.

The UAE will also undertake the management and operation of the stations Airlock. The Airlocks length is 10 metres, its width is 4 metres, weight 10 tonnes, while the size of the entire station is: 19 x 20 x 42M.

The station will double as a space laboratory, enabling a range of scientific and technical experiments, and will have a minimum lifespan of 15 years, which is subject to extension.

The first elements of Gateway are expected to be launched by 2025, while the Emirates Airlock is scheduled to be launched by 2030.

Airlock Project phases

The Airlock development stages will include five main stages: The planning stage; the design phase; the qualification process; the flight preparation; and the operations stage.

The planning stage consists of establishing objectives, strategies and Project partners for the creation of the Airlock module, while the second stage will include the development of detailed designs and specifications for the components of the Airlock unit in order to be assembled.

The qualification process stage is characterised by testing and qualifying the Airlock units components to ensure their reliability and safety for space conditions and requirements. The fourth phase of the Airlocks development will include the preparations and launching of the space components, and integrating them into the Lunar Gateway Station.

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) will be responsible for managing, maintaining and operating the Airlock, ensuring it functions effectively as part of the Gateway.

What is Artemis?

The pivotal NASA mission Artemis is focused on returning humans to the Moon and establishing sustainable long-term Lunar missions. The Artemis missions are expected to provide invaluable insights into lunar resources, technologies, and how to live and work on another celestial body, significantly advancing our understanding of the Moon, Mars and the expanses of the universe.

The Lunar Gateway Station is a key component of this endeavour, as humanitys first space station orbiting the Moon. This station, built in collaboration with international and commercial partners, will provide essential functions to support astronaut health and mission objectives.

The Gateway will enable long-term astronaut stays, enhanced communication with the lunar surface, and facilitate studies on solar and cosmic radiation, as part of the programme's vision of lunar exploration and future missions to Mars.

Significant input of the UAE

The UAE's involvement in the Gateway marks a momentous advancement in international space collaboration. This will elevate the nation as a pivotal leader in the global space community of the future.

The UAE will hold a permanent seat and contribute scientifically to the largest programme for lunar and space exploration. It will be among the first countries to send an astronaut to the Moon, with priority access to advanced scientific and engineering data gathered by the station, enhancing its journey of knowledge.

Gateway supports sustained exploration and research in deep space, including docking ports for a variety of visiting spacecraft; space for crew to live, work, and prepare for lunar surface missions for a duration of up to 90 days; and on-board science investigations to study helio-physics, human health, and life sciences, among other areas.

Hamad Obaid AlMansoori, Chairman of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), said: Our participation in this project marks a new chapter in the UAE's journey of space exploration. Guided by the ambition of our leadership, we are entering a fresh era in space exploration. Their wise vision has been a driving force behind our involvement in the development of Nasa's Lunar Gateway Station, a global milestone showcasing the UAE's commitment and expanding capabilities.

Salem Humaid Al Marri, Director-General at Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, said: We are grateful for the unwavering commitment and ambitious vision of our wise leadership, which has transformed space into a field of innovation and scientific progress. The UAEs contribution in this project is not just a national triumph but a global achievement. It showcases our ability to actively contribute to space exploration. This project emphasises the significance of international cooperation in this field, and reflects our keenness to participate in the re-establishment of human presence on the Moon and advance space missions towards Mars."
GRAND ISLAND  Three Conestoga Mall businesses  Dees Hallmark, the Incredible Bulk and LensCrafters  will close their doors this month.

Dees Hallmark and the Incredible Bulk have no plans to reopen anywhere else in Grand Island. An employee at LensCrafters, which will close Jan. 20, said the company hasnt given any indication if it will reopen elsewhere.

The leases for both the Hallmark store and the Incredible Bulk are expiring.

They are among the stores currently operating in the south end of the mall, as Conestoga Mall is being transformed into Conestoga Marketplace.

Dees Hallmark needs to vacate its space by Jan. 31, but may close before then, said owner Colleen Belitz, who lives in Columbus.

Belitz used to own a total of three Hallmark stores  in Columbus, Beatrice and Grand Island. Now the only one left will be in Beatrice. Shes owned the Grand Island business for about 10 years.

Belitz has checked other possible sites in Grand Island. We have, yeah. Since we werent provided a spot in the redevelopment.

She said she's been looking around for eight or 10 months and talked to several landlords in Grand Island. Theyve all been really helpful, but we just could not find a spot that worked.

Initially, it looked as though Dees Hallmark could stay in the mall.

When this first started, they did come in and ask if we were interested in a space. And we of course said yes. But she found out later that we werent in their plans for what they wanted the redevelopment to be.

The Incredible Bulk, a part of the mall since 1988, will close its doors this weekend. When it does, the mall will say goodbye to two of its fixtures.

Randy Price of Lincoln has owned the Incredible Bulk for 24 years.

Because of reduced foot traffic in the mall, This last year has been horrible, Price said.

The number of tenants has been reduced from more than 100 to about 15, he said. And its just cost me money every month.

The mall is being redeveloped by Woodsonia Real Estate.

Price believes Conestoga Marketplace will be an asset to Grand Island. But he doesnt like the way Woodsonia has treated the current tenants.

He doesnt believe he could have stayed in the mall after his lease expires Feb. 1.

They offered me so many different things, he said. The last thing Woodsonia representatives told him, in nice words, was that they dont want little mom and pop stores anymore in here, he said. They said we wont renew your lease. So could I have gone on? Nope, I dont think so.

I think what theyre doing in Grand Island to that mall is fantastic for Grand Island. But what they did to Incredible Bulk was classless. And thats a fact, he said.

With the stores closure imminent, people have been taking nostalgic pictures with Kathy and the sign, said Price, who formerly owned two Incredible Bulk stores in Lincoln.

A Hastings woman has purchased the Incredible Bulk name and a sign from Price. So a store of the same name will probably continue in Central Nebraska.

The Journal Star's most memorable photos of 2023
Among the class of 86 Graduate Studies students who crossed the commencement stage at University of Wisconsin-Stout on Dec. 16, five were recognized by faculty and staff as inspiring graduates whose stories represent what it is to be Stout Proud.

The graduates shared their university experiences, setbacks and successes in UW-Stouts Inspiring Graduate Q&A series:

Stephen Aduboffour, M.S. food science and technology, Accra, Ghana, Africa

Zandra Georgakas, M.S. clinical mental health counseling, Ellsworth

Aaron Hendricks, M.S. clinical mental health counseling, Rice Lake

Jacob Martin, M.S. information and communication technologies, Polaski

Anne Redmond, M.S. construction management, Fredonia

Two ceremonies celebrated 526 undergraduates and graduates at the fall commencement.

Inspiring Graduate: Stephen Aduboffour, M.S. food science and technologyWith two previous STEM degrees and an established career, Aduboffour traveled from Ghana to UW-Stout for his M.S. in food science and technology.

Aduboffour has his bachelors in biochemistry from University of Cape Coast; and a masters in food science and technology from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He has worked as a medical delegate and a medical representative in the food, drug and consumer health industry in Ghana.

One thing that attracted me to study in the U.S. is the high level of processing in the food industries, which unfortunately is not the case in Africa, in general, he said.

Aduboffour appreciated the hands-on practical training and embedded projects in his courses, which helped him develop skills in problem-solving, teamwork, collaboration, creative thinking and practical solutions to challenges in the food industry.

My Stout education has equipped me with the requisite knowledge and skills for the modern food industry, he said.

Aduboffour plans to gain subsequent experience through Optional Practical Training, temporary employment related to his field, through the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services. Hed like to learn more about the U.S. food industry before returning to Ghana to help improve food processing and the development of the food industry there.

Inspiring Graduate: Zandra Georgakas, M.S. clinical mental health counselingBefore graduating from UW-Stout with her M.S. in clinical mental health counseling, Georgakas was hired as a preindependently licensed therapist with CARE Counseling, an outpatient clinic in Minneapolis. She plans on pursuing her Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor.

Her journey to becoming a clinical mental health counselor through UW-Stouts masters program was not always easy, though. While helping clients in her two internships, Georgakas also worked through much of her own mental health struggles.

I feel like Stout has prepared me to enter the mental health counseling field very well. Each class I have taken has been extremely useful in my understanding of how to work with people, Georgakas said. There have been constant hands-on opportunities to put what weve learned in classes into practice.

She completed internships as a school-based mental health counselor working with K-12 students in the Ellsworth School District, her hometown; and as a mental health counselor at the Chippewa Valley Free Clinic.

Zandra has been a wonderful support and counselor for so many in her internships, said Program Director John Klem.

I am most proud of what I have learned about counseling throughout this program. I am very excited to get into the field and use what I have learned to have a positive impact on others, Georgakas said.

Inspiring Graduate: Aaron Hendricks, M.S. clinical mental health counselingWith a young family at home, work and two college degrees to his name, Hendricks decided to return to school to pursue another passion.

He has a bachelors degree in natural resources from UW-Madison and a masters in science in natural resource economics from the State University of New York. He has worked as a wildland firefighter in Montana, environmental educator, and camp counselor and has promoted economic development in rural areas.

Hendricks recently earned his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling from UW-Stout and was hired before graduation by his internship site, Randall Therapeutic Services, serving Barron County-based clients and focusing on early childhood trauma.

At Stout, from the very beginning, my experience was applied, Hendricks said. We were hands-on, gaining skills with each other, the first week. By the time my internship began, I felt comfortable applying counseling theory and engaging with the client in front of me.

Aaron embodies Stouts mission of applied learning and being job-ready. He made an impact at his internship and in his community by bringing specialized training on trauma, families and play therapy, said Associate Professor Andy Felton, counseling, rehabilitation and human services department.

Inspiring Graduate: Jacob Martin, M.S. information and communication technologiesMartin completed his online masters in information and communication technologies at UW-Stout while serving in the Army Reserve, 753rd Quartermaster Company unit out of Green Bay.

Martin works in information systems at Pierce Manufacturing and may choose to stay on after graduation or take a different path in his military career.

Stout has allowed me to put my military career front and center, accommodating when needed, he said. The courses have trained me for the roles I will be in, and the coursework has been a steppingstone for me in my career.

Im proud of being part of a small group that has earned their graduate degree. There is a great sense of accomplishment that I feel after completing a long and difficult journey. With that, there is pride going into the next part of my life.

Inspiring Graduate: Anne Redmond, M.S. construction managementRedmond has been going to school on and off since 2003. As a 2017 B.S. in management UW-Stout alum, she wanted to return to school for her masters, but couldnt find her degree of choice anywhere locally.

However, UW-Stout had many programs that piqued her interest that other UW locations didnt have, and she found she could complete her masters degree online.

Facing several life challenges along the way, and with financial support from her employers school reimbursement program, Redmond earned her M.S. in construction management from UW-Stout.

In her mid-50s, Redmond has been employed in her field for some time. For the past five years, she has been a project manager for A-C Equipment Services in Milwaukee, and before that, spent 24 years designing mining equipment.

Stout has greatly enhanced what I already know and sharpened my skills. Stout also helped broaden my areas of knowledge within my field, she said. I may consider further education since I believe we should never stop learning.
CHARLESTON, S.C.  Courting Black voters he needs to win reelection, President Joe Biden on Monday denounced the poison of white supremacy in America, declaring at the site of a deadly racist church shooting in South Carolina that such ideology has no place in America, not today, tomorrow or ever.

Biden spoke from the pulpit of Mother Emanuel AME Church, where in 2015 nine Black parishioners were shot to death by the white stranger they had invited to join their Bible study. The Democratic presidents speech followed his blunt remarks last Friday on the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, in which he excoriated former President Donald Trump for glorifying rather than condemning political violence.

At Mother Emanuel, Biden said the word of God was pierced by bullets of hate, of rage, propelled not just by gunpowder, but by a poison, a poison that has for too long haunted this nation."

That's "white supremacy, he said, the view by some whites that they are superior to other races. It is a poison, throughout our history, that's ripped this nation apart. This has no place in America. Not today, tomorrow or ever.

It was a grim way to kick off a presidential campaign, particularly for someone known for his unfailing optimism and belief that American achievements are limitless. But its a reflection of the emphasis Biden and his campaign are placing on energizing Black voters amid deepening concerns among Democrats that the president could lose support from this critical constituency heading into the election.

Bidens campaign advisers and aides hope the visit lays out the stakes of the race in unequivocal terms three years after the cultural saturation of Trumps words and actions while he was president. It's a contrast they hope will be paramount to voters in 2024.

Biden also used his second major campaign event of the year to thank the state's Black voters. After an endorsement by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, one of the highest-ranking African Americans in the U.S. House, the state made Biden the winner of its Democratic presidential primary in 2020. That, in turn, set him on a path to become the party's nominee and defeat Trump to win the presidency.

I owe you, he said.

Biden was briefly interrupted when several people upset over by his staunch support for Israel in its war against Hamas called out that if he really cared about lives lost he would call for a cease-fire in Gaza to help innocent Palestinians who are being killed under Israel's bombardment. The chants of cease-fire now were drowned out by audience members chanting four more years.

The president also swiped at Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, and Trump, without naming either one.

Haley was governor at the time of the shooting and gained national attention for her response, which included signing legislation into law removing the Confederate flag from the state Capitol. But she has been on the defensive recently for not explicitly naming slavery as the root cause of the Civil War when the question was posed at a campaign event. Her campaign responded Monday with a list of comments attributed to Biden that it said showed he's racially insensitive.

Biden called it a lie that the war was about states' rights. So let me be clear, for those who don't seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. There's no negotiation about that.

Haley, speaking at a Fox News town hall on Monday, pushed back that it was offensive for Biden to give a political speech at the church. She also raised Bidens ties to Democratic segregationist senators early in his career.

During his successful 2020 run for the White House, Biden faced criticism from fellow Democratic contenders for alluding to his work with Sens. James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia while trying to make a point about lost civility in national politics.

I dont need someone who palled around with segregationists in the '70s and has said racist comments all the way through his career lecturing me or anyone in South Carolina about what it means to have racism, slavery, or anything related to the Civil War, Haley said.

On more current events, Biden noted the scores of failed attempts by Trump in the courts to overturn the 2020 election in an attempt to hold onto power, as well as the former president's embrace of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

Let me say what others cannot: We must reject political violence in America. Always, not sometimes. Always. It's never appropriate, Biden said. He said losers are taught to concede when they lose. And he's a loser, meaning Trump.

It was June 17, 2015, when a 21-year-old white man walked into the church and, intending to ignite a race war, shot and killed nine Black parishioners and wounded one more. Biden was vice president when he attended the memorial service in Charleston.

Biden's aides and allies say the shootings are among the critical moments when the nation's political divide started to sharpen and crack. Though Trump, the current Republican presidential front-runner, was not in office at the time and has called the shooting horrible, Biden is seeking to tie Trumps current rhetoric to such violence.

Two years after the attack, as the Unite The Right" gathering of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, erupted in violent clashes with counterprotesters. Trump said merely that there is blame on both sides."

Today in history: Jan. 8 1815: Battle of New Orleans 1935: Elvis Presley 1964: Lyndon Johnson 1994: Tonya Harding 2008: Hillary Clinton 2008: John McCain 2011: Gabrielle Giffords 2012: Gabrielle Giffords 2012: Mitt Romney 2016: "El Chapo" 2017: Israel 2017: The Golden Globes 2020: Iran 2021: Nancy Pelosi
INVERNESS, Calif.  Time is apparently running out for California's Inverness Shipwreck, an old wooden boat that became an Instagram star as it rotted on a shoreline north of San Francisco.

Recent storms have made a shambles of the forlorn vessel named Point Reyes, which was already deteriorated from the over-attention of visitors to the Marin County coast, San Francisco Bay news media reported.

The National Park Service is aware that additional damage occurred to the vessel as a result of the most recent storms and tides, Point Reyes National Seashore officials said in a statement to the SFGATE news site. While we recognize that this is a local landmark and destination, the NPS is evaluating options to remove it safely.

The boat was built in the 1940s and was used for transportation and fishing before it was abandoned years ago, aground near the community of Inverness on a section of the Tomales Bay shoreline that is part of the Point Reyes National Seashore.

It then became a tourist draw and a darling of social media. Instagram alone has more than 5,500 images of the Point Reyes, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Now, the scene that caught the eyes of so many photographers is just about gone.

Jim Fox, chief of the local volunteer fire department, told the Chronicle that the boat is a dangerous nuisance.

"Its much more dangerous than it used to be, he said. As the fire chief, I would just as soon people not come out because someones going to get hurt.
China's Xainza ensures warmer indoor space while reducing CO2 emissions in winters

Xinhua) 08:55, January 08, 2024

This aerial photo taken on Jan. 6, 2024 shows solar thermal collectors at a heating plant in Xainza County, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Tenzing Nima Qadhup)

Xainza situated at an average elevation of 4,700 meters deep in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has fiercely cold weather in winter, when locals used to keep themselves warm by burning cow dung. The situation was ended for good when a central heating system powered by solar energy was put into operation in the county in 2019, which ensures warmer indoor space while reducing carbon dioxide emissions during winters.

Residents take care of their potted plants at home with heating facilities in Xainza County, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, Jan 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan)

Staff members monitor the operation of a heating plant in Xainza County, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, Jan. 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan)

This aerial photo taken on Jan. 6, 2024 shows solar thermal collectors at a heating plant in Xainza County, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Tenzing Nima Qadhup)

This aerial photo taken on Jan. 6, 2024 shows solar thermal collectors at a heating plant in Xainza County, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan)

This photo taken on Jan. 6, 2024 shows solar thermal collectors at a heating plant in Xainza County, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Cao Bin)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
The Smart Destination Platform, the role of European funds in the digital transformation of the tourism sector and artificial intelligence (AI) will be the focus of the 12th edition of Fitur Know-How & Export. The event is organised by Segittur and Fitur, in collaboration with ICEX Spain Trade and Investment from January 24 to 26, 2024 at Ifema Madrid.

The Smart Destination Platform will be a focal point at Fitur Know-How & Export, in an edition which will be addressing how European Next Generation funds are helping the digital transformation of destinations, SDP user cases, and the importance of data in improving tourism management.

Special attention will also be given to the smart destinations model, both at national and international level. To this end, representatives of multilateral institutions such as the IDB, the Asian Development Bank and the CAF Development Bank of Latin America will be present.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence will also be present, not only with presentations, but also with the first competition of tourism solutions developed with artificial intelligence for which nearly 20 applications have been received from destinations and companies in the sector. The first "The IA for Tourism Awards 2024" will take place on January 25.

All of this without forgetting the importance of sustainability, focusing on the sector's transition to the circular economy and on the creation of agricultural experiences, as well as on the knowledge of the industrys best practices in terms of the SDGs as a result of the UN Global Compact working group.

Exhibiting companies

Forty companies are exhibiting including, Adestic, Alojapro, AR Vision, Arkikus, Atmoblile Apps, Aumentur, Bioscore-Turistec, Clarke Modet -Turistec, Clorian, Dielmo 3d, Dingus, Doblemente, Dome, Escapping, Grupo Innovaris -Innaudit, GVAM Guias Interactivas, Gymkana Digital Turisticas, Hotetec, Infotickting, Inteligencia Turistica and Lookish travel guide.

These companies will be joined by Mabrian Technologies, Misterplan, Ruralgest, Movilok Showcases, Ok Localted, OpenRoom, Optimisadata, Padword, Profit Room, Puntodis Accessible Solutiones, Quohotel CEI, Sihote, Sismotur, Solarcycle, Spalopia, T4S, Tec-Soft Consulting, Tickmore, Timon Hotel, Turistec and Unblock.

Segitturlab

Finally, in the Fitur Know-How & Export workshop area, tourism professionals will be able to find a wide range of training options, including hotel digitalisation, the impact of sustainability on bookings, the use of free GPT in tourist offices to attract tourists and the innovative use of virtual tours and the implementation of intelligent tourist signage.--TradeArabia News Service
On 7 January Ecuadors attorney generals office opened an investigation into the escape from prison of one of the countrys most high-profile drug traffickers,, alias Fito, who leads the Los Choneros gang.

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On 7 January the attorney generals office (FGE) in Mexicos Guerrero state confirmed that six people had been killed in a violent incident in Petatlan municipality the previous day.

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On 7 January the Dominican Republics Presidentofficially launched the campaign for the ruling Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM) in Santo Domingo for the 18 February municipal elections, ahead of the 19 May presidential elections in which he is seeking re-election.

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On 5 January Brazils state news agency Agencia Brasil reported that the army had concluded a series of internal investigations into the conduct of its personnel on 8 January 2023 when right-wing rioters stormed the seats of government in Brasilia.

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A series of new space missions are planned for the coming year. Here is a look ahead at some of the ones to watch out for in 2024.

Artemis II

The American space agency NASA launched its first flight in the Artemis program in 2022. That mission, called Artemis I, sent the Orion spacecraft on a trip to fly around the moon.

Artemis aims to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since NASAs Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

Artemis I was a test of the Orion spacecraft, or capsule, as well as NASAs huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that carried it into space. That mission sent Orion more than 400,000 kilometers away from Earth and completed a close fly-by of the moon. NASA officials declared Artemis I a huge success.

NASA plans to launch Artemis II in late 2024. It is expected to take the same path that Artemis I took around the moon, but this time it will be carrying four NASA astronauts aboard Orion.

NASA says Artemis II aims to confirm all of the spacecrafts systems operate as designed with crew aboard in the actual environment of deep space.

Moon lander launches

While Artemis II will not complete a landing, several other lunar landers are expected to touch down on the moons surface in 2024.

The first of these launches is planned for January 8. It involves a lander named Peregrine. The 1.9-meter-tall spacecraft is made by the private, American space company Astrobotic Technology. It will launch aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket, made by United Launch Alliance (ULA).

Peregrine is expected to carry 20 research experiments to the moon for seven countries. It will aim to land in an area known as Sinus Viscositatis. NASA says the area sits next to the Gruithuisen Domes, the largest dark spot on the near side of the moon.

Another Astrobotic lander, called Griffin, is set to launch to the moons south pole in late 2024. It will be carrying an exploring robot, or rover, called VIPER. VIPER is designed to search for water sources on the moon.

In addition to those, American space company Intuitive Machines is providing two landers to NASA expected for launches next year.

Japan will also attempt to become the fifth nation to reach the surface of the moon in mid-January. The countrys space agency launched the spacecraft, called SLIM, in September. SLIMs mission goal is to test the possibility that spacecraft can land on very specific targets.

ESAs Hera mission

The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch its Hera spacecraft in October on a mission to return to an asteroid system visited by NASA's DART spacecraft in 2022. Hera is designed to collect data on the targeted system, called Didymos. The spacecraft is expected to closely examine the physical properties of Didymos and measure detailed effects of DARTs crash.

Europa Clipper

NASA hopes to launch its Europa Clipper mission in October. This orbiter is designed to carry out close examinations of Jupiters moon Europa. Specifically, the mission will look for signs that the icy moon might hold the right conditions to support life. NASA says the orbiter will fly in orbit around Jupiter and perform repeated close flybys of the ice moon.

Boeings Starliner test flight

NASA and Boeing have said they plan to launch the first crewed test flight of the companys Starliner spacecraft. NASA says it is targeting March 2024 to have Starliner ready for flight. A launch date is to be set later.

The spacecraft completed its first uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station (ISS) last May. But Boeing has experienced several technical difficulties with Starliner during the mission and has worked with NASA to fix the problems as it prepares for the planned crewed flight.

SpaceX Starship test

SpaceX, another NASA partner, has been successfully using its rockets and spacecraft to transport astronauts and materials to the ISS since 2020. But the company will be seeking a successful test flight in 2024 for its super-heavy Starship spacecraft.

SpaceX experienced two failed Starship tests in 2023  one in April and the other in November  which resulted in explosions. The April blast caused major damage to the launch structure in the state of Texas. SpaceX has said it has been examining the issues related to the explosions and plans to carry out another test of Starship as soon as possible. But it will have to wait until the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) completes its investigation of the launch site damage and approves a new test.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and NASA.

Quiz - Big Space Missions Planned for 2024 Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

__________________________________________

Words in This Story

mission  n. to do something considered very difficult or impossible

asteroid  n. an object made of rock and metal that orbits the sun, but is smaller than planets
New research from the American non-profit organization Consumer Reports finds that plastics have a "widespread" presence in food. The group called on the United States government to examine the safety of food that comes into contact with plastics during production.

In a report released Thursday, Consumer Reports said that 84 out of 85 food products it recently tested contained "plasticizers" called phthalates. Phthalates are chemicals used to make plastic last longer.

The tested food came from supermarkets and restaurants.

The researchers also said 79 percent of the foods examined contained bisphenol A (BPA), another chemical found in plastic, and other bisphenols. But levels were lower than in tests done in 2009.

Consumer Reports said all the phthalate levels were within limits set by U.S. and European regulators. However, this does not mean the chemicals are safe to eat. Deciding acceptable levels for such chemicals in food is tricky. Officials in the U.S. and Europe have set limits for only bisphenol A (BPA) and a few phthalates. All the foods tested remained within the limits, the experts said.

However, does that mean it is safe to eat? The researchers say no.

Tunde Akinleye was the lead scientist in the food testing. He says many of the limits on the chemicals are not in line with the most current scientific knowledge, he reported.

We dont feel comfortable saying these levels are okay," Akinleye said.

Phthalates and bisphenols can interfere with the bodys production and release of estrogen and other hormones. That can lead to increased risk of birth defects, cancer, diabetes, reproductive problems, developmental disorders, and other health conditions.

Among the tested supermarket foods, Annie's Organic Cheesy Ravioli contained the most phthalates. Del Monte peaches and Chicken of the Sea pink salmon also were high in phthalates.

Increased phthalate levels were also found in products including Cheerios, Gerber baby food and Yoplait yogurt. And the researchers found increased levels in hamburger, chicken and potatoes from fast food restaurants Wendy's, Burger King, and McDonald's.

Consumer Reports also found some wide differences in levels among similar products. For example, some chicken from McDonalds contained four times more phthalates than a similar chicken product from Wendys.

"That tells us that, as widespread as these chemicals are, there are ways to reduce how much is in our foods," said James Rogers. He supervises Consumer Reports' product safety testing.

Polar raspberry lime seltzer was the only tested product containing no phthalates.

General Mills produces brands including Annie's, Cheerios and Yoplait. The company did not immediately answer requests for comment. Burger King and Wendy's also did not immediately answer such requests.

Chicken of the Sea and Del Monte said they do not add phthalates to their food, and that their suppliers guarantee the same.

Del Monte added that phthalates are "widespread in the environment."

Gerber and McDonald's said they follow government rules connected to their products and require testing for food packaging as well.

Im Ashley Thompson.

Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by Reuters.

_____________________________________________

Words in This Story

supermarket  n. a store where customers can buy a variety of foods and usually household items

comfortable  adj. not causing any physically unpleasant feelings

defect  n. a problem or fault that makes someone or something not perfect
Sunny is a proud Singaporean citizen who follows the laws of her country. Mostly, anyway. For the last three years, she has been illegally sheltering a cat called Mooncake.

A 34-year-old Singaporean law bars cats from government-built housing. Such housing is where most of the city-states population lives - and Mooncake too, although secretly.

Luckily for Sunny and her cat, Singapore plans to end the feline ban later this year.

The legal change will free Sunny from the threat of a $3,007 fine or her pet's possible removal.

The 30-year-old works in marketing and asked to be identified only by her first name for the security of her cat. She did not want to risk officials removing Sunny from her care.

She wonders about the reasoning behind the ban.

"Cats are so much quieter than dogs. If they allow dogs, I don't understand why not cats."

Officials rarely enforce the ban. And the law is only for the high-rise Housing and Development Board (HDB) buildings. Eighty percent of Singapores 3.6 million people live in the buildings.

The ban does, however, make life difficult for cat owners. One problem they face is health care for their animals. Medical insurance cannot be provided for illegal pets.

Lawmaker Louis Ng campaigned to end the ban. He said the law sometimes becomes part of disputes between neighbors.

"A lot of times, the cats are collateral when there's neighborly disputes," he said. One neighbor will threaten to tell police about another neighbors cat.

Established in 1960, the HDB plan sells government-built housing directly to citizens for 99-year special agreements. The policy has led to one of the world's highest home-ownership rates. Still, people who live in the buildings are subject to many restrictions and laws.

Cats were permitted in HDB apartments until 1989 when lawmakers changed the housing law. On its website, the HDB says cats are difficult to keep contained in individual homes. It also says that cats drop hairs and other body waste in public areas and can be loud.

It is not clear what made the Singapore government decide to end the cat ban. But a 2022 government public opinion study may have been the turning point. The study results showed 9 out of 10 Singaporeans believed that cats were fit to keep as pets, including in HDB buildings.

Officials are requesting public input on a proposed cat management policy.

Dogs have not been subject to a similar ban, but they are limited to one per household. And, only some kinds of dogs are permitted.

Market research company Euromonitor International has predicted a big increase in cat ownership. It estimated Singapore's current pet population at around 94,000 cats and 113,000 dogs.

Lawmaker Ng, who ran an animal aid group before joining parliament in 2015, also hopes the change will lead more people to adopt rescued cats.

Under the new rules, HDB homeowners would be limited to two pet cats. The rules also require owners to register their pets with the government. The owners must also get special identifying electronic devices for the animals. And, owners must install protective devices on windows so cats do not get out.

Some cat lovers say the new laws do not go far enough.

Thenuga Vijakumar from the Cat Welfare Society wants the law to require sterilization. Another cat rescuer, Chan Chow Wah, urges officials to punish irresponsible owners. He said he had to take care of a cat that fell from a high window in one home. The owners refused to pay its medical bills. Wah also took care of another cat that was abandoned because he had heart disease.

"I end up taking over these cases. Basically, I look after them until they pass away," said Chan, estimating he spent $45,100 on cat medical expenses in 2022.

But for many cat owners the law will bring peace of mind.

Including Mooncakes: "I think it's a good thing and it's a step forward after 30 years," Sunny said.

Im John Russell.

Xinghui Kok reported on this story for Reuters. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

________________________________________

Words in This Story

collateral  n. indirect damage that happens to someone or something that is not directly involved in a dispute or war

sterilize  v. to make (someone or something) unable to produce children or young animals
Joyce Loaiza lives alone in a community for older people in the American state of Florida. When she is home, the retired office worker often talks with a friendly female voice that asks about her day.

A few kilometers away, the same voice helped 83-year-old Deanna Dezern when her friend died. In New York state, it plays games and music for 92-year-old Marie Broadbent. And in Washington state, it helps 83-year-old Jan Worrell make new friends.

The women are some of the first in the United States to receive the robot ElliQ made by Intuition Robotics. The company and other officials say it is the only device using artificial intelligence (AI) to help older Americans from loneliness.

Its entertaining. You can actually talk to her, said Loaiza who is 81. Her ElliQ calls her Jellybean for no clear reason. She said, Shell make comments like, I would go outside if I had hands, but I cant hold an umbrella.

The device looks like a small table light and it has an eyeless, mouthless head that lights up and turns. It remembers each users interests and their talks, helping create a special experience with each new discussion. They can be as deep as the meaning of life or as light as a small joke.

ElliQ also plays music and provides creative or spiritual sayings. On a video screen that comes with it, it will show different cities and places of interest. The device leads exercises, asks about the owners health, and gives reminders to take medicines and drink water. It can also support video calls and contact family, friends, or doctors in an emergency.

Intuition Robotics says none of the conversations are heard by the company, with the information staying on each owners device.

Intuition Robotics chief executive office Dor Skuler said the idea for ElliQ came before he launched his Israeli company eight years ago. His grandfather who lost his partner needed an aide, but the first did not work out. The next person, though, understood his grandfathers love of music and his special sense of humor.

Skuler then thought a robot could fill the space of a friend by adapting to each person and their interests. He said, That just did not exist anywhere.

The average user interacts with ElliQ more than 30 times a day and more than 90 percent report lower levels of loneliness, Skuler said.

The robots are mostly sent out by state agencies in New York, Florida, Michigan, Nevada and Washington. But they can also be bought individually for $600 a year plus $250 to set it up. Skuler would not say how many ElliQs have been sent out so far, but the goal is to have more than 100,000 out within five years.

Brigham Young University professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad studies the effects of loneliness on health. Holt-Lunstad worries that a device like ElliQ might have short-term helpful effects but it could make people less likely to seek human contact. She told The Associated Press that the difficult feeling of loneliness should push people to reconnect socially.

Skuler and state officials agreed that ElliQ is not a replacement for human contact. But some older people cannot leave home or do not have many friends.

Greg Olsen is director of the New York State Office for the Aging. His office has sent out 750 of the 900 ElliQs it received. He said he wished that he could make a person show up at the home of one of the many, many older adults that dont have any family or friends.

Charlotte Mather-Taylor is director of the Broward County, Florida, Area Agency on Aging. She said the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath left many older people more disconnected. Her agency has provided 300 ElliQs which, she believes, help the situation.

She said, Weve seen very positive results with it. People generally like her and she makes them smile and brings joy.

Im Gregory Stachel.

Carla K. Johnson reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.

_____________________________________________

Words in This Story

artificial intelligence  n. an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence

actually  adv. as an actual or existing fact; really

umbrella  n. a device that is used for protection from the rain and sun

adapt  v. to change (something) so that it functions better or is better suited for a purpose

interacts  v. to talk or do things with other people or objects

positive  adj. good or useful

joy  n. a feeling of great happiness
Nebraska Department of Education officials say their agency doesnt have enough resources to manage a new federal food aid program after it was rejected by Gov. Jim Pillen in December.

Education Commissioner Brian Maher said during a State Board of Education meeting Friday that he had considerable conversations with Nebraska lawmakers and advocates about the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Program for Children. It will provide millions in food aid to low-income families with children qualifying for free or reduced-price meals this summer to states that participate.

States had to express interest in the program by Jan. 1, but Pillen decided against the program in December, despite pleas from Nebraskans.

The Nebraska Department of Education still has the authority to take on the program itself, but Maher said there are currently not enough resources to do so.

Certainly in our office, weve had meetings and worked to be clear what role, if any role, we have with EBT administration, Maher said. Were not set up to handle EBT administration at the NDE.

Maher said in order to administer the funds, the department would have to increase its staff or reallocate duties. Department officials have expressed multiple times in previous meetings that staff members are already stretched thin.

The department would also have to obtain the hardware, software, EBT cards and other materials, which would take a lot of time, Maher said. Nebraska Appleseed estimated the state cost would be about $300,000 for administration.

The item is not currently on our list of legislative priorities for the Department of Education, but thats not surprising  we werent aware of this until fairly recently, Maher said.

The new program, which is launching in other states this summer, would provide families $40 per child per month on an EBT card to be spent on groceries. Pillen said one reason he rejected the program was because the state already provides food through the Summer Food Service Program, an older federal program that provides free meals to children at various sites in low-income communities.

Advocates have said that traveling to various sites is a barrier for some families and the locations can be few and far between, especially in rural parts of the state. In 2019, Nebraska had 83 sponsors and 270 sites for the whole state. This year, there were only 58 sponsors and 197 sites.

Brian Halstead, the Education Departments chief of staff, said roughly 20,000 children participate in this program every summer. He said more than 100,000 children are eligible for food aid in the state.

Maher said the topic is an ongoing conversation between the department and lawmakers. On Thursday, Sen. Jen Day of Omaha introduced LB952, which would require the state to participate in the new federal program.

Enrolling in the program in the future is still possible, despite the challenges the Education Department would face in managing it, Maher said. States that choose not to participate this year can still participate in future years, according to the program.

None of these are deal breakers, should this program come to the department, Maher said. (This is) rather a heads-up that these are some areas we would have to address if something like this comes our way.
State lawmakers will reopen the debate over the rules governing the Legislature next week, as senators will consider nearly three dozen proposed changes that range from codifying precedents to reshaping how the unicameral system operates.

Its an unusual step for Nebraskas lawmakers to take at the start of the second year of the biennium, particularly when the permanent rules are agreed to at the start of the first year of the two-year legislative session.

But even as time is short and the list of bills is growing longer, five senators have submitted a total of 34 proposed changes that will go before the Rules Committee at a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. Monday.

The hearing is open to the public in Room 1525 on the first floor of the Capitol, or online at nebraskapublicmedia.org.

Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, who has served on the Rules Committee during his entire tenure in the Legislature and now leads it as chair, acknowledged the fight over the rules has grown more intense in recent years.

Previous Rules Committee chairs have presided over meetings where only a handful of changes were proposed. Last year, ahead of what would become a contentious legislative session, the committee heard 57 proposals during a public hearing that adjourned after more than eight hours.

This year, Erdman said he plans to streamline the process in order to wrap up the hearing around 5 p.m.

On Friday, he said each senator who brought an amendment to the rules  a total of five lawmakers including Arch submitted changes this year  will introduce each of their proposals one after the other.

The committee will then open up the hearing for feedback from the public.

Testifiers should stipulate which rules they plan to address to the committee, Erdman said, and should opt out of repeating what others have said previously.

Were going to try and be efficient, Erdman said.

Following Mondays hearing, senators on the Rules Committee will meet in executive session on Tuesday morning to decide which proposals will be advanced to the floor for debate.

Those rules changes wont come out as a package, as happens when the Legislature considers the permanent rules at the start of the biennium, but as individual amendments to the permanent rules.

Each change will require the approval of 30 senators to be adopted, according to Clerk Brandon Metzler.

Speaker John Arch has scheduled as many as seven days on the legislative calendar for a rules debate, beginning on Jan. 10, or Day 6 of the session.

A schedule handed out to senators at a pre-session meeting indicates the last day scheduled for floor debate of any proposed rules changes will be Jan. 19, or Day 12 of the 60-day session.

Because the permanent rules are in place, Arch said the rules debate could end at any time: As soon as were done with rules, well move onto bills.

Erdman and Arch, who is a non-voting member on the six-senator Rules Committee, said they don't know how many proposed rules changes may ultimately make it to the floor.

"There's five people on that committee, and it will be what three people agree to," Erdman said. "I don't think half of them will make it."

Arch said most of the ideas that will be presented at the public hearing have been circulated in the weeks and months leading up to the session, which he said has led to thoughtful conversations among senators.

He hopes that can tamp down the temperature on the rules debate, which was muted at the start of last year's session before the rules were amended in the middle of the year, leading to a prolonged, heated fight on the floor.

"A lot of times, reaction occurs to proposed rules when you don't have that time," Arch said. "Maybe the Rules Committee has thought it through but the others haven't, which tends to be an automatic 'no.'"

The discussions over the last few weeks, particularly between the Legislative Council meeting in early December and the start of the session, have led to improvements in the proposals Arch plans to bring.

It's also led him to leave some on the cutting room floor, he added.

Erdman said he believes the rules should have been the Legislature's focus at the end of the 2023 session, which he said would have resulted in reforms preventing the political minority from dominating the proceedings moving forward.

But, with the start of the new session, Erdman said it remains to be seen how far lawmakers want to go with redefining their processes and procedures.

"The interim had a calming effect on people, so they may not be as receptive to make changes," he said.

Among the proposals Erdman, who will be term-limited this year, plans to bring are a measure discounting "present" or "not voting" votes from being counted as part of a motion to end debate.

Erdman also brought rules changes that would reorder priority motions used during filibusters, a motion allowing senators to attempt to suspend any dilatory amendments, and the procedures for calling the question, which ends discussion on an amendment or bill.

He also wants to end the longstanding practice of using secret votes for committee chairs and prohibit members of the media from reporting on executive sessions of legislative committees.

Arch's proposals fall within three categories, he said, including technical changes or "cleanup language" for existing rules.

The speaker also wants to codify precedent, which was often at the center of arguments that derailed debate from the bill at hand in the 2023 session.

"We just spent way too much time talking about the interpretation of the rule and I think we could do better with plain language," he said.

Finally, Arch said he wants to enact what he called "process improvements," or rules that will likely attract more discussion and debate as they would "define those guardrails more clearly so that our bill process is more efficient."

Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair brought a change that would limit senators to introducing no more than 14 bills per session. Senators who introduce five or fewer bills would be able to designate two priority bills, which give them scheduling preference during debate.

Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne proposed changing the rule stipulating that voting to suspend the rules would be recognized separately from any other subsequent vote from subsequent motions for which the rules are suspended.

Wayne also introduced a rule change requiring senators to vote yes or no on final reading, except if they are excused, as well as a proposal that designates any photos or recording produced by the media on the floor of the Legislature cannot be copyrighted.

Finally, Omaha Sen. John Cavanaugh brought a change limiting debate over enrollment and review amendments  technical changes to a bill between the first and second round of debate  to 15 minutes, and clarifying no new material could be added to the bill until that process is completed.

Cavanaugh also has a rule change that would require the withdrawal of any motions to postpone a bill be made with unanimous consent or a majority vote of the Legislature.
A Boeing 737 airplane has crashed onto the M1 motorway near East Midlands airport, killing 46 people.

Eighty have survived, of whom ten are seriously injured.

The British Midland flight 092 was forced to crash land after both engines of the brand new aircraft failed.

It slammed into the motorway embankment at 2026 GMT, breaking into three pieces.

Motorists on the M1 had a lucky escape as there were no vehicles in the immediate vicinity at the moment of impact.

The flight to Belfast was forced to divert to East Midlands airport 10 minutes after leaving Heathrow, when one of the planes two engines caught fire.

As the aircraft began its descent the remaining engine failed too.

Experts said later the chance of suffering such a double engine failure was a hundred million to one.

The plane passed very low over the village of Kegworth, Leicestershire, crashing just a few hundred metres from the safety of the runway, where emergency services were waiting.

The most severely injured were given medical attention immediately, while others were lifted from the twisted fuselage and taken to local hospitals.

Survivor Gareth Jones described the moment when the plane hit the ground.

He said: There was a shudder, crash, like a massive motor car accident, crunch, blackness, and I was by the emergency hatch.

Courtesy BBC News

In context

A report by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch later found the flight crew had shut down the wrong engine.

The crew had responded incorrectly to a fractured fan blade in the No.1 engine, by shutting down the No.2 engine which was running satisfactorily.

The report made several recommendations, calling for increased engine inspections and improvements to engine vibration indicators on Boeing 737s.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday that the United States and China must insist on peaceful coexistence and transcend their differences like they did when they established diplomatic relations 45 years ago this week.

Wang also promised that giant pandas would return to the U.S.  and specifically California  by the end of the year.

China-U.S. cooperation is no longer a dispensable option for the two countries or even for the world, but a must-answer question that must be seriously addressed, he said.

Wang struck a relatively positive note at a lavish banquet marking the anniversary with 300 guests at a hall in the sprawling Diaoyutai state guest house complex in the Chinese capital.

The two countries are trying to navigate  and avoid a war  in what may be their most difficult waters since the U.S. ended official ties with Taiwan and recognized the communist government in Beijing as the government of China on Jan. 1, 1979.

Chinas rise as an economic and military power is challenging long-

standing American leadership in the Asia region and globally.

The world is currently undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, Wang said. We must think about how to calibrate the direction of the large ship of China-U.S. relations (and) avoid hidden reefs and dangerous shoals.

Both Wang and David Meale, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy, cited congratulatory letters exchanged by Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden on Mondays anniversary.

Meale, who spoke after Wang, said Biden expressed his commitment to managing the relationship responsibly and said he looked forward to building on the progress made by past leaders of the two countries.

Wang did criticize the use of the big stick of sanctions and engaging in power games, charges that China often levels at the United States. He denied that China seeks to supplant any other country and called on the U.S. to respect Chinas development path and core interests.

The giant pandas in Memphis, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., returned to China last year, and some feared that China would stop lending pandas to American zoos because of the tensions between the two countries.

But Xi raised hope for California in November when he told an audience in San Francisco that China was ready to continue cooperating with the U.S. on pandas and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians.

Wang told Fridays banquet audience that preparations are ready for a giant panda return to California within the year. By KEN MORITSUGU, BEIJING, MDT/AP
The Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFTM) said it has continued its efforts to improve the academic facilities of the two campuses to provide adequate practice space for its teachers and students. Fanny Vong, IFTM president said construction works are underway for the Silver Jubilee Building and the new Accommodation Building at the Taipa Campus, which will be served as academic building and hospitality training building, respectively. The project is expected to be completed by 2025 and by that time the educational environment and training units at the Taipa Campus will be expanded.

Related
China announced sanctions yesterday on five American defense-related companies in response to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and U.S sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals.

The sanctions will freeze any property the companies have in China and prohibit organizations and individuals in China from doing business with them, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted online.

It was unclear what impact, if any, the sanctions would have on the companies, BAE Systems Land and Armaments, Alliant Techsystems Operations, AeroVironment, Viasat and Data Link Solutions. Such sanctions are often mostly symbolic as American defense contractors generally dont sell to China.

The Foreign Ministry said the U.S. moves harmed Chinas sovereignty and security interests, undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and violated the rights and interests of Chinese companies and individuals.

The Chinese government remains unwavering in our resolve to safeguard national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and citizens, the ministry statement said.

The announcement was made less than a week ahead of a leadership election in Taiwan that is being contested in large part over how the government should manage its relationship with China.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not specify which arms deal or which U.S. sanctions China was responding to, though spokesperson Wang Wenbin had warned three weeks ago that China would take countermeasures following the U.S. governments approval of a $300 million military package for Taiwan in December.

The deal includes equipment, training and equipment repair to maintain Taiwans command, control and military communications capabilities.

The U.S. said the sale would support the modernization of Taiwans armed forces and the maintenance of a credible defense. The proposed sale will improve the recipients capability to meet current and future threats by enhancing operational readiness, a news release from the Pentagons Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

Taiwan is a major flashpoint in U.S.-China relations that analysts worry could explode into military conflict between the two powers. China says that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are interference in its domestic affairs.

The Chinese military regularly sends fighter planes and ships into and over the waters around Taiwan, in part to deter the islands government from declaring formal independence. An invasion doesnt appear imminent, but the constant military activity serves as a reminder that the threat is ever-present.

KEN MORITSUGU, BEIJING, MDT/AP
The Horta da Mitra Market will reopen Tuesday after being closed almost a year for a major revamp, the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) has said.

The market, in Rua do Campo, closed last March for renovation and reorganization works that were completed at the end of 2023.

Late last year, the IAM held a meeting to help tenants return and resume business in an orderly manner.

The IAMs meeting explained the arrangements for business resumption and gave details about the stalls facilities, safe power use as well as other information about the revamp.

The market will resume operations on Jan. 9. with the 13 original stall tenants who are ready to resume business.

Among the changes is a new stall layout that separates dry and wet zones to improve the markets hygiene and image.

The IAM said the Horta da Mitra Market, built in 1939, had needed a comprehensive revamp of its sewerage network, heat dissipation and ventilation, lighting, and other facilities.

The revamp involved preservation of the markets architectural appearance, the installation of air-conditioning and ventilation systems, improvement of the lighting system, changes to the location of public toilets and the ratio of male and female toilet cubicles, an upgrade of the sewerage equipment and the addition of barrier-free facilities.

The new layout comprises 18 stalls, 13 of which have been allocated to the original market stall tenants.

Seven are free meat stalls, four fish stalls, one chilled and frozen meat stall, and one vegetable stall. The five remaining stalls were put out for public tender in October 2023.

Hawkers are already back to business

The revamp also included the hawker area at the sides of the main building which was also closed in August last year.

Currently, 14 hawker stalls have resumed operation after the replacement of the insulation panels, the retractable awnings, the backboards and the separation wire mesh between stalls.

This area also saw an improvement of the drainage facilities and the renovation of the structural supports, among other works.
The Macau Polytechnic University (MPU) is aiming to increase its enrolment by an additional 15% in the coming 2024/2025 academic year. The universitys acting rector, Irene Lei, told the press that the university will focus on developing artificial intelligence, particularly Chinese-Portuguese machine translation. During the weekend, the MPU held its Open Day, attracting over 3,000 participants, according to its statement.

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The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un mocked South Koreas ability to detect weapons launches by the North yesterday, as she denied Seouls claim that North Korea fired artillery shells into the sea the previous day.

South Koreas military quickly dismissed her statement as a low-level psychological warfare and warned that it will make a stern response to any provocations by North Korea.

South Koreas military earlier said North Korea fired shells near the rivals disputed western sea boundary for a second consecutive day on Saturday. The military said North Korea fired more than 60 rounds on Saturday, a day after launching more than 200 shells.

North Korea acknowledged it performed artillery firings on Friday but said it didnt fire a single round on Saturday.

Kims sister, Kim Yo Jong, said yesterday that North Korea only detonated blasting powder simulating the sound of its coastal artillery at the seashore to test the South Korean militarys detection capabilities.

The result was clear as we expected. They misjudged the blasting sound as the sound of gunfire and conjectured it as a provocation. And they even made a false and impudent statement that the shells dropped north of the sea boundary, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.

I cannot but say that (South Korean) people are very pitiful as they entrust security to such blind persons and offer huge taxes to them, she said. It is better 10 times to entrust security to a dog with a developed sense of hearing and smell.

Calling South Koreas military gangsters and clowns in military uniforms, Kim Yo Jong suggested its possible future miscalculation of North Korean moves could cause an accidental clash between the rivals, jeopardizing the safety of Seoul, a city of 10 million people which is only an hours drive from the land border. HYUNG-JIN KIM, SEOUL, MDT/AP
By Friday, shoppers will be able to pick up staples such as eggs, bread and milk, as well as West African and Hmong food items, in a grocery store converted from what had been Madisons last remaining strip club.

Gooh (pronounced go-oh) Grocery, owned by Samba Baldeh and Jerreh Kujabi, is the result of almost five years of planning, two years of work, about $700,000 in city and state funding, plus $1.2 million of their own investment, including bank loans.

The grocery area is 3,000 square feet, not including the basement and four apartments for rent above it.

Baldeh, 52, is in his second term as a Democratic state representative for the 48th Assembly District, and Kujabi, 51, has been a network engineer for the Sun Prairie Area School District for 15 years.

Both are from Gambia and met in Madison 20 years ago as students at Madison Area Technical College.

They wont be selling alcohol or cigarettes, saying they want to enrich the health and welfare of the area, not detract from it.

That would make us a lot of money, fast-selling items, high profits, Baldeh said. But I think theyre fundamentally harmful. And so, we want to avoid that. We are a business, but we also want a business model that is really serving the community and serving them well.

The former strip club, Visions, 3554 E. Washington Ave., closed in 2020 after the city cracked down on it following a series of violent incidents there.

We are a business, we are a for-profit organization. But our business model has a social impact component to it. Our location is intentional," Kujabi said, noting the lack of other grocery options in the immediately surrounding area. "Outside of the Kwik Trip, theres nothing else in that area.

The name Gooh, in the Senegambian Fulani language, means one.

We want to strive to make sure that we are No. 1 in what we are doing for our community, Baldeh said.

Food is who we are

Baldeh and Kujabi are software engineers who started an IT consulting company in 2007, and in 2014 had a burger and African food kiosk, Burgers Plus, for a year in the West Towne Mall food court.

Kujabi said their initial idea was to open an African restaurant, but over the years it morphed into the grocery project.

The partners also do environmental consulting. Baldeh spent about 20 years as a software developer for American Family Insurance before he transitioned into politics. Before running for the Assembly, Baldeh spent six years on Madisons City Council.

I am out here to serve my community, and so food is who we are, Baldeh said.

Baldeh, who lives a mile and a half from the grocery, said helping communities of color and poor people, and making sure they have access to good food, is important to him, the same way its important to him to advocate for equality and fairness for those he represents in the Legislature.

Matt Tucker, director of the city Building Inspection Division, said Gooh is exciting because it involves the adaptive reuse of an existing building and brings a grocery option to an area that the owners thought was lacking.

Just the fact that another ethnic grocery store is coming to the community is a win, Tucker said. Its just a nice alternative, as these grocery options are becoming more and more popular over time.

He said the building was dated, had several building code problems, and was in desperate need of a redo. They just did a great job refreshing this building. ... We dont always have to tear down everything to rebuild new.

Sustainable design

Baldeh met Kirk Keller, an architect for Plunkett Raysich Architects, through his role on the City Council and called him a great partner for rehabbing the building.

Keller said his mission was to take a worn-down building that was a somewhat blighted element in the area and bring it back to life. And it took all three parties working together equally to do that. A good alliance was formed in order to change the image that was there.

The building was built in 1947 and 1948 as Kehls Casino, and the first level had floors that were terrazzo, an expensive stone mix, with chips of marble, quartz and granite, that was more common then. Its probably the only grocery store in Madison thats going to have a terrazzo floor, Keller said.

He calls the project the ultimate expression of green architecture because they didnt tear down a building, haul everything to the landfill and start over.

The building could have been done differently, more efficiently, but we tried to control costs and create something out of what was there, and we succeeded, he said.

Keller said it was important to the entire project team that the new exterior emulate the original building design.

Project support

George Reistad, Madisons business development specialist, and Tom Otto, an economic development specialist in the office of business resources, said the project has gotten $496,800 in city funding from March 2021 through November 2023, including a facade improvement grant of $40,000. In January 2022, the project also got $230,700 from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

Reistad said that Baldeh and Kujabi also have been able to use the citys Healthy Retail Access Program, which through a partnership with Martee Mikalson of Martees Consulting, offers technical assistance in terms of store planning, acquiring equipment and establishing distributor contracts, among other help.

Cory Hansen, the project manager for Findorff, which did the construction, said the project was challenging from the start, as almost every part of the building needed to be replaced or upgraded.

Hansen said his crews worked through multiple changes to get the details right. The owners have been a joy to work with and have kept a positive attitude dealing with every hurdle that came their way.

Baldeh said they intend to keep their prices in line with Woodmans and lower than the Hy-Vee that is 0.8 miles away. The Hy-Vee store can be challenging to get to by foot for some customers who would need to cross two state highways: East Washington Avenue and Stoughton Road.

Gooh Grocery will accept public assistance FoodShare cards as a condition for some of its city funding.

I mean, the food we eat is what determines our health, Baldeh said, and is basically very important in our lives.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct a reference to the neighborhood where Gooh Grocery is located. While the food options in the immediate area around the grocery store are either limited or hard to get to, the area is not a city-designated food desert.

, Kujabi said. 
A police pursuit of a suspected impaired driver ended in a crash that killed the driver Sunday in Dodge County, authorities reported.

At about 5:55 p.m. Sunday, a Dodge County Sheriffs Office deputy attempted to stop a vehicle that had been reported to be driven by a possibly impaired driver and had failed to stop for Washington County deputies, Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt said in a statement.

The Dodge County deputy attempted to stop the vehicle on Highway 33 near Highway 67, but the driver fled south on Highway 67 at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. The vehicle then headed west on Highway S, and north on Horseshoe Road, where it failed to negotiate a curve, left the road into the ditch and struck a tree, Schmidt said.

Deputies immediately attempted life-saving measures on the driver, a 27-year-old Hartford man who was alone in the vehicle, but they werent successful and the man was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, Schmidt said.

The Dane County Sheriffs Office responded to the scene to assist with the safe removal of an older military-style grenade, or facsimile, that was found in the vehicle, Schmidt said.

The Wisconsin State Patrol assisted in the investigation.
A man was hospitalized after being shot in Green Lake County late Friday night, authorities reported.

Shortly before 11:30 p.m. Friday, a 21-year-old man called to report that a 20-year-old man had been shot on Kahl Road in the town of Green Lake, Green Lake County Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy Matthew Vande Kolk said in a statement.

Green Lake County deputies responded to the scene and assisted Southern Green Lake County EMS and Berlin EMS with life-saving measures on the man who was shot, and he was taken to a hospital, Vande Kolk said.

The incident remains under investigation, Vande Kolk said, and no other details were released.
Wisconsinites who are terminally ill or suffering from a chronic disease would be able to purchase medical marijuana at one of five state-run dispensaries under a Republican-authored proposal announced Monday.

The new measure comes after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who has called for legalizing both the medical and recreational use of marijuana, said he would likely support a more restrictive medical-only program as long as it doesnt include provisions Democrats would consider poison pills.

Under the proposal, individuals with severe chronic illnesses like cancer would be able to receive a diagnosis from their doctor confirming their conditions, allowing them to secure a permit. From there, individuals would be able to purchase non-smokable medicinal marijuana at five facilities managed by the state Department of Health Services.

We want to make this available to people, but we want tight controls on it as well, Rep. Jon Plumer, R-Lodi, told reporters at the Capitol building in Madison Monday. Plumer said Republicans hope to pass the measure and send it to Evers desk in the coming months.

However, those tight controls resulted in pushback from Democratic lawmakers. Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, said while the proposal is a small step in the right direction, I fear that it may be too restrictive.

We do not need the most restrictive medicinal program in the nation, we need the most effective, Hesselbein continued.

Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma, who has proposed different medical marijuana legislation in the past, including the first such measure to receive a public hearing in 2022, said some concepts in the bill sound incredibly well thought out, but she did highlight concern with the creation of state-run dispensaries as opposed to a private-sector model.

I am a firm believer that private entities, run by those with expertise in this area of medicine, are more efficient and more effective than any government agency, Felzkowski said in a statement. Taking this option off the table is the primary cause of my unease at this time.

Evers told the Wisconsin State Journal on Thursday he would likely sign a Republican medical marijuana measure.

Well see, Evers said last week when asked about the GOP proposal. If its a bill thats not filled with poison pills, I probably will sign it.

Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said Monday the governor will review the proposal and plans to collect input from Wisconsinites and other stakeholders as the measure works through the legislative process.

Registry requirement

The proposal would create an Office of Medical Cannabis Regulation within the state DHS to manage a patient and caregiver registry and oversee the dispensing of cannabis products. The head of the office would be selected by the governor and approved by the state Senate. DHS would also determine where to place the five facilities.

To be included on the registry, patients must be permanent residents of Wisconsin, not be on parole, probation or extended supervision and have a written confirmation from a doctor certifying that they meet the states eligibility requirements. Patients must be at least 18 years old, while those younger than 18 would need to have written consent from their parents or legal guardians.

Under the proposal, eligible patients would include individuals with cancer, seizures or epilepsy, glaucoma, severe chronic pain, muscle spasms or nausea, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and those with a terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than one year. Only the patient or up to three chosen caregivers would be allowed to purchase the medical marijuana.

Medical cannabis products would include those in the form of concentrates, oils, tinctures, edibles, pills, topical forms, gels, creams, vapors, patches, liquids, and forms administered by a nebulizer but excludes cannabis in a form that can be smoked, according to an analysis of the bill by the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Marijuana growers and processors would remain independent and licensed with the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, under the proposal. To be eligible for a grower or processor license, at least 80% of an applicants principal officers or board members must be residents of Wisconsin.

Plumer said medical marijuana sold in Wisconsin would not be subject to the states sales tax and the bill intends to create a break-even program that would not generate revenue.

Neighbors laws

The new proposal comes after several failed efforts by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to legalize some form of marijuana use in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, recreational and medicinal use has been implemented in several neighboring states like Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.

Wisconsin is one of a dozen states that does not allow for recreational or medicinal marijuana use.

An analysis conducted early last year by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum found that half of Wisconsinites above the age of 21, or more than 2.1 million people, lived within a 75-minute drive of a recreational marijuana dispensary in a neighboring state. The analysis was conducted before Minnesota legalized recreational use.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has said the new proposal is similar to Minnesotas medical marijuana program, which was recently modified to allow for smokable forms of cannabis.

However, Vos has remained adamant that any medical measure passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature will not provide a pathway to recreational use in Wisconsin.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, who previously said he opposed legalizing marijuana for medical use, has since said Senate Republicans are moving closer to supporting the policy for serious conditions.

An October 2022 Marquette Law School Poll found 64% of registered voters in Wisconsin, including 46% of Republicans, want marijuana to be fully legalized. A 2019 Marquette Law School Poll found 83% of Wisconsinites said medical marijuana should be legal.

Republicans last year stripped provisions to legalize marijuana from Evers two-year budget.

Today in history: Jan. 8 1815: Battle of New Orleans 1935: Elvis Presley 1964: Lyndon Johnson 1994: Tonya Harding 2008: Hillary Clinton 2008: John McCain 2011: Gabrielle Giffords 2012: Gabrielle Giffords 2012: Mitt Romney 2016: "El Chapo" 2017: Israel 2017: The Golden Globes 2020: Iran 2021: Nancy Pelosi
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The Philippines should compete with other Southeast Asian nations in attracting thousands of Taiwanese firms moving out of China, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines (TECO) Representative Wallace Minn-Gan Chow said Monday.

There are thousands of Taiwanese firms in China now looking at Southeast Asia, Chow said in a luncheon meeting with Manila Standard editors in Makati City.

He said the political tension between the US and China was forcing several Taiwanese companies which are major suppliers to American companies to relocate to other countries, particularly Southeast Asia.

Chow said to attract these companies, the Philippine government should consider enhancing its set of incentives offered to foreign investors, resolve the issue of double taxation, reduce the power rates charged on industrial users and introduce the visa waiver program for Taiwanese travelers.

The avoidance of double taxation will increase the potential of the Philippines as investment destination, he said.

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Josephine Shun, director of TECOs economic division, said there are about 600 Taiwanese companies with presence in the Philippines. She said among the biggest investors are the Kinpo Group and the Tipo Hightech Eco Park in Subic Bay Freeport.

Chow said Taiwan, one of the closest neighbors of the Philippines, ranked only eighth among the top investors in Philippine economic zones. Taiwan is also not among the biggest tourism markets for the Philippines.

We want the Philippines to reciprocate with the visa-free program for Taiwanese travelers. Issuing the visa waiver program is much better. The gain for tourism would be immense, he said.

Last year, there were 300,000 Filipinos who went to Taiwan visa-free, but there were much fewer Taiwanese visitors to the Philippines, he said.

Taiwan earlier extended for another year its visa-free entry policy for the Philippines until July 31, 2024. It is my wish to renew the visa-free program for Filipinos, said Chow.

Chow said there are now 120 flights between Philippine and Taiwanese cities to accommodate the travel demand between the two countries.

Chow said he also wanted to strengthen the agricultural ties between the two countries. TECO recently opened a demonstration farm in Barangay Sapang Maragul, Tarlac City to train Filipinos on modern farming. It also plans to send 100 young Filipino farmers to train in Taiwan for 11 months.

Chow also said Taiwan donated this month 2,000 metric tons of rice to the Philippines to help typhoon victims.
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Indonesian President Joko Widodo will arrive in the country today (Jan. 9) for a three-day official visit.

He will have a meeting with President Marcos on Wednesday at the Palace, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

In previous engagements, Mr. Marcos and Widodo discussed the case of Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, who is still on Indonesias death row for drug-related cases.

Velosos case as well as President Marcos call for a binding Code of Conduct for the South China Sea are likely to be discussed during Widodos visit.

The two leaders are also expected to reaffirm their commitment to deepening and expanding Philippines-Indonesia ties, especially as the two countries will celebrate their 75th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations in November 2024, the DFA said.

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Last year, President Marcos flew to Indonesia twice to participate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summits in May and September.

Widodos visit marks his final travel to Manila as Indonesian president as he is set to retire from politics next month with Indonesias general election in February.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo will meet two foreign top diplomats in Manila before flying to at least three countries to raise the Philippines position on various global issues.

Manalo will sit down with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi for the 7th Philippines-Indonesian Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) and with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who will be in Manila from Jan. 11 to 12 as part of her visit to the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

DFA spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza said Manalo will also be flying to Uganda for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, to Laos for ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat and to Belgium for ASEAN-European Union Summit.

This will be a hectic first quarter. As you see, weve started with several visits and meetings already, and that will continue for the first quarter, Daza said.
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Church hopes for peaceful procession

The first Traslacion procession in three years to mark the Feast of the Black Nazarene today is expected to draw at least 2 million devotees  less than half the previous record of attendees  who will join in the six-kilometer-long procession from the Quirino Grandstand

to Quiapo Church.



At its height before the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual rite that draws Catholics from across the country and even abroad drew 4.5 million devotees in 2018 according to police estimates, but that number slowly tapered off before the coronavirus forced churches and public places everywhere to shut their doors.



Catholic Church officials said Monday they are hoping for a peaceful and tragedy-free celebration after they and the Manila city government cancelled the grand procession in 2021.



The 2019 edition of the event drew about 4 million devotees according to the National Capital Region Police Office, then about 2.5 million

returned for the last pre-pandemic procession in 2020.



This year, Quiapo Church officials said the image of the Black Nazarene will leave Quirino Grandstand before 10 a.m. after the mass.

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If the plan goes on smoothly, the image of the Black Nazarene will be inside the Quiapo Church by 4 p.m.



Organizers said all preparations were in place for the grand procession.



With the cooperation of all sectors, the government, volunteer groups and people from the Church, I can say that in terms of ensuring the security and the solemnity of our Traslacion, we are ready, Quiapo

Church rector Fr. Jun Sescon said Monday.



The grand procession will begin early Tuesday morning, from Quirino Grandstand in Luneta to the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo.



It will feature a new Andas (carriage), with the image of the Black Nazarene enclosed in a tempered glass cage, still being pulled using a thick rope by devotees.



The public will no longer be allowed to climb the Andas to ensure the protection of the image and the safety of attendees.



Devotees are encouraged to wear face masks while attending church

events at Quiapo Church and during the Traslacion.



Aside from the Manila City government, the organizers of the event

also coordinated with other government agencies and private

organizations to ensure an orderly and peaceful Traslacion.



Among them are the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of Health, the Philippine Coast Guard, and

the Philippine Red Cross.



PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said they remain on alert to counter any security threats that may disrupt the religious observance.



Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jose Advincula will lead the Fiesta Mass at midnight on Tuesday at the Quirino Grandstand, which is expected to draw thousands of devotees.



Since Saturday, devotees have been queuing at the Quirino Grandstand for the Pahalik in which people are allowed to kiss and touch the image of the black Jesus.



Meanwhile, environmentalists and community leaders around the Quiapo area are calling for a clean and garbage-free celebration of the feast of the Black Nazarene.



Local leaders and the environmental network Ecowaste Coalition urged devotees and visitors to couple their devotion to the Black Nazarene with respect for the environment.



Past celebrations have seen truckloads of garbage collected from Rizal Park to Quiapo that included cigarette butts, candy and snack wrappers, plastic bags, cups, bottles and straws, polystyrene food

containers, and bamboo skewers that often cause injuries to barefoot devotees.



Also on Monday, Sherwin Gatchalian urged the PNP to ensure the safety and security of devotees participating in the Black Nazarene procession.

Police authorities should heighten their vigilance, coordinate closely with relevant authorities, and deploy necessary resources to maintain order all throughout the procession, Gatchalian said.

Its important that our people are able to exercise their religious beliefs peacefully and without concerns about their security, he added.



In a statement, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said the military is focused on maintaining the safety and security of pilgrims who will flock to Manila for the yearly celebration.



I sincerely extend greetings on the feast of the Black Nazarene, Brawner said. The Armed Forces of the Philippines, along with other government agencies, are focused on the safety and security of the millions of devotees who will attend the Traslacion.
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Foundever, a leading global customer experience (CX) provider, has continued to hoist their commitment to making a positive impact on the communities they serve by holding a donation drive for cancer patients at the pediatric ward of the Tarlac Provincial Hospital.

Associates from the Foundever office in Tarlac eagerly embraced the opportunity to contribute to the cause, showcasing the companys strong sense of community and compassion. The goal was simple yet profound: to bring comfort and cheer to the young patients battling cancer and their families facing challenging times.

At Foundever, we believe in the power of collective kindness, said Foundever Account Engagement Manager, Kenneth Esperame. This is not just a donation drive for us; its an opportunity to bring smiles to the faces of young patients and provide support to their families during challenging times.

The donation drive, which spanned about a month, engaged Foundever associates in a collective effort to contribute donations for the young patients at the pediatric ward. The response from the employees was overwhelming, demonstrating the companys commitment to social responsibility. The donation drive gathered more than 800 toys that were given to about 400 kids in the pediatric ward.

FOR HOPE AND HEALING. Foundever in Tarlac, Philippines holds a donation drive for cancer patients at the pediatric ward of the Tarlac Provincial Hospital. Pictured are the Foundever associates decked in costumes during the party organized for the young patients and the turnover of donations.

The monetary donations gathered were used to purchase essential supplies for the hospital playroom as well as to organize a memorable party for the patients of the pediatric ward. Our commitment goes beyond material contributions; its about creating lasting memories and positive experiences for these brave children, stated Esperame.

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Upon presenting the donations to the pediatric ward at the Tarlac Provincial Hospital, Foundever HR Generalist, Miggy Dela Torre, emphasized the importance of community collaboration saying Our relationship with the local community goes beyond business transactions. This initiative reflects our shared responsibility to uplift those who need it most.

He added, Knowing that our collective efforts can make a positive difference in the lives of these children and their families fills us with a profound sense of purpose.

This donation drive further testifies the unwavering commitment of Foundever to being a force for good, dedicated to making a meaningful difference in the communities they serve. As the global CX leader looks forward to future initiatives, it remains firm in its belief that by working together, businesses and communities can create a harmonious and compassionate world for all.
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TikTok, the leading destination for short-form mobile videos, transcends digital boundaries with initiatives that underscore the platforms commitment to positive societal contributions, revealing narratives that celebrate community, resilience, and the transformative power of giving.

The turnover ceremony of the #CreatorsGiveBack donations at the National Childrens Hospital (NCH) was held last December 20, representing a significant milestone for TikTok and TikTok Shop. In collaboration with partners Moonton, PLDT Home and ANTA, and through the #CreatorsGiveBack initiative and the 12.12 TikTok Shop live streams, the TikTok community actively engaged in generating donations of essential items like groceries, equipment, and other necessities. These contributions were specifically aimed at catering to the needs of patients and the NCH.

Photo shows (from left) Rey C. Salazar, Chief Administrative Officer, National Childrens Hospital; Dr. Philip Morales, Medical Center Chief, National Childrens Hospital; Robi de Guzman, TikTok Marketing Manager; and Toff Rada, TikTok Head of Public Policy, Philippines during the turnover of donations at the National Childrens Hospital.

TikTok Shop, in partnership with HOPE, a local non-government organization dedicated to enhancing public school infrastructure, also invested P1.8 million to fund the construction of two classrooms in Casini Elementary School, a local primary school in Sorsogon. The initiative, themed #TikTokShopGiveHopeToLife, witnessed wholehearted contributions from the platforms merchants, transforming each sale into a meaningful gesture of support.

At TikTok, we believe that authentic expression builds connection and a strong sense of community that in turn brings positive impact. These initiatives thrive on the active involvement of Filipino TikTok users, creators, sellers, and partners, highlighting the platforms capability to bring people together for a meaningful cause, said Toff Rada, TikTok Head of Public Policy, Philippines.

TikTok is committed to continue inviting its community users, creators, and partners alike to join hands in crafting a narrative that celebrates generosity, the joy of shared experiences, and the hopeful vision of a brighter future.
There were a handful of veterans who had gone to this clinic in Mexico and were reporting anecdotally that they had great improvements in all kinds of areas of their lives after taking ibogaine, Williams said. Our goal was to characterize those improvements with structured clinical and neurobiological assessments.

Capturing before and after

Williams and his colleagues at Stanford Medicine teamed up with VETS, Inc., a foundation that helps facilitate psychedelic-assisted therapies for veterans. With support from VETS, 30 special operations veterans with a history of TBI and repeated blast exposures, almost all of whom were experiencing clinically severe psychiatric symptoms and functional disabilities, had independently scheduled themselves for treatment with magnesium and ibogaine at a clinic in Mexico.

Before the treatment, the researchers gauged the participants levels of PTSD, anxiety, depression and functioning based on a combination of self-reported questionnaires and clinician-administered assessments. Participants then traveled to a clinic in Mexico run by Ambio Life Sciences, where under medical monitoring they received oral ibogaine along with magnesium to help prevent heart complications that have been associated with ibogaine. The veterans then returned to Stanford Medicine for post-treatment assessments.

These men were incredibly intelligent, high-performing individuals who experienced life-altering functional disability from TBI during their time in combat, Williams said. They were all willing to try most anything that they thought might help them get their lives back.

At the beginning of the study, participants were experiencing clinically significant levels of disability as measured by the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale 2.0, which assesses disability in six functional domains, including cognition, mobility, self-care, getting along, life activities and community participation. In addition, 23 met the criteria for PTSD, 14 for an anxiety disorder and 15 for alcohol use disorder. In their lifetimes, 19 participants had been suicidal and seven had attempted suicide.

Life-changing results

On average, treatment with ibogaine immediately led to significant improvements in functioning, PTSD, depression and anxiety. Moreover, those effects persisted until at least one month after treatment  the endpoint of the study.

Before treatment, the veterans had an average disability rating of 30.2 on the disability assessment scale, equivalent to mild to moderate disability. One month after treatment, that rating improved to 5.1, indicating no disability. Similarly, one month after treatment participants experienced average reductions of 88% in PTSD symptoms, 87% in depression symptoms and 81% in anxiety symptoms relative to how they were before ibogaine treatment. Formal cognitive testing also revealed improvements in participants concentration, information processing, memory and impulsivity.

I wasnt willing to admit I was dealing with any TBI challenges. I just thought Id had my bell rung a few times  until the day I forgot my wifes name, said Craig, a 52-year-old study participant from Colorado who served 27 years in the U.S. Navy. Since [ibogaine treatment], my cognitive function has been fully restored. This has resulted in advancement at work and vastly improved my ability to talk to my children and wife.

Before the treatment, I was living life in a blizzard with zero visibility and a cold, hopeless, listless feeling, said Sean, a 51-year-old veteran from Arizona with six combat deployments who participated in the study and says ibogaine saved his life. After ibogaine, the storm lifted.

Importantly, there were no serious side effects of ibogaine and no instances of the heart problems that have occasionally been linked to ibogaine. During treatment, veterans reported only typical symptoms such as headaches and nausea.

Lessons for PTSD, depression and anxiety

Williams and his team are planning further analysis of additional data collected on the veterans but not included in the current study, including brain scans that could help reveal how ibogaine led to improvements in cognition. They also hope to launch future studies to further understand how the drug might be used to treat TBI.

However, they think ibogaines drastic effects on TBI also suggest that it holds broader therapeutic potential for other neuropsychiatric conditions. In addition to treating TBI, I think this may emerge as a broader neuro-rehab drug, Williams said. I think it targets a whole host of different brain areas and can help us better understand how to treat other forms of PTSD, anxiety and depression that arent necessarily linked to TBI.

The study was independently funded by philanthropic gifts from Steve and Genevieve Jurvetson. Stanford Medicine received no funding from VETS, Inc. or Ambio.
Former South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius walked out of prison on Friday, discreetly avoiding the eye of the cameras, and is now home on parole, almost eleven years after the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

The 37-year-old former athlete and double-leg amputee convicted of murder in a case that enthralled the world and who has served more than half his sentence, left Atteridgeville prison on the outskirts of the capital Pretoria early this morning. He has been admitted to the community corrections system and is now at home, said the prison administration in a statement, confirming that his release on parole is now effective.

Neither the time nor the logistical details had been communicated in advance by the authorities, who cited security reasons. The six-time Paralympic champion is forbidden to speak to the media.

On the night of February 1314, 2013, Oscar Pistorius killed 29-year-old model Reeva Steenkamp by shooting four times through her bedroom bathroom door in his ultra-secure Pretoria home. A year earlier, the sportsman had become a legend by competing with the able-bodied in the 400-meter race at the London Olympics, a first for a double amputee.

After several appeals and a crude reading of the victims autopsy report, which caused the accused to vomit, he was finally sentenced in late 2017 to 13 years and five months imprisonment for murder.

Under South African law, a convicted offender is eligible for sentence adjustment once half of his sentence has been served. At the end of November, the prison administration announced the early release of Oscar Pistorius.

As part of his conditional release until the end of his sentence in 2029, Oscar Pistorius must undergo anger management therapy and a program on violence against women. He is not allowed to consume alcohol. He must also perform community service, but he must be present at a designated home in a Pretoria suburb at certain times of the day.
The communique mentions the dismissal of the director of the PJ and several other officials, including directors-general and secretaries-general of the different ministries that make up the government.

The name of the person who will replace Juliao Vieira Insumbo, who was appointed to the post in September but only took office in October 2023, has not been announced.

Insumbo, who holds a masters degree in law and is a magistrate in the Public Prosecutors Office, graduated from the Faculty of Law in Bissau and replaced Domingos Monteiro Correia, also a magistrate in the Public Prosecutors Office.

On taking up the post, the now-former director of the Guinean PJ, an organization that stands out in the fight against organized crime, particularly drug trafficking, said that his work would be based on compliance with the law, both from a preventive point of view and in its application.
The non-governmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) mourned this Sunday the death of a collaborator during an attack by rebels on Friday in the district of Mocimboa da Praia, in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, near the towns headquarters.

We are grieving and very saddened by the loss of our colleague in this attack at such a young age (less than 30 years old). This colleague of ours was an active member of the community who was committed to helping save dozens of lives by spreading health promotion messages and identifying and referring patients to specialized care, including pregnant women and children, says MSFs emergency coordinator in Cabo Delgado, Marta Cazorla, quoted in a press release from the NGO.

The new attack took place at around 7 p.m. local time, in the community of Chimbanga, less than 50 kilometers from the district headquarters, in the town of Mocimboa da Praia, with at least three people killed and several homes destroyed.

According to MSF, in 2023, another worker was killed during an attack while traveling on public transport in the district of Macomia.
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A normal PA chest x-ray. Credit: Dr. Yale Rosen Atlas of Pulmonary Pathology, CC BY-SA 2.0

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can rapidly detect COVID-19 from chest X-rays with more than 98% accuracy. The study results have just been published in Scientific Reports.

Corresponding author Professor Amir H Gandomi, from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Data Science Institute, said there was a pressing need for effective automated tools to detect COVID-19, given the significant impact on public health and the global economy.

"The most widely used COVID-19 test, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), can be slow and costly, and produce false negatives. To confirm a diagnosis, radiologists need to manually examine a CT scans or X-rays, which can be time-consuming and prone to error," said Professor Gandomi.

"The new AI system could be particularly beneficial in countries experiencing high levels of COVID-19 where there is a shortage of radiologists. Chest X-rays are portable, widely available and provide lower exposure to ionizing radiation than CT scans," he said.

Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, difficulty breathing and a sore throat, but it can be difficult to distinguish COVID-19 from flu and other types of pneumonia.

The new AI system uses a deep learning-based algorithm called a Custom Convolutional Neural Network (Custom-CNN) that is able to quickly and accurately distinguish between COVID-19 cases, normal cases, and pneumonia in X-ray images.

A graphical illustration of Coronavirus, Non-coronavirus (Normal), and Viral Pneumonia images. Credit: Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47038-3

"Deep learning offers an end-to-end solution, eliminating the need to manually search for biomarkers. The Custom-CNN model streamlines the detection process, providing a faster and more accurate diagnosis of COVID-19," said Professor Gandomi.

"If a PCR test or rapid antigen test shows a negative or inconclusive result, due to low sensitivity, patients may require further examination via radiological imaging to confirm or rule out the virus's presence. In this situation, the new AI system could prove beneficial.

"While radiologists play a crucial role in medical diagnosis, AI technology can assist them in making accurate and efficient diagnoses," said Professor Gandomi.

The performance of the Custom-CNN model was evaluated via a comprehensive comparative analysis, with accuracy as the performance criterion. The results showed that the new model outperforms the other AI diagnostic models.

Fast and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19 can ensure patients get the correct treatment, including COVID-19 antivirals, which work best if taken within five days of the onset of symptoms. It could also help them isolate and protect others from getting infected, reducing pandemic outbreaks.

This breakthrough represents a significant step in combating the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic, potentially transforming the landscape of COVID-19 diagnosis and management.

More information: Ahmad MohdAziz Hussein et al, Auto-detection of the coronavirus disease by using deep convolutional neural networks and X-ray photographs, Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47038-3 Journal information: Scientific Reports
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MRI image: In so-called medulloblastoma with extensive nodularity (MBEN), small tissue chambers are delimited within the tumor and are connected in a grape-like manner. Credit: Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44117-x

Certain brain tumors in small children contain cells that develop very similarly to normal brain cells and others that have already developed malignantly, depending on where they are located within the tumor.

By analyzing individual cells, a team of researchers from the Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ), the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) were able to characterize the genetic programs of the individual cells in detail and identify their developmental pathway within the tumor.

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Medulloblastoma is among the most common solid tumors in children and the most common malignant brain tumor in children. The tumor grows in the cerebellum and can damage vital brain centers as it grows.

Based on tissue characteristics and genetic criteria, medulloblastomas are now divided into different risk groups, which can take a completely different course. While certain subtypes progress aggressively and form metastases, there are other forms that can usually be cured with an intensive combination therapy of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.

A team of researchers has now used a novel method to investigate what directs certain tumors in a more benign or malignant direction at the cellular level.

A certain type of medulloblastoma, which is characterized by its good chances of recovery and at the same time by the special structural properties of its tissue, served as a model for them: in so-called medulloblastoma with extensive nodularity (MBEN), small tissue chambers are delimited within the tumor, which are connected in a grape-like manner.

The study showed that tumor cells located in these nodules were no longer actively dividing, and their genetic program was similar to that of mature brain cells.

In the intermediate areas, however, the scientists identified different cell types: In addition to immune and connective tissue cells, there were also significantly more aggressive tumor cells that continued to divide uncontrollably and whose genetic program was more similar to those of fast-growing medulloblastomas and immature nerve cells.

However, during their migration into the nodes, the cancer cells matured back into nerve-like cells and no longer divided.

Kristian Pajtler, a pediatric oncologist at KiTZ, DKFZ, and UKHD and head of the study, explains the results as follows, "In some childhood tumors, the normal development process is blocked. The cancer cells thus become similar to immature precursor cells, which remain active in division due to a specific genetic program."

"In MBEN tumors, this apparently only works partially and many of the cells then go through the halfway normal development process of a cerebellar cell and stop dividing. This would also explain the mostly favorable course of this type of tumor."

For their analyses, the team dissected the tumors of nine young MBEN patients into their individual cellular components and analyzed the genetic program of the individual cells. Using a bioinformatic method, they could reconstruct where exactly these cells were located within the tumor.

The method, which was used in collaboration with Karsten Rippe's department at DKFZ, is of particular importance for medulloblastoma research, explains one of the two lead authors of the study, David Ghasemi, physician and scientist at KiTZ, UKHD and DKFZ.

"Until now, it has never been possible to develop laboratory models for this type of medulloblastoma. Only with this method was it possible to localize the individual cell types within the tumor and to understand how the various areas within the tumor differ from each other."

Blocking the maturation process is an important therapeutic tool that is already being researched in order to avert malignant progression in children and steer the cancer cells back in a benign direction.

"It is possible that MBEN tumors only need a little push here," says Kristian Pajtler. "Because even if most children with an MBEN tumor can be cured by surgery and, if necessary, further therapies, these are very intensive treatments for small children, which are often associated with severe, lifelong side effects."

More information: David R. Ghasemi et al, Compartments in medulloblastoma with extensive nodularity are connected through differentiation along the granular precursor lineage, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44117-x Journal information: Nature Communications
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When the cold and dark winter is setting in, some of us envy animals that can hibernate. This long, deep rest is an example of how nature develops clever solution to difficult problems. In this case, how to survive a long, cold and dark period without much food and water.

But hibernation has closer links to human history than you might expect.

An article in a copy of the British Medical Journal from 1900 describes a strange human dormancy-like hibernation called "lotska" that was common among farmers in Pskov, Russia. In this area, food was so scarce during the winter that the problem was solved by sleeping through the dark part of the year.

Once a day people woke up to eat a piece of bread and drink a glass of water. After the simple meal, they went back to sleep and family members then took turns keeping the fire alive. You will also find descriptions in Inuit Greenlandic stories of a prolonged hibernation-like sleep during the long dark winter months. In parts of Greenland it is dark from November to the end of January.

There is a study from 2020 which suggests the ancient ancestors of man, called hominins, may have been able to hibernate 400,000 years ago. Bones discovered in a cave in Spain show seasonal disruption in growth, suggesting that one of man's predecessors may have used the same strategy as cave bears to survive long winters.

Animals and hibernation

Hibernation is deeper and more complex than usual sleep, including dramatic changes in metabolism. This long resting period combines several conditions linked to longevity, reduced calorie intake, low body temperature and lowered metabolism.

Animals that hibernate usually live longer compared to other species of the same size. Recent studies using epigenetic clocks, which map activity within genes over time, suggest that hibernation slows down aging in marmots and bats. So hibernation may hold important clues on how to slow down aging processes.

There are different forms of agingchronological and biological age.

Chronological age is actually only about how many revolutions the earth has circled around the sun since we were born.

It is not time itself that ages us but rather "wear and tear." Biological age measures wear and tear. It is a more comprehensive and personal measure of health than chronological age and a better predictor of longevity. A 2023 study established that biological age varies and that a temporary increase, for example during surgery and stress, is reversed when you have recovered.

Diseases that are linked to lifestyle and accumulate with age, such as such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, dementia and chronic kidney disease are driven by "wear and tear." This result in inflammation, altered composition of the gut microbiota and increased oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is when there are too many free radicals (unstable atoms that damage cells) in your body.

New science based on epigenetic clocks and lessons from hibernating animals could help us to treat patients who have diseases driven by "wear and tear." We could use drugs that may slow down aging.

For example, metformin is the main first-line medication for the treatment of type-2 diabetes. It regulates inflammation, insulin-sensitivity and slows down DNA damage caused by oxidative-stress. There is growing evidence it may help manage other "wear and tear" diseases such as cardiovascular disease and long term use of the drug may be associated with lower cognitive impairment.

Learning more about hibernation may benefit human medicine for the treatment of traumatic brain injuries, severe blood loss, preservation of muscle and bone mass and providing better protection during organ transplantation.

A 2018 study found that mimicking hibernation conditions for the storage of renal grafts from deceased donors seemed to improve their preservation. Muscular skeletal degeneration is often determined by genes, but these genes seemed to be deactivated in hibernating bears.

Animals and longevity

There are long-lived, non-hibernating animals we can learn from too such as the Greenland shark, naked mole rat, Icelandic clam and Rougheye rockfish. These species have developed superior mechanisms that protect them against aging. It seems like protection against inflammation, oxidative stress and modifications of proteins that happen with age are mechanism that in general benefit all long-lived animals.

Genetic studies of rougheye rockfish, which can live for over 200 years, suggest that a food group called flavonoids is related to longevity. Citrus fruits, berries, onions, apples and parsley are high in flavonoids, which have anti-inflammatory properties and protect against organ damage, for example, from chemicals or aging.

The 2023 study of rougheye rockfish found that one set of its genes which could be linked to longevity were associated with flavonoid metabolism. So a long-lived fish may have something to teach us about what to eat to live longer.

Lessons from nature and hibernating animals tell us that preserving cells, regulation metabolism and genetic adaptions play key roles in longevity. Our life style and eating habits are our best tools to mimic some of these mechanisms.

Forty winks

There is still so much we don't understand about hibernation but we do know that normal sleep is connected to longevity too. For example, a March 2023 study showed that with good quality sleep, you can add five years to the life of men and two and a half years if you are a woman. The researchers defined good quality sleep as getting seven to eight hours of sleep per day, not needing sleep medication and waking up feeling rested at least five days a week.

Animals have huge variations in their sleeping patterns, from bears and marmots hibernating for eight months of the year to elephants that get only two hours a day.

How elephants can become so old while sleeping so little is still a mystery to scientists.

Finding out how nature resolved these extremes may help scientists decipher new ways to improve human health.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The body's immune response to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may play a role in causing damage in people with multiple sclerosis, according to a new study led by University of Texas Health Houston.

EBV infection has long been associated with multiple sclerosis, but how the infection might contribute to multiple sclerosis has not been clear. More than 95% of people have been infected with this very common virus; however, it typically remains in its latent stage and doesn't cause any issues. In some cases, though, the T cells specific for the EBV infection may cause problems.

Now, research led by first author Assaf Gottlieb, Ph.D., assistant professor with the Center for Precision Health at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston, and senior author J. William Lindsey, MD, professor in the Department of Neurology with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, demonstrates that T cells specific for EBV-infected cells are present in high numbers in the cerebrospinal fluid of people with multiple sclerosis at its earliest stages.

The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers obtained blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples from eight patients in the process of multiple sclerosis diagnosis. They stimulated cells from the patients' own blood with multiple different stimuli, including EBV-infected lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) from the same person, cell-free EBV, varicella zoster virus (chicken pox); influenza virus, and candida; they then used RNA sequencing for T cell receptors to determine which of the stimuli the cerebrospinal fluid T cells were responding to.

"We saw a clear signal of enrichment of T cells specific for LCL in the cerebrospinal fluid from the multiple sclerosis patients," said Gottlieb, who is also a faculty member with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. "This pattern was very different from what we observed in other neurologic diseases, suggesting it is unique to multiple sclerosis."

On average, 13% of the T-cells in the cerebrospinal fluid of people with the first symptoms of multiple sclerosis are specific for autologous B lymphocytes infected with EBV, demonstrating a clear link between EBV and multiple sclerosis.

In the most expanded cerebrospinal fluid clones, which are highly likely to play a role in multiple sclerosis pathogenesis, the abundance of LCL-specific T-lymphocytes is even higher, at 47%.

T cells for the three other common infections did not show a similar abundance in the cerebrospinal fluid.

"This work demonstrates that T-cells specific for LCL are present in the cerebrospinal fluid at the earliest stages of disease," said Lindsey, who is the Opal C. Rankin Professor in Neurology at the medical school. "This strongly suggests that these T cells are either causing the disease or contributing to it in some way. We have experiments in progress to define what these cells may be doing."

EBV is a member of the herpes virus family that spreads most commonly through bodily fluids, especially saliva, and can cause infectious mononucleosis, among other illnesses.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease of the central nervous system that affects over 1.8 million people globally, according to the World Health Organization. Symptoms vary widely between patients, but some people with severe multiple sclerosis may lose the ability to walk independently. There is no cure for the disease.

Co-authors included H. Phuong T. Pham, Ph.D., formerly with the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School and now with The University of Texas at Dallas; and Jerome G. Saltarrelli, Ph.D., with the medical school's Department of Surgery.
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In the nearly two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the introduction of state laws and policies further restricting access to abortion care has made the legal and health care landscape even more challenging.

In an analysis published January 3, 2024, in BMJ, Senior Associate Dean Terry McGovern, Adjunct Professor and Ph.D. student Ira Memaj, Project Director Clarisa Bencomo and colleagues discuss strategies used successfully in other countries to restore and protect access to abortion and how similar tactics could possibly be applied in the U.S.

When abortion was effectively banned in Ireland in 1983, the authors write, a wave of activism laid the groundwork for the Abortion Rights Campaign, which focused on normalizing abortion discourse, destigmatizing abortions, and applying pressure to the Irish government by framing abortion as a human right.

Through these tactics and over time, the campaign was able to shift the public consciousness to support a referendum on legalizing abortion. In the vote in May 2018, 66.4% supported ending the country's ban on abortion. The Health Act of 2018, allowing for the provision of free abortion services, was signed into law that December.

The authors also used the recent example of Colombia, which in 2022 legalized abortion up to 24 weeks, ending one of the oldest total abortion bans in the region. Women's Link, a collaboration among lawyers, public health officials, health care providers, feminist groups, and people affected by abortion restrictions, used strategic litigation and advocacy which led to the 2006 Colombian Constitutional Court ruling that legalized abortions under special circumstances.

In 2018, the Causa Justa, a coalition of 120 organizations and activists, used education and political pressure to demonstrate how criminalizing abortion is disproportionate, ineffective, and violates equality and freedom of conscience.

Strategic litigation on its own may not always work in the U.S., the authors note, but with the strong presence of broad activist and legal coalitions working for universal access to health care, changes to the judicial climate of states are possible.

Lastly, the authors say, framing abortion as a public health issue may also prove effective, according to a 2018 study of Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Portugal, South Africa, and Uruguay. In these countries, by including abortion as one component in a comprehensive reproductive health package, political will to establish or expand access to safe abortion services emerged.

"Although a regressive political climate may lead to despair, globally we see a trend towards accepting the evidence that criminalizing abortion does not reduce abortion; it only harms pregnant people," the authors write. "[] experience shows that even referendum campaigns or strategic litigation efforts that initially fail can result in a stronger, more unified movement in support of abortion rights."

More information: Terry McGovern et al, Applying global lessons to protect abortion access in the United States, BMJ (2024). DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2022-073833 Journal information: British Medical Journal (BMJ)
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An editorial paper has been published in Oncoscience titled, "Lipiodol: from intrusion until exile from the tumor microenvironment."

In this new editorial, researchers Sheena Anand, Jean-Francois Geschwind, Vahid Etezadi, and Nariman Nezami from the University of Maryland discuss lipiodol, or ethiodized oil. Lipiodol, extracted from poppyseed oil, is a transparent straw-colored oil which sinks when combined with water. Lipiodol does not dissolve when combined with aqueous solutions and can be iodinated with I131, thus making the compound both imageable and therapeutic.

"The radiopacity of lipiodol originates from its iodine content," write the authors.

Discovered in 1901 by Marcel Guerbet, lipiodol became one of the first contrast agents used in radiology in the 1920s and has since mostly been used for hysterosalpingography.

The first utilization of lipiodol for conventional transarterial chemoembolization (cTACE) dates to the 1980s in Japan where it was combined with chemotherapeutic agents to treat patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), because lipiodol was found to be cleared more slowly from cancer cells than from the healthy liver parenchyma, thereby allowing the emulsion of chemotherapy-lipiodol to remain for a longer period of time within the HCC tumor.

Credit: Impact Journals LLC

Despite widespread diagnostic and therapeutic application of lipiodol, the mechanism of its prolonged retention in hepatic tumors is not well understood.

"In this study, responders to cTACE had slower lipiodol washout, which could reflect successful embolization of the tumor and slower blood flow to the tumor area and therefore slower washout, or it could represent different vascularity patterns in the responders," the researchers write.

More information: Sheena Anand et al, Lipiodol: from intrusion until exile from the tumor microenvironment, Oncoscience (2023). DOI: 10.18632/oncoscience.584

Provided by Impact Journals LLC
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A new report from the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE) has confirmed that a million people in 90% of areas in England lived shorter lives than they should have between 2011 and the start of the pandemic.

The number of lives shortened is equivalent in size to the whole of Birmingham (and some), 984,333 (people); or Edinburgh and Glasgow together, 1,056,610; or a third of Wales, 3,136,000; or half the population of Northern Ireland, 1,885,000.

Well-established evidence confirms most of our health is determined by our social circumstances and NHS care only accounts for 20% of population health.

In contrast to the traditional focus on the health of the poorest, the new report "Health Inequalities, Lives Cut Short" considers the life expectancy of 90% of the general population who do not live in the 10% of wealthiest areas.

Using several published ONS data sources, the IHE made these calculations from the number of excess deaths (the increase beyond those expected on the basis of death rates for the most advantaged 10% of areas) in the decade from 2011 in England.

Previous research has shown that pre-2010 government policies were beginning to close the health inequalities gap. Such policies included coordinated investment in the early years, education and neighborhood renewal, as well as health care.

However, the new findings from the IHE add weight to its two reviews of health inequalities in 2020 ("10 years On Review" and "COVID-19 Review"): that the cumulative impact of regressive funding cuts, associated with austerity, contributed to life expectancy failing to increase, life expectancy falling for women in the 10% of poorest areas, and health inequalities widening.

To contextualize the U.K.'s downwards health trend, the IHE has additionally analyzed European Union data. The IHE has compared healthy life years (number of years a person is expected to continue to live in a healthy conditionalso called disability-free life expectancy) in the U.K. to other European Union countries.

The IHE found that, in 2014, both males and females in the U.K. had a higher average number of healthy years lived (HYL) than those in the EU. However, by 2017, HLY in the U.K. had stagnated for men, and fallen for women. In the same period, HLY increased by more than two years in the EU. Consequently, 10 EU countries had higher HLY than the U.K. for males, and 14 had higher HLY than the U.K. for females.

UCL IHE Director, Professor Sir Michael Marmot, whose work on the social determinants of health spans more than 50 years, and has chaired numerous reviews of health inequalities at global, regional, national and local level, said, "If you needed a case study example of what not to do to reduce health inequalities, the U.K. provides it. The only other developed country doing worse is the U.S., where life expectancy is falling.

"Our country has become poor and unhealthy, where a few rich, healthy people live. People care about their health, but it is deteriorating, with their lives shortening, through no fault of their own. Political leaders can choose to prioritize everyone's health, or not. Currently they are not."

The report found that of the 1 million people who died prematurely, 148,000 of them were additional to what might have been expected if the post-2010 austerity measures hadn't been imposed. Additionally in 2020, during the pandemic, inequality between the least and most disadvantaged 10% of areas contributed further 28,000 excess deaths, when compared to that over the previous five years.

Health equity should be central to all UK government policies

As a result, the IHE is calling on the government to put health equity and well-being at the heart of all policies by following the eight "Marmot Principles."

"This is a dismal state of affairs," continued Sir Michael, "I'm saying to party leaders: make this the central plank of the next governmentstop policies harming health and widening health inequalities. To MPs: if you care about the health of your constituents, you must be appalled by their deteriorating health. It's time for action and political leadership across the board.

"Important as is the NHSpublicly funded and free at the point of useaction is needed on the social determinants of health: the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. These social conditions are the main cases of health inequalities."

IHE proposes the appointment of an independent Health Equity Commissioner and establishment of a new cabinet-level health equity and well-being cross-departmental committee.

Sir Michael, a Professor of Epidemiology at UCL, explained, "In the U.K. the IHE is working with more than 40 local areas, businesses and other sectors who are taking this broader approach. They are doing their best to protect lives and promote health equity with their dwindling and inadequate funds. We know what to do. We are seeing a cultural shift and more action on health inequalities in those areas, where local leaders from different sectors are working together to promote health equity, which is magnificent.

"Ensuring all policies are assessed for their likely impact on equity of health and well-being is essential for reducing health inequalities long term. What must happen at the same time, though, is leadership from central government, making reducing health inequalities a central plank of the next government. That means implementing fairer social and economic policies, with health at the heart."

More information: Health Inequalities, Lives Cut Short. www.instituteofhealthequity.or  ties-lives-cut-short
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Including patients as partners for making decisions about their medical treatments is an important aspect of patient-centered care. A new study from England examined choices that patients with breast cancer make when considering where to have surgery for their condition and assessed how policies that offer such choices might affect inequalities in the health care system. The findings are published in the journal Cancer.

For the study, investigators analyzed data from the National Health Service (NHS), the publicly funded health care system in the United Kingdom that offers patients with cancer the opportunity to select any hospital providing cancer treatment, and identified all women diagnosed with breast cancer from 2016 to 2018 who had breast-conserving surgery or a mastectomy.

Records showed that 22,622 of 69,153 patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery (32.7%) and 7,179 of 23,536 patients undergoing mastectomy (30.5%) bypassed their nearest hospital to receive surgery farther away from home. Women who were younger, without additional medical conditions, of white ethnic background, or lived in rural areas were more likely to travel to more distant hospitals.

Patients were more likely to be treated at hospitals classified as specialist breast reconstruction centers even if they personally were not undergoing breast reconstruction after surgery. Patients who had a mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction were more likely to travel to hospitals that had surgeons with a strong media reputation for breast cancer surgery, and patients were less likely to travel to hospitals with shorter surgical waiting times.

Patients did not seem to make choices based on hospitals' research activity, quality rating, breast re-operation rates (to remove additional cancer cells that were missed), or status as a multidisciplinary cancer center (where patients can receive all their care at one location).

The investigators noted that this separationelderly patients, those with comorbidities, and those from ethnic minority backgrounds receiving care at their local hospital, while others travel to other hospitals and specialist centerscould further drive inequalities in access to quality care.

"As marginalized groups already face barriers to high-quality care, it is important for policy makers to consider measures that mitigate against the risks of increasing inequalities in access and outcomes, by for example providing free transport, accommodation, or even protection against loss of income," said co-author Lu Han, Ph.D., of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

"Moreover, patients prefer to access information on the quality of breast cancer care of the hospitals in their region at the start of the management pathway when a diagnosis is sought. Such information should be easy to understand and presented in a format that can support the trade-offs that patients have to make."

More information: Association of travel time, patient characteristics and hospital quality with patient mobility for breast cancer surgery: a national population-based study, Cancer (2024). DOI: 10.1002/cncr.35153. acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wile  com/journal/10970142 Journal information: Cancer
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Nina Shand couldn't stay awake. She had taken afternoon naps since she was a teenager to accommodate her "work hard, play hard" attitude, but when she was in her mid-20s the sleepiness became more severe.

Menial computer tasks put her to sleep, and a 20-minute drive across her city, St. Petersburg, Florida, brought on a drowsiness so intense that her eyelids would flutter, forcing her to pull over. She knew something was really wrong when she no longer felt safe behind the wheel.

In 2021, she received a diagnosis: narcolepsy, a rare disorder that causes excessive daytime sleepiness.

Her doctor prescribed her Adderall, the brand-name version of the amphetamine-powered medication commonly known for treating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

It worked. For the first time in years, Shand, now 28, felt energized. She was no longer struggling at work, sneaking naps or downing coffees to trick her body into staying awake. She felt hope.

But by 2022, a national Adderall shortage meant pharmacies were no longer able to fill her prescription. Shand and countless others across the country were being turned away, left to piece together a newand often less effectivetreatment plan with doctors scrambling to meet their needs.

More than a year later, the shortage continues. In October, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives implored the FDA and Drug Enforcement Administration to work with drug manufacturers to ensure better supply.

"We cannot allow this to be the continuing reality for Americans," read their letter, led by Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va.

But for now, it is.

Each month is accompanied by familiar anxieties as patients navigate a web of messy logistics and uncertainty while trying to get the medication they need to live normally.

Media coverage of the shortageand even the House Democrats' letterhas focused primarily on the harms to people with ADHD. But for those with sleep disorders, like Shand, the effects may be even more consequential.

Basic taskslike drivingbecome dangerous or impossible without medication. Job and school performances are threatened by the onset of sudden sleep and sometimes even paralysis. Hobbies and social lives can fall by the wayside, too.

"Adderall gave me my life back," said Shand. "Going from having a medication to not, it's like a roller coaster you desperately want to get off."

The resulting challenges, she said, have made particularly clear the loneliness of living with a rare and misunderstood disorder.

What is narcolepsy?

An estimated 1 in 2,000 people in the United States live with narcolepsymore than 160,000 people nationwide. The disorder is part of a broader group known as hypersomnolence disorders, or conditions characterized by difficulty staying awake during the day.

There are two major types of narcolepsy.

Both types affect one's ability to stay awake, but type 2 is typically less severe. In addition to sleep disturbance, most people with type 1 narcolepsy experience sudden, temporary loss of muscle control or paralysis, called cataplexy.

Cataplexy attacks are typically triggered by emotionlike laughter or surprise. For one person living with narcolepsy, an attack might look like a slack jaw or limp hand. For another, it could trigger full-body paralysis.

Causes of type 1 narcolepsy can include autoimmune disorders and brain injuries, but the underlying issue is believed to be low levels of hypocretin, a hormone that is thought to affect REM sleepthe dream state.

"Narcolepsy is due to a faulty switch in the brain for REM sleep," said Muhammad Ali Syed, a physician and the medical director of the University of Florida Health Sleep Center.

People with narcolepsy go into REM extremely quickly, Syed said. A person without a sleep disorder will enter REM around an hour or 90 minutes after falling asleep. But a person with narcolepsy may go into REM almost immediately and could have a fully fleshed-out dream in just minutes, Syed said.

In some circumstances, symptoms can also include sleep paralysis and hallucinations.

Increased demand

Every week since the Adderall shortage began, Fareeha Hussaini, a sleep medicine specialist at University of South Florida Health, has had calls to her office from patients struggling to access their medication.

College students are worried about plummeting grades and final exams. Patients in their 70s, who have managed symptoms with Adderall for decades, are now forced to switch to other medications, like Ritalin.

Hussaini and her staff at USF Health have worked to help patients adjust treatment plans, but there's no denying the added stress. Some patients worry what a new plan may mean for their quality of life as shortages continue.

Drug shortages in the U.S. aren't new, but the past couple of years have brought an all-time high, said Michael Ganio, who directs pharmacy practice and quality for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which represents pharmacists nationwide.

The Adderall shortage, Ganio said, is linked to increased demand.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on a flood of new ADHD diagnoses. Studies have found absence of routine and increased screen time may have played a role. With those diagnoses came an increase in stimulant prescriptions, Ganio saidoften via telehealth.

Adderall is a Schedule II controlled substance. It's highly regulated because of the potential for being diverted for recreational use. Prior to the pandemic, patients were required to have an in-person doctor appointment to get a prescription. But that requirement was waived during the public health emergency, and telehealth appointments were allowed. The telehealth allowance has since been extended.

"There's a broad group of patients who never had access, or suddenly have easier access, to providers who can make that diagnosis and prescribe," Ganio said.

Another reason for the shortage are production limitations put in place by the DEA. Each drug manufacturer is effectively given quotas of how much of the drug they can produce. But because manufacturers are shielded by trade secret protections, it can be hard to know whether the DEA quotas are too low or if the manufacturers just aren't producing to full capacity.

In a joint letter in August, the leaders of the FDA and DEA called on manufacturers to work together to increase production and confirm they are working to produce up to their quotas.

A logistical nightmare

From the parking lot of a Pinellas County, Florida, Walgreens in November, Nadine Dixon, 50, waited anxiously to have her Adderall prescription filled. It was the third time she'd sat in a pharmacy parking lot that day.

For Dixon, who gets her prescription through monthly in-person visits with a neurologist, the past year has been a logistical nightmare. The effects of the shortage, she said, have been compounded by the layers of red tape around Schedule II drugs.

Unlike, say, blood pressure medicationwhich can be dispensed to patients in a 90-day supplyDixon can get enough Adderall only for 30 days, and automatic refills are not allowed.

As the end of each month approaches and her pill bottle empties, her anxiety spikes.

At her doctor appointment, she picks up her prescription, commencing a cumbersome routine.

Some months, she has had to drive to upward of 10 pharmacies to find her medication. Sometimes she calls in advance to ask if they have it, but she rarely gets answers.

When she finds a pharmacy that has Adderall, a new challenge hits. Minuscule detailslike a number written with numerals instead of being spelled out, or a doctor's signature that looks slightly different than it did the month beforecan result in the pharmacy turning her away. Her only option then is to drive back to the doctor's office and ask for the paperwork to be adjusted.

Doctors can send electronic prescriptions to a pharmacy to avoid the issues with handwriting, but those pose their own complications: They can be sent to only one pharmacy at a time, and can't be transferred.

If the receiving pharmacy is out of medication, patients have to go back to their doctor to ask that they send the prescription elsewhere. And often only the doctornot a nurse, nor a physician assistant, nor a staff memberis allowed to address that call for help.

Luis Enrique Ortiz, a sleep medicine specialist at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, said that's put a strain on doctors, who are juggling efforts to rewrite prescriptions, guide patients, and handle appointments and research.

The result is often a delayed response.

"It can be really nerve-wracking," Ortiz said. "Their time is running out, and they need this medication to function normally. When they finally do get it, they don't know what the next month will hold. They have to go through it all again."

Dixon, who was diagnosed with narcolepsy with cataplexy in 2010, estimated she's spent up to eight hours a month trying to get her medication since the shortages began. In three of the past six months, her prescription hasn't been filled on time. She's experienced delays of four or five days.

The results are terrible migraines, mood swings, muscle weakness, andof coursesudden sleep, she said.

"It feels like you've been awake for four days straight and are trying to keep your eyes open," Dixon said. "The second I sit down, I fall asleep."

Dixon described herself as an energetic person when she's on medication. She's a single mom and a caregiver for an older woman, and she works an online job for extra money. She has a full social life, too.

But without medication, she said, her life comes to a standstill. She can't go have drinks with friends. She can't go for walks. Simple conversations about stressful topics can trigger cataplexy attacks, which cause her limbs to go numb.

"It's really horrible," Dixon said. "Irregularities with the medication are hard on your body."

Almost an hour after she arrived at the pharmacy that November day, she got a phone call asking her to come in from where she'd been waiting in the parking lot. They couldn't fill her prescription, the pharmacist told her. The prescription had an error.

They sent her away with a sticky note spelling out the necessary adjustments.

She drove back to her doctor's office, but when she got there, she learned the doctor had left for the day.

She would have to try again the next day.

Stigma and hope

Adderall isn't the only treatment used for narcolepsy. Other stimulants, as well as newer drugs made specifically for treating sleep disorders, can help, but those can come with hefty price tags and insurance battles.

And when a patient finds a drug that works, any change can be scary, Shand said.

Since her diagnosis, Shand said, she's tried at least three other treatments.

"Adderall has been the only stimulant that really keeps me awake and feeling like I can go through my entire day without having to sleep," she said.

She's been able to get her prescription refilled since fall began, she said, but she's learned not to get comfortable. She never knows what the next month will holdwhat stock local pharmacies will have available.

For Shand, who has narcolepsy with cataplexy, the years since her diagnosis have brought waves of frustration and grief but also a sense of loneliness.

In television and movies, narcoleptics are often the butt of a joke, she said. Most people, she's found, don't really know what narcolepsy is.

"It's not actually all that funny," Shand said. "It's genuinely debilitating. It's life-altering."

2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

a, Neurodesk is built by and for the scientific community, enabling anyone to contribute containers. b, Community-contributed software recipes are automatically used to build software containers stored in the Neurocontainers repository. c, Each container packages a tool together with all its dependencies. d, Neurodesk provides two layers of accessibility: (1) Neurodesktop: a browser-accessible virtual desktop environment; (2) Neurocommand: a command-line interface that runs the same software containers programmatically. These interfaces allow users to reproduce analyses across computing environments. Credit: Nature Methods (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41592-023-02145-x

An international team led by Australian researchers has developed a platform that could transform neuroimaging data analysis worldwide. The Neurodesk platform will enable scientists to accelerate research on conditions such as epilepsy, dementia, schizophrenia and traumatic brain injury by enabling faster processing and analysis of neuroimaging data.

The research is published in the journal Nature Methods.

Brain research requires the analysis of massively detailed data sets generated by increasingly powerful techniques to measure brain structure and function such as MRI, MEG and EEG. Developed by Swinburne University of Technology, University of Queensland, and University of Sydney, Neurodesk addresses the analysis challenges presented by these data sets through an open-source platform that can be installed and operated anywhere.

"Our platform makes a continuously expanding range of cutting-edge analytic techniques and software accessible to researchers across the world," says Swinburne project lead and Director of Neuroimaging Professor Tom Johnstone.

"It allows researchers to leverage the most powerful supercomputers and cloud platforms on an individual researcher's laptop, and is easy to install and update."

Creating Neurodesk required an international team with expertise across signal and image processing, medical physics, software engineering, AI and machine learning. The open-source Neurodesk platform is designed to support transparent and reproducible research, so that scientists can share and cross-validate their analyses and accelerate research in critical areas.

With extra funding, the team is looking to broaden its scope to other neuroimaging methods and applications that will fast track the process of diagnosis and treatment for brain related illnesses.

More information: Angela I. Renton et al, Neurodesk: an accessible, flexible and portable data analysis environment for reproducible neuroimaging, Nature Methods (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41592-023-02145-x Journal information: Nature Methods
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Final 4-profile solution. Credit: Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research (2024). DOI: 10.1111/acer.15221

College students with social anxiety may be driven by social motives to "pre-game," meaning drink prior to a party or event. Simultaneously, students with co-occurring social anxiety and depression also experience more negative consequences, like blackouts, from their alcohol use, according to a study published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research.

The study authors recommend efforts to help students address mental health issues and their motivations for drinking before social events to prevent the harms associated with pregaming.

Pregaming, sometimes called frontloading or pre-partying, is common among college students and involves drinking prior to a social event, typically where more drinking will take place. It often leads to heavier drinking on days when students pre-game and puts students at a higher risk of academic and interpersonal problems, injury, sexual or physical assault, driving while intoxicated, and blacking out.

For this study, researchers examined how college students' mental health and motivations for pre-gaming were associated with pre-gaming drinking behaviors and related negative consequences, including blackouts. Five hundred college students completed self-assessments of social anxiety, depression, and motivations for pre-gaming, which included to meet new friends, "hook up," control the kind of alcohol they drink, and because they may not be able to drink at the subsequent event. Based on their responses, they were grouped into one of four profiles.

Of the participants, 59% were categorized as having mild to moderate social anxiety and depression symptoms and moderately motivated to pregame, 13% were categorized as having minimal social anxiety and depression symptoms and low pregaming motivations, 16% had subclinical/elevated social anxiety and depression symptoms and high pregaming motives, and 12% had clinically elevated social anxiety and depression symptoms with moderate motives.

The subclinical/elevated social anxiety and depression symptoms profile reported the highest frequency of pregaming and the highest number of past-month drinking-related consequences. They reported an average of three and a half alcohol-induced blackouts in the prior 30 days, significantly more than any other group. This group also reported more motivations for pregaming than any group, particularly for social motivations.

The group assessed to have minimal social anxiety and depression symptoms had significantly lower calculated blood alcohol levels and reported the fewest alcohol-related consequences of all the groups. This profile still attained risky blood alcohol levels and reported five drinking-related consequences in the past month.

The group with clinically elevated social anxiety and depression symptoms reported the second fewest consequences of the four groups.

Participants in the mobile phone-based study were full-time undergraduate students at a single, large, private U.S. university who had reported pre-gaming at least once a week for the prior month. The sample was predominantly white, cisgender, and female. Participants reported high levels of alcohol use, were primarily a socially motivated sample, and thus were likely not fully representative of students with clinically high levels of social anxiety and depression.

The researchers suggest that social anxiety and social motivation put students at greater risk from pregaming and recommend the exploration of mental health and drinking motivations as targets for intervention in heavy drinking populations.

More information: Reagan E. Fitzke et al, A latent profile analysis of social anxiety, depression, and pregaming motives among heavydrinking college students, Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research (2024). DOI: 10.1111/acer.15221
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Applesauce fruit puree pouches under recall and investigation for toxic lead levels may also contain another toxin, chromium, according to an update released Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The products under recall are WanaBana, Weis and Schnucks brand cinnamon-flavored applesauce pouches. All were made by AustroFoods at a facility in Ecuador that is currently under FDA inspection. High lead levels appear tied to cinnamon used in the applesauce that was supplied by another company, Negasmart, the FDA said.

At least 287 confirmed, probable and suspect cases of lead poisoning linked to tainted fruit puree pouches have now been reported in 37 states, according to the latest update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Now chromium has emerged as another possible toxin.

"After additional analysis of both recalled cinnamon apple products and the cinnamon collected from the manufacturer in Ecuador, FDA has determined that, in addition to lead, the cinnamon and recalled products also contained a high level of chromium," the FDA announced in its Friday update.

Chromium is a naturally occurring element that comes in various forms. According to the CDC, chromium III is an essential nutrient, while chromium VI is known to cause cancer.

At this time, however, FDA "was not able to definitively determine the form of chromium in the cinnamon apple puree sample," the agency said.

In any case, "people who ate recalled products, especially if they had elevated blood lead levels, may have been exposed to chromium and should inform their healthcare provider so they can monitor health and provide supportive care, as needed," the FDA said.

Ongoing investigation

Meanwhile, investigation into U.S. lead poisoning cases tied to the applesauce pouches continues.

The median age for cases in the investigation "is nearly 2 years old," a CDC spokesperson told CBS News, though reports have come in for children as old as 9.

Federal officials have urged state health departments to seek out cases of lead poisoning, which could be missed if children who ate lead-tainted applesauce don't get blood tests from their doctor for the toxic metal.

AustroFoods said last month that it will reimburse customers up to $150 for lead tests.

In early December, FDA said the tainted fruit puree pouches were found to contain levels of toxic lead that were 2,000 times higher than proposed standards.

Tests conducted at an Ecuadorean facility run by Austrofoods found that cinnamon supplied to the plant by another company, Negasmart, contained "extremely high levels of lead contamination, 5110 parts per million (ppm) and 2270 ppm," the FDA said in its update.

To put that into context, an international body charged with setting lead limits in bark-sourced spices such as cinnamon "is considering adopting a maximum level of 2.5 ppm for lead in bark spices," the FDA said.

'Intentional act'

Speaking to Politico in early December, an FDA source said the cinnamon used in the recalled applesauce may have been deliberately tainted.

"We're still in the midst of our investigation," Jim Jones, the FDA's deputy commissioner for human foods, told Politico. "But so far all of the signals we're getting lead to an intentional act on the part of someone in the supply chain and we're trying to sort of figure that out."

"My instinct is they didn't think this product was going to end up in a country with a robust regulatory process," Jones said. "They thought it was going to end up in places that did not have the ability to detect something like this."

According to Politico, the FDA suspects the deliberate adulteration of cinnamon included in the applesauce products was "economically motivated."

The FDA said Negasmart, the source of the tainted cinnamon, is now operating under an "Ecuadorian administrative sanctions process."

Jones told Politico that food adulteration outside the United States "is always going to be tricky to absolutely stop, if somebody has intent to purposefully do something like this."

An FDA spokesperson also told Politico: "We have limited authority over foreign ingredient suppliers that do not directly ship product to the U.S. because their food undergoes further manufacturing/processing prior to export."

Still, he said, "we're going to chase that data and find whoever was responsible and hold them accountable."

Advice to parents

So far, sample analysis of WanaBana, Weis and Schnucks fruit puree pouches that do not contain cinnamon and are not part of the recall have not shown elevated levels of lead.

In its initial alert on the recall issued in late October, the FDA said four children in North Carolina were the first to be found to have high levels of lead in their blood that was linked to the WanaBana products.

By law, food manufacturers have a responsibility to prevent chemical hazards when needed, the FDA noted. This includes measures to lower or eliminate the presence of lead in their products.

The FDA has warned families not to eat or serve these products and encourages them to throw out the pouches or return them to the store where they were purchased for a refund.

Caregivers should take any children who may have eaten these products to have blood tests to check for lead exposure, the CDC added.

Lead is toxic to humans, particularly children, and there is no safe level of exposure, the CDC says. Exposure can cause developmental delays in children. Initial symptoms of lead poisoning may include head, stomach and muscle aches, vomiting, anemia, irritability, fatigue and weight loss.

More information: Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on the dangers of lead exposure.

Copyright  2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
COTABATO CITY  A measure has been filed in the Bangsamoro Parliament seeking to rename the municipality of Sultan Mastura to Subpangen in M...
City Council

When: 6 p.m. Monday.

Where: Virtual: bit.ly/3JVyNJ9; Cable TV Channel 190. YouTube Live and On Demand: bit.ly/3JTikoU. Meetings are conducted via Zoom webinar. Register for the live webinar to attend and/or comment during the live meeting: Zoom page listing of the citys public meetings: ci-missoula-mt.zoom.us/calendar/list or missoulapublicmeetings.com. If you don't have a computer, call the City Clerk's office at 552-6078 to register and receive instructions to join the meeting by phone.

Agenda: Fort Missoula Commons appeal; election of City Council president and vice president; Council membership; Keep Missoula Weird ordinance to amend MMC 9.32 entitled Sound Devices; Orchard Grove annexation and major 24-lot subdivision; Fiscal Year 2023 4th quarter budget amendments; Building Permit fee schedule.

Board of County Commissioners

Administrative public meeting

When: 10 a.m. Tuesday

Where: Missoula County Administration Building Conference Room 206, 199 W. Pine St. or via TEAMS.

Agenda: request board approve grant agreement with Five Valleys Land Trust related to the Jette Farm-Grass Valley Open Space Bond project expenditure; request board approve an extension to the Subdivision Improvements Agreement and Guarantee for the O'Keefe Ranch Estates Subdivision, Phase 1; request board approve AIA133 Grandstands GMAX contract amendment with Jackson Contractor Group to construct new grandstands at the Fairgrounds in the amount of $5,177,270; request board approve chair to sign obligating documents to accept 2021 Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities (BRIC) Grant award in the amount of $71,683.10 of federal funds for the Rock Creek Missoula Electric Coop Project; request board approve Airport Authority Advisory Board to move the first alternate member, Patrick Boyle, to a regular member seat and also move the second alternate member, David Bell, to the first alternate seat; request board approve Missoula Consolidating Planning Board moving Peter Bensen from alternate member to regular member and reappointing Dave Loomis, Richard Hall and Sean McCoy to new two-year terms. All terms with be through Dec. 31, 2025.

Parks and Recreation Board

When: Noon Tuesday.

Where: Headwaters Conference Room, 600 Cregg Lane or via TEAMS.

Agenda: City to Sky 50K Conservation Lands permit application; policy updates to fee chart; Enterprise request for computer hardware upgrades; special meeting for PROST planning with Conservation Lands Advisory Committee, Open Space Advisory Committee and Blue Point.

Missoula County Public Schools' Board of Trustees

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Where: Administration Building A, Boardroom, 909 South Ave. W.

Agenda: available at mcpsmt.org.

Water Quality Advisory Council

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Where: Missoula City-County Health Department, 301 W. Adler or via Microsoft Teams.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board

When: 6:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Where: Mayor's Conference Room, 410 Ryman St. or via TEAMS.

Target Range Sewer and Water District

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Where: 1705 S. Reserve St.

City of Missoula Committee of the Whole

When: 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Where: City Council Chambers, 140 W. Pine St. or via TEAMS.

Agenda: appointment of Council Committee chairs.

Climate, Conservation and Parks Committee

When: 10:55 a.m. Wednesday.

Where: City Council Chambers, 140 W. Pine St. or via TEAMS.

Agenda: approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the development agreement between the City of Missoula and West End Farms Land Holdings LLC; approve the Mayor to sign the professional services agreement with Montana Forest Consultants for forest management services on the Mount Dean Stone Preserve; set a public hearing on Feb. 5, to consider adopting a resolution approving the expenditure of up to $1 Million of 2018 Open Space Bond funds for implementation of the Phase 1 Clark Fork River Access and Restoration Project.

Land Use and Planning Committee

When: 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Where: City Council Chambers, 140 W. Pine St. or via TEAMS.

Agenda: 1200 Shakespeare St. Tavern Conditional Use request; referral and Staff report  Orchard Grove annexation and major 24-lot subdivision.

Public Safety, Health and Operations Committee

When: 2:25 p.m. Wednesday.

Where: City Council Chambers, 140 W. Pine St. or via TEAMS.

Agenda: Operating Engineers WW Collections Collective Bargaining Agreement; MFPE Engineering Employees Association Collective Bargaining Agreement; adoption of the City/County Pre-Disaster mitigation Plan 2023 update.

Missoula Board of County Commissioners

When: 2 p.m. Thursday.

Where: Missoula County Courthouse Annex Sophie Moiese Room or via TEAMS.

Agenda: Resolution: Intent to Amend the Missoula County Floodplain Hazard Management regulations; Missoula Rural Fire District petition for annexation.

Open Space Advisory Committee

When: 4:10 p.m. Thursday.

Where: Headwaters Conference3 Room, 600 Cregg Lane or via TEAMS.

Agenda: 2023 Open Space Program summary and Parks, Recreation, Open Space, and Trails planning update.

Historical Museum Board of Trustees.

When: 6 p.m. Thursday.

Where: Building T-1 (Courtroom.)

Agenda: building de-accessioning discussion and request; annual fund project update; Vicki Fleischer bequest; annual Strategic Plan review.

Open Lands Citizen's Advisory Committee

When: 6 p.m. Thursday.

Where: via Microsoft Teams.

Agenda: Ninemile Creek Restoration; Grant Creek and Middle Clark Fork Restoration.
A local judge erred in developing a parenting plan that wasnt in a 5-year-old childs best interest by abruptly removing him from the care of his mother and giving full custody to his father, according to an order filed by the Montana Supreme Court last week.

Missoula lawyers filed a petition on behalf of Shanna ManyWounds, the childs mother, to the Supreme Court this fall, alleging Lake County District Court Judge Kim Christopher committed a gross injustice by giving the childs father full custody at a September parenting plan mediation, thereby removing the 5-year-old from his community in Elmo. On Jan. 2, five of Montanas Supreme Court justices issued an order taking Christopher off the case and transferring custody of the 5-year-old back to ManyWounds, who, prior to Jan. 2, had not seen her child in over three months.

The Supreme Court was very thorough in their review of the case, Spencer MacDonald of the MacDonald Law Office said in a phone call. Hes represented ManyWounds throughout the legal process.

On Sept. 11, Christopher presided over a custody hearing between ManyWounds and Jonathan Whyte, the childs father, who resides in Medford, Oregon. The hearing was to mediate and establish a written parenting plan, but it ended in Christopher giving Whyte full custody and immediately sending the child to Oregon. As a basis for her decision, Christopher contended ManyWounds was a helicopter mom and Whyte didnt have adequate rights to his son.

In a phone call on Tuesday, Christopher declined to comment on specifics of the case and said she respected the state Supreme Courts authority and decision on the matter. She mentioned she feels guilt because from her time as a defense counsel and prosecutor, Christopher said she knows how often not all of the information in a case gets shared in whole with the court.

Christopher has been on the bench in Lake County District Court since 2001, she said.

Following the September hearing, MacDonald and Lance Jasper of Reep, Bell & Jasper, two Missoula-based law firms, filed the petition on behalf of ManyWounds requesting the Montana Supreme Court take over the case.

In granting the petitions request, the high court wrote Christopher failed to come up with a parenting plan to serve the best interests of the 5-year-old, and instead drafted one that sought to punish ManyWounds for the judges perception that ManyWounds unfairly kept the child from Whyte. Christophers proposed plan gave Whyte custody of the child for the next five years.

Judge Christophers comments throughout the hearing illustrate that her ruling was colored by her personal feelings and perceptions of ManyWounds and Whyte, the 20-page order reads.

In their order, the justices clarified they dont believe Whyte is an unfit parent. The order also called out possible damage caused by the district courts ruling in what was a largely amicable coparenting relationship that ManyWounds and Whyte had forged.

In Christophers response to ManyWounds' petition, the judge admitted she was emotional, but maintained her decision. The high court noted the case engendered distress in Christopher, but that neither parent did anything to warrant an emotional response.

In this case, as in all cases, Judge Christopher had a duty either to resolve the dispute at issue in a fair and impartial manner or to recuse herself if she found herself unable to do so, the justices wrote.

The high court also noted in its order no dispute existed between ManyWounds and Whyte prior to the Sept. 11 hearing, as Whyte was allowed to have contact with the child in Montana, at Whytes discretion. The hearing was to resolve small disputes in the plans details.

At the time of the Supreme Courts order on Jan. 2, the child has been barred from any contact with his mother for over three and a half months, the justices wrote.

During the hearing in question, Christopher also claimed trauma, and even abuse, builds childrens stress muscles and makes them stronger, after ManyWounds raised concerns about what the immediate custody switch might do to her son, according to the petition and transcript.

The Montana Supreme Court took issue with that in their order, writing Christopher made a mistake to deliberately subject (the child) to potential trauma in a misguided attempt to develop stress muscles.

MacDonald said he appreciated the attention to detail in the courts order, and how it addressed all of the concerns raised in the initial petition.

They didnt try to soft pedal what I see as an abuse of power and of the legal system, MacDonald said of the justices' decision.

The high courts order boots the case back to Lake County District Court, and reassigns jurisdiction to Lake County District Judge Molly Owen. ManyWounds and Whyte will share their previous parenting plan while they wait on a hearing in front of Owen to craft a new one.

As soon as the Jan. 2 order was issued, ManyWounds flew to Medford, Oregon, to pick up her son, MacDonald said. The child and ManyWounds are now back together, living in Elmo.
Heavy snowfall, whipping winds and deadly cold temperatures are predicted to blanket, blister and chill Montana this week and weekend.

In a tapestry of warnings, watches and alerts spanning the region, the National Weather Service cautioned Monday that travel could become "very difficult to impossible" and winds could topple trees and power lines. The tumultuous weather predicted this week marks a shift in a winter that has so far been unusually dry and mild.

The agency predicted that snowfall would begin Monday afternoon in western and northwestern Montana with 18 inches to 2 feet expected at higher elevations, like Lookout, Lolo and Marias passes. Valleys were predicted to get only a couple inches of snow.

[1/8] Tonight starts an extended period of active winter weather in the Northern Rockies. Attached, is a map showing a number of Watches, Warning and Advisories that are in place through early Wed. Further details for you location can be found here https://t.co/JfKdGf4DDw pic.twitter.com/tbYBrYW4wC  NWS Missoula (@NWSMissoula) January 8, 2024

The agency predicted snowfall would be the heaviest through Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by winds gusting up to 50 mph, even along valley floors. Limited visibility and blowing snow could significantly impact travel, the agency stated.

Even stronger winds were predicted for the Rocky Mountain Front and eastern Montana on Tuesday. The agency predicted winds upward of 65 mph along the Rocky Mountain Front region from about Saint Mary on the north to Augusta on the south. Gusts in excess of 50 mph were predicted for Helena, Great Falls, Cut Bank and Havre. Gusts stronger than 40 mph were predicted for Dillon, Bozeman and Lewistown.

The eastern strip of the state was predicted to see gusts approaching 3540 mph.

Snow was predicted to begin in central and eastern Montana around Tuesday morning, with less snow predicted than in western Montana. But travel could still become difficult over mountain passes, the agency warned, with up to 10 inches of snow around the Rocky Mountain Front and south through Helena to Butte. Even farther south, Salmon, Idaho, could see up to 2 inches of snow, while higher elevations in surrounding Lemhi County, such as Lost Trail Pass, could get up to a foot.

Arctic air

As snow tapers off, the agency predicted, Montana will get extremely cold.

From Wednesday into Thursday, a mass of arctic air was predicted to move south into central and eastern Montana from Canada. The agency predicted Monday that the frigid airmass would spill over the Continental Divide into western Montana by Thursday.

Northerly flow will import a much colder airmass with origins in the Canadian Arctic south into MT beginning Wednesday. Widespread subzero temperatures are likely by Thursday, especially across N-central MT with coldest temperatures expected Friday through Saturday morning. #MTwx pic.twitter.com/hpIHHgBegI  NWS Great Falls (@NWSGreatFalls) January 8, 2024

Brutal cold was predicted across the state through the weekend. The agency predicted Monday that areas of western Montana had a 7090% chance of experiencing subzero temperatures this weekend. Great Falls and the Rocky Mountain Front had a 90% or greater chance. Salmon had a 67% chance of dropping below zero degrees Fahrenheit.

And the agency predicted a 30% chance of temperatures colder than -30 degrees in western Montana.

In Missoula, temperatures were predicted to drop below zero beginning overnight Thursday into Friday morning, with an overnight low of -8 degrees. Friday's predicted high was -1 degrees. That's followed by a low of -15 degrees overnight into Saturday, a high of 6 degrees Saturday, a low of -7 degrees overnight into Sunday, and a high of 10 degrees Sunday.

Air temperatures are likely to around 30 below zero by Saturday morning over portions of North Central MT. 20 below temperatures will be common over Southwest MT. Plan ahead for the very cold temperatures. #mtwx pic.twitter.com/jNPFNMGIK1  NWS Great Falls (@NWSGreatFalls) January 8, 2024

Kalispell was expected to drop below zero overnight Wednesday into Thursday, with a low of -1 degrees. Thursday was predicted to hit 6 degrees, with a low of -19 overnight into Friday. Then it's a high of -8 degrees Friday, a low of -26 degrees overnight into Saturday, a high of -3 degrees Saturday, a low of -15 degrees into Sunday, and finally a Sunday high of 4 degrees above zero.

Temperatures in Helena were predicted to dive to zero overnight from Wednesday into Thursday, ahead of a predicted high of 7 degrees on Thursday. The agency predicted Helena would drop to -19 degrees overnight from Thursday to Friday, rising to only -10 degrees during the day Friday. Friday night into Saturday was predicted to reach -23 degrees before rising to a high of 2 degrees Saturday. Then it's a predicted -14 degrees Saturday night into a high of 7 degrees Sunday.

Butte was predicted to follow a similar trajectory as Helena, except 37 degrees warmer.

In Billings, temperatures Wednesday were predicted to fall from an early high of 29 degrees around noon to low 20s that afternoon and 5 degrees overnight into Thursday. Thursday's high was predicted to be 11 degrees, with an overnight low of -6 degrees into Friday, which could reach a high of 1 degree. The overnight low into Saturday could hit -18 degrees with a high around zero Saturday. That's before another freezing night of -14 degrees and a predicted high of 7 degrees Sunday.
I have always had a genuine and true passion for hunting and I have been able to have the opportunity to harvest a variety of amazing animals. Although my 2023 hunt will surly be one I will never forget. It was the day before Thanksgiving and the snow was coming down. At about three in the afternoon my dad, my mom, my dad's friend Andy and I set out on an afternoon hunt. We started on the edge of one of our biggest sections and made our way towards the west, in order to keep the wind in our favor. Through the cold, bitter wind and snow we walked about a mile in and saw no sign of any elk. So we kept ongoing and going, being hopeful we would come across some bulls. After about 2 or 3 more miles that felt like an eternity we eventually came to a quick stop.My dad had spotted a group of five bulls at about 850 yards in front of us. Heglassed the ridge for a couple of seconds and then turned around and gave mya thumbs up. My heart began to race and we started our chase towards the bulls. We stayed close to the side of the barb wire fence and crept our way towards them. As I took each step closer, my heart raced faster each time. I was anxious to get to the bulls and could tell by the way my dad was acting that these bulls were gonna be big. We finally got into the shooting range atabout 330 yards away. There were two big bulls close to the bottom of the ridge, so we had some discussion. Andy and I came to the conclusion that we would both shoot at the same time. So, I chose the bull to the right and he chose the bull to the left. I set down my bipods and got down on one knee ready to shoot. I took a big deep breath and counted out loud with Andy.1...2...3... CRACK...both bulls took the hits. In fear my bull would run off, I reloaded and took another shot. It hit him once again, but now he was on the run. After about 50 yards the bull finally came to a stop broadside and I reloaded one more time. WOP...he finally fell to the ground. I turned around to my dad with ringing ears and a heart full of excitement. He gave me the biggest hug and we made our way down to the bulls. When we finally got to them I immediately gave a huge thanks to the Lord because I had just harvested a bull of a lifetime. He was much bigger than anyone thought as he looked to be a350+. I was extremely thankful as I was filled with pure happiness and excitement, knowing that I was able to have such a wonderful opportunity to get a bull like this.
Twenty-six people died and hundreds were injured after the state police and the National Guard were brought in to assist the Newark Police in gaining control. (Photo courtesy of Bud Lee Picture Maker/Bud Lee Picture Maker)

Bud Lee was just 26 when LIFE magazine commissioned him to take photographs on the streets of Newark in July 1967. The city had already experienced two days of unrest that saw buildings burn, stores looted, windows smashed and its residents arrested, injured and killed in what would be known as The Long Hot Summer.

Decades later, Lees son, Thomas Lee, took over management of his fathers archive and decided to publish images from the uprising. The result is The War Is Here, published in May by ZE Books.

The book offers 192 pages of powerful imagery released for the first time since they were originally published 56 years ago in LIFE Magazine. It is an unflinching collection of images that display the chaos and range of emotions that reigned during those five days.

Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka, whose father was arrested during the uprising, provided the foreword and British journalist Chris Campion contributed to the text. Ellene Furr, whose husband Billy Furr was slain during the rebellion, wrote a touching handwritten letter to her husband that closes the book.

Thomas Lee, now 46, says as a teenager in Florida, he and his siblings  Steckley, Parker, and Charlotte  were drawn to their fathers photography.

We would accompany him on photo jobs and often act as his assistant, he said. Around the age of 15, my brother and I made some attempts to help my dad organize his archive, but those were largely unsuccessful. Spending time with my dad was often spent working with him.

Bud Lee was summoned to take pictures two days into the unrest. The photos he captured gave readers an unabashed look at the effects of racial tensions in the United States. (Photo courtesy of Thomas Lee/Bud Lee)

The siblings would dig into their fathers archive without any particular purpose, just to see what kind of crazy photo we could find, Lee said. But as they got older, they wanted to preserve and showcase his work for future generations.

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Lee began formal training as a painter in his early teens. He came to photography later, mainly self-taught, he took just one course on photography in the military. Because of this, his photography is more often influenced by painters. A close family friend, artist John Briggs, once said that he was a painter but the camera was his brush.

In the summer of 1967, LIFE sent Lee to Newark with reporter Dale Wittner to cover the violence and chaos that emerged after Black taxi driver John William Smith was brutally beaten by white police officers John DeSimone and Vito Pontrelli during a traffic stop.

A feeling of guilt

Lee captured the aftermath of the killing of Billy Furr, who was among the 26 people who died during the uprising. But it was his photo of 12-year-old Joey Bass Jr. bleeding on the pavement after being wounded by a shotgun blast from a policeman that landed on the cover of LIFE Magazine and won Lee a News Photographer of the Year Award the following year.

Lees photos also captured the images of others injured after the State Police and the National Guard were brought in to assist the Newark Police in gaining control. No officers would be indicted for their actions, despite outcries from the community and independent journalists like the late Ron Porambo.

Thomas Lee says his father was deeply affected by what he witnessed on the streets of Newark, particularly the death of Billy Furr and the wounding of Joey Bass.

He talked about it a lot, he said. I think, particularly as he got older, and he had kids, remembering Joe Bass Jr. laying in the street as a child really affected him. He felt sort of a guilt about it. Like, what could he have done differently? Also, the fact that theres a man (Furr) thats his age, whose life ended, and this kind of, you know, propelled his career.

The pain stands out

The War Is Here shows how Lee was affected by what he saw. Photographs showing damaged storefronts and burned-out buildings are juxtaposed with images of policemen and National Guard soldiers in combat with Black residents, at times with foreboding stances with their rifles and shotguns ready.

The pain in this community stands out. Theres pain on the faces of people trying to sort out whats going on. Evidence of that can still be seen today on a trip down Market Street with certain storefronts carrying the soot from decades ago.

Photographs show a range of emotions and scenes including damaged storefronts and burned-out buildings in downtown Newark. (Photo courtesy Bud Lee Picture Maker/Bud Lee Picture Maker)

Amiri Baraka would be caught up in the uprising, detained, and beaten by police. It reportedly took intense pressure from white poets around the world to get him released. Bud Lee captures images of Amiri Baraka still bandaged at the Newark Black Power Conference, which was held shortly after things died down.

This was an important time in Newarks history and important time for my family, Baraka said. We were personally affected by the brutality of this period. The pictures vividly tell a story of a city coming face-to-face with one of this countrys ugliest periods.

Our present city was born out of that tension, that fire and our determination to build again to be self-determining, and go on a journey to make sure this does not happen again by struggling with the social determinants and inequality that created it.

Lee's work shows images of policemen and National Guard soldiers in combat with Black residents, at times with foreboding stances with their rifles and shotguns ready. (Photo courtesy Bud Lee Picture Maker/Bud Lee Picture Maker)

Documentary filmmaker Kevin McLaughlin is preparing to launch a film about the Uprising next summer on PBS entitled Riot! The filmmaker spoke of the challenges he encountered making his film.

There are people who just dont want to bring it up, McLaughlin said. Its a bad memory. They dont want to talk about it. There was a guy whose brother was killed, and he was reasonable about responding at first, but then he just said, not interested.

Thats the problem with a project like this, McLaughlin remarked. It takes so damn long. I cant even remember half of what I did.

The photographs make you wonder about all those people, many who are long gone and others who dont want to recall that time. (Photo courtesy of Bud Lee Picture Maker/Bud Lee Picture Maker)

McLaughlin began the documentary project in 2011, while working as a broadcast engineer with Music Choice. Since that time, several of the people in the film, including each of the mayors of Newark who served after Hugh Addonizio, including the citys first Black mayor, Kenneth Gibson have passed away. This also includes the recent sudden and tragic passing of the documentarys narrator, Emmy Award-winning actor Andre Braugher.

What comes next

Bud Lee suffered a major stroke in 2003 and died in 2015 at the age of 74.

Thomas Lee says his siblings talk about a lot of different projects mostly centered around their fathers work. His youngest sister, Charlotte, has started turning some of their fathers artwork into fabric and they sell prints on occasion and are working on other projects that would repurpose their dads photography, paintings, and drawings.

There will also be more books featuring Bud Lees photography, Thomas Lee said.

Weve discussed books of his unpublished photos of Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini and his photos of Nashville and country music stars in the 70s, he said. There are few people that photographed Florida as much as my dad and there is probably a book there as well.

A lot of what he captured on film is still being discussed today, Lee said. Civil rights, police violence, trans people, and the first legal abortion in Denver. We feel like its important to keep these images and stories alive.

Christopher Smith is a freelance writer who has contributed to HuffPost, PCMag, Healthline and Insider.

Welcome to Mosaic. Follow us on Instagram at @MosaicNJcom and on Facebook at MosaicNJcom.
For the second time during his first term as Butte-Silver Bows chief executive, J.P. Gallagher must find a new director to oversee parks and recreation.

Gallagher had been parks director for five years when he ran for chief executive in 2020, so when he won, he had to replace himself.

He said after the 2020 election that Bob Lazzari deserved consideration for the post but an external search would be conducted anyway.

Lazzari had served as the departments recreation and special events coordinator for six years and after Gallagher took office as chief executive in January 2021, he named Lazzari interim parks director pending the search.

But just a few weeks later, Gallagher said he changed his mind about a national search and he soon appointed Lazzari, saying he had the experience, knowledge and background for the job.

Lazzari just recently retired but a new parks director cant be hired until his benefits, including unused vacation time and sick time, run out, Gallagher said Monday. That will happen in March.

In the meantime, Gallagher said he will appoint Ed Heard as interim director.

Heard is a former longtime Butte police officer and is currently recreation and events coordinator for the parks department.

But Gallagher said he will conduct an external search for a new director. Heard can apply, but the search will be open to others, he said, including people from outside of Butte and outside of Montana.

Gallagher announced in November that he would run for a second term as chief executive this year. He faces at least one challenger since longtime Butte sportswriter and columnist Bill Foley announced a bid in October.

The filing period opens Thursday and runs through March 11 so there is plenty of time for other candidates to surface.
Ed Lester is running for a fourth term as Butte-Silver Bow sheriff this year, saying Monday that hes still young, enjoys the job and police get so much support from citizens in Butte.

Lester, who successfully challenged three-term incumbent Sheriff John Walsh in 2012 to become Butte-Silver Bows top cop, was re-elected by a big margin in 2016 and went unchallenged in 2020.

When I set out, I wanted to do it as long as I thought it was still fun, and you know, I think weve been able to do some things that I think are good over the past 11 years and Id like to keep it going, Lester told The Montana Standard.

Im young  Im 57  so I dont even know that I would rule out one more turn after this if I was lucky to be elected, he said. Its still a job I enjoy. I enjoy talking to folks.

Lester said the department struggled with departures during and following the COVID pandemic and staffing at the jail also has taken hits, but he expects both to return to full force in the coming months.

The thing that did inspire me is that people, especially at the jail and the patrol division and dispatch, worked extra shifts, and they worked overtime, and they got us through the pandemic and the resignations during that period, Lester said.

He said citizens in Butte were his biggest inspiration for running again.

The people of Butte-Silver Bow have always been behind law enforcement, he said. Even when we had the incident in Minnesota (George Floyds death) and there was rioting and all that, we were having people bring cupcakes and pizzas (to officers) to show their support.

Thats pretty much the way it was around the state of Montana in general, but thats Butte, and thats what makes things worthwhile, Lester said.

The official filing period for political offices in Montana starts Thursday and runs through March 11.

Lester was born and raised in Butte and graduated from Butte Central in 1984. He graduated from Montana State University with a bachelors degree in sociology with an emphasis in criminal justice.

He started with Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement in 1989 and was a detective when he, Don Raley and Russ Robertson challenged Walsh in 2012.

Lester and Walsh advanced to the general election that year and Lester won 60% of 16,408 votes cast. Robertson, a patrol officer, challenged Lester in 2016 but Lester won with 68% of the vote that year. He was unchallenged in 2020.

Lester said Monday that the staffing shortfalls that began during the pandemic were stressful on many, including himself.

Ill say I struggled a little bit during the pandemic and right afterwards, he said. The whole country  a lot of people quit their jobs and went somewhere else and took up other professions, so we lost some senior officers who were valuable in that they knew what they were doing and were experienced.

At the same time, if you do your job right, you promote good quality people, he said. So we have a pretty young department right now, and weve made a lot of hires and promoted some young supervisors who are doing an outstanding job.

The primary election in Montana this year is June 4 and the general election is Nov. 5.
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As temperatures outside continue to drop, most U.S. states have seen a rise in respiratory illnesses, with many currently being at a "high" or "very high level according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As is typical for this point in the new year, the illness that is seeing the most new cases across the country is the influenza virus, both in terms of cases and hospitalizations. Additionally, COVID-19 has also begun seeing yet another rise.

Looking at the COVID-19 tracker as provided by the CDC, U.S. hospitals saw a 12.8% increase in COVID-19 related emergency department visits between November 11, 2023 and December 30, 2023. During this same time period, there was also a 20.4%ncrease in hospital admissions. Health officials are also keeping track of the newest COVID variant, labeled JN.1.

On a state and county level, while its officials were unable to give specific numbers, UnityPoint Health  Trinity Muscatine administration did confirm in a statement that its staff had been seeing an increase in both positive COVID tests and COVID-related hospitalizations locally.

(These increases) can be influenced by the chilly temperatures and more people moving indoors as well as following the holiday season where so many people gathered or traveled, said Jamie Mullin, Marketing Manager for UnityPoint Health in a provided statement.

When it comes to preventing the spread and staying healthy through the winter and flu seasons, UnityPoint Health emphasized the importance of practicing hygienic strategies that have already proven to be effective, such as washing hands frequently and staying home while sick.

Residents are asked to use an at-home test to check their status if they start to experience any mild COVID-19 symptoms. They can also contact their primary care provider for assistance or reserve a testing spot at Muscatines walk-in care site. This is done in order to assure that emergency departments can be reserved for those needing care for severe illness and traumatic injuries.

Additionally, UnityPoint Health asks residents who plan on visiting their loved ones in the hospital to first be certain that they are free from illness prior to their visit. These visits should also keep to a limited number of visitors in order to further assure that the person they are visiting can keep on their path to recovery without being slowed down by additional illnesses.

For more information on local and regional health trends, residents can visit the COVID-19 page on the CDCs website or the Trinity Muscatine Public Health Facebook page.

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DES MOINES  Iowa Republicans last year used their expanded legislative majorities to push through a trove of priorities over the objections of Democrats, passing reforms ranging from restricting access to abortion to how students are educated and private schools are funded to how state government is run.

But bills that would restrict teen access to social media, limit local governments use of traffic enforcement cameras, protect access to abortion under the Iowa Constitution and further loosen Iowa's gun laws, among others, stalled.

Heres a look at the hot-button issues likely to resurface during this years Iowa legislative session, which begins today.

Abortion

Lawmakers last year passed a new law  which remains tied up in court  during a rare special session that would ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. As the case continues, abortion in Iowa remains legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Republican leaders said they do not plan to take further action to restrict abortion until the courts rule on the law.

Republicans have also abandoned an effort to pass an amendment to the states constitution that would declare Iowa does not recognize a fundamental right to an abortion. Lawmakers have approved the proposed amendment once. To revive it, they would need to pass it again in 2024 and put it to a public vote.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, said the Iowa Supreme Courts 2022 decision reversing a fundamental right to an abortion negates the need for a constitutional amendment.

And so until the ruling comes out on the current (fetal heartbeat abortion) bill, it's really just a wait and see, Whitver said.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said Democrats will continue to push legislation that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

The effort is unlikely to advance in the GOP-controlled Iowa House and Senate, but is among key pieces of legislation House Democrats introduced last year to draw contrast with the majority party.

What we're interested in doing is providing reproductive freedom for all women, Konfrst said. And so we'll continue to push for that.  Republicans meanwhile, are trying to ban abortion in our constitution. And so it couldn't be clearer who's fighting for women's reproductive freedom and who isn't.

Guns in vehicles on school grounds

Senate Republicans did not take up a bill advanced last year by House Republicans that would further loosen Iowa's gun laws, including allowing gun owners to have a firearm in a locked vehicle on school and college grounds.

House File 654 also would prohibit insurance companies from refusing to insure Iowa schools that choose to have armed staff on school grounds.

Democrats and gun-safety advocates said the bill would perpetuate ongoing gun violence in the state and put children at risk by loosening lax Iowa gun laws and allowing firearms to become even more accessible in locations that are targets for mass shootings.

A sixth-grader was killed and five others were wounded by a 17-year-old suspect in a shooting Thursday at Perry High School and Middle School.

Advocates said the measure enhances the ability of lawful gun owners to protect and defend themselves and their families and that they should not be forced to leave a defensive firearm at home because they have to drop off or pick up a student at school.

House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, said Senate Republicans expressed concerns over the insurance provisions in the bill.

The Spirit Lake and Cherokee school districts rescinded policies last summer allowing trained staff to carry guns within the schools to avoid being dropped by their insurance carrier after attempts to find other insurers failed. District officials cited the 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, as one of the reasons for wanting to arm staff.

The districts insurance carrier, EMC Insurance Co., said it insures districts that provide qualified law enforcement officers in schools, but that coverage does not extend to armed teachers or school staff.

Windschitl said House Republicans have talked with Senate Republicans about possibly amending the bill to address the insurance concerns. Windschitl said a potential compromise may be to have the state assume liability in the event a teacher or staff member authorized to carry a firearm by an Iowa school district unlawfully shoots someone on school grounds.

Konfrst, the House Democratic leader, said with an increase in school shootings, with increased concerns about school safety, it is not the right time to allow more guns or more firearms on school campuses.

Social media restrictions for teens

Lawmakers last session advanced, but failed to approve, limits on social media platforms for teens. Iowa teens would have been prohibited from using the platforms without approval from a parent or guardian under a measure that advance out of a House committee but failed to make it to the House floor.

The bill would prohibit companies from collecting data on children under 18 without verifiable parental consent. That includes providing information required to create a profile on sites like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.

Similar age limitations signed into law in Arkansas and Utah have raised questions about the privacy and First Amendment rights of young Americans. Critics worry restricting childrens access to social media restricts their access to supportive communities. Some children, like LGBTQ teens, may find a sense of belonging online, they said. But supporters say they're concerned about social media's effects on kids' mental health.

Rep. John Wills, a Republican from Spirit Lake and the bills floor manager, has said lawmakers plan to revisit the issue this session.

Konfrst said House Democrats oppose a statewide ban on social media for children under 18, and it should be something that parents are entrusted to monitor and control.

Social media can provide great opportunities for organizing, for communicating, for learning  and so let's teach students how to effectively and safely use social media and the internet rather than just taking it away and hoping they won't use it, she said.

Traffic cameras

Iowa lawmakers likely will again try to regulate Iowa cities use of automated traffic enforcement cameras. Theyve been trying for more than a decade to restrict the use of the devices that capture video of vehicles speeding or running red lights.

I don't know where it will go, but there will be a conversation about that, Whitver said.

Whitver said there seems to be a broad consensus among GOP lawmakers of wanting to regulate them a little bit more, and we probably don't need as many traffic cameras as we have in Iowa, and they continue to expand.

Cedar Rapids installed its first speed cameras in 2010. As of March 2022, at least 19 Iowa cities and towns operated automatic traffic enforcement systems, including Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Muscatine, Council Bluffs, Waterloo, LeClaire, Strawberry Point, Hudson, Chester, Buffalo, Miles, Independence and Oelwein, according to a Legislative Services Agency report. Marion added automated traffic cameras in 2023.

A bill advanced out of a Senate subcommittee late in the 2023 session that would have required cities and counties to gain approval from the Iowa Department of Transportation before placing traffic cameras. The Iowa DOT would be required to determine whether a system is appropriate and necessary and the least restrictive means to address the traffic safety issues at a location.

The bill closely matched one in the House that passed out of committee earlier last year, but failed to make it to the floor.

Lawmakers have floated several methods to regulate traffic enforcement cameras over the past several years, citing concerns about privacy and arguing some cities use them to drive revenue.

Lobbyists representing cities and police organizations, including Cedar Rapids, argue the proposals would limit an important traffic safety tool that has proved effective in reducing traffic crashes.

Democrats opposed the bills, saying they would impose burdensome regulations and take away an important revenue stream used to fund public safety.

The LSA report estimated the Senate bill would lead an annual loss in revenue of nearly $3.3 million for the city of Cedar Rapids. The city of LeClaire would see an estimated $1.1 million annual loss. Davenport would see a $817,000 loss, Council Bluffs $232,000, Muscatine $190,000 and Sioux City $80,000 in lost annual revenue.

Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, who has pushed previous proposals to ban traffic cameras, said he plans to put forward a bill this session, but would not provide details.

Zaun said hes concerned by the proliferation of systems in smaller communities where theres not much traffic.

I recognize  the benefit of (cameras monitoring) the S-curve (on Interstate 380 in Cedar Rapids) because of the way its constructed, but for the most part I certainly think  these have become more about revenue generators rather than public safety, he said.

Marijuana legalization

While Republican majorities are unlikely this session to mimic moves made in surrounding states easing restrictions on the possession and use of marijuana, supporters in Iowa see growing support.

House Democrats last year introduced legislation that remains eligible for debate this session that would allow Iowans over 21 to purchase marijuana for recreational use from a licensed retail store.

Other provisions include decreasing penalties for marijuana possession and expunging records for non-violent marijuana convictions, and expanding Iowas medical cannabis program.

A March 2021 Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll found more than half of Iowans surveyed, 54%, support legalizing marijuana for recreational uses, and more than three-quarters support expanding the drugs use for medical purposes.

House Democrats bill would expand the definition of debilitating medical condition to include any medical condition that a patients health care practitioner determines could be treated by medical cannabis. It would also allow more potent medical marijuana in the state, increasing a cap on THC concentrations.

House Democrats proposal would tax marijuana sales at 10%, and allow counties that legalize retail marijuana establishments to impose a 1% surcharge in addition to local and state sales taxes. Revenue would be split three ways to fund scholarships for Iowa college students, for mental health services and substance abuse programs, and to local law enforcement agencies.

I go to these communities along the borders and this issue gets a standing ovation from Republicans, Democrats, no-party voters, because they see money going across the river, Konfrst said.   This is common-sense legislation that continues to pass in other states. This is something that has broad bipartisan support. I don't know why Republicans continue to want to, you know, ignore this issue when Iowans are the ones are asking for it.

The state agency that currently regulates alcohol laws would oversee marijuana sales in Iowa under Democrats proposal.

GOP lawmakers who lead the Houses public safety and judiciary committees have said the proposal will not advance in the House, where Republicans hold an agenda-setting majority.

Its amazing to me that Democrats, who claim to care for children, would advocate for something thats clearly harmful to children, said Rep. Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. It is a gateway drug that leads to greater addiction. Talk to any law enforcement officer in Colorado.

Zaun, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said hes open to expanding Iowas medical cannabis program to allow Iowans to obtain medical marijuana products for a wider range of health problems, but has no interest in looking at recreational cannabis.

He argued recreational use of marijuana has negatively impacted workplaces in states that have legalized its use. Marijuana still is classified as a controlled substance at the federal level.

It also creates an environment thats more inviting for younger people to use marijuana, Zaun said. Im just not interested in it. Revenue generation is not a reason to pass any legislation. I dont think you should make decisions based on that alone.

Zaun, too, said hes interested in legislation fixing loopholes in state law that allows Iowans  including minors  to legally purchase high-potency marijuana drinks and gummies.
Days after President William Rutos administration declared Kenya a visa-free destination for the world, the government has announced that over 9,000 travelers have applied to visit the country.

On Sunday, Ambassador Julius Bitok, the Principal Secretary of the State Department of Immigration and Citizen Services, announced that the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system had received 9,787 ETA applications.

Of these, 4046 have already been processed while the others are undergoing review on priority basis guided by the travel schedule submitted by each applicant, Bitok said.

Furthermore, the Principal Secretary emphasized that the introduction of ETA is based on the necessity for a fair, faster, and reliable system that also caters to Kenyas security and other strategic interests.

Before ETA, citizens from 51 countries enjoyed visa-free entry to Kenya, while travellers from 155 other countries were subject to a visa application process at a cost of $50, he added.

Positive Changes

PS Bitok highlighted some of the positive changes implemented by the new system, including equal treatment and a reduced application fee for travelers. He added that ETA now efficiently gathers travelers information, enabling the government to make well-informed decisions.

With the introduction of the ETA, we now have comprehensive data on all visitors, significantly improving our ability to ensure the safety and well-being of both our visitors and citizens, the PS said.

Bitok at the same time mentioned that the new system has significantly decreased the application time for travelers, reducing it from the previous 14 days to just 3 days (72 hours).

To guarantee a seamless experience, we have introduced a 24-hour service desk dedicated to ETA. This will ensure clients are promptly attended to irrespective of the hour while also taking into consideration the different time zones across the world, the PS assured.

Last Friday, the Principal Secretary welcomed the first batch of visitors under the visa-free policy.
In the ongoing investigation into the murder of blogger Bernard Muthiani, also known as Sniper, Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza is calling for the questioning of the police guarding her official residence.

The governor has urged detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations not to exhibit bias in the probe, emphasizing the importance of ensuring justice prevails in Muthianis murder case.

The first people who should be questioned are the police on the day and night shift because they are stationed there (gate). We want transparency in the ongoing investigations. If someone is arrested, we want to know why, and it should be based on evidence, she said.

While addressing the faithful at her church, the Baite Family Fellowship (BFF) in Makutano, Governor Mwangaza clarified that being a government facility, the official governors residence is under constant police surveillance.

She was responding to allegations suggesting that the blogger may have visited the official governors residence before his disappearance.

The residence is guarded by the police the whole day because it is state property. There is a book at the gate which the police use. I want to appeal to the investigators, do not be biased, she said.

Mwangaza Reads Political Malice

We do not live in a banana republic. We have a Constitution and are appealing as a church that all government agencies doing their work in Meru, should not be biased. Do not be influenced by politics, by people we defeated in the elections, Mwangaza added.

Mwangaza, seemingly discerning political undertones in the ongoing discourse surrounding the bloggers death, emphasized the importance of transparent investigations for the sake of justice.

We want justice, not only for that child but everybody in Meru. We do not want bad politics in Meru and we will be demanding justice and for the government to undertake its mandate, she stated.

Governor Mwangaza also clarified that her son had not been arrested in connection with the matter, refuting the allegations circulating on social media.

It is pure propaganda, and it is a shame that we rebuke, she said.

Police have since arrested Frederick Muriuki Kiugu, Timothy Kinoti, Kenneth Mutua Matiri alias Gasigi, Franklin Kimathi alias Ras, and Kenneth Murangiri Guantai, also known as Tali (a brother to the governor), along with Vincent Murithi.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya and South Sudan archbishop Hubertus van Megen has insisted that the Catholic church does not approve of same-sex union.

He clarified that the recent declaration by the Pope, urging priests to bless same-sex unions, does not signify the churchs approval of such unions. Instead, it is intended to bring individuals in such unions closer to God and aid them in overcoming their sins.

Presiding over the ordination of eight deacons at the Eldoret Sacred Heart Cathedral, Archbishop Hubertus said the blessings were intended for individual persons and not a blessing of the relationship, emphasizing that such a blessing goes against Christian teachings.

Accompanying the nuncio, Archbishop Dominic Kimengich further stated that the church acknowledges marriage as a lifelong union between a man and a woman, and thus, the Popes declaration does not in any way endorse same-sex unions.

African Context

Bishop Kimengich asserted that, particularly in the African context, it should not be labeled as a blessing. Instead, he referred to it as a prayer for individuals in such unions, which he characterized as sinful, with the hope for a transformation.

In his homily, the Nuncio warned the clergy against aligning themselves with politicians, emphasizing that such alliances have resulted in the church being exploited by both clergy and politicians for their personal gains.

He pointed out that once the clergy align themselves with politicians, they forfeit their independence, effectively becoming subservient to the politicians.

Therefore, he urged the newly ordained deacons to follow the example of Christ, who was born in the humblest of places, and to extend a helping hand to the poor and downtrodden.

The archbishop pointed out that the wise men initially sought Jesus at Herods palace, assuming that the true king would be born among the powerful. However, they discovered that the real king was found among the downtrodden.

Archbishop Hubertus van Megen encouraged the deacons to emulate the wise men by seeking Christ among the poor.
On Sunday, the woman caught on camera harassing and abusing hospital staff at Port Victoria Hospital in Busia County surrendered to the police. Vanessa Ogema walked into Busia police station at noon, covering her face with a surgical mask and a hood.

Ms Ogema surrendered after being summoned to record a statement after the victims of her harassment had already provided their statements to the police, accusing Ogema and a male colleague.

In the viral video circulating on January 3, Ogema and an unidentified man were filmed harassing hospital staff. The woman created chaos by throwing files on the floor and striking a table while shouting at the hospital staff.

The incident stirred public concern, with members of the public calling for appropriate action against the woman.

On Friday, January 5, normal operations at the Port Victoria sub-county hospital came to a halt as nurses went on strike to protest the attack.

Families were compelled to relocate their patients to other hospitals as the nurses ceased work, expressing their discontent over the incident on January 2, 2024, when Ogema and her colleague demanded prompt healthcare services for their relative.

The Busia County government, in a statement to newsrooms, highlighted that hospital property, including an oxygen concentrator, was damaged during the incident.

The police on Sunday stated that Vanessa Ogema would be processed pending arraignment this week.
One of my greatest joys in wine is opening a mature Barolo, as it is for those who understand and appreciate the greatness of maturity in a classic red wine like Barolo can be.

Great old red Bordeaux also can deliver remarkable traits when properly stored, and several other red wines (i.e., Syrah, Sagrantino, Aglianico, Petite Sirah, cool-climate Merlot) also can take on monumental proportions when mature. Those who adore the developed issues in reds dote on wines that achieve far beyond what shows in youth.

Given the trade-offs one must accept in older reds (fruit for complexity), Id sooner have a 30-year-old Barolo than a 30-year-old Bordeaux. It may be possible to compare them, but for me its no contest, partly because the grapes have little in common.

Barolo is made from the somewhat obscure Nebbiolo, an iconic grape that dominates headlines in Italys northern region of Piemonte. Most Bordeaux are top-heavy with Cabernet.

The latter usually are dark in color when young. By contrast, Barolo rarely is dark. Its a thin-skinned grape that has less color than most other red grapes that make wines aimed at aging. Also, the grapes have radically different aromatic profiles.

(A 1990 book is titled Tar and Roses, referring to its aroma. But that description is rather fanciful. As a friend and Barolo aficionado said recently, after I poured and he sniffed two 2019 Barolos, A great Barolo smells like being there.)

The multitude of aromatics Ive experienced with great old Barolos vary from site to site, blend to blend, vintage to vintage. Im hard-pressed to come up with a simple description.

I adore the Barolo region almost as much as the wine. One reason: its unlikely to be overrun by tourists who know nothing about the wines. And locals are a delight, unpretentious and welcoming.

There are two drawbacks in Barolo that keep many tourists anchored in Milan, Florence, or more popular traps: price and time. Itd cost you $50-to-$75 for a good Barolo; a great one is $90-$250. A great one with a vineyard name from a great vintage: $300, or more. For me, its worth the outlay.

Then theres the question of when such wines will be at a peak. Great Bordeaux requires at least 20 years; at that age, a great Barolo is barely out of its youth.

Yet even at age 30, top Barolos may visually deceive. The light red or pale color of a fine old Barolo may confuse novices, most of whom have been educated to believe that a great red must be dark in color. Thats absurd. Anyone who has tasted exceptional red Burgundies from Frances Beaune knows that color is immaterial. A great Beaune can be pale, almost rose.

This is like some of the finest Pinot Noirs. If a Pinot or a Barolo is black, I tend to worry about its charisma. Indeed, they share some of the same elements. When both are made by top winemakers from great fruit and have good acidity, both can develop the bottle bouquet I so cherish.

Acid rarely is a problem for Barolo. Its a grape that does best in cool regions. Thats risky for Cabernet. Its backers want their Cabs to be voluptuous. Barolo rarely is soft.

The word nebbia in Italian translates to fog. It is that element that allows Nebbiolo to attain its rigidity. Fog leads to higher acidity. Most of northern Piemonte is fog-shrouded for most of the growing season. Temperatures are so cool that most growing seasons are outrageously long.

Nebbiolo vines start out annually developing buds in spring earlier than other varieties. Because of fogs cooling effects and cold nights, the grape cant be harvested until very late. Still, almost never do we see ultra-ripe aromas.

I write about Barolo today because the 2019s now  four full years after the harvest  are being released here. And reports say that the 2019 Barolos are some of the best ever. Though 2018 produced wines that were a bit more approachable, the 2019s have captivated Barolo collectors. Many of the wines have a greater expression of Piemonte-ness. That translates to longevity.

I tasted two exceptional, widely available 2019 Barolos last week. The Pio Cesare ($80) and Ceretto ($70) differ slightly in style, with the former a bit more rustic, and the latter showing slightly more fruit. I left them open for two days, unrefrigerated. Both improved markedly and will be superb in a decade, perhaps a bit less if both are decanted.

Most vineyard-designated Barolos will be best in decades, but prices are daunting. Decanting is mandatory for almost all young Nebbiolo-based wines. It allows them to aerate and thus shed some of their gripping tannins  a structural element thats usually present in young Nebbiolos.

Hard tannins combined with high acid created a strange situation in Barolo about 40 years ago that left the industry bifurcated. A group of Italian winemakers, tired of making tannic wines that required 10 years of aging before they were (barely) drinkable, began making Barolos with a lot less tannin.

This initially caught on with some U.S. wine buyers (mainly novices). Some told me they adored the young wines flavors. But traditionalists decried these new wines and ignored the innovators. I viewed this trend as misguided. It was anti-tradition.

And it didnt take long for Barolo lovers to rebel. The instantly-drinkable young Barolos I tasted in the mid-1980s were like putting chocolate sauce on anchovies. They were mainly too flabby and pairing them with food was preposterous.

Between about 1985 and 2000, dozens of innovatorre (as they were called) made drink-soon Barolos that were inexplicable to Barolo fans.

(Two more things that led to problems for the modernists. Many of their Barolos were aged in small French oak barrels and/or had higher alcohols, which gave them a bizarre aromatic profile that had nothing to do with tradition.)

However, sanity soon returned. By the early 1990s, the number of modern Barolos had shrunk considerably. Today most Piemonte red producers are back to making Barolo with more traditional elements in place. Colors are properly lighter. The wines seem perfect for aging.

In a March 2023 article on the 2019 Barolos, the London-based wine magazine Decanter, Italian writer Aldo Fiordelli wrote:

The adjective classic can only partly be intended, as it is in Bordeaux, to indicate wines that are less concentrated. Here in Barolo, classic refers to traditional, old-fashioned or even old-school styles  a classic vintage is more austere than supple.

About that same time, New York wine writer Ed McCarthy confirmed this, noting that the more modern versions may still exist, but tradition has returned to Piemonte.

Fortunately, there are other wines made from this same grape that can often be found at slightly lower prices that display some of the charms that Barolo pioneered, but were only marginally available two decades ago.

Wines from neighboring Barbaresco (also Nebbiolo) tend to be slightly lighter and more elegant, less in need of aging. Also more approachable are reds designated Roero from a nearby district. Theyre not quite as distinctive as Barolo, but are cheaper and a grand lesson in the grape.

(About 30 years ago, for at least 15 years, I bought cases of a Roero red from Matteo Correggia. It was my house red. Today its roughly $25, a great value. K&L Wines in San Francisco has some at $23.99 a bottle; https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1706672.)

Today there are far more wines designated Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo dAlba that represent good value and are worth seeking out. Most do not need long aging. One excellent version is 2019 Picotener from Enrico Serafino, with ripe, plum-y fruit and excellent balance.

For decades, the only Nebbiolo you could find on a wine shop shelf or in a restaurant came from Piemonte. The grape did not seem to do well in California, or anywhere else.

But in the last few years, two West Coast wineries have entered the picture with Nebbiolos of exceptional quality. One is Wilridge Winery in Washington, in a new, emerging area near Yakima called Naches Heights. Winemaker Paul Beveridge planted Nebbiolo and his 2018 Wilridge Nebbolo ($40) is one of the few wines from this grape outside of Italy that rivals Barolo!

It has more complexity than half of the Nebbiolos I taste and has the potential to age for at least 20 years, perhaps longer. Also, Beveridges 2018 Sagrantino ($40) also is sensational and destined to live for decades. https://www.wilridgewinery.com

The other new U.S. Nebbiolo discovery comes from winemaker Benjamin Silver (Silver Wines, https://www.silverwines.com) in Santa Barbara County. A few of Bens early wines were high in alcohol, but hes nothing if not amazingly insightful.

Silver saw that if Nebbiolo was to make a great wine in Santa Barbaras cool climate, it had to have moderate alcohol. His 2018 ($38) is only 13.5% and is perfectly structured to age for at least a decade if not two.

Slightly rustic in aroma, it reminds me of Barolo in tone and aromas, but has a New World mid-palate richness.

Wine of the Week: 2019 Mauro Veglio Langhe Nebbiolo Angelo ($28; see below)  For a classic entry-level Barolo-style wine, try this amazing red wine. Mauro Veglio is a respected Piemontese producer with vineyards in the prestigious sub-districts of Monforte and La Morra. Its regular Barolos sell for $50 and vineyard designates often are more than $100. In the exceptional 2019 vintage, Veglio made this declassified Barolo-eque wine that has superb licorice-tinged fruit and great structure. It will age 5 to 10 more years.

Wine Enthusiast gave it 88 points, saying, An intense, inviting fragrance of rose and fresh red berry takes center stage on this bright, youthful expression of Nebbiolo. The palate offers juicy Morello cherry, espresso and white pepper alongside youthfully feisty but polished tannins. A touch of licorice signals the close. Note: Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa has this wine at $15.99.
One of California Gov. Gavin Newsoms top 2023 budget priorities involved securing millions to construct a rehabilitation space at San Quentin State Prison. A high-level advisory council tasked with helping the governor has a different idea.

The San Quentin Advisory Council released a report on Friday with more than 150 pages detailing a vision for turning the maximum-security Marin County penitentiary into a facility modeled after Norwegian prisons that push services and support over punishment.

The council recommends the governor scale back a $380 million plan to convert an existing 81,000-square-foot space, Building 38, into an education center. Newsoms administration asked for $20 million for operations and $360.6 million in bond money to create the facility.

The report suggests cutting the $360.6 million by at least one-third to $240 million, and using the extra money to pay for other infrastructure projects, including improvements to housing, family visitation areas and gathering spaces.

The governors office did not respond to questions about the advisory councils Building 38 recommendations, instead providing a statement expressing gratitude to members.

Id like to thank the San Quentin Advisory Council and its co-chairs for this tremendous undertaking, Newsom said in the statement. California is at the forefront of innovation and groundbreaking transformation as we reimagine San Quentin to better serve our state  and improve public safety.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who co-chaired the council, suggested the administration could recapture $120 million from the Building 38 project, plus the additional $20 million Newsom requested for operations costs.

This is especially important to the council because Californias government is facing a $68 billion budget gap, leaving few extra state dollars to spare. Newsom will present his budget proposal by Jan. 10.

There isnt a lot of money in the state budget, we know, Steinberg said during a Friday press conference on Zoom.

We just think that $360 million for a single building, that could be done differently, Steinberg told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday. And recognizing the fiscal situation, at least in the short term, freeing up $140 million to begin prioritizing these other needed capital changes strikes the right balance.

Changing California incarceration

Newsoms plan to reform San Quentin was one of his 2023 State of the State goals. He announced his initiative in March, saying he hoped the 3,447-inmate prison could be a model for the nation, a model for the world.

He proposed renaming the facility the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and moving death row inmates to other prisons throughout the state. Newsom planned to use the advisory councils recommendations to develop the prison into a rehabilitation-focused facility that he could hold up as a model for the rest of Californias penitentiaries by 2025.

The councils primary suggestions include providing all residents with rehabilitation and re-entry plans, retraining correctional officers, reducing the prison population to allow inmates their own cells, improving staff housing and work space and creating re-entry beds to help transition inmates to a post-release life.

The report does not contain cost estimates outside of the money for Building 38. David Bond of the Amity Foundation, who also served as a council co-chair, said the state could accomplish some of the recommendations on a short-term basis, while other would take longer to implement.

Newsoms proposal comes after the state spent 15 years changing its sentencing and prison policies in response to severe overcrowding issues. A panel of federal judges in 2009 ordered California to reduce its inmate population, which resulted in legislation and ballot measures changing harsh sentencing policies from the 1980s and 1990s and shifting some prisoners to county jails.

The states prison population gradually declined following this shift. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation also released a significant number of inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to prevent virus transmission.

As a result, the Newsom administration has begun to close prisons, which saves the state a significant amount of money. The governor has closed or started the process of closing three facilities and a handful of prison yards.

San Quentin plan lacked key details

Many Democratic lawmakers have wanted to see Newsom close more prisons. They were less enthusiastic about providing money for his San Quentin plan, which contained few details before the reports release.

The Legislative Analysts Office in May criticized the governors administration for laying out an incomplete proposal that did not show goals, the full scope of the project or potential operating costs.

Lawmakers involved in the budget process called the information shortage insulting, as they were expected to approve funding for a project they knew little about.

I just want to be clear that I dont think that the role of the Legislature is to green-light a proposal without any ability to be able to weigh in, said Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, during a hearing about the San Quentin plan.

Lawmakers eventually approved Newsoms funding, with assurances that CDCR would provide a report on prison conditions and the criteria it uses to make decisions about facility closures.

Criminal justice reform advocates were not supportive of the San Quentin plan, saying they would prefer to see California spend more money on re-entry services and community-based violence prevention efforts.

The advisory council acknowledges they face a possible dilemma. Reforming prison conditions will mean California needs to spend more money on prisons, but thats something advocates do not want to see.

But reducing funds also means that people who are still incarcerated will not have increased access to more programming or improved, less dehumanizing environments, the report said. Many consider it unethical to keep people incarcerated without immediately investing in creating more humane environments and interactions in prisons.

The council does not make funding recommendations, but it is clear the strategies it its report would require a significant investment of state money.

Bond of the Amity Foundation, who also served as a council co-chair, emphasized the importance of good community and prison services. The Amity Foundation provides programming at 19 California prisons to help inmates prepare for release.

Really look at it as both parts, Bond said. You cant wait until somebody is already back in the community to start investing in rehabilitation and their re-entry. You have to start that process inside. So it requires an investment on the inside, as well as on the outside.

Prison money diaries: What people really make (and spend) behind bars Prison money diaries: What people really make (and spend) behind bars Ricardo Ferrell, 64 Louis Dixon, 27 "Fugee*," 26 Courtney Sargent, 37 Valerie Stanton, 47 Richard Spillane, 61 David DeLena, 45 Aundra Jiles, 50
Azerbaijan and USA discuss Armenian-Azerbaijani issues

Putin: Russia may create a "sanitary zone" in Ukraine

Czech Rep. parliament speaker sends EU flag to Armenia colleague as token of support

Premier on Tavush Province meeting: I also showed here Armenia outline that I showed at press conference

Secretary General Stoltenberg's visit to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia is historic NATO says

Aliyev renames Revival Square in occupied Stepanakert

Armenia opposition MP: PM told Tavush Province residents that 4 villages must be handed over to Azerbaijan immediately

Aliyev warmly congratulated Putin

Videos of Armenia PM Pashinyan's meetings in Tavush Province to be publicized later, spokesperson says (PHOTOS)

Young man throws stone at Armenia government building window

Armenia premier meets with Kirants village residents of Tavush Province (PHOTOS)

RFE/RL: Putin loses in Armenias Yerevan, wins in Gyumri in Russia presidential election

High-tech minister on removing Russia TV channels from multiplex: Armenia's dignity is at core of decisions

Kazakhstan FM considers it necessary to increase trade with Armenia

Armenia, Kazakhstan FMs discuss new logistical opportunities

Armenia 2041 Foundation launches Galvanizing Diaspora program

Kazakhstan FM notes Armenias Crossroads of Peace projects importance for Middle Corridor

Armenia, Kazakhstan FMs sign 2024/25 action plan

Armenia PM is in Tavush Province, meeting with residents of Voskepar, Baghanis, neighboring villages

Archaeologists find inscription of King Antiochus I of Armenian Yervanduni Dynasty, in Turkey

Kazakhstan FM is in Armenia (PHOTOS)

Rolls-Royce Ghost to be retired and replaced by new Alpina sedan

Ardshinbank cardholders can now enjoy a 10% cashback!

Withdrawal from lawsuits against Azerbaijan in international courts will cause irreparable damage to Armenia, Armenians

EU Council to discuss assistance to Armenia, Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization

7,825 Karabakh residents who left Armenia since September 2023 have not returned, new data say

Armenia to submit application for EU membership?

Archaeologists discover where legendary British warship that disappeared in 17th century sank

Large number of Russians came from Georgia to Armenia to vote in presidential election, envoy says

Stoltenberg: NATO hopes to have stable peace between Azerbaijan, Armenia

Belgorod attacked by two rockets during the day: there are dead and injured

Media: Elon Musk's company is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites for US intelligence

Shooting in Pennsylvania: at least three dead, gunman took hostages

MEPs appeal to EU leadership to protect cultural heritage of Artsakh Armenians

New talks between Israel and Hamas are scheduled in Qatar on Sunday

India's national elections will be held from 19 April to 1 June

Aliyev: Azerbaijan and Georgia have always supported each other's sovereignty

Iran calls for formation of international coalition against Israel

Biden told Aliyev of US commitment to peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Stoltenberg will meet in Yerevan with the President and Prime-minister of Armenia

Turkish Foreign Ministry issues anti-Russian statement on Crimea issue

Zakharova: There is a historical answer to Armenia's doubts about sincerity of Russia's intentions

Zakharova: Moscow discusses with Armenia dragging Yerevan into anti-Russian course

Zakharova: Armenia's withdrawal from CSTO should be based on real needs of the country, not on "flirting" with West

Amazon and Microsoft suspend their cloud products in Russia

Dollar, euro lose value in Armenia

Armenia deputy FM: There has been considerable regress regarding visa facilitation with EU

Deputy FM: As landlocked country, Armenia recognizes vital importance of inclusive connectivity, open borders

FM: Armenia made every effort to prevent de-Armenianization in Karabakh

FM to reporters: You will be the first to know when Armenia intends to apply for EU membership

Ararat Mirzoyan: All Armenia authorities have negotiated on territorial concessions to Azerbaijan

FM: Deepening of Armenia's relations with the West, EU not directed against Russia

Mirzoyan: Unprecedented number of senior French officials visited Armenia in 2023

Ararat Mirzoyan: Armenia, Azerbaijan are close to mutual understanding on recognition of 1991 borders

Armenia made very active efforts to have minimal mutually acceptable wording with CSTO partners, FM assures

FM: Georgia ready to contribute to process of establishing peace in South Caucasus

Armenia FM: Events have occurred that have made it impossible to do certain things

Armenia FM: Ultimate goal not materialized yet in relations with Turkey

FM: There are international players interested in Armenia ceasing to exist

Mirzoyan: No agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan to withdraw international lawsuits against each other

Armenia FM reiterates PM's arguments on handover of 4 villages in Tavush Province to Azerbaijan

FM: Armenia still doesnt understand how CSTO partners present their area of responsibility in South Caucasus

Mirzoyan: EU monitoring mission in Armenia has become factor of stability on Azerbaijan border

Dennis Francis: UN hopes for signing of Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty

FM: 23 Armenians still kept in custody in Azerbaijan

Armenia FM: Still not many tangible results on fundamental issues, we are still negotiating with Azerbaijan

European Commission official underscores provision of assistance to people affected by Karabakh conflict

Peter Stano: Armenia can apply for EU membership

MFA: Genocide prevention agenda is among Armenias priorities

Russia holding presidential elections

US intelligence warns of potentially devastating new pandemic

Newspaper: Birth rate in Armenia 19% lower than last year

Stoltenberg: NATO sought to maintain stronger relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan

Georgian Prime Minister to visit Armenia

Premier receives IMF Armenia mission chief

Anne-Laurence Petel-led delegation to arrive in Armenia

FM: Armenia looks into prospects of further deepening partnership with EU

New technologies at the core of rural infrastructure development

Russia is world leader in nuclear technology, Putin says

Vardges Sureniants Salome painting returns to National Gallery of Armenia exhibition

Dollar drops, euro rises in Armenia

Sunak: There is historic opportunity to put an end to Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict

Armenia authorities, who paid $6M for Snoop Dogg concert, still dont know when this postponed event will be held

Deputy economy minister: Matter of opening India-Iran-Armenia trade corridor being discussed

Armenia official: Trade with India amounted to $380M in 2023

ICC NCA head: India considers Armenia an important bridge to enter larger markets

Anne-Laurence Petel welcomes resolution on EU-Armenia relations

India ambassador: We are happy that our relations with Armenia are developing in defense sector also

Indians are now 2nd largest community in Armenia after Russians, envoy says

India-Armenia business forum kicks off in Yerevan

Armenia parliament speaker on European Parliament resolution: We thank European partners for this important step

PM: European Parliament resolution is another opportunity to discuss vision of Armenia's future

Azerbaijans next target in Karabakh is Artsakh State University

Russia deputy FM in Turkey, discusses process of normalizing Armenia-Azerbaijan relations

14-karat gold LEGO piece sells for over $18,000

Newspaper: Armenia to leave CSTO on Putin's reelection day?

Young lords 1,200-year-old tomb with treasure discovered in Panama

European Parliament resolution demands Azerbaijan troops withdrawal from Armenia territory

European Parliament adopts resolution proposing to consider possibility of Armenia's candidacy for EU membership

Russia MFA spox: We are concerned by Armenia leaderships sometimes offensive rhetoric on CSTO topics
Azerbaijan and USA discuss Armenian-Azerbaijani issues

Putin: Russia may create a "sanitary zone" in Ukraine

Czech Rep. parliament speaker sends EU flag to Armenia colleague as token of support

Premier on Tavush Province meeting: I also showed here Armenia outline that I showed at press conference

Secretary General Stoltenberg's visit to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia is historic NATO says

Aliyev renames Revival Square in occupied Stepanakert

Armenia opposition MP: PM told Tavush Province residents that 4 villages must be handed over to Azerbaijan immediately

Aliyev warmly congratulated Putin

Videos of Armenia PM Pashinyan's meetings in Tavush Province to be publicized later, spokesperson says (PHOTOS)

Young man throws stone at Armenia government building window

Armenia premier meets with Kirants village residents of Tavush Province (PHOTOS)

RFE/RL: Putin loses in Armenias Yerevan, wins in Gyumri in Russia presidential election

High-tech minister on removing Russia TV channels from multiplex: Armenia's dignity is at core of decisions

Kazakhstan FM considers it necessary to increase trade with Armenia

Armenia, Kazakhstan FMs discuss new logistical opportunities

Armenia 2041 Foundation launches Galvanizing Diaspora program

Kazakhstan FM notes Armenias Crossroads of Peace projects importance for Middle Corridor

Armenia, Kazakhstan FMs sign 2024/25 action plan

Armenia PM is in Tavush Province, meeting with residents of Voskepar, Baghanis, neighboring villages

Archaeologists find inscription of King Antiochus I of Armenian Yervanduni Dynasty, in Turkey

Kazakhstan FM is in Armenia (PHOTOS)

Rolls-Royce Ghost to be retired and replaced by new Alpina sedan

Ardshinbank cardholders can now enjoy a 10% cashback!

Withdrawal from lawsuits against Azerbaijan in international courts will cause irreparable damage to Armenia, Armenians

EU Council to discuss assistance to Armenia, Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization

7,825 Karabakh residents who left Armenia since September 2023 have not returned, new data say

Armenia to submit application for EU membership?

Archaeologists discover where legendary British warship that disappeared in 17th century sank

Large number of Russians came from Georgia to Armenia to vote in presidential election, envoy says

Stoltenberg: NATO hopes to have stable peace between Azerbaijan, Armenia

Belgorod attacked by two rockets during the day: there are dead and injured

Media: Elon Musk's company is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites for US intelligence

Shooting in Pennsylvania: at least three dead, gunman took hostages

MEPs appeal to EU leadership to protect cultural heritage of Artsakh Armenians

New talks between Israel and Hamas are scheduled in Qatar on Sunday

India's national elections will be held from 19 April to 1 June

Aliyev: Azerbaijan and Georgia have always supported each other's sovereignty

Iran calls for formation of international coalition against Israel

Biden told Aliyev of US commitment to peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Stoltenberg will meet in Yerevan with the President and Prime-minister of Armenia

Turkish Foreign Ministry issues anti-Russian statement on Crimea issue

Zakharova: There is a historical answer to Armenia's doubts about sincerity of Russia's intentions

Zakharova: Moscow discusses with Armenia dragging Yerevan into anti-Russian course

Zakharova: Armenia's withdrawal from CSTO should be based on real needs of the country, not on "flirting" with West

Amazon and Microsoft suspend their cloud products in Russia

Dollar, euro lose value in Armenia

Armenia deputy FM: There has been considerable regress regarding visa facilitation with EU

Deputy FM: As landlocked country, Armenia recognizes vital importance of inclusive connectivity, open borders

FM: Armenia made every effort to prevent de-Armenianization in Karabakh

FM to reporters: You will be the first to know when Armenia intends to apply for EU membership

Ararat Mirzoyan: All Armenia authorities have negotiated on territorial concessions to Azerbaijan

FM: Deepening of Armenia's relations with the West, EU not directed against Russia

Mirzoyan: Unprecedented number of senior French officials visited Armenia in 2023

Ararat Mirzoyan: Armenia, Azerbaijan are close to mutual understanding on recognition of 1991 borders

Armenia made very active efforts to have minimal mutually acceptable wording with CSTO partners, FM assures

FM: Georgia ready to contribute to process of establishing peace in South Caucasus

Armenia FM: Events have occurred that have made it impossible to do certain things

Armenia FM: Ultimate goal not materialized yet in relations with Turkey

FM: There are international players interested in Armenia ceasing to exist

Mirzoyan: No agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan to withdraw international lawsuits against each other

Armenia FM reiterates PM's arguments on handover of 4 villages in Tavush Province to Azerbaijan

FM: Armenia still doesnt understand how CSTO partners present their area of responsibility in South Caucasus

Mirzoyan: EU monitoring mission in Armenia has become factor of stability on Azerbaijan border

Dennis Francis: UN hopes for signing of Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty

FM: 23 Armenians still kept in custody in Azerbaijan

Armenia FM: Still not many tangible results on fundamental issues, we are still negotiating with Azerbaijan

European Commission official underscores provision of assistance to people affected by Karabakh conflict

Peter Stano: Armenia can apply for EU membership

MFA: Genocide prevention agenda is among Armenias priorities

Russia holding presidential elections

US intelligence warns of potentially devastating new pandemic

Newspaper: Birth rate in Armenia 19% lower than last year

Stoltenberg: NATO sought to maintain stronger relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan

Georgian Prime Minister to visit Armenia

Premier receives IMF Armenia mission chief

Anne-Laurence Petel-led delegation to arrive in Armenia

FM: Armenia looks into prospects of further deepening partnership with EU

New technologies at the core of rural infrastructure development

Russia is world leader in nuclear technology, Putin says

Vardges Sureniants Salome painting returns to National Gallery of Armenia exhibition
The search teams have managed to find the helicopter that crashed in the mountains of the Canadian province of British Columbia, and its pilot was killed, CTV reported.

The search for the private helicopter began Friday in the mountains of Canada's Glacier National Park.

The helicopter was flying from Calgary, which is located in the neighboring province of Alberta.

The identity of the deceased pilot was not noted.

Separately, a plane carrying ten passengers crashed in northeastern Australia, and two people were hospitalized, ABC radio informed.

The small plane flipped while landing on Lizard Island, located 250 kilometers north of Cairns, in the ocean.

There were nine adults and one child on the plane.

Two passengers were seriously injured and hospitalized, whereas the others were treated on the spot.

Two rescue helicopters and one Royal Flying Doctors service plane were sent to bring the crash victims to the island.

The police are trying to find out the reasons and circumstances of the incident.

And at least one person was killed near Valledupar, Colombia as a result of the crash of the Cessna 421 plane, which was transporting doctors, El Tiempo newspaper reported.

Mayor Ernesto Orozco Duran confirmed this plane crash, but did not specify the number of victims.

According to El Tiempo, there were six people on the plane that was supposed to bring an 11-year-old boy to Bogota for treatment. One of the doctors accompanying the child died. The survivors were hospitalized.

The causes of this plane crash have not yet been determined.

According to the authorities, the pilot had informed about the malfunction on the plane and tried to return to the airport.
Extensive work is being carried out to protect the rights of the Armenians in Azerbaijani captivity. The Minister of Justice of Armenia, Grigor Minasyan, informed about this at Mondays press conference to sum up their activities in 2023.

The minister reminded that in December, more than 30 Armenian captives were returned from Azerbaijan, and Armenia, in turn, handed over two Azerbaijani convicts to their country.

According to Minasyan, great diplomatic work is being carried out through Armenias foreign ministry and embassies to inform the international community about what actually happened, who those peoplei.e. the past and present Nagorno-Karabakh leaders in Azerbaijani captivityare, their political past.

Also, they are being visited by the ICRC, and this ensures these Armenian captives contact with their relatives, Minasyan noted.

The representative of the Armenian government in charge of international and legal matters actively works in international judicial bodies to protect the rights of these captives, he said.

"I am sure that extensive work is being carried out, and in the future there will be an opportunity to present the judgments in these cases," added the minister of justice of Armenia.
Many challenges await Armenia in 2024. Thomas de Waal, a specialist in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a senior analyst at the Carnegie Foundation, stated this in an interview with the RFE/RL Armenian Service.

Undoubtedly, this is a very crucial, important, somewhat dangerous moment for Armenia in 2024. The country faces perhaps the most difficult choices, comparable to the situation in the late 1980s or even the 1920s. Of course, it is about the loss of Karabakh and the fleeing of the Armenian population from there. This is a serious moment for Armenia, which some compare with the Genocide of 1920 or even 1915. This will also be the year when Armenia will face not only the threat from Azerbaijan, but also the threat of losing or severing relations with Russia. Thus, in 2024, many challenges await Armenia without a doubt, de Waal noted.

To the remark that for many Armenians, Russia not only abandoned them, but also betrayed them in a very dramatic way, Thomas de Waal responded by saying to start with the fact that, of course, Russia has always had many interests in this region. Although it may have always had stronger relations with Armenia, it has never abandoned relations with Azerbaijan. If we look at the recent history of the Karabakh conflict, we will see that there were moments when Moscow was closer to Bakufor example, in 1990 and 1991.

For Russia, its interests are the priority, and the fact that Armenians are Christians, the existence of traditional historical relations there are not so important. But, for sure, Moscow continues to be the main guarantor of Armenia's security. There is a military alliance, and there are obligations that Moscow has undertaken towards Armenia.

What changed? Obviously, the situation began to change after Armenias Velvet Revolution in 2018, when incumbent PM Nikol Pashinyan came to power, who was a much more unpredictable and unreliable partner from Moscow's point of view, while Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev continued to be a much more predictable and reliable partner; and that was one of the changes.

Then there was the war of 2020 when Moscow intervened only at the last moment. While the people of Karabakh welcomed Moscow's intervention, Thomas de Waal believes that the Armenians have already realized that change.

As per de Waal, the decisive moment was the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, after which Russia's priorities changed and everything began to revolve around this war and the war with the West. The Caucasus has become secondary, and everything is now secondary compared to those war efforts.

According to Thomas de Waal, if we look at what we have on the ground, we will see that on the one hand there is Armenia, which has a democratic government whose intentions seem to be more pro-European, and there isfrom Russia's point of viewa much more reliable partner in the form of Azerbaijan. He believes that if we read what Russian officials have been saying since the start of the war, it's that they need to reorient the entire Russian economy from West to South and East; and South means Georgia, but it also means Azerbaijan, in particular; the railway to Azerbaijan via the Caspian Sea.

Azerbaijan is mainly a road for Russia to the southto Iran and the Middle East. And in that case, Armenia becomes less important. And that's why Thomas de Waal believes we saw this. For the first time in history, Russia did not react, and its peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh did not react for the most part. Obviously, they were informed in advance that Azerbaijan was going to occupy Karabakh, de Waal added.
The signing of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan is only the beginning. It is obvious that the peace agreement needs to be implemented. Thomas de Waal, a specialist in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a senior analyst at the Carnegie Foundation, stated this in an interview with the RFE/RL Armenian Service.

According to him, there is a well-known statistic in conflictology that more than half of peace agreements fail within five years; and it is about rather multifaceted peace agreements. So it's not just the signing, it's obviously also the implementation. Armenia says it wants international guarantees of a peace agreement, and that means perhaps there should be an increased monitoring presence, such as a European monitoring presence at the border, to increase the deterrence factor and deter Azerbaijan from using force against Armenia. Thomas de Waal believes that's the idea. And then they try to internationalize the matter as much as possible. And here we see tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which says no, we don't need any international agreement, or we need regional solutions, by which they mean Turkey, Russia and Iran, excluding the West. de Waal believes this is the main problem.

As for the right of return, he believes that the majority of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians do not want to return to their homeland under the current conditions: under Azerbaijani rule.

Maybe they would like to visit, get their property back, visit family graves or move them to Armenia. But Thomas de Waal doesn't think that anyone is talking about the imminent right of return. In his view, this right of return should be broad-spectrum and comprehensive.

We are talking about return which should apply to everyone, there should be some international supervision over it, and this includes even those displaced between 1988 and 1990. It is not that many Armenians will want to return to Azerbaijans Baku and Sumgait, but Thomas de Waal believes that this right to return should be established internationally, and it will be a part of the future peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Thomas de Waal, a specialist in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a senior analyst at the Carnegie Foundation, has been to Karabakh many times, he has friends who lost their homes there, but he believes it is a tragedy that has its roots from many years. de Waal stated this in an interview with the RFE/RL Armenian Service.

His hope has always been that there will be a peaceful return of Azerbaijanis to their regions, as there have obviously been ghost towns on the Azerbaijani side for many years. de Wall said he also saw Aghdam, from where the population was also driven out. So his hope was that people would either go back to their homes or stay in their homes. And he considers it tragic that Karabakh, with its age-old Armenian presence and history, is now de-Armenianized, and this makes him very sad, said de Waal.

Also, he believes that this, unfortunately, is the price of many wrong actions of not only Azerbaijani but Armenian politicians over many years, the price of maximalism that we have seen. Unfortunately, maximalism won, and peaceful compromise could not win, he added.

And when asked if he could elaborate a little on that maximalism, Thomas de Waal specified that moment was in 2019. He said we saw Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev in military uniform, those terrible scenes of celebration at the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) capital Stepanakert square. But at the same square in 2019, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan also gave a speech saying that "Artsakh is Armenia and that's it!" de Waal believes that was the moment when Azerbaijan also gave up diplomacy and compromises and started moving towards war.

The task of Armenian politicians was to give hope to Azerbaijanis that they would return their territories. And that hope, Thomas de Waal believes, ended with the "Artsakh is Armenia" talk. So, during these years, Pashinyan and other Armenian political figures definitely made mistakes that led to the war in 2020, and the war had a tragic end for Armenians. de Waal added that he always says that for people like him, who wanted to see a peace treaty, it is a very sad sight indeed.
Progress on a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan is likely, but the risk of flare-ups or the resumption of full-scale war will remain high as Azerbaijan seeks to maintain leverage over Armenia, according to 2024 forecast published by prestigious American analytical center Stratfor.

According to the center's analysts, Armenia will continue to strive for a peace agreement with Azerbaijan, but disagreements over the conditions of regional transit corridors will continue to hinder the respective negotiations.

As per Stratfor, Armenia will use its growing political ties with the West and the latters military support to counter Azerbaijan's stubborn ambitions. But considering that Armenia has little leverage in its hands, it is likely to accept Azerbaijan's demands in terms of transit through southern Armenia and border delimitation.

After Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs probable re-election on February 7, according to Stratfor's forecast, Azerbaijan will continue to increase its military capacity along the border with Armenia in order to prepare for a possible invasion and gain leverage in negotiations.

If significant progress is not made in the first half of the current year, the risk of Azerbaijan seizing considerable territory in southern of Armenia will increase in the summer, when conditions will be favorable for large-scale military operations.

Despite growing signals of Yerevan's desire to leave Moscow, Russia's influence in the South Caucasus will not diminish to the point where it is no longer significant, as Armenia will remain in the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the country's economy will be closely tied to the Russian economy.

At the same time, bilateral relations and trade ties between Azerbaijan and Russia will rise to a new level. The East-West transit in the South Caucasus will continue to be carried out mainly through the territory of Georgia, while Azerbaijan will contribute to the development of the North-South infrastructure connecting Russia to Iran.

If Azerbaijan invades Armenia to establish a land link with its exclave of Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan and Turkey will come under pressure from the West and threaten to change foreign policy away from the West and forge closer ties with Russia, China, and Iran, Stratfor concludes.
In his annual State of the World address to members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, Pope Francis reiterated his perspective of a third world war fought piecemeal, recalled almost two years of large-scale war in Ukraine that has resulted in great numbers of victims and massive destruction, and the situation in the South Caucasus between Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the dramatic situation of refugees, Vatican News reported.

He expressed concern about the tension in the South Caucasus and the disagreements between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and called on the two parties to sign a peace treaty.

In addition, Pope Francis pointed to the rights of return of the displaced persons to their homes and the need to respect places of worship.

In both instances, he called for negotiations, in respect for international law and for religious diversity, Vatican News added.
Two million 300 thousand tourists arrived in Armenia in 2023, and most of them came from Russia. These data were presented by Sisian Boghossian, Chairperson of the Tourism Committee of Armenia.

The aforesaid indicator is an increase of about 20 percent compared to 2019, and an increase of about 39 percent compared to 2022, Boghossian added.

Fifty percent of these tourists came from Russia; Georgia and Iran are second and third, respectively, in this regard.

Then many Diaspora Armenians came from the USA.

Chairperson of the Tourism Committee of Armenia added that there are a lot of tourists from India coming to Armenia via Dubai at the moment.

Germany and France also continue to be important target tourism markets for Armenia.

China also is among the top ten countries in this regard.
10:42





Saraswati Devi started her vow on the day Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992, promising to break it only when the Ram temple was inaugurated, her family claimed.





The Dhanbad resident left for the temple town in Uttar Pradesh aboard a train on Monday night to witness the inauguration of the temple. Devi, who is popularly known as 'Mauni Mata' in Ayodhya, used to communicate with family members through sign language but wrote down complicated sentences.





Though she took a break from 'maun vrat' and spoke for an hour at noon every day till 2020, she went completely silent the day the foundation for the temple was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.





"The day Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, my mother took a vow to observe silence till the Ram Mandir was constructed in Ayodhya. She has been jubilant ever since the date of consecration of the temple was announced," 55-year-old Hare Ram Agarwal, Devi's youngest child, told PTI.





"She left for Ayodhya on Monday night aboard Ganga-Sutlej Express from Dhanbad Railway Station. She will break her silence on January 22," Hare Ram, a resident of Bhowra in Baghmara block, said.





He said Devi has been invited by disciples of Mahant Nritya Gopal Das to participate in the Ram temple inauguration event. A mother of eight children, including four daughters, Devi devoted her life to Lord Ram after the death of her husband Devkinandan Agarwal in 1986, spending most of her time in pilgrimages, family members said.





Devi is currently living with her second-eldest son Nand Lal Agarwal, an official with Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), an arm of Coal India, at Dhaiya in Dhanbad. Nand Lal's wife Innu Agarwal (53) said that a few months after her marriage, she saw her mother-in-law embracing the vow of silence in devotion to Lord Ram.





"Mostly, we understood her sign language. But she used to write down complicated sentences on a piece of paper," Innu Agarwal said.





"After the demolition of Babri Masjid, my mother-in-law visited Ayodhya and took a pledge of 'maun vrat' till Ram Mandir was constructed. She used to remain silent for 23 hours a day, taking an hour-long break only at noon. The rest of the time, she communicated with us through pen and paper," she said.





"However, when the foundation of the Ram Mandir was laid in 2020 by PM Modi, she went for a 24-hour 'maun vrat' and pledged to speak only after the temple was inaugurated," Innu said.





In 2001, Devi did 'tapasya' (penance) for seven months at Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh where Lord Ram is believed to have spent a major part of his exile, Innu claimed.





"Besides, she also went on pilgrimages across the country," she said. According to Innu Agarwal, her mother-in-law wakes up around 4 am every morning and undertakes 'sadhana' (meditation) for around six to seven hours in the morning.





"She studies religious books such as Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita in the evening after 'Sandhya Aarti'," she said. Devi eats food only once a day and consumes a glass of milk in the morning and evening. She maintains a vegetarian diet consisting of rice, pulses and roti. -- PTI

An 85-year-old woman from Jharkhand will break her three-decade-long 'maun vrat' (vow of silence) after her dream comes true on January 22 with the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Tokyo's Haneda Airport reopens after crash

Work has been taking place around Runway C, where the January 2 accident occurred. Photo: AFP

Flight operations returned to normal on Monday at Tokyo's Haneda airport, six days after a near-catastrophic collision between an airliner and smaller plane that killed five people, officials said.



All 379 passengers and crew escaped the burning Japan Airlines plane after the January 2 crash, but five of the six people on the coast guard aircraft that it collided with were killed.



The runway at Haneda -- one of four -- where the crash happened has been closed since then, resulting in the cancellation of hundreds of mostly domestic flights at one of the world's busiest airports.



"Runway C resumed operation today (Monday)" so the airport is back to normal operation, a Tokyo airport spokeswoman told AFP.



Workers have removed the charred remains of the two planes and Japanese investigators together with counterparts from France, Britain and Canada are probing the accident.



A transcript of communications released by the transport ministry last week suggested that the coast guard plane was instructed to halt before the runway and that the JAL plane was cleared to land.



But the coast guard pilot, who was the only survivor, believes he had clearance to move onto the runway, where his plane stood for around 40 seconds before the crash, according to media reports. (AFP)
Alexander Rodriguez is new Hispanic-Latino Resource Center coordinator

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Alexander Rodriguez is SIU Carbondales new coordinator of the Hispanic/Latino Resource Center within the Student Multicultural Resource Center.

Originally from the south/lower west side of Chicago, Rodriguez split his youth between the Bridgeport and Pilsen neighborhoods. From a family of five, he first came to SIU in fall 2015 through the Exploratory Student Advisement program. He continued his education at a community college in Chicago before transferring back to SIU in 2017. He completed his bachelors degree in health care management at SIU Carbondale, with a minor in health information and informatics management in May 2020 and a Master of Health Administration in December 2022. Because the program offers a dual degree option, hes currently pursuing a second advanced degree, a Master of Health Informatics with a certification in infection prevention and control, which he will finish in May 2024.

Rodriguez said that although his educational background is largely focused on health care, he has personal experience and has served as a graduate assistant in the Exploratory Advisement Office early in his masters program, and he has seen how important it is for students to have mentors.

As a graduate student in the office, I emerged from my comfort zone to help young individuals who were going through a program that I have gone through in the past, Rodriguez said. For many first-generation students, finding a place of belonging within a university can be challenging. I have been grateful to work with young individuals and be able to mentor them to the best of my ability, and I want to provide that sense of belonging to every single individual I can, especially students coming from far away to pursue an education. As coordinator of the Hispanic/Latino Resource Center, I will listen and provide the best resources that I can to help our students. I want to help meet their needs.

Rodriguez said he has several goals as he begins his new position, and the first is to ensure diversity and inclusivity within the student population.

In addition, I want to help create a home away from home and hear students voices to ensure they do not stand alone, Rodriguez said. I want to help unify our community. We share a culture and should come together and get to know one another freely. We stand above when we work together collectively and share our opinions.
Buffy Ellsworth, associate professor of molecular and integrative physiology in the SIU School of Medicine at Carbondale (center) researches genetic mutations affecting pituitary gland development, assisted by doctoral students Pratyusa Das (right) and Magdalene Pine Adjei. (Photo by Russell Bailey)

SIU medical researchers seek causes, solutions for pituitary-related conditions

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill.  About one in 4,000 children are born with a deficiency of one or more pituitary hormones that results in a wide variety of health issues including growth insufficiency, metabolic imbalances, infertility and in some cases, infant death. Buffy Ellsworth from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine at Carbondale is part of an extensive $2.77 million multi-university grant-funded research project to unravel the mystery of how congenital hypopituitarism (CH) occurs.

We want to figure out which genes are involved, where and when it goes wrong, said Ellsworth, associate professor of molecular and integrative physiology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences.

It gives us a global look at how gene expression levels are affected and helps us understand what that gene is doing. That can hopefully help us figure out how to fix it. It is hard to identify which mutations cause the problem, but if we can, it can play a broader role in finding solutions.

Mice provide vital clues

The pituitary gland, which sits beneath the brain, is important for reproduction, lactation, thyroid and adrenal function, and growth. Its function is regulated, primarily, by a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. More than 60 genes can cause CH, and many were first discovered in mice, Ellsworth said. However, about 81% of CH patients dont have a molecular diagnosis, which involves assessing their DNA, the unique genetic code found within cells. Having that diagnosis is vital for planning treatment and predicting future risks, and that is what this project is all about.

We are poised to make a significant impact on the discovery of genetic mutations that affect hypothalamic-pituitary gland development, Ellsworth said.

With patients who have CH, something goes awry in the development of the pituitary gland while they are embryos. CH can also affect non-pituitary tissues, including the central nervous system or ocular and/or facial structures, which may result in intellectual disability, cleft palate or visual impairment. CH may require lifelong hormone-replacement therapy and can significantly affect quality of life.

The implications of this research extend well beyond pituitary issues, as most of the genes we are studying are important in many organs, Ellsworth said.

Mapping out exactly what went wrong, where and when within the developing pituitary gland is the key to providing effective treatments.

Creating a road map

A Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant totaling $2,771,644 was awarded to Ellsworth and researchers from three other universities for the project Discovery Pipeline for Genetic Defects in Hypothalamic-Pituitary Development Using International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium Mice.

The team of researchers, all with expertise in hypothalamic-pituitary development, mouse phenotyping and bioinformatics, will analyze the physical expression of genes in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland in a select group of mice during the next four years. The collaborative research project includes Sally Camper at the University of Michigan School of Medicine; Shannon Davis at the University of South Carolina, and Lori T. Raetzman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The team will be performing detailed genetic analysis of 18 mouse lines with malformations in the hypothalamus and/or pituitary gland to expand the understanding of CH in humans. This set of genes is grouped based on function, including epigenetic regulators, components of the hairlike cilia in cells, protein modification and other novel functional categories.

We have gone through and systematically made mouse models but are now going to analyze the effects of the mutations, and we are especially focusing on embryonic development, Ellsworth said. Those 18 mutations have been divided among the four campuses. Our interest at SIU is on the ciliopathy genes  which can cause cognitive impairments, renal dysfunction and other issues  and how they regulate pituitary gland development.

They have collaborated with Maria Ines Perez-Millan at the University of Buenos Aires and her colleagues. The South American group works with people who have pituitary hormone deficiencies, and Ellsworth will study mouse models with mutations in the genes Perez-Millan has identified in CH patients.

If we can better understand what is causing their problems, then maybe we can figure out how to fix it, Ellsworth said. Sometimes there are drugs that affect how different proteins function. Researchers are getting closer and closer to being able to do gene editing so they can fix genetic problems. None of these happen in a vacuum. Understanding how everything works and the implications for similar genetic pathways will help us figure out how to address these problems.

Implications for human health

There are several steps in the process. Researchers will examine the temporal and spatial expression of selected genes in mice from mid-gestation to birth and will assess for specific defects in pituitary hormone-producing cells and vascular defects, and they will determine the overall effect of developmental defects that occur. As they examine the mouse models, they will evaluate how the pituitary gland forms, how it functions and how the hormone-producing cells develop. They are also measuring gene expression  genes are transcribed into RNA, which is translated into protein.

Pratyusa Das, a doctoral candidate in molecular, cellular and systemic physiology, and researcher Sandria Athul are helping Ellsworth with the project. Magdalene Pine Adjei, a graduate student in molecular cellular systemic physiology with a rotating research assignment, also assisted.
Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan, took to the social media platform X to commend ONGC's accomplishment while lauding India's energy security and self-reliance. Minister Pradhan remarked, "Commencement of oil & gas production by @ONGC from KG basin will boost indigenous production of hydrocarbon resources, further strengthen India's energy security and add momentum to achieving self-reliance in energy. It is due to the reforms initiated by PM @narendramodi that our sedimentary basins are being transformed into thriving hubs of E&P activities. Kudos to the team of @PetroleumMin led by Minister @HardeepSPuri." https://twitter.com/dpradhanbjp/status/1744219725687849273?s=48 In an achievement for India's energy sector, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) has commenced oil and gas production from its flagship deep-water project located in the Krishna Godavari basin. The milestone, marked by the initiation of the 'First Oil flow to FPSO' on January 7, holds significant implications for India's energy security and the nation's pursuit of self-reliance in the hydrocarbon domain. ONGC's official post on X elaborated on the achievement, signalling the completion of Phase 2 of the project, with Phase 3 currently underway and anticipated to conclude by June 2024. The 98/2 project is poised to enhance ONGC's overall oil and gas production by 11 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively, contributing significantly to the nation's energy portfolio. ONGC posted, "#ONGC commenced its 'First Oil flow to FPSO', from Krishna Godavari Deep-Water Block 98/2 (in Bay of Bengal) on 7 January 2024, nearing completion of Phase-2 of the project. Phase-3, leading to peak Oil and Gas production, is already underway and likely to be over in June 2024. The 98/2 project is likely to increase ONGC's total Oil and Gas production by 11 percent and 15 percent respectively. #EnergyNowANDNext @PetroleumMin @HardeepSPuri @Rameswar_Teli" https://twitter.com/ONGC_/status/1744202635694219390 Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recognizing the strategic importance of the project, shared his views on X, stating, "This is a remarkable step in India's energy journey and boosts our mission for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat." He emphasized the broader economic benefits that would emanate from this development, aligning with the vision of a self-reliant India. The Krishna Godavari basin, where the deep-water project is located offshore the eastern coast, emerges as a critical asset in advancing India's capabilities in the hydrocarbon sector. The phased approach to production reflects ONGC's meticulous planning, optimizing resources while gradually scaling up capacity. The successful initiation of oil and gas production from this deep-water project signifies not just technological prowess but a crucial step toward reducing dependence on hydrocarbon imports. It underlines India's commitment to fortify its energy resilience and achieve self-sufficiency in a sector vital for economic growth. As Phase 3 progresses, the deep-water project is poised to play a pivotal role in India's quest for energy security. The initiative is not only a testament to ONGC's capabilities but also a testament to India's stride towards a sustainable and self-reliant energy future. (ANI)
According to a press release by HMSI, this move aligns with the 'Make in India' initiative, showcasing Honda's commitment to local manufacturing.

The new assembly line adds a capacity of 6.5 lakh units, contributing to Honda's position as a leader in scooter production globally.

Tsutsumu Otani, President, Managing Director and CEO, HMSI, expressed the importance of this occasion, stating, "Today marks a significant milestone as we have inaugurated a new 3rd Assembly Line at our Vithalapur facility in Gujarat. To serve customers more efficiently with speed, undertaking this capacity expansion plan will increase HMSI's total annual production volumes significantly".

He added, "HMSI's Gujarat plant produces scooter models for domestic as well as export markets which will help us to continue leading the trend of scooterization not just in India but across the globe."

The Vithalapur facility, Honda's largest scooter-only plant worldwide, plays a crucial role in the company's global production capacity.

The plant manufactures popular models like Activa, Dio, Activa 125, and Dio 125. Additionally, it houses a dedicated engine line producing global engines for two-wheelers in the 250cc and above category.

This expansion not only adds to production capabilities but also creates employment opportunities in the state of Gujarat.

HMSI is keen on increasing female representation in the manufacturing workforce, implementing various initiatives to support the well-being and inclusivity of its women employees.

Honda's Vithalapur plant has been actively involved in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives since its inauguration.

The company emphasizes support for healthcare, education, road safety, gender equality, and other community-driven projects.

Furthermore, Honda is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 at the Gujarat plant, employing renewable energy sources, rainwater harvesting, and sustainable manufacturing practices to contribute to environmental conservation. (ANI)
VMPL New Delhi [India], January 8: DIGIVILL, founded by Rovin Singh and Ritesh Yadav, is an organization committed to simplifying lives by providing critical information. With a team of more than ten seasoned professionals, DIGIVILL has been tirelessly working for over three years to help individuals navigate life's complexities. The platform operates globally, offering insights into government schemes, job opportunities, public relations, and more.About DIGIVILL DIGIVILL's mission is to be a global leader in providing up-to-date information. The team collects, inquires, and distributes online data, ensuring individuals have access to crucial details. The platform is user-friendly, making it easy to navigate and find information about government schemes, job openings, and related services.Mission and Vision DIGIVILL exists to serve its visitors by offering access to a wide range of valuable data. Whether it's the latest government schemes, job opportunities, public relations, or other essential services, DIGIVILL is committed to providing comprehensive and up-to-date information. They believe that well-informed citizens can make better decisions, contributing more effectively to society. The vision is to be a global frontrunner, striving to expand its reach and become a recognized source of accurate and timely data globally.Services DIGIVILL offers a range of services, providing current information on government portals and schemes such as Land Records, PM Kisan, NREGA, Ration Card, PM Awas, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, Scholarships, job opportunities, and related services. The user-friendly platform design ensures easy access to the required information.Working Towards a Better Future The team at DIGIVILL is committed to creating a better future by providing reliable and timely information. They believe in empowering individuals to make better decisions and lead more fulfilling lives. The platform is consistently updated with the latest data.Information Access in the Modern Digital Era In today's digital era, accessing information has never been easier, but the challenge lies in distinguishing trustworthy sources. DIGIVILL addresses this challenge by being a one-stop shop for acquiring, processing, and providing reliable digital content. Founded by Ritesh Yadav and Rovin Singh, DIGIVILL focuses on delivering detailed insights into government affairs, career prospects, content and data solutions, and more, catering to both local and international audiences.Commitment to Excellence DIGIVILL stands out due to its unwavering dedication to quality and reliability, prioritizing trustworthy and accurate content. Meticulous processes ensure the utmost accuracy, currency, and relevance of the information delivered.Future Outlook DIGIVILL is determined to expand its presence in the digital information services sector, meeting the growing demand for reliable content across various industries. With a focus on continuous improvement and innovation, DIGIVILL is poised to lead in providing unparalleled access to information. Stay Connected DIGIVILL values user feedback for growth. For assistance, contact +91-7408784345 or support@digivill.in. Stay updated on YouTube and LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/digivill/. Media inquiries: support@digivill.in. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
The revised Flight Duty Time Limitations of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has extended weekly rest periods for flight crew, increasing it from 36 hours to 48 hours for flight crew. These additional leisure hours are expected to ensure sufficient time for recovery from fatigue. India has made significant changes in the regulations about Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) for flight crew, in line with international best practices. DGCA said these regulations have been instrumental in managing fatigue-related aviation safety risks for more than a decade now. To address and mitigate concerns about pilot fatigue through a data-driven approach, DGCA collected and analysed extensive numbers of pilot rosters along with pilot fatigue reports submitted by airline operators. Based on the study and analysis, some of the key areas inducing fatigue such as maximum Flight Duty Period, Night Duty, Weekly Rest Period, and Flight Duty Period Extension were identified. The worldwide best practices (FAA - USA and EASA - EU) have also been taken into consideration in amending the regulations while keeping in mind the specific operating environment in India. In revised guidelines, the definition of night for night duty has been amended which now covers the period of 0000-0600 hours in the revised regulations vis-a-vis the period of 0000-0500 hours under the previous regulations. "This enhancement of one hour during the early morning will ensure adequate rest and also align the night duty period which encompasses Window of Circadian Low (WOCL) from 0200-0600 hours i.e. the time during which the circadian body clock cycle is at its lowest in terms of alertness." Maximum Flight Time, Maximum Flight Duty Periods and Number of Landings during the night: The revised regulations have taken into consideration different types of operations across time zones. The maximum flight time and maximum flight duty period for flight operations encroaching night have been restricted to 8 hours flight time and 10 hours flight duty period respectively and the number of landings has been limited to only two landings as compared to the maximum permissible 6 landings under previous regulations during night operations, thus enhancing flight safety. In addition, DGCA has mandated that all airline operators shall submit quarterly fatigue reports after analysis including the Action Taken on such reports. Further, it has been stipulated that the fatigue reports shall follow a non-punitive and confidentiality policy. The revised FDTL regulations are effective forthwith and the airline operators are required to comply with the revised regulations by June 1, 2024. DGCA further envisages the adoption of a new regime of fatigue management -- Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) going forward. (ANI)
Taking to Instagram, Hrithik Roshan treated fans with the song video and captioned it, "Whose nature is open sky, how is his story made on the ground? #HeerAasmani OUT NOW! Full song."

https://www.instagram.com/p/C11mmmYs9Xi/

Composed by Vishal & Sheykhar, with lyrics penned by Kumaar, and sung by Vishal Dadlani, Sheykhar Ravjiani, and B Praak.

The song stands as a testament to the unswerving passion and dedication of IAF officers who secure our skies and protect the nation. With lyrics that weave a narrative of their deep-rooted love for the skies, 'Heer Aasmani' encapsulates the relentless pursuit and commitment that fuels these guardians in their tireless endeavor to defend our airspace.

As soon as the song was uploaded, fans and followers chimed in the comment section.

One of the users wrote, "Pure emotion poured into every lyrics."

Another user commented, "This song with this video literally insane. mind-blowing presentation, never seen before in Indian Cinema."

Directed by Siddharth Anand and presented by Viacom18 Studios in association with Marflix Pictures,

Fighter promises strong action. Recently, the makers unveiled the official teaser of the film which received a good response from the fans.

The 1 minute 14-second teaser features Hrithik as Squadron Leader Shamsher Pathania aka Patty, Deepika as Squadron Leader Minal Rathore aka Minni, and Anil as Group Captain Rakesh Jai Singh aka Rocky fighting for the country. Karan was missing from the teaser.

The teaser showcased the lead cast flying high in their jets and doing some aerial stunts.

It also shared a glimpse of a party track featuring the lead cast and a smouldering kissing scene featuring the lead pair -- Hrithik and Deepika. The teaser ended on a high note with the tune of 'Sujlam Suflam' playing in the background as Hrithik unfurls a Tricolour from his aircraft.

The film is primarily shot at air bases in India with real Sukhoi's, Indian fighter planes. It will hit theatres on January 25, 2024.

Anil Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover and Akshay Oberoi are also a part of the film. (ANI)
He outlined plans for the comprehensive development of the state, including the Mangalagiri Assembly segment.

Numerous local leaders from the ruling YSRCP and other political parties joined the TDP in the presence of Lokesh.

"I am happy to welcome all these leaders, industrialists, intellectuals and prominent citizens from different sectors into the TDP fold as all of them have reposed faith in me," Nara Lokesh said.

The call given by Nara Lokesh, for the overall development of the state, particularly the Mangalagiri Assembly segment, is getting a tremendous response, following which all of them are getting attracted to join the TDP.

The president of the Weavers Wing, Jaggarapu Rammohan Rao, his son, Ram Lakshman Vivek, along with members from over 100 families joined the party on Sunday.

Nara Lokesh also welcomed Peddinti Babu Rao, B Mariyanna, Nandigam Sada Siva Rao and members of 60 families from Tadepalle, all belonging to the YSRCP.

TDP local leaders, Abaddhaiah and others were present on the occasion.

Earlier on Saturday, TDP launched a scathing attack on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy's governance, citing an incident of a toilet in East Godavari district bearing a flex board praising his 'Jagananna Arogya Suraksha' scheme.

TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh questioned the government's priorities and mocked the resort to such publicity stunts amidst rising unemployment and economic woes.

In a press release, Nara Lokesh highlighted the apparent obsession of the Chief Minister with public image, pointing to the "Jagananna Arogya Suraksha Toilet" flexi as a prime example. He further criticized the lack of tangible achievements in Jagan's four-and-a-half-year tenure, stating, "With nothing to boast about, the ruling party leaders are stooping so low to install such flexes on toilets." (ANI)
Following the directions of Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain inspected the URS transit camp on Sunday and reviewed the various government facilities available in the camp. The minister affirmed the Delhi government's commitment to facilitating a seamless experience for pilgrims attending the 812th URS of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer Sharif. "During the visit, the Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Minister directed the agencies to gear up for making arrangements for the pilgrims arriving to attend the URS of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer Sharif. The pilgrims stay in Delhi for a few days before they depart to take part in the annual URS," as per a press release from the Office of the Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Delhi Govt. The Food and Civil Supplies Minister directed the concerned agencies to ensure the pilgrims have a comfortable stay in the transit camp to be set up in Burari ground. "The minister also informed that this year around 1 lakh pilgrims from different states of the country would visit the URS camp at Burari Ground, wherein the amenities available include camps for stay, drinking water, electricity, public conveniences, medicines, ambulances, medical facilities, local shopping facilities, a railway information centre, bus parking and transport facility have been made available," as per the release. Minister Imran Hussain, while observing the cold weather, gave the necessary directions for adequate arrangements of government facilities. Minister directed to arrange hot water for pilgrims at the URS camp. "The Kejriwal government feels proud to serve the pilgrims carrying the message of peace, harmony, and tranquillity," he stated. The Food and Civil Supplies Minister further stated that the URS ground area will be covered while keeping the safety of pilgrims in mind, and CCTV cameras will also be installed at the camp. "The minister also instructed to showcase the Sufi gallery through an electronic exhibition at the Delhi government's URS camp and ensure adequate lighting at the camp. He also directed to control the dust pollution at the URS transit camp area," as per the release. (ANI)
Assam Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Numal Momin on Sunday lambasted AIUDF Chief and Lok Sabha MP Badruddin Ajmal for his recent controversial remarks and said that the latter should apologize to the nation and Hindus living across the world. Ahead of the Ram Temple consecration, AIUDF MP Badruddin Ajmal asked the Muslims to stay home between January 20 to January 26 and also avoid travelling by train during Ram Temple consecration. "Badruddin Ajmal should apologize to the people of our nation. He should apologize for the statement which hurt millions of Hindus living across the world," Momin said. Terming the moment of the Ram Temple consecration as a significant and historic moment for the people of India, Momin said that, this is a very significant and important moment for the people of our nation that the Praan Pratistha of Lord Sri Ram will take place on January 22. "Every person in our country is very much excited. After 5 years, the people got the temple and this was a moment of faith for the people of the nation to be restored. The hope and faith of the people of our country will be restored. At this moment, the statement given by the AIUDF chief is immature and unwanted. If he has any information about a terrorist attack on the train, he must cooperate with the administration and give the evidence, so that the government can take action." "If it is not, he should not give such a statement which can create a communal tension in the nation. Everyone living in our country must enjoy and respect whether it is Muslim, Christian, Jain, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist", Momin added. The Deputy Speaker of the Assam Legislative Assembly also said that when Lord Ram came to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile, people celebrated Diwali, so this time also we must celebrate the day. "Now Pran Pratistha is happening after 500 years. So there must be illumination of our nation with Diyas a thousand times more than that we celebrated when Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. I don't think that Badruddin Ajmal has given a correct statement. He should apologize to the people of our nation. He should apologize for the statement which hurt millions of Hindus living across the world," Momin said. "Under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the peace has prevailed in India. Now we are heading towards a Ram Rajya. At this moment I don't think, Badruddin Ajmal's such type of statement will help the nation become the Viswaguru. Rather it will push back towards that arena where this murder, bomb blast, secret killings, and terrorist activities happen. The people of our nation don't want such kind of activities to take place again," he added. Momin further stated PM Modi's view is Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikash. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's view is Sabka Saath Sabka Vikash, which is development for Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis. Antyodaya is the main principle, we don't see whether the person is Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Jain, or Buddhist. The poorest of the poor should get adequate respect, and facilities for income so that the poor people should come into the stream," he said. The AIUDF chief's remarks also garnered criticism from the BJP, after he called the party the "biggest enemy" of the community. "We will have to be cautious. Muslims should avoid travelling from January 20 to 25. The entire world will witness the idol of Ram Lalla being placed in Ram Janmabhoomi. Lakhs of people will travel by buses, trains, aeroplanes, etc. We will have to maintain peace," Ajmal said while addressing a gathering in Assam's Barpeta. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the consecration ceremony at the Ram Temple on January 22. The event has garnered significant attention, with several VVIP guests from India and abroad receiving invitations to participate in the auspicious occasion in Ayodhya. From January 14 to January 22, Ayodhya will mark the Amrit Mahotsav. A 1008 Hundi Mahayagya will also be organised, in which thousands of devotees will be fed. Several tent cities are being erected in Ayodhya to accommodate thousands of devotees, who are expected to arrive in the temple town of Uttar Pradesh for the grand consecration. According to the Sri Ram Janambhoomi Trust, arrangements will be made for 10,000-15,000 people. (ANI)
"It is with sadness that we have to inform that Babuji Shri Nand Kumar Baghel ji has passed away this morning," Baghel said in a post on X.

The mortal remains are presently placed at Patan Sadan, he said.

The last rites will be held on January 10 in the Congress leader's ancestral village, Kuruddih.

"After my younger sister returns from abroad, the last rites will be held on 10th January in our home village Kuruddih," Baghel added.

Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Dev Sai offered condolences on the demise of Baghel's father earlier in the day.

Expressing condolences, Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai remarked, "Nandkumar Baghel, father of former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, is no more. His body has become peaceful. We extend our full condolences, and may his soul rest in peace." (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Monday struck down the Gujarat government's order granting remission to 11 convicts who had gangraped Bilkis Bano and murdered her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan quashed the Gujarat government's remission order by which convicts were released pre-maturely. It asked all 11 convicts to surrender before jail authorities within two weeks. The bench held that the Gujarat government was not competent to pass the remission orders but the Maharashtra government. It said the appropriate government to decide the remission was the state within whose territorial limits the accused are sentenced, not where the crime is committed or the accused are imprisoned. The top court held that the judgement of May 13, 2022, by which another bench of the apex court had directed the Gujarat government to consider remission of convicts as per the 1992 policy, was obtained by "playing fraud" on the court and by suppressing material facts. The Gujarat government usurped the powers of the Maharashtra government acting in furtherance of the judgement dated May 13, 2022, which, in our opinion, is a "nullity," said the bench. The convicts had not approached the court with clean hands, said the bench, adding that proceedings before this court were due to "suppression of facts," and that is why it is fraud played on this court. The apex court questioned why the Gujarat government had not filed any application seeking a review of the May 13, 2022, order, as it was not the appropriate government. It was a classic case where the order of the Supreme Court has been used for violating the rule of law for passing orders for remission, the top court said. The exercise of power by the State of Gujarat is an instance of "usurpation and abuse of power," said the bench while reprimanding the State government for not filing a petition to review the convicts' release. "The exercise of power by the State of Gujarat is an instance of usurpation of power and abuse of power. This is a classic case where the order of this court was used to violate the rule of law by granting remission. On that ground also, the remission orders deserve to be quashed," it said. The judgement of the top court came on a petition filed by Bilkis Bano and others challenging the pre-mature release of 11 convicts. Pronouncing the verdict, the bench said, "We hold that writ proceeding before this court was due to suppression of facts and that is why it is fraud played on this court..." Earlier, the Gujarat government, in its affidavit had defended the remission granted to convicts, saying they had completed a 14-year sentence in prison and their "behaviour was found to be good". The State government had said it has considered the cases of all 11 convicts as per the policy of 1992 and remission was granted on August 10, 2022 and the central government government also approved the release of convicts. It is pertinent to note that the remission was not granted under the circular governing the grant of remission to prisoners as part of the celebration of "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav." The pleas filed before the top court had said they have challenged the order of competent authority of the government of Gujarat by way of which 11 persons who were accused in a set of heinous offences committed in Gujarat were allowed to walk free on August 15, 2022, pursuant to remission being extended to them. The remission in this heinous case would be entirely against public interest and would shock the collective public conscience, as also be entirely against the interests of the victim (whose family has publicly made statements worrying for her safety), pleas stated. The Gujarat government had released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15, 2022. All 11 life-term convicts in the case were released as per the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008. In March 2002, during the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara. (ANI)
The Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on Monday shared stunning pictures of the Ram Temple premises in the nighttime. Here is the panoramic view of Jatayu's statue installed on Kuber Fort at the Ram Temple premises in Ayodhya. The pictures show the hectic pace at which the construction of the much-awaited Prabhu Shree Ram temple at the birthplace of Lord Ram is being carried on. The temple features exquisitely carved figures of deities, gods, and goddesses adorning the pillars and walls. The pictures of the inner sanctum, of the temple show the beauty and radiance of the Ram Temple during nighttime. The night time illumination lights up the entire premises and the beauty of the temple gets highlighted even more so. According to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth, the Ram Mandir is a three-storied shrine, with each floor standing at a height of 20 feet. It has a total of 392 pillars and 44 doors. The Garbhagriha is the innermost sanctum of the temple, where the deity is to be enshrined. In the sanctum sanctorum will rest the idol depicting the child form of Lord Ram (Ram Lalla) and the first floor will have a Shri Ram Darbar. The temple consists of five Mandaps (halls) -- Nritya Mandap, Rang Mandap, Sabha Mandap, Prarthna and Kirtan Mandaps. Preparations are underway in full swing for the Ram Temple 'Pran Pratishtha' on January 22, which will draw dignitaries and people from all walks of life. The Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust has decided to enthrone Ram Lalla at the sanctum-sanctorum of the Ram Temple at noon on January 22. ( Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Pran Pratishta ceremony at the Ram Temple on January 22. The event has garnered significant attention, with several VVIP guests from India and abroad receiving invitations to participate in the auspicious occasion in Ayodhya. Vedic rituals for the Pran-Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya will begin on January 16, a week before the main ceremony. A priest from Varanasi, Lakshmi Kant Dixit, will perform the main rituals of the consecration ceremony of Ram Lalla on January 22. From January 14 to January 22, Ayodhya will mark the Amrit Mahotsav. A 1008 Hundi Mahayagya will also be organised, in which thousands of devotees will be fed. Several tent cities are being erected in Ayodhya to accommodate thousands of devotees, who are expected to arrive in the temple town of Uttar Pradesh for the grand consecration.According to the Sri Ram Janambhoomi Trust, arrangements will be made for 10,000-15,000 people. (ANI)
Xizang aims for steady economic growth this year

09:02, January 08, 2024 By Palden Nyima and Daqiong in Lhasa ( China Daily

A marketing professional shows residents how to bag the kiwi fruit they grow in Zayul county, Xizang autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Xizang autonomous region is expected to witness high-quality development and steady economic growth this year, said Yan Jinhai, chairman of the regional government, on Sunday.

In 2024, the region aims to achieve GDP growth of 8 percent and total fixed-asset investment growth of 13 percent.

Also this year, the income growth of urban residents of the region will be in sync with economic growth, and the income of rural residents will grow faster than that of urban residents, Yan said. He added that the region's consumer price index will be kept below 3 percent, and the surveyed jobless rate in urban areas below 5 percent.

Yan announced the targets on Sunday while delivering a government work report at the annual session of the regional People's Congress.

"In 2023, the region's economic operations continued to see growth. The growth rate of major economic indicators of the region ranked among the top in the country," Yan said.

Achievements in 2023

The region's gross domestic product last year is estimated to surpass 230 billion yuan ($32.2 billion), with an annual growth rate of about 9 percent, while per capita GDP stood at nearly 60,000 yuan. The per capita disposable income of urban residents exceeded 50,000 yuan, with a growth rate of about 6.5 percent. The per capita disposable income of rural residents exceeded 20,000 yuan, up 10 percent year-on-year.

The report said that in the past year, the region continued to make livelihood improvement a priority. Sixteen key measures to help residents generate income were fully implemented, more than 640,000 rural residents were provided with various job opportunities, and more than 6.5 billion yuan was paid out as wages.

According to the region's goals for the new year, the government will continue to expand effective investment and continuously promote project construction.

"We will further expand effective investment to stimulate potential consumption, making development expectations more stable, more confident, and with more abundant vitality," said Yan.

Tseyang, a deputy to the ongoing annual session of the regional People's Congress, said she operates a company producing ethnic clothing and handicrafts, and she has benefited from a series of policies implemented by the government to support the private economy.

"My company has 158 employees, most of whom are locals, and we have been benefiting from the micro loans, tax exemption and reduction provided by the government," said Tseyang, adding that in the past, she also received a startup fund from the government for her business.

Wangdu, a male resident from the region's Shaitongmon county, lauded the increase in government investment in livelihood generation and creating a good business environment, thanks to which he and his fellow villagers have enjoyed a better standard of living in recent years.

Wangdu, who owns a shop in Lhasa selling Tibetan furniture, said that he made over 200,000 yuan in 2023 through the business, and the per capita disposable income of his family last year reached more than 30,000 yuan.

"I am pleased to hear that the overall economic momentum of the region is growing, and I believe our business and life will become better in the coming year," he said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Union Minister Prahlad Joshi on Monday said that wisdom has dawned on the Congress after the Karnataka government issued the circular to 34,000 temples in the State to perform special pooja on January 22 when the idol of Ram Lalla will be installed in Ayodhya. "Wisdom has dawned on them," Prahlad Joshi told ANI on Monday. When asked about his reported statement that Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah is running the government like ISIS, Joshi said, "I don't deny whatever I have told. The way in which this Congress Government is behaving, who has authorised that?..." Meanwhile, BJP MLA CN Ashwathnarayan appreciated the decision taken by the Government of Karnataka to offer prayers at all the temples across the state. "It is the right decision taken by the Government of Karnataka...I really appreciate the decision taken by the Government of Karnataka to offer prayers at all the temples across the state," Ashwathnarayan said. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader CT Ravi said that Congress had left Lord Ram and now they are coming to him. "It is good. We too thank them. They have made a good decision. Wisdom has dawned on Congress after several years....Lord Ram belongs to everyone...Congress had left Lord Ram and now they are coming to him. This is good, it will be good for the country," CT Ravi said. In its official post on X the Karnataka state unit of the BJP said "It's ironic that the Congress Party who is always against Prabhu Shri Ram, known for questioning and even ridiculing his existence, are now doing Ram Japa. The past has proven, how Ram Sena wiped out Ravana and his entire Kingdom. Similarly, today, Ram bhakts have pushed Congress to the brink making them realise their end is near. However, timeless lesson of Ramayana persists - "evil shall perish". Therefore, regardless of the tactics & tricks Congress does, their end seems inevitable. Such is the eternal cycle, such is the strength of Dharma." Karnataka Minister and Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy on Sunday said that a circular has been issued to 34,000 temples to organise a special pooja on January 22 (on the occasion of Ram Temple 'Pran Pratishtha' in Ayodhya). Preparations are underway in full swing for the Ram Temple 'Pran Pratishtha' on January 22, which will draw dignitaries and people from all walks of life. The Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust has decided to enthrone Ram Lalla at the sanctum-sanctorum of the Ram Temple at noon on January 22. (ANI)
Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday expressed pleasure that the Ladli Bahna Yojana would continue and money would be transferred again to the accounts of beneficiaries on coming January 10. "I am happy that the Ladli Bahna Yojana will continue and the money will be transferred into the accounts of the Ladi Bahnas again on January 10. Ladli Bahnas will be made Lakhpati (millionaire) Bahnas and I will work continuously for that. The Chief Minister and the state government will also work in this direction," former CM Chouhan said. Meanwhile, reacting to the consecration of Ayodhya Ram Temple, the former CM said that January 22 would be an emotional day for the country and everyone wanted to go to Ayodhya to witness those moments. "January 22 will be an emotional day for the country and everyone wants to go to Ayodhya to witness the moments. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed that everyone should not go to Ayodhya, there will be a huge crowd, in such a situation, people should go to worship later in order to maintain the arrangements," he added. The former CM further said that he would worship Lord Ram in Orchha (in Niwari district and he would witness the moment from there. A Deepotsav program will also be organised there in the evening. "We are fortunate that Ramlala is going to reside in the temple in front of us. Ramrajya has also started and on that day we will also wish to become a Vishwa Guru," he added. Besides, Chouhan also shared his past experience saying what a critical time it was when the Uttar Pradesh government-led by Mulayam Singh Yadav had made such arrangements to stop people from entering the border of the state in its own country as if people were going to another country. "We tried to enter the state and we were caught. After that we were sent to jail in Jaunpur and stayed there for eight days. We used to cheer people up there. After being released from jail, we went to Ayodhya and resolved to build a temple there," he added. Notably, preparations are underway in full swing for the Ram Temple 'Pran Pratishtha' on January 22, which will draw dignitaries and people from all walks of life. The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirth Kshetra Trust has decided to enthrone Ram Lalla at the sanctum-sanctorum of the Ram Temple at noon on January 22. (ANI)
STF Senior Superintendent of Police Ayush Aggarwal said "This criminal was involved in main role in a robbery incident that took place in Doiwala, Dehradun. Many efforts were made to arrest him but success was not achieved."

A reward of Rs 2 lakh was announced by the Police Headquarters, Uttarakhand for the arrest of this criminal. So far, about two dozen cases of robbery and attempt to murder have been registered against the arrested accused Parvez alias 'Baba'.

Along with Uttarakhand police, STF and police of other states including Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana were trying to arrest this criminal for a long time.

The Special Task Force was conducting raids at many places across the country to arrest the accused Parvez.

According to STF SSP Ayush Agarwal, "Parvez was identified as the mastermind behind a dacoity at Doiwala area in Uttarakhand's Dehradun."

"On October 15, 2022, at around noon, unidentified individuals entered the house of the plaintiff Sheeshpal Aggarwal, son of late Puranchand Aggarwal, resident of Gharat Road Gali, Police Station Doiwala, Dehradun and killed the plaintiff's family members using arms."

"The robbery was carried out by holding Sheeshpal hostage in his house. The dacoits looted a large amount of cash and jewelry kept at home", STF Senior Superintendent of Police Ayush Aggarwal added further. (ANI)
The Patiala House Court in Delhi on Monday reserved the order on a bail plea moved by Hariom Rai, the Managing Director of Lava International. Rai was recently arrested by the Enforcement Directorate along with Chinese national Guangwen Kuang alias Andrew, Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case linked to the Chinese mobile company Vivo. All the accused are presently in judicial custody in the matter. "My client has three medical conditions due to which keeping him in jail might be disastrous. Although the doctors in jail are good, keeping him there will worsen his condition," Senior Advocate Vikaram Chaudhari representing Rai submitted. While opposed to the bail, ED's Special Public Prosecutor Manish Jain argued before the court that they should look at the merits of the case and medical condition differently. Noting the submissions, Additional Sessions Judge Kiran Gupta reserved the order for January 12. Recently, Rai moved a bail petition in the trial court stating that the allegations made against him are false and absurd. "He has no direct or indirect control over Vivo's business, nor has he derived any monetary benefit, nor has he engaged in any transaction with Vivo or any entity allegedly related to Vivo, let alone having been associated with any alleged 'proceeds of crime'," the plea said. Advocate Nitesh Rana, counsel for Rai, further explained that since Vivo China wanted to enter India, the applicant Hariom Rai met with Shen Wei, CEO of Vivo China in the year 2013. At that time, Vivo and the applicant/LAVA were contemplating a joint venture where 25 per cent shares would be held by the applicant/LAVA. However, this eventually never fructified and Vivo decided to independently conduct its business in India. The plea filed by Advocate Deepak Nagar, further stated that negotiations and business talks between the applicant and the representatives of Vivo China failed and did not meet a fruitful end due to which the applicant stopped pursuing the said opportunity and had nothing to do with Vivo China and/or its representatives after 2014. Merely because, over the years, the international relations between India and China have deteriorated, it would not mean that the applicant committed an offence at the relevant time when there were, in fact, friendly business relations between the two countries, the plea stated. According to the ED, certain Chinese shareholders of Grand Prospect International Communication Private Ltd. incorporated the company based on forged identification documents and falsified addresses. During an enquiry, certain fraudulent activities were found by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The said company was not reported as a subsidiary of Vivo in the official records whereas the said company publicly projects itself to be a subsidiary of Vivo, said ED. ED further stated that Director and shareholder Zhang Jie used a false driving licence for Director Identification Number(DIN) to give his Shillong Address and also used his fake driving licence to open the bank account. With the allegations of cheating, an FIR was registered in Police Station Kalkaji, South East Delhi under sections 417/120B/420 IPC and another FIR was registered under sections 417/420/468/471/120B IPC by the Economic Offence Wing, Delhi based on a complaint filed by Manjit Singh, the then Deputy Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, NCT of Delhi. ED further stated that soon after the incorporation of Vivo, India, 19 more companies including GPICPL were incorporated across India, completely controlled by Chinese Nationals. The accused Bin Luo was the founding/first Director of Vivo India, GPICPL and all other 18 entities at the time of their incorporation and the accused Nitin Garg, had assisted in the incorporation of most of the companies of Vivo Group. According to the ED, raids were conducted on the premises of the accused on October 9 and seized cash amounting to more than Rs 10 lakh and arrested four accused who have been identified as Guangwen Kyang aka Andrew Kuang, the Chinese National, Hariom Rai, the MD of Lava International, Rajan Malik, and Nitin Garg, a Chartered Accountant. The probe revealed that the PMLA investigation by ED was initiated by registering a money laundering case on February 3, 2022. (ANI)
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday arrived at Rajpipla jail in Gujarat's Narmada to meet jailed party MLA Chaitar Vasava whom the party has declared its candidate from the Bharuch seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls a day earlier. On his arrival the Delhi CM attacked the Gujarat government for the arrest of Chaitar Vasava. "Chaitar Vasava, his wife and daughter-in-law of tribal community have been arrested by the BJP government of Gujarat in a fake case. There is a lot of anger in the tribal society. Chaitra Vasava has been fighting for his people's water, forests, land, schools and hospitals. People will take revenge for his arrest and uproot BJP from Gujarat" Kejriwal said. A local court in Dediapada in Narmada district on December 18 sent Chaitar to judicial custody at the end of the three-day police remand in the November 2 case of alleged extortion and assault of forest officials. Chaitar surrendered on December 14 and also moved a bail plea in court on December 18 but it was rejected. Kejriwal, while addressing the rally, appealed to the people to ensure the victory of Chaitra Vasava in the Lok Sabha elections. Kejriwal had erlier proposed Vasava's name as the Lok Sabha candidate from Bahruch. Vasava currently MLA from the Dediapada assembly of Bharuch, is in jail. He challenged the BJP to "cage a lion" like Vasava. Kejriwal said the AAP has "engaged the most expensive and topmost" lawyers of the country to argue the bail pleas of the Gujarat AAP working president and his wife Shakuntala in the Supreme Court in the alleged extortion case. "Chetar Vasava is in jail but now he will be the candidate for the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat. No other party has yet started the process for its candidate in Bharuch, but the AAP party announced its candidate in Sunday's meeting," he said. In the previous Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured victory in all 26 seats in Gujarat. However, the AAP opened its account in Gujarat in the state assembly polls, which were held in 2022, with five of its leaders securing a comfortable win. (ANI)
Madhya Pradesh Congress on Monday held a meeting of the State Election Committee and Political Affairs Committee in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections at the state Congress office in Bhopal. MP Congress Chief Jitu Patwari, AICC in charge of the state Jitendra Singh, former CM Kamal Nath, Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh and other leaders were present in the meeting. During this discussions were held in detail about the strategies for the upcoming 2024 general elections. After leaving the meeting, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath told reporters, "During the meeting, a complete planning was done about upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Everyone expressed their views and everyone had their contributions. There is no disappointment anywhere in the Party, everyone is in great enthusiasm and it is also necessary. We talked about many topics in which it was discussed what will be the procedure for the upcoming elections." Meanwhile, talking about Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) issues, the Congress leader added that they also discussed about EVMs in the meeting but whatever the final decision about it will be taken in Delhi. Notably, after facing an unexpected defeat in the recently concluded state assembly polls, the Congress party changed its party president in the state. Since then, the Congress has been holding meetings continuously in view preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Madhya Pradesh went to poll for 230 assembly seats in a single phase on November 17 last year and the counting of votes was done on December 3. Out of 230 assembly seats in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 163 seats, while the Congress party won only 66 seats and Bharatiya Adivasi Party won one seat. (ANI)
Himachal Pradesh Minister and son of former chief minister of the state Virbhadra Singh, Vikramaditya Singh has confirmed that he will attend the Pran Pratistha ceremony of Ram temple in Ayodhya on 22 January. He feels honoured to receive the invitation to the ceremony and feels lucky to be among 6,000 invitees across the country. He said that his mother Pratibha Virbhadra Singh has also received invitations for the same. He said this is a proud moment and it has nothing to do with politics. "I would like to thank the Ram Janm Bhumi Trust for sending me an invitation to the Pran Pratistha ceremony; I have received an invitation through RSS. As I have said this is not an individual invitation, it is to recognise the contribution of my father Shri Virbhadra Singh Ji to Hinduism and the God and Goddess in the state," Vikramaditya Singh said. He said that during his father's regime, the state government had spent crores of rupees for the development of temples. "Himachal was the first state in the country where he brought the Law against religious conversion. I think this invitation is a tribute to my father to respect his contribution. It has nothing to do with politics," Vikramaditya Singh said. He said that it is an honour for him to have a chance to witness the "historic moment" of the consecration ceremony of Ram temple. "As a Sanatani it is a pride moment to participate in it. Yes, my mother Pratibha Singh who is a Member of Parliament has also received an invitation. I have decided I will go there. I have said that as a Hindu it is a pride moment for me that I am among the 6,000 invites across the country. I shall be present there on this historic day," Singh added further. The 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony of the new idol of Ram Lalla at the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is scheduled to be performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22. (ANI)
During a significant meeting on Monday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath discussed the ongoing efforts, current outcomes, and future policies aimed at achieving the ambitious goal of establishing Uttar Pradesh as a one-trillion-dollar economy. Several state government ministers attended the meeting, which was organised by the Planning Department. In the meeting, the Principal Secretary of the Planning Department and representatives from the financial consulting company Deloitte provided detailed information about the current economic environment of the state. They elaborated on the present situation and potential future outcomes, industry expectations, and other relevant details sector-wise. Major guidelines were given by the Chief Minister in the special meeting. Due to the planned efforts of the last six and a half years, the economy of Uttar Pradesh is in its best condition today. The state's total GDP, which stood at Rs 16.45 lakh crore in 2021-22, has now surged to over Rs 22.58 lakh crore in 2022-23. With a 9.2% contribution to the national income, Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the second-largest economy in the country, playing a pivotal role as the growth engine of the country. An assessment of the state's growth rate compared to national standards has also revealed positive results from our efforts. Uttar Pradesh's growth rate at current prices and constant prices in 2021-22 was 20.1% and 9.8%, respectively, against the country's growth rate of 18.4% and 9.1 per cent. Similarly, in 2022-23, the national growth rate of constant prices was recorded at 7.2%, against the state's growth rate of 9.8%, while the state's growth rate of current prices was recorded at 14.3% during the period, CM Yogi said. In the present scenario, the GDP of the state is estimated to be more than Rs 25.55 lakh crore in 2023-24. To reach the one trillion-dollar target by 2027, it is imperative that all departments escalate their efforts. Enhanced planning and coordination are essential. Our intentions are clear, and our goal is well-defined. Everyone will have to work together with the right policy and planned implementation, he added. The Chief Minister further said, "For our planning to be in line with the target, it is crucial to gather accurate data. Organise workshops and training for statistical officers at each departmental level to ensure proper assessment of the situation in various sectors." We possess significant potential, and the current landscape offers favourable opportunities. We will have to take full advantage of this. The progress of all departments should be reviewed every month by the planning department against the targets set for economic improvement, he added. Digital technology has been incorporated to improve the primary segment of the economy, with initiatives such as digital crop surveys being successfully implemented. This has to be implemented effectively in all 75 districts. Notably, the area of cultivation and production of sugarcane increased by 26.8% in 2021-22, while horticultural crop production saw a substantial rise of 31.9%. State-sponsored schemes aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in pulses and oilseeds in Uttar Pradesh are yielding favourable results. However, there is a need to further enhance crop diversification and improve supply chain management, said CM Yogi Adityanath. Once again, the state has secured the top position in milk production. Additionally, it ranks third in terms of progress in egg production, achieving an annual growth rate of 12.80%. This progress is satisfactory, he added. CM Yogi further said, "Industrial power consumption in the secondary segment has increased by 17.0%. A survey of units established in the Industrial Authority area, the identification of unused plots, and the establishment of a new Industrial Corridor are underway. Pledge Parks are being established in 10 places." The state is experiencing rapid growth in the tertiary sector, encompassing hotels and restaurants, transport, communication, real estate, professional services, public services, defence, and other services. There has been unprecedented development in services related to the tourism sector. According to the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India's report for 2023, Uttar Pradesh has the distinction of having the highest number of tourist arrivals in 2022. In the financial year 2022-23, the state welcomed over 31.8 crore tourists, with Varanasi, Mathura, and Ayodhya emerging as major centres. This positive trend is expected to continue in the coming days, he added. Speaking on tourism, the Chief Minister said, "In addition to catering to domestic tourists, it is imperative to develop a comprehensive action plan to attract foreign tourists. This involves identifying potential countries and formulating a tailored policy for branding the state in alignment with the preferences and interests of these countries." (ANI)
After AAP Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Singh filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections, his wife Anita Singh said that they have faith in the judiciary and Singh will be released soon. Sanjay Singh left the Civil Lines venue in a police van after filing his nomination for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections. Talking to ANI, his wife, Anita Singh said, "He was filled with excitement after meeting the party workers. We have faith in the judiciary, he will be released soon and will go back to the Parliament." As Singh filed his nomination, his wife also conveyed her wishes and said, "First, I would like to extend my warm wishes as he is coming to file his nomination. Our people have gathered here in his support. It will be historic that somebody will come to file a nomination from jail...I also want to extend my warm wishes to CM Arvind Kejriwal who gave such a huge responsibility to him. He will perform his duties well". Earlier in the day, Singh's father Dinesh Singh expressed gratitude for the unwavering support of the Aam Admi Party and its workers during his son's arrest. "The party and its workers had trust in him, and they are more upset than his own family on his arrest that Sanjay Singh was punished for speaking the truth...I want to thank the party on behalf of other party workers and my family...The party has taken the right decision by not getting stuck in tyrant politics" Dinesh Singh, AAP leader Sanjay Singh's father said. As per the EC schedule, polling will take place from 9 am- 4 pm in respective state assemblies, and votes will be counted from 5 pm on January 19. A Delhi court on Thursday had earlier allowed Singh to sign his renomination documents from jail. Singh, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case related to the Delhi excise policy, is AAP's UP in-charge. Sanjay Singh, a senior Aam Aadmi Party leader is an accused in a money laundering case related to the Excise policy case and was arrested on October 4, 2023, by the Enforcement Directorate. The AAP has decided to nominate Swati Maliwal, former Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief as its newest Rajya Sabha MP. Senior AAP leader ND Gupta has also been renominated for their second term. Maliwal resigned from the post of chief of the DCW on Friday after the Aam Adami Party (AAP) nominated her as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. Swati Maliwal is a women's rights activist and the current Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW). Before joining DCW, Maliwal worked as the advisor to the Chief Minister of Delhi on public grievances. Maliwal was a core member of the Indian Against Corruption movement. (ANI)
Ahead of the Ram Temple Pran Pratishtha event, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will undertake an inspection trip and assess the ongoing development projects in the holy city of Ayodhya. According to an official release from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), "The main objective of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's visit is to review the work of the Pran Pratishtha program of Shri Ram Lalla Temple on January 22." As per the release, "Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will arrive at Ayodhya Airport by government aircraft at around 11 a.m. on January 9." "Thereafter, he will set out for an inspection of the Hanumangarhi, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Complex, Amaniganj Jalkal Complex, Police Control Room, and Lata Mangeshkar Checks, and also conduct inspections of the tent city under construction by the Municipal Corporation at the Divisional Commissioner's Office Auditorium," said the release. The Chief Minister will also review the development work of the event and check on the law and order in the area. CM Yogi will also hold a meeting with the officials of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and chair a meeting with the saints in the next phase. The Chief Minister will later depart from Ayodhya airport for Lucknow. Meanwhile, Ayodhya, the holy city revered as Lord Rama's birthplace, is preparing for a month-long celebration of Ramkatha, the epic narration of the Ramayana. Beginning today, January 8th, and continuing until March 24th, the festival will see renowned spiritual figures narrate the timeless tale of Lord Rama's life and teachings. This grand event, organized by the Culture Department under the instructions of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, aims to immerse devotees in the essence of the Ramayana and provide a platform for spiritual enlightenment. The Pran Pratishtha ceremony of the new idol of Ram Lalla at the sanctum sanctorum of the upcoming Ram Temple in Ayodhya is scheduled for January 22. The ceremony is set to be performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PM Modi earlier on December 30 urged citizens to light a 'Shri Ram Jyoti' in their homes and celebrate Deepavali on January 22, when the Pran Pratishtha ceremony will take place at the Grand Temple in Ayodhya. Preparations are underway in full swing for the Ram Temple inauguration on January 22, which will draw dignitaries and people from all walks of life. The Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust has decided to enthrone Ram Lalla at the sanctum-sanctorum of the Ram Temple at noon on January 22. Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Rama, holds great spiritual, historical, and cultural significance for the people of India. (ANI)
National Association of Realtors President Tracy Kasper has resigned, the latest in a string of leadership changes at the embattled Chicago-based trade association.

In a news release, the association said Kasper had received a threat to disclose a past personal, non-financial matter unless she compromised her role at NAR. The association declined to provide additional details about the threat but said Kasper had refused to comply and reported it to law enforcement.

As a result of the recent threat and given the significance of this moment for myself, my family and the organization, it is again time for me to put the interests of NAR first, Kasper said in a statement.

Kasper is the broker-owner of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Silverhawk Realty in the Boise Valley and has served on the NAR board of directors since 2016, according to her biography on the associations website.

NAR said President-elect Kevin Sears would step into Kaspers role effective immediately. Sears, of Springfield, Mass., is broker and partner of Sears Real Estate, according to his NAR biography.

Kasper, who became NAR president after former President Kenny Parcell resigned in August after sexual harassment allegations against him were reported in The New York Times, is the latest executive to resign from the organization. NAR, which owns the trademark Realtors, is the nations largest trade association and has more than 1.5 million members.

After Parcells resignation, CEO Bob Goldberg  who would resign from NAR himself shortly thereafter  told staffers the association would hire outside law firms to evaluate the organizations policies and investigate complaints of harassment and misconduct.

Staff members at NAR had previously called for the hiring of outside counsel and for executives including Goldberg to be removed from their positions.

Goldberg resigned from the association in November, more than a year before his planned retirement.

Goldbergs resignation came shortly after a federal jury in Missouri found NAR and several large real estate brokerages had conspired to artificially inflate the commissions of real estate agents. The $1.8 billion verdict, which NAR says it plans to appeal, has the potential to significantly change the business of home buying and selling. A similar case is pending in federal court in Chicago.

The organization said Goldbergs resignation was planned prior to the verdict and was not related to the harassment allegations against Parcell.

Nykia Wright, former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times, was appointed interim CEO following Goldbergs retirement.
On the occasion, the ISRO chief will both felicitate and participate in an interaction with students.

"The administration of the newly established Pragjyotishpur University in Guwahati is organising a special programme to celebrate the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission and, recently, that of the Aditya-L1 mission, along with facilitating his interaction with the students," said Dr Jogesh Kakati, Professor and Registrar at Pragjyotishpur University.

The programme will be held at the Srimanta Sankardeva International Auditorium at Sankardeva Kalakshetra, Guwahati.

"Since that day coincides with Shilpi Divas, a lamp-lighting ceremony followed by the garlanding of the image of the great artist Jyoti Prasad Agarwala will formally open the felicitation-cum-interaction programme," an official statement said.

Soon after the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) placed the Aditya-L1 spacecraft into its final destination orbit, ISRO chief S Somanath said that the crucial mission was not just for India alone but for the entire world.

The ISRO chief said scientists had to make several corrections so that the space satellite could be placed at the precise point. (ANI)
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate raided the premises linked to former MLA Dilbag Singh on Thursday, where illegal foreign-made arms, 300 bullets, more than 100 liquor bottles, Rs 5 crore cash, 4/5 kg bullion and other materials were recovered.

Along with that, several properties belonging to ex-INLD legislator Dilbag Singh and his associate's premises in India and abroad were recovered, sources said.

The searches were conducted in connection with an illegal mining case.

Searches were carried out at 20 locations in Haryana, including Yamuna Nagar, Sonipat, Mohali, Faridabad, Chandigarh and Karnal. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court expressed its displeasure over a tweet posted by YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh saying that he put his video related to Gurmeet Ram Rahim in private mode out of compulsion. The high court also warned him of contempt if it was repeated in the future. In the last hearing, the Delhi High Court was told by YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh that he would put the video against Gurmeet Ram Rahim in private mode until Monday. During the hearing on Monday, Justice Jasmeet Singh expressed his displeasure over Singh's tweet, saying that he put his video in private mode in "majboori" (compulsion). Justice Singh said, "The court had not compelled him to put the video in private mode. It was a statement made by your counsel. I will initiate contempt proceedings if it is repeated in the future." "Please try to understand that there is a dignity to the Court. You can not take the court lightly. Courts do not compel anyone to do anything," Justice Singh said. Senior advocate Mohit Mathur appeared for Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and submitted that even after the last orders, Shyam Meera Singh had posted certain tweets. The bench examined the content of the tweet and said, "It is unfair. Please try to understand that the court is competent enough to pass any order about the merits of the case. We do not coerce anyone to do anything." During the hearing, Shyam Meera Singh was also present in court. The matter has been listed for hearing on January 10, as senior advocate Salman Khurshid was not available on Monday. The bench had asked the parties to sit together and arrive at a solution. The bench had also asked the counsel for Gurmeet Ram Rahim to point out the offensive or defamatory part of the video and tell the counsel for Singh. He may consider changing or deleting those portions. Earlier, Youtuber Shyam Meera Singh, on December 30, 2023, assured the Delhi High Court that he would delete the tweets he made yesterday against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim. The Delhi High Court is hearing a suit filed by Gurmeet Ram Rahim seeking a stay and deletion of a video on YouTube uploaded by YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh. Vacation Bench had directed Syam Meera Singh to delete the tweets made by him after filing the petition yesterday. The bench said, "Tweets are defamatory and contemptuous. Delete these tweets. I want your client and your client to be responsible. He needs to be responsible if he is a journalist. And no further tweets until the matter is sub-judice." Advocate Kapil Madan and Advocate Gurmukh Singh assured the court the tweets will be deleted today itself. There will be no further tweets till the matter is sub judice. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has sued Shyam Meera Singh and sought direction to Singh to delete the video uploaded by him related to Gurmeet Ram Rahim The bench had issued notice and also directed that the soft copy of the video contained in the pen drive be filed. Let it be directed to be part of the record, the court said. Counsel for Singh submitted that the suit is not maintainable at all as the same is not attested by the superintendent of the Jail. How it is possible for a person who is in jail to see the video on YouTube? The court asked, Can he pull it down from his channel? He can take out the video until the next date. The counsel for Singh submitted that the question is whether the video is defamatory or not. It will set a bad precedent. If it is taken down, the video uploaded by a journalist, counsel Gurmukh Singh for Singh, argued. On the other hand, Sr. Advocate Mohit Mathur argued that it would prejudice the reputation of the plaintiff until the video was available on YouTube. We only have to see whether it is defamatory or not, the bench said. Sr. Advocate Mathur argued that Singh is disclosing the identity of the victims, which is a crime. The bench said to the counsel for Singh that it is objectionable the way your client is tweeting. The council also said that the suit is not maintainable. I am not sure which part is defamatory. An advance copy was not supplied. "You are served; you are appearing; you are tweeting," the court said. Advocate Madan submitted that the counsel for the plaintiff is not able to show which part is defamatory. My only request is to have it after reopening. The court asked the counsel to take it down until the next date. It will be an infringement on the rights of my client. I am asking only for some days to file my response. It requires a detailed hearing. Give me three days, and I will respond, said the counsel. While opposing the submissions, Sr. Advocate Mathur read over the transcription of the video in question, in which a book written by another Anurag Tripathi was referred to. Advocate Madan submitted that Singh is not the author of the book. Anurag Tripathi is the author of the book. Sr. Counsel Mathur argued Despite the filing of the petition and the issuance of notice, several tweets by Singh are not only objectionable but also contemptuous. At this point, advocate Kapil Madan has submitted that they will delete it today itself. The court directed the counsel to delete the same today itself. Advocate Kapil Madan submitted that Singh was referring to the book titled 'Dera Sacha Sauda' by Anurag Tripathi. If you are reporting or referring something you need to verify, Sr. Counsel Mathur rebutted. Kapil Madan submitted I am free to practice my profession as a journalist. It is well within their right to make this author a party. It is available on Amazon. This book was published in 2018. The Delhi High Court issued notice on December 29, 2023, on a suit for injunction filed by Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim against Youtuber Shyam Meera Singh. Gurmeet Ram Rahim has sought direction for the deletion of a video uploaded by Singh. He has also sought direction from Shyam Meera Singh to delete the video in question. It is alleged that the respondent Singh uploaded a video on YouTube titled 'How Ram Rahim made a fool of his followers'. The alleged video was uploaded on December 17. Before moving to the High Court a legal notice was also served upon Singh. Despite this, Singh refused to take down the video, the counsel further submitted. Counsel for Ram Rahim had submitted before the bench that the video in question is defamatory and disparaging. It was argued by the counsel that Singh is a habitual offender and an FIR was lodged in Uttar Pradesh against him for insulting the UP Chief Minister. Earlier, Singh was with a news channel and he was fired, the counsel claimed. Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim is serving a jail term for rape. (ANI)
Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said on Monday that the main power of the Global Investors' Summit came through the number of investments that were accounted for and that Tamil Nadu is poised to become one of the main engines of growth in India. Speaking to reporters at the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet (TNGIM), Anand Mahindra said, "The main power of the Investors' Summit came through the number of investments that were accounted for. It looks very clear that Tamil Nadu is going to become one of the main engines of growth in India." Taking to social media handle X, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin posted, "The first day of #TNGIM2024 has been marked by a series of successful and noteworthy events. Later today, in my valedictory address, I will announce the total investments secured by Tamil Nadu at this Global Investors Meet. It's been our enduring message that Tamil Nadu is overseas investors' first port of call, striving to ascend as the premier state in South Asia." The Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet 2024 has attracted record investments of Rs 6.64 lakh crore, much higher than the estimated sum of about Rs 5 lakh crore and double the investment that was attracted in the previous GIM held in 2019, according to Stalin. "#TNGIM2024, which caught India's attention, has received a remarkable influx of investments," posted Stalin on X. The investment commitment will be a major boost for Chief Minister MK Stalin's vision of the state becoming a $1 trillion economy by 2030. The announcement comes ahead of Vibrant Gujarat, the investor's conclave in Gujarat, to be held in Gandhinagar on Wednesday. The two-day Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet (GIM) 2024, hosted by the DMK government, got off to a blistering start at the Chennai Trade Centre on January 7. On day 1, the government released its Semiconductor and Advanced Electronics Policy, 2024, on a day when a slew of memoranda of understandings (MoUs) entailing mega-investments were signed. The Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet is a business summit organized by the Government of Tamil Nadu to facilitate domestic and foreign investments in the state. (ANI)
Regarding seat sharing within the INDIA bloc, JD-U MLA Gopal Mandal on Monday said that Bihar CM Nitish Kumar travelled across the country and created the alliance; he should be the next Prime Minister. "The next Prime Minister should be Nitish Kumar. He travelled across the country and created the INDIA bloc. No one is capable of becoming the PM other than Nitish Kumar. Kharge? I don't even know his name. No one knows him; everyone knows who Nitish Kumar is," the JD-U MLA said. Gopal Mandal said that the grand old party might be the biggest party in the country but not in Bihar. "Even if we give 40 seats of Bihar to Congress, will they be able to win? The Congress will not be able to win a single seat in Bhagalpur. Congress may be the biggest party in the country but not in Bihar. Here, JD-U and RJD are the biggest parties," he said. Earlier in the day, JD-U leader KC Tyagi said the JDU and RJD are in a position to counter the BJP in Bihar, had won 16 seats and will not compromise there. "It is all right if Congress is seeking more seats in those states where they are in power. But it is impractical if they demand more seats in the states where they are not in a powerful position," Tyagi told ANI. KC Tyagi further said, "The Janata Dal-United is the organising body of the INDIA bloc. We are distressed by the preparations of the Bharatiya Janata Party. We are also concerned about the seat-sharing strategy of the INDIA bloc. We want things to be figured out as soon as possible. Speaking on the Prime Ministerial face of the mega alliance, he said, "Nitish Kumar is the face behind the formation of the alliance, and this post is far bigger than that of the convener." The JDU leader also took a dig at Congress stating that the latter is only worried about the party. "Congress is free to decide on the convener. They are worried about their own party, and we are worried about the alliance," Tyagi said. As the countdown to the upcoming Lok Sabha polls has begun, the INDIA bloc has begun its seat-sharing talks in earnest. After the Trinamool Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT), it is the Janata Dal United that has been firm in its demand for 16 seats in Bihar. The JDU currently holds 16 seats in Bihar; 17 are held by the BJP and the RJD does not have any Lok Sabha seat in the state. The allocation of seats becomes pivotal for Congress, especially after recent electoral setbacks. India's political landscape is undergoing a significant transition as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections draw near. The INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) consortium is gearing up to challenge the established National Democratic Alliance. The bloc is struggling to resolve key challenges, including finalising seat-sharing arrangements and, most importantly, deciding on a PM face, while the BJP has started executing strategies it laid out in 2023 to secure victory in general elections. (ANI)
As the country is gearing up for the grand Pran Pratishtha ceremony of the Ram Temple in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to hold a meeting on Wednesday to review the ongoing preparations for the grand ceremony. The meeting, which is set to be held at 11 a.m., will see the participation of key leaders, including BL Santosh, Sunil Bansal, Vinod Tawde, Tarun Chugh, Bhupendra Singh and Dharm Pal. The leaders will review the ongoing preparations for the mega ceremony. They will also strategize on ensuring convenience for visitors. Deliberations will be made on distributing work among the state leaders. Meanwhile, the leaders will reach Ayodhya tomorrow night. Vedic rituals for the Pran-Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Lalla (infant Lord Ram) in Ayodhya will begin on January 16, a week before the main ceremony. A priest from Varanasi, Lakshmi Kant Dixit, will perform the main rituals of the ceremony of Ram Lalla on January 22. From January 14 to January 22, Ayodhya will mark the Amrit Mahotsav. As the countdown to the temple consecration continues, the anticipation and enthusiasm among the people are palpable. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the consecration ceremony at the Ram Temple on January 22. The event has garnered significant attention, with several VVIP guests from India and abroad receiving invitations to participate in the auspicious occasion in Ayodhya. Meanwhile, the secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Champat Rai on Monday appealed to the people of the country to conduct a cleanliness movement across temples, starting from Makar Sankranti to the 'Pran Pratishtha' Day. In a video message posted on 'X', Rai said, "As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has wished, I appeal to all the Indians, Ram Bhakts and people belonging to the Hindu community to run a cleanliness movement across temples from Makar Sankranti to Pran Pratishtha Day. Cleanliness is adored by God. I also appeal to the temple authorities to gather the locals at the respective temples at 10 a.m. on January 22, perform Bhajans and celebrate the day." "The temple authorities are requested to live telecast the Pran Pratishtha ceremony on LED televisions and show it to the locals. After the Pran Pratishtha at 12:20 p.m., there will be an 'aarti' performed. The temple authorities are therefore requested to perform 'aarti' at their temples. All the temples should be made aware of this. After this, 'Prasad' should be distributed to people. You can do it based on your economic capacity and availability," he added. Rai further requested that people light 'Diyas' in the evening. "People are requested to light 'Diyas' in the evening and express happiness over the occasion. The 'Diyas' will help you express your inner happiness," Champat Rai said. (ANI)
After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress held their first meeting over seat sharing ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Delhi Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj said on Monday that they are positive that seats in the INDIA bloc will be finalised soon. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress held their first meeting over the seat sharing issue ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Monday. "We are absolutely positive that seats in the INDIA bloc will be finalised soon. Even when a party decides its ticket, there are many contenders for every seat. Even in a party, there is a problem in candidate selection as to whom to give tickets and whom not to. In such a situation, when there are two or three parties, there will definitely be problems. But this can absolutely be solved. Very soon, all the parties will be seen coming together on a common platform," the Delhi Minister told ANI. As the countdown to the upcoming Lok Sabha polls has begun, the INDIA bloc has begun its seat-sharing talks in earnest. The allocation of seats becomes pivotal for Congress, especially after recent electoral setbacks. When asked about Bihar Education Minister Chandra Shekhar's remarks on Ram Temple, the AAP leader said that this is an unnecessary debate. Education Minister Shekhar sparked off yet another controversy with his statements on Lord Ram and said that if people fall sick or get injured, they will seek medical attention rather than visiting a temple. "If you get injured, where will you go? Temple or hospital? If you want education and want to become an officer, MLA, or MP, will you go to a temple or school?" Shekhar told reporters on Sunday. Reacting to this, Bhardwaj said, "We are making this an unnecessary debate. If there is an injury, the patient is taken to the hospital, and the patient's relatives go to the temple. They pray to God. There is no conflict between the hospital, college and temple. All these things are important. There should be no scope for negativity in this." Meanwhile, India's political landscape is undergoing a significant transition as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections draw near. The INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) consortium is gearing up to challenge the established National Democratic Alliance. The bloc is struggling to resolve key challenges, including finalising seat-sharing arrangements and, most importantly, deciding on a PM face, while the BJP has started executing strategies it laid out in 2023 to secure victory in general elections. (ANI)
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai stated on Monday that the rice for the 'Anna Bhagya' scheme is provided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Congress Government in Karnataka is not contributing a single grain. He claimed the success of the 'Anna Bhagya' scheme should be credited to Modi. Responding to Congress leaders' statement that the rice in the 'mantrakshathe' (a mixture of uncooked, unbroken rice and turmeric) distributed for the Ram Temple inauguration in Ayodhya was from the 'Anna Bhagya' scheme, Bommai told reporters that the Congress had promised 10 kg of rice before the Assembly polls. However, only five kg of rice, supplied by the Government of India, is now being distributed, he said. Bommai alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar haven't contributed a single grain of rice. Asked about the State Government's order to hold the special puja in all the Muzrai-controlled temples on the day of the opening of Ram Temple, the BJP leader said the deputy chief Minister claims himself as 'Ram Bhakt'. The government has arranged for a special puja on the temple opening day. That means the government has bowed to Lord Ram, he said. On Minister for Women and Child Welfare Lakshmi Hebbalkar's statement that Belagavi was "a part of Maharashtra before Independence", the former CM termed it as an 'immature' statement that too as a Cabinet minister. She must be aware that the issue has been pending in the Supreme Court. She does not deserve to become the minister, he added. (ANI)
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that if both Hindus and Muslims connect themselves with God during the sacred time of the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of the Ram Temple in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya, it will be better for all. "We have got liberation after 500 years. So that is why for both Hindus and Muslims, it is not a bad thing to spend a few days with God before January 22," the Assam Chief Minister said at Diphu in Karbi Anglong district on Monday. CM Sarma also refused to comment on AIUDF Chief Badruddin Ajmal's recent controversial statement in which he appealed to Muslims to stay home from January 20 to 25. "I don't want to comment on Badruddin Ajmal. I just want to say that, two days before and two days after January 22, it is a very sacred time. Magh month will also start, Magh Bihu is also here and the 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony of the Ram Temple will also happen. These days are very sacred, so it is better for us if we can attach ourselves to God much more during this period," Sarma said. Ahead of the Ram Temple 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony, AIUDF Chief and Lok Sabha MP Badruddin Ajmal recently asked the Muslims to stay at home from January 20 to 25 and also avoid travelling by train. The Assam Chief Minister attended a public meeting of Aronbarim Chingrim Ampeipi at Diphu in Karbi Anglong district on Monday. The Assam Chief Minister also inaugurated welfare works worth Rs 168 crore in Karbi Anglong district. On the other hand, the Assam Chief Minister said that the President of India, Draupadi Murmu, will attend the Golden Jubilee celebration programme of the Karbi Youth Festival. "I come to Diphu to discuss and take stock of the preparations for the President of India visit to Karbi Anglong. The Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council has completed various welfare projects, including an auditorium with a capacity of 3000 seats and I inaugurated these projects," CM Sarma said. As the countdown to the temple consecration continues, the anticipation and enthusiasm among the people are palpable. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the consecration ceremony at the Ram Temple on January 22. The event has garnered significant attention, with several VVIP guests from India and abroad receiving invitations to participate in the auspicious occasion in Ayodhya. (ANI)
The special cell of the Delhi Police has arrested absconding gangster Taranjeet Singh, also known as Ginni, from Haryana's Gurugram, officials said on Monday. According to police, the arrested accused, Ginni, is associated with Prince Teotia gang and was wanted in a car-jacking case. "There was information with the Special Cell about the movement of absconding criminal Taranjeet Singh, also known as Ginni, who was continuously changing his hideouts in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab to evade his arrest. After relentless efforts for more than three months, specific information was received about the arrival of the accused at Udhyog Vihar in Gurugram Haryana. Consequently, a trap was laid down there and Ginni was finally traced and nabbed at 4:30 p.m. on January 5, 2024," Police said in a statement. The arrested accused is an active member of the gang of Prince Teotis, who was murdered last year in Tihar Jail by his rival gang. The members of this gang are involved in several cases of assault, abduction, extortion, robbery, hurt, criminal intimidation, etc., according to the release. The arrested accused, Taranjeet Singh (Ginni), had taken the responsibility to revive the gang after the murder of the "leader." He used to wear a turban but later trimmed his hair to disguise the police. He was also arranging funds to run the gang and started working as a taxi driver to befool agencies, police added. (ANI)
Avi Loeb leaned in, grabbed my hand and said, Be as critical as you like.

What, after all, was one more critic?

He resembled a caricature of a scientist, his body wiry and short, in a plaid tailored suit, holding an expression that suggested both the severely etched Oppenheimer and the anxious, chain-smoking lawyer Martin Short played years ago on Saturday Night Live. Certainly, thats the image many of his peers seem to hold for Loeb: one part austerity meets one part sketchy. He is a theoretical astrophysicist. He teaches astronomy at Harvard University and chaired the department for nine years. He is also the director of the Institute for Theory and Computation, the founding director of Harvards Black Hole Initiative and former chair of the National Academies Board on Physics and Astronomy. For decades, hes been known as a prolific voice on dark matter, black holes, the formation of stars.

When I met him late last year at the University of Chicago, where he was appearing as part of a Chicago Humanities Festival event, he tended to avoid eye contact and look at the ground, gather his thoughts then gush information  a kind of astrophysical firehose.

For light elevator chat, he explained how the sun acts like a battery.

Where he rubs some people the wrong way is when he starts talking about aliens.

Avi is doing incredibly important work as one of our most important figures in the contemporary search for extraterrestrial intelligence, said Garrett Graff, a longtime journalist on national security and Pulitzer Prize finalist whose latest book is UFO: The Inside Story of the US Governments Search for Alien Life Here  and Out There. But also, I think a lot of whats controversial about him stems from peers who think Avi becomes either too flip with his science or crosses the line from skeptic to advocate.

They say Loeb is outlandish and disingenuous, prone to sensational claims, more interested in being a celebrity than an astrophysicist  not to mention distracting and misleading, at a moment when the science community is defending its very foundations.

For his part, Loeb, at 61, rarely lets a criticism pass unattended.

The search for alien life became his lifes mission, in a way, exactly one decade ago, when, on Jan. 8, 2014, a fireball crashed in the Pacific Ocean, off Papua New Guinea. Several years later, after Loeb and Amir Siraj, a Harvard undergraduate, picked through the United States governments data on the speed and movement of the fireball, Loeb told interviewers it could be interstellar technology, piloted by artificial intelligence. By then, though, he had already made headlines after a long, cigar-shaped object  since named Oumuamua, or Hawaiian for scout  passed by Earth in 2017. Loeb theorized that, considering the trajectory and quickness of the object, it could be alien technology using a light sail, boosting speed with sunlight the way sailboats rely on the wind. Many more scientists argued it was naturally created, perhaps a rock or a comet.

Scientific disagreement tends to be polite.

But Loeb, with little encouragement, complains of scientists who criticize him without doing anything themselves. He complains of science driven by jealousy, egos and drive-by opinions. He says the public is more interested in discovering if there is life beyond Earth than, say, pouring multibillions into particle-physics research at facilities like Fermilab outside Chicago and the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. He said during our talk that, considering the billions and billions of planets in the universe, any search for intelligent life would be less speculative than discovering new particles. At the Humanities Festival, Loeb told moderator Dan Hooper, a senior scientist at Fermilab, that particle colliders just confirmed old news from the 1960s  how particles interact. Hooper countered that scientists know more about physics since building colliders and that Loeb is misrepresenting how scientists feel about research and the scientific process. Loeb responded that the intent of Large Hadron was to find particles and it didnt, for $10 billion.

Avi, Hooper said, one of us on this stage is a particle physicist and its not you.

The audience collectively squirmed.

And yet, that a conversation about extraterrestrial life was happening at all among academics was telling.

Sitting between Hooper and Loeb, almost symbolically neutral, was Graff, whose approach to the search for aliens is as practical and sober as Loebs is eager.

Hes a former editor at Politico and Washingtonian magazine. Hes authored deeply researched, nuanced histories about Sept. 11, Watergate and the federal governments plans to survive a nuclear war. To see him at a scholarly event in Hyde Park, beside a Harvard scientist, even one as controversial as Loeb, is a portrait of how seriously the discussion about UFOs has become  particularly since 2017, when the military and CIA came forward to say, yes, there are flying objects that they cannot readily explain.

I am not a lifelong UFO-ologist, Graff told me later. I am not even deeply schooled in pop culture about aliens. But while covering national security, I saw the topic move to the fore in such a way that it was a serious topic of serious conversation among serious people. When people like (former CIA director) John Brennan began talking about it, you get interested. I mean, scientists can be humble about what they know and dont. But its a lot harder for a government bureaucracy to say: We spend $60 billion a year on intelligence, $800 billion on national defense, $100 billion on homeland security, but there is stuff up there and we dont know what it is and we do not want to tell you that.'

For much of the 20th century, the search for extraterrestrial life and UFOs  or rather, as the government rebranded them, UAPs, unidentified aerial phenomena  had been the territory of fringe amateurs, Hollywood filmmakers and tabloids. To see a scholar as solidly mainstream and institutionally rooted as Loeb wade willingly into UFOs was rare.

UFO: The Inside Story of the US Governments Search for Alien Life Here ? and Out There (Nov. 2023) by Garrett M. Graff.

But not unheard of. As Graffs history details, some of the more meaningful research on the search for aliens has emerged out of Chicagos intellectual community: J. Allen Hynek, a Chicago-born astronomer who later chaired Northwestern Universitys astronomy department, was a former UFO skeptic whose investigations for the U.S. governments Project Blue Book led to his founding the Center for UFO Studies in 1973 (the group still has Chicago headquarters). Theres also Frank Drake, another Chicago-born astronomer, who pioneered the foundation for SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He formulated the Drake Equation, which aimed, theoretically, to calculate the likelihood of extraterrestrial life using the number of planets that could sustain life and advanced technology. It was, in a way, an answer to the Fermi Paradox, which was born out of a conversation in 1950 among scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Enrico Fermi quipped something like: If there is so much life in the universe, why havent we seen it?

Loeb, it goes without saying, is Team Drake.

During his time in Hyde Park, he swung by Nuclear Energy, the bulbous Henry Moore sculpture off 56th Street that commemorates Fermis construction of the first nuclear reactor. He recalled reading Fermis papers as a young student. As anyone whos seen Oppenheimer knows, he was probably as responsible for the success of the Manhattan Project as anyone. He understood both the theory and experiment. Oppenheimer was more of a theorist and manager. Which is why Ive been puzzled by the Fermi Paradox.

He asked, in an Italian accent, so where is everybody? But who would stand in their home and decide theres nobody next to me therefore I am alone? At least look out a window! Fermi didnt even bring a telescope. Would aliens visit him in Los Alamos? During lunch hour? They could have visited Earth millions of years earlier. Its a very bad question.

Indeed, as Graff said, historically, the problem with the conversation around UFOs has always been too binary and simplistic for even the smartest minds in science to arrive anywhere meaningful: People think UFOS arent real, so therefore aliens arent real. Or Aliens are real, therefore UFOs must be aliens. Carl Sagan (himself a University of Chicago alum) decided, if aliens come here, statistically, its every 100,000 or 200,000 years, and so, statistically, its unlikely that was an alien you saw last Thursday night.

Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars (Aug. 2023) by Avi Loeb.

Loeb pictures himself occupying a grayer area.

In his recent book, Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars, Loeb writes that he can think of no scientific discovery that will more fundamentally transform our civilization and brighten its prospects than the proof we are not the sole technologically capable civilization in the universe. But he wants hard evidence. So, in 2021, he cofounded a research program, using funds from private donors, to find and identify alien technology in the vicinity of Earth. He wants to apply rigorous scientific method to locating and analyzing objects, moving UFO research away from blury video and iffy anecdotes.

Its not for nothing that he named his Harvard-based initiative the Galileo Project. Loeb reminds himself that lots of scientists were controversial in their own times. Galileo spent the last part of his life under house arrest, for showing that the sun was the center of the universe, not the Earth. After his paper on Oumuamua came out in 2018, an Italian reporter asked if he felt like Galileo, pushing back against conventional wisdom.

I told her that I didnt, Loeb said, and yet, there is that common thread there among scientists who want to break the mold. I mean, its better now! I am not under house arrest! People want to feel like they are the center of the universe. That was Galileos problem. For me, its showing that there might be someone else out there  its not about whether we are the physical center of the universe than the intellectual center. All Im saying is, lets look at evidence. Even SETI (radio towers) were about, more or less, waiting for a phone call. But what if nobodys calling at the same time you are listening?

Loeb is, in a sense, taking a very long view, placing himself in historic company: Maybe hes hard to deal with, and maybe hes not the kindest to those who disagree, and maybe hes glib with pronouncements, but  do you want to play Inquisitor to his Galileo?

I asked if, in a way, any search for extraterrestrial life requires an iconoclast, someone willing to upset?

He replied: We all die eventually. What is the point in pretending otherwise? The most powerful kings, all-powerful in their times  they also died. Like all of us. The fundamental fact about our existence is that we are not that important, and science wants to say it is important and so it needs to present a powerful image, and Im saying, forget about that, the posterity and self-importance, and lets just figure this out.

Talking with him, its easy to see how well-meaning intentions get buried under rhetoric. Its also easy to see why, despite his gravitas, some colleagues refuse to peer-review his papers, traditionally a major part of the process. Loeb grew up on a chicken farm in Israel and found his way to science during compulsory military service with the Israeli Defense Force. He describes himself, even now, as a curious farm boy. He said he was traumatized at family dinners. He would ask hard questions and get bad answers. The adults in the room pretended to know more than they knew. They could not admit when they didnt know. I became a scientist to answer questions myself. That I became chair of Harvard astronomy is irrelevant. I am a farm boy. I maintain my innocence in the sense I refuse to be one of the adults in the room.

He returns again and again to colleagues who call me names but never call for more funding for his research. He pictures the Galileo Project expanding into an international network of research stations and telescopes  but that demands funding. Albeit, a fraction of whats spent on particle colliders, he said. Hes raised $5 million; the Netflix cameras that followed his expedition last year to find bits of the Papua New Guinea fireball could quicken imaginations and lead to more money.

He faces headwinds, he said. But he could also be the right person for this job.

Graff describes the subject as a mix of science, spirituality, politics and national security, requiring both believing and holding counterintuitive ideas in your head, all at once. We are at least 70 years on from Drakes first work with SETI, he said, yet we are not appreciably closer to solving this mystery. In fact, we are probably not going to have answers for several decades  or several human lifetimes. It could take centuries, and there is something to me that is beautiful about being part of a human effort that vast.

Before Loeb left Hyde Park, an elderly man approached him, not willing to wait.

Avi, he said, we have to find life before I die.

Loeb smiled and said, Well, Im working on it.

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com
Issuing a clarification statement on the rumours of a driver's strike tomorrow, the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) President Bal Malkit Singh on Monday appealed to the transporters to not fall for such rumours and that no such strike has been called by the body. AIMTC chief said that the Centre has made it very clear that the 'Hit and run' provisions contained in the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita 2023 are not being implemented as of now and will be consulted in the future before any further development. "AIMTC wants to clarify that there are rumours all over that there will be protests in the whole country against the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita 2023 on hit-and-run cases. I want to inform all transporters, drivers and people in India that the issue is resolved. The government has made it clear that this law is no longer valid. I appeal to everyone to not fall for any rumours and continue with your everyday functions," Bal Malkit Singh said. Under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), which replaced the colonial-era Indian Penal Code, drivers who cause a serious road accident by negligent driving and run away without informing the police or any official from the administration can face punishment of up to 10 years and a fine of Rs 7 lakh. Many transporters and farmer organisations have criticised the new law and demanded its immediate repeal. Also, a strike was also called on by the Odisha Motor Transport Workers Federation. However, the strike was later called off following intervention by the state government. "Today, a strike was called by the Odisha Motor Transport Workers Federation. We called a meeting with the senior members of the federation. We explained that this particular section regarding hit and run is not yet implemented and there will be extensive consultations after which a decision will be taken. Since the Union Home Secretary has conveyed this in a video message, it is wise to consider and call off the strike and thankfully the federation agreed," Odisha Chief Secretary, Pradeep Kumar Jena told ANI. Earlier, Home Ministry said that the Centre has taken cognizance of the concerns of truckers regarding the provision of 10 years imprisonment and fine, under Section 106 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita after a detailed discussion was held with the representatives of the All India Motor Transport Congress on January 2. (ANI)
Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Chief Arvind Kejriwal declared MLA Chaitar Vasava, a tribal leader who is currently in jail, as the candidate from Bharuch parliamentary constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Kejriwal said that if Chaitar Vasava's bail is rejected, the party would fight the Lok Sabha polls on his behalf. The Delhi CM and his Punjab counterpart, Bhagwant Mann, met with jailed MLA Chaitar Vasava in Bharuch. "We met Chaitar Vasava and his wife and they are doing fine. There is a lot of anger in the tribal community in Gujarat, " Kejriwal said. Vasava, a tribal leader and an MLA from the Dediapada assembly of Bharuch, has been serving jail terms for the last two months. A local court in Dediapada in Narmada district on December 18 sent Chaitar to judicial custody at the end of the three-day police remand in the case of alleged extortion and assault of forest officials. "The public will throw out the BJP from the state. We are trying for his bail soon. If he remains jailed, the party will fight on his behalf," CM Kejriwal said. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) named Chaitar Vasava, who is currently in jail, as the party's candidate from Gujarat's Bharuch for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. While addressing a rally at Netramg in Bharuch district along with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann, Kejriwal accused the BJP of being against the tribals. The Aam Aadmi Party has started the Lok Sabha election campaign by organising a public rally in Bharuch. Kejriwal, while addressing the rally, appealed to the people to ensure the victory of Chaitra Vasava in the Lok Sabha elections. The Delhi CM has already skipped three summons by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the excise policy case. Kejriwal has accused the BJP-led Centre of indulging in 'political vendetta' and using central agencies at its disposal to hound and harass opposition leaders. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Ahmedabad on Monday for a two-day visit to inaugurate 10th edition of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024 at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar. The theme of the summit, held from January 10 to 12, is 'Gateway to the Future' to celebrate "20 Years of Vibrant Gujarat as the Summit of Success". PM Modi was received by Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel along with Gujarat BJP chief CR Patil, and Governor Acharya Devvrat. The investors summit, PM Modi said, will be attended by several world leaders, including UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. "Landed in Ahmedabad a short while ago. Over the next two days, will be taking part in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and related programmes. It is a matter of immense joy that various world leaders will be joining us during this summit. The coming of my brother, Mohamed Bin Zayed, is very special. I have a very close association with the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and I am glad to see how this platform has contributed to Gujarat's growth and created opportunities for several people" PM Modi said in a post X. "President Jose Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste welcomed by CM of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel as he arrives in Ahmedabad for the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Summit," MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on 'X'. During his two-day visit, Modi will hold bilateral meetings with world leaders, followed by a meeting with CEOs of top global corporations. On January 10, Prime Minister will inaugurate Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024 at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar. Thereafter, he will hold a meeting with CEOs of top global corporations. The Prime Minister will then travel to GIFT City where, at around 5:15 PM, he will interact with prominent business leaders in the Global FinTech Leadership Forum. The Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit was started in 2003 under the leadership of Modi when he was the state chief minister. The tenth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit is being held from 10 to 12 January 2024 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Its theme is 'Gateway to the Future'. This Tenth Edition of the Summit will celebrate "20 Years of Vibrant Gujarat as the Summit of Success". There are 34 Partner countries and 16 Partner organisations for this year's Summit. Further, the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region will utilise the Vibrant Gujarat platform to showcase investment opportunities in the North-Eastern regions. The Summit will host various events including seminars and conferences on globally relevant topics such as Industry 4.0, Technology and Innovation, Sustainable Manufacturing, Green Hydrogen, Electric Mobility and Renewable Energy and Transition towards Sustainability. In the Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade Show, companies will display products made from world class state of the art technology. E-mobility, Start-ups, MSMEs, Blue Economy, Green Energy & Smart Infrastructure are some of the focus sectors of the Trade Show. (ANI) Over the next two days, PM Modi will be participating in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and related programmes. The summit is being held from January 10 to 12 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. This year's theme for the Vibrant Gujarat Summit is 'Gateway to the Future', and the event will celebrate "20 Years of Vibrant Gujarat as the Summit of Success". The summit will host various events on globally relevant topics and a trade show featuring products made from state-of-the-art technology. Meanwhile, after landing, PM Modi in a post on 'X' expressed his joy at various world leaders joining the summit and highlighted his close association with the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and its contribution to Gujarat's growth and opportunities for several people. Meanwhile, Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, shared in a post on 'X' that Jose Ramos-Horta, the President of Timor-Leste, arrived in Ahmedabad on Monday to attend the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Summit. "President Jose Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste welcomed by CM of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel as he arrives in Ahmedabad for the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Summit," MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on 'X'. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a visit to Gujarat from January 8th to 10th. On 9th January, at around 9:30 AM, Prime Minister will arrive at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, where he will hold bilateral meetings with World Leaders, followed by a meeting with CEOs of top global corporations. At around 3 pm, he will inaugurate Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade Show," as per a press release from Prime Minister's Office. "On 10th January, at around 9:45 am, Prime Minister will inaugurate Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024 at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar. Thereafter, he will hold a meeting with CEOs of top global corporations. Prime Minister will then travel to GIFT City where, at around 5:15 pm, he will interact with prominent business leaders in the Global FinTech Leadership Forum," the release stated. Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, conceptualised in 2003 under the visionary leadership of the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has today evolved as one of the most reputed global forums for business collaboration, knowledge sharing and strategic partnerships for inclusive growth and sustainable development. The Tenth edition of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit is being held from 10 to 12 January 2024 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Its theme is 'Gateway to the Future'. This Tenth Edition of the Summit will celebrate "20 Years of Vibrant Gujarat as the Summit of Success". "There are 34 Partner countries and 16 Partner organisations for this year's Summit. Further, the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region will utilise the Vibrant Gujarat platform to showcase investment opportunities in the North-Eastern regions," the release stated. The Summit will host various events including seminars and conferences on globally relevant topics such as Industry 4.0, Technology and Innovation, Sustainable Manufacturing, Green Hydrogen, Electric Mobility and Renewable Energy and Transition towards Sustainability. "In the Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade Show, companies will display products made from world class state of the art technology. E-mobility, Start-ups, MSMEs, Blue Economy, Green Energy & Smart Infrastructure are some of the focus sectors of the Trade Show," as per the release. (ANI)
Tel Aviv [Israel], January 7 (ANI/TPS): Israel's government approved a budget of 12.5 million shekels (USD 3.5 million) to strengthen the social resilience in time of emergency of the country's Druze and Circassian Communities located in the Galilee, and on Mt. Carmel as well as the Golan Heights, in the context of the war in Gaza and as part of the national plan to strengthen and advance the socio-economic development of the Druze and Circassian communities. The budgeted communities are Maghar, Daliyat al-Karmel, Yarka, Isfiya, Beit Jann, Abu Sinan, Rameh, Peki'in, Kisra-Samia, Julis, Yanuh-Jat, Hurfeish, Sajur, Kfar Kama, Majdal Shams, Buq'ata, Mas'ade and Ein Qiniyye Pursuant to the foregoing, the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry, led by Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf, will budget the implementation of a range of social, cultural and community plans to strengthen the socio-economic resilience of the Druze and Circassian local councils including activity to encourage voluntarism in the community, workshops on dealing with stressful situations, parenting in difficult times, addressing emotional needs and various recreational events. The plans are designed and adapted for a range of target populations: Children, young people, women and seniors. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Director General Yossi Shelley and his team will, together with the PMO Druze and Circassian Socio-Economic Development Authority Director, advance the process of formulating a five-year plan for the Druze and Circassian communities. It should be noted that the number of residents of the Druze and Circassian communities serving in the various Israeli security forces is estimated at approximately 11,000, out of a population of 150,000. The budgetary allocation will be via a public appeal for support among other agencies in order to receive the services themselves from the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry through the contacts of the Ministry. (ANI/TPS)
The co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EaseMyTrip, Nishant Pitti, has announced the suspension of all Maldives flight bookings following the derogatory remarks made by Maldives ministers against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Standing in support of India, Nishant Pitti took to social media X, stating, "In solidarity with our nation, @EaseMyTrip has suspended all Maldives flight bookings." https://x.com/nishantpitti/status/1744080855100744082?s=20 Online travel solutions provider EaseMyTrip began visit Lakshadweep campaign by #ChaloLakshadweep In his post on X, he said, "Water & beaches of Lakshadweep are as good as Maldives/Seychelles We at @EaseMyTrip will come up with crazy special-offers to promote this pristine destination that our PM @narendramodi has recently visited! In the midst of an escalating row between India and the Maldives, hashtag #BoycottMaldives gained traction on social media as Indian tourists started canceling their scheduled vacations to the island nation. Maldivian politicians triggered a controversy by making disparaging remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ridiculing his visit to Lakshadweep, portraying it as a tourist destination for Indians. Earlier in the day, the Indian Association of Tour Operators predicted that the call for a boycott would become apparent within the next 20-25 days. Many Indians on social media have claimed that they have cancelled their planned holidays to the island nation. "Suddenly, there has been no inquiry on Maldives. There are sudden drops. Those who have made payments will not cancel them. We are expecting that people will not book trips to the Maldives," Rajiv Mehra, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, said. Another operator echoed a similar sentiment, stating that such statements by politicians prevent people from choosing a particular nation for a trip. The Maldives is a popular place among Indians as a tourist destination. Indian tourists were the highest among visitors to the Maldives till December 2023, according to data from the country's tourism ministry. The largest number of tourists who visited the Maldives were from India (2,09,198), followed by Russia (2,09,146) and China (1,87,118). "Maldives is quite popular among Indians. But this incident will have an impact. We are also seeing an impact right now as well. We are expecting a downfall in people choosing the Maldives as a tourist destination," a Delhi-based tour operator said on the condition of anonymity. Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha Shareef, and Mahzoom Majid were suspended over their remarks against PM Modi, which triggered a massive backlash. Shiuna made derogatory remarks against PM Modi on social media platform X. The post by Shiuna, which has now been deleted, featured images of PM Modi from his recent visit to Lakshadweep. Following their remarks, the Maldives government suspended three ministers over their derogatory remarks against PM Modi Meanwhile, amid escalating tensions between India and the Maldives following derisive comments about PM Modi, celebrities from the Indian film industry have started a "visit Lakshadweep" campaign under the hashtag #ExploreIndianIslands. (ANI)
Pakistan Expert Tilak Devashree highlighted that Pakistan, unable to handle internal insurgency, is blaming India for the ongoing Baloch atrocities to deflect from its inability to handle the situation. He pointed out that Pakistan has a history of not acknowledging its mistakes and tends to externalize them. "Pakistan is not able to handle its internal insurgency and has been blaming India and Afghanistan for it," he told ANI. While answering the blame Pakistan has put on India for the ongoing situation of Baloch people, he said, "This is just an excuse, and they are not able to tackle the situation, so they are blaming it (India)." Emphasising that the actual problem is the Pakistan Army, Devashree said that either their army does not have the potential to control the situation or they do not want to do it. "For the last 2.5 years, the Taliban government has been there and they have been harbouring the Taliban for 20 years now; there is no such influence on them. so how can they blame India for it...? The basic problem is that the army is not able to control this situation. Either they don't have the potential to do it or they don't want to do it, neither TTP nor the Baloch," he said. This Baloch insurgency has been going on since 2003, and they are not able to control it, he highlighted. "Pakistan is known for not accepting its own mistakes and will always externalise them," Devashree emphasised. Underscoring the deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, he said that as the Taliban is not cooperating with Pakistan, they are pressurizing them. "They said that the Taliban is not cooperating with us, so to pressure on the Taliban, they have pushed 8.7 million undocumented Afghans out of their country in these harsh winters," he said, reiterating, "But the problem is with the Pakistani army." Moreover, Devashree told ANI that the Pakistan Army wanted to keep this hidden, but it has been exposed now. On being asked whether the concerns and protests across the world will put any pressure on Pakistan or not, Devahsree replied, "Yes, of course," adding that the Baloch people who are currently settled abroad are protesting and through their protests, people will get to know the atrocities done to them. "Baloch people who are currently settled in London, the US, Germany, and New York, whenever they protest, people will get to know what exactly the issue is and why these people are protesting in this bitter cold," he stressed. "It will definitely impact Pakistan, but we still have to see how much it will impact the media and the politicians," he added. Further talking about the upcoming general elections in Pakistan, scheduled for February 8, he said that the Pakistani army is trying to ensure that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan does not contest the elections, raising concerns about the credibility of the electoral process. "The Pakistani army is trying to ensure that Imran Khan does not contest elections and the PTI does not get enough seats; this is one of their strategies," he said. Additionally, he said, "Nawaz Sharif PML-N comes as the single largest party but not in a majority of its own. If there is a coalition party or it gets support from smaller parties, then it can be controlled." Now, the army has two options to keep Imran Khan out of the elections: "either to hold elections that are not credible, second, or to postpone elections." To which he added, "Both of these options are not good..." Devashree further emphasised that the elections will not be credible at all as they have been harassing PTI. "Presently, I think the elections will not be credible at all, as they have been harassing PTI... they have disqualified candidates, they are not being allowed to visit polling stations, and a lot of people are behind bars. this shows the elections are not credible," he added. The much-awaited general elections will take place on February 8, 2024, with the national poll organising authority finally issuing the schedule following the Supreme Court's order. (ANI)
Members of the Balochistan diaspora have been staging protests outside the White House against Pakistan and the enforced disappearances of Baloch people One of the protestors, Waheed Baloch, a former speaker of the Balochistan Assembly, highlighted that they are holding these protests against the atrocities committed in Balochistan over the last 75 years. "We're protesting against the atrocities that have been done to Balochistan by Pakistan for the last 75 years. We're protesting here in support of those Baloch families that were abducted and missing. For the last 75 years, Pakistan has forcefully occupied Balochistan," he said. When asked about their expectations from the upcoming general elections in Pakistan, he said that there is no hope for elections as there have never been free and fair elections. "There has never been a free and fair election in Pakistan, and there is no hope...for Balochistan, they just reelect their nominees... It is unconstitutional and undemocratic," he added. Moreover, in response to Pakistan's accusation that Balochis are sponsored by the Indian government, he dismissed the claim, stating that Pakistan have lied in the past and are lying again. "They (Pakistan) just say that Balochis are sponsored by the government of India but they never have produced any evidence...it is rubbish. They lied before, and they are lying again. If India had been supporting Balochistan, Balochistan would not have been this weak. These are just distracted tactics...," he added. Sufi Laghari, a Sindhi foundation member, said that one of the biggest failures of Pakistan is that they always blame India. "One of the biggest failure of Pakistan is that they always blame India...thousands of people in Balochistan have disappeared; do you think it is sponsored by India? These are useless weapons they're using. These are just blames, games and fake theories...that's why we are here in this difficult weather; we came here, and our families and children are here...This is going to be the end of the story for Pakistan and we are going to get the freedom soon," he added. Sammi Baloch, a young Baloch protestor who was also present at the protest outside the White House, said that whatever happened to the Baloch people is atrocious and a violation of human rights violations. "I am here because the Baloch genocide is happening and it has been happening since partition... We are here because many Baloch people have been murdered and they have been genocided and kidnapped by the Pakistani army and the military today we are here to stand with them and their families because what happened to them is atrocious and is human rights violation," she said. (ANI)
A total quota of 1,75,025 pilgrims from India has been finalised for Haj 2024, with 1,40,020 seats reserved for pilgrims to proceed through the Haj Committee of India.

Moreover, this will greatly benefit the common first-time pilgrims intending to undertake the Haj pilgrimage in 2024, whereas 35,005 pilgrims would be permitted to proceed through Haj Group Operators.

During the meeting with the Minister of Hajj and Umrah, the digital initiatives of the Indian government in facilitating and promoting ease and convenience for the Indian Haj pilgrims by providing last-mile information to the pilgrims were greatly appreciated by Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, "they offered to extend all possible help in this regard," according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

The initiative by the Indian government towards encouraging participation under the Ladies without Mehram (LWM) category was discussed, deeply appreciated and lauded.

Later, Smriti Irani and MoS Muraleedharan visited the Haj Terminal of King Abdulaziz International Airport to oversee the arrangements for Haj pilgrims.

"Subsequent to the signing of the Bilateral Haj Agreement and the meeting with the Minister of Hajj and Umrah, KSA, Smriti Zubin Irani accompanied by Muraleedharan visited the Haj Terminal of King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, to oversee the arrangements for Haj pilgrims and explore ways to facilitate better logistics and monitoring mechanism for the convenience of the Indian Haj pilgrims," according to the statement. (ANI)
During Muizzu's visit, the Maldives and China will hold official talks and sign key agreements to enhance trade, professional development, and socio-economic cooperation. Mohamed Muizzu's visit to China comes at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Maldives President's Office stated in a press release, "This visit will also pave the way for collaborations in technology and other areas between the two countries."

During his visit Muizzu will also attend the Invest Maldives Forum in Fuzhou and meet senior Chinese business leaders to explore avenues for strengthening socio-economic relations between the two nations.

A high-level delegation is accompanying the Maldives President and the First Lady on the visit to China.

In a post shared on X, Maldives President's Office stated, "H.E. President Dr @MMuizzu and H.E. First Lady Sajidha Mohamed departed on the first state visit to the People's Republic of China today, at the invitation of the President of China, H.E. Xi Jinping."

Notably, diplomatic ties between the Maldives and China were established on October 14, 1972. Since then, China and the Maldives have actively engaged in fostering strong bonds of friendship between the two countries, according to Maldives Emassy in India. In 2007, Maldives opened an embassy in Beijing. (ANI)
British Minister of State, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad who is on a three-day visit to India from Monday is scheduled to launch two new UK-funded sustainability projects at the ongoing Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet (TNGIM). Ahmad is also slated to visit Ahmedabad and attend Vibrant Gujarat, an innovation-focused summit, the British High Commission said in a statement. Lord (Tariq) Ahmad is the Minister of State for the Middle East, South Asia, UN and the Prime Minister's Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict. While in Chennai, the Minister will launch a heat mitigation project alongside Tamil Nadu's State Planning Commission. The project will provide recommendations to the government of Tamil Nadu to address extreme heat-related deaths and the loss of vital ecosystems, the British High Commission statement said. Also, with the Tamil Nadu Department of Environment and Climate Change, the minister will launch an Electronic and Battery Waste Management project, which will develop a plan to reduce battery waste, it said. As Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are two of India's largest economies, the Minister will use his trip to highlight the strong UK-India trade partnership and explore new opportunities to collaborate, including on clean energy growth, the statement added. The British minister said, "Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are leading the way in the development of emerging technologies, and I am delighted to see first-hand British businesses pioneering innovation in the region. "During my visit, I look forward to further promoting joint innovation projects alongside dynamic Indian businesses - from renewable manufacturing to financial services. These are made possible through the close trade partnership we have between our two countries," he said. At the flagship investment summit TNGIM in Chennai, Lord Ahmad will deliver a keynote speech on the success of innovative UK-India projects in climate and energy, the statement said. He will continue to showcase the sustainable success of British businesses overseas at a great reception and will see first-hand how British businesses are supporting clean growth in India. At the Biennial Investors' Summit in Vibrant Gujarat, the Minister will celebrate the close ties between the UK and India through business, culture, and the great links between our peoples. While at Vibrant Gujarat, he will witness the signing of an MoU between the UK's Abertay University and India's Ecole Intuit Lab. The partnership agreement will see teaching, research and innovation expertise shared between the two organisations, the release said. (ANI)
WASHINGTON  The Pentagon released new details Sunday about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins continued hospitalization, saying he had a medical procedure Dec. 22, went home a day later and was admitted to intensive care Jan. 1 when he began experiencing severe pain.

The latest information came as members of both parties in Congress expressed sharp concerns about the secrecy of Austins hospital stay and the fact that the president and other senior leaders were kept in the dark about it for days.

The statement, released by Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, did not, however, provide any details about the medical procedure or what actually happened on Monday to require Austin to be in intensive care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Ryan said Austin was placed in the hospitals intensive care unit due to his medical needs, but then remained in that location in part due to hospital space considerations and privacy.

The Pentagons failure to disclose Austins hospitalization, including to President Joe Biden, the National Security Council and top Pentagon leaders, for days reflects a stunning lack of transparency about his illness, how serious it was and when he may be released. Such secrecy, when the United States is juggling myriad national security crises, runs counter to normal practice with the president and other senior U.S. officials and Cabinet members.

Ryder said the National Security Council and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks were not notified until Thursday, Jan. 4, that Austin had been hospitalized since Jan. 1. Ryder said Austins chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, was ill and unable to make notifications before then. He said she informed Hicks and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on Thursday.

Once notified, Hicks began preparing statements to send to Congress and made plans to return to Washington. Hicks was in Puerto Rico on leave but had communications equipment with her to remain in contact and had already been tasked with some secretary-level duties on Tuesday.

The Pentagon did not say if Hicks was given an explanation on Tuesday for why she was assuming some of Austins duties, but temporary transfers of authority are not unusual and are often done without detailed explanations. Hicks decided not to return after she was informed that Austin would resume full control on Friday.

Biden was told of Austins medical stay on Thursday by Sullivan, according to three people with knowledge of the hospitalization who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

In a statement issued Saturday evening, Austin took responsibility for the delays in notification.

I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better, he said, acknowledging the concerns about transparency. But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.

Austin, 70, remains hospitalized and officials have been unable to say how long he will be at Walter Reed. In his statement, Austin said he is on the mend and is looking forward to returning to the Pentagon soon, but he provided no other details about his ailment.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the episode erodes trust in the Biden administration and called on the department to provide lawmakers with a full accounting of the facts immediately.

I am glad to hear Secretary Austin is in improved condition and I wish him a speedy recovery, Wicker said in a statement. However, the fact remains that the Department of Defense deliberately withheld the Secretary of Defenses medical condition for days. That is unacceptable.

Its not just Republicans expressing alarm. In a joint statement, Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., said they were concerned with how the disclosure of the Secretarys condition was handled.

Among the questions they had were what the medical procedure was and what the resulting complications were, how and when the delegation of his responsibilities was made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the president and lawmakers. Rogers is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Smith is the panels top Democrat.

Transparency is vitally important, said the two lawmakers. Austin must provide these additional details on his health and the decision-making process that occurred in the past week as soon as possible.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced support for Austin at a news conference in Qatar on Sunday.

He is an extraordinary leader in this country, in uniform and now out of uniform, Blinken said. And its been a highlight of my service to be able to serve alongside him,. He added: Im very much looking forward to see him fully recovered and working side by side in the year ahead.

Ryder said Austin is able to do his full duties, has secure communications at Walter Reed, and is in contact with his senior team, getting updates and providing guidance. He said he doesnt know if Austin will do in-person briefings this coming week.

The Pentagon Press Association, which represents journalists who cover the Defense Department, sent a letter of protest on Friday evening, calling the delay in alerting the public an outrage.

At a time when there are growing threats to U.S. military service members in the Middle East and the U.S. is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defense leader, the group said in its letter.

Other senior U.S. leaders have been much more transparent about hospital stays. When Attorney General Merrick Garland went in for a routine medical procedure in 2022, his office informed the public a week in advance and outlined how long he was expected to be out and when he would return to work.

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Michael Balsamo and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.
Five police officials were killed and 22 people were injured on Monday in a blast near a police van in Mamund tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Bajaur district, Pakistan-based Dawn reported, citing rescue and hospital officials. Bajaur police spokesperson Israr Ahmed confirmed the police casualties. According to hospital officials, 22 people were injured in the blast, according to a Dawn report. Wazir Khan Safi, the medical superintendent at Khar District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ), said that 12 out of the 22 people who were injured were being treated at the hospital. Furthermore, 10 others who were seriously injured were referred to a Peshawar medical facility. Malakand Division Commissioner Saqib Raza said that the ongoing polio campaign in the area was suspended after the blast. He further said that seriously injured people were airlifted to Peshawar and that the area has been cordoned off, Dawn reported. In a statement, Rescue 1122 said rescue teams in Mohmand and Lower Dir districts were put on "alert". In a statement, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Arshad Hussain Shah condemned the blast and expressed his grief on the death of police officials. Shah prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured and directed the district administration to ensure the provision of timely aid to them. He stated, "The police morale would not be defeated by such cowardly incidents," Dawn reported. He stressed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have given "eternal sacrifices" to protect the lives of people and vowed to provide "every possible support" to the bereaved families. Earlier in November, three police personnel, including a station house officer (SHO), were killed and five others including a deputy superintendent of police sustained injuries after a terrorist attack on police in the Kari Shah Noor area of Pakistan's Tank, Dawn reported. The police spokesperson said that DSP Chan Shah was leading a police party to arrest the kidnappers of a woman in Shah Noor village when unidentified assailants opened fire on the vehicle. The police spokesperson said that attackers opened fire at the police after seeing the police team, according to Dawn report. According to a police spokesperson, SHO Shaheed Mureed Akbar, Abdul Ali Khan, and two constables, Wahab and Mohammad Alam were killed in the attack. He further said that five police personnel, including DSP Chan Shah, constables Ishfaq, Wafaq and Hidayat of Elite Force and constables Riaz and Ikram of district Tank, were injured. (ANI)
The Indian High Commissioner to Maldives, Munu Mahawar on Monday held a "pre-arranged meeting" with Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at large at the Maldivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Male. The Indian High Commission in Maldives posted on X, "High Commissioner Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues." The meeting between the two envoys comes amid the ongoing row between India and the Maldives over derogatory remarks made by Maldivian leaders against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India after his recent visit to Lakshadweep. Earlier in the day, Maldives Envoy to India, Ibrahim Shaheeb was seen leaving the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi's South Block. Shaheeb was seen arriving at the MEA office building and leaving a short while later. A massive row was triggered last week after the Maldives deputy minister, along with other cabinet members and government officials, made disparaging and unsavoury references to PM Modi's Lakshadweep visit. On January 2, PM Modi visited the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and shared several pictures, including an 'exhilarating experience' of him trying his hand at snorkelling. In a series of posts on X, PM Modi shared pictures of the white beaches, the pristine blue skies and the ocean and tagged them with a message that read, "For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list." In a post that has now been deleted, the Maldivian Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Mariyam Shiuna, made a mocking and disrespectful reference to PM Modi. The Maldives government has distanced itself from the remarks made by its ministers. Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer said that these remarks against foreign leaders are "unacceptable" and do not reflect the official position of the Maldives government. He stated that the Maldives remains committed to fostering a "positive and constructive dialogue" with all its partners, particularly its neighbours. In a post shared on X, Moosa Zameer stated, "The recent remarks against foreign leaders and our close neighbours are unacceptable and do not reflect the official position of the Government of #Maldives. We remain committed to fostering a positive and constructive dialogue with all our partners, especially our neighbours, based on mutual respect and understanding." A section of India's film fraternity, too, came out in support of PM Modi and strongly criticised the derogatory remarks by Maldivian leaders against the country and its leader. They also voiced support for PM Modi's call for promoting beach tourism in Lakshadweep. Earlier on Sunday, the former Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih stated that New Delhi has always been a good friend to the island nation. Taking to his official handle on X, Solih posted, "I condemn the use of hateful language against India by Maldivian government officials on social media." He stressed that "India has always been a good friend to the Maldives and we must not allow such callous remarks to negatively impact the age-old friendship between our two countries." Former Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said the objectionable remarks against the former and fellow Indian natives on social media are 'reprehensible' and 'odious'. Taking to his official X handle, Shahid posted, "Derogatory remarks made by two Deputy Ministers of the current Maldives Government, and a member of a political party in the ruling coalition, towards Prime Minister @narendramodi and the people of India in social media is reprehensible and odious." (ANI)
The Indian High Commissioner to Maldives, Munu Mahawar on Monday held a "pre-arranged meeting" with Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at large at the Maldivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Male. The Indian High Commission in Maldives posted on X, "High Commissioner Munu Mahawar had a pre-arranged meeting with H.E. Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed, Ambassador at Large, at MoFA, Maldives, today to discuss bilateral issues." The meeting comes amid the ongoing row between India and the Maldives over derogatory remarks made by Maldivian leaders against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India after his recent visit to Lakshadweep. Earlier in the day, Maldives Envoy to India, Ibrahim Shaheeb was seen leaving the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi's South Block. Shaheeb was seen arriving at the MEA office building and leaving a short while later. A massive row was triggered last week after the Maldives deputy minister, along with other cabinet members and government officials, made disparaging and unsavoury references to PM Modi's Lakshadweep visit. On January 2, PM Modi visited the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and shared several pictures, including an 'exhilarating experience' of him trying his hand at snorkelling. In a series of posts on X, PM Modi shared pictures of the white beaches, the pristine blue skies and the ocean and tagged them with a message that read, "For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list." In a post that has now been deleted, the Maldivian Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Mariyam Shiuna, made a mocking and disrespectful reference to PM Modi. The Maldives government has distanced itself from the remarks made by its ministers. Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer said that these remarks against foreign leaders are "unacceptable" and do not reflect the official position of the Maldives government. He stated that the Maldives remains committed to fostering a "positive and constructive dialogue" with all its partners, particularly its neighbours. In a post shared on X, Moosa Zameer stated, "The recent remarks against foreign leaders and our close neighbours are unacceptable and do not reflect the official position of the Government of #Maldives. We remain committed to fostering a positive and constructive dialogue with all our partners, especially our neighbours, based on mutual respect and understanding." A section of India's film fraternity, too, came out in support of PM Modi and strongly criticised the derogatory remarks by Maldivian leaders against the country and its leader. They also voiced support for PM Modi's call for promoting beach tourism in Lakshadweep. Earlier on Sunday, the former Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih stated that New Delhi has always been a good friend to the island nation. Taking to his official handle on X, Solih posted, "I condemn the use of hateful language against India by Maldivian government officials on social media." He stressed that "India has always been a good friend to the Maldives and we must not allow such callous remarks to negatively impact the age-old friendship between our two countries." Former Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said the objectionable remarks against the former and fellow Indian natives on social media are 'reprehensible' and 'odious'. Taking to his official X handle, Shahid posted, "Derogatory remarks made by two Deputy Ministers of the current Maldives Government, and a member of a political party in the ruling coalition, towards Prime Minister @narendramodi and the people of India in social media is reprehensible and odious." (ANI)
Lauding the expansion of BRICS grouping, Russian Ambassador to India, Denis Alipov said that it represents the growing aspiration for a multipolar world based on sovereign equality and mutual respect. He further said that the Russian chairmanship of BRICS grouping will open vistas for strengthening the bloc's role in the international monetary and financial system. The Russian envoy was speaking at an event titled 'International Turbulence: Challenges and Opportunities for India-Russia Relations' in the national capital on Monday. Addressing the event, Alipov said, "We extensively collaborate in the BRICS format. The expansion of this reputable grouping, along with more than 30 states to join it in various capacity clearly displays the growing aspirations for a multiple world based on sovereign equality and mutual respect as stipulated by the UN Charter". "The Chairmanship of Russia in this forum this year will open new vistas for strengthening the BRICS role in the international monetary and financial system, making it more just and secure," he added. BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world's leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The 15th BRICS was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2023. In a major achievement, the grouping added six new members: Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and UAE. However, Argentina later decided to pull out of the bloc. The Russian envoy further emphasised the cooperation between Eurasian nations. He also put weight behind the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which he said would contribute substantially to strengthening connectivity of the vast region. "The integration processes have accelerated on the Eurasian space where the SCO occupies a unique place as a gravitational platform for an increasing number of countries that consider it vital for countering emerging security challenges and promoting inter regional economic cooperation. After the accession of Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024, the increased potential of the organization (SCO) would contribute substantially to strengthening connectivity of this vast region," Alipov said. He further stressed on India and China as major powers in achieving peaceful and secure Eurasian space on the principles of undivided security, inclusive dialogue and mutual accommodation. "We are hopeful that India and China as major civilizations possessing unique political wisdom, we will find ways to achieve the progress in the body issue and a normalization of bilateral ties based on mutual respect of sensitive interests. Think about the prospects of a peaceful and secure Eurasian space resting on the principles of undivided security and inclusive dialogue and mutual accommodation instead of confrontation that...the West tends to create in the name of universal values," Alipov said. He added, "The Russia-India-China triangle and coordination in this format is regarded by us as a vital basis and probably the most consequential pillar for the regional stability from which the world at large will only gain". (ANI)
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday ended the lifetime disqualification of lawmakers, recalling its earlier order of disbarring politicians from running for office ever. The decision has come as a major boost for several big names who are aiming to contest the general elections on February 8. The latest judgement allows Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) chief Jahangir Tareen to run for office as they were disqualified for life, Dawn reported. The Supreme Court declared that no person can be barred for a lifetime from running in elections if they are disqualified under Article 62 (1)(f), setting aside its landmark judgment in the Samiullah Baloch case. A seven-member larger bench -- headed by CJP Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, and Justice Musarrat Hilali -- conducted the hearings of the case, which were broadcast live on the apex court's website. The bench announced the verdict with a 6-1 majority as Justice Yahya Afridi disagreed with his fellow judges, backing the apex court's previous judgment. Notably, the legal conundrum arose after the parliament passed the amendments in the Elections Act 2017, restricting the disqualification period of a politician to five years, instead of a lifetime, contrary to the SC order, which deemed disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) as 'permanent', Dawn reported. While announcing the reserved verdict, the chief justice of Pakistan noted that since the election schedule was issued, it was "necessary" to release the order at the earliest. In the written order, the SC noted that Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution is "not a self-executory provision" as it does not by itself specify any period for disqualification. "There is no law that provides for the procedure, process, and the identification of the court of law for making the declaration mentioned in Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and the duration of such a declaration, for the purpose of disqualification thereunder, to meet the requirements of the Fundamental Right to a fair trial and due process guaranteed by Article 10A of the Constitution, the apex court stated. "Until a law is enacted to make its provisions executory, Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution stands on a similar footing as Article 62(1)(d), (e), and (g), and serves as a guideline for the voters in exercising their right to vote," the order read. (ANI)
Tel Aviv [Israel], January 8 (ANI/TPS): Neither Israel nor Hezbollah want war with each other, but the two are on a collision course, underscored by the assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. According to Lebanese reports, a senior commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Unit, Wissam Tawil, was killed in an air strike near the village of Majda Selm. In recent days, the Lebanese daily Al Akhbar, a Hezbollah mouthpiece, has been reporting that US envoy Amos Hochstein is formulating a package of agreements that would guarantee Hezbollah quiet and allow Israeli evacuees from northern communities to return to their homes. But according to Al Akhbar's reporting, the Americans understand that Israel has to pay a price for that silence. Hezbollah wants Israeli concessions on 17 different areas of the Israel-Lebanon border that Hezbollah disputes, a face-saving victory that Nasrallah can claim. Hochstein is preparing to present proposals to Israel regarding the border. Hochstein visited Israel during the weekend, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to arrive in Israel on Monday. Israeli sources told the Tazpit Press Service that Jerusalem won't make any concessions and will continue pushing to have Hezbollah removed from southern Lebanon. "We will remove Hezbollah's Radwan Forces from the border to the north, either by Amos Hochstein's diplomacy or by war," a senior Israeli official told TPS. The presence of armed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon violates UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Second War in Lebanon in 2006. Under that agreement, the Lebanese Armed Forces are supposed to be the only armed group south of the Litani River. Around 250,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes near the Gaza and Lebanese borders. Israel does not want to fight a war with Hezbollah while it dismantles Hamas and tries to bring home its hostages. And in Lebanon, mired in poverty and political paralysis, public opinion is deeply against the Iran-backed Hezbollah, dragging the country into a destructive conflict. The Blue Line demarcating the 120 km-long border was created in 2000 by UN cartographers to verify Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, which the UN Security Council later certified as complete. The border runs from Rosh HaNikra on the Mediterranean coast to Mount Dov, where the Israeli-Lebanese border converges with Syria. Hezbollah never recognised the blue line and disputes numerous points along the border. Among those points is a strip of land on Mout Dov itself, which Israel captured from Syria. Hezbollah claims the area called Shebaa Farms belongs to Lebanon. Syria has not commented on the matter. International peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have been deployed in southern Lebanon to monitor the border since 1978. However, Israel and Lebanon reached a US-brokered agreement delineating their maritime borders in October 2022. The agreement allows Lebanon to begin exploiting natural gas in its territorial waters. Under the terms of the agreement, the Karish gas field will remain under Israeli sovereignty, while a French company exploring the Qana gas field in Lebanon will pay some royalties to Israel. (ANI/TPS)
In a post on social media platform X, Jaishankar wrote, "Good to speak to my dear friend FM @a_schallenberg of Austria after the New Year."

"Recall last year's visit to Vienna. Exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine and Gaza, especially in light of my recent travels," he added.

https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1744321860177932308?s=20

Notably, the diplomatic relations between India and Austria were established in 1949.

The ties between the two nations have been warm and friendly, according to the MEA, with a regular exchange of visits including at the level of leaders, ministers and Parliamentarians highlighting the importance that the two nations accord to further strengthening their relations.

The two countries also have a robust economic partnership, with bilateral trade pegged at USD 2.47 billion in 2021, the MEA noted, adding that over 150 Austrian companies have a presence in India.

Further, as per the video posted by Jaishankar, the Indian diaspora residing in Austria numbers 31,000.

India and Austria, in 2023, signed an MoU on the exemption of visa requirements for diplomatic passport holders. It was in addition to the MoU on gainful occupation for family members of diplomatic staff.

The nations also inked an MoU on a joint declaration on a working holiday while another pertained to a comprehensive migration and mobility partnership agreement.

Also, the two nations, last year signed an MoU on cultural cooperation between the years 2022-2026. (ANI)
The three are suspected of carrying out a shooting attack at a traffic junction in the Binyamin region, killing Amar Mansour, a 33-year-old Arab-Israeli resident of eastern Jerusalem. Mansour worked as a delivery contractor and was the father of two.

A 42-year-old female passenger was injured and hospitalised in serious condition. The woman was identified as a veteran pharmacist at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital. She was taken to the Hadassah-Ein Kerem Medical Centre, where doctors said she was hit in the face and neck by gunshots.

The Israel Defence Forces and the National Security Agency (Shin Bet) said that two of the suspects were arrested in Ramallah while the third was arrested in the Jalazone refugee camp north of that city.

No terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

Since October 7, approximately 2,600 terror suspects have been arrested in Judea and Samaria, of whom approximately 1,300 are affiliated with Hamas. (ANI/TPS)
Israel Opposition leader Yair Lapid lashed out at the National Unity ministers Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot and Gideon Sa'ar for leaving the coalition, alleging that they are "not saving" Israel but only Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Times of Israel reported. Hitting out at the government, he further said that this government is "not qualified to lead the war" and Netanyahu is "not qualified to lead the country". "The former opposition lawmakers entered the government after October 7 because they believed it was in the best interest of the country. It may have been true three months ago. It is certainly not true now," Times of Israel quoted Lapid as saying. "This is not a unity government, this is not an emergency government. They are not saving the State of Israel, they are saving Netanyahu," he added. "For weeks now, the poison machine of Netanyahu and his aides has been attacking the chief of staff, the army, the commanders and the fighters. Every meeting of the cabinet turns into a poisonous attack on the army," Lapid said, adding, "as long as they are there, as long as they sit under Netanyahu, they give [his actions] legitimacy." Meanwhile, another row erupted in Israeli politics over the remarks by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who criticised Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over his remark that IDF will be shifting to a different phase of war in northern Gaza. Yoav Gallant told Wall Street Journal that the IDF will be shifting from what he called the "intense manoeuvring phase of the war" towards "different types of special operations" in northern Gaza. "We're close to the next phase in the north, including Gaza City," Gallant said. Responding to this statement, Gvir said that such a statement is tantamount to an announcement "of the end of the war of subjugation and a transition to the war of attrition." "The small cabinet has no mandate to announce this," he argues, referring to the war cabinet, which comprises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz. "This is not how we will win!" Earlier on Saturday, the IDF said it had completed the dismantlement of Hamas' "military framework" in the northern Gaza Strip, Times of Israel reported. Following the publication of Gallant's interview, Gallant's office issued a statement clarifying that the transition would start "soon". (ANI)
In the last week alone, Israel has killed a senior Hamas fighter in an airstrike in Beirut, Hezbollah has struck a sensitive Israeli base with rockets, the United States has killed a militia commander in Baghdad and Iran-backed rebels in Yemen have traded fire with the U.S. Navy.

Each strike and counterstrike increases the risk of the already catastrophic war in Gaza spilling across the region. And in the decades-old standoff pitting the U.S. and Israel against Iran and allied fighter groups, there are fears that any one party could trigger a wider war if only to avoid appearing weak.

The divisions within each camp add another layer of volatility: Hamas might have hoped its Oct. 7 attack would drag its allies into a wider war with Israel. Israelis increasingly talk about the need to change the equation in Lebanon  and on Monday an Israeli airstrike killed a Hezbollah commander  even as Washington aims to contain the conflict.

As the intertwined chess games grow ever more complicated, the potential for miscalculation rises.

Gaza is ground zero

Hamas says the Oct. 7 rampage across southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza was a purely Palestinian response to decades of Israeli domination. There is no evidence that Iran, Hezbollah or other allied groups played a direct role or even knew about it beforehand.

But when Israel responded by launching one of the 21st centurys most devastating military campaigns in Gaza, a besieged enclave home to 2.3 million Palestinians, the so-called Axis of Resistance  Iran and the fighter groups it supports across the region  faced pressure to respond.

The Palestinian cause has deep resonance across the region, and leaving Hamas alone to face Israels fury would have risked unraveling a military alliance that Iran has been building up since the 1979 Islamic Revolution put it on a collision course with the West.

They dont want war, but at the same they dont want to let the Israelis keep striking without retaliation, said Qassim Qassir, a Lebanese expert on Hezbollah.

Something big has to happen, without going to war, so that the Israelis and Americans are convinced that there is no way forward, he said.

Hezbollah threads the needle

Of all Irans regional proxies, Hezbollah faces the biggest dilemma.

If it tolerates Israeli attacks, like the strike in Beirut that killed Hamas deputy political leader, it risks appearing to be a weak or unreliable ally. But if it triggers a full war, Israel has threatened to wreak major destruction on Lebanon, which is already mired in a severe economic crisis. Even Hezbollahs supporters may see that as too heavy a price to pay for a Palestinian ally.

Hezbollah has carried out strikes along the border nearly every day since the war in Gaza broke out, with the apparent aim of tying down some Israeli troops. Israel has returned fire, but each side appears to be carefully calibrating its actions to limit the intensity.

A Hezbollah barrage of at least 40 rockets fired at an Israeli military base on Saturday sent a message without starting a war, though it may have triggered Mondays strike.

Would 80 rockets have been a step too far? What if someone had been killed? How many casualties would warrant a full-blown offensive? The grim math provides no clear answers.

And in the end, experts say, it might not be a single strike that does it.

Israel is determined to see tens of thousands of its citizens return to communities near the border with Lebanon that were evacuated under Hezbollah fire nearly three months ago, and after Oct. 7, it may no longer be able to tolerate an armed Hezbollah presence just on the other side of the frontier.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly threatened to use military force if Hezbollah doesnt respect a 2006 U.N. cease-fire that ordered the fighter group to withdraw from the border.

Neither side wants a war, but the two sides believe it is inevitable, said Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at Israels Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. Everybody in Israel thinks its just a matter of time until we need to change the reality, so that people can return to their homes, he said.

Us deterrence only goes so far

The U.S. positioned two aircraft carrier strike groups in the region in October. One is returning home, but is being replaced by other warships. The deployments sent an unmistakable warning to Iran and its allies against widening the conflict, but not all of them seem to have received the message.

Iran-backed fighter groups in Syria and Iraq have launched dozens of rocket attacks on U.S. bases. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea, with potential consequences for the world economy. Iran says its allies act on their own and not on orders from Tehran.

The last thing most Americans want after two decades of costly campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan is another war in the Middle East.

But in recent weeks, U.S. forces have killed a senior Iran-backed militia commander in Iraq and 10 Houthi rebels who were trying to board a container ship, spilling blood that could call out for a response.

Washington has struggled to cobble together a multi-national security force to protect Red Sea shipping. But it appears hesitant to attack the Houthis on land when they appear close to reaching a peace deal with Saudi Arabia after years of war.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials have said the window for its allies to get both Hezbollah and the Houthis to stand down is closing.

How does this end?

The regional tensions are likely to remain high as long as Israel keeps up its offensive in Gaza, which it says is aimed at crushing Hamas. Many wonder if thats even possible, given the groups deep roots in Palestinian society, and Israels own leaders say it will take many more months.

The U.S., which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support for Israels offensive, is widely seen as the only power capable of ending it. Irans allies seem to believe Washington will step in if its own costs get too high  hence the attacks on U.S. bases and international shipping.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock are all back in the region this week, with the aim of trying to contain the violence through diplomacy.

But the most important messages will still likely be sent by rocket.

The Americans do not want an open war with Iran, and the Iranians do not want an open war with the United States, said Ali Hamadeh, an analyst who writes for Lebanons An-Nahar newspaper. Therefore, there are negotiations by fire.
The people of Bhutan's Haa and Paro districts share similarities in language and culture. One of them is the practice of offering the first harvest of crops to Haa's local deity, Chungdu. People in the two districts still make the offering as in the olden days, The Bhutan Live reported. Every year, on the 15th day of the 11th lunar month, the people of Paro come to Jangkakha at Haa to make their offerings of rice and wine to the deity. The elderly residents gathered at the ritual said the practice is of huge significance to them. A resident of Talung in Bji Gewog, Haa, Tshering Penjor, said: "In ancient times, Haa's Chungdu and Paro's Jojo Drakay who is commonly called as Ap Genyen were very good friends. Once, when they were heading towards Tibet, they came across a river, which was used for paddy cultivation. They then decided to take the water body to Bhutan. Then, Jojo Drakay gave a local wine to Chungdu and when Chungdu got drunk, Jojo Drakay is said to have taken the river towards Paro. So, when Chungdu tried to divert the river towards Haa, Jojo Drakay told him that although the river would be used for growing rice in Paro, the first harvest of the crop would always be offered to him. They then agreed to settle the argument." The devotees said if they fail to come and make the offering every year, it is believed that illnesses and misfortune would occur in the districts and individual households, as per The Bhutan Live. A resident from Lunyi Gewog in Paro Gyembo Tshering said: "If we do not conduct the ritual as in the past, our deities will not be happy with us. So, we will be struck with misfortunes." A resident of Tsento Gewog in Paro Chencho Dorji said, "We would become sick if we fail to make the offering." Tshering Penjor added, "As this ritual originated from the truce between Chungdu and Jojo Drakay, if we do not perform the ritual, the yield of crops in Paro will not be good the following year and there will be illnesses and diseases as well. That's why all the people make a point to attend the ceremony with devotion and dedication." According to the elderly devotees, to preserve the tradition, they have been teaching and educating the younger generation on the ways and importance of celebrating the occasion, according to The Bhutan Live. (ANI)
In a press release, the Ministry of Health and Population confirmed that seven cases relating to the new sub-variant of Omicron have been found after a gene sequencing procedure.

As per the release, a total of 16 samples that tested positive for COVID-19 under going antigen and PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) were further sent for gene sequencing out of which 7 carried the new omicron sub-variant JN1.

The ministry hasn't specified where and when the samples were taken. Nepal in the recent weeks has started recording surge in COVID-19 cases, especially those returning from India, as per the ministry.

"With surge in new sub-variant of COVID-19, all the health desks at the checkpoints and health posts are hereby requested to continue necessary screening and surveillance, as well as those medical institutions that provide health services regarding the issue, which are also instructed to make arrangements accordingly," the release of Monday evening stated.

Nepal earlier saw a surge in COVID-19 infection during the first, second and third waves, which claimed about 12,000 lives.

Public health measures were then lifted following the decline in the infection rate of theOmicron variant in 2021.

The World Health Organisation classifies JN.1 as a separate 'variant of interest' givenits rapid spread around the globe. The UN health body, however, said that based onavailable data, "the additional public health risk posed by JN.1 is currently evaluated aslow".

Several countries, including China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, have reported upticks in new coronavirus cases.

The JN.1 strain, first detected in September in the United States, is a descendant of BA.2.86, a highly mutated variant of the Omicron strain of COVID-19. (ANI)
On India-Bangladesh relations, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, AK Abdul Momen, has said that New Delhi and Dhaka share a solid relationship, and both countries understand each other better. While speaking to ANI, Momen said, "Over the last few years, under the Indian leadership and our PM Sheikh Hasina, we have developed a solid relationship. We understand each other better." "So we want to continue to do this because we believe unless you have good relations, with all neighbours, you cannot prosper. You cannot make a neighbour an enemy," he added. Describing the relationship between India and Bangladesh as "excellent," the foreign minister of Bangladesh said that India has always supported and helped the nation. He said, "The relationship between India and Bangladesh is excellent. We suffered under Pakistani subjugation, they tortured us, and then we went to India." "India supported us, helped us. Even the common people provided their support. So that's the historical context," he said. Sheikh Hasina, who secured her fifth term in the recent general elections, outlined her plans for the country's international relations and highlighted the strong bond between Bangladesh and India. She expressed gratitude towards India, emphasising its pivotal role in supporting Bangladesh during critical moments in history. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen also spoke on the row over Maldives MP's post on PM Modi's visit to Lakshadweep and said that this is not acceptable at all. "This is not acceptable. We condemn it. We do not want anyone to make derogatory remarks about any leader," Momen said. A massive row was triggered last week after the Maldives deputy minister, along with other cabinet members and government officials, made disparaging and unsavoury references to PM Modi's Lakshadweep visit. On January 2, PM Modi visited the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and shared several pictures, including an 'exhilarating experience' of him trying his hand at snorkelling. In a series of posts on X, PM Modi shared pictures of the white beaches, the pristine blue skies and the ocean and tagged them with a message that read, "For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list." In a post that has now been deleted, the Maldivian Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Mariyam Shiuna, made a mocking and disrespectful reference to PM Modi. The Maldives government has distanced itself from the remarks made by its ministers. Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer said that these remarks against foreign leaders are "unacceptable" and do not reflect the official position of the Maldives government. He stated that the Maldives remains committed to fostering a "positive and constructive dialogue" with all its partners, particularly its neighbours. (ANI)
During his visit, the defence minister will discuss bilateral issues with his counterpart, Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in an official press release.

Notably, this marks the first visit of a sitting Indian Defence Minister to the UK in 23 years.

The Defence Minister would be accompanied by a high-level Ministry of Defence delegation, comprising senior officials from DRDO, Service Headquarters, the Department of Defence, and the Department of Defence Production.

As per the Ministry, both leaders are expected to discuss a wide range of defence, security and industrial cooperation issues.

Rajnath Singh is also expected to call on UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and hold a meeting with Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Cameron.

He will further interact with the CEOs and industry leaders of the UK defence industry and meet with the Indian community there.

Notably, India and the UK are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Talks for FTA between India and the UK started in 2022 and the 12th round of negotiations took place from August 8-31 this year.

The India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership was launched in 2021 along with the India-UK Roadmap 2030, according to the Ministry of External Affairs. The Roadmap is a commitment to a partnership that delivers for both countries.(ANI)
One person was taken to the hospital Monday morning after being shot in a busy section of west Charlotte.

The shooting happened just around 10 a.m. in an area off of Freedom Drive near Pacific Street. That section of Freedom Drive contains several businesses and restaurants.

MEDIC confirmed the shooting and said one person was treated for serious injuries.

Its not clear what led to the shooting.

Police havent said if a suspect is wanted in connection with the shooting.

Were working on getting more information. Check back for updates.

(WATCH: SC driver to appear in court for crash that killed mom, unborn child)
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  One person was injured after a crash involving an El Paso Independent School District school bus on Monday, Jan. 8 near Transmountain.

KTSM reached out to EPISD regarding the crash, to which they responded with the following:

This morning, an El Paso ISD school bus was involved in a vehicle accident in Northeast El Paso. No students were in the bus at the time of the crash and no injuries were reported by staff on board, EPISD said.

The crash happened just before 11 a.m. on 9870 Gateway North, and no children were on board when the crash happened.

One person suffered minor injuries, according to a Fire Department spokesperson.

The left two lanes on Gateway North before Transmountain were initially closed. However, all lanes have since opened up.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
(STACKER)  Born between 1997 and 2012, many in Gen Z are still under the age of 18. But older Gen Zers are just starting to movefor college, their career or to explore life in a new place. While this cohort may not have the disposable income of their older counterparts, their movement still plays an important role in local economies. An asymmetrical move can affect demand for goods, services and infrastructure, as well as local job and housing markets.

With this in mind, SmartAsset set out to determine which cities Gen Zers are moving to most often. Looking at 268 of the largest U.S. cities, the analysis ranks cities based on the number of people aged 18 to 24 who moved in in 2022, as a percentage of the total population.

Key findings

One in four people is a new Gen Z transplant in Ann Arbor, MI. Ann Arbor  a college town that also has the highest rate of people with graduate degrees  has the highest rate of Gen Zers moving in. Nearly 31,400 people aged 18-24 moved into this city in 2022. In total, Gen Z makes up just about 36% of the population here.

In Provo, UT, 42% of the population is aged 18-24. Ranking second for the rate at which Gen Zers are moving to Provo, the city attracts both people from within Utah and from out of state. Roughly 27,500 Gen Zers moved here in 2022.

Boulder, CO had the highest rate of Gen Zers moving from the suburbs to the city. Over 14,000 out of the roughly 25,000 new Gen Z residents moved to this city from within Boulder County. At 13.7%, thats the highest rate of people aged 18-24 migrating to a city from the same county.

Gen Zers in Texas move in largest numbers to College Station. This city ranks fourth overall for the highest rate of Gen Zers moving in, and the majority of young newcomers come from within Texas specifically. Less than 2,000 of the new 27,000 Gen Z residents come from out of state.

Berkeley, CA received the highest rate of Gen Z movers from abroad. Just over 13% of the new Gen Zers came from abroad, or 2,466 people. In total, 18,699 people in this age group moved in in 2022, putting Berkeley in seventh place overall.

Top cities where Gen Z Is moving

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor was the top destination for Gen Zers in 2022, welcoming 31,394 new young residents. This influx represented 26.4% of its population, with Gen Z totaling 35.9% of the city as a whole. Provo, Utah

Provo attracted 27,523 Gen Z transplants last year, comprising almost 25% of its population. Overall, Gen Zers now constitute a significant 42.4% of Provos total demographic. Boulder, Colorado

Boulder saw 25,028 Gen Z newcomers in 2022, accounting for 23.9% of its population. This surge has led to Gen Zers making up 33.2% of Boulders inhabitants. College Station, Texas

College Station had an influx of 27,247 Gen Z individuals, representing 22.2% of the citys population. In total, Gen Z now makes up 39.2% of the population here. Athens, Georgia

Athens became home to 22,213 new Gen Z residents last year, making up 17.4% of its total population. Gen Zers now comprise 27.7% of Athens residents. Tallahassee, Florida

Tallahassee welcomed 34,570 Gen Z transplants in 2022, contributing to 17.4% of its overall population. Gen Zers now account for a total of 29.5% of the citys total inhabitants. Berkeley, California

Berkeley attracted 18,699 new Gen Z residents, or 15.8% of its population. Gen Z individuals now make up 26.5% of Berkeleys total populace. Gainesville, Florida

Gainesville saw 22,262 Gen Z newcomers in 2022, or 15.4% of its population. This influx has led to Gen Zers constituting almost 35.0% of Gainesvilles residents. Columbia, South Carolina

Columbia had 20,778 Gen Z individuals move in, accounting for 15.1% of its total population. In total, Gen Z now forms 25.9% of Columbia. Syracuse, New York

Syracuse welcomed 19,664 new Gen Z residents in 2022, or 13.8% of the population  putting Gen Z at a total of 19.6%.

Data and Methodology

Data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau 1-Year American Community Survey for 2022. The study included 268 cities that had available data and 100,000 or more people aged 1 or over. Gen Z was defined as those aged 18 to 24. Cities were ranked by the percentage of the total population represented by Gen Zers who moved into the city in 2022.

This article has been re-published pursuant to a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

This story was produced by SmartAsset and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.

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Ukraine's Air Force has reported that 13 strategic bombers have taken off from the Russian Olenya airfield and have warned of the missile threat during the night and morning of 8 January.

Source: Ukraine's Air Force

Quote: "The takeoff of nine Tu-95MS aircraft from the Olenya airfield (Murmansk Oblast) was recorded.

The bombers will reach cruise missile launch lines at about 05:00-05:30.

We will provide additional information in the event of a missile threat or cruise missile launches."

Details: In addition, the Air Force once again urged Ukrainians not to ignore the air-raid warnings.

Updated: At 05:38, the Air Force reported that four more Tu-22m3 bombers took off from the Olenya airfield.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Memphis Police arrested a 14-year-old boy Monday who they say is responsible for being involved in numerous carjackings and robberies across the city  at least 21 crimes in less than a month.

He is facing 48 charges, including with eight counts of Carjacking, 10 counts of Employment of a Firearm during the Commission of a Dangerous Felony, 11 counts of Aggravated Robbery, seven counts of Aggravated Assault and five counts of Attempted Aggravated Robbery.

Since the teen is a minor, we cannot name him and we dont know when he will appear in court. But one of his alleged victims worries for the day he will be released, which she fears will be far too soon.

To talk about it now is just a scary experience. I wouldnt wish that on nobody, said the woman, who was allegedly carjacked by the teen and several young accomplices outside a dollar store on Christmas Eve. It was just awful, and they were young kids.

Police say kids carjacked woman at store, returned to rob customers

The following reports are attributed to the Memphis Police Department.

On December 17, 2023, MPD responded to a robbery in the 3900 block of Park Avenue. The victim was walking to his vehicle when three armed males approached him. One of the males struck the victim in the head with a handgun and the suspects took his Ford Escape.

On December 21, 2023, officers responded to a robbery in the 900 block of Raymond Street. The victim exited her vehicle and was approached by two males. One of the males pointed a gun at her and demanded her vehicle. The suspects fled in her Chevrolet Cruze.

December 22, 2023

officers responded to a robbery in the 1400 block of Getwell Road. The victim was walking to his vehicle when two males approached him. They pointed a gun at him and demanded his wallet. They fled the scene.

Shortly after at 9:57 p.m., officers responded to a carjacking in the 3900 block of Elvis Presley Boulevard. A male was pumping gas when a male approached him with a gun. The male demanded the victim exit his Mercedes Benz and the suspect fled with two others who got out of a Chevrolet Cruze.

December 24, 2023

Police responded to a carjacking in the 1200 block of Getwell Road. A woman was in her Audi A3 when three males approached her. One of the males was armed with a gun and demanded that she get out of the car. The suspects fled in the victims car, followed by a Mercedes Benz.

At 11:18 a.m., officers responded to an attempted robbery in the 3200 block of Kimball Avenue. The victim was approached by males armed with a gun demanding the car keys. The suspects fled in a Mercedes Benz without taking the victims vehicle. The suspect vehicle matched the description of the vehicle taken in a carjacking.

At 5:54 p.m., officers responded to an attempted robbery at the Dollar General on Getwell Road. Three males went inside the store and pointed weapons at customers, demanding property from customers. The suspects fled without obtaining any of the victims belongings.

At 5:56 p.m., officers responded to a robbery in the 1400 block of Getwell Road. Officers were advised that the victim was getting into his Toyota Corolla when three males approached him. The males took cash and his car.

December 26, 2023

Officers responded to an attempted carjacking in the 3000 block of Lamar Avenue. The victim was in his vehicle when two males approached him asking for money. While reaching for money, he was struck in the head by one of the suspects with a handgun. The suspects fled.

At 11:39 p.m., officers responded to a robbery in the 2900 block of Lamar Avenue. Officers were advised that the victim was pumping gas when a male approached her and pointed a gun at her. He demanded her keys and fled in her Nissan Maxima.

On December 28, 2023, officers responded to an attempted carjacking in the 2100 block of Lamar Avenue. Officers were advised that the victim was walking to his vehicle when two males approached him. One male was armed with a gun and demanded the victims keys. The male fired a shot, but no one was injured. The suspects fled in a Nissan Maxima occupied by two females.

On December 30, 2023, there was a robbery in the 2900 block of Semmes Street. The victim got out of her car and two males ran up to her, pointed a gun at her, and demanded her keys. The males fled in her Chevrolet Malibu.

December 31, 2023

Officers responded to a robbery in the 3900 block of Rhodes Avenue. The victim was walking away from his vehicle when he was almost hit by a car. Two males exited the vehicle armed and demanded the victims vehicle. The males struck the victim in the face and attempted to take his Dodge Ram but were unsuccessful.

At 4:00 p.m., officers responded to a robbery in the 2900 block of South Perkins Road. While the victim was pumping gas, he was approached by a male with a gun. The male took his wallet and fled in a black sedan.

At 4:25 p.m., officers responded to a robbery at Lamar Avenue and Pendleton Street. The victim was pumping gas when she was approached by a male armed with a gun. The suspect demanded her vehicle and fled in her car.

On January 1, 2024, officers responded to a robbery in the 6600 block of Lamar Avenue. While the victim was loading groceries, she was approached by an armed male who demanded her purse and cell phone. The males took her property and fled in a black sedan.

January 3, 2024

Officers responded to a robbery in the 2000 block of Labelle Street. Officers were advised that the victim was standing at his vehicle when he was approached by an armed male who demanded his keys. A second male approached and they left in the victims Mercedes Benz.

At 3:29 p.m., officers responded to a robbery in the 6600 block of Winchester Road. The victim exited their vehicle and was approached by an armed male. They demanded the victims purse and fled in a white sedan.

At 3:45 p.m., officers responded to a robbery in the 4700 block of Knight Arnold Road. The victims were approached by an armed male who demanded the wallets of the victims. The suspects took cash from the victims and fled in a white Mercedes Benz.

At 3:59 p.m., officers responded to a robbery in the 5300 block of Winchester Road. Officers were advised that the victim was getting into his car when a white Mercedes Sedan pulled up behind him. An armed male got out and demanded the victims money. The suspects fled the scene.

On January 5, 2024, officers located a suspect, a 14-year-old male. At the time of his arrest, officers located a handgun.

The 14-year-old is charged with eight counts of Carjacking, 10 counts of Employment of a Firearm during the Commission of a Dangerous Felony, Attempted Carjacking, 11 counts of Aggravated Robbery, seven counts of Aggravated Assault, five counts of Attempted Aggravated Robbery, two counts of Evading Arrest in Auto, and three counts of Theft of Property to wit: Auto $10,000-$60,000, and Curfew Violation.

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The Israeli American student enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago seeking a world-class education in art therapy, but instead claims she faced a pattern of antisemitic discrimination and harassment there, according to a federal lawsuit recently filed in Chicago against the private art and design college.

Masters degree student Shiran Canel  an Israeli American Jew in her 30s who lives in the Chicago area  alleges the school discriminated against her during an admissions interview and then intentionally subjected her to a hostile environment following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. This included a professor modifying a course assignment for the purpose of harassing and intentionally targeting her, the complaint said.

Canels lawsuit, which also claims the school allowed hateful anti-Israeli and antisemitic rhetoric to flourish, comes as colleges and universities around the country grapple with mounting accusations of antisemitism  as well as Islamophobia  amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The School of the Art Institute said in a statement that officials would not comment on pending litigation.

The school strongly condemns antisemitism and any discrimination based on religion, nationality, or any other aspect of a persons identity, according to the statement. We have policies in place that prohibit discrimination, harassment and retaliation, and the school is unequivocally committed to providing a safe and welcoming learning environment for all of our students, faculty and staff.

Canel, who declined to be interviewed by the Tribune, said in a statement that her case is particularly salient given the upsurge of antisemitic discrimination in higher education institutions more broadly.

I am determined to shed light on this issue, not just for me but for everyone who faces discrimination, the statement said. I study art therapy, which is supposed to be about care. Hate of any form has no place in the classroom.

The climate has spurred several prominent college and university leaders around the country to recently resign under fire. Harvard President Claudine Gay quit Tuesday following backlash against her testimony during a congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses last month, as well as plagiarism accusations.

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who led a campaign for Gays removal, has been calling for the resignation of Penny Pritzker  the head of Harvards governing board and sister of Gov. J.B. Pritzker  as well as the rest of the board. Politico recently reported that Penny Pritzker is not resigning, according to a Harvard spokesperson.

The University of Pennsylvanias president stepped down last month after being grilled at the congressional hearing; the chairman of the Ivy League schools board of trustees quit too.

During that hearing, a professor of history and Jewish studies noted that the antisemitism igniting on college campuses today is not new.

It is part of a long history of antisemitism in our nations colleges, just one manifestation of the trajectory of antisemitism in American life, said Pamela Nadell, director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University.

How can I be safe?

Canels lawsuit claims antisemitic discrimination at the School of the Art Institute began during her admissions process when she applied to the master of arts in art therapy and counseling program for fall 2023.

Instead of a faculty panel interview, which the complaint describes as the schools mandatory interview process, she was interviewed by one faculty member whose questions centered on Canels ethnicity and background. This included how she might handle interacting with a Palestinian colleague and whether the upcoming birth of her second child would undermine her ability to handle the rigors of the program, according to the lawsuit.

Shiran responded to the interviewers inappropriate questions fairly and honestly, explaining that she harbored no prejudice against Arabs or Palestinians and would have no trouble working collaboratively in a diverse classroom environment, the complaint said.

Instead of talking about Canels interest in art therapy or a piece of artwork in her portfolio that she had designated for discussion per the schools instructions, the interviewer focused on one painting of Jerusalem, which was only used to further hound Shiran about her Israeli nationality, the lawsuit said.

Her application was denied and she appealed, sharing her description of the interview process and concerns that her denial was a result of antisemitic discrimination, the complaint said. The school reversed its decision after engaging outside counsel to conduct an investigation of the process.

The school granted Canel admission for fall 2023, and the School of the Art Institute shared that the process had not followed the schools policy or expectations but would not provide a written summary or report of its review, according to the complaint.

Canel enrolled at the school but would quickly learn that SAICs commitment of nondiscrimination has a silent but robust exception for Jews and Israelis, the lawsuit said.

After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel  which killed roughly 1,200 and thrust the region into an ongoing war  the school, its faculty and much of the student body responded by increasing the volume and intensity of their anti-Israel rhetoric and protests, the complaint said.

Roughly a week following the act of terror, an associate professor at the school posted an anti-Israeli rant on social media that drew international headlines.

Israelis are pigs. Savages. Very very bad people. Irredeemable excrement, said the post, though the professor apologized the next day on social media. The propaganda has been downright evil. After the past week, if your eyes arent open to the crimes against humanity that Israel is committing and has committed for decades, and will continue to commit, then I suggest you open them. Its disgusting and grotesque. May they all rot in hell.

The lawsuit said Canel shared with a school leader the many ways the Hamas attack had had an impact on her: Her friends younger sister was killed at the Nova music festival in Israel, her rabbis nephew was killed in combat, and her parents living at the northern border were preparing for the possibility of further escalation of violence.

Canel wrote to several SAIC leaders and shared that professors social media message, asking if she was safe attending school at SAIC, the complaint said.

Violent words often lead to actual violence. How can I be safe? Canel asked them, according to the complaint.

Despite Shirans repeated attempts to gain some measure of security from SAIC, the school never responded, the lawsuit said. As far as Shiran knows, SAIC took no action to address the concern regarding her safety on campus.

An SAIC official told the Tribune the associate professor who wrote the social media post is no longer employed at the school but would give no other information, citing personnel matters.

In mid-November, two faculty members announced they would be combining morning and afternoon classes to create a communal space for all of us to hold each other accountable through art, writing, and witness reading, the lawsuit said. Canel wrote to her class that she would not attend this communal space, expressing fears to faculty that discussion would center on the Middle East and the session resembled a medieval anti-Jewish disputation,' the lawsuit said.

Canels professor and another faculty member in a call told Canel they would do their best to not allow class time to devolve in the manner Shiran feared it would, and Canel agreed to participate, the lawsuit said.

Nevertheless, the joint class spiraled precisely as Shiran feared, the complaint said. One classmate launched into a diatribe describing her hate and anger toward those who reject her narrative of an ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The faculty members sat silently, making no effort to curb the very behavior they promised to Shiran would not occur in class, the complaint said. Shiran too sat silently, stunned that her professors would so blatantly mislead her.

Formal investigation

Around the same time, another student working with Canel on a project that included a presentation about Hebrew and Arabic calligraphy announced she would not work with Canel because she was simply unable to work closely with any individual who denies the genocide so clearly taking place before us, the lawsuit said.

The student informed Canel that the classs professor graciously offered to allow us to split our presentation in half enabling us to present individually rather than jointly, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges the school and the professor facilitated the other students discriminatory refusal to work with Canel, and the presentation suffered.

The professor gave Canel a failing mark on professionalism: collegial and interpersonal skills on the presentation as well as a final peer evaluation, the complaint said.

The feedback shared by Shirans classmates revealed their bias against her, the lawsuit said. Some classmates expressly acknowledged that most of (their) feedback has to do with outside factors.'

Overall, it seems that there was some discomfort during your presentation, her professor added, according to the lawsuit.

By mid-November, Canel had submitted several complaints to SAIC faculty and leaders regarding the increasing harassment and hostility, the lawsuit said. In early December, she informed SAIC attorneys that she wanted to initiate a formal process to investigate her claims of discrimination by SAIC faculty, including her professor.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Loop on Jan. 4, 2024.

Two days later, her professor announced a change to the classs final assignment 10 days before it was due, the lawsuit said. The assignment instructed the class to review images provided by the professor  many of which were explicitly about Israelis, the lawsuit said.

Outrageously, although not surprisingly, the material was uniquely targeted at Shiran, the lawsuit added.

The assignment explained that images in one part contained depictions of gun, violence, truma (sic), displacement and colonization from childrens view,' the lawsuit said.

Here, again, (the professor) chose a collection of drawings  which pertained exclusively to the Israeli military and Israeli soldiers engaged in seemingly senseless violence against Gazan families and children, even smiling while shooting, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit added, a preface to the assignment included the statement: As therapists, we dont censor what clients bring to the sessions. We must stay impartial. Often, we encounter clients cultures, upbringing, experiences, values and belief systems that are very dierent (sic) from our own. Sometimes we can also work with clients experiences/backgrounds that are too close to home and we need to deal with our own complicated feelings, internalized racism/ableism/homophobia/supremacy and countertransference, etc.  Can you keep it professional and still empathize with clients even when the content of their art upsets or triggers you?

The sudden change in assignment and selection of an overwhelming amount of images about Israelis was a transparently deliberate effort to further harass and isolate Shiran, who had just days before requested a formal investigation into (her professors) discriminatory behavior precisely on this basis, the lawsuit said.

After Canel told SAIC lawyers she would seek emergency legal relief if the offensive material was not retracted, SAIC directed the professor to remove one part of the assignment in mid-December; but the professor found ways to continue targeting Shiran and discriminating against her, the lawsuit said.

Rising antisemitism

The school includes about 75 Jewish undergraduate students and 20 graduate students, roughly 3% of the student body, according to Hillel International, a Jewish organization at the school.

Charles Cohen, executive director of Metro Chicago Hillel, said hes aware of Canels lawsuit.

Hopefully we can come to a resolution that best meets the needs of Jewish students at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he said.

Cohen described other troubling events allegedly targeting Jewish students at the School of the Art Institute prior to Canels enrollment, which were also cited in the lawsuit.

In 2018, a Jewish student asked whether matzah or kosher food would be available in the school cafeteria during Passover, the lawsuit said.

The school responded that there wouldnt be and indicated that advertising kosher food may make some students uncomfortable, the lawsuit said.

That same year, a teacher of philosophy of sex allegedly used antisemitic language during class, including the phrase dirty Jew, according to the lawsuit.

Weve tried in different ways to work with the administration over the years to address these issues when theyve come up, Cohen added. Unfortunately, at SAIC there have been several incidents over the past few years and its been much more substantial, much more visible since Oct. 7. These are patterns that weve seen on many of our campuses at Hillels across North America.

The lawsuit argues SAIC  which has received millions of dollars in government grants and contract revenue over the past several years  violated the Illinois Human Rights Act and Title VI, which bars discrimination by institutions and programs receiving federal financial assistance.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and injunctive relief preventing (the school) and its agents from policies and practices that discriminate against Jewish or Israeli students, which could include terminating employees responsible for antisemitic discrimination and expelling students who engage in discriminatory or antisemitic conduct.

Shiran wanted to attend SAIC to explore how she could use art education to make a positive difference in the world, said her attorney Steven Blonder, with the Chicago law firm Much Shelist. She deserves the opportunity to learn without fearing for her safety.

Nationwide, antisemitism has spiked following the Israel-Hamas war. The Anti-Defamation League tracked roughly 300 antisemitic incidents in a little over two weeks after the Hamas attack, a 388% increase over the same period in 2022. An ADL report in November said 73% of Jewish college students surveyed reported seeing or experiencing some form of antisemitism since the start of the school year.

Several Illinois colleges and universities have tried to address this surge in hate targeting Jews, as well as a parallel rise in anti-Arab sentiment and Islamophobia on college campuses.

Northwestern University President Michael Schill in November announced a new advisory committee designed to prevent antisemitism and hate on campus, adding in a statement that he has heard from students and parents who feel unsafe since the Israel-Hamas war began.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement in late October that, while most vigils and protests amid the war had been peaceful, there were events where actions and words of some participants were seen as calls for violence.

Expressions of antisemitism or Islamophobia or hatred and harm against any individual or groups are antithetical to our university values, the statement said. We are a university that prides itself on its efforts to foster inclusion and respect, and we condemn these messages that are contrary to our mutual values of inclusion and tolerance.

eleventis@chicagotribune.com
Thousands of Alaska Airlines passengers remain stranded after part of an aircraft blew off mid-flight.

Alaska says the logjam of canceled flights likely wont end for a few more days.

Some 25,000 passengers learned their flights were canceled Sunday after the FAA re-grounded all 737 MAX 9 aircraft. On Monday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, roughly 80 Alaska flights had been cancelled as of the early morning hours.

This comes two days after Alaskas flight 1282 was forced to return to Portland when part of the fuselage blew out shortly after takeoff.

No one was seriously injured in all of this, but a lot of people are still trying to get to their destinations. And some are taking it better than others.

Alaska canceled 10 more flights Sunday than Saturday, although the crowds are lighter. That probably means a lot of people never came here at all. But some people had no choice because they arrived here for their connecting flights.

It was canceled yesterday when we flew in from Alaska, said Billy Ray.

Ray was in mid-flight when their connecting flight to Atlanta was canceled.

And they rescheduled us to fly out today, hopefully, Ray said.

He was asked if he was confident, they might go Sunday. I hope so.

His wife, Patricia Ann, expressed the same emotion.

I hope so, she said. Im going to a conference.

And I sure would like to make it there, she continued.

As soon as we got off, we turned the airplane mode off and we saw that it was canceled, said Kelli Turnbow.

Got a text, said her husband, Kerry, that said our flight had been canceled.

And thats just one concern of the couple trying to get home to Arkansas.

Whats really crazy is the flight from Honolulu to Seattle was also a MAX plane, said Kelli. And the accident had happened before we had taken off from Honolulu.

They never even canceled our flight, she continued.

Something she says isnt happy about.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was forced to return to Portland Friday when a so-called door plug that wasnt in use blew off in mid-flight.

The airline says it immediately grounded all of its 65 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, some 20% of its fleet. The next day, the airline put 18 planes back into service after inspecting them.

However, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all the MAX 9s grounded to be inspected further.

So, I was trying to catch a flight to Cleveland yesterday, which got canceled and then rescheduled today, said passenger Daniel Severin.

It has kept the Covington man grounded, too.

Now Im probably going to miss my connecting flight in Chicago, he said, smiling. So, trying to figure out if I can still get there tonight.

Hey, well see. Worst case scenario just got to go home, I guess, he added.
Consequences of the Russian missile attack on Kharkiv Oblast

Two people are injured and two are trapped under the rubble after the Russian military targeted a private residence in Zmiiv, Kharkiv Oblast, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov reported.

The two injured are receiving medical assistance, as emergency services are looking to locate those trapped in the rubble.

 /Telegram

Read also: Russian shelling of Pokrovsk injures at least 6, 3 more possibly trapped under rubble

Kharkiv has been targeted at least four times on the morning of Jan. 8, he added. The weapons used are still being clarified.

"No casualties are currently being reported. Information is being updated," he wrote at the time.

 /Telegram

He urged people to stay in shelters.

The morning for Kharkiv residents began with an explosion, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported.

"More strikes are possible, so I urge everyone to be careful," he stated.

Read also: Kharkiv governor warns of intensified Russian attacks on energy infrastructure amid worsening weather conditions

Russia launched another multi-wave missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight on Jan. 8. Explosions have been heard in Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Khmelnystskyi oblasts.

This story is developing.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Police in the US killed at least 1,232 people last year, making 2023 the deadliest year for homicides committed by law enforcement in more than a decade, according to newly released data.

Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group, catalogs deaths at the hands of police and last year recorded the highest number of killings since its national tracking began in 2013. The data suggests a systemic crisis and a remarkably consistent pattern, with an average of roughly three people killed by officers each day, with slight upticks in recent years.

Related: Police killed Niani Finlayson seconds after responding to her 911 call, video shows

The group recorded 30 more deaths in 2023 than the previous year, with 1,202 people killed in 2022; 1,148 in 2021; 1,160 in 2020; and 1,098 in 2019. The numbers include shooting victims, as well as people fatally shocked by a stun gun, beaten or restrained. The 2023 count is preliminary, and cases could be added as the database is updated.

High-profile 2023 cases included the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in Memphis; the tasing of Keenan Anderson in Los Angeles; and the shooting in Lancaster, California, of Niani Finlayson, who had called 911 for help over domestic violence. There were hundreds more who garnered little attention, including Ricky Cobb, shot by a Minnesota trooper after he was pulled over for a tail light violation; Tahmon Kenneth Wilson, unarmed and shot outside a Bay Area cannabis dispensary; and Isidra Clara Castillo, killed when police in Amarillo, Texas, fired at someone else in the same car as her.

Here are some key takeaways from the data and experts insight into why US police continue to kill civilians at a rate an order of magnitude higher than comparable nations.

Police violence is increasing as murders are falling

The record number of police killings happened in a year that saw a significant decrease in homicides, according to preliminary reports of 2023 murder rates; one analyst said the roughly 13% decrease in homicides last year appears to be the largest year-to-year drop on record, and reports have also signaled drops in other violent and property crimes.

Violence is trending downwards at an unprecedented rate, but the exception to that seems to be the police, who are engaging in more violence each year, said Samuel Sinyangwe, a policy analyst and data scientist who founded Mapping Police Violence. It hits home that many of the promises and actions made after the murder of George Floyd dont appear to have reduced police violence on a nationwide level.

Some advocates say the lack of systemic reforms and continued expansion of police forces have helped sustain the high rates. Polls show most Americans believe crime is rising, and amid voter concerns about safety and violence, municipalities have continued to increase police budgets.

Monifa Bandele, an activist on the leadership team for the Movement for Black Lives, said that while state and local governments continue to rely on police to address mental health crises, domestic disputes and other social problems, killings will continue: The more police you put on the streets to interact with members of my community, the greater the risk of harm, abuse and death.

Many people were killed while trying to flee police

The circumstances behind the 2023 killings mirrored past trends. Last year, 445 people killed by police had been fleeing, representing 36% of all cases. There have been efforts across the country to prevent police from shooting at fleeing cars and people, recognizing the danger to the public. But the rates have been steady in recent years, with one in three killings involving people fleeing.

Related: California police show severe racial bias in stops and searches, data finds

The underlying reasons for the encounters were also consistent. In 2023, 139 killings (11%) involved claims a person was seen with a weapon; 107 (9%) began as traffic violations; 100 (8%) were mental health or welfare checks; 79 (6%) were domestic disturbances; 73 (6%) were cases where no offenses were alleged; 265 (22%) involved other alleged nonviolent offenses; and 469 (38%) involved claims of violent offenses or more serious crimes.

The majority of cases have not originated from reported violent crimes. The police are routinely called into situations where there was no violence until police arrived and the situation escalated, Sinyangwe said.

Sheriffs departments and rural regions are driving the increase

In 2023, there were more killings by police in rural zip codes (319 cases, or 26% of killings) than in urban ones (292 cases, or 24%); the remainder of killings were in suburban areas, with a handful of cases undetermined. This marks a shift from previous years when the number of killings in cities outpaced rural deaths.

County sheriffs departments, which tend to have jurisdiction over more rural and suburban areas and face less oversight, were responsible for 32% of killings last year; 10 years prior, sheriffs were involved in only 26% of killings.

Black Americans were killed at much higher rates

In 2023, Black people were killed at a rate 2.6 times higher than white people, Mapping Police Violence found. Last year, 290 people killed by police were Black, making up 23.5% of victims, while Black Americans make up roughly 14% of the total population. Native Americans were killed at a rate 2.2 times greater than white people, and Latinos were killed at a rate 1.3 times greater.

Black and brown people have also consistently been more likely to be killed while fleeing. From 2013 to 2023, 39% of Black people who were killed by police had been fleeing, typically either running or driving away. That figure is 35% for Latinos, 33% for Native Americans, 29% for white people and 22% for Asian Americans.

Albuquerque and New Mexico had the deadliest rates

Police in New Mexico killed 23 people last year, making it the state with the highest number of fatalities per capita, with a rate of 10.9 killings per 1 million residents, Mapping Police Violence found.

In one New Mexico case in April, Farmington officers showed up to the wrong house and killed the resident, Robert Dotson, when he opened the door with a handgun. In November, an officer in Las Cruces near the border fatally shot Teresa Gomez after he questioned why she was parked outside a public housing complex.

Albuquerque, New Mexicos most populous city, also ranked highest in killings per capita among the countrys 50 largest cities. Albuquerque police killed six people in 2023, while many cities with substantially larger populations, including San Jose and Honolulu, each killed only one civilian last year. Some advocates have said gun culture in the state, particularly in rural areas, could be a factor in the high rates of police violence.

Related: Federal database will track misconduct records of US law enforcement officers

A spokesperson for the New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, said in an email that she was committed to promoting professional and constitutional policing, and noted the governor signed a bill into law last year aimed at increased accountability for those in this critical profession. SB19 established a duty to intervene when officers witness certain unlawful uses of force; prohibited neck restraints and firing at fleeing vehicles; and required the establishment of a public police misconduct database.

Spokespeople for Albuquerque police did not respond to an inquiry on Friday.

Few officers face accountability

From 2013 to 2022, 98% of police killings have not resulted in officers facing charges, Mapping Police Violence reported.

This contributes to the steady rate of violence, said Joanna Schwartz, University of California, Los Angeles law professor and expert on how officers evade accountability for misconduct: Even with public attention to police killings in recent years and unprecedented community engagement, its really business as usual. That means tremendous discretion given to police to use force whenever they believe its appropriate, very limited federal and state oversight of policing, and union agreements across the country that make it very difficult to effectively investigate, discipline or fire officers.

Problem officers with repeated brutality incidents or killings frequently remain on the force or get jobs in other departments, she noted.

Some cities experienced decreases in lethal force

Some cities with histories of police brutality had notably few killings in 2023. St Louis police killed one person last year, and there were no killings recorded by Minneapolis, Seattle or Boston police.

It suggests that even places with longstanding issues can see improvement. Its not fixed that they always have to be this way, Sinyangwe said.

Bandele noted that community violence prevention programs have helped reduce reliance on police and limit vulnerable peoples exposure to potentially lethal encounters. Denver has received national attention for its program sending civilian responders to mental health calls instead of police. A Brooklyn neighborhood last year experimented with civilian responders to 911 calls.

Every week, someone who needs mental health care ends up killed by police, Bandele said. But there are alternative ways to respond.
Military families in the coming year can expect to see stronger protections for their tenant rights as part of the latest defense policy law enacted in December.

A new housing-focused working group, created by the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act enacted Dec. 22, will also offer troops and their spouses the chance to more directly shape living conditions across the military.

The changes aim to crack down on shoddy and sometimes hazardous living conditions in military-run family housing managed by private landlords, where congressionally mandated reforms have failed to fully curb recurring bouts of mold, rodent infestations, leaks and other issues in troops homes. There are about 203,000 privatized housing units across the U.S. military.

I really believe that any attention and focus on the issues in military housing will be beneficial to families, Rachel Christian, chairwoman of the board and co-founder of the nonprofit Armed Forces Housing Advocates told Military Times. This is far better than what we saw just a few years ago.

The Pentagon may soon start inviting service members and spouses to sign up for the new housing working group, though its unclear when the panel will begin holding meetings.

The group must meet at least twice a year to review military housing policies and pitch improvements on issues ranging from home inspection practices and resident surveys, to special needs accommodations and other support services.

While lawmakers initially sought to create a separate housing council within the Defense Department, the final law places the new panel under the Pentagons Military Family Readiness Council.

Chaired by the Pentagons assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment, the working group must include troops and spouses from each branch of the military. At least two enlisted members and two spouses of enlisted troops must sit on the panel.

Rounding out the working group are the head of the Pentagons military family readiness policy office; one base commander from the departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force, or another base-level senior official who oversees public works or civil engineering at that installation; and a defense secretary-appointed representative of the organizations that certify staff to handle building maintenance, inspections or restoration.

In a statement to Military Times, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., praised the working group as a forum to hold the Pentagon and housing providers accountable.

Military families have turned to DOD for help when their homes were unsafe or filled with mold, only to feel ignored for too long  but that ends now, said Warren, who chairs the personnel subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Each of the U.S. militarys 14 privatized housing landlords will also be invited to send one representative to at least one meeting each year.

Those companies  like Balfour Beatty Communities, Lendlease and Liberty Military Housing  are responsible for 78 privatized family housing projects at 192 installations. The contractors own and operate 99% of military family housing at domestic bases, spanning 34 Army projects, 31 Air Force projects, and 13 Navy and Marine Corps projects. The U.S. government owns, operates and maintains military family housing overseas.

Privatized housing companies have worked with officials across the U.S. military to boost transparency and accountability among those responsible for maintaining service members homes, as well as the quality of life for tenants of those properties.

Still, some residents have continued to complain about how private landlords have responded to problems that can make daily life uncomfortable at best and potentially deadly at worst, and whether the companies are complying with a tenant bill of rights that took effect in 2020.

The Military Housing Association, which represents privatized housing companies, told Military Times it strongly supports policies that protect tenant rights.

Our members look forward to participating in the housing working group to advance our mission and continuously improve the quality and sustainability of military family housing communities, the association said in a statement.

The association, whose members include seven of the 14 private landlords, said the companies work closely with residents, lawmakers and military officials to ensure their communities deliver safe and positive housing experiences and high-quality services.

Phillip Carpenter, chief operating officer of Lendlease Communities, said in a statement to Military Times that company officials are pleased to see that military housing developers will be formally judged on their adherence to the tenant bill of rights. The company is not a member of the Military Housing Association.

Lendlease was the first to fully implement the entire bill of rights, Carpenter said, and has taken the additional step of creating resident advisory boards at each installation with Lendlease homes to improve communication with residents.

Lendlease looks forward to participating in the housing working group in whatever way is most beneficial, Carpenter said.

Troops and their families have also questioned the effectiveness of the Defense Departments oversight of those privatized housing companies. Their concerns have prompted additional congressional hearings and further investigations by the Government Accountability Office and the Pentagon inspector general.

To help address those worries, lawmakers have changed the office tasked with investigating alleged retaliation against those who report problems with their housing units. Under a new provision in the 2024 NDAA, those cases will now be handled by the Pentagon inspector general, rather than the Defense Departments militarys sustainment boss, because the IG has more expertise, experience and independence when it comes to reprisal investigations, according to one congressional aide. The aide said military spouses have told senators they were getting the run-around when they reported retaliation.

The 2024 NDAA also requires defense officials to:

Include questions about housing in annual military-wide status of forces surveys to assess troops satisfaction with their housing, its affordability and whether it has affected their decision to stay in the military.

Send Congress information on how fully private landlords are following the Pentagons tenant bill of rights. Defense officials must also confirm that companies are complying with those rules before offering bonus pay under any new privatized housing agreements.

Implement all of the GAOs recommendations to strengthen oversight of privatized military housing within one year. The Pentagon must also explain its reasoning if it decides not to adopt those suggestions.

The NDAA also provides additional protections for tenants regarding non-disclosure agreements. Those agreements, also called confidentiality agreements, are legal contracts with privatized housing companies that bar a person from releasing certain information.

While the law already prohibits requiring current or prospective tenants to sign an non-disclosure agreement before they begin, continue or end a lease, it didnt apply to agreements proposed as part of litigation.

Now, if a tenant is being offered a non-disclosure agreement as part of a potential, ongoing or ended court case, they must be told that they have the right to seek legal counsel for advice on entering that agreement within 10 business days, according to the NDAA.

There is still work to be done, but I think there has been a remarkable amount of change for the better in just these past five years, Christian said.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  A 22-year-old landscaper died after a large tree branch fell and struck him over the weekend, the Collier County Sheriffs Office said.

Deputies said they received a call just before 10 a.m. about a tree trimmer accident at a home on 93 Caribbean Road in Naples.

Officials said a worker was struck and killed by a large branch. Another worker fell off the tree when the branch came down. They were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Deputies didnt release either of the landscapers names.

The sheriffs office said both landscapers worked for a company out of Bonita Springs, which was not named.

No other details were available.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
25 Investigates has learned Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey plans to announce emergency budget cuts following six straight months of lower-than-projected revenues, according to multiple sources. Boston 25 News has been tracking declining state revenues.

MA tax revenues for April drop $2.2 billion below last year

An announcement is expected early this week.

The Governor has the authority to make such cuts under Section 9C of the Massachusetts constitution. When projections fall short of revenue, the Governor can make emergency cuts to balance the budget.

As of December 2023, the revenues were $769 million less than the year-to-date benchmark. The Governor is targeting cuts that will total around $375 million. There are likely other initiatives in place to make up for the shortfall without impacting the budgets of core programs.

Sources who were briefed on the 9C cuts Sunday told 25 Investigates the cuts will come to locally earmarked funds. They anticipate 50% cuts to those local earmarks.

Though its not a total loss, sources say these are targeted community needs and community programs.

In a statement, Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz said, In light of revenue collections coming in lower than the benchmark over the first six months of the fiscal year, Governor Healey has directed me to evaluate any and all necessary steps to ensure that the FY24 budget can be balanced at the end of the fiscal year. We will provide more information in short order.

25 Investigates has reached out to the Governors office about the 9C cuts, but they would not comment at this time.

Boston 25 News will update this story as it develops.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
At least 27 people were injured, including five children, after the blast wave from a Russian rocket knocked over a minibus in Novomoskovsk, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, regional governor Serhiy Lysak reported on Telegram on Jan. 8.

Boys aged 4 and 8, and girls aged, 11, 16, and 17, were injured in the attack. 11 people were hospitalized, including four children.

Earlier reports said 24 people were injured.

The attack also caused a fire to break out, though it has since been extinguished, Lysak said. Three administrative buildings, two gas stations, a five-story building, and a car were also damaged.

Russia launched another multi-wave missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight on Jan. 8. Explosions have been heard in Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Khmelnytsky oblasts.

A 63-year-old woman was killed when the Russians hit a private house in Zmiiv, Kharkiv Oblast early on Jan. 8, resulting in at least two other injuries, Kharkiv regional governor, Oleh Synehubov, reported.

Four residents were injured due to an attack in Zaporizhzhya.

At least two people were killed in Russias missile attack on Khmelnytsky Oblast, the regional administration announced.

One person was killed in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast after Russia targeted a shopping center and residential neighborhood in the city, the regional administration announced.

Russia launched at least four strikes on Kharkiv, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov reported on Telegram. The weapons used in the assault are still under investigation.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Authorities have launched an investigation after an abandoned 35-foot boat ran aground at Dockweiler State Beach.

According to the Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division, first responders discovered the vessel at 1:50 a.m. Saturday morning.

After further investigation, it was determined that it matched the description of a vessel that was anchored and abandoned outside the surfline just days prior, the fire departments Lifeguard Division said on Instagram.

35-foot boat found abandoned at L.A. beach

The owner of the boat has not been identified and an effort to locate them is underway, officials said.

The vessel is also being removed from the shoreline, and the public is asked to stay away from the abandoned boat and the surrounding area until removal is completed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
On Memorial Day weekend in 2006, Kimberly Harris was home with her 17-year-old son when she said she heard a barrage of gunfire nearby.

The shooting at West 85th and South Honore streets left one person dead. Though she didnt know it at the time, the act of violence would also alter the course of her life and that of her teenage son.

Word soon began circulating that her son, Andre Mosley, was the shooter, Harris said, though she believes the actual killer was a relative. When the shots were fired, her son was home playing video games with a friend, she said. She felt he had nothing to hide.

So when she learned detectives were looking for him, she took him to the police station hoping he would be quickly cleared. Instead, the teenager never came home.

Mosley was convicted of murder largely on the initial statements of a witness to the shooting, who at trial recanted his testimony and told the jury his statement was coerced by detectives, according to trial transcripts.

He identified Mosley as the shooter after about 30 hours in custody in which he said he was handcuffed, given only a breakfast sandwich and threatened to be charged with the crime himself if he did not name Mosley, according to a post-conviction petition filed by Mosley.

One of the detectives in question  Brian Forberg, who retired last year  has become a flashpoint at the Leighton Criminal Court Building of late, with multiple protests springing up and drawing attention to his cases. Defense attorneys have identified at least a dozen defendants who have accused Forberg and other detectives of misconduct, including coercing witnesses into falsely implicating people in murders and other serious felonies.

A review of hundreds of pages of court documents and police complaints revealed repeated allegations of coercion, including withholding food and water, threatening to take away children and, in the most serious cases, allegations of beatings.

Further, the so-called Forberg cases have raised concerns about conflicts of interest in the Cook County states attorneys office because Forberg was married to an assistant states attorney who, per documents filed by the office, worked closely with the Conviction Integrity Unit, which has been tasked with investigating allegations of misconduct on behalf of Forberg.

The unit, which examines potential wrongful convictions, has since been renamed the Conviction Review Unit. Reached by phone, Forberg said he had no comment.

A spokeswoman with the states attorneys office confirmed that the offices Conviction Review Unit is examining two Forberg cases  Mosleys and the case against Kevin Jackson  but said the office couldnt comment further. A spokeswoman with the Chicago Police Department declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Its not surprising that states attorneys would fraternize with police detectives because they do work together all the time, said Elizabeth Bacon, an attorney handling one of the cases. The problem is a complete lack of sensitivity and frankly professional ethics in terms of separating these conflicted attorneys from matters that come before the states attorneys office.

Closers

Forberg was hired by the Chicago Police Department in 1995, launching a nearly three-decade career there, and he retired in October, according to state law enforcement records.

As a detective, Forberg and his often partner John Foster were known as closers, Bacon said, with the department bringing them in on difficult cases. Records show the detectives collaborated on cases throughout the 2000s, their work bringing in convictions, many of which were reliant on eyewitness testimony.

Their convictions have been under increasing scrutiny, though, beset by accusations of misconduct in civil and criminal complaints and motions in multiple cases.

Among the allegations:

 Following his detention in 2001 connection to a homicide, Gregory Minniefield alleged, according to court documents, that he was taken into custody by Forberg and Foster, then beaten by Foster after attesting that he did not want to speak to police without a lawyer. He said Foster put a phone book against his chest and punched him until he threw up and started wheezing. Foster denied the allegations at the time, according to transcripts.

How many times do you think he punched you? his attorney asked during a hearing to suppress statements he made to police. Minniefield replied, according to the transcript, A good four or five times, adding that he told the detectives that he couldnt breathe.

Minniefield is serving a 50-year sentence for murder.

 A woman questioned in connection with a 2006 shooting death alleged in a lawsuit filed against the city that she urinated in an interrogation room after many hours of questioning by Forberg and his partner at the time, Kevin Eberle. The detectives, though, maintained that they told her she could take bathroom breaks, according to court documents. After telling the investigators that she did not see her sister shoot the victim, the woman, Lisa Rhodes, eventually changed her story and implicated Sara Bridewell after hours of questioning, according to a ruling by a federal judge in favor of the city. The suit for wrongful arrest was filed after prosecutors dropped charges against Bridewell upon finding problems with the case, the ruling said.

 In a civil suit filed against the city, Maurice Patterson, who spent eight years in prison for murder but later was exonerated, alleged that Forberg and other officers coerced witnesses into implicating him, including a woman who said she was held for three days during which she was deprived of food, water and sleep. The officers intentionally allowed her to overhear which lineup number would ID Patterson, the suit alleged. He settled with the city for $3.4 million.

Maurice Patterson reacts after he is released Oct. 8, 2010, from the Cook County Detention Center after eight years in prison.

Forberg has also been named in nearly three dozen complaints, though the vast majority were not sustained. The complaints range from beatings to arbitrary stops and searches.

At least one involved a complainant who was hospitalized after being questioned by Forberg and Foster while temporarily released into their custody from the Cook County Jail in September 2004. The complaint says that when the inmate was transferred back to the jail after being questioned by police, he was denied reentry and instead taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries to his hand. The inmate told investigators with the Office of Professional Standards that he was beaten by officers while in custody.

The report notes that photographs show no signs of injury before the interrogation, but indicated swelling, redness and bruising to his hand after he was in CPD custody.

Forberg and Foster denied injuring him or seeing any signs of injury, the report said.

The office determined the allegations were unfounded, writing: Although (redacted) was released from Cook County Jail with no injuries, and returned with injuries, it is unclear how (redacted) sustained the injury.

Ill take a lie-detector test

Quina Davis was at a Citgo gas station at 55th Street and Damen Avenue in the early morning on May 6, 2001, when she was shocked to see someone she knew as a Gangster Disciple come out of the station in an area widely thought of as Vice Lords territory, she said.

Her gut instinct told her not to get out of her car, and shortly after, she heard gunshots. The alleged Gangster Disciple escaped without injury, court records say, but two others were shot, including a 54-year-old man who died from his injuries.

She called 911 and gave a statement to officers at the scene. Though she saw the shooter  someone known to her  she held back that detail out of fear of reprisal, she told the Tribune.

Because she had the misfortune to witness a homicide, Davis said, she became the subject of a harassment campaign by Foster and Forberg, as they continually showed up at her mothers house, causing her to move out.

Eventually, she was held in custody for three days, but refused to sign a statement that implicated Jackson, their suspect.

In tears, she offered to do a polygraph test, according to Davis and court records. She was taken to a West Side location to take the test, and she said the detectives told her she failed it afterward. Special prosecutors reinvestigating the case on behalf of the states attorneys office, though, used an expert to review the results of Davis polygraph exam. The expert found that Davis responses indicated truthfulness, a report said.

Im so hysterical, I said, Ill take a lie-detector test because I know I wasnt lying, she said.

She maintained to the detectives that Jackson, with whom she was acquainted, was not at the Citgo on the day of the shooting. Four other witnesses, though, gave statements that implicated Jackson. All of them later recanted at trial, alleging coercion, including a pregnant woman who said the detectives threatened that shed give birth to her child in jail and lose custody if she didnt name their suspect, according to court documents.

In response, prosecutors introduced into evidence the witnesses signed statements and grand jury testimony, as permitted by Illinois law. A jury convicted Jackson, and he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

We turn around and blame these communities for not coming forward when they witness a crime. Well, why would you? said Brandon Clark, one of Jacksons lawyers. Youll either get harassed by police because you wont name the person they want you to, or police arent going to get the right person.

An Illinois appellate court in 2021 denied Jackson the right to file a post-conviction petition, but still raised concerns about the allegations of police misconduct in the case.

I write separately because I am deeply troubled by the recurrence of complaints of serious misconduct by police officers against witnesses and defendants in criminal cases, Supreme Court Justice P. Scott Neville wrote in a concurring opinion. Such allegations call for corrective action to ensure that the methods employed by police in the investigation and prosecution of criminal offenses are both fair and appropriate.

But since that rejection, Jacksons quest for exoneration has heated up in recent months.

His case was reinvestigated by special prosecutors on behalf of the Conviction Integrity Unit after his attorneys raised concerns to Foxx about Forbergs marriage to a prosecutor who worked in the unit.

Jackson is still waiting for a resolution, though.

His sister, Lakisha Jackson, was 15 years old when her brother was arrested. She said she not only lost a brother, but a parental figure who did her braids and cooked meals when her mother worked.

Lakisha Jackson, pictured on Dec. 15, 2023, is the sister of Kevin Jackson, whos among about a dozen people fighting for their convictions to be overturned, alleging misconduct by retired Chicago police Officer Brian Forberg.

Shes frustrated with the witnesses who implicated her brother, but has been urged by her brother to forgive them, she said.

Every day, he tells me hes sorry, she said of one of the witnesses. I try to forgive him every day.

He said my son didnt do it

Testifying in front of a jury in November 2007, Bryant Anderson, then 19, told prosecutors he was handcuffed behind his back, not allowed to sleep in a bed or use the bathroom and was given one sandwich in a daylong period during an interrogation involving Forberg, according to a trial transcript.

Anderson testified that he implicated Mosley, a teen he had known for a few weeks, because Forberg told him he would get charged if he didnt give a name.

Did you see Andre Mosley at the crime scene? Mosleys attorney asked at trial.

No I didnt, Anderson replied.

Mosleys attorney asked Bryant why he changed his story, referencing a signed statement and grand jury testimony that conflicted with the account he gave the jury.

I dont feel, I dont, its not, I dont feel right saying somebody did something they didnt, he replied.

Harris, Mosleys mother, remembers watching this testimony unfold in the courtroom.

He said my son didnt do it, Harris said.

She was dismayed when the jury convicted him anyway. She remembers one of the jurors crying as the panel entered the courtroom to read the verdict. He was sentenced to 57 years in prison.

Largely the only other evidence presented, according to court documents, was testimony from a woman who said she overheard Mosley talking about the shooting, though his attorneys have argued that his original lawyers failed to present witnesses that would have contradicted her statement.

Harris called the mayor, lawmakers, anyone with influence who could help her son. She said he was a quiet boy, still playing with Pokemon cards.

Its like my life has stopped, Harris said.

She blames the detectives and other points of failure in the criminal justice system, but her voice breaks as she describes her own remorse at taking her son to the police station thinking they would clear him.

I knew he was innocent, she said. And I knew they had nothing on him.

A conflict

Mosley continues to fight for his release, and it was during his post-conviction proceedings that Forbergs marriage to the assistant states attorney first came out.

In a motion filed on March 15, 2022, the states attorneys office asked a court to appoint special prosecutors because of the marriage between Forberg and an assistant states attorney.

The prosecutor, Kirsten Ann Olson, died shortly after that, in May 2022, according to an obituary that identifies her as Forbergs wife and an assistant states attorney.

The offices motion says that Olson worked closely with the Conviction Integrity Unit, and noted allegations of misconduct against Forberg.

Jeanette Samuels, Mosleys attorney, also successfully petitioned the court for a special prosecutor. Samuels said the relationship was uncovered when another prosecutor learned of the connection and informed the court.

To find out that she essentially was working in a unit where they were reviewing complaints against this guy all the time  there should have been a conflict check, Samuels said.

Samuels informed attorneys handling other Forberg-related cases about the conflict, including those in Jacksons case, which had been reviewed and rejected by the Conviction Integrity Unit.

Bacon and Clark reached out to the states attorneys office raising concerns, and First Assistant States Attorney Risa Lanier offered a re-review of the case by special prosecutors Thomas Geraghty and Robert Owen, which resulted in a more than 14-month investigation, they said.

In recent days, the attorneys received a heavily redacted version of the report from Geraghty and Owen, who re-interviewed the witnesses in the Jackson case and found that they gave accounts of coercion that were consistent with their prior statements and affidavits. The report noted at least nine other cases with documented allegations of witness coercion by Forberg.

At a hearing Wednesday, prosecutors told a judge they are withdrawing their opposition to the defense motion that petitions for the convictions to be vacated.

New to the case, Judge Angela Petrone said she was not willing to vacate a murder conviction without further acquainting herself with the evidence. She set a court date for February.

Family members watching in the gallery let out cries of frustration.

mabuckley@chicagotribune.com
Russian missile and drone attacks across Ukraine in the early morning of Jan. 8 killed four people and injured 45, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in the evening.

Earlier reports estimated the number of wounded to be at least 30.

Zelensky said the casualties were reported in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Khmelnytskyi oblasts.

Russia launched a total of 59 missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight and in the morning, according to the Air Force. Ukraine's air defenses reportedly shot down 18 Kh-101/Kh-555/Kh-55 cruise missiles and eight Shahed drones.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko also gave an update on the Jan. 6 Russian attack on Donetsk Oblast that killed 11 people, including five children.

Klymenko said that search and rescue operations had concluded, and confirmed that the death toll stood at 11.

He added that five of the people killed had been identified, including a three-year-girl and her parents, aged 32 and 30.

The bodies of a 34-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman were also identified.

Klymenko said that work to identify body fragments was still ongoing.

Read also: Russia unleashes morning airstrikes on Ukraine, killing 4, injuring over 30

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
An Indiana woman was sentenced to 42 years in prison after officials say she failed to protect her 4-year-old son from abuse that ultimately led to his death.

In a dark basement, naked and bound with duct tape, is where and how 4-year-old Judah Morgan spent many days, according to court documents. It was his punishment for not being potty trained, an affidavit said.

The abuse was discovered after police were called to his home in Hamlet on Oct. 11, 2021, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in the LaPorte Circuit Court. Someone called 911 reporting the boy was unconscious and not breathing, court records said.

LaPorte County Sheriffs deputies were told the boys father, Alan Morgan, physically assaulted Judah. Five minutes later, dispatch received another call from Judahs mother, Mary Yoder, saying Morgan lost his temper and hurt Judah and that he might flee, officials said.

When deputies arrived at the home, they said Morgan was gone. Inside, they found Judah in a bedroom, naked and covered in a blanket with bruises all over his body. Judah had no pulse and was cold to the touch, court records said.

After speaking with Yoder and other children in the home, officials say they learned Judah spent time in the basement as punishment. Yoder said she and Morgan would take Judah there, officials said.

Yoder said Morgan would physically beat Judah as she would say thats enough or leave him alone. Officials say the lights were purposely turned off in the basement as a scare tactic, and Judah wouldnt be allowed to eat at times, according to the affidavit.

Judah would be kept in the basement for days, Yoder told officials, according to court records. She said the boy was forced to stay down there naked with no bed but was given a fuzzy blanket, according to officials.

In the basement, detectives found pieces of silver and camouflage duct tape, an infant toilet and a blanket, court records said.

Mary made comments that she couldve put a stop to this but didnt, the affidavit said.

Detectives later discovered that about 30 minutes before Yoder called 911, she called and sent messages to Morgans brother saying Morgan needed his help for a serious emergency.

I mean, I kind of hate him right now, I mean, I have every right to, I guess. But I still dont want him to kill himself, you know, I dont need two people gone in one day, one message said, according to court documents.

McClatchy News reached out to Yoders attorney Jan. 8 but did not immediately hear back.

An autopsy determined Judah died from blunt force head trauma.

Judahs foster mother, Jenna Hullett, who is also his second cousin, has filed a lawsuit against Indianas Department of Child Services, WNDU reported.

Judah lived with Hullett for years, before a court ordered he go back with his parents in April 2021, WTHR reported. Seven months later, he was found dead.

They made the decision to put Judah in that home knowing things that were red flags, knowing things that I had told them, knowing Judah had told them, videos that I had sent them of Judah telling me that he was afraid that Mary would hurt him. I have all kinds of evidence to prove that he should have never been placed in that home, Hullet told WNDU.

In November 2022, Morgan pleaded guilty to charges of murder and battery. He was sentenced to 68 years, court records show.

Contact information for Morgans attorney was not available in court records.

Yoder pleaded guilty to charges of neglect of a dependent and domestic battery in August. She was sentenced Jan 5. and will serve her time in the Indiana Department of Correction, WRTV reported.

4-year-old homicide victim beaten by dad for not being potty trained, Indiana cops say

Mom fatally shoots her sons in bed and leaves note for police to find them, PA cops say

Man kills girlfriend and shoots her family in fight over shoes and laundry, CT police say
45 people were injured in the Russian large-scale attack on 8 January, and 4 people have been reported dead.

Source: Zelenskyys video address on 8 January

Quote: "This morning, unfortunately, began with a large-scale missile attack once again. Kharkiv and the oblast, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, Khmelnytskyi Oblast. 45 people were injured, and as of this time, four people have been reported dead. My condolences to the families and friends! The terrorist state will definitely feel our response."

Details: According to Zelenskyy, emergency and rescue operations are still underway in Donetsk, Kherson, and Khmelnytskyi oblasts after the Russian army's attacks.

Ukraine's President also said that he had held a meeting on further international agenda and announced an eventful month in foreign policy.

Quote: "Many steps will be taken, and I am confident that we will be able to strengthen our state. Our air defence system. Our work with partners on drones. As well as on sanctions against Russia, those that have already been imposed... It is vital to eliminate any possible schemes to circumvent sanctions. We are also working on new sanctions: the architecture of pressure on Russia must be strengthened.

And another priority is to expedite practical decisions for the use of Russian assets in the interests of Ukraine and their subsequent confiscation to restore justice."

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An Illinois appellate court upheld a record $3 million jury award after finding sufficient evidence that two Chicago police officers cared more about going home for the day than protecting a domestic violence victim who was killed by her alleged abuser a short time later.

In a strongly worded opinion released late last week, 1st District appellate justices ruled the CPD officers did not use all reasonable means to prevent  abuse, neglect or exploitation when responding to a domestic violence call at Vanessa Taylors West Side apartment on June 28, 2015.

Records show that when police arrived at the home, they saw Taylors boyfriend, James Thomas, holding a Samurai sword and appearing to make Molotov cocktails. Officers took the man, who had been hearing voices and trying to start grease fires in the apartment, to a hospital, where they strapped him to a bed and then left him there.

Thomas was treated with an antipsychotic drug and released early the next morning, according to court documents. He returned to Taylors apartment and on June 30  about 25 hours after the initial 911 call for help  and allegedly strangled the 49-year-old mother of five with a cable cord.

We find that the officers failure to fulfill their duties under the (states Domestic Violence) Act was a substantial factor in bringing about Vanessas death, the opinion states.

A Cook County jury took less than two hours in 2022 to find the city liable for Taylors death and awarded her estate $3 million, which is believed to be a record civil judgment under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act. The appellate court upheld their decision, finding the cops who responded to her home showed utter indifference to or conscious disregard for her safety.

In a 39-page ruling, Justice Sanjay Tailor listed several steps the officers should have taken under Illinois law to help ensure Taylors well-being, including informing her about orders of protection, referring her to a social service agency and taking her to a nearby domestic shelter. He also faulted the officers for not ensuring the medical staff understood the dangerous behavior Thomas exhibited, which could have factored into the doctors decision to civilly commit him.

Records indicate Taylor had a black eye, but officers treated the situation as a mental health call and did not arrest Thomas. The court listed several charges Thomas could have faced in connection with the incident, particularly after he allegedly cut the gas line in Taylors building and tussled with officers who eventually used a Taser to get him under control.

(The) officers were not necessarily required to arrest Thomas, nor were they permitted to simply walk away shortly after taking Thomas to the hospital, Tailor wrote.

In perhaps the most damning passage, the justices found sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude at least two responding officers were more focused on ending their shifts than helping Taylor. One officer testified her shift ended while she was at the hospital, while another said he was at the end of his shift and about to start his weekend.

The undisputed facts about what actions the officers took and did not take, coupled with the evidence adduced at trial  provided sufficient evidence for the jury to infer that the officers were more interested in going home than in complying with their obligations under the (states Domestic Violence) Act to take reasonable measures to protect Vanessa, the opinion states.

Civil rights attorney Richard Dvorak, who represented Taylors family in the lawsuit, told the Tribune that the appellate ruling sends an unequivocal message about police officers obligations to domestic violence victims. Whenever a law enforcement has reason to believe that a person has been abused, neglected, or exploited by a family or household member, the law requires them to: make an arrest if appropriate, discuss orders of protection, refer the victim to a social service agency and offer to take the victim to a shelter, among other things.

Im really hoping that not only the city of Chicago, but every jurisdiction in Illinois, starts training their officers that these are not mere suggestions in the statute. Theyre mandatory and theres a reason for that, Dvorak said. And if you dont comply, death could very well occur.

The city of Chicago has not decided whether it will appeal the decision, according to a Law Department spokesperson. She also declined to comment on whether the Police Department would institute any changes in light of the appellate opinion.

The Department of Law is reviewing the courts decision and is assessing next steps, spokesperson Kristen Cabanban said in statement.

Thomas was found mentally fit to stand trial for Taylors murder in 2022. He remains in Cook County Jail awaiting trial.

Taylors case drew intense interest from domestic violence advocacy groups, more than a dozen of which submitted legal briefs in support of the original Cook County jury verdict. The ruling marked the second time in less than a week that the 1st District Appellate Court outlined police officers obligations when responding to domestic violence calls and reiterated the steps that must be taken to safeguard a victims well-being.

In an opinion released Dec. 29, justices ruled that a mans family could sue the village of Maywood after police responded to a 2017 domestic violence call in which Lee Anthony Davis son had gone on an aggressive and violent rampage. The son, Gale Jackson, was taken to the hospital and discharged later that night.

He returned to his fathers home and tried to strangle his brother, according to court records. When Davis tried to intervene, Jackson allegedly pushed him down the stairs and caused a fatal injury.

Jackson currently is in Cook County Jail, awaiting trial for his fathers murder.

Cook County Circuit Judge Cheryl Ingram had dismissed the Davis familys lawsuit, saying that officers had taken Jackson to a hospital equipped to handle someone who may be dangerous and that showed the officers acted in good faith in rendering emergency assistance.

The appellate court disagreed and reinstated the case, stating the law required the officers to explain how to obtain an order of protection, offer to take the family to a safe place and summarize other assistance that was available. The family also was not asked if they wanted to press charges against Jackson, which could have stopped him from returning immediately home after being released from the hospital.

Arresting Gale, instead of merely leaving him in the hands of hospital personnel without knowing the outcome of his medical evaluation, would have prevented the predictably tragic events that occurred when Gale was able to return to the residence under his own devices, without sufficient time for his anger to have cooled, the opinion states. Furthermore, arresting someone and obtaining medical care for them are not mutually exclusive choices.

Dvorak  who also represented Davis family in a successful appeal  says the back-to-back appellate decisions make clear that officers cannot hand off their responsibilities when it comes to domestic violence calls.

In both cases, they dropped the men off at the hospital so it wasnt their problem anymore, and they hoped for the best, Dvorak said. But in these kind of volatile domestic violence situations, hoping for the best is not acceptable.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Two weeks before Mayor Paul Young was sworn in he announced plans to keep CJ Davis as the Memphis Police Chief despite the citys nearly 400 homicides last year, skyrocketing car thefts, and soaring business burglaries.

Some people within the city, like community activist Amber Sherman, do not favor the reappointment.

City Council to consider CJ Davis reappointment

At what point are we going to hold her accountable and at what point is he going to hold the whole police department accountable because they are getting lawsuits, after lawsuits, after lawsuits, Sherman said.

Chief Davis, who was first nominated to the position in 2021, by former Mayor Jim Strickland and appointed by the council in a 12 to 1 decision could soon learn if she will maintain her $280,000 salary.

The 13 members of the Memphis City Council will hold the first meeting of the year on Tuesday to discuss the consideration of signing off on the new appointments and reappointments. Davis needs the magic number 7, to vote in favor of keeping her.

Mayor Young says he wants Chief Davis to continue overseeing the police force, but the council will ultimately have the final say.

I think its definitely alarming, Sherman said. This is not what we want and he said on the campaign trail, he was listening to the people. And the people are saying they dont want her as the police chief.

Chief Davis is named in what many are calling a landmark lawsuit. This comes after a $550 million civil suit against Chief Davis, the city of Memphis, and current and former city employees.

The lawsuit was filed by Tyre Nichols mother after her son died following a brutal beating at the hands of Memphis Police.

One year later: What happened after Tyre Nichols brutal traffic stop

During Nichols anniversary vigil, Chief Davis told his mom that there will be justice for her sons death.

WREG has reached out to both Memphis Police and the Mayors office for comment. Well let you know once we hear back.

There will also be updates after the first council meeting on Tuesday.

Memphis murders and homicides 2024

Young stood by his choice for chief Monday and asked City Council to approve Davis reappointment Tuesday.

I believe in this slate of appointees and their ability to deliver on my agenda for our city, he said in a statement. I am asking for the council to approve the slate as presented and to allow this team the opportunity to show the residents of Memphis what we are able to do together under the new administration and my leadership.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
In the heart of the Darien Gap, where the lush jungle teems with the struggles of those seeking a better life, the gravity of the migration crisis unfolds before our eyes. The perilous journey through this central transit route along the Colombia-Panama border is rife with risks  from criminal gang intimidation to tropical diseases. The International Organization of Migration (IOM) recently marked a grim milestone, with half a million individuals crossing this treacherous terrain in a single year, more than double the figure in 2022.

A stronger partnership is needed between the U.S. and Colombia, as well as municipal leaders in destination cities across the U.S., who are seeking to stem the tide of irregular migration, which is outpacing their ability to provide safe housing and social services.

As the former governor of the state of Choco, encompassing part of the Darien Gap, I am familiar with the economic and social drivers of migration in this isolated and underdeveloped region. However, the present-day pressures on the Darien are unlike anything Colombia has ever experienced. A humanitarian crisis is unfolding across the Western Hemisphere. During a recent visit to the Darien alongside New York City Mayor Eric Adams, we attempted to dissuade individuals from undertaking the perilous trek. Many individuals acknowledged the inherent dangers but persisted in their northward journey.

From 2015 to 2021, the majority of arrivals in the Darien were from Haiti or Cuba. In 2023 a significant shift occurred, with an overwhelming number of Venezuelans crossing into Colombia. Colombia has welcomed nearly 3 million Venezuelans, the most of any country, and provided temporary protection status through a bilateral program with U.S. support.

Colombia and the United States share a common perspective that the irregular migration flowing through the Darien Gap represents an unsustainable humanitarian crisis. This is compounded as Colombia becomes a preferred transit country for more people from outside the Western Hemisphere. The crisis is growing. Colombia is engaged in a close collaboration with the U.S., Panama and other regional partners to address the root causes.

While there is no quick fix for this complex challenge, viable solutions exist. Joint efforts with the U.S. are under way to expand safe and legal pathways, exemplified by initiatives like Safe Mobility Offices. These offices facilitate lawful migration for qualifying Cuban, Haitian, and Venezuelan migrants from Colombia to destinations such as the United States and Canada. Establishing a regional framework for legal pathways based on humane treatment is crucial. The U.S. should intensify its collaboration with regional partners to expedite these programs.

Colombia is also urging regional partners to uphold migrants right to work in their countries. Providing migrants with a route to employment is a proven way to transition them from reliance on limited government resources to independence. President Gustavo Petros Total Peace initiative and rural development plan strives to provide economic opportunities and enhance security, diminishing the pressure to migrate. This multifaceted approach is essential for addressing the intricacies of the crisis.

With Venezuelans making up a large number of the migrants crossing the Darien this year, a crucial element of the solution involves improving the circumstances within Venezuela. Tackling the hardships there requires revitalized democratic processes agreed upon by Venezuelan people themselves. Colombia, with its strong democratic institutions, is playing a constructive role and stands ready to continue facilitating a tangible roadmap for solutions.

The U.S. and Colombia are united by a longstanding history of collaboration, and we can best mitigate the humanitarian crisis unfolding at our borders by harnessing our shared values of democracy, human rights, freedom and peace. In that spirit, governors and mayors situated along the irregular migration pathway should unite in pursuing common solutions and steer clear of a zero-sum mentality in order to foster a more secure and compassionate pathway for cross-border movement.

Luis Gilberto Murillo is the ambassador of Colombia to the United States and formerly served as minister of environment and sustainable development and governor of Choco.
Azerbaijani Ecology Minister Mukhtar Babayev, a former executive at the countrys state-owned oil company, will serve as president of the United Nations COP29 climate summit this year, 2023 hosts the United Arab Emirates confirmed.

We look forward to working alongside the COP29 and COP30 Presidencies, and the UNFCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] to build on the transformative and historic success of COP28 and keep 1.5C within reach, the COP28 UAE presidency tweeted.

Babayevs appointment compounded the existing controversy among environmental advocates over the choice of a petrostate to host the summit for the second consecutive year. The UAEs Sultan al-Jaber, the head of the countrys national oil company, served as president of COP28 in 2023 and sparked backlash after saying there was no science behind calls to transition away from fossil fuels.

Despite this, the summit ended in an agreement to transition away from fossil fuels, even as the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries lobbied its members to block such language.

The announcement of Babayev nonetheless sparked dismay from environmental advocates, who said it would make progress impossible.

COP28 was run by oil lobbyists, so its no surprise that the final agreement committed the world to fossil fuels forever. Theres a sense of deja vu setting in  we now have a former oil executive from an authoritarian petrostate in charge of the worlds response to the crisis that fossil fuel firms created, Alice Harrison, Fossil Fuels Campaign Leader at Global Witness, said in a statement Friday.

We again call for the UNFCCC to urgently intervene and kick big polluters out of climate talks, to ensure the talks are held in good faith, and to remove those people who want to make a profit at the expense of the worlds most vulnerable people.

Its more than clear this gathering has been fully co-opted by fossil fuels, tweeted Tara Houska, founder of the Indigenous climate advocacy group Giniw Collective. Is directing our energy to fighting over a conference worthwhile?

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Ukraine's air defenses have successfully intercepted 25 out of 63 Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched missiles fired by Russia, Air Force Spokesperson Yurii Ihnat told reporters.

In 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden described the missile as "impossible to stop," saying "they've just launched their hypersonic missile because it's the only thing they can get through with absolute certainty. As you all know, it's a consequential weapon but with the same warhead on it as any other launched missile."

Russian factories that produce the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile use parts imported from multiple European Union countries, The Insider reported.

Moscow claims the missile reaches an altitude of 20km and uses a ballistic flight path at speeds of up to Mach 10, making it too fast to intercept. But these claims have not proven accurate on the battlefield.

63 Kinzhal missiles have been fired since the full-scale invasion started, and 25 of them have been destroyed. Last spring we obtained the Patriot systems and the ability to destroy air-launched ballistic missiles, Ihnat announced.

On Jan.2, Russia launched a massive air attack on Ukraine, firing 10 Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missiles.

Ukraine's air force says all of them were successfully intercepted.

Read also: Russias Kinzhal missile is not hypersonic. Nor is it invincible

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
An air-raid warning began to extend across Ukraine at around 06:00 on 8 January, with the Ukrainian Air Force confirming missile launches from Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers and MiG-31K fighters. The all-clear was sounded at 08:24, with the air-raid lasting for over two hours.

Source: Ukrainian Air Force; air-raid warnings map.

Quote from the Air Force: "Enemy Su-35/Su-34 activity in the north.

The threat of use of aircraft missile weapons!"

Details: The air-raid warning was issued in 6 oblasts.

At 06:05, a missile was flying across Sumy Oblast towards Poltava Oblast.

At 06:09, a missile was moving across Kharkiv Oblast towards Dnipro Oblast.

At 06:10, an air-raid warning was issued in Kyiv and the Oblast.

The Air Force at 06:10: "Missile danger in the areas where the air-raid warning has been issued!

There is a threat of cruise missile launches from Tu-95MS aircraft.

A total of 11 Tu-95MS strategic bombers are in the air.

Do not ignore the air-raid warning!

Take shelter!"

At 06:17, cruise missile launches from the Caspian Sea were confirmed.

At 06:26, missiles were moving across Sumy Oblast towards Poltava/Cherkasy Oblasts.

At 06:28, a MiG-31K was recorded taking off from Savasleyka airfield in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast [Russia].

At 06:29, a group of missiles in the south of Kyiv Oblast was moving in a westerly direction.

At 06:33, new groups of missiles were detected in the airspace of Sumy Oblast. They were moving in a western direction (Poltava/Kyiv Oblasts).

At 06:36, the missiles were on the border of Kyiv and Cherkasy Oblasts. The vector of movement was towards the west. The missile threat was to Vinnytsia Oblast.

At 06:36, a Kinzhal missile was launched.

At 06:39, a group of missiles was moving through Kharkiv Oblast to Dnipro Oblast.

At 06:40, there was a high-speed target in Dnipro Oblast.

At 06:49, groups of cruise missiles were detected:

Cherkasy Oblast - heading west.

Vinnytsia Oblast - heading towards Khmelnytskyi Oblast.

Kharkiv Oblast - in the direction of Dnipro.

At 06:50, another MiG-31K was recorded taking off from the Savasleyka airfield in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

A second launch of a Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-to-air missile is possible.

At 06:53, the third MiG-31K took off from Savasleyka airfield in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

Ar 06:58, cruise missile groups were detected:

Khmelnytskyi Oblast - in a westerly direction! A threat to Ternopil Oblast.

Cherkasy Oblast - Vinnytsia Oblast - in a south-westerly direction.

More missile launches from a Tu-22m3 were recorded.

At 07:08, the launch of Kinzhals was recorded, and the residents of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih were urged to stay in shelters.

At 07:10, a fourth MiG-31K took off from Savasleyka airfield in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

At 07:16, the Air Force reported that a group of missiles in Ternopil/Lviv Oblasts had changed its direction and was moving towards Khmelnytskyi Oblast. The Air Force urged the residents of Starokostiantyniv and Shepetivka to stay in shelters.

At 07:19 the launch of Kinzhals in the direction of Kyiv was recorded. The residents of Kyiv were urged to stay in shelters.

The ballistic missile threat was in Zaporizhzhia and Chernihiv.

Updated at 08:30: At 08:24 the all-clear was given. The threat lasted for more than two hours.

Reminder: Ukraine's Air Force reported that 13 strategic bombers had taken off from Russias Olenya airfield and warned of a missile threat during the night and morning of 7-8 January.

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An airline has been accused of using a loophole to cheat customers out of compensation on overbooked flights.

Passengers flying with Spanish carrier Vueling are being contacted in advance if their flight has been overbooked, and offered travel vouchers to change their flight.

But travel experts warned that flyers who accept the offer could be missing out on the full compensation owed, including cash payouts and hotels.

Callum Tennant, who was due to fly from Gatwick to Bilbao on January 6, received an email days before he was due to travel, offering a discount of 225 (194) on future bookings if he moved his flight to the next morning.

The email from the airline read: In order to save you having to make last-minute plans, we are offering you the choice of another flight and, in exchange, you will get a discount of 225 per person which you will be able to use for future bookings. Would you be interested?

Mr Tennant said: I wasnt convinced about changing my flight, because it would mean having to get to Gatwick from London at 5.30am. However, 225 seemed too much to refuse.

He accepted the airlines offer, but when the discount code for his flight credit arrived, the terms and conditions stated that the credit must be used on a single booking.

The terms said: This discount code can only be used once and any remaining balance cannot be reused or refunded.

The budget airline, which launched 20 years ago and has grown to be one of Spains biggest, launched its voluntary rebooking policy last year.

Vueling, which owns 124 aircraft, flies to 148 locations and operates more than 530 flights a week.

There are not many bookings available on the Vueling website that cost the full 225 voucher, meaning he felt that it was likely that he would not be able to make full use of the credit.

He said: I feel cheated because I was taking them up on their deal in good faith. But they were completely misleading when they said future bookings.

If Mr Tennant had been unable to board the flight because it was too full, he would have received more compensation than he was offered by Vueling.

Flyers who are bumped or denied boarding to their flight because it is overbooked, are due compensation under UK regulations, as long as they checked in on time.

Depending on how much later their replacement flight arrives, they can be due up to 220 for short-haul flights, and up to 520 for those of more than 3,500km.

But if travellers decide to voluntarily give up their seats, then it is up to them to negotiate with their airline the benefits that they receive in return.

Which? travel expert Jo Rhodes said flyers should think carefully about the benefits being offered by airlines before accepting.

While the benefits offered by an airline may at first seem enticing, you should think carefully about how these measure up against your rights if the decision were taken out of your hands.

She said: If you were denied boarding at the gate youd be entitled to the same care and compensation as if your flight had been cancelled.

A flight voucher for a lesser amount seems rather stingy in comparison  particularly if it can only be used once and all remaining credit is lost.

In 2019 Vueling was named the most delayed airline, with departures delayed by an average of 31 minutes, following French strikes. It improved to 10th place last year according to the latest Which? report, with an average delay of 22 minutes.

A Vueling spokesman confirmed that their volunteering rebooking system is activated when needed to minimise any potential disruption to our clients.

The spokesman continued: The clients that accept this offer can use the discount code in the flight of their choice up until December 2024 as it is indicated in the terms and conditions. Our passengers have the right to not accept this offer and keep their original booking.

The airline offered to allow Mr Tennant to return to his original booking as a one-off.

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A Chicago police officer was shot in the leg after responding to a call of a burglary in the Gold Coast neighborhood early Monday, according to police. A suspect was also wounded in the exchange of gunfire.

Shortly after 4 a.m., police were called to a store on Oak Street for an attempted smash-and-grab burglary involving several vehicles, Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters. Several suspects fled as officers arrived, but police caught up with one near Walton and State streets, Snelling added.

An exchange of gunfire soon followed, and CPD officers applied a tourniquet to the wounded officer before driving him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. That officer, 55, has been with CPD for 17 years, Snelling said. He was one of two officers who fired their weapons.

The wounded suspect was undergoing surgery, also at Northwestern, as of Monday morning, the superintendent added. Police are searching for other suspects involved in the smash-and-grab attempt, and the CPD detectives and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability are investigating the shooting, Snelling said.

The downtown area and other nearby neighborhoods have faced a rash of smash-and-grab burglaries in recent months. The tactic involves a crew of thieves driving a vehicle through storefronts and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise before fleeing in cars.

SVRN, a luxury retail store that opened in 2019 in the West Loop, was hit by burglars four times last year.

We want to keep growing and be more of a staple in the community, but if this keeps happening over and over again, what are we supposed to do? SVRN owner David Kim told the Tribune last month.

More than 7,400 burglaries were reported citywide in 2023, a 2% decrease from 2022, according to CPD data.

Chicago Tribunes Alysa Guffey contributed.
FILE PHOTO: Passenger oxygen masks hang from the roof next to a missing window and a portion of a side wall of an Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, in Portland, Oregon

By Valerie Insinna and Tim Hepher

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A mid-air blowout has put jetmaker Boeing in the exact place investors and management hoped it would avoid - back in the regulatory crosshairs just as it was awaiting approval of new models of its best-selling MAX jet.

Investigators say it is too early to determine what caused a so-called door plug to fall off from the side of an aircraft operated by one of Boeing's most loyal customers, Alaska Airlines, on Friday with 171 passengers on board.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Sunday that 171 Boeing MAX 9 airplanes BA.N would remain grounded until the agency is convinced they can safely operate.

The mishap comes as Boeing and supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which made the panel, are grappling with ongoing production setbacks that have hampered recovery from an earlier lengthy 737 MAX safety grounding and wider disruption from the pandemic.

Boeing has been under pressure to expand the MAX portfolio and narrow a gap with rival Airbus, which has extended gains in market share since two Boeing MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed nearly 350 people and led to the MAX's worldwide grounding for 20 months.

The MAX's troubled history resulted in sweeping reforms of U.S. airplane regulation in 2020, and the Alaska incident could prompt regulators to take a tougher line on other outstanding issues.

Airlines increasingly want to carry more passengers in single-aisle aircraft to take advantage of increases in performance and range while benefiting from their lower cost.

After disappointing sales of the MAX 9, Boeing's largest narrowbody, the company was betting on its newest proposal, the larger-capacity MAX 10, to cut into runaway sales of Airbus's A321neo at the busiest end of the market. Analysts say a full rollout of the MAX line-up is crucial to help Boeing steady or improve its roughly 40% market share and generate enough cash to comfortably ride out the coming decade.

Boeing, saddled with $39 billion in debt, has been reluctant to invest in an all-new plane until engine technology matures in the next decade. Delays to certification of the MAX 10 in particular could put Boeing's 2020s-bridging strategy under renewed pressure, analysts said.

Boeing's struggles also come under the watchful eye of China, a key market broadly closed to the jetmaker in recent years as MAX safety concerns overlapped with trade tensions. Chinese officials sought updates on the Alaska incident on Saturday, sources said.

Both Boeing and Spirit declined comment.

Since the 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019, Boeing shares have dropped by more than 40% while Airbus shares are up 25%.

The first clue to the fallout will be how regulators treat certification of the smallest and least-sold version, the MAX 7, which is next up for approval, said Jeff Guzzetti, a former U.S. air crash investigator.

The FAA is evaluating whether to grant an exemption that would allow the MAX 7 to attain certification before Boeing completes required design changes. The MAX 9 accident could "swing the pendulum" toward a rejection, he said.

"The FAA needs to be seen as strong and on top of things and strict when it comes to safety," Guzzetti said. "The days of any kind of coziness are over."

The FAA said "safety will determine the timeline" of ongoing certification projects but declined further comment.

QUALITY ISSUES

Although it is too early to identify the cause of the blowout, experts said the investigation could rekindle a debate over recent quality problems if the a production issue was the root cause of the MAX 9 panel dislodging itself.

"How many production deficiencies and quality escapes do you need before you really start to consider how to wrap your hands around the whole process and cure all of it?" said Guzzetti.

Although Boeing's 737 manufacturing line has evolved, it was never intended to produce 750 aircraft a year, said Michel Merluzeau of AIR Strategic Advisory.

Boeing has introduced robotic systems into 737 manufacturing but is targeting bolder digital reforms in future programs as part of a growing battle over production strategy with Airbus, while still tackling supply chain and labor issues.

Past initiatives that put pressure on suppliers to cut costs, as well as a disconnect between top executives and engineering and manufacturing corps, have added to Boeing's difficulties, said Richard Aboulafia of AeroDynamic Advisories, a longstanding critic.

Recent 737 production setbacks include loose or missing hardware on the rudder system of two MAX jets, improperly drilled holes made by Spirit, and the incorrect attachment of brackets joining the MAX's aft fuselage to its tail.

In February, Boeing was forced to pause 787 Dreamliner deliveries after a data analysis error was found - a problem Boeing said was unrelated to previous issues that stopped deliveries between 2021 and 2022.

Boeing insists its patience is paying off.

"Our production system is poised for steady and efficient increases, but we won't push the system too fast and will ensure the supply base is in lockstep with us," CEO Dave Calhoun said in October.

(This story has been refiled to remove an extraneous word in paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Valerie Insinna in Washington and Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Sandra Maler)
On the heels of a decisive electoral victory, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has launched a political action committee to assist like-minded politicians across the country.

Beshear launched In This Together PAC Sunday evening, a political action committee which says it will work to elect good people that reject the anger politics that have come to dominate our country.

The PAC will be supporting candidates who are good people that are focused on the everyday challenges that the American people face  like good jobs, access to health care, strong infrastructure, public safety  and candidates who push back against anger politics, Beshear said in an interview with the Herald-Leader. Were looking for people that will run for the right reasons, and even when they are attacked with the with with the politics of anger, division and hate, refuse to get into it.

The governor ran his 2023 campaign against Republican challenger Daniel Cameron with a similar message at the forefront, arguing he would focus on moving Kentucky not to the right or the left, but forward.

In This Together PAC is run by Outperform Strategies, a Louisville-based firm led by Beshears 2019 and 2023 campaign manager Eric Hyers and his wife Nicole Kayner, Hyers told the Herald-Leader. After Beshears win, Hyers told several outlets that aspects of the campaign could be replicated on a national level.

Beshears decisive 5-percentage-point victory has bolstered speculation about his potential to run for higher office, including president. But Beshear has repeatedly asserted he plans to serve out his full term and said as much in an interview Monday.

He also explicitly ruled out vying for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination should Democratic President Joe Biden, who is 81 years old, drop out.

Thats completely off the table, Beshear said. I committed to the people of Kentucky that Im serving this entire second term, and Im going to do it.

But what does the move say about Beshears plans after his second term concludes in 2027?

Al Cross, a longtime political commentator and journalist in Kentucky, called the move a way to run for president without running for president.

The creation of In This Together PAC affords the governor a chance to travel across the U.S. and network with wealthy donors as well as other politicians whose support could prove important for a later run for office.

When asked if the creation of the group meant he has interest in running for president in 2028, when Biden will be termed out or a Republican will be finishing their first term, Beshear demurred.

I dont think anybody should interpret it that way, Beshear said. This PAC is just a continuation of why I got into government and politics: I want to create a better commonwealth and a better country for my kids and everyone elses. This is an opportunity to ensure that our blueprint for winning in tough states helps other good people bring good policy and good results and a better way of life to more people across the United States.

At end of the day, we have to be out there strongly pushing against the politics of of division.

Beshear added that the political action committee could also help his work as governor by keeping Kentuckys seat at the table.

Whether its in the political or the policy-making rooms in Washington, D.C., or anywhere else in the country right now, Kentucky is top of mind and not overlooked like it has been for so long, Beshear said.

Such political action committees are common for federal politicians  the majority of Kentuckys Washington delegation have their own PACs that support other candidates across the country  but more rare for governors. Cross said he could not recall a Kentucky governor creating such a group.

Beshear joins a handful of prominent Democratic governors, all of whom have generated some amount of presidential buzz, to have created an organization to assist candidates all over the country. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have their own federal political action committees. Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has also launched his own political advocacy nonprofit.

Who will the group support?

Beshear said the strong focus of In This Together PAC will be working in politically red or purple states.

There is already a significant amount of money and numerous groups across the board that play in strongly blue states for Democratic candidates. Thats not where additional effort is needed, Beshear said.

When asked if his group will support any Republicans or independent candidates for office, Beshear said it will back any candidate that we believe is in it for the right reasons.

Weeks before launching In This Together PAC, Beshear said hed be interested in helping North Carolina Democratic Attorney General John Stein in his bid for governor this year. He confirmed in an interview he planned to support Stein with the political committees dollars.

Aside from Beshears victory, Kentucky Democrats have not had a particularly successful political run since the state House became the last southern legislative chamber to flip red. Republican state legislators outnumber Democrats 4 to 1 and Beshear has been the only statewide Democrat to win office in the last eight years.

When asked if In This Together PAC would support Democratic state legislators, Beshear said that it would support both candidates inside and outside of Kentucky, but it wouldnt substitute the money hes helped raise into the Kentucky Democratic Partys coffers.

That along with direct contributions and the caucuses will be the primary support for legislative candidates in Kentucky, Beshear said.

Outside perspective

Cross said the PAC and its work could prove opportune for Beshear to test his political muscle and skillset.

Its a different skillset running for president than governor, Cross said. Theres such a broader, more highly sensitive group of interests that you have to deal with. You cant lay your fingers on them in the same way that you can if youre in one state Its much, much more complicated.

With a rematch of former Republican President Donald Trump and Biden appearing likely, political burnout among voters is high. A majority of American voters dont want to see the two at the top of the ticket.

Beshear said he aims to push through the noise of media and voter focus on the top of the ticket.

I think this PAC is aimed at pushing through the noise of a presidential election just like we did this last year, Beshear said. Its about ensuring that people see the candidate for what they can do and how they are going to change the lives of the people that they serve. Far too many elections get caught up in whatever race is above them on the ballot, and I think that hurts governance throughout the country.

In this environment, Cross guessed Beshears message about changing the nature of American politics is likely to fall on some receptive ears.

I think youll find a lot of people willing to donate to that cause  but in any cause like this its all about the messenger. He has to be an effective messenger to fill the vessel with the cash.
A reader asks where to find new McDonald's offerings in Asheville including meal boxes with collectible figurines and pilot locations of the franchises new beverage-led restaurants.

Do you have a question for Answer Man or Answer Woman? Email Executive Editor Karen Chavez at KChavez@citizentimes.com, and your question could appear in an upcoming column.

Question: Where can I find an adult Happy Meal around Asheville? Also, are any of the new McDonalds coffee bars coming to Asheville?

The new adult version of a McDonald's Happy Meal is all about the design from Cactus Plant Flea Market. That's why the Hamburglar has four eyes.

Answer: Checking whats in stock at individual locations through the McDonalds app is likely the best way to hunt down one of the franchises popular Adult Happy Meals, which are already notorious for selling out fast. New CosMc's coffee bar offerings will be trickier to get your hands on.

Adult happy meals

Cactus Plant Flea Market Boxes, referred to by many as Adult Happy Meals, were first released by McDonalds in October 2023 through a partnership with fashion brand Cactus Plant Flea Market. These meals, which included one of four collectible McDonalds mascot figurines in every box, were wildly popular and have long since sold out. As of Dec. 11, however, McDonalds has teamed up with musician Kerwin Frost to produce a second offering: the Kerwin Frost Box.

Pictured are the 6 new, iconic McNugget Buddies in McDonald's Adult Happy Meal created by Kerwin Frost for 2023. They are (from left to right, top to bottom) Darla, BRRRICK, Kerwin Frost, Uptown Moe, Waffutu and Don Bernice

These boxes come with fries, a soft drink and your choice of 10 piece chicken McNuggets or Big Mac. Additionally, each box includes one of six new McNugget Buddy collectible figurines inspired by a line of 1988 Happy Meal collectibles with the same name.

As of Jan. 4, the following Asheville McDonalds locations listed the Kerwin Frost Box as available:

850 Brevard Road.

51 Tunnel Road.

950 Patton Ave.

401 Smokey Park Highway.

755 Merrimon Ave.

More: Answer Woman: A new restaurant in former Copper River Grill?

More: Answer Man: How can shoppers find spaces at Asheville Trader Joe's parking lot?

Keep in mind, though, that these meals have proven extremely popular. Due to these variations in availability, the best way to ensure youll be able to get your hands on one of these meals is to check availability on the McDonalds app. The order ahead function of the app will notify you whether the boxes are available  and allow you to reserve one  before you drop in.

CosMc's locations

The coffee bars mentioned in this question are an even more recent addition to the McDonalds franchise. CosMc's, described in a news release as a small-format, beverage-led concept, offers a large, colorful drink menu, some new food options and a few fan favorite items such as the McMuffin.

CosMcs menu is rooted in beverage exploration, with bold and unexpected flavor combinations, vibrant colors and functional boosts, stated the news release. Youll see a range of specialty lemonades and teas, indulgent blended beverages and cold coffee  think Sour Cherry Energy Slush, Tropical Spiceade and Smores Cold Brew. Make it yours with customizations at every turn: popping boba, flavor syrups, energy or Vitamin C shots, and so much more.

More: New Asheville restaurants, bars, breweries: Check out eateries that opened in 2023

More: Asheville bids goodbye to restaurants and breweries that closed in 2023

While these locations will certainly be beverage-led as promised, the release also mentioned new food items such as the Spicy Queso Sandwich, Savory Hash Brown Bites and Pretzel Bites. The full CosMc's menu can be found on its website.

The first CosMc's location opened in December 2023 in Bollingbrook, Illinois. According to a news release, the franchise plans to open approximately 10 CosMc locations by the end of 2024. Unfortunately, the only further pilot locations mentioned so far will be opening in the Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio metro areas in Texas. For updates on where the rest of these new locations can be found, your best bet is to keep an eye on CosMc's social media accounts on Instagram, TikTok or X.

This story has been updated to identify the location of the first CosMc's as Bolingbrook, Illinois.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Answer Woman: McDonald's 'Adult Happy Meals' in Asheville? CosMc's?
Information display screens displayed an anti-Hezbollah message at Beiruts international airport on Sunday due to a hack as tensions continue to rise in the region.

Display screens that typically show arrival and departure times instead showed a message Sunday accusing the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah of putting Lebanon at risk for a war with Israel, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The message reportedly was displayed alongside the logos of the group Soldiers of God, which the AP noted has gained attention in Lebanon for its anti-LGBTQ campaigns, and the small organization called The One Who Spoke.

The Soldiers of God denied its involvement, while The One Who Spoke shared photos of the message on social media, the AP reported.

Hassan Nasrallah, you will no longer have supporters if you curse Lebanon with a war for which you will bear responsibility and consequences, the message read, according to the wire outlet.

The hack was carried out by anti-Hezbollah domestic groups, according to the AP. The Associated Press also noted that local state-run media reported that the hack briefly interrupted baggage inspection.

Since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, Hezbollah has been targeting Israeli military bases and positions along its northern border with Israel returning fire. Tensions have only risen in recent weeks, with the alleged Israeli assassination of a top Hamas official in a Beirut suburb last week.

Israel and Hezbollah traded heavy fire Saturday, which is one day after the leader of the militant group, Hassan Nasrallah, said it must retaliate for the alleged killing of the top Hamas official.

We cannot keep silent about a violation of this seriousness because this means that all of our people will be exposed [to targeting]. All of our cities, villages and public figures will be exposed, he said, the AP reported.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Sometimes, turning a corner can be a good thing.

Mayor Brandon Johnson moves into a new year with a host of old problems, unsolved and festering alongside a mountain of approaching travails.

As 2024 dawns, people are asking  how is the mayor doing?

I am a lifelong Chicagoan and rooting for him to conquer them all. Even in the best of economic times, presiding over Americas third largest city can be harrowing and horrific. The city is adrift in demographic, political and economic changes that make governing a thankless, nightmare job.

Nearly eight months in, Johnson has not established himself as a leader of a viable coalition that can govern. His progressive agenda has been stymied by a conservative impulse from critics focused on crime and public safety, as well as allies who are demanding more resources and attention for their communities.

The ongoing migrant crisis is sucking up oxygen and resources while fueling resentment and division.

The citys powers lobbied fiercely for marque showcase events this year. Be careful what you wish for. Come summer, the windiest city will also be the nations hottest spot.

In July, the NASCAR street race will take over Grant Park. And in August, 50,000 visitors in town for the Democratic National Convention will swarm the United Center and McCormick Place Convention Center. Since Chicago was selected to host the convention, Republican interests have been plotting to sabotage the proceedings, the Democratic Party and President Joe Bidens reelection campaign.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will surely continue to dispatch thousands of migrants on buses and planes to our town in the run-up to the convention. That will require that Johnson closely collaborate with Gov. J.B. Pritzker to ensure the convention is turmoil-free. A no-brainer, right? Johnsons mantra is collaboration.

Pritzker is looking to the confab as his national, perhaps even presidential, calling card.

I detect precious little kinship between Johnson and Pritzker, Illinois most powerful politicians. Their rocky relationship serves no ones interest, and their partys fate goes nowhere if Chicago and Illinois are feuding.

Meanwhile, the citys economic fates spin around the axis of its center, but the tension between the neighborhoods and downtown has never been more freighted with angst. In the wake of a pandemic and historic civil unrest, the Loop has lost its financial footing. Office space, once at a premium, has been significantly devalued. Corporations big and small are over-officed.

Vacancy rates are rattling cages. Look at South State Street, in the heart of the Loop, host to blocks of vacant spaces.

Downtown has long carried the water as a generator of taxes for the entire city. The concomitant decline of traffic and activity in the heart of the city is a major drag on its vitality. The centripetal force of the city is being dissipated in dangerous, unnerving developments that the mayor must carefully address. While Johnson has reached out to the business community, it has been disappointed and alarmed by his progressive agenda.

Chicago has lost its aura of safety for many who once took it for granted.

We might cheer last years decline in homicides and shootings, but will 2024 see an upsurge in carjackings and street robberies? They are citywide phenomena, and theyre instilling fear. If you spend time in Chicagos close-in suburbs, you will notice new restaurants popping up to draw diners who now avoid the city. Chicagos unmatched arts and cultural scene is struggling, as more patrons are avoiding jaunts to plays and concerts.

At lunch the other day, I commiserated with two friends of the senior citizen variety, fiercely loyal urbanites who adore Chicago. One once enjoyed walking to her Lincoln Park home after a show at the Goodman Theatre, she told me. Now, she often opts for daytime matinees.

This all leaves me nervous about a mayor whose relative inexperience is being severely tested. Even some of his staunch allies are jittery.

We should not be on the fifth floor. And Im speaking my whole heart, Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, declared recently on The Ben Joravsky Show. She was referring to the location of the mayors City Hall office.

We were not ready, because we havent been in government long enough to know how government really runs.

Taylor, in her second term on the City Council, is part of the councils Democratic Socialist Caucus and the progressive coalition that helped Johnson get elected.

It feels like weve got some more work to do, and we dont know government as well as the folks that have been in charge of it, Taylor told Joravsky.

Much more work to do. Im not ready to pound the panic button yet, but in 2024, the clock is ticking.

Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at LauraLauraWashington@gmail.com.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
Blinken is trying to prevent tensions spilling over on his latest tour of the region (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was back in the Middle East on Monday warning that Israels war against Hamas could easily metastasize, amid warnings that Iran is stoking a wider conflict.

Americas top diplomat was due to hold talks in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before heading on to Israel, whose leaders are vowing no let-up in their offensive in the Gaza Strip despite a soaring civilian death toll.

Mr Blinkens latest diplomatic tour of the region has already taken in Jordan and Qatar. Speaking in Doha, where Hamass political leadership is based, he warned: "This is a moment of profound tension for the region.

This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and suffering," he added, after attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Red Sea shipping triggered a US-led maritime intervention.

Mr Blinken also said he would urge Israeli leaders to do more to prevent mass casualties in the war and that civilians must not be pressed to leave Gaza, after declarations by some far-right ministers in Israel that the territory should be cleared of Palestinians.

Jordan's King Abdullah urged the US official to use Washington's influence over Israel to press it for an immediate ceasefire and warned of the "catastrophic repercussions" of the ongoing military campaign.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israels determination to eradicate Hamas following the terrorist groups murderous rampage across southern Israel on October 7.

"The war must not be stopped until we achieve all the goals: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," he said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.

"I say this to both our enemies and our friends."

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was also intent on deterring other potential Iranian-backed adversaries such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"My basic view: We are fighting an axis, not a single enemy," he told the Wall Street Journal. "Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it."

Hezbollah struck an air traffic control base in northern Israel, the Israeli military said Sunday, following Israels suspected assassination of a top Hamas official in Hezbollah-controlled south Beirut.

Octobers surprise attack by Hamas on Israeli communities killed some 1,200 people, while some 240 people were taken hostage. Up to 136 remain held in Gaza and their families have been urging Mr Netanyahu to prioritise their release.

The Israeli offensive has so far killed 22,835 Palestinians in Gaza, Palestinian health officials said on Sunday, with 111 more dead and 250 wounded in the previous 24 hours.

The fighting has displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million population, left many homes in ruins, and caused acute shortages of food, water and medicines.
Testifying on Dec. 13, 2023, during his murder trial in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, Kyrique Camper demonstrates how he said a shadowy figure approached his car with their "hands like this" at a stoplight on Oct. 17, 2022. Camper said that he could not see who was approaching because it was nighttime and his car windows were tinted, but said he feared the person was going to shoot him so he fired a single shot that ultimately killed 17-year-old A'niyah Elie. The jury acquitted Camper of murder, but found him guilty of improperly handling a firearm. He was sentenced to two years of probation.

Kyrique Camper was 19 on Oct. 17, 2022, and not legally allowed to have a handgun, let alone have a loaded one in his lap while he drove on Columbus Northeast Side.

Camper testified at his murder trial in December in Franklin County Common Pleas Court that while waiting for a stoplight that night, he saw through his cars tinted windows a shadow figure approaching.

My first instinct was to point  I pointed my gun and shot once, Camper said.

A jury later found Camper not guilty of murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Aniyah Elie.

Defendants in Franklin County are asserting they killed in self-defense much more often than they used to before changes in state laws in recent years, according to county prosecuting attorneys and police.

And more than half the time in such trials, the defendant has won.

In 2023, eight of the 14 defendants in Franklin County who argued at trial they killed to protect themselves or another person were acquitted, according to an analysis by The Dispatch.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors disagreed on whether it has become easier to win acquittal since Ohios Republican-controlled legislature changed laws in recent years. In 2019, the burden of proof in cases where defendants claim self-defense was shifted from the defense to the prosecution. In 2021, the General Assembly removed the duty to retreat, making Ohio a "stand your ground" state starting in 2022.

Robert Barnhart, a Capital University Law School assistant professor, said it's a "perfect storm" that makes authorities' path to a guilty verdict more difficult.

David Zeyen, deputy chief counsel in the criminal division of the Franklin County Prosecutors Office, said that, in his experience, the law changes impede convictions.

Columbus criminal defense attorneys say they don't think so.

The way juries look at it, its either self-defense, or it isnt, said attorney Joseph R. Landusky II, who argued self-defense in three murder trials in 2023, winning two acquittals.

Multiple attorneys told The Dispatch there has been a rise in these kinds of homicides, not just trials. With more people carrying guns than ever before, attorneys said some gun holders seem to have itchy trigger fingers, and people fear getting shot.

"Everybody potentially has a gun, everyones a threat, and everyone can defend themselves," said Barnhart.

Guns and homicides

Zeyen said the 2022 law change allowing Ohioans to carry concealed handguns without a permit is a big part of the story here.

According to a study published this week under a partnership between Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Bowling Green State University, six of Ohios eight largest cities saw less gun crime after the states "constitutional carry" law took effect in 2022. Researchers looked at data on gun crimes from June 2021 to June 2023  a year before and a year after the law took effect.

State Rep. Latyna Humphrey, D-Columbus, an opponent of constitutional carry, said the report does not establish causation and more research needs to be done into the complex factors influencing crime rates.

Sam Shamansky, a Columbus defense attorney who argued self-defense in two murder trials in 2023, said the proliferation of handguns has contributed to more deaths.

Even the slightest conflict can turn into a homicide scene, Shamansky told The Dispatch. 'Gee, you bumped into my car, disrespected my girlfriend, looked at me funny. Im going to reach for my gun first.

In a May trial, Shamansky represented 23-year-old Bria Henslee, whom a jury acquitted of murder for driving her vehicle into Makaela Ellis, 25. Ellis and others confronted Henslee on April 9, 2021, after Henslee hit a parked vehicle nearby and drove away. Ellis was holding a gun, but prosecuting attorneys and Shamansky disagreed if Ellis was pointing the gun.

Henslee used her vehicle to crush Ellis against the wall of a combination Kentucky Fried Chicken and Long John Silvers on Columbus' Southwest Side.

With Bria Henslees case, this was nothing more than a fender bender where she bumps someones car until hoodlums run her down and put guns on her, Shamansky said.

Bria K. Henslee, 23, exits the courtroom in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, where she was on trial for murder in the death of 25-year-old Makaela Ellis on April 9, 2021. According to Columbus police, Henslee ran over Ellis with her car in the parking lot of dual fast-food restaurants on Harrisburg Pike on the city's Southwest Side following a confrontation over a fender bender Henslee drove away from. Henslee's defense attorney, Sam Shamansky, left, said during opening arguments that Henslee was acting in self-defense because Ellis was pointing a gun at Henslee. Prosecuting attorneys said Ellis was holding, but not pointing the gun.

Shamansky said Ohioans are reaping what we sow for allowing so many people to have guns without proper training.

During cross-examination of Camper at trial, Keith McGrath, senior assistant prosecuting attorney, asked why Camper had a gun on him that night.

Everyone around me has guns. Everyone outside has guns. And when I leave the house, I protect myself," Camper said.

Kyrique, why did you shoot the gun?

When she died, Elie was a month away from turning 18 and had recently graduated from Focus North High School, according to Michelle Sharp, Elies grandmother and guardian.

Sharp spoke through tears, often struggling to continue while testifying about the fatal shooting during Campers jury trial last month.

Michelle Sharp struggled to go on while testifying Dec. 12, 2023, in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in the murder trial of Kyrique Camper for shooting Sharp's granddaughter, 17-year-old A'niyah Elie, on Oct. 17, 2022. A jury found Camper, 20, not guilty of murder. He was found guilty of improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle, and was sentenced to two years of probation.

Sharp said Elie spent her final hours working at two different Kroger stores. During her second shift at the Kroger at 1350 N. High St, Elie ran into 19-year-old Keiara Solomon, Campers girlfriend.

What exactly happened between the two females is unclear. Soloman did not testify during Campers trial. A prosecuting attorney said Soloman felt that she had some beef with Aniya."

Former friends, the two girls had had a falling out, according to Robert Krapenc, Campers defense attorney.

Apparently, Aniya was mean-mugging her and staring at her, and Keiara said, 'Whats your problem?' And words developed to the point where Aniya said, 'Im off at 9:15 if you want to settle this,' Krapenc said.

Elie called her grandmother, who got into a car with Elies mother, sister and a friend, and they drove to the grocery store.

A'niyah said, 'Grandma, its this girl and this guy, and theyre at Kroger, and theyre threatening me and harassing me and Im scared, and could you please come and get me, Sharp said.

Solomon had left Kroger and brought back Camper and a friend.

Krapenc said Campers role that night was to ensure this was a one-on-one fight between Soloman and Elie and nobody else.

Elie's family pulled up to the front of the Kroger as her shift ended. Surveillance video from the store's parking lot showed the two groups moved to the side of the building, mostly out of view of the security camera.

Witnesses differed on the particulars of what happened next.

Camper testified that it started as a one-on-one fight between the two girls, but others got involved, and he waded in.

Soloman got pepper sprayed in the face, Camper said. Sharp was also sprayed in the face.

Eventually, the two groups got in their separate cars and drove away.

Less than a mile away, both cars ended up at a stoplight at the intersection of North 4th Street and East 11th Avenue.

Elie jumped out of her familys car and approached Campers vehicle. She was heading for the open front passenger window, prosecuting attorneys alleged, to pepper spray the occupants of Campers car.

She didnt get close, Sharp said.

Camper "shot her like she was a dog in the street. Pow! Like she was a dog in the street, Sharp said.

Kyrique Camper, 20, takes the oath to tell the truth before taking the stand to testify in his own defense Dec. 13, 2023, during his murder trial in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. Camper testified he was afraid he was about to be killed when he saw a shadowy figure through his tinted windows approaching his vehicle, so he shot 17-year-old A'niyah Elie not knowing who it was. A jury acquitted Camper of murder and found him guilty of improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle, for which he received two years of probation.

Camper told the jury he couldnt see who was approaching but that the figure had their hands pointed in front of them. He demonstrated by holding his hands pointed in front of him as if mimicking holding a gun.

Camper also said his vehicle was behind another one at the stoplight, so that he couldn't drive away.

I didn't know who it was, but I know whoever it was wasnt coming in a friendly way, Camper said.

During the trial, Krapenc implied that Elie could have been holding a gun. He pointed out that Columbus police did not preserve surveillance video they watched of the shooting.

Camper said he didn't know he had shot Elie until a detective told him days later.

Kyrique, why did you shoot the gun? McGrath asked during cross-examination.

Because I believed I was going to be killed, Camper said.

After being shot in the chest, Elie staggered back to her family's vehicle. They drove her to Nationwide Children's Hospital, where she later died.

The numbers: how many are acquitted?

Zeyen said that only a handful of murder defendants had claimed self-defense each year before the changes in state law.

I have tried more self-defense trials in the past two years than I have in the previous 30, he said.

Columbus police Cmdr. Mark Denner, who oversees homicide and felony assault detectives, said his detectives also have noticed the increase in self-defense claims.

"With the change in the law, it seems like its becoming more immediately apparent," Denner said. "If people are willing to talk, we hear that (self-defense). Whether thats a true claim, though, is something yet to be determined."

In 2023, 14 defendants, representing nearly half of all 32 murder trial defendants in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, argued they killed to protect themselves or another.

Just five of the 14 defendants were found guilty of murder by a jury, but a judge could still overturn one of those five guilty verdicts from December. And in one trial, the jury was hung and could not reach a verdict.

Andrew Mitchell, 59, waves to family in the gallery on April 18, 2023, after a Franklin County jury determined that he was not guilty of murder and voluntary manslaughter in connection with the fatal shooting of Donna Dalton Castleberry, 23, in August 2018.

In addition to Kyrique Camper and Bria Henslee, whose cases were discussed above, the six other defendants who argued self-defense and were found not guilty of murder by a jury or judge were:

Robert Bowens Jr., 23, who returned fire and killed his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend in 2020.

David Reid, who beat a homeless man to death in 2020. Reids attorneys said the other man had come to Reids boarding house to attack him. Prosecuting attorneys said Reid's force was excessive.

Andrew Mitchell, a then-undercover Columbus police vice officer, who shot a prostitute in his vehicle in 2018 after he could not produce a badge and she stabbed him in the hand. She fled to the back seat of the car but couldn't get out because the passenger side was parked against a building and the child lock was on the rear driver's side door.

Anthony Wilkes, who shot his cousin during a scuffle in 2021 after Wilkes said his cousin threatened him.

Leeyonna Ward, who, video shows, fatally shot a man who carjacked her in 2021.

Randy Cooper, who testified he was a marijuana dealer who killed another marijuana dealer, 41-year-old Dalin Green, in self-defense during an exchange of gunfire in 2022. Which man shot first was in dispute.

Randy Cooper, 23, of the East Side, testified Oct. 13, 2023, in Franklin County Common Pleas Court that he shot 41-year-old Dalin Green in self-defense on Feb. 25, 2022. I just panicked. I was scared. I just started shooting and running, Cooper said on the stand. A jury found Cooper not guilty of murder and all other charges.

But only examining the cases that make it to trial doesnt tell the whole story.

Franklin County Senior Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Dan Cable said dozens of defendants say they acted in self-defense but take plea deals to manslaughter or some other lesser charge.

And looking at just trials and pleas doesnt account for homicides where a grand jury decided it was justifiable self-defense and did not indict.

Homicides that dont lead to indictments

In the fatal 2022 shooting of 13-year-old Sinzae Reed, a grand jury decided not to indict 37-year-old Krieg Butler for murder after he allegedly told Columbus police he was returning fire.

The grand jury indicted Butler in May on charges of tampering with evidence and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle related to the shooting on Oct. 12, 2022, at the Wedgewood Apartments complex in Columbus Hilltop neighborhood.

Krieg Butler, 37, formerly of the Hilltop neighborhood, left the courtroom in Franklin County Common Pleas Court after he appeared on Dec. 4, 2023, for a bond hearing at which Judge Andy Miller modified Butler's bond to take him off home confinement.

Zeyen said at Butlers arraignment that witnesses had told Columbus police a boy in a hoodie and mask shot at Butler in his truck before Butler fired back, killing the boy. Zeyen also said other witnesses said somebody removed a firearm from next to the boy before police arrived.

Reeds mother, Megan Reed, has said her son did not have a weapon, and shes accused people of lying to police to protect Butler.

Self-defense cases in Akron: Brothers sentenced for assault in teen's death

A different fatal shooting went before a Franklin County grand jury in February 2023 and did not result in an indictment for murder  or national headlines like Reeds death did. In that case, the grand jury did not indict on any charges, so the shooters name has not been made public.

The Dispatch obtained the police report and the surveillance video footage of the shooting presented to the grand jury.

Over Labor Day weekend 2022, the owner of a Dairy Queen on 1900 Tamarack Circle South shot 33-year-old Adrian Marcus Carr in the business parking lot.

The footage, which has no audio, shows Carr, a Black man, rummaging through a trash can near the end of the Dairy Queen drive-thru while holding a large stick. A man only identified as the store owner opens a door from the store and appears to say something to Carr, who immediately becomes agitated. Carr hits a low brick wall in between the two men with his stick, then moves toward the owner in the doorway, pointing his stick toward him as he moves. The owner pulls out a handgun from his front pocket and shoots once, killing Carr.

The whole thing, between the store owner opening the door and Carr falling to the ground, took five seconds.

According to the Columbus police report, the shooter told officers that Carr "got a crazy, angry look." He said he believed Carr would strike him and injure his employees.

A screenshot captured from a surveillance video at a Dairy Queen store in Columbus' Northland neighborhood on Sept. 4, 2022, shows 33-year-old Adrian Carr moving toward the store owner in a doorway atop the wall and thrusting a large stick toward him. A moment later, the store owner shot Carr, who a few minutes before had been rummaging through a trash can at the end of the store's drive-thru.

Carrs mother told Columbus police later that Carr had schizophrenia but was not the violent type.

Zeyen said that even under the previous law, the owner of the Dairy Queen had no duty to retreat.

If you are in your home, and at some point it was specifically extended to a business, which is like your home, you don't have a duty to retreat, even if you safely can do so, even if you can safely shut the door, lock it and you are 100% safe, Zeyen said.

Zeyen said his office could not comment on how grand juries deliberated in specific cases. But he said there are likely some cases now where a grand jury declines to indict that they may have indicted before the laws changed.

Legislators react

When Ohio passed a law removing the duty to retreat in 2021, Black state legislators were united in denouncing the bill, saying it instituted "stand your ground" and put Black lives at risk.

Carrs and Reeds deaths both represent cases where a white man fatally shot a Black male and was not indicted for murder.

Out of the 14 murder trials where self-defense was argued in 2023, 10 of the defendants and 10 of the individuals who were killed were Black. In most homicides in Franklin County, the suspects race matches the victims race, according to Columbus Division of Police records.

State Rep. Humphrey, a former Franklin County Court of Common Pleas bailiff and the sponsor of a bill to repeal Ohio's stand-your-ground law told The Dispatch that African Americans and people of color are predominantly impacted in self-defense incidents. She said more research needs to be done to determine how racial biases are playing out in Ohio's court system in the application of stand your ground, but it would also be impossible to address those biases with legislation.

"We should have listened to law enforcement when they were telling us this was a bad idea," Humphrey said of the Ohio General Assembly. "We really need to repeal the stand-your-ground law. This was a bad idea, and were seeing that in the city of Columbus."

Kyle Koehler, a Republican state representative from Springfield from 2015 to 2023 who was instrumental in removing the duty to retreat from Ohio law and supported permitless carry, said he does not think these laws have increased shootings.

"You used to have to prove you couldn't run away. I dont think a woman getting into her car at Walmart should have to consider if her attacker can stab her quicker than she could run away. Thats all the duty to retreat change did," Koehler said. "I just think the regard for human life has changed over the last three years."

Koehler said he pushed for legislation while in the statehouse that would require gun dealers to provide buyers with a piece of paper that pointed them toward information on Ohio's concealed-carry laws.

"I dont want to infringe on somebodys right to buy a gun," Koehler said. "At the same time, I sure hope anybody who buys a firearm takes the time to learn how to use it and understand the law."

Trend likely to continue

Zeyen with the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office said Ohio is not the Wild West where people can get away with anything by claiming self-defense, but some people think  and act  like that is the case.

People need to know that there are rules still in place, Zeyen said. If it's appropriate, you're going to be charged."

The prosecutor's office is developing strategies to deal with self-defense claims, such as asking potential jurors about the topic during jury selection.

"We are meeting with some success," Zeyen said.

Barnhart told The Dispatch that Columbus is going to continue to see rising assertions of self-defense.

"It is completely going to continue to be a trend. Defense attorneys in this town are too good for it not to be," Barnhart said. "And the prosecutors are good too, but when youve got a burden to prove a negative, thats tough."

After the verdict in the Camper case, the attorneys got the chance to speak with jurors informally about their decision.

According to McGrath, jurors said it was a tough case, and they weren't walking away happy.

The jurors felt the prosecution failed to disprove self-defense, McGrath said, but didn't give any other indication why they decided what they did.

I wish they had because then it would help me with the next case, he said.

Dispatch staff writer Bethany Bruner contributed to this report.

jlaird@dispatch.com

@LairdWrites

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus defendants on trial for murder arguing self-defense more
The Arizona Medical Board conceded a need for improvement following an Arizona Republic investigation that exposed the boards shortcomings in its handling of doctor sexual misconduct claims.

Yet at a Jan. 3 meeting where a board staff member presented options for change, the board also decided to leave in place doctors accused of sexual misconduct and violence.

The board is a group of 12 appointed members, eight of which by law must be fellow doctors. Theyre supposed to protect the public. The boards director, Pat McSorley, declined to comment on the boards decisions, but noted that they deliberate publicly and their decisions are based on the totality of their investigative file, which goes beyond what is publicly available.

"I have great respect for every physician on the board, member Dr. Bruce Bethancourt told The Republic. I think they're highly professional. And we are there to protect the public but also to protect the reputation of our profession. An unprofessional physician puts a crack in the foundation of our public trust."

The Republics investigation showed the board has over time ordered seven doctors to see women in the company of another trained professional, called a chaperone.

That included Dr. Charles Kelly, whose licensing file shows he faced accusations in 2020 from three patients, one for inappropriate performance of an examination, one for inappropriate contact during the course of an examination, and one for inappropriate conduct during the course of a colonoscopy.

The board kept him in reach of patients after 2020 complaints, and at its meeting, they described four additional cases against Kelly from 2022.

Three cases stemmed from board staff finding deficiencies in Kellys chaperone attendance and documentation of the chaperone, a staff member told the board.

In the fourth, a patient claimed Kelly failed to diagnose gallstones and at three appointments inappropriately performed breast exams.

The board is bound by law to report crimes to local law enforcement. Kingman Police Sgt. Jason Huerta said the departments last contact with Kelly was in 2021 for a lost property complaint.

At the meeting, Kelly denied the medical boards claims.

I am innocent of any misconduct and I've been on probation for three years, Kelly told the board. My compliance has been 100%.

This time, the board took a tougher stance, deciding that Kelly cant practice medicine until a formal hearing.

A couple other doctors got off with lesser restrictions, at least for now.

Where there's smoke there's fire?

The board considered Dr. Marco Saucedo, whose attorney said he was the only permanent OB-GYN in Nogales, a point one board member reiterated.

The board considered an accusation that he caressed a patients body and forced her to bend over an exam table in December 2022. A police report was filed and board staff got other records from Nogales police, revealing an April 2018 report from a patient who said Saucedo inappropriately touched her during an exam.

His attorney said he denied the claims. He couldnt be reached directly for comment.

As they deliberated, board member Dr. Katie S. Artz said she knew Saucedo, but it wouldnt affect her judgment. She later voted in his favor.

Board member Dr. James M. Gillard argued to table the issue. In conversation, member Dr. David C. Beyer agreed.

We don't really know for sure if there's just smoke or if there's actually a fire, Beyer said, reasoning theyd have more information soon.

The board discussed ordering Saucedo to meanwhile practice with a chaperone, but voted not to.

The board members considered other claims of misconduct as well. It heard from Dr. Kristopher Johnson, who was involved in a shootout with Phoenix police in June 2022, in which he was wounded and criminally charged. His case is still pending in Maricopa County Court.

That year, he deactivated his license, a medical board document shows. He disclosed a pattern of use of alcohol and agreed to seek treatment.

His attorney argued Wednesday he was fit to practice again.

A Casa Grande doctor who had faced 14 official claims of sexual misconduct over more than two decades has never lost his Arizona medical license.

There is no evidence that in relation to this deactivation he was impaired at work or in the practice of medicine, he said.

Some members of the board were amenable. Dr. Gillard reasoned it looked like a relapse, if they were to set aside the shooting.

Board chair Dr. Screven Farmer noted how unique the case was.

This guy drunkenly taking his significant others gun out of a safe and, you know, he didnt just come out of the yard shooting, he actively walked around the block and explored, kind of looking for trouble, Farmer said. He exchanged multiple shots. I mean, if you read the police record, its really rather bizarre behavior and extremely poor judgment.

This is not normal behavior, board member Bethancourt said at the meeting. And clearly, I don't want to go to a physician that has behavior like this.

Johnson and his attorney spoke to The Republic, saying he was only slightly impaired, and he didnt know the people outside his house were police officers. Johnson said he thought someone was breaking into his house, so he took the personal firearm of his partner, who is a probation officer, and went outside. He fired a shot into the air, and ran off when shots came his way. The gun discharged three more times as he ran, he said, not in the direction of officers. Police shot at him, and he was struck in the leg.

By one vote, the board sided with Johnson. They gave him back his license, albeit on probation, reserving the right to take further action depending on the outcome of Johnsons criminal charges.

I think there's logic to this, Farmer said. And I think it's very clear that this gentleman will be under very close supervision.

How the board could better handle sexual misconduct claims

The board held a training session on handling claims of doctor sexual misconduct at its January meeting, the first since The Republic published an investigation into how its members and staff handle such complaints.

The boards investigations manager reviewed their practices for handling claims of sexual misconduct by doctors, noting a shortcoming in how they interact with police. The board is required by law to tell law enforcement if they happen upon a crime, but police dont always inform the medical board about doctors they investigate.

Member Bethancourt told The Republic he would support a change in the law to require police to speak up to the board. He said he was shocked to find out there were reports to police regarding the Nogales OB-GYN.

We knew nothing about it, Bethancourt said. I mean I was shocked. I made the assumption that any time the police were involved other than a traffic violation, unless it was a DUI, that we would be notified by it."

The boards investigations manager, Raquel Rivera, said its rare for the police to tell them about a criminal investigation.

Our board doesn't typically work in concert with law enforcement, she said later. We will share information with law enforcement. But typically, the board's concerned about our investigation because sometimes criminal investigations can take a lot longer than the board's process allows.

That was a gap exposed in The Republics investigation, which featured Dr. Michael Ridge, who was accused of inappropriate behavior by a total of 14 women over decades, including 11 revealed in criminal proceedings and three more in subsequent complaints to the state medical board. He was left in place by the board.

Meredith Younce, who participated in the criminal investigation in 1998, told The Republic she was never contacted by the state medical board. She said when she was 22 she didnt know she could complain to them, and police didnt tell her she could.

The communication gap between police and the board caught Riveras attention.

We should be increasing outreach with law enforcement, Rivera recommended to the board during her presentation. I want to reach out to them and let them know about the board's ability to investigate these allegations. Regardless if charges are criminally pursued or not. And their ability to refer cases to the board for our awareness, should they have concerns.

Find out more: How to check your doctor's history and other options for better health care in Arizona

Rivera elaborated on other areas ripe for improvement. The board could resolve complaints more quickly, she said, and it has asked for more money for investigators. It could do more outreach to get hospitals to report sexual misconduct.

Rivera noted a recommendation by the Federation of State Medical Boards, that they shouldnt consider a shortage of doctors as a reason for leniency.

But earlier in the same meeting, the board did that very thing for the lone Nogales OB-GYN.

Investigative reporter Andrew Ford exposes wrongdoing and prompts reform  do you know something he should write about? Email aford@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sexual misconduct cases with Arizona Medical Board could see changes
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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on Monday outlined a sweeping list of priorities for her second year in office during a State of the State address that called for bipartisan action on water and housing affordability.

The Democratic governors second State of the State, an annual address to lawmakers that offers a roadmap of her policy goals for the year ahead, was both a victory lap of wins from her first year in office and an optimistic call for bipartisanship.

We have worked together, debated each other, pushed one another, and, most importantly, put aside our differences when it mattered most to do whats right for Arizona and the people who call it home," she said in the roughly 45-minute address. Now, I think we can all agree it certainly hasnt been easy. But our constituents didnt send us here to the Capitol to solve easy problems or take the easy way out.

The address reflected a more strategic approach to policymaking from the governor who now has a year of divided government under her belt.

Hobbs appealed to Republicans who control the Legislature, turning early in the speech to a criticism of the federal governments failure to secure our southern border and a call for more funding to support law enforcement and humanitarian groups at the Mexican border. In doing so, Hobbs joined a common refrain from past Arizona governors of both parties.

And while still criticizing the cost of the states private school voucher program and calling for accountability as she did last year, Hobbs this year has detailed a multi-prong plan for how she wants to add that oversight and limit eligibility. Last year, she called to eliminate universal eligibility, a bold but unattainable goal from the outset given the partisan divides at the Capitol.

Republicans were at times openly hostile during Hobbs first year, blocking many of her cabinet nominees and belittling her ample use of the veto stamp  so much, that Hobbs set a single-year record. But underpinning her confidence is experience won in that tumultuous first year.

Hobbs told The Arizona Republic in an interview before the speech she also had a longer runway to prepare for 2024, a time in which she beefed up her legislative team and worked to improve communications with lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans.

While the governor won standing ovations from a couple of GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Matt Gress of Phoenix, on issues like improving teacher pay, the Republicans' response was generally cold.

You could just tell that she is going to be facing some headwinds at the Legislature with her agenda, just with the response from the majority party, but I think there are going to be some areas where we can work together," Gress said.

State Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, turned his back on Hobbs several times during the speech, as he did last year, including when she discussed protecting abortion access. As Hobbs criticized the state's private school voucher program, he gave two thumbs down.

State Sen. Anthony Kern of District 27 stands, turns his back and reacts as Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs gives her State of the State speech to start the 2024 legislative session in Phoenix on Jan. 8, 2024.

Hobbs' hopes of bipartisanship may only go so far. Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, and House Speaker Ben Toma, R-Glendale, gave brief opening remarks before Hobbs' speech, which observers said had not occurred before. Both pledged any attempt to change the state's voucher program, known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts or ESAs, would not get support from their members.

She has picked a few fights that shes not going to win, Toma said later about her statements on the program. I made it pretty clear from the beginning on ESAs, thats just not going to happen at this point.

Address outlines policy goals, proposes areas of bipartisan cooperation

In her speech, Hobbs focused on water, mortgage assistance and prescription price reform as policies where she sees potential bipartisan support.

On water, Hobbs announced steps that could lift the pause she imposed in June on home development in the metro areas far-flung eastern and western suburbs. Hobbs said she had directed the Arizona Department of Water Resources to start a rulemaking process that will allow water providers and communities to find new water sources, other than groundwater, to meet the states requirements to provide a 100-year water supply when it comes to new home development. That is called the Alternative Designation of Water Resources program and is one of several solutions proposed by Hobbs water policy council.

Let us remember that water and drought do not care about party registration or job titles or whether you live in an urban or rural community," Hobbs said. "We can only protect our water supply by working together. I stand ready to work with you to pass legislation that makes the changes we need today  all to safeguard Arizonas water for tomorrow. And to those who have spent years refusing to act: if you dont, I will.

The policy move might quell concerns from people like Petersen, who has questioned why the state has a 100-year assured water supply, while states such as California have a 25-year standard.

Hobbs said in an interview she has no intent to change the 100-year standard that applies in Arizonas metro areas.

I certainly dont intend, pardon the pun, to water down the assured water supply, she told The Republic. Hobbs added Petersens concerns gave her an opportunity to tell him: Dont California my Arizona, a phrase Republicans often use to criticize progressive policies.

On housing, Hobbs proposed state assistance to help middle-to-lower-income Arizonans with down payments, as well as provide relief from mortgage interest rates. Those would be available to families of four who make up to $75,000 a year.

Another proposal targets rural Arizona, with the states Industrial Development Agency providing financial assistance to 200 households to get into mortgages with a lower interest rate.

These are good, tangible steps to creating access to housing at affordable prices  but they alone will not solve the crisis across our state," the governor said. "I look forward to working with any member of this Legislature to find innovative and effective solutions to help Arizonans access the homes they and their loved ones need to thrive.

Hobbs unveiled a plan to prevent pharmacy benefit managers, who act as middlemen, from charging more than the cost of filling and dispensing a prescription. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes in November sued those managers as well as pharmaceutical makers for violating the states Consumer Fraud Act by inflating the price of insulin and other diabetes drugs.

Hobbs also wants to create a new division of the state Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions to cap prices on commonly used drugs, such as insulin.

Responding to accounts of maltreatment and deaths at sober living and long-term care homes, Hobbs proposed more accountability for those facilities. She called on lawmakers to toughen penalties and increase standards for those facilities.

Hobbs said she will push a package of bills that bar facilities from erasing their complaint record by transferring ownership, standardize inspections, and wants to give the Department of Health Services the ability to levy fines based on the severity of an offense, as opposed to an arbitrary cap.

What was not in the speech

Hobbs spent the vast majority of her first State of the State discussing education. This year, K-12 funding got what amounted to a passing reference. Thats likely due to the states financial outlook, which makes a funding boost unlikely.

Hobbs said the state must seize the opportunity as our budget outlook improves in future years to strengthen programs that provide scholarships for low-income students and allow them to receive college credits.

Hobbs signaled she would support continuing Proposition 123, which draws on state trust land revenue to funnel more money to public education and expires in 2025. But she hinted she would not support a plan proposed by Republicans who want to renew that measure and use the money it generates to cover $4,000 teacher pay raises.

Without question, we must give teachers a raise but we must also hear the Arizonans asking us to do more, she said, citing a need to increase compensation for support staff and increase funding for school safety.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs poses for a portrait at the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix on Jan. 3, 2024.

Instead, Hobbs proposed beginning a new engineering-focused medical school at Arizona State University, doubling the size of University of Arizona medical schools, and starting a new medical school at Northern Arizona University that will focus on serving rural and tribal communities.

Hobbs is under pressure from mayors to restore funding from rental tax revenue they lost as part of an agreement Hobbs made in exchange for passage of Proposition 400, a transportation tax renewal that will go to Maricopa County voters next year. The governor did not address that in her speech, though a budget proposal she is slated to outline on Friday could address this and other funding issues in more detail.

And in recent weeks, county elections officials have pressed for changes to the states automatic recount law, which risks slowing ballot counting to the point that Arizonas presidential electors may not be certified in time to meet the deadline to cast Arizonas votes for president.

Hobbs did not address that in her speech, nor mention elections at all. But she told The Republic there were ongoing negotiations on the topic of recount deadlines. She declined to give specifics but said it needs to be a clean bill without other election-related matters attached to it.

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Second year presents unique challenges

While she is hoping for bipartisanship, Hobbs at the same time is continuing her efforts to flip control of the Legislature to Democrats in the 2024 election.

She acknowledges the two disparate paths  advocating bipartisanship while pushing for a Democratic legislative majority. But she is sticking to her stance that there is room to work together.

And there is the state budget, which is currently running a $400 million deficit and faces a $450 million deficit next year.

Hobbs agreed with GOP leaders that cuts are inevitable, given the state Constitution requires a balanced budget. The state can close those deficits by rolling back some of the one-time funding that was approved last year as lawmakers spent down the states $2.5 billion surplus, as well as projects that have not yet launched.

Her priority, she said, will be protecting state agency funding.

We will rein in wasteful spending without sacrificing public safety and public education, Hobbs said. We will establish guardrails on unaccountable programs without hurting hard-working families. And we will tighten our collective belts through increased efficiencies and innovation without gutting programs that support small businesses, seniors, and those in need.

Hobbs ended the speech with the same words used to close the address in her first year: Lets get to work.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on Threads as well as on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @maryjpitzl. Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State of the State: Hobbs targets water, drug prices, housing
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is downplaying the devastating impacts of its flood prevention protocols on the Mississippi Sound, representatives of the Mississippi Sound Coalition say.

Oyster reefs have yet to recover from the prolonged opening in 2019 of the Bonnet Carre Spillway that released Mississippi River floodwaters into Lake Pontchartrain and the Sound. The Army Corps follows a protocol established in 1928 to control Mississippi River flooding of New Orleans, but excess river water disturbs the balance of salt and freshwater that oysters and other aquatic species need to thrive.

We dont have an oyster population left in the Mississippi Sound and its because of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, Robert Wiygul, an environmental attorney who represents the coalition, said during a news conference Monday.

Under court order, the Army Corps has completed a crucial report for the National Marine Fisheries Service that says river water discharges can kill oysters, but prolonged Bonnet Carre discharges are unlikely to have long term impacts to oyster reefs that also serve as nurseries and habitat for other aquatic species.

Flooding kills oysters, dolphins

Public oyster reefs in Mississippi have been closed since 2018 because oysters are still scarce. In 2019, oysters died on reefs all the way to the Alabama state line, although the Corps report says harmful impacts are mostly limited to the Western Mississippi Sound.

In addition to oyster mortality, the 2019 opening killed 10% of the dolphin population, coalition manager Gerald Blessey said during the news conference, with recovery expected to take 30 years.

The coalition held the news conference after updating the Harrison County Board of Supervisors on its plans to save the Sound, which includes pushing the Army Corps to consider flood-control impacts. Corps studies have historically focused on Louisiana but, as coalition members pointed out, the river water doesnt stop at the state line.

Wiygul told supervisors: What we all want is a cooperative, data-driven process with the Corps of Engineers. Thats not what were getting so far. We have to push back.

University of Southern Mississippi oyster biologist Eric Powell, center, was monitoring the growth of oysters on Mississippis reefs. Oysters have been slow to repopulate the reefs after prolonged openings of the Bonnet Carre Spillway to relieve flooding in Louisiana.

MS group aims to save the Sound

Armed with $1.475 million in funding from the state Legislature, the coalition is funding environmental and economic studies on how floodwater management impacts the Mississippi Sound.

Also, at the coalitions urging, Sen. Roger Wicker helped pass legislation in late 2022 that directs the Corps to study ways to reduce flooding on the lower Mississippi River and reliance on the Bonnet Carre for flood relief.

The Bonnet Carre has been opened 15 times since its completion in 1931. But six of those openings have occurred over the last 12 years, as flooding has become more frequent, with four of the openings between 2018-2020. Federal fisheries disasters were declared after the 2011 and 2019 openings.

Coast localities, along with representatives of the tourism and fishing industries, established the Mississippi Sound Coalition and filed a lawsuit against the Corps in December 2019. The lawsuit followed the longest Bonnet Carre openings in history  123 days  that covered the height of tourist season in 2019.

Matthew Mayfield, a co-owner and co-founder of Eagle Point Oyster Co., shucks oysters for a friend at Ocean Springs Harbor on Friday, As natural reefs have become less productive, Eagle Point and other companies are raising oysters in off-bottom cages south of Deer Island in Biloxi.

The coalition has sent National Marine Fisheries a response to the report the Army Corps completed under court order. It says the Corps conclusions about temporary harm to the Mississippi Sound during Bonnet Carre openings is contrary to the available data and scientific literature. Many other assertions lack any citation to data or literature and are essentially unsupported opinion.

U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola ordered the Army Corps to consult with the Marine Fisheries Service about the Bonnet Carre and said he will monitor compliance.

The Mississippi Sound Coalitions broader goal is to save the Mississippi Sound from environmental degradation through improved water quality and other measures.

As coalition members and Supervisor Marlin Ladner pointed out, the Sound, separated by barrier islands from the Gulf of Mexico, is integral to the Coasts culture, economy and way of life.

Vast oyster reefs meant mountains of shells outside Mississippi Coast seafood factories in the early 20th Century, when Biloxi was known as the Seafood Capital of the World. The Mississippi Sound Coalition is fighting to save and reinvigorate an industry that has been culturally, environmentally and economically significant to the Coast.
Police in the Central Florida city of Ocala announced overnight Monday that they and federal marshals arrested the man they'd been seeking in the fatal shooting of another man in a mall on Dec. 23, 2023. They said Albert J. Shell Jr., 39, was the gunman in an apparently targeted killing.

The Ocala Police Department, in collaboration with the United States Marshals Service (Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force), has apprehended Albert Shell Jr., the murder suspect involved in the deadly shooting at the Paddock Mall that occurred on Dec. 23, 2023. pic.twitter.com/c15dzemijI  Ocala Police (@ocalapd) January 8, 2024

Shell was wanted on charges of premeditated first-degree murder and attempted premeditated first-degree murder, Ocala police said. The department was offering an initial $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

The suspect fled the scene on foot and left the gun behind, Ocala Police Chief Mike Balken said during a news briefing at the time.

The shooting occurred in a "common area" of the Paddock Mall at about 3:40 p.m. local time, Balken said. A man identified as 40-year-old David Nathaniel Barron was killed and a woman suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.

Police put out an arrest warrant for suspect Albert J. Shell Jr. in the Ocala, Fla. mall shooting. / Credit: Ocala, Florida police

Several other people at the mall suffered injuries during the shooting, police said. One person reported chest pain and another reported a broken arm.

Police said the shooter was wearing a red hat. The day after the shooting, officials said someone had taken the hat from the scene.

"That hat may contain valuable DNA evidence, and we need it back," Ocala police said. "We urge you to do the right thing and come forward immediately. Time is of the essence."

The Ocala Police Department said if the hat was not returned quickly, police would release a picture of the individual who took it. They said the person who took the hat would be arrested on a felony charge of tampering with evidence.

There was no word Monday on whether the hat had been recovered.

Ocala is about 80 miles northwest of Orlando.

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LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  A man was arrested related to the December stabbing death of another man in west Las Vegas, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officials said Sunday.

Police identified Elijah Candelaria, 18, as the suspect in the stabbing. He was arrested Saturday and booked into the Clark County Detention Center. Candelaria faces a charge of open murder.

The incident occurred on Dec. 13 at approximately 9:48 p.m. when dispatchers received a report of a man on the ground in front of a home in the 8300 block of Mulcahy Avenue near Alta and Durango drives.

When Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived, they found that the man had been stabbed. The unidentified man was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

LVMPD detectives determined that the man had been in a fight with Candelaria before he was stabbed. Investigators say Candelaria ran away before officers arrived.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
ASHEVILLE  A federal jury in Asheville found an Indiana man guilty Jan. 4 of distributing and transporting child pornography in Western North Carolina by use of chat rooms on the dark web, as announced by U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Dena J. King.

Brandon Keith Hardy, 44, of Bremen, Indiana, was also convicted of making notice or offering participation by a minor in an act of sexually explicit conduct, according to a verdict sheet obtained by the Citizen Times.

Hardy is currently in federal custody, but a sentencing date had not been set at the time of the news release.

According to law enforcement, Hardy and an undercover agent with Homeland Security Investigations engaged in conversation starting around Oct. 12, 2022, until Jan. 11, 2023, as stated in motion from the defendants attorney.

Federal judge rules on police shooting: Federal judge rules on whether WNC man shot shot by EBCI police can continue lawsuit

During these conversations, Hardy allegedly sent an undercover agent three dark web links to images of child pornography over an encrypted text messaging platform, according to the announcement and court documents.

Law enforcement determined that Hardy had been using chatrooms on the dark web to traffic child sexual abuse material and to solicit sexual activity with a minor. Spokesperson Lia Bantavani with the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of North Carolina confirmed that Hardy transported and distributed the child pornography in WNC.

Evidence presented at trial also established that Hardy possessed a collection of child pornography on his phone, expressed his interest in engaging in sexual activity with a child, and said he had sexually abused other children, the announcement said.

Hardy was arrested on Feb. 14, 2023, in South Bend, Indiana, according to court documents. He first appeared in Asheville federal court on March 27, 2023.

Alleged child rape: Court records: Former Asheville-area health care director indicted in child rape case

Hardys conviction reflects the important work we do every day to keep children safe and prosecute those who seek to harm them, King said in the announcement. Child predators using anonymous online networks and encryption walls to exploit children and evade justice will not deter our mission.

While a sentencing date has not been set, Hardys charges of transportation of child pornography and distribution of child pornography each carry a minimum statutory sentence of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The notice of child pornography charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

This case was a part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative marshalling federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet. Project Safe Childhood was launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice.

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Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at rober@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Indiana man found guilty of distributing child pornography in WNC
We Are China

Voting begins for Bangladesh's general elections

Xinhua) 09:11, January 08, 2024

Voters queue up at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (Xinhua)

DHAKA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Nationwide voting opened Sunday morning in Bangladesh's general elections to elect hundreds of representatives to parliament.

The voting started at 8:00 a.m. local time at over 42,000 polling centers nationwide and will continue without any break until 4:00 p.m. local time.

According to the Election Commission, a total of 1,970 candidates are contesting for 299 out of the 300 directly-elected parliamentary constituencies. The election to one of the 300 seats will be held later because of the death of an independent candidate.

Meanwhile, the candidates include 1,534 from political parties and 436 independents.

There are nearly 120 million registered voters in the South Asian country. The counting of votes will be done on the spot soon after the voting is concluded.

In order to facilitate the voting process, a public holiday has been declared across the country.

In Bangladesh, a party can only form the government if it manages to clinch 151 seats in total.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is seeking a fourth consecutive term in the country of 170 million population.

Female voters wait in line outside a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (Xinhua)

A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (Xinhua)

A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (Xinhua)

A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (Xinhua)

Voters queue up at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (Xinhua)

Voters queue up at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (Xinhua)

Voters check voting-related information on a bulletin board at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (Xinhua)

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina casts her ballot at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (PID/Handout via Xinhua)

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (2nd, L) holds a media briefing at a polling station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 7, 2024. (PID/Handout via Xinhua)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
America has a race problem, and it has abandoned all pretensions to hide it. We need only to do an autopsy on 2023 to witness this toxic brew of racial animosity boil over, in full public view. The days of the so-called post-racial, colorblind America are long behind us, if they ever existed. White legislators in statehouses and boards across the U.S. seized power to institute openly anti-Black laws, resolutions and decrees.

Take, for example, the recent decision by an all-white Missouri school board to remove Black history classes and books from the districts course offerings. This act of Black scholastic erasure comes in the aftermath of the Florida Board of Educations approval of new protocols for the teaching of Black history. Those guidelines tout the benefits of Black chattel slavery, arguing enslaved people enjoyed advantages because of their conditions in bondage. As to be expected, such a mendaciously driven, and revisionism-riven, reading of American slavery history unleashed much public outcry from a chorus of Black civil rights organizations. So universal was the condemnation of the boards ahistorical account that even some prominent Black conservatives criticized the reckless move.

Any cursory reading of Black history in this country, from slavery to Jim Crow, reveals a clear historical pattern: Keep Black people away from writing their own histories by outlawing Black literacy witnessed in slavery, or explicitly impoverishing Black literacy, as observed in Jim Crow laws of separate but equal.

Yet, America seems intent on repeating its noxious history of Black oppression. Arkansas, under Sarah Huckabee Sanders governorship, approved similar bans on Black literature and history. Sanders ceremoniously banned the teaching of critical race theory in public schools, arguing such classes amount to indoctrination.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs into law an education overhaul bill on March 8, 2023, at the Capitol in Little Rock.

Other states, from Texas to Oklahoma, also banned various forms of Black literature, curriculum, history and the teaching of critical race theory. In Oklahoma, McCurtain County commissioners were caught in a recording touting the lynching and whipping of Black people. The McCurtain County sheriffs office issued a statement arguing such audio recordings are illegal and questioned the authenticity of the tapes.

Have we forgotten the lessons of Jim Crow and the tremendous damage heaped upon Black communities? History would remind us well if white officials did not outlaw it.

According to the American Library Association, Texas led the nation in book banning in 2022. The white hoods of a past era are now substituted for the corporate jacket, the judicial gavel and the legislative pen. Theres an oft-repeated adage that speaks of slavery being Americas original sin. But what of its contemporary sins? Has America repented of its lust for Black oppression? Put another way, when will America overcome its fondness for racial injustice?

Indeed, the times are changing. No longer is racial terror the sole work of people in white hoods but inked in this nations history through legislators. These evolving currents of Americas race problem must be voiced and documented for all to witness. Failure to name racism, in whatever form, necessarily gives full rein for its rise and continuity in American life.

Sober reflections on Americas racial injustices in 2023 also remind us of the expulsion of the two Black legislators in the Tennessee state legislature. Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled because their advocacy for gun control on the floor of the chamber was deemed to be in breach of House decorum. In what can only be described as tragic comedy, one of the white representatives of the House who voted for the expulsions was accused of sexual harassment by a legislative intern. He was not expelled, even though a House ethics panel convicted him, quietly, of the misconduct. He resigned  after a news outlet confronted him. Historically, a common feature of anti-Black racism is the revelation of white hypocrisy that follows it.

All these examples of anti-Blackness in America are made possible only when white people use their legislative pens and gavels to reproduce racial oppression that they say they oppose.

The anatomy of Americas long-standing racism can be dissected this way: White people are the primary source of the nations anti-Black racism. This is an ugly truth. Yet, it must be told freely. Failure to grapple with contemporary wrongs will result in repeats of racial crises, of the sort witnessed after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd, the 2012 fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, the 1991 near-death beating of Rodney King and the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Banning Black literature is not an abstraction. Its costs are counted in Black graves.

Derefe Kimarley Chevannes, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Memphis, who teaches Black political theory and critical race theory.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
The family of Ashli Babbitt has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the federal government, seeking $30 million over her shooting death during the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The lawsuit filed Friday in California federal court claims the 35-year-old Air Force veteran posed no threat to the safety of anyone when she was fatally shot while attempting to break into the speakers lobby during the assault involving supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, who shot Babbitt as police evacuated members of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, was later determined in an internal investigation to have acted lawfully and to have potentially saved members and staff from serious injury and possible death.

Ashli Babbitt's mother Micki Witthoeft attends a candlelight vigil in support of the so-called

Ashli Babbitt's mother Micki Witthoeft attends a candlelight vigil in support of the so-called "political prisoners" of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The lawsuit, which was filed by conservative group Judicial Watch on behalf of Babbitts widower, Aaron Babbitt, and her estate, contends that she was ambushed by the officer, however.

Ashli was unarmed. Her hands were up in the air, empty, and in plain view of Lt. Byrd and other officers in the lobby, states the suit, which alleges wrongful death, assault and battery, and various negligence issues.

Byrd was not in uniform, did not identify himself as a police officer or otherwise make his presence known to Ashli. Lt. Byrd did not give Ashli any warnings or commands before shooting her dead, it goes on.

Babbitt had traveled alone to Washington, D.C. from her home in San Diego because she loved her country and wanted to show her support for President Trump, the suit states. She was there to exercise what she believed were her God-given, American liberties and freedoms.

Bryd said he was forced to take lethal action and tried to wait as long as I could as a mob of protesters broke a doors window and tried to make their way through.

Their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers, he later told NBC News.

Babbitts mother, Micki Witthoeft, has continuously held protests over her daughters death in D.C. and has called for the hanging deaths of Byrd and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She has been arrested twice in relation to her protesting, though prosecutors have declined to press charges.

Witthoeft was arrested last May for simple assault and destruction of property following a scuffle involving a counterprotester in D.C. She was arrested four months earlier, on the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, for allegedly failing to obey police orders and blocking and obstructing roadways, WUSA reported.

Related...
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  Police are searching for suspects who stole an ATM machine and dragged it to a nearby apartment complex in north Columbus.

According to CPD dispatch, at around 4:35 a.m. Monday morning an unknown number of suspects yanked an ATM machine out from the First Merchants Bank drive thru on North High Street, across from the Graceland Shopping Center.

Person critical after hit-skip by a Cadillac in north Columbus

Officers arriving at the scene found debris from the ATM machine, which the suspects reportedly dragged approximately 500 feet into an apartment complex.

Police did not say if the suspects escaped with money from the machine. The CPD Property Crimes Unit is investigating the incident.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
CRAIGSVILLE  The Augusta Correctional Center (ACC) closure is hitting Craigsville.

On Jan. 4, many of the prison employees, their families, and Craigsville residents gathered in the Craigsville Town Hall to hear what representatives from the Virginia Department of Corrections (DOC) had to say about the closure. A panels worth of government officials lined the front of the room and enough people arrived early to fill nearly every chair.

The Town Hall on Augusta Correctional Center's closing on Jan. 4, 2024.

Craigsville Mayor Richard Fox opened the town hall, asking for participants to be respectful and stay positive. Fox kept to this message for the entirety of the meeting.

Im 69 years old, said Fox. When Lehigh Portland Cement closed in 1968, it killed Craigsville. Totally, totally killed it. Were not going to let this happen this time. Were going to get back on our feet, were going to move on.

Craigsville Mayor Richard Fox (center, standing)

The human cost of closing the facility, however, was made apparent by the speakers. Amy Bates husband, Stafford Bates, works at the facility and has been with DOC for over 30 years. Bates thanked the DOC for the opportunities it provided to their family before now, but felt the closure was slimy because administration waited until ten days before Christmas to tell everyone they were losing their jobs.

I dont really think you all really care about us as a small community, said Bates, followed by a round of applause. I think you showed up because you had to. If you cared, my husband would have a job. Most of them are going to be four hours away and I would miss seeing him on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. I wouldnt be stuck at home, disabled, not able to drive.

Amy Bates speaks to the panel.

Sylvia Jolly, owner of Sylvias Styling Salon, felt this is going to kill Craigsville and doesnt know how any of this is going to help. Jolly also expressed concern for her rentals, the housing market, and the local elementary school.

Barbara Workman, whose husband Andrew has worked at the facility for 25 years, said DOC lied to us in November.

"A couple of months ago, a bunch of inmates were moving," said Workman. "The staff was told Were not closing, were just moving inmates.' Now you come two weeks into December and were closing. How do we trust you? How do we trust you? We have families to care for.

Former Pastures District Augusta County Supervisor Tracy Pyles told the panel exactly what many in the room wanted to say.

Weve heard a lot about concerns, prayers, empathy. What we havent heard is what we want to hear  this prison needs to stay open.

No one offered any real hope the decision could or would be reversed.

The Augusta Correctional Center closure is practically set in stone

Why will Augusta Correctional Center close? According to DOC Chief of Corrections Operations David Robinson, the states inmate population has dropped over the past several years, prompting a review of prisons across the state approximately six months ago.

As DOC examined ACC, they found difficulties in hiring and retaining new employees to fill vacancies. Robinsons team estimated that over a million dollars a year was being spent on overtime due to the staffing levels. Robinsons staff also received concerns about the safety of the staff due to the staffing levels.

The staffing safety concerns lead DOC to reduce the number of inmates at ACC. According to reporting from Mark Bowes with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the facility housed 1,300 inmates in Dec. 2022. The number has fallen to 489 inmates as of the Jan. 4 town hall.

The facilitys distance from a hospital was considered  according to Google Maps, the nearest hospital to the facility is over 40 minutes of driving away.

As a result, the Virginia Department of Corrections chose Augusta Correctional Center as one of several facilities to close.

Delegate Chris Runion (standing, left) and Senator Mark Obenshain (standing, right) led the town hall.

Senator Mark Obenshain confirmed the closure would need legislative approval, but it will not be considered individually.

The way it goes in front of the general assembly is in the budget, said Obenshain. The budget has all kinds of details for what were going to fund over the next two years. In the governors proposed budget, he has language that will close Craigsville.

The governor's proposed budget is then used as a guideline for the legislature to propose its own budget. A final budget will likely be voted on in February, meaning the closure has not been formally approved yet. While Obenshain and Delegate Chris Runion could each introduce amendments to remove the closure from the budget, Obenshain felt it would be unlikely that budget amendment gets adopted.

Obenshain advised the ACC employees not to take that to the bank and to work hard at finding your other job.

I could stand here and make promises or tell you that were going to fight like hell, then we come up one vote short, Obenshain said. Id feel good about myself and maybe Id voodood somebody, but thats not what Im here for, to give you false hope and expectations. These folks over here," Obenshain gestured to the panel of DOC leadership and state officials, "these are the people who know what theyre doing in terms of helping find you new work.

Who does the closure affect?

As of Jan. 4, Augusta Correctional Center has 218 employees. The inmates will be moved before the June 30 closing date, but Robinson noted this would likely happen around the time of the closure. Inmates currently leaving are either doing so for medical reasons or because their term has ended.

Employees staying through the June closing date can expect to receive their full salary. Robinson explained that the budget for the facility is already in place and is not expected to change.

Closing prisons is very hard, said Robinson. My heart goes out to all of you here. I assure you that this agency is going to do everything in its power to get every employee at that prison a job. Thats my goal, I assure you of that.

Lucinda Childs-White, HR Senior Manager for the Virginia Department of Corrections, outlined what will happen to the employees.

The most senior person gets first bid, said Childs-White. We give that person a certain amount of time to make a decision about whether or not they want to take it. They are only required to take that position if it meets two criteria. One is that if it is in a 60-mile radius of where they live. The second is that they need to be able to retain their salary. If either one of those things dont happen, that person does not have to take that job and that person still has their severance package. They also have recall rights for a full year if they end up taking that job outside the 60-mile radius.

HR Senior Manager for the Virginia Department of Corrections Lucinda Childs-White (center, standing)

If DOC cannot find placement for the employee, they will be issued a yellow card. This card gives the employees preferential treatment against other competing candidates for state jobs in other agencies. However, the card can only be issued once the employee has been through the entire process, meaning that many will need to wait until HR works through the seniority list.

County Administrator Timothy Fitzgerald noted that the Middle River Regional jail currently had 23 openings. Although the training requirements are not the same as the Augusta Correctional Centers officers, the legislators are working on a program to provide anyone transferring paid, accelerated training to get them up to speed.

DOC Environmental Services Unit Director Tim Newton confirmed that the building would be sold through surplus." Several speakers expressed concern about both upkeep on the facility and the difficulty of repurposing a prison.

Robinson also confirmed the previous warden is no longer in that position, but also specified their transfer was unrelated to the closure. David Newcomer was transferred to manage dysfunction at the Greensville Correctional Center. Robinson noted the issues were visible in the news. Samuel B. Parker with the Richmond Times-Dispatched reported the facility had several inmate deaths in November and, according to reporting from Victoria Lucas with ABC 8News, an array of drugs, 21 homemade weapons, and 10 cell phones were found during a search.

Will DOC require employees to pay back thousands in hiring bonuses?

Robinson confirmed earlier in the town hall that bonuses with time stipulations were used to attract employees to fill staff vacancies. Several speakers, and the audience, were outraged when it was confirmed that employees that do not stay with DOC through June 30 would have to pay back those bonuses, with one stated to be $6,000.

We can go back and see if we can make a waiver, Robinson said. I was advised that he had to stay through the contract period he signed up for. We will go back and see.

Obenshain asked Robinson to provide the legislators budget language to fund this type of issue, calling it the definition of unfair.

Water rates are not expected to increase

There are many ways the ripple effects from the closure could move through the town. Several speakers expressed concern for future of Craigsville Elementary after a potential population drop.

Another concern is about local water bills without one of the systems biggest users. Will there be a rate increase?

We have no intention of doing so, said Fox. I am totally, 159%, against any raises on people in the town. The rest of this council is the same way. We want to keep it so people can afford it.

As explained by Fox, the sewer treatment plant was owned by the Department of Corrections but was built with loans that passed through Craigsville. Of the two loans, the first has been paid off, and the second, 30-year loan is 10 years into its repayment process. The contract included a clause stating that the plant and the debt would come back to the town if the prison closes, like what is happening now. This means the town is on the hook for approximately $6,900 a month.

Even so, Fox thinks the deal was in Craigsvilles best interests.

The town of Craigsville could not build that plant with the money were going to be paying for it, said Fox. The town has got to have a treatment plant.

Governor Glenn Youngkins budget currently has resources for the town and the water treatment plant, according to Josh Humphries, Deputy Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the governors office.

The Town Hall on Augusta Correctional Center's closing on Jan. 4, 2024.

Mayor Fox is hopeful

Fox is currently working to set up a job fair for those affected by the closure, though no details are currently confirmed. He hopes to attract new businesses to Craigsville, but also explained that the "biggest problem we have with not getting industry out here is that we're so far from the interstate. That's the first thing they tell you."

When speaking with The News Leader after the meeting, he held on to the optimistic outlook he walked in the town hall with, but not without seeing the reality in front of him.

"It's going to be a change for all of them," Fox said. "I hate that they lost their jobs. It's a sad situation when you lose your livelihood like that. I feel like we can pull back up from it, find good jobs, and move on. We'll be okay."

Lyra Bordelon (she/her) is the public transparency and justice reporter at The News Leader. Do you have a story tip or feedback? Its welcome through email to lbordelon@gannett.com. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

More: Augusta Correctional Center in Craigsville is closing

More: Augusta Correctional inmate, serving 33 years for BB gun robbery, denied early release

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Augusta Correctional Center town hall provides residents, employees with answers
As questions remain about why Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized on Jan. 1, and why his team failed to notify the president until several days later, the Pentagons top spokesman has confirmed that a member of Austins entourage did not notify his chief of staff about the hospitalization until roughly a day after he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and that she in turn did not notify the White House until Thursday.

Its the latest revelation regarding the defense secretarys emergency incapacitation last week, in which the White House did not learn of Austins absence leading the department until Thursday, with Congress and the general public only becoming aware of the cabinet members incapacitation on Friday.

The Pentagon has refused to offer details about Austins initial medical procedure on Dec. 22 and what prompted him to be admitted into intensive care at Walter Reed on New Years Day, when he was rushed to the hospital after experiencing severe pain, according to officials.

Austin has resumed his duties after deferring to a deputy, although he remains hospitalized.

The lingering questions about why no one was told of Austins hospitalization come at a tenuous time for the U.S. military, as the Israel-Hamas war continues to threaten to morph into a broader conflict and the Ukraine-Russia war rages on.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Monday that Austins chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, was out with the flu early last week when she learned the news and did not make any moves to notify parties outside Austins immediate team until she after returned to work on Thursday.

Criticism swirls over defense secretarys hushed-up hospitalization

This breakdown of communication, and the consequences of it, are in stark contrast to what any uniformed member of the military would face in similar circumstances.

Absence without approved leave violates Article 86 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and its violation carries a maximum of six months jail time a bad conduct discharge, according to the Manual for Courts Martial.

Still, the comparison of Austins absence to that of a uniformed service member going AWOL isnt entirely applicable, according to Rachel VanLandingham, director of the National Institute of Military Justice and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.

Austin is a political appointee, so this is an issue between him and the president, she told Military Times on Monday.

Still, VanLandingham added, Magsamen should have notified the higher-ups sooner.

This was a staff issue as much as a failure of judgment by Austin, she said.

Ryder declined to answer multiple questions Monday regarding why Magsamen didnt delegate her authority to notify the president or Congress if she herself was ill.

And so [Im] not standing up here looking to make excuses other than the explanation for why there was a delay and the fact that we know we can do better and were committed to doing better, Ryder told reporters.

Why was Defense Secretary Austins hospital stay kept secret for days?

Ryder himself took responsibility for the lack of public disclosure, admitting that he first learned of Austins hospitalization on Jan. 2 from Chris Meagher, assistant to the defense secretary for public affairs.

In retrospect, I should have asked those harder questions and I should have pushed for an earlier public acknowledgement, Ryder said, adding that at the time, he didnt feel at liberty to publicly discuss Austins health.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who was tapped to handle Austins responsibilities starting Jan. 2 while on vacation in Puerto Rico, was also unaware of why she had been put in charge, Ryder said.

But its also not uncommon for her to to take on those authorities on short notice, Ryder added. For instance, shed done so during Austins original Dec. 22 visit to Walter Reed for the undisclosed medical procedure that led to complications.

Shed also been in charge briefly earlier that week, he said, as Austin flew via CMV-22B Osprey to visit the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford in the Mediterranean Sea.

The defense secretarys front office is now reviewing whether any legal notification procedures were violated, Ryder added, and to create a codified procedure for the future.

Ryder said Monday that he did not know whether a law exists for who notifies the president and Congress of a cabinet members incapacitation, and how quickly that should occur.

There should be a written policy requiring that the president be notified immediately when any member of the Cabinet is incapacitated, VanLandingham said.

But Cabinet secretaries are not military members, so accountability takes on a very different perspective, she added.

Austin said in a statement Saturday that he takes full responsibility for the communication breakdown. Ryder said the secretary has no plans to resign, and a White House spokesman on Monday told reporters that Biden appreciates Austins handling of the situation.

The president respects the fact that Secretary Austin took ownership for the lack of transparency. He also respects the amazing job hes done as defense secretary, and how he has handled multiple crises over the last almost three years now, John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, said. He very much values his advice, candor, leadership, and again looks forward to having him back again.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The ledger on COVID-19 has been closed for 2023. But the contagion is not, as some have proclaimed, over, with the Upper Midwest dealing with a mini-surge that will probably continue through January. Because reporting and interest in general have tailed off, no one has a good idea how many cases are actually occurring, but there are enough that hospitalizations have doubled since autumn.

However, for most, COVID-19 is no longer the serious infection it was in the four previous years. After more than 1 million deaths in those four years  in terms of overall American casualties, think 20 Vietnam Wars, three World War IIs or two Civil Wars  the projection was that the U.S. would experience 100,000 or more deaths in 2023. Yet according to Worldometer, the actual number was just over 70,000 in 2023 and slowing in the second half of the year, as the effects of immunity and vaccination now protect the population.

For Americans today, the mortality of COVID-19  that is, the share of people who contract the virus and die  is less than 1%, and for healthy individuals, it is significantly less than that.

When we review the effects of COVID-19 to date, we should harbor no illusions  the havoc is not merely measured in deaths and long-term disabilities. The incalculable damage wrought is everywhere: undereducated children, increases in suicides and drug overdoses, a general coarsening of society and intensified political division. This political dissonance was aggravated by the physicians and scientists who abandoned their independence during the pandemic. They let politicians exploit them to justify public policy choices.

Some lessons are being learned, albeit too late. Testifying before Congress in May 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who became President Donald Trumps public health spokesperson for the pandemic, acknowledged his lack of expertise in the economic implications of societal lockdowns. Fauci devoted little attention to the unintended consequences of closing down large segments of society, a strategy advocated by most of the public health community.

Now, Francis Collins, former National Institutes of Health chief and Faucis onetime boss at the NIH, has admitted that the public health mindset of the response to COVID-19 was a mistake.

In an interview that recently resurfaced online, Collins said, if youre a public health person and youre trying to make a decision, you have this very narrow view of what the right decision is. And that is something that will save a life  so you attach infinite value to stopping the disease and saving a life. You attach zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts peoples lives, ruins the economy and has many kids kept out of school in a way that they never quite recover from.

This admission is a positive step forward by an influential scientist. Putting the science into perspective, Collins, a nonconformist in the scientific community, has described himself as a serious Christian who has attempted to bridge the gap between science and faith. Thats why it was somewhat uncharacteristic that until now, he marched in lockstep with the initial zealous public health approach to limit spread of the virus through lockdowns.

Will he also admit to another serious misstep that he and Fauci committed  the attempt to silence the scientists who authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated an alternative approach to confronting the pandemic? Their notion was to focus protection on the elderly and vulnerable groups, while allowing the rest of us to lead normal lives. In retrospect, the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration probably oversold their plan  the pandemic would likely have proceeded apace even with their approach, but there may have been less collateral damage. What Fauci and Collins did, however, amounted to scientific censorship and constituted a serious breach in scientific ethics: Scientists must maintain their objectivity in the search for the truth.

Many want to forget all this and move on, but no one should ignore the incalculable damage caused to our country and the rent it has put in the social fabric and our institutions. There is much to be gleaned from this, but there is a sense that rather than learn from the experience, many of the actors will attempt to rewrite their role in history to portray their actions in a more favorable light.

As the COVID-19 pandemic moves into its fifth year, it is not the beast that raged through the world in 2020 and 2021. The contagion is by no means done with us  there will likely be seasonal and sporadic outbreaks for years, and things could always change if a more lethal variant mutation pops up. For now, though, it poses little more than an inconvenience to most people and a serious threat only to an unfortunate minority. It is the whimper, not the bang, we hoped it would become.

It has been said that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Of course, the unfortunate corollary is that even if you do learn from history, you may well be condemned to repeat it. It is only a question of time.

Dr. Cory Franklin is a retired intensive care physician and the author of the forthcoming book, The COVID Diaries 2020-2024: Anatomy of a Contagion As It Happened.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
Semafor Signals

Insights from Al Jazeera, Nikkei Asia, Reuters

NEWS

Bangladeshs Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth consecutive term in Sundays general election, which was plagued by low voter turnout and a boycott by opposition parties. Hasinas Awami League won more than 220 of the 299 seats in parliament.

The run-up to the elections had been marred by violence, while the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)  the countrys main opposition began a 48-hour general strike on the eve of the election, calling on voters to boycott the poll.

SIGNALS

Semafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories.

Opposition parties question election credibility amid flurry of dummy candidates

Sources: Al Jazeera, Reuters, TIME

The election saw the ruling Awami League field hundreds of independents, which the opposition says are dummy candidates, propped up to try to make a one-sided sham vote look credible, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, the BNP  which has now boycotted two out of the past three elections  alleged widespread intimidation, voter suppression and vote-rigging tactics, with one standing committee member telling TIME magazine previously that the vote was stolen way before election day. Following the poll, the BNP dismissed the new government as illegitimate and vowed to protest the results until there is a fresh election under a neutral caretaker administration.

Fears U.S. may impose trade sanctions over elections that were not free or fair

Sources: Nikkei Asia, The Dhaka Tribune, Deutsche Welle

The State Department said Monday the latest elections were not not free or fair, adding to fears that the U.S.  the biggest customer for Bangladeshs multibillion-dollar garment industry  may now move to impose trade sanctions. Last September, Washington imposed visa restrictions against Bangladeshi politicians and law enforcement officials involved in undermining democratic elections  while it has also sanctioned Bangladeshi paramilitaries over human rights violations. While any trade sanctions are hypothetical and still seen as unlikely, the blow they would inflict on Bangladeshs sputtering economy cannot be overstated, one South Asia expert at the DC-based Wilson Center told Nikkei Asia. In contrast to the strained U.S. ties, however, relations with China appeared unharmed by the vote  the Dhaka Tribune reported that Beijings ambassador was quick to congratulate Hasina on her win and reaffirm the two countries working relationship.
(Bloomberg) -- Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina retained her title as the worlds longest serving female head of government after her party swept most of the parliament seats in an election boycotted by her opponents and voters.

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Hasinas Awami League party won 223 of 299 seats for a simple parliament majority, according to unofficial results from the offices of the Election Commission. The election for one seat was postponed.

The poll body has put the turnout at 41.8%, the second lowest since the countrys return to democracy in 1991. Its a sharp drop from the 80% participation in polls in 2018, as voters heeded a campaign by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party to shun the election and draw attention to the sweeping crackdown her government carried out in the run up to the polls.

The vote was the culmination of a monthlong campaign beset by daily street protests, the jailing of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and viral videos of ruling party leaders pushing voters to cast ballots or risk losing government benefits.

Dhaka was deserted with heavy security around voting centers and there were few reports of clashes between opposition supporters and police officials. In a sign the country was still on edge, Hasina, who is also the president of the Awami League, asked supporters not to organize rallies to celebrate the victory, according to party official Sayem Khan.

The taka edged higher on Monday, rising 0.05% to 109.55 against the dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The nations currency dealers currently set limits on the exchange rate.

Hasina, set for a fourth straight term in power, has overseen one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and lifted millions out of poverty as part of her development agenda  achievements often overshadowed by her turn to authoritarianism.

Still, the economy is struggling with dollar shortages, which has prompted Moodys Investors Service and others to downgrade Bangladeshs credit ratings. The government was earlier forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund for $4.7 billion in emergency loans after the pandemic and soaring commodity prices depleted foreign exchange reserves.

Speaking at a post-election briefing on Monday, Hasina said she remains focused on the countrys economic development. Economic progress and a better life for everybody will be my main aim for the next five years, said Hasina. Development is my main aim.

About 120 million people were eligible to vote for 299 of the 350 seats in parliament. In recent weeks, prominent leaders from Awami League have been shown on social media video clips telling voters that they risked losing their benefits if they didnt take part in the elections.

The BNP boycotted the national vote in response to Hasina refusing to step aside and allowing a caretaker government to run the poll. In response her Awami League party targeted a 50% turnout and allowed some of its leaders to contest as independents to spur voter interest.

As polling stations closed, opposition leaders congratulated voters for not casting their ballots, according to the Daily Star.

What we have been saying for the one year that the people of Bangladesh have turned down this government has been shown today before everyone in the country, said BNP leader Abdul Moyeen Khan. Well continue our movement together with the people in a peaceful process.

The US, the biggest buyer of Bangladeshs exports, called for free and fair election ahead of Sundays vote, and imposed visa curbs on members of Hasinas ruling party and law enforcement officials in September.

Hasina defended her relationship with the US on Monday, saying Bangladesh has good relationship with Washington. I want to continue to have good relationships with every country, to develop my country very quickly, she added.

Police arrested several opposition leaders in the months before the election. Hasinas main rival and BNP leader Khaleda Zia faces suspended jail sentences on graft charges that her supporters say are trumped up.

Human Rights Watch said in a November report that almost 10,000 opposition activists have been arrested since a planned rally by the BNP on Oct. 28. Nobel winner Yunus was given a six-month jail sentence by a Dhaka court last week in a case his supporters say was politically motivated.

--With assistance from Sankalp Phartiyal and Karl Lester M. Yap.

(Updates with results, market reaction, Hasina comment)

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Activists of Gono Odhikar Parishad stand wearing black clothes on the face to protest against what they called a one sided election at the National Press Club in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Jan.8, 2024. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has won an overwhelming majority in Bangladesh's parliamentary election after a campaign fraught with violence and a boycott from the main opposition party, giving her and her Awami League a fourth consecutive term. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP)  Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has swept to power for a fourth consecutive term in Bangladesh, following an election on Sunday that was boycotted by opposition parties and marked by violent protests and international scrutiny.

Her Awami League party won 222 seats out of 299, according to the Election Commission, cementing a majority in Parliament and extending her 15-year rule that has made Hasina one of the most defining and divisive leaders in the nation's history.

Hasina's victory, widely seen as inevitable, came amid low voter turnout at 41.8% in a severely contentious climate that saw opposition members jailed ahead of the polls. Analysts say the clampdown on political foes and stifling of dissent puts Bangladeshs democracy in a fragile position, risks triggering political turmoil and may test some of its diplomatic ties.

Campaigning was rife with violence and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies boycotted the vote, saying that Hasinas government could not oversee free and fair polls.

This is not a story of a thumping, resounding reaction from the people. There is a question mark in the publics mind about this election, so the result that has come will face this taint, said Avinash Paliwal, who specializes in South Asia relations at Londons SOAS University.

The vote also spotlighted a troublesome electoral record, being the third in the last 15 years to be dogged by credibility concerns. The previous two votes were widely seen as flawed with allegations of vote-rigging, which authorities denied, and another opposition boycott. All three elections were held under Hasinas rule.

The main opposition party has demanded a fresh election to establish a legitimate government.

This is likely "to ratchet up rather than rein in political tensions and fan further polarization instead of reconciliation, said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center.

The government has defended the polls as open and inclusive, but critics have pointed out that many smaller opposition groups and independent candidates belonged to the ruling party, which left voters with few options.

In a post-election press conference on Monday, Hasina said Bangladesh had set an example of holding a free, fair and impartial election.

It's not my victory. I think it is a victory of the people, she declared.

While Hasina is often credited with presiding over Bangladeshs impressive growth in recent years, experts say its economy is now sputtering. Foreign exchange reserves have dwindled to less than three months' worth of imports, the price of groceries has surged and a wave of labor protests from the countrys prized garment industry has highlighted dissatisfaction with the government.

Experts say economic discontent is widespread in Bangladesh, which means Hasina's handling of the economy will be key, especially to regain legitimacy among disenchanted voters who skipped the polls.

The political tumult surrounding the election also risks straining Bangladeshs ties with the U.S., the biggest buyer of its garment exports. Relations have been tense for months, especially after Washington vowed to impose visa restrictions on anyone disrupting the electoral process. Hasina accused the U.S. of trying to plot her ouster.

Pierre Prakash, Asia director at the International Crisis Group, said the U.S. made Bangladesh a showcase of the Biden administration's values-based foreign policy, which emphasizes human rights and democratic freedoms.

Dhaka is an important trade and strategic partner for Washington in Asia, where it is trying to counter Chinese influence, but the Biden administration has been vocal about its concerns surrounding the election.

We'll have to see how the U.S. behaves. There could be sanctions on the horizon, but we don't know for sure, Prakash said, adding that these could target individuals or apply more broadly to a sector, which could pinch citizens.

Bangladeshs regional neighbors are likely to welcome Hasinas reelection. Her tough stance on terror, non-aligned foreign policy and efforts to help Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar  all of this has made her government, warts and all, fully acceptable to much of the world, Kugelman said.

Hasina has also won support from Russia, which is building a nuclear plant in the country, and maintained ties with the European Union, a major trade partner that analysts say will be watching developments closely.

Her biggest backer remains India, which has invested in several infrastructure projects as it jostles for influence against rival China in the region.

While thats unlikely to change in the short run, Paliwal said there is growing anti-India sentiment amid perceptions that New Delhi's support has enabled Hasinas rise and authoritarian turn.

This narrative is taking root, and New Delhi will be watching because it cant write off the political problems that are rising within the country, he said, adding that the low voter turnout was a major blow to the Awami League. This will reshape the calculus of Hasinas international allies and adversaries alike in the coming weeks."

___

AP journalist Julhas Alam contributed to this report.

___

Find more of AP's Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
By Ludwig Burger

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bayer said its menopausal relief drug eased hot flashes and improved sleep in two late-stage trials, much-needed good news for the German group's pharmaceuticals unit that is reeling from a recent development setback.

Germany's Bayer said in a statement on Monday that its elinzanetant drug candidate met the main goal in two Phase III trials of reducing the frequency and severity of vasomotor symptoms, also known as hot flashes, in postmenopausal women.

The read-out marks a slight turn of fortune for embattled Bayer, which in November aborted a large late-stage trial testing a new anti-blood-clotting drug due to lack of efficacy, throwing its most promising development project into doubt.

Prior to the setback, Bayer had estimated the blood-thinning drug could have peak annual sales of more than 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion), while elinzanetant was given the potential of about a billion dollars or more per year.Among secondary trial goals, the drug was also shown to ease sleep disturbances and improve menopause-related quality of life. Further details of the trials would be presented at as yet undisclosed medical conferences, it added.

New Bayer CEO Bill Anderson is weighing options to break apart the maker of prescription drugs, consumer health products, crop chemicals and seeds, in a bid to revive a battered share price.

In the race for non-hormonal menopausal symptoms relief drugs, Bayer is behind Japans Astellas, which last year won U.S. and European approval for similar treatment Veoza, also known as fezolinetant.

Yet another similar compound, developed by Acer Therapeutics, failed to ease hot flashes in a mid-stage trial last year.

Bayer added that the results of a third Phase III study testing its elinzanetant are expected in the coming months and that it plans to submit data from all three trials to seek approval from health authorities thereafter.

($1 = 0.9106 euros)

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
DARTMOUTH  Dartmouth Police and other emergency personnel responded to the area of Gulf Road at Smith Neck Road at 10:35 p.m. Friday, Jan. 5 for a single-vehicle crash with reported ejections.

According to the Dartmouth Police Department, upon arrival, officers located both a male and female lying unresponsive in the roadway near a heavily damaged 2022 Honda Accord.

Both parties were treated at the scene and transported to St. Lukes Hospital in New Bedford, where the male identified as Jacob Pothier, 18, of New Bedford, was pronounced dead.

The female, identified as Kathleen Martins, 44, of Dartmouth, sustained life-threatening injuries and remains in guarded condition.

The crash currently remains under investigation by members of the Dartmouth Police Department Crash Reconstruction Unit and both Massachusetts State Police and Dartmouth Police Department detectives.

As part of this investigation, the Dartmouth Police Department is asking that anyone who may have witnessed the involved vehicle (a white 2022 Honda Accord) operating in or near the town landing on the west side of the Padanaram bridge before the crash, to contact either Officer Brian Parent at 508-910-1790 or Detective Kyle Costa at 508-910-1755.

Potheir was a senior at Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech according to Superintendent-Director Michael Watson.

The death of a person so young, no matter the circumstances, is a tragedy, Michael Watson wrote in a statement. It is the stark reminder of a life not realized. It is the loss of a son to his parents, the loss of a brother to his siblings and the loss of a peer to his friends.

He noted that mental health and crisis intervention teams will be available to support the students during this difficult time.

A GoFundMe has been created for the parents of Pothier, in the fundraiser it notes that he had turned 18 just two weeks ago. At this time the fund has raised over $34,000 to help the family memorialize and bury him.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Pothier killed in car accident in Dartmouth
The Ministry of Defence of Belarus is building a new military town 40 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, in Homiel Oblast.

Source: Belarusian branch of Radio Liberty

Details: Radio Liberty reported that the first stage of construction is due to be completed in March 2024. The town is being built on the territory of several former children's camps.

In May, self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced the creation of the "Southern Operational Command" in the Armed Forces, and journalists have linked the construction of a new military facility to this.

Ukrainian military expert Oleh Zhdanov told Radio Liberty that the new military camp is likely to house a garrison whose task will be to cover the state border. He added that he "would not be surprised" if several more such facilities were built along the border with Ukraine.

Quote: "But if the political unification of Belarus and Russia takes place, the doctrine will change to an offensive one. Then it will be a military base for attack."

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Two of Coral Gables favorite restaurants, led by one of South Floridas most popular chefs, are about to change completely.

Chef Niven Patel and his partner Mohamed Alkassar of the Alpareno Restaurant Group will no longer operate Orno or Mamey at the Thesis Hotel at 1350 South Dixie Highway.

Patel, who was named one of Food & Wines Best New Chefs in 2020, announced the changes, which begin Jan. 14, via Instagram. He calls Orno and Mamey two restaurants that we poured our heart and soul in since the day we started this journey 5 years ago.

Its heartbreaking for me and my partner to part ways with two teams that we love so much, these restaurants are dear to our hearts and well miss all our guests, he wrote. Were fortunate to have served the community of Coral Gables for so long and formed family like bonds with many of our regulars.

Mamey, which opened in 2020 and served a menu highlighting Asian, Caribbean and Polynesian cuisine, will now be operated by the hotel developers. Patel and Alkassar will not be involved in the transition, but they do own the menu, so Mamey will be getting a completely new food and beverage program.

Food & Wine readers voted Mamey as one of the best restaurants for ambiance in the U.S. in 2023.

As for the upscale Orno, which opened in 2021 and was recognized by the Michelin Guide, the space will become a new concept. No details are available yet, but Patel and Alkassar are seeking a new home for the restaurant, which served new American cuisine and highlighted vegetables from Patels Rancho Patel farm in Homestead.

Partners Mohamed Alkassar and Chef Niven Patel at their new restaurant Erba in Coral Gables.

Could the new home be in Coral Gables? When Erba opened last fall, Alkassar told the Miami Herald that he and Patel loved serving the city.

We find the community in Coral Gables very appreciative of quality ingredients, good food and humble hospitality, which is more of what we embody, he said. This community isnt looking to see and be seen. Theyre looking for a good bite.

Unaffected by these changes is the groups newest restaurant, Erba, which opened last fall in Coral Gables. The Italian spot was named one of the best new restaurants in the country for 2023 by Esquire magazine.

The Alpareno Group will also continue to operate Ghee Indian Kitchen in Dadeland.

Chef Niven Patel and his partner Mohamed Alkassar of the Alpareno Restaurant Group will no longer operate Mamey restaurant at the Thesis Hotel in Coral Gables.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a Republican state lawmakers request for review of a ruling from Illinois high court that upheld the states sweeping gun ban, essentially closing the door on one of numerous legal challenges to the law.

The U.S. Supreme Courts denial of state Rep. Dan Caulkins request for review was issued without comment and comes less than a month after Justice Amy Coney Barrett declined to put the law on hold ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline for gun owners to register banned weapons they owned before the law took effect on Jan. 10, 2023.

The high court also last month denied a separate request from gun rights advocates, including a Naperville gun dealer, to temporarily put the ban on hold pending their appeal of an adverse ruling on their lawsuit by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the Caulkins case, the Democratic-controlled Illinois Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in August that the gun ban does not violate the state constitutions equal protection clause by creating exemptions for certain trained professionals, such as retired police officers, and for people who owned the now-banned firearms at the time the law took effect last year.

The state Supreme Court did not address whether the ban violates the U.S. Constitutions Second Amendment because the plaintiffs did not directly raise that issue in their lawsuit.

The crux of Caulkins appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court was that the states high courts ruling should be invalidated since the decision came after two of its Democratic justices, Elizabeth Rochford and Mary Kay OBrien, each received $1 million in campaign donations from Gov. J.B. Pritzker during the 2022 election.

Pritzker, a Democrat who signed the ban into law, championed the measure following the mass shooting at the Fourth of July 2022 parade in Highland Park that left seven people dead and dozens injured.

While the state Supreme Court case was being adjudicated, Caulkins legal team unsuccessfully sought the recusal of Rochford and OBrien. Ultimately, Rochford was one of the four justices ruling in favor of upholding the ban, while OBrien joined Republican colleagues Lisa Holder White and David Overstreet in opposing it.

Caulkins said Monday he was disappointed with the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to not take up his case and remains convinced his lawsuit did not get a fair hearing before the states high court, noting that in addition to the donations from Pritzker, Rochford and OBrien received $7.3 million from a political action committee that supported Democratic justices in the 2022 election.

That PAC, All for Justice, was issued $99,500 in fines by the State Board of Elections  one of the largest state election fines ever in Illinois  for failing to disclose making those donations until after the election.

We did not get a fair hearing in the Illinois Supreme Court, so now were going to have to look at other options, the Decatur lawmaker said. I think anyone who finds themselves at the Illinois Supreme Court has to question their ability to get a fair hearing.

I understand the U.S. Supreme Court, they dont take every case, he said. We at least got their attention, and I think weve also gotten the attention of people in Illinois and probably around the country the problems that we face here in Illinois with ethics and some of the challenges that we have.

Pritzker celebrated the decision in a post on one of his political social media accounts.

No matter the roadblocks, Ill never stop fighting against the gun lobbys dangerous agenda, he wrote.

The law bans the delivery, sale, import and purchase of a long list of so-called assault weapons. Also banned are the delivery, sale or purchase of large capacity ammunition magazines of more than 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
Construction has begun on Massillon City Schools' new elementary schools. This photo shows the construction site of the east side school on the Washington High School campus.

MASSILLON  Massillon City Schools is moving into a new era as construction has begun on the district's two new elementary schools.

Officials broke ground on the projects last month.

"The sites are all prepped," Superintendent Paul Salvino said. "You can already start to see some base asphalt for certain lots with the construction. Through the winter months, you will begin to see the building foundation going in."

Work on the two sites will take place at the same time, he added.

CT Taylor of Hudson will serve as the construction manager and general contractor for the project. It will oversee every aspect of the project, including subcontracting additional work, Salvino said. The project architect is the Architectural Vision Group (AVG) of Cleveland.

An artist's rendering shows the Massillon West Elementary School under construction behind the Massillon Intermediate and Junior High School on the city's west side. Officials broke ground on the school in December. Construction is expected to be completed in June 2025.

The district is constructing two 91,000-plus-square-foot buildings to house prekindergarten to third grade at each site. The east building will be constructed on the visitor parking lot at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium on the Washington High School campus. The other school is behind the Massillon Intermediate and Junior High School on the city's west side.

How much is the Massillon Schools construction project costing?

The cost of the project is around $45 million. The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission will contribute $15,219,211. The district will contribute $29,807,375.

The two campuses  east and west  will improve safety and security and save money for services such as maintenance. The move also streamlines transportation. The new bus garage is located between the two campuses, officials said.

Massillon City Schools: Former Washington High transformed into efficient, multipurpose operations facility

An artist's rendering shows Massillon East Elementary School. The pre-K through third grade building is under construction on the visitor parking lot at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium on the Washington High School campus.

"When this is done, I believe we will have the best-of-class elementary schools that Massillonians can be proud of," Board of Education President Tom Radel said. "Our students and teachers will have a much nicer environment to learn and we are doing all of it without a new levy."

Construction is expected to be completed by June 2025, with the schools opening in the fall for the 2025-26 school year.

An artist's rendering shows a third grade classroom in the new Massillon elementary school. Massillon City Schools is constructing two new pre-K to third grade schools - one on the city's east side and the other on the west side. Students are expected to start the 2025-26 school year in the new schools.

The design of the schools is identical, aside from the layout may be different based on the site, Salvino said. Both buildings will have single-story sections, as well as two-story sections. The east school will be about 91,223 square feet and the west side will be 91,206 square feet.

The architects, he said, came up with a design that shows appreciation for the region with a hint of an industrial look for the exterior.

The buildings will feature state-of-the-art open learning spaces.

Salvino noted the Board of Education agreed to take on locally funded initiatives above the state-approved building plans, adding additional classroom space, larger cafeterias, wider hallways and a larger gym with bleacher seating. The district will spend an additional $23.8 million for the enhancements.

"We set aside those funds," Salvino said.

New buildings to replace aging schools

An artist's rendering shows the colorful cafeteria area planned for Massillon City Schools' two new elementary schools.

Each building will have extended learning areas  a shared space with various school resources that will be available in each pod. Classrooms extend off of the those shared spaces. The pods will have their own set of student and staff restrooms, Salvino explained.

Pre-K and kindergarten will have a separate entrance at both of the buildings, as well as their own playground. Salvino said the state is funding two preschool classrooms at each building. The district will fund an additional classroom at each school to maintain its current levels for its half-day program. Students attend in the morning or afternoon.

The schools will have an open concept, Salvino said, adding it is a unique design with the media center located near the cafetorium.

The new buildings will replace the district's aging elementary schools.

Each of Massillon City Schools' new elementary schools will have extended learning areas. The ELAs are a shared space with various school resources that will be available to the classrooms that surround the ELA. The pods will have their own set of student and staff restrooms.

Whittier Elementary is 82 years old. Franklin is 66 years old and Gorrell was built 65 years ago.

The existing buildings have space issues, are not energy efficient, and are not equipped to handle growing technology, officials say. The district has spent millions in the past few years in maintenance, replacing boilers and repairing the plumbing and heating systems. All three schools are set to be razed when the project is complete.

An artist's rendering shows the entrance to the East Elementary School. Massillon City Schools is constructing two new pre-K to third grade elementary schools on the east and west side of town. Construction is set to be completed in June 2025.

Radel said the new spaces address some of the issues that plague the older schools, including having to cancel school for excessive heat. The spaces will be temperature-controlled with central air and heating.

"The students of Massillon City Schools will now be able to attend vibrant 21st-century buildings that other communities are seeing," Salvino said. "We are really excited to provide that to our students and future students."

Reach Amy at 330-775-1135 or amy.knapp@indeonline.com.

Construction is underway for a new a west side elementary school to house pre-K to third-grade students. Construction is expected to be completed in June 2025, with students starting the 2025-26 school year in the new space.

This article originally appeared on The Independent: Massillon begins construction of two new elementary schools
Protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza interrupted President Bidens speech in South Carolina on Monday, the latest example of divisions among Democrats over the fighting in the Middle East.

Biden was speaking in Charleston at Mother Emanuel Church, where a white supremacist gunman killed nine worshippers in 2015. As he spoke about how the truth is under assault in America, protesters inside the church yelled out.

If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a cease-fire in Palestine, one woman could be heard shouting.

Multiple people then broke into chants of cease-fire now!

Biden stood quietly as the demonstrators were escorted out and supporters began chanting four more years!

I understand their passion, Biden said. And Ive been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.

As Biden restarted his prepared remarks, a supporter from the pews of the church shouted out to praise the president.

You are an understanding person. They dont realize that. Youre a good man, the woman could be heard saying, prompting applause from the audience.

More top stories from The Hill:

Biden has encountered protests during nearly every trip he has made in recent months as his administration backs Israel in its response to Hamass Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that killed more than 1,000 Israelis.

The president has faced increasing pressure from the left to call for a cease-fire in Gaza, as Israeli strikes and shelling has killed thousands of Palestinians there.

The White House has rebuffed calls for a cease-fire, saying it would allow Hamas to regroup. Instead, Biden and other White House officials have urged Israel to minimize the impacts of their operation on civilians and have in recent weeks encouraged Israeli leaders to move their military campaign to a more targeted phase.

Reuters reported last week that Israel withdrew tanks from parts of Gaza City on Monday, part of a previously announced plan to respond to changing military needs in the region.

Updated 1:28 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Biden administration has named 67 recipients of nearly $1 billion to replace their school buses with low-emission and zero-emission vehicles.

The round of funding, announced Monday, brings the total awards to 439 across 652 school districts, for a total of $1.84 billion. It will fund the purchase of more than 2,700 such buses across 280 school districts in seven states, the Environmental Protection Agency said in the announcement. The agency said it brings the number of zero- and low-emission buses funded nationwide to about 5,000.

Every school day, 25 million children ride our nations largest form of mass transit: the school bus. The vast majority of those buses run on diesel, exposing students, teachers, and bus drivers to toxic air pollution, Vice President Harris said in a statement announcing the $1 billion in funding.

As part of our work to tackle the climate crisis, the historic funding we are announcing today is an investment in our children, their health, and their education. It also strengthens our economy by investing in American manufacturing and Americas workforce.

The Sierra Club praised the move in a statement Monday, with Clean Transportation for All Director Katherine Garcia saying, Parents want their children to be safe and healthy at school  and this includes while they are riding to and from school each day. Parents also want clean air in their neighborhoods and investments to help tackle the climate crisis. Electrifying the nations school bus fleet moves us forward towards these important goals.

As of 2023, more than 90 percent of school buses around the country relied on diesel fuel, according to research by the World Resources Institute. The health issues associated with exposure to diesel pollutants, such as particulate matter, have themselves been linked to poorer academic outcomes for students.

One such study, published in 2021 in the journal Environmental Epidemiology, found an association between increased exposure to particulate matter and lower average math and English scores.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
President Bidens reelection campaign raised more than $1 million through online fundraising alone in the 24 hours after the presidents Jan. 6 anniversary speech, according to numbers exclusively provided to The Hill.

Biden on Friday gave a full-throated attack against former President Trump, his likely GOP opponent, and warned Americans that Trumps reelection would pose a threat to American democracy. The president zeroed in on Jan. 6 to mark the third anniversary of the U.S. Capitol riots and argued in his remarks that democracy is on the ballot in 2024.

In response to the 24-hour fundraising haul, the Biden campaign noted that it sees preserving democracy as a political winner for the president in 2024.

In election after election, democracy and freedom are mobilizing issues for the American people. In 2024, that will be no different, and we are encouraged by the strong grassroots enthusiasm we are seeing around the Presidents core campaign message, Rob Flaherty, Bidens deputy campaign manager, told The Hill.

The speech was Bidens first major general election speech and was delivered near Valley Forge, Pa., a significant symbol of the American Revolution. He focused on Trump  calling him a loser at one point  and underscored what he sees as the stakes in a rematch against Trump in November.

Trump, in response to the speech, accused Biden of fearmongering and suggested the president was only attacking him on the issue of democracy because he could not run on other issues.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Monday. Mother Emanuel is where a white supremacist gunned down nine black worshipers in 2015. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden called the "big lie" about the 2020 election the "second lost cause" and renewed his push to curb gun violence in a speech Monday at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

Lies and truth were the prevailing theme of Biden's second big speech this election year, days after an impassioned speech in Pennsylvania rebuking former President Donald Trump.

"This is a time for choosing, so let us choose the truth," Biden said Monday.

Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is the site where nine Black parishioners were gunned down by a white supremacist nearly nine years ago.

President Joe Biden acknowledges the crowd of supporters before delivering remarks at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Monday. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI

"On June 17, 2015, the beautiful souls -- invited a stranger into this church to pray with them," Biden said. "The word of God was pierced by bullets and hate and rage. Propelled by not just gunpowder, but by a poison. A poison that for too long has haunted this nation. What is that poison: White supremacy. It's a poison that throughout our history has ripped this nation apart."

Biden again called for gun reform legislation, citing the recent shooting at a high school in Perry, Iowa, that killed 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff and wounded seven others.

The audience reacts as President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Monday. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI

"My response is we have to stop it so your children, family and friends can leave home, walk the streets, go to the store, go to church and be safe from gun violence," Biden said. "There's no excuse for this carnage."

He renewed his call for a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, as well as the implementation of universal background checks.

President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Monday. The church was the site of a deadly mass shooting in 2015, in which nine black church members were killed by a white gunman. Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE

The president recalled attending the funeral service at the church days after the shooting as then-President Barack Obama delivered a sermon and sang Amazing Grace.

"You changed hearts. You did something that may not have happened if it hadn't been for your courage," Biden said. "You brought down the Confederate flag in South Carolina. And you helped the nation heal."

U.S President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Monday. Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is the site where nine Black parishioners were gunned down by a white supremacist nearly nine years ago. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley was governor of South Carolina when the Confederate flag was removed at the statehouse. Biden responded to Haley's recent response to a question about the cause of the Civil War, to which she said "freedoms and what people could and couldn't do" and did not mention slavery.

Haley is one of three Republican presidential candidates to qualify for the fifth primary debate on Wednesday, along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Trump.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Monday. Lies and truth were the prevailing theme of the president's second big speech this election year, days after an impassioned speech in Pennsylvania rebuking former President Donald Trump. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI

Haley's explanation is in line with what is referred to as the "Lost Cause" or the "Nobel Cause" that downplays the role of slavery in the cause of the Civil War.

"It was a lie that had terrible consequences. It brought on Jim Crow," Biden said. "So let me be clear for those who don't seem to know. Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. There is no negotiation about that."

Biden called the disproven claim that the results of the 2020 presidential election were illegitimate the "second lost cause."

"People are trying to turn a loss into a lie," he said. "If allowed to live, it will bring terrible damage to our country."

The president again evoked the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, condemning Trump and some Republicans who have claimed it was a "peaceful protest."

"Losers concede when they lose. And he's a loser," Biden said, referring to Trump.

The Biden campaign continues to emphasize Trump's "flirtation with White supremacy" while warning of his grave threat to democracy as demonstrated by his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Biden further warned that Republican politicians seek to "erase history," referring to legislation aimed at removing teachings about slavery and America's history with racism from classrooms in multiple Republican-led states.

"Every stride forward is met with ferocious backlashes from those who fear the progress," he said.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., introduced Biden, lauding him for appointing more women of color to federal circuit courts than all other presidents combined.

"Joe Biden will appoint more justices like Ketanji Brown Jackson," Clyburn said. "He will block any attempt of Republicans to institute a nationwide ban on women's reproductive rights. Joe Biden will fight any attempt to turn the clock back."

Biden's speech was briefly interrupted as protesters shouted for him to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, where an Israeli bombardment has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. One protester shouted "If you care about the lives lost here, you should honor the lives and call for a ceasefire in Palestine." A group of protesters then began to change "Ceasefire now."

The protesters were eventually drowned out by chants of "Four more years."

The president responded that he understands their passion and said he is "quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza."

Biden was vice president when the massacre occurred on June 17, 2015, less than a month after his son, Joseph "Beau" Biden III, died of brain cancer. Biden went to Charleston more than a week later to embrace the community that was still in mourning.

Nine years later, Biden returns to the hallowed site as a powerful reminder of the consequences of extremism.

Biden's visit aims to present South Carolina voters with a stark choice more three years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, with Biden positioning himself as a steadfast defender of democracy while Trump faces accusations of leveraging "all of his power to systematically dismantle and destroy our democracy."

Charleston County Democratic Party Chair Sam Skardon told USA Today said the vision would show the clash "between Donald Trump, who is facing criminal charges for violently rejecting the results of a democratic election, and President Biden, who is working to expand voting rights and strengthen our democratic institutions."

South Carolina is also the site of the Democratic National Convention later this summer.

With the 2024 election cycle days away, and Biden's first electoral test in the Feb. 3 Democratic primary in South Carolina, the incumbent was seeking to reestablish himself with Black voters who had seemingly grown apathetic since the 2020 election.

Clyburn, told CNN's State of the Union on Sunday -- after a meeting with the president -- that Biden must re-engage with Black voters as he has demonstrated effectiveness on the economy but also failed to secure congressional protections for voting and civil rights, such as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

"We have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done," Clyburn said.

"It is one thing for people to see you. It is also one thing for people to hear you. But the most effective thing is for people to feel you. That is what is effective," Clyburn said. "That's why he's effective. People feel Joe Biden."

By going to the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, Biden was making a symbolic move, while delving into a deeply emotional chapter of the nation's collective conscience, while making a heartfelt effort to reconnect with Black support that appears to be dissipating three years into his term.

In recent weeks, Biden has worked to call attention to policies that have benefited the nation's Black citizens as he faced criticism from progressives that he had not fully addressed the issue of reparations since taking office.

In December, he traveled to Milwaukee, Wis., to highlight the growth of Black business ownership under his administration and to call attention to federal investments in Black-owned firms to remove lead pipes.

The president is scheduled to depart Charleston at 4:30 p.m., and fly to Dallas in the evening and visit Concord Church to pay respects to late Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who died on New Year's Eve at age 89.

From there, the president will return to Washington aboard Air Force One and arrive back at the White House after midnight.
President Biden on Monday sought to connect the fallout of the Civil War with the aftermath of the 2020 election as he warned truth and basic freedoms would be at risk if former President Trump won another term in the White House.

Biden drew comparisons between 2020 and the Civil War, when he said defeated Confederates could not accept defeat and instead embraced the lost cause that the war was about states rights, not slavery. That lie, he argued, brought on Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised and discriminated against Black people.

Now, were living in an era of a second lost cause, Biden said. Once again there are some in this country trying to turn loss into a lie. A lie which, if allowed to live, will once again bring terrible damage to this country. This time the lie is about the 2020 election.

His comments came days after GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley in late December said the cause of the Civil War was about the role of government. Former President Trump, the front-runner in the GOP primary, suggested in recent days the Civil War could have been negotiated.

Let me be clear for those who dont seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. There is no negotiation about that, Biden said Monday.

The president spoke at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, where a white supremacist gunman killed nine people, all of whom were Black. Following the shooting, South Carolina lawmakers voted to remove the Confederate flag from the state Capitol grounds.

Biden warned the truth is under assault in America.

As a consequence, so is our freedom, our democracy, our very country, because without the truth there is no light. Without light there is no path from this darkness, Biden said.

It marked the second campaign speech in recent days Biden has given in which he tried to crystalize the stakes of the 2024 election, framing it as a fight for democracy and basic rights rather than a matter of policy.

His speech was briefly interrupted by protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians have died in Israeli military operations carried out in response to Hamass Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

The president rattled off a list of accomplishments during his administration, including legislation to lower prescription drug prices, an executive order to increase accountability in policing and his efforts to curb gun violence.

He took direct aim at Trump, calling him a loser and condemning Trumps recent comments that the community had to move on after a school shooting in Iowa.

He warned that MAGA Republicans, led by Trump, are trying to steal history by rewriting the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as a peaceful protest.

The lies that led to Jan. 6 are part of a broader attack on the truth of America today that we all have seen before, Biden said.

The same movement that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 isnt just trying to rewrite history, theyre trying to determine to erase history and your future, Biden continued. Banning books, denying your right to vote and have it counted, destroying diversity, equality, inclusion all across America.

South Carolina, which helped propel Biden to the Democratic nomination in 2020, will host the Democratic Partys first official primary next month after a scheduling change reshuffled the primary calendar. Biden is facing long-shot primary challenges from Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and Marianne Williamson.

While Biden is expected to breeze through the primary, polling has shown he faces a tougher test in a general election. A slew of recent polls has shown him trailing Trump in key swing states. A New York Times/Siena College poll released in December found Biden trailing Trump among registered voters but leading the former president among those likely to vote in 2024.

Crooked Joe Biden is a disaster and has done more damage to the African American community than any president in modern history, Trump adviser Jason Miller said in a statement. With his poll numbers cratering, Biden is now trying to gaslight Black Americans with misleading attacks, but everybody knows we were better off with President Trump.

Mondays speech was a follow-up to one Biden delivered Friday near Valley Forge, Pa., focused squarely on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. In that speech, Biden repeatedly and directly lambasted Trump as a threat to democracy whose refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 election led to the violence of that day.

Those remarks appeared to have the desired effect in motivating Bidens core supporters, with the campaign hauling in more than $1 million through online fundraising alone in the 24 hours that followed the speech.

Updated at 9:34 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
President Joe Biden was interrupted by protesters demanding a cease-fire in Gaza while giving a campaign speech in South Carolina on Monday and as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its fourth month.

Biden was speaking at Mother Emanuel, the historic Black church in Charleston where nine people were killed in a racially motivated shooting in 2015, when he was interrupted while discussing how truth, freedom and democracy are under assault in America.

If you really care about the lives lost here then you should honor the lives lost and call for a cease-fire in Palestine, a woman cried out. The interruption led to chants of cease-fire now.

"Ceasefire now!"



Protesters interrupt President Bidens speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC.



The audience chants: "Four more years!"



President Biden: "I understand their passion. I've been quietly working with the Israeli government..." pic.twitter.com/Vq3U01UhjW  CSPAN (@cspan) January 8, 2024

The demonstrators were led out of the room while those remaining broke out in a standing chant of four more years!

Biden then acknowledged the demonstrators.

I understand their passion and I have been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza and using all that I can to do that, he said.

Youre an understanding person, another woman in attendance called out to him. They dont realize that. Youre a good man.

Protesters against the Israel-Hamas war chant

Protesters against the Israel-Hamas war chant "cease-fire now" as President Joe Biden delivers a speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday. Nine worshippers were killed in a mass shooting by a white supremacist at the church in 2015.

The U.S. has been under increasing pressure to do more to protect civilian life and help facilitate humanitarian aid in Gaza as Israel continues to bombard the region in response to Hamas initial Oct. 7 attack.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the Middle East on Monday to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza, how Israel may agree to work toward establishing a Palestinian state, and ways to prevent the violence from spreading geographically, The Washington Post reported.

His arrival followed the Israeli military on Sunday warning of another war with Hezbollah after the Lebanese militant group struck an air traffic control base in northern Israel.

Blinken plans to head to Israel on Monday night.

The World Health Organizations director on Sunday was among those calling for the bloodshed in Gaza to end while describing sickening sights that its agency and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs have seen while touring the regions surviving hospitals.

.@WHO has received troubling reports of increasing hostilities and ongoing evacuation orders near the vital Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Middle Area of #Gaza, which according to the facilitys director forced over 600 patients and most health workers to leave. Their locations are not pic.twitter.com/Vzd9UWThNm  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 7, 2024

At the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Middle Area of Gaza, WHOs staff saw people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors. An unidentified child laid dead, partially covered by a sheet, on a bed. Other injured were prostrate on the floor, being stepped over by the health staff and families, said WHO Director Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

More than 600 patients have been forced to flee the hospital, which had only five doctors remaining to treat patients as of Sunday night, Tedros said.

Al-Aqsa is the most important hospital remaining in Gazas Middle Area and must remain functional, and protected, to deliver its lifesaving services, he said. Further erosion of its functionality cannot be permitted  doing so in the face of such trauma, injury and humanitarian suffering would be a moral and medical outrage.

Doctors Without Borders was among the medical aid groups recently forced to evacuate the hospital due to the extreme dangers that its staff has been placed under, including a bullet on Friday penetrating the hospitals intensive care unit, the organization said.

No one and nowhere is safe in Gaza, the humanitarian aid group said in a statement Saturday, which stressed that Israel is required under international law to protect patients and staff.

Related...
President Biden will appear at a campaign event in Charleston, S.C., Monday afternoon, his fourth visit as president to a state that helped him seal the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Biden is speaking at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the oldest Black congregations in the U.S., with a history that has paralleled that of Black Americans. In 2015, it was the site of one of the deadliest hate crimes in recent years when a white supremacist murdered nine people at a prayer meeting in the church basement.

Biden on Friday spoke at another historic location, Valley Forge, Pa., the site of a Revolutionary War encampment, to underline what his campaign characterizes as former President Trumps threat to American democracy.

The president is slated to speak at 12:30 p.m. EST.

Watch the live video above.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Joe Biden wants the 2024 presidential election to be a referendum on the future of American democracy. Its not hard to see why. There is an existential threat embedded in this contest, as the likely Republican nominee is someone who has already tried to subvert American democracy once and who has spent the last several years campaigning on finishing the job he started on January 6, 2021.

But theres a second dynamic in play for Biden as well. A laser focus on democracy is a clean way to get around the very real headwinds that have caused Bidens poll numbers to plummet, namely around his advanced age and the somewhat halting way he has delivered a promised return to normalcy. Voters may long for someone better than Bidenand, based on polling from the last two years, they clearly crave some fresh blood, even if that merely means generic Democrat at the moment. Still, those concerns should pale next to the threat posed by Trump (who, for what its worth, voters also do not like at all).



Elections are about contrasts, and on Friday Biden officially launched his 2024 campaign by laying out a stark one: Donald Trump is hell-bent on destroying American democracy; Joe Biden, like him or not, is there to protect it.



When the attacks of January 6 happened, there was no doubt about the truth. At the time, even Republican members of Congress and Fox News commentators publicly and privately condemned the attack. And as one Republican senator said, Trumps behavior was embarrassing and humiliating for the country, Biden said. But now as time has gone on, politics, fear, money have all intervened, and those MAGA voices who know the truth about Trump and January 6 have abandoned the truth and abandoned our democracy. Theyve made their choice. Now the rest of usDemocrats, independents, mainstream Republicanswe have to make our choice. I know mine, and I believe I know Americas.



It was a strong, impassioned speech. It was also the exact rhetoric The New Republics editor, Michael Tomasky, argued that Biden should be using, again and again, until Novemberthe idea being that a larger plan to foreground the threat posed by the former president will have [voters] terrified at the prospect of Trump getting back into the White House. Making the case that Trump is a risk not worth taking the primary focus of a campaign has a mixed record of successit worked in 2020, as well as the 2022 midterms; it failed notably in 2016. Still, why not take your shot? As campaign arguments go, it has the advantage of being both politically salient and, best of all, true.



But while Trump will certainly spend most of the next 10 monthswhether or not he is the Republican presidential nominee, which he almost certainly will besaying inflammatory and fascistic things, I worry that this argument wont be enough on its own to sustain Bidens bid. He is currently in need of a positive and proactive argument as well. If Biden is going to assert that democracy must be savedand that, by extension, he is its saviorhe needs to make the case that he is a worthy and capable protector of it. Thus far, he hasnt explicitly filled in these blanks. Moreover, the pro-democracy message does nothing to address Bidens biggest vulnerability: that he may not be not up to the task of being president for four more years.



Its worth remembering that Bidens core argument in 2020 wasnt simply that he was a saner and more stable figure than Donald Trump: It was that he could restore a sense of competence and stability to a government that had been rattled by years of turbulence. The Covid-19 pandemic has receded as a political issuejust ask Ron DeSantisbut its prominence was central to Bidens pitch to voters. In 2020, he successfully argued that Trumps chaotic approach to governance was making an already devastating pandemic worse and that he could bring back a sense of normalcy. Above all else, however, Bidens 2020 candidacy was built around a simple pitch: He alone could make America boring again after several years rocked by constant chaos, nonstop tweeting, and a once-in-a-century pandemic. It was a choice between the crazy spectacle of a bull rampaging through a china shop andwell  just the china shop.



It was a good pitch! More importantly, it was one that made Bidens greatest liabilityhe became the oldest president-elect everinto an asset. Biden had experience and, despite his penchant for gaffes, enough gravitas to make the case that he was a steady, trusted hand. Voters were ready for a break from tweet barrages at every hour of the day and night and ready to settle for a duller, more predictable candidate. No, Biden wasnt going to be an exciting, electrifying president, but he might be one that you didnt have to think about several times a day.



Biden has, in many ways, kept that promise. His administration has produced a bevy of old school legislative accomplishments built around infrastructure spending that make him arguably the most accomplished Democratic president since Lyndon B. Johnson. Amid a series of unforeseen geopolitical crises, his administrations response has beenfor better and, more recently, for worseto double down on existing alliances. There have been no actual political scandals to speak of (though there have been several manufactured ones), a noted contrast to the previous four years.



But Bidens image as a steady, competent figure has been damaged, perhaps irrevocably. His poll numbers began to dip after the first geopolitical crisis, the fallout from the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. Perceptions of Bidens agehe is both the oldest president in American history and has had several physical and verbal stumbles in recent yearshave only made the issue worse. He has not been aided by factors outside of his control: He could hardly be blamed for Russias invasion of Ukraine or Hamass attack on Israel on October 7, both of which have understandably given the impression of a world on the brink of chaos. Chaos within the Republican Party as well as its efforts to generate pseudo-scandals have, moreover, damaged Bidens ability to sell himself as someone who can transcend partisan rancor.



Bidens troubles recall those that beset Barack Obama during his first term, when Republican obstruction and intransigence dinged his image as an agent of hope, change, and political renewal. But Obama could rely on youth and vigor to aid his response. Biden lacks these reservoirs of political potency, but he can still look to Obamas successful reelection campaign as a roadmap: His former boss combined attacks on Mitt Romneys plutocratic domestic program with a robust defense of his first term, to handily win despite an underperforming economy, as inspiration. For now, impassioned calls to protect democracy are a fine opening argument. But his campaign needs to acknowledge the growing concern over the presidents competence and reassure voters that his well-meaning intentions will be matched by a truly strong and stable grip on the rudder of our Republic that people can believe in.


Backers of Cook County states attorney candidate Clayton Harris III are arguing his opponents irresponsible and reckless lack of judgment in prosecuting a young boy in 1993 gives voters a clear choice about who to elect in the March primary.

The Tribune reported last month about Eileen ONeill Burkes prosecution of an 11-year-old boy accused of killing his elderly neighbor, Anna Gilvis, in the early 1990s in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood.

It certainly didnt keep us safe when the wrong person is incarcerated and the individual that committed this heinous crime never was found, said Harris, flanked by supporters during a Monday morning news conference at Quinn Chapel AME Church on the Near South Side.

This was not justice for Ms. Gilvis family at all, it wasnt justice for our community, and it certainly didnt keep us safe.

Joining Harris Monday, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said that while the detective who took the boys confession worked for the city, the county is also liable for bogus prosecutions.

Cook County has paid out a significant amount of money to those who were wrongfully convicted in our criminal justice system because of the collaboration and collusion of states attorneys, Preckwinkle said. I think its fair to acknowledge that while law enforcement is the responsibility of local units of government  in this case the city of Chicago  the county bears a responsibility as well when prosecutions go awry.

Harris and ONeill Burke, a former Cook County prosecutor and recently retired judge, are running in the March Democratic primary to replace outgoing States Attorney Kim Foxx.

The Cook County Democratic Party, chaired by Preckwinkle, endorsed Harris in the contest.

While the young boy confessed to Gilvis murder, there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime and details of his admission did not match up with evidence at the scene. The conviction, affirmed by a juvenile judge and higher appellate courts, was later thrown out by a federal judge who said the boys confession to police was coerced.

That boy, A.M., had no interaction with police or trouble at school before the conviction, but later cycled through the criminal justice system and was ultimately shot and killed in 2018. Both his murder and the 1993 murder he was convicted of are unsolved.

The officer who took A.M.s confession was later linked to other false confessions, including in the infamous Ryan Harris case.

Since the A.M. prosecution became an issue in the race last month, ONeill Burke has said the boys confession was compelling evidence and that she would never prosecute any case if I doubted the evidence or there were red flags. That was true then, and it is true now.

A cadre of Black elected officials, including Preckwinkle; former U.S. Senators Carol Moseley Braun and Roland Burris; Rep. Robin Kelly; Cook County Commissioners Monica Gordon, Bill Lowry and Stanley Moore; as well as several state representatives and aldermen signed on to an open letter urging voters to back Harris in the March primary.

There is much at stake, the letter says, citing ONeill Burkes deeply concerning record, including her prosecution of A.M. roughly 30 years ago.

Even today, with the benefit of hindsight, Burke has expressed no regret over her handling of that case. Voters of every background, especially voters of color, should find this irresponsible and reckless lack of judgment gravely concerning, the letter says.

Nationally, Black men make up less than 3% of elected prosecutors. Yet, here in Cook County Black men make up an overwhelming majority of those impacted by the criminal legal system, the letter says, noting Harris would be the first Black man elected to run the office.

ONeill Burkes campaign released a statement Monday stressing that the Illinois appellate court initially upheld the conviction, while the detective in the case, James Cassidy, has since been linked to other high-profile instances of coerced confessions.

It was only eight years later after the detectives misconduct in other cases came to light that the case was appealed to federal court which found that the statement was coerced and the defenses failure to file a motion to suppress the statement was ineffective counsel, ONeill Burkes campaign said.

The only time anyone has alleged that the states attorneys office did anything wrong is Clayton Harris attempt to exploit and politicize this tragedy, which is exactly what Eileen is running against.

scharles@chicagotribune.com

aquig@chicagotribune.com
Claudine Gay, then president of Harvard, testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Dec. 5 in Washington. The committee held a hearing to investigate antisemitism on college campuses.

Claudine Gay, then president of Harvard, testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Dec. 5 in Washington. The committee held a hearing to investigate antisemitism on college campuses.

Throughout the two-week firestorm following her remarks at a congressional hearing about antisemitism, a firestorm that culminated in her resignation on Tuesday, Harvard University President Claudine Gay had that look. Composed but stricken, barely concealed anguish about what was happening and why. The head of the prestigious university had been reduced to a Black person who had committed some transgression and was now being swiftly tried in the court of public opinion.

The crime that began with her insufficient response to a setup question about Jewish genocide expanded into allegations of plagiarism in her academic work. The crimes were unrelated, but the plagiarism charge corroded her character more, calling her competence and legitimacy and her very worth into question. It didnt matter that Harvard defended her; Gay had given the wrong answer to white folks and had to pay for it.

There was nothing she could do but watch. Hence the look.

I know that look. In 1985, when I was a graduate student at UCLA, a professor accused me of plagiarizing a term paper. The accusation was total: None of the work, he said, was mine. This wasnt about a passage here, a footnote there. I was dumbfounded. I had indeed written the paper and, as an English undergrad, was very used to doing so. That didnt matter to the prof, who had zero proof. He only knew that I didnt speak well and that people like me didnt write like this, period. I fought back, and after submitting to an oral quiz about my work, which I easily passed, he gave me an A. I won the battle.

But I lost the war. That professor did not change his mind about me or about the competence of Black people. Learned as he was, he was following an ancient narrative about Blackness that always overrides evidence, facts and background. Unlike Gay, I had given all the right answers  and gotten pilloried anyway. His accusation went beyond copying a paper; it was about asserting my intellectual unworthiness.

Proving Gays unworthiness was always the goal here. Unworthy first because of her response to the hypothetical question about whether she would punish students who support the genocide of Jews. An insufficient response to that question forced another female head of an Ivy League school, UPenn President M. Elizabeth Magill, to resign weeks ahead of Gay. She is white but had to pay for giving the wrong answer. But Gays wrongness was much bigger than her answer. She is Black at an elite white institution and therefore had an obligation to defend white people vigorously and unambiguously. Even though it was clear in her answer that she doesnt defend Jewish genocide  a totally ridiculous idea  white interrogators were incensed that she didnt condemn it as strongly as they thought she should have.

The effort to dehumanize her swiftly got underway. After unearthing failures to cite sources in her work, which Harvard determined did not rise to the level of plagiarism, the floodgates opened: Doubt was cast, and that was enough to reduce Gay from a woman in the highest educational ranks to just another Black hustler. Not just with the academic work.

Gay became an emblem of all the reasons why, in the feverish minds of the MAGA crowd, Black people are trying to pull a fast one on America, from benefiting unfairly from affirmative action to advancing critical race theory to helping a Black man  unqualified by birth  to win the White House, twice. (Undoubtedly this is why former President Donald Trump, obsessed with numbers and getting even, is so set on getting that second term.)

Let me state the obvious: There is indeed antisemitism, which is rising, and it needs to be dealt with, at universities and elsewhere. But theres also anti-Blackness. When have white university presidents ever had to answer for that at congressional hearings? If they faced retribution for not giving sufficient answers to pointed questions about why and how they punish students for that, wed probably have no university presidents at all. Nikki Haley, a Republican candidate for president and former governor of South Carolina, no less, recently refused to cite slavery as a cause of the Civil War, which is about as anti-Black as it gets. Id love to see a hearing about that.

It wont happen. With Trumps Make America Great Again adherents, anti-Blackness  and many other kinds of anti  is the point. Facts and circumspection are not. The movement is so polluted by racial lies, dodges and hypocrisy that the case against Gay feels like part of that.

Though its true that Gay did not properly cite sources in a few instances in the history of her academic work (mistakes which she admitted and corrected), the outrage about it feels entirely manufactured, a public expression of antipathy toward Black people that is MAGAs bread and butter.

Whats not manufactured is the very real antisemitism embedded in so much of the movement. Trump continues to escalate rhetoric torn straight from Hitlers playbook to the broad approval, even cheers, of his base; its aimed at immigrants, but everyone knows vermin immigrants were originally Jews. The whole toxic cluster of white supremacist conspiracies embraced by MAGA includes the theory that Jews run global finance and other powerful institutions. The Great Replacement theory demonizes modern-day immigrants from Latin America and elsewhere, but it has always had Jews in mind. The chant from the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was, memorably, Jews will not replace us.

All that has been minimized and now obscured in the fog of the current war being waged by Israel against the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. The Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas that sparked the war has, ironically, given white supremacists in this country a great opportunity to bolster their own domestic campaigns of hate in the guise of supporting Jews.

Unfortunately, some Jews have been drawn into that campaign. Many of the big Harvard donors who are Jewish who threatened to pull their support after Gays testimony can say its simply about supporting Israel. But its unavoidably about white power  in this case, using financial clout to punish those who dont toe the line, especially those of color.

The university itself should have been the arbiter of Gays fate, but its support of her was deemed another wrong answer and so was bypassed. Its jarring how the racist right wing is crowing openly about Gays downfall, with conservative activist Christopher Rufo, a key architect of the anti-Gay campaign, declaring Scalped on social media. Its an ugly, violent image presumably meant to evoke warrior-like Native Americans, but it evokes instead their wholesale slaughter by white settlers (i.e., white replacement) and reinforces the racial cast of the cultural war that continues to rage and gain strength in America.

And never forget, too, that Black women have long been on MAGAs hit list, from the defamed election workers who testified before the Jan. 6 House select committee to Fani Willis, the implacable district attorney in Atlanta who is prosecuting the crucial case against Trump and 18 others for allegedly conspiring to engineer vote fraud and steal the 2020 presidential election. Black prosecutors like her especially have become the face of opposition to MAGA takeover, from Georgia to New York.

Trump smears them all as racist  easy to do because of their high profiles. But in the right-wing universe, Black people are all similarly suspect; Claudine Gay is assumed to be racist by virtue of the fact that she supports diversity and inclusivity, ideas that are anathema to MAGA, on principle.

In the wake of her resignation, shes detailed in a New York Times opinion article how shed been threatened and called the n-word, something MAGA trades in. But thats also a time-honored American tradition that always seeks to not just remove someone Black from a position of power but also to reduce their inherent worth to rubble.

I hardly think Claudine Gay will let that happen. Thankfully, I didnt.
One of the U.S. Capitol police officers who defended the federal building and Congress members inside it during the Jan. 6 insurrection is running for office.

Harry Dunn announced his candidacy nearly three years to the day when he had to face violent rioters who stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., in a deadly attack to stop Congress members from certifying then-President-elect Joe Bidens electoral victory.

US Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn arrives for the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC, April 29, 2023. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Dunn is running to represent Marylands 3rd District, which stretches between Baltimore and D.C., and replace Democrat Rep. John Sarbanes, who isnt seeking re-election. Dunn doesnt currently live in the district but said he would relocate there if he won.

On January 6th, I defended our democracy from insurrectionists as a Capitol Police Officer. After, President Biden honored me with the Presidential Citizens Medal, Dunn wrote in a statement announcing his bid for office. Today, Im running for Congress to stop Trumps MAGA extremists & ensure it never happens again.

On January 6th, I defended our democracy from insurrectionists as a Capitol Police Officer. After, President Biden honored me with the Presidential Citizens Medal.



Today, Im running for Congress to stop Trump's MAGA extremists & ensure it never happens again.



Join me: pic.twitter.com/5G3rd90O45  Harry Dunn (@libradunn) January 5, 2024

Dunn started making a name for himself after he passionately testified before a House select committee investigating the insurrection about what he experienced firsthand that day. He told lawmakers he was berated and assaulted by rioters and called racial slurs. Hes appeared numerous times in court for the trials of numerous Jan. 6 rioters and even testified during the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial in 2022.

He left the police force last year after 15 years on the job. He went on to publish a memoir in October calling for accountability and highlighting the trauma he underwent as a result of the riot.

Dunn is running as a Democrat for the congressional election and is up against five other Democrats currently serving in the Maryland General Assembly. He told POLITICO that he wasnt intimidated by the crowded field, calling his opponents career politicians while saying hes a career public servant.

I truly believe that is one of the reasons why because I am no stranger to public service. I spent the last 15-plus years of my life dedicated not only to public service but to defending democracy, Dunn told POLITICO.

Hell reportedly be focusing on democracy protection, gun reform, mental health, infrastructure and transit, and public safety as part of his platform.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his week-long trip aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East, in Al Ula, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)

AL ULA, Saudi Arabia (AP)  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that four key Arab nations and Turkey have agreed to begin planning for the reconstruction and governance of Gaza once Israels war against Hamas ends.

Blinken, who is on an urgent Mideast mission aimed primarily at preventing the conflict from spreading as fears rise of a regional war, said Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey would consider participating in and contributing to day after scenarios for the Palestinian territory, which has been devastated by three months of deadly Israeli bombardment.

Those countries had previously resisted U.S. calls for post-war planning to begin, insisting that there must first be a cease-fire and a sharp reduction in the civilian suffering caused by Israels military response to Hamas deadly Oct. 7 attacks.

But on what is now his fourth trip to the Mideast since the war began in October, Blinken said those countries are ready to start such planning and that each would consider its own involvement in whatever is eventually decided upon.

Everywhere I went, I found leaders who are determined to prevent the conflict that were facing now from spreading, doing everything possible to deter escalation to prevent a widening of the conflict, Blinken told reporters traveling with him.

Blinken made the comments after meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Saudi royal's winter camp outside the ancient incense-route trading city of Al Ula in western Saudi Arabia. Blinken had earlier visited Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar and the UAE.

The leaders of those countries "agreed to work together and to coordinate our efforts to help Gaza stabilize and recover, to chart a political path forward for the Palestinians and to work toward long-term peace, security and stability in the region as a whole," Blinken said.

He said they are prepared to make the necessary commitments to make the hard decisions to advance all of these objectives to advance this vision for the region.

Blinken did not offer specifics on potential contributions. Financial and in-kind support from the UAE and Saudi Arabia could be essential to the success of any plan.

Arab states have been highly critical of Israels actions and had eschewed public support for long-term planning, arguing that the fighting must end before such discussions can begin. They have been demanding a cease-fire since mid-October as civilian casualties began to skyrocket.

Blinken said he would bring the Arab commitments to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war Cabinet as well as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday and Wednesday before presenting them to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi and returning to Washington.

Any post-war plan for Gaza will require both Israeli and Palestinian buy-in, but Netanyahu and his government have their own ideas for Gazas future that the others will likely not accept. And, Netanyahu remains opposed to the concept of the two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something that Saudi Arabia in particular is demanding if it is to normalize relations with Israel.

Blinken said Prince Mohammed remains interested in normalizing relations with Israel but it will require that the conflict end in Gaza, and it will also clearly require that there be a practical pathway to a Palestinian state.

This interest is there, its real, and it could be transformative, he said.

Israel has refused to agree to a cease-fire and the U.S. has instead called for specified temporary humanitarian pauses to allow aid to get in and people to get to safety.

Another urgent priority for Blinken is to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza. In Amman, Blinken toured the World Food Programs regional coordination warehouse, where trucks were being packed with aid to be delivered to Gaza through both the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings.

The U.S. has been pressing Israel for weeks to let greater amounts of food, water, fuel, medicine and other supplies into Gaza, and the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on Dec. 22 calling for an immediate increase in deliveries. Three weeks ago, Israel opened its Kerem Shalom crossing, adding a second entry point for aid into Gaza after Rafah.

Still, the rate of trucks entering has not risen significantly. This week, an average of around 120 trucks a day entered through both crossings, according to U.N. figures, far below the 500 trucks of goods going in daily before the war and far below what aid groups say is needed.

Almost the entire population of 2.3 million depends on the trucks coming across the border for their survival. One in four Palestinians in Gaza is starving, and the rest face crisis levels of hunger, according to the U.N.

More than 85% of people in Gaza have been driven from their homes by Israeli bombardment and ground offensives. Most live in U.N. shelters crowded beyond their capacity, in tent camps that have been sprung up, or on the streets.
The Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry is accepting bids for a construction project planned for this year at its facility on the West Side of Aurora.

The project includes renovations to the current 4,000-square-foot facility and a 2,000-square-foot addition, pantry officials said in a press release. Detailed plans and specifications for the project are available through Cordogan Clarks online plan room for companies interested in bidding on the project, officials said.

Bids for the project can be sent in a sealed envelope to Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry, 834 N. Highland Ave., Aurora, IL 60506, Attention Joseph Matty, and will be accepted until 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23. At that time, the bids will be opened and read aloud, according to the release.

A non-mandatory pre-bid meeting is scheduled for 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, at the pantry, officials said.

The Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry served close to 100,000 individuals in 2022, and the services of the pantry continue to be in greater need than ever before, officials said. Because of this, the growth and renovation of the facility is necessary, according to the release.

This construction project will allow us to improve our food distribution services and to increase our community outreach programs so we can serve even more Kane County residents, Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry Executive Director Diane Renner said in the release.

Renner and the pantrys board have focused on a two-year growth initiative, which includes the expansion and renovation project, according to the release. The pantry has secured funds for this initiative, including a $1.8 million grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The pantry will communicate the winning bid on or around Jan. 29, according to the release. The construction project completion date is projected for Aug. 28, 2024.
By Simon Lewis

ABU DHABI/AL ULA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday after meeting with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi that countries in the region were interested in pursuing normalization of relations with Israel but that it will require a clear path toward a Palestinian state.

"There's a clear interest in the region in pursuing that but it will require that the conflict end in Gaza and it will also clearly require that there be a practical pathway to a Palestinian state," Blinken said.

"But the interest is there, it's real, and it could be transformative."

Four Arab states have formalized ties with Israel in pacts known as the Abraham Accords -- the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. U.S. negotiations aimed at reaching a deal normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia were halted when the Gaza conflict erupted in October.

Blinken, speaking to reporters in Saudi Arabia after meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the oasis town of Al Ula, said he discussed the region's future and there was broad agreement on a few objectives.

Those included that the West Bank and Gaza should be united under Palestinian-led governance and that the region needs to work toward normalizing ties, not division or conflict.

"For that to happen, we need to see the establishment of an independent Palestinian state," Blinken said.

Blinken is on his fourth trip to the region since October and holding more talks with Arab leaders as part of a diplomatic push to stop the war in Gaza spreading further.

Earlier on Monday Blinken met with Abu Dhabis ruler, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in the United Arab Emirates.

Blinken visited Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, and sought to reassure Arab officials that the United States opposes the displacement of Palestinians outside Gaza, and instead wants Israels Muslim majority neighbors to play a role in the Strips future governance.

While on the trip, Blinken is asking states to try to reduce tensions that have already sparked violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq and led to Houthi attacks from Yemen on Red Sea shipping lanes.

"Everywhere I went, I found leaders who are determined to prevent the conflict that we are facing now from spreading," Blinken said.

He also said that countries expressed willingness to help Gaza stabilize and revitalize, adding that Washington would work with them on what that would require and what countries are prepared to do.

Blinken has been joined by U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking as Washington seeks regional support for actions to counter the attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthis on commercial shipping.

The U.S. has struck Houthi vessels and gathered an international coalition of more than 20 countries to participate in efforts to safeguard ships in Red Sea waters near Yemen, much of which is controlled by the Houthis.

The Houthi attacks and the Western response have put new strains on ceasefire and peace talks that have largely quelled fighting in Yemen more than eight years after a Saudi-led coalition intervened against the Houthi movement.

Blinken is set to end the day in Israel, where he will meet officials on Tuesday. He said he would share with Israeli leaders what he has heard in his meetings so far and discuss the future of Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

"I will press on the absolute imperative to do more to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it," he said.

He will also focus on efforts to bring back hostages, Blinken said, as well as how the U.S. sees the future for the region.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Doina Chiacu and David Ljunggren; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Toby Chopra and Cynthia Osterman)
Israeli bombardment lights the skyline of Khan Yunis, pictured from Rafah in southern Gaza Strip late, on Sunday. U.S> Secretary Antony Blinken kicked off a Middle Eastern diplomatic push as the Israeli-Gaza conflict threatens to expand into a regional one. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza "could easily metastasize," causing more insecurity and suffering, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Sunday as he met with Arab leaders in the Middle East as he tries to prevent the conflict from expanding.

The United States' top diplomat made the comment to reporters alongside Qatari Prime Minister Al Thani in Doha during his fourth trip to the region since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7 and amid a diplomatic push to contain the conflict to the Palestinian enclave of Gaza as it threatens to spill into neighboring countries.

Blinken said "the heart of discussions" Saturday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Jordanian King Abdullah II and Thani on Sunday have been centered on preventing the conflict from spreading.

"We share a commitment to ensure that the conflict does not expand, and I think we also share a commitment to use the influence, the relationships, the ties that we have with different parties in the region to try to avoid escalation and to deter new fronts from opening," he said.

"This is not just a regional issue; it's a matter of global concern."

A displaced Palestinian man sits among objects salvaged from a house that was used as a shelter by his extended family members, many of whom were reported killed when it was destroyed during an Israeli strike in Morag village, south of Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, on Sunday. Secretary Antony Blinken kicked off a Middle Eastern diplomatic push as the Israeli-Gaza conflict threatens to expand into a regional one. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

His trip to Turkey, Greece, Jordan and Qatar, and which will also include stops in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the occupied West Bank and Egypt through Thursday comes amid a precarious time in region.

On top of the war in Gaza, fighting between Israel and Hamas' Lebanese ally Hezbollah continues to escalate, Houthi rebels continue attacking shipping vessels in the Red Sea, disrupting the important trade route, and militants continue striking U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Syria -- all of which threatens to expand the initial conflict.

Thani told reporters that Qatar has been working with international and regional partners to achieve de-escalation and improve access to humanitarian aid in Gaza, but he remarked that the violence is increasing.

"We believe that we need to contain the crisis as soon as possible and to reach a cease-fire in Gaza, which will also help on de-escalating the region," he said.

Blinken's trip also comes as Israel has transitioned to a less intensive phase of its military operation in northern Gaza and amid discussions about the future governance of the Palestinian enclave, with some far-right Israeli politicians stating Palestinians should relocate.

Both Blinken and Thani reiterated their support for Palestinians to be able to return to their homes in Gaza.

"They cannot and they must not be pressed to leave Gaza," Blinken said. "We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza."

Nearly 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war that began Oct. 7 when Hamas launched a bloody surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 Israelis with another 240 taken hostage.

UP to 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza, more than 85% of the enclave's population, have been displaced, many multiple times over, according to the United Nations relief agency of Palestine refugees.

Blinken said he has discussed efforts with world leaders on his trip to prevent further Palestinian deaths.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in remarks Sunday that Palestinians need to be able to return to their homes in Gaza as soon as its safe.

In a joint press conference with Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Blinken said the amount of aid to Gaza must increase and that Palestinians must be able to return to their homes. He again reiterated that the United States rejects comments made by some Israeli ministers last week advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza.

As Israel moves to a lower-intensity phase of its military operation in the north, the United Nations can also play a crucial role in evaluating what needs to be done to allow displaced Palestinians to return home, Blinken said Sunday. Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow. They cannot and they must not be pressed to leave Gaza.

He also pushed back on statements made by Israeli ministers earlier this month when they suggested the resettlement of Palestinians may be a result of the war. The U.S. State Department already rejected the irresponsible and inflammatory remarks made by the two Israeli ministers in a statement last week.

We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza, Blinken said Sunday. These statements are irresponsible, theyre inflammatory, and they only make it harder to secure a future of a Palestinian-led Gaza with Hamas no longer in control and with terrorist groups no longer able to threaten Israels security.

The U.S. has repeatedly pushed for a two-state solution to end the Israel-Hamas war that has just hit its 3-month mark of fighting. Since the onset of the war last year, about 85 percent of Gazas 2.3 million residents have been displaced, according to The Associated Press.

In addition, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has reported that more than 20,000 people in the territory have been killed since the war began.

Blinken also emphasized that the U.S. is committed to helping the region reach a peaceful and secure solution.

Of course, even as we focused on our immediate goals, we also must work toward lasting peace and security. The United States has a vision for how to get there, a regional approach that delivers lasting security for Israel and a state for the Palestinian people, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Salvation Army units in the Aurora area came up short during the annual Red Kettle campaign over the holiday season, with some local group leaders saying a lack of bell ringers and changing methods of giving made it harder to reach donation goals.

The collection officially ended Dec. 23.

Steve Hawkins, resource development director for the Tri-City Salvation Army which covers the Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles area, said the group collected about $170,000 during the recent drive, which was $25,000 less than the goal that was set for 2023.

This marks the second year the Salvation Army unit has not met its donation goal for the Red Kettle campaign.

We adjusted our goal from 2021 of $200,000 down to $195,000 (in 2022) which we just missed making last year, Hawkins said.

Before the collection began this past holiday season, Hawkins said that goals had been adjusted a bit downward again despite having more affluent communities in our service area than some.

Hawkins said that donations to the Salvation Army during the recently completed campaign were down across the entire Chicago area.

We got reports from every single corps in northern Illinois and Chicago, and every one was short, Hawkins said. The biggest reason for the shortfall for us was a lack of volunteers to man the kettles. I feel if we had more help we would have reached our goal. We rarely had more than 50% of our kettles manned at any one time.

As a result of the donation shortage, Hawkins said the Tri-City Salvation Army is going to have to be very careful with where the money goes, mainly the food pantry.

Well have to rely more on food drives rather than going out and buying (items) from the stores, he said. People donate food, they dont always donate laundry detergent or soap or toothpaste and that sort of thing, so we often have to go out and buy that. We might not be able to supplement some of the other things.

The Aurora Salvation Army reported similar donation results, missing its $200,000 goal for the Red Kettle campaign by more than $50,000, although the drive went better than it did in 2022, officials said.

With about nine collection days to go before Christmas, officials reported that $75,646 had been collected, but by Christmas that number had nearly doubled to $145,730, eclipsing last years total of approximately $125,000 donated during the campaign.

Bernice Mascorro, social services coordinator for the Aurora Salvation Army, said the unit was actually able to hire more bell ringers this year as opposed to last.

We attribute the increase to having more personnel and we did have a lot of volunteers that took over some of the Saturdays  the whole day, Mascorro said. That has something to do with us taking in more money than last year.

Hawkins said the calendar didnt help out the Salvation Army during the recent drive.

Were a religious organization and Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this past year so that did cost us a little as no one worked, he said of the impact of not having a collection on Dec. 24. It might have only been a 1% or 2% increase, but it would have helped.

Hawkins said it was too soon to tell what the full impact of not reaching the donation goal will have on the groups 2024 budget.

He said the Salvation Army nationally is trying to emphasize more digital giving as it moves into the future.

A lot of people dont carry cash anymore and thats always a problem, he said. We do put QR codes on our kettles and try to encourage people to scan the kettle and give that way. I think we just have to get people used to that and I think its going to take a couple years even though we rolled it out two years ago. We see it growing every year but its going to take time.

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
After years of struggling, 2024 was supposed to be the year Boeing turned it all around.

A near-disaster on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 jet over Portland threatens to disrupt everything.

CEO Dave Calhoun really has his work cut out for him now.

Four years after being tasked with turning the ship around at Boeing, CEO Dave Calhoun has been presented with a new set of challenges.

Not even a week into 2024  which Calhoun had previously heralded as the company's turnaround year, according to Bloomberg  a major incident on a nearly brand-new Boeing airliner has resulted in more trouble for one of its most important products.

On January 5, a plug door flew off a two-month-old Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 while climbing out of Portland International Airport. Nobody was seriously hurt except, possibly, Boeing's already-suffering reputation for creating quality products.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident, but the FAA's grounding of all 171 Max 9 planes has already created operational havoc for the airlines that rely on the airliner, like Alaska and United.

Calhoun has called an all-hands meeting for Tuesday to discuss the incident  and to talk about "safety, quality, integrity, and transparency."

"While we've made progress and strengthened our safety management and quality control systems and processes in the last few years, situations like this are a reminder that we must remain focused on continuing to improve every day," Calhoun wrote in a note announcing the meeting.

This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. Associated Press

Calhoun also canceled the company's senior leadership retreat outside San Diego set to begin this week.

Calhoun took the reins at Boeing in 2020 in the wake of the company's previous Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that left a total of 346 people dead. They led to the longest grounding of an airliner in US history and ballooned into a genuine scandal after federal investigators said the company deceived the FAA during the certification process for the Max planes.

Since then, the company has undergone even more struggles after the COVID-19 pandemic upended the aviation industry. Boeing has dealt with issues and delays in its manufacturing and delivery of planes to customers, suppliers, and more that have stretched to the current day.

After the Alaska incident, Boeing said in a statement: "Safety is our top priority, and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers. We agree with and fully support the FAA's decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane."

Though 2024 was supposed to be the year to turn it all around, it's already not looking great. The Max 9 incident could affect the potentially frayed trust Boeing customers and the flying public have in the company's products.

Boeing is attempting to ramp up production of the Max to clear out its now enormous backlog, get the Max 7 certified by the FAA, and resume Max deliveries to Chinese airlines.

The newest incident could derail any or all of these plans, though the most likely result is a delay to the Max 7's certification process, Deutsche Bank analysts speculate in a note to investors Monday.

Maybe 2025 will be better for Boeing.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Bloomberg) -- The fiery Brazilian right-wing movement ignited by Jair Bolsonaros 2018 ascent to the presidency is seeking a rebrand.

Most Read from Bloomberg

A year after Bolsonaros supporters stormed the capital in a bid to overturn his election defeat, members of his inner circle are trying to chart a more moderate path toward municipal contests in October, as they attempt to broaden their appeal ahead of a 2026 presidential race in which their standard-bearer cant take part.

The right has to be more center-right, Flavio Bolsonaro, the former presidents eldest son and a senator from Rio de Janeiro, said in a recent interview.

The fledgling strategy is still light on detail, and it is unclear if Bolsonaro himself is on board. Although the countrys electoral court in June barred him from seeking office for eight years, the rabble-rousing former Army captain who brushed off calls to moderate throughout his presidency remains the Brazilian rights de facto leader.

But that key figures close to him are considering a pivot is evidence of the murky future facing a movement that not long ago was in the vanguard of a global lurch rightward, and that even after Bolsonaros election loss seemed poised to dominate Brazilian politics.

Read More: Bolsonaros Political Ban Turns Him Into a Right-Wing Kingmaker

Instead, it has suffered repeated setbacks since leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office at the start of 2023. Facing a litany of legal troubles, Bolsonaro fled to Florida for three months after the election. Even after returning in March, he remained largely on the sidelines as investigations piled up and a stronger-than-expected economy propelled Lula through a relatively smooth first year.

Brazilian prosecutors also charged hundreds of people with crimes related to the Jan. 8, 2023 insurrection attempt in Brasilia, dampening the enthusiasm of supporters who have since struggled to mobilize public demonstrations against the government.

Read More: Bolsonaro Plotted Coup After Defeat, Congressional Probe Finds

It has all rendered Bolsonarismo, as the movement is known, a global outlier. As right-wing parties and leaders march into the mainstream from the Netherlands to Argentina  and Donald Trump prepares a comeback bid in the US  the Brazilian right is mired in a political hangover it has struggled to shake off.

Since the elections, the right has not had clarity on what to do, said Isabela Kalil, an anthropologist at the Sao Paulo School of Sociology and Politics who has studied the rise of the extreme right. Its not an identity crisis because they know what they want. They are in a leadership crisis, in need of someone to say what needs to be done.

We Have to Have the Center-Right

For now, that task has fallen to Flavio Bolsonaro and Valdemar da Costa Neto, the head of the Liberal Party that Bolsonaro adopted and helped spur to success in 2022, when its members won the largest share of seats in Brazils congress.

Costa Neto opened the party that once supported leftist governments to candidates that molded themselves after Bolsonaro. But he has since sought to turn it into a bigger-tent organization to increase its appeal and power.

Read More: Bolsonaro Lost Brazil, But His Brand of Conservatism Lives On

The party is targeting 1,000 victories in October mayoral elections, seeing wins in 20% of the 5,000 races as a launchpad for a strong challenge to Lula in 2026.

To get them, we have to have the center-right with us, Costa Neto said in an interview at party headquarters in Brasilia. The people of the strong right are not that numerous.

Flavio Bolsonaro said he has pushed allies to take a flexible approach to candidate selection, especially in regions like the Brazilian northeast, a stronghold of Lulas Workers Party.

Bolsonarismo wont bend on priorities like abortion, drug legalization and free markets, but it shouldnt demand 100% alignment on other subjects, he said, adding that it needs to adopt a softer rhetorical approach as well.

The voter who likes those more radical things will end up voting for a center-right candidate, he said. So theres no point in radicalizing the tone of speech.

That strategy has already faced challenges. Bolsonaro in November reported disagreements with Costa Neto over mayoral candidates. And in his efforts to maintain influence over the search for his successor, he has at times publicly criticized potential presidential candidates like Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas for being too willing to work with the left.

Bolsonaro has no future, but he does not want to abandon his role as a hegemonic leader yet, said Andrei Roman, head of the Sao Paulo-based polling firm AtlasIntel. Theyre in limbo whenever they need to make decisions, because theres always a fear of alienating Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro allies say they need him to play a key role in the looming election cycles. The Jan. 8 criminal cases have left supporters afraid to take to the streets, right-wing congresswoman Bia Kicis said in an interview, with planned rallies meant to re-energize the movement failing to generate large crowds. But no one is more capable of jarring them out of that slumber than Bolsonaro.

His ability to mobilize people and transfer votes will have significant weight in defining the elections, Ronaldo Caiado, the governor of Goias state and another potential presidential candidate, said in a phone interview.

But that carries the risk of undermining efforts to tone down the rhetoric: Bolsonaro rose to the presidency by blasting the political class, praising Brazils military dictatorship and targeting opponents and minority populations. When his popularity waned, he often returned to that posture, attacking Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic and spreading conspiracy theories about Brazils voting system ahead of the election.

Energy From Abroad

Bolsonarismo is far from dead, analysts and its opponents say. Elements of its socially conservative agenda are broadly popular, and more Brazilians now identify as right-wing than left, Roman said.

Lula is facing a potential economic slowdown in 2024 that could hit approval ratings that have so far remained relatively stable: 38% of Brazilians rated his government great or good, and another 30% regular, in a Dec. 7 Datafolha poll, against 30% who call it bad or terrible. His allies regard Bolsonarismo as a lingering political force the left must fight head-on.

We see the far right not only opposing, but trying to impose an agenda on the country, Senator Humberto Costa, the coordinator of the Workers Partys 2024 electoral strategy, said. We must be ready to do national political confrontation.

Bolsonaro has also drawn energy from recent victories for right-wing figures like Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders and new Argentina President Javier Milei. The right-wing movement could make significant gains again in 2024, when 40 national elections  including a US presidential race in which Trump is the Republican frontrunner  will take place.

Read More: Milei Is Sworn In as Argentina Braces for His Shock Therapy

Bolsonaro has put particular stock in Milei, attending his December inauguration and betting the Argentine will give Brazilians proof that a right-wing government is preferable to its leftist predecessor. That poses its own challenges, especially if Mileis combination of radical rhetoric and shock therapy for Argentinas ailing economy fail.

But to Flavio Bolsonaro, the positive moral effect of victories like Mileis outweigh any potential governing perils.

Its a risk we have to take, he said.

--With assistance from Beatriz Reis.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

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By Ivana Sekularac

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) - The nationalist leader of Bosnia's post-war Serb region said on Monday he had no plans to seek secession, appearing to step back from earlier calls for a breakaway republic just as the United States stepped up pressure against him.

In 2021, Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russian president of the Republika Srpska (RS), triggered the most serious political crisis since the 1992-95 war when he said he would pull the region out of key Bosnian state institutions, such as the judiciary, the tax system and the joint armed forces.

Dodik did not follow through on the threat, saying he would await a more geopolitically opportune moment to carry it out.

But he told Reuters in an interview in the RS capital Banja Luka on Monday that secession was not part of his plan.

"We are not calling for revolution. We are not preparing for war, we are preparing for political decisions on the level of the state parliament and on the level of the Republika Srpska parliament," Dodik said.

He said political dialogue between ethnic groups in Bosnia was necessary to secure greater autonomy for the Serb entity.

"In the first phase, we need to secure dialogue between political parties in Bosnia, without the participation of foreigners, in order to secure a sustainable agreement. Otherwise Bosnia has no future."

The U.S.-brokered Dayton Peace Accords guaranteed Bosnia as a single country but divided it into widely autonomous entities, the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the RS.

The United States remains a staunch supporter of Bosnian unity and on Monday sent two F-16 fighter jets to fly over Bosnia to underline U.S. support for its territorial integrity.

Nevertheless, Dodik remains a defiant supporter of at least far-reaching autonomy, if not secession and union with neighbouring Serbia as he has previously advocated.

On Monday evening Bosnian Serbs led by Dodik will begin celebrations of their self-proclaimed statehood day, which was banned as discriminatory against non-Serbs by Bosnias constitutional court.

A parade of police and special forces is slated for Tuesday.

In the interview, Dodik was outspoken against what he calls international interference in Bosnian affairs, in which an international peace envoy wields executive powers on matters to do with upholding the Dayton treaty.

He said that if current envoy Christian Schmidt tried to visit the RS he would be asked to leave. Dodik said his mandate was illegitimate as it was not confirmed by the U.N. Security Council, where the Serbs' big power ally Russia wields a veto.

He said foreigners should have no role in Bosnia's politics, including the Constitutional Court in which three international judges work along with two judges from each of the three ethnicities - Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs.

Dodik has been under U.S. and British sanctions for acts undermining the integrity of the Dayton accords and putting the western Balkan country's peace at risk.

"Sanctions against me are part of the hybrid war that is being conducted against Republika Srpska," Dodik said, accusing foreign diplomats working in Bosnia of being anti-Serb.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; editing by Edward McAllister and Mark Heinrich)
Boston native Ayo Edebiri won her first Golden Globe on Sunday night for her leading performance in the second season of the hit Hulu show The Bear.

Edebiri, 28, who has played chef Sydney Adamu in the comedy-drama since 2022, won the Globe in the category Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series.

After earning the big win, Edebiri thanked the assistants of her agents and managers.

Jeremy Allen White, from left, Ayo Edebiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach pose in the press room with the award for best television series, musical or comedy for

This image released by CBS shows Ayo Edebiri accepting the award for best performance by a female actor in a TV series for her role in

Ayo Edebiri, left, winner of for best performance by an actress in a television series, musical or comedy for

Ayo Edebiri poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actress in a television series, musical or comedy for

Ayo Edebiri arrives at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Ayo Edebiri poses for a portrait, Thursday, June 29, 2023, in West Hollywood, Calif. Edebiri has been named one of The Associated Press' Breakthrough Entertainers of 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Ayo Edebiri poses for a portrait, Thursday, June 29, 2023, in West Hollywood, Calif. Edebiri has been named one of The Associated Press' Breakthrough Entertainers of 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Ayo Edebiri poses for a portrait, Thursday, June 29, 2023, in West Hollywood, Calif. Edebiri has been named one of The Associated Press' Breakthrough Entertainers of 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Ayo Edebiri poses for a portrait, Thursday, June 29, 2023, in West Hollywood, Calif. Edebiri has been named one of The Associated Press' Breakthrough Entertainers of 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Ayo Edebiri poses for a portrait, Thursday, June 29, 2023, in West Hollywood, Calif. Edebiri has been named one of The Associated Press' Breakthrough Entertainers of 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Ayo Edebiri poses for a portrait, Thursday, June 29, 2023, in West Hollywood, Calif. Edebiri has been named one of The Associated Press' Breakthrough Entertainers of 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Ayo Edebiri poses for a portrait, Thursday, June 29, 2023, in West Hollywood, Calif. Edebiri has been named one of The Associated Press' Breakthrough Entertainers of 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 30: (L-R) John Solberg, Joanna Calo, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, and Abby Elliot speak on stage during the Special Awards Screening And Panel Of FX's

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 20: (L-R) Edwin Lee Gibson, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Jeremy Allen White, Matty Matheson, Ayo Edebiri, Liza Colon-Zayas, Abby Elliott, Lionel Boyce, Chris Witaske, and Carmen Christopher attends the Los Angeles Premiere of FX's

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 04: Ayo Edebiri attends the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 04, 2023, in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 15: Ayo Edebiri attends the 28th Annual Critics Choice Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on January 15, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association)

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 10: Ayo Edebiri attends the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 10, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Ayo Edebiri attends the Time100 Next at Second on October 25, 2022, in New York City.

Ayo Edebiri attends the second annual HCA TV Awards: Streaming at The Beverly Hilton on August 14, 2022, in Beverly Hills, California.

To the people who answer my emails, youre the real ones, Edebiri said.

Edebiri is also known for her roles in Bottoms, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and Big Mouth, among many other credits.

Edebiri attended the Boston Latin School before moving on to New York University.

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A new study has found that the average bottle of water contains nearly a quarter million fragments of nanoplastics  plastic particles so small they can potentially gum up the machinery of human cells.

The findings published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) open a disturbing window into a largely unmapped corner of plastic pollution  a region marked by plastics the approximate size of viruses or vaccine particles.

We know microplastics are always in the environment, coauthor Beizhan Yan of Columbia University told The Hill. They are high up in the alpine, and down in the Marianas Trench, and quite a lot in New York City water as well.

But microplastics are comparatively large and easy to measure, he said  measurable in millionths of a meter, they can be viewed using technology such as a scanning electron microscope.

The team was concerned by nanoplastics, which are particles thousands of times smaller  measurable in billionths of a meter. These smaller sizes can translate to greater danger, Yan said, because the smaller the particle size, they are easy to get into the human bodies and then cross different barriers.

The tiny compounds, Yan added, can cross into the blood, and then can cross the different barriers to get into the cells, interfering with the organelles  cellular organs  and causing them to malfunction.

Both micro- and nanoplastics have been found to have a wide array of dangerous impacts on a staggering array of key systems in the human body, as a December article in The Lancet found.

That survey of recent research found that tiny plastics can interfere with the chemistry of the human body  causing impacts both on and from the communities of microbes in our gut that help us digest food.

Micro- and nanoplastics can lead to oxidative stress, inflammation, immune dysfunction, altered biochemical and energy metabolism, impaired cell proliferation, disrupted microbial metabolic pathways, abnormal organ development, and carcinogenicity, the Lancet authors wrote.

So if these possibly dangerous compounds are found in bottled water, is it safe to drink?

Knowing about the potential risks of nanoplastics is only half the puzzle: Scientists also need to know what plastic polymers people are actually ingesting, and in which quantities, to determine how dangerous exposure may be.

Thats where the PNAS study comes in. Using an innovative new method of laser imaging, the scientists were able to identify plastics of far smaller sizes than ever before, including several of potential concern.

By running water from three common brands through an extremely fine-grained filter, they were able to trap particles measurable on a scale of billionths of a meter  and then to identify them.

Those plastics, however, comprised just 10 percent of the total nanoparticles the scientists found. They also found as-yet-unidentified bits of microscopic clays, metals and the black carbon from fires  as well as plastics so degraded that the imaging technology couldnt pick them up.

The mere presence of objects this size is potentially disruptive to the body, because even if they are chemically inert, they are small enough to get into and disrupt cells, rather like sand in an engine.

But the chemical structure of plastics makes them a particular worry, the scientists said.

Because plastics are so similar to the chemistry of living creatures  petrochemicals, after all, come from the ancient residues of long-dead organisms  they can mimic or disrupt key biological functions by imitating the structure of the chemical messengers that help drive a wide range of bodily functions.

The scientists found a wide array of plastics in the bottles, but five types predominated  starting with polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

Since PET makes up the structure of the bottles themselves, that finding came as little surprise. It also aroused little concern, since PET is thought to be generally safe, although PET compounds can contain the toxic catalyst antimony.

But the water in the bottles was also found to contain a wide array of potentially dangerous nanoplastics that arent found in the bottles themselves  pointing to unknown sources of environmental contamination.

The scientists identified compounds such as nylon, which breaks down into toxic monomers as it degrades; polystyrene (or Styrofoam, commonly found in foam containers), which can break down into the suspected carcinogen styrene; and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which can contain harmful additives such as lead or phthalates, and which has been linked to disruptions in the nervous or endocrine systems.

In what the researchers called an ironic finding, they also found plastic compounds in the water that matched the primary material in reverse-osmosis filters  suggesting that the plastics had leached into the water by the very process of filtration, co-author Naixin Qian of Columbia University told The Hill.

But the more dangerous particles like PVC and polystyrene seemed to have entered the plastic bottles with the source water that filled them, Qian said.

One possibility for how these may have gotten into that water: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, plastics plants emit aerosolized plastic gases that can get into the environment  entering the air, and therefore rain and water.

Regardless of the source of the nanoplastics, however, the Columbia team was particularly concerned about the health risks they pose  especially to the very young and very old.

These particles are small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier, which means they may lead to neural degeneration, particularly in the aged, in whom the barrier is looser, Yan said.

Exposure to micro- and nanoplastics may lead to cell damage in the nervous system, leading to increased risk of nervous system disorders and changes in behavior  with nanoplastics being more damaging than microplastics.

Nanoplastics are also small enough to cross the placenta into the generally sheltered environment of the womb, with unknown effects on a developing fetus.

For example, nanoplastics can get inside the umbilical veins that pull blood and waste products back from an embryo, interfering with cell processes that help dispose of cellular debris. They can also cause significant damage to embryonic kidney and reproductive cells, as well as impairing the normal growth of the fetuss heart.

The developing fetal nervous system is also highly susceptible to damage from environmental pollutants, and nanoplastics may make it harder for the cells in fetal brain tissues to stay alive.

Given that these plastics enter the body through drinking water  and therefore, the digestive system  that could be the site of the most immediate impacts. Scientists have found that PET interferes with key microbial communities in the human gut, encouraging the growth of harmful bacteria while suppressing beneficial ones.

And studies in mice have found that micro- and nanoplastics lead to cell death in the lining of the intestine and increase inflammation in the gut.

If nanoplastics are able to get from the digestive system into the blood stream, impacts could be much further reaching  beginning with heart disease.

Theres strong evidence that this can happen. A 2021 study found that when rats were fed water embedded with polystyrene, or Styrofoam, nanoparticles, those particles began to accumulate in their hearts  leading to the heart swelling with collagen, making it harder for it to beat and ultimately leading to untimely death among heart cells.

And tests in a petri dish found that nanoparticles could destroy human red blood cells, although they werent able to replicate these findings inside actual blood.

But troubling as these lab findings are, the risks of nanoplastics currently remain a matter of conjecture. While such particles can be very toxic to cells at high doses, it is far less clear what happens at the levels that ordinary people are actually exposed to.

That gap in our knowledge results from a gap in technology  without any reliable way to identify nanoparticles in the environment, scientists havent been able to accurately calculate how many of the particles to expose cells to in order to test the impacts of exposure.

The Columbia findings take a key step toward closing that gap.

As such, perhaps more significant than the findings themselves  which are alarming, but hard to put into context  was the way the Columbia University team discovered them: through a new method that the scientists say will allow them to identify specific nanoplastics in soils, the air and human tissue.

That method is called Raman scattering  a method co-developed by study co-author Wei Min that hits an unknown plastic particle with a laser beam and decodes the frequency of the light that bounces back to tell what plastic polymer is inside.

Compounds such as PVC, PET and polystyrene are all made of different chemical bonds, Min said. Those different chemical bonds have different, essentially intrinsic energy. And we can use laser to interrogate that energy and detect the interaction between the laser and that part of the chemical bonds.

That allows researchers to distinguish different chemical bonds, and therefore different types of polymers, Min added.

The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) cautioned that the detection of nanoplastics isnt the same as detection of harms from nanoplastics.

There currently is both a lack of standardized methods and no scientific consensus on the potential health impacts of nano- and microplastic particles, the IBWA said in a statement.

Therefore, media reports about these particles in drinking water do nothing more than unnecessarily scare consumers.

The trade association argued that the Food and Drug Administration strictly and comprehensively regulates bottled water, and that both that agency and the World Health Organization have cautioned that a lack of scientific research make it impossible to draw health conclusions about the presence of nanoplastics in water.

That is a caution the scientists broadly echoed, despite their health concerns. Qian cautioned that the team still doesnt have enough information to say, for example, how the nanoplastics levels found in bottles compare with levels in tap water around the nation. (The team expects to begin rolling out results for the nations supply of tap water within the next two years.)

Qian said that the baton is now passed to toxicologists to determine how the levels the team found in bottled water translate to actual health impacts.

We only did the first step in terms of quantifying the exposure: how much [nanoplastics] there are in the bottle of water that we [are] actually exposed to every day, Qian said.

Once you have the precise exposure then youll be able to actually do more research on its consequences of the toxicity, she said.

 Updated Jan. 9 at 10:28 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Brazil's flag is projected on the building of the National Congress, in Brasilia

By Ricardo Brito

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazilian authorities celebrated their country's democratic system on Monday, a year after a right-wing crowd invaded and vandalized its Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace in protest against an election result.

Under a screen that said "Democracy Unshaken" Congressional leaders, Supreme Court justices and government officials led by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recalled the day the capital Brasilia was stormed by protesters calling for a military coup.

"All those who financed, planned and executed the coup attempt must be exemplarily punished. There is no forgiveness for anyone who attacks democracy," Lula said at the event held in Congress. "Forgiveness would sound like impunity. And impunity would be a free pass for more acts of terrorism."

"Democracy prevailed," said top court justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has led investigations to hold those responsible for the riots accountable.

A year ago, supporters of hard-right former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the buildings that symbolize Brazil's democracy, a week after Lula had taken office. They rejected his election victory and urged the military to overthrow him.

Bolsonaro, who never conceded defeat, had left the country for the United States before the presidential handover to Lula.

The assault on Brasilia's main government buildings was the Brazilian equivalent of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021 after his election loss to Joe Biden.

About 2,000 people were arrested over the Brasilia attack, though most were later released. Others have been convicted by the Supreme Court on charges of an attempted coup, among other crimes, following ongoing police investigations into those who took part in the riots and who fostered or funded the attack.

Bolsonaro is under investigation by the Supreme Court for allegedly masterminding the riots, something he denies.

Brazil's electoral authority banned Bolsonaro from running for elected office for eight years over his abuse of power and misuse of the media ahead of the 2022 election, when he summoned ambassadors to vent unfounded claims about Brazil's electronic voting system.

Supreme Court judge Gilmar Mendes has accused Bolsonaro of political responsibility for the assault on Brasilia and that the armed forces had been encouraged by the former president not to stop his supporters protesting. Bolsonaro has denied any involvement.

A poll by Genial/Quaest released on Sunday showed that a large majority of Brazilians disapprove of the riots, with 89% against the protests by Bolsonaro backers and 6% for them.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito, writing by Fabio Teixeira, editing by Anthony Boadle, Mark Heinrich, Angus MacSwan and David Gregorio)
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco, right, and Supreme Court President Luis Roberto Barroso hold a copy of their nation's Constitution at Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. This copy of the magna carter was restored after being destroyed by rioters who stormed the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court buildings one year ago in support of outgoing, former President Jair Bolsonaro who has been under investigation by the Supreme Court over his role in the mayhem. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  Brazil on Monday observed the anniversary of last year's uprising in the capital when thousands of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro invaded government buildings and called for a military intervention to remove President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from office.

Several demonstrations in defense of democracy were taking place across the South American country, hours after Federal Police carried out dozens of search warrants as part of its ongoing investigation targeting those responsible for the mayhem.

Prosecution plus a ban on Bolsonaro from running for office stands in contrast to the U.S., where Donald Trump is running again for president and has been dominating the campaign for the Republican nomination so far, even though he faces federal and state charges.

On Sunday night in the capital, Brasilia, the words Democracy Unites Us were projected on Congress' annex buildings that tower behind its chambers.

The Supreme Court inaugurated an exhibition about reconstruction, memory and democracy displaying damaged pieces and other tangible traces of the attack, and Congress hosted another pro-democracy event, where officials presented a tapestry by renowned artist Roberto Burle Marx that was damaged by rioters and painstakingly restored. The latter event was attended by roughly 500 guests, including Lula, members of his Cabinet, Supreme Court justices, Senate president Rodrigo Pacheco and top military brass.

Thousands of seemingly ordinary people were moved by falsehoods, conspiracy theories and resentment, Supreme Court president Luis Roberto Barroso said. They were transformed into criminals, apprentice terrorists ... A sad defeat of the spirit.

Street demonstrations took place in the afternoon on the streets of cities across Brazil, but there was little sign of opposing protests defending those who rioted and have faced prosecution. At a demonstration in Rio, some 500 people gathered. Many of them characterized Jan. 8 as an attempted coup, including Penelope Toledo, 42.

It didn't start on that day and it didn't finish that day, because we are conquering democracy daily and, if we waver, a coup will come, said Toledo, who works in the communications department of government health research institute Fiocruz. If we waver, the forces damaging to society will return. That date represents our fight, it represents the resistance of the Brazilian people.

On Jan. 8, 2023, Latin Americas largest country teetered on the brink of democratic meltdown when pro-Bolsonaro rioters bypassed security barricades around the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court, climbed onto roofs, smashed windows, urinated on precious art and damaged historic Brazilian memorabilia.

The scenes, broadcast live on television, recalled those seen during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and drew instant parallels.

A year on, Brazil has strived to move on from what Supreme Court's Barroso called in an op-ed published Monday by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo the most virulent attack on the countrys institutions since the end of the military dictatorship nearly four decades ago.

Unlike in the U.S., Brazil's judiciary has already sidelined Bolsonaro. Last year, the nation's electoral court barred him from running for office again until 2030. The case was unrelated to the riots, but rather pertained to his repeated, unfounded claims that the electronic voting system was susceptible to fraud.

When someone raises doubts about democracy in Brazil, it's important that you are not afraid of using my story and that of my party, Lula told the crowd gathered in the Senate, rebuffing Bolsonaros claims that electronic voting machines were prone to fraud. No one here has run in as many elections as I have, has lost as many times as I did and has won as many times as I did.

Lula, who is currently serving his third nonconsecutive presidential term, ran his first campaign in 1989, but didn't win until 2002.

Most Brazilians seem to be rallying around the banner of democracy promoted by Lula since assuming office on Jan. 1, 2023. A December survey by pollster Quaest found that 89% of Brazilians surveyed viewed last years uprising negatively.

They tried to do what happened in the Capitol, there in the U.S., but they werent successful, Mychelle Alves Monteiro, 44, said at the event in Rio.

There also have been attempts at accountability in the U.S.: about 1,200 people have been charged over the Jan. 6 insurrection, and Trump faces both federal and state charges for seeking to overturn the 2020 election results. He has been barred from the ballot in two states in a matter that will now go before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Brazil, federal prosecutors have filed charges against more than 1,400 people for their role in the riots. But the Supreme Court has only convicted 30 people since the first conviction, in September. Many of those targeted claim they are suffering political persecution. The Supreme Court is also investigating Bolsonaro over his role in the insurrection.

So far, senior officers of the armed forces have also escaped accountability, although important voices such as Supreme Court justices and opposition leaders have said that some, at the very least, were complicit.

In October, a congressional panel of lawmakers, mostly allied with Lula, concluded that Bolsonaro orchestrated the riots as part of a concerted effort to oust Lula from office. They said that the riots couldn't have occurred without the complicity of some of the top military brass and police officers.

Their report called for the indictment of 22 military personnel, including the then heads of Brazils navy and armed forces, and Bolsonaros former defense minister and running mate, Gen. Braga Netto.

So far, no action has been taken against any of them.

On Monday morning, police carried out 46 search and seizure warrants and one arrest warrant, police said. The arrest warrant targeted a person that allegedly contracted a bus to drive protesters from Brazils northeast to Brasilia, according to Folha de S.Paulo.

____

Follow APs coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade accused Joe Biden of emulating Adolf Hitler because the president warned about the threat Donald Trump poses to the nation.

On Fox & Friends Monday morning, Kilmeade said Biden, in a speech on Friday, went full Hitler [and said] that Trump is the worst thing ever, will destroy the country.

But why, if you believe that, why would you do that in January, knowing that were going to hear the same thing for nine months? he continued. By the time May comes up, were not going to hear this.

Kilmeades comments were first flagged by Mediaite.

In a speech from Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, on Friday ahead of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Biden forcefully condemned Trumps assaults on democracy and warned that his predecessor is promising a full-scale campaign of revenge and retribution, his words, for some years to come.

He also pointed to Trumps recent comments about immigrants poisoning the blood of the nation, saying it echoed language used in Nazi Germany.

Notably, after Trump drew widespread backlash for those remarks, which include similar language to excerpts of Hitlers manifesto, Mein Kampf, Kilmeade defended the former president.

Hes just trying to say, We want to keep America, America, Kilmeade said at the time. We want to build up the border and find out whos coming in and out. And they tried to say that this language was the problem.
In Massachusetts, Great Barrington Police Department Police Chief Paul Storti has apologized after an officer searched an eighth-grade classroom for a copy of the book Gender Queer after classroom hours. The book contains sexually explicit images. The officer warned an English teacher that "you can't present that kind of material to people under 18" and asked if other books at the school contained similar images.

The post Brickbat: The Censors Say 'Sorry' appeared first on Reason.com.
A fire at Brookdale Senior Living in Orland Park Sunday morning left one person injured and led to a precautionary evacuation of residents while crews worked to put out the fire, officials said.

The Orland Fire Protection District responded to the Brookdale Senior Assisted Living home, 16051 La Grange Road, at 7:41 a.m. Sunday, said spokesman Ray Hanania. An automatic alarm went off in the facility and the fire was found in one room on the second floor of the three-story building, he said.

Fire crews located the resident and found a chair on fire in the living room, Hanania said. The resident was safely evacuated from the unit, he said.

The resident living in the unit was taken as a precaution to Silver Cross Hospital, Hanania said. The resident has since returned to the facility, said spokeswoman Jackie Dickson.

The cause is under investigation, Hanania and Dickson said.

The resident living in the unit where the fire was reported was able to stay in another unit, Dickson said, so no one was displaced.

We are grateful to firefighters who responded quickly to assist our community as the safety and well-being of our residents is our top priority, Dickson said.

akukulka@chicagotribune.com
The Jennings Randolph Bridge, which connects Ohio to West Virginia near the Pennsylvania border, is scheduled to reopen to traffic on Monday afternoon.

The West Virginia Department of Transportation said all four lanes will open, with intermittent closures of the outside lanes happening until additional repairs are complete. At least one lane in each direction will remain open during these closures.

The bridge was shut down for emergency repairs on Dec. 11 after a federally mandated inspection discovered cracking in two welds on the steel bridge structure. Out of an abundance of caution, the West Virginia Division of Highways decided to close the bridge while repairs were completed.

The Jennings Randolph Bridge was built in 1977 using T-1 steel. At the time, welded T-1 steel was used often in bridge construction, but was later discovered that cracks could develop in welds joining the beams.

Recently, the federal government started requiring testing on all bridges made with T-1. WVDOT said it was during one of those tests that a few cracks were discovered.

Eighteen additional internal defects were also found that needed to be repaired before reopening the bridge.

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(Reuters) - Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Christopher Boerner said on Monday the drugmaker expects to add 16 new products to its portfolio by the end of the decade.

The drugmaker said it would focus on licensing, partnerships and bolt-on purchases as opposed to large acquisitions after signing two multi-billion dollar deals last month.

"Our focus is to continue to enrich this portfolio first and foremost, by advancing our internal pipeline and where it makes sense strategically and financially through business development," Boerner said at the JPMorgan Healthcare conference.

In December, Bristol Myers bought Karuna Therapeutics for $14 billion, gaining a promising new type of antipsychotic medicine. It was followed by a $4.1 billion buyout of RayzeBio, bolstering its cancer drug business.

It acquired cancer drugmaker Mirati Therapeutics for up to $5.8 billion in October, diversifying its oncology business and adding drugs it hopes can help offset expected lost revenue from patent expirations later this decade.

Bristol Myers reiterated its long-term forecast of greater than $10 billion of new-product sales in 2026.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
A British mine explosion that marked the start of the Battle of the Somme left a crater that allowed German troops to press forward into No Mans Land, it has emerged.

By July 1, 1916, British forces had dug 19 mines under German positions and packed the tunnels with 40,000lb of explosives, which they intended to detonate to provide cover for an infantry advance.

But in an accepted military blunder, the mines were blown 10 minutes before the advance, a mistake which alerted the Germans to the plan and allowed them to take cover.

Now, an archaeological investigation of the site at Hawthorn Ridge has shown that Germans incorporated the crater rim into their front line and even tunnelled out from it to advance their position in No Mans Land.

Dr Jamie Pringle, a forensic geoscientist at Keele University, said: The explosion of the mine was the very first action of the Battle of the Somme, intended to give Allied forces the upper hand.

We found physical evidence for the first time of how German soldiers had consolidated part of the crater left behind after the explosion, and actually used it to their advantage as a new defensive position.

British troops await an advance - PA

As well as carrying out excavations of the site, the team of scientists and historians used a range of cutting-edge technology, including drones with imaging cameras.

Researchers were able to pinpoint the epicentres of the blast and even found an unexploded British shrapnel artillery shell with its time-fuse still intact.

Prof Peter Doyle, a military historian at Goldsmiths, University of London, who was part of the team, said: The Germans had quickly mastered the art of capturing craters and used this to their advantage.

Though they lost many men in the initial blast, the crater became a part of the German front line, meaning that the chance to break through the line here was lost.

He added: Our study has provided new evidence of the strongpoint the Germans built from the captured crater in the middle of No Mans Land that doomed the British attack to failure.

The Hawthorn Ridge crater today - Hawthorn Ridge Crater Association/PA

This reinforces the idea that blowing the mine 10 minutes early, to give the earth time to settle, was a very bad idea.

It took four months and the creation of a new mine for the British to be able to capture the crater.

The land has been in private ownership for 100 years and it is only now that archaeologists have been granted permission to excavate the site.

Dr Kris Wisniewski, a lecturer in forensic science at Keele University, said: Using a range of scientific methods, we were able to map out the epicentres of both blasts and the boundaries of the subsequent craters caused by the first and second explosions, as well as post-blast defensive positions and Allied shell impact craters.

Using drones with imaging cameras, we were able to image remotely a probable sap or shallow tunnel to the north-west of the crater, showing the German mastery of No Mans Land after the initial detonation.

The research was published in the Journal of Conflict Archaeology.

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UK space startup Spacebit sent a metal version of the Ukrainian flag to the moon as part of the Peregrine Mission One, a private lunar mission, NASA reported on Jan. 8.

Spacebit's lunar rover, named Asagumo, was launched aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket at 2:18 a.m. (EST).

Read also: Ukraines Zelensky hails successful launch of Ukrainian-US Antares rocket

The Ukrainian flag is on board as a sign of solidarity with the people of Ukraine, at the initiative of Pavlo Tanasyuk, a British-Ukrainian space entrepreneur.

The metal flag of Ukraine also includes a map of the country.

"This metallic plate uses a new type of coating that has never been tested on the lunar surface before," the press service said.

spacebit.com

These paints are water-based and can withstand extreme temperature conditions for hundreds of years to come. A copy of the plate was presented to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the end of 2021.

The launch of the Asagumo lunar rover has been postponed for a long time due to the coronavirus pandemic. The main goal of the mission is to deliver the world's smallest robotic lunar rover to the Moon to explore lava tubes on Earth's natural satellite for the first time in history.

Read also: Russian space agency deputy head among three detained, accused of siphoning nearly $5 million

Spacebit is a private British company founded by Pavlo Tanasyuk in 2014. It works on space data analysis tools and robotic space exploration concepts, including the use of artificial intelligence and advanced micro-robotics.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The brother of a man who killed himself in the Travis County Jail has filed a wrongful death suit against the county.

The lawsuit, filed in late December, cites a report indicating that Jared Jon Bell might have been left alone for about an hour in a room with a corded phone, even though he was on suicide watch. He used the phone cord to hang himself  an outcome the lawsuit argues Travis County should have been able to foresee.

Jared Bells death, the lawsuit claims, was a result of the policies, practices, and customs of Travis County.

Jared Jon JJ Bell was "happy-go-lucky" but struggled with mental illness and substance use, his brother said.

A spokesperson for the Travis County sheriffs office said that the office does not comment on pending litigation.

Of 161 in-custody deaths in Texas county jails in 2022, almost a fifth were deemed suicides, according to the nonprofit Texas Jail Project.

How did Jared Bell end up in jail?

Jared Bell  who went by JJ  died in February 2022 at age 32. His younger brother, Mark Bell, filed the lawsuit. Mark Bell described his brother as "happy-go-lucky" and someone who "joked about everything."

"He felt very deeply," Mark Bell said. "He was always trying to make the best of every situation."

Mark Bell said his brother had long struggled with mental illness and substance use.

On Feb. 7, a friend of Jared's contacted Mark with news that his brother was in psychosis. Mark spent the day with his brother, trying to find him a spot in a rehabilitation center. Mark was afraid that without supervision his brother might hurt himself.

As a last resort, Mark brought his brother to the emergency department of Dell Seton Medical Center. He said he told the hospital staff that his brother was mentally ill, suicidal and on drugs.

According to the lawsuit, University of Texas police were eventually called to Dell Seton for a welfare check." The filing says Jared told police that the hospital had no more beds and that he wanted to go to the Sobering Center.

The lawsuit claims that police dispatch notified an officer that Jared had an open warrant from Hays County. Jared was arrested and booked into the downtown Travis County Jail.

He had six open felony warrants from Hays County: one for unlawful possession of a firearm and five for felony possession of drugs.

What happened the day Jared Bell died?

Dean Malone, a Dallas-based personal injury lawyer, is representing Mark Bell in the suit against Travis County. Malone has litigated numerous civil cases regarding in-custody deaths in Texas jails and prisons.

Malone shared multiple documents with the American-Statesman, including a copy of a report produced by the Texas Rangers criminal investigation into Jareds death.

The report contained evidence collected by the Rangers, including jail logs and medical evaluations. The report also had summaries of interviews with jail staffers.

An intake form showed that Jared was marked a moderate suicide risk. He was initially given a psychiatric designation that required correctional officers to conduct visual checks every 15 minutes.

The Rangers' report indicated that on the morning Jared died, he was evaluated by a counselor at the jail who thought he was not at immediate risk of suicide. He was switched to a designation that required checks every 30 minutes, though the report was not clear about whether correctional officers were told.

A correctional officer allowed Jared to use a corded phone in an empty room at 9:10 a.m. Feb. 8, the staff member told the investigating Ranger.

According to the report, the Ranger found no evidence that any jail staff member conducted another check on Jared until 10:12 a.m., when correctional officers found him. Forty-three minutes had lapsed since he had wrapped the phone cord around his neck, the report said.

After his brother was taken to jail, Mark was never able to get in contact with him. He missed phone calls from the jail until Feb. 8, when the sheriff's office told him that his brother was dead.

"I couldn't make sense of it," Mark said. "When you drop someone off at the hospital, you don't expect them to die in jail the next day."

Suicides in Texas jails

Malone told the Statesman in an interview that Travis County Jail officials knew that ligatures  ropes or cords people might use to hang themselves  posed a self-harm risk to inmates.

Its not a novel issue, Malone said, adding that phone cords in particular are known to be used in suicide attempts.

The lawsuit included a 2015 memorandum sent by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards to sheriffs and jail administrators statewide. It described a series of recent suicides that involved the use of a phone cord. The memo suggested that phone cords be shortened to 12 inches or less.

The lawsuit described the phone cord that Jared Bell used as lengthy.

Jails across Texas know what to do to protect people with suicidal tendencies, Malone said.

He acknowledged that some progress has been made to better care for people who are at risk of harming themselves. But he said that litigation is required to make correctional facilities change their policies.

Krish Gundu, executive director of the Texas Jail Project, which advocates for incarcerated people, said in an interview that Jared Bells death is not an aberration. She said that the failure of the criminal justice system stretches beyond missed check-ins and the presence of corded telephones.

Referring to Jareds arrest at the hospital, Gundu said that too often people are criminalized at the places where they seek care.

The question on her mind was: Why was he even booked into the jail when he was in a state of crisis?

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Brother of man who killed himself in Travis County Jail files lawsuit
[Source]

Netflixs adrenaline-pumping series The Brothers Sun is receiving high praise from fans and critics, certifying fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Critics review: Less than a week out from its streaming debut, the first season of the comedy action series has earned an official Fresh score of 81% based on 26 critic reviews.

Thanks to a talented cast and wild action sequences, the show remains fairly entertaining throughout, Judy Berman of Time wrote. Thanks to a talented cast and wild action sequences, the show remains fairly entertaining throughout. The Brothers Sun is also smart about noting the contradictions inherent in Hollywoods reductive Asian stereotypesthe model minority nerd vs. the cutthroat gangster vs. the so-called tiger momwithout congratulating itself for the trenchant critique.

At its best when its playful  basically Mother Knows Best with a lot of violence  and less so when it slips into silliness, the show features enough energetic action to work reasonably well on multiple levels, Brian Lowry of CNN said.

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Audience review: The show has also garnered positive reviews on social media platforms, with viewers expressing enthusiasm for its perfect blend of action and comedy.

The Brothers Sun might be the best show of the year and the year just started! Thats how FANTASTIC it is! This show was action packed, emotional and so f*cking hilarious! It literally came out swinging! one X user tweeted.

Yo this was f*cking fire. This is perfect action-comedy. On top of all that, a Jurassic Park nod? Brilliant! another person said.

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About the series: "The Brothers Sun" revolves around the eldest son of a Taiwanese triad, Charles Chairleg Sun, who goes to Los Angeles to protect his mother and brother after the head of the triad is shot. The eight-episode series promises a blend of high-octane action, family dynamics and dark humor as the Sun family confronts their criminal past.

The show was created by Byron Wu and Brad Falchuk and directed by Kevin Tancharoen. It boasts an all-Asian cast and writers room, including Michelle Yeoh, Jon Xue Zhang (Eternals), Alice Hewkin (Sex Education), Madison Hu (Bizaardvark), Highdee Kuan (Fear the Night), Joon Lee (The Silent Sea), Sam Song Li (Better Call Saul) and comedian Jenny Yang (Gordita Chronicles).

Redeeming Yeoh: The shows success contrasts with Yeoh's previous Netflix project, The Witcher: Blood Origin, which received poor reviews. "The Brothers Sun" not only marks a positive turn for Yeoh's collaboration with Netflix but also suggests the potential for future seasons if accompanied by strong viewership numbers.

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Broward Public Defender Gordon Weekes is demanding changes at the Broward Main Jail after two recent inmate deaths tied to mental illness.

Alvin Stephen Modeste, 43, hanged himself in his cell at the North Broward Jail in Pompano Beach on Dec. 26, less than a month after a Broward judge ordered him to receive evaluation under the states Baker Act. Modeste was scheduled to be evaluated to determine whether he was competent to stand trial on charges of culpable negligence.

His mother had accused him in October of attacking her for no apparent reason with a metal wrench, a tire iron and a wooden pole.

Modestes suicide came weeks after another inmate, Janard Geffrard, 29, was beaten to death in the Broward Main Jail by a man who was awaiting trial on a vehicle theft charge and probation violations.

Both Geffrard and his alleged assailant, Kevin Barnes, were identified as mentally ill and in need of treatment.

The Dec. 16 confrontation between Geffrard and Barnes, 35, was captured on surveillance video, said Weekes. But surveillance did nothing to keep the tragedy from unfolding. According to a police report, Barnes told investigators he attacked Geffrard because he believed the victim to be gay.

An otherwise healthy individual was beaten and choked to death without any intervention on behalf of deputies, Weekes wrote in a letter to Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony.

In a second letter, regarding Modestes suicide, Weekes complained that inmates were going without supervision for too long: enough time for him to regrettably engage in self-harm by strangulation. Appropriate supervision and timely intervention by deputies could have prevented this tragedy.

In response to the suicide, the Sheriffs Office released a 2022 letter Tony wrote to Browards mayor, chief judge and other local officials asking for more resources to protect the mentally ill in jail.

No one believes that jail is the most appropriate setting to treat those experiencing mental illness, he said. Unfortunately, it [the jail] has been and remains the primary mental health provider in our community.

That response did not impress Weekes, who called on Tony to more effectively address the conditions in his control and bring in an outside overseer to identify shortfalls and possible solutions.

The Broward Public Defenders Office has criticized the Sheriffs Office for years over care for mentally ill inmates. Weekes had previously complained to Tony of numerous previous incidents, including one in which a female inmate gave birth unattended and another in which a male inmate cut off his own penis.

Tony has acknowledged the need for additional mental health services in jail. Last week, the Sheriffs Office released a statement saying Geffrards death was under investigation and that two employees, a detention deputy and a detention technician, were placed on administrative leave with pay while the investigation proceeds.

The sheriff has a tough job that can never be done perfectly anyway, said defense lawyer Bill Gelin, who broke the news of both recent deaths on the JAABlog website, which monitors Broward courts. You have a jail population where more than 50 percent of the inmates have mental health issues. Weve reached the point where inadequate resources are pushing matters past the brink.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.
A commitment to community service prompted a team of 17 African American women to launch the Joliet Area/South Suburban Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., and that commitment continues as the group marks its 50th anniversary this month.

We started as a small chapter and have grown to, at times, to over 500 members. Im really proud of all of our service work, said Homewood resident Yvonne Wells, a founding member.

The chapter has about 450 members, and its community service work includes partnering with Blessings in a Backpack to help provide weekend meals to food insecure students in the south suburbs, said chapter President Aisha Barnes.

Aisha Barnes

Every month, we pack over 600 bags for students, Barnes said. We partner with a school and rotate the schools every two years.

They are now partnered with Harvey Elementary District 152, she said.

The organizations KISS 100 program, an acronym for Kindness in Service and Sisterhood, annually conducts a Midwest Impact Day of Service.

We blanket our service area and perform 100 acts of kindness and service, Barnes said. We partner with other organizations.

Last year, the focus of the day was literacy. The Delta chapter felt the topic was important particularly amid initiatives in parts of the country banning books. During the day, it held literacy fairs, distributed banned books and talked to parents about the importance of their children developing healthy reading habits, Barnes said.

They read aloud to 100 children, obtained 100 parent literacy pledges, registered 50 new families for library cards and gave away 1,500 books to children including 50 banned books written by African American authors. Among the banned books they gave away were: The Hill We Climb, by Amanda Gorman; The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person by Frederick Joseph; and All Boys Arent Blue by George M. Johnson.

We have a Youth Empowerment Conference every year in February, Barnes said. We bring middle schoolers and high schoolers together to get information about career planning, making an impact as a young person. It also includes a college fair where we invite over 30 colleges and trades to talk to young people about what does their future look like. During the pandemic, we did the conference virtually.

The conference will take place at Southwood Junior High School in Country Club Hills this year. It was held at Colin Powell Middle School in Matteson last year, and Taylor Warren, an 18-year-old senior who attends Plainfield South High School, was among participants. She plans to attend college and to major in criminal justice with a minor in psychology.

At the conference, she gained helpful tips on what to do to be prepared for college.

They talked a lot about scholarships, how to write essays, about finances, Warren said.

She said there were also discussions on how to deal with difficult situations one might face.

The Delta chapter runs two mentoring programs, said Barnes. Its Dr. Betty Shabbazz Delta Academy mentors girls ages 11 through 13. Delta GEMS, which stands for Growing and Empowering Myself Successfully, mentors girls ages 14 through 18 in grades nine through 12. Topics include self-esteem awareness, healthy lifestyles, social action, higher education and career development. Students also participate in service learning and community projects.

Every month they come together, said Barnes. Its usually between 20 and 25 girls. They meet at a school in our service area. We bring in different guest speakers. They work on projects such as vision boards. They may do (science, technology, engineering and math) activities. We have a whole curriculum that we run from October through May.

Warren is a Delta GEM, and her mother, Kim Warren, said Taylor has benefited from her involvement.

Over the course of the three years she has been involved, Ive seen that she has sharpened her skills, Kim Warren said. It has helped her grow and enhance her confidence and given her a blueprint as she heads off to college.

Residents at Pine Crest Health Care in Hazel Crest are familiar with the Delta chapter. Members visit the nursing home monthly to spend time with residents there. During the Christmas holiday season, they gave residents gift baskets, said Katrece Wade, activity director.

They are a blessing, Wade said. Our residents love them.

The groups Breakfast With Santa toy drive gives toys and serves breakfast to hundreds of children annually, and its yearly breast cancer walk, which took place in Orland Park in October, raised over $17,000 for the American Cancer Society, said Barnes.

We were the top fundraiser in this area, Barnes said.

Joliet Area/South Suburban Alumnae Chapter participants in the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk in October 2023 in Orland Park.

The chapters history includes sponsoring Ebony Fashion Fair Shows for many years, which helped it raise money for college scholarships. Before the well-known annual traveling fashion show created by Johnson Publishing Company ended in 2009, the show helped the chapter award more than $150,000 in scholarships to high school seniors in south suburban Cook County and the Joliet area.

Through other fundraising initiatives, the chapter awarded scholarships totaling $114,000, from 2010-2021, according to its website. The last few years it has given out between $25,00 and $30,000, Barnes said.

Besides working with youth, the group holds political education and voter registration events for adults and programs focused on mental and physical health.

The Delta chapter will celebrate and highlight its golden anniversary with a series of events and activities this year. Its goal this year is to distribute $50,000 in scholarships. It will hold a 50th anniversary soiree in Homer Glen Jan. 12.

Reflecting on its past 50 years, Wells said shes proud of how the chapter has progressed.

Weve come a long way, and weve done a lot, but theres much more work we can still do in the community, she said.

For more information on the Delta chapter, visit jassacdeltas.org.

Francine Knowles is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
Cancellations and delays continued to rack up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Monday, following Fridays terrifying incident where a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines flight minutes after taking off from Portland.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 9s involved until they are all declared safe, leaving thousands of travelers stranded.

We started in Maui and we were supposed to leave last night at 5:30, then they switched it to Honolulu, traveler Aimie Mattinson told us. So instead of leaving at 5:30 we left at 9:30, got here at 4:30, my flight to Salt Lake City was canceled.

By the end of the morning on Monday, Flight Aware was showing over 80 cancellations and 50 delays out of Sea-Tac Airport for Alaska Airlines.

Mattinson says its been a nightmare figuring things out.

They arent really being very helpful, no food vouchers, no place to stay, and then just said we could sit in Starbucks for 12 hours, said Mattinson.

Susan Keim says shes been trying to get back home to Pittsburgh since Saturday.

As we were walking out the door to go to the airport the flight was canceled, and Im out of medication, said Keim.

Both Mattinson and Keim say what happened on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 is frightening, but it wont stop them from getting on another plane.

It seemed incredulous but Im not afraid to fly, said Keim. If it happened, it happened.

Im glad everybody was OK, and they are doing the right thing by grounding the planes, but it disrupts a lot of people, said Mattinson.
Harvards interim president is calling on members of his universitys community to bridge the fissures that divide them amid what he described as the tensest time on the schools campus in the last 50 years, following the resignation of former university President Claudine Gay less than a week ago.

Since I first arrived here as an undergraduate in 1973, I cannot recall a period of comparable tension on our campus and across our community, Alan Garber, who served as provost before he was tapped to fill Gays role, wrote in a letter addressed to members of the Harvard community on Monday.

That tension, Garber said, has been exacerbated by concerns about how we address and combat antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of bias; safeguard free expression; and foster a climate of mutual understanding.

Gay, the first Black woman to lead Harvard, stepped down on Tuesday amid allegations of plagiarism surfaced by conservative activists. The scrutiny followed intense backlash over remarks she made about antisemitism on Harvards campus at a more than five-hour congressional hearing on Dec. 5.



When asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) whether calls for genocide of Jews would violate Harvards rules against bullying and harassment, Gay said it would depend on the context.

In an op-ed in The New York Times following her resignation, Gay said that she fell into a well-laid trap at that hearing, acknowledging that I neglected to clearly articulate that calls for the genocide of Jewish people are abhorrent and unacceptable and that I would use every tool at my disposal to protect students from that kind of hate.

In his letter, Garber lauded Gay for her unshakable confidence in our community, saying her departure added a deep sense of loss.

But moving forward, it is crucial that we bridge the fissures that have weakened our sense of community, Garber added. Doing so will not be easy, especially in the face of persistent scrutiny, but we must rise to the challenge.
Matt Dolan believes he is the only Republican candidate for senator who has not sabotaged his party's chance at winning this year's U.S. Senate race in Ohio.

"My opponents have tried to win the primary by taking positions that will not fly in the general election," he told a room of GOP voters Monday during a visit to Mansfield.

Dolan, a state senator from Chagrin Falls, is running against Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno.

The winner of the Republican primary will face incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat.

The primary is scheduled for March 19, and the general election will take place Nov. 5.

'Sherrod Brown wants to make this race about abortion'

Dolan told the Richland County voters that he opposed Ohio's ban on most abortions after six weeks because it did not include exceptions for rape or incest.

It's a position on reproductive rights that he said he always has held and always will hold.

"I am for exceptions," Dolan said. "You can agree or disagree with that, but I have been consistent in my votes. ... I do not change my position."

State Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls told Republicans in Mansfield on Monday that he is the party's best chance of defeating Sen. Sherrod Brown in this autumn's U.S. Senate race.

It's a discussion he said will come up an untold number of times over the next 11 months.

"We know what the playbook is," Dolan said. "We know Sherrod Brown wants to make this race about abortion."

'It's on tape and Sherrod Brown's gonna run that on loop'

He believes his position is more mainstream than those of any of his opponents, Republican or Democrat.

"Frank LaRose has said the six-week ban should be a national ban. Bernie Moreno has said, 'No exceptions,'" Dolan said. "They're both backtracking on that, but guess what? It's on tape and Sherrod Brown's gonna run that on loop over the course of the election."

He said that just as his fellow Republicans have taken a position too far one way, the incumbent is entrenched equally as far the other direction.

"Sherrod Brown is for late-term abortion; we'll make him extreme," Dolan said. "My stance on abortion is more consistent with the independent voters throughout Ohio."

'A conservative agenda that has helped Ohio'

Dolan said he considers Moreno and LaRose as friends and that he agrees with most of what they say, but he doesn't think they can win in November.

"They're both good men, but I'm telling you, they can't beat Sherrod Brown," Dolan said.

The proof, he said, was in the numbers. Of Ohio's 88 counties, Dolan said Republicans can count on 72 to vote for their U.S. Senate candidate in November.

"Sherrod Brown only wins 16 of the 88 counties and he wins the state of Ohio," Dolan said. "Republicans are not going to win the U.S. Senate unless they can compete and win in those 16 counties."

He said he believes he will carry the Republican vote throughout the state and will eat into the support Democrats enjoy in the more populated counties.

"I can present a conservative agenda that has helped Ohio that is appealing to that independent voter who wants to vote Republican," Dolan said. "That independent voter will learn from me that the policies that I have fought for make your life better; the policy that Sherrod Brown has fought for will make your life weaker and more vulnerable. We can win it when I win in those 16 counties."

ztuggle@gannett.com

419-564-3508

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Matt Dolan tells Mansfield OH GOP his abortion stance can win Senate
Not even some snowfall could stop a group of Lake County residents from spreading their message: to never forget the events of Jan. 6, 2021 and to use that memory as a catalyst to protect democracy and the truth.

Bundled up on Saturday afternoon, more than 25 people from Indivisible Western Lake County lined the corner of Illinois Route 83 and Monaville Road in Lake Villa with signs that read: We wont forget, Remember January 6, Defend Democracy and Protect the right to vote.

People in passing cars were quick to make their opinions known, with many honking in support, and just as many shouting: Trump 2024? or Trump will win again.

The opposing outcries only further motivated the group of demonstrators, most of whom were residents of western Lake County.

More than 25 local residents joined Indivisible Western Lake County at the corner of Illinois Route 83 and Monaville Road in Lake Villa on Jan. 6, 2024 to remember the actions of January 6, 2021 when hundreds of people broke into the U.S. Capitol.

Three years ago, hundreds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol after the former president lost his bid for reelection in 2020.

On Thursday, a group of five Illinois voters filed a petition with the state Board of Elections to bar Trump from the primary election in March. Maine and Colorado have already removed the former president from their primary ballots.

Im sure everyone here knows what they were doing on Jan. 6 when our institutions were attacked, when a group of people were trying to prevent a peaceful transfer of power, Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega said at Saturdays demonstration.

Those actions motivated Vega to run for office, and he was elected to his position in 2022

Not only did we have these people who were attacking our democracy, but they were running for office, running for secretary of state or county clerk, Vega said. I believe that election authorities, like myself, have to be proactive, have to educate the public and stop the lies.

The county clerk encouraged those in attendance to step up to serve as election judges and poll workers.

When regular people step up, our democracy will only get stronger, Vega said.

Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega, left, joined Indivisible Western Lake County at the corner of Illinois Route 83 and Monaville Road in Lake Villa on Jan. 6, 2024. Vega urged the activists to serve as election judges or poll workers in the upcoming election.

The political organization chose the Lake Villa location because of the heavy traffic flowing into the nearby Walmart  a grocery store that all types of people shop at, according to Esther Hebbard, executive chair for Indivisible Western Lake County. Hebbard also said the organization is, working intentionally on turning this part of the county blue.

Hebbard, who organized the rally, hoped it raised awareness about the importance of truth and motivate the public to get engaged in the upcoming election.

Truth is power, Hebbard said. This gives us the opportunity to speak our truth and get people out to vote, get people engaged  whether its knocking on doors for candidates [ ] or donating funds to candidates that share your values.

Lake County Board Member Esiah Campos, D-Round Lake, shared his experience of taking an oath to protect the Constitution as a member of the Navy.

I never would have thought that I would be defending the Constitution in our democracy against domestic terrorists, Campos said. What happened on Jan. 6 is nothing short of domestic terrorism.

Instead of storming the Capitol, were going to storm the polls and were going to vote and elect Democrats up and down the ballot, Campos said.

chilles@chicagotribune.com
A car carrying five people went airborne and crashed into the roof of a Tennessee home, rescuers said.

One person was able to escape, but four were trapped, Giles County Fire & Rescue said in a news release.

Volunteer firefighters received a call Jan. 3 reporting a vehicle on a roof resulting from a crash that snapped an electric pole and took down power lines in Pulaski.

The car ended up nose-down against the home with the rear of the car resting on the roof, photos show.

All the occupants in the car were teens, WSMV reported.

First responders cut four teens out of the car, and they were taken to a hospital for treatment. Giles County authorities said everyone survived the accident.

McClatchy News reached out to Giles County Fire & Rescue and the Pulaski Police Department for more information on Jan. 8 and was awaiting a response.

Speed may have contributed to the accident, authorities told WTVF. Many people marveled that the crash wasnt deadly.

Bill Myers with Giles County Emergency Management Services told the outlet the first responders helped get everyone out safely.

They took care of the live electric lines and secured the pole broken over the vehicle that was involved, Myers said. None of that outcome wouldve been the same without everyone playing that role.

Pulaski is in southern Tennessee near the Alabama border, about 75 miles south of Nashville.

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A person was found dead inside a car that was submerged in a canal in Tamarac on Monday afternoon, the Broward Sheriffs Office said.

The Broward Sheriffs Office Dive Team and deputies responded to the call in the area of North University Drive and Southgate Boulevard, along with Coral Springs Fire Rescue, Tamarac Fire Rescue and Coral Springs Police, said Carey Codd, a Sheriffs Office spokesperson.

Coral Springs Fire Rescue responded to the scene about noon. Deputy Chief Mike Moser said crews were told the car had possibly been in the canal overnight, so they did not send rescue divers to the scene.

Shortly after noon, first responders received the call in the area of the 100 block of North University Drive, near Mission Lakes Apartments, according to radio transmissions archived by the streaming site Broadcastify. The person who called for help reportedly received a photo from someone of what appeared to be a cars bumper in the water.

Traffic Homicide Unit detectives are investigating. Additional information has not been released.
Migrants walk in a caravan as an attempt to reach the U.S. border, in Arriaga

Migrants walk in a caravan as an attempt to reach the U.S. border, in Arriaga

By Jacob Garcia

ARRIAGA, Mexico (Reuters) - A new migrant caravan of approximately 2,000 people formed in southern Mexico on Monday, largely made up of people that have been on the move since Christmas Eve who say the Mexican government's promises of transit visas last week never materialized.

The migrants, including some carrying young children, are walking to the southern Oaxaca town of Tapanatepec, about 800 kilometers (480 miles) south of Mexico City by road. They hope to reach Tapanatepec by nightfall.

The group of mostly Central American and Caribbean migrants are ultimately headed for the U.S. border, the caravan's leader Luis Villagran said.

Last week, the group had dispersed after boarding buses to processing centers in the hope of receiving travel permits, which would allow them and their families free transport through Mexico.

However, Villagran said most migrants never received the permits.

"We were waiting for two days for a response, and the third day immigration came," said one Salvadoran migrant, Rosa Vasquez. "We signed the papers with an agreement with our lawyer... but they never gave a response."

"Immigration lied to us. They just wanted to disperse the group."

Mexican immigration authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

"Everyone knows what our situation is," said Carlos Vera, from Ecuador, as he walked along the highway. "We don't have another option."

Last year, record numbers of migrants attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, which for many was the culmination of a long journey across the continent.

More than half a million migrants - double the previous year's record - crossed the dangerous Darien Gap from South America into Central America, many fleeing poverty, crime and conflict and hoping to gain entry into the United States.

(Reporting by Jacob Garcia; Writing by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
An image with a badge for Engadget Best of CES 2024 showing the product: GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker on a crowded kitchen island surrounded by stacks of bristket and burger buns. (GE)

CES 2024 is often described as a TV show or car show, but sometimes its more niche products that capture our imagination. GE Profiles Smart Indoor Smoker is a countertop device that makes proper barbecue in your kitchen without filling your home with smoke. Its designed to move air around the food to impart maximum smokiness inside, without letting airflow out. When your brisket, chicken or whatever is done, a filtration and catalyst system draws the smoke down, eventually expelling it as warm air.

Typically smoking food requires constant adjustments and vigilance, but the Smart Indoor Smoker has six preset cooking modes, while youre able to adjust the degree of smokiness between five different levels. The wood pellets only function is to add flavor and not fuel the actual cooking process, so only a handful are needed per smoke session.

GE included a smart probe with the Smart Indoor Smoker too, so you can monitor the cooking process from a companion app and its Smoke and Hold feature can cook and smoke foods and keep them at food-safe temperatures for up to 24 hours. Its not small (it's around the size of a mini fridge), but its stylish and simple to use, with a low barrier to entry for anyone tempted to try smoking their own foods. The device was also able to impart an impressive level of smokiness in only a few hours  we cant wait to see what low-and-slow smoking could do.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  CES, the Consumer Technology Association's annual trade show of all-things tech, is kicking off in Las Vegas this week.

The multi-day event, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, is set to feature swaths of the industry's latest advances and gadgets across personal tech, transportation, health care and more  with burgeoning uses of artificial intelligence almost everywhere you look.

The Consumer Technology Association bills CES as the world's largest audited tech event held in-person. Organizers hope to bring in some 130,000 attendees this year. More than 4,000 exhibitors, including over 1,200 startups, are also expected across 2.5 million net square feet of exhibit space.

That's still below the headcounts of pre-pandemic years and would mark a 24% dip in attendance compared to the show held in early 2020, just before COVID-19 consumed much of everyday life. But 2024 is on track to beat more recent years. The anticipated numbers would surpass 2023's nearly 118,000 attendees, for example.

People are pumped for this. Theyre pumped because its post-COVID (and) theyre coming back, Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, said. And the CEO level support from around the world has been amazing.

Big names set to exhibit at CES this year range from tech giants and automakers to leading cosmetics brands  including Amazon, Google, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and L'Oreal. The show will also spotlight the Consumer Technology Association's partnership with the United Nations Human Security for All campaign, which recently added technology as its eighth human security pillar.

After two days of media previews, CES will run from Tuesday through Friday. The show is not open to the general public -- its a business-to-business event often used for industry professionals to network and connect.

The Associated Press spoke with Shapiro about CES 2024 and what to expect this week. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

CES 2024 IS HERE. WHAT ARE THE MAIN THEMES OF THIS YEAR'S SHOW?

The overall theme of the show, in a sense, is sustainability. Its green. Its the U.N. human securities  including those that focus on clean air, clean water, food as well as health care. And the U.N. just added a new one, which is technology itself. The show is built around these human securities.

From mobility to health care, the exhibiting companies are providing solutions in the post-COVID world. Were also getting older, were living longer and theres fewer people to take care of us. Technology is the answer.

AI IS EVERYWHERE THIS YEAR. HOW MUCH SAFETY OVERSIGHT IS THERE ON THE DEVICES WELL SEE IN THE COMING DAYS?

AI is like the internet itself. Its a huge ingredient that will propel so much innovation. The difference is now generative AI, which can learn from what youve done. And you can apply that to so many different aspects of what we do that will make our lives better  especially in a health care area.

Like any tool since the invention of fire, the government plays a very big role in making sure there are certain safety barriers. We've been working with the U.S. Senate and theyve been hearing from every interested party about what we need  including a national privacy law. AI is a tool and it can be used for doing tremendous good, or it could be used for doing harm. And we want to focus on the good.

AUTOMAKERS ALSO HAVE A BIG SPOTLIGHT AT CES. CAN WE EXPECT ANY IMPACT FROM THE RECENT UAW STRIKE?

In terms of a trade event, this is like the biggest car event in the world. We see car companies from all over the world on the floor.

They will be there in different ways, and some choose not to be here for one reason or another. Certainly the strike had an impact for some of the Detroit companies, but the rest of the companies from around the world are very strong  notably from Europe, Vietnam and Japan.

WE SAW VIDEO GAME EXPO E3 BITE THE DUST LAST MONTH. WHAT ROLE DO TRADE SHOWS PLAY TODAY AND HOW CAN CES'S FUTURE BE ENSURED?

Since COVID, trade shows have actually become more important for business leaders  because they understand and appreciate that relationship-building. That face-to-face time is very important. A person who goes to CES, for example, has on average 29 different meetings. What is more efficient than that?

And then theres something you cant get online, which is serendipity. Its discovery. Its learning what you dont know and its being inspired. Someone said to me on the way here, I love going to CES because I come back optimistic for the world. I come back with 50 ideas and it energizes me. And thats whats so important. I think we have a great future, and innovation is going to be what fuels us. And we will get there by gathering the worlds innovators together.

_____________

Video producer James Brooks contributed to this report.
The partisan tilt of a handful of districts could still change dramatically before voters even go to the polls this year  shifting who has the upper hand in the battle for control the House.

Republicans hold just a three-seat majority and various congressional maps across the country have already been redrawn since the midterms thanks to drawn-out court battles, some of which have yet to be resolved.

So far, post-2022 redistricting has likely netted Republicans two or three seats. But depending on how the final maps are configured, that number could change yet again  and even perhaps tilt the field, ever so slightly, toward favoring Democrats.

With primaries in some states just weeks away, there are still big unresolved questions of what some districts will look like. Here are the big redistricting storylines to watch.

Three states have already drawn new maps  some with big consequences

North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia have already drawn new lines after the midterms in response to successful litigation from challengers.

The Republican-dominated legislature drew a strong GOP gerrymander last year that could net the party as many as four seats in the Tar Heel State. The state currently has an even split of seven Democrats and seven Republicans, but the GOP-controlled state Supreme Court cleared the way for the state to go to potentially a 10-4 Republican split.



Already, three Democratic incumbents  Kathy Manning, Wiley Nickel and Jeff Jackson  opted out of running for reelection after the new map transformed their districts into safe GOP territory. And Democrat Don Davis battleground district became a bit redder, although that seat is still expected to be competitive. At worst for Republicans, they will net three seats, but they could get as many as four.

However, Democrats are likely going to pick up one seat in Alabama. A federal court found that the lines used there in 2022 likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters, a decision affirmed by the Supreme Court. The newly drawn majority-Black district in Alabama gives them the opportunity to elect a member of their choosing in a second district in the state. The change could see the delegation go from six Republicans and one Democrat to a likely split of five Republicans and two Democrats.

Georgia, meanwhile, has a new map that wont change the partisan composition of the delegation: nine Republicans and five Democrats. But they did imperil the political future of Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath by obliterating her district.

After a judge tossed out the lines used in 2022 for violating the Voting Rights Act, Republican legislators redrew the map to increase the number of majority- or near-majority-Black districts, while maintaining the same partisan balance. McBaths now-former district  where no single racial minority made up a majority, but combined constituted a majority-minority district, which is sometimes known as a coalition district  was carved up to make room for a new majority-Black seat.



Litigation will carry on for the three new maps  Republicans in Alabama have appealed the new court-drawn lines, Democrats in North Carolina sued alleging racial gerrymandering and Georgia Democrats will almost assuredly challenge the new lines again  but the trio of maps are likely to be in place at least for 2024.

Two states still need to draw new maps

Courts have ordered new lines in two states  but mapmakers have yet to draw them.

A federal court found that Louisiana's map likely violated the Voting Rights Act and, like Alabama and Georgia, the state will need to create another Black opportunity district. That would also likely lead to another Democratic representative being elected.

Louisianas GOP-dominated legislature has until the end of January to draw new lines, and a special session could take place in the middle of the month.

And New York is also getting a new map. Democrats there challenged a hypercompetitive, court-drawn map that was used in the midterms. But Democrats successfully challenged that map in court, leaving the ultimate partisan split in the state uncertain while the new lines are being drawn.

When the Democratic-controlled legislature drew the lines in 2022, the party instituted a significant gerrymander that could have had them win in as many as 22 of the state's 26 seats. Instead, the court-drawn map led to 11 Republicans in the delegation after the midterms. In this years redraw, Democrats may try to push that advantage again  or perhaps try for a less aggressive gerrymander this time that still gives the party a clear advantage, wary of a threatened lawsuit from Republicans.



The process first has to run through an independent redistricting commission, but the Democratic-controlled legislature gets the final say. Theres still a long way to go, but the outcomes in New York  from a map that may not deviate too dramatically from the midterms, to one where Democrats try to push as big of an advantage as possible  leaves some half-dozen seats in flux right now.

Louisiana is similar to Georgia and Alabama in that a court will review any new map to see whether it appropriately addresses the Voting Rights Act violation  and if not, the court could step in to draw the lines. And New Yorks court-drawn maps were tossed on procedural grounds  so if Democrats do gerrymander, Republicans could bring a case alleging partisan gerrymandering and seek a ruling on the merits there.

Both maps futures are uncertain and could undergo at least one more round of review in the courts before theyre locked in for 2024.

Some states maps are still being litigated

A handful of maps hang in the balance in courts across the country. The biggest is in South Carolina.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in October over allegations that the states 1st Congressional District  currently represented by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace  was an illegal racial gerrymander. The court has not indicated when it could release its decision, but during arguments it seemed like the conservative justices were unlikely to side with those arguing the map should be thrown out  likely leaving the GOP-leaning district in place.

The Utah Supreme Court has also yet to issue a decision in a partisan gerrymandering case that was argued in July. Republicans there had dismantled a battleground district around Salt Lake City, creating four safely red districts. If challengers are successful, that swing district could return and be a competitive seat for both parties.



And a pair of cases are challenging the map in Florida, where GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis muscled through a map that flipped several seats for Republicans in 2022. A state court case faces long odds after an appellate court in December overturned a lower court ruling that said the map was unconstitutional, and a federal judge has not issued a ruling after a racial gerrymandering claim was litigated in a September hearing. Timing remains unclear, but in the event a ruling ultimately goes Democrats way they could pick up at least one seat.

The uncertainty  both in states like New York where lines still need to be drawn, and in courts across the country  will ultimately only affect a handful of seats. But with Republicans clinging to a slim majority, every single district could count come November.
A man of simple needs whose greatest ambition is to one day own a rickshaw, Xiangzi is probably one of the best-known characters portrayed by Lao She (1899-1966). In the decades since it was first published in 1937, the novel Rickshaw Boy has been adapted into movies, TV dramas and Chinese operas.

Now, a new version of the classic story has been adapted by Fang Xu into a Chinese play, which premiered at Beijing's Tianqiao Performing Arts Center on Dec 29. On Friday and Saturday, it will be staged at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.

"The novel was published about 90 years ago. However, what intrigues me most is how it relates to today's young people, who call themselves 'Xiangzi'," says Fang, the play's director.

"Xiangzi is kind, determined and a man of a few words. He shares lots of similarities with today's young people, who move to bigger cities to make a living and want to fulfill their dreams by working very hard.

"For Xiangzi, he hoped to own his rickshaw. For today's young people, they may want to buy their own cars and apartments," Fang adds. "The rickshaw is more than just a vehicle, but Xiangzi's whole life, offering him spiritual support. I believe that many people share that feeling."

Born Shu Qingchun in Beijing, the Chinese writer Lao She is best known for his vivid descriptions of the lives of grassroots people that reflect the social realities of the time, and for his precise depictions of local culture in Beijing, especially through his unique sense of humor and use of the city's dialect. His novels, including Rickshaw Boy and Four Generations Under One Roof, and his plays, such as Dragon Beard Ditch and Teahouse, have earned him a stellar reputation worldwide as a linguistic and literary master.

Fang, like Lao She, was born and raised in Beijing. He graduated from the directing department of the Central Academy of Drama. He has been devoted to adapting Lao She's works into theatrical productions since 2011. He says that he feels close to the characters created by the great writer.

"I was intimidated by the idea of adapting Rickshaw Boy because it's so popular and a classic," says Fang. "The novel has over 100,000 characters, which was challenging for us to turn into a play."

Unlike most other adaptations, which focus on the relationship between Xiangzi and his wife Huniu, who is the daughter of Xiangzi's boss  a rickshaw company owner  and later dies during childbirth. Fang and his creative team decided to highlight the life changes of Xiangzi.

Like many of Fang's plays, an all-male cast features in the play, with three actors playing Xiangzi at different stages of his life, from the young man who heads to Beijing from the countryside and a man of ambition with the hope of owning his own rickshaw, to the tragic and hopeless figure he eventually becomes.

"I like the idea of blurring the lines between actors and actresses. Audiences will ignore the gender and concentrate on understanding the inner struggle of the characters," says Fang, when asked about his choice of cast.

"The director has a clear idea about Xiangzi, who is tall, strong, shy, inexperienced and hardworking. When he first saw me, he was sure that I had the look of Xiangzi," says young actor Xu Xingbo, who plays the young version of the protagonist. He tried to get as close to the character as possible by shaving his head and learning to pull a rickshaw.

Actor Liu Xinran plays Xiangzi after his money to buy a rickshaw is stolen.

"He is devastated, but still has the hope of making enough money again to buy his rickshaw. The man is very lovely, but also very tragic. His life is full of struggles but he still has hope," Liu says.

When it comes to the final part of the play, Fang plays Xiangzi as a totally changed man who has lost all hope.

Actor Zhao Zhen plays the role of Huniu, a woman he describes as "tough, hot-tempered, crafty, but good-hearted and unconditionally loving Xiangzi".

In 2019, Zhao played a female role in a Chinese play directed by Fang, titled The Story of Niu Tianci, adapted from Lao She's 1934 novel of the same title. The feedback from the audience inspired Zhao to take a swing at Rickshaw Boy.

"I can still remember that when I went to Tianjin with Fang Xu for a collaboration with a local theater in February 2023, we saw a woman on the street. The way she talked and her body language made both of us believe that she was exactly how Huniu looked like in real life," says Zhao. "That woman was my main inspiration in playing Huniu."

One of the best-known actresses in China who has successfully played Huniu is Siqin Gaowa, who is a consultant for Fang's play.

"Fang Xu and I have discussed the idea of turning Rickshaw Boy into a play for many years and now, it's happening," said Siqin Gaowa, who's 73 years old, at the announcement of the play in Beijing in October.

The actress has been out of the limelight for many years, but describes the role as one of the highlights of her acting career.

The play marked the end of the 7th Lao She Theater Festival, which pays tribute to the great writer and gathers theatrical productions from around the world.
WARSAW (Reuters) -Two members of Poland's former government faced jail terms on Monday after a court said orders to take them to prison had been prepared in the latest twist in a case that has pitted the new administration against the president.

In 2015, weeks after the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power, President Andrzej Duda issued a pardon to former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski who had been found guilty of abuse of power while serving as head of an anti-corruption agency.

Lawyers questioned whether Duda was entitled to pardon him before an appeals court issued a final ruling. The Supreme Court said last year that the case should be reopened.

Kaminski and his deputy Maciej Wasik were sentenced in December to two years in prison. Both denied any wrongdoing.

Duda on Monday reiterated that he believed his pardon should stand, but shortly afterwards a Warsaw court said that documentation needed to take Kaminski and Wasik to prison was ready.

"Executive documentation was prepared, including orders to bring convicts M.K. and M.W. to penitentiary units," local media cited the court as saying.

PiS lawmaker Rafal Bochenek said Monday's decision by the court was "scandalous and outrageous" in a post on social media platform X, adding that it was "proof of the lack of respect for the law and constitutional principles, including the presidential power of pardon" by the new government.

The head of Duda's office said he had invited Kaminski and Wasik to the presidential palace at 1000 GMT on Tuesday for a ceremony marking the appointment of new advisors.

'CHAOS'

Some lawyers have said the dispute was an illustration of judicial disarray following the former nationalist government's reforms.

According to many lawyers and the speaker of the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, the verdict in December meant Kaminski and Wasik lost their parliamentary mandates, but both deny that and have said they plan to attend the next sitting.

The case also kindled a conflict within the Supreme Court where judges are fighting over which chamber should have the final word on the issue.

Sejm Speaker Szymon Holownia has said there is "procedural chaos" in the judicial system.

Holownia wanted the appeal of his decision invalidating the mandates to be heard by the Labour Law Chamber while Kaminski and Wasik said it should be the Chamber of Extraordinary Control, which ruled on the issue last week.

The latter is a chamber created under the former government and manned by judges appointed under rules that critics and European bodies have said fail to meet rule-of-law standards.

"This is a six-dimensional multiverse of a chaos situation, but the panel of 'old' judges from the 'old' chamber appears unfazed by this and will hear the case next week," Jakub Jaraczewski, Research Coordinator at Democracy Reporting International, wrote on the social media platform X.

(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Pawel Florkiewicz, Alan Charlish; Editing by Toby Chopra and Barbara Lewis)
Charles Michel unexpectedly announced on Saturday that he would be the lead candidate for his Belgian liberal party - the Reformist Movement (MR) - in the European elections which take place on 6-9 June.

This means Michel, a former Belgian prime minister who has presided over the European Council since 2019, is highly likely to be elected as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) and stand down as Council chief following the election.

The EUs 27 heads of government now have less than six months to name his successor. The President's role involves chairing European Council meetings and brokering agreements among member states, including on sensitive budget and foreign policy decisions.

According to EU treaties, in the absence of a president, the country that holds the six-month rotating presidency of the Council takes on caretaker responsibility. This means that without a successor, Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban would take control of the Council when his countrys takes on the rotating presidency on 1 July.

A European Council source brushed off the potential disruption of Michel's surprise announcement, saying that the decision on his successor was due to happen in June 2024.

It is therefore possible to have the next president of the European Council starting his duty in summer 2024, if the European Council decides so, the source said.

June's European elections will trigger a reshuffle of Brussels' top jobs, but the process sometimes takes months due to the intricate nature of discussions and the need to ensure political, geographical and gender balance between appointments.

Criticism against Michel mounts

Many have denounced Michel for a move that will throw a shadow of uncertainty over the Council during a politically pivotal moment.

Speaking to Euronews, Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law at HEC Paris said that Michel's decision risks triggering a "constitutional crisis."

"As Michel abruptly ends his mandate at the most critical moment when the powers of the council are at their peak (...) he is set to become a lame duck president with little authority," Alemanno explained.

"This is really terra incognita," he said, adding that Michel was pursuing "his own self-interest" rather than wider European Union interests.

Dutch MEP Sophie in 't Veld, a liberal who belongs to the same political family as Michel, sharply criticised his decision on social media platform, X: The Captain leaving the ship in the middle of a storm. If that is how little committed you are to the fate of the European Union, then how credible are you as a candidate?

As Michel abruptly ends his mandate at the most critical moment when the powers of the council are at their peak (...) he is set to become a lame duck president with little authority.

Alarm raised over potential Orban takeover

The possibility of Orban seizing influence in Brussels in the second half of the year has spooked many in the EU capital. The nationalist prime minister, recently seen shaking Russian President Vladimir Putins hand in Beijing, is infamous for being a thorn in Brussels side.

The blocs proposed 50-billion package in long-term financial support to Ukraine is currently being held up after Orban vetoed its approval during a European Council summit in December.

It followed the release of 10 billion in EU funds to Budapest, previously frozen due to backsliding on the rule of law. The move fuelled speculation that Orban is using his veto power in the Council to pressure Brussels to unfreeze more frozen cash.

Orban also consistently uses anti-EU rhetoric to foster Eurosceptic sentiment among his domestic audience in Hungary.

His government recently personally targeted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a billboard campaign and implied that Brussels wanted to "create migrant ghettos in Hungary" in an inflammatory public consultation.

EU lawmakers have in the past cast doubt over Hungary and Orban's credibility to take on the Council's presidency in the second half of 2024.

In a non-binding resolution adopted last June, MEPs questioned "how Hungary will be able to credibly fulfil this task in 2024, in view of its non-compliance with EU law and the values enshrined in Article 2 (of the EU treaties), as well as the principle of sincere cooperation."

Despite having no executive powers, the EU state that holds the Council's presidency can wield significant influence over the institution's functioning by setting the agenda, hosting meetings, steering negotiations and organising votes.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, talks with Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte. - Stephanie Lecocq, Pool via AP Photo

Should the president's responsibilities fall temporarily into the hands of Orban, it could increase his capacity to shape the EU's legislative calendar in the last six months of 2024.

But Alemanno told Euronews that he believes leaders are unfazed by the prospect of Orban stepping in temporarily to do the job.

"I'm not so sure that European leaders are so afraid of Mr. Orban," Alemanno explained.

"Otherwise they would have taken many more measures in order to counter his defiant stance vis-a-vis (...) foreign policy and rule of law and a number of issues," he said, adding that Orban's role would be limited to chairing meetings should he need to step in.

Countdown to name successor begins

European Council chiefs are usually former heads of state, with a preference for leaders versed in complex negotiations or with experience managing coalition governments.

Names speculated for the role include the Netherlands' current caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte, who was forced to step down in July amid a coalition rift over the issue of immigration, or former Luxembourgish premier Xavier Bettel.

Portugal's caretaker prime minister Antonio Costa was also speculated for the role, but his candidacy could be marred by a sprawling corruption investigation involving his key aides.

The EU treaties also allow the 27 leaders to change the rules should they fail to name a successor. Fourteen member states, representing a simple majority, could vote to block Orban from temporarily taking on the president's responsibilities and appoint another temporary chief.

Alemanno predicts that a "temporary, interim" successor will be found in due time, with a permanent replacement then named after the June ballot.
For Wednesdays school schedules, click here.

Some Charlotte-area schools will be shuttered Tuesday as storms are expected to roll in and linger above much of western North Carolina.

While students wont be on campus, some will still be required to log on to learn via virtual programs.

Heres the latest:

Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Cabarrus schools

Before 3 p.m. Monday, Cabarrus County Schools announced all schools would be closed and extra-curricular events canceled on Tuesday. There will be no remote learning. By Monday evening, Iredell-Statesville, Mooresville Graded, Lincoln and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools announced the same.

Charlotte Country Day School, Charlotte Latin School and Providence Day also closed.

The National Weather Service is calling for high wind gusts of 45-55 mph, tornadic activity and heavy, flooding rain which can cause hazardous conditions for bus transportation services and lead to safety concerns for our students and families, CMS said in a post on Facebook.

York School District One, other NC counties

Across state lines, York School District One announced students will have an e-learning day on Tuesday. Catawba, Anson, Rowan-Salisbury, Alexander and Davie County Schools announced the same.









Officials will share plans for after-school activities and games, Davie County Schools officials said.

If the weather becomes significant enough to cause lengthy or widespread power outages, we may adjust the e-learning expectation, said Michelle Shue, Rowan-Salisburys director of marketing and communications.

Severe Charlotte storm could produce tornado, 50 mph winds, heavy rain on Tuesday

Just after 1 p.m., Union County schools said it was monitoring weather reports and speaking with local emergency management teams. Authorities expected to give an update by early Monday evening.

The Charlotte Observer also reached out to Gaston County Schools.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
CHARLOTTE (PINPOINT WEATHER)  The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Operations Center will be open in a limited capacity on Tuesday ahead of severe weather.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management Office (CMEMO), Mecklenburg County, and the City of Charlotte are working together to monitor severe weather and any potential impacts to Mecklenburg County, officials with Emergency Management said to QCN.

Winter Weather Advisory: Heavy rain, strong wind, tornadoes possible across NC Tuesday

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management said their team is in constant communication with partners to address any community needs.

We will continue to monitor the weather and community needs and act accordingly as the storm progresses. The emergency operations center will be open in a limited capacity Tuesday, and our staff and partners will be monitoring the weather, the CMEMO said.

LIVE UPDATES: Click here for live, local Queen City News weather alerts

Tuesday will be a soaker as a low-pressure system tracks from northern Texas to the mid-west bringing heavy rain through our Gulf States and snow through the mid-west.

The Carolinas will see the potential for storms as well with a chance of an isolated tornado developing south and east of Charlotte.

A Marginal, Slight, and Enhanced risk for Severe Weather will stretch across the Carolinas with the highest risk sitting to our south and east towards the coast. The main threats will be damaging winds and isolated tornadoes which is why Tuesday is a Pinpoint Weather Alert Day!

In addition to the 1 to 3 inches of rain possible, winds will also be a factor. We can see wind gusts as fast as 40 to 45 miles per hour.









A Winds Advisory will be in effect through Tuesday morning and afternoon for our entire area. A High Wind Warning will be in effect for Avery County for the same timeframe.

With overnight temperatures dipping into the low 30s for our mountain counties, we can see a wintry mix start things off early Tuesday morning. A Winter Weather Advisory will be in effect for our mountain counties through Tuesday morning due to the chance of the Wintry Mix.

Heavy rain will taper off late in the day Tuesday after temperatures touch the low 60s throughout the day. Tuesday night will host some lingering snow showers for our western-facing slopes as the wrap-around moisture and winds stick around.

Download the Pinpoint Weather app today!

iPhone and iPad users, CLICK HERE.

Android users, CLICK HERE.

Wednesday will be breezy and cool, rebounding into the low 50s as sunshine returns for mid-week. Well be dry and cool on Thursday as well before showers move in to finish the work week on Friday and kick off the weekend.

Today: Mostly Sunny and seasonably cool. High: 51.

Tonight: Increasing clouds ahead of overnight rain. Low: 40.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
POMEROY, Ohio (WJW)  The Pomeroy-based Snowville Creamery has announced a voluntary recall of some of its whipping cream, since it may not have been properly pasteurized.

There were 275 units of the 16 oz. Whipping Cream product distributed in Cleveland, Columbus and Athens between Dec. 24 and Dec. 28, according to a news release from the Ohio Department of Agriculture. The pints have an expiration of Jan. 14, 2024.

Effects of polar vortex headed our way

They should be disposed of, according to the release.

There are no reports of illness. But anyone who experiences symptoms of foodborne illness after eating some of the recalled whipping cream should contact a physician immediately, reads the release.

Gusty winds continue, arctic blast on the way

The creamery expects to recapture a quarter of the affected product.

The problem was found during routine testing done by the state ag department.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.
(BCN)  The city of Richmond sent out a message on Nixle at 11:57 a.m., saying the Chevron refinery has notified the city of a CWS Level 1 incident due to visible flaring at the refinery.

The city said Chevron was investigating the cause and there was no public health risk at the time. It said no action is required by the community and the Richmond Fire Department Hazmat Team is monitoring the situation.

Pearl Jam, Ed Sheeran, Stevie Nicks to headline BottleRock 2024

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued four notices of violation to Chevron connected to a flaring episode at its Richmond refinery in November. Three of the violations were for visible emissions and one was for a public nuisance violation.

Copyright  2024 Bay City News, Inc.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
China has accused MI6 of recruiting and training a spy to steal secret government documents, in the latest claims of espionage between Beijing and London.

The British Secret Intelligence Service tasked a foreigner, known only by his surname, Huang, to collect secrets and information, Chinas ministry of state security (MSS) claimed.

It alleged Mr Huang was recruited by MI6 in 2015 and had used his position in an overseas consulting agency to gather intelligence in China.

The UK Government has not commented on the claims.

It comes as Beijing steps up efforts to root out spying by dramatically expanding its counter-espionage laws to give authorities more power to track and detain suspects.

After careful investigation, the state security organs promptly discovered evidence of Huangs involvement in espionage activities, and took criminal coercive measures against him, said the MSS, which detained Mr Huang.

Huang provided nine classified state secret documents, five secret level state secret documents, and three intelligence documents to the British Government, it added.

The MSS said Mr Huang was in charge of an overseas consulting agency but did not name the company.

Provision of espionage equipment

The MSS statement alleged that MI6 instructed Mr Huang to enter China several times and to use his job as a cover for spying missions. It said the British agency had offered him professional training in the UK and other places, and had provided him with espionage equipment.

Chinas crackdown on spies has already affected advisory and due diligence firms who have long conducted research for clients mulling investments in China. Several US consultancy giants were raided last year, and their staff questioned.

China earlier this year warned its citizens of the dangers of getting embroiled in espionage activities and encouraged them to report suspicious activity.

In August, the MSS said it wanted to make it normal for the public to assist with counter-espionage. The call followed an expansion of laws that permitted authorities carrying out an anti-espionage probe to gain access to data, electronic equipment, and information on personal property.

Mr Huangs arrest follows a diplomatic spat between Beijing and London in September over accusations that a British national working as a parliamentary researcher in Westminster had been spying for China.

The man in his 20s was arrested last March in Edinburgh under the Official Secrets Act, along with another man, in his 30s, who was detained in Oxfordshire. Both were bailed pending further investigation and it is not known what information they had access to.

The researcher, through his lawyers, protested that he was completely innocent. China repeatedly condemned the assertions, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying they were entirely groundless.

Web of spies warning

The British government has warned of a web of Chinese spies that are targeting its officials in sensitive positions in politics, defence and business.

In a further attempt to promote anti-espionage, the MSS on Sunday unveiled its first comic series aimed at raising awareness of national security for younger audiences.

According to the Global Times, the brightly coloured comic is based on real cases of counter-espionage operations. The first episode features several excerpts where a person of Western appearance is being interrogated for suspected violations of the anti-espionage law.

The British government does not publicly comment on intelligence matters.

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